Hey guys, so I know it's been long since I updated again. But life's busy and I find little inspiration for the store right now. I've been devoured by Spartacus too of late and I can't stop thinking about gladiators and stuff like that – which doesn't exactly fit in this story. Anyways, I got a bit of my inspiration back tonight so I came up with 2 chapters and I'm posting both of them as compensation of my slacking! Hope you enjoy! :)

And as always, thank you for reading and reviewing!

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Chapter 34

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"No, I haven't told him." Daphne took a step towards Alice, but before Daphne had a chance to say anything Granger opened her mouth.

"How can you do that to the people you love?" Granger said as she took a step towards Alice as well. "You'll hurt them more then you'll hurt yourself."

"What do you care? It's not like you're friends with any of them, mudblood", said Alice between her teeth. She was starting to lose it; the mask she wore started to fall off.

"You're not like the rest of them Alice, I don't believe you'd do something like that!" Granger took yet another step towards Alice.

"Why are you interfering?" Alice let the emotions take control of her, only for a second. And in that second a wave of pressure shot out from her making the two other girls shot back, only to hit the walls behind them. As Alice regained control of herself she looked around at the wrecked room. She hadn't done it, not on purpose anyways.

"Oh, Daph, I'm so sorry", Alice said and hurried over to her friend.

"What did you do?" Daphne asked and got on her feet with the help of Alice.

"I didn't do anything", Alice said and turned to watch the room again. She put her hand in her inner pocket and pulled out her wand. "My wand did." The door suddenly swung open and a whole bunch of teachers stepped in. They all looked at the three girls, one at the time.

"Professor Dumbledore's office, now!" Professor McGonagall said with her eyes fixed upon Alice. "All three of you." Hermione helped herself up; her whole body was aching from the hit. The two other girls were already at the door, not carrying if she caught up with them or not. But Hermione decided to hold on to her pride, she was not less than them and they should know it. She quickened her pace for a few steps before she was side to side with Alice. It was something about this girl she couldn't quite put a finger on. The overall straight and proud impression she gave off along with the kindness in her blue eyes made the whole picture a bit frightening. She wasn't just an evil maniac like most of them. This girl knew what she was doing, and what everyone else around her did as well. Apparently Alice and Daphne knew the way to the headmaster's office; they'd lead themselves and Hermione there without Hermione really knowing. As the girls came of the spinning stairs, the door stood wide open, waiting for them to enter. Hermione realised this was probably one of the first times she'd ever been to the headmaster's office; it was a bit smaller then she'd imagined. Dumbledore sat calmly behind his desk, waiting for them to step forward. Even though Alice was the smaller one of the three, as they stepped forwards Hermione felt herself small in comparison.

"Your wand, Alice", professor Dumbledore said and nodded towards Alice. She reached inside her robe and held out the wand for him to see. "This is not the wand you used to have."

"No, sir", said Alice with a small smile. "This wand, sir, is a more suiting one for me", she continued without hesitation.

"You told me once, remember, that the wand you had was more then powerful enough for you. Why would you seek more power when you do not wish for it?" Alice glanced from one side to the other, at the two girls beside her, before she spoke.

"The power I had wasn't enough for me to..." Alice paused and glanced at two girls beside her again. "To make my way." To Hermione's surprise Dumbledore smiled and let the subject go.

"I gave you a warning Alice, and as headmaster I must stick to that..."

"I was not the one to do it, sir", Alice defended herself before he'd even spoken the whole sentence. "My wand did."

"May you excuse us? I believe Miss Gaunt and I need to speak alone." Hermione did as told without saying anything. The name however seemed familiar. Gaunt, where had she heard it before?

"Who is she?" Hermione asked when they'd reached the corridor outside of the office. Daphne stopped and looked at her with one raised eyebrow. "Alice? Who is she?"

"A girl", said Daphne in a cold tone before she started walking again.

"Where's she from?" Daphne stopped again and turned towards Hermione.

"Northern Europe somewhere."

"How is she connected to Malfoy?" Daphne raised an eyebrow again.

"What do you know about them?" Hermione stepped closer to Daphne and lowered her voice.

"Not more than the obvious... She loves him." Daphne hesitated for a moment.

"She lived with them when she first got to England", said Daphne with a shrug on her shoulders.

"And how is she connected to Voldemort?" Daphne's eyes widened and she took a step backwards, away from Hermione.

"The Dark Lord and Alice have nothing to do with one another." Hermione didn't get the time to ask any more questions before Alice got down from the stairs and walked up to them. She didn't look at any of them with particular interest. Daphne closed up with her as she passed by and left Hermione standing. There was something with Alice she couldn't quite let go. There had to be something about her, not anyone get's to start in their fifth year just like that. Hermione made her way back to the Gryffindor common room. She found Harry and Ron in the armchairs by the fire and sat down next to them.

"Where've you been?" Ron asked and looked up from his essay.

