"Molly?" Remus' voice carried over the front lawn. The others having appeared slightly to the right of his position behind some trees. The door to the house came open in an instant, the woman who had been summoned hurrying down the steps.

"Oh my goodness!" Her eyes grew wide when she saw the limp form in his arms.

"Where's Luna and Neville?" He continued towards her but he could see she was conflicted.

"They-They're already inside with Maybelle..." Her brows furrowed deeply when a noise came from the trees and she raised her wand trying to still her rapidly beating heart.

"Thank you." Remus shifted his hold turning pausing only slightly as Ron was the first to come through the brush.

"Mom...?"

"Oh, Great Merlin!" She was torn between the two but Remus just bowed his head slightly giving her permission to go to her children, "Oh my baby!"

Molly rushed forward taking Ron into her arms holding him tight. He was sporting a few rather nasty looking wounds, the entire right side of his shirt was missing, leaving the large gash that had cut along his side exposed to the elements.

When Ginny came through she nearly lost herself with emotion. Her face was a total bloody mess from all the bits of stone that had cut across her face at high speed. Though she didn't look injured anywhere else the blood that had stained her face made the woman's heart thump nearly out of her chest.

"Let's get you inside..." She sniffled and looked at Ginny again running her hand over her still bleeding face before taking her under her arm. She glanced back watching Tonks and Fleur come through next with Harry, who didn't look that bad for ware.

"Hermione...it's Hermione...we got her..." Ron was still in a bit of a haze, the blood he'd unknowingly lost, leaving him a bit like a broken record. Molly just shook her head and took him by his elbow leading him towards the house.

oOo

Snape hissed as he pressed a compression cloth around his waist. The werewolf hadn't held back when he'd sent him into the pillar. He was certain that being unconscious at the time of Potter's escape was the only thing that kept him from feeling the full brunt of Voldemort's wrath.

The man had been waiting for them, inside the ballroom ready to lure Harry away from the others before the rest of the Order had shown up. He had retreated then, to the upper floors. Why he hadn't come down was still a mystery to Snape but he was just thanking every fate that resided above that he had made it out alive. After all, he was never one to interrupt his enemy when they were making a mistake.

He'd gone down to the cellar shortly after he'd come to; only to find that Granger's cell was empty and Wormtail had bled out along the wall inside the cell, back in his human form after death. Snape wondered just who exactly had done him in. He wasn't sure if it had been Granger or not but he wouldn't have put anything past her at this point.

A sharp pain in his lower back brought him back to focus and he shifted himself in the mirror to try and see where to put more bruise salve. The school had nearly been overrun in the short time he'd been gone. The Dumbledore's Army brats had done whatever they could to give the two death eaters on staff a run for their money.

He had put the entire school in lockdown for their trespasses before the Carrows were able to take any of them to the dungeons. He'd also warned them that should they dare to leave, the punishment would be severe. He was very certain that none of them would heed his words but he had hoped they'd be a little more stealthy about their movements from now on. He couldn't outright support them but he could pretend not to care whether or not the Carrows extracted their revenge.

Though at present both of the Carrows were licking their wounds in their respective rooms. He was sure there would be hell to pay tomorrow if he didn't find some way to balance the two sides.

oOo

"Luna...Luna, stay with me...come on..." Neville hadn't left the girl's side for a second. The healer worked tirelessly over the hole in her shoulder. She'd lost a lot of blood in the time that had passed. His entire side was coated with her life essence leaving her hands colder than the first snow of winter.

"Mama...?" Her eyes had opened just enough for Neville to see the beautiful crystal blue hue but her eyes weren't focusing on him; rather somewhere far beyond any place he could see. He pulled in his lower lip holding her hand tighter. He pulled it to his lips and kissed the backs of her bruised and blood sticky knuckles. Her breathing was starting to rattle now and he could tell it was becoming harder for her to see.

"Luna...look at me...come on...you're strong... you're... beautiful...brilliant...amazing..." Neville sniffled deeply and wiped away the tears that had rolled down his nose. He pressed her hand back to his lips pressing the softest of kisses on the back of her hand.

Her eyes turned towards his, heavily lidded as though she were fighting sleep. She gave him the softest most beautiful smile he'd ever seen before her eyes stuttered closed.

"Luna...?" Neville leaned forward making to take her cheek into his hand when another at his wrist stopped him.

"I've just put her to sleep, she'll be...alright by morning. For now, she needs to rest..." Maybelle gave the boy a soft squeeze on his wrist and pulled her hand back. Luna had been the most needing of her services at first, the girl had lost a significant amount of blood and the repairs to her shoulder hadn't been easy. The girl would live but it had been a rather close call.

