Chapter 29

Theo watched as Hermione searched through her connection with Bellatrix to find out where Pansy was. He felt ashamed to think that she had ditched him, when in reality she had been kidnapped by a madwoman. But to be fair, it's not like that was a possibility that was on the top of the most realistic.

"She's in the Shrieking Shack."

Those words were enough to send the inhabitants of the room flying out the door to the nearest fireplace. Theo couldn't help but feel slightly relieved as he knew that the safety of Pansy was looking a lot better than it had been previously.


Bellatrix smirked at the two men in the room. Rodolphus was busy entertaining himself by hexing the rodents that were loose around the room, causing them to bleed and to wither, while his brother was snoring on a bed that was held together by strands. In just a couple more hours the wizarding world would be in shambles. Soon, very soon would she be able to give the Purebloods of the world their rightful place. She would be able to complete what the Dark Lord had been able to do. Victory was so close, that she could almost taste the sweet scent of the blood bath that was about to occur. She needed this; she wanted this so badly.

She traced the scratches that a table in the room held with her long, dirt filled finger nail on the table as she slid her way around it. As she reached a piece of filth, she flicked a piece of dirt. The dirt hit Rabastan in the face, waking him from his state of slumber. He sat up instantly and gave her an intense glare.

"What the bloody hell was that for?" he growled as he stood up. He gave her an intense look, one that might have scared her, had she been anyone else.

She crackled a laugh at him before answering, "Go check on the prisoner Rabastan. We don't want her to have escaped on us, now do we?" she sneered at him.

Rabastan looked over at his brother, hoping he would tell his wife to do it herself. Rodolphus merely shrugged and said, "Go check on the mudblood."

In a normal pureblood household, she would have been told against giving orders to the men of the household. It would have been her doing all the dirty work while they concocted up schemes and plans for her to follow. After all, it was the job of women to be seen and not heard; or was that children? She could not remember for the life of her, not that it mattered, seeing that the Lestrange household was not ordinary. And it was not one where the men had enough brains to pull anything off, much less a scheme to bring the 'great' Harry Potter to his knees.

He made his way toward the door, huffing and stomping as a child. Bellatrix rolled her eyes and ran a hand through her unruly, heavily knotted, hair. She twirled it slightly, humming an old song her mother had sung to her at night. It had something to do with blood purity and extinguishing the weak and inferior, and it always helped her sleep.

She heard an angry shout from bellow and two pairs of footsteps making their way back into the room; actually it sounded like someone was being dragged back while the other was walking back fast. What had happened now?

The door was pushed open, and Bellatrix could not believe her eyes when she saw the young Parkinson girl in front of her. What the bloody hell?


Pansy was thrown onto the hard, cold floor of the room. The three dark wizards were standing above her, trying to figure out how they messed up. Pansy disliked them, and knew she wanted nothing to do with whatever they were planning.

She had determined that during some of the time she had to herself. She realised then that she didn't believe what she had learned. What indeed was blood and status, if you had no friends or anyone to love? All those things were meaningless, and didn't matter much. She also realised how wrong it was for her to have believed these things. Her mind probably changed somewhere around the time when she realised that she was going to die once they found out who she was. It didn't matter how pure her blood was, or what she believed in. She wasn't Hermione, and for that they would kill her.

Funny how being in a life threatening situation can change someone's beliefs about everything you have ever known.

Pansy may not be the top in her year, but she was still a Slytherin; and that meant she was cunning and sly. While she may not be able to get out of here, she could still prolong her life. If they found out that she was somewhat useful then they would be willing to keep her alive so they could get more important information out of her. The more useful she was, the longer she could live. So now, no matter how much she detested them, she needed to pretend to be useful, and pray to Merlin that someone would come for her and save her.

"Parkinson, why are you here?" Bellatrix asked, looking down at her. She looked bloody furious, like she was about to blow up.

"I t-tried to tell you that I'm not Hermione, but you wouldn't l-listen to m-m-me," she stuttered out, trying to sound as scared and helpless as possible. The weaker they thought she was, the less they would believe that she was a threat. And that was just what she needed them to think.

Rodolphus looked livid. "Crucio," he snarled, sending Pansy through a journey of pain. While she had seen the spell placed upon many other people, she had never once experienced it herself. She cried out, whimpering on the ground. She was unable to move; as she felt her body lock up from the spell.

He looked like he wanted to give her a second helping of the spell, but luckily for her, Bellatrix stopped him.

"Well why in the name of Morgana did you look like her?" She roared, as she sent sparks flying out of her wand.

Pansy winced and knew she could be at the end of that wand if she wasn't smart enough with her answers. "I used Polyjuice potion to become her. How was I supposed to know that you were going to choose last night to go after her? I was merely sticking to my own agenda, which you happened to ruin," she said dryly, trying to sound as cold and frustrated as she was able to muster out.

