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Masters of Manipulation	By : Nerys Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Hermione/Voldemort Views: 28506 -:- Recommendations : 4 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 12
- 13
- 14
Chapter 13

The loud noises that came from the Slytherin Common Room would have woken up a bear in the middle of his winter sleep. It was obvious there was some kind of celebration going on, and even though it was still very early in the evening, the way some of them spoke in slurs hinted that they had downed just one sip too many of the Firewhisky.

'Diffindo!'

Rodolphus Lestrange blasted the vase that stood in the small alcove into a million pieces.

'And that's exactly what she looked like after we were finished with her!' he stated triumphant to the other boys in the Slytherin Common Room, eyeing Avery with clear delight.

'Stupid piece of filth, the likes of her shouldn't even be allowed to walk these hallways,' Avery added. 'But we showed her, didn't we, Rod? We taught her a little lesson and made sure she wouldn't interfere with her superiors ever again.'

'Yeah, he will be pleased. We made sure that girl will never mind the business of another Slytherin again. The nerve of that bitch; always telling us what to do,' Lestrange spat the words out of his mouth and he was clearly happy with the admiring looks he was receiving from the other boys in the Common Room.

'I'm certain she was behind the attack on us the other day, when we were trying to take out Macmillan,' Avery added. 'So she had it coming, a nice trip to the infirmary for her.'

Avery and Lestrange held out their glasses towards each other and cheered. The Firewhisky and Butterbeer were flowing richly. Lestrange held out a bottle towards Mulciber, but he declined the offer. Now, Mulciber was known to be ready to party day and night. So everybody was staring at him with their eyes wide open in surprise.

'Don't be a little baby, Mully. I know it's still early in the evening, but you've never said no to Butterbeer before.' Avery cheered. 'Besides, we have something to celebrate!'

'Do you really,' Mulciber said sarcastically.

For a moment it was silent in the room. Apparently, everyone was shocked at Mulciber's sudden shift in persona, but Avery's loud voice responded to Mulciber's sarcasm before he could explain himself.

'Yeah! Didn't you hear what we just told everybody? She is in the infirmary!' Avery shouted.

'So you cleared this with him before you hexed her, before you did so much damage that she will be in the infirmary for quite some time to come?' Mulciber asked, still not accepting the Butterbeer that Lestrange was now trying to push violently into his hand.

There was no need for Mulciber to elaborate. Everyone in the Common Room knew whom Mulciber was referring to. And it was obvious that Mulciber wasn't happy with what the others had done.

'I'm sure he is fine with it, Mully. He has hexed the bitch herself on numerous occasions. Too bad I wasn't around to see all of them,' Rodolphus said laughing.

'So he doesn't know you did this?' Mulciber said anxiously.

And there was a sudden creak of the chair as Mulciber flew out of it, followed by the quick sounds of hurried footsteps. Mulciber was disappearing towards the exit as fast as he could.

'HE! Mully! Where are you going?'

'Come on man, don't be a Party Pooper.'

'Yeah, have some Butterbeer! You're more fun after you had one!'

Mulciber reached out towards the door handle, but the door was already opening, and no doubt, the one person, whom Mulciber was planning on avoiding, stood right in front of him.

'Going somewhere?' Tom Riddle asked coolly.

Mulciber's eyes widened in fright and he backed away slowly towards the wall on his right, not wanting to be anywhere in the vicinity of Lestrange and Avery. Riddle stepped inside the Slytherin Common Room, and he closed the door behind him in such a nonchalant and casual manner that it was sending a clear message to everybody that they were not to leave right now. His dark eyes flashed red when they were scanning the obvious party scene before him. His mere presence having caused it to stand frozen like someone had just taken a snapshot, a photograph of happier times for future generations to see.

'Having a bit of a celebration?' Tom asked, pleasantly.

He was shifting his gaze from one person to the next, until he reached Avery. Here, his eyes lingered for a moment. But then, he moved on, until he reached Lestrange and Riddle's gaze intensified. He took a step forward.

'Well? Have you all lost your tongue?'

