October 3rd, 2000
Hermione's eyes blinked open slowly as she tried to gather her bearings in the dimly lit room where she found herself. Nothing looked familiar about her surroundings... what little she could make out, anyway.
The last thing she remembered was leaving the safe house to get some essentials. Snatcher patrols in the area had increased significantly over the past few months, so they had established a practice of rotating the shops they frequented, hoping to avoid being too predictable. It was a pretty typical autumn day in the north of England. Damp, and drizzling; just chilly enough to warrant a sweater. Hermione found she preferred this sort of weather more and more... The gloom felt safer.
She remembered getting off the bus, and making her way towards the store. She remembered cursing the fact that she forgot an umbrella, as the rain had started to pick up. There had been a woman on the bus that Hermione thought looked suspiciously familiar, but everyone started to look suspicious in the days after The War. Besides, she had stayed on the bus when Hermione got off... hadn't she?
Hermione had been already to this store a few times, so she decided to change up her route. It took her a little further off the beaten path, but fewer eyes might be a good thing. She remembered rounding the corner into the alley behind the store, and then...
Here she was...
She stood, taking stock of her surroundings. As she did, she noticed the silhouette of a figure standing just a few feet away. Hermione instinctively reached for her wand, her stomach sinking when her hand came up empty.
"Good evening," drawled a deep voice. Hermione recognized it instantly.
"Draco!" she sputtered, "what the hell is going on!?"
"Relax, Hermione, you're a guest here." The way he said guest did nothing to make Hermione relax in the slightest.
"Where is 'here', exactly?" Hermione tried to scan the room, but it was too dark to make out anything more than lumpy shadows.
As Draco spoke, he began to prowl the perimeter of the room, illuminating lamps and candles with casual twists of his wand. "Welcome to Berwick Castle. It was in my family for centuries before the ministry saw fit to seize it after Lord Voldemort's... temporary setback. Now that he has ascended to his proper position, this estate has been restored to its proper owner."
He paused in his path and turned to look at her, the dim light illuminating a sardonic smile. "Historically it has been the residence of some of my more, eccentric, relatives."
As more light filled the room, it was clear this was some sort of library. Floor to ceiling shelves lined the two long walls, stacked with books. Massive tree trunks formed the vertical supports of the shelves, with wooden roots disappearing into the floor. Branches from the trees arched across the ceiling, supporting two large chandeliers. The ceiling between the branches was covered in an incredibly realistic mural of a forest canopy. For a moment Hermione was sure she saw the leaves rustling...
In the center of the far wall sat a massive set of ornately carved french doors, flanked by two large display cases, filled with various artifacts.
The other end of room, where Hermione stood, was a cozy sitting area. A thick rug lay beneath her feet (she hadn't noticed until that moment that she was barefoot). Two wingback chairs sat opposite a large masonry fireplace. To the left of the fireplace was a plain, unassuming wooden door. To the right stood a very antique looking wardrobe.
The rest of the room was filled with various imposing pieces of furniture. A large wooden executive desk occupied one corner, behind it sat a dark leather chair. The rest of the furniture was a bit less... traditional...
Across from the desk was a large wooden "X", standing at least eight feet tall, with shackles hanging from the end of each arm. Next to the desk stood some sort of medieval pillory. A few smaller pieces of furniture lined the walls, but the center of the room was dominated by a large wooden table. At least six feet long and two feet wide, leather padding sat flush with a thick wooden frame. Four large carved snakes coiled up the legs of the table and twisted around each other as they circled the frame.
Draco lit the last lamp and walked back to where Hermione stood in silence, her heart racing ever faster.
"Quite the collection, isn't it?" He said, softly raising a hand to her cheek. Hermione slapped it away.
"*Incarcerous*" With a slash of Draco's wand, a pair of vines sprang from the tops of the bookshelf trunks on either wall, and in an instant they had wrapped around her wrists and were spiraling their way under her sleeves.
Draco raised the tip of his wand and the vines pulled taught, drawing Hermione's arms up into a "Y", putting the floor just out of reach of her toes, and her eyes level with Draco's. She struggled and strained for a moment before meeting Draco's gaze with silent fury.
