Welcome back :) Harry Potter? Wait... let me see... nope, still not mine.
Chapter 2
Hermione watched the beam of black and gold travel towards her and everything seemed to be in slow motion. She wanted desperately to move away, but she couldn't. She was still shivering with the after effects of the cruciatus curse. Lestrange's face seemed to be a mix of awe and excitement as she watched the spell travel towards Hermione. What would it do to her? Hermione didn't want to know. Desperate, she tried to will her body to turn around, but the spell had been fired from too close and she was too weak to evade it.
After what seemed like an eternity, the spell impacted, and Hermione noticed with horror that she was engulfed in a golden-ish glow. What would happen? It didn't hurt. In fact, she didn't feel anything, neither from the impact, nor from the aura surrounding her now. Did the spell fail?
But then suddenly, it happened. It was the strangest feeling Hermione had ever had. As if her whole... being was just... shifted. Right in front of her. Hermione tried to fight the spell, but without knowing what it would do, that was incredibly hard. First she tried to desperately hold on to her memories, but they seemed to remain untouched by the spell. Then she tried to guard her personality but that also didn't seem to be the spells target. Hermione tried to guard everything about her against the shift she still felt, but the spell didn't seem to try and take anything away.
And then, it dawned on Hermione. She was a slave. She just suddenly knew. She tried to fight it, but she found that she couldn't. It wasn't an emotion, or an idea. It was a fact. Hermione Granger was now a slave. She tried to tell herself that it was because of the spell, but somehow, it didn't matter. Of course it was because of the spell, after all Hermione was a strong willed person and would never become a slave of her own volition. But the spell had made her into a slave, and so she was one now. Hermione tried other alleys to contradict the fact that she was a slave, but she just couldn't. She knew she was a slave now. At the core of her very existence, that was who she was.
And as a slave she had to serve and obey her Master. Her Master... Harry Potter? Hermione was confused for a moment, but it was right there. As certain as she knew that she was a slave, she also knew that her Master was Harry James Potter. She noticed that the glow around her had started to weaken. Had that been everything? No changes in her personality, no memory loss, nothing?
Hermione was confused. Ok, she was Master Harry's slave, but that didn't seem too powerful a notion to her, like it could be easily overcome. In order to try, she started thinking about resisting, and found surprisingly that she could do that. Could she really resist Master Harry? But then it came to her. She couldn't. She was Master Harry's slave, so she could never resist him. Ok, but Master Harry wouldn't order her around anyway. Hermione wondered if everything would just go back to normal then, once they got out of here. But again the answer just seemed to come to her. No. Even if Master Harry would never give her an order, she was still his slave. As a slave, she had to always do what was best for him, disregarding her own wants and needs.
While Hermione investigated her new role in life, the glow around her subsided further. The internal investigation went on only seconds, though to Hermione again it seemed like an eternity. When the glow was fully gone, Hermione no longer thought that the spell had been weak. She knew it was incredibly strong. She knew that she would be her Master's slave until the end of her days. She was her Master's property. She would never betray him (not that she would have before she had become Master's slave). All that she would ever do or say again, would ultimately be for Master. Hermione hated that she was a slave, but she knew there was nothing she could do about it. What she hated, disliked, liked or loved didn't matter, nor did what she wanted or needed, only what Master wanted or needed mattered. Only what he loved, liked, disliked or hated.
At the same time as she slowly came back to reality, she felt lucky that she was Master Harry's slave, rather than Lestrange's, as the crazy woman certainly had planned. Wait... Master Harry was in danger. His slave had to do something. But what? Hermione continued to try and think, as the fog around her mind, both from the pain of the cruciatus and from the shift in her being, slowly lifted. No doubt Lestrange thought that Hermione was her slave instead of Master Harry's. Not being fully focused yet, Hermione found herself briefly trying to think of her Master in another term. She tried to summon memories of her friendship with Master. No, she meant her friendship with Master. Master Harry. It was quite strange. She clearly remembered herself calling her Master by his name hundreds of times, but now she couldn't bring herself to think of him without the title attached.
