It just...happened...

“Harry’s what?”

Dumbledore looked to the sudden outspoken Hermione with a heavy look of worry and empathy. The poor girl’s eyes were wide and so very frightened looking. Snape himself didn’t look much better although he desperately tried to conceal it.

The other professors began to dwindle out of the hall, seeing that Snape was back without Harry was enough to worry them enough into going back to bed. All hope was lost.

“He’s gone Hermione.” McGonagall said with a heavy heart, her hands wringing one another as she looked at the young girl. “Voldemort has taken him.”

Hermione’s stomach dropped and she felt a wave of sudden fatigue slap her as he knees buckled. As if the world were moving in slow motion, she felt strong arms catch her before she fell.

That’s when the darkness surrounded her. __________________________________

“You can’t put her through that Albus.” came McGonagall’s voice from near her, as Hermione lay suddenly awake on…evidently a couch. Sound around her led her to believe she was in a teacher’s common room of some sort.

She squinted her eyes a bit, to appear sleeping but still see what was happening. McGonagall and Dumbledore were sitting in front of the fire, in large chairs facing one another, looking peaked.

Hermione’s gaze shifted slightly to the darkened corner where Snape sat, looking miserable and a bit dodgy to tell you the truth.

Had Snape caught her when she fainted? She tried to remember but at this moment in time it seemed entirely too irrelevant.

“We must Minerva.” Albus was saying in a fierce whisper, “If he’s gotten Harry, he’ll surely come for her as well.”

“Does she know who it is?”

“No. I don’t think so.” The whispering stopped as Hermione shut her eyes once more, knowing they were checking to see if she had awoken.

Seeing her sleeping form they went on tensely, as Severus sat in the corner, looking at them boredly through hooded eyes.

“I don’t think you should tell her.” Albus said roughly, looking at Hermione’s sleeping frame once more and then back to McGonagall. “It’ll do her no good.”

“Oh please Albus.” Snape hissed angrily, his lanky frame now standing and arched. “How can you honestly believe that? If she knows who it is, then she can be prepared for an attack.”

“Severus.” Came the huffed reply from an obviously unimpressed Dumbledore, the twinkle was out of his clear eyes now as he stood and looked to the man who he had known before he was Miss Granger’s age. “Do not question my reasoning. All I know is that this must be what happens.”

“Fine.” Snape said glaring, narrowing his eyes into miserable slits before sulking off to his own chamber. Hermione watched him through slanted eyes go out the door, with a sudden sense of forlorn pity…poor bloke, he’d been through so much.

“Albus.” McGonagall said suddenly lowly, drawing Hermione’s attention back to the two shady figures “She can’t possibly. It would be far too much to ask.”

Dumbledore looked to Minerva sternly, and she remembered her place. He let a gentle smile break through his suddenly cooling exterior. “She’ll be fine.”

“But how can we tell her?” McGonagall said with tears in her eyes. Hermione had had quite enough of this bullocks and she abruptly shot up on the couch, looking at the two aged professor’s in front of her.

“Tell me what?”

The two of them started a minute, clutching their chests and breathing heavily a moment, before Dumbledore turned to Hermione.

“Miss Granger, I didn’t know you were awake.”

“I am sir.” She said huffily, “And I’d like to know what I’m to be a part of?”

“Miss Granger.” Dumbledore said gently, “Due to sudden circumstances, for your own protection and safeYou You are to live with McGonagall in an unknown location until I send for you.”

Hermione gaped at him, starting to giggle like a maniac and shaking her head. “Surely you must be joking Headmaster. You just want me to go live in some little bungalow in the jungle while my best friend is probably being tortured and invariably killed by Voldemort?”

Dumbledore looked wary of the sudden boisterous Gryffindor, concerned for that wild look in her darkening eyes.

“We have someone taking care of that, Miss Granger.” McGonagall said with a look that told Hermione not to cross any boundaries.

Hermione didn’t care to pay any heed to the warning glance and while standing, crossed her arms in a very Snape-like manner and shouted. “Who? Who could possibly save Harry from Voldemort? Certainly not one of you.”

There was a moment of stunned silence, in which Albus shook his head while Hermione felt like an utter git, and dropped her gaze to the floor while her cheeks burned with humiliation.

“No. Not one of us.” Albus said gingerly, understanding her confusion. He looked to her trembling body as she tried to look dignified.

“Then who?” Hermione asked desperately, trying to be polite but hating the secrecy. Dumbledore and Minerva looked to each other before he spoke.

“Professor Snape.”

Snape? the Ex-Deatheater, detention giving, Harry and James Potter hating, greasy git Severus Snape? No…this was all wrong.

