A/N: A little something to act as a companion piece to A Special Guest. Thanks, Keith and Alice33, for typo assistance. This was in no way planned for Harry Potter's birthday.

Synopsis: So… what if Hermione were actually the smartest witch of the age instead of just the smartest witch of her age? What if Dumbledore was wrong about "The Power He Knows Not"?

XXXXXXXXXXX

And the Dark Lord appeared alongside his Death Eaters during the First Invasion of Hogwarts. Confident of his noble lineage and divine right to rule, he made plans that Severus Snape knew nothing of. Consequently, Snape was executed for treason by one of the people Dumbledore had made him promise to protect – Dumbledore's own godson, Draco Malfoy. In addition to preparing the way for Voldemort's inner circle members and the blood crazed werewolf Fenrir Greyback, it is speculated that Draco also personally brought down the castle's magical defenses; allowing the Dark Lord's raiding party of Giants to batter down the gates and enter the courtyard to wreak havoc among the defenders.

Dumbledore, caught off guard by the unexpected ferocity and scale of the attack, tried desperately to organize a counteroffensive but he was largely ineffectual and resorted to moving the bulk of the student body into the Great Hall and barring the entrance. Eyewitness testimony from surviving students and members of staff stated that the Headmaster appeared confused and had difficulty keeping up with the rapidly changing battle situation. Other testimony from surviving members of the paramilitary group known as the Order of the Phoenix, of which Dumbledore was the reputed leader, stated that Headmaster Dumbledore had actually been poisoned prior to the invasion and offered that his diminished performance was not truly his fault.

Whatever the case may be the fact remains that during onset of the invasion, Minerva McGonagall, Professor of Transfiguration; Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, Retired Master Auror; Shacklebolt Kingsley, Senior Auror; and Severus Snape, Potions Master; were all killed by members of Voldemort's inner circle or by the Dark Lord himself. Though that initial group of Death Eaters was thought to have been tasked primarily with sowing confusion among castle defenders, their swift and unrestrained attack largely rendered any hope of an organized, concerted resistance unlikely. More groups of Death Eaters soon followed and forced the castle defenders to continually give ground.

The leadership of the Order of the Phoenix was gutted that day. Senior members in leadership positions were summarily executed by Avada Kedavras and junior members still alive were stripped of their wands and robes, literally branded with Dark Mark symbols on their faces, and then cast out of the castle as a warning to the Magical World.

With the Giants in control of the school grounds, reinforcements from the Ministry and the surrounding village of Hogsmeade were impossible. There are documented cases of several villagers that rushed to the defense of the students only be injured by trolls and Giants on the school grounds. The untenable nature of their defense was further driven home to the beleaguered defenders when it was discovered that Death Eaters had not only brought down the wards, but had replaced them with wards of their own. Emergency portkeys were thus rendered useless and the hospital wing was soon awash with the dead and the dying.

Preceded by at least two mountain trolls, though the reported numbers are uncertain, the Dark Lord himself blasted the large double doors leading to the Great Hall off their hinges. In a feat of magical prowess that is difficult to believe, the aging headmaster reportedly conjured a whip of fire and used it to decapitate Voldemort's troll guards. What followed was a short albeit intense battle between the two wizards. Eyewitness accounts described it as a battle that shattered the sky, describing the effect of having the enchanted ceiling scarred and pitted by the intense magic used in their duel. In the end, Dumbledore was defeated and his wand was sliced in half; shortly thereafter Dumbledore's own neck followed suit.

Flush with his victory over Dumbledore in front of the entire school body, Voldemort placed the once powerful wizard's head on a conjured pike, displaying it for all to see as he usurped the Headmaster's throne.

He declared the fighting over. In a show of kingly magnanimity, or perhaps colossal hubris, Voldemort allowed the beaten wizards who were still able to fight a choice: they could either stay and become part of his new world order, or leave the castle unmolested. If they chose to leave they would then be mowed down like wheat before the scythe when he brought the rest of magical Britain to its knees. The students were given the same options. None of the defenders chose to stay, all of Hufflepuff marched out with heads held high, Ravenclaw left behind five people, and Slytherin… well Slytherin House wasn't really allowed to leave.