The pleasantness had completely vanished from his voice and his eyes were darting between Avery and Lestrange, as if he was trying to make up his mind. The other occupants in the room were shifting uncomfortably in their seats. None of them were keen on responding. No one wanted to become the centre of attention right now. However, the continuing silence after Riddle's question was equally awkward and everyone in the room was suddenly very much aware of their posture and standing. They could feel their own heartbeats pounding inside their chest, their breaths were sharp and shallow, and several drops of sweat were beginning to become visible on a couple of foreheads. But Riddle did not alleviate them. He let the silence continue, eyeing each and everyone in the room in turn. And the longer they waited, the more difficult became the concept of ever answering his question. It wasn't until he had watched every single one of them that his attention turned back to the culprits responsible for the mess.

'Rodolphus, care to explain to me what this is all about?' Tom softly said, while waving with his hand towards the Firewhisky and Butterbeer on the table.

Lestrange looked like he'd rather swallowed an entire bottle of Skele-Gro than explain to, this exceptionally calm and quiet, Tom Riddle what they had been doing. But he had no choice, so he started stammering: 'We-we-we … were ... ce-cele-le-brating…'

'…that the girl is in the infirmary,' he added quickly, upon seeing the annoyance that crept up onto Riddle's face.

Riddle stared at him without as much as one visible emotion detectable. 'I see,' he said evenly.

'She hexed us first!' Lestrange shouted desperately, and when Riddle raised an eyebrow at him, he wrongly took that as an encouragement to continue. 'The other night when we were setting up Macmillan for a nice set of boils, that would have made it impossible for her to fly on a broom, that's when she hexed Avery, Mulciber and me. I'm certain it was her.'

'I had already taken care of the Macmillan situation. So why did the three of you think it was necessary to jinx the Seeker?' Tom said in an eerily calm manner of speaking. 'Or did you think I needed assistance from the three of you? Did you perhaps think I would not succeed?'

Rodolphus stood frozen. He looked like someone who had been kicked violently in the head, and he was unable to speak another word, so he looked sideways to Avery and Mulciber for collaboration of his story. But Avery, suddenly, found the chandelier on the ceiling far more interesting than his partner in crime, and Mulciber looked incredibly offended that his name had been dragged into this conversation, since he had, after all, nothing to do with the cursing of the girl.

Riddle, suddenly, took another step into the direction of Lestrange and his wand was now visible inside his hand. Several of the boys were staring at it with clear apprehension on their faces.

'Well?' Riddle said impatiently. 'Are you ever going to answer me, Rodolphus?'

'It was nothing like that,' Rodolphus hastily said. 'We would never question your abilities, my Lord. We just thought…'

'You just thought…,' Riddle repeated slowly, like he was testing the words on his tongue. 'I guess we've discovered the origin of all the problems.'

Lestrange took another helpless glance at his friends for some support, but none was coming.

'I suppose,' Riddle said quietly, 'I should deal with this urge of you all to start thinking.' The last word was spoken with an incredible amount of sarcasm in his voice. 'We wouldn't want that to become a habit, now would we, Rodolphus?'

Lestrange was now obviously getting desperate and he was watching Avery with clear hatred in his eyes. 'Avery and I thou…,' but he corrected himself quickly. 'Avery and I wanted to do you a favour, Master. So we cursed her, that way you would be rid of her presence.'

'So you cursed her.'

It was not a question. Tom Riddle had already seen the answer in Avery and Lestrange's eyes.

'For you, Master, for you!' Lestrange shouted fearful.

'I don't recall telling you to curse anyone on my behalf, Lestrange,' Riddle said menacingly. 'Do the two of you have any idea how far this little action of yours sets me back in my plans? DO YOU!'

Avery and Lestrange jerked in fright, when Riddle's voice was suddenly raised in volume. And they were shaking their heads to deny their knowledge.

'And that's exactly why I don't need a pair of idiots doing any so called thinking,' he sneered.

And Tom continued threateningly. 'Let me make one thing clear. You all are to stay away from the following people: Augusta Longbottom, Ernest Lovegood, Pomona Sprout, Rubeus Hagrid, Minerva McGonagall and Hermione Evans.

