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Captive Audience	By : magentasouth Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Hermione/Voldemort Views: 44847 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: I neither own nor profit from any part of the Harry Potter universe.

Chapter List
- 1-Ch 1
- 2-Ch 2
- 3-Ch 3
- 4-Ch 4
- 5-Ch 5
- 6-Ch 6
- 7-Ch 7
- 8-Ch 8
- 9-Ch 9
- 10-Ch 10
- 11-Ch 11
- 12-Ch 12
- 13-Ch 13
- 14-Ch 14
- 15-Ch 15 (just edited - no addition)
- 16-Ch 16
- 17-Ch 17
- 6
- 7
- 8
It was many hours later that she sat in her cage once again
reflecting somewhat erratically on the events of the night.�

She kept coming back to the Muggle Christian notion of the devil and damnation and
how the former would bring one to the latter by a process of temptations and
small trials.�

She felt like someone who had tripped over the precipice and was falling down
toward the fiery pit.�

The screams...

They still echoed in her ears.

That man hadn�t done anything to
deserve the pain and suffering she�d brought him.�

She thought he might have even been a muggle.�
..The panic..he�d been in.

She hadn�t wanted to.�� But she couldn�t let her wand be
snapped.� It was her wand.� It was all she really had
left!

She should have let him snap it.� She
hadn�t used it in.. however many months she�d been here..

The expression on the rotted, ruined face as she�d cast the
pliatha-croris hex � page forty two of the spell compendium - and the man had
been forced to...expel..frozen shards
of his own urine..�

There had been blood.� A lot
of it!�
The book hadn�t mentioned there would be but she supposed it was
only logical.�

He�d screamed so much that her ears had hurt.

She�d.. silenced
him..

Her fingers picked compulsively at the hem of the wretched
red silk dress Voldemort had transfigured from her robes before he locked her
away again.�

He had been pleased.�

Pleased with the hex... and even more with her blithe silencing of the
man.�

She�d remembered all the hexes.� The temptation to lie and say she couldn�t
remember any more had been there but it was very hard to lie to someone who
could hear your thoughts.��

Most of the spells� effects had been horrible.. she�d wanted
to be sick.

She�d ...killed... the poor man in the end.� She hadn�t meant to.� The praevextra hex had thickened his blood to
the consistency of porridge and he�d just slumped like a dropped marionette.�

She should have realised that the hex would be deadly.� After all... the heart... the brain... but
she�d just been going through the hexes one after another and by the time she
got to it she hadn�t really thought about it.�

Voldemort had been over the bloody moon.�

And afterward he�d taken her back to his room and they�d had
sex again... or rather... he�d fucked her, she supposed. He�d made her come
three times... made her scream in pleasure.�
It had felt...so...good.� Why did
it feel so good?!� It shouldn�t feel like
that.� He was evil.�

It was so wrong.�
Everything was so wrong.�

She had killed someone so that she
could keep her stupid wand and continue to learn dark magic from the monster
that was destroying the wizarding world.�

If there was a devil, she had well and truly sold her soul.�� This was all so wrong.

The morning after she had killed, she had decided that she wasn�t going to do any of this anymore.� She shouldn�t have done anything in the first
place.� When he gave her the choice to
have a bath she should have said NO.

Actually when she first woke up in the cage she should have spit in his eye and dared him to kill her.

She wasn�t going to learn dark magic and she wasn�t going to hurt anyone and
she really.. definitely.. wasn�t
going to think about Lord Voldemort at all in any way anymore. He was an
evil..murdering..monster...

She would be tainted forever for having touched him...��

Her only comfort was that he had apparently not let anyone know about it.� If Harry would come and kill him and save her
then maybe.. just maybe... she could
lie.� Obliviate herself.. pretend it never
happened.� She could go on with her life
and just work hard to atone for the things she did to that poor man.

The day after it had happened, she was absolutely certain that she would submit to the
cruciatus,� go without food and water or
waste away in endless ignored tedium before she would ever hurt anyone again like she�d hurt the poor man last night.

She didn�t want this.� If only he had
left her alone.� The cage was
...safe...� Empty but safe.

He left her alone.�

It was inexplicable.�
If he�d sensed her internal struggle, surely he should have been only
too quick to punish her. .�

But he hadn�t.� It was as if none of it
had happened at all.� As if she�d imagined it all.

