Manacled полностью

His grip on her throat tightened, and Hermione gasped as she fought to breathe. His fingers were pressed brutally into the esophagus, and the skin on her face grew taut from the pressure.

“Voldemort — tortured her — in this room. That's why Draco took the mark and killed — Dumbledore…” she could barely force the words out. She clawed at his hand, trying to tear herself free. Her lungs began spasming and burning.

“Do you expect me to believe you?” He released her throat, and she gasped desperately for air, dragging it into her burning lungs as she collapsed against the cage.

His wand jabbed dangerously close to her face, and he snarled. “Legilimens!”

Lucius was not a legilimens. His magic for mind invasion was weak. It was like having her mind roughly pried apart with a blunt stick. If she'd had magic, he would never have been able to penetrate her mind.

She didn't have magic.

He forced his way in.

There was no precision. He simply crushed her consciousness under his as he shoved his way in.

He didn't focus on individual memories, just pushed his way through them until he collided with one.

Draco …

His fingers running along her spine as he kissed across her shoulders and neck. His other hand tangled in her hair, holding her close so that his bare skin pressed searingly against hers.

“I love you.” “I love you.” “I'm going to take care of you.” He muttered the words against her skin.

Hermione tried to tear the memory away but couldn't summon any magic. She could feel her manacles starting to burn around her wrists.

Draco pressed her back against the headboard, wrapping her legs around his waist as he pushed into her. The devastating adoration in his face unmistakable as he kissed her. She tangled her fingers into his hair and kissed him back as her hips met his.

She could feel Lucius' horrified rage.

She didn't know how to show him the correct memories. She wasn't even altogether sure where they were. He'd crush her mind to pieces long before he found them on his own.

She was staring up into Draco's face. “I found what I was missing to remove your Dark Mark.”

“Oh.”

“Phoenix tears. I'd be able to remove it if I had a vial of Phoenix tears.”

She forced herself to focus through the pain. Narcissa. She had to show him what happened to Narcissa.

Narcissa. Narcissa.

Narcissa's portrait swam into view. “She didn't want him to ever know. You don't know what she put herself through to ensure he didn't find out. You thought that potion's withdrawal was difficult after three doses? She took it more than a dozen times just in order to see him. Draco used to beg her not to.”

Lucius stopped brutalizing his way through her mind and seemed frozen for several seconds.

Hermione seized the brief respite to scrabble through her memories for the right ones. There was a throbbing pain in the back of her head as though a scalpel were slowly sinking into the base of her skull.

Narcissa. Narcissa. She needed memories of Draco talking about Narcissa.

Draco's furious face appeared, and he glared down at her.

“After you and your friends had my father thrown into Azkaban, the Dark Lord went to my house. I wasn't even home from school yet. When I got there, he was waiting for me. He had my mother in a cage, in our drawing room. He'd been torturing her for nearly two weeks.”

Lucius jerked. She could feel his growing horror.