Disclaimer: not mine
A/N: Sorry this is short…it just felt like a good place to stop. Please review!
Now, a bit of shameless self-promotion. I have a Severus/Hermione story I was working on called Shadows of Madness. It was started before HBP and I am debating whether to continue it or not...please read it and let me know what you think.
Chapter 17
Bloody Wand
Unlike Severus Snape, who would sit at the Head table and openly glare at students, Lucius pretended to disregard them—pretended. He still watched the students from the corner of his eye or he would catch notice of every detail as his eyes swept the great hall while turning to respond to conversation happening around him. Despite his lame attempts to not notice or care, his detail-oriented mind always sent him glancing at the Gryffindor table.
Lucius noticed Harry and Ron walk in for dinner. Harry walked a bit ahead ready to dive into his meal. Ron drug his feet behind looking pouty and perturbed at the same time. Immediately Lucius understood, at least partly, the reason for Hermione's sudden snow attack on him and her outburst of hate toward him. He was ready to strangle the little red head for causing that scenario. The sound of Hermione's voice still echoed in his mind.
"I hate you."
Turning his attention back to Professor Slughorn's conversation, Lucius noticed the Gryffindor table.
Hermione was not there.
He dismissed it. After all, it would not be the first time the girl skipped a meal after an argument. Look what she did to Lucius in the safe house. Instead of dwelling on her absence, he paid attention to what Slughorn was saying. The nagging feeling in his heart and stomach made it quite difficult.
That night as he lay in bed not only was Lucius haunted the memory of his last encounter with her, but a nagging foreboding feeling engulfed him.
Lucius could no longer ignore the feeling deep in his gut when he watched his seventh year DADA class fill up without a certain know-it-all. His eyes swept the classroom and landed on Harry and Ron. Their heads were together whispering over an old piece of parchment.
Something was wrong.
Throughout the class, he noticed Harry and Ron were more distracted than usual. The anxiety emanated from the boys when Lucius asked the class a question and there was no eager hand in the air. The silence of the class was very trying on Lucius' nerves. No one seemed to notice…no one except his son.
Draco watched his father pacing the front of the class as he lectured—something he rarely did. Typically, he stood there in one spot only moving when necessary looking down his nose at the class. Draco's eyes shifted to the empty seat next to him. Anxiety and guilt warred within Draco. Hermione was not up when he left that morning. He had tried to wake her, but she warded her doors and no amount of pounding on the door seemed to help. He just thought she was exhausted. Now he wasn't so sure.
As everyone began packing up their stuff and exiting the class, Lucius called out to a few students.
"Mr. Potter…Mr. Weasley, I need to speak to you both."
The boys looked anxiously at each other as if Lucius was thwarting some plan they had by asking them to stay. They just stood there as the remaining students filed out of the class. When the door shut behind the last student Lucius looked up at the two boys.
"Why is it Miss Granger did not attend class this morning?"
He saw the flash of anger in Ron's eyes.
"What did you do to her," Ron blurted out.
Harry was the only one that didn't appear angry…only worried. Rolling his eyes at his friend, he looked Lucius up and down for a moment as if sizing him up.
"What Ron is trying to say is that we do not know. We haven't seen her since she got in a right state about something Ron said."
Lucius' head turned toward Ron.
"So I was correct and you are to blame for her outburst."
Ron said nothing and Harry looked at Lucius curiously. After a moment, Lucius dismissed them.
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Lucius stood in Headmistress McGonagall's office when Severus arrived for the Friday training session with Hermione. He was, of course, unaware of her disappearance. A very irate Ron and Harry stood on one side of the room, itching to go out in search of their friend.
"What do you mean 'she is not on the grounds?"
Severus' lethal glare turned to the two boys he disliked most in the world. His eyes traveled to an old blank folded piece of parchment Harry was putting back in his robe. Everyone seemed to ignore the question as they continued with the conversation that was in progress prior to Severus' entrance in the room.
"Have we established who saw Miss Granger last?"
McGonagall was trying to remain calm and collected as Dumbledore would have, but she just did not have the same confidence he did.
"Yes, Headmistress," Lucius spoke up. "I was the last to see her."
She nodded her head as if acknowledging the fact that she remembered now. Severus was looking at Lucius with ill-disguised curiosity. Something told him it was not a pleasant encounter.
