Darker than Voldemort

22

Hermione pecked at the frame of the painting, making the Fat Lady look up from her portrait and glare. "Oh, alright! I'll let you in! Stop it already!" said the Fat Lady. The portrait opened a bit, just big enough for her to fly down through. She jumped off the frame and glided through the air and landed on the remains of the burnt couch in the common room. "What's an owl doing here?" asked Lavender. "Who's owl is it?" asked Neville.

"Doesn't matter. Guys, we have more things to worry about. Voldemort? Hermione? Guys, we can kill two birds with one stone if only we could come up with a way to make one come" said Harry. Hermione wanted to listen to what he was going to say but she wanted to hurt someone already and scare them. She heard something come from outside the common room, another owl was coming. She guessed it would be Hedwig, and to no surprise, it was. She flew upwards into the air as the owl flew in the common room and towards where she had just been on the couch.

"Hedwig! What are you doing?" asked Harry. Hermione, sick and tired of pretending to be an owl, landed on the floor carefully and turned back into herself. "Why does every animal I become, there's another one trying to stop me?" wondered Hermione out loud. "Well, anyways, I came to torture and kill some more. Anyone want to volunteer? No? Okay" said Hermione. Just as she was about to make knives appear and attack Lavender Brown, Harry stopped her.

"Mione, no! Please! Let me talk to you! Please! I just want you the old Mione back! Please! I'll put back everything you did, everything behind us, just please come back!" said Harry, but Hermione wouldn't believe it. She knew he had learned quite a lot from Dumbeldore and one thing he learned could have been Occlumency. She glared at Harry and was about to yell at him, but suddenly her vision faded and she saw some sort of vision. It didn't seem like a vision, though. It seemed like she was seeing smoke. It was like an afterlife, she thought. 'Wait, an afterlife?'

She looked as she saw two figures fade in. It was her muggle parents. "Hermione, look at you. You're so grown up. I wis you would have been making better decisions for yourself but we don't control you" said the man she once called father. "Yes. Please make the right decisions though. Or just one good decision" said the woman she once called mother. She felt the urge to speak. To argue. But she didn't. They faded away and then it was only smoke again. At least until she saw two people she's never met before. Harry's parents.

"Hello there, dear. You're Hermione, correct? Or is it Ellene? Well, either way, you're still the same person who befriended our son and helped him. Thank you for that" said his mother. "Yes, thank you very much. I just wish you two were still friends" said his father. She was about to try to speak, but she saw another figure fade in. Ron. "I don't know why you killed me-" started his figure but it stopped short when glared at him. Or at least that's what she thought.

"Ellene?" called a voice. It sounded unfamiliar yet so comfortingly sweet and caring. It made Hermione nearly stop breathing. She turned around and saw the person she wished she could have met alive. The person she wished she could have grown up with. "M-mother?" asked Hermione. She didn't feel them, but tears were forming in her eyes and were now starting to silently spill down her face. "Ellene" said her mother's voice.

Hermione wanted to run to her and hug her, but she couldn't for some reason. Suddenly her mother's figure faded away. "I'm sorry, Ellene. I wished you could have been with me a little while longer. I'm sorry. Don't forget me" said her voice as she disappeared. Hermione turned to face the other three figures who were starting to disappear as well. Ron the fastest. "Tell Harry I said hi, at least" said Ron before he was gone completely. "Tell him we said hello as well" said Harry's father. "And that we love him" said his mother. Hermione, oddly, nodded as they disappeared as well and then the smoke did and she was back to reality.

She saw Harry confused but slightly glaring. "What type of scene did you make now?" asked Lavender Brown angrily. "H-Harry" said Hermione a bit shaken. He was surprised by her tone of voice and gulped and walked up to her. "Yes Mione?" asked Harry. "Ron, he says hi. And y-you're parents. They say hello and that they love you" said Hermione trying to remain calm. Trying to control herself after she saw her mother in the afterlife for some odd reason.

Harry was even more confused but seemed to believe her. He had visions before and knew it must have been something like that that she had just experienced. "Okay, Mione. Was that it? Was there anyone else you saw?" asked Harry showing a bit of concern. Hermione felt tears sting her eyes. "Bye" said Hermione not willing to answer. She disappeared in a cloud of smoke and then reappeared in her room of Riddle Manor, not wanting to face her father. There in her room, she cried for her mother who she had seen for less than ten seconds, and had barley any time to talk to her.

In less than a minute, her door was slammed open by her father. "Ellene, what's wrong?" asked Voldemort rushing to his daughter's side. She calmed her tears and took a deep breath before speaking. "M-mother. I saw her. I saw her in the afterlife. Why did I see her? Why did she get there? Why did she have to die?" asked Hermione now having more tears stream down her face.

"I don't know. Don't worry. I'll make sure we get Harry Potter and then-" said her father but Hermione couldn't take it. "And then what? Everything will be fine? Nothing will be fine! She's still dead! She's still not with us! She was still murdered by Dumbeldore and his dumb followers" screamed Hermione with more tears escaping her eyes. "Ellene-" started Voldemort.

"No, stop! Nothing can make me feel better! Nothing can make this all go away! Nothing can make me stop crying over her death!" shouted Hermione. "That's why we make good memories. Come on, I got an idea" said Voldemort. "Father. Please, I just want to stay here for a while" said Hermione looking sadly in her father's eyes. "Okay. I'll go then. Lunch will be at 12:30" said her father before he exited her room and closed her door.

Hermione stayed in her room crying a little longer. She eventually falling asleep while she cried. When she woke up, she saw it was an hour past lunch. She quickly hurried out of her room and downstairs. "Sorry father! I fell asleep!" said Hermione, but she couldn't hear anything in the kitchen. It sounded mysteriously quiet. "Father?" she asked the silence. Nothing responded.

She rushed to the table she sat at for breakfast, but she saw a meal all prepared on the table. There was another one in spot next hers but it looked like it was partially eaten. She didn't want to think anything happened, but then she saw a fork on the floor and some food and crumbs scattered on the floor. She saw a note left on the floor. Scared, she took it and read:

'Dear Hermione,
We have your father. Come back and surrender yourself and we won't do anything. We're waiting,
The light side'

Hermione nearly screamed but kept calm and decided to go somewhere she never thought she'd go to again. Malfoy Manor. Once she arrived, she immediately saw Bellatrix. "What are you doing here darling?" asked the crazy lady. "Where's Draco?" asked Hermione. "Upstairs in his room. Why?" asked Bellatrix standing up from the couch she was just at. "Something happened. I need help" said Hermione trying hard not to let herself cry anymore. She didn't want to cry so much in one day.

"What happened?" asked Bellatrix. "They took him. They took my father" said Hermione. "What? Who?!" shouted Bellatrix in alarm. "A unicorn. Who do you think? The light side!" shouted Hermione in frustration. "Okay. Okay. Sheesh. No need to be harsh" said Bellatrix. Hermione rolled her eyes and ran up the stairs to go to his room. She needed to find Draco fast. She needed him.