The Mark of Grey

by Allmytears

Harry is dead, all those they truly care about are dead, and Hermione and Neville are done with following the rules that got the Order into this state in the first place. They've been practically rendered muggles by Voldemorts new reign, but with some unlikely help from Snapes' connections they may just have found the grey area in the fight against light and dark.

1. Chapter 1

The sky lights up with a flash.

One

Two

Three

Four..

She got to twenty before the thunder rumbled over head.

Four miles away she thought.

It was a silly habit, counting the seconds between the lightning and the thunder to determine how far away it was. Her parents had taught her the trick when she was a child and the thunder had frightened her.

"There's nothing to be afraid of, little bug. It's a lot further away than it sounds. If we count the seconds between the lightning until we hear the thunder and divide it by five then we can determine how far away it is."

She could still hear her father's voice as they had counted the seconds together every time there was a storm,as sad as it was, it was one of the only ways she could fully recall exactly how he sounded, and so she continued to do it even into adulthood.

If only she had known then what she knew now. It wasn't nature and the world around her she should be afraid of, but the people in it. Would she have made different choices, chosen to turn her back on her letter to Hogwarts and stay with her parents instead? No, she supposes she wouldn't have. Her magic was as much a part of her as her muggle upbringing and she could not change either of those things about herself. They made her who she was and although she had been torn down and been under threat of death for longer than she cared to think about because of them, she was finally becoming someone who she liked, someone who was strong and dangerous and who would no longer sit back and allow the dark side to get away with what they were doing by sticking to the high and mighty morals of the side of the light.

While child Hermione had been afraid of the storm, present Hermione was grateful for it. It would provide them with the cover they needed tonight for the self- appointed mission they were about to undertake. She shifted her gaze from the woods up ahead to peer at her partner. It was strange to think how the man who stood in front of her had become the closest thing she had to family. Sure they had been friends at Hogwarts, but she would never have thought back then that he would go on to be her closest confidante, her best friend, her brother and one of only three people left who she completely trusted. As if reading her thoughts, Neville turned his head and threw her that easy smile she knew was reserved only for her.

"Ready?" he asked in a whisper. She nodded in the affirmative and they both pulled down their face coverings to hide their identities. She began to feel the waves of anticipation roll over her.

They crept forward, each pulling their two daggers from their holsters and holding them up ready to strike when the time was right. Neville slowed to a stop and signalled up ahead where two death eaters were stationed about six feet apart with their backs to them. Hermione signals left and they break apart each creeping towards their respective targets. When they are both in position they share a smirk and leap into action, slicing the throats of the death eaters before they have even noticed they were being sized up by the pair of lions. The sound of the storm masks the trump of the bodies as they hit the ground. Hermione looks longingly at the wand her death eater had dropped, missing the feeling of her magic thrumming through her veins as she readied to cast a spell. She shook her head and looked to her partner as he wiped the blood from his blade on his trousers and signalled he was ready to move forward. They couldn't use magic to hide the bodies and she hoped that nobody would come across them and raise the alarm of an attack before they were done.

They started moving again, making sure to keep close to the ground. The rain was growing heavier, further limiting the mediocre distance they could see without the aid of a lumos to help them navigate. They had tried using muggle torches on one of their first ambushes, but quickly realised that was a poor idea after almost being caught. Luckily they had both gotten better at navigating through dark and harsh weather conditions the more they had battled them on their quest for vengeance and it wasn't long before they had taken out another three death eaters in the same manner as the first two. The clearing they sought was just up ahead and Hermionie's instincts were screaming at her that it had been too easy up until this point. They had been receiving anonymous intel detailing small meetings that were scheduled to take place, and although they had been dubious to trust it at first, it had not led them into a trap so far. Tonight was to be a meeting between some lower level death eaters and Walden McNair. Voldemort had grown more paranoid over the years since the battle at Hogwarts and his trusted circle had become smaller and more tasks that he would have taken care of himself previously had been delegated to those closest to him instead. McNair was to meet with the group tonight for a progress report to take back to their master.

