Hello again! I know, it's been far too long, and I am very sorry about that, but I have good reasons. No, I don't, actually. Just school. Too much work, too many exams. Anyways, it took me a very long time to write this chapter, so I hope it has been worth it :)
Hopefully the next chapter won't take me months to write, but I can't promis anything...
Enjoy this chapter, and let me know what you think! Ideas are welcome, btw :/
xxx
Being left alone with only Bellatrix for an entire hour was already bad enough as it was. Hermione couldn't feel her muscles anymore, she was in so much pain that she didn't even have any energy left to scream. Even worse, Bellatrix felt the urge to carve in Hermione's skin with a knife, because Mudbloods had to be given a Muggle-like treatment. But it didn't stop with the Cruciatus Curse and all the blood caused by the knife. Hermione was forced to stay conscious the entire time during her torture, even though she fought to have a rest. All she wanted was peace and rest, not more tortures after what Barty had already done to her. Bellatrix was only doing this for her own fun, not because she found Hermione disobedient. An insane Death Eater like her wouldn't even be capable of thinking reasonably.
After what seemed like ages, even though Barty would only been gone for one hour, two other men entered the room. Hermione couldn't see clearly anymore, but she was fairly certain that she hadn't seen them before. Snatchers, presumably. They started to touch her. And Bellatrix didn't stop them. The three of them were just laughing, which made Hermione sick. But she wasn't able to do anything about it. She couldn't help but thinking about Barty, it was a strange and twisted feeling, but she wanted him to come back. She knew he wouldn't allow this to happen. It was a mad idea that the Death Eater who had hurt her so much, who had threatened her, who had raped her, who had taken innocent lives, was now the only hope she could think of. He would save her. It was a wrong thought, and of course she knew it wouldn't be true, but somewhere she knew that Barty would want her for himself. He wouldn't allow strangers to touch her.
But he still hadn't returned. Hermione wanted to push the two men away from her, but she didn't have the strength to fight. She didn't even have the strength to talk. She couldn't even scream anymore. All she could do was squeeze her eyes tight, praying that the man who was just as insane as the three people torturing her would come to her rescue.
She knew when he was finally back, she could tell by the fact that suddenly the pain and the touches stopped. There was a sudden silence in the room, the laughter had stopped. It was eerily quiet, and Hermione knew then that Barty had to be back, that he had to be in the room, and that he had seen what they had been doing to her. And her thoughts were confirmed when she could see his tall posture in the corner of her eye. Her sight was just good enough to see the fury on his face, and strangely, she felt some feeling of safety when she saw that. Because the rage was not directed at her, but at the men who had backed away from her. Not at Bellatrix though, he probably liked Bellatrix far too much to be really angry with her. But those two men… they were going to pay.
"What the hell do you think you are doing?" Barty growled with a voice that indicated that people were going to get hurt very soon.
He had his wand in front of him, his hands trembling with rage. Now that the two men were off her, Hermione could feel her body relaxing slightly.
"Oooh you are in trouble…" Bellatrix grinned, clearly enjoying herself. "You shouldn't have played with Barty's toy… He doesn't like that."
"Shut your mouth, Bella," Barty spat, though not nearly as furiously as when he spoke to the two men. "You two have guts, going against my explicit orders like that."
The men were too busy with fastening their trousers to answer him back, which Barty found clearly annoying.
"When I left… I said I wanted her back in one piece. And what do I find when I get back?"
"The Mudblood is still in one piece, stop being such a child," the largest of the two man growled, and obviously the bravest. "Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, Crouch?"
"How dare you… To talk to me like that. Me. Let me tell you, you should fear for your life right now… Because I have no reason to spare you, whoever you may be," Barty hissed.
The man's eyes now showed some hint of horror, what Hermione knew was completely justified given the situation, because there was no way the man was going to survive this.
"You- you don't want to kill me," the man said, not entirely convinced of his own words.
"Give me one good reason," Barty told him impatiently.
There was a painful silence when the man, presumably another Snatcher, couldn't come up with an answer to that. Which made Barty lose his patience with the man completely.
"ANSWER ME, OR I SWEAR I'LL RIP OUT YOUR GUTS WITH MY BARE HANDS!" he bellowed, storming over to where the Snatcher was shrinking away.
Hermione could no longer see his face, but she had a very good idea of how terrifying his face must have been that moment. His wide eyes, his nervous tongue flick, his jaw clenched… She could only hope that he would be somewhat calmer when he had taken out his anger on the Snatchers.
"You insolent little coward," Barty sneered. "Haven't you learned by now that you should never insult a Death Eater? You still haven't learned your lesson, after all this time? You are inferior to our group, you are not worthy of the title, you are not worthy of life…"
"I- I only wish to serve, s-sir," the man tried, but of course it would be in vain.
