Life in an Alien Land 1: In the Land of My Enemy

Thanks for all the feedback. Also, thanks to GryffindorClutz for the suggestion to change categories.

Jilliane, I hope this chapter satisfies your questioning nature.

Life in an Alien Land

Chapter 4

Weeks dragged by as details were hammered out on the Treason the small band planned to commit to rid the world of Voldemort. Hermione chaffed under the weight of the details, worried that they would include her, terrified that they would not. Lucius went to meetings in London while Draco stayed behind guarding his possession from the new males inhabiting the Manor. If he had her confession of love, he did not indicate it. Hermione spent her days with Snape, Ginny and Draco in research. Ron was given Polyjuice and instructed to patrol the perimeter of the Manor; his presence disturbed Draco to the point of near murderous rage several times. Molly spent her time taking care of Delphine, delighted to be of use.

The Dark Lord summoned Lucius and Draco several times in that period and each time their Proteus Charm reacted, Snape writhed in agony, his Dark Mark burning along with theirs, increasing in intensity after each passing moment he made no reply. In those times, Hermione wisely left him to Ginny's care. She had a way of calming his waspish tongue and vicious temper. Draco would return from the meetings and immediately take Hermione to bed. She both dreaded and desired those times as he enacted his pitiable perversion before bringing them both to blissful culmination. The day after, he would bring her breakfast in bed and lavish attention on her and Delphine, as if in apology, though the words were never spoken.

On one such morning, after one of Draco's mute crepuscular apologies, Hermione made her way to the Library, still blissfully sore from the night's activities. She was surprised that she was the first to work, but was sure the others would be along soon. Snape's work ethic was much like her own, and he rarely missed an opportunity to learn more. She admired that about him, even if she despised his barbed comments and sly warnings about her confusing relationship with Draco. She settled in to learning more about the Horcruxes they had destroyed and the way they were made. All knowledge would help the group devise a way ultimately to destroy the tyrant. She became aware of voices in the hall, and paused in her reading, her finger on the parchment to mark her place. One voice was Snape's distinctive baritone and the sliding drawl sounded much like Lucius. Hermione attempted to return her attention back to the dry text she was reading, but heard her name spoken. She crept to the entrance, hiding behind the half-open door.

Snape was saying, "...worried about the girl. What will you do with her once this is all over?"

"I shall make reparations, of course." Lucius drawled his tone low and dangerous.

"You plan to pay her in what coin for her blood? And your daughter? How will you repay the child; by proclaiming her a bastard, or worse, the product of rape?" Severus' tone was cutting. "You should marry her. She deserves, at the very least, the protection of the Malfoy name even if you can never give the girl what she needs."

"And what does she need? More time in my bed? A nightly reminder of my disgusting cowardice? I don't think so." Robes rustled and Hermione drew back, afraid the two men would discover her. "Besides, Draco has claimed her."

"As if she were a piece of property. Oh, but that's right, she is merely a Muddy field for you two to plough, isn't she? Aren't you afraid that Draco might further dirty your line with more half-bloods and Muggleborn wife? That does not sound like something you would ever approve, Lucius" Snape's flat statement spun into the hallway, swirling in Hermione's head.

"Bloodlines were more Narcissa's concern, not mine." Lucius answered evenly. "After all, my dear, late wife had more to hide than most."

"You fear Draco." Snape insisted.

"I fear for him," Lucius' soft answer rang with the conviction of truth. "I love him. He is my son."

"And Delphine is your daughter. Think of what this will do to her," Snape returned. "To the gods' ears, I wish I had your problems."

Lucius asked almost too innocently, "Is there trouble with Miss Weasley? What will the next few nights bring for you both, I wonder. Or can you even fuck in such an altered form? Tell me how does a wer--"

"Fuck off, Lucius." Snape's booted feet resounded hollowly in the marble hallway, closer to the library door. Hermione scrambled to pry a book off the shelf and tried to appear engrossed in it as Snape entered the room with swirling robes and obligatory sneer firmly in place.

Hermione dawdled over the book she held before returning to the table and the mass of parchments sprawled over its surface. Snape gave her a piercing look. "You have questions."

"No." Hermione retrieved the documents on which she had been working, trying to appear engrossed in them.

Snape slapped the tabletop. Hermione's head jerked up to meet his insolent, black gaze. "Surely, Miss Granger, your know-it-all tendencies have not died along with your virtue?"

