A.N.: Warning: this chapter does contain the mention of torture, no explicit descriptions though. But if you are triggered by such things, you should probably skip the first two paragraphs.

Chapter 48: Rage

The Horcrux was gone, taken by that traitor Regulus Black. If Voldemort hadn't been sure the boy was long dead, he would have tortured him until his brain was nothing more than goo. But Regulus Black was gone, he felt him dying through the Dark Mark that he had branded him with.

But what about the Horcrux? Shouldn't he have felt when one of his soul pieces was destroyed? Probably. This could only mean that Slytherin's locket was still somewhere, the question was only where. He'd have to find it, hide it again behind better defences. But first, he needed something he could give to Snape, something that would help him restore his old body. Probably any Horcrux would do. Every one of them had a very special meaning to him and his old self had spent months with each item to prepare it for the ritual. Considering that he wanted Severus to start brewing his potion as soon as possible, it would be best, if he asked Lucius for his old diary. He had spent months, no years, writing into that damned thing, feeding it with all his hopes and dreams of a better world. Maybe his diary would even make a better base for his new body than Slytherin's locket would have. Still, sooner or later he'd have to find the damned thing. But first, it was time for a visit with one of his lieutenants.

A moan from the ground brought him back into the cave. Dolores Umbridge, now back to her human form, was lying on the floor, clutching her stomach in pain. It had been hard work, making her drink every last drop of the potion. For the last two rounds, she had been fighting his Imperius with vigour, he hadn't expected from the plump woman. But of course, she hadn't stood a chance against his magical power and spell control.

"Forgive me, mother, forgive me," she repeated over and over her eyes staring at the cave with unseeing eyes. He could simply push her into the water and be done with her; it would safe him a lot of trouble. But then he thought about his lioness and her reaction to such a treatment of her new, favourite pet. He groaned. Leaving the woman here was not an option.

With a sigh and not a small portion of disgust he grabbed the woman's wrist, before directly apparating from the small island. He'd obliviate her and leave her in the Ministry for the Aurors to find. Considering the state Professor Umbridge was in there was no doubt that she wasn't in the state to betray any of his secrets ever again.

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"Master!" his servant Lucius greeted him, climbing down the wide staircase of his Manor with his body clad in a black silken dressing-gown. His blond her was still in impeccable order, even though he must have been roused from bed by the house elves only moments ago.

"Lucius, my faithful servant. I am sorry for disturbing you at such a late hour. I require one of my possessions, the book I gave you about twenty years ago. I need it back, my friend."

For a moment the man did not react, but then his face went white while he started trembling in fear. "Forgive me, Master," he said his voice suddenly hoarse. "I no longer have it."

He looked at his servant with small, dangerous eyes. "Who has it then? Where is it?" he asked, his voice deadly calm, even though he felt the rage building up inside him.

The blonde man threw himself to his feet, looking at him with grey, scared eyes. "You were gone, master. I had no hope of you ever returning to us. I gave it to a girl, a blood traitor in the hope to bring Hogwarts down from the inside. I did it for you, master."

"So the book is at Hogwarts then. Does the girl still have it?" Voldemort asked further, his hand starting to twitch. The man to his feet whimpered.

"It was destroyed, my Lord. To my knowledge it was Potter. The boy…" Lucius didn't get any further, as the first silent Crucio hit him by surprise.

"Destroyed you say?" the Dark Lord asked, no longer able to suppress the rage in his voice. "Destroyed?"

He heard the pathetic man beg for forgiveness on the floor, heard his wife scream somewhere in the background. But he didn't care. Flames of rage threatened to swallow him, burn him. He needed to let them out and this man had deserved his rage. He had disappointed him in the worst way possible; he had murdered a part of him. And now he would learn what it meant to disappoint the Dark Lord like that. No one did so twice.

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With an animalistic scream, Harry leapt from his bed, his body covered in sweat. He had seen it, had been there and he had felt the rage Voldemort felt when learning that part of his soul was gone, destroyed by him, Harry. He had tortured that man, tortured Lucius Malfoy, in his house and god he wanted to make him suffer for what he had done to him. But that wasn't him, Harry reminded himself, that was Voldemort. So why did it feel like he had been the one doing it and wanting all those horrible things?

"Harry? You alright mate?" he suddenly heard Ron's voice right behind him.

Following his first instinct, Harry wanted to snap at him, to hurt him. He balled his hands to fists, gritted his teeth and said: "It's Voldemort, he's furious. Something happened… we need to see Professor McGonagall."