"I'm can't tell you how excited I am to finally have someone as passionate about wizarding history as I am here to share this library with. These walls are full of long forgotten texts, and much of the 'decor' dates back centuries." Draco crossed to one of the shelves, picked up a ancient looking book, and began to thumb through it. "I've come across all sorts of interesting hexes in here... Oh, here's a handy one. *Aphasio*" Hermione felt a tingling sensation in her throat. She opened her mouth to demand an explanation, but found herself unable to utter a word.
"What's the matter?" Draco mocked. "Hermione Granger finds herself at a loss for words? This hex renders you totally incapable of speaking. The clever part is..." Draco dug his fingers into her sides, Hermione instantly burst into surprised laughter. "... you can still make all sorts of other fun sounds." After a moment Draco paused and ran his hands up and down, feeling the knit of her sweater, still damp from the rain.
"Now where are my manners, leaving you in these wet clothes..." Draco took a step back, and raised his wand. As he began to move the tip in small circles, the knitting around the waist of her sweater began to unravel. The end of the yarn snaked out in front of her, before twisting back on itself, beginning to retake its original form. Gradually the sweater floating in front of her took shape, exposing Hermione's stomach stitch by stitch. The yarn began to pick up speed, and before long Hermione's sweater was floating in the air in front of her.
Draco paused for a moment, his wand still raised, as his lips twisted into a wicked smile. "*Descendo*" He swiftly dropped the tip of his wand. Hermione's pants fell to the floor, as if yanked down by an invisible force. The floating sweater followed shortly after. Hermione flushed, in equal parts anger and embarrassment.
"But you're probably a bit chilly now, aren't you?" With a sweep of his wand, Draco cast Hermione's clothes into the fireplace just behind her. "You won't be needing these anyway... *Incendio*". The room flickered and Hermione felt a flush of warmth from behind as Draco set the pile alight.
"Now that's much cozier, isn't it... Since we're getting cozy, I'm sure you'll want to get that off as well. *Diffindo*" Hermione's bra fell away in pieces, as every seam and stitch opened. With a flick of Draco's wand, the falling pieces of fabric joined the pile already burning.
Draco whistled softly as he looked Hermione up and down. Hanging from her arms, wearing only her panties, Hermione's cheeks felt white hot. Draco began to step towards her. As he drew closer she tried to kick him away. Hermione misjudged how difficult it would be to kick someone without anything to brace against, and Draco was clearly expecting her to lash out, as he had no trouble sidestepping her flailing attempt.
"*Incarcifors*" This time Draco pointed the wand at the floor beneath her feet, where a pair of tree roots emerged, snaring her ankles and winding their way up her calves. The roots pulled back towards the walls, spreading her legs to match the angle of her arms.
"Obviously there are some questions that you're going to be answering for me, but since you don't seem to be in any mood to talk, and your rag-tag resistance movement is no real threat anyway, I think we can safely leave that for another day."
As he spoke, Draco began to twirl a few strands of her hair around his finger. "You know I've always admired your intelligence and passion for knowledge. If it weren't for your... pedigree, I'd like to think things could have been very different between us. In a way, I suppose they are going to be different now. You and I are going to be spending a lot of time together." Hermione winced as Draco pulled the strands of hair out with a sharp yank.
Draco walked around behind her and Hermione could hear him unlocking the wardrobe and rummaging through its contents.
"Much of what was known about these artifacts has been lost to time. I've spent months researching this collection, but there's only so much you can learn from a book. I'm sure you're as eager as I am to get some hands-on experience."
Draco stepped back into Hermione's view, now holding what appeared to be a large pocketwatch, with a number of extra knobs and buttons around its bezel. Sitting in one of the large wingback chairs in front of her, he pressed one of the buttons and a small compartment opened on the back. He took the strands of hair, wound them into a small loop and slid them into the compartment. He pushed it closed with a soft click and Hermione gasped as a wave of electricity swept over her body.
Draco didn't seem to notice her reaction as he contemplated the pocketwatch for a moment before setting it down on the end table and looking back up at Hermione.
"There's plenty of time for that as well though... I think the best use of our evening would be to spend some time learning more about you".