Prologue
Prologue
"Who's there?" she cried in determination. "Show yourself!"
The silence remained and her heart thumped faster.
She clawed her fingers tighter around her wand in her hand, all of her senses on high alert for any sign of movement or any sound at all.
London night has always been cold but there was something different about the weather that night.
"I'm not afraid of you," Hermione said audible enough to be heard but not loud enough for the other Aurors to hear her should it have been a call for help.
Something cold passed her surroundings.
And then she heard it - the sound of that clanking metal again and the steps of boots clicking.
"Show yourself!" she repeated, this time impatiently.
Her brown eyes remained rooted on the spot where she heard the sound but her body was alert for any close movement or attack.
Another long silence and then she felt it: her feet slightly skidded.
She looked down in reflex, wand hand pointed on the solid ground - or what has been.
Soft smoke was emitting from the ground and slowly, the ground started to turn into - was that ice?
But before she could react, there came a flash of green light around her that vanished as fast as it had come.
Hermione took a deep breath, wand tighter in her hand as her mind raced for a possible solution.
Everything around her turned pitch-black except for the grounds she was stepping on which seemed to turn into an ice-cold floor.
A flash of light disturbed her thoughts.
Her eyes averted back up, wand at the ready.
"This isn't real." Hermione repeatedly told herself. "Just an illusion. This isn't real."
"How do you know what is real and what isn't?"
A flash of green and gold appeared.
Hermione looked up but there was nothing, just a voice.
Or was that just a voice inside her head?
The air was becoming cold and somewhat hypnotic.
She began to feel drowsy.
"I'm - " she began, searching for the right words. "I'm not - I'm not unintelligent."
The voice laughed mockingly at her.
Hermione shook her head, trying to refocus her mind and visions.
She realized how stupid she might have sounded.
"I must admit that is an amusing answer - one that I did not anticipate."
Hermione listened intently, listening to the voice closely if she knew it.
It was deep, cold & yet mannered in a way.
"How about you come out of the dark and I'll show you what's amusing?"
Hermione dared the voice without a face.
There came a gap of silence and she thought that it had gone.
"I think not." the voice answered her. "I like it this way. Watching you stammer in fear, now rethinking if this was a good idea in the first place."
"I'm not stammering in fear." Hermione defensively said. "But if you show yourself I'm going to show you what fear is like."
The voice laughed harder, louder this time.
Not scary, not threatening - a burst of genuine amused laughter.
Then silence.
There was a shift in the air as it had become colder and ice getting thicker.
Hermione started to shiver in the cold but she didn't lower her wand.
"Show yourself or I will strike!" she repeated angrily this time.
"No, you wouldn't." the voice answered but this time it was louder.
He was closer to her than she had expected.
The breeze around her became colder as an emerging figure from the shadows appeared before her.
But before she could make but the shape completely, shards of ice came flying out of nowhere aimed straight at her.
She moved fast with sharp & agile skills enough to protect herself.
"Last warning." Hermione breathlessly said finding back her balance. "I will really strike if you -"
"No, you wouldn't." the figure said coming clearer into view. "You couldn't."
The cold around her became sharper by the moment & somewhat disabling her to move a muscle, blurring her visions slowly.
But she could see a pair of beautiful gleaming eyes staring excitedly in her direction with a daunting smile.
Their eyes moved & focused at one brief moment.
And as if it was a signal, the green light came from his direction but Hermione was quick to defend and protect herself.
She fell back to the icy cold ground with a painful thud and a slight gash on her knee.
"Amusing." the voice whispered with malice as she heard the footsteps circling her fallen figure on the ground. "Is that what you call magic?"
Hermione opened her mouth to answer when a very strong gush of wind passed them and suddenly, she felt herself being tugged and pulled by an unknown force.
Her wand slipped from her hand.
Hermione screamed as she felt the strong sensation of falling aimlessly and the next time she opened her eyes, she could barely comprehend what she was seeing.
The universe - the stars of the galaxy, planets from afar - and every bit of glimmering stones & rock - floating yet still around her.
The sensation of falling disappeared when she felt a very painful tug at her arm.
She looked up and saw a gloved hand reaching out for her to help her up.
"Take my hand."
Hermione looked up at the same voice but this time it was warm and almost intimate.
But she couldn't move now.
Her body felt frozen; not a muscle in her body could move except her eyes. She had hit solid ground again but something was different.
She looked up and could not believe what she was seeing.
The universe – all the stars of the galaxy, the planets from afar, and every gleaming bit of rock, stone and everything else in between – was shining before her eyes – only a few feet from where she lay fearful and shaking in the coldness.
"Hermione!" the voice called her name in fear. "Take my hand!"
Before she could decide upon what to do, the grounds beneath her started to shake and a strong quake started collapsing everything around her.
Her reflexes were suddenly able to move and she reached out of the outstretched hand just in time before the grounds beneath her collapsed completely.
