The others absorbed them into the current conversation as if Hermione hadn't had a small mental collapse moments before. Eventually, she returned to her book as Pucey and Montague joined them and the conversation turned to quidditch. Pucey also played for the Falcons, and Montague played for the Arrows. Shop talk was inevitable. She turned the page to begin reading about obedience charms, an antiquated form of discipline used to make daughters and wives easier to control back when they were considered property. Two pages into the chapter she felt her blood turn to ice. She connected the dots in her head to create a picture. Why she would so foolishly overlook Ron and Harry's affair until she had her nose rubbed in it. Why they had treated her so poorly. The longer an obedience spell was in place, the more it encouraged the bondholder to dismiss the victim. The magic also made the victim easily dismissed, easily overlooked. That way no one except the victim had to deal with their servitude, or feel too guilty about it. Dumbledore would have been the original bondholder, then he added Ron and Harry, and given her behavior, Molly Weasley. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, paragon of the light, had enslaved her with dark magic at eleven years of age. Her perception of betrayal helped her to break the control eventually, but it had occurred in full view of others, and with their cooperation in some cases. The fiery rage rushed back to take her over. She would have married Ron because he told her to. She would have forgiven the betrayal and ignored the affair because Molly told her to. That harridan would have molded her into her image of a perfect wife for that callous wastrel. She would have pushed herself beyond the breaking point to help them, and they would grow to despise her and mistreat her, or at best care less and less what became of her. She stared at the words on the page, feeling the waves of anguish and anger washing over her.