A/N: Hey people. So you have all been hanging onto the cliff edge for a while so I thought it was time to remove you all from it and set you on firm ground. Thanks for the reviews as well!

DISCLAIMER: Only the five slaves do I own.

Chapter Seven

"WHO HEALED YOUR HANDS?"

Hermione stared at Lucius in shock as he gripped hold of her right hand tightly, glaring from her hands to her. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. Lucius' grip on her hand tightened before he threw her too the ground, pulling his wand out and pointing it directly at her throat. Hermione gave a whimper and her eyes filled with tears.

"WELL WHO DID IT YOU FILTHY LITTLE WENCH?"

Hermione shook her head mostly out of fear for Narcissa's life. Footsteps running towards them caught both her and Lucius' attention. From around a corner appeared Draco looking breathless and worried.

"Look at her!" hissed Lucius too his son, who stood looking from his father too Hermione, "Someone healed her hands!"

"I-I did it," lied Hermione in desperation, "I found a potion in the kitchen that healed wounds."

Lucius glared at Hermione for a long time. Hermione looked at Lucius in fear and worry. He was giving her an almost penetrating stare. Then she realized what he was doing.

"No!" cried Hermione trying to close her mind, "You can't do that!"

"GET UP!" roared Lucius, "Draco get her up. I need to have a word with your mother."

"NO!" screamed Hermione squirming in Draco's grasp as he grabbed her, "HE IS GOING TO KILL YOUR MOTHER, MALFOY!"

Hermione continued to kick and scream in Draco's hold as Lucius led the way to Narcissa's reading room. Tears flowed down her cheeks freely and soon Hermione lost the fight inside her. She fell limply in Draco's hold.

"Walk, Granger!" he hissed, "Do you want to be killed as well?"

"She is your mother!" spat Hermione venomously, "How can you let your father kill you own mother?"

She glared at Draco and screamed angrily as he lifted her up into his arms and over his shoulder. Hermione was useless in his hold. Her strength hadn't fully returned to her yet and she was wandless. As they drew closer and closer to the reading room Hermione's body shuddered as pictures of her parents being murdered filled her mind. She shouldn't of allowed Narcissa to heal her hands. Because of her kindness, Narcissa was about to be brutally killed by her husband with her son watching on.

"You can stop this," said Hermione sadly, "You may just be his son… but you can stop it. She is your mother, Malfoy."

Hermione got no response other then his adjusting her weight on his shoulder. Then they came to the door. Lucius didn't even knock. Instead he banged the door open with his wand and walked it too a startled Narcissa standing by her wall length painting, a book in hand.

"Lucius," she said as Draco dumped Hermione on the ground at her feet, "What is go-"

"Hide Mistress!" cried Hermione clutching Narcissa by her robes in desperation, "He will kill you!"

Hermione screamed as Lucius grabbed Hermione by her hair and yanked her from the ground to her feet. Her hands scratched at his to let go of her. In frustration Hermione bit her lower lip to stop herself from screaming out in agony.

"You healed her," hissed Lucius grabbing one of Hermione's hands in anger, "You HEALED her!"

"Yes I did."

"No!" cried Hermione through a sob.

"SILENCE!" roared Lucius throwing Hermione across the room so she crashed into a table.

Hermione didn't scream, even though he whole body ached. She looked down at her leg and saw a piece of wood embedded in it, deeply. Biting her lower lip, she grabbed it firmly and pulled it out, her heart racing as she did so.

She looked up in time to see Lucius grabbing Narcissa by the throat tightly. Hermione screamed out as Narcissa scratched at Lucius' hands in desperation. Without warning Lucius threw her down too the ground roughly and hit her with the cruciatus curse. Hermione watched on in terror, unable to move due to pain and shock. Her shock died down within seconds and slowly Hermione tried to stand up. Lucius, who was too focused on slowly killing his wife, didn't notice Hermione stumble forwards, her injured leg nearly giving way underneath her. Her blood dropped too the ground in large red dollops.

"Stop it!" screamed Hermione stumbling forward in a half run as she shoved Lucius with all of her strength.

