Disclaimer: I am not J.K Rowlings so cut me some slack.
Lord Voldermort looked down at his followers from his Throne in the Malfoy Manor. Ever since his ressurection at the graveyard he had commandeered the Malfoy Manor as his base of Operation. Once he had learnt that Lucius had disposed of his precious Journal to satisfy a childish grudge he had been punishing the Malfoys for their Patriach failure, using their home as his base was one of the punishments. He knew Narcissa was very uncomfortable with his presence in their Manor but she could do nothing about it.
Lucius had once again failed him in his mission to the Department of Mysteries. A mission that should have been as simple as taking candy from a kid had resulted in his entire inner circle excluding Bellatrix and Snape being sent to Azkaban. As the leader of the mission, the failure lied on Lucius and he fully intended on letting him and his compatriots suffer a few weeks in Azkaban before breaking them out. Apparently in the 14 years of peace since his unfortunate accident his death eaters had gone rusty. How was he supposed to be the most feared Dark Lord if his most trusted and experienced inner circle couldn't defeat underage wizards who had not even passed their OWLs. More time would have to be spent refining their skills before he could continue on his mission of taking over Britain, he couldn't afford any mistakes or surprises like the previous time.
"In my absence you have become weak" Voldermort started after letting his death eaters stew in silence for a few minutes, they were looking around wondering if he was going to punish anyone for their failure.
"How is it that my most trusted Death Eaters were defeated by kids."
"My Lord, Dumble" Bellatrix started, trying to explain their failure.
"SILENCE, CRUCIO" Voldermort shouted interrupting Bellatrix explanation and inflicting on her the torture curse. He was in no mood for interruptions.
"Ahhhhhhhhhh ." Bellatrix shouted has she was hit with one of the unforgiveables, it felt like hot knives digging into her skin. She continued shivering for a few minutes after he lifted the curse.
"But do not worry I am here now and I will remedy this problem." He paused for dramatic effect. The death eaters looked up to him expectantly.
"I have set up several training camps across the country, you all will be divided into different cells and will learn to fight in these camps. For the next 3 months all you will do is learn to fight, there will be no missions." The death eaters started mumuring excitedly, for most of them this was what they had dreamed of. A chance to learn powerful magic from the Dark Lord, they imagined gaining unimaginable power and subjugating the mudbloods who were stealing their magic and destroying their traditions. Now that Lord Voldermort himself was going to be involved in their training, the Ministry had no hope of stopping them.
"Weakness will not be tolerated." Voldermort said in a cold ominous tone that left no one in doubt of what will happen to those who display weakness.
"You are dismissed." The death eaters filed out in an orderly fashion leaving only the inner circle and Severus Snape.
"This is what has become of my inner circle." Voldermort said adressing Bellatrix Lestrange and Severus Snape "Those who are supposed to be the most elite of my followers have been sent to Azkaban by the old fool. This problem has to be rectified." He continued. His audience bowed their head in reverence not daring to interrupt him, if he wanted their opinions he would ask them.
"Severus you are to begin making preparations to free our comrades from Azkaban. I shall be joining you on this mission, we can not afford anymore set backs. Pick some of the promising recruits to join us. You will train them to competent within 3 weeks, failure will not be tolerated."
"My Lord, let me lead the mission and training I will not fail you." Bellatrix said.
"CRUCIO. You have been defeated once by teenagers I cannot afford another disaster from you. You will follow Severus lead and assist him in training the recruits. " Voldermort cursed Bellatrix again. Bellatrix was a very talented fighter and loyal follower but her madness made it neccessary to keep her on a short leash.
"You are dismissed. I expect to hear from you in a week with a fool-proof plan. Do not make me summon you." Voldermort said dismissing Snape and Bellatrix. Snake glided out of the room like a dememtor, he had to report to Dumbledore after every Death Eater meeting. One of the responsibilities of being a double sided agent.
"Welcome Severus, care for some lemon drops." Dumbledore said welcoming Snape to his office. He could see Severus was tired and weary after the latest death eater meeting, one of the side effects of having to hide his ttue feeling from Voldermort with Occlumency. Only a natural born occlumens like Snape could manage to hide a secret from a master of Legilimency like Voldermort. This is why he was very important to the war efforts in his role as a double agent. No one else could perform that role safely.
"No, let's get this over quickly. I have a very busy week ahead of me." Snape replied.
"Of course, of course. So how is Voldermort reacting to his latest loss." Dumbledore asked. Snape flinched slightly at the mention of Voldemorts name.
"Badly, he is on edge and very anger. He has ordered that all his followers undergo compulsory training, unfortunately I do not know where they would be training. He has kept that secret to himself."
