Hello everyone!

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I hope you will like this chapter.

Have a nice day,

Perhentian

oOoOoOo

Chapter 14 - August - September 1994

The end of the summer passed much too fast after the Quidditch World Cup finale. Finale that Hermione had only seen partially, because she had spent most of it in the stadium's infirmary. Not that she particularly regretted it, it was Quidditch after all, but she would have liked to see Viktor manoeuvring in the air, and not only for a few seconds before catching the snitch.

The top box incident nearly threatened to postpone the World Cup finale, but the aurors had managed to act very efficiently, arresting Barty Crouch and Winky in a few minutes without anyone outside the top box being aware of it, and it had been decided to maintain the match.

The night after the Quidditch World Cup had been festive and highly alcoholised - Ron having discreetly cast a spell turning any liquid falling in their glasses into Firewhisky to Hermione's utmost disapprobation – and fortunately, no pureblood morons had interrupted the evening. Harry had been right to assume that Lucius Malfoy would not dare to do anything without Voldemort's permission now. Only Percy had seemed tense, even after a few drinks, and Hermione knew he had been worried for his carried now that his boss' Death Eater son had been arrested by the aurors.

The following days they had to retrieve their school books from Diagon Alley, gather all their belongings spread all over Grimmauld Place and the Burrow, and before they knew it they were back in the Hogwarts Express for the beginning of their fourth year. Who was starting with a resurrected Dark Lord they had no concrete idea how to deal with.

At least, they all knew in which direction to progress. Ron would continue to monitor everything that was happening in the United Kingdom and around the world to track down Voldemort's actions. Harry would focus on the Horcrux problem with Ginny. Hermione would remain the orchestrator of everything regarding magical sources – including the founders' relics and Njörd –. And on top of that, Hermione and Ginny would also have to find some time to study the unbreakable vow they had taken with Voldemort, in hope to nullify their own commitment one day.

"Being in Hogwarts will hinder us a lot," Ron sighed as he stretched himself on the seat.

"At least Voldemort cannot reach us in Hogwarts. And you're family should be safer as we're no longer with them," Harry said.

"Our family tends to be in danger anyway, with or without us," Ginny said. "Bill's looking for work in London to be closer to the Order, and Charlie will be coming back for the first task of the tournament."

"And that's supposed to reassure me?" Harry asked ironically.

"You do know that Dumbledore has placed wards on all the families of the Order's members," Ron completed. "They are as safe as they can be."

Hermione bit her lip anxiously. Sirius and Remus may be safe at Grimmauld Place, and the Weasleys may be well protected by Dumbledore's wards, but she was worried for her own parents. She had herself cast powerful wards around them, ones that should be as powerful as the ones added around the Burrow by Dumbledore, but on the opposite of the Weasleys, her parents were not wizards and would not be able to defend themselves if anything happened to her wards.

She had hesitated, of course, to send her parents to Australia as she had done the previous time around. But she did not wanted to. Her spell had had dramatic consequences the last time. Both of her parents had suffered from memory loss after the end of the war, and her mother had even developed Alzheimer's later in life, leaving her father heartbroken. She had no wish to witness that again.

Soon Luna and Neville entered their compartment, and then Dean and Seamus joined them, and they stopped talking about such sensitive matters. Thus, instead of having a constructive discussion, they talked about what happened at the Quidditch World Cup finale.

They even had the dubious honour of having Draco Malfoy visiting their compartment, who called Hermione a Mudblood and looked at the others with such childish disdain that it was obvious that he did not know Lord Voldemort was back. Ginny and Ron wept with laughter for several minutes after that, to the utmost confusion of Neville, Dean and Seamus who had been outraged by Malfoy's attitude.

When the Hogwarts Express began to slow down, and everyone isolated themselves to change quickly, the good-natured atmosphere disappeared and Hermione closed her eyes for a moment, letting her head rest on the wall behind her. The past years they had had the upper hand. They had known what was going to happen, they had known how the people would react, and they had known what they were doing.

But now there was a huge uncertainty about Voldemort's behaviour. And they had no control at all over him. Especially over that sane version of him that was even more terrifying than the one they had fought against previously.

oOoOoOo

"...I have great pleasure in announcing that this year, at Hogwarts, will be held the Triwizard Tournament," Dumbledore said.

"You're joking!" Fred shouted loudly.

