A/N Update Day! Thank you all so very much for the follows and favorites. They certainly brighten my nominally employed heart. I would love to hear your thoughts and reviews. It is what we are all writing on here for. I hope you like this chapter. It gave me a bit of trouble. We are circling ever closer to their adulthood. See you next week. I do not own this world. -Lark
Summer 1949
"My dear, you'll remember all the things I've taught you?" Hepzibah's head rocked to and fro in a disjointed rhythm.
"I will. Of course I will." Hermione sat near the ailing witch in her favorite morning room. Potted plants bursting with flowers stood at every corner. The smell was intoxicating and almost overpowering. Hermione didn't complain. If Hepzibah wanted to always be surrounded by a profusion of blooms, she should have it.
"I hope so, I don't know if what I taught you is right but it's what I knew best. Do with it what you will. I'm sorry, so sorry, I had hoped to be able to see the woman you will become." Hepzibah's hands shook violently. Hermione grabbed them to still them and to give her comfort.
"I wouldn't be half what I am without you." Hermione soothed.
"Just remember the rules. Engage the other party in conversation about themselves. It makes them like you more. Offer nothing of yourself until you have to. Guard your heart, love only brings damage, at least until someone steals it. And some wizard will, my dear witch. Someday, just you wait, I only hope they are gentle with you, I hope they're worthy. Oh! And I wanted to be there to look him over. Such a pity. Who will look out for you? And remember...oh dear...I've forgotten. What were we talking about?"
"How much I love you." Hermione said affectionately.
"Ah, yes, I'm sorry dear, so very sorry..." The older witch trailed off into silence.
Hermione sighed. She would remember all that Hepzibah had taught her. The more she grew the more she could see that it was the wizards who believed that they held the dominant power over the witches in Pureblood society. Hepzibah had found clever ways to circumvent this while moving about the political system. Hermione wanted to shatter this system apart but had learned that the world at large moved slower than that.
Hepzibah had taught her how to hold a person's attention. How to move through a room to draw eyes to her. She had learned that she was beautiful and that it was something that must be harnessed to work in service to her. Beauty that was ignored could so easily lead the bearer into dangerous situations. Hebzibah had taught her all of this.
In school she had learned impeccable manners and the artistic skillls necessary to be a good Pureblood wife. She had also become a vicious dueler and had gone father and deeper into her magical studies that Madame Maxine or even Hepzibah would feel comfortable with. After Hermione had heard the prophecy she knew the only way to protect herself was to know at least as much about magic of all kinds as she imagined Tom Riddle did. It sometimes frightened her, how easily she could slip into the intoxicating feel of Dark Magic.
Hermione looked over at her guardian who had nodded off and was emitting gentle snores. Her soft chin had come to land on the lace of her gown. She sighed again and removed a soft cashmere throw from the back of her chair. Gently she tucked the light pink blanket around the frail form. She was of two minds from Hepzibah's teachings. Hermione did not want to admit that the world was this way. She knew without a doubt that she was more intelligent than most of the people that she encountered. It would also be foolish of her to deny that most of her intelligence was discounted due to her gender. The words of the prophecy floated to the forefront of her mind. What would it mean to take Voldemort's heart? Hermione shivered. As of yet, the Order had not uncovered his identity. Based on his agenda, she was sure he must be a Pureblood. Her mind went immediately to the Malfoys. They certainly held those beliefs. However, she felt that they were to open about that agenda to carry out something on such a scale. Lucius struck her as a follower, never a leader. Thoughtfully she made her way from the cheerful morning room and down to the library. She had a feeling that she would find some answers there.
...
"Hermione! What are you doing here so late?" Harry's shock of black hair was standing on end. He had clearly dozed off in front of the fire at Grimmauld Place where he now lived with Sirius.
"Harry! Get Dumbledore! I know who Lord Voldemort is!" Hermione was waving a copy of the Pureblood register about. Her hands were covered in dirt and her eyes and hair were wild.
Harry immediately pulled out his wand and cast a patronus, his stag sparked away, through the window, and into the night. "What's going on?"
"Just gather the Order who are staying in the house." Hermione strode into the kitchen. Soon witches and wizards came stumbling into the room and blearily making their way to their appointed chairs. All of them were grumbling at the late hour. Dumbledore was the last to arrive still wearing his canary yellow pajamas.
