Standard Anti-Litigation Charm: The characters and canon situations in the following story belong solely to JK Rowling, Scholastic and WB. I am not making any money from the publishing or writing of this story.
This will be a Hermione/Multi story. Obviously, it will be AU and a bit OOC, but bear with me, if you will. I shall try to make it interesting, and not just smutty…
Chapter One-
1Lord Voldermort sat on his throne; his crimson eyes gleaming from the depths of his hood as he tuned out the chatter and shrieking of his Death Eaters to concentrate on his own thoughts. Those thoughts were the first clear and unfrenzied ones he had had in too many years. 'So much time lost… so much of myself… lost..' He shifted in his seat as fury and rage settled into him. His fist clenched on the armrest as he mused, and he very nearly missed the interested gaze of one of his Death Eaters.
"Silence!" he commanded in his customary sibilant whisper. The gathering of his faithful (and fearful) servants settled immediately, although he could see on their faces that they were expectant. 'They wish for me to call for a revel. Well, I shall have to disappoint them.'
"Albus Dumbledore is dead," he called out, and waited for the cheers of the throng to die down once more. "The so-called 'Light' was dealt a horrible blow… our faithful brethren have been returned to us from Azkaban…and we have fully taken over the Ministry of Magic! This is all great news for our cause….a cause, which I shall be reflecting on and redefining now in the days ahead."
He nearly laughed at the confused looks on the Death Eaters' faces. "Go! All of you! Return to your homes and holes… you will be called upon shortly." Muttering and whispers followed the unsettled witches and wizards out of the former ballroom of Malfoy Manor. "Severus… Draco…Lucius… you three… stay. Sit," he murmured. He saw the frightened glance of Narcissa Malfoy as she was the last to leave the room. The doors boomed shut in front of her white face. Turning his gaze to the remaining Malfoys, he noticed the boy's visage become even paler than normal. Drops of sweat beading at the hairline of the father. Snape sat in complete stillness, as usual.
"Now…" he drawled, tapping his fingertips on the armrests of his throne, "Severus, I wish for you to tell me again exactly what happened when you and young Draco confronted Dumbledore on the tower."
Severus Snape began to retell the events from several months previous. The Potion Master fortified his Occlumency shields to their fullest as he described Draco holding the old Headmaster at wand-point, Bellatrix's and the others' presence, and the culmination of he being the one to send the curse that ended Dumbledore's life. As his baritone voice rambled on, Voldemort focused on the mind of the Malfoy heir. Draco's shields were nearly as good as his godfather's. 'He has been trained well,' the Dark Lord thought, 'but he is still young… inexperienced… there is a crack!' Piercing the break in the shield, Voldemort searched through Draco's thoughts and memories.
"Ah.. so you were the one to do the deed because young Draco here could not cast the curse. He was too afraid… too afraid to kill, but also too afraid because of what I would do to him and his parents should he fail," he whispered. Draco's eyes widened in terror as they snapped up to Voldemort's face.
"It is no matter now, Draco. I should not have sent you in the first place… it was utter madness, and a poor attempt to punish your father for what happened at the Ministry…which was not his failing alone. Others were also culpable that night, and those children had experienced reinforcements at the end… yes…it is becoming more clear, now."
He watched the faces of the three Death Eaters drop in shock. Chuckling, he stood and began to pace around the large room; his face still hidden in the shadows of his hood.
"Severus, why was it you who killed the Headmaster… why did you not allow Bellatrix to cast the curse? I am quite sure she would have been chomping at the bit, so to speak, to do my bidding when her nephew failed."
"I had the motivation and the opportunity, my Lord," came the clipped answer.
"Did you, now? The motivation? You have been working with the man for the last twenty years. He took you in and protected you from prosecution when I was robbed of my body from that night at Godric's Hollow," he began, then cut himself off when he noticed the flash in Severus' eyes. "Yes…the Potters," he spat as his crimson eyes focused on the face of his spy; taking in every flicker and tic. "You entered into an Unbreakable Vow with Narcissa to take over Draco's task should he prove unable," he said, ignoring Draco's trembling and Lucius' gasp. "Of course, Bellatrix told me… that woman tells me everything to stay in my graces.. pathetic, really… but still, why did you not tell me, Severus? Why did you not inform your Lord of this vow? Who did you tell? You told Dumbledore, did you not? That is the only way I can fathom that he was killed so easily…that he fully knew what was to happen and allowed it. The wizard was my match in a duel, there is no way he could have been overcome by an untested boy, a few insane Death Eaters, and his Potion Master who he knew for the past twenty years. You are good, Severus, but not that good," he muttered, silently casting an Expelliarmus and catching Snape's wand as it came shooting toward him.
