Chapter 7

A/N: Thank you for all the reviews! I love you all and would thank you all individually but I just don't have that much time. This will be the last chapter for 2nd year so I hope y'all like it!

Enjoy!

"She shields and protects him. He watches over her. She would do anything for him. Their loyalty is steadfast."

Hermione had given Mr. Filch one of her signature Hermione Hugs she had usually reserved for Severus the first time she had seen him sweeping the halls dejectedly on her way into the dungeons. Although he had been told Mrs. Norris would be cured within a few weeks once Severus had made the Mandrake Restorative Draught, he still would look run down and haggard each time she saw him. The day after the incident, Hermione went down to Severus' office to see him brewing the draught. When she came in the door, he said hello and said nothing else as Hermione propped herself up on the stool in front of him and did her best to mimic one of his stare downs that could make anyone flee in fear for a good five minutes before she gave up.

"Do these messages have anything to do with the book Lucius put into Ginny's cauldron when we were in Flourish and Blotts?" she had never been one to beat around the bush when asking Severus questions, knowing it would get her nowhere.

"Do you know what the Chamber of Secrets is, girl?" he asked her in place of his answer, once again giving her the answer she sought in place of a question.

A question unanswered is an answer given, he had told her once.

"No," she said, having poured over every book in the library since the message had been written and had gotten nowhere.

"Do you remember the story I told you about the other night about Salazar?" She nodded. "He had built the Chamber when him and the three other founders had first built the school, and housed a beast inside of it to protect it's home from those who would seek to hurt it. A Basilisk. Even if his intentions were noble, they were not seen as entirely good by his brother and sisters, and was exiled to the Old World countries." He put down the pen he had been twirling through his fingers, and leaned back in his tall backed chair. "The Chamber can only been open by a Parselmouth, a serpent speaker."

Hermione felt like time a frozen around her for a moment, "Harry's been hearing a voice. He heard a voice before we found Mrs. Norris, and earlier this year." Her tongue felt like it was fused to the roof of her mouth, but then confusion made her brow wrinkle. "How do you know all of this, Severus?"

His fingers smoothed her forehead and pulled her into his lap to wrap his arms around her, "The Dark Lord is the heir Hermione, and yes, Lucius did give Ginny a book in the summer. He was given orders to give it to a school year Pureblood if he had ever had a doubt as to if the Dark Lord was in danger of being killed, and he contacted him through the pages."

"But isn't that a good thing?" she looked up to his dark eyes, running her fingers over his afternoon stubble along his jawline. "You would be free to do what you really want."

"And what is it I want girl?"

"To live. To own your own life instead of having someone decide it for you."

~.O.~

Hermione's head was even more crammed with information than it usually was, and she didn't know if her having all the knowledge was a good idea for a thirteen year old, but Severus had entrusted her with it seemingly thinking she could handle it and she would try her best. And most likely knowing she would need it in the future. Her parents had always called her a child genius. The conversation with Severus had sparked something inside Hermione, and she didn't know what it was just yet; she knew though, the plan forming inside her head was not a particularly safe one. She had to do everything she could to help Severus though, and fate seemed to agree with her as she had found what she had been looking for in Moaning Myrtle's flooded bathroom one day several weeks after talking to the man in question.

Hermione sat on her red covered bed, debating on rather or not writing in Tom Marvolo Riddle's book was the best idea in the world.

Severus will be so angry when I tell him, part of her brain said as she bit her lip. But the other said, it's to protect him, for at least a little while. He will understand…

I hope.

She had always been too smart for her own good, and writing in the leather bound book would only confirm the Sorting Hat's decision to put her in Gryffindor.

Putting her wet quill to the old parchment, she wrote.

"Hello, Tom."

Not a minute later, words in fluid script appeared beneath her own loopy one…

Hello, Ginerva. I was beginning to think you had forgotten me.

"My name is Hermione."

This time, his response was not so fast coming,

Hello, Hermione. How have you come to find my diary?

"I found it drowning in water. It seems as if Ginny didn't want it anymore."

The book seemed to pulse with a heat coming from the pages after her statement.

You don't seem to be surprised to see a book is talking to you.

"I know who you are."

Who am I?

"The Dark Lord." Hermione's heart was beating out of her chest at his response.

Finally, after a very long pause that could have been a minute, or an hour, he replied.

You are a clever girl. Would you like to speak face- to- face, Hermione?

"Yes, I would."

With those words there was a quick flash of bright light coming from where her hands held the book as the ink blended into the page, and suddenly she was standing on the edge of a cliff facing a raging sea of water in a grey world.

"Hello, Hermione," a smooth voice said behind her.

