The Year Before Tomorrow

Chapter Twenty One- Year III- Moral Decline

Chapter Twenty One- Year III- Moral Decline

Almost from the start, Hermione had made peace with the certainty that this year wouldn't be her last. Searching for Horcruxes, therefore, would be a waste of both time and energy.

Still, she felt guilty. This timeline would be hardly enriched by her presence, even if she was pushing some of the Slytherins towards a Lighter path. If she wasn't going to go all out and try to defeat Voldemort, then she had to admit to herself the truth of what she was doing: experimenting. Seeing exactly how much certain players affected the future. Tossing them in the direction of the correct choice but not warning them of the dangers, nor giving them anything with which to protect themselves.

How long could she go on telling herself that she was the hero of this story?

"I wonder what it is that makes an action 'good'," Hermione said, pushing Severus's book closed. She would not be ignored.

Severus glared at her hand and then up at her face. "There's no rigid answer," he said.

Hermione huffed, glaring back without Severus's genuine irritation. "Of course not. I'm not daft, you know. But there must be some kind of loose definition, or else no one could have morals at all."

"An action that prevents harm from coming to someone else is a 'good' action," Severus said when it became clear that Hermione wasn't going to let it go.

"I thought so at first, too, but what if that action causes harm to someone else? What then?"

"Why are you treating me as the authority on morality?" Severus grumbled.

She giggled. "Well, I'm certainly not one! That's why I'm asking."

"I don't know," said Severus. "Is that what you want to hear? Questions of good and evil can be and have been argued since we knew of the concept. No answer is completely satisfying, for often there is no completely good choice."

"That does make me feel better," said Hermione. "I suppose that works."

Having convinced herself that her actions were excusable, Hermione moved on.

The next step was to wait. She dropped hints to the others, took down the Notice-Me-Not, and practiced her Hybrid Legilimency. It didn't take long for some of the Slytherins to seek her out.

She felt powerful, and she wasn't sure exactly how comfortable she was with that.

As much as she could be at that point in time, she was happy. Her every waking moment was occupied by numerology and equations, gathering data and learning how to organize it into something executable. The diagram was really beginning to take shape.

Content. She was content. She only had to work on the project and theorize, and everything would be fine.

Christmas Vacation came, and Hermione had Vici take her back to Selwyn Estate. At Hermione's request, Morfan spilled every little piece of information he'd learned over the past few months. Rhea stayed out of her way unless it was at meals. For her part, she spent her time studying, even though the end of the two weeks showed little marked progress.

Hermione didn't take the Express back to Hogwarts, either.

By the end of March, she found the bulk of the work complete. The diagram included every person and event that she could recall related even peripherally to Voldemort's rise and fall.

Her next move was to perform another spell, a much riskier spell. The paths at that time only responded to the equations, but Hermione couldn't possibly know every action every person performed.