Chapter 1: There's only power…

Hermione looked up as Harry and Ron entered the Library. She wasn't surprised to see them, since she had left the dormitories two hours earlier and they knew very well where she would be. She had spent most of her time in here, both during the holidays and since the start of the New Year, and she thought they were now starting to understand that something was very wrong with her.

"Have you gone down for breakfast already?" Harry asked.

"Yes." Hermione lied.

She was becoming impressively good at this. Most of the time, her two best friends didn't see through. But when she saw Ron frowned, Hermione changed the subject.

"I hope you remembered that essay Snape gave us yesterday."

Both young men pulled a face and Hermione secretly smiled. This was by far the best way to get away from her friend compassion. The three of them had decided to keep studying Potions after their 5th year. Snape hadn't been too happy when he had learned it. But he was a lot fairer now that he had been during those five years he had to teach them, even if he was still a mean git with Harry.

"Are you going to be okay?"

"Yes, Ron. Don't worry too much about me. I'm fine."

The two young men looked very dubious, but they finally nodded and walked out to go and get their breakfasts. Hermione cracked her knuckles as she looked down at her work. She had finally learned most of what she needed to do what she wanted. But she was still missing an important piece of her puzzle; a piece she absolutely needed if she wanted to succeed in taking her revenge. But she seemed to be unable to find it, even if she had spent the last two days on this riddle. The reward was too great for Hermione to let it go. The only way she could think of was to ask Harry, but he would certainly think it strange that his friend wanted to learn Parseltongue. After all, it was a dark wizard attribute.

Hermione sighed as she found out that she couldn't focus on her studies anymore. She threw her books inside her bag and left the Library and left. She hadn't made three steps that she heard Draco Malfoy's voice coming her way. Instantly, her anger surfaced. Her first thought was to attack him and make him pay for what his family and their friends had done to her. Hermione was finding those pulses more difficult to control each time. Not that she really wanted to control them, but killing the hair of the Malfoy family would attract far too much attention on her. And Hermione wanted to be innocent looking for as long as possible.

So, she decided to turn round and went down the stairs leading to the corridor where she knew she would find the Room of Requirement. But she suddenly felt the presence of the Headmaster around it. Hermione stopped dead in her tracks once more. The Headmaster was another one who shouldn't know what she was doing. He would feel obliged to try and prevent her from avenging her family, in particular following the path she had chosen. He had probably a fair idea of what she was up to already, since it was becoming very hard to approach the magic room.

Hermione growled her frustration. But she still had an option. So she went for the stairs leading to the Entrance Hall. She made sure that no one saw her from the Great Hall and run outside. She quickly made her way for the edge of the lake. She would have liked to go all the way to the forest but she had to go to class in less than half an hour.

When she arrived there, it was to find Crookshanks waiting for her. The ginger cat had transformed quite a lot since his mistress's parents' death. He was now refusing that anyone apart from Hermione touches him. And he was also a lot more absent, going into the Dark Forest by himself and often not returning before a few days. Hermione was suspecting that, by loyalty to her, Crookshanks had turned to the other way as his mistress has done. And the young woman really hoped she was right, because she really loved that cat. She dropped her books on the ground, sat down and Crookshanks jumped onto her lap.

"So, my love, what are you up to?"

Crookshanks meowed his answer and Hermione couldn't help but smiled. She sat there, petting her friend and reviewing what she had learnt, what she needed to learn and what she should do to learn.

"What are you doing here, Miss Granger?"

Hermione clenched her jaws together to prevent the snappy retort to escape her mouth. Instead, she turned her head to look at her Potions Master.

"Waiting for my school day to begin."

Snape raised an eyebrow.

"The Headmaster seems to think you need to talk."

"We both know you don't really want to be here. And more, you're hardly the person I would confide to."

"Ten points off Gryffindor for that remark."

Hermione just smiled at the older man and wasn't surprised to see a smirk on her Professor's face. She hadn't told anyone, but she was actually starting to like that man, most probably because she had realised a couple of weeks ago that she was acting more and more like he was. And it seemed that Severus Snape liked the change at least as much as her.

"You're turning Slytherin."

"Maybe I should ask to be re-Sorted."

'Merlin, no! I have enough troubles with Malfoy, I don't want to be stuck with the school know-it-all."

Crookshanks suddenly stood up and started walking toward the Forest. Hermione smiled at this and stood up as well.

"That's our cue. School is starting. I'll see you this afternoon."

"Please, remind the two others that my essay is due today."

"Already done, Professor."

Hermione started running toward the castle. She ran straight for her Transfiguration class. She was nearly there when she realised that she had left her bag next to the lake. She swore softly, knowing that any Professors hearing her would knock points off Gryffindor for it. She didn't have time to run back to get her things. She looked around and made up her mind.

"Accio bag."

She didn't wait long before her bag arrived flying. She smiled happily: those small bits of magic were now easy for her, even wandless. She caught it and quickly made her way to the Transfiguration classroom. She sighed as she realised that she now had to wait until tonight before she could go back to the Library and try and finish her research.

Hermione was sitting in Potions class, writing away as Professor Snape was pointing out the different ways of using dragon blood in Potions. She could hear Harry and Ron's quilts scratching their parchments behind her. Malfoy was just sitting there, knowing that Snape wouldn't say anything. It was while she was watching her enemy from the corner of her eye that Hermione realised the obvious: Snape was most probably the only other one in Hogwarts who would be able to teach her Parseltongue. After all, he had been a servant to Voldemort and was now spying him. He had to have picked up some of the snake language. Or at least, he would know how to learn it. Hermione knew it would look too suspicious if she was staying behind. So she decided to risk going after the curfew.

After spending the whole evening alone in her rooms, Hermione walked quietly out at 1 o'clock in the morning. She stretched her power around her, sensing the corridors as she walked so she could avoid Filch and his damn cat. She made her way down to the dungeons in this manner. When she finally arrived there, she was tired but still ready to carry her plan out. Hermione walked to the Potions classroom and entered quietly. She knew that the classroom led to Snape's office, and his office to his personal quarters. The office's door opened up with a simple Alohomora. Hermione already knew, for having spent long hours in detentions there, that nothing in here would help her. But she also knew how to get into Snape's quarters.

The portrait hiding the door to Snape's private rooms was a painting of a giant green and silver snake. It was watching as Hermione approached.

"The owner is not here."

"Good. Peace."

The giant snake shook its head.

"I have to let you pass since you have the right password. But be warned."

Hermione shrugged and entered the room. Snape's personal library was now hers to search. She quickly looked at the names on the covers of all those books, getting a feeling of how they were grouped. She found the Potions section, which was taking up two entire shelving units. A slightly smaller section was devoted to literature, and Hermione was quite surprised to see several Muggle writers there, both classic and contemporary. The final unit was what Hermione would have called miscellaneous, all the books talking about different brands of magic. Hermione scan-read through the section to finally found what she was looking for. She took the small black book only to find out it was Snape himself who had written it. And in it, Hermione found phonetic transcriptions of Parseltongue. The young woman took the book, arranging the shelf so Snape wouldn't see straight away that one of his books was missing.

Then, she started her walk back to her private room. She had some night reading to do…

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