The Open Link

by Ralina

AU: At the beginning of Hermione's 5th year in Hogwarts, the ministry discovers, that there must be a student with an open magical link at the school - a phenomenon that hasn't happened for more than a hundred years. Nobody knows who it is, though, not even the person themselves, but everybody seems to be out to find the Open Link, even the Dark Lord himself.

31. Chapter 31

A.N.: This chapter was betaed by my writer-friend multilingualism.

Chapter 31: Consequences

Life seemed to somehow slow down for Hermione. After nearly being discovered by Umbridge and the ministry and after the twin's last-minute intervention the following weeks felt somehow... boring, but in a very good way. Umbridge's lessons were cancelled immediately after Fred and George were seen leaving the castle and after the High Inquisitor had finally managed to free herself from whatever Fred and George had thrown at her, she was no longer to be seen at Hogwarts coming the next day. If the twins had still been around, that fact alone would have made them the new Hogwarts heroes, because apparently, no one could stand the chubby, smiling School Counsellor. Apart from that, no one complained about another free period during the week, not even Hermione. Umbridge's lessons in emotional and attachment study had been a hoax, to begin with, and she had the feeling that by now she knew more about her condition, than anyone from the Ministry would ever be able or at least willing to teach her. Apart from that, the OWLs were getting closer and closer after all and so she was happy to squeeze as much studying time into her daily routine as possible.

"Gah!" A cry from Harry pulled her out of her thoughts. They had just settled down in the common room after finishing dinner and Hermione was about to get out the new notebook she had prepared for revising Transfiguration when her friend suddenly toppled over and held his forehead. Hermione and Ron stared at each other with wide eyes.

"Harry, mate! What's wrong?" Ron asked in a slightly panicked voice and crouched next to the other boy on the floor. But Harry didn't seem to hear him and instead held his head while whimpering silently on the floor. Luckily the fit only lasted for half a minute as Harry opened his eyes, just when Hermione was about to run to Professor McGonagall's office.

"Merlin Harry, you scared the shit out of us," Ron mumbled wide-eyed and offered his best friend a hand to help him up. But Harry quickly pulled himself up with a grunt, looking at his two best friends with a scared expression.

"Voldemort's got Sirius," he whispered urgently. "I've seen it. They're somewhere in the Ministry, I think in the Department of Mysteries and… and he's torturing him."

Hermione looked at her friend with a confused blink. "Are you sure, Harry? I mean, it's not that late in the evening… somebody would have surely noticed, right?"

Ron weighed his head and looked back and forth between the two, like he was torn what to think. Harry stared at him with a desperate expression. "Please, I know what I've seen. It's like it was with your dad, Ron. We need to go, we need to help him before it's too late."

She sighed. "Alright. Let's go to Professor McGonagall, then. She's a member of the Order and you said she also helped you the last time, right?"

The boys nodded enthusiastically. "Right," Ron said and leapt to his feet. "Let's go then. We better not lose any time."

Hermione agreed. She hadn't been there when Harry's first vision happened, but when Sirius was really in danger they needed to hurry. Professor McGonagall would surely know what to do and luckily her office was not far so that they reached it only a minute later. But when they knocked, they found the door closed.

"Where could she be?" Hermione asked and looked down the hallway with wide eyes. "She's been at dinner, so she can't be out of the castle. Should I look for her? Or should we go to the Headmaster instead?"

Harry shook his head in agitation. "There's no time, Hermione. The castle is huge and McGonagall could be anywhere. And Dumbledore's not even at Hogwarts right now. He hasn't been there during dinner, like most days, since the twins disappeared. Bet he's still looking for them."

She cursed. "But there needs to be something we could do."

"We can go to the Ministry ourselves and check," her black-haired friend replied, deadly serious. "I mean, the only other person from the Order is Snape and it's not like we could ask him for help. And even if we did, until we're down at the dungeons and convinced him that I'm telling the truth, Sirius is probably dead or has lost his mind. We need to go and help him now."

"He's right, Mione," Ron replied with a shrug. " 's not like Sirius could withstand the Cruciatus very long, without being hurt permanently. If we want to help him we'll need to be fast."

Hermione sighed. This whole situation was a mess. They couldn't just storm into the Ministry on their own and take on Voldemort themselves. They were just a bunch of fifth-years for god's sake. "Alright," she said taking a deep breath. "We'll go. This is probably breaking a hundred school rules, but taking the Floo should be the safest and fastest option."

Ron nodded. "Yeah, right. The fireplace in the Common Room isn't connected to the network though. Only the Heads of the Houses and the Headmaster do have their fireplaces connected to it."

