Hermione had been keeping a dark secret ever since the summer of her second year at Hogwarts. With all the stress she had to cope with inside and out of school, she had found a 'muggle remedy' to help her relax. Yes, Hermione Granger has been doing drugs.

It started with pot, but she soon realized that it only made it worst, she became paranoid after a year. She then started to take speed, a stimulate that helped her both in school -to get good grades, if taken in a reasonable amount- and it helped her go trough the day. She knew it was wrong, but she had gone too far to stop now... Little-miss-perfect wasn't so perfect after all...

She met a boy in the summer after her second year; it was him who introduced her to drugs. He was a typical American. They had met in a coffee shop near her home.

His name was Voldo, a curious name for a curious person. Some might say he was a freak, but Hermione found him rather interesting.

Over the years, they had become rather close, like brother and sister. They talked about everything; life, spiritual and social psychology, God, religion. She even told him she was a witch.

Her sixth year had now come to an end, she had the whole summer to herself since Harry was spending time with the Weasleys and her parents had insisted that she spend the summer with them. On a warm day, she decided to pay Voldo a visit, telling her parents she was going to the library. She walked in a deserted alley, which led to the boy's apartment. He lived in what we might call a 'bad neighborhood' but it was still part in the richest part of town.

She was about to knock on his door but it burst open and she came face to face with a boy she had not saw in quite a while. He was wearing his usual ripped jacket of Tool -his favorite band of all time- and some ripped jeans. Most would say his style was Gothic, mixed with some punk.

"There's my favorite witch!" screamed Voldo.

Hermione gasped and panicking, she looked around to see if anyone had heard him. Luckily, no one seemed to take notice. She then turned back at the guy, seeing he was smirking.

"What the bloody hell is the matter with you?" she whispered. "I told you not to go around telling people that I'm a witch!"

"Ah, but you see my love, no one listens. Even if they did, it would be all rubbish to them anyway. They would only think we're high on something good," he laughed.

'God he's sexy with his long dark hair!' she thought, as she got lost in his ocean blue eyes.

"I must say that you are right," she said, coming to her senses. "But don't be so easy! I should be absolutely furious right now, consider yourself lucky for being hot."

"This is what I like to hear. It's like music to my ears!" he smirked. "Now... shall we go smoke a pipe then? It's been almost a year since I smoked with my much missed muse."

He held out his hand for her to take, she accepted it, beaming.

Once inside, Hermione looked around dumbly, as if she had never been there before. It was dark, medieval style, almost reminding her of Hogwarts. She noticed that he had pictures of them everywhere.

"If I didn't know any better, I would say you are in love with me," she teased.

He looked at her blankly, stayed silent for a few seconds before saying: "I don't mean to break you heart m'lady, but I do have a special someone in my life at the moment."

Hermione jumped on Voldo, who was sitting on his a black leather sofa.

"You evil little prat! How could you keep this out of your letters?" she demanded, play fighting with him. "Who is she? Do I know her? Where did you meet her? I want to see her and-"

Voldo was now on top of Hermione, her arms pined to the couch, his voice rasping.

He smiled down at her and said: "Her name is Melinda and she's 16. No you never met her. We bumped into each other about 3 months ago in the same coffee shop that you and I had met."

"That was our meeting! My fairy tale!" she frowned, but laughed all the same. "So she's an American is she? What's she doing all the way over here?"

They were now sitting on each of their side, their legs crossed together.

"She's doing some kind of Internationnal Exchange Student program." explained Voldo. "You see, we've known each other since we were born. My mother and her father were best of friends. We were inseparable. We went out together most of our lives, but we've lost contact when I moved here."

"Then why not tell me about her?"

"I didn't know how you would react. I didn't want to hurt you," he said simply. "I thought you had feelings for me and all... But I want you to know that our friendship is the most important thing for me."

Hermione laughed. "Me? Have feelings for you?" Voldo raised an eyebrow. "OK, maybe I do, but not that kind! You're the brother I never had, that's all. Yeah, first, I was madly in love with you but it all changed in time. I'm happy for you really; I just hope it won't change our relationship"

"I won't, I promise..." he paused and said, "Look, there's something I've been wanting to tell you. I too loved you... well... I still do... But it'll never happen will it?"

Hermione looked at him and disbelief then shook her head slightly. "Like you said, our friendship is the most important thing. But what about what's her name? Don't you love her?"

"Love is a big word Hermione," he said simply.

"You say it to me all the time!"

"To you I mean it. Look, the thing is Melinda isn't the girl I used to know. She used to be fearless, outgoing... She wasn't like anyone I've ever met. But now, she so uptight, she has become a person who does every thing right!"

