Dark Mark

Chapter 12


The night crept by slowly, time seeming to have slowed to a crawl around the pair while life went on at normal speed outside the room they occupied, panting and moaning and twisting against one another, until morning's first light when Hermione sat up and began recovering her clothing. Barty reached out from the bed, touching her shoulder gently.

"Where are you off to, love?"

Hermione cast him a mildly scolding look over her shoulder as she fussed with her torn blouse, trying to figure out how to keep it closed in front without any buttons. She'd just have to hold it shut.

"It's morning, Mister Crouch Junior. If I'm not in my own bed before the other girls get up, I'll be missed and there will be hell to explain."

Barty scooted up close behind her, his warm lips playing softly against the ticklish skin at the back of her neck.

"I'm afraid there's going to be hell to explain anyway, my dear."

Hermione was confused; what was that supposed to mean? She watched with her brow furrowed as Barty climbed out of bed and pulled his pants on. He moved around the room, picking up the scraps of her tattered clothing as if he was searching them. What was he doing?

Her eyes widened with concern when he reached her cast-off cardigan and Hermione finally realized that her sneaking suspicion from the previous night had been correct....something was not as it seemed.

Barty pulled her wand from the torn cardigan's pocket and, with a crazed glint in his eye, pointed it at her.

"Petrificus Totalis!"

Hermione barely had time to open her mouth in protest before the jinx hit her and her muscles froze up, rendering her completely helpless as the man she'd just spent a night in heaven with went totally berserk before her unblinking eyes.


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