A monochrome of cerulean churned before her eyes, stretching out in every direction. Towering above her, row upon row, sat glassy orbs. She was sure these spheres of mist questioned the darkness as much as she did, when no one was around to do it for them. Hermione heard whispers, from somewhere - from Harry. In his palm his fingers wrapped forcefully around a sphere, within it she saw swirling, and light, though it was not strong enough to illuminate them, it only seemed to suck the light into itself, perhaps so it might treasure the light and save it for later when the orb would be back in it's infinitely dark surrounds, leaving them all bathed in a ceaseless shade of blue which was pouring from her own Lumos. Either side of the group were seemingly endless aisles which dissolved into blackness, for a moment Hermione feared that they might go on forever, in increasingly dark arteries of glass orbs. There was a strange chill surrounding her, she struggled to recall if she had felt it the entire time they were here, in The Department of Mysteries, Hermione sighed and attributed it instead to her new found idleness. The blackness before her suddenly began to shift and squirm, like a puddle of ink, she strained her eyes to focus as a shimmer of light bounced back at her. Larger it grew until the shimmer's revealed form sent a shiver down her spine. The sickening metallic mask of a Death Eater ogled back at her from the darkness.
"Harry!" Ginny called from beside her.
Before she could react Harry was standing in front of the group, with his wand raised. Lucius Malfoy effervesced from under his mask of metal and began talking in a tone rich with arrogance, she wouldn't have expected anything less. Hermione found it hard to let her gaze linger on Lucius, not because of the platinum haired bigot himself, but something else. She searched the darkness around that disgusting man, but found nothing. Curiosity came over her as she questioned what she might have hoped to be in the blackness with Lucius, everyone she cared about was standing within arms reach of her. Everyone save her Professors and parents, but she knew exactly where they were at this moment. Who then could it be that she was searching for down the blue-black aisle she asked herself.
"…come any closer and I'll break it." She heard Harry mutter.
And then, then, Hermione heard something which she hadn't heard before, something which she hadn't expected to hear inside The Department of Mysteries. She heard laughter, but it was sharp and cruel. Regardless of it's emotion Hermione could hardly avoid the laughter filling her ears and evoking a certain quickening within her.
"He knows how to play!" The words came echoing around her, wrought with the same sharpness and cruelty as the laughter.
She thought she should be scared, she should be wary, but the only emotion flowing through her body was curiosity, she longed to see the owner of that voice. Hermione knew they'd be a Death Eater, she knew it would be Bellatrix Lestrange - Narcissa's voice had never sounded so sharp and cruel, even when it was cursing her blood status. Hermione thought she should be disgusted at the woman, after all she had done in both service to the Dark Lord and in service to her infamously sadistic tendencies. No matter how much she thought she should be afraid or disgusted, she wasn't. 'Perhaps,' she thought to herself, 'seeing her face, seeing into her eyes, will change that.' Here, Hermione stood patiently for what felt like an equally dark eternity, much like the orbs around her had experienced, waiting for the lithe figure to slither out of the blackness.
"…itty, bitty, baby… Potter."
Hermione saw the darkness around Lucius shift and churn until it was occupied by something else. A blueness fell across the figure there, just as it had everything else, Bellatrix Lestrange. The sight of her was like a dagger to Hermione who felt betrayed within her self and to her friends for letting her eyes graze over the woman for perhaps a little too long. She felt indescribably drawn to Bellatrix's dark hair and luminescent skin, which looked all too pale. Hermione was frightened then, not of the murderer in front of her but instead of the feelings she was suddenly unable to control, of the adrenaline coursing through her body at the moment she caught sight of Bellatrix.
