Hermione shivered as the magic stopped tumbling her through space and time and she landed on all fours on a dark wooden floor. Disoriented, she scrambled for her wand in her pocket, but a quick Expelliarmus made her wand fly straight into the hands of- No. She steeled her nerves, trying to not show her horror.
"Miss Granger. How nice of you to join me. I see you've received my invitation to join me this fine Yule evening." Lucius Malfoy grinned as he twirled her wand around in his hands. He frowned as he looked down at her again. "I suppose it is Lady Granger now, but I don't want to bore you with formalities." The disgust was clear in his voice, but Hermione would not back down.
"Give me back my wand," she gritted out, her legs unstable beneath her as she tried to find her bearings after being so roughly pulled away from her home in the middle of the night.
"Oh, this little thing?" Lucius quirked his eyebrow, studying her most priced possession. "You won't be needing it. For now." The evil glint in his eyes was clearly an attempt to scare her. "I will return it to you soon enough. All I want is for you to have a little talk with me while we tour the Manor. After all, the last time you visited we did not have time for such pleasantries. There's a room I'm desperate to show you…" His eyes flashed dangerously, and Hermione could feel the panic bloom in her chest.
Even if Lucius Malfoy did not scare her, there was someone who did. Someone who had tortured her in this very house. If he was leading her to the Drawing Room, like she thought he was, Hermione was unsure of how she would deal with it.
"Now, rumour has it that you are running for Minister and that my son is supporting you. Is that true?" he drawled as he motioned for her to follow him.
"It is." She nodded, not sure if lying or speaking the truth would help her more.
She only hoped Draco would soon figure out where she'd been kidnapped to and that he would come and get her out of this mess. He'd seemed to have recognised the handwriting on the letter, at least. She was a powerful witch, but even she would need her wand to go up against Lucius Malfoy. Perhaps, when he had his back turned to her, she could try and tackle him to the floor? A grin spread out on her face. The great Lucius Malfoy being floored by a muggle tactic would surely bruise his ego.
"Interesting," the elder Malfoy mused. "That was not how I thought he would attempt to win you over. But I suppose even a mudblood such as yourself cannot help but be attracted to the power that being Minister for Magic brings with it."
"Win me over?" the brunette whispered, distracted from her attempts to get the upper hand. "You're acting as if Draco helping me out was some sort of ploy to make me fall for him." She frowned at his back, the words feeling foreign on her tongue. Draco would never do such a thing, would he?
"Would it surprise you if it was?"
Hermione blinked. "I'm uncertain how well you know your son, Mister Malfoy, but I'm positive that the reason he started working with me was to restore his family name to its former glory, not-"
Malfoy cackled a laugh, making her skin crawl.
"He really convinced you that his reasons for aiding you for all these years was so he could restore his family name? My son does not give a damn about the Malfoy family name." Anger seeped out of him and Hermione could feel the air tense with his magic. Being locked up in his own home for years must have made the man even more mentally unstable than he ever was. She would have to thread carefully.
"Perhaps you just have a different perspective on what the Malfoy family name stands for," she mused, not wanting to anger him further, but unable to just keep her mouth shut.
"He knew exactly what the name stood for. Purity will always conquer. But my son forgot that the day he turned into a beast. Whoever you think you have been spending these past few months with, he is not the boy you went to school with. My son, my heir, is gone."
Hermione nearly stumbled backwards. What… What did he mean? What beast?
Lucius Malfoy turned around, his cloak billowing behind him in a Snape-like fashion. He smirked at her. "Ah. I see you still haven't figured it out. That Draco does not truly love you. That every moment you've spent with him is nothing but a lie. That he cannot control his own actions," Lucius mused as he took in her frozen form. "Very well. I suppose I will need to educate you then if I want to ensure you and your filthy blood stay away from my son. Perhaps he can be redeemed, if you deny him."
"What do you mean? He-"
"Whatever you have told yourself in your disillusions, he isn't in love with you!" Lucius yelled, stomping his cane onto the floor in anger, his magic seeping out, forming a tiny crack in the wood beneath. "The only thing about him that loves you is that curse living in his blood." Still leading her towards another part of the Manor, he started rambling. "I had hoped he would not fall victim to it because none of us had for decades, but then… You had to start bleeding out on our drawing room floor." He sneered at her, and Hermione was reminded of how alike Draco and his father looked when they were angry. "Have you still not realised what he is, you silly girl? Even after mingling with blood traitors and their families for so long? You've been seated at the table with one like him for years, yet you've never seen the resemblance?"
