Chapter 1
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. I merely write about them for my own amusement.
Draco hung his head in shame. He'd been caught. He woke up, shackled to a dingy wall in a small, dank, dark room. Yes, Draco had been caught. "By the bloody order!" He moaned to himself despondently.
A curvaceous woman with long dark hair picked up the telephone. "Please hold." She said. Standing up, she walked to her superior's office. "Ms. Garrett, call on line 1."
"Thank you Therese. You are excused." Lauren Garrett picked up the telephone. "Garrett here."
She listened for a moment. "Alright, when?" She was silent. "Is there a name?"
The voice answered, and Lauren's face stayed perfect as stone. But in her eyes a gleam shined that wasn't there before. "That," she said, "is very interesting."
John Goodman stood at the gates. He'd been working here at Phoenix Gate for almost three years. As she approached, he smiled to himself. He was sure it was her, even from a distance he could see her thin frame, short curling hair and ramrod posture, rigid and severe.
Opening the gate for her, he addressed her. "Mornin' Ma'am." She responded only with a curt nod. She walked through the gates quickly and without a word being uttered. John grinned. It had been a week and a half since the prisoner had arrived, and they had tried to get him to talk in every way they knew of, to no avail. He was as quiet as death, and just as deadly. That's why they needed an expert. And she was the expert.
Lauren walked quickly and silently into the heart of the compound, a short black business dress that showed a bit more leg than would be necessary for a normal day at the office. But for anyone else but Lauren, this was not a normal day at the office.
A short plump balding man greeted her with a firm handshake. "Ms. Garrett. We've been expecting you."
Lauren looked slightly bored. "Without a doubt, Mr. Hunt. Where is the prisoner?"
The man chuckled. "All work and no play, Ms. Garrett? You'll see him soon enough. I have been meaning to ask-"
"Later." Said the thin brunette woman shortly. "Where is the prisoner?"
A ghost of a smile flickered across the man's face. "Come with me." Turning down a series of dimly lit corridors, screams from afar could be heard. Eventually they stood before a black door.
"Thank you, Mr. Hunt." Lauren answered. "Please have two guards stationed ten meters down the hall on either side of this door."
Speaking before the woman could continue, Hunt spoke. "If I may ask, how do you intend on getting the information from the prisoner?"
Lauren looked Hunt squarely in the eyes, and he squirmed a little. "If I told you, there would be no purpose for my being here." She glanced at her watch. "I also need you to warn me of a time restriction of my seeing the prisoner and mention the danger I am in."
Turning to the door, Lauren's face was as blank and unreadable as ever before. Hunt shrugged, and opened the door slightly. Lauren began to take a step inside, before Hunt's voice sounded, and resounded against the heavy walls. "Ten minutes is all you have, Miss. Not a moment longer." Lauren nodded shyly and took a step inside. "And Miss," Hunt said. Lauren turned around. "Keep your distance. This one make look harmless, but he is as deadly as Avada, wand or no wand." Lauren bobbed her head in understanding, and jumped a little as the door shut behind her.
She looked to the back wall of the little room, where a man sat straight up, looking right through her. She inched forward, a frightened but brave expression on her face. As she stepped closer, she could see bruises scattered across his exposed skin, and she shuddered. A whisper formed on her lips. "Malfoy?"
There came no answer from the prisoner, cold grey eyes looked past her.
"Malfoy?" Lauren paused. "Draco?"
The head turned, then looked back, to her face. A very odd, confused expression came over it. "Granger? What are you doing here?"
Lauren took a step closer, and kneeled in front of him. "I just got transferred here upstairs as a secretary from the Ministry. I was told it was top secret. What is this place, Malfoy? Why are you here?"
Draco looked at her intently, as if trying to judge her to be telling the truth or lying. To himself he thought, 'This place is Ministry? Top secret? Well no, of course they wouldn't want their little secret to get out, then there would be an attack and I wouldn't be stuck here…Top secret…Can't Mudblood Granger ever keep a secret? Well no, if she was lying I would know. Silly girl shows her emotions like an open book…' and many other thoughts ran through his fast paced brain.
Lauren leaned closer. "Malfoy?"
His face snapped back. "Don't get so close to me, Mudblood. I'm dirty enough as it is, without getting your filth all over me."
She was taken aback, but quickly regained her composure. "Malfoy, what is this place? I thought I heard screams…I think people are being…tortured." The last word quavered and was quiet as a whisper.
"Obviously." He answered bitingly.
"Oh Merlin!" She exclaimed, taking a good look at his bruised skin. "How did this happen?"
"I tripped." He answered sarcastically. "How do you think it happened, Granger? This isn't exactly birthday parties and pony rides. You said it yourself. People are being tortured."
"Why are you here?" Asked Lauren curiously.
"Make a guess, Granger."
She gasped. "You're a- a Death Eater!" She exclaimed quietly, as if afraid someone would hear her.
"There's that Head Girl intelligence." Draco snorted. "You were supposed to be the smartest witch in our year?"
