She had always been the level-headed one. Out of the trio that they had become, Hermione was always the one to hold the boys back from their crazier ideas and talk them down to think about how to go about their plans safely. But, no one was holding her back. She was curious and wanted to know more, just a little bit more about the situation of the estate on the hill. Hermione wanted to see with her own eyes what was going on, she pushed through her sense of foreboding and continued up the hill.
From the village to the estate was at least a half hour walk, and the closer she got to where she was walking, Hermione felt a deeper need to turn around. However, she couldn't find herself capable of doing just that. She was so close, just a quick look in to the large manor would give her enough information to know whether a Killing Curse had been used on the grounds or not. The magical energy would still spark in the air and she would be able to feel it and she would be able to look in to old Ministry documents and newspaper articles that had been made available to the public and she could read through what had transpired if it matched what she suspected.
She could wait and review and research at school once the term started, or she could satiate part of her curiosity in this moment, now. And that is exactly what she wanted to do. Hermione found herself in front of the house before she had even realized time had been passing, and as soon as she crossed the boundary of the fence that blocked in the property, she felt it. An incredible burst of magic that had her struggling to breathe because it was so heavy. It was more than just residual magic that had been left on the house and the items that were around it, it was active. And from the lights that she could see flickering in the bottom of the house she knew it was more than just an inhabitant hanging about. Trudging forward, closer and closer to what was an abyss of darkness, Hermione walked closer to the light. However, she heard someone else moving towards it as well and hid herself next to the wall of the cobblestone house while they continued to descend in to the light coming from below.
An older gentleman, white hair that peaked higher on the sides and slightly disheveled walked with a flashlight in his hands and pointed it towards the bottom of the stairs. Hermione stared on at him as his face held a look of shock. She couldn't see what he was seeing, but the look on his face that was visible to her ran chills down her spine. And before she knew it, another spike of dark magic had her practically on the ground as the force of it caused her knees to buckle and her to push herself harder in to the stone of the home. Choking down a breath that threatened to escape her throat she watched as the expression on the man's face waned, quickly, and his body fell in the same way hers wanted to. He didn't even have a moment to scream and she was too afraid to.
This was a village of muggles, there were no wizarding families even close. She hadn't thought to carry her wand; she hadn't thought to leave a note for anyone to come searching for her if something happened. For the first time in her life, Hermione hadn't fully thought everything through. A snake slithered through what she had assumed was a crack in the rubble, resting on the passed man's head and staring directly at where she was hiding. Hair standing on edge and electrified with the magic swarming around her, Hermione hoped with all of her might that the snake was just looking in her direction. She begged whatever forces were around her that she would just be able to get out of here and even forget about what she had seen. As much as she wanted to be brave and stand up to whoever was doing wrong as Ron, Harry or even Ginny would have done, her courage stopped with her curiosity if she had no one around her.
She wanted to blend with the wall.
She didn't.
The snake – which she could now see was as long as she was tall – rushed at her with its fangs bared. Ready to bite down as it hissed, it was stopped midway towards reaching out to her and clamping down by another hissed set of whispers. Its mouth shut, but it was still sailing towards her. Before Hermione knew what was happening, the snakes head was inches away from her own, wrapped around her body and now supporting her weight against the wall. Her brown ringlets were tangled in to its body as it weaved and squirmed against her, growing increasingly tighter if she did more than breathe.
"Another muggle, My Lord?" A nasal sounding voice called from the alcove she had been trying so hard to avoid. She didn't want to hear anything, she didn't want to be here, she wanted to be anywhere else. Taking a deep breath with the snake wrapped around her, Hermione went through a list of whether she should reveal her magical prowess to whoever was near her. If she did, would they be inclined to spare her life? Or, even with her magical talent, if they found that she was a muggleborn would they throw any ideas of keeping her alive away and torture her first before striking the light from her eyes as well? "What would you like to do? It's a young girl, My Lord." Stinking breath was stretched across her face and she struggled to breathe even more.
A man stared in to her eyes, his own features sunken in and his face full of dark shadows that fell opposite of where he had a dusting of freckles. Straw blonde hair whipped around his head as he sparkled with magic in a way that Hermione had only seen from Snape himself when he had been particularly ruffled after a lesson where students were not listening. Hermione's hair sparked to life as she stared deeply in to his own eyes that were now raking over her form. She wore a jumper, but it didn't cover her legs. And though it was not cold, she felt the goosebumps spread across her legs and the breaths that she had tried so hard to hold came out.
The snake slowly moved off her as she heard more hissing. Hermione fought against the urge to immediately close her eyes and fall. She stood straighter and stared even deeper at the man in front of her as she noticed two more figures coming from the room. They stepped directly over the fallen body of the older man who had been lying still, lifeless, staring. Brown eyes widened as she stared at the men who now formed a triangle around her, snake slithering up in to the robes of the one now directly in front of her. If she were to even call him a man with the way the slits where his nose was supposed to be flared.
"She's not a muggle you imbecile." His voice was gruff and for some reason Hermione felt herself pulled towards it. Why such a strange looking creature would have such a calming voice made her knees shake. She felt her goosebumps begin to subside as she even leaned in slightly towards him. The dark magic surrounding all of them made her uncomfortable, but the absolute power radiating off him called out to something within her. "What's your name, girl?"
"Hermione Granger." It was pulled out of her before she was able to think up a lie, before she could hide herself away from everything. The men all stopped what they were doing, and the one directly in front of her had a grin stretch sickly across his pale face.
