Chapter 7: Mutatio

A few hours later, Hermione woke. The alarm Leta had set for nine in the evening, when she would have to get ready to meet the Dark Lord, hadn't gone off yet, so it had to be earlier than that. She felt comfortable, warm and relaxed, and felt a body at her back. Dazedly, she opened her eyes, a small smile on her face.

Then her eyes fell upon the arm that was stretched out under her: for the first time, she saw the ominous tattoo on Leta's left arm in its entirety. The woman had always had it covered up, with sometimes just a small black line, nearly impossible to see, protruding from under her sleeves.

She started to frown: she had almost forgotten who, what Leta was. Her mind had somehow pushed her being a Death Eater aside, especially since she never saw any sign of it, and when Leta went to a meeting with the Dark Lord, she always simply said she was "going out", without specifics – which was why Hermione had been shocked to hear she had been summoned by the Dark Lord. But then, at the Dark Lord's headquarters, a place which should have made her realise what she was doing, and with whom, was wrong, nothing 'evil' had happened; so Hermione had rationalised being with Leta as being not so bad. Until she saw the mark on the woman's arm, the mark that had been cast up in the air above so many instances of dead people at the Death Eater's hands.

And she suddenly remembered what exactly had landed her in Leta's bed – oh God, what had she done? She had instinctively engaged and killed that witch in cold blood – it didn't matter that it had been kill or be killed; she had killed the woman. And then, on the high the dark magic had given her, she'd had sex with Leta, a Death Eater.

Hermione was conflicted about her feelings. She felt horrible about her recent behaviour. She carefully got up out of the bed, and softly padded out of the room. She went to hers to quickly wash and put on clean clothes, after which she wanted to go to the kitchen for a glass of water. Halfway there, though, in the corridor, Hermione stopped: something was different. Frowning confusedly, she approached the front door, and tried to touch it. Disbelief streamed through her when she realised she could: the wards were down!

Thinking back to the night before, she indeed didn't recall Leta putting the wards back up after pulling her in; she had been way too occupied with that spot on her neck... Blushing at the memory, Hermione brought up her hand to the marks she knew were there, hidden under her hair.

Worrying that this might be a trap, she glanced behind her. Should she leave? Of course she should, she admonished herself, but did she want to? She should want to. She shouldn't want to stay here, with a Death Eater, with the possibility of being summoned to the Dark Lord – no, Voldemort, he wasn't her Lord, dammit – at any moment. She was horrified at her thoughts and feelings about the matter. And at what she had done. Not a year ago she would have run and never looked back without a second thought. Then, she thought about her friends, about her professors, about the Weasley's, who had become her second family. And she made her decision: if not for herself, she had to think of them – they had to be worried sick, by now. She opened the door and silently closed it again behind her.

Her heartbeat sped up, her breath came quicker. She hurried down to the front doors, exited, and went to the now-familiar alley. It was there she realised she had no wand.

"Damn it," she hissed under her breath, worriedly looking around.

She was about to go look for another way of transport, when she heard the tell-tale sound of apparition, deeper in the alley, in the shadows. She stumbled back, scared it might be a Death Eater. A dark, tall form neared her, and just when she was about to run off, she heard a very familiar voice, "Hermione? Is that you?"

She didn't dare believe it. "Kingsley?"

"Where is she, the Death Eater who took you? Is this a trap?" Kingsley now stood before her. He was looking her straight in the eye – to check for effects of the Imperius, she suspected.

"No, no it isn't. She's upstairs." Hermione was in shock. Could this finally be when she got saved?

"Look at me."

Hermione looked the man straight in the eyes, immediately understanding he wanted to use Legilimency to check if it was truly her.

"Legilimens."

Soon after, he ended the spell; it hadn't lasted long, but apparently he was satisfied about what he had found. Considering the time he had taken in her mind, he couldn't have seen the things that had happened to her, the things she had done; he had only checked her intrinsic mind, which held her sense of self, as was the norm when checking for one's identity by Legilimency – she was relieved.