"My virtue is intact, Professor. It is the people who surround me that are without honour." Hermione's gaze slipped to his neck, the angry, empurpled scars from Nagini's bite showed clearly above the greying shirt he wore. After a few seconds of silent scrutiny she asked, "How did you survive the bite? When we left with your memories, you appeared dead."

Snape smirked as he leaned back in his chair, his long, angular legs jutting forward in the relaxed pose she had seen him in as a student. He quirked his eyebrow as if to say I knew you couldn't resist. He drew a breath through his long nose then answered, "I survived because I had friends in Peeves and the Bloody Baron. They alerted Aberforth Dumbledore of my condition."

"Aberforth, the owner of the Hog's Head, saved you?" Hermione scoffed, remembering the filth and seediness of the establishment.

"Do you think that Albus was the only wizard in that family?" Snape grinned like the cat in the cream. "Aberforth was a gifted Healer before his unfortunate incarceration."

"Oh." Hermione returned to her studies. After a long pause, in which she felt Snape's eyes boring into her skull she gave into her curiosity. "I was wondering how you and Ginny came to be together."

She kept her eyes on the parchment hoping he would answer without his usual vitriol. He sorted through the books on his side of the table and just when Hermione thought he might not answer at all, he answered, "Ginevra and I have much more in common now than we did before our capture."

"What did Lu... uh, Mr. Malfoy mean about your altered condition?"

He slammed the book that he held closed, his tone chill, "That is enough, Miss Granger. I should have known there would be no end to your impertinent questions if I allowed you any leeway."

&*&*&

Lucius and Draco were summoned that evening. Draco cursed under his breath as he exited the warmth of the bed, wanting to stay with the softly snoring woman. He sketched a kiss over her sleeping head and turned to Delphine's cradle. The girl slept with a thumb in her mouth and her legs drawn up. He watched her rosebud mouth and sweetly plump cheeks work and felt the same welling of gentleness for her that occurred now with increasing intensity. He leaned over the side of the crib and kissed her. He wished she were his.

As he drew on his robes and placed the mask in a hidden pocket, Hermione stirred. "Draco, you're called again?"

"It's all right, sweet, go back to sleep, I shall return soon." Draco knew that when he returned, he would use her as he always did. He hated how needy he became with her after a meeting with the Dark Lord. It seemed that he funnelled all of the Darkness of the night's work into his cock and he used her to exorcise it from his body as he drank her purity. In his increasing moments of mental clarity, he disgusted himself with his obsession and his need.

He wondered if she had really meant what she said the night of the party. She half sat, leaning on one elbow, her long, brown frizz trailing over her breasts. "Kiss me before you leave. I want to taste you on my lips as I sleep."

Draco's heart ached as he strode to the side of the bed and took her lips with his. She tasted of sleep and mint from the tooth powder she used before bed. When they broke apart as the pain from the Mark increased, she sighed, "Be careful. Your child needs you."

Her hand drifted down her body to reveal the soft mound of her belly. Draco rubbed his arm, wishing he had time to show he loved her, from her bushy head to her prettily lacquered toes. He kissed her once more unable to express his joy. "Hermione, I..."

"I know, Draco. Go, or you'll be punished." She lay back down and turned on her side with one knee tucked over a pillow, the way she always slept when he was away. As he shut the door, he thought he heard her say, "I love you."

&*&*&

It was full morning and Draco had not returned. Hermione paced the length of the library unaware of the looks of concern from both Ginny and Snape. A loud crack of Apparation brought the other to their feet. Hermione rushed to the door only to be disappointed by the site of a house elf bringing breakfast to the dining room. She returned to her vigil by the windows.

After several more hours, Hermione was ill with worry. Unable to eat, she ended up in the toilet vomiting as Ginny held her hair out of the water and Snape went in search of potions ingredients. Hermione leaned against the cool ring of the seat, panting to try to alleviate the worst of the nausea. Ginny assured her, "I'm sure they're fine. Don't worry; they probably just had to do some work for Him. They'll be here soon."

"Tell me a story, you know, like you used to before..." Hermione retched again and Ginny rubbed her back as Molly had the night of their resurrection.

Ginny sighed. "What do you want to hear?"

Hermione rubbed her mouth with her fingers, wishing she could simply Accio some toothpaste and a toothbrush. "Tell me how you and Snape got together. I mean, unless it's private."

