A/N- Please make sure you read the bottom of the page for definitions, explanations or descriptions. Anything derived from the HP world will be marked as such while anything else, taken from my research or my own head will not be, a special shout out to the book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them which I consulted multiple times before beginning this story. xx
As always reviews are both appreciated and welcomed.
I
North Scotland, Post Second War
The house-elf named Benny stared at the closed door apprehensively, the Master wouldn't like being interrupted but he was told that the business was urgent and of great importance to the Master.
Important enough to bother him during a ritual, Benny wasn't certain. He had only worked for the Master for the past few months but he knew him to be a dangerous man with little mercy... oh he had always treated Benny with respect but the aura of icy cold control that cloaked the Master was impeccable. And Benny was sure he never wanted to be on the wrong side of his cold gaze.
Benny had noticed that it terrified even those older and those reputed to be more powerful than him. Of-course the Master's appearance was one of great impact as well, he was handsome in a way that was both cold and sensual... like how one found dragons beautiful while still admiring their awesome power for destruction. Benny had always loved dragons, but his Master also taught him to fear them.
There were whispers about the Master, how the Dark Lord didn't trust him but was in need of his awe-inspiring magical abilities. That explained the oddity of his request and the unquestioned way it was carried out, despite its oddity.
He should knock, it was urgent that he tell Master of the new development.
Benny raised one shaking hand, his thin-bony fingers nearly brittle from clenching them too tight.
The sempiternal light that broke through the bottom of the door was a harbinger for what he was to see when he stepped in, it made him shudder...
The knock was like a penny drop in the silent eeriness of the cold castle.
"Come." The master's voice pierced the thick, heavy silence that seemed to conflate with the howling wind to create an atmosphere of depressive dead air.
Benny snapped his fingers to open the heavy door, studious keeping his eyes low, studying the runes on the door like they held the answers to the questions of the universe... merlin knew, they probably did.
Benny entered the room on silent footsteps, his bare-feet caused no sound. Just like the Master liked it.
"M...Master..." he began in his quivering voice, before taking in the scene before him and falling silent.
Draco Malfoy... heir to the Malfoy fortune and the one of the most powerful men in Britain, raised his head from where he knelt on the floor. The blue glow surrounding his alchemy circle pulsed with energy as he poured blessed water into a silver chalice.
"Not yet, elf." He rasped, "Your master is busy..."
The rumours that swirled around the young wizard were terrifying, they alone kept certain Death Eaters far away from the young man.
From what the house-elf had heard, a much younger Draco Malfoy had tried to run from his family home at seventeen... to join the resistance.
The elves below stairs talked about his punishment in hushed voices.
"Dragged back, he was." Nodded Betty, the senior most elf in the household nodded emphatically, "The young master, he was dragged back home kicking and screaming and was punished."
"Punished?" asked Benny, terrified of the man he was valet to, "How?"
"They say they tried to turn him into a wild-beast but it failed and now even the Dark Lord fears him." Betty whispered back, her large protruding blue eyes shining with some unnamed emotion.
Betty had looked after young Draco Malfoy when he was in the nursery, she loved the Master like he was her own.
"They tortured him for seven days and seven nights and when he emerged from that room... he was a changed man." Betty said, dabbing the corners of her eyes, "He was always a little selfish, the young master... a little reckless but he had a good heart behind all that. The Dark Lord changed him... he may not have been able to punish him the way he wanted to but he took his heart and ripped it from his chest... Draco Malfoy will never be fully human again." She said, crying softly into her pink apron.
Benny studied the man who all spoke of in hushed voices, The Necromancer, The Dragon Tamer... The Beast.
Indeed, if one saw Draco Malfoy now, they wouldn't recognize him from the ethereal, almost painfully beautiful boy he used to be. With his moonlight hair and mercury silver eyes... he had resembled a cherub from a renaissance painting, at least in colouring.
His beauty now was almost bestial... a result, it was rumoured of a concoction that the Dark Lord himself had injected into him. Something that was meant to break his soul but instead bound to it and made him unbelievably powerful. If he was a cherub before... Draco Malfoy was now the archangel Lucifer... stark and beautiful, leading his dark army against God.
