I have realized that I keep referring to the heroine of the story by two names. In all fairness, she goes by both names in both worlds. The Shire-folk and the Hogwartians call her by her mortal name, Hermione, while Aragorn, Gandalf, Legolas, and occasionally Ginny and Luna refer to her as Hísiven. Hope this clears up any confusions for those of you who're somewhat new to the story. If you are, please please please read the preceding part, Wild Star. Thank you.
Hermione and Ron finally found Harry. Outside of the Room of Requirement, or as she'd heard Legolas call it just before her departure, the Changing Room. She quite liked that.
"It's in here," he said. "What are those?" Harry's right hand gestured to the curved ivory objects Hermione had embellished her belt with.
"Basilisk fangs," she said, "since we lost the sword. Let's get to it."
The door opened, almost as though the castle recognized the powerful magic in the brunette's veins, and the three simply walked in. Ginny wrapped her immediately in a tight hug. "What's been going on?"
"I don't know, Gin," she said softly, glancing around as Harry greeted Mrs. Longbottom. "Listen to me," she told the redhead, "I'm going to give Tonks a spell that could kill anyone who used that spell – including you and me. She needs it. Avoid her wand at all times. All right?"
Ginny nodded, though her expression was curious as she watched Hermione move towards the pink-haired wonder of a witch.
"Tonks," she said, pulling her aside, "whatever you do, don't lose Gimli. He's a bit of a cocky Dwarf. Don't let his ego get the better of him, yes?"
"Well, why is he here? He can't use magic, can he?" Tonks replied, the tips of her hair turning bright red.
"No, but I've given him an enchanted ax," Hermione said, glancing at the dwarf. "Blood River will protect him from most spells and curses, absorbing the ones it cannot effectively block – all except the Killing Curse. Make sure he ducks those, yes?" Tonks nodded. "Good. Now, I've got a spell you need to memorize."
"Hit me with it," she replied.
"It's simple; 'Sêw nêg.' There are only a few people it can be used on – ten to be precise, and four of them are in this room," Hermione gestured to herself, Ginny, Ron, and Harry, "so be careful when you use it and where your wand is aimed. The other six are Luna, Yaxley, Nott, Goyle, Rudolphus, and Bellatrix." A brilliant fire ignited in Tonks's eyes when Hermione mentioned Bellatrix's name.
Merry and Fred stood at either side of one of the secret passageway entrances, Merry with Sophos drawn from its scabbard at his side, Fred with his wand out.
"What's so special about that sword?" Fred asked, glancing sidelong at the hobbit.
"Don't know yet," Merry replied. "Hermione said it would be a help to me."
"It's sharp, sure, but what can it do against the Unforgivable Curses?"
Merry leaned against the post near him. "What are those?" She wouldn't put me into a deathtrap, would she? he thought to himself, staring down into the hole.
Fred frowned, gazing into the passage opening, his lower lip between his teeth. "There are three of them – the Cruciatus Curse, the Imperius Curse, and the Killing Curse. So far as I know, there is nothing that can block those."
"What does the Cruciatus Curse do, exactly?"
"It's also known as the Torture Curse, and is a particular favorite of Bellatrix Lestrange," Fred whispered lightly, as a loud crash sounded down the corridor. "The Imperius Curse isn't something you'll need to worry about tonight."
How delightful, Merry thought, looking at the sharp edge of Sophos with anxious eyes as, out of purely nowhere, a jet of brilliant red light flashed past his ear, followed by a shriek of laughter.
"Little hobbit come out of his hole?" A female voice spoke from the direction the light had come from. Merry spun to face a woman with wild hair and a crazy sort of gleam in her eye.
Fred looked as well, a rather animalistic growl rippling from his throat. "That would be Bellatrix," he muttered. "Get down."
"Crucio!" the mad witch screamed, slashing her wand towards Merry, who almost instinctively raised Sophos.
The steel blade glowed red as the curse-light struck the flat of it, causing gasps of alarm to spark from the other Death Eaters and Fred Weasley, before they two started running.
Legolas had taken a new post in one of the upper floors of the school, finding the tower to be too unstable, even for him. Every window along the hall had been shattered, either by a curse from the Death Eaters or by a chair from one of the classrooms being flung through it, and before each window stood a student.
Save one.
Legolas, perched upon the windowsill, loosed arrow after arrow into the horde of invaders, one thought in his mind.
Keep the fight far from Hísiven.
Not that he doubted her ability to do battle. He had fought at her side many times – Moria, Amon Hen, Helm's Deep. She was fearsome in battle, with wand, knife, and bow in her arsenal.
No, it wasn't that he doubted her; it was the fierce protectiveness one was meant to feel for a mate.
