It had been a couple of months since Hermione's encounter with 'Tom' in Hogsmeade and she had finally pieced together exactly what his intentions were. It seemed he was actually infatuated with her, but not in love. Voldemort was a Slytherin through and through; he was cunning and devious. He wanted Hermione to trust him fully and found that most women would do anything for the man they loved and whom they thought loved them. Hermione, however, was not most women and she also had Severus on her side. Severus had heard of these plans from some of the other males bragging in the inner circle and from Voldemort's slip of tongue. He quickly relayed the information back to Hermione, who in turn gave it to Dumbledore. Hermione was at first angered by this, but she quickly realised that was exactly what she was doing to Voldemort. She had a good laugh at that one. She had also learned that Peter had spied her entering and exiting the Inn that day and had reported this to Remus, thinking he could break up their relationship and get his old friendship back. James had Lily, Sirius had his countless females and Remus had Hermione, so to say that Peter was feeling left out was an understatement. Fortunately, Remus already knew most of what was going on and brushed off Peter's tales and told him to stop lurking in the shadows because people would actually start to think he really was a rat in human form. Hermione had been feeling weaker and sick. All of the meetings, school, spying and everything else in a normal teenagers' life was catching up to her and she finally gave in to Lily's pestering to go and see Madame Pomfrey to get some Pepper Up.

As she made her way to the infirmary, she caught Severus and Lucius whispering to one another in one of the corridors. She continued on past them and only gave a slight nod in recognition to their presence. Both men nodded back and went back to whispering. She must have nodded too fast or pulled something when she did, because she suddenly felt dizzy and the corridor started to spin. She felt her stomach turn and she fell forward into darkness.

Severus heard something hitting the floor and he looked at Lucius. Both of them rounded the corner to see Hermione laying in the middle of the corridor. They gathered her up and brought her into the infirmary.

"Poppy, where are you?" Lucius' voice bellowed out. The mediwitch come out of her offices looking scandalized that a student had called her by her first name.

"What is all this racket for? What are you two doing?" Poppy looked over at the two Slytherins carrying a Gryffindor and told them to place her on the bed. "What happened, did you two have anything to do with this?"

Lucius sneered at the mediwitch and answered, "Yes, we hexed her and then brought her in here so we could be caught red handed. We may be Slytherins and considered evil, but we are far from imbeciles, unlike some houses in this Merlin forsaken school. We found her this way, lying in the middle of the corridor. Normally we would have stepped over her, but she was blocking the whole way and we figured that if we left her and anyone found out, we would be blamed for the whole thing and punished. I can see I wasn't far off the point, even though we did bring her in. Next time, Severus, I say we leave the lump on the floor and proceed on our way, that way when we are accused, we may actually be guilty."

Severus tried to hide his smirk. He knew that Lucius would never leave Hermione on the floor. Not only was she favoured by the Dark Lord, but Lucius had also started a tenative friendship with her; she was after all a friend by proxy, through Severus. He knew Lucius wanted to get back at the mediwitch for her comment. Everyone had the same opinion of Slytherin, well most; Hermione and Dumbledore were exceptions to that rule. Even some Slytherins thought that way about themselves. The mediwitch looked thoroughly chastized and mumbled an apology. She then shooed the two young men out of the infirmary and began to check out her patient.

When they were almost to the Slytherin dorms Severus finally chose to speak. "You were a little bit dramatic back there, weren't you? You wouldn't be taking on some Hufflepuff traits would you? They always have a flare for the dramatic." Lucius simply responded by sneering. The two entered the dorms and nothing more was said about the incident.

Hermione opened her eyes and looked around. Immediately she noticed she was in the infirmary. She raised herself up on her elbows and looked to the mediwitch's office. Madame Pomfrey was just coming out when he spotted Hermione awake.

"Good, you're up, my dear. I just flooed your grandfather and he should be here shortly." Just then the doors opened and admitted the Headmaster.

"Hermione, dear, how are you? Poppy, is she alright?"