She stood next to Lucius, who was suddenly invisible to her, with an air of confidence mixed with sexuality, with lust and desire. Hermione was quietly horrified at her newfound adoration of the woman, something which before tonight would have seemed completely impossible to her. Here, she let her mouth fall open, or rather, her mouth voluntarily fell open, only a little as she found her need for breath suddenly increased. Bellatrix looked now how she had expected her to, after seeing her screaming photo in the newspaper when she'd escaped from Azkaban. No, that woman had been ragged and desperate. This woman, however, was no longer ragged, though her hair was wild and uncontrolled, and she was certainly not desperate. Bellatrix's dark eyes scanned slowly over the group in front of her, lingering only for a second on each of them. Hermione saw the dark and glassy spheres lull toward her, agonisingly slowly, for a moment she envied her friends, she wanted Bellatrix's gaze to only rest on her. 'What am I thinking!' Hermione thought to herself, shocked at her own musings. Closer the eyes came, it wouldn't be long now. She swallowed hard in anticipation as Bellatrix's eyes came to Neville - she would be next. Her pulse pounded in her ears, throbbing through her entire body like a drum beat. Here, time slowed to an aching pace as the witch's gaze dragged over the space between her and Neville. At last the eyes she had wanted so desperately on her, for a reason she was unable to produce, came to rest within her own for a moment as Hermione's whole world blurred together and became foggy at the edges. Bellatrix's dark eyes locked with hers knowingly, Hermione's breath hitched in her throat as the gentle rise and fall of her chest became somewhat erratic, trying desperately to process what was happening to her body - and to her mind.
"Bellatrix Lestrange…" Neville slurred from beside her, tearing Bellatrix's gaze from her own.
"Neville Longbottom is it? How's mum and dad?" She chimed happily.
Here, Neville took a step forward, his great frame obscuring Bellatrix from Hermione's view. Silently and unconsciously she cursed him for that. As Neville spoke his speech melded together, until Hermione could no longer distinguish words from groans and she could hardly distinguish groans from silence. Bellatrix… Bellatrix.. The name laved her mind, she could think of nothing else as images of the woman pervaded her thoughts. With Neville's body blocking out the light she fell into shadow, where she couldn't decide which way was up. She felt dizzy. She felt sick. She hated Neville in that moment for smothering her and stealing away her Bellatrix Lestrange. Hermione hardly recognised herself. Suddenly she was plunged into light and into clarity when Neville stepped back, allowing her once again to pour her eyes over the witch in front of her.
Bellatrix now had her wand raised, pointed at Neville. What had he said? She didn't know. Nor did she care as she looked over the enormous poise and eloquence Bellatrix commanded as she held the gnarled wand in her long and sinewy fingers. Hermione's eyes fell from Bellatrix's and drifted down her face, following the stern line of her jaw and traveling down over her neck, and over her chest until her gaze pooled in the passage between her breasts. Her hearing became fogged again, Harry spoke but she could scarcely understand him. Her ears, instead, picked up what came from Bellatrix's lips, a whisper as delicate as gossamer caressed her ears, from a distance it was cold and sharp but she imagined it, then, as hot and thick as molasses while Bellatrix's lips were pressed firmly against her ear, this thought sent shivers flowing through her body - humming and collecting in her abdomen. The witch's voice now turned to a shout, her power left Hermione awestruck, never before had she felt like this and she wasn't quite sure whether it was right. In fact, she knew it wasn't.
She was torn from her thoughts as she felt Ginny's hand on her arm, alerting Hermione to the other Death Eaters who had sprung from the darkness and were now surrounding them. Raising her wand defensively toward the advancing foes she couldn't help but flicker her gaze between the Death Eaters and Bellatrix, who was once again looking at her, as if devouring her youth and morality. On any other occasion Hermione Granger would have felt positively disgusted, revolted, even, that this Death Eater was making her feel so strange and perhaps even, that she was enjoying it. Here, Bellatrix's mouth slid open as she sucked her own lip into it and nibbled it lightly, undoubtedly the older witch could see the effect her actions were having on this young girl and enjoyed tormenting her. Hermione was forced to look away and return her attention to the advancing pair of Death Eaters who no doubt meant her harm. Her gaze again flickered back to Bellatrix, who was still looking at her right in the eyes, though this time with a smug look wrought across her face as she took step after step closer to the group making Hermione shudder uncontrollably.
