Author's Note: Okay, here it is. Moment of truth!

Chapter 12

One Week Earlier

Before Hermione felt the throbbing in her head, or her aching muscles, she was brought back to life by a dank and sour odor. It smelled like a combination of vegetable decay and fermenting vinegar.

She groaned against the cold stone beneath her. It was dark, but streaming ribbons of light crossed through what appeared to be an invisible room divide, slicing the room in half. On her side was a prison-like visage, while just across a line, the floor flipped from stone to a burnt orange shag carpet.

Hermione crawled over towards the carpet, hoping beyond hope that she could cross the barrier into what looked like an 80's style basement. Reaching the invisible barrier, she ended up appearing more like a mime, trying to walk her hands along the transparent wall for any type of edge. She banged on the barrier a few times, though there was no echo of her fists slamming. She was being held prisoner.

Hermione had no idea what time it was, or how long she'd been in there, but the grumble in her stomach told her it could have easily been over eight hours.

"She's awake!" Called a heavily accented monster of a man. He was no Hagrid, but his stature and layered clothing built him up into something dark and foreboding. She could imagine if Hagrid had become a death eater, he might look something like the form in front of her.

Hermione climbed to her feet. Her body ached and she felt a shiver crawl up her skin. She was still in her silky teal bridesmaid dress (now with a web of wrinkles) and it made her feel vulnerable and unprotected in more ways than one.

She tried to apparate a few times, but was positive they had enchanted the space to prevent such easy escapes.

Hermione kept her body facing the man sitting at the round oak table not twenty feet from where she stood. He didn't appear to be interested in her at all. Almost like she was an oversized art piece on the wall. She took a moment to glance around and gather any clues to her whereabouts or any potential form of protection. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see. There were no windows. A small kitchen counter lining the back wall and off to the side what she could only make out as a variety of bottles of different sizes and colors. It reminded her of a smaller version of Professor Snape's potions cabinet back in the day.

It wasn't long before Hermione heard another sound. A click-clack noise that seemed to be growing. Hermione gleaned that there must be a set of stairs right behind the wall to her left. As the sound creeped closer, Hermione could feel a familiarity to them. It was something so recognizable, yet remained just past the edges of her mind.

That's when it clicked into place. She knew this person, and this person knew her.

"My darling, Hermione." The syrupy voice drew out her name.

"Vanya." Hermione breathed, her knees almost giving out. She watched her friend glide towards the invisible wall that separated them. It had been only a few years, but Vanya seemed to have continued to grow in beauty. Her long platinum hair seemed to have a glow of its own. Her eyes were piercing green, but seemed to reflect the emerald of envy and malice.

"Vanya. What the hell is going on?" Hermione was thoroughly confused.

"I promised I would come for you, didn't I." Her eyes grinning and wrapping their tentacles around Hermione, somehow freezing Hermione still in fear.

When she was working with the Goblins she had the opportunity to stay in a flat with another study abroad student, Vanya. Vanya had been as smart, probably smarter than Hermione and seemed to be a genius when it came to potions. During this time, Hermione had also gotten word about Ron and Aliesha's relationship, and it sunk her to new lows.

Vanya was a sympathetic shoulder to cry on. Similar to Ginny, but they were connected in their own secret way as Hermione and Vanya were very alike. Or so Hermione thought. She trusted Vanya explicitly, and talked through many of her troubles.

"You wrote me that letter? ...You're the one in love with me?" Hermione tried to get out the last question.

Vanya let out a mirthful laugh. "Love you? Of course I love you. You are my soul sister...Though, I'm not in love with you, if that is what you are referring to."

Hermione was thoroughly lost. Her mind spun, trying to make sense of the situation. Vanya watched closely, as if studying her.

"I love the way your face reflects your thoughts. Like you are putting together puzzle pieces in your mind." Vanya said, shifting to get a closer look at Hermione's face.

Hermione tried to hold back the fear in her eyes. She didn't like Vanya looking at her that way.

"What do you want?" Hermione asked with as much confidence as she could muster.

"Oh Hermione, I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to help you."

"Help me?" Hermione asked slowly, glancing over at the burly figure popping crisps in his mouth, then trying to pat the crumbs out of his beard.

"Of course help you." Vanya laughed, looking at Hermione with deep affection. "When we were flat mates, you were broken. You were hurt and lonely."

Hermione remained silent. Vanya continued.