The spell broke from the small shove and Narcissa lay panting on the ground weakly. Lucius glared at Hermione and knocked her backwards with the stupefy spell. Hermione slid along the ground; the blood from her deep wound smearing across the ground. Before Hermione could stand up, Lucius had kicked Narcissa in the ribs.

"Betrayer! You choose their fight over mine?" he roared kicking her again before reaching down and yanking her up by the hair and tilting her head backwards and hissed, "Have you no idea who I am?"

"Stop him!" pleaded Hermione stumbling over to her last hope and falling down at his feet, "I beg you… she is your mother! She gave birth to you!"

Hermione looked up at him, tears falling from her brown eyes. Draco looked down at her and for the first time, Hermione saw caring emotion in them.

"I know you love her," whispered Hermione as she winced from hearing Narcissa cry out in pain, "Be a real son to her for just this once. Let her live… please…please!"

He looked away from her and Hermione burst into tears. She laid down on the ground in a ball and sobbed, wincing whenever she heard Lucius kick or hit Narcissa. Then it stopped; the noises coming from Narcissa and Lucius seemed to have stopped.

"Is she dead?" Hermione heard Draco ask Lucius.

Hermione turned her head and peered at the bloody mess that was Narcissa Malfoy. A lump formed in her throat and a sob threatened to escape but somehow Hermione managed to hold it in. She watched as Lucius gave his wife a nudge of the foot and nodded.

"She's dead," he said before turning to a shaking Hermione, "You mudblood, will clean up this mess – alone! Draco I want you to make sure she does."

With that Lucius left, shutting the door behind him. Hermione sat up and teared her eyes away from a still Narcissa and looked at Draco with immense hatred.

"You let him kill her!" she hissed, "You hor-"

"I did not!" snapped Draco pulled his wand out, "I used a spell to make the illusion seem to others then the spell caster that she is dead!"

Hermione looked at Draco at a loss for words. She watched as he walked over and reversed the spell. He knelt beside his mother as she gave a moan of pain. Hermione crawled over and knelt beside Narcissa, taking hold of her hand and feeling for her pulse. She knew Draco was watching her curiously, but his gaze didn't matter to her.

"She is weak. You have to get her to St Mungo's," said Hermione looking at Draco, "She'll die if she stays here."

"No!" moaned Narcissa grabbing Hermione by her hand, "Take me to Sirius."

"Sirius? Mistress, Sirius is dead. He has be-"

"He is alive! T-The apple," she gasped trying to sit up.

Instantly Hermione and Draco worked together to lift Narcissa up. Draco held his mother in his arms and Hermione looked around for an apple. She frowned and looked at Narcissa who was gesturing at her wall length painting. Hermione looked at it and saw the apples hanging from it. Draco and Hermione walked over to it.

"What do we do?" asked Draco softly to his mother, "Mother… Mum… what do we do?"

"Run... run your hand down the right side… of frame," started Narcissa before slipping into unconsciousness.

Hermione walked over to the painting and did as Narcissa had said. She pressed firmly and found the trigger. She pushed the moving bit of frame in and looked at the painting to see the apple fall and create a door handle. She turned it and stepped back at the painting split in two.

"Move, Granger!" barked Draco pushing past and heading into the corridor.

Hermione stumbled aside and her leg nearly gave way. Steadying herself she followed Draco through the corridor, hearing the painting snap shut behind her. Was Sirius alive? The thought swam through her mind constantly and she imagined what Harry would do if he found out his supposed dead godfather was indeed living.

Hermione had no time to even ponder the reunion as Draco was barking for the door to be opened at the end of the corridor. As Hermione stumbled forward to open the door and was about to open the handle when the door swung wide open to show Sirius Black.

At the sight of him and loss of blood Hermione collapsed into a blissful darkness.

HD

"… lucky to even be alive."

"What about Hermione? Is she okay?"

"She is fine. I healed her leg perfectly."

"Oh good… argh… my back."

"Mum you need to rest, I'll go clean the room and get some food from the kitchens."

