Hello all! Long time no write to! *laughs at YET ANOTHER VERY STUPID joke* okay, so I'm not funny! You don't have to rub it in!! Anyways, we get a little bit of fluff in this chapter, but mostly it's a creepy ceremony and a cliff hanger!! Come on, you know you love me:)! Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up, it was rejected because Hermione was OOC!!! Anyways, go read, now, oh wait, I'll stop writing now! Much love!

“Harry!” Hermione screamed as she was led into the room by Drowry. His body was hanging from the wall and his head was hanging forward. There was a steady stream of blood trickling down his neck and lower jaw.

Hermione ran up to him and lifted his head. He was alive, but he had a large cut at the base of his head. Hermione could see his skull through the cut.

“How could you go through with this?” she cried at Drowry. “Look at him- how could you let this happen?”

“Hermione,” Drowry said sadly, “I didn’t know…”

“That’s bullshit!” Hermione screamed. “I’ve seen you two together, you and Voldemort! What are you? His daughter or something? We trusted you! How could you have betrayed us like this?”

“I didn’t do it,” Drowry said holding her hands up in front of her in a defeated motion. “I want to help you.”

“Fuck you!” Hermione cried, the dirt and blood that had been on her face was running darkly down her cheeks because of her tears. “You betrayed us! You betrayed him!”

Drowry nodded her head slowly in a defeated manner. “Okay,” she said. She took her wand and pointed it at Harry.

“No!” Hermione cried trying to block the unconscious boy from Drowry’s wand.

“Catch him,” was all Drowry said. Then she flicked her wrist and the chains that had been holding Harry disappeared.

“Remember what I told you Hermione,” Drowry said. “Tell Harry the only thing that matters is that he gets his wand.” Then she turned around and walked out of the room, leaving a crying Hermione alone holding an unconscious Harry.

“My Lord.”

Voldemort turned around to look at the Death Eater who entered his quarters. There was only one man Voldemort knew who was both arrogant and stupid enough to intrude into Voldemort’s private quarters.

“Malfoy,” Voldemort growled, “what do you think you are doing? You realize I should chain you to the ceiling by your earlobes for intruding into my quarters? What the bloody hell do you want now?”

“I’m just doing my job,” Malfoy answered as he threw something into the room with a loud thump. It was a body, Voldemort realized. In fact, it was a member of that stupid Order of the Phoenix. Lupin stood up unsteadily as Voldemort walked towards him.

“Thank you Malfoy,” he said. “Go join the others and prepare for the ceremony.”

Malfoy left the room, leaving Voldemort and Lupin alone. Lupin was scared, but he stood tall and refused Voldemort the pleasure of knowing his fear.

“Where is Dumbledore?” Voldemort asked.

“Why should I tell you?” Lupin spat.

“Because I asked,” Voldemort smiled. “And because it is a much less painful process if my information is given to me willingly.”

Voldemort looked at Lupin questioningly. “Well?” he asked. “Nothing? All right. Crucio!”

“Lupin fell to the ground in a horrifying scream. He had experienced this pain only once before, a long time ago; but it had never been at the hands of the Dark Lord himself. Nothing could ever compare to the pain Harry felt as he was tortured by Voldemort.

Lupin’s scream ended and he gulped rapidly for air when Voldemort lowered his wand and looked at him.

“Did that loosen your tongue any?” Voldemort asked kneeling down to look Lupin in the eyes. “Where is Dumbledore? Your master- the man who holds your leash- where is he?”

“I don’t know,” Lupin coughed as he looked into Voldemort’s frightening face.

Voldemort raised his wand to strike again buy Lupin quickly continued, “the last I saw him he was still at Hogwarts.”

“When you left Hogwarts, did you tell Dumbledore where you were going?”

“No,” Lupin coughed again.

“Good,” Voldemort said standing up and preparing to leave the room.

“But that doesn’t mean anything!” Lupin shouted after him.

