Mrs.Malfoy

Author Note: This chapter contains Graphic Imagery of Physical Abuse. Please skip the Legilimens scene if you would rather not read about such acts. It will be recognizable. Look for the asterisks ** to return to reading. Thank you to all my wonderful readers and reviewers! Your words are more encouraging with each chapter! Hugs Vampire!! Now find out what Severus says...

The next morning found Hermione drowsy and slow to start moving. If it wasn’t for Dobby being back in the possession of the Malfoy’s, she wasn’t sure what she would do. Dobby would do anything for her including getting her out of bed in time to prepare Lucius’ clothes, breakfast, and morning tea.

“Thank you, Dobby,” she whispered to the house elf.

“No, Miss Hermione. Do not thank Dobby, miss. Miss must never thank Dobby. If the master found out, Dobby and Miss would be surely hurt. This came for Miss. Dobby snatched it from the owl before Master could see,” he smiled and popped into thin air as soon as he handed Hermione the note.

Hermione,

I don’t know how you are doing it. I understand why. It’s not that, but why don’t you do something about it? Fight him? Curse his bollocks off? Something. We care so much about you. We know you would rather die than be there. Just tell me what is that has you so determined to stay?

We love you very much,

Ginny

Hermione sighed and told herself that the time to cry was later…much later. She began to the kitchen where Lucius had already begun making the tea. She cringed to think of what kind of punishment he would have for her, but then again…

“Oh, Mr. Malfoy. Forgive me. I don’t remember you needing to be up so early today. I would have been down sooner, I swear. May I finish that for you, sir?” She began to take the teapot from him.

“No, you may sit down. I will make the tea this morning.”

Hermione’s eyes bulged. Lucius Malfoy doing manual labour. She almost looked to the clock to start counting down the hour that would surely end in his transforming into someone else.

“I assure you, Mrs. Malfoy, that I am your husband. I received a rather interesting owl earlier from Severus.”

She didn’t ask about it. She knew he would tell her in due time. She also knew that he would have slapped her for butting into his private business.

“He told me that I should be easy on you. He said that your punishments for your incompetence and insolence could prove to be too much for your frail body and in time, it would prove futile to bear children. So, I have taken it into consideration.”

Hermione didn’t quite know what to say, but, “Thank you, sir. I will try my best to provide you with another heir.”

“Yes, you will.” Lucius smirked at her then noticed the way she was sitting. “Sit up straight and pull that wild mane away from your face.” She complied.

“That’s much better. Can’t have the lady of the house with such poor body language. I will have an etiquette tutor to come and show you how you should behave when we have company.”

“Yes, sir.”

The tea was ready and Lucius began pouring her a glass. “Black, is that correct?”

Hermione nodded as he set the cup in front of her. She would have believed Dumbledore rose from the dead flying a pig over glaciers in hell before she would have believed what she was seeing with her own eyes. Lucius Malfoy was serving her.

“Thank you,” she murmured.

“Stop it. Your incessant kindness annoys me. We both know that there is no respect loss between us. Albeit, you will learn to respect me and my house.”

She nodded again and took a sip of her tea.

Lucius began reading the mornings Daily Prophet. He seemed to be content to just sit in her company and not say anything more.

Hermione took small bites of her scone and tried her best to remember the table etiquette her mother tried to bestow on her. She almost choked on it when she remembered her mother. The last time she saw her was at the wedding ceremony. Her parents were shocked to learn that Hermione had to marry a pureblood wizard or face life imprisonment in Azkaban. They accepted her decision and tried to support her. They even asked why others in the community couldn’t petition for their daughter. It was at the Order meeting.

“But why?”

Minerva McGonagall looked up to Mrs. Granger with downtrodden eyes. “I’m sorry but there isn’t anything we can do. We aren’t quite sure what the reasons behind this are. We believe it is to replenish the magical community after the war, but we aren’t for certain.”

“Is there anyone else besides him?”