No, wait, she needed to focus. She could figure out how to properly behave around Master later. Now she needed to first save him. Lestrange thought that Hermione was her slave. Hermione had to use that. She was sure her Master would come up with something. After all he always did. And he had Ron to help. Ron... what would he say about this? 'No, focus. Ron is not important. I have to help Master.' Hermione hated herself for thinking that, but she knew in her very core that it was true. Master Harry would always come first.
Okay, so she would use the fact that Lestrange thought Hermione was her slave. Maybe she could pretend to be Lestrange's slave for a while, until either Master Harry and Ron came up with something, or until she found a way to save Master on her own. But how to do that? She was after all new to being a slave. Could she just pretend that Lestrange was Master Harry? Maybe think, what would she do if Lestrange was Master Harry?
She looked around a bit more, finally gaining back all her mental focus, but she couldn't come up with anything better. She started trying to sit up, and noticed Lestrange and everyone else watch her carefully. Okay, now was as good a time to try out her idea as any. What would she do if it was Master Harry standing above her rather than Lestrange.
Kneel, came the answer. She was after all a slave. If her Master stood over her like this, she would kneel so that's what she would do now. She still had shivers due to the cruciatus but she managed to slowly sit up. She gathered her breath, looking around once more, then she looked to Lestrange. 'She is Master Harry' Hermione thought. Then she made a swift motion that felt familiar to her, even though she couldn't remember ever making it before, and she was on her knees in front of Lestrange, her head bowed. She should probably also talk, maybe just address her the way I would Master. No wait, not Master, but...
"Mistress." Hermione cringed internally as she acknowledged someone other than Master with such a title, but it had to be done.
She couldn't see Lestrange's face, but she heard her clap in excitement while she said "See that, Draco. If you are a good boy, I will give her to you, then you can stop whining that the Mudblood made your life oh so hard."
Hermione prayed to god and to magic that she would find a way to save Master before that.
"Are you my slave, Mudblood, answer me truthfully?" Came Lestrange's voice.
Hermione thought what she would answer if this was Master Harry. Of course, she could never lie, so she had to say the truth. She was Master's slave. It took her more attention to adjust her answers to the situation than she would have liked, but she got it right in time. "Yes, Mistress, I am."
"You are not happy about that, Mudblood?"
Again, she would tell Master the truth, so... "No Mistress, but it does not matter."
"You will obey any order I give you?"
That was actually an interesting question to Hermione. She tried to think of anything that she wouldn't do if Master ordered it. Anything at all. The answer she came up with, while predictable was still somewhat shocking to her. "Yes Mistress, anything you wish."
"And if I don't give you orders?" Lestrange asked. "Look up at me, I want to see your face."
Hermione was too concentrated to adjust her answers. She needed some more emotion in her eyes if she wanted to fool Lestrange while looking at her. She focused on how she felt about being a slave. She felt sad, angry, resigned. That was probably good enough, so she obeyed and forced herself to look up to Lestrange while answering "I would still be your slave, Mistress. I would do whatever serves you best, even without orders."
After a few seconds of silence, where Lestrange looked away from her, Lucius Malfoy interjected "I don't believe her. What kind of spell was that anyway?"
Hermione tried to keep calm. 'Please let me not be found out', she thought. After what seemed like minutes, Lestrange finally said "Fine, I'll give you proof, Lucy."
"Mudblood, here take my knife and finish carving what you are into your arm. And not a scream, slave."
Hermione remembered what happened shortly before her enslavement, and looked at her arm to find the letters M-U-D-B-L carved into it. She really didn't want to do this. But she had to. Master was more important than her well-being or pride. She had to do it, so she could get a chance to save Master.
"As you command, Mistress." Hermione took the knife. She was afraid. Could she really do it? She concentrated on saving Master. 'To be able to save Master, I have to carve the letters in my arm without screaming.' she thought.
That was all it took. Nearly on its own, her hand set down the knife on her arm, where the first O should appear and with just a little more pressure, it cut through her skin. Hermione felt slightly detached. She hissed in pain, but continued carving. Master needed her to do this. Master certainly wouldn't want her to do this, but he needed her to do this. And so Hermione kept going, managing not to scream the entire time, even though doing it herself was not much less torturous than when Lestrange had started it before. Finally, with a last cut, she was done. She breathed out deeply, then showed her arm to Lestrange. "Is this to your satisfaction, Mistress?" Pretending she was Master became a little easier.
