“Perhaps I should be lenient,” Voldemort said, walking The healer stared at her contemplatively before

slowly toward her as she sniveled and grovelled at his waving her wand over Hermione’s head.
feet. “Your work has been mostly good. Instead of
sixteen, I’ll halve it. Eight knuckles as a reminder I “You were kept in sensory-deprived isolation for
said I wanted Potter’s Mudblood left fully intact.” sixteen months. The fact you're lucid at all is a
miracle. The effects of such an experience can hardly
“Pleeeease...” Umbridge was pushing herself up off be avoided, especially given the circumstances prior
the ground, sobbing. to your arrival. I imagine you studied some healing
during the war?”
Severus Snape swept into the room.
“Yes,” Hermione said, looking down at the blanket on
“What’s wrong? Unable to endure consequences of
her lap. It was threadbare and smelled so strongly of
your own devising?” Voldemort sneered, and waved a
antiseptic she wanted to gag from the olfactory
hand as he turned away from Umbridge. “Take her
assault.
away. Drop her back at her prison when you’re done.”
“Then you know what a normal, healthy magical brain
Two Death Eaters came forward and dragged
looks like. This is yours.”
Umbridge from the room as she begged and wailed
apologies.
A simple wand manipulation drew the magically
“Severus, my faithful servant,” Voldemort said, projected image of Hermione’s brain into view.
turning toward the Potion Master. “I find myself with a
Hermione’s eyes narrowed. Scattered across the
puzzle on my hands.”
projection were little glowing lights; some clustered,
“My Lord,” Snape said, folding his hands respectfully some sporadic. All over her brain. She’d never seen
in front of him and lowering his eyes. such a thing before.
48 25
“What are those?” Umbridge screamed. She screamed, and screamed,
and writhed on the ground. Hermione almost felt
“My best guess is that they're magically created fugue sorry for her.
states.”
After several minutes, he finally stopped.
“What?”
“Did you think, Warden, that following the letter but
“At some point during your isolation, your magic not the spirit of my commands would spare you?”
began trying to protect you. Since you couldn’t
Umbridge only whimpered.
express any magic externally, it internalised itself. You
worked hard to keep yourself from, as you said,
“I knew of your dislike for the Mudblood, but I had
slipping. However, the mind is hardly equipped to
hoped your obedience to me would be sufficient
handle such a thing. Your magic has walled off parts
motivation for you to restrain yourself. Perhaps you
of your mind. As a result, it fragmented you
need a permanent reminder.”
somewhat. Normally a fugue is general, but these
appear almost surgically precise. Although mind “My Lord—”
healing isn’t my specialty.”
“What is that punishment you’re so fond of doling out
Hermione stared in horror. among your charges? Knuckles, isn’t it? Tell me,
Warden, how many fingers will you have left if I take
“Do you mean I—I disassociated?” a knuckle for each month you spent trying to drive
the Mudblood insane?”
“Something like that. I've never actually seen
anything like this before. This might be a new magical “Noooooooo.” Umbridge voice rose in a shriek. She
malady.” was still shaking and spasming on the ground.
26 47
hers. By then, they had been reduced to tiny mewling “Do—I have multiple personalities?” Hermione felt
wails of pain past shredded vocal chords. Guttural suddenly faint.
sobs that kept choking out as her chest kept
spasming from pain, and she struggled to breathe. “No. You’ve simply isolated parts of your mind. I think
your magic intended to protect them from mental
“I do not like secrets kept from me. With Potter dead attacks, but by extension it prevented you from
there should be nothing left to conceal. What are you accessing them.”
hiding?” Voldemort hissed. His bony fingers seized her
face and turned it so that she met his eyes. Hermione was reeling internally.
“I—don’t—know—,“ she said. Her voice was rasping “What—don’t I remember ?”
and broken, and she weakly tried to pull her jaw free
from his hold. “Well, we aren’t entirely sure. You’ll have to be the
one to discover what you’ve forgotten. What are your
“Call Severus! And the Warden. She shall be punished parents’ names?”
for this,” Voldemort said. He viciously probed
Hermione’s mind until she lay limp and barely Hermione paused a moment, trying to calculate if the
conscious on the table. question was based on seeking a diagnosis or
potentially to extract information. Blood drained from
Umbridge arrived first, looking appropriately terrified. her face.
“My Lord, my Lord,” she said, dropping to the ground
“I don’t know,” she said, suddenly feeling as though
and crawling toward him.
she couldn’t breathe. “I remember I had parents.
They were—Muggles. But—I can’t remember anything
“ Crucio .” Voldemort cast the curse, his fury evident
about them.”
in his tone.
46 27
Struggling to tamp down on the panic rising inside of no ability to create a wall around her mind. Voldemort
her, she stared imploringly at the healer. shot in like an arrow, burying himself deeply among
her memories and then sifting slowly through them. It
“Do you know anything?” was as though her mind were being crushed under
his.
