Chapter Seven: Let The Game Begin
BBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!! The second sound echoed in the Great Hall. This time it felt as if the whole castle shook.
"Hermione!" McGonagall gasped.
Abandoning the remnants of their dinners, all the professors immediately ran out to the Quidditch pitch. What they saw made them all gasp and slow down their running to a cautious walk. Although the stands were intact, the perfect grass field was now covered in rubble. The grass was upturned, but the soil was not all brown. There was a scattering of rainbow of colored dots everywhere.
"What happened!?" cried Madam Hooch.
"What's more important is where Ms. Granger is," said Snape in a calm, almost superior, voice.
They heard a faint, "Ughhh...owww..." in the distance. It was Hermione. She was lying flat on her back.
"It that you Hermione?" asked Dumbledore.
"DAMMIT!" Hermione screamed in anger. Her black tank top, pants, and cloak were now every color of the visible spectrum. She noticed that her former professors were hovering over her. "Oh, hi there. What you all doing here?" Hermione asked as she got up and dusted herself off.
"What did you do to my field!?" yelled Madam Hooch.
"Oh, thank you for asking. Why, except for the ringing in my ears, I'm fine. Your concern for my well being makes me ever so happy. And just in case you're wondering, I didn't do anything to your precious field. Look." Hermione flipped open the face to a device that was strapped onto her wrist. She pressed a button and the Quidditch field turned back to normal. It was as if someone had turned off a television. Hermione's clothing was black again.
"See, your field is untouched."
"How did you do that? What sort of magic was that?" asked Remus Lupin, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.
"It's not magic. Well, it kinda is. It's Muggle technology. Virtual reality. Holograms. Very high-tech. State-of-the-art. It works the best at night." She paused and saw that everyone was confused. "You see those silver discs outlining the field? Those are very powerful image projectors."
"But we heard two loud explosions," Lupin said.
"Wow, those speakers pack a punch. Those white boxes next to each disc is a speaker. They emit sounds."
"But Muggle technology is not able to function at Hogwarts. How did you get it to work?" asked Professor Sinistra.
"I charm all the electronics that I own so that they work wherever I am. I hope you don't mind, Albus."
"Not at all, Hermione. But you did give us quite a scare," Albus said smiling. "So this is what Shacklebolt sent you?"
"YEP!" she answered enthusiastically. "It's the latest in Muggle and magical combat training that the Aurory has to offer. There are missions and you can change the difficulty level too. It's like a real-life video game. But you guys wouldn't know anything about that. Each player can have as many weapons as they can carry on their person and choose from an assortment of Muggle firearms. And of course you get a fake wand." She lifted the two guns in her hand to show them.
"They look like toys, I know. But when the system is turned on, these things act like real guns. You have to load them, they recoil and everything. When you shoot, it makes a paintball mark so that you can see if you hit your target. The wands are the same. And when you get hit, you feel the pain. It's really exhilarating. Oh and the sounds that you guys heard...I threw a grenade and then set off a string of land mines. I am so angry that I didn't see it." There was a silence. The teachers were trying to process what Hermione said.
"You can feel pain from this game?" asked a dumbfounded Professor Sinistra.
"Yeah. And injuries appear to bleed too. It's very realistic. And speak of which, in the combats the generated images feel like real people. Solid, not imaginary. So, you guys wanna play? It's so much fun!" The professors murmured uneasily.
"Umm...why don't we watch you in action instead, Hermione," McGonagall said as the rest of the group nodded. Hermione sighed.
"Alright. But you don't know what you're missing. You all can sit in the Professors' Box in the stands. You should get a good view from there."
Hermione tied up her hair into a high ponytail and threw her traveling cloak to the side. She decided to use only Muggle firearms. 'The professors would be most unfamiliar with these.' She had small pistols in each of her hip holsters, one rifle strapped to her shoulders, and machine gun in hand. She put on a small earpiece in her right ear that had a microphone attached to it. She looked like a force to be reckoned with. Hermione looked up at the stands and saw her little audience watching her.
She used the wrist control to turn on the system. A computerized female voice boomed from the speakers.
"Welcome to Auror Special Training, Version 9.0. Please state your difficulty level: Easy, Normal or Hard. Please state your Mission number."
"Hard. Mission One."
"Difficulty level set at Hard. Mission One: Target Training Using Muggle Firearms. Objective: Hit all enemy targets and reach the end of the field without being killed. Task One: The Street. Practice begins in 5...4...3...2...1...Go!"
The Quidditch field turned into a deserted city street. Machine gun in hand, she took in her surroundings and slowly walked down the street. Just then a loud, angry mob appeared from behind a corner and started running towards Hermione while shooting at her. She took cover from behind a parked van. Hermione fired her machine gun at them, taking down half of the mob. She quickly hid behind a nearby mailbox as she reloaded. Luckily she did, because the van she was hiding behind blew up. She then jumped up from behind the mailbox and fired again, killing the rest of the mob.
"Task One complete, Accuracy Level: 95%, Injuries: None. Task Two: The Forest starts in 5 seconds." the computerized voice said. A clock appeared and counted down 5 seconds. Hermione threw her machine gun to the side and took out her rifle.
