Chapter 42: The duelling lesson

„Merlin Hermione, what did you get yourself into?" Severus thought, resting his forehead in his hand. Potter was long gone from his office, as was Moody, but somehow he couldn't even find the energy to get up from his desk. He had seen it, Potter's vision, and even though Severus has seen much worse in his life, it chilled him to the bone. He could no longer tell if these pictures were true or false because somehow they felt real. Maybe it was due to the fact that the Dark Lord wanted them to be, or the scene Severus had witnessed had truly happened. The fact was, he didn't know and the uncertainty drove him insane.

Was Hermione alright? Was she just pretending? Or was she maybe slowly falling for the Dark Lord's schemes? But that wasn't everything. There was also the question of what really happened to Dolores Umbridge because there was no doubt that she and those Aurors were caught in a trap, that Lord Voldemort layed out for them. Why had those Auror's been sent back though? Why didn't he kill them? And had he killed Umbridge, tortured her? Maybe even in front of Hermione?

The questions kept piling up in his head and each one made him more and more nervous. The bond between him and Hermione had calmed down now so that he was no longer able to feel her or tell how she was. But he wanted to know, he needed to know.

With a heavy sigh, he finally got up from his desk and walked to his private quarters. The cat whose name he still didn't know sat on its new, favourite spot on the sofa, but as soon as Severus sunk into the armchair the cheeky bugger was suddenly in his lap, painfully tormenting his thighs in the hope to be petted. Somehow it always worked for the furball, even though Severus never consciously touched him. But after a while, his hands automatically buried themselves in the thick fur and started stroking. It was like his fingers started to act against his will or something.

"I'm worried about her," he found himself admitting to the cat after a while, that was purring in his lap since Merlin knew how long. Time seemed to flow strangely whenever Hermione's cat was around and sometimes Severus found himself asleep on the sofa or in the armchair without even realizing that the evening was already over. "This monster is obsessed with her. He'll take all of her until nothing of her is left but an empty shell or a dark, twisted version of the girl we have known. I don't know which possibility scares me more."

The animal purred, rubbing its head in his hand, before looking at him with intelligent, understanding eyes. Severus could have sworn it understood each of his words and for the sake of his dignity, he simply pretended it did. Otherwise, it would have meant that he had started talking to himself and Severus never wanted to be one of those guys.

"I don't know how to get her out either. The Dark Lord mostly hides himself away with her in a house, whose location I don't even know. And the one time I had the chance to see her, I wouldn't even have been able to touch her. How am I supposed to help her escape?"

A loud purr was the answer, accompanied by a blink of the cat's yellow eyes. He didn't even know, why he had despised these animals once. Furball here was actually rather easy to handle, as he fed himself and never touched anything in Severus' possession except the armchairs and the sofa. But cleaning those long, orange hairs away only cost him a wave of his wand. He would miss the little fellow when Hermione claimed him back. But for that, he first had to get her back and god help him, he would find a way to do that.

Just hold out a little longer, he whispered into the bond, sending all hope and confidence he could muster. I'm coming for you, I promise. Just stay strong and withstand his machinations. I know it's hard, but you can do it. I know you can.

ssssssss

It was the third day of Hermione having involuntarily gained a pet-toad when things started to change. Yesterday had been a strange day. Voldemort was in a strange mood and seemed almost restless, which had him spending less time in the library than Hermione had prepared herself for. She wasn't complaining as it gave her lots of undisturbed reading time which she used to study warding and everything else that could possibly help her escape. Unfortunately, there wasn't much she could do, if the wards were really keyed to Voldemort himself, at least not until she could get a hold on a professional ward breaker or managed to kill the bastard. Unfortunately, both options were almost equally unlikely, which only left one option for her right now. She somehow needed to convince Voldemort to let her take her OWLs at the Ministry and if she was lucky, word of it got out to Severus. It was a shot in the dark, but it was everything she had right now. And so she decided to put all warding-related books aside for now and start revising her schoolwork. It was difficult though, as there were no school books found in the library.

"I saw you've started reading more school-related books now," Voldemort said, staring at her with his red eyes across the breakfast table.

Hermione nodded forcing herself to look at the man. "I still hope to somehow take my exams, or at least try to learn the stuff that I'm currently missing at school. I know, that I'll probably never be able to go back to Hogwarts, but luckily I am pretty skilled in educating myself. It's not like I have much else to do here, anyway."

