AN: Okay, so this is something new... Haven't even finished the third story, and I'm writing the fourth, lol :) As you guess, it's set in the Mudblood's Daughter's Universe, with one massive difference. It's also set in the Origional books. So here's the deal, it's sort of a prologue, only set between The Scorpion's Fall, and the Hallow's Horcruxes :) Enjoy
The Mudblood's Daughter and the Vanishing Cabinet
Hermione Granger looked at the woman as she passed, a spark of recognition igniting, and then dimming as she looked at her. She knew the woman, she was sure of it, she just didn't know where from. Brushing it off for something she could think about later, she focused on her conversation with Cormac, only to find his was still talking about his quidditch skills. She resisted the urge to smack him, wringing her fingers around the handle of the green bag that held her wand, and gave him a polite, but strained smile. It was only then she noticed what they were standing under. Her eyes widened, and Cormac looked up as well, before deliberate smirk fell onto his lips.
"Well, well, Hermione... I bet you planned this, didn't you," he chuckled, and Hermione couldn't hid the reluctance and horror on her face. Cormac took no notice off it, putting an arm loosely around her waist. "Come on then, let's get at it, Granger," he said, puckering his lips and lowering his face to hers. Hermione swallowed a screech, and tucked down from under his arm, scampering away, to hide. She pushed between two members of the Weird Sisters band, and stopped only when she heard Harry's voice calling her name insistently. She gave a heavy sigh of relief, whanting to hig her bestfriend.
"Oh Harry! There you are, thank goodness! Hi Luna!" she rambled, looking around nervously for any sign of Cormac. Her appearance must have shown her distress, because Harry unhelpfully blurted out 'What happened to you?', rather rudely. Hermione glared at him slightly, before responding in a hurried whisper. "I've just escaped- I mean, just left Cormac," she explained, and Harry rose his eyebrows, a questioning look still on his face. "Under the mistletoe." SHe knew what was coming next. The chastising look on Harry's face said it all.
"Serves you right for coming with him," Harry said to here, his tone severe, and Hermione wanted to smack him upside the head, before wondering where the violent impulses she had where coming from. She responded with the same explanation she had given Ginny, only leaving out what Ginny had said about Malfoy. Harry got a horrified expression on his face. "You considered Smith?"
"Yes, I did, and I'm starting to wish I'd chosen him, McLaggen makes Grawp look like a gentlemen. Let's go this way, we'll be able to see him coming, he's so tall..." Hermione trailed off, dragging Harry and an almost suspiciously quiet Luna towards the other side of the lavishly decorated room. She picked up a glass of mead and drank it fully, before she noticed who they had come to stand next to. Professor Trelawney reeked of cooking sherry, so much that Hermione took a small step back from her. The drunk professor struck up a conversation with Luna, unable to focus clearly, and Hermione gave a small sigh of relief that she didn't have to talk to the woman she didn't despise, but certainly couldn't stand.
"Let's get something straight. Are you planning to tell Ron that you interfered at Keeper try-outs?" Harry asked after getting closer to her, and Hermione felt offence and a pang of sadness that Harry could even think she would stoop so low. She told him so as well, her eyebrows raised in disbelief. Harry gave her a shrewd look, before opening his mouth. "Hermione, if you can ask out McLaggen-"
Hermione cut him off, dignity laced in her nearly angry tone, "That is different, Harry Potter. I have no plans to tell Ron anything that may or may not have happened at Keeper try-outs." Hermione was finding it rather difficult to keep her temper under control and when Harry mentioned Quidditch, she could feel herself loosing it. Her voice was shrill when she yelled at him. "Quidditch! Is that all you boys care about? Cormac hasn't asked me one single question about myself, no, I've been treated to A Hundred Great Saves Made by Cormac McLaggen NON-STOP, ever since - on no! Here he comes!"
She managed to get away fast enough that Harry had thought she had disapparated. She stumbled through the crowd, pushing past a group of gigglign girls, and hidign behind a sheer, peach curtain, her chest heaving, head hitting the wall. She closed her eyes, huffing, breaths short and rapid. She allowed herself a few moments of peace and quiet, to try and calm her frazzled nerves, before she peeked out the curtain, and tried to get to the doors of the room, hoping to leave. She skulked next to the wall, crouched low and hoping to leave unnoticed, when she felt a hand grab her arm.
She looked up to see Cormac frowning down at her. "Where are you going? I thought we were on a date?" Cormac asked, and she felt her heart drop in her chest, as she stammered her words, trying to give a valid excuse as to why she was sneaking out of the party. "You really are a little tease, aren't you? No wonder Weasley moved onto Lavender. He wasn't getting any from you," Cormac sneered, and Hermione blinked, gaping t his insensitivity. She yanked her arm from his grip, as he continued on at her only to stop when he saw Filch dragging Malfoy in by the ear.
Hermione took his distraction as a moment to get away from him, blinking back tears and sobs that threatened to spill at his harsh, cruel words. she tried to remind herself that it was just McLaggen, that he didn't know what he was talking about, when her eyes met Malfoy's across the room. He looked tired, angry also slightly fearful. His eyes had shadows under them, and his face was gaunt, paler than usual. She knew that look, it was the look Harry often got. When the weight of the world seemed to be on his shoulders, and he was carrying it alone. she ducked her head, so he couldn't see the pity in her eyes, and continued to creep out of the room, pushing past the party-goers, her eyes brimming with tears.
She covered her mouth with one hand, as she fled the hallway, desperate to get to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom before she completely broke down.
