Socius Criminis

Chapter 6 - In The Hands Of Fate

"The greatest ideas are the simplest."

-Lord Of The Flies, William Golding

Hermione was led to the Malfoy family library, albeit with a slight unease thanks to her injuries. Lucius sat her down and had a house elf clean the blood from her arm. There was no wound now, only the rapidly drying liquid dribbling slower and slower down her forearm. Strange, she thought silently to herself. She was sure the skin had been cut at one point. But there was no time to ponder the meaning of life. There was research to be done, and that was what Hermione did best - loathe as she was to admit it. As she picked up the eerily enticing volume Even More Hideous Dark Curses, a cloaked figure walked in.

"Hello Severus," Hermione breathed softly and found the index. Her eyes flickered up slowly, and he lowered her hood and returned her gaze. "You've been crying," she whispered, and reached for another volume of hefty proportions.

"Why did you let him do that?" came the hoarse reply.

"Do what?" she asked, almost angelically. Severus held back a cry of frustration.

"You know what I mean!"

"And you know why," Hermione retorted, turning the page in her book and sighing.

"Lily and James..." Severus pleaded. Stony brown eyes looked back at him, allowing no feeling or emotion to show in their glance. Hermione snapped the book shut.

"Have to face their destinies. Do not trouble yourself, dearest," Hermione said in a dismissive tone, and returned to her book.

"Who are you to tell me such?" Severus growled. Hermione rose and stepped close to him so that his hair just brushed against the sallow skin of her face. "I do not believe you should permit yourself to address me as such!" She traced the back of her hand across his cheek.

"If you believe that then you do not know me as well as I hoped," she whispered and brushed her lips against his. Then she smiled slightly, looking back at the book in her hand. "Oh how ironic. Reversus Peragro Tempus. It would be as easy as that." Severus sniffed slightly, though he tried to hide it. Hermione looked at him.

"You know I can't live without you," he said. Hermione's eyes deepened their emotion. It was unlike Severus to show such vulnerability. She nodded, and strengthening her resolve to finish this facade back in time once and for all, she turned to the Potions section of the library. Perhaps she could make sure she did not leave empty handed; in her time, there was still no cure for the Instauratio potion.

"Hermione, where are you going?" came a voice. Timid...almost scared. Perhaps he could sense what was ahead for both of them and feared it. It was his problem for joining the Death Eaters in the first place and telling Voldemort about the Unicus. Although...that was partly her fault. Hermione stopped, but did not turn to face Severus.

"To help out an old friend," she replied. "Or rather, a friend I have not yet made." Severus lost her to the bookshelves.

"What if I need help too?" he said, almost whimpering, and went to her as she emerged, head in a book. Although she longed to, yearned to, she did not respond to him. "Hermione..." Severus whispered almost inaudibly, and her eyes flickered up to him again in a brown blur. Her resolve was almost lost when she saw the desertion in his eyes and the disappointment in her loss of feeling. It took all her energy and willpower to reply to him. This was getting harder by the minute. She sighed.

"I need to get this done," she whispered in reply. He sat at the table next to her. "I'm so sorry, Severus," she wrapped her fingers around his. "But you know I have to go back." He smiled at her weakly.

"I know." And even though she knew that he was lying, Hermione smiled back, showing no trace of disbelief at his words. "I know."

--

The history of the Instauratio potion is a vague one. Although it is regarded as one of the greatest accomplishments by Grindelwald, it is also a potion that holds around it a great fear. It requires both some of the rarest ingredients and the least known. It also requires a great sacrifice by the servant of the one being resurrected, and the blood of a foe (for complete instructions see below). It was once said that Grindelwald himself used it the first time he was bought to the brink of defeat by Dumbledore. Its' use is so rare that those on the side of Dumbledore are, we believe, unaware of the existence of such a potion. This was not Grindelwald's intention, but has worked well to the advantage of our side. Although the potion uses complex ingredients it is relatively simple to brew: adding first the base (mainly liquid) ingredients, followed by the body of the one who is to be reborn, and finally the three main ingredients (blood of a foe, flesh of the servant, bone of the father). Here follows the recipe for both Instauratio and its counter-potion, Mors Mortis. (One under the influence of Instauratio is not, due to the inclusion of Unicorn Blood, mortal, and therefore cannot be slain by Avada Kedavra. It must be reversed using Mors Mortis.)

