A/N: Thank you for the favorites, follows, and reviews!

I don't usually tell you all what I listen to while I write, only occasionally if it was especially moving to me. So, this chapter was written while 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud- Chad Lawson' was on repeat.

I also have put a famous movie line in here. I doubt any of you will have any trouble identifying it.

Chapter 14: A New Battleground

Hermione stood near the couch with her wand in a white knuckled grip. It was steady, ready to let loose a torrent of spells that rolled comfortingly on the tip of her tongue. Snape was only several paces away from the entrance, his powerful body drawn up with purpose, his entire being exuded a focused and dangerous aura. She studied his strong back, waiting for whatever was to come. It was madness, this whole situation, to have Tom Riddle and Severus Snape do everything in their considerable powers to keep her out of Dumbledore's hands.

A noise startled Hermione, making her flinch. Her hand pressed against her rapidly thumping heart. A head had appeared in the fire, Tom, his narrowed but urgent gaze on the duo that readied themselves for a final battle. This was Hogwarts, Dumbledore's playground and their odds weren't optimal. They would have to run. It was his floo call that cemented this in their minds.

"Severus, he is coming. I was held up with the meddling charms master but I've sent him back to Italy. I just don't have enough time to get to you before he does. The floo is blocked even from here. It must have been an attempt to keep us from accessing his office through the heads suite."

"He always has the Heads blocked off. He thinks it builds character when they have to deal with things or decide its important enough to try and find him. There is no way we can fight and win here on his ground. Hogwarts and all its boundless power is held in trust through him. It would rise against us as surely as the sky is blue. We are going to have to flee the castle. Three days we will be at the prearranged site. Make sure you are not followed."

"Seriously, Severus? I have been practicing subterfuge since before you were born. Keep her safe." Tom said before pulling his face back through the fire.

Snape was already on the move, even before Tom's head was completely out of the fire. Pulling out a small pouch from his inner robes, he took a pinch of the green powder and gestured for Hermione to stand in the fireplace. He flinched at something that Hermione could neither see nor here. It turned his hurried gaze into one of acceptance. His slid his occlumency mask over his face and separated himself from her emotionally if not physically. She felt him pulling away, a fear griped her heart and mind, tongue dry and thick in her mouth. He forced her to look in his eyes. His hands on her chin.

"Say 'Severus Snape's Lab'. I will follow right behind you but if we get separated there is an emergency portkey that I created for you. Remember that as long as you wear that necklace, I will be able to find you. The portkey is a small potions vial that is filled with crushed moonstone. It will take you to a safe location that has wards that surpass even Hogwarts." His eyes bored through her, beseeching her to do as he said. She nodded her head.

"You will be right behind me?"

"Yes."

"And Tom and Harry?"

"Tom will keep Harry safe."

"What a long way we have come." She snorted. Snape smirked for a moment before his features turned serious once more.

"No matter what happens, no matter what Dumbledore tells you, no matter the sacrifice, stay hidden. Promise me!" He was in her face, close enough so that she could see the lines of worry he tried so hard to hide that was etched on his face.

"I can't promise that Severus." She whispered. "I would never let the people I love, die for my own safety." He clenched his teeth in annoyance. His emotionless mask slid from his face.

"I don't have time to argue with you, Woman. Keep yourself safe and trust Tom and I to do the same." He glanced at the door, knowing they only had mere moments. It was better this way, he thought. It would make the old man furious to be stopped by his very own spy. The cords in his neck strained with tension and stress.

He roughly grabbed Hermione by the waist and pulled her into his body. His lips crashed down on hers in a frenzied kiss. He wasn't gentle, it wasn't a blending of two people and their affections. It was fear and sorrow and regret. It felt like goodbye.

"You're still coming with me? Right behind me?" She asked as he pulled away from her. She knew he wasn't.

"Right behind you." He whispered. He closed his eyes and rested his forehead on hers for the few seconds that he allowed himself.

He gently pushed her back towards the grate and pushed a pinch of powder in her hand. She wasn't stupid. She knew he wasn't going to follow behind. If he was going to go with her, they wouldn't have wasted time on kisses and instructions. They would have fled together.

Something heavy landed in her pocket and her eyes met his in confusion.

"Open it only when you are safe." He murmured. She nodded and tossed the floo powder in the hearth shouting out the destination Snape told her to go to, refusing to tear her gaze away from his blank eyes.

She stepped into Severus' lab and smiled at the sweet memory of the last time she had been in there. It was cleaner, in a way. Everything was in its proper place, the brewing table conspicuously bare. Rushing to the desk that sat in the furthest corner, she grabbed the moonstone vial that was sitting on the center of the desktop. A small piece of parchment was lifted with it. She unstuck it and went to set it back on his desk. Before she could, the floo activated and she smiled with relief. She was wrong, Severus was just being paranoid. He had followed her. She put the small parchment in her pocket, the opposite one that held whatever it was that he had just given her.

