TW: This chapter contains scenes of physical violence that readers may find triggering.

Hermione's heart beat out of her chest once she had realized what had made this terrible, horrible book so incredibly important to both Peter and Voldemort. The idea of a mere object, appearing like any other, holding such dark magic was something that she never had to deal with before. The villains that she had faced in her past, from the basilisk to the numerous death-eaters, were active. They had actively been trying to take her, Harry's, and Ron's lives numerous times.

The diadem, this horcrux, however, was a passive villain. It was Voldemort's stability, anchoring him to the world of the living. It fought the battle of waiting, hiding in plain sight, and hoping not to be found. But Hermione, well, she had found it.

What she didn't know, however, was how many of these horcruxes were in existence under Voldermort's name. That was an issue for another day.

Here, in her little nook of the library, Hermione didn't know what to feel. This discovery had unlocked a new sense of fear in Hermione's head. Something of such dangerous magnitude was completely new to her. On the other hand, a part of her also felt a partial satisfaction for coming this far, for bending her brain just far enough to discover how Voldemort stayed alive in future years. It was not a task just any wizard or witch could grasp. Her mixed mood was concealed behind her pale face: anyone that would have passed her in the library at this moment would have only seen little Harper Slughorn reading a black leather book. She hid behind her mask well.

Shutting the book, Hermione let out a sigh of relief knowing that she was one step closer to getting rid of Peter and securing the livelihood of James, Lily, Sirius, and the many others killed by his hand. With her mask on and Secrets of the Darkest Art hiding in her bookbag, Hermione scurried out of the library by the time the sun had gone down.

She knew she had to return to the Room of Requirement quickly in order to review the properties of the suspected horcrux, and tonight would be the perfect time to do it. The cold, Thursday evening only two weeks ahead of final exams would have many students occupied with their studies. Hermione just hoped that the list would include Peter.

While the rest of her roommates quickly drifted off to sleep after putting out the lights, Hermione grabbed Harry's invisibility cloak and slipped out of the dorm room unnoticed. She passed by students cramming for exams, young lovers sneaking through the corridors past curfew, and perfects on patrol while making her way to the enchanted room.

Once inside, Hermione approached the same table she did weeks ago. The bottle of Amortentia was, yet again, less full than it was during her last visit. It lay adjacent to the diadem, the object of her desires for the present moment.

Breathing heavily, Hermione hesitated to pick up the dark object. She could feel the evil qualities oozing out of it as she hovered her hand over it, in the same way that one feels the heat of a hot pan without touching it. Before coming into contact with the diadem, Hermione shuddered at a creaking noise coming from the door. It slowly began to open, and the silhouette of a young man became known to Hermione in the doorway.

Oh no, it must be Peter. Why would he be coming here, now, at this hour? Merlin, what am I going to do?

Panicking, her heart began to race as she searched for a way not to be seen by him. His back may have been turned to her, but at any moment he could turn around and be face to face with Hermione. She needed to figure out how to keep that from happening, and fast.

Soon, she was presented with a sign: at her feet, a trap door near the room's drain became visible to her. Hermione had never moved her body so quickly as when she struggled to move into this little crawl space. Though it was tiny, Hermione was grateful: surely, Hogwarts was on her side in this battle.

But wait, he's not alone. I hear the voice of a girl. The voice of Emma Vanity.

Peaking through the tiny holes of the drain, Hermione saw Peter enter the room with Emma in his arms. Upon her first impression, Hermione believed that Peter had taken Emma here for some private, alone time. Perhaps they would snog in here for a bit. But that was far from what would truly occur.

Peter's arms were not wrapped around Emma lovingly, as they would be for most other couples. The way he was holding her was with a grip that would leave bruises on her arms. She squirmed in his grasp, and even though Peter was weaker than most boys at Hogwarts, he would not be letting go of Emma any time soon.

She groaned, and Hermione saw a small tear drip down the side of her face.

"I swear, I didn't take anything Peter, I don't know what you're talking about," she quivered.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. The small, black notebook sitting on this very table. You're the only other person who knows about it."

"Peter I promise--"

Before Emma could speak, Peter removed the grip of his dominant hand on Emma's arm and slapped her in the face, making a noise louder than the creaking of the door and leaving the bright red mark of a handprint on her pale cheek. As Emma began to cry, so did Hermione.

