December 25th

Trusting Draco to rescue her from the prison that Rodolphus threw her in days earlier was no small decision. Everything was suspicious and she couldn't afford to be made a fool of again. Besides, it was difficult to believe that Draco was sincere after every horrible thing he'd done to her in recent months. She'd been fooled by him many times. When it was clear that she wasn't about to take the offered treasures out of his hands, Draco rolled his eyes.

"Come on, Granger. We don't have all day. The potion I slipped in Rodolphus' wine is going to wear off eventually."

Still she didn't reach for her bag. It could all be some nasty test. Some way that Rodolphus was trying to test her loyalties or Draco's cruelty or any number of other factors. The man was insane. There was simply no way to tell what he was capable of.

If she took Draco up on his offer to be 'rescued', would she just end up in an even worse prison? Rodolphus might be waiting for them just outside the door. Ready to pounce on her if she dared believe for even a second that she could get away. She could begin to understand some of the reasons why kidnapping victims didn't always run away immediately when they saw an opportunity. Psychological torture was nothing to sneer at.

"Why are you doing this, Draco? Do you really expect me to believe that you're here to help me?"

Even in the dim light of the cellar she could tell that his cheeks flushed slightly at her question. Was that shame she saw? He dropped his eyes from hers to stare at the dusty floor. Perhaps there was a little bit of humanity left in him after all. She'd been struggling to believe that he was nothing but evil. That didn't seem anything at all like the wizard she'd gotten to know over the past year.

"I know that I haven't always been very kind to you, Hermione, but I swear I'm just trying to get you out here. Rodolphus is going to hurt you. I don't know all of the details. Honestly, I don't want to know the details. I just know that if you stay here any longer, eventually he's going to do something terrible to you that he can't take back."

She wanted to believe him, wanted to trust that there was a small part of the wizard that actually cared about her, but the tiny voice in the back of her mind told her repeatedly that she couldn't afford to trust anyone. Especially not the man who'd manipulated her over and over again.

"And would it have made a difference to you if you learned that he only 'betrayed' you to Rodolphus because I asked him to?"

The question her husband asked her only days earlier echoed through her head. Antonin believed that at least some of Draco's repeated betrayals were because they were part of the grand plan to make sure that Rodolphus still believed he could trust his nephew. But was that true? She could feel her head pounding. If she trusted Draco again only for him to betray her once more, she wasn't sure what she would do. She wanted to ignore her fears and worries and allow him to rescue her again. How many times had he done that in a year? More than she wanted to stop and relive.

"If you're lying to me, Draco, I'll never forgive you."

With a slow nod of his head wordlessly acknowledging that he understood, Draco rose from the camp bed. He extended his hand to help her to her feet. Unsteady thanks to the exhaustion plaguing her body and the lack of food, Hermione was grateful for the extra support. As a further show that he could be trusted, he pushed the beaded bag and extra wand into her hands. She felt more secure with a weapon and her possessions.

Up until the very moment that Hermione crossed through the doorframe, she feared that it was all just another elaborate trap. When they were no longer in the room and at the foot of a staircase, she relaxed only slightly. She didn't know where they were. There might still be plenty of opportunities to be attacked.

"Where are we?"

One of the questions she'd been asking herself since she first arrived in her temporary prison was her location. She meant what she said about Rodolphus' family's house-elves. Once she'd witnessed one of the house-elves scrubbing the pipes underneath a sink. If their house-elves wouldn't allow even the plumbing to get the least bit tarnished, there was simply no way that they'd allow the room she was living in to be so filthy. Prisoner or not, she would've had the cleanest linens and nightgown possible.

Her question made Draco laugh. He seemed to be finding much of what she said amusing. Usually that annoyed her to no end. Considering it was still possible that he was actually doing what he promised and not just manipulating her once again, she held her tongue.

"You've had the privilege of being a guest at Malfoy Manor."

"I should've guessed that. My stays have never been particularly pleasant affairs after all."

Draco never appreciated when she brought up that horrible March night when she was tortured by his aunt in the drawing room. It wasn't exactly as if Hermione enjoyed remembering it either. Once she made a promise that she would never return to the damned Manor of her own free will again. She hoped to continue the rest of her life, no matter how long or short it turned out to be, avoiding that hateful place. As they climbed the stairs, she tried to push away reminders of the first time she knew she was in his childhood home. So much happened when she was simply trying to stay alive that wretched night. When he pushed open the door at the top of the stairs, she felt like she could breathe easier.

Until she came face to face with Lucius Malfoy. They hadn't spoken since the night he allowed her to murder his illegitimate half-brother with Thorfinn. There had been no need. Even in the golden days of the regime, she avoided the wizard whenever possible. Hermione knew that the horrible man had been aware of her presence in his cellar and done nothing to come to her aid. While it should've angered her, she knew all too well the power that Rodolphus could hold over people. Likely, Lucius didn't have a choice. That didn't mean she was going to just forgive the man, however. No, she would've been more than happy to slice open his throat if his son wasn't standing right next to her.

