Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all of its characters do not belong to me. They belong to the nice people at Warner Brothers, Bloomsbury and Scholastic. And of course J K Rowling. I don't own any of the rites and I'm not actually clear on whether or not I own the plot.
Archived: Fanfiction.Net
Summary: Based on something that happened to her, Hermione Granger decides to become a key player in the war against Voldemort. When she crosses over, how will she find the line between undercover and immoral? More importantly, when she finds it, will she like it? HG/DM with mentions of HG/HP.
Author's note: This is rated 'R' for a reason. This story will contain adult themes and language. It is Dark and in a later chapter it will contain a torture scene – though this might change, since this is a work in progress.
Chapter One: The decision
I love you, you know?
Hermione Granger figured that those were the words that had started everything. There was magic in those words, though the Muggles didn't realize it, three little words when put together could change a person's whole world. …Five words that were spoken to Harry Potter… five words that had started a chain of events.
Of course Hermione Granger hadn't said them.
No some innocent Ravenclaw had said them… God wasn't it strange that she could remember holding Harry as he mourned for her, and she could remember the words but she couldn't remember the girl's name. Though she supposed it was to be expected – many had died since her and it was six years ago.
She couldn't really remember the day it had happened. It was nearing the end of her fifth year at Hogwarts and she could remember that the students had been giving Harry a hard time. She remembered that Voldemort had yet to strike or make his presence known. Every time that she and Ron had turned a corner they found themselves defending their friend, this she remembered. But the details of that day were fuzzy.
She remembered how happy she and Ron were when Harry had found a nice girlfriend. It had been good to see him happy again and not brooding like he had been the past few months. Harry had told her once that when he spent time with her that he didn't feel like he was fighting a non-existent war by himself.
He had said that when he was with her that the pain in his scar seemed to fade, like nothing outside of her mattered – not the war, not his dreams.
God what was her name!
She was a bit unclear on the details, but she remembered that afterwards Harry had told her that it was his fault. He had said that Draco Malfoy had heard her tell Harry that she loved him and he wrote to his father. The Death Eaters finally had the perfect leverage.
They couldn't touch Harry at Hogwarts, or at his home, but if they could lure him away from those places…. The problem was they couldn't touch anyone close to Harry either. She did agree, silently, that the one mistake that Harry made was that he didn't tell the Headmaster about his relationship with the Ravenclaw girl.
The Ravenclaw went home for Easter holidays, Hermione remembered that. She also remembered that the girl never made it back to Hogwarts.
Harry knew that they had her the moment that it happened. Ron and he had rushed into her dorm room early in the morning, half dressed with their wands and three brooms.
She remembered that Harry's scar was bleeding. Hermione had made a few quiet protests…. 'Do you really think that we can take on the Death Eaters?' 'We should go for Dumbledore; he'll know what to do.'
In the end, she couldn't recall why, she agreed to their insane plan. It was all down hill from there. Bits and Pieces of that night still haunted Hermione's dreams. If it hadn't been for Professor Snape (they were so lucky that he had followed them there) Hermione, Ron, and Harry would have all been dead. As it was – they were too late… and the Death Eaters had been expecting them.
As Snape had pointed out, afterwards in the infirmary, they hadn't needed her to be alive when Harry got there – they only needed him to think that she was.
That had been the first time that Hermione had seen Harry cry.
And it had hit her too… this was a war, and there weren't any rules. It was a different kind of war – none of that, 'no cruel and unusual punishment' – it was like a free-for-all.
She hadn't cried that night, but she had thrown up until she was dry heaving.
'The dominos had fallen from there,' Hermione thought as she rolled over in bed. 'Voldemort had long since figure out his connection to Harry, so it was impossible for the boy-who-lived to go to sleep without dreamless sleep potion until the rest of them had found a way to close the connection. Days and Days of researching alongside Dumbledore, Snape, and Ron only to arrive at the same conclusion that they had before it had started… the only way to severe the connection was to kill one of the two connected. And since killing Harry defeated the purpose….'
Killing Voldemort had been impossible at that stage. Hermione remembered that the Ravenclaw girl's parent's had been high up in the Ministry, so when the body was delivered to her father's office a week later with the Dark Mark gouged into her skin, hell had pretty much broken loose.
The Minister was forced to admit that Voldemort was, indeed, active again. …And Voldemort… Voldemort made it clear that his time for hiding was through. He was ready to come out and play.