The three of them stared at each other before their eyes shifted to McGonagall's closed office door. Hermione sighed. "Well, if we're already breaking about a hundred rules, one more doesn't matter, I guess."

The boys nodded. "Probably not."

Before Hermione could say another word, Harry had already cast the unlocking spell. Hermione was surprised it actually worked, as Severus would have had several other wards in place. But the man was the most careful person Hermione knew and it was probably born through his position as Dumbledore's Death Eater spy, even though the man's dark past surely also played a role. Hermione sighed. Thinking about Severus and the silence from him still hurt and it didn't help that Hermione understood why he was keeping his distance from her. She had made a mistake and the twins had almost paid for her stupidity. But was that reason enough to suddenly cut all ties with her? Had she hurt him that badly that he could not forgive her?

"Wait," Hermione called out when she saw the boys rush to the fireplace. She had been rash a few weeks ago, but she wouldn't make the same mistake twice. Severus had drilled that into her a few weeks ago. "Harry, please. Just make a quick floo-call to Grimmauld Place to see if Sirius is really not there. If he isn't, I swear I'll come with you and help you find him. But we need to make sure this isn't just some sort of trap, okay?"

At first, Hermione thought Harry would refuse, but after a minute of hesitation, he agreed with a sigh. Hermione let him make the floo-call on his own, as her head was already starting to formulate a plan. No matter how they put it, it would be suicide to take on the Dark Lord on their own. Harry had done it in the past and survived, yes, but there was too much at stake to gamble with their lives, not even for Sirius.

When Harry pulled his head out of the flames a minute later, he looked at her with an ashen face. "He's not there," he said with a dark expression and a note of impatience in his voice. "There was only Kreacher and he said, Sirius had gone out hours ago."

Ron cursed and said: "Alright, let's go then." He just wanted to step into the flames, when Hermione held him back once more.

"Just a moment. We can't go there alone, boys. It would be suicide," she urged them and conjured a quill and a bit of paper. She used it to hastily write a note. She folded it, got up and called: "Dobby!"

The little elf appeared in front of them with wide eyes. "Miss Hermione called, Dobby?"

Hermione nodded, while she saw Harry and Ron look at the elf with wide eyes. "Dobby, please go and get our friends. Tell them it's an emergency and they're to bring their wands. Afterwards, go and give this to Professor Snape. Tell him it's urgent. Make him read the message, no matter what it takes. Can you do this, Dobby?"

The little elf nodded with flopping ears. "Dobby will do as Miss Hermione asks," he said and disappeared with a silent plop. The boys shook their heads in confusion.

"Who did you just call for?" Ron asked her with his forehead in wrinkles. "Who would be mad enough to break into the Ministry with us?"

But Hermione didn't even have time for an answer, as Dobby appeared with Fred and George in tow only a moment later. "Hermione? What's wrong?"

Fred asked her and stared at the three of them and McGonagall's office with concern. Ron gaped at him in speechless silence.

"Voldemort's got Sirius," Harry hastily explained, totally unfazed by the sudden appearance of the lost twins. "He's torturing them and we're going to save him. Will you help us?"

Fred and George looked at each other before they turned back to the three of them. "You want to break into the Ministry? Through McGonagall's Floo?"

The three of them nodded.

"Brilliant!" the twins chorused and looked at them with an excited smile. "Lead the way then. We're right behind you."

ssssssss

There was never a question if Fred and George would follow Hermione and the others into the Ministry. They weren't totally sure what went wrong and how those three knew about Sirius being tortured, but they trusted Hermione's judgement and apart from that, Harry had saved their father some weeks ago and it probably had been an equally chaotic situation.

When they reached the entrance hall of the Ministry, the place was totally empty. Most of the Ministry workers had probably gone home already but considering that Sirius was being tortured somewhere deeper in the Ministry without anyone noticing, they weren't surprised.

"Alright. Where do we go?" George asked and pulled out his wand.

"Department of Mysteries," Harry replied hastily, already turning into the direction of the elevators. The four friends followed him with a determined nod. But as soon as the doors of the elevator closed behind them Fred said: "Alright Harry, here's the point. If Sirius is being tortured by You-Know-Who, then he's probably expecting company sooner or later. Maybe it's even a trap. That's why I'm voting for some sort of stealth. I say we disillusion ourselves before we go any further."

Hermione nodded with a determined expression. "Good idea," she agreed and already cast the charm on herself. Their little brother looked at her with wide eyes. "Bloody hell, Mione, is there any spell you're not able to cast?" he asked and even though Fred could not see her face, he thought that she was probably rolling her eyes.