Voldemort had proclaimed Hogwarts would be remade. He said that the time for sorting children into four houses was a thing of the dim, distant past. To prove this, he had Draco bring him the Sorting Hat and it screamed as it burned. Once the Sorting Hat was nothing but a small piece of charred cloth, Lord Voldemort announced that all students from now on would follow the example of his illustrious ancestor. All students would be Slytherins from now on. Firsthand accounts suggest that two or even three Slytherins did manage to slip out with the other students –purportedly two sisters and a friend.

And at last we come to Gryffindor House. Gryffindors, long opponents of Dark Wizards, would naturally be expected to have left the castle en masse. In point of fact, only one Gryffindor was unaccounted for when the Gryffindors departed the castle. It would have been two, but the second student was forced from the castle against her will. The single remaining Gryffindor did not choose to stay of his own free will – He was a prisoner. As you might have guessed, that prisoner was Harry Potter and the student who didn't want to leave without him was Hermione Granger. Though none of the involved parties have been willing to discuss exactly what happened, the general consensus is that it took four people to restrain Ms. Granger long enough to be rendered unconscious by another two. Evidence suggests that Neville Longbottom was involved, but again, no one who was actually involved will confirm this one way or the other.

This was widely regarded as the Dark Lord's second mistake. His first mistake was letting the students leave. His second was forcing Hermione Jane Granger to separate from Harry James Potter.

The Order of the Phoenix, now solely composed of junior members, was searching for a leader. Ms. Granger, often referred to as the smartest witch of her age, proved it by rapidly assuming the leadership role in the Order of the Phoenix. Minor infighting occurred, reportedly between Hermione and a brother and sister formerly in another paramilitary group, the Defense Association, but by all accounts she handily squashed all opposition and successfully merged the fledgling Defense Association into the Order of the Phoenix. Now a major source of wandpower, she approached the beleaguered and confused Ministry of Magic with a plan to retake Hogwarts, defeat Voldemort, and most important of all, rescue Harry Potter.

Trading on Harry's reputation, Ms. Granger was able to create a consensus among the remaining Auror forces, the Hit wizard mercenaries, and the Order of the Phoenix members. Next, Ms. Granger turned her attention inward and using a combination of creative magic and Muggle Technology, Hermione was able to create efficient, highly organized strike teams with real-time communication capabilities. Following a purge of all Voldemort supporters in the Coalition forces through mandatory Veritaserum testing, she laid out her plans for an assault on Voldemort's stronghold, the former Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Despite reservations by many of the resident Ministry advisers, some many decades her senior, Hermione's plan to use a Potter family heirloom for real-time intelligence gathering on enemy movements, secret tunnels from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts for large scale troop insertion, and loyal Hogwarts elves for diversionary and quick insertion tactics, was quickly approved once Voldemort issued his ultimatum to the Ministry. Likely still supremely confident after his victory, Voldemort gave the Ministry of Magic 48 hours to capitulate or he would kill their chosen one and thereby remove their last hope for final victory. Should the Dark Lord actually have killed Harry Potter, the general consensus was that his death would be a sign of the impending fall of the incompetent Ministry. To further spread fear and terror, Voldemort threatened to gruesomely dismember The Boy Who Lived and finished his threat by asserting his intention to portkey the head to Diagon Alley where Dumbledore's head was already on display.

47 hours after The Dark Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, delivered his ultimatum to the Ministry of Magic demanding their surrender, the newly repaired doors to his throne room, the former Great Hall, were knocked off their hinges. This time they were forced off their hinges by brute force provided by Professor Hagrid and his half-brother Grawp. Through the splintered wood and iron, in strode Hermione Granger flanked by her guards from the Order of the Phoenix and followed up by an army of Aurors and Hit Wizards. Surprisingly, the number of Death Eaters in the castle was even fewer than Hermione had predicted.

