Disclaimer: JKR owns everything related to Harry Potter
A/N: I have no beta so mistakes are my own.
Chapter 33
When Hermione opens her eyes and looks around she thinks she's in a museum exhibition. There are magical paintings all around the room. She realizes how stiff she is and tries to move but finds she's bound to a chair. Her training kicks in and she tries to figure out where she is, and what's happened to her. She closes her eyes when she realizes the pounding in her head isn't helping. After a few minutes of deep breathing and concentration on healing, her headache has abated. She opens her eyes again and is horrified to realize she recognizes the paintings from the pictures in her case files. She drops her head and closes her eyes again, trying to work out how the paintings are moving when she knows the bodies of the victims are still living, since magical portraits don't activate until a person is deceased. She hopes the bodies haven't expired while she was unconscious. Her mind is also racing with the implications of the soul/body reconnection because of the paintings. She is about to ask why none of them has spoken to her when she hears footsteps approaching and decides to act as if she is still unconscious, hoping to learn something about her kidnapper.
Hermione realizes it's more than one person and they are arguing, the voices growing louder as the footsteps get closer. "What are you doing with that painting?"
A deeper voice answers, "I wanted to see the mudblood's reaction to it!"
"What do you mean the mudblood's reaction?" The other yells, "What have you done?"
"You always say I don't do enough, so I took some initiative. I had the perfect opportunity to take her, with no consequences so I did."
"You stupid moron! You think there won't be consequences for what you've done! When and how did you take her and where is she now?"
"Less than an hour ago, she was leaving the ministry through the lobby all by herself. A stunner and a couple of floos later here we are. I put her in the portrait room. It was easy. She doesn't even have her wand. Smartest witch of her age…" she can hear the derision in his voice, "not even aware of her surroundings to deflect a simple spell. She's nothing but an inferior mudblood."
"You are an imbecile. I can't believe you! You're going to ruin everything. Let me guess, you taunted her so she knows everything now right?"
"Well no, that's why I was bringing the painting in. She was still knocked out when I left her in there. I had hoped when she fell and hit her head on the marble floor it would kill her. Her soul isn't even worth adding to our collection."
"Gods, you didn't put her to sleep or stupify her, you just left her in the room?"
"I bound her to the chair."
"You better bloody well better hope she is still out! Hopefully no one has missed her and I can just obliviate her and send her home. I can't believe you were stupid enough to bring her here. Taking Granger will bring the whole of the magical world on our heels." Hermione hears what she assumes is a slap. "Put that portrait back in the other room!"
"Petrificus Totalus!" She hears a thump with the man's shout. "Bitch, I can't believe you slapped me. You are the one that said they couldn't have accomplished anything without her! Potter's so caught up in his engagement he wasn't even upset about his aunt and uncle that raised him. Do you think he'd be upset over her, when he didn't care about his own family being attacked? Plus with her being out of the picture they will never find us."
The man shouts, "I just moved up the timeline. I got Granger out of the way early so we can going after our real targets. Who cares about your wanting mental torture of dragging it out. We will hit fast and hard and get the rest of the souls of the DA into the paintings with your charm in a week. With your access to the floo, we will plant them at the manor. Then that ferrety git will end up in Azkaban where he belongs and we'll get Orders of Merlin for discovering them and get the accolades we deserve. They will never be able to figure out how to reverse your charm without knowing its you. We will be heros and they will be stuck in the paintings, silenced forever."
His voice lowers. Hermione assumes he's meaning it to be soothing to the woman but it sounds creepy to her, "My beautiful love, I'm going to leave you petrified to decide if you are still with me on this. If not, you can be a portrait too. Now, I'm going to annoy the mudblood."
Hermione slouches, making herself look unconscious, hoping he won't be smart enough to check her status with a spell.
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