Chapter: 15, Le Château de Malfoy.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Acknowledgment: My amazing beta, Writermerrin, hats off to you.

Nine days after Hermione's disappearance, Harry had received a note from the perpetrator. He read the note and ran some regulatory tests even though he knew who had sent it. No one but Draco Malfoy had ever addressed him as "Scarhead."

He was following everything by the book. He did not want something to happen to his best friend because Harry Potter was once again suffering from a hero complex and had rushed to the rescue without thinking. The result of that could give the sneaky little snake a chance to slither away. His years at the Auror office had matured him enough to know how political the judicial system was.

That was also the reason he had taken along all those Aurors to arrest the senior Malfoy for Ron's murder...when all he wanted was to take Lucius apart with his own hands. Harry would not mess this one up, either.

He knew how restless Snape had become; he reminded Harry of caged-up Sirius in the Black house, ironically. Sirius! Harry stopped in his tracks...

His godfather, Sirius, had been an oddball in the infamous Black family. That family was not known for breeding Gryffindors. Everyone in that family was from Slytherin, except for Sirius. He was like Rose. Every other known Weasley was from Gryffindor. She ended up in the opposite house, as Sirius had. It was rare, but known to happen, not impossible at all.

The hat sorted the person it was put upon, not their background. One might possess a good combination of qualities from different houses. Hermione was almost a Ravenclaw, if she was judged by only her intelligence, yet she was so much more adventurous and brave than just a mere bookworm; she had always applied her knowledge in their crusade against Voldemort. He hoped it stayed that way for her safety's sake. Snape was braver than Gryffindor himself, in Harry's opinion. There was not any Slytherin Dumbledore could not have out-Slytherinned blindfolded. In spite of having two Gryffindors as parents, Harry himself was asked by the hat to choose his place in Hogwarts.

Thinking of Rose reminded Harry of how miserable those children were without Hermione. Snape had excused Rose from her classes and let her stay with the family; he'd even visited her and her brother there.

Snape had been eager to take the blame, but Harry was against the idea of letting everyone else know about Hermione's disagreement with Snape. Instead, he gave out the edited version that Hermione had come to see him at the office, and he was not there; when she had gone to look for him, someone had abducted her somehow. It wasn't a lie, just an omission of a few details.

He thought that Snape must stay in one piece until Hermione arrived to flay him alive, and if she desired so, Harry might join in to help her out, then.

At the moment, he needed Snape and his expertise at Dark Arts alive and in a single piece, safe from the wrath of the Weasleys. He could only imagine how the Weasleys would react if they had any idea that Snape was the reason that Hermione had fled. Snape was going through every possible way to find a location. They had not had any idea who the offender might be before the note's arrival. Still, Harry did not understand why they had not come up with a location; the Malfoy Mansion was not secret-kept.

Snape's laboratory and his library had melted together to make the place he called office these days. It actually could be called his entire residence since he took his recent occasional eating and sleeping habit up there, too. He was more obsessive than Hermione. One needed either to be a one-legged kangaroo to hop by all the scattered books on his floor or to bring a broomstick along. Harry seriously would have considered bringing one, if the room had not been filled with ongoing, self-propelled books from shelf to Snape to floor.

The door was open when Harry let himself into the Headmaster's office without knocking. Snape was in the middle of a Floo-call with McGonagall. She was saying, "You can't talk to Mr. Malfoy. His mother came and took him home for the weekend after his grandfather's arrest; he has not returned since. The school owls came back without delivering the attendance notices for him."

"And why was I not informed about it?"

"As I recall, Headmaster Snape, you had asked not to let everyday school matters interrupt your Mission." McGonagall was curt.

"THIS is about the Mission! The boy might have seen or heard something helpful from his home...if only I could slip into his mind for a second..."

"Headmaster! I cannot believe you would do such a thing to a student!"

"At this point, I would do anything to get her back. It's entirely my fault that she's gone."

"Don't go brooding now that you're on the right track." Harry let himself to be known.

"Potter! I do not brood."

