Once again I´d like you to remember that I do not own the HP Universe and don´t earn money with posting this, it´s just something I wrote for my own entertainment and I am posting it purely to boost my ego.

I swear that I would have put out a warning if there was something akin to Incest, Rape or other such topics we don´t mention in polite society!

Hermione's adoption was through random pureblood (Black) blood in a vial, only her Consort status gives her the last name.

And while we are at it: This fanfiction is rated teen and above! You were WARNED!

ENJOY!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ironically enough they still received the full "stop and stare" program even though they were neither Harry Potter, Lockhart, Albus Dumbledore, Neville Longbottom nor the Dark Lord. And Diagon Alley could not be compared with Lincoln street because here it was full of eye watering colours, loud from all the chatter and screeching animals and it was really dirty. Both sneered at that, out of reflex, and Hermione fought the urge to wrinkle up her nose or turn around and leave.

The noise only grew with each step as the shop owners began cursing louder, parents searched for their giggling children. It was chaos everywhere. But it was a perfected kind of chaos, indicating that everyone had simply accepted that it was that way and moved on. No one noticed that most shops badly needed a makeover, or that the street´s charms were wearing off everywhere, which explained the sounds from the shops getting this loud and the slowly breaking cobblestones beneath their feet.

Only Gringotts was still in pristine condition but the fact that the whole building was made of white marble, infused with runes and Goblin magic made this an unnecessary comparison as it could hardly qualify as exception to the rule. They contracted those making the damn wards and those that broke them, after all. Most Countries could only offer one place to learn Warding and Ward breaking, the Bank run by the Goblins. Goblins that did the utmost to ensure that no one realised that there was a much better education in America or Japan.

"Has it always been this… plebeian?" Daemon smiled and gently took her arm, guiding her towards the bank. Not that many could have seen the brief smile. "It seems that way, ma petite" He was, of course, referring to the lack of shock and disgust on the patrons faces that had led her to the shocking conclusion mere moments before.

Her mouth formed a thin line of disgust entirely on its own accord and she it would be cost her a lot of effort to hide it, which was why she allowed it. This street, it was like the Fantasy Shopping Street for ugly witches with hats that had warts all over their face and body.

The muggle children´s books coming to life, which might have been the reason why she had never found it ugly or odd, just a slightly irritating part of this irritating world with magic sticks and biting books that wanted to be stroked to open up. And the same thing went for the flying brooms.

"What is on your mind?" "We should buy some books in London and see just how deep they bow for Muggelborns!" Daemon simply tightened his grip and his eyes lit up before they darkened as the implications of her words sunk in. "We should!" Knowing that she probably had sent her Lord on yet another war path, all she could do was nod and gently brush her fingers over his hand while she tried to soften her face.

They were soon going to do something productive and it wouldn´t do to look as if she was smelling something really bad and seeing something she felt nothing but disdain for, not when they would soon have to deal with Goblins.

The Dark Lord called it "casual dress" what they were currently wearing, which meant that Daemon wore black trousers, a white button down shirt, an acromulata silk robe and dragon hide boots while she wore a forest green dress which was a mixture of summer dress and cocktail dress with silver patterns on it with laced silver high heels, her hair was drawn up in a loose bun.

Her right arm was placed firmly on Daemons left, it was the most contact allowed in public and they were showing her off as his legal High ranking Consort, a Rank that came with a Ring of promise and Ownership and had nothing to do with wedding bands. They moved in perfect sync, Daemons purposeful strides as she glided alongside him without looking as if she was being led around.

It was Daemons impressive feat at the Academy and their awareness of his future as Lord Slytherin that drew the envious stares in America, but here they were stared at as well. Either because they were representing things no one believed to have been true once or simple envy concerning their stunning looks. She honestly couldn´t think up anything else that would qualify for such an interest in a young pair walking down Diagon Alley.

Her irritation grew as she identified most stares as those of hungry, calculating wolves. Those people were trying to gauge their worth. Tightening her grip she followed Daemon and the Goblin to the private rooms well aware of the coldness entering her face and eyes. Those vermin were so far below her it would be a waste of time and energy to teach them manners. Disgusting little bugs.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Draco Malfoy watched the pair from the moment they entered the bank until they vanished into the corridor where the offices used for private conversations were located. There was only one word to describe them: Royal.

It was a word his parents and grandfather used to describe the Legendary Royal families, those rare times they spoke of long forgotten, better times. Behaviour and appearances that were nearly mystical as no one believed it could ever be achieved by anyone.

Something about them rang a bell in his mind which caused him to look more closely than he would have done otherwise. They moved with grace and their faces remained mostly blank, with the exception of little changes that indicated sneers and disdain. That they did not speak with each other meant that they were well versed in what Myth and Legend called "the Royal Silence", everything they had to say would be spoken about in private, at home.

