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Precious Mudblood	By : magentasouth Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Hermione/Voldemort Views: 79302 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 6
Disclaimer: I neither own nor profit from any part of the Harry Potter universe

Chapter List
- 1-Precious Mudblood
- 2-Ch 2
- 3-Ch 3
- 4-Ch 4
- 5-Ch 5
- 6-Ch 6
- 7-Ch 7
- 8-ch 8
- 9-Ch 9
- 10-Ch 10
- 11-Ch 11
- 12-Ch 12
- 13-Ch 13
- 14-Ch 14
- 15-Ch 15
- 16-Ch 16
- 17-Ch 17
- 18-Ch 18
- 19-Ch 19
- 20-Ch 20
- 21-Ch 21
- 22-Ch 22
- 23-Ch 23
- 24-Ch 24
- 25-Ch 25
- 26-Ch 26
- 27-Ch 27
- 28-Ch 28
- 29-Ch 29
- 30-Ch 30
- 31-Ch 31
- 32-Ch 32
- 33-Ch 33
- 34-Ch 34
- 35-Ch 35
- 36-Ch 36
- 37-Ch 37
- 38-Ch 38
- 39-Ch 39
- 40-Ch 40
- 41-Ch 41
- 42-Ch 42 (edited. longer)
- 43-Ch 43
- 44-Ch 44
- 45-Ch 45
- 46-Ch 46
- 47-Ch 47
- 48-Ch 48
- 49-Ch 49
- 50-Ch 50
- 51-Ch 51
- 52-Ch 52
- 53-Ch 53
- 54-Ch 54
- 55-Ch 55
- 56-Ch 56
- 57-Ch 57
- 58-Ch 58
- 59-Ch 59
- 60-Ch 60
- 61-Ch 61
- 62-Ch 62
- 63-Ch 63
- 64-Ch 64
- 65-Ch 65
- 66-Ch 67
- 67-Ch 67
- 68-Ch 68
- 69-Ch 69
- 70-Ch 70
- 71-Ch 71
- 72-Ch 72
- 73-Ch 73
- 74-Ch 74
- 75-Ch 75
- 76-Chapter 76
- 77-Ch 77
- 78-Ch 78
- 79-Ch 79
- 80-Ch 80
- 55
- 56
- 57
Professor
Dumbledore led her down the stairs and along the corridor.� He was humming something but she didn�t
recognise the tune.�

�The
headmaster mentioned you have been running from Grindelwald�s
forces� he said out of the blue, blindsiding her.

�Yes.�
She answered hollowly, looking down at the ground as they walked.� �I was in France.. with my mother.� They
came to the town we were living in.��

Dumbledore responded like a whip �what town was that?��

She tried
not to scowl.� She wasn�t informed enough
about what towns were recently attacked.�
She knew she could get into trouble here.

�I.. don�t..exactly
know.� We moved around a lot. We were in Oradour-sur-Glane for a while but then we had to travel a
lot at night and hide during the day.�

I�m..i�m sorry � I don�t know where we were.��

Dumbledore hm�d noncommittally.� �Well that must have been quite frightening
for you.� What happened?��

She
swallowed.� �They..captured
us.� My mother was ...k..killed.� My father was a muggle and they were going to.. um.. they
were..� she trailed off uncomfortably.�

�Anyway..� a young soldier freed me.�
I ran.� I ran for so long. I kept
running.� I hid.� I.. I don�t want to
say how I got here please.�

She found herself really getting into the role and even felt a bit sick at the
things she�d had to do for the horrid wizard who apparated her across the
channel to England.� She imagined his
disgusting leer at her.� He looked like peter Pettigrew.� Her
stomach positively revolved and she wrapped her arms around herself
defensively.�

Dumbledore flinched as if he�d seen it and she realised he probably had.� Damn legilimens.

�That�s
quite alright my dear � it won�t be necessary� he said faintly. �still.. you�re safe now.� I think we can find something you can study
here.�

In the worst case.. I�ll find you a position of some
kind working here.� I won�t force you to
go back out there to that.� Do not
fear��

She
relaxed.� It was true.� If Dumbledore said so, then she would be able
to stay no matter what happened.�

Still.. She hadn�t been worried about the tests anyway really.� No.. she reserved all her worry for having to talk to the familiar
unfamiliar wizard in his prime with the auburn hair.�

Dumbledore
stopped at a carved wooden door in the corridor. �Here we are then.� This is my office.� You will sit the tests here.��

He led her in and transfigured a small student�s desk and chair for her to sit
at.�

She
complied immediately, looking around the room fascinated.� It resembled what his headmaster�s office
would one day look like, except it was a fraction of the size so that
everything was kind of crammed in everywhere.�
Books were overflowing from the bookcase and little doodads and gizmos
and peculiar objects were everywhere.

