Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

/Parseltongue/

Thoughts

Upon returning home to Malfoy Manor, Hermione snuggled closer to her father and Nagini, causing Voldemort to chuckle and Nagini to wrap loosely around her lovingly. "My Lord, can the princess not walk?" One of the more angry death eaters called to his master. "She dance to hard?" He sneered.

"No, I had a seal that was placed on me prior to my adoption removed, it has robbed me of any strength in my lower body." Hermione snapped angrily at the sneering man.

"A seal?" Lucius asked. "Who would dare to place a seal on you?"

"That is a stupid question, Uncle, only Dumbledore would dare mess with my family." Hermione answered bitingly. I wonder if I can speak to Nagini now? She thought. She narrowed her eyes and concentrated on the serpent. /Is that your way of giving hugs Nagini?/ She asked the serpent who jerked as did Voldemort.

/You can speak to me, hatchling?/ Nagini asked surprised.

/I was unsure if I inherited that skill from Daddy, so I researched it and noticed that there were several other things that I should be able to do on both sides of my bloodline so I asked Dumbledore and he told me that he had indeed sealed blood powers in me so I would appear as a Muggle-born./ Hermione explained to her father and the serpent.

"Since when was Granger a parselmouth?" Blaise Zabini asked entering the manor for the first time that summer. "And why is she in the Dark Lord's arms?"

"Hey Draco, I thought you and Zabini were always owling each other, why didn't you tell him?" Hermione asked her cousin. When the only answer she received was laughter from said cousin, she looked around for him and saw him laughing his head off at the expression on Blaise's face. "Draco, answer me." She demanded, only succeeding in getting him to laugh harder. /Let me go./ She told both her father and his familiar. Nagini unwrapped herself from Hermione as Voldemort placed her on her feet and released her slowly. Quickly getting her bearings she walked over to her cousin and gripped his ear painfully.

"Ow, let me go, Mione." Draco whimpered.

"It is a bad idea to upset me, Cousin." She snapped loudly. "Play along, and I will help you with classes this year." She whispered in his ear. Blaise was dumbstruck at this turn of events.

"Since when is she related to you Draco?" He demanded. It was Voldemort who was tired from the long day who answered.

"She is my daughter, and her mother was Lucius's twin sister."

"Then she is a pureblood." Blaise responded with a slight bow to her. "I must say she looks nothing like any of you."

"Oh right, the glamor." Hermione pointed her wand at herself and Finited her glamor, returning to her blonde hair and red eyes. She then turned towards Blaise and smiled, causing him to catch his breath in shock. "Better?" She asked causing him to nod dumbly.

"Beautiful." He whispered still in shock.

"Thanks but your not my type." She responded grinning at his blush. She then turned towards the Dark Lord. "Good night Father." She said with a small bow of respect. "Uncle Lucius, Aunt Narissa, Cousin." she said as she passed them all heading to her room on the second floor. She collapsed on her bed thankful that she was able to make it that far and sighed sitting up and charming her dress to exchange with her night cloths. She heard a knock on the door and sighed once again, "Come in." She called, sitting on her bed. Her father, uncle, and Nagini all entered the room with smiles. "What's up?" She asked allowing her exhaustion to show.

"We need to discuss a few things and since school starts in a week we need to do it now." Lucius stated. "Princess, we have all avoided calling you by your last name not sure if you wished to keep it or to take one of ours." He spoke hesitantly, unsure of how she would take this topic.

"Honestly, if I change my name won't I have to be resorted?" She asked.

"Yes, but the hat will take your wishes into consideration." Voldemort answered.

"Daddy, no offense but I am not changing my last name to Voldemort, if I take your name it will be as mother did, Riddle or Slytherin. Hermione Jean Malfoy Slytherin. That name will cause an uproar." She giggled and noticed the happy look on both of their faces. "What did you think I would only take one of the family names?" They both nodded. "Nope I don't do things by half. And this means that the Slytherin name will once again be heard both in Hogwarts and the entire Wizarding world." She lost her smile for a minute. "Daddy, we need to find a middle ground for this war to end. It will only cause pain and more death. I know for a fact that Harry doesn't want to kill you, the only reason he fights against you is because you continue to attack him." Voldemort nodded. "Did you notice that he never sends any really harmful attacks at you? From what I have seen and heard he only uses things like Stupefy and Expeliarmus on you." She thought for a second. "What is the reason behind this war anyway? I haven't found a single thing on what started the war." She asked gently.

