Many huge, gigantic thanks to my brilliant beta bluefirefly5, for her prompt, consistent, inspiring input on all things Phoenix. She has brought a lot to this story. Thanks.

Old Magic

Chapter II: By Moonlight

~.~.{H.*.G}.~.~

I started when the door unexpectedly opened. By the time I identified the interloper as Alek, both Alastor and I had our wands trained on him. The old wizard just smirked at the pair of us as we lowered our wands.

"Did you need something, Alek?" I inquired as he closed the door behind him.

"Alastor told me what you're planning today," he supplied as he lowered himself into the chair I'd been using.

I silently requested another chair while Alastor resumed his seat, and I joined them when it appeared.

"Can you do it?" he asked when we were all settled.

I suppressed the urge to grimace at the question. "I think so," was the best answer I could give. "Obviously Albus does as well or he wouldn't have asked."

"Unless I'm mistaken," Alek noted, "Albus is not as well appraised of your progress with your magic. Based on what Albus didn't quite say at the staff meeting after lunch, I gather that rumble that shook the castle this morning was your doing?"

I fought a blush and nodded. "Yes."

"And how sure are you that this won't happen during the ritual?"

"Eighty percent," was the best I could give.

He nodded as though he wasn't surprised by the estimate. "Then you have three choices. Do it anyway, and face the consequences. Decline your part in the ritual, and try to find an alternative. Or find a way to increase your odds of success."

"Albus doesn't want a professor involved," I admitted, forcing myself to think critically and not emotionally. "I don't know of anyone else who could participate in the ritual on such short notice."

"Severus could," he offered neutrally.

"No," I said instantly.

Alastor huffed quietly in either annoyance or amusement – both probably. Alek didn't look the smallest bit surprised.

"I can't just back out," I argued, with myself mostly. "Molly's life is on the line."

"That's one option down," he noted. "What could you do to increase your chances of completing the ritual successfully?" he posed.

I took a deep breath and considered his question. "I need to hold onto my Occlumency shields. That's what went wrong the last time. The shields slipped and I lost control."

"Severus," Alastor said succinctly.

I frowned at him unhappily.

Alastor shook his head disapprovingly, "You need help stabilizing your magic. I know for a fact that there's no one alive you trust more than him. And he has the power and control to do it."

I turned my frown inward as the prat made a good point. I did not want Severus involved, but I was forced now to stop and ask myself why exactly that was.

There were several reasons, I quickly concluded. Unfortunately, none of them were all that good. First and foremost, I really didn't want to draw Albus' eye to him any more than it already was. At least not so soon. Severus was smart and powerful, but I didn't think he was up to sparring with Albus yet. I didn't want to know what Machiavellian ideas that old bastard might get for utilizing Severus when he realized how much potential he actually had. And would Severus recognize the danger before it was too late?

But all of that amounted to me trying to mother Severus, which I knew was wrong. As much as I wanted to wrap him in swaddling and tuck him away where the horrors of the war couldn't tarnish my beautiful, caring, selfless man, I knew that it was unfair to him to do so. He wasn't a child.

I didn't like it, but I knew that if I tried to smother him, I was going to end up losing him. He was my equal in most respects. I had to treat him that way. He deserved nothing less.

Alek's presence made me withhold my resigned sigh, but I nodded. "I'll speak to him. Are you ready for the ritual?" I asked Alastor as I stood.

"I'll answer any questions he might have," Alek offered, so he was familiar with the ritual. "Speak with Severus. And meet me near the forest at four-forty-five."

I found Severus in the library on my way downstairs and gave a silent cheer at not having to waste time looking for him. He looked at me with concern as I approached him, but held his questions when I hastily urged him to follow me.

Once we were closed into my room, he asked, "What happened? Why weren't you in class?"

I sat down on the sofa at his side and grimaced as it only just then occurred to me that I'd told him that I'd see him in potions, and then ended up skiving classes.

"Sorry," I said quickly. "It's been a really long day." I checked my watch. "And we don't have much time, so I'll make this as quick as I can. I told you that Molly was missing, presumably abducted by Death Eaters."

He nodded warily.

"Albus is going to use the Familiarus ritual to locate her."

His eyes widened slightly.

