Anchises

Chapter Five: Hermione Granger

Song: Allies or Enemies, The Crane Wives

Hermione wasn't sure what to think. Part of her still didn’t want to believe in the existence of gods and titans, because that would mean that there is something far more powerful than her. Something that could decide that she was the perfect candidate to release anger on. She had read the myths as a child, and the idea that the Greek gods were alive and well… It terrified her. Even when Draco left and basically announced the existence of gods and demigods, part of her has been waiting for someone to jump from behind a corner and claim it was an elaborate prank.

She had thought the unbelieving part of her had been convinced during her stay at Grimmauld Place, but Hermione now recognized that it had still been there, small, but persistent and only silenced by the appearance of Thalia, daughter of Zeus. Undeniable proof that it was real. Thalia’s departure brought silence for a minute, maybe two, until Moody cleared his throat, claiming that Thalia was nowhere in the house. The yelling began instantly, someone even tried to take the letter from Sirius, Hermione wasn’t sure who, but the person’s hand somehow went through the envelope as if there was nothing but air.

Headmaster Dumbledore asked Sirius to read the content out loud, everyone, except Harry, was shocked when Sirius declined.

“You do not want to be on the receiving end of a god’s anger, Dumbledore. Thalia gave me a warning. I will tread lightly, should I decide it is crucial for you to know, you will know.”

“Sirius Black, listening to someone else? Did the twelve years make you a coward?” Snape sneered, Hermione grabbed Harry’s arm, already sensing her best friend’s movements.

Sirius barked out a laugh, it sounded mocking but also full of pity. “I never once forgot the gods, Snivillus. Just because I never agreed with my family’s ideals, it does not mean I have forgotten my roots. My gods.”

“They abandoned you.” Snape shot back, “why would you give them your loyalty? You said so yourself to the demigod.” The word was spat out as if it was poison.

Hermione frowned, tightening her hold of Harry but now also Ron. Draco was a demigod. Snape is Draco’s godfather. When Harry told them that, Hermione was surprised for a good five seconds before accepting it. Not like she could contact Draco and ask if Snape was trustworthy or not.

“I do not have to explain myself to you. But just know that you and the Order can use Grimmauld Place as a base out of my grace as the Lord of the house, and because a god allowed it.” Sirius sneered, only softening his expression at Remus’ touch.

Before anything more could be said, Sirius and Remus left the room with the envelope in hand. Harry watched them go until Hermione nudged him. Beside them, Ron seemed lost in thought and she wondered what was going through his head. She had come to accept that Ron had more knowledge on the gods and their role in the Wizarding World, just like she was better at grasping magical theory or Harry at practicals, particularly defensive magic.

“Let’s go back to your room,” she whispered, eyeing the adults who had begun another argument. The other Weasley children had already left as well. She hoped that they went to their rooms or another place.

Harry nodded and the three left, unseen by the adults as their argument became more rapid. Hermione managed to catch the words ‘Sirius’ and ‘envelope’ and ‘convince.’ She didn’t need too much thought to know what it was about, but she had a feeling that unless Sirius gave permission, none of them would be able to learn the contents of the letter.

Her eyes darted to Harry.

He would probably be told everything on it. Sirius and Remus had been very insistent that Harry should know what was going on considering he was the one Voldemort was after. Hermione agreed wholeheartedly, remembering what Draco had asked of her from his final letter. His warnings.

Once inside the room, Ron mumbled a spell. She wasn’t sure what it was, and she was very curious about it but when she asked him, Ron had become cagey and only said that it was something Draco taught him when he, Harry and Hermione weren’t talking. The words had stung, but she let it go, only after asking if the Slytherins knew it.

They did.

She wondered if Draco would have taught it to her and Harry eventually. The only thing she knew about the spell was that it made it hard for other people to overhear anything once cast, they had even tested it with the Twin’s extendable ears. Nothing could be heard.

