A/N: Here it is, the second chapter of Cerberus' Tears. Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. So far you all seem interested. Reviews might gain teasers for chapter 3...


Chapter 2

With a crack Draco appeared in a hidden private study at Malfoy Manor. It was the only place on the grounds he could directly Apparate into as the Manor and grounds had many of the same spells and enchantments on it that protected Hogwarts and many more dark curses and jinxes. Only a Malfoy could get onto the grounds, and only he knew about this room. Unless invited, anyone else would only be able to appear outside the heavily warded gates of the massive walls surrounding the entire Malfoy estate. Even the Floo had been blocked.

The spacious room was warm from the fire in the fireplace. A large mahogany desk faced the door and dominated the room with two leather chairs in front of it. Settled in front of the ornate fireplace were two comfortable arm chairs decorated in a plush deep emerald, a thick rug on the floor. Books lined two of the walls to the ceiling on heavy wooden shelves, paintings decorating the remaining walls in place of the windows that one would expect to find. It was a warm and comfortable room that would have surprised anyone who saw it. The warmth was at odds with the cold persona that Draco, and in fact all the Malfoys, showed to the world. Very few people had ever seen this room, none of them outsiders. It was a private study that was protected by the Fidelius charm, used by generations of Malfoys since the construction of the Manor.

Draco saw none of it. He strode to the concealed door that led directly into the master suite. Ignoring his own bed, he carried the unconscious woman through the opulent bathroom and into the long unused rooms of the Lady of the house. Not since his grandmother's time had these rooms been occupied, his parents choosing to sleep in the Master's bed together. In times past, it was common for married couples to sleep in separate but adjoining bedrooms. In the case of Malfoy Manor, the rooms were separated by the shared master bath and a sitting room. Draco gave a cursory glance about the room to ensure it was clean enough to house the injured woman in his arms.

"Dilly."

With a crack, a small house elf stood at his side. "Master called for Dilly?"

"Make the bed, quickly. Use the cotton sheets. They will be getting bloody. Bring medical supplies and hot water. Hurry," he commanded.

In a surprisingly short time, the bed was made and he laid Hermione down with surprising gentleness, showing no strain for having supported her weight for the past half hour. Just as he did, his pocket vibrated.

Pulling out a cell phone he answered it. "Potter."

"Where is she? Is she alright? What happened?" Harry Potter was frantic on the other end, not giving Draco time to answer any of the questions fired at him.

"If you would like me to answer, you need to give me a chance to get a word in edgewise," Draco bit out. Damn Gryffindors and their need to charge into everything. When Harry didn't say any more, Draco attempted to tell him what he knew.

"I was on my way home to my London townhouse when I heard a struggle in the park. When I went to investigate, Granger was on the ground with a Death Eater standing over her. I stunned him and informed Shacklebolt and Weasley of his whereabouts. She regained consciousness long enough to tell me that she was set up and that she couldn't go to St. Mungo's or the Ministry. She seems to think that whoever set her up is looking for her. I brought her to the Manor. She's safe for now," Draco finished.

"How is she?" Harry asked, knowing that if he wasn't talking to Hermione then she was really hurt.

Draco hesitated, "Alive for the moment. I haven't had time to check her injuries yet. You called me too quickly."

He may not have particularly liked Harry Potter, but he respected him, and he knew the thought of Hermione being hurt this badly would hurt Harry terribly. "I have to get back to her; I'll call when I know more."

"I'm sending Kreacher to you. He knows a bit about healing, and he's devoted to Hermione," Harry said, leaving no room for argument.

"Fine," Draco said. Hermione moaned and Draco looked down at her worriedly. "I'll ring you later." He hung up.

No one would have ever thought that Draco Malfoy would stoop to using a Muggle device, which is why it made it perfect for Harry and Draco to communicate confidentially. It was the rare witch or wizard that knew anything about cell phones, and certainly no Death Eater would expect it. It had taken them a considerable amount of time to work out why Muggle electronics didn't work around magic and how to counteract it. As usual it was Hermione that had provided the answer. She had some kind of laptray completer thing she needed and found that lining the inside of the device with a shielding potion enabled them to work perfectly. The woman was indisputably brilliant. Harry had shared the process with Draco, and they now used it in times of urgency when an owl just wasn't fast enough.

Dilly appeared with the last of the necessary supplies and hot water interrupting his musing.

"Missy is hurt very bad, Master," she said, looking at the battered woman on the bed.

Draco nodded as he carefully removed the last scraps of her shredded clothes, leaving her naked. There was absolutely nothing arousing about the sight, and in fact, Draco felt distinctly sick to his stomach at the sight of her massively abused body. The cleft of her left shoulder had been magically branded with a black 'M'. It looked similar to the much faded Dark Mark Draco still had on his forearm, only the stylized 'M' stood for Mudblood.

