"Polyjuice again, Lucius? Really, there is no creativity in your bag of tricks, is there?" Hermione was in full-blazing-anger-Auror mode now, and if she was going to die, she was going to bring him down a notch or two.

"Oh Hermione, hardly one of my best moves, but it worked. I had to have you again, you see, before that wretched Snape could get his hands on you. And yes, I know about your little experiments. Potter was so easy to break. What did you see in that idiot boy, when you've had a real man?" That smooth voice, eating at her soul, dredging up all those shameful feelings of the past. She wouldn't let him have the pleasure of knowing that he was affecting her.

"What have you done with him?"

"He's alive. Don't you fret, darling, you'll be with him soon. I just need to know a little more about your research, and then we'll have a little fun."

"I don't believe he was easy to break. You're lying."

"Perhaps, Toodles."

"Fuck you."

"Oh, that will certainly be a part of this day's games. But I digress. You can save yourself and your idiotic hero of a lover…oy, former lover…and I won't even spoil you for Snape if you'll just hand over what you've been working on."

"I'll die, of course, before I hand anything to you."

"Oh, darling one, you'll die with that attitude; but you will give me what I want before you do. Draco has been itching to have his last fun before he marries that idiot of a wretch, Pansy. She has been so, so useful in bringing you to me through Potter." Harry, you prat, she thought to herself. You finally went to her for information once too often.

"All your threats of rape and torture and death don't do a thing to me, now. I'm not a seventeen year old girl anymore. Do your worst."

"Well, my worst includes summoning your erstwhile lover Snape to join you for a little amusement. It will be such a lovely replay of the past, don't you think? And, since I know he has access to all your little secrets, I'm certain he'll let me in on the details of your research in exchange for your life. Foolish idiot that he is."

"Don't drag him into your mess. He won't tell you anything. You overestimate his regard for me, I assure you."

"Oh, but darling girl, I made you both what you are today. He may have Voldemort fooled, but he doesn't have me fooled. I know he's been helping you, but what I'm sure you don't know is how easily he will turn it over to me rather than face the wrath of the Dark Lord. I won't ask him to watch you die; I do have my merciful moments." With that dark promise, he swept up the stairs, leaving her alone in the dungeon with decisions to make. A few moments later, Draco Malfoy came down the stairs leading Harry by the nose, literally. A few mumbled words and Harry was bound and laying on the floor next to Hermione. "Isn't this lovely, Potter? That's what you get for putting the moves on my fiancé." Draco stalked out of the room.

"Hermione, are you all right?"

"You told him about Toodles?"

"Veritaserum…I couldn't administer the antidote, somehow they knew about it and removed my hollow tooth before it was given." All Aurors had a adopted the old Muggle spy routine; a couple of hollow teeth with a counterpotion to Veritaserum, and a Draught of Living Death that could be used as a way to get out of a compromising situation. It was Hermoine's idea, being the child of dentists and an old fan of intrigue. Since Hermione was not an active Auror, she no longer had these, but Harry would have been able to use them. Apparently, that secret was not as well guarded as Amos thought.

"Fuck."

"You got that right. But oddly, all he asked about was you, and me, and about Snape. He hardly asked at all about your research."

"I'm sorry, Harry. I am afraid I made you a target."

"Should have known Pansy was cultivating me for some reason other than just getting into my pants. This isn't your fault."

They stared at the ceiling in silence. Finally, Hermione began to tell Harry of her work on reliving her memories with Remus and Severus. She explained how her relationship with him was born, and how she now felt – now realized she had always felt - about Snape. She left no detail out, but her confessional was the final piece of a very large puzzle.

Harry nodded after it was all said. Deep down he had known, and had waited for this day to come, even though it was certainly under inauspicious circumstances. "About time, my love, that you faced up to all your truths. How are you now?"

"I was rather conflicted only hours ago, but now I'm not. I'm right back where it started. Ron died over there at the foot of those stairs. My tattered soul was buried here, right where I'm lying, and yet I think I've resurrected it by coming back here. Harry, I can *feel* again; I had thought myself to be emotionless, but I'm not. We will win this round, Harry, I know it now more clearly than I ever had. It was as if I needed this epiphany, and the spell I was creating will save me – and you -- as well as saving Severus. Now listen carefully, Harry. I will get you out of here and we will get justice for what Voldemort and his pet Lucius have done to us – to Ron – to everyone. Trust me." Then, oddly enough, she began to sing. A minor, if he wasn't mistaken. A look of concentration passed over her face, and then she winked out of his sight. "Hermione?"

It had been a gamble, of course, but she had hoped fervently that she would still be able to control the spell from earlier by singing again, and it worked. One needed to be able to sing the final incantation to do it, and thankfully Lucius had been careless enough not to silence the two of them. Sweet mistake, she thought, as she floated above Harry's astonished, unseeing eyes, and retreated up the stairs of Malfoy's dungeons.

