Confrontations
Hermione opened her eyes to find herself… standing.
“Wh-what the…?” had she been sleepwalking? Oh, she hoped not, that would be embarrassing.
She looked out of the window to see Molly hanging out the washing, getting dressed, and grabbing the paper that had materialised on her pillow “ShinRa Times, heh.” Hermione walked downstairs and straight into Harry.
“H-Hermione?” Harry stuttered, looking as though he were staring at a ghost.
“Good morning to you too, Harry.”
Suddenly the house was full of people having heard Harry and Hermione talking.
“Where the bloody hell have you been?!” exclaimed Ron as hugs were passed around, now Hermione was confused.
“I’ve been asleep… in bed.” Hadn’t she?
“No, when I went to check on you last night, you weren’t there, it looked as though you had got into your pyjamas, got into bed and disapparated.” Ginny stated.
“Hermione, dear, where did you go? Did you go home?” Molly asked.
“I have no home to go back to.” Her reply came instinctively, she couldn’t understand, she had just fallen asleep.
No, you travelled to another world. a voice said, I was the one who took you there, I just thought that it would be easier for you to travel there whilst you thought you were sleeping, I never expected the redhead to notice you were gone.
“Oh well that would have been nice to have been told!” she snapped. Mumbling an apology when she realised the voice had been in her head, Hermione headed outside, suddenly feeling crowded.
“Now where are you going?”
Growling Hermione spun round to face Ron, “outside to get some air I feel crowded, okay?! Just leave me alone!”
Hermione spun on her heel and walked out to the bench at the end of the garden; she watched the Gnomes running around and fell into her thoughts.
She wondered where that voice had come from…
“Right beside you.” Hermione gasped and jumped up, wand in hand, the figure was that of a girl no older than Hermione herself. The girl held up her hands as a sign of peace, “please sit back down Hermione Granger and I will explain why I am doing this.”
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Unbeknownst to Hermione, Harry and Ron were eavesdropping on the conversation, having seen Hermione sit down to talk to the stranger that had not set any alarm bell of in the house, they had become very suspicious.
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“You’re a very intellectual young lady. Also, you have a fire that burns brightly, but are never permitted to use said fire in case you hurt someone, you’re kind and gentle and, with a little training, exactly what I need to help stop a catastrophe from happening.”
“Heh, you’re talking to the wrong person, if it’s a catastrophe you want to stop then you’re better off talking to my friend Harry, he’s the Chosen One not me.”
“He has his own problems to deal with. You are still going to fight your war, but then once it is done, I will need you to assist me in averting one in the dimension you have just returned from.”
Hermione was in shock, “what do you mean?”
“I can only say this, the next time you see commander Genesis Rhapsodos, insist on healing his wound and make him smile. Make sure he doesn’t forget you, otherwise it’ll be over before it has begun. Now I must leave you for now. We will meet again, farewell Hermione Granger.”
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Harry and Ron watched the figure bow to Hermione before disappearing; they then exchanged a look and crept back up to the house.
“Breath a word about this and I’ll castrate the both of you.” Hermione said suddenly staring at the spot where Harry and Ron were stood.
Harry pulled the cloak off them and looked Hermione in the eyes, “only if you tell us what’s going on.”
“Keep it to yourselves and I will tell you later.” She said as she fiddled around with the marble around her neck, not looking at either of them.
Harry and Ron shared another glance before walking off.
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Hermione watched Harry and Ron go back into the house, suddenly feeling betrayed. Didn’t they trust her to go walking around the garden alone? But then again, she had just been talking to a stranger that hadn’t set off the security system around the house, so she supposed she could let them off.
“Oh Genesis, what am I going to do?” she breathed. Pulling the paper, she had brought down with her, she proceeded to read it wanting to know more about ShinRa and AVALANCHE.
Ten minutes later, she was smirking at some of the things that were written in the paper. God this is almost like reading the Daily Prophet, she thought as she turned to the middle page where she saw what she had been hoping for.
Taking up both of the middle pages, dressed in their best military clothes were Genesis Sephiroth and Angeal. None of them had smiles on their faces, according to the article on the opposite sides of both pages, the picture was taken just before a recent battle with Wutai, she continued to read the paper before walked back into the house and up to where she had put her bag and placed the paper inside. “I’ll need that for tonight, the boys are never going to believe me.”
Feeling a shift behind her, Hermione spun round, to face the figure from before. “Okay when you said we’d meet again, I didn’t think you meant ten minutes.”
“This is not the meeting I had told you about. There are some questions I would like to ask of you, if you don’t mind that is.”
Hermione sighed, “fine, but I want to ask you something first.” She waited for the figure to nod before continuing. “Who are you?”
“You can just call me Other.”
Hermione cocked her head in confusion, “Other?”
“Yes, Other. Now, Hermione Granger I will show you several images and I want you to tell me if you have the capability of these things, even if they seem out of character.” Hermione placed a hand on the side of her head and frowned, Other didn’t wait for her answer before showing Hermione images that made her blood freeze.
The image was of herself, she was in what looked like a very expensive business suit, small-heeled shoes and half finger gloves, the whole attire, except the shirt, was black. In her right hand, she held her wand, but attached to her right hip she saw the unmistakable shape of a gun and holster. Her frown deepened as she saw on her left hip a katana blade, since when did she know how to use swords?
