Hi everyone!
Right! I'm quite proud over myself, I succeeded to finish this chapter off fairly quickly so that you didn't have to wait for so long, and I just hope that you will show patience with next update to.
Disclaimer: They are NOT mine, will never ever be - they ARE JK's for the 21:th time
Disclaimer: The lyric doesn't belong to me - belongs in this chapter to AFI and is called "Total Immortal" I know that some of you are disturbed by me choosing to ad lyrics to my fic, but to me its quit hard to stop now, I hope you'll understand this and overlook it.
All credit touching grammar, spelling or stuff like that goes to my beta shyngr8 (shy-n-great)
ENJOY :)
Total Immortal
Hope unknown
Sometimes just waking is surreal
I
pass right through the nameless ones
I know that hope's
unknown
Sometimes the water feels so real
as I walk through it
fills my lungs
my god I'm drowning
As you hear your own heart beat with a raging rhythm you'll find yourself wondering how long it would take before it beats through your chest. You would like to put your arms around your chest to prevent it from splitting in two, but you find that you aren't capable of doing so.
The thumping sound of blood, echoed in her head, a cry from inside her seemed to echo in the whole manor, but Hermione seriously thought that it was her imagination that was playing a prank. Darkness swirled around her head and made her see the strangest things ever. Flying chairs that old friends sat on and smiled at her. Books flew before her eyes, large books with swan wings and around her she saw dark shadows.
Flashes of the past took its hold on her; especially one event, it seemed to be forever stuck in her mind. A dark dungeon, one man, dressed in black and with a white mask. She told herself that she would forget it and thank the gods and whatever powerful forces that existed in the world that she made it out of there. How she ended up there was a mystery even to her, they all said it had to be a portkey. But she doubted it, how could 'Advanced Charms IV' in Hogwarts library be a portkey? She remembered the cold voice of the man guarding her, and it was not from the time in the dungeon…
"You haff a water beetle in your hair, Herm-own-ninny"
"A water beetle…"
It seemed as if that simple, sweet and gentle voice easily switched over to a dangerous, stern and lunatic voice which in perfect English yelled:
"You're going to die, Mudblood. Scream for me!"
Hermione's body lay listless on a dark dungeon floor, a man in a white mask stood bent over her; he had his wand directed at her throat as he, with enormous satisfaction, screamed a curse. She screamed, screamed for him and he laughed, laughed as if there was no tomorrow.
"Scream for me."
"Scream."
It would never stop, it continued every night. She would wake in the middle of the night, still hearing one sentence as it repeated in her head: Scream, scream for me! And she used to scream, she used to cry, she used to stop breathing as she remembered the pain, the agony, the fear… the darkness. It was from there the fear had sprung, the fear of the dark.
"Scream for me!"
"What if I refuse?" She suddenly found herself yelling, "What if I refuse to play your sick game anymore?"
She saw sweet confusion as it played on a much hated face. How his eyes widened and how he seemed to lose his grip. Was power that easily captured? Was it just to put up against the pain? It was so much easier to give in and so much harder to fight it. But she was so sick of it, the way she had to re-live her worst nightmare day after day.
"Scream, Mudblood! I know you want to! Isn't that right Herm-own-ninny?"
"I don't want to, you sick excuse for a human being!"
It stopped… the rushing adrenaline and the furious heart beat in her chest. Someone but herself had decided that it wasn't time to go just yet. She opened her eyelids and heard a faint gurgling sound from inside; she felt the little being move inside her. She saw him then, a little boy with chocolate brown sparkling eyes, wavy golden brown hair and smooth, pale skin.
'That's… that's my son…' she thought with tears in her eyes.
She rose from the cold dungeon floor and staggered towards the nearest wall, searching for support. Everything was going back to normal and she felt relieved, for one moment she really doubted it. She knew where she had done the mistake, it was so tiny that it was very strange that it even effected the potion… it was the dragon blood; it should have been added just six or seven seconds earlier.
