"One Ring to rule them all,
The Ring

Chapter 1 of 3

The night was quiet and hushed; a light fog dimmed the moon's glow.  Two figures could be seen on the lawn.  In the distance was the great Hogwarts castle.

"I have something for you," said the boy to the girl, who was called Eris.

Filled with excitement and infatuation, she readily giggled, "What is it?"  Her entire being was filled with the excited, giddy terror of sneaking out with the boy.

The boy smiled as he pulled out a very small thing from his pocket.  The fog broke for an instant, and the moonlight reflected off a golden ring.

The girl gasped.  "Oh," she said with awe in her voice, "it's beautiful.  Is it for me?"

Instead of answering, the boy slid the ring on the girl's finger.  She held up her hand to admire it. 

The boy turned her eyes from the ring to him, and whispered in her ear, "Promise to be mine?"

"Forever and ever"

"You belong to me now," he murmured.  "Swear?"

"Oh, yes, Tom!" the girl said.  She had no idea how deadly that promise would become.

The boy smiled again, and led her back to the castle.  He had acquired a valuable asset that night.

Exactly seven years later, the same boy and the same girl stood on the same hill.  The only difference from that night years ago was a light rainfall, with thunder rolling deeply in the distance.  The boy and the girl were, of course, changed as well. 

The boy held a smile, but not the kind one as before.  His was a cold, cruel smile now.

And the girl, instead of being love-struck, was filled with anger and hatred at the world, the boy, and herself.

She was screaming something at the boy, while trying to tear the golden ring, the very ring she had so willingly received years ago, off her finger.  But it would not come off.

"You have no idea of the power you are giving up," the boy said evenly.

The girl screamed with the pain of the ring, but it still would not budge.  "Yes I do, and I give it up gladly!" she spat back.

"You could be my queen," was the even reply.  But his eyes revealed his temper was anything but even.

She stopped struggling long enough to stare at him.  The rain threw her hair into her eyes, which were bloodshot with tears of rage.  The snarl on her lips fought any beauty she might have claimed.

"Not any longer, Tom.  No longer.  I will not be your puppet any more!"

"Don't you dare call me Tom!  That is no longer my name"

A flash of lightning illuminated the red of the boy's eyes, and the sadness of the girl's.

"I know all about you," the girl said in a hoarse whisper.  "The chamber of secrets.  You thought you were so clever, but I knew.  And the nights you snuck away.  The next mornings there were reports of Muggle killings.  I knew about that."

"You can't prove anything.  And even if you could, you wouldn't dare.  I am your Lord!  I am everything to you!"

"No!  You are nothing!  Nothing!"

Thunder rumbled.  The rain fell harder.  The boy and the girl stopped and stared at each other.

"You want the ring off?  So be it!"  The boy waved his wand, and the gold ring fell off the girl's hand and on to the ground.

The lighting flashed, and the thunder rumbled.  And the girl screamed.  She screamed for the loss, she screamed for the pain, and she screamed for the will to defy the boy.

And the boy smiled.

"Come back to me.  You are nothing without me," he said to her shaking figure.

The lighting flashed twice, and the thunder boomed.

The girl stopped screaming.  She drew herself up, and gathered enough strength to say one word.  "No."

Then it was the boy's turn to scream.  He screamed for the loss of the girl, for the loss of his power, for her defiance.  And he screamed in pure rage.

The girl knelt.  The girl knew what would happen to her.

"Bitch!" the boy thundered.  "I give you everything, and you give your Lord nothing but betrayal?"

The boy took out his wand.

Lightning flashed again, and by the time the thunder followed, the girl was dead.

The boy quickly disposed of the body.

As he left, lightning flashed one more time.  It illuminated the golden ring, lying forgotten.

*************

55 years later…

Hermione examined the plant in her hand carefully, and then consulted the textbook.  It looked like Snookvold.  The sun shone hot on her head as she crouched by the tall grass.

Professor Sprout had offered extra credit to anyone who could find and label at least ten magical plants on the Hogwarts ground.  So far, Hermione had twenty-four, and the Snookvold would be the twenty-fifth.

She plucked the flower carefully, and laid it in her basket.  Her back aching from crouching too long, she stood up slowly, looking for Ron and Harry.  She frowned when she did not find them within sight.  They had promised to do this assignment with her.

She was about to leave when something caught her eye.

She bent down to examine a patch of earth, now bare from plants.  She dug a little deeper.  There was something there.