“I’m afraid not. Let’s try another question. Do you
remember the school you went to? Who were your Her childhood. Hogwarts. He wasn’t concerned with
best friends there?” her locked memories of her parents. After fifth year,
when everything grew hazy, his interest sharpened.
“Hogwarts. Harry and Ron,” Hermione said, looking He examined her memories of healing. All those
down as her throat tightened. Her fingers twitched bodies. All those injuries. So many people. The closer
uncontrollably. he got to the end of the war, the more memories were
locked. He tried driving into them. He tried stabbing
“Good.”
his way through the magic with sheer force. None of
them would give away to his violent, insistent attacks.
“Do you remember the headmaster?”
It was breaking her. The force was mind-numbingly
“Dumbledore.”
painful, and somehow the pain continued to increase
until it felt impossible that she wasn’t dying from it.
“Do you remember what happened to him?”
Hermione was writhing as she sought to get away—to
“He died,” Hermione said, squeezing her eyes shut. escape the invasion. Screaming surrounded her and
Although the details felt fuzzy, she was sure. just kept going on, and on, and on.
“Yes. Do you remember the circumstances of his Finally Voldemort withdrew from her mind. Furious.
death?” She slowly became aware that the screams had been
28 45
probably could never have happened without the “No. I remember—he was reinstated as headmaster
specific cir-circumstances of her imprisonment. This after it was confirmed that Vold-Vold—You-Know-Who
t-t-took time. Her brain has been slowly shoring up a had returned.”
line of d-defense over the course of months. Almost
like a clam making a pearl, she’s been slowly burying “Interesting.” There was more scribbling. “What is it
them under layer after layer. You c-can tell some have that you remember of the war?”
been more extensively protected than others based
“I was a healer. I was in the hospital ward. So many
on how brightly they g-g-glow.”
people I couldn’t save—I remember losing.
Voldemort’s eyes were narrowed. “Could these Something—something didn’t work. Harry died.
memories be recovered with legilimency?” They—they hung him up off the Astronomy Tower, and
we watched him rot. They—they hung Ron and his
The small wizard looked more nervous. Faint droplets family next to him. And Tonks and Lupin. They
of perspiration had collected on his upper lip. tortured them until they died. Then they put me in
that cell and left me there.”
“It’s—it’s unlikely. This is like an individual occlumency
wall of exceptional strength around each specific
Hermione was shaking as she spoke. The hospital bed
memory. It’s—it's p-possible if the legilimens is
shook and made an angry creaking noise.
sufficiently p-p-powerful.”
The healer didn't appear to notice and scribbled more
“I like to think I am,” Voldemort said, looking down
notes.
into Hermione’s eyes. She squeezed them shut
instantly, but it was too late. “This is very unusual and interesting. I’ve never heard
of a fugue state like this before. I’m anxious to hear
She thought—she might have known occlumency
what a specialist thinks.”
before. With her magic mostly stolen away, she had
44 29
“Glad to be so interesting,” Hermione said, her lip Two guards appeared from behind the curtain and
curling as she opened her eyes to glare at the healer. shot two successive stunners at Hermione. The first
she dodged, but the second nicked her shoulder. She
“Now now, dear. I’m not entirely callous. Look at it dropped like a stone.
from a medical perspective. If there was anything in
your past that would be logical for your mind to When she re-awoke, she was strapped down on a
protect itself from, it would be the aftermath of the table in a dark hall. Her arms and legs were
war—which you are clearly traumatised by. Instead, restrained, still twitching from torture. More straps
what did you subconsciously decide to protect? The went over her forehead and chin, holding her head in
identities of your parents, and the Order’s war place. There was a small wizard standing on one side
strategy. Your magic didn’t choose to protect your of her. Voldemort himself was standing on the other.
psyche, it chose to protect everyone else. That is very
The small wizard was speaking in a thin, trembling
interesting.”
voice, gesturing up at a projection of Hermione’s
Hermione supposed it was, but it just all felt like too brain.
much.
“It—it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen b-before.
Normally magical m-m-memory loss occurs q-q-quite
Just being able to see again was overwhelming. Being
generally across the brain when it is s-s-self
able to speak. Being out of her cell. Everything felt
generated. A p-person can’t even tell you their name.
like it was too much. Too raw. Too bright.
