Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, but I do own a lovely kitten that likes to play with my toes.

A/N: Okay, here's the bit where I drone on but first, I must thank you wonderful people who have taken the time to reveiw. Rebelgal4ever - Thank you for your imput. I have certainly got something planned using some of it. It was very much appreciated.:-) Super - Well, they have the reunion, could have been better but they have it. Emma Knight - As a fellow Emma, thank you for reviewing. Now this rocking business, would that me aimed at Hermione or me?;-) Snapeseraphin - Thank you for taking the time to email me with your help. I'm glad you like the last chapter, it meant a lot to me that you did. Hope your coursework isn't taking over too much but remember, you must always have it done before fan fiction.;-) MiSSxMELON - This chapter doesn't have Lucius in it, but it's coming, I promise. I'm glad you felt like her as that means I'm doing what I set out to acheive. Thank you so much for the compliment, it meant a lot, well when doesn't a compliment mean a lot. stargazer starluver - Did you finally manage to read chapter ten? Coz you reviewed on nine and I know sometimes when you get an alert that you aren't always able to read the new chapter straight away. Dragonmaster Kurai - How long did you chant UPDATE? Well, here it is. maile - You really think the last one was awesome? Thank you. confused 1 - I hope you continue to like it. SerpentClara - Thank you for taking the time to give me so much advice, let alone actually reading my little ol' fan fic. I have certainly taken it all into consideration. Some of the stuff you said I already have planned, and some I have definitely decided to now use. I will definitely read your fan fic very soon. I promise.:-) Noemy009 - Unusual name, I like it. Here it is, another chapter. Dun Hav 1 - I updated, look, a brand spanking new chapter. Lexi - Here it is, I will try to get speedier on my updates, I've just been concentrating on a new novel of mine. Here it is, a new chapter. Athena Linborn - I reveal what Voldemort wanted in this chapter. I hope I don't disappoint with it however I can assure that there will be more on that. I'm completely ecstactic that you think this storyline is original, I hate it when I write something and it sounds too familiar.

Well, is it me or are my thank yous getting longer. I seem to be getting more people to thank, not that I'm complaining, it's bloody wonderful. Right, a word of warning on this chapter, I've written it, it's sort of a filler to get me to the next point and it's a completely boring chapter. It just had to be done though. Also, I was too lazy to check any little details in the story and check my spelling and grammar. So feel free to put me in my place for not taking the time to check. Now on with the story. Hopefully you will all enjoy!

Chapter Eleven

The people surrounding Hermione's bed on the hospital wing of Hogwarts could hardly believe she was there. People had been scouring the country for two weeks after she had disappeared. After that, the Ministry called back the aurors from the search. They were lucky to have aurors even searching, let alone for two weeks. The Minister had thought it was a waste of man power just for someone so unimportant to the wizarding community. Dumbledore had done the unthinkable to make him search when he first refused to send aurors out; he went to Rita Skeeter who had the article in the Daily Prophet by the next day. Within the hour aurors were searching.

Of course, after the aurors had been called off the search, the Order continued to look for her. However, they were losing hope of finding her alive, and the search was becoming less important as muggle torture and killings were increasing.

McGonagall, Snape, and Lupin were stood on Hermione's left side, while Harry, Ron, Mrs Weasley, Moody and Tonks were stood on the other side. They watched with sombre faces as Madam Pomfrey examined her. They were pleased to see her but they weren't pleased to see the nasty looking purple bruises that accompanied her arms. That was only the beginning of it. They were on her legs, abdomen and back as well. Madam Pomfrey wasn't helping the group's brewing anger towards Voldemort with her exclamations of disgust.

Dumbledore came sweeping into the wing just as Madam Pomfrey finished her examination. He stood at the end of the bed and looked over Hermione. There was no sparkle in his eyes.

"She's a mess, Albus, and those bruises are only the start of it." Madam Pomfrey told him in a harsh tone.

"I was afraid of that. Would you please tell us what we cannot see, Poppy." She hesitated, looking at the others.

"Them as well?" She asked. Dumbledore nodded. She sighed as she began. "She has bruises under bruises. I certainly do not want to know what they beat her with as this isn't the work of any curses." Mrs Weasley gasped, tears filling up in her eyes. "Her legs and left arm have been broken. They actually mended the breaks but it was bad job at that." Snape's head shot up. "She may not be in pain now but she has been in extreme pain not too long ago."

