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The candles along the stone walls burned low, the only marker of time. Hermione slumped against the cell wall, her energy spent, wrists raw and bloody from hours spent yanking at the chains holding her to the wall, trying to slip free. The chains allowed Hermione little movement, and she had expended too much energy trying to tug the chains loose. Her whole body ached from sitting on the cold stone floor.
Narcissa’s screams had faded long ago. She hadn’t seen their captors since they had dragged Narcissa away and tossed her in a cell.
Was Narcissa even still alive?
Closing her eyes, she struggled to keep her breathing even. Think, think... There had to be some way out of this, something she hadn’t thought of yet... But she didn’t have her wand or any tools. No way of getting free from her chains or out of the cell...
Maybe if she just tried slipping free again...
Gritting her teeth, she pulled at the chain around one arm again, biting her arm to muffle her screams as the metal bit into raw and barely scabbed over wounds, fresh blood trickling down her wrist and smearing the cuff.
“Oi! Cut that out, girl,” hissed a voice just outside the cell.
Hermione jumped. A short, sloping shouldered figure watched her from the other side of the bars. Amycus , she thought, blood running cold. Then - wait, that was a woman’s voice . Leaning forward, she squinted through the dim candle light at the figure. It tossed off its hood.
“Time ter go,” Alecto Carrow said, unlocking the cell with a flick of her wand. She crouched next to Hermione, took hold of her hand and brought it closer to her face, examining the wounds on her wrists by wand light. She frowned, a strangely dull look in her eyes. “Yeh did a number on yerself, eh? These might scar...”
“I don’t care,” Hermione said. “Where is Narcissa?”
Alecto rubbed her chin. “Eh, I’d hoped yeh’d know that. Hold still, I’m gonna get these off yeh, but it’ll hurt...”
“What are you doing here?”
“Gettin’ yeh out of here. Bellatrix’ll be here soon, she went ter get Andromeda. Wanted me to get a head start on finding yeh. We’ll know they’re here when we get the signal. Try to keep quiet, now...”
Alecto opened the cuffs and eased them away from Hermione’s wrist. The dried blood caked to the metal pulled at what remained of the scabbing, leaving the wound oozing and bloody. Hermione pressed her other hand against her mouth to muffle her cries. Alecto winced in sympathy, but did not falter in taking off the other cuff.
“Up, up now,” Alecto said, standing up, leaning over to grab Hermione by her arms. She hauled Hermione to her feet.
Head spinning with pain and exhaustion, Hermione stumbled against Alecto, who steadied her. “Where’s Narcissa?”
“Yeh already asked that, girl. Gonna have to find her. Bella’ll kill me if I leave with yeh and not Narcissa...”
Hermione pulled away. Struggling to stand on her own, she said firmly, “I’m not leaving without Narcissa.”
“Settles that then, don’t it? Keep quiet and follow me. Bellatrix thought she might have a few ideas where yeh’d be kept, and her instructions are usually pretty good...”
“Where are we?” Hermione whispered.
“Lestrange Manor. Old Roddy’s not too bright. Must’ve thought Bella wouldn’t expect him ter come back here or maybe he thought he knew the manor better than ‘er and could hide.” Alecto snickered softly. “Guess he never found out ‘bout all the sneaking together we’d do right under his nose. Bella loves finding all these hidden doors and places, workin’ out the puzzles to gettin’ ‘em open, and she showed me all of it... Me memory’s foggy, but Bella reminded me some... We’ll get there alright...”
Hermione limped after Alecto, using the wall to steady herself. Tears rolled down her cheeks from the pain in her wrists and legs, biting her lip in an attempt to hold back her whimpers. Alecto glanced back every so often to ensure she was still following as she led Hermione through hidden passages and servants tunnels.
“What’s the signal?” Hermione asked, sometime later, needing to distract herself from the searing pain in her body.
Alecto paused, looking over her shoulder. “Eh?”
“The signal. You mentioned a signal earlier. What is it?”
Alecto ran her hands over the wall in front of her. “It’ll be the bloody racket they’ll make when they get here.”
Hermione furrowed her brow. “What - ?”
Something exploded above them, rumbling through the foundations of the building. Dust shook from the ceiling. Hermione coughed.
Alecto glanced up, stopping at a stone wall and pushing at stone which moved under her touch. “That’ll be them.”
A section of wall vanished, revealing a room beyond. Unlike the room Hermione had been kept in, there was no cell, and gas lamps along the walls and pillars, though still dim, were brighter than the handful of candles that lit the room around Hermione’s cell. Alecto raised her wand, illuminating the room further.
It appeared to have been an old servants quarter or maybe a safe room of some kind. A thick layer of dust coated everything and hung in the air. There was a splintered desk and a broken cot in one corner. Hermione leaned sideways, peering around Alecto, frantically scanning the room for any sign of Narcissa.
“Cissy? Yeh in here?” Alecto stepped into the room, frowning and holding her wand higher. Movement caught Hermione’s attention in the corner of her eye.
Alecto spun around, a spell on her lips. Her eyes went wide. “Fuck!”
Narcissa stumbled, throwing an arm up in front of her eyes, and Alecto barely dodged the swing of a candelabra. It slipped out of Narcissa’s fingers, and clanged against the stone floor.
“Oi! I’m here to help yeh, yeh bint,” Alecto hissed. She caught Narcissa before she fell and guided her to sit against the wall.
Hermione rushed forward, frantically brushing the hair away from Narcissa’s face. She looked awful: dirty, tear stains on her face, the skin visible to Hermione covered in bruises (and she was sure there plenty she could not see), one ankle swollen and Hermione was sure a few of her fingers were broken.
“Hermione,” Narcissa breathed. Her voice was hoarse, almost not there at all. “You’re alive. I was so worried, I thought...”
Hermione swallowed hard past the painful lump in her throat, eyes burning with unshed tears. “Yeah. Me too...” She stroked Narcissa’s cheek. “I’m going to make them pay. I swear it.”
A man screamed from somewhere above them. A second voice joined his, screaming and pleading in terror.
Alecto stared up at the ceiling. “Yeh’ll have ter see if Bella and Drommie leave anything fer yeh first.”
Narcissa rolled her head to gaze up at Alecto, clearly exhausted. “Andy’s here?”
Alecto nodded and gently helped Narcissa to her feet. “They’re worried sick about yeh. Let’s get yeh up there to ‘em.” She futility tried to brush the dirt off of Narcissa’s robes. Giving up, she settled for straightening them, though Hermione did not think it helped soften the vision of the damage their captures had inflicted on Narcissa.
Hermione wrapped an arm around Narcissa’s waist, steadying her and helping her keep her weight off of her injured ankle.
“Hermione...” Narcissa whispered, heartbroken. She had caught sight of the wounds on Hermione’s wrist.
Hermione pressed her forehead against Narcissa’s temple. “It’s alright. I’ll be fine. It’s over now.”
A new voice screamed, still above them but closer this time, and a fourth man shouted furiously over his companion. Bellatrix and Andromeda were close enough Hermione heard spells taking chunks out of the walls and shattering various objects.
“Come on,” Alecto said, “looks like we’ll be meeting them on the way up then. Hurry, Granger, if yeh want a chance at ‘em.”