A/N: Hello everyone! I know that I have been extremely terrible at updating; however, I have re-found my inspiration to write and currently have more time on my hands than I know what to do with. I hope that everyone is keeping safe during this scary time, and that my writing might help keep you somewhat distracted.

Disclaimer: I do not own any rights associated with this franchise

Chapter 12

At six feet tall, Blaise Zabini towered over every single woman present in the room, as well as one slightly stunted man. With a sun kissed olive complexion and a body that could have been sculpted by the gods themselves, he was almost every teenage girl's wet dream. Unfortunately for the rest of the Hogwarts female population, Blaise happened to swing for the opposite team. Not that many were privy to this piece of information. He preferred to keep this information between family and friends only; as he was quite talented at using his pretty Italian face to get whatever he wanted, and that particular piece of information would have hampered his efforts.

Hermione had been worried that Blaise might not have been able to leave the dormitories without causing suspicion. While the rest of the Slytherin students in the room belonged firmly to families that were considered to be on the so called "Dark side", Blaise's family was thought of as neutral. With so many people disappearing from within the castle and loyalties being questioned from every corner, she had assumed that the Order would have been watching all of the neutral families too.

She glanced at Harry out of the corner of her eye to watch his reaction to the presence of the newcomers. While the Gryffindor's had created some shock on her ebony haired friend's face, Blaise had created a curious expression to form. She caught the spark in his eyes before he lowered them to the patterned Persian carpet beneath his feet, a bright red flush overcoming the rest of his head. Merlin, it did not even end at just his face as she could just barely spot the red tips of his ears peeking through the jumble that was his hair.

Hermione grinned to herself. She knew that Harry had developed somewhat of a crush on the handsome Italian! She had noticed his odd behaviour around Blaise for the past few months but had left Harry to his own devices in the hope that he would eventually be comfortable enough to admit to her that he was into guys. Everyone else around him already suspected it. Even Ginny had known, thus the gentle break up two years before. Molly Weasley had been livid, cursing her daughters so called "foolishness". Ginny hadn't given her mother any reasons for her decision, and Hermione was sure that Molly was still under the deluded impression that Harry would still one day be her son-in-law. Perhaps when hell froze over.

No more than two minutes had passed as she had sat there contemplating. Shaking away her thoughts Hermione greeted everybody as they made their way towards the comfort of the chairs and sofa's surrounding her and Ginny. Draco and Theo had emerged from the room while she had been consumed with her own thoughts and were now making themselves comfortable on the armchairs to the left of her, semi-masked excitement glowing in their eyes. She waited until the room was settled before addressing it.

"Well I certainly wasn't expecting that all to be so easy. I thought we would have at least one or two problems removing some of you. Not that I'm complaining mind you. Having everyone here before expected means that we have more time to escape than originally planned. I was planning on sending Theo out as a scout to perform some recon if some of you weren't here by sundown. What news do you guys have from out there? Has anything happened that could jeopardise the mission?"

Fred chose to speak first.

"Nothing that wasn't expected I suppose. There was some slight confusion at the Head Table when Madame Pomfrey came rushing in with Ronald, according to Luna and everyone else. The rest of us did our best to delay his progress without creating any suspicion. George, Neville, and I pretended to be concerned about your safety while blocking the corridor he was trying to get through. From there it was the hidden Slytherin tricks that did the rest. Well done on the trick step though Daphne; if only he hadn't grabbed the banister in the nick of time, otherwise he would have broken his ankle and given us some extra time."

Daphne giggled from her spot next to her sister.

"The timing was rather perfect though. With Dumbledore gone it was much easier for Ginny's performance. We got there just before luckily, otherwise we would have had to fake our shock and horror from within much closer quarters. It's much easier to fake when some wacko isn't examining your eyes. You caused quite a scene Theo, well done. You too Gin, you're pretty good at pretending to be dead."

"You have no idea how difficult it was to drag her seemingly lifeless corpse out of there when she was practically dead weight in my arms. And I had to do it quickly too!" Theo exclaimed mirthlessly.

Ginny snorted.

"Oh boo hoo, at least you didn't have to be stabbed with a needle and pretend to be dead. I wasn't allowed to breathe for those few minutes in case any onlookers' memories were pulled for the pensieve. Can you imagine; all that work for nothing if someone had to spot my chest moving while investigating."

