A.N.: Hello again. Here's another chapter for you, my friends. I hope you enjoy. Let me know, if you do. ;-)

Chapter 41: Losing it

Two weeks. For two long weeks, Hermione was gone now and Hogwarts seemed to have gone back to normality. There were only a few people that still regularly seemed to talk about Hermione, or at least think of her. He and Ron were, of course, two of them and there were also Fred and George who even seemed to have bonded themselves to his friend if the rumours were to be believed. Well, it had to be them or at least one of them, as they were the only ones that seemed to have known of Hermione's condition and in return, she had seemed to have known how to contact the twins, even though no one had seen them for weeks after they had so spectacularly disappeared from the castle. Harry could see Fred and George whispering to each other, brooding over some old-looking book and sometimes he heard them say her name, but apart from them and Neville the rest of the students almost seemed to have forgotten her or at least didn't care what happened to her now that she was taken. Sometimes he heard rumours that she would show up in a few weeks like Lavender had done because it was impossible that Hermione Granger was the Open Link. Those idiots! They were making him sick! Now that Harry knew it was her, it was suddenly so obvious. Hermione always cared about others, always did her best to help and if it was just by spending her nights knitting stupid hats for house-elves! It took Harry all his willpower not to snap at those idiots, not to lose his temper, like Snape told him. So far he managed, even though some days he felt like exploding in the middle of the Great Hall. But he had to remain strong, for Hermione, no matter how much he wanted to punch those arseholes into their face or start yelling at them.

"Look, there're the owls," Ron said next to him while savouring his breakfast with unchanged appetite. Harry had never been a picky eater – living with the Dursleys taught you to eat what was available to you – but in the last weeks, he simply didn't have an appetite. One night he had seen a memory of Hermione eating breakfast with Voldemort and as he seemed to be in the man's head he could see him staring at her lips and thinking… unthinkable things… disgusting things about the girl he loved like a sister. Since then Harry didn't really feel like eating much at all. He could imagine that Hermione didn't feel like it either, given the circumstances.

Harry looked up, prepared to catch the newspaper he and Ron received on a daily basis now. As Hermione was no longer there to inform them on the ongoings of the wizarding world and they really needed to keep track of that if they wanted to rescue her one day, Harry had ordered the Daily Prophet himself, even though he would never forgive the newspaper all that shit that was printed about him in the last years.

Today's Prophet was delivered by a pretty barn owl and Harry paid it, before opening the newspaper over his plate. He could feel Ron edge closer but was immediately distracted by the headline on the front page.

Prominent Ministry Undersecretary Dolores Umbridge Gone Missing, Open Link under Suspicion

by Rita Skeeter

Yesterday a team of Aurors, led by no other than the former dedicated High Inquisitor of Hogwarts Dolores Umbridge, went on a rescue mission. Two weeks ago Hermione Granger, a fifth-year student of Hogwarts and suspected Open Link disappeared without a trace from the Ministry of Magic (for further information concerning the disappearance of Hermione Granger also read page 3). For two weeks there was no trace of the girl, which led the Ministry to the decision to trace the girl's wand. For days there was no signal and Dolores stated in a report to the Minister (also see page 5) that she feared the worst. Yesterday the tracing of Miss Granger's wand suddenly brought results and Madame Umbridge and a team of four brave Ministry Aurors left to find the girl. But for many hours there was no sign of them.

Your gorgeous dedicated intrepid reporter finally located the Auror team 50 miles south of Hogwarts but none of them could even remember being sent to Miss Granger's rescue in the first place. An examination through a skilled healer of St. Mungos's showed traces of strong obliviation spells that lead to even more questions.

Has Miss Granger, who is known to be a resourceful student and manipulator of thoughts (a short recap of Miss Granger's manipulations during the Triwizard Tournament with Bulgarian bon bon Viktor Krum and the Chosen One can be found on page 11) decided to throw those Aurors off her track? And who has been helping her? Or has she secretly been influenced by the High Inquisitor during the last school year and now decided to disappear with the former Hogwarts Professor?

As my previous articles have stated of her Ms Granger is but a simple girl from Muggle origins. She has been described as bookish but very plain so it was widely accepted as fact that she manipulated the emotions of the youngest professional seeker from Bulgaria while he was in Hogwarts. Having already the attentions of the boy who lived had not been enough for this young girl who had a thing for fame. Could this be but another attempt for the spotlight? Could this plain girl be passing herself off as the Open Link to get the attention she desperately craves? Has our poor undersecretary been done away with in her quest to rescue the girl? How will the ministry react to a high ranking member gone missing on their watch? Who will be next?

