Manacled

Chapter 28: Flashback 3

Severus paused and then added "He will not be loyal to the Order but he'll be as excellent a spy as he is a Death Eater."

"Is it worth it if we can't trust him?" Hermione asked.

"At this point I don't think the Order has any other option. Do you?"

Hermione shook her head and gripped the arms of the chair.

"And-I think he miscalculated somewhat when he made his offer," Severus added.

"How?"

"Asking for you. I think it was a mistake on his part," Severus said staring at her speculatively.

Hermione blinked. "Why?"

"As I mentioned to Moody, I observed Draco had a sort of fascination with you in school. Do not misunderstand; I am not claiming it to have been anything meaningful, much less serious. However, you were someone he noticed. You may be able to use that fact to your advantage. I don't believe he realises it."

"He demanded to own me. I think he realises it," Hermione pointed out.

"If he merely wanted a body to own or fuck, he could get practically any one he wanted with little effort. You're hardly Helen of Troy, and even it you were, he hasn't laid eyes on you in almost six years. And you certainly weren't then. I doubt he even knows what you currently look like. On the list of grudges he likely carries now, I doubt your academic rivalry still qualifies," Snape retorted. "You are not the motive for his switch of allegiance."

Severus' words plunged Hermione into a state of simultaneous relief and despair. She did not want the attention of Draco Malfoy-but she needed it. She felt suddenly tempted to cry over the sheer impossibility of the mission she had.

"Therefore," continued Snape, "his decision to add you into his demands is an opening. If you choose to take it. You-could make him loyal."

"By what? Seducing him?" Hermione asked skeptically.

"By holding his interest," Snape said, rolling his eyes as though she were dense. "You are an intelligent enough witch. Be interesting to him. Find your way into his mind so that he starts to want what he cannot simply demand from you. You're most assuredly not going to hold him with your feminine wiles."

Snape snorted as he said it.

"Men like Draco Malfoy are ambitious, which makes them quickly bored by anything that is easy for them to obtain. Sex is possibly one of the easiest things for him to get; even sex with you now-given the terms he set. You will have to be more than that, and you will have to make him see it."

Hermione gave a curt nod with assurance she did not feel as Snape added, "He'll have a considerable advantage of power over you. However, the fact that you hold his attention means you may still have a hand worth playing. After nearly six years, when he had a chance to demand anything, you were what occurred to him to ask for. You will have to utilise that knowledge carefully if you wish to equalise things or make him loyal."

"Malfoy isn't stupid. He'll expect it."

"He will."

"But you think I can manage it?"

"Are you trying to fish for compliments, Miss Granger?" Severus said coolly. "At this point in the war, I think almost anything is worth attempting. That you have any chance of succeeding is highly unlikely. You have agreed to sell yourself in exchange for information to an incredibly dangerous wizard who has obtained most of his power by means of his own considerable intelligence. A wizard whose current motives are a mystery; even to those who have known him a lifetime. He is exceptionally isolated and mercurial, even by Death Eater standards. He did not get where he is by being easily beaten or having predictable weaknesses."