The Sword of Excalibur

(Okay, so, my computer decided to be evil to me! It crashed! I lost all my documents including my notes, coursework and stories!! Since the incident (it happened on Monday night) I have decided to put my other story Harry Potter and the People of the Light on hold for now.

Before I get on with the story, I would like to say a enormous HI!!!! To FalseHope, who shares my obsession with , if ya like FF-X/ X-2 go check out her Fanfiction.

I would also like to thank the reviewer who corrected my mistakes for me (I would put your name but I can't find it on my Personal Filling Cabinet on AOL

Anyways, now I have said that, enjoy the story.)

Chapter 5

The weekend came very quickly. Lessons had gone smoothly, so far Gryffindors had had Defence, Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, Hermione herself had Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. They yet had to have Care Of Magical Creatures taught by Hagrid, so the trio decided to go and visit him as they hadn't been able to see him up until now.

They walked down the stone steps of the building, admiring the views of the grounds. When the lake came into view, Hermione was certain that there was something different about it, but she couldn't put her foot on it, after a couple of minutes of trying to figure out what was different she started getting irritated about that fact.

'Hey boys,' Hermione started, 'Has something changed around the lake? Something looks odd.' she asked them both.

'I dunno,' said Ron, he looked at it again, 'What do you think Harry?'

'I'm not sure, maybe it looks different because we haven't been here for ages or because it flooded last week, that weather probably did something other than flood the lake, it was terrible!' Harry answered.

'Probably,' said Ron, 'Now, let's go and see Hagrid, that is what we came to do wasn't it?'

It had seemed that Ron had matured a bit, only a little though. He was starting to understand some things in his life, appreciating his friendship with both Harry and Hermione, Hermione and Ron had yet to have a good and proper fight. It looked like they had all come to and unspoken understanding between the trio, of course there would be fights in the future, but for now the piece was welcomed, especially with the threat of Voldemort looming over everyone's heads, but Hermione got the distinct feeling they were saying that, because they thought it was just something small and couldn't see what she was talking about. Deciding she would leave it until later to think about the lake the trio went down to Hagrid's hut

It turned out that Hagrid was making the most of the sunshine as well. He was out side digging his vegetable patch, watering the already enormous pumpkins, getting them ready for the Hallowe'en feast. He was eyeing up the pink umbrella, that was propped up against the wall in the corner of his vegetable patch, of his wooden hut.

''ello y'lot, are yeh okay?' he asked, still working away at watering the pumpkins

'We're okay,' Harry answered for all of them, 'Well we are now anyway, thanks to Hermione. What about you, are you okay?'

'Yeh, I'm fine. D'ya like me pumpkins?'

'They're very impressive Hagrid,' Hermione responded, 'Did you use an Engorgement Charm on them?'

'Nah…' Hermione was staring him down (or up, it depends on what way you look at it), 'Yer' Hagrid sighed, obviously wishing he could change the past. In his third year Hagrid had been expelled for a crime against the school that he didn't commit, the only person that believed his story was the current Headmaster- Albus Dumbledore, who had persuaded the Headmaster of that time, Headmaster Dippet, to keep Hagrid on and train him as the next Gamekeeper.

'Hagrid,' Hermione started, knowing that Hagrid had most likely got permission to use magic from Professor Dumbledore, she changed the subject, 'Have you noticed anything different about the lake?'

'Nah, no' r'lly, las' weeks rain mighta dun some damag' though. If yeh think sommat might' be wrong 'bout the school, why don' yeh go teh Dumbledore or tha' new Defence teacher yeh got. She seems nice enough an' she shoul' know her stuff.' Hagrid replied.

'Hmmm…' Hermione went into 'bookworm' mode, thinking up possibilities that could have changed the scenery, but not letting other people see it. She had come up with a few suggestions, Concealment Charms (and Concealment Charms on a wide scale, especially with the lake the size it was, would suggest a very powerful wizard. These types of charms can be very draining), the Earths tectonic plates under the lake moving- but people would have noticed if it was that, soil erosion on a huge scale- again people would have noticed.

They spent the next hour enjoying the sunshine and talking about what they had done in the holidays, where they had been, what they had done, just general chit-chat. The trio tried to get Hagrid to tell them more about the giants Hagrid and the Headmistress of Beauxbatons Academy in France, Madame Maxime, had gone to visit, but Hagrid changed the subject very quickly when ever it was mentioned.

Hermione's eyes kept drawing back to the lake, 'What is different?' the question was frustrating her, a lot. Her mind had been trying to figure out what was wrong, but there was no answer, just standing here with her friends was not going to get the answers she wanted. She would have to go out there and investigate, hands on, but her sub-conscious mind had said now wasn't the time. 'Maybe,' she thought, ' I could borrow Harry's Invisibility Cloak and go and check it out.' Hermione started formulating a plan to inspect the area around the lake, knowing that the boys probably wouldn't be interested in this type of investigation (because it didn't involve three headed dogs, following spiders into the Forbidden Forest, going after an escaped convict and saving a Hippogriff, or going to see a few dragons). Hermione decided she was going to do this alone.

