DISCLAIMER: All ownership of characters and everything else belongs to JK Rowling! Not me! I'm just a wee little writer who wishes Draco and Hermione would have ended up together! So I made up my own plot, but none of the characters or the wizarding world belong to me! All of the credit goes to the great J.K!
A/N: This starts a little slow and may seem similar to some other Dramione fanfic, but this one has some HUGE twists and turns ahead! I hope you will stick around to see the craziness my brain has in store for you! Please Review! Thanks! _realdracosbride –nattles
He stood staring at the two portraits hanging on the wall of the resplendent and round office. The sun radiating through the windows caused the two residents of the magical portraits to squint. Harry continued staring at both of the headmasters in the portraits lost in a world of his own thoughts. Worry evident on his face.
"I certainly wish Minerva would hurry herself along. I'm certainly tiring of watching Mr. Potter here drool from his open mouth. POTTER! It's rude to stare!" The portrait of Severus Snape scolded. His fierce tone didn't match the softness in his eyes as he looked down upon Harry.
"Now, now, Severus, I do believe Harry is just quite lost in his thoughts," Dumbledore chuckled. "Ah, and I believe I hear her coming up the stairs now. Harry… Harry?" The portrait Dumbledore beckoned but Harry did not budge.
"Harry!" Dumbledore implored a bit louder.
At the last call of his name Harry regained focus and stammered. Clearly lost in thought as he tried to form full sentences.
"I-I- I'm sorry professor. A lot going on. Jus-Just wishing you both were still here to help. It's getting dark again, sir. Not-not dark like night fall, but evil. I thought this was over when I killed Voldemort, but it's starting again sir. I could have never imagined this. I can't possibly-"His voice began to break. "I can't possibly do this all over again, everyone is counting on me. They expect me to end it again, but I'm lost. If-If only you were still here. "
"Harry," Dumbledore began, "I assure you that Minerva has filled me in quite sufficiently on the current events and this is different than before, but we are still behind you. If you remember Harry, you did this without me before. You aren't alone in this, your entire auror team, the Order, Mr. Weasley, Ms. Granger, and of course we mustn't forget Mrs. Potter." Dumbledore winked at the mention of Harry's new bride, Mrs. Ginny Potter nee Weasley.
Harry mustered half a smile at the mention of his adoring wife, but Snape swiftly interrupted the lighter moment with a cough.
"AHEM! I'm touched at this moment, but perhaps we should end these precious sentiments and check the stairs? Potter. We heard the stairs rotate beyond the gargoyles moments ago, yet no one has entered. Perhaps you should end this warm and fuzzy chat to check?" Snape drawled, seemingly uninterested.
As if on cue, a loud explosion occurred, blowing the door off the hinges and Harry narrowly missed impalement by a large splinter of the wooden door. Wand drawn and held rigid in his clenched fingers, Harry inched towards the door in a crouched defensive position.
When he peered through the smoldering doorway, his eyes immediately widened at the sight of a long crumpled body lying on the floor.
"RON!" Harry bellowed as he ran to his pale and blood soaked best friend.
Kneeling before Ron he began investigating his injuries, cradling his friend's head, he summoned an ice pack for the knot on the back of the red head. The blood, thankfully wasn't Ron's, but whose was it? Harry couldn't vocalize the multitude of questions whizzing through his head as he tried to shake Ron lightly to consciousness.
"Ron…" He whispered. As Harry started to lift his wand to awake Ron, he was interrupted by the roar of the fireplace as someone stepped through the floo in the Hogwarts's Headmistress' office followed by the quick clacking of heels as Minerva McGonagall rushed to Harry.
"HARRY!? What's going on? What has happened to Mister Weasley?" she inquired.
"I don't know, professor." Harry cried as his voice and hands trembled.
McGonagall looked down at Ron, took a deep breath to regain her composure and stated a calm "Renerverate" spell as she pointed her wand to Ron's forehead. With a quick intake of breath, Ron sat bolt upright, fear evident in his blue eyes, impossibly paler than he had been when he was unconscious. His eyes darted around, fear overtaking him, then seeing his black-haired friend he started shouting at him.
"WHERE IS SHE?! HARRY?! WHERE DID SHE GO? DID YOU GET HER? WHERE DID SHE GO? DID THEY GET HER...?" He stopped yelling and stared through Harry, his mind obviously running rampant with unexplainable worry.