"The ritual is going to take place in a little over an hour in the forest. I need to meet Alek at a quarter to five." I took a deep breath, blew it out briskly, and went on. "Albus wants me to be a caster along with Alastor. Albus is going to lead the ritual."

"But your magic…" Severus frowned.

"I know," I nodded. "I won't have to do anything except feed unformed magic into the ritual, but I am going to need to maintain careful control for an extended period of time. For that… I need your help."

He frowned with concern, "What do you need me to do?"

Gods bless this man… I'd do a mental litany of all the reasons I wasn't worthy of him later since I didn't have time at the moment. "I need your help to keep my magic stable. Your magic won't actually be touching the ritual, I just need it to remain in contact with me in the event that my control falters."

His brow furrowed in thought. "I think I know what you mean, but I've never done anything like that before. From what I've read, it's really difficult. What if I can't hold the control?"

I smiled tightly. "That's why we're going to spend the next forty-five minutes practicing," I said more brightly than the situation warranted.

He nodded cautiously.

"If you're willing to try," I added tentatively. "It's not entirely without danger for you…"

"Hermione," he interrupted. "You know it's not danger to me that I'm worried about."

My heart warmed considerably and I leaned forward quickly to capture his lips. Both of our nerves made the kiss a little desperate, but I forced myself to withdraw in short order. We had too much to do to be wasting time on that – however much I wanted to. "Okay," I said as steadily as I could. "For the ritual, you'll need to sit behind me. Just put your hands on my shoulders."

I turned on the sofa so that my back was to him and I felt his hands close lightly over each shoulder. I absolutely could not prevent a slight shudder at the contact. Merlin, I'd be happy if the man never stopped touching me. "Okay," I said again, a little less steadily. "I'm going to draw on my magic. I just need you to touch it with yours."

"All right," he said quietly.

I took a slow breath and closed my eyes. First, I drew my Occlumency shields up as firmly as possible. Then I reached for my magic. It swelled within my core, and I let it build a bit before sending it into the rest of my body. Severus' hands tightened on my shoulders, but rather than being a distraction, it actually helped me to feel more focused. The contact was a comfort. Severus was here. He was safe. He was mine. Nothing else mattered.

At least, that's what I thought until I felt his magic touch mine.

I recoiled slightly on pure instinct. It felt incredibly foreign to be touched by raw magic that wasn't my own. It was like… Well, it was somewhat reminiscent to the first time I became aware of the sensation of Alastor's mind touching mine during Occlumency practice. It was intimate in the way that a part of me that should be inherently mine alone was being invaded by an outside presence.

Unlike feeling another mind touch mine though, this was more intimate. Much more. It was like… Well, I'd yet to have sex for all the times Severus and I shared a bed, but I couldn't believe that that could be any more intimate than this. Magic, I had discovered since I'd started meditating, was the essence of life at the most base level.

His magic probed against mine tentatively and I let out a shuddering breath at the same time that I heard him gasp. No wonder this was purported to be so difficult. It wasn't about the difficulty of touching one person's magic to another. It was about the two coexisting effectively. Alastor had been right. I never could have borne this with anyone I trusted less than Severus. Even with him it was an effort not to shove him away on pure instinct.

But it was Severus. And for that reason, I only wanted him closer, in every conceivable way. This one included.

"Are you okay?" he whispered.

"Wonderful," I breathed, then blushed when I realized how… erotic that had come out. I cleared my throat a little and nodded, "I, ah… Yeah, I'm good. You?" I attempted to rally.

"Good," he replied shortly, his voice tight. He slid a little closer to my back.

"Okay… I'm going to work on channeling my magic, and drawing more deeply. Try to keep me stable, but if you're concerned that it's not working well enough, let me know. I… I just about destroyed the Room of Requirement earlier when I lost control. I don't want to hurt you."

"I will," he agreed, and I felt his breath ghost across the back of my neck. He'd moved closer again.

I leaned back until I was resting against his chest, and struggled to turn my focus where it belonged.

The minutes of practice passed far too quickly, and I found myself wondering if we could try this again when we weren't so rushed. Now wasn't the time to be worrying about that though, so I pushed the thought away, instead trying not to blush at the thought of doing something so… intimate in front of Albus and everyone else. They wouldn't actually see anything we didn't let them, of course, but it was still…

Not the time to think about that.

