A/N: I'm quite proud of the way this developed, although it isn't quite as long as I'd hoped it would be. Let me know your thoughts, as always!
Trigger Warnings: Mild blood, implied torture, mentioned death.
"I asked you a question, Mudblood!" Bellatrix's screeching sounded inhuman and Hermione jumped, choked by her fear. Her mind was racing, grappling to figure out what had gone wrong but finding that all she could think was, I am going to die.
At Hermione's silence, Bellatrix raised her wand with cruelty in her eyes and pointed it between Hermione's terrified eyes.
"Allow me, aunt," Draco's arm on his aunt's elbow stopped Bellatrix and he took her place, sneering at Hermione through the metal bars of her prison. It was almost comforting to be staring into familiar eyes that she had known for nearly a decade, but Draco looked every bit the faithful Death Eater as he aimed his wand at her heart and proudly declared, "Imperio," smirking as he made Hermione stumble to her feet and move toward him so that his wand was nearly prodding her torso. Hermione stared into his eyes, silently imploring him to remember the fact that they had known each other since they were children and hoping that his young soul had more compassion than the experienced murderers flanking him. To see this boy glower at her with murderous intent while she still had the image of his eleven-year-old self in her mind was somehow more frightening than the dozens of grown Death Eaters he accompanied. She almost preferred Bellatrix.
Which would be worse: the vengeance of a sister or of a son?
Draco twisted his wand and suddenly Hermione was arching and contorting, shrieking like she'd never heard herself do before. Her eyes rolled backwards and all she was aware of was her hoarse screams and the unnatural twisting of her muscles. It was haunting to hear her agonising cries echo back to her off the stone walls, and Hermione wondered if she made sounds like this when Bellatrix questioned her. She could never tell if she was making noise when consumed by pain like that.
Writhing under Draco's wand now, she felt nothing. There was no pain, no sensation at all except for the hazy fog of the Imperius Curse as Draco manipulated her limbs to give the illusion of pain. Her body seized on its own as her lungs pushed out shrill cries, leaving Hermione feeling detached and out of control. He released her after a few moments, apparently satisfied with her performance and Hermione collapsed on the floor, panting and shaking like she usually did after Cruciatus. The trembling wasn't hard to fake, considering she was terrified. But without the lingering pain or the haze of Imperius clouding her mind, Hermione's thoughts were racing. One after the other, she formulated plans and possible outcomes. They sped through her imagination until they presented a dead end, at which point she'd scrap it and move to the next, like pathways of a maze.
"I hope you're proud of yourself, Mother," Draco spat, spinning around and tugging Narcissa from the hold of the two large men. She stumbled forward and whimpered, trying to steady herself as her son pushed her sleeve up to her elbow and ran a slicing hex down the back of her forearm. Hermione watched in horror as her skin split and Narcissa hissed in pain, the Death Eaters jeering at the sight. Draco threw his mother down to the ground so that she was lying before the bars of Hermione's cell, the fresh blood glistening on her arm in a thin line. She met Hermione's eyes and they shared a look of determined understanding.
"You've tarnished our blood, Mother," Draco continued, pushing the other Death Eaters back against the wall behind him as though he needed the space to make some dramatic move. They watched him curiously, eager for the final blow he would bestow on his traitorous mother. Bellatrix had a smug sort of anticipation on her face, as though watching an apprentice with pride. Fury and disgust was bubbling just beneath Draco's words. "You are no better than a filthy Mudblood like the one you tried to save." Narcissa's gaze was locked on the metal bar in front of her face and Hermione followed her movements, ready to leap. "You deserve to rot in a dungeon with her and let your blood mix with the dirt you sleep on." Draco concluded bitterly, and Narcissa shot her arm forward, pressing the line of blood against the metal.
The bars vanished and Hermione sprang to her feet, grabbing Narcissa's hand and pulling her along with her as they sprinted for the door. There was a shout of confusion and then a shriek from Bellatrix as they climbed the steps and squeezed through the doorway that had been carelessly left open. Hermione's muscles were weak after so much disuse and she struggled to keep her balance, Narcissa stumbling along beside her. Their hands were cold and clammy but they held tight, Narcissa taking the lead to push them forward and race down the corridor. There were a few people milling about, but they were too thick and too drunk to realise that the two women dashing by were prisoners until it was too late to stop them.
