Hermione stood as if her feet were anchored to the floor. The muscles in her legs twitched and prised the bottom of her shoe from the ground - but move she did not. It was as if she were trapped in a tiny glass box, with just enough room to shuffle her feet. She would have wished for a box to hide in, really, at this particular time. As she was, Hermione's eyes remained, like her feet, glued to the boards. She focused on the bleak floor, with its lacquer and black film. The suitably bleak floor for a bleak house, which was filled with creatures that had deathly pale skin - 'Purebloods' they called themselves.
Across the floor, the same one Hermione was standing on, Bellatrix Lestrange was holding Harry by the head. His body awkwardly beneath him as the Death Eater held his bloated face up for Draco to see, with a look of glee. While Hermione's eyes skittered over Bellatrix's warped features she became deaf to all things, before her she could see people's lips moving and their clothes rustling but the only sound to pass through her ears was a low humming noise that synchronised with the woman's articulation. She began to feel dizzy, as if the whole world was shifting on its axis and she were the only one to notice. Hermione's pulse fluttered in her neck and in her stomach, she felt as if in any moment she might implode in on herself in total silence - ceasing to exist in this room any longer. Her breath sucked into her mouth over her lips and down her throat like a dense syrup, like a bleach white molasses that tasted exactly like the fetid house she was held captive in. It had been longer than she cared to count since she'd seen Bellatrix last, since she was left in the Hospital Wing with no word from the dark witch. Hermione knew she still felt something for the woman, not just anyone could have made her stomach lodge in her throat.
Standing paralysed toward the back of the dim and sullen room Hermione was overcome with heartache as she looked over Bellatrix and realised how many details about the woman she had forgotten. She had forgotten how tactile and formed her pale skin was, how dark her eyes were - they were like hunks of jet set in her head; the jaw, which jutted out a little with its square build. She had forgotten the curves of the witch's body, the languid contours which comprised her hips; her waist; her neck. Hermione observed, as if hypnotised, the Death Eater's lips forming each syllable and each letter as she spoke, a row of yellow teeth revealed itself to Hermione. They were a very particular shade of yellow which she had somehow forgotten to remember.
Hermione's thoughts suddenly gathered and she found herself in the present again. Lucius was yelling something to the snatchers, with a look of rage across his face. Hermione also became aware then of an arm like a piece of lumber across her chest and the foul smell of stale saliva at her back. Beside her Ron was fighting his captor but she stood quietly, waiting to see what Bellatrix would do next.
"Luciussss!" A blonde woman, what can only be described as, slithered out from the shadows and put her hand on Lucius' shoulder - Hermione knew her as Narcissa Malfoy and she was exceptionally like a snake. She could see the resemblance between Bellatrix and this woman, they both had that look about them, in their eyes and in the way they walked.
Draco was pulled down toward Harry's bloated face, Bellatrix's eyes going wide in expectation of an answer. Hermione was baffled, to say the least, to be around this woman again, she had spent so long thinking about her, that there were some days she could scarcely fathom the idea of Bellatrix as a person, rather than just a series of memories. While the woman was occupied with trying to get Draco to identify the disfigured Harry, Hermione looked straight into the witch's eyes, in hopes of catching her attention. In hopes of establishing a connection.
"What's wrong with his face?" Bellatrix suddenly piped. "Was it you two?" Here, she turned to face Hermione and Ron.
Bellatrix began to take slow and well calculated steps toward the two, her wand raising from her side. Hermione's stomach, which was still lodged in her throat, became filled with butterflies and a nervous churning.
"Give me her wand. Let's see what her last spell was." The woman came closer and closer, though she was still relatively far away, Hermione still held eye contact with the woman, which went, apparently, unnoticed by the dark witch.
"Got you." Bellatrix started giggling in her usual, sadistic way, which always made Hermione's tongue curl. As the woman laughed she lowered her wand and pointed, in a strikingly friendly way towards Ron and herself, at the same time her eyes flicked across the room until they rested with Hermione's for a moment as Bellatrix smirked. The young, and captive, witch felt like she was about to explode as her heart slammed in her chest and her legs became like columns of electricity.
