Chapter 2 – When and Where, That Is The Ultimate Question

A/N: Enjoy and please review :D Thank you again to everyone who's been reading this story and reviewed it. :)

Hermione groaned, feeling the roughness of the ground beneath her face. She slowly pushed herself to her knees and sat up. Her unruly hair even more wild than usual from her thrashing about like a fish from the prolonged torture she'd endured at the hands of the ferret's disgusting father. She could taste the metallic taste of dried blood on her lips and grimaced, wishing she had something to take the foul taste out of her mouth.

"Ah good evening my dear." The cold and uncaring voice of Lucius Malfoy spoke.

She turned her head to see the pompous asshole sitting down in a chair across from her, his steely grey eyes observing her, raking up and down her body. Instinctively she pulled her robes over her body, holding them closer to herself.

He smirked, enjoying how she squirmed under his gaze and stood, walking towards her with slow purposeful steps, coming up behind her, he pulled her to her feet, ignoring her pained whimpering as he clasped her hands in his own; slamming her against the wall.

"I think I will make use of you before I have to give you over to the dark lord; it will be a pleasure to break you mudblood." He hissed in her ear, hands coming up to her waist as he leaned in, pressing kisses to her neck.

Hermione felt her eyes widen in fear, he was going to rape her and there was nothing she could do about it, she could scream all she wanted to but no one would help her. Tears streamed down her face, she didn't even have her wand to defend herself. His grip was almost bruising, disabling her from attacking him psychically.

Hogwarts

"Harry what do we do? I thought no one can port key on or off of Hogwarts! She could be anywhere by now!" Ron held a death grip on his best friends arm, panic rising in his eyes.

"We have to tell Dumbldore, we…"

"Let's go find her ourselves! There's no telling what kind of pain or agony she might be in right now! We can't just leave her!" Ron yelled, his face turning bright red the angrier he got.

Harry resisted the urge to slap his best friend across the face and instead tried to keep his own racing heart under control. "We have to tell Dumbledore Ron! We can't just take off looking for her when we don't even know where she was taken to. The headmaster is the only one who might be able to locate her and we are wasting valuable time standing here arguing and yelling when our best friend's life is in danger!"

Ron opened and closed his mouth a few times before realizing his friend was right; without another word, he ran behind him towards the castle.

Gotham City

"Load the truck up!" The Joker hissed, watching as his men began hauling bags full of assorted weaponry. They were stationed at one of the many gun stores in the city, having decided that he wanted a few more toys to add to his arsenal that included various machine guns, knives, and semi automatic pistols.

The owner of the store shook under his gaze, hands trembling at his sides as the Joker smirked at him, enjoying the reaction.

"Is it the scars that scare you?"

The owner made no response, too afraid that whatever he said would result in his immediate demise.

The Joker moved closer to him, bringing his knife up to the mans cheek. "I can tell you the story of how I got them, would you like to know?" A flick of his tongue came out as he spoke.

He watched as the owners face paled and shook his plump head. With a smirk, he grabbed the clerks head anyway, forcing him to look at him. "One day my sister told me I needed to be happy and not so distant, not so mean…" His trademark laughter echoed around the room.

"So she took a knife to my lips, holding me in place," The knife balanced inside the fat man's left cheek, "And she said, "I'm gonna make you smile more so then you'll always be happy! So then she cut through my lips and viola! Now I can't stop smiling!" He smiled his hideous smile at the clerk before leaning even closer to him, enjoying the smell of fear that seemed to radiate off of the shaking man. "So, why so serious?" He hissed the words in the clerks ear, ripping the blade through the soft skin, watching as blood oozed out of his mouth, the man screamed in agony as he ripped through the other side of his lip and threw him to the ground, letting him bleed to death.

With another round of laughter, he stepped over the body and kept his eye on his thugs, watching as they continued loading the van outside of the shop with the guns and knives. He failed to notice someone else creeping up behind him until their arms wrapped around his neck and hands. "What the…" Were the only words he was able to choke out as he was thrown to the ground, a gun pointed at his head.

"We have a bone to pick with you clown." Salvatore Maroni, the Italian mobster smirked down at the Joker.

