Strongly considering getting a beta now, would be nice to have someone spell check for me and help me avoid traps like mentioning one event with two different outcomes. Struggled with this chapter because I kept having to fact check within my own story. Sorry it's so late. Also I kept debating what age Benjy should be... last year he was a 3rd year, this year he is a 4th. The reason shall become clearer as they get older.

Thanks for the follows, favs and my wonderful reviewers: purple breeze and AliceEnchanted and the 2 guest reviews!

Xx

Leaving

Rosier had avoided her for the remainder of her stay. She was quite pleased with this, especially as the approach of Hogwarts came closer, and with that what she considered rescue from this dreadful place with horrible young boys that tormented her, adults that ignored her and parties she was sure had been designed to torture women.

Not to mention being able to get her wand back. She sorely missed it, her father had gotten her a toy one when she was really young, she remembered the feeling and joy of first getting one, but was unsure of her age at the time. It had come about after she had stolen her father's on several occasions to play with. He had found no way of stopping her from taking it, only discovering the thievery at the worst possible moment.

He had yelled at her, she had stomped her foot. He had told her off his embarrassment, she had told him how she had turned the cutlery into flowers. He had yelled at her for doing that, she had said that it was Voldemort himself that had taught her the spell.

When he had paused, she had taken the opportunity to go into a very well prepared explanation arguing that she should have her own wand, and at the end he just stared at her, mouth open and blinking. Hermione kept still, winded and out of breath after her monologue, hoping she had gotten through to him.

Finally he had muttered out a yes and she had squealed and forgotten his weird thing with touching and given him a hug. After her exclamations of "thank you thank you thank you!" She had jumped back and mumbled an excuse for hugging him before handing over his wand and scurrying off.

She had caught a small glimpse of her father smiling for the first time ever after she had hugged him, and that was something she would always remember. So rarely had she seen him smile like that, and when she did see it she needed to run off before he could turn sour again, ruining the moment.

Later they were both furious to find out that kids weren't allowed wands, only toy ones that hardly did anything. When she accidentally set several wands in Ollivanders shop on fire her father had just stared at her, and with her following tirade he had continued to do so, with a calculating look.

It was the same calculating look he had given her right before leaving her with the Rosier for one more week.

At times she almost wished she hadn't gone to such extremes against her father earlier that summer. But then she remembered the look on his face and the satisfaction she felt and put that thought away.

Summer was dwindling down, and with a few more peaceful days in the sun, Hermione soaking up the sun like a Snake taking a nap, she couldn't be anything but content. Even though something in the back of her mind reminded her off the upcoming tragedy of her "bodyguards" returning to duty.

"Hermione!" A voice over the hustle and bustle of student saying adieu to their parents before embarking on a train ride to Hogwarts again. The engine roared and almost made her miss the male voice that called her name in joy, the only one at that.

She smiled and waved back at Benjy, but before she could take another step a cold hand landed on her shoulder holding her back. "I would advise against such endeavours." Came the icy yet saccharine voice of her father.

"Yes sir." Came her mild complacent reply. She was still missing her wand and not about to take any chances by angering him further.

"Where's your luggage?" She pointed to where it was neatly standing next to Rosier. He snapped his fingers, and the three boys her year sprang into action, moving the luggage into the express.

"Really there is no need-" She was cut off by his eyes boring into her, telling beer it was better to yield to him than put up any more resistance. She sighed and appeased herself by thinking a fight over carrying luggage was not where she would take her stand.

Her thought where broken, and the uncomfortable silence and tension between her father and herself, by the sweet voice of Narcissa Black telling the boys to put the luggage in her and Lucius compartment. The man complied by showing the boys where it was situated.

"Merry, darling! So nice to see you." She fought hard not to groan, but the raised eyebrow of her old pa meant some sort of noise must have escaped. That or he found the nickname curious.

"Narcissa! So nice to see you!" She tried, at least her intervening meant she didn't have to deal with the annoying trio of boys at least, so she should be somewhat nice.

"Oh please, I told you to call me Cissa!" Hermiones answer was a tight smile.

"And you must be her father, a pleasure to meet you." She delicately put her hand in his, purred at him and gave a curtsie while bowing her head. Her father was obviously pleased by this display while she rolled her eyes at their archaic foolishness.

"Dad, this is Narcissa Black, a friend of mine." Certainly more of a friend than anyone else her father approved of.

"Pleasure" he said in that special voice he used while flirting or courting Women, very inappropriate when the girl was practically her age.

The situation worsened as they were joined by her sister. "Merry! Its been too long." Bellatrix hugged her to her immense surprise, and the tone of voice and overly friendly greeting was way over the top for a woman Hermione had previously only met once.

"Nice to see you too Bellatrix." The woman giggled like a school girl and said "Bella, please! " while Hermione stared wide eyed and horrified at the display. Even knowing Bellatrix for only a few hours she knew this was not someone you could consider a normal friendly girl.