Three steps back towards the floo was where she paused. Bright purple robes flowed out beneath of the stone mantle place. The wizards' impossibly long beard flowing ethereally as he moved into the room. Large luminous blue eyes twinkled at her from behind his half-moon spectacles. And all she could do was stand there and gape in horror. She knew, deep in the core of her being that the only way Dumbledore got through Severus was if he incapacitated him. The breath caught in her throat as the walls of her esophagus clenched together. She was panicked and worried. Severus had known what he was facing. That kiss was his goodbye.

She threw the Headmaster a vindictive, rage fueled glare. It was a promise of revenge, of justice to come. She would not let him hurt anymore of the people she loved. She was done.

"Portus." She whispered. The vial in her hand glowed blue. The same blue as the eyes that had widened in surprise and fury. And before he took even one step in her direction, she was pulled into the clenching abyss of the portkey.

She landed on her bum in the middle of a kitchen. It was rustic and old but extremely well cared for. Hermione ran her hands over her tender bum. She was still a little bit sore from the night before. Tom hadn't spanked her very hard, his hand prints had faded with the morning but the soreness in the muscles remained as a tingling reminder. Well, it was tingling now. She doubted that she would have even felt a thing if she hadn't landed so hard on her posterior.

She opened the back door of the cabin and gasped. It was a lush paradise. Sparking water, wooden bridges, profusions of flowers in every available space of earth. The colors swirled around her in a vivid cacophony of overwhelming imagery. Mockingbirds sang from their perches aloft, making Hermione dizzy with the over stimulation of her senses. The flowery smells, colors, music, and the unquestionable cadence of magical life that surrounded her was a balm shot straight to her soul. This is what she thought of when she was eleven with her Hogwarts letter clenched tightly in her fist. This was magic.

She twirled slowly, taking in the unforgettable scenery that she was standing in the midst of. Fairies flew past her face in chattering little groups. Butterflies the size of a Hogwarts: A History, danced around the flowers that tilted their blooms towards the sun. She meandered down the thin dirt path that twined through the garden. Magical herbs and lush flowering shrubs lined the trail, her feet never once straying from their path.

She twisted around in fear as she felt the wards ripple around her. They were formidable, just touching them was a warning that to proceed would end in dire consequences. She reached out her hand and let her fingers trail over the invisible wards. It was like a bubble, she sensed. It appeared as if the garden stretched for miles in every direction. It was a clever and inventive use of warding magic. Her fingers lovingly danced in the fluid shield, feeling the casters essence in its structure. It was familiar and yet foreign. Someone she was only starting to know.

"I have imagined you here ever since you became mine. This is the one place that no one knows about. My one true respite from the world. I dreamed that the day I brought you here, you would dance among my butterflies with your wide happy smile. Your curly hair ruffled by the breeze, your summer robes light and flattering. I wanted it, even then, at the beginning. Never was I engrossed with another person the way that I am with you, Love."

Hermione turned at the first utterance of his low seductive words and watched as Tom Riddle, in his black robes, his dark hair and eyes so deeply blue they could have been black, walked with an elegance and lazy pride through the magical garden that he claimed as his own.

"This is yours?" She asked breathlessly, watching as he stalked towards her, his sexy smirk taunting her with untold mysteries that was the man Tom Riddle.

"Oh, My Queen, you have barely scratched the surface of me. You know what I am capable of, my political leanings, but Tom Riddle the man? No. I have kept the essence of me a secret. Severus was only told of this place after we came to an agreement about you. I will not lie to you and tell you it will all be easy, that we will all come out of this war alive, but there is an unquenchable fire within me to see, use, and create magic. It is beautiful, is it not?" he gestured to the utopia that surrounded them.

"It is. It is everything that I have ever dreamed of." She whispered looking around. His smirk softened into a smile, his gaze tender.

"You have consumed me, Witch. Have you used a spell after our bond was broken? Have you dosed me with Amortentia? I cannot fathom the depths of my need for you without interference. It is not possible to love this way. It burns through me."

"I've not used any magic on you or Severus." She whispered.

"Then, that makes this even more terrifying. The depths that I would go for you, it's dangerous that you have such a hold over me."

"You are not the only one so deeply entrenched in those overwhelming feelings, Tom. Something about you calls to me. It pains me to be away from you. All of those days that I have kept my distance so that you would give me what I wanted was pure torture. Don't leave me."

"Don't you get it, My Queen? I am no longer in control of my impulses. Your power over me is unequivocal. Love me, fear me, do as I say, and I will be your slave." He slid his hands to grip her hips. He moved closer, towering over her, his eyes reading her very soul.

