𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐔𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍-𝘏𝘈𝘙𝘙𝘠 𝘗𝘖𝘛𝘛𝘌𝘙

Chapter 3

Lovesbitca8 TAKES CREDIT THIS IS HER WORK - FOUND ON AO3

So far, she was quite pleased with Professor Slughorn. All in all, he was a much friendlier presence than their previous Potions instructor.

He'd welcomed them into the classroom, and she and her classmates had gravitated towards four cauldrons bubbling in the center of the room. Polyjuice was clearly boiling in one. She peered into another and found Veritaserum, without a doubt. She scrunched her nose in disapproval that he would allow such dangerous potions within clear reach of students .

She inched closer as Slughorn gave Harry and Ron spare copies of the textbook, standing on her tiptoes to inspect the swirling silver potion in the cauldron closest to her.

She gasped. Amortentia.

Slughorn asked for each of the potions to be identified, and her hand rocketed into the air every time.

"It's the most powerful love potion in the world!" she said, bouncing on her toes when Slughorn asked her.

"Quite right! You recognized it, I suppose, by its distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen?"

She nodded. "And the steam rising in characteristic spirals. And it's supposed to smell differently to each of us, according to what attracts us, and I can smell freshly mown grass and new parchment and - "

Honey. Honey dripping into a teacup.

Her jaw snapped shut.

It was innocuous, really. Just honey. Her eyes drifted to a pale blond, wondering if he would have even associated her almost-confession with his morning tea.

Draco was staring past her, glaring at Ron.

No. He probably wasn't paying an ounce of attention to her.

Never in the way she wanted.

~*~

They put her in a room all by herself. It could have been an old meeting room. Large enough for a table and twelve chairs. It was empty now. The shadows of where portraits used to hang on the walls, rectangles of unblemished wallpaper.

They left her petrified. Face up. It was a blessing actually. She couldn't hyperventilate when all she could physically do was breathe.

Luna had been able to walk by herself when they locked the door, stumbling along behind Yaxley. She gave Hermione a small smile as the door closed, and Hermione spent the first ten minutes of her isolation trying to decipher it.

Was it a thank you? Was it meant to say, it's alright that you didn't listen to me?

Hermione stared at the ceiling, waiting for what came next.

So, Pansy was right. An Auction of sorts. Yaxley mentioned the cost of the bodies he'd killed, and Dolohov was under the impression that the signature on her arm would change to his, probably with an exchange of Galleons.

It explained why Yaxley had bothered to heal Luna. They were more valuable alive.

How valuable, she wondered.

Pansy said 5,000 Galleons for virgins. That sounded like an awful lot for a one-time experience.

It took a while for Hermione to realize that the curse Dolohov hit her with was still bleeding. She'd stopped the spread of the razor blade nicks with her Finite Incatatem, but did not heal the skin. She lay there, feeling a slow seeping wetness across her back, cold in the marble room.

She tried not to mourn Parvati or the Baxter girl. She didn't know the fate of the fifth one. Just like how she tried not to mourn Harry or McGonagall. None of it had to be real yet. She just needed to survive the Ministry holding cells, and then take it a step at a time.