A/N: More of that pesky thing called a plot here. More Dramione interaction next chapter, I promise. This chapter is dedicated to those that reviewed the last chapter: Jen0318, Krystal Alspaugh, Twilighternproud, manitou2422 (I made it out of Missouri ahead of the ice storm! Yay!), Sampdoria, Tanya, GingerBreadSed, Queen, Akatsuki'sBloodyNekoNinja, Whenarewe. Thank you, thank you, thank you! You guys are awesome!
Your love and support through your reviews are so very welcome! If you enjoy what you read, please consider leaving one. It helps feed the artist's muse. (That's where the plot bunnies grow.) My regular reviewers can tell you I will send a reply to each and every (non-guest) one :) I look forward to hearing from you.
-Elvee (p.s. If you'd have a question on OOC, please see the notes at the end of this chapter first, if not, feel free to skip it and keep enjoying the story!)
Snatch
Chapter Eight
"We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."
-George Orwell
That night after dinner Hermione scrawled a list and a letter to Harry. She folded the parchment and called for Dobby. He arrived with a crack. She handed him the message and a list, with a low murmur, "Dobby, you are about to be very busy. Deliver this letter to Harry and wait for a reply. Go to Gringotts and pick up these forms."
Dobby bowed, "Yes, mistress. Dobby will be happy to help the friend of Harry Potter." He hesitated at the deepest part of his bow before giving Hermione a sly look, "Will young Mr. Draco be needing a bath this evening?"
Hermione had put Malfoy to work stirring cookie dough. He'd grumbled about doing house elf work, but she'd only glared at him. He was either grumbling about chores or whining about being bored and it was truly plucking away at her last nerve.
Malfoy added the chocolate chips and stirred. He was chained to a chair at the ankles, but his wrists were bound by a chain that ran behind his back, threaded through a loop on the back of a special belt. It was just long enough to allow him to use one hand at a time. The unused arm would be pulled taut to his side. Even so, she watched him like a dementor at a kid's birthday party.
She turned from Dobby and peeking over Malfoy's shoulder into the bowl of cookie dough, asked Malfoy, "How 'bout it, Malfoy? Care for another bath from Dobby tonight?"
He rolled his eyes, and paused in his stirring. "As if, Granger."
Hermione shrugged, then shot a secret smile at Dobby, "I don't think tonight, Dobby. Now hurry back. We have much to do."
Once Dobby disappeared with a crack, she dug around in her beaded bag. After a few seconds of coming up empty, she huffed, "Oh, for Merlin's sake! Accio Draco Malfoy's Gringotts key." A small gold key on a short chain shot out of the bag into the palm of her hand.
Malfoy's eyes narrowed, as he saw her pocket his key. "I knew you were just another gold digger, Granger," he said acidly.
She ignored his comment, looking into the bowl. "That's good enough. Stir them too much and they'll get tough."
He ignored her change of subject, sneering, "The goblins won't let you into my vault."
She plucked a book off her shelf, saying cryptically, "When the time comes, Malfoy, they won't have to." She levitated the book to the mattress, then went through the routine of petrifying and shackling him to the bed. This time, she left the restraint belt on. She shackled his left hand to the iron rail, then shortened the opposite chain until he could only reach his chest.
She pulled the book from under him, thumbed through it to the first chapter and propped it open in his free hand. "Here, read this and keep quiet. You're giving me a headache."
He frowned at the open page, "The Picture of Dorian Gray? Don't tell me. It's some kind of muggle trash."
"Read it. Or don't. Just stay quiet." She got up and began spooning dough onto cookie sheets.
"Well, what's it about?" He was starved for entertainment, but the thought of reading muggle literature obviously repulsed him.
"It's a story about a man who has an enchanted portrait of himself." She slid the first tray of cookies into the oven. "It's about the choices he makes in his life when he thinks there are no repercussions. It reminds me of you." She began dropping more dough onto the next sheet.
"Why would I want to read that prattle?" Malfoy sneered.
She rubbed her temples and sighed, "Like I said, read it or..." Hermione stopped talking abruptly. The alarm wards on the rocky beach had just been triggered. "Shut up," she hissed, dropping the spoon and whipping out her wand.
Malfoy eyed the door nervously, "What? What is it?"
"Someone's here." Hermione cast a disillusionment charm over herself. "Stay quiet and be still."
"Granger! You can't leave me here!" He wailed.
"Be quiet!" She hissed, sliding underneath his bed, her wand pointed at the door.
The heavy step of a boot was heard outside the door. Then another.
