Hermione worked in the back room of Ron and George Weasleys joke shop. Even after the war, and Fred's death, the brothers did their best to keep the place as bubbly and fun as it was during the early months of the 2nd wizarding war. The shop barely got any costumers anymore though, because the only costumers in diagon alley were snobby rich purebloods, no child were ever allowed to venture outside their homes anymore. Hermione had to work in the back storage room, and use the emergency back exit door to come to and from, because if any of the few costumers knew Hermione was working there, they'd all be to scared, or disgusted to return.
When Voldemort won the war, he had wanted to spare as many pureblood families as possible, that is the only reason the Weasley family was allowed to live. He also wanted to put the muggleborns to temporary use, instead of imprisoning them or killing them all off, The dark lord and his death eaters placed all the muggleborns, now officially titled 'Mudbloods', in knockturn alley and took over diagon alley for themselves. The Mudblood act was passed and the Mudbloods were given 24 hours to scavenge for jobs before being the law of Mudbloods only being allowed to leave knockturn for jobs, was made effective. Nobody in diagon would hire the Mudbloods, knowing they would draw away all their customers. Ron hired Hermione though, and even sometimes slipped her a few extra sickles, since Mudbloods were only allowed to be paid 100 Galleons a year. Knockturn alley was patrolled by halfbloods, there was a small market there, run by halfbloods. Basically all the dirty work was done by purebloods.
Because of Hermione being one the few Mudbloods with any income, she was able to get her hands on a one room, 10x15 'apartment'. It had no insolation, a slab of cold concrete as a floor and a tiolet stuck in the corner, her 'kitchen' consisted of a cooler that she had saved up for and bought to serve as a fridge, and a cabinet with a sink on top. Hermione had a raw veggie, and cold soup broth diet, not because she choose to, but because that is all that was affordable and manageable, she slept on a used, and very worn, single futon. She had very few article of clothing, but all her tops had a bright red 'M' on it, marking her as a Mudblood. Hermione made do with what she had and was grateful. Hermione knew lots of old classmates who now lived on the streets and in every nook and cranny of knockturn.
So many Mudblood laws and conditions, but one Hermione struggled to bear was the law against Muggleborn magic. If any of them were caught with a wand or doing any sort of magic, they were sent to Azkaban and put in line for the dementors kiss. Hermione had smuggled her wand into knockturn, unable to let go. So far, she hasn't been caught. Its hidden in the fake bottom of her cabinet.
Hermione was sitting on her futon, drinking the soup from the can, when she a knocking on the wooden door. Hermione heart lurched. She bounced up and put her can on the counter next to her sink then ran to open the door. the door swung open and there stood Parvati Patil and two other half-blood officers she didn't recognize. Parvati looked sad when she saw Hermione open the door. "inspection." She said, taking out a clip board. Hermione could see parvati write down "Hermione0" on the blank inspection form. When the Mudblood act was passed, all Muggleborns were stripped of their last names. They kept their first name and since a lot of people had the same first names they distributed numbers for every name. Since Hermione was the only Mudblood with that name, she was Hermione0. The two officers barged into the room and began rifling through Hermione's few belongings. Her palms were sweating. Parvati leaned over to Hermione "For your sake Hermione, I really hope we don't find anything." she said under her breath. Hermione didn't reply. Her heart beat quickened. One of the officers was digging through the cabinet, tossing all its contents out behind him. He pulled up the fake bottom and Hermione's heart sunk, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "Look what we have here.." the officer said maliciously, picking up the wand between his fingers. Hermione glanced towards the wide open door, she took her only opportunity, and bolted. "Get her!" shouted one of the officers. Hermione kept running toward the exit into diagon alley, from there she would make a run for it into muggle London. Hermione looked behind her to see that all three officers were chasing her, she turned the corner, and Bam. She had run headfirst into exit security. Seamus Finnigan. He grabbed her shoulders.
Pity shone in his eyes, the three officers caught up and Parvati took out her wand, casting a binding spell on Hermione's hands. Hermione was crying now. Parvati escorted her to the part of diagon alley where they had holding cells for the Mudblood criminals. Parvati opened the cell and waited for Hermione to walk in by herself, she did. There was nowhere to run. Parvati closed it. "You'll have to stay here until a ministry can come and confirm your crime, then me or another officer will escort you to azkaban, were you will be placed in a line for dementors kiss." Said Parvati. Parviti took about as much pleasure out of saying that as Hermione had from hearing it. So Hermione just closed her eyes and nodded, sliding her back down the wall. She sat for hours. And she was hungry from not finishing her dinner. As light began to shine through the small window at the top of her cell, Hermione knew her fate would not be far off.
Once Hermione heard footsteps coming towards her, she stood up. Wanting to look confident and strong for the official soon to come. When the man turned the corner, Hermione felt like she wanted to puke. Lucious Malfoy. It was easy to feel bad for him, he had lost his son in the war, but when you review what that man has done it becomes very easy not to feel bad for him.
"Good morning Hermione. When I heard it was you who committed this crime, of course I had to come. And you know what? It's your lucky day. My wife and I have decided that instead of wasting a pretty, young girl, that we would claim you for our own servant. We are going to go to the Ministry and make it official." Lucious unlocked the door and took Hermione by the arm. When they turned the corner, Seamus stood there. "Am I escorting her to azkaban sir?" he asked Lucious, keeping a hard look on his face. "No, you are escorting her to the ministry for me. I am buying her." Lucious told him. Seamus nodded and grabbed Hermione by the arms, keeping a tight grip, as though scared she'd try and run again. Hermione definitely had thought about it. But no, she'd never make it.
