Chapter 14
\\/
"Hurry up! We're late for the welcome feast!"
"I don't hurry anywhere," Severus grumbled, reluctantly speeding up.
Hermione snorted, pulling him into a trot as they zigzagged through a mass of corridors, and burst through a side door into the Great Hall, where the returning students had congregated.
The feast was already underway, but after a moment they were spotted, and silence skittered across the room. Then a low murmur, barely audible, rose from the mass of students.
The Hufflepuff's seemed confused; the Ravenclaw's bored, and the red and gold table of Gryffindor's eyed Hermione with outright hostility. The Slytherin's though - they began whispering to each other, and shuffling up and down the bench like ripples spreading across a pool.
Hermione swept her gaze swiftly across the hall. It took a second, and then she saw what was happening.
By tacit, undiscussed agreement, Slytherin's were opening a gap at the very centre of the table, where only Lucius Malfoy and his cohorts usually sat. Lucius himself faced away, his back ramrod straight.
"What is this?"
At the staff table, Dumbledore gazed impassively at the scene. Slughorn was watching with poorly disguised fright on his face.
"I think you need to sit there," Severus said.
"Don't you dare leave me alone."
Everyone in the room watched as Hermione, with forced nonchalance, slung her bag under the table right beneath the noses of the seventh years. She glanced at Severus, who gestured theatrically at the bench.
"After you."
"Should have guessed you'd enjoy this," Hermione muttered as they sat, bringing a rare smile to his face.
"Has to be some perks from hanging out with you."
Hermione elbowed him, then looked down the table. Rabastan and Regulus were sitting opposite Arabel and Alecto. She tilted her head questioningly at them, and with something that looked like relief, the four of them quickly scurried to sit beside and across from Hermione and Severus.
The silence still held. Lucius was eyeing the newcomers like he'd smelt something rancid. Hermione ignored them all, and pulled a large dish of spring greens towards herself.
"How have you been Arabel? Alecto? We missed you over the holidays, didn't we?"
"We were bereft," Rabastan said solemnly. Severus was overtaken by a sudden coughing fit.
Chatter began to resume around the table, but slowly.
"It was fine...my family went to a few Spring parties, but apparently none as interesting as yours," Arabel said.
"Interesting is one word for it."
"Got any others?"
The Slytherin's sitting close by had dropped any pretence that they weren't eavesdropping, and Hermione bit back a grin.
"Yeah. Successful."
"I so look forward to catching up later."
"Me too. And how was your holiday Alecto?"
"What? Oh, um, it was fine."
Hermione cast a look at the younger girl and didn't like what she saw.
"Just fine?"
"Um, yes."
Alecto's eyes were dull, and a glamour shimmered across her cheekbone. It wasn't obvious, but Hermione had spent half a war disguising herself and she knew where to look.
"What's on your face?"
"Wh-what are you talking about?"
Hermione wanted to push the point, especially since Amycus Carrow was only six seats away, but suppressed the urge.
"Oh, never mind. Thought I saw something, but it was just the light."
\\/
"I can't fucking believe it!"
In the seventh year dormitory, Lucius Malfoy was seething. Hermione, invisible and pressed to the crack in the door, was hard pressed to keep herself from laughing out loud.
"Stupid bitch doesn't have any idea what she's got herself into," Amycus grunted.
"Malfoy's have presided over the centre of the Slytherin table for decades! The last time anybody else sat there, Father told me it was our Lord himself! How dare she!"
"They let her," Amycus said.
"Just because some letters have gone out, now they're acting like she's something special! Six months ago nobody knew she existed!"
Hermione swallowed another laugh. Ostensibly she was there to gather information on Slytherin house's reaction to the changes - but if she was being honest with herself, she had really just wanted to hear Malfoy spluttering.
"And another thing - did you see she had the half-blood with her? Sitting in the place that I ought to rightfully hold?"
"Stupid bitch," Amycus said, his conversation skills apparently not reaching much further.
"It's bad enough that our Lord seems to want him, let alone her playing along. I'm going to make them both fucking pay! I'm a Malfoy, does she even know what that means?"
Hermione silenced herself, and then let the laughter escape until her sides ached. Back in their schooldays she had longed to put Draco's nose out of joint, but hadn't managed it until their third year. It turned out pissing off another Malfoy was just as satisfying. It helped that she planned to whack him eventually.
When she had herself under control she dropped the charms, broke the wards on the dormitory door, and with a swirl of her robes, unceremoniously sauntered in.
"Black! What the fuck?"
