I owe a debt of gratitude to the brilliant Margot Le Faye for her assistance with the plot and outline of the action for this chapter and the remainder of the story.
~oOo~
Seventh Year, Part 12, 1998
Hermione felt absurdly good when she awoke alone in a bed piled high with blankets and tartan plaids. Her body was clean, fed, and deliciously sore from Lucius's attentions. The curtains around the bed were drawn, and she pulled them back carefully, shivering as the cool air touched her bare skin.
A fire was blazing in the fireplace and a few candles were lit around the room.
"Lucius?" she asked in a soft voice.
She was alone in the bedroom. She parted the drapes along one tall window just enough to see that it was still dark outside. A tempus cast from her wand showed it was just after 6 am.
She shivered and wrapped a plaid around her as she wondered where he could have gone. A small stack of books rested on the table by the fire where he'd sat patiently by her side the night before as she ate.
She sat down on the sofa and thumbed through them. They all appeared to be books about Hogwarts and its founders. The books had not been there last night, and she smiled to herself at the thought that Lucius had gathered them for her.
She was several chapters into an admittedly rather dull book about the life of Rowena Ravenclaw when Lucius returned, fully dressed in grey and black robes.
"Good morning, pet. How long have you been awake?"
"Not long. Where were you?"
"Searching for a book. I believe I may have found something."
He withdrew another book from his robes and sat down beside her.
"What is it?" she asked eagerly.
He thumbed carefully through what looked to be an ancient text.
"I knew I had seen an image somewhere of Rowena Ravenclaw, but I could not recall where," he said. "For a witch of such esteem, surprisingly few paintings or statues of her remain. I have searched for this book for months and an owl arrived with it this morning."
He at last came to a page showing an early medieval portrait of a dark-haired woman. The picture did not move, which struck her as odd, given that it was obviously a book of magical origin. Rowena Ravenclaw was dressed in robes of dark blue and wore a crown of sapphires and a necklace with a large bronze eagle on it.
"That's her."
Hermione studied the image for a long moment, wondering what Lucius's point was. Then it hit her.
"The eagle necklace? You think that's it?"
"Either that, or the diadem," he said, motioning to the crown on her head.
"She was royalty," Hermione observed.
"Indeed. All of the founders were."
"Really?"
Lucius looked annoyed. "It disturbs me tremendously to see a witch of your calibre not know this."
"I've read 'Hogwarts: A History' forwards and backwards!" she said indignantly.
"It's not in the recent editions. The push to eliminate the peerage and create a more 'egalitarian' magical Britain began before Grindelwald's rise to power," he explained. "All of the founders held titles. Rowena Ravenclaw was a princess. Hence the diadem."
She stared at him, open-mouthed. How had she not known such a crucial bit of magical history? Why was this withheld?
He smirked at her response. "You had to have suspected," he said, motioning toward the image of the Ravenclaw house founder.
"Well, I mean, I assumed they were of some means in order to start a school and build a castle like they did," she said.
"You've destroyed a golden chalice, and a gold and emerald locket. You said yourself that Potter has the sword, and it is reportedly goblin-made and bejeweled. Those are not inexpensive items, even today."
He snorted at the look of surprise on her face. "Come now, pet. You yourself called me Lord Malfoy. You knew enough about wizarding history to know that it was the proper way to address someone of my station."
"I… I can't believe you remember that."
"A child born of muggles called me by a title now seldom-used in our world. Believe me when I say it was memorable."
She stared at him for a moment before, amazed that he recalled such a little detail from years ago. "Well, yes, I did call you that. I wanted...I was trying to fit in. It seemed appropriate. But I...I don't know why it never occurred to me that the founders also held titles. Now that I think about it though, it makes sense. They would have had to be individuals of importance to get all of magical Britain to send their children to school there."
"Yes, you would be correct."
"Why did that change? Why is that no longer taught?" she demanded.
