Original Author Notes: Sorry for the wait, I had trouble with my computer. To La- I try not to have lots of details otherwise… Well, it ends up looking like something from the Illiad. You got one of your guesses right and one thing wrong… possible two things wrong. Thanks to Little Dragon/GoldenKeeper for getting it right- here are your cookies!
Holy cow. It's been two years. It's been two years and I wrote this in a day, wow. First off, I want to apologize to GoldenKeeper2567. I said that I would post this up tomorrow and well… I posted it a week or so early, just, you know… Two years in the future. That's the thing about time travel, it almost never turns out as planned. Now, I have no idea if any of you would still read this, but I'm going to try to continue it. Hopefully it won't be another two years like last time. Again, I'm so sorry about the wait. Hopefully, you'll notice my writing has gotten a bit better. Please excuse spelling errors. – London out
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. If I did own it, Tom Riddle would probably be prime minister of the Wizarding World.
Hermione quickly spun around to face the door; her heart beating furiously in her chest.
"Miss Granger, for what reason did you see fit to run from the classroom while class was still in session?" Professor Snape couldn't look more menacing if he even tried.
She wanted to scream at him why she ran away from the classroom. About how impossible what was written on the piece of parchment was. She wanted to tell him how he shouldn't be yelling at her. About how everything she had ever know or believed about herself was now in ruins. All of her core beliefs shaken in disbelief. Instead, she stayed silent, reminding herself that the secret she now possessed could end her life at any moment.
Professor Snape's face grew more twisted with anger at her silence. He took a deep breath in and started to yell at her.
Hermione stared at him. She couldn't understand what he was saying. Words like- cauldrons, stupidity, Gryffindor, points, and other fragments passed through her vague understanding. But the whole of whatever he was yelling at her was lost to the shock she was experiencing. After what seemed like an eternity, Professor Snape stopped talking and just stared at her. She nodded mutely and managed to form words in her mouth, "Yes, sir."
Professor Snape gave a sharp nod and backed away, turning to the crowd that was gathered outside of the disused classroom. He muttered something to himself.
Through the crowd Harry burst through, his eyes shown with concern despite how tired he looked, "Hermione! Are you alright?" He quickly rushed towards her.
Hermione stared at him for a second. Belatedly, she realized that she had to snap out of the shock she was in. She needed to make everything appear like it was normal. Even if she had to lie to do that. She brushed some hair behind her ear and gave Harry a smile that was slightly tight, thankfully he voice was steady when she spoke, "I'm fine, Harry. Just a little bit disappointed about what the paper showed."
Before Harry had a chance to answer, Draco stepped forward from the crowd and said in a sneering tone, "What's the matter Granger? Ashamed about the lack of magical blood running through your veins? It's what you get for being a mudblood!" Draco's voice was harsh, but his eyes revealed his concern for her.
Magically, Ron seemed to appear out of now where and punch Draco in the face.
Hermione leaned towards Harry, "Maybe we should leave now while everyone's distracted?" She gestured towards the mess of kids surrounding Ron and Draco, feeling slight concern for Draco's health. All of the kids were surrounding them with delighted excitement about the fist fight, while Professor Snape tried in vain to break it up.
"Lunch?" Harry offered.
Hermione nodded, and they both snuck away from the crowd.
Hermione picked at the food on her plate and ate a few bite here and there, not tasting the food. She wasn't really hungry, but had to keep up the appearance of normality. Finally she decided to engage Harry in conversation, "So, what was Snape yelling at me about?"
Harry took a large bite of his food and swallowed it after a few seconds, "Oh, you know, the usual. He took off points from Gryffindor, insulted you, and blamed me as a bad influence causing you excess stupidity." Harry raised his sandwich up to eat it again and paused, "Oh, I almost forgot. You're serving detention with him after dinner to clean cauldrons."
Hermione sighed and took a drink of water, "Cauldrons, lovely. It isn't even his class and he's handing out detentions." Harry nodded in understanding, chewing. Hermione looked around the Great Hall, "When do you think Ron's going to be back?"
Harry swallowed, "Probably never. That looked like a pretty nasty fight. Plus he threw the first punch, though that wouldn't have mattered anyways… Snape probably has him cleaning out cauldrons or patrolling with Filch for the rest of the month."
Hermione nodded, her thoughts turning to Ron's questionable loyalty. He had family members in the Order, and if the Order was as bad as Draco alluded it to being… She didn't even want to mention the fact that Ron's friendship with Harry seemed like a setup, or how she had thoughtlessly turned his back on Harry last year. With guilt, she reminded herself about how she hadn't exactly been a perfect friend to Harry last year, though she had tried…
"Hermione?" Harry's voice was half amused, half worried.
