Whispers Of Truth
Chapter 3: The Girl Who Knows All, And Sees Nothing
Hermione Granger looked up from her summer homework when there was a knock on her room door, it opened, and her mother stuck her head through.
"Still going at it I see" her mother smiled.
"Yes, I'm almost done, just have to finish up my Potions essay next"
"Which could be done tomorrow, or even later, you have the whole summer dear"
"I know, I know, but—"
"You want to get it done now, rather than later" her mother said, quoting the words her daughter had been saying for what felt like forever.
Hermione playfully stuck her tongue out at her mother, who laughed.
"Your father and I are going to bed now, try not to stay up too late alright?"
"Okay"
Mrs. Ganger smiled, "Goodnight, sweet dreams"
From the girl's bed, Crookshanks meowed indignantly.
"And goodnight to you too Crookshanks" Mrs. Hermione said amusment in her voice.
"Goodnight mum"
Mrs. Hermione closed the door and her footsteps faded down the hall, Hermione went back to her homework. Everything was quiet save for her quill scribbling on parchment, her ticking alarm clock, Crookshanks's faint purring, and the usual noises the house made. An hour and a half after her mother came in, she is on her Potions essay and is half way done.
"Hello Hermione"
"Oh!" Startled Hermione dropped her quill, and turned in her chair to her bedroom window, there stood her friend Harry Potter by her window that was closed. Her desk light, showed a kind smile and gentle eyes.
"H-Harry!?" she exclaimed as she stood from her chair, "what are you doing here?! How did you get in my room?!"
Harry pressed a finger to his lips, "Please lower your voice" he whispered, "your parents are sleeping"
Hermione stared at the boy, mouth agape.
"You will catch flies like that"
Hermione closed her mouth, and watched as Harry went over and sat on her bed, "Hello Crookshanks" the boy said as he ran his fingers through the fur. Crookshanks's purr got louder.
"Harry" she finally said, voice lower than before, "what's going on?"
"Always the curious one" Harry said, "always thirsting for knowledge, it makes one wise."
Green eyes locked with hers, and for some reason, her body shivered and she had a need to run.
"But you'll always be thirsty for more, until that thirst consumes you"
Then she saw it, felt it. There was something there, something that was both great and terrifying.
"What are you?" she said, voice quivering slightly.
Harry looked away, and to Crookshanks who was now climbing into his lap, "I am not a what, but a who."
Hermione gulped, licked her lips, then after a moment she sat back down. "Alright then, who are you?"
Harry scratched the feline behind his ear, "I am Harry Potter, son of the late James and Lily Potter, Savior of the Wizarding World and according to others, the Chosen."
"Chosen?" She's never heard of such a name, never came across it in any book, but something in her recognized it. The witch wondered if it was her magic.
"It is a name the Children of Earth and Magic have given me and those like me" Harry nodded, "we do not mind the name, so we do not correct them"
"And what is a Chosen?" Hermione asked, her curiosity slowly replacing her fear, it helped that Harry's eyes were no longer boring into her own.
Crookshanks gave a grumpy meow when Harry stopped his scratching, and when the scratching didn't resume he nudged the still hands. Harry petted his head before running a hand down his back.
"Tell me Hermione, what do you know of Truth?"
"….I don't understand"
"Truth, is one of many, that Man seek to find; but few understand. The Chosen sees and understands. And with that understanding, we shape the world"
"Shape it how?"
The corner of Harry's lips curled up, "To see Truth"
"And how will you do that?"
This was sounding a lot like past dictators; they all spoke of uniting people, and country. To want to be great, and they used torture and death to achieve it. But Harry wasn't like that, he couldn't be, he was Harry. The boy who grew up thinking magic was make believe, who braved a Basilisk to save students who turned their backs to him because he had something that was considered evil. Who forgave the friend that thought he had put is name in the Goblet and didn't believe him when he said he didn't.
Harry who was shy, kind, sweet, and gentle.
The boy sitting on her bed, petting her cat, was not her Harry.
"What shape are you trying to make?" she asked.
"The books you have read, studied late at night. They tell you that Werewolves and Vampires are monsters. That Dragons are dangerous, and treat those who have great power, and the strength to choose servitude as nothing more than the dirt to which they walk upon. Those books, hide the truth. They hide the truth, because they have forgotten. Forgotten that they once walked side by side with the ones they called monster, that Dragons spoke many tongues and were the wise men."
"You intend to show them that…truth?"
"Yes"
"And what will come of that? War? Death? Genocide?"
"That path I chose is the one of peace. However, change is always met with resistance, because Man does not understand that change is needed. That without change they would not be, that change cannot be stopped, only delayed. So yes, the path of peace may also be the path of war and death, but; genocide is not. The Chosen Adolf Hitler, took that path and it did not end well for him or the people."
"Hitler was a Chosen?"
"Yes" Harry nodded, "Truth chose him, but he was broken from the first World War, and picked destruction and death as his path to show Truth"
"That is not very reassuring"
Harry smiled sadly, "Adolf Hitler, and Gellert Grindelwald to name a few, are the Chosen who chose such a path. However there are others who have chosen the other, Hogwarts Founding Members, the great wizard Merlin, Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martian Luther King Jr. The American president Abraham Lincoln started a war because his path was one of equality. American president Lyndon B. Johnson, while his path was subtle, it led to rights of all. The military general Sun Tzu understood that war was often unavoidable and taught its art in hopes that those who fought in it will learn. My path is their path; you do not need to fear me Hermione. Crookshanks does not, and we both know his judgment is a sound one"
Hermione looked at her cat, who had rolled over to his back for his belly to be rubbed, she had never seen him so affectionate with anyone beside her. The brainy witch wasn't sure if Harry was using some kind of spell that made him that way.