She turned to her father then, and did the same thing as Narcissa, only with a more flirtatious tone and a hand that trailed up and down his forearm. "And who is this handsome man." She purred, much like her sister, and again Hermione rolled her eyes, shifting from one foot to the other while wishing it was all over with.

"Bellatrix Black, meet my father, Tom Riddle, dad Bella." Why she for once was amenable to using a nickname, she wasn't sure, but if asked she would blame it on wanting to get this all over with. She suspected the only reason Bellatrix so kindly had followed her sister to the train, was the odd chance of being able to meet her infamous father.

"Pleasure" he said again, and only Hermione could hear the forced tone of his voice. After the whole debacle with her mom, he wasn't too happy about easy witches throwing themselves at him. The disposable ones were often not found again after making advances on him. For Bellatrix's sake, she hoped she was indispensable.

After Bellatrix had finished with her inane giggling, she pulled her fiance forward to meet them. "And of course you already know my fiance?" The man bowed respectfully, looking around to make sure no one was in hearing range and intoned in a gruff tone "my Lord."

If it wasn't for her wand in her father's clutches, she would have thrown in the towel ages ago and left this bizarre political introduction and exchanging of pleasantries.

"Bella has told me so much about you." She said, grasping the man's hand to shake.

A frown appeared on her father, seeing a man blatantly touching her hand was an obvious no no, even if he was bound to serve him. When he growled, Rodulphus fearfully drew his hand back, looking up at him while muttering "indeed?"

Hermione smirked at the man, seeing his discomfort and her father's ire. "Oh yes. So many wonderful things, you wouldn't believe the picture she paints of you." She simpered at the man, and he took a step back to hopefully escape the ominous glare of Lord Voldemort, and the consequences of that wrath being directed at him. The man gulped while Hermione now discovered yet another way to mess with Death Eaters while making her father angry and displeased at them.

Narcissa again came to the rescue "oh look at the time, we really must be off if we want to catch the train. Wonderful meeting you sir, I will take good care of Hermione on the train."

His glare shot to Narcissa and in a toneless voice he said "I will hold you to that." Making her gulp as she was for the first time in her life met with the anger of a Dark Lord.

"Bye Daddy!" Hermione gave him a halfway hug and kissed him on the cheek, skillfully sneaking her hand in his pocket to retrieve her wand. Then she skipped off after Narcissa, her day looking up slightly knowing she again had caused strife between the oh so powerful man and one of his subjects.

"Hermione, aren't you forgetting something?" He threw after her while she was still in range for a normal conversation.

She held up her wand and waved it at him. "Love you Daddy, you're the best!" Her sarcasm was oozing off the simple line, noticed by him (She could tell by his frown) but missed by his fan club of cougars standing to the side of the platform.

He noticed when they expressed their joy of such a fine specimen that was also a good dad. He looked very fearful of the clutches of the women standing nearby, and with that Hermione entered the express with a huge malicious grin on her face.

If Narcissa could tell that the conversation with her father was her being a lot more manipulative then one would guess from someone sorted into Ravenclaw, she couldn't quite tell. But after the little chat outside the express Hermione noticed the fearful looks she sent her way when she thought she wasn't looking.

It could also have something to do with her father's subtle threat, Hermione wasn't sure, but she had decided to ignore her and Lucius (Narcissa kept reminding her off his name, and now she couldn't help but remember it) until the end of he trip.

So she propped up a book on her lap and started to read, pretending to immerse herself in the pages of a book she was sure she had learned by heart now.

The whispered conversation between Narcissa and Lucius broke through her daydream when their voices became increasingly louder. She sighed and made an ladylike snort to stop their obvious argument, and informed them she would decrease the weight her money pouce was putting on her bladder. Which could either mean a bathroom, or going to the cart to spend some money.

It was rude, improper and unlike the mask she had put up in front Narcissa before. However they wished to see it, She would have a moment to herself while they could sort out whatever disagreement was bothering Hermiones musings. If they didn't want to involve her in the discussion, why should she have to put up with her peace being disturbed.

She walked the corridor of the train looking for the candy cart, hoping she wouldn't run into her stalkers.

"Been avoiding me have you?" The friendly voice gave her a freight, and she turned around to be met with the sparkling green eyes of Benjy.

"Benjamin you frightened me!"

He wrinkled his nose "please don't call me that, call me Benjy. All my friends do." Her heart gave a lurch at that, it was the first time someone offered her friendship without expecting anything in return.

"I'm your friend?"

"Of course you are." He sent her a brilliant smile. "Can't compete with all your admirers so I'll settle for friend." He winked at her, making her blush.

"Stalkers you mean." She mumbled and he nudged her good naturally.

"Just another word for admirer." She frowned at that and he laughed and decided to change the subject. "Had a good summer?"