He would sit on his throne.. hold meetings.. hear
briefings.. torture.. kill.. all quite routine things.. but she never had the
feeling that he was paying attention
to her.�

It was as if she had ceased to exist again.�

And at first that was good.�
She was relieved.�

She started to turn away when people were being cursed.. she would cover her
ears and close her eyes when she knew someone was about to be killed.�

She started to feel like she was behaving like a real human being again.

She slept.� She ate and drank and she
daydreamed about Harry one day coming and rescuing her.�

Even Voldemort had said that one day
he would come.

And the days went by.

He hadn�t turned his head once to look at her in the cage since he had placed her back inside
it in that red dress.�

But that was fine..�
that was ideal.� That was what she
wanted.

Lucius Malfoy had enquired after Professor Snape.� He had been informed that the traitor had
been killed.��

Hermione had curled up with her legs against her chest and allowed herself to
really feel the awful guilt - Guilt
she had deserved at the time but had suppressed because he had demanded it of her.�

Voldemort had then lured the elder Malfoy into a question to which any possible
response could be construed as an insult, and had cursed him bloody.

She wondered whether she was to blame and resolved to try to think about
neutral things, even as she�d condemned the evil little hope that he had
reacted in that way because of her
thoughts.

An ...unknown
multitude...of days had gone by before she had realised that she wanted to speak.�
She wanted to talk to
someone.� Him.� Anyone.�
She missed it.�

It was peculiar.� She�d gone for months
without it and now.. after only.. what must have been merely a week or two,
(perhaps three or....well, she couldn�t really be sure).. she needed it more
than she had in the beginning.�

No one was ever in the room unless he
was in the room and it was impossible to have a conversation with anyone else while he was in the room.

She hated the way her body woke her as soon as he entered.�

She would pretend to sleep, purely in order to prevent herself from sitting up
and helplessly devoting her attention to him and whatever horrible things he
happened to be doing today.�

She didn�t want him to show her attention again.� She hadn�t liked what he�d done to her at all.

There had been strawberries that morning.�

All the days since..it..had happened there had been rather plain fare.. bread..
broth..stew, rice...A small portion of something nourishing but uninspiring,
with a goblet of water at the side.�

When she had woken on this day there
had been strawberries with vanilla cream waiting.

Her goblet had been full of sweet sparkling wine.� She�d been so surprised when she�d sipped it
that she almost spat it out.��

The dress she was wearing was soft, pale-green velvet.�

...She had shoes..

The shoes had bothered her.�
If she was wearing shoes, it was possible that she might be expected to
leave the cage.�

She didn�t want to leave the cage.

A traitorous little sigh inside disagreed.�

She tried to tell herself that she wasn�t waiting for him,
but it was blatantly untrue.� She was impatiently...waiting for the soft crack
of his apparition..�

All day (or was it night?) waiting.

No one came.� The room
remained empty.�

After a long time � probably a few hours, a plate of sliced
turkey and goose with roasted vegetables and a touch of sauce arrived.�

She had never received more than one meal a day before.

She received, with the plate, two
goblets.�� One held freshly pressed
elderflower cordial and the other mulled wine.

And then she was certain that it was Christmas.

If it was Christmas then it had been almost a year.��

She had cried for a while

He didn�t come.

She had thought he must.. She had
been given shoes after all.. but no
one came.� The room remained dim and
still and eventually she had fallen asleep.

The next time she woke it had been him apparating in.�

He ignored her.�

The hours went by.. business as usual for him.

By the fourth (Fifth?) time she�d woken up after �Christmas�
she had reached the end of her wits.

She couldn�t go back to how things had been before.� It was so much worse now..�� If this was how
it was going to be from now on.. well it just couldn�t be.�� She couldn�t
take this anymore.

She�d dreamed of him again last night..�

He�d been holding her and whispering softly to her and then he�d given her a
book.� When she�d opened it, it had been
blank.� She�d looked up, confused,
wanting to ask about it and found that she was in the ruined arms of the muggle
she�d killed.�� He was an inferius!� He�d clamped his arms around her and leaned
forward with dead eyes and wide black gaping rotten-toothed mouth to bite
her.�

She�d screamed and panicked, struggling, and then he�d disintegrated into ash
and Voldemort�s arms had been around her again, soothing, calming her.�

He�d kissed her forehead and told her that he would look after her.� All she had to do was obey.� It was very simple.�

His arms had been warm and just as the dream was fading she�d realised that she
wanted him to kiss her again.