The residents of the Wizarding world had become more paranoid than Mad-eye Moody. The only people that hadn't changed were Ron, Harry and she.
Though Harry grieved, and he spent much more time surrounded by his friends than he ever had, he mostly stayed the same. …Except for one tear jerking session, after a confrontation with Draco Malfoy, in which he took full responsibility for the Ravenclaw's death.
"Hermione," he had said expressionlessly, "She told me that she loved me, and Malfoy heard. He sent a letter to his father months ago. They had this whole thing planned out for months and none of us had noticed a thing. She said, 'I love you, you know?' and her fate was sealed, and for what? She died because she loved me… how is it that Voldemort can taint something that was so… so pure? This can't happen again. Do you understand me? The next time that I date someone and it even looks as though they love me… it will have to be over. I'd tell you and Ron to stay away but I know that would be pointless. Besides, why should I have to be alone because of him?" He had asked fiercely, showing emotion for the first time during his speech. "Why should I have to feel like every time I smile at someone, their in danger of being kidnapped from their house, from being murdered? No. I want you to do something for me, Hermione. I want you to make sure that Ron is safe, I know that you can handle yourself, but we both know that sometimes Ron tends to forget that he has a brain, and a good one at that." They had both shared a watery smile.
Then Harry had finally given into his grief and Hermione saw him cry for the second time. "I just don't want anything to happen to either of you. I loved her you, you know? But if I lost you or Ron, the only thing left to keep me alive would be revenge. … Because what happened to Cho –."
'That was it, that was her name,' Hermione thought, not feeling the slightest triumphant at her recalled memory. 'Cho Chang, Ravenclaw Seeker – girlfriend to Cedric Diggory, and then to Harry Potter – dead at seventeen… how could she forget?'
She hit the off button on her alarm and dragged herself out of bed, resoling to leave all her melancholy thoughts in her flat that day.
She had a meeting to go to, and seeing Harry and Ron again after so long was going to be hard all itself, there was no need to bring her thoughts about all the people who had died since then.
Hermione was nineteen when her parent's died, in a car crash, on the way to one of their many dentists' conventions. She remembered that after twenty years of practice that they had been invited to speak at this one. They had been so excited, rushing around with their notes everywhere… her mother claimed that the car came out of nowhere.
Her father was announced DOA. The doctors said that he probably hadn't felt any pain, and that due to the angle of collision, he had more likely than not died instantly. Her mother was severely injured and even after Hermione had her transferred to a Wizarding hospital, there was nothing that they could do for her. She was alive for three weeks after the accident, and Hermione had been in the room when her mother took her last breath.
"Hermione," she had said, her voice cracking from misuse.
"I'm here Mum, what is it?" She had answered, her voice shaking from withdrawn emotion.
"I know that you didn't like fortune telling in school… but I had this dream last night… but it wasn't really a dream. Do you understand?"
"It's okay Mum, the doctors said that the life spell that you are under would cause you to hallucinate a bit. If it has you worried than it is probably nothing."
Hermione's mother ignored her and she carried on, "The woman said that I would be leaving you soon and that I had to pass a message on first. She didn't tell me anything though, her eyes – the strangest color green I have ever seen – shone for a moment and then she showed me the message. You are going to save the world Hermione, and not just your world, mine too. The redhead showed me, baby, and I have never been more proud of you in my entire life. My girl, strongest of them all, you are going to be the one to show them. You show those Snakes –."
Her mother never finished that sentence, but Hermione hadn't needed to be one of Trelawney's student's to crack that puzzle. The 'redhead with green eyes' was Harry's mother, and the Snakes were Voldemort and his Death Eaters. And for some strange reason, her mother seemed to think that she was going to save the world.
That had been two years ago and three weeks ago… Hermione had come up with the perfect plan.
"Are you joking?" Harry asked completely bewildered.
"No," Hermione said firmly.
"Are you insane than, perhaps partaking in therapy?" Snape had asked, sending a vicious scowl her way.
"Look," Hermione said impatiently. "We don't have much time left. Harry had said in one of his owls that whatever they've been planning, it is going to happen soon. We don't have anyone inside, anyone close enough to Him to get us any real information."
"So your suggesting that we send you in there as a spy?" Ron asked in disbelief. "You aren't even trained to go on a mission, let alone infiltrate Voldemort's troops."
"Do you have any better ideas, Ronald? Last year they almost took over the Ministry! We have find away to end this soon." Hermione glared.
"I am not going to allow my girlfriend –." Harry said hotly.
