Disclaimer: Do I honestly need to tell you I don't own the Potterverse? If you didn't know JKR owns it. . . then. . . HAVE YOU BEEN HIDING UNDER A ROCK?!?

A/N: Heh, yet another chapter in the saga that is Double Trouble. I am listening to Evanescence's My Immortal, yet the best song ever! That and Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah, both the best songs ever sung. I mean it. . . if you don't know of them, or haven't heard them, go and find it! You will not be disappointed. Okay, thankies to the reviewers, especially Lord Elrond of Hogwarts and Ehlonna for your very, very entertaining and helpful comments. And now. . . for your reading entertainment, I give you. . .

DOUBLE TROUBLE

Chapter Thirty-Two

Dumbledore stood gazing at the ceiling of the Great Hall, his blue eyes weary. The Dark Mark still glowed there, even as the burgeoning storm was sweeping across the stars. All of his years weighed heavily on his shoulders, causing him to stoop slightly. When would this madness end? Something about the girl's return just seemed off to him, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Albus?" McGonagall stepped over to him, her voice tentative. "They've taken her to the Infirmary. Poppy says that the girl should be around soon, if you want to question her." Her face lost most of its sternness, the eerie green of the Mark reflecting on her skin, giving her an almost otherworldly appearance.

"Thank you, Minerva." Dumbledore gestured dismissively.

"What is it Albus?"

"It's just that. . . so much has been lost."

She gave him a thin smile. "Yes, so much. You know it wasn't your fault."

"If only. Every life lost in this is as much my fault as anyone's. Especially the Potters." He sighed. "If only I had gone with my gut instinct."

***

"Charlie! Get up, NOW!"

"Jus' five mo' minutes, mum." Charlie snuggled deeper into his blankets.

Bill sighed, pulling out his wand, "Remember, you asked for this."

Charlie yelped, leaping from his bed, soaked in icy water from head to foot. "Whatcha do that for?!"

"You needed to get up! I've been standing here five minutes trying to get you up." Bill replied, drying him off with a well placed drying spell. "Now, c'mon! You're needed at the Infirmary!"

"What?" Charlie shook his head, "Why?"

"She's back!"

"Who-OH!" Charlie sprang towards the portrait door, his eyes wild.

"Um. . .Charlie. Don't you need to get dressed?"

"Oh. . ." He looked down at his attire. Not exactly proper to go traipsing about the castle in just his boxers. He grabbed a pair of trousers and a shirt, throwing them on hastily. "Now c'mon! Why didn't you get me sooner? How did she get here? Is she hurt badly? I will KILL Him if He has injured her."

"Well, c'mon killer. The faster we get to her, the faster you can see her."

Charlie leapt off at a sprint towards the Hospital Wing, careening wildly down the Halls, heedless of students and statues alike. Once he nearly clobbered a suit of armor, causing Bill to grab hold of him. "You might want to get there in one piece, y'know."

***

"You need to administer the Health Restorus Potion. But. . . I think if you were to add belladonna with an infusion of Dragon Scales instead of mugwort you'd get the desired effect."

Snape stroked his chin for a moment, then smirked, "Miss Granger, accompany me to the Dungeons." Fire flared in his arm, causing him to wince. His eyes widened, and his body tensed. "On second thought, Draco, assist her with the Potion." He stumbled away from the little group, towards the Forbidden Forest, his eyes dark with the pain.

Hermione watched him leave, her jaw dropped in surprise.

"He's being called." Draco answered her unspoken question. "Undoubtedly to fawn over Voldemort's latest victory and deliver some sort of information to yet again lead the Deatheater's astray."

"You. . . know?" Hermione herself had only known since the end of her fourth year.

"Of course, who do you think. . . saved. . . me?" Draco watched the dark silhouette of their Potion's Professor with something akin to a deep seated respect. "I owe him my very life. Until he changed my mind, I was all set to give my life in the service of Tom Riddle."

Hermione nodded, "Well, since you know you're way around a cauldron, we'd better get that Potion ready. It will take a while to prepare, so you'd best settle for a long night."

