Summary: He is the demon of knowledge and he had loved her since the beginning of time. It is a love story that transcends time. The magical world doesn't believe in demons and the magical academic community Hermione works in does not believe in superstitions. But what if there's an element of truth to the stories. Could there be love along the way?

A/N: Inspired by a concept from Piers Anthony's Xanth Series. The idea came from this particular prompt: "The frozen lake had finally cracked open after all these frigid years. But it was not this fact that startled me. Rather, it was the single trail of footsteps that lead out." The use of the demon's name was derived from Gnostic texts. My muse always and remains to be Takeshi Kaneshiro.

The Dark Lake

Hermione's life after the war had been on most part uneventful. After a few months of mostly long distance relationship, Hermione and Ron realized that their relationship sprung from the excitement around the war and from Harry's adventures. But after a few months of actually dating him after she finished Hogwarts, they've decided to amicably break up.

Now, Hermione works for a magical research journal. Given her youth and being a newbie in the job, they've assigned her the one article nobody ever wanted, the magical environment of the Frozen Lake Forest.

Found somewhere in a remote highly warded area in Northern Japan lies what the wizardry world calls the dark lake. It was warded off against muggles to prevent them from entering the obviously magical place. Nobody knows or even remembers why no matter how hot the weather is, its waters remains frozen solid or why the lake or its surrounding area remains so dark even when the sun shines directly on it.

The forest surrounding the lake is filled with the most powerful and potent potions ingredients, some plants, animals or even trees within the area are considered endangered in many parts of the world. Some bizarre or even oddly shaped varieties of these creatures are found in this oddity, considered strange even in the magical world.

Wizards, normally a superstitious group, would not even stay long in the area, and none would even remain within the place once the sun sets.

…and Hermione's editor wants her to write a 5000 worded article about the place with with supporting pictures.

She just pitched in her newly brought tent. On the outside, it looks just like a small one person pitch tent but on the inside it looks like a charming cottage, it has three bedroom, one which she uses as an office and the other she uses as a library. She pitched her tent, warding the area, she then fixed her portable satellite so she can access the internet.

Yes, dear reader, you've read that right. Hermione managed to find a way around the incompatibility of magic and technology by creating a powerful nullifying charm in the area where she uses gadgets.

She went down to the nearby wizarding village wearing a translation charm so she can speak with locals.

Hermione had been in the area a week when, a translation charm in place, she first heard the legend of this place, which despite the superstitious nature of the wizarding world, most readily dismissed seeing that the magical world do not believe in demons.

From what she pieced together, thousands of years ago a young witch summoned a demon but was killed and the demon, finally out of control went on a rampage and started killing people. Thus, they used blood magic to bind the demon.

She knew that she cannot write this down, because after all their journal only deals with facts. Hermione had to snort at that one. After all, the non-magical world thinks magic is a bunch of hokum too.

Hermione had been familiarizing herself with the small forest. It wasn't as scary as many have implied, it certainly wasn't as dark as she expected it to be. The place held the most beautiful flowers she'd ever seen. The creatures that lived in it were gentler than the wild beasts by the accounts of some people.

The forest was teeming with all kinds of flora and fauna. One can feel the magic in the air even without knowing that this is the famed Frozen Lake Forest. Hermione never felt more at peace and as she walked in the forest, once even seeing a potioner who was gathering potion ingredients.

She took a lot of high quality videos and pictures and ran out of space and she had been taking pictures of the frozen lake. Unable to go back to her computer to transfer pictures and videos quite yet, she opened the side of the camera to change the memory card. As she did so, she accidentally cut herself and a drop of her blood landed on the frozen lake.

She continued taking pictures before she finally thought she'd gotten enough and left. She went back to her tent to continue writing her article. She didn't know but just then the waters underneath of the long frozen lake started to move and something underneath started open its eyes for the first time in around thousands of years.

She left the day after, taking the long distance floo home.

A short while after this, the frozen lake had finally cracked open after all these frigid years. The potioner who frequented the area wasn't startled by that. There was something else. She noticed the single trail of footsteps that lead out and she gasped and ran back to the village.