Hermione smiled sweetly at Lucius, who had apparently been getting ready for bed. In a long, black silk nightshirt, with his blonde hair cascading over his shoulders, he wasn't particularly threatening.
"Just came to say hello. Since we're going to be so close soon."
"What are you talking about?" Lucius said.
Amycus drew his wand, and Hermione smiled victoriously.
"You know, since we're going to have our special ceremony at the same time this summer. We'll be practically brother and sister."
The look of pure rage on Lucius's face as she left the room could have fuelled Hermione's patronus if she had needed one at that moment.
"Go fuck yourself Black!"
"You look like a girl Lucius."
\\/
As Hogwarts marched on into the summer term, there seemed hardly enough hours in the day for Hermione to do everything she needed to accomplish. Her little blue book was filling up with new observations, and changes to her plans that she had never expected.
Alecto's diary revealed nothing except that she is truly terrified of her brother, who has terrorised and abused her since childhood. Have revised plan to remove her, and will recruit instead. Plan A will be carried out in the next few weeks.
It perturbed Hermione to make changes. By this time of year she had already intended for Rabastan and Alecto to have followed Avery into the grave, but now found that she no longer wanted to kill them. The thought drifted into her mind that perhaps she could make them hers instead.
That thought would not go away.
In a different life, Rabastan Lestrange had once held a knife to her throat. He had stood in the Hogwarts great hall, and used the killing curse on the Creevey brothers; first Dennis, then Colin. He had howled with laughter as Bellatrix murdered Molly Weasley
So why couldn't she find that man inside him?
Alecto Carrow had, by sheer luck, cornered Professor Flitwick in his office during the third battle of Hogwarts; the one that razed it to the ground. Catching him unawares, she had disarmed and then petrified him. After that she had gratuitously used cutting curses until he had bled out onto his study carpet.
Where was that woman?
Hermione still grieved for dozens of deaths that had never taken place in this world. They were real to her, the cold, still corpses that appeared in her dreams. Harry lying spread-eagled, his chest blasted open. Ron, the only man she had ever expected to love, slumped on the stone floor with the back of his head blown off, decorating the corridor in ribbons of red. Good people, but not vicious enough for the savagery that war demanded of them.
Hermione knew that brutality was buried somewhere inside her new companions, and that they were better suited to the cruelty of war than her old friends had ever been. She wanted to draw their darker nature out, and to harness it in a different direction. A direction that wouldn't finish with everybody Hermione had ever loved rotting in shallow graves.
This time it wasn't going to take two decades to end the war.
\\/
The rumblings of house dynamics continued to shift even after the obvious display at the beginning of term, as Slytherin after Slytherin received word from home. Do not cross Hermione Black. The Dark Lord chose her.
Some, like Rabastan and Arabel, found it hilarious. Others like Lucius and Barty Crouch seemed to take it as a personal affront. Most showed a wary respect, and a few, indifference. The changes mostly showed in the small details; Hermione would find her drinks poured, the most comfortable seat by the fire left available, little attempts to curry favour.
It wasn't just the Slytherin's that noticed the difference. Someone else went to extreme lengths to manufacture a meeting, for which Hermione couldn't blame them. The fireball though - that had been overkill.
"Aquamenti, remember," Hermione tutored.
Alecto nodded, and tried again. The charms classroom ceiling was dripping with over-enthusiastic attempts, and Professor Flitwick had taken shelter under an umbrella.
In between correcting the other witch's pronunciation, Hermione was experimenting with what shapes she could form with the conjured water in mid air. The translucent liquid hovered, becoming a serpent, then a witches hat, then a cauldron.
"Show off," someone coughed.
Hermione turned to see James Potter tilting his chair back on two legs. Behind him, Lily leaned forwards and firmly shoved the chair down.
"Aw Evans don't be like that."
"Face it Potter, you're useless with or without your legs on the ground," Hermione said, flicking water at him.
Lily made a disapproving noise, and Hermione had to conceal her fond smile. The redhead was a spitfire, and she had yet to see any sign of her romance with James taking root, but was watching with great anticipation. She couldn't wait to see baby Harry.
"Hermione am I doing it right?" Alecto asked.
Hermione watched, and the other witch cast the spell but only succeeded in conjuring a few droplets of water out of her wand.
"Almost. Just...flick a bit harder."
Rabastan snorted. Hermione rolled her eyes and dropped the charms she had been maintaining. The liquid bust of Salazar Slytherin she had been carefully constructing turned to formless water, and splashed straight over Rabastan's head, drenching him and his notes.
"Watch it!" Regulus said, as water slopped onto his desk, and Rabastan spluttered incoherently.
"Oops. Sorry Regs. Wasn't aiming for you."
