As If In Wonderland

“Stupefy!”, Hermione cast at Voldemort, but he easily brushed it aside.

“Come on Hermione, I thought you were better than this”, he taunted before throwing a fire curse her way which she repelled with a water one, “you know how to think fast then…Petrificus Totalus!”

“Protego! Levicorpus”, she aimed at Voldemort who once again brushed it away swiftly, growing more and more frustrated she threw a few more simple jinxes at him which didn’t touch him in the slightest.

She was being beaten, and she knew it. He kept throwing various curses at her, causing her to feel so much pain. She knew she was covered in cuts and bruises from whatever he kept hitting her with.

“Oh im getting bored, crucio!”

Hermione screamed before falling to the ground, hitting her knee on a rock in the grass making her gasp in more pain, “how is this going easy on me!”

“I could have you begging to be killed if I wanted to…this is me being easy, you better get used to it”

“fuck”, was all she could say as she tried to stand but her knee was making it hard to stand properly, “Sectumsempra!”, that got Voldemort. She looked up to see him looking down at a long gash going up his arm and across his shoulder blade, bleeding heavily.

“Now that’s what I wanted to see”, he smirked as Hermione looked on nervously, he stopped the bleeding after a few charms but the gash was still very visible through the tear in his robes. “So, using dark magic now?”

“I-I didn’t mean to even cast it, it just came out my mouth…”

“It is excellent, you have marked me, im surprised you even hit me with anything let alone cause some damage…”, Voldemort attempted to heal it a few more times but couldn’t, “I will be seeing the healer about this, I believe only a certain potion can heal it. There’s no point repairing my robes if I need to be healed just yet, so do you. You look like your in pain”

“Its okay, I can heal myself”

“Have you seen yourself in the mirror?”

“Oh that’s nice”

“I mean, you haven’t broken anything or had anything major done to you, but you have a lot of minor injuries-they can add up and that will weaken you. I don’t care, you will be healed by the healer”.

An hour later, Hermione sat on her bed, exhausted from her duel and recovery from injuries. She only had bruises, gashes and a swollen knee-Voldemort however had nothing apart from the long slice in his flesh. Though it only took a small moment to heal, she savoured it.

She had caused him to feel hurt.

*

“I knew I knew the name from somewhere!!”, she gasped as she browsed the titles of some books which lay on the table in the centre of the library, the one title what caught her eye made her realise something, the book entitled entitled ‘Nurmengard Prison’. “That’s the prison the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald built…oh my god! Is that him? The follower who seems to get along with the dark lord? The guy who basically flirted with me during that meal with the deatheaters? Surely not…”.
She stroked her fingers across its spine, wishing she could open it to know if what she was thinking was true. It frustrated her that she couldn’t read when she wanted, she couldn’t learn what she wanted, she couldn’t do what she wanted.

“Grindelwald was the darkest wizard-before Voldemort that is…it makes sense if he would use him…but its too hard to believe…it must just be coincidence”

Hermione knew it was her job to keep the library tidy and in order, she hated the job but knew it was generous of him…she could be locked up in Azkaban technically. Voldemort had left a pile on books scattered on the table, she was surprised he was reading the night before, seeing as they had been duelling…though he wasn’t exactly injured much.
He had made sure she was fully healed, he even fixed the small scar under her eye, which she was very thankful for.
He was being generous, too generous…

She huffed as she knew she had to put them back, gathering the pile in her arms she started her exploration through the rows of shelves of books to find where each had to go.

She huffed even more as she knew to put the final book back she would have to tiptoe or try and jump in some way. She was small compared to Voldemort, who could easily place books on higher shelves, whilst she couldn’t as easily.

She looked up to the wall to see a small clock Voldemort had installed during the night so she knew when to be at her lessons, “oh shit!”, she exclaimed when she realised she had only five minutes to be downstairs, she had lost track of time.

Quickly she got on her tiptoes to reach the very top shelf where she knew the book should be placed, barely reaching it, she had to push one hand down on a lower shelf to push herself up. She smiled as she got it into place but it was wiped off as she fell backwards into the shelf behind her after losing balance.

Bang.

The shelf fell backwards onto the one behind it.

Bang.

So did the next.

Bang.

And it kept on going in its domino effect.

