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Have a nice day,
Perhentian
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Chapter 8 - July 1994
The first day Hermione spent in Slytherin Castle went extremely slow. There was the weariness of the all-nighter she had just pulled off, of course, but it was especially the anxiety that was burdening her. She had taken refuge in what had probably been a small but refined sitting room at some point in time, not too far away from the library. The sitting room main advantage was its fireplace, that the four friends had illegally connected to Grimmauld Place and the Burrow.
Hermione could not decide if she would rather have Voldemort arrive quickly, even if it meant she would have to face him sooner, or if she would rather have him taking his time to come here. Because she knew she would be the one who would do most of the surveillance at Slytherin Castle. Sirius, Remus and Molly Weasley were communicating too often together for Harry, Ron or Ginny to pretend to visit each other for long without anyone noticing their disappearance. Especially as Sirius had just taken some days off to spend more time with Harry. Whereas Hermione's Muggle parents had no way of knowing that she was not with her friends, but rather camping in the castle of the most powerful dark wizard in centuries. Who hated Muggleborns with a passion.
Harry had sent her earlier some innocent books from the Blacks' library. Nothing in connection with magical sources, nor Horcruxes in case anyone found them. But Hermione was not able to concentrate enough to read anything. In addition to her fatigue and anguish she was always under the disguise of Helen, and aging potions prevented the ingestion of any other potions, even something as simple as a Pepper-Up.
They had had a heated debate about staying as their persona during the surveillance period, aging potions being toxic if taken too frequently, but Hermione had argued that they could not afford to reveal their true appearances to Voldemort. Especially if they wanted to have any chance to negotiate with him. And since Hermione was not one hundred percent certain that Voldemort would trigger the wards they had casted with Ginny, she needed to stay transformed all the time she spent in Slytherin Castle.
Hermione shuddered slightly, imagining Voldemort suddenly appearing right in front of her. She could have predicted what the Voldemort they knew would have done. Frantic yells. Cruciatus curses. Other yells. And an Avada Kedavra in the end. And she would have known how to react to that. But this Voldemort would surely be different, and Hermione was haunted by the face the Dark Lord now had.
She was certain that her ritual had somehow failed. That something had not gone as planned. And that they would pay for it. But she could not do anything for the moment. She had not brought her notes about the ritual here, too dangerous, and without them she simply could not guess what had gone awry.
The bracelet on her wrist warmed slightly and Hermione opened her communication notebook.
"Everything's all right Helen?"
It was Ginny's handwriting.
"Everything's fine," Hermione wrote back. "No intrusion for now. Any news on your side?"
"Snuffles has received an urgent Floo call this morning, and left in a hurry. We are almost certain that it was on Order business."
"That's good."
"Yeah. We're at my parents' house now. Ralph will relay you tonight so you can sleep a little. And then at the end of the night Hadrian will take his turn while we will go set alarms around Azkaban."
"Fine. How's Crookshanks?"
"Delighted to be able to wander in the garden. I'm taking care of Crookshanks Helen, don't worry."
Ginny and Hermione exchanged a few more sentences, before the redhead had to leave Hermione to help prepare the dinner. Hermione closed the notebook and stretched her legs on the couch she was currently occupying. She had the feeling that the wait would be quite long.
oOoOoOo
It was not until ten days later that the alarms were triggered in the morning, and Hermione immediately jumped out of the armchair she was lounging in, her heart pounding painfully in her chest. Refusing to be dominated by anguish, she immediately put the tip of her wand on her bracelet, alerting Harry, Ron and Ginny. She really hoped that they would be able to join her, that they would not be directly under the watchful eyes of Sirius, Remus, or a Weasley.
For her part Hermione casted several detection spells around her, which came back blank. She was about to start more complex enchantments when her friends emerged from the fireplace, wands pointed straight in front of them. Or more accurately, the three wizards she was pretty sure were her friends, since they had taken a different appearance from the day of the resurrection. Immediately, the hand of one of them went to his forehead and he rubbed it lightly. Obviously, even if Voldemort had not lowered his Occlumency wards in the last 10 days, Harry was still able to feel his presence when he was close.
Ginny – the only girl – looked at her questioningly and Hermione shook her head.
"He immediately neutralised the alarms and I have not been able to locate him yet," she murmured. "You managed to get here fast."