Normally when a higher ranking member was to be present, security would be a lot heavier and they would have had to dispatch a lot more guards before getting to the meeting point. Hermionies gut was telling her they should turn back and a glance at her partner told her he was having his own doubts, but no, they couldn't pass up this opportunity to take out one of the inner circle. Neville tipped his head in the direction of the clearing, questioning if she wanted to continue. She set her shoulders and lifted her blades before nodding and beginning to move forward with him by her side.

She felt the heat of the spell barrelling towards them before she saw it as they reached the edge of the meeting location. Her instincts kicked in and she threw herself at Neville taking them both to the ground in the middle of the clearing. Bursts of red and green flew from all around them as death eaters began to close in on them from all around. They raced behind a boulder for cover as the assault continued.

"Fuck! They knew we were coming! Did you manage to count how many?" Neville asked, his voice growing frantic.

She answered, trying to keep her mind focused on coming up with a plan to get them out of this."Two from each side of the clearing, so eight altogether."

"I mean the odds aren't great, but I reckon we could take them. I mean it's not like we have much of a choice is it?" he had gotten his panic under control and she could see his eyes harden under his balaclava and the slow smirk stretch across his face as his deadly demeanor he had developed since the war returned.

She returned his smirk with one of her own. "Oh definitely. It's been so long since we had a proper challenge, I was beginning to get bored from the lack of violent bloodshed."

They shared a nod signalling they were both ready and threw themselves out into the fray, ducking and weaving spells as they went. She thought perhaps for the millionth time about how she was so glad they had developed such a close bond following the war and how he was the only person she would trust at her side in this they continued to dodge the Avada's and Cucio's cutting through the air towards they, she couldn't help but let her mind stray to the past.

The horror she had experienced watching Harry's body be dropped in front of them.

The betrayal she felt from Ron holding her back as she tried to run to him and realising he had known what Harry had set off into the forest to do.

The spark of hope that had ignited when she caught the slight twitch to Harry's hand, signalling he wasn't dead.

The cold water dowsing that spark before it even had a chance to fully light as voldemort hit Harry with the killing curse over and over again until she was certain he was gone. Not even the boy who lived could survive that.

The final break in her friendship with Ron as he had forced her hand to one of the portkeys as Remus had shouted for the order to retreat.

The permanent coldness that froze over her heart the portkey pulled them away to the safe house, running like cowards and leaving Harry's body behind.

The thirst for vengeance began to grow when she heard how the death eaters had strung Harry's body to the front gates like some sort of trophy to their victory.

They had managed to take out one death eater each, bringing the total down to six. One was closing in to Neville's left and he bent at the waist to duck and avoid the red light being shot from somewhere in front of them. Just as the spell cleared Hermione ran at Neville and jumped using his waiting clasped hands to propel her into the air from where she dropped right down upon the closest death eater burying her blade in his skull. His body dropped as her feet hit the ground and her knife, handle still in her grip, slid from his head easily with the momentum of the fall of his fresh corpse.

"Hermione, Duck!" She heard Neville shout, and she immediately obeyed as one of his own blades flew over head and plunged straight into the eye socket of another death eater. She was high on adrenaline and it had been far too long since they had been in the thick of a fight such as this one. She found that she was quite enjoying it and couldn't help the laugh that escaped her lips from the elation. She chanced a quick glance back towards Neville and could see the wide, toothy grin that told her he was thinking the same. The sight of his smile lifted her joy even higher. She loved to see him smile, she thought to herself. She thought back to the long months following his parents deaths where she had thought that she would never see it again.

The metallic smell of blood and the acidic smell of the potions that had been smashed up and were mixing all over the floor had greeted their small group when they had entered St. Mungos. Most of the survivors had not wanted to risk a rescue mission within the compound, knowing that surely the death eaters would have already taken it over, but they had to try. They needed supplies and they couldn't just abandon those that were on the side of the order that resided within the walls of the hospital to the horrors that would surely befall them so a few days after the battle a group of volunteers had decided to go on the mission. The small team made their way through the corridors disillusioned. They had still been able to use their wands at this time at least. They split off into two teams, one to gather supplies and the other to find anyone they could rescue. Her team had been made up of herself, Neville, Kingsley, Charlie Weasley and Bill Weasley. They had made their way to the Janice Thickory ward without encountering a single soul, which looking back, should have appraised them to the fact that something was wrong. It wasn't until they had rounded the corner that they heard it. Bellatrix Lestrange in her high toned singing voice that encompassed all the insanity held within.

