Heads will Roll
Chapter One
This Head I Hold
"THE EDGE, there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is, are the ones who have gone over."
- Hunter S. Thompson
Hermione couldn't believe that it was happening. They had been caught, but she wasn't going to give up. They'd been in so many sticky situations that they've always pulled through them by the skin of their teeth, but pulled through them they did. It looked so bleak and she wasn't sure if they could get around this. Hermione was a logical person and she knew that there was a possibility that they wouldn't be able to pull this off, but even in her lowest moments she felt a little spark of hope. This would be no different. She still felt that tiny spark of hope buried deep down, but she had to admit that is wasn't as bright as it usually was.
She gave Harry and Ron another look, both of them wearing their expressions fiercely. Ron's face was a mixture of anger, fear, and determination. Harry's was full of determination as well as fear. She knew that it wasn't fear just for him, but for her and Ron as well. He never wanted this for them. He had spoken adamantly against their decision, but they wore him down. This was their choice. Something he never had. Hermione wondered what they saw when they looked at her face. Hermione always believed the eyes were the window to the soul; did her eyes belie something else that she didn't know she was feeling? She could feel the stirrings of fear, of course. She could feel the Gryffindor bravery that she had been mocked for slowly replacing part of her fear. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction of seeing her weak. It was what they already thought and she wouldn't give in.
She didn't have enough time to think about it any further, however as she felt the hand that was clamped down on her upper arm tighten as they prepared to Apparate. A moment later, they were staring at Malfoy Manor. A chill ran down her spine. This is where Voldemort was stationed after all, and they were being led directly to him. Hermione swallowed and let herself be half-dragged past the gates and down the long path that led to the front door.
Bellatrix Lestrange was silhouetted by the light spilling out from the doorway. Her thick, curly black hair was in disarray and had Hermione been in a mood to joke would surely think that it rivaled her own. Bellatrix's heavy-lidded eyes landed on the people in front of her.
"And what do we have here, hm?" she asked in her most chilling of tones.
"I believe we've got Potter and his friends," Fenrir Greyback spoke up.
Bellatrix's eyes widened a bit at that statement. "Well! Bring them in and we'll let Draco see if he recognizes them." With that, she wheeled around on her heel and walked out of sight.
Hermione bit her lip as she was half-dragged once again. She looked around as they made their way through the manor. She had always wondered in what kind of place a person like Draco Malfoy would live. It was bigger than she imagined, but the coldness of each room that they passed only affirmed his personality and behavior to her all the more. Her natural curiosity would have rather been appeased under better circumstances than being possibly led to her death.
The trip was finally over when they stopped in a large room. Hermione continued to look around. It was a grand room, one that she could never see herself being in, but grand nonetheless.
"Oh I'm sorry, am I boring you, Mudblood?" Hermione heard Bellatrix address her.
Hermione's eyes focused back on Bellatrix's enraged dark ones. She had to tamp down her natural affinity to answer a question. Bellatrix was volatile and unstable. Hermione didn't want to make a wrong move and possibly get hexed or worse, so she stared at her not wanting to look away for even a second.
"Well, am I?" she snapped impatiently.
"N-no," Hermione stuttered.
Bellatrix gave her one last scathing look before she turned and motioned for Draco to walk towards her.
Hermione watched as he got up from his chair and walked slowly over to his aunt. Hermione saw a flicker of fear and perhaps worry. She was confused by this. Why would Draco have anything to fear or worry about? If he proved to them that they were definitely who they all thought they were, his family would be treated like royalty. If he somehow didn't think it was them - which Hermione thought would be impossible to lie about - they would simply do away with them. Hermione didn't know if they would kill them or simply imprison them. Neither was appealing.
"Now Draco, come." Bellatrix led him by the hand over to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "Be a good boy and tell us if this is really Potter and his friend, all right?" Bellatrix asked in a sugary sweet voice that only sent a jolt of fear through Hermione.
Hermione stood straighter, jutted her chin and looked above Draco's head. She couldn't look him in the eye while he decided their fate knowing that he may be the last face she may see.
She heard him walk towards them until he was only a few feet away from them.
"Look closely, Draco. If this is them, then we will be restored to our rightful glory. So be certain."
Hermione could hear Draco breathing from where she stood. She could feel her hands shaking slightly. It took all of her control not to let the rest of her shake as well. Hermione chanced a glance at Harry and Ron. Harry looked calm from where she stood and she envied him. Ron looked furious and Hermione wished that he would calm down. She knew that it was impossible, but it wouldn't help their situation.
"I'm not really sure. It's hard to tell," Draco said quietly.
