The days rolled on at the Manor. Draco called Hermione to his room every night and she would consistently do whatever was requested of her by any member of the household. She was back to wearing her normal dress, but had to change into the purple whore-dress when she went to Draco's room, where she spent increasingly more time. She had grown accustomed to the tight dress, she actually quite liked it. It was like a second skin and it made her feel less human, more like an animal comfortable in its own skin. She almost wished she could wear it all the time.Draco had grown a bit more sullen. He had stopped constantly referring to her as a filthy whore and was just more sullen, but it didn't matter to Hermione one bit. Sometimes he asked her questions about Hogwarts, which she had to answer as they were direct questions. If there was any case for ambiguity she would say she didn't know. He asked her who her first was, which was Ron. Who her favourite teacher was. She didn't know. What her favourite food was from the Great Hall, which she didn't remember.Mostly he would have sex with her. He didn't ask her to leave after, but said no when she asked if there was anything else he required. At which point Hermione would leave to escape out into the garden."I have a new dress for you," he said one night. 'I think you'll like it. I do."He pulled a dress out of a bag he had laying on the bed. It was a baby blue dress with white trimmings. It seemed a bit small, but Hermione tried to put it on. Draco watched as she struggled with the dress. It wouldn't fit over the iron bracelet."I can't get my arm in," she finally said. "It is too tight.""It's not too tight. We are just going to have to remove the bracelet to get it on." He retrieved his wand and undid the bracelet, placing it on the bed. With the bracelet off, the dress came on, but it was a tight fit. It fit tightly around her arms and chest, but flared out just below her chest down to mid- thigh. It looked like a little girl's dress, maybe something a three-year-old would wear to a wedding. Actually she had a Barbie doll what had something similar when she was little.He walked around her and looked the dress over. "Do you like it?" He asked."I have no opinion," Hermione responded absently.He was running his fingers along her waist, feeling the material and the curves underneath. Hermione could tell that his mind was moving towards sex. "We need to do something about your hair," he said pulling his fingers through it, smoothing it down. He grabbed something else out of his bag. A black satin headband. She looked like the naughty version of Alice in Wonderland."That's better. Now what can ..." He stopped and winced. He rubbed his dark mark like it was causing him pain. "I have to go. Don't go anywhere," he said and apparated away.Hermione stood in the quiet room for a minute before her eyes moved to the iron bracelet that was lying on Draco's bed. Something was trying to break through her sluggish mind. Then her mind started bussing with the knowledge that there was nothing controlling her movements with the bracelet off. She could try to escape. She would probably be killed if she got caught, but this wasn't living anyway so she had nothing to lose. Not that she really had anywhere to go. Her parents were long dead. She would be a threat to anyone who knew her, so she couldn't look up anyone she knew even if she made it. But she could just melt into the muggle world, maybe even fight against Voldemort.She listened for any sounds in the house, but it was quiet. The hall outside Draco's room was quiet as well and Hermione didn't run into anyone all the way downstairs. She went to her room and collected her brown coat to cover up the baby doll dress. She needed to go into the kitchen and check the wall to make sure where everyone was. She didn't want Stina to see the dress, because it might draw attention right now in case she noticed the lack of a bracelet. She considered whether she needed to make an excuse for going outside, but thought it might just be better to just go without drawing attention to it.Stina wasn't in the kitchen, there were a couple of elves, but they went about their business. Lucius was in his study and his wife was in her dressing room. Draco wasn't in the house. Hermione's mind was working furiously. It had been a long time since she had engaged it properly. She moved towards the door and slipped outside. No one made any indication that anything was out of the ordinary so she continued walking up the stairs and out to the garden. Her going to the garden was nothing unusual, she did it every night. Once outside, she turned around and checked the windows to see if anyone was watching her, but as far as she could see no one was watching.She walked quickly but quietly towards the bottom of the garden where the forest started. There was a gate that you had to pass through and Hermione fumbled slightly with the gate lock. The wards should not stop her, but there could potentially be an alarm if one of the servants left, but Hermione had never heard of anyone having one. The bracelets were pretty effective at keeping the servants confined. There was no going back if she passed through the gate. There were no explanations she could use for justifying being outside of the grounds.Nothing happened when she passed through the gate. She closed the gate behind her in case someone would notice that it was open. She turned towards the forest and started walking. Her heart was beating uncontrollably in her chest and she had as much adrenalin in body to send little jolts through it. Her brain was screaming for more oxygen.She didn't know where the house was, but would keep walking south until she reached whatever muggle town she came across, then make her way to London. She should have taken some water she realised, but it might have looked suspicious.When she was out of sight of the house she started running. She was out of shape, but the adrenalin kept her going. Once she was some ways away, she could rest and walk. She kept it up for a few minutes, but stopped abruptly when she was a shape shifting amongst the trees."Where are you off to, mudblood?" Draco said stepping out from behind the trees and striding towards her."No," Hermione said, her mind searching for something to do. Draco had his wand so the options were limited. She could try to fight, but it would be pretty useless against his wand.He came up and clasped his arms around her waist. He was laughing and Hermione was having trouble keeping her balance. She couldn't help but start to cry as the bitter disappointment was hitting home."You didn't think you'd get away did you. I told you, you're mine and you always will be. Silly girl. You are never going to leave here."Hermione's mind was still overloading. He shouldn't be here. He was called. He should be somewhere else. Why was he here."You never left," Hermione said as she realised that he was toying with her. "You planned this."He roughly turned her around to face him. "I wanted to see what you would do," he said softly and wiped the tears off her face. "But here you are. See I knew you were in there somewhere and here you are.""Fuck you, Malfoy," she yelled."Language," he said teasingly. "I knew I could draw you out. You can't hide from me." He kissed her roughly on the mouth, but Hermione bit him. He laughed again and apparated them back to his room."Don't fight me Granger. Actually you can if you want to, but it won't make much difference."She knew he was right. She had gotten her hopes all up and now she needed her barrier back, the barrier that made her completely indifferent. She tried to pull in back, but she couldn't stop crying.He was kissing her again. "No more tears now," he said as he was taking her dress off.No, no, Hermione thought, not now. He was pulling her towards the bed. She knew that fighting would not change the outcome, so she just complied. The barrier was the only way to cope with this."No more tears." He said gently and stroked them away, but Hermione couldn't stop the tears from flowing. As hard as she tried, she couldn't get her barrier back either, it just wouldn't fit over her emotions. She felt every touch in a way she normally couldn't.He was amazingly gentle with her and Hermione knew there was comfort in the touches if she let it comfort her, but she would never, ever seek the comfort in there. Not from him. Ever. She would never be like Stina who'd grown to want it; the only comfort available to her. Hermione would never go down that route. She might have to put up with anything, but she would never be a willing party to it.Afterwards, Draco pulled her to him and kept her against him as he slept. Hermione couldn't sleep, but after a while she calmed down. She had to clear her mind to get the barrier to fit properly again.
