Okay if you like my writing and you like Dramione, go and please read THROUGH MY EYES Honestly, it's all from Draco's POV and it's actually fun to write him as a bad guy for once.

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PurelyPoison

Chapter Ten-Torn

Free will without fate is no more conceivable than spirit without matter, good without evil-Friedrich Nietzsche

"You have to be fucking kidding me?"

Bellatrix's words still reverberated around the room and Draco couldn't do much more than stare at her with his mouth agape. When he had eventually managed to speak, the words had come out incredulously and without the derision he usually adopted and had therefore very little impact.

Bellatrix smiled, "I never make jokes for the amusement of others Draco, that much about me you should know".

Hermione stiffened next to him but still said nothing. Draco wondered if she was still reeling over the shock of Ginny's departure from the only reality she had ever known. How could someone, who was brought up surrounded by family and all that is good in this world, turn so easily? With so little persuasion? A boy had promised her love and she had fallen for it.

But, Hermione had realised with a jolt, had she not done precisely the same thing? Draco hadn't even needed to persuade her, she had come willingly; refusing to believe that he was only made up of evil.

"You know how the ceremony must take place", said his mother solemnly, dragging Draco's thoughts away from Hermione.

"Ceremony? As far as I was aware, this was torture not a ceremony or perhaps you neglected to tell me something?" said Draco narrowing his eyes and unconsciously pulling Hermione even further behind his back.

"Torture is the least of her worries now", said Blaise smirking before leaning down to plant a kiss into the crook of Ginny's neck as she stood in front of him giggling madly.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Draco growled.

"It means Draco that the Dark Lord has more planned for her than a simple act of torture", Lucius muttered, marvelling at his sons blatant stupidity.

Draco ignored him; his father's answer had made it clear that they themselves had no actual idea of what Voldemort had planned.

Nobody said anything for several minutes as they watched Draco assess the mess he was now in. He had caused this; he had brought her back believing that none of them were even remotely aware of his feelings for Hermione. By coming back to get Ginny out, he had figured Ginny was the victim of this story not the heartless bitch who was the reason he was in so much trouble now.

"Now Draco we will stall no more, the Dark Lord approaches. Strip her and chain her down or we will do it for you", said Bellatrix.

Draco raised his wand, "She's my problem and you won't touch her". He wasn't sure if he was only digging a deeper hole for himself by showing them that he cared about her. He was sure it certainly wasn't helping but no matter how hard he tried to persuade himself that he was still a death eater, his heart was paying him no attention.

Bellatrix sighed in disappointment, "Blaise, would you mind?"

Draco shifted into a defensive position but it really didn't matter what he did now, there were too many of them. He realised his mistake before Blaise had even uttered the spell to disarm him and as the invisible ropes were conjured and he lost his hold on Hermione, he knew he had resigned her to a fate worse than death.

Hermione screamed and struggled as Blaise grabbed a hold of her, pinning her arms by her side and wrestling her over towards the altar.

"Shut her up", said Bellatrix.

Ginny aimed a swift punch to Hermione's gut so that the scream guttered and came to an abrupt halt as she struggled to catch her breath.

"Stop", shouted Draco but they were all ignoring him now; he wasn't worth their time anymore.

Blaise hauled Hermione's now limp body over to the table and lifted her until she was sitting on the stone slab. He positioned himself between her legs and turned back towards Draco, "Is this how you fucked her muggle-lover?"

"Get the fuck off of her", shouted Draco, still struggling against his binds.

"Like I would want to touch her like that especially if it meant actually being inside her, I would surely catch something", he smirked.

"Stop touching her", Draco roared, struggling madly on the floor.

"Yes I do agree with Mr Malfoy, we must not sully our hands Mr Zabini", everybody felt his presence the second the words had floated into the room. There was a chill to them that reminded Draco forcibly of the dementors.

Voldemort floated, rather than walked into the room, but he still managed to maintain the demeanour of one who rules the world. As a child, Draco's father had instilled in him that your walk was everything. It said who you were and told everyone around you how much better you were than them. It was how Draco had come to adopt his sauntering swagger. Now it made him feel sick.

He was in big trouble now...unless, an unbidden thought popped into Draco's mind. Unless, he let Voldemort read his mind, show him what had happened while he was with the Order. The parts he wanted Voldemort to see that is, the part in the kitchen where he had allowed the Order to turn on Hermione.

To get that far though he had to come to his senses and stop worrying about Hermione's welfare. She was going to scream in pain in this room before the night was over that part was a certainty. But surely, he could prevent her from dying?

Everyone bowed in Voldemort's presence and Draco had to admit that the urge to laugh when he saw Ginny bow her head, was incredibly strong.

