Ok so here we are at chapter 9
I hope you enjoy...
The next morning there were two letters at the breakfast table waiting for Hermione. She sat quietly and took a sip of her morning tea before taking her wand and opening the one she instinctively recognized with its cream envelope and its red stamped seal placed firmly on the back. She took out the contents.
Dear Miss. Hermione Pembrook,
It has come to our attention at Hogwarts, a School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, that you are looking for a school in which to complete your education and receive your NEWTS. We have heard about your tragic situation and wish to welcome you with open arms as Hogwarts is a place that any witch or wizard should feel safe coming to when in times of… have heard only good things about you…. You will be taking a series of tests… should you choose… please respond to ….
Regards,
Headmaster Armando Dippit
After reading the first few lines Hermione skimmed the rest of the letter. It seemed as though they wanted to test her when she got to the school before she was placed in any classes. It was fine by her, she knew there was nothing they could throw her way that would stump her. She was used to training with some of the top Aurors of her day, and Merlin knew she had read anything she could get her hands on that could give her that edge in the fight against Voldemort.
She took another sip of her tea, placing the letter on the table next to the open envelope. That was fast work. Her aunt hadn't even gotten out of bed yet and here it was her invitation back to Hogwarts firmly in her possession. But who recommended her to the school? When? Had they gone directly to Dippit or through another professor? Hermione reached out and grabbed a piece of toast before putting some eggs on her plate still in thought.
"Is misses going to open her other letter?" Gilliy asked, making Hermione tense a bit startled as the house elf had come from nowhere.
"Yes I should, shouldn't I." Hermione said, taking a bite of her toast. As she opened the second letter she looked at the black seal on the back immediately recognizing the marking as the sign of the three brothers. Hermione bit her bottom lip and continued to open the letter. When she opened it and nothing happened she let out a breath she had not realized she had been holding and removed the letter revealing the clean beautiful penmanship of the letter. Making sure the letter was out of Gilly's line of sight she began to read, committing each line to memory.
Dear Hermione,
I do hope you enjoy your schooling more than I did. There is no need for thanks, though with that being said, I still feel that the environment will be limiting to a mind like yours. Therefore I have arranged that you will be receiving presents from me throughout the year in order to encourage your education. You will receive and learn from these presents and I will see what you have gleaned from them during your breaks. Looking forward to our next meeting.
Warm Wishes,
Your Benefactor
P.S. Do let your aunt rest this morning. She seemed as though the night really took a lot out of her, but I am sure she will be fine. Though you might want to refrain from the memory charms until she recovers.
Hermione took out her wand and cast a few spells on the parchment to see if there were any other messages left for her. Seeing that there was not, Hermione took the letter and the envelope to the fireplace and quickly set them ablaze upon the stones.
"Did misses not like the letter?" Gilly asked
"The letter was fine Gilly, just a letter from a boy I met last night. Encouraging me to go to Hogwarts was all. How is my dear aunt doing this morning? Have you brought her breakfast yet?" Hermione said stirring the conversation in a different direction.
"Yes miss, but the mistress is not feeling well. Only eating little here and little there, not good for mistresses health."
"Similar to how she was after our little shopping trip?" Hermione asked, recalling how the woman locked herself up for a few days after that.
"Similar? Yes, yes, very similar."
"Good." Hermione mumbled to herself, relieved that it did not seem as though the charm was having any unforeseen effects on the woman.
Now she only had a day or so before her aunt would come out and approve for her to go to Hogwarts. She still needed the woman's permission even though she was technically over 17 in the wizarding world and considered an adult, but formalities were formalities, and a signature was required.
Though this did give her a bit of time to do some risky things. For a moment she thought that maybe it was a bad idea to do this now but when else would she be able to do this with few eyes on her? And where was her Gryffindor courage? Hermione turned to Gilly.
"Gilly do you think you could help me with a few things?"
"Yes misses, what does misses need?"
