All characters belong to JKR

Part XXXVII:

Hermione feels guilty:

"Don, it's my fault. Now that horrible woman has Draco, my parents, and your brother. If I had just stayed at the Manor, none of this would have happened," she cried.

"Why did you leave?" Don asked her, also visibly upset.

"Mr. Malfoy was being terrible to me. I think he goaded me into leaving, but of course, I took the bait. My temper got the best of me. Did you hear her tell Draco that she tried to make a deal with Lucius?"

"Yes, and that disturbs me a bit," Don said. He pulled Hermione into his arms and said, "I have to go to my dad's house. Nick is there. We have to regroup and try to figure out what we need to do next."

"I know what we need to do. We need to go back to Hogwarts and complete the prophecy. We need to do the ceremony to reunite Helga and Salazar. I know that's what needs done first," Hermione said.

"Even if that's true," Don stated, "I don't know how to do that. Even Nick, as secret keeper, does not know. That information was passed down to him, but that is also lost. Damn, Helena! If only he still had that box!"

"What box?" Hermione asked.

"The box that's been passed down generation to generation, since Ravenclaw's time. It has been passed down by each secret keeper, whose sole purpose was to keep it safe, for in it is a scroll, which reveals the secret, written by Ravenclaw herself. Nick said Helena stole the box. It will do her no good, however, for the box can only be opened by the secret keepers and the heir, which in this case, is you. Helena must have thought she could open it, since she thought she was the heir," Don explained.

Hermione knew what box Don was referring, but still, she asked, "What does this box look like?"

"It's wooden, with a wooden inlay, and on top is the carved symbol representing the heir," Don said.

Hermione grabbed Don's hand, and dragged him up two flights of stairs, to her room. She opened her trunk and threw out her clothing. She reached in the trunk, put the box from her parent's closet in her hands, and showed it to him. "Do you mean this box?"

Don looked shocked. He started to reach for it, but drew his hands away. "How in the hell did you get that box?"

"Nick."

"When did he give it to you? From my understanding, that would be like him revealing the secret, which he took an oath not to do. That would have caused his death. How did he get around that and give it to you?" Don wondered.

"He didn't really give it to me. Somehow, my father bought it at a boot sale, and my mother hid it in the closet, and Draco and I found it, and my mother gave it to me," Hermione said. "Nick must have known my father's side was not the Slytherin/Hufflepuff side, so he made sure my dad was given this box, with the hope that it would get to me. I will give you this one; your brother is one smart cookie."

"That he is. Open it up," Don said. She did. He looked at the scrolls, and said, "Damned if I can decipher but a few of these. How will this help us?"

Hermione looked excited for a moment and said, "We will get Salazar to help us. He can decipher most runes."

Don looked skeptical, and said, "First, how are you going to get the spirit of Salazar to help you. We would have to go back to Hogwarts, and even then, you don't know how to call on him. Anytime he came to you, it was because you were in trouble."

"Well, I'm in trouble now, so he should have no problem seeking me out. We need to get to Hogwarts. You said she couldn't touch me there. You get your dad and Nick, and I need to contact Harry. It's the only way, Don," Hermione said.

"This will fulfill part of the prophecy, but the bigger problem will still be looming over us. Helena. She still has Draco, Paul and your parents. She is still intent on killing you and apparently me," said Don.

"I know this is what we must do first. I can feel it. I think it will help me defeat her somehow." Hermione looked so determined, that Don couldn't help but believe her.

He said, "I won't leave to get my dad or Nick until you contact Harry. We need to go do that now, for we don't have time to waste, and we really need to tell Draco's parents."

"No, no, I can't! It is my fault that he left. They will blame me! I can't face them!" Hermione was shaking her head no, as more tears sprang in her eyes.

Don walked up to her and put his arms around her. "You are right. It is your fault, so make it right, Hermione!"

Don had never been so blunt with her before, but she knew she had it coming. "I'll tell Harry, and then he and I will tell the Malfoys. Where shall we meet you?"

"Hogwarts," Don said. He kissed Hermione's cheek, and took her hand. "But, I wouldn't really abandon you. I told you that we would go together to tell Harry and the Malfoys. I just wanted to know if you were up to the challenge, because, believe me Hermione; you are going to be facing much worse very soon." He took her hand, and they apparated to the Ministry, to find Harry Potter.

Hermione and Don explained everything to Harry. He suggested that they have Ron and Bill come with them to Hogwarts. First, they all apparated to Malfoy Manor. Hermione knocked on the door. Mrs. Malfoy opened the door.

"Oh, Hermione, I am so glad you came back, dear. Is Draco with you?" she asked. She then saw the four men standing behind her. She yelled, "Lucius! Come here! Something's wrong!" She grabbed Hermione's arm and dragged her in the foyer. The rest followed. "Tell me, is something wrong with Draco?"

