Things were going slow for the next month. Lovegoods, Dean Thomas, and a goblin were captured and sent down to the manor cell.
The dark lord was getting more and more frustrated and ordered to find Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley, and Ronald Weasley as quickly as possible.
Hermione in her free time would read, hangout with Charlie or Draco. She hadn't seen her family much. They were always at the Gaunt Manor and even if Hermione saw her parents in the Malfoy Manor, they would rarely acknowledged her. Hermione didn't know if they were doing this because they were ashamed of what they had involved her and Charlie, but she wanted to tell them she understood. She hadn't blamed them.
Hermione and Draco sat in their room, talking and enjoying themselves.
"We've got Harry Potter!" They suddenly heard Bellatrix scream from downstairs, making them jump. Their eyes widened and they looked at each other, speechless.
"Oh no" They both whispered in unison.
"Draco, Hermione come down now!" Bellatrix's cold voice called. They both bolted down the stairs, their heart rate speeding up by the minute.
There they were. Ginny, Ronald, and Harry surrounded by deatheaters. They were Hermione's only hope and they mess up like this? Hermione groaned in her mind.
"Well, is this Harry Potter?" Bellatrix asked bringing his face up by pulling on his dark hair violently.
Hermione looked at Harry Potter and furrowed her eyebrows like she was thinking.
"I can't be sure" Draco said. It was convenient that they were both good actors.
"Draco, Hermione. If we were the ones to hand him over to the dark lord, everything would be forgiven. All would go back to how it was" Lucius reasoned almost desperately to them.
Draco took a sharp intake of breath and nodded like he understood.
"Now we won't be forgetting who actually caught him I hope?" One of the snatchers stepped out and challenged.
"Don't talk to me like that in our own house!" Lucius yelled venomously, making Hermione jump.
"Lucius" Narcissa warned, pulling him away.
"Now now don't be shy sweethearts, come over" Bellatrix ordered pulling us down to see Harry's face. "Now if this isn't who we think it is we won't call him, he'll kill us all. We need to be absolutely sure" she added.
"What's wrong with his face?" Hermione cut in.
"Yes what is wrong with his face?" Bellatrix asked glaring at the snatchers.
"Came to us like that, something he picked up in the forest" they explained.
Harry looked at them wondering what Hermione and Draco would do. Would they turn him in? Sure they were both good actors and acted confused but it was easy to tell it was still him even with his disoriented face.
"A jinx maybe? Give me your wand dear, I want to see what your last spell was" Bellatrix stood up leaving Hermione and Draco. Hermione took a last look at Harry before standing up on her feet again, bringing Draco up next to her.
Bellatrix maliciously laughed and pointed it at the red headed girl sneering,
"Got you" before gasping at the sword in the snatchers hand.
"What is that? Where did you get that?" She asked, staring coldly at the snatchers.
"Found it while we were searching in her bag, reckon it's mine now" he smirked.
Hermione bit her lips and looked down, something like that wasn't a smart thing to say, especially to Bellatrix.
Bellatrix casted a spell making a long black rope zip out, strangling the snatcher and stealing the sword. She then continued to strangle and threw the other snatcher across the room. Hermione impetuously grabbed her neck, feeling bad for the snatchers.
"Are you mad?" The snatcher screamed.
"Go! Get out!" Bellatrix screeched making the snatchers run out of the manor.
"Now which one of you was it, was it you dear?" She asked, stomping towards Ginny.
"Put the boys in the cell!" She screamed throwing Ronald in the hands of the other death eaters.
"I'm gonna have a conversation with this one. Girl to girl!" She screeched furiously.
"No take me, take me instead!" Ronald yelled stinging Hermione's heart. If only she could do something.
"Oh we're going to talk later" Bellatrix smiled maliciously again before turning her back.
"Cruicio!" She yelled at the red haired girl causing her to scream in pain. Hermione grasped Draco's hand and bit her tongue to stop her from saying anything. Tears were stinging in her eyes, threatening to spill.
"That's sword was supposed to be in my vault. How did you get it!" She screamed furiously.
"Please, I don't know. I didn't do anything" Ginny desperately pleaded.
"Liar! Crucio!" Bellatrix yelled again making Ginny scream again. She quickly dived near the red head's arm, pulling out a knife and started engraving her. Ginny screamed. She screamed for forgiveness, screamed from the pain but Bellatrix didn't even flinch.
Hermione took a sharp intake of breath feeling helpless and a coward. What was she supposed to do? She chanted an apology to the girl over and over in her head. She knew this apology would do nothing if it was inside her head, but she didn't know what else she could do. The red head's painful screams made her freeze in place, the scream recorded in her mind where she would hear and over and over again in the future, haunting her for the rest of her life.
Blood traitor was what Bellatrix engraved in the girl's arm.
Hermione felt nausea from the smell of blood and the rusty smell from the knife. Bellatrix then turned to the goblin, interrogating and torturing him about the sword.
Ginny was on the floor, limp and looked dead if it wasn't for her eye moving around. Hermione heard a small creak near the stairs making her quietly look the way. There Harry and Ronald were, kneeling and seeing the commotion. How did they manage to get out?
"Expelliarmus" Ronald yelled making his presence known.
"Stupefy!" Harry pointed at a death eaters.
"Go!" Lucius Malfoy pushed and urged Hermione and Draco to fight.
They shot spells which Hermione and Draco blocked, never casting a single spell towards the gryffindors. Harry and Ronald quickly realized and only shot simple spells, the ones that would ensure no harm.
"Stop! Drop your wands!" Bellatrix cut in. She held a broken shard of glass at the red headed girl's throat. Ginny whimpered making Bellatrix laugh maniacally.
"Go on Draco, get them" she ordered. Draco kneeled down, scraping the wands off the floor and held it tightly behind his back.
"Harry Potter" Bellatrix sneered. She then focused on Hermione and Draco.
"Call him, call him now!"
Hermione hesitated. She looked down at the ground, clenching her jaw. She could feel the stare from the golden trio.
Lucius quickly shoved past her revealing his mark and smirking at Harry. He rose his hand and stationed it above the mark, making Hermione cringe. If the dark lord was called, then all would be over.
"Dobby" She heard Draco whisper, making her look up. The elf hung on the chandelier, slowly unscrewing it. The deatheaters stared, unsure of what he was doing.
Almost in slow motion, the chandelier came tumbling down to the floor. Draco quickly grabbed Hermione, using his body to shield her from the flying broken glasses.
The golden trio without any struggle, grabbed the wand out of Draco's hands.
"Stupefy" Harry casted another spell, throwing off a deatheater.
"Stupid elf! You could've killed me!" Bellatrix screeched.
"Dobby never meant to kill. Dobby only meant to maim or seriously injure" he said confidently.
Narcissa twirled her wand but with a snap of he elf's fingers, the wand flew into his hands.
"How dare you take a witch's wand! How dare you defy your master!" Bellatrix yelled angrily.
"Dobby has no master, Dobby is a free elf. And Dobby has come to save Harry Potter and his friends" He defended, straightening his back.
The trio grabbed onto Dobby and began to apparate. At that same moment, Bellatrix screeched in anger and threw the dagger. With a zip, they were gone, taking the dagger with them.
"Oh no" Hermione sighed, biting her lips as Bellatrix laughed.