Chapter 5

The silvery substance floating lazily around in the pensieve was the only source of light in Draco's dark room. He sat in front of it, watching it intently as if it would give him advice on what to do next. He took out the vial that Hermione had given him from his pocket, and set it next to the pensieve. For some odd reason, he knew deep in his heart that he did not want to see this. Hermione's lifeless eyes flashed into his mind again. He really did not want to see the contents of this memory.

Sighing, he removed the cork from the vial, and slowly poured its contents in to the Pensieve. He watched as Hermione's memories flowed gently into the stone basin and merge with the silvery substance that was neither gas nor liquid. Reluctantly, Draco plunged into the substance, and when he opened his eyes he found himself in a small, dark room lit only by the moonlight that was streaming in through the small, dusty window. He looked around, and spotted Hermione standing behind him, in a pure white silk dress and looking at herself in the mirror. She had a worried look in her tired eyes. Sighing, she left the room, and Draco quickly followed.

They walked slowly down a hall, again lit only by moonlight that poured in through the tall windows on one side of the hall. Draco looked around, trying to absorb every little detail of the manor, and saw the forest that he had hid in just hours ago out the window. Then Hermione stopped in front of a large, double door and Draco walked right through her. Shaking his head, he stood next to Hermione and saw her take a deep breath, and she slowly opened the doors.

"Ah, Hermione," said Tom. Draco was slightly surprised as he entered. There were at least a hundred vampires in this room, the male wearing velvet robes and the female wearing burgundy. The room itself was extremely big with a ceiling that seemed to extend up to the sky, and with windows that stretched from the floor to the ceiling. The windows had deep, velvet drapes which were drawn to let the moonlight in, and the walls were papered black. Draco quickly surveyed the room with his eyes, and found no source of fire anywhere. 'Smart,' he thought. 'So they keep any threat to their life away from themselves.'

Tom was sitting in a high chair at the very end of the room, and in front of him was a stone table engraved with ancient runes. There were two shackles that were connected to the floor by a thick chain on either side of the stone table. Hermione slowly walked towards Tom, and the vampires gave way. Tom smiled slyly, and stood up. "Behold, my precious treasure," he said unto the crowd. Draco saw that Hermione was slightly trembling.

"Let the ceremony begin," Tom announced, and gestured Hermione to lie on the stone table. The other vampires all took a seat at three long tables that stretched across almost the entire length of the room. There was another table, closer to where Tom was sitting, and vampires wearing pure red robes were sitting in this table. Draco knew right away that these were the Pures, those born into vampirism. He observed that Tom was also supporting a set of red robes. Then, the others sitting on the long tables must be those of the Turned, the ones bitten into vampirism. Draco noted this valuable information. Pures in red robes, the Turned in velvet and burgundy. Then Draco turned and spotted Hermione standing in front of the stone table, and he had a gut feeling that he wasn't going to like what he was about to see. He wasn't wrong.

Hermione made to lie down but Tom grabbed her by her hair. "Dress off, Hermione," he whispered. Hermione's eyes widened in surprise. Draco felt like something big just fell into his stomach. Dress off?

"Why?" she whispered back. The crowd was getting restless. "Because Hermione, this is your punishment," Tom said, glaring at her. "Now take the dress off and get on the table before you shame me further with your foolish questions."

Hermione dropped her head in defeat, and slowly removed the straps of her dress, and finally let the dress fall to the ground. Draco wanted to turn his head, to not watch Hermione being naked, but he couldn't turn his head away. Her creamy white skin was filled with both small and big scars, no doubt inflicted by the sadist standing behind her commanding her to be naked in front of a hundred people. She stepped out of the small white puddle made from the dress and laid on the cold stone table. Two servants came over and shackled her hands. She was tightly bound.

"This ceremony is our tradition," said Tom. "It is the reminder that we are superior and that we hold the power. Let this day remember, as all days, that we are still on top of the hierarchy, and that we will ultimately triumph in the war."

Tom lowered himself and pushed Hermione's hair away from her neck. She closed her eyes and Draco saw that clear tears were escaping her eyes. She turned her head away from the crowd and Draco found himself wanting nothing more than to release her from this table and blast everything apart. This was inhumane.

"This is your punishment," Tom whispered. Draco, although reluctant to go near a naked Hermione, leaned in to listen. "You think I'd buy your lie? If you are going to lie, at least wrap up your story properly. You never mentioned how you got back Hermione. Did the hunter that spread the fake tracks to isolate you then just let you go freely?" And with that, Tom sank his fangs into her neck, and Draco gasped. Sure, he was once on the victim side, being violently penetrated by Hermione's fangs thirteen years ago. But he never saw a vampire feed on another before. Draco expected Hermione to cringle in pain, just as he did back then, but to his surprise, he saw that Hermione had a blissful look on her face.

"Please…" Hermione whispered, her hands struggling to be free of the shackles to grab Tom. The clanging sounds of the metal from Hermione's shackles rang throughout the room. "Please give me your blood. I need your blood. Please Tom…"

Tom stood up, and wiped Hermione's blood from the corner of his mouth with his thumb, then licked the thumb seductively. The vampires started applauding. "No Hermione," he said. "Your punishment is that you won't get my blood. In fact, you won't get any blood." Tom stepped down and the servants came forward to free Hermione. "NO," Tom commanded. "She will be displayed for the rest of the night." The servants looked mildly surprised, but nodded and slid back into the background.

