A Strange Love

Only review if you have something nice to say or constructive on the story. Rants and flames will be removed and you would have wasted your time. Just try and keep it friendly. This is supposed to be fun after all!



Vanessa: You’ll find out in this chapter.



Mary: Again you’ll find out, and thank you.



Angel: Here is more, and yes poor Hermione. I believe that she can take it though. Remus would though wouldn’t he?



Dee Dee: I believe in redemption and giving people chances. That’s why I always give the Death Eaters some humanity. Thank you and here is an update. As for who will take Hermione away from the Dark Lord... hmm...



DaniD: Well, here’s the update.



Faye: It’s horrible isn’t it? Anyway here’s more and I hope you like it.



Ophelia Immortal: I can honestly say that Neville won’t take revenge on Rodolphus. I think Neville has killed the person he wanted and now wants to help. He’s not afraid anymore and that is a good sign that he has released his demons. When will Lucius return...?



BuffyXO: And the first night is all you’ll see for the time being. Yes it does seem to be that way doesn’t it? As for Draco... find out in this chapter. My heart feels for Rudi to but the it would, wouldn’t it?



Atrumnex: Here’s the update; got inspired for this story last night in a dream.



Faye (again): Never mind... you’ve had two replies from me... lol!



JW: As said above; Neville is to be completely trusted. No matter how hard I try I can’t see Neville as someone who has ANY latent evil qualities... he’s one of the few characters I like just as they are in the books. Hermione is just a very beautiful, kind, warm young woman that can make anyone like her I feel... including Lord Voldemort, so it’s no spell.



Sbrande: You guessed right. The answer is in this next chapter. Hope you like it.



Marissa: Interesting guesses but no. Hope you like the update.



Lazyllama101: There is, and you might be surprised.



The Grass Snake Strikes



He was sitting on his Throne drumming his fingers on the arm rest and pondering over something he had just heard. He had just been told some very disturbing news regarding some of his followers. He sighed and he looked at the man before him; he was bowed low on the floor.



“You are certain of this?” he hissed.



“I heard it with my very own ears, my Lord. I could show you with the use of a Pensieve?”



“That won’t be necessary,” the Dark Lord snapped. “She certainly has a magic spell that not many of us know, doesn’t she?”



“Yes, Master,” the man agreed.



The Dark Lord rose from his seat and started pacing around the room. He was still thinking about the information that he had just been given.



“Will you do anything for me, my follower?” he said stepping up to the man and tilting his chin up. “Will you protect my interests above yours?”



“Definitely,” his follower said without hesitation. Without blinking.



“Fine,” Voldemort sighed. “I’ll trust you to take her to a secret location where nobody can find her. You are to keep her warm, clothed and fed. She is to be your future Queen so please take care of her as such.”



“I will, my Lord.”



~*~*~



Narcissa, Rodolphus, and Severus all apparated to a bleak moor with a rather ramshackle cottage being the only building for miles.



“This is it,” Rodolphus said. He smiled at his friends. “It’s better on the inside so I’ve been informed.”



“It better be,” Narcissa said. She was used to the finer things in life; she didn’t think she could live in a place like that for anybody.



The men laughed and walked up to the cottage and opened the door. It was big and roomy. They found to their delight that it was amply furnished and warm. Rodolphus walked up to a door and opened it to reveal a kitchen well supplied with food and drink. Narcissa scampered up the stairs and found enough bedrooms and bathrooms for everyone. Severus was delighted to find books and a study for his use.



“You know it makes me almost sorry for muggles,” Rodolphus said.



Narcissa floated down the stairs and clapped her hands girlishly. “It’s absolutely delightful.”



“Good,” Severus sighed taking a book off the shelf. He looked at her and shook his head. He walked over to a plush seat and sat down. He opened the book and started to read. Rodolphus decided to choose his bedroom and walked upstairs. He opened door after door and eventually picked one.



