5th Year Part Six: Chapter 24

"Meet me in the middle of your story when your soul is worn but wise."

~ Angie Weiland- Crosby

~.O.~

The Room of Requirement was filled with laughter and sudden cackles from two distinct voices that had the same tenor of voice. Just a day before many of Dumbledore's Army was to leave for Christmas holiday, Harry had called a meeting to say goodbye for those weeks that they would be apart from the school. Even though most everyone had become friends with those who participated within the underground club, several people were still distrustful of the Slytherins who had a way of grouping together. Although Hermione had seemed to breach that gap slightly as she made sure to pay special attention to the few younger yeared Slytherins, particularly an affection little girl who Draco had said was very sweet. This coming from him being very odd seeing as how he had never seemed like the type to call anyone sweet, but Hermione had an inkling he saw her as a younger sister with eerily similar hair to his own that he never had the chance in indulging.

As Fred and George cackled, overwhelming the background noise of chattering and softer laughs, Hermione continued playing a slightly modified version of Gobstones with the shy little second year Slytherin girl. Girlish giggles added to the ambiance as she lost her game, but instead of being sprayed with foul smelling liquid she was perfumed by a stream of fragrant baby flowers Hermione had charmed to flutter around her face in imitation of butterflies. Waving goodbye to the small girl who smiled brightly at her as she went off with her other friends, Hermione sat with Ginny, Luna, and Cho who were watching Draco, Blaise, Harry, and Ron dueling each other. Smiling at how well the boys were all getting along despite their pasts and Draco's sometimes horrible attitude, Hermione felt a soft thump on the side of the ballet flats she wore. Looking down to see a clear opaque marble laying beside her foot, she picked it up only to watch as the insides of the ball twirl into a roiling black as if dark mist were swimming lazily within it.

Sudden cackles that had died down since then started up close to her ears, startling her into looking up into the twins sharklike grins that were directed to her. She immediately narrowed her eyes as the others all turned around to make her the center of their attention.

Lifting an eyebrow, she gave a defensive, "What are those grins for?" and just knew she would not like the answer they gave her as their own eyebrows gave a simultaneous wiggle of their own.

Crouching down in front of her knees they crowned to her, placing their hands on their hearts.

"Well, well, Miss Granger-"

"You seem to doom us all to hell."

"If you are not-"

"- the example of purity-"

"-then who is?"

Ron asked the bewildered question that roiled through Hermione's own mind, reminiscent of the mist within the ball.

"What the bloody hell are you two going on about?"

Fred snatched back the marble from her fingers as it briefly turned opaque once more before returning back to the blackness it was in Hermione's hands, throwing it to Ron as it once again changed color to a thick grey mist.

"That little beauty- "

"- allows for a certain kind of- "

"-insight into a person's experience."

"Sexual experience that is."

"White means purest of the pure-"

"- and black means-"

"The opposite!"

The two boys looked back to the heavily blushing Hermione once more as she saw Harry and the girls all giving her completely surprised looks as they had never seen her even entertain the thought of interest in one of their classmates, despite going to the Yule Ball with Victor Krum that was even then a complete fling. Draco was the only one to look at her with an absence of surprise, although his expression had more of a disgusted overtone to it, no doubt growing nauseous at the thought of his previously thought to be asexual godfather deflowering his best girl- friend.

"It must be broken," Ron murmurs unconvincingly, throwing it at one of the twin's heads who caught it deftly while looking at Hermione with an indecipherable expression.

Fred and George pulled the girl to her feet in order to swing their arms over her shoulders, regretting their teasing of her when she quickly snatched back the thrice damned intrusive marble with quick fingers. She ducked both of their attempts to retrieve it back, running away from their yells on nimble feet to the beat of her giggles.

"You both should be ashamed of yourselves tricking and embarrassing people in this way," her scolding was somewhat downplayed though by the chortles she kept trying to hide to no avail, the twins racing along after her around the room. Her laughter turning to shrieks just as the boys grabbed her up and spun her in the air, many of those in the room looking on in amusement at their antics.

