Chapter 32


"You seem troubled," Ollivander told her, examining the wand she'd carved. "It shows in your work."

She sighed. She'd returned to good terms with Severus, at least whenever Nagini wasn't around, and Voldemort had been making an effort to return a few times a week for tea. But that just it – it was an effort. It didn't go unnoticed to her that everyone was becoming busier around her and it was a worrying thought. What if Voldemort was about to launch a major offensive? What if Severus and the Order were preparing for war? Neither side seemed to want her with them for any new development, and she felt more and more like a complication rather than an asset.

"You know, there is so much going on around us that sometimes it can feel like we need to be in the center of it," he expressed wisely. "Perhaps it is better for us to remain at the sidelines."

Hermione frowned. "They're my friends, though. Shouldn't I be helping? I haven't done anything but bugger things up for months now. I feel very … antsy. I need to help somehow."

"You're still studying Occlumency, aren't you?" Ollivander asked, showing her how to sand down her imperfections in the miniscule handle carvings. "And while you're with child, I'm certain they do not want you involved."

"I'm barely pregnant!" she argued vehemently. "I'm not exactly laid up in bed! I can fight!"

Ollivander gave her a sad smile. "Have you spoken to Severus about this? He would understand."

She sighed. It had been hard to have moments away from Nagini. After the bookbag incident with Malfoy, Nagini had taken to becoming permanently fixed around her neck so she couldn't leave her behind. Severus, therefore, was off limits. She could apparate within the school like she did Ollivanders, and she had, but those were restricted by his time with Dumbledore, Voldemort, and grading. He was busier than she was, adding to her distraction.

"I can't," she sighed. "They're all so much busier, like something's about to happen. Asking Severus would only end with Occlumency exercises and him informing me, none too kindly, that I need to focus on myself."

"And a kingwood would never sit idly by while her future is decided," Ollivander expressed knowledgeably. "Far too untrusting for that."

"Untrusting?" Hermione frowned.

Ollivander chuckled. "Miss Granger, while you may not be a stereotype, you are certainly indicative of your wand wood. I've had Ministers match to kingwood wands, and it isn't because they trust anyone else to do a better job than them at something. True?"

She bit her lip in reflection but nodded. Harry and Ron couldn't do anything right without her, even if it did suit their strengths. At least in her eyes. Voldemort wasn't to be trusted with human life even if he was intelligent. Dumbledore couldn't be trusted to trust anyone else with all the information … She could go on.

"Your oak will help to balance that side of the kingwood, but it does show your reluctance to rely on things that are intangible," he added. "Although emotions are still strongly at play with you. Surely you knew this when you selected it? I taught you to feel for the wand's little idiosyncrasies?"

She flushed. "Maybe its just because its my own wand, but I only felt it adding to my good points. Or maybe it shows a need for self-reflection more often."

Ollivander hummed in agreement and brought out the lacquer from his little crafting table that he'd designated. It was originally just a desk, but he insisted it be given a title singular to the honour it was given. He was an odd old man.

Suddenly, there was a jolt in her magic. It came on suddenly, pulling her away from Ollivander's safe-house and back through the ward magic that had sent for her, that called for her aid. She landed firmly in an unfamiliar mansion, but the magic screamed of the Notts. Her focus was otherwise distracted, though, by the group of aurors clearly breaking the wards on the gates of the property with Tonks.

Her heart froze. She knew she would be compelled, practically forced to hurt them if they stepped a foot onto the land without Nott letting them in. Nott was nowhere to be seen, though, so she needed to handle this herself. She couldn't leave the property undefended, so she couldn't apparate out and then meet them somewhere. The gates wouldn't open to her; some archaic way of keeping the wives from going anywhere without permission. She couldn't let them in, and they probably wouldn't stay out. If they didn't listen, she'd be in for a fight.

She walked up to the gates, wand firm in hand.

"Can I help you?" Hermione asked curtly, more so than she intended. The showed her a parchment, probably with a warrant. She searched through her magic, trying to find Nott. He was gone.

"You'll need to be letting is in," the auror told her. "The master here is under arrest."

"He's not here," Hermione replied calmly, "he's not anywhere. I can tell you he'd not at any of the Nott properties or other properties I'm bound to, which include all of his friends."

One auror, big looking with a bigger upper body than lower, guffawed. "How do you know that? Some kind of house-elf?"

Hermione curtseyed fakely. "House-elf Hermione Granger, at your service."