Out of all things, Legolas only wanted one thing as he felled the unknown wizards and witches below him; to know that Hísiven was safe.
Hermione walked the aisles of the Room of Hidden Things with her head high, ears twitching slightly as she listened for the sound she knew would soon come. She might hope it wouldn't occur, but this was destined. There was no stopping this altercation among the ominously-swaying shelves of this form of the Changing Room. It was an unfortunate piece of her gift – she could not always change things.
Finally, she heard it.
"Hold it, Potter."
The drawling voice of none other than Draco Malfoy.
"That's my wand you're holding, Potter."
"Not anymore. Winners, keepers, Malfoy. Who's lent you theirs?"
"My mother."
Harry's humorless laugh reached her ears as she took off, stringing her bow, drawing an arrow, notching it, and holding her wand at the ready.
"So how come you three aren't with Voldemort?" Harry asked.
Risky, Hermione thought, picking up pace, as a soft voice she barely recognized, though finding it somewhat familiar, spoke just low enough that her sensitive ears couldn't distinguish words.
"Good plan," Harry said suddenly. "So how did you get in here?"
"I virtually lived in the Room of Hidden Things all last year. I know how to get in."
Then a voice which was definitely one of Malfoy's two usual thugs, Crabbe or Goyle, said, "We was hiding in the corridor outside. We can do Diss-lusion Charms now! And then, you turned up right in front of us and said you was looking for a die-dum! What's a die-dum?"
Ron's voice suddenly echoed, "Harry? Are you talking to someone?"
"Descendo!" came the shout, followed by a scream which Hermione slowly realized was from her own throat. She started running, losing focus on listening and only wanting to help her friends.
When she became aware of her surroundings once more, she nearly sprinted into full view of the assailants – Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, and Draco Malfoy.
"So?" Crabbe said as she hid behind the stack of ancient junk. "I'm not killing him, am I? But if I can, I will, the Dark Lord wants him dead anyway, what's the diff –"
Hermione jumped out, loosing a Stunning Spell straight at Crabbe's head.
"It's that Mudblood! Avada Kedavra!"
Hermione, knowing to expect this, had raised her bow, pulled back on the string, and loosed the arrow into the direct path of the green jet of light. A sparkling turquoise explosion lit the aisle as she drew another arrow and notched it.
"What did you call me?" she said, her voice low, menacing.
"Mudblood," Crabbe repeated.
"It is not I through whose veins flows dirty blood. No one's blood is filthy – there are only varying degrees of purity in the blood," she said lightly, pulling the bowstring, arrow aimed directly for Crabbe's head. "I do not easily miss, Vincent Crabbe. In trying to kill me, you have incited the wrath of one of the most powerful sentient creatures in any of the known lands.
"I once doubted the power of Divination. Now I understand why. A deep part of me knew of my true nature and refused to allow me to learn other methods of something I carried within me already. The power and strength to see into the future and change the design the Fates have set forth for those I choose."
Harry stared at Hermione, green eyes wide and mouth hanging open as he saw her true self fully for the first time. A skilled huntress, a fearsome opponent in battle, a lithe and graceful maiden of war – an Elf warrior, poised to kill like a cobra.
Hermione gave him a look with her narrowed blue eyes. That signal was all he needed.
"Expelliarmus!" he shouted, brandishing his wand in Goyle's direction. Hermione loosed an arrow past Draco Malfoy's right ear, intentionally missing but causing him to leap to the side. The arrow lodged itself between two books on a shelf, just as Ron appeared at the end of the aisle, firing a Full Body-Bind Curse at Crabbe, which missed by a hair.
With a couple of quick flourishes, she had disarmed Draco wordlessly with a flick of her wand, which she had extracted from its place at her waist, and fired a silent Stunning Spell at Goyle, which, of course, did not miss.
"It's somewhere here," Harry suddenly said, pointing to a pile of objects. "Look for it while I go and help R –"
"Harry, look!" she said, eyes wide as she looked over his head.
"Like it hot, scum?" Crabbe shouted, causing Hermione to wince slightly with his volume. She quickly slid her bow into the quiver on her back and started running, quickly surpassing Crabbe, Ron, and Harry.
She knew this fire would not stop.
Finally, she stopped, looking around. The place she had reached was familiar, from one of her vision-dreams. It took her a moment to reason why; against one of the piles of junk rested two Cleansweep Sevens, and not too far away from them, one of the rarest brooms in the world – a Blueberry Six.
Harry and Ron caught up to her, breathless, and she immediately pointed them to the Cleansweeps, while taking the Blueberry for herself.