I don't care whether any of you feel they have hurt you in some manner or form. I don't care if they have crushed your tiny, little egos. I don't care if they hex, jinx or curse you. I don't care if they attack you. You. Will. Not. Touch. Them.

If anything were to happen to any of them, ever again, I will be very unhappy. And you do not want to be the reason for my unhappiness. Isn't that right, Avery?'

'I'm sorry, my Lord,' Avery said, terrified.

'You're sorry…,' Tom repeated lazily. 'I do not accept your snivelling apologies. You have disappointed me, Avery.' And he took a step towards Avery.

'You have failed me.' Another step forward.

'And I do not respond kindly to failure.' Lord Voldemort raised his wand, and two spells flew from it in a fast, consecutive manner.

'Imperturio! Crucio!' Tom cast.

The Imperturbable Charm was aimed at the exit, but the Cruciatus Curse hit Avery right in the chest. He fell to the floor screaming his lungs out in agony, thrashing and writhing in pain. And the curse was not lifted quickly. Hermione realised that Riddle made sure Avery and the others were very clear on what would happen if they ever failed him again. She pulled her eyes away from the scene she had been watching through the crack between the door and the wall. She felt no need to see it, because the screams pretty much told her everything, namely that Lestrange was next.

Hermione had gone into the girl's dormitory, after that unnerving experience with Professor Dumbledore, looking for some peace and quietness. Some loud noises coming from the Common Room had woken her up, and she was shocked to find herself lying on the bed. She had fallen asleep while trying to do some homework. Her Ancient Runes textbook lay beneath her, and the parchment, she had been writing on, was not only wrinkled but had sufficient stains on them as well. Apparently, her ink-bottle had toppled over and its entire contents had been spilt onto her homework, her sheets and clothes. A simple "Tergeo" had taken care of the stains.

It was when she had heard Rodolphus cast the Severing Charm and his loud bragging about some girl they hexed. She could hear them all very clearly, even if she was all the way down in her dormitory. The loudness was disturbing her concentration. So it had made her decide to go to the library to finish the rest of her homework there. She was just about to enter the Common Room when Riddle did from the other end. The door to the staircase had blocked her from immediate view, but she had just got a brief glimpse of him and had stepped back recognising that expression on his face.

'Better wait 'till he's gone from the area,' she had thought.

And she was now very glad that she had waited, otherwise she would not have heard what Riddle told his teen Death Eaters, but she was not happy with this information, not happy at all.

'He knew,' she thought frantically. 'He knew about the others. How had he found out? When? What else did he know? And who had Lestrange and Avery cursed? The way Riddle had spoken about it made her think it was one of her friends. Ernest and Rubeus could be discarded, since she had heard they were referring to a girl. So it had to be either Pomona, Augusta or … Minerva.'

Somehow, she felt it was the latter. They had spoken about someone who interfered in their business, and Minerva, as Head Girl, had done that on more than one occasion. And they had thought Riddle would be pleased with their actions. And she remembered Lucretia's words.

'I know you've been trying to stop this event from taking place this year, Tom, ever since you found out who became Head Girl. But Dippet is far too fond of dancing, so I doubt even you can talk him out of it.'

The Christmas Ball would be next Friday. If Minerva was severely injured, then Tom would not have to… Suddenly, Hermione felt a desperate need to check the infirmary to see for herself who was there and how bad the situation was. But even though his lackeys had scattered away fearfully, that damn Riddle was still in the Common Room. And right now, she certainly couldn't make him aware of her presence. That would be a serious mistake to do so.

So she waited, and waited, and waited some more. And the longer she had to wait, the more worried and upset she became. If something bad had happened to Minerva, it would be all her fault. It would be all His fault. And that unbelievable jerk had the nerve to grab and kiss her! She felt a tremendous temper rise inside her chest. Her wand was suddenly in her hand. She raised it…

'What do you think you are doing, Hermione?' asked a little voice inside of her head, when she was about to step through the doorway. It was her own voice of reason, and it sounded angry. She halted her forward movement and listened to it.

'Have you completely lost your mind? Control those feelings; you know some of them are not yours. Don't let this Blood Bond take over. Get a grip of yourself. You cannot let him know you were here and witnessed everything.'