"What…what does that all have to do with me?" she asked looking back up at him, not in the eyes, "what do you want from me?"
"What I've had in the beginning, your growing loyalty, strength, wisdom, and council"
Her time in the Wizarding World had taught her that some things are not found in books and classrooms, and this, whatever this was. For all of her hesitations, and doubts, she knew that whatever was happening was going to change all that she knew. Still….
"What if I say no?"
"Then I will leave you to your path"
"Oh"
That sounded way too easy.
"So you really want peace?"
"I want it, but it will never be fully achieved, for as long as there is Man, there will never be peace"
The scary part, was that it was the truth, if History had taught her anything. It's that Man was always fighting each other.
"Then…then why bother, why not just destroy Man? Save you the trouble"
Harry looked right at her, eyes once again boring into her own, the corner of his lips curling up.
"It would be easier, wouldn't it" he said.
Hermione gulped.
Then after one last scratch to Crookshanks ear, Harry removed the feline from his lap and stood.
"When you have made you decision, come to the library, I'll be waiting"
Then with no warning of any kind, Harry was gone.
Hermione did not sleep.
~.~
The only library close to her house was called P. L. Travers library, it was within walking distance and Hermione spent much of her time there reading every book she could get her hands on. For years, she walked up and down the steps before her, never giving it much thought, but now; these steps plagued her.
"I must be mad" she thought.
Mad for what she was about to do, mad for no even telling her parents, someone about her meeting that Wednesday night. But, no matter how mad this was, she was not going to go back on her decision. She thought long and hard over her conversation with Harry and what she had saw, and came to only one conclusion.
Harry was her friend.
No matter who or what he was now, he will always be her friend, and from what she understood, pass the uneasiness and slight fear; her friend needed her. Wanted her by his side like always, to walk with him as the world started to change, and that was a certainty.
The Wizarding World was going to change, for good or worse.
"For good" she thought, "it's Harry, so it's for good"
With steely determination, Hermione walked up the steps to the door of the library, as the door closed behind her; she is unaware of the thick fog rolling in.
~.~
"Hello Hermione"
Hermione sat down in the seat across from Harry, the young witch read the title of the book that Harry hadn't looked up from when he greeted her. She's not sure what to make of the fact that her friend was reading Winnie the Pooh.
"For a bear of very little brain, Pooh is very insightful" Harry said.
"Um, if you say so?"
Harry chuckled before he put the book down, he stared at her, locking his eyes with hers. Lips curling up when she didn't look away.
"You have made your decision" he said.
"I have a feeling you already know my answer"
"For all that we are her pawns, even Life cannot not predict a human's every decision and reaction"
"So you don't know"
"I see and know Truth"
Hermione had a feeling that she was going to get a lot of vague answers for the many questions she had, as though he knew what she was thinking (and Hermione was sure he did), Harry's smile grew.
"I still have questions" she then said.
"Many of them, I imagine"
Hermione nodded.
"I shall answer them to the best of my abilities, however I will not do it here"
She figured that.
Harry got up, book in hand, and Hermione watched him disappear down the many shelves, after a moment she gets up and followed.
"You will not see your parents for a long time" Harry said when she found him, fingers trailing over the spines of the shelved books, eyes reading the titles, "perhaps never, and even if you do see them, you will be changed"
"I—said my goodbyes this morning" the young witch said, and they didn't even know that it was a long goodbye, as far as Mr. and Mrs. Ganger were concerned when they came home from work, their little girl was going to be there. "I left a note, told them that I was spending the rest of my summer with you, It wasn't a lie, however they may still worry"
Especially since she never mentioned it to them or even hinted at it, and that she left Crookshanks there as well.
"You will not be alone" Harry suddenly said, making Hermione's brow furrow in bewilderment, the boy smiled at her before going back to the books, "there will be others there, my allies and perhaps even yours, their names may have even reached your ears. Have heard many stories, both good and bad, or you may not, either way you need not fear them"
"And where is there?"
"A home"
Still not a good enough answer but it was the best she was going to get, "Is there anything else I should know?" she then asked.
"Perhaps, but our time is growing short"
Harry finally looked away from the books, and took steps toward her, when he was standing to her right he held out his arm.
"Shall we?" he then said.
Hermione looked down at the waiting arm then back at Harry's patient expression, with her hearting racing with a mixture of nervousness and excitement, Hermione wrapped her arm around Harry's and together they left the library.
"…..What just happened?"
Hermione blinked at the long stone halls that remained her of Hogwarts's own hallways, then back at her amused friend.
"Welcome to Avalon Castle, hello again Crookshanks"
Hermione jumped when she felt familiar feeling fur brush against her leg, the young witch looked down to see her cat looking up at her, patiently waiting to be picked up.
"I told you" Harry said when she looked at him, "you would not be alone"
Next Chapter: "Good evening Professor"
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