Hermione felt her blood begin to boil and the rage set in quickly. When she turned around, a hand still painfully tangled in her hair, Dolohov stood over her with a crooked smile. Hermione tried to unclasp his fingers from her. As she continued to fight him off, his grip tightens as Hermione began swinging her arms.

"My my… what a little beast you have become. All of your manners seemed to have disappeared."

"Let go of me now…" Hermione barked. Dolohov let go of her hair and pushed her head in the process. In the same swift move, his arm wrapped around her waist. Her arms went up defensively to push off his chest, but he refused to loosen his grip.

"I have come to say hello," he whispered against the skin of her neck. Hermione continued to struggle against his grip as his hold got tighter, she got angrier. Her fist managed to make contact with his jaw, giving her ample time to create some distance between them. Antonin approached her again, but Hermione quickly stepped back and eventually cornered against the ledge between the fireplace and bookshelves.

Slowly his hand went up to her cheek, something suspiciously too gentle coming from him, and Hermione began visibly shaking from both anger and fear. Tears started rolling down her face as his other hands started gliding their way down her chest and towards her abdomen.

As quickly as he was tender, his hand flew back up to grab the back of her neck and crash his lips upon hers. The grip on her neck made her fear any movement, she stayed still and screamed in her head. Slowly the hand moved from the back of her neck to the front and he applied more pressure to convey his control of the situation.

"You think you can get away from me? One way or another, you will return to me, my dear mudblood. Once Malfoy's pretty little pureblood wife returns, you will be discarded and I will reclaim you. I'm sure he would be more than happy to get your troublesome self away from him. We will finally be together again."

The words made the bile in her stomach rise, it sickened her even more that he implied Lucius disposing of her and allowing him to take her away.

Dolohov pressed himself against her roughly, causing the wood against the bookshelf to dig painfully against her back. Quickly his loose hand crept down to her breasts and he began roughly grabbing at the fabric. Hermione help her lips sealed despite the grip on her neck but the tighter his fingers got, the harder it was to breathe. In a desperate attempt for air, she opened up her mouth but was attacked instantly by his lips. She tried her hardest to push him off but every time she moved, his fingers tightened more. Hermione stopped battling in an attempt to get his grip to loosen and as she began to keep still, the fingers began to lighten and release her throat.

The second his grip loosened; Hermione drove her knee as roughly as she could towards his groin. The impact made him fall to his knees giving Hemione enough time to escape.

Out the door and down the halls at full pace, Hermione searched for either Snape or Lucius. The exertion left her struggling for air but the adrenalin refused to let her stop until she found someone. As she turned the hall towards the dining room she found Lucius standing with Severus in the middle of a discussion. She ran into Lucius' arms and started speaking a mile a minute. Nothing she was saying was making sense but the few words he managed to pick up stitched together the situation.

"Dolohov…library…he tried to…I…" Lucius felt his blood begin to boil. Hermione gripped onto his shirt for dear life, trying to catch her breath. He brought her closer to his chest to calm her down but the rage he felt in his chest was growing by the second.

He pulled her back a bit to look at her tear-stained face, "I was foolish for letting him out of my sight. He said he was leaving. I thought he was going toward the floo."

Both his hand cradled her cheeks, reminding her of Dolohov's similar touch moments earlier, and more tears began to stain her face.

Just as she began to calm her breathing, Lucius pulled her tightly against himself and drew out his wand. Snape stood close by and mimicked the action. Hermione looked in the direction their wands were pointed and saw Dolohov standing at the entrance of the room. His hands were up as if to surrender but his arrogance showed no signs of fear or remorse.

"Before you take another step forward, I suggest you explain yourself." Snape intercepted.

"I simply wanted to reacquaint myself with Miss Granger before I left. Why all the tears, my dear?"

Lucius sent a spell that knocked him against the wall behind him. His rage grew as he released Hermione and made his way towards the adversary in front of him. Snape moved closer towards Hermione to offer protection; Hermione moved behind him for security.