They looked slightly interested, "And why would you be after the Mublood," Rabastan sneered harshly. She knew that he wouldn't believe her if she tried to lie. So why not tell the truth, with a slight twist of course. These people obviously didn't know that Hermione was indeed a pureblood, but Pansy would just keep that knowledge to herself for the time being.

"Because she wrecked my life," Pansy screeched out, trying to sound as much as a teenage girl as she could.

They looked at her questioningly. Bellatrix looked particularly interested, "Oh, and how did she manage such a feat?"

Pansy knew that she had seen Draco, and knew that Draco and the real Hermione must have had something together. "She stole my Draco from me," Pansy wailed. "She used her stupid mudblood charms to lure him away from me and placed some sort of curse on him. Tonight was supposed to change all of that. I was supposed to go to the ball as Hermione, while I had her locked away somewhere, and kiss every guy in the room. That way, he would see her as the true whore she really is and he would leave her for me!" she pretended to sob, as she told a half lie.

"Well, that's one way to wreck her life," Rodolphus managed finally. He had a look in his eyes, making it seem like he was trying to figure out how someone was able to be so childish with their tactics.

Rabastan looked at his sister-in-law, "Well?" he demanded. "Is she telling the truth?"

Pansy felt Bellatrix attempting to use legilimency on her mind, trying to probe all the corners and see if she was hiding away any secrets, "Oh no you don't," Pansy thought to herself. There was no way this witch was accessing her most private thoughts. While Pansy wasn't good at most of Hogwarts' subjects, if there was one thing she was skilled at, it was blocking away her mind. She created a wall, and placed the memories that had to do with what she told them. She also placed up a few irrelevant, harmless memories so they wouldn't suspect anything. She hoped they hadn't at least.

Bellatrix looked pleased, "The girl speaks the truth," she said.

Pansy sighed inside, with relief. They would have killed her off right away if they had the slightest amount of doubt in them. The two wizards seemed to accept this answer.

"So what do we do now?" Rabastan snarled. "We have a prisoner that is no good to us, and we still don't have Hermione Granger. Bellatrix, you promised us that this plan wouldn't fail, yet here we are, without the same leverage we had just a few hours ago."

Bellatrix looked furious with him, "At least I had a plan," she gnarled back.

"And look what good that did us you stupid woman," he said, raising his voice for the first time since Pansy had gotten in their custody. He appeared much scarier when he was angry. Pansy would hate to be on the wrong side of his wand.

"Don't raise your voice at my wife," Rodolphus said coldly to his brother. Turing to his wife he spoke, in an equally cold manner, "You better have a way to fix this," he said harshly.

She looked hopeless for a moment. For the first time since Pansy had known her, Bellatrix looked like she had no clue what she was going to do. Then her eyes lit up with a wicked gleam and she looked at Pansy.

"You girl," she said to Pansy. "Tell us everything you know about the Mudblood," she demanded.

Pansy knew what she was going to tell them. "Well, she is dating Draco, and they are the it couple of Hogwarts. It's rather annoying actually. They're just so cute together, and it makes me want to vomit. They're always sitting in the halls, snogging each other senseless, which make no sense at all. I mean they have their own Heads room, so why not use it. Really, it's common manners," she said, scrunching her nose, trying to look disgusted.

Bellatrix looked at her exasperated. "Can you tell us something that doesn't have to do with my blood traitor of a nephew," she asked.

Pansy pretended to look thoughtful about this, "But he isn't a blood traitor," she said, trying to pretend to figure out what they meant.

She looked furious, "Of course he's a blood traitor," she spat out.

Pansy pretended to look confused, "But don't you need to be with a mudblood or half-blood to be a blood traitor?"

"Your point?" Rodolphus asked, sounding impatient.

Pansy pretended to have realisation dawn upon her, "Oh sweet Salazaar, you don't know?" she asked incredulously.

"KNOW WHAT?" Rabastan exploded, obviously frustrated with her act.

"It was all over the Daily Prophet for the longest time. Turns out Hermione is a pureblood and she had some spell altering her DNA cast upon her. Yeah, she's really a Zabini, given away for her protection. Rather funny story isn't it? The famous mudblood, actually the purest of her group," she said, like it was the weirdest thing she'd ever heard. Truth be told, she did think it was rather strange when she first found out.

The colour drained from Bellatrix's face. "We need to get out now," she said, shouting.

Rabastan looked confused, "What, why? What does a bit of blood mean for anything?"

"You fool, the spell was only sound as long as she was the same person as she was when I left the mark. Her DNA's been altered, meaning she can reverse the curse and trace us back here. We need to get out now," she yelled.

Realising her words, they ran towards the fireplace. But it was too late for them. The floo glowed green, and a handful of Aurors were in the room. They were trapped without escape.

For the first time since she had been kidnapped, Pansy believed she had a fighting chance to get out of here alive.