The Pawns, the Rooks, the Knights, and the Queen and King
Summary: "We are all but pieces in his game, no one knows their true role. But whether I'm a pawn, a rook, a knight, or even a queen, I will always be sacrificed for the King. Now tell me why I should return to a game in which I will have to sacrifice myself for another, with no gain of my own?" "Simple." He smirked. "Just because he set up the game, doesn't mean the players always follow."
Chapter One: Another Life
Miss Hermione Granger,
We cordially invite you to the ten year reunion of your graduating class here at Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft this Saturday, August 13th at noon. We look forward to seeing you.
Your Headmaster,
Albus Dumbledore
P.S. I sincerely hope that you will come.
Like hell I'm going to go, Hermione thought, as she tore the paper into little bits and threw it into the trash can as she walked towards her large bedroom. Sighing, she slipped out of her white blouse and black knee length skirt, and into a silk, red night dress. The night dress had a low v-neck and barely reached her knees. The dress was backless and was held by a thin strap over her shoulder. Despite how revealing it was, it had a certain sophistication that Hermione liked. Throwing her clothes on the ground, she took the clip out of her hair and shook out her strict bun. Ahh, finally, she thought as she freed her hair. Walking towards the large, burgundy bed, she threw herself on it and sighed in content. Closing her eyes, she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
Rrring! Rrring! Rrring!
What the fuck?! She thought as she struggled to get up from bed. Looking at the clock on her nightstand; she saw that it was but three in the morning. Groggily she smacked the speaker phone button and said, "What?" harshly.
"Morning Meia," a sweet sing-song voice answered. "You would never guess what happened today my dear."
"Pray tell what could be so important that you must wake me up at this ungodly hour Leila?" Hermione sighed, her annoyance quickly replaced by exhaustion. "And what are you made of? We've been up for the past week fixing the deal my younger brother made with Steller Tech, and here you are, singing."
"You would be to if you know what I know," she sang.
"Fine what is it? Don't keep me dying in suspense," she exasperated, rolling her eyes.
"The witch that screwed us over with the deal apparently tried to merge with Stellar Tech."
"What?!" Hermione yelled, quickly jumping out of the bed and grabbing the phone. "This is good news how?!" she asked infuriated.
"Well," her second in command friend sang again, annoying her.
"Talk now," Hermione said venomously.
"Stellar Tech agreed to merge with her only because the CEO apparently merged himself to her, thus her getting the deal and which was why she was brazen enough to even suggest it in the first place. However, the board members found out, and threw the CEO into the streets, and now we got the deal. Contract was just signed by yours truly just now."
"Yes!" Hermione yelled into the phone happily. Weeks of work had finally paid off. Hadn't it been for her younger brother's screw up with the public with his affair with a married actress, they would have gotten the deal already but what's done was done. She wasn't mad at her brother, for the press hadn't gotten into the heart of the problem. The actress was being abused, and her brother fell for her and helped her. What made the deal a total screw up was the fact that that bitch Caridee Woods from Inner Inc. had butted in, and made the whole affair a scandal and got her company, Granger Corp, a bad image. After that, the bitch stole the three billion dollar contract with Stellar Tech, and had shoved it in her face. For the past week or so, she and Leila had worked their connections from left to right and right to left just to work up their image and to put out the best technology possible to prove to Stellar that they're company wasn't going downhill in the least.
"That's not the best part!" Leila screamed, stopping Hermione in mid-air. Hermione thought it sounded as if Leila's been waiting to give her this last bit of news since the beginning. "The best part is that Inner Inc, was affected by the scandal, which was blown up by, who else but me. In the process I kind of, maybe, probably, suggested to the press that they had some illegal transactions and false bookings."
"You what?!"
"Payback," Leila defended herself. "I was just bs-ing the press, how was I suppose to know that…dun dun dun…THEY ACTUALLY DID! INNER INC, YES THE COMPANY THAT HAS BEEN RUNNING HEAD TO HEAD WITH OURS FOR THE PAST FIVE YEARS IS CLOSING DOWNNNN!!!"
"…you're kidding right?" Hermione finally said after a brief silence, Leila was the best lying businesswomen she knows, and although she may be one of the few people who can discern her lies from truth, she wasn't sure with this one.
"No my friend," Leila sang again, "this is for real. Turn the news on."
Immediately, Hermione jumped out of bed only to be caught by her silk blanket and fall on her face. Scrambling to get up, she ran towards the large plasma and turned the television on, forgetting that the remote was but on her night stand. True to her word, the news were showing the arrest of the blonde, green eyed bitch, and several other major shareholders. What was best was that the news lady who as of today, Hermione thought was looking only more beautiful, despite the heavy make-up she usually criticized her for, quote and unquote, "Inner Inc. for the past five years had been neck to neck to Granger Corp. Apparently though, the only reason they were neck to neck were due to false listings and illegal dealings. Granger Corp, is once again the top technology producing company."
