Harry had been sitting on the couch with Ron when I reentered the common room. Both of them were huddled around a piece of parchment, watching it carefully, and as they were whispering quietly back and fourth to each other, seemed too absorbed in it to even acknowledge my presence.
I stood there, in front of them seeing a large map had been unfolded and placed between them. From what I could gather, it was a map of the school, just a jumble of hallways and classrooms to me, and I felt lost even just looking at the maze of lines. What drew my attention deeper, however, was the trace of small footsteps and names that appeared and moved all over the parchment. I quickly recognized McGonagall's name slowly moving about the Great Hall among a mass of others, and Snape's who was still in his rooms. With enough searching, I was even able to find my name right next to Harry and Ron's and when I glanced to them, they were looking at me with smiles.
"Have a good time with Snape?" Harry asked, chuckling slightly and I furrowed my forehead.
"We saw you with him." Harry pointed to the map, "It shows where everyone is at all times."
Eyebrows lifting, I watched the map again, seeing McGonagall's name moving across the parchment, now out of the Great Hall and in a corridor. It was perplexing, really. Enough so that I couldn't find any words that sounded right to say about it and ended up gawking.
"Just for Hogwarts though." Ron added sounding disappointed, "It would be really neat if it showed outside of the gate. Easier to see what's going on out there."
"What do you mean?" I asked, lowering myself to the ground to sit.
"You-Know-Who and his gits are somewhere out there probably planning their next attack, and if we could only see where they were, we would be able to plan something to prevent it."
"Oh." I scanned the edges of the paper, seeing a bit of the castle grounds, but just as they said, the whole of the map seemed to be concentrated on the castle.
"We've mainly been watching Snape, though. He's the closest thing we have to Voldemort." Harry said, tapping his wand tip at Snape's name.
"He told me that Voldemort-" There was an uncomfortable growl that came from Ron at that name as I said it, "-wouldn't be so keen on him now that he had left with us and not remained behind. Are you certain that watching him will show you something?"
"One thing you have to learn about Snape, Hermione. He's a Death Eater. They're not to be trusted. He killed Dumbledore, and makes our lives miserable." Harry spoke heatedly, his eyes darkening slightly.
"Our old headmaster." Ron explained seeing me frown at the name. "Dumbledore trusted him enough, he allowed Snape into our Order-that is, the group formed to fight against You-Know-Who-and all we know he was just gathering information to pass on to him."
"He doesn't seem all that bad. A little frightening, but when I was with him-" I started saying, but Harry cut me off.
"-He's a spy, Hermione. Either way, he knows how to work his way around things. Don't take any friendliness from him as sincere."
"And don't trust a word he says." Added Ron.
"Why did he kill Dumbledore?" I asked. Harry's grip tightened on his wand and Ron looked from Harry to me.
"Because You-Know-Who needed him gone. With Dumbledore around he actually had an enemy high enough in the wizarding world that could stop him. With Dumbledore gone, he's the most powerful."
"And you know for certain that Snape was the one who killed this guy?"
"I watched him." There was a bit of sourness to Harry's voice and I'm sure it came from my own naivety of the situation than from the question I had asked, but I still winced.
"I watched Snape perform the killing curse on Dumbledore just before he ran away with the other Death Eaters."
"I...I'm sorry." I said, able to tell that Dumbledore must have meant something to Harry. He looked back at the map and I dared not ask anymore questions in fear that someone would end up angry within the next couple of minutes. As much as they were telling me Snape wasn't to be trusted, I wondered just how much truth laid in that. I didn't know him as well...at least anymore, and from what I've gotten to know in the past couple of hours the man didn't come off as disreputable or untrustworthy. He was trying to help me obtain memories as much good as staring at a black screen had gotten us so far, at least he was trying which was far more help than Harry and Ron had done for me in the past few hours.
"Before I lost my memory...do you know what I thought of him?" I asked, hoping that they'd give me an honest answer and not fill it in with what they wanted me to believe. For a long while they were silent, almost reluctant to speak.
"We aren't exactly sure." Ron said, breaking the silence, squinting his eyes. "You've always said you trusted him, but after he killed Dumbledore you stopped saying much about it."
A part of me felt right in trusting him still, but finding out Snape had killed someone made me unsure if that feeling should be continued. Harry moved, drawing himself closer to the map, turning it around so he could see it closer and was scanning every inch of the parchment he could.
"Trusting him is the least of our worries right now. He's gone." Harry, still searching the map, had his finger still tapping on Snape's rooms. His name didn't appear anywhere else on the map and judging by the reactions of the boys, this was not a good thing.
"Do you think he apparated?" Ron asked, grabbing at the map to turn it so he could look at it, and Harry let it go, standing quickly, he rushed from the couch disappearing up the stairs to the boys dormatories.
"Apparating?" I asked. Ron didn't hear me, he was turned all the way around in his seat, watching as Harry left. A few moments later, Harry appeared again carrying a shimmering cloak draped over one arm. Ron stood and met him near the portrait hole and they looked expectantly at me until I caught on and joined them.
The cloak didn't come in handy until we were at the main door to the castle, Harry gathering us around as he shook it much like a bull fighter, and then tossed it over all of our heads. Ron reached out and grabbed the door handle, twisted it, and pushed the door open.
