A.N.: Here's another chapter for you, me lovely readers. Please don't get impatient with Hermione, she will get out, but we still don't have all the puzzle pieces we need to finish Voldemort off. This chapter has a bit more of the twins in it, in case you missed them. I sure as hell did. ;-)

Chapter 52: Foul play

Hermione had barely slept that night. Instead, she desperately clung to the bond she had with Severus while whispering words of warning and pleas for help through it. She wasn't sure if it was working but she at least needed to try telling him what happened and right now there was no other way for her to do so.
"Does young mistress need help with getting dressed?" Hurry asked her when she padded out of the bathroom after a long, cold shower. She had hoped that it would help her wake up and clear her head, but somehow Hermione found that she simply felt numb inside and out.
"No, thank you Hurry," she replied without any emotion in her voice. "But I do have a question for you. Did you give your master some of my hair?"
The elf looked at her with wide, guilty eyes. She didn't even have to hear his answer to know that he had done so. Dammit. She had trusted him, liked him even in a small way.
"Hurry is so sorry, Mistress. But the Master had tasked Hurry to do so," the little servant said, his voice trembling. "Does Mistress wish for Hurry to punish himself?"

Hermione shook her head with a sigh. "What is that supposed to change?" she asked him, eyes flashing. She didn't want to shout at him, but right now she wasn't sure how to hold all those feelings in. She was convinced she would have burst if Severus hadn't taught her how to protect her mind from all those feelings. Still, she was only partly able to lock them away right now.
"It's not like you had a choice, right? It's not like you wanted to betray my trust, right?" she asked, her voice raw with hurt feelings.
Hurry looked at her with wide, sad eyes. "Hurry never intended to hurt young mistress, Hurry swears!" the house-elf squeaked. "Hurry thought young mistress does not need that hair, as she had shed it into her bed and her clothes. Hurry is cleaning those clothes and he would have thrown the hair away…" he tried to hastily explain to her, oblivious to what he had done.
Hermione sighed tiredly, she had forgotten about the hair she shed naturally.
"What else did you take from me to bring it to your master?" she asked, her voice suddenly bare of all emotion. The little elf wrung its tiny hands.
"Master once asked for one of Mistress' used nightshirts," he said, staring at her full of fear. "And one of her undershirts, but nothing else, Hurry swears."

She was going to be sick. Hermione closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She wanted to scream or run away preferably, but there was no way out for her, probably not ever. God, how was she even supposed to look at any of them right now?
"That's everything, Hurry," she said coldly dismissing the house-elf without looking at him again. God, she could feel herself slowly breaking in that hell-hole. How much longer could she stand being here, without losing the last fibre of sanity?
When she walked to the breakfast table half an hour later, she felt like shit. She didn't know how she was even supposed to stay awake during today's written exams, but somehow she found that she didn't even care about them right now. Her wish to get her OWLs had brought them into this situation in the first place. She should have seen that Voldemort didn't just allow her to go to the ministry out of kindheartedness or whatever her pubescent mind had cooked up back then. That man always had a plan B or C, he truly was the heir of Slytherin.
How was she supposed to outmanoeuvre such a man, to beat him in a duel one day, or at least keep the world safe from him? She felt like a naive child compared to him, probably because that was exactly what she was given their ages. She could not match him in magical power or knowledge and being the Slytherin that he is he was used to playing people like chess pieces, without being hindered by feelings or affection. She had gambled and lost.

Voldemort was already sitting at the table, reading the newspaper with a pleased smile on his lips. As soon as she entered the room though, he put it aside to stare at her with red, inquiring eyes. "You look tired," he said with his hands folded in front of his chin. Hermione stared at him, her face bare of all emotion, before sitting down at her place at the table and starting to eat without saying a word.
"You're upset," he said after a while, just as Hermione heard the snake approaching from behind. It had only been a matter of time until that damned reptile returned, as it seemed glued to her lap during mealtimes lately. Usually, Hermione forced herself to pet the snake, but today everything in her rebelled to do so. And so she ignored Voldemort's pet while staring at the man with a dark expression.
"Good deduction," she replied humorlessly while serving herself a light breakfast and a big pot of coffee. "I am upset."
"Is it because you still care for those people in the castle? Are you afraid your redheaded poster-boys will get hurt?" he asked, jealousy evident in his voice even if he did attempt to mask it. She stared at him coldly.
"I am upset because you betrayed my trust. I trusted you when I gave you my wand and you misused this trust for some machination. You let me think that you supported my dreams while you were probably laughing about my naivety behind my back." Her voice had gotten louder and louder with each word until she was almost shouting at him, her eyes flashing with anger she knew she should be repressing lest she make a mistake.

