"One change prepares another."

Nicholas Machiavel

Hermione was having breakfast at the Gryffindor table, it was still early and only three other students were present at the lions. The Slytherin and Hufflepuff tables were as empty as hers, but the Slytherin table was practically full. It must have been some pure-blooded I'm-better-than-everyone else habit, getting up early. She was about to leave when Lily called out to her.

"Grace, your schedule!"

Hermione turned and grabbed the parchment Lily was handing her. Although she knew she wouldn't be attending half of the classes, she carefully observed her schedule for the week.

"Two hours of Potions on Monday morning and Friday night? They want to kill us!" exclaimed Sirius, loud enough for all of Hogsmeade to hear.

Hermione managed to escape the invitations of the marauders, Lily, Dorcas and Alice to join them and headed for Remus' chambers.

"Rem' are you there?"

Hermione entered the living room and sat on the sofa, waiting for her friend. Remus returned ten minutes later with a piece of toast in his hands.

"I thought you might be here. Have you been eating?"

"Yes, don't worry."

"Never mind, it's on me" he said, biting into the toast.

"How did it go last night?"

"Just about.

"Did you sleep in the Room of Requirement?"

Hermione looked at him, surprised, how could he have known?

"I heard Lily and Mary say you'd already left when they were awake and Lily gets up at dawn so I don't think you slept there."

"Saves me putting on silence spells. My nightmares can be... noisy. The Room of Requirement suits me just fine."

"Whatever you say, Hermione, but be careful. What kind of class do you have today?"

"Two hours of potion, two hours of hole, one hour of botany and two hours of defence against the dark arts. What are we gonna do?"

"You'll see. I'll test everyone's skills."

Hermione insisted but Remus didn't give in, he just told her that she should enjoy the class. Hermione left for the dungeons while Remus headed to his room to teach the third year students.

Hermione arrived in the room a little early and took a seat in the back of the room. She saw that it was a joint class with the Slytherins, so even twenty years earlier, potions classes were still the same. Slughorn entered and began his lesson. Hermione was trying to concentrate, but she hadn't been to class in five years and it wasn't helping much. The students had paired off to make the potion, but Hermione had to be left alone, to observe her abilities according to Slughorn. The potion itself wasn't very complicated, but they had to be careful with the doses of ingredients. Hermione made a mistake and reversed two ingredients, Slughorn walked past her and gave her a small, haughty look at her potion. But he didn't know Hermione, and that kind of look irritated her to no end. She didn't let it bother her and remembered what Harry had shown her in the Prince's book. She added two mint leaves and halved the amount of snake hooks. When the class was over, the Potions teacher awarded points to the successful students and deducted points from those whose potions were disastrous, relatively speaking, since the worst ones had not taken the class. When it was Hermione's turn, he was amazed at Hermione's potion.

"But it's perfect. How did you do it, in such a short time?"

"I caught it, it wasn't that difficult, just adjust the quantities."

Unsurprisingly, Slughorn awarded her twenty points and invited her to join his club, which Hermione declined, she had enough on her plate to worry about that stupid club. She left the potions room and headed for the library. Slughorn had already given them a roll of parchment to do, the sooner it was done the sooner she could concentrate on her mission and look for the horcruxes. She sat down at a small table off the central aisle and took out a quill and a scroll of parchment. She went to get a book she needed and began her writing. A quarter of an hour later, a student came and sat in the chair next to her.

"Do you mind if I sit here?"

Hermione shook her head, not taking her eyes off her notes. She finished her paper ten minutes later. She took the time to observe the person who had just joined her. He was a Slytherin, he looked a bit younger than her, he must have been in fifth or sixth year. He had black hair and was quite thin. Feeling that he was being watched, he raised his head and fixed his grey eyes on Hermione's. Hermione had seen him somewhere before, his face was familiar.

"What's wrong? Why are you staring at me like that?"

"I didn't mean to be so insistent, you're telling me something, but I can't remember where I've seen you."

"My name is Regulus Black, you're in the same year as Sirius."