Suddenly spells began flowing from her wand as her lips formed 'Stupefy' over and over, beneath her her legs shifted and began to run, with Ron and Harry next to her. They ran past endless aisles of cerulean orbs, reaching up into the darkness. Behind her she could hear Ginny, Luna and Neville each casting Stupefy and the sound of glass breaking as spells collided with prophecies. A plume of black smoke began to float next to Harry, millions of black particles suffocating the trio until he warded the Death Eater off with a Stupefy of his own. Here the three turned a corner into another aisle of endless orbs and darkness. Hermione's heart was pounding in her chest and her lungs heaving desperately to haul enough oxygen into her body. She looked behind her for a moment and saw another black plume charging after them, as it got closer she could feel the cold emanating off it tangle into her hair. The smoke nipped at her heels and wrapped itself around her waist, for a moment it felt almost as if someone had touched her. The blackness danced at the side of her vision, she could feel it clinging to her back and chilling the flesh there, she tried to run faster to escape it - to escape Bellatrix - but it was faster than she could ever hope to be. Up ahead Harry called out that there was a door and Hermione felt instantly relieved, the sooner she got away from Bellatrix the better, anything to stop her feeling the way she did. Closer to the door now, close enough to see it. She felt the smoke around her neck, it felt like hands, like slender fingers, and it was warm. She felt the warmth move from her neck to her ear where it manifested itself as a voice, her voice.
"I know you want this." Bellatrix's voice came hot and wet against her ear, had she not been running and already out of breath she would have surely moaned and for that she was grateful.
Ahead she saw Ron and Harry disappear through the door, she longed to disappear too and surged forward, freeing herself from within Bellatrix's grasp. Passing through the door she was suddenly met with a sinking feeling, as she hurtled through nothingness. Echoing all around her she heard screams, the screams of her friends as they fell through the nothingness with her. While she fell she could only think of one thing, Bellatrix. She had touched her, 'her arms around my waist…' Hermione thought. She was confused then, how Bellatrix had heard her thoughts, perhaps it was the way she'd looked at the witch which had betrayed her. She came to a jerking halt inches above the floor with the sprawled out bodies of her friends all held by an invisible force for a moment, and then dropped onto the ashen ground beneath them.
After a few incomprehensible moments Hermione found herself once again hurtling through the air with black smoke pervading her every sense. Though this time it's embrace felt different and she knew that this Death Eater wasn't Bellatrix. As sharply as it had started, the rushing stopped again and Hermione was standing in the captive embrace of a Death Eater, she struggled against their hold on her but it was no use. She looked around, to her left and to her right, and found that Bellatrix was standing only meters away from her, with Neville at her mercy. Silently, she cursed him again as she noticed Bellatrix wasn't focused on the squirming boy in her arms but instead she was looking at Hermione, with the same smirk across her lips. The witch raised her eyebrow and Hermione was forced to look away, refusing to acknowledge the blush rising in her cheeks, or at least, not willing to show it to Bellatrix. She saw Harry talking to Lucius, she saw him hand over the prophecy they had almost died to get, and then the whole room began to spin. It began to spin and flash with Aurors gliding through the air as luminescent trails of vapour, she felt the cold grip on her arms fade as an Auror prised her from his grip. Suddenly she found herself standing on the other side of the enclave, Bellatrix nowhere to be seen, presumably she was one of the plumes of smoke now feverishly spiralling above her head.
Spells began to erupt from the Death Eater's wands with a ferocity which was barely matched by the Aurors and her friends as she heard Bellatrix's cackle echo above her. For a split second she lost focus on the fight at hand and searched the ceiling for the dark witch. When she turned her attention back to the fight it was too late and a coloured jet shot right at her, hitting her in the head and knocking her to the ground, but only for a moment as everything turned a shade of blue.