The Truth About Hermione Granger

Hermione didn't get the chance to think long and hard about anything the next day. Even before she awoke, Lavender Brown was jumping up and down on her bed, saying, "Hermione! Wake up! You're BOYfriend's looking for you!"

"Eurgh!" said Hermione, annoyed. "Stop it, Lavender! I'm tired!"

"I know," said Lavender, still jumping on her bed. "You should be. You were out until all hours snogging with Draco Malfoy! How can you stand him, anyway? Is it true his mouth tastes like dirt?"

At that, Hermione began giggling hysterically and couldn't have gone back to sleep if she'd wanted to. "No, Lavender!" she exclaimed. "His mouth tastes just like anyone else's, I imagine! And he's not as mean as he lets on."

"Well, anyway, he said to hurry," said Lavender. "He'll meet you in Snape's office. And how YOU ever came out of THAT slimy git, I'll never know!"

Without another word, Lavender left the room and Hermione threw back the covers on her bed. Quickly, she jumped up and pulled on her favorite pair of jeans and a green sweater. She decided to take her robes along with her because she was sure her father would want to take her one place or another and if she was going to keep up the appearance of a proud, pure-blooded witch, she should probably wear them. If she didn't need them, she could always get them from her father later.

After pulling a brush through her hair to make it behave and powdering her face- she had VERY oily skin and the powder was a special sort that would keep the oils from either clogging her pores or making her face shiny- she hurried through the halls and down to the dungeons. She quickly found her father's office and hurried in.

There sat Snape behind his desk, Malfoy sat across from him and her cousin, Amelia, was perched on the edge of his desk.

"Ah, Hermione," said Snape, motioning for her to close the door. "Amelia says you've met?"

"Yes, sir," she answered. "Last night. Hello, Amelia."

"Hi," said Amelia, giving her a grin.

"Amelia is going to pay a visit to the Dark Lord today and we thought you might like to go along," said Snape.

Hermione just stared at them until finally, Amelia rolled up her sleeve and showed her the mark on her arm. "I was his favorite last year," said Amelia, smirking.

"Oh," said Hermione, still not quite sure of what was going on. Finally, she sighed and flopped into the chair next to Draco. "There's just something I need to know. What WAS that all about?"

"Of course you wouldn't know," sighed Snape. "Every once in awhile, the Dark Lord picks out one of the initiates as his favorite. This is the first time he's chosen a child two years in a row, but nevertheless, you are one of his Favorites, now. Anytime you want to see him, you can call him by pressing your thumb to that mark on your arm and he'll meet you at the designated place which, in your case, is the cave we met in a couple of weeks ago. You can pop into Riddle house anytime and he'll see you. You can ask any favor of him, up to half of his Kingdom- as he puts it- and he will grant it for you. You need not bow to him, kiss the hem of his robes or even call him, 'my Lord.' You can greet him with a hug, slap his face if you get angry with him or even call him, 'Tom,' which is his real name.

"In short, Hermione, the Dark Lord treasures you above all else and has given you special privileges," he finished.

"My father was burning mad at you," said Malfoy with a smirk. "You should have heard him! He just kept going on and on about how you were nothing special and I should have been his favorite." He chuckled maliciously. "Poor Lucius!" he sneered.

"Draco, that's enough!" snapped Snape, shutting Draco up. "Now, Amelia, Hermione. Are you two going to shove off or what?"

"And miss the chance of visiting the worst, most vile, most disgusting man in the world?" asked Amelia. "Not a chance!"

Snape gave her a look. "Don't let him hear you say that!" he said, standing and leading them all over to the fireplace.

"I'm not STUPID, Uncle Severus," said Amelia.

"Sure you are," chuckled Draco. "You're American, aren't you?"

Amelia rolled her eyes at Draco, but smiled anyway.

They went by floo powder to Riddle House, which was, as Hermione found out, in Little Hangleton, to which she'd never been before. As soon as she burst in through the fireplace, Wormtail jumped up and scurried from the room. He returned right behind Voldemort just as Amelia burst into the room. She heard Wormtail gasp and noticed that he immediately started gawking at her.

"Both of my girls!" exclaimed Voldemort, hugging each in turn. "Wormtail, you told me only Hermione had come! Amelia, what on Earth are you doing in Britain?"

"ATV was doing a concert at Hogwarts and I thought that as long as I'm around, I'd better drop in to say hello, or I'll never hear the end of it from you!" she explained, returning his hug.

"And Hermione, why didn't you tell me Amelia was here?" he asked.

"I didn't realize you knew her at the time, sir," she said.

"Oh, now, enough of that 'sir' stuff!" he said, hugging her again. "You must call me Tom. Surely your father has explained it all to you by now!"

"Yes, he did, sir," she answered. "I mean Tom."

"Well, then!" he said, placing an arm around each of their shoulders. "Come! We'll have breakfast. You haven't had breakfast, yet, have you?"

"No, Tom," they answered together.

"We knew you'd want to share it with us," said Amelia, smiling sweetly.

Voldemort smiled down at them. "Of course I do!" he said. "Wormtail!" he snapped at the gawking little man. "Go put on more breakfast! And stop looking at Amelia that way!"

Wormtail immediately hurried from the room and they could hear him banging around pots and pans in the kitchen. Voldemort pulled out a chair for each of them in the dining room and sat across from them. "Now, then," he said. "Do either of you need anything?"

"I could use a nice polyjuice potion," said Amelia.

