Ginny woke up slowly, trying to blink away the sleep. She groaned as she stretched slightly, immediately standing up and giving her arms a rest.

Hermione?

I'm here, how did you sleep?

About as well as someone could while chained to a wall. How long do you think it's been?

Definitely a few hours at least. There hasn't been any change or anything.

Ginny looked around her small room and sighed, walking around a bit. Any news from the boys?

Nothing yet, unfortunately. I honestly thought I felt something a little while ago, but I was dozing off at the time.

You mean you thought you felt Draco?

Yeah, like he was back in range. But it wasn't very long and all it did was wake me up a bit.

That's strange, I didn't feel anything from Blaise.

Well, to be fair, you are a bit of a heavier sleeper than me.

True.

Hermione paused as a noise hit her ears. I think someone's coming!

She pulled away from the connection just as the door opened, blinding her again with light. Alecto and Rodolphus entered again, the same expressions on both of their faces as they had the day before. Was it the day before though? She truly had no idea how long they had been there, but she wasn't able to think on it any longer as the two Death Eaters stopped in front of her and glared maliciously down at her.

"Nice to see that you're awake," Alecto said in a lightly taunting tone. "I was wondering how long you were going to stay passed out after yesterday's lessons."

Hermione raised an eyebrow up at the older witch but said nothing in response, causing Alecto's right eye to twitch in slight frustration. But she quickly regained her composure and pointed her wand at Hermione.

"Now, back on the subject of yesterday," Alecto started, smiling in a sickly sweet way. "How did you defeat the Dark Lord?"

Hermione stayed silent, glaring up at the witch. Alecto let out a growl and shouted, "Crucio!"

The familiar pain wracked her body again and her screams filled the small room. Her muscles tensed as the excruciating white-hot pain continued to sear through her body, but it ended a lot quicker than she expected, leaving her panting and choking for air.

"Answer me, mudblood!" Alecto screeched, taking a step forward.

She gritted her teeth and looked up, glaring at the witch. "No."

Alecto's eyes filled with fire as her mouth dropped open in shock. Her brow furrowed and she yelled out again, "Crucio!"

The pain returned quickly and more furiously, almost rivalling Bellatrix's spell. She was in so much pain that she was frozen in shock, her mouth open in a silent scream as she waited for it to end. Being on fire would have been a better alternative than this, but Hermione stayed strong and held out the entirety of the spell.

It felt like hours before the spell was lifted but when it was, Hermione went limp with exhaustion while gasping for air, the only thing holding her up being the chains around her wrists. She was shaking hard, sweat dripping down her forehead as she tried to fill her lungs with air.

"Maybe we need to try another way," She heard Rodolphus say in an emotionless voice.

Hermione lifted her head just in time to see a knife pointing right in the middle of her nose. Dread filled her as she noticed it looked almost exactly like Bellatrix's, except it was black metal instead of the silver color of his wife's.

Rodolphus stared at her, his eyes hardened but still emotionless. In a low voice, he said, "Answer our questions, mudblood."

Hermione swallowed the hard lump that had formed in her throat and took a few breaths before stuttering, "Voldemort had-"

Before she could react, the knife flew up her cheek and she let out another yelp of pain as the knife sliced from her nose to her right ear.

"You have no right to speak his name!" Alecto hissed from behind Rodolphus, who was still eerily calm as he moved the knife back to the tip of Hermione's nose.

"Answer again," Rodolphus ordered, twisting the knife slightly in an attempt to intimidate her.

Hermione took another deep breath and started slowly. "He Who Must Not Be Named had created seven horcruxes in an attempt to become immortal."

Alecto's face twisted in confusion as she asked, "Explain that: horcruxes."

Hermione glanced up at the witch before returning her attention to the blade being held in front of her face. "A horcrux is an object that a witch or wizard puts a part of their soul into to attain immortality."

"And how did you discover this information?" Rodolphus asked.

Hermione paused, unsure about how to answer the question. The pausing however causing Rodolphus to strike, slicing her other cheek from her nose to the left side of her chin.

"Answer!" He yelled as he brought the knife back up to between her eyes this time.

She breathed through the pain and fought back tears as she exclaimed, "Dumbledore told us of them!"

