A reminder not to read this chapter unless you have read the story's trigger warning. This chapter is one of the most important in the entire story.
This chapter changes everything. I hope you enjoy.
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Hermione cried out as the blow struck her cheek. It was more shock than pain. The slap wasn't near as hard as the one he had done in front of everyone else, but she was too distracted by the circumstances to notice.
How could he do this to me? After everything he has said. This isn't protecting me.
This was worse than death.
She would rather die.
Anything else she could survive, but not this.
She had to get away. She didn't care about the consequences. She needed to run.
She needed to escape this.
Hermione kicked hard at Draco's leg twisting.
He let go swearing profusely.
Hermione made it two steps on the stairs before she felt a hand fist in her hair. He yanked and she toppled backwards.
Her hands went up to her own hair to try and pry his hand free. Her scalp was burning. Draco began walking up the stairs.
She dug her nails into the flesh of his hand and he hissed in pain, but didn't let go. His grip was like a vice. Totally unyielding.
She struggled, her hair pulling at the roots.
"Draco please!" She cried again as they came to his room.
This can't happen.
Not him...
Draco threw her over the threshold into his room and she shrieked.
He pointed the wand at her and Hermione braced for whatever was to come.
"Speculum vocem" he cast quietly and a light come from his wand creating a ball at her vocal chords.
Hermione blinked and reached up towards her throat as she stared at the little ball of light floating in front of her. The ball of light screamed.
It screamed in her voice.
She shuddered at the sound and then looked up from the floor at Draco.
He hadn't attacked her...
Draco flicked the wand sideways and the ball of light that had come from her throat continued to cry out and beg Draco in her voice while Hermione remained motionless.
The light flickered with each sound.
Hermione watched half horrified, half fascinated.
"Shut up and take it," Draco said loudly he met her eyes for a brief moment and Hermione felt her mouth go dry.
He was angry. That was not an act. His face was drawn tight. His eyes were harsh yet there was something else...pain and not the physical kind.
He broke from her gaze and a look of extreme concentration appeared on his face.
Then he looked back at Hermione seeming to take her whole body.
She couldn't help squirming beneath that gaze. She flinched as he raised his wand and watched him grind his teeth at her reaction.
"Praestrigiae de Verum Vitae," he cast.
It was a spell she had never heard before.
Light from Draco's wand poured out and flowed over her body, it clung to her skin molding itself to her... and then an image of herself, a direct replication, got up from the ground and stepped away from her body fully formed.
Hermione let out a scream but no sound came out. A moment later her disembodied voice screamed from its glowing ball.
With a careful stitching motion of his wand Draco sewed the two illusions together in the air. The glowing ball of light became a part of the image of herself and the two moved as one.
Hermione watched, her fear momentarily replaced with utter fascination. She knew of illusionists who were excellent at their craft and she had heard that Draco was actually talented in using more complicated spells. The snake he had cast at Harry during their second year had been beyond that of most students his age, so this shouldn't surprise her and yet it did.
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Draco's heart pounded in his chest.
It worked.
Relief washed through him and then he looked over at Hermione.
Draco might have been offended at the look of surprise on Hermione's face if he hadn't taken a moment to remind himself that she had no idea that he had created illusions before, many times.
Half of the work in his wardrobe was illusion work.
He lived in a family that was obsessed with image and had become obsessed with it himself in more than one way. He had created image after image in order to hide and in order to make the places that he hid so much better than the reality he tried so desperately to escape.
He looked at the image of Hermione before him. If he didn't know better he wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the illusion standing before him and the real Hermione Granger who was half sitting on the floor looking at him.
Draco had never managed this level of detail in such a short space of time before in his work and he knew it was the wand allowing him to create beyond his experience.
True he had sent images of himself around the school before, for the sake of pranks or to try and get out of detention, but it was one thing to work with an image he was used to and another to pick a person he had never tried to copy and pair it with the vocal spell he had only just recently mastered.
The real Hermione slowly stood. She stepped away from her own image and he waved her to the side out of the sightline of the partially open door.
For once she listened to him without complaint.
The wand in hand felt warm and he turned it towards himself.
"Praestrogiae de Verum Vitae," he repeated the spell and an image of himself stepped forward. He was used to using this spell on himself so it took a fraction of the time.
He uttered the spell for his voice and took his own voice away stitching it into the second illusion.
When the second spell was finished Draco and Hermione stood staring at perfect recreations of themselves who opened their mouths calling out but remaining otherwise motionless.
It was slightly terrifying-like marionettes without strings.
Draco looked to the real Granger and knew she could see the storm in his eyes.
At some point when he had been casting the spells on himself she had moved closer. She was still warry of him-he could tell, but she was not shaking with fear as she had been before.
Draco knew what needed to happen next.
He knew that Greyback, slimy scum that he was would look in at some point.
She shouldn't have to see this...He thought and swallowed.
Draco wanted to tell her to look away, but had no voice to do so. He closed his eyes and let out a trembling breath.
Be perfect, he told himself, make them all believe...
It would destroy everything he had said to his mother. It would forever mar him in her mind.
Draco glanced over at Hermione. She looked up at him.
He turned away from those eyes and waved his wand and the illusion of himself turned to the illusion of Hermione attacking her throwing her down on the bed.
The illusion of Hermione responded: she screamed and cried.
Real Granger looked on, frozen in horror.
He could almost hear her thinking:
'That could have been me.'
Draco could only imagine how terrifying it was to see, to watch herself outside her body being set upon.
'Don't watch', he mouthed at her.
She saw the words. He knew she understood and yet her eyes went back to the scene before them both. He wanted to tear her away from it, spare her from having to think about it at all.
Instead Draco checked the door leaving it open half a foot so that passersby could see what was happening. Then he turned back to Hermione and grabbed her arm, pulling her after him away from the scene.