We met Alek near the forest as planned, the lightened tip of his wand making him easy to locate. He nodded to both of us and started leading us down a slightly worn trail into the dark forest. I made an effort to not think about the last time I'd been wandering out here at night. With Umbridge. And Harry.

"Are you ready?" Alek asked quietly as we walked.

"As I can be," I replied neutrally.

He just nodded and we said no more. The walk took nearly ten minutes before the forest opened up into a clearing ringed with torches. I recognized quite a few Order members lingering around the edges. Arthur, Gideon, and Fabian were obviously present, in addition to Minerva, Filius, and Marlene. There was one more that I didn't recognize. By the way he was chatting with Marlene and Gideon and the way he held himself alertly made me guess he might be an auror.

In the center of the clearing, the ritual had been prepared. There was a low, flat slab of white marble serving as a table. Five vials of blood were spaced evenly around a shallow black marble bowl, all of which rested atop a large sheet of blank parchment. A palm-sized moonstone next to the bowl glowed dimly in the light of the full moon nearly directly overhead.

Set apart from the slab were two identical moonstones, spaced to form an equilateral triangle. Had there been five casters, it would have been a five-pointed star, or seven, nine, etc. Sitting in the center of the triangle, on the opposite side of the slab from Albus' position, was Regulus Black. His eyes met mine and I could see that he was nervous. I gave him a small, reassuring smile, and a nod. He returned it, though his smile looked a little sick. I wondered what Albus had said to get him here. And how much he'd explained.

When I looked away from Regulus, I found myself meeting Albus' eyes. He glanced briefly at Severus, then motioned for me to join him as he paced to the unpopulated side of the clearing. I squeezed Severus' hand briefly, then left him to speak to the annoying old man, firming my Occlumency shields on the way.

"Why is Mr. Snape here?" he asked without evident opinion.

"I was concerned for my ability to maintain control during the ritual," I admitted simply. "Severus has agreed to assist me. It won't affect the ritual."

Albus eyed me intently, "You believe he can do that?"

"We've been practicing," I nodded, affecting that it was not the big deal that we both knew it was. "We have been quite successful with it."

Albus nodded slowly, still staring at me as though he'd just discovered a fascinating new facet of my person. I didn't care for that look, but there was nothing to be done about it. "Very well," he said at last. "Just be sure to remind him to remain behind you at all times."

I gave a brief nod to the unnecessary reminder and left him to crouch next to Regulus. "Did he tell you what's going to happen?" I asked, hiding my concern for him, which would most likely incense the proud young man.

He nodded stiffly.

"It'll be over soon," I promised, gripping his hand briefly in a silent show of support.

"If everyone could take your positions. It is time to begin," Albus called.

I moved to sit crossed-legged in front of one of the moonstones while Alastor mimicked me at the other. Regulus removed his cloak, revealing that he was naked from the waist up, and turned to face Albus. Severus knelt behind me and I felt his hands close over my shoulders. I closed my eyes and took a deep, slow breath, centering myself and arranging my mental shields while I took hold of my magic. I felt Severus' touch mine almost immediately and withheld a shudder of pleasure at the warmth, comfort, and love I felt with it. I tried to return the sensations before returning my focus to my magic.

Once all attention had focused on Albus, he drew his wand, and began the low chant. I took my moonstone in hand, held it between my palms, and began feeding my magic into it. The glow of the moonstone increased.

Albus lifted one of the vials of blood in one hand and raised his wand in the other while he chanted. Regulus hissed in discomfort and I sympathized with the part of my mind not completely focused on my magic. Albus was magically transferring the blood from the vials onto Reg's skin in the form of runes. The blood of Molly's parents would be on his face. The blood of her brothers on his arms, and the blood of her son in his chest. And each rune would burn mildly but without physical harm as they were applied.

When half the blood from each vial had been applied, Albus began pouring each into the bowl, then carefully placed his brightly glowing moonstone into the center of the bowl, the quiet, complex chant falling from his lips unceasingly.

I felt the pull on my magic increase, and obliged the hungry ritual, drawing more deeply, feeding the power through my arms and into the stone. My eyes opened instinctively as I felt the air beginning to grow thick with magic. The triangle made up by we three casters had begun to shimmer with what looked like a combination of heat waves sparking with tiny bolts of electricity. The bolts were multihued though, magic rather than electricity.