"Do, too!" they said in unison, and after exchanging greetings with Harry, Minerva disconnected herself to let them talk, saying she had other matters to attend to.

"Speak, Potter."

Harry showed him the letter. "Draco has 'Mione. My team is getting ready as we speak to raid the Mansion. If you are coming with me, you must use a Disillusionment Charm and be truly discreet. I won't have anything jeopardizing my investigation."

"They are not at the Mansion; why would you think they are?" He returned the letter to Harry.

"I don't, not really. Everyone will look for them there, so it makes sense if they'd fled. So, what if the Ministry forgoes raiding the place for the obvious reason of not finding them there... In which case, the Mansion would be the perfect refuge for them." Seeing the raised eyebrow from Snape, Harry sighed and said, "It's kind of twisted logic, okay? Go along with the easy version...I am not taking any chances."

"I doubt Draco has matured as much as you did." Now Harry was the one to raise eyebrows...Snape was complimenting him! He would have pinched himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming if not for Snape's next words.

"They have enough prejudice to not let her in the family home," Snape said matter-of-factly.

"Hermione was there before." Harry's posture changed with his anger.

"Without an open arm invitation, I suppose?"

"Does Greyback's invitation count? We were welcomed by their curses, of course. Hermione had caught Greyback's attention; he had wanted her for himself...something about her soft skin or some such thing. And Bellatrix took it upon herself to entertain her the whole time. We were locked in the cellar, couldn't help her."

Harry was too lost in that terrible nostalgia to notice how Snape's features hardened at the knowledge of her suffering at the hands of those beastly maniacs. He continued, saying, "She had nightmares about them for a long time. The way he had wanted her, the way she had screamed at Bellatrix's tortures...even I had nightmares of that, and I've faced Voldemort since I was one." Harry spoke and watched as Snape kept on stuffing various potion bottles and salves inside his robe without a word. He was not expecting Draco to be any less generous than his aunt was.

~*H*~

Everything had failed, even a fair amount of screaming, "HELP! SOMEBODY! ANYBODY!" in between her trial at wandless magic. Those bouts of Cruciatus had left her weak, and the Malfoys were not very hospitable towards their guest, she supposed, as they forgot to feed her... anything. The only thing she was given was a small paper cup, which filled itself with water half-way every few hours.

She complained about their treatment of her to Draco. He bowed to her in mock salute and told her "The Queen of No-Land" would be treated as she deserved and sent his wife in.

Pansy was nowhere near as good as Bellatrix, but she had tried her best. Hermione preferred Draco's Cruciatus over Pansy's simultaneous slicing, stinging, and tickling charms and her other methods of torture. She combined simple spells by putting them one after another without lifting the previous ones, which made the experience even more horrible to bear.

Hermione's cuts were not treated; she was unfed, mostly dehydrated, and dead tired. She thought about her children. She might never see their faces again. What would she tell Ron about how foolishly she had left them alone in the world? She had let her emotion rule over her when Severus...

Severus!

She would never see him again either, not even if she managed to live. What kind of life would it be without him in it? Once she had begun to think of him in her life, she could not think of it without him. She would have never thought it was possible to fall in love again, so quickly, with the least expected man of all.

From all the men in the world, she had to fall for the most difficult one...the one with serious issues about loving her, or was it love in general? No, he knew how to love; he had almost given away his life in the name of his one true love. Had it not been for Neville, Severus would have died for Lily Potter. Hermione had never known that anybody could love with such intensity, such dedication. She didn't think even Ron would have mourned her all that long...not that she wished he would have if the tables had been turned; she certainly had not waited long. She wouldn't wish this loneliness on anyone, let alone Ron. Then again, wasn't that absolutely romantic! Who wouldn't want to be worshiped as such? And yet, Severus just doesn't love me.

At first, Hermione thought what she felt was sympathy towards him. Then that night came when she thought she had lost him as she had lost Ron. Hermione had realized that people simply loved, but love was never simple.

She'd seen different sides of that man. He was not only a bitter man, as she'd thought before. She had seen him comforting Rose when she was distraught about Hermione's passing out. She had seen his responsible side all along; she'd found his merciless teasing of her flattering when he woke up. Even in all those years of marriage, Ron had never boiled her blood with a simple kiss like Severus had.

