MARY-SUE AND GARY-STU DO HOGWARTS
CHAPTER TEN: WTF?

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Slightly uncomfortable with the lack of control that she had in this situation, Hermione stemmed thoughts and worries about where she was and who she was about to meet by attempting to implant what she had just witnessed into her long-term memory. When things were back to normal, she thought, she would have to let that information 'slip' to Ron and Harry.

"He'll be right in here," Draco whispered, bringing her out of her reverie. "Now, perhaps I should go in first, and alone. We don't know how he's been affected yet."

"Where should I go, then?"

"Just wait out here," Draco told her, and then added when he saw the anxiety written across every line of her face, "You'll be fine. I'll only be a moment."

She nodded, and then slowly came to a stop. She hated the feeling of vulnerability that crept up on her. She had never been this deep in enemy territory, and lacked heavily in confidence that, should she be found, she would come out of it alive.

She took to pacing back and forth across the corridor that she stood in. She could hear nothing through the double doors that Draco had disappeared through a moment prior, and wondered what was taking him so long. Each second that she was without him passed like a lifetime, and she emitted a great sigh of relief when he finally reappeared.

"Well?" she asked. Draco's face was unreadable, but she had a feeling that his expression of slight amusement may have actually meant something positive in their favor.

"Er," Draco trailed off as he searched for the right words. "He'll see us. He didn't even object to having a Mudblood in his presence."

Hermione decided to ignore his slip of the tongue, and hit him with a hefty hex later on, when she was no longer being forced to count him as an ally. Instead, she stiffly nodded, and then followed him into the room that Lord Voldemort called sanctuary.

It was with extreme effort that Hermione maintained an indifferent expression. The room itself was everything that she expected - dark, gloomy, and downright terrifying. However, the man - being - that awaited them was hardly recognizable to her. If he hadn't been the only person there, she would have politely ignored this man, and commenced to wait for the imminent arrival of the Dark Lord.

"So this is your little friend, then, is it?" Voldemort asked Draco as he approached them. Hermione had never seen such an unbecoming premise, before. She stared openly at the powdered wig that sat upon his head.

Voldemort realized what she was looking at, stopped suddenly in his tracks, and blushed as deeply red as the rouge that sat upon his cheekbones. "Don't tell me you don't like it! I took hours to figure out how to cover up the fact that I'm - well, not that it's really all that important, I'm sure I could grow hair if I wanted - oh, you've got me all of a tither-"

And with that, Voldemort hurriedly reached into his pocket. Hermione's hand twitched towards her own, but as she extracted her wand, Voldemort only extracted a-

"Cell phone?" Hermione recognized the Muggle device as something that her father owned.

Voldemort huffily began to pound away on the keypad, and then stowed it again when he was finished doing whatever it was that he had ventured to do.

"Now," Voldemort clapped his hands merrily together. "What can I do for you, gentle man and kind lady-? Oh, hold on."

An upbeat song emanated from Voldemort's pocket, and he fluidly took up his phone again. "Hello? Oh, Bella, hi! What? Well, what did you say?"

Voldemort turned away with a finger in the ear opposite of which he held his phone to as he conversed. Draco and Hermione were determined not to look at each other. They were spared the prospect of stifling the laughter that clogged their minds by the arrival of a man that Hermione recognized as none other than Lucius Malfoy.

"You texted, my Lord?"

"Bella - Bella - sorry to cut this short, but I'll have to call you back," Voldemort told her as he promptly hit the 'End Call' button. "Yes, I texted you, Lucius. You told me that this wig would cover up the fact that I'm - I'm..."

"Bald?" Lucius supplied.

Voldemort stared at Lucius, and just as Hermione thought that the prospect of the Cruciatus Curse had crossed his mind, something she wouldn't have precedented in at least four-point-six billion years happened instead.

Voldemort's lower lip began to quiver and he let out a cry of pain before he burst into tears.

"My Lord!" Draco's father blurted out, horrified. "I'm sorry-"

"Save it, Lucius!" Voldemort loudly spoke, pressing the back of his hand dramatically against his forehead. "I thought I told you never to mention it! I hate you!"

And with that, Voldemort burst past Hermione and Draco, and disappeared into the hallway. Hermione stared after him, stunned. A second later, they heard another door slam, which was followed by the sound of the now positively howling Dark Lord Voldemort.