She couldn't remember the scar on Ginny's face. It had appeared to be several months old in the memory but Hermione had no recollection of when Ginny could have gotten it. It had looked like someone had crudely carved out a section of Ginny's face with a knife.
Hermione wondered if she had been the one who healed it.
Chapter End Notes
The quote is from The Art of Discretion by Baltasar Gracian.
Astra inclinant, sed non obligant = the stars incline us, they do not bind us.
"Like you're hoarding her" by Dralamy.
Chapter 15
Hermione was fertile again.
The table reappeared in the middle of the floor and she felt resigned by the sight. It had started to feel inevitable.
Inevitable.
Hermione realised with a dropping sensation that she was growing accustomed to her cage.
Malfoy was going to rape her over a table and the thought had become matter-of-fact to her. Even the word rape had started to feel faintly inaccurate.
Everything had started to feel—
Less.
Physically and mentally the dread had begun to fade as her mind forced her to adapt. She didn't feel nauseated. Her heart didn't pound painfully. The wrenching sensation in her stomach didn't feel so oppressive she thought she might be choking from it.
Her mind was twisting itself up with rationalisation. Trying to make her adapt. To make her survive.
If her situation ceased to chafe, she would be less likely to risk an escape attempt. Less likely to provoke Malfoy.
She could understand it scientifically. From the perspective of a healer, she could explain the physiology and psychology of it. It was unsustainable to remain in a state of constant fear, constant horror, constant dread. Her body couldn't keep her in a permanent state of fight or flight. She would either be forced to adapt or she'd burn out. The potion Malfoy had dosed her with had probably aided in dulling it.
Understanding the science didn't make the realisation better. It made it worse. She knew where her mind was headed.
She was 'acclimatising to the manor.'
The thought shook her to the core.
She stared at the table and felt at a loss as to what to do about it. It wasn't as though she could fight him. She couldn't resist any more than she already was.
He wasn't doing anything that hurt. If she paid attention — stopped pulling her mind away — it would likely make it worse rather than better.
She had to escape. That was all there was to it. She had to escape. Had to find a way. There had to be a way. No cage was perfect. No one was perfect. There had to be something in Malfoy to exploit. She just had to find out what it was.
She had to. She had to.
She kept repeating the resolution to herself even as she walked across the room and leaned across the table. Feet apart.
Don't think about it, she told herself. Worse things could happen if she let herself think about it.
"I'm going to escape," she promised herself. "I'm going to go somewhere where people are kind and warm and I am free."
She squeezed her eyes shut and mouthed the promise to herself again and again until she heard the door click.
She watched the days of January slip by.
Malfoy came for five days. On the sixth day, he arrived and wordlessly inspected her memories. He seemed preoccupied.
Then she was left to her own devices.
She folded origami. She explored the manor. She explored the estate. She read the newspaper.
Reports on the war efforts were getting relegated to smaller columns. Public fascination with the surrogates was slowly beginning to swallow the society pages. They were appearing more and more frequently in public; trotted about, taken along to the opera; treated as though they were exotic pets. Pictures of their bonneted figures were being featured along with aggressive gossiping; was it swelling or merely the fit of their robes? Unnamed sources said suggestive things like 'there's a chance the Flints will be adding a name to the family tapestry by the end of the year.'
Healer Stroud was tight-lipped with reporters which only served as fuel for further speculation.
Hermione's panic attacks almost seemed a thing of the past. She had measured out her limitations and tried not to exceed them. When she remained focused and occupied herself with studying portraits and exploring the manor and the grounds she was able to stay calm; when she tried not to think about the war and how everyone was dead.
She gradually got so good at keeping herself preoccupied that she would momentarily forget that she was forgetting. She'd breathe in and experience a moment that didn't feel broken or grieving or despairing.
When it was just her loneliness that stretched out before her.
The guilt that would strike her a moment later was as cold and bitter as seawater.
She'd freeze for a moment and then swallow the lump of horror in her throat and renew her vow to escape.
But she couldn't escape.
She explored the manor from top to bottom. She found a set of wizard's chess and played matches against herself. She built card towers with packs of cards she discovered in a drawer. She visited the horses.
There was no way to escape.
She tried to find Malfoy but never managed to. She didn't know if he were even in the manor. He could have been out or just behind a door she couldn't open. It sometimes felt as though he must be avoiding her.
She had no idea how she could possibly escape.
Hermione began to see Astoria with increasing regularity. The familiar click of heels in the distance and Hermione grew adept at promptly disappearing behind a curtain or into a servants' passage.
The servants' passages were filled with cleverly concealed peepholes. Hermione suspected that, given the utilisation of house-elves, the twisty little tunnels had always been primarily used for spying. The manor was crammed with them; some were obvious and others extremely well concealed. Hermione found them all. Anytime the dimensions of a room seemed vaguely off Hermione set to work, tapping lightly along the walls and pressing every knot in the wood and twisting at every sconce and screw until she felt something give. Some doors appeared magically while others were cleverly built using gears and rotating furniture.
Astoria was rarely alone when Hermione saw her. She was accompanied by the same dark, broad-shouldered man Hermione had glimpsed on New Year's. It soon became apparent that either Astoria or her paramour had some sort of objection to beds. The first time Hermione encountered them Astoria was nearly naked and pressed against a parlour window.
They seemed to be trying to have sex in every room in the manor.
Hermione did her best to avoid them. She didn't particularly fancy the thought of Malfoy using her memories to watch as his wife was shagged from all angles. Hermione entertained the notion of watching just to spite him but then dismissed it; Malfoy didn't appear to care about what Astoria did, it would probably have no effect on him. It would just be extremely uncomfortable for Hermione.
Whenever Hermione stumbled across Astoria mid-coitus she would quickly avert her eyes and slip away.
For a time she merely caught glimpses of the amorous pair while fleeing but eventually Hermione came across them both fully clothed. Hermione had been wandering through the topmost floor of the North Wing when she caught sight of them strolling along the gravel path running along the hedge maze. Astoria was speaking animatedly, and as she spoke the man beside her turned and stared up at the North Wing. As Hermione watched, she finally caught sight of his face.
Graham Montague.
Hermione stared down in shock as his eyes carefully scanned the lower windows of the North Wing. When he craned his head back further Hermione stepped sharply back and out of sight.