Disclaimer: just the usual, but I better explicitly say it again; I do not own any of the recognizable characters.
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Author Notes: I am so sorry for updating after a long time… I never got around to wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year… so I'll do it now… "Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!"
well here is the fifth chapter.
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Hermione groaned, "What does the ferret want?"
"How should I know?" Seamus said, "Though I would give anything to wring that jerk's neck," he spat bitterly. After all Draco Malfoy had made it his mission in life to make the Gryffindors' life miserable.
Hermione narrowed her eyes at Draco. "Come on Seamus, let's go to Hogwarts and see what we can do."
"Yeah, let's get going." They walked together towards the group of slave who were to leave for their round of cleaning the Hogwarts corridors.
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Draco Malfoy walked to the 'superiors only part' of the TDLR slave camp. To any onlooker it was obvious that he held a lot of power in the Dark Lord's reign. His eyes were an unforgiving grey that held deep and dark secrets that were best left unearthed. He had aided the dark side during the battle and had risen high in the ranks of death eaters.
All the other death eaters feared and respected him. No one dared to do anything to antagonize him, after all everyone loved his life, death eater or not. He now worked in the ministry, and also managed the Malfoy Firm since his father passed away.
As Draco walked in through the gates, the guards at the entrance bowed to him. He casually nodded to them as he walked into Suille's office.
"Ah! It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Malfoy." Suille greeted, standing up from his desk to shake hands with Draco. "How is your mother?"
"Yes, pleasure indeed and mother is fine," said Draco. "I need a few slaves. Can you provide that?"
"Of course, Mr. Malfoy." Suille bowed.
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Hermione and Seamus joined the crowd waiting to leave for Hogwarts. But as the group reached the gates, the guards shouted, "Halt! You're shift has been cancelled. Now get back, you lot. And wait for further orders."
Hermione looked at Seamus questioningly. To which Seamus just shook his in negative. "I'm with you, ain't I? I've no idea.."
Together they walked towards Hermione's hut. Ginny came running towards them, the others hot on her heels moving towards the duo.
Panting, Ginny said, "Do you know who is here? And why?"
Seamus replied, "Whoa, calm down! Yes, we know who is here – you are talking about Malfoy, right? And as for why he is here, we've no idea."
Hermione added, "We were on our way to Hogwarts and the guards told us no Hogwarts today for anyone… I wonder why that is. Since when did the death eaters start caring?"
"That's preposterous; of course the death eaters simply don't care." Nancy informed them unnecessarily. She always seemed to be bubbly. Hermione really liked it, but sometimes it got on her nerves.
"It seems like the ferret needs new slaves, as if torturing the elves aren't enough." Ginny said as though there was no interruption..
Michael looked around carefully and said, "He will try to provoke us, you especially Hermione," he nodded to her, "but don't let him see your emotions, stay away from him, if possible."
Neville nodded, Parvati looked a little sick and was being supported by Dean. Hannah looked away into the horizon. Dennis was fidgeting nervously, and Justin was keeping a sharp lookout for signs of trouble.
One of the guards approached and informed all the slaves huddled there, "Mr. Malfoy needs a couple of slaves, now get yourselves into lines of three, so the kind sir can have his choice, though there is nothing to choose form, all of you are the same - scum."
"'kind sir' my ass," muttered Dean.
The phoenix! Arranged themselves in threes such that they were all close by. Dennis was standing before Hermione.
Draco Malfoy walked regally towards the slaves. Hermione's face shone with an unhealthy amount of hatred. Michael shot her a look of warning, immediately Hermione contorted her face to remain blank, no hatred and no emotion.
Draco walked from person to person, carefully observing each one's face and occasionally spitting into someone's if he realized that they were from Hogwarts and that he had hated them for the simple reason that they were muggleborns or because they simply didn't support his pathetic 'purebloods rule' theory.
As he reached Ginny he smirked, "what happened to your fat mother, weasel-bee? Gone the same way as the rest of your family? Well they deserved their end… after all they were blood traitors. Missing them, Weasley? You know I can always be kind enough to send you the same way?"
Tears of fear, frustration and sadness shone in her eyes, but she kept her silence. "Hmm... Weasley, now that potter isn't there, who is doing his job on you?" he sneered.
Ginny went red in face. "What do you care, malfoy?" she asked angrily.
"Of course I don't!" he said haughtily. And turned to Suille who was attending him, "I'll take this bitch." Ginny's eyes were watering by now.
He looked around and walked in Seamus's direction, "he will be taken as well." Seamus simply scowled, but didn't say anything else.