"...Straight hair, I can't do it on my own no matter how many charms I have tried. I was hoping you might be able to since you were so brilliant with my hair last time." Hermione said to the cute little house elf.
"Yes! Yes! Gilly can help with that! Gilly would be happy to help with that!" she said jumping up and down bubbling with excitement, but then she tried to make a stern look cross her face, which did not make it to her eyes, "But misses must eat all her breakfast first."
"Yes, Gilly of course. Wouldn't have it any other way." Hermione smiled, as the giddy smile returned to the house elf's face.
Later, after eating the two were sitting in Hermione's room quietly listening to music as Gilly went over and over through her hair straightening out the curls she was so accustomed to having.
"Gilly does not mean to pry, but why does misses want the curl from her hair gone?"
"Well you see Gilly I am going out later this afternoon and I do not wish to be recognized, and as much as I have come to love my hair and manage it better than I used to, it can still be fairly recognizable in a crowd over straight hair."
"But misses should not be going out! Not while the Mistress does not know and can not go! It is improper for a young witch to be walking the streets on their own!" Gilly exclaimed
"Gilly, Gilly, calm down, last time I was out with my aunt she let me go off on my own and everything was fine. This time will be the same. I am even going to the same stores."
She could feel Gilly's hands waver as they passed through her hair once more. "Then why does misses need to disguise herself?"
"That's a secret Gilly. Also, it is part of the fun. Going around unrecognized you don't have to worry about people recognizing you on the street no expectations or unwanted greetings." Hermione said keeping her voice gay so that Gilly would simply see it as a girl going out to have some fun.
"Gilly does not understand, but Gilly will be here waiting for when misses gets back and misses must get back before dark, or else Gilly will tell Mistress." Gilly said, finishing up on the hair, "Ok Gilly is done!"
Hermione looked in the mirror at the finished product, her hair came down to just below her chest with the curl out of it, but it was still that honey brown. That wouldn't do, she thought to herself. Taking out her wand she cast "Crinus Muto!" slowly from the roots her hair started to take on a bright fiery red. She looked down to Gilly, "Could you grab an old cloak for me. One with a hood. Preferably no embellishments."
With a quick nod, Gilly was off to sort through clothing to find what Hermione had asked for. Taking another moment she decided a few other changes might be a good idea. Using a glamour she made her nose a little bigger, her eyes smaller and blue. She looked as though she would fit right in with the Weasleys Christmas cards she thought to herself, sadly remembering the once happy family.
Blinking away the tears that were threatening to come she abruptly stood and made her way downstairs where a confused-looking Gilly stood holding a folded robe of some sort. "This is a lot of work for one outing…" Gilly said
"Not when you don't want to be bothered," Hermione said effortlessly, taking the robe from the house elf. She draped it over herself bringing the hood up and over her head. Exiting the home she could feel the shift of the wards behind her. Visualizing where she wanted to go she apparated onto a corner in knockturn ally.
Hermione still hated apparating it made her queasy and she never forgot the time that Ron had been splinched; she never liked apperating after that. She put her hand on the brick wall next to her to stabilize herself. It took a moment but after a few deep breaths, Hermione collected herself and made her way to the unfortunately familiar shop Borgin and Burkes.
All she hoped for was that she found what she was looking for before it had been bought by Hebziba Smith and that she would not be recognized. Making her way into the storefront she was again immediately met with the undeniable sense of dark magic around here. Cursed items and other terrible objects out for display. She just hoped that Borgin and Burkes didn't know what they had their hands on.
She walked up to one of the shopkeepers, a younger man with an odd smile on his face, but one that looked fitting for his position.
"Excuse me sir, I am looking for something fairly specific. Would you mind helping me."
"Of course, anything to help a beautiful young customer," he replied back his words feeling like slime on her ears
"I am getting a gift for a dear friend who has a particular taste, and said that an old friend of hers brought a necklace here a long time ago and I thought it would be a good gift to give her."
