Title: PRISONER OF THE HOUSE OF MALFOY
Author: obalesque
Summary: She was dead to them all. She has accepted that. Life's not really that bad. She's imprisoned, but not abused. Don't mean she wants to stay.
Rating: pg
Feedback: Please.
Main characters: Hermione, Draco
Disclaimer: I do not own, though like many other's I wish I did. I am earning nothing off of this except a release of creative energies.
It had been difficult at first, watching her friends and family move on without her. She sat before the fireplace in her posh prison apartment watching Molly Weasley preparing lunch in her kitchen and talking animatedly to Luna Lovegood who was placing a jug of apple cider on the table. Ron, Ginny, Harry, and Pansy all sat around the table. Arthur Weasley joined them with Neville Longbottom following close behind.
She smiled as she watched Neville kiss Ginny on the cheek who had been arguing with her brother about something or another. Harry was in quiet conversation with Pansy. Molly asked her husband how his day was as she placed the sandwiches in the center of the table and sat next to him. Neville sat next to Ginny as Luna joined Ron.
The remaining Weasley twin George bustled in with his girl Katie Bell. Fred had been killed over a year before during the final battle along with Percy who had finally reconciled with his family before his death. She had died to, or so they thought.
Lucius Malfoy had escaped unscathed taking her unconscious form with him. He sealed her in an apartment hidden between the walls in the vast Malfoy Manor. She was confused when she had awoken, looking around the beautiful bedroom. She found fresh expensive robes laid out on her bed and slipped them on. Her first thought was that Harry had done this, but she could find her wand nowhere.
She walked out of the room and looked around. She had stood in the common room she now sat in. An open study was in one corner of the room, it's walls lined with ancient tomes. She walked up to them and scanned over the titles. She had recognized many of the titles as being illegal. She took a step back.
"Now, now, Lady Granger," she heard a deep drawl from behind her. She turned, her eyes met with cold icy ones. "Or is it Lady Potter now. Yes."
She felt a lump form in her throat. Lucius had made many such visit's afterward, mocking her situation gleefully. She was relieved however that he never touched her. She learned that her suffering would not be physical as he explained that she had access to the study she stood in, the bed she awoke in, the common room, a luxury bathroom, and three separate other rooms each offering her the more refined things in life. She learned that she would have clean clothes, and a constant supply of food and wine. All of which was provided to her by Kreatcher, the Black families abused house elf.
She learned that her real suffering would be psychological. Large fireplaces sat in each room covering entire walls. Each held scenes of her friends and family. The common rooms held the Weasley's Burrow, usually following the concentration of the family member's in a room. It frequently followed Molly as she tended to be the only one home.
The one in her bedroom followed Harry every where. They had been married not a year before, only six month's they'd shared before her capture. They married in an attempt to thwart the Ministry's order to force Harry into a malign marriage with none other than Dolores Umbridge. Ginny had lost any interest she once held for the Boy Who Lived and the only other one Harry trusted enough was her, so with Ron's blessing he chose her. They had love in their relationship before so neither she nor Harry had problems with the stagged union.
She had however found it difficult to watch him even now. She had seen Harry fall in love and marry Pansy Parkinson. She attended the wedding and though she was happy he'd found a real and genuine love she was hurt that he'd moved on without her.
Another aspect of her imprisonment that she'd learned about much later was the fact that Lucius could see everything she did. She did so little however, effectively ruining his meager attempt at voyeurism, though she was sure Lucius got off on just seeing her imprisoned.
Three months after the battle, and millions of Galleons later, Lucius was able to walk free without problem as he had once again managed to buy his freedom from the corrupted Ministry. That hadn't lasted long. Harry was able to prove that Lucius was deliberately responsible for her death. Harry brought irrefutable evidence before the Wizengamot and they had given the Order permission to take Lucius out.
She remembered the day the Order had raided the manor. She listened intently as the battle came nearer to her sealed apartment. The battle that killed Lucius. When she felt they were close enough she began crying out to them. She remembered how closed they'd come to finding her alive. How close her Harry had come to being reunited with her.
