After the Final Battle - Hermione

Hermione stood close to a large pile of rubble, brown eyes intently flickering around the ruins of the battle, searching for a sign of where Harry could be. She needed to find him before he managed to slip away and hide. Clenching her jaw tightly she focused on looking for bodies with red hair, knowing that any of the Weasley's would help Harry slink away. She raised a hand to her mouth chewing on her thumb nail as she worked through different possibilities in her head. She needed this to move forward in the Wizarding World, where blood status means everything. Even with the more modern view some witches and wizards had, being a muggleborn still put her at the bottom of the chain and this was unacceptable. She knew that if she wanted to move up she would need to do something drastic and figuring out that a new Dark Lord was in the works would help her do that.

She had been planning this for far too long to let the Potter bastard slip away now. She made sure she stayed close to him as his best friend and ⅓ of the Golden Trio knowing that having that buffer would only help people believe her when she put her plan in motion. Granted the first 4 years she really was his best friend, it wasn't until almost half way through Fifth Year that she started changing her view on Harry.

At first it was just worry about her friend, worry about Voldemort invading his mind, worry that he seemed to be doing better in classes, worry that he seemed more withdrawn and quick to anger. She had gone to Dumbledore about her concerns but he had just waved her off saying that Harry was still reeling from Cedric's death and that he was sure it was nothing.

She hadn't liked being waved off and began keeping a closer eye on Harry throughout the year. She noticed that him and Malfoy seemed to be trying to ignore each other and that Harry kept his head down in Umbridge's class. She just couldn't understand why no one else saw how different Harry was being She was very worried about her friend and wanted to help him in any way that she could. She held on to that belief until a few days before the Winter break, when Harry had a vision showing Mr. Weasley being attacked.

After hearing about what happened it was like a switch was flipped after that. This must be why Harry was acting the way he was. Voldemort was not just sending visions, he was slowly trying to possess Harry, it's the only thing that made sense. Her Harry would never be that rude to her, he would never be doing that good in classes, it just couldn't happen. Now that she had an idea of what we going on she went to Dumbledore again letting him know what she found out.

However once again she was waved off with a smile and a 'That's not it at all Miss Granger, that's not it at all'. Hermione was livid that she was being brushed off again and wondered what it could be if it wasn't possession. It all came too her with a snap, Harry wasn't being possessed; he was going Dark. The constant contact with Voldemort from the link must be having a negative influence on Harry. She figured that the only reason Dumbledore hadn't done anything yet was that he still knew he could handle anything that Harry did and they did still have a use for him.

Through the rest of the year she took note after note, filling 2 Muggle notebooks full of things she had noticed. She was holding onto them so that when Dumbledore took him down he would have plenty of evidence of Harry going Dark. She never worried too much about things until Dumbledore was killed by Snape and then she knew she would have to take over for Dumbledore.

She kept record of everything and during the summer she was in constant contact with Kingsley Shacklebolt, keeping him informed of everything going on. She even managed to keep in touch while the Trio was on the run and made sure to keep even tighter records when Harry was the one wearing the locket.

There was no way she was going to let him get away, and if this brought her closer to a higher position in the Ministry and a better life…. well then she wasn't going to complain.

Letting a small growl escape her lips she almost didn't notice Kingsley walking towards her before she slammed her face back into a look of frustration and worry.

"Have you seen him anywhere, I didn't see where he went off to after he defeated the Dark Lord?"

Hermione shook her and made a frustrated sound, "No, but I did warn you. All that extra magic was bound to mess with his head, we need to find him before he hurts someone."

The older wizard just nodded his head and looked at the young woman in front of him with sad eyes. "I didn't want to believe you, I was praying that you were wrong, that he was stronger than that."

Internally Hermione smirked, men were always to easy to manipulate with the right words and soft tears. Outloud she let out a harsh scoff before leveling a pitying look at the older male. "Please, he may have more magic than most but he has no control and a weak mind that will leave him open to the darkness from Voldemort's soul."