While Goblins usually had no qualms about calling out the names of the people here for a little chat, none of them dared to speak the names of this particular pair of humans and they all bowed as they passed. For the second largest group of neutral Creatures this was saying something and only added to his suspicions.

Though they spoke softly and with fondly about them, neither his parents nor his grandparents, wanted those old times back. They actively refused to live after those Old Rules and Laws while hopelessly trying to copy them. While he had found his parents behaviour in public rather impressive this pair was out of reach for either Narcissa or Lucius.

He had been taught to read people and spot weaknesses but the only thing he received from them was "we are powerful, you are beneath us and we will gladly show you how deep one can still fall". This was how he wanted to be, desperately wanted to be. But his parents had never lived the example and his mouth had still this irritating habit of opening and spitting out words for no good reason and with no prompting of his mind.

His parents might have taught him to discover peoples faults but he was still struggling to deal with all of his own faults. His family refused to accept that pure bloods, especially his generation, was filled with wrong behaviour, little to no control over strong emotions and lack of intelligence. Despite this being the utter truth.

Breeding was well and good but their education and training was lacking, he was painfully aware of that. When he was ten his uncle refused to invite the family to Russia for his birthday and instead all relatives from all over the world travelled to Britain.

Figuring out the reason had been the first crack in his little perfect world made off glass. They all had enough of those Myths and Legends in their traditions and were appalled at Britain's lack of any proper decorum according to those Laws.

Each time they came to visit, Draco felt as if he lost the floor beneath his feet while his parents got angry because they just couldn´t keep up. This was why they had never had family reunions, and tended to avoid the family, with the exception of mandatory visits that happened every three years.

"Deadly grace and Royal silence!" Draco nodded at Daphne to show that he had seen it and heard her. "Who do you think is this?" Fighting the urge to groan he looked at Blaise, his best friend and sighed. This was the reason they never could reach such a level. They simply could not keep their mouths closed and were still ruled by their childish impulses.

"Something about them looks strangely familiar.." Theo said softly from beside them and Draco could not help but confirm that strange feeling of familiarity. "Not even our parents can do that!" Draco sneered at that, very aware of his friends issue with simply going along. Tracey Davis had not had a wakeup call and could find no fault in her parents.

It was no secret that Theo was the punching bag of his biological father and felt neither respect nor love for the drunk while Daphne´s parents were too engrossed in switching sides every few months to bother with such a plebeian task like raising their children.

And he doubted anyone needed a repeat why Blaise had no illusions about their culture and traditions. In a world were woman were smiled at and glared at if they made a career, were it was of utmost importance to marry and bear heirs, one woman could go from one husband to another and accumulating gold right, left and centre with no one stopping her.

"Do you have to say it out loud?", chided Daphne and turned red as the pair returned. Her voice had rung through the hall and the young men of probably 20 years, at least in looks, as well as the young woman of probably 17 reacted to it by briefly scanning the hall. Meeting their eyes they dismissed the whole group of teenagers and turned back to the goblin.

The woman´s face softened and a small smile played over her features. "May your gold flow and good luck rain down on you!" The goblin bowed and wished them a nice day before the pair turned again, his arm gently taking hers. They walked towards the doors and he kissed her briefly on the cheek just as the Goblin started moving out of the bow.

The gesture had been deliberate and the Goblins were meant to see it all. The one Goblin that had been their host suddenly looked rather determined, turned once the pair was gone and left the Hall with purposeful strides. "It was Political...", softly murmuring what he had discovered he got up and moved a little faster, hoping to catch the pair. His friends exchanged glances but followed nonetheless.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

By the time they followed the pair outside, leaving Flourish and Blots, Draco was certain that they had been spotted three shops ago. But he kept this thoughts to himself, to engrossed in watching and hopefully finding out some pieces to the puzzle, anything at all would be like a gold mine right now.

"They know that we are following them!" Glancing at Daphne he felt the sudden urge to throttle her just out of spite and because he could. This woman was unbelievable. For once he was following people to learn from them and find out why they felt familiar and she could not stop talking, worse, she was insisting on stating all of his thoughts out loud.

The pair stopped just as he had decided to keep Daphne around for a while longer and was currently ordering ice cream as a Grey falcon disturbed their dessert. The young man removed the letter from the well behaving animal, reading it as the Falcon screeched once and left the way it had come. He ate only a little of his ice cream, refolded the letter, kissed his Consorts cheek and left with.

If he was in a hurry one would have to know him better, because Draco couldn´t tell the difference between strolling elegantly and leaving in a hurry that after receiving a letter.

The woman remained seated, her hair put over her right shoulder and held together by a silver clasp. She held the cup with one hand to aid the anti-spillage spells, or to show that she did not trust said spells and would hate to sully her clothes, while she ate with the other hand.

Her eating was deliberately slow. There was no indication about her tastes, her face did not show if she liked the ice cream or disliked it, just the way a Lady should eat in public surrounded by people she was not fond of. It were her roaming eyes and the occasional little twitches of her mouth that told them how intensely disgusted she felt sitting in the ice cream pallor that was filling up slowly with the ever increasing noise around her.

