Hermione paced the floor in front of the spare room where her father was residing. It had been two days since Lucius had summoned them back to the manor, and in that time Hermione had only seen Voldemort that one time. Lucius and Narcissa had both visited with her father several times a day, and even Draco had spoken to him the previous day. Voldemort had also seen Bellatrix, Rodolphus and Severus. Severus had come to the manor as soon as Lucius had informed him of the situation whereas Bellatrix and Rodolphus were staying at the manor and were therefore aware of what was going on. Hermione, however, had failed to go back and speak to her father, until she found herself pacing up and down in front of his door, willing herself to pluck up the courage to go inside.

After another couple of minutes pacing, Hermione pushed open the bedroom door and quietly entered the room. Voldemort was lying in the bed, but the second he saw Hermione he managed to sit up and smile widely at his daughter.

"Athena. I was beginning to think I wouldn't be seeing you again."

"I'm sorry, but all this has been a bit of a shock," Hermione said quietly as she sat down on the chair beside Voldemort's bed. "I'm still trying to get my head around everything."

"I understand," Voldemort replied with a subtle nod of his head. "I don't expect us to be close right away, but I would like to build a relationship with you."

"I'd like that as well," Hermione admitted. "Although I fear, I'm not what you'll be hoping for."

"I don't have any preconceptions about what you're like," Voldemort said. "I know what I would expect you to be like had your mother and I raised you, but I understand that you've been raised very differently."

"I have. I was raised by muggles," Hermione replied, watching Voldemort for his reaction when she mentioned her parents. She had expected some sort of adverse reaction to the mention of her muggle heritage, but her father merely nodded in understanding.

"I know how you were raised Athena," Voldemort chuckled. "I'm not going to pretend to like it, but it's not something I have any control over. It's just another way Dumbledore made me suffer."

"I just want you to know that I love my parents," Hermione said. "I want to get to know you and find out more about my mother, but the Grangers raised me and they love me. I will not be abandoning them."

Hermione noted a very brief tensing of Voldemort's jaw before he nodded once. He clearly wasn't happy about her continued association with her parents, but they were something she wasn't prepared to give up. As much as she wanted a relationship with Voldemort, he was going to discover that she was very much her own person and she couldn't be ordered around. She would live her life the way she wanted to, and if he wanted to get to know her he would have to accept things the way they were.

"I spoke to Draco yesterday," Voldemort said, changing the subject before he said something he might regret. "I like him."

"That's good considering you bonded us when we were children," Hermione retorted.

Voldemort chuckled at the fire his daughter was showing, she definitely wasn't someone to be messed with. "Are you against the bond?"

"Would it matter if I was?" Hermione questioned. "Luckily, I'm not against the bond. I love Draco."

"He seems to have his future all mapped out," Voldemort remarked. "He can certainly provide for you."

"I don't need someone to provide for me," Hermione snorted. "I can provide for myself."

"And how are you planning on doing that?" Voldemort questioned.

"Yesterday I was looking through the family's safe box again and I found the deeds to a small potions company. I want to look into it and see if we still own it," Hermione answered. "If it's still ours, I'd like to try and see if I can get it up and running again."

"Get Lucius to check it out," Voldemort told his daughter. "I can't see why we shouldn't still own the company. But are you sure that's what you want to do?"

"Yes," Hermione confirmed. "Unless you have a problem with that?"

"You do what you want, Athena," Voldemort said encouragingly. "I'm not going to stand in your way."

"Thank you, I appreciate that," Hermione said, smiling at her father.

"Now we've got that sorted, why don't you tell me a bit more about your life," Voldemort suggested. "I want to know what I've missed out on."

Hermione agreed, and after warning Voldemort not to make disparaging remarks about her parents she began to tell him about her life. Hermione talked for nearly an hour as she filled Voldemort in on the years he missed of her life. Of course Hermione couldn't cover every aspect of her life, but she covered the basics and she hoped they had plenty of time to talk in depth as her father got better and regained his strength and magic.

"Will you tell me more about you?" Hermione asked.

"Of course," Voldemort replied. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything," Hermione replied with a chuckle. "But I know we can't cover everything in one talk. For now, can you tell me more about these Horcruxes that kept you alive?"