“What?” Voldemort asked as he turned around and came back towards Lupin. “I didn’t quite catch that.”

“Dumbledore’s smart,” Lupin said standing up shakily to face the horrifying man in front of him. “When I don’t return he’ll figure out what happened. And he’ll figure out where I am.”

Voldemort smiled. “Then I suppose I shall just have to kill him too. Crucio!”

Hermione jumped when the screaming started. She didn’t know who it was, but she could only hope that it was Lucius Malfoy or Professor Drowry, the two people she despised most at the moment. Hermione glanced down at Harry, trying to throw the screaming person out of her mind.

Harry was bleeding fairly badly from his head. Hermione wished she could heal it, but she didn’t have her wand. She didn’t even know where her wand was. Hermione glanced around the room, trying hopelessly to see if there was any way to escape.

She had been in bad situations before, but never like this. She had never felt so hopeless in her life. Hermione started to sob quietly in the dark corner of the room. Her tears falling lightly onto Harry’s face. Harry moaned and squeezed his eyes shut.

“Harry?” Hermione asked running the back of her hand down his bloody cheek. “Are you awake?”

“Hermione?” Harry mumbled opening his eyes. He stared into her face for several moments. Then he sat up and took her in his arms. “I was so worried about you,” he said.

“I’m okay Harry,” Hermione said as she wrapped her arms around him.

“No, you’re not,” Harry said. He pulled away from her and looked at her face. “You have a cut, right here,” he said pointing to her forehead. “It needs to be healed.”

“Harry,” she said, “you need more healing than I do. But I don’t have my wand, and neither do you. We’ll just have to make do until we bleed to death.”

Harry nodded his head smilingly and then grabbed Hermione suddenly. He kissed her on the lips, over and over again. He had been so worried about her, and now that he knew she was safe he felt as if he just had to hold her and touch her, kiss her as if he would never have the opportunity to kiss her again.

“I love you,” he said. “No matter what happens tonight, I will always love you.”

“I love you too,” Hermione said. Then she sat up suddenly. “I’m supposed to tell you to get your wand.”

“What?”

“Professor Drowry told me to tell you that the only thing that matters is that you get your wand. I don't trust her.”

“Well I’d like to know how she expects me to do that,” Harry said looking glumly around the room, "and I don't trust her either."

“Harry?”

“What?” he said looking back at Hermione.

“I’m so sorry.”

“What for?” he said putting his arm around her.

“If I hadn’t have stopped to talk to Malfoy,” she said, “we wouldn’t be here. Voldemort wouldn’t have you and we wouldn’t be in danger. Now we’re going to die and it’s all my fault,” she said as she started to cry again.

“No!” Harry said placing his hands on either side of her face. “We’re not going to die. We won’t. We can’t die. Voldemort can’t kill us, I won’t let him. I promise.”

The door slammed open as a masked Death Eater walked into the room.

“Come now,” he said pointing his wand at them.

Without another word and only a single glance into each other’s eyes, Hermione and Harry stood up from the floor and walked out of the room with the Death Eater.

Last time Harry and Hermione had been in the Shrieking Shack they had taken the stairs up where they had confronted Sirius Black. Now, they were led to a trap door in the middle of the hallway of the house, and they took a winding staircase down.

The staircase wound for a long time. It was dark in the passageway, only lighted every so often by a burning torch. The air was thick and musty, as if it hadn’t been disturbed in along time, and it was choked with dust. Harry and Hermione walked down the staircase in front of the Death Eater in silence.

Finally, the staircase leveled out in front of a large wooden door.

“Knock three times,” the Death Eater in front of them said.

Harry lifted his fist and knocked three loud times on the large wooden door. The sound echoed around them and up the staircase for several seconds, and then silence. It seemed as if Harry and Hermione waited forever in front of that door, but eventually, it opened with a loud screech.

Harry and Hermione were led into a huge circular room. The outer walls of the room were surrounded by Death Eaters, all of which faced the center of the room where four figures stood.