Turning, she saw a boy about a few years older than her in a black suit and tie, his wavy hair making him resemble more a model on a magazine cover than a sixteen year old. "Hello, Tom." She could hear children somewhere down the rocky hill they stood on. "Where are we?" she asked, looking around at the caves surrounding them made of uneven and weathered rock.

"A beach I used to come to as a boy," he replied, circling her slowly as he talked, her doing the same to him in turn. "How do you claim to know me?"

Hermione smiled slightly, "From one of your devoted followers." His eyes flashed, "Will you remember our conversation once you are resurrected?"

His curiosity grew impossibly more in his eyes, although his face showed nothing by simple curiosity, "I will. Are you saying that you are here to help me?"

"Yes. Would you accept help from a little mudblood like me?"

His head cocked to the side, studying her, "Blood purity never mattered to me, although some of my followers do have a tendency to take it a bit far. Which of my Death Eaters have you been in contact? And why would I choose to accept help from a girl who could not be more than thirteen."

"When you are resurrected, may I have a boon?" she ignored his questions for now, noticing how his lips tightened in response, but then smoothed to a charming smile she didn't believe for a moment.

Someone doesn't like being ignored… but he is a curious thing. Much like me.

"I give you my word," he nodded his head, "You may have anything you want. I have a feeling you already have an idea of what you would like?"

Hermione laughed lightly, turning her head up into the wind that swirled around them. "I do. The Death Eater I am friends with is Severus, and you should accept my help because I hold your book, and I also am much smarter than my age would give the impression of."

"Ah," he was the one who now laughed, "I see that. He was a loyal one, my spy; and still is if you standing before me is not proof enough. Does he know you are here? I distinctly remember giving this book to Lucius, who then gave it to Miss. Weasley."

"Severus does not know I am here, he will be very displeased when he learned that I had talked to you without informing him first."

"You are extraordinarily intelligent for your age, girl." That was a very high compliment coming from him she knew, Severus had said he was a very hard man to please. "Now, tell me how do you plan on purging me from this book, then we may speak of the boon you seek?"

Hermione smiled at him, knowing she had gotten his interest but was not naive enough to think he trusted her. He would only know she was trustworthy when she proved her worth.

She took the arm he had offered, her plans were coming together very nicely indeed.

~.O.~

Until fate decided to kick her in the teeth in regards to Harry.

The boys had roped her into coming to the Duelling Club Severus had once talked about him being in his years at Hogwarts, and she wasn't impressed with Lockhart from the start. The teacher had not proved himself worthy of his official job yet, and Hermione doubted he ever would, so she immediately had reservations as he stepped up on the long runway in his plum robes.

"Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little Duelling Club to train you all up in case you need to defend yourself," against the beast roaming the halls was unsaid in the excited air of the open room.

Not like it would do any good.

"As myself have done on countless occasions- for full details see my entire published works..." he strutted about the dias he was raised on, flashing that pompous smile after every sentence he finished. "Let me introduce my assistant, Severus Snape," he said with yet another smile, his arm sweeping out to the fiercely scowling man who had his arms cross.

If I had that look fixed on me… I probably will once I tell him what I've done…

Hermione sighed heavily, knowing that conversation is not going to be good.

Finally Lockhart finished his mini dialogue and got knocked off his feet by the Potions Master, ending his farce as he and Severus drew the students into pairs.

"Perhaps it would be best if you taught them how to block spells before getting them to curse at one another?" Severus had suggested with an eyebrow raised above it's normal position, but the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor insisted they were ready with a panicked look about his face that gave away his lack of knowledge in the area.

Hermione and Ron getting paired together, Harry and Draco were paired by the slightly triumphant man who Hermione gave a look that was ignored. Firing charms back and forth, only Hermione landed one on Ron, and beside them Harry and Draco were getting increasingly rougher with their spells until one put an end to their duel.

"Serpensortia!" Draco yelled, conjuring a long black snake that landed heavily between the two boys, the people closest to them gasping and backing away, causing the rest of the room to become curious. Soon they were all paying attention.

"Hermione!" Ron hissed to her, pulling her back from the two boys and the snake as she herself wasn't backing away. His hiss apparently wasn't said quietly enough as the snake turned his attention towards the curly haired girl and started slithering towards her; new, bigger hands pushed her behind his tall frame with his beechwood wand raised to the animal of his house to conjure it.

Suddenly, a louder hiss was heard throughout the room coming from Harry, and that was the end of his secret.

Oh, dear… here we go now.

~.O.~

"Everyone has kind of done something bad and everyone has shades of good, but everyone has that darkness. There's always that little twinkle of darkness in everyone's eye."

