Sometimes It's Good to be Bad

Chapter 14 Captive

When Hermione came to she was chained sitting against a wall in a dungeon. She heard a moan off to her right, and looked over to see Ginny in the same position. "Gin?" she asked.

"Hermione? Oh, God," the redhead groaned, crying. Hermione didn't really feel like dealing with the upset girl next to her, so she went to sleep, hoping that it would look like she had simply passed back out.

"Wake up, mudblood." The order came with a swift kick to the stomach causing her eyes to jolt open. She looked over to see Ginny sitting straight against the wall, glaring at the person in front of her friend. Turning her head up, she saw Pansy Parkinson standing above her.

"Pugface," she slightly nodded her head in acknowledgment of the person who woke her up. "I was sleeping. Do you mind?" she inquired, her voice like ice.

"Do I mind? You insolent little bitch! I'm in control here, so you just shut the fuck up!" The shrillness of the girl's voice as she shrieked hurt the eardrums of everyone else in the room. "Crucio!" While it hurt, it wasn't the searing "kill me now" pain she had endured when say... the Dark Lord used the curse on her. She was able to force out a laugh. The unexpected sound made Pansy break off the spell.

"Come on Pugface, is that all you've got? Either you don't hate me nearly as much as you should, or you're just plain weak." Ginny's face was agape, watching one of her best friends goad the other girl into torturing her some more. When the curse came again, there was slightly more power behind it, but there was definately room for improvement. When it was finally lifted, Hermione looked the girl right in the eyes, a slight smile on her face while she spoke indifferently. "Yup, just weak."

The insulted girl shrieked in anger, causing the two captives to try and reach their hands to their ears. Hermione turned her face to a black corner speaking to it conversationally, "How do you date this girl, Malfoy? Her voice would have me in the loony bin so fast."

"Yeah, I can't imagine the sex is that good," Ginny added, speaking for the first time since Hermione woke up. Her comment made Hermione's face light up in an evil smirk.

Malfoy emerged from the corner to stalk over to Ginny. He knealt down and licked along the girl's jawline. "Why? Would you like to have a go at it, blood traitor?"

Ginny recoiled from the touch as Pansy came over to the two and slapped Malfoy across the face. "How dare you!"

"Ginny, I don't know about you, but I don't really feel like being a witness to these two's domestic issues. Perhaps you could take it outside and work it out?" Malfoy was standing back up, glaring at Pansy. He turned his attention to Hermone and delivered her third Crucio of the hour. The pain sent her into spasms on the floor, though he took it off rather quickly. She sat back up, cracked her neck, and glanced at Pansy before looking into Malfoy's eyes. "Now, that's how it's done. Perhaps he could give you some lessons, Pugface." Her gaze shifted back to the female tormentor as she mused aloud. "Though, it probably wouldn't make a difference. In the muggle world, when we call someone a pansy, it means that they're a wuss and this one seems true to her namesake.

Pansy was about to say something when she was pulled out of the room by Malfoy, leaving the two captives alone. "What the fuck are you doing?" hissed Ginny. "Do you want to get yourself killed?"

"Not in the least. Parkinson's easy to play. She may have the upper hand physically right now, but whenever she's in the room, I want to be the one with power over her." She continued, sensing that her explaination wasn't enough. "See, now no matter how hard she tries, she'll keep wondering in the back of her mind if I'm right, and she is weak. It'll just eat away at her, and either she'll decide to go against it and be sure she's strong, or as I suspect given her character, she'll give in to the idea, and in doing so will become even weaker than she is."

"How do you know all that?" Ginny's face was filled with wonder as she shook her head in disbelief.

"I read a few textbooks on psychology, figuring they'd come in handy someday."

"Hermione, you're books are either going to kill you or save you one day." Hermione laughed at the statement.

"So, how've you been treated so far?" she asked the redhead.

"Honestly, better than you. She just sat here making fun of me. It was getting rather annoying. I wonder why they were the ones sent in to us, though. And how did you know Malfoy was there?"

"I smelled his cologne. I've sat too close in too many classes to him to not recognise it." Before Ginny could respond the door to the cell opened. Both girls tensed up as Bellatrix walked into the room, locking the door behind her. The woman looked appraisingly from Hermione to Ginny before a twisted smile crossed her face, as though thinking of what was to come.

When she approached Hermione, she took a vial of crimson liquid out of her pocket. "I see you're good at following directions, pet." Her head cocked to the side as she started playing with the vial.

"Depends on who gives them."

"He wants you to drink this." She uncorked the vial, and smelled the contents. Her eyes glazed over with glee as Hermione downed the contents, wrinkling her nose in disgust at the taste.

"That is vile. What does it do?" she asked curiously, as she noticed Ginny was about to pass out from the horror of the thought that Hermione, brains extraordinaire, just up and drinking a potion given her by a Death Eater. And a crazy one, at that.
"Not much. Just makes you sterile." The womans eyes were now full of an elation that she could not keep in, and so started laughing like... well... like a crazy person. Hermione just nodded as the information sunk in. She should have expected it. If the Dark Lord was going to let her live, he certainly wouldn't want her reproducing her mudblood genes.
"Anything else?"
Before Bellatrix could respond to the question, Ginny exploded. "Hermione, what the hell is wrong with you? Why would you take anything from a Death Eater, especially without knowing what it does? She could have killed you! Sh-" Her mouth kept moving despite the fact that she was no longer emitting sound.
Giving the youngest girl a withering look, she spoke. "I'm going to enjoy this. She doesn't need to die, unfortunately. She just can't say anything about here to anyone ever, but she has to remember it. All of it." Bellatrix then went over and unlocked the shackles holding Hermione.
"I understand," Hermione said as the elder woman went to stand in the corner Malfoy had earlier hid himself in.