�Wow..� she exclaimed under her
breath.�

He smiled slightly.�

�I find many things fascinate me Miss Schiller.�� He said vaguely as he retrieved a large pile
of papers from his desk.�

�Now.. let�s see.� Hogwarts offers thirteen subjects at present:
charms, potions, transfiguration- of course, defense
against the dark arts, astronomy, history of magic, herbology,
arithmancy, ancient runes, divination, care of magical creatures, magical
history and languages.��

�Languages?�
she asked curiously.�

�Yes.� The subject covers Latin, Greek, German and a
little Arabic, although students who have difficulty with Arabic may substitute
Celtic instead��

Her eyes
widened in interest.�

�That sounds fascinating!� she said without thinking.�

Dumbledore
smiled warmly. �An eager student! wonderful!.� What subjects would you like to test
for?� Most students take four or five but
you may possibly take one or two if you do not feel able to manage more.��

Hermione
bit her lip.� She was beginning to want to take her NEWTS as she had intended to originally..but perhaps it wasn�t ideal
to be running around constantly studying here.�

Perhaps it wasn�t the end of the
world if she didn�t have eleven O�s�

�Um.. Can I please test for charms, potions, astronomy, arithmancy, defense against the dark arts, herbology, ancient runes, transfiguration and languages?�
she asked timidly.�

Dumbledore�s
eyes bulged slightly. �You wish to take..nine.. subjects..�

He frowned. �Well..not to get ahead of ourselves, my
dear, but let�s see how you go with the tests first.� I was led to believe you have been home
schooled.� I have to say.. such students frequently have a
problem when they are confronted with the work in the curriculum.��

Hermione
swallowed and looked down again. �Oh� she said softly.

She�d hadn�t for a very long time now been faced with someone telling her she
might not be clever enough to do something in the academic world.�

�Let�s
begin with transfiguration then.� It is
the subject that I teach here.��

He summoned a quill from his desk and placed it on the desk in front of
her.� �Please transfigure it into a red quill�

She
blinked.� It was like day one of first
year.�

She flicked her wrist and caught her wand.�
Dumbledore jolted and looked at her wand in her hand with alarm.

�that is an interesting...holster..Miss Schiller.� Would you mind demonstrating it for me again?!�� he said with a tight
voice.� She felt panic take flight inside
her.

�Ok.. My mother cast a spell when we were on the run.� She said I should always keep it on me. I don�t
know how it works.. just how
it works.. if you know what I mean.��

She dropped the wand back into the invisible pocket..into
wherever it went when it disappeared.

Dumbledore blinked twice as if he didn�t believe his eyes.�

She flicked her wrist and her wand sprang out of nothing and leapt into her
hand.� His jaw dropped slightly and then
he, with some difficulty shook his head and his face was smooth and unreadable
again.�

He smiled kindly..although it looked a bit forced..

�The
quill then� he gestured.� She transfigured
it effortlessly.� �Transfigure it into
tin please�� She
did.�

He then had her go through what essentially amounted to the teachings of her
first three years at Hogwarts.� He
produced a beetle from a box on a shelf behind his desk and had her do animal
transfigurations, first in colour, then size and then finally he had her
transform the beetle into a butterfly. He waved his wand and it became a beetle
again which he sent back to the box.�

�And now i would like you to transfigure the air
above your desk into a sheet of parchment� he requested.

She
blinked and looked up at him. �you can�t bloody do that!� she screamed internally. �I�m
fairly sure that you can�t just use the air to transfigure objects out of
nothing..��

�Um.. I�ve never done that� she offered uneasily.�

He shone
that damn patient twinkling smile at her and nodded. �That�s quite
alright.� Please do try.� If you fail it will not reflect poorly on
you.� You are more than capable of
attending sixth year advanced courses in transfiguration. I am but curious
whether you can do it.��

She
frowned slightly. It felt like a trick somehow.�
She didn�t like it.� She half
heartedly waved her wand and deliberately failed.�

Dumbledore seemed disappointed.�

He sighed and said. �Never mind Miss Schiller.� As I said.. it was pure curiosity.��

He
administered tests in the other subjects, one after the other. As they proceeded
through the subjects and she demonstrated mastery of each, he seemed more and
more interested in pushing her boundaries.. asking her things she was sure were not on the curriculum.�

He asked her to name the nine uses of dragons blood
and she knew there were only five in
this time because Tom had not known more than five and Tom almost certainly
knew more than any other student at Hogwarts... probably some of the professors
too, she added generously.�

She wasn�t sure..again.. which
five uses were currently known, so she had to profess ignorance of any,
although it really grated against her to do so this time. �She mentioned that she had believed there were
only five uses for dragons blood and Dumbledore
shrugged noncommittally.

In defense against the dark arts he asked her some quite
particular questions about a dark curse that was rare and definitely not even
remotely connected to the syllabus.�

She knew the answer but she pretended not to. It was..a
bad thing.. to
know too much about the dark arts.�

By the
time they had finished he had declared her more than qualified for advanced
level courses in all the subjects she had asked for.� She had never taken languages before but
understood Latin and Greek along with some French and German and he said it was
good enough to take sixth year languages too.�

She nearly jumped up clapping in joy.�
She would get to take all the subjects she liked!.�

Dumbledore looked, sighing, at a silver combobulating
device on his shelf.� It was apparently
some kind of bizarre clock as he got up reluctantly and announced they would
have to get ready for the sorting ceremony soon.� She assumed it must be almost seven pm.� She had been taking tests for hours then,
apparently.�

He interpreted her look of disorientated vexation as confusion and explained to
her what the sorting ceremony was.� She
nodded and attended with fascinated interest, trying to channel how nervous and
awed she�d been in her first year when she�d first learned that she would be
�sorted� into a house permanently with other students.�

