The Silver Envelope

The Factory in the Forest

to do to Johanna when this was all over.
The night air outside was chilly and curiously still. Hermione heard Boone's footsteps crunch along behind her as she floated along. There was no point in being awake right now if she couldn't see where she was being taken. Truly, this aversion to flying and heights was becoming a real issue for her. Since she was facing downward with her hair obscuring the sides of her face, she decided it would be alright to take a peek. With a deep, steadying breath, she forced herself to open her eyes a
The ground floating past beneath her looked to be hard, compacted dirt, lit by Boone's wand.
Careful not to move her head too much, she peeked through her curls at the forest around her. The edge of the trees was interrupted by a gurgling stream, which curved past the cabin in a wide arc. It soon became obvious, once Hermione spotted the little boats docked at the side of the river, big enough for four people each, that Boone planned to take her wherever they were going by water.
He loaded her, a bit carelessly, into the bottom of a boat, where she was curled uncomfortably in the foothold. Hermione's stomach lurched unpleasantly when Boone stepped in after her, causing the vessel to pitch suddenly to the side. At least she was facing away from him, for the most part He might have been able to see her open eyes were it not for the hair strewn across her face. As it
was, she had a passable view of the trees beyond the water.
Before they set off, Boone cast a Patronus charm. The silvery bat flew to sit at the prow of the little boat, confirming Hermione's fears.
They were in the Anobeith Forest. Dementors haunted these woods.
With a gut-wrenching lurch, the boat began its journey, the enchantments on the vessel carrying them laboriously upstream. Hermione felt the moment they crossed the layer of protective charms that formed an invisible bubble around the cabin, for the bone-chilling dread she'd experienced earlier when looking at the trees from the window became abruptly visceral. Ice creeped inside her veins. Hopelessness increased the pull of gravity tenfold. The night was eerily silent but for the quiet splashing sounds of the stream. The sensation that someone or something was watching them from the dark trees caused her to shiver involuntarily. Boone seemed not to notice, preoccupied as he was with navigating the boat and keeping up his Patronus.
They passed under a quaint stone bridge, then began to curve around a bend leading due north. It had been a long time since Hermione had taken her last Astronomy class, but bits of navigation she'd learned all those years ago returned to her mind in a flood. The fact that the sky was clear enough to see the stars, allowing her an idea of her approximate location and direction, was almost comforting enough to counteract the chill of the forest around them. Goosepimples rose on her arms, which were only covered by the thin sleeves of her shirt since she had accidentally left her
coat at Ron's.
Hermione repressed a shiver as she watched the icy puffs of her breath reflect the silver light of the bat at the prow. She hoped this ride wouldn't take too long. Her fingers and toes were already starting to go numb. Boone's little bat felt like a paltry protection against the creatures of despair
and horror that haunted these trees. If they attacked. she would have no way to defend herself.
By her best estimation, they were in the boat for roughly fifteen minutes. By the time the bottom of the boat ground into the shallow side of the river where they were to disembark, she was practically frozen.
Boone lifted her up with the same charm, making her float along ahead of him as he walked along
a stony. mossy path. Without the ability to raise her head. Hermione couldn't see much about
where they were headed other than a vague glow of light coming from somewhere ahead of them
Tiny, high-pitched cries of "Ms. Granger?" and "No!" met her ears as bright light and warm air surrounded her. They must have entered another building.
"Shut your little traps!" shouted a nasally voice Hermione recognized as Pansy Parkinson's. "Get back to work! No talking!"
Much shuffling ensued.
Hermione risked a peek through her eyelids as she floated along, though she couldn't see much more than what was directly beneath her. The ground had been replaced by an uneven, mossy stone floor. She couldn't see much of the building from her position--mostly just Boone's large boots.
Excitement popped in her gut when she saw the handle a familiar wand poking out of the pocket of Boone's dark robes. Her wand! Boone had it! It was just out of reach..
Cold stone slammed into her, jarring her away from thoughts of escape. Her knee hit the floor painfully, causing Hermione to bite back a yelp as she attempted to keep up her lifeless façade, face down on the floor. She'd landed near a set of wrought iron shackles that were bolted to the wall.
Clearing her mind took only a second, in which she formed a plan. When Boone came close to do
un her shackles. she would steal her wand out of his pocket and stun him
An awful, sinking feeling overtook her when Boone remained out of arm's reach, using his wand to animate the shackles instead. They clamped around her wrists tightly, flashing hot for a moment as they magically sealed in place. Commonplace muggle tools like keys or hairpins would not help
her with these
"Wakey wakey, sweetheart," Boone called, hitting her with a rennervate spell, which jumpstarted
Hermione's heart with a painful surge.
She did her best at pretending to be waking up from a long nap. Rubbing a sore spot at the back of her head, she groggily sat up and looked around. The horror she felt as she saw the shackles around
her wrists was not difficult to take.
"What's going on?" she asked, voice hoarse with real fear. "Where am I?"
Finally, she got a good look at Boone's face. It was the dark-haired man she and Draco had seen with Pansy and Flint in Diagon Alley. He grinned at her with crooked teeth.
"Good morning, Granger," he said in a falsely cheerful voice. "Nice of you to visit us."
As the room around her came into focus, so did a feeling of sharp panic, for her surroundings barely qualified for the auspicious title of "room." She appeared to be in an abandoned, crumbling stone ruin, haphazardly patched over with enchanted concrete and gumming charms to close up the bits of the ceiling that had fallen out over what was clearly a couple of centuries of wear.
