'Stop!'
The pain suddenly recedes, and Hermione's shrieks cut off to be replaced with shocked silence. Hermione assumed that she had been in such intense agony that she had imagined the plea, but as she peels back her heavy eyelids, crusted with the tears that had streamed down her face, she raises her eyes to find a look of angry confusion on the face of her torturer.
Flicking her gaze to him, Hermione finds his usual mask of indifference replaced with terror, his icy grey eyes glimmering with concern.
'I must have misheard you, nephew,' Bellatrix's voice grates out, 'but it sounded, just for a moment, that you told me to stop.'
Hermione watches with confusion as Draco Malfoy's eyes turn away from her cowering form to his aunt. His mouth twitches, as if to say something, but he keeps silent, his face returning to the emotionless front he usually maintains, but Hermione notices the tight grip he holds on his wand, his knuckles whitening.
'Answer me!' screams Bellatrix, her wand turning to the young blonde across the room. He flinches but remains silent.
'Bellatrix, turn your wand away from my son,' demands Narcissa in a deadly calm voice, eyeing down her sister.
Bellatrix's wand slowly lowers, a sadistic grin on her face. 'Fine, if the young Draco has no further problem, I'll continue my interrogation of the Mudblood.' Her wand turns back towards Hermione, 'cruci-'
'Expelliarmus!'
Hermione's heart leaps in her chest as she sees the tell-tale red hair of Ron Weasley racing out of the dungeons, followed closely by Harry Potter, who fires a quick stupefy at Lucius, who had remained silent until that point. His body is sent across the room, crumpling to the floor a few feet away, where it remains still. Curses are quickly exchanged, hexes rapidly thrown between the remaining people and Hermione's mind struggles to keep up with it all. She watches as Ron throws a well-aimed sectumsempra towards Draco, who casts a protego a second too late and scarlet blooms across his chest. Mixed emotions greet the sight. This is Draco Malfoy, her school tormentor and current Death Eater, and Hermione should be relieved that he has been taken down. But as he drops to his knees in agony, she can't stop the gargled scream that erupts from her throat. After all, he tried to save her. He stopped his aunt.
Ron turns his confused expression on her and worry is evident on his face. He raises his wand towards her and for a moment Hermione thinks he is going to attack her, until she feels the all-to-familiar touch of the cold metal of Bellatrix's dagger against her throat.
'Drop your wands!' screams Bellatrix, and after only a moment's hesitation, both Harry and Ron drop their wands to the floor. 'Pick them up, Draco.'
Draco's panicked expression flickers to Hermione before he complies, scooping up the wands and returning to his mother's side. Narcissa quickly seals the wounds on his chest, but the blood still stains his torn shirt.
Hermione turns her attention back to her two best friends, watching as the stinging jinx she had cast on Harry moments before they were captured fades, revealing his easily recognisable features.
Bellatrix giggles cruelly. 'Oh, look what we have here. Harry Potter, all pretty again.' She puts more pressure on the knife and Hermione feels blood well to the spot, a drop dripping down her collar bones. 'How nice of you to join us, although I'm a bit upset that you interrupted my fun.' Hermione can imagine the childish pout that probably crosses Bellatrix's face. 'Oh well, when the Dark Lord gets here, I'm sure he'll let me have as much fun as I want with you. Call him.'
Lucius walks across the room, pulling up the sleeve of his left arm to reveal his Dark Mark. He raises his right hand over the mark and Hermione can feel the hopelessness crush down on her.
This is it.
As soon as he calls Voldemort to the Manor, they'll kill Harry, and almost certainly her and Ron too, although not before torturing them to within an each of their lives first. And then what? Who else knows about the Horcruxes? Who else can take away Voldemort's immortality?
Just as the last ounce of hope attempts to drain out of her tired body, Hermione glances up and scrunches her eyebrows in confusion. She must be more tired than she thought, because it almost looks like Dobby is sat on top of the majestic chandelier dangling from the ceiling. Wait, Dobby is sat on top the majestic chandelier dangling from the ceiling, and judging by the faint squeaking noise reaching Hermione's ears, he's about to drop it right on top of them.