And after she�d woken up more in the vast dim room, in a
dress that seemed to be made of artfully layered silvery lace, she realised
that she wished she could have stayed in the dream.

It had been..better.. - to be held.. kissed... touched... spoken to..�

It was horrible with the muggle..but... but this was horrible too.�� This silence.� This empty room.. this cage.

She was sure his obliviousness was a kind of
punishment.�

She�d..refused him..denied him.. after he�d been so pleased with her and
rewarded her.. after he�d willingly allowed her to learn whatever she had
requested.�

She had asked to learn the dark arts!

And.. yes.. Ok.. he was a monster.

He was evil. And she was probably
damned if there was something like
the muggle idea of hell.

But he was also clever.. and interesting.. frightening
certainly.. but sometimes he touched her gently.� He always
ensured she found pleasure in his bed.

�and�
well... he was the entire world.�� Nothing else really existed here except him.

�

She was sitting at the side of the cage against the bars
when he apparated in.� He was all chilly
gravitas and preoccupation.�

But no one else had arrived yet.�
Perhaps.. if no one else was here..

She tried to think consciously at him, pleading for his attention.. for him to
look at her.

To say he ignored her would be attributing more intent and attention than he
demonstrated.� He did not even seem aware
of her as he lounged in the throne impatiently.�

�Please...� she whispered.�

�Please.. I�m sorry.�

At that, his eyes
had narrowed slightly but no further reaction had been apparent.��

A minute later one of his ministry-planted apparatchiks had cracked into the
room.�

The day had been dull.. None of the news was particularly interesting.

Apparently a new head had been appointed to the auror division, who had
expressed the intent to clean up corruption within the ranks, however not much
was known about the man yet.�

After that there was a financial briefing of sorts.� Patrons and investors from within the United
Kingdom and further abroad.�

Voldemort looked bored and bordering on dangerously irritated.� He hadn�t cursed anyone yet today.��

She couldn�t think of anything he might find amusing.�� She tried to.. but she was too preoccupied
with wishing that the people in the room would go away and leave her with him
and that he would notice her again.

They didn�t, although the rather dull looking man, who she gathered was a
wizarding accountant of sorts, looked at her curiously.� She wasn�t normally this close to the filigree
...or this uptight and desperate for attention.

Voldemort sent them away again as soon as the last man had presented his
recommendations.�

He had stood and was turning as if to apparate away when she cried out to him
in panic.

�WAIT!!!�

�PLEASE!!.. PLEASE... DON�T GO!!�

�...please... �

He still hesitated.�

It wasn�t enough.�

�...Please...Master...�

He still didn�t turn but there was a soft click.�

She pushed at the cage door that had unlocked and it swung open.�

Her hesitation was only momentary but she heard him sniff angrily and the door
started to close again.� She whimpered
and leapt out through the gap, skittering over to him hurriedly.�

He was tall.. so tall.� She�d almost
forgotten how tall he was.� He was even
taller when she�d dropped down to her knees desperately hoping that this was what he wanted.�

Now he turned.� Red eyes pinned her in icy disdain.

�Get up.�

His voice was cold, as if he were speaking to a failed death eater.� Or worse.�
It was very nearly exactly the voice that he always reserved for Draco
Malfoy.�

She climbed to her feet quickly.�� I�m
sorry!� she whispered.

�Words..� These are
empty words.�� Do you comprehend the reason for my infuriation
with you?!�

She wanted to nod; wanted to say that she did � it was
because he�d been ..good to her.. and she�d thrown it back at him.

His thin lips twisted into a slight sneer.

�Do not delude yourself into thinking that I
could be..personally offended.. by anything you
might say or do, little mudblood.� It
merely irritated me to have wasted my
own time on your self-professed desire to learn.� I might better have spent the energy on other
things.�

She shook her head and looked down.

�Maybe I�m not really suited to the dark arts..� she mumbled.� �I..� I
don�t remember why I even wanted to learn those spells.�

His eyes narrowed again and he looked away.�

�You are...pitiful.� A witch who could be strong but chooses
to be weak..chooses to be a child.� You performed admirably...and then you ruined
all you had achieved when you determined you would wallow in self recrimination
and guilt.� You are still indulging in that repulsive behaviour...� I will not subject myself further to your
insipid begging and excuses.� Return to
your cage��

Hermione�s eyes widened in horror and she shook her
head�

�No!!� No!! I�ll be better!� I�ll change!�
Don�t send me away!� Please!� I�ll.. I�ll learn whatever you want me to
learn.� I�ll..�

She swallowed.