There is no definite answer to those questions yet, but one thing seems obvious: Miss Granger is probably not the victim she has been idolized as during the last weeks. She might actually be far from being a victim at all.

Harry crumpled the newspaper in his hands, before staring at Ron with wide eyes. "This is ridiculous!" his friend said, but Harry just shook his head in disbelief and anger. How could this woman spout such blatant lies? Wasn't it enough that Hermione was locked up by that creepy perverted bastard? Did her reputation have to be sullied by that scrupulous woman now too?

Harry felt the anger rage inside him as his tenuous hold he had over his emotions snap. Hermione was kidnapped by Voldemort. She wasn't behind anything. He had taken her against her will and doing God knows what to her. Her eyes had haunted him the first few days. Her helplessness as she disappeared would forever be branded in his mind. He saw the whispering spread throughout the hall as some of the more frivolous and callous students begin to believe the lies Skeeter had printed.

That bitch needed to pay, he thought before he realized that it wasn't his thought at all. The realization came too late though, as he felt himself hit by a vision like by a bus and was knocked sideways against Ron, as the pictures started flooding his mind.

He was on his breakfast table, his little lioness sitting directly next to him now. She wore the green dress today, the one he had made for her and that was marking her as his, runes touched the sensitive skin of her belly and thighs. She had brought one of his books to breakfast this morning and she was casually holding it with one hand, as the other one blindly felt on the table for more grapes to eat with those rosy lips and perfect little teeth. Her hand didn't find the grapes though and touched his hand instead. For a moment she didn't react but then she pulled her fingers back, looking at him with her lips caught between her teeth.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, embarrassment colouring her cheeks. "I wasn't paying attention."

He didn't mind at all, of course, his reaction only showing him that they got closer and closer every day now. Not much longer now and she was probably sitting on his lap…

He grinned. "Don't worry Hermione, I do understand how it feels to be totally enraptured by something."He said seriously as his eyes bore into her. He could see her eyes widen at the implication.

Harry was snapped back into the Great Hall by somebody shaking him by his shoulders and when he opened his eyes, he found himself lying on the floor, Ron bent over him with a worried expression on his face. There was loud murmuring and whispers all around him and he could only imagine, that he had delivered quite a show. Brilliant.

"Merlin Harry," his friend said offering his hand to help him back to his feet. "Are you alright, mate? You look like you've just seen a bunch of Imperi walking into the Great Hall."

Harry shook his head, before pulling himself up. Everyone was staring at him, which meant that he had to be careful with his reaction. "Worse," he whispered, before turning around with wobbly legs. "It's Hermione."

Ron immediately fell into step with him, slowly accompanying him out of the Great Hall, where they wouldn't be overheard. "Hermione?" his friend asked, staring at him with wide, blue eyes. "What is it? Is she hurt?"

Harry shook his head with a sour look on his face. "No," he whispered, missing the eyes of a pale blond wizard that kept following him. "But we have to get her out, the sooner the better."

sssssssss

Hermione felt dirty and tired. Yesterday had been a walk on eggshells for her. Saving those Aurors had been a challenge because she could feel Voldemort trying to manipulate her. Manipulating him in return had cost her every bit of self-discipline she had, but Hermione thought it had been worth it in the end. Was that how Severus lived with the things he had done, how he was still able to look at himself in the mirror? How had he managed to not lose himself in this net of lies and darkness?

She knew she was playing a dangerous game, offering this obsessed maniac her little finger. He wouldn't only take her hand but the whole arm, she guessed, but Hermione also realized that this was probably her only way out. She couldn't rely on Severus coming to her rescue. Hermione needed to help him by providing opportunities and one of them could be taking her OWL-exams at the ministry. Maybe he would somehow hear about it and inform the order? But it wasn't just about being rescued. Hermione couldn't expect digging herself a deeper and deeper hole by offending her keeper and expecting to come out alive and unharmed at the other end. She had seen the upcoming impatience in Voldemort's eyes during the last days. The man had gotten desperate and it would have only been so much longer until he would have snapped and done something to her. That was something she had to avoid if possible.

So she had agreed to call him by his name, his second name. She had studied Lord Voldemort's history of course, especially after Harry had told her of his former identity after their second year. Tom Marvolo Riddle had been a student as they were, even though that was hard for her to believe when she looked at the snake-faces man now. He didn't even look human any longer, which only made this whole situation even more surreal.

