Sometimes It's Good to be Bad

Chapter 4 The Mission


The next morning she woke up just in time to start lunch. It really was lucky because today Molly did feel the need to check up on her "surrogate daughter." The entire time she was there she prattled on incessantly about how the wedding plans were coming on. Apparently Fleur was even more of an obsessive bride than most and it was driving everyone mad. Poor Hermione had to sit through that for an entire two hours before Molly left, as she didn't want the girl to be all alone so often, despite the objections coming from said girl.

As soon as Molly was gone Hermione went to take a nice, long, soothing warm bath. Her breast had been hurting her quite badly, but luckily when she cringed from the pain Molly took it to be sympathy towards the wedding party. It had been especially hard not to try and rub the pain away in front of the older woman.

She got out of the bath to hear her name being called from one of the bedrooms. As she followed the sound she came into Sirius' old room and eventually found a mirror that had Harry in the reflection rather than herself. "Harry?" she asked the mirror.

"Hermione! Damn it took you a long time."

"I was in the bath," she answered indignantly, holding out the mirror farther to show her wet hair and towel clad body. "What is this?"

"A two-way mirror Sirius gave me. He and my dad used to use them all the time." There was a touch of sadness in his voice as he said this.

"Why didn't you just say to use them to begin with rather than doing that whole code thing with the post?"

"I forgot about them," he answered sheepishly. "So, have you found anything in the Black library about R.A.B.?"

"No, nothing that seems viable. Pretty much all of the ones I found are from before the time frame we're looking at. I think I'm going to have to go to the library at Diagon Alley. And perhaps I could start trying to figure out what the other horcruxes are while I'm there."

"Pretty good ideas, but I don't really want you to go alone."

"Harry, I have to go alone because we can't tell anyone, and it's still three weeks until the wedding when you get to leave the Dursley's. That's three weeks of research I could do before you can get out, and three weeks ahead of wherever we would otherwise be." It was almost sneaky the way she was able to manipulate the boy by simply telling the truth.

"You're right," he sighed the inevitable succession. "I just want you to be protected."

"Harry, I can take care of myself. I'm the top student at Hogwarts. Don't worry. And actually, unless there's something else you want to talk about, once I get dressed I can go do that right away."

"No, nothing else. Good luck."

"Thanks. And tell Ron hi for me, okay?"

"Hi to Ron. Got it." The mirror turned instantly into Hermione's reflection. She got dressed and put a silencing charm on the mirror so Harry wouldn't be able to hear what was going on in the background before she could answer him if she happened to be somewhere she wasn't supposed to be before wrapping it in a piece of cloth. She then put the mirror in an inside pocket of her robe.

After jotting a note for whomever might show up and wonder where she was, she apparated to Diagon Alley and went to the library. She had every intention of finding the horcruxes, she was just going to give them to the Dark Lord rather than let Harry destroy them. By the time the library closed four hours later she was no closer than when she had started.

When she arrived home it was to a lecture from Lupin about the irresponsibility of going out all by oneself, epecially when you're not only muggleborn, but also Harry Potter's best friend. She pretended to take it to heart while saying that she had already talked it out with Harry and it was necessary, but she couldn't say why. It just made him inquisitive as to how she was able to "talk it out" with Harry in the first place, leading into a conversation about the mirrors and Lupin's reminiscing.

In the back of her mind the whole day had also been wondering what her mission from the Dark Lord would be. She had an idea of what he would have her do, but she didn't really want to speculate too much. It didn't take her too long to find out, though. The next day passed pretty much the same until she was lying in bed in her silk pajama bottoms and black lace tank top trying to fall asleep when her breast suddenly felt like it was on fire as the skull opened its mouth, the serpent winding its way around her nipple to flick its tongue over the sensitive bud.

She got out of bed, pulled back her hair, put on a set of robes over her nightclothes and touched her wand to her breast, causing her to apparate to her master. She was back in the throne room, only this time there were only two Death Eaters in the room with them. She came forward and fell to the ground, kissing the hem of his robes. She knelt back up, looking to him. "My Lord." It was a statement.

"First we are going to talk about your suspicions of Severus Snape. Just why exactly do you think that he is for the Order, and not for me?"

"Well, first, Dumbledore trusted him. Everyone else in the Order trusts him just based off of that alone, but even though he's a git he keeps seeming to be on the Order's side when he should be on yours, even if it were just to play the part of loyal Death Eater. After Dumbledore was killed when Snape finally showed up at the battle, I saw him throw many more curses towards the dark than the light. Also the curses he sent the Death Eaters were much less benign than those sent to members of the Order. Also, Malfoy obviously didn't trust him enough to even tell the man his mission to kill Dumbledore, and not only was he supposed to be a fellow Death Eater, he's Malfoy's godfather. I may not care for Malfoy all that much, but I trust his judgement on many things, and that would definately include a man that he knows as his comrade-in-arms, his godfather, and his Head of House."

"Alright. Now I understand your feelings, and it may merit further investigation and it may not. Only time will tell. Now it is time for you to learn your assignment. You will kill both of your muggle parents. You will be accompanied by two other Death Eaters. Neither of them will help you, they will just be there to provide pensieve proof. This is your Death Eater uniform, " he spelled the clothes from thin air and had them pile themselves in front of her as he continued talking. "You will wear it every time you come here, as well as any time you go out in your new capacity."

She nodded her head once in understanding. "You do not seem surprised by this assignment."

"I am not. When does it have to be done by?"

"Three days from now. The two Death Eaters that will come with you will be McNair and young Malfoy. You may speak to them before you leave now. I can see that there is more you want to talk to me about, but it will wait until after you have completed your task."

"I understand." With that the Dark Lord left the three Death Eaters in the room. McNair and Draco Malfoy both lowered their hoods at the same time, each staring at Hermone.

"I didn't think you had it in you, Granger," remarked Malfoy with a sneer as he circled her.

"Not so fast, Draco. She still has her mission to complete," returned McNair. "So, mudblood. When do you want to do this?"

"Well, everyone from the Order is usually gone by ten unless something happens where they need an extra long meeting. Just to be safe, if we could wait to meet until 10:45 tomorrow at the location I was told to go to two days ago before I was brought here. Then we can apparate to my parents house. They usually go to bed around 11:00, and that would be the best time to catch them unaware."

"So, she's been planning the demise of her parents before asked," stated McNair.

"It seemed as though it would be the logical thing that the Dark Lord would have me do to prove myself, so yes, I already know how I am going to do it."

"Really?" Malfoy sounded a bit surprised at her previous statement. "How?"

"Now that would be telling. You'll just have to find out first hand," she replied, a smirk playing at her lips. "So you'll both meet me tomorrow?" When both men nodded their heads in affirmation she apparated to her bedroom at Grimmauld Place and went right to sleep.