Chapter 4
The coin in Hermione's pocket burned. She grabs it and blushes at the message. "Want to use the whip tonight?"
She rubbed it and replied. "Thirty minutes."
Hermione strips her clothes and turns to face herself in the bathroom mirror.
Her cheeks are stained with dirt and her eyes are sunken and ghostly. Her eyes drift down to her collar bones prodding out. She traces her rib cage with her eyes, counting every rib. Her eyes slip further down onto her pelvis. She's practically a skeleton.
She runs her fingers along her skin feeling the ups and downs of her bones as her eyes survey her body.
The Order was rationing food. Harry's inheritance had only lasted so long, they were running out of funding. They could very well starve to death before The Dark Lord could kill them.
Hermione had stopped eating as much, she always used the excuse of not being hungry. The others needed the food more than she did. After all, they were the ones sacrificing their lives in battle, they deserved the extra food.
She enters her shower and stands under the stream of hot water, watching as the dirt and blood wash down the drain. She cleanses her body of the work she's done today in the hospital and from foraging potion ingredients.
After her shower, she apparates to the shack. She hadn't gotten to check out the inside of the shack during their last meeting. It was bare, not much to study. There was a slightly dirty and broken couch, along with a table and a few chairs to accompany it.
Malfoy apparates in with a crack. He practically lands on her, sending the two toppling to the floor. His body lay on hers, pressing his surprisingly warm body against her.
His deep grey eyes glare into hers as he invades her mind. Everything happened so fast. His body on hers, his sudden presence in her head. It startled her and her walls fell. She was so distracted by his warmth and pressure against her she couldn't focus on him shredding through her consciousness.
He watches her recent memories. He watches as she studies herself in the mirror, grazing her bones with her fingertips. He could feel how disgusted she felt with herself, how mad she was that she let herself get this way.
He shifts to watching the blood and dirt twirl down the drain. He watches it over and over again, analyzing the contents in the water. He abruptly retreats out of her mind.
His eyes stare at her with a concerned look. "Why were you bleeding?" He asks calmly.
"Work." She replies.
His head quirks in consideration. "But you don't fight?"
Hermione studies him, fully aware he was still on top of her. His face is elegant and chiseled. Genetically, he was beautifully made but as a person, he was hideous.
She wishes she could have seen what he would've been like if not for the war and dark magic. A version of Malfoy that wasn't tainted by the evil that surrounds him. What he would have been like if he hadn't killed the people he has. Malfoy had always been smart and witty. In school he had top scores in almost every class, he was brilliant and strategic. He could have been great, but he chose the wrong things. Had he realized now, after all of these years, that he'd chosen the wrong side?
"Why, Malfoy?" Hermione asks calmly, almost a whisper.
He pulls himself off of her and sits on the floor. His eyes never leave her.
Hermione sits up and crosses her legs.
"Why what?" He says. His brows are furrowed and his stormy eyes study her.
She opens her mouth to respond but pauses to consider what she's going to ask. Her eyes meet his. "Why join now? What's your motive? Climbing ranks? Revenge on someone?"
He sits in silence for several moments, taking in what she's asked.
There was a flash of something in his eyes, though she couldn't decipher exactly what. Malfoy shifts his body. "Not now, Granger." He says in a cold, harsh voice. Almost a growl.
"I just want to make sure you're intentions are pure, Malfoy."
"Trust me Granger, they're pure." His hardened stare deepens.
"Trust you? Why should I trust you? After everything you've said to me in school? I don't think so," Hermione sneers.
She watches as his head drops.
Malfoy's information had given them two successful raids without any casualties and nearly no injuries. He had been extremely helpful, and everything he gave them had been proven to be legit.
"Granger, I know I've said some... distasteful things before. But you don't understand the circumstances of my situation."
"What is there to understand? You kill people. You joined a pure blood elitist group who serves the most evil wizard known to man. You killed someone at the age of sixteen. You spent your youth tormenting the lives of muggle born's. You said you'd wished the basilisk would kill me when the chamber was opened our second year," her heart begins beating faster. She's provoking him, trying to get him upset.