They had been so close, stopping just feet from where she cried out to them, but the charms placed on the rooms held her voice just as much a prisoner as she had been. They left. She had cried for weeks after that while Kreatcher her warden kept her. He followed Lucius's order's to keep her a prisoner of Malfoy Manor even after his masters death. He had made sure she knew what he thought of her, calling her mudblood and constantly reminding her of his beloved masters murder.
Six months later she sat here on her couch by the fireside in her posh apartment prison watching her second family eat lunch. She looked up as the old house elf appeared suddenly with a fresh tray of food and the Daily Prophet.
"Slain the master they did. The mudbloods friends. Murderers the lot of them."
"To bad he can't be murdered again. How satisfying that would be."
Kreatcher growled at her and left the tray, disappearing as quickly as he appeared. She stashed the silverware and a majority of the food like she always did. She had little aim to stay imprisoned much longer. After eating she strung the books out all over pulling every one of them off of the shelves. At dinner time Kreatcher arrived again bringing her meal. He saw the books and set to work cleaning the mess up.
"The mudblood has ruined the masters books again. I must fix them. I must please my lord!" he squeaked in a crackling old voice. Hermione approached him from behind, a heavy silver and gold ornate urn in her small hands. She raised the urn high above her own head then brought it back down onto the frail old House elf.
He had cried out briefly in pain the halted abruptly with a gasp as he hit the floor. She dropped to her knee's. She never wished the situation to go this far, but she had no choice. Had Lucius lived she wouldn't have gotten this far in her plan to escape in the first place. Now with no one watching over her she had no intention of staying a prisoner. Not that she ever did. She simply saw freedom as a more realistic goal now unlike before. With both her captor and warden dead she set to work completing the escape of her apartment.
After Lucius had died she had begun digging through the wall with the knives and forks she'd stashed knowing the old house elf would not notice. The time of reckoning was at hand. Either she escaped now or she would surely die. With her source of sustenance dead she knew she hadn't long before she starved to death.
She estimated a food supply of at least three weeks if she used discretion while feeding on the stashed cakes, dried fruit, and meat she'd dehydrated in one of the many fireplaces just weeks before. Most of the vases held bottles of wine in them the house elf had failed to notice missing.
Two days of digging she managed to forge a small pinhole through the wall. She could see a sunlit sitting room through the hole. A tray of tea was sat out on a table in front of a lithe blonde woman she recognized as Narcissa Malfoy. She wondered if the witch had known about her being there. She decided she would wait until the night to continue her digging.
She took a bath and ate some dried meat, then chose a book to read while she waited. The book held knowledge of many old forgotten charms and curses. She had already committed most of the books to memory but had found this one of particular interest. She took a quick nap before nightfall then quickly set to digging again. By morning she could stick her arm through, though she were exhausted and hungry. She sat down and fell asleep once again.
Lady Malfoy sat in her dining room sipping her morning tea. She'd noticed Kreatcher had gone missing and sent her other house elf off to find him. In truth she half expected the unpleasant elf to be found dead, not that she cared. Kreatcher had spent to long making comment's about a mudblood and his masters murder. When she demanded an explanation the old elf would slink away muttering word's about the masters business being his own.
Narcissa was furious at that. Lucius was dead and though even then the house elf was expected loyalty to him she was his new owner and he'd yet to prove loyalty to her. Her other elf returned skittishly crying out something about the dead elf and the girl asleep on the couch.
Narcissa leapt up and demanded to know where. The elf showed her mistress the hole in the wall and Narcissa was reluctant to approach it.
"Go retrieve my son from his work. Quickly." the blonde whispered with a twinge of fear laced in her voice. Draco returned with the elf and drew his wand as he saw the hole his mother's elf had spoken of.
The girl on the couch awoke then and realized she'd slacked up on her chore. She went quickly to the hole to look through. Draco had moved forward cautiously and looked through at the same time.
"Aaaahhh!" they both screamed out in unison and fell back away from each other.
"Draco, what is it," Narcissa asked.
