"I can see two snatchers."

"Me too."

"Same."

Harry, Ron, and Luna kept low in the evening light, hidden behind a nearby bush.

"Isn't that Hermione's bag?" Ron whispered harshly under his breath pointing to one of the men making his sweep away from them. Ron had a fire light beneath him. He'd been on a mission ever since the shock of what had happened started to settle.

"Merlin, I hope so." Harry ground his teeth trying to spot anyone else that was possibly around, "I think we can take them. There's only two and if we knock them out before they have a chance to call for reinforcements we should be able to get into the house." Harry looked down at his two companions. He still felt uneasy about Luna coming with them but neither one of them had been able to cast the tracking spell successfully on their own.

"Alright, Ron, you sneak around the side of that car over there, Luna take the stoop over there. I'll keep an eye out from here to make sure there isn't anyone else nearby. Keep your voices low when you cast."

"Got it." Ron pushed away keeping his eyes fixed on the death eater with Hermione's bag.

Luna gave Harry a small smile before tapping his and her heads with a disillusion spell, she would have done Ron as well but he had moved away before she could even try.

"Thanks Luna...be careful."

"Of course."

Harry watched her lightly shimmering form move effortlessly across the street. Only someone who was paying close attention would have been able to spot her and in the waning light, it was near impossible for Harry to keep track.

oOo

"They are going to come after her, possibly at great expense."

"What would you have me do Albus? Drop her off in the middle of their path and hope that they find her?" Severus' tone was acidic. He glanced towards the room that held their subject of discontent.

"We can't risk them coming into the castle now. They'd be spotted immediately. It's too soon, there are still Horcruxes to find." Dumbledore looked down from his portrait at Severus stalking around the office. "She's of no use to them now, you must help her recover. There is no other way. You must stop them from searching for her until she is ready to rejoin them."

"And what if she never can Albus? Did it ever occur to you that this war was not meant for children?"

"I understand your concern, but you are not giving her enough credit. Miss Granger isn't out of this fight yet. You can help her, only you can do this."

Severus seethed through his nose, he never should have allowed himself a moment of humanity, of mercy. It only caused him trouble, "What would you have me do?"

Albus regarded the man carefully while he chose his next words with great thought, "Send them the looking glass. It will allow them to see her progress and hopefully put them back on track."

"I don't even know where they are now." Severus growled low in his throat looking up at an empty portrait, "Aside from that, how do you know it won't just spark them to come marching in like the righteous Gryffindors they are?"

"I will see to it that they stay on course. Severus, I know I have asked a lot of you, but the world needs Harry. Now, more than ever. If she is truly gone...then I'm afraid we may have already lost."

Severus took in deep breaths to control his temper. His mind turning through all the possible outcomes that may lie ahead. He had already resigned himself to his own death but he had hoped he would've left a better world behind.

"I'll do it...but first we must find them."

"I've already sent Phineas to the task." Dumbledore watched sadly as Snape retreated to the private quarters knowing that he couldn't be followed as he'd removed every single possible means of communication within the room.

Severus could hardly control the anger welling in his chest, the man was completely insane. How could he possibly play this game? Of course, it no longer mattered to him, he was dead. Severus turned his sharp eyes towards the bed.

Hermione laid completely still, her arms near her head held in place by the adjusted straps that he had moved to allow him to care for her wounds. The device he'd placed into her mouth had fallen out, possibly from her shifting her head in her sleep. Not wanting a repeat of the first night, he'd forgone the use of a strap to keep it in place.

His face twitched, a rather animalistic sneer forming on his lips exposing his teeth. All his plans, wasted, ruined because of her. Because of him. Because of his weakness. Severus took the long way around the bed trying to calm the danger that was growing through his body. A power he had felt many times before in the darkest of nights. His eyes lidded looking down at her seemingly peaceful face.

His hand moved on its own, slowly curling its long fingers around her slim neck. Her pulse was strong against his palm. His eyes twitched as his grip grew tighter. It would be so easy. Like snapping a toothpick.

When her eyes opened, his heart thudded heavily in his chest but his grip only grew tighter. His eyes wide with the darkness that had settled into his heart. Everything he'd risked his life for. All the promises he'd made.

When her fingers lightly brushed against his wrist, he found himself losing focus on his task. She didn't cry out, she didn't struggle nor pull against him. Her dark eyes merely watched him fight his internal battle.

His grip finally broke away when her hand fell away from his wrist. Her eyes didn't close, not fully, but rather lost focus on some point behind his shoulder.