Holding both his and Snape's wand at the Potion Master, Voldemort stood over the dark-haired man and demanded in a whisper, "Why, Severus? Why the betrayal…and for how long? Since the beginning? You were loyal to me, once… what changed? What caused you to….," he said, then stopped; old memories rising to the surface. "It was Lily Potter, was it not?"
"Yessssss…," came the growled answer, as Snape's black eyes bore into the shadows of Voldemort's hood to meet his red gaze. The spy instinctually knew he had no chance now of lying to the Dark Lord. "It has always been Lily… she was the one person I had ever loved…I went to Dumbledore when I discovered you were after her… and her child," he muttered lowly, sneering, "I asked him to save her.. to hide her from you…I even asked you to spare her, and you killed her!"
"I asked her to step away."
"Of course she would not step away! What mother would, you inhuman monster!" Snape screamed, lunging from his seat. The Malfoys scrambled away from the other two men; not wanting to get caught by a stray curse. Amazingly, Voldemort did nothing more than bind the Potion Master and sit him back in the chair.
"Oh… I understand that, now, Severus. I understand so many things. As I said, it is all becoming clear to me, finally. For instance, the fact that Dumbledore knew the entire prophecy, not just the part you relayed to me. The fact that he knew I would most likely go after the boy in the prophecy to protect myself. The fact that instead of giving the Potters full Auror and Order protection, or even making himself secret-keeper of their location, he allowed them to stay in one of the Potter family's homes, and their secret-keeper was one of their friends who he already suspected. Now, what do you think of all that, Severus?"
Snape's eyes jerked back and forth between Voldemort's. The Dark Lord could very nearly see each racing thought as it past through the other man's mind. "Yes, Severus... that old coot allowed it to happen. He practically set it up! I am becoming more and more convinced that he set more up than anyone may realize, except, there was a flaw in his plans!" he roared, as he flipped back his hood.
The three men before him gasped. No longer did he have the snake-like nose and visage; he was as he looked in his early twenties. Full wavy, dark brown hair. An aquiline nose, high cheekbones, and full lips completed the extremely handsome face of Tom Marvolo Riddle.
"I remember the first day I met Albus Dumbledore… he was the Transfiguration professor then.. he came to the orphanage I lived at to tell me about Hogwarts. He was afraid of me then.. but more notably, he was… interested. Strangely interested. It was not until some time later, when I applied for the Defense Against the Dark Arts post that I discovered that magical children without guardians were not to be left in the Muggle world due to instances of emerging and uncontrollable magic, there was too much threat of exposure…a threat to the Statute of Secrecy, yet I was left to rot at that orphanage until I was seventeen. I did not place any significance on it at the time, yet now I cannot help but wonder… why was I left there when any other magical child would have been removed and found suitable housing in the Wizarding world? Why was I left in that hell? Another thing to note…why, in my sixth year, did I become completely obsessed with immortality? At sixteen, I would have already thought of myself as immortal and invulnerable, as all teenagers do… but it became my passion virtually overnight! Why did I suddenly hear whispers of a thing called a horcrux? Why did I have the need to speak to Slughorn about them?"
"A com…compulsion spell?" came a stuttering squeak from Draco, who slammed his lips shut and lowered his eyes to the floor as soon as he realized he spoke aloud.
"That is what I am thinking, Draco. A compulsion to seek out the foulest form of immortality…even more vile than unicorn's blood. To commit murder, rend the soul into pieces, and place those pieces into a vessel. Do you know that I had six horcruxes? Seven, if my guess is correct…"
"Seven….?" came the strained gasp from Snape.
"Yes.. what insane monster creates one of those things, let alone seven?"
Snape's confused and shocked eyes met those of the Dark Lord.
"I know.. I can only postulate that the death of the one who cast the compulsion charm upon me, coupled with the destruction of some of those horcruxes has allowed me to regain my rational mind. Someone, most likely Dumbledore, desired and devised for me to turn into a mad, broken thing. The penultimate question, of course, is 'Why?'."
