Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Harry Potter series and I do not make a profit from this story.
There were several moments when Hermione thought that she had not made it through, but every once and a while she would hear someone sitting next to her. They never spoke, but she could hear their breathing. It was easy to tell the gender of the person. So far, she had counted three men and two women. Who they were, she had no idea. Hermione did not have the will to open her eyes whenever someone sat next to her.
After a while of consciousness, Hermione realized that she wasn't the only injured person coming to the room she was in. At first she had been alone, but after her last visitor someone else came, screaming in pain. Another second passed, and Hermione realized that she was listening to the soothing voice of Madame Pomfrey.
Once the man had stopped screaming, possibly he had been put to sleep, Hermione opened her eyes. The sterile hospital wing came into her gaze; it was still a bit foggy, but she was in one of the beds. Madame Pomfrey was bending over the newest edition to the wing, who was covered in blood. Hermione winced and turned away, but a question lingered in her mind. What was Madame Pomfrey doing here? She should have left when everyone evacuated Hogwarts.
A man at the doorway grunted, and Hermione immediately closed her eyes as Madame Pomfrey's shoes began to click across the room.
"I have two very sick patients, Rocklin, and you are not in any way remotely harmed. What do you want?"
"It is not what I want, but what the Dark Lord wants."
"Well, what is it?"
"My Lord wants to know when Miss Granger will be ready to begin working again. She is an important part of my Lord's goals, and he needs as little delay as possible."
There was a silence, where Madame Pomfrey was probably looking over her, noting her condition.
"Hermione will be ready in a few hours. The wound has healed without infection, but she still needs to grow more blood cells."
"Can't you do anything to speed it up?" Rocklin said urgently.
"I already have," Madame Pomfrey said bitterly. "Now get out of here, unless you want me to check up on those genital warts that you have."
Rocklin whispered something that Hermione could not interpret and stomped out of the room while Madame Pomfrey laughed. Then Madame Pomfrey made her way over to Hermione.
"Open your eyes, Hermione. I know that you are awake."
Hermione slowly opened her eyes and looked at the pale face of Hogwarts's healer.
"I'm glad to see that you are still alive. I knew that you were a strong one ever since that encounter with the troll."
Hermione should have thanked her for the compliment, but she couldn't keep her questions down.
"Why are you still at Hogwarts?" She blurted out.
"Is there something wrong with being here?"
"You're helping murderers! Are you a Death Eater too?" Hermione exclaimed.
Madame Pomfrey paused for a moment and then smiled.
"Are you a murderer, Miss Granger?"
Hermione was appalled by this question. How could anyone suspect her of being a murderer?
"That has nothing to do with my question, but in case you have forgotten, no, I am not."
"Then I am not only helping murderers. Calm down Hermione. There is no reason to cause a commotion. I am surprised that you of all people would not know this. It is my duty to stay at my position, no matter what, unless, of course, I am directly threatened. It is part of the oath taken when becoming a healer. I do not care about the sins of the person that I am healing."
Hermione thought this new information over. "They have not threatened you?"
"Lord Voldemort is too smart to let any of his Death Eaters do something as stupid as that."
Madame Pomfrey started to walk away, but Hermione held out her hand.
"By any chance, do you know who found me? There wasn't supposed to be anyone coming to my room."
"That is not in my judgment to say. Now I believe that you should be making your way back to your room. I will have a house-elf escort you. I thought you'd need a few more hours, but you don't."
Hermione groaned, wishing that she could stay in bed for another few minutes, but she gingerly got out and changed into the robes that were on her bedside table while the house-elf was being fetched. Hermione followed it to her room and thanked it before it scurried off. The door closed behind her, and Hermione headed towards her desk.
The books from the library were stacked neatly upon her desk. Hermione smiled and ran towards the books. Nobody was expecting her to work for a few more hours. She only had to hope that the spell that she needed was in one of the four books.
After scanning quickly through the first two books, Hermione had almost lost hope, but after a mere hour of research, she found what she was looking for in Hesse's Guide to Any Other Day Activities.
The spell incantation was levoxcrus, and it would take deep concentration and her own wand. It wouldn't work with someone else's wand. The magic needed too much power.
Voldemort possessed her wand. She was going to have to find it. It was probably in his private room, is she guessed correctly, and the only things that would know where his room was would be the paintings and the…
"Miss Hermione, you had me in quite a scare. It would be awful if we lost another Gryffindor," Nearly Headless Nick seemed generally concerned.
"My wand," Hermione said, completely ignoring common courtesy. "Voldemort took it, and I think it is in his chambers. I need it to escape. It is fifteen inches long, made of vine wood, and has a dragon heartstring as the core. You have to help me find it."
Nearly Headless Nick frowned for a moment, but complied with her will.