"Yes, slave, very good. Give me back the knife."
"Yes, Mistress." She handed her back the knife. She was slightly reluctant letting go of the weapon, but a knife wouldn't really help her. Of course, she could try and kill Lestrange, but her Master would still be imprisoned, so that wouldn't help her.
Lestrange turned away from her again. "Happy now, Lucy?"
Hermione couldn't see Lucius Malfoy, but from the lack of an answer assumed he was speechless. Lestrange turned back to her.
"Would you ever lie to me if I don't order you to tell the truth?"
"No, Mistress, I could never lie to you." Hermione answered, adding in her thoughts 'at least not, if you were my real Master.'.
"Great." Bellatrix said sweetly. "Then tell me about the sword."
Hermione knew this was coming and she just wanted to affirm that the sword was just a copy, as she had claimed before her enslavement, when there was a loud crack downstairs. "What was that? Stop, slave, not a sound." Lestrange snapped.
Hermione closed her mouth again. Inside, she was cheering. Certainly that crack had something to do with Master and Ron. But she would have to wait and see what had happened.
"Wormtail, go see what happened down there." Lestrange ordered when there was a second crack.
The man hurriedly left the room, accompanied by a third crack. Hermione cheered her Master and Ron on.
There were several sounds heard from below, and then silence. The waited for another minute or two but nothing was heard. Hermione knew that Pettigrew was not a match for Ron and her Master and so she interpreted the silence as sign of their victory. It seemed Lestrange interpreted it differently, because she calmed down and turned back to Hermione.
"So, now back to you, Mudblood."
But again they were interrupted when someone Hermione couldn't see ran into the room. "NOOOOOOOO! Leave her alone!" she heard Ron's voice, and then a second pair of feet running into the room. That must be Master. She saw a disarming curse impact with Lestrange, who lost her wand, and then a moment later, she saw Lucius Malfoy fall to the ground, hit by a stunner. Lestrange dove out of the way, towards the table with Ron's and Hermione's wand. Hermione needed to act now to help Master. She started getting up, but she was in a vulnerable position. Too vulnerable. She heard a roar in her back, probably Greyback "Stupify!". Her world became black.
...
When Hermione came to again she was held up by Lestrange. She remembered the fight and looked around to see what happened. Master and Ron were still alive, but they were bound and Hermione had now weapon. There were too many of them to just try an make a break for it and hope apparition would work. Hermione decided that she had to go back to pretending to be Lestrange's slave for now. She turned around to face Lestrange, and dropped back to her knees in front of her.
"Hermione, what are you doing?" She cringed at Ron's voice. She hated shocking him like this, but it needed to be done.
She didn't really want to answer his question, so she looked up to Lestrange in the hope that she would forbid her from talking, but she had no such luck. "Go ahead, answer him."
Hermione once more cringed internally, but turned around. "Mistress used a spell on me, I'm her slave now."
"What?" Ron asked. But at the moment he stopped mattering to Hermione. She just looked to her Master who had a look of utter shock on his face. Hermione nearly caved under it, she nearly admitted to really being his slave, but she knew she had to hold out, for her Master's sake.
Finally her Master managed to shake off his shock. "No, you have to fight it, Hermione."
"I'm sorry," Hermione concentrated all her mind on the next word, "Harry, there is nothing to fight. I hate being her slave, I just can't do anything. I'm a slave now, I can't go against my Master." No. Mistress. Arrgh. Hopefully no one noticed. Hermione held her breath.
"Hermione, please, fight it." Her Master said again, but Hermione didn't know what to answer anymore.
She saw Ron's mouth move but no sound came out. They had been silenced. Hermione looked back to Lestrange, to see her wand pointing at Ron and Master. "As nice as this reunion is, I don't have that kind of time." She again went to the table on which Hermione's wand still rested. She came back and gave it to her. "Here, slave."