"W-what's going on?" mumbled Hermione opening her eyes and blinking a few times as they adjusted to the light. She rubbed her eyes and opened them again to see the smiling face of Sirius Black in front of her, "S-Sirius?"

The man laughed and nodded embracing Hermione into a hug. Hermione hugged him back tightly as she was hit with a wave of emotions, sending her into tears.

"Look at you!" cried Sirius leaning back as Hermione smiled at him through her tears, "You have grown up so much! Wow!"

"B-but your alive!" said Hermione confused, "How? Harry saw you fall into the veil. So did Lupin… this is impossible."

"Shall I tell her Narcissa?" asked Sirius turning to his cousin, who had her eyes, closed in a bid to ignore her pain.

"Yes... yes tell her," nodded Narcissa.

"She is alive," gasped Hermione finally taking notice of her pale mistress.

"She is lucky I was a healer in training at St Mungo's. I was in my final year… well that was a long time ago."

Hermione nodded, "Harry still misses you."

Sirius smiled sadly, "I miss him as well."

"The veil…"

"Yes the veil. Well this Manor was not originally known as the Malfoy Manor. It was once the Great House of Black. Our grandmother owned it," said Sirius gesturing from himself to Narcissa, "Narcissa inherited it as she visited our dear grandmother all the time. Well, when grandmother passed on, may she rest in peace; Narcissa got the manor and everything it contained. With it Narcissa got a map no one knew of. This map showed everything. It is like the Marauders map really."

Hermione nodded to show she was listening and understood.

"When I fell into that veil I didn't die. That I found odd. I must have been stuck in there for weeks though. I didn't know if I was upside down or upright… and then I hit a wall. Only the wall opened up and the next thing I knew I was in a dark circular room and had no idea where I was. There is a second veil you see. Grandmother obviously knew about it as the room it was in had remained locked for years from what Narcissa told me, for safety reasons. Then Narcissa found me. She saw my name on the map and came too me. She was distraught that day as her son had been given a task from Voldemort and if he failed he would die. Narcissa soon confessed to me everything and how she hated Voldemort and everything he stood for. I obviously had to remain hidden here at the manor. If Voldemort knew of my existence he would've used me as a pawn against Harry."

"But then Voldemort was killed," said Hermione confused.

"I was going to come out and show I was alive, believe me, but Narcissa heard of the Death Eater's uprising and told me I couldn't go out. Harry would come for me if he knew I was here and wouldn't Lucius love that? Harry Potter murdered in his own home. I want to go to Harry but it isn't safe, I'm sure you understand my reasons for staying in hiding now."

Hermione nodded, "I do… so Narcissa is good?"

Sirius nodded, "We are working on a way of getting Draco to come to our side. If he worked both sides we could find a weakness and use that to bring them down."

"Well that is simple," said Hermione, "The Dementors. All they are doing is making the situation worse with their sad making ways. We destroy them, we destroy the Death Eater's main weapon."

"I knew you were the brainy one."

"But bringing them down is the problem. You would need a really powerful patronus to accomplish that… and then killing them…"

"That is simple," said Sirius, "Remove their cloaks. Their bodies cannot stand total exposure. The slight raise in heat will burn their skin."

"I didn't know that… how did you know?"

"Overheard Ministry officials talking about during my stay in Azkaban."

Hermione nodded thinking seriously, "It would be a dangerous thing to even try."

"I know. But I doubt there is another way to do it."

"Probably. I don't think the Ministry thought into the future incase those creatures became out of control."

"That wouldn't surprise me. How do you feel? Is your leg sore at all?"

"My leg is perfectly fine… well a little stiff but movement will fix that. I should go you know? The others are probably worrying about me."

Sirius sighed, "I suppose so. Be careful around Lucius. I think we will have to get Draco to teach you how too close your mind to his father."

"You mean spend more time with that horrible thing?" spat out Hermione in disgust.

"I know he isn't the… nicest person, but he is skilled in Occlumency."

Hermione stood up and leaned carefully on her once injured leg. It shook a little but over time she would have full use of it again. Sirius stood up also and walked behind Hermione over to the door.