Tossing a smirk at the Auror, she knew she would enjoy this conversation, anything to make Harry look damaged and out of control, "With the way the Dursleys treated him as long as you show him a little bit of affection he'll be putty in your hands."

She watched as Kingsley frowned in confusion and narrowed his eyes in slight worry, "What do you mean about his treatment at the Dursleys?" Kingsley clenched his eyes closed hoping that she wasn't implying what he thought she was.

Casting a disbelieving look at the Auror, Hermione scoffed not believing that Dumbledore or any of the Weasley's wouldn't have mentioned anything. "You can't tell me you didn't know?"

At Kingsley's continued confused expression, Hermione explained Harry's life in extremely simple terms, "The Dursleys hated him, he was made to sleep in the cupboard under the stairs for 11 years and they treated him like a house elf. He was made to cook and clean from the moment he could stand in front of the stove and if he messed up he was punished."

With each passing moment Kingsley's eyes widened in horror and he listened to the girl's blase explanation of the treatment her supposed best friend went through in his young life. She didn't seem to notice the way Kingsley was looking at her and continued with her story, "Sometimes they would beat him but mostly they starved him of food. His cousin Dudley used to pick on him for sport and his parents never told him not too. In fact I think they encouraged it."

Fighting to keep a horrid smile off her face she finally focused back on Kingsley, not realizing that his look was one of disgust at Harry's treatment and her attitude, not an agreement with her views on arresting Harry. "So now you see why we need to find him, he'll still be in shock and easy to manipulate until we can seal his magic."

Kingsley opened his mouth to cast his disbelief. A loud explosion erupted from over by the gates and he called his wand into his hand, however seeing movement from behind Hermione stilled him until a mess of raven hair was seen over the rubble. He narrowed his eyes telling Harry to stay still and turned back to the woman in front of him only to see her rushing off toward the chaos he now had no doubt the twins caused.

Moments slipped past and neither man moved until Kingsley bowed his head and shifted slightly to block Harry completely from view. "Leave, quickly."

Hermione made it to the gates in record time, her wand out prepared to shield her if need be. However when she stood in the middle of the chaos she noticed that there was no new damage, only loud noises and dust settling back from where it had been kicked up. Narrowing her eyes she quickly looked around and spotted twin red haired fools running around throwing decoy bombs and dusting charms. Brown eyes flickered in fury and stomped over to the two and smacked them both on the arms.

"What in Merlin's name do you two think you are doing?"

Fred and George looked down at the bushy haired female and fought back the snarls that wanted to cross their faces. Instead they tossed an arm loosely over each other's shoulders and gave her a crooked grin, taking a step closer to her.

"Well, we're only trying to help…." George started.

"By keeping everyone on their toes….." Fred snickered.

"Just in case there are Death….."

"Eaters still around. We wouldn't…."

"Want anyone to be hurt just…"

"Because they weren't paying attention."

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" They finished together, startling many people around them.

Hermione glared at the two smiling red heads trying very hard not to yell at them, she finally calmed down after taking a deep breath. Shaking her head at them she crossed her arms across her chest before looking back out over the battlefield. Her mind was working a mile a minute trying to figure out where Harry could be, it's not like he had anywhere else to go. There's also no way he would just leave all these people here, she knew he had a 'hero-complex' that just wouldn't let him abandon them without making sure they were ok, or that at least all the Death Eaters were captured.

Frowning deeply she clenched her fists tightly before forcing a fake worried frown and misty eyes and turned to the Twins, before looking to the ground. "Have either of you seen Harry?"

So focused on making sure the Twins couldn't read anything in her eyes, she didn't see the dark look that covered their face. They glanced at each other quickly before turning back to Granger who was still staring down. Not wanting to drag this out they only said one word before running off to find their Mum and let her know what happened and that she needed to head back to the house to be there for Harry when he showed up.

"No."

Author's Note.

I wanted to say thanks to everyone who had stuck with me on the main story and now on this one. If I could I'd hug you all and give you free cookies. Thanks!

Also since strange things keep happening with I also have this story and the main one, "From the Beast Withing" posted on AO3. The link will been in my profile. Check me out there if you want.