"That, I believe, is a debate for another day," he said, handing her the fragile book. "You may take this book with you when you leave. There may be more of interest in it to you, although if you can return it intact after the war is all over, I would like to hold onto it."
She cradled the precious tome carefully. "I'll take very good care of it!"
"Indeed. When you and Mr. Potter get into Hogwarts, I believe you will need to search for either that necklace or that diadem."
She looked at the image of Rowena Ravenclaw again and considered his words.
"Tom Riddle's family, his magical family. They were descended from Salazar Slytherin."
"Yes."
"Did they still hold a title?"
"I believe that much of the family's fortune and titled estates were sold over the generations. It's rather unfortunate, the choices the Dark Lord has made," he mused.
"How so?"
"As I've said before, He was brilliant, powerful beyond belief. Before He lost his body, he was charismatic. Many witches thought Him handsome. He could have done so much, been a credit to the Gaunt name, a worthy heir of Salazar Slytherin. This inexplicable focus on immortality has cost him a great deal, it would seem."
Hermione frowned. She'd not really thought about it that way, but she supposed he had a point.
"Would the Dark Lord have known? About the founders' titles, about the titles held by some of the magical families?" she prompted.
"Given that He collected items belonging to the founders, it seems likely, does it not? He almost certainly knew."
"Then the diadem. It has to be the diadem!" she insisted.
"You think so?"
"It's an actual, literal CROWN, Lucius! He seems Himself as a god, a king. Why not use Rowena Ravenclaw's crown to store a piece of his soul? It's… it's rather poetic in a sick and twisted way when you think about it."
He stared at her for a moment before his lips twisted into a smile. "You are brilliant."
~oOo~
Lucius sent her back to Harry and to the Shrieking Shack soon after in clean clothes and with another large bag from Mipsy containing the precious book, another load of much-needed food and supplies, and a promise.
"Soon."
It would be over soon.
There were so many things she wished to discuss with him before she left. What exactly had he told Draco about their involvement? What did Draco think? How far was Draco willing to go to protect her or to help Harry? What could she safely tell the Order about how Lucius had helped her? Were there others among Voldemort's brethren Lucius thought would be willing to defect when the final battle came?
She wanted to ask Lucius what future he envisioned for them, should Harry win. She wanted to ask him about his hopes and dreams in a world free from Voldemort. She hated that their time together was so painfully brief.
But soon. They would be together again soon.
She and Lucius had notified the Order. She and Harry would break into the castle, find and destroy Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem. They would re-group with the Order, and surely reunite with Ron.
And then Harry would face Voldemort.
They would take out the snake.
It would be over.
And she could be with Lucius. Some way, somehow, she would be with Lucius.
~oOo~
Harry was happy to see her and thrilled with the bounty from 'Draco.' They huddled together in the shack, eating sandwiches from Mipsy as she told him everything she'd learned and the contents of the message they'd sent to Sirius. Harry seemed happy that they'd been able to get a message out to the Order. Naturally though, he was most excited about the book Lucius had given her and the conclusions they'd reached.
"A crown. That's...wait. Did you know the founders were part of some magical royalty?" Harry asked around a mouthful of roast beef.
"Well, I knew that some of the upper echelons of pureblood society should properly be called Lord and Lady, although those titles are rarely used by anyone anymore."
"Huh. It makes sense, though, doesn't it? I mean, for Riddle to use a crown worn by a magical princess, when he'd been cast out of the wizarding world, abandoned to a muggle orphanage," Harry mused. "Kind of a giant 'fuck you' to the wizarding world, right?"
Hermione nodded, remembering how Lucius had described the possibility of Voldemort making a horcrux from Gryffindor's sword as 'pissing on the grave of your enemies.'
"I don't know what we'd do without Malfoy," Harry admitted with a laugh. "Fuck, it feels wrong to say that. Malfoy. Huh."
They decided to pack up the camp and load everything into Hermione's beaded bag before scoping out Hogsmeade. If anything went wrong, they wanted to know they could safely flee with all of their supplies. She liked the idea of waiting to get into Hogsmeade under cover of darkness, but Harry was eager to act, and it was hard to argue with someone who was in possession of an invisibility cloak.
