A.N.: Hello my dear readers! Thank you so much for your encouraging comments! They mean the world to me. J I am happy that so many are still with me and are impatiently waiting for the reunion of our trio. Believe me, I'm counting the chapters, too. ;-) We'll get there and Voldi will get what he deserves, I promise. What are you looking most forward to? Some twin/Hermione fluff? Smut? Or finally having Severus and Hermione reunited? Or do you all want to see Voldi und Dumbly punished? Let me know, I'm curious.

Chapter 50: The exam

To say that Hermione was nervous would have been the understatement of the year. It wasn't just that she would take her OWLs today, which she had dreamed about since she set a foot into Hogwarts. There would also be a rescuing mission for her, but Hermione didn't know when or how. And that were too many unknown factors for her already strained nerves. She had barely slept during the last days, her numerous encounters with the snake haunting her as soon as she closed her eyes. Apart from that, she had never been a good sleeper before her exams, as spells and history facts randomly popped into her head when she tried to fall asleep, which had her unintendedly revising until deep into the night. It wasn't any different this time.

"All will be well," an unknown voice interrupted her train of thoughts. When Hermione turned around, there was a foreigner in the doorframe to the dining room, but going by his predatory smile and the fact that she was at Voldemort's house there was only one person this could be. Still, she couldn't keep but stare at him, as there was nothing left of his snake-like features and instead there was a good looking, brown-haired wizard in front of her, that didn't even remotely remind her of his old self. It was terrifying.

"That's an impressive glamour," she said in astonishment. "You look like…"

"I am related to you, yes. That is the point," he agreed, looking at her with amused, brown eyes. Looking at him now felt wrong, so wrong. The man in front of her looked kind, harmless, but she knew for a fact that he was anything but. Those wizards at the ministry wouldn't even know in how much danger they were. They would be defenceless.

"Won't they know you by your wand?" Hermione asked, looking at him sceptically. "All wands are registered, aren't they? I read we'll have to show them when entering the Ministry."

The man nodded. "Then it is a good thing I organized two spare wands for us to use. They're registered on the names Rosalind and Marcus Greenwood, which is our names for the next few days."

Hermione stared at him in disbelief. "You want me to do my OWLs with a foreign wand?" she shrieked, looking at him with wide eyes. "That's insane! I don't even know if the wand will work for me!" She stared at him with fire in her eyes and for a moment she saw it reflected in his own ones.

"You should really start trusting me, my Dear. I know it is hard for you, but I did plan this through – carefully. Those wands are just for registration. You'll hand your own wand over to me and I'll hide it for you until we passed the registration desk. I know from a reliable source, that the wands will not be checked again, afterwards." His voice was smooth when he explained these things to her, but Hermione still got the impression that he was angered by her rash behaviour. No wonder, she had basically implied him being stupid and she knew how she would have reacted to such an allegation. Still, it's not like she would trust him to have her best interest in mind.

Hermione looked at him with a regretful look in her eyes, she would need to keep from angering him since his mood has been horrible lately. "I am sorry, Marvolo," she apologized, using his given name in the hope to soothe his anger, he always liked it when she spoke his name. "This was ungrateful and uncalled for. You've put a lot of thought into this, even though you are in no obligation to do this for me. You've taught me for weeks to prepare me for those exams and I think I never properly thanked you. That wasn't right, because I am grateful, so very very grateful. Please forgive me." It was true, she was grateful to him. Even though he had kept her as a prisoner, he had always treated her well and the magic he had taught her was… incredible. It gave her a taste of what was possible with enough talent and ambition.

He nodded, a strange, unnatural glow in his eyes. "You are forgiven," he said generously, before pulling out his wand. "Now let's do something about your appearance. We don't want your identity discovered after all, do we?"

Hermione did want her identity discovered in the hope that this would help her being rescued. But she couldn't very well tell him that. And so she nodded. He raised his wand a moment later and for a moment she considered closing her eyes, but she had to realize that closing her eyes while Voldemort pointed a wand at her was nothing she could do. She didn't trust enough for that. His glamour charm hit her a moment later and for a moment a cold feeling washed over her body, leaving it tingling for a moment after. Then she suddenly felt her features shift, which felt weird but luckily didn't hurt, but she still closed her eyes for a moment. When she finally opened them she found him staring at her with a pleased little smile.