Hermione was deeply relieved to have her friends with her. If she was not sure she could defeat Voldemort alone, the four of them should be able to handle the Dark Lord without many issues, now that he no longer had the element of surprise.
"I stunned Snuffles to go faster," Harry answered just as quietly.
"Let's try to find him," Ron interjected. "And we all stay together, no matter what."
They nodded in silence. They moved slowly from room to room, Hermione and Ginny repeatedly casting all detection spells they knew, and Harry and Ron watching for the slightest suspicious movement around them.
To Hermione's utmost frustration, not only did they not succeed to locate Voldemort long enough to outmanoeuvre him, but it quickly became evident that both sides were circling around each other without any of them being able nor to surprise, nor to escape its opponent.
"There's some signal coming from our right," Ginny whispered.
The signal was barely less scrambled than the previous ones, but it was clear that it was voluntary stronger. It was an evolution in what they were tracing. Previously Voldemort had sought to completely conceal his trace, certainly to find them without them knowing it. But he had obviously not been able to locate them, and was now trying to drag them to a specific place.
"That would bring us to the main hall," Hermione answered. "It's not a coincidence, he wants to attract us there."
"Let's meet him there then, but we'll make a detour through the apartments not to be too obvious," Ron suggested.
All four of them changed the direction they were walking towards, taking the time to try to dissimulate their movements, hoping to at least blur Voldemort's perception of their arrival.
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Lord Voldemort was far from happy. The past days had been quite successful. He had recovered his yew wand, and he had spent some time to catch-up on everything that had happened since he had last been in the United Kingdom two years ago.
His magic had been slightly unstable the first days, but he had quickly regained a complete mastery over it, savouring his newfound power. As he had once predicted to his Death Eaters, he was not only truly immortal but he was also more powerful now than he had ever been before. His body was not sporting any of the side effects of the dark magic he had long practiced, only his red eyes still revealing who he was, and that was a proof among others of his superiority.
Truth be told, he was absolutely furious for having lost thirteen years of his life because of a child. But another part of him was kind of grateful for the interruption. The end of his first rise to power was a perpetual succession of massacres that had not allowed him to take the place that was his, and all this rise to power by force plan had been taking far longer than what he had initially thought. But today he had the opportunity to start all over again and take revenge. The ministry was still as corrupt as before, and wizards were still idiots ready to believe anything. It would be easy.
Lord Voldemort already had dozens of plans to overthrow the government in place, and to make everyone who opposed him pay. Hence he had been in a pretty good mood this morning when he had decided it was time for him to go back to Slytherin Castle to establish his new base there. Until he triggered some alarms when arriving in what was undoubtedly his home.
And if he had been able to know that he was not alone, he could not get his hands on the culprits, which was particularly irritating. He had finally decided not to waste more time with this masquerade than it deserved, and he was now waiting in the main hall of the castle. Whoever had dared to enter here would promptly regret it.
oOoOoOo
As Hermione had predicted, Voldemort was waiting for them when they entered the main hall. But contrary to what she had hoped for, he did not seem to have believed their false signals and was staring exactly at the corridor from which they emerged. They looked at each other for a moment in silence, from each side of the main hall. The tension was extreme, and all had their wands ready.
Lord Voldemort looked calm. Too calm. He had not casted any spell yet. A restraint that the Voldemort they had known would not have had. And Hermione felt a cold shiver run down her spine. The few times she had gone to the Burrow to sleep the past days she had spent part of her time trying to read her notes on the ritual, but she had every time been too tired, and she had found nothing conclusive. And yet there was undoubtedly something that had not gone as planned.
"How have you managed to enter this castle?" Voldemort asked coldly.
But there was no trace of mad fury in his voice. Cold anger, yes. But not that insane furiousness that had characterized all his actions when they had fought him for the first time, many years ago. Hermione felt her anguish increase. It was worse if he managed to think calmly. Much worse.
Hermione had discovered long after the Battle of Hogwarts that Voldemort's Horcruxes had made him psychologically unstable, thus explaining the thoughtless actions that this man had sometimes made, while all had always described the young Tom Marvolo Riddle as a cold and calculating genius, that could even be perfectly charming if he needed to. Explaining also how the four friends had managed to beat him the first time around.
