Chapter 14: Three Greengrass sisters are a crowd.

Hermione's ears were ringing, and the first thing she felt upon waking was a sharp pain in her cheek. This puzzled her, as she didn't remember hitting herself there recently.

She tried to recall her memories, but they were shrouded in a strange black fog that prevented her from seeing whatever lay behind it. The more she tried to remember, the more this fog turned into an angry whirlwind inside her mind, confusing her even more.

She also couldn't understand why she was so cold, but concluded that she might have uncovered herself during the night without realizing it. Still, there was no reason for her bed and pillow to feel so hard.

She sensed that something was wrong with the situation, but she hadn't fully regained her senses to understand what was actually happening.

Hermione moved her head slightly, and the pain in her cheek lessened, but instead of disappearing completely, it shifted to her cheekbone. It was then that she began to think a bit more clearly, though still with the horrible sensation that it was taking her an eternity to connect simple concepts and reach logical conclusions. Like the fact that this wasn't her bed. It couldn't be because, in fact, she was lying face down on what felt like a hard stone floor. Additionally, she identified that the cold she felt came from the moisture in the environment, which had collected on the floor in the form of droplets, soaking her clothes, hair, and face. Her hands, resting above her head with palms down, were also in contact with the cold, hard stone, wet.

Where was she? What had happened?

She knew the natural reaction should have been to get up immediately and look around to locate herself and identify possible threats, but she felt so tired that she didn't think she had the strength to do so. She couldn't even open her eyes more than tiny slits through which she could only see a blurry, poorly lit place through her eyelashes.

She blinked several times to try to clear her vision, but it didn't work, so she resigned herself to closing them again. Keeping her eyes open seemed to require an effort beyond her capabilities at the moment.

She was so exhausted that the idea of letting herself go back to sleep seemed tempting, almost irresistible... but she summoned her self-determination to force herself to stay awake. It wasn't easy, but she reminded herself that she didn't know what or who had brought her to this place and therefore had no idea of the dangers she might face. Sleeping wasn't the best idea at that moment, especially when she was already in such a vulnerable position.

She had been so out of it that she hadn't been very aware of the saliva escaping from the corner of her mouth and dripping onto her jaw and part of her neck. With great effort, she managed to swallow the excess that had accumulated in her mouth, and thanks to this, her ears cleared, and the distant ringing she had been hearing gradually took shape until it suddenly became a voice. A voice she could hear loud and clear. A female voice calling her by her name.

"Granger!" it shouted. "Granger! Where the hell have you gone? We need to carry out the plan!"

What plan? And who was supposed to be speaking to her?

She searched her mental registry for a familiar face to match that voice, and though it took a few long seconds to deduce it, she finally concluded that the high-pitched tone and demanding manner couldn't belong to anyone other than Pansy Parkinson. But why was she shouting in her ear?

Footsteps echoed in the place, reverberating around her and putting her on alert. Or at least as alert as she could be considering she had felt more out of it than lucid since she woke up.

Her blood ran cold when she heard a scream, and the footsteps became faster and faster until they reached her. She couldn't help but shiver when she felt someone kneel behind her.

"Neville!" someone shouted, but now Hermione was awake enough to immediately know that voice belonged to Astoria. "I asked you to bring Granger, not my sister!"

Astoria turned her until her back was on the floor, but Hermione kept her eyes closed and pretended to be asleep to buy time while she analyzed the situation. Why had Astoria asked Neville to bring her there? And why did she think she was Daphne?

The most recent events before her unconsciousness came to her mind as if someone had catapulted them from the depths of her mind to the surface of her memory.

Oh, right, she had been pretending to be Daphne Greengrass to find out what had happened to Neville before he found her and suddenly strangled her unconscious.

It also made sense that Pansy Parkinson was shouting in her ear since she had just remembered the device Pansy had given her to assist her while carrying out the plan.

Well, it seemed the stupid plan had just gotten a bit more complicated.

She didn't know how else to proceed, so now she could only pretend and play dumb to avoid being discovered.

"Astoria?" she said then, trying to sound as Daphne would in such a situation. But the girl's voice didn't sound high, clear, and melodious as usual, but low, hoarse, and rough. She was scared for a moment but assumed it was due to the strangulation and lying on the cold, damp floor for who knows how long. "Astoria?" she repeated, forcing her voice a bit more to be heard.

"I'm here," replied the addressed, who hurried into her field of vision and brushed some hair from her face. "Oh, Salazar! You're bleeding!"

Hermione opened her eyes with difficulty and raised a hand to her head, specifically to a spot near her forehead. She winced in pain at the touch and then observed the blood sliding down her fingers to the palm of her hand as she pulled it away.

She had likely been thrown to the ground without much care, as if she were a piece of meat for a caged animal rather than a human being.

That explained the exhaustion, fatigue, and difficulty she had had thinking and remembering things a moment ago. A blow to the head of such magnitude could be fatal, so she told herself that once she got out of there, she would go straight to Madam Pomfrey for an examination. Besides probably needing stitches, she also wanted to rule out a concussion or something similar. She hoped it wasn't serious, or else she would have to visit the healers at St. Mungo's.

This thought soon transformed into the memory of Draco Malfoy and his visit to the magical hospital as a cover to find a girl to have relations with to get rid of the curse.

