prologue and two epilogues. This story is completely Dramione, and there is a bit of out-of-characterness going on, hopefully not enough that this is unrealistic.

Summary: Hermione is forced to stay at the Manor with none other than Draco and Narcissa Malfoy when situations turn bad. Then a war begins, pulling everyone deeper into a cesspool of mystery and conspiracy. As Draco and Hermione draw closer than they ever believed possible, will dark forces tear them apart? Only time will tell.

I hope you enjoy my first fanfic!

I'm About To Hunt You Down Through,
The Big Black Hole Right Behind You
I'm About To Cut Your Wings Away
~Murder by Within Temptation

Prologue: Revenge

Dolores Umbrage hated to lose, almost as much as she hated Harry Potter and his friends. She had taken on the Muggleborn Registration Committee specifically for that reason. To get rid of as many of those nasty children as possible, and to make herself look good in the eyes of the minister, who she knew from the very beginning was Voldemort's mole. Such a pity that the Dark Lord had been killed.

And now she was in hiding. She still had the Prophet delivered to her by her secret keeper though, and each day she felt herself getting closer and closer to an explosion at all the happy news about the Golden Trio. It was disgusting! Why did everyone refuse to see that they're vile, nasty little children?

Then, one day, she got the Prophet, and her eyes widened in excitement when she saw the title on the front page.

Golden Trio or Gilded Trio?

She smirked, immediately starting to read the article.

Was the Golden Trio actually as perfect as they seemed? New evidence has come to light saying the opposite. (See pictures on pg. 5 for visual proof)

Apparently, Ronald Weasley broke up with his long-time, gold digger girlfriend, Hermione Granger a few years ago. It has been recently revealed that he had been having an ongoing relationship with one Lavender Brown since his sixth year at Hogwarts, continuing even while he had been dating Granger. They are to be married on the 22nd of March, this year.

And surprising evidence has revealed that Harry Potter, the boy who lived to defeat Voldemort, may not have been completely truthful about his victory. (See page 4 for full story)

~ Rita Skeeter

Umbrage eagerly scanned through the rest of the article. When she finished, she put the Prophet down with an evil grin on her face. Someone else seemed to have a bone to pick with that trio.

She searched her desk for a spare piece of parchment and immediately penned a letter to the Skeeter woman. With her on her side, they could easily bring down the Gilded Trio. She smirked. How fitting. Gilded. Perfect on the outside, but rotten on the inside.

Rita Skeeter found herself faced with hundreds of replies to her article. She burnt the ten howlers she received. She wasn't about to listen to some piece of parchment scream at her.

She scanned through all the letters and burnt all of them but two. One of them was from some former Ministry official by the name of Dolores Umbrage. The other was from one Rudolphus Lestrange.

They each asked her to meet with them at a specific time and place. She penned a response to each asking them both to meet her in the Shrieking Shack, where they could talk without being overheard. They both wanted the same thing: revenge on the Golden Trio.

She was only too happy to join that noble cause. And with Rudolphus on their side, they'd be able to recruit all the former death eaters that weren't dead or in Azkaban, plus all their living family members. She grinned. She would finally get her revenge on that bushy-haired gold digger skank for keeping her in a jar during the Triwizard Tournament.

Umbrage found herself waiting in the Shrieking Shack for the journalist to arrive. She had seemed very eager and enthusiastic for her support of the article, and had agreed to meet her.

She heard someone walk into the room she was in, and she turned, expecting Skeeter. Instead, she came face to face with Rudolphus Lestrange.

She never had liked him, even when under the Dark Lord. She wondered why he was here.

Finally, Rita Skeeter arrived in the room.

Rita grinned evilly at the two others in the room. She noticed that they didn't seem to like each other, but, as the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. So they were going to have to put any ill feelings they might have between them behind them so that they could work, and maybe actually accomplish something.

Rita shrugged off her jacket and set it on the floor.

"Welcome," she said. "I received responses from both of you, saying that you thought that my article was very good and that you would love my help to get revenge on the Gilded Trio. I've decided to oblige."

The squat woman with the hideous pink bow, who she knew was Umbrage grinned evilly.

"Wonderful. With the help of the paper, we'll send those nasty children to the very bottom of the Wizarding food chain," she said. Rita resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"We're going to be using a lot more than just the Prophet, Dolores," she said. She nodded to the Lestrange. "He can help us get enough supporters to wage a war if we needed, and kill friends of theirs to let them know that someone is after them. And I'm an animagus. I can spy on their conversations and find information for both parts of the plan."

"I'm not sure how much support we'd get for this," Rudolphus said. Rita frowned. What could he possibly mean?

"What do you mean?" She asked. He couldn't be serious. Those three had to have more enemies than anyone in the Wizarding World. Of course, they probably have a lot of friends, but that number would soon be diminishing. She didn't see what the problem was. If they needed to, they would break people out of Azkaban.

"After the death of the Dark Lord, many of his supporters either went into hiding or decided that they no longer wanted to fight against the Potter boy. They think that we don't stand a chance. They're afraid to continue Lord Voldemort's noble work," he said.

"Well, make them see," the pink woman said. "Tell them how much we have for us." Rudolphus looked at her in pure contempt.

"Says the woman in hiding," he says scornfully.

Umbrage opens her mouth to say something, but Rita intervenes. They didn't need an argument right now.

"Just try to get as many as you can," she said. "We can probably break some of them out of Azkaban, and I'm sure that his inner circle, those closest to him, would have horcruxes so that we could bring them back to help us."

Rudolphus paled, and she knew that she had hit a nerve.

"Bellatrix has one, doesn't she?" She asked, correctly determining what made him pale. He gave a short, jerky nod.

"With her back, I'm sure that supporters would flock to us. We'll get her back first. I'm sure that you have it, don't you?" He nodded again. She grinned evilly.

"Good. We'll start looking for more horcruxes after we bring her back. The more support we have from big members like that, the more support we'll earn from lesser members."

They talked over a few more issues before the other two left. Rita grinned. They wouldn't know what hit them. She apparated to the Hog's Head, careful to camouflage herself first.

"To revenge," she said, raising her firewhiskey glass in a mock toast. She downed it in one gulp and ordered another. She was going to celebrate her victory right.

The Golden Trio would soon be but a memory. The thought caused her to smirk into her glass. Soon.