She could see him as a good father to her children in everyday life...one very different in manner, but very similar in loving care to how Ron had been.

But it was never meant to be. She was never meant to find love again; her children were meant to be orphans at this early age. Severus was never meant to love anybody who was not Harry's mum.

She remembered how hateful his words had been, how disgusted he'd been with her. She was nothing to him. He had never wanted her and never would in the future, either, ever! Everything she'd thought they had was merely her mistakes; she had let her post-traumatic mind create her fool's paradise on lies that she'd believed as truth. So much for building the sand castle on the beach before the high tide!

And these realizations broke her heart. It hurt...it hurt more than Pansy's torture, more than Draco's Unforgivables.

Hermione sobbed her heart out in the darkness of her captivity.

~*R*~

Rose was petrified at the news of her Mum. Her grandparents, uncles, and aunts were doing their best to comfort her and Hugo. But she wanted her mum back, so did Hugo. She remembered how poorly she had treated her mum after her dad's death, and now she was losing her, too. She promised herself never to act up again when Mum returned; she would never act disrespectfully, never hurt Mum's feelings, she would be an absolute good girl from now on.

Professor Snape had come to visit them. She didn't know why she had done it, but the moment she saw him, she had run towards him and hugged him fiercely in the middle, surprising everyone who had been present. Maybe, it was because I know caring he'd been when Mum had fainted upon seeing Dad's spirit.

Professor Snape had patted her head again awkwardly like the other day and told her that Mum would be found soon and she should never give up hope. He said, "You should never doubt that I will find your mother, if it is the last thing I ever do."

Hugo had not understood his wording, so he had insisted that it must be the first thing as opposed to the last thing on the professor's to-do list, as he missed his mum very much.

Professor Snape looked confused for a moment, then said "Of course" and patted his shoulder; and Hugo, too, hugged him in response.

Rose was pretty sure Professor Snape would bring Mum back. Mum had told her how honorable the man was; he would keep his word. She just hoped he would bring her home soon.

~*M*~

Scorpius had been curious about everything that was going on lately. Why had they moved to France, for instance? Why had he stopped going to school? Where was Grandfather? What was that noise coming from the cellar? Mum and Dad had told him not to go near that awful thing. Was it a Ghoul? How awful was it, anyway? He had to know. I'm A Malfoy. Grandfather had taught me loads of jinxes. Armed with his wand, he decided to take a peek.

When everyone went to sleep, Scorpius climbed down the stairs with his wand lit. He opened the door with a whispered, "Alohomora," then he looked at the thing...

"Healer Weasley! You're not an awful thing! You're Rose's mum. What happened to you? Why are you here? Who did this to you...not my parents!" He could not believe his own eyes. Quickly, he unbound her and asked what she needed.

She said, "Thank you, Mr. Malfoy, I feel like an awful thing, though. Water, I need a cup full of cold water."

He conjured a decent glass and then filled it with nice cold water with a quick "Aguamenti." She drank it thirstily and then told him what happened and asked for his help.

Scorpius was astounded, but he decided to help. He was cunning as any Slytherin should be, so he struck a deal, "If I help you and my father kills me for that, will you tell Rose that I wasn't a bad guy?"

Hermione promised and assured him that Draco would never kill his son, but they would stick to the same story if anything went wrong. They decided on saying that Scorpius had been curious and had taken a peek, but Hermione had disarmed him wandlessly and escaped. This way he would not be in much trouble. It wasn't a total lie; the last part was just a bit of added imagination.

"You cannot escape; this place has many Dark wards against Muggle-borns...Grandfather's doing," Scorpius mumbled embarrassedly.

"In that case...I would like to send a message out. Give me your wand."

He did. Hermione sent out a Patronus...she frowned at the changed form of her Patronus, but kept on concentrating as much as possible in her weak condition. She managed up to, "Harry help Her..."

"Expelliarmus!"

The wand flew from her hand to the outstretched hand of a livid Draco Malfoy.