DISCLAIMER: I love Harry Potter, but he ain't worth stealing…
CHAPPIE 3: Princess Hermione and the 'Night Wolves'
Hermione opened the oak double doors and was greeted with a magnificent sight. The room before her was as large and roomy as a cathedral. She glanced down on her attire and saw that she was wearing a blood red masquerade gown and an elegant white mask. She confidently walked towards a direction only her subconscious mind knew of. Just then, a pair of arms snaked around her waist and she whirled around. She came face-to-face with a gorgeous man wearing a black tuxedo and a white eye mask. Hermione didn't know why, but she felt happy and safe. She lingered her eyes on the man's attractively messy hair and her nose savored his musky scent. But his most attractive asset, his emerald-green eyes, was what had turned Hermione crazy.
"May I have this dance, my lady?" the man asked. Before she could respond, he already led her to the dance floor. They started to waltz around when the music stopped and a voice yelled "There! That's my fiancé!" while pointing at Hermione's dance partner. Everybody looked and suddenly shouted "Then why is that woman flirting with him?"
A powerful male voice drowned the crowd's shouts of disagreement. The king, wearing a face mask. "I'm sorry, Hermione. But rules are rules. I can do nothing to bend them. I'm afraid you're going to have to be executed." Said the king sadly.
Hermione gasped. "No!" she screamed. She turned to the man who she was dancing with for help, but saw that he was already dancing with another woman. He looked at her and said, "I'm sorry, but that's how things really are."
And as strong pairs of arms pulled her away, she looked helplessly at the dancing couple and saw the man's partner- his fiancée.
Cho Chang.
oOo-
Princess Hermione's hazel eyes fluttered open. She felt her head ache a little, yet she instinctively peered outside the window for an idea of what time it could be. The sun was about to set, and a violetish-orange color enveloped the sky. It was dawn.
'That dream…' thought Hermione. 'It seemed real…'
Hermione glanced at Cho and saw that she had also managed to doze off. Feeling quite alone and lonely, she opened a sliding panel behind her and said "Where are we?"
"The desert between Martina and Thyatira, Your Highness," came the coach's voice from the other side. Hermione sighed. Closing the panel, she thought about what she could do during five more hours of travel. She was about to pick up her book when Cho groaned and sat up, rubbing her eyes.
Hermione smiled. "Finally, you're awake. I could use some company here. How's your kip?" she asked the newly- awake.
"Fine," said Cho, not even bothering to look at her but looking out the window.
"Can you believe it?" Hermione raved on, oblivious to the fact that Cho doesn't want a conversation. "Five more hours of travel? And we just woke? I mean, where's the fun in that?"
"Yeah? Why don't you read your stupid book?" said Cho, glaring at her.
Hermione stared mouth-opened, her smile faltering. "I- I was just trying to be nice to you, Cho."
"I don't need your kindness or your sympathy," said Cho rather quickly. "I need no one's help. Especially from the royal bloods."
"Do you have something against us?" asked Hermione, brows raised. "If you've got a problem, you can tell me."
"Why the hell would you care?" Cho retorted heatedly. "All you bloody care about are yourselves!"
Hermione's self-control was evaporating fast. "Maybe if you could just find the time to discuss your problem with me then we could avoid any fights."
"You'll never understand because you're not poor! You're no peasant! You're not me!" Cho's voice raised a fret higher.
"Oh yeah?" said Hermione, also raising her voice. "Well try me!"
"You were never there when we needed help!" yelled Cho. She faced the window, wanting to argue no more. Hermione was about to answer a smart remark when she saw that Cho's eyes were glistening with tears. Her expression softened. 'Why can't this girl soften up to me? What have I done? Why can't she realize that I'm trying to help her?'
"Please, tell me. What have we done?" said Hermione quietly. Cho sniffed, pretending not to hear her. Hermione made a move to pull her to an embrace when the carriage forcefully lurched forward, as if the horses have been suddenly halted to avoid running over into something on their way. The lights went off as Hermione crashed into Cho, whose head collided with the carriage wall. The screams of the servants from the servants' carriage just adjacent to them echoed through the night. There was a faint sound of maniacal laughter and about a dozen horses' hooves.