"How do you know?" Harry asked, trying to prevent himself from crying at the thought of what they had done to her.

"She's tense yet she's unconscious, she should be relaxed and limp but she's not. I've only know this to happen when they have just recently had the Cruciatus performed on them. However, this isn't from the Cruciatus, this is from something else and I don't know what." She almost whispered the last bit.

"She seemed limp enough when I was carrying her." Snape informed her coolly. Madam Pomfrey shook her head at him as though he was an incompetent fool.

"She may appear limp, but look at her hands," All nine pair of eyes looked at Hermione's hands. They were curled into tight fists. "You lift any of her limbs and they don't relax fully at the joints. That's her body's way of trying to overcome the pain she has been in."

"What did they do?" Lupin asked them rhetorically, forcing himself to remain calm.

"There's one more thing." She stepped forward and lifted up Hermione's hair on the left side of her head. Lupin turned away instantly, colourful words could be heard from Moody, and the rest were too shocked to do much apart from stare in disbelief. They were looking at four deep circular cuts that were no where near to forming scabs yet. "It's the same on the other side of her head. The wounds seemed to have been reopened constantly, never giving them a chance to heal. I don't even think she realises she has got them." There was a distinct smashing of glass at the other end of the hospital wing. They all looked to find Lupin had thrown a potion vial at the wall. He spun round in anger towards them.

"WHY DIDN'T WE FIND HER SOONER?" He shouted. "SHE SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN TAKEN! WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE AWARE!" He slammed his fist down onto the table that was over the end of the bed, causing Hermione to sit up instantly. Fright and confusion were etched across her face.

"Calm yourself, Remus. Look what you have done." McGonagall scolded him. Hermione looked up at Lupin, she had heard right, Remus Lupin was here. She looked around to find more of her friends and teachers surrounding her bed. Her eyes finally landed on Harry and Ron. Everyone watched in silence as she scurried off the bed and hugged both of her best friends at the same time. She held onto them tightly, never wanting to let go.

"I thought I would never see you all again." She spoke into Harry's shoulder, her voice giving away that she was crying. Mrs Weasley stepped forward and took the girl off the boys; she was reluctant but too weak to fight. She was pulled into a hug by Mrs Weasley, which soon turned into a hug from Tonks. Finally, Madam Pomfrey got her back onto the bed.

"You need treating." She told her over her protests at having to lie down. She rolled on to her right side, feeling vulnerable having to lie down. Harry took hold of her hand to comfort her. After a few moments of silence Hermione finally spoke up.

"Why are you all looking at me like I'm about to break?" She pulled herself up into a sitting position to look at them better, this time ignoring Madam Pomfrey's instructions.

"Hermione, dear, how did you get the cuts on your head?" Mrs Weasley asked.

"What cuts?" She took the potion the medi-witch was urging her to drink. McGonagall watched her in amazement; this girl was showing true Gryffindor strength.

"These." Harry took her hand and gently placed her fingertips on the right side ones. Hermione gingerly moved her fingers over them, the horror evident on her face. 'How exactly had he been getting my memories?' She thought to herself. "Hermione?" She looked at him, realisation dawning on her.

"Voldemort did-"Her head snapped to Ron. "For goodness sake, Ron, will you stop flinching."

"That's my girl." Tonks giggled. Another potion was taken.

"You were saying, Miss Granger." Snape said quite coldly. She turned to look at him, something was different about him, she wasn't sure what though. She looked forward to find her headmaster at the end of the bed looking very sad.

"It wasn't your fault. I shouldn't have gone on my own." He merely nodded with a hint of sparkle coming into his eyes. McGonagall was almost on the verge of tears at how quickly the girl had turned into a young lady. It had been too quickly thanks to what had happened. "Voldemort did this." She kept eye contact with Dumbledore as she said it. "He was going through my memories. He told me that he wanted everything that was me. It was going to help him get Harry."

"Of course, the wounds make sense now." Lupin said aloud almost as though they had all been stupid to not think of it before.

"Remus, will you get a grip. You're acting like a fool." Snape scolded him this time.