"Honestly, I was surprised when I received Ron's owl. It was as if you wanted me to come for you. You gave me everything I needed, right in one letter. After that, I knew it was time."

Hermione was at a loss for words. She was obviously missing something. She knew Vanya well, and she too felt as though they were sisters for a time. Hermione and her had connected on a deep level, both being only children, both facing somewhat difficult lives. She never got the impression though that Vanya was off her rocker.

"I don't understand what any of this has to do with kidnapping me. I know you had difficulties with your father. You know I could have always come to help."

Vanya gave her a smile, though it was hidden by a pain Hermione was familiar with.

"Dad would never let me go." This felt eerily similar to the heart-to-hearts they used to have on the couch at their flat, but this time was in a dungeon-like basement where Hermione was being held captive. "He would never let me share my achievements. He wants to keep them for himself. He wants to keep my work and my abilities for his own personal gain."

"Vanya, let's just leave. I can help you get away from him."

It was futile. Vanya was already shaking her head. "You don't know what he's capable of. He would never let me be free. He would never let me skills be used for anything other than his own profit."

Hermione felt like this was going somewhere. She was almost afraid to ask the question that hung in the air.

"Then what do you want from me?" She almost whispered out.

That's when Vanya gave her a smile so piercing that Hermione was sure she could have been part Veela.

"You are one of the Golden Trio. You have all this fame, opportunity and freedom. You've got every door open for you."

Hermione was still lost. She was sure Vanya could tell.

"You basically got to pick your job, even though you are an awful teacher. Every newspaper would drop whatever they are doing to listen to you. Anything you did or said would be encrusted in gold and erected into a statue."

Hermione listened on to Vanya, thoroughly flabbergasted at how she saw her.

"You could literally do anything you wanted and the world would support you." She said. "Me on the other hand, can invent and transform potions for wizards everywhere, but I'm stuck keeping it a secret so my dad can use it for profit."

"I can help you." Hermione tried again.

Vanya was shaking her head. She then lifted up the side of her shirt. The skin on her side looked as if it had been struck by black lighting. The web of what appeared to be a very dark curse wrapped around her.

"Oh my god, Vanya." Hermione breathed.

"That's what happens when I try to leave. That's what happens when he finds me."

"How can I help?" Hermione asked, momentarily forgetting that her friend was also her kidnapper.

"I'm so glad you asked. I knew you would always be there for me. Do whatever it took to help your sister."

Hermione didn't know where this was headed, but her instincts told her it was nowhere good.

"I will help you, Vanya. But you've got to let me go. Why are you stalking me? Why did you kidnap me?"

"You'll see." Vanya said, wandering back towards the man. She could clearly see her purse and the shimmering gold of the coin on the table. She watched as Vanya picked up Hermione's wand and rolled it admiringly through her hands.

"Andrei, will you please go get the serum?"

Hermione felt her body tense as she watched the lumbering figure who had been uninterested in the conversation up until this point wander towards the off-colored miniature refrigerator at the back of the room.

"Vanya, you don't have to do this. You can just let me go."

Vanya looked back at her with disgust.

"Hermione, you don't deserve your life. You don't deserve all these doors opened for you. You don't deserve the love you get from Ron." She stopped for a moment. "I still don't get why you had to go out with Savoy anyway." She said as a side note. Hermione clenched again remembering that she put him in harms way.

"You killed him." Hermione breathed.

"NO." Vanya barked. "You did. You could have just minded your own business until I came for you, but you had to introduce new relationships into the mix, new variables. That wasn't part of my plan, and I warned you. I warned you not to break our bond."

Hermione choked. Where earlier she saw the vulnerable side of Vanya, she was starting to now see her maniacal side.

"You see, Hermione. You are failing at your life. You have everything and you are still failing."

Hermione was shaking her head in disbelief. Vanya continued.

"There is only one way you will get better, and that is if I do what you cannot. You don't deserve what you have. You are weak."

Hermione gritted her teeth.

"You see, even now, when you are angry you choose to suffer in silence. I could do so much better. I could be so much better."

Hermione glared at her as Andrei returned with a vial of plum colored liquid.

Vanya didn't notice him, she was solely focused on Hermione, and walked right up to the barrier. They were nose and nose, but Hermione refused to retreat.

"I have done amazing things and they have never been noticed. I have done things that would revolutionize the wizarding world, but instead of appreciation and support, of course I am overlooked. You on the other hand, do nothing with your life. Your only skillset is reading and acting like a know-it-all." She hissed out the last words. "If you were really smart, you would use your celebrity, your connections and your friends to transform the world into something that worked for you, rather than against you."

