Chapter 21

Ginny took the stairs two at a time. Hermione and Snape hadn't emerged yet from their room – though after looking at him last night, she couldn't say that she was surprised by that – but they needed them. Now. She stopped short outside the room and pounded on the door. She was not going to just burst in like Ron had done and get an eyeful.

A sleepy "What is it?" broke the silence and she took it as an invitation to enter. Poking her head through the doorframe, she was surprised to see Hermione glaring at her with a still-asleep Severus Snape wrapped around her.

"Sorry to wake you," Ginny said quietly. She didn't want to be the one to wake the man. Let Hermione do it. She was much less likely to be ripped to pieces for it. "We need him downstairs." She paused. "We have visitors and we aren't really… sure what to do about it."

That certainly woke Hermione up. She rolled and ran her fingers through Snape's hair. "Severus," she murmured. Ginny almost blushed, feeling like she was intruding. He stirred and, if she wasn't mistaken, the man actually purred at Hermione's attention. "Severus, they need you downstairs." Her eyes snapped back to the redhead in their room. "Who's here?"

She was sure she actually did blush when Snape cracked one eye to look at her. "The Malfoys are outside on the street."

He was upright in an instant, the blanket pooling in his lap. Ginny was both embarrassed and fascinated to learn that he was bare-chested. She couldn't help but stare at the scars mapping out his skin.

"We'll be right there," he rumbled in what was clearly a dismissal. "Don't do anything until I come down."

She nodded and turned on her heel, marching out of the room.

oOo

It was less than five minutes later when the pair made it downstairs. The rest of their group was gathered around the window in the library. Sure enough, there were three platinum blonde heads gathered around a lamp post. The three of them were whispering to each other, though Narcissa threw periodic glances toward the house. Hermione knew they couldn't see it, but it still made her edgy.

"Why are they here?" Ron hissed.

"Narcissa was a cousin of the Blacks who lived here. Likely, she already knew the general location of the house. She just can't see it," Severus answered calmly.

"But why are they here now?" Hermione could hear the accusation in his voice and bristled. Severus had not led them here. That was just a moronic thought.

She turned her eyes back to the street, looking them over. "They look awful." Malfoy Sr. had a black eye and a fat lip. Draco was clearly favoring one leg. Narcissa had no marks on her that Hermione could see, but she would have bet money that something was hiding somewhere.

"So what do we do?" Ginny asked.

Severus was the first to answer. "We need to find out why they're here. Obviously we can't do that in the street. As it is, they're going to draw attention just standing there."

"I am not giving them the location of Grimmauld Place," Harry snapped.

The older wizard rolled his eyes. "So blindfold them and bring them in with you. Hermione, Longbottom, you're with me."

He headed to the door.

Ron blocked his way. "You're going to bring more Death Eaters into the house?"

Severus drew himself up. "Yes. Lucius is not loyal to the Dark Lord. Narcissa never was. We'll put them in the cell until we're sure."

"And Draco?" Harry asked.

Severus sighed. "Fuck if I know. Thus, the cell." He pushed past the boys. Hermione and Neville followed, wands out and ready. They stopped on the front step, just before the edge of the wards. "Lucius, Narcissa, Draco," he called in greeting, his voice neutral.

"Severus," Lucius answered, his shoulders sagging slightly in relief. "We weren't sure if we had been seen."

"Why are you here?"

Lucius hesitated, glancing at his family. "We seek asylum. The Dark Lord, naturally, was not pleased with your escape from my dungeons." He paused again. "I know what you are, Severus. We can help you. We would like to help you."

Severus looked to Hermione first. She looked skeptical, but she nodded. The Longbottom boy shrugged and held out his wand in front of him.

"Your wands, if you please," Severus said mildly. The elder Malfoys dropped their wands without hesitation. Their son took a moment to think it over, but did the same. Hermione summoned them to her wordlessly and tucked them into a pocket of her robes. Severus stepped out of the edge of the wards. He had no wand, but he was alert and ready. Hermione stepped out next, followed closely by Neville.

The Malfoys were silent as they approached but she could read the uncertainty in their eyes. "Hands behind your backs," Severus instructed. They did as they were told and Hermione summoned ropes to bind them. Blindfolds were next. "You will be lead inside."