Hermione felt silly for not having made the connection before. He looked very much like Sirius, the same dark hair, the same aristocratic air, though Regulus looked more haughty than his brother.

"Ah, you do look alike, I-"

"I don't look like Sirius, I'm not a traitor!"

Hermione sighed to keep her composure against the young Black.

"I don't know your brother, I don't know you either, yet I'm in Gryffindor, you only know my name. You didn't ask me my blood status before you sat down. I guess you're not so disgusted with lions to sit with me. If he's a traitor because he's not in the same house as you, because he ran away from your parents, surely for a good reason, ask yourself the right questions and ask yourself what a traitor is."

Hermione glared at him, she really hated people who couldn't think for themselves. Regulus, at sixteen, was perfectly capable of making up his own mind, wasn't he?

"You should go, Regulus Black, you're going to be late for your next class."

Regulus complied grudgingly, how dare this stranger speak to him, the heir to the noble and powerful house of Black, like that. He packed his things and left without a backward glance. If his friends learned that he had been spurned in this way by a- A what exactly? A half-blood? A mudblood? Certainly not by a pureblood, she had no manners.

The rest of Hermione's day had been a deep bore. She had gone to lunch quite early, to avoid running into too many students, most of whom were still in class. The botany class might have been interesting if she didn't already know the entire syllabus. She would definitely consider skipping botany in addition to the history of magic. It was in a rather bad mood that she headed for her Defence Against the Dark Arts class.

Remus entered the room and briefly introduced himself and began his lecture.

"So far you haven't had any stability in this subject"

"To say the least."

"A comment, Mr Black? Well, I hope to remedy that as best I can, in preparation for the dark times ahead. Today, I will test your skills through duels."

A murmur of astonishment spread through the room, never before had one of their defence teachers gone into the thick of things like this. They were all eager to experience this new art.

"Are we going to fight you?"

"No, of course not, that would take too long and you would get bored, you will fight each other. Let's pair up, who knows the rules of a duel?"

A few students raised their hands, but it was only a small minority.

"Right, can someone explain them to us? Miss Evans."

Lily launched into a grand, but true, explanation of the rules of duelling, which Hermione might have done a few years earlier.

"Very good Miss Evans, ten points for Gryffindor. Get into groups, you can mix houses."

The whole class looked at the new teacher, he had never been to Hogwarts to say that. Gryffindors working with Slytherins? That was simply impossible. The groups formed and Hermione, to her horror, found herself up against the traitor-in-chief.

"I want to see your abilities, but that's no reason to hurt you badly. Wizarding combat only."

"Obviously wizard combat, we're not going to fight like muggles."

"Muggle combat has a lot more going for it than you think, Mulciber. Remember that."

The whole class turned to Hermione, surprised to hear her voice. Most had not heard her say a word yet and those who had, had only had the privilege once. Mulciber gave her a look of disgust and then turned away from her muttering something Hermione did not hear. Remus ordered the duels to begin, which the students happily did.

Hermione turned to Pettigrew, she was going to have a chance to let off some steam. He attacked with a basic spell, which Hermione had no trouble parrying. The witch did several spells, until the traitor-in-chief fell to the ground, a cracked rib and a good cut on his left cheek.

"But what's wrong? The teacher said no serious harm would come to you, what part of those three words don't you understand?"

"A little cut never killed anyone"

"Take it easy, Mr. Potter and Mr. Black, take Mr. Pettigrew to the infirmary, the rest of you go on, change partners."

James and Sirius left for the infirmary, while the Gryffindors gave him questioning looks. How could the new girl have attacked one of them? None of them confronted her for the rest of the class. The Slytherins did not, and they wanted to confront the new girl, the one who claimed that Muggle combat was important. Hermione sent them down, one by one. They were pretentious to think they could beat her so easily. Next came Mulciber, he was tougher than his previous opponents, but nowhere near the level of the greatest duelists Hermione had ever had the misfortune to face, namely Voldemort and Bellatrix. It was Harry who had trained her in duelling, then Remus who had continued and she never forgot their advice. She had trained on her own after the final battle, practising dark magic, but the principles, no matter what kind of magic she used, were the same. A spell, more powerful than the others, shot towards Hermione and she realised that her opponent had switched to dark magic.

