The Scholar's Guardian
There were two seperate groups of people in The Pod. The Scholars and The Guardians. Guardians were trained from the beginning of their existence that The Scholars must be protected at all cost, any means necessary.
Guardians were considered lowly, almost like animals. Trained to protect The Scholars from any dangers.
The Scholars were raised to be nurtured and educated to make strives in their society.
They were all taught that outside The Pod was dangerous.
Subject DLMV32 has been Hermione Granger’s guardian since she was a little girl.
“That’s not a real name. I’ll call you D!” She grinned at him through the gaps where her teeth had been.
One day when they were sixteen, Hermione decided to take a blanket to the green space of The Pod. He was standing guard as she threw grapes at his face trying to make him flinch. The fourth one he caught in the air and tossed back at her. He fought a smile trying to break free when it got stuck in her hair and she fell backward laughing.
His focus snapped to attention when a shriek echoed across the green space. Another Guardian was ambling toward them, fisting his red hair. The Guardian’s eyes focused on Hermione and charged at her shouting, “Hermione, do you remember?”
D shoved her behind him, taking a defensive stance.
A few Scientist Scholars rushed the red haired Guardian and injected him with sedatives. Hermione gripped D’s shirt as they watched him be dragged away. They never saw him again.
Her eyes were bright when she excitedly hugged him after she received her assignment to the Labs.. It’d been her life-long goal.
But as one year turned to two, her eyes dulled and a permanent scowl took the place of her smile.
She rushes through the doors of her lab and grabs his hand, sprinting down the hall to their quarters.
“What’s going on?” he asked, fists clenched.
“D, I need you to trust me, and help me.”
She spread files over her desk.
“What is this?”
She pulled a crumbling history text from her satchel and thumbs to a section she marked.
“They’ve always taught us there was a war centuries ago, right? And The Pod was built as a security measure.”
D nods.
“Well, I may have used certain privileges in The Lab to gain access to some files. I read through them and…it’s nothing like they said. This whole society, it’s all … eugenics.”
She says it with disgust.
“Look,” she picks up the photographs of him and her. “They are us, but not. We’re clones. Of this Hermione and Draco.”
She pushes the paper that his photograph was stapled to towards him and he reads the profile. The man looks like him, but sallow faced and gaunt. Draco Lucius Malfoy. Death Eater, sentenced to reprogramming for Guardian status.
“DLMV33. Draco Lucius Malfoy, version 33. And I am the 24th version of this Hermione Granger. They forced those who they deemed the best here, and cloned them. And the ones they deemed criminal or unworthy to be programmed into machines to protect them.”
Draco’s eyes scanned over the papers again.
“I’ve read through the files of our previous selves. Every version of us they paired together previously rebelled against this sort of thing, killed and bred again. It’s unethical, choosing specific genes for a perfect society.”
“What would we do if every version before us was found out?”
Hermione smiles wickedly and threads her fingers through his.
“These versions of us won't get caught this time.”