Understanding

Chapter 4 -

'Hermione!' An angry voice woke me up from my deep sleep, accompanied by a sharp rapping on my door. 'Get up.' I heaved myself up and out of bed, still half asleep. I opened the door to find that I was face to face with a fuming Severus Snape.

'What the hell have you been doing?' He spat. 'I've been knocking on this door for twenty minutes!'

'Sorry, I was asleep.' I yawned as if to prove it. His fury somehow failed to have an effect on me. He was like a boggart who had had the riddikulus spell put on him. I just failed to find him threatening any more.

'There was an attack at King's Cross yesterday,' He said.

'Oh my god,' I said, hand over my mouth in shock. 'Is Harry okay?'

'Yes. Luckily several members of the Ministry were already present. I need to check this out. I knew nothing of any Death Eater plans. Ridiculous to attack in front of so many people, muggles as well. I don't know what they were thinking.'

'Well, it is the only time he's been out in public for ages, with no protection. But why are they taking risks like that? It isn't Voldemort's style. He usually goes for carefully constructed plans.'

'Exactly. I'm going to have to go. I'm sure you're capable of making a start on our work on your own. I'll be back later.' With that he turned and swept off down the stairs. I sighed loudly and slammed the door. I had a long hot shower and got ready for the day as slowly as possible before descending the stairs. I settled myself down and ate breakfast from a plate the house elves had left out for me. I started to think about the task which had been set for us. We had to try and bring about Voldemort's destruction. I knew quite a bit about Voldemort, mainly through Harry and from books and newspapers. Unlike most of the other Hogwarts students, and other wizards and witches that I knew, I was not afraid of him. I did not avoid calling him by his real name, except in the company of people who would think I was dangerous if they heard me say the word 'Voldemort'.

I knew that in order to finally defeat him, we needed to get underneath his skin, to know what he was all about, to really understand him. If we could recognise the human in him, if indeed there was any left, that would be his downfall. He strived on his power over the entire wizarding world, without actually having to do anything at all. Just his name inspired enough fear to make grown wizards tremble.

I propped my feet up on the table and stretched. Okay, so Voldemort had killed hundreds of muggles and wizards. But what had made him do it? He hadn't been brought up to hate muggles and muggle-borns. In fact, the opposite was true. He had been brought up in a muggle orphanage. I only knew the bare bones of his history. However, he had been brought up around seventy years ago and from what I'd read, muggle orphanages were pretty hellish places in the early 20th century. Something must have happened to him there. Harry had told me that Voldemort hated his father because he had abandoned his mother when he had found out that she was a witch. It fitted that Voldemort blamed his father for making him live in an orphanage, if something bad had happened there.

Following this train of thought, I absent-mindedly unclasped the chain around my neck and pressed my wand tip to the gem on the spine of my handbook. I enlarged immediately and fell open in my lap. The page was showing an article from The Times, dating from the late seventies. I scanned through it quickly. It reported on 19 muggles who had accused two carers at the orphanage they had spent their childhoods in of horrendous sexual and physical abuse, between 1928 and 1944. I skimmed through the next few pages, noting that they gave coverage of the whole case. After this, yellowed pages full of lists of names appeared. These were the records of children who had lived at the orphanage, which I noticed was just twenty miles from where I was now based. I scanned through seven pages of names before my eyes rested on the record of one Tom M. Riddle. I read what few details there were. He had been born in 1926, had lived in the orphanage from then till 1942.

Pages later were reports of a mysterious attack on that same orphanage, in 1945. The alleged abusers were not among the victims, but three senior members of the staff were dead, with no identified cause. Avada Kedavra, by Tom Riddle, I concluded. Of course, if these experiences had made him hate muggles, seven years in the company of the hideously bigoted occupants of Slytherin house, coupled with learning of his ancestry would have gone some way to making him the murderous filth he was now. But the question was, how could we capitalise from this knowledge. Was there any way we could work out a plan to destroy someone who had apparently travelled so far down the path to make the very goal we were pursuing impossible, he was allegedly only a mere trace of the man he once was.

Of course, he had another purpose other than ridding the wizarding world of muggle borns. He wanted to achieve immortality, and evidently he had achieved this in some way or another. All of his goals seemed to centre around his childhood, and the hint I had uncovered as to what may have taken place at the orphanage where he was brought up. If what I had found was correct, his hatred of muggles was based on the fact that his father was one, and he had abandoned Tom Riddle's mother. His need to conquer death, it seemed, was because his mother's death after his birth had led to his abandonment in the orphanage. So the reasons he had been subjected to whatever horrors took place in this orphanage, were muggles, and death. Consequently, when he had obtained the power he needed, through his connections with Salazar Slytherin, he had apparently tried to rid his world of the two things that had caused him so much misery.