Draco nodded, his mood pensive. He hated watching the man he'd come to consider a father walk off into the darkness only to return broken and bleeding. "Alright, what ingredients do you need again?" He swung Melody onto his hip as he stood.

"Well, belladonna, Dragon Scales, water, powdered asphodel, bloodroot, ginseng, and I think a little mint."

"Mint?"

"For taste, to offset the bitterness and soothe the throat too." Hermione held the door open for him, a wan smile lighting up her eyes.

Draco nodded, mentally listing the ingredients. "And you know what order to add said ingredients?"

Hermione laughed, "I am the resident know-it-all right? It's just basically a twist on a healing Potion. The belladonna is poisonous, adding a bit of poison in her weakened system will cause her magic to react, and as you know, Dragon Scales are powerful drawing agents, it will essentially offset the poison and draw her magic out of hiding. Returning her to normal, or at least a grain of normalcy." Her heart suddenly went out to her cousin, one of only four people who could really understand her.

Draco smiled. "Your cousin is certainly a piece of work, escaping from Voldemort with her sanity intact is quite a feat, Elemental or not. Voldemort's game is to break his victims, first their mind. . . then their body." His voice sounded haunted, then he lightened up, "But, I want to know how five powerful Witches can be born into the same family, that is rare, especially for Muggleborns." Draco looked at Hermione with a mixture of awe and uncertainty.

"Rohan, you remember him right?" Draco nodded, he vaguely remembered meeting Hermione's trainer shortly before leaving for Hogwarts, "Well, he said that we seem to have some Fae blood in us, so no, it isn't strange. My family comes from Ireland, so it isn't unlikely either. But it's odd, I mean, I thought Tir Na Nog was just a fictitious place."

"Tir Na Nog?" Draco must've looked perplexed because she gasped.

"You mean you've never heard the Legend of Tir Na Nog?" At Draco's negative, she almost fainted. "It's only the best story ever! It's even fabled to be the lost Atlantis."

"Atlantis, the lost continent?"

"Yes, but it was an island off the coast of Ireland, and in the old days, a barbarian race worshipped the Tuatha de Nanaan, the Fae kings and queens of Ireland. Well, as years progressed, the humans turned on their Kings and Queens and hunted them much like animals, so the Tuatha de Nanaan sought refuge on the island of Tir Na Nog, and it is said that powerful magic caused it to sink below the waves, only to reemerge every hundred years to see if the world is fit to return their people too."

By this time, Draco and Hermione had reached the Dungeons, Melody was sleeping soundly.

"Well, that's an interesting tale. . ." Draco cocked his head to the side. "But, if you're related to these Tuatha de Nanaan, wouldn't that make you an heir to their Fae Throne?"

"No. . .it's so far down the line it doesn't even matter anymore. It's just that a part of their magic remained in our bloodline, and resulted in me and my cousins."

Draco nodded. "Okay, now, to work on that Potion of yours. What did you call it? The Health Restorus?"

"Well, it's isn't quite that, exactly, more of a derivative."

Draco nodded, "Okay, I'll get the ingredients, you set up the cauldron and such." He turned his attention to the sleeping form in his arms. "Uh. . .what do I do about her?"

"I'll handle her. Go on." Hermione grinned, turning to one of the tables. Transfiguration was her favorite subject, beside Arithmancy of course. She simply transfigured one of the tables into a small bed, a couple of cauldrons into a pillow and blanket, and tucked the toddler in snug. It was going to be a long night for all of them.

She began to set up her workstation, her cauldron in the center, the cutting board off to the right, and the timer to the left, along with a few bowls to put her ingredients in. 'I've never noticed how much Potions is like cooking.' She thought, a smile on her face. One of her many passions that she only indulged in over the holidays was baking and cooking. She absolutely loved to bake cookies, especially peanut butter-chocolate chip cookies. Her specialty. Actually, she didn't think anyone other than her parents knew that she was a whiz in the Kitchen. She'd have to make some cookies soon, provided the House Elves allowed her near the stoves.