He then walked up to Dennis, "aren't you that pesky Gryffindor mudblood potter-worshipping photographer's brother?! Shame you didn't go his way as well."
Dennis was very close to his brother, he still had not come to terms with the death of his brother and he took offence to anything negative said about Collin. Damn Gryffindor courage. "You knew nothing about my brother. At least he wasn't a pureblood slave driver like you!" Dennis said vehemently, though only Draco and Hermione could hear him.
Draco's eyes clearly showed his anger. "How dare you?! You'll pay for that." He pulled out his wand and muttered, "Géhenne."
Dennis cried out in pain. It wasn't as bad as crucio, but it still hurt. Draco was pleased, but didn't look like he wanted to stop it anytime soon. "See where has that smart mouth got you, mudblood? You should've been petrified by the basilisk like your brother."
"Leave him alone. Plus, Dennis was never there when the basilisk had attacked." Said a cold voice behind him, soft yet dangerous.
Nancy gasped, Michael cursed and Seamus was heard muttering about how people could not keep quiet even if their life depended on it. The three of them were the only ones who heard Hermione other than Dennis and Draco himself.
As Draco turned around his eyes clashed with chocolate brown orbs that were kept carefully blank by its owner. A slow, lazy smirk started to form on Draco's lips as he strode purposefully towards Hermione. Neville who was beside her flinched. Draco cast a withering glance in his direction, and turned back to Hermione, "I see the last and lone member of the infamous golden trio is here. I never thought I would live to see you without your boyfriends, Granger. Old dumbly-doore chap dead the same way as your war heroes? So how's the camp treating you? I'm not sure if there are any books here to quench your uncommon and disgusting thirst for books. Smartest witch of the year, my foot, see where you are now? Just where you should have been all your life, mudblood." He spat in her face.
Hermione calmly wiped away the spit away from her face. She badly wanted to claw his eyes out and wring his neck for having killed Tonks, for having tortured Dennis and for being a cocky bastard. Yet, her face was a blank mask. "Thanks for stating the biased and yet the obvious, now is there something else, sir?" she asked in a mocking voice.
Draco's eyes crackled with utter hate," as a matter of fact there is something else, I want a personal slave, and you'll fill that slot" he then leaned in, his nose nudging her ear, and said softly so only Hermione could hear him, "may be you can pay for that prat's impertinence and I'm personally going to make sure you are broken, inside out." And he pulled back. His eyes had taken on a different shade, they were turning sapphire blue.
He looked her in the eye, Hermione did not flinch, she simply looked back at him. Without warning Draco tried legimency on her, but she was ready, she kept her mind firmly shut. She did not lead him on false memories. Draco had to endure a mental collision with a sturdy wall. She wanted him to know that she was not to be played with. She let him know that she was not like the others; she was not going to let him get to her. How dare the bastard try to go through her thoughts and memories?
Draco was pissed off, simply because of the fact that he could not break her barriers. He had always prided himself to be a skilled legimens. After all he learnt it at the knees of his now dead aunt Bellatrix.
He glared hard at her; she countered the glare with one of her own. Without another word he turned and walked away with Suille but, not before catching a glimpse of the pure odium in her eyes. He would deal with her after she was delivered to him.
Hermione watched Draco stalk off towards the superior part of the camp. The wheels of her mind spinning. As the cliché goes, if looks could kill, Malfoy would've been six feet under by now.
She felt Seamus touch her shoulders reassuringly. She gathered herself. She noticed that Ginny was still very upset. She moved to Ginny and embraced her comfortingly. "Shh... Ginny, don't cry, everything will turn out alright. We need to wait patiently if we want to succeed. And don't let anything he says get to you; he simply is NOT worth your time."
"b-but Hermione, he insulted mum, and .. I don't want to be a slave for him.." she sobbed.
Hermione stared hard at Ginny, "where is that Gryffindor courage of yours? Pull yourself together.. he insults everybody, not just Mrs. Weasley, and none of us want to be his slave. You won't be alone anyways; Seamus and I will be there."
Seamus nodded, patting Ginny, "don't worry we will be there with you."
Ginny finally pulled herself together and said, "Silly me, crying over what the asshole said to me." The others moved closer to them.
"Dennis, you shouldn't have said that. You know Malfoy does things like that to get a raise out of people so he can torture them." Justin reprimanded him.
Dennis sulked silently. "Sorry" he mumbled.
Justin reached forward and clapped Dennis on the back, "its okay kid, just be careful about what you say around the death eaters hereafter."
Dennis nodded and said something which sounded like 'I'm not a kid' but none knew for sure.
Neville looked worriedly at Hermione, "take care 'mione, he wants you to be his personal slave… I don't like the sound of it."