"What in the world are all of you people doing in my house?" Lucius asked.

"Mr. Malfoy," Hermione said, "Helena Boot kidnapped your son."

Lucius' eyes filled with fury. He approached Hermione and grabbed her arm. Before he knew what to think, he had four wands pointed at him, from the four men standing behind Hermione. She said, "Please, everyone, put your wands away. Mr. Malfoy, I am sorry. I should never have left, although, you need to take some responsibility there, for you wanted me to leave, and I was just accommodating you. Draco came to my house to find me and Helena Boot was there. She took him away. She also has my parents and Don's youngest brother."

"So, what do you want from me?" he snapped.

"Nothing, I just wanted to let you know. I will get Draco back. I promise. Whether or not you believe me, I don't care, but I love Draco more than life itself, and I would do anything to see that he is safe. I would even exchange my life for him," she said sincerely.

He let go of her arm. He saw only truth in her eyes. "Again, I ask, what do you want from me?"

She was confused. She looked at Don, and then to Harry. She looked back at Mr. Malfoy and said, "Nothing. I want nothing from you. We are going back to Hogwarts, to perform the ceremony that you and Don tried to perform. We know how to do that now. After that, I will go and get Draco back."

Lucius laughed, though he found nothing funny about the situation. "You are but a little slip of a girl. You are going to single handedly rescue my son?"

"No," she said. "My friends will help me." The four men stood behind her, very determined.

"Wouldn't five helpers be better than four? My son said you were smart. Use that brain of yours and think for a moment. I will help you. He's my son, and you are right, it's partially my fault, for I drove you away, though, I have to admit, I expected a bit more of a fight from you. I thought you were made up of more spit and vinegar than you showed me earlier, Miss Granger."

"It's been a rough year," Hermione said, sadly.

"Then let's see it off to a better end," Lucius said. He turned to his wife, kissed her cheek, and left with the others. They were going to find Draco.

Salazar and Hermione have a talk:

It was dark and quiet at the excavation site. The Aurors were no longer guarding the area. Their resources were spent trying to find Helena Boot. Bill Weasley said he would go up to the castle, to let Minerva know what was happening. Don had yet to arrive, as he had gone to his father's house to meet with Nick. Therefore, that left Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and, as odd as it seemed, Lucius Malfoy.

"Hermione, do you know what you are looking for here?" Ron asked. He was carrying the box with the scroll for her.

She said, "No, but I hope someone finds me. He's helped me in the past and all I can hope for is that he will help me again."

"Who do you mean?" Ron asked.

"Slytherin," she answered. They sat on the cold ground to wait for the others, as Lucius paced back and forth.

"This is lunacy!" Lucius said. "We need to try to find my son, not visit some old castle ruins and wait for some ghost to visit!"

Harry and Ron soon joined Lucius, pacing back and forth. Hermione wished they would all stop. Soon, they were talking amongst themselves, 'we need to do this'; 'no, we need to do that'. Hermione wished they would all shut up so she could clear her head. She remained seated on the ground and looked over to the ruins of the castle. The area surrounding the underground chamber was roped off by the Ministry. Hermione felt compelled to go there. She looked back at Harry and the others, who were now strategizing and making plans. No one would notice if she was missing. This was something she needed to do on her own. She stood, picked up the box, and walked under the rope, which led to the stone steps, leading down to the chamber. She lit her wand and had only taken a few steps, when she heard Harry call out, "Hermione? Where did you go?"

She continued down the stairs. She heard Harry say, "Did she go down to that chamber? Hermione!" She heard Harry approach the stairs, and then she heard nothing else. She was transformed from the present day, to the era of her visions. She was in the chamber with what appeared to be a living, breathing, Salazar Slytherin.

"So, dear maiden, we meet again. I was beginning to think you were a figment of my imagination, for it's been months since I have seen you," he said, leaning against a wall.

Hermione put the box down, and said, "I've been away. I am sorry. I need your help."

"Of course you do, that's all I ever do, is help you. I am beginning to think we have a one sided relationship," he smiled at her.

"If you help me this time, then believe me, it will be for your benefit as much as mine," Hermione said. She walked over to the box, pointed at it, and said, "Have you ever seen this box before?"

"No," he said.

She opened the box and removed the scrolls. She said, "Do you think you can help me figure out what these runes mean?"

"No," he said again.

"Why not?" she asked.

He appeared to laugh at her and said, "Dear girl, I don't need to help you figure out what is on that scroll, for though I have never seen that box before, the scroll in your hand belonged to me. I already know what it says."

Hermione sighed a sigh of relief, and said, "Thank goodness. At least, I hope it will be good news. I hope it will help me."

He said, "Tell me your story, and I will tell you if these scrolls will be of any use to you."

