The Truth About Hermione Granger

It was the day before school let out for Christmas break when Hermione felt the first twinge of pain in her left fore-arm. She winced slightly and glanced up at her father at the front of the class. He merely nodded at her, indicating that she should wait until the end of class and then come talk to him. As soon as the bell rang, she hurried to her father's desk. He told her to go get her invisibility cloak and enter the Forbidden Forest just behind Hagrid's hut and there, she would meet the rest of the students.

She did as she was told, itching her arm all the way. She couldn't imagine the mark would sting every time she was called into the Dark Lord's presence.

Finally, she arrived in the Dark Forest. She pulled off her invisibility cloak and waited for the others. She appeared to be the first to arrive. Finally, though, Crabbe, Goyle and Malfoy all arrived together, followed by the rest of them, all in groups of two or three.

Finally, her father appeared. "Is everyone here?" he asked.

"Abramson!"

"Crabbe!"

"Edwards!"

"Fredricks!"

"Goyle!"

"Jacobson!"

"Lorenz!"

"Malfoy!"

"Nott!"

"Peterson, Aaron!"

"Peterson, Kevin!"

"Rabe!"

"Snape!"

"Vanderbilt!"

Snape nodded to them and instructed them all to follow him. Again, they were traipsing through the forest, on their way to meet the Dark Lord for the second time this year. The hike didn't seem so horrible in the daylight, but Hermione kept her guard up, just in case something were to catch her unawares.

Finally, they reached the clearing, though this time, the elder Death Eaters were not present, save for Snape, who went to stand by the Dark Lord and Wormtail. Hermione assumed that her place would be next to Vanderbilt, like last time, so she quickly stood in the gap between him and Abramson. In next to no time, Voldemort called her to him. She hurried forward, but before she could bow, he had her in his arms and was hugging her tight.

"It is good to see you, my dear child," he said, releasing her. "Has my servant, Draco Malfoy, taught you your curses?"

"Yes, sir," she said. He gave her a look that said, quite plainly, 'what was that?' "I mean, Tom," she amended.

"Very good, let's see them," he said, pulling a frog from his pockets.

Quickly, Hermione went through the curses, one by one. Each time, the counter-curse was performed by her father, who looked on almost proudly at her. When she came to the contortionist curse, she managed to keep herself from crying out like she had the first time. Finally, Voldemort smiled down at her and hugged her once more. "You've done quite well, Hermione," he said.

"Thank you, Tom," she said, turning and heading back to her place in the circle.

"Now, my little Death Eaters," said Voldemort, addressing the rest of them. "I have your first assignments. They aren't much. Just little things for you to prove your loyalty to me." Here, he pulled out a stack of envelopes, sealed with the Dark Mark. "Abramson!" he called. The boy hurried forward and accepted his envelope, then returned to his place in the circle. This process continued, one after another, until finally...

"Snape!"

Hermione hurried forward. Voldemort handed her the envelope, smiled and winked at her and she hurried back to her place in line.

Finally, Vanderbilt had received his envelope. Voldemort turned to her father, said something that none could hear and her father nodded. Finally, Voldemort turned back to the group. "Now," he said. "You all have your assignments. Disperse!"

With that, they all hurried back towards the Hogwarts grounds, stopping at the edge to pull on their invisibility cloaks. Finally, Hermione was in a deserted part of the castle and she threw off her cloak. She hid it under her school robes and continued up to her rooms where she shoved it into the bottom of her trunk and locked it in. Finally, she sat on her bed to open her envelope and see her assignment.

At the top of the page, her name was written in a deep red ink. It looked almost like blood, and Hermione thought for a moment that it wouldn't surprise her if it were blood. Finally she opened the parchment the rest of the way.

*Bring me three hairs from Harry Potter's head,* it said.

Well, that seemed easy enough, but why did he want three of Harry's hairs? This seemed really odd, but she decided not to argue about it. If this is what it took to prove her "loyalty" to Voldemort, she would do it.

At that moment, though, Parvati Patil walked into the room and Hermione hurriedly shoved the paper into her pocket.

"What are you hiding?" asked Parvati, giving Hermione an odd look.

"Nothing," said Hermione. "Just a... a love letter. From Draco."

Parvati only wrinkled her nose and retrieved what she was looking for. Without another word, she left the room.

"That was close," said Hermione to herself as she destroyed the note with a disintegration charm. Quickly, she hurried down the stairs and out of Gryffindor Tower, heading towards the Great Hall for dinner.

* * * * * * * *

The next morning, Hermione headed down to the dungeons with Draco. The two of them would be traveling by floo powder to Snape Castle. Her father was staying behind just long enough to put out the fire and walk to Hogsmeade to aparate to the castle himself.

"You two are to sit down and do absolutely nothing until I get there, is that understood?" asked her father the moment they walked into his office.

"Yes, sir," said Draco, hesitating only a moment.

"Yes, sir," repeated Hermione.

"If I find out the two of you were snogging in my absence, I'll have your hide on my bedroom floor, Mr. Malfoy, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir," said Draco again. "I promise, sir, no funny business."

"Good," said her father, taking the pot of floo powder off the mantle. "You first then, poppet."