Bless Ronald Weasley! His friend didn't question him, just nodded before taking him by the arm and leading him outside of the room. Keeping a steady pace he mumbled encouraging words to him, before knocking at McGonagall's door only a few moments later.

"Everything will be alright, mate," Harry heard him say, just as the Professor's hasty steps rang through the door. "Just tell her everything you've seen. She and the Headmaster will sort that out, you'll see."

Harry hoped his friend was right because somehow he had the feeling that what he had just seen was somehow important.

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The woman stared at him with fire and passion in her eyes, while that pitiful excuse of a Death Eater moaned behind him on the floor. The man, unfortunately, had still not outlived his usefulness, even though it would probably be a while until he would be able to be useful to anybody again.

"Now Bella," he said looking at her with red, challenging eyes. "Will you disappoint me too, like your brother-in-law did?"

"Never, my Lord," Bellatrix Lestrange said with conviction in her grey eyes. "I am your most devoted servant and in contrast to my extended family I do as I am told." She almost spat the last words, staring at her sister who was kneeling on the floor next to her husband with disgust.

"Very good," he said, the anger in him slowly boiling down again. "Come with me then. I'm most anxious to be reunited with one of my most valuable possessions."

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Severus was just about to go to bed when his floo roared to life. Merlin, what did the old goat want now? It wasn't Dumbledore though who bothered him to such an ungodly hour but Narsicca Malfoy who was shouting his name as her head peaked through the flames.

"Severus, help!" she begged him, wide eyes with terror and red with tears. "Please, it's Lucius! The Dark Lord… he … he broke him." The woman sobbed. It was a sound he had never before heard from her and somehow that told him the situation was serious.

He cursed. "I'm coming," he shouted, dashing for his secret stash of highly potent healing potions. Some of them he had brewed for his run with Hermione, but he owed Lucius more than he could possibly ever repay. He would restock his supply immediately once he returned.

Lucius was lying in the middle of the parlour, covered in all bodily fluids imaginable and no longer conscious. His limbs were spread in an unnatural angle, making him look like a broken ragdoll.

"What curses?" he calmly asked Narcissa who was openly crying next to him on the floor.

"Only Crucio," the woman hiccupped, staring at her husband with trembling lips. "But he's been under it for almost twenty minutes."

Severus nodded with outward calmness but inwardly he cursed. Such a long exposure to the curse left irreparable damage, no matter how skilled the healer. Severus was not even a trained healer though, only a Potions Master with a knack for Dark Magic and healing charms. It was a far cry from what his friend needed right now, but he would do his damnest to safe his friend anyway.

"I'll try stabilizing him enough to get him into St Mungo's," he calmly explained while charming the contents of the first potion bottle directly into Lucius' stomach. It would be the first of many before his friend would even start to recover. And Severus couldn't help but ask himself, what had brought the Dark Lord to even put the man in such a state. Whatever it was, Severus could only hope that Hermione was currently far away from that monster.

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The next morning came and Voldemort was nowhere to be seen. The breakfast table was well stocked, as usual, but his seat was empty. It had never happened before and if Hermione had only remotely cared about him, she would have been worried. Well, that was not true, she realized. Because she was worried, but not about him. Where was he? What was he doing? Was he working on some major coup that would bring down the wizarding world? Killing unsuspecting muggles? Hermione didn't know and that made her nervous. Even if she detested being in his presence, she still knew where he was and what he was doing. Having him gone made her fear for the rest of the population.

But there was another thing equally alarming for her: Professor Umbridge was gone. Back in the tank, there was only the colourful beetle left and when Hermione opened the tank in the morning to check, whether the toad was hiding below a rock or something, Rita had not even tried to escape. Instead, she had hastily crawled into a faraway corner and hidden with shivering antennas. What had happened to make her that afraid of her? She hadn't done anything to her.

The question was at least partly answered during breakfast, as suddenly the Daily Prophet appeared on the breakfast table. Hermione had learned, that the house-elves were tasked with delivering it, as owls were not able to reach the house. For a moment she eyed the newspaper cautiously, but then she followed an impulse and accioed the thing for herself. She didn't have to search long, as already the front page told her what had become of Professor Umbridge:

Dolores Umbridge found unconscious at the Ministry

by Newt Thatcher

The reappearance of Hogwarts former High Inquisitor Dolores Umbridge has the Aurors confronted with a big mystery. The unconscious witch was found by a group of early workers in the Ministry's entrance hall, from where she was immediately transferred to St Mungo's hospital. Chef healer Wardric reported that Miss Umbridge had ingested a large amount of an unknown potion. Therefore she is now treated for potion poisoning. We wish her a speedy recovery and are most anxious about the story, she will eventually tell.

