Disclaimer: I'm just borrowing the characters for a time because they all belong to Ms Rowling, except for the OCs, of course, who are mine.

Chapter 7: Professor Quirrell

School continued without much drama until the night of Halloween. The children had all been sitting down to dinner when grunting and roaring sounds were heard coming from the corridor outside of the Great Hall. Professor Quirrell, the Defense teacher, had dashed into the Hall and had been about to say something when Albus had stood up, raised his wand and the large doors had shut firmly behind Professor Quirrell, blocking whatever was outside from entering.

Albus had then turned to the teachers sitting at the head table. "Will you all be so good as to follow me."

Turning back, he addressed Professor Quirrell. "Professor, please stay with the children. We'll return shortly."

The teachers filed out of the side door to the right of the head table.

Hermione, being one of the few who had not turned to watch Professor Dumbledore, could have sworn that Quirrell's frightened look had turned to one of fury for a moment before reverting back to a scared expression. Her ponderings were interrupted by movement at the Ravenclaw table where Harry was sitting grasping his shoulder as if in pain. Hermione started to rise from the Slytherin table but upon seeing her do so, Harry motioned that he was okay. Hermione looked once more at the remaining Professor. She wondered if she had imagined his angry look, and she decided she would speak to her father about it.

It was not long before the other teachers returned to the Great Hall and the students were allowed to leave. Hermione hurried over to her father and asked if she could speak with him before breakfast. Severus indicated his acquiescence to her request and then ordered her to join her fellow Slytherins.


The next morning Hermione awoke early and dressed quietly so as not to disturb the sleeping girl in her room. Upon arriving at her parents' quarters, she whispered the password and, as she entered the room, she found her father waiting for her.

"Good morning, Papa. I wasn't sure if you would be up yet or not," Hermione said, as she walked across the room to hug her father.

She noticed a pile of marked essays sitting on the side table to the right of her father. Her own essay was sitting on the top marked with a big red "O". She wondered what mark Harry had received, as they had worked on the assignment together.

"Salty," Severus called out.

A house-elf appeared at Severus' side and bowed low.

"Miss Hermione and I would like breakfast to be served in my study in about ten minutes." In a hurry to be out of Severus' way, Salty didn't even stop to acknowledge Severus' order.

"I can't believe he's still scared of you. He's really quite chatty when you're not around." Severus glared at Hermione and she decided that maybe she should change the subject. "Shall we go into your study, Papa?"

Severus, recognizing her effort for what it was, let the matter slide. "I think that would be a good idea. From your expression last night, I believe you have something important to discuss with me."

Severus followed Hermione into the study where she sat down on an overstuffed chair in front of the roaring fire. As a young child, she had loved to read in this room while her father had reviewed essays.

Severus seated himself opposite Hermione and indicated that she should begin.

"You remember how Professor Quirrell came dashing into the Great Hall looking frightened last night?"

Severus nodded.

"Well, after Professor Dumbledore told him to stay behind and watch over the students, I thought he looked angry, really angry. The next second his face was back to its earlier frightened look. I wondered if I'd imagined it, but I still wanted to talk to you about it."

Severus decided to be honest and share his opinion of Quirrell with his daughter. "I don't think you were imagining it. There's something about Quirrell that I can't quite figure out."

Hermione sat up in her chair, trying not to look excited about the fact she was right.

"However, you must promise me that you won't do anything to antagonize Quirrell. I may be wrong about there being something off with him, but I don't want to take any chances."

Even though she thought him a little paranoid, Hermione promised her father that she would only observe Quirrell, and that she would be discreet when doing so.

Salty then popped in with their breakfasts, Hermione chatting with her father about the latest innovations she had read about in Potions Weekly. Severus had taken out a subscription for her when she was seven after she kept taking his copy to read. For a child of her age, she often made very insightful comments on what was in the journal.

After finishing breakfast, Hermione kissed her father and rushed off, carrying an armful of books needed for that day's lessons.

Severus watched her leave. He smiled ruefully when he remembered his first encounter with her mother, just a few moments after spotting Hermione.


Nine Years Earlier

In order to join the Dark Lord's ranks and bear his mark, Severus knew he would have to complete two tasks. The first was already completed; for a week he had done his best to follow around Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts, and he had then reported to the Dark Lord on the Professor's movements. The only thing that Voldemort had seemed interested in was a load of mumbo jumbo that some woman, Sybill something or other, had spouted to the Professor. But Severus had been unable to hear most of what she was saying because they had been in a pub in Hogsmeade, and an old hag had kept bursting into song, muffling most of the conversation.

