Of the Enemies Bound by a Single Thread

Prologue

Disclaimers: All rights reserved. The characters in the following fanfiction are the property of J.K. Rowling and this story is in no way being used to receive profit of any kind. The only characters owned by the writers are original characters if any appear.

A/n: Hello, Moon-In-The-Shadows. Some of you may recognize the name because the story Love Thy Enemy was posted on this account for awhile. I, SorchaSaoirse(now known as AmethystSaoirse-TheIrishDragon), am sad to say that that story will be discontinued. Instead here is a story written by myself and Aomizuoko. It's a bit of an alternate year six and Hermione is a OOC in places so please don't point it out. We hope you enjoy it and would enjoy lots of feedback.

This story is by Serenity Malfoy, the collaboration name for AmethystSaoirse-TheIrishDragon and Aomizuoko.

In the late nights of July things were certainly quiet in the households of London. This particular household was that of the Grangers and held two muggles and a single witch who'd befriended Harry Potter in her first year. This, of course, was why a flash of a golden light was pushed through the door knob of the front door and into the house allowing two particularly strangely dressed costumed men into the house. Both looked identical save for their size. One was a six foot tall, skinny man while the other was a bit shorter, but plumper than the first. Both held out their left hand showing two wands that could cause deadly force to the other.

"Avery, check the master room," came a sneer from the pale blue eyed man who undoubtedly belonged to the Malfoy family. At the command Avery quietly made his way down the hall so as not to disturb the muggles, and the mudblood witch, in their sleep. If this assignment was to be done it would be done right, there could be no messing things up unless they wanted to be tortured by the Dark Lord. As he tiptoed through the hall he finally found himself at the master bedroom which was, to their luck, left open to reveal Mr. and Mrs. Granger sleeping soundly. "Malfoy, over here. Let's deal with these two first, then, if Snape let's us know the girl is part of the plan too, we'll deal with her. The Dark Lord could have a plan to use her and I don't want to do something without confirmation first." Avery said, slipping into the master bedroom. Malfoy rolled his eyes making way up the stairs, his perfectly black robe flowing behind him.

"You deal with the muggles, I'll deal with the mud-blood." Malfoy sneered, making his way past the Master bedroom. "Better to deal with them all at the same time then have one wake up before the other."

Avery rolled his eyes right back and walked into the room to deal with the muggles. Standing at the foot of the bed and aiming his wand at them, he spoke the Killing Curse and in a flash of green light both muggles were dead and Avery made his way to find Malfoy and found that he had not yet found which of the rooms belonged to the mudblood.

Hermione woke suddenly to the sound of soft footsteps in the hall outside her room. Silently she reached for not only her wand but the dagger she kept under her pillow in case an intruder happened to be muggle and not a witch or wizard. She hoped it was only her imagination but that hope was crushed when her door was flung open to reveal two like-dressed people; two Death Eaters. She refused to scream as she had dealt with the likes of them before and because she refused to let her fear show.

"Ah, Miss Granger," sneered Malfoy with a confidant smirk. "How...displeasing it is to see you this fine night." Without another word, before the young girl could reply, he very quietly spoke his spell in a fast-pace and a purple light was shot at the girl. Hermione recognized the voice and as the spell was spoken she refused to scream, unlike many would have done. All she did was quickly use a small protection spell spoken just as fast as the Death Eater's. Malfoy frowned at the girl, his wand still pointed. He sneered at her, casting another spell. Hermione had to act quick, remembering a lot of the training Harry had given her during the year that had just ended. Recalling him saying that one would need to act quickly in a real battle, Hermione recast her protection spell and jumped out of her bed, making to lodge the dagger in the man's arm.

Avery came in, sneering at Hermione as well. He moved to hit her with the knife. The knife hit Hermione in her left side, leaving a long gash, bleeding and burning profusely and still she did not stop going after Malfoy. She wasn't going to allow him to harm her and if he hadn't already she wouldn't allow him to harm her parents.