Hermione was frozen. She acknowledged that after the Battle of Hogwarts, and after she and Ron separated, life had taken an unexpected turn for her. She had focused so much on protecting Harry, that when she was without her best friends, she felt rather alone. When she had been beaten down by the tabloids, constantly ridiculed by those fighting against the cause for equal rights for all beings, something in her shifted. She did in fact, let fear settle in. She did hide herself more than necessary.

The man walked up next to Vanya. Hermione felt incredibly small.

"What do you want?" Hermione whispered.

"I want to know everything." Vanya smiled devilishly. And with that she shot a bolt of light through Hermione's wand towards her chest. Everything went black.

Hermione awoke with a start, but felt splinters in her arms. She looked down and noticed she was still in her hidden prison, but this time, her arms and legs were bound tight in a chair.

Vanya sat on a chair in front of her, her legs neatly crossed. She gave a faint glimmer of what reminded Hermione of Professor Umbridge when she was teaching a lesson to the students she despised.

She noticed she was no longer in her bridesmaids dress, but in something more her own style. She recognized that they must have pulled it from her purse. She noticed that Vanya also wore one of Hermione's favorite knit tops and her jeans. They seemed to fit perfectly.

"Okay, this is the bit that is a little less fun for you." Vanya said, placing a consoling hand on Hermione's knee.

Hermione wriggled, feeling the splinters of the ropes dig into her arms. She watched as Andrei crossed the barrier with a vial of plum liquid to her lips and poured it into her mouth. He held her jaw open so she could do nothing but sputter as it flowed down her throat.

"There, there. The hard parts done. Now we can begin the fun part." Vanya pulled a long piece of parchment from next to her chair. Hermione could barely see it, but it appeared to be a list of questions.

Hermione cringed as the warm liquid bubbled in her belly. It wasn't something she had tasted before, but she recognized the color and knew what she had just drank. Veritaserum.

"What to ask first?" Vanya tipped her finger to her chin looking through her parchment. "Let's start with the depressing stuff first...What is your worst fear?"

Hermione felt the serum boiling her insides. She wanted to refuse. She wanted to lie or say nothing, but the more she fought against it, the more the liquid in her burned. She couldn't stop herself.

"Being abandoned." She said it like it was ripped out of her.

"Ugh, that was rather anticlimactic." Vanya complained.

Hermione didn't say anything. She tried to stop her eyes from prickling.

"What was your worst fear as a child?" She asked.

"Failing out of Hogwarts. Being turned away from the magical world." Hermione lurched, now breathing heavily. "Stop, please."

Vanya rolled her eyes. "And your deepest regret?" She asked, ignoring Hermione's please.

"Trusting you." Hermione hissed out.

Vanya looked up at her in surprise and smiled. "It's for the best, promise." Vanya said innocently.

It went on like that for nearly two days with sporadic breaks for Hermione to eat and nap. To say the experience was emotionally and physically exhausting would be an understatement. Questions about her childhood, her fears, regrets, deepest desires, where she grew up, her opinions on certain people, her favorite stuffed animal, her time at Hogwarts, her time with her parents, her wand, Dumbledore's Army Galleon, anything and everything that Vanya could ask, she did. Hermione felt as if she was being stripped bare. Everything private, everything she kept close to her heart being ripped from her as if she didn't matter. As if she was an object to be studied, rather than a person to be cared for.

She felt herself going numb as the words continued to tumble out of her mouth. Eventually, after a third day of exhaustion and questions, despite Vanya's push to continue, Hermione passed out.

It took a few moments for Hermione to realize that she was now laying on the floor, no longer bound by the rope in the chair. She could hear fighting in the background.

"What are we doing?" She heard Andrei growl. "I only agreed to this, because I want Weasley dead. This doesn't look like 'dead' to me."

"Andrei, please. I told you, this is the surest way to solve all of our problems." Vanya's sugary sweet voice tried to console the oversized monster. Despite the fact that she was half his size, he seemed to respect her in a way that someone quite so large wouldn't normally.

Hermione remained still, listening intently, while trying to avoid the raw feeling of where the rope had once rubbed at her skin.

"I promise." She pushed. "You are still wanted by the Ministry, remember? Ron has surely seen the note by now, and knows you are responsible for taking her. Her suffering is his, and probably worse. Besides, we still need someone to take your place in Azkaban if you want to go free."

