The next morning Hermione looked up when she heard the door creak open. It was Malfoy again, carrying a small tray of food. He sat on the floor in front of Hermione, placing the tray between them.
She sat up and tore off a small chunk of bread which she ate hungrily. She picked up the goblet which was also on the tray and drank from it, surprised to find sweet pumpkin juice rather than just plain water. Looking more closely at the tray, she spied half a grapefruit as well as plain yoghurt on cereal. It was not traditional fare, "What is all this?" she asked.
"My breakfast, thought you might be hungry."
Rather than replying, she dug into her grapefruit and kept her attention focused on that.
He had to break the silence after she had finished that and moved onto her yoghurt and cereal. "Father sent me here."
She looked up curiously.
"He wants me to get out of you where Potter is."
"Malfoy," Hermione said seriously, "I was telling the truth, I really don't know." The fact that she had an inkling as to where they might be was neither here nor there.
"Well, what am I supposed to tell my father?"
"I don't know! Tell him whatever you want. Do you really think that I would ever tell you, even if I did know?"
He shook his head as he stood up. "What should I do, Granger?" he began pacing, "Father is expecting me to get information out of you, anyway I can, just for some scrap of information, no matter how useful," he knelt back in front of her, "What do I do?" he pleaded.
"I really don't know," his helplessness scared her somewhat and she didn't have any answers for him. "I don't have anything to tell you."
Suddenly the door opened and Lucius Malfoy appeared, "Well Draco?"
He stood up to face his father, "She doesn't know anything father."
"Draco Draco Draco, you have so much to learn and I am trying to teach you, but I must admit that you are trying my patience somewhat," he said coolly.
"Father, if she doesn't know anything then she can't tell us anything."
"Draco, her and her little buddies have been travelling around for months together. They will have made plans, discussed ideas and I am sure that she is the brains behind it. No, she knows something. She just needs… persuasion."
"Persuasion?"
"Veritaserum or torture. And as the former is rather too much hassle, I tend to favour the latter. Come on then Draco."
"Father?"
"Unless you have feelings for this… this pathetic excuse for a witch?"
"Of course not," he answered, rather too quickly.
"Well then?"
Draco fished out his wand and looked at Hermione, she could see him pleading with his eyes, pleading with her to say something, do something from stopping him having to do this. She could practically hear his voice in her head asking her to forgive him as he raised his wand and said, "Crucio."
Hermione expected the pain but was not prepared for it. It felt as if every inch of her was aflame in agony; she writhed on the floor as her body warped into unfeasible shapes. But no sooner than it started was it over.
"Tell me what you know, or you will be in even more pain," Lucius said menacingly.
Hermione was panting rather heavily. "I don't know anything," she maintained.
Lucius looked at Draco and signalled for him to do it again but Draco shook his head. "Father, can I have a word? Somewhere else?"
His father looked exasperated but followed Draco outside, shutting the door behind him securely.
Hermione lay on the floor, her muscles burning, completely unable to move. She was sure Draco had cut the curse short but had he really had to do it in the first place? And where had they gone now?
She did not have long to wait, in very little time at all they were back. "You are to accompany my son," Lucius ordered and then turned heel and left.
"Accompany you where?" she asked, wincing as she tried to sit up.
He crouched down to her and, pointing his wand at her, muttered something. She felt a tingling sensation replace the pain and found she was quite able to sit up straight. "Listen," he whispered, "I tried to cut it as short as I could, but there was no way I could get out of it. I had an idea though, I'll tell you about it when we get upstairs." He stood up and held out a hand to help her up too.
Hermione did not take it but stood up without assistance, "Are we going back to your room?"
He nodded.
"And then what?"
"What do you mean?"
"And how long am I going to stay there until you put me somewhere else? No, I think I'll stay here thank you very much."
"Look Granger, this is best for all concerned. Trust me."
"Trust you?! Trust someone who just put me under the cruciatus curse? Who is a lying coward? I don't think so!"
"Can we just get out of here and then talk?"
She did not reply but allowed him to take hold of her arm and guide her out the cell, along the corridor and up the stairs. When they were in the grand entrance hall she jerked her arm from his grasp and pelted across the room towards the door. "Arresto!" she heard Malfoy shout and suddenly could not move.