These were clearly the ramblings of a madman. "This is insane," Hermione breathed. "Do you really think that whatever story you make up will scare me away from being with Draco?"
"I'm not a boggart who tries to scare little girls and give them nightmares, Miss Granger," Lucius nearly purred as they reached a set of doors that often featured in her nightmares. "If you don't believe me for yourself, then I better show you."
The blond wizard opened the door to the Drawing Room, and Hermione couldn't help but close her eyes, feeling the panic bloom in her chest once more. She did not want to be here in this room. Did not want to remember Bellatrix carving that-
Lucius smacked the back of her knees with his cane harshly, making her stumble inside. "Open your eyes, stupid girl. And see what you did to him that day."
Her eyes snapped open as she tried to find her balance. To her surprise, half of the room was gone. Whatever was left of the floor and walls were branded with scorch marks. The room was heavy with cursed magic, as if it had eaten away at the walls themselves. It didn't look anything like the room she'd been tortured in. The panic she'd originally felt subsided, and curiosity got the better of her.
"Draco did this?" she whispered quietly, calculating the damage that had been done.
The cursed magic that had eaten away at the room looked much like fiendfyre, but on closer inspection something seemed off. Bellatrix and Lucius were known users of the dark arts and they would have had no issues taking control of the dark magic. Studying the ceiling, a protective magical veil had been thrown up to keep the weather out. When she squinted, she could make out the small tears in the wards. Fiendfyre did not damage wards as far as she knew. But what other brute magical power could cause this destruction? No mere wizard could have the power to blast through the walls and wards of an ancestral home, not unless… Dear Merlin.
Hermione gasped in disbelief, her hand trembling in front of her face.
"Perhaps you're not as stupid as I thought you were," Lucius smirked, seemingly having followed her train of thought as she studied the room.
The ground beneath her suddenly started trembling and Hermione had to hold on to what was left of the marble fireplace on her left to not tumble down.
The elder Malfoy sighed and looked up right as she did, the wards buzzing with static as if someone was intruding upon them. Now that she looked closely, there was a double layer of wards. Lucius had clearly woven his own into the ones Draco had put on his ancestral home after he became Lord of the Manor.
"It seems, we are running out of time. The beast has found you. It will be a matter of minutes before he breaks through the wards. Very well."
Lucius pointed his cane straight at her and fear gripped her heart. "Legillimens."
Hermione's body froze and she stared at her younger self in shock as Bellatrix Lestrange was carefully carving 'mudblood' into her arm. Why was Lucius showing her this? Was he here to reawaken the trauma of her teenage years?
Her breathing intensified and she could feel herself getting lightheaded. Dealing with the memories was one thing. Seeing it play out right in front of her was something entirely else. Fear gripped her, and she could feel goosebumps raising on her skin when she heard the familiar cackle of Bellatrix Lestrange. She nearly jumped, when one of the other people in the room spoke.
"Draco," the elder Malfoy whispered to his trembling son, his cane in front of his chest as if to hold him back. "Keep it together." She was unsure if it was supposed to be an order, or a plea.
She remembered now, how she'd looked up at the blond. Her eyes filled with tears and pain, pleading, for him to do something. But her memories had always been fuzzy, considering the pain and horror she'd been through. After witnessing this, however, it became crystal clear again. The memory passed in a blur as Harry and Ron came to save her, and Bellatrix ended up killing Dobby, making her heart ache for her lost friend.
"It was them!" Bellatrix shouted, advancing on Draco as if he were her prey. She threatened him with the same cursed dagger she'd just used on Hermione. "Perhaps, I should cut out your tongue, boy, if you are not going to be of any use to us either way."
Draco was still trembling, his eyes closed. He wasn't as trained at occlumency as he was now. In a split second, Hermione realised that Draco wasn't scared. He was angry.
"Your son does not have the stomach for this," the death eater cackled to her sister. "He can't even witness a little mudblood die. She, the filth beneath our feet, she-"
"She's not filth," Draco finally breathed out.
Hermione gasped when he opened his eyes. Instead of the grey she was so used to, his eyes were a warm amber and they looked almost… Cat-like.
Finally, all the pieces clicked into place, remembering the research she'd done.
All Veela and their descendants who could carry the magical trait are born with silver or pale blond hair. Their complexion is usually described as pale… When a veela descendant or their soulmate is in life-threatening danger, the creature magic in their blood is said to activate from its slumber, and the witch or wizard will gain animalistic features alongside an increase in their raw magical power. It is rumoured that males take on the form of beasts living on the land, their eyes changing to those of the wampus cat.
