Department of Mysteries
My goal was to find out more about Dumbledore’s past.
Well, that had gone well. Malfoy one and two had been busy with themselves and Viktor and so I could get closer to my real goal. I wasn’t here to amuse myself, to flirt with men or to pit people against each other, oh no, I had a mission. I was here for a specific reason and I couldn’t and wouldn’t let this opportunity pass to come here when security was less strict than usual. I was certain that no one here was even thinking about what I had planned to do.
I was heading towards my goal with quick steps. The loud sound of my shoes was very audible. Because my time was limited, I had to hurry up. I took the shawl off from my shoulders, folded it and put it into my purse. Determined, I went to the lift.
I had to get to the ninth floor, the so-called Department of Mysteries. I knew that from my research, which hadn’t been easy... just to mention that.
I pressed the button for the ninth floor and the lift started to move squeakily. Next I pulled up my dress without much decorum and drew my white wand. I had the good sense to carry a dagger on my left leg. As I had said, I never went anywhere without weapons.
I prepared myself for my undertaking and didn’t spell myself invisible, as there were curses in the Ministry that prevented attempts like that, but used the Disillusionment Charm to adapt to my surroundings and put a Sonus Ex on my shoes so that my footsteps couldn’t be heard anymore.
Was I excited? Was I nervous? No, I had clearly been more self-conscious in front of the Malfoys. Why should I be afraid? Because I was about to break in? No, I had already done that. It was more anticipation that I felt. I was curious how I would manage to act out my plan and how hard it would become and in what way my knowledge would be challenged.
But I wasn’t afraid, I was looking forward to this challenge. Given that I was about to do something forbidden, the tingling in my belly was getting stronger again. I could feel the adrenaline starting to rush through my veins and how it made be more attentive.
The Department of Mysteries was a mystery even inside the Ministry itself. It was the best kept secret here. No one in the Ministry could say something specific because even if you worked for the Department of Mysteries you knew next to nothing and could not offer any information. The employees were called the Unspeakables because they didn’t talk about their work.
There were many dangerous levels of magic and I didn’t mean Dark and Light. No, there was an incredible diversity in the magic they were probably experimenting with here. Time was one of them, I guessed, because my time turner had come from the Ministry. But there was much more to it than that.
The door of the lift opened loudly. Behind it lay a long, windowless, deserted hallway and on its end I could make out a simple, dark, wooden door.
Thus I left the lift in a hurry, heading towards the wooden door while mumbling some spells to see whether there were detection spells which would sound an alarm.
There were some though to my great disappointment they couldn’t compare to most of Snape’s crazy and nasty inventions. Like I said, to get into the bad-tempered professor’s potion storage had been more of a challenge than this. Wow, I was very disappointed. They were way too trusting! If I had been the Dark Lord, the door would have opened in invitation at once. How depressing.
I could only hope that the secret behind the door was going to turn out to be a bigger challenge.
I stepped, still disappointed but no less attentive, into the entry hall of the Department of Mysteries. I stood inside the door and held it open. All of that was just too easy, which made me suspicious and so I examined the empty hall from this safe position and saw a round room made of stone which was illuminated with unusual blue candle light.
A sly grin took over my face. How cute. I guess this should confound visitors? Along the walls were a dozen identical doors, without handles, very clever. I was chuckling, amused. I bit my lips, thinking. I was certain that once this door was closed, I was trapped. It wouldn’t be possible to make out the exit from all these identical doors.
I was thinking fast, looking over my shoulder to see if someone was coming. But there was no one. Good!
I had a crazy idea that I wanted to test first, so I pointed my wand at the door and used a Flagrate on its inside which marked the wooden door with a flaming cross.
Satisfied, I looked at the mark and overcame the urge to keep the door open. I stepped into the round room and shut the door determinedly. It closed with a loud click. I waited with anticipation, curious about what would happen.
Suddenly the walls started to rotate so that the entry wouldn’t have been distinguishable from the other doors. Keeping orientation was impossible but my idea proved to be the right one.