The surroundings changed into a forest. Hermione crouched down as she made her way through the forest. As she neared a large tree, a single shot was fired at her, but it hit the tree trunk instead. Immediately, Hermione saw the gunman and fired back, hitting him in the chest and torso. Then three people jumped down from three trees to her right and fired. She expertly squatted down and rolled away from the gunfire. Kneeling on one knee, she returned fire and hit them all in the chest and head. From a bush behind her, a fat man stood and threw five grenades at her. Hermione shot him and ran for her life. But she was too close, the impact of the explosion threw her in the air. The noise was deafening.
The professors in the stand covered their ears and gasped at the sight of the explosion and of Hermione being so close to the explosion. It sure looked realistic. Amazingly though, she landed on her feet. 'I really am a cat person,' she thought. She looked around and kept walking, while reloading her rifle. She entered a clearing. As she walked, patches of grass rose -- enemies in camouflage. She took them down and managed to hit them all without getting hit herself. She had great agility and evasion skills.
"Task Two complete, Accuracy Level: 97%, Injuries: None. Task Three: The Parking Lot starts in 5 seconds" said the female voice. The clock appeared again. Hermione was now only one-third away from the end of the field. She heard clapping from the stands and waved at them. She threw her rifle and took out her pistols. She had one in each hand.
The forest turned into an underground parking lot with a lot of pillars. The lot was half filled with cars. It was quiet...too quiet. She crouched down as she walked in between the cars. She heard quiet footsteps to her left. She cautiously peered through a car window and saw no one. She turned her head and looked behind her. No one. She crept quietly through the cars and heard more soft footsteps. They were closer and coming from behind her. She immediately turned and saw five gunmen. She shot them all three times in the chest as she stood up and dodged their bullets. The noise of the shoot out drew attention from the other gunmen in the parking lot. They fired at her and Hermione dove sideways, as if she were taking a bullet for someone, and fell as she fired back. She got up and ran behind a pillar. She winced. One of them had managed to hit her. Her upper left arm was grazed. It was bleeding. Forgetting about her injury, she reloaded her guns.
The professors seated in the stands were captivated. They were all impressed by her skills. This was certainly not the same Hermione they remembered. She was no longer the quiet, studious student. She was "all grown up" and killed with frightening ease and accuracy.
Hermione peered from behind the column. She saw four men coming at her from both sides she stepped out and raised her arms and shot at them. But before she killed them all, one of the thugs managed to hit her leg. She fell into a seating position. The pain factor in this game was certainly realistic.
"Task Three complete, Accuracy Level: 100%, Injuries: Two, one bullet wound to the upper left arm, one bullet wound to the lower right leg. Would you like to proceed with Mission Two? the computerized voice asked.
"Yes," Hermione said. It wasn't about showing off her new toy now. It was about what other surprises this game had.
"Mission Two: One-on-One Combat begins in 15 seconds. Player is to enter wandless."
As the voice said that, the surrounding changed and her fresh, imaginary wounds disappeared. The pain she felt was gone, like it never happened. She was now standing in a freight train cart. There were stacked boxes everywhere.
Hermione looked up at her audience of professors.
"Good job, Hermione!" cried Lupin.
"Yes, very well done!" McGonagall said.
"Thank you! After this mission I'm turning this thing off!" Hermione said. The speakers carried her voice throughout the field.
She then saw Snape smiling at her. 'HIM!? SMILING!? AT ME!? It's dark, my eyes must be playing tricks on me.'
But he was smiling. He was impressed of her skill and of the person she had grown up to be. 'Granger looks beautiful too. Did I just think that? When this is over, I need a drink." The smile faded and he joined the other teachers as they stared at Hermione as she got ready for her next mission.
"3...2...1...Go!"
Hermione slowly and quietly walked through the aisle of boxes. She had to weave her way through them to get to the door at the end.
From the Professors' Box, they could all see the enemies hidden behind the boxes. They were all in suspense.
"Watch out, Hermione!" one of the professors called out.
Hermione looked up at them momentarily but while she was distracted, one a man dressed in black kicked her from behind. Hermione stumbled forward and turned around in a fighting stance. The man in black kicked at her, but she blocked it and kicked him in the groin then body slammed him. The man was immobile. She got up and kicked down two towers of boxes which buried the man completely. She opened the door and went to the next train cart. Once Hermione entered the cart, she was attacked by three men in black. She punched and kicked her way through until all three were unconscious. She saw that one of them had a wand. She picked it up and walked through the door.
The next cart was different from the rest. It was empty. There were no boxes and there was no door at the end to go through. Instead, there were five fireplaces. 'Why are there fireplaces in a freight train cart?' All of the sudden there were five men in black with wands.
"Stupefy!", one of the man in black called. Another yelled "Accio wand" at the same time.
Hermione's dodged the Stunning Charm and suddenly realized that she was wandless. The guy who had her wand broke it in half. 'Oh crap,' she thought. There was an audible gasp from the professors above. 'How am I going to make it through this?'
A/N: Please review. All reviews and suggestions are welcomed. Flames are discouraged.