4.1.16, Mon
A/N: Continued because plot bunnies and five reviews, though for some reason I can only read them in my emails.
The Room of God-Awful Headaches Where Privacy Means Nothing
"Legilimens!"
Draco writhed and screamed as the memory of his Marking overwhelmed his mind. His mother's nails were cutting into his father's hands and the Dark Lord was smiling and Aunt Bella laughed as she added a "Crucio!" for good measure every few minutes -
Gasping, he was released from the vision and dizzily presented with the image of his instructoress sighing and leisurely polishing her wand. Looking up from her task, she tutted at him.
"Hardly conducive of natural ability. This is your third session and you're only getting worse. This is the trouble with Daddy's boys; all of you are used to being so open and honest about everything you do, desperately hoping that you might one day say something he'll approve of - well, this course will have to break you of a habit of a lifetime in just a few weeks at most. The longer you're walking around unprotected the less use I have for you."
"What?" He panted. "Why? How do I get less useful?" She half-smirked at the notion of him being affronted by such a statement.
"The more you know, the less you'll like, and the more vulnerable you are, the less you'll be trusted. It's not going to be enough to just block a Legilimens like Voldemort - " she noticed his flinch, but continued regardless, " - because then he'll know you have something to hide. It's not good enough to distract him by pushing a different memory to the front, because he'll pick up on the trick before long and he'll start to look for what you're hiding behind it. It's not enough to be competent, or even good: to carry out your task, you must become a master Occlumens. That means control of your mind, your emotions, your body, even your pheromones to a degree. You must be beyond all suspicion and too important to cast away. Do you understand me, Draco?" He nodded slowly.
"In order to survive and keep my family safe, I must become a master. Yes, I see that, but - and please don't take this the wrong way - would it not be easier to just... well, to remove me from the equation altogether?" She clicked her tongue exasperatedly.
"Do stop being so morbid." She began to pace. "I need a man on the inside that I can trust to be my man - not Harry's, not Dumbledore's, not Voldemort's - mine. I need him to report to me, obey me, die for me if it becomes necessary at any point in the future. You - " She whipped round to face him, "- will be that man. Yes?"
"Die - for you? Aren't we being a little melodramatic here, Gra-"
"Sit. Down." He slumped back into his seat. "Good boy. Now, let me make this perfectly clear, Mr. Malfoy: you need my help to stay alive. Regardless of your obvious death wish, I will give you that help. My one condition is that you give me your utmost loyalty." She stalked towards him. "Such a little thing," she breathed, "Wouldn't you agree, Mr. Malfoy?" Eyes glazed over, he nodded. "Such a very little thing. It would be an awful shame were you to deny me this one precious, little thing that I so desire, wouldn't it, Mr. Malfoy?" He nodded again. Achingly slowly, she pointed her wand at his head. "Who am I?"
"The Devil."
"What have you done?"
"Bargained my soul away."
"For what?"
"For the greater good..."
"... 'In which I so believe.' Mr. Malfoy?" So close.
"I-In - the - for - " She sighed in disappointment.
"Such a shame. Perhaps next time, Mr. Malfoy. Legilimens."
Draco writhed and screamed as the memory of his Marking overwhelmed his mind. His mother's nails were cutting into his father's hands and the Dark Lord was smiling and Aunt Bella laughed as she added a "Crucio!" for good measure every few minutes -
Gasping, he was released from the vision and dizzily presented with the image of his instructoress sighing and leisurely polishing her wand. Looking up from her task, she tutted at him.
"Hardly conducive of natural ability. This is your third session and you're only getting worse. Perhaps it's time we put a stop to all this nonsense and obliviate you."
"No! No - please! I need to learn!" She smiled kindly.
"And why is that, Draco? I've seen your mind. You just want it all to end. Why should we continue?"
"We made a bargain!" He looked shocked at the words that leapt forth without permission. She leaned forward intently. Curious. She'd thought the programming hadn't held.
"With whom did you make a bargain, Draco?"
"With you." Again, he is surprised, but this time his eyes narrow in suspicion.
"And, if you would be so kind, Mr. Malfoy," She sees his eyes widen at the use of his surname and she knows he has seen the trap, "Who am I?" He fights furiously for nearly a full second before his eyes glaze over and he answers smoothly,
"The Devil." With a feral grin and his head at wandpoint, she continues.
"What have you done?"
"Bargained away my soul." In her excitement, she fails to notice the slight rearranging and the triumphant gleam in his otherwise blank eyes.
"For what?"
"For the greater good in which I so believe." Giggling, she taps her wand against his forehead.
"Thank you, Mr. Malfoy." His eyes close and she uses her fifteen minutes to scribble down notes, mainly consisting of 'Experiment 17C successful' and 'recommend Operative training begin immediately' and 'cognitive trauma essential to success: perhaps Test Subject 7 deceased due to lack of prior exposure?'.
By the time Draco woke up, the magically enlarged binder had disappeared and Hermione was smiling at him.
"How do you feel?" He grimaced and pinched the bridge of his nose. "That bad, mm?"
"Why're you being all... Granger?" He queried woozily. Her smile dropped and her tone went back to being blank when she spoke again.
"You prefer the real me?"
"No." She replaced the smile and bounced out of her seat, cheerily saying,
"Then you get this and you'll be happy about it. Come on, I'll walk you back and give you some Pepper-Up, alright?" Stumbling out of his chair, he nodded.
"How long before I can get a handle on this... Occlumency thing?"
"Now that we have the essentials out of the way, you should start to progress much faster." Now that you'll have no choice but to obey. Now that I know for a fact I can trust you with the proper technique. Now that I've ripped your mind apart and put Humpty back together again enough times without you even noticing that I'll always be able to tell when you try to hide something. Now that you're programmed to obey, and therefore can't try to hide anything.
"Okay." He smiled tentatively at her. She laughed. "What?"
"I don't think I've ever seen you smile. Only - smug smiles and the like." This made his smile morph into a grin, and he bumped their shoulders together with a sarcastic 'Thanks!'
When she'd dosed him with Pepper-Up and headed back up the corridor, Draco made his way to bed. Before he could fall asleep, though, he tugged a ratty notebook and quill from under his mattress. Careful not to mutter as he wrote - a very poor habit for secret-keeping - he jotted down the incidents of the day that had led to the creeping feeling in the back of his mind. Then he briefly transcribed the session with Granger, and compared it to the notes he'd made from a book on the training of an Occlumens. Something wasn't adding up; he just had to work out what...
This chapter is so incredibly strange that I barely understand it. I only worked out what I wanted to communicate about halfway through, and unless you all hate it I'm just going to leave it as is and explain it in a later chapter. 'Kay?
Also, new HP story: 'The Marginally Revised Tale of Tom, Rick and Harry'. Yeah... don't ask. But possibly read and review?