Hermione couldn't help her curiosity and quickly transfigured a mirror for herself. When she looked at herself a moment later, her eyes widened in surprise. What she saw wasn't what she had expected at all. Her hair was still brown, but it was now straight and looked almost boring. Her eye colour had changed to a light grey while the shape of her eyes was more rounded, which made them look slightly bigger than they used to. The strange thing was that this new appearance would surely be found pretty by most people she met, but Hermione found that she missed her old looks. The person she was now looked boring and almost too perfect and until now she hadn't even been aware that such a thing was possible. Last year and also at the beginning of this school year she had secretly wished to be more pretty, to be different or more attractive. But suddenly she realized that she really liked her bushy-haired, wild appearance and that realization somehow made her smile.

"I take it you approve?" Voldemort asked in his foreign voice.

Hermione smiled. "I do. Thank you."

"Excellent. This is your wand, Rosalind," he said stepping close and offering her the masterful carved piece of wood. It looked different from all wands she had ever seen and felt heavier in her hand, then she had expected.

"Thank you, Marcus," she replied thoughtfully, before storing the wand in her sleeve and offering the man her own wand. Giving it to him hurt, especially after she had to spend so many days without it in the past. But considering the circumstances, she had no other choice than putting it into his outstretched hand. "Shall we go then?" she asked, sending him a nervous smile.

Voldemort nodded and offered her his arm. She carefully placed her hand into the crook of his arm. He still felt cold like before. At least that part hadn't changed, reminding her of his old, inhuman self.

"We shall," he replied with a pleased smile. "Come on, my Dear."

Ssssssss

"Alright, twin o' mine. Any ideas on how to get into Snape's office now that we're here? We tried breaking in before, remember?" George asked, studying the sturdy wooden door with concentration.

His brother shrugged. "How about our magical lockpicks?" he suggested, pulling a little golden instrument out of his pocket. "I know we didn't plan using those until it's an emergency, but this classifies as one, don't you think?"

George nodded and so two disillusioned redheads crouched in front of Professor Snape's door, trying their whole arsenal of magical mischief-making inventions. In the end, the door was blackened at the hinges and smoke was pouring out of the keyhole. But the door was open. Fred grinned.

"See? I knew we could do it," he said, storing their products in his robes.

George sighed. "Yeah. Now Snape will either kill us or kiss us. Dunno what's more terrifying."

They opened the door and there was their potions professor, lying on the floor with his face staring unmovingly at the door. Still, George could have sworn that there was a flicker behind his eyes, that made his skin crawl with nervousness. He'll probably kill us for this.

"Hello Professor," Fred greeted the man with an unconcerned grin, before stepping right in front of him. "We thought you could use a bit of help. Sorry about the door," he said, shrugging with a smug look on his face. Then he pulled out his wand and cast a Finite incantatem on the man. To George's big surprise it worked. First, Snape's face morphed back to the expressionless, cold mask it usually was and a moment later the man leapt to his feet, storming towards the fireplace with a thunderous expression.

"We'll talk about this, gentlemen. Detention, tomorrow evening at my office," he bellowed, before pulling out his wand and casting a glamour on himself. His hair grew short and grey and in his face deep wrinkles and a long beard appeared, that made him look at least 50 years older. George stared at him in fascination.

"Now out with you," Snape said, storing his wand back in his sleeve before grabbing a hand of floo powder from the mantle. George looked at him with an awkward smile.

"Good luck, Sir," he said, pulling Fred towards the door. "Bring her back to us."

Snape mumbled something unintelligible as an answer and a moment later a wave of magic hit them and threw them out of the room before the door behind them banged close.

Fred and George looked at each other with a nervous grin. "Let's hope this was the right choice brother," George said and started to walk towards the staircase.

"We'll know tomorrow. Whatever happens, I'm sure it's in the newspaper. Because believe me, Georgie, this will give a big BANG! Voldisnort won't let Hermione go without a fight."

"And we just made sure there's one more wand against him."