Hermione took it happily. Her goal of saving them was now nearly reached. But she cautioned herself. Getting her wand could mean only one thing. Lestrange wanted her to in some way at least harm Ron or Master. Probably Ron, because Lestrange had said before that Master was to be kept for Voldemort. She needed to look fearfully, which was not very hard in this particular situation. Maybe a little begging would help bring the point across. "Please, Mistress..."
"Silence, slave." Hermione silenced herself, while thinking what to do. She didn't like the idea of harming Ron. It turned her stomach around to know that she would do it in a heart beat if it meant she could save Master, but she also knew that it probably didn't need to come to that now. In fact, the safest thing to do was most likely to have the very first spell she spoke somehow save Master.
Meanwhile, Lestrange seemed to explain what Hermione had already foreseen. "Now no harm can come to you, Potter. But you, Weasley, are fair game. And I know just the right thing to do. And now, I want to see the despair in your eyes when one of your best friends kills you. I will even allow you to talk, plead with her if you want, but know that she can do nothing to stop herself from obeying. Every plea will just make this memory more and more horrifying to her."
"Slave, kill Weasley, you may speak to him if you want."
Hermione looked up to Lestrange again, trying to seem pleading, while she continued to think what she could do to save all three of them. She rose and answered "As you order, Mistress."
A portkey would be ideal. Maybe she could transform Master's clothes to portkey him away. But Master and Ron stood to far apart. To make a point, she turned around and pointed her wand at Ron. "Hermione, please fight it. I know you can win."
Hermione knew she needed to either cast a spell or answer. She wanted to think some more, so she decided to go for an answer. "No, Ron. This is not about fighting. I know exactly who I am and who you and they are. My mind is clear, it's not like the imperio. But I have to obey her, no matter how much I don't want to. I'm a slave, I have to obey my Master and do what's best for him, no matter my own wants or needs." Dammit! Mistress. She was getting sloppy, and the closeness of her true Master made it hard not to acknowledge him. She needed to end it. Think, think. She could easily save Master and herself. Transform Master's clothes into a portkey and then apparate away herself. But what about Ron? How could she save all three? If she told Master to grab Ron? But that was too risky and would put her Master in unnecessary danger. She could try and grab Ron for side-along apparition, once Master was portkeyed to safety. But that was risky as well. She was still weakened by the torture and a portkey that was strong enough to break through some of the wards Malfoy Manor certainly had, would take a lot out of her. Worst case scenario she ended up splinching them both.
And then a horrible truth dawned on her. She would leave Ron behind. She felt like crying and she felt tears well up in her eyes. 'No, NO! There must be a way.' she thought frantically. But she knew in her heart of hearts that it was the only decision. She was her Master's slave her Master's needs had to come first. Ron might be helpful in the future, but, and Hermione hated herself for thinking it, he could also be a liability again. He had been before. He had betrayed her Master. From Hermione's viewpoint as her Master's slave there was no decision to make. It was too great a risk and too little to gain for her Master. Her Master wouldn't even have to live with leaving Ron behind, that was her decision. Hermione knew it would haunt her forever, but that didn't matter. She felt a tear run down her cheek. She was Master's slave. Ron wasn't important enough to risk saving.
"Please, Hermione, please don't do it, you don't have to obey her, you're not a slave!"
Hermione had made her decision, her heart felt like breaking. At least she would be able to say one last thing to Ron.
"I'm sorry Ron, I love you."
With that she spun around and pointed her wand at Master. "Portus!" She waited just long enough to see her Master vanish in a swirl of colours.
Lestrange screamed at her "Slave, what the hell did you do?"
Hermione caught Ron's eyes one last time. She thought she saw a brief shimmer of understanding in them. As if Ron wanted to say 'I understand. Go.' Then she turned on the spot and apparated away.
Hermione reappeared next to the spot where she had sent her Master, and was relieved seeing him lying in the grass. She used her wand to cut open the ropes binding him and then said "Master, I am weak. You have to side-along apparate the both of us a few times so they can't follow us."
"Hermione, what about Ron? What happened in there? Wait... Master?"
"Master please, we can talk later. We have to be save first."
Her Master seemed to reluctantly accept. He grabbed her arm, and the next two minutes they made several apparitions with about 20-30 seconds of break in between. They ended up in a small forest. Her Master turned to her. "Now, Hermione, tell me what happened? And where is Ron? And why are you calling me Master?"