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather we talked about your mother?" Voldemort questioned. He knew he would have to talk to Hermione about every aspect of his past, but he had hoped to discuss easier things first.

"I want to know all about her, but for now I need to understand how you're still alive," Hermione said.

"The story goes back to when I was still at school," Voldemort began. "As you know the dark arts have always fascinated me. I found a book that contained brief mention of Horcruxes. I spoke to a Professor and got some more information."

"A Professor told you about dark magic?" Hermione asked in surprise.

"Slughorn was easy to manipulate," Voldemort answered with a chuckle. "He was Head of Slytherin, and had his own little group of favourite students. The Slug Club was made up of smart students, and students Slughorn thought could be useful to him. I was one of the top students, so I was a member of his little group. A bit of flattery about how knowledgeable he was had Slughorn telling me everything he knew about Horcruxes."

Voldemort then spent the next ten minutes explaining to Hermione about Horcruxes. By the time he'd finished, Hermione understood everything there was to know about Horcruxes, including how they worked and how they were made.

"How many of these Horcruxes do you have?"

"Several," Voldemort replied. "In actual fact, I'll need someone to check on them. I very much doubt Dumbledore was idle these past eighteen years. There's a good chance he's destroyed the odd one or two."

"If you let me know what they are and where I'll find them, I'll check on them for you," Hermione offered. She wasn't sure what she felt about the Horcruxes, but if they kept her father alive she would do whatever it took to keep them out of the hands of the Order.

"One is a locket, which I kept in our family's safe box," Voldemort said. "If you have the box, you've got the locket. Another is an old diary, which is right here at the manor. Lucius should know where it is. I also gave Bellatrix a cup for her to keep safe. There's a ring, I hid at my old ancestral home and a diadem that's at Hogwarts."

"I would say the ring and diadem could possibly be what Dumbledore might have been able to destroy," Hermione mused thoughtfully. "The other three should be safely hidden where you left them. I'll try and check on everything as soon as possible."

"Thank you, Athena," Voldemort said, smiling at his daughter. He could see she wasn't entirely comfortable with his past actions, but he suspected that given time she could quite possibly come to make peace with the way he lived his life. She also had the potential to be every bit as dark and dangerous as him, and Voldemort intended to encourage that potential.

"How did Dumbledore know about your Horcruxes?" Hermione asked. "No-one else seems to have known, so how did he?"

"I've had a long time to think about that, and I think I have the answer," Voldemort replied. "Your mother knew about the Horcruxes, but she would never have betrayed me by talking to Dumbledore. Which leaves Slughorn as the only other person I mentioned them to. I'm not sure why he would tell Dumbledore about one conversation we had, but he has to have done. Dumbledore must have gotten his information from Slughorn."

"But that conversation isn't proof that you had Horcruxes," Hermione argued.

"Dumbledore may have been an old fool, but unfortunately he understood me all too well. He knew I wouldn't have mentioned something like Horcruxes to Slughorn if I hadn't been planning on using the knowledge somehow."

"Sneaky old bugger," Hermione muttered.

"Although until you've checked the Horcruxes, I have no idea if he was ever able to locate any of them," Voldemort said. "For all I know, he's drawn a blank. He never spoke to me about them, so I don't know what he knows."

"That could mean he knew nothing, so he had nothing to say," Hermione suggested. "Or it could mean, he was saying nothing to keep you wondering. He might have hoped to find and destroy them all before confronting you and killing you."

"From what I read about Horcruxes, I wouldn't know if only a couple were destroyed," Voldemort said. "However, the fewer I have the more connected I become to them and the more I can feel if they're destroyed. That's how I know he could only have gotten his hands on a couple at the most."

"Don't worry, no-one else will get their hands on any of the others," Hermione vowed as she stood up. "I won't lose you again."

"I'm not going anywhere, Athena," Voldemort said, taking hold of Hermione's hand. "I promise."

Hermione smiled down at Voldemort as she bent over and brushed a kiss on his forehead. "Get some rest. I'll be back to see you later."

"No more avoiding me?" Voldemort questioned.

"No more avoiding you," Hermione promised. "I want to get to know you, and I can't do that if I avoid you. I'll be back later, I promise."