Hermione blushed. 'What would he think of me if he saw me at school? Little-Miss-Perfect...' she thought. She didn't know what to say, he had just told her he loved her after all the years she had known him. She too had feelings for him, but she was seeing someone herself... She did not dare tell him, she knew Voldo wouldn't approve of him.

"Look, the reason I never told you is because I knew it wouldn't work between us," he said, since Hermione said nothing at all. "It wouldn't work because we only see each other in the summer and sometimes in the holidays. That's not nearly enough to keep a relationship going."

"Yeah... But it's my last year." She said, absent-mindedly.

They were left in an uncomfortable silence. Voldo decided to take out his pipe and offered weed to Hermione who accepted gladly.

An hour later, they were having a passionate conversation, both laughing there asses off.

"Eve! Mother of sin!" screamed Hermione.

"You don't know what you're talking about! Eve does not exist!"

"Of course not or she would be more then 2000 years old! Ha Ha Ha."

"Smart arse," he muttered. "Shit, what time is it?"

"Almost 10 why?" she asked puzzled.

"Shit! Shit! Shit! She's going to be here any minute!" he mumbled, hiding his pipe and every thing that has to do with drugs. "She is going to kill me!"

"Who's going to kill you?"

"Melinda!" he said. "Look, what we talked about earlier, it would be best not to mention it. I'm sorry I told you that I loved you even though I knew it would cause a problem but-"

"It hasn't caused a problem, yet."

They hugged for several seconds, until someone came in.

"Am I interrupting something?"

"Melinda!" gasped Voldo. "It's nothing to worry about; she's the girl I've told you about."

"That famous witch of yours?" she asked.

Hermione cast a reproachful look to Voldo, who returned an 'I'm sorry' look.

"Melinda, sweetie, it's nothing I tell you. She's just the sister I never had."

"Been fucking your sister have you?" she hissed. "And still stoned as I can plainly see! I told you I wanted you to stop using all those drugs. It's not good for you! You should know better, according to what happened when you-"

"We don't need to get into this right now."

Hermione felt misplaced. Voldo wasn't lying when he said she was an uptight girl, while he failed to mention she was a bitch also. She wasn't even all that pretty... Hermione never thought he would go out with someone like her. She was not like him at all... Her style was like Hermione's in Hogwarts.

When she came back to her senses, she realized they were still fighting over God knows what, until Melinda finally calmed down.

Giving Hermione one last 'he's mine' look, she said, "Hey, we weren't introduced properly. My name is Melinda, Melinda Vane."

"I'm Hermione Granger," she said as nicely as she could, "Are you by any chance related to Romilda Vane?"

"I doubt it, I'm not from here you know," she snapped. "How do you pronounce your name anyways? Harmony?"

"Her-my-o-nee" said Voldo.

"Right... And how old are you?"

"17" he answered for her once again.

"Matthew! I think she can answer by her own. She can talk can she? Stop being so protective of her. You're always acting like this when you talk about her!" said Melinda, "Are you in love with her or something?"

"Matthew?" Hermione laughed, trying to get him out of a sticky spot. "That's your real name? You got to be kidding me... Matthew... That's so... Normal..."

"That's right his name is Matthew, have a problem with that?"

"I don't... It's just, I've known him as Voldo for 4 years. I thought it was so original. It went so well with him, his style and everything. It's funny because how could a name like Matthew define him? It's so... Blah."

"I've been known as Voldo my whole life, but Melinda here doesn't like that name so she calls me Matthew to piss me off, or simply because she wants to. She knows I hate that name but it doesn't stop her from calling me by that name. I just wish someday she'll realize that."

"Yeah, but do you know what, honey, I hate the name Voldo. Why would I call you that when your real name is more... real...more well, Normal..."

"I'm not normal, so why would I want a normal name?" he asked.

"Anyways," said Melinda, "I hear your parents are uptight. Aren't they worried when you go out this late with a guy like 'Voldo'?"

"Actually, they don't know I exist." said Voldo.

"Yeah, but I'm a legal adult now," Hermione added quickly. "Well, in the wizarding world anyways. So there's not much that they could do to stop me."

"Holy shit, Hermione! You are!" exclaimed Voldo. "You'll be able to show me those magic tricks!"

"Oh, I would just love to see that." Melinda smirked.

"That can be a problem... Can't perform magic in front of muggles."

"Muggles?" asked Melinda.

"Non-magical people." she explained and turn to Voldo, a rage a fury came to her eyes. "I thought we weren't supposed to keep any secrets from each other?"

