Damaged Goods by slytherin_after_dark

Chapter 40

- NOT MY STORY!! ALL CREDITS TO @slytherin_after_dark ON A03!!

Her head was pounding. There was a dripping sound in the distance that seemed to pierce her skull. Her tongue felt heavy; her mouth dry. Slowly, she blinked her eyes open, trying to orientate herself. She had no recollection of how she got there.

It looked like a cellar. She closed her eyes for a minute longer, trying to adjust to the sunlight that seemed too bright. The pain in her head was relentless. She felt so weak. Even opening her eyes had been hard work. Through the haze of discomfort, she suddenly remembered. Bellatrix.

Her eyes flashed open and she tried to get up, but she was restrained on a gurney by her wrists and ankles. Panic was now burning hotter than pain. Then she looked at her arm. Dark veins were spidering from the old scar.

"No," she whispered hoarsely, feeling tears well in her eyes.

Bellatrix had begun the magical extraction. She had told Draco it would take three days. This must be day one. Hermione tried to wiggle against her restraints but to no avail. There was fear and then there was the quiet horror that settled in her now as she understood that this was how it was going to end. She was sobbing for a while. The only sound was the slow dripping of water.

When she woke up again, the sun was setting. She knew what that meant. Time was running out. Soon, day two would begin and she didn't know how conscious she'd be after that. How could anyone even find her? They still didn't know where Bellatrix was.

The door opened and she almost yelped with fear. But it wasn't Bellatrix. It was a small man with large glasses with a glass of water.

"Ah, you're awake," he said and walked closer to her. "I figured you'd be thirsty."

The last thing she wanted was to accept anything from these monsters but her mouth was so parched it was raw. She lifted her head and he brought the glass to her lips. The water felt cool and soothing against her tongue.

"Who are you?" She croaked, her voice still not complying fully.

"Dr. Allen Hill. I'm here to observe your magical transitioning."

"You mean you're here to watch me slowly die," she corrected.

He readjusted his glasses and said nothing. The diagnostic spells showed what she had suspected. A third of Bellatrix's magic was gone but it had depleted her magic as well. It was slowly restabilizing. That's why Bellatrix couldn't take everything at once. Hermione would be dead before she got all the dark magic out of her. This way, she recovered just enough to endure the next part of it.

"Your magic has rebounded well," he said as if she was merely an experiment.

"I am not a lab rat, doctor. Didn't you swear an oath to do no harm?"
He looked up from the notebook he was writing in. "You're a Mudblood and I think your kind is an abomination to wizardry. But you have been of great service to Miss Lestrange."

He left and closed the door and she watched the last bit of sunlight disappear.

-- Draco --

His skin was crawling. Every second that passed felt like hours.

The moment Hermione disappeared into darkness seemed like a lifetime ago. Snape's network of spies had discovered several of Bellatrix's last locations but each one of them turned out to be nothing. She was too clever to leave traces. He was running out of time. He had spent hours on this wild goose chase and had nothing to show for it. If he couldn't find her, she would die.