"Granger, get in here. Now" Head Auror Black barked from her office and slammed the door shut behind her. Ron and Harry watched the blood visibly drain from their friend's face from the printer across the room and shot worried glances at each other.
Hermione stood in her kitten heels and shakily walked into her boss' office. She suspected she knew what she was being called in for but she'd really hoped she wouldn't go down for this.
"Boss." She greeted, false confidence in her posture as she closed the door behind her. The blinds were flicked shut with a quick flick of Black's wand.
"Sit."
Hermione sat.
"There's evidence missing for the Malfoy arrest." Hermione resisted to urge to swallow and pushed concern into her gaze.
"I'm sorry boss, I'll see if I can find it for the trial."
Black stared at her for a long moment.
"Isn't it awfully convinient that the damning evidence against Lucius Malfoy goes missing just before the court case, Granger?"
Hermione pursed her lips, "I suppose so."
"Do you help all your ex-lovers get away with fraud and embezzlement, Granger?" Black asked quietly. If Hermione hadn't already known what was coming, she likely wouldn't have heard the question.
"It's not a rite of passage, boss, no." Hermione kept her tone bored, emotionless. The best way forward was always equivocationg with Black, she hated lies but Hermione couldn't exactly tell her the truth, she was bound by the Olde Ways of magical vows.
"I think you'll need this," Black pushed a goblet towards her and Hermione resisted the urge to check it for truth serum. She knew it would only incriminate her further if she did, so she took the smallest sip she could muster under her boss' watchful gaze and put the goblet back onto the table.
When she started finding it difficult to focus her eyes within seconds, Hermione knew she was done for. She'd loose her magic if she admitted the truth, courtesy of Lucius Malfoy, but Black wasn't going to let her get away with anything other than that.
Hermione cleared her throat and threw a little prayer to Merlin.
"I'll lose my magic if I tell you anything." Black raised a brow and Hermione tried to keep her eyes steady on the woman's face. "It should be fine if you take a look, though."
She barely saw the quick movement of a wand being pointed at her face so when she cringed back, Black was already in her mind and felt the distortion as a result of her discomfort.
Hermione felt the small figure in the abyss of her mindscape.
I can't help you, I'm sorry.
Black cackled, "I wouldn't worry Granger, it'll be you suffering the brain bleed."
The following moment, she felt her conception of reality tear open and watched as memories flew up as her second automatic defense. Black was bombarded with the tauntings of her childhood bullies, the sheer terror caused by the horcrux hunt, the powerlessness when frozen by the basilisk, all in no particular order.
When the grisly auror eventually waded through the flow of constant pain and suffering until she'd seen and felt everything Hermione had, Black faced the last defence of Hermione's mind. The maze she'd adopted from a Muggle horror film. Black had passed into the middle in less than half the time it had taken the dark lord and was grabbing her hand around the bronze key that allowed her infinite access to Hermione's mind. Conscious and subconscious.
The correct memory finally surfaced and Hermione watched Black's facial expressions while she watched Hermione.
"Miss Granger." Lucius Malfoy spoke as he came up behind her. Sixteen year old Hermione whipped her head around and stumbled back when she recognised the owner of the sleazy voice. Lucius backed her into the stone alleyway behind her Muggle house into which she'd just apparated from platform 9 and 3/4.
Young Hermione seemed to realise her situation and finally fumbled for her wand. The elder Malfoy waited for her to untangle it from her right sleeve and press the tip up against his chest.
"Now, now, that's not the way to greet your benefactors." Lucius pushed forward against the wand and Hermione felt her elbow collide with the wall, he kept moving towards her. Finally, Hermione was forced to let her wand arm dangle by her side.
He leant further and pressed his forehead lightly against her own, she turned her head sideways.
"What do you mean by benefactors?" She whispered after a beat, voice shaking slightly. He nosed her cheek, then began peppering kissed along her cheekbone. Hermione let him.
"Why your parents of course." He licked the side of her face and Hermione's light trembling because full out shudders. "The dark lord sent me to hunt them down for him and I've decided to give you a choice, deliver them and I was bid or send them after away from the war."
Hermione closed her eyes and felt tears gather among her long lashes.
"What do you want me to do for you to send them away?" She asked resignedly.
"You'll owe me a life debt." Hermione only nodded.
"Swear it. On your magic."