But the ritual Hermione had used should not have corrected this instability. It should have drawn the energy of the Horcruxes, destroying them in the process. However it was now becoming more and more obvious to Hermione that the Horcruxes had been re-absorbed. If that was the case, they would find themselves facing an enemy far more powerful than they had imagined. She was really going to have to review her ritual in details to confirm her suspicions, and she was not looking forward to find out that she had botched it so badly.
"The wards were good, but not unbreakable for determined wizards," Ginny replied with false nonchalance.
Voldemort stayed silent for a moment and Hermione wondered what he was thinking. The truth was that without Harry and his ability to speak Parseltongue, they would never have been able to enter the castle. Moreover, they had managed it quickly this time around only thanks to their memory of the many months they had spent in their first lives to find the correct charms to open the way.
However, the fact that there was another Parselmouth was sufficiently improbable for Voldemort not to consider it immediately.
"Do you have the slightest idea who this castle belongs to?" Voldemort asked, and the tone was clearly threatening.
Hermione tensed. She did not want the situation to degenerate into a duel. They would probably win. They were four against Voldemort after all. But no fight was ever won in advance. Especially since Voldemort was on his own playground.
"To the Dark Lord," Harry answered.
The diplomatic effort was to be highlighted, and Hermione began to hope that this meeting may perhaps go well, even if the chances of it going well were quite slim.
"Why are you here then? Are you trying to provoke Lord Voldemort's ire?"
If the situation was not so dire, Hermione would have rolled her eyes in the face of the third-person pronoun usage.
"We would like to talk," Hermione said.
"Talk?" Voldemort repeated coldly.
There was a hint of incredulity in his voice, as if he could not imagine that someone could be stupid enough to wish to have a chat with him.
"We would have liked to access the books in your library," Hermione continued.
"Access the books in my library, no less," Voldemort replied with contempt.
His wand moved very slightly and Hermione tightened her grip on hers.
"We want to negotiate this access," Harry added bluntly.
It was going to end badly, it seemed inevitable now. The calculating gleam in Voldemort's eyes was a bad omen. He was currently deciding what to do with them, and Hermione was pretty sure that negotiating was not one of his options.
"Negotiate? So you believe you can offer me something equivalent in exchange?" Voldemort asked with evident scepticism.
"The contents of the prophecy that binds you to Harry Potter," Harry said.
They had discussed several times these past ten days what they could or could not offer to Voldemort. What should be enough value for him to let them access his library, a library he had certainly never granted access to anyone before.
And the prophecy was one of the things that was the easiest to offer for them. After all, revealing it to Voldemort would not change anything in the end. The prophecy gave absolutely no reliable indication about what to do to defeat Harry, no indication of Harry's supposed power, nothing that could give Voldemort any advantage over them. And it was not like Voldemort was not after Harry even without knowing the end...
They could have simply defeated him in a duel, of course. But Hermione had no idea how to access his library without his cooperation.
"Really?" Voldemort said, his tone even more sceptical than previously. "And how do you know the contents of this prophecy?"
"That's our own business," Harry answered. "But we are ready to swear an unbreakable vow that what we will tell you is indeed the actual prophecy."
The calculating gleam in Voldemort's eyes intensified and Hermione felt more and more uncomfortable.
"It is an interesting proposition, but I can easily recover this prophecy myself, and find out what it contains."
"Unless Dumbledore stops you," Ginny pointed out with a hint of sourness.
Hermione had known for a long time that Ginny was the most vindictive one against Voldemort. She resented him too much. Not really because of what the diary had done to her a long time ago, but rather because of what Voldemort had done to Harry. Ginny could not help but think of Harry's miserable childhood, the many face-to-face, the day Voldemort had asked her husband to sacrifice himself, and then killed him with an Avada Kedavra.
Voldemort's expression got darker at the mention of his enemy, and Hermione realized that Ginny had played well.
"After all, we could very well tell him about your return," Hermione added with a smile. "And the existence of this castle."
"Except if you let us access your library," Harry concluded.
It was not even a big concession from their side not to warn Dumbledore. The Headmaster was already aware of Voldemort's return thanks to Severus Snape. And none of them wanted to reveal much more than that to Hogwarts' Headmaster, hoping they could quickly fix the Voldemort problem.
The Dark Lord did not answer for a moment, and his gaze focused more intensely on Harry, Ginny, and Ron.
"You are the ones who performed the resurrection ritual," he said slowly. "Why make me come back if it is to reveal my return to Dumbledore afterwards?"