"Oh, only that." Hermione blushed as Ginny giggled. "All right you, just because you're sick."

"I'm not just sick, Ginny." Hermione replied. "I'm pregnant."

"Merlin, Hermione." Ginny whispered. "Should I congratulate you? I mean Draco is as mad as a... It is Draco's isn't it?"

Hermione stifled a sobbing laugh, "My life is so fucked up. Mum and Dad must be spinning in their graves."

She vomited again, bringing up bile and phlegm. Ginny waited until she finished then wiped her face with a cool, wet flannel she Accio'ed from the linen closet. "I didn't realise they had died. I'm sorry. I've been so caught up in my own drama that I never thought to ask."

"It's all right. I think we all have a right to be a little selfish now. And it is Draco's. Can you imagine him letting any other man around me long enough to even say hello, much less shag me?" Hermione felt a little better after the application of the cloth and so leaned back against the marble wall her knees drawn to her chest.

"He lets Severus around you," Ginny supplied as Hermione pulled a disgusted face. The redhead rolled her eyes. "Okay, point taken. I think I'm the only one who sees how devastatingly sexy he is. Even mum complains about his hair and his teeth, although I think she likes him."

"So, how did it happen? You and him." Hermione felt good seeing the Ginny she used to know, before the drug addiction, the whoring and all the tragedy of the last two years. It was a little ironic, if she thought about it, that Ginny would end up with Snape after Harry.

"Oh, you know. He rescued me, we shagged like bunnies, and we kind of... just... fit." Ginny lowered her eyes and began fidgeting with the hem of her robes, another one of Narcissa's cast-offs. "We... found we had things in common."

Ginny would not meet her friend's eyes and Hermione knew pushing would only cause Ginny to retreat. "Come on, Hermione; let's see if you can eat now. You need to feed that baby."

Hermione's breasts began leaking as Ginny mentioned food. "Do you think you could fetch Delphine for me?"

"Yeah, sure. Mum needs a break anyway." Ginny helped Hermione to stand and escorted her to the table. "I'll be right back with my Little Flower."

Hermione picked up a dry crumpet and poured tea, busying her hands so that she did not dwell on the absent Malfoys. Severus returned, bearing a steaming potion. "They have returned."

He placed a repressive hand on her shoulder as she started to stand. "Stay here. They will send for you. I must return to assist them."

Hermione noticed then the fleck of blood on his hands and the way the retrieved vial shook in them. He strode from the room before she could respond.

&*&*&

All the rest of the morning and into early afternoon Hermione was torn between anger at being excluded from the drama unfolding in the Manor, and elation that the two had returned. Snape assured her, in his many, hurried updates that both were well, but he would give no more information to her. The tight-lipped bastard.

Finding nothing that would occupy her mind in the library, she escaped to the small, Victorian greenhouse in the gardens of the Manor. The earthy, dark scents had been a solace to her in her first days of captivity. She sat and finally dozed off in the warm sun that beat down on the panes, only to start awake for what seemed like the hundredth time as she heard the click of the latch to the room. She turned and saw a grim-faced Draco enter. Before she could stop and compose her features into the demure slave role demanded of her, he strode to her and gathered her in his arms. They kissed until they were both breathless and aroused. Finally, Hermione pulled away from him, her hands on his shoulders as she surveyed his features for any damage. He had a long, blackening bruise running from his temple to his chin, a Curse-strike most likely, no jinx or hex would leave a mark. Hermione trailed her fingers over it, wishing she could work magic to heal him, make him whole.

"Father bade me to fetch you." He stepped away from her touch, his eyes suddenly flat. "He needs your assistance."

Hermione followed him through the Manor to the hallway where the family dwelt. Draco led her past their rooms to Lucius' chambers. She had not been in them before. When he had been with her, he always took her in her own room. Draco pushed the panelled door open and offered her his arm. She took it, not knowing if she would need the support he gave, unsure of what she would see.

Lucius sat on the bed in a bloodstained shirt, which had been tattered by wand or whip strikes. The wounds were raw and still seeping blood. Hermione looked beyond his seated figure to the pale woman laid out beside him on the bed like a figure on a medieval crypt. She looked familiar, with her heart-shaped face and mobile mouth. Her mouse-brown hair curled around angular, almost anorexic cheekbones, her hips jutted through the velvet bedspread. She appeared emaciated, bruised and dirty.