"Kiss me." Hermione whispered. Magic danced around them as the sun set, the wind tossing her springy tresses around them. She tilted her face up to his and waited for him to close the distance.

He was slow and meticulous. His velvet lips caressed hers, coaxing her to open for him. Hermione sighed at the gentle brush of his lips. She was beguiled. Gathering her hair in one light grip, he broke their kiss and slid the side of his face against hers, dropping kisses in a trail to her neck.

"I am going to have to leave for a while, Love. Dumbledore has Severus and I can't allow that bastard to take anyone away from me and Severus is ours now."

"I will come too!"

"No! You are who the Headmaster wants the most. To hurt me, to exact revenge on Severus for changing allegiance. He is using Severus to lure you. I have to get to him so that I can brand him with my mark once more. That is the only way to free Severus from Dumbledore. I cannot do what I need to if I am constantly worried for your safety."

"And Harry?" She asked.

"He is in the cabin. He wants to talk to you but he wanted to avoid your wrath at what I am asking you to do."

"I can't stay here."

"But it's magic here. The most divine retreat the wizarding world has ever seen. The library inside is also one of the most impressive in all of the world. Study for your N.E.W.T.s, learn obscure magic, experiment. Severus and I will be back before you know it."

"You Sir, are an idiot."

"Excuse me?"

"Did you think you could lure me here with an impressive magic garden and a library more comprehensive than the one at Hogwarts? I am more than my brain, more than my desire to learn. What is cleverness? It is nothing without the people you care for. You are not leaving me here while the men go off and fight a war. Do not ever mistake me for a weak and terrified mass of flesh. I stood against you bravely for years and I will do the same against Dumbledore."

"Love," He winced as her wand pressed into the tender skin under his neck.

"Don't force me to incapacitate you, Tom. It would kill me but I would do it. The way I see it, you have two options. You could fight me, force me to stay here; that is if you don't destroy us both first. Or you could accept that I am coming too. This way, I am at your side and you don't have to spend precious moments hunting me down. I am formidable in my own right. I will not be a hindrance to you."

A tic in his jaw kept popping as he clenched and unclenched his teeth. He hated insubordination. He hated being given an ultimatum. His eyes were narrowed and his hands fisted in the fabric of her robes at her hips. Had this woman been anyone else, she would have been killed for her refusal, her defiance. He stared at Hermione, visibly fighting the urge to throw her over his shoulder like a caveman and lock her in their room until he let her out. Hermione stood strong, a sentinel against his intimidating glower.

"On one condition." He ground out between his clenched teeth.

"Yes?" She asked sweetly, her wand point still dug into his neck.

"You must agree to wear a portkey that can be activated by either you, Severus or me. If at any time, we send you away, it will bring you back here and here you will stay. You will stay because we cannot bare to lose you. With that in mind, I will not use it unless I have no other option. But know that once you are behind these wards via that portkey and as long as I am alive, you will never be able to leave them again without me being present."

"You will not send me away unless it is a choice between life or death."

"I swear it."

"I accept."

Tom smiled and pulled a small velvet box from his inner robes. He went down on one knee and held the small case aloft as he opened it. She narrowed her gaze. She should have known.

It was a beautiful, handcrafted, goblin ring that graced the finger of Gaunt matriarchs for the last millennia. Well, that was before the severe poverty hit the family and it was sold to pay off the many crushing debts they owed. It was gifted back to Tom from one of the ancient families that swore their allegiance. He never thought in his wildest fantasies that he would ever use it.

"Are you proposing to me?" She asked him suspiciously.

"Yes."

They stared at each other for a timeless moment that seemed to last forever. Tom Riddle, formerly known as Voldemort the Dark Lord, was on his knee asking for her hand in marriage. It was surreal. Fairies danced around their heads, their tiny hands clasped into a large circle as they chattered at the lovers held frozen.

"I know I shouldn't. I know that you did horrible things to people like me. You hunted my best friend. Killed countless people. You made my childhood fear filled and you helped tear the wonder of magic from the veils that kept my eyes innocent. But by Merlin I love you and God help me, I don't know why."

"Is that a yes?"

"It was always a yes, even when I was saying no. I've wanted you from the first moment we were bound. The magic may have forged a bond but without it, my love for you is still there, still strong." She closed her eyes as he slid the ring on her finger. "Please," She begged. "Don't let me regret this. Don't make me regret you."

He stood and ran his finger over the soft skin of her cheeks, forcing her terrified eyes to his.

"The world may burn and still I would love you, Hermione. I didn't even know that I was searching my whole life for you until you were forced in front of my eyes." He leaned down and kissed each eyelid, tenderly as if they were the most delicate of butterflies. "If I have learned anything from my time being bound to you, it is knowing that with or without the bond, you belong with me. My soul reaches for you, yearns to twine with yours. I never want you to leave me."

