Lucious spat on him before going over to his servant to wipe off his hands on a towel. "Even I never thought that you would be that weak. I should kill your mother just for having you."
He leaned over Draco's bleeding form and said, "I guess it can't be helped though. I married for money and what I thought would be a good blood line but I guess her tree was sullied at some point. What a disgusting woman." Draco was terrified. Halfway through his beating an obviously pertrified Hermione had been brought in to watch.
"Well now lets have another does of Vertiserum.Hmm?" He was yanked up and a vial smashed his lips against his teeth causing them to bleed while the servant held his nose shut. It had only taken one does spat in his face before he started holding it closed. Draco coughed and sputtered, the potion burning the back of his throat. He had had five doeses in the past two hours. He was suprised that he had not passed out completely from the beatings. He knew his Father was a master of pain but was going for the brute side of it, kicking and tossing him against walls as opposed to the slyer methods which he was sure were to come later such as broken bones and whippings. For now it was just major bruising and the weakening effect of the drug. He had dry heaved a few times now. His stomach was rolling and making it hard to concentrate. The longer he was beat the less energy his Father would have for her.
"Now Draco. Recite to me the alphabet that you were taught when you were little." "Good God, is he still at this? I know that I resembled hamburger right now but kicking that hard takes energy." He thought as he felt blood on his cheek crack as he spoke. "A is for Alliance. Only with our Lord. B is for Blood. Of which ours is pure. C is for Conquest. Of which we are sure. D is for Dragon. For which I am named. E is for Elegant. For which we are famed. F is for Fear. Thats what we give. G is for Greatness. For that is what we have. H is for..."
Lucious held up a hand. "Stop." He rubbed his temples. "The sound of your needling voice is bringing on a headache. How could you be so inconsiderate of your Father?" He placed a finger on his lip and looked thoughtful. Draco flinched as he leaned down to look him in the face. "You know what? I dont think I want to hear it anymore unless you are either telling me what I truely want to hear or are screaming in pain." He swung his hand hard across Draco's face and looked disappointed. "I am weary now. Its a shame that I have no time for the Mudblood today. But I am sure that Our Dark Lord will be more then pleased to witness my fun with the girl tomorrow." He kicked Draco in the back one more time. The pain made him cry out and wrap himself into fetal position on the floor.
"Take them back." He said bitterly. Draco had closed his eyes and heard both servants walk over to him. He was lifted over a shoulder and could feel himself being taken back down the hallway. He kept his eyes closed the whole time that they were being attached back into place. They opened blurrily after he had heard the door shut. Hermione was tied back up. She was staring at the wall and stepping out of her heels. "I am sorry." He croaked and then started coughing again. The last thing he saw before succoming to unconciousness was a tear slide down her now grimy cheek. They had less then two days left before they could count themselves lost.
Hermione watched as Draco slept fitfully. He looked to be in so much pain and she was sure that he was having nightmares. They were not even able to escape their demons in their dreams. She would admitt it if she could but she was scared. She would have taken his torture for him if she only could. Rather that then see his pain and hopelessness. The only thing was though, if she could talk then she could tell them all about the Order. She could not scream or plead or tell Lucious off. She wanted to in the worst way. Brought up in a home where a raised voice and some chastizing was all she needed for disipline, Lucious's ruthlessness against his own son was completely beyond Hermione's realm of thought. She had always known that he was evil but to turn on your own blood like that? It seemed the worst part of the torture so far.
Draco was crouched in a tight ball all night. He cryed out in his sleep, flinching and mumbling. Hermione spent a good part of the night in lethargic thought. Tomorrow they would start on her. She could not escape that or the fact that Voldemort himself was going to be there. Even though she was raised a muggle and he had not been the ulimate boogey man for her when she was young like everyone else, she knew what he was capable of. They had no way of knowing if they would be rescued, but somehow regardless of it all Hermione could not bring herself to prepare for death. Hermione knew that she would get beaten, and most likely given Vertiserum but she could not give up entirely. Draco was coping but she felt that he had no hope. She also did not know how to give him his drive back.
