A.N.: Here we go, my friends. I hope you're still with me and the story. Please let me know if you still enjoy it. We're getting closer to the finale of part 2. Are you as excited as I am?

Chapter 58: Out of control

When Hermione returned to her room Rita was gone. For a moment she asked herself if it had been the right decision to let the woman go, as there was so saying if she finally learned her lesson. Probably not. But there were only two ways Hermione's attempted break out could go. If she got caught, Voldemort would want to punish her or teach her a lesson as he would probably phrase it. The animagus would have been an easy target in that case. The other option was that Hermione and Eric would be successful in running away. In that case, her keeper would be furious and Hermione did not want Rita to bear the brunt of his anger. Not even somebody like her was deserving of that fate.

One more day and Hermione would be out of that snake pit, or dead. One way or another her imprisonment would end, it had to. But for things to go smoothly she would have to survive another day in Tom Marvolo Riddle's presence because that was the side he would try to make her see now. He'd want to talk to her in the morning, would want to know what was wrong with her. Could she face him and lie? Could she make him believe that it was nothing, that she just had been overwhelmed while looking him into his no longer red eyes? He was still the same person, still the monster that had tortured Severus and ordered rape and murder of hundreds of innocents. That's what she learned, what had been proved, right? But that was not what she had seen, what she had experienced, in his presence. He had spared those auror's lives when she asked him to, had let her decide how to punish Rita Skeeter and Professor Umbridge. It was like there were two versions of him and slowly it was more and more difficult for her to remember that those two men were in fact the same person. But she had to remember, had to stay strong, at least for another day.

Strangely, she fell asleep quickly and had a restful night. It was like her body knew that tomorrow would be a hard day and she would need her whole energy to get out alive of this damned werewolf-filled forest. She'd heard of Fenrir Greyback and his pack and she could only pray that he would not find them on their way through the forest.

When she finally woke up in the morning, the sun was already up and Hermione felt well-rested. It was a good thing as she didn't know when she'd next have the possibility to lay down and close her eyes. She knew she would be able to as long as they were in that damned forest. But she had to push away all thoughts of breaking out for now or Voldemort would know. Her Occlumency walls needed to be firmly in place if she wanted to get through this day without doing something stupid or giving her plan away before she could act on them. And so she took some deep calming breaths before getting herself ready for the day.

Of course, Voldemort was waiting for her, when she made it down into the dining room. She hadn't expected anything else as he had for one exception always been there no matter what time she got up in the morning. Hermione had braced herself for his change in appearance but she could still feel her heart picking up speed when his now dark green eyes focussed on her and a small smile showed up on his face. Merlin, what was wrong with her? It was months ago since she felt herself at her hormone's mercy like that. She didn't want to find that man attractive, but it was like her body didn't care what her head thought right now. Was it the Open Link that tried influencing her to forge a bond? Why did it flare up now? Ever since she had connected herself with Severus it had calmed somewhat down. So why now, Why him?

"Good morning Hermione," he greeted her. "Are you feeling better today?" His unasked question clear as day to her.

Hermione forced herself to look at him even though her heart was pounding heavily in her chest. She had to get a grip on herself and she needed to do so fast.

"I am sorry I ran away from you," she said, chewing on her bottom lip. "It's just…" Suddenly her mind was blank, all lies she had carefully prepared gone. She froze up, staring at him with an open mouth and wide eyes. Finally, she shook her head with a heavy sigh. "This is not working," she admitted, sitting down heavily in her chair. "It's like I suddenly find myself unable to concentrate in your presence. I don't even know what I wanted to say right now."

"And that's what scares you? Or is it the fact that you feel you're no longer in control?" he asked and suddenly he was on his feet walking towards her with slow measured steps as if he did not wish to frighten her. There was however something predatory in his gaze that made her skin prickle with nervousness. Her tummy clenched with unease and something else she did not want to think about.

"Both," she admitted silently, her voice shaking nonetheless. That only made the smile on his face widen.

"It's alright to be scared, from time to time. You know I would never hurt you, don't you?"

He was now in front of her, leaning casually against the table while focussing her with those dazzling eyes. This was wrong, this whole situation was so much out of her comfort zone that she hardly knew what to do. She barely had any experience with boys. Viktor had been sweet, shy and respectful towards her. The twins always treated her with a light heartedness that never made her feel like she was helpless or not in control of the situation. To all of them she had been an equal, which wasn't true for the man in front of her, no matter what he wanted to make her believe.

"Actually I don't. What if I tried running away? Or did something else to make you angry? Are you sure you wouldn't hurt me? You've hurt so many people before, don't even try to deny it."

His eyes calmly studied her and Hermione forced herself to not look away, even though all her instincts told her to run away.

"I'm not denying anything, my little lioness," he said in return. "I killed and I tortured and I wouldn't hesitate to do so again to protect what is mine or to achieve my goal. I want you to be mine Hermione. I want to protect you."

