Author's Note: I will no longer be posting any new stories to FFN. I will continue to update the WIPs I already have posted on FFN, but all new stories will be exclusively posted to AO3. There is little reason or incentive to do the extra work required to post on both websites given the discouraging lack of interaction on FFN in the past several years. It feels like I'm just posting updates to the void where the only comments I ever receive are from mean trolls who want to insult me personally or tell me how shitty my story is. The atmosphere at AO3 is much kinder than I expected which makes writing much more enjoyable. As this is my hobby, I don't want to continue doing something that makes me miserable. Sadly, FFN can sometimes be a hellscape.

If you are interested in following me for new stories, I can be found on Tumblr at Canimal and AO3 at Canimal. Thanks for your understanding. Again, all current WIPs will continue to be updated on FFN until they are complete.

Chapter Thirteen

Looking down into the hole on the floor and seeing Kingsley's eyes looking back at hers seemed far too good to be true. Hermione feared that she had imagined the whole incident. Trauma could rip a person from their reality to place them into a fantasy world far more preferable just to keep them from losing their sanity entirely. It was a common enough reaction that she worried she might still be huddled on the rug in front of the fireplace dreaming up a rescue that would never happen.

"We don't have much time, Hermione. They could be back any moment."

Hearing Kingsley's steady voice again instilled her with just enough confidence to get off the bed. If it was all a fantasy, the least she could do was go along with it. Once her bare feet hit the hard, cold floor she felt a little more certain that she wasn't dreaming. Even if it didn't feel real, she had to move quickly. Hesitation would be a huge mistake. Thorfinn might wake up or Dolohov might return.

As soon as she had shoes on her feet, she grabbed her beaded bag to shove all of her meager belongings inside. Thankfully there hadn't been much need to drag them out in her captivity. Most of the items that hadn't been confiscated by Dolohov were already packed neatly away. Ignoring the unconscious lump on the floor, she hopped over the stunned Death Eater to grab as much of the food that hadn't been ruined in her attack on Draco. She didn't know where they were going next, but she knew food could always come in handy.

Only a minute or two passed of her moving swiftly through her prison before she was ready to leave. When she approached the hole in the floor where Kingsley was still watching, she felt nervous. It seemed too easy. Whenever something seemed too simple in her experience, it usually was.

"Dolohov put wards all over the room. I can't leave unless I have a Dark Mark."

It was unfortunate that her captors weren't bumbling idiots. She might have had a much easier time of escaping on her own if that were the case.

"He likely didn't charm the floor, Miss Granger."

"Severus is right. You have to pay a price to use magic. Anyone using such intricate and dangerous spells would only cast where they thought them absolutely necessary. He wouldn't have expected you to exit through the floor."

She hoped the two wizards were correct. Their theories made sense. Just seeing the drop that she would have to make to reach the lower floor would've discouraged her from ripping up the floorboards if she had even considered that sort of escape.

"Okay. Do I just jump?"

"No, it's too far. Grab this."

Kingsley tossed up the end of a long, sturdy rope. With her hands trembling terribly because of nerves, Hermione nearly dropped it. Thankfully, by the time she held it, Snape was there to take it from her to charm securely to the bed. It took the last of her reserves of courage to grab onto the robe and slide down it. What if they were wrong about the security wards and she was going to be injured once she attempted to pass through the barrier? Dolohov had already proven to be a sick fuck.

Her eyes filled up with tears when Kingsley's strong arms pulled her off the rope at the bottom. Ignoring the fact that he had been telling her since he arrived that they had to hurry, he didn't waste the opportunity to hold her tightly against his chest. The entire embrace lasted only a second or two, but it was exactly what she needed to remind herself what she was running from. She was the one to step out of the hug. There was no time. Every single moment that passed put them in severe danger. Any one of the Death Eaters in the village could stumble upon them if they didn't run.

"Take the passage to the Hogwarts grounds. It's too dangerous to go into Hogsmeade now."

Even Kingsley seemed reluctant to follow Snape's instructions. Likely he was struggling with the thought of leaving any of his friends and allies behind in the fierce fighting that was supposedly taking place in the village. The entire time she crawled on her hands and knees in the dirt towards the exit underneath the Whomping Willow, Hermione worried they were making a terrible mistake. Sure, escaping from Hogsmeade might have been difficult, but escaping from Hogwarts seemed impossible. Wouldn't they have to go through the village anyway to get away from the castle?