"Are you certain, Draco?" Lucius asked his son from his position from across the room.
"Maybe," he said firmly as he dragged his eyes over the three of them.
Bellatrix gave him a skeptical look, but told him he could go sit back down. "Call him, Lucius," she said throwing a hand carelessly his way. "If the boy's wrong, I can always blame it on you. It wouldn't be the first time you let him down." She sneered.
Lucius's jaw clenched, but he rolled up his left sleeve nonetheless. His finger was poised to touch the dark inky surface of his Mark when Bellatrix gasped.
Bellatrix's dark eyes swept over them, but stopped when she noticed the glinting of the sword. Her eyes grew impossibly wide before she slowly lifted her head to look at the small group in front of her. Her features were relaxed, but you could see the anger simmering right under the surface.
"How did you get that?" she asked in a quiet yet smoldering voice as she pointed to the sword.
"They had it when we found them," one of the snatchers told her.
Fear washed over her features for the shortest of seconds before it was replaced with unrelenting rage. "I'm going to ask you again, how did you get the sword?! Did you steal it from my vault?"
She looked at all three of them, but they didn't say anything. Bellatrix grabbed Hermione's arm and shook her. "Answer me, you disgusting little Mudblood! Did you take the sword from my vault?" she asked in a staccato.
"No! It's a copy! We found it!"
"I don't fucking believe you! Wormtail!" she called.
"Yes, Bellatrix?" he asked cowering behind her.
"Take the boys down to the dungeons. I'm going to interrogate the little Mudblood bitch," she said, smiling sweetly.
"No! Get your hands off of her!" Ron bellowed.
"Quiet, blood traitor! You'll be next if I kill her," she said sweetly.
Ron struggled and yelled as Peter Pettigrew took him away. Hermione could still hear him when the door shut behind them.
"How sweet. The blood traitor didn't want you to fall prey to me. Have no fear, he can join you once I'm done; that is if you don't tell me the truth." Bellatrix slid a long, dirty nail down Hermione's cheek before throwing her to the ground.
Hermione felt a searing pain as her head made contact with the wooden floor. Bellatrix stood above her brandishing her wand. "Now, I will ask you again, Mudblood scum, how did you come to have that sword in your possession?"
"I-I told you, w-we found it! It's a copy!"
"Liar!" She pointed her wand at her. "If you just tell the truth, I wouldn't have to torture you as I'm about to now." Bellatrix kneeled down and dug her nails into Hermione's arm before she grabbed her wand like a quill. She pushed Hermione's sleeve up and pressed the end of her wand down upon her skin.
The pain was excruciating. Hermione bit down on her lip until it bled and clawed at the ground with her free arm. She refused to give her the satisfaction of screaming. It felt like someone was stabbing her with an extremely sharp quill over and over again. She thought that it had to be what Harry experienced when he was in detention with Umbridge. Hermione prayed that it would be over.
Her prayer was answered when Bellatrix stopped carving into her skin. Hermione was panting and could taste the metallic taste of blood filling her mouth. She reluctantly swallowed it down.
"Now, tell me the truth or I'll do it again. I will break you until you finally tell me the truth, Mudblood."
"I-I t-told you the t-truth!"
"And I think you're lying. See, that's the problem; I don't fucking believe you because you aren't telling me how you got into my vault to steal that sword. Now, tell the truth!" she shrieked.
"We found i-it! It isn't real!" Hermione said loudly, desperately.
"I see you're sticking to your story. Very well then, CRUCIO!"
The spell assaulted Hermione's body. It felt like hot needles piercing every inch of skin, muscle, and bone. She let out a shriek of pain as it intensified. Through her own screaming, she could hear Ron's yells from the dungeon. She could barely concentrate on it when the pain was taking over every nerve ending in her body. Just when she felt like she was going to pass out, the spell finally stopped. Tears and blood slid down her face. She tried to raise her uninjured arm, but it felt like a lead weight.
"Had enough yet, Mudblood? If you just tell me how you took it, I will stop this."
Hermione knew that her statement was a lie. Bellatrix would continue to torture her until she was dead regardless of her answer.
"No yo-you w-wouldn't!"
Bellatrix cracked one of her smiles that showed all of her teeth and just how crazy she really was. Hermione didn't have the strength to recoil. "You're right. Maybe you are as smart as they say, but that's too damn bad. All of your intelligence didn't get you out of this situation, did it? If you weren't a Mudblood, you would have made a fantastic Death Eater. What a shame," she said wistfully as shook her head sadly. "Still sticking to your story then?"
