Pinky's Reviews > Manacled

Trigger Warnings:(view spoiler)[ Imprisonment, war, racism, classism, graphic torture, graphic violence, genocide, forced breeding, miscarriages, infertility, death of loved ones, graphic executions and in front of loved ones, burned to death, arson, rape, attempted rape, sexual assault, non-consent, dubious consent, suicide ideation, attempted suicide, self-harm, sex slaves, PTSD, trauma, panic attacks, slut-shaming, agoraphobia, seizures, starving, kidnapping, stockholm syndrome, abortions (sometimes forced) (hide spoiler)]

“I’m going to take care of you. I swear, I’m always going to take care of you.”


MEL, I HATE YOU FOR MAKING ME READ THIS. After that masterpiece, I’m just sitting here waiting. For what? Maybe my own personal Draco? This story may be dark and angsty, but it is beautiful. I recommend you check the triggers if you are not used to anything dark, this book has so many fucked up things that happen. Push through 25 chapters and you will understand why people love this book. You need to know some background of Harry Potter to read this. I remembered the basic stuff but I did have to Google some things. You can try reading this without reading/watching the series but it might be confusing. This review will have spoilers for Harry Potter.


Imagine a world where Harry never won the war while facing Voldemort. A world where Voldemort rules and the members of the Resistance are either dead or taken prisoner. Hermione is a prisoner who is taken to be in Voldemort’s breeding program. Since many Pureblood couples are having a hard time conceiving, Hermione and others are assigned to a Death Eater to breed babies. Voldemort wants to access memories Hermione no longer remembers. To get access, she would need to get pregnant. So he entrusts her to his loyal general, the High Reeve, Draco Malfoy.

“If he’s a monster, then I’m his creator.”

Now for spoilers

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Part 1
Starting this book was rough, no one knew that Umbridge hid Hermione in a cell. A healer named Stroud says that Hermione is in the breeding program. Voldemort tries to see Hermione’s memories by using Legilimency, a painful way of prying through someone’s head. Stroud tells him that they can get the memories if Hermione is pregnant. The person who gets her pregnant will be able to use Legilimens on Hermione. They assign her to the High Reeve, Draco Malfoy. The prisoners are forced to be sex slave surrogates to the Death Eaters. They have manacles that suppress their magic and are controlled to not hurt others including themselves and must obey their owners. Draco is married to Astoria who is pissed that this is happening. Draco makes Hermione stand at a table and rapes her, this happens 5 times every month when she is supposed to be fertile and he leaves immediately when done. She thinks of suicide, is depressed, has agoraphobia, and seizures. Draco pries through her head to see if he can recover memories. Every other month, Hermione is forced to see Voldemort who does the same. Astoria was having an affair with Montague but Draco doesn’t care.


Umbridge is killed by an arrow and the locket she is wearing is destroyed. The locket was the last Horcrux and since Voldemort needs Horcruxes to live, he is dying. Montague finds Hermione and attempts to rape her. He is close when Draco finds him and later rips his organs out and kills him. Astoria is jealous that Draco is always at the manor after Hermione came. He abandoned Astoria at the manor after they got married. She thought she had Montague but he wanted Hermione. Astoria tries to rip Hermione’s eyes out but Draco stops her and helps heal Hermione. Stroud says that Hermione isn’t pregnant and they need to use a bed. After the rape, he goes straight to the washroom to vomit, he couldn’t stomach doing it. She was there for 6 months and runs into Draco while he is drunk. He says that if he knew she would cause him this much pain, he never would have been with her and kissed her and Hermione reciprocated. He pushes away shocked and says she is playing her role well. She is mentally and physically hurt that she hits her head on the glass trying to kill herself. Draco stops her and later, Stroud tells Hermione that she is pregnant. Draco was soft with her when she was asleep but when she was awake, he stayed away. She wakes up with memories and we see the past.

