Hermione had gone worryingly silent towards the end of her fourth year, the prophet had not. Gellert had read wild theories and speculation about the end of the tri wizard tournament, where one of the participants had died. He'd checked only enough to discover that it wasn't Hermione's friend; Harry Potter. Then he'd settled down with the expectation of receiving a full update when the young girl arrived home from school
He was not disappointed; a frantic knocking on the door alerted him that she'd arrived, despite the late hour. He could only guess that she'd come straight from the train to the only adult that could truly understand her.
He opened the door and led her through to the living room where he already had takeaway waiting for them. He'd been expecting her and his cooking had certainly not improved since his release. Usually the young witch cooked for him or he ate at her parent's house. The Granger's had been suspicious of him at first but they were mostly glad that Hermione finally had a friend near her home.
The young witch managed to hold herself together for all of five minutes before she burst into hysterical tears. Gellert awkwardly handed her his handkerchief as she sobbed, curled up into a ball on her chair. He had to fetch her several new ones, knowing that it would be a death sentence if he performed even a simple drying charm with her trace still active.
He let her cry herself dry, then listened as the whole story poured out. She started from the beginning which he already knew; how Harry's name had ended up in the goblet and how he'd been selected. She burst into tears again when she told him about the Yule ball; Grindelwald had actually paid the Durmstrang boy a visit to warn him to look after his date, enchanted to look old again of course. Youth was an almost perfect disguise and he'd rather not lose such a simple hiding place.
Instead, despite the Krum boy obediently treating her like a lady, the ginger idiot had ruined her special night.
She then managed to get out the second task, which he already knew about from her letters before bursting into terrified tears again. He made her a hot chocolate with foamy cream, then in the way that had almost become an inside joke, he sprayed the remaining half of the can around the base of the mug to create a fluffy white mountain, disguising the chocolate treat within.
This won him a weak smile, and finally the story of the third task. He listened as Hermione described the events in third hand; how Harry had been port keyed to a graveyard where he'd been used to create a new body for Voldemort. How the reborn dark wizard had attempted to kill her friend, and successfully killed another student. She managed a confused account of how the wands had connected before explaining through great sobs how Harry had returned to Hogwarts and then been captured by the death eater in disguise as their defence teacher.
She explained how once again he had almost died before being rescued by the teachers and then Skeeter had published all those slanderous articles. Gellert had seen those and suddenly understood that although adult witches and wizards that had been in the public eye knew better than to believe them, they had an intimate impact on the vulnerable young witch.
It was well past Hermione's bed time when she finally fell into an exhausted sleep and he crept to the telephone that she'd taught him to use to call her parents. He explained the situation to them and a worried Mrs. Granger apologised sincerely, promising to be over soon to pick up her daughter
She knocked on the door fifteen minutes later and he let her in, leading her through the home to where Hermione was curled up under a blanket. Her face was still red and her eyes were puffy from crying and Gellert gave her mother an abridged version of events at the end of the year, amazed that no effort had been made to let muggle born parents know what was happening in the wizarding world.
Eventually he helped the shocked mother carry her daughter out to the car and waved them off down the street as he went inside to ponder events and how they would affect him in his current situation. As far as he was concerned, this Voldemort's return could only be a good thing, after all it would certainly detract Albus' attention from him. He was perfectly content to spend at least another decade enjoying his peaceful retirement to this comfortable muggle house and blend in with the stress free muggle world for a while.
The next morning, he was still awake, working on the basis for a ward that he hoped would be able to keep him safe without the powerful barrier attracting attention to him. Hermione's knock made him jump; he hadn't realised that night had passed into day,
He yawned and stretched, wandering towards the door to let the young witch in. She looked much better, although still solemn as she wandered into the kitchen and began rustling through his fridge.
'Good morning to you too, Hermione.' He said lightly, putting the kettle on to boil for coffee. She just scowled at him and pulled out the ingredients for pancakes. It had been a regular event last summer that she would arrive at his house to make herself a dose of the sugary food her dentist parents did not allow. He was perfectly content to let her so long as she made some for him as well. She was an excellent cook.
He pulled out the pan that she would always use, then retreated from the kitchen to continue work on the wards.
Half an hour later, the young witch appeared with a stack of delicious smelling food and he quickly cleared all his research from the table. She put down the pancakes and he tucked into the first one eagerly even before she had returned with the toppings. She giggled at his enthusiasm and spread nutella all over her own before carefully peering over what he'd been working on.
'What's this?' She asked curiously and he explained what he was trying to do. There was no harm in warding after all; it was only to be expected from a full grown wizard.
'Professor Dumbledore is gathering some organisation he used to have to fight dark wizards.' She suddenly blurted out and he froze, memories of that group of friends and their vigilante attacks. They were always the ones who did the most damage to his plans. Of course, they hadn't been named yet when Gellert had still been at large but he'd heard mention of them since.
'You should join them.' Hermione said, unaware of the reaction she'd just caused as she sprinkled hundreds and thousands over her nutella covered pancake.
'What makes you think I'd be any good at it?' He asked carefully and the witch was silent as she arranged marshmallows across her sickly sweet creation.
'You're a very powerful wizard of course. Besides, everyone has something they can do to help.' She said dismissively. 'I mean, you're spell-crafting. Only really good wizards can do that.'
He looked at the sheets of paper and inwardly cursed. He should have known better than to assume she wouldn't know exactly what she was looking at. She was after all a very smart witch and he'd allowed himself to go lax around her.
He considered being honest and denying her suggestion but she was looking up at him with those big brown eyes and a pleading expression that would make a puppy relent. He caved.
'I'll think about it.'