They wouldn´t be able to see all of this little facial movements if they weren´t watching her so intently. Her calm slipped for two seconds when the Weasley twins entered alongside their family and began to set off fireworks while Molly and the others ordered their ice cream. The fireworks itself would have been something interesting to watch, but typically Twins, their fireworks went through the room at large first.

Once the things exploded everything near them did so as well causing ice cream pieces and glass pieces to spill at every patron currently in attendance. Their Person of Interest was no exception, her shield having activated one second too late. Rising elegantly and slowly she looked around, noted the damage, that everyone else was laughing and removed the dirt from her clothes with one little flick of her wand.

That there was one person not laughing alerted the Twins, who hastily began to look apoplectic to appease the woman whose green-grey eyes had turned cold. It was then that Draco found out why he felt such a strong familiarity.

Grey eyes and wavy dark brown hair combined with this particular shade of creamy skin were popular factors of the Black family. It´s how one identified this particular family.

Something that was impossible if Sirius Black had not managed to squirrel away an Heiress. But then she would have been mentioned in any of the records about pure blood children or the Hogwarts charter and there never had been a missing child or the Ministry would have begun searching for her.

"I apologise, dear. They are nice boys but can be a little rough!" The young woman turned to face Molly Weasley, her hair back in place and everything else back to perfection. "As well as you should, dear!" She turned and left without caring for the woman´s face turning purple or the shocked looks she received.

Not to be outdone Draco set off after the twins that had managed to circle the young woman and were currently begging her in the middle of Diagon Alley. Begging to be forgiven, probably a tactic to stop mount Molly from erupting.

Their begging was, like everything they did, loud, noisy and very unbecoming of pureblood Heirs. It was her brief frown and wry smile that gave Draco pause just as his friends had finally caught up with him causing them to run into him. He would have thanked his stars that everyone was too busy watching the trio in the middle of the street to notice a bunch of pure blood kids running into each other, but his brain had connected the dots.

Blood adoption. It had to have been a ritual to turn Hermione Granger into this stunningly beautiful young woman. The age difference and the behaviour suggested time freezing spells of some kind and now he knew why the twins were doing such a ridiculous little dance, they had recognised Hermione.

His skin turned cold, knowing that they were not supposed to figure out the secret and he wouldn't have, not if he hadn´t stalked her for two hours and was now seeing minimal facial movement.

"Get up, silly boys! Who raised you? Shooting around explosives that look funny in a restaurant is the most idiotic thing I have ever had the misfortune of witnessing! And now you have nothing better to do than embarrass me and yourself further?"

That both Devils looked embarrassed and shocked was more than enough to fascinate everyone else, which meant that Draco could openly watch Hermione calmly step away, her face once more an unreadable mask and her eyes cold and distant.

"Grow up, and refrain from accosting me any further!" With that she left, head held high and the masses parted like the sea for Moses to let her through leaving two shell shocked Weasley´s behind who were beet red. If it was out of embarrassment and shame or budding anger was not clear, and the blonde Malfoy had much better things to do than analyse this.

The group managed to enter the apothecary, too near to Knockturn alley to be frequented by most people, in which their Person of interest had vanished, just as the shop keeper, who had apparently followed her through his shop to get her to buy more, hoping to get some of the money she seemingly possessed, was moronic enough to get to close to her.

"Would you be so kind as to step away?" Her tone was sharper than a knife and it shocked Mr Smythe to jump backwards, his eyes wide his slouched posture straightening in reflex as if he feared an attack.

"I would not care even if Potions master Severus Snape sang his praises for your ware right now, I quite frankly doubt that he has the right to carry his hard-earned title if he did! Half of your stock has been lazily tended to, if at all and while I understand that some people are incapable of using certain spells and charms it is no excuse for them to wear off of dangerous potions supplies!"

The apothecary owner moved backwards again even though her voice had softened. Draco felt Daphne's jaw drop and Tracey's eyes bulge out without even glancing behind him. Telling someone that one was stupid, a liar and a squib in one sentence, while managing to decrease Severus Snape´s worth (in the eyes of those two other people currently in attendance) was a huge feat for two sentences in a calm and polite tone of voice.

"Of course, one could presume that you simply forgot to check through the shelves and remove those things that have expired their usefulness, but it´s much nicer to assume that you are simply incapable of casting those spells and charms than to assume that you are unfit for this job. Maybe Severus Snape could replace you?"

That was less subtle but it caused Mr Smythe to go away, far away, and begin to check on everything in his rows. Had he stayed three more seconds he would have seen the little cold and triumphant smile on her face as well as the brief lightening of her eyes.

She had done it to get several things in her bag to a much cheaper price. She was cheating the seller and degrading him while she picked the best out of his stock doing nothing but confronting him publicly with the truth of most of his wares condition.

