Chapter Ten: Stand Up and Fight
"Is everyone ready?" Hermione asked, the dozen of them crowded in the living room of the Order. Luna and Ginny paired off as well as the rest of them, Neville standing beside Ron and Harry. Hermione was the only one who stood alone.
"I still don't understand why you are going in alone before the rest of us, Hermione. We can't underestimate them. In numbers alone they have us bested. We have to be smart." Arthur Weasley suggested.
"We are being smart, dad. She's our way in and out. She's our secret weapon. Now let's go while we still have the element of surprise on our side." Harry instructed, nodding towards Hermione.
"Good luck." she whispered to the sea of concerned faces of her dear friends. "I will see you all soon. And we will all be together after." she vowed, before a loud crack signaled her leave.
"Bloody hell, she better be right." Fred whispered, apparating with George just moments after her followed by the rest.
"When has that girl ever not been right?" George smirked, before they vanished.
"I sent, what I was under the impression, were my best men into that school. I wanted one, tiny little girl and you couldn't even manage that." The Dark Lords voice boomed across the longtable where the death eaters sat, hooded and masked.
He slammed his hand down on the table, raising his wand in his opposite hand.
"Someone want to speak up and tell me how one,single, Mudblood," he enunciated with disgust. "Managed to slip past a dozen death eaters?"
"She was fast My Lord." a voice spoke, his word barely out of his mouth before he was struck down, now ashes beneath their feet on the stone floor.
"Anyone else?" He demanded.
A loud crackle filled the space before Hermione appeared in the doorway, mere feet behind Voldemorts back. She leaned against the doorframe, waiting for him to turn around. It seemed her next words forced him to do such.
"I don't know, it seemed your first slave boy had it right. I was pretty fast if I do say so myself." she smirked, forcing herself to focus on the threat in front of her and not do a sweep of the table for her blonde headed enemy. With the hoods and masks, who could tell them apart anyways. That's the point of slavery after all. Take away any ideas that one might be an individual with their own thoughts or opinions.
"It is foolish for you to be here alone. I thought you were the clever one." he hissed, taking a step towards her with his wand pointing at her throat.
"I am not afraid of you, so stop wasting your breath. I mean, the past decade you've been dead or using someone elses body half the time I've heard of you. You know what kind of things use another body to survive. A parasite. And parasites do not intimate me." she spoke clearly, her teeth biting down on her lower lip to keep herself from screaming.
"Zabini" he called, never looking away from Hermione, his breath hitting her mouth as he spoke so close to her.
"My Lord." A voice called from the table, the owner of it taking down his hood and mask before bowing before the room.
"Come here." he snapped, an older version of Blaise Zabini immediately doing as he was told.
"What a good little pet you are." Hermione mocked, holding her fear inside. And although It was enough for the room, Draco sat at the head of the long table behind his mask and hood and saw her flinch the moment Zabini name left Voldemorts mouth. Her fear was inside but it shone through her eyes.
"Shut your mouth, Mudblood." another member shrieked, the voice original enough to identify the woman it belonged to even before she shed her mask.
"Hello again Bellatrix." Hermione smiled, her eyes almost black as they grew darker at the feeling of her burning forearm and the scar beneath it.
"Come for a repeat of last time sweet girl?" she spat her words at the young woman, Hermione hardly effected as she advanced towards her.
"Enough!" Voldemort boomed, stopping Lestrange in her tracks, Hermiones eyes finally resting on her neck where she wore a bright purple amulet on a strong golden chain. She wanted nothing more then to reach out and grab it, but that wasn't even in the realm of possibilities.
"No need to scare the girl, Bella. Zabini here will handle her. Isn't that right ?" Voldemort said, venom in his words.
"Of course, My Lord. Anything you wish." He bowed low to the hooded man.
"Good man. Break her in for me. I want fear in her eyes when you bring her back to me." he wrapped his boney fingers around her forearms before thrusting her against the younger wizards chest.
"Well, that hardly seems fair. The guys son already had a go with her." a voice spoke up behind her as Mr. Zabini ran his hand up her arms and over her chest, choke holding her body closer.
"Young Draco Malfoy. Are you saying you rather be tasked with this girl?"
"If it would please you, My Lord." Draco removed his hood and stepped forward, bowing in front of him.
"Very well. You have never disappointed me. Zabini, sit. Draco, get her out of here. I meant what I said. I want her shaking when she is back to me." Voldemort spoke, his eyes as threatening as ever.
"Of course my Lord." Draco said, tearing her from the man and hauling her violently up the stairs and into his room. He shoved her down onto the bed before locking the door. She let out a small gasp when her back hit the mattress with such force.
"Don't come near me." she seethed, backing up against the mattress, her wand now drawn in front of her as her spine hit the headboard.
"You are a foolish, foolish girl." he whispered, his teeth clenched as if the anger might spill over and eat away at him. He spun on his heel to face her, looking away immediately, the rage towards her mere presence taking over his body.
"I am anything but foolish. I don't care what that monster said down there. I will not be shaking and I will not be going back to him. By now The Order is already down there." she warned, backing up further against the headboard, flashes of Blaise on top of her fighting their way into her mind. She shook her head to clear them, Dracos eyes narrowing further.