Hermione didn't say anything, but warily watched as Bellatrix lifted her wand once again. She braced herself for the onslaught of pain she was about to receive.
"Crucio!"
The searing pain tore through her body once again. She didn't try to stop the scream that bubbled up her throat. She screamed until her voice grew hoarse. She could barely stay awake and she knew she was going to black out; she welcomed it.
Hermione woke with a start. The war had been over for a year already, but she was still having dreams about Bellatrix Lestrange and how she tortured her on the floor of the Malfoys' drawing room. She had never felt like herself after that. She tried explaining to Ron and Harry about this, but they told her it was normal for people who have suffered during the war, as did the Healers. She knew that no one really felt like themselves either, but there was just something that she felt lurking just below the surface of her unconscious that she knew wasn't right, but she couldn't put her finger on it.
She had done research on the effects the Cruciatus Curse could have on people, but there wasn't enough to go on. People were either tortured to insanity - like the Longbottoms - or they died. It was very rare to be survive the way she had. That's what frustrated her the most. She didn't know if it had to do with her torture, or if it was because of the war in general.
Hermione had been seeking therapy to try to help her sort through everything that happened only one year ago, but it didn't seem to help her whatsoever. Hermione felt like she was stuck. She had never felt this way before; it was maddening. She was a very logical person and could always see a way out of everything, but not this. It was the only thing that seemed to be holding her back from living normally, whatever that was anymore.
Hermione started working for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement after she sat her N.E.W.T.S. She became obsessed with trying to find the Death Eaters who had escaped after Voldemort was finally defeated. Most of all, she wanted to find Bellatrix.
The one woman who constantly haunted her dreams was still out there somewhere, free. Who knows if she was still out there torturing other people? Hermione couldn't stand to think about that. It set her teeth on edge. She felt the Ministry was taking too long with trying to find her and the rest of the Death Eaters. She wanted to take matters into her own hands.
Her thoughts scared her. She had never thought about hunting people down even if they did deserve it. Hermione had always thought about bring people to justice and not just going around and doing what one person thought was right. It was what she had believed in since she found out about Voldemort and how he wanted to eradicate people like her. But something drove her to believe that she needed to find Bellatrix and take out as many people as she could along the way. The thing was that she couldn't do this on her own. She needed someone to help her.
She automatically dismissed Harry, Ron, and the rest of her friends. They would never go for it, plus she didn't want to drag them out to camp out for who knew how long. It wouldn't be fair to bring them back to the very places they were all trying to forget about, especially when they were trying to get their lives back to a semblance of normalcy. They would think she was going mad, and perhaps she was. They would try to stop her, and the thing was that she didn't want to be stopped. And that's what scared her the most.
Hermione got on the lift that morning not expecting many people to be on it at that time. She was surprised when the doors opened to reveal Draco Malfoy. He looked at her briefly, before his line of vision switched elsewhere. Hermione was stunned. She had never seen him come in this early and even if he had, she hadn't noticed. She stepped onto the lift and automatically turned her back to him.
It was odd; they both worked in the same department - the Department of Magical Law Enforcement - but they had never interacted. Draco was an Auror, which had shocked her to no end when Harry had told her. Hermione worked in the Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects. It was a mouthful whenever anyone asked what she did now, but it was an important job.
Hermione glanced at him a few times from the corner of her eye. In a year, so much had changed, including Draco Malfoy. He was still as tall as ever, but he wasn't the same gaunt boy who stood in his family's drawing room watching her getting tortured. The brief instant their eyes met before she got on the lift, she could see the resolve behind them. She wondered what drove him to become an Auror. So many questions about the man standing behind her were whirling around her brain that she almost didn't notice that the lift stopped and the doors opened. Hermione blinked a few times trying to clear all the questions away before she did something stupid like ask him one of them.
The two occupants of the lift were quiet. Hermione didn't know if she should walk out of the lift first, or let Draco do it. It seemed they both were contemplating the same thing, until Draco finally spoke up.
"After you, Granger," he said quietly.
Hermione was startled by the sound of his voice, and most of all, the lack of venom when he pronounced her last name. She looked up at him quickly and noticed his grey eyes were on her. She could feel the heat of her embarrassment color her cheeks, so she tipped her head to him in a quick thanks as she tried to walk at a normal pace, and not scurry away like a scared little mouse.
In the safety of her office, Hermione placed her bag down on the couch sitting on the opposite wall of her desk. She wondered if Draco's reason to become an Auror had anything to do with her latest mission. How would she even begin to ask such a question? So Hermione began to pace her office, thinking up a plan.