Instead of walking over to Hermione, Bellatrix wandered straight past her and toward a snatcher at the very back of the room. She narrowed her eyes at him, for diverting Bellatrix.
Suddenly her ears were filled with a hissing noise as the dark witch got closer to the snatcher. Hermione, as much as she wanted to focus on what was happening, began to drift in and out of clarity as her hearing once again became muffled and her vision was encircled with blur. She saw Bellatrix mouthing something to the snatcher, pointing at the sword hanging from his belt, and then, without warning, Bellatrix made great gestures with her arms and wand which left the thin man gasping for breath on the floor. She moved, like a viper, from one snatcher to the other and with an incredibly loud noise he, too, was left on the floor. Around her, Hermione was aware of everyone, even the Malfoys, taking a step back - they were afraid of Bellatrix, and who could blame them. She'd caught a taste of blood.
"Get out! Get out!" Bellatrix released the snatchers from her grip and screamed, carnally, as they crawled on their hands and knees out of the Manor. Hermione couldn't help but be pleased they were gone, two fewer people to contend with for Bellatrix's attention.
Suddenly, like a pair of crows, Bellatrix and Narcissa closed in on Hermione and Ron, Narcissa with her wand raised. Hermione's heart palpated in her chest as the two witches got nearer. Bellatrix's eyes flicked to make contact with her own, for a tiny moment, before turning their gaze to Ron. Hermione became instantly jealous and felt betrayed when the dark witch took a hold of his shirt and pulled him toward the centre of the room. Hermione, by some wishful inertia leant forward too, hoping to be taken wherever Bellatrix was going. As the woman leaned in for Ron, even though fear coursed through her body, Hermione couldn't help but close her eyes for a moment and inhale Bellatrix. The woman's scent came to pool at the base of her spine, sending shivers through her whole body. The dark witch's scent had changed over the past while - perhaps the fetid walls of Malfoy Manor were getting their sullen, grey claws into her and marking her.
"I want to have a little.. Conversation with this one. Girl to girl!" Hermione's eyes widened as Bellatrix came storming over to her, with a wild look.
Hermione's heart felt like it was suddenly exploding inside of her. Her mouth became insufferably dry and breathing seemed, then, to stop being an automatic function. Bellatrix came closer to her, their faces only inches apart. Hermione, unable to resist the dark witch, leaned forward slightly as her eyes jerked down to the older woman's lips and back up to the glassy black depths again. Bellatrix looked at her with a unique mixture of anger and familiarity. Closer still, the woman stooped, as Hermione's breath caught in her throat. Bellatrix's eyebrow raised almost instantly, she heard the sound of breath catching and still she looked furious.
"Pleased to see me are you?" Came her low retort, "You won't be so happy soon."
Bellatrix's clawed hand reached out and took hold of the front of Hermione's clothes. The dark witch was much stronger than she looked, something Hermione had learned long ago, and the girl was almost scooped entirely off her feet. With her free hand Bellatrix lifted up her wand and started brushing the hard tip of it over Hermione's face, trailing the object down her jaw and pushing it harder into the soft flesh of her lip. Again, Hermione's breath came in staggers as the wand, an extension of Bellatrix, nudged at her lip, which fell open a little at the contact. Though she was still afraid of what was to come next her body clearly had other priorities. Hermione's eyes drifted down toward the woman's lips and she could now see that Bellatrix was smirking as usual. Slowly, the wand began to urge it's way down her neck as the Death Eater's eyes followed it's tip intently. In an effort to regain control over her body, which was far too responsive to the dark witch's vicarious touch, Hermione looked around the room, with it's bleak walls and bleak floor. At some point Narcissa, Lucius and Draco had left the room, perhaps they knew not to cross Bellatrix's path when she was interrogating Mudbloods.
Hermione became aware, then, of where Bellatrix was moving her wand. Instantly her eyes snapped back to the woman, who's wand at that exact moment pressed against the veil of flesh coating her sternum where she had once administered a Cruciatus Curse. Bellatrix's features twisted until a sinister smile came across her face. Adrenaline pumped through Hermione's body instinctively, her nervous system recalling the awful pain which had once wracked her. Swiftly, Bellatrix swooped in and pressed her mouth against Hermione's ear, who let out a noise of surprise at the unexpected action. She hadn't been around the Death Eater for some time and had forgotten just how erratic and intense she was. With the wand still pressed against her chest Hermione's pulse soared and she felt her head becoming light, she knew what was coming.
