The Hunter And The Haunted

Part 12

"Well, Granger, I hope your two-day-long nap has left you well rested. It seems that I have some use for you even though you've burnt down our land with your little trick. Oh, and you killed Millicent and three more of my people, which I didn't expect from you at all. But it seems that the Hogwarts lot is as ruined and immoral as we are. Or even more so." He sneers.

Her blood boiled. How dare he? When it was Bellatrix's fault that the world was at war again.

"I will never help a ferret like you, Malfoy," She hissed, scrambling back and hitting her head against the wide expanse of the headboard.

Theodore sniggered and Lisa bit back a laugh. Draco's icy glare could cut glass, but he didn't retort. No. He wouldn't give her that satisfaction of getting a rise out of him.

But Hermione saw that flash of anger in his eyes. She felt triumphant and he hated her victorious grin.

His lip curled into a malicious smirk. "You rather protect the bastards who left you looking no better than a rabid banshee?"

Her teeth click shut and she looks away, her heart thumping in her chest. She could feel the pain all over again.

"Not there was much to begin with. You've always looked like a troll. Ugly, hideous. Especially your eyes. They've just made it more obvious." His smirk grew wider.

"Regardless," Draco continued, walking up slowly to stand at the foot of the bed and staring down at her as if he hadn't shattered what was left of Hermione with his words. "Shall we proceed? Lisa? The Veritaserum."

The truth potion. No. No. No.

She couldn't let them know. She couldn't let them win.

In spite of herself, the pain she'd been through, the pain so intentionally caused to her; there were still some at Hogwarts she cared about.

Draco and his Hounds would kill them all. She couldn't give them a chance. Not a chance. No. No. No.

Lisa pulled out the vial from her robes and Hermione shrank away from her, begging.

"Don't do this, Lisa. Please. It's Draco. You're not like him. You're not one of them. You're not them!"

Lisa's eyes grew dark and she snarled in a quiet deadly whisper. "My brother was helping Hogwarts build their army. You knew him too. My brother worked hard. But do you know what Ginny Weasley did?"

"Ginny sent him back." Poison laced her speech.

Lisa's voice dropped a few more decibels. "My brother came home. With his eye sockets empty. He lives without his eyes. So yes, I will work with Draco. If only for a chance to tear that bitch apart myself."

Hermione remembered it. She remembered seeing it from one of the windows of the upper floors while she was at Hogwarts, before her imprisonment. She'd gripped the stone wall so hard that it was a miracle she hadn't broken it with the pressure from her hands. Ginny was wild-eyed and drunk that day. She screamed at Arthur Turpin and dug her dagger into his eyes. Picking them out like she'd harvested berries. The blood-curling wails haunted her soul, and she felt sick. That she stood there and did nothing.

She did nothing.

Arthur Turpin's only crime was that his eyes reminded Ginny of his sister; of the girl Ginny lost her ex-boyfriend to.

His hand touched her back lightly as his warm familiar voice spoke calmly to her. They looked down at Ginny laughing as she flicked the eyeballs into the black lake.

"Pity... He was useful."

Lisa and Athena held down the screaming, writhing Hermione before she could snap out of reprieve. Theodore pulled out a packet of crisps from the pocket of his hoodie and watch with fascination. Draco noticed this and let out what sounded like a long-suffering sigh.

One drop slid down her throat. Then another. And the third.

The girls let go of her only for Draco to immobilize her with the faintest flick of his want, leaving her arms and legs locked but her head free. His nonverbal magic was by far the swiftest Hermione had ever seen.

An odd stillness invaded the small cabin.

Draco tilted his head again, the gleam in his eyes victorious, till the silence of the room was broken by the soft munching of crisps. He rolled his eyes and bit back his temper, refocusing on Hermione with a renewed sense of rage.

Hermione realized for the first time that his eyes were the colour of gun metal grey and when she looked into them, she could see pain and power; beautifully intertwined. She was surprised at the honesty of her own thoughts and prayed silently that they didn't ask her how devastatingly beautiful she thought his eyes were.

"Now, Granger, tell us... Everything."