Hermione furrowed her brow. Wanted? Then the pieces came together instantly. Andrei was the man that had escaped on Ron's assignment. This was a revenge plot. But it didn't make sense to Hermione. If this was just to make Ron suffer, why take her? Why pull out all her secrets and thoughts? What did Vanya have to do with any of this?

"I want him to more than suffer." Andrei responded. "I want Weasley dead. He ruined my life, now I'm going to ruin his."

"Of course." Vanya encouraged. "And this is how we do that. My solution covers every possible scenario. It's magic-proof." She emphasized. "I just need to make sure I've gotten everything I can out of her. Once I have that, we will be able to move forward with the plan...and we will be that much closer to removing Ron Weasley from the picture entirely. I just need to gain his trust first. Once I have that, I promise you Andrei, we will both get our truest desires."

Something in Hermione shifted with the mention of Ron's name. At first she was merely afraid for her own life, hoping beyond hope that Ron would find her. Now her feelings mirrored something akin to a viper. She wanted to attack them, and wanted Ron to keep his distance.

She continued listening as she slowly inched her way to the barrier. Her fingers crept to the edge, hoping beyond hope that they hadn't magicked the shield up. She held her breath as her fingers edged across the threshold. She didn't dare breathe, but she knew that if she was going to escape, she would need to go soon, before they realized she was awake.

Her mind plotted out every path. She knew the stairs were to the left behind a wall, and that the coin and her wand were sitting not ten feet from her at the table.

Pulling every bit of energy from her bones, she flung herself into the air and darted for her wand. She would have gone for the coin, but was sure that it would be no use until she knew where she was. The best possible option was to get her wand and get out.

She heard a shrill screech towards the back of the room as she got ahold of her wand. Vanya had spotted her. Both looked entirely perplexed and unprepared as Hermione flung a jinx towards Andrei. Hermione had become quite adept to silent spells and it hit him perfectly square.

Vanya barreled toward her, but Hermione was faster, dashing around the corner and up the stairs shooting spells behind her without looking. She bounded up and up until she reached a rickety looking door and practically fell outside of it.

The sunlight burned her eyes as she made her way out onto what appeared to be a desolate and empty road. Her eyes struggled to adjust and relief flooded her, knowing that she could run. She looked around desperate for any clear markers of where she was or where she should go.

She looked behind her to see a dilapidated house that she had come from. It seemed to be an abandoned road and this was the only one on it. She spotted a street sign that said Darrow Hill Way, and just as she was preparing to apparate she felt something slimy grip hold of her back.

"Don't even think about it." Hissed the sickly voice as her body was dragged backwards. Hermione tried to point her wand behind her, but before she could, the wand flung from her hand backward into Vanya's. Vanya continued to pull her back. It was like a frog's tongue pulling it's prey back towards its mouth to be devoured.

"Help!" Hermione screamed to anyone. She knew no one was in earshot. If they had, Vanya surely wouldn't have used magic out in public like this.

The energy and adrenaline Hermione had mustered to escape dissipated and Hermione felt the desolate hopelessness return. Vanya dragged her down the stairs. She tried to pull away, but it was useless. She was a rag doll, giving way to what was to come, knowing that there was nothing she could do about it.

Hermione lost count of the days, but she felt as though she had been confined for eternity. Every day was worse than the last. Every time she woke up, she was weaker than before. Andrei had been particularly nasty with the Veritaserum the day before, probably still resentful about the way she had incapacitated him.

The questions didn't end, they only became more detailed. Vanya had spent the day before asking intricate and infinitesimal details about her time with the Weasleys, with Harry and with her parents. Vanya spent most of the day dissecting her relationship with Harry. How she talked around him, what they talked most often about, what he liked about her, what he didn't. What they did for fun, if they worked together, what their last conversation was, what their most intimate conversation was. It went on and on until Hermione felt she had nothing left to give.

Today had been worse though, she had spent the entire day on Ron. Solely on him and everything related to him. She asked about his past, about their moments together. Her favorite memory, her most recent, the worst fight they had, his favorite food, what they liked to do together, how she liked to rest in his arms. She asked the most intimate and private details about their relationship and what she thought about him.

Both Vanya and Hermione knew that she would not escape again. That the one time they'd been caught off guard would be the only time. Hermione sobbed into the floor that evening when they had left. She didn't care if the noises were heard by her captors. She sobbed for herself, for Ron, for everything she had given away these past days. She sobbed until she could do no more. Then, she fell asleep.