Ron continued with his previous duel with Blaise with new fervor, surprising even himself as he managed to disarm the other Pureblood Slytherin. Draco made way for Ginny to duel a grinning Harry who now had absolute proof that his best friend was seeing someone if the never fading bruises on her neck were not evidence enough, the blonde sitting beside Luna with a green tinge to his face that took several minutes to fade.

..

It was that revelation that prompted Draco to keep looking between Hermione and Severus the next time he joined them in the professor's rooms once he allowed his body all the way into the room. Hermione lay on the black couch sprawled out in her signature fuzzy socks while Severus continued grading at his desk, although the blonde boy's glances were currently getting right on her nerves so she threw little glares and scowls at him distracting her from her book.

As Draco pulled her feet up and sat on the couch beneath her legs as he normally did without pause, he suddenly froze his breathing and tensed up. Hermione continued her reading with steadfast diligence just as he asked, "Should I be sitting here? Is it sacred ground?"

Placing her book carefully on the coffee table with an exaggerated movement, Draco's teasing mask turned worried as she continued on to calmly stare at him a moment. Just before she grabs his shoulders and flings them both to the ground, her own shoulder just narrowly missing the edge of said table as Draco made the signature huffing sound of his lungs deflating as he took the role of the cushion that broke the girl's own fall.

"Not yet, Darling." Hermione smirks at him.

Severus shakes his head at the two tenagers before looking back down to his grading, Draco letting out an "Ewww!" at Hermione's words before laughing when she slid her cold fingers beneath his shirt and tickled his ribcage.

~.O.~

Hermione was in the realm of unconsciousness that was between wakefulness and sleep, but she could hear and feel things in both as always. Having fallen asleep in Harry's bed after talking with the other boys in the dorm room as well about visiting her parents in France for the holidays, the sounds of the other boys around her were not loud enough to wake her permanently and go back to her own bed. It was then with this half consciousness though that she could feel Harry start stirring from where his head lay on her stomach, and hear Ron's faint noring from his own bed. Heavily, her hand came up to try and soothe the darker haired boy back to sleep, placing her thumb on one of his eyebrows like her mother had done for her when she was small in order to rub slowly back and forth across it. It calmed him for a minute, just long enough for her to sink a bit deeper into the blackness, but was roused once again as Harry began whimpering enough for her attempts at soothing to no longer work. Opening her blurry eyes as he rolled over off her stomach, her eyes cleared enough in the dark to see him grabbing his scar and twisting his head from side to side in silent pain.

Grabbing his shoulders to try and coax him from his dreaming, she found that it was futile as she began panicking, never before having seen her best friend in this way.

"Ron!" her voice shrieked in the silence of the dorm, violently waking the other boys from their dreams as well. "Seamus! Dean! Neville!" Her voice had turned hysterical in a way she had never heard herself speak in such a way either, tears blurring her vision as Harry kept on whimpering softly, as if any louder was not possible.

Why won't he wake up? Why isn't he waking up?

Hermione suddenly choked back her sobs as Harry's eyes opened to the other boys' shakings, staring at Hermione for a split second with a sudden smile upon his previously whimpering lips. She let the boy go in shock, jerking back slightly in whole body surprise at the blue color his eyes had flashed just before they returned to Harry's bright green once more.

"I'll get Professor McGonagall," Hermione heard one of the others say through her ears as if they were filled with water, her lungs feeling as if they were drowning suddenly as Harry's own mouth opened to gasp in the air once he was free from whatever was previously holding him back from making any noise.

Quickly grabbing his shoulders, Ron helped to keep both of them from falling over the edge as Harry vomited beside his bed until he began dry heaving. Hermione observed his pale face anxiously, although he turned to Ron even as he gripped her hand in a death hold.

"It's your dad, Ron."