Maybe the plan was to hide them inside the school for a few days until everything calmed down. The thought of being able to return to the place that had once been such a comfort to her felt too good to be true. She had always felt at home in the castle.

Snape led them both to the edge of the Forbidden Forest as far away from the safety of the castle as possible. It was the middle of the day while school was in session. Each one of them would be in terrible danger if they were spotted by one of the students or staff members. There were even known Death Eaters amongst the faculty. One touch of their Dark Mark could bring a great deal of trouble down upon them.

"This is the only way, I'm afraid."

Resigned to the fact that they were being dropped off in one of the most dangerous parts of their world, Kingsley nodded and shook Snape's hand. Hermione wasn't ready to just follow blindly into the forest that had tried to murder her and her dear friends on more than one occasion. There had to be another way. She couldn't believe they were so limited in their options.

"But, there are monsters…"

"There are monsters everywhere, Miss Granger. You'll find a great many of them in Hogsmeade right now just looking for more Muggle-Borns to torture and kill. At least the ones in these woods only kill to eat."

She hated that Snape was right. Even if she could avoid Dolohov for the rest of her natural life, there were plenty of others who would want to do just as bad to her as he did. Her friendship with Harry would never be forgotten. If she was captured, she might even be taken straight to Voldemort. She didn't want to think about what sort of death he would have in store for her. Feeding Ron to the fucking snake was bad enough. She had no doubt the sick bastard would want to figure out how to make hers even more brutal.

Knowing she had no other choice, she took her first step into the Forbidden Forest. Though she had never really given it much thought before when she was a student and expressly forbidden from entering it unless on orders from a teacher for a ridiculous detention, she supposed it had to have an ending somewhere. It wasn't the edge of the world. If she was able to walk through it, eventually the trees would start to thin out on the other side. No one would ever expect them to willingly face the uncertainty of the forest. It was madness.

Having Kingsley at her side only made her feel slightly less nervous about the stupid thing they were doing. No one, likely not even Hagrid, knew exactly what all horrors and dangers lurked within. There were rumors of a massive pack of werewolves that lived in the center. That had always seemed like the sort of tale told to frighten, but with each step closer to finding out the truth, she feared that maybe it wasn't a lie.

If there was any hope of making it out in one piece, they had to try to avoid the wildlife as much as possible. A seemingly impossible task, remaining very quiet was the best hope they had to not draw too much attention to themselves. Their scent they could do nothing about. Even after casting a spell on both of them that was often used by hunters, she knew it wasn't a guarantee. Some animals had far better noses than magic had spells.

She supposed it was a good thing that they had to remain so constantly vigilant as they snuck through the forest. Given the chance to speak openly, there were dozens of questions she wanted to ask about what she missed while she was held captive. As much as she wanted to know the truth, she was terrified. How much horror had she been shielded from hidden away in her prison? Maybe it would be better to remain as ignorant as possible for as long as she could. Once she knew all of the worst details, she could never go back to life before she knew them. Everything would change. She would be an entirely different person.

Learning what happened to Ron was earth-shaking. Never in her worst nightmare could she imagine a creature who was supposedly a regular human being at some point that could commit such a depraved and evil act. There was no reason to make his death so painful and cruel. Part of her didn't want to believe Draco told her the truth, but he had no reason to lie to her about anything, especially something so awful. She got the impression that Draco wanted to shield her from the worst of the truth. That was a kindness she hadn't expected from the likes of him. When had he ever been the least bit nice to her in their shared past?

The very moment a charitable thought about Draco made its way into her mind, she did all she could to push it right back out. He didn't deserve anything kind. Not after what he was responsible for. Because of him, she had been taken away from Harry and Ron when they needed her most. They wasted their time looking for her when they should've been searching for more horcruxes. Maybe Draco would claim he didn't have a choice, that Dolohov and Thorfinn were more powerful than he was, but he did. He always had a choice. Even choosing to die instead of follow his precious Dark Lord was a choice.

