Lunar Embrace - Thirteenth Chapter

I know a lot of you still have questions on a few things and hopefully this will answer most of them.

Hermione was leaning over a piece of parchment she had laid out flat on the bed, a book placed underneath so she could write with her quil. She had put the stopper in the ink well some minutes ago halfway through writing the essay for Defense Against the Dark Arts, not being able to concentrate.

Everytime she looked at the paper she found it ironic that even after all this studying of defending herself against the dark arts she didn't know a thing about it. The class seemed to be more against dark creatures then the magic itself. Things like werewolves and boggarts. It might as well have been Care of Magical Creatures though with how effective it was.

Not a single lesson had prepared her for what had happened the day before. Being completely and utterly under Barty's control, actually wanting to stay like that, as if it were... some sick twisted version of bliss.

Even now when she closed her eyes she could hear his whispers next to her ear and already found herself missing the warmth from his arms wrapped securely around her. It happened each time she blinked, a phantom of his breath lingering across her skin.

A shiver ran down her spine and she snapped her eyes open to get rid of the feeling. Her hands raised to rub at her arms, fingers hesitating at moving after what he had done before.

She still wasn't entirely sure what he had done. It had been bothering her since she had woken up, having to force her way out of his arms, almost tripping over his legs before making her way to the kitchen as her stomach had growled at her for having not fed it for so long once again. Once her stomach had been full though and she made her way back to the room she had found him gone from the blankets. When looking down the hallway the door to his room had been closed and she had retreated back to her own.

After that she had stayed in her room, door closed to try and keep him out.

Right now she was just staring at the paper infront of her. The third essay she was working on today to try and forget where she was. She had known when she started that it wouldn't last. That eventually doing her homework for school would stop working as a distraction. He was only a few rooms away... She could just get up... She should just get up.

Get up from her bed and stop cowering in her room. At this point Hermione didn't see a reason to lie to herself. She was avoiding him, but when he needed to see her for the requirements of the law she wouldn't be able to keep it up. There was no reason to think a closed door would keep him from getting to her. He had already proved that countless times.

Taking in a breath she pushed up from the bed, not allowing herself to think as she swung her legs over the side and walked to the door, turning the knob to push it open and enter the hall. Not even taking a moment to compose herself she turned the corner walking towards the dark splintered wood of his door.

It was here that she stopped short. Splintered? Looking closer she could see the numerous cracks that hadn't been present before. What the hell had he done? Blow up the door and then stick it back together? It looked like it would fall to a heap of toothpick sized sticks if she knocked on it. If he had destroyed the door why hadn't she heard it?

She felt her nerve lessen and start to fade away as she stared at it. It was possible he was in another bad mood. Just like when he had shattered the flickering light bulb, and then shoved her to the ground moments later... She squeezed her eyes shut to try and forget that memory, to regain the courage she needed to knock on the door. But then his whispers were in her head again,

"...dead grass pressing right up to the bank...a person painting over their face in black ink...honoring some forgotten god...a stone the color of the night sky covered in hieroglyphs..."

"Hermione?"

Fingers grasped at her chin and she gasped, eyes flickering open to stare at him. The door was open now, somehow still held together. He was leaning against the frame looking down at her, thumb rolling under her jaw to touch at her throat.

"Barty." Her voice came out odd, in a daze. Soft like when he had been speaking to her.

"What are you doing here Hermione?"

She blinked and would have fallen back into those whispers if a pair of fingers hadn't raised to pinch at her lower lip. What had she been doing here? She racked through her mind to find the answer, slowly focusing back on him. "What..." She drew her tongue over cracked lips and tried again, "What did you do to me?"

There was a faint glimmer of amusement in his eyes that she would have thought to be an illusion if not for his next words, "You'll have to be more specific."

She fought down the frustration rising in her. "The spell you used." At his raised brow she continued with a tremor in her voice, "When you asked me those questions and I...i..."

"Answered them like you're suppose to?" She managed to nod, feeling a tear slide down her cheek.

"What spell was it?" She wanted to-needed-to know. So she could try and look in the library for a counterspell or something to at the very least defend herself against it the next time.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're referring to."