Severus jerked back suddenly, his blood pulsing in his ears at what he may have just done, "Miss Granger?" The hand he'd had on her throat moved to her jaw turning her head back towards him, "Miss-"

Her eyes closed and he let out the breath he'd been holding. He could feel her slow pulse beneath his fingers. Her mouth parted but only a scratchy sound came forth. Her fingers twitched as her body shuddered to take in air. His own chest grew tight watching her struggle.

His body felt too heavy to stand, the weight of his deed falling down upon him like a hippogriff careening towards land. He'd nearly killed her. Strangled out the life that he'd worked so hard to save.

What was wrong with him? This girl wasn't some stranger off the street. This was his student. A child whom he'd watched grow before his own eyes. Who he'd saved many times before.

His chin fell down to his chest and he pulled his hand back, clenching his fist tight. He was a monster. Through and through, as evil as they said he was. He couldn't do this anymore. He couldn't be, what the world needed him to be. He was so tired of it all.

oOOo

"This is where she stayed..." Ron was rifling through the empty drawers finding nothing, not even a hair tie, "There should be something here..."

Harry was looking under the bed, he too, not understanding. There had to be something, anything that she left behind. Luna had taken to the task of taking everything out of Hermione's bag that they'd taken from the deatheaters they'd knocked unconscious outside. Sadly, the bag no longer held Hermione's magical signature. Luna had cast the tracking spell but it had only led them in the direction of the snatcher they'd taken it from.

She'd found nothing in the way of their personal possessions thus far, though she did come across Harry's invisibility cloak hidden away in one of the small pockets.

"It's like someone cleaned everything out." Harry pushed himself back onto his heels looking around the dingy space, "Why would they do that?"

Ron pushed the last drawer closed sighing heavily, "Maybe they knew we were coming?"

"But why would they clear her room? Nothing else in the house has been disturbed." Harry sighed heavily as he turned to sit on the barren bed, "It doesn't make sense." He ran his hands through his hair looking down into his lap.

"Perhaps someone has her and has taken her things so that they could help her?" Luna sat Hermione's bag down gently beside Harry, "That's what I would do if I were taking care of someone." She glanced over when Ron kicked the corner of the dresser before dropping himself down into a chair in the corner.

"Who could possibly have her?" Ron thumped his head back against the wall.

"We haven't checked the burrow...maybe she...maybe she apparated there...instead of shell cottage."

"Hermione's great, but I don't think even she could apparate while unconscious." Ron closed his eyes trying to push back the memory of her body laying heavily against his.

"Dobby was the one who performed the apparation right?" Luna looked at Harry then to Ron, "Maybe she fell out of it, it's been known to happen when doing a side-along. Though...the results aren't usually pretty..." Her voice died out at the end and she turned her eyes down to the floor, "Maybe she fell somewhere...and someone took her in...?"

"It doesn't matter..." Harry pushed himself up abruptly his jaw working as his brain turned, "We need to find her, safe or not, we need her with us."

oOOo

Severus pulled his hand back slowly. His eyes turning up as her body gave a sudden jerk. The potion he'd been giving her had run out some time ago. After his sudden lapse of moral character, he had hidden away in the small lab that he'd fashioned out of an old walk-in closet.

He'd made a restorative draught, and a muscle relaxer in the time he'd locked himself away. It had been three hours since he had nearly stolen the breath from her lungs. Three hours for him to sort out his priorities and remember his true purpose.

She had been awake off and on during that time, her soft intermittent whimpers having finally called him to the room. Her eyes had followed him and her hand had pulled against the restraints trying to reach towards him. He had calmed her with a hand to her forehead, feeling for a fever. She had closed her eyes to his touch and gone quiet. It was an odd reaction, something he hadn't been expecting, especially given their last encounter.

Her body was gearing up for another seizure, that much was clear when her back arched away from the sheets. He grimaced as her body went rigid, the sound of groaning wood as she pulled on the straps keeping her down.

Her head pressed back into the sheets as she ground her teeth against the guard Snape had managed to put back into her mouth. It was like an oddly shaped spoon. It was designed to help keep one from biting their tongue and grinding their teeth in their sleep. It had two wings that came out and pressed into the teeth. It was almost like an adult pacifier, with the rounded end that he'd modified to help her communicate. Though he hadn't had a chance to teach her how to use it. She hadn't been lucid enough for him to try.

After the wave of pain left, her body sagged heavily back down onto the bed. Her breathing was shallow. A series of soft deep throated whines, almost like a kicked dog, left the back of her throat as she tried to bring in air through her nose.

Snape moved closer, pulling down the now empty vial that he'd hung off the top poster of the bed and replaced it with one of the new potions he'd brewed. As the liquid started to travel down the tube down into her stomach; he found that she'd taken hold of his jacket hem.