Her entire body was stiff and sore from being forced to stand for three days. When she could finally sleep she would wake with the stiffest neck ever and the bindings were begining to cut into her skin. It was a minor annoyance compaired to what she knew what was to come the next day. She awoke in the grey morning to an awful gnawing in her core. Trying to the best of her ability to stretch out most of her body within her bounds she could hear that it was raining outside. The cell was chilly and she started shivering. Standing straighter she shuffled to put her heals back on. They were terribly uncomfortable and did nothing for keeping the heat in but the soul of the shoe was warmer then the cold damp floor. The semi silence was starting to annoy her so she began to shuffle her feet to warm up.
This sound awoke Draco with a moan and a curse. He rolled over his arms to stare at her blearily. "Good morning." He said. She dipped her head in aknowledgement and flinched at the sharp pain in her neck this caused.
The regular bowl of oatmeal was shoved under the door. "Well I know that we are not VIP here but at least they could send in some tea. Its just plain courtesy." He said in a scratchy voice. Hermione blinked in suprise as he regarded her gravely and then broke out into silent laughter. He spat out a mirthless laugh and said, "Forget the tea, seeing you smile does just as good if not better. Sadly enough it will problably be the highlight of our day."
He grimaced and then stood. "If it is okay with you I will go into denial now until we are forced to think about everything...Like my mother..." His eyes teared up and he blinked it away hurriedly. "So how about some food? I dont think that it is poisoned but I don't know how you will eat it." He furrowed his brow and walked over to the door as Hermione stomped her foot. "Yes?" He turned, chain rattling.
She made exagerated movements with her mouth and he shoke his head. "Yes yes I know you are hungry so am I." She rolled her eyes and stomped again. "What is it Granger?" He glared slightly. "Back to last names are we now Draco?" She thought before trying again.
She tilted her head down opened her mouth shut it as if she had picked something up and then moved up and over. His eyes showed he understood and he kneeled and picked the bowl up with his teeth.
"Ish vetter not droph this!" He grumbled as he walked over to her. After some fumbling Hermione was able to eat messily out of the side of the bowl while he held it in his mouth. She ended up getting it all over her cheek and Draco smiled and asked. "Do you mind if I get that?" She smile and he licked it off.
"That was the most interesting way that I have eaten breakfast." He laughed before picking the bowl back up off the ground and setting it on the bed so that he could kneel and eat the rest. "You know..." He said as he flopped back down on the bed. " I have never really like oatmeal til now. I would never eat it in the Great Hall." He wrinkled his nose. "But now the awful stuff tastes wonderful. Its Butterbeer, rasberry torte and lemon samon all rolled into one." Hermione smiled knowing exactly how he felt. He laughed and raised an eyebrow, "Well now that I thouroughly tortured myself and my mouth is watering I should change topic."
He looked around the little cell as if looking for something to talk about. "Rats and mice. Hate em! Dispise then nasty little buggers. You?" She nodded in agreement and he became excited. " With their nasty little teeth that chew through everything, and they live in the sewers. I wish that I could just wipe them all out and never have to see their terrible little faces again. Always begging and sniffling." He shuddered and Hermione watched him in detached suprise. "I think that he is having a mental lapse although I am not one to point fingers." She thought before laughing again. He was not even paying attention to her he was just mumbling and shivering.
He may have internal injurys but she did not know. Their lives were on the line and he was rambling on about rats. If at least she had been caught with Harry he would not have despaired. It would be easier if she had someone to give her just a little more strength. She could take pain or so she desprately hoped. A brave face she could have but at least they would never hear her scream or cry. The spell was impossible for anyone but Dumbledore to break and the only thing she could do was wait and hope. And she felt guitly for not being able to be strong for him.
"This will not be the end of us," she thought sadly, "It can't be."
