Trips to hell and heaven.
Prologue: Everything goes wrong.
Hermione was sitting on the roof of the Astronomy Tower. The night was alight with thousands of stars and the full moon was high in the sky. But the light within Hermione's eyes had gone out hours ago and her tears had dried in the cold wind of winter. Her sight was fixed on the lake, down on the Hogwarts Grounds. The spectacle of the light shimmering on the water was truly magical but she wasn't seeing it. What she was seeing were only the darkest patches, where the water was so deep that you needed magic to go all the way down. Her mind was still in overdrive, trying to process what she had been told that morning. She was supposed to take the train back to London. But she had been called to the Headmaster's office at the last minute…
"Hermione. I've just received this."
The Headmaster was looking sad, the twinkling in his eyes absent. Hermione took the letter and knew as soon as she saw the Ministry of Magic's blazon on the envelope. She still opened it and read the letter.
"Of course, you can stay here for Christmas. I've already ordered your things back in your room."
Hermione nodded and walked out, the letter clutched in her hand.
The letter was still there. Hermione had been sorely tempted to rip it into tiny pieces, to forget about it, to deny what it told her. But she knew that it was true. She was now alone. She didn't any family anymore. She hadn't imagined that the pain would be so sharp. She didn't think her rage would be so fierce. Her parents had told her about the party they were organising: her aunts, uncles and cousins would be there when she would arrive to celebrate Hermione being chosen as the Head Girl. And all of them would spend Christmas together. She was supposed to meet the lot of them at King's Cross. She had warned her parents years ago. They knew a war was coming. They knew it wouldn't be fought only by the wizarding world. They knew they would be casualties among the Muggles as well. Hermione had told them to go away for a while. They hadn't listened, unwilling to leave her face this war alone. But now she was alone.
"The Headmaster forbad me from ducking points for your behaviour during the holidays. But sitting on the roof of this tower would be a good reason to do so tonight."
The sarcastic comment didn't even reach Hermione. She had grown use to Severus Snape's nasty comment over the years. As a matter of fact, she didn't even care about losing points for her House. The occasion was too good and the need to let out some of her anger too powerful.
"Well, it's too bad Snape cause you've just handed me the chance I've been waiting for seven years. You're nothing but a mean, heartless, pathetic, cheating piece of sh…"
"I can make your life a real nightmare so I would advise you not to finish that sentence, Miss Granger."
"Or else what? You're going to give me detention. I'm so scared. Maybe I should run and hide."
Hermione jumped from the roof onto the stoned floor, without realising that she would never had been able to do so without her wand in normal times. She walked up to Snape and looked deep into his black eyes.
"My life is already a nightmare, Snape. And honestly, I don't think you can understand."
"That's where you're wrong, Miss Granger, because I've been to in a very similar place to the one you're found yourself in today."
"And I guess that's why Dumbledore sent you to talk to me." Hermione said derisively, walking to the edge of the tower.
Snape just nodded, his smile matching the tone of her voice.
"We are quite different, Miss Granger." Snape said, dropping his usual sarcastic tone for a more thoughtful one. "The solution I had found at the time probably wouldn't work with you. But I think I know you enough to tell you this: if you find that your friends are not enough to help you, maybe your thirst for knowledge could."
Hermione swiftly turned round, her eyes fixed on the Potion Master.
"Actually, I think you might be right, Professor. Thank you."
Hermione ran past the quite amazed Snape and all the way back to her room. As this year Head Girl, she had some privileges, like her private room next to the Library. Once there, she rushed to her trunk, searching for the book that could very well be the key to her plan. She finally found her worn out copy of Hogwarts: a history. The page she wanted was marked and a particular part of it was highlighted in bright yellow.
It is general belief that the Founders, after Slytherin's departure, did not stay long at the school. In fact, Gryffindor was spotted several times in Africa shortly after. Hufflepuff is said to have gone to France and helped with the creation of BeauxbatonsAcademy. Slytherin disappeared for a while and finally turned up in Romania. Ravenclaw is said to have travel around the world before settling in Japan
Legend wants that the Founders put aside the different points of view one last time just before their deaths and went back to Hogwarts to protect as their most precious belongings. Many have searched for what these could be, but they have stayed concealed, as well hidden as the infamous Chamber of Secrets itself.
"I knew it."
Hermione went to her bedside table and grabbed the book there. She quickly went through the pages, looking for that particular paragraph. She smiled as she finally found what she was looking for.
It is very difficult to understand how Hogwarts was built. Of course, the Founders were probably very powerful witches and wizards, and they were the four of them, but they had to have helped to construct such a big and magical building. The fact is they were living about at the same time as another group of powerful magical people: Merlin, Vivian Dulac, Morgan Le Fay and Mordred Pendragon. It is true that the second group is said to have lived earlier, but no one has ever recorded their deaths. It is so possible that the Founders had the help of those other four.
In favour of this theory is the school motto 'Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus'. If Gryffindor's blazon was a lion, Slytherin's a snake, Hufflepuff's a badger and Ravenclaw's an eagle, then why talk about a dragon in the motto? Maybe as a hidden thank to the Pendragon wizards and witches, whose blazon was actually a dragon.
Hermione closed the book with a smile, recollecting several other bits of reading she had done, putting the pieces of this magical jigsaw together.
"Yes, the Pendragon clan certainly helped. But there is a lot more to it than that."
And as Hermione was getting ready to go to bed, a light was shining again in her eyes: pitiless, blazing revenge in soulless and dead brown eyes.
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