"Where are we going?" I whispered, my mind half stuck on why Harry had thrown a cloak over us.
"Finding Snape." Harry whispered back. "If he's not on the map, there's a good chance he's left to find the rest of the Death Eaters."
As a solid block of arms and legs, we moved over the castle grounds, walking closer and closer to a willow tree. If my directional sense was right, we had run from this area almost a day ago and was soon proven correct as we carefully snuck through the overhanging branches and through the trunk of it, which had opened a hole as soon as Harry had pressed on a knobby part. We stayed under the blanket as much as I wished to get out from under it, following a path that brought us to the inside of an aging house. My breath hitched as I saw the spot from last night, expecting to see Voldemort still standing there.
"Now what?" Ron asked, turning around as best as he could while still keeping under the cloak. Harry had done the same, then slowly pulled the cloak off from all of us. I breathed deeply, though the air was thick with dust, it felt good to be out from under the constraints.
"They can't be too far away." Harry said, rolling the robe up between his arms. He walked to the window, carefully looking out of it, forcing himself to see what laid beyond in the distance. Ron had taken another window, leaving me in the middle of the room. Hopeless, I looked between both boys and decided to take their lead and find my own window. I moved up some more stairs, entering a further part of the house that grew cold and darker in shadow, and to a window that allowed me to view an expanse of field, small lights of a tiny town off in the distance. I wasn't sure what it was to be looking for. Staring out across a barren land dotted with trees, I expected maybe a campfire or some sign of a campsite, but nothing of the sort that I could see anyway, presented itself.
I did, however, catch a glimmer, just a small one, that seemed to peek out from behind a tree, disappearing just as quickly. Narrowing my eyes, I watched for it again thinking that maybe it had just been a reflection off the glass, but there, almost matching in shadow, a figure seemed to dart away. It was just beyond visible, but I was certain I was watching something. Backing away from the window, I raced down the steps and over to Harry, who had been looking out the window on the same side and air pressed my finger against it in the direction of the trees.
"There! Right there! Something, then it was gone!"
Ron rushed over, his head fitting between Harry's and mine as we watched, but whatever had been was no longer in site. I left the window and found the front door, using all my strength to pull it open on its rusty hinges and took off for the forest.
I led the way, following the last known direction I had seen the figure move off in, and didn't realize that Harry and Ron hadn't been behind me until I was a good way in. Slowing my speed, straining to listen for any signs of footsteps, or my name being called from one of them, I was hit with numbness, from my toes to my head, and collapsed in a heap on the forest floor.
It was a wonder I could even breathe. The rest of me wouldn't work, and I had tried my hardest to fight off the black figure that moved toward me, his face covered in some kind of mask. It took barely any weight for him to lift me off the ground, toss me over his shoulder, and walk even further into the wood. I could do nothing further than flop around, every step jarring my bones, my body like a rag doll.
...
"Put her down, Crabbe. There." A voice spoke, slithering gently through the air and I was lowered, although roughly, to the ground. Crabbe's hands worked to right me into a sitting position, resting my head back against something hard enough to support it. There was a group of people surrounding me as he let me go, all wearing the same dark clothes and masks, all watching me through the slits of the eyeholes, grinning painfully through the barred gap in their mouthpiece. I felt a shiver building, but it didn't happen. The figure that looked in front of me and was now gliding toward me had scared it away. His pale face and sunken eyes took in every inch of me, he had no nose and the grin he was wearing revealed teeth that weren't exactly cared for and for some reason it bugged me.
The next thing I knew, we were standing in a white room with a black screen. My memories, rather, lack thereof. I didn't know how, it happened so quickly, but he was now walking around it, scrutinizing every inch of it with fervor. I was bracing for some kind of anger outcry as he looked like a man who would rage quite quickly, but he started laughing. Low and slow at first, and then growing into a victorious chortle.
The white room and screen disappeared, thrusting us into the circle of cloaked people again. He made a wide circle, coming to stop at a distance, his arms spread slightly open, palms upward, his grin still there.
"My theory stands correct. She remembers nothing!" His voice was louder, still silky though, and it seemed to wrap around all of us. The people whooped and hollered at the news in a celebratory fashion, one of them shooting sparks out of the tip of their wand.
"Be it understood," he spoke again, his hands raising slightly, "that until otherwise decided upon, she is not to be harmed. That will be her own decision come the time. Severus, present yourself."
I watched as another figure stepped out from behind the crowd and a hand removed the mask, taking one knee and bowing low.
"My Lord." He said and I recognized the voice. I could feel my heart pounding faster as it dawned on me, that man had been Voldemort and 'Severus' was none other than Snape. I was in the middle of Death Eaters, frozen, unable to so much as protect myself if I needed to. I wished to know where Harry and Ron had taken off to, wondering if they had even followed my trail. Watching Snape bow, Voldemort gave no warning before pulling his wand and casting a spell that caused Snape to writhe in pain. I couldn't look away, my eyes drawn to the spectacle that had begun, wanting so badly to move. Whatever spell Voldemort had cast was obviously one intended to do pain, and Snape appeared to be in plenty of it.
"STOP!" My voice cracked finally, something had released in my throat, allowing me to scream and though I didn't expect Voldemort to stop on my word, when he actually did stop it left me surprised.