title: Vestige
intended pairing: Dramione (if you squint), Voldinny/Tominny
notes: my first fanfic after my long hiatus due to personal reasons (my 58th fanfic in total). Hope you guys enjoy it!
WARNING: this is a very DARK fanfic so be prepared for character deaths and Dark!Ginny and later Dark!Hermione. This is an AU where Voldemort is still at large and decimating the Order.

VESTIGE

Blood. It's dripping down the side of her face. From a self-inflicted wound.

Blank eyes. Probably reliving the nightmare that was the last few hours.

He's not surprised at the state he's found her in.

His mother is actually tending to her herself. With not so much as a wrinkle in his mother's nose. His mother hasn't even asked for a house elf. But there isn't much his mother can do.

Granger is unresponsive. Still bashing her head against the wall. Or at least still trying. It seems she hasn't noticed his mother's hand cushioning her head. His mother's hand is covered in her blood. Her red, red blood. The same as his. He had been an idiot in school. She was no different from him.

And yet, her fate is sealed. Because she's a muggle born. In the Dark Lord's world.

"They don't belong in this world."

Not too long ago, he thought the same. Now, now...

"Draco."

He almost jumps at his aunt's appearance. Mentally scolds himself. Bellatrix is dead. Has been dead for months now. Still, it doesn't change the fact that the person standing out in the hallway is basically her mirror image. Just nicer. Much nicer. Fat lot that's done for her.

Aunt Andromeda beckons him out. He pointedly keeps his eyes off the collar around her neck. The slave collar. The one that binds her magic and practically makes her a muggle. His aunt was lucky his mother had been keeping an eye on the incoming prisoners. If his aunt had gone to another death eater...

"How is she?" Andromeda asks him. She's concerned but too scared to look. She already knows the answer but asks out of concern. Because keeping her mind occupied is better than focusing on her new reality. On the new reality that is the Dark Lord's world.

He shakes his head. Stares at his feet. Anything is better than to see the look on his aunt's face. A face twisted in pain that mirrors Granger's. The pain of losing a child. His aunt's expression, however, is a watered-down version. Nymphadora, after all, had been killed by a death eater, not by her own mother. Though, he supposes having a child be killed by one's own sister is on the same level of pain.

He's turned halfway into the room when his aunt stops him.

"There's a visitor," she tells him.

He has no idea who'd visit. No one's been visiting anyone since the Dark Lord rose to power. He's almost curious who's at the door. Almost.

"Tell them to go away," he drawls, not even looking at his aunt. His eyes are still on the brown curls of the girl still trapped in her horror, in her pain. "Obviously, we're not in a state to host guests."

"It's Lady Ginerva."

His hand pauses, the door stopping mid-slam.

His mother glances at him. Her eyes are full of worry.

Both Black sisters try to hide a shudder.

"What does she want?" he asks.

"She's come to check on Herm...the mudblood." His aunt looks ready to vomit. The collar won't let her address the prisoner any other way. "Shall I go get her?"

"No, I'll escort her in. Just stay... You can stay in your room." He's careful not to phrase it as an order. The collar may have taken away his aunt's free will, but he won't. The suggestion he makes is for her benefit. The old Ginny wouldn't have done anything to his aunt. But Lady Ginerva...

As his footsteps echo in the hallway, he wonders why Ginny is here. Did she come to finish the job? He tries not to dwell on that. There's nothing he can do to stop it anyways.

Hermione doesn't know how things ended up like this. How Voldemort controls the world. How her own hands are stained with her children's blood.

She had just been in an Order safehouse just this morning, her children safe with her. Ron and Harry had just returned last night. Successful in their mission. Ginny had been recovering in the room that served as that safehouse's medical ward. She had been missing for a week. Everyone had been frantic. This morning, they were all just waiting for Ginny to wake up. To tell them what had happened to her.

When Ginny opened her eyes, that's when the death eaters arrived, apparating right into the safehouse.