"What do you think caused the war?" Lucius asked.

"Well it could be anything from wanting a law changed, which is more probable, to not getting the last Lemon drop." She said with a small smile. "Do I really think that we are fighting a war because Dumbledore didn't give Daddy the last Lemon Drop, no, that was actually Ron's thoughts on everything, and the reason why Dumbledore offers them to everyone who enters his office." They all were laughing lightly at that idea.

"No it wasn't a lemon drop deficiency, it was because I wanted Muggle-borns to be told the truth when they were five instead of eleven." The Dark Lord answered honestly. "I don't hate Muggle-borns, I just wish they could know before they show up at Hogwarts, and so we can remove them from abusive families that are against magic." He looked at his daughter and smiled. "It became a war because those who were against the idea attacked me and those who agreed with me. We retaliated and soon Dumbledore had a group of hard core hatters and they all attacked constantly. I was also splitting my soul because I didn't want to die, now if I could I would try to reclaim my soul and end the war on the technicality that I was/am insane." He answered sadly. "We have lost so many on both sides because of the folly of wishing to improve the educational system."

"When I return to school I will speak to Harry and the Weasley family children, and try to get them on board with the educational changes. If the newest generation of Order members are for this change it will make it easier for the law to be passed." Hermione assured her father. "Did you really attack the Potters because of the prophecy?" She asked. "Harry will want to know why his family was targeted." She said to his questioning look.

"No, they were the only link I had to find you. James refused to inform me of your whereabouts and when I dodged his attack it backfired on him. Lily died because I attempted to 'use' the baby Harry as leverage to get the truth from her. She stepped between us as I fired a killing curse aimed at a wall behind the boy. I wasn't going to kill him, when my curse hit her and backfired on me, I was officially about to die and the regret caused me to go insane. I had no intention of killing any of the Potter family." She nodded her understanding.

"What about the pureblood supremacy?" She asked curiously. "Where did that come in?"

"To be able to notify Muggle-born children, we would have to register them upon birth, meaning that the Ministry of Magic would have a record of every Muggle-born child, it would help those who hate Muggle-born children find and kill them or avoid them to ensure none of them 'taint' their children while in school." Lucius answered.

"That is ridiculous, Uncle. Isn't there someway to protect the children." Hermione cried outraged at the very idea. "How does war help with getting Muggle-born children to enter the world safer than what is being done now. If I recall most of the Muggle-borns in school try to hide that they are Muggle-born. They don't feel safe with others knowing that they don't have any magical blood to ensure their safety." She rambled. "I was lucky to find friends with the most laid back of pureblood families. From what I can recall form previous conversations with both Sirius and the Weasleys, both the Potters and the Weasleys don't care about blood rights. Harry's father was a pureblood and his family didn't disagree with him marrying a Muggle-born." She stated happily. "Both Harry and Ron were willing to overlook my 'muggle' heritage, and see the person behind the blood status." Voldemort looked at his daughter and smiled.

"That is because being Muggle-born means you don't have any experience in the magical world before Hogwarts. Children born in the magical world can see magic everyday with their parents and when they do it themselves they learn to control themselves much faster then Muggle-borns." He told her with a look of admonishment. "That is what we want to change."
"Well then all we need to do is find a potion that will return you to a full human with a soul, and then we can end the war, making your dreams of Muggle-born rights realistic. I will start researching potions for restoring a soul tomorrow." She then turned and snuggled down into her bed, pulling the covers up over her chest and looked at both her father and uncle, "are you going to watch me sleep?" Lucius had the decency to blush and look flustered, Voldemort just gave the impression of a raised eyebrow.

"I will assign Severus to work with you on finding the potion." He informed her.