The sparks shimmering most strongly around me were brilliant golden with a few touches of silver here and there. Around Alastor, the sparks were mostly red with dark purple undertones. Those surrounding Regulus were an fairly even mix of orange and green, though there was black rising from the vicinity of his left forearm. Damn. How had I overlooked that? Albus was bathed in a cloud of darkest purple and equally dark blue.

All of these colorful sparks hovered in the air within the triangle, and revolved lazily on their way toward the bowl and the focus moonstone within it.

The magic in the air was almost stifling, more intense than anything I'd ever felt. As it built to a crescendo, I felt my control waver. Before it could get out of hand, Severus' magic pressed against mine, a steadying influence, and I felt my magic stabilize once more.

The moonstones Alastor and I held glowed brilliantly while the stone in the bowl shone through the blood to bathe the clearing in chilling red light. Albus' voice rose to almost a shout as he lifted the bowl high, then slowly overturned it, allowing the blood to drain slowly onto the parchment. Eerily, it did not splash at all despite falling from that height. It landed in mercurial droplets that instantly began to roll across the page, being absorbed gradually as they moved and leaving dark lines on the parchment as they passed.

The last drop of blood fell from the bowl, and Albus fell silent. The clearing was abruptly cloaked in a complete lack of sound. Even the forest had gone silent around us.

I shivered slightly as Albus quietly intoned, "It is done."

All four of us in the triangle slumped as the draw on our magic ceased, and Severus pulled me back against his chest. "Are you okay?" he whispered in my ear.

I took a deep breath, and nodded. That had been… intense. I made a quick mental note to avoid becoming involved in any more blood ritual where possible.

I realized then that Albus had stood, somewhat unsteadily, and I hurried to do so as well, unwilling to be left out of the purpose of this whole thing. I inserted myself in the group gathering around Albus and the parchment, which had become a detailed map drawn in blood. The X indicating Molly's location could have been taken right off a pirate's treasure map.

Albus was laying out the plan of attack. They were going to apparate to a point near the location and assess what they were dealing with, hopefully without tripping any wards before they were ready.

"Hermione, take Mr. Snape and Mr. Black back to the castle," Albus said to me dismissively.

"Respectfully, sir," I interjected, "I want to come with."

He gave me a disappointed frown. I hated that look, guilt trip that it was. "Hermione-"

"Girl's right," Alek put in mildly.

Albus threw him a sharp look, a clear warning to stay out of it.

"Albus," Alek said with a pretense of patience that I very much doubted was real, "I give us even odds that we're walking into a trap. Hermione's smart and she's good at noticing details. If there's fighting to be done, she can stay in the back, but we could use her tonight, and she's clearly willing. She's also of age, and already fully appraised of the situation."

"She is a student," Albus said, his patience obviously wearing thin, "and we both know that she's had some… difficulties of late. I won't risk her life tonight."

"I agree with Alek," Gideon put in rather forcefully.

"So do I," Fabian added more timidly.

Arthur hesitated a moment before nodding his agreement.

Albus cast his eyes around the gathering, probably concerned for mutiny. Finally, he looked at me. "Hermione, I implore you to not endanger yourself."

"We're at war, Albus," I said with quiet severity, deliberately using his given name for the first time directly to his face. I was a student, but I was not a child. I would not be treated as such. "I won't endanger myself unnecessarily, I promise."

His shoulders slumped slightly in defeat, but by the way his eyes hardened, I was pretty sure he'd like to be cursing aloud.

"I'm going too," Severus said uneasily but with pure steel in his tone that said he wouldn't be denied.

Albus glanced at him, then at me. When he found no help there, he looked at the others, none of whom looked eager to deny anyone who might be able to help. "Someone has to see Mr. Black back up to the infirmary," he finally reasoned. "He's in no shape to be left alone in the forest."

"Alastor can take him," Alek offered.

"I'm not staying here," Alastor argued.

"You're in no condition to come with," Alek rebuked with a soft command.

I glanced at Alastor then and noticed that he was looking rather haggard.

Alastor grumbled, but relented when Albus reluctantly nodded his agreement. I figured Alastor must have been concerned with his ability to light so much as a candle if he was willing to give up that easily. It surprised me that the ritual had tired him so much more than me or Albus. And it gave me a slightly unnerving idea of how much stronger my magic had become. I actually wasn't feeling too badly at all.