Two hours after Voldemort's ultimatum had been delivered; Miss Granger had put her preliminary plan, "Scorched Hearth", into operation. With all Death Eaters and Death Eater sympathizers now known in part due to superior intelligence gathering but largely due to several members hitherto unknown outing themselves after their master revealed himself, the order was given to seize all their property and holdings. Their Gringotts accounts were emptied and their homes were set ablaze. Death Eaters and unmarked sympathizers deserted the castle in droves in futile attempts to save their belongings and their family members from incarceration or death. Operation Scorched Hearth was a resounding success and Miss Granger's plan successfully deprived Voldemort of nearly three fourths of his human followers. What few remained were mostly his inner circle and those who had nothing left to lose.

With the ousting of Senior Undersecretary Dolores Umbridge in the sympathizer purge, no credible opposition remained in the Ministry, and Miss Granger used her newfound influence to push through several new and groundbreaking pieces of legislation. Three separate laws, commonly referred to as the Binding Three, paved the way for an alliance between the Wizards and the Centaurs, a business arrangement with the Goblins, and a faithful retinue of house elves willing to risk the considerable strain necessary to apparate non-elves through the castle's wards. By the time Miss Granger stood in front of Tom Marvolo Riddle Jr. a.k.a. Lord Voldemort, her forces had already incapacitated the giants with knockout gas, immobilized the trolls with a hail of arrows, and taken out the remaining hostile witches and wizards outside the Great Hall using cloaked or disillusioned squads through coordinated and simultaneous use of breakthrough communication mirror technology and through intelligence gathered from the Marauder's Map.

All that remained was Voldemort's inner circle, and of course, Voldemort himself. In the opening salvo of The Battle of the Great Hall, a wave of Avada Kedavras literally decimated the front line Ms. Granger's forces. One in ten of the advance guard died in the first five minutes of the battle. Miss Granger's twin personal guards sacrificed themselves in her defense. In advance of her reinforcements, Ms. Granger led the charge herself, and found herself in a running battle with various Death Eaters and the Mad Bellatrix LeStrange. Eyewitness accounts describe her as inching her under heavy spellfire way toward the immobile but still alive Harry Potter, who had been affixed to the wall next to Voldemort's throne. Reliable sources claim Ms. Granger reduced at least two senior Death Eaters that barred her path into a thick, meaty paste. Trailing behind to assist her were Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom. Rumors after that fight suggest that Mr. Longbottom had joined the fight to protect Ms. Granger in Harry Potter's stead, and also in part as penance for his part in removing her from the castle in the first place. These rumors remain unsubstantiated.

Cut off from her reinforcements, in a pitched battle with Antonin Dolohov and sporadically also Bellatrix Lestrange, Ms. Granger was saved for almost certain death by Dobby Free-Elf, who used dangerous threatening levels of magic in order to force himself through the magical interference caused by the massive amounts of spellfire in the already saturated magical castle to deliver Hermione Granger to Harry Potter's side. Their happy reunion was short-lived.

Bellatrix Lestrange, though frequently referred to as 'mad', was not unintelligent. She had discerned Hermione's intentions from the start and flung a dagger in the direction she knew Hermione would likely reappear. Dobby, already exhausted from his role inserting troops, depleted his magical levels to what is thought to have been fatal levels, and so was unable to move out of the way in time. Dobby was struck and killed by the thrown dagger. Ms. Granger has publicly stated on numerous occasions that Dobby could easily have moved out of harm's way, but that he chose not to, lest either she or Harry be injured. To date, Dobby is the only house elf ever to receive an Order of Merlin (one of many awards proposed by the current Minister for Magic.)

Shortly thereafter, the insane, homicidal life of Bellatrix LeStrange was brought to a close by either Neville Longbottom or Luna Lovegood. Due to their simultaneous spellwork and the many subsequent spells cast, it is impossible to say with any certainty exactly who it was that ended her life.

Faced with an unending flooding of enemy reinforcements, the Dark Lord blocked further entry by banishing a banquet table to bar the entrance and then sealed his throne room off with a conjured steel portcullis. He then blasted aside all combatants heedless of allegiance except for Hermione Granger and the still bound Harry Potter who were themselves out of the way on a raised dais near his throne and therefore out of his direct line of spellfire. Voldemort advanced on Ms. Granger, with clear intent to kill, but it is of interest to note that Voldemort never once referred to her as anything other than 'pretentious mudblood' or some variation. This has been corroborated by all witnesses interviewed and this his has led some scholars to hypothesize that Voldemort may actually not have even known her name.