Ssssssss

The Open Link was almost in reach for him now. She had come early after registering her wand and sat down in the exam room with a collected expression on her young face. It was definitely her, Albus remembered her from his lessons and now that she had finally gotten her wand back from Tom, she would not allow being parted from it again. Tom was nowhere to be seen, but Albus was sure that his enemy wasn't far away. He couldn't beat him today, there were still too many obstacles in the way. The Boy who lived had informed him of at least one other Horcrux in Voldemort's possession, which meant that killing Tom would be impossible, for now. But maybe Albus could at least find a way to reveal his return to the wizarding world, as it was about time that it was shaken awake from its slumber. The war was in full swing and by conquering the Open Link Albus was sure to turn the tables to their advantage.

Luckily his position as Hogwarts Headmaster gave him the right to attend all Ministry lead exams, not that he had ever done so, but these were special circumstances. No one had the right to throw him out of the room, no matter how much Cornelius wished to do so. Of course, the man also wanted to sink his claws into that unsuspecting girl.

If Miss Granger was surprised by his attendance in the exam room, she didn't show it. Instead, she seemed totally focussed on the written History of Magic exam, twirling her brown, bushy hair around one finger, while she eagerly wrote her answers. Albus would have to wait until the exam was over, before approaching the girl. Hopefully, Tom hadn't already manipulated her that far, that she would try refusing to come with him. But in this case, he'd assign Fawkes help and make her see reason later.

Ssssssss

"Are you sure this is the right room?" Hermione asked, looking at the Ministry employee in confusion. "There's only one table in here. Where is everybody else?"

"That's none of your business, Miss. You'll be writing your exam here, apart from everybody else," the young, dark-blonde man replied with a watchful expression in his gaze. Did he know who he was? Probably. Why else would she be kept away from the other OWL aspirants? Would Severus even be able to find her here? What would he do, when there was no sign of her in the exam room? Hermione sighed.

Severus had been a spy for years and he was a true Slytherin. He would consider that Voldemort had put a plan in action to ensure that Hermione remained undiscovered. When there was somebody able to find her it was him, Hermione told herself while sitting down in the small, windowless room. She was pretty sure that it was usually used for interrogations, which probably meant extra security measures. She should have known that Voldemort would be extra careful when she was outside of his house. Now she would have to trust Severus to still find a way to get her away from him but for a matter of fact, there was nobody Hermione trusted more than him right now.

Ssssssss

"Professor," the girl said when he was approaching her directly after the test sheets had been collected. He had to act quickly now, otherwise, Tom would snatch her away again.

"Miss Granger," he greeted back politely, the reassuring twinkle in his eyes. He had to make sure she trusted him, even though she had in the past proved to be hesitant in doing so. Luckily he had years of experience in dealing with teenagers. "I've come to offer you my assistance for returning to Hogwarts if this is what you wish," he said, offering her his arm. "Would you like to come back to the castle?"

The girl nodded, her brown eyes wide. "I'd love to, Sir. But … he's here. He won't let me go," she whispered, looking around with wide panicked eyes. Albus nodded understandingly. "Don't worry about Tom, Miss Granger. Now that you have finally revealed yourself to me, he will not capture you again," he promised with a grandfatherly smile on his lips. And really, the girl instantly seemed less nervous. She put on a brave smile, before accepting his offered arm with a determined nod.

Albus smiled. This was easier than he thought.

They made it out of the room without being interrupted or held back, but they had barely reached the corridor, as the girl suddenly stiffened next to him. Her eyes fell on a brown-haired man right in front of them, who was watching them with calculating, lurking eyes. Albus had only a split second to register that the wand was already in his hand, a wand that he would have known anywhere.

"Tom," he said, lazily casting a counter to Voldemort's fire attack, while the room around them erupted into chaos. There were screams and shouts everywhere, but Albus just focussed on the duel and the Open Link, that was hiding behind him in the hope for protection. Good, that meant she already trusted him to protect her. That was the first step for her leaning on him for protection and guidance. "You should not have come today," he said, casting the strongest deglamour spell he knew of. And really, the spell went through any revealed Lord Voldemort in all his terrifying glory. Another wave of screams echoed through the room. It was only a matter of seconds until they were surrounded by Aurors, causing Tom to acknowledge his defeat and apparate away before he could get caught. Once again Albus had outsmarted him. Not only was his return finally no longer deniable, but the Open Link was finally back where she belonged, in his influence.

Ssssssss

A.N.: Yes, there are two Hermiones in this chapter, but only one is the real one... Voldi is a sneaky bastard.