(( Heh heh! Only a week of school left for me! I can't wait! At least I got that history exam over with.... think I failed though. I mean, honestly, who knows The Speaker of the House in 1825? I think you'll like this chapter . . . kinda dark though! I have to put a strong R warning on this one, people . . . I really want to kill off Lemanus . . . This isn't the end, by the way. I'll tell you when the last chapter comes . . . R&R!))
Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns all HP book/characters/settings, not me, including POA, which I'm going to see tomorrow and I'm hoping will be as good as the other two.
Lemanus opened the door to gaze at the three people standing outside with his fish-like eyes.
"Thank you. I see you've brought her here properly, and I award you the rest of the night off duty. Go on, now! Off with you!"
The two guards grinned at each other, amazed with their luck, and walked away quickly without a backwards glance.
Hermione thought of bolting for the closest exit then and there until she noticed the wand cradled casually in Lemanus's hand. There was no use running when he only had to lift a finger to catch her. No, I won't be able to take this bloke on physically, she decided. I'll have to outsmart him.
Hermione wondered why Draco had left so abruptly from the dining hall. Why would he leave when he knew that Lemanus was coming at any moment? Slowly the notion came to her that perhaps he didn't care at all. Her heart sank to the pit of her stomach.
Lemanus smirked at her, almost as if he could tell what she was thinking. Hermione shivered as she realized that he probably could tell what she was thinking.
"Cold, are we? Step inside, girl," Lemanus said quietly, a tone to his voice that she had never heard before. Swallowing the vile that was steadily rising in her throat, she realized that he sounded eager.
Hermione stepped carefully inside, racking her brain for something to say. The door snapped shut behind her, and she heard Lemanus mutter a locking charm.
Hermione whirled around. "Would you really taint yourself with mudblood scum like me?"
Lemanus turned and stared at her, taking in her disheveled hair and her blazing eyes. He merely chuckled, though it was a dry, mirthless sound in her ears.
"Mudbloods, purebloods, we're all the same when it comes down to it. Eventually Lucius will come to understand that."
"But . . . you, and Lucius, and Voldemort! You fight, you die, in order to exterminate me and everyone like me! That's what you stand for, the reason we are fighting this war!" Now there were tears in her eyes; not of defeat or sadness, but of anger.
"Do you really think that this is what the war is about? Blood? Muggles? Heritage? This war we fight is for power, and for glory! This war has been going on for thousands of years before Mudbloods and purebloods existed! Do not be so naive to think that we battle only you in this war. Voldemort hates Muggles, and will surely turn them to slaves when he wins, but the rest of us only want power!"
Hermione was shocked at his words. To think that men fought bloody, gruesome wars for power and nothing else made her sick. Lemanus smiled and spoke.
"However, I would not expect someone like you to understand this. Let's not dawdle any longer, though. I've found that I like you even better when you're angry."
With that he pushed her against the wall, but not without a struggle. He was almost thrown back by the sheer force that she exerted, but he grabbed a forearm in each hand and slammed them against the wall. He stilled her struggling body with his own, and she almost wretched as she felt his hardness against her.
"I have made well sure that your beloved Draco is far from coming to your rescue." He was delighted at the fearful surprise in her eyes as the realization dawned on her. He knows about Draco and me.
"Oh yes, Miss Granger, he will die a wretchedly painful death when this is all over, but not nearly as painful as yours."
Then his mouth descended on hers, and she tasted the awful stank of his breath, felt the sickening roughness of his tongue.
His hands were moving up and down her body, finding the clasps to her dress and ripping them apart with savage delight. She struggled against him, fitfully but also futilely, as he ran his greasy hands down her bare back.
"No use fighting me . . . your spirit is not broken easily, I see," he whispered into her ear as he pulled off her dress. He ran his eyes down her body greedily.
"No, it isn't!" Hermione said fiercely. She said it with so much conviction, though, that Lemanus looked up. Her eyes still blazed, and impossibly, there was not a trace of fear on her face.