They slept fitfully and Draco weeped and pleaded for her to be let go but to no response. A little after sunset they heard footsteps down the hall. Hermione was woken from her dozing with large fearful eyes. Dracos head shot up and his expression mirrored her own. He started to whimper but went quiet when the door opened. Hermione would be sobbing but she was too dehydrated for tears. They unbound Dracos hands and he flexed his fingers painfully before being dragged away and yelling out in suprise when Hermione left his view. Their eyes searchied each other out before Draco was lead down a different hallway. He was lead to a room to releave himself like they had been everyday and then taken to a somewhat cleaner room in which was a bored looking witch. This was an evil crone if ever he had seen one. She was the Malfoy's family doctor and personal potion maker. Arphrax even had a small hut on the estate which Draco had stayed away from as a small child when she had told him that she would put him in one of her potions if he ever disturbed her. Lucious had laughed when Draco had told him and said that it was true. Whatever thoughts he had of being supirior to her and having his father punish her for saying this had quickly disappeared.
She was the one that Lucios trusted with his life and the potions that sometimes slayed his enimies. She was the one with power and Draco never forgot it. She broke into a gummy grin and Draco almost flinched at the smell that came from her mouth.
" I have been told about you little lizard. I have not seen you in a long time. You are now thinking that you are a big lizard but you are still so tiny. My my but look at how your scales shine." She licked her cracked lips and cackled when he shrunk back against the brute mute behind him who roughly pushed him forwards and he fell.
"I would not eat you for breakfast you little lizard, but how nicely you would scrunch under my shoe." Draco stood up and glared at her.
"Yes yes, pain, hurt, kill, death. Nice to see you again Arphrax. Now enough with the niceities my Father already told me all that." He straightened up and tried to exude disdain. It wasn't hard besides the sharp pain in his stomach from hunger and the aches from the beatings.
She stood almost too quickly for her twisted old age and jabbed a finger at him, her torn and matted skirts swished around her. "Oh the cleverness of you. But will you still have such shiney scales when your father squishes the little muddy mouse?" Draco felt his face twitch as she picked at a scab on her arm.
"But your Father will not let me preform the spell on her that I am about to do to you. He wants you to see the mouse completely..." She thought for a word as she walked around the little room, " Broken. In every sense of the word really." His mouth went dry and his mind blank as she picked up her wand and walked over to him, the scent of her wafting off in nauseating waves.
She mumbled something under her breath and his cuts began to heal but then stopped. "Still the pain but not the marks. Like new again but still the pain." She mumbled as her lucidity began to fade. Her mind had been lost in a dangerous spell but she still remembered Lucious. A fellow classmate whom he used for her knowledge and skill and took in after the accident. Her visage was a result of the spell and her present absent minded lifestyle. Tell her to draw a picture and she spills the ink, tell her to exucute some evil poison and she does it perfectly.
She was still mumbling under her breath and gestering at him with her wand as the large man lead him out of the room. Draco was worried about Hermione but for now all he could think of was himself. "The mouse will follow the cat, and the lizard will follow the mouse but he shall lose his tail till the..." The last of her mutterings were cut off by the door slaming behind them.
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She watched fearfully as he was dragged out of the room and her body was unbound. It felt good to stretch but the guard leered at her and she stumbled ahead of him. She was taken to a damp and darkened room where the servant who face was covered in scars picked up a large bucket of water and before she knew what was happening he had dumped it over her head and laughed.
She stood there, shivering and fearful and more awake feeling then she had been in a while. She would have yelped in shock but no noise had come out. Water dripped down her face and her hair hung down stringily. He grabbed her roughly and began to tie her hands together in front of her. Then he took a blindfold out and Hermiones flight sense came to the surface. She ran to a corner but he went after her, her heels hurting her feet. She tripped, her shoes fell off, and he pounced on her.
From the look on his face he was enjoying this immensely and her heart beat painfully in her chest as her world was plunged into darkness. She was picked up and dragged behind him stumbling as he lead her down various hall ways and through rooms. The floor was ice cold on her feet and her toes where numbing before she was lead into the final room. This last room was inspelled. She could tell because it was much warmer. The floor had changed from freezing stone to warm and soft sand. She almost could have appreciatedt it if she had not been then shoved hard onto the sand. She was slightly suprised to hear the servant say, "Stay." Before he moved silently away from her.
This was how Draco saw her again when he was brought into a sitting area that surrounded a pit of sanded ground. The light on her was blaringly bright and he could see her flexing her tired legs and almost looking bored. Draco could tell this was an act but he was relieved to see that she was alright.
