All morning, Hermione talked with Voldemort, getting to know the wizard who had fathered her and learning about her past. By wordless understanding, neither of them mentioned their current situation and the fact Voldemort was a dark wizard and up until recently Hermione had considered him her enemy. Instead they focused on getting to know one another, and they spent a long time talking about Hermione's mother.
Hermione discovered that her mother's name was Ella, and that she and Voldemort had been very much in love. When Voldemort spoke about his late wife, it was with genuine emotion and Hermione could see how how much he still missed her. When he recounted how broken she'd been after what had happened to Hermione, he was overcome with emotion and he shed several tears as he recalled how his wife hadn't been able to cope with losing their daughter and after months of depression had taken her own life.
Hermione herself also shed more than a few tears at the story, and she felt a burning hatred for everyone involved in her kidnapping. It didn't matter that Voldemort was a dark and dangerous wizard, he was still a human being and no-one had any right to take his child from him. Especially as he wasn't the only one affected by her kidnapping and an innocent woman had ended up so broken that she'd felt the only way out of her pain was to end her life. The injustice of it all made Hermione want to scream, and as she sat with Voldemort, learning about the mother she would never know, she wished a fiery and painful vengeance on Dumbledore and his precious Order.
"Ella would have loved you so much," Voldemort whispered, his voice still crackling with emotion. "She did love you so much. You were her world, Hope. And to answer your earlier question, your mother named you. She named you Hope because you were our hope of carrying on our legacy."
"Of darkness?" Hermione queried as she brushed at her damp face.
"It's a funny thing about darkness, but it all depends on your definition of dark," Voldemort said with a low chuckle. "Someone, somewhere once decided which magic was the so called Dark Arts, and began a culture of frowning on those who used that branch of magic. But once upon a time, magic was just magic. After all, even a so called light spell can be used to create pain and suffering. And people who are supposed to be the saviours of our world, steal babies and fake their deaths."
"So really there is no real light and dark, just different shades of grey," Hermione said.
"I guess that's one way of looking at it," Voldemort agreed with a nod. "I can't claim to be a nice man, Hope. I've done things that most people would call evil. But that is not all there is to me. Your mother could see the man beneath the mask, and I hope that one day you'll be able to do the same."
"I already can," Hermione admitted with a sad smile. After all, there was no way she could deny that Voldemort had a heart after witnessing his raw emotions over the course of the morning. "And I think you're right on the varying shades of grey in the world. I've always considered myself a good person, but right now I've got so much anger towards Dumbledore and the others who helped kidnap me. At the minute, I wouldn't be at all sad to hear they were all dead."
"You have a right to be angry, Hope," Voldemort said gently, not wanting to push the girl sitting next to him, but wanting her to embrace the side of her that was most like him. "As a baby, you were stolen from parents who loved you. Maybe we weren't the sort of parents the like of Dumbledore would approve of, but Ella and I loved you. You were everything to us. But because of Dumbledore, not only did we lose our daughter, but you lost your family. I'm not saying the muggles who raised you haven't loved you, but they're not who you should have been with. And even now you know the truth, you'll never get to know your mother because Dumbledore caused her so much pain he might as well have killed her with his own wand. So I say you have every right to be angry."
"I know, I just don't want the anger to change me," Hermione admitted. "I know you'll protect me and make sure nothing happens to me, but I have to warn you, I don't see myself ever fighting alongside you."
"No-one is asking you to do anything you don't want to do," Voldemort assured his daughter. "And don't worry about fighting. Right now, let's focus on getting through these next few weeks."
"Do you think things are going to get tricky?"
"I guess that depends on Dumbledore, and if he's willing to let you go without a fight. But if he does try and get you back, he's going to get more than he bargained for. He's going to be the one exposed as a liar and a kidnapper. But I guess we're just going to have to wait and see what happens."
"I guess so," Hermione agreed with a nod as there was a knock on the door and Narcissa poked her head into the room.
"Sorry to disturb you, but we're about to have lunch. Would you like me to send one of the elves in with some food?" she asked with a warm smile.
"Actually Narcissa, I should be leaving," Voldemort said as he rose to his feet. "We don't know what's going to happen this afternoon, so I think it's better if I'm not around. But I will come and back and see you tomorrow, Hope, if that's okay."
"I'd like that," Hermione said with a smile as she also got to her feet.