He threw his few belongings that he managed to gather onto the bed and sighed sinking down on the mattress. He had no idea where to go from here or what to do. He wanted to know anything about her state of well-being.



“Hermione,” he sighed. He wished he had a photograph of her or something, as he wanted to look into her beautiful brown eyes, and see her lips smile leaving those cute little dimples either side. He held his head in his hands knowing for the first time what true despair was.



~*~*~



Hermione was brought in the room where she saw the Dark Lord and one of his followers. She gulped. She had actually NO intention of being his Queen; day-by-day she began to miss Rodolphus. She loved his sense of humour and his Byronic stance. She curtseyed in front of him though, and she always played her part well.



“Hermione, dearest, there are people out there that are opposed to our love,” the Dark Lord said. “So much so that they are prepared to rip you from me. I will not let this happen. I desire you; you are to be my Queen; I believe that I am the right Wizard for you. My follower, Lucius Malfoy, also desires to see this as so, truly one of the few that seems to be remaining loyal to me. “



Hermione switched looks to the man standing at the right side of his Master. He removed the hood and looked at the young woman with a smirk on his face. Hermione scowled at him fleetingly before rearranging her features to subservience as she turned to look at Voldemort.



“What is to be done, my Lord?” she asked.



“You are to be taken to a secret location and Lucius here will protect you against anyone that may come in the name of the rescue mission.”



Hermione nodded. “And is Mr Malfoy to stay there with me, permanently?”



“Yes,” Lord Voldemort replied.



She glanced again at the blond wizard who was smirking at her. She was shaking with rage but took a quiet deep breath to remain calm.



“I will pack my things and be with you shortly,” Hermione said politely.



Lord Voldemort nodded. She left the room; her delicious perfume hung in the air and he sniffed it up in his nostrils.



“I thank you again for your unswerving loyalty, Lucius. I will try and check up on her. But I must first find this Rivenshaw Lodge on the map and then purge its inhabitants. I am sorry in advance that it appears I may have to kill your wife.”



“She has long since outlived her purpose anyway, my Lord,” Lucius replied coolly.



“The definite reply of a true Slytherin,” Voldemort said.



~*~*~



Harry had a pulsating headache and Lupin had noticed that he had taken to drinking Firewhiskey a lot lately. The werewolf shook his head but knew that Harry was old enough to do what he wanted. Harry sat back in the seat and moaned. He was absolutely frustrated. He wanted to kill Snape but knew he couldn’t and that would have been enough to stress him out in itself, now it transpired that Hermione was some sort of female Casanova charming older, Death Eater men left, right and centre. He would have to have a word with his sister when she got back. He was meant to be her brother after all. They even agreed to be honorary siblings. Lupin slunk out of the room.



Harry felt a pair of hands massaging his brow and he reached up and took one in his hands and kissed it. He turned around and his girlfriend, Ginny, stood there smiling.



“How are you?” he asked reaching out his arms; she stepped into them and sat on his lap.



“Fine, considering,” she sighed. Bill was everyone’s favourite Weasley and he was now dead. She snuggled her face into the crook of her neck and placed her lips on his flesh; he turned his head around and planted his lips on her cheek. “Can you tell me what’s happened today?”



“Gladly,” Harry said. “Snape came over to tell me where Hermione was for the past fortnight.”



“She’s not dead to is she?” Ginny gulped.



“No,” Harry said. “But she’s got a lot of explaining to do when I do find her.”



“Why?”



“It seems that Rodolphus Lestrange and Severus Snape are in love with her!”



“Wow! I’m not surprised with Snape but a Lestrange?”



“That’s not all,” Harry said. “Lord Voldemort desires to make her his Queen.”



Ginny leapt off Harry’s lap and her eyes flashed fire. Her hair had sparked and she looked like she was about to burn.



“And we’re just sitting here?” she demanded. “Come on!”



“What?” Harry asked.



“When I was under Riddles influence he told me some of his secrets. He had a couple of secret locations he told me about.”