“Done?” Harry asked and Ron nodded before putting his wand away. “You know how I’ve been having these… dreams?” Harry fiddled with the cover of his journal, and as the silence stretched, Hermione wondered if he was waiting for a response. Until he seemed to steel himself and opened the journal, swiping through pages until he stopped.

He turned it over and showed them the contents. Hermione leaned in, but made sure that Ron could read the pages too. Harry waited patiently and Hermione wondered what exactly he was showing them, so far it was a description of a forest and a group of girls, and then she reached the end.

I finally got the name of the Hunter I have been seeing. Thalia and she is definitely not a witch. I wonder if she knows Draco.

“You…”

“I have been having these weird dreams,” Harry began, closing the journal. “At first it was just a door and then one night I saw Thalia with the other hunters. Of Artemis apparently.”

“Mate,” Ron whispered, eyes wide and there was something in his eyes and expression that Hermione had come to associate with him figuring things out faster than her. “You dreamt of Thalia before meeting her?”

Harry nodded and before he could say anything more, another voice rang out behind them. “Not just me. But Draco and Camp.”

They whirled around, startled to find Thalia casually leaning against the closed door. How did we miss her?! Hermione thought frantically, sure that there was no place for Thalia to hide, not even behind the door since it opened outward not inward to the room. And just as that thought ended, Hermione took out her wand, even if she wasn’t allowed to use magic outside of school because she was underage, she felt better holding it.

At least she could defend herself, out of the corner of her eye she saw Harry do the same thing, but not Ron and she wondered if he knew something they didn’t. He probably did, growing up with them as history, but what would prevent him from taking out his wand?

“Cute,” Thalia mused, eyeing their wands with an amused smirk. “Harry, when I first saw you I didn’t think much of it. A one time thing,” something hardened in her gaze, and Hermione suddenly felt like a cornered animal. “But it wasn’t. For a mortal, you are having Dreams too frequently. I do not like that.”

The way she said it made Hermione tense and beside her so did her friends, but Ron still didn’t take out his wand.

“Why?”

Thalia raised an eyebrow at Harry’s question. “Draco told us about Voldermort, his history--” her eyes flashed as she took a step forward “--you.”

The name of the Dark Wizard sent shivers down Hermione’s spine and she saw Ron pale as well. The only one unaffected was Harry, but that was to be expected. Only him and Headmaster Dumbledore ever said the name without fear or hesitation.

“You call him Voldemort,” Harry blinked, and he began to lower his wand. But Hermione’s kept hers raised. “Draco calls him Voldemort?”

Thalia snorted. “That’s his name.”

“Only Dumbledore calls him V-V– that,” Ron stuttered out. “And Harry.”

Hermione nodded, “His name has power, and only Dumbledore is powerful enough to ever do anything against him.” And Harry maybe. After the events of last year, it was clear that Voldemort feared Harry.

Thalia hummed, unbothered as she walked around them and began looking around the room. “Names do have power,” she conceded, nodding towards Hermione. No longer eyeing the wand as if she had decided it wasn’t a threat. Hermione remembered the lighting that sprouted from Thalia’s fingers.

“But not his,” Thalia continued. “Not to us. He is a mortal trying to play god. Another Icarus flying too close to the sun, and he will fall.” She shrugged and the gesture angered Hermione, her hold on her wand tightening.

Sure, Hermione was beginning to wonder what was the point of fearing a name, but that didn’t mean that he could just be pushed aside or even waved away as if he were nothing but a pesky mosquito. He was a monster, one that has been haunting people even decades after the first war. Her eyes darted to Harry who seemed gobsmacked, but she also saw the anger in his eyes.

Voldemort was a monster to many, but he had been haunting Harry since even before he had been born.

“He has murdered people!” She yelled, ignoring how her friends jumped in shock. Out of the three, she could keep her cool for longer, but the way that Thalia was talking about Voldemort… “He murdered Cedric Diggory! If it were up to him I would be dead just because of who I was born from! How-how could you say that?! Act as if he is just a… pest!”

