[fifty eight]

.

That was the first thing that Hermione could think of when she woke up. Her back didn't feel like hers—it felt like a slab of cardboard glued to her bones. Her arms were sore, like they were bruised beyond measure. Even her head didn't feel right.

Something wasn't right.

"She's awake." She heard someone announce, probably Harry, as she stirred from her slumber.

"Harry?" The voice that came out of her throat didn't sound like hers at all. It was raspy, like she hadn't used it in a while, or like someone had torn through her windpipe.

"Hey, I'm here." A hand gripped hers tightly, causing her to wince ", sorry. Does it still hurt? Where does it hurt?" Harry's voice sounded terribly worried in her ears.

Hermione blinked a few times, her sight adjusting to her surroundings. She was on a bed in their common room. Around her, her friends stood, eyes watching with caution.

"I'll get madame Pomfrey." Elena said quietly, hurrying out of the room to retrieve the school's healer.

"What happened?" Hermione cleared her throat, desperate to get rid of the hoarseness. Blaise walked over to the small kitchen to pour her a glass of water, which she accepted with shaky hands "Thanks." She murmured.

"How much do you remember?" Ron frowned, worried she might've been suffering from memory loss.

Hermione shook her head "I remember being dragged to the dining hall by Rookwood and getting tortured by Rodolphus in front of everyone. In front of Theo." Her voice broke at the mention of his name "He managed to get Rodolphus to stop and ordered Rookwood to take me back, but everything after that was much too hazy for me to..." she trailed off, looking up at Harry "You came for me?"

Harry could only nod "Celine helped Ginny, Ron and I get into the manor to save you." He tentatively pushed his eyeglasses up the bridge of his nose, something he often did when he was anxious "It was very... ."

"How long was I out?" Hermione whispered, looking down at the healing wounds on her body. Some had already closed, barely leaving any scar, but most of her cuts were still pink and several bruises colored her limbs.

"Just for a day." Pansy answered as she watched Hermione observe the damage done on her body "We were at Grimauld, but we managed to get you back here. Harry insisted you be nursed inside the common room and not at the hospital wing. Nobody in school knows what happened at the Burrow, and we want to keep it that way to help Theo."

Hermioned nodded numbly, still unable to place what else was wrong. She knew where her wounds were, she knew where she'd been scratched and whipped and cut, but something else was wrong.

Something else wasn't quite right.

Her emotions... ...

It was .

"Where's Draco?" She whispered, looking up to meet her friends' eyes.

Ron was the first to break her gaze, choosing to look down at his feet somberly. Ginny only glanced at Harry in question, unsure what to do. The green-eyed boy managed to suppress he a deep sigh as he shut his eyes in frustration, unable to speak. He had been practicing how to break the news to Hermione ever since they got back to the castle,

But it was Blaise who answered "He went away, Granger."

Hermione's doe eyes snapped to meet his, wide with uncertainty "Away?" She glanced at the balls of fists that he held to his sides, taking note of how white his knuckles looked.

"When we came to rescue you, we had a solid plan." Celine explained quietly, glancing at Blaise cautiously "I know Theo spoke to you, so you know he had a plan."

"He did." Hermione hesitantly answered

"Us four were to rescue you, slip in and out of the Nott manor undetected, while Draco stayed behind at Grimauld place." Celine laced her fingers together and sighed "But the minute Rookwood brought you out of that room, Theo's plan had gone. You weren't supposed to leave that room. That was the deal."

"We got to the manor in time, we had an hour to save you." Ron continued quietly, his guilty eyes meeting Hermione's "Malfoy only gave us an hour to save you."

"What do you mean?" Hermione's voice was laced with fear, so much fear that the emptiness in her chest and mind had begun to make sense. The bond. "Where's Draco, Ron? Where is he?"

"We had to fight the Death Eaters to get you, and when we got you—" Ginny shook her head "Hermione, you were in an awful shape. We had to stop between our trip back to Grimauld to heal yo—"

"" Hermione demanded, her hands gripping the sheets of her hospital bed tightly.

"When we arrived at Grimauld, we had been too late." Harry muttered, his words were laced with so much frustration and regret that it made Ginny's heart twitch painfully "Zabini said—"

"He felt you get tortured, Granger." Blaise shook his head. He had been trying to contain his emotions since last night, but the look in Hermione's eyes... Suddenly, he felt his composure slowly crumble "It took all of us to keep him in place, to keep him from going, and that still wasn't enough. He knew something was wrong because you weren't supposed to be crucio-ed in that room. You weren't supposed to leave that non-magical room just as he wasn't supposed to leave Grimauld."

"I left the room." Hermione whispered, brows furrowing "Why wasn't he allowed to leave Grimauld?"

"Because he's the one the Death Eaters want, Hermione." Celine whispered quietly, her eyes brimming with tears of regret "Not you."

Hermione felt her heart fall right there and then.

It wasn't the same as when she was locked in that non-magical room. When she was there, she could feel him at the other end of their empathy link, only it was impossible to contact him.

This was .

"Where is he, Blaise?" Hermione's brown eyes looked broken as they met Blaise's. They were begging Blaise not to tell her the answer she already knew.

He felt her get tortured.

He couldn't stay put.

"He left for the Nott manor." Blaise's voice broke in pain "We haven't heard from him since."

Hermione felt herself push the sheets aside as she stumbled over her own feet to stand, with only Harry's arms to support her "Hermione you're not well—"

"I have to—" she felt dizzy as incoherent words slipped her mouth "I need to see the—" Everything suddenly seemed so hazy and unreal, like it was a fever dream.

"Hermione, you need to rest." Astoria pleaded, watching Hermione push Harry aside weakly.

"" Hermione stumbled, her vision terribly blurry. Why was it blurry? It was as if she were in a daze, like this wasn't real. This had to be a dream. It was a dream.