"I suggest you pick yourself up this instance and leave my home. I have tried to be civil with you, but you have overstayed your welcome." He picked him up by the collar and threw him to walk towards the direction of the floo in the hallway nearby. When they turned the corner, Lucius grabbed him and pushed him against the wall as roughly as he could.

"In case you haven't caught on; you are no longer welcome here. Your lack of respect towards myself and my guests is unacceptable. I will take this matter up with the dark lord as well." Lucius snarled at Dolohov.

Antonin grinned, "Your protection towards the mudblood is comical. She is beneath our kind and nothing more than the dirt beneath our feet. You of all people should understand your superiority."

Lucius stared at Antonin's smug face for a moment.

"I protect what is mine." The meaning of him was entirely different than what Dolohov understood. Hermione was his in every sense but to Dolohov, he saw her as an object. An animal needing domination.

He grabbed his neck and pushed him towards the floo and waited for the smoke to die. Lucius placed a protective ward on the floo and simultaneously on all entrances to block Dolohov from reentering without expressed permission.

Lucius turned on his heel and quickly returned to the dining room where he found Hermione trembling in a chair with Severus holding her shoulders telling her to breathe calmly. The scene tore at him as the regret set in. He didn't keep his guard up around Dolohov. He should have made sure that he left rather than assuming he would be bold enough to return without further provocation. Now his lapse in judgment made him fear for Hermione's well-being.

Lucius approached Hermione and crouched to her eye level to find a better way to comfort her but the moment his hand touched her knee, Hermione pulled back violently.

"Don't… don't touch me!" Her voice was raspy and she tried to choke back the tears but they uncontrollably fell as Lucius pulled his hand away. He shot a look towards Severus, asking him to go to the upstairs drawing-room. Before leaving, he pulled out a calming potion and placed it on the table.

One alone, Lucius tried again to offer any comfort he could to a destressed Hermione. He placed a hand gently behind her head to pet her hair and calm her down but that unleased a bull in a china shop.

Her hands came up defensively and she batted them against him to get him away from her.

"Get your hands off me! Don't touch me!" She yelled. Her uncontrollable sobs left her weak and when she tried to stand up to get away, her knees refused to support her weight. She slides down onto the ground with knees pulled up against her chest and Lucius took the quick opportunity to cradle her in his arms. At first, her arms tried to push him away but she gave up her fight when she recognized the only comfort she would find would be with Lucius.

Lucius tucked her head under his chin and placed a loving his on her head, "My love, there is no amount of apologies I can offer for what happened. I should have never left you alone. I promised to keep you safe and I've failed."

Hermione shakily responded, "When will this be enough, Lucius? When will you draw the line in the sand? This is only going to get harder and more dangerous with time."

Lucius tried to give her time to calm down and consoled her in the gentlest way he knew how. His hands rubbed soothing circles into her back and gently rocked her. Hermione was finally able to get her breathing relaxed but the fear and shock were still there. She slowly turned more inward towards his chest for comfort.

After a prolonged moment of silence, Hermione whispered, "He said that when your wife returns, you will give me to him. Did you tell him that?" She was almost embarrassed to even ask but the words played over and over in her head.

Lucius stopped rocking and pulled Hermione back slightly to look into her eyes. She avoided his eyes by just staring down at the buttons of his shirt. He gripped both of her cheeks gently and brought her head up to look into her eyes.

"Hermione, listen to me. I wouldn't let you be taken away from me under any circumstance. I have explained to you my status with Narcissa previously and to assume I would want her is asinine. I will always protect you."

Hermione sniffled and quickly responded, "Sometimes I'm afraid that this is all a big rouse and I am being played. I do trust you but sometimes…"

"I understand, Hermione. You would be foolish if you trusted me blindly. I promise to never let you out of my sight again. When the moment is right, I will take you away from here."