And then Dumbledore went on with the story of the Triwizard Tournament, and Hermione stopped listening as carefully as before to the headmaster. She knew everything that could be know about this tournament – including the fact that it had nearly been cancelled due to what the newspapers now called the Crouch scandal – and she would have rather preferred for it not to happen at all. Not with Voldemort roaming free.

She would have hoped that the Crouch scandal would have been enough to stop this madness, that was dangerous even without Voldemort, but no, of course not. And on top of not cancelling the tournament, the Ministry of Magic was struggling to find a successor to Bartemius Crouch Senior as head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, while Bartemius Crouch Senior was awaiting his trial. Moreover, and even though few cared, Hermione knew that Barty Crouch Junior's arrest would take away Winky's joie de vivre for several years.

Still, they could not have allowed Barty Crouch Jr. to remain under his father's Imperius. Now at least, Barty Crouch would not be able to run away and help Voldemort. Mad-eye Moody had ended his career as an auror and joined Hogwarts staff without any issue. Bartemius Crouch Senior would probably be sent to Azkaban, but he would not be murdered by his own son in a few months. Hermione sighed. In some twisted way she kind of understood Barty Crouch Jr's hatred towards his father, and she felt sorry for his mother who had tried to save her son, only for him to murder her husband.

Hermione heard Fred and George declare that they were going to participate in the tournament, the age limit be damned, and chuckled at their enthusiasm.

"Frankly, I'm almost tempted to suggest we participate," Ginny murmured. "We're certain to win!"

Harry glared at Ginny, but only managed to make her laugh slightly.

"And it's not as if the age limit was really difficult to circumvent!" Ginny continued. "What would it take you to break through, Hermione, twenty minutes?"

"Ten should be plenty enough," Hermione said smugly with a wink for Ginny.

"Braggart," Ron commented.

"And then, when we will have won, we'll be able to give the Triwizard Tournament prize to Fred and George for their shop ," Ginny pointed out.

"I'll invest in your brothers' shop, Ginny," Harry said sternly. "But I do promise that I won't ask your hand a second time if you put my name in the goblet of fire."

Ginny was the perfect picture of outraged astonishment.

"Fine. That's fine," Ginny finally said. "Anyway, I was going to propose Hermione as a champion, not you. At least we could have seen some beautiful magic instead of just seeing you rush into the tasks without any strategy."

Harry threw his teaspoon in Ginny's direction, and only years of Quidditch practice allowed Ginny to dodge in time.

oOoOoOo

On the fourth night since their return to Hogwarts, Hermione awoke with a start. It took her a few seconds to understand why, but as soon as it was done she rushed down to the common room, meeting Ginny on the way.

"He's at Azkaban", the redhead whispered.

"Indeed... You go and warn Ron? I can arrange the path for us."

Ginny nodded and rushed to the boys' dormitories as Hermione focused. If it was impossible to Apparate in Hogwarts, nor to use any portkey, it was possible, however, to influence the castle's magic just enough to convince it to shorten a bit the path between Gryffindor's common room and the one-eyed witch passage that would allow them to exit Hogwarts.

By the time Ginny came back, Harry and Ron right behind her, the path was ready.

"Harry..." Hermione started.

Harry immediately raised his hands with a sullen look.

"I know I can't go Hermione, don't look at me like that, Ginny has already been clear enough about that. But I still want to wait for your return here."

"Fine," Hermione answered.

Hermione, Ron and Ginny turned into their animagus form. A few seconds after, a cat, a bear and an eagle rushed through Hogwarts' corridors until they reached the edge of the anti-Apparition wards.

"Let's put up our glamours before we go," Ron said. "We cannot be sure he's alone."

They complied, and as soon as it was done Hermione extended her left arm to side-along Apparate them, and Ron and Ginny grabbed it.

They arrived under the cover of the trees delimiting the desert moor around Azkaban. And if they immediately spotted Voldemort's imposing figure, he also spotted them immediately, slowly turning towards them with a mocking smile on his far too perfect face.

"I see Potter has still not deigned to join you," Voldemort said loftily. "A pity."

The fact that he could talk about Harry as a member of their group while they were under their glamours was proof enough that there was no one else around. His vow would have otherwise blocked him. But it was not enough to reassure Hermione. Nothing was preventing Voldemort from attacking them. And even if they had started again to assiduously practice their duelling skills, she was still unsure about who would win between them.

There was a moment of tense silence, long enough to make Hermione understand why Voldemort had gone to Azkaban.