"I thought only white magic was allowed. You may prefer us to use dark magic, but I don't think you'll survive."

Hermione struck a final blow and Mulciber fainted. She turned to Remus, who was giving her a reproachful look.

"The class is over. Mr. Avery, take your classmate to the infirmary, Miss Grace come here."

Remus closed the door with a wave of his wand and faced Hermione."

"Mione, what the hell has gotten into you? I know you can't see him but neither can I, he destroyed my life! If I can keep from slitting his throat, you can too. And Mulciber-"

"He's a Death Eater, Rem!"

"I know that, but that's no reason to attack him like that."

"He started it."

"Hermione, stop being such a child! Our cover must not be blown under any circumstances! You can't go around telling the whole class that you've mastered dark magic like nobody else."

"But it's true, I can't help it!"

"Of course it's true, but that's no reason to say it out loud. Come back at nine o'clock tonight, we have to talk about you-know-whats."

"Why don't you say horcruxes? I hope you've soundproofed the room."

"Who do you think I am? Of course I did. We just have to get used to not talking in public, that's all."

"Being afraid of a name only makes the fear itself worse."

"I'm not afraid of the word. You admire Dumbledore so much that you're using his words now?"

"Ugh, don't insult me!"

Hermione left for the Room on Demand, where she faced a Muggle combat training dummy. The dummy was bewitched to return the blows and Hermione was left with a black eye after more than three hours of training. She had to figure out how to improve it, so that she could then fight with a combination of Muggle and wizard combat, as Pluto had briefly taught her. Then she could give it its abilities and fight against the most formidable opponent, herself. This future dummy would have exactly the same build, speed, strength and power, Muggle and magical, as her. The perfect opponent to fight.

Hermione had asked the Room of Requirement for a magical window, which allowed her to have a view of Hogwarts Park. As she looked through the window, the traveller saw that it was already dark. She picked up her wand, the new one, Harry's and her old one being in her beaded bag, and cast a tempus. The time appeared in the air, and Hermione held back a cry of hallucination. Twenty-two fifteen? Remus was going to kill her. If there was one thing he hated, it was being late, Hermione usually did too, but she had been so engrossed in her training session that she hadn't seen the time go by.

The witch, without looking after herself, hurried out of the hall and ran to Remus' flats. She did not bother to knock and went straight into the living room. She saw Remus sitting on the sofa, he seemed preoccupied, and like every situation where he felt something, joy, sadness, anxiety, stress, anger, he was eating chocolate. He turned abruptly when he heard Hermione come in.

"Do you know what time it is? I- What happened to you?" he interrupted abruptly. "But you're bleeding! And your eye, where did you go?"

"I was training for a Muggle fight. And I won" she answered with a small smile.

"That's not what your face says. Let me treat you or it will get infected."

"I've had worse."

"I know that, that's why I'm worried about you and I'd rather fix you myself, otherwise you'll never do it."

Remus sat Hermione down on the couch despite her protests. He reached for a potion to close wounds when he saw his friend reach for the chocolate bar.

"You're not going to eat my chocolate, are you?"

"A small square is fine."

"No, it's my chocolate. It's my favourite! You arrive an hour after the agreed time and you dare to steal my chocolate."

Hermione smiled apologetically and murmured a 'yes' as Remus gave her a desperate look. No one ever touched his chocolate, his friends knew that very well.

"After all, it's only chocolate."

The wizard gave her a scandalized look, she hadn't dared to say that?

"Only chocolate? You must be joking."

Hermione, seeing Remus's look, changed the subject and turned to her friend's lessons. They talked about their respective days, while drinking a butterbeer. Being a teacher sometimes came in handy for that.

"Have you met Sirius' brother?"

"Yes, he's so haughty! He fits the perfect profile of a pure-blooded Death Eater."

"Why did he flip again?"

"Voldy made Kreattur see a potion. He didn't accept that his only companion since Sirius left would be mistreated like that. I've been thinking, I need to get closer to Regulus and Snape. We need to avoid them both getting indoctrinated since they changed afterwards.

