DISCLAIMER: I solemnly swear that I do not own anything that pertains to HP. I just play with them.
Two hours had passed since Hermione had been taken and the occupants in Snape's chambers were still furiously working on a plan to find her. Suddenly, three men hissed and made a grab towards their arms.
Harry and Draco both had a hand over their bracelets, staring wide-eyed at the Potions Master who had instinctively grabbed his left forearm before slowly moving his hand towards his ring.
"This one is lasting a lot longer," Harry said through gritted teeth. He thought he was going to have an 'H' scorched into his wrist by the end of it.
"She's afraid. It feels different than the last one. The last one was fear and surprise but was over quickly; probably because she was stunned. This one is pure fear. I bet she just woke up," Snape said, twisting his ring.
"What time is it?" Remus asked, suddenly.
"I think it's about six a.m. or so. Why?" Draco asked, clearly irritated at the pointless question.
Their Defense teacher pointed out the window. "In all my years of being here, the sun has always raised around five or so during the spring. Look outside; it's still dark as if it were midnight!"
"'And so begins the endless night'," Harry said quietly and everyone looked at him. "Remember?"
"A plot to use the lioness's blood, to suck the power from the mud…,'" Draco whispered.
"'Will make the evil grow in might, and so begins the endless night,'' Dumbledore finished. "Quickly, we must figure out what to do!"
"I know there's a slight block in our trackers, but we can still feel her. Can't we just follow them anyway?" Harry asked.
"I was thinking the same, Harry," Snape said, as he finished stirring a potion he had been working on. "I have modified the tracking potion I used when she ran to the Room of Requirement. This should allow us to search over a wider area, depending on the size of our map. I also strengthened it so hopefully it will get across the magical barriers Lucius has set up."
"Brilliant, Severus!" Remus said, while Dumbledore nodded.
"Here, Severus," Draco said, handing Snape a map of the world. Snape quirked an eyebrow at him. "Well, it's a large map that shows EVERYWHERE. I'm not going to have you waste your potion just because she isn't in bloody Scotland!"
"Everyone, stand back to the edges of the room," Snape said. When everyone had moved, she swept his wand over his room and all of his furniture and other items folded themselves up and flattened against the walls as well, leaving the room practically bare. Next, he laid the map in the center and with another sweep of his wand, the map started to grow until the corners nearly reached the walls. As it enlarged, all of the names of cities and countries were revealed better.
Snape walked back where his potion was and dipped his crystal into it until it was ready. He then walked back to the map and started to slowly walk over it. Every time the crystal pulled him in a direction, the other parts of the map would shrink, zooming in on the part he was looking at. He had gotten the idea from something called Google that Hermione had showed him over the holidays. Soon, he was standing over England.
"Fuck it all, that man is so cliché, it's embarrassing," Snape muttered.
"What? Where is she?" Harry asked.
Draco walked across the map to where Snape was standing and sighed as it began zooming again.
"Stonehenge," they said together. A second later, however, the crystal was pulling off to the side, however.
"No, wait," Snape said. "He's in New Forest!"
XXX
Don't panic, don't panic, Hermione kept repeating to herself.
"Hermione, so nice of you to join me," Lucius said, his voice sliding over her and making her wish for a shower. "I thought you would never wake up."
Hermione stared at him, taking in his appearance. He looked…good. She was surprised. After all his time on the run, how did he stay so healthy? It wasn't just his hair that was perfect as usual, it was his whole body. He looked well fed and rested. He looked better now than the last time she saw him, to be sure. Hell, he looked better now than the time before the last time she saw him.
Lucius continued to smile at her. He was seated on a rock, completely calm, with his hands clasped on top of his crossed legs.
"You know, you worried me for a little bit, Hermione. For a while, I really thought that Snape cared for you and that getting you would be extremely difficult. As it turns out, it was quite simple once I decided to be patient. And walking around in the middle of the night? Bravo," Lucius said, and then slowly clapped. "I couldn't have planned it better myself."
"Where's your little helper? You're such a tough wizard, needing help from a child inside the school," Hermione sneered. She had no idea why she was taunting the man who held her life in his hands, but she couldn't stop the words from coming.
