Disclaimer: Harry Potter? Me? I wish! Nah, I'm just using her perfectly thought out world to create a little something of my own. So, without further ado, read and enjoy.
Chapter 3: The Vain of Life
Draco's head had drooped down to rest on his chest as he sat on the cold floor, hovering somewhere between sleep and… well, not sleep. His feet stuck out behind him as his upper torso rested upon his calves so that he was in a kneeling position of a sort. Eyes fluttering open, he looked around and sighed at the bland scenery. He felt encased as he stared at the tall, slate gray walls, their depths towering above him. The nearest wall looked to be four and a half, five feet, away from the manacles gripping both of his wrists.
Lucius had left soon after the spell had been complete and left Draco to fend for himself. As the words of the spell echoed in his head, he searched his mind, trying desperately to figure out a way to break free of the chamber hiding him from the world. A noise broke the silence as a door creaked open to Draco's right. Goyle strode into the room, carrying a tray of food consisting of cold oatmeal slopped onto a plate precariously. Behind him stood Lucius, watching Draco's demeanor closely with his eyes.
"Thank you, Goyle, that will be all. Just set the plate down about two feet in front of Draco, will you?" It was more of an order then a request, and Lucius watched as it was fulfilled. Draco's stomach raised its head and growled at the chance of food, sitting so close and yet so far away.
The door closed as Goyle left the room, and Lucius strode forward. "How does it smell, Draco? You've been denied the chance of food for so long, what does it feel like to finally have it within your reach?"
Draco was perfectly aware that he could simply twist his body around to close the distance between himself and the plate, but he was unwilling to lose his last shred of dignity in front of his father. He therefore did not answer.
"I asked you a question, son, and I expect and answer." Another moment of silence lapped before Lucius bellowed, "Imperio."
All the pain and anguish suddenly left Draco's body as a wave of pleasure washed over him. He felt light as a feather, as though he had not a care in the world. He wanted to stand up, kick over the wall, and run to Hermione's side. Even such a drastic measure seemed immaterial at the moment. He was free to stand up, dance, or do whatever he liked; and he did. He stood up, his knees and legs supporting him for the first time since he had found himself in this room. Just as he was about to jump in the air, he heard a voice penetrate his mind.
"Tell me how it feels. Just say you don't like it. Say it feels like hell. Say you would rather be adopted by Satin himself then be denied this chance at food."
"I don't like it," Draco spoke in a loud crisp voice. "I think it's hell." He heard a laugh emit from somewhere to the side of him, but he still didn't care. He wanted to do something bold, something to make a statement.
The voice entered his head again. "Now listen carefully, Draco. I want you to eat the food. Stuff your face into it and eat the food. Do it now!"
Draco smiled at the seemingly simple task and was about to fulfill the voices request when another voice entered his mind. But why? It would be so undignified to stuff your face into a plate of food. Malfoy's deserve to eat food off of spotless tables with golden utensils, not stuff their faces into a cold plate of food on the floor.
"Eat the food. Eat it NOW! NOW I said!"
"No" Draco said. "I don't really want to."
"Eat the food NOW Draco!"
"No, I don't think I will." And suddenly, the feeling left him and all his pain, anguish, and fear replaced itself around him, like a blanket of misery.
Lucius was starring daggers into his flesh. He was angry; he wanted revenge. No one said no to Lucius Malfoy. "You will pay for that, Draco. For that, you will be denied food once again." And he swept, with a swish of his cloak, out of the room.
Draco groaned, his stomach roaring painfully as his heart pounded against his chest. He wanted to scream: to let out his anger. Hunger had dug itself into his body and he needed relief. He wanted to scream, to punch something, to relieve himself from this mess. He roared a howl of anger and kicked the wall at his side with his foot, trying to sink it into the wall's solid depths. His leg throbbed as it struck the side of the building, the force of the blow pulsing in his legs. He let out another scream of agony, this one out of pain alone. He ceased his efforts and allowed himself to lie there, panting on the cold floor. After about a minute, his eyes drifted up to the wall he had kicked and stared daggers at it, as if accusing it of his current distress. Discovering a new rush of hatred and anger, he used his right, uninjured leg to kick the wall again, this time at the vain where it met the back wall.
As he kicked it, he could feel his leg pounding from the force of the blow but more importantly, he felt the seam shift beneath his foot.
Was this the weakness Lucius had mentioned?
