A/N: I'd like to send a few barely-clothed Slytherins to my lovely beta, anogete! And some also for my fabulous readers; here's the moment you've all been waiting for!
Obligatory: None of these things belong to me; they all belong to JKR. I just like to have a bit of fun with them, and no profit is desired.
--
The long nights of December stretched out before Severus like so many years of solitude. Though he had been given the freedom to move about as he pleased, he found that he had no desire to go anywhere. Since he had come to the manor, a tightness in his chest had grown more pronounced, as though his soul were dying a slow death whilst the shell of his body lived on, mechanically brewing the most banal of potions.
Sitting in the chair before the fire in his room, Severus considered suicide for the first, but certainly not the last, time. With his wand, there were many creative possibilities. Some may see it as the coward's way out, and, since he was no coward, he pushed the thought from the forefront of his mind.
His reverie on his own mortality, mediated by a glass of firewhisky, was broken by an unwelcome pounding on his door, accompanied by the shrill voice that could only belong to Bellatrix Lestrange. "Happy Christmas. I've got your whore for you. Open the damned door!"
With a grumble, Severus raised his wand and removed the wards from his door. He rose and threw it open. "What is the meaning of this?" he roared, before he had a chance to see that Bellatrix was not alone. The tightness in his chest became acute.
"The Dark Lord has decided to give you your reward, and here it is. Enjoy." Bellatrix sneered before making to walk away.
"What in the hell am I meant to do with this?" Severus motioned towards Hermione, who stood paralyzed, wearing what looked like the robes Narcissa Malfoy had worn in her youth.
"I don't give a shit what you do with it, Snape, but as it is a filthy Mudblood whore, I suggest you get your use out of it. The Dark Lord does request that, if you are going to be out of your room, you return it to The Cell with the other trash." Bellatrix stalked away after roughly pushing Hermione past Severus into his room.
After glaring at Bellatrix's back, Severus closed the door and spun around to regard the young woman prostrate on the floor in front of him. "Sit in the chair, Miss Granger."
"Please don't hurt me, sir," Hermione pleaded as she looked up at him with tears in her eyes.
"Oh, for Merlin's sake," Severus muttered as he pulled her up by her arms and deposited her in the armchair by the fire. "I do not know what Bellatrix told you, but I am not in the practice of forcing myself on anyone, and I will only hurt you if you give me reason to." Sitting in the chair opposite her, he pinched the bridge of his nose. "How on earth did you come to be here?"
Hermione stifled a sob, and replied, "I do not know."
"Then give it your best shot." He meant for it to come out more sarcastically, but he had been taken so unawares by the deposit of Hermione at his door that he found he could not be more menacing.
"I…" Hermione hesitated as she glanced into Severus' dark and forbidding eyes. "I was at Hogwarts, in my room, sleeping, a-and the last thing I remember is someone Stupefying me before I woke up in The Cell."
"You were kidnapped from right inside Hogwarts?" Severus chuckled. "If we are able to get inside the castle, I wonder why we do not just take Potter and have this whole business over with."
His words had the intended effect this time, and Hermione cowered in her seat. "I don't know, sir." Hermione sniffed, the tears flowing silently down her cheeks.
Severus tapped his fingers together and looked at her blankly. "Well, it seems that we have a problem, Miss Granger. I have no desire for your company, yet I cannot deny a gift from the Dark Lord when it is given. It would mean death for us both, and even if it did not, your fate would be even more unpleasant."
"Yes, sir." Through her fear, Hermione remembered that she did doubt this man's loyalties, and that if there were any small chance of getting the information about the Animus Redimio potion from him, she now had the chance to do it.
"I know you to be loud mouthed and annoyingly inquisitive, Miss Granger, and I do not wish to have your prattling intruding upon my silence. I will make a deal with you. If you can learn to speak only when spoken to, you may remain here so long as you attempt not to make yourself a nuisance to me. In return, I will only put you in The Cell when I am leaving the room. Do I make myself plain?"
