Good news: this chapter will answer lots of questions and some loose ends will be tied together :)
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Previously:
She smiled, "I trust you to not fuck up the chance you got. I'm not going to report you for every little nick in your shining reputation, Malfoy." It was a promise, she tried to convey with a long look. He didn't quite look at her and actually seemed to be embarrassed. It was almost endearing.
"You know, if you forgot to write about any of your friends' or girlfriend's activities, I probably wouldn't notice."
The next day, Hermione left her office earlier than usual as there weren't any more students waiting for consultations. As she had agreed to hang out with Harry and Ron in the evening, she didn't bother to return to her dorm and headed straight for the Moving Stairs. On her way, she was stopped by Sadie Baldock to discuss the supervision of detentions. Hermione's gaze got caught on something else however.
Surprised, she craned her neck to get a better look. That truly was a turn of events she hadn't expected. Sure, she had encouraged him to give it a chance, to not put his social life to a complete halt just because of the Ministry's claimed reports. But she assumed that he was way too proud to even consider asking her for another chance. It felt… strange, seeing them together, holding hands in the halls. Hermione couldn't quite pin the feeling. She wasn't sure she liked it.
"Now that was unexpected, wasn't it?" Hermione tore her eyes from the pair to Sadie, who was handing her last week's report on detentions.
"What?"
"Malfoy and MacDougal. Who would have thought they'd give it another shot."
Hermione shrugged, trying hard to appeal casual. "They were already kind of together for some time before, I guess. She's a nice girl, maybe she's good for him."
"But why would she want him is what bugs me. Honestly, Malfoy isn't really boyfriend material."
"No?"
Sadie scoffed. "He's a mess, not capable of having healthy relationships. He'll drag her down the rabbit hole."
Sadie seemed to have a quite pessimistic perspective on him, Hermione realised. She just now started to understand how his mind seemed to work and the troubles he tried so hard to hide. And in her opinion, he had been quite successful with the last part until now. But apparently Slytherins were much better at reading each other.
"What is he planning? I don't see any relation between these attacks," Harry complained frustrated, chucking the Daily Prophet into the fire in Gryffindor Common Room. He plopped down onto the sofa tiredly, patting the place beside him to invite his friends to take a seat as well.
"I have been thinking about that as well," Hermione agreed, perching on the edge of the fluffy cushions beside him. "The attacks seem rather random at first glance."
"At first glance?" Harry perked up, a hopeful glint in his eyes. "Please tell me you've found out something."
"Why, I think I did." Hermione raised her brows.
"Of course you've researched the hell out of it," Ron grinned, but Hermione wasn't offended, having picked up the proud undertone his statement was carrying.
"Voldemort isn't as sneaky as he believes himself to be." She smirked. "He clearly tries to conceal his intentions. Of the many attacks and scandals, I am sure there are lots of false leads."
"Are you saying that the attack on us in Diagon Alley was nothing but a distraction?" Harry asked frowning.
"Definitely," Hermione agreed. "I've been collecting information on every event the last couple of months. To get an overview, the first thing I did was to classify the attacks."
She pulled out an unused parchment and her new swan quill to take note and visualise her findings. She had come to like the beautiful present of Narcissa Malfoy after she had made sure there were no harmful spells cast on it. Every time she used it, she imagined the face the genteel woman would make, if she knew who exactly the Head Girl was and therefore the recipient of her gift. It made her like the quill even more.
"There were random attacks, nothing out of the ordinary, dead Muggles, Dark Mark, Death Eater sighting." Hermione drew a circle, labelling it with 'attacks'. "The usual," she added grimly.
"Then there were the more interesting attacks: seemingly unrelated locations and victims, more concealed procedures and exceedingly complex magic involved," she continued, while adding a list of the premises next to the circle. "Those are the ones that are more important."
"Of course, there are the few cases Voldemort himself was supposedly on site," Hermione concluded, adding Voldemort to her list before looking up at her friends.
"That's what we should look at!" Ron added exited.
"No," Hermione shook her head.
"No?" Ron faltered.
"No," she confirmed. "They are red herrings to make us believe, that these events were the most important. We would assume, that Voldemort sees himself above taking part in distractions, but he is really clever and knows exactly how he is perceived."
"Furthermore, he made sure to use main sights for the attacks he participated in to make them stand out and seem more important. But when you have a look at it from afar, you see that he is acting like any terrorist. He chooses the biggest aims to do as much harm as possible without a clear agenda, following more general aims instead."
