Chapter 4: Games

"Bloody Malfoy and his sodding temper." Hermione rubbed her tender wrists. She couldn't believe how strong of a grip he had on her.

Astarte popped into the room with a broom and dustpan in hand. She held it out gently for the girl. Hermione took it from her and began to clean the mess.

"Thank you."

"Astarte is not allow to help miss." The elf then quickly popped back out.

After Hermione finished cleaning the dishes up she thought back to Malfoy's speech, the gardens were her next chores. Conveniently Astarte showed up by the time she was finished. She wondered if she were being watched the whole time since the elf always appeared in times of need.

"I will show you the garden now. Master Malfoy takes great pride in it, so it must be perfect for him. Come, come!" This time the house elf showed her the way by foot to the gardens.

The moment they stepped outside Hermione's breath was taken away. It was beautiful. She hadn't seen flowers for three years. It was as if they were all hiding here, at the Malfoy Manor. There were exotic flowers intricately aligned around the house and the pathway to the gates of what looked to be a small pond and shaded swing. She could just make out the sound of flowing waters from a fountain.

The garden was the most breath-taking site she had seen since the war started.

Hermione felt a tug at her robe. The house elf pointed in front of them indicating a small shed.

"All the tools is in the shed. I will be back when you is done." And with that, the house elf was gone, again.

So far, her new life was turning out to be a very lonely one indeed. Whether this was good or bad, she could yet decide. Then a thought occurred to her.

He left her outside. Alone. Unsupervised.

Could it be that easy?

Draco watched from an upstairs balcony. The house elf, Astarte, was playing the part well as he watched her point to the shed then disappear.

The girl's reaction to the gardens was unlike all the girls before her. While they had appreciated the view at first they ran before the house elf had even disappeared. He chuckled recalling what had happened to them all.

She's in for a surprise.

But when the house elf left, the girl continued to look around, in awe of the gardens, as if truly appreciating the sight. He had to commend her for her patience, unless she was too dumb to realize her opportunity.

Then she started moving. He smirked. He knew she would succumb, just like the others had. But she surprised him again. Instead of making a run for it, she went to the shed for tools.

Hermione needed to plan out her escape before just making a break for it. She knew Malfoy wasn't dumb. After all, he was second best in class, right below her of course. So she opted to at least pretend to do the gardens. This way she could scope out her boundaries and find the weaknesses. She knew that if she were to escape, it would need a precise plan.

Her mind was excited to have a puzzle to solve again, much like her years at Hogwarts when Harry, Ron, and herself were fighting against the Dark Lord and his horcruxes.

Hermione shook her head. She couldn't succumb to those emotions right now. If she wanted to avenge Harry it was going to be after she found a way out of the hell hole she was currently in.

So she got to work on figuring out how far she could go before the wards stopped her.

It wasn't too far before she felt magic in the air. She threw her shovel in front of her. It bounced back as if some invisible barrier had shocked it.

Hermione delicately picked up her gardening shovel and looked at it. It looked as though it had been fried. It's smooth wooden handle was charred black.

She was certainly glad it was the shovel and not her.

Damn.

It was safe to say that Draco was disappointed that his new girl was smarter than the others and yet strangely turned on at the same time.

She was the first to pass his test.

Perhaps a little celebration was in order.

Hermione sat on the ground inspecting the shovel and trying to absorb the magic around her. If she concentrated hard enough she could almost feel the magic vibrate off to her so she could sense its boundaries.

Loud clapping interrupted her, startling her out of her concentration. She turned around to see Malfoy walking towards her with a cool demeanor plastered on his face.

"Well, I must say, Velia, you are the first not to get injured by my wards. Not a single one of them had the patience, or intelligence, to think I was dumb enough to just let you run away. Three cheers for you."

He looked at her with his steel eyes, taking in her small frame greedily.

"I think this calls for a celebration."

Hermione was instantly on her feet, prepared for an attack at any moment. He smirked then laughed.

"Well, let's see just how feisty you are then, shall we?" The man dove for her. Hermione screamed as he came at her. The only thing she could think of to do was duck. So she did.