"This daddy Longbottom lost his mind, this mummy Longbottom wasn't far behind"

They turned the corner to see Frank and Alice Longbottom each held upright by Rodulphus and Rabastan Lestrange, both barely clinging on to life from the obvious torture they had yet again endured at the hands of the demented threesome.

"NOOO, MUM!, DAD!" Neville had cried out giving their presence away.

Bellatrix cast a Finite Incantum and their disillusionment spells had dropped.

The sadistic smile spread across her lips as she raised her wand and continued her song.

"And then baby Longbottom came just in time."

She swiped her wand with a non- verbal slicing spell that cut through the throats of Alice and Frank, their blood spraying out and the faces of Hermione and the others. She hadn't even known that blood could spray that far. With a maniacal laugh Bellatrix spun and disapperated, the Lestrange brothers following her just as Neville threw himself forward collapsing on the floor beside his parents.

"You're going to be okay. It's just a little scratch. We can just get you fixed right up and then you can come with us. Yes that's right, just a little scratch." Neville was repeating to the lifeless bodies of his parents. He was trying to fix them upright, very clearly in denial that they were already gone and Hermione couldn't stop the whimpers from escaping at the horror that was unfolding before her. The more Neville was moving his parents, the quicker the blood was flowing from their necks and covering him. Nobody could move to do anything to stop him, frozen in shock at what they were witnessing. Hermione forced her tears away, putting on a brave front to help Neville and sunk down to the knees beside him.

"Neville , I'm so sorry but they are gone. There's nothing we can do. We need to get out of here before they come back with more death eaters."

He didn't seem to be able to hear her as he sat repeating the same words over and over again as he stroked the hair on his parents heads that he had now rested upon his knees.

A wolf patronus appeared before them and Remus's voice came urgently from its mouth, "Time to go! More are apparating in and we have grabbed all the supplies we can."

Hermione looked back to Neville and her heart shattered at how broken he looked. They needed to get out and they needed to do it now before their bodies joined those of his parents. She looked to Kingsley and asked if they could bring the bodies with them to give them a proper burial and he nodded in agreement, stepping forward to reach down to apparate them with him. Charlie and Bill reached forward pulling Neville to his feet.

"No, we can't leave them here. I should never have left them here knowing the battle was coming, this is all my fault. Please don't make me leave them here!" Neville cried as he struggled to get back to his parents. Hermione stepped towards him, taking his face into her hands and looked into his eyes. She heard the pop of Kingsley dissaperating with the bodies.

"This is not your fault! Do you hear me? This was Bellatrix's doing and she will pay for what she's done. I promise you she will pay, but right now we need to get out of here or we won't be alive to see that happen. Okay?"

He nodded in acknowledgement and she pulled him into her arms in a hug as she took him back to base with side along apparition."

Four Death Eaters remained and Hermione could see the desperation and fear in the eyes of the three that were closing in on them. Walden McNair was the forth and she could see that he had taken a cautionary step back into the trees to observe the fight before him. Typical, she thought, the higher up Death Eaters of Voldemort's inner circle seemed to favour the self preservation of allowing their younger subordinates to take the fall for them. Most of the Death Eaters present were probably around her age or younger, being promised glory and higher status for taking out the two mystery vigalaties who had been wreaking havoc amongst their numbers. Instead they had been led like lambs to the slaughter and whilst once Hermione may have felt guilty about ending their lives, she couldn't help the anger that pulsed through her veins in her quest for vengeance. They had allowed themselves to be recruited to Voldemort's and Hermione's capacity for pity had long but disappeared. In fact,it had begun to dissipate after losing Harry and it had completely evaporated not long after Neville's had when she too had lost her parents, forging a bond between them that couldn't be broken. Thinking of the brutal way in which they had had both lost the ones they loved drove her deeper into the dark place she needed as she dropped and rolled right into one of the Death Eaters, using one of her blades to completely sever the Achilies tendons on both his ankles and then driving her other up through his throat as he dropped.

