Okay guys, I have an idea…I want to write a long-term Dramione story. And I've actually started to write it…but the problem is recently I've been reading it over and I realized I think I may have made Hermione Mary-Sueish, something I don't want to do to her.
So, I've decided to post one of the chapters for you (this very chapter) and I would appreciate it if you reviewed me and told me the God-honest truth. Whether it's perfectly fine or if I've totally made her Mary-Sueish…I need the feedback guys. Especially if you want this story to continue! I need to know what I'm doing right or wrong…
Oh, and here's a summary of the story BTW:
This is the love story of Hermione Granger, one of the Chosen One's best friends, who is captured by Death Eaters. And when she becomes a slave to the household of Malfoy Manor, she is thrust into the role of leader and liberator to the many slaves already residing there. But when surrounded by new enemies and some old enemies redeem themselves, nothing is as it seems and Hermione Granger's life is changed forever…
P.S. The major thing you need to know to read this chapter is that Final Battle was had, but neither side won. You read why in a little bit
Chapter 2: The Beginning
October 24th, 1999
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Library
Hermione Granger sighed as she closed yet another book. She couldn't believe it: after countless hours of researching, she could barely find anything! Nothing on what Voldemort would use as a final Horocrux! I mean, they had already gotten 6 Horocruxes! But they weren't even close to finding the final one, the one that could lead to the beginning of the end.
Hermione quickly counted the ones they already destroyed with her fingers; the diary, the ring, the locket, the Cup, Nagini, Harry and Voldemort himself…Six in all. But what else can there be? She thought in frustration.
It is a known fact that the number 7 is a lucky wizarding number. Therefore, it would make sense that Voldemort would use it (he would let there be six Horocruxes and let himself be the seventh)! So why on earth isn't Voldemort dead yet? Why didn't he crumble into dust when Harry fought him? There must've been a mistake all those years ago…Harry was probably the mistake. It would make sense…So what could possibly be one of the original Horocruxes?
She sighed sadly and grabbed a leather-clad book beside her. She opened her academic journal quickly and sifted through her notes until she came upon the characteristics of a Horocrux that Voldemort made (written by herself of course).
Hmm…it's definitely something that matters to him. Maybe a childhood object or something of the sort. Next probably something associated with Hogwarts—particularly the Four Founders. Something from either Rowena Ravenclaw or Salazar Slytherin (because he would never use something from Godric Gryffindor and he has already used something from Helga Hufflepuff—he would never use something from Hufflepuff twice). Most likely something from Rowena Ravenclaw. Probably a necklace or some type of jewellery (he tends to lean towards stuff that is timeless, like books and jewellery). Also it would be something easily hidden…Hermione froze.
Something easily hidden and something in Hogwarts? Where would you hide something that needed to be hidden in Hogwarts? …
Hermione eyes widened with glee. She bent over her journal excitedly and wrote; THE ROOM OF LOST THINGS, with 3 circles circling it.
She could barely contain her glee. Suddenly she felt like she was 11 again and she was getting her first 100% on one of her first Wizarding tests. She felt thrilled and kind of smug. That was until…
Okay, I got a place…but I still don't have an item. Hermione thought, slumping in her seat dejectedly, I have the rest of the puzzle…but I'm missing the final piece…
"Hey, why the long face?"
Hermione gasped in fright and looked behind her, only to see Harry there looking concerned and Ron with a mischievous grin on his face.
"Don't do that!" Hermione cried, clutching her chest, "You almost gave me a heart attack!"
Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley held up their hands in surrender at the same time, making Hermione chuckle and shut her notebook.
"So seriously, what's wrong?" Harry asked, sitting beside her while Ron sat across from her.
"It's nothing…" Hermione began, but finished in a whisper, "I just think I might have a lead on where the final Horocrux is—"
"Great!" Ron cried happily.
"…But I still don't know what it could be." Hermione finished with a roll of her eyes.
"Oh…well I'm sure you'll figure it out. In the meantime," Ron said, closing and piling the books that surrounded Hermione (to her absolute horror), "we have to go get some dinner."
"Yeah, you've missed supper five times in the past week because of this constant researching. Now we don't mind you doing this—we're actually very grateful—but we outright refuse for you miss another meal." Harry said sternly, getting her attention away from all of her closed books.
"But—But—Why do you two care about when I eat?" Hermione half-whimpered, half-commented bitterly.
