Under Darkness

Chapter 4: The Raid

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It had been two years since Hermione had the most fantastic kiss of her life. Two years since she had been alone with Tom and Hermione was pining hard for him. It had been more than two years really. They had kissed in January, months after her sixteenth birthday. And now it was May, and Hermione was eighteen. She longed for Tom, but he was busy as the leader of the Under, and she could see that he wouldn't rest until they were done; until they had come out of the Under and were living in the Upper like proper witches and wizards. Hermione too longed for that day. The Under was terrific and she hadn't been back to visit her parents much since being brought in, but even she could tell that conditions were worsening. Things were coming to a head.

Her parents had officially washed their hands of her at her eighteenth birthday, and Hermione had been living in the Under for two and a half years. She and Harry Snape were best friends, had been since he pulled her all along the Under on her first day there. They trained together, and Hermione practically lived with him and his family, even though they all lived in the massive school building. She was still learning, they all were, but she had additional duties as well: studying the Upper's laws and brewing healing potions for the coming conflicts.

Harry and she had both been charged with figuring out a way to lawfully merge the two communities. The entire third floor of the library at the school was Upper law books. Somehow, someone had managed a duplication charm on laws passed in the Upper. Once they were adopted by the Upper's Wizengamot, a new book appeared in the library in the Under. Newer laws were fascinating, but it was the older laws that Hermione and Harry bothered with. After Salazar Slytherin's crackdown, the two societies had separated almost wholly. But then, around the fifteenth and sixteenth century the laws had loosened. In fact, at that point, there was only one society. It was when the Hogwarts registry had been created. And Muggleborns and half-bloods were welcomed into the wizarding world. And it had been like that for almost four hundred years. Until the middle of the nineteenth century. It wasn't clear what happened, but the two societies split, and then wizards like Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald came onto the scene. Forging their way into the Upper, despite both being half-bloods. So Hermione and Harry were looking for laws from the time the two communities had merged, trying to find lawful ways to unite them once more.

Food and potions supplies were getting scarcer, and the Upper was cracking down on all the lines of communication and trade between the two communities. There weren't that many, to begin with, but the Under had always been able to get food and potions ingredients from contacts in the Upper. Gold was gold after all. It all spent the same, despite who it came from. Hermione had noticed that servings were getting smaller at the school and the batches of potions ingredients were poor quality. She did what she could with them, but Hermione knew her brews weren't coming out with the highest efficacy they could if she had access to better ingredients.

"Lily, where do we get the potions ingredients from?" Hermione asked one day. Thus far, she and Harry hadn't been invited to join Tom's counsel or help with the revolution beyond training and helping to train those younger than them. And Hermione was getting fed up. She wanted to know what was going on, to help if she could. Beyond more than looking through musty law books.

"Well, it depends. We have a few contacts from the Upper who will supply them."

"Like Luna?" Hermione asked. Luna Lovegood had been by several times with potions ingredients and food. Usually, anything she brought was of the highest quality, but Hermione hadn't seen her in a few months.

"Mmm, yes, Luna brings ingredients. But, she's being watched and been unable to get away."

"Is there any place we could go and gather the ingredients ourselves? Or are they all cultivated? Could we cultivate some down there with some Muggle grow lights or something?"