Part 2
Two years ago when they were 22, Draco killed Dumbledore and it triggered the start of the war. He was a Death Eater and worked for Voldemort. Snape is a double agent and works for the Order. Hermione went abroad to learn how to be a healer after her friend Colin died since she failed to save him. Harry and Ron became closer and once she was back, she was left out. Snape taught her how to make potions so she was valued in the Order which was run by Kingsley and Moody. Moody says a Death Eater will spy for them if Hermione were to go to them willingly. Hermione wanted everyone to use Dark Magic as self-defense which caused a rift between her and Harry. Moody and Kingsley asked her to meet with the Death Eater who was Draco to get intel. Hermione couldn’t tell anyone which made her feel alone and she thought Draco wanted to sleep with her. Draco sets a day for them to meet weekly and says they should kiss on it and is surprised she gave in so easily. He gave her rings and if she felt it burn, she needed to meet him. He realizes she is Occlumens like him, she can hide memories and says he will train her. He kisses her the second time she goes to their meeting place at a shack. After that second time, he only gets close to intimidate her. Hermione started to notice that Draco was cruel to her when he was vulnerable. After every meeting, he gave her a scroll with information that Moody and Kingsley used to make raids and save prisoners. This made the Resistance think they were winning but they had no idea that Hermione was sacrificing herself for intel. Draco gave Hermione very valuable information and as a result, Voldemort drew poisonous runes with Nagini’s blood into his back. There was Dark Magic and it was too late for Hermione to fully heal him. His information saved so many lives and Hermione realized that Draco didn’t care if he died. Hermione put the Heart of Isis in his chest to heal him, it purified him every time he used Dark Magic. Hermione starts to tell Draco not to die.

“Be careful, Draco. Don’t die.”

She did surgery to close the wounds on Draco’s back. He says that they should drink together and kisses her. Hermione is tired of being lonely and thinks that Draco sees her for who she truly is. I didn’t expect their kiss scenes to be so passionate. When Draco senses that she tenses, he stops and they fall asleep together. After that, he didn’t appear in the shack for over a month. Hermione goes foraging and a vampire bites her. She goes to the shack to heal herself, Draco appears and watches her. Ever since then, Draco looked at Hermione to check if she was okay. He got all the medical supplies she may need in case she is injured again. He always did things for her because he wanted her to live. Harry cares for Ginny and Ron but barely thinks of Hermione. Draco hates him and he grows to care for Hermione.

“You’re like a rose in a graveyard.”

During Christmas, Harry tries to mend things with Hermione but she says they should use Dark Magic to defend themselves since she is tired of people dying. Draco gives Hermione a cloak and when Hermione gives him a healing potion pack, he gives her daggers. Moody and Kingsley secretly make Hermione heal Death Eaters who were tortured by spies. Hermione healed Montague and he was given a potion by Kingsley which made him obsessed with her. Hermione is ordered to have Draco show his loyalty or hand her memories of Draco so that he will die once he is ratted out. The only way for her to make sure he stays loyal was to get him attached to her, she felt coerced into fucking him by Kingsley and Moody. When Draco teaches Hermione physical self-defense, she kisses him. They ended up fucking and Hermione was in pain since she was a virgin. When he realized she was a virgin, he was devastated. When Snape finds out, he is soft with Hermione and gives her potions. Draco is helping the Order to get revenge for his mom Narcissa. Narcissa was tortured by Voldemort in the Malfoy Manor when Lucius went to prison. Draco got the Death Mark and killed Dumbledore so that Narcissa would be freed from a cage. His mom dealt with so much torture that she got seizures. His dad doesn’t know since he would have gotten them killed by going after Voldemort. He said he couldn’t care for anyone ever again since it hurt too much. Narcissa died in a house fire in Lestrange Manor. Draco chose Hermione as his contact since he needed someone who wouldn’t die and knew she wasn’t fighting on the fields. It’s sad knowing he has to go through the same thing with Hermione in the future, she is tortured and refuses to leave without him, plus HE had to torture her. Draco makes the Unbreakable Vow to keep Hermione alive, he promises to be loyal to the Order and not overthrow Voldemort. Draco grows resentful of Hermione, he admits his feelings for her but hates her for it. He says that her manacles seem heavier than Voldemort's. Harry goes to Hogwarts to find a Horcrux but Ron gets kidnapped. Harry does not hesitate to put Hermione in danger by asking her to join a suicide mission to save Ron when she has not been on a mission in years. When they get Ron, they are trapped by Death Eaters. Hermione uses a Dark Magic curse when Ron is attacked. Draco appeared with a mask, killed all the Death Eaters, and got everyone out after obliviating them. He realizes Hermione knew this was a trap and doesn’t care if she dies.