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"I had a chat with Minister Weasley - our new Minister of Magic. We had a little talk about you," said Hermione. She saw that Voldo was slightly uncomfortable.

"I forgot to tell you, there's so much that's been going on. I meant to tell you tonight but then I was just so happy to see you that I forgot all about it."

"And what did you guys talk about?"

"Don't play dumb, you know perfectly well we talked about you being banned. Why didn't you tell me? I wouldn't have been mad at you or anything! Now I am because you lied to me for 4 years! I told you I was a witch! Why couldn't you do the same? I thought you trusted me, but I guess I was wrong." said Hermione furiously.

Voldo said nothing, he only looked at his feet.

"I'm your God damn sister!" she said, on the verge of tears. "You're the one who said we shouldn't keep secrets from one another. You kept two from me and I kept none. Oh sorry, I kept one of me own but for good reasons!"

Again, he said nothing.

"D'you know what, I don't need this right now." she said after a few seconds of silence and left for the door.

"Herms wait!" Voldo shouted, running after her. "Herm stop! Let's talk about this."

"About what? Of how you lied to me? Or talk about how you don't trust me. Or maybe you're wanting to tell me why the fuck you got banned from the wizarding world."

"I'm ashamed of my past happy? I was afraid of you finding out because I didn't want you to think I'm a complete screwup!"

"What did you do?" she whispered.

"Ever since I was a kid, I read everything that had to do with magic, something out of this world. I always knew I was different. When I was 11, I received a letter, informing me I was accepted at a school named Wisdom. I had no idea what it was. I thought it was all a big joke, but my mother, she was a witch. She died when I was only a baby. My grandmother, she told me everything I needed to know about my mother. She didn't dare tell me my mother was a witch before I received my own letter." he explained. "I was happy when I received it, for the first time in my life, I was happy. I went straight to buy my books with my granny, anxious to learn more. Then I got fascinated by the dark arts, something that I always found interesting. I started doing the wrong sort of magic. Once, I got into a fight with a boy in my school. I used an unforgivable curse. I was ashamed."

Hermione shook her head; she couldn't believe what he had just said. "Why? Why did you do it?"

"I needed to know what it felt like."

"Was it worth it?" she asked, but continued without waiting for an answer. "You know what? You should be in Azkaban! You don't deserve to be free."

Voldo looked down at his feet and said; "I know... I told him - our Minister of Magic - that I didn't know what it was. I said I came across it in books, not really knowing what it did. But now he's really ill because of me. I also plead and plead not to make me go to prison, that I was only a child. Nasty creatures guide them... Then he gave me a choice, either to go in prison, pay for what I did, or to leave the wizarding world forever. It was hard, but I chose to leave." said Voldo, close to tears. "I regret it with all my heart; you have to believe me, Hermione. They said they didn't need a dark wizard in the States. I didn't know what they meant before you told me about Voldemort... I'm sorry my love, I was just so ashamed, I couldn't tell you."

"D'you know what you just made me realize? You don't love me. I'm just everything you ever wanted to be. You just want to learn magic again!" said Hermione, looked taking aback. "I'm right, aren't I? I have to go."

Voldo grabbed her arm tightly, not letting her go. "You're hurting me!" squealed Hermione.

"Not as much as you've hurt me." he whispered, losing his grip a little bit. "How can you say something like that? How can you even say that I don't really love you? What, do you want me to prove that I truly love you? Ok, never use magic in front of me. Never."

"You're full of shit."

"What happened to the most polite girl I used to know?"

"She met you." said Hermione.

"And what does that supposed to mean?"

"You know perfectly well what it means! Oh, and for the record, we will never be together. Do you know why? It's because I have a boyfriend. Yeah that's right, a boyfriend. We've been going out for 2 years. That's my big secret. Now, we have both have come out and there's nothing else to say. Goodbye."

With that, she left his apartment and walked into a deserted alley so she could disapparate home.

"Mom! I'm home," she yelled.

No one answered however. Hermione noticed that there was a bunch of people talking and screaming outside her home, police cars everywhere.

She walked outside to ask what was going on, but she saw that they were all pointing in the sky. To her horror, The Dark Mark was hanging over her house. She ran back inside, looking everywhere for her parents. She found them lying on the ground in her bedroom, not moving a muscle.

The room became darker, she couldn't move more then a few feet in front of her. She let out a scream and cried harder then she ever did before.

A few seconds later, two police officers ran inside. She saw them rushing after her, it was the only thing she remembered before fainting.