Chapter Four - The Heir of Rowena Ravenclaw
Hermione woke with a start many hours later. A gray light filled the room and she blinked to adjust her eyes to it. She sat up slowly, feeling a slight headache coming on her. She glanced at the nightstand and grabbed the glass of water, drinking it and feeling more awake. Silence filled the entire Hospital Wing and she quickly realized she was alone. The watch on her wrist told her it was 6 o'clock, so naturally everyone else was still asleep.
For a brief moment, Hermione wondered why she was in the Hospital Wing and what had transpired the day before. Then it all came flooding back to her and her eyes widened in shock. She remembered collapsing and the pain that had coursed through her body, she had never felt a pain so intense before. She remembered waking up to find Harry, Ron, Madame Pomfrey, and Professor Dumbledore all standing over her looking very worried and grave. And then she remembered everything Dumbledore had told her, from the Prophecy of Merlin to her being the Heir of Rowena Ravenclaw.
Hermione was puzzled though, so many things did not seem to fit into the story. She now understood why she was the Heir of Rowena Ravenclaw, she had been hand-picked by her centuries ago, which still made her head swim from that realization. It was almost unbelievable, she had been picked by Ravenclaw herself! But many things were so strange to her still. Merlin had lived centuries before the Founders, she had known that from the many books she had read on him, for Hermione found him to be incredibly fascinating, so how had he made the prediction of the Heirs if the Founders had not existed in his time? Had he predicted the Founders then the Heirs or had he lived an extremely long life?
Hermione wracked her brain to try and remember. She knew she had read an entire book devoted to just Merlin and she vaguely remembered it saying he had been born in the sixth century and she knew for a fact Hogwarts was founded in the eleventh century. There was five hundred years between the two, could Merlin possibly have lived that long? Hermione was frustrated, normally this kind of information came naturally to her but right now her brain felt very fuzzy and she just wanted to sleep once more.
Then, as if Hermione had a book right in her lap and was reading from its pages, words filled her brain from a passage in one of the books about Merlin: Merlin lived within the sixth century and is mainly known for riding alongside King Arthur and his Knights. Many legends surround this entire tale and Merlin especially has had quite many myths spun around him. A majority are not true but one exception is his amazing gift as a Seer and a Prophesier. Merlin foretold many great events and people in history, every one of which came true. Though many say Merlin died, no evidence of his death was ever found and he merely just disappeared it seemed. A few mentioned seeing him centuries after King Arthur's reign and that he was still foretelling many events, some of which were said to be recorded. Whether this is true or not, few know. What is known is that Merlin's legacy still lives on and many of his prophesies are still waiting to come true.
Hermione's memory of that passage stopped as quickly as it started but she now had more information then she had before. I knew it! she thought, I knew there had to be answers to all of this! But there's still so much I don't know......why didn't Dumbledore just get it over with and tell us everything? What's holding him back?
Hermione continued to ponder this over the next hour, making her head hurt even more. And just when the sun was beginning to peak its golden rays through the windows, a cold feeling suddenly fell into the pit of Hermione's stomach. It washed over her entire body and she felt light-headed as Dumbledore's last words to her before she fell asleep floated back to her: 'The one you love most dearly.'
"Oh my God," Hermione managed to choke out, her hand going to her mouth. Without even thinking, she threw the covers of the bed off of her and dashed to the door, not even bothering to put a robe over her nightgown. She ran flat out all the way to Dumbledore's office, praying with all of her heart that her worst nightmare wasn't about to come true. She finally skidded to a stop before the stone gargoyle and started rattling out passwords.
"Cockroach Cluster, Lemon Drop, Chocolate Frog, Pumpkin Pastries, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Bean......ohh damn, open you stupid gargoyle!" Hermione yelled.
"Oh damnit, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum....um.....Sugar Quill!" And to her immense relief, the gargoyle sprang to life and jumped aside to reveal the stairs leading to Dumbledore's office. She jumped them two at a time, reaching the wooden door completely out of breath. Hermione quickly began pounding on it, yelling, "Professor Dumbledore! Open up, please!"
The door opened to show Professor Dumbledore looking old and worn, obviously knowing the reason for Hermione's frantic shouts. "Come in, Miss Granger," he said as he stepped aside.
Hermione felt close to tears as she walked inside, turning immediately to Dumbledore and blurting out, "What happened?! Tell me now!"
Dumbledore sighed and sat down behind his desk, gesturing for Hermione to take a seat. She did but she sat very tensely. Dumbledore had put his head in his hands, trying to find a way to break the terrible news to the young witch gently. There was no easy way to say it though and he finally looked up, his blue eyes which normally twinkled, looking very dull. He felt close to tears for doing this to the four students who had a destiny prepared for them long ago. He had made another mistake in keeping this from them for so long, much in the way he had made a mistake with keeping Trelawney's prophecy from Harry. He had learned about that the hard way last year and now he had done it once again.