--

It was approximately two am and Hermione had finally found the cure. Although she was tempted to destroy the book and thus Voldemort's chances of returning to power at a later date, she knew it would damage far too much. Instead she copied, by hand, the entire counter potion and once she was done returned the book. Severus was waiting for her outside. She could see from his expression and the way he ground his hands together that he had worked himself into a frenzy. Good, she thought to herself. Be angry...it will help you deal with the loneliness.

It wasn't that Hermione didn't love him - sometimes she worried that she loved him too much for their own good. The problem was,

"Is He ready? I have everything I require," Hermione said bluntly, and followed Severus down to the Manor Hall, where Voldemort was waiting.

"Well, Professor Granger?" Riddle sneered. "I trust you found all you needed? Of course you did. And now all that remains is for you to tell me what I want to know." Hermione nodded, and in a single breath sealed the fates of a thousand innocents.

"Godric's Hollow," came the monotonal answer. Voldemort smiled.

"Shall I dispatch the red hoods, Master?" simpered Lucius in a disturbing manner. Voldemort looked down his nose at him.

"No. I shall deal with them myself," he said, and rose. The deed was done. Hermione shook with the desire to break down there and then, in the middle of the Hall, and sob for hours on end. Pulling herself together, she contained the tears, and looked up at the Dark Lord who until not so long ago, she had seen only in her darkest nightmares. He slid towards her and raised a hand to her face. She turned her head the other way so that he could not touch her. Riddle's anger grew. "Do not refuse me," he hissed into her ear, wrapping an arm around her waist from the side and pulling her towards him. "I do not want to have to force you." Hermione turned her face back towards him and snarled.

"I would never lower myself so much as to do your bidding. I am not weak like those people you call followers." Hermione smiled and stepped out of Riddle's grasp. He did not reach for her; he could see the dark fire burning in her eyes. Hermione let out a hoarse laugh. "Ha! And you call yourself great, He-That-Fears-A-Mudblood." Riddle sneered at her.

"How dare you challenge me," he hissed, every bit the Slytherin mascot. Hermione gave him an amused smile.

"I'm a Gryffindor, Tom. It's in my house." Riddle snorted.

"Why waste your time with such bumbling incompetents? You have great potential. Join the house of the snake and you shall be great, great beyond your wildest dreams." Hermione raised an eyebrow.

"Do you share a brain with the Sorting Hat, Tom? Because that's almost exactly what it said to me. I begged to be put in Gryffindor, you know. I knew I'd never fit into Slytherin with this temper behind me." Hermione sneered. "Not that you are a patient person yourself." Riddle raised his wand. "You wouldn't dare touch me," Hermione added, feeling no fear now that she could see the Dark Lord not as an evil deity, but merely an abused child who didn't know right from wrong.

"Crucio," Voldemort whispered, and Hermione knew that everything she stood for, all her Gryffindor morals, were worthless. The pawn went from white to black, and the destruction of her soul was complete. As the pain washed through her veins she surrendered herself to the darkness and accepted the life of an outcast. She fell to her knees before Riddle and squeezed her eyes shut with the pain. "Now you will comply, I see," Riddle sneered, lifting the curse. Hermione fell forwards and collapsed onto the hem of his robes. "That's it, girl. Worship me like the mere servant you are." Riddle crouched besides the half-conscious body and stroked her cheek softly. He lent down, pushed his mouth to hers and claimed the kiss he knew Snape would abhor. Hermione growled and scrambled away. She wiped her sleeve over her mouth and stared up at her torturer.

"You've got what you wanted. Now let me leave this hellhole."

"So soon? And with nothing to remember you by, dearest Hermione?" Riddle simpered and Hermione turned her nose up.

"Remember me by this," she whispered, and as she disapparated a black rose floated down to the ground where Night had once stood. Severus regained sense enough to track her location and went after her. Voldemort was left alone in the room with Lucius, who he smiled at.