Three months had gone by since he had spied for the Dark Lord, when Severus had been contacted by his anonymous sponsor and told to report to a Muggle warehouse by ten that night. Arriving at the warehouse, dressed in the requisite black and wearing his white mask, Severus realized that he was not the only novice present. His sponsor, who wore a silver mask to signify his status, stood waiting with another white masked individual. Knowing better than to say anything, Severus remained silent, waiting for his orders.

"You're to go the fourth house in the street adjacent to this one and kill the Muggles you find there. You may torture them first if you wish." Their sponsor gave his instructions in a low, raspy and, obviously disguised, voice. "Once you've finished, you'll wait for further instructions from me. Am I clear?"

Both Severus and the other novice nodded, and started walking up the street. As they passed under a light, Severus noticed that the novice's bodily outline left no doubt that his companion was a woman. From the rumors he had heard, there were very few women in the Dark Lord's ranks.

The female novice entered the house first. Using hand signals, she indicated that Severus should search upstairs. He therefore climbed the stairs and entered the first door he came to. Coming from downstairs he heard "Crucio" and tortured screams, which meant that the other novice was making the most of their sponsor's instructions.

Severus' attention returned to the job in hand upon hearing a loud gasp and the sound of a door closing in one of the rooms ahead of him. He quickly entered the room he had heard the sound coming from but there was nobody there. However, a sound from the closet drew Severus to it. Holding his wand in front of him, he pulled open the door to find it empty but a small shift of material indicated that someone had been made invisible. Severus cancelled the spell to discover a small toddler clutching a teddy bear and a book, and soundlessly trying to keep from crying. In the next moment, he was attacked by someone who had obviously been hiding behind the door to the bedroom.

"Death Eater bastard! Get away from my baby." A vase impacted his skull at the same time as he turned to see who had spoken the words.

From the voice, Severus had expected to see a woman, he just had not expected to see such a tiny one. Then her words finally penetrated his consciousness. She had called him a Death Eater, which meant that this could not be a Muggle household as his sponsor had claimed. It certainly explained why the child had been made invisible and was now crying soundlessly.

Grabbing the woman, Severus wrapped his arms around her to hold her still. He then put his hand over her mouth to stop her from making any further noise. Downstairs his colleague had obviously had enough of torturing her victim, because it suddenly went quiet. The woman in his arms must have also guessed what had happened, as she renewed her struggles, violently trying to break free of his grasp.

Putting his mouth close to her ear so that his words would not carry, Severus whispered, "I suggest you stop struggling and remain very quiet if you want to live. Do you understand?"

The woman nodded her head, and Severus released his grasp on her. He quickly indicated that she should climb into the closet with her daughter. As soon as she did so, he cast a new invisibility spell on the pair, closed the door, and banished any evidence of the broken vase.

He completed his task with little time to spare. The other novice entered the room just as Severus turned away to pretend he was checking under the bed. The novice opened the closet door and, not spotting anything untoward, closed it again. Together they checked the other rooms on the floor and then went back downstairs to wait for their sponsor.

Their sponsor entered the house after about five minutes. Going from room to room, he checked that the novices had done as he had asked. On finding only one body in the kitchen, he returned to the novices. "There was only one person in the house?"

Severus and the woman both nodded in confirmation.

Their sponsor told them that they should leave the house. As soon as all three had exited the front door, he ignited the house with a murmured 'Incendio', and soon the entire house was ablaze. The man then raised his wand to the sky and shouted the word, 'Morsmordre'.

In that moment, as the moonlight hit a stray piece of hair that had struggled free from his sponsor's hood, Severus realized who his sponsor was,.

The man turned around. "You should both leave. Someone will contact you."

The silver masked man then Disapparated out of the area, swiftly followed by the female novice. After waiting a few minutes to make certain that they had really gone, Severus Apparated into the burning house and walked into the bedroom where he had hidden the woman and her daughter. The room had already started to fill with smoke, and he could hear the woman coughing as she tried to shield her daughter. "Where are you?"

"By the bed. I cannot find my wand," the woman called out.

Severus aimed his wand at the bed, removing the invisibility spell. "Come here."

The woman shook her head. "Get out of my way."

Severus could hear the crackle of flames growing louder. "You can't get out that way. I'll side Apparate you out."

Having little choice, the woman took Severus' hand. Then, as the smoke began to worsen, a sharp crack resounded in the room and Severus and his companions disappeared.

