Chapter 11

Hermione woke with a slamming headache. Blindly feeling around, she felt the cool metal of bars and noticed a distinct lack deep in her chest. What ever this cage was it suppressed her magic. Cracking open her eyes revealed nothing however because the room she was in was dark and if she had to guess Silenced, she couldn't hear any noises, not even her own breathing. She had been Silenced. True fear gripped her now. No magic, no voice. She couldn't even Occlude to calm herself. Groping around she noted the box was long enough for her to lay flat in both directions but not tall enough for her to stand without bending. She had no concept of how long she had been out for, but it must have been a while because she had the urge to pee. Realizing one corner had a bucket at least, she used it. She was still in her scrubs and had no soreness so the likelihood she had been raped was low. Some comfort at least. How long would it take for her friends to notice she was missing. Feeling her left wrist, she realized her watch was still on. She pressed the side button to illuminate the screen. It was still alive by some miracle. It had been twelve hours since she was taken. She powered it down to conserve the battery.

It had been Thomas this morning. Malfoy had said in France that he had always known her and that he had some plans in regard to her, but he couldn't get a real read on his thoughts. Well, this was it, he had taken her, and the only thing she could imagine was that she was about to be trafficked. Cold facts about victims of trafficking rose in her mind, with the amount of time that had already passed her chance of being rescued was already becoming slim.

Possibly the most ridiculous emotion rose to the surface then, regret. Regret that she had not taken a chance with Malfoy. It was ridiculous she knew but it was easier to wallow in that than try and understand what was happening around her. However, this was her new reality, she would do what she could to steel herself up. She would fight it if she could but the chance of her being found was low.

Suddenly sound filled her cage and she was blinded by light pouring through an open door. A leering Thomas stooped down.

"How was your nap Mudblood. Hope you enjoy these days of solitude and quiet because soon I am sure you will be very busy," his laugh was threatening.

He toed a plate of food into her cell before slamming the door and she was again shrouded in darkness. However, she found that with the door open her magic awoke again so it was just the box. She had used the brief moment once she had realized to Occlude enough to take the edge off the panic, knowing the once she was locked inside again it would just place her magic in a stasis of sorts.

Meals came at randoms times to confuse her but once a day she turned her watch on to keep track. Today however her watch wouldn't power on, it wasn't as if knowing how much time had passed was useful.

Every time the door opened, she wrapped up important memories and wrapped her Occlusion a bit more snuggly around her mind. She was much more rational now without the fear. She had been missing for untold number of days, no one was coming for her at this point and that was fine, it wasn't like anyone was waiting at home for her.

After Potter left, Draco left his flat to run down Granger's last known location. He ended up in a Muggle neighborhood that was so benign it was unbelievable that this was it. Then Draco supposed that was probably the idea, no one would look here for an insane wizard with a penchant for trafficking people. Draco Disillusioned himself and walked down the block. Finally, a house near the end of the street shimmered faintly alerting Draco to the presence of wards. This was the place. Draco walked a distance away to Apparate home with a plan to return at nightfall.

Back at his flat he sent an owl to Potter letting him know he had a possible location of the primary. Nothing else incase his wife decided to open it, always was one to stick her nose in. Waiting for the cover of darkness was going to be torture.

As if his mother sensed this, she arrived moments later to heap more upon him. Narcissa was dusting herself off as Draco entered his living room pulling a jumper over his head.

"Ah Draco excellent you are free, I wanted to talk with you about Miss Scarborough. She is such a lovely young witch, is she not? I think that she is just what we need for the family, new blood. I know she is American, but you are a more modern sort of wizard, and this could be just thing to help the family image," Narcissa prattled on until she finally met Draco's eyes.

She had always known when something was wrong with him no matter how he tried to hide his feelings from others.

"Draco darling what is wrong, can you tell me? And do not tell me nothing," Narcissa's tone had taken on every inch of the Malfoy matriarch.

"I can't go into specifics; I will tell you what I can if only because I am in utter agony and I don't have anyone else I can tell. I know you can keep a secret even under pressure," he gives her a knowing look.

