A Strange Love

Disclaimer: Not mine, not zilch belongs to me, if they did do you think I'd be doing this? Rodolphus likes to be played with though!

ccrawley: Thanks for being the first reviewer. I like Drama to happen straight away.

cateye: I didn't think about this pair until recently.

angel: Aww, leave Bella alone! I love her... even more so for the reason that Helena Bonham Carter is playing her... yeah, anyway.. thanks, and here's the update.

Mary: I am glad you love this story so far.

saricide: Well, your wait is over.

BlackRose23: Thanks, yes it is rather an unusual pairing. That's why I love it.

shygirl: Here it is.

Discovery and Explanations

Hermione woke up whilst they were gone, and decided to crawl out of bed. She still felt light headed, but she put that down to not having had anything to eat. She looked at her watch, so she had only been here over night that was a blessing. At least she hadn’t woken up weeks later. She got out of bed and winced, as her warm feet touched the cold stone flooring of this ancient house. Whomever her saviour was, he was rich, and obviously from a good Wizarding family. That meant purity…

That thought didn’t scare her, some of her best friends were purity, so it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. But there was another branch of purity, and THAT branch of purity would rather see her in the lowest, dirtiest rat infested dungeon than in a nice, comfortable bed; she shuddered, but pushed that thought aside. She walked over to a set of mahogany wardrobes. She opened the door and found out to her surprise that this was a female’s bedchamber, as the robes hung up there were dressy, flamboyant, and yet tasteful.

She walked up to another door, and opened it. Inside was a rather opulent bath, and shower, with matching sink and toilet. She decided to close the door and do some more exploring; she wanted to know where she was, and who had truly rescued her.

She walked out of the bedroom into a vast wide hallway; the walls were littered with paintings of her saviour’s family. All of them held an arrogant sneer across their lips, and all stared down at her haughtily.

“And just who are you?” a portrait of a particularly regal woman asked.

“Hermione Granger,” she answered quietly.

The portraits muttered discontentedly. She felt all her optimistic thoughts fade away as to this being a good, pure born saviour.

“Just what is a Mudblood doing in this noble Court?” a fat lady that looked like Umbridge said.

“I don’t know where I am, and why, but I am here,” Hermione answered.

A male peered at her closely and then put a pipe in his mouth. He sat back in his chair and then an evil grin spread across his mouth.

“Is that so, young lady, well I can see that you are here for a bit of fun with one of the last of our descendants,” he looked her up and down. “Mind you, if you were in my era I probably might have kidnapped you for the same purpose.”

Hermione blushed, and then spun on her heel to storm down the hallway.

“Got a bit of fight haven’t you,” the male shouted. Hermione froze and turned around.

“You’re rather condescending for a portrait aren’t you mister, all it would take for me is to reach for my wand and put a particularly localized shower in your direction and wipe you out of existence. YOU, on the other hand, and all your friends, can’t do a thing to me!”

She carried on down the hallway to the mutterings of the portraits saying things like: “Well really,” and, “No call for that now, was there? Impertinent little wench!” Hermione ignored them. She walked down a broad staircase and looked around the bottom of the stairs.

There were several doors, and she knew those doors led to more doors to more rooms, this was going to take some time. Suddenly she didn’t feel so secure as the wards shook. She decided to hide quickly. She hid under the stairs, she would only step out if the visitor was her saviour. She crouched as far into the shadows under the staircase as much as possible.

“Teach! Teach! What makes the Lord think I can teach? Why does he think of me as a teacher? It’s not as if the girl listens to me anyway.” Hermione furrowed her brow, Snape! She’d recognise that grumbling low voice anyday. She gulped, as she slunk further in. “One of these days the Dark Lord might find I am NOT one to cross. I did what I did to Dumbledore for Draco, but I might join Potter for real next time… convert HER to the Dark Side, he doesn’t even know what she’s like!”

Convert who to the Dark Side? Hermione asked herself. Not me, surely. Must be talking about someone else. The wards shook again, and this time her saviour and someone very much like him but a bit thinner walked into the hallway.

“Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness, Severus,” her saviour joked.

“Oh shut up, Lestrange!” Severus exclaimed. Hermione gasped. Lestrange? No, a Lestrange can’t have rescued her.

“I am not the one that’s mad, Severus, besides why are you so adamant that she won’t convert, I have charm enough.”

“You don’t know what this girl is like, Rodolphus, she’s very determined, persistent little thing, and she’s not entirely stupid. Much of Potter’s success is due to her. He would not have got NEAR the Philosophers Stone were it not for her.”

“As long as she can breed, and is not mad, then I’ll tackle the little thing.”

Hermione’s eyes narrowed, so that’s what he thinks is it? Arrogant bastard! She looked at Severus though, and her heart swollen in her chest, and a lump came in her throat, what wouldn’t she have given to hear those words from him in the classroom? She smiled as he praised her.

“I still don’t think it’s fair, Rodolphus, you get all the luck! Why can’t I have her? Why doesn’t he just break with tradition once in a while?”