The way he's treating her, it's all my fault. It's all because I took the notebook. Emma doesn't deserve any of this.

She fought hard to keep her heavy breathing to a minimum so they wouldn't take notice of her presence on the floors, but Emma's deep sobs covered up all other noises in the room.

"You're worthless," he spoke as he began to draw his wand from his pocket, "I'll be checking your room later."

"Peter, please," Emma spoke. Tear after tear began to slide down her face, as Hermione saw, but the color began to fade from her face as she saw the man, who claimed to love her, point his wand at her. Hermione could feel the fear in her eyes; she swore she could see Emma move her lips to make the words, "not again," but no sound came out.

"Imperio," he called out with a shy grin on his face, paralyzing the will of the helpless girl in front of him. Hermione could barely breathe.

Immediately, Emma's expression shifted from that of fear, anxiety, and helplessness, to calm, dazed, and relaxed. Her eyes were less open and less alert than before, and she stopped fighting to escape the grip of Peter's other hand on her arm. It was incredibly eerie and terrifying to witness. Peter's face remained emotionless: it was evident that he had no real feelings for Emma and that this was not the first time he had done this to her. He was only using her, and it made Hermione so sick.

Without batting an eye, Peter turned to grab the bottle of Amortentia on the table, and Hermoine's heart sank into her chest. She knew where this was going.

"Drink it," he commanded Emma, who obeyed him without a second thought. Already weakened by him so many times before, she couldn't fight the power of the Imperius Curse. She took a large gulp of the most powerful love potion in the world and proceeded to look at Peter as if he could do no wrong. As she swallowed the potion, every memory of his physical abuse, every slap to the face that she covered with makeup, every bruise on her arm that she covered with her robes, and every tear that she shed because of him drifted out of her mind. She had forgotten it all, and just as she was starting to remember the absolute pain that he had put her through, Peter made her forget again. It was a heart-wrenching, never-ending cycle that had just repeated itself.

"I love you, Peter," she whispered as she pulled him close to her for a hug.

He hugged her back and whispered a reluctant "I love you too." How ingenue he was would be apparent to anyone, except Emma given her current state.

He did not love her. He did not care about her. He did not respect her in the slightest, but in this state, how could Emma possibly know?

"I can't wait for you to meet my family for the holidays, you're going to love them too," she spoke giddily.

He chuckled behind a fake smile, and disregarding her words, replied with a simple, "let's get to bed. It's getting late."

Stuck in the daze that made her agree with everything he said, Emma nodded her head, and the two of them began to head towards the room's creaky door. Peter wrapped her in his outer robes in order to cover her arms and made sure the hood was up in case anyone passing by was to see her face. The unchecked power he had over her was monumental.

Despite the smile on her face, Emma's cheeks were still red from Peter's slaps. Her face was still tear-stained and her eyes were blood-shot red from her repeated sobs. The bruises were present and still raw on her arms, but the glistening in her eyes and the smile on her face proved that she no longer had any recollection of that.

Hermione remained in the crawl space for a long while after the pair had left the Room of Requirement. She couldn't get herself to move. She kept replaying the images of Peter slapping Emma, of her quivering in fear of him, of him using the Imperius Curse on her, of him forcing her to drink the Amortentia in her mind over and over again.

The gravity of Emma's situation was far greater than she imagined, and Hermione knew that she needed to be saved from Peter's abuse as soon as possible.

A/N UPDATE (5/20/22): okay so first of all, i'd like to acknowledge that this was a really tough scene to both read and write. that's why i included the trigger warning at the beginning of the chapter, and i apologize if any of you were disturbed by the scene. I felt it was necessary to move the plot forward and give the reader more reason to hate peter and a better insight to how his 'relationship' with emma worked.

second of all, i'm back!! i took a VERY long break from writing this story because i went to college and had absolutely zero free time to do any extra stuff. that makes summer the perfect time for me to work on it! i'm going to try to write as much as i can before i go back to school in the fall, but i can't promise that this book is gonna get finished before then. i do, however, have the rest of the plot lined up so all i have to do is sit down and write it pretty much (easier said than done lol). also, i've really appreciated all of the positive feedback on this story so far, and i'd love to know what you think! lmk in the comments. i also love to hear predictions, so comment those as well!

lastly, if you're still reading this book after all this time, you're awesome. i hope you love it as much as i do

- callahan.