Understanding

Chapter 15 – Trapped

I woke up warm and happy the next morning, the sun glancing in off my face, which shocked me at first since this was the dungeons, and there were no windows, or so I thought. But, twisting my head upwards I saw a huge glass window behind the bed, obviously magical, because the dungeons were underground. I couldn't manoeuvre myself very much, because I was nestling in the sleeping Severus' arms, and I was very content to stay there, thank you very much, even though I was wide awake and he was sleeping soundly.

I was basking happily in the memories of last night when I was brought back down to earth with a jolt as I remembered the not so nice task set aside for me today. Then, I looked at the clock on the wall and realised I was late. I had originally planned to set off at 9am, but it was now 9:30, I had slept in. Severus looked so sweet when he was sleeping, the faintest trace of a smile still on his lips, that I just didn't have the heart to wake him. I knew he would be mad if I didn't wake him, but if all went well then I would be back soon enough, maybe he wouldn't even know I had gone. Still, though, I decided to leave a note, in case he woke up. I slowly and carefully removed his arm from where it was, pulling me to him. I put it back down on the bed, and quietly got up and dressed, in last nights clothes, which were lying crumpled on the floor around the bed. I found some parchment and a quill in his bedside desk, and quickly scribbled a note.

Severus,

You look so sweet whilst sleeping I can't bear to wake you. I've gone to deliver the potion, I'll be back soon if all goes well.

All my love, Hermione.

I set the note on the pillow next to him and tip-toed out, closing the door behind me. The plan was for me to floo to the Hanged Man, from the outside connected fireplace in the Entrance Hall. I picked up the potion vial from the classroom. It was tied to a charmed white silk ribbon, which would stay when I transformed. The vial itself was invisible and soundproof when it shattered, so it couldn't be noticed. The potion was a volatile liquid that would evaporate when in contact with air. I tied the ribbon around my neck tightly, and slipped my wand into my dress in case of an emergency.

Then I headed up to the Entrance Hall, and flooed to the Hanged Man. I made sure to transform mid-journey, in case there was anyone at the other end. Thankfully, there wasn't, so I was able to slip out of the abandoned building and up the road to the Riddle House unseen and unheard. I willed myself to become invisible as I neared the sprawling house up on the hill. The old place was coated in dead ivy, and nearly all of the windows were smashed and boarded up. But worst of all was the feel of the place as I approached. I felt cold all over, inside my very bones. I realised at once that it must be the large population of Dementors that must be within the building. I shivered. However, I knew that as a cat, they would have less effect on me, which was another advantage of me delivering the potion. But still, I had no desire to be near any of those rotting, festering creatures.

I put them to the back of my mind and proceeded past the crumbling front door. It crossed my mind that there must be more than walls protecting this building and its inhabitants, but I supposed they wouldn't apply to animals, anyway. And Voldemort was certainly arrogant enough to believe that he could easily counter anyone who had the audacity to enter his lair. Inside it was dark, considering the bright sunshine outside, but then again Voldemort and the Death Eaters didn't quite seem the type to take advantage of the good weather by going for long walks in broad daylight.

I actually hadn't a clue whereabouts I should be heading, but underground seemed like a good option, because there were the remains of candles everywhere along with some large footprints and a long, slithering line which looked like the path of a large snake. I padded silently through corridors and down flights of stairs. The path was surely that of a snake, judging by the occasional rat's skeleton littered around. The general air was getting gradually colder as I descended, and the corridors got darker. There were no magical dungeon windows here.

Eventually, I began to hear sounds, and voices. I came to the entrance of a cavernous space, a room with a high ceiling and eerie blue candles floating randomly around. A fire was crackling in the grate on a platform at the opposite end of the room. A high backed chair was facing away from me, towards the fire, and a large form was curled in front of it, basking in the heat. I drew close slowly, carefully. The form was an enormous snake, not anywhere near the size of a basilisk, but huge, none the less.

The high, cold voice carrying across the room from the armchair was one I had heard before, of course. It was Voldemort, talking to himself, as far as I could tell.

'They're terrified, Nagini. Terrified by the mere whisper of my name. Those muggle-loving fools at the Ministry of Magic still can't bring themselves to believe I exist, let alone take any kind of pathetic action against me. This battle, if you could call it that, will be over before it has even begun, Nagini.' He was speaking, I soon realised, to the snake, as he sifted through the pages of the Daily Prophet. 'This Rita Skeeter could be one of my own, from the way she writes.' He laughed an evil laugh, which made me stop and shiver where I was just a few metres from his chair.

There didn't appear to be anyone else in the room, so my task wasn't made too difficult. But the snake was a problem I hadn't foreseen, though. I didn't know if it would be able to see me, but even if it couldn't it would probably sense my presence. Well, anyway, the most important thing was to drop the vial and get out of there as fast as I could. I crept up to the chair, stealing glances around to check I could see no one around. The snake seemed to be asleep, or at least its eyes were closed. I sneaked round to the other side of the chair, where I could see a pale, pale face with those eyes I had heard so much about, gleaming a bright blood red. I looked away again quickly, glimpsing briefly at the snake to make sure it hadn't moved. It was as still as a stone.