In the direct center of the room was a large cauldron and a table, on the table lay two wands- they were undoubtedly Harry and Hermione’s. Directly behind the table and cauldron stood Voldemort. He looked even taller and more frightening in the dim light. On either side of Voldemort, both facing him, were Penelope Clearwater and Professor Drowry. Both of them were wearing an identical black dress and their hair was done in the same way. They looked as if they were brides in a very strange gothic wedding. A little apart from the three of them, but not as far away from the rest of the other Death Eaters stood Draco Malfoy.

Draco was unmasked and he wore a much finer black robe than the other Death Eaters. He had a smug look on his face and he kept his eyes glued to Penelope, only breaking his stare for a brief moment to glance in Harry and Hermione’s way as they entered the room.

Two Death Eaters came forward and moved Harry and Hermione into the center of the room, directly in front of Voldemort and his cauldron. They were forced to kneel on the hard cement floors. The Death Eaters all moved back to their respected places against the walls and looked towards the middle once again.

Harry and Hermione sat in this way for many silent seconds. Nothing happened. Then Voldemort spoke.

His voice sent an immediate chill around the room. Harry felt Hermione shiver as the temperature dropped. His voice chilled the very bones of whoever listened. Every time he spoke, Harry’s heart would pull in his chest as if it meant to leave his body completely. But nothing matched the sheer terror that Harry and Hermione felt as they kneeled on the ground in front of Voldemort.

“You are probably wondering why I don’t just kill you and get it over with,” Voldemort said. “The reason is this. As you have been informed Harry, when you were a child and I attacked you, some of my power was transferred to you. You became strong by means of me. Even though I am now completely returned to my power, much to the thanks of my daughters,” he said spreading his arms wide to indicate Clearwater and Drowry, “I still lack certain things I would like to have.

“Ultimate power, Harry,” he continued, “can never be reached. I may stand before you tonight as a Lord of immense power, power you could never hope to mirror, but I still have much more that I could accomplish. That is why you are here tonight Harry. I am going to take your power just as you took mine.”

“Surely it’s been long enough Albus,” McGonagall said. She had been asking this same question over and over again for forever it seemed. Snape merely stood motionless and stared at the grass.

Dumbledore nodded slowly. “I think it is safe to say that something has befallen Lupin and that he will not return to tell us where Voldemort is. That only would have happened though, if Lupin had had an encounter with Voldemort’s forces; meaning that wherever Lupin went was where Voldemort went.”

“But where did he go Albus?” McGonagall said. The poor woman was falling to pieces in her anxiety.

“The only place he felt safe going, and the one place that is secluded enough for Voldemort to hide at.”

“The Shrieking Shack,” Snape said. “Through the tunnel under the Whomping Willow.”

“And how do you plan to do that?” Harry asked.

“That you will soon find out,” Voldemort answered. “Malfoy!”

“Yes,” Draco answered proudly.

“Bring the Werewolf.”

Malfoy walked towards the only other door in the room. When he opened it, Lupin fell heavily onto the floor in front of them.

“Professor Lupin!” Hermione shrieked as she covered her mouth with her hands.

“Let him go,” Harry said. “Let Hermione and Lupin go, they have nothing to do with us. You can have my power, you can kill me for all I care- but let Lupin and Hermione go.”

“Such moving words,” Voldemort said placing his hand over his heart. “Always the hero, aren’t you? Well, not this time.” Voldemort flicked his wrist at Lupin and the same chains that had pinned Harry to the wall earlier now attached themselves to Lupin and pulled him onto the wall. “I had originally wanted you, Harry, to witness both this thing’s and your lover’s death,” Voldemort said stepping around the cauldron and walking towards Lupin. “But Remus proved to be very rude during our earlier discussion. And for that reason, I think I shall allow him to witness his last hope, disappear.

"Ennervate!” he said pointing his wand at Lupin.

