Vacivitas

Chapter Two

"Do you know any Healing charms?"

She realizes he's just spoken, so she tears her eyes off of the towering mazes to address him. "I do. But I don't have a wand. The Snatchers snapped it in half when they found me."

His eyebrows shoot up, but only for the amount of time it takes her to take a breath. His expression becomes unreadable. Blank. "I will perform the charm; you tell me the incantation."

"You haven't learned?"

"No."

For some reason, Hermione finds that surprising. It's always been well-known throughout the wizarding community that the Malfoys had an extensive library. Surely there had to be books on healing within. At the very least, had he not had the desire to learn?

"Do you know the proper incantation?" he goes on.

She nods.

"What is it?"

"Well, it's not like episkey. That's for minor fractures and small breaks. I don't think these are minor. It would be illogical to think that my bones are unhurt from malnutrition. They only fed us once a day, and I was there for two months. So, this will require a few extra steps. First, you have to run a diagnostic to see what the issue is. Then, you have to make sure the leg is in the proper position to...To..."

She trails off when she sees something akin to anger intensifying in his gaze. She isn't sure what she's done, but she knows this isn't like angry Malfoy in the halls of Hogwarts. This is a vampire. A vampire who's purchased her for the purpose of feeding from her.

"Am I supposed to apologize now?" she asks, truly unsure of what to do.

He doesn't respond, choosing instead to hold tighter to her chain and Apparate them into the house.

The moment she feels the cool air of the manor against her right side and the heat of flame on her left, a conflict grows within her. This is the Malfoy Manor. This is a place that not only haunts her nightmares, but it's a place that changed something deep within her. Between the Cruciatus, and the agony of having her forearm cut and burned with the tip of a wand, she realized that she was human. A girl with thoughts and emotions and feelings that went beyond books and school. It was on that day that knowledge was worthless in the face of pain.

But the fire is so warm and so soothing. After months of harsh stone and heavy darkness, of meager meals while she wasted away, even a fire in the hearth of a random room in the manor is everything. The pain in her knees is nothing compared to how desperately she leans into the heat.

It's now that she looks at herself. At the ends of her spiraling curls, the coils reaching down to her hips in this seated position. At the ripped tunic her captors had forced upon her which looks like it's made of burlap. At the dried blood on the left side of her body that paints her rich brown skin with dark red. The blood she'd slept in, that had seeped out of someone's body to wrap itself around her.

Knowing how easily she was apparated out of the pit, the other girl must have fought much harder.

"Up," Malfoy says. "Now."

With a wave of his hand the chain and shackles disappear, leaving her arms free.

Hermione steels herself for the agony that will come. She places her hands flat on the lush emerald carpet beneath her, her fingers sinking into it as she starts to push herself upward. Now that the adrenaline of her freedom from the pit has faded, she can feel every inch of her body that aches. Her kneecaps are on fire.

The pain intensifies with each second as she pushes up far enough to get one foot flat on the floor. Sweat beads on her temples and underneath her arms, prickling her skin. It hurts so badly she can't think. So badly that she can't maintain her composure any longer. Tears spring to her eyes and she considers asking him for assistance, but she doesn't want to ask him for anything.