"You're going to ride on your own?" Harry said curiously. "But I thought…"
"That was the old me. Now let's go!" She quickly mounted the broom and kicked off, grinning as the hot air whipped her face. The broom seemed to know exactly where to go and what to do to avoid the vicious flames – all she had to do was hold onto it.
As she expected, Harry swooped close to the flame, looking for Draco, Goyle, and Crabbe, Ron complained, and a pitiful scream could suddenly be heard over the flames.
The broom, again almost entirely on its own, swooped towards the sound, even though both boys had reacted faster. By the time she reached them, Draco was on Harry's broom, a stunned Goyle on Ron's, and they were heading for the door.
As she landed smoothly in the corridor, first one out, she allowed herself a satisfied smirk and tucked the broomstick behind the tapestry of a wizard trying to teach trolls how to dance the ballet. It would be relatively safe there, she was certain.
Merry ran alongside Fred and Percy, deflecting any spells that came his way, save the green bolts that Percy would pull him from the path of. Once in a while, though, he would reach out with the sword and scratch the leg of a Death Eater, causing them to fall over screaming from a mere scratch.
Sophos, and all the enchanted blades, he was sure, would channel the spells they captured into those they pierced.
At one point, Merry and Gimli crossed paths. With Gimli fought a woman with blood-red hair and blue, glowing eyes. She was apparently familiar to Fred – when there was an opportunity, the two waved.
"Have you seen Remus?" she asked, twirling her wand and binding a Death Eater's arms to his body.
"Afraid I haven't, Tonks! What're you doing here?" Fred replied.
"Couldn't stay on the sidelines!"
"It would have made my job easier if you had," Gimli grumbled, diving forward and literally hacking a Death Eater from his legs in one strike, the blade of Blood River giving a slight blue glow, just as Sophos would with each scratch of a Death Eater.
"But then you'd be on the sidelines, Gimli," Merry reminded him, diving forward and scratching the same Death Eater's arm. He gave a scream and was still.
The trio of redheads had continued running, not eager in the slightest to witness further carnage from Gimli. The Dwarf was ferocious in battle – Percy kept glancing back to watch him hack the wand-hands from the Death Eaters who came too close to Tonks.
"Where's that guy from?" he asked.
"He's one of the Fellowship," Merry said. "He earned his place for his ferocity and his stubbornness."
"That doesn't tell me much," Percy replied in an undertone as they rounded a corner.
Four Death Eaters stood in their way. Merry leapt forward with a shout, sword raised over his head to slash the throat of the first wizard. When he landed, he rolled forward, slashing another across the back of his knees. Percy, with a quick flourish of his wand, sent the wizard flying through the nearest shattered window, while Fred began to duel with one of the others.
It was the first time Hermione had seen one of the enchanted blades in action, as she watched Merry dive bravely into the fray. She couldn't help the satisfied smirk from reaching her face, despite the fact that she knew things were grim. Her dreams had been particularly vivid concerning this battle, this particular fight. The presence of Merry only confirmed which twin dueled at the side of the third oldest Weasley brother. It was Fred whose life was at direct risk.
Because of her stupidity.
Swiftly drawing her wand and one of her twin knives, she started running.
Merry, standing between the two Weasleys, suddenly reached with Sophos, attempting to slice the wizard Percy dueled across the abdomen. He quickly backed away, his hood falling to reveal an unfortunately familiar face.
"Hello, Minister!" Percy shouted, firing a jinx directly at Pius Thicknesse, who dropped his wand and started tearing at the front of his robes. "Did I mention I'm resigning?"
"You're joking, Perce!" Fred laughed, as the Death Eater he was fighting fell to three Stunning Spells and one enchanted blade slice across his thigh. Thicknesse had also fallen – it appeared he was turning into a sea-urchin of some sort. Merry grinned, wiping the blade of Sophos lightly on the robe of the Stunned wizard as Fred turned to his brother.
"You actually are joking, Perce….I don't think –"
"Get down!" Hermione shrieked at them, just in time, too. The two Weasleys, the one hobbit, and the three best friends all dove to the floor, covering their heads with their arms, just as the night exploded.
The explosion summoned memories of Helm's Deep for Hermione as stones landed against her back. The only difference was that she knew she had done the right thing, rather than have the world entirely ripped apart by an outside force.
As she shoved broken stone bricks from her, she returned the knife to its sheath on her back, clambering to her feet. Harry wasn't too far from her, with Ron not too far from him. The two best friends embraced, grateful to have survived, as Hermione reached over to help Merry to his feet.
Percy and Fred climbed over the wreckage toward them – they'd been blown the farthest from the original position.
"I feel like I owe you," Fred said, his eyes wide as he took in the sight of the blasted-open corridor.
"Don't mention it, Fred. Just be careful," Hermione said. "Merry, you might want to find that sword of yours. It's been doing its job, right?"