The stories weren't exactly true. He wasn't summoned, nor was he bound or forced into submission. Close to 12,000 years ago, a wizarding family from what would later on be called main continent of Asia to escape persecution. It was just opportune for them as it was around this time that the sea levels rose and separated the Japanese archipelago from the mainland continent.

They were a simple family, cultivating and tilling the land around them, practicing their magic and discovering new spells and potions with what they could find from the land. The girl, the youngest in the family of three, was more curious and inclined to create spells and magic.

He was observing humanity, he was after all the demon of knowledge, forbidden and not. He watched as she grew into power, into majesty and later on into knowledge. She was not the beauty her two older sisters were. But she was beautiful to look at, and fallen angel as he was, he could see right into her soul.
At first, he observed her, watching from a distance. But like moth into the flame, he couldn't help but get nearer.

The curiosity burned into something more. He took the guise of a mortal man, but she in her knowledge of the esoteric knew him for what he is. They met in the dense forestry. They conversed about magic. She showed her newly created spells, charms and potions while he taught her knowledge forbidden from mankind. He still wondered at how her soul remained pure and clean despite the tarnish he was staining it with. He wondered at her humanity, her relentless pursuit of knowledge and her endless well of kindness.

The mutual interest burned into love, while the demon, a creature that spawned off from the war waged in heaven millions of years ago couldn't really love. He felt an affection unlike something he ever felt before, even when he was still a heavenly being. Maybe, he was lying to himself and maybe what he really felt was love. In any case, he felt an attachment towards the girl unlike anything he ever felt before.

Then tragedy struck, the aggression between magicals and non-magicals did not really just sprung up from more recent historical aggression because there had been several thousands of years of friction between the two group. Whenever something disastrous something, a plague, an earthquake or anything, before the advent of medicine it was easy to blame those whose human logic cannot understand.

Magic is an aberration to muggles, both in the medieval times and in the ancient world. While it was worshipped in the times before the rise of Christianity, it was also feared and hated. The local chieftain's son died of what the modern day doctors would call cancer. There was a big tumor on his throat. Fear turned to hatred, forgetful of the help the family of wizards lent their village for years, they turned against them.

The flame-freezing charm read about by the students of magic in later days were thousands of years from being invented yet. The frenzied villagers surprised the family. They put up a fight but were severely outnumbered.

The youngest girl, the demon's lover ran to the woods where the demon would meet her. She called upon him. "Abraxas!" In a swirl of darkness, he arrived. He saw her and saw the villagers who proceeded to torture her. He saw red.

It was a matter of moments. The last of the villagers who attacked the family died. He set his sights to the village where the children and women await. The girl, barely alive tried to stop him but he wouldn't hear of it. She was already encased in a dome of healing he crafted for her. He bid her leave so he could avenger her. She begged the demon not to kill the children and womenfolk. He was determined. She had no choice really, she had seen his savageness in killing off those who did her family harm but she was a pure soul.

She had no choice, she knew him and she knew he wouldn't stop until he got rid of this land of humans. So she used her life force and sealed him in the lake next to where they were both standing. She laid a curse where he wouldn't be able to get out until she herself released him and that in itself is an impossibility seeing that she was dying. She, of course did not chalk up the fact that she can and would live again in another lifetime. He taught her well, he couldn't physically get out of the curse. But as the water drew him in and froze around him, he knew that once he gets out of this he would find her, whether to take vengeance or to shake her for stupidity, he didn't know which. All he knew was that his girl is a heroine to the end. He should have seen that coming.

Time passed, his magic seeped around the place where he was incarcerated. Given the concentration of magic, it encouraged wizards to live in the area. He dreamt, of the change in the world's civilizations, of wars, famine, chaos and of peace and growth of humanity. He dreamt of his beloved, her soul moving on from one body to another, seeking him. An addiction she couldn't assuage and a love unfulfilled.

Several millennia passed, he knew she was near. His forest hummed in tune to her magic and heartbeat. He wondered at the beauty of her soul, remaining untarnished even after all these time. He wanted to soil it, ruin her, make her dark. He wanted vengeance. Most of all he wanted her love.

Thus, when a drop of her reincarnation's blood fell atop his lake, the curse she put on him ended and he opened his eyes.

Do I continue this?