"Come see me tomorrow. You will need to bring us food," said Sirius with a nod from Hermione, "When you get into the reading room send a letter to the order. They need to know your situation had gotten worse."

"I know… should I tell them about you?"

"Send a separate letter to Lupin and McGonagall, forward that letter to Hogwarts. They cannot let Harry know of me."

Hermione nodded and hugged Sirius smiling, "It's so good to see you again, Sirius."

"You too Hermione. Take care."

Hermione nodded and left the room, walking up the corridor with a limp. She turned the handle on the back of the painting and entered the clean and repaired reading room. Draco was adding the final touches from what Hermione could see. He turned to face her at her arrival, but his face masked all emotion.

"I… I ah, have to write some letters," mumbled Hermione gesturing to the desk, "Does your father watch the use of your mother's fireplace?"

"Depends on who you are sending the letters too," came Draco's cocky reply.

Hermione sighed irritably and tucked a lock of her curly mane behind her ear, "Malfoy neither of us is in the right emotional state to argue at the moment-"

"At the moment?" interjected Draco, "Are you saying tomorrow we will feel like arguing?"

"Does it matter?"

"Well… no."

"Right then. Does your father watch the happenings with your mother's fireplace?"

"No."

Hermione nodded and walked over to the desk. Her hands ran over her blood stained toga as she sat down. She glanced up at Draco and saw he had sat down in one of the lounges and was staring at the wall opposite him blankly. Hermione shook her head a little and began writing a long letter to the Order. They needed to know everything possible and she didn't have a lot of time. The Order letter took her a full twenty minutes to write. She had so much to say in such a short period of time. The letter to McGonagall and Lupin was harder to write. How can she possibly tell them Sirius was alive without looking like she had lost her mind?

Leaning back to straighten her back, Hermione knocked the bottle of ink to the floor.

"Oh, Merlin!" cursed Hermione jumping up in surprise, "Malfoy… could you possibly clean this for me?"

Draco looked up at the mess and sighed wirily, "I suppose so."

Hermione half smiled as he walked over and cleaned away the mess with a flick of his wand.

"There is more ink in the top draw. Under all those papers," said Draco walking back over to the lounge, "Hurry it up will you?"

Hermione sighed at him and opened the draw. She rifled through the papers but stopped at a folded note with Harry's name on it. Hermione pulled it out with a bottle of black ink. She shut the draw and set the ink on the table before opening the letter.

Here was her proof! A letter to Harry from Sirius! She wrote more into the letter to McGonagall and Lupin, and folded it up, sealing the letter closed to hold in Sirius' letter to Harry. Standing up she walked over to the fireplace and grabbed some floo powder.

"The Three Broomsticks," whispered Hermione so Draco couldn't hear her as she sent away the first letter, "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
She could do it, that Hermione knew – jump into the fireplace and flee to safety, but that would mean leaving behind the other five slaves and that she couldn't do that.

"Done now?" asked the irritating one.

"Yes. Can I ask you something?" replied Hermione turning to Draco.

"Well you never gave me a choice did you?"

"Ha, ha," snapped Hermione, "You are so funny. Look, which side are you on? Do you stand with you father or your mother?"

Hermione watched as Draco's expression became guarded. He crossed his arms and looked at the ground before looking at Hermione.

"Why?" he asked.

"Oh I don't know… how about the fact you have two personas? One is a nice caring young man and the other is a horrible, cruel monster… basically number two is a younger version of the Senior Malfoy."

"I'm on a side Granger, my side."

"So you are standing alone? Taking no sides? Or are you waiting to see which side wins and then you will claim you were on that side the whole time?"

"What's it to you?"

"Forget it, Malfoy," snapped Hermione angrily, "I don't even know why I bother… just do this one thing for me… answer this, are you standing with your father because your want to or because its what he expects of you?"

Hermione didn't wait for an answer. Instead she left the reading room and walked as quickly as possible back to the kitchens. The house was dark with no noise coming from anywhere. No sign of Lucius being home was visible. She walked down the stairs to the kitchen and pushed the door open, to have a gasp of terrified voices greet her. Hermione went to smile but her mouth fell open in shock at the sight. Blood splattered the floor and walls, and there were only four slaves.