Hermione didn't respond. She brought herself closer to him and laying her aching head on his chest. Just as the silence was becoming unbearable, Lucius took the opportunity to tell Hermione what he learned from Severus' and Dolohov's meeting.

"I know this is not the ideal time but I learned something important from Severus and Dolohov."

Hermione raised her head and gave him a puzzled look.

Lucius continued, "Tonight there is a raid planned on a muggle down near London. There are specific targets in mind connected to well-known muggle-borns. One of them is Diana Granger. Do you know of her?"

Hermione was stunned. Her ears started ringing, her breath got caught in her throat. She quickly got up and out of Lucius' arms. Without a second thought, Hermione ran towards the stairs and up towards the bedroom where her borrowed wand was and when she turned back around, Lucius was standing in the doorway. She pointed the wand at him and threatened, "Get out the way, Lucius. He can't get a hold of her."

Lucius refused to move from the doorway.

"I can't let you go, Hermione. It's not safe."

She was starting to get furious and she tried to petrify him but he was quicker.

"Lucius…move. She doesn't deserve this. She doesn't even know what's going on here." He stood there confused and moved closer with his hands raised. Hermione was shaking and the wand in front of her was spitting outbursts of electricity that he narrowly avoided.

"What do you mean?"

"She's my cousin. Our fathers are brothers, but her mother was a witch… she's a half-blood. The moment things started getting unsafe here, she left for Boston. She isn't supposed to be in London, let alone the country!" Lucius calmly took her hand that held the wand and lowered it.

"Antonin and Severus are tasked with leading the raid tonight."

With that, Hermione pushed her way past Lucius. She dashed across the manor towards the drawing-room and ignored Lucius' pleas to slow down and talk to him. Hermione found the dark brown doors to the drawing-room and shoved them open, making an unprepared Severus Snape turnaround swiftly.

She walked straight up to him and stood a foot away, leaving him puzzled.

"You need to find Diana when you're out there tonight."

Snape gawked and asked, "Do you know where she lives? What she looks like?"

Hermione remembered the last time she saw Diana. Before the start of the school year, she visited her cousin in the United States and showed her around the magical community in Boston, taking her to her temporary home in Maine here she found an untapped forest of magical plants used for rare potions. Her new employer, a wealthy Italian potions master who made a living off his discovery of rare North American herbs, hired her to research and create new potions in partnership with his new business. She remembered how they would spend lazy afternoons on her porch overlooking the rocky shoreline and early mornings scavenging the woods for plants. Hermione recalled the home she created, filling every room with an abundance of plants and antiques she acquired in muggle towns. Her laboratory in the basement of the old home was filled with every supply available for the trade, with a majority of the time spent together brewing potions and training Hermione on more advanced methods.

"Use Legilimency", Hermione demanded as the image of her cousin replayed in her mind. Snape wasted no time to enter her mind and find the memories she was pushing to the forefront of her thoughts.

Severus saw scenes of Hermione's memories flash as he caught glimpses of Diana. He entered a memory when Hermione and Diana were up in the early hours of the morning, walking along a dirt path through dense woodland. The woman in question walked in front and lead through a trail of trees until reaching a clearing. He saw her think golden chestnut hair sit on top of her dark blue cloak, climbing over fallen trees. Diana turned around to look back at Hermione and saw her face. Blue eyes that matched her cloak, a slight tan that made her skin glow, a small scar along her eyebrow, and plump pink lips. She smiled at Hermione and told her that they were almost at their destination. The image changed, Severus saw the woman smiling happily at Hermione while they sat on a patio in a busy city talking about their upcoming travels to Newfoundland to find a new ingredient her employer required. Quickly the scene changed again. Diana sat on a stool by a cauldron in her basement, hair up in a ponytail, writing down notes in a massive leatherbound book. He quickly studied the details of her face and noticed the light freckles under her eyes and a thin but dark scar that ran behind her ear. When he started to examine the room around him out of curiosity, Hermione pushed a final image into her head. Hermione was walking along a road and turned towards the walkway towards a townhome. He saw the roadsign along the way, read 'Parliament Hill' and took note to remember the street. She passed a white fence with a tall blue and white mailbox, walking towards a red door that had a decorative wreath made out of pine and rosemary. Diana opened the door and squeezed her cousin tightly. When Hermione felt she gave enough details about her cousin, she pushed him out of her mind. Snape was impressed with Hermione's ability to push him out of her mind. He made a note to ask her how she learned this skill at a more appropriate time.