Lucius sighed and turned to greet Hermione, his movements slow and most likely painful. "Thank you for answering my summons, Miss Granger. I would like you to meet my new wife, Nymphadora Malfoy, nee Tonks. Could you please watch her while I have my own wounds tended?"

He slowly slid off the bed in a dead faint.

&*&*&

Hermione watched the rise and fall of the former Auror’s chest. She had seen her laid out in the Great Hall next to a pale Professor Lupin. The tragedy of the moment was etched forever in her mind. Young Tonks, who loved so well that she overcame Remus' reservations about his disease, married him, gave him a child and followed him to death. Yet, here she was, lifeless still, but breathing. Alive.

Hermione brushed her fingers over the woman’s fringe, the texture of her hair brittle and harsh, as if it had been scrubbed with a Muggle cleaning agent. Tonks face was bruised and her nose most likely broken with its cant to the side. Her lips were bleeding and bruised, a long slashing scar ran across her upper breasts, and she stank of urine and unwashed body. Hermione called for a house elf to bring a flannel and hot water so that she might clean some of the filth from Tonks’ body.

The fawning creature brought a huge tub and levitated the prone figure into it. “Mistress Malfoy needs rest and cleaning. Miss may assist if she wishes, but house elves is knowing the wounds on Mistress Malfoy, and healing them after both Masters get them from the ugly Dark man. Mister Snape‘s potions is only doing so much for her.”

The elf began scrubbing and singing to Tonks, keeping her levitated in the water as the layers of grime peeled off her. The elf Vanished the water and refilled the tub with a flick of its fingers.

Draco entered the room, his features haggard. He seemed lucid as he slid next to Hermione on the floor. “Snape and Mrs. Weasley are with Father. Do you need any help?”

“I need to feed Delphine.” Hermione answered, slumping her shoulders as she did.

“I’ll get her. You rest.” Draco stood. “Elf, when you have finished your task, bring tea for us.” He straightened his shoulders and added imperiously, “Please.”

He shot an amused look at Hermione. “I do remember that ridiculous fan club you started for house elves in school. I shall endeavour to honour your wishes in their treatment.”

Hermione stifled a giggle behind her hand. Draco touched it, sadness creeping into his eyes. “I used to enjoy hearing you laugh at school. You don’t anymore. No one does.”

He turned on his heel and strode out of the room.

&*&*&

Late in the night, Tonks cried out. Draco surged from the divan, wand drawn and wild-eyed. Hermione soothed him back to a more restful state, but was then awake. Draco stroked her shoulder as she drew Delphine from the crib he had transfigured from a Queen Anne chair. Conscious of his normal reaction to the process, she opened her robes. He continued stroking Hermione’s neck and arms as Delphine latched onto her nipple. He kissed behind her ear, a place that never failed to bring goose pimples. Hermione swallowed convulsively. “Draco, do you need to...”

“No, love. I just want to watch you. “He ran his fingers down her throat to touch Delphine’s face. The baby flinched but continued suckling. “She’s beautiful, just like her mother.”

“Draco, can you tell me what happened?” Hermione whispered.

Draco rested his forehead against Hermione’s. “I wasn’t there for most of it. I do know that The Dark Lord wants all of us to marry. Father... You have to understand that Father loved Mother. Their marriage was arranged when they were young, but they were raised together. He is not the kindest man, nor the most considerate, but with Mother... He doted on her. He told the Dark Lord that marriage to her niece would be illegal. He pled that my cousin was only half-blood and it would soil the legitimacy of our line... He tried every argument to keep from defiling Mother’s memory, so the Dark Lord compelled him to. I think he found it amusing that Father would be brought so low." Draco paused in his narration, his expression darkening. "You saw how...he was...I... had to Cruciate him... I had to pretend to feel nothing. Please, Hermione, forgive me.”

Hermione could sense the gathering storms in his mind, and could see the madness creeping over his features. She kissed him putting all the force of her feelings behind the action. “Draco, all is forgiven. I love you.”

His body juddered in her arms as he wept, his tears baptising man, woman and child. When he finally lifted his bleary, reddened eyes, the madness was once again at bay. He gave his shy smile, the one that made her love him more every time he bestowed it upon her. “I think I love you, too.”