Declaimer: I don't own anything from the J.K. Rowling's books. It's all fun.

Hello again. It's another polish text of mine, another translation. Hope it's better than the preview ones. It's going to a very long story, 20 chapters plus prologue and epilogue, every chapter about 22-25 pages long. So please be patient, I won't publish more than one episode a month. Why? Since I have only 5 chapters already written and 15 more to go in Polish, since I've just translated the prologue, and although it was a short episode (only 2 pages long) it took me a few hours. Besides all I have some other stories which needs to be updated. See my profile, you can find them there. I will try and translate all of them into English, but I need the courtesy of your time to do it well. Thanks for showing up, leave a review if you like, favs will help my motivation too. :)

Enjoy! I do it all for your fun!

Nine in the dark

'Cowards die many times before their deaths;

The valiant never taste of death but once.'

William Shakespeare

Prologue

Hogwarts loomed in the distance, covered in thick fog. The damp, cold December night fell over the castle and took away the light of day out of time and space. The round moon crawled into the sky, making the fumes shine silvery. The dark, sinister wall of the Forbidden Forest stretched out near the Lake. At the edge of the woods, the ashes of Hagrid's hut glowed with fire. A group of dark figures sneaked past the ruins of the house and headed for the trees. Just behind them, like a nightmare, followed a shapeless shadow…

Hermione was running as fast as she could. Her quick breath, wheezing from a long escaping, was clearly heard in the silence of the Forbidden Forest. White clouds of steam emanated from her mouth, iridescent in the glow of full moon. She ran blindly in the dark into the night without looking back. She didn't want to see danger, didn't want to know if she still had a chance or was running away in vain. Instead of looking over her shoulder, she focused on the road and tried to avoid the bigger obstacles. She was running down the hill. Her robe and coat were torn, her face cut open. The forest thickets had no mercy for her. She could hear the faint patter of the pursuit's feet in the distance behind her, but it wasn't them that she fared the most. The one she was running from was silent, he made no sound, he left no traces. She was already dizzy, there was unbearable burning pain in her chest. She dreamed to stop running, just stop. But she couldn't give up, not yet. Fight. She owed him that. Suddenly her eyes darkened with fatigue, she tripped and rolled down the hill. When she got up she already knew it was too late. She looked up to see the incoming ray of green light.

She was running through the woods. Thick, gloomy, branches covered with dry leaves carried the sound of an icy wind. Dusk was slowly falling, the shadows of the trunks disappearing in the growing darkness. She heard her short, wheezing breath, felt the branches rubbing against her, the whips of thin osiers whipping the delicate skin of her face. They almost had her, she heard wheezing and the sounds of heavy boots colliding with the forest fleece. She looked around in panic. In front of her she saw the river, and a black bridge hung over it. She ran into it. Then there was nothing more…

She woke up breathless, sweating in the middle of the night. However, she wasn't in the woods, but in her bed. She felt for the wand hidden under the pillow and looked around the room distrustfully.

"Lumos" she whispered. Her throat was dry and her cheeks were wet with tears. For the first time in her life, she understood why some people were putting a glass of water near their bed. If they wake up with such a feeling in their mouths... She saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She automatically pointed her wand at it and then breathed a sigh of relief.

There was no one else in the bedroom except her and the reflection in the mirror. She looked at herself. In the faint light of the spell cast, in a bright shirt, she looked like a real ghost. She wanted to lie back – it was still dark outside, and she felt terribly tired. However, when she was putting her feet back under the duvet, she heard a noise coming from the corridor: a click and a muffled giggle.

At first she thought it was Fred and Luna who had forgotten what the bedroom was meant for and were on the job somewhere in the corridor, but she quickly realized the absurdity of such reasoning. Neither Fred nor Luna was at home. They were both far away, doing their duty for the Order.

Seriously concerned, Hermione stood up. She extinguished her wand, quietly put on the bathrobe slung over the bed and walked barefoot to the door leading to the corridor. She prayed that she would not step on any of the many squeaky staves. Headquarters was now an old shanty preserved with tons of spells and charms. If it weren't for them it would have fallen apart long ago. This house saw a lot and survived many things. It was like a living organism; it healed it's own wounds and forgave some of the gained injuries when it wanted to, but never forgot the others. Sirius used to say that kind of stuff. Hermione once did not understand his words, but after years spent under the roof of number twelfth, she understood too well what the man was talking about.

The witch carefully pressed the door handle and slowly opened the door. Looking out through the crack, she opened the door harder enough to point her head out. She still saw nothing, no movement, no...

It seemed to her, when her eyes got accustomed to the darkness outside, that from the side of the stairs, from below, there was a soft glow. She went outside, blindly began to walk towards the descent. She held her breath, strained, ready to attack at any moment. At the mouth of the corridor, she pressed her back against the wall and with a strongly beating heart leaned slightly to look down. However, she saw nothing, the light if it ever existed, was gone now for good or at least moved somewhere else. She paused for a moment and thought about it. Maybe she should wake someone up? Luna and Fred were gone. Ginny was useless at the moment, neither was Sirius. Lupine and Potter were too far away. She took a few deep breaths to calm down a bit and started down the stairs. The steps creaked softly. Inwardly she still hoped that maybe everything had come from her mind, or it was only Black pilgriming to the fridge at night.

She heard rustling. She jumped down from the last few steps and, no matter what the noise it was to cause, she threw herself behind the dresser that she saw under the stairs. Hermione heard someone curse, then suddenly the corridor next to her brightened.

"Granger, is that you?" she heard a familiar voice.

"Uhmm" she said crawling out from behind the furniture, much less agile than she got behind it. Adrenaline can do real miracles.

"How did you know?" she asked, rubbing her sore back.

"My griffonoscope had an extremely high reading" Snape came around the corner, wincing maliciously. "Think, Granger, think. It was only a good old life experience. If someone sticks his nose into the lives of other people at such an ungodly hour, hangs around the house and spies on him, then it will definitely be you."

"I heard a strange noise, so I went out to see what was going on, Snape" she muttered displeased.

"I would not expect anything else from you. Gryffindor self-confidence made you think that you are needed where they least want you" he chuckled maliciously.

"Finish it already. I'm going to lie down" she said tiredly. "Behave more quiet next time, if it suits you."

"Next time, don't stick your nose where you're not needed" he growled at her.

Hermione no longer had the strength to scuffle with the former professor. It was far to long for her since he was her professor, to be afraid of him. In her opinion, the Order had lost too much blood to worry about the Asshole of Dungeon. She turned on her heels and headed for her room. Although she went to bed, she did not fall asleep until morning, still thinking about the night wandering of the Potions Master.