Snape assured her he remembers the details she provided but before he could leave, Hermione mentioned, "Perhaps mention me if you plan on just grabbing her. She can be very…combative. Physically she doesn't look like much, but she can pack a punch."

Snape looked taken aback briefly but didn't take the warning seriously.

"I will find her and bring her back here tonight." He turned on his heel and exited the room, passing Lucius along the way that thanked him for helping.

Hermione fell into the nearest armchair and rubbed her eyes. The migraine was becoming excruciating and her eyes swollen from her crying. She just wanted the evening to be over, for this war to be over, but it was just the beginning of a very long night. When rubbing her eyes, she felt Lucius approach her and place his hand on her hair in another attempt to calm her. She grabbed his hand and brought it to her lips to give his hand a peck. Affectionally, she placed his palm on her cheek.

"Thank you, Lucius." She whispered, "Thank you for telling me about Diana, and thank you for comforting me. I'm sorry I was boorish with you."

Lucius chuckled and replied, "Why you are apologizing to me, I have no idea. You have had a tumultuous day today, your reactions are justified. It should be I apologize to you."

As the night went on, Lucius convinced Hermione to come downstairs for a meal before it got too late. While Hermione took a quick detour to shower and change into something else, Lucius told the house elves to prepare a stew and light a fire in the private morning room that overlooked the garden.

Hermione stepped into the marble shower and the moment the hot water hit her skin, her sobs began. She felt like scrubbing her skin saw after having Dolohov that closer to her again. The thought of him within the same room as her, let alone having him violate her where she thought she was safe made her fearful. Unless he was dead or sent away by the Dark Lord, he would always be a looming shadow. She started scrubbing her stomach and stopped when the idea of Dolohov hurting her child crossed her mind. Would he be so evil to hurt her unborn child? Of course, he was, Hermione thought to herself, he was evil enough to keep her against her will and destroy her before arriving at the Malfoy Manor and the possibility of him hurting her child wasn't a stretch.

Something snapped in her and she had to be strong. He couldn't have this control over her anymore. The more she pitied herself, the more power he would have over her. She couldn't let that happen when there were more important things to focus on. She had to find the courage to work past the pain she felt and get through this war alive and help defeat Voldemort.

Quickly, Hermione stepped out of the shower and changed into the most comfortable evening robes she could find. Strolling down the halls, she dried her hair with nonverbal magic and followed the elves bringing silverware to a room she hadn't visited yet.

Inside, Lucius sat at the table with a glass of whiskey on the table and a small book in his lap. He noticed Hermione enter the room and instantly stood to pull back her chair. Once seated, he sat across the small round table and they began to quietly eat their meal.

Lucius stole glances at Hermione throughout the quiet dinner. He checked to see if there were any troubling looks or signs of distress but instead found Hermione contently eating her stew slowly, not a sign of anything wrong.

As they wrapped up their meal, Lucius suggested taking a walk in the garden. Hermione eagerly agreed and for the better part of an hour, they strolled through the dimly lit garden admiring the peaceful landscaping. Neither said a word unless pointing out a feature in the garden and the peaceful silence was preferable after the day they had.

Once they started returning towards the manor, both stopped for a moment and saw bright flashes in the morning room they just had dinner in. Hermione picked up the pace with Lucius hot on her heels and through the window, they saw Severus blocking spells that were being cast by a shorter woman in a rage.