She stared at him, at a loss of words for a moment before yelling, "Stop playing games with me! I want to know what you did to me that I would just tell you the Order's secrets like that! That I would just sit quietly as you molested me!" She barely registered the way his eyes had darkened, all amusment now gone from his expression as she continued to scream, "That you-I almost kissed you!" She missed the way his eyes lowered from her own. "What did you do that would make me do anything like that! To just-just betray my friends on a whim! How could you-"

Her words cut off when his lips landed on her own, pressing so hard she was sure they would bruise. It took her body a moment to register what he was doing and she raised her hands to push at his shoulders, eventually laying a punch on one to stop the preassure on her lips.

Her hand was caught before it could even land, his mouth off hers as he looked down at her, fingers wrapped around the wrist of her curled fist. "You're not doing that again." He forced her arm back down to her side. "Surely you should know by now that I don't need a spell to do anything to you. I can touch you whenever, wherever I want to. A spell is not required for that. If I wanted you to kiss me, you would simply do it without my asking."

"So you imperiod me," she hissed through clenched teeth, "because that's the only way that would ever happen."

Her head hurt in the next second, everything had moved so fast it took her awhile to register all of what had happened. His eyes had narrowed to slits, the preassure on her wrist had spiked to a sharp pain. It was as if the bones in her hand were rubbing against eachother through the sheer force being applied. She wasn't sure her hand could manage anymore pain until he had slammed it up against the wall, whirling her whole frame into the stone. Which had resulted in the now pounding headache that was making her vision swim in black dots. Atleast, she thought thats what it was, his hand around her throat was likely contributing to that factor. There was an angry snarl at her ear. "Watch what you accuse me of. You stupid witch."

If she could manage to get air into her lungs her heart would be hammering by now. As it was she was struggling to draw in breath after breath, to get even a shred of oxygen into her lungs. His voice was even lower when he spoke again, "Do you recall not being able to move your body without a voice telling you to? Did I ever tell you to move, specifically for that matter? Funny thing is, I don't remember ever telling you to lean toward me so that you almost kissed me. What I remember is you doing that of your own freewill. So don't you accuse me of something you did of your own accord. If you think blaming me for your own actions makes them go away you are sadly mistaken."

The grip on her wrist increased and she let loose a low cry, not able to scream fully with the way his hand was clamped along her throat. "There are so many things I could make you do by just thinking that spell. Would you like to experience it first hand? To feel your mind empty of any thoughts that are your own? Would you like for me to fill it with my own? To make you into no more than a puppet? I could do it. I could make you stab each of your friends in the gut and watch them bleed out in their sleep and you wouldn't have any other choice than to obey. I could make you crawl over hot coals, slice your own skin off. I could order you to your knees, and make you enjoy it. Is that what you want?" Tears slid silently down her cheeks and she tried to shake her head. "Is it?" His lips were tugging at her ear again, pulling roughly at the skin. From the sharp pain there she was sure he had broken the surface. That the warm feeling was blood. "Answer me."

The force applied to her throat finally loosened and she gasped in breaths of air, struggling to form a single word. It took her awhile but she managed to form a coherent, "No."

"Are you sure?" This time when her wrist was given a twist she screamed.

"N-no." She struggled to get the word out, each time she opened her mouth to force more air down her throat she tasted salt on her lips. "Barty, please-"

Her head connected with the wall and she gasped, her gaze filling with black blobs that grew from the corners of her vision. A voice whispered in her ear and her field of vision was restored, the feeling returned to her sore limbs. She hated magic then, as the pain was burning through her again. Hermione wished she had been able to black out. "What did I tell you about that word?"

"It-it won't get me anywhere. It holds no weight here." She closed her eyes wanting it all to stop but the whispers didn't come this time. A flutter of panic welled in her chest, steadily growing at this realization. "Barty," she hesitated, not sure what to say anymore. "let me go. You're hurting me."

"I'm hurting you?" Laughter filled her ears and she flinched at the sound. "That's funny." His lips grazed her cheek and she stilled, tears rolling down even faster to feel his tongue sweep across the skin, catching each drop.

"Barty-"

"No." She yelped when he tugged her head forward by the hair to direct her back to the stone barely a second later. "You're not getting out of this." Hermione opened her eyes slowly her gaze flickering until settling on his hands tearing at her robe. She was only able to let out a whimper in her throat, regretting it a moment later when his lips were on her neck. "I'm going to make you scream, you silly little girl."