She slumped backwards into the wall, holding her head in her hands, angry at herself. How had she not seen it before? Had her mind just refused to put two and two together since Lucius Malfoy had always spouted how his family was pure, true members of the British Sacred Twenty-eight? Is this why Fleur had told her to read up on veelas? Had she sensed it as soon as she entered the Burrow earlier that evening?
Draco's familiar magic washed over her, making her hair crackle and she looked up at him. With a wave of his hand, Bellatrix went flying across the Drawing room.
"A mudblood? Really, Draco? The first Malfoy in generations to have been born with such a gift… Yet you manage to turn it into a curse. All this power at your fingertips, and you will use it for the Light?" Lucius said, disdain filling his voice as he looked upon his son.
This only seemed to anger the young veela more. He lifted his arm towards his father and the elder Malfoy started clawing at his throat, gasping for air.
"Do not call her a mudblood," Draco threatened.
"I should have known," Lucius coughed, still scrambling for air. "When all you ever did was complain and talk about Hermione bloody Granger. You never hated her. Never felt lesser than her. Your obsession with her was always fuelled by your blood. Pathetic. Even if she is your fated mate, you couldn't even protect her when she needed you. You nearly let her die before you came into your inheritance. That should show you, son, that she is not right for you."
Draco blinked twice, his cat-like eyes still so foreign to Hermione, and dropped his father to the floor. "I almost let her die," he whispered in disbelief. "I almost… Let her die."
Whatever creature lived within him took over as he fell to his knees and his magic flared out of him and tore down half of the wards of Malfoy Manor with him, burning the room down.
"All that power," Bellatrix cackled hungrily as she watched her nephew destroy his home. As Draco nearly destroyed himself. "If the Dark Lord knows, then-"
"Obliviate!"
Hermione clenched her fist in her blouse anxiously. Narcissa Malfoy stepped forward and aimed her wand at her sister, removing the memory of this ever happening from her mind.
"Draco," she whispered to her son. "Please, son. Calm down."
The brunette felt Lucius' Malfoy's mental talons slide away from her mind and she breathed heavily, trying to rebuild her occlumency. He should not see what this had done to her. But it was so difficult to reign in her emotions after witnessing all of this.
"You see now, Miss Granger, the monster that he is? That it's nothing more than that creature that loves you? Did you really think that my son would ever think you worthy of him?" Lucius told her, looking down at her menacingly as she still struggled to get her bearings.
Something tugged inside of Hermione. His words had hit their target, it seemed. This… Wasn't real? Whatever she felt for Draco, or what he felt for her… Was it just magic, forcing them together?
No. She shook her head to clear her mind. What she felt for him was real. Fleur had told her as much, that the soulmate of a veela could only be forced by their allure. And Draco had never used that on her, she would have known. Wouldn't she? But Fleur had also said she wished that Bill had been her true other half, thinking magic had made a mistake… So perhaps, what Draco felt for her wasn't…
Something broke inside of her, and when she glanced at the elder Malfoy for just a second, she could tell that he had seen it break. He smirked at her viciously.
The house suddenly stopped trembling and she could feel the magic around her change as the wards shifted allegiance to the true Lord Malfoy, the Manor instantly feeling… Welcoming. All because she was- Her eyes widened. Dear Merlin.
Not a second later, the door to the drawing room burst open, and Draco breathed heavily. His hair was a mess, and his dress shirt was soaked in sweat. He clearly had strained himself to get through all of the protective magic his father had put around his ancestral home.
"What do you think you're doing, Father?" he spat at the elder Malfoy, his fury and magic palpable in the air. "Did I not warn you the last time that we duelled, that if you ever dared to hurt a hair on her head, that I would-"
The last time they duelled? Had… Had she been the reason why he'd taken his father's titles from him?
"I didn't touch her," Lucius drawled as he finally threw her wand at her feet. "All we did was have an enlightening conversation. Didn't we, Miss Granger?"
Draco whipped his head and watched her as she carefully took her wand and clasped it in her hand tightly. His demeanour immediately changed, concern showing in his cat-like eyes.
"Mione," he whispered, taking a step closer to her.
"Don't," she pleaded, putting up her hand to stop him. "Don't come closer."
Even in this state, he could pull up his occlumency. His eyes turned cold and calculated. "As you wish."