“Oops”, was all she could say as she pushed herself up to see the damage she had caused. “Im gonna be in deep shit-oh im late!” she swore before bursting out with laughter at how funny it was. She had just been involved in giant dominoes. In Voldemort library. Though it was going to get her into trouble, it was just funny.

“You’re late”, Voldemort watched her with narrowed eyes as she came into his practise room in a rush.

“Sorry milord, there was an…erm incident in the library”

“Oh?”

“Yeah…erm, don’t worry I’ll sort it milord”

“I highly doubt that. Im not in the mood to be nice”

“Are you ever nice”, she rolled her eyes, enraging Voldemort.

“You need to learn. Crucio!”, she held in her scream but the pain was the most unbearable. “Expect a lot of that today, I have put time aside to teach you”

“I didn’t ask to be taught, and you aren’t teaching me, you’re torturing me!”

“You will learn. Today, I want to see you cast the Sectumsempra again, I want to see you do much more damage than when you got my arm…by the end of this session, I hope to see an improvement”

“Am I supposed to be using the curse on you?”

“Of course not, I cant have you trying to harm me at every given opportunity, you may grow too fond of it”, he laughed, “no, you will be using a muggle…think of it this way…its either you practising the curse, or I get to do it on him. And mark my words, I will cause much more damage and pain”

“But I cant! Please don’t make me do this, please, anything else! Please I will do anything, I cant harm another person…please milord”

“You would do anything?”

“Yes, please milord”

“You wont be harming anyone today, unfortunately. You will someday, and at least now I know what level you think on. I was lying before, you will not be practising on another person, or me. You aren’t ready for that, the fact you cant deal with harming another person makes it harder to teach you”

“Thank you”, she sighed in relief, “I cant do those things, I cant”

“Maybe not yet, you aren’t ready. I originally planned to force you to do things…what’s the use in that? When it comes to a point where I may need to have you performing in a serious situation-you wouldn’t really do it as much as you could”

“You think im going to love this magic so much by the end of it, I will enjoy it…”, she looked down, unsure what to do. “I know what dark magic can do to people, ive read about so many wizards who have lost their own lives by doing it”

“Yes, but I haven’t have I, and see what I have achieved?”

“Utter chaos, torture and death?”

“No. Victory, order and power. Show me what you can do, as in anything with the use of a wand”, he passed her a wand which she held tight.

“I can do many things with a wand, a lot I have never show anyone. What do you want to see?”

“Power”

And she showed him what he wanted. Power. Stuff she had never shown anyone.
Nothing dark, well some of it may have been called dark but she was good at it.
She cast a few simple spells, such as levitating, increasing the sizes and transfiguring a few objects in the room. She then went on to show the more complex spells she had never shown anyone. And it stunned Voldemort at what she could do.

“I like lots of colours, rainbows, fireworks…just nice things”, she finished as she made a small beam of light whiz around the room with flowing rainbows trailing behind it. “I have shown you the things I can do, and I know you probably didn’t enjoy the rainbow air I invented at the end, but I created it when I was bored one day”

“You invented the spell?”

“Yes, its difficult because you need to work out every little detail. I wanted something that made me smile, and that spell makes me happy”

“Interesting…your magic is good, especially for your age…and blood line”

“There is nothing wrong with being muggle born!”

“I didn’t say there was. Where did you learn about Sectumsempra?”

“Erm…just read about it in some old history book”, she stuttered, he instantly saw through the lie.

“It is a spell which was invented in the seventies, by a teenagerboy, leaving his notes in an old potion book…”, Voldemort looked deep into her eyes, she knew he was using legilmency against her as she could feel him pushing its way inside. “So you and Potter got to reading the half-blood princes book at school?”

“Yes I read Snape’s book”, she spat, “though I told Harry not to read it and tried to get rid of it, it caused a lot of problems”

“So you worked out it was Snape? How clever of you, and you did read it anyway?”

“Yes I read it as it annoyed me how much it was helping Harry, it was terrible some of the spells in there, but the notes were fascinating. It wasn’t too hard to work out who it belonged to, I kept that knowledge from Harry…”, her eyes filled with a few tears but they didn’t fall.