"Trust me, I don't either, but I'll use it to our advantage. Meeting at the store room, tonight after chores. The password is centaurs." The rest of them nodded.
A death eater approached them, "now scat, you lot can go to your huts."
They all dispersed.
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Hermione, Parvati, Ginny and Seamus were walking towards the girls' hut. Seamus held Hermione's hand as they walked.
Draco caught sight of them and his eyes moved to one curly, brown haired muggle-born witch. His eyes were inscrutable for a minute.
Hermione felt someone burning a hole through her and turned to see Malfoy looking at her with venom. She simply ignored him and walked away with her friends. She knew Malfoy was going to make her life a living hell if she behaved thus in front of him, but she hated him and could do nothing about it.
Draco's eyes narrowed as he saw Seamus holding Hermione's hand. Or maybe the narrator imagined it.
Hermione was aware of Malfoy's steps. She could hear his footsteps as he moved towards the slave-camp doors as though he was walking alongside her. 'Yeah right Hermione, the pompous ass Malfoy walking along side? That's the height of absurdity!' Hermione thought. She also heard Suille's steps. But somehow Malfoy's was more prominent.
"I want them delivered at my doorstep in a week and a half. I don't trust Granger; make sure they are accompanied by one of the guards." Draco ordered authoritatively.
Suille nodded walking Draco to the gates.
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Seamus bid the girls good bye at the entrance of their hut and walked off to talk to Neville, Justin and Dennis. The girls moved into their hut.
Since going to Hogwarts was ruled out now, Hermione decided to ask Ginny about her trip to Hogwarts. "Did you find anything in Hogwarts?"
"Not much, but we did catch the headlines of the prophet, figures Rita is back to her old ways. These were what I noticed in the paper – victor is dead, I'm sorry Hermione" Hermione closed her eyes and simply nodded for Ginny to go on, "the ministry is completely in you-know-who's hand and there was a part where there were many letters published in the prophet that expressed sadness over the death of Lucius Malfoy! So I'm assuming he is dead." Ginny sounded pleased as she said the last sentence.
"I knew Lucius was dead, I saw Harry kill him." Parvati quipped.
"I knew about it only today morning, but, how come malfoy was acting like nothing was amiss…. Doesn't he miss daddy dearest? Now, who will teach him new dark spells and curses? May be the bastard never cared about… but honestly, I would never bother either. But there was absolutely nothing about him that could've hinted at the fact that his dad died during the war. He sounded as cocky as ever." Ginny said.
Hermione looked on without saying anything.
"Who else do we know is dead?" Hermione asked after a while.
"I know that the Carrows are dead, so is Bellatrix, mum killed her to avenge Ron's death. But other than them I don't think the dark side has lost many."
"Moving on to other matters, we have" Hermione said pointing to Ginny and herself, "to go to the malfoy estate in a few days. We need to do a lot of ground work before that because, I'm guessing, once we are in the manor we can't get out without Malfoy's explicit permission. And if he so much as suspects anything, he will report about us to you-know-who."
Parvati asked, "What do we do to prepare? Collect potions and stuff? Hermione, you need to make those coins before you go." Ginny nodded her consent.
Hermione looked out the window, "yes, I'll get that ready, and you need to collect the potions, and try to read as many books on dark arts as possible when you are in Hogwarts, but don't get caught."
Hermione was deep in thought for a few moments, deciding whether or not to inform Ginny about Aberforth's visit and about the surviving members of the Weasleys clan. Finally she relented with her conscious that Ginny deserved to know about her family. She decided that she will only reveal about the Weasleys.
"By the way Ginny, I met someone today, and I got news that Mr. Weasleys, Fred and George, Bill, Fleur and young Molly are alive and in hiding."
Ginny snapped her head to Hermione. "What?! How do you know this? Are you telling me this so I can feel better?" Ginny demanded fiercely, her eyes tearing up again.
"Ginny, I can't reveal my source, but I trust that person completely. And no, I'm not saying these things to make you feel better, if that was my intention, I would've brought all the Weasleys back to life." Hermione said sternly.
Ginny flew to Hermione's side and whispered, "Hermione, you're sure?"
"Yes, Ginny, I promise - your dad, bill & family and the twins are alive and in hiding." Ginny started sobbing uncontrollably onto Hermione's shoulders. Hermione gently massaged her shoulders. "Its okay gin, they are alright. Don't worry."
Once Ginny had cried her eyes out she shook her head, "look at me, I should be jumping with joy knowing that at least a part of my family is alive, and here I'm crying like a baby!"
"We would've done the same as well Ginny," Parvati said coming over to pat Ginny on the head. "But Hermione, how do you know this?"