"Protect me from what? The only thing I'd need protection from is your Death Eaters," she said, slowly regaining some of her wit. "It was Bellatrix Lestrange who tried to kill me at the ministry and it was your Basilisk who tried it during my second year. I was lucky to only get petrified."

He sighed. "Both of that happened before you were under my protection. But this isn't just about protecting you because you don't really need my protection. You and I could be great together. We could change the world and make it a better place."

They had this discussion before but suddenly all the points she had collected in her head to her favour didn't seem to fit. They could change the world together and coming from two different perspectives they had the potential to do great things. But only if they wanted the same and right now she was no longer sure what the man in front of her wanted.

"So is that what you want from me? To help you change the world?"

He smiled. "Right now I'd like to kiss you," he said and suddenly she saw his hand slowly reach for her. That was, what finally snapped her out of her stupor.

"No!" She yelled in panic and jumped to her feet before hastily walking towards the door. "I don't want you to. Hell, I just told you I don't trust you so why do you think I would be okay with you kissing me?" She didn't wait for his answer though and simply bolted from the room but before she could even touch the door knob his hands grabbed her arms and stopped her from getting to it.

His tall muscular body was not even touching her but she could feel him. She felt like a small rabbit caught in the clutches of the big bad wolf. What was worse was the small part of her that liked the feeling. What was wrong with her?

"I apologize for being too forward with you my Dear," he said silkily in her ear but never touching it. She felt his heavy gaze on her and she willed herself not to move lest she anger him. He sighed.

"Let's continue to talk about it," he said in a persuasive tone that rang alarm bells in her head for the fact that it made her deliberate on her answer.

She shook her head unsteadily and she took a breath.

"I need to be alone," she whispered, too afraid to raise her voice more.

She could feel his eyes on the back of her head as he deliberated for a moment. When he sighed in resignation she could breathe again.

"Very well my dear," he said as he let her arms go slowly.

Hermione left quickly and did not look back until she was safely back in her room.

Ssssssss

Fred and George were just about to leave Grimmauld Place for a round of flat searching when they felt the pull of the sickle they had given to Snape. The man was calling them and there was no question if they would follow his call. They sent each other a quick look, before pulling out their wands and murmuring the words that would trigger the port keys to activate. A moment later they were gone.

Snape already waited for them, arms crossed in front of his chest and leaned against a table. He was not in an office though, the room looked more like it was underground and had been improvised rather spontaneously.

"Professor," they greeted him, unable to hide the tension in their voice. "What's wrong?" Fred continued. "How can we help?"

He looked at them with a serious expression, before motioning towards a large magical map, that had been set up at one of the rough stone walls.

"During my visit to the Ministry, I managed to mark Hermione with a tracking charm, as you know. I finally managed to connect the signal to a map, but unfortunately, it will only show up, once she leaves those damned wards, the Dark Lord set up around his house."

"Must be impressive wards then," George said, staring at the map in transfixion.

Their former Professor nodded. "Indeed. Only who is marked by the Dark Lord or in physical contact with him can pass, which makes it impossible for me to get her out of there. I do have the unmistakable feeling though, that there soon will be a change in Hermione's position."

"And when that happened we'll know through the map and we'll be ready to get her," George concluded with a satisfied nod. "Brilliant."

Snape looked at them with a serious expression. "I didn't mean for you to come with me. This might be a suicide mission and once the Dark Lord discovers I betrayed him he will be most determined to kill me." The professor's voice was calm, even though his eyes were full of steel. They had never seen him like that, as there was suddenly no doubt where his loyalties were.

Fred nodded. "I expect him to. But tell me Professor, who will get Hermione out if you get yourself killed while playing the Gryffindor?"

The man's face transformed into a sneer. "That's not what I'm doing," he spat. "Otherwise I'd have made a move a while ago. Recklessness won't help us here, but I fear just careful planning won't either. She is very well protected and no matter what we do, it will be dangerous."

"One more reason for you to not go alone," George said, looking around the room with a curious expression. "What is this place anyway?"

"We're in an abandoned mine close to my home," Snape replied evenly. "Don't worry, I warded and stabilized the room before I set everything up. We'll not be disturbed here." He sat down at the simple table that was set up in the middle of the room. "When the day comes I will not hold you back to come with me if that is what you wish to do. You're both of age and I respect the need to help somebody who's important to you. It is why we're all here."

The twins nodded. "Good. Because we'll come with you, no matter how dangerous. Going by what you said, we only have this one shot," Fred stated, his voice serious. "I don't want to ask myself in a few years if we could have gotten her out if we just would have gone with you."

Snape nodded. "I cannot promise you'll make it out alive. If saving Hermione implies leaving you behind, I will do that. And I expect you to do the same with me, understood?" He said making them understand the gravity of the decisions they had to make.

"We weren't expecting anything else," George said, his voice serious. "But tell me, if you didn't expect us to come with you, why did you call us here?"

At that Snape's lips twitched. "I need somebody to watch the map, while I try getting some hours of rest. I wanted to propose we take turns."

