As If In Wonderland

He watched as she lay on the bed in the room he generously gave her. Small and simple, but her own bedroom nonetheless, he wanted her separate from the other servants as she was not a normal servant.

“Wake up”, he whispered in her ear making her stir, “if you don’t wake up soon I will just have to curse you…”. That woke her up easily, she fluttered open her eyelids and winced as the daylight got into her eyes from the window. She had not seen daylight in weeks and it hurt her, after adjusting her eyes they widened as she realised Voldemort was watching her and that she was not in the cell anymore.

“What? Where am I…”, she breathed trying to sit up, though she was quite week being in the cell for so long.

“Don’t you remember dear?”, he smirked while stroking the hair out of her face, he knew it wound her up but she didn’t say anything about it.

“no…”, then she sat up suddenly breathing heavily, “no, no, no I didn’t!”

“Oh yes you did, you gave into me, so finally we can move on”

“but I didn’t! I was exhausted! I had no idea what I was saying!”, she cried

“Admitting you give in is good enough for me, even if you didn’t mean it”, he laughed as her expression grew frightened.

“why did it matter so much that I said it if it doesn’t matter if I mean it!”

“I just had to make sure you wasn’t going to escape or leave in anyway”, he eyed her arm which she looked down at straight away before jumping from the bed and standing back from him, trying to cover the dark mark he had placed on her.

“No! please, get rid of it! Im not yours in any way!”, tears formed in her eyes, “fuck off and leave me alone!”, she shouted before her knees gave way.

“you are mine now, my servant and I shall not leave you alone. Go through there and clean yourself and get changed”, he pointed over to a nearby door, she was still wearing her school uniform and was rotten dirty, “I have supplied clothes for you. “be grateful that you will not wear servant wear just yet, I want you cleaned and groomed so I can see the real you, then I shall introduce you to the world this evening at a formal dinner where I have a few announcements to make…in the morning you may start your duties”

“may? You talk as if I want to do it! Look what you have done to me! Marked me forever and forced me to be this! A servant! Its so pathetic…”

“hurry up before I lose my temper. The house elves will help you get ready and show you where you can go etc. I will see you this evening”

“Why are you doing this to me?”, she sighed with closed eyes, the tears still falling.

“Because your talents should be used for better causes than supporting the light, they never cared for you”, he looked down at her as she opened her eyes and looked up at him.

“Whatever you say….but I know someday I will be saved…have you got any books?”

“what?”

“books. I haven’t ready a book in a long time and I would like to, getting ready would take less than an hour as would the house elves helping me out. The rest of my day would be sitting and waiting”, she stated shakily, obviously upset and angry but she was unsure how to cope with the emotions.

“you are fascinating Hermione, I shall supply you with books. Though I expect something in return”

“like what?”

“I shall think of something”, he smirked knowing exactly what he wanted.

“its clear its going to be something degrading, and the books are going to be dark. You will humiliate me tonight-ah!”, she gasped as he grabbed her hair tight and lifted her so her knees where just off the floor, ripping at her hair.

“You will learn a lot in humiliation while here, id get used to it if I was you”

“I didn’t want to be here! I didn’t choose to be here!”

“it was you who gave in, you could have stayed down in the dungeons and be tortured everyday but you gave in”

“no! no-I-I…I didn’t mean-”

“I don’t care anymore if you want to serve or not my dear, I took the time and effort to take you and keep you alive, I intend to use you! I am your master now, I am the dark lord”

“please let go…”

“Who am I?”, he growled while holding onto her hair even tighter and his other hand bruising her arm, “answer the question before I rip out the hair from your head!”

“the d-dark lord!”, she cried,

“what am I to you?”

“Please, please let go! It hurts!”

“answer the question”

“My master. Please, please let go of me!”, he wasn’t just holding onto her arm, he was cutting off the circulation to it, her hair was practically being torn out and she couldn’t stand it.

“You are in no position to make demands! You will only speak when spoken to, when you do speak you will refer to me as master, you will follow all orders given to you…failure to follow these will result in a ‘bit’ of pain, understand?”

“yes”, he crucioed her for just over a minute before halting it, “yes master! Please, please stop! I cant take this”

“a months worth of torture has weakened you”, he released his hold on her making her slump against the bed, “I do not wish you to be weak, I wish for you to be strong but I expect you to follow my commands. I gave you a choice, and you chose to give in to me, do not blame me for your fate. Are we clear?”

“yes…yes master”, she uttered making him smirk. “please…why couldn’t you have just let me be…killed me even. Please answer me”

“I will see you this evening”, he left without another word. Not answering her question and leaving her crying her eyes out.

She pushed herself slowly and walked over to the door to investigate the bathroom. Very basic and small, like a cheap hotels on-suite bathroom, but she was glad she could finally be on her own in a normal environment, not in a dungeon.

“Miss, miss! Winnie and Gibby is here to clean up miss”, two small house elves chanted together after having appeared from nowhere.

“Erm, ok then. I do need a shower if that’s ok, im allowed to do that in private aren’t I?”

