A/N-A huge thanks to my beta SeverusLovesUs, this would not be readable without her!

Prologue-

As Hermione cast a slicing hex at an approaching Death Eater, she heard her father yell at her and her mother, "Get out! Go get your cousins and go!"

The last thing she saw as her mother pulled her into the fireplace was her father firing a gun at the Death Eaters.

To say that Hermione was surprised as she fell through the floo and into her aunt's home and then watched as her mother was thrown against the wall and knocked unconscious would be an understatement. She was terrified as two men pinned her against the wall, both reeking of alcohol and cigarette smoke. She was able to see her aunt's curly hair sticking out, fanned out over the floor from behind the couch, and her eleven year old cousin cowering in the corner before her uncle approached her, took her wand, and broke it.

"This is your fault! You are evil." The man towered over her, his stale whisky-scented breath burning her eyes.

He was not a very tall man at 5 feet 10 inches, but next to Hermione's 5'2", it was enough to be intimidating. He had a husky build with greasy hair and a scruffy beard; he looked like he had not showered in days. He back-handed her in the face, her head forcefully thrown to the side, blood trickling down from her lip.

"You are evil!" he continued to rant.

Hermione was dazed, her head dangling to the side, her large volume of tangled curls covering the majority of her face. It was the sound of a baby crying from upstairs that brought her out of her fear-induced trance.

"Uncle Robert?" She looked at him, confused. Oh gods, what is going on.

"Shut up demon! I have read the bible. You and your cousins are unnatural, evil, and I will treat you as such. You are no family of mine!" He grabbed her by the throat with enough pressure to restrict airflow, but not enough to keep her from pulling air into her lungs. He grabbed her from the wall and forcefully spun her to look at her young cousin in the corner. He looked at one of the burly, drunken men with him and said, "start with the girl in the corner." The man smiled and started to walk over to the cowering girl. Her uncle looked to the other man. "You make sure my dear wife doesn't wake up."

Hermione watched as the scene before her unfolded. She could feel her magic stirring as the man picked her cousin up by her hair. The little girl screamed, "Please, daddy, make him stop!" Her face was swollen and bloody, her long, curly hair tangled and matted.

"I am not your father, little girl. Now, shut up, and be good. We are going to have some fun." Her uncle leered at the girl.

As the man holding Hermione's cousin forcefully kissed the little girl, Hermione felt a powerful surge of magic. She bent her leg and forcefully brought her foot backwards to meet with her uncle's groin. He let her go from the shock and bent over in pain. She could feel the control of her magic slipping, as the man holding her cousin pulled a knife out of his pocket and held it to her cousin's throat. Looking at Hermione with a smug look on his face, he said, "Now, now, don't do anything stupid. Wouldn't want to make me hurt your little cousin here, ah?"

Hermione's hair started gently moving on its own accord. The air around her was crackling with energy. She knew she could no longer contain her magic. Her uncle was now backing away from her. He could feel the power coming off of her in waves, like a bomb waiting to explode. As he backed away, she heard him say, "Now, girl, I took that stick; you know you can't do anything."

She straightened out her shoulders and looked at her cousin. "Natalie, get your brother, and wait for me."

Her capture look confused as Hermione focused all of her magical energy on levitating her cousin, mother, and aunt upstairs.

The three men stared at her as she whipped her arm in front of her, magically throwing all three men against the wall. She screamed at them, "What have you done?" As the magical energy in her seemed to forcefully expel itself from her body, causing the wall that the men were leaning against to explode. The force of the energy launched the men out into the street.

Hermione slowly slid down the wall, and the last thing she remembered before the world went black was her cousins, her unconscious aunt, and mother appearing by her side.

~oOo~

Meanwhile back at number twelve Grimmauld Place, the recently deceased Albus Dumbledore sat in the kitchen having tea with Molly Weasly and Severus Snape.

"Really, Albus," the plump, somewhat-overbearing matriarch of the Weasly clan started in, "I really think you need to tell the children that your death was faked. Harry wants to kill Severus, and for good reason, mind you!"

"Albus, I think Molly may have a point. You let him go the entire summer his fifth year believing his godfather was dead. I am surprised he has forgiven you for that. Not telling him is likely to backfire," Severus said, his deep baritone voice reverberating through the kitchen.

He shifted forward, elbows resting on his thighs, hands clasped together in front of him. He allowed his shoulder-length ebony hair to fall into his face obscuring his eyes. He did not like disagreeing with the headmaster's plans, but he felt it must be done. "Albus, I do not think it is wise to hide this from your golden trio, and I do not think it is wise to send them out on their own. Hunting for what is possible the darkest objects ever created."

Before the discussion could continue, Alastor Moody stormed into the Order's headquarters . His magical eye spinning wildly around the room and finally settling on Albus, his gruff voice urgently announced, "The Granger home has been attacked, burnt to the ground. We found her father's body and two dead Death Eaters. One was shot with a Muggle gun, the other killed by a slicing hex, so we can only assume the Granger girl was there. Tonks and Remus are looking for her. She has a kneazel that seems to be leading them somewhere. There is no magical trace to follow."

The conversation was once again interrupted by a young Auror named Samuel Tinkleton bursting through the door. The Auror, both a new recruit to Magical Law Enforcement and to the Order of the Phoenix, was tall and fit with blond hair and steely, gray eyes. "Headmaster, there has been a large magical disturbance in Muggle London. We are unable to get the exact location, but the magical field is growing stronger."

The Headmaster's normally twinkling eyes were now hard. He took a deep breath and looked over to Snape. "Severus." With one word, the headmaster was able to communicate with Snape what needed to be done.