"Yes, sir." Hermione held back a sigh of relief.
"Very well. Now, I must go thank the Dark Lord for his…boon, so I must return you to The Cell for a short time. Play the part of the obedient servant well, and we shall have no problems. Yes?" Severus rose from his chair and moved towards the door.
"Yes, sir." Hermione hesitated before standing up, and, in that moment of hesitation, Severus was upon her, grabbing her by the collar and leading her into the hallway.
They walked silently back towards The Cell, Severus nearly dragging Hermione by her robes. She tried to make herself move faster, but her fear and fatigue made walking difficult. Without a word, Severus unwarded the door and the bars, and shoved her in with Draco and the others.
"Godfather! What an unexpected surprise!" Draco smiled wickedly at Severus.
"See that the Mudblood does not get into any trouble while I am gone, Draco." Severus eyed the crumpled girl on the floor suspiciously.
"Can't make any promises, but I'll do my best." Draco glanced menacingly at Hermione.
"Careful, Draco; she is my property now." At these words, Hermione shuddered and let a small whimper escape her lips. "I will be back for her soon." Severus exited the room, and the bars and door were once again replaced with a wall.
As soon as he was out of sight, Draco rushed towards Hermione's prone form, and the rest of the DA followed him. "Granger? Are you alright? Have they hurt you?"
Hermione looked up with disbelief, the sting of Bellatrix's slap still fresh on her face. "Am I alright? Look at me! I've been given to Severus Snape as a slave!"
"Consider yourself lucky," Angelica quipped. "I'm Lucius' slave, and, believe me, I can't imagine anyone being worse than him."
"You're Draco's father's slave?" Hermione glared at Draco.
"Don't look at me like that! She's his slave, and I'm his punching bag. How many times do I have to tell you that we're all in this together?"
Hermione turned to Angelica. "Does Lucius, you know…" Hermione flushed with embarrassment.
"Rape me? No, he isn't man enough for that. I'm just his amusement. He touches me occasionally and makes lewd comments, but that's about it. I never get let out of here, so you're pretty lucky." Angelica brushed off the information she was giving Hermione with ease, as though she were resigned to her fate. "He does it to Jane and Elizabeth too, but he likes blonds, so I'm sort of his favorite."
"I wouldn't worry about Snape, either. Do you know he actually comes in here and talks to the General? I mean, they don't talk about Quidditch or anything, but sometimes it's almost like he's concerned for him." Andrew let out a deep laugh.
"Sometimes it's priceless, really. The General's in here because of him, and he waltzes in for chats like they're old friends."
"Now, now, Angelica. It isn't my godfather's fault, not really. If he hadn't killed Dumbledore for me, I would have been killed for letting him live." Draco rubbed at his black eye.
"Letting him live?" Hermione scoffed. "What is that supposed to mean, that you didn't really plan on doing it?"
"Of course I didn't plan on doing it! I had to agree to kill him to save my father and my mother, but I knew that I would never be able to do it." Draco moved closer to Hermione. "Think, Granger! Whatever kind of unforgivable prick I am, I am not a murderer. Prejudiced, power-hungry, and arrogant, yes, but not a murderer. I thought that I would get the Death Eaters in, put on a good show, and get killed or be taken by the Aurors. Then my darling mother had to mess it all up by involving Severus and his sense of godfatherly loyalty. I was toast from the moment I came back to Hogwarts last year."
"So you aren't, or weren't, rather, a Death Eater?" Hermione couldn't process all that she was learning.
Draco shoved up the tattered sleeves of his robes. Aside from bruises, there were no marks on his forearms. "I was just trying to save my family. Tell me that you wouldn't do the same! I was confronted by the people who have shaped the environment in which I was raised with a plan to save the parents I loved, and, Dumbledore be damned, I was going to do whatever it took."
"But he died anyway." Hermione frowned.
"If I may, General?" Angelica placed her hand gently on Draco's bared arm.
"Of course." Draco nodded slightly.