"You can hurt me all you want but you won't harm my family!" she shouted, hoping that, if her parents were safe, it would wake them. Malfoy smirked at Hermione's statement.

"You're a bit late for that, mudblood." he said. Hermione choked back the tears that threatened to spill over from her eyes. She couldn't let her weakness show, not in front of these pawns of evil.

"Then I will avenge them, even if it's the last thing I do," Hermione stated boldly and calmly.

"You don't have what it takes to kill. Not you or your boy." Avery interjected. Hermione was getting extremely angry and all of the sudden she felt like she wasn't herself, like something had possessed her and taken over her body.

"I don't? Watch me!" she exclaimed and with that she lunged at Avery with the knife, landing it in the side of his throat and giving him barely enough time to speak. The moment she backed away from him she broke down. She didn't know what had come over her, she just felt so enraged as though all her anger over the years had come to a final boiling point. Her breath started coming quickly now as she began hyperventilating. She had killed a man, she had actually killed someone. One part of her was freaking out the other reasoned that she was only defending herself. Either way both parts agreed that she had killed someone and it took all she had to not burst into tears.

Malfoy sneered, taking a step forward before he stopped suddenly. His lips curved with annoyance but he grabbed Avery's body and with a distinctive pop he was gone. All at once the door down the stairs was broken down.

"Hermione!" a scratching voice called.

"You idiot! Now they'll know we're here for sure!" Another voice was heard saying. By it's awareness, one could tell immediately that it was Professor Moody.

Hermione could hear the calling for her name and let herself call out for the distinctive voice of Mad-Eye Moody.

Before she could say anything further she let herself sink to the floor and lean against her bed, hugging her knees and whispering over and over, "I killed him."

Footsteps were soon heard stalking up the stairs. The voice was grave, a sneer. Severus Snape looked into the room his face grave.

"Granger?" he asked softly. Despite who the person was, the voice was comforting.

"Y-yes..." she said, finally letting the tears roll in quick drops down her cheeks as she continued to whisper 'I killed him' over and over.

"Granger, we've got to go." Severus said, hands brushing against her arm but awkwardly, like he didn't know what he was doing. He didn't really, Severus wasn't one for comforting. He made them stronger, he didn't comfort.

"I killed him, though. I can't...my parents..." Hermione choked out, looking up sadly at Severus.

"You defended yourself." Severus replied dryly, "No harm in that." Hermione shook her head.

"No, he wasn't attacking me. It was the other one... all he did was say I didn't have what it took to kill someone so I...proved him wrong." Hermione said, not holding her tears back now.

"Instinct,"Severus said, "You are after all one of those bloody Gryffindors."

"You don't get it! I don't do that kind of thing! I'm not a Gryffindor, I'm not brave, the hat wasn't supposed to put me in that bloody house in the first place!" Hermione shouted, not knowing what had come over her. it was as though some sort of spell had been lifted when her parents died, as though she wasn't who she had been the last 16 years of her life.

"You, my dear are very wrong about that." Severus said, not quite sure what he was doing. He'd been watching her these past years, knowing who she was. She was someone to be proud of, and that had been enough for him.

"No, the hat told me he would resort me and put me in the house my heart desired to be in the most. That means I wasn't supposed to be in Gryffindor." Hermione said, her tears since dried up and a yawn coming from her lips. Slowly she lowered herself to the ground and let herself fall asleep, forgetting all about the discussion she had just left the middle of. Severus looked over the sleeping child, his lips pursed. Gently, like none would have admitted seeing him do, Severus gathered the young girl into his arms. She was a bit old for this, but there were times when even the oldest needed to be treated as though they were an infant. With a light-weight charm, Severus lifted the girl into his arms and headed down, letting Lupin take over from there as they disappeared with a distinctive 'pop' and Apparated to Black house.

A/n: So what do you think? Is it good? We know that Hermione is pretty out of character in spots but the text explains that she doesn't feel herself and she knows it. But why doesn't she feel herself?