"How did you—? No. Let's keep questions for later. We have to get out of here before she notices you are gone."

"I—alright," she nodded.

"Take my arm."

And the alley was empty and quiet again.

The Dark Lord wasn't pleased. Leta sensed it through the strength of his Cruciatus; she didn't need to hear his clipped voice to know. She painfully pushed herself back up from the ground.

"You... Lost her, you say?" he reiterated.

The book she had acquired for him lay on the armrest of his throne. After giving it to him, she had confessed that upon waking, Hermione had been nowhere to be seen. She had realised her mistake in forgetting to put her wards back up, but didn't dare tell of this forgetfulness and simply said the girl had found a way to flee, without her wand.

"Yes my Lord," Leta head was bowed down. She was shaking from the aftershocks of the Cruciatus.

"Let me see."

She wanted to deny him – who knows how he would react to the truth? – but knew she couldn't. She looked up into his eyes, focussing her thoughts on her recent memories.

He had seen everything.

"Well, well, well," the Dark Lord chuckled. He stood and neared her. He started to circle her. "You had a lot of fun with this one, didn't you? You truly made her believe you cared."

"Yes, my Lord."

"I must say, I did have my doubts when I had seen her memories; such trust she had in you. But now, now I see what you did."

"Thank you, my Lord."

He was behind her now. He leaned forward to speak right next to her ear. "What would she say if she knew what you truly were? If she knew all that you have done?" His voice told her that he was thoroughly amused by the way she had manipulated Hermione.

Leta forced herself to stay calm, to not truly entertain that idea. She was good at hiding, at suppressing her emotions, even from herself. "She wouldn't have been manipulated as easily, if she had known. And she won't find out, except maybe when it will be too late. Otherwise further manipulation will be hard, if not impossible."

"Hm, true." He walked back around and returned to his chair. He fixated her with his cold eyes. She didn't quite know what he was thinking.

"Would she still be open to be on our side?"

"I honestly do not now, my Lord. But I can find out, and attempt to entirely bring her over."

"How?"

"Severus Snape, my Lord. He will be in frequent contact with the girl, through his work with the Order, won't he?"

"Indeed. I hope for your sake this will work."

"It will, my Lord."

"Very well. Then you will work with Severus on this matter. I will tell him he is to cooperate, should he doubt your word."

"Thank you, my Lord."

He dismissed her, and she was happy to return home: her nerves, her muscles, her very bones hurt, after the Cruciatus she had been subjected to.

"But what happened? How did you escape?"

Almost all of the present members of the Order, and especially Harry, Ron, Molly and Ginny, were bombarding Hermione with questions. She didn't answer. She had only said she didn't want to talk about it, not yet anyway, when they had first asked her about what had happened, but they hadn't listened, apparently. She supposed she understood their worry, but she was conflicted. Why had she slept with the Death Eater? How had she so easily cast Avada Kedavra? How had her mind changed so quickly on her opinion of Light versus Dark Magic? What was wrong with her?

Eventually Hermione got up and left the kitchen, ignoring all questions still. She soon found her room, where she laid down on the bed, after closing the door, not bothering to change out of her black dress.

Soon, she slept, exhausted from the stress, the offensive magic she had used, the time spent with Leta, and the flood of questions.

"You called for me, my Lord?" Severus questioned when he stood before the throne, bowing.

"Yes. You will soon be approached by Leta Watkins, and you will cooperate with her."

"Cooperate on what exactly, if I may, my Lord?"

"She will continue to mould Granger's mind through you; you will teach her on Leta's instructions."

Severus frowned. Before he could voice the question, the Dark Lord already replied, "Yes, she has indeed escaped and is presumably already back with the Order."

He nodded understandingly, "I will start as soon as possible, my Lord."

The Dark Lord nodded, pleased. "Good. You are dismissed."

"Thank you, my Lord." Severus bowed before leaving the room and returning to his home. It was late; he would go to the Order's Headquarters to get informed on miss Granger's escape in the morning.