Secrets

Chapter 16

I own nothing! J.K.Rowling owns everything!

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After Draco had left, Hermione decided to go to Riddle Manor to refocus and get on with her plan. To say that she'd got a little sidetracked was an understatement. First, she never planned on letting Harry, Ron or the rest know that she was a Parseltongue and that she was a descendent of Slytherin, it gave them way too much information that they could build upon. Second, she never planned on letting Draco know about who she was, but now that she had she was glad that she did, it was nice to have someone laughing with her and understanding her point of view - well, kind of. Third, she had planned on starting her plan a day or two after the basilisk had killed the lion, but unfortunately she had been a little too preoccupied with waiting for Draco's response to actually get anything done, she had instead spent the time plotting crafty schemes to make Draco's death look like an accident - something she would never let him know she had done. 

Hermione apparated to a road just outside Little Hangleton, it was a long dirt road that twisted every few metres - the kind of path that would make someone incredibly car sick. Hermione loved it. She took a quick glance backwards to make sure no one in Little Hangleton had seen her apparate, whether they be Muggle or Wizard, Hermione just didn't want anybody to know she was in the area. After seeing no one around, she started to walk to the home where her father had lost her and her mother. After about a 20 minute walk, Hermione could finally see the great and magnificent piece of architecture that was Riddle Manor. Riddle Manor looked very similar to what Carlton House looked like, although the woods, bricks and marbles used to build Riddle Manor where much darker than what Henry Holland used to design Carlton House.

Hermione stopped as she reached the large, imposing gates and inhaled a large breath of air in content as she swung the gates open, feeling slightly more connected with her family. With a flick of her wand the gates closed themselves, and Hermione continued to walk forward through the front gardens of the property. Hermione looked pleased with herself when she saw that the magic she had put of the gardens maintained them to perfection, something she was sure her mother would have wanted as she had seen in her father's memories. Hermione was also happy with the restoration spells she'd put on the house. Before her father and mother got married Riddle Manor was in a state of disrepair, however the two of them had worked together, using both magic and muggle ways, to return it to much more than its former glory. It had fallen into its state of disrepair after her father had been defeated the first time, and with his road to revenge after he came back, he hadn't really found the time to restore it. Hermione had, it was one of the first tasks she gave herself when she learned who she really was. Restoring it was a way of promising herself that she would make things right again, or as right as they could be with both her parents dead.

She flung the great doors open, grateful that the house was far enough away from the village that large movement wouldn't be noticed, and walked straight up to what was her bedroom. Even as a baby, her room had always had a large bed in it, a beautiful four poster bed with turquoise and aqua bed clothes, and lilac curtains adorning it. The room still contained the crib she slept in, but she was now much too big for it, and she happily launched herself onto the large bed. Hermione flipped onto her stomach and pushed in the eye of one of the snakes that was carved into the headboard of her bed, a piece of wood fell forward, revealing a secret compartment. Hermione smiled sadly as she took out the pieces of paper in this compartment: her father's last letters to Hermione and her mother. Reading them always helped remind her of what she was working for, and helped her refocus. They were what her father wanted her to find.

She opened the one addressed to her mother first.

My Dearest Emilia,