"Does everyone know our destination?" Albus asked with an undertone of defeat.

I had an obscene urge to laugh at getting one up on that bastard, but tempered it with the surety that he would find a way to repay me for this little demonstration of independence. Oh well, it couldn't be helped. He needed to know that I would not always bow to his wishes. I just prayed that whatever we were about to get into wasn't too dangerous. I didn't have enough faith in my control to be comfortable with my ability to defend Severus if the need arose.

When everyone had nodded their assent, Albus disapparated. Everyone else followed quickly, Severus grasping my hand to lead me without making it obvious that I wasn't able to take myself.

We appeared on a dark hilltop in a copse of trees overlooking a weathered hut. It was entirely less ominous than I'd been expecting. Not that that meant anything, really.

"Alek, Hermione, east. Gideon, Marlene, west," Albus said quietly motioning us in the direction he wanted, to flank the building.

My hand tightened on Severus' at the same time that he tightened his on mine, and then I released him, trying not to think about the fact that it might be the last time I saw him, and followed Alek.

Once we'd distanced ourselves a few steps from the group, Alek slashed his wand to silence both of our steps. I was glad to be with Alek. After months of working with him individually, I knew him pretty well and was able to judge a lot just by the set of his shoulders and the direction of his eyes. He was on edge.

We moved around the clearing with the cottage at a wide angle to avoid exposing ourselves while we approached the east flank of the house. There were no lights on inside, and I was hoping that this was the right place, but the ritual told me that it had to be. It would only lead us to Molly Weasley, and only if she was still alive, her blood still flowing.

Alek stopped abruptly and motioned for me to do the same. Then he knelt and stared at the ground. I followed his gaze and, after a moment, located the object of his focus. A wardstone. Well, we were probably in the right place. No one would ward the entire clearing around that little shack without a damn good reason.

He pointed his wand back the way we'd come and a brief flash of silver snaked off along the ground. I blinked, then looked at my mentor with a faintly bemused smile. His patronus was actually a snake. How remarkably Slytherin. He smirked in return, then rose and gestured for me to follow again.

We continued all the way around the clearing. When we reached the side directly opposite Albus and the others, Alek crouched again, located another wardstone, and sent off another patronus.

We waited in silence perhaps a minute before a slight rustling of clothing had both of our wands trained on the approach of the second set of scouts. We exchanged nods as we identified each other, then crouched down in the moon shadows to wait.

Less than a minute later, a silvery phoenix alighted in the center of our little group and spoke with Albus' voice. "Gideon, west. Alek, south. Can Hermione take east?"

Alek looked at me. "Can you disable a wardstone without setting off any alarms?" he asked me in a tone that warned against overstating my abilities.

I examined the stone more closely, then nodded. It wasn't that complex if you had a solid understanding of runes and warding. Most wardstones weren't actually meant to be difficult to disarm, since they generally depended on not being located. In this case, all four would have to be disabled simultaneously, which was the difficult part. More permanent wards were set by burying the stones where they would remain, and there were generally a lot more of them.

Alek sent off another patronus, then gestured me toward the eastern stone. My steps still silenced, I set off in that direction alone. While I walked, I examined the fact that Albus would select me for this when he had Minerva and Filius at his disposal, both of whom I was sure were perfectly capable of disabling a wardstone. After some consideration, I decided that they were also probably his strongest fighters. He'd want them ready to attack, and if we tripped some kind of failsafe, or if someone truly was expecting us, this could start before the wards fell.

It made me think that Albus wasn't as optimistic as "even odds" against this being a trap.

When I reached the wardstone, I knelt next to it and drew my journal from the pocket in which I always kept it on me now.

-Ready.-

A few moments later, a silver phoenix was perched at my side. "Begin in five, four, three, two, one, now."

I held my hands just above the stone, drew on my magic, and felt out the magic surrounding the stone. When the countdown ended, I worked my magic into the spaces of the knotted web forming the ward, and sliding it directly into the knots. When I felt like I'd found all of them, I drew more deeply on my magic, sending a surge down the paths I'd already delineated, and snapping each knot simultaneously, causing the wards to fall apart around it.

I opened my eyes just in time to see a brilliant red curse flying at my face.