He kept up his pacing, and with a wave of his wand, he released the flabbergasted Potion Master from his bindings. "Here, Severus," he muttered, handing the dark man back his wand. "I will trust you not to curse me, as I believe you are intelligent enough to realize that we have both been manipulated, as have the circumstances and events surrounding us. I also trust that you will help me discover the truth. I need to know why my entire life has been set on this course, and to what end. Lucius, I need your connections with the old families, with the Ministry. Keep your ear to the ground and see what you can find out, if there is anything there. Draco, I need you to go to Hogwarts. Work with Severus at the school, see if there are any clues there that the old bastard left behind…."
He was answered with interested looks and nods. "I am counting on you three in this. Out of my followers, you are the only ones I know to have logical and concise minds. Bring anyone else into this that you trust and would have the mind to help puzzle this out."
"Severus? Any connection to the Order still, or have you had to cut all ties?"
The Potion Master's head dropped as he shook it in the negative. "I have had to cut all ties and communication with them. No one in the Order would trust me after killing Albus; they would sooner Crucio me at this point."
"He left no knowledge of his plan to anyone else?"
"No…not even Minerva, who I thought he was closest to. And I had to take a vow not to directly divulge anything to an Order member, except for Potter if necessary. If someone came to me with the realization, the vow becomes void."
"Potter… Harry Potter. A name and a person who once caused the utmost rage in me… and now… nothing. I feel nothing but pity for the boy."
"Pity, my Lord?" Lucius asked in astonishment.
"Pity that another child had his life manipulated for some reason by Dumbledore…pity that because of that same man's machinations, I was driven to make that boy an orphan…not that the Potters meant anything to me..." he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Sorry, Severus."
"What?"
"I apologize, Severus," Voldemort said, drawing himself up and standing before them full of grace and nobility. "I realize that I was manipulated to murder your friend. I am sorry for my part in your misery."
Severus' look of awe and astonishment turned to confusion and concern as the Dark Lord's face crumpled into a grimace of pain. Voldemort groaned and clasped his head in his hands before falling to the floor in a heap.
Torn between cursing the man while he was vulnerable and offering help, Severus hesitatingly rose to his feet. Lucius got up quickly and went to the Dark Lord's side. "My Lord? What is it? What is happening?"
"I.. the other parts of my soul… rushing back! !" he bellowed, as another wave of pain hit him. It was far worse than any pain he had felt before, and it took every ounce of willpower to not go mad from it.
"Remorse… he felt genuine remorse… it released the other pieces of his soul from the horcuxes," Severus muttered in shock.
Voldemort continued to writhe on the floor in agony for long moments. Some time later, after his breathing had slowed down and he felt he could move without pain, he motioned to Lucius to help him up off the floor. Standing on shaking legs, Voldemort, or Tom, as he thought of himself now, brushed off his robes and sank down on a chair. 'Strange.. I always hated that name.. always hated to be reminded of my father. My father…I murdered him too… my grandparents…' Shaking his head, he muttered, "Thank you, Lucius. Could I have some wine, please…" The elder Malfoy nodded, and called a house-elf who provided refreshments for the four men.
"Well, at least one of my questions was answered. I did, in fact, have seven horcruxes."
"How can you tell?" Draco asked, taking a deep sip of his wine.
"I no longer have the connection to Potter."
"He had a piece of your soul in him?" Draco gasped out in horror.
"I imagine that it happened when I cast the killing curse and it rebounded due to Lily's sacrificial magic," Tom said, stroking his chin with his fingers.
"I believe that, as well," Severus said clearly, causing red eyes to focus on his face. "Dumbledore was fully aware that Potter was a horcrux. I was to wait for a time near the final battle to tell Potter of this, so that he would be full-willing, as only a Gryffindor could be, to sacrifice himself to you. Dumbledore was adamant that you be the one that killed the boy."
"The old goat knew? He raised the boy to be a lamb led to slaughter?" the Dark Lord asked incredulously.
"My words exactly, I do believe."
"And after that I would have been mortal…fully vulnerable to a killing curse; thus removing the both of us from this world," he said, his brow furrowed deeply in concentration.
"What is it about the two of you that Dumbledork wanted to get rid of so badly?" Draco piped in.
Tom's crimson gaze settled on the youngest Malfoy. Draco paled and gulped audibly. "An astute question, young Draco."
