Chapter Eleven: Behind the Mask

"DREW!" she shouted loudly.

"Ssssh!" he warned quickly. "Not so loud.."

"What are you doing here Drew?" She couldn't help but grin now, he made her feel so comfortable and safe.

"The Headmaster thought I should help you ease back into your classes for a couple of weeks...Of course, I didn't object..." He said with a smirk. "Hermione, are you ok?"

"Oh, wonderful!" she said, half lying. She wanted to kill Snape at that moment, but she was thrilled that Drew was there.

"Don't lie to me Hermione...it wouldn't be wise." He said. His tone of voice changed in that split second, and Hermione was scared...he didn't sound the same, he sounded...mean.

"What's the matter Drew...You don't sound like yourself." Hermione said quietly.

"What in Merlin's name do you mean Hermione?" he said, clearly trying to force a smile and sound genuine.

Hermione still didn't like the way he sounded, or the way he said her name. It sounded almost as odd as when Professor Snape said it those few times.

"What are you doing up here at this time of night?" she said curiously.

"Just wanted to make sure you're okay is all. No harm in that, now is there?" he sounded threatened now, and Hermione didn't want him there anymore...he was scaring her. "Now why don't you just go back to sleep my dear?" he said while forcefully pushing her head back onto the pillow.

"Drew – What's going on..."

"Nothing....just be quiet."

"Why are you –"

"Why am I what? Why am I caring so much about you that I came up here in the middle of the night to make sure you were ok? Why? Hermione, why don't you tell me." Drew said.

"I don't understand –"

"Of course you don't...I'm sorry Hermione..." He sound sincerely sorry now, but Hermione was still shaken. "I'm sorry..." he said again and rubbed his hand against her cheek. "Get some rest now, my girl."

She was 'my girl' again.

Drew gave her a kiss on the cheek and pulled the covers up to keep her warm, and briskly left the room.

Hermione didn't have the faintest idea of what was going on...but she wasn't so worried anymore. Perhaps he had just been stressed or overtired. Possibly even worried about her and Snape still...

She was drifting off to sleep now...

Thankfully, for Hermione, she hadn't dreamt about anything unusual that evening. She wished she could have slept her entire life away after her visit with Drew. Once he felt assuring, calm, and warm to her. But now...now he made her feel uncomfortable and uneasy...and made her long to be anywhere else but with him.

Hermione was woken the next morning by the hustle and bustle of her fellow Gryffindors getting ready for lessons. Hermione heard some giggles, someone rifling through a trunk, and the door to the dormitory banging shut. Hermione tried to lift her heavy eyelids, and after a few minutes, she was awake enough to put on her school robes and try to make her hair tame.

When she finally got down to the Common Room, she didn't see Harry and Ron and decided that they must have been in the Great Hall devouring their breakfast already. With her stomach growling, she raced her way out of the portrait hall and down to breakfast.

When she arrived at the Great Hall, she was thrilled to see that Professor Snape wasn't at the staff tables. After last night's encounter with him, she wanted to keep her distance for a while. When she turned her head back to the Gryffindor table, she spotted Harry and Ron and dashed over as fast as her feet would carry her.

"Harry, Ron!" she said while taking a seat next to Harry.

"Hey 'Mione." They both said in chorus.

"Listen...I'm sorry about last n—" she started.

"—It's ok. Don't think on it Hermione..." Harry said comfortingly.

"Yeah...but we still want to know what happened with you and ....you-know-who.." Ron hinted. He sounded as if he were speaking about Voldemort...than again, Snape wasn't acting as if he weren't...

"Not now guys...too many people. After lessons, okay?" she suggested.

Hermione didn't say anything more, she was too busy piling delectable food onto her plate and eating as fast as she could.

"Hermione, if you eat any faster, Ron and I will have to roll you to the hospital wing..." Harry teased, but Hermione paid no attention to his jokes.

After Hermione had scarfed down her meal, she said goodbye to Harry and Ron and decided to go the dormitory. She remembered that she didn't have to attend regular lessons today because Drew would be teaching her one on one for a while. Hermione didn't think this was necessary, but she obliged just the same.