“The notes are fascinating, I have read it myself. Quite similar to what I did when I went to school, though of course, I didn’t leave notes in places anyone could just read”

“Its pretty hard to believe you once went to school milord. Anyway, I have shown you basically what I can do and im exhausted”

“But we haven’t even started yet”, he smirked as her face fell. “Defend yourself, crucio!”

She closed her eyes as the pain swept through her body, she could prevent screams just whimpers left her mouth, but still the pain was terrible. “How the hell can I defend myself!”, she screamed as he let go.

“When in battle, you improvise. Here we go again, crucio”

*

“Fuck, fuck, fuck”, Hermione winced as Snape fed her a potion to stop the affects of the cruciatus, she could feel her body stinging as it healed-there was no visual damage. “Thank you”

“Don’t thank me, its the dark lords wish for you to be healed, I cant exactly say no can I. What did you do so bad that made him torture you over and over again?”

“Nothing, its my training”, she sighed before looking around the room she was in. It was Snape’s room to experiment and do whatever he did, every wall was filled with different shapes and sizes of vials filled with different colour potions. It was dark, only lit by a few candles as there was no window.

“Ah yes, the dark lord has taken a shine to training you”

“Why me though! Im just a mudblood in his eyes! He just tells me he sees potential, he wants to break me and find out what I have inside…I cant do another day of being tortured, supposedly its for me to learn how to defend myself against it. All I can do is bloody dodge the curse, and its impossible to dodge the dark lord!”, she cried. “The book I read of his taught me a lot on defence, just nothing on the cruciatus. I think he is trying to get me used to the curse so it doesn’t effect me. I can control if I scream and I can control the pain, I just cant get rid of it! And im okay with that, its just being tortured over and over again…it isn’t easy”

“Of course. You have changed so much…I see it now. The dark lord I obviously interested in your mind and magic, many would kill to be taught by him, to have him in interested in them”

“Im not like that…fuck, look at me, what has become of me. Im just a slave, a servant to do whatever the dark lord says and I am now being trained to become a deatheater. that’s what he wants, that’s why he’s making such an effort-”

“He has never made any effort to get death eaters”, he assured her. “I have things to be doing, what are you doing today?”

“I have to find a few books the dark lord needs in the library-oh…shit”, her eyes widened.

“What?”

“There was a minor ‘incident’ in the library…I just need to sort it out before the dark lord sees”, she quickly muttered, “thank you for your help professor-I mean…”

“Just call me Severus, im not your professor anymore”

“Oh ok, Severus…I need to go”

*

“Oh shit its bad”, she gasped when she came into the library. The book cases were still where she had left them, knocked on the floor over each other, books were scattered everywhere.

“It is a shame really, I was going to let you see your old friends as well”, Voldemort gripped her shoulders behind her, making her jump but he didn’t let go. “You see Hermione, I thought you had behaved so well, you had been doing so well”

“It was an accident! I was trying to put a book away but I fell milord, I couldn’t sort it out because I had to see you for my ‘lessons’”, she breathed fast as he held onto her tighter. He turned her round to face him, for a moment she thought he was going to hit her but he did something unexpected. He laughed.

“This library has been here for centuries, and you were the first one to wreck it-in the funniest way possible”, he chuckled. Hermione looked at him gob smacked, the dark lord found something funny?

“Your not mad?”

“Yes of course I am, but I think its amusing. You will clean this mess up, I can take my anger out on someone else when I lose sight of the funny side”, he disaparated with no other words.

“I don’t think he hates me as much anymore”, she looked at the spot he left curiously, what the hell was going on was all she could think.

*

“Im being too soft on her”, he muttered to himself, “I may have tortured her a lot this morning, but even so…Im not breaking her, she’s walking all over me”, he grew more and more angry with himself.
“Fucking hell, I had dinner with her, I talked with her, I laughed when she wrecked my possessions…”

But you enjoy it, small voice in his head said.
“Im the dark lord, and she is going to see what its like to live under my roof. I need her trust though…how can such a trivial girl be so complicated!”.

