Song Suggestion: Heilung- "Anoana" The music video has a lot of symbolism that represents this story, especially with reconnecting to deep roots and old magic.
Muggleborn Boys: It will be explained later, but there were lots of questions, so I'll answer. Muggleborn boys will provide the same service as the girls, except to families who only have female heirs (the Greengrass sisters). It's a patriarchal society, and they don't get married anymore, so this is considered a last resort to continue the family. The infertility is magical (attached to the bloodlines), not biological, so the pureblood men are affected by the curse just as much as the women. The only difference is the boys are not put into the Trials. Instead, they are bought for a substantial sum, since there is less of a demand for them. The logistics of the curse will be discussed in a later chapter as well.
Edited by MyPrivateInsanity
Reclamation of Magic.
The summer before Theo's fourth year, Hermione walked out of Florean Fortescue's, licking a giant scoop of Butterbeer flavoured ice cream, perched precariously on a cone.
Theo walked beside her with his own cone, eating it happily. They found a bench, and Hermione sat, curling up her legs and enjoying the sunshine.
Hermione tried to keep her smile after finishing the ice cream, but the auror Titus hired to follow them around dampened the mood. They'd been everywhere they were pre-approved to go, and Hermione struggled to find things to do.
"I'm bored," she complained.
Theo frowned, but she knew he was too. The mid-summer heat lingered in the air, enticing them outside, but nothing inside or outside captured their attention.
Hermione got an idea that sent a thrill down her back–something she'd always wanted to do. She leaned in toward Theo.
"Let's go to Knockturn Alley."
Theo twisted his head hard.
"Are you insane?" he whispered back.
"You can't say you've never been curious. I know you've wanted to go ever since Titus said we couldn't."
Theo scrunched his eyebrows, and she knew she convinced him.
"Titus will never let us."
"Titus isn't here."
"Yeah, but his guard dog is."
Both of them looked up to see the auror standing nearby. The man tried to act casual, but everyone who passed understood the danger he posed. Taller than most men, he clasped a wand in his hand, and a giant scar slashed down his right cheek.
"I don't think it would be too hard to outsmart him," she said.
Theo gave one look back at the auror and then grinned at Hermione.
"What do you have in mind?"
"You can't be alone with me." Hermione walked to a secluded part of the bookstore, dealing with dry law text. Dust coated the books, showing the lack of interest from the public.
The auror frowned. Theo had gone to the loo a few minutes earlier, leaving just the two of them.
"Then head back the other way."
"No." Hermione gave a spoiled tilt of her chin. "I want to look at these books. It just so happens you can't be near me on your own without supervision."
"Listen, little girl, your master—"
"I'll scream."
He glowered and looked around, weighing his options.
"Very well," he said. "You have five minutes. Browse fast. After you're done, Titus wants me to escort both of you home."
That confused Hermione.
"But he told me he'd pick us up?"
"Plans changed. Five minutes."
The moment he disappeared around the corner Hermione headed the other way, slipping along the bookshelves, keeping her footsteps light. For a moment, the auror turned the wrong way, eyes scanning the stacks, and Hermione thought she'd get caught, but then he twisted back around. She took quick steps past him, holding her breath until she exited the bookstore. Theo waited for her outside with a goofy smile.
"Took you long enough."
"Next time you can escape an auror, and we'll see how long it takes. Quick, let's go before he figures it out."
After running for a minute, dodging old ladies holding shopping bags, Theo tugged her into an alcove. They laughed until their stomachs ached.
"I can't believe we just did that," Theo said. "Titus will kill us."
"Titus will never know."
"How will he not? Soon the auror will notice us missing."
"He won't tell Titus. He'd lose his job. Even if the auror finds us, he won't say a word. We'll make a deal with him."
Theo just stared at her with his head tilted.
"Maybe I was wrong before." He grinned. "This is awfully Slytherin of you, Hermione."
"I've learned from the best."
They took the west entrance to Knockturn Alley. Most people avoided Knockturn Alley in general, but if they did enter, they went the east way. No one entered the west side because the muggleborn camps were set up along the outskirts, and most wizards would rather avoid the area. Hermione would too, but it was the best way to enter without detection.
Theo looked around warily.
"I don't feel so good about this."
"Didn't the hat consider you for Gryffindor? I thought you'd be braver than this."
Theo scowled.
"This is stupid, not brave."
The clean streets of Diagon Alley vanished as they travelled. Trash littered the path, and flickering graffiti desecrated the old stone walls. Voices lowered to hushed whispers, and the wizards they passed gave them longer, more predatory looks. Hermione glanced around. Maybe Theo was right, but she was too far in to back out now.
