b"Respect"/b
When he was finally through with her, Hermione had a plan. It made
her feel much better to have a goal; at first, she had intended to kill
herself as soon as possible, because she couldn't stand to be in her own body.
She suffered first-degree burns on top of everything else because she had
poured a boiling concoction of Mrs. Skower's Magical Mess Remover into a
place where you weren't normally supposed to put it.
And she still didn't feel clean. She never would again. She would
never be clean and she would never talk. And she never wanted to see another
human being as long as she lived. Her only comfort had been her plan, and the fact that when Lucius came to her after the Mrs. Skower debacle, he
suffered chemical irritation in an extremely sensitive place.
Oddly, he hadn't bothered to beat her after he figured out what she
had done. "Oh dear", he had sneered. "It seems you've gone mad. I had
better make sure you can't wander around and damage yourself further."
He had chained her to his bedroom wall. While she thus restrained,
she had decided what to do. Lucius couldn't stay awake forever. All she would
have to do was convince him of her obedience.
And so she did. She ate docilely, used the lavatory and bathed when he told her to.
She answered his remarks by either nodding or shaking her head, unless he
out-and-out demanded a response. Her silence seemed to please him,
and he often worked on various papers in the evening in his room, tossing
her scraps from his plate every now and then.
He had snapped her wand when he had captured her, of course, but that
didn't matter. Not for what she had in mind.
Her idea started when she was first chained. She had been shaking
with silent, hysterical laughter and when he slapped her face, she felt a
wave of energy explode from her and his robes had flown up over his head.
Hermione had collapsed on the floor, covering her head with her arms and
curling into a ball, unable to stop the laughter and sure that he would beat her
to death. He satisfied himself with a dose of Cruciatus, and was
delighted when she lost control of her bladder. He made her sit in her wet clothing
for three days until the smell became unbearable. Then he had the elves
bathe her.
The wave of energy had jolted her mind awake. She remembered Harry
talking about the various "accidents" that had befallen his cousin Dudley
when they were small and his cousin had picked on him unmercifully. What were
those except the beginnings of wandless magic? And, she thought excitedly,
if she could learn it, she could get out.
Hermione began to practice. Lucius left her alone in the room all day
with only a small chamber pot. She began by trying to levitate small items
around the room. It was very difficult. A wand seemed to provide a focus to
the loose magical energy that was hard to duplicate on her own, but
eventually she was able to lift Lucius' quill from his desk and hold it in the
air for a few minutes. This was a major victory.
The onset of her period seemed to open a floodgate, and soon she could lift any item in the room,
including the hateful, ornate, four-poster bed that had been her torture
chamber. It had to weigh at least a ton, but Hermione, fueled by rage and
hormones, managed to lift it as high as the mirror over the dresser and set it
down gently and silently.
From levitation, she began to work on other simple spells. Her goal
was to learn to cast a Summoning Charm, a Memory Charm, a Sleeping charm,
and a Disillusionment charm without speaking. She focused on all of them
during the nightmare times when she lay on the bed, and wanted to scream in
triumph when Lucius abruptly fell asleep right in the middle of what he was
doing and awakened confused and grumpy.
The days passed and her power grew. Lucius began to let her walk
before him on her chain. He took her with him on his frequent trips around the
Manor estate. She never raised her head to look at anyone he spoke to, and
tried instead to learn the entrances and exits to the property. She didn't
think she would be able to Apparate; it was too heavily warded.
The nights were dicey because she had to practice while Lucius slept,
and in the case of the disillusionment spell, she was not able to see what
she was doing in the dark. One day, however, he re-fastened her chain to the
wall and said he had business in London. "The elves will be keeping an eye
on you. Don't even think about trying anything. They have orders to kill
you if you attempt to escape."
She nodded.
She had to satisfy herself with Disillusioning the tip of her little
finger. It was a success, and the elves did not notice. She tried a memory
charm, and it was worth it when they forgot to bring her any food. Lucius
wondered at her growling stomach, and gave her half of his steak and her own
baked potato.
That night, she focused and whispered i"Accio"./i
The next day passed quietly. Lucius was in a lazy mood. He lengthened
her chain until she could lie on the bed with him and amused himself by
reading the iDaily Prophet/i out loud to her. All searches had been called off;
she was presumed dead.
That evening, he went out and returned drunk, to Hermione's delight.
He passed out on his bed and snored almost as soon as he got near it.
Hermione gathered her things and whispered i"Accio, wand."/i Lucius' wand flew from the pocket of his robes into her hand.
Silently and carefully, she severed the collar around her neck (velvet-covered steel…Lucius had a fine sense of the ironic) and stood up. In no time, Lucius' hands and feet had drifted to the bedposts, and were locked there. He snorted and belched, which made Hermione want to giggle; it was so incongruous.
She sat down and waited for him to awaken. He did at about five in the morning. "Mmmm…what?! What the ihell/i!"
"Good morning, Mr. Malfoy", said a soft voice at the foot of his bed. The room was dim with predawn light. Lucius was so surprised to hear Hermione's voice that his eyes widened for a moment, then narrowed. "iLet me go/i, mudblood, and I might just punish you and not kill you."
She smiled but did not move. Lucius struggled furiously against the magical bonds. Hermione pointed the wand at his face. i"Crucio."/i
His body arched so violently that Hermione heard a sickening pop as his arms dislocated. Lucius howled, and it was the loveliest noise she had ever heard. When the curse subsided, she whispered, "Don't move."
i"You mudblood bitch!"/i, he choked, his face gray. "You—" She put her finger gently to his lips, and whipped it quickly away as he snapped at it viciously with his teeth. He continued to struggle and curse, but fell silent when she drew his robes around his waist. Like most purebloods, Lucius did not make a habit of wearing underwear. His face relaxed and he even smiled a little. "So…my little whore. I see that you've learned a few things from your master."
"Yes", Hermione said pleasantly. She removed the disillusionment charm from the implements she'd gathered and turned back around, leveling Lucius' wand at his face once more. i"Silencio."/i
He stared. Merlins balls, what was she doing? Her hands were caressing him now, quickly bringing him to full excitement, despite the pain in his shoulders. The mixture of agony and ecstasy was exquisite. Even dark, deranged Bella had never been able to make him feel like this!
And then pain, greater than anything he'd ever known. He almost passed out when he saw what she had in her hand. He opened his mouth to speak, but of course, nothing but the faintest whisper came out. His body grew cold, and out of the corner of his eye, he could see red staining his immaculate white sheets.
"It's mine", Hermione whispered. "Mine."
He stared at her, his mind threatening to disconnect from shock and
horror.
"I earned it".
She swung a small burlap bag over her shoulder used his wand to open the door to his chambers. As she passed by his bed, she took out a small knife and made two tiny but deep cuts on each side of his throat.
Lucius Malfoy watched her leave his chamber, his sight already going dim, marveling at what he felt for her.
Respect.