0000
Three weeks passed by in which time Draco devoted his time and efforts into healing his body and strengthening his legs to the best of his ability. He tried to remember handy muggle remedies he might have heard somewhere and mixed them with his own common sense to supply his aching body parts with the proper supplements. As the weeks passed by, Lucius dropped by every once and a while to check on Draco's stature. Once every week, Draco was granted a small portion of some type of cold oatmeal and a splash of water on his face to sustain his life through the required time period. But Draco could not have cared less. He was getting stronger, and that was all that mattered. Finally, as the end of the third week drew to a close, Draco's efforts paid off and his left leg became of functional use. Realizing this caused a jolt in Draco's demeanor; he had one week left to attempt an escape from these dungeons. Unfortunately, around the time this discovery was made, Lucius decided to pay Draco a little visit.
As Draco heard the door of the dank room creak open, he immediately fell to the floor and thrust his leg out in front of him in the position he had adapted as a neutral sign of his broken state.
"Still wallowing around in here, are you? Hmm, now that won't do," he said lazily. "Crucio!"
Pain shot through Draco's body like none he had felt before. He had acquired hope, which in turn had made him more susceptible to dark magic; Lucius knew this and was hoping to break him with this knowledge. Draco's body squirmed around on the floor as he felt is entire body throb with the pain of thousands of needles shoving themselves beneath the surface of his skin. Before, he had been able to anticipate this and had been able to carry his mind to a different place; a happy place: a place with Hermione. Now, though, Lucius watched as his spell became the ruin of Draco's progress.
Draco's left leg was trying desperately to hold onto any forms of health it could, as it grew weaker and weaker with the spell. Finally, in a last resort, the leg jerked out from under Draco's body and kicked the seam of the wall nearest Draco with agonizing force in a last, desperate attempt to keep the pain at bay. A blinding light swept over Draco and he shot backwards in surprise, jerking and twitching all the while.
Immediately, Lucius stopped, pulling his wand away from his son's shaking form and walking over to the wall Draco had kicked as he had been immersed in the throws of the spell. Draco panted heavily on the floor. His entire body ached and felt thoroughly exhausted. Lucius glared down at him and examined the effects on the wall.
A thin beam of light could now be seen leaking through the sliver in the wall. For a moment, Draco thought Lucius intended to kick him, but a second later, he did something else… something much worse.
"Levicorpus," Lucius hissed. Draco's body began to float into the air, higher and higher as it soared above the ground. As his head became inches away from knocking into the ceiling, he saw a flash of red light shoot out of his father's wand and was thrown backwards against the wall; pinned there on display for the entire world to see. With another sweep of his wand, ropes fell down from the ceiling and Draco's arms were entwined with them. His legs dangled so close to the floor, it was painful; for no matter how hard he tried, he could touch the ground with no part of his foot.
A smug look fell over Lucius' face as he walked toward the door. "You haven't been put under any illusions of late so I decided, a little change of… drapery, was in order." He flung open the door and departed into the depths of its malice.
"Hermione, I'm sorry. I just… I had to warn you of the situation at hand. If things continue to progress as they have over the past year, your days working here will be short lived."
Hermione sighed as she gazed thoughtfully into her boss' kind face. She loved her job. Shortly after graduating from Hogwarts, she had begun her training to work for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. She had clinched a job working to protect Werewolves from the mistreatment they suffered each and every day of their lives. She had made countless speeches to the wizarding community about the unfairness they suffered because of their species. Not long before Draco left Hermione for good, her boss had offered her a job with a member of her department, her choice, who would proceed to work with her to create a potion Werewolves could take to transform them back into their original form; permanently. She had accepted on the spot and had begun the search for a partner when her heart had been broken in half by Draco Malfoy. Trying to become realistic about the amount of work she would be able to finish after this devastating incident, she had let her head of department know she would not be able to create the potion at the given time; a first sign that something was, indeed wrong. Since when did Hermione look at work realistically? The enthusiasm, which had helped her seal the job in the first place, had left her, permanently. She seemed to be living as a corpse each and every day. Simply performing the tasks she was assigned and no longer exceeding expectation.
And here she sat. In her boss' office being lectured on her status as an employee and the prospects, which sat in her path if she continued to work the way she had become accustom.
"I'm sorry Mr. Beuford, but I've just… I'm sorry. I promise I'll try harder," Hermione explained. She didn't want to lose her job. She would never live that down with herself no matter how depressed she became.