The redhead and Hermione exchanged looks, having no idea as to the nightmare Harry had just witnessed in the body of the Dark Lord's familiar.

..

Hermione sat waiting in the Headmaster's office, Harry's hand still tightly holding her own as he had yet to release it even as they had entered this new location as Ron did the same on her other side with an infinitely more worried look to his face after the scene Harry had made while dreaming. Professor McGonagall having come running still in her dressing gown and free floating hair at the urgings of a frantic Seamus, she now stood next to Dumbledore who sat at his desk, staring at Harry with unreadable and un-twinkling eyes. Hermione eyeing the dozens of former Hogwarts Headmistresses and Headmasters upon the walls who observed the boy whose hand she held, although she did see the occasional glance out of the corner of their eyes towards her own curly head.

"I was in the snake's body..." Harry whispered, "I was looking for something but I couldn't find it, and that's when I saw Mr. Weasley and I bit him. The snake bit him. That's it."

Hermione was confused as to why Nagini was in the ministry in the first place seeing as how the Dark Lord had not given them any information indicating as to why that may be, but her very best guess was that the Dark Lord had sent her to do his bidding in search of the lost prophecy just as he had charged Hermione and Severus with obtaining first hand information. Although she knew that the Dark Lord was in search of the thing he sent her to Hogwarts to find news of from Harry, she knew that he would not be simply sitting idly by waiting for news of such a precious thing he seemed to want above all else. Most likely wherever Nagini had been sent only to encounter Arthur had been a last minute development of information that he had not had cause to raise attention to just yet. After all, they served him, not the other way around. Meanwhile things proceeded along outside of Hermione's whirling thoughts as Severus, who was now entering the room with a brood of redheaded ducklings in tow, had heard no word from their master on the matter so far as he would have sent her a Protean message immediately. Not even a warning burn on his Dark Mark to show for the near loss of a beloved member of the Light.

But most of all, she was worried about Harry's nightmares and of how her best friend had managed to gain the eyes of Marvolo Riddle.

How had Harry gained the dark blue eyes she had seen look into her own many times before?

As Dumbledore, Harry, and the Weasleys departed from Hogwarts through the floo, Hermione made her way to Severus who stood beneath the portrait of a sleeping former Slytherin Headmaster who had his eyes open just enough to see her stand beside the dark shadow of a man and grab the hand that hid beneath his ever-present teaching robes. Minerva ushered both of them out of the Headmaster's office, urging them to quickly disappear under a disillusionment charm just as they heard the little tapping of a pink woman's short kitten heels echoing outside the door.

..

Severus came up behind Hermione as she held her head in her hands, placing his large hands on her tired shoulders to slowly but thoroughly rub the tension out of them. Her fingers were already gently massaging her eye socket in gentle circles in an effort to relieve a pain that had appeared hours ago when they had first stepped into Dumbledore's office.

"What was that, Severus?" she asked her love, her tension slowly dissolving beneath his continuous ministrations, as he always managed to accomplish no matter the issue that had caused her current state. "How did Harry have the Dark Lord's eyes? How did he get into his mind?"

"I don't know how it was possible, girl." He turned her body around on the sofa so that he could pull her back to his chest. "But everything is going according to plan, and besides, we always knew there was some sort of communication between the boy and the Dark Lord. There is nothing new we have learned today."

"Except that Arthur has been hurt, and the extent of their connection is that the Dark Lord can physically take over Harry's body to some extent." Hermione was silent for a moment, thinking potentially dangerous thoughts, "He is getting impatient, making mistakes. Becoming unstable, Severus."