"A terrorist?" Ron asked quizzical.
"Muggle thing," Harry explained.
"You mean to tell me there are Muggle-Voldemorts running around?!" Ron gasped, seeming like he was having a hard time breathing properly.
"Highly dangerous Muggle-Voldemorts with lots of Muggle-Death-Eaters," Hermione confirmed. "They actually do far more damage with a single attack than Voldemort has caused since he walked the earth."
Ron looked panicked from Hermione to Harry and back. "Whom exactly are we fighting here?"
"Well, most foreign Muggle governments have become quite good at singling out terrorists by now. They can usually handle the worst."
"Maybe my father and Dumbledore should rethink their love for Muggles," Ron uttered worried.
"Terrorists often come from a background of neglect and oppression, so that would be the worst thing to do," Hermione frowned. "But we are straying off topic here, boys. Concentrate for a minute!" She watched amused as her friends straightened immediately and nodded like she was some war general briefing soldiers.
"As I already explained, we only have to look at the attacks involving advanced magic and excluding known involvement of Voldemort himself." She circled the magic part and crossed out Voldemort from her list. "What's left are four important events."
"Four?" Harry looked flummoxed.
"Not much, is it?" Hermione said. "I think he is being overly careful with concealing his steps, but that actually made it far easier. More data, more accurate conclusion," she explained.
"The first one happened at the same day as the corruption scandal was released."
Ron frowned. "I'm not sure what you found, but I am certain that there wasn't anything else in the Prophet that pointed to Voldemort. I've read it very carefully that day because dad wrote me about him suspecting corruption within the Ministry a week ago."
Hermione nodded. "That's exactly what Voldemort aimed for. He must have some sources within the news agencies to know when the scandal would be published. Maybe he even leaked the information on the corruption himself, sacrificing some of his followers in order to conceal his steps."
"It is rather clever, because the news are completely focused on the supposedly main event, while the actual thing happens in secret. As a consequence, what usually would have made it at least to the second page didn't even get a single article in the Prophet that day."
Ron looked impressed. "That's brilliant as well as completely insane."
"Well, we're talking about Voldemort here, aren't we?" Harry shrugged.
"But how do you know, that's how it went? It sounds a bit far fetched, actually." Ron doubted.
"It's actually a tactic that Muggle governments use quite frequently. I had to listen to my father, ranting about those sneaky politicians releasing new, unpopular decrees right after important sports events and world championships. Like the Romans used to say: panem et circenses– bread and games. It's a political tactic to distract the people."
"But you said yourself that there was no article in the Prophet about whatever you think happened that day," Ron pointed out.
"It wasn't. But the Quibbler wrote about it. It was an attack in Godric's Hollow. Bathilda Bagshot, the famous historian, was abducted and various items and notes from her home seem missing." Hermione drew a line from the main circle, proceeding to write down the name of the small wizarding community.
"Wait, that was no attack," Harry interjected. "I've read that article because I saw that it happened in Godric's Hollow. There was no Dark Mark and everything seemed like she just hurriedly left to travel and research for a new book."
"Also, it was featured in the Quibbler." Ron pulled a face, clearly expressing his not so high esteem in the tabloid.
"We know not to trust in the Prophet keeping us up to date on everything, Ron," Hermione scolded him. "The Quibbler has proven to be a good source of information in the past. Considering your doubts about it being an attack, Harry: Do you remember the cat mentioned in the article that strayed to the neighbour? Who would leave their pet behind unsupervised?"
He nodded thoughtfully. "If the Death Eaters took her then it would be one of the important cases we need to look at," Harry agreed.
"What's next?" Ron asked, excited about their clear reasoning.
"There was the raid on the Ministry's depots in Manchester," Hermione added the city to her chart. "I suppose something of importance was stolen. It will be near impossible to find out what Voldemort needed." Hermione shook her head sadly. "We have no access to the list of missing things."
"I'll write Percy about that," Ron offered. He's a pompous git, but he's accepted the need to bend the rules for a good cause, since Barty Crouch's deeds were leaked to the press.
"That would be great," Hermione beamed.
"What other important events have you marked?" Harry pressed on.
"I've had a look across the borders as well and found some pretty interesting articles about a prison break on the continent."
Harry and Ron looked at her expectantly, waiting for the interesting part of that information.
"Nobody escaped though, someone tried to get inside."
