AN: As promised, the final chapter for today. Enjoy!

-PF

Chapter Nine:

The door to the dungeons slammed open and they were shocked as they watched Wormtail's lifeless body fall through to thud against the stairs. Snape stepped over him, his robe snapping around him as he hurried to their cell and unlocked the cage door. "You don't have much time," he told them as he held the door open for them. "Everyone is gone and this is your only chance."

Everyone looked at each other for a moment, not really believing that they would finally be leaving the dungeon after so many months. "Now!" Snape hissed and they moved, filing out of the cell slowly to stand on the other side. He handed Molly and George wands and spoke quickly. "Get outside and apparate. You can't within the walls but there you're safe. Have that house elf Potter is so fond of find you and take you to him."

"What about Hermione?" Fred demanded and Snape glared at him for a long moment before answering.

"Stay behind if you care."

"Bring her home," Molly told Fred and then hurried up the steps with the others. George paused beside his brother before nodding and following after their mother.

"Come with me." Snape ordered and Fred followed, grateful for his long legs as Snape's pace was almost running. The halls were dark and empty, just as Snape had promised and, as they passed a window overlooking the lawn, he saw the others apparate out. Good. They were safe.

They reached the end of a rather long hallway and stopped in front of a door. Snape didn't move to open it so Fred reached around him but froze when Snape grabbed his hand. "Don't." He said calmly. "Whatever you do, do not address her as Hermione."

"Why not?" Fred asked, searching Snape's face for an answer. The Professor didn't give him one. Instead he opened the door into a dark room that was barely lit by candles. Hermione stood silhouetted against the window, gazing out at the grounds. He moved to her but Snape again stepped in front of him and shook his head.

"Wait," he said in his drawing voice. Then in a voice he'd never heard from the Professor, Snape addressed Hermione. "Rose. Come away from the window." Hermione ignored him. "The others are gone," he told her calmly. Still no reaction. "And I've brought the imbecile."

"Hey!" Fred protested but this at least made her turn to face them. She looked dead. Her eyes were lifeless, her hands hung limply by her side, and her face was void of any emotion.

"H…" he started but Snape shot him a look and he quickly amended it. "Honey?" She turned her face toward him but he was positive she wasn't seeing him. "What happened?" he asked Snape.

"The Dark Lord had her kill a Muggle family." He said softly. "There were children."

"There are always children." Hermione said quietly. But she didn't sound like Hermione. "So many children. No matter the age. They were all children."

He felt fear for her grip at his heart as he took another step toward her. "Rose," Snape called and she turned her face toward him. "You have to go. Let the boy take you away from here."

"Where?" she asked in the same dead tone.

"To Potter," Snape said. "You can help."

Her face remained emotionless. She didn't nod, didn't shake her head. But she didn't step away from Fred when he stepped forward and took her hand. "Do you have a wand?" he asked her quietly. She withdrew it and handed it to him almost mechanically. He looked to Snape who had backed toward the door.

"They won't be back until morning and they'll sleep most of the day away. If she's to act, she must do it before then. I will have to tell him that she remembers and helped you all escape." Snape instructed. She still made no indication that anyone was even home upstairs. He had to fix this. But only once he was sure they were safe.

He pulled her toward the door and Snape met his eye. "If harm befalls my niece," he told him quietly, dangerously, "I will hold you personally responsible."

"Sir" Fred nodded and then tried to pull her out of the room but she didn't move. He didn't have time for this! He yanked her to him and pulled her up into his arms before taking off, running as fast as he could while holding her until he was outside and breathing the fresh night air for the first time in months. He didn't allow himself to enjoy it. Instead, he took one last look at the dark Manor and apparted.

RMR

When Dobby first appeared at Shell Cottage with Molly, George, Luna and Dean Thomas Harry had nearly wept for joy. He loved house elves! Dobby most of all! Ginny, Ron and Bill were out the door before anyone could speak and running toward their mother who took them all in one big hug while crying deeply. They were starved. Molly had lost tons of weight and the others weren't much more than skin and bones. They all had black circles rimming their eyes and hollow checks and matted hair but they all looked relieved to finally be free. George smiled at them but kept looking over his shoulder and it was then that Harry realized Fred wasn't with them. Nor was Hermione for that matter.

He reached George just as Fluer came out and ushered everyone inside. He and George stayed where they were. "What happened?" Harry asked George, handing him the muffin Harry had been munching on. George practically ate it in one gulp and then cleared his throat to speak. "Snape got us out."