Bellatrix's hot breath laved against her ear as a whisper, "Crucio."
Immediately, Hermione slumped against the dark witch who was still supporting her weight. There seemed to be, at the moment when the spell soared throughout her limbs, a disproportionate amount of force to the audible volume of the cantation. Hermione clenched her teeth and screwed her eyes shut as screams of pain dropped from her lips. Suddenly Bellatrix stepped back and let Hermione fall to the hard floor, her knees buckling beneath her. A hand came up to her chest and clutched at the flesh there as she coughed, spluttered and retched. Somehow it was worse the second time around.
Bellatrix bent at the knees and gathered Hermione's hand within her own. Reflexively the girl's fingers wrapped themselves around the dark witch's slight hand as she was dragged to the middle of the room. As soon as Bellatrix let go of her hand Hermione pooled on the floor, like a puddle of human, still clutching her chest and coughing. The woman circled her like prey as she writhed on the floor, Bellatrix nudged Hermione with the side of her boot. Tears began to spill from her eyes from the pain throbbing inside of her. In the face of this woman she ultimately felt incredibly silly for crying, afraid it would make her feel weak and her predator, her sadist, would lose interest in her.
"What's the matter, Hermione, Muddy, dear, you don't want to play anymore?" Came Bellatrix's almost sincere response to the trembling girl in front of her.
Somewhere, in the back of Hermione's mind, she noticed Bellatrix's use of the name 'Muddy,' something she hadn't been called for what seemed like years, and something she didn't want anyone else to call her. It was almost like Bellatrix's way of telling her not to worry and to trust her.
The Gryffindor Lion roared in her chest and Hermione felt compelled to get up. She brought her legs under herself and was just about to push her body up to a standing position when Bellatrix spoke again -
"No, no, no!" Here, the witch leant down and whispered to Hermione, "I've always rather fancied you on your back." In spite of the young witch being, still, in incredible pain Bellatrix's tone was light and playful and she let out a low giggle as she rose again to her feet.
Slowly lifting her foot again the dark witch pushed Hermione with her foot, a fleshy smack echoing around the room as her body hit the wood. Confused, Hermione lay motionless for a moment as Bellatrix's gaze pinned her to the floor. The woman began circling around her, dragging her limbs asunder and spreading the girl out on the floor. Hermione wasn't quite sure what to make of her new position and decided to stay still - lest she have Crucio cast on her again.
"Now don't move a muscle." Bellatrix had a playful air about her voice.
Lying completely spread out on the floor, with the after effects of a Crucio still crawling through her, Hermione found it hard to believe that this woman was the same person who she had chased through the Forbidden Forest. Perhaps in the time they had spent apart Bellatrix changed, serving the Dark Lord may have twisted her even more. Hermione also considered their last moments together. The Death Eater had been totally exposed and vulnerable, perhaps she felt like she had to regain her dominance and regain her pride.
Hermione's stomach quivered with fear as the woman circled around her with a look of rage in her eyes, though, when she spoke it was with a mischievous tone.
"What did I say about moving, little Mudblood?" Bellatrix paused and looked Hermione right in the eyes, before lifting her wand again. "Crucio."
This Crucio hit her in the chest as if the dark witch had dropped an infinitely heavy block of stone onto her. She felt as if all the blood in her body was being squeezed into an exceedingly small point, black specks clouded her vision as she struggled to draw in breath while she screamed involuntarily. It felt like her body was being drained of all it's vital fluids. Of it's life.
Bellatrix descended onto Hermione rapidly, her legs coming to rest either side of the girl's hips. The feeling was familiar to Hermione, who was still red in the face and struggling to breathe. Had she been in a more composed mind Hermione may have reached out and touched the older witch, but she remained still. Bellatrix stooped and brought her mouth close to the girl's ear again, who couldn't help but lean into the woman. Hermione's heart began to palpate beneath her sternum as her breath returned, her chest heaving with each intake of air.