He took her to the bathroom pushing her in soundlessly closing the door behind them. She moved where he led, almost like a puppet, completely compliant. It scared him a little.
He set her by the far wall and then turned and created a small hole in the wall to be able to observe his magic and keep the spell going with his wand.
Draco then turned to watch the violence of the illusions.
Not because he wanted to....because he had to.
What he saw turned his stomach. He wanted to look away, pretend like it wasn't happening, but two things kept his eyes trained on the fabricated rape taking place just a few feet away:
First, he needed to make sure the illusion remained perfectly in place or risk both his and Hermione's death because if anyone discovered that they had lied about this-everything would be ruined. The truth would come out about Draco protecting Hermione and no amount of begging would spare them Voldemort's wrath.
Second, he needed to watch so that if Voldemort looked in his mind and got past his barriers he could intentionally pull up these images in his mind.
As his illusionary tore at Hermione's pants she fought against her kicking and screaming Draco looked away briefly, unable to bear the sight and saw that Granger was watching him, her cheeks stained with tears.
She looked as if she were seeing right to his very core.
Don't look in, there's nothing good inside, he said silently and turned back to the image and the sound of Hermione's shrill scream had him shuddering.
Suddenly he felt a hand in his and he looked up to see Granger right next to him looking into his eyes as if she knew everything. Draco got lost in those eyes for a moment until another scream shattered the moment and he shuddered again looking away from the real her and back to the illusion.
His fingers tightened around hers needing to hold her even though he knew he shouldn't.
He felt her curl into his back and her arm slipped around him holding her body to his back. Draco trembled involuntarily.
He felt so cold and she felt like a fire at his back, pushing warmth back into him even as watching the illusions drained it right back out. She held him and he wanted to just close his eyes and have her wrapped around him without having to think about anything...without having to watch.
Another scream.
Draco shuddered.
Hermione squeezed his hand.
He squeezed hers back, his knuckles white with tension.
Somehow her presence there in that room with him-her kind touch-became everything and the risk of doing this, creating this elaborate illusion, became completely worth it. Draco knew there was now virtually nothing he wouldn't do to keep her safe.
About ten minutes in Draco caught sight of Greyback at the door.
You fucking scum, Draco mentally growled, and he twisted his wand.
The illusion of Draco turned at Draco's thoughts and gave Greyback the finger then kept going at Granger. Greyback growled and turned away.
Draco felt disgust on many levels and if sensing his tension Hermione stroked her free hand across his chest in an attempt to comfort. He was thankful for not having his voice since pain bloomed as she pulled at the fine cut she had left in his skin. He was thankful his voice was gone because to him the pain was a fine exchange for the comfort of her touch.
The real Draco and Hermione stayed that way for another half an hour in the bathroom, with Draco keeping up the spell going and Hermione holding him.
It felt like an eternity to Draco and it would have been utterly unbearable to watch and hear if Hermione's hand hadn't been wrapped around his own and her body tucking in close at his back.
Draco extracted himself from her hold as the illusions began to fade. He moved into the bedroom and closed the door with a soft click. When he turned around he saw Granger standing there looking at him.
What was she thinking?
He watched as the last glimmer of their illusions faded and the orbs of light that contained their voices returned to their respective throats.
A silence filled the room and they just stood looking at one another for a moment.
"How is your face?" Draco asked wanting breaking the silence.
He wanted to reach out and examine her already bruising cheek, but afraid to-was afraid of what she might be thinking. Afraid that she might flinch away from him and he couldn't handle that right now.
Everything that had happened in the last twenty four hours had Draco feeling shaky at best. His ribs were still killing him, but he no long felt as if he were about to collapse. The unsteadiness he felt was solely from emotional wreckage battering around inside him.
"Its fine," she answered and then paused before continuing "Draco?"
"Yes?"
"Thank you."
Hermione's words hung in the air between them.
Draco looked at her. He couldn't figure out what to say in response.
Was 'your welcome' an appropriate answer to a comment like that? He didn't feel like it was.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
Draco shook his head unable to form words.
She stepped closer.
"Draco..." his name low and gentle, the sound laced with worry.
Draco stepped back.
It was too much. After everything that had just happened, it was too much.
Her eyes...her eyes were looking right into him.
"Draco please don't shut me out," she said and reached for him.
"I can't..." Draco stepped away again.
You believed I would do that to you...after everything.
"Please, Draco..."
"I can't," he said again. "That was...stupid of me, the illusion was a stupid risk," he turned away from her.
The words were self preservation.
I'd do it again
I'd risk it again to protect you.
"It meant everything to me Draco."
His head whipped around to look at her.
"I mean it," she said. "I don't want to be here, I don't want to be tortured but I can survive it. If you had...It would have been worse than dying."
"I told you I would never," he said to lowly she barely caught it.
"Thank you," she said gently.
"Stop saying that!" Draco ordered fraying at the seams.
"Why?" she asked, desperate to know.
"Because you can't thank me for anything after what I have put you through."
"To protect me," Hermione countered.
"That doesn't make it better," he countered.
"Yes it does!" she yelled back.
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And now we are back to that little preview at the very beginning of this story. This scene was in my head from almost the first moment I came up with the story and a lot of the writing has been leading up to this moment. This was a hard chapter to write and very emotional for me, but also very cathartic.
The spell: 'Praestrigaiae de verum Vitae' that Draco uses literally translates to "Ghosts from Life" I spent quite a while trying to figure out the language I wanted to use for that spell because it's more than just a standard illusion. They have to be able to act and move on their own so that's what I eventually came up with. Please review and let me know what you thought. If you haven't reviewed yet this is the chapter that I need some love on more than almost any other so if you liked it please let me know.