"That's just it, though, Mrs. Granger. You've been telling me that for a month now and I'm afraid I just haven't seen enough improvement on your part. If you hadn't come into this office with such high recommendations from your teachers, an amazing source of enthusiasm, and as the wife of Harry James Potter, I doubt I would have given you so many warnings. Never the less, be that as it may, I'm going to give you one more shot. You have one more month to show me you can improve your work or you're gone. That's it." His lips formed a grimace as he watched her features portray nothing to him. She was as unreadable as stone as she sat there, listening to his harsh words spiral from his lips.
"Listen, I know you've been having a hard time lately but I'm having a hard time figuring out what happened. I've asked countless people if they know anything about what happened and I've received the same answer every time. No one seems to know why such a change occurred in your demeanor. Only one thing seems consistent with everyone, though; something happened about two years ago, which changed your life. Now I know it's none of my business, but if there's anything I can do to help you out… anything at all… don't hesitate to ask."
And with that, she rose from her seat and thanked the man for his kind words. She walked swiftly out of the room and packed her things before heading home for the rest of the day.
0000
"Hermione, I'm home!" she heard Harry's voice call from the doorway. A loud thump sounded on the ground near the door and she heard his footsteps echo down the hallway as they headed for the kitchen: Hermione's place of refuge.
The door swung open and in walked the only wizard to win hottest guy in a muggle magazine twice. THAT'S how popular he had become. Winning the war had definitely come with a price of fame. Hermione tried to smile at him as he walked over to the kitchen table and pulled her out of the chair. His lips found hers easily as his hands snaked their way around her frail body. It was a sweet kiss with no pun intended. Seconds later, he pulled away and allowed his finger to graze over her protruding cheekbones.
"Every time I see you, you seem to fall away a little more. You're getting even less sleep then before…" His hand fell away from her face and he stepped back, letting his arms drop to his sides. He kept his eyes locked with hers for a second longer before turning away and heading for the cupboard where he found a bottle of butterbeer waiting for him. "Your boss came to call today," he said, his voice even as the words escaped from his lips.
"Oh, did he?" Hermione asked, not wanting to give too much away.
Harry swiveled around to face her. "Yes, he did." He took a swig of the drink and locked eyes with her again. "I don't know what to do anymore, Hermione. I want to help you so desperately, but I'm at a loss for what to do." He walked forward so that his hands touched her shoulders as he spoke. "I married you knowing you would never love me the way you loved him," he whispered quietly. "But Draco isn't coming back, Hermione. You've got to move on. He wouldn't have wanted…"
"Don't." Hermione hissed. She closed her eyes and stepped back from his hold. Opening them again and glaring menacingly at him, she said in a cold, even voice, "Don't say his name. You have no idea what he would have wanted. You hated him."
"Hate is a strong word," Harry countered. "I did not hate him, I hated what he stood for back in school. I did not know the man you loved and for that I'm sorry. Any man who could have stolen your heart like this is worthy of my friendship and love, no matter who they are or who they were before."
Hermione closed her eyes again as she felt the full force of those words sink into her. A pang of guilt washed over her as she realized what she had said. Stepping forward into his arms, she allowed Harry to embrace her in a hug as she whispered in an even tone, "I'm sorry, Harry. I shouldn't have said that."
Harry let his chin rest on top of her head as he sighed. "You had every right to say what you said. It's not my business."'
"But that's just it," Hermione said. "It should be your business. I feel so awful for being such a terrible wife. I should be the woman you've always dreamed of I mean, you're Harry Potter! You deserve so much more then me. I can't give you what you need in a wife and I hate myself for that."
"Don't," Harry whispered. "I love you. I don't care if you love me back the way I love you but I love you with all my heart. There is no other woman I wish I were married to, but you. I want to help you through this. We'll find a way to pick you up on your feet again." He kissed the top of her head and held her at arms length. "I'm… I'm leaving in two days. I know this is a bad time to tell you this after what we were just discussing, but I needed to let you know." Seeing Hermione's stricken face, he hastily added, "It's not like that. It's just, my team has found record of a fairly recent building that's surrounded in Dark Magic. We're planning on checking it out just to make sure there aren't escapades of death eaters trying to reform themselves again. I shouldn't be gone for long, I just thought I'd let you know."
Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. Harry smiled at her and kissed her hand before leaving to catch up on work in another room of the house. Just as he reached the door, Hermione called, "Um, just, out of curiosity, where is this building located?"
Harry grimaced and said, "America," before striding out of the room.
A/N: Complete Déjà vu, I know. grins evilly So, clasps hands together leave me a review and tell me what you think. I LOVE reading reviews, I really do! If you hate it with a passion, tell me! If there's a specific part you think I could improve, TELL ME! Okay, enough groveling, I don't like to grovel.
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