After sitting in front of the common room fire for about twenty minutes, Hermione heard the familiar squeak of the Fat Lady's portrait being swung open.

"Hello, pet." Drew said.

She didn't like being called that....

"Erm...Hello." She said nervously. She had a very bad feeling come over here and she didn't know what to say. There was a lump in her throat that was becoming particularly hard to swallow.

"Are you ready to soak in the brilliance of my vast amounts of intelligence?" He said with a cocky tone in his voice.

"Sure..." she said, her voice barely reaching Drew's ears.

"Ok then, lets go up to your room, shall we?" he suggested.

Her room? Why were they going to her room? Surely they would be studying right there in the common room, or else in a free classroom, but her room? It was getting odd now...

"My...room?" She said with a crackling voice.

"Of course, pet. Get your things and come on up." He said with a wink. Hermione didn't like this...she didn't like it at all.

"Er...maybe we should work down here, if that's ok?" Hermione said, hoping he would say yes and forget about his previous suggestion.

"Not its not ok...to your room pet." He said fiercely.

Hermione was on the verge of picking up her bag and running out of the common room, but her body felt like a stone and she couldn't move.

Drew was walked right up to Hermione and was in her face. Hermione's heart was beating so fast, she was sure he could hear it. Drew grabbed Hermione by the wrist and dragged her off of her chair.

"Drew!" she yelped.

"Keep it down!" he hissed at her.

His nails were digging into her skin and Hermione was wincing with pain.

"DREW! Let...GO!" she screamed while trying to free her arm from his death grip.

But it was too late. Drew was pulling her arm so hard; she had no choice to follow. She realized that he was taking her up the stairs to the girl's dormitory.

Drew took out his wand and conjured a piece of cloth that tied itself around Hermione's mouth...she was gagged now and couldn't say anything.

Drew finally got Hermione up to her room where he forcefully shoved her onto the floor at the foot of her bed.

"You would be wise not to try and run, pet." He said with a creepy voice.

Hermione was so scared now, she wasn't even going to try and let out a muffled scream. Her skin was dripping with cold sweat and the room was getting dizzy. Just the other day, Drew had been so friendly to her, and she was sure he was her boyfriend...and now everything was just the opposite. She was so terrified of him.

Drew was towering over Hermione's pale figure and he was doing something with the sleeve of his robes. He lifted up the sleeve on his right arm slowly....and it bore a strange mark...

Hermione gasped and fainted.

That day during classed, Harry and Ron didn't see Hermione present at any one of them. They thought maybe she would turn up later, but when she didn't show up for Potions in the afternoon, they started to get worried. Harry and Ron were discussing this in what they thought were hushed voices until someone interrupted them.

"You two say you're worried about Hermione?" asked Lavender Brown, who was known to listen in on other's conversations.

"Well she hasn't been in classes all day, and we saw her at breakfast..." said Ron, who would have normally told Lavender off for eavesdropping, but was dying to know if anyone knew where she was.

"I don't know why you're so worried...she doesn't have to attend classes today anyway." Lavender said smugly. She loved knowing things others didn't...

"Why is that?" Harry asked curiously...that was something Hermione would have remembered to tell her two best friends.

"Well I overheard some boy called Drew talking to her last night...says he's 'easing her into classes' or some wonky thing like that..." Lavender said while adding some powdered unicorn horn to her bubbling potion.

"Oh...that's probably the teacher Dumbledore hired for Hermione...he told us about him weeks ago...but I don't remember his name being Drew....ah well, probably didn't hear that part. Sometimes Dumbledore can drone on a bit..." Said Ron.

After that bit of news, Harry and Ron didn't worry about Hermione...that is...until Snape took roll call. He called off a few names and then landed on "Granger, Hermione"

Harry and Ron looked at each other with a 'doesn't he know she's with her tutor?' look.

Snape repeated it again, "Granger, Hermione!"

He was becoming irritated now.

"GRANGER, HERMIONE!"

"SIR! She's not here!" Said Harry rather loudly.