My training kicked in and I flung myself into a roll, drawing my wand along the way. I came out of the roll onto my knees, my wand focused in the direction that the curse had come from, and was not terribly surprised to find myself facing a masked Death Eater. "Stupefy!" I cast instinctively. Not surprisingly, the spell faltered halfway there.

Fighting the urge to scream in fear and frustration, I scooped up a fist-sized rock with my left hand and chucked it at the Death Eater, and for lack of a better option, charged.

Most witches and wizards never even contemplated closing to melee range in a fight, which made the tactic highly useful – which, in turn, had made it a part of my training. I was no Bruce Lee by any stretch of the imagination, but I did have a solid grasp on street fighting type tactics. It was brutal, dirty, and without any polite restrictions.

I hit the shocked Death Eater shoulder to gut, and felt him actually leave the ground for a moment before I sent him down flat on his back. I rolled out of the fall to find myself in arm's reach of his wand, which I quickly snatched up. In a moment of blind inspiration, I wondered if a different wand might suit my new magic better, so I tried another stupefy, this time with the Death Eater's wand.

It reacted almost exactly the same as my own wand. At this range, it hit hard enough that he probably felt it, but I doubted that it was much more than mildly uncomfortable by his slight grunt. With a quiet growl, I took two quick steps forward and slammed my heel into his face as hard as I could as he was attempting to rise. His nose shattered in a spray of blood, and he went down in a boneless heap. I took a moment to make sure he wasn't going to get back up, then crouched and scanned my surroundings, trying to estimate how much time had passed between taking out the wardstone and now. Ten seconds, maybe?

I could hear sounds of combat elsewhere in the clearing, and the brief, varied illumination of spells, but nothing was too close to me. Severus was as safe as he could be surrounded by Albus and most everyone else, but if I knew him, he was going to try to find me, so I set off in that direction, keeping as low as I could. I tucked the second wand into my pocket and kept mine in hand, for all the good it had done in the last fight.

All that endurance training was coming in handy now as I moved across the uneven terrain in the dark, half crouched, as quickly as possible with perfect ease.

A shadow came into view moving toward me, and I took a few quick steps toward the tree line and dropped into the lowest possible crouch, ceasing all movement to help me blend in with my inanimate surroundings as I watched the shadow draw closer. When it was about two meters away, I was able to identify him.

"Severus!" I hissed quietly.

He spun on me, wand leading, but didn't attack. "Hermione?" he asked warily.

"Yes," I answered before I moved.

He started when I shifted to stand, but quickly relaxed as I approached. I grabbed his arm and urged him to squat so we'd be less noticeable.

"Are you all right?" he whispered.

"Yes," I assured him. "What's happening?"

"It was a trap," he replied shortly. "As soon as Dumbledore started on the wardstone, they came out of everywhere."

"I met one," I nodded.

His left hand rose to my shoulder, then the side of my face, as though to reassure himself that I was okay.

"How many were there?"

"I don't know," he answered, which was a harsh reminder of how much training he still needed.

"Estimate," I implored.

He was silent for a moment before offering, "Maybe two dozen."

"Damn," I cursed quietly. "Let's get over there."

"You said you wouldn't put yourself in danger," he reminded me warily. "Your magic…"

"I know," I grumbled. "We'll stay out of it if we can, but I won't let anyone die if I can help it. If nothing else, we can try to make a distraction, or enervate someone who gets knocked out. Come on." I tugged lightly on his arm and got him following me around the edge of the clearing.

We'd gone less than a hundred meters when I became aware of his heavy breathing. "Now you see why I run," I said quietly.

"Yeah," he huffed in return.

The primary fight, we quickly found, was still going strong. Minerva was proving that she was not to be underestimated, and Filius was an absolutely terrifying duelist. As they'd both trained me in my own time, I was well acquainted with their fighting styles, so I took up a post behind them while I motioned Severus toward the other side of the fight. "Wake or extract anyone who goes down. If they're in serious danger, apparate them back to Hogwarts," I instructed quickly.

He gave me a look that telegraphed his desire to remain at my side, but hesitated only a moment before complying.

Severus' estimate of bad guys, I noted, had been on the low side, or more had shown up since he'd come looking for me. Minerva and Filius stood side by side against ten Death Eaters. Albus was facing nine by himself, with five bodies already on the ground around him – and it was clear that he wasn't at his best after that ritual. Fabian and Arthur were back to back against five or six Death Eaters over by Severus, and they were clearly struggling. I watched as Severus enervated Arthur before he'd even hit the ground and silently cheered before turning my attention back to my two professors.

