Vacivitas

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

After waking, bathing, and brushing her teeth, Hermione begins to pick through the drawers and wardrobe. It's all more expensive than she can fathom, and she doesn't need to see price tags to know that. She puts on a pair of blue knickers and a bra, finding herself surprised that Pinky was savvy enough to guess her size. The wardrobe contains dresses of assorted colors and lengths, as well as a few sets of robes–glittering black, silver, and forest green.

She pulls on a white dress with short sleeves and a knee-length hem, and slides on a pair of soft slippers that seem to have appeared by the door overnight. She hasn't bothered to try and do anything with her hair beyond shampooing it. With not even a comb or conditioner, it's futile.

Pop.

"Pinky is to take you to Master in the upper west wing."

Hermione leaps out of her skin, nearly toppling over as her sore knee threatens to give out. Holding a hand across her beating heart, she regards Pinky with surprise.

"Pinky," she says. "You gave me a fright."

The elf doesn't offer a smile, nor any sort of apology for her sudden appearance. Her tiny fingers wrap around Hermione's pinky finger, and they apparate to the upper level. There's an open set of double doors directly in front of her, inside which there is a solarium. Autumn morning sunlight filters down into the room in beams, casting light across the chairs and table within.

"Another unnecessarily ornate room," she says in an airy tone as she enters the room.

It's at this moment that she sees his tattoos.

"Good morning to you, too," Malfoy says. He's in the process of pulling a jumper over his bare chest when she catches a glimpse of tattoos. They're splattered across his left arm as if to hide the Dark Mark that glares out at the world like a warning. Each one is black and grey, shadowed and heavy. Magical creatures of all kinds adorn his skin, from a hinkypunk to a unicorn to a thestral to a phoenix, leading up to a large dragon on his upper arm. The tail wraps around his bicep, the body and claws sinking into his skin as its neck and head stretch halfway across the skin above his collarbone.

She doesn't know which stuns her more: his bare chest or the fact that he's gotten so many tattoos between the end of the war and now.

"Do you spend every morning shirtless in random rooms?" she asks, unsure where this level of sarcasm is coming from. She should be afraid of him.

His hair is ruffled and unruly from the pull of the jumper, and he makes no move to rearrange it. "I don't always like to wear a shirt. Sue me."

"For what? Sexual harassment? Your appearance assails me."

"You wound me, Granger."

Malfoy drops into one of the chairs by the table, gesturing to another one. Hermione doesn't take it, choosing instead to remain near the wall. He narrows his eyes in her direction before giving up and moving on.

"I might as well let you know that my hearing is such that I can hear a pin drop on the carpet upstairs. You cannot sneak through the Manor, nor will you be able to leave this house without my accompaniment. Do you understand?"

She nods.

He runs his fingers through his hair and bites his lower lip as he visibly weighs his words. The tips of his fangs peek out before he speaks, reminding her what he is. Of what he can do to her. "It's worth it to know that if anyone knows you're here, you'll be taken to the Dark Lord immediately. He will make an example out of you. He's been looking for you for a long time."