Lucius had confirmed there was a low level Death Eater guard in the town, so Hermione assumed wards of some kind had been set up, and she did not want to accidentally apparate into a situation they could not easily escape. The opted to try to sneak into Hogsmeade on foot.
It turned out to be for the best that they packed up everything that day. They made it a mere few meters into the town before accidentally tripping an alarm somewhere around the town's perimeter.
The noise was loud and startling enough that she nearly tripped herself, falling into Harry, both of them mercifully hidden under his invisibility cloak.
"What the hell?" she murmured as she righted herself.
"Caterwauling charm," he hissed, pulling her close. They moved quickly around a corner and down one of the narrow cobbled streets.
The alarm was still wailing, and people were peering cautiously out of windows. She heard shouting in the distance, part of the Death Eater guard no doubt, searching for whomever or whatever had tripped the alarm. Harry sent off a patronus, hoping to distract the Death Eaters and lead them astray.
Through the gauzy fabric of the invisibility cloak, she saw a Death Eater approach, wand drawn. No matter how many times she'd seen Lucius in his mask and robe, the sight of a Death Eater in action was still terrifying.
She and Harry froze beneath the cloak.
"Anything?" she heard another Death Eater ask as he approached the first.
"I heard something this way," the first wizard said, gesturing in their general direction.
"How anyone can hear anything over that bleedin' caterwauling is beyond me."
"Homenum revelio!" the first wizard said, casting the revealing charm into the corner of the alley where she and Harry stood huddled together. She held her breath and palmed her own wand, prepared to fight if need be.
A part of Hermione expected them to suddenly become visible. It wasn't exactly easy to hide from a revealing charm. It would have certainly canceled out a disillusionment charm. To her surprise, the cloak remained firmly in place, keeping them hidden.
"Aye, mate. We're wastin' time. If there was anyone here before, they're not here now," the second wizard said. "Come on, let's not be wastin' time."
Hermione exhaled in relief as the two Death Eaters headed back the other direction.
"We need to get out of the open," Harry whispered beside her.
Through a process of trial and error, looking for open facilities or unlocked doors, they ended up inside a rather seedy looking establishment called The Hogshead, and face to face with a wizard who bore a startling resemblance to Albus Dumbledore.
It became clear rather quickly that there was no love lost between Aberforth Dumbledore and his late brother, and Hermione was left wondering just how much truth there was in Rita Skeeter's book.
Aberforth advised them to wait out the Death Eaters, and then slip out of town under cover of darkness. He seemed shocked at Harry's insistence that they had to get into Hogwarts, and then resigned, looking as if he thought Harry and Hermione were both clueless children with a death wish.
Perhaps we are, she thought wryly to herself as Aberforth shook his head at them. Their late headmaster had sent them on an unclear path, without any real guidance and armed only with their wits and a few random items he'd left for them.
Aberforth reluctantly led them to a painting of a teenage witch with familiar twinkling blue eyes and light brown hair.
"Ariana?" Harry breathed as he gazed at the portrait. The witch nodded slightly at him.
"We need to get into Hogwarts. Can you help us?" he asked. The portrait paused, as if thinking, and then swung open, revealing a narrow set of stone stairs that descended into a dark tunnel.
Harry looked at her for a moment as he stashed the invisibility cloak in his robes and withdrew his wand to cast lumos.
"That's the only way in or out these days. The school's never been so heavily guarded, at least not in recent memory. I'm not sure what you think you're going to do once you get in there," Aberforth said.
"We'll figure it out," Harry said.
"A lot of bad things happen to people who follow my brother and his grand plans. You sure you know what you're doing?" Aberforth prompted.
Harry stiffened beside her. "Yes. I have to do this."
She thought perhaps Aberforth would try to talk them out of going, but instead he waved them on with a cryptic message. "Off you go then. You won't be the first to use this tunnel to go back and forth."