“Milord, may I speak freely?” Snape took the chance to speak, he had sat listening to the dark lord talk to himself through his problems in his study, Voldemort nodded and looked him straight in the eyes.
“The girl is not as trivial as first believed, you first wanted her as a hobby. Now she has follower/deatheater potential, now you have seen what she is capable of…its fascinated you. Milord, she fascinated me as the insufferable know it all at Hogwarts, always putting her hand up, answering questions, doing everything right. She was annoying, but brilliant though I don’t like to admit that”

“She is brilliant, you are the only person I have spoken too like this. She could be anything I want, but she needs discipline, and she needs to be broken. I want her so broken she only thinks of me as the closest person to her, I want her to feel empty unless she is working for me, I want her to want to be part of me. I don’t understand why…but it has to happen”

“I understand milord. She has to learn, and she will, she always learns”

“Yes she will. Im growing impatient though, and im disgusted with myself for treating the mudblood so well. I could do so much, degrade her, torture her…I have an idea…Severus, what do the order think of Hermione being here?”

“Sorry for her at first, but then a lot of them got angry. They think she has joined your followers to keep herself alive”

“Interesting, maybe taking her visit wont be such a reward for her after all…”, Voldemort said while deep in thought.

“I was speaking to Grindelwald as you know last night, about some potion things. He mentioned something…I don’t believe it of course, I only believe what my lord says-”

“Get on with it!”

“Of course milord. He seems to think you may have taken a liking to the girl…”

“I do not like the girl, especially in any way like that. He will be punished for this, I have already silenced him about this, and now he dares speak of it!”

“I apologise milord. Though she may be a fine specimen, brains, power, and she can look very good, I know many of your followers were stunned by how attractive she was once she was cleaned and groomed-I myself can see it, though still I just see as just a student I once taught”

“I see, my followers may think what they like of their feelings for the girl, hate, lust-I don’t care! But if anyone dares to question me, they will regret the thought even came into their head”, he growled before taking a sip of muggle whiskey. “I have some business to take care of for a few days abroad…you will make sure Lucius knows not to touch my possessions, he has grown quite fond of the idea of inflicting some pain on one in particular”, he narrowed his eyes in reference to Hermione.

“Lucius wants to be known as the best at what he does, and he is proud of his blood line, he hates the girl. She showed the world that you don’t have to be pureblood to be the best, she even beat his son at everything at school, she is the reason you tortured him the night of your victory. He detests her”

“Understandable, but no one touches my possessions without my knowledge, he will have his chance to extract revenge-when I decide. If he does not agree, then maybe he will enjoy a torture session from myself”

“All your followers no not to go in your rooms milord, he will not enter them to hurt her, he isn’t stupid in that way. But I shall inform him, and all your other followers-”

“Get to it then, I have not told her I am leaving for a few days, you can inform her as well, she may keep the wand for now”

*

“Expelliarmus!”, Hermione cast the spell on a nearby vase making it blast into hundreds of pieces. “Im so bored! I hate this place so much”, she cried aloud to no one as she repaired the vase and placed it back where it was meant to go. Voldemort had been gone for a week, she had seen no one but a few house elves and Snape, and she was growing very bored. She was allowed to walk around his home, she just wasn’t allowed to go into certain rooms that were warded off.
“What’s wrong with me? I should be glad he’s not around…but its like the last time he was away for a few days…im lonely and bored, that’s it”

She had wondered round the halls to explore, she had been told she had to improve a curse of her choice by the time he returned-a dark one, if not, she would be severely punished. She didn’t try and improve because she didn’t want to, he couldn’t do much worse to her seeing as he had already spent a whole session torturing her during ‘training’-it couldn’t get much worse than that could it?

She was surprised at the lack of death eaters around, the place was mostly deserted, or maybe she just never bumped into one by chance, possibly they were ordered not to get close to her.

She knew whatever Voldemort was doing while he was away was important, and she knew it was probably going to be the cause of more pain for many. She went into Voldemorts room, there was a lot of interesting things, but she couldn’t touch, the pain was unbearable if she even tried. It was strange, just standing in a room the darkest man in the world slept in.
She made her way to go to the library when something caught her eye, blood, a small splatter of dried blood on the wall. It was barely noticeable, but it intrigued Hermione, why would there be blood on his wall?

“You know you shouldn’t be lurking around in here”, Snape muttered as he walked in, “ive been looking for you, to inform you that the dark lord will return tomorrow evening, for celebration.

