Disclaimer: I'm not Just Kidding when I say that I'm not J.K. (Rowling).
Paralyzed
-6-
Voldemort continued, "I can understand why you would be on Potter's side from the beginning, Miss Granger: he befriended you in your first year when you chose to battle against that giant troll and overestimated your own capabilities."
That wasn't a memory he saw, Hermione thought, but then she cast her eyes down at the dead man across the room. But Snape was there. Being the spy to Hogwarts, he probably mentioned the thing to Voldemort.
"Yes indeed, it was Snape who mentioned that particular tidbit to me," Voldemort confirmed, watching her intensely. "A good example of Gryffindor bravado, really, to go on such a hopeless quest with nothing but a 'wing and a prayer', so to speak. But while Snape thought the anecdote purely amusing, it told me much about young Potter's character, specifically his primary failing: selflessness. Grand inspiration, it was—later I used it against him, almost successfully."
Sirius, thought Hermione. Oh God. Sirius' death was my fault! Because Snape believed my story that I had gone up to face trouble alone and the boys followed me? Oh no.
Hermione rarely lied—for rarely did she have to—but she would never do so again. Her pride was incredibly shaken at the repercussions of the single falsehood.
. . . x . . . X . . . x . . .