"There's a lot of spells I'm unable to cast, Ronald," she replied evenly before murmuring the spell once more and casting it on Harry. The twins smirked and cast the disillusionment on themselves.

"Bloody hell, you learned the spell, too?" Their little brother asked once more staring into the now seemingly empty elevator. "This is bloody advanced magic. Don't tell me Hermione taught you."

Fred grinned, even though Ron would not be able to see. "Alright, then we're not telling you that Hermione taught us. Feeling better now?"

George snorted next to him before he recast the spell on Ron. It was right in time, as the elevator came to a halt a moment later and a pleasant female voice announced their arrival in the Department of Mysteries. Fred took a deep breath. "Alright, guys. This is probably going to get ugly. We'll take each other's hands, so we're not losing each other. Harry, you're taking the lead."

"Alright," their black-haired friend agreed before they patted the air in the hope to find each other's hands. It wasn't easy and going by Hermione's squeak to his right somebody had just found a body part, he'd better left alone.

"Sorry, Mione," he heard his brother's hasty apology and rolled his eyes. Of course, it had been him who had got lucky, Fred thought.

"Alright, everybody got at least one partner now?" George asked somewhere in front of him and a murmur of agreeance followed. "Good. Harry? Off you go."

George felt a tug on his arm and followed the others out of the elevator. Their way through the Department would make a good story, if they ever got the chance to retell it: a room full of spinning doors, one full of brains that were held in different containers, a room containing a spooky veil, one holding a vast collection of time-turners and lastly the Room of Prophecies – their destination. But that's where things went south because Sirius Black was not there. Instead, a whole bunch of Death Eaters seemed to patrol the halls and seemingly waiting for them.

"It's a trap," Fred whispered urgently and pulled his group of friends into a deserted hallway. "We need to get out."

But it was too late. The large double-winged doors of the room suddenly banged shut and another group of Death Eaters appeared in the hallways. "They're heeeeeeere," a female voice singsonged and moved into their direction with swaying hips. "I can smell your fear, sneaky little rats." Fred stared at the scene with his heart heavily beating in his ribcage. That was bad, really bad, as he and his friends were clearly outnumbered. He could spot at least seven Death Eaters, probably more. There was no way a bunch of Hogwarts students could survive a direct encounter with such a number of Death-Eaters that were well-trained in killing other people. That only left the indirect approach.

"We need to take out as many as we can from behind," George whispered to his right. "Let's wait for the group in the middle. I take the left one, Freddy you take the right one. The rest of you take out the two in the middle. As soon as they're down we need to run to the doors, alright?"

There was no answer but the others communicated their approval of the plan by pressing his hand. A moment later Fred felt another tug on his hand, which gave him the sign that they started moving. It was now or never.

"Stupefy!" Fred murmured, after silently pulling his wand out of his sleeve. His spell squarely hit its target into the back, sending it unconsciously to the ground a moment later.

"They're here!" they heard the woman scream again and saw her turning into their direction. Just then another stunner flew towards the Death Eaters and took out another one of them. Only a moment later their disillusionment was suddenly cancelled, right in time to see Hermione throw another spell towards their enemies. It was blocked with a lazy wand motion from the woman in the middle of the group, who was no other than Bellatrix Lestrange.

"Well my friends, look who's been stupid enough to set a foot into our little trap," she said and as she didn't wear a mask like the others did Fred could see her lips forming a mocking smile. "If that isn't the Open Link in the company of Baby Potter himself. The Dark Lord will be pleased if we're getting him all of you in one go."

Fred cursed, immediately throwing a blasting curse into her direction. They needed to take those two down before the other Death Eaters arrived to fuel their ranks. Luckily the other's seemed to have gotten the same idea, as another set of curses flew into the Death Eater's direction, taking another one out as he was hit by three spells simultaneously.

"Idiots! Get the twins and Potter and kill the other ones!" Bellatrix screamed before a killing curse left the tip of her wand. With wide eyes Fred saw it flying in his little brother's direction, only to be reflected by a magical shield right in front of him. Fred looked at the scene with wide eyes. That shouldn't have been possible. There was no known way to block the killing curse, so how…

"You will not touch my friends," he suddenly heard Hermione growl behind him, before she stepped in front of them with an angry expression on her face. It was a totally unnatural sight, as her hair suddenly seemed to fizzle with energy and her eyes were huge and black, instead of their normal caramel-brown colour. Also, the air around her suddenly seemed to prickle with energy making the hairs on his arms stand up. Fred stared at her with his heart agitatedly beating in his ribcage. What was happening to her?