For the few weeks following the death of Neville's parents, Hermionie had stayed by his side, comforting him when he needed it and allowing him to throw nasty words at her when he needed an outlet for his grief and anger. She had been witness to the horror of that day and she vowed to herself she would be there and support him for as long as he needed. She had obliviated her own parents at the end of 6th year and sent them away to keep them safe and while she had doubted her decision many times since, witnessing the death of Neville's parents had completely assured her she had done what was best for them. They had begun to receive more and more reports of Death Eaters attacks following the use of magic by members of the orders side and were beginning to suspect that voldemort had come up with a way to track the use of magic by anyone that did not bear his mark. Charlie Weasley had started to train some of the occupants of their camp in self defence using physical combat and muggle weapons such as knives and bows and arrows. Although guns had been considered, they had proven extremely difficult to get a hold of with the war spilling over to the muggle world and the influx of muggles ensuring they had a means to protect themselves should they need to. While a large percentage of the order had seen the training Charlie was providing as a waste of time, in denial that they would soon not be able to rely on their magic at all, Hermione had thought the idea a necessary one and had talked Neville into coming out of his tent to train. It had worked as she had hoped it would, allowing him an outlet for his anger and the more he learned, the more she could see how he was forging himself into a weapon for revenge. They began spending hours every day practising and learning from Charlie.

Around six weeks after the death of his parents, Neville was cleared for low risk level missions and they had both been allocated to go on a supply run to a local town to collect more food. They had been lucky that the Death Eaters had not yet been tipped off by anybody about missing supplies from the small wizarding community and the use of polyjuice potion had allowed them to go unnoticed. Hermione had been on this run every week with a team made up of two others and everything had been easy thus far, so she thought this would be a good first mission for Neville to get him acquainted with mission protocols. Charlie offered to go with them as their third, under the intention that they could try out some of their physical combat skills should the opportunity present itself, unlikely as it was.

From the moment they reached the town border, Hermione could tell something was off. The town was normally bustling with people, affording them the ability to go even more unnoticed in their polyjuiced forms. Today was different. The town was like a ghost town, with an eerie mist settling up ahead. Although they wanted to ensure that there was nobody that required their help, they agreed that it was very likely a trap and decided to turn back to get reinforcements before returning. It was then that Hermione had spotted a box a few meters away that appeared to have her name on it. Alarm bells rang in her mind, but she had always been dangerously curious, even as a child and so she made her way towards it and used her foot to flip the lid up. She couldn't stop the scream that left her mouth at the sight of a severed arm lying within. Charlie and Neville appeared behind her seconds later with the former reaching down to pick up the envelope with Hermione's name scribbled across it as Neville pulled her into his arms. She was silently sobbing as she glanced at Charlie while he read the letter, his whole face completely draining.

"Hermione, I really don't think you should read this. Let's go back to camp and we can send a team out to investigate. Please let's just get you back to camp." Charlie's eyes were boring into her own pleadingly. He was normally the perfect example of the headstrong, throw yourself in, damn the consequences Gryfindor and to see him like this pushed Hermione forward to snatch the letter from his clasp and read it aloud.

"You thought your little trick would protect them? You really thought a Mudblood whore like yourself could outsmart a Pureblood like me? Your kind dont have the capacity to fool us, all the same, predictable little bugs that need to be exterminated. We knew where they were the whole time and the only reason they lasted so long was because I wanted to wait until the opportune time to finally use them to break you. Did you know that repeated cruciatus seems to break obliviation? I suppose nobody has tried it enough times to discover it, but a couple of weeks seems to have been enough. They remembered everything by the end, screaming out for you and begging me not to hurt you to leave you alone and they would do whatever I asked. There's another box up ahead a little for you, a little token of what's to come Mudblood for every member of your precious order. We will finish what we started in the drawing room on Malfoy Manor, mark my words. In the meantime please accept my gracious gift. Signed Bellatrix Lestrange." The letter fluttered to the ground from Hermione's hand as she made her way forward in a daze. She knew that she was about to discover her parents bodies but she couldn't stop herself moving forward, she had to see, had to know for sure.