"It has," Merry said, tossing a few rocks from where he'd landed, uncovering the faintly-glowing steel.
"How did you know?" Percy asked.
"I saw it in a dream, and that's all you need to know."
Staying from the main fight had been too much for Legolas. He couldn't possibly resist jumping into the fray, especially not after he spotted Aragorn and Faramir fighting Death Eaters side-by-side with their swords. It seemed that two of the staff had placed enchantments upon the blades of both swords, which gave them the ability to deflect minor spells and jinxes. Both men, being incredibly stubborn, adamantly refused to have students or staff at their side it seemed. Whenever someone tried to help, there was a shout from one of the two instructing them to get back.
Legolas, however, chose to weave through the battle with just one particular witch to assist him – Luna Lovegood had jumped at the chance to help him with her magic and a sword she had acquired from who-knows-where. The young woman was more ferocious than Gimli, firing jinx after hex after curse at the Death Eaters.
Until the spiders swarmed in, and a rather large man – perhaps half the size of the average cave troll – brandishing a pink umbrella came stampeding down the stairs, shouting, "Don't hurt 'em, don't hurt 'em!"
"HAGRID!" came the shout of a half-familiar voice, just a moment before he took notice of the dark-haired-and-bespectacled figure racing through the battle, bent over to avoid the flying curses.
Harry Potter.
Legolas, certain Hermione wouldn't be far, started running, Luna barely keeping pace, quickly falling into step beside Hermione.
"Been looking for you," he said lightly as he ran.
"Why?! You're supposed to be in the tower!" she replied, her voice half-toned with outrage.
"And miss all the fun?" Legolas laughed, moments before they caught up with Harry at the door, just in time to see a large foot land in front of them.
By all the gods, Legolas thought, looking up to see the shadowed figure of an enormous giant.
"Oh, my ― !" Hermione squealed, just as Ron joined the group, watching as a window was smashed through above them by the giant's fist.
Hermione slowly started to raise her wand, when Legolas and Ron both said, "Don't!"
The two shared a look, while Hermione and Harry stared at both of them curiously. It was a few moments before either one spoke; the first to say anything was Legolas.
"If you do anything at all to immobilize him, he'll destroy roughly a third of the castle, Hísiven," he said softly. "I'd recommend putting the wand away."
"HAGGER?"
A smaller giant came around the side of the castle, inciting the rage of the first giant and causing a brawl.
"Run!" Harry shouted, taking off. The two elves kept closest to him, hands linked loosely, Ron behind them. Harry ran so speedily that the quartet had crossed half the grounds before being brought to a stop by a gripping freeze. Even Legolas had a certain measure of difficulty breathing under its influence.
Dementors, Hermione thought, pulling her wand once more. She felt herself growing cold as the hopelessness and despair gripped her insides. It took all her strength to find something even remotely happy – the memory of the night in Helm's Deep that she had shared with Legolas. The night she had only told one person of, the night she'd given her whole self to another for the first time.
But when she attempted to summon her Patronus, she found she was only capable of conjuring mist. She saw, from the corner of her eye, Ron's silver terrier manifesting from his wand before fading from existence.
Then, all of a sudden, a hare, a boar, and a fox soared over her head. Luna, Ernie, Shamus, she thought to herself, recalling the long-lost days of the Dumbledore's Army gatherings. Her blue eyes flicked to Legolas's face – just looking at him caused her memories spark to life, the exact details of each and every little thing that had happened that night – especially what she'd felt herself immensely thankful for casting the Muffliato charm around them to conceal – giving her the strength to summon, not the silver otter that Harry, Ron, Ernie, and Seamus were used to seeing, but the gleaming gazelle that had only been summoned once, for communication purposes, in Middle-earth. Luna was the only one who had ever seen this glowing beast that charged straight for the dementors, scattering half of them.
"Come on, Harry," Luna urged softly. "Think of something happy."
"Something happy?" Harry asked, his voice thin.
"We're still here," Luna said lightly, "we're all still here, still fighting. Come on, Harry."
There was a flicker of silver light, following which the silver stag burst forth from the blackthorn wand, charging the remaining dementors.
"That wasn't so bad," Hermione said, just before the other giant burst from the forest. Hermione tugged Legolas with her, even as Harry shouted for the group to run, heading in the direction of the one tree she'd hoped never to come near again in her life.
The Whomping Willow.
So many reviews! Thank you so much, all of you, especially The Beast In Repose – who gave me my first multi-paragraph solid block of praise! – for giving this story more reviews than its predecessor. Almost eighty now!
Translation of the spell shared with Tonks available on request. :) I love you all.
So much love,
xHx