Chapter 7

After that the three Gryffindors still speaking with Hermione, meaning Ginny, Harry and Neville would hang out in the Slytherin common room when they wanted to see her. Neville didn't visit as often as the other two, but the fact that he dared even enter their common room was testament to how much he was maturing. Draco and Harry had gotten to the point where they had switched to using their first names and along with Hermione, Ginny and Pansy would often have interesting discussions or just do homework together.

"I can't believe that you are all leaving after this year and I'll be stuck here alone!" Ginny moaned one night after the three had escaped the Gryffindor common room. They were getting sicker and sicker by the day of the blindness of the other Gryffs as well as how they continued to listen to Ron's propaganda.

"Don't worry Red; we'll come visit you on Hogsmeade weekends. Besides the other Slytherins will watch out for you next year." He told her with a smile. Hermione was mystified at how at ease Draco was with Ginny. He was so reserved with everyone but he just opened up to the redhead.

"What are your plans for after graduation Draco?" Harry asked his, well he guessed they were technically friends now.

"I'm not positive. My father wants me to take over his responsibilities at the Ministry but that doesn't really appeal to me. I can't see myself sucking up to other politicians and bribing people as a good career option." He told them, earning laughs from all of them. "I would love to try out for one of the pro Quidditch teams but my father said he wouldn't allow it."

"Why not?" Hermione asked confused.

"He said it will not serve any purpose to the cause and he would be embarrassed or ridiculed in the circle if his son couldn't contribute substantially to the cause." Draco growled in a perfect imitation of Lucius. "Of course mother agrees with me but is too chicken to back me up with father."

Pansy sensed they needed to move the conversation away from Draco so she asked Harry what his plans for after graduation were. "Auror training, beat Voldie, get married, have kids and live a long peaceful life."

"Well 4 out of 5 aren't bad," she told him with a shrug. She still wanted Voldemort to win. She had nothing against mudbloods in general it was just that they were a security risk. She did not think the torture and killing of muggles was necessary but was too scared of the dark lord to oppose him.

"Come one Pans, you're too smart to buy into the whole torture and killing of muggles thing." Harry told her with a shake of his head.

"True, but I also think that muggle borns pose a serious threat to the safety of our society. Look at all the traditions that have been lost already by the interference of muggle culture. Then there is the risk of exposure, there are millions more muggles than witches or wizards. If they ever found out about us they could wipe us out in under a year with all the technology they have. I don't care if muggle borns want to come to the wizarding world, but there should be some sort of 'initiation' program that explains all the differences to them and prepares them for what to expect. There should be secrecy spells placed on the non-magical members of their family to ensure our safety. What Dumbledore wants is an open door policy or a merging of our two societies; this will eliminate the wizarding ways and potentially eliminate all of us entirely." Pansy told him. She had been thinking about it a lot lately and had been working up the courage to tell him all of this. Draco was watching her with respect shining in his eyes as she summed up their position on the war.

Harry didn't know what to say. Everything she said was true, he knew there were enough muggles out there like his uncle that would want to destroy all the 'freaks' if they knew they existed. He actually wished there had been an initiation program for him when he found out he was a wizard, there were things about his world that he was just learning and he was a 7th year already. For example there was an entire wizarding religion that he only found out about the week before as well as a lot of traditions like courting that he had never realized existed.

Hermione was of the same opinion as Draco and Pansy so she kept quiet and watched her two friends process what had just been said. Ginny was quiet as well. She had always believed what Pansy just said but was too afraid to say anything to anyone in case it got back to her family. She had realized after her first year that her family was very different from everyone else's. Her mother had abandoned the wizarding religion when her brothers were killed in the first war and her father was too enamored with muggle things too think about how dangerous the actual muggles could be. Her mother hated Voldemort with such intensity that it didn't matter what his oppositions views were she would do anything and join anyone to avenge her brothers.

Voldemort sat in his office with Nagini contemplating his plans for the war. If he was honest with himself he had starting killing muggles because he was angry with his own treatment at the orphanage. The first muggle he killed was his father followed by his grandparents and then he moved onto everyone who had wronged him at the orphanage. He had already started recruiting followers by that time and it just became part of the death eater initiation to kill a muggle and the killings continued from there. Somehow his original intent of segregating the muggle and magical world became distorted and changed to destroying the muggle world, all muggle borns and anyone who stood in his way.