This question was asked by Mr. Granger and, again, Minerva answered, “No. Everyone that could petition for her has already done. I would prefer that Severus would do the honours, but he is only half-blood. The Ministry would not recognize their marriage as legal under the new law. We have a few young men that have petitioned for her. We can only hope the Ministry will consider them.”

“What are you thinking about?”

Hermione pulled from her memory of that night to look at her husband. “My parents.”

“Ah,” he said with a drip of condescendence on his tongue. He said nothing else. He only finished his tea, left the table, and grabbed his cloak on the way out the door.

When came home hours later, the house was impeccably clean. The fire was perfect. The solid silver tea set, adorned with an emerald gemmed snake for each handle, was awaiting use. The china was set in three place settings on the table. The side of lamb was roasted nicely and placed in a heat and moisture maintaining bubble. The wine, vintage 1926, had been opened to allow it to breath and placed in the bucket with never melting ice. Everything was set for one memorable evening. Lucius admired the spread before him.

“Such a formal evening for someone so unworthy of the trouble, don’t you think?” he asked Hermione as she entered the room.

His expression of a mocking smirk fell away as his wife came into view.

Her hair cascaded in silken tendrils over her bare shoulders. The emerald silk wrapped around her bosom, layering ever so slightly with a paler shade of green. The bodice twisted around her small waist with the smallest hint of rhinestones, then flared off the curve of her hips to tickle the floor with its many tapered tiers.

“I suppose I was wrong in believing you wanted to prove your place over Severus. I will change.”

Before she made good on her threat of jeans and an old sweatshirt, she had turned her back to reveal a very large diamond cut out of the back of her dress, one tip clasping the fabric together, the other teasing the top of her bum.

With a choke, Lucius stopped her. “No. You are correct. Perhaps a good dose of what he could have had will do him good.” He took her hand and led her to her seat.

At that moment, the wards shimmered, indicating their guest had arrived. Severus was welcomed into the house by a house elf and shown the way to the dining room.

“Mr. Snape, sir,” the elf announced to Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy.

“That will be all,” Hermione said and the elf disappeared.

“Wonderful to have you for dinner again so soon, Severus,” Lucius remarked.

Severus bowed slightly. “Thank you for having me.”

He walked to Hermione, took her hand in his, and kissed the back of it as he did two nights ago.

“You look ravishing, Mrs. Malfoy,” he said in a somewhat blank tone.

Hermione knew better than to take him at face value so she simply bowed her head slightly replying, “Thank you, Mr. Snape. Please do have a seat.” She patted the chair closest to hers. And he sat.

The house elf arrived promptly with the fake missive to Lucius regarding vandals at Narcissa’s tomb. He left from the spot in the very next second.

“What kind of manners are these? Invite someone to dine with you and disappear.”

“Jingsy, please ward these doors, cast silencing charms on them, and have no one overhear my conversation with Mr. Snape. We are going to discuss the master’s birthday and I would prefer my surprise party NOT be ruined. Is that clear?”

“What…”

“Hush.” She placed a hand over his mouth.

They heard the muttering of spells and a tingle in the air knowing it was now save to speak.

“Just to be sure no one hears use Legilimens on me.”

“I beg your pardon!”

“Just do it!”

Severus turned to face the woman in front of him. He used his peripheral vision to trace the lines of her proud chin and plump full lips. He wanted to touch them, to taste them. He could see from the bottom of his eyes the tops of her breasts being pushed up and corpulent. How he wanted to taste them too. He could see the soft glow of the chandelier overhead casting its warmth into her hair. He wanted to touch it. And then it hit him.

“Hold your head still, woman,” he said as he lifted his hands and placed them on either side of her face. His fingers gently found themselves on a bed of softest satin while his thumbs nestled against her smooth cheeks. He gazed into the richness of her eyes, and, for the briefest of moments, almost got lost in them.

He spoke the incantation and he was immediately thrust into her darkest desires without realizing that he had let his guard down.