Dumbledore
went on, nicely enough,�
�I will see about uniforms and books tomorrow Miss Schiller.� For now perhaps you will allow me to procure
you a better robe.� I can see yours have
been transfigured far too many times.�
They won�t last much longer.��

Smiling gratefully she accepted and thanked him.�

He returned to the room several minutes later and gave her the robes and stood
there smiling kindly as if waiting.�

She in return stood holding them uncomfortably and eventually blushed redly, at
which he jumped as if electrified, seeming to realise the problem and left the
room so that she could change.�

Gay � she told herself.� He�s gay.� I don�t need to worry.� Dumbledore isn�t going to act like Grindelwald did.�

After she
was changed and had cast charms to brush and straighten her hair, she left the
room to find him standing in the corridor looking uncomfortable and
introspective.

�Ah.� Excellent.
�I will escort you to the Great Hall
then.

She hesitated, looking down at her feet and finally
drew her wand and transfigured the beaten leather shoes into the kneehigh boots she had worn when she first arrived in Tom�s
room.�

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows and snorted.

�Miss Schiller.. I do believe you looked intentionally
downtrodden when you arrived, did you not��

She had
the decency to be sheepish �I thought.. perhaps Headmaster Dippet might not let me stay if I arrived
in the best I could transfigure� she replied quietly.��

He smiled
faintly. �You may be right.. The headmaster is a man
very much taken in by appearances.� I however..understand,
better than most, that things are not always
as they seem.�

Perhaps it is why I took up transfiguration.�
But we are going to be late.� Come
along, Miss Schiller.� We can discuss
being and seeming another day.��

Hermione
followed along in step even as her blood turned to ice in her veins.� Dumbledore was generally the most
irritatingly circumspect and ambiguous man and what he had just said was
tantamount to slapping her cheek with a glove and calling her a big fat liar.

She was screwed.� SO
screwed.� He would find out
everything.� It was a bad idea to come
here.� She should have just run away and
hid out in the middle of nowhere.�

She could have warded the world out and just passed
her life without getting in everyone�s way.�
Now she was going to ruin everything.�
She was in the worst place she could possibly be. This was terrible.�

She
continued to rant and panic inwardly the entire way to the great hall.� When they reached the bottom of the main
staircase Professor Dumbledore led her down the corridor that ran parallel to
the Great Hall down to the teachers� entrance.�

He told her to wait and as he opened the door she could hear the sound of
little first years being sorted.

�Amelia Rennet.......
huffelpuff..(applause)�

she stood nervously.� The
sound of the sorting disappeared as the door slid shut again.�

Minutes later Dumbledore returned.� �Come
now, my dear. It is time to be sorted.��

She followed him in, gulping nervously.�

A stool
stood conspicuously in the front open area at the end of the wide aisle between
the long house tables.�

Every single eye in the room was focused intensely upon her.� It felt almost like a physical pressure.
Dippet was announcing her joining the sixth year and actually complimenting her
as an excellent student.�

She blinked and looked up at him.� He
seemed to have suddenly developed far more interest and regard for her now she
was well dressed and an excellent
student. �

She reached the stool and sat down upon it, uneasily.�� Her eyes ran over the students gathered at
each table.�

She saw Tom,
still blonde and curly, at the head of the Slytherin table, the Slytherin
seventh years somehow displaced to the second section by the young Lord and his
entourage � a massive breach of protocol in her time!�

Next to him sat someone who looked like he could be Draco�s older brother.� A very pretty red haired girl sat on his
other side and she looked on to the next table before she could feel
jealous.�

At the second section of the Gryffindor table she gasped.� A boy who could be Harry sat there, watching her with great interest.� Red heads were scattered around.� A girl who looked a lot like luna sat a few seats down from �proto-Harry��

She was temporarily blinded as the massive leathery weight of the sorting hat
dropped down on her head.�

�Hmmmmm� Maia Schiller they call you.. but that is not what
you call yourself in your mind Miss Granger.�

My you ARE a strange one.. yes..
I can see the changes.. Lies..lies..
everywhere in here..and fear.
�You are far, far, away from home. I see
you recognise me but I am quite certain that I have never before rested upon
your head.� You are out of your own time,
child.�

She
jumped slightly.� The hat knew! The hat
knew!� It would tell everyone. She should
run!!

�Now now.. calm yourself. I won�t announce you to the room.� You do not seem to wish anyone here ill.� it�s hardly my
concern in which year you pursue your studies.. rather
far out of your way you�ve come to enrol in them though.�

You were a Gryffindor I see, and I can agree.. there is much to you that would do well in that house.� You would find many friends waiting.�

But I can feel you want to go somewhere else.. somewhere you know you would not be welcomed.��

�Yes!� Put me in Tom�s house!� she pleaded.�

�The noble house of Slytherin has certain ..ideas.. about blood Miss
Granger.. You may be able to cohabit with them if you lie well.. but they will never truly accept
you.� You will be in danger while you
reside there.� Perhaps..
if Gryffindor no longer appeals to you, you might be a Ravenclaw
instead.� You are cool minded enough for
the eagles.�

�NO!� she
cried desperately �please! Please make me a Slytherin. I need to be in Tom�s
house.� And he said he would protect me
from them.�

Please!� I don�t mind being in danger. I don�t
mind being alone.� Put me in Slytherin!!��

The hat
hummed thoughtfully. �Well if you won�t
see reason Miss Granger..I suppose Slytherin will have
its first muggle-born. �Salazar *would*
be pleased. (the hat laughed rather nastily as if
enjoying a private joke)� However..a final
word of caution to you.. I have seen Tom Riddle�s mind.� Be very careful with that one!..Goodbye miss granger.. I look
forward to seeing you again in...fifty years or so..�

�She
breathed out in relief as the resounding �SLYTHERIN!� rang out above her.� Someone lifted the hat gingerly off her head
to the sound of applause.�

She looked over at the Slytherin table hopefully.�

Tom was smirking, pleased with her, clapping along with all those in the
table.� She darted a look around the room
as she stood and started for the Slytherins.�

She could see more than one annoyed expression at the other tables.� It unsettled her that most of the annoyed
ones were male.�

She
swallowed and moved to a gap in the centre of the table. �Maia!� Tom called
softly.� �Come and sit with me.��

He nudged the blond boy next to him who was clearly
a Malfoy, and the entire row
moved down a space for her.

The boy she had been about to sit next to in the middle of the table looked
disappointed and took a drink from his pumpkin juice as she altered course and
headed down to the end of the table.�

In the background she could hear Dippet talking about the same sort of silly
warnings and rules that every headmaster must have to mention each year.�

Her eye
wandered over Dumbledore seated next to him and she swallowed at the
disappointed disapproving look on his face.�
He followed her progress all the way to the space next to Tom.�

When she sat, now facing away from the rest of the room, thankfully, she couldn�t
see Dumbledore anymore.�

Tom
offered her his hand again and she shook it.�
�Maia..it looks like you did well enough on
your entrance tests after all�� he smiled
politely.�

She smiled back. �Yes.. they
took ages.� We only finished a few
minutes before I came here.� Professor Dumbledore
is very..thorough.��

Tom�s eye
glinted slightly but his smile remained easy and friendly.�

�Well at least they�re over.� What
subjects did you end up choosing?��

She told
him.� On her right, the Malfoy whistled
low, impressed.

�Oh.. pardon me, Maia.. I haven�t
introduced you to my ..friends� there was a very
slight but noticeable hesitation before the word friend.� In her mind it sounded like �servants�.

�The boy next to you is Abraxas. He�s-��

Abraxas interrupted Tom, to the latter�s consternation ��Abraxas Malfoy,
a pleasure to meet such a ..gifted.. student�

He
sounded like Lucius in a good mood. Nothing like Draco at all really.

When he held out his hand she hesitated glancing at Tom, who nodded almost
imperceptibly.�

Instead
of shaking her hand Abraxas lifted it and brushed his smooth lips across her
knuckles.

He smiled and looked very like Lucius suddenly although his hair was shorter, falling to
just below his shoulders.� She retrieved
her hand as politely as she could.

Tom
drawled, dragging her attention away from the shark-like smile of the blonde, ��The boy next to
him is Roan Mulciber, thats
Sorrensen Lestrange,
Antonia Parkinson and Clemens Carrow.� Over there at the far end is Benjamin Nott �
call him Benji please, he hates it so. Then you have
Cygnus Black, Palmer Avery, Antonin dolohov, Septimus Prince, and the
pretty girl on my left is Amalthea Vane.��

The names
washed over her � only a few sticking � those that were familiar for their
descendents.� Mulciber
looked nothing like his son � he was a small dirty blonde haired boy with a
cheeky face and quick blue eyes.� Sorenson
Lestrange on the other hand looked almost exactly
like a young sapling Rodolphus with darker hair.� He gave her a little wave and grin when her
eye passed over him in the introduction. �

Antonia Parkinson was obviously
pansy�s ancestor.� A skinny girl with
shoulder length straight black hair, she looked Hermione up and down subtly. It
seemed all Parkinsons were predisposed to dislike
her.

Clemems Carrow was entirely
unfamiliar to her.� She had never met the
Carrows, although she had heard about them from Neville before the battle of Hogsmeade.� Clemens was a brown-haired, dull-eyed heavy-set
boy with messy hair. He offered her a vaguely hopeful smile before his eyes shifted
back to Tom.

Benjamin Nott looked a little like Theodore Nott had in her time.� He was a slender boy with stringy straight
light brown hair hanging down around his ears.�
He looked like a quiet dreamy type and sat on the edge of the group as
if he wasn�t really among them.�

Cygnus black she could have picked as a black out of a line-up.� He had that slightly crazed piratish look to him, all wild black hair and daring
grin.� Sirius probably took after
him.�

Palmer Avery she would probably have tipped as a serial killer in her time.

The way he looked at her with a fake little polite smile and shuttered eyes was
unsettling.� He was reserved and well
groomed and utterly utterly creepy. Tom had smiled as
he introduced him in a way that didn�t reassure her.

Dolohov looked very much as he ever had, only
younger.� At some point this rather
inoffensive looking boy would grow up and become the man that nearly killed her
when she was fifteen.

Wonderful.� Wasnt time
travel fun?!