The Death Eaters were capturing Muggle-borns and branding them as slaves. Each Death Eater seemed to own at least one, and their location was hard for him to find without drawing suspicion, making it extremely difficult to arrange for their rescue.

Hermione moaned again and Draco made a quick decision. If she moved around too much, she might do more damage to herself. He pulled his wand and stunned her. Together, Dilly and Draco bathed away much of the blood that seemed to cover every inch of Hermione's body before Draco draped a large towel over her nakedness. His fingers lingered over the faded scar on her arm, the daily reminder she wore of the torture she received at the hands of his Aunt Bellatrix. He pulled the towel over her arm to cover the obscene word just as there was large crack. Draco spun, his wand at the ready, to see a rather old and ugly house elf.

"I is Kreacher, sir. Kreacher is here to help Miss Granger." The elf had a deep gravelly voice and looked rather intimidating for a house elf, despite his large drooping ears and beaky down-turned nose. His small but very muscular body was covered, toga style, in a very neat and clean, light blue pillowcase with a wide piece of worn out leather for a belt, making him look a bit like the house elf version of a battle worn Roman Gladiator. His eyes betrayed his emotions though. He was distraught at the sight of Hermione's mangled body.

"Both her legs are broken, at least a couple ribs, one arm above the elbow, her wrist, and several fingers on her right hand. Her left has been smashed, and she has a head injury. Most of the cuts are superficial, but a few are rather deep and will take several attempts to close with magic." Draco's voice didn't betray his inner anguish and rage as he catalogued her injuries, knowing that Kreacher would make his own assessment and report back to Potter.

The old house elf started to run his hands over Hermione, and Draco felt an instinctual urge to push him away; she had been handled enough. Draco controlled the impulse, not only was it stupid, but the elf would simply force the issue, having been commanded to heal her as well as having genuine feelings for her. Draco was a wizard and knew magic. House Elves were magic. They had powers that witches and wizards only dreamed of.

Together they worked over the gravely injured woman, silently straightening and setting her bones and healing her the best they knew how. Draco watched as a single tear trailed down the ugly elf's cheek. He had never seen a house elf show emotion over a witch or wizard before.

"If Mr. Malfoy will excuse Kreacher, Kreacher will report back to Master Potter now. Kreacher will be back." With a last look at Hermione, the house elf snapped his fingers and faded away.

"The Elf seems to like you very much." Draco said to the room in general, knowing there was no way that Hermione would be able to hear him.

"Missy must be a very good witch, Master." Dilly said, startling Draco. He had forgotten she was there. Draco only nodded. "Will the Missy be okay, Master?"

"I hope so, Dilly," Draco said softly. His hand hesitated as it reached out to Hermione's face. Finally allowing himself, Draco brushed her hair back off her forehead and then ran his knuckles softly down her cheek.

Leaning in, he whispered in her ear. "You'll be safe here. I promise." Before he forced himself to pull away, he allowed himself one long breath to pull her scent deep into his body then retreated to a chair at the far side of the room to maintain his vigil. Several hours later as the sun rose, Draco's cell phone silently vibrated again.

"I'm at the gates. Let me in," Harry said when Draco answered the phone.

Draco reluctantly left her room to make the long trek downstairs and walked out the French doors onto the back terrace. Sensing Harry moving through the gates, he made a show of Dilly serving him coffee before he shivered and appeared to decide to have breakfast in the house.

While the Manor was almost impenetrable, Draco was not one to be too careful. Once he was inside and had closed the doors, he heard a noise behind him. He turned to see Harry Potter taking off his Invisibility Cloak. He was covered in mud and had a fading red mark slashed angrily across one cheek.

"Rough night?" Draco asked dryly.

Harry heaved out a sigh. "You have no idea. Where's Hermione?"

"This way." Draco knew that until he had seen Hermione, it would be useless to try to get any information out of Potter.

The look on Harry's face as he took in the battered image of his best friend pulled at even Draco's heart. He had known that the two were close and thought at times they might even be together, but he had never really grasped just how close. Forcing himself to remain still, Draco watched as Harry sank to his knees at the side of the bed. Taking Hermione's un-bandaged hand, Harry pressed his forehead to it, his shoulders shaking as he tried to hide his emotions.

She really did look a fright. The right side of her face was one large purple mass and the eye was swollen shut. Her head was swaddled in bandages to protect the large lump at the back. At her eyebrow was a barely knitted two inch long cut, and her breath rattled with each shallow inhalation. The rest of her was covered in blankets and Draco was glad for it. If only seeing her face brought her friend this much pain then Draco could only imagine what seeing the rest of her would do to Potter; what the sight of her battered body had done to him.

"She needs a Healer," Draco stated. "Kreacher and I did the best we could but neither of us are qualified for this kind of damage."