'I have to blame my growing stomach… I'm not as flexible as I used to be,' she thought and caressed her growing body.
"Mrs Hermione!" The door burst open and in came Duster, and he had a particular somebody in tow…
"What's happening in here?" Lucius asked, his voice was suspicious and cold as usual, but Hermione thought that she caught a glimpse of concern in his eyes.
"I'm… I'm making a potion, or rather – I made a potion," Hermione answered, making a large effort to calm herself; if the potion had succeeded then this would be the moment that she would tell her husband.
"What for?" Lucius still stood in the doorframe, not making a single gesture that told Hermione that he intended to move towards her.
"I… it's a… bravery potion," Hermione managed to stutter. It felt as if something deep inside struggled to keep the words inside her.
"And why would you be making such a potion?" he questioned as his voice crept down to that dangerous level again, that infamous purring voice that sent shivers down the spine of those it was directed towards.
"I'm… its, well…" she couldn't say anymore, the Devil's Heart still kept her from saying another word or even utter Draco's name.
"Don't play these silly games with me, Hermione… you know I don't like them." At that moment Hermione knew that he would start to move towards her and of course he, just as she thought that, started to move in her direction.
She watched his dangerous flexible movements and the way he held his icy grey eyes transfixed on her. He looked like a smooth hunter, a Siberian tiger with its powerful body and deep ice blue eyes. He was superior to her in every way when it came to body strength, which had been clear from the first moment he got hold of her. Maybe, in the past she had been able to run from him, but not in her pregnant state. And after all, why should she run? She tried to save her and his son's lives!
"Don't do this, Lucius, you don't know what it feels like… you don't know!" she tried to plead to him. Why bother pleading though? She didn't know. She was very well aware of the fact that he didn't respond to that kind of persuasion.
"You're hiding something from me, something was very wrong just a couple of minutes ago… I heard… heard a baby's cry. If you're hiding something about our child from me then you are in serious trouble, that child is precious to me!" He reached out and grabbed her chin, titling her head so that their eyes met.
"I… I can't! Please, I can't tell you!"
"Then show me," he whispered and she felt how his mind invaded hers.
Normally she would have fought it, she knew that she could master Lucius Malfoy; he wasn't a master in Occlumency and mind reading as Snape, Voldemort or Dumbledore was and had been. But she wanted him to see. It was silly really, how she hadn't thought about it, maybe Lucius could see what she knew.
But nothing went as planned as the Devil's Heart evidently affected not only her speech but her thoughts also. What her mind allowed Lucius to see was pictures from her childhood, her parents, her first day at Hogwarts, a troll and a toilet, her and Ron kissing for the first time and her and Harry crying for Ron as he lay on the ground.
"Don't fight me, Hermione," Lucius sneered and his eyes narrowed, "If you do, then I know that you're hiding something from me… and we can't have that now can we?"
"I w-w-want to show you," she managed and looked truthfully into his eyes.
She shook her head so that he lost his grip around her, then she made it towards the door, he didn't follow her. He stood there, watching her with suspicion playing in his eyes; Hermione slammed the door shut leaving a baffled Duster and a thoughtful Lucius behind.
I hear them calling
I feel them gnawing out
holes,
Holes through flawless souls.
I hear them calling
I
feel them gnawing out holes,
Holes through flawless, flawless
souls.
Lucius Malfoy watched her leave, something wasn't right, why was she brewing a Bravery potion? Why had she seemed so scared? And why had she seemed so sad? Almost as if she… trusted him? It disturbed him, disturbed him to the limit where he soon would burst. It had to be something regarding their child, he just knew it.
'I want to show you.'
That sentence disturbed him most of all, because those single words had sprung from trust and… sadness. Those feelings Lucius hadn't ever had directed towards himself, he had however had felt the opposite many times before… distrust, hatred, desire, fear and respect. But never trust, never ever in his whole life, and that bugged him, it bugged him seriously.