"What on Earth…" started Cho, when gunshots cracked through the night air. Both she and Hermione screamed.
"Kill them all!" they heard the leader of the royal guards shout out loud. More screams and shots. Hermione closed her eyes tight, praying for safety while she and Cho cowered and snuggled on the floor.
"Search the carriages!" yelled a surly voice.
The door of their carriage flew open. Hermione felt a pair of arms grab her and forced her down the carriage. Behind her, Cho kicked, bit, and punched her captor, but without much success.
"'Ere's the princess, Big Boss," said Hermione's captor, pushing her to the ground. Hermione tried to get up, but a hand entwined its fingers with her hair, and she found herself face-to-face with who she presumed to be the gang's leader, the 'Big Boss'. "What do you want?" she said with what she thought was a defiant voice.
The Big Boss sneered, revealing a silver tooth on the left side of his upper molars. Hermione winced.
"Hey boys!" the Big Boss called to his companions. "Miss Princess asks us what we want!" Laughter rang on Hermione's ears. Her blood boiled with anger.
"You leave my servants alone!" spat Hermione on his face. The Big Boss' expression hardened. He released her hair and slapped her left cheek hard. Hermione fell to the ground once again, clutching the spot that hurt. A fair distance away, she heard the servants gasp and shriek.
"You will not talk to me like that!" said the Big Boss menacingly. "Your lives are in our hands. One wrong move, Princess… Boom!"
"Take away everything you can carry, just let us live. Don't hurt any of us, especially my people."
"You've heard the princess! Take it easy on the slaves!" said the Big Boss sarcastically. Turning to Hermione, he said, "I'm going to be civil to you, Princess. I'm going to be big about this; your slaves are simply gonna be meat on the slave market." Hermione gasped, which had not escaped his ears. "Well, it's either that or be slaughtered altogether. Pick your choice."
Hermione couldn't fight back the tears anymore. She was defeated. No matter how hard she prayed and no matter how big her faith.
"Aaw, look Boss," teased the other bandit. "She's crying. What's a baby to do?"
The Big Boss sneered yet again. "Do you even know who we are, Princess?" he asked conversationally. Hermione nodded.
"You're the Night Wolves, aren't you? You're bandits who move at night, stealing from innocent travelers just to have something fit for a king to eat at breakfast. You're the scum of Thyatira and you're all a pathetic excuse for a human, seeing as you don't have a human heart!"
Hermione received another slap, this time on her right cheek. More tears came spilling from her eyes. But still, she looked up to her captors again. "Yes, that's it. That's what you do, isn't it? You harm people- defenseless, helpless people at that. Just because you've got guns, you can't fight fair. AND ONE MORE SLAP ON MY FACE AND YOU'RE GONNA REGRET IT!" she yelled at Big Boss as he attempted to slap her yet again.
The Big Boss surveyed Hermione with utmost dislike. "Yes, that's us, Princess. But you can't blame us. We didn't choose this job. We had no choice."
"And my choice is what? To act saint and give away everything that we own? It's so bloody damn unfair!" said Hermione, anger shooting through her veins like poison.
"If we've got a choice we won't even be here in the first place!"
"Well, surprise, surprise, Big Boss," Hermione spat sarcastically. "It's not me who's handling you because if you don't happen to know, I'm from Ivanna."
"And you're setting the date of your marriage with the prince of Thyatira," added the Big Boss. "Don't expect us to be stupid, princess, because we're not."
"That's a good way of showing it, seeing as you're all bandits who haven't a half-brain to think about the consequences of what you do."
Hermione half expected him to hurt her again, but he did not. In fact, there was a sneer on his face.
"You know," he said, inching closer to her. "I like that in my women- proud and stubborn." He leaned forward to her and their faces were mere centimeters apart. "What do you say I let you live and be my queen?"