She grimaced "it was horrible from beginning to end." She sighed "at least it's over now."

"Never met anyone who hated summer." He was closer than she had anticipated and she gulped while staring up at him.

"I don't, just the company. I prefer Fall though, give me a good book and some hot cocoa and I'll be the happiest girl alive." She smiled at the thought.

"I'll have to remember that." He winked at her again, and she blushed even more and looked out the window on the passing scenery. The clear blue sky was reflected in the large lake they were passing by, reminding her of the calm blue eyes of Rosier, and she turned away to get rid of that image.

"What about you, how was your summer?"

"Brilliant, good friends, family and flying my broom, nothing better than summer in my opinion." He grinned at the memory, while she wistfully hoped for the same things in her future, minus the broom of course. "You should have come say hi when I called you, my parents would have loved you I'm sure."

"I don't think so, especially if my father tagged along."

"You're father is not a nice guy I take it?" His tone was light, like he didn't really expect her to confirm how bad he really was.

"Oh he's a Dark Lord, you know what they're like." He laughed at her, and she realized that the perfectionist persona her father had created might fool more than just his followers. Maybe the Fenwicks would love her father, eating out of his hand while he gave them thinly wielded insults about being blood traitors. Usually people only realized what he had said when they looked back upon conversations with him.

"I can without a doubt say I don't know anything about those." He replied when he had finally cooled down.

"Well I only know my father, think he's the only one around these days."

"Well if you're going to be something be the best! And if he's the only one around he obviously is."

She frowned at him "you're weird."

Before he could respond to that the gruesome twosome arrived. Or as she also liked to think of them, Rosiers henchmen. She groaned "what do you two want?"

"We wanted to remind you that you shouldn't talk to blood traitors." Shoulders said.

"You're father wouldn't like it." Lanky continued.

"And I'd like to remind you of several things." She turned towards them, giving them a hateful glare "one I have my wand back!" She held it up to show them "two I'm not afraid to use it!" Their eyebrows shot up, looking at he stick in fear. "Three, you don't tell me what to do." She held up her hand before they could reply to that, stopping their half assed excuse "and finally four, neither does my father."

They had taken several steps back to get away from her, while she gave them the stink eye. The tension was broken by Benjys laughter "well I gotta get going anyway, nice to talk to you Hermione."

She stopped paying attention to the two idiots and smiled back at him. "Nice talking to you too Benjy." He gave her a slight wave and disappeared back into the compartment he must be sharing with his friends.

Without sparing the wannabe followers of her das, she turned and walked in the opposite direction of Narcissa and Lucius compartment in search of the candy trolley. By the scrambled footsteps she could tell they were in hot pursuit. The terror of what she could do to them nothing compared to what their parents or the Dark Lord himself would do if they didn't follow orders.

After tracking the lady down and buying chocolate frogs and sugar Quills, Hermione let herself be convinced to go back to her own cart.

The rest of the train trip was spent pretending she didn't see the trio (Rosier must have joined them at some point) 'randomly' walking by every 5 minutes, or the continued hushed argument between the older Slytherins who shared the compartment with her, while she nibbled on Sugar Quills and pretended to read a book.

She couldn't wait to escape to the Ravenclaw table and later the common room. Ordering the Sorting Hat to place her in that house was the smartest thing she ever did.

Since the guest reviewer asked me what year Benjy Fenwick was in I thought I'd write the different years down so you would know;

Hermione Merope Riddle: 2nd year (Ravenclaw)

Evan Rosier: 2nd Year (Slytherin)

Avery (aka lanky) : 2nd year (Slytherin)

Mulciber (aka Shoulders or Muscles): 2nd year (Slytherin)

Narcissa (Cissa) Black: 5th year (prefect) (Slytherin)

Lucius Malfoy: 6th year (prefect) (Slytherin)

Benjamin (Benjy) Fenwick: 4th year (Gryffindor)

Bellatrix (Bella) Black and Rodulphus Lestrange are engaged but not married yet, and have both graduated before Hermione started attending.

Lorraine (Lorry): 1st year

Barty Crouch junior: 2nd year (Ravenclaw)

Regulus Black: 1st year (Slytherin)

Severus Snape: 2nd year (Slytherin)

Mauraders and Lily are 2nd years in Gryffindor

I try to follow Canon ages as much as possible. Bellatrix is the middle sister therefore she has graduated if Narcissa is a 5th year. I like to keep her close in age to Lucius and he was a prefect when Severus Snape began in Slytherin. Regulus Black is one year younger than Sirius and as well as every Black family member (except the Maurader) was sorted into Slytherin. The people I was completely unsure the age of, I took liberties. Barty was barely out of Hogwarts when he was sentenced and condemned by his own father (in 1981), but I decided I wanted him in Hermiones year, making him slightly older than in Canon. Anyone I forgot or you just wonder why I put them in that year, feel free to ask.