"Master, I transformed your clothes into a portkey in order to save you and then I apparated away. I couldn't take Ron, I was too weak, there was too much risk of splinching both of us. I'm sorry Master. As to why I am calling you Master, it's because that what you are."
"What do you mean?" her Master demanded.
"I'm your slave and you are my Master, Master."
"I don't follow? Didn't you just play slave to distract Bellatrix?"
Hermione thought about how to best explain the situation to her Master in the little time they had. "Well, Master, I pretended to be Lestrange's slave to distract her, so I could save my true Master. That would be you."
"I'm not your Master, Hermione. You are a free person."
Hermione cringed. How she would love that statement to be true. But she knew the truth, so she said "I'm sorry to contradict you, Master, but I'm not. I'm your property. Your slave."
Master looked at her, baffled for a moment, and he seemed to understand that it wasn't just a bad joke. "But how?"
"I don't quite know Master. Lestrange used a spell on me. The best I can surmise is that it enslaves the victim to somebody, but not necessarily to the caster. I felt myself become your slave almost instantly."
"Ok, I think this will take more time than we have right now. What do we do about Ron, we have to save him."
Hermione could not let her Master make any rushed decisions about what to do. "Master,..."
"Ok can you please just call me Harry?"
Hermione could of course not disobey something that was so close to an order. "Of course, Harry, thanks. But Harry, we are both weak. We can't go back now, they will capture us and kill us. We just need to hope nothing will happen to Ron."
"You can't be serious, Hermione. He is our best friend." Her Master looked at her incredulously.
Hermione became angry at that. This was the boy she had fallen in love with and her Master behaved like it was easy for her to just leave him. But she was speaking to her Master, so while she was seething inside she made sure to remain calm outside. "Harry, if you want me to, I will go back and try to get Ron out, but you cannot come."
"What? Why do you say that?" Harry asked heatedly.
"Because, Harry, we will get killed if we go." Hermione replied calmly.
That seemed to stop Master in his tracks. "Why would you go then?"
"Listen to me, Harry. I'm not saying 'I will go'. I'm saying if you want me to, order me to go and I will. I would never disobey your orders, Harry."
Master looked at her, truly shell-shocked. "Hermione, I would never send you to your death."
"I know, but why would you do it to yourself then?" Looking at Master's face, Hermione knew she had managed to convince him, at least for now.
Master looked at her for several long moments, then he sat back down into the grass. "So what now? Luna, Dean, Ollivander and Griphook were imprisoned in Malfoy Manor as well. Dobby brought them to Shell Cottage, where Bill and Fleur live. He wanted to come back immediately, but I guess something kept him away. Should we try to go there?"
Hermione took out her wands and set up a few weak anti-detection spells. Weak in the sense that they wouldn't hold very long but on the other hand required little power. "If you don't mind, let us stay here for a while, I think I need to try and explain my situation better. It would probably not be a good idea to have too many people around. I don't know all answers myself yet, but I will try my best, yes Harry?"
Master looked at her again, then nodded and let himself fall onto the ground.
"Well, the first thing you need to understand Harry, is that I am really your slave, no matter what I call you. I'm your slave and you are my Master and it will be that way for the rest of my life. Even if you don't order me to do things, you will still be the ultimate reason for everything I do."
Master looked at her with pity. "Can you really not fight it?"
"It's hard to explain to somebody who doesn't know what it is like himself. It's not about fighting. I'm still completely me. The only thing that changed is the fact that I'm your slave. To me it is a fact. Fighting it would be like fighting gravity. I can hate the idea of gravity and I can wish very much to be able to just float, but in the end, gravity won't stop existing."
Looking into her Master's eyes made Hermione feel a little soothed with the compassion she found. "What if I would just order you to be free again?"
"That would not really work. I would behave as if I was free on the surface, but I would spend my days waiting for you to come back to claim me as your slave again. That is another fact I know: I can never be free from you. Even if you were die I would continue to serve whoever you see fit to give me to. Or if you don't specify who, I would probably go serve whoever inherits the rest of your properties."