"Well, thank you for stating the obvious Potter! Where is she?" he said, pasting a false grin on his face.

"With Drew...her tutor. He's helping her do her work for a bit longer." Ron said, trying not to give Snape any reason for docking points off of Gryffindor.

"There is no 'Drew' Mr. Weasley. I talked with the headmaster yesterday, Hermione's tutor's was to Nymphadora Tonks, as I was informed. There was never a 'Drew' " He said matter-of-factly.

"Then who is...Drew?" Harry asked, becoming worried.

Snape didn't say anything.

"All students are to remain seated and not to move a bone! I need a word with the headmaster right now..." and with a swish of his robes, he was out of the room and flying down the dungeon corridor.

Dumbledore was in is office at that time eating a handful of lemon drops, one of his favorite things in the world. He was gazing around at his office and waving merrily at the Witches and Wizards occupying the paintings on his wall. Albus Dumbledore was a brilliant man, but sometime, he let his mind wander for too long... He was then startled by a disturbing rap on his door.

"HEADMASTER! HEADMASTER, LET ME IN!" said the voice of an angered Severus Snape.

Dumbledore rushed to the door to find Snape sweating and breathing heavily.

"Take a seat m'boy." Said Dumbledore. "What is the matter?"

"It's Granger, sir." He panted.

"What about Miss Granger?" Dumbledore asked politely.

"What did you say her tutors name was going to be?" he said, hoping to hear 'Drew'

"None other than our Nymphadora Tonks. We've been receiving letters from her stating Hermione's weekly progress. What a wonderful woman...giving up her Auror duties to help Miss Granger out..." Answered Dumbledore with an airy smile. "Why?"

Severus Snape's heart sunk to the pit of his stomach.

"Tonks has not been seeing Hermione....a man name Drew has." Snape said.

Dumbledore didn't know what to say to this. He had everything well planed with Tonks, surely she wouldn't bail and get someone else to do it...that just wasn't like her.

"Surely there is a misunderstanding Severus." He suggested.

"No headmaster, there is not. There was a man occupying Miss Granger at my house, I wasn't well and I don't remember much, but there was a man there. He had blonde hair, and was quite tall and he looked just like..." Snape stopped stone cold.

"Yes Severus?" Dumbledore bode him go on...

"Like Abbadion Astin..."

Dumbledore had a sharp intake of breath. It couldn't be....

"He is in Azkaban, Severus....of course you jest!" he said, but he knew it was true.

"The Dark Lord is in control of the dementors, which means he could have escaped, no doubt. It was him, headmaster...one of the worst Death Eaters known to serve the Dark Lord..." he trailed off.

"You know what you must do Severus." Said Dumbledore sadly.

"It's too risky...I could never..." he began.

"Severus, I trust you. You have been a double spy for the last two years. You are the only one who knows where Voldemort will be. I'm sure she is in their clutches as we speak, probably the latest piece of meat for the lonely death eaters." Dumbledore shivered at the thought of poor Miss Granger....so helpless "Only you can bring her back." He said sternly.

"We don't even know she is gone!" Snape said through gritted teeth.

"I can feel it Severus...She has passed beyond my sight. You must go...NOW!" he screamed. Something took over him for a moment and he couldn't bear having his own teacher sit there rather than save her.

"But how? The Dark Lord always gets what he wants..." he said dismally.

"Not this time....You will find a way Severus." And before he could object, Dumbledore had given Snape a lemon drop. "You know what to do..."

Snape brought his hand up to his forearm until it grew hot. He had to know where they were...

He tapped on the lemon drop with his wand and said "Portus!"

Within the next second...he was gone.

"Severussssss, how wonderful of you to drop in." hissed a dark figure.

"Yes Master, I had a feeling something was going on..." he said while bowing before the mangled body of Lord Voldemort.

"Yes, how observant of you Severus. We have just captured a mudblood...from your very school Severus. Would you like to see her?" Said the evil voice.

"Of course Master." He said while bowing again. Snape's heart was now beating faster and faster.

Out of nowhere, two hooded Death Eaters appeared with a girl in between them, still as could be.