�I�ll try to do what you ask .�� I�ll try not to feel guilty.�� Please don�t leave me alone in the cage
anymore!!�

Voldemort looked at her sceptically.

�More words.� If you are determined, you
will show me your resolve.�

I wish to see how many curses you have retained since last using them.�

She couldn�t help but flinch. Somehow she had known that
that was what it would come down to.� All
the same it was still terrible to realise what he was going to demand of her if
she wanted to leave the cage again.�

She knew it was wrong to even consider
it.. but she so urgently wanted to
leave the little box again.. to exist
again.��

She�d sworn to herself she�d never ..hurt..someone
again.�� She avoided that other word.. the more..permanent.. thing
she had done to the muggle

The Dark Lord�s mouth twisted in a sneer of disgust.� �As I said.�
Weak.�

�Return to your cage little girl or I shall toss you in, myself.� My time is too precious to waste on this foolishness.�

Merlin help her but even the way he was looking at her now was better than being entirely
ignored.��

Any small part of his attention.. even negative attention.. was better that
that thin bare-existence behind a silvery lattice.

�I�ll do it� she whispered.��

He looked sceptical again even as his sneer faded slightly.
�I advise you to be certain.� If you oblige me to waste further time on
your self-pity and melodramatic snivelling, I shall place your cage in an empty
room and you will no longer be permitted even to watch.. You will spend the remainder of your time in constant light
and unbroken silence.�

The horror of that possibility shook her.� For a moment she considered whether it might
not be better to crawl back to the cage rather than risk that.�

If she couldn�t do it?� If she couldn�t
hex someone.. or if she couldn�t remember the hexes?� Would he do it?

The hard ruby glint of his eyes and the disdainful expression assured her that
he would.� He would leave her to go mad in the quiet by
herself..�

She swallowed thickly.�

She couldn�t continue this way in the cage either though.� She couldn�t!�
Each day it felt like something of her drifted away more and more.�

She�d been alive for a while.� When he�d spoken with her.. when he�d allowed
her to feel things..� He�d offered her..books... her wand...

...his body

�Whatever you want.�
Just..don�t ignore me again� she mumbled.��

He sniffed dubiously, glittering eyes studying her... Then
his pale hand reached for her and gripped her upper arm tightly before he
apparated them both away.

The sensation that she hadn�t felt in a while and had never
liked to begin with left her dizzy and reeling.�
He had let her go as soon as they arrived in the dark dingy room and she
swayed on her feet, just managing to find her balance and right herself before
she would have folded to the ground.�

She looked up reluctantly, unsurprised at the bare stone walls and dim
torchlight.� Somewhere there would be
muggles cowering..

This time, however, it wasn�t a random innocent muggle she
found herself faced with.� There was only
one occupant of the small cell.�

She could only stand and gape at the terribly familiar face.

Lavender was pressed into the corner of the cell shaking and
sobbing.�

She hadn�t even looked at Hermione,
standing in her silvery lace gown; she was so focussed on the gestalt at her
side.� Voldemort could loom frighteningly
without even trying.�

Hermione stared at the girl, she had never particularly
liked, in this bizarrely unfamiliar context.�

Lavender was wearing the remains of her school uniform. The
blouse was greying and filthy.� There
were brown stains on the skirt which might have been blood, Hermione
thought.�� Her hair was ragged and she
was much thinner than she had been.� Her
clothing did not hang on her however, so Hermione presumed she must have
arrived that way and wondered whether the stress of the war had upset her
appetite or whether it was intentional.�
The girl had always been a little...curvy... in the past.�

She�d thought some quite disparaging thoughts about her when she was draped all
over Ron sucking his face during fifth year.

That thought almost made her smile.� Oh
yes... back when she had found Ron a bit cute...kind of attractive.�

�Do not try my patience..� the Dark Lord muttered in the
tone she recognised as one of extremely temporary
restraint.�

�Begin at the beginning.� Omit the
Praevextra.��

He reached into his robe and withdrew - wonder of wonders � her wand, offering
it to her with a long even stare of warning.

She took it and stroked her fingertips over it and that was when Lav Lav regained enough presence of mind to realise
that there was someone else in the room besides Lord Voldemort.