"I've been thinking about Draco Malfoy, Harry", said Hermione. Harry looked up as well with interest. "What if he's meeting somebody – someone from school?"

"Like who?" asked Harry and leaned in towards her.

"A girl?" Harry snorted.

"What girl besides Pansy Parkinson would want to meet him? And everyone knows that they're a couple already. It has to be something to do with Voldemort, I'm telling you..." Hermione interrupted him.

"Yes, Harry, I know. And for the record, there are a lot of girls that wouldn't mind getting his attention even though he's a scum." And with that the conversation was over.

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The morning after Hermione still could not let Alice out of her mind. She had the feeling this girl would play a significant part in what was about to go down. At breakfast neither Malfoy nor Alice had been present, not Daphne either for that matter.

"Malfoy isn't here, and I can't find him on the map", Harry whispered to Hermione and Ron.

"I can't believe you'd talk about that when we have a match coming up in a few days", said Ron. He still hadn't got the confidence that he was a good enough player. Hermione snatched the map out of Harry's hands and unfolded it. She found all of the missing Slytherin students in a corner of the library.

"He's in the library, Harry. Don't waste any more time looking for him." Hermione got up, she had in fact been thinking of going to the library herself. Maybe there was something of a Gaunt in a book in there, the name somehow seemed familiar. Hermione knew the library so well; it was no hard task to sneak up on the unknowing group of Slytherin's. She looked around the bookshelf, Daphne and Blaise Zabini got up from the table, leaving Alice and Draco by themselves.

"I meant what I said Draco", Alice said just lout enough for Hermione to hear. "Father was clear what would happen if you..."

"I can't drag you in to it", he interrupted her. They sat quiet for a moment.

"I am already a part of it, when will you get that?" Draco didn't say anything in response. "And what about us?"

"Your father was very clear about that too", he said and looked away from her.

"He doesn't have to know…"

"He wouldn't mind killing one of us if he did find out. And both of us knows who", Draco said in anger.

"You haven't spoken to Pansy anyways", said Alice between her teeth.

"I haven't had time…"

"Yeah, because it takes such a long time telling her! You need to get some courage," Alice got up from the table and walked quickly away. Hermione started searching the library for anything about the name Gaunt. She searched, without results, until about an hour before lunch. She'd heard the name before, she was sure of it. Perhaps Harry would remember it. The corridors were close to empty as she made her way towards the Gryffindor common room. It was stormy outside and the rain seemed never to end. Perhaps that was the reason everyone snuggled up in the warm and cosy common rooms. Harry and Ron were as usual by the fire place, Harry with his nose deep in that sodding potions book and Ron with a dreamy expression on his face.

"Harry, can I ask you something?" Hermione said and sat down next to him in the sofa. He closed the book very carefully and looked at her with a smile.

"Yeah, sure", he said.

"Does the name Gaunt tell you anything?"

"Voldemort's mothers last name was Gaunt", he said in surprise. "Where've you heard it?"

"Is it a common wizard's last name?" That question was directed to Ron. He shook his head.

"Never heard it before", he said and shrugged his shoulders.

"There's a student, here in school with that name", said Hermione. "Have you got your map Harry?" Harry picked it out from his pocked and gave it to her. "She's just one floor down, come on!" The three friends made haste down one floor. The snuck up behind a corner and looked around it very carefully. There she was, with Daphne walking in their direction.

"I've seen Ginny with her", Ron whispered. Harry pulled them back and in to an empty classroom.

"The shorter one, she's named Gaunt?" Hermione nodded. "She's a replica of young Tom Riddle!" Harry said. Ron's face got a scared expression whilst Hermione fell in thoughts.

"Her name is Alice Gaunt, she got to England this summer with her mom and she is staying with the Malfoy's! It all makes sense", she said still in thoughts.

"If she's not him she has to be his daughter or granddaughter or something", said Harry to continue on Hermione's reflections.

"Harry don't you understand what this means?" They exchanged worried looks.

"It doesn't have to mean anything." They all turned towards the door. "I'm going to make it very clear for you. Tom Riddle is my father, but that doesn't make me him." Alice stepped in to the room and closed the door behind her. She reached inside her robe and pulled out her wand.

"What are you going to do?" Hermione asked; she feared what this girl was capable of. Harry got out his wand quickly and in the course of a second he casted a spell again Alice.

"Expelliamus!" Alice blocked the spell to easy and with a smile.

"Obliviate!"

Hermione woke up in the classroom, Harry and Ron was still beside her, unconscious.

"Harry! Ronald! Wake up!" She shook each of them until they opened their eyes.

"What are we doing in here?" asked Harry and looked around. "Isn't it lunchtime soon?"

"Oh, I have to go and speak to professor Vector about a mistake a did in the last exam, it's been nagging me for days", Hermione said and quickly got out from the room.

"Oh god", said Ron, his face had turned greenish. "I have to throw up." And he ran out as well, leaving Harry by himself. He decided to take the rout passing by the room of requirements before lunch.