The sensation of falling brought her jarringly awake.
With heavy breath she surveyed her surroundings. She was suspended by her hands, both shackled and above her. Her feet hung off the ground and were also shackled together. She tried to look around, but was difficult. Her body was the sorest it had ever been and she was so hungry.
Her eyelids drooped at the severity of her predicament. She was still imprisoned.
She had seen Harry, Ron, and Dobby vanish in the air, but Bellatrix had still had a fist wound tightly in her hair and broke the feeble connection Ron had on her hand. She remembered the feeling of his fingers slipping through her blood coated ones.
She didn't remember anything after that, but supposed she was taken here. She knew she wasn't in the dungeon; she caught sight of drawn curtains against a window in front of her.
A door opened behind her and she tensed. "Ah, you are awake," the voice was smooth and dangerous and she recognized it immediately. She closed her eyes as she felt a hand against her lower back, the fingers kept contact as he walked around her.
She looked up when he settled in front of her. She was at his eye level. His expression was quietly observant, as if he was surveying a new piece of furniture he just purchased, and not the seventeen year old hostage. He rubbed his hands together as he continued to regard her with…something. His expression had been wiped clean of emotion as he touched her again.
She realized then she was only in her underclothes. A wild fire of panic unleashed itself in her stomach and lower back as he touched her. He ghosted his hands all across her torso and up her arms, as well as down her thighs as his silver eyes bore into her brown ones. Instead of moving around her, he stepped closer as he felt up her back and neck. His hands came back around and wrapped lightly around her neck. She hissed as his skin contacted the open wound that Bellatrix had opened up.
She closed her eyes as a relaxation took over her system. She realized lazily that Malfoy had been rubbing a salve onto her tortured skin.
"Why?" she asked with a crack of a voice. He seemed to flinch at the parched sound, as if hearing it caused him to feel just as dry as she did. He seemed to produce a glass of water out of nowhere and held it to her lips.
"Do not ask me why." His velvet voice caressed the flesh of her cheek and swirled in an air of subtext in her ear. She shuttered at the implications. Why? Why was he doing this to her? Why was he helping her, why was he taking care of her?
She drank the water anyway; she almost wished it held a poison. It would be a serene escape from the hell she was in. She drained the glass but did not die. He filled the glass again with a pitcher. She now noticed a table next to her that held several different items.
When she finished that glass he sat it down and reached over her head. He took hold of the chain she was suspended from and pulled gently downwards. She lowered slowly and her cold feet touched the even colder ground. Her weight was transferred onto her unsuspecting legs and she fell.
He caught her with hardly a hair out of place. His arms wrapped strongly around her as he lowered her into a chair that was next to the table. Her shoulders screamed out in protest as her arms were lowered and her hands sat in her lap. She tried to sit herself up, but the Cruciatus curse had sapped all her strength.
After a moment of hesitation, Malfoy removed the shackles from her hands with a flick of his wrist, and he sat the plate of food in front of her. She looked up at him, as he looked down his nose at her. "Eat." He said, but there was an underlying hint of pleading, as if he was imploring her not to question. Not to hesitate.
She took up the spoon and ate the soup. She again hoped it held a poison just to give her an out. She only got a third of the way through when her stomach protested the food's presence and she sat back. He looked at the meager amount she consumed and closed his eyes and looked away for a moment, as if this was hard for him.
She looked around and then down at herself, nearly naked and covered in grime, dried blood, and cold sweat. She felt a tear leak from her face and then looked back up at him, "please," she implored him, "kill me." He looked down at her with a ferocity that startled her. He knelt in front of her and took her face in his steady hands. He leaned in close and looked between her eyes with a flick of his.
"You have to be strong." He told her, "you have to make it through this." He looked warily towards the door and then pressed his lips caringly to her forehead. "I will get you out of this, but you must, must, stay strong." He stood then and left the room in a flurry of his cloak.
Hermione felt the spot where his lips touched her skin with a shaky hand and she closed her eyes. She didn't understand what was going on. She didn't understand why he was helping her. She was a prisoner in his house, was tortured by members of his family. It didn't make sense.
After a while, her stomach settled and she finished the rest of her soup. She went to the curtains and pulled them away to see the view of the inner courtyard of Malfoy Manor. There was no one outside and the sun was high in the sky. They had been captured near sunset, so that meant she had been here an entire day, if not more.
She used the light she received from the sun to search her prison for a means of escape. The door knob and window latches burned her palm when she touched them and there were no other places to look through. The room was barren if not for the table, chair, and chains hanging from the ceiling. The walls were black, the floor was wooden.
A few hours later she curled up in the corner and fell asleep.
This fic isn't much like my other one...in fact the only two things they have in common is that I wrote them, and it is Dramione. I appreciate anyone that takes the time to read and review!
This will be Dark, and will involve some bits of torture, and later on lemons (appropriate ones), which is why this fic is rated M, and will stay that way. I don't want to mislead anyone going into this fic. I have most of it written already.
Enjoy!