"I should've realized Madam Dolohov had something to do with why Rodolphus is passed out on my dining room table."

Before she could come up with a suitable retort, the clocks all around the manor struck the midnight hour. Lucius offered her a courtly bow.

"Happy Christmas, Madam Dolohov. I do trust that you can find your way out of my home."

Lucius excused himself from their presence to check on his drugged former brother-in-law. The entire exchange had been nothing less than bizarre. Hermione wondered if she should pinch herself just to make certain she wasn't actually dreaming. Why were the Malfoy men both so very odd?

"Come on. Father wants you out. He's not pleased with Rodolphus for involving him in his scheme. He's been worried ever since you were brought here that Antonin was going to discover you were here."

"Then why did he allow me to be locked in the cellar?"

"Rodolphus never does anything without having several backup plans. He threatened Mother. While you were locked downstairs, she's been locked upstairs. I imagine Father is unlocking her now. Rodolphus said that he'd hurt her if anything happened to you."

If that was the truth, and Hermione was struggling to believe that Draco was willingly divulging it, she didn't understand how the Malfoys would just let her go if Narcissa was really in danger. Families were complicated. That was a lesson she'd learned repeatedly over the course of her almost forty years. Even before she had the additional complication of magic and a secret world she knew nothing about, she knew that fact.

"Won't your uncle be angry with you when he discovers you let me go?"

Draco shrugged his shoulders with a laugh.

"Probably, but I don't work for my uncle."

She didn't think she would ever understand all of the intricate alliances within their society since the Dark Lord died. Part of her was glad that she'd been intentionally left in the dark for so long. If she had to try to make sense of it all, try to keep track who was an enemy and who was a friend, she feared her head might burst. If Draco claimed he didn't work for his uncle, who did he work for? Who was calling all of the shots?

"Once Father is certain that Mother is all right, I imagine the two of them will banish Rodolphus' sorry arse into the snow outside the gates. He doesn't have as many allies as he thinks he does and thanks to his last effort to control my family, he has even fewer. Father will ward the gates against him and they'll wait patiently for this all to end."

"And what if it doesn't end soon?"

"Can't you feel it, Hermione? Surely you know that it's going to happen soon. I thought Christmas was the day that Rodolphus was going to finally make his move, but I was wrong. Or maybe he was and thanks to the potion I added to his wine, I stopped it. Doesn't matter. He's getting desperate and he's getting careless. Without his closest allies, the ones that always helped center him, he's losing touch with reality. It's just going to be a matter of time before he snaps."

She couldn't dispute a single word that he said. Thanks to her systematic elimination of his allies, as well as the help she received from others, Rodolphus was almost entirely alone in the world. He couldn't afford to wait too long. His power was waning.

Draco pushed open the heavy front door of the manor to allow her to exit. The slippers she wore weren't thick enough to protect her feet from the elements, but thanks to the wizard, she had her bag back. As soon as she was able to assure herself that her husband was all right, she planned to seek out an acceptable shower. It had been too long since she last felt clean and warm.

Just outside the gates of his family's estate, Draco stopped moving. Hermione didn't know what to do next. Was she supposed to thank him for allowing her to leave? Somehow it didn't exactly feel like a rescue. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something felt off about the whole affair. In an effort to distract her confusing thoughts, she stuck her hand deep into her beaded bag to find the one object that she knew would help her next. Unfortunately, she couldn't find it.

"What are you looking for?"

The words were on the tip of her tongue until she stopped herself. He didn't need to know how worried she was about Antonin. It was something that he would use against her if he did. When he realized she wasn't going to tell him, Draco wasn't offended. Instead, he laughed and held up the very watch she was desperate to find.

"Was it this?"

"Give that to me."

"No, I don't think so. Not yet."

Frustrated and annoyed, she tried to summon the watch with her wand, but he was able to block the spell. Clearly he'd been anticipating that very move.

"Interesting that the first thing you want to do when you're free is find your husband again. I'm a little jealous."

Hermione wasn't in the mood for his theatrics.

"You don't even have the capacity of love, Draco. Don't pretend like you're in love with me."

He didn't even bother denying a word she said. With a smile and a tight grip on Antonin's watch, Draco Disapparated away. She was furious that he would take her one way of tracking her husband away. Remembering the silver chain she'd stolen months earlier to track the tracker when she desired, she dug through the contents of her bag. It was gone. She would have to make her next move entirely alone. Angry at the turn of events, she thought of a place she didn't suspect Rodolphus would look for her immediately upon discovering the treachery of the Malfoys. There was no reason to linger there another second.