The next morning, she woke up to a piping hot breakfast in front of her. It smelled warm and cozy. It could have been a breakfast baked by Mrs. Weasley, that's how perfect it looked. The false sense of comfort was not lost on Hermione as she pulled herself up in a seated position. Despite having to go to the bathroom, she didn't feel as if it was safe at the moment to go over to the shaded alcove to relieve herself, so she stayed there, avoiding the sweet smell of the pancakes and the salty allure of the bacon.

"Don't worry. I didn't do anything to it." Vanya smiled. Hermione didn't move.

Andrei sauntered in with another Veritaserum vial and Hermione felt herself hold back a wretch. She couldn't do this much longer.

Without even looking back at Andrei, Vanya shook her head.

"Not today." She said waving him off. Andrei looked up at her in surprise.

"It's time?" His thick accent hung in the air.

"Almost." Vanya answered. "Will you get me a knife?" Vanya asked Andrei politely.

Andrei fumbled in a nearby drawer along the wall and came back with a sharp looking dagger. Hermione held her breath.

"You don't have to kill me." Hermione said softly, though she knew it wouldn't matter.

"Oh goodness, no." Vanya laughed. "This isn't for you...yet."

Vanya quickly scurried away and brought back a stand that held a variety of transparent vials filled with a luminescent colors, some an iridescent blue, others a thick ruby red. There were three filled vials of each color. One for each of them. There were plenty of other vials, but they were all empty, some with a few crusted remnants inside. Hermione surmised they must have been used already.

"I've been waiting to tell you about this part." Vanya squealed looking over at Hermione. "I've been working on these for ages."

Hermione could tell that Andrei watched on in curiosity as well. He didn't seem to be as privy to her plan as Hermione had originally thought.

"These," Vanya pointed at the deep, bubbly brown vials, "you may recognize."

Hermione did recognize them.

"Polyjuice Potion." Hermione offered emotionless, though her color seemed a tinge darker than what she was used to.

"Exactly! But not just any Polyjuice. It's my own unique blend."

Hermione didn't dare ask what she had planned, but Vanya continued as if Hermione was the only one in the world that could appreciate Vanya's brilliance.

"It is a permanent Polyjuice." Vanya looked at her with pride, hoping for some sort of admiration or surprise. Hermione didn't give her the satisfaction.

"Come on, Hermione. Isn't it amazing. Now we can turn into someone else...forever!"

Hermione felt her stomach flip over, though she wasn't sure if it was because she was so hungry or she knew the moment food met her lips she would regurgitate it back up again.

Vanya looked slightly put out, but continued.

"Of course, just in case something went wrong, I had to create the antidote." She pointed to the iridescent blue vials. "Not that we should need them." She said more to herself. "Always better to be safe than sorry." There looked to be far fewer of the antidote than the Polyjuice.

"That's how you've been watching me." Hermione connected the dots.

Vanya put her finger to her nose, as if to say 'spot on'. "I particularly enjoyed our conversation at the bar." Hermione remembered back to the Irish gentleman who had given her the shot of brown liquid.

"Just because you can look like someone, doesn't mean you become them." Hermione scolded like an older sister, trying to prevent her younger sister from doing something stupid. "There are always tells."

"Depends how well you know them." Vanya answered, the edges of her lips tilting up. "And on to the final vials here" she pointed at the ruby red liquid, "just in case there are any concerns, a counteragent to Veritaserum. I can lie and everyone will believe it to be the truth. Ingenious, right?"

As Hermione listened, she had already pulled together the pieces of the puzzle. She knew there had been a reason Vanya wanted to know so much about her. And by this point, Hermione couldn't come up with one thing that she hadn't told Vanya in painstaking detail.

"Andrei, did you bring the blood?" Andrei handed her a circular thimble sized vial. Vanya unscrewed the top and pulled a brown Polyjuice vial out, and poured the blood inside. She swirled it around and used her thumb to hold the Polyjuice in the vial as she shook it back and forth to ensure the blood had mixed in with the contents.

"Now, your blood." Vanya ordered to Andrei. He didn't hesitate as he sliced into his palm and droplets fell into a second Polyjuice vial Vanya had opened. She shook it around, corked it and set it down tenderly as if to use it later.