Lucius looked confused for a few moments before a smirk started to form on his mouth. Soon, it was broad smile and then he was throwing his head back and laughing. Now it was Hermione's turn to look confused.
Finally, Lucius seemed to calm down again. He stood up from the rock and started to slowly make his way towards Hermione.
"You want me to divulge who my spy is? I guess it can't hurt, since you won't have the opportunity to tell anyone. It took awhile to form, though. Good, trustworthy spies don't happen overnight. No, this took almost a year of planning before I knew it would work," he told her as he started to circle the pole she was tied to. She seemed to be in the middle of a small clearing in an unfamiliar forest, not like it helped her any.
"It was a Gryffindor, you know," Lucius continued.
"Ginny?" Hermione breathed, not wanting to believe it.
"That Weasley girl? No, no. Although, I noticed you all had a bit of a…break-up…if you will? No, I couldn't trust her to get me my information. I knew she would never do it. Although, she did help me, she just didn't realize she was. Did you know that she sent one of the letters to Potter? So did my spy. So did I. In fact, I sent two. But they didn't work. You and that blasted son of mine talked him into believing that he was normal and whatever else you told him."
Hermione couldn't believe what she was hearing. Ginny wasn't the spy? But she had sent one of those horrible letters to Harry anyway?
"Yes, but my spy was the one who planted the idea in Weasley's mind. She was so bitter and angry…it was only too easy. My spy saw one of my disgusting offspring's hidden kisses with Potter, and promptly ran to tell Weasley, planting the seed. After that, it was just a quick suggestion and the letters were being sent. Then, of course, you all had the falling out with the older Weasley, who also helped me without realizing it!" The glee in Malfoy's voice was disgusting.
Hermione's eyes widened. Charlie?
"Yes, you see, the older Weasel decided to have more conversations with his sister because of guilt at not being around the dead Weasel. Ron, right? So, he would have heart-to-heart conversations with her and tell her all these things about you, how he was feeling and the like, and then she would somehow always wind up reporting it back. So, no, it was not Ginny or Charlie Weasley," Lucius told her, coming to a stop in front of her.
"So who was it?" Hermione choked out, tears forming in her eyes. They had been accusing the wrong person for months, even though Ginny was still in no way innocent.
"I would have thought that with Dumbledore, Snape, and you all on the case, you all would have figured it out. I know you found out about the prophecy; didn't you read it? It's written in there, very clearly," he said, smiling evilly.
Hermione furrowed her brows trying to remember the prophecy in its entirety. Her eyes started to widen as the color slowly drained from her face.
Lucius laughed out loud again. "I think you're finally catching on. Pale Death lurks in safety's walls, hunting the heart which has taken all. You know what they say, Hermione," he said, coming to stand next to her and whisper in her ear, "'if you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself.'"
He stood back and closed his eyes. Breathing in deeply, he started to wave his wand in complicated twists all over his body. To her horror, he started to change right before her eyes. He didn't need polyjuice potion with the spells he was using.
When he finished, Hermione stared in terror and revulsion at the person before her. She felt sick to her stomach.
"Hi, I'm Emily Storm, Gryffindor first-year!" Lucius said in a girly voice Hermione had heard so many times.
Hermione promptly threw up as Lucius, parading as a young girl, danced around laughing.
XXX
"She's scared and repulsed," Snape said suddenly. He was grabbing potions and storing them in a small bag with an extension charm inside. "We must hurry."
They had spent the last ten or so minutes debating on the best course of action and Snape had had enough.
"I'm apparating there, Albus. I'm going to go save her, and that's final."
"Trying to apparate across countries is extremely tiring and time consuming, Severus!"
"Then make me a portkey, old man! If you don't, then I will, or I'll apparate anyway, difficulties be damned! Hermione could be dying!"
The headmaster looked at him for a few seconds before nodding tersely. He picked up one of Snape's stirring rods and concentrated for a moments before muttering "portus" and tapping it with his wand.
Snape strode forward to grab it from the headmaster, but Albus didn't let go. After a few not so subtle tugs, Snape raised his eyebrows to him in question.