"Duster…"
"Yes, master," stuttered the little elf and tiptoed towards him.
"Keep an eye on her; tell me everything you see; not because I want to harm her, but because I don't want anything to happen to her or the child. Draco is up to something and I seriously doubt that it's innocent, he wants something."
"Yes master, Duster will tell master anything he wishes if it can help Duster's f-f-friend Hermione."
So the little elf considered Hermione his friend? Not servant but friend? Lucius knew that that had been Hermione's final goal in her struggle to free the house-elves; to befriend them, make them her equal. Lucius didn't like it, in fact, he despised the poor, dirty little bugging and creeping creatures, but maybe could he make use of Duster's loyalty towards Hermione.
"Good, Duster, if you keep focused on your task then I might consider setting you free and hire you as Hermione's and the future child's personal servant, with wages and break time at Christmas and around Easter."
"M-m-my master wants to s-s-set Duster free? Give Duster wages?" The little creature looked as if he was about to faint.
"Only if you leave me now!" bellowed Lucius and saw with an enormous satisfaction how Duster squealed and sprinted towards the door, opened it and disappeared.
When the sound of Duster's running footsteps had died away did Lucius sit down on the dungeon floor to consider the situation. He closed his eyes and searched with other senses through the room, in hope to find a clue about Hermione, her potion and the fear she were hunted by.
"You're frightened," He mumbled, "You're frightened and… tidy…?"
"You make a mistake… something goes wrong, yet you struggle to keep the fear at place," He scanned through the room, everything screamed perfection, orderliness and well, Hermione, "Yes, it's very much fear in here… but it's too… far away? It's like a dark cloud in the horizon, you know it will reach you and you are struggling to build a shelter. But your hands do not obey your order… the shelter demolishes around you, everything is in chaos…"
Lucius closed his eyes, she knew something he didn't. Something either way scared her to silence or forced her to silence and Lucius knew it wasn't him. But he recognized it, the way his earlier victims had looked at everyone in their environment. Trying to tell something with their eyes, their rigid way of moving, their pleading voice, their fake smile and insurance about everything being "okay" and that "it's nothing to worry about, I'm just tired" and "it's a lot of stress in the office these days".
"It's about Draco," he growled, his son had done something and he would be very pleased to make Draco speak.
So
alone
sometimes I swear that I can hear
the taunting of the
voiceless ones
I fear that I alone
Fear those who finally ceased to feel
that they're
alone inside this place
I am the misplaced
Draco sat very still; the furious cry from the baby had died away and he didn't know if that was a good or bad sign. Knowing Hermione he knew that she struggled to find away to rid herself from the Devil's Heart, that wasn't an assumption; it was a fact. He knew that she had spent long days and long nights, from sunrise to sunset in the library and maybe, maybe had she found a way to get rid of the by now silvery glowing heart.
'But probably not… I've made some research myself and I know that the only way to get rid of the spell is to cut off the body part on which the heart is fastened… too bad fro her that I chose the necklace.'
Then he heard footsteps outside his door, and then a steady knock on the door. At first he was surprised, who was it at this time of day? The clock showed 8:00 pm. a rather strange time to get visitors.
"Come in," he called and saw how the door swung open and displayed who his visitor was; his dad.
"Good evening, Draco," his old man entered his room in the usual Malfoyish manner.
"Good evening, father," greeted Draco sternly and narrowed his eyes, his father didn't usually pay him visits at this time of the evening, not even when their relationship was at its best.
"Have you cooled down yet?" asked Lucius and sent his son a cold glare.
"I don't know what you are referring to, dear father," Draco answered but he made sure that he didn't meet his father's eyes; Draco had never been good at blocking Occlumency and even though his father wasn't a master in the subject, Draco did know that he was skilled.
"Oh but I think you do, dearest son."
"If you are talking about your Devil spawn then we're not on the same level, I don't think it's fair but you do, so just let it be there!" yelled Draco and narrowed his eyes.