Causing pain with the truth and getting something out of it without much of an effort. His theory proved true, and this time he did thank the stars that his entourage was keeping their mouths shut when Hermione went to the counter to pay. "Those are.. Lady, do you even know what this is you are asking?" It was meant as a slight against her person and intelligence.

"You should be thankful that anyone comes here to buy, Mr..", she stopped and acted as if she was honestly unbothered by not knowing his name and being silly by thinking that she should ask for it. "Or have you not found my words to be the truth? Be assured that my Husband will tell his friends at The Academy about this little apothecary of yours!"

The shop keepers eyes went wide and he ended up giving her three of his rare supplies for free just because she had dropped those words, too greedy to understand that it would be anything but praise her husband would hear and tell his friends. This woman was above bribery.

Once she was several feet away and had stepped into a side street that ended at a wall and led nowhere while looking like she had the desire to move there while well aware of where she was going she called her house elf nearly inaudible and put all of her recently purchased things in a beautifully carved chestnut box. The elf bowed and popped away without further instructions and she turned slightly moving through the hidden entrance into Knockturn without one fraction of hesitation.

"She.." "Be silent!" His heart was beating fast, too fast and he had trouble breathing, which explained his sharp tone as he cut off Tracey. It would have been useless if the girl told all of them how they would have been seen if Hermione had turned around to leave the side street.

Later he would be sure that it was the adrenaline of being nearly discovered, even though he would have bet 20 Galleons that she already knew that they were following her, that caused him to act ten Minuit's later as she left another shop and moved into the side street with the secret passage to the shady apothecary in Diagon.

"Granger!" No reaction but he wasn´t going to stop, even though his friends were staring at him in utter shock. "Hermione Granger?" It had to have been the "Hermione part because she began to turn before he even got to finish her last name.

Now that she was up close and he got a front view he understood why his friends were still looking at him as if he was crazy. His little crazy idea, no matter how true it might have been, would have never crossed his mind if he had seen her crème coloured, flawless skin and full lips sooner not to mention the intensity of those cold green grey eyes.

If she had denied the last name and looked even remotely confused he would apologise but she was doing neither, her face only showing a small frown of about three seconds as if she was trying very hard to figure out who they were. "Malfoy, Zabini, Greengrass, Davis, Nott"

Her eyes roamed over them as if to verify her own words before she met Blaise eyes who had asked her who she had become. Her face softened briefly into the kind of expression that suggested that the joke following would be on the one asking.

"You are questioning who I am after following me for hours and behaving like plebeian children? Such unbecoming behaviour in purebloods makes it painfully obvious how far this society has, in fact, fallen. Additionally, staring and constantly losing control over your mouth is unbecoming and unattractive!"

A low chuckle filled the air and her face softened again, this time into a small smile as all of her attention moved from them to the young man arriving behind her. "Toying with little helpless children, ma petite?"

"I will try to refrain from toying with children in the future!" He kissed her cheek and glanced over them a bubble of silence rising around them as he twitched with one of his fingers.

Draco felt the sizzle of magic and left his thoughts about Hermione looking much more at ease now that she was no longer alone. "Has anyone else found out?" "The devil twins, to my utter surprise. But they wouldn´t have if they had not been stalking me from the moment we left the bank, which means only the Twins did figure it out!"

Daemons eyes narrowed after lighting up, having the Terror twins on their side would be a wonderful, she doubted that the Light would ever use their potential, but then desperate times called for desperate measures and some such and Daemon usually removed the danger bevor it even appeared.

"Have your parents not taught you proper behaviour? Are you aware that following a married woman for no reason without any relation to her while staring is a punishable offence? Maybe your forefathers manage to teach you manners!"

Draco kept meeting the young and dangerous men's eyes as his friends looked to Hermione. He knew the look for help was useless, he had paid attention and knew that she would never openly defy her Lord.

She would not ever talk about this and stand next to him, regardless of how brutal he might murder them just to make sure no one else did something as stupid as staring at his possession without permission for more than three seconds, not to mention stalking her and embarrassing her and him by calling her name loud and in public.

They were several classes up, and with Hermione now a Black Half Blood and married to this man whose magic caused his own to quiver in fear and shiver in expectation no help would come forth of the former mudblood, even if anyone would try to help it would be futile. A Wife did not have a say, either way, not within their rank. Not within the Royal family.

"Granger could have wiped the floor with most of us; she no longer is a mudblood and has still not done anything about our little idiocy!" His words caused no reaction from the pair, but he was desperately hoping that his friends stopped begging the woman with her eyes, they would get angry at her if she didn´t help them and do something stupid if he kept his silence. Even though they still might because they couldn´t or weren´t able to understand what he meant.

Theo let out a soft "o" sound and stopped his little begging session, the others following his example but he doubted that his words had reached any of the others. Hermione however had watched and listened and gently touched Daemons face after scanning the expressions of her one time classmates.