-Emma Roberts

"What were you thinking?" the exact expression was on Severus' face that she was afraid of. The one with the furrowed brows, his lips pinched tight as he threatens to break his teeth from the occasional grind. When he didn't even call her 'girl,' she knew he was even more upset than he seemed on the outside; to Hermione who could read him like a book after two years, he was pretty furious. She had finally told him about meeting with Tom and her plans, and suffice to say, he was reacting exactly as she suspected him to,

"You put yourself on his radar, and have made yourself a target."

Hermione sighed, "Severus, do you honestly think I wouldn't be a target anyway once he is resurrected? I'm the best friend of the boy who weakened him." He was severely displeased, even crossing his arms showing it would take much talking to calm him and hear her out.

"And how do you know he will be resurrected? How do you know you will be safe?"

"I know we will be safe, for a while at least once he is back to full strength because we will help him get there. Lucius already set things in motion with Ginny and that book."

His arms uncrossed to pinch his nose, his right elbow resting on his uncovered forearm baring the Dark Mark, "You have condemned yourself to being in constant danger, how do you expect me to react, girl?"

She brought her bare feet up onto the sofa that she was sitting upon, grabbing Severus' shoulders to bring him closer, "I will have been in constant danger already, Sev. Only this way though, we can choose our own path, and I can keep you safe." She brought down his hands that then came around her waist to give her a hug, his hands grazing her long hair as hers wrapped around his neck and buried her face in his long hair.

He laughed, the tension finally seeping from his body, making Hermione relax as well although she knew he wouldn't stay mad at her for long.

Wait until we really start, Sev. She thought, knowing they would be worried sick for one another once the Dark Lord was out in the open. She didn't think her boon with the Dark Lord would last for long.

"I'm the one who's supposed to keep you safe," he mumbled in her light curls, "You're too young to be taking care of yourself, let alone a grown man twice your age. Or making deals with murderous Dark Lords."

She chuckled, "I'm too young to be in the middle of a war, and yet here we are." They were quiet for a while, just holding onto each other knowing everything was going to change.

"Can I brew polyjuice in your lab?" He leaned back and gave her a look, Hermione only answering with a blinding smile.

~.O.~

Drinking the Polyjuice Potion wasn't very pleasant, and turning forms was even less. Hermione's insides writhed like they houses live snakes trying to burst out of her mouth, and then came the burning sensation that started at her fingertips to end at her toes; doubling over groaning, she heard her moans echoed by the boys in the cubicles beside her. Her muscles felt like they were trying to do their best to explode outside of her skin, and as she knelt down to all fours, she knew something was horribly wrong as skin gave way to soft fur.

"Hermione, are you coming?" Harry called from outside the cubicle, Hermione continued staring at her sharpened fingernails.

"No," she said, her voice a bit higher than normal, "Go without me."

"Are you alright?" He continued, insisting that she come out.

She opened the door angrily, the boys jumping back at her appearance, "You are wasting time! Go! I have to take care of this."

They ran out of the bathroom in the skins of Crabbe and Goyle as Hermione made her way stealthily to the dungeons, the reflexes she had grown making her quieter and easier to elude passing students and teachers.

Before leaving she turned on all of the sink taps, it's rushing water almost immediately flooding their small basins and running onto the floor. Pulling out the leather bound journal from her satchel she opened it to a random page and gently place it back where she had once found it drowning in the water.

And it begins…

"You do know it's not supposed to be used for animal transformations right?" Severus asked her once he had given into his hysterical laughing, waving his wand over the sheet that covered her naked body. He insisted she didn't want him casting the spells to get rid of the unwanted hair while she still wore her clothes as it wouldn't dissolve once detached from her body.

She gave him a dirty look as the unwanted hair fell away onto the table, and sat up as he gave her one of his shirts that was more like a dress on her than a shirt. "I know that very well, Severus. As you can see. I didn't exactly expect her robes to have cat hair on them, did I?"

He chuckled once again, looking lighter and even more carefree than usual, laughing and letting go for a bit having done wonders for his physical image. He had looked ten years younger when he had his head thrown back, his hair tied at the nape of his neck after a long day of classes, and his deep baritone filling the room. He took hold of her chin, looking in her eyes, "Your pupils are still vertical, and your fingernails are still sharp. I doubt they will go away."

Hermione sighed, "At least the hair is gone." She smiled at him, "Thank you."

He tapped her jaw and looked at her canines, smirking a bit as he touched it lightly and his thumb came back with a drop of blood, "I doubt these will go away either."

She snapped at him, making him laugh more than she had ever heard from him in a day.

Cheeky man.