"Why would anybody try to get insidea prison?" Ron shuddered, probably thinking of bedtime stories he had been told about Azkaban.
"Someone needed information only a prisoner could give, right?" Harry asked, looking down at Hermione's parchment frowning.
Hermione nodded. She exchanged a worried glance with Ron, when Harry dragged a hand down his face, leaning his elbows on his knees tiredly.
"I think I've dreamed about that. I thought it was a nightmare, but seems as if I witnessed Voldemort in action again."
"But who could be important enough to go to such lengths? It must have been a risky move," Ron questioned. "There's no place better guarded than prisons."
"The prison we are talking about is called Nurmengard," Hermione revealed, noting down the prison located in northern Europe. "I'm sure you've heard of it, Ron."
The redhead sucked in air sharply, but Harry was completely ignorant.
"Grindelwald," Ron supplied.
Hermione nodded. "Gellert Grindelwald, the Dark Lord before Voldemort, built this prison to lock away political opponents of his new regime. 'For the greater good' he wrote on the gates."
"Sounds disturbingly like Dumbledore," Harry remarked.
"That's because they knew each other," Hermione affirmed.
"Everyone knows that Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald," Ron shrugged unimpressed.
"That's where this get's interesting," Hermione remarked. "I was wondering why Voldemort would kidnap a senile historian, so I read every book about Bathilda Bagshot available in the library and discovered some interesting relations. She was the neighbour of the Dumbledores as well as the aunt of Gellert Grindelwald."
"You mean…" Harry trailed off.
"Dumbledore knew Grindelwald way before he defeated him," Hermione confirmed.
"But… why is this Grindelwald so important, when he is long gone?"
"Because he isn't. Well, he wasn't. He died a few weeks ago, shortly after the prison break into his own prison cell."
"What?!" Harry and Ron exclaimed unison.
"Voldemort had a chat with the former Dark Lord?" Harry swallowed hard. "That can't be good."
"There wasn't much information and no one was able to question Grindelwald anymore because he died soon afterwards. We can only guess what Voldemort wanted to find out." Hermione looked at Harry expectantly, but he shrugged his shoulders frustrated, indicating that he didn't remember any details from his dream.
"I've read that Grindelwald was famous for practicing the darkest of magic when he was only sixteen. He was also experimenting a great deal with Muggles, it isn't exactly light reading," Hermione pulled a face. "He replicated some twin studies of the Third Reich with magical components. It's awful enough to be locked away in the Restricted Section of the Library."
Harry shuddered and Hermione decided to spare Ron the knowledge of the horrid stories they were taught in Muggle school.
"Well, the last one was least obvious," Hermione finished her list, writing down Bedford Town Hall Massacre. "It was a terrorist attack in Bedford."
"Huh? I haven't read about that anywhere I think."
"No, I already guessed so. I'm still reading the Guardian from time to time and thought it was strange but didn't think on it until I started researching."
"The Town Hall was stormed by a group of Muggles wielding different weapons that all seemed strangely improvised. Not a single one carried a gun."
"A gun?"
"One of the most effective Muggle hand weapons. And it was later revealed that one of them even owned two guns and would have been able to carry them around. He was a police officer. But they were using, clubs, knifes, someone even a fork to kill anyone that stood in their way."
"They were all shot to eliminate the threat except for one. He is in a mental clinic now, but the police was unable to get him talking. The article was quite vague about his state of mind but he was described as unresponsive, like he is no longer there with only his body still alive."
"Do you think…" Harry trailed off, his eyes flicking unseeing through the room. "Do you mean Dementors did that?"
"I think this is something far worse than Dementors, Harry." Her nervous fingers grasped the necklace he had gifted her. "I haven't heard of cases where they could control someone's mind and body before taking their soul."
A collective shudder passed over the trio at that thought. Outside, the wind had picked up, beating against the windowpanes and whistling menacingly.
Next Chapter:
Her throat tightened, when he drew his wand.
"Malfoy." She tried to convey a warning, but it came out more like a whisper.
"You know, it would be a lot easier to just get rid of you completely. Your long waking hours are quite bothersome when my master calls."
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Finally some revelations! Here we reached the point where this is turning completely AU. I hope you like my ideas and how everything comes together :) The story will turn a little darker from here on :O
How did you like Hermione's reasoning? Like my beat phrased it: she's a super sleuth :D
Thank you KSB for beta reading and offering so many ideas!