She dropped to the ground quicker than her body had ever moved. She watched his face turn from amusement to fear the second he saw her body fall to the ground as he smashed right into his own barriers.

He tried removing them before he hit them, but wasn't in time as he caught the last burn of the wards before they went out completely.

When she heard him scream in pain as he hit the wards, all Hermione could think of to do was run.

Run run run run!

She ran as fast as she could past the wards since they were down. She could see a forest of trees up ahead. If there was only a way she could reach them before Malfoy caught her.

She didn't look back to see if he was up. She didn't want to waste any effort on him. All she wanted to do was run.

Draco couldn't believe how much pain he was in, and he had only caught the last bits of the wards, too. He didn't want to think what kind of damage his face would have endured had they been on full power.

He rubbed his face before casting a healing charm then looked up to see Velia making a run for it. Draco smirked.

This could be fun.

Rather than use the bracelet he had given he decided to run after her. He needed the exercise after all. Not to mention he liked it when they ran, because they never won. He would catch her and then punish her.

It was all a game.

Something to keep him from being bored when he wasn't on duty.

After counting to three he went after her.

Hermione couldn't believe she was still running. Her lungs felt as if they were about to explode, but she willed her legs to increase their speed so she could escape from the manor. She was closing in on the tree line. A few more meters and she could take some shelter from the trees.

It was in her last stretch of steps that she heard it.

Footsteps were rapidly making their way closer to her. She pushed her legs faster and continued even as she made it through the trees. She had to clear a few bushes and swerve to keep from running into trees, but she didn't stop running because he was gaining on her.

She briefly wondered how on earth he caught up to her so quickly, but pushed the thought aside and continued running through the trees as they became denser.

Draco was impressed at how far she had gotten, especially once she heard his footsteps behind her. She moved faster than he anticipated. It seemed this girl was an expert in escaping, an interesting fact to take note of.

Nothing a little instilled fear couldn't fix.

He had roamed these woods since he was a boy. He knew every hiding spot there was. He wasn't too concerned about losing her, but his patience was also wearing thin.

She was nearly corned though because the small river was coming up. She would slow down, unsure of what to do, and then he would make his move.

Hermione could hear him getting closer still, even as she begged her legs to move faster. She could hear running water up ahead and immediately feared the worst. She had cleared small creeks before, but could she make a jump that sounded this big?

She would try.

So when Hermione didn't slow down Malfoy briefly slowed before realizing he would have to speed up to stop her from crossing the river.

He hadn't been running his fastest, but now that he realized she wasn't going to stop, he had to put it in gear. He saw her prepare for the jump and leaped for her just in time.

When Hermione felt hands around her waist, all hope shattered and they crashed down into the water. She struggled to be free of his hands, but he held on to her tight.

The river was only about two meters deep and a little more than that wide, but even so, she still couldn't touch without her head being under water.

Hermione choked and gagged on the muddy water as she desperately tried to evade his grasp. Malfoy, just about put out with her flailing arms, finally took them both underwater.

He held her so that she couldn't move any of her limbs. She tried even harder when he dunked her, but his grip was like steel cords wrapped around her body. He brought them both back out of the water and they gasped for air, filling their lungs with the needed gases.

When he saw that she had taken a few gulps of air he dunked her only this time and shook her up a bit, just to show her he had control. Once again, she fought to get out of his grasp, but he wouldn't have it.

After he counted to fifteen he let her back up and threw her up on the land. She coughed and spluttered up water as he lifted himself up onto the bank. He took a few breaths before rubbing the point in a little better that he was in control.

When she saw him reach for her she struggled to evade his grasp, but her body was so weak from her last attempted escape that she didn't get far. He pushed her onto her back and climbed on top of her, still trying to catch his breath. Then he grabbed her wrists and held then above her head effectively pinning her to the ground with the rest of his weight.

Hermione wagered he weighed at least 75 kilograms and was smashing her small body into the ground.

"Do you feel better? Now that you've gotten a bit of energy released? A little pent up anger perhaps? Well?"

She spat at his face.

He released a hand and slapped her across the face.

"You're pathetic." He smirked upon hearing her speak.

"And why is that?"