"Madam Pomfrey," was Harry's muffled reply from behind Hermione's hand. He raised his head so his words could be heard clearly. "We can trust her not to tell anyone." He swiped at his eyes, trying to mask the few tears that had escaped with a show of tired eye rubbing.

"But can we get her here without blowing my cover?" Draco asked. "Granger is only safe so long as no one knows I have her."

Harry stood and looked around critically. "There's nothing in here that reveals her location, nothing that identifies this as being Malfoy Manor. If you lower the wards and keep out of sight we should be okay. I'll send Kreacher with a Port Key to bring her directly here. She's met him and knows he's loyal to me."

Draco nodded.

"Kreacher," Harry said in a loud voice.

With a 'crack' Kreacher was standing in front of them carrying several items and seemingly covered in soot.

"What the blazes happened to you?!" Harry asked alarmed before Draco could.

"Kreacher went to Miss Granger's house and saw Miss Granger's house was on fire. Kreacher was going to get some things for Miss Granger while she is in bed. Master Potter, the house was on fire and Death Eaters did it."

Harry swore loudly. He looked over at Draco. "Looks like your friends are determined to kill her."

"They're not my friends," Draco ground out viciously.

Harry pulled a battered looking quill out of his pocket and tapped it. "Portus." The quill glowed blue briefly. He looked at Kreacher. "Take this to Madam Pomfrey at Hogwarts. You have fifteen minutes before it takes effect. It will bring her right back here to this room. She is not to know where Hermione is or what happened to her. She is not to know anything about Mr. Malfoy's involvement, is that clear?"

Kreacher bowed. "Kreacher is understanding, Master Potter. Kreacher will get the Healer back here for Miss. Granger." The grisly house elf put down the few possessions he had managed to save from the flames at Hermione's. Taking the feather, with a pop, he was gone.

"Send me your Patronus when Madam Pomfrey is gone. We have a lot to talk about," Draco said before leaving the room to temporarily take down the wards necessary to allow Madam Pomfrey to Port-key in.

It was mid-day before Harry's silvery stag drifted through the wall of his downstairs study. Draco got up and quickly made his way back to Hermione's room. Draco could see the difference in her already. Her face was no longer swollen and purple, and the bandages had been removed from around her head. The cut at her eyebrow was much cleaner and looked as if it had happened days ago rather than hours.

Actually looking at Hermione, Draco thought she might actually look better than Potter. Harry was still dirty and had huge shadows under his eyes from lack of sleep. His mud spattered face was streaked with what were obviously tear tracks.

"He raped her," Harry stated.

"I know," Draco said. "I got there after it happened."

Harry stared at Draco, "How did you know?"

"I've seen the results before," Draco said quietly.

Harry studied the pale wizard in front of him. He knew Draco had suffered under Voldemort. He knew Draco had seen and been forced to do things that would haunt him for the rest of his life, but the lack of emotion in Draco's voice told Harry that things had been so much worse than he had ever imagined. No wonder he was fighting as hard as the rest of them to obliterate the threat the world lived under.

"Madam Pomfrey gave her a potion to ensure that there would be no...lasting reminder...of the incident―in the form of a child, I mean. It's standard procedure in cases like this. She said that there wasn't really much she could do about Hermione's hand though. Even magic can only fix so much. She will probably have to learn to write and wield her wand with her right hand." Harry's voice broke and he cleared his throat to try to cover it.

"He did it because she's so smart. The head injury and smashing her hand is because she's defeated them so many times with her intelligence. You can't be the brightest witch of the age without people getting jealous, especially if you're Muggle-born," Draco stated simply because there was nothing he could say to make this better.

Tearing his eyes from the unconscious Hermione, Draco looked at Harry. "You need a shower. You're getting my carpet dirty." Draco said with a sneer. "When you're clean we can talk. Meet me downstairs when you're done, Dilly will show you the way."

Harry nodded and Draco left him to go to his public study downstairs. This room was more what someone would expect of a Malfoy. The room was all cold angles and decorated green and black with silver accents and an impressively large black desk. A sneering portrait of his father hung behind the desk.

"Father," Draco greeted the portrait.

"Draco," the cold looking portrait said. "I do hope you know what you're doing by having the Mudblood under your roof, boy."

"Not now, Father," Draco said, not having patience for the portrait and his views on the risks Draco was taking with his life.

An image of Draco's mother entered the frame, her eyes showing her concern. "My son."

"Later please, Mother," Draco interrupted her, knowing she had followed him from upstairs where her frame hung in the hidden private study. "Just please, keep a discreet eye on her and let me know if she starts to wake up."

"Of course, Draco," she said, uncharacteristically quiet, and left.

Draco poured himself a glass of Ogden's Firewhiskey, mentally preparing for the conversation to come.