"Now, this is not the scene I had expected. Why is Draco not performing the job Mr Zabini found so unappealing?" He was like a teacher surveying his classroom but what he saw disappointed him.

"My Lord, we..." Bellatrix had taken a step forwards but Voldemort silenced her with a hand.

"Draco", he surveyed him slowly, "You are bound?"

"Yes", said Draco and then realised he needed to be on their side again to get what he wanted so he corrected himself, "Yes my Lord".

"But why?" Voldemort spoke so smoothly that it made Draco want to shiver but he had to hold his nerve.

He glanced up catching Voldemort's eyes dead-on, "I believe, my Lord, that you have been grossly misinformed about my situation with her", he glared over at Hermione as he spoke.

"Have I?" Voldemort's gaze flickered to Ginny and back, "I cannot believe that".

"Well, I'm assuming my Lord that you performed Legilimens in order to see what Ginny was talking about with regards my helping Hermione escape?"

Voldemort said nothing which Draco took for confirmation of his question.

"I was merely acting my Lord, getting her to trust me as you said I must. You noticed that she took me with her to the Order? The Order have turned on her", said Draco triumphantly.

He watched his parents exchange glances and Bellatrix stuttered.

"He never said anything", she began indignantly.

"Hush", said Voldemort as if speaking to a child and Bellatrix hung her head as if scolded.

"They never gave me the chance", said Draco, "If you would look my Lord, you will see". He bowed his head and waited, preparing his head for the onslaught.

It was like watching a movie in reverse but that had been edited drastically. Draco hoped he had put the sequence of events together carefully enough in his head for Voldemort not to notice the inconsistencies.

He knew he had been successful when the words he had spoken floated into the forefront of his mind with ease, plain for Voldemort to see.

"Oh no, I want to go back I just had no notion of going back to rescue your daughter. I'm the bad guy here remember, why would I want to do anything to help any of you?"

"I already told you, this demented fantasy you have about us being in love is ridiculous"

"You're making this up, I knew you were evil but I never thought you would stoop this low. You kissed me back, it wasn't all me", she cried "I know you feel something for me, I know you do otherwise you wouldn't have touched me and kissed me like that".

"Granger, for fuck sake how many times do I have to tell you, I'm not in love with you. Let it go. As is I would ever love someone like you anyway"

"She has been brainwashed, I knew it" said Lupin, before lunging forwards and pinning her arms behind her back.

Draco didn't need to shut his mind after he had shown Voldemort this part, the Dark Lord had already pulled out as soon as he had seen all that he needed to.

"She is in love with you?" said Voldemort glancing towards Hermione, who had remained sitting on the stone slab, unmoving with silent tears running down her cheeks. Draco wondered how she managed to say nothing at all if their positions were reversed they wouldn't be able to shut him up.

Voldemort started laughing, the kind of evil chuckle that made the temperature in the room plummet even further.

"You have done well Draco", he flicked his wand and the spell binding Draco was lifted, "You managed to get her to trust you completely and you have alienated her from the Order, congratulations. You have redeemed yourself in my eyes and I take it you got her to come back with you..."

"With the promise of helping her", said Draco, "She made it all too easy".

When he spoke these words, Hermione's head lifted a fraction to glance at him and the look in her eyes frightened him to his very core. Her eyes were deadened as if all the life behind them had given up hope and died. That was why she had stayed silent and unmoving, she had already given up.

Draco's shoulders slumped and his blood ran cold. How could he ask her to endure anything he was about to do and then forgive him if she had already resigned herself to death?"

"Well, we shall continue then", said Voldemort raising his hands in mock celebration before laying one long hand on Draco's shoulder, "Draco if you would prepare our guest?"

"Prepare her for what?" said Draco.

Voldemort smiled, "Draco, strip her down please. We must show her humiliation".

"I can't do that", said Draco wrinkling his nose in mock disgust, "I can't..."

"You must, how else do we truly show her to be ashamed of herself", said Voldemort his grip on Draco's shoulder tightening.

Draco knew that his fate and Hermione's rested on how he performed now. Voldemort was playing the tune and Draco had no choice but to dance to it, it would mean saving her life in the end.

He nodded and moved towards her, she shrank away from him but did not move completely.

Draco turned to ask for his wand back before he heard Voldemort tut behind him.

"No Draco, no magic in this act", he smiled.

Draco was still being punished, Voldemort didn't utterly trust him just yet no matter what he said and he still had to prove himself.

Draco swallowed down the vomit that had risen up into his mouth. He might as well have been asked to rape her; the feeling of disgust would have been the same.