“He murdered my parents.”

Thalia stared at them, something crossing her features but it was gone far too quickly. “I’m sorry for your loss,” and there was something in her tone that made Harry untense. Usually, when others said it, Harry just accepted it with a tight smile and a stiff nod, not this time. Something in Thalia’s tone made the condolences in Harry’s eyes truly genuine.

Hermione wondered what it was.

“But you are right. For you he is not a pest,” Thalia turned to Hermione, arms crossed and leaning against a desk. “He is the boogeyman under your bed, watching from every shadow. But for me and my family? My world? He won’t even be a footnote. So no,” she glanced at Ron and he stood straighter, “I don’t ‘fear’ his name nor does it hold power. Saying it won’t bring his attention to us, not like saying the names of the gods or monsters. Their names have power. My name has power.”

At her words, pressure was added to the room. A heavy blanket that threatened to suffocate Hermione and her friends, and the only thing stopping that from happening was Thalia herself. Hermione had the feeling that if they said or did something Thalia didn’t approve of, the pressure would crush them or maybe they would be stricken down via lightning.

If Hermione had felt like a cornered animal before, it was worse. Now she knew who exactly the predator was in the room and that Hermione nor her friends were trapped. They were being played with.

“If I sound like I don’t care, it is because I honestly don’t.” The three froze at the force of her words, she was no longer facing them. Ron’s hand on her shoulder was the only thing stopping Hermione from going on another rant about Voldemort’s crime. Beside her, Harry remained silent, but his gaze went to the journal still in his hand. Hermione wondered if he was recalling one of his dreams. “I have fought in two wars with only eight months in between them. Months which I spent looking for my kidnapped cousin.”

“Why bother with the letter then?” Hermione couldn’t help but scoff, still, she lowered her wand. “Or do the gods actually care, but you don’t?”

Thalia laughed, but it was not the thunder and lightning of before, it was another one, just as intimidating and hair-rising, but different. It sent shivers down Hermione’s back nonetheless. “Oh the gods do not care either. You are not their children so why would they pay attention? No, they don’t care for you. The gods are selfish, and as their children so are we. We want to make sure that your problem does not become ours.” She turned to look at them and there was a protective fire in her eyes. “We are done losing family.” Her gazes flashed and Hermione saw lightning and thunder, a brewing storm in them and she felt trapped under the gaze. “But you are having Dreams, and what that could mean for us is not something I want.”

“They are just dreams,” but even as she said it, Hermione sounded uncertain. Even in the magical world, dreams have some meaning. Even if it is a meaning Hermione did not fully believe in.

Thalia shook her head, “Sure normal dreams. But he is Dreaming. Capital D. You saw me before we met, you saw Draco at camp. And who knows what else. Dreams are not a coincidence. Not for us. Not in our world. And you.. You are mortal… the last time…” She turned to look out the window, the moon was up high and Hermione wondered just how quickly the time went by. The moon’s light shone down towards them, lighting up Thalia’s circlet causing it to resemble more of a tiara. Hermione remembered that Thalia was not just any demigod, but the daughter of the King of the Gods.

Hermione wondered if that made her a princess.

“I must go now. I did what I was sent to do here,” her eyes never left the moon, not even when it got covered by the clouds. “I hope I never have to see any of you again.”

Without a parting glance, Thalia opened the window and jumped down, but Hermione, Harry and Ron were too in shock to do anything. It was only after they managed to shake off their stupor that they ran towards the window and looked down. Nothing. As if nobody had been there, the only evidence was the memories of the conversation and an open window.

Hermione backed away, feeling as if she could breathe again. ‘I hope I never have to see any of you again.’ That is what Thalia said. What she ended with, and quickly recalling the conversation and the feeling Thalia brought just by being inside a room… Hermione hoped they wouldn’t meet again either.

She had a feeling that if they ever did, something bad was going to happen.