Underneath the shoddy patchwork, Hermione thought she recognized the gothic architecture style of what might have once been a church, though she couldn't be sure. She felt certain, however, that she was in the largest area of the ancient structure, where vaulted ceilings enclosed the once-grand hall.
On a low dais at the head of the room sat a large iron cauldron on a stone plinth, big enough that Hermione could have wrapped her arms around the outside of it without being able to touch her fingertips together. Next to it, only a few feet away from her, a shabby box overflowed with what looked to be children's costumes, accompanied by an assortment of crates, bottles of potion ingredients, a large spool of what looked to be silver jewelry chain, and other paraphernalia for what was obviously a highly illegal and makeshift enterprise
Metal tables had been set up around the room, as well as bright blue barrels of chemicals labelled with dangerous symbols, large vats o yellowish goo, and many other strange instruments. They appeared to be arranged into several workstations, all currently manned by dozens of elves wearing filthy rags, working to imbue the wand polish with their magic. Many of them shot surreptitious glances at Hermione where she sat chained. When a pair of familiar, frightened hazel eyes found Hermione, her heart leaped. Ignoma was staring at Hermione with a horrified expression.
Pansy, wearing frilly purple robes and an expression of puggish delight, wiggled her fingers at Hermione in a smug hello from the other side of the room. In the corner nearest his girlfriend, Flint leaned lazily back in a chair, twiddling his wand and ignoring the commotion with a bored expression. Next to him, a Patronus resembling a German Shepherd sat, explaining the bright warmth of the room.
"Looks like our new pet mudblood has finally arrived!" Pansy giggled as she sauntered over, hitting her wand against her palm like a baton. "And just in time for a visit from the owner
herself!"
Hermione barely had time to wonder who Pansy meant when the witch whirled around at the sound of a frightened squeak behind her. One of the elves who had been working on scooping globs of finished polish into a tin had dropped it, resulting in a small mess underneath his workstation. Pansy shouted obscenities at the cowering creature, who blanched as he frantically tried to clean up the mess with his bare hands.
"You blundering little clot! Clean it up! Now!" Pansy screamed. She pointed her wand at the terrified creature, and Hermione let out an involuntary shout of protest as Pansy shot sparks at the elf, interrupting his effort to clean the mess with tiny, painful burns. The elf cried and tried to
shield its tace from her assault
"Stop it!" Hermione screamed, her wrists pulling at the shackles. Pansy ignored her, sending another spurt of sparks at the elf before spitting on him for good measure.
"You there!" Pansy said, pointing at Ignoma. "Get that cleaned up. He's clearly too useless to do it himself."
Ignoma rushed over to help the other elf, producing a rag to wipe up the mess and inspecting the
burns on his race
Pansy turned away from the clves then. coming back over to where Boone stood next to Hermione.
He had watched the whole interaction with the same bored expression Flint had.
Pansy rolled her eyes.
"Every day with these things," she complained. "It's always something, I swear."
She noticed Hermione's expression of horror and disbelief. Smirking, she turned to Boone.
"D'you think we've got enough time for a smoke before she gets here?" she asked him.
Boone shook his head.
"Don't think so. Any minute now."
"Who's coming?" Hermione asked.
Pansy ignored her.
"I'm gonna ask for a raise after all this is over," she said, gesturing limply at Hermione. "She's going to be insufferable. I can already tell. Are you sure we can't just shave her head and have done with it? Seems like a lot of bloody effort, keeping her locked up here.
Boone merely shrugged.
"Gotta be fresh, I s'pose," he said. "They don't know how long she'll need it."
Pansy examined her nails critically, a frown appearing on her face.
"I still don't see why Johanna's got to do it," she said, a note of bitterness marking the words. "I could be her too. It's not exactly hard to act like a know-it-all freak."
Hermione's head went into overdrive. Were they talking about using Polyjuice Potion to impersonate her? Right in front of her?
They had no intention of ever letting her go. Hermione had already guessed this, but the cold reality of what it would mean for her had only just sunk in. She would be kept chained up like Professor Moody had been, for the rest of her miserable life. Cold sweat broke out all over her body.
"Don't let Flint hear you saying that," Boone said quietly, glancing at Flint, who was so still in the corner that he appeared to have fallen asleep. "Volunteering to pretend to be Malfoy's little girlfriend isn't a good look."
Pansy's frown deepened, her face tinged red with a humiliated flush.
"That's not why!" she hissed. "I just think it would be nice to get away from here sometimes! I'm freezing my bits off!"
"Oi!" Flint called from the other end of the room. Pansy flinched violently, looking around with the expression of someone who'd been caught doing something naughty. Flint wasn't paying attention to her. He was staring out the nearest window, directly at the path leading up to the entrance.
"They're coming! She's here!"
"Right," Pansy said squaring her shoulders and clapping for attention. "The boss is here, everyone!" she shouted at the elves. "Be on your best behavior! And for god's sake, don't drop anything!"
Healer Selwyn appeared in the door at the far end of the hall, three glowing Patronuses at his side.
Behind him, Johanna walked in, wearing a superior smile. Finally, everyone straightened as the last person. a sauat woman in lacy pink robes. entered. Hermione's stomach fell out when she recognized the toadish face and the stupid little bow on top of her head.
Dolores Umbridge looked around the room with her head held high, her tight smile widening to a
satisfied grin at the sight of Hermione on the floor, bound in chains.