I was hesitant to do anything much more than watch and assist if absolutely necessary lest my disgraceful attempt at spellcasting prove a distraction to my own side.

Then a stunner and a slicing hex hit Minerva simultaneously, and she went down. Filius was facing eight alone, and there was no way that he could defend himself and Minerva. With determination, I drew heavily on my magic and didn't try to form it into a delicate spell. Instead, I chose a blasting curse, and just threw as much into it as I could, hoping to force out one of my overly effective spells.

There was an utter lack of finesse, but the tactic worked against the clump of Death Eaters. With a crack like thunder and a bomb-like explosion, two Death Eaters rather ceased to be, three more were blown away in multiple pieces, and the next closest two were just thrown. Filius managed to get a shield up to save himself from being knocked down, and quickly dispatched the last Death Eater in the immediate area with an expelliarmus, stupefy, incarcerus combination. He then turned and looked at me.

I grimaced in reply, a bit shell-shocked by the destruction I had just sown, and the at least five more Death Eaters to add to my body count.

Filius spared me only a glance before using a simple battlefield healing spell to heal Minerva. It wouldn't be excessively pretty, but it would keep her alive. He enervated her then, which told me that she wasn't too badly injured.

They moved to assist the others, and I was just starting to think that this was going to work out okay. I really should have learned better by now than to tempt Fate with thoughts like that.

More than anything else, I felt the presence behind me, and spun around to find myself staring down the length of a yew wand. My eyes followed it up the arm to a pair of burning red eyes.

With an internal scream of pure terror, my left arm rose to knock aside the arm holding me at wandpoint, and I tackled Lord Voldemort. I fought like a cornered animal, kicking, punching, elbowing, biting, pulling hair, and then I was being squeezed through a narrow tube in crushing darkness.

I rolled away from Voldemort as we arrived wherever the hell he'd taken us, took in my surroundings at a glance, noting that we seemed to be in a sparsely furnished cave of some sort, and then I was running out the nearest exit. I fled around blind corners, part of me recognizing that it was probably a good thing most of the Death Eaters were in that clearing instead of in what I could only assume was Voldemort's headquarters.

I had to backtrack twice when I found myself sprinting into a dead end room, but Voldemort didn't seem to be following too closely if at all. Maybe one of my hits had done enough damage that he wasn't quite up to chasing after me.

Finally, finally I saw the exit, an open cave mouth leading into the moonlit night. I was literally two steps from freedom when a spell tripped me. I managed to semi-control the fall, landing painfully on my shoulder, but rolling back to my feet without too much difficulty. I trained my wand on none other than Voldemort himself. He looked really angry.

"Who are you?" he snarled.

"No one of consequence," I said quickly, with an inadvisable amount of cheek that I didn't seem able to control. No wonder Harry had always mouthed off when he'd faced the Dark Lord. It was that or dissolve into a gibbering fit of pointless pleas for mercy. This man was freaking terrifying. "Just one of Albus' little minions." I took a small step back.

Blood red eyes narrowed. His mouth opened and his wand twitched.

I tensed.

"Avada Kedavra!"

My life flashed before my eyes as I watched sickly green death shoot toward my face. My childhood among the muggles before I'd ever heard that magic might exist in fact. My first six years of Hogwarts getting up to untold mischief and mayhem with Harry and Ron. The last few months in the past, becoming Slytherin, falling in love with Severus, tactical sparring with Albus, training with Alek and Alastor…

And I just managed to yank myself back far enough that I could watch the spell very nearly graze my nose. Then I was sprinting out into the darkness. On the sixth step, the ground went out from under me and I had time to contemplate the fact that I was falling off a cliff into what I hoped was nice deep water. I took a gulp of air, and then I was encased in salt water.

I identified up from down as quickly as I could, shucked my robe before it drowned me, and started swimming laterally along the cliff face as quickly as I could, not wanting to surface directly beneath in case Voldemort was waiting to throw another Avada at me.

