The End of an Era
It was the Battle of Hogwarts and tensions were running high. Harry was dueling Voldemort after Neville had killed not just the snake, but the wretched woman who drove his parents insane, and Hermione and Ron were fighting death eaters with Remus and Sirius. Then suddenly, everyone stopped as Voldemort fell back, dead at the hand of the Chosen One. Death eaters started to flee as the light cheered. Harry ran towards his two best friends in shock and excitement.
“We did it, guys! I- I did it!”
Hermione bear-hugged him, making him fall over. “Oh, Harry I’m so glad.” Ron helped both of them up as they had a second group hug. All the pain, all the suffering had been worth it. Percy, Tonks, Colin, Lavender, all their lives lost had not been in vain. Kingsley marched towards them, and while everyone expected him to beeline for Harry, he actually went towards Hermione.
“What’s this about?” Ron questioned, protective over his friend.
“She knows.” was all Kingsley said before Hermione walked up to him, turning back and saying, “I’ll explain later.” as she apparated away with the man.
When they arrived they were at a palace in Denmark, and Hermione had tremors in her hands. “They’re gonna be mad Kings.” He nodded, pointing towards her scarred arm. “They’re not going to be happy about that.” She instinctively touched her arm, feeling self-conscious as her mother, the Queen ran in.
“Hermione Amelia! You ran off with no contact for months!” she scolded until she saw the state of her daughter.
“Goodness Hermione, what happened to you? Is that a scar? Young lady, you need to tell me what happened immediately! Wait, you are showing me in the pensieve, I don’t trust you.”
Hermione nodded, leading them to a secret study that held many magical artifacts and grimoires, including a pensieve, collected by the royal family of Denmark over the centuries of having particularly skilled muggleborns pop up within the family. When they arrived at the pensieve, Hermione paused for a moment, “You are not going to like what you’re going to see. It’s bad, very bad.” Her eyes started welling up with tears, as did her mother’s.
“I need to know.”
Hermione pulled out Bellatrix’s wand, the only wand she had at the moment, and pulled out the memories. Then her mother put her head in the pensieve and watched everything that happened to Hermione from fighting death eaters to her starving in the woods, giving her rations to the boys, to being tortured by Bellatrix, to the Battle of Hogwarts.
When Queen Amara had finished viewing the memories, she was shaking and crying, running to her daughter and holding her in her arms, “I am so mad at you for running away, but I am so sorry for what you went through. You are such a strong young woman.”
Then there was a knock on the door, a specific knock that Hermione recognized. She wandlessly unlocked the door, and in ran her sister Genevieve. “Hermione! I’ve been worried sick about you. You know how hard it’s been to pretend you’re off studying when I don’t know where you are?” Hermione just shed a tear and hugged her sister, giving her a kiss on the forehead.
“Gen, I’m so sorry but I had to go, I had to help…” Her sister cut her off, “Harry, I know, but did you forget you’re the eldest and therefore the heir. I’m not supposed to ever rule, okay, I’m the spare. I thought you were dead.”
Hermione felt horrible, only whispering, “Sorry.” through her tears.
Her sister rubbed her shoulder, “It’s okay, it’s obvious you went through a lot, so I’ll give you a pass, as long as you take a nice long bath.” Gen chuckled. Hermione nodded and headed to her room for the first time in a long time.
Hermione soaked in her tub for a good hour, scrubbing every part of her body, especially her scar, making sure it didn’t get infected or so she hoped. As she got out of the tub she put on her silk robe and diffused her curls. Once she was finally done she put on a dress that had been gifted to her by her best friend Kaylee, who was also the princess of Japan and a student at Mahoutokoro, another royal family that had wizard blood in their line. It was a beautiful lilac color and suit her perfectly. Being reminded of her friend, she picked up her magical mirror and hoped that Kaylee would do the same. In a matter of seconds, the mirror showed the image of a joyful Kaylee.
“I heard the news about what happened at Hogwarts! Let me guess, you were there since you pulled a disappearing act on us! I am mad!” Kaylee paused for a second, but then said, “But I’m glad you’re okay.” Hermione smiled slightly, taking a deep breath.
“Thanks, Kay. It was… difficult to say the least. At least I can say I survived hours of torture at the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange.” Hermione didn’t know how to sugarcoat that at all, so she just kind of dropped the information.
Kaylee’s jaw dropped, “I’m sorry, what happened?”
Hermione bit her lip, “Oops?”
Kaylee’s eyes widened, “Do you have any post cruciatus symptoms?” Hermione nodded, “Just tremors sometimes, and a huge scar but that’s because she may have carved mudblood into me. Speaking of, do you know of any powerful glamour charms?”
Kaylee sighed, rolling her eyes, “Only you would have to ask me that question. Let me walk to our grimoire and check.”
Kaylee walked to her family grimoire, and after questioning Hermione more, found a suitable spell. “Try this, ‘Saiaku no kekkan o kabā suru.’ It should do the job.”
Hermione nodded, repeating the phrase aloud, “Saiaku no kekkan o kabā suru.” and wandlessly placed the glamour.
Kaylee smiled at her, “I see your Japanese and wandless magic has gotten better.”
Hermione smirked, “I practiced a bit, but I also didn’t want to use this.” she said, holding up Bellatrix’s wand. Kaylee was shocked, “Is that the wand of… her?” Hermione shook her head, saying, “It’s the only one that I have right now. I would get a new one, but Ollivanders is closed, and in England.”
Kaylee facepalmed, letting out a laugh, “You forgot didn’t you?”
Hermione squinted, trying to remember what Kaylee was talking about when she finally remembered. “What would I do without you!” and dropped the mirror on her bed to go into her closet, finding a wand box hidden behind some purses.
She grabbed it and ran back to the mirror, “I got it! I totally forgot your family made me a custom wand as a gift!” Hermione opened the box to reveal a wand made of cherry wood that was 12 inches long with a phoenix feather core.
“Well, give it a wave!” Kaylee shouted excitedly as Hermione pointed the wand at Bellatrix’s shouting, “Incendio!” sending the wicked woman’s wand up in flames.
“That felt good,” Hermione said with a deep breath. Kaylee smiled, then gasped, “Have you told the chosen one and the redhead about, well, princess you yet?” Hermione nervously asked, “What if they get mad?”
Kaylee tilted her head slightly and exhaled, “Well that’s to be expected. You kept a big secret, but they love you and will accept you no matter what.” They talked on for a while longer before Hermione finally fell asleep, tired from the long day she had, resting up for the long day that was to come tomorrow.