Chapter 9

"Harry?!" Hermione gasped. She made to advance towards the cell, but Draco stayed put. Frustrated, she glared back at Draco and tried to walk again. Draco did not move.

"Could you please move?" Hermione said through clenched teeth. Draco silently stared at Hermione, the prison cell, and then back to Hermione. He then simply turned, and started walking away. Hermione stubbornly stood her ground.

"Harr- I mean, Potter, how are you alive? Why aren't you a mindless? Why are you here?" she struggled against the rope that was pulling her and fired question after question. Draco looked back, sighed and took out his wand and gave it a wave. Hermione felt her feet leave the ground. She squirmed as though invisible objects were flying at her.

"I was a mindless, but I turned back!" Potter yelled back. "Severus Snap-."

"And that's quite enough," said Snape, waving his wand as well. The prison cell became silent and Hermione struggled with her gravity defying body.

"Put me down, Draco!" Hermione screamed. Draco simply flicked his wand and they exited the room. Snape closed the creaking door behind them.

"STOP!" Hermione screamed. Draco halted in his tracks, but did not look back at her. She struggled to get back on the ground but soon stopped as she realized it was of no use. Draco did not speak. Hermione glared at the back of his unmoving head. They stood in silence. The stuffy, humid air enveloped them but it was the silence that was more suffocating for Hermione. She opened her mouth to break the awkward silence but Draco beat her to it.

"If you prove that you can be trusted there would be no use for this rope," he said softly. He waved his wand and Hermione slowly floated down and soon her feet were firmly planted on the ground. She walked towards him. There were a million questions racing through her mind and she wasn't sure which one she needed to ask first. She stared at Draco, who was still turned away from her. She wanted to see his expression, to see maybe a shred of the kindness he had shown when he was rescuing her.

"You need to show my father everything you know about vampires," Draco continued. "Hierarchy. Methods of killing. Weaknesses. Locations. Charms. And… Ceremonies."

Hermione took a sharp intake of breath as the last word was mentioned. Unwelcome memories entered her mind and questions about her own well being, Draco's promise, and of Harry Potter's sanity were of no more concern. Her shoulders slumped and her head bowed down as she recalled the night of shame and torture. Half remembered faces from the night swam in and out of her mind's eye. Then suddenly, Snape's face drifted into clear shape in her thoughts.

"Wouldn't Severus Snape have told everything there is to know?" she muttered through gritted teeth. She started putting two and two together. Of course there was a spy. How could she have been so naïve to think that she was the first and only spy that the hunters have planted?

Draco finally turned to face her. His face was expressionless, his eyes cold. But as he spoke, Hermione could detect a faint anger in his voice. "As Snape has kindly mentioned just now, I am not informed of anything regarding his… infiltration." Draco turned abruptly and started walking back up away from the laboratory and dungeons. "All I know for sure is that Snape was never bitten. Nor was he born from vampire parents."

Hermione started to say that that is ridiculous as Snape is obviously a vampire, when Draco interrupted abruptly.

"Father would interrogate you on whatever he fancies that he needs to know," he said as he picked up his pace. The air was getting drier, easier to breathe. Hermione jogged to keep up with him. "Your job is to show him everything you know and remember. Then you and I would both be freed of this bond."

Hermione thought quickly. Answer some questions, freedom ensues. That sounded too easy. Moreover, what else would there be to know for hunters? Hundreds of years have passed since the Early Wars between vampires and hunters. Countless vampires have been captured and interrogated before. What made herself so different as to interrogate? But, if that was to be the ticket to her freedom, be it a mere illusion of freedom, she would still take the chance.

"Take me to him then," said Hermione, making up her mind. "I will answer his questions."

Draco stopped again. He turned to face her. Hermione's brown eyes burned into his pale ones, looking determined. Looking alive. "But you must promise me one thing," she said. Draco raised an eyebrow.

"When I am free, promise me you will answer my questions."

Draco smirked at the simplicity of her request. Hermione smiled slightly, relieved that she was seeing a hint of the humane treatment Draco had given her before. A hint of emotion, a hint of friendship.

"I promise," he said.

...

Draco tossed and turned in his bed, unable to fall asleep. The stupid girl didn't understand what she was signing up for. He flipped over on his stomach, hugging his pillow. The bed felt cool against his naked torso. Too many conflicting thoughts and emotions intertwined in his already clogged mind. The hatred for this girl, Hermione Granger, responsible for the 13 years of his miserable life. The girl responsible for a miserable future. Unless Snape finally perfects his remedy. Unlikely. Or was he too pessimistic?