Rabastan snatched Hermione's wand, shaking his wet hair like a dog, before casting a drying charm.
"You don't deserve your wand privileges today Hermione."
"Oh give it back you little -"
There was a crash, and students lunged out of the way as desks toppled to the ground. Hermione spun around just in time to see an orange fireball heading straight for her face. Her wand wasn't in her hand where it should have been, and instinctively she shook her left sleeve, waiting for her reserve wand to drop into her hand. A second later she remembered she didn't have a reserve wand anymore.
As the class watched in horror, Hermione wandlessly jerked a chair up into the air, right into the path of the fireball. The chair exploded, and she covered her face as splinters flew everywhere, casting a containment spell before debris could hit her friends.
"Who the bloody hell did that?" Hermione snarled, lowering her hands, which had taken the worst of the burns.
"I'm so sorry."
Peter Pettigrew, trembling at the very front of the room, slowly raised his hand. Professor Flitwick descended on Hermione, using his wand to sweep a diagnostic across her face quickly. The damage was mostly from flying splinters.
"Pettigrew you shit!"
"Now Miss Black, I'm sure it was an accident."
"It was Professor. He got me too."
Sirius Black held up his arm, where the robe was singed and the skin blackened. Professor Flitwick looked horrified.
"We are conjuring water, not fire Mr Pettigrew! We will discuss the finer details of this in detention. Mr Black, Miss Black, I believe you should both visit the hospital wing."
Scowling, Hermione snatched her wand back from Rabastan, ignoring the concerned looks from her friends and stormed out of the room. She was angry that in a moment of light-heartedness she had allowed her wand to leave her side, with results that could have been catastrophic.
"Hey Black, wait up!" Sirius called down the corridor after her.
Hermione stopped for a moment, cast a quick series of muffling spells across the corridor, and then spun and slapped Sirius across the face.
"For Merlin's sake, you couldn't think of any other way to do it, you stupid mutt?"
Sirius stilled, his hand half-raised to his face.
"What are you talking about?"
Hermione pulled out a pocket mirror and checked her reflection. Blood trickled down her face from a cut below the eye, and her hair was badly singed.
"If you wanted to talk to me you only had to ask."
Sirius looked gobsmacked.
"I didn't…"
"Don't bother Sirius, you're a shit liar."
Wordlessly Sirius gaped, his eyes goggling like a fish. Then he snapped his jaw shut, and stepped forward with fists clenched.
"That's what I'm here for. I want to know how you know these things, and who you are, Black."
Hermione had been waiting for one of the Marauders to approach, but with sharp bits of wood embedded in her hands, didn't feel inclined to play nicely.
"What are you talking about? I'm just another twig at the end of a long Black family branch."
"Don't play fucking word games with me. This isn't a joke," Sirius said, moving forward. The air between them was almost crackling with tension.
"Why do you care so much? I don't have anything to do with you."
"In case it somehow escaped your notice, I go home every Summer to a house filled with your favourite kind of people," Sirius said.
"I don't know what you -"
"Death Eaters, Black. Don't act like I'm fucking stupid. I know what my brother's trying to join."
There didn't seem to be any possible response to that.
"What do you want from me?"
"I want to know who you are, where you came from, and what side you're on."
"I think it should be pretty obvious what side I'm on."
"I don't believe you."
"I don't care."
The gloves were coming off. Sirius rounded on Hermione, only to find her wand between his eyes. Then she felt his wand digging into her ribs.
"Not as fast as you think you are, Hermione Black. I'll tell you what I want - if you tell me what you're really up to."
Up close, Sirius was even more good-looking than from a distance. He smelt faintly of an intoxicating aftershave, and the glint in his dark eyes was magnetic. Hermione waited a split second, and then non-verbally summoned his wand into her hand. In half a minute less than no time, Sirius was staring down two wands.
"You bitch!"
"Is that how you really talk to family?"
Sirius hesitated, and something almost like pain crossed his face. That intrigued Hermione enough that she let the wands drop. About an inch. Sirius sighed, and spoke more quietly.
"Look...what I wanted to talk to you about….it's Regulus. This shit he's getting mixed up in - he doesn't understand what it's really like. He hears the deaths read out every morning, but he doesn't understand what it means. What he's walking into."
"And you do?"
"Can you put those fucking wands down please?"
Reluctantly Hermione lowered her arm.
"Thanks."
"Mm."
Hermione eyed Sirius, a part of her wishing she could tell him the truth. Sometimes when she dreamed, in spite of all the horrors her subconscious had to choose from, she still saw his body sailing through the veil of death, his eyes wide and astonished.