I was definitely on to something. Although a lot of my musings had been pure guesswork, I felt satisfied that everything fitted together so well. Had anyone made these connections before? I thought they probably hadn't, since I had heard from Harry that most people didn't even know that Voldemort had once been Tom Riddle, since he was so unrecognisable. Also, I knew that most wizards would deny it even if it were proven to them. For some reason, it was easier to imagine Voldemort as an evil force that just existed, rather than identifying with the human being that he once was.

Now, although identifying with the enemy would perhaps give us some advantage, what we really needed was some magical means of removing his immortality, so he would be unprotected in battle. However, I knew next to nothing of Voldemort's special magical abilities. He must have some weaknesses, but what could they be? I stood up, lost in thought and began to pace in front of the fireplace, going over everything I knew about him. Of course! He shared wand cores with Harry! I didn't have any knowledge of the special properties of wand cores, however, so I sat back down and regenerated my handbook. This time, there was not much available on my chosen topic, only fifty pages or so. I scanned the contents until I came across a section titled 'Wand Core Connection'. I flicked to the page quickly, excited. I started reading.

'On the rare occasions that brother wands are forced to act against one another in duel, a rare effect takes place. The two wands in question become connected by what appears as a strand of liquid light. Unaltered, the Priori Incantatem effect takes place, forcing one of the wands to regurgitate shadows of past spells. However, in the past this effect has been altered, so that the connected brother wands can act as an object to fight dark wizards. This powerful magic acts in the form of a complicated gaseous potion, given to the dark wizard. The wands are then connected in duel and the liquid light forced to make contact with the dark wizard's wand. The magic will take effect by removing all of the wizard's magical powers. This magic was used as a means for fighting the dark wizard…….'

Oh my god. This was big. I didn't think anyone had come across this as a possible advantage before. I didn't even know if anyone knew about the wand cores of Harry and Voldemort. I skimmed the next few pages. There was no more mention of the potion needed. Now I was stuck. With no name, I didn't know where to look first for such a potion. I had just begun to search through possible subjects in my handbook when a pop sounded, and Severus apparated into the room. I looked up at him. He looked tired and drawn, something I hadn't noticed this morning. I looked at my watch. It was 3pm! I couldn't believe I'd been busy for that long, it had seemed like about half and hour.

'Are you okay?' I asked, as he collapsed into a chair. He sighed heavily.

'Why do you ask?'

'Because you look tired. What did you find out?'

'Absolutely nothing. It was a complete waste of time. What about you?' He answered irritably.

'Loads. I got a bit stuck though. I've found a possible route to take.' I told him all about the wand core potion theory I had found. When I had finished, he looked taken aback. He had clearly expected me to sit around all day and do nothing. 'Have you ever heard of such a potion?' I asked.

'I didn't even know they shared wand cores. I think I may have heard of something vaguely. The books with reference to it probably won't be available in your handbook though. I have copies, but they're originals. I'll send a note to Albus to ask him to send me them. He produced some parchment and a quill out of thin air and began to scrawl out a note.

I was actually surprised that he'd accepted my idea right away. I had sort of expected him to ridicule me and say it was a stupid idea. After all the research of the day, I was developing a headache. I needed some escapism. I decided I wanted to transform to my animagus form, to get outside into the fresh air. It was hot and dusty in this pub. I had become an animagus at the beginning of my seventh year, when the ordinary transfiguration was not enough of a challenge anymore. I had not registered myself after consultation with Dumbledore, as my form was so unusual and too much of a potential advantage that we decided not to reveal it. One night in the library, I had discovered an ancient manuscript on transfiguration. It said that if one was to transform for the first time on the night of a full moon, under an invisible cloak, they would appear translucent, and able to disappear at will. So I had borrowed Harry's invisibility cloak, once I thought I was ready to transform, and gone to the astronomy tower. My appearance was as a cat, translucent silver.

Anyway, back to the present, I transformed silently in my chair as Severus was concentrating, remembering the names of the books he had to ask for. I willed myself to disappear. My thoughts were different when I was an animal, just less human somehow. Now, my thoughts were a cat's thoughts, and I was perfectly happy to curl up in the comfort of my chair, and go to sleep. I didn't know how to get out anyway, with all the doors and windows warded.

I don't know how long I had been asleep when I heard my name being called.

'Hermione? Where the hell have you gone?' Severus shouted as he pounded down the stairs, very angry. I decided it would probably be wise to show myself, so I transformed back to my human state, and sat up in my chair. Severus nearly tripped down the step he was standing on, his mouth gaping open.

'What the…? How did you….?' He was speechless. I really didn't have the energy to explain, so I transformed back, this time not disappearing, and walked over to him. I disappeared, then shifted back to human form, and smiled broadly at him. He still stood, open mouthed.

'Do you know,' He said, recovering from the shock. 'I think there may be more to you than I give you credit for.'

A/N

Thanks to ChishionoTenshi and Andrian for reviewing!!

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I'll probably update again on Tuesday.

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