"Alright, this is what we are going to do," McGonagall began. "We know she is no longer on the grounds so first we must look for any evidence to where she was last." She looked over to Lucius. "Where were you when you last saw her?"
"By the lake Headmistress."
She nodded her head again.
"Alright, we will start the search outside. And before you ask, yes, Potter, Weasley you may help with the search."
They spent hours on the grounds of Hogwarts wandering through the snow in search of the slightest sign of Hermione. Severus stayed at Hogwarts that night and the next morning the search continued with Harry and Ron searching the inside of the castle for any sign of their friend.
Lucius didn't want to think what it could mean that Hermione was missing over night…did Voldemort get his hands on her? The thought made him shiver. And if they did find her, what sort of condition would she be in? Meaningful glances between him and Severus told him the same thoughts were running through Severus' mind.
Severus kept his eye on the sky above. Snow was no longer in the air, but a layer still covered the ground. It looked as if the clouds were at war…a storm was brewing. Severus did not relish the thought of being out in the pouring rain, but he knew they probably would. He looked over at his friend. There was a look on Lucius' face that Severus could not remember ever seeing.
As the sun set the clouds rumbled overhead. No one had found a trace of Hermione Granger yet the essence of her presence seemed to linger in the air as if taunting them. Lucius thought he was losing his mind. A year ago he would have laughed at the silly Gryffindor girl getting herself in trouble, but now all he could think of was finding her before something horrible happened to her. The worst part was he feared it already had. He had seen the power Hermione Granger held in her and that alone gave him insight as to why the Dark Lord wanted her. His fear was what would the Dark Lord do to her—she was a stubborn child and he would break her spirit…shatter it until Hermione Granger no longer existed. The thought made Lucius nauseous.
The tension in the clouds grew to a breaking point. With a rumble, that vibrating Lucius' insides the rain broke free of the dark clouds. The rain poured from the sky, hitting what snow was left, melting it and washing it away. Severus was near the Forbidden Forest when the rain broke free. The rain pelted the snow and as it washed away, he saw it.
Lucius' head snapped up when he heard Severus yell out that he found something. Lucius was the first to get there. His heart was pounding in his chest, but he refused to analyze it. He looked down in the snow, where the rain had washed a layer of it away. He felt his pounding heart suddenly stop at the site before him.
Hermione Granger's wand laid in the snow…a red smudge on the handle and a splatter of red along shaft of the wand. Lucius stood there staring at the only piece of Hermione Granger that remained on the grounds…her blood. He watched the rain beating down on the wand washing away all that was left. For the first time Severus saw Lucius' cold demeanor, break…he saw Lucius break. He dropped to his knees in the snow as his memories echoed his own voice in his mind.
Mudblood
With a shaky hand, Severus noticed though would never tell Lucius so, Lucius picked up the wand. Lying underneath the wand as if torn from her neck was the snowflake necklace.
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She stumbled through the woods. She was tired. She didn't know what time of day it was anymore. Her hands were magically bound in front of her and she could only be so far from her captor, but it was far enough that she could not longer see her captor or which direction they went. She already tried to run once and thus discovered the bond her captor had placed on them—she went flying through the air into an old oak. Now, her head hurt.
As the rain broke through the crowded treetops, she stumbled over a root. How long had she been gone? She was desperately trying to keep her captor in site to avoid another run in with a tree, but it seemed her captor enjoyed torturing her with the bond…watching her body crash into trees and hearing her cry in pain.
Hermione had never been so scared. A werewolf howled in the distance, startling her and causing her to stumble slightly again. The tears running down her cheeks stung her face deeply…the salty tears mixing with the blood on her cheek was not pleasant. She was so deep into the forbidden forest that she wondered if she would ever see daylight again.
Her heart pounded the deeper they went and the further away her captor traveled. With a cackling laugh, her captor ran forward into a small clearing. It was too far. Hermione felt her body lift and fly through the air toward the clearing. She felt the crash wrack her body as she hit a giant ash right outside the clearing. When her body hit the wet ground, she fell forward. Struggling to lift her self, she looked up finally able to see her captor's face.
Standing in the clearing cackling with laughter, a mad glint in her eye showing a shadow of the genius she once was, was Bellatrix Lestrange.