Benny studied the Master covertly, even kneeling on the floor his powerful body looked like it was in constant motion, black runes covered his brawny arms, beginning from under his hair at the back of his neck... all flowing in harmony. Benny knew if the Master ever gave one of his faux smiles one could see the much longer canines that made his grin predatory. And his silvery eyes, the ones women found so alluring would often bleed to black when he was enraged.
Draco Malfoy was a savage now... a beautiful, brutal savage.
The world had speculated a great deal about what exactly Draco Malfoy was now... some claimed werewolf, some claimed veela but one thing was for sure and that was; that nobody knew what he was.
"Tell me elf... what makes you disturb my solitude." Came the raspy voice of The Beast who still knelt on the ground, his nimble fingers playing with a long, sliver athame.
"M..Master... word was received from Master Blaise today, he said to tell you
'One only daughter; his battle-brave son.
Is come but now, sought a trustworthy friend.
Beowulf is reported to have the strength of thirty men.
Who valuable gift-gems of the Geatmen carried.
As peace-offering thither, that he thirty mens grapple'" stammered Benny, repeating the confusing missive received today.
Blaise Zabini, the Master's second in command with Theo Nott was one of his closest friends and allies. They were perhaps the only two men in Draco Malfoy's vicinity that didn't fear him and instead treated him with the casual ebullience that came with a long-standing friendship.
But master Blaise was a trickster and often spoke in twisting, puzzling ways that a simple creature like Benny couldn't comprehend.
The house-elf was shocked when The Master rose suddenly, his savagely hewn face lit by the eerie blue surrounding him, his eyes wild but his face carved into a carefree smile.
"Beowulf aye. You have brought me welcome news elf. Look sharp, soon things will change...there is to be magic infused in this demesne ."
And with those words the tall man stalked out of the room, leaving the small creature wondering what had just happened.
...
The Beast rested his back comfortably against the stone polished leather... his glass had a healthy measure of amber liquor. The human Malfoy was more a part of him now than in the past three years when he had struggled to accept his dual identity, his rage at being made into an abomination festering silently in his chest.
Rejecting the human part of himself fully until some time ago... he had finally emerged from his miasma, stronger and more powerful than before and now there was nothing stopping him from taking what was always destined to be his. And revenge... it would be beyond sweet, he thought with a savage smile on his face.
...
Hermione was terrified, she had tried to struggle against Blaise but Zabini was tall and fit, strong like an ox and healthy... unlike her. She had barely caused him to break a sweat.
"Why?" she whispered, studying him from her corner in the carriage studiously looking away from the Threstrals that were pulling away from the only home she had known for the past few months.
Teddy was clutched in her arms, his plump cheeks red after a bout of screaming infant rage at being woken when she was struggling to get away from Blaise.
"Why what, cara ?"
"Why me?" she asked, unable to stop the tears from leaking out of her eyes and falling on her cheeks. "Why did you hunt me down, I'm nothing... just a mudblood."
Blaise made a pained sound at the back of his throat, reaching out to brush the tears away... grimacing when she flinched from his touch.
"All in good time, Granger... all in good time." He replied before falling silent.
Hermione curled further into herself, studying him with wide, terrified eyes. Blaise Zabini, the harbinger of her death... she wondered why he had captured her instead of just executing her on the spot.
"Am I to be strung up... like you did with the rest of the Order?" her fear was palpable, remembering some of the snippet she had read whilst on the run of rebels who had been punished by Voldemort, their corpses put on lewd display on the gates of Hogwarts... a warning and a signal.
Blaise studied the small woman curled up in fear beside him carefully, his green cat-like eyes oddly gentle, "No little one, I'm glad I found you instead of any of the other search parties. I'm not taking you to the Dark Lord."
"Then where are you taking me?"
Blaise didn't reply, instead he reached under his seat and pulled out a basket. He wasn't showing it on his face but he was surprised at the infant in her arms. He didn't know who the child belonged to since he certainly wasn't Granger's.
The presence of the plump little infant was worrying but from the look on her face and the way she held the child it would not be possible to separate them.
"Come..." he invited, opening the lid of the basket and reaching in for one of Betty's excellent pasties, "I'm sure you're starving."
Hermione was... she was desperately hungry and the smell of meat, potato's and spicy herbs was filling the carriage. Yet she shook her head desperately, continuing to study him with fearful eyes.
"Are...are..." she swallowed heavily, "Harry or Ron or anyone from the Weasley family still alive?"