Charlie had tried to grab her but she brushed him off and hissed at him in warning that she needed to do this, needed to see. She knelt in front of the box, thinking how it was far too small to contain even one body, never mind two. Maybe they were still keeping them alive, maybe she would have time to rescue them before they were killed and this was a way for Bellatrix to lure her out. She would gladly give herself over if it meant saving her parents.

All hope died as she lifted the lid, alongside any spark of light Hermione had been holding onto after losing the war and losing Harry. She was confronted with the sight of her parents decapitated heads, laid side by side, mouths and eyes hanging open in what looked like a silent scream. She felt nothing as she lent forward to place a kiss on both their heads, the shock taking over her physique. It wasn't until Neville sank down to the ground beside her and turned her head to meet his eyes that reality came crashing down upon her and a blood curdling scream left her lips. Neville gathered her in his arms, much the same way she had done for him all those weeks ago, whispering the same words she had "she will pay for what she's done, i promise you she will pay."

Nevilles shout pulled her back to the present.

"McNairs is making a run for it to the apparition point. I'll take care of these two and you get him."

She nodded and took off running after McNair, the visions of the discovery of her parents pushing her anger higher and the adrenaline to pulsate through her veins. All the training with Charlie before he had left to travel to other camps to continue to teach others and all the practising with Neville had boasted her fitness. After her parents Neville had encouraged her to throw herself into it completely as he had, forging themselves into weapons of vengeance had been the exact thing they needed to combat their anger and grief. That had been 18 months ago. After the first 6 months they had decided they were ready and had started going out on their little secret missions, using the intel they had received from an unlikely source in their camp. The constant training and learning curves they had been presented with whilst on the missions had moulded them into a fierce duo, the lack of fear due to their shared anger and need for revenge making them deadly to anybody they set themselves against.

It wasn't long before she had caught up to him and rammed into him from behind causing him to drop his wand which became lost to the forest floor. She had him exactly where she wanted him, vulnerable and without magic to protect him, just like her parents had been. She had no doubt that the members of the inner circle, including the man before her, had all been party to Bellatrix's depravity, relishing in the torture and violent deaths of the muggle parents of Harry Potter's filthy little Mudbllod sidekick. They had probably all stood together, laughing and toasting glasses of wine to their master, perhaps even taking turns to cast the cruciatus. It was for this reason she wanted him to see that it would be her that would be the one to end him and so she reached up and pulled the knitted mask covering her identity off her head. The surprise in McNairs face at seeing her before him mixed with the overwhelming look of fear he already had in his eyes, was the last thing she saw before driving both her blades into his abdomen with a deadly smirk across her face, twisting them just so to ensure they did the desired damage. He fell backwards causing her blades to slide out as she gripped the handles. The blood was flowing from his mouth, causing him to gag and filling her ears with the sound of his life slipping away that she relished. She heard footsteps approaching from behind but she knew it was Neville as they had become so in tune with one another she could tell the very sound of his footsteps with certainty. He stopped beside her nudging her shoulder. He had removed his own mask as well and she looked up at him meeting his smile with the one still plastered across her face. He inclined his head to the side towards McNair's lifeless corpse

"Good job taking down this prick. What do you say we get going so we can drop this stuff off and change before heading back to camp in case anybody notices we have gone?" he asked.

She nodded her agreement and slipped her arm through his as they made their way back towards the car they had used to get them there which they had hidden a couple of miles up.