An embarrassed coughing came from the cabins doorway. Harry stood looking as if he would prefer to be anywhere else, including the deepest pits of hell where there was no light and lava melted the skin off of the bones of the damned.

"This is very touching and all, but if we want to save your other beloved." He slightly choked on the word 'beloved' "We are going to have to leave now. We need to raise an army that will willingly fight against Dumbledore." His eyes locked with Hermione's despite the flush that colored his face. "We need to get Ron."

Tom nodded and moved back, regret and promise shone from his eyes.

HGHGHGHGHGHGHGHG

Snape was chained to the stone wall, the heavy manacles gouged the flesh of his wrists and ankles. The eerie sound of dripping water echoed around the room. The steady drip, drip kept his mind focused as he concentrated on counting the rhythmic droplets. Hogwarts was sentient enough to be on the Headmaster's side and when he deems anything a threat, there is little that can be done bar leaving the property that can free the targeted. He was obviously not in a position to leave.

It was unwise to bait Dumbledore with Tom polyjuiced as Hermione. It was a lapse in judgment for Hermione to be anywhere near his office as well. Severus' chin dropped to his chest as he replayed the last few days in his mind. Why didn't he let her run when she asked? Why did he refuse her? He was a damned selfish man. He didn't want her to leave. Hermione would be lost to him forever if he had let them go. But he wouldn't be chained to the wall of a dungeon wondering if she actually did make it out or not.

Dumbledore knew what would torture him the most. After years of watching the self-flagellation that he inflicted upon his tormented soul over Lily, a woman who had forsaken him long before his careless words killed her, Dumbledore knew that allowing him to believe he had somehow hurt Hermione was the worst form of misery that could be bestowed upon him.

The first thing he asked when he awoke in his prison was of her fate and it amused the crafty old bastard to dance around any real divulgence of information. The only thing that kept his face impassive and his occlumency shields strong was the hope that Hermione was at Tom's retreat and that she would stay there. But there was always a question of whether Dumbledore actually had her. He wouldn't necessarily disclose that information either way unless it progressed whatever agenda he was force feeding the masses of his brainless followers. Had there been any other option all of those years ago other than Dumbledore or Voldemort, he would have taken it. And running was never, ever an option. Igor Karkaroff was a fine example of that.

Snape shuddered as a shaft of biting wind swept the chamber at the opening of the door. His heavy teaching robes were no match for the mid December weather in Scotland. A twist of the wrist from Dumbledore and he was wrapped in a cloying warmth that tasted bitterly of unripe apples. A sour coating that made his tongue heavy and his eyes squeeze shut. His gut clenched as his stomach heaved. It felt as if he had been drinking the juice of a freshly squeezed lemon. It was something, ironically, that he never enjoyed.

The bitterness left a cold reminder of his lonely childhood and the bare essentials of living. Memories of his mother serving the two of them lemon water because they couldn't afford tea, let alone honey. The lemons were the only remaining tether that Eileen Prince Snape had to her family, her mother sending her crates of the bitter fruit twice a year. It was intended as an insult and it grated against every thread of pride the young Severus Snape had, but a soft admonition of his mother forced him to try and bury his resentment. They gratefully used the lemons and twice a year, Eileen would write her mother thank you notes, dress the both of them in their best clothes, and appear at the Prince family estates, where they would be predictably turned away. Each and every time. Eileen always left the notes threaded through the twisted iron of the warded gates. It taught many things about family to a young boy who craved the inclusive feeling of belonging.

"Severus."

"Albus."

"This whole mess could have been avoided entirely but you had to force my hand. You just had to fall for a bound woman. What were you thinking? This," He gestured to the room and the heavy iron that suppressed Severus' magic. "could have been completely avoided. It was not my fault that she was bound. It was not me who did this. I fought against it!"

"Albus," Snape chuckled humorlessly. "You forget who you are talking to. I know that had you truly wanted to stop it from happening, you would have. Not only that but I also know that Pius Thicknesse is your man and he is too much of a coward to take a shite without your permission. My only question is, why Hermione Granger when you are clearly so terrified of her power in conjunction with Tom's?"

"That was a damned mistake. It was supposed to be Hannah Abbott! Thicknesse made that decision on his own and was duly punished for it."

"That explains why you didn't start to fight until that moment that he chose her. It explains everything, every move you've made since." Snape laughed and it reverberated around the empty stone chamber in a haunting, mocking echo. "Even the great Albus Dumbledore's plans are not infallible. Good to know."

Dumbledore's face darkened with a calculating fury. He slashed his wand viciously through the air that immediately cut off the cold laugh. A choked gargle was the only noise that followed the once esteemed Headmaster as he left the Hogwarts dungeons and Severus Snape behind.