"I guess this is it. Shall we?" Harry said to her, motioning toward the stairs.
Hermione's heart thrummed in her chest. They were really doing it. They were going to sneak back into Hogwarts.
~oOo~
Hermione followed Harry down the narrow stone stairs and into the dark tunnel, casting a lumos of her own as the painting closed behind them, cutting off any light from Aberforth's pub.
"I can't believe there's another tunnel into Hogwarts that we didn't know anything about," Harry said with a bit of awe.
Everything had been so serious and stressful for so long, that she could not help but offer Harry a small bit of humour.
"Imagine how annoyed Sirius is going to be when you tell him," she shot back. She could absolutely picture Harry's godfather, mouth open in surprise, at the news that there was a tunnel from Hogwarts into a pub that he and the rest of the Marauders had missed.
Harry could apparently picture it as well before he snickered with laughter.
"You're right. It will drive him and Moony crazy," he agreed. "After the war. After the war, I'm going to bring them back here and show them this tunnel, and they'll be devastated at the thought of all the years of drinking they missed by not knowing there was a direct line into a pub."
It was a pleasant thought, and she held onto it as the tunnel leveled out underground. She wasn't sure how far below ground they were and whether anyone above could potentially hear them, so she and Harry kept their conversation at a whisper level as they made their way slowly through the dark.
"Where do you think this opens up?" he asked.
"I assume somewhere in the dungeons."
"Why?"
"Because we're below ground," she whispered dryly. The dungeons seemed like an obvious answer.
"Well, yeah, but it's magic. I mean, surely magic built this tunnel into a magical, practically sentient castle. It could open up anywhere."
She blinked in the darkness at the thought. It bothered her that her mind automatically went for the muggle answer, but Harry was right.
"Let's hope it doesn't open into the headmaster's office," she whispered with a shiver. Aberforth was Albus Dumbledore's brother after all. It would make sense.
"We should put on the cloak before we open any doors."
They walked in silence for a bit longer until Harry brought up the missing horcrux.
"Where should we look for the crown?" he asked.
"It's called a diadem."
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why is it called a diadem and not a crown?"
"Because...diadem is just another word for tiara. Men - wizards - don't wear tiaras or diadems, but they could wear a crown."
"Huh. So why not just call it a tiara?"
"Honestly Harry! I don't know."
"Sounds like Rowena Ravenclaw was pretty full of herself then if she needed a poncy word like 'diadem' to describe her crown," he teased.
"Now you just sound like Ron."
The words slipped from her mouth before she could stop herself.
Harry was silent beside her, and Hermione immediately regretted bringing up their friend.
Finally after a long pause, Harry spoke.
"If Ron were here, he would absolutely agree with me that 'diadem' is an exceptionally poncy word," he whispered in an eerily accurate impression of Percy Weasley.
She couldn't hold back a muffled giggle. She stopped walking for a moment and pressed her hand over her lips to stifle her laughter.
Harry was right. Ron would most certainly agree. For a moment, she was flooded with mental pictures of their missing friend and what he would have had to say about a hunt for a magical tiara/crown/diadem. The locket and the cup had been destroyed, and despite the guilt weighing her down over her lies to Harry and the way she'd modified his memory of their fight over Lucius, she felt so much happier, so much lighter not having Voldemort's voice hissing in her mind every time she carried or wore one of the horcruxes.
Harry stopped when she did and turned to look at her. He took one look at her and had to stifle laughter of his own, since they were trying to be quiet.
"This whole thing is absurd, you know that, right? We're in a secret underground tunnel about to go search for a mangled up piece of torn soul that was stashed in a priceless crown, and the idea that someone came up with a pretentious word for 'crown' is just really funny right now," she said.
"You just referred to a horcrux as a 'mangled up piece of torn soul,' Harry snickered.
"Well, what else would you call it?" she challenged.
"I dunno. It's just funny. It feels good to laugh. It feels like we haven't laughed in ages."
