Warnings: torture, insinuations of rape
I don't own Harry Potter etc.
The pain was like nothing she had ever felt before. It felt like she was being burned and cut and beaten all at once. Bellatrix had been 'chatting ' with her for nearly 3 hours and although Hermione had managed to stay strong for so long she could no longer hold in the screams. They pierced the air, so loud they could be heard by her friends in the cellar. Draco, who was standing rigidly in the corner, winced and averted his eyes from the body of the broken girl who was lying splayed of the floor of his once beautiful house.
Narcissa stepped forward "Bella it's almost midnight and I'm tired, can we perhaps continue this in the morning?" she called to her sister.
Bellatrix stood up and glared at her sister "Fine" she pouted.
"What shall we do with her?" Narcissa gestured at Hermione who had curled up into a foetal position, clutching her arm where the word mudblood stood out livid on her pale skin.
Bellatrix thought for a moment before smiling in a way that would make even the most insane cringe. "Draco" she called out "I have a present for you. You did well at the Lovegood's last week, you may have the Mudblood for tonight."
Draco approached his aunt with a blank expression on his face "Thank you auntie, I shall enjoy this" he said winking at his aunt as he grabbed Hermione's arm "Get up Granger" he ordered as he dragged her to her feet and out of the room.
xxx
Down in the cellar Ron and Harry realised that the screaming upstairs had stopped.
"What do you think has happened" said Ron who had been pacing the cellar for the last 3 hours, pausing every so often to try and break down the door. Hearing the screams of the girl he loved had been worse than any physical torture he could have endured.
"I don't know" Harry replied. He was slumped on the floor next to Luna who they had discovered had been stuck in the cellar for the last week. Ollivander and Griphook the goblin were also down there and were currently talking in hushed tones in the corner of the room.
"Why has the screaming stopped?" Ron demanded, "Do you think she's…." he trailed off not capable of finishing his sentence.
Harry stood up and walked over to Ron. "No" he replied raising his hands to Ron's shoulders to stop him from pacing. "They probably got bored of her, besides if Bellatrix was to kill her she would do it in front of us" Harry said, always the logical thinker "She wouldn't miss an opportunity to hurt us".
Harry lead Ron over to the wall "Let's try and get some sleep, we aren't going to be able to help her if we're exhausted" said Harry, hiding how truly worried he was feeling.
xxx
Hermione was a dead weight on Draco's shoulder so as he rounded the corner he leant down and picked her up bridal fashion. She tried to struggle but to no avail. He was too strong for her and she was weak from the torture.
Draco carried Hermione up serveral flights of stairs and through down many dark corridors. Hermione tried to remember the path they were taking in case she could escape but eyelids were heavy from exhaustion and bruising. She decided to try and conserve her energy, she knew what Bellatrix had meant when she had said that Draco could "have her" for the night and she wanted to be able to try and stop him when the time came.
Draco finally stopped before a large wooden door at the end of a long corridor and shifted Hermione's weight in his arms so that he could reach the door knob. He pushed open the door and it stepped into the room. Draco's bedroom was just like the rest of the rooms in Malfoy manor, it was large and had the potential to be a lovely room, however it was sparsely furnished in dark dreary colours that made the room seem both depressing and frightening. Draco set Hermione down on the dark four poster bed and walked into the bathroom through a door opposite the bed.
Hermione lay on the bed and tried to gather her strength in preparation for what was to come. The sound of a tap could be heard from the bathroom, and a few minutes later Draco stuck his head round the door and shouted to Hermione. "Get your clothes off Granger".
Hermione sat bolt upright. "No" she tried to shout, but it came out as more of a whisper as her throat was hoarse from all the screaming. She shuffled as far back on the bed as she could, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around herself.
Draco emerged from the bathroom. He realised how that must have sounded after what his aunt had said, so he cautiously approached the bed, with his hands outstretched in a gesture of surrender.
"I'm not going to hurt you Granger" he said as he slowly sat down at the foot of the bed. If it was possible Hermione seemed to shrink further back into the bed, as far away from him as she could get eyes downcast.
Draco did not seem phased by this. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop her earlier, but she's crazy, and if I'd said something she probably would have been worse."
Hermione finally looked him in the eye, shock written all over face. She couldn't quite comprehend what she was hearing. It seemed that Draco Malfoy had just apologised, which was shocking in itself, but he had also said that he was sorry he couldn't stop his mad aunt from torturing her. But surely a pureblood death eater would love to watch a 'dirty mudblood' be tortured within an inch of her life. He must be playing some sort of game she decided.
Draco, seeing that she wasn't going to believe that he meant her no harm, at least not yet, stood up and gestured to the bathroom. "I've run you a bath. I thought you'd like one after being on the run, not to mention after what my twisted aunt did to you downstairs".
He turned to look at Hermione still cowering on the bed "I promise I'm not going to hurt you Granger, there's towels on the rail next to the bath, there's soap and shampoo and the door locks from the inside".
Hermione started to unfurl as she realised that perhaps he was being genuine, at least about the bath. And the thought of warm water was too much. She slowly started to rise, sliding off the bed on the opposite side of the room to Draco. As she made her way to the bathroom she stopped and turned to him. "How do I know you won't just alohamora the door once I'm in the bath" she questioned.
Draco sighed, thinking how she was still just as annoying as she was in school. He thought for a moment before wandering over to an old chest in the corner of the room. He dug around in it for a minute before grabbing something from the bottom. He stood up grasping in his hand what appeared to a wand, just quite bit smaller than normal. He started walking towards Hermione, noticing her confused look.
"Oh of course, muggleborn." He thought aloud before explaining "It was my training wand, wizarding children get them when they're little to get them used to a wand and so they can start learning a couple of spells. You can only do a couple of pretty basic spells with them. Nothing that could harm" he said, noticing her thoughtful look "But it should let you cast a strong-ish locking charm on the door".
Hermione studied Draco hard. He had managed to surprise her again. She had expected him to laugh or smirk at her comment, or at least ignore it. But as he handed her the wand she didn't shrink back as her instincts were telling her to, thinking that his unexpected move in anybody else would probably have been called kind. What had shocked her most was that he had called her muggle born instead of 'mudblood' and as she walked into the bathroom she was surprised when an unexpected thought popped into her head. What if he really had changed?