Lucius paced the library. He had sent Draco on a mission this morning, away from the manor and the girl. She kneeled before him, gaze boring straight through him. The Dark Lord grew impatient, Bellatrix's vault had been tampered with, a horcurx stolen, the thieves uncaught. He felt as if the answer could lie in the girl. Lucius had contracted the services of Snape. Being a potion's master, he created a draught of Veritaserum.
He looked down at the girl, sneered, then continued his pattern over the carpet. That this mudblood dared to defy their mission, this girl who bested his son in everything, could continue to best him, it angered Lucius.
Snape pushed open the library doors, his thin scowling face showing no more emotions than Lucius'. He stepped up to the girl, forcing her chin up. Her gaze connected with Snape's and she spat in his face. Not breaking eye contact, or sparing time to clean his face Snape uncorked the potion single handedly and drained it down her throat. The girl sputtered and coughed, violently pulling away from Snape.
"How long until it takes affect?" He questioned hungrily.
"Only another minute or so," Snape replied in his slow way.
The pair watched as Hermione sat back up, still battling small coughs.
Lucius began to question her, Snape looking on, "Where is Harry Potter?"
"I don't know where Harry Potter is," Hermione bit down between words, failing to hold them in.
"What is the Order's plan?" An eerie glint appearing in his eyes.
"The order plans to keep Harry safe until all the horcurxes have been found and destroyed," Hermione began to sob, realizing what Snape had given her.
"Where is..."
A commotion in the doorway pulled all gazes towards it. Bellatrix Lestrange strode through the door, hair springing out of control, a shrill laugh leaving her lips.
"Oh good, you already have her ready for me! Crucio!"
"Expelliamus!"
"Bellatrix no!"
The men's cries were too late.
The crucio hit Hermione in the spine. A violent reaction occurred between the veritaserum and the cruciardus curse, sending Hermione into a seizure.
Bellatrix threw a wandless curse at Snape, who held her wand. He flew back into an arm chair, mildly ruffled.
Lucius spoke up before she could continue to throw curses. "Snape had just given her veritaserum. Truth potion Bellatrix. Do you know what happens when you torture someone who has taken a truth potion? They lose their minds, anything that the girl might have known about Harry Potter or the Order has been lost forever!"
Lucius and Bellatrix began to yell, voices rising over the other to be heard.
Bellatrix stormed from the library, Lucius close on her heels, when as an afterthought he called for Trissa to take the girl back to her room.
Draco stumbled through his room, shedding clothes with each step. Dirt clung to every inch of his skin. After a luxuriating soak, and a scrub that he was sure removed a layer of skin with it, Draco dressed for bed. Only after crawling between the sheets, his body slowly sinking into sleep did he think of her. He thought of her soft laughter, and painful questions. He slipped into sleep, dreaming of her stubborn expression.
Draco rose late, rushing through his morning routine only to find the library empty. He searched it twice before finding his father in the dining room, daily prophet spread before him as he ate leisurely.
"Ah, Draco. Just in time, I need to inform you of a change of plan. The mudblood has become useless to us and will be disposed of soon. You have proved yourself well, the Dark Lord is pleased."
Lucius did not once look up from the newspaper as he delivered the blow.
"Disposed of? What happened?" Draco felt a heaving scream building in his chest. A sliver of pride wormed its way in when he knew none of his pain showed on his face.
Lucius looked up now, a single raised eyebrow to convey his displeasure. "Bellatrix ruined a perfectly good truth serum by cursing the mudblood. She is useless now."
Draco sat down at the table, a plate filled with morning delicacies appearing before him. He had to get Granger out of here, tonight. Draco's mind flashed through the stories his grandfather would tell him of destroying an enemy.
"Little dragon, come and listen to the stories of your grandfather's brilliance. Now when I was a young lad, attempting to take over my father's fortune, there were many who tried to take it from me. Some tried to steal it, others attempted to cheat it from me but all of them failed. Those who would try and take what belonged to me would meet a face worse than death!" Draco, being only four, would gasp. His grandfather would laugh, his belly rolling with each bellow.