Hermione wasn't the fastest dueler. Surprise would be essential. Her breath came in short pants as she heard whoever was outside the door try the knob. From under the bed she saw the edge of a long black cloak and two very large boots step inside.
The boots turned to the bed Malfoy was shackled to. "Well..." said a man's voice.
Hermione sprung into action. She cast a stupefy charm, crumpling the intruder to the ground. She followed it quickly with a disarming charm and quickly tied him up with another flick of her wand. Pocketing his confiscated wand in her arm sheath, she scrambled out from underneath the bed.
"It's a Death Eater!" Malfoy hissed. "I knew they'd find us, you stupid bint!"
Sure enough, the intruder was wearing a long black velvet cloak and a Death Eater mask. Her breath caught in her throat. She turned out his pockets, levitated him to a chair and shackled him down. Unbelievably, the wards were now quiet. He was alone.
She pulled his lolling head back with her free hand, keeping her wand trained on his throat. She took a peek under the mask and gasped, letting it fall back into place. Her prisoner groaned.
"Quick, Granger, he's coming to!" Malfoy said, his eyes wide.
Casting a silencing charm on the Death Eater, she took a step back and rummaged in her beaded bag.
"You don't turn your back on a Death Eater! Granger!" Malfoy yelled, struggling against his bonds.
Finding the vial she needed, she whirled on Malfoy and cast a stunning spell. He fell limp against the mattress. She popped the cork on the sleeping draught and forced Malfoy to swallow it with a charm. The stunning spell could react badly with the sleeping potion. She cast an ennervate and pulled the blanket up to Malfoy's chest. His panic was sinking under the effect of the potion. "It's alright, Malfoy."
"Merlin!" He gasped, struggling for a hold on consciousness, "You're one of them!"
"Don't be an idiot! Go to sleep," She snapped. Try as he might, the potion dragged his eyes shut and evened out his ragged breathing.
She spun on her new prisoner, "Of all the stupid, dangerous, hare brained..." She ripped the mask off his head, revealing an angry Professor Snape. He glared at her.
"Well! Serves you right! You wouldn't be tied up if I knew you were coming!" With a few flicks of her wand, the silencing charm fell, the shackles disappeared and the ropes dropped to the floor.
"My wand?" sneering, he eyed the cookie mess on the table.
"Oh! Yes! Sorry, sir." She blushed, handing it over.
He was tucking his handful of belongings back into his pockets. "You will find, Miss Granger, that I did warn you I was coming. Did you not check your journal?"
Hermione took stock of the mess of cookie dough, quills, parchment and other detrius that littered the table and blushed an even deeper shade of red.
"Or were you," he sneered, looking at the mess, "too busy playing house?"
She knew better than to reply. After all, she'd just disarmed him, tunred out his pockets and trussed him up like a Sunday turkey. "Tea?" She asked as a peace offering. Oh, Merlin! The cookies! She debated whether to take them out of the oven, or let them burn. She moved to the kitchen, preparing tea, and removing the cookie tray from the oven as unobtrusively as possible.
"I specifically asked Professor Dumbledore not to tell you where we were." She challenged, all while her back was turned to him busy with the tea things. "Why are you here, sir?"
"Greyback is dead." He said with no preamble. "How is our young guest?"
"Well enough." Absently she fingered the new scar on her temple. The scar that her 'guest' had given her in the first day.
Professor Snape's eyes missed nothing. He raised his eyebrow. "I assume this is why Mr. Malfoy has no clothes?"
"Humiliation is a great motivator for the prideful." She cleared room on the table and set the tea tray down, complete with warm cookies. She served the tea.
"Indeed." He gave a small smirk.
After a moment, Hermione spoke,"I have a plan to retrieve Narcissa Malfoy from Malfoy Manor." She dipped the edge of a cookie into her tea. "From interrogating Malfoy, I understand she's a victim in all this."
He sighed, "We need to think of the bigger picture. Narcissa Malfoy is not our primary concern. It would raise too much suspicion."
"Which is just what we want." It was Hermione's turn to smirk. "If the He Who Must Not Be Named thinks Lucius is sending his family away into hiding, he will become a target. It will be a nice way to dispose of him when we're through with him."
"You just got him under your thumb, and now you want to get rid of him?" Snape said in disbelief.
"Of course not!" She retorted. "It will take several weeks to prepare. By that time, Lucius most likely will have outlived his usefulness. What we need to do now is agree on a list of targets. Once they are eliminated, we should let the Death Eaters take out their own trash. Saving Narcissa Malfoy will just be a perk."
"We can consider it." Professor Snape took a third cookie.