“Yes miss, Winnie and Gibby are here to help miss when she is cleaned”

“Thank you, I appreciate that very much”, she smiled for the first time in so long, they beamed back up at her as it was the first time in their lives a human had appreciated them.
“Should I just get changed when im in there and then come out for you to do whatever your upposed to do?”

“Yes miss, the dark lord has supplied what you are to wear”

“where’s the underwear?”, she called behind the door after half hour of washing herself thoroughly in the shower

“Master says miss is to wear what he supplies, miss is only allowed to wear what has been supplied”

“What! So I have no underwear! The dirty bastard! Im not getting ready if I have no underwear!”

“Winnie is sorry miss but master says he will take her out with him whatever-if anything, she is wearing”

“Just great”

Two and a half hours later, Hermione looked at her self in the mirror.

“Miss is very pretty!”

Hermione studied her reflection, she felt so different seeing herself again, but she looked quite pretty also-which made her smile as she hadn’t felt pretty since the Yule ball at Hogwarts.
Her hair was finally cleaned and fell to her waist in loose ringlets, her skin was clear-no dirt, no cuts or bruises, nothing. It seemed Voldemort had her healed before she woke up, though she felt quite weak at first, she was fine now. Her brown eyes started back at her and down at what she was wearing, a simple green full length dress which suited her enormously, though she noticed the neckline seemed to plunge just a tad too low for comfort.
“I never liked green, but I don’t even have a choice in what I wear anymore”, she sighed before her gaze landed on her arm, scarred forever with a black magic tattoo. The same as the dark mark in everyway. She was not a death eater and did not know servants got the dark mark also, but she knew she hated it.

“Miss don’t cry”, one of the house elves gave her a tissue as a few tears fell down her cheek.

“Thank you, I hate this though, I don’t want to be here, I want things how they were”, she sat down sadly with her head in her hands.

“Master provides miss with books on the bed. We have to go to the kitchens but we happy to serve miss, we will bring food for you also”

“Thank you so much”, their smiles made her happy, real smiles.

After twenty minutes or so of sitting alone and doing nothing, trying to avoid the books, she gave in. she knew before even looking at the covers they were dark books and had no wish to read that sort of material, but she was just too curious and needed to read something!

The thing that scared her though, was the fact the dark books fascinated her, she actually enjoyed reading them though they disgusted her at the same time. She was scared of the dark lord, though she didn’t want to admit it, he scared her. She knew what he was capable of and it frightened her, and the fact she was under his control…

She placed the book she was reading down to have a look through the view of her window, as she leaned on the window sill she saw dusk had settled over a beautiful countryside. After a few moments of admiring the view she felt a pair of hands place themselves round her waist.

“Ah!”, she gasped at the shock of the touch, spinning round she came face to face with the dark lord himself, wearing deep black robes but covered with exquisite stitching, very expensive looking they were. “What are you doing here?”

“I thought I told you how to address me…”, he muttered thoughtfully as he looked her up and down while playing with one of her ringlets between his fingers. “You are quite beautiful, you have been hiding this from me under that mess”, he smirked as she blushed.

“Im not beautiful and I don’t want to hear you say it just to get me to trust you or like you or whatever you want…milord”, she added quickly as she saw his eyes go red and his grip tighten on her hair.

“Very good mudblood”

“Will you always try to degrade me with names, is that really the worst you can do?”, she mocked without thinking, earning herself a hard slap across her face. She looked down in disbelief as she placed her hand over where the throbbing pain was.

“I wont call you names as long as you address me as your lord-remember that’s what I am now. I am all you have in the world”, he told her darkly before grabbing her chin and forcing her to look up at him, “I could have left you in the dungeons, let you starve to death. But I didn’t, I give you everything you need to live, and more”

“Please…”

“Please what?”

“Please just let me know what you want from me, you could have let me die but you didn’t, you burned this mark into my arm as if I was your follower, which im not, and you dress me in a beautiful dress. Please…milord…why?”, she wept. She was a strong willed witch, but she couldn’t handle so much happening at once.

“Because I decided so”, he spat and let go of her chin. “This evening im rewarding you with the dress, the evening of entertainment, you’re not even serving anyone! I give you this reward for giving in, if you do things my way you see things may run smoother for you. Though be very grateful, I have never treated a servant so well, you will start you duties tomorrow”.

“I know what you are capable of, I know how you could treat me, and though it has been bad for me so far and almost by tomorrow morning it will start again…I guess im thanking you for not being as cruel as I know you can be”, he looked down at her for a moment as she unexpectedly thanked him.

“Good. When I take you down for the evening, there will be a formal dinner and then after that it will be a bit more informal…the rules: Only talk when spoken to, only address me as your lord, don’t even think about using magic as I will not think twice about cursing you. You cannot escape as I have placed a charm on you so that you cannot leave the building, if you try you will just be stunned and I know you don want that when I wake you up…you will follow any order I give you, you will sit on my side-a place many would kill to be, I am only giving you that space as I want you close for me to keep an eye on if I need too…”, he stated strongly. “Have you got all that?”

“Yes”

“Yes what?”

“Yes milord”, she sighed.

“You’ll learn your place soon enough”, he smirked knowingly.