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The body lay between the two students and an out of breath man on the other side of the room. Hermione looked at his face, a small cut had let a trickle of blood down the side. At the look of the room, there was a big struggle and by the looks of the blood on the ground, there wasn't time for wands.
"Father...?" Draco pushed past Hermione in the doorway and went kneeling beside the body in the room. He touched the blood at the floor and looked up at Severus. "What did you do?"
Her confidence was frozen as she stared at the scene in front of her. Her eyes locked with the dark man. His hair disheveled, he strode over and grabbed her hand. "You shouldn't have come here."
"Severus, your bleeding," she touched his face and he kissed her forehead.
"We need to leave now," Severus pulled her from the room and she looked back to see the blonde boy hunched over his father.
An elegant figure strode down the hall towards them, and the tall witch grabbed Snape's robes. "Severus, what happened?" But the sad look he returned her with said all he couldn't say and she rushed by as he walked away, Hermione still staring behind as she trailed after him.
At this point Severus broke into a bit of a jog, almost literally dragging Hermione. No doubts that Narcissa had alerted the other death eaters, let alone Voldemort, of Snape's actions, and their chance of escaping was getting slimmer and slimmer.
They ran as fast as they could towards the exit, and Hermione wished they could apparate straight from house but nearly a hundred wards prevented that. The scene was almost like a movie. Death eaters practically formed from the walls, closing in on them in every direction. As spells were being shot at the running pair, Hermione defended them as best she could. However, with Severus still pulling her towards the exit, she seemingly wasn't paying attention to the hall behind her. Suddenly, a hand caught hold of her wrist, yanking her from Snape's grasp and pulling her in. The heavy muscles of a large man wrapped around her, and a wand pressed into her neck. She let out a shriek of pain and fright. As Snape whipped back with his wand drawn out, the wand in Hermione's neck dug deeper, and she was sure it drew blood.
The unmistakable growl of one Fenrir Greyback registered in Hermione's ear, and her heart sunk to her stomach. "If you shoot one more spell, I'll kill her."
Snape scoffed, but lowered his wand. "And who says that she is anything to me?"
Hermione knew he was faking, that it was all a scene, but that comment still hurt... just a tad. She could feel Greyback's breath on her neck, as if he was leaning closer and closer. "Don't play dumb Snape, put it away. The Dark Lord wants to see you."
"Naturally," Snape nodded and walked past Hermione without even a glance. Greyback still holding her tightly, pushed her down the hall and she moved without a struggle. Seemed like a bad idea to mess with a werewolf.
A set of oak doors opened to what seemed to be a completely empty room. Severus entered gracefully, with Hermione being pushed behind him. As if she was the one feared to escape. A few death eaters followed in behind the lot, but the three of them stopped dead centre in the room, and Hermione was dropped instantly. She was determined to keep her composure, if she was going to die, it wouldn't be without a fight.
A dark form appeared in front of the trio out of nowhere, having aparated into the room, and Hermione noticed Severus' body go rigid. She could tell in his face that he was calculating his actions, their chance at survival, but even to her it seemed slim.
The pale figure walked towards them, clicking his tongue as if berating small children. "Tsk tsk, I expected more from you Severus, especially all for a mudblood." The dark lord circled them like a shark circling prey. "I know she is pretty Severus, but why?" He trailed his nail along her neck, sending sickening chills down her spine before returning to face them.
It was all a messed up game. A very messed up psychological mind fuck and Hermione definitely wasn't into it. "He risked my position in the mission. His order was uncalled for," Severus responded smoothly.
"His order was mine." Voldemort said plainly conjuring a chair and sitting comfortable, as if getting ready to watch a show. "Yes Severus, I felt you were getting a little out of line." He looked over at Greyback, and Hermione felt her pushed to her knees, her hair pulled back and a wand forced into her neck. She let out a small yelp of shock, despite her best efforts to keep quiet.
It all happened so fast. Severus pulled his wand out and blasted Greyback from her body, and suddenly every wand in the room was pointed either at her, or her professor.
"A tad protective, are we?" Voldemort chuckled, not bothering to stir from his seat. "Now, why is she so special?"
"She isn't," Snape snapped, his composure breaking a little bit.
"Then why all of the trouble?" Snape didn't respond, so Voldemort continued pushing buttons as he talked. "Is this because you couldn't save Lily? Did you think you could redeem yourself with this girl?"
Hermione was still kneeling on the floor. At the mention of Harry's mom, her heart sank. She knew of the friendship they had, and of the love he felt for Lily, but she never thought herself to be a replacement.
"You know I should just kill you both for all of this, but I'm feeling... generous today," the dark lord continued, and Snape stirred slightly. It clearly was never a good idea for Voldemort to get "generous" and Hermione dreaded his next words. "I think we're going to have a party, and you two will be the entertainment."
The room stirred with excitement from the mumbles of the death eaters behind her, but she knew better than to look. Right now she stared at the floor. It was all over. She was going to die.
"Only one of you will leave this mansion tomorrow evening. Which one, is your decision, but you will duel at tomorrow's dinner, and make it interesting... or i'll just kill you both."
It was sick. It was unrealistic, but it was reality. Hermione's face grew even more pale and she saw a mere flash of emotion in Snape's face before he composed again. Why wasn't he fighting? Why wasn't he defending them? All of these questions ran through her head, even though she knew the answers, as she was pulled out of the room and down a staircase into the dungeons of the mansion.
She was thrown into the cell with a growl from the masked death eater, and shut in nearly complete darkness save from a small light in the hall between the cells. Severus hadn't been dragged behind her. He was left standing alone in the room.
There was nothing in the cement cell. Hermione sat against the wall and buried her face in her knees. She never thought this was how she would see her end. A year ago she was happy. Spending her days with Harry and Ron, having whatever adventures they could find. A year ago life was perfect, and then everything fell apart. An anger rose inside her, and she fought the urge to let out a scream.
She sat there alone for an unknown period of time. Could have been minutes, or could have been hours. She had no idea, but a door opened from down the hall. Light spilled into the dark corridor and voices filled the silence. A fighting body was thrown into the cell across from her, and the hall door slammed shut sending them into the darkness.
Hermione knew who it was, but she had nothing to say. Nothing she could say in a situation like this. She wanted to yell at him. Scream, and tear him apart. But she knew this wasn't exactly his fault... she knew it wasn't entirely his fault. Nearly an hour had passed in silence before she finally heard her name.