Suddenly, Bellatrix's surprisingly calm voice came to her ear, "I've got some sad news for you my little thieving Muddy, so I want you to listen very closely. Are you ready?" Bellatrix exhaled warm air into the mass of auburn strands before speaking again, "I know you'd like to think that we had a secret love affair, but truthfully - it was all in your mind."
Hermione's brow furrowed and her mind began rapidly scanning through what Bellatrix could possibly mean. She was almost glad when the woman spoke again,
"You see, at the Ministry, you let your filthy Mudblood eyes linger on me for too long and so I thought I would teach you some manners. That and I wanted spoil this 'goody-goody' act you insist on shoving in everyone's faces." Here, she put on a sarcastic voice, mocking Hermione, "Look at me I'm Hermione Granger and I know all the answers!" Here she returned to normal, "It wasn't hard, you practically invited me inside your head when you looked at me how you did."
Adrenaline started surging through Hermione's body as she very loosely grasped what Bellatrix was talking about, though then, she was unable to fathom the scale of the thing.
"Do I really have to spell it out for you? They told me you were bright." Bellatrix snorted.
"At the Ministry, you took a wayward spell," Here she feigned innocence, "to the head and were knocked out indefinitely. While you were out I simply wriggled my way into your mind and made myself at home." Here Bellatrix pretended her fingers were a little pair of legs and walked them, proudly, smugly, over Hermione's forehead.
Hermione's whole world began to quiver and wain as she realised what had happened, her breathing slowed and her heart felt like it had long since stopped beating. Bellatrix continued,
"What made you think that a witch of my calibre, of my status, would want to fuck a filthy little girl like you. You're disgusting." Her tone became wrought with malice and hate.
It was at that precise moment which Bellatrix broke Hermione. An incredible pain swelled in her chest and, for a split second, Hermione thought that it might be a wordless Crucio. Hermione was suddenly horrified to be pinned beneath this woman, this creature and started squirming, trying to prise her body from this crushing weight. Bellatrix's hand came between them and took a hold of Hermione's face, her long nails digging into the soft flesh of her cheeks, which drew another scream from the young witch.
"I bet you wish they taught Occlumency at Hogwarts now, don't ya?" Bellatrix giggled as she watched the girl beneath her writhing in the most unimaginable pain.
Hermione was still trying to shove Bellatrix off her while her heart was haemorrhaging in her chest. Her body filled with a burning sensation and she cried tears of rage and of sorrow. The dark witch laughed and mocked Hermione by fake crying and then leaned in closer and licked the girl's cheek with the full length of her tongue. Hermione made a noise of disgust as Bellatrix sat up and then got off of the young witch's lap, who was left sobbing on the floor as an empty vessel. She could hardly comprehend moving at that moment, it felt as if something had stabbed her in the chest, but had not killed her. This hurt more than any spell. At least Avada Kedavra killed you after it was done.
"And do you know what the best part is, Hermione?" Bellatrix cooed from the side of the room, smiling and clearly pleased with herself. "After a while you started imagining things into my Legilimency, isn't that brilliant? You had no idea! Those stupid little notes! " Cackles erupted from the Death Eater and echoed around Hermione, the woman she now wanted nothing to do with was inescapable, she would have preferred having Crucio cast again and again on her than this. Every word she spoke was like a tightening band around her chest and Hermione felt as if at any moment her ribs might break.
"Hermione Granger - dug her own grave!" The laughter of Bellatrix Lestrange, Death Eater, sadist and criminally insane filled her head. She just wanted it all to end, to be put out of her misery.
Somewhere in the back of her head a tiny, remorseful murmur, in a voice which wasn't her own uttered, simply, 'Oh… to be an Occlumens.'
When Dobby died after apparating them out of Malfoy Manor Hermione felt nothing. She stared at his tiny lifeless body and couldn't muster any more pain, she looked to the sea and wanted to walk out into the waves and disappear beneath them. There was nothing left to feel.
Hermione knew Ron and Harry would never ask her about what Bellatrix had done - and for that she was glad.