Together Harry and Prof. McGonagall asked "WHO!?"
Ron was still disoriented from fear and didn't answer but began shouting fearfully again. "She was with me! I had her! We escaped… we were…. And then… I couldn't go any further. My head… "Ron's sentences were fragmented with pauses for deep breaths and for rubbing the large knot on his head. He continued, "I was carrying her past the gargoyl-"He abruptly stopped speaking and darted down the spiral staircase behind them.
Before Harry could follow him, he and McGonagall heard the floo erupt again as more people entered her office. She nodded to Harry, signaling she could handle her visitors alone, and Harry took off after Ron, riddled with confusion.
He made it only as far as the second to last stair and stopped dead in his tracks. The sight before him was something he would never forget for the rest of his life, no matter how he would try. There laying on the hard floor next to a sobbing Ron Weasley was a small feminine body, her body twitching in the most unnatural way. She was writhing and wriggling in apparent distress, but she was clearly unconscious. One glance was all it took for Harry to recognize the familiar woman before him. Despite her twitching and unnatural state he would recognize her anywhere.
"Hermione." He whispered. "What's wrong with her Ron? What has happened?
Ron said nothing. He only scooped up the twitching form of Hermione Granger and carried her up the steps quickly. Neither man could take their eyes away from her as she wriggled in Ron's arms, her eyes occasionally fluttering open to reveal pupils dilated in such a way that near all of her honey colored irises had disappeared into blackness. Her eyes darted around frantically, unseeing of anything before her, and then finally they rolled into the back of her head, leaving only white.
"PROFESSOR!" Harry cried as he rushed into the office right ahead of Ron and the wiggling form of Hermione.
McGonagall stood talking to Arthur Weasley and Kingsley Shacklebolt, her mouth was uncharacteristically agape as Kingsley spoke to her in low tones. The conversation abruptly stopped when Harry rushed in, followed closely by Ron who collapsed in the large chair facing the desk as he still cradled the twitching Hermione.
McGonagall gasped as she looked at the girl, tears filling her eyes for the first time anyone present had ever witnessed. Ron sat crying softly as he gently held the twitching form close to him. McGonagall slowly made her way to a cabinet full of potions. Arthur Weasley approached Ron and placed a consoling hand on his shoulder and Kingsley shook his head somberly, but no one was rushing about doing anything for Hermione. No one was casting any spells or helping her in any way.
"DO SOMETHING!" Harry screamed at three of his mentors. "HELP HER! WHAT ARE WE DOING STANDING HERE?! WHAT HAPPENED?! WHAT CAN I DO? WHAT CAN YOU DO FOR HER? HELP HER! DO SOMETHING! SOMEBODY DO…. Something." Harry stopped shouting as his gaze met Ron's tearful face.
"Mate…" Ron began weakly, shaking his head.
"What happened?" Harry asked, "Oi! RON! The blood! Oh Merlin all the blood is it…?" He didn't finish his question because they both knew what he was asking, if it was hers.
Ron shook his head solemnly.
"Harry, you should really sit down." Kingsley reasoned with him.
"I WILL DO NO SUCH THING! WHAT HAPPENED TO HER? WHAT IS GOING ON?"
"Harry please, son. Sit down." Arthur Weasley pleaded.
"I will not! Not until I get some answers!" Harry's voice was still full of anger and fear but he could no longer muster the volume.
Kingsley sighed and nodded and took a breath to begin an explanation, but was stalled by McGonagall who was levitating about 20 different potions bottles in front of her to the desk. She then conjured a cot from the large chair behind her and levitated the body of Hermione to the cot behind the desk. She began pouring countless potions down Hermione's throat without uttering a single word. They all watched silently as the twitching stopped and Hermione entered a deep sleep. McGonagall walked over to Ron and cleaned the blood from his clothing with a quick spell, then muttered another to heal the knot on his head. She offered him a small vial of pain reliever potion that he graciously accepted with a shaky hand and then she finally spoke for the first time since they entered her office.
"Various calming draughts, every pain relief potion known to wizard and dreamless sleep potion. I'm afraid it's all I can do." She said as she looked ahead of her, her focus on nothing in particular.
Arthur Weasley kneaded Ron's shoulder, offering his son comfort and encouragement as Ron tried his best to regain his composure. Ron sucked in a shaky breath and turned to face Harry. This confused Harry even more, because it seemed everyone knew what was going on, except for himself.