He moves towards her. His face painted with a scowl.
"Granger. You don't get to speak on my situation. Have you ever thought maybe I didn't get a choice? That maybe I never got the option to choose what my life consisted of?" His voice was dangerous.
Truthfully, she'd never considered that as a possibility. She always assumed he did what he did willingly. The thought that he was forced never even crossed her mind.
"You have no idea what I have given up to survive, or what my training was like. You have no idea," he growls.
"You told me that if I ever get captured they would crucio me while inside my mind. Did that happen to you?" Hermione's voice was small. She met his eyes.
He hesitates before answering. "Yes. Aunt Bella trained me, she's mental. She went to extreme lengths to teach me. I never saw a single emotion cross her face while she hurt me," he looked away from her.
"What did she do?"
"I think that's enough for tonight, Granger. Just know that I am sacrificing my life for you and The Order. That alone should prove I'm trustworthy," Malfoy replies.
He stands and hands her a scroll. Before he turns away she grabs his wrist. She feels his body tense at her touch.
"Thank you. You helped The Order a lot with the information you gave us."
He turns around and pulls his arm out of her grasp. "Don't."
"Fine. I won't. Just wanted to say thanks for saving my friends, Hermione replied.
"I'm not doing it for them."
"I know you're not," she said, rolling her eyes. "We won't be able to meet next week. I have a mission trip with Harry and Ron. I'll contact you when I'm back."
"What? Granger, going out and about is not a good idea. Have you forgotten that people want you dead?" His tone is serious.
"Of course I haven't forgotten that. But this mission is important and useless without me. What we are looking for is critical to winning this war."
"What is it? Maybe I could help or have knowledge on it," he asks.
"No, Malfoy. Only us three know about it. I would have to obliviate you. If anyone found out what we were looking for we would be done for."
Malfoy's expression hardened into ice. Hermione had never seen him look so threatening. "Granger. I swear to Merlin. If something happens to you, and you die. I will single-handedly kill the entirety of the fucking Order and the resistance. I own you. You belong to me. You are not allowed to get yourself killed for the sake of The Order," he says before apparating away.
His coldness sent shivers down her spine.
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"Hermione, have you ever seen this symbol before?" Harry asks while handing her a ripped piece of parchment.
It was a triangle with a circle in the middle and a vertical line through it.
"No. Why?" She asks.
"Well I saw Xenophilius Lovegood wearing it around his neck, and it was in the book Dumbledore left to you," he says.
Ron's big blue eyes flashed to the pair. "Maybe it's time we visit Xenophilius and ask what it is."
Once the trio apparates to the Lovegood property they are greeted by a tall and lanky man. His long blond hair blew with the wind.
"Hello Harry and friends. Could I interest you in tea?" He asks.
They follow him inside the house. They had been expecting to see Luna but she wasn't anywhere in sight, which was unusual because Luna was very fond of making conversation.
They asked the man about the symbol and what it meant. He explained the story of the Peverell brothers and how they cheated death, and what they got in return. He told them how the brothers used their gifts and were soon later greeted by death.
Xenophilius acted strange. He was fidgety with his hands. He'd even started to make tea but forgot the water.
"Mr. Lovegood, where is Luna?" Harry asks finally.
Lovegood's eyes dart up to the three. He approaches Harry and grasps his shoulders. "They took her, my Luna girl. They took her from me. You have to get her back. I need my Luna back," the man says while shaking Harry.
"Who took Luna?" Asks Ron.
"Voldemort."
They immediately look at each other. With curses mumbled under their breaths, they apparate to a forest.
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Hermione hears the loud cracks of apparition behind them.
Hermione shoots a stinging jinx at Harry while running.
"Ouch! The fuck Mione?" Harry yells.
"You'll thank me later!"
They were cornered. They had no where to run. "Well aren't you a pretty girl? What's your name sweetheart?" A dirty man asks while running his dirt stained fingers across her face.
"Hannah Abbot." She lied.
"Change of plans. We're taking them to Malfoy Manor to be identified." He says.
Hermiones stomach drops.