Pure hatred and spite kept one foot moving in front of the other. She would survive the Forbidden Forest and whatever came afterward if for no other reason she had three Death Eaters she was going to punish. She would make each one of them regret that they didn't immediately turn her over to Voldemort the night she broke the Taboo. There would be no mercy for any of them. None at all.

Maybe she would've been eaten by the fucking snake too, but she deserved to die with her boys. She wasn't so full of herself and her own abilities to believe she could've single-handedly saved them both from their painful deaths. All she knew for certain was her disappearance distracted them from their true mission. If they'd stayed on course, found more of the horcruxes, they could've had a chance to destroy the evil bastard before his minions caught up with them. Searching for her instead of the horcruxes sealed their fate.

She didn't know how Harry died. Dolohov didn't offer any details when he gleefully told her about his death. There hadn't been time to ask Draco. After she slammed her food basket against his head and made him bleed, he wasn't anxious to stick around for more abuse. Was it worse than Ron's murder? It must have been. Voldemort hated Harry and wanted to make him suffer. He was the reason he lost his body the first time and nearly died when Harry was a baby. The thought of his death being prolonged and even just half as brutal as Ron's filled her with so much anger she didn't know how to control.

Kingsley kept one step ahead of her, scanning the immediate area of the forest for any potential danger. Without her own wand she was helpless against any terrible creature they might encounter. Sneaking through the Forbidden Forest was just asking for trouble. If they had to be in there it would be much better to be there during the day when most of the nocturnal monsters were sleeping off their nighttime kills. She hoped they would be out the other side long before the sun set.

A snap of a twig just meters away stopped them both in their tracks. Kingsley positioned his body in front of Hermione's to shield her from the potential danger. Neither of them dared to breathe as they waited for an attack to come from out of the shadows. Hermione felt her heart pounding hard in her chest. It sounded so loud in her ears or maybe it was just her own fear making her think she could. She would be next to useless with no wand to help protect them. Unless their foe was only a small rabbit, she had serious doubts she would be physically capable of doing anything more than just making the creature mad. Remembering how Dolohov grabbed her the night she broke the Taboo and the last time she'd been able to use any magic, she felt the anger within her grow even hotter. Maybe she could rip a rampaging creature into pieces with her own bare hands if it became necessary.

No creature appeared out of the shadows to accost them. Even after several minutes of tense waiting they saw nothing. It could've been a smaller animal that saw them as more of a threat. Or it could've been a scout sent out to keep an eye on them. A chill went up her spine at that possibility. She got Kingsley's attention with a soft touch to his arm. Leaning in as close as she could, she whispered into his ear.

"It could be a centaur watching us, waiting to report back. We need to keep moving. I doubt they would see me as just a foal this time."

To his credit Kingsley didn't ask any questions or beg her to confirm. It was possible he knew exactly what she feared. He dropped his wand but kept it firmly against his side. With one silent nod to her, he stepped in the opposite direction from where they heard the sound. If they moved quickly, maybe they could put enough distance between them and whatever creature that was to be safe.

Having the centaurs approach them would be one of the worst case scenarios they could potentially face. She would almost rather face Aragog's descendants instead. Relations between the centaur herd and the humans had been strained for years. No doubt the escalation of the war only made matters worse. They would not appreciate seeing her back in their forest after it was made perfectly clear to Hermione in fifth year that they resented her for using them to settle a score with Umbridge. At the time she had been desperate, willing to try anything that might work. She hadn't considered the consequences of her rash actions and she really should have.

It was easy to assuage her conscience with reminders that she had only lured Umbridge to the Forbidden Forest as a last resort in order to protect Harry. While certainly true, it didn't excuse everything. Or anything really. She had read what centaurs had done to human women in the past. Indeed it was even whispered amongst the girls at Hogwarts when the attractive Firenze was hired to teach Divination after Sibyll Trelawney was sacked by Umbridge. Many wondered if the legends were true. A few whispered they wouldn't mind finding out if all the centaurs were as gorgeous as the new professor.

Part of her refused to believe the legends, but mostly she didn't care what happened to Umbridge. The centaurs were a means to an end. If they held some resentment towards her for involving them in her revenge, they had every right. She had used them, damn the consequences. Only she wasn't the one to suffer those.