"Ex-girlfriend Harry," Hermione interrupted. "And if you don't agree to it, then I'll do it on my on terms."
"Why even come to us then, you silly little girl, why don't you just go off on your own?" Snape snarled.
"I thought that I would do this the correct way. I'll need training, and while I have most of it planned out I am going to need to learn more Dark Magic than I already do. I am going to need Hogwarts restricted section for that."
"Hogwarts doesn't have any Dark books in the restricted section." Harry said.
"Not that restricted section." At Harry and Ron's blank looks she elaborated. "That restricted section is quite easy to get through. The restricted section that I am talking about is under lock and key."
"Hermione is quite right." Dumbledore said heavily. The four occupants of his office turned to look at him; he had been surprisingly closemouthed until then. "We do have a separate restricted section, though how she knows this I would rather not know. We are also pulling at strings regarding what our enemies have been up to in the past year. It is fast approaching the month of July and it would be the perfect time for her training to start."
Ron and Harry stared at the Headmaster in shock, while Hermione allowed herself a moment of victory.
Dumbledore than turned to address Ron, "I am sure that you can round up the old crowd and get them here to help with her training for the month – you can tell those on assignment that they may take temporary leave."
Ron nodded and exchanged a glance with Harry.
"That is all well, but I believe that the four of you are forgetting one very important detail." Snape said. "Hermione Granger is a Mudblood, and Voldemort's beliefs do not extend to allowing her kind to work for him."
Ron's jaw clenched and Hermione knew that if they were in front of anyone other than the Headmaster that he would have cursed Snape to next Tuesday for that comment.
"You will watch your language in front of me." Dumbledore said firmly. Then he turned to Hermione, "Despite my colleague's use of slang, he is correct about your background."
Hermione allowed herself a smirk. "I may be a Muggle-born, but I am a Muggle-born with very useful information about Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore."
"You aren't actually thinking of telling them our secrets?" Ron said exasperated.
"Of course I am," Hermione said. "If that's what gets me an audience with the big guys."
"They'll just torture you for the information, and kill you when it's through." Snape protested.
"Not if they need me and not if I prove to them that I am not just some little girl trying to get on the inside."
"…And how do you propose to do that?" Snape asked.
"I have a plan, but I'm going to need your help…." Hermione said looking each of them in the eyes. The she stood and began to pace the length of the room. "It isn't going to be easy, and it will take a long time, but I think that I know how to worm my way into the inner circle. For it to work I am going to need to know a lot about the Dark Arts, and I'm not talking about the stuff they teach you in DADA. I'll need to know more than the unforgiveables, and I need to work on my reflexes. That is where Snape comes in; he worked as a double agent for years. I also need to be versed in the enchanted sword – I've seen them use it more than once, it seems to be their one advantage of us."
"It is an advantage because we don't have any, and we don't know how they work, Hermione." Harry said slowly.
Hermione pulled something out of her pocket and then used her wand to enlarge it. Four astonished faces stared transfixed at the two gleaming swords before them. Hermione smiled, "I 'rescued' them last year before the Death Eaters vanished from the ministry than I ran with them to my apartment – it's only four block away from there. I've been researching them ever since."
"Why didn't you say anything?" Harry demanded.
"And hand these over to someone else? I got them and I was going to figure out what made them tick, and I did Harry. It was so simple, you see, once I had figured out that we were looking in the wrong place. All those months of research when the swords made their fist appearance in Diagon Alley… we kept asking, what kind of Dark magic could do that? When we came up empty on that end we started asking, what kind of Light magic could do that? We were wrong – it wasn't light or dark, it was Goblin. I came across it by accident too. I was reading an auto biography on Elfric the Eager, the elf who had planted that book of maps and plans that had supposedly been written by a head Ministry official. Once you got passed the self incited praise, it was actually quite a read – to think that a whole Goblin rebellion had been started over a few drawings and plans written by an elf! We'll he included the names of the Goblins whose camp he had left the book in and I read up on them and it turns out that the sword was first introduced in the Goblin Rebellion of 1600, in a much simpler form, of course. What Voldemort has done, is add human Magic to it, both Light and Dark, and in doing so he has given away one of his most useful powers. You see, we aren't just dealing with a deranged Wizard anymore…."
"We're dealing with a deranged Mage." Harry said faintly.
Hermione nodded gravely. "One who is fairly well versed in Goblin Magic, and let me tell you something – Goblin Magic is hard to learn, it took me at least three months to figure out what the foreign magic was and then at least another five to learn the magic well enough to tinker with it and – what?" Hermione asked confused at the response that she had gotten.
