Disclaimer: I do not own any of the recognizable characters. Also, I have to admit that most of the spells I've used and will be using in this fiction are researched with the help of various Harry Potter sites. Though there are a few I've invented…. but you'll see them in later chapters.

Author Notes: first of all I would like to convey my special thanks to amrawn, jojobeyco, and silverbirch for their reviews. It is nice to know that you guys liked the first chapter!

And, I would also like to thank all those who added me to their Story Alert.

This chapter is longer than the first. I really hope you guys like it. So not forget to read and review!

Hermione tensed as she felt the wind swoosh (if that is even a word!) through her.

Suille's eyes narrowed as he realized someone was crouching in the bush near by. He quickly muttered, "Petrificus Totalus" pointing his wand at the bush and snarled as Hermione's limp body fell forward with a slight thud.

Dennis's eyes were wide with fear for Hermione, although she looked up defiantly into Suille's infuriated ones. He walked forward towards her and spat, "You'll pay dearly for that, mudblood." He lifted his wand and snarled, "Crucio." Hermione writhed in pain but refused to scream out in pain.

"Hermione…Hermione, why did you interfere?" Dennis cried silently. Suille glared at Hermione with contempt in his eyes.

By then a few of the slaves had gathered around. Parvati, Ginny and Michael were among them. They were worried stiff for Hermione, but what could they do? Ginny silently said a prayer to the heavens. Small streams of tears made their way down her face. Michael put a brotherly arm around her, while Parvati squeezed her arm.

"You think you are a brave little heroine, don't you? Let's see how brave you really are…. CRUCIO"

Every nerve in Hermione's body was on fire, not the warm and comforting fire but fire similar to the fire that would burn everything, fire that had no end. Tears were now flowing down her pretty face. She clamped her mouth shut not wanting to give the dirty death eater the satisfaction of seeing her scream out in pain. She was a Gryffindor through and through, but she was a human being as well… she couldn't take it anymore. She finally cried out in pain and anguish.

Suille smirked and lifted the curse, taking his own sweet time while doing it. He then walked towards her and nudged her face with his foot. Hermione looked at him with pure malice in her eyes. He sneered, "So mudblood, did that teach you to respect people who are better than you?" at this point he turned to those standing around, "I don't understand why they've allowed scum like you to live. Guess we do need the dirty ones to do the dirty works. Pity we've to look at these filthy faces everyday!"

Hermione glared at him, but remained silent not for fear of her death, but for fear of the death of her cause. She knew her cause would not be served if she pulled stunts like that, but sometimes she was as reckless as Harry and couldn't help herself. She was frustrated with everything she saw around her. She couldn't stomach the anguish that small children went through, just because they were unlucky enough to have some magic blood in them. She vowed she'll one day avenge the death of her best friends, friends and parents.

He lazily pointed his wand and muttered, "Finite" She was now free to stand. Though it took her a lot to just to pick herself up from the ground. She managed to finally stand.

Suille turned to Dennis and Hermione. "Well, I had fun today torturing you two muddys…." Suille said pointing to Hermione and Dennis while deriding them. "It would give me more pleasure to finish you off but, I've to have my fun tomorrow as well."

He pointed his wand at Hermione's right shoulder. "Sectumsepra" Hermione couldn't breath. She felt like her shoulders were sliced with sharp blades. Deep gashes were forming on her shoulder. Blood was seeping out. She screamed out in utter pain. She clutched her shoulder. She shook her head to clear away the panic. The front of her already torn and tattered clothes were slowly drenching in pure Gryffindor-red blood.

Suille laughed and walked away to the 'superiors only' part of the camp. On his way he said aloud, "That should teach you filthy, undeserving people to disrespect others who are above you."

The moment Suille was gone; all the others rushed towards Hermione.

Dennis was the closest and the first to reach her. She was turning pale with the loss of blood. He pulled out his torn shirt was held it to her shoulder and applied gentle pressure to stop the bleeding. Soon Ginny, Parvati and Michael were on their knees beside Hermione.

"Dittany…" mumbled Hermione feebly. The others could not hear what she was trying to say. Michael leaned closer and Hermione repeated herself again though it cost her a lot.

"Parvati give me the dittany, stat," he said, urgency looming his voice. Parvati quickly retrieved the small bottle of dittany which had been slinked from the potions store room at Hogwarts on one of the days they were assigned to clean the Hogwarts dungeons. She handed it over to Michael with trembling hands.

Ginny now had tears freely falling. She held Hermione close to herself and squeezed her other shoulder in a reassuring, sisterly manner. Hermione looked up at her and gave a watery smile. Hermione was what was left of her family. She knew her mother and Ron had died during the battle, but she didn't know anything about the rest of her family. It was only the ministry who actually knew who was alive and hiding and who wasn't. Hermione was like a sister to her. She couldn't bear seeing her hurt.

Michael fumbled with the cork of the bottle and finally pulled it of. He quickly pulled of his shirt like Dennis and using the cleanest part of it, dabbed dittany onto Hermione's right shoulders. The cuts slowly healed themselves leaving a faint scar that wasn't noticed unless someone touched the spot.

Hermione slowly sat up, weak with the blood loss, thankful that she had once overheard Snape say that dittany should be applied straight away after a Sectumsempra to replenish a little of the lost blood and to heal the wounds. She blinked a couple of times and noticed that there was an acute pressure being applied on her left shoulder. She looked up and saw Ginny crying a river. Hermione embraced Ginny to let her know that she was alright. She then hugged Michael and Parvati and thanked them. Then she turned to Dennis, who was still crying, and gave him a sisterly bear hug. She understood how much Dennis missed his brother.

