Author's Note: So here is the next chapter, hope you enjoy! Last chapter they were caught, what happens now?

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Warning: Please remember this is a M story, the themes are dark. It's a war piece and I don't plan on sugar coating everything. Keep that in mind when reading.

April 26th, 1999

"We can despair and curse, and change nothing. We can chose evil like our enemies have done and create a world based on hate. Or we can try to make things better." -Carol Matas

Standing hurt; how long she had been standing she didn't know. But certainly in the last year she had never spent so much time standing in one place and when she needed to stand she had Harry, and even occasionally Ron, to lean on. Here she had no one here she was surrounded by hatred that she had never witnessed before in her life.

Though the others seemed numbed or ignorant to the superiors around them. She watched as the other muggleborns did as they were told, smiled, some even laughed as they walked down the dirt road with their friends. But Hermione's eyes were drawn to the men and woman in uniforms; their dark green wizard's robes which bared the Dark Mark on the chest as a symbol of who they believed in. Hermione could barely find her breath let alone the energy to laugh.

The town in front of her was small and crowded from what she could see. Buildings were pushed close together and there wasn't much walking room in the dirt path between the rows of buildings. Children as young as eleven were running around the small pathway, pushing past people and enjoying the sunshine. But the older people in Hermione's eyesight hardly looked as carefree, maybe they too realized this was only a stepping stone to what would happen to them.

She had been waiting for hours to gain free entrance to the town. Death Eaters were guarding any chance of escape but they were also taking their own sweet time getting though the muggleborns who needed to get into the town. They didn't even bother to wear their masks anymore, no point in keeping their identities secret when they were in charge.

Hermione didn't recognize a single Death Eater that she saw. She wondered how many had joined Voldemort during her year of hiding, how many cowered in the face of fear? It was possible he had taken everyone who didn't reside in one of his camps. The thought made her feel sick to her stomach.

"Mudblood!" one of the Death Eaters called to her.

Hermione refused to be called like a dog. She stood still and tall determined to fight them every step of the way. She may have gotten herself caught but she was hardly giving in. They would have to kill her before she was ready to just give into their power and accept her fate.

"Now, Mudblood!"

Hermione chuckled, amusing herself at the thought of every muggleborn being called Mudblood. It would surely get confusing. The Death Eaters would have at least ten people respond anytime they were trying to get someone's attention.

But it wasn't the time to be amused and the Death Eaters didn't appreciate her chuckling rather than responding. She felt a sharp pain in her back as a woman jabbed at her with what Hermione could only call a sharp stick. She stumbled forward standing right in front of the man who had called her.

"Arm."

"Okay." Hermione said not moving an inch.

"Give me your arm, Mudblood!" the man growled.

"Oh I'm sorry," Hermione mused, "I thought you were referring to me as Arm."

Her sarcasm gave her only a moment of triumph before a large hand connect with her cheek. Hermione had to move her jaw slowly just to reassure herself that it was still connected to the rest of her head. His hand had been rough and hard, had she been any smaller he might have broken her neck.

"Backtalk again and it'll be your life, Mudblood."

She had to wonder if that was a phrase they had all learned. Had Voldemort ordered them all to say the same things? She let her mind wander, but raised her left arm out to meet his hand. She wouldn't mentally give into them, not yet, but she really would prefer not being slapped again.

Her desire was squashed however when the man slapped her left arm away from him. There was nothing but skin and bone on her arm to protect from the harshness of his force. He grabbed her right arm forcefully and pulled it up to look at her forearm.

"You could've said right arm!" she cried out as his grip tightened around her arm.

The man didn't respond, instead he pressed the tip of his wand to her arm. It was strange feeling magic surge through her. Even during her wandless duel she hadn't noticed the magic that pumped through her veins. But here, the Death Eater was shoving his own dark magic through her in a way she couldn't ignore. Once the magic feeling had faded he looked down to his sheet of paper and called to the woman next to him.

"Granger, Hermione. Born September 19th, 1979. Hair: brown, eyes: brown, 5ft 5in. Mudblood, level one."

The woman was frantically filling the information in on whatever sheet she held. Hermione was pushed back where the woman prodded even more. By the end of it all Hermione was fairly sure every inch of her body was documented on the sheet of paper. The woman hadn't asked her anything, instead she just poked her wand around until Hermione felt fully violated.

"Keep moving!" the woman yelled when Hermione continued to stand in front of her.

Hermione moved forward, wondering if the boys were going through the same problems. Could the other camp be as intrusive, or was it just the muggleborns they wanted to catalog like animals?

"Arm." An older woman called out when Hermione reached her.

This time Hermione lifted her right arm, knowing it was what the Death Eaters wanted of her. She could at least manage to get in the camp before she started a fight. And if the man had been any indicator the Death Eaters had no problem physically hurting them as well as using magic.

The old woman turned Hermione's arm over and pressed the tip of her wand to the soft pink skin. Hermione could hardly believe she was looking at her own arm. It was so thin she could see the contour of her bones and her skin was so pale she could see the blue veins beneath her skin. The old woman didn't seem to care how fragile Hermione looked, she handled her with the same roughness as the Death Eaters before her.