"Okay, here's the ingredients, minus the mint. I think I may have to make a trip to the Kitchens for that one." Hermione nodded, grabbing the belladonna gently, and began to chop it into even little pieces. "Oh, wait! Hey, Draco, you need to get the starts we made earlier in the year." She pointed to a small cabinet on the opposite end of the room, "We can't have a potion without the base."

Draco shuffled over, grabbing one of the phials of base that Snape insisted they make for all their future Potions, it kept time down.

"Thanks." Hermione bustled about, starting a flame beneath the cauldron, 'Chemistry too.' She thought with a smile. "Okay, pour the base into the cauldron. We need to get it to a rolling boil before we can even begin to add our ingredients."

"Do you memorize your textbooks?" Draco emptied the contents of the crystal phial, his eyes narrowing. "I mean, how did you know that belladonna and Dragon Scales would unlock your cousin's magic?"

"I don't KNOW per say, it's just a logical solution."

"You mean we're going to test a hypothesis on your cousin. . .using belladonna of all things?!"

"Trust me, the amount we're going to be applying isn't deadly, and I know it will work, just trust me."

"Maybe you'd better write down the recipe, just in case something like this pops up again." Draco suggested, grabbing a piece of parchment, quill, and bottle of ink off Snape's desk.

"You're right." Hermione conceded, turning to grab the bloodroot, slivering it thinly. The base was beginning to boil, and Hermione took a moment to stir the base, then add water. "Okay, Draco, you go and get the mint while I finish preparing this stuff."

Draco nodded mutely, and turned to leave, his gray eyes smiling. The girl had immersed herself in her work, humming a little ditty that would no doubt get caught in his head.

Once Draco left, Hermione quickly dispatched the other ingredients, and once the base and water began to boil, she carefully added the bloodroot, stirred, and then added the powdered asphodel, watching as the base turned from the weak tea-brown to a strange reddish-orange, good, right along the lines of the Health Restorus. But, if she was correct, the potion she would end up with would be a pale watery green.

***

Snape apparated into the clearing, barely having time to don his mask before others began striding in and taking their place. He spotted Malfoy strutting in importantly, and his whole body went on alert. He had seen the Dark Mark there on the ceiling, he had felt the twinge of pain that normally was associated with Voldemort. What was strange was that Potter hadn't collapsed.

"Severus, my friend. . . our Lord has some wonderfully wicked plans to share with us this night. It concerns the Mudblood and her cousins." Lucius stepped into place, his mask hiding his face, but the pure smug air about him just reeked of ill. Snape deflated imperceptibly, no doubt what Voldemort had in mind was not good.

He quickly quelled any ill thoughts, focusing his attention on the meeting at hand. Voldemort, himself, entered the clearing, his face showing twisted glee. As one, the group of Deatheaters dropped onto bended knee, ready to give their oath, the one that left a bitter taste in Snape's mouth every time he enunciated the words. Some nights, he'd rather chew his own arm off than kiss the hem of the charlatan's robe.

Voldemort gestured for them to rise, his eyes narrowed in delight. "My Servants. I have a bit of news." The crowd waited breathlessly, most hoping the Potter boy was finally out of the way. "In about nine months, we will be welcoming my first child into the world." If anything, that's not exactly what Snape was expecting.

A few half-hearted congratulations were murmured in the darkness, but no one was really. . .thrilled.

"I've developed a way to exchange my essence with any woman of my choice without actually copulating with them." His grin widened. "It seems that one of Miss Granger's cousins graciously volunteered to be the first."

Snape was floored, as was most of the gathering. They weren't sure what to make of their Lord's usage of the Mudblood's name or the fact that another Mudblood carried his Heir.

"My Lord?" Bellatrix moved forward, she, along with another group had liberated Lucius Malfoy and the others from Azkaban earlier in the summer. "Why pick Mudbloods?"

Snape wondered that himself, though he was one of the few that knew Voldemort, or rather, Tom Riddle, was actually Halfblooded.