“Because I am the older brother, Rabastan, why can’t you just accept that? Besides, little brother, she likes me already.”

Hermione snorted. What made him so damn sure? She realised she had to find a way out before they realised she was out of bed. She had to get out and disappear. She crawled along the wall, thanking Merlin their backs were turned, and she pushed open a door handle. She quietly slid inside the room; she turned and found herself in a study. On some of the bookshelves were models of Muggle Ships; Hermione didn’t have time to register what they were doing there, then she spotted the handle of the door being pushed down. She spun wildly around the room, but it was too late. Her saviour, Rodolphus Lestrange, had walked into the room, and he saw her there.

“Doing a bit of exploring were you?” he asked her in a light jovial tone.

“I was curious as to where I was I must admit,” Hermione answered in a stiff tone.

“So, what do you think of Lestrange Court?” Rodolphus asked taking off his jacket. Hermione tried to avoid looking at his chest. It was powerful, and manly, a thick covering of black hair covered his chest. Hermione had always liked a hairy chest. He hung the coat over the back of his chair.

“It’s old,” Hermione said.

“As old as Hogwarts, Lestranges actually helped build Hogwarts.”

“Really,” Hermione said.

Rodolphus frowned in confusion. “Are you all right, Hermione?”

“Yes,” she said. “Only, I was exploring the Court, and then you turned up, and I heard you talking to your younger brother, and Snape.”

Rodolphus sighed. She had heard everything. He walked up to her and picked her hands up, they were so small, and she looked so fragile in that plain white nightgown she was wearing. He liked her like this. She was sweet with her chin stuck defiantly up in the air, showing a possible strength underneath this weakened state.

“Listen to me, Hermione, I rescued you on that battlefield. Doesn’t that bespeak some honour inside of me?”

“Possibly,” Hermione said. “But I’d really prefer it if I were with my friends, they must be worried about me.”

Rodolphus tucked some of her hair behind her ear. “You can always make new friends. They probably would hunt for you, and they probably would worry for you. But they’ll give up eventually.”

“Not Harry,” she said with a fervour in her voice that again belied the fragile look.

“No, he wouldn’t give up looking for the golden snitch, would he?”

Hermione didn’t want to blush. She hated Quidditch Innuendo but being described as the most sought after ball of the game did always make her feel ten feet tall.

“Why did you ‘rescue’ me?” She asked.

Rodolphus lifted her hands to his lips and kissed them, keeping eye contact with her. He then dropped her hands, and placed an arm around her waist and pulled her into his embrace.

“Don’t you feel safe with me?”

“But you bear the dark mark, after I bear you, your heir, what are going to do to me then?”

Rodolphus had been certain he could kill her, but now that he actually held her in his arms properly, he weren’t quite so sure. She was inquisitive; all the questions she had asked proved that. An inquisitive mind usually was a clever one. She wanted to push him away but felt wonderful in his arms. He swung his other arm around her, thus encasing her. She was trapped. She rested her cheek on his chest.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” he said.

“I know I didn’t like her, but I am sorry that she is dead, Bellatrix I mean.”

Rodolphus tilted her chin up with his middle finger so that he could look in her eyes.

“Why should you be sorry?” he asked. “She tried to kill you.”

“I don’t like war, no one really deserves to die in one,” she murmured.

Bloody Gryffindor nobility! Although, Rodolphus mused, it was quite endearing – sometimes.

“If you are going to stay here, you’ll need some clothes. Bellatrix was taller than you, so hers won’t fit. You probably wouldn’t like them anyway.”
“How are we going to get clothes?” Hermione asked.

“I’m not poor you know,” Rodolphus said. “Although,” he took her out of his arms, and walked around her. He stepped up close behind her. “You might not have much need of them.”

Hermione blushed. Rodolphus was just about to kiss the tender spot on her neck when Rabastan burst in.

“Oh,” Rabastan faltered.

“What is it, Rabby?”

“It’s Severus, Rodolphus, he wants to talk to her.”

“She happens to have a name, Rabby. Call her by it. Show your future sister respect, hmm.”

“All right, he wants to talk to Hermione,” Rabastan said.

Hermione looked at Rabastan and was a little bit pleased the older staked his claim first. Besides, she knew as well as anyone the pureblood tradition. It was even evident in the Weasley family. Charlie can’t have the first child, it has to be Bill, but Fleur, little Miss Barbie Doll, doesn’t want to ruin her figure yet with a child. Which means poor Charlie has to wait before he can even propose to Luna. Rodolphus had to have the child first.

“I had better go to him,” Hermione said.

“Sure,” Rodolphus said. “Oh it might be cold going down to those dungeons, that’s where he’s likely to be.” He walked up to the chair and put the jacket over her shoulders. Hermione lifted her hair out of the back. “Green suits you.”

Hermione looked at him and smiled weakly. She walked out of the door, and Rabastan took her hand. He lied; of course, Severus didn’t want to talk to her at all. He knew what his older brother was going to do and he wanted to do it first, for a change. He led her up the stairs, which Hermione found odd.