The trio left Hagrid's Hut an hour later, pockets full of the rock hard, Rock cakes which the trio didn't have the heart to turn down, Hermione drew her eyes to the lake once more.

'Harry?' she started, 'Can I please, please burrow your Invisibility Cloak tonight?'

'Sure, what for?' he replied. Both Harry and Ron were starting to look interested because Hermione never, never broke the rules.

'I want to do some research, later, about the lake, but I don't want to get caught in the library after closing hours,' she half lied. Hermione didn't like lying to her best friends but it just felt necessary somehow. She was going to do research- just not in the library as such.

To unmask the mystery of the lake, which was ever so annoying, Hermione first had to eliminate the possibilities of Concealment Charms, Scenery Changing Potions (if there was such a potion), Illusion Charms and the more normal stuff, such as soil erosion (but that would take a lot of time for something to change so drastically). Hermione didn't know why she had to find out what was wrong with the lake, something was just telling her to discover the secret it wanted to tell. She had to.

Harry had given Hermione his fathers Invisibility Cloak, so that she had it for whenever she wanted to do the research about the lake, he had told her earlier though, that he didn't know what she expected to find. She had the Cloak hidden in the front of her robe pocket, although no-one would ever know that it was there, because of the material that the cloak was made from didn't seem to have any bulkiness at all.

The fifth years had taken to sitting in the middle of the table and talking to each other about idea's of training for the battle, and places that they could train, but had yet to come up with a sensible place and concept of training- or a teacher for the other fact. If they thought that they were being over heard by students and teachers a like, they quickly changed the subject to lessons they had had so far or the huge amount of homework being placed on them already, with all the teachers and Hermione saying, "You need to be prepared for your O.L.W's," which was growing old already.

Eventually sunset fell, this was the time Hermione wanted to explore the lake side , and she liked sunsets, it just seemed ideal somehow. Taking the Cloak, Hermione silently made her way to the huge Oak doors, avoiding students and teachers. She knew that she would be braking the rules, being under the Invisibility Cloak was doing that already, but tonight it didn't seem to bother her, which was incredibly weird inside itself because Hermione Granger was the rule-abiding student who only broke the rules in a dire emergency.

Taking off the Cloak, Hermione ran towards the lake, unsure of where to start her field work, she went to the left, near the lake edge and by over grown nettles and brambles. She looked around to see if there was a decent sized tree that she was able to climb to get a better view, get a different perspective of the lake from above and to get a better indication of where to go to next. Not finding on with decent height and leverage, Hermione walked around to the other side of the lake, which was quiet near the Forbidden Forest, stopping every now and then to collect random samples of the surrounding area so that she could test, which what skills and resources she had, if anything had charms or potions on them at all.

It was now well past sunset, and because she didn't want to alert her presence to any teachers that would be more than likely patrolling the area, with more watchful eyes than before (due to the re-birth of Voldemort), the only light Hermione had to rely on was the light from the half-moon to guide her through bushes, trees, nettles, and brambles- it was getting a tad bit painful, to keep walking into them, but she knew no matter what she couldn't reveal herself to the teachers just yet.

Unbeknownst to Hermione, though, she had been spotted by two other teachers during her searching's. The teachers had not spotted each other however. Moving swiftly robes bellowing out from behind him Professor Snape caught up with Hermione, only making regular crunching noises on the ground.

'Miss Granger!' he spoke softly, nut she didn't appear to here him, even though he was right up close to her. Hermione didn't even look like she felt his presence, 'Miss Granger!' he said a bit louder. That got her attention.

Hermione stopped, turned around very slowly and said the Potions Master in a small, mysterious voice, 'It is around here somewhere. I am drawn to it. You are too. It is connected.' she didn't look as if she was in control of her body, as she walked all the way through the brambles and not flinch at the pain that brambles evoke. Professor Snape followed her, confused at what she had just said. 'Drawn to what?' he wondered.

Hermione pushed past the last of the brambles and entered a small clearing. The light of the moon drenched the area with a soft white, silver glow. It illuminated the middle of the area, in which, stood the most British, mythological, legendary item. The sword of England most famous king- once a peasant boy. The sword of King Arthur. The Sword, Excalibur, was set in stone, in the clearing, drenched with moonlight.

(Okay, so how was it? Did it get repetitive??? Please tell me what you think, it is greatly appreciated. Was the ending of this chapter cheesy??? I'm not sure…Please tell me of any mistakes, spelling or punctuation...)