As he spoke, several henchmen appeared, tackling all of the Joker's men to the ground, shooting some of them dead.

The Joker let out a round of laughter before speaking; "And just what kind of bone might that be?"

"Everyone wants you dead and I'm gonna be the one to kill you and deliver your body to the rest of the mob." Maroni smirked. As he spoke, another henchman came up behind the Joker, grabbing his arms and forcing them behind his back, binding them together with rope.

"Careful damn it, I'd rather not end up with rope burn!" The Joker laughed again as the thug hit him upside the head, "And never strike a person in the head first! Geez!"

Maroni shook his head, lip curling in disgust, "Take out his men."

One by one, gunshots echoed around the room as the insane clown's men were shot dead.

Riddle Manor

"Stop struggling, the more you struggle the more painful I'll make this for you!" Lucius growled, grey eyes flashing as he grabbed the top of her blouse, ripping it down the center.

"No please, please don't do this!" She begged as she felt his other hand creeping up her thigh, stroking her leg before moving further up, her tears began blurring her vision as she tried to close her thighs on his hand.

He smirked, "Trust me when I say that this won't be nearly as brutal as when the dark lord himself claims you mudblood." His hand pried her thighs apart, sliding upwards towards her skirt.

He continued his assault, raining kisses down her neck before crashing his lips down onto hers, his tongue seeking entrance. She opened her mouth, allowing his tongue to slip in and biting down as hard as she could. The metallic taste of his blood filled her mouth before he stumbled backwards, yelling out in pain.

She took her opportunity and ran, unknowing what way would get her out of the manor, she ran through the open door and out into the hallway. Her heart raced inside her chest as she ran as fast as she could.

"Stupid bitch!" She heard his yelling from down the hallway, footsteps racing in her direction.

She saw another door and tried opening it with no success, the door was locked. Frantically she looked around, spotting another opened door; she ran, shutting it behind herself.

Her breathing was rapid and she took calculated breathes to calm her breathing down before she wound up passing out from lack of oxygen. She could feel stinging coming from her neck and winced in pain; stupid prick had marked her neck up and left his contaminated spit on her. She grimaced as she felt it on her hand and wiped it against her robe before turning around to see what room she'd just closed herself in.

Voldemort sat on his high throne, silent as could be, observing her as she leaned against the door for support, taking in measured breaths before slowly turning around to survey her surroundings and probably try and find a way out of the manor. He smirked upon seeing her eyes meet his; her skin turning a much paler color as she realized that she had just trapped herself in his room. He could feel her fear radiating off of her as she turned to run only to be tackled to the ground by his right hand man.

"Not this time you good for nothing mudblood whore!" Lucius spat, pinning her to the ground, blood still dripping from his mouth from where she'd bit him.

"Fuck you Malfoy!" She yelled up at him, struggling against him, managing to free her leg, she kneed him in his stomach. As he toppled to the ground, he felt indescribable pain as her fist connected with his face the same way she'd punched his son back in third year.

Reaching down his pants pocket, she grasped her wand and turned to face the Dark Lord who'd remained in his chair, watching their little fight with clear amusement.

"Welcome to my home Miss Granger." Voldemort graced her with a meaningless smile. "Do get comfortable, you will be staying here for awhile." As he spoke, he stood from his chair, advancing towards her.

She aimed her wand at him only to be knocked backwards on her arse as he moved towards her, his face suddenly inches from her own. "What makes you think you take me on? The most powerful wizard in the world?" He sneered at her.

"Albus Dumbledore is the most powerful wizard in the world, you are nothing compared to him."

He yelled out in rage at hearing the one person he hated most, name besides the potter brat and in a flash, Hermione was off of the floor; her neck in his hands as he squeezed, feet dangling in the air as she was forced to look him in the eyes.

She cried out feeling him invading her mind, carelessly rifling through any memories he came across, enjoying her humiliation and pain at his seeing her most private thoughts and feelings.

First meeting with Harry and Ron, her crying in the bathroom stalls after they'd said they would never really be her friends. The troll coming in and her being saved by them.