"We- we were in the auror office. She came to meet me after you left. We-we were going to go to lunch together and I was still way behind on those files from the raid. S-She was waiting on me, when she got an owl. She said it was from her secretary, said she had to run back to her office real quick. She said she would meet me at the restaurant in 30 minutes. "Ron stopped and began sobbing.
"OH MERLIN! I should have gone with her! I should've known! Then she wouldn't have… "Ron cried out.
The silence was deafening as they all waited for Ron to gather himself to continue. Harry was still clueless and growing impatient, but he had never seen Ron this shaken up before, never during the war, not even when Fred had died in the final battle. Ron had been his friend for 13 years and they'd been through a war together, they've been through countless life-threatening situations together as aurors and have seen more horrifying things together than anyone should in a lifetime, and yet Harry was taken aback by the level of emotion and sheer terror he saw on his best mate's face. So he waited, and waited. Minutes ticked by as Ron tried to collect himself. Seeing Ron shaken up like this was terrifying Harry to the core, he couldn't imagine what could have happened. Hermione was alive. They should be celebrating the fact that she was still breathing. That she at least survived whatever horrid encounter they had just experienced in the hours since Harry had seen them last. As he thought this, Harry looked over and watched her chest rise and fall and the terror was still there, but he felt slightly reassured at seeing the evidence that she was, in fact, alive. Finally, Ron started speaking again,
"I went to lunch, and we were going to that muggle restaurant where I proposed… just a few blocks from the ministry. I was walking. Harry, I didn't even make it past the visitor's entrance when it happened…" He stopped for a shaky breath. "The screaming. Everyone was running from the doors of the ministry, screaming. I ran back in. It was awful. Bodies everywhere. Blood. The blood was everywhere, I've never seen so much. The – the kids…all of them… oh MERLIN! all of them" He stopped and Harry gasped, and covered his mouth. Today there had been a tour group of children visiting the ministry. The Young Witch and Wizard program, they were all younger than Hogwarts' age, and Harry knew what Ron was implying. The ministry had been raided. This new group of Death Eaters has been getting stronger, more reckless. Massive killings had been occurring everywhere for the past year, no one was spared. It was more terrifying than Voldemort had been. This new group was far less calculated and didn't seem as focused on blood purity but more on evoking mass fear. They had an unmatched blood lust. Killing for sport with no rhyme or reason and now they have taken the ministry. In just the three hours since Harry left the office things had gotten exponentially worse.
"There was no one there. None of the Death Eaters, I mean. They had already fled. In the 5 minutes I had been out of the building they had thrown curses at everyone, killing everyone who didn't make it out the front doors and just like that… they had vanished. I went as quickly as I could to the Department and Care of Magical Creatures, and I was almost to her office. I thought she was dead. I was so afraid of what I would see…" Ron sniffed. "But, I didn't. Oh no I didn't expect this. There stood Rodolphus Lestrange and Amycus Carrow in her-her office." Ron was stammering again. But this time with anger. "The perverted awful things they were saying, "He shook. " THEY WERE SAYING THESE AWFUL, DEVIANT, DEPRAVED THINGS TO HERMIONE, MY HERMIONE! They were standing over her, she was just lying there and Rodolphus, that sodding good for nothing- he was just about to kick her when- I –I... I stunned them, both of them, I don't know how I did it, but I knocked both of them unconscious with a hex and then I had them in full body binds before they saw me. And I was running in to pick her up, when I saw her-her secretary, Caitlin. She was standing with her wand out, she was with THEM!"
"Caitlin? Hermione's secretary, Caitlin?! Her best friend, goes with her everywhere, assistant? That Caitlin?!" Harry interrupted.
"Kind of" Ron answered. "Well, before I saw her there, I ran in to get Hermione and Caitlin started firing spells at me, she tried to Avada me Harry. I missed it by inches! She was laughing like a mad woman, I tried to duel her, but she was so quick! This wasn't a typical death eater, this woman was fast. Crazy fast. I hid behind Hermione's desk, and saw her. Hermione. She was twitching, lying on top of her desk. "He paused for a breath, and to wipe away his tears. "She wasn't as bad as when you saw her, she was still conscious but she wasn't right either. I tried to ask if she was ok, and then. The Caitlin- look- alike blew up the desk. Hermione and I were blown across the room. My head hit the wall, and I was knocked out. I kept trying to wake myself up to help her. But-but I couldn't. Every time I got up. I saw the woman, the Caitlin-look-alike, she was –was crucio-ing Hermione. She kept doing it! She wouldn't stop! Oh, merlin! She wouldn't stop!" Ron stopped and began sobbing.