Remembering my task, I batted one of my paws at the ribbon around my neck, until a claw caught the loop and I felt the vial release. I watched the floor carefully to make sure there was no sign. I noticed only the slightest disturbance in the air before me as the vapour dissipated into the atmosphere and into Voldemort's lungs. He only needed to breathe in a miniscule amount of the potion for it to take effect, and I was sure that he would have taken in quite a lot of what was spilt. I waited for a few moments, to ascertain that he noticed nothing different, then I slipped behind the chair and began to make my way across the room. The snake hadn't moved. I was just beginning to pick up some speed across the huge room, and I was slightly elated that I had dropped the potion without being noticed that I didn't notice when I dashed head first into something solid, staggering backwards into a sitting position.

Why hadn't I been looking where I was going? It was someone's leg, I had rushed into without looking, and there was no way they hadn't noticed it. I slowly shifted my head to see who it was I had walked into, my heart beating a thousand times a minute. He was dressed all in black, but he was not wearing a Death Eater mask, so I could tell who it was. Someone I had seen before, but he did not know me. The one time I had met him I had automatically disliked him, although I knew nothing about him other than that his job was at the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures. For it was Macnair, the horrible, blood-thirsty man who had been going to carry out Buckbeak's execution back in third year, had Harry and I not set him free, with Sirius. But now, as I looked up into his face with the biggest fear I had ever felt in my life settling down over me, there was one small, but very important physical difference to this monster of a man. It made my heart plummet to realise just what it meant, but there was a thick red scar running six inches down through his left eye, as though he had swung at with an axe.

But it wasn't the scar that made my heart plummet, it was the electric blue eye ball in that left eye's socket that was the problem. That eye was fixed directly on me, while the other eye, beady and black, was looking over to the chair by the fire. This man had a magical eye, and that magical eye was fixed directly on me. My only hope was that he had only just seen me, had not watched me drop the potion.

Whether there was actually a silent pause at that moment, stretching out for a few minutes, or whether he took action right away, I will never know. To me, the silence seemed to stretch out, and only my heart could be heard, beating deafeningly as I sat there, still, not thinking what to do, I knew there was nothing that I could do, but just waiting, I suppose, for the inevitable. Then, before I had a second to catch any movement, his wand was out and I found myself slammed against the cold, hard stone wall, and in the corner of my mind I heard the chair by the fire scrape back and the snake come to life. The pain wasn't too bad. I was a cat, remember, so I landed with a thump, but still on my feet, nevertheless. Another split second and a full body bind was cast on me, so I couldn't move, but I could still hear what was going on.

'What are you doing, Macnair?' Voldemort sneered. I had to remind myself that he still couldn't see me, and had probably only heard me thud against the wall.

'My Lord, I saw an animal through the eye.' Macnair answered, staring disgustedly at me with the magical eye, his normal eye on Voldemort.

'I've told you before, you idiot man, there's no need to waste your energy on rats. Nagini will deal with them appropriately.'

'No, no, my Lord. You misunderstand me. Through the eye. I didn't see it through my normal eye. And besides, it was a cat, not a rat, and sort of ghostly silver.'

'What? Where did it come from? Invisible? Where is it?'

'Against that wall, my Lord. It ran into my leg. I didn't see where it came from, 'I'm not used to the eye yet, I don't look out of it all the time, my Lord.'

'Stop babbling, Macnair, and behave like the honourable servant you are.' He snapped, walking over to where Macnair was standing. 'Make it visible, I want to see what it is. Some spying contraption from that fool Dumbledore, no doubt.'

'How? I'm no great shakes at charms or transfiguration, my Lord.'

'You're no great shakes at anything, Macnair, except killing. Must I be cursed with such incompetent servants?' Voldemort said, looking to the ceiling. Then Macnair pointed to where I was. Voldemort took out his wand and quickly cast binding charms around me as I sat, slumped against the wall in shock.

'Well, it's definitely living, Macnair, but I can't seem to make it show itself. Perhaps it's an animagus, one of those pathetic muggle-loving friends of Dumbledore, come to try and spy on the greatest wizard that ever lived?' He whispered, but his voice still sounded harsh and cruel. All I could do was watch, hopelessly tangled in ropes, rooting me to the spot as he waved his wand over his head and brought it down to send a white spark in my direction. Suddenly I was sprouting upwards, into my human form, and I was no longer invisible.

'Well, well, well. If it isn't that filthy excuse of a mudblood friend of Potter.' He spat, while Macnair stood next to him, a grotesque smile on his face suggesting that he had struck gold by actually being useful for once. 'Thought you would try and be brave, get a little bit of information from our side, did you? Not so clever now, are you, you piece of filth?' I stared right back at him in disgust.