Her eye
got stuck on Septimus Prince when she got to him
because he was Severus.� The nose.. the eyes.. he resembled young Severus
even more than Abraxas resembled Lucius and Draco.�

However where Severus had a slightly resentful surly look to him all the time, Septimus radiated
entitlement.�

He inspected her as one would an item in a store that one was considering
purchasing.�

She almost
missed Tom�s introduction of Amalthea, the intensity
of Septimus gaze transfixed her so.�

Amalthea, when she turned to look at the redhead was
even more pretty than she had looked from the sorting
stool.� Her long silky wavy red hair was
dark and bloody rather than orangey like the Weasleys.� She had large deep forest green eyes and full
red pouty lips.�

She was..well endowed.. Hermione noticed with a trace
of envy..

and she was also
shooting daggers at Hermione with her eyes while smiling in a friendly manner.�

Hermione
swallowed uneasily, forgetting half the first names of the boys around her
immediately.

�Tom Riddle�
Headmaster Dippet called, as if announcing something.�

Tom smirked at her, seeing the confusion on her face.� She hadn�t been following the proceedings in
the great hall behind her at all.

He stood
and left the table, striding up to the front of the head table and taking
something Dippet proffered to him.� She
realised it was the head prefect badge as he pinned it to his breast at the front
of the room and everyone applauded.� Some
cheers went up.�

She realised that Tom was not merely..popular.. Harry
had been popular..

Tom, on the other hand, was actually beloved!..The entire
damn school just fell over themselves to adore him.�

And she was guilty of the same thing � and she
even KNEW all the things he had done and was doing and would do.� It was insane.�

It was like the effect she had on
people.. the making people
want her thing... but different.� These
people just idolized him.

THAT was charisma..
she guessed.�

Tom
returned to the table and Abraxus gave him a pat on
the back while Septumus offered him a hand in
congratulations.�

He shook the hand but his eyes stayed on Hermione�s and a small smile played
around his lips.� Behind her, Dippet was
calling out �Bertrice Pollux�
and she turned slightly to watch the strict looking Ravenclaw
seventh year sidle out of her table and move to the head table to collect her
badge.� The applause was considerably
less but still quite polite.� She missed
hearing who the head boy would be because Tom spoke to
her.�

�I�m
afraid that becoming head prefect means that I will not be living in the
Slytherin dormitories, Maia.� I will stay
with the head boy and girl in separate quarters� Tom said quietly, pulling her
attention back onto him.�

She forced her face to remain casual and not show the horror at the dawning
realisation that he would not be around
to protect her.� ��

The sorting hat was right!

How the bloody hell was she supposed to expect this though?! � there wasn�t any such practice in her own time! She had been head prefect in sixth year
and she�d lived quite contentedly in the Gryffindor dorms!

Tom
continued. �But you are a Slytherin now and any other here will help you, no
matter where you happen to be in Hogwarts.�

You do not need to worry.� Slytherins take care of our own.�� He shot a cool glance across the table,
passing over all his �friends�.�

The
meaning was transparent � Several eyes widened at the gesture he had made
toward this, to them � entirely unknown quantity.�

Tom
looked across them speculatively. His eye finally stopped on Sorrenson.

�Sorry � will you make sure Maia knows her way around the dungeons and doesn�t
come to any harm?��

Hermione
nearly laughed out loud at the way he was handing her to a Lestrange
for protection again.� Hopefully it would
work out better than it had with Rodolphus.�

Sorrenson nodded slowly, a serious expression on his
face.�

Clearly he wasn�t taking it as a request but an order � one which would carry a
punshiment if he failed.� She smiled at him thankfully and turned back
to Tom.�

At that moment food blossomed on the table before them.�

�Ah.. excellent.� Guten app�tit
everyone� Tom said, smirking slightly. There were a couple of sniggers and
everyone started to tuck in.�

She
looked at the overwhelming excess of luxury on the table before her.�

How many weeks had she eaten berries or nothing at all and thought of these
tables longingly?!..

How many nights had Tom almost certainly gone to bed in that horrid orphanage
hungry and probably sore and thought about how much better things were at
Hogwarts?!�

Abraxas caught
her attention by looking at her �Are you not hungry, Maia?�� He enquired with faint concern.�

His eyes were so Malfoy...so familiar..even though his
smooth skinned face was more robust, his build more heavily muscled, less
refined.

She smiled at him and shook her head.�

�No, no.. I was just thinking.� That�s all.�
It looks wonderful.��

She
served herself some goose, potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, steamed carrots and
pepper sauce and tucked in.� It tasted
even better than it looked.�

She watched quietly as the Slytherins around her
engaged in quiet conversations, sometimes following Tom�s discussion with Septimus of the latest amendments to regulations concerning
declaration of dangerous magical objects, sometimes listening to Mulciber, Avery and Dolohov talk
about the upcoming year�s quiddich team selections and who they considered
favourites.��

Abraxas next to her did not participate in any conversations.� He ate quietly and shot a glance at her every
so often.�

Amalthea too, looked at her quite a lot while she ate
and pretended to be interested in Tom and Severus discussion.�

Her
attention was diverted by Cygnus black and Benjamin Nott laughing at something
obviously hysterically amusing.�

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the �proto-Harry� at the Gryffindor table
still watching her, although he seemed to be in conversation with a girl with
long curly black hair and a boy who looked a bit familiar with light brown
longish straight hair.�

She raised her eyebrows uneasily half turning to glance over her shoulder,
scanning the room.� Proto-Harry wasn�t
the only face still looking in her
direction.�

She turned back to her meal with a sinking feeling.�

Tom really hadn�t taken her seriously enough, she thought.� This situation was a lot more
tricky than the Dark Lord�s troubles with Lucius.� There were too many different unknown factors
in the room right now.�

And Abraxas had kissed her bloody hand, she realised unhappily, noting the
quiet attention of the boy beside her still.