"Why?" Alecto questioned, with Rodolphus nodding in agreement. "How did he know about them?"

"Dumbledore wanted us to help find them, in the event of his death," Hermione explained, staring at the knife. "He knew that He Who Must Not Be Named had been interested in horcruxes while he was still in school, and wasn't able to stop him from finding out the information in time."

The answer seemed to satisfy him as he didn't move to slice her again. He shifted his weight slightly and muttered, "That old wizard was always meddling in affairs he wasn't meant to."

Hermione stayed silent, but she flinched when Alecto pointed her wand at her again. "What happened to the horcruxes?"

"We destroyed them," Hermione answered, knowing the knife would probably be used on her regardless of what her answer was.

Sure enough, Rodolphus moved the knife to her left arm and sliced one long cut into the underside of her upper arm. She cried out in pain, the tears finally rolling down her cheeks as all three of the cuts burned against her skin.

"Why are you doing this?" She yelled finally through her tears. "Why not just kill me? Why are you torturing us?"

Alecto grinned and gave out an evil giggle while pacing back and forth slightly. "I suppose we can tell you our plan since you're likely not going to live long enough to stop it. It's not really you that we want. You and your little blood traitor friend are simply a means of having the people we are really after come to us."

Hermione's brow furrowed in confusion as she glared at the two Death Eaters, waiting for them to continue. She didn't have to wait long though as Alecto went on.

"You see," She started as she paced the room, "The Dark Lord started a regime that should have been put into place before his untimely death. We intend to continue his legacy, but in order to do this, we need to finish the people who put a stop to the Dark Lord's plan before."

"And what better way to attract them all to the same place than take the ones that matter to them?" Rodolphus added simply.

"And who...who is it that you are trying to lure here?" Hermione asked, already knowing the answer for the most part.

"Well," Alecto passed in front of Hermione, tracing her wand across Hermione's chin before walking on, "There's a few different people. Harry Potter, of course. And his friend, Ron Weasley. But also the entire Malfoy family."

"Why them?" Hermione asked again quickly. "Why the Malfoys?"

Rodolphus swooped down and pointed the knife tip right underneath Hermione's chin, causing her to freeze and stare at him with wide, fearful eyes.

"Quiet, mudblood," He growled.

"It's alright, Rodolphus," Alecto cooed, stopping in front of them. "What is she going to do with this information anyway?"

Alecto looked over at Hermione with a grin. "As I'm sure you know, the Malfoys changed loyalties in the middle of the battle. That bloody Narcissa even lied to the Dark Lord about Harry Potter being dead. The nerve of that woman!"

She let out a cackle and started pacing again as Hermione lifted her chin slightly away from the knife point.

"But we feel the Malfoys are just as responsible for the downfall of our Dark Lord as Harry Potter is, and need to be punished accordingly," She said. "And since you just so happen to be Draco Malfoy's fiancée, the perfect lure was right in front of us."

"But we needed a way to lure Harry Potter and Ron Weasley," Alecto sighed. "Of course, you would've been good enough as their lure as well, but we needed to guarantee they would come. So we took the Weasley girl as well."

"It's an added bonus as well, considering she's also a blood traitor," Rodolphus added. "We will be making examples of the two of you once our regime starts, with the ones you love watching."

Anger boiled up inside Hermione but she tried to not let it show as she processed the information. Then she narrowed her eyes and asked, "How was it that you were able to find us? To find our manors?"

Rodolphus moved the knife to her right arm and traced another long slice to match the one on her left arm. Hermione gritted her teeth but still screamed as she felt the knife move further up her arm than it had on the other side.

"It was rather simple, actually," Alecto answered while Rodolphus was still moving the knife up slowly. "Rowle was in charge of watching the Weasley girl, and he was either invisible or under the effects of the Polyjuice Potion. He was able to apparate with her, without her knowing to her manor, and followed her long enough to learn that the manor was in Savernake Forest. After making sure he knew where the manor was, he was able to apparate in and out of the manor with ease. You were much harder to follow, but once we figured out where the Zabini manor was and learned yours was near it, we were easily able to find yours."