“You are not replaceable. You are not required to make your death convenient. You are allowed to be important to people. The reason I took that fucking Vow was to keep you alive. To keep you safe.”

Hermione feels so cold and it is because she used Dark Magic. Seeing how badly it affected Hermione made me realize that Draco used so much Dark Magic with no support. Hermione goes to the shack and Draco says that she can use him if she is lonely. They have sensual sex and Draco can tell Hermione has feelings for him and is obsessed with her. Since then, every time they meet they treat it like their last. He asks if she is alright and she heals him while he holds her. When they cuddle, Draco says that he will take care of Hermione and she does the same to him when she is healing him. When she tells him not to die, he promises to come back since she is his. Draco resents the Order and tells Moody and Kingsley that Hermione needs to be alive. During an attack, Hermione gets injured but is healing everyone while bleeding out. Draco got his elf to bring Hermione to his manor. He heals her and says that he will kill the Order if something happens to her. Draco begs her to run away but she doesn’t want to. She says one day they will but they can’t since Draco has the Dark Mark. If a person cuts off the arm with the Dark Mark, they will bleed out. It can only be removed if Voldemort dies.

“I have warned you. If something happens to you, I will personally raze the entire Order. That isn’t a threat. It is a promise. Consider your survival as much a necessity to the survival of the Resistance as Potter’s. If you die, I will kill every last one of them.”

Hermione makes a bomb for the magical shield around Hogwarts. They plan to kill Voldemort and Nagini, thinking those were the last Horcruxes. Ginny finds out she is pregnant and tells Hermione to hide it from Harry since it will put pressure on him. Hermione finds out that when Harry was cursed by Voldemort, Voldemort made him a Horcrux. Harry is accepting of dying and she tells Harry that Ginny is pregnant. He makes her promise to take care of Ginny and the baby. He tells Hermione she was a good friend. Neville kills Nagini and Harry lets Voldemort kill him. Turns out they were missing a Horcrux. Draco tells her she needs to leave since they lost. Ginny was kidnapped to a lab and Hermione begs Draco to save her and promises she will do what he asks. Draco rescues Ginny but blows his cover since the records show he was there. Hermione wants to tell Snape about the Horcruxes so someone can kill Voldemort. Hermione tells Draco to take Ginny and once he is back, she will leave with him. Hermione leaves a note saying she loves him. She blows up the lab to save Draco from getting his cover blown but is caught by Montague. She is in a cage and sees Harry’s body rotting and Lucius burns all her friends. Hermione pushes her memories away of Draco. Manacles are put on her that suppress her magic and she slowly forgets Draco. Umbridge locks Hermione in a room in Hogwarts. Hermione is in there for 16 months until the breeding program.