"Well, now that you know that, yes, we had set up some wards here, could we all go back to our own businesses?" Hermione asked sullenly. "It's already hard enough not to sleep during classes even without sleepless nights."

Especially as they had Snape first thing tomorrow morning, and that he was still eager to snap at anyone not paying attention, never mind the fact that Harry's, Ron's and Hermione's marks were far above average.

"The wards, they're an alternative to Melvure's charm, aren't they? Who cast them" Voldemort asked.

Ginny and Hermione exchanged a quick glance, and Hermione shrugged.

"Helen and myself," Ginny replied in a venomous tone.

Voldemort turned towards Hermione, looking straight into her eyes.

"How did you know for Barty?" Voldemort pried.

Hermione hold his stare firmly.

"It was quite stupid of him to go to the Quidditch World Cup, especially in the top box," she said.

Voldemort seemed exasperated by her non-response, and Hermione resisted the urge to smirk. He visibly toyed with the idea to attack them right know, scrutinizing their appearances and trying to find a flaw in their defensive postures that could allow him to best them quickly. But he seemed to finally decide against it, as he disappeared without another word.

"As charming as always," Ron grumbled.

"Damn him," Ginny sighed. "We need to cast our wards again now."

The charm they had used was all about discretion – and it had proven to be quite successful, as Voldemort had triggered it – but once it was triggered the charm was not active anymore.

"It will probably be in vain, but fine," Hermione agreed.

It would take them a few hours, and Hermione was almost certain that Voldemort would manage to avoid it the next time.

oOoOoOo

Voldemort came out of the fireplace regally and looked at the huge hall in front of him. It was a bit odd to be in the middle of the Ministry of Magic when it had been numerous years since the last time he had been there. And yet that was where his objective had always been. To rule over the Ministry of Magic. To rule over all wizards and witches to restore their former glory. Lord Voldemort, the greatest wizard of all time, had always been meant for this.

With a pace reflecting his ease, Lord Voldemort advanced towards the security desk, and stoically prepared himself to endure the stupid identity check procedure, a procedure that would not be able to detect in any way that he was not who he currently pretended to be, some American diplomat passing by London.

"What's your business?" the dull employee asked.

"I have an appointment with Lucius Malfoy," Voldemort replied in a neutral voice.

"Step over here."

Lord Voldemort complied and the wizard lifted his sensor towards him. With a discreet flick of his hand Voldemort erected an undetectable barrier between the golden rod and himself, preventing it from detecting anything compromising.

"Wand," the security wizard grunted, holding out his hand.

Voldemort handed him with false reluctance the banal wand he was using for the occasion, his own yew wand dissimulated in an inner pocket of his robes. The employee mechanically dropped the wand on the wand scanning scale.

"Ten inches, unicorn hair, been in use for fourteen years, is that right?"

"Absolutely."

The wizard gave him his wand back while grumbling uninterestingly, and Voldemort refrained from displaying his disdain. It was so easy to enter illegally the Ministry of Magic, that it should be matter enough to shame irreversibly the current government. Incompetence really was one of the things that Lord Voldemort loathed the most… perhaps even more than Potter and his Mudblood.

But today was not yet the day he would take over the Ministry. Today, he was only planning to use Lucius' reputation to visit the different departments of the Ministry, to be able to notice first-hand the changes that had happened in the past thirteen years. And for once he was certain not to be disturbed, Potter, the Mudblood and their two Weasleys being in Hogwarts.

His visit was satisfactory. The disorganization of the Ministry of Magic was flagrant, and all the politicians in a high enough position were just as eager to be bribed as Lord Voldemort had expected them to be. There were some exceptions of course. Amelia Bones and Rufus Scrimgeour in particular. Those two would be indisputably troublesome. Too honest, and smart enough to see through him if he tried anything too frontal. Fortunately, Crouch senior had been put where he cannot do any harm, and by the Mudblood herself. It was quite interesting in fact to see that they were ready to sacrifice someone that could have been a great ally against him, proving to Voldemort that their own objectives were indisputably more complex that what he would have thought.

All the other bureaucrats were a tasteless bunch of idiots. Fudge. Bagman. Mockridge. Cresswell. Robards. Hopkirk. Higgs. Umbridge. Voldemort had stilled a split second when Lucius had presented him this pink horror. He had felt like he had already heard the name somewhere, but could not remember where. It was surely irrelevant however, and Dolores Umbridge would not present any obstacle for him anyway.

"Would you like to see anything else?" Lucius asked deferentially.