"My Lord?" The final man in the triangle spoke. His voice high pitched and squeaky and he couldn't help himself back from chattering upon his teeth as the thinning hair on top of his head was forced to be moved away from his eyes. The one spoken to as the Lord of the two had forced his head back with a flick of his wrist – no wand in sight – and moved his eyes towards the curly haired girl.
"I'm not particularly interested in continuing on with a conversation outside. Never know who's listening. Now, Miss Granger was it?" Hermione nodded her head and the smile that was on the man's face where lips should have been spread wider. "Follow us inside if you would." There was no question for her to answer, it was a demand and she felt it in her bones as the rat-faced man. She knew exactly who he was, after he had been exposed to her the previous year.
"I'll follow you, but if that rat of a man comes any closer to me, I'll have to react in a way that would be reminiscent of my cat the past couple of years." Freckles on full display, hair raised with magical electricity, Hermione didn't know what had possessed her to say that. Perhaps it was because Peter Pettigrew himself had been the one to push her from the small of her back, and she was aware of what his hands had played part in. The snake-like wizard laughed, deep, boisterous, before with another flick of his wrist, Peter was thrown to the ground and forced to bow before his master.
"Even though my body is weak, my magic is not." He breathed in, himself taking the spot closer to Hermione as she noticed that he didn't carry any sort of smell to him. "Wormtail, I'm going to set you on a little quest that you may be interested in. First, tell me about the young lady in front of us. Leave out no details, and Crouch, grab a snack for Nagini."
He spoke with such a sense of importance, of dread. It terrified her. But it terrified her more for him to know about her. To know more about her than her name, and from a man who she had unknowingly been around for years. The blond known as Crouch moved in to the room they had emerged from originally and left them. The snake-like individual wrapped an arm around her wrist and stared at her as if she were a snack of some sort and the snake that had hidden within his robes wrapped around both of their wrists like a handcuff to attach her to him.
"Hermione Granger. Mudblood. Friend of Harry Potter, My Lord. Considered to be one of the brightest witches of her age." Pettigrew began, "There isn't much to say, My Lord. She bests those around her easily but isn't exactly known for her shining personality."
"And that is you leaving out no details?" He sighed. "Go find seven muggles, bring them back here. I don't care how. Bring them alive and I'll summon those that I want." Pettigrew moved from his place on the ground slowly, but one look from the snake had him scurrying. Crouch walked back out with an assortment of items.
He stared at the entwined wrists of the young girl and his lord for mere moments before he laid down snacks for the snake holding them together.
"You know the plan, go." And as if a wave crashed in to her, Hermione almost buckled again as veil of darkness covered her form. She was dragged to the room, over the man before she was forced to watch his body burned to ash in front of her. Within moments she was left alone with the snakes. Alone, scared, and staring deeply in to red orbs that acted as eyes.
Hermione breathed in deeply as the snake man circled her, forcing her on to a chair where she instinctively crossed her ankles and held her hands. She was in his area now, and she had nothing to protect herself. All she could do was sit quietly. Suddenly, before she knew what was happening, she felt a pricking sensation run through her head. Wrinkling her eyebrows, tightening her hands, she tried to stop it without moving too much while she was around the snake. Her head was pounding, she was drowning, and as fast as the sensation had started it had stopped.
Lashes curled over her eyelids as she blinked up towards the man. He made no movements towards her, but he continued his staring, making Hermione feel more uncomfortable by the moment. The snake slithered out from his sleeve and once again it wrapped around her. Her ankles and wrists already crossed around each other, it held her in her position while she watched the man move.
"Harry Potter's little friend, hmm? The one who helped to find my chamber?" Hermione bristled, she opened her mouth to speak but the snake curled around her open mouth as well and stopped her movements. "Who would have thought that my most hated mudblood would have found her way to me?" His skin had started to peel and shed. Falling in pieces directly in front of her. She couldn't turn away; she was forced to stare wide-eyed at the thing in front of her while his pale skin flaked to show a peachier hue below. Cracks formed in his armour and below she could see a real person being revealed.
His mouth widened at her look of fear. She had realized who he was as he rifled through her mind. Lord Voldemort, the darkest wizard of the past generations and her own.
"Now, little lion. I'm going to give you a choice." She stared up at him as his skin ripped around him, she heard a pop as he let out a growl. "You can run from here, and I can find you later. Or, you can stay to see what's going to happen. If you stay, you won't be seeing your friends again. You will not see your family; you will not leave my side."
Curiosity could only push one so far, and with Voldemort himself staring down at her Hermione was quick to make her decision. "I'll run." She breathed in. "But you won't find me."
Voldemort laughed again, that raspy, low, chortle that almost had Hermione pushing against the snake so that she could be closer to him. "You won't know that it's me when I do, little lion." He hissed and the snake gently glided around her body once before moving along her and sliding up against him. "I'll do you a favour and remove your glamour."
Not knowing what he was talking about, Hermione felt the air around her shift and her hair calm slightly. But she didn't notice much of a difference as she forced herself to stand on shaking legs. Hermione stared at him, and all that he did was smile before golden tendrils danced in the air around them.
"Hermione Granger, do you promise to tell no one of what you've seen here tonight and continue on with your school year until I come to you?" She nodded in affirmation and the tendrils of gold shot in to her skin and pulled her against him. Suddenly, everything that had transpired felt as if it were a dream, she couldn't remember everything as clearly as she felt like she could.
And she was back in the cabin in her bed before she knew it. An owl on the windowsill staring at her with a letter hanging from its mouth.
"Does the dark call to you like it does to me?"