Lauren glared at him. "Well I for one think this is just the place for you. Dumbledore, he would've helped you, you know? And you just threw your life away to follow that- that demon!"
Malfoy rolled his eyes. "What would I ever learn from Dumbledore? That old bat is crazier than the Longbottoms" at this a small smirk came across his face, obviously he thought himself very clever. "What, I could learn how to waste my whole life protecting muggles and mudbloods like you? You don't deserve to live. You are a disgrace to the name of witch, you foul creature."
A single tear fell from Lauren's face. "I hope you rot in here, Malfoy." She said spitefully. "I hope that you reside here in your squalor and misery, knowing, every day, that I am living, while your existence can't even be called that. I hope you survive here, but just barely, hearing the triumphant rejoicing in the streets when your master is defeated and all you hold dear is destroyed. I hope that you suffer here for all eternity for a lifetime before you are given to the dead, and then I hope you burn in hell forevermore."
Draco was shocked silent by the witch's words. He had never heard anything so hurtful from her, and was not so offended as (he wouldn't admit it, but) impressed. That was, at least, until she stood, glaring, and spat on him.
The door opened and a fat man leaned in. "Time is up, M-" He didn't finish his thought before the woman strode powerfully out of the room. The door shut heavily behind her.
Draco looked around the empty room for a minute, letting the cruel words sink in properly, and be appreciated, as all cruel things should. "Damn Granger." He said to himself. "I didn't know you had it in you."
Outside, in the hall, Lauren looked blankly at Hunt. "Take him out." She said calmly.
"What?!" Exclaimed Hunt.
"Take him out, I said." Lauren responded. "Take him out and give him the most intense beating he's ever had in his life. He will not be able to move after this punishment. Do exactly as I say." She reached into her tote and pulled out a folder, and handed it to Hunt. "There are more specific instructions inside. You will follow them exactly, and without question. I will return at this time tomorrow to deal with him."
Without another word, she strode quickly out of the hallway, thoughtlessly maneuvering her way through the complex structure and out through the gate, giving a terse nod to the tall, muscular guard by the name of John Goodman, as she left.
The flat was rather large for being alone. Water could be heard running from the bathroom, and nothing was out of place. In time, a woman stepped of the bathroom, with dripping curls wetting the shoulders of her thin bathrobe. She moved to the kitchen, where she pressed a round button on a slender machine. A male voice began speaking.
"Lauren, it's Matthew Hunt. The prisoner, Malfoy, revealed to us nothing. I suggest another method; this one is not working..."
She smiled, thinking, 'Right on track.'
Hunt's voice continued. "All the same, we will expect you as you said. Good evening." Click. She pressed another button and the message was deleted.
Hermione lied in bed that night, tired as all hell but strangely unable to sleep. She closed her eyes and they flashed back open again, terrible images behind her eyes. She stood up and padded to the bathroom. Opening the cabinet, she took out a small bottle and poured 5 tablets into her hand. She popped them into her mouth and swallowed quickly. Standing there for a moment, she took two more and then walked back to bed She slept little and fitfully, as most nights.
Draco opened his eyes slowly, aware of an acute pain flashing across his stomach. He reached down to pull up his shirt and examine it further, but was unable, as his hands were chained to a wall. And then it all came to him and he bit his lip to keep from crying out in terrible pain. He tasted blood and spat it out, though he couldn't get the putrid taste out of his mouth. The once pristine, but now dirtied, bruised and bloodied blonde leaned his head back against the wall, cringing at the pain shooting through his entire body. A hammer pounded against his skull from the inside, his lungs felt tight against his burning chest, his back scorched against his rough shirt, he couldn't feel his legs, and his face ached like never before. A slow, strangled breath fell from his lips as Draco tried to recall the torture, exactly.
Hermione Granger woke up feeling nauseous, and looking in the mirror, saw the dark circles under her eyes. She sighed and recited the incantation. She looked as her face became clearer and more revitalized. She sighed and walked out of the bathroom, the apartment, the complex. Walking down the street, Hermione was acutely aware of everything around her. The smoke, the slight dampness in the air, the filth lining the gutters, and she was disgusted. 'What had happened to the days when it was a good thing to be a witch? What happened to those days when I could be proud to be who I was?' Hermione hadn't thought about those things in so long, she hadn't allowed herself to, but seeing Malfoy again, but fallen from his marble throne; bound and beaten…It just wasn't right. 'Those days of being happy with who I was are so far gone.' She thought despairingly, although to the casual onlooker she walked quickly but effortlessly, not a single emotion on her face.
Finally she apparated and found herself a block or two from the Phoenix Gate. Making sure she wasn't followed, she walked in without trying to draw much attention to herself. She wasn't as inconspicuous as she would have liked, however. Due to her good looks, she was on the receiving end of a few appreciative looks that she ignored wholeheartedly.
She saw the familiar shiny head and walked quickly towards it. Before it even noticed her she began to speak. "I assume that everything is as I laid it out to be in my instructions. Would that assumption be correct?"