The concept was good, that I had to admit without envy. But it wasn’t a hindrance for me, Hermione Granger. Their system had too many flaws. I had been confronted with magical riddles at Harry’s side since first year, when the magical world had still been a big question mark for me. I still had had so much to learn and discover. I had already had to solve magical traps as a first year and had done so successfully. This here was not more to me than small traps and no real obstacles… This was not high magic at all, it was more like a children’s game because my Flagrate was still very visible, the mark glowing brightly.
I was rolling my eyes confronted with this ignorant thoughtlessness. One could easily ban all forbidden access with a curse but, well, they made my job easier and I should be grateful for that. To be on the safe side, I opened the marked door and yes, it was still the exit. I was just too sceptical. However, to be careful was never wrong.
Great, it was good to see that everything worked out so well. Now I would have to be quick to find the right door, because Draco and Viktor wouldn’t wait for me forever without looking for me.
I tried the easiest thing that came to my mind and nearly died of vicarious embarrassment because the door opened with a simple Alohomora.
There was a long room with some black desks. In its midst there was a glass container, filled with a dark green fluid. And were that brains swimming in there? Did I see that right? I was still at the door, not stepping into the room. How disgusting. Sometimes it really was pretty tasteless what one got to see. I shook myself in obvious disgust and spelled a Flagrate on this door as well. I closed it again and let the room spin once more.
If every door was going to take me so long, I would still be here tomorrow. And if one thought about my luck, which was my companion day in, day out, then the last door would be the right one!
Now I opened the next door and what it revealed made my blood run cold. There was an unnatural dark hall with even more doors. This hall was huge and there was something that reminded me of an old greek stone theater. There were even stone benches.
In the middle was a podest on which a worn down, age-old gateway stood from which I could hear quiet whispering and hissing which made this place eerily spooky. It made my skin crawl. Quickly I spelled the door shut. What an uncomfortable place.
With what creepy things was the Ministry playing here? That hadn’t been anything good, this much could be said.
Could it be real? All good things came in threes and apparently I wasn’t completely without any luck because I had just opened the right room.
I didn’t put a mark on this door, I just stepped into the room and closed the door behind me.
This hall was literally enormous. Forget Hogwarts, forget the Ministry’s atrium, forget all of that and put all of them into one box. The result wouldn’t be great enough for this hall, just to try and describe its immeasurable size.
I had reached the Hall of Archives and my heart beat was increasing steadily. Why couldn’t I lock myself in here for a few weeks? I would be really happy… However, I didn’t have the time for it and so I gave the ceiling high cabinets only a calculating, nearly sad look. Some of the cabinets were askew, I don’t know how they hadn’t already fallen down. Must be magic. I was looking for a way to specify my search.
There was cabinet after cabinet and this continued into endless depths. Here was the archive of the history of magic, every known detail about an event or a person was here, not only news paper articles, but real references, cross references and every magical relation was noted down to have complete family trees. What was done to the family trees in the homes of the purebloods including blasting unwanted members off of it was their business, here they recorded every member of the family meticulously as soon as the Ministry got note of a magical existence.
And exactly that was the reason why I had to come here. No one, or as good as no one, got access to this hall because there were a lot of shady secrets that many people wanted to be left unknown. Satisfaction was spreading through me, because I had done it! I was here and it had been way too easy, I thought doubtfully, but oh well.
How the hell would I find the right papers now? What system did they use here?
I could see index card boxes on the magical desks that were placed in front of each row. I walked up to one and lifted the lid. There were a variety of labelled index cards… Mh-hm… 1300-1350! Okay, that was obviously some centuries too early, hence I continued to hurry down the hall. Time was running out.
Why was the entry door in the middle, with the year 1300?
It was obvious that such a stupid idea could only come from magical people. Do you know how fucked up it is to walk such a long distance in heels? It’s not very comfortable! Unfortunately I was still looking for the year, or rather, I would be happy if I even found the right century.
Finally I got closer to the right century, the 19th!
I opened the box impatiently and read that I was in front of 1850-1900! Great, finally, I couldn’t believe it! I took the card for the year out and looked at it. Ah, here you had to point your wand and name the event, the person or the date. Magic would do the rest and search by itself.
Well, this shouldn’t be too hard.
“Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore with family and Grindelwald in England.” I heard a suspicious rumble in the dark depths from the askew cabinets, which looked like a very wobbly tower made from books. Suddenly something rattled and once again I was making sure that I was still alone. Two files came flying and landed with a loud clap on top of the desk. The air that now blew towards me was moldy and stale.
