sorry that i have taken sooooo long to write this next chapter, but i have been very busy revising (yawn!). thank you to the two people that have reviewed! please please please review this chapter. hope you like it!

disclaimer: i still dont own Harry Potter, although i keep trying to get JK to give it to me!

Hermione

She had never felt this cold in her life. She kept on drifting in and out of consciousness and she had lost all track of time. How long had she been here? An hour? A day? A month? And why, why was she being left here? What did they want with her? All these questions were flying in her head and yet for once she had no answers. For once in her life Hermione Granger was not in control and it was the most terrifying feeling she had ever known. Suddenly a blinding light shone through the darkness. She bent her head against it, but it still burned, burned like fire. And then, as suddenly as it had appeared it was gone. But there was something or someone still there. She could hear their quiet breathing and steady footsteps as they came towards her. She opened her eyes and tried with all her might to see, but the darkness was too absolute. She knew he was coming. And then she could see them, appearing out of the darkness, as if from hell, two vivid red eyes, gazing down on her. She froze paralysed by fear. She couldn't escape those inhuman eyes. He crouched beside her and whispered in her ear

"Now lets see how much Harry really loves you"

He laughed a merciless laugh and then touched her face with his spidery fingers. He flinched away from him, but he held her tight and kissed her, just as in her dream. Then he raised his wand.

"Crucio"

She screamed in agony. Her bones were on fire. All she wanted was for it to stop and the pain to end. She writhed on the floor and begged, begged for him to stop. But still the pain continued until she could bare it no longer. The darkness swallowed her and enveloped her in evil nightmares …

Harry.

Harry awoke with a cold sweat dripping down his face. He could see him, kissing her, hurting her. His hatred for him burned far more ferociously than ever before and he jumped up. He would kill him! Kill him with his bared hands if he had to! Or he would have done if he hadn't been strapped down to the hospital wing bed. "Calm down Mr Potter!" said Madame Pomfrey as she tried to restrain him.

"He's hurting her! He's torturing her! Get off me! We need to help her!"

"And how precisely do you suggest we do that?" she said shortly. "You will do her no good by racing in and getting yourself killed!"

"Madame Pomfrey is right Harry," said Ron from his right, but winking as he said it "We can't do anything for her"

Harry got the hint and tried his best to look submissive. Apparently satisfied the matron patted him on the shoulder and walked off. If he hadn't have been so depressed he probably would have laughed, but instead he turned to his best friend and said

"So what's the plan?"

"Ummm Hermione was always the one who came up with the plans. But I think we should just run for it tonight…have you got any idea where to find her?"

"No. But I know how to find out".

Dumbledore was sat in his office, his face illuminated by an eerie blue glow that was emanating from a round stone basin on his desk. Every now and then he would place his wand to his temple, remove a glistening strand of thought and place it among the shimmering contents of it. He looked lost in thought as faces flashed among the flame like substance, circling the face in the middle. This face remained throughout, an evil and twisted face, with slits for nostrils and malicious red eyes. Voldemort. It all came back to him. He destroyed people's lives and created misery and despair wherever he went. Why? And why had he taken Miss Granger? Well that was obvious enough. Her relationship with Harry was hardly a secret and she was a bright and talented young witch. He could be using her for anything, anything at all. But he thought it most likely that he was using her to get at Harry (and he was rarely wrong). As he thought this, the Pensive showed Harry's face, lost and alone. The hurt that he usually masked was visible through his eyes, which looked close to tears. Harry. He had suffered so much in his short years of life, and all, all at the hands of Voldemort. He was so worried that he would snap and end up doing something that would lead him straight to Voldemort. It was a trap. He was sure of it and Harry would fly straight into it…

"DUMBLEDORE!"

Madame Pomfrey rushed into his office, in a blind panic and surprising speed.

"He's gone Dumbledore! Harry's gone!"

The hospital wing was a deep midnight blue as the clock on the wall struck 12. Harry crept slowly out of his bed, keeping and eye on the door to Madame Pomfrey's office. He slowly eased the heavy door open and stopped it from crashing behind him. A quick tap on the shoulder told him that Ron was behind him. He removed Harry's invisibility cloak from his head (which would have looked quite odd to any passers by).

"I got what you asked for, but I don't know how it's going to help us." He whispered.

He placed an ancient looking locket in Harry's hand, and then placed the cloak over his head. As Nearly-Headless Nick drifted morosely by, all he saw was the front door inching shut and a slight disturbance in the air.