Maybelle hadn't really known what to expect when she answered the call, she was starting to see that everyone who had come back from the Manor was in some sort of disrepair. Thankfully, all of the other Order members were adept at the more basic of healing spells and she'd brought a fair amount of potions with her when she'd been summoned from St. Mungo's.

Ginny pressed tighter to Harry's side, his hand holding an ice pack against the back of her head. Her cuts had been easy for her mother to heal and the potions she'd been given to bring the swelling down inside her skull had made her exceptionally drowsy. Harry himself had been seen to by Molly, right after Ron. He had been given a potion for his own concussion and was fighting against its pull along with Ginny.

Ron was laying on the couch across from them, his eyes closed and put out of his ramblings by something the healer had given him after his mother had healed the gash along his side. They had all gotten an earful from Molly at that time. Her words still left their ears ringing.

Remus had taken Hermione upstairs, away from the rest of them. The why, Harry hadn't been able to discern but he hadn't yet found the strength to get up and ask. His body felt unbelievably heavy with the potion running through it and the adrenaline that had been pulsing through him had left his mind nothing but mush.

oOo

"How is she?" Remus had taken the girl to his own rooms for the time being. With the downstairs working as a sort of emergency center, there hadn't been any space to really place her. He had taken to sitting beside her in a chair too afraid to do much else after he'd laid her down.

"She's alive..." Maybelle had made her way upstairs after caring for the rest, leaving them all in various states of potion induced haze while the adults took the time to sort out the proper course.

She pursed her lips and ran another diagnostic charm, "Dehydrated, desperately in need of a proper meal... She's been given a blood replenishing potion recently but her vitamin levels are severely off course... There's something wrong with her lungs as well. It's as though she has drowned though there is no way she'd be breathing if that were the case..." The mediwitch moved closer to the top of the bed near Hermione's head. Her eyes were still open and this was most puzzling to the mediwitch, "She's unconscious but her brain is still active...how is that even possible?"

"What does that mean...?" Remus had known that something had happened to her but he didn't want to jump to conclusions.

"I'm not sure what that means in the long term, it just means that right now, she can't feel anything that I'm about to do..." The mediwitch looked back down over the torn and bloodstained cloth that covered her thin frame, "Whoever healed these wounds did so in a hurry, they were properly closed but, they'll scar if we don't treat them further."

"What about this mark?" He pointed slightly to the large tattoo on her neck, he recognized a slave brand when he saw one but he'd never seen one so large or elaborate.

"It's nothing, a tattoo and nothing more. There is a bond over her, but it isn't the one you see before you." The mediwitch ran her wand down over Hermione's wrists lighting up the magical cord that resided there. "There is nothing we can do to break it anyway, it's a mutual bond, only the one she's made it with can break it."

"What do you need?" Remus' mind turned over the information he'd just been given. He couldn't even imagine any circumstance where Hermione would have willingly agreed to such a thing. His hope that she would be as she had been, was quickly going out.

"Dittany and white willow bark, it should all be in my kit..." Maybelle shifted back towards the center of the bed looking down at Hermione's hands, her brow furrowed deeply as she looked at just what exactly the girl was still desperately clinging onto. As a mediwitch, she knew exactly what she was looking at.

"Did you give this to her?" Her aged finger pointed to the leather pouch.

"No...we found her with it..." Remus hadn't even realized she'd still been holding it after all the jostling he'd done to get her up the stairs. "What is it?"

"It's a...it's a-uh, battlefield kit. I haven't seen one in ages," The woman shook her head and leaned forward to try and pull the girl's fingers from around it.

oOo

Harry, Ron, Neville, and Ginny all jolted from the harsh yell that came from upstairs. Their peaceful haze broken by the horribly desperate sounding cry that echoed down. Ron actually fell off the couch in his haste to try and right himself. Harry pulled the ice pack from the back of Ginny's head as she came to her feet, with him quickly following behind.

The lot of them, sans Neville, fumbled their way as best they could to the stairs with Ron taking the lead. His mother had come out from the kitchen to call after them to go back to the living room but none of them listened to her in the slightest. The elder woman huffed and made her way up after them with a stern look on her brow.

When they got to the landing they could make out Hermione's rushed albeit very slurred and heavily agitated voice. Ron moved to the far end of the hall without pause and pushed open the door to the room she'd obviously been taken to.