Chills went down Hermione's spine as she realized they had possibly been in hers and Ginny's manors multiple times, just biding their time. Alecto gave her an evil grin which simply confirmed these thoughts.

"And now that we have you two here, we just need them to come find you," She said simply, still grinning.

"But why target us?" Hermione asked in confusion. "Why not target them directly?"

"That would have been fairly easy," Alecto shrugged. "But this way is much more fun. We can hurt them multiple ways doing it like this."

Hermione glared at the witch as she asked in a low voice, "And what makes you think you're going to succeed?"

Alecto knelt down in front of Hermione, her grin only widening. "Because we know the weaknesses now. We have separated the so-called 'Golden Trio', and without you, they won't be able to do anything. We have infiltrated the Ministry again, we have been a part of this every step of the way. And this place is teeming with dark magic, can't you feel it?"

There was a tense silence for a few moments as Hermione held her breath.

"We are in the birth place of the Dark Lord," Alecto whispered excitedly. "This place holds more dark magic than possibly anywhere else. This was where the Dark Lord made his first kills as Lord Voldemort."

Hermione's eyes went wide as she took in this information, trying to process it. It was fairly vague, but it had a familiarity to it that she couldn't shake.

She wasn't able to think on it very long though as the wild look in Alecto's eyes caught her attention and the witch continued, "What better place to restore his legacy than the house where it all started?"

It suddenly clicked and Hermione couldn't help but smile to herself. "You mean the house of his muggle father?"

Rodolphus's brow furrowed slightly. "Watch your tongue, mudblood."

Hermione felt a sudden rush of adrenaline as she glared at him. "Why? Your precious Voldemort was a half-blood, born to a muggle father who was under a love potion. Or did he not tell you of this?"

Rage filled both of their faces as Alecto hissed, "How dare you?!"

"That's right, your 'Dark Lord' was never a pureblood!" Hermione exclaimed, continuing to taunt them. She felt so powerful at that moment, unable to stop grinning. "You will fail, just as he did!"

The two Death Eaters stood up and Alecto pointed her wand at Hermione, shrieking, "Crucio!"

Hermione screamed loudly as the spell hit her. This was much worse than the previous few, as if Rodolphus was stabbing her with his knife over and over again. Every inch of her body was on fire, and she continued to let out her scream as the pain felt like it was radiating from her very bones.

The spell was released and she fell against the wall, looking up at the ceiling and panting. She could still feel the ghost of a smile on her lips as she could hear Rodolphus and Alecto muttering angrily to each other.

"Well, now that that's over with," Alecto said, "We can go torment the blood traitor. I can't wait to watch her writhe in pain too."

Hermione panicked as both of them started to walk towards the door. She quickly thought about what to do and an idea hit her.

"Confundo!"

Alecto and Rodolphus stopped in their tracks and looked at each other in confusion. Alecto looked back at Hermione and then at Rodolphus, asking, "Did we...who did we just torture?"

Rodolphus looked back at Hermione as well and answered, "I think we tortured the blood traitor already, and clearly we just tortured the mudblood."

Hermione was silent, just looking at them while she tried to catch her breath. Alecto scoffed at her and then said, "Yeah, we should save some of their energy for torturing them later."

They left the room, extinguishing the lights and leaving Hermione alone again in the dark. But her mind was racing as she felt a hopeful energy.

Ginny?

Hermione! Are you okay? That sounded worse than yesterday!

I'm alright! I know where we are!

Really?! How did you find out?

They don't seem to be the smartest people; I was able to get Alecto to tell me why they were doing this and she let slip enough clues to reveal where we are!

This is perfect! Now we have to figure a way out of here and alert the boys!

I'm already working on that, I just need to practice a little bit more. And don't worry, I was able to confuse them so they aren't going to torture you until later but I don't know when later is so we'll have to act fast.

Okay,  just  tell  me  what  I  need  to  do!

A/N: Hey guys! I am so sorry for the delay with this chapter, it simply did not want to be put down on paper but I didn't want to keep you guys waiting, especially since it's kind of an important chapter :D 

Hello to all of my new readers, and thank you to all of you for continuing to read this! I'm so happy to have all of you supporting and enjoying this story :) love you all! <3