Lucius halts in his action, turning his head towards the noise and everyone follows suit. With a shriek, Bellatrix pushes Hermione away from her and dives across the room, narrowly avoiding being crushed by the weight of the decorative light. Hermione is caught by a pair of strong arms, and looks up to meet kind blue eyes. She hastily pulls herself properly to her feet, watching in shock as Dobby effectively disarms Narcissa. Draco and Harry grapple momentarily in the corner, before Harry secures their wands and returns to the group.
Hermione feels Ron and Harry take a hand each, as the small group begin to make their escape, and as the familiar feeling of apparition washes over her, her gaze falls for a final time to meet icy grey eyes as they watch her disappear.
..
Draco watches as Hermione and her group disappear to an unknown destination. Silence follows their escape, apart from the soft clang as the dagger his deranged aunt had thrown at the last minute collides with the railing of the staircase to the dungeons, and all Draco can do is berate himself for getting involved. Why did he have to say something? Why did he have to try and help her? She means nothing to him. He doesn't even know her aside from their years of arguing at Hogwarts. But something about seeing her on the floor, writhing in agony at the hands of his aunt had done something to him, stolen the last smidge of his innocence.
And he'd snapped. He couldn't bear to see the proud and annoyingly brave Hermione Granger broken on the floor of his Manor. She was an insufferable know-it-all but he'd been on the receiving end of one or two of his aunt's Cruciatus curses and couldn't stand the idea of it being used on her.
But now he had royally fucked things up. He can almost feel his aunt's anger radiating off of her in waves of malevolent heat. A strangled screech emits from her throat, deafeningly loud. She turns her attention on him and Draco flinches at the fury in her eyes.
'CRUCIO!'
Draco's body crumples to the floor, spasming in pain. It feels like his blood is turning to acid, every breath pulling mouthful of broken glass into his lungs, his skin on fire. He clenches his jaw together, determined not to give her the satisfaction of hearing him scream.
'Bellatrix, stop!' yells his mother, pulling at her sister's arm in vain.
'It's your fault, boy!' he vaguely hears Bellatrix yelling at him. 'You let them out, didn't you? DIDN'T YOU?'
If possible, the curse tearing through his body strengthens and he wails, shaking his head 'no'.
'Don't lie to me! You let them out because you feel sorry for them, you feel sorry for the Mudblood!'
'No!' Draco yells. He wishes she would kill him. Anything but this agony.
'Bellatrix, that is enough.' It surprises Draco as he hears his father's voice standing up for him. Immediately, the throbbing ceases, and Draco raises his eyes to see Lucius standing over Bellatrix, his wand pointed at her. Draco would do anything to have his own wand with him, but that stupid Potter had taken it when he had reclaimed their own.
'I'm sure the Dark Lord will be interested to hear where your loyalties lie, Lucius,' Bellatrix states in a deathly calm voice, before turning on her heels and stalking out of the room, the clicking of her heels echoing loudly through the hall.
'Draco,' whispers his mother as she falls to the floor beside him, lifting his head to rest in her lap. He tries to pull away but his aching body protests and he succumbs to his mother's attentions. Lucius leaves the room without another word. 'Blinky.'
As soon as the word leaves his mother's lips, a smallish house elf pops into the room. 'Yes, what does the Mistress require?'
'Take Draco to his room and ensure that no one bothers him.'
'Yes, Mistress Malfoy,' replies the house elf, bowing deeply, before taking Draco's arm and apparating them both to Draco's room in the Manor. Blinky takes in Draco's motionless form and with a click, levitates him into the bed. Exhaustion creeps up on him, and at the welcome warmth of his bed, Draco closes his eyes. No doubt the Dark Lord will have more than one word to say to him when he returns from his travels. He should be well rested if he's going to have to put an appearance before the Dark Lord. With that thought, he willingly crosses the thin line separating consciousness from sleep.
..
If it weren't for Ron's steady grip on her arms, Hermione would have fallen onto her knees as the sand met her feet. Relief hits her strongly. They made it out. But even as that emotion settles, a small part of Hermione feels regret. Maybe they shouldn't have left Draco. He hadn't identified Harry to his family, even though he almost certainly recognised him, despite the stinging jinx. And he had stopped Bellatrix from torturing Hermione. Maybe he was defecting?