Zabini didn't answer her, instead gave her a veiled look before pressing the warm pastie into her hand. "Eat it, cara mia you look starved to death. I'm afraid I cannot answer your questions just yet."
Hermione was beyond tempted, it had been months since she had eaten anything this substantial. Stealing or buying meat was unpractical since she had been on the run with no preparation unlike in seventh year when she had packed a bag of essentials.
No, no meat for her since cooking it in any of the places she was hidden would have attracted attention.
"I need some food for Teddy first." She whispered, ashamed that she was about to accept the offering of food from her enemy. She lowered her eyes, deciding to shut off the part of her brain that demanded answers; why was he treating her with such care? What was happening with the rest of her friends? Why did he look at her so gently? And the one question she was desperate to ask but didn't dare... where was Draco and was he alive?
But she couldn't... that would give her biggest secret away.
"Ah... I wondered who he was, the little piccolo lupo will get a meal. What does he usually eat?"
"Mashed up veggies, milk or formula." All the baby supplies Hermione had stolen were in their hut, including his milk bottle.
Blaise studied her gravely, "Will gravy work for now? I'm sure Betty can provide him with adequate nourishment when we arrive."
She nodded her head before turning away from him. Her head throbbed with a million questions but she wasn't able to open her mouth to ask them. At least until she had eaten.
"Come Granger, I'll feed the boy. You eat this, you look like you're about to collapse."
Hermione wanted to shake her head vehemently but her stomach made a hollow, groaning sound... one she had become intimately familiar with in the last few months.
Blaise handed her the carefully wrapped pastie before reaching for the baby. For the first time in six months her focus was entirely on her food, Blaise while seeming unfamiliar was children seemed to be handling putting gravy in the child's mouth with relative ease. He didn't even complain as the baby sputtered playfully and spit up the warm liquid on his jet-black robes.
With both charges soon fed, Blaise urged Hermione to get some sleep... she only started at him in mute horror before shrinking back into her little nook. But soon the rocking motion of the carriage and Blaise's seeming uninterest was enough to put her to relative ease.
Just closing my eyes for a second she thought, just a second...
Blaise Zabini saw that his charge had fallen asleep and could finally study her properly for the first time...
Hermione Granger looked little like herself now, during their last few years at school Blaise had noticed her burgeoning beauty. His Italian blood appreciated all kinds of beauty, especially the kind of beauty that turned a nosy little nerd into a woman who looked like a brunette Botticelli painting come to life.
But her body had lost its plump curves and given way to nearly painful thinness, her large eyes... amber and often lit with righteous light were now dulled... so large they were almost scary on her face, peering up at him with fear and indecision. Her wild corkscrew curls, once vibrant with life lay limp against her delicate, wan face... Draco would have a fucking fit when he saw her.
They were reaching the castle now, he hated to but he had to wake her. He wondered how she'd react when she woke up, probably with fear... after all a human's natural tendency in a situation of great peril were either fight or flight...
And Blaise didn't know how much fight was left in Hermione Granger anymore.
"Granger." He whispered softly, laying a hand on her shoulder, "It's time to wake up, love."
Hermione woke with a start, her first instinct was that of fear... she was in the cab of a carriage with a Death Eater. Must get away, her body chanted... even though that pastie had barely given her any strength.
"It's me, cara mia we have arrived." He bit his lip before uttering the words he knew to be untrue, there's nothing to fear here.
With Hermione startling awake, the infant in her arms who had been extremely good so far perhaps intuitively understanding his caregiver's fear and therefore his own had remained silent most of the ride. Fast asleep against the chest of the only mummy he had known, began to fuss. His soft hiccupping cry was enough to cause Hermione to focus her attention entirely on him.
She hadn't noticed the castle they had ridden up to. As the carriage halted Blaise stepped out and dismissed the large Tracker who had ridden at the back before helping Hermione out.
"Welcome to Stormhaven, Granger." He said gravely.
She eyed the castle with a mix of fear and apprehension, there was barely any light and the late autumn weather had stripped the leaves from the trees, leaving the castle looking cold and stark. A grim reminder that no matter how well Zabini treated her, she was a prisoner. The little boy in her arms fell silent again, his large brown eyes studying the barren landscape before them with a mixture of childish curiosity and fear.
On silent feet a woman; tall, muscular and the colour of ebony approached the trio.