"Do you happen to know the name of your friends' friend that sold their item?" The shopkeeper said his energy from earlier drifting a bit after realizing that he might have to do some actual work to find the piece in question.
"Merope Gaunt, and she must have brought it in at least 16 or 17 years ago now." Hermione said as the shopkeeper went back and pulled out a very large book from behind the counter with many tabs sticking out and numerous pages sticking out from the sides. The shopkeep counted down for a moment said a spell too quietly for Hermione to hear and opened the book. Using his index finger he traced lines across the pages. Looking up he said, "I'm new here so this might take a minute."
"I understand, take your time." Hermione replied,
"You can browse while I look this up if you'd like" he said gesturing to the rest of the shop
"No thank you I am fine waiting here." she said a strained smile set on her features
After a few minutes of the boy looking through the next few pages she could hear someone coming from the back of the store. Burke came through one of the back doors. Stumbling over something he made his way over to where the shopkeeper was giving Hermione a nod of acknowledgment. "Whatcha lookin for boy?"
Hermione felt her heartbeat quicken a bit in anticipation. "Something sold to the store by a Merope Gaunt about 17 years ago."
"Gaunt Gaunt, that does sound familiar." Burke said, taking the book from the boy and flipping faster through the pages. Not looking up he asked, "Do ya know what kind of item it was miss?"
"Yes. It was a gold locket with emeralds making up an S on the front of it." Hermione said nonchalantly playing with a strand of her red hair.
Burke paused looking through the pages and looked up at the ceiling of the shop, a little grin forced on his face. "I know what locket you're lookin for."
Hermione betrayed no emotion on her face other than her still strained smile, "Do you still have it?" she asked hopefully
"Oh we still got it all right, but it's gonna cost you a pretty gallion little witch." Burke said closing the book. He bent down and pulled a key with a tag on it from under the table and handed it to the shopkeeper, "Go in the back and get this for me will ya."
The shopkeep took off towards the back room taking the key with him leaving Burke with Hermione in the front of the shop alone.
"I remember buying that locket from the Gaunt girl. She couldn't have been much older than you. Though not as pretty. Unfortunate thing, that girl, I was lucky enough to buy it for the price of gold at the time, which as I am sure you know, was an unprecedented deal for me." Burke said looking over Hermione.
"Just wanted to buy it as a gift for a friend that I know would appreciate it." Hermione said eyes drifting feigning uninterest as any pureblooded witch probably would.
"Well, it is a good thing you go here when you did. We were about to show it to one of our regular clients that loves things like these. We have just been sitting on it, but if we can help out a pretty young girl out at the same time that would be two wins in my book." Burke said his words corse yet slippery
Hermione felt gross just standing there listening to the old man go on and on with his lingering eyes and unmannered language. She was relieved when the shopkeeper came back through the door with a small box in his hands. Placing it on the table in front of him. Her heart skipped a beat as the old wizard opened the box.
There it sat. The necklace that had caused so much pain for her and her friends. Something that had once harbored so much evil was sitting there before her untouched. She looked up at Burke with an icy look, "How much?"
"Well now obviously more than the price of gold. It is well crafted and very old. Who knows what secrets it might hold. We were not even able to open it. I would put it at a fair price for 1,000. But for someone as pretty as you to become a repeat customer I would make it worth your while and take 50 off, but that's the best I can do." It was a deal, they had no idea what it really was...
Hermione's expression stayed cold as she looked at the man before reaching down into her charmed endless bag pulling out the amount he stated. It is nice to be rich, she thought to herself, counting out the gold quickly now and then looking up to see Bukes greedy eyes fill with gold. He must have thought to have found himself a lucky clueless girl with too much money on her hands. Just the perfect customer.
"We have many more beautiful items if you are interested Miss...?" the shopkeeper asked
"I thought this shop was... discrete?" Hermione said, reaching out and quickly taking the box from the man's hands swiftly putting it into her bag.
