Darkest Light
Disclaimer: I don't own The Harry Potter
A/N: This is a rewrite of a story I started a couple months back and didn't like how I'd written it, I'm much happier with this version. The original was set to be a Fred/Hermione as that's my fave HP pairing but I have reworked this idea to be an eventual Harry/Hermione. Though I have plans for another Fred/Hermione in which Hermione's the Dark Lord's daughter, it will be a while before that one is posted though.
I looked up the Rowle family and found like three members and one was from the 1700s making him unusable so the Rowle characters throughout this story are almost all going to be original characters, not to worry though they don't have huge parts.
As of right now, this story is planned to be broken up into four Acts which should have anywhere from four to six chapters a piece. Anyway, thanks for giving it a shot.
Chapter 1: Before First Year
Act I: Hermione and The Boy Who Lived
The little girl was dressed prettily with her hair was styled perfectly but no one paid her any mind. She didn't care. Money couldn't buy her what she wanted, in fact besides the worn stuffed fox in her arms she no longer was sure she cared to want much of anything.
The girl's name was Hermione and she was a witch.
Hermione was smart, she was resourceful. The seven-year-old had to be. Her eyes watched, and her ears listened, not many people noticed the small child standing silently in the corner of the room. It was always like this as far back as she could recall.
The adults gossiped, they plotted, and Hermione she watched, she listened, and she learnt.
After all, it wasn't like the girl could count on her parents or her guardian.
Hermione's eyes drifted to said guardian one Lady Euphemia Rowle and she frowned as the little girl witnesses the woman's attempts at seduction. They were bad ones given that even the child knew this from her years of observation.
The Lady Rowle was making eyes and very obviously shifting her chest to make her gown's low top show her breasts that were on the verge of falling out of her dress, Hermione had heard another woman once say that Euphemia had used a potion to make herself so well endowed.
Her ears had picked up all sorts of unflattering things said about the woman; that she was desperate, an unmarried witch in her thirties something no self-respecting pureblood witch would be, gold digger but Hermione knew that wasn't the case at least not completely.
The girl's years of observations of this woman were not just scheduled to these events. No, the older witch wasn't a nice person, but she was a lonely one, her own family and personality saw to that and the child knew it would remain that way if nothing changed.
Nothing would though, and the small brunette was past the point of caring for the mostly shallow witch.
Hermione shifted her gaze away from her poor excuse for a guardian, she never learned anything useful from watching that woman. No, it was the guests that she'd invited to her gathering, that's where the tiny brunette really got her information from.
There were just some things books and house elves couldn't teach.
The young witch still wished her parents could have taught her instead.
She'd never met them though.
Her mother was locked away in Azkaban.
Lady Rowle told her that and the gossiping adults told her that her mother was insane.
Some gossip was fact, she knew.
But some were just plain jealousy…
Hermione was smart enough to come to the conclusion that in her mother's case it was likely a bit of both.
This didn't bother her.
She didn't know her mum and likely never would.
The same could be said for her father as he was dead.
Or at least people thought he was. No one knew for sure but everyone who spoke of him did so with fear and reverence.
Her father was The Dark Lord.
But only a handful of people knew this fact, not that it mattered as she was always overlooked.
Maybe being feared and respected could be what she wanted, the thought has come across her mind once or twice and sometimes it sounds good, but just as quickly leaves as she has no motivation to make it happen.
Once again, a name reaches her ears, it's one that she once loathed.
Harry Potter.
Hermione still hated the name, but mostly she wished to never hear it spoken again.
It was the reason she was standing alone in the corner of this room with only her stuffed fox for company.
Harry Potter.
Another person whispered, it annoyed her, but she kept listening.
Because that's what she does.
Hermione watches, listens, and learns what she can from these gatherings because one day she could hear something useful.
And if not there's always the off chance to find out more about the parents she'd never meet.
The ones Harry Potter took away from her.
Brown eyes stare dully and unseeingly into the mirror before her.
Another year, another pointless gathering, another night of getting dolled up only to listen to adults who have nothing better to do but flatter themselves and spread vicious lies and tangled truths about others.
These parties were the one constant in the young nine-year-old's life.
"Miss Hermione?" A quiet voice speaks pulls her out of her thoughts, "Yes Tilly?" She asks looking into the worried eyes of the house elf.
"Little missy's hairs done." The house-elf tells her as she pats her hair as if to emphasize her words.
Hermione nods and stands up from in front of her vanity without once checking the mirror, the girl could care less about her appearance.
"Thanks, Tilly." The house elf sighs, "Yous welcome…" Her voice trails off and she shifts a bit indecisively before steeling herself and asking, "Hermione is something being wrong?"
Hermione tilts her head and looks at her house elf in confusion, "No…?" It wasn't a question but even to the young girl, it sounded like one. The house elf's big eyes stare at her imploringly.
Tilly had practically raised her since she was left with the Lady Euphemia who knew nothing of babies or even children for that matter. The house elf was the closest thing the little girl had to a family to a mother and was the only one the little girl cared for.