Unguarded expressions. "They have not been taught, my lord!" Her voice was soft and very low but she was not bothered that the teens heard he entire focus on the temper of Daemon Riddle-Slytherin, Heir of the Darkness.

She had been taught to remain at her place, speaking up was not what she should do, but she could deal with the punishment. But this was neither the time nor the place and Daemon was filled with power and anger ever since he appeared, filled with bloodlust. Daemon like the Dark Lord tended to lose the ability to think clearly and logically, even though they noted the obvious, but in this set of mind nearly everything caused their desire to inflict pain grow.

He was aware that they had not been taught, he was aware that their parents feared the day the Royal family or the Dark Lord returned once more with his sanity intact. With a megalomaniac one could be sure that he would do something lethal to himself sooner rather then later, Tom Riddle returning to the world, sane, would once more turn their leisure filled lives upside down. What were some torture sessions if no one demanded change, if necessary force you to change and do your best?

Insane people with blood lust wished to inflict pain; they never wish to change the world. Domination through pain gets only this far and the Master loses his hold on his Minions. Especially if one has developed a strategy to simply live through the pain, she was fairly certain that Snape had developed a potion that allowed the Crucio to seemingly affect the victim while dampening the pain and damage and that he had gladly sold it.

"Leave!" Hermione curtsied and left without another word or movement, her hand calmly touching the portkey Daemon gave her after ordering her to leave. That she did so without looking at the kids told Draco that there were many things their parents had refrained from teaching them. He had felt the wards rising and getting stronger steadily, which meant that they were now alone and caged in with a dangerous predator.

What a nice way to end the day. "Should Gryffindor's not do the brave thing?" the urge to throttle Tracey flooded him just as a wave of panic did the same, overloading his system as nearly black eyes began to shine with power and a cruel smile began to play on the handsome, nearly angelic face of the dangerous man. He probably should explain the principle of danger, identifying it and proper behaviour to Tracey if they managed to come out of this alive. Or he could throttle her and be done with it.

"Poor little children. Your parents forgot to teach you proper behaviour. It might even ruin my fun because you have no idea what exactly you have done and what or who I am!" the cold voice ripped Draco from his thoughts and caused his friends to jump as the eyes of the young man darkened even further and the grin turned murderous.

"You, a bunch of sexually active teenagers followed a beautiful woman for over four hours and stared at her during all of this time. A woman that happens to belong to me!"

This time Daphne and Blaise catched on and they moved backwards only to bump against the ward that held them caged. "Such a pity that you are not excused by The Laws and Rules, just because you had no knowledge of them. It is my job to punish you for breaking them, and while the usual punishment is dead..", he stopped smiling and scanned them all coldly. "Being creative is an option!"

Somehow, Draco thought, he had never felt less assured about the fact that he probably wasn't going to die. "You have been raised wrong, cannot behave properly in any situation and follow childish urges while speaking your mind as if you were important. But I am sure that, as incapable of behaving properly you might be, there are things you don´t do and don´t say for your sake. How about we see how you fare if you cannot stop yourself anymore. In front of no one. And if I remove your arrogance and idiocy as well as the ability to pretend nothing happened?"

The curses flew even bevor Daemon was done and Theodore broke down crying as the man and shield vanished while Draco paled and began to shake and Daphne was slowly progressing what just happened.

"Did he just block our ability to lie?" "He blocked our ability to suppress our urges, all of them!" Theo´s voice was shaking as he said that and this more than anything caused Draco to think that the alcoholism of Nott senior was much more dangerous than their friend had led them to believe.

This idea of his became a clearer picture as Theodore murmured something about his funeral and Tracey began to sputter about helping their friend. But their parents would have to approve and in pure blood society no one was going to interfere into the relationship between father and son. Not even if the father killed the son.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Dark Lord watched his daughter in law draw a shaky breath, dab the tears from her face and adjust her posture. For showing emotion and kindness, it was not really relevant that the teenagers would not see it as such, in public as well as bringing the deficits of his followers and their children's Education to his attention she had been held beneath his Crucio for about four minutes.

Had he stopped after one or two Minutes she would no longer be shaking and her eyes would never have turned this shade of pink, neither would her cheeks be flushed or her lips unnaturally red.

It was a family issue that they used Crucio in anger, as punishment seemingly out of reflex. Daemon had once laughed about it and counted off a list, a damn long list, of curses, spells and mixtures of both as well as potions that could do the punishment much better and even adjusted it to the offence.

Still, they both cast the Unforgivable first and thought of everything else later. Josephine herself had once described it as the one clear definition of Dark Lords. Pick the one Curse that was banned, inflicted the most pain and could not kill.

It had amused him in many ways to contemplate the fact that Lady Magic had implanted an impulse into those of the Light to use "Stupfey" while the Dark ones used "Crucio" and both threw it out like candy.

