Disclaimer: Because I am not JK, sadly I do not own these characters.
She awoke at the sound of the door closing above her. Her head was aching dully, as was usual now. She opened her eyes slowly and sat up, her body aching. Stretching out her arms and legs, she stood up from her makeshift bed and walked to the foot of the stairs. The usual tray of food sat on the top step and she climbed the stairs slowly to bring it down. It was the usual: a bowl of some kind of vegetable soup with cubes of chicken in and a bread roll. They fed her enough to keep her alive. Weak, but alive. At the beginning she had tried to keep her strength up by doing exercise every day, but she'd soon had to stop because her body protested too much.
She took the tray downstairs and placed it on the floor next to her makeshift bed – a couple of blankets laid out on top of some old, flattened cardboard boxes. It was certainly more comfortable than the cold stone floor. She took the flask she had been given months ago and filled it with water from the tiny sink in the corner of the room. At least she had a working toilet and sink. She took a mouthful from the flask. As the water washed down her mouth and throat she let out a sigh of relief and her headache eased a little. Sitting down in the makeshift bed, she then ate half the bowl of soup and half the bread roll. She always ate slowly, savouring the taste. After putting the tray down, she picked up a small piece of stone that she kept beside her bed and made a mark on the wall beside her, a diagonal mark across four others. The wall was half full of them, neatly arranged in rows and columns. She counted again, as she did every day. 45 tallies, each made up of four vertical lines and a diagonal line through them. That meant she'd been her for 225 days. Over half a year since she'd been free. Well, as free as you could be in this world the way it was. She always made sure she kept the right count when she could. If she was out of the room for more than a day, she'd be sure to mark it correctly when she got back.
225. Two hundred and twenty five. Half of 450. Square of 15. Twenty-three letters long. She did her small amount of maths every time she made a mark, noting if the number had anything significant about it. Her mind was her best asset. She might have given up hope of ever being free again but she'd be damned if she gave them the satisfaction of ruining her mind for good. She was far too stubborn for that. Sure, they'd messed with her mind a hell of a lot – it certainly wasn't what it had been – but she held on.
He tapped his fingers impatiently on the table, waiting for the discussion that had turned suddenly heated to ebb. This meeting had been going on for far too long and all he wanted to do was get home. There was a dull ache starting behind his eyes.
"Maybe if you weren't so concerned with the privacy of your precious house, we'd all be a little less suspicious, Lestrange."
"I'm not doing it, Parkinson! No one else has had to open up their homes. And don't think we haven't noticed how private you are about your own!"
"Enough." Draco said over the two men. "If it's quite alright with all of you I'd like to suggest moving this issue to the next meeting as you two are clearly getting nowhere. And I'd rather not be late home just because of a petty squabble."
"Malfoy, this is none of your-"
"I think you'll find it is exactly my business considering I'm your superior, Lestrange." He said with a smirk.
Lestrange made a noise like a growl in the back of his throat and he looked like he was about to say something else when the Dark Lord raised his hand to silence everyone.
"Draco is right. This can be resolved next time." He said. "Draco, what news is there of the resistance's abolition in Reading?"
"We've yet to find their base but I have some good leads. I'm tailing a known resistance member so sooner or later she'll lead us there. We haven't struck yet because we don't want to alert them to our knowledge."
"Excellent work. That will be all for this time." He said and gestured to convey that the meeting was over.
Draco stood quickly and walked to the drawing room door. They were using Nott's house and Theo usually tried to drag Draco out for drinks after meetings, but he was not going tonight. All he wanted at that moment was his armchair in his warm living room with only the bottle of whiskey from his drinks cart for company. Walking towards the front door he could hear Theo calling his name from down the corridor, but fortunately, he was out of the front door and the wards before Theo could catch up and he disapparated.