"His chambers are next to the library. I will go check for your wand, but I will not guarantee anything."
Nearly Headless Nick floated through the walls, and Hermione waited in silence for his return. She would have expected Voldemort's chambers to be in the dungeons, but after a few moments of thinking, Hermione remembered that Voldemort was searching for immortality. The library would be the best place to conduct the search.
Once Nick returned, Hermione's spirits lifted when she saw his expression. Her guess had been right.
"Miss Hermione, your wand is placed in the second drawer of the black desk in his room. What I found most surprising was that his door was not even locked."
"He must have an alarm spell on it."
"If there is one, it's one that I have never seen."
Hermione nodded and started towards the door, but then she turned towards the ghost.
"You can see spells?"
"What other advantage do you think there is to being dead?"
Hermione nodded her head, not knowing what to say in response to his question, and walked out the door, watching Nearly Headless Nick to make sure he followed. When she turned onto the corridor, she could not figure out where he had gone until she looked closely at the wall. A single ghostly wrist was sticking out, leading her to Voldemort's chambers.
As Nearly Headless Nick had predicted, the door was open, and no alarm magical alarm sounded that she could hear. The room was barren except for a tightly made four-poster bed, a desk, several chairs, and a cabinet.
Hermione rushed towards the desk and opened the second drawer from the top. Her wand was in clear view, on top of several other wands which covered the bottom of the drawer. Hermione picked it up and quickly hid the wand in the deep inside pocket of her robes then erased any sign that she had been in his room.
Hermione started walking towards the door, but stopped when it started to creak open. All of the blood rushed out of her face, and she waited silently for her fate to come.
"What, precisely, are you doing in my bedroom?"
Voldemort had appeared in the doorway, and Hermione was caught almost red-handed. She just needed to find a believable reason for her being there. Hermione scanned her mind for something to say as his two red eyes examined her.
"I was searching for you."
Voldemort frowned but stayed silent, urging her on to explain.
"Well, you see," Hermione stumbled. "When I was lying down in the hospital wing, a thought came into my mind, and I wanted to tell it to you before it was forgotten. It is something that could insure your triumph."
Hermione had no idea what she was saying, but the words kept on flowing. She paused, but Voldemort kept on staring at her.
"You need to change your requirements for potential Death Eaters."
"Go on."
"You need to allow wizards and witches into your army with any amount of pureblood they have in their system. You could still give only the purebloods high positions, but every time someone is rejected, you make an enemy. If you want to get your point across to the entire world, you need to make things simpler. It should be magic against non-magic, not pureblood magic against lesser-blood magic but more importantly against the muggles, but only the ones who disregard you. It gets too confusing."
Hermione knew she was babbling, but she had to make it sound convincing. If she could get out of this situation with her wand intact, there was still a chance for escape.
"So shortening everything up," Voldemort slithered. "You want to let mudbloods in with my devoted followers."
"Well, it's actually something more like there being a change in your principles. You already have devoted followers; you just need to set a more realistic goal and bulk up your army."
Hermione winced and hoped to whatever god that was out there that she had not offended him. She did not want to end up at the hospital wing again after just leaving.
Voldemort smiled at her, and she tried not to cringe from the unnatural sight.
"You know, Miss Granger, I believe that the real reason that you came here is that you missed me while you were unconscious."
"No, I really thought about how you could advance your goals," Hermione said urgently.
"But you do not deny missing me. How fascinating. I could have sworn that you loathed me, but here I find you, in my bedchamber, looking for me."
Hermione caught on. Behind his sick and twisted words he was playing a game with her. He was trying to figure out if there was any other reason for her being in his room.
Hermione mustered up her courage. She was not going to be toyed with.
"If you do not like my offer, then you could just say so. I have a job to do, and I do not need to waste time." She turned on her heel and left the room, hopefully leaving Voldemort in a stupor, but she wasn't so lucky.
"Wait," he yelled out to her after a few paces.
Hermione froze and hoped that he had not noticed the wand in her pocket. Time seemed to last forever before he spoke again.
"We will go along with your plan, Miss Granger, but if something goes wrong, if there is one single traitor among the group you let in, I will make sure that it is you who receives their punishments."
Hermione winced again, but straightened her back and smiled as she headed towards her room. Voldemort would have to wait for her plan to be set into motion, but first, he would have to find someone else to do her job.
A/N: Well, that was certainly fun to write. I tried to make this chapter a bit longer (and a bit more interesting, I know the last chapter wasn't too exciting), but I truly am not too good at making chapters any longer. Anyways, I'd like to thank all of those readers who reviewed the last chapter: MistressAnime, Chrystal241, Hpfanf, Rock Royalty, and PrincessOfHeartsNYP. Thanks again!