Hermione took a pinch of the powder, threw it into the flames and, stepping into the fire, called out, "Snape Castle!" She was immediately whisked off in a flurry of flames, smoke and ash and in no time, she was dumped onto the floor of what she supposed was her father's castle.

Except that Amelia was there.

Along with two people she didn't know.

"Hermione!" cried Amelia, hurrying across the room and scooping her up in a big hug. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, I suppose," answered Hermione as Amelia let go. "I thought you weren't getting here until tomorrow."

"We thought so, too," answered Amelia. "But I got out of school earlier than expected and we caught a flight late last night. We got in at about three this morning!" With that, Amelia dragged her cousin across the room to the other two people. "This is my mom and dad," she said. "Aunt Sylvia and Uncle George to you. Mum, dad, this is Hermione."

The woman- a tall, thin-ish, blonde-haired woman with chicken feet creeping into the corners of her eyes- smiled kindly and hugged Hermione gently. "It's so good to finally meet you, Hermione," she said. "My brother and my daughter have told me so much about you!"

"Hello, Hermione," said the man, who looked suspiciously like Dick Van Dyke. He smiled at her and his eyes twinkled mischievously, but he said nothing more.

Finally, with a slight thud, Draco landed in the room behind them. "Oh, hello, Amelia," he said, shaking soot from his robes. "I didn't realize that you were here already."

"Draco," said Hermione, pulling him over to meet her aunt and uncle. "This is my Aunt Sylvia and my Uncle George. And this," she said to Sylvia and George. "Is my boyfriend, Draco Malfoy."

With this, her uncle's eyes clouded over slightly and her aunt's smile faltered. But, they quickly recovered and greeted Draco courteously. Hermione glanced at her cousin, but Amelia only shook her head, indicating that she'd tell her all about it later.

Finally, after a few more questions from her aunt and uncle, (how is school? Are you doing well? How do you like Hoagwarts? Etc. etc.) her father finally aparated into the middle of the room.

"Sylvia!" he said, surprised. "Amelia! Hello! I didn't realize you were already here."

"We came early," said Sylvia, giving her brother a quick hug. "Amelia got out of school on Christmas break sooner than we'd thought, so we got in this morning. Your house elves took care of everything, Severus, don't worry about that."

"I trust you've met young master Malfoy?" he asked, pulling Draco to his side. He then gave Sylvia a look that plainly said, "he's all right," and immediately, Sylvia seemed a lot more at ease.

"Yes," she said, passing the same look to her husband. "We have. Hermione introduced us."

"Very good," said Snape. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have a few things to which I must attend. I will meet you all for lunch. I promise, Sylvia, it's the last thing I will do for the rest of your stay," he added when his sister protested. "It's very important, you understand."

Sylvia only sighed and watched her brother leave the room. "He's a workaholic," she said. "Can't stay away for more than a minute!"

"Well," said Hermione, trying to ease any tension. "He DOES have an awfully important, er... job."

"Oh, Hermione, you don't have to sugar coat it for me!" said her aunt. "I know perfectly well what he DOES!"

"They forced it out of me last year when I came home with the dark mark and told them that I was officially a spy," explained Amelia.

"He was none too happy about it either," said Sylvia. Finally, she smiled again. "Well, anyway," she said. "I'm sure we don't want to talk about that the whole time we're here. Come, Hermione, we want to hear all about you!"

So, the five of them sat, chatting and getting to know one another until lunchtime when they joined Hermione's father for lunch. And, true to his word, he didn't work at all for the rest of Christmas break.

* * * * * * * *

Late that night, Draco sat in the room that Amelia and Hermione shared, discussing their assignments from Voldemort.

"He wants me to get three of Harry's hairs for him!" said Hermione. "And, in the first place, how will I do that, and in the second place, what for?"

"I don't know, Mione," said Draco. "I'm supposed to 'await further instructions and keep my schedule clear,' whatever that means."

"I'm sure I don't know," said Hermione, glancing at Amelia.

"Don't look at me," she said. "I don't have any more insight on this than you!"

Hermione sighed. "Well, I suppose I'll do it, though I can't imagine what he'd want with three of Harry's hairs," she said. "Anyway, Draco, you'd better get out of here before my father comes along and skins you alive for being in my room."

Draco grinned and stood to leave. "All right, then, Mione," he said, bending to kiss her goodnight. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Goodnight, Draco," she replied as he left the room. As soon as he was gone, she turned to Amelia. "So why did your parents look so uncomfortable when I introduced Draco to them?" she asked.

"Long story," said Amelia. "But, to make it short, my dad and Lucius Malfoy were friends and when I was born, Lucius tried to kill me. You know, because of my birthday? Anyway, so now he and my dad aren't on speaking terms. Especially since Lucius got off without so much as a slap on the hands. But, I think that since your dad thinks Draco's all right, my folks will be okay with it."

"That's good," said Hermione, climbing into bed. "I wouldn't want my family to hate Draco! Well, even though I probably won't see you guys for at least another year...." She shrugged as if to finish the sentence.

"Yeah, I understand," she said. "Anyway, I've GOT to get some sleep! I'm dead beat! I've been up since six this morning! I just couldn't sleep for the excitement of seeing you and Uncle Severus again!"

Hermione smiled as Amelia waved her wand to put out all the candles in the room. In an instant, the room was pitch black and Hermione was off to dreamland.