"I'm so sorry, Daph," said Astoria, interrupting her confused thoughts. "I don't know what happened to Neville, honestly... I asked him to bring Granger, not you."

Hearing this made her feel relieved to be camouflaged under another person's skin, but it didn't take away the deep terror in the pit of her stomach. What did she want her there for? Was she planning to carry out her threats? And if so, how did she intend to do it? Would she end her life and then dump her body in the lake, or would she be content to "seriously injure" her and then erase her memory so she couldn't point her out as the culprit? It was clear she wouldn't be subtle. No Slytherin was.

She wanted to gather the little strength she had to stand up and run, but her more rational side told her she would likely be caught before she could take three steps. And what would she do then? That would only give her away. So she would endure and use the opportunity to try to discover the whole truth. Maybe, if she pretended to have amnesia, Astoria would tell her everything she needed to know.

She looked at the boy standing a few meters from them, then focused on who was supposed to be her sister.

"Neville? What are you doing with Neville? And why did you ask him to bring you Granger?" said Hermione, feigning surprise as she struggled to sit up.

Astoria quickly placed a hand on her back to help her while looking at her with a mix of disbelief and fear in her eyes.

"Don't you remember anything, Daph?"

"I think... I think I have amnesia or something like that. I can't remember much... probably due to the blow to my head."

Astoria turned to the boy with fury.

"What did you do to her, Neville? You should have been more careful with my sister."

But he didn't respond. He simply stood there, motionless. It was a chilling sight.

"What have you done to Neville?" Hermione snapped a bit more brusquely than she should have, as she was supposed to be playing someone else. She tried to amend it by pointing at the boy and adding in a softer tone, "Look at him, he looks like a statue."

Astoria turned red and looked away, so Hermione had to insist.

"Tell me! It will help me remember!"

The girl clicked her tongue and sighed.

"Alright, alright! But promise me you won't get mad like last time..."

"I won't."

"Are you sure?"

"Astoria!"

"Okay!" she replied, then looked down at her hands resting in her lap. She started to play with her nails before murmuring, "I... kidnapped him."

Hermione jerked in surprise.

"You did what?"

"You promised you wouldn't get mad!"

The Gryffindor girl closed her eyes and took a deep breath, counting backward from ten to calm herself. Well, there was the solution to the mystery of the boy's disappearance: a kidnapping. But why would someone like Astoria kidnap someone like Neville?

"I'm... not... mad," she forced herself to say. Then she opened her eyes and looked directly into the other girl's. "I just need to understand why you did such a thing."

"Because I've been in love with him since I was twelve! You've been my confidante all this time!"

"Oh, yes, of course," she replied, trying her best not to seem too surprised.

She wasn't sure if she succeeded because... wow.

Astoria Greengrass head over heels for Neville Longbottom.

Just... wow.

"Daph?" the girl called when she fell silent for a moment, lost in her thoughts, and Hermione had to return to the present abruptly.

"Yes, yes, I was just... trying to remember things, but I can't. I was wondering... how did you manage to 'kidnap' him? He's like two meters tall!"

"I bewitched him, of course," she said casually, and then, noticing Hermione's inquisitive look, added, "Don't look at me like that! I got tired of him not noticing my hints..."

"And you thought it was a good idea to kidnap him and force him to love you, right?" she reprimanded without being able to help it, clinging to the excuse that apparently, the real Daphne hadn't approved of what her sister had done either. However, it also wasn't convenient for Astoria to close up and stop telling her things that were vital to solving all the questions in her head, so she quickly asked with genuine curiosity, "By the way, what is this place?"

Hermione wiped the smudged mascara from her eyes with the back of her hand and looked around with clear shock. It was a vast limestone space that had once been white but was now blackened by time, with small windows high up on the immense walls.

She had never been there, but it must have been a hidden place deep in the dungeons, one of the many abandoned spots in the castle where students weren't supposed to be.

"This is where we came to learn and practice the dark magic spells from the book Draco stole from the restricted section, don't you remember? It was years ago."

"Yes, of course... um... I remember as you tell me things. So, how long have you kept him locked up here?" she wanted to know, making a motion with her head towards the boy in question, which resulted in a stabbing pain in her still bleeding head.

"Oh, Daph, I'm so sorry...," her sister said, noticing her pain. "I should have listened to you when you asked me to wait to get back at that little bug Granger, but... I saw you so heartbroken that... I couldn't stay idle any longer!"

"Wait, what were we going to do to m…? I mean, what were we supposed to do to her?"

The girl sighed.

"You know... we talked about teaching her a lesson. It was her fault you broke up with Draco! We've been coming here for days to discuss the details. We had to make it clear she couldn't mess with the Greengrasses and get away with it, but you wanted a more elaborate plan before acting, and I just couldn't wait any longer and asked Neville to bring her to start improvising," she began to confess, remorseful. "It was very un-Slytherin of me. I've behaved like an idiot. I'm so sorry."

"What are you sorry for, Tori?" said a voice, appearing out of nowhere behind them. "I wanted to come earlier, but I was punished and had to..."

Both turned to see the newcomer, who was entering the place nonchalantly until she saw Hermione, that is, herself, and instinctively took a step back.

Daphne Greengrass was there.

The real Daphne Greengrass.

And both she and her impostor stood staring at each other, as if they were reflections of the other in a mirror.