Determined, I opened them and got a short overview. Yes, that looked good. I spelled the files smaller and put them into my extended purse, deleted the memory of the index card with a Evociato Restinguere so that no one would know that I had searched for Dumbledore and Grindelwald and went to the next desk. Here I repeated the procedure, but this time for 1900-1950!
“Albus Dumbledore and Grindelwald!” This time the paper that was flying towards me was very thin. I only needed a short look, then put it into my purse. I mumbled a spell to get rid of any traces of myself, turned around brusquely and hurried from the room. This had taken way too long already.
I hurried towards the door and closed it behind me. The room was spinning again around me. Fortunately I only had to test three crosses. The first door I opened was the entry to the dubious archway again. I used a counter curse to erase my Flagrate and spoke a Reparo for the wooden door. It looked as good as new once I had closed it again. Wasn’t it nice that magic existed?
The next door was my exit and so I pointed my wand from here towards the last door and vanished all suspicious traces. Once I closed the last door behind me, every trace that could point towards a trespasser had been painstakingly erased.
I ran towards the lift and reapplied the curses that I had erased or changed before and hurried inside. I had been gone for about three quarters of an hour, like my Tempus showed me. That meant I had been quick, but to need more than thirty minutes for the toilet… my companion and the Malfoys must think that I had flushed myself down.
I tried to calm down my breathing and my heartbeat, removed the two spells from myself, and put the wand back in its place on my thigh to mime once again a well-behaved guest of this ball.
Thus I had re-entered the glossy, bright hallways on the upper floor and let the darkness behind me, and was now in the secluded anteroom of a washroom, looking at myself in the mirror. I was picking at my hair-do when I froze because suddenly I could feel that I was not alone anymore.The prickling in my neck was telling me that I was being watched.
I quickly turned around and saw Lucius Malfoy in all his glory and masculinity opposite me. He was looking at me with an undeniably frozen expression, but his eyes were assessing me. Suddenly he moved towards me, which prompted me to try to avoid him by taking a step to the right. Tactically not a very smart move as I could see now, because he was lifting the corner his mouth with quiet satisfaction. Now I no longer had the mirror in my back, but a marble wall and as he was standing in the way, I couldn’t get past him.
He came slowly but surely closer, appearing very threatening in his confident and self-satisfied manner. It seemed as if he wanted to play.
“Miss Granger, you are being searched for!” he stated with his deep voice quietly and very silkily and I had to suppress a shiver.
“Oh. Sorry if I made things inconvenient. I’ll be there shortly!” I turned around brusquely, but didn’t get very far. Now I was staring at his broad chest, clothed in expensive fabric. He had managed to sneak up to me quietly and swiftly. My small size was quite inconvenient sometimes, as big and intimidating as he stood before me.
If I didn’t want to keep my face in his white shirt, I had to back up. And so I stood with my naked shoulders and my back pressed against the cold, smooth marble, which let me to take an audible breath and gave me goosebumps. All of this was watched closely by the blonde, long haired beau, every movement was obsessed over eagerly.
“Mr Malfoy, I think we should head back to the hall!” I looked courageously into his eyes. This man was impressive in all aspects of his appearance. Knowing about his power and charisma, he seemed to be much more dangerous than Snape, who made a secret out of himself and became one with the darkness, which was something that would be impossible for the man before me and not only because of his bright hair.
“Do you, Miss Granger?” He gave me a derisive look while getting continuously closer, so that there was no place left between our bodies. Just as good that situations like this weren’t new to me and so I managed to keep a calm and collected mask, even if I understood the danger of this gesture very well. He wanted to unsettle me and hoped that I lost my composure so he could revel in my fear. But I wouldn’t make it that easy for him.
“My son fancies you!” he whispered hoarsely and imprisoned me with a flowing motion by putting his hand next to my face and using the other to stroke my throat and collarbone with the head of the snake of his cane with slow and insinuating movements while giving me a very evil grin, which made me swallow in discomfort.
Phew, my pulse quickened. I could feel the cool silver on my heated skin and turned my head to the side to get away from his lascivious touch.