Watching in horror as Sirius was killed by Bellatrix Lestrange and fell through the veil in her 5th year.

Harry, Ron, and her crying over the loss of Sirius Black, reminiscing the little time they had got to share with him.

Viktor trying to get her to sleep with him but her refusing, stating she wanted to wait until she was married or with someone she knew she was going to wind up marrying. The hurt look on his face after she'd said that to him.

Lucius ripping her shirt, kissing her neck, saying he was going to break her first since his master had not specified whether or not she was to be touched. At this, Hermione could feel his anger towards his servant.

Finally, he stopped on the one memory he'd been searching for, the prophecy. Hermione shouted, struggling, trying to block him out to no avail as he tore through the memory ruthlessly. The lack of oxygen made it harder to struggle against him as he watched it replay through her mind.

Hermione felt herself being thrown to the ground as Voldemort pulled out of her mind, a satisfied look upon his face as he gazed down at her.

"Thank you for that little show; now that I know what the last of the prophecy is about; it makes sense now. You will be by my side from now on my little mudblood." His words were cruel and dripped with malice and the promise of a future full of pain and torment.

Turning to his right hand man he aimed his wand, "Crucio. You should know by now not to touch what is mine Malfoy."

The elder Malfoy squirmed and hissed in pain as the curse flowed through his body, his long hair flaring out over the floor in his strained movements.

"I am not yours Voldemort, nor shall I ever be! Harry will destroy you in the end." Hermione spoke up, glaring at him.

The dark lord growled, "You are mine now mudblood; you will serve me whether you like it or not and you will be the downfall of your little friend!"

"Over my dead body!" She hissed; only to find the dark lord suddenly in her face, his hands grasping her waist.

"I'd much prefer you alive." His snarled in her ear before allowing his tongue to flick out over her earlobe; she cringed in disgust, trying desperately to get out of his iron like grip. Her movements only served to excite him more as she brushed up against him unintentionally.

Her eyes flashed, the sick bastard was getting off to her struggling; she wished she could have free use of her hand, and then she could be rid of him for good with one simple curse. She knew it wouldn't be that easy though and furthermore her mind was completely at a loss for why in the world he thought that she of all people was the girl mentioned in the prophecy, she personally thought she would be the last person that the thing would be referring to considering her muggleborn heritage.

He seemed to be reading her thoughts as he quit his assault on her ear and neck and looked at her with a sneer; "Ah yes well that is quite simple my dear," His words came out like a snake, hissing each word at her. "You are the brightest witch of your age, Potters friend, and for a mudblood; quite the powerful little witch."

"Get out of my mind you coward!" She spat, spitting directly in his face, earning her a slap across her own face before she was thrown unceremoniously onto the ground next to an unconscious Lucius Malfoy.

"You will learn to obey me and to hold that tongue of yours!" The Dark Lord's face sneered down at her, "Crucio!"

Hermione felt the spasms racking through her body as the damned unforgivable took hold of her once more, hurting even worse as it attacked her already sore muscles. She felt as though a hundred knives were being stabbed into her body at once, tearing through her skin and as if salt were being poured into her wounds. It took every ounce of control to contain the screams that so desperately wanted to burst through her lips.

"You will scream for me mudblood." And with that he cast another round on her, the pain almost blinding to the point that Hermione craved to pass out; sheer bliss of being unconscious like his right hand man that lay beside her.

"Never." Was her response in between biting down hard on her already cut lip.

Voldemort's face contorted into one of rage as he cast yet another round of the cruciatous, determined to make her bend to his will, to watch her slowly break, he could feel her slowly losing her grip from crying out, it would be mere moments now before he was able to hear her screams.

Tears began to stream down her face, the pain feeling as though her ribs were about to burst, like someone had kicked them in over and over and wasn't stopping in their assault. Without thinking of the consequences; of where she might wind up going to; she reached up towards the chain that hung around her neck. It may not work but it was her only chance of escaping. As her body shook with another spasm, she pulled the time turner out of it's hiding place beneath her robes, flicking the dials on it carelessly, unable to see where she was setting it to or when.