"I just want to see it, and then we can leave."
Theo gave a huff of exasperation.
"Fine, but let's not stay long."
They crept along the road until it twisted. There was no flashing sign, no clear demarcation, but they both knew they crossed into Knockturn Alley. They hesitated until someone screamed in one of the run-down buildings, and then Hermione quickened her pace.
They followed the twisting alley until it opened into a clearing where a building once stood. Jagged pieces of stone piled on the ground. Shanties made of salvaged building wreckage and ragged pieces of cloth were pieced together near the back of the clearing.
Hermione paused, mouth open. She'd never seen anything like it. The hard-looking men and women stood around in torn clothing, dirty and smelling bad even from where she stood. Most looked older, wrinkles encrusted with dirt. They either sat around or hovered over smoking pots of stew. Dead animals were strung up on a long line, including a few rats.
There weren't any children to be seen. How could people live like this?
Hermione's stomach twisted. These were the older muggleborns. No wonder purebloods called her mudblood, if these were the pitiful creatures she came from.
Theo noticed her subdued mood. "Are you alright?"
He noticed what she stared at.
"Oh," he whispered. "I told you this was a bad idea. Let's go. You don't need to see this."
They turned, but something blocked their path. Out of the shadows stepped three men. The first was dressed in filthy rags, with a lecherous smile on his face, missing two teeth and patches of hair. The second had on leather clothing with blazing red hair, freckles, and tattoos down his arms. He didn't leer like the other, but Hermione stepped back from his sheer size.
The third was the auror they ran from. He frowned at them, the scar contorting on his face.
"Is this them?" The redhead asked.
"Yes," the auror said, face still in a grimace. "The girl is clever. I thought I'd never find an opening to act. And when they escaped, I thought they suspected me. Turns out they just made it easier."
"Suspected you of what?" Theo tensed and grabbed Hermione, shoving her behind him. He pulled out his wand, but he was clearly no match for three grown wizards.
"I'm sorry," Hermione said. "It was my fault. When we return to Titus, I'll tell him it was my idea. He knows I—"
Hermione understood she got everything dreadfully wrong. These men weren't planning to bring her back to Titus at all. A horrible realisation infected her.
"You're The Order," she accused the auror. "Titus never told you to escort us home. You were going to kidnap me."
"She's a smart one, alright." The one in rags mocked, displaying his rotting teeth.
"Stop scaring them." The redhead turned his attention to Hermione. "We're here to rescue you."
"Rescue me?" Hermione couldn't comprehend what he meant. "What do I need rescuing from? Please, just leave us alone, and I promise we'll forget all about it. I'm giving you a chance to escape, because if you take me, Titus will hunt you down and slaughter you all."
The man in dirty rags burst into laughter, and the redhead looked very defeated and sad.
"You see now why they take them young?" The auror looked a little sad too. "They don't even know they're in a cage. They'll put the collar on themselves, believing their families love them, until it's too late."
"They do love me!" Hermione clutched Theo's arm tighter. She now wished she had listened to Titus when he warned her of this situation. She always thought him overprotective, but if she ever got back, she'd never disobey him again.
"You might think that now," the redhead said. "But to them you're like cattle. You serve a purpose, but they'll discard you when you're no longer of use." He motioned to the muggleborn camps behind her. "You can't love a person you treat like a dog."
"Shut up," Theo roared. His glasses fell down his nose, but he didn't dare push them back up. "You're a liar. "
The auror pointed his wand at Theo.
"Now son, we don't want to harm you. Hurting children is against our code. The best thing to do is to step aside and let the girl come with us. I'm afraid we'll have to obliviate you as well. Like the girl said, we can't risk Nott hunting us down, so we'll only erase our faces. We'll even return you to Diagon Alley, safe and sound for your brother to find."
"No," Theo said. "If you want her, you'll have to kill me first."
The auror sighed.
"Expelliarmus!" Theo cried, but it was easily swatted aside.
"Decent aim for your age, but ineffective. Sorry kid."
A blue light exited his wand, and Theo slammed into a side wall, his head giving a small crack with the impact and crumpling forward unconscious. His wand flew in the air and clattered at Hermione's feet.
"Theo!"
Her brother groaned but didn't get up.
She made a noise of terror, both for Theo and for herself, but she had no time to worry because the auror walked carefully toward her with both hands up.
"Now, now, I know you're scared. You don't need to be. We aren't here to hurt you. Your friend will be perfectly fine, and you'll be safely out of here in no time."