Immediately Lupin’s eyes opened and his head jerked up, but too fast. His head hit the wall violently with the strength of Lupin’s movement, immediately causing him to reel on the verge of unconsciousness once again.

“Remus,” Voldemort said gently. “There are two people here who would like to see you.”

Lupin’s eyes opened and they moved past Voldemort to survey the room, they rested on Harry and Hermione.

“Oh God!” Lupin said at the sight of them. Both of them were covered in blood, and Hermione had tears running down her face.

“Good,” Voldemort said walking away from Lupin and moving back to his original position behind the cauldron, “you are finally awake. Now it is time to begin the ceremony.”

Everyone’s eyes were focused on Voldemort, Harry realized. Everyone except Drowry. Her eyes seemed to be scanning the Death Eaters around the room, moving from one to the next. Almost like she was counting. Maybe this situation isn’t completely hopeless after all, Harry thought.

“To start the ceremony,” Voldemort said loudly, “I shall first name my heirs, and they shall join me in my power. In naming them first they will also share in the power gained from young Harry’s death.”

Almost as if that had been a clue word, both Drowry’s and Clearwater’s arms shot out straight in front of them. Their palms were facing upwards and their fingers were touching just softly. Voldemort then laid his arm out so that his wrist was lying on their hands. At that moment, Draco walked towards the front of the cauldron with a knife and quickly cut a small slit in all three of their wrists.

None of them flinched or moved in the slightest bit while this happened. All three of them stared straight forward as if in a trance. The blood trickled lightly into the cauldron, and the stained knife was placed on the table with Harry and Hermione’s wands.

Harry and Hermione sat quietly through this whole thing without moving. Hermione’s eyes were wide with horror, but the only thing on Harry’s mind was how he could get to his wand.

“Blood binds us to each other!” Voldemort shouted. “It holds us to our word! Blood symbolizes our attachment! It keeps us strong to rule!” A green mist began floating out of the cauldron during Voldemort’s incantation. It crept slowly upwards and then entered into the cuts that had all been made on their wrists. The green mist disappeared as soon as Voldemort stopped speaking and all three of them lowered their arms, the cuts had vanished.

“Power comes from many things,” Voldemort continued after a long silence. “But mostly from love and anger. For me to see you at your full potential, Harry,” Voldemort said looking directly into his eyes, “I need you to experience those things.”

Voldemort’s dark, slit like eyes bored into Harry’s. It was all Harry could do to realize what he meant. Hermione.

The Professor’s walked determinedly towards the Whomping Willow, all the while looking for any trace that a battle or conflict had taken place. Unfortunately, it was impossible to tell anything, partly due to an earlier rain shower and also due to the excessive activity the grounds had received when the student’s returned to Hogwarts from Hogsmeade.

“Well here we are!” Dumbledore explained as he stopped by the Whomping Willow. “Solidicus!” Dumbledore shouted while he pointed his wand at the tree which immediately froze in its swing. “The tunnel is right under the stump there Minerva, ladies first.”

Snape looked oddly at Dumbledore. “You should know there’s a button at the stump that freezes the tree.”

“Oh yes,” Dumbledore smiled. “But at this age it is such a bother to get down on the ground, and even more difficult to get back up again! After you Severus.”

“You can’t do that!” Harry screamed. “I won’t let you!”

“And how do you expect to stop me?” Voldemort smiled. “You are incapable of reaching your wand which is only five feet in front of you, you are surrounded by Death Eaters, you have no hope. How do expect to stop me?”

“I will,” Harry growled through gritted teeth.

“Then stop me.” Voldemort said as he pointed his wand at Hermione.

“Avada Kedavra!”

Okay, hello again all! Want to know what happens to Hermione? I currently have around 80 reviews total, make it 100 and I will update the last two chapters of this story!!! That's scary! Come on you guys. Epic battle scene, an explanation of everything, then the sequel- you know you're excited!! Get reviewing -- go now -- do it -- or else!!!