Long moments pass between them the air growing thick with the weight of past and current pain. Narcissa sits and motions for Draco to come. He lays down on the couch laying his head in his mother's lap. A familiar position from so many nights when he was a teen in the middle of a war with a psychotic wizard in the house. Tears slip from his eyes and Narcissa wipes them away without saying anything. Deciding on honesty, he knows his mother will never tell a soul. He summons the letter and hands it to her.

Narcissa's breath catching is the only sign she knows what this is.

"Draco, you must get her back I don't care if you spend every Galleon in our vault. That woman was the reason you were spared from Azkaban," Narcissa's voice is trembling but not with fear.

"I love her mother. I haven't said it out loud to anyone, but I love her. I am going to get her back and bring the Society down in one fell swoop. I know where she is being held and it is all I can do to wait to do this the right way because the Malfoy in me wants to walk in and Avada every last one and I doubt I would feel one bit of remorse. She has been gone for three weeks and no one knew I could kill all her stupid friends for not checking in sooner. Even more though, I hate myself for not keeping tabs on her for no other reason than she was a person of interest to my main suspect," Draco's voice is choked with grief and rage.

"Son I am lost; how can you be in love with a woman you haven't seen in nearly a decade?" Narcissa asks.

Draco tells her the whole story leaving out nothing. When he finishes his hair has deep tracks from the path his mother's fingers have taken through it. He absently remembers the feeling of Granger running her fingers through his hair early that morning in Paris when she thought he was still asleep. Tears slip out again unbidden. Narcissa pushed him up and stood and took his hand and pulled him to his feet. He towered over her now, but he always felt small and safe with her because he knew there was nothing, he could ever do to change her love for him.

"Draco Lucius Malfoy, I want you to pull yourself together, this is not the time to fall apart. You have survived living with the Dark Lord torturing and killing in your home, you have survived your Aunt's teaching methods, and you have left behind the darkness of your past and become your own man. You will succeed in anything you put your mind to because I have watched you do it your whole life," then she slapped him across the face, "that was for being an idiot and pushing that witch away like a complete lout. I did not raise a son that tosses away a woman he loves, I raised you to cherish and protect. Also, I did not realize I raised a complete fool if you missed every sign that she clearly felt the same way."

Narcissa very rarely scolded him, and she had certainly never slapped him over a woman. It was enough to sober his mind though. He needed to prepare for tonight he needed to eat and make plans. His mother stayed for dinner then left him for the night.

A few hours later Draco was sneaking back to the Muggle house and began to slowly peel back wards without raising any alarms. Fifteen minutes later, rather shoddy warding really, he was almost disappointed, Draco was quietly moving toward the house. He cast to see how many were in the house. Strange, only one signature, but something was amiss his cast to reveal magical objects, nothing again. He was so sure she was here. He started looking in the windows and finally saw it a low cage, small but Granger would fit in it. He took breathes and built the walls in his mind to stay rational. The box must be made of something that suppressed magic which is why his cast revealed only one person. As he watched though he caught movement. He checked himself and he was indeed still Disillusioned. The door was opened, and he cast again and sure enough he sensed her. Relief coursed through him in equal measures with agony because he knew he was going to have to leave her in that room to be able to do his job.

Three days passed, he checked on her as much as he could. Sometimes, he saw Thomas open the door other times he just confirmed that he was in the house still and so was Granger's cage.

Finally, on the morning of the fourth day he received a letter with an address and time. He alerted Potter and told him to be ready to call everyone. Dressed in his finest black robes with knives hidden all over his person and his wand stowed in an invisible undetectable extendable pocket (highly illegal but Draco couldn't be bothered to care what laws he would break to get his witch back). Draco openly stowed a spare wand that would undoubtedly be checked at a door.