The large servant put a heavy hand on his shoulder and forced him to sit in a chair. His yelped as he leaned hard on a bruise on his back and Hermione's head whipped around in his direction.
"Hey Hermione, I am alright...how are you doing?" She nodded and looked relived and Draco sensing her in no danger for the present moment started to study the room. He had never been here before to his knowledge. It must have been specially prepared by the look of things. Directly across from him was more chairs and a very large throne of horns that loomed out of the darkenss menacingly. There was also a tall wooden stake in the center of the room near Hermione. It was hard to see the ceiling with the blindingly bright light shining down on the center of the room. He turned to glare up at the servant and jumped when he heard a door opening and shutting loudly.
Lucious stepped into the ring with a swagger and a gleam in his eye. Draco felt like he would lose what little he still had in his stomach. Lucious looking happy was just about the worst omen out there for her. Deatheaters began filing in to the seats across from him and he was suprised to see that the throne was now occupied. The group wore no masks but Voldemort, and Draco was certain that it was him from the mere dread he felt from looking at him, wore his hood up and only the glint of his eyes was visible.
"Welcome! Welcome my Lord and fellow commrades." Here he bowed graciously like he was a ring leader. Draco would have snikkered at the display but he knew that Hermione was the main event. "We are here tonight to celebrate. On the part of our most elite Lord the plan he devised succeded and we now have in our custody about one forth of the Hogwarts Mudblood and Halfblood children." Here Hermione shook her head in denial and Draco gritted his teeth.
"We can irraticate them and use them to draw the enemy in to our clutches." Draco could hear the other side applauding and the Dark Lord laughing softly.
"Now you all have been informed of who this young lady is. They called her the Brightest Witch of our age. A clever mouse is still just vermin and see where the stupid Mudblood ended up."
"She is a good friend of Our Lords worst enemy and tonight gives me great pleasure to do my Lords biding."
He strode over to her, grabbed her bound wrists and dragged her up to stand. He was wearing long black leather gloves so that he would not have to touch her and his hair was tied back. She fought silently against his hold and he wore a devish grin.
"See how she scampers, nothing more then a little scared mouse." He backhanded her so hard against the face that she fell back onto the floor. She tried to move away and turned around on all fours to get away and her head hit hard against the wooden board that was set all around the room. Lucious followed her with slow steps. "Stupid vermin. I would kill you now but it is Our Lords wish that you suffer more. You should be grateful." He spat out in her face causing her to flinch. He stood back up and kicked her sharply in the side. Draco could see her silent scream but none of this felt real.
He screamed for her and stood up quickly, only to be shoved back down into his seat and punched hard. With enough force to make him dizzy. He struggled out of his seat, cried out her name and she stumbled up and tried to go towards the sound of his voice. Lucious placed a sharp kick to the back of one of her knees and she fell painfully.
"I apologise My Lord for this boy's behavior." He gestured carelessly at the servant and Draco soon found himself tied tight to the chair. Lucious walked over to a trembling Hermione and hauled her to her feet and pushed her straight into the stake in the center of the room.
"Now you flithy little Mudblood. Tell me about the Order of the Phoenix." Tears streamed down her face and all she could do was akwardly hold up her hands in his general direction and flipped him the bird. He responded by flicking his wand at her and invisible bonds tied her to the stake that she had been leaning against. She struggled silently against them as Lucious walked up to her and said softly. "You know you don't need fingers to answer the question." He grabbed her hand and took a small dagger out of his belt and Draco yelled.
"No stop it! Dont hurt her. Take it out on me! I have been Harry Potters best friend for a year now! Leave her alone and take it out on me!" For once Draco said his name without a hint of shame, jelousy or anger, he would say or do anything now to save her.
Lucious looked disgusted but also forgot about Hermione's finger as he turned to Voldemort and asked, "I think it would be fitting if he were down here also." Voldemort raised a hand and gestured for Lucious. He went over and there was a short discussion in which some of the Death Eaters leaned forward to hear better. His Father nodded his head and walked over to the other side where Draco sat with pitiful hope in his heart.