"Ah, yes do excuse the shopkeeper he's new." Burke said firmly, putting a hand on the young man's shoulder, "Now if you are ever passing through knockturn alley again please do come by."
Hermione left the store quickly her heartbeat increasing, she visualized her new home and apperated with a zap in the air, arriving on her doorstep while putting her hand out to catch her fall forward onto the door.
She stood there for just a moment before she could hear the pitter patter of Gilly's feet coming to the door.
"Mississes is back!" Gilly exclaimed, opening the door leading Hermione to, not so gracefully, stumble into the front hall. "Oh! Is misses alright?"
"Yes yes Gilly." Hermione said her features and hair turning back to their normal forms as she dropped her glammors and spells. Turning to take off her cloak and handing it to Gilly she saw that Gilly had a stirn look on her face. "What is wrong now Gilly."
"Gilly can tell, misses. You have dark magic clinging to your robes."
"I was shopping for jewelry when the shopkeep pulled out some cursed items. But don't worry Gilly I told them to return them." Hermione lied seamlessly, "Nothing I bought was cursed or dark." yet.
Exhausted Hermione made her way to her room, holding the box that contained the necklace close to her chest. Gilly followed, "Does misses want lunch? I could bring food to misses room if she is tired?"
"No Gilly I think that will be quite enough for right now. I think I will have a rest and then eat at dinner." Hermione responded, arriving at her room.
"Skipping meals, very bad, not a good thing for a growing witch to do!" Gilly proclaimed, crossing her arms.
Realizing that this would be a losing battle and that she didn't have the energy to fight it at this point in time she looked back towards the house elf, "Fine Gilly, I will be down for lunch in an hour. I need to rest."
Gilly uncrossed her arms and smiled, "Misses is such a good little witch." and off she went skipping towards the kitchen.
There was a click as Hermione locked the door behind her then there was a moment of silence surrounding Hermione as she took a breath leaning her back against the thick wooden door. She still clung to the package in her hands, her knuckles white with the strain of holding on so tightly to the box.
She walked over to her vanity, noticing that Gilly had already put away all of the tools used from earlier to straighten her hair, and gingerly placed the box on it. Taking out her wand she opened the box and just stared at the necklace. She had it. Slytheren's necklace, and a valuable trading tool for her in the next coming years if she played her cards right.
Waving her wand over it a few times in various patterns she watched as slowly the green left the emeralds and made them appear as though they were diamonds, and the shape of the diamonds moved around the locket turning into an H. It was only a cosmetic charm. But it would keep anyone from recognizing it, even when looking hard enough, which she doubted anyone with enough talent to see through the charms would.
With another flick of her wand, the box snapped shut. Sitting on the bed Hermione put her wand away and laid back. She swore she only was going to shut her eyes for a minute but before she realized she was already within the grasps of a deep sleep.
There was darkness, then a warm glow welcomed her as she opened her eyes. She was back in the tent. Looking at her and Draco sitting on the bed drawing out plans for the next move of the encampment, when Draco interrupted, "You know I have been wondering about something for a while now."
"Oh dear, that sounds like trouble to me." Hermione joked.
"Right, have a laugh, but I'm being serious here. It has been on my mind ever since you told me about Dumbledoor's and Potter's little cave run in with the Inferi."
"You're still on about that?" Hermione said looking back down at the plans, "Don't you think there are a few more pressing matters at hand? It is a waste of time to worry about some inaccessible lake filled with the magically undead."
"But how did they get there?" Draco pushed on
"Voldemort killed a bunch of muggles and witches and wizards, put them in the lake and changed them... somehow. I don't know. I could never find a book describing how to make them so I don't really know what he would have had to do. It is probably in Magic Most Evil but even the restricted section at Hogwarts didn't have a copy." Hermione said, half distracted as Draco went on.
