Summary: Hermione never went to Hogwarts. Having finished her first year at university, she is heading back to her home in the sleepy Dorset countryside, prepared for a summer filled with long walks and unplanned pub-trips with her best-friend, Jeremy. But when her elderly neighbour inexplicably disappears, Hermione falls into a much darker world: one of magic, and murder. And then she meets Draco. (Hermione: AU, Draco: post-HBP)

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any of Rowling's glorious characters.

The mind is its own place, and in itself

Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n

- Paradise Lost

Chapter One

Draco

The first thing that hit him was the smell. Even in his state, it was difficult to refrain from gagging. But as the sweet numbness of unconsciousness faded, he felt the hoarseness of his throat clawing at him. That was when he realised they had hung him upside down.

Not that he didn't deserve it.

But the silence was worse. He craved the faint humming of exhalation, the sound of saliva being sucked from one side of his mouth to the other, the popping of his ears as he swallowed. He wished them all, and loud enough to drown it out.

Yet, with each second, another vagueness returned. First, Dumbledore. Next, Voldemort. Then. Her.

It all flooded back into his suspended mind that very instant: everything he had done, anything he ever had thought, each elementary remnant of his former self remaining vigilant and demanding to be heard. The boy tried to claw the thoughts away with numb fingers, only to receive a sharp stab of paid ricochet through his body, and then all became clear. It had come back for him.

"You haven't the slightest idea what inconvenience you caused me," whispered the voice of the darkness. The words rattled through the boy's mind.

Pain returned to comfort him once more when the darkness grabbed a fistful of his hair, and raised it up to meet the enduring night.

"I want you," the darkness slurred, precise and distantly familiar, "to listen to me." Another time, another world. "They now have the a Horcrux in their possession, and we are on the cusp of war." His head was dropped suddenly, the muscles in the back of his neck tensing and relaxing as it oscillated in the darkness. "I need to know that you can kill them."

The pain came from his shin this time.

"Look at me," the darkness grunted, "when I am talking to you, Draco."

His eyes lifted to meet the darkness. "Lumos." The abyss was replaced with a cold gaze, steady and cool. Fathoming all the blood he could muster, Draco spat, watching contently as his artwork dribbled gracefully down the man's cheek.

"Father."

"That's quite a croak you've got there," Lucius muttered, swatting the scarlet spit from his face. "Can you kill them?" It wasn't executed as a question.

"If necessary."

"Thought as much." A terrible smile invaded Lucius' face. He sidled back against a wall of the chamber, his face still bathed in the gentle light of his wand. "But I didn't want to assume too much of you though, given your, ah-" Lucius paused and licked his lips, as if he were tasting the air in search of the right expression, then – with the same precise articulation – continued as if he hadn't even paused, murmuring "recent tendencies. This was all for your own good, you see."

"My own good?" A new tone echoed about the chamber, clear and cold.

"If it makes any difference at all, it wasn't on my instruction that you're here in the first place."

Draco lurched forward as his chains began to unfasten from the wall. "This was you. This was all you!" he enticed his chains further.

A cold laugh reverberated. "You thought daddy was here to rescue you? Oh, no. Wouldn't that make a cruel world?" He took quick, deliberate steps to close the gap between them. "I would have left you here to die," he said, tilting his head ever so gently sideways. "But, not everything is my decision to make, it would seem. Lord Voldemort still sees potential in you. Somehow."

His chains decisively lurched forward once more and clattered around Draco, now lying half broken on the floor. As he tried to rise, something pressed forcefully on his spine, and he returned to the ground with a thud.

"You are to work swiftly and silently, is that understood? I don't want any mishaps like the last time."

"There won't be any mishaps."

"Good." Lucius muttered, then was consumed by the darkness.

Draco had no idea how long he has been unconscious, or indeed any recollection of how he had come to be spread upon the sinewy expanse of stone, but awoke with a shiver to familiar darkness.

Had that really been his father? No, no. No. It was just another mind game of the darkness, forever taunting, never ending.

"Oh, and I almost forgot," came the voice from the darkness. Draco's eyes rose to meet the glow of wand light emanating from above. "I have a gift for you. You are looking a little worse for the wear, after all."

Draco was abruptly pulled to his feet, and found himself examining his father's crooked smile once more. A vial was thrust out to him. His smile twisted.

"Drink up."

There was no thinking twice about it. Draco did as his father had bid him. He reached for his vial with numb fingers, and once in his grasp he unthinkingly traced the intricate engraving.

"You remember." It was barely a whisper.

Draco nodded sullenly. He flicked the catch, and drank deeply; then the potion took ahold. He fell to the floor, the vial clattering on the stone beside him. As the convulsions heightened in magnitude, darkness came to meet him willingly as a friend. But, a far-off voice – devoid of emotion, as ever – pierced his silence.

"Take care, Draco."

A/N: And so it begins... I hope that this little chapter has been successful in grasping your attention! So, Draco is being tortured in the dungeons of Malfoy Manor for his failing to assassinate Dumbledore. But, as Voldemort still wants to test the boy, he has been given the task of retrieving a Horcrux that is known to be in the possession of Order-sympathisers. This should become more clear in later chapters, but if you think it needs additional clarification in this one then please do let me know!

I've really enjoyed writing the first few chapters of this, and I hope you enjoy reading them! Please read and review - I would love to know your thoughts, and really appreciate any feedback I can get!

Happy reading. :)

- Morglay