"It's risky Hermione and we'll never be able to save everyone.

"We can avoid some deaths, that's why we're here. Rem, they're in Slytherin, they might be able to give us information on the Death Eaters."

"Do you really think they'd risk their lives for you? You're dreaming, Mione. If you can get to Severus and talk to Regulus after what he said, we'll talk again."

Hermione gave him a big smile and Remus saw immediately that she wasn't going to give up any time soon. She almost seemed to be laughing at him.

"Impossible is not Hermione Granger, Rem'. Don't ever forget that."

The days went by and they were all the same, Hermione only went to the classes she was interested in, that is, Potions, Shapeshifting and Defence Against the Dark Arts. Even though she had a much higher level than the other students, she didn't see herself skipping Remus and Minerva's classes, simply out of respect. As for Potions, she was going for two reasons. She still had to get better at it to be able to make the wolf-killing potion to administer to herself and the two Remus. The full moon was three weeks away and she knew she would never be able to make it for that night, but if she was ready for the next holiday, she would be fine. The second reason was, she felt, the most important, she needed to get closer to Severus Snape. This was a complex task as Snape did not let himself be approached easily, let alone by strangers. Hermione would have to be cunning to even talk to him.

The week of classes was coming to an end, only the seventh years of Gryffindor and Slytherin had Potions class left. The wizards were going to have to make a calming potion, a fairly simple potion but one that required a lot of attention. For this class, Hermione didn't have to show her skills alone to the potions teacher and could pair up. She had noticed in the previous class that Snape was doing his potions alone, not wanting to be bothered by his classmates who did not have his talent for this noble art.

Hermione walked over to Snape's table and sat down on the vacant chair next to him. He gave her an uncomprehending look, which Hermione ignored. She took out her equipment and went to get the ingredients they needed. Snape stood still and watched her as if she was from another planet.

"I make my potions alone, Grace."

"That's good, because so am I. Let's be alone together then."

"Slytherins never associate with Gryffindors. I don't need one of theirs to come out of nowhere and mess up my potion."

"Don't worry, Snape, I don't want to miss your potion because I don't like missing mine. The emblem embroidered on my robes makes no difference to my potion-making ability."

Hermione started to follow the instructions, but changed one ingredient and Snape got carried away.

"You forgot to turn once when you added a snake fang. I told you you'd miss my potion."

"I didn't forget. The potion will work better if this is the final step. Aren't you improving your potions, perhaps?"

Snape didn't answer her and Hermione gave him a look that was heavy with implication. The half-blood preferred not to answer and returned to his usual scowl. The class came to an end and Slughorn went through the ranks to assess the potions.

"Miss Evans, Mr Lupin, your potion is very good, ten points for Gryffindor. You can put it on my desk, I'll give it to Madam Pomfrey. I can't say the same for you, Mr Mulciber and Mr Avery. Oh, but what have we here? Mr. Snape, Miss Grace, your potion is simply perfect. Ten points for Gryffindor and Slytherin.

Hermione left immediately at the end of class and headed for the room on demand. She needed to fight. She wasn't sure why, but she was angry. She needed to express her rage, against her dummy and it was quickly torn apart. With a reparo it was as good as new, then shredded again and again. Hermione was expelling her rage of the week, of the month. Mulciber had shaken her, and she knew that the Death Eater would not rest there. Fighting him was not a problem for the witch. She could send him to spend a year at Mongoose if she wanted to, but she was afraid, yes Hermione was afraid of the words he might say. She knew that if he called someone a mudblood, if he degraded muggles again, as he had done four days before, she wouldn't be able to contain herself and Hermione was angry with herself for that. For her inability to be strong enough to face anything.

Hermione often forgot that even though she had experienced horrors in her life, insurmountable hardships, lost her friends, lost her family, become the Time and Hogwarts Chosen, she was still human. She possessed great magical power, she mastered both white and black magic to perfection, she had great qualities but like every person, she also had many faults.

Hermione didn't know it yet, but the most dangerous flaws are those that, in small doses, represent great qualities.