A short drive later and Hermioe turns off down the side road and pulls up outside the small rundown outhouse. They had set it up a few months back when they started their missions so they could keep nosey order members from stumbling upon anything and could keep their identities as the vigilanties a secret. There had been rumors spreading when stories of groups of Death Eaters being taken out had first started to circulate but everyone had come to the conclusion it was people outside the order who had decided to use violence rather than fight alongside the side of the light. There was no way any members of the order would ever lower themselves to such violence and murder. Although the naive attitude had annoyed them slightly, it allowed any suspicion towards Hermione and Neville to become impossible, thus allowing them to sneak off at night unnoticed. The rest of the order had assumed that the two of them were in a relationship, given that they shared a tent and if they had been noticed to be missing, everyone just assumed they had snuck off for some more privacy that the close quarters of the camps tents didn't afford them since they couldn't use magic for silencing charms. The truth was, they had never had that type of relationship. They were family, the only family either of them truely had left and so their relationship, although closer than any two people could ever hope to be, was strictly platonic and anything romantic would definitely feel incestuous.

They shed their gear and weapons, placing everything back in its place and changing back into their normal clothing before making their way to the small room attached. They had been lucky when they came across this place.

They had been out with Charlie, training deep in the forest in a simulation of possible fights they could find themselves in with Charlie playing the role of a death eater. Exercises such as these had been a common part of their training to build the battlefield dynamic between Hermione and Neville and they had begun to venture further out into the woods during sessions. They had come across what looked to be a small, run down, but still standing, outhouse with one medium sized room and a door leading into a smaller room that barely allowed for two people to stand within at one time. The purpose for which the outhouse had been built perplexed them, especially the tiny room that surely wouldn't have been much use for anything, but on closer inspection they soon discovered something even better. A dirty, tattered mat covered the floor of the small room and upon moving it they discovered a heavy metal door that led down into a larger room under the ground's foundations. Hermione, being the only one of the three with any knowledge of World War 2 recognised immediately that it was an old bomb bunker that must have been built by a rich family during the beginning of the war. They had moved their weapons there not long after and set up a research lab in the bunker, only informing one other person of its existence, although a total of five people, including Hermione, Neville and Charlie now knew about it.

She made her way down the stairs hidden by the trap door after Neville to where he was currently standing inspecting the plant he has been working on for the past two months. She has never been particularly green fingered and was thankful when Neville had come across the idea during their research, that he would be the perfect person to ensure that it grew successfully. Honestly, she had never met anyone with a passion for herbology such as Nevilles, and that was probably why nobody else had thought of the idea. They had agreed to keep it between them until they were sure it would work, so as not to get anyones hopes up, and also so they could make the decisions who would benefit from the discovery if necessary.

"Is it ready yet?" Hermione asked, having absolutely no idea how one would even begin to tell if it was. He lifts a pair of onyx shears and takes a couple of trimmings from the plant nodding in the affirmative while he placed them into separate pots to increase their numbers..

"Are you sure this will work?" she questions, unable to stop the hope sounding in her voice.

He gives her a forced smile, meeting her eyes and simply states, "It has to."

She nods in agreement and they make their way out of their little secret outhouse, locking it back up again before turning to make their way back up through the forest towards camp. They are just about to cross the parameter when Neville glances at her and then suddenly stops her in her tracks.

"You have a little something," he states as he reaches up to wipe a smear of blood off her face she must have missed. She beams up at him and they can't help the laughter that escapes their lips as they bump shoulders and continue on into the camp.

It appears they have made it back just in time for the breakfast and they both are able to join the growing line simply looking like they have come from their tents and are just starting the day like everyone else. Bill and Fleur Weasley notice them joining the queue behind them and immediately draw them into a conversation which they both pretend to be engaged in, even though they are bone weary from the events of the night and exhausted. Hermione catches a glimpse of Severus out of the corner of her eye as he stands talking with Tonks, Remus and Kingsley as they animatedly discuss whatever the topic of conversation is. That's why nobody but Neville and Herself notice the lift of Severus's brow in question towards them and the slight incline of Hermione's head in affirmation of a successful job before she plasters the smile back upon her face and returns to the conversation she couldn't care less about.