Using his wand he levitated Draco over beside him and congured up another stake right next hers and Draco found himself bound next to her. Hermiones head was jerking around at every little noise and Draco said quietly, "They put me beside you."
Hearing him speak but not his words Lucious went up to his son and punched him in the stomach making him retch in pain.
"Silence you imbicil."
Draco watched as his father preformed another spell on him before conguring up a table that was covered in various things. HIs eyes glanced over the table before he gulped silently and his eyes darted away. "You will get your wish Draco. You will be able to take her pain but..." He picked up a black whip and slashed her across the chest, tearing her shirt and Draco yelled out in suprised pain. "She gets to take it too." Draco could see wet spots on the eyes of her blind fold and it fell off when Lucious hit her across the face leaving a long bloody strip. Hermione was shaking in fear and pain. The whip was magically laced with an acid, so not only did the marks it left hurt but they countinued to sting sharply afterwards.
She blinked at the intrusion of bright light as he eyes grew accustomed she gazed around in fear. Voldemort was grinning evily at her and she yelled and fought her bonds. Lucious laughed and hit her until she was dizzy with pain. Draco was crying and his lip was bleeding from where he had bit it. Hermione was still shaking but when she looked up at him she was not so scared. His eyes held her like a magnet and come hell or high water she was going to keep looking at him. His dirty face, blood dripping from his chin down his shirt and flame blue eyes.
They were suffering yes but it was together. Hermione felt a strength within herself that she did not know was there. She had prayed to be able to give him strength and here he was giving it to her instead. The pain was still fresh but all noise died down to a dull roar. Lucious gestered to a servant and he handed him a small vial. He forced open her mouth and her attention broke from the blue fire as the bitter taste of Veritiserum was forced down her throat.
He asked again, "Tell us everything about the Order of Pheonix!" Lucious punctuated his demand with a hard slap and she spat out blood.
She told them everything, much to Draco's increasingly depraved sense of humor they tried to hear. Hermione told them what the order had found out about Horucruxes and how strong Harry had gotten, and how to even find and enter the base. She told them who was in the Order and also told them in very nasty terms where to stick their DeathEaters masks.
Lucious looked very confused and his eyes flicked slightly paniced towards his master. Then he laughed, startling everyone who had been intently listening to nothing, "The stupid prat is so scared that she has lost her voice. I humbly apologise Master." He kneeled on one knee and Draco tried to hold back a snikker.
Voldemort lifted up a scaley hand with long curving fingers and clenched it into a fist. Lucious laughed and then said, "You two are very lucky, you will live one more wretched day but tomorrow will be your last. Now on with the show." He went forward to Hermione and Draco gritted his teeth as he slid his small dagger along her exposed skin. "So very pretty for a Mudblood. Look at how vain she is to grow her hair." He grabbed a handful and pulled hard, yanking some from her scalp and then shook his hand disgusted. "How could anyone be so proud of such a vile mess. I will do you a favor, being bald will suit you better then having that rats nest. You will be little more then a skeleton tomorrow anyways when we burn you." Hermione's eyes shot up in fear. He grabbed her curly hair and began to hack large chucks off, cutting so close sometimes that she had thin cuts all over her scalp. She grunted in frustration and pain but no sound was heard.
"Oh how foolish of me!" Lucious grinned evilly as he ran the blade slowly down his own cheek, eyes learing at her in depravity. "I forgot to mention that we have decided to burn you at the stake. Actually the very one you are tied to now. The pain I hear is unbearable while it lasts, and to see the flames that close is terrifying, at least until your eyes melt out of your skull."
Hermione felt the small amount of food she had eaten rolling around in her stomach. She hoped if she did puke that it would be in his face.
Lucious turned to Draco and smiled a secretive smile. "How would you like to watch your darling whore burn to a crisp? You know..." He tapped the blade meditavelly against his chin. "We could even Impervious her so that she danced while on fire. The pain would be worse but it would be glorious to watch." Draco screamed an angry animalistic sound and fought to the point of bruising against his bonds.
Hermione was staring bleerily at the floor. At all those tiny grains of sand. Seeing the light and color but not really aknowlodging them. Lucious wandered over to Hermione again.