�Hermione?!!� she
squeaked, horrified.

Hermione stiffened a little, the reality of the situation
flooding back in.� Lavender had never
been exactly the brightest...but she
obviously had enough sentience to take in the fact that her old roommate was in
the room, had been given a wand by Lord Voldemort himself and instructed to do
something with it.

�Everyone thought you were captured!� You�ve joined
you know who?!� �How?!�
You�re a ��

Hermione realised that she didn�t want to hear whether the
word the girl chose to describe her started with mug or mud.�� She didn�t want to allow Lavender to have a conversation with her at all.�

If she was to be able to do this, then she would have to remove those things
that most froze her and ignited her guilt.�
There was no other way.�

Fortunately there were curses among
the selection Voldemort wanted demonstrated that would serve the purpose.

She extended her arm quickly and incanted �tăiate ochii.� While the girl screamed
hysterically and scraped at the glassy ichor trailing down her cheeks from her
ruined eyesockets, Hermione had already steeled herself and incanted the second
curse she needed.� �retire lang�

It was one thing to decide to use it and another thing entirely to face the
result however.� She hadn�t gotten that
far in the book with the muggle before he..er.. broke.�� The sound of the meaty organ slapping down
onto the stones, coupled with the thick gurgling inarticulate screaming was too
much.�� Hermione turned and emptied her
stomach onto the floor behind her.��

She had not eaten yet, so there was little to eject, but her mouth tasted of
acid bile now.� She used her wand to
quickly vanish the small dribbles on the floor, worried that she was going to
be called weak again.�

�Idiotic and
disobedient� the high, perversely harmonic voice snarled from further away than
he had been standing before she bent to vomit.��

She looked around to find Voldemort healing Lavender�s wounded mouth and throat,
although he seemed to be ignoring her empty eye sockets.�

Her former roommate was still and quiescent, obviously restrained. She was
still screaming.� Now the sound was an
ugly croaking screech.� The uprooted
tongue twitched on the ground but at least blood was no longer pouring from her
mouth down her dirty blouse.�

�I instructed you
to begin with the lesser flesh eating curse, I believe�

Voldemort sounded clipped and irritated as he abandoned the girl, freeing her from
whatever was preventing her from struggling.�
She immediately turned and ran - straight into the wall unfortunately -
bouncing off and falling over, then recovering and crawling away again till she
found a corner to cower in.

�I�m sorry.. I.. needed...� Hermione tried, faltering.�

�I thought if I..�

She sighed inwardly.� She had made an
error.� Two errors.� She had selected a curse that wouldn�t
achieve what she wanted to achieve � She would have had to use the curse
eventually and thought that to use it now she might escape the accusations and
slurs that were sure to spill from her former roommate�s mouth the moment she
began to curse her.� But Lavender was
still making disturbing noises even if she couldn�t talk anymore.� It wasn�t much better.� On top of that error, she had not done
exactly what she was told.� He had said
�start from the beginning.�

She scraped together what she needed to say.

�I�m sorry...my Lord.� I shouldn�t have
used those curses � especially the last one.�
Thank you for fixing my mistake.�
I will listen from now on.�

To her astonishment, the pale alien face softened slightly
and then Lord Voldemort sighed.

�Proceed...without silencing the
witch.. and I shall disregard it.�

She let out the breath that she had been holding and turned
back to the bloodsoaked, wailing girl in the corner.��

�Manje vyann� she incanted softly, aiming the spell at Lavender�s bare
foot.�

She didn�t want to cause too much damage too early - especially not after the
slip with the tongue tearing curse.�

Black speckles appeared faintly, growing rapidly until the side of Lavender�s
foot was covered in dark bruise-like marks.�
Then the skin at the centre of each bruise radius seemed to pucker and
begin to be eaten away.�

�Good� came the soft praise as the Dark Lord
paced softly to stand behind her right shoulder.�� She raised her wand and halted the spread of
the flesh eating curse.

�The next.� He sounded slightly closer and
as she lifted her wand to cast the next curse - a rather benign one from
ancient Japan which simulated the sensation of insects crawling all over the
body - she felt one of her porcelain doll ringlets captured, lightly tugged and
released.�

�Sen mukade no kyōki� she
pronounced.��

Lavender jerked away from the wall and started to brush her
hands all over herself in a panic.� Her
croaking cries, which had been subsiding slightly, returned to the same
panicked bursts as she slapped at her body with increasing desperation.�

Voldemort was silent behind her so she assumed it was acceptable and that she
was supposed to continue.� The second
Japanese curse in the collection tripped off her tongue easily.

