Extra Ordinary

Viktor sighed again, wrapped in robe and contemplating the shoe on his nightstand. A shoe forged of magic, completely impossible, but every mage he’d consulted said the same thing: a special and nearly impossible glass filled with pure magic.

Of all the days to be forgetful, Viktor, he thought abysmally licking his lips and walking towards his desk. There were so few clues, so few things that he’d been able to remember from the ball, from everyone he’d questioned thereafter about her. She hadn’t told anyone her name, or perhaps hadn’t made it a point that anyone should remember anything beyond the fact that she was funny and brilliant--things he knew already.

Vladimir came in looking rather grave, “Tell me something good, Vlad’. I’m begging you.”

“Your grandmother still expects you in the library.”

He chuckled, mirthlessly, such was the state of his life it seemed. After she’d escaped and Viktor had set about asking everyone she’d spoken to about her and Stanislav had made his announcement. There had been such ceremony around Viktor handing over the staff of Marvolo’s ruler and Stanislav naming him the heir apparent. He’d been just as shocked as everyone else to hear it, but Stanislav only smiled.

Hence why he was due to see his grandmother about the country’s financials and still in charge of planning the destruction and memorial ceremony.

A gown from Granger Enterprises, a company he thought had long been gone, and magic shoes. May the gods have mercy on him.

His grandmother smiled and bade him to take a seat before trying to walk him through the rather important merchants.

“There’s Malfoy Expeditions, but before my calculations, they aren't seeing much revenue and have been in a steady decline since long before the war…”

He looked over the documents, over the sigils of each enterprise and stopped on one, familiar and pulling on the back of his mind… it was the same that was the heel of the magic shoe, the same that was on the back of the carriage.

“Who is this? What company is this?”

She looked at it, “That’s Granger Enterprises. Muggle family that has been around for centuries. The current heir is the daughter of the late William Granger.”

He swallowed and worried his lip, flipping through the financials. It had been growing steadily over the years, turning to stagnation sometime during the war, but if the calculations were correct they were heading back onto the growth path.

“Surprisingly, they handle a lot of the internal trade and external trade with nearby countries.”

“Granger Enterprises,” Viktor said.

“What is it Vitya?”

“The woman,” he said. “The woman from the ball… she had this sigil on her carriage said that she was testing out a prototype on behalf of Granger Enterprises…”

“Oh,” she said, “Vitya, what are you saying?”

“We’re dragon hearts, baba,” he said sadly looking up at her and she gasped. “I… She wouldn’t even tell me her name.”

“Oh Vitya, I--”

“Your Highness!” Vladimir came bursting in. “Your Highnesses, come! It’s the king!”

Viktor was up and out the door faster than Vladimir could speak, running down the hall towards his parent’s chambers and running in but what he saw was not what he was expecting.

Sobbing, the twisting of his heart from his mother’s sobbing, his brothers perhaps glaring at him… none of that.

Ekaterina was crying yes, but clinging to his father, her face in his shoulder as he rocked her gently, standing tall and pressing kisses to her dark hair trying to soothe her.

“Shh, love, I have you. It’s alright. It’s alright.”

There’s something… that he can’t place about his father’s movements. No longer stuttering with pain, no longer hesitant and sluggish, but as smooth and graceful as he remembered from when he was a child.

“Tatko?” Viktor asked confused looking at his parents.

Stanislav looked at him and grinned, opening his arms to bade him come closer to squeeze him tightly as Ekaterina, clenched her fists in his dressing robe.

“Good morning, dear Vitya. Any luck finding your forgetful princess?”

“What is going on tatko?”

“It would seem to me that your forgetful princess is some sort of botanical genius,” he said pleasantly, wrapping his arms around Ekaterina so she relaxed a little more. “She gave me this… flower I suppose, right out of her hair and bade me give it to Madame Pomfrey. I was feeling… quite out of it last night and whatever Madame Pomfrey did with it, I really couldn’t follow what the woman was saying about its properties, but I woke up feeling right as rain.”