Voldemort saw a glimmer of light in her hand before it faded to reveal the time turner. He growled, he would not let her escape him! Reaching his hand out, he tried to summon the object to fly to his outstretched hand only to watch as the mudblood suddenly disappeared into thin air.

Hogwarts

Albus Dumbledore felt old, in all his many years of living, for the first time in a long time, he felt old, ancient even as he learned the events of what had taken place outside moments ago. The boys sat in the chairs in front of his desk, fidgeting, clearly wanting to go after their best friend but knowing they couldn't since no one knew where she was though he had a few guesses as to where she could be. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, leaning forward onto the mahogany desk, thinking intensely. All they knew for sure was that it had been a death eater that had captured her but that led them to a dead end since no one knew where the dark lord was currently hiding at.

That brought him to another problem…why did the death eater want her? Why not go after Harry? Or even Ginny again? It made no sense other than the fact that she was 1/3 of the golden trio, perhaps this was a way of getting to Harry? By kidnapping his best friend? He sighed, still coming to dead ends rather than finding an answer.

"Urgghhh!" A sudden groan from Harry snapped him out of his thoughts, his blue eyes locking onto Harry's whose face was scrunched up in agony, his head holding his forehead. "My scar! He's angry, really angry!"

Ron hesitantly tried to reach out towards his friend, a fearful expression on his face when the boywholived let out another howl of pain.

Albus stood from his desk abruptly and walked around it, grabbing his student by the shoulders and forcing Harry to look at him; before he was able to close his eyes in pain, the headmaster attacked, "Legilimens!"

The Dark Lord yelled in anger, firing curses at everything in the room, breaking any object that he could see. He was livid, absoloutly furious, he'd had that girl in his hands only to have her slip right through them! He growled and hurled a curse at the bookcase near the door, shattering it to pieces.

"My lord," Lucius asked, kneeling at his feet. "What happened? Where is the mudblood?" Since he'd been knocked out, he hadn't seen what had taken place.

Voldemort rounded on his servant, "She escaped Lucius, that's what happened! She used that godforsaken time turner that Dumbledore no doubt gave her and escaped! And you did nothing to help!" Hissing, he moved closer, fire burning in his soulless eyes.

"My lord, I was passed out from the rounds of crucio, I seek your forgiveness my lord for I failed you." Lucius continued kneeling, trying to grab the hem of the dark lords robe to kiss it only to have him move it out of reach.

"That you did and now you will pay for that mistake, a reminder that I do not tolerate failure!" He growled, "Sectumsepra!" He watched, his anger sated as the blonde man gritted his teeth in pain, cuts forming on his pale skin. "Crucio!"

The man fell back to the ground, pain searing through his body and enhancing the stings of the cuts on his body.

Albus pulled out of Harry's mind, conjuring a calming drought for the throughly drained looking boy; Harry took the bottle gratefully and downed the entire contents before sinking down lower in the chair.

"So she used the time turner, this is not good I'm afraid." Albus spoke quietly.

Ron blinked, "She used it? But why?"

"Voldemort had her, Malfoy's father was the one who kidnapped her and she apparently escaped by using her time turner. That explains why he was so angry, I felt nothing but blinding hatred for her and anger." Harry responded, his green eyes troubled, not as bright as they usually were.

"That foul git! Well now what do we do professor? How do we get her back? How do we find out where she has gone to?" Ron questioned.

Albus shook his head, sucking on one of his many lemon drops, "Therein lays the problem."

Gotham City

As Hermione grabbed onto the time turner, the room began spinning. She let out a startled yell. Her mouth formed into an 'O' and she could hear someone yelling only to realize it was her own screams as she began to fall into nothingness at first; everything was a blur, her hands waved out frantically as she tried to catch hold of anything, something. Tears rushed down her face as she cursed herself for picking up her time turner after the damn thing fell from her neck.

Another scream tore its way from her throat as she landed face first on the ground, slamming into something solid with her stomach, the wind knocked out of her. This was it, she was going to die from hitting the ground too hard and now her friends, her family, her world would be left at the mercy of a madman and she would not be able to help them, she couldn't even go down in glory fighting…no she was going to die from her own idiocy.