"You kept me in the dark like one of your minions, but no. Even they seemed to know what you were up to. So tell me, what happened to the idea of me supposedly becoming your queen? Was that all a lie as well? No Queen should be treated that way by her King!"
By now she panted in her chair as the anger drained from her in waves as she realised what she had said. She had called herself his Queen and he her King. There was no way he would ever forget that.
Voldemort did not seem upset because of her outbreak though, as his eyes studied her with fascination. But that only angered her further, he had no right to look at her like that. "If you ask yourself next time, why I am still not trusting you, then this is your answer!" She said.

The snake in her lap shifted as if it wanted to remind Hermione that it was still there. Not that Hermione could forget its presence even for a second. With a huff, she looked down at the clingy reptile and said: "I'm sorry Nagini. I'm really angry right now and I'd rather not touch you. I know this is not your fault, but I don't want to hurt you by accident. Right now I'm really not trusting myself."
The snake looked at her, blinked lazily before it shifted and glided from her lap. Hermione had to suppress a sigh of relief. Somehow the animal had understood her words, proving what Hermione had already guessed. That snake was much more intelligent than a regular one. It had understood her, even though Hermione for sure wasn't a Parselmouth. How?

"I understand your feelings of betrayal," Voldemort finally said, his eyes focussing her with an intensive gaze. "And I promise to make it up to you. I meant it when I said that you're going to be my Queen. But for that to happen sacrifices need to be made. Do you understand, my dear?"
Hermione shuddered internally. What sacrifices was he referring to? Did he intend to kill somebody? She hoped not. "I understand perfectly," she said looking at him with a cold expression. "We all need to make our sacrifices, after all. Even you."

Sssssssss

His lioness' words kept echoing through his mind as he roamed the halls of the Ministry. After yesterday's little run-in with Dumbledore security at the Ministry had been increased, but that only slightly complicated matters for him. He had a good wandmaker at hand and a nearly endless repertoire of transfigurative personalities, he could slip into. Combined with some useful artefacts from his collection those morons didn't stand a chance to even find a hair of him, let alone himself.
Sending Bellatrix to Hogwarts had been necessary, there had been no way around it. Not only because one of his Horcruxes was still there, but there also were a lot of human obstacles in the castle he had to get rid of sooner or later. And Bellatrix was exactly the right person for that job.
Still, it was possible that by sending her he had made a grave mistake. He had forgotten how emotional his lioness could get when it came to other humans. Sooner or later she would leave that weakness behind, but for now, he would have to consider it when planning his next moves. Maybe he could find a way to use those feelings to his advantage… he was a very imaginative man, after all.

Ssssssss

Their time at Hogwarts was coming to an end, Fred realized while mulling over his transfiguration exam one last time. The questions had been easy, even though he and George had spent surprisingly little time with studying, even for their proportions. Lately, many other projects had been on their mind, projects that could really shape their future and happiness. Who cared about their NEWTs? Once that blasted war was over they would either be dead or open a joke shop on their own. And so they invested every spare minute to make sure they made it out alive at the other end of this war and Hermione with them.

