The Lost Horcrux

The Sisters of Magical Obedience

Disclaimers: Dark themes, police state ideas, mention of spousal abuse (including rape) on and off-screen, death of minor characters, graphic imagery and violence, frank sex discussion, copious bad language, villainising the Weasleys and Dumbledore, liberties taken with mythical history and the HP real-life timeline.

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The Ethel Hallow's Young Witches Academy was one of the feeder schools to Hogwarts, educating witches from the ages of three to eleven. The curriculum there used to be remarkably similar to a Muggle primary school, focusing on reading, writing and other such core skills. Art, music and basic history were also taught here, though lately this had taken on a peculiar slant, focusing on depictions of the idealised Magical State, singing songs in praise of the Dark King Voldemort, and teaching a history that only included Harry Potter as a passing footnote in the annals of The Death Eater's glorious rise to power.

In the year between leaving Hogwarts and being confined to domestic servitude by Ron, Hermione had undertaken much work experience at the Ministry of Magical Governance, including in the Education Department, where she had watched this new curriculum be drafted. Appalled and disgusted, she snuck into the magical printing press one night, where the first copies were being rolled out, and flung a wooden shoe, called a Sabo, into the machines to stop them.

Hence reprising the word ... 'sabotage'.

She was dismissed from her internship immediately and heavily fined, but the little act of rebellion felt totally worth it. Harry would have been proud of her, she thought, and if he was too dead to launch an insurrection of his own, then Hermione was determined to do what she could in his stead. Little did she know that it would be the last significant act of resistance she was able to carry out.

So for Hermione, tonight was really the continuation of a campaign that had been disrupted by Ron's betrayal of not only her, but Harry, too. He'd been with them as they hunted and destroyed Horcruxes ... well, mostly with them ... but now he had sold his secrets to their enemy, himself. And he'd given her to him as well, and Hermione was acridly bitter by just how deep this betrayal went.

For she had been trying to adjust to her sobering reality for almost a week now, and she was no closer to feeling any less furious about it. Ron had passed her into the power of Tom Riddle, and he in turn had made her into a part of this genius way to protect the last piece of his soul ... to Harry-proof it, as Hermione had come to think of it, to guard it from the biggest threat to Voldemort's dominion ... the one fated to ultimately vanquish him.

But how to do it without killing her, or the other three sources of power currently feeding the lost Horcrux? That was a conundrum even Hermione's powerful brain was struggling to pick apart. Their very lives were keeping the thing from being destroyed. Hermione didn't know who else was doing the protecting, even though she had a few ideas, but they could all burn as far as she was concerned.

But she had Harry now ... and dying was not on the agenda for either of them.

Hermione scowled about all this as she pulled back the sleeve of her robe and knocked three times on the rear door of the Academy, in two quick knocks and one after a delay ... the signal agreed on by Harry and Eloise Wood. Thirty seconds later and the witch married to Oliver Wood opened the door and beckoned Hermione inside, while Frank and Alice Longbottom stood guard in the dark, thrilled at being back on joint field duty. It felt just like they were being active Aurors again, and they basked in the rush of danger that the mission brought.

Hermione threw off her hood and frowned, for Eloise was quite alone. "Where's the girl?"

"We have a problem," Eloise whispered. "Mrs Lestrange has put a Alert Charm on her daughter. If Delphini is hit with magic, it will trigger an alarm and Mrs Lestrange will come right back here. I haven't been able to subdue her."