/ / / C e n s

There was a loud rip as the fabric was torn and she fought not to make a single noise, scared of what he would do to her throat if she did. That he might bloody it like her ear when his teeth had been hovering there. She could feel her clothes being torn to shreds, fluttering to the ground beneath her. Soon feeling the cold air on her skin that only seemed to last a second as his hands were moving over her now. Raising her up along the wall. She only struggled when his breath was no longer on her neck trying to ignore the brief rustle of clothes when a hand left her.

She was lowered suddenly, letting loose a scream when he slid into her. His mouth was on her neck again like she had dreaded but she couldn't keep her screams down. Teeth skimming over the skin as his fingers roamed up to her chest. Pinching at her nipples and she could feel the nails pressing against her flesh, leaving little cuts, specks of blood left behind wherever his fingers went.

Every little cut seemed to burn and she tensed with each new mark. There would be a groan at her neck and she would be left screaming when he pounded into her even harder for those moments her whole body had seemed to tighten up.

His hands kept moving over her body, gripping at her hip so hard she already felt sore, already knowing the bruises would be dark for weeks afterwards. Sliding along her back to leave cuts so she yelled even louder when her back met the wall with each thrust.

Then there was the ever present reminder of his mouth on her neck; the way her skin was left wet when his tongue trailed across, a sharp pain when teeth met on her collarbone only to grow hot with each breath that passed over the spot afterward, her skin being pinched together between his lips. Every time his teeth lingered on her throat she could feel her heart pounding in fear.

When he finally bit at her neck she screamed, hands rising up to pound on his shoulders, each tremor just making the feeling worse. Her cries for him to stop fell on deaf ears and she kept hitting at him until she couldn't deal with the added pain it caused, arms falling back to her sides. His tongue moved over the bite mark and she shrieked as terror pounded through her. She had resorted to yelling his name, pleading even as his teeth sunk back into it's mark. A hand wrapped around her jaw, shutting out her screams and she sobbed around the fingers. Her tears only slid down faster, body quivering even though he had stopped moving within her. Forcing her jaw to move, lips parting beneath his fingers she tried again, "Ba-rt-y."

/ / /

Her jaw was released, his mouth no longer pressed to her neck and she would have slid down the wall if not for his body pressed up against hers. She could hear his breath coming fast and she swallowed nervously, flinching when she felt blood running down her throat. When lips were pressed back to the mark she shut her eyes to open them slowly a second later. It didn't feel like there was a wound on her neck anymore. His breath was redirected to her ear, "Go back to your room, and stay there."

When he moved away she gripped at the wall so she didn't fall, only flinching when the door slammed behind him. Even so she didn't need to be told twice and with a hand pressed to the stone she made her way back to her own room, clinging at the wall as she walked as to not fall over.

Hermione slipped quietly back into her room, closing the door so it hardly made a sound she stumbled to her bed, falling down ontop of it with a sigh of relief. She laid there for a a little while, then she turned her head, catching sight of her back in the mirror. Reaching back with a hand she touched at one of the small scars where a bruise was developing next to it. When she brought her hand back she looked over the red flecks on her hand before pushing herself up and off the bed.

She took a quick shower to get rid of the specks of blood, watching the water turn a slight shade of pink and swirl down the drain simply trying not to think about what had just happened. It was clear to her that she had touched on a subject she shouldn't have. That it was something she should avoid from now on.

When she stepped from the shower Hermione stared at her bedroom for awhile. After he had destroyed the only pair of pajamas she had moved into the household she didn't have much choice when it came to apparel. It occured to her that she would need to start bringing some things over so she wasn't stuck in this situation, just wrapped up in a towel.

Besides her school robes there was one other choice... something that wouldn't be so heavy on her skin and therefore less likely to cause her to flinch when the fabric brushed over a bruise. She approached the vanity slowly, pulling open a drawer to spot the lace within. Hermione pulled it out, looking over the blue coloring. It was something she hadn't noticed before, that it was his House color.

She made sure no cuts were bleeding before putting it on, throwing the towel in laundry basket. As she was now dressed in some semblance of the word Hermione got back on the bed, pulling up a thin cover around her before grabbing her quil to resume her work on the essay.

She barely managed a few words before there was a soft knock on her door and her head snapped up. "Yes?" she called hoping he didn't plan on coming in. The knob turned and her heart pounded, practically slamming to a halt when she saw it wasn't him. "Narcissa? What are you doing here?" She regretted the wording, sure it would seem she was being rude even though she was just surprised to see the Malfoy here.