A few hours later, Hermione woke with a start. She could hear unfamiliar noises above her. Crashes and bangs and shouting. She couldn't distinguish any voices. Something was wrong. There were bits of dust and stone falling from the ceiling. She tried listening for a few minutes but the noise made it impossible to distinguish any specific sounds. Her bones were still aching from the torture earlier that night but she ran as quickly as she could up the stairs to the door and pressed her ear against it. She could hear the voices a bit more clearly from there. She could just about distinguish some of the spells people were yelling. She could hear people yelling the killing curse, but also others shouting jinxes and curses. Death Eaters didn't fight like this amongst themselves. Her brain was working slowly. The resistance! They were here. They were still going. For the first time in probably a year and a half, a slight smile teased at the corners of her lips. If she could get out of here and get to a wand then she could help fight. She probably wouldn't be very good. But if she could just get out. The voices were getting clearer now, as if they were getting closer to her. She started yelling and banging on the door. Her voice sounded strange to her. She hadn't used it for a week or so, she realised. She yelled and banged and kicked and tried opening the door. No one seemed to be hearing her. Why was no one letting her out? She needed to get out. She could help them.
The sounds of the battle changed. She stopped yelling and listened. There was less crashing now and more voices. More Death Easters must be apparating in, she thought. And she started yelling louder. If they didn't find her soon, it would be too late.
"Fall back!" she heard a familiar voice yell from close by but she couldn't quite place it. The voices got further away.
"No!" she yelled, her voice hoarse and her throat aching. "Help me!"
She didn't realise she was crying until she felt tears fall on her hands. She could still hear voices, but they weren't shouting killing curses anymore. They sounded angry though.
She had given up hope long ago of being free. She thought the resistance was done with, that the few members still alive after everything would be so far apart there'd be no chance of an organised attack or rebellion. She'd been wrong obviously. And she focused on the single fact that the resistance was active. That one fact had given her hope for the brief half hour they were here that she'd be free again. And having that hope ripped away as suddenly as it came left her feeling hollow. She didn't know how long she sat there with her knees up to her chest and her head leaning against the door. She ran out of tears eventually but her body still shook with silent sobs.
She heard footsteps approaching the door, but she didn't have time to get back down the stairs before the door was pulled open and she was wrenched up by her arm.
"Get up, Mudblood." The man said. It was Nott. It was always him that grabbed her and took her to be tortured. He pulled her roughly down the corridor and into what was once the entrance hall for the house, but it didn't really resemble that any longer.
There was debris and rubble everywhere. The main staircase didn't exist anymore except for a few steps at the top. There was a huge hole where the front door should have been. Hermione looked up and found she could see through the ceiling, through the bedroom above and into the night sky.
"Look at what your precious little resistance have done to my house." He snarled at her, his face an inch away from her own. "This is because of you. I'm sure of it."
He pushed her away into the centre of the room.
"Crucio!" he yelled. The all too familiar pain of the Cruciatus curse filled every nerve in Hermione's body. But just because it was familiar did not mean that it hurt any less. She felt like every cell was on fire or exploding. Like every atom in her was being cruelly turned inside out. It felt like it went on for hours though it can only have been a minute or so. She heard a scream but didn't realise it had been her until after the pain stopped as suddenly as it had started. But she still felt the effects of it. Every muscle seemed to be reverberating with the pain. She tried to stand again but she couldn't get her limbs to coordinate.
"Cru-" he started to yell again but was interrupted.
"Dad, come on. We haven't got time for this. We need to go. The Dark Lord is expecting us." Theodore Nott's voice, a voice she had not heard since her time at Hogwarts.
"Just give me one minute, Theodore. This bitch needs to pay."
"No, come on. The Dark Lord has already granted us this time to get things straightened up a bit. He will not be happy if we are late. You can carry on doing this when we're there if you must. Come on." He sounded impatient.
"Fine." Nott said and walked over to Hermione. He gave her one hard kick to the ribs and she could have sworn she heard something crack as the pain ricocheted through her body. Then he grabbed her arm and pulled her up again. "You can take her. I don't want to touch this filth any longer."
He threw her at his son, who caught her as she stumbled and she heard the familiar crack of Nott disapparating.
"Come on, Granger." Theo said in a soft tone. "The Dark Lord awaits."
"Please. Please, don't take me. Let me go." She begged, knowing it would be useless. She wouldn't get very far even if he did let her go. He was holding her up now as her legs seemed to be failing to do the job.
"If I could, Granger." He sighed. "I'll try and get my father's wand so he can't hurt you again."
Hermione felt the familiar feeling of apparition as Theo disapparated, his arm still around her waist.
A/N: Review and let me know what you think!
Hoping to get the next chapter up in the next couple of days.