He cupped her face and she did not look at him. "The real fun though will be before we kill you. Greyback, if you will."
He moved to the side and conjured up a chair as one of the Deatheaters from the stands came down and took off his cloak. Hermione felt like a small deer in front of a tiger. Whoever this man was the strength and ruthlessness came off of him in waves and she could see Draco shaking in fear and struggling against his bonds with renewed vigor.
He had straggly black grey hair, a sharp scruffy face and from the way he moved, was all muscle. His face gave no emotion not at least until he was standing right in front of her. She shivered from the piercing stare he was giving her. Greyback reminded Hermione of someone but she could not put her finger on it and her heart had started to beat painfully in her chest.
Lucious laughed and said, "I don't think she knows you Fenrir. The know it all does not know you. That is really rather funny." He chuckled and nodded to someone in the audience who nodded back and then all eyes were on Hermione and Greyback.
He leaned in close and she flinched as he exhaled and took in one long breath of her scent close to her neck. Draco was almost going crazy. He knew that they would most likely die but for them to bring this man, this half man, into the ring was making him panic.
Fenrir laughed, and it almost sounded like a bark. "Such a young fresh girl. Barely a woman. How tragic." He moved too close to her and invaded her space with the sweet tang of blood that rolled off of his breath. "I will know you initmately and then I will tear your sweet bruised flesh apart. How delectable. We are lucky there is a full moon tomorrow night." He raised a hand and brought an unusually sharp nail down the hip of her dress leaving a long tear that revealed a pale thigh and dark purple bruises. Hermione screamed silently and fought against her bonds and Draco finally released his small breakfast into the sand in front of him. The Deatheaters were laughing almost hysterically and the Dark Lord was clapping.
Hermione was so scared and revulsed that she felt her teeth chatter painfully and when he turned again to her to run a claw down her chest where her dress was torn revealing her bra underneath her last concious thought was that she finally remembered who this man reminded her of and it was only the monster inside they shared. Remus Lupin was the man and she was certain that Greyback was a werewolf.
When he grabbed her head and lapped at her cheek was when her lucidity left her and she shamefully welcomed the darkness.
Lucious turned apologetically to the group. "We could wake her up but I feel that it would be best to leave her with her thoughts..." He grinned maliciously, and said. " And nightmares. Thank you all for coming and we shall see all of you tomorrow at sunset. Moon rise is at 8:32. Be prompt or you will miss out on the fun." He wandered over casually to his son grabbed the side of his head and began to slowly cut off chuncks of hair. "Am I not brilliant at this Draco? Do you think I should have been a hairdresser?" He slid the blade jaggedly down his forehead and cheek and he cried out in fear and pain.
"There now son, you too have a scar, just like your best friend Potter. Only after tomorrow night even Dobby will not be able to identify your sliced up corpse. And I make you the promise that you will be alive to feel every single cut." Draco jerked violently at his bonds, blood trickling down his face and dotting the sand.
"I hate you! I hate you you stinking coward. Give me a wand and I swear..." Draco screamed, enraged.
"You'll what? You don't have it in you to kill. I know you better then anyone. You are the coward, and you will die as that deems fitting." Lucious flicked his wand at Draco and healed his most angry wounds except the cut on his face and then gestured to Draco's favorite brute who then forced him to stumble from the room. Lucious sat back in his chair and laughed loudly into the empty room.
Draco was tossed uncerimoniously onto the hard straw bed and left there. Hermione was already tied up and he could not help thinking how small and fragile she looked. Crying out in frustration, he tossed onto his back, effectily cracking his back and bending a finger in the wrong direction. He was glad that she was still out. He dearly wished that she would sleep through the entire thing. Greyback had been the bogeyman since he was little. Killing was one thing. Draco had expected that but what they planned to do tomorrow was unspeakable. He fell asleep regretfully only to be awoken an hour or so later.
Hermione was awake and crying. The look in her eyes when they met his made him ache as he never had before.
He stumbled up and went to her side, the chain around his ankle digging into his flesh as he pulled to be closer to her. "Oh Hermione, I am so sorry. God! I wish I could...just...Oh if only we had our wands we could get out." He put his forehead on her shoulder and the tears dripped straight down onto the cold floor.