What follows is a composite account derived from testimony from all Aurors and Hit Wizards present in the Hall during the Final Battle. In the interests of clarity, that means only those that managed to not only not die but those who also remain conscious were the ones who gave accounts. Unfortunately, there were no forthcoming eyewitnesses that were actually on the dais and might therefore have had an unobstructed view. All agree; however, that it is unlikely that anyone aside from Harry Potter or Hermione Granger would have survived the Dark Lord's onslaught.

%%%%%%%%%%

"Colin… tsk, tsk. Wrackspurts again? If I didn't know Professor Lupin had definitely exorcised Professor Binns, then I'd suspect you were possessed." She looked closely in first his left eye, then right nostril; left ear, right eye; left nostril, then right ear. Yes, definitely wrackspurts." She handed him a small tin funnel and a turkey baster. "You know what to do. Off you go."

Knowing it was futile to contradict Luna Lovegood when it involved wrackspurts, he slumped his shoulders and then walked off for some privacy.

"Don't worry about finishing your little history project. I'll finish it up for you!"

Unintelligible grumbling.

"What was that?"

"Wrackspurts, right. Going."

Luna rubbed her hands together in glee.

%%%%%%%%%%%%

Spell after spell was blocked by Ms. Granger, who dueled in a style, witnesses profess, that was markedly similar to that used by the deceased Albus Dumbledore. The spell exchange was short, but it ended to the spectator's horror with Hermione's wand going flying and Voldemort advancing toward her to choke the life out of her with his bare hands. This is not speculation because as the Dark Lord strode up to the helpless Ms. Granger, he announced to all in earshot that as a Mudblood, she was not worthy of dying by his wand. Instead, she would die having the life choked from her body like a common Muggle. Still fighting with his bonds, Harry Potter loudly threatened Tom Riddle with an agonizingly painful death, with descriptions that aren't suitable to be fully described here, should the dark wizard so much as touch HIS Hermione.

Voldemort did the exact opposite and raised her up high in the air for all to see, his ghoulish white hand held her by the neck; he then promised to make the mudbloods and the Ministry pay for their insolence. Laughing maniacally, Voldemort then turned back around to taunt Harry before he crushed Hermione's windpipe. At that moment, Harry slapped his newly freed hand against Voldemort's chest. At first glance it appeared a futile gesture.

The Dark Lord Voldemort smiled cruelly at the laughable and seemingly ineffectual display until Harry snarled one word, "die"

Before the word had even finished echoing against the walls, Voldemort was bodily thrown across the room and against the far wall. A look of shock upon his face, the blankness of death in his eyes, and the jewel encrusted sword of Godric Gryffindor pinning him against the wall straight through his heart. His constructed body soon fell away and his evil and twisted soul remained stuck to the wall just as his corpse had been. Unspeakables were called in from the Department of Mysteries and he was eventually banished once and for all.

When asked later how he had achieved his victory, Harry Potter showed them his hand. In his palm was a small, charred piece of cloth; it was all that remained of the Sorting Hat. It is a lesser known fact that the famed Sorting Hat had once belonged to Godric Gryffindor. It is even less well known that descendants of Godric Gryffindor can, in times of great need, summon his magical sword from the hat. Certainly Lord Voldemort, a descendant of Salazar Slytherin, knew nothing about such things, and this has lead many scholars today to conclude that this was "The Power He Knows Not" contrary to what Albus Dumbledore may have believed. On several occasions, Ms. Granger has publicly endorsed this particular interpretation. However, Mr. Potter, who is generally reluctant to be interviewed, has gone on record saying that the true "Power He Knows Not" that led to the Dark Lord's final downfall was in actual fact Hermione Jane Granger.

One source close to Ms. Granger, who has requested to remain anonymous, has even admitted that with the deaths of Minerva McGongall and Molly Weasley nee Prewitt, that Hermione Granger has inherited the title of Scariest Witch Alive.

Taking the events that happened immediately after the first Invasion of Hogwarts into account and considering Ms. Granger's pivotal role in those events and her current position as Minister for Magic, we are loath to disagree.

XXXXXXXXXX