"Miss Granger," Dumbledore paused, "Hermione, there really is no easy way for me to tell this to you. I regret many things now, especially never mentioning the Prophecy of Merlin until yesterday. I thought the shock would be too great for you and the other three Heirs have yet to be revealed, though I am sure you have your suspicions." He paused once more before continuing. "As I said before, a great tragedy has to fall upon each Heir before the full extent of their powers can be shown. Emotions are the key to everything and the ones we love most dearly are often the ones to show us the full power of these emotions." He stopped, searching Hermione's face, clearly unwilling to tell her the truth.
"Just say it," Hermione whispered, looking as if she wanted to be sick.
"Your parents, Hermione, were found dead yesterday evening in their home. They were killed exactly at the moment when you collapsed. I am so sorry." This was all Dumbledore could say, he knew no words would offer comfort to Hermione, who now not only had the pressure of knowing she was an Heir on her mind, but also her parents deaths.
Hermione sat, utterly frozen for a few minutes, try to absorb Dumbledore's words. Dead. My parents.......dead. Dead. These same words kept pounding in her head until finally a fit of rage overcame her and she started to her feet, grabbing a glass vase off of Dumbledore's desk and throwing it against the wall, where it smashed into little pieces. Dumbledore made no move to stop her and watched as Hermione's eyes flashed at him in hurt and anger before she spun on her heel and marched out of his study.
She didn't notice the tears that begin to escape from Dumbledore's eyes.
Hermione fled as fast as she could from the castle. She refused to believe it. No, her parents couldn't be dead, it wasn't possible. Why would there deaths have anything to do with her powers? For the first time in her life, Hermione believed Dumbledore to be a fool. He was lying to her, he had to be. Was this some kind of sick joke just to get her powers to be revealed fully? Was he that desperate for her and the rest of the Heirs to prove their loyalty completely to the Light? Were they all that distrusted?
Hermione stumbled over a tree root in her path and fell to her knees in between a large oak tree and the wide lake in front of Hogwarts. The day was turning out to be beautiful. No clouds were in the sky and the light breeze blowing made the hot sun feel more cool against her skin. Hermione looked up with blurry eyes toward the lake, a sinking feeling filling her and absolute dread filling her mind. As much as she tried to convince herself otherwise, Hermione knew the truth. She knew her parents were dead, she could feel it. And it was all her fault.
Tears began to slip down her face uncontrollably and the pain she felt was worse than the fire that had coursed through her body yesterday. A sob left her throat and she was helpless to stop it. And finally Hermione allowed herself to lose control for one of the first times in her life. She stared up at the sky and a scream of anger left her lips. Anger flowed through her blood, anger and sadness. She continued to scream, not noticing the tingling feeling suddenly spreading on her skin or the odd glow her body was taking on.
And as Hermione continued to scream, many different things happened at once. The image of an eagle appeared once more over Hermione and hovered for a moment before flying forward and diving into the lake. The lake erupted like a volcano and water shot toward the sky before falling once more like a waterfall. The ground around the lake began to tremble and more water erupted upwards, as Hermione's anger wasn't ending and the lake was answering it.
And then out of nowhere, rain started falling heavily from the clear sky though not one dropped touched Hermione. Nothing else accompanied the rain, no wind nor clouds. Only water was responding to Hermione's anger and screams. The water storm continued to rage around her and still Hermione paid no attention to it, too caught in her grief.
Then finally after many minutes, her screaming stopped and she forced herself to take deep, calming breaths. The rain ceased and the disturbance of the lake fell away. The eagle image plunged out of the water and vanished in the air. Hermione slowly opened her eyes and stared at the now still lake. She was shaking all over and she started to cry even harder, feeling exhaustion slipping over her.
As she wept, a pair of strong arms encircled her waist and turned her around so that her face was buried in his chest. Harry softly began to stroke her long hair, whispering comforting words in her ear. He had seen Hermione running across the grounds toward the lake from the Common Room window and had raced after her. He had witnessed the entire scene, realizing that Hermione had finally acquired all of her powers.
He knew that Hermione and the rest of the Heirs had a long and difficult road ahead of them. Much training would be involved along with a lot more suffering. Harry knew they would all have the strength to handle it though and he would be beside his friends every step of the way. He had no idea yet that his own destiny was as one of them.
Harry continued to hold Hermione, who was gripping him back just as fiercely, afraid to let him go. She was just thankful that the other person she loved beyond anything was still with her and she knew she couldn't bear to lose him as well.
As they sat on the Hogwarts grounds holding each other, completely unaware of anything else, another scream filled the corridors of Hogwarts and a girl with long red hair fell to the ground, writhing and crying in agony. And when the yellow glow around her vanished and she lay unconscious, the image of a badger floated over her briefly before disappearing. The second Heir had been found.
Author's Note: Thank you so much for the amazing reviews! You guys are awesome! I hope you enjoy this chapter as well and I appreciate all the reviews and feedback I can get! A lot of people have been asking if I posted this story before on this site. Yes, it was once on here but it was only the first two chapters. If you have read it anywhere else it was on I'm so glad all of you seem to like the story. Please review!!
Much Love,
PhoenixFirebolt