Hermione started at the beginning. She did not know if it was her place to tell him that Helga had a child by him, but she could not leave out that part. She started with Voldemort, for she had to tell Slytherin first how she came to possess Hufflepuff's cup. She then told him about what happened last summer, the cup, the cylinder, and the excavation site. She told him about her visions, and about her night terrors, and how she was led to believe that he was the one hurting her. She told him about Helena Boot and about Rowena Ravenclaw taking away Helga's child. She then told him about the real prophecy, and that Helena was not the heir after all. He seemed to listen with compassion, and at times, rage. When she was done, he asked one thing, "Are you my heir?"

"Yes, and I am Muggle born."

He screamed in anger and she was afraid, for she did not know what caused his wrath. Was it learning of Ravenclaw's lies? Was it finding out that he lost his only love because she was afraid of him? Or was it to discover that his only descendents were an evil wizard, who almost destroyed their world, killed by her best friend, and herself, a mere Muggle born. She ducked her head in her shoulder and turned from him. The little anti-chamber grew dark, then light, then a powerful wind blew. Hermione was knocked to the ground.

She put her hands over her head and began to cry. He would never help her now. She should not have told him. Maybe she should have told him that Draco was the heir. After all, Draco was a pureblood. But, the lies had to stop sometime.

The earth under her rumbled and she could once again hear her friends calling for her. She opened her eyes, and she was back inside the ruins of the underground chamber, back to her time, back to darkness and despair. She called out, "Please, help me!" She was calling to Salazar. Her friends heard her and thought that she was calling to them. Harry tried to enter the chamber, but he was thrown far away from it. Ron tried, and the same happened to him. Even Lucius tried to use a spell to enter, and he too was thrown away.

Hermione heard Harry and Ron shouting for her. She also heard new voices. She heard Don and Bill, as well as Nick. She lit her wand, and tried to walk up the stairs to them, but suddenly, there were no stairs.

"Where are you going?" a voice behind her asked.

She turned around, and he was back.

"I am so sorry. It was not my place to tell you any of this, and I know your views on Muggle borns. Believe me, if I could spare you the heartache of having me for your heir, I would, but I cannot. The only thing that is important now is to find my parents, find my fiancée, make Helena Boot pay, and to reunite yours and Helga's souls. Please, help me and I will help you."

He looked at her with a meaningful stare and said, "You ask a lot from me, but I ask a lot from you, as well."

"I'm not sure what you have asked from me, but please, I don't know where else to go. I know that my visions weren't coming from you or Helga, so I can only assume they were coming from Ravenclaw, and if I could seek her help, I would, but I don't know how."

He laughed, and said, "She never helped you. She would not have gone to all that trouble, so many centuries ago, to preserve her own line, and then try to help you now. Someone else helped you. I think it may have been Helga."

"But, I was shown things Helga never knew," she said.

"You don't know that for sure. Perhaps she found these things out, and was unable to communicate to me, so she has been trying to communicate with you. Perhaps she knew all along you were our heir, and because she was afraid of my views on Muggle borns, she was afraid to reveal to you outright who you were, so she wanted you to discover things on your own."

Hermione recalled the night she was hypnotized by Nick, and Helga appeared and told Nick that she was trying to tell Hermione her secret. "Helga did appear to me, but only in dreams. She appeared each night and tried to tell me things, without scaring me. She told my friends that she had to reveal the truth to me, and that it was only me that she could talk with. She said that you were accused of murdering her, and wanted to show you the truth. She said that you tried to reveal the truth to me as well, but that my friends turned to wolves and scare you off. Is that true?"

"It's true that I tried to communicate to you, but I never murdered her. Are you sure those are the words she used?"

"You forget," Hermione said, "The part of her soul that I released from the Horcrux did indeed think that you killed her. Maybe her message to you is that she knows she did not die. I don't know. I'm confused," Hermione admitted. She then said, "Tell me, do you know why I have this?" She lifted her shirt, to show him the faint outline of the scar from the wound that was created on her abdomen, the night Salazar tried to communicate to her.

"I put that there. Your lover has one as well, on his shoulder," Salazar said.

"Why? What do they mean?" she asked.

"They are necessary, for you are the ones who must perform the ceremony that I wrote upon those scrolls. You are the ones who are destine to set us free from the hell on earth in which we have spent the last thousand years. I marked you as such myself. I was not aware of Helga contacting you as well. However, it appears that she was aware of me," Salazar concluded.

"Why did you mark us?" Hermione asked.

"Because you released my soul from the Horcrux, and you forget, my dear, I made that Horcrux myself, as well as Helga's Horcrux. I made them so that our souls could not be released, except by placing the Horcruxes together, and then, only by our own hand, or by the hand or our heir."

"You've known all along that I was your descendent?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, all along," he said.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked.

"It wasn't my place to tell you. I did not know how you would receive this information. I had hoped you would find this out on your own," he admitted.

