Chapter 3

Hermione's training was going well with Professor Snape. She was also in almost daily contact with Tom. Her owl Onyx was becoming a much better familiar than Crookshanks was. Crooks was overly independent and only ever around when he wanted affection; Onyx seemed to be able to sense her moods and would appear when she needed to vent some of her frustrations. Her largest frustration was Ron. They had not had a civil word to each other since she had told him who her parents were. He had even taken to glaring at Professor McGonagall to the point where she had to write his mother. Of course Ron blamed Hermione for the howler his mother sent him and then proceeded to try and curse her in the hallway, thereby loosing Gryffindor 50 points from Professor Flitwick who had been standing near by.

Harry and she hardly had any time together any more since she was spending so much of her free time with professor Snape training. Her Occlumency lessons were much different than the type that Harry had. Snape was much more gentle and explained things to her. She was quickly picking up the basics but was no where near being able to hide things without her father suspecting.

"That is good; now that you can consistently block all your thoughts we need to move on to blocking only specific ones. I want you to concentrate on a memory, something recent. How about when Malfoy tripped Weasley this afternoon and he fell down that flight of stairs." Snape said smirking at her.

Hermione tried to hide her smile as she thought of that memory. One of the benefits of having the Slytherins practically worship you is that if someone pissed her off, they seemed to be on the receiving end of all the Slytherins jokes. "Alright sir," she told him as she conjured that image.

"Now I want you to envision protecting that memory somehow. You can pretend there is wards around it, lock it in a trunk, or something that will keep me out." He told her. He was surprised with how quickly she was grasping the concepts he was presenting. He knew she was brilliant but had thought that had more to do with her constant studying rather than sheer talent, he had obviously been wrong.

They practiced for another hour until Hermione could successfully keep a single memory from Snape while allowing all the rest to run free. "The trick now is that you don't want anyone to realize that you are hiding memories. It would look suspicious if there was something you were keeping locked up that tight from him. We will keep working on this until you are so comfortable with it that it becomes second nature then I will start to get more aggressive in my teaching and we will see just how much you can protect your mind." He told her.

"Thank you for all your help so far," Hermione told him with a shy smile. She had been enjoying all their time together. Snape was so knowledgeable and the thing she loves the most is knowledge.

"It is my pleasure Miss Granger," he told her as he led her to the door.

"Would you mind calling me Hermione when we are training sir, every time you say Miss Granger I assume I am in trouble!" She told him with a smile.

"Alright Hermione but on the condition that you call me Severus when we are here training as well," he told her wondering where that came from. He rarely let anyone call him by his first name, and especially not a student!

Soon it was time for Halloween. Dumbledore, in is ever twinkling way, announced that this year they were going to hold a dance to celebrate the occasion after the feast for all students in 3rd year and up. There had been talk of little else since the announcement. Hermione didn't much care for the idea of the dance and was planning on just going back up to the dorms with the younger years to get some extra studying in. That was until she was stopped by Colin Creevy and he asked her to the dance.

"I'm sorry Colin; I wasn't planning on attending the dance." She told him feeling badly when his face fell. She also knew that if she had to spend an entire night with the hyper Harry obsessed Gryffindor she would most likely hex him.

"Of course not," Ron growled out, having overhead the conversation at the dinner table. "You think you're above going with a muggle born Gryffindor. The high and mighty heir of Slytherin would never lower herself to date a lowly muggle born."

"Is that why you don't want to go with me Hermione?" Colin asked her with tear filled eyes.

"Colin you know I don't believe in that pure-blood rot. The reason I said no is because I was planning on leaving with the 1st and 2nd years to the dorms to get in some extra study time. It is my NEWT year after all." She told him rolling her eyes at Ron. "Ron is just a bigoted fool who can't get over the fact that I am the same person I used to be before I found out who my real parents are!"

"I am not bigoted; I am just not as blind as everyone else. I know how Slytherins think, they are all evil. You should never have been allowed in Gryffindor you're nothing but an inherently evil dark witch!" Ron yelled for everyone in the entire great hall to hear, including the teachers.

"Miss Granger, are you going to assign his punishment or shall I?" Professor Dumbledore asked her kindly as he had approached during the conversation.

"I'll let you sir, I am too angry to be fair at the moment," She told him trying to hide the hurt tears that were starting to fall down her cheeks.

"Detention Mr. Weasley for a week with either Professor Snape or Mr. Filtch since you insulted Slytherin, 20 points from Gryffindor for making a scene in the great hall and furthermore you are banned from attending the dance on Halloween." Albus told him, "And I will have to send another letter to your mother telling her of your atrocious behavior. I have never been so disappointed in a Weasley before, even with all your brothers' exploits." The comment from Dumbledore stung Ron worse than anything and he vowed to get everyone to see that he was the one who was correct about Hermione.

By the end of the week Ron had started enough ugly rumors about Hermione that if she hadn't perfected what Severus called a 'Slytherin Mask' everyone would know how close to her breaking point she was. It had gotten so bad that the Slytherins had started to walk her to her classes to keep the other houses from making rude comments or throwing hexes at her. She reached her breaking point later that night when she returned to her dorm to find that her old roommates had shredded every item of clothing in her trunk and wrote 'Slytherin Scum' in lipstick across her wall. Thankfully Lavender and Pavarti were too shallow to realize that to really hurt Hermione they should have touched her books, but they thankfully had all been left alone. Hermione called her mother into the room to survey the damage before loading all her remaining personal effects, only her schoolwork, books and pet supplies, into her trunk.