“Do you truly think that he’d still use them?”



“Yes,” Ginny said. She grabbed Harry’s hand and pulled him out of the seat. “Come on!”



“Ginny, we can’t just apparate any old place!”



“Oh yes we bloody well can!” she exclaimed. “For Hermione we can.”



“But…”



“Are you Harry Potter or not?” Ginny asked.



Harry sighed. “Ginny, we have trusted to luck once to often. I want to trust to ingenuity now. I hate to admit this but we are going to have to start thinking like Slytherins.”



“Fine we’ll think like Slytherins when we find her,” Ginny said. “And reunite her with my brother so that she can forget about that Lestrange guy!”



“No!” Harry exclaimed. He might not approve of Rodolphus or Severus but he was prepared to give anybody a chance that could make Hermione happy.



“What?” Ginny asked dropping Harry’s hand. “But Hermi…”



“The answers no,” Harry said fervently. “I don’t like the idea anymore than you do but Lupin has actually smelt the essence of true love on Rodolphus. Besides Ron hasn’t exactly done much to recover her has he?”



“He’s still grieving over Bill for crying out loud!”



“So are you yet you’re still prepared to do something for her,” Harry replied. Ginny shut her mouth and began playing her feet on the floor.



“Ron is Ron, Ginny, I know we all wanted them to end up together but she’s obviously changed her mind. Besides I’ve seen this Rodolphus Lestrange and even I can’t deny that he has a certain presence about him. If Hermione’s been tricked by him then fine we’ll put her back with Ron but if she hasn’t and she wants to be with Rodolphus Lestrange; well, we’ve got to be there for her whatever.”



“You’re right,” Ginny sighed.



“Of course I’m right,” Harry said rather smugly.



She stepped up to Harry and wrapped her arms around his waist and nestled against his chest.



“I love you Harry Potter,” she said.



“I love you to,” Harry replied.



~*~*~



Hermione had finished packing. She was not looking forward to the next step of her life. It had been busy the past two weeks and rather unexpected. She sighed as she stared around her room. It was a nice room and had she been allowed to explore it properly she might have found much pleasure and delight in it but she wasn’t. He was fairly virulent and wanted her as much as possible. The first few times she had enjoyed but after that she grew afraid. She was also trying ever so hard not to scream out Rudi’s name. It was a dilemma she was faced with three times, and sometimes more, daily. She sighed and picked up her bag. She waved her wand at it and it floated by her side.



“I shall be desolate without you,” the Dark Lord said as she approached him. “You have lightened this place up considerably.”



Hermione was careful. “I shall miss you,” she said.



He placed a hand on her shoulder and stepped up to her. “I know you’ll come back to me.”



He walked away and Hermione furrowed her brow. She shook her head and opened the door. Lucius was leaning against the wall a satisfied smirk on his face.



“What are you so happy about?” she snapped.



He walked up to her and placed his arms around her waist. “I finally have you,” he whispered. He placed the image of where he wanted to go and apparated them there.



~*~*~



Severus was getting a little worried. He hadn’t seen Rodolphus since they arrived. He decided he’d get up and find him. Narcissa was dozing in one of the seats. He looked at her and shook his head. He had suffered a lot due to her and yet he wasn’t angry with her for it. The book she was reading before she went to sleep was slipping out of her grasp and he decided to take it out of her hands and marked it for her before unclasping his cloak and laying it across her body so that she’d be warm. He brushed aside some of her long hair and sighed before going on the hunt.



He eventually found Rodolphus lying curled up in a foetal position sobbing like a child as he was clutching a pillow. Rodolphus had never cried before he met Hermione and now it seemed the floodgates were opened.



“We’ll get her back, don’t worry,” Severus said.



“I thought you were in love with her to,” Rodolphus sniffed. “How can you be so calm knowing what she must be going through?”



Severus sighed and shook his head. “I know,” he said. “But we have to be calm. The minute we all break down the minute we know we lost. One of us has got to be the steady one and it appears that one is to be me.”