His daughter in law had probably solved an age old issue where Hero´s and Powerful People questioned themselves about why they used the same pattern over and over again. He still had his sons list of "Better Methods" lying around somewhere and they both added to the List each time something new came up or they had created one out during their experiments.

Sometimes he wondered if their way was a sane one, but those times were rare, much rarer than showing affection for his son or dwelling in the past. It was his fault, really, that their now existed another list written by his daughter in law about common spells and Charms that could cause enough chaos or pain to qualify as "harmless" methods of punishment as well as a list of potions that did the same.

And it was Daemons fault that she was roaming the official potions lab and experiment-room before she got her own set, his son had allowed her curiosity to bloom.

And they both had allowed her to keep studying, keep figure out things and their own nearly maniac interest in experiments had only put fuel into the fire that was Hermione Josephine Riddle. Because of her and her interesting point of view they now had two sets of china that could paralyze torture and kill their guests within less than three minutes.

Years ago he would never have thought this possible but he had developed a soft spot for the beautiful young woman standing in front of his desk, eyes downcast and waiting for him to say something or do something she could react to. And his son, his Angel, felt affection for her. Affection he had never been able to feel for woman before, much less this kind of interest in a female body. Even though his Angel had tried, very hard, to like girls and woman knowing of the expectations placed on him.

Two men could not create children, adoption, yes, but no children of their blood and genetics. This was why blood adoption had been perfected, by Wizards around the world, over the last several centuries. Even Grindelwald had been Gay as well as Merlin, not that the Light would ever allow this knowledge to become public knowledge.

In his mind the reason for Lady Magic interfering was a very clear one, he had been against it at the beginning anyway. Summoning one of his Angels self-made Potions specifically designed to treat the symptoms after Cruciatus exposure, he gently sent it towards Josephine. She took the vial and drank the potion with nothing more than a slight lighting up of her eyes and a small, brief smile.

Maybe they should include her in the plans that needed to be developed to set his Minions and their Spawns straight. His insanity had been the reason why this news had hit him out of nowhere and lacking education and knowledge made his minions useless. Which meant that he had to call them a year sooner than planned and that they had to put most of their other plans on hold until this matter was settled.

"Let us meet downstairs. We have much to discuss!" Hermione curtseyed and left to collect Daemon for their "emergency" meeting in their "Brain Storm Room". It was, of course, the infuriating Girls idea to call the Sun room that.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Four hours later saw the little family split up. There were many things to prepare and much more things to pack. Their tempers had risen several times with the only woman forced to calm the men down more times than was usual and he finally decided that he had had enough.

Thus they now were packing for a little vacation of about three years in which they would visit China, a land he had previously planned to contact after he alerted his Minions of his "return".

It would be something new, as he had passed the Country during his travels in his youth and only seen Peking once due to an invitation for himself and his son. Had he known what wealth of knowledge, long thought lost artefacts and wealth of plants and animals lived there he would have undertaken this particular journey sooner, much sooner.

China and his political structure did something else too, it made clear that he needed well Educated Minions, Minions that were set in their believes, or the whole structure could break. He could smell the desperation and the brooding brutality through the whole country, but there never happened anything that could be seen as revolutionary because those upholding the system had well trained followers.

The problem now was how one was going to train people above 30 to change their ways, the teenagers could be handled more easily and Chinas troops had been raised in those believes for several generations. He needed this Loyalty and Blindness while still keeping the brain functions intact- he had no interest in having to hire people that fed his Minions because they no longer could do anything not related to a direct order.

The problem went deeper than this, though, as his power base had to be strong, sure and secure, none of those words could be used for those pure bloods residing in Britain wearing his mark. Because if he could not control his own people it would be seen as weakness and rebellion would follow, especially from those Countries now firmly on his side.

"I will search for several books, my lord. Shall I bring anything specific?" Looking up from his musings he met Hermione's eyes and thought about her request. "I trust that you will find everything I might need!" Which was the highest compliment he was willing to give to anyone who was not his son. Hermione curtsied and left without another word.

With the girl searching books and Daemon hunting down artefacts and plants he could begin hunting down creatures and see what else this Country had to offer. The other issue would be settled a few days before they left to return home.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Severus Snape arrived in a circular room that was held in different shades of brown with rags for their Cloaks. One wall, the one the door leading out of the room would be, he couldn´t see any other option and there were no doors, was Charmed heavily. It wasn´t brown but showed a beautiful forest. The artist had been a genius but the one to Charm the whole wall had been as well. It was no simple picture painted onto the wall but a whole film.

Over and over again he witnessed the "ghost Hunt". Not many still knew of it ever happening because one Necromancer managed to kill 50 Muggles, 3 Vampires and 30 Werewolves within two days. The scene was, because of this, only beautiful for those three seconds before and after the bloodbath began. He could feel his own restlessness rising and was unsurprised to see all others growing visible nervous with each passing moment unable to look away from the brutal scene.