“Your analytical mind is something that others that wear that suit value.” Other came out of the shadow behind her, “as well as other things, such as your beauty, your elegance, they will teach you how to use it to your advantage, how to negotiate, how to fight, how to become what they are. This, Hermione Granger, is how you will save the lives of the three SOLDIERs that consider you a friend.”
“Hermione?” the witch in question shrieked and pulled back from the hand that suddenly touched her arm. When she opened her eyes, she was surprised to see who was in front of her.
“G-George?”
“Yeah, were you expecting someone else?” George stood there, toothbrush sticking out of his ear, with his hand outstretched to pull her up, she took it and allowed him to haul her to her feet.
Fred also stood there, in the doorway; naturally, you never saw one without the other.
“No, you just startled me.”
“I’m not surprised, you seemed to be deep in meditation, but I saw a tear fall and wondered what the matter was.” Hermione looked up at George, as the hand that helped her up brushed over the now scabbed over cut on the side of her face.
“I… don’t know what’s going on with me lately, if I’m honest, George.”
“Where did you go to, y’know, when you disappeared?” Fred and George sat down on the edge of Ginny’s bed, Hermione sat in between them.
“To a place where there is a war, but there’s no one living in mortal fear of their lives, a beautiful place where things are similar to here, but not exactly the same…” she blurted, pulling on the memory of the place she had last seen Genesis, Hermione conjured up the image for the twins to see.
“Oh wow!”
“That is beautiful!”
“Where is this?” they asked in unison.
“I don’t know where it is, I only know that it isn’t on this Earth. She breathed, letting the image go before it got to the personal part; it had made her heart ache as she heard Genesis beg her not to leave.
“Blimey, you are one messed up witch… no offence!” Fred said quickly, Hermione smiled and swatted him on the shoulder.
“Come on, Hermione, let’s go and help mum with the housework, she’s already drafted everyone else into it.” George held out his hand to her and flashed her a brilliant smile, taking the hand she allowed the boys to apparate with her downstairs.
“We’ve got her, mum!”
“Thank you, George, now if you and Fred could go and give your father a hand with the gnomes, Hermione dear, would you mind helping Ginny with the washing, please?”
“Of course, Mrs Weasley.”
So that was how she spent the rest of the day, helping around the house and in making preparations for the wedding on Saturday.
That night she went up to Ron’s room to find almost every Weasley child there, save Bill and Charlie.
“What’s this?” she inquired as she entered the room, newspaper in hand.
“We all want to know, Hermione. We promise that we won’t tell anyone.” Ginny replied.
“Yeah, look see no extendible ears or listening devices of any kind.” George said, this time he was without his toothbrush.
Sighing Hermione gave in and sat on Ron’s bed, searching for the middle pages of the ShinRa Times.
“Since the beginning of last year at Hogwarts I have been having dreams about a man in a crimson coat. They were just dreams, or so I thought.
Until one day, about a month before the school was attacked, I was studying in the library and saw him sat the other side of the table reading. I couldn’t hear his voice, but he was talking with someone as he read, clearly, he’d read the book before.
After that, not only did I dream about him, I saw him around the castle, in the grounds, on the Quidditch pitch and even in Hogsmede, on the Hogwarts Express on the way home as well. I thought I was going mad at first.
But then I saw him stood outside my home when I came here the other night, he stayed with me until I apparated here. That was the night I saw him for real.”
“Saw him for real?” Ron asked, taking advantage of Hermione’s momentary silence.
“Yeah, I fell asleep on Ginny’s bed and when I woke up to the sound of a door slamming, I got up to scold you two thinking it was you. Only to find that I wasn’t in Ginny’s room, or the Burrow for that matter. I was somewhere else. A strange, yet comfortable, room.
Thinking I’d been kidnapped I pulled my wand out from under my sleeve and walked out into a large living room. That was when I saw him. The man that I’d been dreaming about. It turns out he had also been dreaming about me.
He had his two friends with him as well; I think it was a shared apartment as there were three other doors besides the one I came out of.”
Hermione let that sink in for a minute whilst she straightened out the paper. “These three are the men. The one in the middle, his name is Sephiroth, he’s the General of the army in that world, the one on his left is Angeal, Commander and second in command of the same army, on his right is Genesis, also a Commander, he is the third in command.
They are known by the public as the Golden Trio, and they have a lot of fangirls.” She added that last bit in for a joke.
“I can see why, they are gorgeous!” Ginny exclaimed. Hermione laughed. “So, what about last night?”
“That was where it gets complicated, somewhere along the lines Genesis entered our world, he was the reason You-Know-Who didn’t kill me.
When I went to bed last night, I swear down blind I went to sleep,” even though now I know I didn’t, she thought to herself.
“And when I woke up I was walking in the unfamiliar streets of a port city. I don’t know what the name is, I never asked. But not long after I had stopped to admire the oversized canon they had there, Genesis’s voice called out to me.
It turns out all three of them were there for a routine mission to somewhere.” Pulling out her wand Hermione conjured up the same image that she had shown Fred and George.
“This is the last thing I saw before I came back.” She halted the image again, before it got personal. She wanted to be the only one that knew about that part.
“Well… that’s quite the tale.” Fred stated slowly as he looked at the title of the newspaper, “and one I’m inclined to agree with as I’ve never heard of Shinr-ay…”
Hermione laughed, “it’s pronounced Shinr-ah, Fred. And you can think what you want.” She picked up the middle pagers of the paper, put them back into their original place and folded the paper up. Before saying her goodnights and turning in for the night, somehow knowing that she would not be seeing Genesis again.