Hermione isn't sure what had happened in the utter chaos that followed. All she knew was that Ron had gotten Harry out. Harry had been the only one to escape. Everyone else, including her and Ron, had been captured.

Hermione had found it odd that no one had been killed. Odder still when Ginny hadn't been manacled like everyone else.

Like everyone else, Hermione was too slow to realize something had been wrong with Ginny. She only realized when Ginny pointed her wand. Right at her mother. A green light had hit Molly straight in the chest. Molly, with her eyes wide in shock, had fallen to the ground.

"Not ever again, bitch," Ginny had said afterwards. Cold and calculating.

No one had understood. Her brothers thought she was under the imperius.

Hermione had thought that too until she was dragged in front of the death eaters. In front of Voldemort. In front of Ginny who sat on his lap. On Tom Riddle's lap. Somehow, Voldemort had regained his human body.

"Tom," Ginny had cooed. "Despite being a mudblood, Hermione's a dear friend of mine. I'd like for her to remain intact."

Hermione hadn't understood until her kids were brought before her. Hugo and Rose, crying and covered in blood. Hermione hadn't the time to wonder whose blood.

When she ran towards them, a pain she only felt five years before at Malfoy Manor knocked her onto the ground. She couldn't hear her children's cries over her screams.

When the pain stopped, she saw Ginny's wand pointing at her.

"Regardless," Voldemort had said in Tom's voice, "the crucio isn't enough for Potter's golden girl."

A green haze crept out of his wand, and slowly the haze engulfed its victim. Hermione found herself unable to focus. A sweet voice called to her. "Kill them," it said. "Kill the children."

She fought off the curse for as long as she could. "No, No! Anything but that, please!" she had begged. Begged because nothing else was more important to her than her children. "Kill me instead!"

Her eyes searched the room. Where was Ron? Where was anyone? All she saw was a sea of black robes and laughing faces. Her eyes finally landed on a wisp of blond.

Please, she tried to convey her thoughts. Kill me before I kill them. Please!

To her utter horror, her body moved towards her children. Her innocent children who were reaching for her, held back by a masked death eater.

"PLEASE!" she cried. She fell to her knees, for that was all she could do to fend off the curse. "Please, Ginny! They're your niece and nephew!"

Someone shot another crucio at her. "It's Lady Ginerva to you, mudblood."

Ginny's face remained impassive, not at all what Hermione would have thought possible with the given situation. "I lay no claim to half-bloods," she intoned, bored and looking at her nails. When she met Hermione's gaze, her green eyes were cold, distant. "They do not belong in this world."

A long object, made of vine wood, fell in front of Hermione.

"Be grateful I'm letting you choose the method, Hermione." Ginny's voice was sickly sweet like rotten honey. "Get on with it before a more painful method is chosen."

A wand of yew wood pointed at Hermione, and under a second green haze, her body refused to listen to her.

Her children died with their frightened cries frozen on their faces.

"Cissy, how nice of you to tend to her."

The nickname sends chills up Narcissa's spine, and Ginny smiles.

"From what Draco told me and what you said earlier today, I gathered that you treasure her, Milady," Narcissa says. "I didn't want you to see your friend injured, though I'm afraid there wasn't much I could do."

It's a semi-truth, Ginny knows. The blonde woman in front of her probably sympathizes with Hermione. They're both mothers, after all. Narcissa fears the loss of her child, does everything to protect Draco. The proud pureblood probably never realized that there's an even crueler reality than that loss.

Ginny frowns when she glances at her friend. A mother who killed her own children. The thought puts a bitter taste on her tongue.

"Has she been like this the whole night?" she asks.

"Yes," Draco answers. "She's been unresponsive to everything we've done."

"I thank you and your mother for your service," Ginny says. "It must be hard to have a mudblood in your home, but I assure you. In all the years I've known Hermione, she's never been so rude as to bleed her dirty blood over my home, no matter how much of a hovel it had been. I hope you can forgive her. After all, the loss of both her children has hit her so hard."

She sees Draco's grimace before his face becomes unreadable.