The feast that followed was extremely different from what humans had. There were only glasses and bottles, of what Draco assumed to be filled with blood. He stood next to the naked Hermione, and saw that vampires glanced at her, with eagerness flashing in their eyes. He could see that they wanted to taste her, to scar her body with their own claws, and to puncture her with their own teeth. Draco instinctively stood in front of her, but he knew it was no use. This was just a memory, and himself a ghost that nobody saw. Draco turned, and saw that Hermione was emptying bucket loads of silent tears. He automatically understood that she was never naked in front of anybody before.

Eager to be far away from Hermione and escape the awkwardness no one else in this room felt but him, Draco moved towards Tom. He was playing with a wine glass made of pure gold, no doubt filled with Hermione's blood.

"They have new methods, those filth," Tom said. Draco leaned in further. "They have learned the art of herbs. They are now spreading fake tracks and making it harder for us to retrieve our brothers." Draco understood that Tom was talking about him. "We must develop something to counter this. Perhaps your experiment is ready Mr. Snape?" Tom looked at a man with greasy black hair. Draco gasped. Snape was his researcher, the one that worked in the Malfoy's laboratory, the one that, at this very moment, was in the basement of this Malfoy Manor. That Snape was sitting right here, in the most inner circle of vampires, sipping blood. Snape, a vampire? Draco bit back the urge to get out of the memory, go and grab Snape by his robes and shake the truth out of him. Snape opened his mouth to reply. Draco leaned in determinedly, to find more proof that he was a vampire, a traitor, and a threat.

Suddenly, the whole scene blacked out. Draco cried out in frustration, and was about to leave the memory when colors reappeared before his eyes, and he saw that he was in a dark cell. The walls lined with weapons and equipment Draco could only assume to be used in torture. The whole room was illuminated by tiny rays of moonlight struggling to seep through the one tiny window located near the ceiling. Hermione was balled up at the corner of this room, away from the light, and again with nothing on but her underwear. Draco felt the urgency to confront Snape leave him as a strong desire to take off his robe and cover her entered his mind.

"What have you told the hunter?" screamed a voice. Draco turned and saw Tom lashing a whip about.

"I didn't tell him anything! He was trying to kill me!" Hermione sobbed. Draco observed that her body was already covered with fresh wounds from the whip.

"Liar!" Tom screamed, and swung the whip at Hermione. Draco jumped in front but the whip went right through him and hit Hermione's right arm. A new wound opened and blood trickled down her arm.

"I ran back! I ran back!" Hermione cried, wrapping her left hand over her wound. "I outrun him, hadn't I? He had to follow me! I was faster! Much faster!"

None of this conversation was registering in Draco's head. He was too preoccupied with the idea of Snape being a traitor. He had to tell his father. He made ready to exit the pensieve, no longer wishing to see Tom's sadistic actions against Hermione and to alert his father, when Hermione's scream pierced his ears like an arrow. Draco whipped around, and suddenly everything before his eyes started to happen in intervals of fast-paced events. Hermione was on the floor, sobbing. Tom was beating her. Blood splattered on the walls. The scene blacked out then came back. Draco saw Tom violently feeding off Hermione. The scene blacked out again. Then Hermione was clawing at Tom. "Blood!" she screamed. The scene blacked out again. Tom was feeding off her again, then beating her violently. Throwing her against the wall. Then biting her mercilessly again.

"Stop!" Draco yelled, grabbing his head. "Stop it! Make it stop!"

But it didn't stop. Every time a scene blacked out and came back, Hermione looked paler and paler. Tom was beating her, feeding off her, biting her, throwing her, whipping her. Hermione screamed for blood. Tom grinned insanely and refused her pleas. She was getting thinner, paler. Her eyes started losing life. She didn't make an effort to cover her naked body anymore. The scene blacked out. Tom came back with a short knife. He grabbed Hermione by her hair and heartlessly slashed her hair short. She didn't even fight back. He grinned. "So that I can reach my food easier, Hermione." He bent down and drank her blood again. Draco looked away. He felt his stomach heaving. Make it stop, make it stop!

"Your punishment has ended," said Tom. Draco opened his eyes. It was a different day. Tom threw a set of burgundy robes by Hermione, who slowly grabbed them and put it on. Tom then walked over biting his wrist, and held it before Hermione. She hastily grabbed Tom's arm and buried her face on his wrist, gulping down mouthfuls of his blood. Draco finally raised his wand, and he floated out of the scene, out of the pensieve, and found himself on all fours on the floor on his room. He could see everything happening again before his eyes. His whole body was covered with sweat. He got up and ran to the washroom, and started throwing up violently.

After a couple of minutes, Draco stood up and took his shirt off. He stepped into the bathtub, and turned on the water. The cold water felt soothing against his bare chest, and Snape was long gone from his concerns. His head was filled with what he had just seen in the pensieve. That was inhumane. Hermione's lifeless eyes flashed into his mind. He couldn't ask her to be a spy any longer. She was no use half dead.

"I will get you out of there," Draco whispered. "I'll get you out of there, Hermione."

(A/N: Sorry this chapter took a while to come. New semester has started and now I will have less time to work on this story. I will try my best to upload the future chapters ASAP. :) I hope this wasn't too gruesome or graphic. Constructive criticism is very welcome, and reviews will make my day! :)