A/N: Hi everybody!
As last week I want to thank you for reading and reviewing my story! Everyone of you made me smile :) So thanks to Katie, kingdomheartsgirl777, Mimi, LauraFlowi and the two anonymous Guests [Your email-adress wasn't displayed, so just write me an email, take a look at my profile]!
Here is the next chapter, I hope you'll enjoy it - until next time :)
Chapter 4
Hermione woke up. She stared in wide eyes and jumped up immediately.
"Missia didn't want to scare Miss Granger. Missia wanted to bring breakfast!", apologized the house-elf, sitting on her bed.
"No worry, everything's fine... thank you ...", mumbled Hermione sleepy. The house-elf bowed and disappeared with a 'plop'. She looked at the tray that had appeared together with the elf. Three sandwiches and a cup of coffee. Very generous. Hermione was hungry. She had vomited a lot tonight and her stomach was completely empty.
When she felt a little better again, she went to the closet. There hung even relatively normal things, like two pairs of blue jeans and some shirts. Hermione had expected something like Bellatrix black, death-eater-looking clothes. The young witch pulled a T-Shirt and one of the jeans on. There was no cape. She was not tolerated here as a witch probably. She turned around and saw how the tablet just vanished. Kind of scary.
Like a displacement activity Hermione stroke the blanket and was interested in where the vanished tablet was now. In the Great Hall it was sent down to the kitchen, but here? She couldn't concentrate on that question, because she heard footsteps in the hallway.
That it didn't bode well, would have recognized any idiot. Hermione tensed as the door clicked and swung open. Unfortunately it was not Missia (would have been too nice), but Bellatrix who walked through the door of her prison.
"Finally awake, Mudblood? Come on, I don't want to sully the floor with your blood here." This was a very encouraging statement. So Hermione was dragged from her room through the corridors of Lestrange Manor. Now and then the fingernails of the other bored into her flesh, when she was too slow. As a result, some blood droplets trickled out after a short distance.
One floor below the witch shoved her into one of the many rooms. Once there, Bellatrix aimed her wand at Hermione's face and she tensed up her whole body, ready to feel the pain of a cruciatus. She waited but nothing occurred. Quite the contrary happened and Hermione was really surprised by the following action.
"Episkey." A thin flash. A faint crackling followed and Hermione's nose was healed completely. Maybe it hurt a little, because of the magic jolt. Her nose was throbbing slightly, but that was nothing compared to the constant pain before. She looked at the other woman with wide open eyes in disbelief. Why had Bellatrix healed her?
"Well, Mudblood. Now tell me what Horcrux have you destroyed yet, huh?" Bellatrix started with one of these topics again. First she had wanted to know if they had broken into her dungeon and now this. Anyhow she has already accepted the story with the dungeon. However this question could be a trap, to move her to any confession. Because Hermione was sure now, that there was a Horcrux in Gringotts.
"Horcruxes...?", she pretended to didn't know what Bellatrix said. She shouldn't have done that. Bellatrix fist hit her freshly healed nose and broke it again. She regretted her statement already. Otherwise, she quickly learned from her mistakes. To lie or not to say what the other wanted to hear was a bad idea.
"Do not lie to me, Mudblood! Episkey." The nose healed again. "Again: which Horcruxes have you already destroyed? It's nothing more than stupid to keep silent. Your friends are dead, Mudblood."
"Then kill me too!" The fist hit her nose again. And again she was healed. But the pain still throbbed through her veins.
"You won't learn it, will you? I will not kill you", she said with a false smile, "I will torture you until you'll tell me the truth. If you love yourself, answer!" Hermione felt some tears running down her cheeks. Tears of pain and fear. She gave up.
"I think it were three ..."
"Being more exact is very difficult, right?", was the sarcastic answer.
"The diary, the ring and the medallion", recognized Hermione as quick as she could.
"So you haven't taken anything out of my dungeon?" Bellatrix asked suspiciously.
"No, no," Hermione said swiftly, for fear of being beaten again.
"Then you will not mind if the Dark Lord wants to ... well, have a little look around inside your head, will you?" The witch looked at her briefly and hit her in the face again. "I hope you'll remember and tell the truth."
She pushed her wand in Hermione's back and channeled her in the room to the right of the chamber. The room – or rather hall - looked like the salon of the Malfoys she was tortured yesterday. The only difference was the floor, which was made of a darker wood. The room's dark atmosphere was even more depressed by only one person. Voldemort.
"Ah, the 'killed' Granger girl", again, he spoke about her like talking about a needless object, "I hope you have settled in well." He laughed coldly. Hermione noticed blood dripping from her nose and concentrated to not look in the red eyes of the evil wizard. Bellatrix pushed her forward. However, Hermione was disgusted by this creature that sat in the salon. The creature with the red eyes, the snaky nose and the high, inhuman voice. Voldemort whipped out his wand.
"Then, I'm going to check if you really telling the truth to Bellatrix and look around in your little mind. I'm sure you don't mind if my Death Eaters are watching, do you?" Only now Hermione noticed that there sat four other Death Eaters around a table - Rodolphus Lestrange and the Malfoy family. Before she could act, the high voice shouted: "Legilimens."
Hermione saw the yellow eyes of the basilisk in the mirror. Harry held up the pierced diary of Tom Riddle. Later. Harry, as he told that Dumbledore destroyed the ring. Later. Hermione read the message of the opened medallion with the others. Ron, as he walked away. Ron, as he held up the destroyed medallion and the sword of Gryffindor. Hermione, as she kissed Ron shortly before the arrest. The memories stopped.
"Look, Granger seems to not have lied. Get her out of my sight, she has no more use to us." He turned around as she wasn't there anymore. Bellatrix grabbed her arm, bowed to her Lord and thrust her out of the room. Hermione accustomed herself to be dragged through the mansion, as if she were cheap goods.
In front of her room, Bellatrix turned to her and held her wand at her nose and she was healed immediately. Then she opened the door. Hermione was grabbed by the collar and unceremoniously thrown into her room.
"Be glad that you have emerged unscathed, Mudblood." Bellatrix spat on the floor. Then the door slammed shut.
Hermione cried, although she didn't want it.