"May I ask why?" asked Voldemort.

"Of course you can," said Amelia, smiling enigmatically.

There was a pause and finally, Voldemort chuckled. "All right," he said. "Remind me to get it before you leave."

"I will," said Amelia.

"Well, Hermione," said Voldemort, turning to her. "How about you?"

Hermione thought hard, but could think of nothing. "Not right now, thank you," she said.

"Well, if you think of anything, you just let me know, all right?"

"Of course, Tom," she answered.

Just then, Wormtail came out of the kitchen carrying three plates of food and set them before the three people gathered there. As he set down Amelia's plate, he began gawking again, and continued doing so until Voldemort told him to leave.

"Wormtail's got a bit of a crush on me," said Amelia. "You haven't lead him on, have you, Tom?"

"Of course not, Amelia," he said. "He knows you are unwilling and I won't make my girl do anything she doesn't want to do!"

"Poor Amelia," laughed Hermione.

Voldemort smiled at her again and motioned for them to begin their breakfasts.

It was the best food Hermione had ever had. There were strawberry pancakes and sausages, biscuits and honey, orange juice and milk, and all sorts of things, including a bit of something Amelia called, "grits," and ate an awful lot of. Hermione wouldn't touch it, though. It looked like a baby had spit up something into the bowl.

After breakfast, Voldemort took them into the family room just to talk. Amelia did most of the talking though, because Hermione was still very nervous.

"How is your band doing, Amelia?" he asked once they were settled.

"Very well," answered Amelia. "We're all graduating at the end of this year, though, so I don't know what'll happen. I'm going to apprentice under my uncle and I know that Ryan- that's Aristotle- is going to a French University, but other than that, everyone's staying close to home."

"No more lovely concerts, then?" he asked, sarcastically.

Amelia grinned. "No," she answered. "You won't have to worry about wearing ear plugs anymore."

"You're still playing the piano, though, right?" he asked.

"Yes, I am," answered Amelia. "I'm working on Sonata Pathetique by Beethoven."

"Good wizarding family," answered Voldemort approvingly. He then turned to Hermione. "Your father tells me that you play the violin like Amelia does."

"Yes," said Hermione, glancing at Amelia. "I do."

"You must play for me sometime," he said. "Is there anything in particular you like?"

"I like most anything," she answered. "But, I think my favorite is Mozart."

"How that muggle ever made something of himself, I'll never know," commented Amelia.

"Yes," answered Voldemort. "But, it's good music, no matter what he was, even I have to admit that! Have you learned anything by wizard composers, Hermione?"

"I know a lot of Bach pieces and a few by Gershwin," she answered. "Though, Gershwin was more of a songwriter, really."

"That's true," answered Voldemort. "What about Joplin?"

"I wasn't aware that Scott Joplin was a wizard!" she said surprised.

"Neither was I," said Amelia.

"He was," answered Voldemort, sitting back in his leather chair.

The conversation went on like that all the way through lunch and well into the afternoon. They talked about music and school, the girls' futures and life in general. Voldemort tried several times to interest Amelia in one of his Death Eaters or their sons, but she would not budge. She lived too far away, she said, and perhaps she would think about it next year.

Finally, it was time to head back. Voldemort handed Amelia a small phial of polyjuice potion as he hugged her and told her to be careful with it when she went through the floo network. She promised she would and in another minute, she was gone.

"Are you sure there's nothing you need, Hermione?" Voldemort asked her once again.

"I'm sure," she said. "If I think of anything, I'll send you an owl."

"Make sure you do," he said, hugging her again and offering her the little pot of floo powder. She took a pinch, threw it into the flames and stepped into the fireplace. She waved one last time, before shouting, "Hogwarts, Snape's office!" and finally, she went shooting off towards Hogwarts.

The scene that greeted her as she popped out of Snape's fireplace not only surprised her, it horrified her at the same time.

Draco lay sprawled on the floor, unconscious, with Amelia standing over him, arm outstretched and fingers splayed as if she were holding an invisible ball. Suddenly, Amelia cried out and bent over Draco. "He scared me!" she said. "I didn't know anybody would be here and he's so quiet! I didn't hear him! He just came up behind me and touched me and-! I didn't even think! I just reacted!"

"It's all right," said Hermione, realizing that Amelia must have simply knocked him out with a simple spell. She pulled out her wand and pointed it at Draco. "ENERVATE!" she said, and in next to no time, Draco was sitting up, a bit dazed, but none the worse for his experience.

"Hey, Amelia," said Draco. "I thought you had a tough time with curses! You sure did THAT one all right!"

"I usually DO have a hard time," she said. "But when you give me a rush by sneaking up on me, I can pull off the simpler ones."

"What's that mean?" asked Hermione.

"I'm an Unbreakable," said Amelia.

Hermione was stunned speechless. She knew that Unbreakables* were tough, fearless, strong, incorruptible witches and wizards. They could not go bad, they could not be cursed, they could not be tricked. They were very good at instant divination, which made it hard to sneak up on them, and curses just soak into them and strengthen them. They did, however have a hard time with performing curses, which was their only weakness.

"Just don't let Tom find out," said Hermione. "He'd be furious and you'd definitely loose your good favor with him."

"This I know," said Amelia, rolling her eyes. "I was lectured so many times from my uncle! So, if anyone outside this room asks, my birthday is on November 1, okay?"

"Sure," said Hermione, and the three of them headed out of Snapes office and into the castle to find something to occupy the rest of their day off.