He thought she'd bolt, but the anger crashed and roared in her chest, and she reached down and grabbed Theo's wand. When her hand connected to the wood, her whole body froze and then relaxed. The magic attached like a friend.
Ah, her body cried. At last.
She held it toward the redhead in a natural pose. After watching Titus cast spells for years, she'd been careful to copy the movements.
The auror paused, but then he gave a grin.
"Your father would be proud," he said, and Hermione tensed with the word. What did he know of her father? "You're a fighter and smart too. But we both know you have no idea what to do with that. They've never given you a real wand, and they never will. If you come with us, we'll get you one and train you to use it. I promise."
The words both taunted and enticed her. The thought of a wand in her hand—her own wand—would have made her reconsider, if the cost of leaving was less. But it wasn't worth the price of never seeing her family again.
"I know how to use it," Hermione bluffed. "I've killed before too."
"Yes," the auror nodded. "Fenrir. It's why they want you so badly. It's a horrid curse to them that they can only reproduce with muggleborns, but it makes it more acceptable if the girl snapped a werewolf's neck at the age of seven. Imagine the power you could give their children. All the old families want you. I overhear the discussions daily as the pureblood patriarchs try to entice Titus into allowing their tokens. I'll admit he's been a hard sell, because only the best connections will make the cut. They treat it like the old marriages, selling off young girls to form political alliances. You won't be exempt from this."
"You're lying."
Titus promised she had a choice. She had an important position in society, and her family loved her. This man made it seem like they only looked at her like an object to be gifted or sold.
"Am I?" The auror frowned. "You know I'm right… you just wish I wasn't. Nott will send you off to the Trials as soon as you're of age. He'll get a hefty sum from your new handlers for the right to force you into their bed, whether you want to or not. It's nothing but human trafficking and sexual slavery. You'll spend your life getting fucked—"
"Garner," the redhead warned. "She's a kid."
"She's old enough to understand the consequences of staying."
"Enough talking. We can explain everything when we get back to the base. She's not going to come quietly. She's too brainwashed. Just stun her and let's go."
The auror sighed, as if his years weighed on him.
"It doesn't have to be this way." He pointed his wand at her.
She responded instinctively, her body and brain going with the rote motions she practised repeatedly under the covers, words whispered in the dark.
"Petrificus Totalus."
The magic zipped through her, and the spell hit the surprised wizard. He snapped up, froze, and like a giant, old tree, crashed into the stone below.
"Bloody hell," the redhead said. He glanced at Hermione in shock.
The filthy wizard just laughed harder like a deranged lunatic.
The redhead drew his wand and pointed it at Hermione just as a giant light hit the sky and widened into an announcement, showing a big picture of her face with the words MISSING above it. A loud siren erupted around them, and a voice boomed telling everyone to stay where they were, and that armed aurors would be in the streets.
Titus knew they were missing, and he was searching! She wondered how long it would take for him to locate her. By the redhead's expression, he wondered the same thing.
"Fuck," the red-headed wizard cursed. He continued to point his wand at Hermione, but she just glared and pointed Theo's right back.
"I'm not someone to mess with. If you want me, I won't make it easy. I'll kill again if I have to."
It helped that they had no idea what she was capable of.
"I see that." The wizard hesitated, gave a nod of respect, and started to leave. "One day I hope you change your mind. I have a feeling we'll meet again."
"Wait," the filthy wizard said. "We're not just going to leave them both, are we?"
The redhead hesitated, glancing down at his partner. He almost leaned down, but then he grimaced and straightened, as if he resisted all instinct. He looked haunted.
"The mission is more important than our lives. Garner knew this and agreed to the code before taking the job. I'd expect him to leave me if the roles were reversed. They've already disabled apparition. We can't carry out an unconscious wizard without risking suspicion. Even if I reverse the spell, he'll be knocked out cold from that fall, and there's no time to subdue the girl without hurting her. We'll get her a different time."
"But the money—"
"Fuck the money. Titus is on a warpath now, and he's not a wizard I'd like to duel. You haven't seen him in action, but I have. He'd rip your guts out and make you wear them as jewellery. Come on."
The redhead turned around and vanished into the darkness behind him, but the filthy wizard stayed.
"They promised me a nice, fat bag of galleons if I brought you in, and I'm not going to let a little girl stop me." He pulled out his gnarled wand. "Now put down the wand, or else I will hurt you."
Terror tangled her veins, understanding the sharp danger in front of her. The other wizards possessed an honour code, but this one didn't.
"Incarcerous," she yelled, but now that surprise was gone, the wizard deflected it with ease, his ugly leer punctuated by missing teeth.