"This should not be happening." Hermione turned to give him a kiss on an unmangled patch of hair. He looked up at her with a light in his eyes. "I could chew through your bindings and you could free yourself." Pretty hope crept into her head as he twisted around her back to her hands. He went to bite when he smelt it. "Poison." He said blankly, for the years in Snapes classroom had taught him well.
Hermione began to struggle and he stood up to face her. "The bindings are soaked in poison...If I..." A look of frightening resolve came to his face and he went back down to her hands. She twisted so that he could not get to the cords and he angrily stood up again.
"Hermione, I dont care about me. I would happily die if I knew you had a chance of escaping. Please let me do this for you." She shook her head so hard that it whacked hard off of the pole she was tied to. Draco started to tear and started to plead. "Please!" He stared desprately into her eyes and she began to shake. "After all the bad I have done, let me do this, its a good way to go and at least you would have a chance. That alone would mean I could die happily, if I believed that you could get away. It would b-be the most worth while thing that I have ever done."She mouthed out the word no and shook her head again. He broke down and pressed his forehead against her cheek. Hermione turned and placed a dry lipped kiss to his forehead before he sliped to the ground and cried.
Draco looked up to her from the floor. He wanted so badly just to hold her. He just wanted to be comforted and give it back to her. He gazed sadly at her brusied body. Without thinking he leaned forward and began to place tiny kisses on the tops of her feet. He could feel her tense and then relax as he looked into her earth brown eyes for permission. A slight nod of her head and he bent down to her ankles.
She began to shiver from the contrast of cold air and warm skin. Hermione was not very experienced when it came to intimacy, she had never been with a man before but how he was making her feel right now was beyond what she could have imagined, and it did not feel sexual, it was beyond that. It was merely like he was loving every part of her from the tips of her toes, up her legs where he respectfully avoided her thighs, to her stomach, up and down her wrists, her shoulders, to her forehead. Never once hovering over her lips but placing one last kiss on the very tip of her nose.
Draco turned, his chain rattling and wandered over to the bed. "Goodbye Hermione." He whispered before lying down with his back to her.
Hermione awakes sharply from a nightmare with a small yelp. Greyback had just caught her. She shuddered as the room began to spin. This could not happen this way. She could feel it down to her very bones. She had to escape. Hermione looked over at Draco's restless form and smiled a very small smile and that was all it took.
The image formed concretly in her mind. The bindings on her wrists, each and every tiny fiber she forced her wandless magic to pull apart thinking the spell word in her head. Convincing herself in her semi lucid state that she was saying it aloud. Mouthing it, screaming it to the point where she could feel her throat begin to hurt from the effort.
Thoughts swirled through her mind like a sandstorm. Everything was worn and harsh. There was no more hiding here. She forced her mind to believe. All those years of training and she finally had a challenge and she would not back down. If this could work, which it would, there was no room left in her mind for doubt for doubt ment death, then she could save everyone, including Draco.
A sweat broke out over her entire body and a fever took her. Stomach clenching and head throbbing she laughed when she felt the first strand pull apart like wet paper. With this small victory she redoubled her efforts as the room turn a sharp turn and she began to dry heave. After this spell she countinued with the dim light of the almost full moon shifting the shadows around the room. With a final burst of energy her pupils went small and she threw her head back with a crack as she knocked herself uncouncious.
The bowl of oatmeal was shoved under the door and awoke Hermione and Draco. She groaned silently at the ache in her head and Draco stood to get their last meal. He set the bowl down on the bed and sat next to it. Hermione thought, "It must have been a dream. I did nothing special last night besides get delirious and bang my head." For some odd reason she felt oddly revitalised. Draco wandered over to her and asked, "Are you all right? You look a little worse for wear." That was when she raised her hand to her head. They both stared at it like it was the strangest thing they had ever seen and then Hermione laughed, she laughed so hard tears streamed down her face as Draco gazed at her in awe.
Only a few more chapters to go two at least four at most. Thank you for anyone who bothers to read this far. It means a great deal to me. Thank you. I hope to finish this before the next book comes out because I fear it will mess with my attemps. Have a great day.