A day might come when she allowed herself to feel some guilt for what happened to Umbridge. Women should be kinder to each other. Hermione wasn't to the point of remorse yet. There was still too much raw anger. Considering what Umbridge did to others like her with the Muggle-Born Registration Commission, she might never get there. The woman was one of the foulest creatures alive. She deserved nothing good.

But being faced with the possibility of suffering a similar fate in the forest, she could better understand the cruelty she was capable of. Perhaps it would be useful in the future if she somehow made it out of her current ordeal alive. Each step deeper into the forest made her less hopeful of her chance.

What felt like hours passed before Kingsley led them over to a fallen tree trunk to take a seat. Running purely on adrenaline, she hadn't yet allowed herself to feel tired. There were enough other concerns to keep her mind occupied. Once she was finally off her feet, she could tell how sore they were. If Kingsley felt the same, it was no wonder he made them stop. Humans could only go so far for so long.

Enchantments were cast around the immediate area to conceal them and any sounds they might make. Kingsley conjured up two large glasses of water for them to hydrate. After so much exertion for so long, it was necessary. When she had had enough water, she dug a couple of sandwiches out of her beaded bag that hadn't been destroyed when she attacked Draco. Kingsley finished his in record time to her amusement. She found a couple more he was pleased to accept.

The sun was about to set. Or so she thought. It was nearly impossible to see the sky underneath the thick canopy of trees. Little bits of blue appeared here and there. She wasn't sure if she should be grateful they managed to survive a whole day in the forest or worried that there was still so far to go to make it out the other side. The journey seemed impossible. It took all of her strength to keep from just giving up.

"Are you all right?"

Kingsley's relatively simple question caught her entirely off-guard. There were so many potential meanings and just as many answers. She wasn't even sure where to begin. Their immediate concerns were physical. Perhaps it would be best just to focus on those.

"My feet hurt, but I can keep going as long as we need to."

"That's not what I meant. Are you all right?"

All she could do was sigh. No, she was far from all right. Sensing the truth without her saying it out loud, he put his arm around her shoulder in a show of silent support. Likely he wasn't either. How could anyone be in their fucked up world?

"I was trapped in that room in the Shrieking Shack for weeks. No one would tell me what was happening outside."

"I'm very sorry. None of us knew where you were. When Severus tracked me down, I didn't believe him. Thought it was a trap until he mentioned a little witch wanting to ride my broomstick."

His amused smirk brought an embarrassed flush to her cheeks. Just as she thought a short time earlier, desperate times did indeed call for desperate measures.

"It was the only thing I could think of that would prove to you it was really me."

"Well, it worked. As horrified as Severus seemed having to relay that message, I knew he couldn't have come up with it himself."

"He refused to say it at first, but I insisted."

Kingsley's soft chuckles sounded out of place in the tense, dangerous situation they were in, but Hermione was glad to hear them. She needed a tiny shred of hope to hold on to that all wasn't lost. Imagining that all she had to look forward to was a life of misery was too much to bear.

"Did he tell you why he killed Dumbledore?"

Gone were Kingsley's chuckles to be replaced by a heavy sigh. If he hadn't trusted Snape at least a little bit, he wouldn't have been willing to put himself in the potential danger that he did.

"He mentioned a cursed ring and that Albus was already dying. I didn't want to believe him at first, but it makes sense. There had always been questions about Severus' loyalty. I don't understand why at least part of the Order couldn't have been warned first."

"Because Albus Dumbledore was a manipulative bastard who only cared about the 'Greater Good'. People have always been expendable to him."

The harsh words might have just tumbled out of her mouth, but she didn't regret saying them. Kingsley never struck her as one of the Order members who was blindly loyal to Dumbledore and incapable of seeing the uncomfortable truth. Maybe she was wrong. Others she knew would follow Dumbledore straight into the fires of Hell without questioning a single step. Kingsley seemed like the sort to ask questions.

"I think, unfortunately, there is some truth to that. It might not be entirely fair, but, yes, I have seen that before."

"He always had a plan. None of us were worthy enough in his eyes to know what he was up to. Probably didn't want to hear the valid criticism. Like why he would send teenagers to…"

In her frustration she nearly broke her promise to Harry that she would keep all knowledge of Voldemort's horcruxes and the reason why they were hunting between themselves. If that information ever got out, then…

As soon as she tried to imagine any hypothetical consequences to breaking her promise, she realized she no longer cared. Harry was dead. Dumbledore was dead. They held no power over her any longer.