Viktor nodded and looked to his mother before biding them goodbye and promising to find her. He turned to Vladimir as he came out and told him to ready a horse for him, he had an announcement to make in town.

“Of course,” he said and rushed off leaving Viktor to go get dressed in something relatively princely before meeting Vladimir in front of the palace to head into the city. He took the registered information of Granger Enterprises with him and trotted into town.

Hermione isn’t feeling entirely better, but just like with her grief, she has more than enough work to get done that she can’t really feel the pulsing pain in her chest. It seemed to be getting worse even as determination seemed to push through it. She felt sick.

Harry was freaking out about occupying his parent’s seat in the Wizengamot, about Ginny and about the fact that Hermione seemed to be out of it and guzzling painkilling potions everyday.

“My dear, you’re not looking well,” Minerva said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Perhaps you should take a break?”

She shook her head, “I have one more stop to make and then I’ll rest, I promise.”

Minerva nodded warily as Hermione went inside Snape’s office to make another payment on her debt. She set the money on the desk and looked out the window at the sound of hooves on the ground.

She ducked back from the sights of the window and pressed a hand to her heart. Severus gave her a curious glance but went back to glancing. She heard someone dismount and then Viktor’s voice.

“I am proud to announce that by some art and perhaps grace of the woman who ran from me at the ball, my father, the King’s, health has improved drastically. The court physician believes he will be our King for many more years to come.”

A cheer went up around the courtyard and Hermione could only sigh with relief.

“That being said, I must ask everyone for their aid in finding this woman. The Forgetful Princess as she is being called, the only clue I have is that she was dressed by Granger Enterprises. I would ask that a representative of Granger Enterprises come to the palace before the week’s end.”

Hermione’s eyes widened.

“I mean to find her,” he said solemnly. “She is my dragon heart.”

A gasp went around and she worried her lip. What the hell was she going to do now? She was just weeks away from getting her wizarding license and then Viktor had to go and do this! How was she going to walk the town like normal?

A glamour? She thought and discarded that thought all together. Viktor was a mage, he would know. Polyjuice wouldn’t work since she had no idea how long he would want to question her for. Horse hooves grew more distant and people began to murmur on the streets.

She’d used just enough of a glamor at the ball, but now that they were confirmed as dragon hearts and their magic had met, he would be able to see through it completely. Severues handed her her receipt and once she was sure it was correct, she stepped out of the building. Minerva stood stock still and pale.

“My dear, what are you going to do?” Minerva asked.

They walked quickly down the street to her office. Once inside, Minerva cast a privacy spell and began to wring her hands.

“Dragonhearts? Dear girl, you either have the luck of the gods or they hate you. I’m not sure which it is!”

Hermione chuckled, “Neither do I.”

“What will you do?” Minerva asked. “You can’t go to the palace, they’d--”

“I know,” she said and looked at Minerva, “My only hope is to send you in my place.”

Hermione sighed and massaged her forehead, “How did it come to this?”

It was a dangerous game that she had to play. She had to get her wizarding license first. She had to pay the Malfoys back before the deadline and then she could maybe disappear and run Granger Enterprises from somewhere else.

If the royal family found out that a muggle born was their son’s dragonheart, there was no telling what would happen to her. She was already in a precarious position before simply being a muggleborn witch and now this.

“They’ll try me for blood treason,” Hermione said, “And everything will be ruined.”

Minerva wrung her hands, “But you can’t hide from his majesty forever, Hermione. You are good, but not that good.”

“I know,” she said. “I just have to do it long enough that I will at least not be killed.”

Minerva nodded, “What is your plan exactly?”

Hermione looked at her and shook her head, “For once, I don’t have one.”

*

Minerva walked briskly to the palace, nodded at the guards, and followed one of the staff members up the stairs to where Viktor’s temporary study was. She took a deep breath and walked into the office when allowed.

