ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. The flames licked her legs as they passed through the fire into Draco's bedroom. Hermione looked down at the journal — the leather cover scraped and worn, the parchment soft with age. Her fingers gripped it tightly, and she blinked. She flipped to the pages she'd never seen before, checking to make sure they were real.

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. Draco's lips dropped kisses against her neck, his hand tracing circles on her knee as her eyes read the same sentence for the sixth time. Something about Jeremiah Jones and his brother.

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. Every step on the stairs down to the laboratory echoed against the stones, making it sound like a dozen people were at Hermione's heels as she rushed down the twisting staircase. Instead, there was just one. He moved slowly, but every time she paused to look back at him, he was three paces behind her, as if tied to a string. His hand slid across the wall as he moved, his gaze always fixed at a point over her head.

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. All of us. Hermione heard her heartbeat drum in her ears. Bellatrix. She was going to see Bellatrix again. "Father." She heard Draco's voice from far away. "You can't possibly be suggesting—" "Am I in the habit of making 'suggestions,' Draco?"

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. She woke up exhausted, limbs leaden, head groaning in protest. Watching the golden morning light creep up the walls, she lay in bed, grogginess fading as her mind began cataloging the last twenty-four hours. He'd kissed her. He'd kissed her, then ran, like he couldn't escape her fast enough. Hermione took a shuddering breath and slapped both palms to her forehead, pressing her eyes together and banishing the images. Directing her...

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. Silence hung in the room, thick and heavy like a cloak. Draco's eyes flickered between Hermione's eyes and her lips, as though he couldn't believe the words that had emerged from them over the past hour. He'd been quiet as she spilled her secrets, one after another. The note from the strawberry-blonde. Charlotte. The grape between Cho's painted lips, and what it meant.

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. Waking on Saturday morning was like pulling herself from a thick bramble that had settled over her in the night. Fighting her way back to consciousness, she struggled against aching muscles and a pounding behind her left eye. She turned on her side and willed her body out of bed. But she couldn't move.

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. Ginny. Hermione stared down at the piece of paper between her fingertips. Her bookshelves shuddered as a heavy tome pushed forward, opening to flashes of scarlet hair and mischievous eyes. Ginny was alive, and waiting for her help… How do I kill him? — GW

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. Hermione woke up the next morning with her blood still boiling. She rescheduled breakfast with Narcissa and locked herself away, researching and reading in angry solitude. Every time she'd let her mind wander, it would conjure images of Draco with Hermione's doppelgänger in his lap, moving as Pansy Parkinson moves and kissing like Pansy Parkinson kisses

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. There was a ringing in her ears as Draco stood from the armchair, taking her elbow and muttering his goodbyes. The boys were heavily distracted by now, and let them go without too much of a fuss. Hermione popped the grape into her mouth as Draco turned her around, suddenly terrified that someone might see and discover her secret.

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. Edinburgh Castle loomed over them as they approached on the cobblestones, devoid of the usual tourists or families. Devoid of the Muggle military guards at the gates. Instead they passed cloaked Death Eaters and seedy Dark object dealers begging for Draco Malfoy's gold like paupers.

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. She slept for three days. Mippy kept the room dark for her, mindful of her pounding head. The elf woke her once every morning to pour a potion down her throat, and to ask if "miss wants to walk." Miss did not want to walk.

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. His hips rolled against her, pressing her into the wall. Her breath hitched, waking her brain. She pushed back again, struggling against his chest, twisting her body away from the wall.

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. Waiting for Draco to recover from his injuries was somehow even more agonizing when they were only separated by a wall. She suspected his condition was serious, but not critical. Narcissa and Mippy kept a near-constant vigil in his room, but Lucius was nowhere to be found, apparently traveling again. Hermione left the door to her suite cracked so she could hear the comings and goings in their shared hallways.

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. It had been almost a week since Hermione had been left alone in the Manor, and she thought she'd explored every inch of it by now. She kept her mind occupied by cataloging each room, searching for clues or possible weapons. As the days passed, she realized she couldn't hold out hope that the Malfoys would be the next faces she saw.

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. The poison worked its way through her system overnight, leaving a lethargic hum in her veins the next morning. Once the adrenalin of the initial shock had seeped from her, her body felt the aftermath like a lead weight for the next few days.

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. So, George was on the run. It must have been during the Auction itself. He was onstage with Ludo when the girls began to fight. At least they'd won something during that moment.

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. Breakfast appeared the next morning along with Narcissa Malfoy. She escorted Hermione out to the balcony while Remmy set up the breakfast tray and the tea service. She eyed the grounds, looking for weaknesses as Narcissa talked.

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. She woke slowly, her body trying to drag her mind back into sleep for a few minutes. She couldn't remember the last time she'd slept in a real bed. The cots in the tent weren't as comfortable as this, and Harry snored so loud she was afraid he'd rupture the Protection Spells—

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. The guards dragged her through the hallways of the Palace Theatre, taking stairs and turning corners that she couldn't possibly memorize even if she was trying.

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. When they spun into their destination, Hermione had two seconds to let her eyes adjust to the dark before she was forced onto a chair, arms behind her.

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. On a day she assumed was Thursday, they showered them again. She was taken first, alone. Dolohov watched her undress again, watched her under the spray. He scourgified her clothing and handed each item back to her, one at a time. Starting with her knickers.

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. So far, she was quite pleased with Professor Slughorn. All in all, he was a much friendlier presence than their previous Potions instructor.

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. Hermione woke to the sound of crying. Her eyes snapped open, and it was like her heart turned on, fluttering viciously in her chest. Her lungs grabbed for the stale air, tasting fear on the back of her tongue.

ETL Echo presents The Auction by Lovesbitcas8. In the wake of the Dark Lord’s triumph over Harry Potter, the defeated must learn their new place. Hermione Granger, former Golden Girl, has been captured and reduced to human chattel. Sold to the highest bidder as the top prize at an auction of Order members and sympathizers, she is thrust into the rabid, waiting hands of the Death Eaters. But despite the horrors of Voldemort’s new world, help—and hope—seem to arise from the most unlikely of...