Kingsley cut in. "That's when we got there. The few remaining aurors, contacted Arthur and I and we found them. Ron was unconscious on the floor and the Caitlin-look-alike was still performing the cruciatus curse on Ms. Granger. Before we could apprehend them, the woman and the renerverated Rodolphus and Amycus apparated away. But before they did we saw the woman's face bubble, she had been using polyjuice and was returning to her form. We didn't see who she was before she dissapparted but, the real Caitlin Langston was found in the closet of Ms. Granger's Office, she had clearly been tortured for quite some time today, but she should make a full recovery with time. We sent Ron away with Hermione to meet us here, but he must have collapsed on the stairs." Kingsley stalled and offered an apologetic glance to Ron before he started speaking again.
"Harry, I can tell you haven't put it all together yet, Ms. Granger has suffered a very powerful dose of the cruciatus. The woman impersonating Ms. Langston is very powerful, we suspect she is the one leading this new Death Eater group, the time and power under which she crucio-ed Hermione is enough to ruin the mind of anyone. Much like the Longbottom's I unfortunately believe her mind is beyond repair. There isn't anything to be done, there is no hope for a cure. I'm so sorr-"
"Not so fast there Kingsley." Dumbledore's portrait interrupted. "There is indeed hope. Now while we cannot guarantee a cure. There happens to be a Potion's master running a lab who should be able to help Ms. Granger."
"Sir!" Kingsley cut in. "I do not want to give them any false hope. Even if we were to send her all the way there, the young man you speak of is hardly a master. There has been only one success story and I don't think that case was the same as Hermione's."
"Ah. More than one success case actually, and for 5 years great things have been happening at not only this lab but at the safe house it is located in. You, of all people, cannot argue with that Kingsley." Dumbledore retorted.
"Yes Albus. You are correct. But I hardly think, given the history of Ms. Granger that the situation is the same for her." Kingsley said stiffly.
"SIRS! If there is any chance of helping Hermione we must take it! Who is this potion's master? He has a cure! We have to send her. "Harry implored.
"Yeah!" Ron added, "Anything for 'Mione, if there is any hope, we will take it."
"I whole heartedly agree, boys, But there are a few things you should know about this place and the treatment she will undergo" Dumbledore said with a nervous smile in his eyes.
"Anything sir! We have to help her!" Harry said and Ron nodded
Dumbledore nodded at McGonagall, who arose and commenced an explanation of the safe house.
"Well, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley. You see, if by the slight chance her mind can even be helped in the least, enough for her to perform basic cognitive functions, her memory will be severely distorted. And it will be safest if she remains in the secure location until she has made the fullest recovery possible. If any recovery ever occurs at all, she will have to start all over, relearn everything. This, at best, will mean years..." McGonagall explained
Harry and Ron looked at one another and Ron spoke.
"You mean she won't remember me." He choked, "she won't remember? …remember we were going to get married? Even if she gets better, she won't remember me?"
Professor McGonagall looked at him meaningfully, "It is highly unlikely that she will, Mr. Weasley."
Harry also had wet eyes at this point. He looked at Ron and spoke, "We have to do whatever we can for her. Whatever it is, she will at least be safe there. Far from this chaos. She will have a chance." Ron nodded at Harry's comment.
"I'll go get her when its all over, we can start all over. We'll get engaged all over again!" Ron said with a glimmer of hope.
Dumbledore smiled and Harry nodded in agreement.
"So who is this Potion's Master? Who has come up with this treatment?" Harry asked, feeling a bit more hopeful at the dire situation.
"Harry, my boy, maybe you should sit down." Portrait Dumbledore stated.
Harry obliged and took the seat next to Ron, they both sat staring at McGonagall.
"Well this estate in America is run by an old Wizarding family you know well. The heir of this estate runs it and is the Potion's Master we spoke of before…" McGonagall paused, concern etched in her face. "It belongs to the Black Family."
Ron and Harry sat rigidly awaiting McGonagall's next words.
"Well," she began, "this potions master is someone you know, it is Mr. Malfoy. Draco Malfoy."