"I am not adverse to a cup of tea in your office Lucius," Lord Voldemort said, his expression perfectly cordial.

He had a few points he wanted to discuss with in Death Eater, including a request for Lucius to ask his son to befriend one way or another Potter and his gang, so he could have a better knowledge of what the four of them were doing in Hogwarts.

oOoOoOo

Not only did Hermione indeed fall asleep during their potion class the morning after the Azkaban alarm first went off, but in addition to that Voldemort triggered their wards again the next evening. And the one after that. And the next one also. And he did not even bother anymore to wait for their arrival, he was purely passing by, destroying their spell, and leaving, probably to waste their time.

When the alarm went off on the seventh consecutive night, all four of them were really annoyed when they met as usual in Gryffindor's common room.

"I'm going to kill him," Ginny growled.

"If only!" Hermione said grumpily.

"You know what?" Ron said. "Let's go there this evening for the last time, just to set up a small welcoming committee for the next time he wishes to piss us off."

"Ron!" Hermione reprimanded him.

"It sounds like a good idea," Harry agreed, still waiting for them each time they went out. "You cannot spent all your nights casting wards around Azkaban, we have far more important things to take care of."

All nodded and Hermione, Ron and Ginny slipped out of the common room, the expression on their faces murderous.

oOoOoOo

It was only a day and a half later that they were able in the early morning to see the result of their misdeeds, as they made the headlines in the Daily Prophet: "Strange phenomena reported around Azkaban". An animated photo showed what appeared to be a mix between an aurora borealis, fireworks, and a volcanic eruption, with Azkaban's prison in the background.

"Not bad," Harry commented with an appreciative smile.

Hermione heard a little further the Weasley twins talking excitedly about the photo. Then again, the Weasley twins were the ones most of Hermione's, Ron's and Ginny's ideas had come from, or more accurately, the future products of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes were.

"Do you think we managed to hit him with one of the Wildfire Whiz-bangs?" Ron asked discreetly.

"Nah," Ginny said dejectedly. "He's faster than that. But I'm pretty sure that his expression when everything exploded around him was a nice sight."

Their discussion was interrupted by a jet-black eagle that swooped right in front of Hermione, stretching out his leg with an imperial attitude that made Hermione suspect she knew its owner.

"I'm not sure it's a good idea to open this letter," Harry said worriedly, having also guessed the sender.

"I'm not sure it's a good idea not to open this letter and wait for it to somehow destroy Hogwarts," Ginny replied.

Sighing, Hermione took the letter from the bird's claws, the eagle haughtily flying away as soon as it was done. Hermione cast several detection charms on the letter without finding anything, and that only managed to worry her even more.

"You'll take me to the infirmary if anything's happen, won't you?" Hermione asked her friends with resignation.

Then she opened the letter and stared in astonishment at the blank parchment. Until it exploded in her face, emitting a suffocating black smoke.

oOoOoOo

When Hermione finally left the infirmary two days later, she was in a dreadful mood. Not only had she spent two days hallucinating very unpleasant things before a counter-spell had finally been found, but she had also needed to put up with Dumbledore's questioning about the letter and its sender. She had lied again and again, the unbreakable vow they had taken with Voldemort not allowing her to reveal anything to Dumbledore.

And it was two days less to look for magical sources, or to help Ginny find a way to nullify the unbreakable vow, or to help Harry on the destruction of his Horcrux. Two days she had not been able to look through all the books about the founders' relics – because of course every author had at some point deemed relevant to talk about the relics –. But obviously, none of them had the decency to write anything useful. And she did not even mention Njörd, who was not quoted once in the whole Hogwarts library, including the restricted section.

Hermione had even questioned Helena Ravenclaw's ghost, deploying treasures of diplomacy, but Helena said she did not know anything about the founders' research on the magical sources, and she had looked surprised enough for Hermione not to question her honesty.

"Do you need more help from us Hermione?" Ron asked her.

Her three friends had come to get her out of the infirmary as soon as she had been allowed to leave, and it seemed that her mood was quite evident.

"No, no," Hermione answered. "You all already have your fair share of tasks at hand. I'm just furious I've lost two days because of him. His continuous existence is really a nightmare."

"Have you thought about asking some help from Dumbledore?" Harry said. "We can't tell him anything about our dubious friend, but you should be able to discuss the magical sources with him, shouldn't you?"

Hermione pursed her lips.