Another sharp crack signaled their reappearance. When the woman opened her eyes, she noticed that she was standing in a large white marble clad hall. Whoever this Death Eater was, he certainly had money. Feeling her daughter wriggling in her arms, she realized that she still had not removed the silencing charm from her. She turned to the black robed man and asked if he would do so for her.

As soon as the charm was removed, the child's wailing filled the hall, making Severus wish he had left the charm on her. A loud crack was heard and Salty, one of his house-elves, appeared.

"Master wants Salty?" the house-elf enquired.

Severus removed his mask and turned to address the house-elf. "Yes. Please make certain my guests can't leave but place them in the Blue Room and get them anything they need to make themselves comfortable."

With a snap of the house-elf's fingers, the woman found herself and her daughter standing in an opulently decorated bedroom. The house-elf stood waiting patiently.

Realizing that she wasn't going to be leaving anytime soon, the woman reeled off what she required to make them both comfortable. "I require a crib for my daughter, a change of clothes for both of us for tomorrow, nappies, baby food, milk, nightclothes and a cup of hot chocolate for me."

Within minutes, several house-elves had popped into the room carrying the requisite items. After a short investigation, Claudia discovered the bathroom, where she hurriedly bathed, fed and changed her daughter, Hermione, before popping her into the crib. Even in the predicament she was in, she was unable to help but notice the beautiful carvings etched into the wood of the crib. Having cried for most of the evening, Hermione had now drifted off into an exhausted sleep, making little baby snores as her chest rose up and down.

Claudia jumped when Salty popped back into the room.

"Mistress, my Master said you are to join him for dinner." Without giving Claudia time to say anything in response, Salty popped out again.

Frightened at what would happen to her and her daughter if she refused, Claudia headed to the bathroom for a shower. Upon re-entering the bedroom, she discovered a set of blue dinner robes laid out on the massive canopy bed. There was also a set of undergarments in periwinkle blue to wear beneath the robes. Not one to put things off, Claudia hurriedly changed into the clothing provided, and had just finished when Salty reappeared at her elbow to show her where to go for dinner.

Claudia refused to move towards the door. "What about my daughter? I am not leaving her up here, not on her own."

A pop indicated the arrival of another house-elf; this one was obviously female. "I is Bright, Ma'am. I pledge that I looks after the little missy for you."

Knowing house-elves as she did, Claudia knew that having made a pledge, Bright would defend her child to the death. Smiling, she thanked her and followed Salty to the door. The door opened on to a long, wide and well-lit corridor. On either side of the corridor stood numerous doors, each flanked by an ornate picture frame containing portraits of what Claudia assumed must be her host's ancestors. Salty must have felt she was taking too long because he took her hand and proceeded to gently pull her down the stairs. On reaching the bottom, they entered the first set of double doors to the left.

Severus turned on hearing the doors to the dining room open. A vision in blue stood framed in the doorway, rendering Severus speechless. Then, upon gathering his tattered senses around him, he invited his guest to sit down and then took the chair opposite. After being served the first course, he ordered the house-elves to leave until he called them again.

Claudia waited for Severus to say something, and when he did not, she decided that she would. She needed some answers. "I want to know why you have brought us here. What are you going to do with us?"

"Well, I'm not going to kill you, if that's what you're worried about," Severus responded, the woman's accent telling him she was French, as he had suspected when he had first heard her speaking.

"Your friend had no problem in killing my husband, so you will forgive me if I do not seem entirely convinced by your answer." Claudia then began to cry. It had suddenly hit her, that except for her daughter, she was once again on her own in the world.

Severus had no idea what to do. He hadn't meant to make her cry, so he tried again to convince her of his intentions. "I'm sorry about your husband. We were told that it was just Muggles who lived in the house. I didn't realize that a witch lived there."

It was definitely the wrong thing to say.

"You son of a bitch! You mean to say that if I had been a Muggle, then you would have killed me too? Would you have killed my daughter as well? This is the reason why I left the wizarding world. I had enough of you Death Eating bastards and your elitist crap when I lived in the wizarding world. I did not expect to have to encounter this shit in the Muggle one as well."

By now Claudia was standing, her gray eyes flashing with a fire and passion that made Severus want to pull her across the table and kiss her. Deciding that might not be the best course of action at that moment, he instead tried to explain his actions.

"I'm sorry. Can I please start at the beginning and try to explain myself?" Severus begged.

Claudia nodded.

