Dark Lady

Chapter 12 ~ Weakness

A week later, Hermione turned up at St. Mungo's accompanied by Snape, who had once again been pulled out of class by the witch. Hermione was to be questioned by healers to determine her state of mind.

Unfortunately, her appointment had been leaked to the press, which had been sniffing around for more information about Hermione ever since it was published that she had been cleared in the attack on a St. Mungo's mediwitch nearly six years ago. So, when they arrived, they were met by popping flashbulbs and reporters shouting questions.

"Miss Granger, where have you been all these years?"

"Word has it you are now in control of the Death Eaters! Is this true? How did you accomplish this?"

"What do you plan to do now that you are back among wizarding society?"

Hermione stoically walked through the crowd of reporters and refrained from killing any of them, although more than one camera and one quill heated up in a couple of hands, forcing the holders to drop them. Hospital security kept them out of the hospital itself, and Snape waited while Hermione was escorted into a room and tested for sanity.

Two hours later, she emerged with a smile.

"I'm officially 'sane,'" she informed Snape, who arched an eyebrow at her.

"You don't look completely convinced," she said, frowning at him slightly.

"I am not a healer," Snape replied ambivalently as they walked toward the doors of the hospital. Outside, the reporters waited, determined to get answers. Hermione caught Snape's arm.

"I'd rather avoid this," she hissed, then they disappeared in a burst of flames and sulfur, startling those around them. The couple reappeared in the throne room, Snape coughing and waving away the black smoke furling around them.

"I'm relatively sure that you are powerful enough to come and go without all the extras," Snape said as he pulled out his wand and tried to Scourgify away the scent of brimstone from his robes.

"What's the fun in that?" Hermione replied with a wicked grin as she sat down on her throne and looked at him. "I brought you here, Severus, because now that I have the basics out of the way, I need to ask you something. Your honesty is very important."

"Yes, my Lady. I will be as honest as possible."

"I hope so," Hermione responded, a bit of threat in her voice.

She continued to look at Snape wordlessly for a moment or two, then asked him, "What orders did Albus Dumbledore give you concerning me? I know he has told you to do something. What?"

Snape's black eyes met her still brown ones.

"My orders are to help you regenerate your soul," he said softly. "Although for the life of me I don't see how I would be able to do that."

Surprisingly, Hermione didn't get angry.

"I figured it would be something along those lines. He wants me to lose my powers," Hermione said, her brows furrowing.

"I think he just wants you restored to the witch he remembers, and loves," Snape said softly. "I think many people would want that."

"Loves? Pah! No one loves me, Severus, any more than they love you," Hermione spat. "When I was locked up in the psychiatric ward, no one came to see me, no one tried to help me!"

"No one could bear to see you in that state, my Lady—"

"Call me Hermione!" Hermione hissed at him.

"No one could bear to see you in that state, Hermione. It was too painful—and it seemed you were beyond help."

"How much more painful was it for me?" she snapped back at him, her eyes reddening. "Tied down like an animal!"

"You were mad."

"I was distraught."

"No, you were mad—completely insane. Vicious, even murderous," Snape said honestly.

Hermione's eyes turned red.

"They killed Harry and Ron. I wanted revenge," she hissed at the wizard.

"Revenge is one thing. You had no regard for anyone any longer. You nearly killed two Aurors when they brought you in and injured three more. You were a danger to society at large."

"How DARE you!" Hermione snarled at him, ready to punish him.

"You asked for honesty," Snape replied quietly. "Will you punish me for giving you what you asked for?"

Hermione quaked on the throne, the urge to make Snape suffer trying to take her over, but conflicting with the part of her that still felt a sense of fair play. Suddenly she shot a huge fireball out of her palm that skimmed him and crashed into the far wall, exploding like a bomb.

"Depart! NOW!" she screamed at him.

Snape wasted no time disappearing.

Hermione sat on the throne, cursing as tears fell from her eyes. She hadn't cried in nearly six years.

"Damn it," she breathed, wiping at them with her hands.

Draco had the misfortune to enter the throne room and looked at Hermione, stunned. He approached the throne as Hermione tried to hide her tears.

"My Lady, are you—are you crying?" he asked her, amazed.

Hermione looked at him, then sent him flying into the stone wall so forcefully, he was knocked out.

"Mind your own blasted business, Draco," she sniffed, returning to trying to stop her tears. She looked over at his unconscious body, then flicked her hand at him, sending him to Malfoy Manor.

She needed to be alone. She summoned a wall of cold hellfire and used it to replay the deaths of Harry and Ron's murderers over and over until her tears passed and her heart was once again filled with vengeance.

But the damage had been done. Her soul had regenerated more in those few moments than it had in months. She had come among the Death Eaters with only half her soul, now she had nearly three quarters of it intact.

Being wicked would be just that much harder now.

*******************************

Minister Titwilder fragrantly studied the several Death Eaters sitting in his ministry office. They had come to turn themselves in, wishing to be sent to Azkaban for their own protection. Several Auror stood behind the six men and women, their wands at their sides.

"She's a mad woman, worse than Voldemort could ever be," one wizard said with a shudder.

"Yes, none of us are safe. She'd kill us as soon as look at us. I'm willing to confess to atrocities, whether I did them or not!" a witch exclaimed, her eyes pleading. "Just get us away from her."