"Perhaps…" Hermione sighed. "At some point, I may go and ask him some help. But he has Hogwarts to lead, and on top of that the Order of the Phoenix. And I would rather have him concentrating on those as we ourselves cannot do much against Voldemort."

"Aren't we doing exactly what we had blamed Dumbledore himself to do, leaving him in the dark?" Ron asked.

"Yes," Harry acknowledged. "But Hermione's right. If we tell him the truth, Dumbledore will be more interested by how we had managed to get back into the past than by the magical sources, and we cannot have him focussed on anything else than Voldemort."

"All right," Ron agreed. "But at some point in time, we may need to let him know."

Hermione hoped they would be able to find a suitable solution before that. Between them, Voldemort, and Dumbledore, that would make three powerful factions with three distinct interests that would revolve around the magical source, and that would not bode well.

oOoOoOo

Lord Voldemort looked at Muggle Street with unconcealed disdain. It was a mundane street of London's suburbs, for those middle class families who were all boringly similar. Even their houses were almost identical, the gardens copies of each other, as if none of the inhabitants had had any more imagination than they had had ambition.

The only remarkable thing about the Mudblood's house was the spells woven around it and its inhabitants. Some were quite basic, but others left him pensive. Especially two charms Lord Voldemort would have sworn could not been combined together. But here they were, evidently cast by this annoyingly talented Mudblood witch. And he reluctantly admitted that he would have liked to know how she had managed to do it.

Voldemort absent-mindedly twirled his wand between his fingers. In addition to all the previous spells, there were also several blood wards, and those were always tricky to bypass. And he was certain that in the middle of all these the girl would have had dissimulate various alarms to let her know if anyone was trying to break her wards.

It was intriguing to came across such high-level magic, coming from such a seemingly banal person. Intriguing and annoying, because if Lord Voldemort could of course manage to tear apart the wards, he would probably need two or three full days to be able to do so, and without any certainty of being able not to trigger any of the alarms.

And it was quite a trump card, something he should play carefully. And it was not yet the right time. For now, he had gotten more from the four wizards than he had lost, the Philosopher's Stone elixir on its own was already invaluable, and they had not foiled any of his plans to take over the wizarding world yet.

When they would, he would know what to do.

oOoOoOo

When Hermione came down in Gryffindor's common room the morning of Monday, September 19th, she was warmly greeted by Harry, Ron and Ginny, each one of them shouting a loud Happy Birthday directly into her ears.

"Did you really need to scream so loudly?" Hermione asked with a slight hint of exasperation.

But she could not stop a smile from blooming on her lips.

"Come on Hermione," Ron said. "15 years old that's quite an age to celebrate!"

Hermione looked at him dubiously. Although she was officially fifteen years old, she was actually celebrating her seventy-fourth birthday today, as Ron very well knew.

"And since you're celebrating your 15th birthday today, we have unanimously decided to organize a party tonight in the Room of Requirement!" Ginny announced.

"A party?" Hermione repeated. "Are you insane?"

It felt strangely out of place for her to celebrate her birthday with Voldemort well alive thanks to her own incompetency. And the magical source starting to deviate.

"Yes, a party," Ron confirmed. "A party to celebrate your old age. A party to relax. An evening so you could, for once, have some fun. You need to take one evening off Hermione."

Hermione rolled her eyes, and she was ready to refuse when Harry cut her off.

"And since we knew you were going to refuse, we have already organized everything and warned everyone," he said. "You wouldn't want to tell all your friends that you are going to cancel everything, would you?"

"All my friends?" Hermione asked worriedly.

"Neville and Luna. Lavender, Parvati, Padma. Fred, George and Lee. Alicia and Angelina. Susan and Hannah," Ginny provided. "All this wonderful persons will be in front of the Room of Requirement at exactly 8pm tonight. Room that will of course provide us plenty of food and alcohol."

"None of them are of age!" Hermione cried out indignantly.

This time it was Ginny who rolled her eyes. Harry looked at her with mock disappointment, and Ron grumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "get this stick out of your arse".

"And the Room of Requirement? Seriously?" Hermione berated them.

It was their refuge. Their piece of peace in Hogwarts to continue their researches.

"Using it tonight won't change anything, nobody will know we spend most of our nights there," Ron shrugged.

"Come on Hermione," Harry said. "Even the brightest witch of her age should have some fun from time to time!"

Hermione gave up. After all, she could admit that she was dying for some time without magical sources, dark wizards and other annoying problems.

oOoOoOo

AN: Next chapter in two weeks.