Her heart was beating rapidly, her breaths were shallow and fast, every muscle in her body was ready for action, and she so wanted to hex Riddle into the next life. She felt ferocious, livid, and wrathful. But her mind was screaming at her to stop and to think before acting. Suddenly, Riddle flew up out of the couch. He paced out of the Common Room and slammed the door so hard behind him that the walls trembled. And when he was gone, Hermione felt calm again. Her temper removed like it had not existed.

'Oh Godric, I'm turning into Harry,' she mumbled. She was incredibly concerned when she realised what had almost happened. 'Why didn't Godric's Room provide me with a way to end this Blood-Bond-thingy?'

And it hit her like a ton of bricks. What if ending the Bond wasn't the solution? Godric's Room provided her with the things she needed to succeed…

'I believe it is the main reason as to why the binding has remained incomplete,' Tom had said.

The Blood-Bond was incomplete because of Salazar Slytherin's protections on Eternity in Time. That was what Riddle had said, and because the bond was incomplete she couldn't… Hermione gasped at her revelation. And she knew that if she was right, Godric's room should provide her with the means to complete the binding. Hermione stormed out of the Slytherin Common Room and ran up the stairs towards Gryffindor Tower, until she ran into Augusta Longbottom.

'Hermione, thank Godric, you are all right. I've been looking all over for you. Minerva has been attacked,' Augusta said, worried.

A cold feeling clamped itself around Hermione's heart. She had been right. It was Minerva who the Slytherins had been referring to.

'How is she?' Hermione asked, dreading the answer.

'I don't know. I tried getting into the infirmary, but they locked it up. I did see Riddle entering and exiting it,' Augusta said the latter with malice. 'I guess being the one responsible gets you a free access card from Dippet.'

Hermione shook her head. 'Trust me, it wasn't him. I just witnessed him cursing the living daylights out of the two responsible for Minerva's condition.'

'Who?' asked Augusta.

'Lestrange and Avery,' answered Hermione.

Augusta narrowed her eyes. 'Lestrange … What did Riddle do to him?'

Hermione checked the corridor again and whispered: 'The Cruciatus Curse, for a pretty damn long time too. After he had already made Avery wet his pants.'

'Good,' Augusta said calmly, before continuing in a tone of utter vengeance: 'I hope Lestrange remembers how easy he had it, when he tries to walk to the infirmary after I have broken every bone in his pathetic weasel's body.'

And she started to walk away, but Hermione grabbed her by the arm. 'Wait! Where are the others?'

Augusta hoisted her shoulders. 'After we found out something happened to Minerva, we were all worried about you, so we started searching. But I don't know where they all are now,' she said uncaring now that she knew everybody else was all right.

'Riddle knows about you lot,' Hermione said quietly.

'WHAT!' Augusta shouted.

'Sshhh…,' Hermione whispered anxiously, 'he doesn't know I overheard this.'

'How, when, what?' Augusta whispered back.

'Good questions,' Hermione said sighing. She was getting sick of continuously walking behind the facts. Somehow, it seemed Riddle was always one step ahead of her.

'You don't think we have a mole, do you?' Augusta asked, thoughtfully.

Hermione went silent. She remembered the same discussion popping up after the seven Harry's incident. An incident, where Hagrid had been present at as well, and she had seen Harry eye Hagrid, before he discarded the thought as utter nonsense. And she remembered how badly Remus Lupin had reacted, when Harry said that he did not believe anyone in the room would have sold him out to Voldemort.

'I think you're like James. Who would have regarded it as the height of dishonour to mistrust his friends.'

But it couldn't be Hagrid. It just couldn't be.

'No, Riddle probably saw us enter the Room of Requirement or meet somewhere else,' Hermione replied to Augusta, but in the back of her mind a linger of doubt remained.

'Perhaps, but if he knows about us, why did he curse Avery and Lestrange?'

'He said something about them interfering with his plans,' Hermione said grumbling.

'What plans?' was the sharp response she got back.