He removed her skirt first, pulling it down gently and tossing it aside. Hermione sobbed quietly but didn't move. She remained in the same spot Blaise had dropped her into on the stone slab, her eyes staring past Draco as if she was no longer there.

Then he removed her shoes and socks, her bare feet so small and delicate, closed together tightly as if trying to shut him out. Hermione muffled a louder sob.

Then he removed her jumper and t-shirt all at once, pulling them roughly over her head before she was left in just her bra and underwear. Now she was crying loudly and beginning to struggle.

Draco pinned her arms by her side and tore her bra off, cringing as he did so when she tried to cover herself with her hands.

"Please stop", she whispered at him, her mouth so close to his ear, as he stood between her legs.

"I can't", he whispered back, moving his fingers down her abdomen to finger the soft cotton of her underwear, "I'm sorry".

He ripped the fabric away and then stood back, his deed having been done. He tried hard not to vomit, it would give everything away. He set his face into a look of grim determination and turned to glance at Voldemort and the others.

His mother managed to look someway disgusted, his father looked irritated with his son and Draco felt that some things never changed; no matter what he did he would always be a disappointment. Bellatrix was smiling wickedly and Blaise was looking at Hermione as if she was something to eat. Draco made a mental note to make sure he never got near her.

"Chain her down", commanded Voldemort, waving his hand impatiently.

Draco moved back towards Hermione and pushed her back onto the cold stone slab, he tried to do the decent thing and avoid looking at her body but he couldn't.

He was surprised, given the circumstances, to find his eyes raking over her figure and drinking every inch of her in.

Her breasts were average sized but perky and Draco repressed the urge to take them in his hands and massage them until he heard her moan. Her svelte body was curvy in all the right places and he was surprised to find that Hermione kept herself neatly shaven. He groaned inwardly to himself, if things were different, he would have taken her for himself by now. He tried to quell images of him ravishing her on the table as they were causing him extreme discomfort and get back to the situation at hand. But he promised himself that before their story was over, he would take her completely and make love to her the way she deserved.

He pulled her hands up to the head of the slab and slid the manacle over her wrist, securing it tightly by clicking the mouth of the serpent coiled around it shut. He did the same with her legs and after it was over, Hermione was spread-eagled on the slab, naked as the day she was born.

Draco let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding.

Voldemort stepped forward, "Now Draco, I imagine you are wondering my intention on placing this mudblood in such...a state".

Draco nodded, his gaze never leaving Hermione's body. She was staring at the ceiling, no longer squirming but he could see her fists clenched tightly and her jaw set in a tight line.

"I'm going to place the Dark Mark on her".

Draco turned to him abruptly, his hands falling limply by his sides, "You're...you're what?"

"My Lord no, she is not worthy. She is not one of us". Bellatrix was appalled, she who had worked hard to earn her mark was furious to learn a mudblood was considered worthy to receive it.

"I will not be told how to make my decisions Bellatrix, my most loyal follower, you doubt that I don't understand my actions?" hissed Voldemort at her clearly annoyed.

"No my Lord...I was just saying..." she continued, bowing in submission.

"The Dark Mark causes extreme discomfort to those who receive it, as you all know", he turned back towards the rest of the group ignoring Bellatrix's stuttering apologies, "But none of you know what it can do to someone who is unworthy to wear it".

Draco indeed knew the mark was painful and there was not much reprieve to be had from it but this was something he had never heard of.

"When someone who is not a true follower of mine at the time of taking the mark, the pain is so extreme I have seen some people rip themselves in half from sheer agony".

"You wonder how I can tell who is worthy to follow me and who is not, this method is the most effective. If they are unworthy, the mark will punish them. They do not all die but to live with it, is to live a cursed life".

"What do you mean? A cursed life?" said Draco slowly, his blood running cold and the urge to vomit returning with full force until he had to bite his lip and draw blood just to distract himself.

"Firstly, almost constant and unbearable pain, secondly nobody can even attempt to understand their plight. They are both for me and against me and therefore isolated from everyone else, unable to be on one side or the other. Thirdly", Voldemort smiled, "Personality reversal, violence and aggression become second nature to them. Their life is altered forever, with nobody to turn to".

Draco swallowed loudly, this is what would happen to her and there was nothing he could do about it. He had resigned her to this.

No, said the voice of reason in his head, Ginny did this to her in essence. Remember before this is over to kill the fucking whore.

"Enough time has been wasted", Voldemort raised his wand and walked slowly towards Hermione as if there was a sudden rush and Draco wondered if he was aware of something the rest of them weren't.

"You can't do this", muttered Draco but he paused immediately after he had spoken as he realised what Voldemort truly wanted to come out of this, "You think she will die?"

