The Awakening of a Royal
Chapter Two: The Meeting on the Train
Harry Potter and co. are properties of J K Rowling and the
respective book publishers. So don't sue me! Jeez, how I wish I really do own
them!!!
About two months later…
"Hey Harry!" A feminine voice came from behind him, as he turned and found Hermione Granger running towards him and Ron. Her face was flushed red from the short sprint and was grinning from ear to ear as she finally stopped in front of them.
"Yo Herm, why are you in such a hurry?" Harry asked curiously as Ron helped her throw her luggage into the cabin of the train. After thanking Ron for his help, she replied, "I heard from the Head Girl that the United World Institute of Magic is having an exchange programme this school year!"
"United World Institute of Magic! Wicked!" Ron whistled as he heard this revelation, but Harry remained puzzled, his emerald green eyes flickering uncertainly. "Huh?" he asked, and Hermione said, "honestly, don't you read?" Ron smirked at this, but helped explain, "The United World Institute of Magic is the most prestigious college of magic. It is rumoured that the 4 founders of our school had graduated from there!"
"Oh." Harry replied without much interest, and continued to read his book of Quidditch Throughout the Ages. He was reading the chapter on how the Snitch evolved into such an intricate one, and was pretty engrossed with the details the book gave. The last summer, he had managed to sneak out of the house when the Dursleys had gone on a month-long vacation, leaving himself (for once) alone at home with only Mrs. Figg to look out for him trice a week. He had gone to the neighborhood library to look at some stuff, and realised that there was a section that only wizards could see. The librarian had been a witch, and was kind enough to let him borrow eight books at a time to read.
He read all sorts of books of all categories, from International Politics to Simple Cookery, and found that books were pretty enriching. Thus, he had tried simple cooking (without magic) at home, and managed to outdo even Aunt Petunia's food. Over the holidays, he had matured, in both looks and behaviour. Now, he was of about the same height as Ron, and no longer the scrawny kid that his cousin dared to taunt at. He had filled out quite well, as did Hermione…
Her hair was starting to straighten out, and once in a while, she noticed that her eyes turned blue instead of brown. She had also grown taller, and her figure was starting to show. During the holidays, she had gotten looks from young muggle boys when she went out to shop for stuff…
Ron had also grown into his tall height. The hair was still rather red, and he wasn't really tan, but he had filled out, and did not look like 'stork-man' anymore. At least he was well-muscled rather than being far too thin, which wasn't bad at all.
About an hour later, Hermione remembered that they have a prefect's meeting, and pushed the boys to the first compartment, where they were briefed about the new passwords and miscellaneous stuff. When they went back to their compartment, they were surprised that there was a boy and a girl sleeping on the seats. The boy had a crop of silver hair that was neatly trimmed and parted in the center, and sleeping on his shoulder was a girl who had a head of black hair that reached her waist. She looked rather pale and was sleeping very soundly, with the boy's hand protectively placed around her waist. They looked like a portrait, but strangely enough, they were in navy-blue robes lined with silver trimmings, not the black robes that the Hogwarts student wore.
"Odd…" Ron mumbled, but this aroused the boy from his sleep and he rubbed his eyes before looking at the trio. On realising that he had dozed off, he quickly apologised to the trio, "I'm sorry for taking your seats, but we were supposed to meet the head prefects in the first compartment. However, they were having a meeting, so we sat here to wait. I just never realised that we would fall asleep…" He glanced at his partner, who was still sleeping soundly, and whispered, "Wake up, honey."
The girl stirred, and slowly opened her eyes, whispering, "Mikael had just sent Shadownight as a messenger…" Her eyes were an odd shade of light purple, but turned silver very soon. She groaned from a stiff back, and on realising that there were three strangers in the same compartment, she blushed and said, "I'm sorry. Were these your seats?"