"Let's get the bastard," Dumbledore said quietly, making every other person in the room start. Snape stared at him incredulously before giving him a rare smile and nodded.
"I'm coming as well," Draco said, and Harry nodded as they both stepped up to grab a portion of the spoon. When Snape went to object, Draco cut him off. "I broke my promise to her, Severus. I promised her at the beginning of the year that I wouldn't let him get to her. I have to come."
"We all love Hermione here, Severus. We're all coming with," Harry said.
Dumbledore looked to Remus who had just walked forward to grab on as well. "Remus, I need you to stay here. Find Minerva and explain everything. Please."
Lupin nodded reluctantly to the Headmaster. "Be careful," he said. They all nodded and then they were gone.
XXX
"How?"
"Memories," Lucius replied, still in the form of Emily. "When I was able to escape being put in Azkaban, I knew that life wouldn't be the same as it was, so I decided to leave. I was going to pack up and move and form a new identity. So I started looking into the books in the Malfoy library and taught myself some that had been forgotten as time passed. While going through the books, I came across a poetry book from Tangio Santos. I had forgotten I had a copy! Curious, I started going through it, amusing myself as to the prophecies that I could pinpoint had come to pass. Then I saw one that made me drop my book. I knew this was it; it was fate," Lucius said, eyes wide.
"I spent the year laying a false trail about my movements. As I was doing that, I was developing a plan. I knew what I wanted, but how to get you? I knew you would be protected at Hogwarts. I knew polyjuice potion was out because after the mishap with Barty Jr. back in your fourth year, restrictions were set on buying the ingredients. I thought of merely disguising myself as people and buying it, but I abhorred the idea of taking it every hour. I was reading through the Prophet one morning when I saw an article on the orphans of the war and it hit me," he said, smiling.
"I decided to become a muggle-born orphan. It was brilliant. One morning before the orphanage opened, I laid down on one of the steps curled up, looking like this, and waited for the owner to come outside to get the paper. When she saw me 'sleeping', she woke me up and I told her my story about how my mother had dropped me off in the middle of the night saying how I would be in better hands at this place because she couldn't take care of me. The woman ate it up, and I was in.
"Next, after I was there about a week, I decided to perform a little rudimentary magic that would be expected of an untrained wizard. Less than a day went by before a ministry official and McGonagall were at the door asking the owner if they could speak to me. I was deeply grateful that it wasn't Dumbledore. They explained that I was a witch and the ministry official wondered why there was no record of my name anywhere. I told them my mother never had me in a hospital because we were often homeless and she had me in a house full of her drug-addicted friends. I told them that she had only kept me around because a woman with a child produced more sympathy from people. Not the best lie, but I'm good at telling them. I told them that nothing magical had ever happened until the day before. They assumed that my magic hadn't manifested yet, which caused me to make it under their noses. McGonagall gave me a sack of money that she explained was from the school for children who had nothing so they could get their supplies and explained where to get them. I asked if I could go on my own to Diagon Alley since I was still trying to process everything. I told them I was used to doing things on my own. She agreed. This meant that I was able to bypass getting a wand and I just kept my own and gave it a glamour charm so it looked different."
"How did you trick the sorting hat? I was there! I saw you get sorted into Gryffindor!" Hermione said, still feeling sick.
"Being sorted into Gryffindor was a stroke of luck, actually. While out on field trips, in places I knew would be close to other wizarding areas, I would use the same type of pensieve spell for extracting memories, but I would do it on the other kids. I had some altered spells I found in my old books as well, giving me spells that allowed me to extract feelings as well. So, when it was my turn with the sorting hat, I tucked my personal memories away in my mind and blocked them and let the hat see inside my head and feel my emotions."
Hermione was shaking her head back and forth, trying to deny what he was telling her. It didn't make sense!
"Think, mudblood! I was there every time. When you first walked with Snape back to your rooms, at the masque, in the library, on the quidditch stands when Potter grabbed you. I was always there, always looking for the opportune moment. I could have had you at the masque, but I didn't know it was you until Snape walked forward with his mask off," Lucius explained.
"What about my cat? Did you curse a prefect to use the door?"
