Moments of Sanity
Invading Darkness
Chapter Twenty One
"In some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him--all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men. There's no initiation either into such mysteries. He has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible, which is detestable. And it has a fascination, too, which goes to work upon him. The fascination of the abomination--you know. Imagine the growing regrets, the longing to escape, the powerless disgust, the surrender, the hate." - Joseph Conrad
Her heart felt light as she swept through the rooms of her flat, stopping first her bedroom. She moved to her dresser, opening the second drawer and removing the familiar, bottomless black bag she had retrieved all those weeks ago from a hidden compartment in Malfoy Manor.
Her heartbeat quickened as she seated herself on the bed, anxious and afraid to explore this further. She lifted her bag, taking out the books she'd found in the Malfoy Library. They seemed too heavy in her hands, as though the weight of her whole life were held in their pages. She opened to the familiar page in Malfoy Family Punishment Curses, her eyes recognizing the spell that had been filling her mind—both in the waking and sleeping hours—for days now.
The words were haunting, both in their original form and her translation.
"I take you," she whispered quietly, "Memory, thought, mind—no longer for you to command."
Well, that seemed simply enough. The spell obviously worked on a completely mental level.
Change you, break you, possess you.
She shuddered at the words, remembering the first day she'd seen Draco. He truly had been broken. But she also knew instinctively that Draco had slowly begun to regain most of what he'd lost to the spell… slowly taking back control of himself. But she doubted that he could keep going this way. She doubted the spell could be defeated by will power alone.
Magic consumes you and conquers you.
She remembered that in the beginning he'd said the spell was more generic, slowly evolving over time, formatting itself to his mind, and using his own memories against him.
You become the prey until insanity or death.
The word 'prey' caught in her chest. The word struck her as bizarre. Prey—it painted the magic as a living, breathing predator, though it did fit with the previous line—the consuming of the mind by magic. But it had connotations of feeding, as if Draco's memories were the life source for the parasitic spell—what enabled it to change, grow, and then manipulate his mind.
A floorboard creaked, but she didn't acknowledge it, her mind too focused on the inner workings of the spell. She wracked her brain for a possible solution, but nothing came.
"There has to be something," she said aloud to herself. She wondered for a moment. What would be the effect of the death of the castor on the spell itself?
"Could it be that simple?" she speculated. "Kill Lucius and it all ends?"
The floorboard creaked again, and this time she didn't miss it. A shiver ran down her spine, the small hairs prickling on the back of her neck. Her hand jutted out, reaching for her wand on the bedside table, but she was too late. A large hand buried itself in her curls and wrenched her backward. She screamed as she tumbled backward off the bed, her hip hitting the ground at an odd angle. A hand closed around her throat, stopping her.
She was pulled to her feet by her hair, and she bit through her lip, trying to quell her terror. A body pressed against her back and she shuddered, hearing the distinctly male groan behind her. She felt the blood from her lip running down her chin, and she lashed her arms out, trying to injure her attacker, but he immediately clamped her arms at her sides. He laughed—deep and bark-like, and she recognized the laugh almost as well as she could recognize her own.
Her struggles became more desperate.
"Don't," she whispered, the hand on her neck too constricting. "Please, no."
His voice was right by her ear, his tone sinister, sending shivers down her spine. "Begging already, pet?"
She tried to reply, but before she could open her mouth, he pushed her sideways. She crumpled onto the floor again, gasping for breath, her hands immediately reaching for her throat.
"What is this?" he hissed, reaching forward to grab a book off her bed.
At the sight of the book, her heart plummeted in her chest.
"What are you doing with something belonging to the Malfoys?" His voice was cutting, and he stepped on her ankle, pushing down heavily when she didn't answer.
He bent and his hand again found its way to her throat, his hold tight and unforgiving. Tears trailed from her eyes and he smiled wickedly in response. He pulled her up again, this time by her neck, his fingernails digging into her soft flesh. Her upper back hit the bed, the rest of her body hanging awkwardly over the edge, her legs surprisingly weak beneath her.
She heard the crumpling of paper, and looked up to see him rifling through her notes with one hand. She knew the moment that his eyes found Draco's named scribbled into the margins.
An animalistic roar tore from his chest, and he threw her backwards. Her neck snapped backwards, the back of her head colliding harshly with the wall. She couldn't help the whimper that escaped her as he came to tower over her, the lines of his face dark with fury.
The pages of her notes were crumpled in his fists as he loomed above her.
"So." His voice was hard and cold. "Healer Granger" --he emphasized her professional name-- "seems to have a new patient."
The sneer on his face was unnatural. "That explains why you've spent so many hours locked away in St. Mungo's. And here, I foolishly thought that you were merely a determined worker."