"I can't sleep here anymore," Hermione told her. "Every time I walk through the common room people throw things at me, hiss insults at me or every once in a while throw spells at me. Now they were able to break into my room since there is no real protection since the Head Girl is supposed to be available at all times."

"Let's go talk to Albus and work something out. I can't believe our house is acting this way, what has happened to all of them?" Minerva asked.

"Two words, Ronald Weasley." Hermione spat with a glare. She had been prepared to ignore her ex-best friend but this had gone too far. She was going to show him just how evil she could be.

It was decided that the safest place for Hermione was in the dungeons. The Slytherins all worshiped her since her father was the dark lord and the other houses were all afraid of them and wouldn't venture into Slytherin territory. There is a head girl and boy room attached to every common room so she would still have her privacy and would be protected. Professor Snape escorted her down to the dungeons so he could inform his house of the changes.

"I am very sorry you have to endure all this Hermione," he told her quietly as they walked. "I am sure my house will treat you with the respect you deserve. My chambers are only a few yards away so if you ever need anything please don't hesitate."

"Thank you Severus, I appreciate all your help." She told him with a small smile before he opened the wall to the Slytherin common room.

Draco Malfoy was the first to approach Hermione after Snape had informed the house of what was happening. "Just say the word My Lady and it will be open war on all Gryffindors." He told her before having Crabbe and Goyle carry her trunk to her new room. "I'll lend you one of my pajama shirts for tonight and then we will take you out shopping for some proper clothing tomorrow. In fact, I'll owl my mother and she and Professor Snape can join us. That should keep old Dumbledore from getting all bent out of shape."

"Thank you Malfoy," she told him as he summoned the pajamas for her.

"It's Draco please," he told her with a polite bow. "This is Vince, Greg, Blaise, Ted, Pan and Millie." He introduced her to the other 7th years.

"Then please call me Hermione," she told them with a weak smile. "I think I'll go to bed now, it's been a trying day."

Severus was fuming as he left the castle to inform the Dark Lord of what had transpired. It would be the first time ever that he volunteered information to the dark side without being told to do so from Albus. He was livid at how the Gryffindors were treating Hermione; he couldn't believe how one stupid loud-mouthed Weasley could cause such a ruckus. At least she was safe in Slytherin territory.

If Severus thought he was mad it was nothing compared to the ire the Dark Lord was showing once learning of his daughter's plight. "I will kill that red headed blood traitor!" He screamed before calling a few of his inner circle to him. He informed Lucius of what had happened and told him to inform Draco to have the Slytherins repay anything the Gryffindors dish out 10 fold. He also informed him to have his wife accompany Hermione on a shopping spree to purchase anything she desires. They spent the rest of the evening planning the destruction of the Weasley family, the youngest male in particular.

Albus was smart enough to know that what Ron had done would reach the ears of Voldemort quickly. He summoned Molly and Arthur and had them move to headquarters permanently. They spent the night moving everything that was irreplaceable to #12 and informing their sons that they were in danger due to Ron's bigotry. Molly couldn't believe what Ron had done and how cold he was being to the girl he had been friends with for 6 years! "I don't understand what is wrong with him Albus, or why the entire house is treating her that way as well."

"Unfortunately Harry is the only one the house will listen too and he has kept quiet during all of it, afraid to loose both his best friends. The only person who has scolded Ron at all has been Ginerva and he quickly shut her up by mentioning what happened to her in the chamber and that she was most likely a Slytherin supporter now." Albus told them sadly. "This is one of the reasons we have so many Slytherins and other houses joining Voldemort, our side has too many like Ron who are so prejudiced that they endanger our cause."

"I'll speak with him again. If he is not careful the poor girl is going to actually be driven to the dark side just with how the supposed light side is treating her." Molly said sadly.

"I fear that as well. That is how we lost Severus in the beginning, due to the hatred of James and Sirius. Hopefully he will be able to help her through this and Minerva is still there for her. I doubt Gryffindor will be winning the house cup this year with how many points she is going to take for this episode. I am going to have to severely punish Miss Brown and Patil as well."

Lavender and Parvarti were banned from attending the dance (a huge punishment for such socialites) as well as given detention with Minerva (who was absolutely incensed with how her daughter was treated); lost 50 house points each and were forced to pay retribution to Hermione for the loss of her clothes. Their families were notified and they both received multiple howlers the next morning, though they didn't seem fazed by them. They were upset when their parents told them that the cost of Hermione's new clothing would be coming out of their own pockets and they would have to get a summer job to pay for the total.

The Slytherins formed a protective barrier around Hermione for most of the day and anyone caught insulting or threatening Hermione was hexed thoroughly. The only people from Gryffindor who were civil to Hermione were Harry, Ginny and surprisingly Neville. When Neville stuck up for Hermione to Lavender during Charms he earned the respect of Slytherin house and he, Harry and Ginny were the only ones spared from the pranks they played over the next few days.