"Cadet Granger, I've been here with the General for a couple of months now, and, while he did hate Dumbledore for what he represented, it was never his wish for him to die. The General was raised differently than we were and saw Dumbledore in a different way. We may not like what his family represents, but the General loved his parents, and it was the only way out for him." She rubbed Draco's arm comfortingly.
"Then why are you here?" Hermione looked back and forth between Draco and Angelica.
"It seems that my father feels differently about family. When the Dark Lord tracked me and Severus down after the murder, my father laughed at me when they put me in here and magically disowned me for failing to kill Dumbledore myself. The Dark Lord was never going to kill my father for the disaster at the Ministry. Lucius was too important to him for that. They set me up, and, like an idiot, I fell for it. Now, I am a convenient scapegoat for everyone's failures." He patted Angelica's hand.
"Did Snape know any of this?" Hermione's eyes were now wide with wonder.
"I don't think so. The way I understand it, my mother put on a really good show with Auntie Bellatrix to get him involved. Don't be fooled, Cadet Granger. Severus isn't as in the loop as he makes out he is. No one really trusts him enough with anything important. I realized that when I figured out that, rather than being entrusted with my life, he had unwittingly been bound to sacrifice it."
"Then what use does the Dark Lord have for him now?" Hermione rubbed at the tender spot on her cheek.
"That's one of the bits we haven't been able to figure out," Jane admitted, sadly. "No one's really talking about it."
"What are the other bits?" Hermione asked.
"What they're going to do with them." Draco nodded towards the rest of his companions. "It isn't really Death Eater style to go around kidnapping people and imprisoning them just for fun. If they wanted fun, they would just go kill some Muggles and be done with it."
"So, you said that Jane is a Squib, so that means that the rest of you are…?" Hermione looked around at her fellow captives.
"Yes, I'm a Squib, Elizabeth is a pureblood whose parents are blood traitors, and the rest are Muggleborn."
Hermione scratched her chin thoughtfully. "But none of you were ever at Hogwarts, were you?"
"No, we weren't," Angelica answered. "Elizabeth is a home-schooled witch, and the rest of us were sent to very small magical academies. There are several relatively secret ones in the United Kingdom for those without the means to go to Hogwarts, or for Muggles who don't want their children to be too far from home for so long."
Hermione sighed. "It's amazing. I've been in the magical world for almost seven years, and yet I still feel like I understand nothing about it."
"You asked before you were taken away by Bellatrix how not resisting is going to help us. The answer is simple. They're never going to let us go, and they will likely kill us, so it doesn't matter much to them what they say around us. The more information we get, the better chance we have of finding out something that will help us get out of here and tell someone where here is. You are now in the best position to get the most information!" Draco was nearly giddy.
"He will never say a word to me. I don't even know that he's not going to… oh, Gods." Hermione clutched at her stomach as sickness radiated through it.
"What's wrong, Cadet?" Andrew propped Hermione up against the wall.
"She's just upset." Angelica stroked Hermione's hair almost lovingly. "I can't promise you that things are going to be okay, because none of us know our fate for certain, but you have to be strong."
"Thank you." Hermione turned her tearstained face from Angelica to Draco. "Gods help me if it's folly, but I choose to believe in you, Malfoy. We have to come up with something to do to get out of here."
"Congratulations. You've just been promoted to Lieutenant, Granger."
--
After depositing Hermione in The Cell, Severus stalked towards the main audience room. It wasn't usually recommended that one went without being summoned, but now that he had been saddled with his boon, he thought it wouldn't be amiss to extend some thanks, even if he didn't mean it.
He found Rodolphus standing watch at the door, and he inclined his head to him. "Lestrange."
"Ah, Snape, I take it my wife has delivered your Mudblood to you? What are you doing wandering about and not enjoying it?" Rodolphus slapped Severus on the back playfully.
Severus sighed. "I thought it prudent to extend my thanks for the present to the Dark Lord before I began taking liberties."
"Of course, of course." Rodolphus moved aside and opened the door. "The Dark Lord is just finishing his evening meal, so I am sure he would not mind your intrusion."