Lucius, Rodolphus and Nott were seated around the room with their lord, wondering why they had been called. None of them were used to their lord making social calls so they knew there must be something on his mind. "I need you three to commission a study in secret from the rest of our supporters. I have been reading muggle genetics books since Christmas after a comment my daughter mentioned about inbred dogs. I believe our thinking about squibs may be wrong." He told them quietly, knowing it would be a hard blow to them.

"Could you perhaps explain some more please my lord," Rodolphus asked him.

"You see muggles breed dogs for show, they take pride in the purity of their dogs' blood, showing that the particular dog only has ancestors of the same breed. The problem is that many of these pureblood dog breeds have developed crippling or life threatening illnesses. The explanation for these genetic problems has been proven to be inbreeding or breeding too close in relation. To keep inbreeding to a minimum it would be advisable to stay at least 4 relations away when breeding, nothing closer than 3rd cousins or the lines would mix." Voldemort explained. "I read the information in these genetics books and have discovered that squibs may be caused by inbreeding between the pureblood families."

"So you are saying that squibs are genetically mutated witches or wizards?" Nott asked him, unable to hide his shock.

"Yes, while we are trying so desperately to keep our lines pure we are the ones causing the problems. It was never due to muggle taint as so many have believed. I believe the only reason that the number of squibs has been increasing at the same rate as the number of muggle born witches and wizards is because the more muggle blood that was introduced the smaller the pureblood pool became and thus the greater chance for a squib." Tom told them, looking defeated.

"If this proves to be true my lord what are we to do?" Lucius asked his lord. He was the smartest out of the inner circle and had already suspected for a while that the inbreeding of the purebloods was the cause for the number of squibs. He was grateful that Draco turned out as powerful as he is. He looked at his friends Crabbe and Goyle and shuddered to think of having an heir who was barely able to handle a wand.

"We will have to reeducate our followers and supporters first and then we will need to work to achieve the rest of our aims with the knowledge that we do need fresh blood every so often." Tom told them. "My daughter really got me thinking over Christmas. She reminded me that before I was born the Slytherin line had almost died out multiple times due to not having very much magic left in it. When my mother married that filthy muggle I was born as the most powerful wizard in over 5 generations. Then there are the heirs of Crabbe and Goyle who can barely manage their wands let alone any complex magic."

"What do you wish to do my lord?" Rodolphus asked, realizing that this was a turning point for their cause. If he read the situation correctly then the mindless killings and tortures would stop and they may be able to accomplish something great and finally put an end to this stupid war.

"We need to completely segregate the muggle and magical worlds. There are too many muggles that know of our existence. The more muggles that know the greater the chance that they will expose us unknowingly. We need to place secrecy charms on the muggle relatives of the muggle borns to ensure our continued safety. We need to have mentoring programs for the young muggle borns to help ease them into our society as well as to give them a resource to go to if they are ever mistreated. We need to instantly remove any child with magic that is mistreated from the muggles care. Additionally we need to change the laws to make it legal for children to do magic with at least one qualified witch or wizard present; we need to bring our religion and our holidays back into the mainstream. We need to become the society we once were." Tom told them and was glad to see that they were agreeing with him.

"So are we turning this into a political war then my lord?" Lucius asked, hoping all the mindless killing was over. He hated that side of things as he was never one to get his hands dirty.

"Yes and I believe our children are already well on their way to winning it for us." He told them with a smile.

The news that the killing and torturing was to stop did not go over with the most fanatical of Voldemort's army. Bellatrix was the most upset and she blamed the change entirely on Hermione. She tried to assassinate Hermione on the most recent Hogsmeade weekend to "bring her lord back to his senses." Both Dumbledore and Voldemort were enraged and panicked that Hermione was being targeted by radicals. They both decided that she would have to go into hiding although neither could come up with a safe enough place until Tom sent her a "ball" that had his voice in Parseltongue recorded on it so she could get into the chamber of secrets as well as change the password so Harry couldn't get in any longer. She was instructed to find and bond to a house elf that would be able to find her and care for her.