Once Voldemort had left, Hermione accompanied Narcissa to the dining room. She found Severus had already left, with plans to try and head to Order headquarters before Dumbledore found out where she was and grab Crookshanks and some of her stuff. But Lucius and Draco were in the dining room, even though Draco was disappointed by Voldemort not joining them as he'd wanted to meet the dark wizard.
"I'm sure you'll get your chance to meet The Dark Lord sooner or later," Lucius told his disappointed son.
"I suppose I will," Draco conceded with a sigh, before turning to Hermione who had slid into the chair next to him. "Do you like him?" he asked.
Hermione considered the question for a short time before nodding her head. "I think I do actually." she hadn't expected to actually like Voldemort, but it was incredibly hard not to like someone who so clearly loved her and was overjoyed to have her back in his life.
"So he's not too scary?" Draco pressed.
"Actually, he is pretty scary," Hermione admitted honestly. There had been a couple of times over the course of the morning where she'd seen the intimidating wizard he was famed for being, and there wasn't a doubt in her mind that he was a formidable enemy. "I'm not sure you could handle meeting him," she added teasingly, deciding to see if Draco had meant what he said about being friends, or if he would take offence and prove that he didn't really want to get to know her.
"I could handle him, I'm tougher than I look," Draco retorted.
"You're not that tough, you let me get the better of you in third year."
"I did not let you get the better of me, you took me by surprise," Draco muttered, blushing slightly as he recalled the time Hermione had almost broken his nose by punching him in the face. "And just in case you didn't know, friends don't recall the times they hit other friends," he added with a slight smirk, just to let Hermione know he wasn't too offended by her mentioning the most embarrassing moment of his adolescence.
"I'll try and remember that," Hermione said with a slight smile, rather taken aback by how easy it was to banter back and forth with Draco.
"Do that, and I'll give you a tour of the manor," Draco said. "If you're going to be staying her for the foreseeable future, you should know your way around. It is okay if I show Hermione around this afternoon, isn't it?" he checked with his father.
"It's fine by me, if the Ministry turn up I can have an elf find the pair of you," Lucius replied.
"So do you want a tour after lunch?" Draco asked, turning back to Hermione.
"I'd love it," Hermione said, bestowing Draco with a warm smile, before settling down to eat her lunch.
Severus hadn't planned on leaving the manor before Hermione had finished with Voldemort, but as the morning ticked on he became aware that the chance of being able to retrieve Hermione's cat were diminishing. He'd already decided that he would try and sneak into headquarters to find Crookshanks and grab her some clothes, before returning and seeing what was going on. But in order to do that, he would have to get going, so he left earlier than planned but promised Lucius that he would be back when he could, both to update them on the situation with the Order and to check on Hermione.
After leaving the manor, Severus headed straight to Grimmauld Place, only before he entered the house he cast a disillusionment charm on himself. He then entered the house very carefully, and was grateful that no-one was in the hallway when he arrived. Not knowing where anyone was in the house put Severus at a bit of a disadvantage, but he wasn't about to let that stop him and he quietly and carefully made his way up to the room Hermione had been given upon her arrival at Headquarters.
Luckily for Severus no-one else was in the room, but even better, Hermione's ginger half kneazle cat, Crookshanks was sitting curled on the bed. Hoping that Crookshanks really was as smart as he appeared, Severus removed the charm and revealed himself to the cat. Ordering the cat to be quiet, he pulled a bag from the wardrobe and pulling out his wand, he magically packed as many of Hermione's belongings as he could manage.
"You're going to have to be quiet, cat," Severus whispered as he slung the bag over his shoulder and gingerly reached out for the feline. "Stay quiet and I can take you to Hermione."
Obediently, Crookshanks allowed Severus to pick him up in his arms, and he didn't utter a single cry as he re-erected the disillusionment charm over them both. With Crookshanks safely nestled in his arms, Severus once again quietly and carefully moved through Grimmauld Place and headed to the front door. As it was when he arrived, the front hallway was empty and he was able to slip out of the house without any even realising he'd been there.
Instead of going home from Grimmauld Place, Severus went straight back to the manor and after handing Crookshanks and Hermione's bag over to one of the elves, he headed back to Order Headquarters. This time he entered the house without any charms to hide himself, and he strode into the kitchen with his usual quiet confidence.
"What are you doing here?" Sirius spat as soon as he laid eyes on the Potions Master.
"I came to see if there was any news of Hermione," Severus replied. "I rather expected to heard from Albus before now. I've been sitting at home all morning, waiting for an update."