She
wanted to run from the hall back up to the room of requirement and bolt the
door.�

When a
hand landed on her knee she just about jumped out of her skin.�

Tom smiled knowingly beside her as he conversed with Septimus
about the recent renovations of the guest wing of Prince Manor.� His hand wandered up her leg slowly, gripping
her teasingly.�

She tried to look as casual as she could but her heart was thumping in her
chest fit to burst.� Nobody could
know!�

Amalthea seemed to realise that something wasn�t
right however since she was giving her a nasty glare.�

Hermione swallowed and wondered exactly how
horrible it was going to be, living in a dorm with Slytherin girls who all
idolised Tom and hated her guts for the kindness he was showing her.�

She
hadn�t really gotten along with dorm life in Gryffindor.� She wasn�t really.. a girly.. girl. �Didn�t really have any female friends apart
from Ginny and as it turned out that was only because the girl had been trying
to keep her claws in Harry and had been ordered to spy on her by the Dark Lord.�

None of the girls in her dorm room had been her friends.� She had been civil with them and they,
sometimes, with her.� More could not be
said.�

As the situation stood, it didn�t look like she would be getting along with the
girls in Slytherin at all.. and
with the way things were, wandering around and trying to find somewhere else to
sleep - probably not the best idea.�

Tom�s
hand had reached mid thigh now and stopped.�
When it started to wander inward she gasped slightly and pushed it off
as surreptitiously as she could.�

The minute irritated flicker of his eyebrows wasn�t the best sign. �

As the
dinner plates vanished and desert appeared on the table she got up from her
place.� Attention zoned in on her and
conversations paused.

She turned to Tom uneasily. �Just.. visiting
the bathroom.� I saw one on the way
here.� don�t
worry.� I�m fine.� Thank you.��

Tom nodded but his brows tightened slightly.

She got
up and left through the side entrance that professor Dumbledore had brought her
in through earlier, knowing that this wasn�t generally allowed, but that she
could freely get away with it as a new student, and feeling disinclined to walk
all the way down the length of the great hall past all the students who would
no doubt watch and then discuss her.�

She
walked straight past the bathroom without even slowing and made her way to the
small walled in courtyard with the broken fountain she knew was only a couple
of corridors from the great hall.�

She was surprised to find the fountain bubbling and sprudeling
away in this time.�

The twilight air was refreshing and she sat herself down on a stone bench under
some honeysuckle vines.�

The chirrp actually did
make her flinch when she heard it.� She
looked up and only caught a flicker of red and blue and then a tiny white
scroll fell down into her lap.�

It sat
there doing nothing whatsoever and looking horribly ominous as it did it.�

She
steeled herself and opened it.� The
handwriting inside was angular and precise with expansive flourishes.�

It read �Durmstrang is a far better school.� I will allow you to complete your studies
there. See reason!� I think you do not
wish me to come to Hogwarts to collect you.�

She
growled at the note and drew her wand, incinerating it immediately and stomping
back inside the corridor.

The courtyard was no longer peaceful now she knew that bloody dimension defying
bird was hanging about there somewhere probably waiting for a reply to the genocidal dictator currently storming Europe.�

When she sidled back into the great hall she could see everyone was getting
ready to leave the tables and return to their dormitories.�

Tom shot her a warning glance that he was not impressed with how long she had
dared to remain gone. She joined the standing group and Abraxus
smirked at her

�Did you get lost after all?��

She smiled sheepishly and looked away. �a
little..��

They all
drifted with the crowds through the great hall and out the main entrance
doors.� She almost wandered in the
direction of the main stairs, her legs wanting to
carry her in the familiar direction of Gryffindor common room, but Sorenson
tapped her elbow slightly and guided her with the rest of the large group to
the stairs that led down to the dungeons.

She thanked him.�

Tom was nowhere in sight, she realised suddenly with slight panic.�

�So.. how come you�re joining us in your sixth year� Sorenson
asked her, probably seeking to make idle conversation.�

She didn�t bother with her sob story and simply told him she�d been home
schooled and her mother had told her to come to Hogwarts if anything happened.�

She asked whether he had other family at Hogwarts and he told her his younger
brother Brynly was in Gryffindor in his fifth
year.� She asked about him and Sorenson..Sorry responded politely until they reached the door to
the Slytherin common room.� Then he
started to explain about the common room doors and the passwords.�

The password would be set by the head of house and they didn�t know what it was
yet but their head of house was the potions professor Horace Slughorn.