Hermione decided that she would speak with Winky to see if she was ready to bond to another family. The little elf was so happy that she started to cry. "Now Winky, would you bond to me to promise to keep my secrets and take care of me and when I decide to have one take care of my family as well?"

"Yes mistress Winky will be good house elf and keep all your secrets. Winky is goods at cooking and cleaning and will be loving to be watching little ones once mistress mates." She told her while bouncing up and down.

"Now Winky there are two rules that you will have to obey. The first is that I want you to wear clothes, nice clean clothes, all the time. If I accidentally hand you clothing you are not being let go, if I ever want to let you go I will tell you. And the second rule is that you are not to punish yourself unless ordered to do so. Do you understand?" When Winky nodded they completed the bonding and Hermione had her go pack all her belongings and told her she would call for her shortly.

Hermione changed the password on the sink that led to the chamber. She may trust Harry but that wouldn't mean that he or Dumbledore wouldn't try and 'drop in' on her and she was only planning on having one guest while she was down there. She made her way through the large outer chamber, stopping only to unshrink the furniture her father had sent her. She was planning on staying in Slytherin's private chambers but since her father didn't know about them she made sure to set up the outer area to look lived in. She said hello to her great grandfather's portrait before summoning Winky into her new suite of rooms. "These are Salazar Slytherin's personal quarters here at Hogwarts, only his kin are allowed in here." She told the elf, "This is where I will be staying and you and one other person are the only ones allowed inside." Winky unpacked for her and decided the place needed a thorough cleaning before her mistress could use it.

Hermione sent owls off to her friends telling them of her change of location and that Winky would be collecting her homework and mail every day so they could keep in touch. Albus was unimpressed with her quick disappearance, especially since he was unaware of where she was. He informed Harry that he needed to get the location of Hermione's safe house at all costs or they would have to mark her as a traitor to the cause. This caused Harry and Albus to have a very loud yelling match in the middle of the great hall that left all the students questioning their loyalties. Albus had told Harry that he would consider Hermione a traitor if she didn't reveal her safe location. He was not being careful enough with his voice as both Severus and Minerva heard him as well as quite a few of the students sitting closest to the head table. Harry had instantly become enraged that someone would treat his best friend in such a manner and had in no uncertain terms told Dumbledore that if he was going to treat Hermione as a traitor then he would have to treat Harry as one as well. Albus tried to defend himself by saying that without knowing where she was she could be compromised and Harry said that if the great headmaster of Hogwarts couldn't find her then she was finally safe enough from the fanatics trying to kill her and he wished he had the opportunity to go someplace he wasn't threatened.

Albus then tried to remind Harry that Hogwarts was the safest place in the wizarding world to which Harry snorted and listed off all the times he was almost killed within the walls. Albus told him that he could no longer trust Hermione and didn't Harry remember who her father was. Harry told him that the only reason Tom Riddle turned dark was due to his horrible upbringing and then due to Albus' insistence that he return to the muggles every year and that it wasn't a lesson he had learned from as he sent Harry back to abusive muggles at the end of every term. "The only reason I haven't turned dark is because of the love of my friends like Hermione, Ginny and Neville. If I didn't have them there would have been nothing from keeping me out of Slytherin and nothing keeping me from switching sides. If you didn't meddle in so many people's lives and use all of us as a personal wizards chess set then perhaps this war never would have started in the first place. You do not know everything old man, you are not all powerful and just because you believe something does not necessarily make it the best thing for the wizarding world. I think you have too much power. You know the old saying, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Well we may be able to see that corruption in people like Fudge and Voldemort but you are just as corrupt in many ways you just hide it behind twinkling blue eyes and are able to fool everyone."

Harry stormed out of the great hall, quickly followed by Ginny, Neville, Draco and Pansy. They paused outside the doors to the hall to listen to the aftermath of what had just occurred. "You have guts Harry," Pansy told him with a grin. "I believe you just effectively told Dumbledore to take his war and shove it."

"Did you see his face when you told him that he didn't know everything…" Draco said laughing, "I thought he was going to choke on his stupid lemon drop."

They were not disappointed in their waiting for the fallout in the hall. As soon as they stopped talking they could hear the whispered conversations. They had just pressed their ears up against the doors when Harry was tapped from behind on the shoulder by Minerva who winked and cast a spell on the door that made them transparent and no longer sound proof. She was also mad at her long time friend with how he was trying to manipulate her daughter. She had never really noticed how well Albus manipulated everything until she realized he had known who Hermione really was the whole time and was never planning on telling her.

The Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables were busy trying to figure out what to do now. The Slytherins were sitting quietly eating their dinner as nothing new had been presented to them and they had started to respect Harry before. The Gryffindors were another story, it was chaos at their table with Ron spouting more of his prejudice bull crap at one end of the table to anyone who would listen and surprisingly enough Colin and Dennis Creevy seemed to be leading the opposition, or the faction that believed Harry.

Dumbledore seemed to be loosing support rather quickly. After the disaster in the great hall he called an emergency Order meeting to try and get things back under control. He told them all that they needed to keep a closer eye on Harry and that they were to start the search for Hermione immediately. He told them that until she was brought in for questioning they were to treat her as a wild card. As soon as he had revealed that he had lost the trust of both Harry and Hermione the Order was upset. When he told them to basically treat Hermione as a threat certain Order members went crazy. Three voices started screaming their protests at Albs immediately, two of which had to be held back from physically attacking him. What surprised most of the Order was that Snape was one of the ones having to be held back, along with Minerva who they could understand and Molly Weasley was yelling as well.

Remus was livid but sensible enough to keep Severus from attacking the headmaster and Tonks had a firm hold on Minerva keeping her in place. "Is this how you treat everyone who wants to help you?" Amelia Bones, the newest Order member asked, wishing she had not agreed to help.

"No, only those who he knows are more powerful than him and who dare to challenge his ideas. Heaven forbid someone disagree with the great and powerful Albus Dumbledore who believes that his word alone is enough and should be taken as law," Minerva snapped, still royally pissed that her one time best friend would turn on those closest to him so fast.

"Do you no longer believe in our cause then Minerva?" Albus asked, faking that he was hurt by her comment but internally seething with anger at her gall, she was his deputy so she should do everything he said with no questions asked and be happy about it!

"I believe it is wrong to torture muggles and to kill muggle borns and half-bloods," she told him, knowing what game he was trying to play and not raising to the bait. "I also believe that there should be more segregation between us and the muggles not less and that they pose a very dangerous threat to our continued existence. I have seen what their weapons are capable of and if they got it into their head to destroy us they easily could."

"But muggles are harmless and are so creative," Arthur Weasley protested, he hated the opinion most had that muggles were dangerous.

"I agree that muggles are creative and they have a thriving culture. I even agree that most muggles are kind and harmless, but even the most kind and harmless creature will attack when it feels threatened. Muggles would be both terrified and awed of magic if they found out. They would either want to destroy it or figure out how it can help them. If we did not agree to fix all their worlds problems with magic they could then turn on us. They outnumber of us by billions. For every kind and gentile muggle there is a horribly prejudiced or ruthless one." She told them, having heard most of her argument from her discussions with Hermione and how she thought the world should be.

"So you want to destroy muggles as well?" Albus asked her, narrowing his eyes at her opinion. He didn't like what she was saying at all.

"Never would I suggest such a thing," Minerva replied with exasperation. "I am just saying that an open door policy would ultimately lead to problems that we could easily avoid by just tightening up the international statute of secrecy."

"That is not what our side is about," Albus told her firmly, not noticing the confused looks some of the others shared. "If you are not going to support the aims of this Organization then I suggest you leave."

"Just what are the aims of this organization then?" Mad-Eye Moody growled, "As far as I knew our aim was to get rid of Voldemort not expose our entire culture and existence to the muggles." There were murmurs of consent from the rest of the group as they commented that they never signed on to expose magic, just to kill the Dark Lord.

Albus was livid, he couldn't believe so may people we questioning him. "Complete integration into the muggle world is the best thing for both worlds," He told them in his fatherly way of making everyone think he was talking to a two year old. "Think of all the diseases we could cure and the strife we could relieve as well as all the wonderful things the muggles could offer us. Their technology is amazing and could be integrated for our use easily."

"And what of the crazy extremists with nuclear warheads that want to destroy anything they perceive as a threat? Many cultures would think we were agents of the devil, others would think we were gods of some sort, who's to know what they would think but their history has not shown their openness to things different than them." Kingsley asked the headmaster, never before realizing that Albus was just as much a zealot as Voldemort, just on the completely other side of the spectrum.

