Author's note: For anyone that didn't read Eden, there actually is a makeover scene but it was nothing crazy like this. Again, if you haven't read Eden, please do yourself a favor and read it first then come back ;)

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CHAPTER 4: CRUELTY

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"A makeover? Are you kidding me? This is the next level?"

"Yes, a makeover. But before you get any ideas that I'm trying to be nice, know this, it's just one more way to break your spirit."

Hermione raised her head up high, "But you haven't broken my spirit Lucius. Nor will you. I'm Hermione Jean Granger, a witch, and nothing you try or do will make me think less of myself."

Lucius gripped the bottle of nail polish in his hands so hard it almost shattered, "Your spirit will be broken, my little mudblood, one way or another. Just you wait."

His hand hesitated mid-air as he considered slapping her one more time but then remembered that he'd just applied makeup to her face and didn't want to smudge it.

"Damn you."

He continued applying the beautifying potions and spells to his mudblood until the makeover was complete. Hermione sat impatiently tapping her foot while Lucius' pale face sneered and bit his lip during his work process. She would never have guessed 18 hours ago that makeovers were part of Lucius Malfoy's repertoire of skills. But then you learn something new everyday.

Lucius finally stopped grimacing and stepped away from Hermione's hair and face.

"There, all finished."

He pointed his wand and a silver mirror appeared.

He held out the mirror to Hermione and she took it from him. He had gone through all this work, the least she could do was take a peek at his handiwork. Not that she hated him any less for it.

"Prepare to be tortured," Lucius sneered.

Hermione gasped as she looked at the mirror. She couldn't believe this was her.

She was absolutely stunning.

"This can't be..."

She didn't understand, how was this supposed to torture her?

Lucius grinned like a snake and stepped close behind her so that she saw him reflected in the mirror.

"Look closely. Very closely mudblood. You will not likely see yourself appearing this, hmm, tantalizing again. Indeed," he lowered his voice to a whisper in her ear, "I dare say, you have little understanding of what power great beauty brings. Beauty as great as this would have grown men fall at your feet."

Hermione couldn't help raising a perfectly shaped eyebrow. "Grown men like you, I suppose?"

Lucius Malfoy's grey eyes nearly popped out of his head in rage. "Damn, your insolence! How dare you even suggest I would think of you that way! A lowly mudblood, it's laughable, do you hear?!"

His hand shot out to slap her hard on the face. Damn, now he had smudged her makeup. This made him so angry that he slapped her again, so hard that her lip began to bleed. Lucius tried to regain his temper and smoothed his hair with his hand, to make sure not one hair was out of place. Which it wasn't.

He breathed heavily. "You still have not learned your place. Somehow your insufferable pride has been able to withstand six hours of crucio and torture. Which is why I switched to a different method."

Hermione stared at this inhuman man with narrowed eyes. She would not show her fear.

"...I thought you might react a little differently to kindness," Lucius drawled, "I gave you a makeover in order to bargain with you. Admit you're a mudblood and give me the Order's secrets, and I will kindly let you keep your looks."

Hermione practically choked with outrage, "If you think I'm going to betray Harry and my principles for mere beauty, you're out of your mind! I couldn't care less what I look like! I WOULD RATHER DIE THAN BETRAY MY FRIENDS!"

She threw the mirror across the floor, and it shattered into a thousand pieces. She expected him to slap her again, maybe even crucio her for insolence.

Instead Lucius merely smirked wider like this was all a game and her outburst was an indication that his strategy was winning.

"I suppose you think you're very heroic to sacrifice yourself for your friends. But you will regret snubbing my offer of kindness."

Cold dread filled her as she wondered what Lucius would do to her. But she stood her ground with her chin held high. She didn't care what Lucius did to her, she could withstand anything, as long as Harry and the Order were safe.

He spoke with growing impatience, "I'll give you one last chance, mudblood: beauty or betrayal. Make your choice."

"I would never betray my friends! Though somebody as selfish as you would never understand that!"

"Very well."

He conjured up another mirror and faced it towards her.

"You have made your decision, now live with it."

He pointed his wand at her and her lusciously curled honeybrown locks became a badly bleached hideously fake blonde with black roots. Her peachy porcelain
skin become a hideous orange Oompa-loompa tan covered in cakey, cheap makeup that would no doubt clog her pores. And worst of all her lips: her lips had become plumped up ducklips. She looked like the Tanning Mom.

"NO! No you can't leave me like this!" she struggled to speak through her inflated, injected oversized lips.

Lucius grinned malevolently, "What is the matter? You are a muggle and I have made you appear as such."

"You're absolutely sick!" Hermione gasped in shocked panic.

"No, mudblood," he drawled slowly, "That is where you're wrong, I am not sick, your whole race of muggles are. This is afterall how your kind alters its appearance."

Where was Lucius getting his information of how muggles looked? Hermione wondered. Did he think TLC and Real Housewives was an accurate testament? Hermione broke down shaking.

"Please, I'm begging you. Just give me back by normal face. Please, if you have any humanity."

He turned away from her. Because truthfully, the bright tan, awful hair and blue eyeshadow was starting to hurt his delicate eyes.

"No," he said quietly, "It is necessary. Voldemort is going to floo Potter tomorrow and he needs to see how much you have suffered for him."

"No, you can't do this to Harry! Don't you have any shred of decency?!"

Lucius swung back around and slapped her hard on her tanned face. "Can't you see that this is necessary?! By god, you are hypocritical! You tell me you would die for your principles, but you fail to understand that I too will resort to extreme measures to achieve my principles! The chief aim of which is to rid this world of as many muggles as possible!"

Heavy tears started to roll down her face. "Whatever happened to make you this way?"

"Nothing happened to me. I was born this way."

More tears spilled down her face but could not wash away the blue eyeshadow and tan magicked to her face.

"I too was born and this is what I am, a muggleborn."

The faintest glimmer of emotion momentarily broke upon his stone mask-like face, but it was gone the next second and anyone watching him would not have noticed. It was like trying to catch the exact moment when the first crack appeared in a frozen river. You couldn't, unless you were the one walking on the river when your footstep broke through the ice as you slipped underneath.

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end of chapter 4

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a/n: To be continued, please review. More torture, mayhem and melodrama to come! if you dont know what 'tanning mom' is, please google it tho i also put in the fan cover :P