Her beauty stunned Harry and Ron, and Hermione grimaced, saying, "Yeah… the prefects' meeting is finished. You can go in now. By the way, I'm Hermione Granger, and these are Harry Potter and Ron Weasley." The boy eyed her and said, "You are Hermione???" The girl nudged his side, and said, "Hi. I'm Silverdawn and he's Azrael."
"Interesting names… Azrael… isn't that the name of the angel of death?" Hermione wondered, and blushed when she found out that she had said it aloud. Azrael just smiled, and joked, "My family have very fascinating names… I have brothers who are named Mikael and Lucifer."
"Oh! Are they twins?" Hermione asked excitedly. She was curious about the way their family chose their names, and was answered by Silverdawn, who said in a teasing tone, "I see you know a lot about angelology. Yes, they are twins. One dark, one bright. Hey, maybe one day, we can smuggle her to Atzulith or Assiah, can we, Riley?"
"Maybe yes, maybe no. You decide. Moreover, you are the one taking over, not me." Azrael replied, a soft smile on his lips. He saw Harry and Ron looking out of sorts, and helped to explain, "Atzulith and Assiah are two dimensions of the World of Angels. Some of the people in the Wizarding world have been allowed inside before. But we usually try to smuggle our friends there time and again during the holidays."
"Oh." The two boys said in unison. They had wanted to ask more about the dimensions, but a tall man in a black cloak entered the compartment. His silver hair was tied up by a piece of black velvet, and he looked like an older version of Azrael, except for his eyes, which was amethyst purple instead of sapphire blue. Also, he looked darkly attractive in comparison to Azrael's decently handsome look. Hermione took a glance at him, and said aloud, "Let me guess, this is Lucifer?"
The man looked mildly surprised, arching an aristocratic brow as he looked at the girl who had spoken her name. Silverdawn and Azrael chuckled at his look, and answered unanimously, "Bingo!" this earned laughter from Ron and Harry, but was quickly silenced by Lucifer's glare.
"Azrael, Silver, I've talked to the Head Boy and Head Girl on your behalves, and am told by Professor Dumbledore to get both of you to the castle before the others arrive." On hearing this, the two students hurriedly straightened their robes and shook hands with the trio.
"It's nice meeting all of you. We'll see you in Hogwarts." Silverdawn said when she shook Hermione's hand.
"Yea, I hope to enter the same House as you people. Until then, Ciao!" Azrael added with a cheeky grin.
With that, the trio closed their eyes and dissolved into nothingness.
"Oh my! Was that apparating?" Ron asked in wonder. Harry also looked astonished but Hermione looked puzzled, "No… I thought you are required to wave your wand or something. They just closed their eyes and were gone. Now this is very weird…"
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In Hogwarts Castle,
Professor Dumbledore's office
Lucifer, Azrael and Silverdawn sat comfortably on the plush, velvet sofas as they awaited Professor Dumbledore's arrival. Lucifer and Azrael were talking about the forms of spells they could use to ward off busybodies who were bound to come looking for them in Hogwarts. It was then did the phoenix Fawkes fly over and perch onto Silverdawn's shoulder, knowing that this girl was the guardian of mystic creatures. It lightly pecked the girl's cheek as a sign of acceptance and this earned soft caresses from her. Cooing contentedly, Fawkes relaxed and spoke in its language to Silverdawn, knowing that she would understand, "It is always a pleasure to meet the children of Adam and Israfil. Especially you child, the one to inherit the kingdom."
Silverdawn smiled at this, for from the deep tenor of the phoenix's voice, she knew that it was he, and he was only about 20 odd years old. She replied in the same series of odd language, one that is even weirder than the language of the angels, "Thank you for that compliment. Perhaps one of these days, I could get you to change to your human form and I'll treat you to a cup of tea at the nearby village."
