Title: Romance in Azkaban

Pairings: Pius/Hermione

Warnings: Language and more later xD

Summary: Hermione now working at Azkaban, finds herself looking after one particular man, a man that destroyed her life. A man that she slowly falls in love with and as Hermione uncoils his past slowly, she realizes that there is no way out of the dark hole.

Hermione pulled her coat around her tighter as the boat bobbled up and down the passing waves as she tried hard to keep out the threatening wind that threatened to throw her off the boat. She looked at the sailor who was whistling an unknown tune to her and she looked across to see her two partners shivering uncontrollably, huddling together for warmth.

"How many miles left?" She shouted over the wind to make herself heard. She pulled her hood tighter as rain poured down on them and she wished that the sailor would hurry up so she could get herself quickly warmed up with a nice hot chocolate before working on the prisoners.

"Not long left now my lady! You see the prison in the distance yet? Aye! You should see it soon, that should tell us how long to go," And off he carried on whistling.

Sure enough, Hermione looked over the huge waves and saw a tall building in the distance. The building looked like it was about to fall down any moment now and Hermione made a mental note to get the building repaired quick as possible. She's quite surprised that none of the prisoners have ever tried to break out.

She looked into the sky for any signs of Dementors that were left and to her luck, there were none. She was thankful that Harry had told Kingsley to get rid of those horrible creatures. She gave a shudder remembering the horrible effect they had on Harry and she was once again thankful that she wouldn't have to work with them 24/7.

They came closer and closer to the Island and the rain poured down heavier and heavier on them and at last, the sailor got out to pull the boat onto what was meant to be a harbour.

"Here's your bags ladies, gentleman. If you don't mind me, I could definitely use a good cup of Tea before picking up the others and then heading back," He said as he stretched his legs. Her two partners looked grateful that they were back on land again and the man that she was working with threw up into the sea after looking deadly green and the sailor grinned, tipping his hat at him as they made their way inside.

"I really do hate travelling by boat," Neville said. Hermione smiled wryly at her school friend as they triggered towards a small house that was a few meters away from the prison.

"Well, you'll have to get used to it lad! You'll be travelling there and back at least once a week,"

Neville groaned and Hermione unlocked the door to find voices on the other side. Wands at the ready, she slowly pushed it open only to find that the other Azkaban guards were there.

"Ah, at last. You've arrived," One of them drawled and Hermione put her bag down on to the side.

"We got trapped in a storm. Any tea there?" Hermione asked. The three guards nodded and handed each of them warm tea and Neville sighed happily, glad to be out of the horrible weather.

"Am I taking you three back to England then?" The Sailor asked as he took of his cap and ran his hand through his wet, messy white hair.

"Yes. We're ready when you are," The same guard said and in awkward silence, they all drank there cup of tea.

"Thanks for that. Needed it, right, off to the boat we go," The sailor said and he put his cap on and he went outside back into the raging wind. The other three guards followed him but the one that talked looked at Hermione.

"There is a list of things that need doing here in the kitchen. There are 105 prisoners here altogether. We have three sections for each, A,B,C. A is the most dangerous group and C is the least dangerous, but don't fool around, they're all very cunning prisoners. I think that's all, if not, floo to the ministry to get what you need," He gave a grin. "Wish you luck. We bet you three won't be able to last two weeks here," He laughed and he slammed the door behind him.

Hermione sighed and she turned to Neville and Padma who looked for once, nervous in what to do.

"Well, I think first off we should sort out our bedrooms and luggage then we'll look around to get used to the place."

"Sounds like a plan," Padma said and she grabbed her green bag, Neville grabbed his brown one and together they headed upstairs.

There were three bedrooms and one bathroom. One bedroom facing the sea, and the other two facing the prison. Neville said he'll have the one facing the prison and Padma said she'll have the one next to his, which left Hermione left the one looking out to sea. The bedroom was small, but enough to fit two people on at least and had a wardrobe opposite with a desk and mirror. Drawers were next to her bed and the cream wallpapers soothed her.

She hurriedly sorted out her belongings and she put her bathroom accessories in the bottom drawer. She looked around, satisfied and she hurried downstairs to join the others.

"Everything sorted?" She asked and the two nodded and they made their way to the kitchen. As the ex-guard said, there was a huge list on the table. Hermione picked it up and began to read:

Things to do

Clean the prisoner's clothes.

Feed them (The house elves are in the basement. They are Brom, Minnie, Safa) Hermione's lip curled a little at reading this. House elves on the same island as Azkaban?

Rebuild the building(Might have to ask the Minister himself about that)

New harbour

Put better spell protection against the waves

Trim the grass

Clean the forbidden building

And the list went on and on. Hermione wondered what the previous guards did here. Did they actually do anything here?

"I think, before we do anything on this list is to take a look around." Hermione found three lamps in the cupboard and she lit them. Neville and Padma both took one. "Remember; keep your wand with you all the time. Like he said, they can be very cunning and we have to be extremely careful. I think we should split up. I'll take section A, Neville you're B and Padma you're C," They all went separate ways and Hermione headed towards the top of Azkaban.

The smell was horrible. Hermione had to hold her breath in order not to throw up. The smell was awful; it was like the smell of bodies decaying amongst rotten food and other things she couldn't describe. She took a deep breath and the further she went, the smell got worse. Screams could be heard within each cell, all apart from one.

Hermione stood outside the cell door and she wondered if there was anybody in it. The cell door was battered and she walked towards it, keys in hands and she peered inside the cell.

A man with long black hair was laid on the floor, almost embracing it. His clothes were ripped and she could see many bloodied scars upon him. He has a rough shaven chin and he seemed to be moaning in pain.

Hermione became entranced by this man. She wondered who he was and what crimes he did, but yet, at deep down Hermione had a feeling she met this man before. She looked down at the cell door.

Ω∑t87

Pius Thicknesse

Without screaming, without fainting, she ignored her legs which were screaming at her to run away, trying hard to block every thought of horror the man has ever done to her out of her mind, she opened the door.