She came across him in the front parlor of the house. He was muttering to himself. She watched his patrician, beautiful, cold face as he muttered. Well, as long as her ethical considerations were failing her, she could admit it. He was truly evil personified, and it was oddly beautiful, and that was compelling enough to float there and watch him and contemplate that fact for a moment. Draco came in, and the two talked briefly about their plans for Snape. She knew that had to get to him right away before he discovered her disappearance and came charging after her and into the Malfoys' trap, and they had to get Harry out. Time was of the essence. She thought of the dungeons, and was suddenly there. The Overgrown Bat persona was looming over her Slytherin DADA student. Good, she was not too late.

"And you say that she Apparated and hasn't been seen since? You witnessed this?"

"I was in Hogsmeade on an errand for…for Professor Lupin…sir. She had been accompanied by Harry Potter in the Three Broomsticks. I saw him put on his invisibility cloak, and I knew he was following her, and then I saw him throw off the cloak and ambush her as she prepared to apparate." He cleared his throat and waited for the punishment to be meted out for being in Hogsmeade without clearing it with Snape; he knew his head of house well.

"Did Lupin send you to watch over her?"

Dare he admit this? Would Lupin kill him? The truth was, Lupin could not go himself because of the full moon, and Sirius had disappeared a few days before. Remus had gotten a very strange note from Harry and deduced that there was a potential that things had been compromised, but had been too weak to go after Hermione. He had summoned his best student and asked him to go to Hogsmeade keep an eye on her.

"Yes, sir."

"Thank you, that will be all. No, I won't take points off, but I wish you had told me so I could have gone myself to watch her." Severus knew that Lupin would be useless right about now, and he didn't want to get the old man in on it just yet. Fortunately, before he could think about his next step and do something rash, Hermione appeared.

"It worked!" she said, as he jumped 4 feet into the air, and then after his nerves had calmed, "I know I startled you, but I had put an ingredient in the potion to allow me to turn it on and off at will. It works."

He didn't know what to say. Trembling, he reached out and pulled her into his arms, not knowing whether to yell at her or kiss her.

"Harry is in danger, and so are you if you go near the Malfoys. We have to save Harry."

"What happened?"

"Lucius has him. Had me, and was threatening me with all kinds of nonsense, but I had a feeling that I could get out with the Spiritus."

"You didn't tell me you could turn it on and off at will."

"Wasn't totally sure, until now, that it could last this long. Some of the things I had tried with it worked; some didn't, and I didn't have time to try this part earlier."

"We've got to get Potter. His target is obviously you, but Potter is too valuable to languish in a dungeon much longer."

Albus?

Yes, dear.

Owl Diggory. No, floo him, this is really important. Harry Potter is in Lucius Malfoy's dungeon, and has been questioned under Veritaserum. Fortunately for the Ministry and the Light, it seems Lucius was far more interested in questioning Harry about me than about our secrets – the fool. I was his prisoner briefly and then escaped, but we must get Harry out. I know that Diggory will have a better way to accomplish this than anything I could do. Not to mention that there was no way to hold him accountable for what happened before because he had a fellow Death Eater give him an alibi; if he is taken unaware while holding Harry Potter prisoner, no alibi can be in place and he can finally go to Azkaban where he belongs.

I'm taking care of it now, my dear. Come see me when you have a minute, and bring Severus with you; I would be interested in hearing what has transpired.

I will. Thanks. Let me know what Diggory says.

Disengaging herself from Severus' arms, she said, "I've let Albus know and he will have Diggory take care of it."

"Blast the ministry! I can go there by virtue of being a Death Eater…"

"No." She said it as firmly as she could muster, given her sudden exhaustion. "You. Will. Not. Go. Near. Malfoy. Manor. He knows, Severus, he knows you are disloyal. I assume Harry must have told him under Veritaserum, and before you go off on Harry, it was not his fault. Damn Malfoy."

"This changes some things."

"It was all going to change anyway. The Spiritus Insata works."

"You will teach me how to do it. I have made up my mind to continue in my efforts."

"Oh, please. The Aurors can do it. Retire, Severus."

"Give me a reason, then." Unexpected, that. The Overgrown Bat persona had faded some with his realization that she was all right, and had been safe in his arms.

"Yes, I did hear your confession to Albus this morning. No need to test me." She tried to be funny, but the look on his face changed her mind. "I have a confession, too."

He folded his arms, but said nothing.

"I love you. I have loved you since I was a blushing teenager. I loved you before, during, and after our ordeal. Some of your assumptions about why I ended up with Harry were correct, but others weren't. I was running away from my feelings for you, feelings I assumed could never be returned. I also had a great deal of shame and guilt and preferred to keep it all buried and focus on being driven in my career, but seeing you again and being here... well, I would hope we have slain the demons, and can start over."

"Nice speech, but incredibly misguided affection, Granger. Why on earth would you love me? What I did to you…" Dare he hope? Should the demons be banished permanently?

"Not misguided. Genuine love, yours to accept, though I've had trouble seeing it from time to time. What you did to me is in the past, and we both know how limited your choices have been. Being in Malfoy's clutches one more time, no matter how briefly, made me realize that life is passing me by and I'm not living it. And I intend to start living, right now." At this, she closed the gap between them and kissed him.