In turn, the house elf was who was still quite young in house elf years hadn't had any previous training when it came to dealing with babies none of the house elves of the household had, she had been randomly selected to be the main caregiver once the babe had arrived.
So, she did like any good house elf would do and did as she was told. Tilly had never expected to care for the child as anything more than what was expected or required but she did, she does… the young house elf couldn't help it. Tilly had no children, but she couldn't image caring for her own any more than she did for Hermione.
Hermione was a special little girl, so smart and quietly sensitive and so very lonely… it hurt Tilly that she could not help, that she didn't know how to help.
Every year she watched her eyes get dimmer, every day she got quieter, this was not the happy little baby that she first met, it made tears well up at the thought.
"Tilly? What's wrong?" The house elf shakes her head, "N-Nothing little miss, it being time for party now."
Hermione frowns but stays quiet and follows after the house elf downstairs. Once Tilly pops away with a sad look the girl quickly makes her way to her corner to start her observations alone as usual.
This is where she was several hours later when she overhears something that finally gives her a purpose and brings the light back into her eyes.
Later that night when Tilly is helping Hermione out of her formal wear and into her night clothes the elf is confused but ecstatic at the change in her young charge, "What's got little miss so happy?" She finally asks when the girl excitedly jumps into bed.
She grins, "I'm gonna go to Hogwarts!" The house elf's eyes grow wide, "T-That's-how… why do yous want to do that?" It wasn't really an option, was it the elf wondered.
"Don't worry I've got plenty of time to figure out all of the details, I know I can do it." She pulls up the cover before continuing, "Besides I have to if I'm going to make my plan work."
The house elf didn't doubt her ability to make it so if she truly wanted to go but still was confused, "What plan?"
"I'm gonna make my dad proud of me." Her smile was blinding and normally this would make Tilly smile as well but instead, she flinches at the mention of the Dark Lord, "Y-Yous dad… but he's gone…"
Hermione's happy expression dims a bit, "Maybe… maybe not but either way I-I have to do this… I want to do this, I can make him proud of me I know it." She tells her, the elf feels a foreboding feeling at her 'little misses' words.
"Hermione is smart and surely already makes proud, so she doesn't need to do extra, does she?" Tilly asks hopefully, Hermione shakes her head.
"No… if my dad-" She pauses as if recalling something before starting again, "if my father is still out there like some of his Death Eater still believe then I have to do more." Her voice was more determined than ever before.
"But what if he not…" It hurt to see the girl look sad at the possibility, but Tilly didn't want her to be disappointed if he really was gone, but from the stories, the young elf could only hope that he truly was, for Hermione's sake as much as everyone else's.
"Even if he is really gone at least I'll feel like I did what he wanted and that- that will be enough," Hermione told Tilly but mostly the words were meant to reassure herself of the fact, she really wanted the rumors that her father was alive and would return to be true. "it has to be." Whether she was answering her own words or thoughts the girl wasn't sure.
If her father was alive though she was worried that he wouldn't like her, so just in case it was true the young girl knew she needed to act so that the Dark Lord, her father would want her.
Hermione wanted to be wanted.
Because even though she was used to being overlooked she didn't like it.
It would hurt too much if her own father did it too.
"Then going to schools would make father proud?" Tilly had to ask because she felt she was missing something but wished that Hermione's plan was only to go to Hogwarts because as difficult as that maybe it didn't seem like a bad thing.
"No… that's only the first step." Tilly was afraid to ask but still did anyway, "Then what yous plan?"
"I'm gonna go to Hogwarts and befriend Harry Potter so that I can kill him." Her voice was even and her intent clear as her now unclouded eyes, she had a purpose, a plan.
Tilly's ears drop as she stares up at her Hermione's expression and looks for some sign that she isn't really planning to go through with this plan, her eyes drop once she realizes the truth.
No this wasn't the same happy little baby that she'd raised.
But even so, if this was the path that her little Hermione had decided to travel she would do everything she could to help her succeed in it.
The years passed both slowly and not at the same time after Hermione had found her purpose in life.
The young witch knew deep down it was her way of trying to achieve acknowledgment and maybe even her father's love if he was still out there some way, but she refused to dwell on the reasons and focused instead on her goals.
The reasons didn't matter, only the results. She told herself this often enough that the brown-eyed girl almost believed it.
Her biggest challenge was getting Euphemia Rowle on board with her plan.
It wasn't easy to talk her so-called guardian into going along with her plans but the potential benefits if Hermione did what she set out to do outweighed the risks at least that's the way she presented it to the Lady Rowle.
While Euphemia was not the smartest witch around she knew how to work things to her own advantage like any good Slytherin, if Hermione succeeded she would take credit for the idea of sending off Hermione to rid the dark side of their most hated enemy, Harry Potter.
And if it failed well Hermione couldn't be linked to her and she'd finally be rid of the reason she couldn't bag a man, at least that's what she believed as most thought Hermione was the Lady Rowle's child out of wedlock, and personally the young witch thought that was more of an insult to her own self than it ever would be to the older woman.