"I, Hermione Granger, so swear that should Lucius Malfoy send my parents away from the wizarding war with Voldemort and guarantee their safety until I release him if his duty, I will owe Lord Malfoy a life debt. So I swear it, so mote it be." Magic flashed as the debt settled and Lucius leaned away from her.
"Good girl." He was gone without a backward glance.
Black kept her expression blank as she flicked to the next memory. A more recent one.
Hermione saw herself shuffle into the darkened cell, flinching noticeably as the metal grate locked behind her. She took a few hesitant steps forward, towards her visitée.
"Please sit, Miss Granger." Lucius Malfoy spoke across the visitors table. Hermione sat. The chair was bolted to the floor. Likely reinforced with magic.
"I would like you to remove any damning evidence that could be used to convict me of any charges, if you do this, consider your life debt paid." Hermione only nodded, expression carefully blank. She'd expected this request.
"It will be done, Lord Malfoy." She assured quietly.
Black moved on to the final relevant memory.
Hermione caught the archive door before it slammed behind her and gently pulled it shut. She cast a wordless lumos to light her way to the right isle of evidence crates.
Her heels clicked as she walked, she didn't bother silencing them, Hermione knew nobody was still here anyway because she'd checked the wards.
She summoned the step ladder and stepped up carefully to the correct box. She pulled it out and floated it to the desk in the centre of the maze of floor to ceiling shelves.
"Where are you?" She muttered as she softly took out every item from the box, wearing dragon hide gloves as a precaution for any cursed objects.
"Ah," she looked over the last item that was buried at the very bottom of the box and summoned her personal house elf. "Take this to Grimauld Place please, make sure Kreacher can't reach it."
The elf popped away with a small bow and Hermione quietly replaced all the artefacts into the crate, levitating it back to its place.
She stopped and stared at the stepladder, knowing it would draw attention if she didn't replace it but not being able to resist the possibility of the archivist finding out the theft before the court case. Hermione knew the debt was repaid, Malfoy hadn't been careful enough with his phrasing, and so she was certain she could keep her magic and subtly alert the authorities.
"Fuck it. Merlin let someone find this before the trial, please." She muttered, flicking her gaze upwards, then shook away the thought and slipped away into the shadows.
Hermione found herself back in the head auror's office as soon as the memory finished. Black stared at her with an unreadable look.
"Well Granger, I can honestly tell you that is not how I expected the conversation to go." Black conceded after a moment of silence. Hermione quirked the corners of her lips weakly in response.
"For what it's worth, I really am sorry boss."
"I know, Granger, that's what makes this worse."
Hermione closed her eyes for a brief moment, then opened them and tilted her chin up so she could meet obsidian head on.
"I don't want to make this difficult," she shrugged. "I understand you need to take disciplinary action, I'll take it, whatever it is; suspicion of duties without pay, requirement to repeat legal training, firing… whatever you deem fit."
Black hummed and traced her eyes over Hermione's slim frame. She licked her lips.
"Whatever I deem fit?" Her voice was husky and Hermione had to resist the urge to squirm.
"Yes boss."
Black stood, then rounded her desk in three long strides. She leant against the front of it, knees knocking with Hermione's. Hermione was forced to tilt her head to meet the older woman's eyes.
Black leant forward and placed her hands on the arms of the small wooden chair Hermione sat on, caging her in and forcing her to lean back. Hermione's eyes widened in shock when a knee pressed between her thighs and pushed them apart. Heat pooled in her stomach.
"Now pet, no need for titles when you're alone with me." Hermione swallowed and looked up from under her eyelashes.
"You've broken some key rules all aurors swear to follow within their first week of joining the force." Black's forehead hovered over Hermione's and she clenched her thighs, only succeeding in squeezing them around the head auror's legs. Hermione felt sick anticipation build and tried to shake it away but the smell of pine and cinnamon invaded her senses and she knew she was lost to all sensible thought.
"You should be punished for that, don't you agree?" Hermione gave her a single slow nod.
A heavily ringed hand came to tightly grip her jaw. "Speak, little witch. Use your words."
"Yes — " she trailed off.
"Bella."
"Yes Bella," Hermione's throat was dry, her voice raspy.
"Good girl." Hermione shuddered for an entirely different reason at the praise coming from Bella's mouth. A smirk spread across the red lips hovering above her own.