Prologue: "NO! HARRY!" Hermione screamed as she was seen plummeting to the ground beside Harry's limp body. "Harry…please no…HARRY!" Tears ran uncontrollably down her cheeks as she shook his dead body. She lowered her head and cried into his chest. "Why? Why Harry? Good shall always prevail…good shall always prevail…" her voice faded into the cold breeze. As if the pain of Harry dying was not enough, the now lifeless body of Ronald Weasley fell beside her. Her noisy sobbing subdued into silent tears as she made her way to the body of her other best friend. Shock would have overwhelmed any 16-year-old girl who had lost her two best friends, as it did Hermione. She too fell to the ground, unable to handle the horrifying events, but not in death, just unconsciousness.
The war began lightly, with little causalities and bloodshed, but as it pursued the fighting became intense. More and more lives were lost everyday. Mere months into the war he had fallen. After 16 years and 6 attempted murders. Voldemort had triumphed; Harry Potter was dead.
For unknown reasons the centaurs and giants sided with the Dark and astonishingly brought down the Light. The Dark side had a slight advantage. Apart from their surprising lack of moral, they were more powerful and had more 'beings' fighting for them. The Light side had unexpectedly few fighters; most wizards had chosen to stay neutral or at least not get involved in combat.
The muggleborns were facing terrible reprimands. The luckier of them were being sold on Knockturn Alley to purebloods as slaves; Hermione was one of the lucky ones. She was placed in a small cell that smelled of rotting rat carcasses. The floor she slept on was no more than cold, damp concrete and the little they fed her was enough to make someone in 'normal circumstances' vomit.
Her worst memory, the time when she lost the two things she had left in life, when her two best friends had died, played over and over in her head. She had fitful nights, reliving in her mind her mile walk through the battlefield of the mangled bodies of her friends, enemies, classmates and teachers with the dark hooded figures to await her doom. Her now insufferable life is thought impossible to get worse, right? Well, you are proved wrong. She is destined to be bought by a pureblood wizard. When she awoke, or rather chose to give up on sleep, she was not aware of what she was to face that day.
Hermione sat in a corner of her small cell, rocking slowly back and forth like a mad man. She listened closely as she heard someone open the door to the 'prison' she stayed in. The hatefilled voices seemed vaguely familiar, though she couldn't place a face or name. She sat searching of a name to match the voice and all came flooding back into her memory when she saw the sunlight from the small window reflect off the pale blonde head of Draco Malfoy.
She cowered from his view, covering her face ashamed to be seen in her current state...sitting in a small room behind bars like a criminal. Draco sniggered, "So, Granger, finally got your nose out of the air?" She raised her head and gave him a saddening stare that made him snicker even more. "Father, come have a look at this! It's Granger!" Lucius strode over with a terrifying grin. "So, how about it, Draco?" He gave his father a puzzled look, and Lucius rolled his eyes slightly while saying, "You want it?"
Hermione gasped inaudibly at being called an 'it'. And then what Lucius had just said registered in her head. She stared at the scene wide-eyed as Draco said, "Why thank you Father, I would fancy a slave" he stressed the word slave and smirked at Hermione. A scrawny dirty man stepped out from behind the two with very intricate looking skeleton key. He unlocked the door with shaky hands and with an unexpectedly strong grip raised Hermione off the floor by her upper arm.
He yanked her roughly toward the counter at the end of the narrow isle in which the small cells lined. She was pushed down onto the counter so her chest was squished against the polished surface. He lifted up the bottom of her shirt and looked at Mr. Malfoy waiting for assurance, Lucius gave a simple nod and the skinny man took out his wand and muttered a short incantation that burned a four-digit barcode on the small of her back.
She whimpered and was pulled up by her hair and shoved into Draco's chest. He pushed her away and brushed off his front like somebody had just thrown something repulsive at him, Hermione looked slightly hurt but then reminded herself that she truly was nothing better than filth. The days in her small cell made her mad with self-disgust, she really wasn't worth anything. What has she done for anyone, really? She was just a know-it-all, good for nothing; she deserved what she was getting.
Her thoughts were disrupted by strong hand pushing her out the door. She followed silently behind Draco through Knockturn Alley into a tapered alleyway. Hermione and Draco watched as Lucius gloved his hands and then picked an empty soda bottle, tapped his wand to it and gestured for them to move forward. They each laid a hand on the bottle and seconds later appeared in front of the Malfoy Manor. It was a beautiful home, the most brilliant white Hermione had ever seen. The lawn was perfectly kept snd there was a bright flowerbed to her right. She followed the two men forward into the house and was faced with an even more astounding sight. It was not the dark place she would have imagined it to be, there was no electricity but it seemed to have been magicked into brightness.
They entered a large kitchen to see a beautiful woman sitting at a table sipping tea and reading a book. "Morning Narcissa" Lucius said with little enthusiasm. She looked up quickly and smiled coldly at him. "Who's this you've returned with?" she inquired, sounding frustrated. Lucius looked disgustedly at Hermione and replied, "A mudblood we picked up in Knockturn Alley." He turned his attention to his son, "Draco show it to where it will be staying." Narcissa's glance traveled from Lucius to Hermione and with a roll of her eyes she went back to reading her book.
Draco turned on his heels and began up the staircase without glimpsing back at Hermione. She was unsure of whether to follow him or not, but did anyway. When they reached the top of the staircase Draco took a sharp right turn and walked through a doorway into a room decked out with green and silver. There was a king size bed, a big armchair, and lots of books! Hermione was surprised to see so many bookshelves; she had never thought Draco to be one to read. Her eyes slowly moved around the room and stopped on Draco. He was bent over pulling his schoolbooks and broom out of his closet and throwing them aside. He walked over to the chair and took the velvet throw that was slung over the arm and put it in the closet. Then he walked over to his bed and pulled off several pillows, as he had more than enough, and threw them in the closet also. "You can stay there," he said simply before walking out the door. Hermione looked at the closet and wondered why, in a HUGE manor, she would have to stay in Draco's closet...there must be ten guestrooms here. And then she recalled Kreature and the cupboard he slept in; they weren't worthy of sleeping in a bed.
Draco walked back in a few minutes later and tossed some clothes at Hermione, "Get changed, we don't need you sporting Potter blood." Hermione looked down at her robes, seeing a mix of Harry, Ron, and her own blood splattered over the front. She smiled weakly but genuinely and said, "Thank You." He gave her a sickened look, told her to clean off his bookshelves after she got dressed and left through the door without another word.
