When We Were Beasts

Before: Part Seven

After they left the Hogwarts classroom, (Hermione had wanted to stay and hunt for clues, but Malfoy had drug her through the void quite literally kicking and screaming into the next BackRoom) they spent the next four days walking through moderately peaceful rooms. A room that resembled the desert, an abandoned carnival, an office space with empty desks and computer screens that just read WE SEE YOU,(Hermione had quite a pleasant time trying to explain to Malfoy what a computer even was) and a few other places so boring and small they spent no more than mere minutes in them.
And Malfoy talked through every single one.

He tried asking her questions on days one and two, but she stayed silent on almost all of them. She answered basic ones, ones that held no weight or emotion, but anything else she buried in the Occluded garden that was her mind and would merely look at him until he shrugged and asked something else.

Day three he began talking about himself.
"Did you know I'm ambidextrous?" He had asked her as they collected food from a carnival stand. She had stopped to make sure she heard him right.
"No," Hermione replied, despite herself. "Why would I have known that?"

Malfoy smirked. "It was widely known among our class what I could and couldn't do with my fingers." He winked as he raised his hand and wiggled his fingers at her.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Did the great Lucius Malfoy need his son to be as perfect with his right hand as he was with his left?"
Hermione was surprised when Malfoy grew solemn. "No. My mother made me learn the skill in fourth year, after Diggory passed."
Hermione's hand still hovered over the pile of peanuts. She should've grabbed their food, searched the room for other clues or helpful tokens, and found the nearest portal to their next hellish destination.
Instead, she asked, "Why?"

He stepped closer to her. "Because she was worried that this would cause me to lose my arm, no matter which side of the war won." He lifted his robe and rolled back his left sleeve until the tattoo was visible. It was almost glowing. Ink against cream.
Hermione wanted to touch it, just to appease her curiosity. There was something hypnotizing in its ugliness, an allure that made her look even when nausea rolled so high she felt the sickness reach her mouth.
Hermione gasped when he pulled away, just before her fingers had grazed skin. She swallowed hard.

"The Dark Lord cuts off the Mark of any he believes to have betrayed or greatly disappointed him. According to him, they no longer have the right to bear his sigil, and what he gives he can take away. We weren't sure what the Order would have done about it, either. It would have been an ugly reminder to so many of the war and it's horrors. My mother wanted me prepared."

Hermione looked up at him and found truth in his icy eyes. She believed him, and a part of her wanted to feel sorry him.

"Maybe your family shouldn't have made a child take the permanent mark of a madman," She snarled,angry not only at him but at herself. What was she doing, trying to pet his Dark Mark and feeling sorry for him? "Your mother would have been better protecting you by keeping you out of the war altogether instead of-"

One hand wrapped around her braid and pulled her head back until it was taut. The other came to caress the top of her neck, a noose that hadn't yet been tightened. His thumb brushed up to her pulse as he backed her into the peanut stand.

Peppermint fanned her face as he hissed, "Don't pretend to see the image of the puzzle when you only have two pieces, La zorra ." Malfoy spit out the foreign word as he let her go. He asked her something in what Hermione imagined was Spanish, but she stared at him blankly. He looked smug.
Now she wanted to learn the language to spite him.

Malfoy released her braid. He ran a pale hand through his hair and took a deep breath.
"Do not insult my mother, Granger. I mean it. My father is fair game, as well as my lunatic aunt and her wart of a husband. All the other Death Eaters I'll gladly insult with you. But my mother has done her best with what she's been given. You don't even understand what she has been through, or what she has already saved me and my father from. Next time you speak against her, the alliance is void and I will snap your fucking neck. Do you understand?"