"Hmmm, appears he does not want a repeat of their failure at the Ministry." Dumbledore said stroking his beards.
"He has also started making plans to release his inner circle from Azkaban. He would be carrying out the plan within the next few weeks. He has put Bellatrix in charge of making the plan."
Dumbledore raised his eyebrows at that. "I would expect that he would be reluctant to put Bellatrix in charge of anything given her failure at the Ministry."
"Perhaps he wants to give her a chance to redeem herself." Snape knew it was very dangerous lying to Dumbledore, Dumbledore was the only reason he wasn't in Azkaban himself. But he had to keep some secrets to himself to protect his position as a double agent. Besides he didn't really care for both men, all he wanted was to protect himself so he could survive this blasted war. He had considered escaping the country but he knew any attempt made by him to leave the country without permission will be reported to Dumbledore and he would find himself in a dark cell in Azkaban. Dumbledore always kept his pet spy on a short leash.
"It should be easier now to convince Cornelius to increase the auror budget now that dear Lucius is in Azkaban. We would definitely need it to combat the better trained death eaters. Inform me if come across any more information concerning his planned Azkaban breakout, we may be able to use it to our advantage." Dumbledore said.
"I will."
"You should get some rest, you look like you could drop dead any moment." Dumbledore said dismissing Snape. As Snape exited the Headmasters office, Dumbledore thought of ways they could exploit Voldermort's Azkaban plans to his benefits. Perhaps its was time to call another Order of The Phoenix meeting to discuss the latest developments, Alastor would definitely have some insights in this matter.
Hermione opened her eyes drowsily as she awoke in her hospital bed. The walls were white, there were several magical equipments connected to her beeping by the side of the bed. The equipments in the room looked more advanced than something you would find in Madam Pomfrey's hospital wing at Hogwarts. She had spent many hours in the hospital wing waiting for Harry to recover from one of his many injuries. She rose up in panic as she started recollecting what happened in the Department of Mysteries, was Harry ok? Did they get the Death Eaters? She hit the buzzer by her bed to call for help. Almost immediately the door opened and a nurse rushed in, she was dressed in blue scrubs.
"What happened? Where are my friends?" Hermione started questioning the nurse immediately she walked in.
"Relax, your friends are fine. You should drink some water." The nurse said as she handed Hermione a glass of water to drink.
"I am Healer Padrich. You were severely injured at the Ministry, you were hit with a very dark curse so we had to let your body heal from the curse. " The healer said . Hermione felt sore all over her body, the curse had definitely done a number on her.
"How long was I unconscious for?"
"4 days, it would still take a couple of weeeks for you to fully heal and recover. But we should be able to discharge you soon."
"What about my parents, are they here?" Hermione asked. Her parents must be worried sick for her, they would have been expecting here to arrive with the Hogwarts express. Hopefully Dumbledore would have explained to them the situation. She had kept a lot of the happenings at Hogwarts from her parents, she was scared that if they knew the dangerous situations she encountered while at school they would be inclined to withdraw her from Hogwarts.
"They just went out to grab a bit with the Weasleys, I would send for them." Padrich replied.
"Thanks."
"Also, Dumbledore dropped a letter for you. He said it was from your friend Harry."
"Where is the letter?" Hermione asked. She was very worried about Harry, although she wondered why he would need to write her a letter when he could visit her in the Hospital. She imagined that it had taken a lot of convincing to get him to leave her bedside.
"Here is the letter." Padrich said bringing out a sealed envelope from her pocket. Hermione took the envelope from the healer and broke the seal. Two parchments fell out of the envelope. The first was a letter while the second was an old blank parchment which Hermione immediately recognized. It was the Marauder's map.
"I will leave you to it and tell your friends you have woken up." The healer said as she left the room.
Hermione opened the letter and started reading it as the healer left the room.
Dear Hermione,
Firstly I would like to apologize for not being there by your side. I hope you are feeling much better now. Things have been moving very fast since the "Battle at the Department of Mysteries", that is what the Daily Prophet is calling it. The reason I am writing this letter and not telling you this myself is that Dumbledore has decided to send me away to one of his friends to finish my education. Don't tell anyone this, Dumbledore asked me to keep it a secret so I can't tell you the details. He is going to tell everyone I am with my relatives. Now that Voldermort is out in the open, Dumbledore expects that the war will be heating up and it might better for me to continue learning elsewhere.
I have a lot to tell you which I cannot put in this letter but you can talk to Dumbledore to fill in the rest. I also wrote a letter for Ron, Dumbledore will give it to him when he is better. I will try to write to you as often as I can. If you want to send me a letter you will need to give it to Dumbledore as I cannot reveal where I am. I don't even know the location of my new school.
I also left you the Marauders map, I believe you will have more use for it than me.