Hermione shakes her head. No. Draco Malfoy would not switch sides. Maybe he really just hadn't recognised Harry. He probably interrupted his aunt to ask if he could have a turn at torturing her. He certainly didn't hold back in attacking Harry and Ron when they joined the fight.
Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Hermione glances around. The small group is standing on a deserted beach, a small cottage a few feet away. Shell Cottage. Bill and Fleur's house. Quickly making sure that everyone else made it out unscathed, Hermione releases the breath that she didn't realise she had been holding. Pulling herself out of Ron's hold – much to his evident dismay – she properly evaluates the group. The Golden Trio, a house elf and a goblin. Hermione recognises the goblin as Griphook, a Gringotts worker. 'Hermione, are you okay?' Ron's worried eyes search Hermione's face as she nods.
'I'm fine.'
'No, you're not,' says Harry, grabbing her hand to raise her arm, where blood is still running from the wound Bellatrix had caused. 'Mudblood' stands angry and red on her skin.
Ron visibly tenses and Hermione struggles to repress the tears that rise to her eyes. Harry begins muttering healing spells, his wand hovering above the wound, but nothing clears the derogatory word from her arm. 'I- I think the dagger was cursed,' Hermione mutters, the tears falling freely from her eyes now. It seemed so stupid to be getting upset over something as insignificant as a scar, but the idea that she was now permanently branded because of her blood status hurt Hermione. There was no escaping her parentage now. Not that Hermione felt ashamed to be muggle-born. She loved her parents and always would. If she could ever find her parents after this stupid war and manage to reverse the memory charms she had placed on them.
The thought of her parents causes the tears to flow harder and a small sob escapes her lips. Ron wordlessly wraps his arms her, easily enveloping her smaller form in his larger one protectively. Hermione gives in to the emotions pouring out of her, openly blubbing into his shoulder. He feels Harry stroking her hair in an attempt to calm her down.
After what feels like an eternity, the final few tears taper off and Hermione pulls herself from Ron's embrace, sniffling. At some point, Griphook and Dobby had left the beach and entered the cottage and were probably being seen to by Bill and Fleur. With a deep breath, Hermione forces a smile onto her face.
'Thank you,' she whispers.
'We're so sorry we couldn't get to you sooner, 'Mione,' says Ron. 'We heard you screaming, we had to get Luna and Ollivander out.'
Hermione's head snapped up. 'Luna?'
As if having heard her name, the bubbly blonde bounces out of the cottage. 'Hermione!' she announces happily, skipping into Hermione's arms. 'I'm so glad to see you're okay!'
Hermione looks at her in disbelief. 'You too! What happened?'
'Well, after the Death Eaters took me, they left me at Malfoy Manor, where I found Mr Ollivander, and then Harry and Ron showed up, and Harry took a bit of mirror out of his sock – that's still a strange place to keep a mirror, if you ask me – and then Dobby showed up and took me here!' she explains in one breath, smiling airily the entire time. 'But I didn't know what had happened to you. But now you're here!' The younger witch smiles brightly, hugging Hermione again, who hugs her back fiercely, genuinely happy to find her safe. 'Anyway, Fleur says she's going to sort some food out, and I don't know about you, but I'm famished!' Luna states casually, as if they hadn't all just narrowly escaped death.
Without another word, Luna skips happily back into the cottage, as naturally as if she'd spent her entire life there.
'I'll never understand that girl,' mutters Ron under his breath, causing Hermione and Harry to smile.
'A lit bit of loopy never hurt anyone,' says Hermione, finding it easier and easier to breath after the events of the day, deciding not to dwell on darker thoughts for a while. Her stomach rumbles suddenly, and the trio laugh. 'Maybe food isn't such a bad idea after all.'
Harry and Ron nod their agreement and Hermione follows them in, pushing all thoughts of a certain pair of grey eyes to the back of her mind.
Author's Notes: Okay, so this is my first attempt at a fanfiction, I hope you like it. Please leave a review!
