Happy New Year! Wish you all a good beginning of another year!

So I decided to publish the first chapter of Maiden, which I admit have taken inspiration from The Handmaid's Tale. But then I haven't read the book yet, so the frame and background are present, but the plot would not be the same (if it's the same, I guess me and Atwood have similar mindsets.)

Of course, I will still update "Indigo". I told myself not to leave uncompleted fictions behind.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

And if you enjoy, review, favourite and follow!

Hermione was not sure if she should celebrate, but the death of Voldemort was one of those things people should celebrate. Despite of that, it did not imply they won. The dark side won, it happened all so sudden that nobody could believe without Voldemort, they could still win.

The next moment when Hermione decided that she could escape to other European countries, they caught her. Immediately, her wand was confiscated and she was forced to get into a large long black truck, along with a few girls that she could faintly recognise.

Soon as she got off, the familiar shops and roads greeted her like a long lost friend. Diagon Alley was the same as before, only that posters were everywhere, featuring the new yet old Minister Cornelius Fudge. Hermione thought he changed his sides when he witnessed the comeback of Voldemort, but it seemed that the Death Eaters were supportive, which Hermione was unable to figure out that reason behind.

It was fortunate that she left Olivia with a Muggle couple, if not her little sister would have been caught along with her. Hermione could not imagine how life would be for a nine-year-old under this situation.

A short lady in pink came towards them and Hermione could faintly smell the atrocious perfume. Dolores Umbridge grinned at them and greeted,

"Come along girls, four in a line please."

Feeling rather apprehensive, she stood at the back, hoping that Umbridge would not recognise her. Umbridge began,

"Good afternoon, girls, I hope you all will enjoy your stay at the Education Centre."

An awkward silence fell, a few of them nodded, eyes staring at the ground. Perhaps she felt uncomfortable by the indifferent response, she said,

"Come on, girls. I want to hear everyone of you happily reply 'Thank you for your blessing, Ms. Umbridge'. Come on, say it girls!"

Unwillingly, all of them muttered,

"Thank you for your blessing, Ms. Umbridge."

Despite knowing that they were not particularly joyful about their stay, Umbridge grinned broader and said,

"Come along, girls, I will show you around."

It seemed like a children tour, Hermione felt belittled, but protest did not seem possible, so she decided to remain calm and follow Umbridge's lead. The Education Centre was next to Gringotts, for some strange reason, the original shop was replaced by the centre. Hermione tried to remember what was the shop, but the memory was strangely too distant, the last time she came to Diagon Alley was in on 1 May, she remembered well. It was just a week ago, under the disguise of Bellatrix Lestrange.

The Education Centre was larger than she had expected, the ground floor was a spacious room, with a couple of women in mint green standing inside. Beside the room entrance, stairs on two sides led upstairs to a hall that is half the size of Great Hall in Hogwarts. At the end of a stage two-third of Hermione's height. Umbridge stopped at the the door and said,

"The ground floor and the first floor will be the only two floors you have access to. The second floor and third floor are restricted areas and only me and the other Handlers can have full access to."

Umbridge signalled them to follow her into the hall, and introduced,

"This will be where you dine and receive education. Downstairs will be where you sleep. We have ten bathroom stalls outside on the two floors."

Hermione could not help noticing the presence of other women in pink who were standing by the walls, staring at them as though they were prisoners. Slowly, a few girls also noticed them and started feeling nervous. Seeing that they were uncomfortable with those women, Umbridge said,

"We are Handlers, here to help you and make you feel proud of yourself as a Maiden, serving and glorifying the wizarding world."

Hermione was not exactly sure how she could serve and glorify the wizarding world now she was under the hands of dark wizards, being labelled as "Maiden" and sent to the Education Centre for an unknown purpose.

Umbridge then led them back downstairs to the spacious room.

"Line up one by one, you will first go through examination and get your clothes," ordered Umbridge and they went in.

Lining up at the back, Hermione could see another group of girls being led inside. She was mildly surprised as she saw the red-haired girl — Ginny.

"Ginny!" hushed Hermione.

Ginny's frown turned into a wry weak smile.

"Hi," she replied, as though she did not want to talk.

Sensing that she was not in the mood of talking, Hermione turned back, realised that she was the next one to be examined, her heart took a leapt, then she went forward as the last girl came out from behind the white curtains, in a long white sleeping gown.

A man in silver was sitting behind a desk, he signalled her to sit down, then said,

"Took off your clothes."

Hermione was confused, never had she taken off her clothes in front of anyone, except for her parents. But obediently, she unbuttoned her blouse and stood completely naked in front of the healer.

"Get on the bed."

Feeling the cold air rushing by, she trembled her way to the bed. As she lay down, the healer stood by the bed and flexed his fingers. He took out his wand and performed a non-verbal spell, which Hermione recognise as one of the variations of detection spell.

"Still having your first time, I can see," reported the healer. "And a lot healthier than many other girls I have examined, and I know your value is higher than most of the girls in here."

Hermione felt awkward at his usage of words, what was her value? Was she some kind of goods that people could purchase. The only thing she could relate was slavery.