"It takes the average Goblin five months to learn the basics of their magic." Dumbledore said in awe.
Hermione smiled in agreement and sat back down in her chair, tired of pacing. She leaned forward, "And it's no wonder… hardly any of it is written down, at least in English, and after a while I got sick of translating so I decided to learn the language – which was much harder to learn than French…."
"You learned Goblin?" Ron asked in astonishment.
Snape stood abruptly. "Well congratulations, I do believe that you are the only remaining human to understand that language."
Hermione's eyes widened, "But Voldemort….."
"Does not need to understand the language to perform the magic, Hermione, He just has to know it. As I was saying before, it takes the average Goblin five months to learn the basics of their magic; it takes the average human five years."
The headmaster's words were met with a heavy silence. Snape had moved to the window and was staring out into the grounds below, Ron was alternating between staring at Hermione as though she was something he had never seen before and staring at the Headmaster waiting for him to say something else, Harry was shaking his head in incredulity and looked as though he were tying to burn a whole in the carpet with the weight of his stare, and Dumbledore appeared to be looking for something on his desk.
"Maybe I'm half-Goblin?" Hermione suggested when the silence had gotten to her.
Snape turned around and raised in eyebrow, "Are one of your parent's Goblins?"
"Well – no but…."
"Than I'm afraid that you can't be a half-Goblin, Miss Granger…."
"Aha!" Dumbledore called and he pulled out a small package. He flipped the lid open and held it out toward Hermione. "Lemon drops," Dumbledore said brightly. "I find that when I am in the middle of a problem that lemon drops is a fine way to clear one's head."
Hermione looked dubious but she reached forward and selected one of the candies. She popped one in her mouth and swirled it around her tongue, once it was gone she did feel like her thoughts were clearer. It didn't seem right at all – she had tasted these candies in the Muggle world before and it had never caused her to feel like this before… it was almost like – magic. "…Wit Sharpening Potion, Albus?"
Snape's gaze snapped to the Headmaster. "That is why you always carry those infernal things around!"
"One never knows when one might have need of a sugar craving, Severus." Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling briefly.
"I need to go back to my flat to get my things…." Hermione said, suddenly.
"…Too risky," Harry said. "I'll make a few phone calls and have some things provided for you. You will need a completely knew wardrobe, you can go to Gladrags in Hogsmeade for that. I'll have plenty of more things for you to tinker with by the end of the day." Harry said standing. He walked toward Hermione and gave her a brief, but intimate, hug before rushing out the door to speak with his contacts.
Ron rose from his chair and walked over to her. "We did miss you, Hermione. I feel horrible cutting this short but I promise that I will be back before July 1st. Until then you had better be prepared because I've seen Harry in what he likes to call 'a training session' and he doesn't hold back – not even for friends." He held out his hand and Hermione pulled him into a bone crushing hug.
"It is going to be hard, doing this without the two of you," Hermione said, betraying the slightest bit of doubt.
Ron pulled away from her and raised an eyebrow. "…Without us? Mrs. Polyjuice Potion? Mrs. Goblin speaker…?" Ron scoffed.
"I'm not good at the hands on stuff by myself, Ron; I've always had you and Harry there pushing me forward. The idea that I might be spending the next year on a Lord Name basis with Voldemort terrifies me just a little bit."
"Than don't do it," Ron said smiling.
Hermione's eyes took on a distant stare. "If it were only that easy…."
Ron glanced behind him at Dumbledore and Snape who were listening to their conversation and then he pulled Hermione out of Dumbledore's office and onto the staircase outside. "This isn't about your mother's 'vision' is it?"
Hermione's eyes swiftly became guarded. "Of course not, Ron, you know how little I depend on Divination."
Knowing, from previous experience with the subject, that was all he was going to get out of her, Ron nodded and waited for Hermione to go inside the office before he started the stairs to the Gargoyle.
The next couple of weeks were going to be hard for his friend, and he hoped she realized what she was doing, because once you opened Pandora's Box….
Hermione reentered the Headmaster's office and was met with two grave stares. "There is nothing wrong with being frightened of spending my time in the mouth of hell, alone."
"You would be foolish not to be." Dumbledore said quietly.
"How did you get the sword Miss Granger?" Snape asked suddenly.
"I already told you that I found them at the Ministry before the Death Eaters vanished." She said automatically.
