Obligatory Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any character, story element or plot item originally published in the Harry Potter books or movies that I may refer to in this story. I'm merely playing in the sandbox.

Author's note: Welcome back, dear reader, to another of my random ideas that I don't know what else to do with.

How about a different perspective than my usual work?

"Draco, we need to talk."

"Greengrass, I am entirely too busy to do anything with you now. I understand the appeal of someone of my breeding, but…"

"Malfoy, we know what you're doing."

Malfoy considered the two girls. "You know nothing."

Davis folded her arms. "We don't know specifics, but your sleeve slipped earlier. We know you're working on a project for the Dark Lord."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sure, Malfoy." Greengrass's tone had turned colder. Probably shouldn't have hinted at a rendezvous with her. She'll get over it.

"Let's pretend I'm interested. What is it?"

"Granger and Lovegood are working on a rune project that may benefit the cause."

"A lunatic and a mudblood are playing with funny writing, so what."

"They're recreating a spell battery. They've determined a way to make it absorb magic."

"Runic arrays are simple; they're used for warding all the time."

"This one is mobile."

"That…" Draco paused. "that is interesting, but what of it?'

"The test absorbed two full Bombardas and did not fail."

Draco set his tool bag to one side, considering. "That is actually fairly impressive for a mobile array. I assume they're trying to make some kind of mobile barricade?"

"It's a one-inch stone pendant."

Draco had no response. "That's not possible. How do you know?"

"We joined their study group. You should remember, you called us traitors."

Draco took a long breath. "Do you have the notes?"

Davis held out a rolled scroll, anticipating. "Those are the complete notes with some additional comments from a 7th Year expert in our house on some ideas. Perhaps this will help?"

Draco took the scroll and glanced through it. The theory was above him. He hated to admit that, seeing as how he recognized the scrawling from the muggle born witch. "I will have to look further into this. Thank you."

A month later, his mother came to school on a Saturday to request his presence for some family business. Draco's Head of House had waved him off, then casually reminded him of the special project he was working on. Draco glared but said nothing.

Soon, he was kneeling before the Dark Lord. "I understand you have not completed my request."

"I am working on it, my Lord. Some new information has come to my attention and I requested an opportunity to come and present it to you. I did immediately return to the project."

He did not have to look up to feel the presence of those eyes on him. "Face me, Draco." He looked up and met the Dark Lord's eyes, respectfully lowering the shields his father had taught him to use. After a moment, the presence withdrew. "I approve of your choice, Draco. This is interesting information. Did you produce a copy for me?"

"I have the notes in my robes, my Lord. I regret that my skill in Runes is not sufficient to work on this item."

"Understandably. From your memory of the pages, I can clearly see that some of the work is Mastery level. A pity that a mudblood as surpassed you."

"I will endeavor to do better, my Lord."

"See that you do. Leave the scroll on my desk, then return to the Room. I wish to have my gateway established."

"Yes, my Lord."

Draco walked back into the meeting room. Initially, he'd been ordered to remain in the castle over winter break, but he had been summoned due to a meeting. Snape had been ordered to remain to cover for his absence in the castle. Some part of him had gloated at the man's glare as he walked away, but he'd not let it show. Malfoys show nothing.

"My friends…" The greeting led to a hardening of his shields to conceal his disbelief. He did not believe that the Dark Lord had friends. "I have been given a great gift. The work of several of our adversary's followers has fallen to our hands, but we have not only taken it, but perfected it."

The Dark Lord turned to a small pedestal and lifted a black box. Opening it, he revealed a gray pendant. Even at the distance he was at, he could see the spidery tracing of runes. "I have chosen a volunteer. Wormtail, present yourself."

The stuttering man stepped forward. "I….yes, my Lord."

"Swear to return this after I conclude my test."

The rat man swore his oath, then placed the chain around his neck. "This, if working correctly will negate most if not all magic cast against it. It works on offensive magic." The Dark Lord snapped into position and he cast a blasting curse at the man. He screamed, but the effect was amazing, the energy of the spell sucking into the amulet.

After a moment, Wormtail patted himself. "I'm…it worked."

"Everyone, feel free to test this, though no Unforgivables. Those will be last and by my hand."

After a moment's hesitation, there was a display brighter than the last fireworks display the Weasley twins had set loose on the school. Draco enjoyed the sounds of fear from his target as spells poured forth, a cacophony of human voices making the room unintelligible. Draco had just wanted to curse the pathetic wizard.

"Enough." His voice was soft, almost a whisper, but all fell still at the Dark Lord's command.

"Now, for the final tests."

The incantation of "Imperio." Had the man twirling like a ballerina. "Again, unshielded, though it is not directly offensive." This made the Dark Lord smile in a way that reminded Draco of the serpent familiar the wizard had. It almost made him shiver.

"Crucio." Wormtail shouted out, then grunted slightly. "Fascinating. It deadens the pain. This may work on other pain curses similarly, ones I have not yet shared with you, my followers."

"Avada Kedavra."

In the middle of dinner, Hermione watched as Harry began to scream, clutching his forehead. As he doubled over, Snape clutched his arm and slid limply from his seat, also howling in pain. Hermione ignored this, ordering Ron to move as she tried to rock him back and lay him flat on the ground.

"Ron, get me a wet cloth, then go get Madame Pomphrey."

"What's going on?"

