"Those who hide their secret are master of their way."
Arabic proverb
Hermione woke up on that first morning in February with a strange feeling, as if something bad was going to happen to her. By now Hermione had learned to trust her instincts and it was with trepidation that she made her way to the Great Hall for breakfast. She analysed her food, and saw that there were no strange potions or plants in the middle of her toast. Using the spell of attraction, she brought in the food from the other three houses. She saw, not surprisingly, that the Slytherin food contained a potion that turned hair colour a beautiful scarlet. This could only come from one group of people.
Hermione then had an idea. She decided to take the marauders at their own game and make Hogwarts more colourful, it had been a long time since she had laughed out loud. She enchanted the food with several spells and waited patiently for Hogwarts to wake up. Several students had already eaten, but that was no problem, their colourful appearance would be revealed later.
A few minutes later, the crowd arrived and the room grew louder. Everyone was having a lively lunch. Hermione stood by the front doors of the Great Hall and saw the marauders whispering something. At that moment she activated her spells, and the Gryffindors found themselves with beautiful green hair and matching eyes. Their skin was identical to Shrek's, at least in colour. Hufflepuff had Smurf-like skin, ocean blue eyes and sky blue hair. The Slytherins were so red, both from anger and from potion, and their scarlet hair overshadowed the Gryffindor lion. The Ravenclaws were as bright as the sun and their golden skin looked as if it came from another planet. The professors, meanwhile, had become the different colours of the rainbow, in the order in which they sat, of course.
The marauders were talking amongst themselves, desperately looking for the culprit of this abomination. James then saw Hermione, who was standing by the large doors with a smile on her face.
"It's Grace."
"What? But James..."
"James is right Peter, look at her. She has red eyes, blue hair, golden skin and her clothes are green. She's the only one who isn't totally the same colour."
"GRACE! Come here."
To their surprise, the witch obeyed, a smile floating on her face. She looked very proud of herself, and incredibly relaxed, a first.
"To what do I owe the honour of hearing your sweet voice Potter?"
"Take this spell off me right now!"
"Politeness is a very important concept to me, Potter, don't you know that word? As for your beautiful emerald hair, isn't it beautiful? It is similar in every way to Lily-dear's eyes, don't you think?
"You don't refute what you've done?"
"Of course not Black, I'm far too proud of myself to do that. Isn't it beautiful, this is much more cheerful than the classic black dresses isn't it?"
"You've ruined our prank!"
"On the contrary Black, the Slytherins are, as you wished, dressed in red, but it's much more fun to have the whole school enjoy it isn't it? Come on, don't you think you look good in Shrek's skin?"
"Whose?"
"Probably something Muggle" James interjected. "I'll ask Lily."
"Grace! Get it off me!"
"No, Black, you don't know the expression 'it's a case of the biter bit, now the biter is bit'? It's a perfect match and the green suits your complexion perfectly. As for the fading of this fabulous spell, you'll have to wait forty-eight hours.
"Why did you turn yourself too?"
"It wouldn't have been so funny if I was the only one at Hogwarts wearing black, don't you think, Pettigrew? Since I'm the author of this joke, I've changed into Hogwarts colours. No more barriers between houses, but after all, I'm only the new one, I don't understand your little spat."
Hermione smiled widely and headed for the exit but remembered something.
"One last point, the more you want to remove your dye with a spell, the longer it will stay on, so there's no point in trying anything."
"You can't do that!"
"Of course I can, that's what I'm going to do. Potter, if next time you don't want to turn into what my imagination thinks, you'd better share your talent with the whole school. Limiting yourself to Slytherin would be a waste, don't you think?"
"Grace!"
"What is it now?"
Ever since she had coloured in everyone in the school, Hermione couldn't take a step without someone calling out to her, which was a real pain. She had to keep using the marauders' map, to find an empty corridor, while being very careful that her creators didn't see her with it. Even though theirs had been confiscated and was under lock and key in Rusard's office, she had yet to come up with a plausible excuse as to why the map had ended up in her possession. The invisibility cloak was also handy, but again, she couldn't take it to class with her. The cloak could not be reduced, because of its power, and the only place Hermione could put it discreetly was in her bead bag, which was well hidden in the room on demand. She couldn't risk carrying it around with her for fear of it being stolen. Which would be a real disaster as it had her whole life inside, pictures of her with her parents, with Harry, with Ron, pictures of the AD, the picture of the Order that Mad-Eye had given to Harry, an order that was not yet formed...
She couldn't afford to have her bag fall into the wrong hands, into hands other than her own, Remus's, and possibly Minerva's.
"Hey, I haven't spoken to you in two months, can I do it?"
"What do you want, Black?"
"What's this?"
Regulus pulled a rather large brown book from his canvas bag. He waited for an answer but Hermione shrugged nonchalantly.
"A book? Can't you read anymore Black, the pure blood is going to your head? It says, 'Duels for Beginners, Learn to Fight in Ten Lessons'."
"Seriously, duels for beginners? Why did you send me this?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"At Christmas! You gave me this at Christmas."
