The Dark Lady
Chapter 15 – Remorse
By gracie5412
Thanks for reviewing you guys are wonderful! –
JKIJ,
Ice-Pheonix-Tears,
Kendra is cheese,
A/N – sorry for the extreme shortness of this one but a short chapter is better than no chapter right?
Hermione was making her way along the main hallway of The Riddle House when the all too familiar sensation hit her. She felt the bubbling in her stomach and the ache in her head as the balance inside herself was thrown and the old Hermione made another unwelcome appearance.
"Great just great." She muttered sarcastically as she lent on the wall for support "Just what I need now."
Her eyes flashed black before she collapsed to the ground. After a few moments her breathing slowed and the pain subsided and Hermione got unsteadily to her feet. Her bushy brown hair was back and she ran her fingers through it as memories came flooding back to her.
As her most recent memory hit her she froze in shock and she slowly slid back down the wall.
"Oh God!" She breathed as hot tears of remorse coursed down her cheeks; she was still repeating this like a mantra twenty minutes later when a house elf found her.
Malfoy was quickly contacted and Hermione was locked in her room while a medi-wizard was sent for. He arrived with haste and started a full check up on her.
"Well physically she is completely fine, the change has not affected the, erm, other her, its just temporarily submerged." The doctor explained to Malfoy as they stepped away from the bed where Hermione was still lay weeping.
"Well why is she like this, this side of her is weak it hasn't shown for weeks why now? It should nearly be gone. Why is it staying for so long?" Malfoy asked feeling angered by his confusion.
"It seems that this side of her experienced a great emotion, as it would when killing someone, this caused her to revert back to her 'good side' she is now stuck in a mind loop in a state of shock. She isn't able to change back but this side of her is both mentally and physically exhausted."
"How will we get her to change back? She can't stay like this." Malfoy asked feeling even more angered.
"There are two options, you will wait until she gets over it as she eventually will and she then will be able to change back or you need to over power her 'good' side. You need to add more evil to her." The Doctor said, "It is a risky process and it may kill her but it is a much quicker method than just waiting as that may take years and years for her mind to even accept what she did."
"How would we do it?" Malfoy demanded.
"That's really not my line of expertise, you would have an other. Now if you excuse me she is not the only patient I have to treat today." The wizard excused himself as he walked from the room.
Draco looked over to Hermione, sat curled up on the bed silently weeping and muttering to herself, before walking from the room also.
Three hours later he was sat in the vast library at a table completely covered in books searching for a way to fix this new problem that had sprung up. He was alone. The others were celebrating the return of the brave men and women who had given their lives for the Dark Lord in the war.
Draco had briefly explained to them about Hermione and none seemed too happy that she was a mudblood. But at the time being at least they were happy enough that they were not going to be killed to make too much of a fuss, so he wouldn't have to worry about that one for a day or two at least.
A further three hours had passed when he finally found a solution that had even the slightest possibility of working. He ripped the page from the book and stowed it in the folds of his robes before walking away.
He had someone to find, someone who didn't like company. Who would need a lot of persuading in order for their participation. But he could do it; he was, after all, Draco Malfoy, charming and extremely deadly.
Albus Dumbledore was sat in his office in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry when an old, scraggy looking owl tumbled in through the open window. It plonked down on his desk, exhausted from the journey, and allowed him to remove the letter that was attached to his leg.
Dumbledore quickly read the letter while absentmindedly stroking the owl. As he came to the end of the letter he rose from his desk and crossed the room to the fireplace. He grabbed a handful of floo powder and made his way to Grimmauld Place.
Once there he went instantly to Harry's room.
"Mr Potter please go and get Ron and Ginny and meet me in my office, it is a matter of great urgency." He instructed before turning and walking away.
Back in his office he sent a message to every Order member that there was to be an extremely important meeting that evening and attendance was mandatory.
He had just completed that task when Harry, Ron and Ginny walked into the room.
"What was it you wanted to see us about sir? Is everything ok?" Harry asked.
"I'm afraid to say that it is not, Harry, please sit down and I suppose you should read this." Dumbledore said and passed the letter over to them.
After a shot silence while the three took in what was written Harry looked up at Dumbledore. "I don't understand. Why would Hermione do that?"
"It seems that she is no longer on our side. She has somehow been lured over to the deatheaters."
"But why? When?" Ron asked.
"I do not know but it must have been sometime. She must have gotten the key when Duffy was taken and given me a fake. I should have checked it more carefully. She has been in our midst for a while since she has changed. Have none of you ever had any suspicions that she was acting any different?"
"I have." Ginny said quietly. "Just before she received her medal I was alone with her in her room and something happen. I'm not sure what, I think she cast a memory charm on me but something did happen and I don't think it was very good."
"Why didn't you say something sooner? We could have helped." Harry asked with venom. "We may have been able to stop this."
"And say what? 'You know Hermione? Yeh, well I think she evil now!' Sure you would have believed that. I had no proof just a feeling you would have given her the benefit." Ginny retorted, not wanting the blame to be pinned on her.
"Everyone calm down. It does not matter, but Miss Weasly we shall see if we can break that memory charm and find out what really happen it may give us a clue to just have badly affected Hermione has become. I know this may be hard for you to take in but just think it's not Hermione any more it is something that has taken over her and we will stop her. Even if we can't get her back we will stop her."