Harry's eyes widened but George just shrugged. "Ask mum. She'll tell you everything. But he got us out."

There was another pop as Dobby appeared again, this time with Fred who was holding the Hermione they had seen at Draco's Manor. George sighed in relief and hurried to his brother who spoke to him in low warning tones. Fred caught Harry's eye and abruptly stopped talking. Harry turned his attention fully to Hermione as Fred and George headed toward him, Fred still cradling her.

She looked dead. And yet, she was still breathing. Still blinking. She looked around her with unseeing eyes and Harry staggered toward her. "What did they do to her?"

"Not now, Harry." Fred said softly and Harry gawked at him.

"Where do you get off?" Harry demanded and reached for Hermione only to have George step firmly between them.

"Let off, Harry."

"Bugger off, George!" Harry shoved past him and reached for Hermione again only to catch the warning on Fred's face. What the hell was going on?

"Let off, Harry." George said again quietly and Fred continued toward the cottage. Harry followed hot on his heels, not liking being in the dark about anything, especially concerning the woman he thought of as his sister. A woman he thought he'd lost until the day at the Manor.

Molly opened the door for them and Harry suspected they may have been watching from the windows. No one said a word as Fred carried Hermione into the house, up the stairs, and into a side bedroom, slamming the door closed with his foot. Then finally, Ron broke the silence.

"What happened to Hermione? And why's Fred carrying her?"

"It's a long story," Molly told them honestly, settling down in front of the fire Fleur had got going once they had begun arriving. "I think we all need something to eat before it's told." They contained their questions until everyone was comfortable and everyone had something to eat and drink before Molly began to tell them a story that would have their hearts breaking for the couple up stairs.

RMR

Fred didn't care if every member of his family had just seen him carrying Hermione into a bedroom. He didn't care what they would think or how anyone would feel. He needed to fix her. Needed to undo what Voldemort had so carelessly done.

He set her down gently on the bed and then kneeled before her, taking her hands. "Hermione." He said softly and for the first time her eyes focused on him, then on their hands and she immediately tried to pull them away. "No." he said firmly and she stopped struggling to get away. "You can shut everyone else out but not me." He told her firmly, unaware that he was repeating the same words his brother had told him when he'd first thought she'd died.

She didn't say anything and he drew in a deep breath. "Fine. You don't need to say anything. You just need to listen." He waited a moment, searching for the right words, and then began.

"I've loved you from the first moment you stepped foot into the Yule Ball holding Victor's arm. I'd always liked you. You were brilliant even back then and, though I'll be honest, it was annoying how you got onto us about our pranks all the time, I still enjoyed your company. But that night was the night I realized I loved you and that I couldn't stand by anymore and just let Ron have you. He didn't deserve you. Neither did I but I told myself I would treat you better than he ever could."

"I fell in love with you over and over again that summer we spent with Sirius. Every day, every smile, every laugh I fell deeper. And when you told me you felt the same, I felt lighter than I've ever felt before. I fell in love with your strength when Umbridge took over the school, your determination to teach everyone how to defend themselves even when our own teachers were letting you down. Your tears for those she hurt that you couldn't protect and your anger at someone who would do such a thing. I loved you deeper every moment we were apart and counted the seconds until I could sneak back into Hogwarts just to be with you. I was already in love with you long before you offered yourself to me that final year and when you agreed to marry me you made me the happiest man in the whole world."

"When you didn't return that night, a part of me died, Hermione." He waited as she continued to stare at him and then continued on, pouring his emotions out to her. "I've not been the same since. And when I saw you that day in front of the shop, do you know what I felt?"

"Repulsed?" she whispered, her eyes darting away. He snatched her chin and forced her to look at him.

"Elated. Because I knew. I knew you were alive and I knew whatever they had done to you, we would find away around it. I would have you back. So I suffered in that cell with my brother and mother, unwilling to give up on you. Believing, even then, that you could overcome anything. And you did." There were tears in her eyes but he didn't stop. "I'm not giving up now." He told her firmly. "Not now that I finally have you back. I waited too long for this, and no one, not even you, will keep me from my fiancé ever again," and then he crushed his lips to hers.