"It's February, Black, not December."
Regulus let out a long sigh and glared at Hermione. She was doing it on purpose, that was for sure. Him, a beginner? What the hell! His dueling skills needed improvement, that was all.
"You wanted me to teach you how to fight, which is out of the question, you have a book for that."
"I don't need help, let alone a stupid book."
"All right Black, have it your way. See you on the battlefield."
"Grace! Teach me!"
"You don't need anyone's help, you said so yourself. Now I have to go to class."
"That's right, go join your mudblood and blood traitor friends."
Hermione's fist and Regulus' face met seconds later. The young woman couldn't control her action, but she didn't regret it, he had it coming. Regulus was about to retreat when Hermione shook her head.
"-You don't think you're going to get away with this, do you Black?"
She cast a spell that cut deep into his cheek, and then every other part of his body. She wrapped magical ropes around him and gave him one last punch that made him faint. She wiped his memory of the last few moments and set him down in front of the doors of the Great Hall with a sign above his head.
Here lies Regulus Arcturus Black, proud to be a pureblood, but resigned to asking the mudbloods for help and then calling them mudbloods and blood traitors.
Black, a student sorely lacking in critical thinking and dueling skills.
May his soul rest in peace.
As the students passed him on their way to lunch, some couldn't help but laugh at the sign, but others, especially the Slytherins, stopped to report what they had seen to their Headmaster, and the Headmaster himself. Dumbledore woke him with a spell and Regulus flickered.
"Mr. Black, can you tell me the name of your attacker?"
"I don't know, I can't remember. My last memory is of this morning."
Dumbledore entered his mind and emerged a few seconds later.
"A spell erased his memory. Whoever did this is very clever."
His gaze fixed on Hermione, who, like three quarters of his time, had a face devoid of emotion. He gave her a look that was meant to be questioning and accusatory but which made her laugh more inwardly than anything else.
"Miss Grace, can you come in here please?"
"What is it, Professor?"
"Your classmate has been assaulted!"
"And what does that have to do with me? That would be a very serious accusation to make of me, don't you think? Until proven otherwise, I had nothing to do with Regulus Black. If you'll excuse me, I have more pressing matters to attend to than admiring someone who has no memories."
The marauders were sitting in their common room discussing Regulus' attack.
"It's Grace."
"James! Why do you always blame her? It can't be her every time."
"Prongs is right Moony, I know you're grateful for the potion she gave you, but that doesn't make her a good person. We've seen her use dark magic, she's too mysterious to be innocent. As for these Harry and Ron, we still don't know who they are."
"We won't know, Sirius, she won't tell you."
"You'd have to use veritaserum then, if you want to get her secrets out of her."
For the second time in less than two weeks, James and Sirius turned to Peter, looking bewildered. Remus, for his part, looked first at the pair, then at Peter, then at the pair again.
"You can't be serious, can you?"
"Of course we are, Rem', this is a golden opportunity. We'll go to the Slughorn reserve."
"Do you really think she won't notice something? How are you going to catch her? You think she's going to sit back and wait for you to kidnap her?"
"I'll find a way."
"This is the worst idea in the history of bad ideas" Remus sighed.
Indeed, James did find a way the following week. He was going to make Helena drink veritaserum for breakfast, then go and offer to accompany her to class and hit her on the head or use a sleeping spell, he hadn't decided yet, then take her to an empty classroom and interrogate her.
Unfortunately for James, Hermione was much smarter and more resourceful than he thought. The marauders went along with his idea, even though Remus kept saying that this was a very bad idea.
"Calm down Moony, Prongs always has good plans, doesn't it?" Peter tried to reassure him.
"No Wortmail, that's the problem. James' last plan triggered the defence function of all the armour on the fifth floor. Do I need to remind you of the time we were locked in a broom wardrobe all night because his plan went wrong? Or the time we broke into McGonagall's office because we had too much to drink."
"That was originally Sirius' plan, not mine. As for yours, we lost the map."
"It wasn't just my plan!"
"Neither was this one, you're going to help me."
"We help you every time James."
"There she is. Act natural. Natural Peter, not uptight."
Hermione took her usual seat and was soon joined by the marauders. They didn't look neat, though they were never totally neat, and Peter was so uptight he was hiding something, it was obvious.
"Grace, do you want some pumpkin juice?"
Before Hermione had time to answer, he placed a glass in front of her with a smile that was meant to be kind. Sirius elbowed him between the ribs and Remus gave him a knowing look that was meant to be more discreet. Hermione grabbed the glass and sniffed discreetly. The potion enthusiast in her was immediately aware of the smell of veritaserum and she drank the contents of her glass with a big smile. She quickly ate a piece of toast and accepted the marauders' invitation to accompany her to class. She saw James cast a sleeping spell on her but did not react. She woke up a few minutes later to an empty classroom and a dusty one that looked like it hadn't been used in years.
"What is your full name?"
"Helena Grace"
"Date of birth?"
"September, 19th 1959."
"Right. What was the potion you gave Remus before the full moon?"