“I’m a mudblood, in which way could your son fancy me?” I scoffed. My own, derisive tone made him lift his cane so that he forced me to look into his impassive, ice cold grey eyes because he raised my chin.
“There are ways to have fun with mudbloods, Miss Granger!” I read something in the depths of his eyes that, together with the words he whispered, made me afraid.
“If you say that, Mr Malfoy!” I was looking into his eyes unwaveringly and felt the hard head of the snake when he pressed against me without warning. I gasped because he forced the air out of my lungs. His powerful, trained body was flush against me and let me feel his excitement against my stomach.
Why always me? Why did all of the snakes think I was at their disposal? Hello? This was the father of my boyfriend, this was Draco’s father who was pressing his cock against me in obvious enjoyment. Did I want this? No, I was certain I didn’t. Why did I always end up in crappy situations like this?
I tried to stay very calm because to lose my nerve now wouldn’t be good. He had taken me by surprise and because of that I was in a position that was pretty bad to fight back from. Did I really want to risk a scandal?
“Mr Malfoy, you are the hand of the Dark Lord, shouldn’t you try to kill me, Harry’s friend, instead of… this here?” I started an offensive because it didn’t matter anymore. He had made his point clear.
I had spoken with a surprisingly calm voice considering he was pressing against me intimately, but I acted as if we were talking at a tea party. Snape had already made me a whore, so I could handle being confronted with a randy Malfoy in a relatively confident manner. Especially as I internally forbade myself any kind of protest. I had to keep a clear head.
I could hear a rough, very deep laugh. He started to play again with his snake and stroked my shoulder and then my arm slowly, sensually.
“You are not afraid to say things where most people would prefer to stay silent…! Interesting… Why should I kill you so soon? There are other ways to get to ones goal! Why should I deny myself the pleasure? And you, you promise me fun…Miss Granger! So calm, so aloof, so little Gryffindor… so perfect for me!!! And the next time you should better keep quiet instead of shouting your assumption regarding the Dark Lord and my roll into the world… I’ll give you another reason to scream!” he was hissing nastily and seized my hair painfully with the hand that he had put against the marble earlier. He turned his head quickly and bit into my right, naked shoulder violently and ruthlessly.
I was paralysed. At first I wanted to scream, the pain was incredible. His teeth dug deeper and deeper into my flesh, with brute force, as if he was a snake and would sink his venomous teeth into me, until they were completely buried.
He was biting me in earnest!!! And pulling my hair unrelentingly.
I was biting my tongue harshly until I tasted blood. I wouldn’t give him the pleasure to hear me scream. Tears of pain were gathering in my eyes. I tried to push him off me with my hands, but he just stood there like a rooted tree, pressing his body even closer to mine so that I kept still. My hands were still imprisoned by his chest and damned to motionlessness. Why hadn’t I paid attention to the simplest and most common rules of self defense?
The reason was quite simple: Who would have thought that Malfoy was crazy enough to attack me like this, in public, at a public function like the ball at the Ministry? Well, I hadn’t. Stupid, it was a mistake!
I would like nothing more than to slam my knee into his private parts but he had already managed to push my legs apart brutally and to put himself in between in the meantime. One couldn’t say that he didn’t think of everything to protect himself from me. He didn’t underestimate my will to fight. Smart man, but had I ever claimed that Malfoys were stupid?
That whole mortifying situation couldn’t have been going on longer than a minute, if not less. Finally he let my aching shoulder go, lifted his white blonde head and looked into my tearfilled eyes with unmistakable hunger.
“You didn’t scream!” he whispered hoarsely and audibly aroused. It seemed to surprise him and also turn him on, causing him to show me his teeth, baring them to me. The teeth which had been sunk into my shoulder with brutal force were red with my blood. A macabre sight which made me swallow heavily. The pain was a strong, steady throbbing in my shoulder and I didn’t want to do him the favour and cry. Instead we held each other’s gaze.
Finally he turned away and looked at his bite. He lowered his head and started to lick my wound with his tongue lasciviously and slowly in a move that appeared almost crazed, tasting my blood and caressing the bite, slowly tracing the wound’s outline and the imprints of his teeth.
I let my head fall back and suppressed a whimper, which wasn’t easy, however, my pride wouldn’t let me give him the satisfaction. I would’ve loved to hit him against the marble. This can’t be real, this isn’t happening to me, please no, I thought!