He hadn't really expected her to respond, had figured that maybe all of this was just to get it off his chest. But when her lips moved against his after a moment he felt everything, his fears his doubts his anger, all of it melt away until it was just him and his fiancé. He kissed her like the starved man that he was, standing to lean over her until she pulled him down on top of her. "I love you," he whispered as he tore his lips away from hers to kiss down her neck. She gasped into him as he captured her lips again and she tore at his clothes, desperate to remove them. Just when he'd almost completely lost himself to passion, to the emotions behind finally having the woman meant to be his wife again, he heard her whispered, "I love you too."

RMR

She sat silently in front of the vanity in the room, staring at the blue eyes and black hair of the girl that stared back at her. A soft smile touched her lips for a moment when Fred mumbled in his sleep behind her and rolled over. He'd get up soon, she knew. It was like he could sense when she wasn't in bed with him anymore. Her eyes turned back to those in the mirror and she frowned. It was Rose that stared back at her. Not Hermione. Rose who quirked an eyebrow at her when she did. Slowly, Hermione lifted a hand and ran it through her black straight tresses. She watched the mirror do the same and sighed heavily. No, she was Rose. This was what she was supposed to look like had Snape not altered her. She should have known mother nature wouldn't have been that cruel to a child.

"I like it," Fred said quietly from behind her and she jumped, eyes widening as he leaned down to wrap his arms around her stomach and rest his head on her shoulder. "Makes you look all…"

"Evil?" she whispered.

"Mysterious." He answered for her. "Blokes like mysterious, mind you."

She felt her lips curve into a small smile as he pecked her cheek. "And the blue. I love blue. Have I ever told you that?"

"You don't miss the old me?"

"So what? You're hairs different and you have different color eyes. Birds pay for that sort of thing all the time, you know. You just got it for free! And its permanent! Which, I'm personally happy about because I make a bit at the shop but I'd rather not have to keep paying for you to color your hair if you decided you liked it."

He was rambling and she knew it but she appreciated his attempt to return things to normal. Her eyes turned back to the mirror and focused on his hands that were clasped about her waist. "How can you stand to touch me?"

"Easily." He answered without pause. "You're beautiful. Come back to bed and I'll prove it."

"I mean after everything she…I did?"

He sighed and met her eyes in the mirror. "You're my Hermione still. You were different then. Not you."

"I am still her." She argued. "She's still me. I'm still that evil person, Fred!"

"You're right." She blinked back at him, startled. "You and Rose are the same. The difference is Rose didn't have Hermione. Without Hermione, she can be a bit…"

"Evil." She repeated.

"Eccentric. I like that word better. She was that way because she didn't know who Hermione is. You know who Rose is. You have her and her memories locked in here." He tapped her head. "The question is, who are you going to be with them? Because the memories don't matter. What you do with them does."

She stared at his reflection, quietly contemplating what he'd said. "When did you get so wise?" she whispered.

"When I lost the woman I loved." He answered back seriously. She closed her eyes and leaned back against him.

"I can't change what Rose did." She said quietly. "But I'd like to change things now. To make it right."

"There's my girl," he whispered and kissed her hair. He reached around his neck to the necklace that she'd barely noticed the night before and took it off, handing it to her. She opened her palm to see her engagement ring sitting there. He'd kept it around his neck this whole time. Even in the dungeons? She looked up at him as he smiled down at her and said "And I think we should start by helping Harry take down your dear old dad."

Her eyes hardened at the thought and her hand tightened around the ring. He'd taken this from her. Her friends, her life, the man she was going to marry, her future. She'd have to kill her father. And it didn't bother her at all. He was evil, and he'd been evil to her when he'd tricked her into being his daughter. It was time they fought back. With a purpose to focus on, she could push aside everything else. For now. She carefully took the ring off the chain and slipped it onto her finger, loving the way it felt now that it was finally where it belonged. She stood, grabbed Fred's hand and said, "I think we should start with a shower."

He laughed for the first time in what felt like years. "Yea, you do stink," he told her playfully knowing full well he was the one who'd been locked in a dungeon for months. "Shower, food, then Harry." He told her, pulling her toward the bathroom that was connected to their room.

"Agreed."

AN: So that was my first attempt to kinda bring them back to the people they once were. It's gonna be a while before they're normal because, he was in a dungeon and she was killing people. But I'd like to think that reuniting with loved ones that support you completely might help. Maybe not. I kinda feel like Ron's gonna be slightly/extremely upset about this. We'll see! Hope you enjoyed! On to the next chapter!