Ginny almost laughs.

She moves to take Narcissa's spot. Like the older woman, Ginny puts her hand in between the wall and Hermione's head. It's almost a moot generosity because Hermione stops moving. She rests her head against Ginny's palm.

"Look at you," she sighs. "Brightest witch of your age reduced to nothing more than a madwoman." Something wet lands on her cheek, but she wipes away the spit as if it were a raindrop. She digs her hand into Hermione's wound, twisting her nails into the raw flesh. "You really are mad."

"Better a madman than a traitor," Hermione snarls in a harsh whisper, but there is no spirit, no fire, behind her words.

"Ah, yes, you must be wondering why little Ginny's turned turncoat. Well, you'll know soon enough."

A little gasp has Ginny glaring at the Malfoy matriarch.

"I don't mean to disagree with you, Milady," Narcissa says. "I was just wondering if a mudblood should have such an honor."

Ginny sees through that excuse. There's not nearly enough hate in the way Narcissa said mudblood. "Are you insinuating I've not thought through my decision?" The question is a threat, and Narcissa is smart enough to apologize.

A green haze oozes from the hand Ginny rests against Hermione's head, and the muggleborn realizes too late the danger she's in.

"Relax," Ginny commands not unkindly. "I wouldn't put you in danger."

"Hard to believe," Hermione manages to get out before her mind betrays her. What was she doing? She can't remember why she ended up like this.

"Your children didn't belong in this world," Ginny says. "They wouldn't have survived. And the reason is because of Dumbledore's stupid order. The old coot did nothing to protect your children, the order did nothing. Your children died because of them. Dumbledore lied to Harry, lied to you. He didn't want you to obtain power, to become more powerful than him. That's why he lied, but you aren't going to believe his lies any longer. Dumbledore is the reason your children are dead, and if Harry lives, the world will burn."

Hermione collapses on the bed. Ginny doesn't miss how Narcissa squeezes Draco's shoulder.

Interesting.

"Take care of her and I won't reveal your secret to the Dark Lord," Ginny offers. Again, it's a veiled threat. "I'll even throw in your heart's greatest desire."

"I don't know what you're talking about," the boy, the younger man, says.

"Lying to me gets you nowhere, Malfoy. We both are striving towards the same thing."

"And what would that be?"

Ginny answers with a smile that puts both Draco and his mother on guard, and that, of course, makes Ginny cackle.

"My pet tells me you've pledged allegiance to her," Lord Voldemort says, twirling his wand in one hand. The other hand is wrapped around Ginny's shoulders. The sight brings a sour taste up from Draco's stomach.

"Yes, My Lord." Hermione is kneeling in front of the pair, the room empty save for them and the Malfoy heir.

"Why the change in heart?"

This surprises Draco. Does the Dark Lord not know? From the corner of his eye, Ginny winks.

"My Lord." Lady Ginerva answers instead. "Hermione has always had a little crush on Draco."

"I'll even throw in your heart's greatest desire."

Draco swallows nervously. Much to his chagrin, he doesn't object to Ginny's obvious lie.

"Too bad my idiot of a mum decided to pair her with my brother." Ginny shakes her head and sighs. "Honestly, they weren't the best pair."

"Ah, so she wants to be young Malfoy's whore." the Dark Lord seems amused by the turn of events. "Very well. Prove yourself to me and I shall grant you your wish, mudblood."

At the snap of Tom's fingers, a bloodied body materializes into the room. Dried blood makes his hair even redder than its normal shade.

"Hermione..." Ron's relief is barely heard. "You're alright..." He can barely keep his head up.

Draco closes his eyes. He knows what's coming.

Hermione's lip curls into a grimace, and she points her wand at her husband. "Crucio."

ending notes: I honestly don't like the ending two parts... I wanted to portray Ginny being controlled by a piece of Bellatrix's soul that merged with hers, and later she gives half of that piece to Hermione. However, I'm not that great of an author.

Hope you guys enjoyed this piece!