The three of them crowded into the doorway as they watched Remus try to reason with her. Presently, Hermione had pulled herself as far back as she could from both Remus and the mediwitch. Her eyes were wild and her chest was heaving as she clutched something tight to her chest. The robe she was wearing had fallen between her legs and had been opened along the side from being carried. The position she was in revealing more than what it should have but it didn't seem to be a priority at all for the normally prudent young woman.

"It's mine...it's my master's...he said...he said..." Her breathing was becoming more labored as she noticed the others coming into the room. Her head rocked back and forth, her eyes moving as though she couldn't see them clearly, "No...it's mine...I have to..."

"We're not here to hurt you, Hermione... We just want to make sure you're okay. You've been hurt." Remus tried to come closer but her sharp cry made him pull back.

Hermione shook her head back and forth obviously conflicted. Her head fell back against the wall again and she looked at them from over the ridge of her nose, "Master said... the Professor said..."

Her body shuddered again and her eyes closed tightly. Unshed tears pressed out from her tightly clenched lids mixing with the dried blood around the bottom leaving an odd streak down her face. A deep desperate wail bubbled up the back of her throat and she pulled her legs in even closer. Her head fell down to her knees as she continued to try and breathe.

"Just relax...Hermione...we're not going to take it...we just wanted to see to your wounds...you're injured...you need help."

Hermione turned her head to the side, thumping her head against the wall lightly. Her neck had turned in such a way that the mark was completely exposed to all those present, the large 'S', standing out harshly against her pallor skin.

Ron felt tears welling in his eyes at the mere sight of it, and an anger welled deep within his soul for the man who had obviously given it to her. He wanted nothing more in that moment to mount Snape's head on a spike. His mother pushed past all of them daring to move closer. She came up from behind the mediwitch though her brow was still as worried as the rest of them.

"Hermione, it's alright." Though soft and gentle, her voice seemed to have the opposite effect of comfort.

Hermione shook her head harder, thumping her temple against the headboard. "That's not my name... not my name..."

Her eyes closed tight and she lowered her head back down. It was clear she was fighting an invisible battle against her self. Her realities between her two halves were mixing together creating something all its own.

Molly looked worriedly at Remus for a brief moment before clearing her throat, "Then tell us your name dear...we don't want to hurt you..."

Hermione rocked her head back and forth on her knees, the stone that had been tied to her wrist swung back and forth catching in the bright candlelight. There was a pause before her trembling voice began again, "Mudblood...Filth..."

Her head lifted up as she spoke, though her eyes still bounced between the three adults that had dared to approach her. "You'll answer to those...and only those..." She nodded her head as though she had done something properly before closing her eyes again.

Remus felt his heart sink down further, his eyes having latched onto the brand upon her neck. His mind turned as he tried to think of anything he could do to bring the girl back down from her obvious mental break. His eyes widened slightly as he had a spark of an idea, an idea that was surely going to receive more than a few harsh words after the fact; though, given the circumstances he was sure he would be forgiven.

"Your master has sent us, he wants us to make you well again."

Hermione shook her head again hiding it down between her chest and knees, a low whine and a heavy sniffle filled the room as she let forth a most heartbreaking cry, "I want my master..." Her arms wrapped tighter around her knees as she curled herself tighter, "Please...I want my master..."

Molly's eyes flared as Remus continued on with his charade but even she could see no other alternative. She turned her head, giving the three teens who were still cowered by the door a warning glare before turning back to watch Remus attempt to approach.

Remus bent down on one knee, trying to seem less intimidating. He didn't reach out towards her but he did place his hand upon the surface of the bed. He waited for a break in her mantra before trying to speak again, "Your master wants you well doesn't he?"

"Always...always well...he heals me..." Hermione sniffled heavily her eyes watching the man over the ridge of her arm. "He's good...his hands feel good..."

"Yes, yes I suppose they do..." Remus felt sick to his stomach as he forced the words out, "But he's busy now, surely he was busy before?"

Hermione nodded slightly her focus now solely back on him, her breathing was starting to calm down just enough that her entire frame didn't shudder with every breath. "Busy...safe...in the room..."

"Yes, I suspect this room looks a bit different from before doesn't it?" Remus paused waiting for her to glance around before her eyes fell back on him. He chanced moving his hand just a bit further, "He's sent us to take care of you...We're not going to take what he's given you. We just want to make you well again..."

"The room...there's a hole...a hole in the wall..." Her head rocked again before thumping down hard against her knees, "It's a trap! I'm a trap! We have to test the stones...a trap... it's a trap..." Her hand left her leg coming up to hold the side of her head, "Again...I can do it!"

Hermione was starting to become riled up again. The train of thought having led her back through the day's events only in a much more jumbled and out of place order than what had truly happened. "Please...kill me..."