"Huh? Sorry. What?" She asked looking at him.
"That was the third time I called your name. Are you sure you're alright?" his eyes narrowed slightly at her.
"Yes. I'm fine. What were you saying?" she quickly responded.
Harry looked at her for a few seconds, "Hmm. Anyways, I was wondering if we could meet up later, before lunch, to discuss that Runes theory I was talking about earlier."
She nodded and gave him a smile full of false cheer, "Sure!"
Harry gave her a look that said that he hadn't bought her smile for a second and continued to eat.
Hermione sighed and started eating too. She tried to keep her thoughts focus, but all of her fears, worries, and concerns kept swirling around her head like a thick fog for the rest of the day. The day passed by like normal, except for her thoughts and the surprise she had received earlier that day.
Hermione was sitting in one of the desks looking at Harry, who was sitting across from her. They had just put up the necessary wards. She raised an eyebrow at Harry, "So, what have you been wanting to talk about?"
Harry took a deep breath, "I think we might be able to become allies with Voldemort and not get killed."
There was a pause, where Hermione looked at Harry with a mixture of shock and disbelief. She closed her eyes for a few seconds and then looked back at Harry with suspicion, "And how did you come to this conclusion?"
Harry looked away, "Well, I'm still not good at Oclumency and you know how I sometimes get feelings from Voldemort…"
"So, you're going to try to become allies with… Voldemort because of these feelings you're getting from him?" Hermione counted to three in her head. Maybe it was because of her new scare that she was suspicious, but she found what Harry was telling her was a little… ridiculous. He wasn't that fond of the Dark Lord. Honestly, the idea was crazy. But wasn't the world they lived in crazy? Magic was something she would have scoffed at years ago, but now… Maybe she needed a little faith? She opened her eyes to see Harry fidgeting. She sighed, "Go on."
He ran a hand through his messy hair, "Well, I'm not being entirely stupid. It's just a feeling, but I do want to talk to Draco. Maybe he can enlighten us some more on the Dark side's cause? If it sounds good, maybe we can actually meet up with Voldemort?"
Hermione pinched the bridge of her nose. This was why she was considered the sensible one of the Golden Trio. She thought back to her 'maybe she needed a little faith' and sighed. This was beyond crazy. This was completely mental. She rubbed at her face and gave Harry a brief look, noting how he looked hopeful, yet not that hopeful. She closed her eyes again and sat back. If she was a Gryffindor, where was all of her bravery? She opened her eyes and sighed, "I think talking with Draco is a good idea. He can help us make an informed decision. As for talking to Voldemort," she could almost feel the discomfort rising up in her throat, "I'll think about it."
Now, it was Harry's turn to look shocked, "Are you sure you're not sick or something?"
She glared at him, secretly grateful that he was that concerned, "No, I'm not. I'm fine." She stood up and walked to the chalk board, "We're still going to continue training."
"Of course!" He walked up behind her and touched her arm, "Hermione?"
She turned to look at him, "Yeah?"
"If there's anything you ever need to talk about, I'm here for you," his green eyes earnestly looked at her with emotion.
She smiled and wondered how she earned herself such a wonderful friend, "I know."
He cleared his throat and walked away, taking out his wand, and trying to look manly, "So… Training."
She laughed and pulled her wand out too, "Yeah, training. I was thinking a duel to start off with."
He smiled, "Cool. Hey, Hermione?"
"Yeah?"
"You are going to get back to me about the Voldemort thing, aren't you?"
She tilted her head at him, "Yeah. Of course I will. I just need to think about it. Consider our options." An idea sparked in her head, and she quickly sent a curse flying in his direction. Her mind wandered to the detention she would have to serve after dinner, but was soon distracted by the spells Harry sent flying her way.
She was alone on the Astronomy Tower, leaning against the railing. It seemed so peaceful out there. It had just finished raining and the smell still hung in the evening air. She looked silently out on the grounds, spotting the Whopping Willow shaking the rain from its branches. She looked down at her hands and picked at one of her nails. She looked back out at the dark night, squinting up at the sky with all of its stars. Unable to resist temptation any longer, she reached into her pocket and took out the folded up piece of parchment paper.
She stared at it for a while, blinking when a drop hit the parchment paper. She looked up at the sky and held a hand out. No droplets hit it. It was then she comprehended that she was crying. She blinked and rubbed at the tears that were running down her face. She took one more look at the parchment in her hand, sniffled, and folded it, tucking it back into her pocket. She continued to rub at the tears running down her face, sniffling every now and again. In the corner of her head, a voice softly said that it was all of the stress catching up with her.