Her Master gulped. "I'm so sorry, Hermione."
"Me as well, Harry." Hermione said sadly. She really hated being a slave. But she shouldn't fool herself. In truth, she had been lucky. Whatever went wrong that made her Master's slave instead of Lestrange's, she really had to thank magic for that. She knew Harry would treat her well. In the end, probably once she got used to it, not a lot would change. She just hoped that they would be able to get Ron out, even if with her new situation it was very unlikely they would ever really get together. She had a Master now who she had to put before everything else, and Ron for all his good qualities had a jealousy problem. He wouldn't be able to handle that. In fact, she doubted anyone would be able to, even if they had their jealousy better in check than Ron. She knew she wouldn't be able to handle it. But still, she wanted to save Ron.
"Is it hard for you to talk about it, Hermione?"
"A little," Hermione answered her Master truthfully, "but you need to understand what is fact to me. So it's alright."
"We can take a break, whenever you need one."
"No it's fine, I want you to know everything."
And so she took the next half hour or so to explain the finer details of her enslavement to her Master. At least those she had already found out about. After the first five minutes her Master seemed to understand that getting angry wasn't gonna solve anything. She also managed to explain that there was no way out. Even if there was one, in form of a counter curse or something, Hermione would never take it. She could never deny her Master his property in such a way.
Her Master seemed resigned and accepting in the end, much like herself. "Hermione, I promise I will do whatever I can to make your situation as good for you as possible."
"I know that, Harry. We've been friends for years. Realistically, this might put more strain on you than it puts on me. I'm sorry for that."
"Don't you dare apologise for that, Hermione."
"As you wish, Harry." Hermione answered automatically. Both of them looked down embarrassed.
"I'm sorry," Harry said after a moment. "I guess I have to watch what I say better."
"We'll figure it out Harry, we always have." Hermione said soothingly to her best friend and Master.
"I know something. If I do something or tell you something, that makes this situation harder for you, I order you to tell me, alright?"
"Yes, Ma-Harry." Hermione caught herself.
"Can you think of anything else I could order you to make this easier for you? Then tell me as well, please."
Hermione thought for a moment. "Could you please either order me to think of you as Harry, or allow me to call you Master again? One and the other gets quite confusing."
"Of course, sorry, ummm... what would you prefer? I just ask, because you said I had to order you to think of me as Harry, but just allow you to call me Master?"
Hermione nodded. "I'm not sure. Thinking of you as my Master seems natural to me. I realise it's because of the spell. If you just gave me free choice I would probably call you Master. I would like to go back to the way it was before... this, but you would have to order me. I'm not sure if it would be as comfortable being 'forced', if you know what I mean?"
"We can just try it, if you don't like it we can always change it, can't we?"
Hermione smiled and nodded again.
"In that case I order you to address me and think of me as you did before Bellatrix cast the spell at you. Alright?"
"Thanks." Hermione smiled at her best friend. It felt a little weird. She still knew that he was her Master, but now, because of his order, she could no longer think of him as such.
Harry looked at her expectantly. "And?"
"I think I need to get used to this for a while, before making a decision, Harry."
"Ah, but it worked?"
"Yes, it did. Thanks."
"Do you think I could also tell you to behave like you used to?"
"How do you mean?" Hermione asked confusedly.
"Well, if I order you to behave like you used to, wouldn't you maybe stop following every order I give you?" Harry tried.
Hermione smiled at him sadly but shook her head. "I don't think that's how it works. I would probably just behave more like I used to when doing little things. Is there a lot of difference?"
"Too soon for me to tell, though I was kind of expecting a hug by now."
Hermione chuckled. She couldn't help herself. Her best friend was such an idiot. Not that he could by now have learned to initiate a hug on his own. She crawled a bit closer to Harry and when he opened his arms, she launched herself into them and hugged him tight. Her relieve that she could get them free, her fear for Ron, her desperation, sadness and anger at her own situation, she put everything into the hug, as she buried her face in Harry's shoulder. Why she hadn't thought of hugging him before, Hermione didn't know. And Harry just held her. He held her for a few long moments. And Hermione knew he always would. And then, she started to cry.
Hope you enjoyed it.