In the
common room Sorenson escorted her over to the massive leather sofa set in front
of the fire, which had been turned to face the centre of the room.�

Abraxas and Septimus were already seated and talking
together. On Septimus far side Amalthea
sat and glowered at her possessively.�

She blinked and felt relieved.� She had
thought that Amalthea was possessive of Tom but it
appeared she was connected to Septimus.

Oh well that was fine then.�

She shot her a grateful smile and the girl frowned, confused.�

Black and
Nott sat at the other end of the couch with Antonia perching on the armrest and
looking down at Cygnus with a sycophantic smile on her face.� Nott on the other hand seemed to look at Antonia with longing.� Cygnus just rabbitted
on obliviously, loving the sound of his own voice.��

Just as Sorenson steered her at the elbow gently down to sit next to Abraxas, Palmer
Avery sidled past them and sat there.

Abraxas, listening to Septimus, looked irritatedly at Palmer who raised innocent eyebrows back in
the universal gesture of �what?! Problem?!�

Sorenson
hesitated.�

There were only two places left and Roan Mulciber and
Clemens Carrow hovered uncertainly, exchanging a
meaningful glance.� Then they backed up
and went to sit elsewhere.�

Sorenson indicated to her that she should sit next to Cygnus, who patted the
sofa and waggled his eyebrows rakishly.�

Palmer Avery looked at Sorenson with subdued poison as the latter positioned
himself on the sofa between him and Hermione.�

She
looked around the room, a bit intimidated with her current position.�

It seemed that the sofa closest to the fire was some kind of pride of place
within Slytherin house and she noted the subtle scrutiny of most of the rest of
the house (except the tiny firsties) at seeing a
complete newcomer suddenly seated in the centre of the hallowed throne.�

Unlike in Gryffindor where people would stare and possibly even point at
something they found unusual or someone new, the Slytherins
were extremely unobtrusive in their attention.�

It was just the sheer mass of it that was overwhelming.� A susurration in the room
that was like a physical pressure.

�Move� Tom�s
voice demanded low and her heart jumped joyfully seeing him standing in front
of Abraxas and looking at Palmer Avery with a thin mask of politeness on his
face.�

Avery scowled and angrily flung himself up off the sofa.�

Sorenson, at only a glance from Tom, immediately moved to sit in his
place.�

Tom smiled, pleased, and sat down next to her, his blond curls glinting in the
firelight.

The
attention in the room sharpened to the point that it was very nearly overt, and
rather than an increase in whispered conversations, it seemed they dropped away
almost entirely as the students focused on events surrounding the sofa.�

�How are
you so far, Maia?� Tom asked solicitously.�

She
smiled

�Good.� Sorenson was very nice.� Thank you for asking him to look after me.�

Tom
nodded dismissively as if he would do as much for anyone � which was patently
false, as every surreptitious glance in the room evidenced.

He smirked at her. �You look a bit overawed.�
Don�t worry.. You�ll settle in.
..I�ll have a word with Avery later. Sometimes he doesn�t recognise a gentle
hint.��

She sighed relieved again.

�Thanks!��

He shook his head slightly.

�Tom..� she started and he raised an enquiring
eyebrow.� �You remember I mentioned
seeing an interesting bird at the gate earlier?��

He frowned slightly, a hint of warning in his eyes almost as if he�d verbally
said �not here�.� She continued
regardless.

�Well when I got lost on my way to the bathroom I found a little courtyard and
there was another one!�

Unless it was the same one but that�s pretty unlikely.� I wonder if they live in the forest.��

Tom
speculated idly on this inanity as if it were a
perfectly reasonable conversation but his eyes were shuttered and the corners
of his mouth tight.�

He politely excused himself a few moments later and turned and muttered something
in Sorrenson�s ear beside him, who in turn then
whispered into Abraxas ear.�

The blond nodded minutely without pausing in discussion with Amalthea. �

Tom turned back to her.

�A few of us were thinking of getting together after the house meeting and
celebrating the new term with a butterbeer or two.
Perhaps you might like to come?��

She accepted
with thanks and Tom�s smile was very nearly a smirk.�

�Wonderful.� I�ve got to take the first
years to their dorms and tuck them in � bless them, little dears � before I can
get free, but Sorry will take you to our private common room.�

She smiled, amused at the idea of the Dark Lord tucking in firsties and then an irritating �AHEM� drew her attention
to the front of the room, over the heads of the many lower years seated on the
floor.�

Horace Slughorn
looked quite young, she thought objectively.�
He was nevertheless still rotund and had an unpleasant greedy look about
his piggish little eyes.�

He looked around the room expansively, his gaze pausing significantly on her
seated next to Tom in pride of place before moving on. �

He spoke with the same jovial yet detestable voice she remembered from her own
sixth year potions class.

�Welcome Slytherins, to another bright new year at
the world�s finest school of wizardry.�
And especially, welcome to all young students for whom this year will be
the first at this grand establishment.�

You have had the good fortune to be invited into the noblest of the four houses
� that of the sorcerer Salazar Slytherin � one of the most if not the most influential figure in the
wizarding world since the time of Merlin.�

I hope you will take the time to learn more about your founding father so that
you can better appreciate the honour you carry.�
I also expect you all to seek
to increase that honour by earning as many house points as you are able so that
we might all win the house cup again at the end of the year.� Slytherin has held it these last five years
and we must keep up the tradition of excellence common to the students of this
house.�

Congratulations too, to our own Tom Riddle for being named Head prefect of the
sixth years this year, although I am certain that any of you who have had
dealings with Mr Riddle will agree that there is no student more suited to or
more deserving of the role than he.� Well
done�� He
applauded slightly and the students took up the applause and cheered excitedly,
genuinely pleased.�

Tom sat forward on the sofa and bowed slightly.�

Slughorn looked at him approvingly and went on �I am also pleased to draw
attention in passing, to our newest sixth year, Miss Maia Schiller.