Meeting the one to enchant the Wall seemed to cause less nervous feelings for his fellow Death Eaters than it did for him. Either the Dark Lord was sane or he had managed to acquire a powerful Alley. He felt his heart skip a beat at the notion of both being true. Those arriving talked for several moments until they noticed how everyone already there was staring in awe at the cruelty of the Illusion and he noted that very few understood what it was meant to tell them.

A scene so beautiful and you could not turn away, only realizing that there was no beauty in this, well not the kind of Beauty people meant when they talked about it, but pure horror. A discovery done too late.

That the Illusion made you believe that you were watching it through a wall of glass, probably from a window in a house of the real forest where the Hunt had happened and caused everyone to instinctively stay the hell away from it only added to the coldness he felt.

The kind of cold that told you to run or fight, the kind of cold informing you of something very bad happening and it got worse with every passing moment. This was why he sneered at all the others that tried to talk away the scene and their palpable and growing fear.

The door, it turned out, was indeed within the Illusion and Severus felt his heart skip another beat, this time because the most beautiful man he had ever seen had opened the door and was now leaning casually against it waiting for everyone to notice him.

It did help that he sent shocks through the room with his bare hands. Tight black trousers, emerald muscle shirt, silver lined black robe, shoulder length obsidian black hair, icy jade green eyes, angelic but aristocratic face and kissable lips that were twisted into a wry cold smile.

"Now that I have your undivided attention, allow me to welcome you to Slytherin Manor!" His tone of voice suggested that it was nothing but Protocol causing him to say these words and that he was too high up in rank to see it as pleasure or to presume that he needed permission for anything from either of them.

Those cold eyes wandered over all of them, his face showing only small miniature signs of Disdain, but Severus did see them and could read them, which probably meant that their host wasn´t actively hiding said emotions. That, with the exception of a handful others, everyone else was sneering at the young man caused Severus to flinch. They were wrong and would soon be taught just how wrong in presuming that they were better in anything than this young man.

The cold grin on those kissable lips grew as said man noted how he was one of six that shivered and were reacting to the waves of subtle Dark power leaving their hosts body. "We would not have bothered to call you for the next year, at least, if we had not recently gained interesting insights into your daily lives. As this is the Dark Lords Castle you will follow me or stray, at your own peril. That said: Please feel free to roam around; I would love to have a reason to play with some of you!"

By the time they had reached their destination, another circular room with a throne made of Bones at the far end of it, seven of the more arrogant pure bloods were missing. The cold smirk turned cruel and suddenly the air filled with screams from around the Castle revealing the whereabouts of those stupid enough to leave the path.

The screams finally caused everyone else to grow uneasy and get nervous, feelings that turned to fear once the doors closed and the torches lit up. Severus shook his head in exasperation and had to remind himself to breath as those jade green eyes met his directly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"As you are not torturing what is mine without permission those scream come from those of the group incapable of following orders or understanding subtle threats!" those still glaring at the young man nearly ripped a nerve by moving too fast to see the Dark Lord move up the Podium, his blood red eyes alight with cruel pleasure.

When the young man simply nodded respectfully all ideas of him being stupid or worthless were discarded by most Death Eaters. "Retrieve those idiots!" Another nod and the young man drew his wand summoning the people, or what was left of them, into the room.

While they waited Severus noted the changed appearance of his Lord. Instead of sickly green his skin was like white marble with black patterns that caused the impression of snakeskin if one dared to move close enough to see it more clearly. His head was no longer bald but filled with a black scale pattern causing the illusion of dark hair, there even was a small and unremarkable nose. Most prominent, though were his blood red eyes which were no longer filled with insanity.

His hands did no longer resemble claws but were still thin with longish fingernails and he had much more body mass than Severus remembered, he was no longer insane and starving. In short he still looked unnatural and dangerous but no longer like a nightmare come to life. A pleasing change, Severus thought, it was enough to know that this man was every child´s nightmare come to life, he was not required to look the part as well.

"I have called you sooner than I planned to, sending my son to fetch you and you still dare to sneer, feel above my son and show how incapable you truly are by missing the meaning behind the words "Do not roam around!" The Dark Lords voice was low and like the air in winter, cold and dry.

"Does the task of following a human being without changing the path bring you to the end of your pathetic and rather limited abilities?" This time everyone took an involuntary step back, and another as a heap of flesh, bones and former human body's fell to the floor in front of said son´s feet with a sound of something big and wet hitting the floor.

After studying the heap for several moments with curiosity the Dark Lord spoke again, just in time to see most of his Minions win the fight against nausea. "Crabbe, Thompson, Jugson.. and that could have been Pettigrew.." "Probably. But as neither was alive when my spell caught hold of them I would have to guess as well, father!"

"Maybe the Thestral´s are hungry? I don't see any other use for this." "I doubt that they would do more than sniff but I could dispose it all within the Forbidden Forest.." The Dark Lord titled his head and nodded finally, unimpressed by all those pure bloods that felt slighted because he ignored them all including the impressive feats of fighting nausea.