"Remus is right, it makes perfect sense," Dumbledore told them calmly, "Miss Granger, could you tell me exactly what would happen when he was looking into your memories?" She nodded.

"He would do it every night. I would be tied up and put on a table. I'm not sure what exactly he did but I would suddenly see memories of mine being played out in front of my eyes. The pain was unbearable. I managed to fight him off a couple of times but it weakened me. When he was finished I wasn't able to see and the pain stayed for hours." Silent tears were now streaming down her face. Harry was firmly holding onto her hand. She felt silly at crying in front of all these people, especially Snape, who was showing no emotion to what she was telling them.

"Memory replication," Remus told them simply, "It is some of the most darkest and dangerous magic to be used. He wasn't looking at her memories; he was taking a copy for himself. Slowly it drains the person's soul. The question now is why would he want your memories, Hermione?"

"I don't know," She was sobbing uncontrollably. She still felt as though she was close to her death. "He just said that I was his link to getting Harry."

"I believe his intentions were to find Harry's weaknesses through you." Dumbledore told them.

"But that doesn't make sense, all that work, just to kill someone who doesn't even half of his power." Ron snapped.

"Lord Voldemort will go to many lengths to see the demise of his enemies, especially when one of them is Harry Potter." Dumbledore was starting to show his age. This was all taking its toll on him. The worry he has had over his students since one had been taken from right under his nose.

"What about these bruises, Hermione, where did those come from?" Harry asked quietly. She looked down at her arm that he was holding up. She had never even noticed the bruises.

"I was beaten for asking questions." She stated as though she was simply telling them what their homework was. She soon realised that it was something horrific that had happened to her when she heard McGonagall gasp. The pain from the beatings was nothing compared to what Voldemort did, so she had never thought of it as being that bad.

"What did he beat you with?" Madam Pomfrey asked, pushing another potion into her hands. It suddenly dawned on Hermione that they all thought it was all Voldemort's work, and she wasn't about to correct them. It wasn't that she wanted to protect Lucius; it was the simple fact of the kisses that was stopping her.

"His fists." This time there was a distinct grunt of unrepeatable words coming from Moody. Mrs Weasley hugged Hermione tightly, causing her to spill some of her potion.

"Sorry, dear." She wiped away her tears as she stood back.

"What exactly are all these potions that I'm taking?" Hermione questioned when Madam Pomfrey topped up her potion.

"They're different types of healing potions. One to heal any internal damage, one to heal your bruises quicker and this one is to help your wounds heal a little quicker. I won't heal them myself as we don't know how deep they are. I'll do it when they have scabbed a little." Hermione nodded and took her third potion. She remembered clearly when she had questioned Lucius about the potions he was giving her on that first night. He had been so kind.

"Was you in a lot of pain?" Tonks asked gently, feeling guilty for making her relive her beatings.

"The pain from what Voldemort did was the worst. It was worse than the Cruciatus and I never thought it could be possible. My body felt as though I had fallen from the top of the Astronomy tower and it slowly got worse. My sight stopped coming back after a while because he was doing it that often. The past week I have felt my body shutting down. Even though I'm here, I still feel as though I don't have long left." A few tears slipped down her cheeks.

"Do you think it best if we took her to St. Mungo's, Poppy?" Mrs Weasley asked through tears.

"No." Hermione snapped. "If I go there then I will have to be left alone at some point and I'm not ready. I was so lonely." She was getting hysterical.

"Ssssh." Lupin stepped forward and took her free hand. "We're not going anywhere. One of us will always be with you." He told her soothingly. Madam Pomfrey was ready to object but a hand was placed on her shoulder by Dumbledore.

"I doubt you will be though." She half joked, her panic subsiding, looking at Snape. Ron snorted; Dumbledore chuckled, while the rest tried to hide their smiles from a sneering Snape.

"What makes you think I wouldn't be able to say with you, being an insufferable know-it-all?" He was still sneering as he said it.

"You've just answered your own question, Severus." McGonagall was still trying to stifle her laughter. Dumbledore's eyes were full on sparkling now. This wondrous girl had made a heavy situation become light. She had much healing to do, mentally as well as physically, and she had much more to tell them about where she had been but she hadn't lost her spirit. It had dulled a little, but it hadn't been snuffed out and it gave him tremendous pleasure to see that. They would certainly need more of that in the near future.