She let them underestimate her. It was easier that way. It was far easier to be the one they overlooked. There was power in being the sidekick, the bookworm. She didn't need to be more for them. Her best friend was already their weapon.

She went with Dumbledore because whatever his plan, it wasn't time to oppose him.

Professor Snape stood beside her. She saw the quick glance of pity in Snape's eyes. Most would have missed it, but she had made a study of the man. He was brilliant and difficult to understand.

She stood in the rain and stared up at her parents for the last time. Their familiar faces stared down at her with no recognition. They were gone. Lost to her. She thought of Cedric's eyes staring off, but seeing nothing. Her body jerked towards her parents, but they moved away from her. Snape's long fingers on her shoulder pulled her back, holding her and her sanity in place.

Dumbledore went inside and put on a good show of trying to solve the problem. She knew there would be no solution. She let the rain soak her to the skin and hide her tears. Crooks growled from inside his carrier.

"An obliviate on a muggle is permanent." Hermione swallowed down the bile that rose in her throat. "They will never remember me."

"You've studied mind arts?" Snape sighed. "Of course you have."

"I have the curse of insatiable curiosity, sir." Hermione frowned and choked back a sob. "Let the headmaster tell me the lies. I know he means well."

"He is striving toward the greater good." Snape nodded.

"Yes." Hermione nodded and dropped her eyes to the ground. There was no point in fighting here. "Where will I go?"

"I'm sure the headmaster will find a place for you." That flash of pity flared in his eyes again. She fought the urge to sit on the ground and wail. Weakness wouldn't serve her either.

Dumbledore emerged from the house that had once been her home with his grave and sorrow filled mien in place. She watched him approach and listened to his tale of death eaters and false hope. She nodded at all the right places and never faltered.

When the older wizard sent her off with Snape, she nodded meekly. It was, after all, the sensible thing to do. She looked at her childhood home for the last time before allowing Snape to whisk her away.

She shuddered when they landed in a city park. She took a deep breath. The Gryffindor inside wouldn't let her ignore the pain any longer.

"Did you do it? Did he make you do his dirty work?" Hermione looked up at her professor's face. "Don't deny it. I knew it was Dumbledore the minute you showed up at the train station. I won't betray Harry. I'm not going to run, but I want to know."

"He acted alone." Snape looked at her closely. "I wouldn't have done this. I wouldn't have taken your family from you. He underestimates you."

"I prefer it that way." Hermione swallowed. "I suppose we are a sort of family now. Both of us servants to the greater good."

"That might prove awkward in the future." Snape frowned. "I am not a nice man."

"I'm not a nice girl either." She took a deep breath. "I suppose it's time to put me in mothballs and cotton wool until he needs me again."

Snape nodded, but he rested his hand against her back. He didn't offer her any false platitudes or cater to her in any way. he wouldn't have been himself if he had. she much preferred the genuine man to some facade. The strength in his long fingers supported her as he helped her into her new future.

Sirius stared down at the waterlogged girl standing before him with his loathed childhood nemesis. He knew there was more to the story than Dumbledore's note covered, but he owed the girl and loved her in his way. He looked up at Snape and nodded.

"She's welcome here. I'm half mad with no company. It will be a change." Sirius shrugged and waved his wand at the girl; drying her. "We will have to find you a room."

"You're going to send me away while the adults have a chat." Hermione nodded. "That's fine. Where should I go? Is there a library?"

"You needn't send her off. The chit knows the lay of the land." Snape met his eyes steadily. "I'd like to visit and help her work on potions during the hols. She has some talent."

Sirius looked from the saddened girl to the dour man and nodded. There wasn't much to say. Being stuck in this tomb with him wasn't anyone's idea of a pleasant holiday.

"I won't run you off." Sirius swallowed down the urge to mock the man. "I might help her with some transfiguration. It wouldn't hurt to brush up on my skills."

"Lupin could help her with defense." Snape nodded.