"Then you aren't angry that I am Muggle born?" she asked.

"No, my anger is directed elsewhere, and believe me, I will be avenged. I will help you, Hermione. I owe Helga that much. I owe you that much."

The Truth in the Scrolls:

Salazar said, "Your friends above ground are worried about you. Are you sure you want to continue, or shall we do this another day?"

"Now, please," she said.

"Sit down, child. It's a rather long story," Salazar said.

Hermione was once again transposed to the chamber of his day. There was the stone table. She sat down on one side, and he on the other. He said, "The truth was, I did leave Helga and the others. It was wrong, and my pride caused me to stay away. When I heard of the fight for the land, and the fact that the evil Darians wanted to barter for Helga, I came back, but it was too late. She had already been taken. I won't repeat the story that you already know, but you are aware what happened after that."

Hermione interrupted, and said, "You killed the eldest Darian, and created your Horcrux, in the cave."

"Yes. Do you recall in your visions something about a wand? The eldest brother had a wand, which connected him to all his brothers. His wand had the power to control all of their wands."

"I do recall that. What happened to that wand?" she asked.

"I took it. I hid it where no one would ever find it," he smiled.

"Why?" she asked.

"Let me tell you some other truths first," he said. "Ravenclaw did lead Helga to believe that she was also with child. She told Helga that the child was Godric's. This is why I know that Helga is the one who must have provided you with the visions. She must have found out our child did not die, but she also knew that Rowena's child lived. She thought that child was Godric's, because that is what Rowena told her. That was a lie."

"Whose child was it?" Hermione asked.

"The eldest Darian brother. The one that lusted after Helga. Rowena went to him, to try to convince him to take her over Helga. She did it for selfless reasons. She really did love Helga. All he did was rape her, and then caste her out, for he still wanted Helga. Rowena was ashamed, so she told no one, but me. She wanted me to help her get rid of the child. When I refused, she decided to run away, and she convinced Helga to leave with her. From your story, I gather that she convinced Helga that I would never accept our child. She was wrong. I would have. I think that was Rowena's way of seeking revenge on me for not helping her."

"I believe that Rowena still wanted to get rid of the evil that was her own child, but that she could not do that, anymore than she could kill Helga's. Why she did not keep Helga's child and get rid of her own instead, the child born from evil, I will never know, but I do know that this Helena Boot you tell me about, does not come from my best friend's line. She has no Gryffindor in her. She has Darian blood. My guess is that she has known this all along. My guess is that she never thought she was my heir. I think she has always known you were the heir, and she knew about my little safeguard. You see, I made it so that only a descendent of Helga's and mine together could find the wand. This is also the reason she cannot touch you here. She can come to Hogwarts, but she can never hurt you. Another piece of my magic. When I killed the last of the Darians, I enchanted the grounds so that none of them could ever hurt Helga or her line ever again. That's why she can't hurt you here."

Hermione was confused, and asked, "Why could she Imperius her sons to hurt me here? Wouldn't they be Darian descendents as well?"

Salazar said, "That one confuses me. Perhaps she is not their mother? Perhaps they were not the ones who hurt you; perhaps those are more of her lies. I do not know. I do know that you must find the wand, destroy this woman with this wand, and then your lover and your parents will be free. Then, you must come back here and perform the ceremony from the scrolls. Please, set us all free."

"How do I find the wand?" she asked.

He put his hands on the stone table and said, "These are very interesting runes, don't you think?"

"I suppose," she said.

"Do you know their meaning?" he asked.

"Draco and I were working on deciphering the runes, but then we gave up, for they didn't hold the secrets we thought they did. We thought they would lead us to the heir," she said.

"Maybe they will lead you to other answers. Go to the real table, finish deciphering the runes, find the wand, kill this woman, and then promise me, you and your lover will come back," he said.

"I'm not sure I can do that. The last time I touched the real table, I was rendered unconscious. Are you certain this is the way it must be? Must I find the wand first?" she asked.

"Find the wand, Hermione. You are my heir, so I do not doubt your abilities. Find the wand, and give me the justice that has long forsaken me. Kill this evil woman," he said. "I believe in you. This is what I have wanted you to do from the beginning. This is what I tried to communicate to you, not even knowing you were my heir. I merely wanted you to find my heir, and have this done. I did not know that Helga was seeking your help as well. Perhaps tonight, you can help us both. Go, Hermione, for your friends are close to being panicked now. Tell them everything, or nothing, it does not matter, for in the end, it must be you against her, and no one else. I will be waiting for you. I cannot leave here, so I cannot come with you. Be strong." He smiled weakly and disappeared. The lightness and the vision of the past disappeared, and she was once again in the complete darkness of the present day chamber. She lit her wand once more, found the stairs, and ran up to her friends.