�Sotto iki��

She was relieved when Lavender�s cries were snuffed as surely as if she�d been
muffled with a pillow.� The curse
wouldn�t allow her to fill her lungs fully.�
It didn�t prevent one from speaking softly, but panic and yelling was
impossible without suffocating.

�Good..�� The voice
from behind her praised softly. �Perhaps this
curse might have been one other option, if you insisted upon disobeying.

...Proceed..� Do not pause so between
curses � I do have other plans this evening which I am delaying for you...�

Lavender was only sobbing exhaustedly by the time she
reached the pliatha-crorix hex that had been so damaging on the muggle.� She paused uncertainly.�

�You may skip to the next� Voldemort�s voice murmured, close behind her.� He sounded ..pleased..with her.� She
couldn�t help but feel relieved.��

She was starting to feel very tired though.�
Some of these spells were quite difficult - the next one for instance
required energy to maintain.� But she�d
gotten a lot further than this when she was casting on the muggle.� She raised her wand and tried to collect
herself.

�Stop.�

The voice came from close behind her right ear.� Voldemort had leaned forward.� She could sense
how close he was...feel his warmth in the cold room.�

�You must be aware of your own capabilities.�� Do you imagine I wish to nurse you if you
deplete yourself to the point of collapse?�

She hesitated.

No.. she really didn�t.� Why was the thought of him nursing her back to
health so inexplicably appealing?!� He�d
probably just dump her in the cage.

But last time.. when she�d been cruciated...

No.. it�d be the cage.� He wouldn�t do
that this time.

And really... he�d just offered her a chance to stop cursing Lavender.�� She could choose to stop and she had a legitimate reason for doing so.

Why was that thought occurring to her last of all, after considerations of her
health and possible chance of being touched and coddled by him?! Ugh.. she was
a terrible person!

She lowered her wand.

Warm fingers ghosted down her arm and removed it from her
hand.� She wanted to resist but..if she
did then she�d probably only persuade him not to let her have it again.

�I know that you could
have managed more, Hermione... But I am pleased with your performance even so.�

Behind her, he stepped that final half step until his robed form was touching
her back.� She realised that the lace
seemed to magnify the feeling of the
warm silk brushing against her.

His hand that had taken her wand, and obviously secreted it away somewhere,
returned to her and glided very slowly down the front of her body, barely
touching her.

She sighed and leaned back against him ever so slightly

�Ah... I take it you have
missed me then..� he said in a soft murmur.��
�Yes!� she answered immediately, keeping her eyes on the stone and away
from the whimpering pile of Lavender Brown in the corner.

�yes... I�m sorry.. please-..��

She didn�t need to finish the plea because his hand pressed more firmly against
her, pulling her harder against him and then stroked slowly back up her
body.� It paused briefly to caress her
breast, teasing her nipple to a protesting point beneath the lace dress that
was suddenly horribly, irritatingly, itchy and constrictive, then the warm palm
continued upward till he gripped her throat snugly, stroking the skin with his
thumb gently.

It was insane.. to enjoy this.. the
feeling of Lord Voldemort�s hand ever so gently threatening her.� Her eyes slipped closed and she leaned
against him, giving up entirely.

�You disappointed me last time, Hermione...� he said
quietly, his strange silky purr above and behind her right ear.� �If I reward you again.. what is to say that
you will not make such an abominable fuss again tomorrow..��

She wanted to tell him that she didn�t want to be alone
anymore.� She wanted to say that she�d try not to feel guilty.. or regret �
that she�d made a choice this
time..��

She wanted...� She wanted...a number of
things that she couldn�t possibly say out loud, chief among them being for him
to kiss her again.

Shaking her head was impossible.� The
mere thought of moving caused his hand to tighten slightly.

�please� she managed breathlessly. �I won�t..�
I...��

His hot tongue slithered up the outer shell of her ear
slowly.�

She felt all the pertinent muscles from her neck to her
knees clench in reaction and she knew
she was already wet.� At what point had
she started to get wet, she
wondered.� When he�d stepped close behind
her?� When he�d touched her for the
apparition?� When he�d spoken to
her?�

When she�d first seen him today?

