"Please Hermione," Harry pleaded. "Please, don't do something so stupid."

"You saw what was going on back there," Hermione argued. "How can you expect me to walk away from it?"

"Just like you would walk away if there was no supernatural stuff in it,' Harry snapped. "We would tell the police and go on about our normal lives. We can't tell the police now. But that doesn't mean we can't go back to our lives."

Hermione didn't answer. Her mind was made up. In fact she wished she could pretend to go back to her normal life, to wake up and only have the stress of work ahead, but she couldn't.

"My parents have something to do with this," Hermione reminded Harry.

Harry shrugged. "We don't know that. We have no proof of it. The only proof we have is the evidence from the fire and that says the opposite."

"What need does Draco have to lie about this?" Hermione asked getting annoyed by Harry's persistence. She needed his support right now. Not his opposition.

Harry raised an eye brow at her using Malfoy's first name. "Maybe he was trying to get you involved. Maybe he needs a scapegoat. Who knows?"

"No Harry," Hermione pushed away her empty glass. "I am going home now, thanks for the drinks."

Harry tried to hold her hand but she pushed him away gently. "I am sorry but I am going to be involved in this. You can choose to be with me or you can choose to not. But I can't turn back now."

Leaving Harry alone in the pub Hermione walked home. Draco was still living in her flat. He had claimed that her apartment had some sort of a protection and it had made the place invisible to the magical community. By this point she would have believed anything he said. It was easier to believe him at this point.

"Welcome home Granger," Draco smiled lazily. He lay sprawled on the couch with an opened bag of potato chips in his hand.

"Thank you," Hermione muttered. She took her heels off, grabbed a bag of chips for herself and sat opposite to Draco.

Malfoy had cropped his hair himself making his hair look messy and slightly skewed to the right. A few days had gone by from their visit to the tavern and his skin had regained some colour, his eyes had begun to look less dead. She on the other hand had gone through an opposite transition. Her work was suffering, she couldn't concentrate or even eat, her nights were near sleepless and the confusions and fears had overtaken her mind.

"So Potter still trying to dissuade you?" Draco enquired grinning.

Hermione didn't answer him and plopped a few chips in her mouth. The TV was on, looked like some sort of a game show.

"You haven't asked me much," Draco said. "You probably have a lot of questions. Why aren't you asking anything?"

Draco had invited her to ask questions many times but she had kept delaying. She hadn't digested the reality yet. Not enough to proceed further.

"It has been four days," Draco muttered, making intentionally obnoxious crunching noises with his chips. "We need to get a move on. You need to get over it."

"Ok," Hermione placed her almost full bag of chips down. "Who are these people?"

Harry had walked home in a miserable mood. He felt helpless in the situation. He couldn't prevent Hermione from leaving but he could not even protect her where she was going. And the worst part was he had realized the situation was not one they could run away from. They could not have run away from this.

Turning the key he felt an intense dread over take him. Ginny would ask why he was late and who he was with. And before he said anything she would realize it was Hermione. Then they would fight.

To his surprise and relief Ginny wasn't sitting in the living room. The lights were off. She had gone to sleep. Harry made his way to kitchen to get himself a glass of water. Hopefully she would be less upset in the morning.

Feeling slightly refreshed from the water Harry went to bed with Ginny breathing softly next to him. A bubble of guilt rose inside his heart and he put one arm around his girlfriend.

"Harry.." Ginny muttered weakly.

"Hey," Harry stroke her hair. "I am sorry..I uh.."

"Don't make excuses," Ginny buried her face into the pillow.

This shut him up and a few moments of heavy silence passed. Harry wished to just go to sleep, and wake up to his old life. He regretted having thought his life last week was difficult.

"What's wrong Harry?" she caught him off guard. "You're not ok."

Not used to being the focus in their conversations it took Harry a few seconds to construct an answer. Which came out as a question to her.

"Can I ask you something Ginny?"

She didn't reply and only went stiff, but Harry continued.

"Do you believe in magic, like witches and wizards?"

This produced an unexpected and highly exaggerated reaction from her. Shooting up from bed, she moved away and stared at Harry as though he had confessed to having murdered a man.

"Why did you ask me that?" she cried. Her shocked eyes set in her deep eye bags stared angrily at him.

"Ginny…" Harry reached out to her, stunned by her outburst. "It was just a conversation that came up with a friend…Its nothing..."

He held her hand and pulled her back to bed. Covering her with the sheets, he pressed a kiss to her forehead and gently stroke her hair. He was used to her outbursts but this made him feel sick to the stomach. He pushed down his gut feeling telling him this whole situation was much worse than he had expected and just pulled Ginny close to him.

"I am sorry," she muttered in a daze. "I am sorry…I had a bad dream."

Hermione tried to listen to Draco with as much strength as she could have mustered. Lord Voldemort was a young man who was apparently a genius of magic. He had discovered her parents who were involved with a cult where they performed experiments going beyond the human understanding. He had proven to be an excellent member of the cult, slowly raising them into the abomination Hermione had witnessed personally.

Lord Voldemort's ambitions were however not limited to leading a cult. Now these people were involved in making magical techniques, equipment and weapons to overtake the world. And according to Draco they could very well succeed.

They currently lived in a place everyone just referred to as the institute. It was not one building however, it had slowly evolved into a small town. Lord Voldemort's closest members, which included Hermione's parents and Draco's father, lived with him in his private home.

Hermione still couldn't wrap her head around the fact that her parents had somehow faked their death and left her alone, just so they could work with a maniac. She had gone through the initial delight of finding out her parents were alive to wishing they were dead and not involved in this. Now a small hope had taken place in her heart that her parents were working as agents from the inside. Draco had looked irritated at her suggesting this but she still hoped.

"What does this Lord look like?" Hermione asked. She needed to know how to imagine the man who had ruined her life and taken her family.

Draco thought a while. "Well he has pasty white skin, green eyes, dark hair which are going white, tall, skeleton like thin," Draco recounted his traits as though he could see him. "With a look that could petrify any weak man to a stone statue. He is a cruel man who has no qualms killing anyone for his personal goals, even for goals as slight as annoyance. Torture, murder, and using humans comes as naturally to him as eating animals comes to us. If you go there, there is a good chance you will be skinned alive while being used as …"

"I get it," Hermione held up a hand. "I get it."

Draco took a step back. "My purpose isn't to scare you but to make you as clear as possible of the situation you are entering."

"I know," Hermione attempted a smile.

She felt a sudden desire to call Harry. But he would just get frustrated and ask her to stay. And that would just make it worse to handle.

"Oh there is someone else," Draco was staring at the now blank TV. "But I don't want you to place too much hope in him. He is weak and useless."

"Who is he?" Hermione asked feeling some comfort despite Draco's warning.

Draco scratched his head. "Tom Riddle, he is the other head of the institute. Well sort of."

Hermione was confused. Such an important person and Draco had forgotten to mention?

"What does he do? Who is he?"

"Well he lives there," Draco contributed to her confusion. "And he comes there from time to time. Let me think of how to explain this to you."

"Is he family to Lord Voldemort?" Hermione suggested.

Draco looked at her shocked. "Why did you say that?"

"Who else would be allowed to visit without being useful?" Hermione shrugged. "I guessed only his family."

He whistled in appreciation. "You are clever Granger. But no. Lord Voldemort is not a man who values blood relations."

"Then why am I clever if I was wrong?"

"Because you were right that Tom Riddle has same DNA as Lord Voldemort."

"What does that…" then a thought struck her. "They are the same person?"

"Well," Draco smiled. "They are in fact two people in the same body."