"I know."
"I didn't realise just how much we were weighed down by those horcruxes until we destroyed them," he admitted as they started walking again.
"Me neither. So, back to the diadem, crown, whatever you want to call it," she said, redirecting him. "I think if it was in the Ravenclaw Tower, a Ravenclaw would have found it by now. And I'm not sure that Tom Riddle would have been able to get into the tower to hide it."
"That seems fair, I guess. The dungeons seem like a logical choice, given that Riddle was in Slytherin, but somehow that seems too obvious," Harry said.
They debated different locations within the castle that would have been a suitable hiding place for the diadem horcrux right up until they reached another set of stairs.
"From here out, let's keep quiet," he advised.
She nodded in the dim light cast by their wands and followed him slowly up the stairs.
They climbed for what felt like an eternity before the stairs leveled out and door stood before them.
Harry withdrew the invisibility cloak and draped it carefully over both of them. Hermione took a deep, steadying breath and clutched her wand tightly as Harry slowly opened the door.
She could hear voices almost as soon as the door creaked open, and she quickly threw up a protective shield around her and Harry both.
The first spells flew at this before she could fully take in the sight before her. Thankfully, the stupefy aimed at them bounced harmlessly off her shield and rebounded into… wait. Was that Seamus Finnegan?
She watched as their former classmate fell over, frozen stiff onto the floor. A volley of spells were aimed at them then, and for a brief fraction of a second she wondered why students were firing on them until she remembered that not even a revealing spell could show them underneath Harry's cloak.
Before she could make any suggestions to Harry about how to proceed, he cast immobolus, freezing everything around them, except her.
"Right. Okay," he muttered as he lifted the cloak off of them both.
"Hold onto the shield, just in case," he added. "I can't guarantee someone won't fire off a hex without looking first."
He canceled the immobolus, and sure enough, an expelliarmus came flying at them, again bouncing off the shield.
"HARRY! STOP, everyone! It's HARRY POTTER!"
Neville Longbottom's exuberant shout filled the room, and suddenly they were surrounded by cheerful voices and a crowd of students pressing in on them.
Hermione discreetly canceled the shield around them so Neville could hug them both. She lost count of the number of hands that reached out to touch Harry or her. It was wonderful and surreal all at once. After months on the run, hiding in the quiet of the forest with Harry, it felt strange to be surrounded by people, all of whom seemed to be talking at once.
She glanced about the room, silently taking in the multicoloured hammocks strung from the rafters, the House crest tapestries hanging from the walls, and the shelves bulging with books.
"Neville is this… are we…" she started to ask.
"We're in the Room of Requirement," Neville replied. "Started out as a good place for Dumbledore's Army to hide from Snape and the Carrows. We were targeted a lot. It's gradually expanded as more students have sought a place to hide. The door you just came through appeared a few weeks ago. It leads to the Hog's Head Inn, but I guess you know that, huh? The room can provide places to sleep and study but not food."
"Gamp's Laws of Elemental Transfiguration," she said. Harry grinned beside her and elbowed her, as if to say, 'know-it-all.'
She looked around the room again, recognising the Patil twins, Ernie Macmillan, Lavender Brown and others. There were unfamiliar faces too, students she did had not known well when she was a student here.
"HARRY! Harry! Is that you?"
Hermione caught a flash of red hair in the crowd, and the next thing she knew, Ginny Weasley was flinging her arms around Harry and hugging him tightly. Harry hugged her back, and Hermione was reminded of all the times she'd watched him with the Marauder's Map during their exile in the woods, tracing the little dot with 'Ginevra Weasley' beside it, watching from afar as she roamed the castle.
Harry blushed red as Ginny pressed her lips into his in a very public kiss that resulted in cheers and whistles from the assembled students.
At last the redhead pulled back from Harry's embrace to look at him and then at Hermione. The excitement on her face faded, and her expression twisted into one of confusion as she looked at them both before asking.
"Where is Ron?"