Blinking, she realized she was still alive…she wasn't dead! As her vision started clearing, she felt a pair of hands grabbing her, forcing her to stand.

The Joker sat on the floor, kneeling at gunpoint, trying to think of a way to escape as the arrogant Italian explained why the mob wanted him dead, blah blah blah, he was doing a great job of tuning the man out, lost in thought. Suddenly it was blissfully silent; the Joker looked up to see why he had stopped talking when he heard a thud. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw something drop from above, landing on one of Maroni's guys, both falling to the ground with a loud crash. At first he thought the ceiling itself had just caved in on the guy that was until he saw something moving, something with brown curly hair and legs.

A groan sounded and he watched, realizing it was a person. He glanced upwards, no hole in the ceiling nothing, it was as though the person had just appeared out of nowhere, he raised an eyebrow, his curiosity peaked as he also belatedly realized the person was a woman, a very pretty woman that one of the thugs had their hands on; and he liked pretty things...

Hermione stood up and looked around, seeing men dressed in muggle clothing standing around what she assumed was their leader, the tall white man holding another man in strange clothing at gunpoint. She felt her heartbeat quicken, wherever and whenever she was, it wasn't good. Feeling someone trying to bind her hands behind her back, she struggled, slamming her foot down the person behind her and hearing a yell of pain.

"Who the hell is she?" Maroni snapped, "Never mind, it doesn't matter, tie her up and kill her too!" He shouted at his men.

She could feel the panic rising before she realized she had managed to escape with her wand; she could easily defend herself since these men were obviously not wizards.

In the blink of an eye, she had her wand drawn and in her hand, "Expelliarmus!" She shouted at the man advancing towards her.

Both the man and the one standing behind him were slammed violently into the wall, a thud echoing off the room.

"Stupefy!" She yelled over at the next set of men that tried to attack her, all three finding themselves knocked out cold on the floor.

Now the Joker was very interested, oh yes, she could prove to be very interesting for him. He took in her extremely odd school girl looking attire; cocking his head to the side as he examined her, a sadistic smile forming on his face. He noticed every curve and shape of her body as she defended herself with what looked to be a long stick in her hand, the source of her magic from what he could tell.

The Italian boss turned from the Joker, aiming his gun at the strange woman; "On your knees bitch!"

Hermione turned to him, "Accio gun!" The gun flew from a stunned looking Maroni's hand and right into her own outstretched hand. "Stupefy!" The spell shot forth, hitting the mob boss in the chest and knocking him to the ground out cold.

The Joker continued watching her, his hair covering his painted face as he remained still, curious as to what she was going to do next, if anything.

The brown haired woman moved towards him cautiously; seeing that his hands were tied, she aimed her wand, uttering a cutting spell; watching as the rope fell away. "Are you okay sir?" She inquired, eyebrow raised as she took in his odd attire, a dark purple suit and green undershirt.

Without warning, his hands shot up towards her neck, "I'm fine now." He let out his trademark laughter; Hermione could feel the hair on the back of her neck stand up as she tried to use her wand, "Thank you for asking." He added, his tongue flicking over his lips as his gloved hand trailed down her arm, grasping the wand in her hand and shoving it into his own pocket out of her reach.

Hermione felt her eyes widen in alarm, her only means of defense now lay in his pocket. His hands grasped both of hers, shoving her backwards into the wall, pinning them above her head. She felt her back connecting with the concrete wall, a popping noise sounded and she groaned in pain, attempting to knee the stranger when she felt his legs press into her own, stopping her from attacking him. As the Joker leaned closer, the light of the moon above shown down on him, the face that had not yet been visible to her because of the darkness was suddenly illuminated by the light.

She tried not to gasp upon seeing the scars that lined either side of his cheeks, the blood red paint that covered them, the white face paint that made him look inhuman, and the thick black eye makeup that surrounded his green eyes.

"Oh now I've scared you…" He smirked, "Is it the scars? Would you like to know how I got them?" As he asked, the cold blade of his knife pressed against her throat.

Ooo eviil cliffhanger lol, fear not, I shall have the next chapter up asap; no later than Wednesday! :D I hope you all enjoy this new chapter hehe. :)