"Then it's probably a good time to start with our lessons," her keeper answered. "Most of the fifth-year stuff is pretty boring, but you should be able to master most of it in a few days. This is not Hogwarts where you need to share your Professor with hordes of students, after all."

"That's true," Hermione said with a shrug. "We probably won't be able to cover all topics though, at least not the practical parts. I haven't seen a greenhouse and I guess Care of Magical Creatures will also be difficult. But that's alright. I'll read the theory and just hope it will be enough," she said, her lip forming a pout.

The man across from her smiled approvingly. It was the first time Hermione didn't find the sight of it creepy, probably because she had somewhat gotten used to the look of his snake-like features. Maybe it was also because she could feel herself getting more and more excited due to the prospect of continuing her education and – more importantly – taking her exams at the Ministry. She was pretty sure people still tried to rescue her and this offered them the best opportunity to do so. Hermione smiled. The exams were only four weeks away and for the first time in her life, she wished for the time until then to fly by as fast as possible.

ssssssssss

His lioness was a miracle. Her intellect was only paralleled by his own and maybe Dumbledore's, which made him only want her more and more as his queen. She had a hunger for knowledge and a drive to excel at everything which made her prone to his praise. This little useful information was one of the things he had learned from Harry Potter's mind and now he wasn't shy to use it to his advantage. His little witch was also receptive for all insights and knowledge he shared with her. Lord Voldemort secretly enjoyed showing her his brilliance as it made her eyes sparkle with joy. Sometimes he even thought, he could start reading admiration in them, but whenever that happened it was only for a short moment before his girl seemed to realize it and squished the feelings. But those feelings were still there, he knew they were, even though she didn't want to admit them at the moment.

"Today we will work on your duelling skills, Miss Granger," he said while leading her into a room on the first floor he had especially designed and warded for that purpose a day ago.

She looked at him with an eager smile on her lips, while her eyes took in the details of the room. There were five training dummies at the other end, but also various big items, that could be levitated into the middle of the room to be used as cover. In the middle of the room, there was a big, circular duelling platform, whose black stone-floor enchanted with several runes that glowed blue when he activated them. It earned him another stunned look from his prize.

"This place hasn't been here before," she said wide-eyed while shaking her head in confusion. "I've been to all of the rooms and this one definitely wasn't here before. Was it just hidden or…"

"I made it," Lord Voldemort interrupted her with a smug smile. "For you, my Dear. Do you approve? Or is there anything else you wish for?"

He had stunned her into speechlessness, as his lioness just stared at him like had had just grown a second head. Finally, she awkwardly cleared her throat and said: "No…it's…this is perfect. Thank you… Marvolo." Until now she had avoided using his given name, which made this occasion even more special.

He smiled. "I told you I can be a very generous man, Miss Granger. I'll lay the world to your feet, once you're my queen," he promised and for a moment there was a flicker of something behind her eyes, before her face was an expressionless mask.

"What if I don't want to be your queen?" she asked, a weary look in her eyes.

He smiled. "Maybe not right now," he agreed, locking his eyes with her. "You're still young and barely know me. But this will change with time and we have a lot of time. So let's take one step at a time, shall we?"

She nodded, before lowering her gaze and looking at her hands. "Alright, one step at a time then."

"Good," he said with a smile and offered her his hand to help her onto the platform. "Now let's talk about your duelling skills, my little lioness. Are there any other spells you know, that you have not already… shown me?" He stretched the last two words, referring to their little encounter right after he had brought her to the house. The girl never stood a chance against him, of course, but Merlin that hadn't discouraged her from trying to kill him anyway. Not, that he could be killed any longer, what she couldn't have known that.

"No," she said with dark eyes that made him ask himself if she was just trying to occlude her mind. Probably. Through Potter, he knew, that she at least knew the basics of Occlumency. "These were all the spells I know. We weren't really taught much about duelling at Hogwarts."

He smiled knowingly. That wasn't a coincidence, of course. The curse that he had placed over the position of the DADA professor made sure, that there weren't many suitable candidates any longer. Now that he thought of it: didn't Dumbledore hold this position this year? How very … convenient.

"There's no reason to be ashamed of not knowing something," he said, walking to the other end of the platform. "As long as you're willing to learn. Are you willing?"

She nodded. "I am. Not the Unforgivables, though. I'm not using them." His lioness looked at him, with the fire back in her eyes.

He smiled. "You don't have to. There are many other spells one can use during a duel. The Unforgivables are just useful, because they cannot be blocked or shielded against, or so I thought." Lord Voldemort looked at his prize - his miracle - that had done what shouldn't have been possible.