"Is that all, precious?"
He threw a nonverbal dark red curse. Hermione managed a weak Protego, but it took a lot of energy out of her. If that curse had hit her, she'd be in a lot of pain.
Hermione breathed hard, shivering, knowing she was strong enough to beat him, but lacked the knowledge and practice to protect herself. The wand liked her, but it resisted her a little, since its allegiance belonged to Theo.
"Come on, mudblood. Drop the wand before you really get hurt."
She pointed her wand at the terrible man, wanting to harm him. The magic built.
"Reducto!"
The wizard attempted to shield it, but it glanced off and hit his finger, exploding the tip off. Flesh and blood splattered everywhere. The wizard cried out with a howl and cradled his hand to his chest, giving a violent look to Hermione.
"Little bitch, you'll fucking regret that." He sent an Expelliarmus, and Hermione couldn't stop it. The wand flew out of her hand, landing near Theo, too far for her to reach.
Like a lightning flash, another red spell hurtled toward her. She jumped out of the way, but it sliced her side. A deep red bloomed against her white robes. She gave a low scream in pain, grabbing her wound, attempting to stop the blood. It felt like it hit something important inside her stomach.
"Oh, did that hurt?" he mocked. "Time to go, precious. Before I give you to the Order, we're going to take a little detour. I'm planning to take the same thing you took from me, but slower. Maybe we'll have other kinds of fun too. The girls your age always scream the best. Don't worry, I'll patch you up before leaving you. Good as new." His eyes flicked up and down her body in a way she didn't understand, but it made her feel like bugs marched along her skin.
He walked forward as if to grab her, and Hermione once again reacted instinctively, remembering all the times she practised controlling magic with only her will and a stick. Every last ounce of energy in her body pooled into her hand. There was no set spell, no ancient words, no flick of a wand. She held out her hand like the pagans of old, ordering her magic with sheer will.
She twisted her hand, and the man's whole body locked up.
"What the fuck are you doing?"
Another flick of her wrist, and his own bloodied hand put the tip of his wand to his temple. His hand trembled and so did hers with the effort. Sweat rolled down her neck.
"Confundo," she ordered. She attempted to send her own magic through his wand as a conduit like she had read, but the old magic she attempted was too advanced and too much for her body. She held it only for a moment more, and then the magic dissipated.
The man looked at her fearfully now, trembling as he pointed his wand at her. He could kill her or hurt her, and she had no more energy to stop it. Hermione closed her eyes and grit her teeth, attempting to be brave for what was to come.
"Avada Kedavra!" A green light struck the filthy man, and he collapsed. The wand rolled out of his hand, and his eyes stared at her unseeing.
Hermione fell to her knees, stunned at the sudden turn of events. Blood leaked through her clothes and dripped down her skin—too much to be safe–and the wound burned. Whatever the man cast was serious. Black spots obstructed her vision, but she was conscious enough to see Lucius Malfoy walk out of the shadows with Draco beside him, looking pale.
"She's hurt!"
"She'll live. Of that, I'll make sure." Lucius sent a healing spell to her. It helped stitch the wound, but she'd still need to see a healer soon.
The blond man glanced at the unconscious auror on the ground and at the filthy wizard's severed finger. He raised an eyebrow, giving an odd, delighted smile.
"For someone that's never held a wand, you put on an impressive show. Either you're a natural, or you've been a naughty girl. I suspect it's both, for you to be able to do complicated wandless magic at fourteen years old." He shook his head, but he looked pleased, and Hermione didn't know why. "I knew you'd be powerful when you aged, but you've already exceeded my expectations."
She wondered how long he had stayed in the shadows before intervening.
The darkness took over, and she sank lower into the stone. Her eyes fluttered open just enough to see Lucius bend down and pick her up, cradling her to his chest. It oddly comforted her, despite him being her father's killer and a prominent figure in her nightmares.
"You smell like Draco," she said in her delirium, remembering the clean, sharp scent on Hopper. The older Malfoy frowned and gave a furious glance to his son.
"I'm going to pretend she never said that, and you better hope Titus never heard her say something similar. You're old enough now that he won't think it's innocent."
Draco looked so adorably confused it would have made Hermione smile if she wasn't in so much pain.
Lucius renewed the spell on the auror, and both he and an unconscious Theo jolted into the air. The senior Malfoy began to walk down the dark alley, the bodies drifting after him.
"Pay close attention, son," he said. "I'm about to show you an important life lesson."
"What's that?"
"How to capitalise on chaos."
Hermione knew no more.