"Sirius, there are other matters of priority!"
"Of course not! We still don't know who made the potion or what it is."
"The potion helps relieve the symptoms of lycanthropy. It allows the wolf to remain lucid and therefore harmless. It does not, however, take away the pain during the transformation."
"Who made it?"
"Sev' and I."
"Servilus! He didn't try to poison Moony?"
"No, he didn't."
The witch was careful not to tell them that he didn't know how to use the potion.
"Well, the matter is closed. How did you know we were playing a Slytherin prank?"
"Instinct."
"Why did you turn the whole place into a rainbow?"
"I don't like discrimination."
"Do you do dark magic?"
"Yes, I do."
"Did you attack Black? Regulus."
"No, I did not."
"Who's Ron?"
"My best friend, I told you."
"And Harry?"
"There's no word for my relationship with Harry, but he's my best friend too."
"Have you ever killed anyone?"
"Yes, I have."
"We have our proof, she killed someone!" said James, turning to his friends.
"I have another question" Sirius interjected. "Have you ever tortured anyone? "
Unexpectedly, Hermione laughed and looked at the marauders with a pitying expression.
"You didn't seriously think I didn't recognise the veritaserum in my drink. Even without it, you hardly ever talk to me and suddenly you come along and offer me pumpkin juice? I thought you were smarter than that, I must say I'm disappointed."
"But you drank the drink!"
"There are other ways not to respond to the truth serum, I'm sure Black knows some of them. Now, if you don't mind, I have better things to do than get kidnapped by pseudo pranksters. Worse, pseudo Gryffindors who would rather use veritaserum than ask the questions directly. You are a disgrace to my house. But the best part is that I've answered your questions, but you'll never know if I've told you the truth or not."
Hermione stormed out of the room and the marauders looked at each other unsure of what to do. Remus opened his mouth but James interrupted him with a gesture.
"If you dare say 'I told you so'..."
Remus retracted his statement, thinking that he was being far too transparent with his friends.
"We've done pretty well, haven't we?"
No sooner had Sirius finished his sentence than four huge jets of water poured over their heads.
"You were saying Padfoot?"
They left the room after drying themselves off. They arrived in botany class, their escapade had caused them to miss metamorphosis class to the astonished looks of the other Gryffindors and the mocking looks of the Hufflepuffs.
"James! What have you done!" Lily exclaimed.
She approached him and when she was a metre away, an alarm went off, screaming 'warning, do not approach'.
"Here's the thing. Did you see yourself in a mirror?"
James shook his head and Lily summoned one. The marauders all looked into it and saw themselves with scarlet hair and the words 'kidnapper' stamped on their foreheads."
"What the hell is that?"
"You tell me."
"I'll explain it to you, but after class."
Lily nodded, waiting for an explanation from her boyfriend. And they had better be good. She knew he'd gotten himself into another mess, but she had no idea what had really happened.
Hermione punched her dummy in the face, and it was quickly returned. She then performed several spells, but her opponent was quicker and threw her about ten meters away. The Gryffindor immediately got up and moved closer to her dummy. She concentrated on what the guardian had taught her and started with an uppercut before casting a dark magic spell, which the dummy blocked without mercy. She parried a sectumsempra and then cast an avada kedavra to end the fight. She didn't worry about her dummy, it was recharging automatically and could fight again in a few hours. She tended to her wounds, she had a nice cut on her cheek and had sprained her ankle. She really needed to start looking for healing spells. She knew a lot of them, often for quite serious curses, but she wasn't even able to heal a small sprain.
"I thought I'd find you here."
Hermione turned around when she heard her friend's voice and gave him a sheepish smile.
"Rem'!"
"Why didn't you tell me to come? We would have trained together. I know you like doing it alone, but we're a team, so we have to train together. In a few months, there will probably be other members of the order next to you, with other models."
"Their dummies will never be as good as mine. I feel like I'm going to have a hard time being in a group. We'll talk about that in time. I think I'm ready to use the fiendfyre to destroy the horcruxes."
"Already?"
"I've had it under control for quite some time. The time you found me, something had distracted me and I wasn't fully focused on the spell and that's what gave me my scar" she explained, pointing to her black arm.
"All right, then. We'll do it tomorrow."
"Tomorrow? "
"It's better to get rid of it as soon as possible, right?"
Hermione nodded and they walked quietly towards Hogwarts with the training dummy under their arms. Everyone was lost in thought, thinking about the horcrux they would destroy the next day. This was going to be a very important step forward for the sake of their quest, and Hermione was a little stressed about not being up to the task. What if she failed? They didn't have forever to try again. How would the horcrux react? Hermione was afraid of what she would discover as memories through this abomination of dark magic. She remembered Ron and Harry's stories, as well as her own experience of the destruction of Helga's Hufflepuff cup, it had been truly horrific, her worst memories had come flooding back. However, her worst memories at the time seemed to pale in comparison to what she had experienced afterwards. Hermione doubted. Would she be strong enough to destroy the most vile form of dark magic that could exist?