He could see her wedding night. Lucius knew she would put up a fight so he had her bound to the bed lying on her stomach completely undressed. He broke the contact immediately.

She quickly took his head in her hands and forced him to look at her. “You have to see what he did to me. Maybe then you will understand why I have to do what you will see later.”

He spoke the words again after a large sigh and took in the same scene.

Lucius was standing over her on the bed holding a whip.

“I will break you, mudlbood! You will know to respect me. Severus says you are a quite a good student. So this lesson should run smooth as silk. Do you understand?”

There was mumble in the pillow which he took as a yes. The whip slashed against her bare skin drawing tiny rivulets of blood.

“I did not give you permission to speak, you slave! You are worth nothing to me other than to give me back a son. Then I will dispose of you like I did that coward of a descendant,” he snapped his wrist again and the leather straps stung her flesh, smearing the blood across new welts.

She did not speak. She did not move. She just laid there and allowed him to rape her. She had no recourse. She had no way to fight back. Her wand was put in the vault under the stairs, and her body was tied up with the strongest of dark spells. The only sound Severus could hear in this memory was that of her quiet sobs as her tears soaked the pillow under her face.

The atrocious act in front of him changed rapidly. Hermione had been caught reading in the study. Her punishment was to give Lucius as much pleasure as her books gave her. She had never taken a man in such a manner and her inexperience was proven when he rammed himself into her throat making her gag. The impulse was so strong that she could do nothing to stop the nature of such a thing. She vomited all over the sheets between his legs.

The force of the blow was enough to completely throw her from the bed and halfway across the room.

**Hermione then brought forward the events after Severus left the other night. She made sure he saw the silent scream that jettisoned from her lips as the boiling water covered her scalp, face, and neck. This was enough for Severus to jump back and break the spell.

He said nothing as did she, but she did pull back her hair on the left side of her neck to expose the broken blisters that lined her skin. “The rest are covered by glamour charms. I have one on my forehead, two on my cheek, and four under my hair. There are three on this side of my neck, and two on the other.”

Severus grimaced deeply and ran for the loo. The sounds of his retching gave Hermione a peace of mind that he might help her. If he was sensitive to the kind of abuse she had been victim to, then maybe he would stand beside her to stop it.

He re-entered the room a few moments later looking rather pale and sweaty.

“We don’t have much time. He will be back any moment. Will you help me? Will you help me get rid of him?”

He was astonished by her, albeit vague, admission of wanting to kill her husband and face a lifetime imprisonment. But then she spoke.

“Not Azkaban. I will not go through that. I want him at St. Mungo’s. I want him alive and well and under the impression that he’s gone mad.”

“How do you propose to do that, Mrs. Malfoy?”

Her face crunched as if she, too, was to be sick. “Please do NOT call me that.”

He nodded slightly.

“Look again,” she said as she straightened her posture.

This time he saw her antics over the past week. He could see her hands toying with a needle and thread. He saw the expression on Lucius’ face as his wife’s hair changed colour from one moment to the next. What caught his attention was when Lucius fled in fear. All Severus could see of this memory was the back of Hermione’s head, so when she stood and turned around right in front of him, his body froze. Her eyes were the brightest red he had ever seen. They flared with hysteria. He almost broke the spell, but he saw her reach up to each eye and remove the little plastic disks from her eyes and place them in a white container.

With this, Hermione broke the spell and sat back. “Well, will you help me? I have the power to terrify him. And I intend to use. But I can only do so much by myself. You know he doesn’t allow me any contact with Harry, Ron, or Ginny. I can’t even owl Professor McGonagall.”

Severus looked around the room. He stood. And he paced. He returned beside her and looked down at her.

“Quite impressive, Mrs. Malfoy.”

“Well? Will you play along?”

He guffawed. That one sound diminished all hope in Hermione’s heart. “And stop all this nonsense?”

She looked into his eyes pleadingly.

He quieted, leaned down to her smirking, and whispered, “Of course I will.”