Disclaimer: You all know the spiel I own nothing blah blah blah
A/N: Hey guys! So I kind of struggled with this chapter I kept deleting it and starting over. I'm feeling pretty good about this one now but let me know what you think!
Hermione turned to face Lord Voldemort and her anger ebbed away into fear. His wand was pointed directly at her and before she could react she was bound in rope. He silently levitated her to a chair forcing her to sit. She found herself unable to speak when she tried to protest and nothing came out.
Voldemort conjured a chair for himself directly in front of her but did not sit.
"You will earn the right to speak when I have decided you have earned it." With that he withdrew a dagger from his robes and approached Hermione. Her eyes grew wide with fear as he turned over her forearm and made a small slice in the creamy flesh. A line of ruby red blood dripped down her arm which was caught in a vial produced by Voldemort.
"If you are so convinced that you are not my child then we shall know for sure momentarily. You had better wish that you are because if you are not you will find me much less hospitable."
He then turned the knife to himself drawing his own blood and depositing it inside of the vial. He corked the vial and the slightly shook it.
"Now, if this turns blue you are indeed my heir, and you will start to act as such, if it turns red, well for your sake you should hope that it is blue."
Hermione's eyes were glued to the vial, not sure what she should hope for. On one hand if it turned red she would most likely be killed. On the other she would lose her identity, she would be something that everyone she loved would hate. Wasn't that worse than death?
She found herself holding her breath as she stared at the tiny glass vial that would decide her fate. It had turned cloudy inside and the smoke was swirling around undecided until gradually it turned a deep blue.
Hermione's heart dropped, everything that she had been trying to deny since she got here was true. She felt as if her heart had shattered into a million pieces. Everything she knew or thought she knew was a lie. A single tear rolled down her cheek as she tried to process this information.
Voldemort had sat down on the chair he had conjured and looked at her pensively for a moment.
"Now that that has been settled there are a few things we need to discuss. First you will begin to train to join my Death Eaters, Bella will be teaching you our ways. You will train three days a week beginning tomorrow. Second you will be also be trained in the ways of pureblood society by Narcissa on every other day. Third you shall not tell anyone outside of these walls who you are. You shall return to Hogwarts in the fall but I will have eyes and ears on you at all times, I will know if you reveal anything. We cannot risk the Order knowing who you are for they will treat you much worse than I."
He paused to let this sink in. Hermione was sagged in her chair a feeling of defeat over coming her. He was right. If the Order knew of her lineage she would be looked away or worse. She wanted to believe otherwise but Dumbledore was nothing if not a General and Hermione knew in her heart that if she were in that position that she would do the same.
"You will be required from now on to join us for meals; dinner is at 6 sharp you will find the appropriate attire in your closet. You will also be allowed to roam the manor as you wish but be warned should you try to escape the wards will quite literally throw you back into the manor. Any questions?"
With a wave of his hand he returned her voice to her. Hermione however did not have the strength to speak, so she merely shook her head no. She followed him with her eyes as he left the room and she felt the ropes disappear. Hermione pulled her knees up to her chest and tried to control her breathing as the tears began to flow freely.
She cried silently for what felt like hours, there was no more denying it she was Voldemort's daughter. How was she supposed to overcome this? She couldn't just ignore everything she knew and believed in to become what was now expected from her. Whether muggleborn or no; she still did not believe the radical ideals that her so called father did.
Her mind flitted back to something that Bellatrix had said earlier. "And this supposed light side is so much better is it? You want to know what happened to her, to your mother? She was killed by Sirius Black and you were snatched up by your best friend's father."
Sirius Black and James Potter were men that she had always thought of as good. Could it be true that they would kill a woman in front of her own child? Did that not put them on the same level as the Death Eaters? No there must have been something more to the story. She couldn't think of a reason right now but she was sure that it had to have been necessary for some greater purpose.