"I don't need to tell you that because you already know. You know how pathetic you are to treat so many women the way you do just because you pathetic purebloods think you're so much better than anyone else. And you follow your pathetic Dark Lord into ridding the world of muggles and mudbloods and even halfbloods when he himself is halfblood! But he is just as fooled by his own hypocrisy as you are of your own daftness to understand that you're killing yourself out. But go ahead. Continue to follow someone who doesn't abide by his own pathetic rules!"

"And how do I treat my women?" He gave her a lustful stare and pressed his pelvic bone into her.

Hermione looked away from his eyes. She couldn't stand his stare any longer.

"Come on then. Tell me how I treat my women. Tell me what you've heard. Tell me about the things you fear the most becoming a Malfoy woman."

"You play games with them." She whispered. "You show them a little bit of hope before shattered their faith in mankind. You abuse them with your words. You use violence to make them succumb to your will. You manhandle them when you feel like it. You rape them. Beat them. Curse them. But for some ridiculous reason, they learn to love you. The man that treats them like whores who aren't worth the dirt on the bottom of his shoes. The man who took them from their homes and tortured them nearly to death. They love you because you're all they know. Then you reject them. You mercilessly take away their hope, their love, their dignity. You take everything from them. They lose their sanity. Lose the will to live. Then they become like walking zombies. So you get bored and dispose of them."

"And which part of that scares you the most?"

"Losing the will to live. Forgetting why I fight against people like you."

"Why do you fight against people like me when you know you're certain to lose."

"Because he made me promise to never give up."

"Oh, so this is a love affair then."

"No. It's war."

He smirked. She had screwed up. Now he knew she was lying about her so called family. He could tell by the way she spoke this promise was not to some family that took her in. She was hiding something.

Draco thought about his mental list of this girl. She was fiery, intelligent, practically an escape artist, had promises to fight against the dark side, and most importantly of all, she was alone. She had no friends or family. Who was this girl?

"The war is over. Potter is dead and the Dark Lord has risen victoriously. Fighting against us is futile so you might as well not waste your efforts into keeping that promise."

"How dare you speak is name! Your lips aren't worthy enough to speak such a noble name!"

"Please, Pothead wasn't noble. He was an idiot, a lucky idiot, at that. The only reason he survived was because of his filthy mother and his precious mudblood. If it weren't for them he would have been dead long before you could say Avada Kedavra."

Hermione was a little shocked at his accusation. She had always been there for Harry in times of need, but really he probably could have survived without her.

"Harry Potter was brave for standing up to the Dark Lord by himself. A lesser man would have never of sacrificed as much as he did to rid the world of evil."

"A lot of good that sacrifice did. Died for nothing, didn't he."

"Shut up!"

"Oh, touched a nerve did I?" Malfoy bent his head down closer to her ear. "Potter died in vain. For nothing. So I suggest you move on."

"There's still hope."

"Really, how is that?"

"Because you haven't found her."

"Who?"

"Hermione Granger." Malfoy's face went red with anger. "I'm right, am I not? You just so said yourself that she was the reason Harry Potter survived. She could defeat the Dark Lord, and she will."

The girl had turned the tables on him. She was right. They had, indeed, not found Potter's mudblood. She had outsmarted them all. Oh the irony. Mudbloods were supposed to be stupid. Not this one. This one had kept even the slightest hints of her existence in the past three years. This did not please the Dark Lord. He had searched everywhere for the girl, but it was useless. She had seemingly disappeared on the face of the planet.

But he would find her. He had to.

"That's enough." Malfoy climbed off of her and stood up before pulled the girl to her feet and dragging her back towards the manor. "We're done playing games. Try to run away again and I'll just use the bracelet to summon you back."

She had spoiled his mood reminding him of his failures in the last three years. It was his job to find the mudblood. He had put as many of his men on the job, yet there was still no wind of her. She had really outdone herself.

Once inside he threw her in her room and locked the door. She landed hard on her but, hitting her head on the bottom of her bed.

If he only knew how close he was to finding the one thing he desired the most.

Hermione Granger, Potter's mudblood, laid on her bed and cried herself to sleep.