Narcissa reached into her robes and produced a wand, shoving it into Hermione's hand and releasing her from her grip, spinning around to face the oncoming Death Eaters with a wand of her own.
The spellfire was hectic, flashing around them in a disorienting light show. Hermione ran in the direction Narcissa had led them, dodging spells and tossing a few back over her own shoulder. The wand felt alien in her grip, like it didn't quite match Hermione's magic, but the spells were strong and, judging by the occasional grunt and thud behind her, effective.
This was far more terrifying than the Department of Mysteries in fifth year. She had no upper hand here, no allies to fall back on. Her body was weary and she had no idea where she was trying to go or how to get there. The only goal was survival, and she didn't have the slightest clue how to achieve it, only that she had to keep running and keep firing.
Narcissa caught up alongside Hermione, blasting open doors as they approached and throwing her own spells at the attackers behind them. The Death Eaters were screaming at the pair as they chased, hurling curses at their backs, but Hermione couldn't understand their words. Her head only had room for adrenaline, defensive spells and keeping Narcissa beside her.
A green light hit far too near her head, burning a tapestry on the wall. Hermione ran faster, seeing the front door of the manor ahead. Narcissa flung spells at it, but it remained firmly shut. They stopped, nearly crashing into the solid wall of dark wood.
"Open it!" Hermione cried hysterically, her panic growing. Her lungs burned and her heart was throbbing painfully. She wouldn't be able to run much longer before her legs gave out.
"I wasn't made aware that the security had been altered," Narcissa grunted, looking over her shoulder with fear. Hermione turned and stood against Narcissa's back, ready to protect her while she worked the door. Another green light came at them from the darkness and Hermione pushed them both down to dodge it. With unrestrained fury, Hermione shot "Stupefy!" into the dark, over and over, aiming at the source of the spells flying at them.
Narcissa, huddled on the floor behind Hermione's back, pressed her bleeding arm against the door again and again, waiting for something to happen. When nothing did, she gave a cry of frustration and smeared her arm across the wood, pushing her entire body against it.
There was a dull click and the door unlocked. The two wasted no time pushing it open and throwing themselves over the threshold, landing on their sides and quickly slamming the heavy door shut behind them. Hermione could feel the force of the spells hitting the other side.
Narcissa took Hermione's hand and tugged her to her feet and down the path to the main gate. Hermione barely managed to stay upright on the gravel and twisted her ankle as she ran, but didn't dare stop. The Death Eaters must have gotten through the door already; she could feel the heat of their spells almost right on her heels. Crashes sounded from the house and knew that it wouldn't be long before Bellatrix and the others would be near enough to stop them.
Narcissa halted abruptly and Hermione crashed into the iron gate, her breath knocked out of her as she fell onto her hip painfully. Narcissa didn't waste time and pressed the cut on her arm flush against the cold metal, shaking the gate and vocally pleading with it to open as the heat became more intense behind them. Hermione realised with a jolt that the warmth wasn't from incoming spells, but from a fire Narcissa had cast behind them as they ran. It was expanding rapidly, eating at the grasses and the hems of their attackers' robes. It seemed to be keeping the Death Eaters at bay for now, but it would do Hermione and Narcissa no good if they burned to death before they could flee.
The ornate gate unlocked silently and Hermione was pulled to her feet and tugged through, both of them sprinting a few metres further until they reached the tree line on the other side of the main road. When Hermione stopped running and turned around, she saw the Death Eaters trying to navigate the lawn as flames consumed the greenery, slashing their wands at the fire in an effort to extinguish it. The fire illuminated the house and the grounds even more eerily than they would have appeared otherwise, and Hermione knew that she had never been more afraid in her life.
She turned to Narcissa, who was watching the burning of her grounds in shock. She was flushed and sweaty and trembling like Hermione, both of them gasping for air and receiving only smoke in return.
With only one thought in mind, Hermione wrapped her arms around Narcissa's middle and apparated them away.