"First, though, I would appreciate your help, Professor." She pulled out her Death Eater organizational chart and handed it to him. "I need to fill in the holes in this chart so we can choose our targets."
Snape took the offered quill and began filling in the parchment. He also made a list of sympathizers in a separate list in the margin. When he was done, he gestured to the Gurg, or chief, of the giants. "I would suggest we start here."
"Hagrid and Professor Maxime should do that. They can poison a piece of livestock one of the other giants brings as a morning offering." The Gurg wasn't what was on her mind. That was too easy. She bit her lip. He knew. He had to know, and she wasn't making her list of targets before she did. "Professor," she started softly, "Who killed my parents?"
He caught and held her eye for a long moment, obviously debating whether or not to tell her. "They won't be one of our targets. This is not about you, Miss Granger."
She bristled, "And if we could take out our targets and still have my revenge? Would you still deny me?"
His eyebrow went back up, "And how would you propose to do that?"
She dug her laptop and headphones out of her beaded bag. "Listen to this first. It should make what I'm about to propose very clear." She booted the laptop and with great trepidation on Professor Snape's behalf, placed the headphones on his head. She played the ransom phone call for him. He listened intently, his dark eyes glittering.
When it was over, he snatched the headphones off his head and dropped them on the table, like they were a thing alive. "Clever. You'll need a regular stream of information to keep up the pretense that you're a Death Eater. If you skew that information so it seems like it is coming from a particular Death Eater, it could have some... interesting consequences. Lucius is no fool. He could narrow it down."
She smiled. It was refreshing to talk with someone who was as quick on his mental toes as she was. "Exactly. It would also have the added bonus of keeping relations between the Inner Circle itself unstable. It would, of course, require us to keep in regular contact."
"That kind of information cannot go through the journal. It would be too risky. We'd have to meet here." Professor Snape's flicked a glance at Malfoy. The younger man was snoring softly through his mouth. The Potions master frowned, "What about Mr. Malfoy?"
Hermione shook her head, "Obviously, I don't trust him. He might not believe in what the Death Eaters are doing, but he wouldn't hesitate to spill his guts if he thought it would save himself or his mother. He can't find out who you are. Stunning him this much isn't good for him. I try to petrify him if I have to do anything."
He eyed the scar at her temple and lowered his voice to stress the import of his words, "Make no mistake, Miss Granger. Draco is dangerous. If you need to stun him, do it. I assure you you're much gentler than either the Dark Lord or his father." He fingered the tray of fresh sweets with a raised eyebrow. "You even bake him cookies."
She blushed, technically the cookies were for the both of them. Even so, it seemed like Professor Snape had the wrong measure of Malfoy. "He's a misguided idiot, not a murderer."
Professor Snape leaned across the table and hissed, "Do not think that if Draco saw some use in your death, he wouldn't do it. He would. The only thing he lacks right now is the motivation. He's already made two attempts on Dumbledore's life."
"He was coerced!" She objected.
"He had motivation," Professor Snape countered smoothly.
They sat in silence as she let that sink in. After a long minute, she nodded and he seemed satisfied. "Professor, I still want to know who killed my parents."
He sighed and gave her a measuring look, as if he was asking himself if she'd ever be satisfied with anything but the truth. Apparently he made a decision, as he said, "Alexander Dolohov and Electo Carrow."
Her fingers went automatically to the scar on her chest, the scar Dolohov had given her in the Ministry last year. Her eyes unfocused, remembering. After an uncomfortable moment, Professor Snape cleared his throat. She blinked back into the present and gave him a curt nod. "Thank you."
He returned her nod and she cleared her own throat, pressing on ahead with the business at hand, "It's time to bring Professor Lupin in out of the field to work with Harry. If Hagrid and Madame Maxime can take out the Gurg, then who is our next target?" She slid the now full organizational chart in front of her. "What about Rabastan LaStrange? What does he do?"
For over an hour, they debated their next target, eventually deciding on Frederick Nott. He was one of the largest financial backers to the Death Eaters, second only to the Malfoys. After that they listed two spies in the Ministry and finally, Bellatrix LaStrange. Hermione didn't have any doubts if Lucius could kill Greyback, he'd be able to take out Nott and the Ministry spies. It was Bellatrix that worried her.
From what Harry told her, Bellatrix was obviously insane, extremely powerful and sat at the right hand of Voldemort. It was too much to hope that he hadn't tutored her himself. She chewed her lip until Professor Snape interrupted her.