Draco settled back in his seat, glad for the reprieve from what had been the norm; numerous Crucios for daring to open his mouth.
Tom cocked his head and looked harder at the young man. "Severus…would you say that young Mr. Malfoy here is top of his class?"
"He is…in… the top, my Lord," Snape drawled out.
"Your Lord still, am I?" Tom asked with a subtle quirk of his lips. Reaching out, he patted the shoulder of the Potion Master before looking back at Draco.
"Well… yes. I believe I was second in my class," Draco muttered, casting wary glances at his father.
"Who was the first?"
"Hermione Granger, my Lord."
"Ah, yes… I remember that name."
"Potter's Mudblood, my Lord," Lucius spat.
"Hmmmmm," Tom rumbled, focusing now on Lucius. "She was one who the Snatchers caught with Potter? The one that was brought here not long ago?"
Lucius nodded. Tom took in Draco's pale face and shuddering form. "Draco?"
"Er… my Aunt… she…," he mumbled, shaking again.
"Bellatrix Crucioed the girl for some time before entertaining herself with a knife," Lucius bit out, averting his face.
"No longer care for the torture of Muggleborns, Lucius?"
"I never cared for any torture, my Lord," he began. Tom merely nodded in acknowledgment. "I found it… wholly distasteful that someone was tortured so in my home…in view of my wife and son…and she was a slip of a girl, one who Draco went to school with. She may have been a Mudblood, but she was a child!" the elder Malfoy spat heatedly. Lucius maintained the persona of being cold and cruel when dealing with others; he found that the fear it generated was to his benefit. In reality, although he was power-hungry and joined the Death Eaters to preserve the Pureblood class and the interests of the Malfoy family, he was not a truly evil man. He abhorred violence and murder.
"Did you know, Lucius, that when your father and I began the Knights of Walpurgis, it was a society meant to protect and maintain the traditions and culture of the Wizarding world?"
"Er…yes, my Lord. My father did mention it to me when I was young."
"I am starting to find it interesting, indeed, that the society deviated from our goal at about the same time that I became obsessed with immortality," Tom finished with a quirk of a brow.
Lucius narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips. Draco shook his head. Severus sat back in his chair and crossed his arms; a black look settling on his features.
"You no longer believe in Pureblood supremacy?" Lucius asked, looking afraid of the answer.
"Somewhat hypocritical, considering I am a halfblood," Tom said with a wry grin.
"You are?" Draco gasped out.
"Yes… and so is Severus. Tell me truthfully, Lucius..Draco…do you view either of us as lesser beings?"
Father and son exchanged glances; both disturbed by the revelation that their Lord was not a pureblood, as well as what that revelation meant.
"Answer me this, then…what do you think of this Miss Granger?"
Draco's face took on a sneer. "She is a bushy-haired, know-it-all who traipses along with Potty and the Weasel! Walking around in her little skirts, nose in the air, thinking she is just as good as everyone else…or even better!"
"Me thinks the boy doth protest too much," Tom said with a grin.
"The girl is an insufferable know-it-all.. she and those two boys broke rules left and right and got into no end of trouble, but she was usually the one to get them out of it. As annoying as she is, she is the brightest student I have ever taught. Granger could have sat her NEWTS at the end of her fifth year instead of her OWLS. She excels at research…I am certain that whatever mission Potter is on; Granger is the brains behind the entire thing. Unfortunately, she is also incredibly naïve…or she was. I did not have as much opportunity to interact with her during her sixth year as I was teaching Defense, and who knows how much she has changed in this past year of being on the run…"
"And…?" Tom asked, knowing that Snape was leaving something out.
"And the damned chit impresses me… she has always impressed me, and I would have loved nothing more than to see her mind and talents grow under mentorship. She has an aptitude in potions that rivals Draco's, but as she was a Gryffindor and a Muggleborn, I was forced by my position to demean the girl and treat her harshly."
Tom sat and continued to tap his finger on his chin. "Is she strong, magically?"
"According to Flitwick and McGonagall, she excelled at Charms and Transfiguration.. almost always mastered spells on the first go. She managed a Polyjuice Potion in her second year," Snape muttered, still sore about the theft of his ingredients.
"Hmmm… what a wonderful addition she would make…"
"My Lord? A Mudblood in our ranks? That would be an abomination!" Lucius barked out.