Hermione Malfoy had never been more at a loss in her life. For at least half an hour, she had leaned against the wall of the hallway she seemed unable to leave, before she had somehow managed to start moving again, heading for somewhere she was sure would hold the answers she needed for the thousands of question's racing through her mind. The only comfort, she could grasp from this at all, was that she was going to see Dumbledore again. In her own time, she could talk to his portrait, but it wasn't the same as talking to the man she had once admired so greatly, face-to-face. That was the only possible good thing she could gather from this.
She had no way of knowing if her children were okay. Scorpius was only ten, he was going to Hogwarts next year. This was the last year she had with him. Abraxus was four. He wasn't used to not being with an adult, and Narca-Jane was pregnant with her second grand-child. She didn't want to miss her giving birth. She came to a steady halt in front of the Gargoyle that would take her up to Dumbledore's office. Almost habitually, she dusted down her clothes, making sure she was presentable and fluffing her hair, before realising what she was doing. As well as this, it also occurred to her that she had no idea at all of what the password was, and whether Dumbledore was even in his office. She couldn't stop the small bubble of frustration that burst within her, and cursing, she spun and kicked the stone wall with the toe of her shoe.
She froze, her lip trembling, before she cried out in agony as her foot thoroughly protested what she had done, pulsing painfully. She kicked of her shoe and grasped her toes, hopping on one heeled foot, which caused her to fall backwards onto her bottom, with a raw thud. Her ankle now throbbed as well, and she knew it was twisted, as she tried to force the sling-back heels off her foot before her ankle swelled too much. Sighing heavily, she squeezed her eyes shut, counting to ten before refocusing.
Okay, so she wasn't going to get help from Dumbledore any time soon, so who would be the next best person to seek out? A smile crept onto her lips. Minerva McGonnagle. Looking around for something to grab hold off, she realised the only thing was the Gargoyle itself, so she latched onto it's wing, and pulled herself to her feet. She gasped in pain as she put too much weight on her ankle, and pulled her wand out her sleeve. Pointing it at her ankle, she mumbled a quick healing spell, and put her weight on it again, relieved when the pain diminished.
Looking at her shoes, which lay on the floor, she scowled, before striding down the hall, the route to Minerva's office clear in her mind even after twenty-four years.
Draco Malfoy knew there was something not right, the moment he entered the Cottage to complete silence. Abraxus was not there, and neither was Scorpius. Which meant Hermione hadn't picked them up from Ron and Pansy's. "Hermione?" he called out, and he received no reply. Scowling, he walked through the house, to the kitchen, only to find more darkness and an empty kitchen. For the first time in a long time, he felt himself start to worry. Hermione was always home before he was. It was the way it was in their home.
He sat down at the kitchen table, thinking hard. She hadn't sent him an owl, telling him she would be late, and he knew that she was trying to get as much time in as she could with Scorpius before he went to Hogwarts. Draco scowled at where his thoughts had gone to. Scorpius was going to be just like him, he could already see it. Maybe not so free with the term 'Mudblood', but like Draco none the less. Hermione didn't see it. She couldn't see it, she was blind to her son's flaws. Scorpius had been destined to be a Slytherin, whatever he was like at home, that was who he would be.
Realizing he was getting distracted again, he stood and walked into the living room, where the house phone was kept. The muggle object he had seen Hermione use so many times stared back at him, mocking his incapability to use muggle equipment. Scowling, he picked up the Address book Hermione always left beside the phone, and flicked through it until he got to 'P'. He scanned down the list until he got to Potter, and picked up the phone. He looked at the numbers on the machine, and then at the ones in the phone book, before pressing the numbers in the order they were in the book.
It was time to find his wife.
Hermione Granger stared up at the ceiling of the classroom she had somehow ended up in, swallowing, every part of her body stiff and sore. Her head turned to the sleeping figure beside her, and she felt her eyes prick with tears again, as she admonished her own stupidity. He looked so peaceful, almost serene. She couldn't blame him, she just couldn't. But she couldn't let him remember either. They were at war. His and hers. Her friends would never accept it, they would hunt him down and beat the life out of him for even thinking off touching her.
She reached out and stroked his pale cheek, biting her lip at it's softness, before she sat up and shuffled around, looking for the green bag that had her wand in it. She pulled it out her bag, and clutching it to her chest, she looked at Draco's slumbering form, an apologetic look on her face. "I'm so sorry..." she whispered, before pointing the wand at his temple. "Obliviate," she cast the spell, and the white glow swept over his head. She waited with bated breath, to make sure he didn't wake, and when the light had subsided, and he was still sleeping soundly, she collected her ruined clothes, pulling them on quickly, and sneaked from the classroom, heart hammering.
She rushed down the corridor, trying to be as quiet as possible and hiding whenever she thought she heard someone approaching. It wasn't too early yet, only about four in the morning, so she shouldn't run into anyone, other than the House Elves, and maybe some of the really early bird teachers. When she finally reached Gryffindor Tower, she quietly gave the Fat Lady the password and skulked into the Common Room. She was shocked to see Harry sitting up, in front of a dwindling fire an all too pensive look on his face. Biting her lip, debating whether or not to go over, her feelings for her friend won over, and she went over to him, sitting silently beside him.
He looked at her, before his eyes widened. "What happened to you?" he asked, worried, and Hermione shrugged, before responding 'I don't wish to talk about it'. Harry stared at her, before releasign a heavy sigh, and looking back at the simmering ashes. Hermione rest her head on his shoulder. "I miss him," Harry said. Hermione swallowed, and sniffed, knowing he was talking about Sirius.
"I miss him as well."