"Hermione, can you let is in?" Tonks requested kindly.

"I can't. The wards are blood-keyed."

She nodded sympathetically. "S'alright, Hermione. We're almost through."

Those words made her magic flare. "Tonks, if you or the others break through I will be forced to fight you."

The aurors stopped. "Are you threatening us, girl?"

She gripped her wand tighter in her hand, earning a look from Tonks. She turned to her fellow aurors and grimaced. "Trust me, guys, this girl can follow through."

"I'm not threatening you," Hermione denied, shaking. "I'm telling you a fact. I am bound to protect this property, and if you break through the wards I will not be able to stop my magic from attacking you. You all need to leave."

The men accused her of being an accomplice, Tonks tried to stop them, but the curse-breaker was working on the gates even without her go ahead. Tonks seemed distressed at the idea of fighting her, making Hermione wonder if Tonks knew she was pregnant.

"Hermione, you need to leave!" Tonks tried, warning her. Hermione shook her head. "'Mione, if you're not gone by the time they get through, they will arrest you."

Hermione tensed, feeling the wards ripple and groan as they were forced away from the door. "Sorry, Tonks, but I have no choice."

They broke through, and her magic took over.

She tried to restrain it, but the magic tore from her with great speed. She tried to restrain it, but all that meant was that, instead of obliterating the aurors, it sliced through them. One by one, the aurors fell until she turned to find the last one had hurled a dark curse towards her.

Her magic didn't block the attack, and instead was hurtling towards the auror to finish him off before it struck. They both fell.

Hermione screamed as the curse tore through her, trying to set her blood on fire. She felt her body seize and convulse, especially her abdomen. She yelled and cried out while grabbing her small bulge. Her children, they were going to die.

Her magic cried out and reached for its partner. Voldemort appeared next to her. One look at her was all it took for him to forget his previous coldness and hold her close against him. His hand stroked her face gently, as if he were trying to save her with his comfort.

"My little witch, are you hurt?" She whimpered at his question. His wand started running over her and murmuring several spells to discern the problem.

Within moments, he was murmuring the counter-curse. Hermione sighed in relief, but her abdomen was still in pain. Her eyes communicated her fear with the Dark Lord, and he place his own hand over her abdomen. Her magic was haywire, running between them like a current and putting every bit of extra magic into healing her children within her. She worried it would not be enough.

"Please, save them," she begged. She pulled away and her eyes filled with tears. "Please."

He took her in his arms and apparated them away.

"You'll be alright," Voldemort murmured as he laid her on the bed in their chambers. "I'll be right back. Stay as still as possible, please"

He didn't wait for her to respond, he just went to the door and yelled for one of his death eaters. She squirmed a little, trying to move the pain from her abdomen but only aggravating it. She whimpered as another pain wracked through her uterus.

Within moments, several wizards were in her room, presumably summoned by Voldemort to treat her. In moments, she was given a potion and put under. The last thing she remembered doing was handing the vial to Voldemort.

"Are they going to be alright?" She whispered.

She didn't hear the answer, but her vision swam around Voldemort's pained face as she descended into unconsciousness.


Tonks stood in front of the Headmaster and Severus Snape, her memories of the incident in the pensieve in front of them all. Severus was the first to dip his head, but they all followed him into the scene.

The three dimwitted aurors had broken through the wards on the gate. Hermione was holding her wand but when the wards broke she used it just as much as wandless. She chopped down the aurors who'd stepped over the property lines brutally. They found with shields and curses, but Hermione was adept a avoiding and blocking with her magic.

By the end of the fight between the two aurors and was on to the curse-breaking auror when a simple charm hit her in the chest. She stumbled back and screamed, tearing Snape's heart in pieces when she reached down to grab her abdomen.

The last auror was felled by Hermione just as she hit the ground. Voldemort appeared out of nowhere.

Tonks was beyond the property line, safe from the carnage. She watched as Voldemort went to Hermione, stroked her face. They were locked in a strangely intimate embrace, and at her whispered words, disapparated them both.

Severus pulled himself from the bowl with a groan. The Dark Lord was attached to her, desperately, and it seemed as if Granger was just as attached to the man. Her feelings appeared stronger than when last he was able to penetrate her mind.

"Thank you, Miss Tonks," Dumbledore said first. "I'm sorry for your colleagues, but this will go a long way in ensuring the end of this conflict."