He looked up and smiled, “Hello ma’am, what can I do for you?”

“I am here as a representative of Granger Enterprises,” she said. “As you requested.”

“Yes,” he said, “Please sit down. Forgive me, I was expecting the heir to be here and you look nothing like the late William Granger.”

She smiled, “That would be because I’m am simply the account keeper for the heir. She had to see to something urgent for the week and asked that I come as she was sure that most questions you would have I could answer.”

“Fantastic,” he said. “Do you know where I might find the woman from the ball?”

Minerva frowned, feeling something odd and he smiled.

“Please know that the castle, especially my study, is lined with truth spells as I often preside over court and hold interviews.”

Shit, she thought.

“Yes, your Majesty, but I am not at liberty to divulge such information.”

He lifted an eyebrow, “And why is that?”

“Other than it is a great breach of privacy?” Minerva said. “The authority to turn over records of any kind short of court order is held with the owner of the company.”

He smiled, “Do you think I cannot get a court order?”

“Obviously that is not the case, your highness. I mean only to ask on the young lady’s behalf to be reasonable.”

“Reasonable?” He asked and stood up to walk to the window, “Do you know what a dragonheart is, Mage McGonagall?”

Pray you are making your way out of the city right now, lass, Minerva thought. That was the plan at least for Hermione to leave Surtse’s capital and get her wizarding license in a smaller town and if not there then in another country.

A wizarding license would not save her from blood treason penalties, but it would make it less likely that someone would charge her with it. Minerva knew too well that if they found that Hermione did not have her wizarding license, they would assert that she purposefully went after Viktor in an attempt to muddle the line and start another blood war even though Hermione did not know he was the prince until sometime during the ball.

“Of course, I do.”

“Then you should know that I am being as reasonable as I can be,” he said. “I can feel her fear even beneath this strange calmness. I can feel her getting further away from the capital as well.”

Oh dear,  she thought. Whatever had happened had been potent enough to give them that level of connection, or had it simply been because Hermione had been containing her magic so long?

“Unfortunately, the border to Surtse is closed without travel visa and as you know those have to be approved weeks in advance between countries.”

Gods have mercy...

*

“Travel visa,” the soldier said holding out his hand.

She handed over her traveling book in relief. She had figured this was going to happen  and had asked for an expedited homeland visiting visa from Espirit. The man waved her on and she walked over the border and into free land. Hermione knew the rules well enough to know that she could train in Surtse, but in order for it to be official and airtight, she would have to get her license in the place that should have had wizarding custody over her: her mother’s home country. It took three days for her to arrive in Espirit and find lodging. The next day would be her exam and then she could at least breathe a bit.

Just a bit longer, she thought.

By her calculations, if she pulled money out of her savings account, she could pay the Malfoys in full within a week. At the very least, if she was going to be arrested, then Granger Enterprises would remain hers.

With a deep breath, she began to pen the letter to McGonagall making sure to keep it as business-related as possible in case Minerva was being watched, which she undoubtedly was.

Hermione only hoped that it wouldn’t end as badly as it could. She’d drafted up placeholder contracts and obscured the terms and such so much so that it would be impossible to know anything more than Granger Enterprise went into business with Madame Malkin and sent a young lady who worked for the company as a representative on their merchant’s invitation and that she had volunteered for the task. Since there was no real consideration exchanged because the dress and things all remained property of Granger Enterprises, there hadn’t needed to be a name given.

It was a lot of legal loops, but it would stand in court. She sent her letter in the morning on her way to her exam. She passed easily and walked out of the building with a brand new license to the wand shop. It took two hours to find the wand that she didn’t make things blow up with, but when she exited the building she came upon a sight she had not been expecting nor could have anticipated given the distance between Surtse and Espirit.

Viktor sitting on his broom in light armor.

“Viktor…”