As if on cue, a loud smash echoed through the manor, making its way up the stairs to reach them.
"They sent you in as bait?" he laughed humorlessly, running his hands through his hair. "Unbelievable." he whispered to himself, turning away from her.
"What's unbelievable is how you jumped at the chance to take that mans place. Well, it's not happening. I'm leaving here with my friends so just stay away from me." she reiterated.
"Would you rather it be Blaise's father up here with you? Because I guarantee you, Princess, there would not be nearly as many words between you two as there are right now with us." he glared back at her over his shoulder, more commotion sounding off down the stairs.
"Hermione!" her name was muffled but being called out none-the-less from down the hall.
"Where did you put her you son of a bitch." more and more signs of destruction and war making their way up to her ears.
Draco stood at the door seeming unaffected. She watched as his back rose and fell with each breath, her own body relaxing as the threat of him eased.
"You came for the Horcrux, I presume?" Draco asked, walking over to the bed to stand at the side of it, her body inching away to the other side as he did so.
She stayed silent, her body shielded away from him as best she could. Her muggle sneakers were drawn up on the bed, bent sideways to put more distance between them. Her arms crossed over her chest.
"Do you have any idea how incredibly lucky you are? The chances of this playing out the way it did are nearly impossible. If Voldemort didn't already foresee your arrival, he wouldn't have handed you over to Zabini or I first. He would've taken you for himself right on that floor for us all to watch." he explained.
"And what a treat that would've been for you. You said it yourself, isn't that right? You could care less if I rot away. What better way to rot then to be fucked by that cretin." she spat back at him, swinging her legs over the bed to get to her feet. Before she could even get her feet on the floor, Draco kneeled one leg on the bed and reached over for her, grabbing her wrist roughly in his hand and slamming her back down across the mattress.
"Such a dirty mouth on such an innocent girl is not a very attractive quality, Granger." he whispered, pushing her down harder on the bed as he straddled her small waist for more force.
She thrashed beneath him, trying to rip her wrists from him but to no avail. And as he bent down to whisper against her ear, he was almost certain she would bite him.
"But it would seem you aren't so innocent after last night, isn't that right?" he muttered, his lips running along her ear as he spoke.
"Go to hell you bastard." she exclaimed, moving her face away from him as best she could, his breath still hitting her cheek when he spoke.
"It seems that even you, like everyone else, have judged me too quickly." he sighed, his eyes flashing their disappointment for barely a moment before he recovered.
"What are you talking about. Just let me go." she insisted, still pulling her arms, causing her more pain then it would to just lay beneath him.
Hermione she heard her voice closer this time, down the hallway.
"Let's get one thing straight before your little team of do gooders bursts in here with their victory party. I would never touch you as a ploy to destroy you or as a demand from Voldemort. So you might want to show a little more gratitude towards the man who kept you from being Zabinis play thing. Because he would take all of you, and leave nothing left." he threw the words at her like they were poison.
"Nothing." he repeated, more venomous then before.
She stared up at him with her dark brown eyes, fear completely absent from them. He slowly let go of her wrists before moving to stand away from her.
"Wait." she whispered, reaching up to pull his wrist back down.
"First you want me to let go and now you want me to wait. You are a fucking pain in the ass, do you know that?" he scoffed, pushing her hand away roughly as he stayed hovered above her.
Hermione? Are you up here somewhere? We got it, it's over. Now so help me god say something so we know Malfoy is still protecting you!" She knew it was Ginnys voice outside in the hall and with the door locked, there was no possibility of entry.
"Protecting me?" Hermione whispered, looking from the door, up into his piercing grey eyes.
"Yea well this is the last time. You've hardly proved to be much worth the trouble with all the hate you've been sending my way. With no reason to feel such emotions towards me when I've done nothing to deserve them." he said, offended more then enough for one day. He moved to get off of the bed once again to no avail.
"Hey." she gasped, grabbing his arm again and tugging him back to the bed, moving her leg up and over so their positions were reversed.
"If you think I can just go about what happened with Blaise like it never happened, you're wrong. You tell him you are taking me upstairs to break me in for him and I'm not suppose to be scared? I've been raped once already, Malfoy. I don't care to have it happen again. Is that so hard for you to understand? That I am still very much afraid and I can not think of anything else but him touching me. I'm sorry if I treated you cruelly but I have to protect myself. No one else seems to." she whispered, tears forming in her eyes as she blinked them back above him.
Draco reached up to brush his fingers over her cheeks and back into her hair.
"Are you bloody deaf woman? It seems the littlest red head just shouted that I was protecting you." he whispered, looking into her eyes until he watched the fear and pain leave them.
"Now get off of me and go unlock your door you twit." he urged, putting his hands on either side of her hips and easing her to the side and off of the bed.
"Alright." she whispered, shaking her head slightly and forcing a smile onto her face before swinging the door open. Draco sat up over the side of the bed with his face in his hand while Luna and Ginny crashed against Hermione with cries of joy.
The war was over. And they had won.