"Maybe yes, maybe no. We'll see about that. Perhaps I could get you to change into my form, then I'll show you around the whole of Hogwarts, and mayhaps we'll catch some people with their pants down while exploring… literally speaking of course." The phoenix's eyes twinkled with good humour and Silverdawn chuckled, knowing full well that it would be more likely for her to change than him. She reverted back to the usual form of English, "I'll consider about it… wonder what God-father would say if he hears this…"
"And what exactly did Fawkes say, my child?" Dumbledore asked, walking into room in a leisurely manner. He had been watching Silverdawn talk to the phoenix, and was pretty curious about what the phoenix had said. Apparently, Silverdawn had not noticed him, for she had jumped when she saw the elderly man.
"Uncle Albus! I didn't hear you enter!" Silverdawn sputtered. Azrael and Lucifer just laughed at this, for it was seldom to see their usually oh-so-self-composed sister get jumpy. Lucifer said wryly, "Silver, he had been there for about five minutes."
"Oops, sorry." She replied in embarrass, but recovered easily and got up to hug the elderly man, who returned it with equal enthusiasm. His blue eyes twinkled merrily as he continued, "Child, I see you have grown prettier by the years. Wonder who will be the lucky man who eventually marries you." This caused Silverdawn to blush hard, but commented, "that is if he can get acknowledged by Lucifer first…" Dumbledore chuckled at this, for he knew how protective Lucifer was of his only sister. The latter scowled, brows knitting together, but silently agreed with his sister's thinking, for he had scared plenty of students who wanted to date Silverdawn in UWIM. Finally, he started,
"Uncle Albus, we are not here to comment on our lives, can you give me as much information about Hermione Granger as you can? I need to confirm something." This brought the twins to be serious and Dumbledore that trouble was brewing somewhere that he knew not of.
"May I know what this is all about?" he asked apprehensively. Ms Granger was a delightfully intelligent lady, and he wished to help out should anything happen. Azrael asked, "She's turning 16 this year, isn't she?"
"Yes, but I don't see the link…" Dumbledore replied, bewildered.
"Uncle, she might be a relative of ours, and the descendants of our family - even if she has only a little Kadamon blood – experience changes in both maturity and physical features during our 16th birthday." Silverdawn said quietly. The wizened man knew of the change, and his cheery face were sombre, for he thought back to Silverdawn's transformation, which had been the most drastic, and what responsibilities had been put onto her shoulders after that… a cold shiver went down his spine as he remembered those heart wrenching sobs and bloodcurdling screams. It would have been very frightening if it came out from an ordinary human being, but imagine it coming from a soft-spoken, utterly composed girl who had never – until then – raised her voice to scold anyone…
It had required all four guardians to keep her from unleashing all her powers, and Azrael was no better. He had experience the same agony, but at a lower degree. Still, he was the twin of Silverdawn, so the combined pain they experienced was enough to warrant more that 30 bouts of simultaneous hits of the Cruciatus curse. Their bodies had given off a huge amount of energy and light, causing the fallen leaves and dying trees to recover miraculously and flowers blooming during the autumn season. The muggle world had also experienced bright light in the middle of the night, something that up till now was still a mystery to the astronomers and meteorologists.
The aftermath had also been terrifying: the summer chateau of the Angelic family in Assiah had been levelled to the ground with no rubble or debris. It was as if the chateau was never there, but the angels knew better: the combined powers of the twins disintegrated everything, including the Portal doors that were created by old, ancient magic. The only relief was that her father had put the people who had come to celebrate their birthday, and every other living with three miles of the chateau's radius in individual protective domes, thus no death or injuries occurred.
"Silver, how close a relative is she to you?" Dumbledore asked cautiously, meeting worried silver eyes that had turned a little blue…
"She might be Athena's child, Uncle… making her my immediate cousin." The answer was blunt and direct to the point, and Dumbledore's eyes went very dark, "Oh dear…"
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End
of chapter...
Bleah...
I have a feeling this is gonna go on for quite a long while. I've got the next
few chapters in my head, but afterwards... i wonder how will I continue!
As usual, reviews and flames accepted cos this is my first
fic and i wish to learn how to make it better.
Thanx!