Hermione… finally, they had gotten her out, but somehow it didn't really feel like they had gotten her back. Most of the time she avoided them, or anyone for that matter and it wasn't due to the upcoming exams like she tried to convince them of. Hermione could have written her OWLs last year and she would have gotten all of them without any problems. She was probably the best-prepared student at the school but what was more important: Hermione had always put her friends first, no matter what. Not this Hermione though.
Fred wasn't sure what that snake-faced bastard had done to her, but the spark that had shined in her eyes had been substituted by something much more cold and calculating. What must have happened to her to change her like that in a matter of weeks? It was, like the girl he had known for years had been replaced by an animated dummy with no feelings whatsoever. To him, it was, like they had lost Hermione again today, but this time there was no saying if they would ever get the girl they knew and loved back.
That was a terrifying thought, much more terrifying than the old dungeon bat now in front of them could ever be. It was like the man had lost some of his acidness after he and Georgie had found him helpless on the floor of his office. He looked at the grumpy potions master with an inclined head. Usually, the man would have bellowed his instructions for their detention by now, which led to the conclusion that this wasn't a detention at all. Fred had lots of experience with being in detention after 7 years as a Hogwarts student, one-third of his detentions being with Snape himself. But if it wasn't detention they were here for, then Snape probably wanted to talk to them about yesterday. Maybe they could ask him what he thought about Hermione's sudden character change. The man had admitted being her friend too, after all.

Ssssssss

Usually, exam time was one of Severus' favourite times of the year. There were fewer morons for him to teach, which usually spared his poor nerves, as he barely needed to watch them tremble, sweat and fail. Most of the time he found their faces during exams even pretty amusing.

But not today. Today Severus was on a mission and the mission was to find out what was wrong with that Hermione Granger. Unfortunately, the Headmaster had made it his goal to keep the girl away from him for as long as possible, which had him monitoring the NEWT students exams instead of the OWL classes, which he was usually tasked to watch. That only left him with watching her during mealtimes, where she kept hiding behind her books and avoiding her friends. He could see them getting more and more desperate to talk to her and most of the time at least one of them joined her at the end of the Gryffindor table in the hope to talk to the girl.
Right now it was Potter and by the sour look on his face, his attempt to apologize to the girl did not go well. Severus would have been amused if it had been really her, but the longer he watched the witch the more he was convinced that this was not Hermione Granger. That only left the conclusion, that it was a polyjuiced Death Eater instead, which put the Boy-Who-Lived and his Gryffindor-friends in a dangerous situation. But how to protect or at least warn the boy without the Dark Lord knowing of his betrayal through that blasted bond?

Severus brooded over that question the whole day. When the Weasley twins finally knocked at his door, it was probably the first time in his life that he was glad to see them. Once in their life their recklessness and affinity to break rules could be exactly what he needed.
"Enter," he said evenly after opening his office door.
Fred and George Weasley looked worn and tired, which could only partly be due to the exam they had written today. It was obvious that something lasted heavily on their minds and for Severus, it wasn't hard to guess what or better who it was.
He offered them a seat in front of his desk but ordering tea would have been too much risk, considering that those two had invented one of Hogwart's most popular ingestive prank lines and didn't like him very well. He didn't fancy ending up as a canary or something equally ridiculous.

"Well gentlemen, would you care to explain how you got the idea of breaking into my office yesterday?" he said looking at them with a raised brow. The question of how they found out that he had been trapped by the Headmaster had followed him through the day and he couldn't wait to finally get an answer to it.

Both of them grinned cheekily. "We had to make sure you were trustworthy, before activating the Sickle we had given you," the older one, Fred, explained. "So we used our late-night meeting here to place one of our own inventions in your office. It enabled us to hear what was going on in here."