"Draco Malfoy, you let me out of here this instance," the girl cried out climbing back up to the hole. Draco's ears perked up and Narcissa took a step forward. Draco got to his feet and looked through the hole again.
"Granger," he asked incredulously as he looked upon her face.
"No, it's God. Let me out."
"But your dead."
"Do I look dead to you?"
"How did you get in there?"
"Ask your father!" Draco stole a glance at his mother who looked pale as a ghost. Her jaw had dropped in an accurate display of her shock.
"Stand back," he ordered as he pointer his wand at the hole in the wall. Hermione ran into the study and listened for Draco.
"BOMBARDA," he yelled and blew the wall open with a charm.
Hermione waited for the debris to clear the air before walking back toward the door. Draco and his mother both watch in awe as Hermione stepped out into the hall.
"That's one of my robes," Narcissa's mouth opened again. "I looked everywhere for it."
"I wear only what's given to me by your husband," Hermione stated factually.
"I take it you've been in there long."
"Long enough," she said.
"Mother. Did you know of this room," Draco asked as he looked to his mother.
"No. Your father had several rooms he kept hidden from everyone. How did you survive for so long without Lucius?"
"Kreatcher was following the order's he'd been given before your husbands death. I was to remain a prisoner even after Lucius Malfoy died."
"Where is that useless elf," Draco demanded.
"I- I killed him. . . to escape. He's in here, by the study." Hermione led Draco and Narcissa into the apartment and showed them the body. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be. . . " Draco started but stopped as he took in the rooms decor. "My father kept you here?"
"He wanted me to live as long as I could. He wanted me to perish a hundred years from now a constant prisoner of Malfoy Manor. He said my punishment would be to watch my loved ones leave me behind. Said it was all I deserved," she said as she pointed at the fireplace where Molly was once again making lunch for the Weasley bunch who had hoarded around her table. Both Malfoy's watched the scene play out before them, both to shocked to move or speak.
"There's one in each room. This is the only one that show's the Burrow. The rest follow Harry everywhere." Hermione added sadly. "I've seen every holiday, every celebration. I saw Harry marry Pansy."
"We all thought you were dead, Granger," Draco said.
"It's ok. I'm glad everyone was able to heal the war. I'm glad Harry found real love, not another marriage of convenience."
"He never stopped loving you."
"No. He didn't, did he."
"He will want to see you as soon as possible."
"It wont be possible for a while. I'm not ready to see any of them. I've lost everything. . . I need to sort myself out before I see any of them. I think I should speak to McGonagall. Maybe she'll let me finish my N.E.W.T.'s."
"I see no reason why she wont. In fact, knowing her, she will insist upon it so she can hire you as soon as possible."
"Huh?"
"Yeah. You should here her grumble whenever a professor slips up in his job. 'If it had been Miss Granger this mess would never had happened.' Rather annoying really, but she is right. A lot of the problems she grumbles about wouldn't have happened if you'd been the one teaching. But I think most of it is just her missing our old professors."
"That's understandable. She worked with them for well over thirty years."
"Right. Mother, we should summon the Auror's. From the looks of those books many of them are illegal. We cannot afford to get caught with something like 'Dark Curses and Hexes Ordained by Lord Grindelwald for the English Nazi'," Draco sneered.
"It's actually quite informative," Hermione smiled causing Draco's eyebrows to shoot up.
"Yes. I'll do that immediately. They will wish to speak with you Miss Granger."
"I really do not want to deal with them just yet. The second they are done with their investigation it will be in the paper. I do not feel it would be acceptable for my friends and family to learn about my resurrection in such a manner."
"I will pay a visit to Mrs. Weasley myself." Narcissa stated. "She can inform everyone."
"Thank you Lady Malfoy."
"I'll escort you to McGonagall right away, Granger. But we should probavly get you something less extravagant to wear."
"Thank you." Hermione smiled weakly. "Lady Malfoy. I am sorry about the damages I've done to you staff and home. Send me a bill of the damages and I will pay for it myself."
"I think not. The damages would not have occurred had you not been incarcerated. You were only seeking your freedom."
"Still, I damaged your beautiful home. Let me pay."
"I do believe you payed enough."