"We'll see about that. You are not afraid, though," he said. His breath came more heavily now. "What is it that you are afraid of? Death? Evil? Hell?"
"I'm afraid of the hatred I see in you. I may hate you, but you hate the world and everything in it! Hatred like that is almost like the kiss of a dementor, I would imagine. I would die before being like you!"
"Your words are meaningless!" he roared, seeming truly angry for the first time. He slammed her head against the wall, waiting to hear her cry out. The cry didn't come. Finally he realized that there would only be one way to make her scream.
The door to his chambers burst open with a smash. Draco and Blaise stumbled in, looking winded and confused. Draco's eyes immediately flew to Lemanus and became so enamored with fury that the room seemed to grow icy with hate.
"Hermione!" he screamed, running toward her, careless of anything around him.
Then suddenly Lemanus's wand was in his hand, and Draco and Blaise were flying backwards. They smashed against the opposite wall of the chamber, pinned there by an unseen magic.
Lemanus let go of Hermione and whirled around to face the two young men. Violent shudders racked Hermione's body, an aftershock of his hands on her skin.
Lemanus surveyed the two of them with what seemed like amusement.
"You just won't stay put, will you, Draco? I suppose you and Mr. Zabini had some heroic rescue plan in your heads?" He had a knowing look in his eyes. "Unfortunately, I cannot kill you. I'm sure that there are other ways, though, to make you understand."
Lemanus leveled his wand at Draco, taking a deliberate step forward. "The Crutacius, perhaps? Or would you like me to use a more painful Dark spell?"
Draco and Blaise seemed unable to speak due to the spell.
"Cruci–!"
"No!" Hermione screamed suddenly, reminded absurdly of Umbridge and Harry in their fifth year. "Don't hurt them! Blaise has nothing to do with this, and Draco . . . he doesn't deserve this punishment. It's my fault. Everything is."
She came to stand a few inches in front of him, as a shield between him and Draco. She knew that seeing Draco hurt would break her heart in two faster than being tortured herself. Hermione was completely unconcerned that she was wearing only panties and a strapless bra, and she stood solidly, hands on her hips. Draco was reminded for a moment of the bossy know-it-all he had once hated so much.
"I will let your precious Draco go . . . for a price."
He snaked a hand around her waist and drew her closer. Hermione shuddered involuntarily, and closed her eyes. She forced herself to speak. "Let him go . . . Blaise too . . . and you will have your price."
"LEMANUS!" Draco roared, apparently so enraged that he had broken the silencing part of the spell. Lemanus looked baffled.
"I swear to you right now that you will die the most painful death you can imagine if you don't let her go! What right do you have to even call yourself a human being? You are worse than my father!"
"I believe that we already have a deal, my lad. You two will leave this chamber, and you will not come back until morning." Lemanus was giving a direct order, though he phrased it as a request.
"Gilroy," a voice suddenly said from Draco's right. Hermione recognized it as the intense, burning voice of Blaise Zabini. When she looked into his eyes, she was immediately terrified. She saw a hate there, as he stared at Lemanus, far greater than Draco's and Hermione's both.
"You don't remember me, do you?" Blaise asked quietly, his eyes burning into Lemanus's.
"Oh, Master Zabini, I remember you quite well. I was wondering if you remembered me," Lemanus said. His eyes danced calmly.
"How could I possibly forget the man who murdered my father?!" Blaise roared. "You killed him because he was one of the few purebloods who wouldn't join Lord Voldemort! I vowed that day, Gilroy, that I would kill you if it cost me my own life! I HATE you!" he roared, shaking the walls of the chambers.
A cool, calm voice from behind Lemanus said, "Petrificus Totalus!"
As a jet of blue light hit him, his hands snapped to his sides as he crashed to the ground, motionless.
Draco and Blaise were suddenly released from the curse, and slid down the wall. Hermione stared, shocked, at the still form of Lemanus, before looking up at his attacker.
((A.N. Who's the attacker? Review!))