"But from how you described it there were hundreds of them down there in that lake. Voldemort was not the kind of wizard to just save bodies to collect them and put them into a lake. He left them out in the open to cause the most distress to those who knew them."
"So what, some of his followers could have brought more and more bodies there."
"But you said that only really Regulus Black knew the location due to it being so secret."
"And so? What? You are saying that he nor Voldemort would have had the time nor means to amass that many bodies in one place?" Hermione concluded for Draco
"Essentially yes." Draco said, "I think another wizard, a much older wizard, made them, and Voldemort is just controlling them because he found them at some point. Finding spells to control the Inferius are more common than creating them."
"Oh really and you have come across such spells?" Hermione said, still looking at the papers, while gears started turning in her head about who else could have created the undead army in that unforsaken cave.
There was a slight pause, "Well I couldn't really say that I personally have seen any…"
"Riiight." Hermione said finally looking over to the blond young man, "So this is just more dark pureblood gossip that you have heard growing up then?"
Draco narrowed his eyes, "If you are skeptical of my dark arts gossip then I can assure you that I only heard the best."
"Well you would have only heard the best then wouldn't you have; you are a Malfoy after all." Hermione said a small smile hinted on her face
"Well but of course," Draco said leaning over he wrapped one arm around Hermione bringing her in closer to him, "Malfoys always end up with the best." and he leaned over, placing a brief kiss on her jaw.
"Oh do they?" Hermione said, leaning into Draco's warm comforting embrace for a moment before stretching her back out and then hunching over the maps and other papers they were looking at, "Ok time for your little distraction to be over, I have to get back to this, we need to have a decision made before the meeting this evening."
"Oh come on Hermione, you have to let that big brain of yours take a break every now and again." Draco said resting his chin on her shoulder.
"Stop it, I have to focus." Hermione said, the hint of a smile on her lips growing some more. She knew Draco was trying to get her out of the zone she had been in for the past 8 or so hours that she had been working on this, and she knew she needed to take a break, but people were depending on her to make decisions.
"Oh get off it. You know the numbers and the best places to go already. You are just going in circles thinking of all the alternatives now." Draco said
"Well someone has to. And I don't see you doing much of anything."
"My job is to take care of you, and to make sure you don't work yourself into the ground or into insanity. There are too many people depending on you for you to go bonkers on us."
"Ekrizdis!" Hermione exclaimed looking up from the papers
"What?" Draco said confused
"An ancient evil wizard that was located in the north sea region." Hermione flipped through a few of the maps in front of her, finally pulling one out. It was a map of the UK and the North Sea with various magical landmarks on it and other noticeable landmarks of muggles as well. "Harry never told me exactly where the cave was, other than there were steep cliffs and it was completely inaccessible by boat, yet somehow Voldemort, or I suppose at the time Tom Riddle found this place on a vacation with his orphanage."
"Right, and his orphanage was located in London right?" Draco said pointing to the dot on the mad where the words London Magically wavered on the parchment. "So where would they go for vacation?"
"Well they wouldn't go anywhere fancy. Most likely they would pick the closest place." This time Hermione's hand traced the edge of England's south eastern coast along the north sea. "I would say Dover would probably be the most likely place. It is a popular tourist destination, but the cliffs there are world famous which would mean hiding a secret cave there is less than likely, someone surely would have found it by now. So perhaps they went north… Perhaps Scarsborough or Sunderland? Both have beaches and cliffs that boats can't get to."
"I don't know, my family has a home in Italy that we flu to wherever we want to go to the beach. So I don't really have a frame of reference for what kind of beach or area we would be looking for."
"Mum and Dad used to take me on summer holiday to a bunch of different countries and places all over the UK. They thought it was their duty to get me to understand more about other cultures. Personally I loved the holiday we spent in southern Spain."
"Really? I would have pegged you for being more of a French fanatic, don't all girls love Paris?" Draco said
"Well not this one." Hermione said, swiping all of her hair to one side as she began to try and braid the unruly curls. "Paris stank, no like literally stank, all the streets were dirty. And I have never been a shopper so going shopping in Paris was not high on my list of fun things to do. It was basically all about the Louvre and the food for me."