Hermione took hold of Narcissa while Neville grabbed onto Draco. Severus stationed himself at Lucius's side. Hermione was careful to murmur a warning about the steps to her captive and then the six of them were inside the wards and the front door opened, Ginny's anxious face greeting them. She suddenly saw the situation from the younger girl's perspective. Lucius Malfoy had been the catalyst to her possession at the age of eleven. Hermione could sense the concealed fear and anger in her. And this was a person who was coming to them as a would-be ally. She led Narcissa into the hall, leaving enough space for the others to follow.

With a wave of her wand, the blindfolds fell away. No need to keep the interior secret. After all, Narcissa had walked these halls as a child and it was likely that Lucius had, too. As she directed them toward the stairs, she called over her shoulder to Severus, "Maybe an unused bedroom would be best. Neville and I – er – didn't do much cleanup in the cell." Behind her, Neville laughed.

"They probably don't want to see that," he agreed.

Severus sighed. "Lead the way then."

Hermione wondered whether their display had been cleared away yet or if the family had had to walk past it to get here. She hoped in a perverse kind of way that it hadn't. They would know what she and the others were capable of.

She led them to an empty bedroom with two beds on the second landing. The Malfoys perched on the edge of one of the beds and Neville kept his wand trained on them. She handed her wand over to Severus, who began to cast the wards on the door. "Who wants to go first?" he asked, turning back to them when he had finished.

Lucius stiffened his spine and set his jaw. "I will go first." Severus nodded and pointed Hermione's wand at him. He flinched ever so slightly, and Hermione wondered what he thought they were going to do to him. Rather than the torture that he seemed to expect, Severus instead slipped into his mind.

He made an effort to be gentler than the Dark Lord, who tended to leave one with a feeling of having been violated with an ice pick, and Lucius did very little to hinder him. He rifled through memories, searching for one in particular. It was the night that he had first sat in the library here at Grimmauld Place. He wanted to see what Lucius had thought, had felt.

Lucius looked around the room, a mild expression on his face. Bellatrix had dragged some poor muggle into a corner and was cutting chunks out of him. Rowle was on top of a teenage girl, arse in the air. His stomach turned. He glanced down at the row of prisoners at his own feet. The girl was crying, her hair ragged and her shoulders thin. Her clothes were torn and she'd probably been raped already before tonight. Beside her, a man who appeared to be a relative of some kind to the girl glared at him. He sneered and the man bared his teeth. He supposed he should get started. He looked across the room and found Severus with his wand buried deep inside the belly of one of his victims. The man was screaming and clawing at the wound but his strength was fading and it wasn't long before he slumped to the floor.

He was probably expected to fuck the girl, but he didn't think he could stomach it tonight. He used a slicing hex wordlessly on the girl's relative – her brother, perhaps? – and the man gasped once before clamping his hands around his throat to staunch the lifeblood spurting from him – unsuccessfully – and falling over. He looked toward the dais and started. The Dark Lord was watching him. He smiled at his Lord, expressing his gratitude for the evening. He supposed he'd have to fuck the girl. The Dark Lord was a lustful being and he expected a show.

Severus skipped forward through the rest of the memory.

Lucius said nothing to Narcissa as he crossed the room to the shower. He was filthy. He felt filthy. He washed the blood off his skin but no matter how he scrubbed, he still felt dirty. Narcissa didn't ask him about his evening and he didn't offer to tell her, but he knew she noticed how he was careful not to touch her that night.

Severus retreated from his mind and nodded. "Heal him," he instructed Hermione quietly, handing back her wand. She summoned a jar of bruise paste and got to work casting diagnostic charms on him while she waited for it to arrive. He hissed at the sting when she healed his busted lip. She didn't warn him before she snapped his broken ribs back into place. The bruise paste came hurtling toward her and she held out a hand for it. He only flinched a little when she touched him, smearing bruise paste around his eye.

When she was done, she handed the wand back to Severus, who turned to Narcissa. She nodded sharply and he dove into her mind.

He allowed her to steer him first. The Dark Lord was threatening Draco. He felt the anger in Narcissa – the feral, visceral response of a mother. It had gone on for days, the threats of violence. And then they hadn't just been threats and it was all she could do not to leap to her feet and curse the vilest man ever to walk the earth right then and there. He knew very well – better than almost anyone – that it was easy to show someone what they wanted to see. He rifled through her mind further after she finished showing him what she had wanted to. Hatred of the Dark Lord, love for her son. That was the most relevant information that he found. She was fond of Lucius – he had given her Draco, after all – but it was tainted by her anger with him for dragging her family through the court of the Dark Lord.