Hermione looked to the two of them outraged, and felt the anger rise again in her again. “I can’t believe you two…you know full well Snape never liked Harry in the first place, you know how Harry’s dad was to him! He hates the whole Potter lot!”

McGonagall made a move to interrupt, but Hermione went on, full-fledged panic rising in her as she shook, “What makes you think he’ll actually try to help him? What makes you think this isn’t a giant plan he’s got with Voldemort?”

“Hermione.” McGonagall almost growled, “You are crossing the line.” But Hermione wasn’t listening; she had stirred herself into such a frenzy that nothing could deter her from believing that Snape had a hand in this catastrophe.

“He’s got you so fooled you haven’t the faintest idea of what’s really going on.” Hermione was breathing irregularly and now sort of staggering, “He’s not going to find and protect Harry, he’s going to help Voldemort kill him!”

“I assure you he’s not, Hermione.” Albus said sternly, “He is part of the Order, he has chosen which side his loyalties lie. I’d trust him with my own life.”

“Well it’s not your life is it. It’s Harry’s.” Hermione spat out rather unlady-like at this comment, “And I suppose Professor Snape’s going alone? With no supervision?”

“That would be correct.”

Hermione ground her teeth, looking at the one’s she had grown to care for and trust and most of all, respect so blindly. Why were they so blind themselves? Was the entire world going mad? Finally she faced the two of them, an unseen glint in her eyes.

“Then I suppose I have no other choice. I’ll go and pack.”
_______________________________________________

She threw the clothes into her small bag roughly, not caring whether they matched or not. She was shaking inside and out, and she kept whirling her head around her Head Girl room, sure that she heard footsteps.

Forget Dumbledore.

Cans of food she had made appear were tossed into the bag as well, clattering as Hermione tried to stop her heavy breathing.

Grasping her slim wand in one shaking hand she apparated a long, warm cloak and scarf she wore to so many Quidditch matches.

Quidditch.

She never thought that stupid word would mean so much…God she already missed Harry so much and…oh, Ron. She wanted desperately to speak to him before she left but that would be impossible.

McGonagall had given her fifteen minutes to pack, silently with no words exchanged with anyone else and to meet her in the foyer ready to go.

Hermione had nodded, saying she would be ready.

Now she had pulled the cloak over her head and with a wave of her wand her bag of supplies and clothing was the size of a dime, and shoved into a small pocket in the cloak.

She tossed the invisibility cloak over her then, shoving her wand into her pocket as well, and making her breathing quieter.

She stuck her head out the door and then stepped out into the halls, seeing that no one else was there. Her trepidation down the almost tunnel seemed ess tss though.

Even though it was later in the evening, Hermione was worried she would come across someone she knew…but most definitely did not.

She walked a few minutes, hearing the sound of chatter in the foyer ahead. This was what was going to be difficult, getting past Dumbledore and McGonagall. She rounded the corner, and felt her heart go like a jackhammer, they were both there.

“How much longer?” McGonagall asked impatiently, looking to her pocketwatch, with her luggage strewn about as Dumbledore stifled a chuckle from beside her.

“She’ll be here in a moment Minerva.” He said good-naturedly, “Give her time. This is a hard thing for her to do.”

Hermione sucked in her breath, making her way past them, even though she was feet away she was sure they could hear her heartbeat. If they did, they paid no attention to it, and continued conversing about where they would be staying.

Hermione was almost to the front door when it suddenly opened, and Hagrid strode in, almost knocking Hermione over.

“Oi’ Headmaster.” Hagrid boomed, as Minerva flinched “I just saw’r Professor Snape headin’ off to the forest.”

McGonagall gave an exasperated sigh, “Hagrid please. Keep your voice down. The students are all asleep.”

Hermione could barely breath, at least she knew where Snape was…perfect.

“Oh.” Hagrid said, in his version of a whisper, “Why’s he goin’ off into the forest at this time of night?”

If they answered Hagrid, Hermione never knew because she had already slipped out of the narrowly opened doors and into the cold night air.

She ran then, the wind whipping the cloak up, and if an had had been around they might have had a chance to see two legs making their way hurriedly in the direction of the forbidden forest.

She stopped at the mouth of the said forest, looking into its dark depths and trying not to faint from fear and sudden fatigue.

She turned to get once last look at Hogwarts, her almost home and felt a pang of guilt for what she had done.

“Goodbye.” She said to no one in particular, turning her head back to the forest and taking a deep breath of cold air.

She raised her wand above her head and with a small spell, she had placed a non-tracing charm upon her. That way no one back at Hogwarts could tell where she was, even if they tried.

She looked at the midnight blue tinted world around her, and with sudden Gryffindor bravery, she marched into the forest in haste.


She was going to save Harry herself.