Hunt turned around, a half smile played at his thin lips. "Lauren-" He started, but a sharp glance from her swiftly corrected him. "Ms. Garrett, the prisoner has been handled exactly like you instructed. But-"
Lauren began to walk towards the cell.
"Ms. Garrett! Didn't you hear me? Whatever you were trying to set up didn't work!" Hunt scurried after her.
Lauren said nothing and walked towards the cell. "I want the guards just as before. And you-don't come in for another" she glanced at her wristwatch. "seven and a half minutes." She took a breath, opened the door, and rushed in.
"Malfoy!" Lauren ran to Draco and kneeled next to him. "Oh Merlin, Malfoy. What happened to you?" A tear dropped from her eye and splashed on his cheek.
Draco fought the urge to cry out as a soft voice expressed concern for him. It had been so long, too long since he had been around any emotion at all, except for pain and loss. He almost laughed at the irony that the last person who would ever care about his existence at all would be a Gryffindor, and a Mudblood no less.
Draco neither laughed nor cried as he looked straight into her eyes. Instead, he wore a blank face and asked her why she was there.
Lauren pulled out her wand and pointed it directly at him.
"Going to put me out of my misery, Granger?" Draco asked with a grimace.
Lauren whispered a short spell. Draco immediately began to feel much better, the pain was fading from his body. He awkwardly brought his hand to his face, and he couldn't feel the sharp pain from putting pressure on his bruises anymore. He glanced at his arms, which had returned to their pale color.
Draco looked up at her face in no small amount of shock. "Granger? What did you do?"
She smiled shyly and blushed a little. "Just a simple healing spell." Her face cleared and she hurried across the room to her tote that she had thrown down as she had come into the room. She reached inside and pulled out a small brown bag, and brought it back to Draco.
She pulled out a bottle of a strange purplish liquid. "What is that?" Draco asked her.
"Never mind that. It'll give you what you need to get through this." She opened the bottle and placed it on his lips.
"I don't think you quite understand this situation. I don't 'get through' this. I'm a prisoner. I'm going to be killed." He turned his head away and scooted away from her. "You will be too if they find out what you're doing. I know it, they told me so-" He choked a little "yesterday."
She looked confused. "What are you talking about, Malfoy? They have no idea what I'm doing. All they know is that we are former classmates and I wanted to see you. That's all. I'm not going to get caught for anything." She put the bottle against his lips again. "Now drink this. It'll only help you."
Draco shrugged. "What the hell do I have to lose?" He gulped down the bottle. "Ugh, Granger! That tastes foul!"
She smiled a little, despite their situation. "But it's good for you. See, no one caught me. It's fine."
The door burst open. In strode a furious looking Hunt. "What the hell are you doing here?" He roared, gesturing to the thin woman kneeling next to the prisoner.
She stammered. "I'm…I'm uh, n-not doing anyth-thing."
"Guards!" He shouted. Two muscularly bulky men took her by the arms and pulled her from the room.
She struggled to get free within their iron grasp. "Let me go!" She screamed. "I haven't done anything!" She jerked on each word, "Let-me-go!!" But to no avail, they pulled her out through the door and down the hallway, with her shouting and squirming the whole way.
Hunt looked at the prisoner maliciously. "I warned you what would happen," he sneered. "Now she'll have the same fate as you."
The door slammed shut.
Draco struggled against his bonds.
Lauren paused down the hallway from the prisoner's cell. "Shall we proceed?" She calmly asked Hunt.
Hunt smiled slyly. "I don't know how you do it, Lauren. But you're bloody brilliant."
Lauren looked away sharply. "We will proceed momentarily. But first you, all of you, will accompany me to see-" she paused, then finished. "An old friend." Lauren walked down a long hallway and reached a door exactly like that of the prisoner's. She pushed it open and met the gaze of a different captive.
"Minister." She acknowledged him. "How kind of you to grace us with your presence. We are honored, of course."
He lunged for her, but the chains holding him snapped him back against the wall.
She laughed lightly. "Oh Cornelius, why the anger? When have I wronged you?"
He sneered at her. "You lying, conniving little jezebel. How could you do it to another one of your people? How could you-"
Lauren cut him off abruptly, her face devoid of any expression. "I believe we are the ones who ask the questions, Cornelius." She looked at him intently, and then a smile crossed her sharp features. "And, since you've told us all we need, all you know, we have no further use for you."
Cornelius' eyes widened in fear. "…No…you can't…"
Lauren's lips tugged upwards, almost unnoticeably. "Oh, my dear Minister. Of course we can. We aren't the Ministry, for Merlin's sake." A small chuckle left her lips. She nodded to one of the Guards. "Goodbye, my dear Minister. Unfortunately, I don't think we shall ever meet again."
"Kill him."
The door shut heavily behind her.
This has been something new for me to write. Don't worry, all the loose ties are explained later on please stick around for the chapters to come! Well, if there is any interest in this continuing.
Fashiondiva