The crowd cleared seeing that Hermione was going to be alright.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Michael demanded. Hermione was quite embarrassed that she had been acting without thinking unlike her usual self. Thanks to the war she wasn't much of her usual self anymore.

But, no matter what she had to defend herself. So she said defiantly, "I couldn't help myself. Yes, Michael, I know it was stupid but it was immensely satisfying to watch that death eater crap when his house mascot, albeit a gentle one, was about to choke him to death", she noticed that Michael was about to protest further and quickly added, "I would NOT have lived it down if I had just let the opportunity slip through my fingers, plus he was torturing Dennis. How could I just stand there and watch?"

"Don't try to convince me that what you did was the right thing. You could've simply distracted Suille and gotten Dennis from there and ran into the forest. Or you could've thrown that snake at him and simply run away from there." He closed his eyes for a second and when he opened them there was amusement in them. "No matter what I've to give it to you for having thrown that harmless snake at him. I wish that it had not been harmless. Then, it could have bitten that scum. Hmm… it was a brave thing to do, but stupid as well" he said as he hugged Hermione.

"We second that", chorused Parvati and Ginny.

Hermione nodded and pulled away from Michael and stood with her arm slung comfortingly over Dennis. She knew he needed her.

"I know you want your revenge 'mione," Ginny said, "but now isn't the time. Their time will come. We will make them pay for every drop of good blood that had been shed before, during and after the war. For both wizard and muggle blood. And to achieve this you need to be patient. You need to keep that head on your shoulders and not lose it all together. We need that amazing, and unerring brain of yours. We need strategy and you can't run around doing something rash and destroy our chances at revenge."

Parvati nodded her head, completely agreeing with Ginny. She and Hermione may not have been close at Hogwarts, but after the war they had grown to trust each other. She said, "Yes, we'll get, if not, extract, our revenge. Revenge for everything – slavery, death of loved ones and for the general and the greater good." She saw Hermione shake her head, and went on with a slight increase in her voice, "no you don't! We know you miss Harry, Ron, your parents and a whole lot of our people. For their sakes pull yourself together."

At the mention of Harry and Ron, Hermione's eyes shone with tears. But she did not let them flow down her cheeks. She didn't cry. As soon as the tears sprang to her eyes they disappeared and her eyes now shone with a determination that would have put even the greatest of men to shame. At this Michael, Ginny and Parvati exchanged looks. They knew that Hermione was now going to dedicate her life full and fully to their cause, though they knew she had always for freedom and revenge. Now they knew even if they all couldn't survive long, Hermione would get her revenge. They knew she would not die trying. They knew she would make death wait with folded arms at her doorstep until she completed what she set out to do.

Hermione was looking off into the distance, the wheels spinning furiously in her brain. She was startled out of her thinking when the other four hugged her. She smiled and joined in the group hug.

They started towards the camp, Hermione said, "I need a few hours. Get everyone and meet me after dinner at our hut," she said pointing to Ginny, Parvati and herself.

She turned towards the forest instead of the camp and started to move but turned around at the sound of Ginny's voice.

"Where are you going?" demanded Ginny with concern in her eyes. Michael looked at her curiously. Parvati simply looked on the exchange.

"Nowhere, I just need to be on my own for the some time." Hermione said.

"I'll come with you," offered Michael.

"No, plus the whole point of being alone is to have NO ONE else around. Don't worry, I'll be safe." She said tightly. Her voice did not book place for any sort of argument.

She turned back to the forest and walked straight ahead for about five minutes. She then looked all around herself carefully making sure no one was following her. She walked quickly with the ease and covertness of a cat. She then turned to her right and walked a few feet and turned north and walked up to a baby willow tree. From there she turned north east and walked on, after a few turns here and there she reached her destination.

There was the little lake deep in the forest that Harry, Ron and she had found one day while looking for a place to hide during the war. There was a cave; about 15 minutes walk away from the lake. The place was secure, with the most complex of the security spells. Some of them where not even known to the wizarding world. They were spells Hermione had invented with a little help from Dumbledore. She was known as the brightest witch of all times for nothing. Too bad Voldemort underestimated her. But that had always worked to her advantage. And now she WILL work it to her advantage as much as possible. For once, she was glad that she had always been in the shadows of Harry, Ron and Dumbledore. Back then, she used to hate it, but now it was one of the things she was very glad of.

There were books of various genre in the cave – dark arts, defense against dark arts, transfiguration, charms, herbology, ancient runes, astronomy and even divination, and a book about prophesies. The collection here was larger than the Hogwarts library. There were many books from Greece, Italy, France, Germany, China and many other countries. There were also dictionaries for the various languages. The cave also had a few magical artifacts, some stolen, some bought, and some made by Dumbledore himself.

Now was the time to put all her brilliance, and brightness to useful work. She knew that the task ahead was not easy. She knew she would need all her wit and some more. They would need a better place to hide, as this hiding place was not VERY far from the camp. The place was secure, un-plottable, and no one could over hear them. To someone from outside, it would be a dirty garbage dumping area that had an unbearable stench.

She still had not told anyone about this place. She was the only surviving person who knew of this place. Now, after Harry's death she was the secret keeper. She would have to tell the others about the cave later. But only time will tell when that 'later' would come.

For now she had many things to think about, and mulling over whether or not to tell the others about this place was not one of them.

Author Notes: I hope you guys like this chapter. Please review. In the next chapter you'll know who those 'everyone' are. Actually I mentioned that the traitor was oliver wood in the first chapter. But, he is not the only one. There were 2 more. And there might be one more. anyway, the next update is a couple of weeks away. Until then, bbye, and take care.

Love,

Azea!