Odius sighed inwardly. Normally, this would be quite the coup, Death Eaters turning themselves in for punishment. But, he had told the Dark Lady they were under her jurisdiction. To send them to Azkaban would just piss her off. And Odius did NOT want to piss Hermione Granger off.

The Death Eaters had shared the gory details of the death of Alecto, Amycus, Dolohov, Macnair and Bellatrix, and the minister had gone ashen at Hermione's viciousness. But he had basically given her the go ahead, so there was nothing he could do about it. In the wizarding world, avenging others was par for the course.

"I'm sorry, but you are under the rule of the Dark Lady," the minister said coldly. "You chose to join the Dark Lord, and this is your reward."

"But, that was Voldemort. We didn't have a choice with Hermione Granger!" they argued.

"You chose your path. The fact that Voldemort was overthrown has no bearing on this. You didn't serve the Light, and the Light can't help you now. Now, leave my office before I make this attempt to escape her thumb known to your Lady!"

The Death Eaters looked at him with horror on their faces.

"Where is justice?" one witch asked him as they rose in unison.

Thinking of all the innocent lives lost to Voldemort over the years, including people he knew, Odius frowned at the witch.

"If there were true justice, all of you would have been in that pit," he hissed. "Now, leave!"

The Aurors parted as the Death Eaters filed out, then followed them to make sure they left the building.


*********************************

Neither Snape, Draco nor the Death Eaters in general heard from the Dark Lady for more than two weeks. Albus was all over Snape about going to see the witch, but Snape refused, saying they parted under less than stellar circumstances and the only way he was going to return to her was if he was specifically summoned.

This situation was much different than when he spied on Voldemort and both he and Albus knew it. Hermione wasn't attacking anyone, or threatening wizarding society at large. There wasn't the sense of urgency on Snape's part as there had been when the Dark Lord was in power. People were being targeted. That wasn't the case here. Snape saw no reason to risk his life this time around, and told Albus so.

The headmaster was less than pleased about this, he was so used to Snape following his orders. But, with Voldemort's death, Albus was no longer the general. For the most part, the wizarding world as at peace. And for the first time in many years, Snape had some choice in what he would and would not do in Albus' service.

Finally, he was summoned to the throne room. Surprisingly, it was on a weekend when he didn't have class. He appeared and turned to the throne. Hermione wasn't in it. Instead, she was seated behind a desk stacked with parchments, magazines and pamphlets. She looked up.

"Hello, Severus," she said with a rather pleasant smile.

Snape was inwardly relieved. He thought she still might be angry with him.

"Come join me. I need your assistance," she said, pointing to a chair that materialized beside her. Snape billowed over and sat down, looking over the papers curiously. Hermione had a stack of folders in front of her, each with the name of a Death Eater on it.

"I've been researching my followers in order to better decide what reparations each of them will make to the wizarding world. I've sorted them out according to lifestyle, wealth, time, abilities and so forth, and I have a general idea as to whom will fit where."

Snape nodded. Hermione always did her homework.

Hermione pointed to a stack of parchments.

"Those are listings of charitable organizations, orphanages, hospitals and so forth," she told the Potions master. "It's my plan to have each person make a life-long commitment to providing what is needed to a specific task. Their options will be either taking an Unbreakable Vow to do so, or a very nasty, painful death. They can take their pick."

Hermione's eyes glowed for a moment, then turned brown again.

"There is volunteerism at St. Mungo's, sitting with victims too damaged to ever leave the hospital. There are orphans that need homes. There are children that need male or female influences because they've lost a mother or father. There are organizations that need donations, homes that need rebuilding and other situations that they can be useful in. But, because of the—ah—human factor in these situations, I need to assign these tasks to them without getting myself emotionally involved. I've listed several possibilities as to what each Death Eater can do in his or her folder, keeping in mind how much they'd hate it, but doing the actual assignments would have a negative effect on my powers, because essentially, they would be acts of charity and kindness. So, I need you to do the assigning for me, Severus."

Snape pulled a folder over and looked at the notes Hermione had written on it, then he looked at her.

"No matter how much you try and separate yourself from this, Hermione, it is definitely a powerful display of goodness," he said softly.

"Don't remind me," Hermione hissed, scowling. "But they have to make reparations. I don't know any other way to do this."

"Ah, self-sacrifice," Snape said. "You haven't lost that trait. Once a Gryffindor, always a Gryffindor."

"Be quiet before I make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth," Hermione snapped at him bad-naturedly.

Then she rose and stalked over to her throne, sitting down in it as if putting distance between herself and Snape would lessen the impact of what he'd said about her. Yes, she was risking her powers, but having avenged Harry and Ron she just didn't have the hate in her heart she once did. She had closure now. Without that hate to fuel her, she wasn't as wicked as she needed to be. She had spent the last two weeks contemplating this and had come to the conclusion her days of power were numbered. She looked over at Snape as he leafed through the folders.

"Severus, you will also be required to take an Unbreakable Vow," she said to him. He looked at her, startled.

"What kind of vow?" he asked, thinking she was reneging on her promise of preferential treatment.

"To protect me with your life," Hermione said softly.

"And if I refuse?"

Hermione's face contorted.

"Then you have the same alternative as any other Death Eater," she said coldly.

There was no need to say what that meant as her eyes reddened.

"Then, of course, I agree."

*************************************
A/N: Whoa. That's quite the vow. Thanks for reading.