"It was extraordinary when that happened, wasn't it Severus?" Dumbledore said softly. "All of those men, vanishing into thin air leaving only Voldemort. Harry drove him back faster than usual as well. One would almost think that He was affected with what ever had driven the Death Eaters back."
"Hmm," Snape said and they both turned to Hermione, whose expression was completely closed off.
"I think that they just realized they were outnumbered and they retreated…." Hermione said tonelessly.
"You mentioned all of that in your report." Dumbledore reminded her.
"That is because it was true."
Dumbledore dropped the subject but Snape persisted.
"What was it Miss Granger? …A powerful Banishing charm?"
"I maintain that they all disaparated at the same time."
"And they left their leader to deal with the Ministry alone?" Snape asked doubtfully.
"That is what I gathered."
"What was it?" He asked angrily. "You have no right, keeping that sort of useful information to yourself during a time of war."
"I have all the rites in the world, since it was a spell of my own." Hermione replied calmly.
Snape's eyes widened fractionally. "You are just full of surprises."
"I try," She said shortly before turning to the Headmaster. "I am going to get suitable clothing, as I happened to bring some money with me. Afterwards I would appreciate it if the restricted section was spelled to me and available to for use." Than she turned, opened the door, and walked out of Dumbledore's office.
The Headmaster and Potions Professor of Hogwarts watched her go before turning to look at each other.
"She really doesn't realize how powerful she has become, does she?" Snape asked.
"Of course not, Severus, and she still has a long way to go. Many lesions ahead…." Dumbledore said sadly, almost as though he had already seen her future.
Snape stood slowly, "I will make sure that Miss Granger doesn't get herself killed in Hogsmeade." He eyed the swords warily. "What are you planning to do with those, Albus?"
"I think that Fluffy liked the third floor corridor, don't you?"
Hermione stepped out of Hogwarts and paused for a moment, letting the sun beat on her face. The warmth spread down her neck and settled inside of her. She was reminded of a time when she was a little girl, helping her father rake leaves on a particularly cold day in autumn. She remembered wishing real hard that the sun would come out from behind the clouds – and surprisingly enough it did.
She ran through a pile of leaves, shouting for her father to look at the sky. He had scooped her up in his arms and twirled her around in a circle before asking her, "What is it sweetheart?"
She had giggled, "I made the sun come out Daddy. It was cold, so I wished really hard for it to come out – like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz – and the sun came out of nowhere!"
"Oh yeah," He had said. "Did you click your heels three times?"
She had sighed impatiently, "Of course not Daddy… I'm not wearing a pair of ruby slippers… that doesn't work unless you're wearing ruby slippers."
He had kissed her on the nose and sent her off to play in another pile of leaves.
That year when her parents had gotten home from their annual dentists convention, he had been the one to pick Hermione up from her grandparents' house. He had a package with him; they always brought her a present back from their trips, and when she opened it two ruby slippers fell out. She had clicked her heels around the house for months… it had driven her mother mad. But for her father and her it was an on going joke, even after the shoes were too small for her feet.
"…Daddy?" She would say to get his attention and he would look down on her feet to see if she was wearing the shoes.
"Yes, Dorothy?"
"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore…."
Now the shoes were in a storage facility somewhere in London… she didn't quite know where. Her grandparent's had packed her parent's things and sold the house for her. One day, she promised herself as she began the hike through Hogwarts grounds and into Hogsmeade; she was going to find that old storage place and go through her parents' things. The time for grieving would come. Though a small part of her as glad that her parents weren't around to see what she was about to do. Hermione Granger was many things, but she was not stupid. She knew that this was going to involve torture and death, but she also knew that she was strong. The years on her own, after Hogwarts, had taught her many things, the main thing being 'tread softly, and carry a big stick'. This was going to take a lot of patience and more than a little trust. Trust, not in Dumbledore or the enemy, but in herself…. She would take more trips down memory lane, one day when it didn't hurt so much.
One day, when she was done playing the double agent.
For now, she had a world to save – two actually if one believed her mother's vision, which Hermione did.
Her mother had been her confidant for many, many years and Hermione could tell when she was lying, and when she wasn't.
Mrs. Granger had either developed an extraordinary acting talent over night or her mother believed that she had a vision. Either way, the only thing that Hermione could do was to try. She could try to make her mother's vision come true, try to make her mother's memory proud of her.
"My girl, strongest of them all, you are going to be the one to show them."
I will Mum, I will.