Stolen magic

First Blood

After three days Hermione started to feel bored. Malfoy still hadn't showed up and the house elves were always preoccupied with the work around the house.

She spent a lot of time in the huge library. She lost her passion for reading years ago. Another thing that the war took from her. But there wasn't anything else what she could do instead. She tried reading novels and poetry, even some old textbooks. But it didn't lighten up her mood at all.
She tried the books about the Dark magic instead. There were hundreds of them. But the evil aura from the books started poisoning her mind. And it made her depressed.

She sharply closed another book and laid her head on top of it. She couldn't find any text about how to heal her stony fingers. And she started to feel anxious.

Her eyes wandered around the library, when a certain book caught her attention. She stood up and came toward the shelves. Her fingers caressed the book and she pulled it out. It was a thin book called "Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course Lesson 1".

Hermione always loved classical music. And she admired professional pianist like Martha Argerich or Chopin. A melodious sound of a piano was like a balm to her soul. She could sit and listen to it all day long. But she never had the time for learning how to play the piano herself. Although she always wanted to.

Without thinking she walked out of the library with the book in her hand. She marched down the hall to one of the drawing rooms. She could remember seeing the piano in the room earlier.

When she sat down on the wooden stool she glanced down on her left hand and sighed. She'd found the leather gloves in her closet the other day and wore one of the glove since, to cover her crippled fingers. She couldn't bare the view of the grey skin. She looked at the piano. One hand had to do.

Learning a new skill was a satisfying activity for her brain. Even though she couldn't use both hands and she had no teacher, Hermione invested all of her time into her new hobby. After two days she managed to hit at least a few of the right notes.

The life in the manor was slow. The kitchen elves were slowly getting used to her presence in the kitchen and they gave her lesser and lesser annoyed glances each day.

On Monday Hermione woke up and went to the kitchen as usual. She greeted the elves and started making her breakfast. She was having a pancakes with fruits. She was chopping some strawberries when her heart stopped beating.

"Good morning everyone." Hermione almost chopped her finger off at the sound of Malfoy's voice, after all these days of only hearing the squeaking of the house elves. She'd almost forgotten how deep his voice was. Definitely deeper than what she could remember from the school. Well, technically everything about him was different now. Except for his blonde hair, grey eyes and porcelain skin.

"Bloody hell, Malfoy! You startled me." She scoffed at him. He laughed and walked towards her. He was wearing a leather shoes, black pants and a simple white shirt. His hair was messy and he had a few days old beard on his face. The last time she saw him wearing casual clothes was years ago. He looked...normal. Like an ordinary man in his late twenties. An extraordinarily handsome ordinary man.

"How's the new lady of the manor doing? Still stubborn about the cooking I see.." He was obviously in a good mood and Hermione knew, that he was mocking her. He stood directly behind her back and watched her every movement. A scent of mint, bergamot and smoke filling her nose again. It was intoxicating. "Looks delicious, will you make me one too?" His every word sounded like a venom to her ears. Didn't even matter what he was saying, it boiled her blood inside her veins. She started chopping more vigorously.

"I can make you my personal chef if you want to" he continued with his stupid blabbing and she was getting more and more angry. She clenched her jaw and twitched her nose. "Although, I wouldn't want to check my every meal for poisons."