"It seems my work here is done," Lucius announced, his head held high as he left the Drawing Room.
"I will come and deal with you later, Father," Draco growled, his voice making Hermione tremble in fear.
What power did Draco truly hold? She had just seen his magic blazing and destroying his home when he was barely seventeen. He'd broken her own wards in a matter of seconds the night Crooks died, and those of his ancestral home in just five minutes. And those few times he tried out for the auror academy and wiped the floor with the whole department… Merlin. This had always been the magic that fuelled him.
"I'm sorry you had to find out this way, Mione," the blond said as softly and gently as he could. "I was going to tell you, but-"
"This is why you were so cautious around Fleur," she whispered, finally able to connect all the dots.
His eyes were slowly turning back to their normal stormy grey, but Hermione could still see the amber specs in his eyes, the creature lurking beneath. "I was scared of what you would think of me when you realised that I was… This," he said as he gestured to himself, frowning. "But I shouldn't have been, I should have known that-"
"Is it true?" she interrupted him, staring at her own two feet. She didn't dare look at him. What if he had been using his allure on her and she just hadn't realised? "Is it only because of the veela blood that you are in love with me?"
She dared to glance up at him for a second when he did not immediately respond. Draco clenched his fists and cast his eyes downward. "Is that what he said?"
"Is it!" she screamed in despair, the panic, fear, disbelief, and betrayal she'd been feeling finally flowing out of her.
Draco sighed and pulled his hand through his hair. "It's more complicated than that, Mione."
"Then uncomplicate it for me. Do you, or do you not, like me just because of the blood that is running through your veins?"
"I- I can't be sure," he finally admitted, struggling with his own confession. "I only know that, even before the end of the war, I always thought that you were smart and witty. Driven. Passionate. Brave. Loyal. Those are all traits that I love in you. What I'm sure Krum, Weasley, and Wood also loved in you. All of us have fallen for you at some point or another because you were being you. Whatever curse runs through my veins, it could never influence who you are."
Hermione knew he was speaking the truth. He was in love with her. At least, he himself believed it to be true that his feelings were more than just veela magic. She could feel it in her bones that he thought it to be true. To her horror, she realised, that she was probably feeling exactly what he wanted her to feel.
"I don't manipulate you like that, Mione, I-"
She stared at him. He too seemed to realise what he'd just said. That she had not voiced her thoughts out loud.
"You can get into my mind?" she asked, perplexed.
"Only when you're distressed and your occlumency fails you," he confessed. "Or when you're drunk. I don't do it on purpose, you just… I can just hear you. Feel you. It's the magic wanting me to protect you. It's how I knew that you were thinking of running for Minister. The conversation you had that night with Ginny after you guys got drunk… At first, I thought it was a dream. I hadn't heard you for so long. But then it was as if you were standing right next to me, and I thought, if you really wanted to and needed help, then I would… I would help you become Minister."
That feeling of amusement Hermione had felt that night… The one that didn't feel like quite her own. "That was you?"
"Sadly, this bond goes both ways," Draco said as he pointed from himself to her and back, as if he was pointing out the magical thread that bound them. "It's hard for me to control my emotions and my magic when I'm around you. To hide it from you. And that night, when I heard your voice, I was just so… Happy. The last time I'd heard you, all I could do was suffer along with you after Wood broke your heart. I thought I was going crazy. That I would find him and rip his own heart out for what he'd done to you."
Draco took another step closer to her, but she put up her hand again. "I- I need some time to process this," she said. "Please, just. Just let me go home."
Even if his face betrayed nothing, she could feel how her words had hurt him. The magical bond between them was undeniable there, and she had no clue how she had never noticed it before. Had he truly managed to reign in his emotions so tightly that she wouldn't have noticed the thread between them?
She instantly loathed that she had caused him pain. But all of this… She needed time.
"Of course. Anything you need, Mione," Draco answered, his eyes cold again and his emotions pulled back. The pain she felt from him was nearly gone now. But this time, she knew what to look for, and she could feel it lingering underneath the surface. "Do you want me to escort you to the floo, or do you want to apparate home?"
"Apparate, please. I'd hate to run into your father again."
The true Lord of the Manor nodded once and she waited for him to adjust his wards so she could leave. As soon as she felt the magic around her shift, she apparated away with a bang instead of her usually nearly silent pop. When she landed on her doorstep, the small piece that had broken inside of her felt like a gaping hole. She just wasn't sure if it was a reflection of her own feelings, Draco's, or both.