"If I'm right, the best thing possible. Go!"

Ron strode off, long legs eating the distance out the door after he tossed his napkin soaked in pumpkin juice at her. "Wizards." Hermione cleaned the cloth napkin, then soaked it with a spell. "Move your hands, Harry."

"I…screaming…"

"Yes, you were screaming, so is Professor Snape."

"No, hundreds…I…"

"Shh. Just move your hands, Harry." She began to blot his forehead with the cloth.

"Ms. Granger, is he…" As the cloth came up sticky with a black pus, Dumbledore's voice fell silent.

"I assume you know what this is, Headmaster?"

"I…think we need to discuss this privately."

"No. Harry needs to hear, as does Luna, Daphne, and Tracy. They all helped."

The man seemed to consider her for a moment, then nodded. As Madame Pomphrey took over, Hermione rose and looked across the room. Several of the older male Slytherins, as well as a few from Ravenclaw had joined Snape in the howling. "Filth."

Several hours later, Harry had joined her and the girls in the Headmaster's office. Three of the four Heads had joined as well. "What do you know?"

"Daphne provided the first clue. Harry's scar is a phylactery."

"I don't know this term." Dumbledore rubbed his chin. "I know of a word similar, but nothing that would match young Harry's scar."

"My father plays a game with some friends, called Dungeons and Dragons. Some of the magic is real in our world, the others are just frankly fiction and insanity, but I would read his books in case it might make me think of something here. I mentioned a ritual to place a piece of someone's soul, if not their entire life essence, into an object from the books."

"That is the darkest of magic, Ms. Granger," McGonagall spoke out, hand to her heart. "Muggles know of this?"

"In fiction. In the game, the ones that practice this are often called Liches and practice necromancy. Mostly not real, but we all know that, outside of Britain, some practices still exist." Hermione met her Head's disapproving gaze, then continued. "Daphne confirmed to me that such a thing exists."

"My father is involved in trade and runs across them from time to time. He has discovered a particularly good way of dealing with the ones that are not organic, though there are still no good ways of defeating the organic ones." The blonde tossed her hair back and scowled at Dumbledore. "For a Leader of the Light, you certainly hid the fact that you were just going to let Potter walk to his death."

"He wanted a different answer, Daphne." Luna stared off to one side, looking at the phoenix that sat in the office. "He would not have remined otherwise."

"Lovegood has a point, a phoenix would have detected the difference between desperation and deception." Davis waved her hand in the direction of the bird.

"I…how did you do it."

"The only way to get one to self-destruct without killing the victim is to have the creator kill himself." Hermione sat back. "This is satisfactory."

"How?"

"I used Malfoy." She gestured to the two green robed women in the room. "They helped."

"It was easy, his pride is enormous. I doubt if there are giants as large as his ego."

"Regardless, we built a spell battery in a testing phase, allowed him to get the notes…unfortunately it has a flaw."

"No spell battery would withstand a Killing Curse, Hermione." Hermione noted that Luna's eyes focused for a moment.

"Our improvements made him wonder. We'll never know the end result. Depending on how many spells it absorbed before that tone, it could have been a massive explosion."

"Odds are, we just ended a few bloodlines today. I'm fine with this."

Hermione sighed. "I never wanted to kill, but after figuring out what Harry's scar was, I just…."

"It's okay, Hermione," Harry took her hand. "It's not a scar now. Madame Pomphrey says there's every indication it will heal and vanish."

"Good, you look better without," Daphne smirked.

Hermione shook her head as he seemed to panic under the blonde's gaze. "I'll help him, Daph. He's just not good without kind of thing."

"Can face a dragon and a basilisk, but let a beautiful witch look at him and he melts. What a boy."

"You are beautiful, I just…haven't had the greatest of experiences with dating."

"We'll work on that, Harry." Daphne rose, gesturing for Hermione to move as she took her spot next to eh boy. "I'll train you."

"I think I'm concerned." McGonagall spoke. Dumbledore just rubbed the bridge of his nose.

A/N: So, to quote my own work, I've done absolutely gloriously nothing. I do kinda regret this, as I had a week where my family was travelling and I had to work, but we cannot look back, can we? That being said, YouTube strikes again. I cannot find the link again, but I got a Short about a D&D session with a cursed amulet. Guess what happened?

My initial thought was for Voldemort to wear this as a demonstration of power, but then I decided killing Wormtail at ground zero was funnier. Also, in the original, the curse was that all offensive magic cast against it would detonate at the removal of the item, but I decided to have it detonate at a particular set of words.

Fascinating concept, the whole E=mc^2 equation. So, if you convert a human body, say Wormtail, into energy….that's his mass multiplied by the speed of light squared, then added in the essence of a killing curse…lot of people died. My actual thought here, though, was to have the amulet explode. Figuring on a fairly heavy chain and stone, I estimated between .6 to 1 pound or .27 to .45 kilograms, depending on your preference. That places the amulet at becoming (in a perfect translation to energy) between 1 to 1.5 megaton of TNT. For reference, Hiroshima was hit with a 15-kiloton bomb, approximately 1/100th of the amulet bomb I designed, if my math is correct.

In other words, this could have backfired on Hermione by happening in a town center, but she took a risk. I wonder if she'll ever know what she did.

Have fun everyone, something will be posted soon. Thanks for reading.