But now it was time for the tears to end, now was the time to be strong. She had to get through this. She would play Voldemort's game; she would let him think that he was slowly turning her. Maybe she could turn this to her advantage, to defeat her enemy she needed to know her enemy. She would be have to be very careful, if it appeared that she was turning too quickly it may look suspicious.
A knock interrupted her thoughts as it seemed to always do. A small elf walked over and in a tiny voice said, "Master has told Nitty to remind young miss that she has an hour till dinner."
"Thank you Nitty." She smiled at the small elf who was suddenly looking rather bashful and quickly left the room. She must not be used to be thanked. She thought to herself. Well that will just have to be changed.
If he wanted her at dinner fine she would come to dinner, but it would be on her own terms. She walked over to her wardrobe and opened up the doors frowning at the selection. There were many evening gowns and various items that Hermione had a sneaking suspicion were very pricey designer clothing.
She decided that she would just go with the Jeans and t-shirt that she came here in which had thankfully been washed and returned to her. She got dressed and looked at herself in the vanity mirror. Unfortunately her hair looked like a rats nest and without magic there wasn't too much she could do to tame it.
She found a brush and at least got out all the tangles but that only caused more frizz. She sighed knowing that it was as good as it was going to get. She checked the clock and saw that she still had half an hour till she had to be at dinner but then she realized that she had no idea how to get to the dining room.
She wasn't sure how to summon a house elf so she just called her name and hoped it worked. Sure enough seconds later Nitty the house elf popped into the room.
"Young miss called Nitty?" The elf's eyes were glued to her feet as she spoke.
"Um… yes actually, I was wondering, exactly how do I get to the dining room?"
Hermione arrived precisely one minute before 6. She wasn't sure what to expect when she opened the doors but what she found definitely was not it. When she entered the room 6 pairs of eyes turned to her. She cast her eyes down and sat at the closest available seat which happened to be right next to Draco Malfoy.
She knew that she was at Malfoy Manor but had yet to see the ferret, then again this really was her first outing since the day she had arrived. Curiously enough rather than sneer at her as was his norm, he instead averted his gaze and seemingly was trying to blatantly ignore her. She really didn't mind however, it was miles ahead of the endless torment he inflicted in the past.
She looked around at the faces around the table and found she knew them all. There was Voldemort of course; but there was also Lucius, Narcissa, and Bellatrix and directly across from her a man who she assumed was her husband Rudolphous. As her gaze passed him she noticed that his eyes seemed to be bulging slightly. It made Hermione feel rather uncomfortable.
"My Lord, she…."
"I am aware Rudolphous." Voldemort waived him off and Hermione watched them share a glance that seemed to say they would discuss it later.
Dinner went by slowly, she listened to Lucius and Bellatrix discuss random topics of news from the Daily Prophet. She wasn't really paying attention; she kept her eyes on her plate, pushing around her potatoes without interest as she still didn't have much of an appetite.
"You really should eat something you know."
Hermione looked up from her plate and saw that Rudolphous had leaned across the table to speak to her. She was surprised to see that he was looking at her with kindness. Something she hadn't seen since she was taken from her home. It took her aback and she quickly averted her gaze from his before mumbling something about not being hungry.
"You will need your strength little one; my wife is not a kind teacher." He leaned back into his seat as he said this and it seemed that no one had noticed their brief exchange.
Hermione, realizing he was right began to slowly eat her food. She would need her strength if she was to start training tomorrow.
Dinner slowly wound to an end and no one had spoken to Hermione since Rudolphous. Hermione stood to leave when a voice stopped her midstride.
"Although Breakfast and lunch are informal, tomorrow night I do expect you to be properly dressed daughter. Do not disobey me again or you will be punished."
Without turning around, Hermione nodded and pushed through the door. As soon as she was on the other side and out of sight, she closed her eyes and leaned up against the cold stone wall. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, in fact she felt rather smug that her small rebellion had gotten a reaction.
Smiling to herself Hermione made her way back to her rooms. Tomorrow was going to be a very long day.