“Aren’t dungeons usually downstairs?” Hermione asked.

“Yes,” Rabastan said. “But we’re not going to the dungeons.”

“But you said -!”

“What? You think that I was telling the truth. Okay, let me tell you something. The Dark Lord promised the spoils of that battle to me. Wenches were one of them. You are a Wench. You should be mine.”

Hermione turned on her heel to run down the stairs but Rabastan caught her.
“Let go off me, you cad!”

“Rodolphus had his chance, sweetheart, and he muffed it.”

“What is going on here?” Hermione and Rabastan froze in their struggle. She closed her eyes and sighed.

“Snape,” Rabastan said. “Unpacked already?”

Hermione used the distraction to her advantage and elbowed Rabastan in the ribs, she winded him, and he sank on his knees. She ran up the stairs and stood behind Snape. For some reason she knew he’d protect her, he turned around and gave nothing away with his eyes, but a small curve of the lip proved her right.

“I don’t think Miss Granger wants to play, Rabastan.”

“Damn right she doesn’t,” Hermione muttered under her breath. Severus found this amusing, it seemed only he could hear her.

“Come with me, Miss Granger, you probably need a calming potion.”

He turned around and she followed. She picked up the jacket that had slipped off in her panic and continued on with Snape. He opened the door to a room, and she walked in. He shut the door, and then offered her to sit down on a chair.

“Look, I need to get out of here,” she said. “Rodolphus is rather charming but I am afraid of him. Rabastan seems to think I would willingly do things with him that I wouldn’t do to any of my friends, and I don’t belong here.”

“True, you don’t Miss Granger. However I can’t help you escape, as much as I want to, I simply can’t.”

Hermione slumped down in her seat. “Why not?”

“Because I am still working both sides, Miss Granger, some of the information you have been using over the past year has come from me. I have been very careful about it. But the Dark Lord thinks of me as a faithful servant. Look, I am staying here, to help you as much as I can. But I can’t let you escape.”

“I don’t want to be here,” she said. “I’m scared!”

Severus arched an eyebrow at that. That was probably the first time in his life he heard a Gryffindor admit to being frightened. It shook him a little. If she could admit to being scared with what she has already been through then there was no hope for anyone else.

“If you don’t mind my asking, Miss Granger, are you still a virgin?”

“Of course not!” she snapped.

“So, you have had a penetration? You know what a man feels like inside?”

Hermione blushed to the roots of her hair. “Ron and I have done it, you know.”

“All right then, you know what a boy feels like.”

Hermione scowled at him. She looked at him and then shook her head.

“What are you trying to say, Professor?”

Severus winced over that one. He knew he deserved it. Perhaps if he helped her out of here she might show him more respect. But he couldn’t.

“What I am trying to say is, that Rodolphus is equal, if not worse than Lucius when it comes to having his own way with women. For some reason he has taken a liking to you. It might have been in the MoM all those years ago, or it might have just been a spur of the moment decision. Either way he wants you, and part of that wanting is – to put it bluntly – sex!”

“Could you be more plainer?” Hermione asked acidly.

“You can’t fight him, Miss Granger, unless you want to be beaten black and blue for your trouble. He will demand it off you. Miss Granger you have every right to be scared, and you have every right to want to escape but even if you do, he’ll hunt you down and bring you back again. It will grow very tiresome for him one day, and he’ll kill you.”

Hermione’s eyes widened. “So, what you’re saying is ‘give in!’ that’s rather cowardly isn’t it?”

“Not always,” Severus replied. “Giving in can be just as brave as fighting you know. What is the true meaning of courage after all?”

“To face your fear, and then, to fight it.”

“You have yet to face this particular fear of yours, Miss Granger.”

Hermione nodded, she noticed that her head was slipping down, and her eyes were getting droopy. She couldn’t be tired so soon, could she? Severus sighed, he levitated her off the chair using his wand and then he lowered her gently onto his bed. He wasn’t sure where her room was, so he decided to let her sleep there for the time being. Severus slipped out of the room quietly. He had to talk to his aunt as soon as possible. Minerva had to know.

~*~*~

Rodolphus walked out of the study and saw Rabastan on his knees on the stairs.

“You lied didn’t you, Rabby, Severus didn’t want to talk to her did he?”

“Actually, I did,” Severus oozed out of the shadows.

“You’re normally in the dungeons,” Rodolphus said.

“That was to hide from your wife,” Severus said. “I have decided I prefer the upper chambers. Miss Granger is asleep on my bed for the moment, I didn’t know where her room was.”

“Are you sure you just talked?” Rodolphus asked, his eyes narrowing.

“Positive, she’s not my type.”

Severus sauntered down the stairs, and looked down at Rabastan.

“Did she do that?” Rodolphus asked, nodding towards his purple-faced brother.

“Yes, I saw her do it. Quite feisty isn’t she, Rodolphus?”

Rodolphus gulped and nodded. “Looks like I have to treat her very gently.”

“Just for the time being,” Severus said.

A/N I have written another chapter, but it won't be posted until I get reviews... hope you like.