She smiled grimly but didn't say anything in return to that. Instead, she pulled her wand out of her sleeve and straightened her position. "Alright, I'm listening. What other spells could you recommend?" she asked, looking at him with the attentive spark in her eyes. Suddenly all her concentration was fixed on him, and only him, and he loved it. Perhaps he should stretch his teachings for as long as he can. The thought of being her centre of attention was an intoxicating feeling.

"Well, let's start with some offensive spells, shall we? Shielding is good, but usually, it's much more useful to wound or kill the opponent as fast as you can."

His prize stared at him with wide eyes. "Kill? I'm not going to…" she started to protest, but he silenced her with a gesture of his hand.

"It is your decision which spells you're going to use in the end. But you should know all of them in case they are used against you, don't you think?"

The girl nodded, looking at him contemplatively. "Alright. That's a fair point."

He smiled. "Good. Then let's warm up with a friendly little duel and then we're going to hex some of the training dummies," he said, pulling out his own wand. "Try not to exhaust yourself right away. Otherwise, this will feel like a very long lesson for you."

ssssssss

Hermione was exhausted. Two hours of duelling training left her breathless and sweating. She could feel her legs starting to shake below her, but she refused giving up or telling the man, that she wouldn't be able to it. But there was no denying it: Hermione Granger was not born to be a great duellist. The more offensive the spells got, the harder it was for her to learn them. It was like there was some sort of inner resistance in her against seriously harming somebody else and if it was just a stupid training dummy.

"Flipendo maxima," she ground out, pointing her wand at the blasted thing, but instead of flying to the other end of the room, the dummy just gave a quick shake, before remaining in the exact same position it was before. Hermione found herself groaning before she balled her fists in frustration. Why wasn't she able to cast that damned spell?

"I think you need a break," her instructor said after she had obviously stood there a moment too long.

"No, I… it's alright," Hermione hastily answered, resuming her position with a clenched jaw. "I want to try again," she said, unable to hide the frustration in her voice. Was she really that pathetic, that even Voldemort started taking pity on her?

But instead of answering her, the man was suddenly in front of her, fixing her with his red eyes and a smile. "And you will, but not right now. There's no reason for you to over-exhaust yourself. You are in no danger here and therefore in no need to protect yourself."

Hermione had to suppress a snort. That was how he saw her situation, but from her point of view, she didn't feel safe at all. One day he would want her to link herself to him so that he could use her and her magic. What would happen if she refused? She sighed heavily. "Alright, I'll take a break," Hermione agreed, carefully pocketing her wand. She could feel his eyes on her while she did so.

"Good. I'll have the house elves bring some hot chocolate and cake to the dining room. This will help against you exhaustion." With that the man stepped off the platform, slowly sinking to the ground like he was held by some kind of invisible strings. Probably he was just levitating himself. It was an impressive feat of magic, Hermione found and decided that she would ask him how he did that one day, but not as long as she was still frustrated with herself.

"Hot chocolate sounds brilliant," she sighed, climbing down the platform with much less elegance than she would have wished for. She was tired and could feel herself getting cranky.

"Good. Then go and refresh yourself," her host said, leading her outside into the hallway. That was, where they suddenly encountered an unexpected, pale blonde visitor.

"Lucius," Voldemort greeted and Hermione saw the older Malfoy look at her a moment longer than she was comfortable with. She tried to ignore it.

Hermione wasn't aware of the picture she painted in the man's mind. She was flushed, disheveled and slightly panting, her eyes bright from the duel. Overall she looked thoroughly ruffled and had no idea. The Dark Lord would use this image of her to torment the boy further and to fuel his own fantasies. But he would ensure no one else saw her like this if Lucius reaction was anything to go by.

"What a pleasant surprise," the snake-like man said stepping in front of her and next to his guest.

Lucius Malfoy nodded, his eyes finally fixing his master. "My Lord, I found what you had me looking for," he said mysteriously. "It's downstairs in the basement."

Hermione knew that basement was his substitution for dungeons. She shuddered, suddenly feeling cold instead of hot. Whom had he been looking for?

"Well done, my faithful servant," Voldemort praised the blonde wizard. "Go to the audience room. There you can tell me how this little mission of yours went."

Malfoy nodded, before turning around and leaving them. That was when her keeper turned around to her again. "Take your time to refresh yourself, my Dear. I'll be with you shortly."

Hermione nodded, before turning into the direction of her room. She couldn't wait to get out of this sweaty dress. It really wasn't meant for duelling.