Harry's heart twisted hard inside his chest, those same words, that same tone had left her lips just before all this had started, but hearing it clearly and directly in front of him had left his heart more than bleeding inside his chest. Ron too was doing his best to keep his tears as silent as possible while his breathing grew heavier. None of them had ever, in the history of their time together, heard Hermione so broken, so desperate sounding. It was as if it wasn't her at all, that they had rescued someone else.

"We're not going to kill you..." Remus slowly came up to his feet, moving to sit down on the bed now. He still had a bit of space between them but his words seemed to have calmed her down substantially if only for a brief moment, "Her-" he stopped himself unable to call her by the names she had given them, "Your master wants you alive..."

"He left...he's busy..." Her eyes rolled open again looking towards Remus who had come just a little bit closer. "He heals me..."

Noticing that he'd gotten her back into the similar speech cycle he had before when he'd been calming her down, he merely nodded and gave her a rather tight smile, "Yes, he does. He's a good master."

"Good Master..." Hermione smiled ever just so and nodded her head.

"Can you lay down? We need you to lay down so that we can look at you..." He shifted just a little holding out his hand for her to take. He needed her to come back to the other side of the bed that wasn't pressed into the wall so that the healer could have a proper look, but her cooperation was fluctuating.

Hermione looked down at his hand for a long moment before the one that had curled into her hair slowly opened and closed as though she were debating on taking his hand. Her eyes turned back up to his own a small spark of trust lighting up inside them, "Master will come?"

"He will come..."

"I like his hands..." Her voice sounded heavier now, her eyes blinking more slowly. The hand that was in her hair hesitantly reached out, "He heals me..."

"Yes...he does..." Remus lowered his voice to match hers, his hand cautiously coming out, to take hers. When she didn't pull away from his touch, he pulled her hand up to his shoulder feeling her fingers curl into the fabric before gingerly wrapped his arm around her shoulders and under her legs, his heart sunk even lower when she flinched and pressed her knees further together when he'd brushed against her thigh to take hold of her. "He's a good Master..."

"A good Master..." Hermione nodded her head again before her eyes closed. Her brow ticked as he adjusted her back towards the edge of the bed but her breathing had started to even out, though a soft popping could be heard every three or four breaths accompanied by a twitch along her left rib.

Maybelle heard the popping and noticed the twitch, instantly frowning. She pushed between them quickly taking hold of her chin forcing Hermione's head back into the mattress keeping her jaw closed tight. "Molly, take her legs. Remus her hands."

"What? Why?" Remus was completely at a loss at the sudden roughness the mediwitch used on a girl who was obviously in distress.

"Do as you're told!" The normally calm voice took a sharp commanding edge and both adults moved to follow her command.

"What are you doing to her?" Ron had come closer now, his eyes going wider with fear.

Hermione's chest started to arch up as a large ripple ran up from her toes into her chest. Remus who had been only lightly holding her wrists lost hold of one as a sharp tremor shook it free from his hold.

"She's having a seizure." Maybelle turned her head down looking into Hermione's widened eyes, her voice trapped inside her throat from the pressure on her jaw keeping her from biting her tongue.

"Why would she have a seizure?" Ron's voice had gone a few octaves above whiney by now.

Maybelle glanced over her shoulder narrowing her eyes at the whiney redhead, "Ever experienced the cruciatus curse?"

Ron swallowed thickly his face growing pale, his eyes shooting over to his mother who was having to put more of her weight down on Hermione's ankles to keep her legs from kicking out. "Isn't there anything you can do...?"

"There is no cure for the cruciatus curses' effects." Maybelle turned her head back down as Hermione let out a deep noise from her chest. Her eyes were flicking back and forth and her back was starting to arch up as the seizure rose. Maybelle shifted her one hand from her shoulders to her sternum pressing her further into the bed.

The entire room went silent except for the sharp noises that stuttered from the girl struggling on the bed. For what felt like an eternity, she struggled against the hands that had been sent to help her. The hands that had meant to only heal her troubles. It was as painful to witness as to be apart off.

Finally, her body gave one last sharp movement her chest let out a most depressing sound. It was sort of like the sound an animal made just before it died, a soft keening noise of complete defeat. Remus and Molly pulled back slowly, their eyes shining with tears they couldn't afford to let fall. Each one sparing a moment to look at the other.

Remus looked at Molly for all the world a broken man. It had taken everything inside of him to do what he had done and the night was just beginning. What horrors would wait beyond the dawn of the new day? Was this the Hermione that would forever be with them? Was there any hope that they would see the bright intelligent young girl that had all taken place inside their hearts rise again?