'Beats me,' Hermione said shrugging. 'He didn't say, but he did tell them to stay away from all of us. Told them they would make him very unhappy, if something bad would happen to us,' Hermione added in a sarcastic tone of voice.

And she noticed how her words had drawn an expression on Augusta's face like Christmas had arrived a week earlier this year.

'This isn't good news, Augusta,' she hissed at her.

'No, of course it isn't,' Augusta answered virtuous, but her eyes sparkled with excitement and the broad smile had not disappeared from her face either.

It gave Hermione a real uneasy feeling.

'You can't go about hexing them all just because you know Riddle told them to keep their wands in their pockets,' Hermione warned Augusta. 'You don't know if how long this do-not-harm-order is going to last.'

Augusta nodded, but her entire posture stated the opposite.

'Augusta!' Hermione said, frustrated with her lack of compliance.

'Yeah, I heard you... No hexing Riddle's puppets… Shall we go see if we can get into the infirmary now?'

Hermione noticed how Augusta neatly changed the subject, but she was curious about Minerva's condition too, and it wasn't like she could tie down Augusta anyway. So they went to the infirmary, but it was still locked and Headmaster Dippet told them Minerva was in no state to see any visitors.

'I'll go find the others and tell them what you've told me,' Augusta said quietly. 'Are you coming with me?'

'No, I have to look up something,' Hermione said, remembering the reason why she had left the Slytherin Common Room in the first place. 'Augusta?'

Neville's grandmother, who had started to walk away, turned in the corridor and watched Hermione questioningly.

'I'm already worried sick about Minerva; so please, don't do anything dangerous, please.'

'Sure, Hermione, no problem,' Augusta said reassuringly.

But Hermione could not shake the uneasy feeling that she wasn't truthful. She was certain Augusta had just lied to her. She just knew it, while she went to Godric's Room to research her new theory on the Blood-Binding Charm.

Hermione was going through Blood Magic vigorously. This Dark Arts volume stated in extreme detail how to create all kinds of disgusting things with blood. Hermione was finished reading the chapter on Blood Bonds, when she finally rendered the book shut. She had been right. There were no books in Godric's Room on how to disengage a Blood-Binding Charm, but there certainly was enough information for her here to strengthen one into completion. She bit her lip. She knew why Godric's Room deemed it necessary for her to complete the bond. She had remembered what Riddle had let slip carelessly, when he was inside of her.

'I don't need my soul in these pages, considering that the Blood-Binding Charm that's on them already gives me full control of the book in the first place.'

A Blood-Binding Charm gave Riddle full control over Eternity in Time. And she knew that Salazar Slytherin must have used said Charm to prevent others from using the book. So only his true heir could activate it. And it was the reason why she had, temporarily, been able to use the book, because Voldemort had taken Salazar's example and had created a second Blood-Binding Charm on the pages. This caused her blood to be partly bonded to the blood of Salazar's heir, and because of that, Salazar's protections could not evict her from its pages completely. If she could somehow complete the binding, she would be able to truly master Eternity in Time and finish Helga's mission. The only downfall to that scenario was that once the bond was completed, she would fall totally under Riddle's control, which would definitely proof to be a problem in finishing Helga's mission.

So even though she found an answer to solve her inability to use the book, she found it was not an answer to be excited about or to even use. She threw away Blood Magic angrily. What was the point in being able to master Eternity in Time if someone else mastered you? Hermione sighed. She bent forwards, while placing her head in her hands. And so she sat there, contemplating her options. It was not like she was going to succeed in strengthening the Blood Bond anyway. She needed Riddle's blood, freely giving. Hermione snorted. She could just imagine the look on his face when she would ask him for something like that.

'Oh Lord Voldemort, do you mind giving me a bit of your blood? I can't tell you why, otherwise you'll use it against me, but I really need it,' she said mockingly.

'Sure Granger, no problem,' she answered herself in an eerie likeness to Tom Riddle's voice.

She snorted again. 'Like that was ever going to happen. He wasn't so stupid to do something li…' Hermione halted in shock and she even stopped breathing for a moment as the revelation hit her upon remembering something Tom Riddle had said to her.