Hermione lifted the golden ring out of the earth.  It looked brass from spending years buried in the earth.  She was about to examine it further, when Ron yelled for her from across the field. 

They had to go in now, or they would be late.

Putting the ring aside for later, Hermione went back into the castle.

****************

The girl was frightened.  Her breath came in gasps, and her hands shook.  She was staring straight at Hermione, but not looking at her.  She was gazing without seeing.

"Help me," she cried out.  Her voice echoed all around, reverberating and resounding until it was a thousand times louder than the original whisper.  All around swirling, whirling, spinning, were colors.  Blues, reds, oranges, greens, yellows, pale purples, and vivid pinks came all around. 

"Help me, please!" the girl cried again

"What do you want?" Hermione tried to call back.  But her voice was lost in a whirlwind of color.  Only the girl was clear.

"I made a mistake.  Help me."  The vivid green of the girl's dress shone.  The light reflected on her pale, dirty face.

"What can I do?" Hermione called into the void.

A vision came suddenly, like lightning without light, or thunder without sound.  An old gold ring would help the girl.  Hermione suddenly knew this fact without question.  Her stomach turned, and her head buzzed with the knowledge.  She must help the girl!

"Please…" was the last thing the girl whispered before drowning in the color. 

Hermione awoke from the dream with a start.  She sat, gasping for several seconds before she realized where she was.

Swiftly, without waking the other two girls, she crossed the dark room to her desk, and opened a box.  It was in there.  The ring shone with an impossible radiance for something so tarnished.

Hermione took the edge of her nightgown, and polished the ring carefully.  Slowly, more and more gold shone through as years of dirt and filth were rubbed away.  At last, it was as good as new.  There was even an inscription inside!  The light was to dark to read it, though.

With a sigh, Hermione resigned herself to wait.  She went to bed and tried to sleep, but morning light did not come nearly quickly enough.

************

Harry was the first to notice the ring at breakfast.  When asked about it, Hermione easily slid the ring off her finger, and showed it to him.

"What's 'desky et nun-uck et sem-per'?" asked Ron, looking over Harry's shoulder.

Hermione rolled her eyes.  "It's Latin, Ron!  'Dixi et nunc et semper,' I think it means 'now and forever, I have spoken.'"

"What does it mean by that?"

"I'm not sure, but the owner must have had a lot of power."

"So what are you going to do with it?" Harry asked through a mouthful of bacon.

"I'm going to wear it.  It's pretty, and I like it," Hermione said as she slid the ring on her right ring finger.  As she did, an odd chill danced up her spine.

*************

The girl was back.  Her black hair waved around her as she called out to Hermione.  "Help me… please."

What do you want? Hermione thought.  She could not speak; her voice would not come.  She gazed through the storm of colors.  The girls figure faded in and out.

"I need the ring.  Did you find it?"  The girl's figure emerged from the clouds.  She came closer and closer.  Hermione could see the brown of her eyes and the light freckles on her nose.  Her robes were torn and bloody, and Hermione could see a strange tattoo on her upper forearm.  It was burning black, and Hermione knew she knew what it was, but try as she might, she could not remember.

The girl was half a meter away now, and her stare suddenly seemed less pleading and more demanding.  A rush of iciness washed over Hermione.

"Do you have the ring?" the girl commanded.  Slowly, Hermione nodded.  She no longer felt the urge to help the girl.  She wanted to wake up to the safety of her common room.

Hermione found herself suddenly able to speak.  "Why do you want it?" she asked.

The girl pause, and smiled without humor.  "It has my soul in it," she whispered.

Hermione was awake, and back in her own bed.  She could feel the ring slicing into her finger.  She tried to stand up, but she could not.

The realization that she was no longer in control of her body hit her stomach hard, and made her feel sick. 

A voice whispered into Hermione's ear.  "Thank you…" was all it said.  Cloud of color clouded Hermione's vision.  She was being forced back into the state of nothingness.

She fought hard, her mind screaming silent "NO"s.  But the color overcame her, and her mind was silenced.

The new Hermione sat up in bed, and smiled.

A/N  Wow!  This is my first story in forever!  I have all the chapters written, I and will upload one a day.  As, always thank you for reading, and especially for reviewing!

--Tigerlily

PS For those of you who know Latin, I realize that the Latin phrase in this story is probably incorrect.  My Latin is very rusty.  :-)