Hermione mulled over that detail.
The High Reeve was Voldemort's right hand, ostensibly his representative. Hermione wondered if the anonymity was in Voldemort's interest or Malfoy's. She suspected it was likely Voldemort's. The Dark Lord had an exceptionally powerful puppet. Even Voldemort himself, when he killed Harry, had not cast the killing curse with such rapidity and lack of effort.
It wouldn't do to allow Malfoy the opportunity to gather his own followers, accumulate personal power, and then try to overthrow his Master. Forcing Malfoy to keep himself anonymous behind his title — only allowing it to be known by Death Eaters and other trusted servants — it was probably a means of controlling Malfoy.
Voldemort was keeping Malfoy quite close.
Perhaps Malfoy had secret ambitions that Voldemort worried about.
It also made Malfoy the perfect trap for Resistance fighters. If anyone tried to save Hermione, they would assume they were simply attacking a pampered, second generation Death Eater. They'd have no idea they were walking into the grasp of the High Reeve, Voldemort's most infamously deadly servant.
Hermione skimmed through the rest of the paper. Northern Europe was still not under Death Eater control. Voldemort was moving aggressively to bring the Scandinavian countries to heel. Apparently the vampires, hags, and other Dark creatures that had been brought to Britain during the war had been moved up into Northern Europe during the last several months.
There was no mention of the insurrection in Romania. No mention of any known members of the Resistance still fighting.
Pius Thicknesse was still Minister of Magic. There was a Tri-Wizard Tournament planned for the upcoming year. Several pages were devoted to international Quidditch matches. Apparently the diversion of sports retained its appeal even under dystopian regime.
The rest of the paper was composed of society pages.
Astoria Malfoy was quite the socialite. She attended every event, bought tables at charities, and donated lavishly to post-war memorials. Malfoy was largely absent from the society pages, only occasionally joining his wife.
Hermione read every word, including the advertisements. Looking for any hints. Any subtext. Anything that might be unspoken but implied.
If such things were included in the news, Hermione was too ignorant of current events to detect them.
Finally she refolded the newspaper carefully with her stiff fingers and returned it to the place it had been abandoned on the veranda.
She massaged her freezing hands as she hurriedly made her way up through the manor.
She was, surprisingly, not having a panic attack by wandering back by herself. Perhaps it was only because she was so distracted by the cold. She crossed her fingers and hoped.
The route back to her rooms was simple. The moment she returned, she rushed into the bathroom and turned on the cold water. She let it run over her numb hands until feeling gradually seeped back into them and the water stopped feeling hot. Then she turned on the taps of the bathtub and drew a warm bath.
She sank into the water with a sigh, relishing the relief from the cold ache throughout her freezing body. She rubbed her feet and ankles until the last bits of grime disappeared from them.
After living in a cell for so long, she was never going to take being clean for granted again. She didn't know if she'd ever get over the newfound thrill of sinking up to her neck into a large quantity of water. It was the one and only high-point of her existence currently.
The same could not be said for the food. Which, although clearly expensive in its ingredients, was intended to be solely nutritional. She didn't know much about pre-pregnancy diets, but she didn't see why she was only allowed to eat unsauced, unsalted, and over-cooked vegetables, rye bread with unsalted butter, and boiled meat and poached eggs (also without salt.) She would kill for a bag of crisps.
As she sat in the water, slowly warming up, she considered the revelation of the day.
Her “surrogacy” under the careful watch of Malfoy was being used as bait.
The taunting, luring language of the front page article was enraging. A precisely balanced tone, seeking to simultaneously dehumanise Hermione in order to prevent pity from the general public while endeavoring to stoke outrage among any sympathisers.
Hermione wondered what sorts of safety measures had been put in place to catch would-be rescuers. Were there other Death Eaters stationed in Malfoy Manor? Or was the High Reeve presumed to be capable enough to personally handle all comers?
If it were the former, Hermione would have to keep watch and try to discover them. They would be an added complexity for her escape — unless she could somehow evoke their sympathy. Or perhaps try tricking one of them into killing her if it came down to it. A highly ambitious and dubious scheme, given that Malfoy would probably find the idea in her mind long before she had any chance of enacting it.