"Everything has worked exactly as per my designs," he proclaimed, and went to seal the fates of Lily and James Potter. Little did he know that the wrath of Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, awaited his entry to her abode. The Dark Lord had indeed underestimated the power of the female of the species.

--

Hermione touched down just outside Hogsmeade. If she was going to go back - or rather, forth - she might as well land as near to Hogwarts as possible should anything go wrong. Not that anything would go wrong, she reminded herself. Hermione had received her apparition license having passed the test with flying colours. Hermione began to check that she had everything with her. Wand, potion notes, winter cloak - she couldn't be sure where or when she was going to land, after all. At that time Severus had managed to locate her. He appeared in front of her with a pop.

"Severus," she hissed. "Get the hell out of here." He grabbed onto her arms.

"If you have to go I'm coming with you," he sneered; no love in his eyes now - merely an intense power over her.

"Severus," she cried, as he crushed her in his embrace and kissed her as hard as he could. Hermione could feel the bruises forming in her lips and his stubble scratching lines into her skin. She pushed him away from her. "Severus," she breathed heavily, looking into his passionate gaze.

"You know I have to go."

"I do," he whispered into her ear, grazing his lips across her jawbone. "I also know I'm coming with you."

"Severus, you can't," she whimpered as his hands ran across her back, teasing her. "Severus, this isn't fair," she said. "I'm not your pawn." He looked up at her then.

"But I thought we had resolved this. We're all pawns. All pawns are meant to do is serve masters." Hermione resisted the urge to slap him.

"Perhaps this is more like a game of checkers," she whispered softly, "and the pawn can cross the board and triumph." Severus grinned evilly.

"There will always be the opposition trying to stop her," he replied, and kissed her again fiercely. Hermione writhed under his grip.

"Severus!" she screamed, and pushed against him, trying to get him away from her.

"Yes?" he mumbled, kissing her neck. Hermione stopped moving and put a hand under his chin, forcing him to look at her.

"This pawn's crossing the board," she whispered, and pointed her wand at her heart.

"Hermione!" he begged, holding her even closer to him.

"Severus, don't." Hermione pleaded, and when he tried to keep hold of her used a banishing curse on him that broke his nose in three places. He looked up at her, and she knew then that it was she had caused his years of solitude, hatred and most of all his wish for revenge on Harry for causing Voldemort's rise to power and sending her back in time.

She began to hyperventilate at the realization that she could cause such intense suffering on the only man she had ever loved this passionately. Severus sneered at her, his trademark sneer, and she let out a whimper, stepping away from him and stumbling for something to hold onto, something to steady herself. This was the Severus she knew from the future...not the one she had loved. Somehow there was still a love there though, and this love screamed for help and fought to stay alive.

"Go on then," he hissed. "Go back to your white knight, wherever he is. I hope you're happy together." Hermione swallowed, and reached inside her for her resolve. Tears threatening her eyes and her hands shaking no matter how hard she gripped her wand, she took one last look at him.

"See you in two decades," she whispered, and closed her eyes. "Reversus Peragro Tempus," she breathed, and felt the same spinning sensation she had felt with the time turner. When Severus sat back up she was gone.

--

Hermione fell to the floor with a crack. She felt a searing pain in her head for a moment before she blacked out. For a moment she thought she was dying, but she had sense enough to realize she was not. Putting a hand to her head, she mumbled some charms and the bleeding stopped. Her headache was still there. Getting her bearings enough to open her eyes without feeling that she was about to lose her lunch, Hermione looked up. She was in the forbidden forest, she could see enough to tell that. Hermione had to find someone and find out what year it was. She stood up, a little uneasily, and went in the direction where the forest eased up. As she reached the centre of the forest - she had landed on the outskirts - she saw and heard the battle. Tripping over a tree root in her shock, she landed on the floor just as a curse was shot her way. She thanked the Gods eternally for that one. Crawling forwards and towards the battle on her stomach, she noticed the white masks of Death Eaters. Then it hit her. She wasn't just back in the right decade. She had landed right in the middle of the Great Wizarding War.

And it seemed as if nothing had changed at all.