Severus therefore began to make clear his reasons. "I was invited to join the Dark Lord's ranks just over six months' ago. At the time I agreed with his policies and thought joining would suit my purposes. He'd offered me access to potion ingredients that even I, with pretty much unlimited funds, had been unable to obtain."

"You are a Potions Master?"

"Yes, and he convinced me that I would be nothing more than his Potions advisor. To show my commitment to his cause he set me two tasks. The first one I completed just over three months ago. I had to shadow someone for a week and report on his actions, which I did to the Dark Lord's satisfaction. After returning to make my report, I was branded with a mark that would identify me as an initiate. Two days ago, I received a missive telling me to report tonight to complete the second and final task before I became a fully-fledged member. I didn't realize that I would be working with another novice, nor that I was expected to kill someone to complete the task."

"You might not have killed him, but you let my husband die," Claudia said, struggling to hold back her tears.

"I'm sorry, but there was nothing I could do," Severus said honestly. He really did regret having to let the man die.

A thought occurred to him. "Why didn't you just Disapparate when you first heard us entering?"

It had been the first thing that Claudia had attempted. "I tried. Someone must have set up a ward to prevent Disapparition."

Severus wondered if his sponsor knew that there had been a witch in the house when he had sent the pair to kill everyone in the building. "My sponsor must have released the Apparition wards in order for us to Disapparate once he set the fire, or else it was tied to my initiate's identification mark." At this point Severus rolled up his sleeve to reveal a skull branded into his skin.

Claudia looked thoughtful. "I do not think your sponsor dropped the wards. I believe you were tied into them by your brand."

Another thought struck Severus. "Why would the Dark Lord want you dead? He must have known who you were for us to be sent to that specific house."

Claudia knew that she could no longer run from her past, and that she had to trust this man. She hoped that this would not be her final mistake. "My married name is Claudia Granger. However, my real name is Virginie Claudine Lestrange."

Severus sucked in his breath. If the rumor was true, then almost two years ago Voldemort had selected a young girl to become his bride in order to beget an heir. He had settled upon the daughter of Henri Lestrange, a French pure-blood. However, she had disappeared on the eve of the wedding. "At least that explains the accent. Are the rumors true about you and the Dark Lord?"

"Yes," she said. "I was betrothed to You-Know-Who. My father was not given any choice in the matter. I was young, beautiful, a virgin and, most importantly, a pure-blood. At first, I was honored that an English Lord would want to marry me. It was my brother, Rodolphus, who filled me in on the type of person I was going to marry. He considered it the ultimate honor. I, however, decided that I would have rather died than marry that monster. On the day before the wedding, I fled the country."

"Here?" Severus asked.

Virginie nodded. "Yes. On arriving in England, although I did not really know what I was doing, I moved into a small flat in a Muggle area, and I eventually got a job working as a receptionist in a local dentistry. I was not very good at it. To cut a long story short, Lester Granger, the dentist, fell in love with me and asked me to marry him. Even though he was much older than I was, and I knew I did not love him, I accepted. All I wanted to do was to escape from You-Know-Who and move to where nobody knew who I was. After your visit tonight, I realize that I may not have been as well hidden as I originally thought."

Having finished her confession, she rose regally from the table, looking every inch the pure-blood Severus now knew her to be. "The question is, will you give me up to your master now that you know who I am?"

Severus stood up and looked down at the petite blonde-haired woman, and he knew he could never give her up. He was uncertain if it had happened when she had hit him over the head with the vase, or whether it was when she had stood framed in the entrance of the doorway to the dining room, but he realized that he fallen in love with her. Shocked at his own revelation, he looked away from her in an effort to compose himself.

"So, you have decided to hand me over then?" Virginie spat out, misunderstanding Severus' reaction. "I should have known better than to trust a Death Eater."

She turned and started to walk out of the room, only for Severus to march over and reach an arm out to restrain her. "I give you my word that I will never give you or your daughter up to the Dark Lord."

At his words, Virginie collapsed in relief, weeping. Severus immediately pulled her into arms, before picking her up and carrying her to the nearest armchair where he sat down, murmuring gently to her while she cried into his chest. The storm of weeping eventually passed and, feeling her go limp, he realized she had cried herself to sleep.

Not bothering to call for Salty, Severus lifted up the exhausted witch and carried her to her bedroom, where he sat down with her, still held in his arms, on the chaise longue close to the flickering fire, having convinced himself that she could not be left on her own. In truth, he just wanted to spend one night holding her. He knew that once she awoke, she would reject him, just like the last woman he had fallen in love with.