I do not own Harry Potter. I never will, am just playing around with the characters and a plot bunny...

The Beginning…

There seems to be no way out for me. Everything I knew and believed is crushing down around me, after the deaths of most families that stood against HIM, I can't help but think that I need more help than the ministry can give me in order to protect my own family. This morning another one arrived, a death eater mask, it seems to mock all my efforts to protect my family from the bigots from "my" world. With the trace on my wand most of the protections that I should have been able to provide for my family are not possible. The Headmaster is only concerned with his political agenda and keeping the only surviving member of the Potter line under his thumb, my problem as a muggleborn do not concern him. It does not matter to them that I hold more promise than the majority of pureblooded children in my year. The only thing that matters is that I am not one of them. I have dirty blood, many snidely say I stole the magic of another in order to be magical myself. I have been presented by two options, allow my family to die or approach my Defense against the Dark Arts Professor for help.

I would have approached him before but I don't trust him, I have to acknowledge that he could possibly be the most gifted teacher that Hogwarts had seen since Professor Dumbledore. This however does not give me any confidence, there is something about him that unsettles me. There is a heaviness about him that has always made me wary of him. But with this recent delivery I have no other choice but to approach Professor Riddle for assistance. I seem to have become Voldemort's new target. Voldemort seems to target muggleborns who reach their sixth year of schooling and forces them to drop out so that it becomes impossible for them to get their NEWTS and become productive members of wizarding society; he targets these muggleborn because he wishes to show them that wizards have no regard for their plight. I am about to enter my seventh year as a Hogwarts student and am hoping to be awarded the Head girl budge; this is an unprecedented achievement for a muggleborn. I am the current highest student in my year and only one other has surpassed my records, his name is Thomas Marvolo Riddle, and he graduated sixteen years ago. After some conversations with him it is not hard to pick up on his intelligence.

Voldemort is currently the most powerful dark wizard and he gets more and more powerful as the years go by, he is referred to as He-who-must-not-be-named by most wizards and witches because they fear that actually uttering his name would cause calamity to fall on that witch or wizard. I came across the name in the library in a text that chronicled the rise and fall of past dark wizards. He is said to be the most powerful dark magic wizard of all time. He rose up after the German Dark Lord Grindelwald. He created a group of supporters called the Death Eaters. Most of the recent attacks by this group seem to have been focused on wizarding England, their hold over Britain was growing stronger and stronger. I have to get in touch with professor Riddle before it becomes too late…..

I need to find a way to protect my parents and baby brother and the only one who seems to pay any attention to what I say is Professor Riddle, the last time I approached the headmaster about the crimes being done to the muggleborns, he told me I should stay out of things that have nothing to do with me. This was after I had witnessed some sixth year students hexing a second year Muggleborn. Even my head of house did not seem to be concerned with what happened within the School walls as long as it wasn't one of her students.

...

Professor T.M. Riddle

Defense against the dark arts

Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry

I am sorry to have to contact you during your Christmas break professor but I have no one else to turn to in this matter. I tried to approach my head of house and the headmaster but they refused to step in and both told me I was being paranoid.

Two days ago a package was delivered to my home using the muggle post it was wrapped as a Christmas present and contained a death eater mask. This unfortunately is not the first time I have received one. I have received 2 other masks over the past 2 years. After the attack on Myrtle Rooney's family last year and her subsequent death, I fear for my own family. If it is possible for you to help me as I cannot perform the necessary protection spells for my family.

I would really appreciate a speedy response from you as I do not wish to unduly worry my parents. If you are able to help me I will send you my address and also the location of the location to which you may apparte.

Yours sincerely

Hermione Granger.

...

I should tell you my whole story

Year One

The first year of school was the most amazing of my entire life I remember wanting to know all I could about this world I never even suspected existed alongside the ordinary one that I knew. I felt that I could at least find a place in this amazing new world I was told I belonged to now. I didn't know then about the bigotry that is prevalent in this world. I was so eager but more obnoxious than I should have been for a migrant. I naively believed in the inert goodness of people towards one another. The wand store Ollivander's where I received my wand and the wizarding bank Gringots, all made me want to know more about the school Hogwarts. I was oriented by a man named Lupin, he seemed very friendly and told me a little about the school. He helped me with my school shopping and also the location of the train to Hogwarts. During the train ride I tried to make a few friends but many barely paid me any attention. I met a boy called Neville Longbottom a girl called Hanna Abbot and spent the train and boat rides with the two of them. After getting sorted into Gryffindor house and taking part in the welcome feast. We were led by a red headed boy to the dormitories, I was later to find out that he was a sixth year prefect called Percy Weasley.

The following day, we got our class schedules and it was mandatory to take seven core subjects options for additions were only available in third year. The core subjects are Potions, Charms, History of magic, Transfiguration, Defense against the dark arts (DADA), Astrology and Herbology.

In my potions class I was confronted with my first ever pureblood supremist, Draco Malfoy he called himself, I later found out that he was a descendant of an old family. He completely refused to sit at the same table as I and even went so far as going across the room. At that time I did not know that it was because of my blood status, I thought it had to do with the house rivalries as he was sorted into Slytherin and I was a Gryffindor.

Later that year I came to understand what the term Mud blood meant and understood why I was called that by the majority of the student body. I had to learn the hard way thanks to Malfoy and his friends, even some members of my house held the same views.