"If I get the slightest sign of you interfering in my business, Draco, then I'll assure you that you've taken yourself into deep water, being my son or not!" Lucius stared his son down with that look upon his face that scared many living souls.
"Don't tire yourself to death, old man," muttered Draco and sneered, a sneer which only could be surpassed by one man, namely his father.
"I'll find out what you are plotting, Draco, if you are plotting something. But maybe it's just your usual whining that's taken a bigger discharge then usual," Lucius spat and left the room. He didn't slam the door as any other human would do. No, Draco's father was far more superior to do that kind of foolish, childish gesture.
"Bigger discharge then usual, my ass!" snorted Draco and threw the closed door a hateful glance.
'I'll give you a bigger discharge and you'll never be able to stop it!'
Draco turned his attention to a small crystal ball that was now a silvery colour and shone with a deep shade of blue… soon it would turn transparent and glow in all kinds of sparkling colours. Then the heart would be ripe. Then he would pay dear Hermione a little visit. Draco's hand searched for his wand and twirled it around his long, pale fingers.
This day never seems to end
(this pain never)
This
day never seems to end
This rage I can not let go
I hear them
calling
I feel them gnawing out holes through all our flawless
souls
He opened the door to their chamber, the light was out and he saw his young wife's petite body under the silk sheets. She tossed in her sleep, mumbling faint sentences, clutched her hands around the lining of her pillow. She looked so weak, so lonely, and so desirable.
"Something isn't right with you," he mumbled and walked over to her side of the bed.
"I won't scream! Leave me be!" she suddenly screamed.
He had heard it before, numerous nights when he entered their chambers he heard her alternately scream, alternately whine and cry. He hadn't paid it much attention; many suffered such nightmares after the war. He himself hadn't had those dreams; he told himself that he was far more blunted to have such visions and horrible sights when he closed his eyes. To be honest he enjoyed those dreams, they made him remember the power, the sweet fear and the wonderful screams that rose from a human beings throat when the Cruciatus was thrown at them.
It was sick and he knew it, though it was pleasant sickness for him. And he didn't suffer from a troubled conscience, it hadn't even struck him that he could do so, and after all, why should he? He didn't kill randomly, he wasn't a psychotic serial killer; he was a professional. At one point in his youth he did actually consider being an assassin, back then it felt like an exiting job. However, his father, Leopold, didn't quite agree.
'My son, the chalk of an assassin isn't the path for you. You were born to be a politician, your manipulate skills are superior and you ought to make use of them.'
"Devil's Heart!" Hermione's unsuspected cry awoke him from his pondering.
'Devil's Heart?'
He caught a glimpse of the silvery necklace around her beautiful neck, hadn't it previously been in gold? Was it his mind that played him a trick? Where had she got it? He couldn't remember if she had it when he first met her in the dungeon. When had she got it?
"Devil's heart…"
Now every face, it looks familiar
Then every
face would melt away until
Now everyone, do you know I know your
deception?
I hear them calling
I feel them gnawing out holes
through all our flawless souls
And look what I've done! I've taken time to give feedbacks on reviews! Aren't you all proud of me? It doesn't happen that often you know. Maybe I'm ill? Or it's just that that I feel guilty that I haven't answered your lovely reviews? Anyway, here they are and if I missed someone, e-mail me and scream or something threaten me to blow up my letterbox! And btw, further down you'll find the sneak peak, just as usual – see you all in next chapter!
Lovethelab:
Thanks for the review! Well, now you know what went wrong –tsk, tsk, tsk– it's not a good idea to be making a potion when you're not fast enough to catch up with the potion in its critical state.