Hermione gasped. "You've been following me?"
She thought hard, scanning her memory for any sign of him.
He laughed cruelly. "You'd think after all those years at war you would be a little more observant."
"However, I am confused at something you said. 'Kill Lucius and it all ends?' What ends?" The laugh that escaped him then was dark and nearly inhuman.
She threw herself towards the bed, and her hand came within inches of her wand before a swift kick connected with her stomach. The air rushed from her and he took hold of her hair once more. He pulled back quickly, and she felt some of her hair rip painfully from her scalp. There was a throbbing pain in her side, and she wondered if one of her ribs had been broken. Her body wanted to scream for mercy, but she wouldn't, not from him.
Not from Lucius Malfoy.
Instead, she ground out, "Bastard." She tried to kick out at him, but only succeeded in exhausting herself further. He laughed harshly, tracing a dirtied hand along her jaw, as though marking her for what she was… what her blood was. She flinched back, and spat in his face.
She expected another roar or brutal blow, but it never came. He merely wiped the spit from his face, deranged grin darkened the planes of his face, like storm clouds casting shadows across miles of earth.
"I believe that the time has arrived for me to end Draco's existence, as I should have done all those years ago."
Her heart swelled in her chest, each pump seeming too slow, too futile.
"Why?" she asked. She was aiming to sound casual, but her desperation seeped through every crack.
"Why what, you filthy whore? Why am I here?" His maniacal laughter was overpowering, and she wondered how something so seemingly innocent as a laugh could make her blood stop so abruptly in her veins, as if wishing to change directions.
He tugged again on her hair, and it somehow hurt more, the tender skin of her scalp burning in protest.
"I thought that would have been obvious. I'm here to make you suffer." The word is said with intense reverence, and it continued to reverberate in her mind for minutes afterward.
"No," she whispered, her throat unnaturally dry. "I mean why do you hate your own son?"
Lucius's face changed drastically and quickly like the falling of night in a mere instant. His expression was positively deadly.
"That thing is not my son!" he protested vehemently. "I'm surprised the weakling is even alive. Tell me, what's it like to see him mad? I can almost picture it now."
Something flames to life inside her, warming her cold and fatigued limbs.
"Then you'll be sorry to know that Draco is doing quite well… quite sane actually."
She watched the confusion spread across his face, turning then into disbelief.
"You lie," he hissed. "Mudblood."
"I don't," she replied with more confidence than she felt, search surreptitiously around her room for anything that might aid her in a fight. "I know all about your little spell, Lucius. Draco told me. He's told me many things. It appears that your spell is failing."
She partly told the truth for the spell had worn off for some lengths of time, but then of course it came back with vengeance.
"Impossible!" he cried, tightening his grip on her hair.
"No, it's not. Your spell is still present, sometimes. But there are times when it disappears completely, for days even. We're close to breaking the curse completely."
He looked down furiously, his nails digging excruciatingly into the back of her tender head. But then a smirk crossed his face, catching her off guard.
"You mean to say that you are close to breaking the spell. You are the only one who knows aren't you, Mudblood?"
She tried to compose her expression, but his laughter told her she had failed.
"Meaning that if should I follow through with my intentions this day, the fate of the man I once called my son will again be buried in silence."
The room went quiet, and she too felt buried, suffocating in the silence.
"And you thought you were close? You thought that by killing me you might break the curse?"
His broken smile was haunting, rocking the very foundation of all her previous theories.
His foot dug sadistically into the soft flesh of her stomach, pushing her into the floor. He turned his wand, mockingly holding the handle just out of her reach.
"Do it, little girl. You think my death will solve Draco's problems? Then do it!" There was so much confidence in his voice, too much confidence. She wavered.
"You've not done your research, Mudblood." He kicked her again, and she was certain now that she had at least a few broken ribs.
His wand was pointed at her once more, and he hissed, "Legilimens!"
Images whirled through her mind though she tried to keep them at bay. He examined first her Muggle childhood, and she could feel his disdain. He explored her years at Hogwarts, lingering on memories of Harry and the war. She felt the tears blazing new trails on her cheeks as image after image of perished loved ones were brought to the forefront of her mind. And then came Draco.
Draco in a clearly mad state.
Draco choking her.
Draco kissing her.
Draco. Draco. Draco.
Broken. Insane. In love.
"Stop!" she screamed, every part of her body twisting in protest. She pushed him from her mind, but the damage was done. His hand connected with her cheek, and explosive pain radiated from the connecting point.
"You bitch!" He growled. "You've ruined him!"
"No!" she gasped against the tears pricking at her eyes. "You ruined him. I fixed him."