Stress? She let out a wry laugh. Insanity. The parchment couldn't be real. There must have been some mistake. Maybe she had gotten someone else's blood on her finger? A cruel voice in the back of her head told her that she was fooling no one. The blood that hit the parchment was her own, and the potion for it had been perfect. The question was, how could it be? She was a muggleborn! There was no way… Unless she had been adopted, but how did that even work? It was ludicrous. Impossible. No matter how she looked at it, something about it wasn't right. She stared sightlessly into the night, her tears drying on her face, as she thought about Draco. Could he have the answers? He grew up in the wizarding world. Yet, as she bit her cheek, she realized that she was again in denial. There was only one idea that she could recognize as the truth, and if it was…
A warm touch rested on her shoulder.
She jumped up and turned around, rubbing at her eyes, "Oh! Oh, it's just you."
"Yeah, it's just me," Draco looked at her with worry as he pulled her in for a hug.
She melted into his hug and tears started to stream down her face again. They stood there like that in a tableau for minutes upon minutes. Finally, she calmed down enough to pull back slightly as she rubbed at her face again.
Draco pulled a white handkerchief out of his pocket and held it out to her, "Okay now?"
She took it from his hand and rubbed her eyes with it, before she blew her nose. She blushed, "Yeah. Sorry."
He chuckled with his arms around her waist, "It's fine. It's meant for you to blow your nose with."
She smiled and looked at him, "You know, you look pretty good for a guy that apparently had 'his skull bashed in'."
He laughed, "You had detention with Weasley then? The bloke actually got a few good punches in, nothing a trip to the infirmary couldn't cure though." His eyes softened, "I'm sorry about what I said to you back at the classroom. I didn't mean any of it, I hope you know."
She rolled her eyes and weakly punched him, resting her head against his chest, "I know you didn't mean it; I could see that in your eyes."
"Thank goodness, I thought you might have been crying because of what I said to you," the thumb of one of his hands made comforting circle on the small of her back.
She let out a breath of air, feeling like some weight had lifted off of her shoulders, "No, I was just tired. Life was being a bit stressful."
Draco hummed in agreement, "Life can be stressful, don't keep it in though. Keeping it to yourself will just cause you more problems. Trust me, I know."
She smiled against the fabric of his robe, "It that your subtle way of telling me that if I ever need someone to talk to, I can come to you?"
He grunted, "Yes, but don't let anybody know I ever alluded to that."
She chuckled, "Is there some guy code of conduct that say to never acknowledge something like that?"
"Maybe."
She laughed. As she stood there, cradled in Draco's arms, her thoughts were faintly foggy, with a few thoughts more prominent. I can't hide this forever. I'm going to need to get my answers. She chuckled darkly in her head. At least I know the answer I'm going to give Harry, even if it does give me some trouble.
Elsewhere
"Stupi-" was the first word that started to come out of his mouth. He cut it off just in time before he hit Bill Weasley. He growled at Bill, "You could have knocked before entering!"
Bill froze where he was standing before he tapped on the papers in his hand nervously, "Sorry, I wasn't really thinking."
"Obviously," he bit out, lowering his wand. "Take a seat."
Bill headed towards his usual seat, which was on the other side of Remus.
"Is your hot brother not going to make it today?" Fenrir asked Bill, jerking his head at the empty seat between them.
"No. Charlie couldn't make it," Bill commented shortly as he shuffled a few of the papers in front of him around.
Tom eyed the papers that Bill had, "Are those the bank papers I had you get?"
Bill nodded, "Yep."
He gestured for Bill to start speaking. He paid attention through most of the speech, which was about their funds for their new political campaign. After a while he looked over at Bella, who was looking at him.
She leaned closed to hum and mumbled, "What was that feeling about?"
He frowned, "I'm not sure. Let's just hope that whatever it was, it will sort itself out with time."
Bella huffed.
He smiled at Bella, knowing her renowned impatience. He cradled her hand in his and brought it to his lips to kiss.
She blushed and looked away smiling.
He smiled and sat back, still holding her hand. He couldn't wait until they could get started, he had a project that could keep his Bella busy for a while, knowing her passion for social causes. He turned his attention back to Bill, reluctantly.
It was a little past three in the morning in his office, but he was still working hard on paper work. His shot the clock a dirty look and picked at his paper work. He was about to dose the fire in the fireplace and go join his wife in bed, when a there was a knock at the door to his study. He sighed and called out, "Come in."