Suddenly, I could hear steps, someone was coming. Goddess be thanked, I hoped he would let go of me now.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t see anything because I wasn’t in the right position and his unrelenting hand in my hair was keeping my head in place. I had to wait. Again I was cursing my small 163 centimeters. To feel Lucius Malfoy this close and demanding wasn’t comfortable at all.
Where would this lead if the one who had just arrived, whoever it was, wouldn’t say anything, I asked myself desperately because the steps were now silent and I knew we were being watched. Should I scream after all and make a scandal and give Lucius Malfoy the satisfaction to have won?
Goddess be thanked the formerly silent voyeur started to say something because Malfoy, who was now giving my throat small bites in his crazy furor, hadn’t noticed that we weren’t alone or was ignoring it in his arrogance.
“Father? Mother is looking for you. Fudge wants to give the speech with your assistance and Krum is looking for Granger!” I heard Draco’s cool, emotionless voice and I let the breath I was holding go.
Heaven be thanked, it was Draco! Lucius lifted his head abruptly, looked at me once more longingly and stepped back. Finally, he released me, nodding politely. One had to be a pureblood, he observed manners as if nothing had ever happened.
“I’m coming, Draco! Until the next bite, Miss Granger!” he threatened and turned around, leaving the small room majestically, not heeding his son with another look.
Without his body keeping me up, I now stood there a bit shakily. But Draco stepped in front of me, taking my upper arms tenderly, giving me footing. I was rattled up by his father’s deed. He had bit me! Bit me like an animal!
“Hermione, what has happened?” he asked, shocked. “What is that?” He looked at my injured shoulder and I shook him off, turning towards the mirror to see what Lucius Malfoy had done to me. It looked really bad. The still bloody bite seemed unreal, like a drawing, and it hurt still as well. Wasn’t that great? Even my hair was in disarray now. I looked thoroughly disheveled.
“He bit me,” I said, still not believing what had happened. I stared at the very visible imprints of teeth.
“I can see that too and it wasn’t something that could be overlooked, the way he tried to crawl into you. What happened?” Draco took a step towards me and tried to heal my wound with his second, black wand which he always carried with himself. It didn’t work out too well because an Episkey wasn’t enough. It didn’t close all the way and a red, swollen mark stayed which would be a reminder of the incredible situation I had just lived through.
“Thank you, Draco,” I said matter-of-factly, looking at his reflection resignedly. He returned my gaze, the demand clear in his eyes, and I started to explain.
“He said that his son would fancy me, then I said that that couldn’t be the case… because I’m a mudblood…” I turned around and fell into his opened arms which closed around me immediately. “...and said that he should rather try to kill me! He… he stated that there were other ways to have fun with mudbloods. You didn’t have to kill them and he would get me to scream, after that he bit me!” I told him quickly, stammering a bit. Draco stroked my back continuously and calmed me.
“Oh, shit, that isn’t good! Why doesn’t it surprise me that it is you this is happening to? And let me guess you didn’t even make a sound?... Hermione, this only turns him on more. Father is a hunter and he made you his pray. That isn’t good, not at all! And he has already marked you. No… not good at all! He never loses his composure, especially in public! Shit, come, we have to leave now, because he won’t stop until he… Let’s go! He loves the hunt!” He took my arm and hastily pulled me out of the bathroom towards the lift. Fortunately the hallway was empty because of the midnight speech of Fudge and generous financier Lucius Malfoy had just started.
Draco’s statement had shocked me. Here I was, letting him move me like a doll. Now there wasn’t only Snape after me, it was Lucius Malfoy as well who would look for me everywhere!
Well, sometimes, only sometimes, I wanted to scream… but I calmed myself down again and saw reason. It would neither help me nor safe me to lose my cool.
Draco and I walked through the black atrium and got closer towards the apparition point.
“My cloak,” I said, befuddled.
“Forget it, I’ll buy you a new one!” He tightened his hold on my arm and pulled me forwards unrelentingly. It was like a flight.
“Well, apparate us to your cottage!” he ordered curtly and I did as I was told, putting distance between Lucius Malfoy and us, but especially between Lucius and me.
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