The tension in the room rose significantly. Hermione wondered for a moment how Voldemort had been able to make the connection, the appearances of her friends having very few in common with those they had used when they had performed the ritual.
By intercepting one of Voldemort's glances Hermione realized that it was not them that he had recognized, but their wands. Which would be a quite problematic issue if he ever met Ron, Ginny, and Hermione as themselves. Harry, luckily, currently had his second wand in hand, not wanting to risk triggering the Priori Incantatem if the situation degenerated into a battle.
"We had no wish to see you return, we merely wanted to access your books," Ginny answered.
"You took my blood," Voldemort immediately understood.
Damn. It was a very bad idea to bring the subject on it. Voldemort was obviously not happy to learn that. And it was quite justified. Possessing someone's blood could allow to do very powerful rituals with it.
"You dared to take my blood," he repeated.
"Great Virginia," Ron muttered.
Voldemort's white wand moved at the same moment, faster than Hermione would have thought possible, sending a spell towards each one of them. Hermione identified the one coming towards her as an expulsion spell and deflected it slightly with a disarming spell. The explosion behind her did not make her turn back to look at it, even though she threw a shield charm behind her just in case.
From the corner of her eye she noticed that Harry, Ron and Ginny were staying close to each other, and she quickly joined them in a fluid movement. But Voldemort immediately sent an explosive spell that forced them to part, followed by a Fiendfyre that almost took them by surprise. Luckily Harry and Ginny conjured an ice ward just in time, and Hermione took advantage of it to materialize enough sand to stifle the fire. She then flew the sand towards Voldemort, transforming it at the last moment into sharp glass shards.
Her attack crashed on the Dark Lord's shields without causing them any apparent damage, and the same happened just a second later to Ron's Diffindo. An unknown spell then flew towards Harry, but it exploded right in front of them, violently blowing the four friends back, separating them from each other even more.
The battle had only started for a few seconds, but one thing was already absolutely clear to Hermione. Voldemort's duelling skills were far above what she had thought. There were four of them. They were each about the same age as him. But it was Voldemort who indisputably led the dance. And Hermione was not at all certain anymore that they could actually best him.
It seemed that they had been a bit too arrogant, a bit too sure of their own superiority, first by assuming that Voldemort would not be able to escape their wards at Riddle Manor, and secondly by underestimating his exceptional duelling skills.
The few following minutes were more than chaotic. Voldemort was using the castle magic to help him, moving the ground under them unexpectedly. And if Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione did not have the same magical ease as their opponent, they were used to fight together and each one of them knew how to compensate the flaws of the others.
A Cruciatus suddenly brushed past Hermione, and she almost lost her balance. Then a cutting spell sliced her left arm slightly. She did not take the time to heal it and sent her own Fiendfyre towards Voldemort, hoping to distract him somehow. She then managed to stop just in time a rather dark laceration curse that was aimed at Harry, before quietly nullifying Voldemort's spell aimed at bringing down their glamour charms.
Ron then sent a blinding curse that Ginny completed with an explosive charm. Their two hexes were triggered at the same time as an earthquake caused by Voldemort, and the ensuing din forced Hermione to cover her ears. Then she dissipated the smoke, the debris, the noise, and the bright light just in time to see that Voldemort was casting a curse to create poisonous vines all over the place, and Harry a spell that should make the ceiling collapse on top of the Dark Lord.
"Stop!" Hermione shouted, amplifying her voice." Stop! Time out!"
Sparks of magics sprang from her hair and everyone froze. Voldemort himself looked at her incredulously while watching from the corner of his eye Harry.
"We need him," Hermione said to Harry, Ron, and Ginny.
"But I do not need you," Voldemort pointed out dangerously.
It was absolutely true. And Voldemort had just proven that he was quite capable of reducing them to dust. But he still had no idea how much they could destroy all his plans with their knowledge.
"Need, maybe not. But it would be a big mistake to kill us now. Our wills are programmed to send your blood to Dumbledore. And how to access this castle," Hermione said.
And also the name of all his Death Eaters. The location of all his safe houses. All the necessary information about the fact that he had one day created Horcruxes. But Voldemort did not need to know that.
"You are threatening me now," Voldemort wondered as if he could not believe they were so unconscious.
Hermione caught him again quickly glancing at Harry and she frowned.
"All we want is an access to the books in your library," Ron said in his calmest tone.