He retreated from her mind and passed the wand back to Hermione. "Heal her."

Hermione eyed Narcissa. "Are you injured?"

She swallowed and nodded stiffly.

Hermione cast her diagnostics over the woman and blanched. "Really?"

Lucius growled, while Draco cast his eyes onto the floor. They'd probably been made to watch. Hermione sighed and undid the binds on Narcissa's hands. She led her to the bed on the other side of the room and summoned curtains to surround them, placing a silencing charm on them.

"I'm not a trained healer," Hermione told her gently.

Narcissa looked down her nose at her. "This is not, as the muggles say, my first rodeo, Granger. I can direct you."

Hermione swallowed her nausea at the thought and nodded. Narcissa stripped down and Hermione went to work following her instructions. When she was finished, she summoned the bruise paste from the other side of the curtain and handed the jar to the older woman, who slathered the stuff onto the bruises marring her torso and her breasts.

"Do you need a contraceptive?"

She nodded stiffly. "Please."

"We'll brew one as soon as we're finished here."

The men were all silent when they emerged from behind the curtain. She wondered if any of them had spoken at all while she had been healing the woman. Narcissa remained standing, though she placed one hand on her husband's shoulder. With a flick of her wand, Hermione released Lucius's ropes as well. He rolled his shoulders a few times and stretched out his arms, being sure to keep his movements slow and steady. He kept a wary eye on Neville, who still had his wand pointed at the older wizard's face. She handed her wand back to Severus. It was Draco's turn.

Draco tried to fight him. The boy was a decent Occlumens. Unfortunately for him, Severus was a better Legillimens. But it wasn't gentle.

Draco was crying. The curtains were drawn around his bed. Severus could feel the emotions rolling off the boy. Fear, desperation, despair. This was when he'd been tasked with killing Dumbledore. Draco disliked the old man, but he didn't want to kill him. He didn't know if he could. A traitorous voice whispered to him that this was all his father's fault. Draco had had no choice in this. He hadn't signed up. He'd been lead.

The scene changed.

His father's hand, with a death grip on his shoulder, was the only thing that prevented him from launching himself at Scabior. The filthy slime was violating his mother. The Dark Lord looked on, approving.

Severus felt the raw fury that flowed through the boy and he was satisfied. He had been in the minds of other Death Eaters. He had seen their thoughts as their sisters, their daughters, their sons had been punished in much the same manner. While most had not been pleased with the display, they had submitted easily. The Dark Lord was their master and they obeyed him. They bowed to his whims. Some of them even participated.

"Heal him," he said, handing Hermione her wand for a final time.

She nodded and stepped toward her former classmate. The diagnostics showed only the damage to his leg. She crouched, watching him warily in case he decided to try and kick her. Using her wand, she cut away his trouser leg at the knee, hissing at the sight below. His calf was pulverized. The meat was just that: meat. She could see the damage worsening in front of her eyes, the flesh shriveling and eating away at the muscle around it.

"Do you know the spell that did it?" she asked, not looking him quite in the eye. He shook his head and she looked to Severus next. He had, unfortunately, come across it before and he murmured the counter-curse behind her. Immediately the leg stopped deteriorating.

She summoned the bottle of Essence of Dittany that she knew was in the cabinet in her bathroom. As soon as the curse had been stopped, the wound had begun to ooze. Bright red blood dripped onto the floor, making a puddle around her knees. She began to chant under her breath, sealing the blood vessels without actually healing the wounds. The dittany hurtled into the room and she held out a hand for it. Draco yelped when she dripped it onto the raw red meat of his leg, but the muscle began to smooth out almost instantly, the gouges in the flesh filling in with fresh growth. Only then did she begin to focus on the lost skin.

"There will be scarring," she murmured, "but you'll live."

Severus released his hands with a wave of his hand. Hermione cleaned the blood off the floor. The jeans probably weren't ruined but they'd need a good cleaning and that wasn't something that would be happening right then and there.

Draco was staring at his blood on her hands.