She had also developed heightened sight in the dark it seemed, and hearing as well as she heard footsteps coming from behind her as she turned a corner in the cold dungeons. Acting like she didn't hear them, she heard the boy, identified by the heavier footed gait, and came to the top of a small flight of stairs before the boy grabbed her by her hair and pushed her into the stone wall she had been walking beside. Gasping to catch her breath as he had knocked the wind out of her, she looked up into the unattractive face of Marcus Flint.

"What do you want?" she cowered, not at all wanting him to see he scared her with his much larger and intimidating stature. "Do you make it a habit of following around second years around the dungeons?" She felt the stone scraping the backs of her legs from where Severus' altered shirt ended.

He yanks her forward only to push her back roughly against the stone once more with his hand on her throat, causing her head to knock into the hard rock behind her, "Shut up, Mudblood!" he whispered, knowing voice's travel in these echoey halls.

She gritted her teeth as she felt something rise inside her and cause her body to warm up from head to toe. She dug her newly sharpened nails into his cheek, slashing it on his left as he yelled and backed away from her.

"You, bitch!"

"You shouldn't pick on people who you don't know, Marcus." She said as she backed him up until he was on the edge of the staircase and seemingly not noticing it.

"You're just a filthy little Mudblood!"

She gave him a little frown, making her look her young age, "That's a very rude word. You should stop using it."

And then she pushed him down the stone steps just as arms came around her waist to pull her back.

"Girl," Severus was in front of her now, blocking her view of the now unconscious boy silently lying one the cold floor, his arm at an unnatural angle, and gouges on his cheek. "What did you do? Were you trying to kill him?"

She looked at him with unapologetic eyes, not knowing what the emotion that was swirling in his black ones. She pushed aside the hair that had fallen in his face, "No, he was being mean, Severus."

He only stared at her for a moment before Flint started moaning where he lie, "Go back to your dorm girl," he told her, kissing her forehead as she nodded; knowing he would make sure the mean boy didn't talk.

As Severus levitated the stationary boy, he looked back to the small girl that was just rounding the corner on her way back to Gryffindor tower, no doubt to check on the boys she insisted on calling her friends. She had the same look he had had many times before, the uncaring one that often came with doing something to someone he had disliked highly. They were more alike than he had previously thought on account of the darker side of themselves, but unlike himself, who had no one to pull him back and keep him from making mistakes and indulging in that particular side of himself, she had him. And he would not allow her to lose her innocence in place of her more primal instincts.

"What happened?! Was it another attack?" Madame Pomfrey came bustling towards him as her wards signaled her.

"He fell," Severus said distractedly, "Down the stairs."

~.O.~

Leaving the diary was a risky move, anyone could have found it before Harry and Ron got back to the bathroom, but it was worth it as Harry was the one to get it and write to Tom. There had been more attacks on the muggleborns, on Colin Creevey and Justin Finch Fletchley, but even though Hermione knew she wasn't in danger of being petrified she wasn't taking any chances. Severus had been quieter than usual when she had visited him after he had seen her push Marcus down the stairs, he had just sat as his desk staring at her as she worked, only saying something when when she finally put her quill down beside the drying ink.

"Severus," she asked patiently, suspecting what he had wanted to talk about.

His hand came down from where his thumb had been resting on his lips as his other fingers rested under his chin, putting his own quill down. "How did it make you feel?"

She sighed, looking down and twisting her fingers as she got up and went around his desk to lean against it beside his chair, "It didn't make me feel anything."

His fingers pried her's apart and twisted his own around them, "Girl," his stern voice cut through her recollection, and she knew he knew she wasn't telling the truth as he usually used that voice meant cut it out, I won't judge you.

Her chin raised and she looked him in the eyes, "It felt good, Severus." Hermione felt emotion well up in her throat, "It scared me. Am I a bad person, Severus? For feeling that way?" she had asked him.

He grabbed her up and put her on his lap to wrap himself around her, knowing she liked it when he did that as if made her feel safe, "No, girl. Out of the two of us, I'm the bad person. And that's putting it lightly." She felt so tiny.

She chuckled into his chest, settling her arms around his waist, "You're not a bad person, Severus. If you were, you wouldn't love me."

He only held her tighter.

~.O.~

Harry lay in front of her on the hospital bed, looking small surrounded by the layers of the white sheets after his ordeal with the Basilisk. He had talked to Tom and had been shown his memory of Hagrid, but of course he didn't believe him and had gone off on his and Ron's mission of finding the Chamber of Secrets without her; claiming it was safer for her to be kept away from the, quote 'muggleborn hating beast' unquote. While their intentions were good, it made her mad as hell as they disappeared into the girl's' bathroom the night Ginny was taken by Tom; holding a cowardly Lockhart at wand-point. Harry had killed the Basilisk with the Sword of Gryffindor and saved Ginny, almost killing himself in the process with it's poisonous venom before Professor Dumbledore's familiar healed him with his tears.

