Breaking Hermione

Carpe Noctem

At first I thought I was dreaming. I'd been having so many bad dreams lately that when I woke up on the cold concrete floor of Tom's secret room I initially thought I was having a nightmare.

Well, until I smelt the blood. It was dry and caked on my knees and hands. I rolled on my side. Every part of my body was aching from sleeping curled up on the cold hard ground.

I crawled out from under the bed. There was no windows in this room, so I couldn't tell what time it was. Was it a minute or an entire day that I'd passed out? There was no way of knowing. My only way of telling the time was the Time Turner which Tom had stole from me.

Thinking of Tom sent undulating waves of anxiety and fear rippling through me. He was furious. He had admitted that he had made a mistake with me, that I wasn't broken into submission completely yet and that he was going to break my mind. How would he do that? By leaving me trapped in this stupid room? I already felt like my mind was broken. Whatever he was set to break was something of a mystery to me.

I stood up shakily, coming to sit on the exact same mattress that Tom and his gang of unknown Slytherin associates had assaulted me on. I touched the mattress gingerly with one hand. I was an entirely different person when I was last confined to lying here. I could tell it was the same mattress because of the blood on it.

I closed my eyes. A few sparks of light seared my vision causing me to open them with a start.

What the hell?

I closed my eyes again. Traces of pure white light danced behind my eyes, almost as if I had closed my eyes at Kings Cross station as a train had gone past.

Hermione.

A voice said. I concentrated on the light. I knew that voice. "Mum?"

Silence.

"I know you're with me, Mum and Dad." I said into the open air. My voice sounded hollow and confined in the tiny room. I didn't know whether I believed my words or not but I tried to inject as much faith as I could into my voice. It was hard when I felt entirely defeated.

"Mum." I said again. "Can you give me a sign that you hear me?"

Instead of my mothers comforting voice a light yet cynical laugh sounded in response.

"The only person that is listening is me. Your stupid parents can't hear you."

Tom's malicious voice broke me out of my hopeless yearning, I looked at the the top of the stairs to see Tom staring down at me. As soon as he took in my full appearance he looked surprised.

"You're bleeding." He descended the stairs, I couldn't even see how he entered the room but as he stepped forward the wall became concrete again.

"What did you do to yourself? He chided, his cold hands grasped my face examining it closely. Our eyes locked in one moment, and a burst of sharp pain slashed through my mind.

"Well?"

He demanded. I blinked, rubbing my eyes. He stepped closer, his tall figure towering over me threateningly.

He snatched up my hands in his own.

"You're a fucking mess." He said lowly. "You've got blood everywhere.... What on earth did you do to yourself?"