"You won't tell Regulus about this conversation," Sirius said.
"Please, I'm a Slytherin."
"Don't say that like it's a good thing."
Hermione was startled into a laugh. She had missed her Gryffindor boys dearly, and in Sirius she could almost see their ghosts.
"It's not a terrible thing."
"Speak for yourself."
Both laughed, and for a moment there was almost kinship between them.
"Look, Sirius, I don't understand why you think I have any influence over what your little brother says or does, or why you brought this to me. I don't know if it's escaped your notice, but I am on the other side of this."
Sirius abruptly turned serious.
"No, you're not. That's why I'm asking - I had a letter from home. I know what you're going to do this Summer, but I also know you're not really with them."
Immediately there was a wand in Sirius's face again.
"Explain that comment and make it snappy."
Hermione stalked closed to Sirius, who gulped.
"We've got ways of watching things in this castle. I know it was you that killed that Slytherin before Christmas. If you watch out for Regulus, I won't tell Dumbledore - or the aurors."
Obliviate.
Hermione's mouth opened, and her lips formed the O of the first syllable. At that very instant the bell for the end of classes rang. Doors began to slam open up and down the corridor, and students streamed out, chattering and shouting.
"Pads, you're still here!"
James Potter came up behind them, clapped Sirius on the shoulder, but for a moment neither he nor Hermione moved. Then she dropped her wand to her side, and handed Sirius his one back.
"Think about it," he said quietly.
"We'll speak about this later," she told him, threat implicit in her voice.
Sirius stared at her, and Hermione was certain he knew what spell she had been about to cast on him. Then without a word, he shrugged off James's hand, and picked up his bag. The four Marauders sloped off down the corridor, Peter Pettigrew stumbling at the back.
Unable to resist, Hermione sent a quick tripping spell at him, and had the pleasure of watching the fat boy flail his arms and fall, crashing into a suit of armour with a wail. Then she was interrupted.
"Erm, hello, it's Black, right?"
Hermione turned back, surprised to see that it was Lily speaking to her.
"Yes. And you're Lily Evans."
Face to face for the first time with those green eyes, dear God it hurt to look at them. No wonder Severus couldn't bear the sight of Harry. Hermione hungrily searched Lily's features for more evidence of her friend.
"Yeah, that's right. I just wanted to say...whatever Sirius said, don't take it personally. I know he can be aggressive, but he's had a bad year."
Hermione raised her eyebrows.
"Haven't we all."
Lily frowned, and Hermione stared at the eyelids that crinkled at the corners in just the same way as Harry's.
"It's just, what they say about you…"
"What do they say about me, Lily?"
"They say that you hurt people who cross you."
Lily spoke fast; defensively. She tucked a lock of red hair behind her ear and folded her arms. Even the mannerisms were similar, and Hermione smiled, in spite of herself.
"Sirius is a big boy. I'm sure he'll be alright."
"Just...don't hurt him," Lily said fiercely. Hermione conceded with a nod. Pain wasn't what she had in mind.
"Come on Lily, we're going to be late."
A small, mousey girl pulled Lily Evans from Hermione. As soon as the Gryffindor's were gone, as if by magic, her friends appeared behind them.
"What was that about?" Severus asked, pulling out his wand and healing the cut on Hermione's cheek without asking. He took her damaged hands in his larger ones, and examined them, before carefully spelling out the splinters of wood.
Hermione winced, and shook her head.
"Lily wanted to warn me off Sirius. Apparently she thinks I might hurt him."
"Are you going to?" Rabastan asked eagerly.
Regulus coughed loudly, and Rabastan subsided. Severus sealed Hermione's cuts, and dropped her hands. The group headed down the corridor, but by the time they reached the end the Marauders were out of sight.
"So it's 'Lily', is it?" Rabastan said after a moment.
"What about her?"
"You and she looked very intense...and on first-name terms already."
Rabastan waggled his eyebrows.
"Maybe this is why you haven't succumbed to my charms yet."
Severus scowled fiercely, and Hermione burst out laughing.
"Please, Rabastan. If I played for the other team Arabel would be my first pick."
"Better luck next time Rabs'," Arabel said, linking her arm with Hermione's and winking. Alecto looked downcast.
"You're second pick," Hermione assured her.
The group headed into their next class, exchanging barbs and jokes, Hermione at the very centre. It was already hard to remember a time when she'd wanted to kill these people.
\\/
Thanks for reading!
Somehow over Christmas I've written three chapters, so expect updates in the next few weeks when I've edited them. There's murder and romance brewing. Happy New Year everyone!
Cas