Hermione was dreading being owned by the Malfoys. It was awful enough being owned by the ministry, but to be owned by the richest and snobbiest of purebloods. Hermione life was about to become much more hellish, she may have preferred being turned into a soulless shell of a person, then to be Malfoys personal servant.
They reached the exit of knockturn alley. Hermione pass through here this time every day, but today she was not going to the joke shop to organize the storage for the billionth time.
On the other side of the exit stood Narissa Malfoy. Lucious stepped up and took her arm. "We'll meet you in the Ministry." The couple apparated away before waiting for a response. Seamus readjusted his grip on Hermione. "Listen Hermione, I'm really sorry this is happening to you." He spoke through his thick Scottish accent. When Hermione said noting, he continued. "At least this is better than being kissed by a dementor." Hermione scoffed. "I beg to differ." she said. Seamus said nothing. When they arrived at the steps to the building, Hermione froze in panic. Seamus lightly tugged on her wrists, snapping her out of her fear. "You'll be okay. When we get in here, you'll be taken into the hands of a ministry guard. He paused. "Anything you want me to tell Ron?" Hermione shook her head. "The ministry will tell him something. Don't get mixed up in this." She ordered. Seamus agreed and then lead her up the steps and into the well furnished ministry foyer. A guard was waiting to take Seamus's place. Seamus handed over Hermione and bid the guard farewell before exiting the building. Hermione was dragged off into another room.
This room was small and circular. Lucious and Narcissa stood arm in arm, next to another ministry official. The death eater women offered a knife to the Malfoys. Lucious took it and beckoned Hermione to the center of the room. He picked up her arm, the one without her Mudblood scar, and dragged the knife down her it slow and painful. He probably didn't have to cut that deep, but he had the opportunity, and he took it. Her arm was gushing blood, Hermione's head felt fuzzy from the bloodloss. It took everything she had to stay on her feet. Hermione barely heard Lucious declare the spell, once he finished Hermione gave up trying and fell to the floor. She simply sat down, holding her bleeding arm. Narcissa kneeled down in front of Hermione, she took out her wand. Hermione flinched slightly, but then Narcissa hovered her wand over the cut. The bleeding slowed to a stop and then began to scab over. Lucious grew impatient and insisted to Narcissa that they head home, Narcissa insisted they wait until Hermione felt better. She covered up the sympathy by stating that Mudbloods are weaker than witches and wizards.
Hermione lied on the floor, perched up on her elbows while the couple quietly argued. Once they resolved the issue, Lucious turned to Hermione. "Up. Now. We are apparating." he declared harshly. Hermione pushed up her tired body and walk toward the Malfoys. Narcissa held her arm out for Hermione to grasp, so she did. The tight, tube like feeling consumed Hermione for a brief moment. They landed hard, with that and the blood loss, Hermione lost her balance and fell on her butt in the grand entrance of the Malfoy Manor. She got up quickly. Lucious rolled his eyes and shoved her forward. "Time to meet our other Mudblood, Eve." he said, shoving her again. This time she fell forward onto her knees. "Stay on your feet Mudblood!" he yelled at Hermione. She stumbled to her feet and Lucious threatened to shove her again. She stumble forward until she caught her footing and she walked at a pretty good pace. Lucious ordered her to stop in front of what must have been the cellar entrance. He lead her down the stairs and unlocked the gate at the bottom. Hermione stepped in the cellar. Lucious slammed the gate and locked it, stomping back up the stairs and closing the door. It was damp, cold and dark. The only light was the little bit of illumination that slipped through the crack in the door. In the corner Hermione caught sight of the other girl Lucious had mentioned, Eve, she was 23 years old, Hermione soon learned through some awkward conversation. She had beautiful crystal blue eyes and black, shoulder length hair, she and Hermione had quite a lot in common, two years above Hermione at Hogwarts, and was a Ravenclaw. Hermione remembered seeing her at prefect meetings in fifth year and in the corridors sometimes, but they have never actually spoken.
'Fred and George Weasley probably knew her. They probably had classes together.' Hermione thought.
Thinking about the Weasleys made her hearth lurch. She missed them so much, Hermione thought in her year of working at Ron and George's joke shop that Ron might reach out to her, he was the only thing keeping her from being forced to sleep on the streets night after night in Knockturn alley, and she was thankful to them for that, but speaking to her or having any personal connection to her was far too dangerous. The dark lord was always watching and if he found out that a pureblood family had a mudblood friend, and in Ron's case, girlfriend, the Weasleys would be punished. So as much as she wished they would speak to her every day, she knew they couldn't and did not take it personally.
Eve knew exactly who Hermione was, being the best friend of Harry Potter and all. She is smart, but she's very quiet usually. Rarely speaks unless she is spoken too, it is not hard to tell she loves having Hermione as company, they each had a small springy mattress on either side of the room with a thin wool blanket thrown over top, and a flat pillow. The first night Hermione had slept in the cellar, they both stayed on either side of the room, but once Eve had learned to trust Hermione, Eve had dragged her mattress to Hermione's side of the large room.
Neither of them had any possessions other than a tooth brush and a shared hairbrush. Twice everyday a house elf brought a meal for each of them, and once every 2 days the elves brought them a change of clothes, a bar of soup and a basin of water so they could wash their bodies and hair.
Whenever the Malfoys needed something that was better done with human hands, Eve was summoned up the stairs. The house elves did the cooking, Eve did most of the house work.
Even when Eve went upstairs, the door never opened, a house elf would apparate her out of the room. Which made Hermione long to be summoned, she missed the comfort and feeling of magic more than anything in her life.