Grey eyes closed forever more at the end of a green light… blue eyes staring out at her with curled lips on a face that should have never bared them at all…

He says nothing to her, simply wrapping his arms tighter around her chest as they waited for news on Arthur's condition. When Fawkes finally appeared in a flame of fire with a roll of parchment tied to his leg, Severus unwrapped it after running a finger down the Phoenix's back in thanks. The beautiful bird's tail feathers shook in pleasure and disappeared once again in a flame of fire and a happy warble. Hermione sighed in relief as Severus' own frame sagged in it's own released tension, no doubt word being that Mr. Weasley had been successfully transferred to St. Mungos from wherever he had been that Dumbledore had neglected to mention to Severus. She knew he had been anxious to see the Weasley patriarch given the anti-venin he had made from Nagini's leftover venom from the Dark Lord's resurrection ritual months ago, to see it's results as it was not a particularly common venom that needed a constant antidote for that required rigorous testing. Hermione's body sagged in further relief once she read the paper for herself that confirmed the father was now being healed, although it would be a long recovery process.

Dumbledore never had been able to tell one person the whole truth… especially not Severus who, despite his history, he never could truly and fully know whose allegiance he fell under… was it him…? The Dark Lord…? Or himself that was the cause of this almost tragedy because he could not seem to bring himself to tell anyone the full truth of anything? Speaking in riddles and unknown phrases to protect his image of all- knowingness…

She opened her eyes as a feeling she could not quite identify spread through her body, feeling it spread from her fingers to her toes, allowing goosebumps to rise on their way past bare skin. Looking to the man she fell in love with years ago, although she had not been ready to admit that singularly important fact to herself, she allowed all her worries to fall from her as he poured both of them a glass of Odgen's finest. Raw power flowed throughout his bared arms, beneath that horrible tattoo that had ruled his life since he was but her own age. A symbol that would no doubt rule hers in not too long, branded upon her pale skin as if she were cattle.

Her lip curled as she walked behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist in order to rest on his belt, her cheek feeling him breathe in and out as it lay between his shoulder blades. His heartbeat seemed as if it were a bone drum announcing the start of the war, even though it had long ago begun before either of them were born. They stand like this for a solid minute, Hermione untucking the end of his button up from his trousers as he turned back to her unbuckling his own belt since her small fingers seemed to be having trouble. Roaming her hands up the muscles of his stomach, she reached up to kiss him only to share his firewhiskey that remained on his tongue.

Losing herself in the sensations of Severus, shedding their clothes all the way until the reached his bed, Hermione couldn't help but think of Tom Riddle. Of all the magics he had known just as a teenager with only small years compared to others that had been in it all their lives, and how much knowledge he had gained since the ending of his school years. Severus hovered over her, her arms tight around his neck before her sharp nails led bleeding tracks from his trapezius muscles of his shoulders down to curl around his hip. The Dark Lord was the epitome of a cunning slytherin, all the traits of the house seemingly having been born straight into his blood. Ambition, resourcefulness, determination, leadership, self- preservation. Each of these had been bred into the man who was intent on conquering the world and life itself, but Slytherins also had a certain trait that concerned Hermione the most.

Loyalty

It was an unspoken rule of thumb that members of Slytherin house looked after one another, and did what it took no matter the damage, to stick together. Despite their efforts to keep this trait within the confines of their own house, she had seen certain instances when observing them. Hermione had seen it with Draco, who considered her one of his own people. Much like Harry did. But it was the Dark Lord who worried her the most. Even with his word that he would not harm Harry, it was a deep nagging recurring thought in her mind that he would turn against her, because the truth of the matter was, she didn't know who he considered his people. He had no family that she knew of, and his Death Eaters were more like followers and though he did protect them, that alone did not speak of undeniable loyalty and devotion.

Everything Hermione did was to gain those two things from the man who seemed to become more unstable as the months wore on, and she could not know for certain that she had these things herself. His version of love, sure, but then again, love was not inherently linked and equal to loyalty and devotion. It was something that should absolutely be given freely to those who you loved, just like her and Severus, but it was all in the person who you never will fully understand or know that has different versions of the emotion. If they feel it at all through their whispered promises and fickle words.