Severus made his way into the study, looking like death had just paid him a visit.
Tom wasted no time in getting a bottle of fire whisky out, pouring it into two glasses, "Long night?"
Severus sat down with a heavy sigh in the seat that was in front of his desk. Wordlessly, Severus took his glass of fire whiskey and downed it in one go.
"Very bad then?" he gestured for Severus to help himself to the fire whiskey.
Severus poured himself another glass, "Dreadful. Dumbledore sent us to another muggle town to raid it and kill its inhabitants. I saw a four year girl killed right in front of my eyes," his tone was hollow and haunted. His eyes locked onto Tom's, "We need to work faster. The ministry is still defiantly denying anything that has to do with this War. They're refusing to act, saying that it's just the work of a few rogues. We need to show the public what's going on for real, Tom. And fast." His voice broke, "I can't stand murdering children on his order for a decade or more, Tom. It's bad enough that the Ministry is denying his actions! He's starting to get angry, and that always means that more people are going to die!" He looked away fighting back tears.
Tom looked at Severus, swallowing on his own revulsion at Dumbledore's actions. The Order of the Phoenix… Liars, thieves, rapists, and murderers, who wanted to get the glory of being 'heroes'. He set his glass of fire whiskey down and walked around the desk to Severus. He crouched down and grasped the poor man's wrist, "We are trying, Severus. It's just hard starting from scratch. It would move a lot fast if we had Harry on our side. He's the main figurehead of the Wizarding World right now, besides Dumbledore. Having him on our side would sway that power to our advantage, and it would move more families to our cause. If he revealed Dumbledore's machinations… The War would almost be won." He sighed, "But we don't have him yet. So, we just need to be patient."
Severus nodded dimly and took another drink of his fire whiskey.
Tom patted his arm and walked back to his desk, "Is there anything about your day you'd like to discuss?"
He shook his head and downed another glass of fire whiskey.
Tom nodded, "Well, I think I'm going to finish this piece of paperwork," he tapped it and sighed, "and then I'm going to go to sleep. You're welcome to stay as long as you want, though."
Severus shook his head and sat his glass down, "No thanks. I need to get back to Hogwarts anyways." He stood up and swayed a little bit.
Tom could feel his eye brows knit together, "Are you sure you're going to apparate in that state? You can stay here and go in the morning."
Severus waved his offer off with a shaky hand, "No. That'll look to suspicious. Besides, I'm not that drunk. It's just an adrenaline high that's crashing."
He tilted his head and pursed his lips, "Are you sure?"
Severus gave a quick nod, "Quite sure." He made his way to the door.
He shook his head and looked back at his paper work, picking his quill back up, "Sometimes I wonder if he should've been placed in Gryffindor for all of his reckless stupidity…"
The door to his study opened again as Severus stumbled back in, "I just remembered something."
Tom froze with his eyes on Severus, before setting his quill back into its inkpot. He waved for Severus to continue.
Severus took a breath in, "Earlier today, Hermione Granger left a class I was teaching in a rush. She seemed pretty upset about something. When I found her, she appeared to be in shock. I was yelling at her and she didn't even blink."
Tom frowned, wondering why one of the Golden Trio would suddenly do something out of her character. She adored class, from what he heard. He questioned, "Do you know why she acted this way?"
He shook his head, "No. That's what makes it even more surprising, there's nothing that really could've have changed that much to upset her. Her grades are all exemplary. So, she wouldn't have anything to worry about there." He shook his head again, this time in cluelessness, "It's a mystery."
He hummed, "Very well. See what you can find out about this incident."
Severus nodded and paused as Tom went back to his paper work, "That isn't the only thing I remembered."
"Oh?"
"Yes, Draco has been acting weird as of late. He's disappearing more frequently. His friends aren't saying anything, but his behavior seems to be bothering them. They don't know where he's going."
Tom sighed at the end of his tether, "Maybe he got a girlfriend? I don't know, Severus. That seems like normal teenage boy behavior to me. If anything, you should probably be talking to Lucius."
Severus paused and gave a half nod, still clearly bothered by it, "I might do that."
He gave a sharp nod, "Good. Now, good night, Severus," he said with his eyes sparkling with mirth, "I hope your teenage boy troubles will go away."
Severus snorted and left.
He shook his head at his Potions Master's dramatic behavior. As he wearily finished his last piece of paperwork, there was some part of his brain that still thought something was strange and off. It's probably nothing I should be worried about. Every boy finds a girlfriend and goes off to spend time with her. His lips twitched upwards as he had a thought about broom closets.