He marched towards her and took hold of her once more, "Don't be stupid, Granger. You would never have made it past those doors." With a firmer grasp of her, he led her up with sweeping staircase and then into his room once more.
Once they were in his room, he shut the door behind him and let go of her. Hermione glared at him and stalked over to the window, "Well?" she asked.
"I couldn't let you go, the front doors are enchanted to only let few exit, I think Father gets a notification even if I leave them."
"So find another way for me to get out!"
"I can't."
"Why not? For the same reason you put the cruciatus curse on me?"
She saw a pained expression cross his face, "I didn't have any choice. If I hadn't done it Father would have and you can bet that that would have been worse for all concerned."
She looked away from him to the grounds beyond the Manor and the next moment felt his arms slipping around her waist, "Hermione," he said softly against her hair.
For a second she felt like forgiving him for the pain and humiliation, believing that he had no choice, that there was no way that he could have stood up to his father and she leant back against him. But a niggling voice in the back of her head could not help think that there must be something that he could do, someway that he could get her out of here, if only he was not so scared. She gently detached herself from him and turned to gaze up at him, "please don't," she whispered.
He looked hurt but didn't say anything, and she moved back around to look out the window. As she stood there she was vaguely conscious that he had moved away from her to sit on the chez long that she had occupied on her last visit. Hermione climbed up on the wide windowsill, leaning her back against the side of it, and hugged her knees tightly. She sighed as she stared out of the window; she had to admit that her prison was darkly beautiful. It was still relatively early and so the sun was not very high in the sky but already it was very bright and the grass glistened with the recently fallen rain. She missed Harry and Ron so terribly. What had they thought had happened to her by now? It must be a week and a half at least since she had been captured, did they think her dead? Were they still trying to find her? Or were they still trying to work towards the defeat of You-Know-Who. It was strange, Hermione was still desperate to get out of here, but it was now much more of a dull desperation; she was not sure whether it would ever happen. She didn't worry for her safety so much anymore, so long as Lucius Malfoy wanted to keep her alive.
"Don't you want to know why you are here?" Malfoy asked, breaking into her contemplations.
"I suppose so," she replied, not looking at him.
"When Father asked me to put you under the curse for the second time, I had an idea, I didn't think I could do that to you again so I was desperate to do something else instead, something that didn't involve harming you anymore."
"Not physically anyway," she muttered.
If he heard her he didn't give any indication that he had, "when we left the room you were in, I told Father that I had already questioned you extensively and that I did not think that you would give way to conventional methods. I was surprised when he agreed with me and asked what my idea was. 'Simple,' I told him, 'I'll just make her fall for me.' He looked sceptical at first but in the end agreed that it was a good plan. He said I could charm the socks off a pureblood so I would have no trouble with a-" he stopped quickly, "with you. So that is why I have brought you up here, he thought it best, although of course I was not supposed to tell you, I was supposed to concoct some plausible explanation. He thought that if I wooed you, you would tell me everything."
"And when I don't tell you anything?"
"We will have to think of something you can tell me."
She swung around to look at him, "so, in essence, you are going to do exactly what you told you father you would!"
He jumped up to walk over to him and took her hand in his, she didn't resist. "Hermione, I've fallen for you. I don't know how, or when, but I have. And that is certainly not part of the plan I told Father. I couldn't think what else to do. At least here you will be warm and fed and you can read as much as you like," he smiled slightly.
She gave his hand a little squeeze. "I know," she said quietly, "but I can't stay here forever Draco."
He sat down next to her and pulled her close to hug her, she wrapped her arms around his firm torso and leant against him. It was so comfortable; she wanted to stay like this forever.
Author's note: hey, I am not going to be updating for a while because I have to concentrate on revising for a raather important exam that I have already failed once and certainly cannot afford to do again! But thanks for the reviews and please keep them coming - I hate those people who say they will only update when they reach a certain number, I don't think that is what this is all about, but I really appreciate them and please keep them coming. As for the story, I am not exactly sure what is happening, Hermione keeps pulling me in another direction from the one I am trying to go down, but really, that girl has a mind of her own. Having said that, it's still vaguely on course! x