When Harry came in forty-five minutes later, he still looked tired but at least he was clean. Dilly had obviously given him some of Draco's clothes as he was wearing black dress pants and a black jumper over a white collared polo. Time had filled Harry's boyish frame out to a muscular toughness that was enhanced by regular Quiddich matches and regular battles with Death Eaters. His hair was still the unruly chaos it always had been, only now it was a fashionable mess rather than the childish disaster it had been during their time at Hogwarts. The signature glasses were gone now due to some kind of Muggle medical procedure, and Harry's face showed a haggard maturity; his eyes were sharp and constantly scanning for possible threats, reminding Draco a bit of old Mad Eye Moody. Time and constant battle had changed them all. Draco raised an eyebrow at the clothes but Potter only smiled and shrugged, straightening the collar unnecessarily.

The clothes fit Harry surprisingly well, the two men having similar builds: tall with lean well-muscled physiques. Only the pants were slightly too long due to Draco's extra couple of inches.

"So what do we know?" Harry asked.

"We know that Granger, specifically, was attacked. When I got there the Death Eater was getting ready to take her back to her new 'Master'. She said that someone had set her up, which makes sense. It's not exactly easy to arrange for the kidnapping of a Deputy Commissioner, especially a member of the 'Golden Trio'," Draco stated the last with derision.

"Save the act for someone who believes it, Malfoy," Harry said tiredly. "I know you have a reputation to protect, but surely you don't think you need to impress me." Draco may have been actively working for the Ministry, but he was still capable of being an unmitigated prat.

Draco kept his face impassive, refusing to acknowledge Harry's statement.

"Obviously Hermione knows something we don't. We'll have to wait for her to wake up before we can make any solid decisions. I already contacted Kingsley and filled him in. He is ensuring that Rufus effectively disappears and doesn't remember who it was that he attacked," Harry said.

"Rufus Winickus?" Draco questioned.

Harry nodded.

Draco's eyes hardened. Now he knew who to kill for the atrocities that were inflicted on Herm- on Granger.

"In the meantime, I can arrange for her to be transported to a safe location when she wakes up," Harry said.

"No need. She's as safe as she can be right where she is," Draco said before his brain could catch up. Did he really just suggest that Hermione Granger, Muggle-born, know-it-all friend of Scarhead stay in his house? He could practically hear the painting of his father fuming behind him.

"You're barking if you think she's safer here!" exclaimed Harry.

Draco went still momentarily before adopting the casual arrogance that was his usual façade. "Why not? To the world I can be a caring devoted boyfriend who is allowing his girlfriend to stay with him while her house is being rebuilt. To the Death Eaters she is my new slave, under my complete control. She'll be safe simply because owning a Mudblood slave would increase my already high status with them, especially given who she is. Owning a slave enables me to access previously denied privileges that they have kept me out of simply because I didn't have one of my own. This is our chance to find out where they're keeping the real slaves," Draco reasoned, making up the plan as he went along. "With her, we can find out how they're finding so many of the Muggle-borns." Draco refused to admit, even to himself, that it was anything more than that.

"Arrggh!" Harry growled, frustrated that Draco was making so much sense, hating that the cold, puffed-up wanker in front of him was so eager to use Hermione. On the other hand, he knew it was a good plan. But every time he closed his eyes, he saw an image of a broken and violated Hermione, small and pale in the bed upstairs.

"I can't ask her to do that, Malfoy. She's been through enough already. I won't ask her to do it." Harry's eyes were hard. "I'll contact you as soon as I've made arrangements for her."

"Fine," Draco stated. He had plans of his own. It would take time for safe arrangements to be made, and surely he would be able to talk to Hermione before then. "I'll send you an owl when she wakes up. Dilly will show you out."

The small house elf appeared at the door of the study with Harry's cloak in her small arms. With a nod, Harry was gone.

Draco shot back the last of his firewhiskey and made his way back upstairs.

He passed the rest of the afternoon and well into the night, sitting in a chair contemplating the woman in front of him. Her small form was dwarfed by the size of the bed in the Lady's suite; a suite of rooms that, by right and tradition, should only have been occupied by his wife. But there would be no Lady Malfoy for Draco. He would never have a wife who could be used against him as his mother was used against his father. Her only crime was loving and being married to a Death Eater, and Voldemort had destroyed her for it.

Which brought Draco's thoughts right back to the bed in front of him. His thoughts swirled around and around, one thought leading to the next which brought him back to the beginning again. His only salvation came in concentrating on the in and out, the rise and fall of her chest as she slept. He had seen one woman killed at the hands of the Death Eaters. This one, Draco vowed, would not meet the same fate. He would keep her close to him, his name and reputation granting her the protection that Potter, and his precious Order, couldn't. Then, when it was over, he would never see her again.


A/N: Things are getting interesting... Remember, reviews are tips for authors and may earn teasers. Thanks for reading.