A/N: Woo! Over 1000 words! Couldn't update yesterday, so I thought I'd give y'all a bit more today! Also, to my guest reviewer on the first chapter, I haven't picked a pairing yet, and there won't be one for a while. This story is Hermione-centric with lots of power and magic and darkness; not much time for love. We'll cross that bridge when we get there.
Supporting Prattertome, were 28 of the original 29 Pureblood families. Some gleefully joined in, murdering muggles and muggleborns in cold blood. These, Hermione noticed, were the ones considered Dark Families today: the Blacks, the Carrows, the Lestranges, the Malfoys. Others joined his side simply to provide better opportunities for their children, not wanting to incur his wrath, nor truly wanting to kill. They provided funding, never lifting a finger against an innocent. These were the Neutral Families: the Greengrasses, and the Ollivanders. Shockingly, the Crouches were considered neutral, right up to the time when Barty Crouch Jr. became a Death Eater. Others families were forced, only doing his bidding for fear of their safety. These Light Families, the Weasleys, the Abbotts, and the Longbottoms, aided by passing morally questionable new laws. Together, these 28 families added to the destruction, each feeling justified in what it was doing, believing that its destiny was to follow the higher path.
The Sagittas stood alone, completely neutral, separate from the destructive force that was Prattertome. In no way helping either side in the war, they never had any of the benefits that the other families received, but they also never suffered at his hands. The Dark Lord of that age had a slight respect for their firmness in remaining untouched and not getting involved. He saw those on his side as weak and bowing to his every wish, even those who fully supported his cause. They were brainless, unthinking people. Those who opposed him were simply sheep to be slaughtered.
The other families, however, didn't know this, nor would he ever share these thoughts with them. They believed he hated everyone not on his side, and he'd let them. It was better for his cause. Unfortunately, this led to the 28 believing that the Sagitta thought themselves better than everyone else. They were too superior to fight and dirty their hands. They were too superior to bow down to the Dark Lord. They were too superior to be cowed by fear. Soon, they were hated, although they were still part of the elite. Hatred in those circles simply followed rumors, but the family never paid heed to them. They were never true anyway, all entirely based on fiction and were easily proved wrong.
And then the dark reign ended. Prattertome concluded his speech that day and simply vanished. For a week, a month even, everyone lived in fear. Was this just a test? Would he come back to punish those who celebrated his supposed demise? But eventually, people began to forget. His prophecy was believed to be false. After all, no matter what other talents the man, the monster, may have had, he most definitely had no Seer abilities in him. They went on with their lives, but too much damage had been done. Justice had to be served, and the man responsible for the crimes committed was no longer there to pay for them. The 28 Pureblood families were in a panic. The Light families were disgusted with themselves for going along with the plans of a madman. The Neutral and Dark families knew that they had fallen in with the losing side and preserving their good names meant one thing: pinning the blame on someone else. So with a gleeful passion from the Dark families, a resigned insistence from the neutral, and a guilty dedication from the Light, the Pureblood families took to the press.
The easiest, most straightforward solution was to blame the evil on someone high up yet someone who had not shared their beliefs. As it was, the Sagitta remained peacefully minding their business, helping the innocent of the land heal and punishing the guilty. Then the newspapers latched onto the stories. The Sagittas were behind it all. Prattertome was allied with them. Why else would he have never lifted a finger against them? Slander and propaganda rocked Great Britain, tearing apart the respectability of the family bit by bit. Of course, they retaliated by denying everything, by attempting to spread the truth, but everyone needed a scapegoat, and it just so happened that they were the ones thrown under Knight Bus. Slowly the killings began, brutal torturing meant to main first, then kill. One by one, the family members were picked off and desecrated in a manner worse than muggle lynchings. The Pureblood families took out all of their hate against the Sagittas, plotting their demise, but letting the common people take out their rage against them. They were left in the best of lights while the poor, innocent family was almost entirely wiped out. Almost, because one of their number, the youngest son, in fact, barely 16, pulled together all of his family's resources and escaped to France. He staged his death, the last of the once-great, once-respected family. As he started his new life in a new country, wealthy but still young and lost and alone, he plotted revenge. He planned the destruction of those who killed his family. He would one day worm their way back into those circles. They would rise from the unknown and make them all pay. Meanwhile he had to lay low. He began settling down in France, starting a new life away from the traitors. He watched the farm bailiffs in the countryside, demanding payment and taxes from the rich, mighty nobles. He saw a poetic justice in that. People worth almost nothing, yet who still had the elite bowing down to them. "Grangier" they were called, except that was too French. Granger, he thought, Granger would be the perfect name.
Back in England, the now Sacred 28 families celebrated their victory. They hated Sagittas were slaughtered and no longer did their jealousy burn so brightly. Hints of fear began to creep in instead. What if the common people found out that the Sagittas hadn't in fact been guilty of any of the crimes they were accused of? What if people became too curious? That wouldn't do. So they rewrote history. They erased every mention of the Sagittas in textbooks, never taught about the family in Hogwarts. Those close to them were brainwashed so deeply that they became mere shells of their former selves. They left the Manor, so heavily warded, and everything inside as well, completely intact. Only those of the family could enter, and there was no such family left, so it never mattered anyway. In just a few short years, betrayed by those they called brothers and sisters and best friends, it was as if the Sagitta had never existed.
A/N: I promise the focus will shift back to Hermione in the next chapter. I just needed to give this back story as she is finding this out for herself. Prepare for a snarky, furious, badass Hermione, with as many Slytherin traits as Gryffindor! As always, please review.