The discussions went on for hours as everyone debated the pros and cons of the muggle world, the statute of secrecy and even the dark side's position. Albus had stormed off halfway through a discussion on how the reason that dragons were almost extinct now was because of muggle hunters killing them and how muggles hunt for sport not for any real need to hunt.

Severus left the meeting early, knowing he would not be missed and not wanting to be late. He had received a note from Hermione telling him to meet her where there was "freedom in solitude." He had chuckled to himself for a while over the fact that she never even left the school and was glad she was someplace so well protected. He anticipated that he was the only one other than the house elf and her father to know her location. The less people who knew the better in his opinion, he was still determined to find and murder Bellatrix Lestrange himself, even against the Dark Lords commands that she was 'his'. No death eater was stupid enough to believe that Bella would suffer a quick death; they knew their master had a very dark side and none of them ever wanted to be on it. The Lestrange brothers had immediately prostrated themselves in front of their lord begging his forgiveness for allowing Bellatrix to so closely succeed. Tom had kept them alive, knowing that most of Bella's madness was from spending 10 years with Dementors and the two men had no way of knowing she would turn on him.

Severus entered the passageway from his bedchamber and smiled. He was both thrilled and apprehensive about being alone with Hermione. They were technically still courting and he was not allowed to touch her. On the other side of the coin, no one would ever know they had contact and he desperately wanted to see her. He couldn't wait to tell her all about the turmoil going on above them. When he entered the library he was stunned with the beauty of her. She was sitting on the sofa, wearing a chocolate brown skirt; her bare feet tucked beneath her and a deep red v-neck sweater that was much more revealing than he had ever seen her in as it deftly showed off her amble cleavage and clung to her body showing off her curves.

Hermione smiled to herself at the look she was getting from Severus, who was still standing in shock. She smirked at him, breaking his trance, and asked him if he saw anything he liked. If she was not mistaken, there was the faintest of blushes on his cheeks. "I missed you Severus," she told him with an inviting smile and patted the spot on the couch next to her for him to sit. The two spent the evening talking with Severus telling her of the commotion up at the school. She was saddened that the headmaster thought so little of her but realized that he had been manipulating everyone to fight a war that never should have started in the first place.

Her father only started his 'campaign' to separate a world that by all rights should have been separated years before. He was forced to live with and be abused by muggles and then treated with hostility by those who should have protected him. Hermione had been reading while she was in exile and read that during the time of the founders they already had a statute of secrecy and the foundation of the school was the turning point in wizarding culture. Now that they could be assured that their children were taught magic safely and away from muggles prying eyes the world of wizards was free again. They had lived in fear of farmers with pitchforks and being burned at the stake. There were no all wizard villages then as they were so spread out and it had been dangerous to even teach their children. The Council of Magic, which was the governing body at the time, decided that the only way to protect themselves from magic was to keep it hidden from muggles. The original law stated that no one was allowed to perform acts of magic in front of muggles unless in dire circumstances, they were not to tell muggles of the magical world unless they had married them. Any child to be found with magical abilities was to be either taken from the parents or carefully monitored for accidental magic. Any child who was suspected to being mistreated by muggles was to be taken in by a magical family and the muggles punished. The law was fairly straightforward and was still in practice in many countries outside of Europe. She had been shocked to learn from a modern history book she had Winky take from the library that Albus himself was the one to repeal the law and had even voted against the modified statute of secrecy. She was really beginning to believe that Dumbledore was using the entire 'war' as a way to push his political agenda through.

"This is going to devastate Harry," she told Severus. "He has looked up to the headmaster for years and now he's realizing he was nothing but a pawn. He was so angry after Sirius died at how he had kept things from him; I think this will be the final straw. He won't fight for Albus anymore but he won't go dark either."

"There is nothing wrong with the middle ground, in fact I believe most people would take the middle ground in this conflict if they knew what exactly it was they were fighting against." Severus told her. "Now that your father has stopped the senseless killings, which was the only real reason most people were against him, and that the headmaster's agenda is exposed for all to see I believe most people will pull their support and wait and see what happens." They discussed possible outcomes to the war for the rest of the night before Severus had to leave for his rounds.