"Signetur Seculo Seculorum."

Hermione tried to place the spell but she had no idea. It was rare that she not recognize a piece of magic, or at least recognize the idea behind it. But all she knew was the spell had Latin roots. She was so caught up in her thoughts she had hardly noticed the small pricks starting to punch as her arm.

Soon the pain grew to one she couldn't ignore if she had tried. The fingers on her right hand twitched as the pain made her limb uncontrollable. Hermione bit down on her lip as hard as she could to prevent the throat ripping scream that was struggling to come out. After everything she had been through she hadn't imagined pain like she was experiencing.

The old woman, who was stronger than she appeared, pinned her arm down to a table Hermione hadn't even seen appear. Everything in the world was fading besides the pain, and yet she couldn't pass out. No matter how bad the pain got as it pushed up her arm it wasn't enough to push her out of consciousness.

"Be quiet, Mudblood." The old woman yelled.

Hermione did her best to look up at the old woman. Had she been screaming? She couldn't even tell. She wasn't aware of anything besides her pain. She looked down at her arm, her fingers were still tapping out into the air as if they were pulling to free themselves from her hand. But her forearm was what scared her the most.

The Prophet hadn't been wrong all those months ago. As the pain worked its way through her arm it left behind a mark. She was being branded, branded a mudblood, branded no better than an animal. But surely animals didn't feel such pain when the hot iron touched them, the pain she felt was enough to make her wish for death.

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Hermione could only stare at her arm. Doubly marked forever as a mudblood, the word carved into her left arm and now this… this terrible black tattoo. The image already seemed to be engraved in her mind, the number flashing before her even when she closed her eyes.

The old woman had little patience for Hermione's distress. She just pushed the young girl forward. Hermione found herself stumbling through what looked to be an iron gate. But the gate let her through just as Platform 9 ¾ had for so many years. Hermione tried to turn and go back through the gate, finally reality sunk back in as the pain started to numb, but the gate wouldn't allow her out… Never out, only in. Stuck in New Town Mudblood for what could possibly be the rest of her life.

Three hours.

That was how long Hermione had lasted before she had caught the Death Eaters' attention. It only took her three hours of being in New Town Mudblood before she started a scene. She hadn't meant to, in fact she had the intention of lasting at least the first day before getting herself killed. But in recent months her life seemed to forgo any plans she made for herself.

It had been a stupid confrontation. She would even go as far as to regret it because she knew what could be coming. The other muggleborns seemed to have found a peaceful way to exist within the town. They lived as though the Death Eaters weren't always hovering over them wands at the ready. Some had been there since the town had first been started and they went months without a problem, Hermione hadn't been able to last a day.

In fairness it had only started as a question. She had only wanted to know where she was supposed to sleep and where dinner could be found. She hadn't been trying to be difficult, she was too exhausted to have fought with the large men that were stationed inside the town. But they saw her question as a challenge and everything she had said only made it worse.

The scene had been quick. Obviously the Death Eaters wanted as little confrontation in public areas as possible. It made sense; if one person rebelled it could start a bigger problem. They needed to keep problems hidden away, quieted from the general public of the town.

Hermione hadn't even started fighting them. She had just been asking them about the sleeping arrangements. But almost immediately there was a man dragging her off by the arm –the right arm, which only caused the pain to flare back up.

They had placed her in a room alone. Just a concrete room, with the same dirt floors as everywhere else in the town. She had heard the door lock behind them when they left her there and no one had been back since.

She reasoned that it was a type of solitude. A punishment for starting any problems. Instead of finding a place to sleep for the night she had been given one. In actuality it wasn't the worst punishment she could have imagined. Though she didn't know how long it would last. But for now she refused to be worried about the future.

Her body ached from the day. It seemed like a lifetime ago she had been standing in the woods fighting with Ron… Ron and Harry, she could only hope they had adjusted better to wherever they had been taken. Maybe they had even managed to get away. That would be a pleasant thought to keep her going during rough times. At the very least the two of them were together, and maybe Ron would find his family. Perhaps Harry would find Ginny and they would manage to have a semi-normal life in whatever New Town they had been shipped to.

Surely the two of them weren't stuck in a dark dirty room alone for God knows how long. Surely they had managed to go longer than three hours without being seen as a problem. Hermione wouldn't let herself think about the notion that they could have died. She preferred to think of them as happy-ish in whatever place they had been put. It made things easier, especially that first night.

She had grown so used to Harry's arms wrapping around her to provide comfort. Or even the familiar screams of Ron during one of their fights. Any sound would have comforted her. But she had nothing, in that moment all she could hold onto was the ridiculous optimistic idea of the boys somehow managing to survive better than she had.

A.N.There is the next chapter! A new one should be posted shortly (definitely before the end of June) sorry it took a little while my work is crazy and I've had multiple 12-16 hour days recently which doesn't provide me with a lot of fanfiction time. I love reviews and will try to give a shout out to everyone who does before the next chapter is posted!

Thanks!To my reviewers:lizziemarie0529for another kind review! TransfiguredToad obviously today when when the new chapter has been posted, thank you for reading!