Lucius snorted. "Please. I used to be a prefect, mudblood. I knew about the door and how it worked and knew when you would be out."
"So, what, you fancy yourself the next Voldemort?" Hermione scoffed.
"The Dark Lord was a fool!" Lucius spat, looking quite deranged for a moment. "He had a brilliant mind but he wasted it! In his first reign, he was magnificent. When he came back, though, he was obsessed with Potter! He circled his entire world on killing some teenage kid! And for what? Because of a prophecy? He couldn't take over and then go after him? No. He was obsessed with Potter. He didn't even have plans for after he killed him. It was kill Potter, then take over the world. No middle steps. Well, I'm goin to change that. I'm going to have his powers and yours and Potter's all mixed with mine. I will be unstoppable."
He looked at the sky where the rapidly forming clouds were continuing to churn. "I believe it's time." A few waves of his wand and the tall, blonde aristocrat was again standing in front of her.
Hermione didn't know what to do. She couldn't get to her wand, and she had been trying to channel enough wandless magic to break free while he talked but he seemed to have her magically bound. She had kept him talking for as long as possible, taking a leaf from Draco's Bond movies and counting on Malfoy, as the villain, to tell his life story. This would usually be the time where the rescue or escape would happen, except this time, no one was coming.
She was alone.
And as she watched Lucius approach her, she could only think of Severus and how much she wished she could have apologized. She saw his face and heard his soft chuckle in her head. She wished she could tell him how she felt. She knew that her necklace and ring must be going crazy but she didn't have any hopes of them being able to track her down through all of this dark magic swirling about.
She just wanted to tell him she was sorry. She wanted to explain that she had felt jealous of his dead first love and that he was right. She wanted to tell him that she agreed that they both royally fucked up but she wanted it to be better. She wanted to tell him how much she loved their animated, and sometimes heated, conversations and debates.
She wanted to tell Severus that she loved him.
Lucius was talking now, but she couldn't hear him over the sound of her heart pounding. She didn't want to hear him anyway. Instead, she closed her eyes and thought of the man she loved.
XXX
"Dammit! I can feel her, but I don't know where she is! Fucking Malfoy has some strong shields up!" Snape said as the group tracked through the forest. Every time he thought he felt her, he would head in a direction only to lose the connection again.
Harry looked at Dumbledore. He seemed to be waiting for the old man to make a move, but when he didn't, Harry rolled his eyes.
"Severus!" he called out to the man already twenty paces ahead of the group.
"What?"
"Feel for her," Harry said.
Snape rolled his eyes. "That's what I've been doing, Potter!" he snarled.
"Not good enough!" Harry snapped. "Listen, I have a theory about the end of the prophecy. Her heart not being hers anymore…I think it pertains to you."
"What? Stop speaking in riddles! You sound like Dumbledore!"
"She loves you! 'Only when heart is no longer hers will the power settle scores'! Try to reach out to her with your heart! Use whatever you feel for her to help boost your magic to find her! It will 'settle the score' because you will be able to fight back when she is unable to!"
Draco and Snape stared wide-eyed at Harry while Albus looked at him in admiration. Finally, Snape took a step back, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.
He knew he cared for her. She was his patronus now, after all. He wanted more than anything to find her and keep her safe. When she was safe, and Lucius gone, she would be free to continue her life without him and move on. That's what he wanted, wasn't it?
No. NO! His mind reeled back at the force of anger that shot from Snape's every being. Hermione was his. He wanted her forever.
Forever? Could he really want her to stay with him forever? He thought of her face and her smile. He heard her debate with him, and saw the way she would bite her lip in concentration when doing schoolwork or a potion. He saw her curled up on his favorite chair in front of his fireplace with a book and asking how his day was after a particularly trying detention session.
Yes, he thought. He wanted her forever.
He loved her. He loved Hermione.
The moment the thought went to his mind, he felt a wave of power so strong he staggered.
He could feel her! She was scared and helpless and projecting her love for him.
Opening his eyes, he snapped, "This way!" and took off into the forest.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
A/N: There. Now you know who the spy is. Now really, WHO guessed it? No lying. I worked hard on trying to keep it a mystery.