"Enough you two, we need to hear the rest. You can bicker at each other later." Hermione sighed exasperatedly.

"Well of course chaos ensued. Students screaming, Professors running. By the time Dumbledore returned most of the purebloods had already owled their parents from the hall. There was no way he was keeping this from the public eye when half of the student body already had letters halfway home. Absolute fucking shitstorm. The Order has been here since last night, the Aurors since this morning. Malfoy Sr. made sure that the Board of Governors showed up at about the same time as the Ministry. Like I said, shitstorm."

Draco piped up from the corner.

"Who's currently under suspicion though? We can't all have gone missing without there being some sort of repercussion."

It was George that answered this time.

"According to them the Dark Lord's forces used ancient forbidden magic to find a way into Hogwarts, kidnapped Harry and Hermione, and murdered Ginny. With his room staged and no evidence from the portraits that he ever left the tower, they have no other reliable excuse that they can provide the Aurors with. They're probably going to say Ginny was killed to break Harry. What they think versus what they tell the Aurors is another story. Meanwhile; Professor, both you and Draco are under suspicion currently. I believe the rest of the order is calling for your head."

Severus nodded in understanding.

"Yes, I would expect that they would be. Dumbledore knows that he cannot defend me as he himself knows that the Dark Lord does not exist. He knows that the memory charms have fallen but does not know for how long I have been awake. And yourselves and Hermione?"

"It's assumed the Slytherins were called home to their families, although they are not sure how they have left the grounds. We were supposedly sent home to the Burrow via floo. With all of the chaos Luna and Neville were told to go with us yet no one was sent with us to make sure we made it safely. We booked it up here while disillusioned. Our friend is currently using an untraceable wand to create the correct scene at home. It's not too much of a stretch to assume that every Order house was being watched and that some lucky individual happened to come across us with no help in the nearby vicinity. Even though Fred and I were here for our extra classes, the shop has been accordingly ransacked to make it look credible that more than one location was attacked. The upside is all of our merchandise has been relocated to the Grand via your helpful elves, should we ever need it. And well…nobody is quite sure what to think of Hermione. Ron made it sound highly convincing that she had been cursed to everybody he came into contact with. They are slightly hesitant about the pureblood family piece of information but I believe that they might just attribute that towards the cursed persona and still think that she is a muggleborn. Dumbledore might believe he is too powerful to have been blinded about something that big. At this moment in time, all they know is that you have both been taken."

Hermione nodded at him while he talked, listening carefully in case any detail might change their plans. She waited until he was finished before sitting forward.

"Alright then, I'll contact father. We have until curfew, then we're moving out. Be ready for anything."

Elsewhere in the castle

Molly Weasley wailed as several Aurors fluttered around her nervously. They had no idea how to calm the distraught woman. Her only daughter had been murdered in the one place in the magical world besides Gringotts that should have been the safest place for the girl to be. All those present were stymied as to how something like this could have happened within the castles own wards. No one noticed the fury that was emanating from either side of the chamber.

Nobody present was paying attention to the figure sitting in the corner, nor could they see beyond the distraught eyes of the Weasley matriarch. Molly was adept at compartmentalising her emotions. With so many children, how could she not be? While reeling at the loss of her daughter, that was not the only thing she had lost the night before. Any chance of Harry Potter joining their family now was destroyed. Those despicable people had ruined all of her well-built plans. Years of plotting and planning, all for naught. And if her dearest Ronald was to be believed, that girl had been taken by Malfoy too. Draco Malfoy would rue the day on which he was born. She would make sure of it. A soulbond! While perhaps not true, they were for eternity! It was not to be borne. That Hermione Granger; most intelligent witch of her age, was supposed to be Ronald's. There was no way in hell she was going to be taken and entwined with Malfoy for the rest of eternity; certainly not when Molly had anything to say about it.

Ronald Weasley was similarly incensed. Hermione Granger was supposed to have been his. She was supposed to have been his, not Draco sodding Malfoy's. She couldn't be soul-bound to the ferret for the rest of eternity. She had to be cursed. This wasn't the way it was supposed to have happened. They said she would have been his, no matter what. He had done everything that they had told him to, it should have worked. She would be his; no matter what he had to do, he would make sure of that.