"That will be the case if you bring me both Dumbledore's and Harry Potter's heads. In addition to the prophecy contents of course."
"We'll hand over the prophecy contents, yes. But you won't have the heads of Dumbledore and Harry Potter from us," Harry answered.
"Then you are wasting my time," Voldemort replied.
He raised his wand again.
"Twenty grams of the Philosopher's Stone's Elixir of Life," Ron said.
Voldemort's gaze was immediately on him.
"How did you get the elixir?" he asked.
"We are not willing to share this information," Ron answered, though not too dryly.
It was obvious that the Elixir of Life interested Voldemort. They had bet on it, knowing that the elixir would not prevent them from killing him, as it merely extended the natural life span. Twenty grams could prevent Voldemort from aging for almost ten years. An offer he could not easily refuse, even though he thought he had multiple Horcruxes.
"I want the stone, not the elixir," Voldemort demanded.
"We don't have the stone," Ron answered. "We only have these twenty grams of elixir."
They had indeed left the stone at Grimmauld Place, to be able to lie by omission without being detected by the Dark Lord.
"Twenty grams , twenty books," Voldemort curtly proposed. "And for today only."
It was already a progress. Harry, Ron, and Ginny glanced at her uncertainly, and Hermione rolled her eyes. As if they did not know what she was looking for as well as she did.
"We want an access to all the books written by Salazar Slytherin that are in the library," Hermione countered. "And for the whole month of July."
Voldemort stayed silent for a few seconds.
"Then I will only grant access to one of you, and for a single week," Voldemort said.
This time her friends clearly turned to her, a worried expression on their face. Hermione shrugged. In any case, she was the one who would be the fastest to understand and read these books. But there was one slight issue…
"Two weeks," she said. "And you'll cast Herpo the Foul's translation spell on Slytherin's books."
Because of course Slytherin books' were written in Parseltongue, and of course the only known spell allowing to translate Parseltongue would work only if it was casted by a Parselmouth. If Voldemort was surprised that they knew this spell he did not show it, however, preferring to glance at Harry once more.
"If you tell me the contents of the prophecy, give me these twenty grams of elixir and everything you have taken from me after the resurrection ritual, and swore an unbreakable vow that you will not tell anyone about my return and what you know about me without my consent, two weeks could be managed."
Hermione grimaced slightly, as his wording would force her to not only give back his blood, but also the hair she had stolen from him just in case.
"We also want the commitment from your side that you will not talk to anyone about us without our consent," Ron added.
"And that no harm will come to Helen while she stays here," Harry completed.
Of course Voldemort then demanded just by principle that she swore not to attack him either during the two weeks she would spend at Slytherin Castle. Then there was a moment of hesitation, and Hermione knew that like them, Voldemort was wondering if it was worth extending this non-aggression clause beyond the two weeks. But like them he quickly abandoned the idea knowing that the reciprocal would necessarily be required, and of course he cannot afford to promise the other party that he would not try anything against them ad vitam aeternam. Or at least until the unbreakable vow would be broken.
It took them slightly more than an hour to agree on the exact wording of the vow. There were tricky details on which they had to agree, especially on the limits of what they could or could not reveal on each other. Three times the situation nearly degenerated. But somehow they finally manged to have a satisfactory vow.
Once they had all swore the unbreakable vow, Voldemort immediately demanded his due. Ron pulled out a small vial of elixir and levitated it towards him, and Hermione handed over what was left of his blood and hair.
"And the prophecy?"
"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches coming," Harry recounted. "Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."
A deadly silence settled in the room, Voldemort visibly reflecting on what he had just heard. He was twirling his white yew wand in his hands almost distractedly and Hermione had an involuntary shudder at the displayed nonchalance of this man who was probably currently planning her best friend's death.
"All right," Voldemort finally said evenly. "Now get out of this castle. Except one of you of course, I would not want to disrespect my vow…"
Harry, Ron, and Ginny glanced worriedly at Hermione, who tried to smile reassuringly.
"Even if it's not in our vow, keep in mind that if you try to kill anyone, we'll not stand idly by," Ginny said.
Voldemort barely looked at Ginny, before dismissing them again with a scornful gesture.
"Keep in touch. Regularly," Ron said to Hermione before they finally left the room.
Then her three friends disappeared and Hermione remained alone with Voldemort.
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AN: Due to an important workload of work, I'll post the next chapter in two weeks.