The greatest impression I got in my first year was from my DADA professor Mr. R.J Lupin. He was an engaging man who made his classes fun and interactive, he had a tendency to disappear for some stretches of time and near the end of my first year a ministerial enquiry revealed that he was actually a werewolf. I then became interested in the different sorts of magical creatures and the rights they were entitled to under wizarding law. Due to my age I was not allowed much freedom in what I could study. Lupin was fired and a new teacher was employed, we would not be able to meet him until the next year.

My love of the written word enabled me to learn more and more spells, this however was both a blessing and a curse; it accelerated my magical growth but stunted my social growth. During my extended trips to gain more knowledge from the library I failed to realize that I needed to form some friendships and connections with my peers in order to find a place in the future social pecking order. I spent the majority of my first year only associating with those who had some need for intellectual help, it all began with my first potions lesson and went downhill from there. I became the walking encyclopedia of magic and spells, apart from this no one wanted anything to do with me. Members of my age group were not very willing to stand up for those they did not consider friends. A boy named Ronald Weasley was the first to put me down because I drew attention to his lack of attention in class. The girls that I was rooming with where all Half Bloods and thus stood higher than I did. At Hogwarts the house that was noted for its dedication to knowledge was Raven claw and thus my ambition to become the top student in the school was met with a lot of hostility. In my year there was only one other Muggle born and he was a Hufflepuff called Justin Finch-Flechley.

Many of my professors where happy with my work and began using my dedication to my grades as an example to both my year and the year above me. This as you can imagine did not sit well with those in the higher year and soon I started being bullied by those older and stronger than me. I began spending much of my time hiding from these students. They began targeting me after meals and also before classes, in my efforts to to hide from them I discovered the location of the kitchens and took many of my meals within them. I also soon learnt the Disillusionment charm and a silencing charm in order to hide better. These measures worked for a time, but soon I discovered that my roommates began to tell my bullies when I got back to my bed at night. I needed to take more drastic measures. I began sleeping in unused classrooms and also needed to learn even more charms in order not to violate school rules or get caught out of bed by the caretaker, my biggest fear being expelled from the school before I could learn to control my powers.

I learnt simple cleaning charms, transfiguration and privacy warding to prevent more bulling from my seniors. I also learnt of many shortcuts within the castle to help me run away from my bullies.

In my year was a boy called Harry Potter, his parents where one of the more prominent Light families in the wizarding world while the Malfoys' where the Dark families. (Not much is said about why such a division existed but much of the division hinged on blood purity. Voldemort was said to be a purist who wanted to take over the ministry and reduce the privileges afforded to those of 'Lower Birth'). Harry Potter was a privileged youth and any who associated with him reaped the benefits of his luck. His best friend was Ronald Weasley and he was also friends with Seamus Finnegan.

The Hogwarts library was a place of peace for me as I could lose myself within the stacks of books. It was thanks to the library I discovered that there is no one alive who knew what Lord Voldemort actually looked like. There were many people who compared him and our headmaster Albus Dumbledore in terms of power but an actual description of the dark lord was not available.

My first day of classes was a Monday and made up of Herbology in the morning and then transfiguration, potions and DADA in the afternoon. I used the first day to try and show how much knowledge I had managed to gain before the start of term but I was outshined in Herbology by Longbottom, transfiguration at mid-morning was better but I was again discouraged by potions immediately after. DADA was better as professor Lupin was welcoming to student questions and participation.

Tuesday meant a whole morning of Herbology, potions in the afternoon and Astronomy at Midnight. Wednesday had History of Magic at midmorning and Herbology in the afternoon. Thursday was my favorite beginning with Charms, transfiguration, potions and DADA. There was only one drawback to Thursdays and that was the mandatory flying lessons. My first class saw me fall flat on face and that's how I found out the location of the Hospital wing. Friday had potions, charms and DADA.

By the end of my first year I had learnt the merit of staying silent in class. Being more quiet took a lot of the attention away and also afforded me a measure of peace. I however would not compromise on my grades and so not all the negative attention was taken away. The students in my year ignored me and I could only say I had a few friends namely Neville Longbottom and Anthony Goldstein. I was also on good terms with Megan Jones of Hufflepuff.

On the other hand the Slytherin made a sport of teasing me about my hair and teeth, the leader was Draco Malfoy. In the beginning I had enough self-confidence to give witty comebacks to his bullying but then after a while they stopped talking and started hexing. I was soon well known by the Matron Madam Pomfrey. She began to teach me a few healing spells but for most of the hexes I needed counter curses and potions. The most memorable hex was one that made my front teeth grow beyond their actual size and I used that as an opportunity to correct the size of my teeth.

Among the Gryffindor's only the Weasley in my year continued to give me grief and this was because I refused to give him access to my homework after he did not complete his work. I can clearly remember the conversation, it went something like this

I walked into the tower five minutes before curfew and I found him and potter lounging on the couches.

'Hey book girl!' he yelled at me. Even though I knew he was talking about me I decided not to respond as he called me "book girl". As I made my way towards the stairs leading to my dormitory he blocked my path.

'Hey am talking to you, I need your essay for transfiguration and potions that are due tomorrow' he said confidently.

'No I won't give them to you' I said 'you should have done the work by now'

' Why are you being so difficult? Everyone knows that you do more than the teachers require so just give me a few parts of your essays and we will call it square.'

When I continued to refuse he grabbed my bag but I had long learned to charm my bag to open only for me and he failed to get my essays from my bag. When he turned around to listen to what potter was saying to him I ran up the stairs and then summoned my bag. From that day I became a target for Weasley and thus I was forced to find alternate sleeping arrangements. I have to say that Weasley and Malfoy where the major contributors to my developing a low self-esteem in my school years.

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