"Will two Minutes suffice?" "Of course, father!", with that their guide left taking the heap with him. Severus couldn´t help the small smile as he noted the shell shocked faces of his Colleagues as they began to understand that they weren´t worth much of the Dark Lords Attention.

"Tell me, you useless bunch of scum, what the origin of magic is!" The pseudo question threw them all and even Severus found it an unusual change of topic which led to the next question, as if the Dark Lord had expected their lack of answer.

"Do any of you know how wizards and Witches come to their power?" "We marry magicals, it´s through bloodline!" The tone in which Higgs answered suggested that the question had been easy, the cold smile forming on the face of their Lord suggested otherwise.

One Cruciatus removed all of his doubts about the situation and crimson eyes narrowed. "Is that so? How then would you explain Squibs and Mudbloods?" Silence settled over the room until Nott senior took a shaky step forward and bowed. "Squib magic is too weak to manifest and Muggles steal our power!" Spoken out loud and forged into one single sentence the whole principle sounded ridiculous. That the Dark Lord began to grin nastily only added to the feeling of irrationality settling over Severus.

That the returning son was smiling in a way that told them that he was not sure if he should feel pity for them or laugh at their stupidity only caused everyone else to feel uncomfortable and slightly nervous.

"For the sake of my valuable time and sanity I will skip over the suddenly arising pressing questions.." "Like how Muggles would do such a thing without the knowledge of our very existence or how, if they did know about us, they would remove our magic without having one of us or more hidden away somewhere!"

That his son supplied the details calmly meant that the interruption was planned and designed to show just how much they thought about their ability to think. "Much more important is my next question. What are the Rules and Laws?"

He was unsurprised to find everyone looking as confused as he felt, but somehow this words: "The Rules and Laws" with capital letters rang a bell in his mind. Following the silver threat within his mind he found the memory that belonged to this "bell" of recognition.

The memory of his mother, beaten and starved of affection moving through the shack his biological father called a house with nearly inhuman grace, never showing the real extend of her pain and refusing to show it as long as she could hide it.

He had only dared to ask this once, at the age of eleven when he was about to attend Hogwarts and feared for his mother´s live. He had asked her why she did not leave, why she stayed and why she did not return to Prince Manor and beg for divorce and sanctuary. Her eyes had softened like he had never seen it before and she had knelt down in front of him, caressing his cheek.

"My poor darling. I am putting you through this and have not managed to protect you. But I have chosen and I should have chosen better, I know, for your sake I should have. My Lady Magic warned me twice and I did not listen. I was young and rebellious and deeply in love, thus I went once my father told me to stay and behave or leave without the chance of return. I left and I cannot return. Not only did I shame my family and my father's wishes and turned my back on My Lady, I am also bound by marriage. The Laws, I broke them once, I cannot do so again!"

By the time his mother succumbed to the untreated internal damage he was seventeen and had long forgotten about this little conversation. "The Rules and Laws of Lady Magic!"

He did not realise that he had spoken loud and clear enough for everyone to hear and stare at him until the man he still thought of as the most beautiful being he had ever seen began to clap. A mocking, slow clapping that stopped as the Dark Lord growled "One out of thirty!" in obvious anger and frustration.

Pitch Black Magic began to swirl until a storm began to brew, a storm made up entirely of the Dark Lords Magic. The man himself had risen; his eyes alight with power and narrowed in anger.

Severus startled as a soft hand touched his, grabbing his upper arm and he looked up to see jade green eyes from directly in front of him as Daemon removed him from the mass of people just as the first wave of power hit causing the 29 others to fall on their knees. The Heir of the Dark Lord then let go of his arm, Severus still too shocked to do or say anything, and moved gracefully forward, directly into the line of sight of his father just as the Death Eaters began to scream and roll around in pain.

The whirlwind stopped and everyone had enough time to notice this and look up before the torture course hit Daemon into his stomach.

They could do nothing but watch as the minutes passed and the young man slowly went down on his knees, no sound leaving his mouth, his head bowed but his posture was still straight, still proud, still as relaxed as possible only the occasional twitch and the visible sickly yellow curse telling them how much pain he had to be in.

Slowly the Dark Lord calmed down and the Curse ended over five minutes later. Two deep breaths were all it took before the Heir slowly rose, his body trembling slightly. "I do apologise, father." It was all he said his voice raw and a little lower than before.

Severus felt the cold shivers of dread return at the display he had just witnessed. Nothing in the years as a spy had prepared him for this. The strength it required to stay silent, to speak and move upwards only to remain standing after over five Minutes of Cruciatus exposure meant that he had underestimated the Dark Lord´s Heir. His head was not bowed in defeat or submission like one would expect, but it was bowed out of respect and the knowledge that this man was the one he had to obey.