Can her day be any better? Hermione thought as she laughed at Caridee's state. Even then the bitch was still trying to fight off the policemen saying that it was all a mistake and that when she got out, she'd fire them all.
"What's wrong Albus?" McGonagall asked worriedly, as she saw how tired the great Albus Dumbledore was in stroking his phoenix.
"I sent the reunion invitations."
"….she trashed it didn't she?" she asked, as she sighed as well and sat down tiredly as well.
"I guess this old man doesn't deserve her forgiveness anyways," he sighed, shaking his head.
"Don't be like that Headmaster," a voice from the shadows called out as that person stepped away from the shadow of the room to reveal none other than the Harry Potter. "I'm sure Hermione will forgive you."
"Yes, and the stars will rain from the heavens," a wry voice said, stepping out from the shadows as well, revealing a silky, silver-blonde haired young man. "The man allowed her parents to die, used her as a petty pawn to get the boy blunder in shape, and merely discarded her at the end."
"Malfoy," McGonagall shrieked.
"No no, Minerva," Dumbledore sighed, "he's right, I did. I never thought of her feelings and although she completed her tasks, she is now the muggle-born prodigy witch hated by the entire wizarding world for supposedly, "allowing Voldemort to escape.""
"I'm sorry headmaster," Harry started again, "I was the one who did it, but Hermione took the blame and now –"
"What's done is done Potter," Malfoy sneered. "Let the girl be Dumbledore, quit pressuring her to return." He said coldly. "We are all but pawns in your little game and she's fulfilled her duty, let us complete ours so that we may be free as well."
Dumbledore then looked at Malfoy fully and waited a few moments before saying, "You really think that Miss Granger is no longer of use to us? She is one of the key players, and the game cannot continue without her, or any of you."
Humming to herself as she stepped out of the shower, she slipped into her bath robe, and made some coffee for herself, and set some raspberry tea for her second in command friend, Leila Grayheart. True to her last name, she saw everything in shades of gray. "There are always good things to bad things, and bad things to good things." She had repeatedly said it to Hermione ever since they first met in college, always reminding her of this little philosophy. Now, they were good friends, and Leila was a great business partner. Coming from a humble family, she handled everything with care and only invested in things she knew would make money. She had betted on Hermione that she would take her family business to a new level and indeed she had. Before Hermione took over the company at seventeen, the Granger Corporation was but a few million dollar establishment with but an overview of Britain and France. Now, the company had bases in both America and Japan, and is one of the major companies to put out high-tech products at low cost revenues and slightly high prices to their products. The name itself was trusted over the years, and Hermione couldn't be happier.
"Hermione!" she heard, followed by someone banging on her door.
Smiling, she went to open the door only to reveal a young woman her age with dark brown hair, darker than herself, and emerald eyes. Her hair was in a high ponytail that reached her shoulders, and she was wearing black square glasses. She wore black, baggy pants that reached her knees, a loose-fitting blue t-shirt that had the number 00, and one inch black high heels.
"Finally a break from the evil CEO," Leila laughed as she plopped herself down onto Hermione's black leather couch. Throwing her black leather purse to a side, she laid down on the couch and sighed.
"Hush unless you want me to take away your day off and send you to work again," Hermione kidded, as she made her way back to the living room with tea, coffee, and some lemon cakes she made herself. Unlike Hermione, she disliked coffee for its caffeine, and loved tea.
"Hey…" Leila said in a confused tone. "What's this?"
"What's wha-" Hermione stopped dead in mid-sentence. She saw Leila reading the letter from she received last night. What? She thought, I ripped it to shreds and threw it in the trash! How'd it—
Before she can repeat her thoughts, she heard two soft popping sounds behind her, and evidently so did Leila as she quickly turned around to look towards Hermione, who now had a two pairs of hands over her mouth and another pair on her waist.
Moving with speed Hermione hadn't known she possessed after all these years, she grabbed her hand yelling, "Hey!"
Before she knew it, she was no longer in her room and felt her apparating with her two uninvited guest. Before her surroundings changed, she saw that her friend too was being apparated along with her.
Oh dear, Hermione thought, this can't be good. She knew that it was probably Dumbledore's people who kidnapped her, but having a muggle friend along for the ride definitely won't be good. They'll have to put a memory charm on her, and God's knows what that'll do to her brain if done wrong. Silently, she cursed whoever was kidnapping her, and how careless they are.
a/n abrupt I know, but I'm planning to speed things up, so they needed to be kidnapped now. Further explanations as to what happened, and why Hermione left the wizarding world in next two chapters. There'll be an interesting turn, I promise. ;)