His eyes met hers and he frowned, she was looking at him clearly now. The haze that had covered her eyes previously had lifted and he could see her brain trying to work through everything that was around her. Snape moved closer pulling her fingers from his jacket before leveling his eyes. He reached down slowly, easing the mouthpiece from her relaxing jaw.

"Are you hungry?" It was an odd question coming from his lips, almost, genial. So unlike his normal persona. It felt salty when it passed his lips making his already stern face even stricter.

He waited for her to respond, a nod, a whimper, anything. When she simply rolled her head away, staring at some odd point on the wall, he growled in the back of his throat. She needed to eat, they both did. Her early morning wakeup call notwithstanding, her body should have been repaired enough to take in something at least semi-solid. Problem was, he hadn't the first idea on what she would possibly have a taste for nor what if any, allergies she may possess.

With nothing but silence as his response, he pushed himself away from the bed heading towards his office. He could, at the very least, pull her student file to make sure he didn't exacerbate her condition.

Closing the door behind him, he made the mistake of looking up into the filled portrait of Albus Dumbledore. He snarled at his smile and made his way to the cabinet that held student records.

"Phineas has found them."

"Where?"

"Grimmauld Place."

"Predictable. I'm going to guess they disposed of the guards?"

"Quite aptly. They've even taken Miss Lovegood with them."

Severus snorted loudly and pulled the large file from the cabinet before pushing it shut with more than enough force.

"Miss Granger was easily replaced." Snape dropped the file down onto his desk before taking a seat himself.

"That is not the case, it would appear that she has come to aid them in their rescue."

Severus looked up as Phineas appeared in his frame, "Is that so?" Indifference dripped like melting snow off the tip of his tongue.

"Oh yes, I dare say you're quite lucky that Kreacher has a rather strong dislike for muggle-borns or I should think they would already be marching up the steps to your office."

Albus was suspiciously aloof about the entire affair but Snape knew, all the way into the pit of his stomach, that Kreacher didn't get the idea to clear out her things on his own.

Severus glared down at the happily smiling picture that accompanied her file. Taken her sixth year, she looked tired but otherwise healthy. His mind flashed back to the image that laid on his bed. So much change, so little time. He lifted the page away looking down her first-year admittance records, perfectly healthy, no allergies.

He closed the file with great prejudice jostling a page that had been loose. His eyes turned towards it with all the purpose of shoving it back into the file when the date at the very corner caught his eye.

He pulled the file open once again, flipping to the askew page. He read quickly, he remembered the incident well. Her fifth year, her first true battle against the evil that was rising up to swallow them all. She'd been exceptionally lucky to leave alive that night. He'd been recruited to brew her excessive regime of potions.

His brain ticked, the curse was never removed. Simply neutralized.

He closed the file and pushed himself up. His entrance back into his chambers startled the girl on the bed. Her eyes wide, a look of desperation on her brow.

"Be still." His words were sharp making the girl only try to push herself further from his advance. Severus growled low and came to the edge of the bed that she had fruitlessly tried to remove herself from. "I'm not going to harm you."

Hermione shook her head slowly, her eyes shooting towards his arm. A soft plea broke past her lips clearer than before.

"I di-dn' ta-ke...an-ee-ing. Pl...ease..." Tears were welling up in her eyes but the man before her seemed not to take notice. She tried to pull against the strap on her wrist but he greatly overpowered her. One arm went beside her head before he grabbed her hip pulling her back towards him. Hermione kicked her legs but the restraints at her ankles suddenly taut. Tears continued to pour down her face and she tried to turn her shoulders. A firm hand over her chest, however, kept her pressed down into the softness beneath.

"Be still girl," Severus grunted when she thumped her head up into his chest. His eyes snapped down as she tried to bite him. Incredulous. His hand left its current endeavor to take hold of her jaw. "Be still." His words wafted into her parted lips. His hand was sure to leave a mark with the force in which he held her but it was her next heartbroken plea that nearly undid him.

"Pl-ease...don'-kill...me..."

His hand released like a tightly wound spring. She had begged him before, he just hadn't understood her garbled words. His heart pulsed painfully as he realized just how the situation might have appeared. His jaw twitched tight and he let his hands back to his sides. He didn't want to fight her.

Miss Granger?

Severus pressed himself as gently as he could into her mind. It was quiet, unlike the times before that had been filled with an assortment of sounds too indiscernible to make heads or tails of.

Miss Granger, can you hear me?

Hear me?

Severus' brows furrowed, Miss Granger do you know where you are?

Do you know...?

What is my name? Snape had a deep sinking feeling of dread growing in his stomach.

What is my name?

Severus closed the connection pulling back to his full height. She wasn't there.