�Do you think you deserve
to be rewarded, my ..disobedient..
little acolyte?� he murmured against her ear and she whimpered in sudden
painful need.

What was the right answer?!

�No...�� But...I want to be..� she whispered �Please!!�

She felt his smile.

�Perhaps after you are finished here.� he offered in a
pseudo-generous tone.�

She frowned slightly.� She had thought
she was finished here.� He�d let her stop.� He�d told her she�d performed well.� performed.
�Past tense.� Did he want her to continue now?!

�The girl has recognised you, Hermione.�
Do you expect me to clean up
your leavings?!�

Her frown deepened.� Lavender had no
tongue.. no fingers.. she had no eyes.. and therefore no one could use legi..

But the Dark Lord could hear her
thoughts all the way from the cage.��
And... she had sometimes wondered whether Professor Dumbledore couldn�t
do the same.�

...But they were really powerful wizards
� it was almost certain that most
wizards who might come in here to torture Lavender wouldn�t be able to do that.

On the other hand... maybe... just maybe
aurors or mediwitches of some kind might have a method for legilimentic
extraction without eye contact... She couldn�t be sure.��

Voldemort would never consider those a threat though.. - Although he seemed
sure that Harry would come, he was also quite certain that he himself would
prevail.�

All of this, she realised, was semantics.

He had implied what he wanted.� She would
either do it, or she wouldn�t.

�How?� she asked in a tiny toneless voice.�

The hand around her throat released her and slapped her across the cheek, in a
manner he probably considered a
friendly tap.� She gasped and flinched in
shock as her cheek stung

�Now, now.. you are doing it again, my dear.� I�ll have
none of that miserable fatalism.� Your
self-pity repulses me!�

In answer to your legitimate question
� I will, against my better judgement, allow
you to use whatever spell your own engorged conscience considers most
tolerable.

�Put her out of her misery, if you
must... if a humane end will assist you not to harp on ad nauseum after the
fact.�

He stepped away quickly and she was left with a cold feeling
where he had been.� The thin lace skin
that made her so sensitive to his touch, made her just as sensitive to the
chilly dungeon air.

Her wand was offered to her impatiently.

�Do not dither.� I am already late for a
gathering at which I am to be the guest of honour.� You are obliging me to insult my hosts and
their guests.�

Hermione took the wand and tried to think.� The whatever
that Lord Voldemort was supposed to attend was distracting her from the more
important thoughts of what she should use on Lavender and why.

Her mind was compiling a list of spells that would..um.. put her down.� That is..�
uh.. extinguish her life.��

Some of them involved bleeding � she abandoned those.� They would be messy and frightening.

She thought almost immediately of the praevextra which had
killed the muggle.

For some reason she had the feeling that the wizard standing impatiently behind
her somewhere would be disappointed if she chose that one.�

Although.. it had seemed quite painless.�
He�d just collapsed and then he was dead.

...Of course.. there was another
spell that was supposed to be quite painless, wasn�t there?!�

Everyone knew it.. or at least knew of
it.�

He�d like it if she could use that one..��

But then... it was also very hard to use, she knew.� It required focus.. and power.. and will.. and most people who were of the kind of
disposition to want to use it lacked one or all of the above.�

Technically, she even knew how it was cast - after the false
Moody had given such an awful class
presentation on the unforgiveables and had clearly demonstrated the wandforms to all the impressionable little minds
sitting there in dumbfounded horror, the spell had been digested and filed
almost without thinking.�

She had never tried it though..�

Well obviously she wouldn�t have used it!�
She wasn�t going to go and kill something just to see if she could �
even though Rita Skeeter had been a very tempting target for a while as she
buzzed irritatingly in her little jar.

She didn�t know if she could cast it at all.�

But.. it was a humane end, they said,
even if the fear of it within the wizarding world kind of belied that
fact.� It would be a peaceful death for
Lavender.� And ..if she was going to have
to kill her one way or another...

She cut that thought off right there.�
He�d warned her against fatalism and self pity.� She could hear impatient shifting behind
her.� Any second now he would lose
patience.�

Taking a deep breath, she raised her wand and aimed resolutely at the miserable
little whimpering form in the corner.

��Avada Kedavra�

Author note.

Review replies can be found at
http://www2.adult-fanfiction.org/forum/index.php/topic/18725-review-replies/

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