Severus bit down into her neck deeply, a growl- like purr resonating deep within his throat that was amplified as Hermione sunk her canines in his neck in place of the bruises they had marked each other with. She lay on Severus' chest afterwards with her hand resting on his cheek, his arms like bands around her waist and back. His breath leaving a cool spot on her heated skin from where his breath was directed, the slowness finally told of his sleep.

A permanent symbol of their own version of devotion now marking them as forever each other's.

~.O.~

Hermione visited the Dark Lord before going on to Grimmauld Place, Arthur finally having been discharged and allowed to continue on home. The others had reluctantly asked her to cancel her trip to where they had thought she was visiting her parents for Yule break, and although she told them it would not be a problem she had been insistent for just a couple days before regrouping with the redheaded group of relieved children and wife.

"It will be my life or death, sweet girl," the Dark Lord caressed her face with cold hands, much reminiscent of the days of his ailing health before his resurrection. A familiar dark stone ring adorning his finger with it's cold band branding the skin of her cheek, the very middle now boasting a small circular crack in the otherwise perfectly smooth triangle. "The boy must not get the prophecy before I do, or else he will learn of our entwined fates. Dumbledore has made him weak, we must get it now."

Hermione looked to her master with a tilted head at his feverish tone, the madness of old seeping back into his voice could be heard. That slightly higher tone of voice that hid something beneath it when he spoke of the most coveted prophecy. The prophecy of which she had never asked of what it had foretold all those many years ago, only knowing that small bit which Severus had passed onto the Dark Lord before the deaths of the Potters. His information that had led to the orphaning of her best friend.

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… "

She looked down to his bare feet only inches from her own, Nagini laying curled around her legs to soak in her miniscule heat, but at her master's words she looked up to Hermione with a downturned chin. As if in sadness.

"You will make sure he doesn't get it won't you, lovely girl?" His hands were now resting on her shoulders, his face slightly frantic. "My sweet lovely girl who brought me back to life. You are my good girl aren't you, Hermione? You are not his?" He asked, "You are not the old man's girl? Not the boy who has power over me. No. No you aren't." He answered his own question smiling with sharp white teeth at her in that soft way he always did. "You are my girl. My own girl."

He took off that cracked ring, sliding it onto her own finger as a gift. Holding it up to his face as if admiring the golden band wrapped snugly around her slim own middle finger, magically fitting her own hand as opposed to his larger one.

Hermione hesitantly asked him a question as she led him to sit down, "My Lord, are you alright? You seem out of sorts."

He looked up to her from their joined hands, eyes slightly wide as if in surprise, "I am quite alright, my dear." He himself seemed to pause in hesitation at this point, or simply gathering his thoughts as he continued clearer than before. "It seems as if my head is simply clouded after a bit of magic I just recently performed. Have you read of soul magic before, Hermione? Or of the Deathly Hallows composed within a supposed children's story called Beetle and the Bard?"

She humored him as she allowed him to keep hold of her hand, his thumb absentmindedly stroked the soft skin between her thumb and pointer finger. "I can't say that I have, My Lord."

"You see my girl, I have made seven Horcruxes of various precious objects, one of which was the diary you found me in. It is my intent on restoring my soul to it's former wholeness, in preparation of becoming the Master of Death. To which I will finally achieve my goal of becoming immortal." His eyes once again obtained that faraway gleam to it as he continued, "With you at my side."

With her at her side he says… will his wanting of her involve Severus as well? Will he grant her everything she wants to keep her at her side… giving him her own version of love and loyalty she is still not positively sure matches with his own?

Once again her head tilted as she looked to the Dark Lord in complete admiration for the power it must have taken him to perform the darker soul magic as many times as he had. But it was slightly disturbing as to what it must have done to his soul, even as he explained to her he must now restore his broken pieces into his own body and start anew. Apparently Horcruxes caused much more damage to one's soul than simply splitting it he told her. But it had kept him alive thus far, but would have no use one he achieved his supreme goal.

Hermione heard one word echoing through her head at the thought that splitting a soul was simply catastrophic to one's psyche, sounding much like another dark man she knew: Obviously.