Danger/Mastered

Downfall

The next day he asked her to meet him at the room of requirement, and she'd just turned the corner, had only a second to process the wand pointed at her before blackness came over.

---

There was no way to tell for sure but she knew hours had passed when she was rennervated.

A nauseating, dull pulse resided in her temples and at the back of her skull. It was all too familiar in its siege.

She turned to him, betrayal that she was not sure she had earned evident in her tone.

"You've assaulted me."

An assault on her mind felt more personal than any other type. She'd been beaten and people had put their hands on her without permission.

But this. The invasion of her most precious possession had been something she'd coveted.

"You left me with no other choice." His tone did not leave room for an argument.

"No choice?" she whispered, voice heavy with disdain. "I think the time spent in my memories would truly show you what no choice is."

He was standing by the bed she'd woken up on, turned away from her. His hands shook with anger but she could see the betrayal underneath too, and she was not sure when she'd gained the ability to do that. To take trust from Tom Riddle and tear it up like parchment.

"I watched you whore your way through a war for which you were most unprepared for. Watched you take in magic that you are unworthy of, that does not deserve to flow through your meek veins."

She stood then, stormed over to him, wand drawn and pointed at his chest.

"Is that why you attacked me while I was unarmed? Because I am not worthy of the magic that makes me more formidable than you?"

He raised his hand and threw it across her face. She let her head hang there for a moment, turned sideways, hair covering where there was surely a bruise forming on her cheek. Her chest heaved and she fought back awful, surprising tears.

"You mean to belittle me?" She turned towards him, eyes wide and disbelieving. Her jaw ached. Her tone was sad. She could not hold it back.

"You've played me for a fool this whole time." But she saw the flicker of remorse. Couldn't help but wonder what it meant. What, in the scale of awful things he'd just seen, that he'd want to take back.

"You say that, yet I have done nothing to stop this path already carved out in front of you." She gestured at the ring on his finger. "I could have easily knocked you unconscious and destroyed that. I could have gone to Dumbledore and confirmed his suspicions about the heir of Slytherin. But I have done nothing to stop the awful future you've spent so much energy planning."

"No, you simply opened your legs for that which you deemed untouchable." His tone was icy and it slid up her spine unpleasantly.

Her jaw dropped. Felt her mouth water uncomfortably as emotions flew from behind her Occlumency walls, forced down against her will. Not yet built up after the assault.

"I spent weeks away from you before you found me in that classroom. You kept returning, seeking me out at the library and staring at me across the Great Hall. You kissed me. I did not ask for any of that, and had you read my memories and thoughts as expertly as you claim then you'd know that."

He did not reply but it did not matter, because Hermione was turning and leaving. Fleeing had never been a choice before and she basked in the option. Walked out of the door and wished he would call her back.