But that wasn't all. In a way, she had let him manipulate her if only a little bit. She had tortured a human being, one that wasn't even human any longer but a toad sitting in a carefully transfigured tank now. It wasn't that the woman didn't deserve it, Hermione knew Dolores probably deserved much worse, but that she had secretly enjoyed seeing the woman write her sentence in her own blood over and over again. The sight should have disgusted her, but back then it didn't. It just made her feel like she was doing what nobody had dared to do before: teaching that despicable woman a lesson that was long overdue. But it wasn't her place to do that, right? The woman had been her Professor, for Merlin's sake and probably Minister Fudge's right hand, too. What if word of what she had done got out? Would she be punished for it? Could this even get her expelled from Hogwarts? Would she be thrown into Azkaban?

With a moan, Hermione buried her face in her hands. She was only here for two weeks and had gotten herself already knee-deep into trouble and it was only about to become worse.

Breakfast was a silent affair again. She had decided on the plain brown dress again, the one that didn't look like she was attending some sort of outing or made her feel like a mannequin. As a compromise, she had let Hurry do her hair, so that it now fell down her back in soft curls instead of standing up from her head in all angles. The little house-elf was the only thing she would miss about this place, that and the extensive library that held a variety of rare books Hermione could usually only have dreamt about. She had decided to try reading as many of them as she could, well, at least the ones that didn't look like they were oozing with dark magic.

Hermione had even though bringing a book with her at mealtimes, but she wouldn't risk upsetting the man by making him feel even more ignored. They had just found some sort of equilibrium that she could live with and she better didn't risk it for some more reading time. It was probably better gaining some more reading time by starting to spend her days in the library. Voldemort would probably be there most of the time, but considering her new course with him, she couldn't keep avoiding him by locking herself in her room. But if she already had to spend time with the man, she could as well do so at the place, where she was surrounded by her true friends: books. Books had helped her over and over in her life, they would never abandon her and they would find her a way out of this hellhole.

Something, she didn't even know what exactly, snapped her out of his thoughts and she looked at the man sitting at the other end of the table. His eyes had taken on a faraway look, while his mouth was turned to a somewhat cruel smile. Hermione shuddered. What was he doing or thinking about? She stared at him with furrowed brows as he sat at the table unmovingly, his food ignored. The spell lasted only for a few moments though, before Voldemort snapped back to reality and looked at her with a strange mix of anger and glee – two emotions that didn't really fit together in her world.

"Is everything alright?" she asked, her voice unsure.

Immediately his face morphed pack into an almost friendly smile. "Don't worry my Dear. My mind was just somewhere else for a moment."

Hermione nodded plastering an understanding smile on her face. Still, her mind already started analysing what she had just seen. What did he mean with: His mind was just somewhere else? Where? Was that how Harry's visions looked from the other end? Did Voldemort just have some sort of vision? And if so, what has he seen?

ssssssss

Potter still looked shaken, when he stumbled into his office for his next Occlumency lesson in the evening. The boy had really made some progress in the last week, Severus found, which made his little show during breakfast even more annoying. What did the boy think, losing his temper over a stupid newspaper article like that?

"Professor," Potter greeted him with a nod and a gloomy expression on his face.

"Potter," Severus answered calmly stepping aside to invite the boy into his office. Mad-Eye Moody was right behind him, greeting him with a nod and a grunt, before retreating onto the chair that Severus had positioned for him in the back of the room. When the man already ha to play alibi-guard for Potter, than he should at least be given the chance to sit.

"You had a little setback this morning, Mr Potter," Severus said, motioning to the boy to sit down in front of his desk while he positioned himself on his own chair.

The teenager nodded sullenly. "Yeah, I lost control again. I'm sorry Sir," he said, staring at his feet.

Severus looked at him with a deep sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Keeping one's emotions in check is hard work," he said. "Even for the best of us. You saw now what happens as soon as you let go, which might motivate you to try harder in the future," he said pointedly to the idiot in front of him.

"Yes, Sir," Potter answered obediently, which wasn't like him at all. Did the boy slowly start to grow up, or did he see something during that "vision" that left him to shaken to be his annoying self? The Occlumency lesson would show it, he guessed, because if the boy had seen something that shocked him into obedience than Severus would find himself in the boy's thoughts soon enough. He really didn't look forward to what he might find there.