I am a Pretty Piece of Flesh
Warning: I don't own any of this!
Oh and, this is rated for a reason!
Plot: After Dumbledore's death, Hermione joins the Order of the Phoenix. But her secret past comes back to haunt her when Blaise Zabini is brought to Headquarters by the fugitive Severus Snape. Romance/Drama/Action/Humor
Prologue: Thou Art Not Quickly Moved to Strike
Hermione traced her finger lazily around the tip of her tea cup and smiled at the old man in front of her. Moody was scowling at her cheeky grin and the merry twinkle in her eyes.
"So what are you going to do, old man? It's your move."
"You think I didn't bloody know that!" She laughed at his words. His magical eye swiveled madly in his head, before settling on the door directly behind her. He made a groaning noise deep in his throat and knocked a chess piece forward. Hermione lifted the cup to her lips and allowed a sour cold tea to run past her lips. She made a noise of disgust and set it on the table next to them.
"Checkmate." She teased as she moved a piece forward. There was a knock at the door Moody had been staring at earlier. Her hand went instantly to her wand, and he stood silently. She moved to standbehind the door. Moody stood in the same spot and opened the door with a flick of his own wand. There, stood a disheveled Severus Snape, with a bleeding...something, leaning on his shoulder. Hermione pushed them both in through the door and Moody bound Snape to a chair. His wand was pushed to Snape's throat, but the greasy man just glared at the bloodied boy on the couch. Hermione edged her way cautiously around the criminal to examine the boy.
"Moody, this is Blaise Zabini!" she cried. Her hands flew to his throat, to feel for a pulse. She gasped at the low pitiful heartbeat of the dying Zabini. Both Order members flew into action, stripping the boy and calling in Molly Weasley, the Order's temporary nurse. As Molly fluttered around the still form of Blaise, Hermione backed up slowly. Her heel hit something solid and she spun, wand at the ready. Severus Snape looked up from his chair, where he was bound and gagged. She looked into the obsidian depths and saw flashes of memories that she had thought were dead. Now she knew she was wrong. Her gaze lifted to Moody and Molly who were levitating the body out the door, and went back to Severus' face. Forgive me. Forgive me.It chanted silently. She shook her head and went after the two adults.
Hermione paced the hallway outside Moody's office. He had been questioning Severus Snape for half an hour while Blaise's life slowly gave out. He was barely breathing upstairs on her bed, with several wizards keeping him alive. Occasionally, Hermione would hear a slap resound through the thin walls. She cringed everytime she heard Moody's hand come in contact with what she assumed was Severus' face. She could remember when Severus was working for the Light. He would sit in his Order Office for hours, thinking through Voldemort's latest scheme. She remembered many a night when she would be sipping tea in the kitchen and he would come storming it, with an idea hot on his brain.
Then...That night happened. The night of Dumbledore's death. It had affected everyone hard, especially the members of the Order of the Phoenix. Hermione remembered the late nights of sitting up with Harry and Ron, in dead silence, thinking. Hating. When the opportunity arose for one of them to join the Order, Hermione stepped up to the challenge, knowing it was her place. Ron wasn't as swift on his feet as she was, and his brains weren't anywhere near her level. Harry had enough on his plate as it was--and she saw the affects of it in his dulling green eyes. She made the decision before running it past them. She knew they wouldn't approve and probably wouldn't allow it.
Hermione was inducted into the Order of the Phoenix the night she gave McGonagall her decision. The Elite bound her to the Order with a small Phoenix mark on her ankle. An assignment was given to her the next morning and it dictated the situation she was currently in--to save Blaise or Severus.