Bellatrix Lestrange seemed to be asking herself the same question, as she stared at the girl with a calculating expression on her face. That was the moment when the other Death Eaters finally burst into the hallway and another set of curses flew into their direction. But before any of them could get even close to Fred and his friends, Hermione blocked them with a large, fizzling shield. Fred stared at it with wide, confused eyes. How was she doing that?

"Stop staring and do something," Hermione grit out and snapped him out of his stupor. "I can't hold them back much longer."

Fred saw his twin nod and following a sudden inspiration he pulled out a hand full of small black beads from his robe. With a quick motion he threw them onto the ground and a moment later the area around them was covered in darkness. "Run!" he shouted before taking off into the direction of the exit himself. He could only hope that his little distraction worked and they would be able to be getting away. Because if he wasn't wrong, Hermione had just put her cards on the table to protect them and by the look on Bellatrix' face she had just understood that neither Fred nor George were, in fact, the Open Link.

ssssssss

Severus just wanted to sit down with a bunch of first-year essays, when that annoying house-elf appeared in front of him on his desk. It wasn't Pucky or any other he knew, but the creature stared at him with wide, blue eyes and offered him a little piece of paper with trembling hands.

"Miss Hermione sends Dobby with a message, Sir," the little elf said staring at him with something like fear in his eyes. And suddenly Severus remembered where he'd seen the creature before.

"You're Lucius' elf," he said evenly, without taking the message from the elf. "Well, let Miss Granger know that she can talk to me herself if she has a problem." He looked at the creature with small eyes and most of them would have left his office trembling with fear by now, but Dobby just looked at him with a determined expression.

"Miss Hermione said it is urgent, Sir," the little plague said and made two steps in his direction until it was standing right in front of him so that his nose was almost poking into Severus' chest. Then the little beast held the message right into his face. "Read it, Sir."

Feisty little devil, Severus cursed inwardly. Now that persistent witch was starting to send him letters as if it wasn't enough that she still tried to get his attention. With a growl of annoyance, he plucked the message out of his face. For a moment he considered just putting the message aside, but suddenly he felt a warning tug in his chest and so he finally unfolded the message with a heavy sigh. It only took him a moment to scan the handful of words, she must have hastily scribbled onto the paper, but he had to read the message twice before he finally grasped what it was saying. He cursed. Merlin, when would that witch ever learn?

"Get the Headmaster, Dobby," he said, raising himself from his desk. "Tell him the Open Link has decided to stumble head-first into a trap." The elf nodded wide-eyed and with another plop he was gone.

This was bad. What did the girl think following Saint Potter on his suicide mission into the Ministry? It was only a matter of time until they got themselves killed or captured and right now Severus wasn't sure what was worse. But he swore to himself, if Potter didn't get himself killed in his reckless stupidity, he'd kill the boy with his own, bare hands.

Severus rushed to the door, connecting his office with his rooms. It was reckless, but there was no time for him to wait for the cavalry. If he wanted Hermione safe, he'd have to help her right away. It couldn't be long until those idiots met the first Death Eaters. He was just about to grab a hand of floo-powder from the mantle when he suddenly felt his magical energy draining out of him like somebody had pulled a stopper. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't shake off the feeling and with growing horror, he realized that his knees suddenly started to buckle below him. There was only one explanation for it. Hermione had activated the Link and started pulling energy from his magical core. This could only mean that those idiots had gotten themselves neck-deep into trouble and as Severus sunk tiredly to his side he realized that there was nothing he could do to help them.

ssssssss

"Come here, come here, wherever you are!" the mad witch's singsong echoed through the corridors as Hermione and her friends dashed through the doors into the next room. Those Death Eaters were hard on their heels but they somehow needed to make it to the exit, if they wanted to survive. Because those crazy people were out for their blood and Hermione wasn't sure how much longer she'd be able to protect her friends.

Hermione looked around the room with wide eyes. They were back in the Time Room that was holding countless time-turners and for a moment she considered grabbing one to go back in time and warn herself about the trap. But she knew that time wasn't working like that and so she just cast another shield and kept running. It was right in time, as she felt the blow from another curse hitting her shield and she couldn't help but stumble. They couldn't keep running like that, as their backs made easy targets for those Death Eaters.

"Confringo!" A quick blasting curse made the wall of time-turners to her right blast into thousands of pieces, before the shelves collapsed and slid towards the Death Eaters as a huge avalanche. It wasn't enough to hold them off, but it would hopefully buy her and her friends some time to make it to the next room.

"Go!" Hermione shouted and a moment later Harry already held the door open for her and the five of them dashed through. Then the door behind them closed and they were back in the round room with the spinning doors.