Part 3
Draco realizes she got her memories back, he couldn’t find Hermione and looked all over the world. He was forced to marry Astoria and had to fuck her to reproduce. But he stayed away once she was barren. Draco hurt and raped Hermione since Voldemort probably checked his head and it was all an act for him. Hermione was supposed to leave months ago with Snape but he is in Romania. Draco was willing to let Hermione leave without remembering him and knew he was going to be killed once she was gone. She tells him she will find a way to save him. Hermione says she wants to try having sex with Draco. She tells him to stop in the middle and cries and Draco hates himself. Draco was mad at her because she manipulated and left him. He asks if saving him was worth it since he had to live his nightmares. He had to rape her and Montague did too but Hermione says Draco came in time. His wife almost got her eyes out and she is dealing with seizures. Hermione says he was worth it and she will save him. Lucius comes to the manor and Astoria can’t stand him since he is killing animals and drags blood around. Lucius is sick of her so he beheads her but Draco planned it. Hermione realizes they need Phoenix's tears to remove the Dark Mark. Hermione was having a girl and she wanted to tell her stories about Draco, he even said she didn’t have to keep the baby. It had me crying to see how little Draco cared for his life and how he valued Hermione

“Why are you so resigned to dying? Even at the beginning, when you made your offer to the Order, you were always planning to die like it wouldn’t matter to anyone. Why are you still like that? Now—” her voice broke, “—when it does?”

Draco and Snape planned Voldemort’s downfall politically. Draco was the High Reeve so he held the most power in Voldemort’s forces. People were realizing that Voldemort was becoming weak and were pulling away their support. They find out Snape died but Draco has other ways to get Hermione out with portkeys that teleport to places. Lucius sneaks a portkey into Hermione’s room to make her go to his room. Voldemort threatened to kill Draco if Lucius didn’t find the last Order member. So she tells him that Draco worked for her and she was the last Order member. Lucius forces his way into her head and Hermione pushes all the Narcissa memories to him. Lucius is devastated when he finds out what happened to Narcissa. Draco got Lucius off Hermione and Lucius has enough Phoenix's tears for Draco. Hermione had to amputate Draco’s arm to get rid of the mark and the potion prevented him from bleeding out. Lucius burned the manor to make it seem like they all died inside. Draco had a portkey to an island in Japan where Ginny and James were. He made a house with all the things Hermione loves with books everywhere. Once they get to the island, Ginny slapped him since Hermione was pregnant through rape. She tells Hermione that she doesn’t need to be with Draco but Hermione loves Draco. Anytime Draco is away, she is scared he is dead and is codependent on him. Even if its toxic, I didn’t care since their love was so deep. Draco had a lab and foraging baskets so she can make potions. Ginny pissed me off since she kept trying to separate Hermione and Draco. Draco and Hermione always cuddled and Draco couldn’t sleep without her. Draco openly looks at her possessively and it was nice to see him laugh and smile. She made him a prosthetic arm with a wand in the forearm. She gave birth to Aurore and when Aurore grabbed Draco’s hand, he was attached. Aurore became closer to James as they grew older. They followed the news and saw that people stepped in now that Voldemort was going to die soon. Ginny is pissed they didn’t mention how Ron, Harry, and the others.

“I’m going to take care of you.” She held his hand tighter and pressed it against her chest. “I’m yours, as long as you want me.”
His hand slid up to cradle her face. He stared at her, his silver eyes intent. “Always. As long as I live.”

Ginny leaves when James is 5 and it takes her a year to kill Voldemort, she tells everyone the truth about the war. She doesn’t mention Hermione and she knows Draco will never be redeemed. Ginny takes James with her so that he can go to Hogwarts. Aurore learns about the history of her parents and it devastates her. Once she is old enough, she gets a job and reunites with James and Ginny. The book ends on a devastating note, we get a happy ending for Dramione. But all of their sacrifices go unnoticed. Draco is seen as a monster, people act like he is Voldemort. Hermione is nothing but a footnote, that she was a surrogate and did not fight. Hermione gave all of herself to the war but no one will ever know the truth.

“She was a non-active member of the Order of the Phoenix and did not fight.”

It’s fucking sad and Draco is right:
“He pressed his lips against her forehead. “You’re better than anyone,” he said quietly, the words brushing against her skin. “This world doesn’t deserve you at all.”
The world does not deserve Hermione. I love these two so much, their love for each other was immeasurable. The sacrifices they made for each other and the war is devastating. I am just glad they have all the time in the world to live together in peace.
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Stay safe folks!