But this is t-targeted. Like obliviation spells. A
She didn’t say anything else. After a few minutes of dissociative fugue, or in this case m-many of them.
scribbling, the healer looked up again. Almost like self-obliviation. Her magic has hidden
specific memories inside what I can only describe as
almost a c-c-calcification of magical layers. It
30 43
you all this so you’ll try to escape. I’m trying to warn “Unless the specialist has an objection, you’ll stay in
you. It’s hell. You need to be prepared for that the infirmary for a week for recovery before we
because—if you aren’t—you’re going to walk out there process you. That will give you time to acclimate to
and get maimed, and it won’t even mean anything.” light and sound again and undergo the therapy you’ll
need for your torture recovery and that concussion
Hannah seemed about to say something else, but
you got during your check up.”
footsteps sounded beyond the curtains. An expression
of terror rippled across her face, and the dividing The healer started to walk away but then paused.
curtain fell as she retreated.
“I hope my saying this is unnecessary, but I suppose
The curtain on the other side of Hermione snapped given your house and history I should say it
open, and the healer from earlier reappeared, looking nonetheless. You are at a crossroads currently, Miss
harried. Granger. What will happen to you next is inevitable,
but you have a choice in how unpleasant you force it
“The Dark Lord wants to watch your examination
to be.”
himself,” the healer said, reaching out and grabbing
Hermione’s arm forcefully.
With that parting—advice? A threat? A warning?
Hermione wasn’t entirely sure. The healer
Hermione tried instinctively to get away. She jerked
disappeared behind the dividing curtain.
her arm out of the healer's grip and dropped off the
other side of the bed in order to create distance.
Hermione glanced around at her surroundings
carefully. She was still in Hogwarts. She had been
“Oh, you stupid little witch.” The healer sighed, and
changed out of her prison clothes into a set of hospital
gestured to someone standing out of Hermione's
pajamas. Pulling up the sleeves, she noted with
vision. “Stun her and bring her.”
42 31
disappointment that no one had made the mistake of Hannah looked up. “I don’t know. None of us have
taking off the manacles locked around each wrist. ever seen him without his mask. Everyone talks about
him. He’s the Dark Lord’s right hand. Voldemort
She held a wrist up in front of her face to inspect doesn’t go out much, so the High Reeve appears
them. They had been snapped onto her immediately instead. They held public executions a few weeks
before she had been imprisoned in her cell, and she ago—more than twenty people. He killed every single
had never gotten a chance to really see what they one with the Killing Curse. He didn’t take breaks. He
looked like. just went straight down the line. No one has even
seen the Dark Lord cast that many in a row.”
In the light, they simply appeared to be a pair of
bracelets around each wrist. They shone like a new “That—shouldn’t be possible,” Hermione said, shaking
penny. They were copper-plated, as she had guessed. her head doubtfully.
In the darkness of her cell, she had spent an untold Hannah leaned forward and lowered her voice. “I
amount of time trying to ascertain exactly what they know. But I’ve seen the bodies after he catches the
were. The simple answer was that they suppressed runners. He always catches them. McGonagall, Moody,
her magic. How exactly they did so, and how she Neville, Dean, Seamus, Professor Sprout, Madam
might get around them while blind and mute had Pomfrey, Flitwick, Oliver Wood; those are the ones
taken much thought. you’d know. There have been more. Loads more. The
Order members were the ones who tried hardest to
When she finally admitted to herself that it was get away. They all came back corpses. It’s always the
impossible to get around them, she began to figure Killing Curse.”
out how they worked.
Hannah hesitated and stared intently at Hermione.
“Don’t do something stupid, Hermione. I’m not telling
32 41
just too horribly dystopian. Some nightmare she was She both hated and admired whoever had developed
dreaming up inside her cell. them. She was positive by the way the copper
conducted her magic that they had a dragon
“We—have to get out,” Hermione said in as steady a
heartstring core in each of them, possibly even taken
voice as she could manage.
from her own wand.
Hannah shook her head.
The manacles felt specifically attuned to her.
“We can’t. Didn’t you hear me earlier? Unless you can
In her cell during all her attempts to wield wandless
chop off your hands, you’ll never be able to leave with
magic, the magic slipped down her arms toward her
those manacles. They don’t even keep the trace here.
hands to be cast and then just—dissolved when it
Angelina lost her pointer finger to find that out. The
reached the manacles. Confirming for herself now that
Dark Lord keeps it personally. That’s why whenever
they were copper-plated, she understood immediately
anyone gets away, it’s always the High Reeve who
how it worked.
goes after them. “
Copper sucked the magic into itself. She remembered
Hannah looked quickly around, tilting her head to get
Binns lecturing in History of Magic about the attempts
a slightly better view of the floor beyond the privacy
to use materials other than wood for wands. Copper
curtains.
had been one of the obvious choices due to its natural
Hermione followed Hannah's gaze. There was nothing magic conductivity. Unfortunately, it was too
there. conductive. It sucked up any flicker of magic that it
detected, whether it was meant to or not. Spells
“Who? Who is the High Reeve?” Hermione asked. She exploded out of copper wands before a wizard could
didn’t remember that title. finish casting. They could barely touch the wands
without having them go off. Two blown up wand labs
40 33
and the loss of four toes convinced wand makers to miscarried. Well,“—Hannah’s voice grew
try something other than copper. bitter—“apparently facing the extinction of the
European wizarding world has opened the Dark Lord’s
The core of the manacles, Hermione felt positive, was mind somewhat in regard to blood purity. Magic is
iron. The copper paired with dragon heartstring might, you know. He’s decided to start a breeding
snatched up her magic and then deposited it into the program with all these half-blood and Muggle-born
iron core where it was effectively neutralised. prisoners he happens to have on hand. Just us girls,
since it’s a fate worse than death to have a
The ingenuity made her seethe.