"Yes, Albus. The boys that brought her in said she probably has been working too hard and I am just about to give her some Pepper Up."

Hermione laughed at this and when the two adults looked at her, she told them that was the reason she had been on her way down here. She drank the potion and soon had steam billowing out of her ears. The next minute she felt her strength and energy return to her. She looked at the mediwitch for permission to leave.

"I will only release you if you promise to get some rest and cut back some."

"I promise. In fact, Grandfather can make sure that I do." Hermione looked to Professor Dumbledore and he nodded his head. Each time he heard her call him Grandfather, his heart did funny little jumps in his chest. The two left the infirmary arm in arm and headed to Dumbledore's office. Once they entered they sat down for some tea.

"So my dear, I trust you understand that it is not a good thing that you collapsed from doing too much." Hermione nodded her head, but remained silent.

"I think we need to cut something back. Some classes possibly? Or something else? I will let you decide, but you must choose something or I will choose it for you. I do not want to have that kind of scare again."

"I don't know what to choose. I really need all of my classes, so I am very hesitant to give those up."

"Well, let's make a list. Think of the pros and cons of each thing and go from there. First off, lets see what your options are for giving up."

"Well, there's the school work, then all the extra credit stuff, the clubs I belong to, my friends, Remus, and finally the work I do for the Order and my weekly meetings with Voldemort."

"Hmm, I see. Some of those things you cannot give up and there is no way to put pros and cons on them. Which one of those distresses you the most?"

"That's easy, my weekly meetings with Voldemort."

"Then it's simple, we will cut those out..." Hermione went to go and say something, but her grandfather held up his hand and he continued, "We will only cut them out for the time being. We can resume them once you are feeling better or until you are out of school; you only have a couple of months left after all."

"I would love to, but I have seen what happens to followers who miss one meeting; they are punished severely, if I miss months, I don't know what will happen."

"You have good standing with him, do you not?"

"Yes, but even his most favoured are punished."

Albus was quiet for a few moments and then he lit up. "I know, we will fabricate a story that you were stuck in the infirmary and weren't able to come."

"That may work for one or two meetings, but not many. Besides, he has followers in this school and they will report seeing me."

"We will give off the image that you are unconscious in the infirmary. You will need to remain hidden from the rest of the students, but it will give you a chance to recover. We already have a lead on the story, as two Slytherins carried you in there and both are his supposed followers, and no one has seen you leave. I will floo Poppy right away and let her in on our plans and then I will contact each of your teachers and get your work for you. We will also have to have a 'dummy' lying in the bed, to make it look like you are there. We will set you up in the Room of Requirement. We had best get started."

"One more thing though, when he calls his followers, our marks burn and become quite painful. If I ignore it, it will only become worse and worse until the pain becomes unbearable."

"Yes, I hadn't thought of that. When you are summoned, come to me right away. I can relieve some of the pain with a potion and a spell. If that is all, I think we had best get started."

"I have just one more question. Will I be able to see my friends at all during this time?"

"Be it far for me to keep you from your friends, especially during difficult times. I think they may be exactly what you need at this time, but I must insist you are very selective in what friends you allow your secret to. They may come and visit you, but they must also keep up the pretense that you are in the infirmary."

"I understand; there are only a few that I want to know. I know they will have no problems agreeing to these rules."

"We need to inform them right away. If you could give me their names, I will contact them and get everything else arranged. You, my dear, are going to march yourself straight to the Room of Requirement and have it prepare a comfortable place for you to stay. I gather you know how to use the room?" Hermione nodded her head.

"Could you please inform Lily Evans, James Potter, Sirius Black, Severus Snape and Remus Lupin?"

"Is that all?"

"Yes."

"Very good choices. I will go and talk to Poppy, then I have a little transfiguring to do in the hospital wing and after that I will go and inform your friends and we will come and visit you. Please get some rest." Albus looked at the young lady with concern and left to start on his errands. Hermione turned and started to pace back and forth in front of where the door would show up. After the third turn a wooden door with a brass handle appeared and Hermione went inside to wait.