"The cursed ring was actually one of You-Know-Who's horcruxes."

Kingsley's dark eyes grew wide at her announcement. There was some confusion there too. How could there not be? The conversation they were about to have wasn't one that most people would ever have to worry about in their entire lives.

"Do you know what a horcrux is?"

"Yes, of course I do. I learned about them during my auror training. That's not something they teach in school. How do you know about them?"

"Because in Albus Dumbledore's infinite wisdom, he thought the best way to defeat our biggest enemy was to send a terrified, parentless teenager off on his own with no help except from his two teenage friends to track down multiple horcruxes created by the most evil, darkest wizard the world has ever known. We didn't know what we were looking for or where to find them, but that didn't matter to the wizard. No. Send us off with an old snitch, a deluminator we didn't understand, and a ragged book of children's fairy tales. Somehow with those three items and no help from anyone over the age of eighteen, we were expected to end this fucking war that we didn't even start. It should surprise literally no one that two of us are dead. It's incredible that I'm not dead too. I…"

In the midst of her almost manic rambling, Kingsley stopped her with a very gentle touch of his fingertips against her lips. She knew she had said too much far to quickly.

"I'm sorry."

"You don't need to apologize to me. That sounds like… a lot."

The very simple response caught her off-guard once more that day. Surprised that he could so succinctly boil it all down to 'a lot' was funny. A giggle bubbled up out of her chest. Soon she was laughing hard enough that tears were rolling down her cheeks. Yes, what they had been through was indeed a lot. She knew she must've appeared crazy to the poor man seated on the tree trunk next to her. Indeed she probably was. Enough had happened to her in such a short span of time it was a wonder she wasn't running through the Forbidden Forest stark naked believing she was a unicorn. After a few minutes, she calmed down enough to look at Kingsley's kind face with a hint of shame on her own.

"Yes, you're right."

"What did you mean 'multiple horcruxes'? I've never heard of anyone making more than one."

"Just that. You-Know-Who wasn't satisfied with just one. That wasn't enough to keep him from dying. He made several. The theory was he wanted to make seven. That seemed like the perfect number."

Kingsley's jaw dropped open at the horrific revelation. If he had studied the nasty dark artifacts when he was in auror training, he must have at least some idea how they were created. To complete the ritual more than once was barbaric. It was bad enough only having one.

"He can't be killed until all of them are destroyed. Harry destroyed one in second year. Dumbledore destroyed the cursed ring. We stole one from Dolores Umbridge who bought it off of Mundungus Fletcher who stole it out of Sirius' house. His little brother found it. We suspect he made a gold cup into another one but we have no idea where that might be. Dumbledore suspected that he was trying to turn items that belonged to the Hogwarts Founders into them. We know he had two. So there might be some other horcrux out there that was made with something that either Rowena Ravenclaw or Godric Gryffindor owned. Beyond that, we didn't have any other information."

It was insanity that Dumbledore would ever entrust such an important mission to practical children. What could he possibly have been thinking? That was sadly a question no one would ever be able to ask the wretched, horrible man. Hermione hoped he spent eternity roasting for the cruel crimes he committed in his lifetime.

"The mission can't stop with Harry's death. We have to keep searching for the horcruxes if we ever want a peaceful world again."

"You're right."

With a heavy sigh, Kingsley stood up to his feet. There would be no way to continue the mission that had been left uncompleted if they didn't survive the horrors of the Forest. Whether they felt like it or not, they had to keep walking. Before they could even get a step out of the protective bubble of enchantments he cast, Hermione felt a paralyzing wave of guilt crush over her shoulders. If he knew what she had done to survive her captivity, he might not be that interested in protecting her in their escape. He had every right to know how low she had fallen.

"Kingsley, remember when you told me that I needed to do whatever I could, no matter how devious, to survive?"

"Yes, of course I do."

"When I was held captive…"

He stopped her again with a gentle touch of her lips.

"Did you survive?"

"Yes."

"Then that's all that matters."

Even as she felt a small measure of relief that he didn't ask for any details, she worried that he would come to hate her in the future.