"Yes, Headmaster," was his only reply as he rose from his chair to leave, Alastor and the young Auror following him out the door.

"Where are we going?" Tinkelton asked.

Alastor looked at the young man. "I know who you are so stop with the acting"

Tinkleton raised an eyebrow. "All right, then let's get going."

Severus was chanting, quietly moving his wand in complex patterns. As he finished, a cloud appeared in front of him. In the cloud, one could see a faint image of a townhome that was slowly getting clearer. "This will show us the general area of the influx of energy. It's not dark magic causing it." As the image grew clearer, the three men got a good look and Apparated.

As all three men popped into existence on the street, Snape looked up the street and started casting again. "The energy is gone, I am going to try and feel out the source."

Alastor looked up and down the street. Using his magical eye, he was able to see in the dark and farther than both of the other men. "No need, Snape. This way." The men heard sirens approaching from the distance and started in a light jog down the street until they saw a house with the front wall blown out and three men lying in the debris in the street.

"Tinkleton, take care of the Muggles until we give the okay," Moody commanded.

Snape and Mad-Eye pulled their wands and entered the house. As soon as they made their way into the foyer, they heard a shuffle behind them. Both men turned quickly and had their wands pointed at the throat of one Remus Lupin, who threw his arms up in surrender. "Whoa!"

Snape brought his wand back down. "Lupin, I thought you were looking for Miss Granger?"

The sandy-haired man looked at him curiously. "I am. This is where the cat lead us. Tonks is outside helping Tinkleton with the Muggles. Did you find her?"

Without answering, the dark wizard turned a look of concern on his face and started walking through the damaged house. As he made his way into the parlor, he quickly walked over to the corner where he heard some sniffling and groaning. "Lumos!" he called, as the tip of his wand lit. He saw a little girl holding a baby, Hermione and her Aunt, both still unconscious, and Hermione's mother, who was starting to stir and groan. The little girl started to back away as Alastor and Remus Lupin approached from behind him.

Snape slowly kneeled down to be eye-level with the girl and put his hand up. "We're not going to hurt you. Calm down." A candle holder across the room shattered. He looked at the girl. "Did you do that?"

She backed away more, as she mumbled, "I didn't mean to. You shouldn't scare me. Please don't hurt me"

Remus kneeled next to Snape, eyeing the little girl. "We are not going to hurt you." He reached to the woman laying on the floor and cast a diagnostic spell on her. She was alive but had a lot of injuries. "Can you tell me who this is?" By this point, Hermione's mum had her eyes open and was regaining her bearings. As she heard the male voice, she pulled herself up against the wall into as sitting position as quickly as she could, which to most of us would have seemed slow due to the pain and spinning in her head. Hermione's mother eyed Snape and Lupin, and her eyes slowly rose to see Mad-Eye returning into the room. Relief crossed her face. "Alastor, thank god."

"Snape, Lupin, we need the get them out of here. The men outside are muggles. Two of them are dead. The other is barely alive. Let's see if we can wake Miss Granger."

Lupin held wave his wand. "Ennervate!" he intoned. Hermione woke with a violent jump, her eyes wildly scanning the room. "Miss Granger…? Miss Granger…!" Snape tried to get the witches attention. "Hermione!" Finally, it seemed the combination of his deep, commanding voice and using her given name, drew her attention. She focused in on him. "Professor? I didn't mean to…Well, I mean, I couldn't control…." she stammered, trying to explain.

"Miss Granger please calm down." He spoke to her softly and slowly in a reassuring tone. "We have been around long enough to deduce what happened here. We are going to get you out of here."

Alastor started speaking to him. "We have to move, Snape, MLE is on their way. Tonks is buying us some time, but after Harry's incident last summer, I am afraid of what the Ministry might due in response to this."

Snape looked at the beaten women sitting on the floor and back to Alastor thinking to himself, I'll be dammed if I allow Miss Granger to go to Azkaban for protecting her family. He looked back to the girl. "Miss Granger where is your wand, do you think you can Apparate?"

"They broke it. We came through the floo, and they surprised us. My uncle took it and broke it."

At this statement, both Moody's and Snape's eyes went wide. Snape looked at Alastor. "Can you make a port-key? Take them to Poppy. I can cast the Dark Mark. The Ministry will have nothing to punish her for."

Lupin looked at him. "Severus, do you think Vol--de­­--ah…he will approve of this?"

Snape rolled up his sleeve as he looked at Lupin. "We'll see, Lupin. Hopefully he does." He touched his wand to the grotesque skeleton and snake tattoo on his arm, cast Morsmordre, and the eerie image floated above the house.

"Port Key is ready. Let's get going," Alastor called out. Hermione directed her cousin and mum to hold onto the piece of wall fragment Alastor held out to the group.

Snape gasped and grabbed his arm. "That was quick. I must go to him."

Remus looked over to him. "Severus, be careful. I will wait at the gates for your return."

Snape's last thoughts as he watched the Granger family spin away with Lupin and Alastor, before Apparating to his evil master was, don't wait too long, I am not sure how I am going to talk my way out of this one.

Remus and Alastor arrived at Hogwarts. Remus sent his Patronus up to the school for assistance. Albus and Poppy Pomfrey, the school mediwitch, quickly made their way out to the group.

~oOo~

"Good gods, let's get them to the hospital wing quickly." Poppy quickly conjured stretchers and directed Hermione and her cousin to lie down. Hermione's mum assisted Alastor with putting her unconscious sister on a stretcher. The group slowly made their way back to the school, levitating the injured behind them.

Remus stayed back with the headmaster to explain what happened and to wait for Snape's arrival.