The hand grasped her tightly, protectively.
"Your Majesty!"
A voice from afar called up and the hand around hers slightly moved at the distraction.
"Your Majesty, we have to go, please! Your mother -"
"Go with her!" the voice answered and Hermione the hand grasping her tighter.
"You can't bring her with us, your majesty!" the voice desperately yelled back at him. "You can't take her with you - she's not from our world - the king would not be pleased!"
There was a flash of light and for the first time, Hermione was able to fully see the image of the man holding her.
He was beautiful; eyes bright as the moon, hair dark as a raven and a golden helmet & green & black robes as if one of a warrior made his presence nothing less or short of majestic & of valor.
"Don't leave me." Hermione found herself saying her other hand reaching out for him. "Please don't let me go."
"I won't." he answered her grasping her tightly with both his hands now as the grounds beneath the both of them started to shatter and collapse completely. "I won't. I'm with you. For all time."
Hermione looked back at him, tears started to form in her eyes because she was sure that if not both of them, she was sure to die.
"Always." Hermione found herself answering without really knowing why.
And then the cliff she was barely hanging on completely gave away.
And then darkness.
"Hermione!" Harry started shaking her out of the bedsheets that were seemingly strangling her. "Hermione, wake up!"
Hermione's scream filled the whole room until her eyes rolled open and she was gasping for air in Harry's arms.
She was choking, gasping for air.
"You're alright, you're alright." Harry assured her, allowing her to hang onto him until she had contained and regained herself.
"I'm alive.." Hermione gasped as she held Harry tightly. "I'm alive, I'm alive.."
"You keep having this dream." Harry gently said as she slowly calmed down in his arms. "Are you sure you don't want us to go to -"
"I'm not.. I'm not crazy." Hermione quickly told him realizing what he was suggesting. "I'm not going to some dream doctor to -"
"Alright, alright." Harry quickly brushed the idea away. "Drink some water."
He conjured a glass and gently let her go so she could drink herself.
He watched as she slowly drank, eyes & body recovering.
"Is it the same dream?" he asked her, concerned.
"Yes." Hermione lied at him. "Same."
She had not seen the face of the man in the dream for the past weeks she had been having the dream.
Only tonight.
And her mind now forced itself to recuperate so she could remember the face she had finally seen in full.
But like any other dream, it started to fade away the moment one wakes up completely.
But before she could discuss it with Harry they both looked up at her open window where a glowing light started to emerge.
Harry was quick with his wand and Hermione immediately grabbed her from beneath her pillow.
It was a Patronus – a Ministry of Magic Patronus.
Hermione fidgeted and unlocked her small apartment window and let through the Patronus that had been locked outside due to the charms she placed all over her place.
The bedside clock told her it was half-past two in the morning.
And a Ministry Patronus at this hour?
She looked up at the Patronus that then slowly turned into a figure of an old woman.
“All Ministry Heads. Workers. Staff. Please report immediately to the Ministry of Magic. The Minister of Magic shall await for your presence. Please come immediately. This is an emergency. This is a level seven emergency."
The glow of the light of the woman and the Patronus itself had disappeared in a haze of smoke and darkness covered the whole room again.
Hermione had barely caught up her breath and had her mind and thoughts back together and in order.
"Hermione." Harry said in a hush as he crossed the room for his Auror's robes. "Come on. Are you - can you-?"
“Level Seven.” Hermione repeated holding her wand tightly and trying to stabilize her thoughts to understand what that meant.
An immediate and dangerous attack at the ministry.
"Can you-"
"Just give me.. just give me a moment." Hermione said watching Harry take her traveling cloak out of her closet.
"We don't have a moment." Harry said handing it to her. "If you can't come, I'm sure they will-"
"I'm fine." Hermione swallowed hard, gripping herself together. "I'm.. just give me a second."
"What in the world..." Hermione whispered as she arrived at the scene with Harry.
An Auror had been thrown up in the air but before he landed to his death on the stone-cold marble floor, two other Aurors managed to save him at the last minute.
A blinding flash of light exploded & destroyed a lot of objects in the Great Hall of the Ministry of Magic.
A team of Aurors was already gathered around the hall, wands at the ready with the Ministry heads right behind them as a second defense.
echoed the hall as Aurors gathered.
Harry and Hermione had their wands out as they made their way through the crowd of Ministry officials to get into the middle of the scene.
They both looked up as the Minister of Magic and some other department heads raised their wands and sealed and contained something at the midst of the room.
“What is that?” Hermione asked Harry as she pointed at what they were concealing in a magical cage in the middle of the room.
Harry's eyes moved quickly around the scene.
What looked like an enormous meteoroid landed right in the middle of the hall which seemed to be emitting a strong power was now being magically held down & caged by the Ministry officials.
"I don't think that's a good idea." Hermione said as she watched the Auror's failing attempt to contain the glowing rock. "I don't think - whatever that is - it likes to be treated that way."