"Well aren't you just the little mold-breaker." Draco said, still comfortably holding Hermione his chin on her shoulder, in a casual way. In a way that when one saw it was apparent that both parties were used to the comforting positions and had been for some time.
"Anyhow," Hermione continued, "Ekrizdis was known for creating the dementors, or well was at least believed to have created them. He also lived in Azkaban in the middle of the North sea, so who is to say whether or not he amassed an army of Inferi on the sides of the coast. There were certainly enough battles for him to amass corpses, and he lured in sailors from the north sea to conduct experiments on."
"I feel like I am getting whiplash from studying for the ancient history of magic NEWTS." Draco mumbled
"What?" Hermione asked, completely absorbed in her own train of thought.
"Nothing, nothing continue!" Draco said louder
"Ok," Hermione said looking back down at the map tracing the coastline, "So let's say that Ekrizdis did all of this. Collected the bodies. Charmed and warded the cave so that only those with magic could even enter. And did not use them. No, there must have been a purpose for them. He wouldn't just create them and put them there for nothing other than to just be discovered after his death."
"What if he put something in the lake that he wanted protected. Something like a treasure or powerful artifact." Draco suggested
"But then why not keep it close to him?" Hermione countered, "He had a giant impenetrable fortress surrounded by his own monstrous creations, and it was warded to be invisible to both the muggle and most of the wizarding world. No, if it was something as simple as that he would have just kept it close."
"So then what do you think it was?" Draco asked
"I think Ekrizdis did what most of the other dark wizards throughout the wizarding world's history have tried to do. I think he made a Horcrux. And I think he put it at the bottom of that lake."
"But after he dies, what would stop another wizard from taking over the Inferi, and then taking his horcr- ohhh."
"Riiight, you don't lose control over the Inferi until you are dead, but if you are never fully dead then you will always have some control over your creations. Unless he intentionally let them be in their own nature and they are just trapped there waiting for orders unable to leave because they have to protect their master's soul."
'Well that would be a reason as to why Voldemort has not brought them from the cave yet, he can't. He is not their original owner." Draco said, "See I knew bringing this up would be a nice little distraction."
"I don't think you are supposed to tell people you are distracting that you are trying to distract them." Hermione said with a light laugh, "And plus if all of this is even remotely true then I am sure that Voldemort could find a way to get them out of the cave if he wanted to. I think he is focused on us right now more than that at the moment." Hermione said grabbing her quil once again and going back to scribbling her notes.
"Right well I have done my best in trying to distract you and it seems as though my master plan has failed. So I will be off to check and report back to you on how the Aurors are holding up on the perimeter." Draco said, untangling himself from his hold of Hermione
"Well don't give them a hard time, they have enough on their plates to Draco." Hermione said
"I know I know, but I have my duties too you know." Draco stood from the bed when Hermione grabbed his hand
"Be careful out there." Hermione said earnestly looking into his eyes
"Allways." Draco said, leaning down and placing a kiss on her forehead. After squeezing her hand he slid out of her grip and went to put on his jacket to go.
The vision started to become blurry. And her image of Draco leaving started to fade into a tunnel of darkness. Hermione wanted to follow after him, but she knew she wouldn't be able to catch up to him. You can't touch the past. It lives in memories and dreams.
Ok so there we have it at chapter 9
please let me know your thoughts!
It really keeps me going on the stories I write!
I felt like there were three parts to this chapter the letters, the necklase, then the draco flashback, but i think they all melded to gether quite nicely, I wasn't sure If i wanted to put the draco dream/flashback in here but I thought I would go ahead and just do it so I hope you liked that :)
Next chapter we will be on our way to Hogwarts and have our first meeting with Dumbledoor. So there is that to look forward to!
again please comment!