"Thank you." Severus nodded to Rodolphus again and moved swiftly into the audience room. He threw himself on the floor before Voldemort and kept his head down.
"Severus," Voldemort hissed. "I thought I might be seeing you."
"My lord." Severus kissed the hem of his lord's robes. "I came to express my gratitude to you for your fine gift. I am certain that I will put it to good use."
Voldemort chuckled. "Oh yes, the Mudblood Granger girl. Do you know why I have given her to you, Severus?"
"Bellatrix indicated that she was for my amusement." Severus rose from the floor and stood before Voldemort, keeping his head bowed.
"That as well, of course, but I thought to give her to you as an assistant." Voldemort studied his Potions master.
Severus cocked an eyebrow and chanced a look up at the fearsome lord. "An assistant, my lord?"
"Of course. I have it on good authority that the girl has recently been made a Potions apprentice at Hogwarts, and that her skills presently rival your own at her age. I have no one else to spare to help you in brewing your draughts for our cause, so I hoped you might be able to put the girl to good use."
Severus bowed his head again. "It is most gracious of you, my lord, but I am getting on quite well brewing our potions without assistance."
Voldemort laughed a horrible and dark bellow. "And so you have been thus far. But certainly you do not expect me to have you go on making such simple brews? No, it would be a waste of your talents. I will soon be assigning you some other potions that will require all of your attention, thus the Mudblood will be necessary to make the simpler ones. Do I make myself plain?"
"And if the girl refuses to help us?" Severus kept his voice steady, though he was full of curiosity at these other brews he would be asked to make.
"I am certain that you will be able to use what you know about her from your previous association to make her comply. I have faith in your, shall we say, persuasive abilities." Voldemort's eyes danced with an evil red twinkle.
"Thank you, my lord." Severus bowed down deeply again.
"Your fear of me is good, Severus, but you need not worry about feeling my wrath as you did when you first came. I tortured you then as a reminder of the absolute importance of following my orders, but your fine motor skills are far too important to me now to risk. See that I continue to feel this way. You may go." Voldemort waved his hand in dismissal.
"Yes, my lord." Severus turned and exited the room as swiftly as he had entered it.
Rodolphus remained stationed at the door and eyed Severus with amusement as he reentered the hallway. "I trust your visit went well?"
"Indeed, Lestrange. Have a pleasant evening." With that, Severus stalked back towards The Cell, his brain boiling still with having the girl thrust upon him. His thoughts were also occupied with questions about what he was going to be asked to do if he managed to obtain the girl's cooperation.
If he knew the Gryffindor mind, however, obtaining said cooperation would not be easy. Their damnable courage was not easy to overcome.
Standing before the invisible door to The Cell, he felt his chest tighten again. Here he was, a self-made prisoner, with his only friend, solitude, taken from him by the intrusion of the bushy-haired chit. It was true that he grew tired of making Calming Draughts and Healing Balms, but did he really want her living with him so that he would be free to do other things? Why did he feel compelled to accept the boon and see that she came to no harm at the hands of his companions? Why not just leave her for Lucius to enjoy? He felt no desire to rape the girl, but that did not mean that he cared for her wellbeing or safety. She was Potter's champion and insufferable, yet now he was about to enter an indefinitely long captivity with her.
Had he really sunk so low?
Shaking off his thoughts, he revealed The Cell and glided inside to retrieve the girl. He found her curled up against the wall, clutching her stomach, whilst the other prisoners stared at the ceiling blankly, hardly acknowledging his presence.
"Come, Miss Granger, we are returning to my rooms." He grabbed her once again by the collar.
"Yes, sir," she replied wearily, though suddenly she dropped her hand from her stomach and breathed more easily.
"Take it easy on the poor Mudblood, Godfather," Draco barked as the strange pair made for the door. "After all, it's been refreshing having a fresh face around here."
"Good night, Draco," was Severus' only reply as he returned the wards to the door and took off with Hermione toward his chambers.