Tonks nodded, and knew she'd been dismissed. Dumbledore waited for the young auror to leave via the floo connection before speaking.

"We will need to remove Miss Granger from the equation," Dumbledore said.

Severus rounded on him. "You will not harm her."

He raised his hands innocently. "I suggested nothing of the sort, Severus. There are alternatives to that."

"She cannot be held," he drawled.

"You forget that I have another powerful wizard detained successfully."

His blood ran cold. "You would lock Miss Granger in the same place as Grindelwald?"

"Their magic is similar," Dumbledore said simply. "It is the only way to make sure he cannot use that collar to return her to him, and to keep her away from the estates once the assault begins. It would not be for long, Severus. She'd be released before the birth of her children. Simply long enough for us to mount our offensive and ensure Tom's downfall."

"She is with child, Albus," Severus snapped. "What do you think suppressing her magic in that way will do?"

Albus waved off his concern, making Severus' rage mount. "It will be like a muggle pregnancy, that is all. There is a chance her children will become squibs, but as it is untested we will have no idea until they are born. I doubt that a short time in there, maybe a month at most, will do any harm to her unborn children."

"This is not your decision, Albus," Severus hissed. "I doubt she wants her children to be denied their birthright."

"We will give her the option," Dumbledore affirmed. He sat himself at his desk with a slump. "If she does not make the right choice, we will have to make it for her."

"So no choice at all," he accused the Headmaster. "She will not agree, and you know it. How do you plan on subduing her?"

"I thought a potion," the Headmaster said easily. "You could ask her to come with you, a break from her regular life. Fetch potions ingredients, or some odd thing from the village. That way, she cannot apparate away. Then, take her to Mme. Puddifoots and slip it into her tea."

Severus clenched his fists around the seatback. "You're asking me to betray her confidence."

"I'm asking you to fulfill your vow and do everything I ask to bring Tom down," Dumbledore said softly.

He snapped up his head and observed the look of guilt on Dumbledore's face. He couldn't. No. He roared in rage and could not restrain himself, punching at the wall.

"You cannot do this to me again!" Severus roared. "Is everything you ask this year set to make me wish I'd never come to you? You made me promise to kill you, you made me risk my own godson on this, and now …. No. I will not betray her trust."

"You will," Dumbledore murmured. "I am asking it of you."

"I will die," he tried. "Die, rather than do this."

"You will not," came the knowing answer. "I know you, Severus. You will not allow your feelings for the girl to jeopardize the fall of Voldemort. You will do this, and you will help me put the girl in Nurmengard. It is the only way to draw him out."

"Then have one of the others do it," Severus pleaded hoarsely. "She trusts me, Albus. She trusts me."

"And that is why you must do it."

Severus had never felt so violated. He hissed and threatened, bargained and demanded, but nothing would sway the Headmaster from giving the order. Dejected, violated, and depressed, he sank into the chair by the Headmaster's fire.

They sat like that for sometime, neither saying anything. Finally, one final thing Severus could do came to him.

"Give me an oath," he said. "I want an oath that Granger will be safe and unharmed. We will not put her in a regular cell, and instead give her an acceptable living space. Her health will be looked after, and that of her unborn children. She is not to be treated like a prisoner more than she needs to be."

He was rambling, and it made him scowl. "Your word that she and her unborn children will be given every privilege she'd have if she were here."

"You can help me prepare a cell," Dumbledore replied genially. "I'm sure the doctor at the prison-"

"Poppy," Severus interjected firmly. "I don't know the person thy have stationed there, but I would not put a glorified mortician in charge of a pregnant woman. Poppy will visit her."

"Poppy is needed here, Severus," Dumbledore reminded him. "The board could shut the school if the healer left."

"Then someone else we trust," he remained firm. "Of you want my cooperation, you will give me this."

Dumbledore sighed. "There are a few people who I could ask to check in on her."

"And I want someone from the Order as her guard," Severus demanded coldly. "I don't trust prison guards when there's a woman involved. Or even a man, when he's defenseless. She is going to be without magic by our own design, and she will have what protection we can offer."

"I'm sure that can be arranged," Dumbledore placated him. "First things first, you have a sleeping draught to brew."


Greater good Dumbledore is doing his thing. Now, contrary to what it may seem, I do like Dumbledore and this chapter isn't Dumbledore bashing. Hermione does need to be out of the way, but not because she'd be in the battle. Hint, hint.

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