"Now Drink." She said simply to Andrei, handing him the vial that contained the blood that Andrei had brought with him. Andrei looked at her and then shot the vial back. Nothing happened for a moment, but it didn't take long for Hermione to hear a groan from Andrei. He bent over in anguish. Hermione knew the taste of Polyjuice, she knew what was coming.

Achingly slow at first, then faster and faster, Andrei's skin darkened, his body leaned out, his eyes drew closer together, his hair changed to a handsome blonde, and before Hermione took another breath, Andrei had transformed into someone she'd never seen before.

"Very nice, indeed." Vanya said to Andrei as his clothes tried to engulf his new chiseled features.

At this point Andrei had disrobed from some of his clothes, but was willing to do exactly what Vanya was saying. His concerns about her plan were similar to Hermione's hopes, gone.

"Eat up Hermione." Vanya said without any malice in her voice. "You're next."

While Hermione expected them to converge on her immediately, she was wrong. They had waited a few hours before they returned. Hermione had given in to her hunger, hoping beyond hope that the food wasn't poisoned. Though, she was sure they needed her at her best to collect her blood.

"Okay Hermione. Time to make this official. Time for our bond to be beyond words."

Hermione used the tray to try to deflect their wands, but it was a poor excuse for a barricade and didn't take long for Andrei and Vanya to enter behind her shield and hold her firmly in place. She squirmed, but it was no use.

She felt the stinging prick of the dagger and felt the blood exit her body and drip into a vial of thick brown liquid. Her insides felt weak.

"They will figure it out." Hermione tried to hiss out, but it came out more like a weak plea to the gods.

"Maybe." Vanya offered. "And when they do, they die."

Hermione clamped her mouth shut.

"Now" Vanya's voice seemed more confident than ever. "It is time."

Before Hermione had a chance to react, she felt Andrei grab something from his pocket, then heard a quiet pop of a top coming off and falling to the ground. Before she could wriggle, he handed the now open vial to Vanya, and she poured Polyjuice down Hermione's throat as Andrei held it open.

After so much Veritaserum being forced down, it wasn't hard for them to get the Polyjuice down as well. After it was in, they let her go and made their way to the other side of the barrier, quite pleased with themselves.

At first, Hermione didn't feel anything, but then, like a ticking clock, she felt the shift in her stomach. She felt her skin start to sting, her knees buckle, her eyes get blurry. She felt the familiar pull of her entire body shifting and transforming, rolling in on itself and expanding at the same time. She was changing into someone else.

As she knelt down and moaned, she watched as Vanya also drank from a vial of Polyjuice potion. Hermione couldn't see clearly yet, but knew that Vanya was also going through a transformation. They were all becoming someone different, permanently.

"These should fit better." She heard Andrei call as some clothes flew through the invisible shield onto the floor next to her. She looked over to see Andrei's original clothes.

Before she moved, she looked up and gasped at what she saw next.

"Perfect." A familiar voice, that was no longer Vanya's, spoke. It was her voice, Hermione's, but not coming from her.

"No." Hermione whispered, though her voice was no longer her own either. Instead it was the thick voice of Andrei.

Vanya, having already been in Hermione's clothes, was a spitting image. Hermione felt that she may even be a more beautiful Hermione than Hermione was normally. She stood up taller than Hermione, she glided instead of shuffled. She was everything that Hermione was, but better.

Vanya looked at her as if reading her thoughts. "Good catch." Vanya said, and she tried to slump a little.

"Why can't we just kill her?" Andrei said. Hermione also had that question.

"Because, as I said earlier," Vanya said in her most Hermione-ish voice, "someone needs to go to prison in your place or they will keep snooping. Besides, if she dies with the Polyjuice it will transform her back and I can't have anyone finding a dead Hermione body, at least not where anyone would care." She finished.

Hermione gulped.

"Fine." Andrei said in his new voice. "So when can we do the switch?"

"Give me a few hours to get familiar with my new body, and then we can set the stage at the caves."

Hermione didn't know what to do or think. All she could do after putting on Andrei's clothes was pray that her parents, or Ron, or Harry would know it wasn't her. That even just one of them would be able to see beyond the deception. But the hope was snuffed out when she realized that them knowing Vanya wasn't really her meant their death. Probably quickly and painfully when she thought back to Savoy.

That's when Hermione started to shake. Her oversized form looked small and pathetic as it flitted back and forth between wanting to be rescued and wanting to rescue her loved ones.

She was out of options.