"Granger, meet Ma'ati, the caretaker of this castle and the beasts within it."
And he didn't mean it as a joke. Ma'ati, the twin soul Orisha they had rescued in Togo was their insurance policy. Not that Hermione needed to know.
The woman was a warrior, Hermione didn't even have to look at her face fully... just the aura of power that radiated off her was enough.
"This is her?" the dark-skinned warrior asked in surprise, "Perhaps the Nandu is mistaken."
Blaise, Theo and Draco had rescued Ma'ati from Togo, once Draco's fever had broken and they had realized what had happened to him, they had had to work fast. Stumbling upon the Orisha had been a blessing; broken and bloody as she was they had taken her back to Stormhaven and nursed her better. Asking only one thing in return... a promise.
Blaise shot her a look before urging Hermione forward, thankfully her paralysing fear filtered anything else that was being said out.
"You may be the Orisha Draco found to kill him if he gets out of control, Twin-Soul but trust me on this he isn't wrong."
She nodded gravely before stepping in line with Hermione, carefully walking behind her.
Blaise studied the small woman, indeed... if there was anyone who could save his best friend now it was Hermione Granger or the Hermione Granger he used to know. He didn't know how she would react to this changed Draco, a savage, canny beast.
When Blaise had found him in Malfoy manor after the seven days of his incarceration, Malfoy had muttered only one name... the name of the muggle-born witch before him.
But the concoction that had been shot through his veins had changed him intrinsically. From Theo's research they had concluded that it was a mixture of several beasts but the two that had bonded to Draco's ravaged soul had been the Lethifold and the Nandu, both classified as highly dangerous; hard to kill but also the most bestial in their nature.
The runes that were now tattooed onto Draco's body by Ma'ati were there to control the nature of the Nandu and his necromancy... an effort to control the Shroud.
After noticing the awesome power, the concoction had given Draco, the Dark Lord had tried it on several followers but it hadn't worked. Enraged at his failure on both tasks; turning the rebellious boy into a mindless beast and the inability to recreate his power, the Dark Lord had banished Draco to Stormhaven... that was until his magic was needed.
The Lethifold's dark magic and the Nandu's beast like strength and resilience made Draco's magic, his necromancy as easy as flicking an eyelash from his cheek.
Theo; the scholar of their group had a theory about that. He thought that the natures of the beasts had found the broken and ravaged parts of Draco's soul to cling to and had clung to them steadfast.
Broken as he was after the pain he had been put through in the Great Hall; tortured by the Dark Lord and all his cohorts after being found and dragged back by his own family no less, the blood of the beasts had found purchase in his broken mind and ravaged body. Changing him into something new and powerful.
Theo was still researching the magic that had bound the beasts to Draco, so far, his research had come to naught but he continued to persist.
As Draco liked to say, his monsters were more a part of him than he was. But Blaise hoped that the one aspect had remained untouched.
The one no one dared mention...
...
The Beast studied the small figure clutching a bundle in her arms walk towards his home and internally... he howled.
...
FIN.
Glossary
Nandu (HP)- The Nundu is a large East African magical beast that resembled a leopard. The Nundu was extremely hard to subdue. It had never been defeated by less than around one hundred wizards working together.
Lethifold (HP)- The Lethifold (also known as the Living Shroud) is a carnivorous and highly dangerous magical beast. It is also considered a Dark creature because of its highly aggressive and violent nature.
Twin-Soul- Someone born with both aspects of men and women, worshipped in ancient Asian, Native American and African cultures. The twin-soul is what we would consider a trans person in our day and age.
A/N- I know the JKR is a TERF but there is no room for TERFS in my work. Ma'ati is a descendent of the Yoruba people, worshipped for her magic and her unique nature. If you don't like trans people, you shouldn't be reading this.
Orisha- are spirits sent by higher divinities (such as Olodumare, Olorun and Olofi) for the guidance of all creation and of humanity in particular, on how to live and be successful on Ayé (Earth). Most Òrìṣà are said to have previously existed in the spirit world (òrun) as Irumole, and then become incarnated as human beings here on Earth. Others are said to be humans who are recognised as deities upon their death due to extraordinary feats accomplished in life.
For the purpose of this story the Orisha are also the only wizards in East Africa able to control the Nandu. Rescued by Draco, Theo and Blaise Ma'ati comes from an ancient line of people who can control and kill the Nandu.