He stared at them with a dark expression, even though he was secretly impressed with them. They had bugged his office without him noticing a thing, which meant that they were either pretty skilled or he was starting to slip. For all of their sakes, he hoped it wasn't the latter.
"I see," he said, his voice bare of emotion. "And did you find what you heard amusing?"
Fred Weasley raised his brows questioningly. "You mean the fact that we were right to trust you? Or that you're friends with Hermione? Or are you referring to the fact that the Headmaster cursed you in the hope to keep you away from the Ministry to rescue her?"
The other Wealeay looked at him with a smile and without waiting for his answer he said: "None of that is amusing to us, even if some of it definitely comes as a surprise."
Severus nodded. "I imagine you do have some questions and I think after your little stunt yesterday I do owe you some answers."
For a moment they looked at each other and it was, like some sort of silent communication was going on between the two of them. Such an ability would definitely explain their success in mischief-making.
Finally, Fred Weasley looked at him and asked: "Do you know what's wrong with Hermione? She's not been herself ever since she returned. Has You-Know-Who done something to her to change her like this?"
Severus' lips twitched. So they had noticed it too, at least to some extent. Good. The would need good instincts if they wanted to survive this war. "I'm unfortunately only partly aware what the Dark Lord does or does not do to our friend," he said, looking at them with a calm expression. "What I do know is that this girl at the castle is not Hermione Granger."
For a moment they looked at him with wide eyes, before both of them nodded in unison. "Of course," George Weasley finally said, his voice sounding somewhat relieved. "We should have realized it's not her."
The other one nodded. "Do you know who it is then?" he asked, not even questioning Severus statement. Suddenly he looked at Severus like he was some sort of ally to them. Gryffindors and their ability to easily trust people.
The potions master sighed. "Not exactly, no. I'm pretty sure it's a Death Eater. But as I am not sure why that imposter is here in the first place, as the Dark Lord chose not to inform me of his plan, I can only guess. It has to be someone without a regular job, otherwise, the disappearance would have been noticed. But that still leaves at least five possible suspects."
They nodded with a sigh. "Alright. That's only part of the problem anyway. If the girl at the castle is not Hermione, that means Hermione is still with him. We need to get her out though."
Severus wholeheartedly agreed. "As soon as possible, yes. I wanted to get her out of the ministry as long as she is still there taking her exams. But someone has made sure that I have enough exams to watch so that I don't have a spare moment to leave the castle or anything else for that matter."

The twins looked at him like they were waiting for something, but when I did not continue speaking Fred said: "Is this the moment you'll be asking us for help? Because as it looks you'll need to be at two places at a time. Luckily there's that neat little potion called Polyjuice." The boy grinned and for a moment Severus stared at him speechlessly.
He needed to get out of the castle but he was pretty sure Dumbledore wouldn't let him go, at least not without him knowing that he had fallen victim to an imposter. But as soon as the old goat was aware of that fact, he would do his best to keep him away from Hermione. Severus had once made the mistake of trusting the Headmaster with his plan, he would not do so again. The man had used up the last bit of Severus' trust by stabbing him in the back. This meant he would keep the old manipulator out of line this time, letting him try gaining the trust of his new warden instead. It wasn't any less than the man deserved.
"I never thought I'd say this, but if you can pull this off, it will be the greatest prank Hogwarts has ever seen. Unfortunately, I will not allow you to talk about it to anyone else but yourselves and Hermione, not ever. Is that understood?" he asked, putting on his darkest expression. But somehow those boys could not be found to be intimidated.
"Absolutely, Sir. We can not be missed for our Charms NEWT though. Our mum would kill us if we get any fewer NEWTs than we planned to. Luckily for you, Georgie and I don't have any exams tomorrow and there's always a fresh batch of Polyjuice in our dorm … for educational purposes of course," the older Weasley said winking at him.
Severus couldn't help but snort. "Of course," he said, his lip twitching ever so slightly. "Well gentleman, it looks like I am indeed asking for your help then. But whatever you do, keep away from the Headmaster. He tends to know what people think and I mean that literally."
The twins snorted before Fred said: "Are you trying to tell us that parading in front of the Headmaster while breaking about 20 school rules and several laws is not a good idea? Wouldn't have guessed that one."

His twin elbowed him, before saying: "Don't worry Professor. When it comes to breaking rules we are the experts. We're not doing this for fun, but for Hermione so believe me, we know what's at stake.
" We won't get caught."
The potions master studied them seriously for a long moment. Finally, he nodded with a sigh. "Very well. I will trust you in this, gentlemen. There's another problem I might encounter at the ministry though. Unfortunately, there's the very real possibility that I won't be able to even touch Hermione, let alone apparate her. The Dark Lord has the unfortunate habit of protecting what he regards as his with the most complex and deadly spells."
The Weasley twins shared another one of those long, meaningful looks before turning back to him. "Use this then. It's a portkey that will activate as soon as Hermione touches it."
Snape snorted. "Why am I not surprised that you've made an unauthorized portkey?" he said, rubbing the bridge of his long nose. "Very well. Where will it be taking her? Because I can tell you right now, that the Burrow is not a good idea."

They grinned. "For now it's destined for our secret hideout."

"The lab behind the statue of the three-eyed troll?" Severus asked with an amused eye roll. For once he seemed to have surprised them.

"You know about our lab?" George asked before his brother interrupted him with a snort.
"Of course he does."

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