'So my older version sent the book to you, knowing full well that you would try to make the book work by using that despicable blood of yours.'

Hermione looked up in wonder. 'He wouldn't have…?'

And she ran out of Godric's Room towards the Room of Requirement. She hurried in and picked up Infinity in Space. She knew she could not start reading in it, because that would attract very unwanted company, but a little Blood Revealing Magic would tell her all she needed to know. She almost dropped the book when she obtained the answer. Tom Riddle had used his blood freely to try and activate Godric's book, and it still lingered on its pages.

'Perhaps I don't need to complete a binding, but create one of my own,' she thought.

This time around, Hermione was more than a little excited. She placed Infinity in Space back on the table and returned to Godric's Room to check the details. After rendering the Dark Arts volume shut, she knew she could easily create her own Blood Bond to Tom Riddle. All she needed to do was: collect a bit of her own blood, charm it (so it would get the necessary binding capabilities), and dumb it on the pages of Infinity in Space, so it would mix with Riddle's. It wouldn't be more than five minutes work.

But still, she hesitated. There were so many variables to consider. What kind of effect would a second bond have on the first one? If she did this, wouldn't she be enabling Riddle to use Infinity in Space? Give him the capabilities to master that book fully? And she would have to tell him what she had done. The Unbreakable Vow made sure of that. They had sworn to reveal the entire contents of the book to each other, not just the text. And she could not wait in creating the Bond until they were finished, because she was certain the only reason she hadn't been cursed into oblivion yet, had something to do with him still needing her to tell him the contents of said book. Once that was done, she would never get the time to Blood Bond them together.

'Arggh.'

She could not do this. She needed to see all the options first and to think it through thoroughly.

'Going to wait so Tom Riddle can solve his little Blood-Binding-Charm's problem first? You know he will be looking for solutions to complete his binding. If he does…'

There was that little nagging voice again, and she knew it was right. Besides, she would never find all the answers to her questions. Since there was simply no literature on creating something like this, under circumstances as theirs, with those magical objects involved.

'I could, of course, make the initial preparations without doing any harm,' Hermione thought, not wanting to make a risky decision just yet.

So she diverted her attention away to the practicalities. She collected an empty bottle, used her wand to draw her own blood, placed it in the bottle and charmed it. There, preparations completed.

Now, all she needed to do was: dump it inside Infinity in Space and her Blood Bond would take effect. Hermione was still reciting all the possibilities and angles of this activity, when she decided there was no harm in moving towards the Room of Requirement in advance of her decision. So she went over there. She sat down and placed the bottle next to the book. Her eyes darted between them.

'This is the answer Godric Gryffindor has provided you with, Hermione. Use it.'

'You don't know that for sure, Hermione. You could be doing this under Riddle's influence. Remember what happened in the Slytherin Common Room. Be careful.'

The contradictory statements she made to herself were driving her crazy.

'But Riddle is not here right now.'

'But Salazar's book is.'

'He'll beat you in completing his bond if you don't do this now.'

'You don't know if he's really looking for an answer.'

'Of course he is.'

'Is not.'

'Is too.'

'Is n…'

Hermione grabbed the vial of blood, opened Gryffindor's book, and she closed her eyes for a moment when she emptied the bottle on the pages. After the world did not come to an abrupt end, she carefully opened one eye and peeked at the book. She placed the empty bottle back on the table and shook out her hands to relieve some of the tension she was feeling. She watched her charmed blood disappear into the pages, and then … it happened.

And unlike with the Unbreakable Vow, this time around, Hermione witnessed what happened. It was so blinding it was impossible to miss. Startled, she jumped out of the chair she was sitting in, when she saw a dash of silver and gold emanating from the respective books on the table. The pages of both books started turning, until the centre of the books was reached. And both books remained open, motionless, glowing slightly. She was just about to advance forward to check what was written on those pages, when…

'What the hell are you doing here, Evans!'

But she did not get the time to respond to Tom Riddle's question, because at the very moment the door closed behind him, a shock wave flew from both volumes trashing everything in its wake, and Tom Marvolo Riddle and Hermione Jean Granger passed out on its impact.

xxx
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Masters of Manipulation