I have reason to believe she will be an excellent addition to this house.� I hope you will all strive to make her feel
welcome.��

Hermione
smiled, trying not to blush.� Slytherins probably didnt
blush.�

�Thank you professor Slughorn� she said softly. �I�ll do my best.��

Slughorn
nodded and went on to tell them about the rules and expectations.� These were largely the same as those in
Gryffindor, however different areas were out of bounds and she tried to
memorise which they were, noticing at once that many of them were the areas that
were not out of bounds to Gryffindors.�

Possibly some way of avoiding interhouse conflicts,
she assumed.�

Soon
enough the meeting was over and Tom had risen, herding the firsties
like little nasty self important sheep down toward the dorms.�

Sorenson got up and offered her a hand up.�
She didn�t know how to refuse without seeming impolite so she let him
help her up and he walked with her toward the common room door, Abraxas and Septimus following behind them and the others trailing
along after them in a less organized manner.��

She saw
other older students filing off toward the dorms with the younger ones.� Antonia and Amalthea
went with them, both glancing back at her with suspicion and anger.�

Apparently they were not invited.�

When they
were out in the corridor and it was quiet, Sorenson leading them all down
deeper into the dungeons, she noticed how tense and nervous the others were,
for the most part.�

Palmer Avery was looking rather malevolently eager and Septimus
and Abraxus both looked faintly hopeful, but the
others were walking silently, shooting troubled glances at her.�

The common impression on their faces seemed to be � why are you here?!� WHY are we taking
you down to.. what she
assumed was the equivalent of Tom�s �lair�.�
Wherever his knights of Walpurgis met in the school .�

She imagined Avery, Septimus and Abraxas were hoping
that she was to be this evening�s entertainment.�

Sorenson
stopped at an uninteresting stretch of wall, deep in the dungeon, past the
potions classroom.�

He placed his hand flat on the wall and in a way that reminded her very much of
the future, there was a very faint golden flash in the stones.�

He reached back for her, offering her his hand and, uneasily, she took it.�

Then he walked through the wall, dragging her after him.�

It wasn�t
like Draco�s fake wall entrance.� This
one felt cold.�

She could actually feel the almost metre thick stone all around her limbs like
custard when she walked through.�

Sorenson
looked at her with a concerned expression that faded to blankness when Abraxas
stepped through the wall next.�

The room
they were in was dark.. a
circle of lighter blue exposed some vague shapes.� Furniture of some kind.�

The edges of the room were hidden in darkness but she had a feeling of size. A slight echo to things when they moved.�

Abraxas
scowled at sorry and cast the charm for the torches, while Septimus
passed through the wall behind him.�

A dozen
torches illuminated a large round stone room with a domed ceiling.�

In the centre of the ceiling an oculum exposed the
night sky full of stars.�

In the centre of the room below it a single black leather wingback chair and
two black half moon sofas surrounded a low round table.�

It really was like... the coffee-table of king arthur.. she mused.�

Sorenson
led her closer and stood looking at the table speculatively, obviously unsure
where to seat her.�

The
others were coming through the wall one by one behind them.�

Abraxas moved to the far right of the left sofa at the right hand of the
wingback chair but then he too stood and looked at Hermione slightly
speculatively.�

When Septimus sat down on the left of the chair, Abraxas
seemed to shrug slightly and seated himself.�

The others were drawing close to the sofas too.�
Palmer Avery sat next to Septimus and the two
smirked at each other knowingly.� Cygnus
black went to Abraxas side and sat, joined by Benjamin Nott, his shadow.� Roan Mulciber on
the other hand joined Avery and was followed by the slow dull Clemens Carrow.�

Sorenson
looked at the single place left next to Benjamin Nott and then back at Hermione.�

He seemed to reach a decision and gestured for her to sit down.� He then stood by her side at the back of the
sofa.

Septimus broke off his hushed conversation with Avery to
sneer at Sorry �You don�t need to stand on guard as if we would leap upon her
any second, Sorry.��

Sorenson
said nothing but leaned closer to her somewhat.�

Hermione
mused on exactly how dangerous her current position actually was and exactly
how many bricks she would be excreting if this had happened to her a year ago,
before everything.�

She smirked internally.�

She was the most dangerous one in the room..

Three days ago she had bested Grindelwald and
everyone in here, including Sorenson, thought she was a naive bit of fluff
probably about to have a very horrible experience.�

She
grinned to herself and Septimus goggled at her.� It looked quite amusing on his arrogant
features.�

He started to say something that from the look of his mouth probably wouldn�t
have been very nice, when the sound of Tom stepping into the room set them all
on alert.�

Author note.

Review replies can be found at
http://www2.adult-fanfiction.org/forum/index.php/topic/18725-review-replies/
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