"Hermione!" cried Scott, standing and running over to her.

Hermione embraced Scott into a hug tightly, but she pulled away, looking at the kitchen, "What happened here?"

"Lucius… he came in here at the middle of the night. He was covered in blood… like you," answered Sophie, "He took Bridget. We haven't seen her since."

"What do you mean he took Bridget? Why?"

"We think… we think he is going to rape her," said Scott, "I tried to stop him."

Hermione looked at Scott and finally noticed the black eye and cut on his lip, "But where did all this blood come from?"

"Bridget. She fought him. He was trying to take Sophie," spoke up another slave, Bailey.

Hermione's leg gave way underneath her and she fell to the ground. Scott knelt beside her worriedly and Sophie crawled over.

"What happened to you?" asked Scott.

"Lucius saw my healed hands and read my thoughts, finding out Narcissa healed me," said Hermione as she recountered the entire ordeal to them, including the parts about Sirius being found alive, "But I didn't wait for an answer. Time will tell."

"He could help us greatly if he was on our side," said Sophie before she let out a sob, "This is bad, Hermione… Bridget could be dead!"

"I know… listen. I really need to clean this blood off me. As soon as I am clean Scott and I will go find Bridget. I want you to stay with Bailey and Zack. Clean this mess up."

Hermione stood and headed out of the kitchen. At the top of the stairs she was greeted by Draco himself.

"Malfoy," said Hermione quietly, "Can I help you?"

"What if I told you I don't know why I stand by my father?"

"Then I suggest you work that out… if you stand by your father, why did you save your mother's life? Especially when your mother is working against the Death Eaters cause, whatever that may be," replied Hermione, "If you will excuse me I need to shower. You should do the same."

Hermione turned and headed down to the bathroom designated to the slaves. Very little water came from the rusted showerhead. Hermione found a cloth in the bath and used it to scrub her body clean of the blood. She wet her toga and used the same cloth to scrub her toga as clean as possible from the blood. She dressed back into the wet toga. She ran her fingers through her hair and left the bathroom feeling not entirely clean, but better then before.

HD

"Ready, Scott?" asked Hermione entering the kitchen tugging her wet toga from her body, "This thing is so annoying."

Scott walked over to Hermione and followed her up the stairs. Her and Scott stood in the corridor, wondering where to begin.

"I don't know where Lucius' room is," said Hermione glancing at Scott, "What about you?"

"Never been called from the kitchens."

Hermione sighed, "We need Malfoy's help. I know where his room is."

The two walked through the manor quickly until they reached Draco's bedroom door. Hermione could hear water running and sighed.

"He's showering," she said, "I guess we wait."

"Or we could go in. Catch him in a towel… he'll want us to leave so he can dress. Best way to get an answer," suggested Scott.

Hermione nodded and pushed the door open. They both walked in and stood in the middle of the room so Draco would notice them instantly.

"Talk about luxury," said Scott looking around him, "No wonder he is so arrogant."

"I know. This room is like my lounge room, kitchen and dining room at home," replied Hermione as the water stopped running, "Here he comes."

The sound of whistling filled their ears, causing Hermione and Scott to look at each other in amusement. As they watched the door in anticipation a knock came from the one behind them.

"Draco?"

"It's Lucius!" hissed Hermione grabbing Scott by the hand and dragging him over to Draco's walk in wardrobe, "He can't hear us or see us… or we are both good as dead."

Scott ran into the closet behind Hermione and they hid in the shadows at the back of the closet. Hermione knelt down low as Scott stood behind her.

"Stay here," whispered Hermione as she crawled towards the door in time to see Lucius walk in and Draco out of the bathroom.

A/N: Another cliff hanger. -places everyone back on cliff edge- The next chapter is from the Malfoy's view but will pick up not from this part, but the kitchen incident with Lucius. Anyway, please review… oh and the rating may possibly increase. Not sure yet.

Bye for now!

Love yas!

Love Coz!