Her Sweet, Decadent Smile

☘ Chapter 10 ☘

"Sometimes I'm terrified of my heart; of its constant hunger for whatever it is it wants. The way it stops and starts."

-Edgar Allan Poe

Hermione's wand started to emit red sparks after Malfoy had departed to Merlin-knows-where.

It was nothing big, really. It only meant that it was time to add another ingredient to the Denovorum.

A maid had entered the room and told her that her clothes had just arrived to the Manor, along with a few 'extras.' When she had asked what the extras were, the girl had just smiled at her and said it would be best if she took a look herself. Her name was Jacqueline and by the time Hermione had finished talking to her, she had found out that Draco had indeed freed all the house-elves in the Manor. Not with clothes— he just sent them off to Hogwarts where they would be well taken care off.

She was going to thank him for that later.

Hermione thought sending them to Hogwarts to free them was an awfully good idea. House-elves got extremely depressed by the mere sight of clothes. So, by giving them up somewhere where they could be free without crushing their hearts was a rather brilliant way of handling the situation.

Not to mention that he'd done it all for her.

Fighting the blush that was ebbing up her cheeks, she opened Draco's enormous closet once again. Her eyes almost popped out of their sockets. A few 'extras' apparently meant a whole closet full of colorful robes and gowns. She would never have guessed that these clothes were all meant for her, until she saw that they were, in fact, her size… She tried a couple of them on and they all fit her perfectly… like they were especially made for her… even the shoes.

Trust him to do something as random as this.

Her wand emitted red sparks again, alerting her that she had one hour to get to the office. Now was the perfect time to find out if she could escape the evil clutches of the infamous Malfoy Manor. She wasn't going to permanently leave, of course. She would just visit her office for a while, then head back before anyone noticed.

She had read about the Malfoy Manor once. It had a charm that could detect any person who wanted to leave it. She had tested this by walking down the hallway, just to look around. The Devil's Snare hadn't attacked her and no other traps came at her.

But it was different now because she wanted to leave. The charm will definitely detect her no matter how hard she pretends. She had no other choice but to run as fast as she can. Hopefully, she'll get out of this alive. Easy enough. She was already used to life-threatening situations after all.

Her mission was simple: get to the fireplace in the sitting room undetected, floo to her office, add the next ingredient to the Denovorum, and come back in time for dinner.

Dinner, if she remembered correctly, was sometime around 7. She rolled her eyes.

She decided to wear an all black get-up: black long sleeved shirt, black jeans, black combat boots and a matching black cap (the most appropriate attire for her dangerous mission). She even contemplated on putting two strips of face paint on her cheeks but that would be thoroughly overdoing it. Gazing at her reflection in the mirror, she gave a satisfied nod at her reflection and tied her long locks into a messy bun. Her hair had always been a dead giveaway.

She looked like she was about to break into someone's house rather than attempt to escape one.

"Right," she told herself. "Constant Vigilance. Don't be stupid. You can do this, Hermione."