Take care of yourself and Ron.
Your Friend,
Harry.
The letter raised more questions for Hermione than it answered. Why would Dumbledore need to send Harry elsewhere to school, Hogwarts was the best and safest school in Europe. As Hermione was contemplating the contents of the letter the door opened and her parents walked in with the Weasley's behind them.
"Hermione!" Emma Granger exclaimed as she entered the room. She immediately walked to the bed and bent down to hig her daughter, Hermione. Dan Granger also joined the family hug.
"Hi, Mom. Hi Dad." Hermione said awkwardly, she knew her parents would have lots of questions for her and she didn't know what Dumbledore had told them. They Weasley family stayed back giving the family some time to reconnect.
"How are you feeling now?" Dan asked as he released Hermione from the hug, though Emma still held on to their daughter a little bit longer.
"I am feeling much better." Hermione replied.
"The healer explained that you were hit by a dark curse so you had to remain unconscious to let your magic heal the wound." Dan said.
"Yes." Hermione mumbled.
"Dumbledore has explained the circumstances leading to you being injured but we will still be having a much longer conversation with you about your safety." Emma said. She had always worried about her daughters safety going to a school of Magic but the Professors had convinced her that Hogwarts was the safest olace for a Young witch to learn Magic. The Professors reassurance had been enough to convince her to allow Hermione go to Hogwarts, also Hermione's letters about her new friends had reassured her that Hogwarts was the right choice for her. Hermione had always struggled to make friends as a kid. But seeing her unconscious in the Hospital from a dark curse, Emma began to reconsider if Hogwarts was as safe as she had been led to believe.
"Sure, mum. How are the rest.?" She asked Mr Weasley who was standing at the foot of the bed with his arm around Molly.
"Mostly scrapes and bruises, you sure held your own." Mr Weasley said with a proud smile
"Don't encourage them" Mrs Weasley said smackicg Arthur lightly on the arm.
"Yeah, Everyone is fine except our dear brother here." Fred said pointing towards Ron who was sat in a corner, his head was heavily bandaged and he had a far away look on his face.
"The brains in the lab seemed to have drained away whatever little mental power he had." George said, teasing Ron.
"Stop teasing your brother, both of you. The healer said he would be good in a few weeks." Molly admonished the twins wagging her fingers at them.
"Though we are not certain if there is much difference between his current state and how he usually is." Ginny added, joining the twins in making jest of Ron's unfortunate circumstance.
"That's enough." Molly said, putting an end to the jest.
"What about Harry? How is he?" Hermione said asking no one in particular.
The room became silent and the Weasley's looked at each other, none of them really knew the details of Harry's whereabouts. All they knew was that he did not return with the rest of the students on the Hogwart's Express. Dumbledore kept all the details of Harry's whereabout to himself but he had assured them that Harry was fine and well taken care of.
"He is fine, Dumbledore must have taken him to his relatives himself." Mrs Weasley said
" Dumbledore said he left you a letter with the Healer, have you gotten it?"
"Yes, the healer gave it to me." Hermione replied. Apparently Dumbledore was keeping the information on Harry's whereabout a secret even from the Weasley's. She assumed he must have a good reason if he decided to keep it a secret.
The door opened and Healer Padrich walked in with several vials of potions in her arms.
"Sorry to cut this short but I need to give the patient her potions." She said as she placed the vials by the bed stand. She picked one of the vials up and opened it, immediately a foul smell filled the room.
"Uhnnn, what is that." Ginny said gagging from the smell and covering her nose with her arms.
"Stinks like Hippogriff's shit." Fred said.
"It's to purge her body of the dark curse and speed up her healing. Sorry we can't make it smell any better or it loses it's potency." Padrich said as she approached Hermione who looked scared that she'd have to swallow something that smelled so disgusting.
"Do I really have to take that." Hermione said trying to convince the healer by making puppy eyes at her.
"That's not going to work on me, and you have to take this if you want to get out of here anytime soon. Do not worry, it doesn't taste as bad."
Healer Padrich slowly Hermione the potions who accepted to take them grudgingly, she didn't want to spend any more time than is neccessary in the Hospital. She started feeling sleepy as she took the last of the potions.
"You should give her some time to rest so the potions can work. She will be awake in a few hours and should be able to leave then."
"Thank you soo much." Emma said hugging the healer. "I will give you a prescriotion for her potions. You can get them at any reputable apocathery in Diagon's Alley so you can continue her treatment at home." Padrich said after extricating herself from Emma's tight hug.
"I need to attend to my other patients." Healer Padrich said as she left the room.
The Grangers and Weasleys slowly left the room as Hermione dozed off. She would need the rest to regain her energy and heal up properly to face the trials ahead.