"Just let me remove those unnecessary appendages…"

Hermione felt like her skin was ripped at the same time, especially at her pubic areas. She could hardly control her screech. Then, the healer created a large blob of gel and applied it on her skin. It felt amazing, oozing into her skin and magically heal the rashes at instant.

"Get your new dress and put your old clothes in the basket on the floor."

She did as she was told. Soon as she put on the long white gown, she was instructed by a woman in mint green to the counter, where she received her bracelet. The metal bracelet had her name engraved on it. It was not exactly hideous, but Hermione thought it appeared more like a handcuff.

"Girls, come along," said Umbridge. "Up to the hall."

Dragging her weary body upstairs, she saw a couple of girls already settled down at the table, eating from their bowls.

"Come and get your dinner!"

Dinner was a lot plainer than she imagined, but she made no complaints. It was better than what she ate those days when she and the two boys went on the Horcrux Hunt. As she sat down and took a sip from the porridge, Ginny sat down beside her and whispered,

"Things can only get worse."

She was the only Maiden that ever spoke a word in the centre, which surprised Hermione. Once she went back to calmness, she whispered back to Ginny,

"I thought you escaped with Harry and Ron."

Ginny frowned, then told her that they were captured on their way to France. Harry was exiled to the islands on North Sea and Ron was spared due to his blood status, but she had no idea where he currently was. Hearing this, Hermione was worried. North Sea was the worst place anyone could imagine, previously Azkaban was located there, with swarms of dementors slowly tearing down people bit by bit. Now dementors were dismissed and islands on the North Sea became the exile land, perhaps due to the dementors' centuries of inhabitance, the islands were gloom and almost intoxicating. Many people went mad quickly and killed themselves. Those who survived would always live in depression, unable to lift their spirits, nightmares would haunt them time and time, until they were no longer afraid of nightmares.

Before she and the others went to sleep, they had a lecture taught by women in pink, whom were known as the Handlers.

The wizarding world was split into five social status, Superior, Handler, Altruist, Maiden and Exiled, which Ginny nicknamed as SHAME. Male Handlers would wear silver, like the healer who examined her and the others, while female Handlers would wear pink. All of the work for the Ministry, and most of them work as Aurora and Hit Wizards, policing the others. The Superiors would be panel heads, controlling to whole world and implement laws without the consent of others.

The Maiden's Law was one of those neglectful laws. Fudge believed that stabilisation of wizarding population could only be achieved by having maidens bearing children for infertile wives. As though it was a curse of punishment for the dark side's victory, most of the women were infertile, if not, having greater difficulty in pregnancy. And thus, maidens were there to serve them.

Altruists were above the Maidens, some of them wore emerald green while the others wear mint green. Only pureblood and dark side supporters would wear emerald green, continuing their jobs as before. While mint green was reserved for servants, they were mainly half-bloods and muggleborns who were not suitable to work for Ministry yet not terrible enough to be exiled.

Maiden was almost the lowest status, unless one included the Exiled. Before being owned by any families, Maidens would wear white gowns, like the female minors of the Superiors' families. After the registration, they would wear lilac and live with the families. If they were unable to conceive an heir for the families, they would be taken away for examination and test for veritaserum. The masters would also be interrogated, and the news would be published in Daily Prophet and the family would be downgraded as Altruists if discovered infertile. Despite the piece of information sounded almost like a comfort for Maidens, Hermione believed that this would hardly happen, partially because the curse only acted upon women but not men, the other reason was that the families would use money and threats to get it done. They could easily threaten their servants into helping them.

After 3 hours of lecture and shower, they spread out mats and slept on floors. Umbridge cast a spell that would alert the Handlers if they were discovered to be out of bed. Hermione lay wide awake, and soon whispers flew across the room. Ginny, who was sleeping beside Hermione, whispered,

"This place makes me want to kill myself."

"Did you see the rest of us?" asked Hermione.

Realising that she meant her friends, Ginny replied,

"I saw Neville on my way to here, wearing green, so I guess he was working for a Superior or Handler family already."

"Haven't seen my families for long, but I guess with their personalities, they would be in the North Sea."

"What about Luna?"

"Haven't seen her, let's hope we won't see her here."

"Let's hope she is not exiled."

Whispers continued flying across the room until the door swung open and footsteps came by their ears. The heels were deafening in the absolute silence and Hermione struggled to fall asleep. The last time insomnia hit was during the hunt, sleeping deep was not always the option and she was born a light sleeper, the hunt aggravated the condition.

"I saw Marietta and Cho," whispered Ginny as the Handler left. ""Cho was dressed in blue, Marietta in pink."

From the lecture, Hermione learnt that only the wives of Superiors would wear blue clothes. She was not particularly surprised. Before and during the war, Cho had mentioned that her parents wished her to avoid participation in anti-Ministry. Furthermore, her father was a staff of the Ministry, stabbing the Ministry at the back was not appropriate. Marietta probably earned her status by selling out crucial information about people's whereabouts, she had never wanted to join the Dumbledore's Army, not to mention fighting against the dark side. Hermione never understood her behaviours, it did not seem rational for a Muggle-born to support the Ministry at that time.

But Hermione was in no place to her ambition, at the end Marietta was on the top of the food chain, and she remained the lower tier of the pyramid.