"I'm almost certain the agony alone will tear her to pieces and we shall watch and rejoice in her demise and everyone shall see what we have achieved here", said Voldemort not even turning back to face Draco.

Draco didn't get any time to ponder over these words, he had far more pressing anxieties.

Voldemort leaned over Hermione as she lay silent on the slab.

Draco moved forwards, needing to see Hermione's face, to tell her that no matter what kind of cursed life she led, he would be there; he was cursed himself after all. But of course, he could say nothing, only stand behind her head and hope that she knew he was there.

Voldemort raised his wand and recited three simple words under his breath and then laid his wand on Hermione's left forearm and Draco watched in horror as the black snake began to coil under her skin. After only a few seconds the snake turned red, as if it was rejecting being grafted onto her skin, and Hermione began to scream.

Draco's blood curdled as she screamed and writhed under the spell. Her body was rejecting the mark just as the mark was rejecting her. This was what Voldemort had meant about her loyalties being split in half. She was neither one thing nor the other. A red mark, the wrong colour to begin with, on a disloyal body. It was going against the nature of the mark itself.

But Draco would not let Hermione tear herself to pieces; he couldn't because now he needed her in his life.

Then another scream joined in with Hermione's and Draco turned away from the horrifying sight before him to see the Order had burst into the room. This time Harry and Ron were leading them, they had come back. Voldemort's enigmatic statements made complete sense; his mind was linked to Harry's. He had seen them coming.

"What a thing to come back to", muttered Draco before pulling his wand.

Voldemort turned, his wand breaking contact with Hermione's skin but the damage had been done, the mark was in place and the snake coiled around the skull, a bright blood red.

Draco didn't care; he began unshackling the still moaning Hermione, his hands trembling uncontrollably, "It's alright. It's over".

"Is it?" she whispered in reply, falling limp into his arms when he picked her up from the slab and held her tightly. He could feel her life ebbing away, the mark was sucking everything out of her. Draco knew this would happen, it happened to all of them and if she let it, it would kill her before it did anything else.

The Order was engaged in battle but this time they were evenly matched. The death eaters hadn't seen this coming.

"They came", Hermione croaked, "I told them where we were going".

Draco sighed and quelled the urge to laugh, they had given up on her but she had refused to give up on them. She had known they would need help and the Order had responded.

Draco knew Harry and Ron's presence would have had something to do with this, they knew Hermione better than any of the Order and they would have refused point black to resign her to this life.

Voldemort disapparated, roaring in anger as the wand he held crumbled. Bellatrix was battling Lupin who hit her with Petrificus Totalus.

Blaise was caught in the face with a harsh stupefy curse and Draco watched Harry battle with Ginny, trying to plead with her to come. In the end he grabbed her around the middle.

Lucius and Narcissa had run as soon as trouble had come calling, for once Draco was glad.

"Get the fuck away from her". Ron bounded over to Draco, who was still standing up beside the stone slab; his wand held aloft, "I'll curse you".

"Do that and I'll drop her, you moron. I won't leave her with you", said Draco angrily.

Harry threw Ginny into Lupin's arms and motioned for the others to get out. He ran across the room to where Ron's wand was still pointing into Draco's face.

"Let go of her Malfoy", he took his place next to Ron, but without raising his wand upon seeing Draco was unarmed.

"Like it or not Potty you need me", his gaze flickered to Hermione's arm where the red mark still glared angrily at them, "You need me so that you know how to deal with this new problem. I take it you haven't seen Ginny's mark yet".

They faltered and Draco almost felt bad for raining on their hero parade.

"I don't give a fuck", snarled Ron.

Almost felt bad.

"You should give a fuck, you need me and you know it", he was staring only at Potter, knowing if he was going to reason with anyone, it had to be him, "Potter, she's dying already".

Harry's eyebrows raised about two inches.

"Please", Hermione's voice could barely be heard over the din, "I need him".

That did it, if they hadn't listened before they were listening now. Draco's heart melted, no matter what happened she had never been able to give up on him completely no matter what she might say. Draco was hit with the full force of his feelings for her and her obvious feelings for him in that moment. He had never been needed by someone so much and had never felt that if she wasn't there, his whole life would crumble around him.

"Come on", said Harry motioning to Draco, "We have to get out of here before any more of them turn up".

Draco shoved past Ron and his idiotic, open-mouthed expression.

"It's okay Granger", he whispered as he followed Harry out of the house and down to the stone courtyard, "I'm here".

"Don't leave me", she whispered in response, unconsciousness finally claiming her.

"I won't", he said his eyes burning with tears he could never shed over a girl whose life he had just ruined and even though she could no longer hear him, he said it anyway.

"I love you".