"Calling me sir now? Bit too late for that, you should've shown me respect while you still could," Barty hissed, with a hint of amusement in his voice. "You don't wish to serve, you only care about your own selfish needs."
Hermione was too weak to scoff at that, but she nearly did when she heard the irony of his words. He might want to serve Voldemort in contrast to those men, but he never cared about anyone else either. He was just as much fixed on his own selfish needs.
"Now say sorry, both of you," Barty ordered, gesturing with his wand impatiently.
"S-sorry," the two of them stammered.
"To the girl."
Now that was something Hermione didn't expect coming from him. He had not even looked at her since he had arrived, let alone that he would care about the state she was in at the moment.
"What? Are you serious?" the smaller man asked incredulously.
"NOW!" Barty roared, making the men jump.
"I am not apologizing to a Mudblood!" the smaller Snatcher frowned.
"Is that so?" Barty asked, circling around him.
The room was now completely quiet, everyone seemed to be holding their breath.
"Should I force you to do it?"
The man now looked at his feet, clearly unsure what he should do. He was terrified, but not enough.
"This is your last warning…"
Even though the Snatcher was probably a lot older than Barty, there was some sort of aura of power and dominance around the Death Eater that could make you cower back even if you didn't want to. Somehow the younger man, who was probably one of the youngest Death Eaters, could make you fear him without even doing anything. And that was exactly what was happening to the Snatcher. There was a doubt in the man's eyes, he wanted to maintain his dignity, but he also didn't want to refuse the Death Eater who was looking ready to murder.
"You bore me," Barty growled. "Avada Kedavra."
A green light flashed through the room, making the other Snatcher gasp and causing Bellatrix to giggle again. Hermione remained impassive, she couldn't really care anymore what happened. She could see, however, that the other man had drawn his wand now. She shrieked when she saw the man aiming his wand at Barty, cautioning the Death Eater. No matter how badly he had been treating her the past few months, she still wanted Barty to stay alive right now. He was her only chance of surviving here. He had been right about that, she needed his protection. He was the only one who seemed to want her alive. Without him, she would have been dead. She would never see her friends again.
"HOW DARE YOU!" Barty roared enraged when the Snatcher fired a curse at him, which he could block just in time thanks to Hermione.
Of course he started firing curses back with a high speed and with a skilled precision. The Snatcher could barely defend himself, so quick were the curses the Death Eater sent at him. It was a rather one-sided duel that had started, perhaps because the Snatcher was just too slow, or perhaps because Barty was just too angry, making him even more dangerous. Eventually, Barty succeeded in disarming the man, leaving him completely vulnerable and to his mercy.
"Now… what to do with you…" Barty said smoothly, taking in the fear on the man's face calmly.
Everyone in the room already knew what he was going to do to the man, Barty was just delaying the moment, enjoying the helpless man's expression which had turned into pure terror. He let out a humourless and cold laugh, a sound that made Hermione shiver.
"Why did you attack me?" he asked, challenging the older man in front of him. "Well?"
He didn't get an answer.
"Well?"
Urging the man to answer didn't seem to help very much either. And that caused Barty to lose his already very thin patience.
"CRUCIO!" he yelled, making the man scream.
It was not even clear why exactly Barty was this furious with the man. He had clearly not been too happy with Hermione when she had pissed him off earlier, he was probably frustrated after his visit to Voldemort, he might have been angry because the men had been touching Hermione, and he may not have liked that one of them had tried to attack him, but he was punishing the man far too worse for his so-called committed crimes. If Barty would have just killed him, it would have been enough. But what he was doing now, was far worse than just death.
In the meantime, Bellatrix was only encouraging him. She even started to help him at some point, making the man's torture only two times as bad. No one was going to stop them from going too far. Not that it would matter, they would kill the man anyways. Hermione could smell the blood, a smell that made her want to vomit. She passed out before she could see or hear how the stranger's life was going to end.
The next thing Hermione knew when she woke up, was that she was lying in a large bed, covered in a warm duvet. It took her some time to remember what had happened, but then it all came back to her. She shot up straight in the bed, looking around quickly, seeing that Barty was sitting in a chair on the other side of the room. He glanced up when he saw her, and Hermione silently cursed herself for moving so loudly. She should have pretended to be asleep. He grinned at her, though his expression was still cold and his anger was clearly not gone yet.
"Good. So you're awake," he stated.
"So that you can hurt me even further? Don't you even think about it. Why did you even save me from those people, it's not like you care," Hermione snapped, even though her head was still aching very badly.
"You're wrong," he said darkly.
Hermione narrowed her eyes at that.
"… What?"
"You say I don't care. I do. I found out that I do care. Because seeing you being treated like that made me furious. That means I care, right?"
She scoffed at that, not believing her ears when she heard the irony in those words.
"You deranged bastard. How dare you say that when you did all of that to me yourself, even worse," she growled.
"Because you wouldn't obey me."