Don't let her be dead...don't let her be dead... Thought Snape to himself.

One of the death eaters lifted the hood of his robes down and it was none other than the infamous 'Drew', or Abbadion Astin. Snape's skin started to crawl. But he had to be strong. He was in the Dark Lord's presence. He needed to be convincing.

"Hello Abbadion, out of Azkaban I see?" Snape said casually.

"He is indeed back Severus, and it was his fine work that brought this little mudblood here tonight for our entertainment." Said Voldemort.

The other death eater pulled down his hood and revealed a pointed face with long, sleek blonde hair.

"Evening Lucius." Snape greeted him a nod.

"Evening Severus. Notice this young fireball here? Well...she's not much a fireball now..." he said while shaking her limp arm around. "It's Potty's little friend, Granger, the mudblood." Lucius said with an evil smirk.

"Wonderful work Abbadion, and you too Lucius, for helping to bring her here." Voldemort said with a hungry look in his eyes. "I wasn't going to summon you here Severus, as you don't like participating in these...festivities...but you came without my summon. Good lad. You are one of my most loyal servants Severus, perhaps you would like to be first?" he asked.

"Yes, Severus, we all know how you hate sloppy seconds..." Lucius said maniacally.

He couldn't do it. Snape knew what went on at these gatherings. They obtained a woman and used her for their pleasure...raped her...and then killed her.

"Well Severus?" said Abbadion. "I worked rather hard to get her here. I had to send Tonks away and continually send letters under her name...If you wont pleasure this fine young woman, then I will..." he said with a cackle.

"NO!" he screamed... "I'll have my way with her." Snape said, trying to sound convincing. Without Snape noticing, Voldemort had given the signal and Death Eaters were now appearing everywhere, apparently there to join in on the fun.

"Very good Severus!" Voldemort hissed. Abbadion and Lucius dropped Hermione at the Dark Lord's feet and he raised his wand to her and said "Ennervate!"

Hermione's lifeless body came to life slowly, and appeared disoriented.

"Well Severus, make it good now...We haven't had some fun in a while!" Said Voldemort, anxiously waiting to see what he would do.

Lucius took Hermione by the shoulder and lifted her up. He then removed the gag, and pushed her right up against Severus.

Her eyes were barely open, but when Hermione realized who was in front of him she felt sick. Of course, he was working for the order, but she hadn't expected to be there.

"Have your way with her, old friend." Came the drawling voice of Lucius Malfoy.

Have his way with me? What does he mean...Oh no...I have to find a way to get out of here.

Severus stalled for a few moments, trying to think of a plan in the back of his head, but he couldn't come up with anything. She had just saved his life and now the tables had turned. But having his way with her...he could never do that.

Hermione was panicking now, she didn't know what to do. If she tried to run, she knew she wouldn't make it far.

What do I do? She thought to herself.

Granger...you need to relax...I'll find a way out of her, just follow my lead. The voice of Snape was inside her head. That was the only way that he could think of to communicate with her because he wouldn't dream of saying that out loud.

Hermione decided to try and stay calm, but she was surrounded by dozens of Death Eaters and the Dark Lord himself and the only one there to save him was the one person she hoped never to see again.

"Well, Severus what are you waiting for? If you do not begin, I will..." said Voldemort.

Snape couldn't let him do that to Hermione, but HE couldn't do that to Hermione either. He was frozen solid, and shaking all over. Hermione was staring up at him with pleading eyes and looked mortified.

But then all of the things he hated about Hermione were flashing in his head. The way she was an insufferable know-it-all, they way she was so annoying, her bushy hair, her large teeth, her attitude...

Maybe I don't have to save her...maybe she would be better off here... being tortured. She should know what the real meaning of pain is. My life would be so much easier if I just left her in the hands of Lucius or even the Dark Lord...I could just tell Dumbledore that I failed and there was nothing I could do.

SEVERUS! What are you saying! You loathe this girl, but not enough to KILL Her!

"SEVERUS!" screamed the Dark Lord.

He panicked, if he wasted anymore time, she would be history. Before he could think of a better plan...he kissed her.