"Let's hope we find the right one," Ron said and looked at them with squinted eyes. But Harry had already made his decision and ran to the one straight ahead. They stumbled through, but unfortunately for them, it wasn't the exit out of that creepy department, no. They stumbled into the creepiest room that there was, the one with the veil in the middle of it. Did they have time to try out another door, before the Death Eaters would be behind them? Probably not. Hermione banged the door behind them closed and looked at her friends with a serious expression.

"Alright," it's only a matter of time until they come looking for us here. "Let's hide and try taking them out from behind like before."

The boys nodded and Fred and George hastily started applying disillusionment charms. Hermione disillusioned herself, before she quickly moved along the wall until she had brought some distance between herself and the others. This way she wouldn't draw attention to the other's position when she started to attack. She heard some shuffling to her right and hoped that the others did the same. Hermione waited with a hammering heart and for some moments nothing happened. Then suddenly the door burst open so that part of it flew across the room and two Death Eaters stepped in.

"They aren't here either," the first one, a man, going by the voice, said and looked around. "Where are those little rats hiding from us? They can't have gotten too far."

Hermione took a slow deep breath through her nose before she whispered: "Stupor." A moment later her red stunner blasted one of them from his feet, while the second one sagged to the side a moment later. She sighed in relief. They needed to go now before the other Death Eaters saw their colleagues lying on the floor.

"To the door!" she shouted and she was just about to make her first step when a dark-hooded figure appeared in the door. It wasn't a Death Eater, even though the white face staring directly at her disillusioned form could have been easily mistaken for a mask. But the snake-like features and the red eyes left no doubt about whom it was, that stepped into the room.

"I must say, I am impressed," he said looking around before a wave of his bony hand cancelled all their disillusionments. Hermione saw that Harry was only a few steps to her right, while the twins and Ron were almost at the other end of the room.

"Well, Miss Granger," the man said looking at her with his eyes glittering amusedly. "I must say, you gave us quite a chase. But I fear this little game is coming to an end now."

Hermione stared at him with a stony expression. He knew, she realized, which meant that they were in serious trouble now. Where was Severus? Had he even read her message by now? Or was Dobby still trying to make him accept it?

"You're not touching her," Fred suddenly growled from across the room and a second later he and his brother started casting. Some of the spells Hermione had never seen before, but the Dark Lord didn't even bother to turn around and just shielded them without even raising his wand.

"Very amusing. The knights in shining armour," he commented and finally turned around to look at the twins. "Unfortunately I'll have to sever this little bond you have with my witch, as this thing is much bigger than your pitiful teenage romance." Like in slow motion Hermione saw him raising his wand and a detached part of her brain realized that he was holding it like a conductor would hold his baton. Before he even started to cast a spell Hermione knew that he wanted to kill them, as he had come to the conclusion that she must have bonded herself to them. The twins must have realized the same, as their eyes wandered to hers and stared at her with determination, while they raised their wands. Hermione bestowed them a silent nod before she too raised her wand. Only a second later a beam of yellow light left Lord Voldemort's wand and collided with the shield, she had managed to cast right on time in front of her twins. The redheads didn't think twice and sent another handful of curses into the man's direction. But even though one of them even managed to hit him into the chest, he didn't even stumble and just looked at them with an amused smile on his face. "Is that all you got?"

Before any of them could answer, a phoenix burst into the room and with him, Professor Dumbledore and several other Order members. The Headmaster appeared right in front of the twins and stared at the snake-like man with steel in his piercing blue eyes. "Well, Tom, unfortunately for you those boys are under my protection. You took a high risk coming here today."

Hermione felt the relief flooding her body. They weren't saved yet, but with Dumbledore and the other Order members here, their chances had just significantly increased. But Lord Voldemort didn't seem concerned in the least, as Hermione heard his cold laugh echoing through the room a moment later. "You really should re-evaluate your priorities, old man," he said before he disappeared in front of their eyes. Hermione just wanted to relax, when she suddenly felt a white, cold hand close over her mouth and pull her against a bony chest. And just as she stared at her friends with a frightened expression, she could see the horror of realisation dawn on the Headmasters face.

"You can keep those twins, for now," the Dark Lord's cold voice stated coolly right behind her and Hermione felt a shiver of fear and dread run down her back. "I'll keep the girl instead."

Suddenly his voice sounded smug, Hermione realized and she could only imagine his red eyes gloating with victory behind her.

Hermione had barely enough time to focus her eyes on the Headmaster, horror and realization of what was about to happen with her shining in them. Then she could feel herself being pulled away in an apparition and everything around her went dark.

end of part 1 of the story