Despite his festive colors he nodded gravely at her. "I take it you have something rather important to say?" His eyes twinkled a little.
Hermione looked about her. Carefully, she placed the Pureblood register, a pile of muggle newspapers and a filthy book on the table. "I know that you've been narrowing down the suspects for who is leading the war. Three of the five were killed in recent battles and two are being held in Azkaban. It is logical to believe that none of these are the leader. This afternoon I was studying this register for clues when I came upon this." She opened the book to the Gaunt family page. It ended with the names Morphin and Merope.
"What's this got to do with?" Remus Lupin inquired through a rather wolfish yawn.
"This name here." Hermione tapped the name above Morphin and Merope. It read Marvolo Gaunt. "I've seen that name once before. On a trophy at Hogwart's, Tom Marvolo Riddle."
Snape snorted. "Can't be, he's very young. This movement is too well planned, and whoever it is too well connected. Riddle is just a poor orphan. Not to mention the book would have recorded his birth."
Hermione raised an eyebrow at the unpleasant wizard. She traced the Gaunt family line up to the name Salazar Slytherin. "It would have recorded him had he been a Pureblood. The Chamber of Secrets was opened, as you know, a few years back. Five years before that Myrtle Warren was murdered in the same bathroom that the chamber opens in. It is said that only the heir of Slytherin could open it. I don't think it's a coincidence. Riddle was in school then, was he not?"
Dumbledore nodded, realization stealing over his face. "I knew that Hagrid couldn't have done such a thing." He said, almost to himself. Regret chased across his features.
Hermione nodded. "Now, Harry has told me that the phrase "I am Lord Voldemort" had been carved over a doorway down there."
"Your point?" Snape asked. "Get to the point girl, we haven't all night."
Hermione narrowed her eyes at the potions professor. She took out her wand and waved it. The words "I am Lord Voldemort" appeared in the air above them. She waved her wand again and the letters rearranged themselves. Now they read "Tom Marvolo Riddle."
The table erupted in voices. Hermione held out a hand. "There's more! Please!"
Sirius stood up and gave a loud, ear piercing whistle. The room silenced at once. "Proceed." He told her with a wink.
Hermione held up the stack of newspapers. "There are muggle reports of the suspicious deaths of the entire Riddle family of Little Hangleton. I believe their son to be Riddle's father. They lived very close to the last known house of the Gaunts."
"I'll have this matter investigated immediately." Mad Eye Moody interrupted. "Tonks, start on it, first thing." The witch with blue hair to his right nodded.
"There is more." Hermione said hesitantly. She hoped that the spell that Tom had placed on her all those years ago would allow her to talk to the Order unhindered. She would have to keep the day in the alley out of the talk and hope it worked.
"As some of you know, Hepzibah found me in a muggle orphanage. I only stayed there for six months. Right before I left I found out another wizard stayed there while on holiday from Hogwart's"
"Riddle." Breathed Snape.
"Indeed. Right before he arrived back I had come across a warded item in the orphanage's library. Having been taught how to break wards by my mother I set about doing so. I found two objects that felt strongly of dark magic. Not wanting to leave them unwarded I hid them far away from the other children." She tapped the earth encrusted book. "When Ri...the person returned he found his items missing. He found me." Hermione's tongue had pinched painfully to the top of her mouth when she had tried to speak of Riddle and herself having an interaction.
"He is the boy who tortured you in the alley." Dumbledore concluded. His features were sorrowful. "I could not prove it at the time. We were so relieved to find you unharmed I admit to forgetting to follow up on how and with whom we found you."
Hermione nodded. "I feel a little better knowing that he only knew me as Mia. I'm not sure he could have found my last name if he tried. The orphanage was so overrun at that point that I had no intake papers. I'm sure of it." Carefully she opened the book, which was in surprisingly good condition, considering. She had a moment of smug satisfaction that her wandless anti-damp charm had held for so many years. "At any rate, I'm not sure what these are but I know that they were very important to Tom at one time." She tipped the book gingerly and the diary and ring fell from it onto the table.