Muggle-born male touch a pure-blood female. We’re
all to be made to produce babies until our uteruses
Iron manacles were common enough in Wizarding
give out.”
prisons. They dampened magic enough to keep
prisoners from casting anything powerful. It had Hannah looked as sick as Hermione was beginning to
always been impossible to fully neutralise a witch or feel.
wizard’s magic with iron. They could always push a
little bit of magic past it or just let it build up until a “So that’s why they finally let you out,” said Hannah,
wave of accidental magic exploded from them. The gesturing helplessly. “They’re using school and
copper solved that. With its eager conductivity, medical records to decide which of us are eligible.
especially aided with a magical core matching the That healer you were speaking to—she’s the head of
prisoner’s wand, the copper sucked up almost every the whole thing. Apparently she specializes in magical
bit of building magic inside Hermione. genetics. We’re her lab rats. They’re checking
everyone’s fertility.”
It effectively made her a Muggle.
Hannah was crying now. Hermione stared at her,
feeling faint with shock. It couldn’t be true. It was all
34 39
“The guards talk a lot. After the war, we all expected
the Dark Lord would start enslaving the Muggles. 2 retpahC
But—it turns out his ranks were more exhausted than
we realised. Apparently being immortal makes him
patient. He decided that repopulating the ranks of
pure-blood wizards should be first on his agenda. He
personally paired off all the pure-bloods. Made them
all get married with orders to start reproducing.” “H ermione…” she heard someone breathe.
Hannah’s face was twisted with disdain as she recited
this information. Looking up sharply from her manacles, she saw a
head poking through the dividing curtain. She
Hermione’s eyebrows furrowed with surprise. A
squinted and stared. It was Hannah Abbott.
repopulation effort? The war had dragged on with high
casualties given the size of the wizarding population, A low gasp of horror escaped Hermione’s lips.
but Hermione hadn’t thought Voldemort would notice,
much less care. Arranged marriages weren’t exactly Hannah only had one eye.
uncommon among pure-bloods—but having them
Her right eye was staring at Hermione, but her left
mandated seemed extreme. She wondered how his
eye was gone. There was a black, gaping hole in her
followers had felt.
head as though it had been plucked out.
“There were—barely any babies. Pure-blood fertility
Hannah’s hand immediately darted up and covered
rates have been dropping for years. There were a few
the left side of her face.
pregnancies that set everyone abuzz. Most ended up
squib and got terminated before the end. Or
38 35
“Sorry. It’s always awful for people the first time they down. People have been trying to get out for months.
see it.” Anyone who gets caught gets maimed. Anyone—who
gets out—it took too many tries before we
“What—happened?” Hermione forced the words out.
realised—the manacles we’ve all got—,” Hannah
raised her own copper encased wrist, “they’ve got a
She didn’t know of any curse that removed eyes in
trace in them. If you get past the wards, they send
such a manner. There were plenty of blinding hexes,
the High Reeve and hang the corpse in the Great Hall
but none with such grotesque results.
so that we all have to watch it decay.”
“Umbridge—she popped it out with the tip of her wand
Hermione felt as though she’d been struck violently in
when—when I tried to escape. She made the healers
the chest. Her fingers spasmed against the fabric of
keep it like this. For effect.” Hannah turned her head
the blanket covering her. She could barely breathe.
slightly away to conceal her face further.
“Who?”
“She got into trouble for it though.” Hannah lowered
“Ginny. She was the first body they brought back. We
her face so that she was gazing at the floor. Her voice
all thought maybe you had actually gotten out.
sounded as if she was somehow dead. “She normally
Because you disappeared. We didn’t realise they’d
cuts off fingers now. If you’re disrespectful. If you try
just put you somewhere else...”
to get away. If you look at her wrong. Parvati and
Angelina, they hardly have any fingers left.”
Hannah’s voice trailed off, and she stared at
Hermione. “You don’t even know why they brought
Hannah looked hard at Hermione with her remaining
you out, do you?”
eye.
Hermione shook her head.
“Let your Gryffindor die, Hermione. Don’t try to be
brave. Don’t try to be clever. Just keep your head
36 37