Tom leveled his crimson gaze on the elder Malfoy; causing the man to flinch back. "Malfoy… even though I have apparently recovered my… humanity… do not forget that I am still your master. I will be more lenient and understanding of my decisions and actions being questioned… within reason… but do not make the mistake of disrespecting me again…" he warned in a cold whisper.
"Yes, My Lord," Lucius said, casting his eyes downward.
"I was not thinking of having her join the Death Eaters, but of what use she could be in solving this little mystery. A mind such as she supposedly has is not a thing to be wasted. I could use her in some other capacity after all is said and done. And, to answer your previous question fully, Lucius… no, I do not believe in Pureblood supremacy." Three sets of shocked eyes snapped up to his smirking face. "I do, however, believe in Wizarding supremacy, along with the preservation and strengthening of the Wizarding world, in maintaining and bringing back our oldest and most-treasured traditions… and in the separation of our world and way of life from the Muggle world. Our very survival is dependent on that last point," he said, standing once again to pace the room.
"Muggles do not have magic… but, even so, they are not all that dissimilar from us. They learn, they work, they have children… worry about similar things. They can be understanding and kind… and they can be devious and manipulative, just like Dumbledore… and myself," he said with a wry grin. "And like us, there would be those who would take and use whatever power they could get their hands on."
"Hence the reason for the Statute of Secrecy…" Snape offered.
"Yes… and it is important, now more than ever, to maintain the Statute… as there are currently over six billion Muggles in the world…"
"So many…" Lucius paled.
"So many… and the more powerful nations have weapons that are beyond your imagining. Bombs capable of destroying cities and countries. I saw the aftermath of such bombs when I went to Hogwarts. During that time, there was a great war being fought in the Muggle world, and I saw the devastation in Muggle London and in the newspapers when I had to go back to that orphanage in the summers. Two cities in Nippon* were utterly destroyed, in a flash of light that lasted an instant. Millions were killed in that war, the world over. That was over fifty years ago; there is no telling what their armies are capable of now. There is no possibility that we were ever going to subjugate the Muggle world," Tom said softly, laying a hand on Lucius' shoulder. "Even if all the wizards of the world united; if we became too much of a threat, we would just be annihilated… with one of their bombs… just one."
"So why were you waging war on them?" Draco asked, confused. "Was it another compulsion? Merlin, I knew Dumbledork was insane…but what would be the point? Was he trying to sabotage us all? Have us commit mass suicide?"
"If you continued to wage war on Muggles that would have been the outcome. Even without a nuclear weapon; their sheer numbers alone would have seen to our destruction if our world became exposed," Snape said.
"All of the Death Eaters would have been killed… all Pureblooded families would disappear…probably the only magical folk left would be Mudbloods and those halfbloods with enough familiarity with the Muggle world to hide in it," Lucius muttered, shaking his head in disbelief. "The Wizarding world would either fully disappear or be taken over by those…." he stopped, shocked.
"By those with neither ties to nor any knowledge of old magic or the old ways," Tom finished, his mind whirling.
"Something about the old ways that Dumbledore was afraid of…" Lucius added, as all the occupants sat back in contemplation.
"You have studied the old magics and dark magics extensively… was there something that Dumbledore would have been that afraid of? Something that would have affected wizards, especially Purebloods as a whole?" Severus asked after a long silence.
"It would not have been something that our Lord studied, Severus… Dumbledore was afraid of him when he was a child… the manipulations started in our Lord's school years," Lucius stated as he stared off into the distance.
"Good to see you still have a head on your shoulders, underneath all that hair. I knew I kept you around for a reason," Tom smirked. "And you are onto something…it must be something intrinsic to me… something I able to do, or will be able to do… something in my bloodline, perhaps?"
"Something inherited from Slytherin?"
"I am not sure, Severus… this is what I need for all of you to assist me with. Merlin!" he shouted, startling the others. "I should be devoting my time to this mystery, but I cannot…too many things are now in motion. I have to manage this war in a completely new direction, there is the Ministry to deal with… not to mention that some of my more zealous followers are not going to be very understanding…."
"Yes.. I can see Bellatrix adjusting well to the new state of things," Lucius muttered.
"I need more time!" Tom barked.
"You do need Granger," Severus blurted out, surprising himself.
(AN: Nippon, the native name for Japan)