"Either way, it will be a coup. If Lucius kills Bellatrix, I will make sure the inner circle knows about it. A single accusation in the right ear will be more than enough. The Dark Lord will kill him out of hand for taking away his most loyal follower. If Bellatrix kills Lucius, no one will dispute he was jealous of her position inside the inner circle. Our treachery will be complete. We will have thrown the Inner Circle into chaos, cut off Ministry information, put a stranglehold on their finances and alienated the werewolves and giants."
"And rescued Narcissa." She maintained.
"If we can." He said warily.
A wide smile broke across her face, "I can take her today, I just don't want to. The timing isn't right. It would threaten Lucius' standing."
"How do you propose to get past the wards, get into a house filled with dozens of Death Eaters and past the Dark Lord and get out alive?" He didn't say it, but the 'silly girl' was implied in his tone.
"That's for me to know." She smiled knowingly. "It will work, Professor, I'm sure of it."
"Very well." Professor Snape stood. "I should be going."
She stood to show him to the door. "I'm sorry about the..." He gave a a withering look. She cleared her throat, "I'll reset the wards so I'll know it's you next time."
He nodded, "Watch the journal. When Nott is killed, I will return." With a swirl of his black cloak he was gone into the night.
Dobby popped in and laid the documents on the table, bowing. She asked him finish up baking the cookies before dismissing him. She cleaned up the table, made sure the laptop was hooked up to the internet, waiting for Lucius's call. Now that Greyback was dead, he could ring any time.
She looked over at Malfoy. He was still snoring, his hair falling softly over his eyes. She didn't think Professor Snape had judged him fairly, but his warning was far too stern to disregard. She frowned as she filled the tub. As long as Malfoy was passed out from the sleeping potion, she may as well have a bath. Would he really kill her? He may not be a Griffindor, but he was no murderer.
She lowered herself into the steaming water, thinking. If Malfoy truly wanted her dead, why would he tell her about Viktor? Then again, he had clocked her over the head with the shackle. Now that she had an idea of his upbringing, it was easy to see why he'd taunted her all her life. If he was truly a carbon copy of his father, his behavior to her in school would never had stopped with just a few harsh words and the occasional hex. But somehow, in comparison to what he'd been through, his actions told of a shred of decency his father hadn't managed to snuff out.
Malfoy was an enigma, an annoying, pratty enigma.
The biggest problem was this: if she kept him chained up to the bed all the time eventually his health would suffer, but unchaining him required trust that he wasn't going to murder her with a cookie spatula. The problem then became which she should trust, her own instincts or Professor Snape's? Snape may have known him longer, but in Malfoy's world he was an authority figure. Muggle psychology would dictate he shouldn't show weakness in front of anyone he considered a threat.
In short, in Malfoy's eyes was she a threat? Did he have motivation?
With these thoughts swirling around in her head, she finished washing, put on her pajamas and tumbled into bed.
A/N: SKIP ME UNLESS YOU HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT CHARACTERIZATION.
The in-character/out-of-character debate: Firstly, thank you for reading. Secondly, please make careful note of exactly when I plucked my characters out of canon. It is sixth year. So, Hermione is feeling rather lonely and under appreciated. Malfoy is terrified at what he has to do and what he's seen at home. At this point they are the sum of what JK Rowling has allowed them for experience. That is what makes up their personalities. Once I get a hold of them, the experiences they have will change from canon. This will affect them. They will be different people than when they are in JKR's story. It's normal. It's natural. It's sound psychology.
Also, POV (point of view) plays a very strong role in how a character is perceived. We all think things we never act on. Having Hermione be our main character allows us all kinds of insight into the character's head that we would not otherwise have. In the original series, Harry may have speculated, but let's be honest, he truly couldn't say anything for sure on either Hermione or Malfoy.
At any rate, if you think Hermione is too muggle by doing some things by hand, I have sound reasoning for that: namely she was raised as a muggle, she'd under incredible amounts of pressure and her parents have died. It's called reversion. She's falling back on the known and comforting in times of stress. Psychology again. It was also done with the purpose of drawing a very clear delineation between her character and Malfoy's. Malfoy is all magic, all the time. In this case, the contrast is an open metaphor for the contrast between the two major characters in this story.
At any rate, I'm sorry if you were looking for something different or better and feel like you've wasted your time here. I write in the hopes that you would enjoy the story. For that matter, so did the writers of the other 650,000 Harry Potter stories on this site. If you don't like mine, please feel free to explore the other works. I'm sure you'll find something to your liking. If you want to discuss OOC further, please feel free to PM me. In deference to my other readers, this will be the only time I address it here.
Thanks, Elvee