"My dear. . ." Voldemort made the term of affection sound slightly like an insult. "It is not your place to question me. But, I will answer you. These girls are not just 'Mudbloods' as you term them. These five girls are the most powerful witches that this century has seen, so it stands to reason that if they were to carry my heirs, then these children would become the next generation of Dark Lords and Ladies, ruling my kingdom after I am gone."

Snape felt the color drain from his face. Voldemort's future heir was now protected by the wards of Hogwarts. He felt his stomach plummet. No doubt that Voldemort was probably planning to obtain the other four for the same reason, then plant them back within the protective barriers of the school.

***

Hermione carefully added the belladonna and Dragon Scales, stirring counter- clockwise twice, clockwise once and turning off the heat, throwing in a sprig of mint. "There, now, we just need to let that cool, and we can deliver it to Madame Pomfrey."

Draco yawned, stretching, "You know, we've been here going on three hours?"

"Yep, I know." Hermione rotated her shoulders, ridding herself of the knots of tension that came with the job of brewing potions.

The silence stretched on for another five minutes, and then. . . "Okay, now, do you know where he keeps the bottles?" Hermione glanced at Draco.

"Sure." Draco strode over to another small cabinet, grabbing a small bottle, and returning to where she was busy cleaning up her workstation.

"Thanks, just pour the potion in that, cap it, and we'll be done here. Then, you can go on to Gryffindor Tower with Melody, and I'll deliver this to Madame Pomfrey, and probably stick around for a while."

Draco nodded, he could see that Hermione adored her cousins, and vice versa. "I wouldn't have expected any less of you, y'know. Little Miss Know- it-all has to make sure she's correct once again." He smirked.

"Oh puhlease! What is with you all! I AM NOT a KNOW-IT-ALL!" She exclaimed, casting a cleansing charm on the cauldron and returning it to where she'd gotten it.

"Sure. . .and exactly how many books are in the restricted section?"

"Two hundred and thirty two, not counting the other fifty that they have hidden in the back." Hermione answered almost flippantly. Draco's jaw dropped. "Do read Hogwart's: A History, I'm told it's excellent reading material."

"How did you. . ."

"Just because I'm a prefect doesn't mean that I'm perfect, or an Angel for that matter. I just happen to LIKE abiding by the rules!"

"Prefect. . . Perfect. . . basically the same thing." Draco preened slightly, his shiny prefect badge reflecting the light.

Hermione snorted, "Yeah, whatever."

***

George sighed, waiting for Hermione to show up. He hadn't really had time for her lately, and vice versa, so he was going to wait up so that she wouldn't have to be alone, not during this.

"Hey George. . ." Harry collapsed next to him, "Waiting for Mione?"

"Yeah. . .what about you?"

"Well, McGonagall told Ginny that she was to accompany the Quads to the Infirmary, I think Madame Pomfrey asked for her, because she's been showing some interest in MediWitching. I hope Elizabeth's fine. . ." Of all the Quads, she was easily his favorite, though he liked them all, Elizabeth seemed like the sister he'd always wanted, a little prissy, a little bit of drama, but almost untouchable in a way. She had taken a strange interest in him, beyond the celebrity thing, more in his background, almost forcing Sirius and Remus to talk about the days of the Marauders. Which he was ever grateful.

"I know, it would devastate all of them, Mya included. I think if Elizabeth doesn't pull through, she'll go off the deep end and do some serious damage."

***

Snape stumbled towards the Headmaster's office, blood from the night's 'entertainment' still fresh on the black of his robes. He HAD to tell Dumbledore about Voldemort and Elizabeth. . .had to tell him that Elizabeth was carrying the Dark Lord's child.

***

A/N: I know. . .I know, I said she wasn't raped, and she wasn't, at least not in the traditional sense, but. . .what can I say? When Voldemort gets and idea, he doesn't let go until he does it. So, why exactly did he return her to Hogwarts? Well, that and more will be revealed in the next chapter. Please, RR.

Love,

~Me~