“Are you always this cold, Severus?” Rodolphus queried.



“No,” Severus answered. “I can’t think of when I last shed tears though. Must have been at school.”



“My late wife’s cousin was as bad as she was,” Rudi said.



“Yes,” Severus agreed. “I’m glad they’re both gone.”



“So am I!”



“What do you want to eat?” Severus asked.



“Nothing at the moment,” Rodolphus said. “I want to be left alone; just pass me up a book of poetry; that’s all.”



“If there is one,” Severus said.



The lanky haired man was now extremely worried. The man had only known the girl two weeks and he was acting like a lovesick teenager. Severus crept out of the room and sighed. He decided to cook some lasagne. He had scouted out the ingredients some time ago and spotted the right ingredients. Besides he had the right sort of hands for making pasta. He had to be doing something otherwise he’d be a wreck like Rodolphus.



~*~*~



“Where are we?” Hermione asked.



“Where no one expects to find us,” Lucius growled. “The Dark Lord thought that I’d follow his instructions to the letter. But I haven’t. I decided to bring you to my French Villa; even Narcissa didn’t know about this place.”



“Look,” Hermione said in a rather matter of fact tone of voice. “What is going on here? First Rodolphus rescues me; then Rabastan tries to do something with me; then Severus Snape confesses his love and you almost rape me and now Lord Voldemort wants to make me his Queen… WHY?”



“You are a rather enchanting young woman you know,” Lucius murmured. “Clever, witty, strong. You’re not in the least stupid and – well – should it be any wonder why men are in love with you?”



“It is to me,” she said. “I’ve always been the bushy haired, buck toothed, know it all.”



“Well, you’re not that anymore, by any stretch of the imagination. You’ve blossomed. Men notice when a woman’s blossomed.”



Hermione folded her arms across her chest and tapped her middle finger on her arm. She was looking around and shook her head.



“Well, there is only one man I want to notice me; and that’s Rodolphus.”



“That’s because he was the first one there,” Lucius replied walking up to her wanting to take her then and there. “Rest assured if it had been me you might be saying my name to him.”



“I hate you!” Hermione spat venomously.



Lucius snarled. “AS I am the only human company you’ll be getting for a while I suggest you keep quiet. This Villa is heavily warded and I have made preparations for you. You can’t leave this Villa… you could say that you’re under house arrest.”



“What?”



“So, don’t try thinking of escaping because it won’t work. I’d be alerted immediately and I’d be here before you can say Apparition and I’d be wrathful on my coming. Believe me, Hermione, you don’t want to make me wrathful.”



Hermione shrank into a wall as Lucius stepped closer to her with every word. He bumped her against it and he placed a hand on a spot above her head.



“You’re mad!” she whispered.



“I believe you will change your mind,” Lucius said leaning down and placing his lips on hers. She crumbled despite herself. She had no room to kick him; and if what he said is true then she was trapped here. Trapped with no hope of rescue from anyone.



~*~*~



Draco walked out of his bedroom shouting for his mother but she didn’t reply. He opened every door in the house and shouted till his throat was sore. He slid down the banister of the stairs and leapt onto the floor and opened every door there to. He couldn’t find her anywhere. He was about to sink down on the floor in absolute despair when the wards shook on the Mansion. He wondered who it could be.



“Right,” he heard a voice say. He groaned. “This is definitely his Mansion.”



“Well,” another replied. “He certainly wasn’t bragging was he?”



“One wonders whether his family are compensating for something,” the girl said.



Draco was shaking with fury. What was he doing here?



“Am I… er?”



“Harry Potter you probably don’t need that broomstick to ride on!” Draco rolled his eyes. It’s clear the Weaslette needs more experience. “And I’ve slept with Dean Thomas. Black men’s staffs are bigger than white men’s. And you are definitely not lacking.”



“Good,” Harry said in a smug voice. “So, when are you going to marry me?”



“When you stop asking that question.”