"Nothing can serve as an excuse for the things you have done."
He stood up and walked towards her, making her shift away further. He flicked his tongue, only once. Which was new to Hermione. It was as if he was irritated, but not quite. She was annoying him, that was certain.
"Have you forgotten… what you did to me this morning?" he asked softly, with a hint of a growl in his voice.
"That was self-defence, you git."
"I don't care what you call it. You just need to do as you are told, and I won't have to use violence against you. We could live together without attacking each other."
"And let you do whatever you want with me?"
"Exactly."
"Forget it."
"My dearest girl… how am I supposed to be nice if you don't try the same thing? You should thank me for saving you today. You would have been in a much worse state if it weren't for me."
"I'll never thank you for anything. I've told you I don't need protection," Hermione snapped, even though somewhere she was very grateful that he had saved her.
"I said… thank me," Barty hissed.
"I said… never."
His eyes widened, and his jaw tightened. But he exhaled deeply before talking, as if trying to calm himself down.
"I… admire you. For your… loyalty. It's just loyalty to the wrong people. And I want that to change. If not, the Dark Lord might want you dead."
"Good."
"No, not good. I don't want you dead."
"Then what do you want, because if you think we can live together peacefully, you are very wrong," Hermione snapped.
"Don't be so difficult, I am trying to offer you a better life here and you can't be grateful."
"You should be saying sorry to me, not the other way round. You should beg me on your knees for forgiveness, and if you are not willing to do that, I will keep hating you," Hermione snarled bravely, even though she could see the irritation in his eyes. And Hermione had been long enough around Barty to know that that look of irritation was dangerous.
He would have killed her on the spot if she were someone else. Instead he said something that she didn't expect at all.
"I bought you something."
He bought her something?
"WINKY!" Barty shouted, and the elf appeared immediately with a large box in her arms.
Without saying anything else, Barty grasped the box out of Winky's arms and he tossed it on the bed, in front of Hermione.
"Open it," he told her.
Hermione looked suspiciously at his face to judge whether she should open the package or not. But she had already provoked him enough as it was, she really shouldn't make this even worse. The encouraging look on Winky's face made her slightly more confident, so she picked up the box and she opened it. In it she found a crimson dress, made of expensive silk material. It looked pretty, she couldn't deny that. And the colour would certainly look good on her.
"I thought it would suit you well," Barty commented, clearly waiting for a form of appreciation from Hermione.
"You bought this?" Hermione asked sceptically. "You wouldn't buy something as expensive as this for someone like me. Have you killed someone again?"
"If you think you can talk to me like that just because I haven't hurt you… yet… You are wrong," Barty growled, clenching his fists to keep himself in control. "I bought this for you. With money. I haven't killed for it, if you must know. I just wanted to give you something nice, in the hope that you would become slightly less resistant."
Hermione just glared at him.
"But of course, if you refuse to thank me and if you still wish to be aggressive towards me, then of course I can do the exact same thing," he added.
He took a step forward, making Hermione shift away involuntary.
"Alright," she said. "I'll thank you and try to be less aggressive, on one condition."
"You don't make the rules here, little Mudblood," Barty snarled, now losing his patience.
"You don't get to touch me, or my friends. You will not hurt me or my friends ever," Hermione said firmly, ignoring Barty completely.
A wicked smirk formed on Barty's face, and Hermione thought that she had finally gone too far this time. She shouldn't have challenged him this much. He didn't like being ordered around by anyone except for his master, and he certainly hated being ordered around by her. He was still the one in charge, Hermione had nothing to defend herself with. She wondered why she had to be so brave and stupid, Barty was offering her a slightly more peaceful life and she had to make a negotiation out of it. Which was not Barty's intention.
"Alright," Barty said, surprisingly. "If you start obeying me without having to torture you first that way, then okay. But be warned… if you go against this agreement and decide to talk to me like this again or even try to attack me… You'll feel pain beyond belief. And trust me to give your friends the same treatment."
Hermione was silent for a moment, he was actually promising her here not to hurt her. If she behaved, of course.
"Disloyalty will be punished," Barty growled. "Now… I believe you have something to say to me?"
"Yes… thank you for the dress," Hermione said defeated.
"And?"
"Thank you for saving me."
"Good girl… That wasn't so hard, was it? Now you can put it on for me, so we can go to have dinner," Barty said amused.
"I'm not…"
"Ah, ah, you are putting it on," he ordered again.
Remembering their agreement, Hermione picked up the dress and started to change. With the hope that her next stay at Hogwarts would be slightly better after this talk with Barty. Even though she didn't really expect him to keep his part of the agreement, since he was a walking trigger. One toe out of line from her and he would snap again. Maybe, if she tried to keep her mouth shut around him, she would have a chance to survive. And she had to survive, not for Barty's selfish pleasure, but for the safety of her friends.