"How would you do it Grandfather?" Draco questioned hungry for the answer.
"I would dose them with veritaserum," Draco would scrunch up his nose in confusion, "truth potion, little dragon. Normally a drop or two in a drink we shared as they tried to swindle me. Then after I had loosened his tongue and discovered all of his plans against me, we would walk through a dark wooded place and I would curse him!" Grandfather always popped forward with the word curse, scaring young Draco into jumping and squealing. "Once I cursed him, the crudiardes always worked best mind you, I would leave them to wander the woods. Only some would make it out of the woods, those that did were never the same. Lost, confused, and most importantly, they never remembered anything. Always dumber than a box of rocks they were."
Draco freed himself from the memory, stomach churning. He ate a piece of toast quickly, dismissing himself from the table without as much as a glance towards his father. Draco stumbled to his room, the vague notion of a plan swirling in his head. He pulled a trunk from his closet, stuffing if full of clothes and money that he had squirreled away. Pausing, a thought of what Granger would need flashed through his mind and he doubled the amount of clothes in the trunk. Anything that didn't fit her, he could transfigure. In a moment of unexplained need, Draco dug out his little wooden dragon, packing it away with the clothes. He transfigured the large trunk into a small suitcase, sliding it beneath his bed as he headed for the kitchens.
The large kitchen echoed as Draco stepped into it. No house elves bustled around, cooking or cleaning. Opening the large food cabinet began filling a large sack he had found lying on the counter. Taking simple foods that wouldn't spoil he filled the bag to its brim before transfiguring it down into pocket size. Taking one last look around the kitchen he mentally said goodbye. Going to the library he pulled his six favorite books, carrying them awkwardly back to his room. He transfigured them down in size until they would sit comfortable in the small backpack he had fished from the back of his closet. Beside the books he placed the food. He filled the rest of the space with extra coins.
He had been planning an escape since he was nine, had started to collect his allowance then too. He knew the best routes from the manor to the apparition zone. He knew at least six different places he could hide until he would leave the country. Granger changed things. He hadn't seen her yet. If she was as incapacitated as he had been led to believe then she would not be safe at any of the places he had previously scouted out. Rubbing a fist to his forehead Draco scrambled, if he didn't get a plan soon then they would never make it.
A knock at the door had Draco shoving his backpack beneath the bed with the trunk.
Nausicaa opened the door, nearly timid. She strode across the room, seating herself an armchair, motioning for Draco to join her in the opposite chair. He sat, blank mask falling into place as she studied him.
"Your father was not always a bad man. Once he was a young man of ideal, of high moral standing." She paused, "He is no longer that man. I see much of the good I saw in him in you. I know that you will be great, greater than Lucius ever could have been." She stood now, pulling a piece of paper from her pocket that she laid on the table as she continued. "Know always, that I am proud of the man you are becoming, and that I will always support you in choosing a life different from your fathers."
She leaned over the coffee table, placed a motherly kiss on his brow and left the room. He stared after her a few seconds before tentatively picking up the paper she had left him. Three lines, the first two were an address, the last line was a note 'take Trissa with you."
Draco felt tears well up in his eyes; his mother loved him and had known that he would need a safe place to hide Granger. He had no plans beyond escape. Draco pulled out the trunk, resizing it to verify he had everything he needed. He double checked the backpack, watching the sun go down, waiting for the right time to retrieve Granger.
Darkness finally fell, and Draco loaded up. Backpack on his back, trunk in hand, and his mother's note in his pocket he called for Trissa.
"We are leaving, tonight. Pack anything you will need and meet Granger and myself at the edge of the property. You have twenty minutes." He strode past her as she disappeared with a crack.
He cleared the two floors between himself and Granger in record time, knocking gently before pushing his way inside. She sat in her customary corner, rocking back and forth. The sight tugged at his heart. The brightest witch of an age reduced to this, because of him. He placed the trunk down, kneeling before her.
"Granger."
No response.
"Granger," he reached out and touched her knee.
Her rocking only increased.
"Hermione?" He tried.
She stopped, looking up at him through a nest of unruly hair, smiling.