~.~.{S.*.S}.~.~

The last Death Eater apparated away and the clearing went chillingly silent for a moment as everyone scanned for a further threat. Then, slowly, the downed Death Eaters were bound and relieved of wands. It looked like only one Order member was still down, and Marlene quickly apparated away with him, presumably to the infirmary.

I started looking for Hermione, quickly growing more uneasy when I realized that she wasn't among the others standing in the clearing. When I'd circled the group twice without finding her, I headed for Alek, who was speaking quietly with Dumbledore.

"I can't find Hermione," I said, interrupting whatever they'd been discussing.

They both looked at me. Both looked concerned as they turned their eyes outward.

The search was brief and unhelpful as it was quickly confirmed that she did not seem to be in the area. When Alek's Point Me didn't work, we all realized that she wasn't within the roughly three kilometer range of that spell. I drew on my limited Occlumency shields to keep myself from hyperventilating, or something unhelpful like that.

Dumbledore finally drew out his journal and tapped his wand on a page before closing it again.

A couple minutes passed without a response, and Dumbledore rather reluctantly began organizing the group to go into the shack and try to find Molly. I wanted to scream that we needed to find Hermione, but I figured the Prewett brothers and Mr. Weasley might curse me.

With a silent groan, I let them worry about Molly, and I paced the vicinity of the fight while my mind examined every horrible thing that might have happened to her. The Point Me wouldn't have worked if she was dead, after all. Or she could have been apparated or portkeyed away by a Death Eater at some point.

I was right on the point of going back to Hogwarts to see if she'd managed to apparate herself back to the infirmary, when there was a crack right behind me. I spun to find myself facing a sopping wet Hermione standing in a puddle.

My breath caught and I all but leapt on her, wrapping my arms around her and fully planning to never let go of her again. She was gasping as though she'd been holding her breath, and I finally comprehended the fact that she was soaking wet and standing in a puddle.

"What happened?" I asked without letting go. "Are you hurt?"

"No," she coughed. "Just wet. And I lost my wand. And the journal. Where's Albus? I need to talk to him," she said, but she was holding me just as tightly.

"I'm here, child," Dumbledore's voice suddenly alerted me to the fact that we weren't alone.

Reluctantly, I drew away from Hermione, though I snatched one of her hands and held it tightly as we turned to face the headmaster and Alek. Everyone else seemed to be over at the shack.

Hermione coughed again. "Could you make my ears stop wringing?"

He nodded, drew his journal from a robe pocket, and tapped the cover with his wand.

"Thanks," she said briefly, then took a deep breath, and started, "Voldemort was here."

Dumbledore's eyes widened a bit. "Tell me what happened, Hermione," he coaxed gently.

"I was standing away from the fight, trying to just wait to help if I was needed. Then I saw Minerva go down, so I…" she cleared her throat uncomfortably. "I sent a reducto at the Death Eaters she was facing. It… It came out rather strong."

He nodded as though he'd heard this part already.

She nodded too. "Anyway, when Filius and Minerva turned to help you, I realized that there was someone behind me, and I turned around, and… He was right there. With his wand pointed at my face."

I swallowed hard, shocked and horrified, and hating myself for leaving her side tonight, regardless of the fact that she'd told me to do so.

"I just reacted," she admitted. "I knocked his wand away and I leapt on him. He disapparated, and I got pulled along. We came out in what I think is his headquarters. It's in a cave overlooking the sea. I managed to get out and I jumped in the water. I swam a bit, but he shot spells at me every time I tried to come up for air, so I disapparated under the water."

My eyes widened further. Holy sodding Hades!

"I'm not sure when I lost my wand. Probably when we arrived there. I lost my journal when I took off my robe in the water. If you can track it, you can probably get pretty close to his base."

Dumbledore's eyes seemed to sparkle in the moonlight at that possibility. "Mr. Snape, take her back to the Hogwarts infirmary."

"Sir," Hermione called quickly. "Is Molly okay?"

He smiled a little and nodded. "She and her babies should be fine, but she's on her way to St. Mungo's just to be sure."

Hermione sagged a little with relief, and nodded, then turned to wrap her arms around me. "Take me home, love," she whispered in my ear, and I happily complied.

Well, that's chapter two. Up next, a trip to Ollivander's! Please note that chapter 3 is not written yet, but I will do my best to have it up within a week.

I absolutely love getting reviews. I'm just saying. No. I'm not hinting at anything at all… ;-)