The End Is The Beginning Is The End

‘Do you know what this is, Ms. Granger?’

Shaking, Hermione stumbled backwards, not stopping until she hit the wall.

‘H-how did you get one of those?’

Lucius smiled. 

What he held in his hand was a mirror.  Or rather, a piece of a mirror.  It was a large piece, with uneven edges, and the surface was cloudy.  It was clearly very old.

‘Does it matter?  I have one.  You know Ms. Granger, there are few who would recognize such an instrument.  I knew of course you would not dissappoint me.’

Carefully, he held the mirror out her.  ‘Do you not want to examine it?’

Hermione covered her face with her hands and curled against the wall.  ‘No, I don’t.’

‘Curious instruments, these looking-glasses.  There aren’t very many of them left.  I have only had the pleasure of using it once, and the person who used it went completely mad.  We had to lock him up.  Sadly, there was no possible way of getting near him without suffering injury.  As a result, we kept him locked up.  And he starved himself to death.’

She was going to vomit.

‘Really unsettling, exactly.  Do you know he actually started to eat himself?  We found him covered in his own excrement when he finally had the decency to die.  Half of his arm was chewed through.’

‘You are a monster.’

Lucius shrugged prettily, ‘Semantics really.  You think I’m a monster and yet here, in this part of the world, I am treated like a king.  Someone to be respected and obeyed.’

‘You’re all twisted and crazy.’

He smiled, ‘Again, semantics.  But Ms. Granger, are you not interested in knowing who that person was?’

She shook her head, ‘No, I don’t want to know.’  And she covered her ears.  But she still heard him say the name.

‘Ronald Weasley.’

Hermione fell to the floor and burst into tears.

‘I take it you two were close?  My son tells me you two cared for one another.  What a …ah, unique union.’

He held the glass towards her. Hermione did not reach for it.

He sighed, ‘Very well.  I will put it away.  You can play with it later, after you’ve told me what I desire.’

He clapped his hands, and left the room.

Hermione was shaking terribly.  If he moved to rape her again, she would have told him.  She would have told him everything.

God,  please just let me die…