If Euphemia had been smart about it, she could have used Hermione to help her in snagging a husband like Mrs. Zabini did with her own son, of course, the dark-skinned woman was also a great beauty who had more gold than the Rowles' could ever hope for, but the downside the line of dead husbands in her wake.
Despite her guardian's less than staller intellect, she did bring up the fact that many had seen the young girl at the numerous parties and thought of her as a Rowle so her entry into Hogwarts, especially as a muggleborn, wouldn't work.
Hermione had thought of that though.
No children ever attended those parties aside from her and it was the children and the light she had to fool mostly.
Loose lips on the dark side could be a problem but she had an answer for that as well.
None of the adults had ever talked to her or knew her name to them, she was just the bastard Rowle child that hid in the corner of the ballroom and always vanished before meals were served.
Besides out of sight is out of mind.
For almost two years she stopped attending the parties.
A few mentioned her once or twice afterward but never by name and even Euphemia had to admit the girl had a point, she was easily forgotten.
Normally this would upset Hermione but, in this case, being overlooked had worked in her favor.
Lastly, the when she donned a muggle outfit even her pureblood guardian had trouble not sneering at the girl who had quickly got her to agree to let her live with a pair of mind-altered muggles for a few months to get the hang of the whole muggleborn thing.
Lady Rowle wasn't skilled at mind magic so she talked to the only other Rowle that knew of Hermione's true identity and who would also be keen on this plan, Caswell Rowle.
The father of one Thorfinn Rowle who was currently a resident in Azkaban prison, Thorfinn had been fresh out of Hogwarts and a newly branded death eater when he was captured by Gideon Prewett and sentenced to twenty years for the murder of one Auror and two civilians.
Caswell Rowle was not the best fighter having been born with a spine defect but when it came to the mind Hermione couldn't think of anyone better to mess with it that, of course, made him a very frightening foe.
He was not as good as Severus Snape at Occlumency or Legilimency as far as the brunette girl knew but if you wanted something wiped from someone else's mind or something new or rather fake planted then he was the one to go to.
So that's what Euphemia did and that was how Hermione found and met Mr. and Mrs. Granger a pair of muggle dentists and came up with her cover and backstory.
Hermione was excited no she was beyond ecstatic not only was she finally getting to go to Hogwarts, her muggle 'parents' would soon be dropping her off and she could not wait to leave this stupid muggle transportation known as a car.
Jean glanced back through her rearview mirror at her daughter who was barely sitting still, it was unusual for the normally calm and quiet girl. This was a good thing the mother decided, her daughter was much too grown up and needed to act like a kid every now and then.
"Well someone's excited to be leaving us." She teased, the girl was pulled from her thoughts and quickly forced a smile and shook her head.
"That's not true I'm gonna miss you both… but I am really looking forward to Hogwarts, I mean I'll get to learn magic! Real magic and met lots of kids just like me!" Hermione response sounded genuine enough and her 'dad' chuckled.
"That's great but while you're changing pumpkins into carriages and meeting new people don't forget to write us every now and then."
He really would miss the girl, he felt like he hadn't had nearly enough time together while she grew up, but he guessed that was his own fault in a way for always working.
That was a common muggle child's story reference one called Cinderella her mind supplied just as fast as she replied, "I'll write all the time, I promise. Oh, and I'll be sure to tell you all the amazing things I've done with fruits and vegetables." Her tone was sarcastic, but her muggle parents just laughed.
Her mother reached back with her hand holding out her pinkie and Hermione responded in kind with her own saying, "Pinkie promise." The woman grinned and shook their hands for a moment before letting go.
It was stupid and completely muggle, maybe somewhere they got the idea from an unbreakable vow but of course, nothing would happen if she didn't keep her promise, so it was easy to make if only to placate her 'mum'.
Originally the muggles were supposed to only be in the picture for a few months while she learned the mysterious ways of muggles but as Caswell pointed out muggle-borns get a home visit from a Hogwarts staff member.
So, then the idea to wait until after the visit was set into motion but then other things came to mind, like every year she'd need to be dropped off on the muggle's side of the barrier and other small things.
It just made sense to have the muggles for them and as an extra layer to prove her muggle-ness.
It didn't make her happy, but she agreed it was for the best.
If rumors were true Harry Potter was raised in the muggle world so that meant the more she could learn about it the more likely she was to fool him and befriend him.
That thought made her sick, befriending Harry Potter The-Boy-Who-Lived. Also, the boy who had cost the young witch her father growing up, she couldn't wait until she killed him.
Hermione knew she had to be smart about it though, so she wouldn't kill him herself no she'd just be the one to help lead to the boy hero's end.
While she didn't have any actual proof that her father was still alive she liked to think he was so that she could find a way to hand him over to the dark wizard but either way the outcome would be the same with one less light wizard in the world.
Hermione would not accept failure as an option.
She would become Harry Potter's best friend and eventual downfall.
But her plan hit a snag as soon as she boarded the Express, it came in the form of one stupid blood traitor Ronald Weasley and he was only the first obstacle Hermione would have to overcome on her journey to befriend the famous Boy-Who-Lived.
A/N: Thanks for reading, don't worry Harry will be in the next chapter! Let me know what you think!