Hermione read the article twice before staring at the page with unseeing eyes. Umbridge had ingested a potion? How? Where? Had Voldemort tortured her? But why? The questions kept echoing through her head. She'd have to wait for Voldemort's return to get an answer to them, but she would get an answer. That, she promised to herself.

She had to wait until lunch for the man to make an appearance. He seemed his usual, superior self but at a second look, Hermione found, that something was boiling below the surface. After living with the man for six weeks she had gotten sensible to his moods.

"You're back," she said, looking at him with a carefully calm expression. "As is Professor Umbridge, if the Prophet is to be believed." Hermione motioned towards the newspaper that she had placed back on his side of the table, after finishing her breakfast.

He nodded. "She outlived her usefulness, I fear. I needed her for a special project of mine."

"I didn't know you were into potions lately. I thought that's why you're keeping Professor Snape around," Hermione continued in a casual voice, even though it took all her willpower not to snap at that man. But her instincts told her, that this would have been a horrible idea today.

"I do. Professor Umbridge only helped me get one of the ingredients Severus will need brewing his next masterpiece. She was very useful, I can assure you, which is why I decided to drop her off with those idiots at the Ministry. I hope you approve." He looked at her with observant, red eyes and Hermione asked herself if he was waiting for her to shout at him. She wanted to, she really did. But all her instincts adjured her not to.

"If the alternative was killing her then I do. But I admit being displeased that you took her from me in the first place. I got the impression she was mine to keep," she stated boldly, staring at the man with challenging brown eyes. "Or did I misunderstand something here?"

For a moment his eye twitched before his mouth formed a pleased little smile. "I didn't know that you've gotten this attached to your new pet, my Dear. If I had known I would have brought her back for you to take care of her. As it is, she is lost to us for now. But maybe I could compensate you with something else, maybe a new pet? How would you like that?"

Hermione kept her face carefully blank, even though her stomach clenched in horror. She didn't want a new pet, for god's sake!

"I do have a pet of my own, did you know that my Dear?" the man continued, without giving Hermione the chance to reply to his words. "She could be your pet, too."

She shuddered. Of course, she knew about the man's pet snake. It was the animal that attacked Mr Weasley, after all.

"I'm not in need of a new pet, thank you," she replied carefully but was suddenly distracted by a slithering noise behind her. And just when she wanted to turn around she saw it, a gigantic snake sliding across the floor directly towards her. She froze in horror.

"Nagini has been very loyal, ever since she decided to follow me. There's no need to be afraid of her, you can trust her as much as you trust me."

That's the problem, Hermione answered in her head, while her eyes fixated the huge reptile that was now right next to her. I don't trust you one bit.

The snake paused and raised its head until it was directly looking at her. She tried to suppress the shiver that ran down her back as she realized that its eyes were almost the same at Voldemort's. They were different in colour, yes, but there was the same intelligent gleam in them.

"Nagini can protect you, Miss Granger and I'm sure she would love to be petted by you," Voldemort continued, his eyes now totally fixated on her and the snake. Hermione wanted to be anywhere but here, but right now there was nowhere for her to go. She wasn't even sure of the snake would let her get up from her chair as she found the reptile looking her with hungry eyes. When as the last time that animal had eaten? Merlin, what had it even eaten? She was sure a rat or a mouse wasn't nearly enough for an animal of that size.

As if to acknowledge its master's words the snake carefully lowered its head only to rest it on Hermione's lap, like a dog might have done. There, it closed its eyes as if it was waiting for Hermione to touch it. She looked at Voldemort with wide eyes.

"See? Nagini already likes you," he said with a wide smile nodding towards the two of them. "Touch her, my lioness. I swear she will not harm you in any way."

Hermione closed her eyes in despair, fighting the urge to just wet herself with fear or run screaming from the room. Only three more days, she promised herself before taking a deep breath. She could do that, could get through that as well. But Merlin, she hated snakes.

Her Occlumency shields firmly in place she finally opened her eyes, staring at the animal's head in her lap with dark eyes. Then her hand slowly moved towards the reptile's head, touching the dry scales a moment later. The snake blinked lazily at her before closing its eyes again. When would that huge beast leave her alone again? Hermione asked herself, while carefully petting its head with measured strokes. All the time she could feel her jailer's eyes study her with a hungry gleam in them.

Only three more days, she chanted in her head over and over again. Three more days and then she would finally leave this snake pit behind.

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