No Escape
AN: Thank you all for continuing to read this story, some exciting developments in this chapter. As always, reviews, likes and favorites make me update faster (I reply to all comments and PMS). Give this story a follow to be notified when I update next. Cheers.
Hermione becomes accustomed to darkness. She often tries to estimate the time spent held here, in the cage or at the business end of Bellatrix's wand. But she only ever manages the estimation of a while. She has no way to measure time, just periods of pain and the lull between them.
She is kept in a room in the basement, in that room she is further trapped in a barred cage. There is a bucket left for her to relive herself and Hermione gets over the undignified nature of this quickly. It didn't matter, not when she was being used as canvas for Bellatrix to carve into and other death eaters to test new spells on. It was the knife she feared most.
It is cold in her cell and Hermione spends most of her time curled into herself trying to conserve heat. Sometimes, if she's given time to heal, she manages to wandlessly conjure a bluebell flame. But mostly she is in too much pain to even attempt this, besides if she were to get caught the entrail expelling curse would feel like a walk in the park. They had someone heal her after, but there was few things more grotesque than watching your own organs exit from your mouth.
Hermione's thoughts often wander to her friends, to Harry and Fred, to Sirius and Remus. She wonders if Harry even knows she's missing, she hopes Sirius has protected her timeturner and most of all she hopes they are making progress. Some days Hermione simmers in anger and the idea of burning everything down, her along with it, becomes more and more appealing.
She is pulled out of her thoughts by noises, it was strange often after too much time in silence even the slightest noise would ring in her eardrums.
"Bring her up" sounded a familiar voice breaking the silence. Hands thrust her upwards and then she is moving stumbling on what feel like stone steps under her feet. She loses her balance more than once, her one eye swollen shut and several broken toes adding to the difficulty of climbing stairs. She tries not to cry out in pain when a familiar cane crushes into her foot breaking the bone beneath it. Lucius Malfoy, the familiar voice was Lucius Malfoy.
She could smell her own sour fear thick on her skin.
Her eyes burn as she reaches the landing of the stairs and enters into a bright room. It is not the large sitting room Bellatrix seemed fond of using, this room was massive and empty but for a long table.
"My colleagues seem to be unable to get any answers from you. I suggested you were not worth the effort, but my lord thought the right pressure would do the trick" drawls Lucius Malfoy sending his boot to connect to Hermione's ribs. She tastes blood as she tries to conceal the whisper that tries to escape.
"where are your friends hiding" He asks his wand now outstretched. Hermione notes the presence of a crowd, most were unrecognizable, but the face of Draco Malfoy looks on in horror. Hermione wants to beg for help, but despite the way Draco looked as if he were about to hurl, she knew better than to expect any aid.
"I don't know" she mumbles in response and another swift kick coerced her to speak louder.
"I don't know" she spoke again, louder, it was a sort of truth. She had no idea how long she'd been gone, but they very well could have changed locations. The fact that they were looking was the closest thing to confirmation that her friends were still alive that Hermione could hope to get.
She felt him intrude into her mind, tentative at first but increasingly aggressive as when did not get his way. Malfoy gives up on non-verbal magic quickly frustration evident in his expression. He points his wand at her, "legitimus".
Hermione manages to hold strong against this attack, the pressure mounts against her like nails scraping against her brain. Sweat beads on the brow of her attacker. Lucius Malfoy looks older, worn. His jaw is touched with the rough texture of stubble and deep purple gouges appear under his striking blue eyes. Hermione almost feels pity for the man.
His eyes stare upon her boring holes into her and for a sudden small moment she wonders what was going on in his mind. All it takes is the thought and she is in, she can feel the blood pouring out her nose as she pressured herself into the mans mind but she remained.
Memories flew by her like books and she struggled to catch one long enough to examine its contents. Memories of Draco as a child, of torture, of lord Voldemort flew by. She managed to catch a familiar book, similar to the journal she had received; maxima's journal.
She plunged into a memory and immediately she can see herself…well Maxima, laughing and touching him. Hermione wonders if they had been friends, she with the man who would become a monster. Snippets of stolen kisses and accidental touches fly by her eyes and she watches fascinated, unable to stop watching, to tear herself away from the memories. Then a final recollection, maxima covered in blood, begging for Lucius Malfoy's help and he cries asking for forgiveness. She is roughly trust out of his mind and again there is the metal taste of blood in her mouth and bile the rises up to greet it.
He looks angry now, out of breath and panting. He looks at her with wide eyes of horror before the red-hot fury replaces it. The crowd of observers whispers amongst themselves, and Hermione wishes she had missed the look of terror pass Draco's face.
This success, this stupid accident could very well cost Hermione her life and the thought spread almost relief through her body. She had tried. She had fought. She closed her eyes but the spell never came.
"SEVERUS" He screamed and the man Hermione had hoped to see since she got captured stumbled out of the observing crowd. He walks with a limp and Hermione tries not to think of how he had received the injury and what he had done to deserve it.
Nevertheless, Hermione cracked a smile at his misfortune, her lip is split and blood trails down her chin but this victory, small as it may be feels monumental. She had seen the inside of his mind.
"Hurt don't it" she speaks unable to hold her tongue "having someone rooting around your brain". Her satisfaction is only momentary as Malfoy steps on her fingers crushing them under his dragonhide boot. She screamed.
"The order basters taught the bint occlumency, taught her legitimacy " Lucius hissed at Snape demanding why he hadn't been warned. Snape on the other hand shrugged offering nothing more than "Must be a natural given her strength "and he dared to smile at her.
If Lucius' displeasure is evident , it is nothing compared to the wrath of Bellatrix Lestrange. She throws things at Hermione at first, physical large objects and despite the glass it embeds itself into her skin her hold over her own mind remains.
"Crucio" Curses Bellatrix and Hermione feels flayed alive. The pain shot up her arm like fire. She cringed. It exploded in her head with a blinding whiteness. It made her dizzy. It made her reel. The pain was like needles that had been dipped in alcohol had been jammed through her skin, like her arms, her bones, had been replaced with ice and electricity wired straight into her spine. She can barely keep her eyes open and she feels the familiar pain of her teeth cutting through the flesh of her tongue.
Severus curses while painful, even the cruciatus, did not compare to Bellatrix's. Hermione had read once, that for the cruciatus to work most effectively, one has to mean it, one has to truly hate the target. Hermione cannot fathom how she had accrued such a hate from the women, but undeniably she had.
"Crucio" Bella sounded at the same time Lucius cast "legitimus".
Hermione can feel her guard shaking, the pain is too much, and her body has long collapsed onto the ground. Her screams are audible, and she wonders what, if anything about this, snape will tell the order. It occurs to Hermione that if her defenses fall, Snape will be just as compromised as she, and she finds herself rather upset at the thought.
In a last-ditch effort to stop the assault on her body and mind Hermione with the conscious thought just make it stop throws her magic outward, and like a band being stretched too far it snapped. She supposes, later, when she thinks of it, she would have specified, but she hadn't known, none of them had.
It is like a power forced both absorbs into her and leaves her. Her body feels electrified not with the pain of the cruciatus curse but like a live wire, exposed and ready to strike.
Her head swung back onto the floor, her muscles convulsing uncontrollably, and her vision blacked in and out. When she came to, Lucius Malfoy was staring at her in shock.
"Max?" He asked his voice shaking, and Hermione knew from the dark curl matted to her brow that she was in a lot more trouble than when she had been curled in her cell this morning and there was no escape.