'She means nothing to me, my Lord. Should I dispose of her now, or shall I torture first?' Macnair said, leering at me in a way that almost made me sick.

'Shut up you idiotic fool. She's nothing but a lump of muck to me, but maybe she'll come in useful as a bargaining tool. I don't know. Maybe I'll go and have a nice think about this dilemma while you throw the filth into a cell. Don't mess her up too much though, Macnair, I might want her at least recognisable if Potter or someone foolishly comes looking for her.' At this Macnair's face drooped like a child who's just had it's sweets stolen, and Voldemort stalked off out of the room, pausing to sneer at me, although he had a look of barely disguised delight. I still had not spoken.

Macnair approached me, grinning evilly. But I knew that he wasn't allowed to kill me, so I wasn't scared of him. He ran his hand down my arm, his left eye whizzing around inside his head in a way that told me that he was looking underneath my now battered black dress. I couldn't reach my wand, unfortunately, it was wedged down the front of my dress and my arms were pinned to my sides.

'Get your hands off me, you piece of shit.' I spat at him, jerking my arms and legs madly.

'Shut your mouth, mudblood.' He hauled me to my feet roughly, tightening the binds around me. 'And I'll do what I like.'

'Fine, but don't blame me if my knee accidentally jerks, like this.' I took all my strength to bring my knee up to his groin. I smacked it pretty hard, before the binds snapped my leg back painfully. He stumbled backwards temporarily, a spasm of pain showing across his face before he recovered himself and dragged me down into a dark corridor, where I was gripped by cold again. About a hundred metres down the corridor, he opened a heavy iron door and slammed me into it, bolting the door behind me. He was gone, and I was trapped in this room. The room was quite small, about 2 metres by 3 metres, but the ceiling stretched up for what seemed like miles, to the room's only light source, a tiny window at the top of this tower. The floor was slimy, and the room was completely bare apart from the door. But, Macnair hadn't noticed my wand. I drew it out and cast an Alohomora on the door. The magic from my wand died before it even appeared. The room was protected against magic, it seemed. I sank back against the wall with a heavy sigh. I might as well get used to it, it looked as if I would be here for a while. If only I had brought a cloak, it was so cold in here. I was definitely glad that I hadn't let Severus go now, if he had, he would almost certainly have been killed by now. I hadn't bet on someone with a magical eye turning up.

If I had thought this situation couldn't get any worse, I would have been wrong. Minutes later, a chill that couldn't be blamed on the weather settled on me. I didn't have to be able to see outside into the corridor to know that Dementors were gathering to guard the other side. I could feel the familiar slide in my thoughts towards the more morbid, which were typical of when Dementors were near. But this was worse, much, much worse. Suddenly I understood what people meant when they said that Azkaban would send you mad. It was as if a separate person within myself had come alive, someone who was completely self-pitying and every bad memory had come alive within me, going round and round in my head. I felt a bit like moaning myrtle, but the comparison somehow failed to raise a smile. I was powerless to stop it, and I realised how irrational I was being, but I couldn't stop. The voice in my head was hissing at me, cruel and pathetic at the same time.

It was telling me that Severus saw nothing in me, only slept with me because I handed it to him on a plate. After all, he knew just how to manipulate people to do what he wanted them to. After all, he was a Death Eater. How could he feel anything for me? I was just an 18 year old ex-student, I had nothing to offer him that he could possibly want. At first I could cling on to the fact that I knew it wasn't true, it was just the Dementors taking all my happy thoughts away. But after a while, as the last of my happy thoughts was sucked through the door and through the Dementors mouths, I was almost completely sure of it. I was nothing but a joke to Severus. He was laughing at me behind my back, his feelings were no different to those he had for me when I was an annoying, know-it-all Gryffindor student. That was my last thought as I fell to the floor, not knowing if I was falling asleep or unconscious on the slimy stone floor.

A/N

Loads of thanks to Ponine, DragonFireAngelVWP, ChishionoTenshi, kittykat52788, Static Wolf, StarGazr, Moony and Enfleurage.

ChishionoTenshi – I hope this chapter explains how she got him to take it. I said he wouldn't suspect her because he'd kind of never guess that a muggle-born would actually be able to get him to have the potion without him noticing. I don't know if he would know she's top of her class or not, but even so, he thinks he's like the strongest wizard ever, so the thought of a muggle-born poisoning him wouldn't cross his mind.

DragonFireAngelVWP – I don't really get all this freshman, sophomore stuff. In case you can't guess, I'm English, so we just name our school years 1,2,3 and so on through school. So I'm year 13, which is the last year. I leave school forever this Thursday! I like swimming but I'm not particularly fast. Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter.

Thanks to everyone who read this and extra thanks to everyone who reviewed.

Less than 6 weeks to go till HP and the OOTP comes out. I can hardly wait!!!

Bye!!!