"Since we're your best friends?" Ron said with a 'Duh!' tone of voice, something that earned him a stern look from Harry and a glare from Hermione.
"Fine! But I don't like this." She whimpered, casting one more longing look at her books.
"Fine right back. But I have to warn you, this researching thing is getting to your head." Ron warned. Hermione just rolled her eyes, stood up and placed her journal on top of one of the small piles surrounding her.
~~::~~
From there Ron and Harry dragged a reluctant Hermione to the Great Hall, where instead of many children gathering, it was where the much older Order of the Phoenix was gathering.
The Order had grown since from when it first began. Instead of the measly number of around 30, they were going on 70 grown wizards, both male and female. It gave joy the three friends, since they knew they'd never have to do everything alone like they had first thought.
The sad thing though was the lack of children mulling about Hogwarts. Without students, Hogwarts represented an empty castle—at least in Hermione's mind. But like the other teachers had put it, it was way too dangerous for students to be at Hogwarts as long as it was the Order's headquarters'.
So now Hogwarts felt as though it was a home without a family, or a person without a soul. It felt empty and ghostly now, something that quite annoyed and saddened the three, since Hogwarts had always been a happy, homey place.
If someone had asked Harry, he would've said that Hogwarts felt like Grimmauld Place did after Sirius died.
If someone had asked Ron, he would've said that Hogwarts felt like The Burrow after Bill, Charlie and Percy had moved.
If someone had asked Hermione, she would've said that Hogwarts felt like her empty house did after her parents had left for Australia.
They all might've felt different things, but one fact remained the same: Hogwarts wasn't the same.
~~::~~
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
The Great Hall
"Hermione! Finally join us for supper do you?" Fred Weasley called as the Golden Trio entered the room. Hermione rolled her eyes at him and sat down beside George. Despite the fact that George was quite busy eating, he gave her a questioning look, making Hermione sigh.
"Sorry. It's just that I've been working real hard on…something, and I'm desperate to finish. I guess I just forgot." Hermione said with a shrug, almost letting the cat out of the bag. You see, no one else knew about the Horocruxes, for everyone's safety. It still was only Harry, Ron and Hermione who knew about it. But for whatever reason, as the Final Battle was drawing near, the Trio was more prone to letting it slip. Wherever he was, Dumbledore must be shaking his head at them.
"Ahh. Is it that secret mission?" George whispered playfully—but he still looked left out.
"If it is shouldn't you be finished it by now? I mean, you're Hermione Granger for Merlin's sakes!" Fred cried out dramatically.
Hermione just rolled her tired eyes at the two of them before turning to Ginny who on her other side.
~~::~~
"Granger, Weasley, can I have a word with you two after the meal in Dumbledore's office?"
Hermione and Ron looked up from their meals to Severus Snape, who (by the looks of it) would prefer to do anything except having 'a word with you two'.
Things never change, Hermione thought with a small grin.
If you wonder how on earth Snape was there at the moment, since surely he must've died in the Final Battle, well think again.
After the Final Battle, Harry was able to bring Snape's body back from the Shrieking Shack. But when he went to put his body among the others, Madame Pomfrey stopped him. From there she somehow saved the life that was barely there in Snape's body and was able to nurse him back to health…but the only things she couldn't heal were the snake bite scars and the way everyone looked at him now (Harry had told the others that Snape had been a spy all along and was able to fool Voldemort into thinking otherwise. Now everyone looked at him as if he was some sort of hero, something Snape wasn't very happy about).
So now that everyone knew he was in fact a good person, the Order accepted him back with open arms (literally with Mrs. Weasley…something that Snape didn't appreciate). Nowadays he spent his days helping planning, strategizing and occasionally giving an input about what he knew about Voldemort and how Voldemort would react in certain situations.
"Alright, Professor—Snape—Severus." Hermione corrected herself, blushing. Snape just rolled his eyes and then strode out of the room dramatically (something made even more dramatic by his bellowing black robes).
"Merlin…after 7 years you'd think that he'd lose his scaring touch." Ron whispered with a roll of his eyes, making Hermione giggle quietly into her napkin.
~~::~~
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
The Headmaster's Office
"We have a large problem." Snape said the moment the two sat down in Dumbledore's office.
That's not the sentence you want to hear when you first enter a room. Hermione thought with a mental grimace.
"In a week—In 7 days—the Dark Lord is going to storm the castle. I know this because Halloween is a special day for the Dark Lord—"
"Why?" Hermione asked before she could stop herself. Her curiosity was sometimes too big to handle.