This gave Hermione an idea. "Y-you promise to let me live?" Behind her, some of her servants shrieked and the other bandits ooh-ed. The Big Boss glanced at them and said "Yeah."
Hermione smiled deviously and brushed her lips against his. She didn't like this at all, but they were in trouble and there was no other way she can think of to wriggle out of it. The Big Boss moaned and kissed her back.
Suddenly, with a motion as quick as lightning, Hermione grabbed his gun from his side, shut her eyes tightly, and shot him straight. She knew she had hit him for she had heard him groan and felt him fall to the ground in front of her.
She opened her eyes and, not even wasting a moment to even look at the man she had shot, turned to her servants who screamed out loud, running around like headless chickens. Several other bandits fired shots in hopes of keeping them quiet. She was about to come to their aid when she felt a sharp pain on the right side of her stomach and a forceful impact sweeping her down. She knew she had been shot. Then, her head hit something hard.
This made the servants scream harder and louder. Several others had taken a leaf out of Hermione's book and fought back using fists and guns. The royal guards who survived and had lost hope earlier on also fought back, retrieving their guns that the bandits had neglectfully left on a corner. The others simply rushed to their princess.
Hermione struggled to keep her eyes open. As she was being busied by her other servants she watched as the fight between her employees and the scums raged on. She saw that their side has more advantage over what was left of the bandits. But still, it was the bandits who have more weapons. Everybody seemed to have sensed this problem.
Cho called out, "Let's clear out!" Everyone scuttled to the carriage, sans Hermione.
"Wait!" someone yelled. "We forgot the princess!"
Hermione thought for one glorious moment that she was gonna live. She will live and see the prince of Thyatira and live happily ever after.
But Cho had ruined all those thoughts. As Hermione heard her thunder, "Leave her! She's gonna die anyway," her hopes and dreams drifted away.
Most especially painful was when she heard the carriage drive away without her. She wanted to scream, but she couldn't. She swore she might've heard her death bells ring.
A little moment after, she heard the bandits call out "After them!" and then the hooves of the bandits' horses. She knew that she might pass out any time now, but still she thought profusely that she could never forgive herself if anything happens to her people.
And then everything went black.
oOo-
Harry cooled his feet on the lake. Feeling relaxed, he closed his eyes and breathed in the fresh morning air when a soothing voice spoke from behind him.
"You'd think it's gonna be a warm, sunny day today. But I got wind that it's gonna rain sooner or later."
Harry whipped around and saw a girl wearing a servant's uniform. She had brown, wavy hair that fell gorgeously to her waist. Her chocolate-brown eyes looked brightly at him. He didn't know why, but he felt as if he had known her all his life, well in fact he doesn't. He felt his heart beat faster. He felt in love…
A raindrop on his nose made Harry tear his gaze from the girl as he looked up the sky. More drops pelleted towards them and before they knew it, it was already raining. He glanced at the girl and saw that she wasn't bothered. In fact, she was grinning.
"It's nice, isn't it?" she said, looking up. "The rain, I mean."
"Yeah, it's marvelous," Harry answered breathlessly, staring enchantedly at her beauty. And from the way his cheeks flamed, he knew he didn't mean the rain.
The girl looked at him for a moment, then walked towards him and held both his hands. "Come on," she said playfully, "Have you ever tried playing in the rain?"
"Er, no," he said, a goofy grin on his face. "Is that what you want to do?"
"Yeah," she answered as she beamed, revealing a perfect set of teeth. "Catch me if you can!" She ran away from him and Harry chased her.
For a few minutes of complete bliss, they ran, chased, giggled and screamed in the rain. When Harry finally caught her, they stumbled and fell on the grass, laughing.
"Aren't you worried that you might catch a cold?" Harry asked her seriously afterwards.
"No. I'm used to the rain," she said, moving her gaze from his eyes to his lips. Harry instantly knew what she wanted, and kissed her. It was a deep and passionate kiss that when it ended, both he and the girl gasped for breath.
"I need you," she said, again staring intently at his eyes…
KABLAM!