“What’s to celebrate?”, Hermione asked curiously, she had begun to get along with Snape, not as friends but seeing as she seemed to be able to talk to him normally without being looked down at, she liked having him around.

“The dark lord has successfully made sure every law he has set is used in every country that belongs to him, basically…he has complete control over everything”

“He did before hand, now this just confirms there is no hope for anyone, I guess the laws are not such nice ones…”, Hermione shook her head, “what happens at celebrations? I know it would not be like what I am used to, no party banners or anything”

“Not quite. The dark lords revels are usually his way of showing he is in a good mood, he will allow his followers to be informal, do as they wish without having to worry about annoying him-of course he can get annoyed, and normal rules apply such as being respectful to him, but they can choose what they want to do, and so will he”

“And what does that usually involve? I just want to know, you have been to at least one before, I know that, you are a very close follower to him, im surprised you even talk to me…anyway, I want to know the sort of things that happen”

“What’s that thing what muggles say? The worst combination being booze, sex and drugs. Lets just say its like that with magic in the place of drugs, mix them altogether, you get violence sometimes”

“Pissed horny bastards basically, the dark lord doesn’t do that sort of thing though?”

“He usually enjoys torturing a few people, and watching the fun”

“Fun? You people are sick, you involve yourself in this as well?”

“I have to, though I can control myself, I don’t enjoy violence, though that may be hard to believe for you seeing as im a deatheater. Though I think the dark lord may have changed his ways, lately he seems to have started enjoying different things-”

“Dance maybe?”, she laughed

“Only I suit the sarcasm. No, he enjoys woman”

“I thought he hated woman, he has not interest at all…”

“He has no interest in woman as people, just recently he has started to enjoy them as objects…since you’ve come along actually”, Snape walked on and into the library, Hermione following close behind, “I see you cleaned this place up”

“Yes. What do you mean since ive come along?”

“Nothing important. Just since you’ve come along I keep being given woman in critical states to heal from him, a couple have even been dead. It seems he likes to get the most he can get out of one and then moves onto the next, occasionally he kills them. He never was interested in sex, or woman in any way until you came-well not as much, I mean he is still a man even if he is on a much higher level. I think its because he has never had a female around him so much, and now you’re here…well he realises he likes to fuck”

“Fuck…”, Hermione gasped, “so that’s why there was a bit of blood on his wall?”

“Oh I thought the house elves would have cleaned it up by now. Yes, he isn’t the caring type, he hardly makes love to a woman does he”

“I thought he was rough on me the night he took my…well that night” she meant the night he took her virginity. “But, hearing this…he can bloody kill a woman, oh I hate him, I wont have to go will I?”

“Probably you will, though the dark lord decides what happens to you, he may just want you there to show how successful he is, remember you were Potter’s best friend, supposedly his girlfriend also. Now he has you as his prisoner, his servant”

“I serve no one”, she growled.

“You serve him all the time. You haven’t been here long, but already you have done a lot. Im not saying you will be going tomorrow, but its almost guaranteed, you are his trophy”

“That’s comforting, No wonder he’s making such an effort with me…”, she sighed and sat back down, “im going to end up torturing someone at this ‘celebration‘”. Snape looked up at her surprised, “oh I don’t care! If he lets anyone hurt me I will make sure someone gets hurt who deserves it”, she said darkly.

“You realise you wont have a wand with you, your magic wont cause much damage when wandless, you’re not strong enough just yet to inflict much pain”

“Id still be satisfied”, she smirked in a way unlike herself. “The dark lord has taught me one thing worth while, I hate death eaters more than I thought before”

___

It’s a bit of a random chapter but I wanted to tie up a couple of loose ends and start other little storylines…

The library scene where the shelves fall over-I had to include it after the suggestion from Madame Dee J Its only a small part, but it also makes Voldemort get pissed off with himself after realising he’s been to nice. though the reason he is like that is because he’s trying to get Hermione to trust him and possibly like him so he can use that to his advantage…I don’t think he will be so nice the next chapter…

I just thought to have a chapter involving a lot of Snape as well…

Oh and im going on holiday for a couple of weeks, so im sorry but the next chapter wont be out for at least 3 or 4 weeks! While you wait, please read my story ‘His’ and its sequel ‘mine’. it’s a Voldemort/Hermione pairing.