"Because," Snape said, looking thoroughly annoyed, "it's was the Dark Lord's favourite holiday as a child. Therefore, it has meaning," Snape gave Hermione a meaningful glance, "Only I know about this fact. He shall want to finish this once and for all on this day. Since I helped plan many a time, I know that he shall probably send in Bellatrix, her husband and maybe a few more Death Eaters. So when he comes in there shall be no one to stop him and get in his way. We cannot let this happen! This cannot be the Final Battle. We're not as prepared as we need to be and we're not ready—am I correct?" he asked Hermione. She nodded her head sadly (Snape was the only other person who knew of the Horocruxes).
"Exactly. So we must defeat them before they kill us. Any thoughts?"
…"Well, we have to get Harry out of here. They're guaranteed to lose if Harry's not here to be killed." Hermione said, fighting the urge to raise her hand excitedly as if she was in class.
"I agree that's probably for the best…Dumble—I mean I was thinking this as well and that finalizes it. Anything else?"
"Why are you asking us this? Shouldn't you be consulting Lupin or—or Kingsley?" Ron asked before Hermione could give out any more ideas. She frowned at him in both annoyance and in thought. Ron was right though; why were they being asked?
"Because…you two are going to lead this battle." Snape said.
There was absolute silence before two very loud "WHAT?"'s was heard.
"We have barely any experience!" Hermione cried.
"And we're way, way, way too young!" Ron cried.
"And—and…I don't even have a third and! We just can't do this Professor!" Hermione cried.
"Yes you can." A voice suddenly said. Three heads turned to look at Professor Dumbledore's portrait, only to see Dumbledore, who was looking sternly at Ron and Hermione. "I wouldn't have picked you two I didn't think you could do it."
"You picked us? But why? You have much more experienced, older and very eager wizards and witches who would love this job." Hermione asked.
"Because, I believe you both can do it. If you three can figure out 6 of the Horocruxes, survive alone in the woods and fight Voldemort, you two can lead an army." Dumbledore said confidently.
"I hardly think the Order would appreciate this. After all, the Order is a group who decides things as a group." Ron said.
"They'll listen to Dumbledore." Snape said, leaving no room for argument.
"But-But…"Ron whimpered.
"No buts Ronald Weasley. You and Miss Granger will lead this army, and you will win." Dumbledore said, inviting no more excuses.
~~::~~
The next week was quite hard. The mornings were filled with training and practicing, afternoons filled with meetings for Lupin, Hermione, Ron, Moody and Snape so they could come up with a spell-proof plan, and nights were filled with researching and lack of sleep (especially on Hermione's part). And throughout it all nobody was allowed to tell Harry was going on and what was going to happen (something quite tough on the people closest to him). They all knew he would never leave the castle willingly with Lupin (it was debated if he should bring anyone with him, and in the end it was decided Lupin should go to keep Harry away no matter what, plus he could take Teddy with him to keep him safe) if he knew there was a battle to be had.
In the end, the plan was set:
Since they had no idea when the battle was going to be, in the early morning of October 31st Harry would leave the school with Lupin and Teddy and Apparate to a safe location. Lupin would keep Harry at bay until he got Ron's, Snape's, McGonagall's or Hermione's Patronus telling him it was safe to go back to the school.
After Harry leaves, the strongest wizards were to meet outside and were going to create a shield around Hogwarts and an Intruder Charm as well, so if any Death Eaters got in, it would be known. They didn't need any surprises.
From there everyone would be in groups of two and everyone would go to a certain part of Hogwarts to survey the area throughout the day. If a group spotted any type of activity throughout the castle, they'd report this with the coin given to each partnership (Hermione worked all week on a fake Galleon that could report messages to every other coin akin to it. She took the idea from the coins she used for Dumbledore's Army). They used the coins because Patronuses were way too slow and any other signal (like lighting a fire or yelling) could alert the Death Eaters.
If they saw a Death Eater, they were to stun or knock out as many as they could, but if there were too many for the two to handle, they were to hide or run and tell the others (through coins or voice).
They were to do this until everything's clear and then they'd let the others know through coin that everything was clear. When all groups report clearness they would all meet in the Great Hall.
But if Snape was wrong at all, all the groups were to survey until the sunrise of November 1st and then meet in the Great Hall for further instructions.
The plan was set.
All they needed to do now was prepare and wait.