Dark Secret1:
Hey Sara! How are you? There was a long time since I heard from you! Yeah, she sure should check that more frequently, but it wasn't anything wrong with the ingredients ;) but I do quite agree with you, the ones who sell ingredients in Knockturn Alley aren't to be trusted! Don't you worry though, I'm sure that Lucius ol' dad will find out what's happening and then we'll only hope that our dearest ferret will get out of the manor alive -smirks-
Slymom:
Oh so you think it is a love story? –Wrinkles nose– am I that
predictable? Actually I'm planning to have love (or something of
the like) in the end… but the don't seem to be in love now, do
they?
–Worried–
CareBearErin:
Hi! You just don't know how glad I am to read your comment, it
makes me happy! And I'm to glad that you found my fic, it's
always nice to have new and fresh reviews ;) they use to be longer
then!
You like my characterizing of Lucius, Hermione and Draco? I must say that I like them to, Hermione perhaps is a bit out of character, she's a bit too frightened, but other ways I like her to. Especially the way I succeeded to avoid "beauty queen Granger". Draco is funny because he'll always put up quite the show, I mean, consider murdering your father's unborn child? Well, he IS a Malfoy for sure.
Yeah, Duster was a little thought that popped up in my head while reading through the philosopher's stone (again) I'm, just sooooo in love with Dobby so I just had to create my own house elf! No, Impero was something I myself hadn't predicted when I first wrote about the necklace, actually, I didn't know what Draco wanted with it when he gave it to her.
Hmm… about Lucius, well, he HAD to cool down a bit other ways I wouldn't succeed with the difficulties of love in the end. But he IS a complicated man and very power hungry so it came naturally that he would do everything in his power to have Hermione have this child as its possible to be the most powerful wizard since Merlin.
Earth-guide:
Laughs- one of "those" kinds of writers? It doesn't sounds too good, I know that cliff angers are quite disturbing, but they are a very good way for me to end a chapter… you see, it will keep you at edge while they're intruding me to write another –smirks– hope you'll forgive me :)
I know what you mean by saying that HR is a bit ooc, but it's quite hard to break the pattern while it's settled. I myself was fairly tired of these heroic Hermione's that laughed the very Voldemort straight in his face so I decided to make a more cowardly but more morally Hermione. I think that I maybe went too far, but she's based upon me, and I know how I would have reacted in her place, that's for sure. Though I appreciate your review, it's good with constrictive criticism.
Oliver's Quidditch Crazy:
Oh, hey Sam! Always a pleasure to read your reviews, they always perks me up a bit, I'm glad that they're never seems to be missing! Because they always makes my day :)
Oh thanks! I'm finding it quite disturbing when authors introduce new things of which you haven't read about before, and then don't tell us anything about them… that makes the fic a bit false.
Smirks- the baby is more then alright, he will play an important part in the aftermath of this fic… poor Draco, he'll never know what hit him. -Whoops! Now I'm telling you to much-. Yeah, Hermione loves her child, just as you mentioned, which mother doesn't? Well, save for those who have psychological problems, but that isn't an option in Hermione's case.
Yeah, Draco is a very bad, bad boy! But I guess that's the way it turns out when you're spoiling your child, they think that they can get away with everything, and GET everything they want. Ah… I liked that idea about making the baby immensely brave! -Laughs- imagine Lucius face when he finds out that the sorting hat screamed: "Gryffindor!" instead of "Slytherin!" Oboy, he would have a heart attack, that's for sure. Don't be surprised if I steal that idea from you!
I'd also like to thank:
XxXGoddessXofXdeadXloveXxx, Mary, Redneck chick, MysteriousNeptune17, Hotskittles, Raspberri13, Riley Black, Britt and Amishgirl281!
For reviewing on my fic, its you who keeps me going when I have hard time writing what I want to write, or when I don't KNOW what to write, you're all a great support!
Sneak Peak: Lucius plays Sherlock Holmes again; Draco soon will discover that something actually went wrong when Hermione drank the bravery potion, but not what we all think… maybe the amazing bouncing Ferret could carry out his plan anyway? And poor Hermione's stomach is growing larger, and then there is that dark night when Lucius is gone…