Hermione gave Voldemort one final smile, before turning and exiting the spare room. Heading downstairs, she went looking for Lucius. She wanted to talk to him about the Horcruxes, but she also wanted to ask about Dumbledore, as well as seeing if he could make some enquiries about the potions company she'd found her family owned. Hermione found Lucius in his study, where he welcomed her into his office and urged her to take a seat.

"There's a few things I want to discuss with you," Hermione said, skipping straight to the reason why she'd sought her boyfriend's father out.

"I'm here to help," Lucius said as he retook his seat behind his desk.

"First of all my father wants me to check on his Horcruxes, I was hoping you would help me," Hermione said, explaining exactly what Voldemort had told her.

"You have the safe box to check for the locket, but if that's where he put it that's where it'll be," Lucius answered as he got to his feet and crossed over to a picture on the far wall. Swinging the picture away from the wall, he revealed a safe that he opened with his wand. "And here is the diary your father gave to me," he said, pulling the old book out of his safe and showing it to Hermione. "We can talk to Bellatrix about the cup, Severus might be able to help us with the diadem and we can look for the ring ourselves."

"Thank you Lucius," Hermione said, watching as Lucius locked the dairy back up securely in the safe. "I also want you to check out a potions company my family owns. I found the documentation yesterday, but I need to know what sort of state the company is in, and even if we still own it."

"Give me the details and I'll check everything out for you," Lucius said. "Are you thinking of running the company?"

"If we still own it and I think I can make a success of it," Hermione replied.

"I'll give you whatever help I can, and we do happen to know a potions expert," Lucius said. "Severus could be immensely helpful to you if you want to make the company a success."

"Do you think he would come and work with me?" Hermione asked. She would be more than willing to offer Severus a slice of the company if he could help her turn it into a thriving business.

"I think it's a definite possibility. Severus isn't the biggest fan of teaching, he only stayed on at the school as I thought it would be handy to have someone close to Dumbledore," Lucius replied. "Once I've found out what sort of state the business is in, you should definitely consider asking for his help."

"I will," Hermione said with a firm nod. "And the last thing I want help with is Dumbledore. Did you manage to find out anything about his will?"

Hermione and Draco had spoken to Lucius a few hours after they'd had the discussion over Dumbledore informing the rest of the Order about Voldemort. Lucius had agreed to look into it and see if he could find out what was happening with the former headmaster's will.

"Because Dumbledore died in the Ministry's care it's taken a while to get everything sorted. I spoke to Fudge this morning, and the will is currently being processed," Lucius answered. "Luckily Fudge is quite chatty, and he told me most of Dumbledore's estate passes to his brother, Aberforth. There's a few personal bequests, but according to Ministry records he doesn't own any property, so I'm not sure what will happen about the house your father was being kept in. My guess is, there's something in the personal bequests that will reveal the truth to the Order, but unfortunately for them it's too late."

"Surely Dumbledore would have known my father would have escaped before his will was processed," Hermione argued. "He wouldn't risk my father escaping before the Order discovered he was alive."

"You're forgetting that he didn't know he was going to die in the Ministry," Lucius said. "In normal circumstances, his will would have been processed within twenty-four hours. Because of your father's weakened condition, he wouldn't have been able to escape in such a short time period. Dumbledore would have known that."

"Do you think we can find the cottage ourselves?" Hermione asked after agreeing that Lucius was right about Dumbledore's will. "I think we need to know if the Order are aware that my father is still alive."

"I'll see what I can do, but we'll have to move carefully," Lucius said. "We don't want to alert the Order to what's going on if they don't already know. And even if they do, we don't want them to know that we know that they know about your father. We need to keep them thinking they've got the element of surprise."

"That's an awful lot to think about," Hermione muttered, her head still whirling from trying to follow Lucius and his tongue twisting speech.

"Just leave everything to me," Lucius said with a smile. "You just enjoy getting to know your father. I've got everything under control."


A/N - In case I've got people reading this story who aren't reading Shattered Trust, I just want to inform them of a new collection I am planning. It is revisiting old stories and writing a piece set however many years after the end of the story. The idea is to tie up some loose ends, and explore questions that were never fully answered, and even just to catch-up on how things progressed for the characters. So if there is any story you want to know more about - or a question you never got answered in a story - send me a message and I will make a note of the ideas and try my best to write them all.