"What the hell!" Harry gasped as he sat bolt upright, looking wildly around for the source of the noise. He saw that his father had barged open his door violently for some reason and was walking towards him. 'Great' he thought angrily, realizing that the gorgeous girl was only a dream, 'just when it gets better.'
"Harry," said King Arthur with an urgent tone as he stopped at the foot of his bed, a deathly glare playing on his eyes.
"What have I done now?" Harry asked angrily but groggily.
"You are to wake up right this very minute and check on the desert with us, young man," said Arthur rather quickly. "You're coming with us and you haven't a choice."
Harry yawned widely, scratched his head and rubbed his eyes. "Can't it wait until morning?" he asked stubbornly.
"The Night Wolves struck again," said Arthur coldly, making Harry snap his eyes wide open and jump out of bed. He watched as his son struggled to put on his slippers and run to his walk-in closet. "They had one heck of an encounter, though. So many dead bodies lying around, according to the chief. Too many that they couldn't haul them all in one ride, so they decided to inform us first. Much more death from the civilians, but they managed to kill a fair number of the scums…"
"I'm ready," Harry interrupted as he emerged from his closet fully-dressed. Arthur nodded and together they headed to the stables.
oOo-
The chief, together with his men, were sorting the cadavers when King Arthur, Princes Harry and Draco, and ten other knights arrived early in the morning. Arthur immediately conversed with the chief and Harry and Draco looked around. Harry couldn't help but feel sick when he spotted an old woman among the sea of dead bodies.
"Hey!" Draco exclaimed aloud, drawing attention to himself. He was staring at a body that lay on its stomach. He turned it over with his foot and gasped. "Isn't this the Big Boss?"
Everyone gathered around the Big Boss. "Bloody hell," said the chief faintly. "We have sent many skilled men to terminate this scum, yet- impossible as it is, he was killed on an encounter?"
Harry bent down and checked for a pulse. "Dead," he declared, and knights had carried the body off. He adjusted his collar and wiped sweat off his forehead with his long sleeve. It was starting to get extremely hot. He whipped around, meaning to get a cool drink from his backpack, when his eyes caught something.
Harry couldn't understand why his heart started to pound in his chest as he approached it. It was a body- a female body. He failed to stifle a gasp as realization dawned upon him.
The girl from his dream!
"What is it, Harry?" called Draco but Harry ignored him. His heart pounded harder, his sweat stung his eyes, and his hands went cold as he grabbed her hand and hoped against hope that she was still alive…
"It's a pulse!" Harry screamed triumphantly, causing everyone to literally run to him, though he didn't care. 'She's alive. That girl I fell in love with in my dream. She's here... She's alive!'
"That's a nasty shot," said Draco, eyeing her bloody stomach. "D'you think she'll make it?"
"Yes, she will!" Harry felt so sure about it. Before anyone could say or do anything, he lifted the girl into his arms.
"Careful with her, Harry. She's got a shot and her head's smacked with this rock," Draco said, pointing at a rock under her head. Harry nodded.
"Take the carriage and bring her straight to the hospital wing," ordered his father, though Harry needn't be told what to do. His insides squirmed with panic as he settled himself inside the carriage, the girl secured on his arms. 'Everything will be okay, my princess, my angel,' Harry whispered in her ear as the carriage sped off.
(Er, sorry for making Hermione act like a martyr there or something. It's just that I'm trying to show everyone that it's Hermione's compassion and courage that'll make Harry fall in love with her (er, just two of the things that'll make him fall for her, actually) and pull her through any obstacles thrown her way. And besides, it's what made us love her in the first place, right? I mean, look closely at the books!)
(Hello again, everyone! Thank you for those wonderful reviews! Please keep them coming… I appreciate all the confidence you give me… I love you all! And please also check out my other stories, please? Thanks in advance!)
(Next chapter: Teaser: Hermione racked her brain desperately for an answer, but found nothing. She felt her head swirl- probably because of panic or of the pain on her stomach and nape. She looked at his loving eyes once again and she felt tears starting to cloud her eyes. 'I don't know' she answered. 'I don't know…')