He paced frantically above her, his hand running over his face in frustration again and again. If she hadn't been positive before, she knew now… he was completely mad.
"He'll never be free from it," he muttered. "Never free from me." He moved so quickly that she lost it in a blink, and suddenly his hand was clamped around her throat again. "The spell grows stronger still. He nearly killed you." He laughed, "Oh how wonderful a turn that would have been. The spell will always make him hate you, filth, regardless how much the fool thinks he loves you. He will lose all control, and the spell will always act contrary to his desires. Sorry Mudblood, but he can't be fixed."
There were black spots on her vision and her lungs burned in her chest. There was a cool trickling sensation down the back of her head and neck.
She was bleeding.
"Does it bother you?" She gave a small smile. "That despite the spell, Draco is still more sane than you are?"
He slapped her hard, her face turning from the force of the impact.
"It's time I finished what my son started," he leered, leaning down and kissing her with bruising force.
She screamed against his mouth and tried to turn her head away, but his fingers on her throat squeezed tighter.
"You've ruined him, and I'll ruin you for him just the same."
She heard the rip before she felt the cool air across the now bare skin of her stomach. There was another rip and she winced when one hand grabbed her breast roughly.
"This is what you're good for," he grunted.
She tried to kick her legs at him, but he trapped them beneath his own. His hand raked down her stomach, his nails digging into her skin and she yelled, the involuntary sobs stopping her from making any coherent speech. He captured both her wrists above her head, pushing his body against hers lewdly. His face came close to hers, and she snapped her teeth trying to bite at him. He slammed her hands against the ground in response, and she heard the heavy crack of bone before she felt the stab of pain.
His lips were at her neck, kissing and biting roughly, and she wished for the darkness at the edges of her vision to take her. She felt a cold hand against her inner thigh, and she thrashed again with renewed vigor. The tears were clouding her vision, and took a deep breath for screaming as loud as she could. His elbow pushed against her throat, cutting off her scream and her supply of air. He gripped the edge of her underwear and her entire body contorted, making it as difficult as possible for him to keep his hold on her. His fist struck her face, and her head ricocheted off the hard ground. She coughed and tasted the coppery presence of blood in her mouth.
And then in an instant, the pressure of his body on hers was removed, and she could breathe again.
She opened her eyes to see Lucius held magically against the wall, his arms and legs spread wide. A strong pulse of magic filled the room and out of the corner of her eye she saw him.
He held no wand in his outstretched hands, but the air around him crackled with wild magic. He did not look at her. His eyes were locked on Lucius, his fingers taut, and she realized that Lucius's face had gone nearly purple.
Her vision faltered, but she fought to maintain consciousness.
"It's your fault, Potter," Lucius sneered, his voice raspy from lack of air. "You led me right to her."
Another wave of magic exploded from Harry's hand, sending Lucius crashing back against the wall. The older man turned to her then, his eyes wild with fury, fear, and desperation.
"Your hero's no better than I. I followed him all this time, as he followed you." He turned back to Harry. "There is a darkness in you, Potter. Admit it, it's taking over."
Harry yelled, balling his fists tight, causing Lucius's body to twist and contort unnaturally. Harry controlled him like a rubber band, pulling and stretching, waiting for the eventual snap.
The blackness danced around the brink of her vision, and she groaned.
She heard Lucius scream in agony, and the sound echoed in her ears.
"Harry," she whispered. Her eyes now detected little more than a small circle of light in the invading black.
"I'm here, Hermione," he yelled, his voice still far away, and Lucius's groans of pain growing still louder.
"If I die, Granger," Lucius choked out. "If I die, the spell become permanent. Irreversible."
She felt another pulse of magic, and he screamed. His scream masked her small cry—a cry that had nothing to do with physical pain.
"Harry, stop…" she begged. Her stomach churned, and she emptied its contents on the floor beside her. "It hurts. Harry, please stop."
And then the pain disappeared with the screaming, as the final fragment of her vision vanished into the black nothingness.
A/N: I know it's a horrible cliffhanger guys, and I apologize. I'm currently on my way from Spain to Italy, and will probably be somewhere in Italy when I get the chance to post this. After a short stay in Italy, I'll be heading to Greece, then back to the Netherlands, and finally back home to the U.S. So this may be the last update for little while. BUT… the good news is… the long train rides give me plenty of time to write, so when I finish the month, I should have a lot written, and will be able to post very quickly upon my return!
I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Like I promised, big things happened… and more big things are to come! There are about five or so chapters left in this fic, depending on how much I ramble. I would like to thank my beta Eilonwy, who has worked wonders with this fic, and has stuck with me for a very long time now!
Much love! Reviews are, as always, appreciated!