The Anti-Heroine || A Harry Potter Fanfiction

Chapter XXI

Chapter XXI:

Hermione's POV:

After the Gala, with only one night until the return to Hogwarts Hermione found herself sitting next to a nervous looking Narcissa in a private wing branching off the older woman's rooms.

"Are you okay, Narcissa?" Hermione asked, concerned by the woman's actions. Narcissa gave a shaky sort of smile.

"I'm okay, love, just unsure about how to proceed." The woman confessed.

"Just say what you need to, Narcissa. I won't be mad, if that's what you're worried about. How could I be angry after everything you've done for Harry and I?" Hermione coaxed the woman, playing on Narcissa's maternal instincts, the one weakness in her Pureblood mask.

"Were you assaulted, love?" Narcissa burst out, before her cheeks tinged pink.

"Pardon?" Hermione asked, confused. "You know I was– you healed me." She reminded the woman, wondering if she maybe needed to notify the house elf about his mistress's ailment. "Have you found you've been forgetting things, recently?" she asked Narcissa, concerned.

"I, no I could have worded that better." Narcissa twisted her hands slightly in her lap. "Hermione, love, when I was healing you I performed a spell... it's an old Pureblood one. It records a woman's... purity."

"Ah." Hermione murmured, finally understanding where Narcissa's hesitation, fear and worry were coming from.

"Your purity was taken four years ago, when you were nine years old." Narcissa's eyes filled with tears and she leaned forwards, gently clasping Hermione's hands in her own. Narcissa's skin was very soft, Hermione noted. "Is there anything I can do to help right this terrible wrong that had been done to you?"

"The man who did that to me is in jail." Hermione forced herself to tear up, made her voice choke. "Muggles are mostly useless, but they did make the one who hurt me pay for it."

"I am glad," Narcissa let out a relieved sigh and leaned forwards, gently kissing her forehead. Hermione hid her surprise and gave Narcissa a watery smile that was absolutely and entirely fake.

"Thank you, Narcissa. You have... you have no idea how much this means to me. You, caring..." Narcissa looked like she was about to burst into tears and Hermione gently wrapped her arms around the older woman. Narcissa hugged her back, and Hermione felt her lips twitch.

For a Pureblood, a Black especially, Narcissa was exceedingly easy to manipulate.

As she made her way back to Harry, Hermione thought over the conversation she'd just had.

Purity.

It was treated as such a treasured commodity in the Wizarding world, in Pureblood circles especially. Which was why she couldn't have just come out and told Narcissa that she hadn't been sexually assaulted.

She had been taken advantage of, Hermione could admit, though she didn't like doing so– she heavily resented the fact that she, the master manipulator, had been manipulated with such relative ease.

Jed had been four years older then her. He was a street rat, just like her, and he'd been... nice. He'd wormed his way around her defences and was one of the few people she'd ever let into her heart.

It certainly hadn't been an experience she'd repeated in a hurry.

Jed had introduced her into the world of sex and despite her age, Hermione had had the relative maturity to deal with both the repercussions and the act itself. Sex, she had discovered, was a useful tool. And that's when Jed had stopped using her, and she'd started using him. He didn't realise she'd been using sex control their relationship manipulate him into getting her what she wanted until after she'd finished the arrangement. She'd left Jed after milking him for anything that could possibly be of any use to her and she had never taken on another lover. But she hadn't forgotten what the older boy had taught her and the realizations that had accompanied his teachings– men were stupid when it came to sex, stupid and easily manipulated, and her body could be used as a weapon in more ways then one.