"Great." Hermione rolled her eyes. "Why don't the two of you divide up my summer, and I'll pretend to be a portrait."

Sirius grinned at her sass until he saw the flash of agony in her eyes. She'd been with Harry all along, and any illusion of childhood had been stripped from her. Dumbledore should treat his tools with more care.

"You need to learn everything we can teach you." Sirius cupped her shoulder with his hand and marveled at her delicacy. "You have to survive. You have to make all of this worth something."

"Have you?" Hermione shrugged off his hand.

Snape snorted.

"I was rash." Sirius looked over her shoulder unable to meet her eyes. "I put something before my duty to Harry."

"You don't see it." Hermione shook her head. "You haven't figured it out."

Her eyes darted to Snape. He looked at her oddly. Goddess above, he didn't know either.

"You were under a compulsion. It's the only reason you left Harry. It was subtle, but the remnants were still there in third year. You wanted to get Pettigrew more than you wanted to protect Harry. I doubt you'd have escaped Azkaban without it, so it was a mistake in a way." She took a deep breath. "He needed you out of the way. As godfather, you would have raised Harry to be confident. You'd have given him affection and a strong sense of self. He'd be a very different boy."

She watched the men stare at her. Their gaping fish mouths were wretchedly amusing. She patted their hands and took a deep breath.

"No one pays much attention to me." Hermione shrugged. "It's rather easy to get information when you're the bookish best friend of the hero. People talk without much urging. Hagrid knows far more than he should about your personal lives."

"You are assuming that what Hagrid knows is factual." Severus shook his head. "It most likely isn't."

"He's right, Kitten." Sirius sighed. "Hagrid likes to blather on. It doesn't mean much."

"Hagrid knows far more than anyone realizes. He doesn't understand it, but he has the information. He's besotted with Dumbledore. He will wax on for hours about all the great things the Headmaster has done. It doesn't take a genius to understand that Dumbledore alienated Professor Snape as a student and drove him toward destruction. It's all very clear. The man has been tinkering with fate for a long time. He's arranging his players on the board. It's Dumbledore's bloody chess match. Ron enjoys playing chess, but he doesn't ask why. He likes the battle." She looked up at them. "I hate the game because I do ask why. The battle doesn't distract me."

"Dumbledore is a great man." Sirius whispered. "Everyone knows it."

"He's become very practical." Snape frowned.

"He hasn't become anything." Hermione shook her head. "He makes choices and plays with our lives. Great men aren't necessarily good men. He wiped me from my parents' minds and made an orphan of me because it suited him to break my ties to the muggle world. He let that farce of a tournament go on. Cedric was a casualty in his war with Voldemort. He has a plan for us. Plans within plans, really. I just don't know what they are."

"The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history." Snape gripped his hands together. "My mother said Bertrand Russell should have been a wizard because he understood what power drives the magical."

"Scylla and Charybdis." Hermione sighed and let herself lean against the wall behind her.

"Goddess, we are caught between them." Sirius frowned and rubbed the back of his neck. "There has to be some way out of this. We need to act."

"And that's why he loves Gryffindors." Hermione took a deep breath. "We rush in. Point us at a target, and we will fire. Even if it's unattainable. Slytherins look to the result. Ravenclaws use logic. Hufflepuffs are cautious planners. But, the Gryffindor is a special beast. All fire and brash conceit. He's pulled the houses apart. Set us on each other. He's got a plan and we are pieces on his board."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Sirius flopped down onto the stairs.

"I'll play the sad, withdrawn orphan. You'll show him the broken, half mad drunk. Snape will continue his role as an angry bastard. We will show him what he wants to see, and plan. There's Harry to save."

Author's Note

I've gotten several requests for an expansion of a drabble I published in Waste A Moment. Trinkisme created a mood board that set my imagination to work. I know where this ends, but I'm not fully sure how it will get there. This story will be a real adventure for me. I hope you enjoy it enough to come along for the ride.

-Anna