“Ginny,” Harry whined. “You’re my girl and I want the world to know that! I want to be famous for something good for once.”



Ginny laughed. “All right, if it keeps you quiet.”



Draco was shaking with rage. How could they? He was prepared to leap out and try and get them but unfortunately he was too wrapped up in the conversation.



“It’s strange. How come none of them are here?”



“Perhaps they’re out shopping,” Ginny said. She assumed a haughty voice. “Oh Lucius pwetty pwease, I must have that new set of robes; and oh those slippers would look charming with it, and that diamond tiara and necklace.”



Harry snorted. “I can just imagine their brat,” Harry said. “Oh father I simply MUST be on the Falmouth Falcons can you please buy the team new robes and broomsticks so I can play!”



Draco was shaking with absolute anger. For their information he had actually spent the afternoon crying because it seemed he would never have a chance to even kiss the lips of the one woman that he loved the most in the whole world. If it weren’t going to be his Uncle; it’d be his Mentor and guide; and if not him it would seemingly be his father and worst of all the Dark Lord. Draco really wanted Hermione for himself and has done since she slapped him in the face. He looked at her differently since that time. It was amazing what a good telling off did for him. He was absolutely livid when he heard the next statement.



“I think that the Malfoy’s are born without the ability to love just like their Dark Master,” Ginny said.



“I agree.”



“That does it!” Draco exclaimed stepping out of the shadows his wand pointing at Harry’s chest. He leered a little at Ginny; but his heart wasn’t in it; not when he had finally admitted his feelings for Hermione to himself.



“Well, well, it looks like one of them is home,” Harry sneered.



“How dare you come into my home and make fun of my family like that! Have I ever come into your home and done that? Have I come to your house and made fun of your family Weasley? For your information, Potter, my mother happens to be a brave, intelligent woman; she’s clever and wonderful!”



“So was mine!” Harry stated coldly.



“Do you happen to know what my mother thinks about your muggleborn friend?” Draco said. “She happens to like her. In fact she happens to have teamed up with Uncle Rodolphus and Severus to help rescue her!”



“What about your father?” Harry asked. His wand drawn level to the blond.



“I haven’t seen him for days,” Draco said. “Not since last Sunday the day after we had dinner where Granger almost commit suicide.”



“I don’t blame her,” Ginny said dryly.



“Look I don’t know what you expect to find here,” Draco said. “My mother is not here. I’ve spent the best part of an hour looking for her; and like I said I haven’t seen my father for nearly a week.”



Harry sighed and lowered his wand. He had hoped to get information from Narcissa Malfoy but that seemed impossible now.



“You don’t know where your mother is either?”



“No, we had an argument and I left the room. Uncle and Severus had arrived I didn’t want to stay.”



Harry sighed and looked at Ginny. She nodded. “So, where does that leave you?” Harry asked.



“I guess that makes me Master of the Manor,” Draco said shrugging his shoulders. He leant against the doorframe and his blond hair flopped over his eye and he grinned. “It’s not that bad now that I come to think of it. My parents may have abandoned me but I know that one of them is with people I can trust.” Harry nodded. He took hold of Ginny’s hand and started to walk towards the door. “Why don’t you stay?”



“What?” Harry scoffed with incredulity.



“I could do with the company,” Draco said. “Besides there are rooms here that I wasn’t allowed in as a child. I can go into them now. There might be something here that could help us find where Granger is.”



“Why do you want to help us?” Ginny asked.



“Simple,” Draco said shrugging his shoulders. “I love her!”



A/N – Soo sorry for the long dry spell on this story. I hadn’t had any inspiration until last night; strange really as I’m still digging around for ideas for Hungry Like The Wolf... c’est la vie. I hope you liked the update and like what I am doing for this story.



Well, busy for everyone isn’t it. I loved the showdown between Draco and Harry... and I am with Draco on that one. Both Harry and Ginny were being a bit childish there. So, guys ideas please? Review?