And the gross, macabre treatment of this girl handed to her by Tom Riddle. The flashes of memories he wishes he hadn't witnessed in the pensieve. The shackles binding her naked body in front of a hundred, hungry, bloodsucking monsters. The whipping, the feeding, Hermione's lifeless eyes, crawled up into a ball on the cold dungeon floor.

The girl craving for Tom's blood. The flashing red eyes of an addicted creature. The unexpected kiss. That he delivered no less. The sharing of blood. His blood. Her blood. Ecstasy.

Draco jerked out of his thoughts as Hermione turned on the floor, snagging the rope connecting them together. He inched towards the edge of the bed and traced her face with his eyes. How could she sleep so soundly, when in a few hours she would be subject to an ancient magic so taboo? So taboo that had the Board of Hunters found out what Lucius was planning, he would be exiled and his prestigious position revoked?

Draco sighed. It mattered to him not what happened to the girl. It mattered to him not whether Lucius performs forbidden magic. He should have killed her when he had the chance. He ran his fingers along the scar that she had inflicted when she mercilessly bit into him 13 years ago. Slowly, anger bubbled inside of him and he tried to push the emotions away. He couldn't kill her now. Lucius had plans for her. He turned over and lied on his back, and closed his eyes, trying to push away the troubling thoughts.

...

Hermione eyed Lucius' every movement as he walked around the small room, lighting candles artfully arranged in a semi circle. The room had no windows and there was a faint sour smell that suggested that no one had been in here for a long time. Hermione sat in the middle of the semi circle, on a carpet covered with so much dust that the original colors were indiscernible. She turned her head to look at Draco, leaning on the wall in the far corner of the room. The candle light did not reach him and his face was hidden in the shadows.

"Shall we begin then?" said a voice. Hermione turned again, this time coming face to face with a beautiful woman with the same white-gold hair like Draco. The woman gracefully glided to the open end of the semi circle, her silken robes making small waves as if she was floating. Lucius beckoned towards the corner and Draco quietly came towards them, standing directly opposite the woman. Lucius positioned himself between the two outside the semi circle and opposite him stood Snape, looking solemn but ready. The four looked down on Hermione and the silence was deafening. Hermione slowly stood up, understanding instinctively that something bad was about to happen.

"Begin what?" she asked nervously. Lucius ignored her as he waved his wand. The rope binding her and Draco fell to the ground in a pile of dust. The woman smiled at Hermione. It was a smile that did not reach her eyes.

"Surely Draco has explained to you how we will pry information from you?" she said. Hermione frowned. Pry? Hermione racked her brains of all the spells she knew. Semi circle. Candles. Four people. Information. Pry…

"No…" she said slowly as realization dawned on her face.

"Yes," said the woman, brushing down her robes and ensuring that she could move her wand arm freely. "Surely you recognize the setup for the Pensivitum spell? While we divulge into your past we need you to try your best to not break. It would be such a shame to lose a valuable source of information."

Hermione started trembling. "This isn't allowed," she said, standing up quickly. "If you need to look into my past, use a pensieve..." her voice faltered as she felt fear creep into her. She could lose her mind if she cannot endure the pains of this spell. It was worse than dying. An empty shell. Unable to do anything human. Unable to feed. And as a vampire, unable to die. Eternal hunger that would not be quenched. The woman smiled again, the same cold smile that had no hint of genuineness.

"Oh don't be silly girl. You know pensieves only show conscious memories. We need to see your past. Both when you were conscious and unconscious." She motioned for Hermione to sit down. "Lucius, the wall please."

Lucius muttered something under his breath and waved his wand into the air in three quick motions. Recognizing the movements, Hermione lunged towards him but it was too late. Her body crashed into an invisible wall that Lucius had conjured. She turned around, glaring at Draco. He did not meet her eyes. She turned again to look at Snape. He had a faint smirk at the corner of his lips.

"Let's begin," the woman said nonchalantly, as if suggesting this was dinnertime and she was urging them all to begin eating. Hermione watched in panicked fear as the four surrounding her raised their wands and started murmuring complicated incantations. Slowly a trail of deep red light emerged from each of their wands and snaked around Hermione's body. She flung her arms out in an attempt to resist but the light was intangible. Soon, her whole body was enveloped in the red lines. And although the four were nowhere near touching her, she felt like a pair of hands were prying her skull open and sticking their hands into her brain. She screamed.

"Into her past we go then," the woman said cheerfully. Hermione's eyes rolled into the back of her head as she felt her consciousness slip away from her control.

...

(A/N: Wow, it's been 5 years. I've re-read all your reviews and I really wanted to continue the story for you people. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter and I have finalized how I want the story to go and end. So I hope that I can satisfy your reading tastes! Happy reading, and like always, I heart reviews! 3)