Hermione looked a little uncomfortable; she did not want to reveal about Aberforth, it would only lead to more problems. She replied honestly, "Guys, I'm sorry; I can't give his/her name. But rest assured, you can trust me. And there are others who survived the war, its best if their names are not mentioned. Until you guys learn occlumency."
The other girls nodded. It was silent after that.
Hermione deduced roughly that the time could be around 4. That left her 3 hours before her next chore began.
Hermione looked at the other girls. Parvati was gazing out of the window. Ginny was lying down. She announced, "I need some air, I'll be back by around 6:30." With that she stepped out of the hut and walked to the store room. Once there, she pulled out the invisibility cloak, wrapped it around her and ran out of the camp towards the cave.
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She was glad that she was petite; the cloak was more than just big for her. Once inside the cave she threw the cloak over the sack of parchments. She grabbed the book Aberforth had given her from the transfiguration pile and observed it. The book seemed ancient. The pages had browned. 'The art of wandless magic' she started reading the book…
"Wandless magic is a branch of magical science that is highly advanced. It deals with being able to do magic without wands, and in some cases without any object to channel the magic in a wizard's blood.
Wandless magic requires extreme concentration, powerful magic blood, strength and a strong will power. It takes ages to learn wandless magic, and much more to use it efficiently…"
Hermione skimmed the introduction parts, and got onto the parts teaching wandless magic.
"First step to being a wandless is that one has to concentrate on one's soul. All thoughts have to be removed from the conscious; one should concentrate on the unconscious and untapped part of the brain. This phase may affect the person. During the concentration period one may have nightmares, grueling visions involving their loved ones –dead or alive, true or false.
When the concentration period is completed, the person will feel a glow about them. This glow is from the inside, it will form an orb, whose color will depend on the purity of the person's soul. This orb will disappear into ones right wrist and will resurface from time to time.
Then, one will have to think up a place. This place mostly is imaginary. But creating this place is very important in wandless magic. All of one's strength and happiness will be drawn from this place. The more the person is at peace with this place, the stronger the magic. The creation of the said place will take a few days time. It may not exactly be what the person expects. The orb will help in the creation of the place. The orb, which is believed to be a part of the person's soul may throw up things or people in this world which or who will bring about happiness and strength.
Once the creation of this place is complete and is accepted by ones mind, the orb will turn colorless for a few minutes and will go back to its initial color. One may try to do simple magic like trying to move an object or create fire. Later one can advance to tougher magical spells. One may also apparate without their wands at an advanced stage."
And on and on the book went about wandless magic, how to achieve it and its side-effects. Once she finished the book, she revised it again and set to work. She kept the book away and sat Indian style on the floor, concentrated hard, and turned inwards. She was lost in herself. She saw her parents being killed by the death eaters, Harry being avada'ed by Voldemort, Ron being murdered by Bellatrix, the order crumbling. Then she saw her friends and herself in the future – being tortured, used as slaves..
She pulled herself out of these disturbing thoughts. And tried again. This time the images were more horrifying – she saw herself being raped by malfoy, Ginny being strangled by Zabini... Hermione withdrew herself from the horrifying images. Her eyes were wide in fear and leaking, she was sweating profusely.
She didn't understand why she saw malfoy… what was more confusing was that she had seen Zabini, all she knew about him was that he was a death-eater, though he hadn't actively participated in the war.
She tried over and over again. But there was no difference. Each time the images became more and more horrifying, resulting in Hermione being terrified by the time she pulled herself out of the visions.
Finally, as the sun was setting, she gave up trying to concentrate and pulled the invisibility cloak over herself and stepped out of the cave. This time, she walked leisurely back to the camp.
She used the walk to contemplate on other things. She decided that she will reveal the cave to the phoenix! She needed a way for communicating with the other phoenix! members. She could use coins like 5th year, but it could lead to suspicion – how can slaves have coins??, parchment - that could be snatched away, other things like a watch or something will attract too much attention, the object had to be something small, unnoticeable, and very ordinary for the guards to suspect anything.
Ah! Then it struck her! The proverbial light bulb! It might not be a very bright idea but still it was something to start working on….
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Author Notes: well here is the fifth chapter. So far, it is the longest ! I don't know when I'll be able to finish the next chapter. If you find anything off about my story or if you think I can use some improvement please express so.
Reviews are a must!!
About all that wandless magic and all, honestly I did not have any clue. I'm the proud owner of that mumbo-jumbo! But for the purpose of this fiction they will remain important facts.
I'm not sure when I'll update the next chapter, but until then take care, ciao!
Luv,
Azea!