Astraea
Star Maiden; Daughter of Zeus and Themis
Associated with the Greek Goddess of Justice Dike

Hermione huffed and crossed her arms as she waited for the lift to take her to the floor the Minister's office was on. Honestly, she would much rather not have to be at the Ministry at all, but Justice needed to be served. She cast a Notice-Me-Not charm over herself, she couldn't risk anyone remembering she had even been anywhere near him today. She had to cover all her bases. She was here to see, and retrieve, Percival Ignatius Weasley. The third eldest Weasley had wronged her greatly a year ago. All because she had lost control of her magic, resulting in the deaths of her parents. If it hadn't been for her status as a War Heroine, the Wizengamot would have seen fit to have her rot in Azkaban at his encouragement.

Truthfully it wasn't as if she meant to kill her parents, but they had never forgiven her for protecting them by taking their memories and sending them to Australia. For the seven years, she had visited her parents after bringing them home she had put up with snarky and scathing comments about her magic. They would often hiss out insinuations that she would simply erase them if they disagreed with her. Leading her to be guilted into submission to give them whatever they wanted.

The years of verbal abuse came to a head one night at dinner. Hermione had waved her wand to send the dirty dishes to the kitchen, when her mother had remarked that she must not think the muggle way was good enough anymore. Her father had laughed, and said that perhaps they should've tried to beat the magic out of her, and maybe they would've had a normal daughter.

Hermione had started to cry at that, which had led to more taunts, and in that moment Hermione had understood why purebloods hated muggles so much. They were awful, uncivilized creatures that would never evolve. They would always criticize, berate, torment and try to subjugate those that were different. They would always fear the unknown, instead of seeking to understand it. Oh, there were exceptions of course, but they were few and far between.

During her emotional turmoil, Hermione's father had finally had enough and gripped her tightly by her arms and began shaking her hard enough to jar her teeth. Hermione's magic had reacted violently, and sent out wave after wave of raw power. By the time it was over, both of her parents lay crumpled and broken on the floor of what had once been their home. If she focused, she could still see their mangled bodies, where blood had leaked from their eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. Their limbs had been twisted at odd angles, almost as if an overgrown child had thrown them down like they were ragdolls.

She had screamed and cried, begging them to come back, telling them she was sorry. That she hadn't meant it. That she'd be a good daughter. That was how the Aurors had found her. Sobbing between her parents' lifeless bodies, clutching each of their hands. Harry had been one of the first to arrive, and he had managed to scoop her up and apparate her to St. Mungos believing her to have been attacked.

After being force fed a calming draught, she told Harry and his partner what had happened in a fog. Once the report had been turned over to the Ministry, Percy Weasley had decided to stick his obnoxiously pointy nose where it didn't belong. She was detained to St. Mungos for a week, forced to undergo invasive tests and treatments to try to disprove her story. All at the behest of Percy.

Apparently, he and his family were still smarting over the end of her and Ron's relationship. However, it had been clear the couple wanted different things. Hermione was ambitious, and wanted to make a change in the world, while Ron was content to just get by and wanted Hermione to be a stay at home mom like his mother had been. In the end, they couldn't make it work, which had resulted in an enormous fight that had seen Ron fleeing to the Burrow, claiming Hermione thought she was too good for him. Funny that he and her parents had reached the same conclusion, even though Hermione had been outcast in both the Magical and Wizarding world.

All of this had led to Percy leading a case against her, claiming that she had intentionally killed her parents to amass what little they owned. Had it not been for her finally agreeing to both veritaserum and legilimency, the Wizengamot would have locked her away in Azkaban for the rest of her days. Regardless her reputation had been damaged by the case, along with the articles detailing her and Ron's breakup.

So now, she was here to deliver Justice to Percival. Over the past year, she had been quietly digging up dirt on the Weasley son, and she had finally found enough that his reputation would be ruined. Not that it would matter, considering the act she was about to force him to do, would be the only thing the History books would remember him for. Walking into the Minister's Undersecretary's office she decided to make herself at home at wait for Percy to return from his meeting.

She didn't have long to wait, not even ten minutes later Percy came barreling through the door clutching a stack of files. He stopped short of his desk when he noticed her. His eyes had gone wide with shock and fear to see her leaning against his desk with her wand pointed directly at him.

"You really shouldn't have made an enemy of me Percy." She told him waving her wand to start the incantation.

"Hermi- "he began.

She cut him off with a whispered, "Imperio." She watched in fascination as his face went slack and his eyes glazed over. Allowing herself into his mind, she began to lay out the plans that he was to fulfill.

Tell the Minister you aren't feeling well. A subtle prod against his subconscious.

Go to Azkaban Prison and visit Thorfinn Rowle, Antonin Dolohov, Marcus Flint and Adrian Pucey as well as Rabastan LeStrange. A more forceful nudge against his defenses.

Ask to have a private chat with Archibald Wilkins. Kill him. And finally, kill yourself. She forced the idea to be cemented into his subconscious. He and Archibald would be dead by the end of the day, and her Sentries would be with her tomorrow morning.

"Repeat your mission to me Percy." She murmured to him softly.

"Leave the Ministry. Visit Azkaban. Kill Archibald Wilkins. Kill myself." His voice was a robotic monotone.

Satisfied she smiled and patted his cheek. "Good boy."

Walking away from him she allowed her features to settle into a blank façade. She couldn't let her face show her excitement. Her plans were finally coming to fruition, and the fruits of her labor would be sweet indeed.

Percy couldn't remember why he had to leave work early. But after being in his office he felt an urgent need to go to Azkaban. Something was amiss there, he could feel it. Telling the Minister, he wasn't feeling well, he walked to the apparition point and apparated away to Azkaban. The Icy North Sea wind was the first thing to greet him. Storming up to the door, he told the guard he was here on official ministry business, and needed to see Thorfinn Rowle, Antonin Dolohov, Adrian Pucey, Marcus Flint and Rabastan LeStrange.

The guard at the door sneered at him, but Archibald Wilkins stopped him. "Don't be too hasty, Gerard. Come with me Mr. Weasley."

Percy followed along dutifully, and briefly checked on each of the inmates. Thorfinn had merely raised his head and sneered at him. Antonin had glared and made quite the rude hand gesture. Marcus and Adrian simply acted as if he didn't exsist. And Rabastan had tried to attack him as soon as the door closed.

All of the inmates were in their cells, precisely as they should be. Perhaps nothing was wrong after all. He should apologize to Archibald for wasting his time.

"Mr. Wilkins, I'm terribly sorry for disturbing you. I could've sworn something was amiss. Must've been my imagination. How about some tea?" He asked him earnestly.

Archibald smiled genially, "Of course, we'll take it in my office. Say, would you like some brandy with your tea?" He asked as he ushered Percy to his office.

Percy nodded in return. "That would be lovely, thanks."

Once the door to Archibald's office was closed, a sickly green light could have been seen flashing under the gap of the door, had anyone been around to witness it. As it were, they would have to wait until morning to find the bodies of Archibald Wilkins and Percy Weasley dead in the warden's office. One murdered by the killing curse, and the other by his own hand with a slicing hex across his neck.

A/N: And chapter 6 is done. So now we have quite a bit more insight as to what has caused Hermione to start to go Dark. Thanks to my lovely Beta Vino Amore for the feedback on this chapter. I greatly appreciate it. Seeing ass how today is my birthday, you can probably expect chapter seven sometime Thursday. As always reviews are amazing, and I love reading everyone's response to the story so far. Much love and until next time Lilbit903.