"I came to check on you." Narcissa said as she entered the room, clearly giving the place a look around. "Huh, he didn't change my decor. Do you like it?"

"Yes, thank you." Hermione edged back when Narcissa took a seat at the edge of the bed.

Narcissa must have noticed the action as she asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Hermione said, raising a hand to make sure her hair covered the ear Barty had torn into not wanting questions about it. Even if she did tell Narcissa it's not like she was in a position to help her.

"You don't look fine." For a moment Hermione thought she was going to need to repeat herself when Narcissa asked, "What do your friends think?"

"What?"

"Of your match." Narcissa clarrified. "It may not be true but the Prophet does clear him of being a Death Eater. I thought you would have said something to them."

Hermione blinked. Was she worried that Hermione had let slip that she knew the truth? Or was she just trying to be her mother? Or was it something else? Her mind spun, not able to grip on a single one so she grabbed at all the possibilities she could. "I told them my match was Blaise. He agreed to cover for me because of his own match. I'm not sure on the specifics for his own, but that's the deal we made. I haven't said a thing to anyone about him or the fact that he is a Death Eater, and you can tell Voldemort himself that I'm not going to. I know what happens if I do."

"Oh. I just figured, well." Narcissa was quiet for a moment. "You do know you're the only one that was paired with a Death Eater? The Ministry will be putting pressure on you to reassure everyone that he wasn't involved in the events of your Fourth Year."

"What? Cuthota told me they would keep the change of my name out of the paper."

"I don't know what agreements you made with the Birth, Marriages, and Deaths Department but that's just one arm of the Ministry. It's politicial and having something like that would be seen as good on their part-"

"And the Death Eaters to I assume? Is that why you're here? To tell me to go and just announce my marriage publicly?" The mere idea that either of them would have the nerve to use her in a political gamble was more than enough to make her body tremble in anger.

"No. I'm just telling you what actions the Ministry is considering. It's just what one of my contacts had been hearing and I thought you should know. I also thought it would be easier if you took the first step. Which is why you should probably tell your friends before the Ministry finds a way to work around your agreement with a minor department."

"Tell me friends? I can't tell my friends!" Narcissa looked as if she was going to say something but Hermione plowed on, her voice getting louder by the second, "How can you not understand that? You've seen this law!" There was a distant slam of a door that she couldn't hear over her own screaming, "You must have looked over it yourself to get Draco out of it or find some loophole but there is none! I'll be damned if I see my friends thrown in Azkaban for three years just for trying to force me out of my marriage! And that's exactly what's going to happen if I tell them! They won't just sit there with the knowledge! They'll try to get me out and get themselves imprisoned or worse! I won't let that happen! The Order needs them!"

"Narcissa." the low voice coming from the door made both of them look up, "Get out of my house. Now." Barty was standing in the frame glaring at the older Malfoy who was slowly rising from the bed.

"I was just telling Hermione-"

"Out. And consider your invitation invalid from now on." Narcissa glanced to Hermione but she just turned her gaze away silently hoping she would just leave without saying another word to her.

"Fine."

She listened to the sound of Narcissa's foosteps until there was the crackle of fire from the floo. It was then she noticed the way her hands had curled into the sheets and she loosened her grip quickly. The bed dipping made her look up, eyes widening to see Barty sitting there barely a foot away. "No."

"No?" he mocked the trembling tone in her voice as he moved further up the bed until he was resting against the pillows. "Come here." Her lips parted to object but his arm was already around her waist and forcing her down to him. There was a brush of skin on her ear a second later and she raised her hand to find the teeth marks gone. His fingers were soon on her jaw and she followed the path they had taken with her own. The cuts she had felt before along with the sore feeling that only came from a developing bruise was gone as well. "Take off your clothes."

She hesitated for only a second before gripping the strands of lace at her shoulders, pushing them down her arms one at a time flincing slightly when it touched cuts on her arms. His hands grabbed the hem afterward, pulling the top up and over her head and then tugging the bottom down to her legs leaving her to kick the garmet off. His hands were already on her chest and stomach, the scars disapearing with each touch. With her front healed she rolled over, pressing her chest to his and closed her eyes as she felt his fingers moving over her back, healing the last few scars on her body.