"We're all waiting for an update," Molly said with a sigh, from where she was sitting at the table, her four youngest children gathered around her, all looking pale and worried.
"There's been no word?" Severus asked with a concerned frown. "Albus said he'd asked the Ministry to activate her under-age trace. Shouldn't they have had the results by now?"
"We should have had a trace by now," Remus admitted. "But Albus has sent a message from the Ministry saying there'd been a problem. The magic the ministry use to activate the under-age trace has been malfunctioning and giving false readings. The first result placed Hermione in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and when the result was queried and rechecked it then placed her in Quebec in Canada."
"So basically we have to wait until they can sort the problem and get an accurate reading," Molly finished.
"And in the mean time, anything could be happening to Hermione," Ron spat, choking down a sob and gulping harshly.
"We have to stay positive, Ron," Ginny said, wrapping an arm around her brother. "We'll find Hermione, and with any luck she'll be back with us before Harry arrives this evening."
"You're bringing Potter here today?" Severus questioned in surprise.
"Why wouldn't we?" Sirius demanded sharply. "It was always the plan for him to spend most of his summer with us. This changes nothing."
"If you say so," Severus said mildly, half hoping that Harry was at Grimmauld Place before all the fun began as he was pretty curious what the reaction of The Boy Who Lived would be when he discovered that his precious Dumbledore wasn't the hero he liked to paint himself as.
Dumbledore was well and truly fed up with the Ministry and their ineptitude and as the hours of the afternoon slowly ticked by, he began to curse himself for not relying on his own magic to find Hermione. Tracking spells took several hours to weave together and could be very difficult to get working, so he'd figured using the under-age magic trace the Ministry had on Hermione would have been the quicker way to find the missing witch. However, he hadn't expected the delays and mistakes they'd encountered and he was having to bite his tongue so he didn't snap at the technicians trying to fix the trace.
"This trace was working fine just a few days ago," he finally snapped, unable to hold his tongue any longer. "It detected Harry Potter defending himself from Dementors."
"That remains to be proven, Albus," the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, said haughtily.
Fudge was present at the proceedings as Dumbledore had personally come to him for help in finding Hermione, and the last thing the Minister wanted was to be accused of turning a blind eye when an under-age witch had seemingly vanished into thin air. However, that didn't mean he was currently on overly friendly terms with the Headmaster of Hogwarts. At this moment in time, Dumbledore's insistence that the dark wizard, Lord Voldemort, had returned was giving the Ministry a serious headache as they tried to nip the rumours in the bud and prevent an all out panic in the general population. And of course it really didn't help that Dumbledore's protégée, Harry Potter, had been detected using magic in front of muggles and was scheduled to attend a hearing to determine if he would be allowed to return to Hogwarts.
"I know, now is not the time to discuss Harry's case," Dumbledore admitted with a sigh. "I'm just frustrated with the lack of progress. I thought we would have had a fix on Miss Granger before now."
"There might still be a simple explanation," Fudge said, softening slightly as she could see the genuine concern Dumbledore had for his missing pupil. "Are you sure the girl didn't go back home? You did say she was staying with friends when she vanished."
"She's not at home," Dumbledore replied. He had actually checked with the Grangers to see if Hermione had returned home, but they hadn't seen her since she'd left to spend her summer with her friends.
"I think we're up and running," one of the technicians suddenly called.
"But will the results be accurate?" Dumbledore asked as the necessary information was loaded into the device that tracked under-age magic and would hopefully give them Hermione's location.
"We're pretty sure it's working correctly this time," the technician replied.
"You said that two hours ago," Dumbledore muttered as the spell was cast and he held his breath as the results appeared on a piece of parchment.
"I'm not sure this is right," Fudge admitted as he picked up the parchment and frowned at the location the spell had located Hermione at. "Try the spell again and see if it verifies this result."
"Where does it say she is this time, Brazil?" Dumbledore snorted as a second spell was preformed to check the results of the first one.
"No, she's in this country," Fudge replied as he was handed the second set of results, which were exactly the same as the first set. "Wiltshire to be precise."
"Wiltshire? What's in Wiltshire?" Dumbledore questioned.
"According to these results, your missing student is currently in Wiltshire at the home of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy."
"Malfoy Manor," Dumbledore gasped, his blood running cold and the potential implications of Hermione being with the Malfoys. The only question was, had she been kidnapped, or had she gone to Malfoy Manor of her own free will?