He Apparated in swirl of black smoke like his father had taught him when he was seventeen, tonight he wasn't a reformed anything. Tonight, he was just another dark wizard with too much money to blow on Potter's Whore. When he landed people stepped back, he may not have been feared as a teenager, but he had a reputation now. Entirely manufactured of course but it didn't really matter it clearly worked because he saw the fear in some of the eyes as they glanced cautiously his way. He was rumored to have killed several business partners for crossing him, and making people simply disappear. Really these were people he had chased down as an Auror and were subsequently tried and found guilty, but all quietly and without making any papers. This allowed for Draco to build a reputation in the dark wizarding community. All his fluff public appearance shite looked like he was playing nicely with the government.

Drinks and food were served small talk was had. Draco made the rounds marking faces of wizards he had not seen in years. Half of the Auror office's most wanted list was in attendance. Draco also made a round of the outside garden area casually disarming wards that would alert the party to an army of Aurors making an appearance. Finished with his work Draco walked back inside. The guest's attention was being called and he was ushered into another room and as expected his wand was taken. In the room was a small stage set up with a pedestal, nausea threatened before he pulled harder at his Occlumency to clear his mind.

Draco slipped his hand into his pocket and grasped the Galleon Potter had given him. Potter explained how they had used these as children for the DA when Umbridge ran the school. It was another of those moments that Draco was reminded he was on the other side, and never considered what it must have been like to be children leading children to fight an evil they only barely comprehended. When his eyes landed on Granger, he squeezed the coin and sent the message: his location, confirmation of her presence, and to stand by. The coin heated in his hand, he wouldn't pull it out, but he knew Potter was with him.

Draco casually walked forward like many of the other leering grotesques. She was thin and wan. He buried the guilt and rage deep. Thomas would pay for this, and it would not be quick. His cool assessing gaze landed on her face, and he saw it then. She was so Occluded he wondered if she could even feel her body. A wizard next to him grunted some crude remark about wanting to see the full package before he spent good coin because it wasn't like she was the untouched specimen that she would have been back then. Draco turned his icy gaze to him and noticed it was Macnair Jr, he was several years older than Draco and a nasty brute like his father but he had stayed out of the war, so he was able to avoid Azkaban.

"Money troubles there Macnair, don't worry you won't be seeing one inch of this package because it will be mine before this night is out," Draco's voice was cold and cruel his face set in a sneer.

"Malfoy what a distinct displeasure to see you. I didn't think you sullied your reformed name with these events?"

"That I can be seen in pleasant society speaks to a level of cunning and duplicity you and your ilk have always lacked," Draco drawled before walking away.

Thomas was standing in a corner talking with other Society members the grin on his face was in such bad taste, if he believed any of these elitist old money arseholes were going to accept him just because he brought in a prize, he was delusional.

Finally, the bidding began, and Draco waited. When it was quiet and a twice had been called Draco raised a hand. He buried the other offers in his wake. It was far less than he would have paid and even if he was actually going to be out this money it wouldn't even make a dent in his inheritance. No one out bid him. His hands slid into his pockets as he leaned against a wall. He was ushered into a private room and Granger was handed to him. He stepped took Granger's arm and she followed like a puppet, he was sick she was so far gone she didn't even know she was safe.

"Is this hearth connected I would like to take my present home before it is spoiled by someone else?"

"Of course, sir."

Draco stepped into the flames and called out for the Manor. Standing in the Floo parlor Draco pressed the coin in his pocket that Granger was safe and for Potter to move. Draco calling out for Henriette.

She popped into existence.

"Master Draco, sir, oh and Ms Granger!"

"My mother, now."

The elf noticing the hard set of his face was gone with a pop and returned moments later with Narcissa.

"She is so Occluded I doubt she can feel her body please keep her safe, I love you mother."

With a swift kiss on his cheek from his mother Draco was gone.

She felt distantly nauseous after Flooing. A blonde man had accompanied her, but she couldn't place him, though she noted that he didn't feel like a threat. Then she was handed to a blonde woman who bore a striking resemblance to the man. This was strange he was leaving her with this woman. She dared to peel back a bit of her walls just enough to hear the man say:

"…keep her safe I love you mother."

Then his mother kissed his cheek, and he was gone.