Fred and George looked at each other with a grin on their faces. "You want us to watch the map, while you're taking a nap? Not afraid of us testing our products on you?" Fred asked, his eyes glinting with humour. Snape looked back at them with an eye roll.

"I'll sleep at home, so don't get your hopes up," he replied dryly. "So what is it? Will you help?"

"Of course we will," George replied with a shrug. "There never was a question about that."

Ssssssss

The day seemed to go on for ages. Mostly Hermione was hiding in her room, refusing to go downstairs even though that was what she should have done. It made her feel like a coward and ask herself if her absence would make Voldemort suspicious or at least more watchful, but no matter how she put it, she could not bring herself to face that man again. In his presence she felt like she was prey and he was the predator, only that a little, irrational part of her brain wanted to be caught even if it was just to feel wanted and admired for once. No one had ever given her that much attention like he had in the last weeks. Her parents loved her but they always had lots of other things to do and as she was away for the most part of the year their relationship had weakened over time. Harry and Ron had always been best friends to each other and usually, when they had their differences, they supported each other instead of supporting her. Fred and George had only recently stepped into her life. They had wooed her, yes, but she had never been their sole focus and probably never would be as there was always the other twin or another experiment that also caught their attention. And then there was Severus… he had been there for her in her darkest hours and had helped her when she needed him. Still, he had always been in some way unapproachable and she couldn't help the feeling that he always held something back from her. Severus was a man of many secrets. He was serving not one but two masters while trying to be her friend and even that hadn't worked when there had been the first misunderstanding.

Voldemort on the other hand did not hold back his intentions and she had the feeling that all his attention was focussed on her. For once she was the sole focus of somebody's attention and a weak part of her enjoyed that. She enjoyed having him as her teacher with no other students for him to focus on. And there was no denying that the man was brilliant and able to do magic that never would be taught at Hogwarts and she didn't just mean dark spells. Those he had not taught her, only shown her how to counter them in case she met them in a duel. That alone could save her life, one day.

Still, she knew she needed to keep her distance no matter how loud the little voice in her head got, that told her to simply let go and open up to him. The bouquet of dark red roses that suddenly appeared on her nightstand around noon didn't help to silence it in the slightest. The only thing she could do was remembering Severus' words of warning, that Voldemort was a master manipulator. The knowledge that he was probably trying to do just that finally helped her to not open her door and leave her room before midnight arrived. She could only hope that the man was not staying up trying to confront her with her behaviour.

Voldemort was not there though when she crept down the stairs, neither did he try holding her back when she left the house through the front door. Eric was waiting for her at the edge of the forest, hiding his platinum blonde hair under a black hooded robe.

"There you are," he said, staring at her with an analyzing gaze. "Are you sure that this is what you want to do? There is still time to go back to the house," he said in a tone she could not place.

Hermione nodded. "I am sure. Let's go."

The other wizard nodded before he started walking into the forest, not looking back towards her. "Once we've passed the wards he'll know what we have done. It will be a matter of minutes until he'll come searching for us," he warned while keeping a quick pace.

Hermione nodded. "I know and I thought about that. As we cannot apparate, he also shouldn't be able to. We'll disillusion and silence ourselves before passing the wards. I also found a neat little spell to mask our scent which should protect us from the werewolves. When we avoid walking in a straight line from where we passed the wards, it should be hard for him to find us, don't you think?"

Eric grumbled something as a reply that she did not catch. It sounded like he was agreeing with her but she couldn't be totally sure. She had to trust him in this matter as he was the more experienced wizard and he had already attempted breaking out of this golden cage.

Her companion didn't seem to need light to find his way through the forest, as he didn't slow down his steps, even though Hermione was barely able to see the ground in front of her any longer. She more or less followed the sound of his steps until he suddenly halted and she nearly ran into him.

"Alright," he said turning around and looking at her with a calmness she didn't feel at all. "The wards are only a few steps away. You'll take my left hand after casting your protection charms and I cast mine. I'll need my right hand for casting afterwards and I need you to stay as still as possible. When I'm finished, I'll pull you along through the wards. As soon as we're through we'll start running. We'll follow the path alongside the wards to the right side, as this is hopefully where he'll expect us the least."

Hermione nodded mutely while chewing her lip in the process out of nervousness. "I'm not a very fast runner," she admitted. "But I'll do my best to keep pace."

His lips twitched into a small, humourless smile. "I'm sure you will. You know what is at stake. And now come, there's no time to dawdle."

In a fluent motion, he silently disillusioned himself and Hermione hastily followed his example. As soon as she was finished she tried finding his hand and after a few seconds of awkward groping she finally managed to do so. After a moment nothing happened, but then he carefully pulled her against him before she could feel him moving as he started casting. She couldn't hear the words but she felt the hum of energy in the air around her. Then, suddenly, it was gone and she was yanked forwards by her arm. Even though she had expected it she still stumbled slightly. Finally she caught herself and started running, following her new ally through the wards. They had made it through the wards without any complications. Hermione could have cried with relief if she had any time to do so. Even though there was still a lot of danger ahead of them, she was finally out of Voldemort's control.

Ssssss