The stupid.

Lucius had been called back into the headmaster's office once Dumbledore, who he had suspended once the attacks had continued, and Harry had accused him of putting the book in Ginny's cauldron at Flourish and Blotts. He had walked away without his House- Elf Dobby that Harry had made friends with in the end after Harry's Slytherin- like sneakiness in putting a sock into the book that had once contained the little piece of Tom. After Madame Pomfrey had heard of Harry's little ordeal she whisked him off to the Hospital Wing where he now lay in front of her, Dreamless Sleep circulating through his system.

"Why do you insist on ending the year in the hospital every year?" Hermione asked his sleeping form, Ron lay next to him under the same influence as his arm had been hit by a boulder when he and Harry had gotten separated, and Lockhart next to Ron due to an Obliviation Charm backfiring.

"Because he is a dunderhead," Severus said, seemingly melting out of the castle walls as if he had been a part of them. "And trouble seems to follow you three no matter where you go, I swear you want it to find you after how much you go seeking it out."

Hermione chuckled lightly, pushing some of Harry's messy hair off his forehead and reaching up to where Severus' hand dangled right above her head to twine her little fingers with his big ones. "They do. I try to be the voice of reason and make the danger less."

The were quiet for a long while, Hermione watching Harry breathing, Severus watching his girl before he spoke, "You're in it now, girl."

She wasn't smiling now, "I know. But you've been in it for much longer."

~.O.~

Malfoy Manor

Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy stood hovering over the cold white veined body of a young man with dark hair and blue eyes when he awoke.

"Why are we doing this, Lucius?" Narcissa whispered to her husband in the large quiet room as they stood vigil over the body.

"You know why Cissy," he told his frightened wife, pulling an arm round her shoulders. They didn't think the Dark Lord's rise would come again this soon, especially not in their home where they raised their only son. Severus had told them to have a body that had died of natural causes and was young in age, saying that they would have an instrumental part in his rise once again in order to defeat him and protect themselves and their son. He would say no more than that, he was surprisingly close- mouthed about the whole ordeal, but they had suspected it had something to do with the clever little girl he and Draco had taken a shine too.

"What did we get ourselves into?" she whispered into his chest, not expecting an answer and trying to hold her emotions back.

"Mum? Father?" Draco came into the room holding the hand of their new little house elf.

"Draco," Narcissa held her hand out to him, kneeling down to hug him as her husband put a hand on her shoulder in support.

"What's wrong?" Draco wiped away a tear that had escaped his mother's watery eyes, scared and confused he didn't know why a black robed man was lying in the middle of the room utop an oaken table.

"We need you to be strong, my boy," Narcissa smooth back her son's hair so much like his father's, "The Dark Lord will be resurrected soon, and we need you to show no weakness in front of him. We will have his followers in our house again, and you need to show that you support and follow their views. But keep everything we have taught you in your heart. Do you understand me, Draco?"

He still looked scared, but he looked up to his father who nodded and copied his wife's actions, "I understand, Mother." His parents had told him of the dark times that had come along with the Dark Lord and what they had had to do, what he would be expected to do. He knew he wouldn't be able to be seen as being friendly with Hermione anymore, but he would do what he was expected by his family to protect them.

The three blondes continued to stand vigil over the young man, until his body spasmed as if an electric shock had gone through it.

Draco jumped.

He was still for a moment, only broken by the twitch over his fingers, down to his leg, and then the rising of his chest as it then continued to take a deep gasp of air.

"My Lord," Draco's parents knelt as the man regained enough strength to stand and explore his new body with his sharpened fingernails. "Welcome back."

The new body of Dark Lord that differed so much from his previous snake like one leveled them with a once blue eyed, now red, stare, hissing, "Get me Severus."

A/N: Thanks for reading guys! So… I didn't exactly know how I was going about Hermione in this story at the beginning and this is what I came up with. This isn't going to be a completely innocent or completely dark Hermione story, there are going to kind of be equal instances and I'll try to balance them out as the story goes on. I was a bit on the fence about writing parts of this year because it kind of veers off in a slightly different direction with Hermione's personality. Up until she has been the perfectly innocent thirteen year old girl, but this chapter shows a different side to her that was necessary to be shown early on and will be a bit more important in later chapter. Reviews please, I look forward to how you think about 'Mione now and if you still love her (and me XD) after what we've done!

Tell me what y'all think.

XOXO

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