She looked to Dumbledore for approval and saw that his face had grown several shades paler. His eyes were fixed on the ring which shone in the dim light. "Impossible." He whispered. His face was such a mask of naked pain that she turned away.
...
"You fool!" Snape admonished as he poured potion after potion down Dumbledore's throat. "Why ever did you think to put that ring on your own finger?"
Dumbledore gasped in pain and regarded his blackened hand. "I acted impetuously. I thought it safe. I do believe that ring holds a piece of soul."
Snape made a hiss through his teeth showing what he thought of that. His brow furrowed. "It is a horcrux then? As you feared?"
"Yes, two of them. I suspect Tom has created more since. We will have to start making subtle inquiries to all of his known associates. And past professors." Dumbledore's face became thoughtful.
Snape paled. "More than one is unthinkable! And he learned of these things in school. He must have done."
Dumbledore looked troubled. "Yes, we both know which teacher he was closest to."
"Surely not!" Snape was aghast. Dumbledore gasped in pain. They both looked at his still smoking hand, the ring still on the blackened middle finger.
"How much time left do I have?" He asked with great dignity.
Snape looked sour. "A year, at best. You will have to train the Potter boy on all you know."
"I only wish you could find it in your heart to care for him a bit more. He is Lily's son after all." Dumbledore said regretfully.
Snape sniffed. "Yes, and he's the worst half of his father as well."
"On that point we shall continue to disagree." Dumbledore sighed.
Snape's was silent a moment. "I simply cannot believe the Riddle boy is capable of these things. He was so eager to please when he came onto Grindlewald's scene. He showed no outward signs to me that he was amassing support even then. Grindlewald took him under his wing. They were both parseltongues did you know? Grindlewald had a mind to make the boy his heir. I cannot see Riddle wanting to go behind his back when he held such a place of power within the circle." Snape's pointed face drew downward in a frown. "Though if he did make the boy his heir..."
Dumbledore made a humming noise. "It is entirely possible that Grindlewald created a spell so that his magical power would possess Riddle in the event of his passing." Dumbledore ran his finger down the length of his nose as he puzzled. "And Harry it seems is also a parseltongue. Indeed, he possesses some key qualities that both Gellert and Tom have. I will have to look into it but I suspect that when that killing curse rebounded from Harry and onto Grindlwald some of his powers were transferred to the boy as well as the curse from his mother. It is quite possible that the curse transferred to Riddle." Dumbledore winced as he accidentally jostled his hand. "Especially if Gellert bound Tom by blood as he was fond of doing." Dumbledore's smile was a grim slash across his face.
"You would know that better than most." Snape muttered acidly. He removed a violently purple potion from his bag and began to pour it over the still smoking hand. "I can't believe that Tom knew this kind of curse as a schoolboy. Can you imagine how powerful he has become if Grindlewald passed his magic to him?"
"Yes, and they were both immensely talented wizards in their own right." His face was almost wistful in the candle light.
"Quite clever of the Smith girl to have figured it out." Snape said grudgingly. "Sometimes I would feel better about that damned prophecy if I knew it was her that would best him in battle. Potter is far too interested in theatrical bravery. I believe that it will take intelligence like hers to best a monster like Tom."
"And who better to steal the heart of one who is all but heartless that her?" Dumbleore asked. "I agree with you Severus, she will be the brains behind all of it. She is to be his weakness, remember that."
Snape's face looked mildly disgusted. "And you've to problem sending that girl out? Knowing how little mercy he shows?"
"Calm yourself, Severus, I did not create that prophecy. "I only wish to serve the Greater Good. My dearest hope is that they will survive it. In the meantime we must continue to train them in hopes that they will be able to meet the challenge when it rises." Dumbledore heaved a sigh. "I only wish that Hepzibah would let me take Hermione into Hogwart's but the witch is too damn stubborn."
"Yes, and training her to beguile, ensnare and manipulate eager young wizards I'll wager." Snape said with disgust.
Dumbledore chuckled, despite the pain. "And who better to steal the heart of Lord Voldemort? You may not see it but she could not have fallen into the hands of a better teacher."
"So it would seem." Snape's black eyes roved over Dumbledore. His dark gaze suddenly unsure and distrustful. He said nothing more.