Arc 3 Part 1: Iridescent
TW: Mentions of Suicide
"What do you mean, Professor?" questioned the shocked witch. Not believing a word she just heard.
"Just exactly what you heard, Miss Granger, you might be one of the Magus Titanus." repeated Dumbledore.
"Umm, then how are you going to check?" asked Hermione.
Dumbledore looked around then pointed and said, "Miss Granger, sit there - on that chair." He pointed to a chair near Hermione's study table.
She obliged. Dumbledore then bound her to the chair.
"Professor, what are you-" she began but Dumbledore politely cut her off.
"Do you have faith in me, Miss Granger?" he asked. "Do you have enough faith in me to know that I would not harm you? I am merely binding you to the chair for if you were to lash out, you wouldn't hurt yourself. Do you have faith in me?" he repeated.
"Yes, I do, sir."
Dumbledore then conjured a white piece of cloth and handed it over to Hermione who understood the message and clamped down on the cloth with her teeth.
Before she knew it, Dumbledore began chanting.
"Ostende mihi hoc Magia Wielders Titanus Forma. Sive Tenebris aut Luce, Infirma vel Porena, OSTENDE MIHI!"
Hermione at first began to feel a searing white sensation across her entire body. Something she thought she would never feel. It felt like a thousand hot knives were being put through her and molten hot lava was flowing within her.
She never felt anything like this.
As she was clamping down on the cloth, her eyes began to glow a deep amber.
Eventually, a picture of an enormous moth came forth from her eyes. "Titanus Mosura. Just as I thought," surmised the man whose last name translates to Bumblebee.
Dumbledore undid the binds and she sat freely in the chair.
"Sir, what is Titanus Mosura?" questioned the inquisitive witch as she was gasping for air due to the effects of the spell. Dumbledore began,
"Titanus Mosura is a giant lepidopteran kaiju. Mosura has been dubbed as the queen of the monsters, your form is this very one because of her attributes." said Dumbledore.
Interesting.
"Sir, this all is really good but what can she do?"
"Now isn't the time Miss Granger, there is a rather complicated reasoning as to why I came here."
Cocking her head to the side, Hermione furrowed her eyebrows in curiosity and notioned Dumbledore to continue. Taking the hint, Dumbledore did keep on speaking.
"Do you know why Lord Voldemort came after Harry on Halloween night all those years ago?"
What.
"Uhm, I always assumed Harry's parents were a threat to him or something along those lines, professor. I honestly have no clue."
At that, Dumbledore gave his wand a sharp flick, which locked the door and then twirled his wand around them to cast a Muffliato charm.
With sad eyes, Dumbledore spoke, "You see Miss Granger, there was a prophecy made about a boy, nearly fifteen years ago, being born to parents who thrice defied Voldemort at the end of July -"
"- who will have the power to kill the Dark Lord."
Dumbledore remarked , "Brilliant as always, Miss Granger."
"I- I am sorry sir but this all just makes no sense. There was someone else, wasn't there? He wasn't the only boy, right?"
The old headmaster replied, "I am afraid there were two other options. One of them is a boy in your own house - Neville Longbottom. He was born on the 30th, so he didn't exactly fit the criteria, even though he is a candidate. The other one was a girl, who was meant to come to Hogwarts along with you, Harry, young Ronald Weasley for her fifth year. She was a Gryffindor too."
"What was her name, Professor?"
Taking off his glasses, he wiped his eyes as tears began to build up.
"Her name was Elizabeth Rose Dumbledore, and she was my granddaughter. She was no older than you are, Miss Granger," he said with the best fake-calm voice he could manage.
"Was? What happened to her?"
With his voice choking up, he said, "She took her own life."
At that, a big sliver tear fell into the headmaster's white bushy beard.
Hermione gasped. She wasn't expecting this out of all the possible things that could've happened.
"Sir, I am sorry. I-"
Dumbledore waved her off. "It's alright, Miss Granger. It's alright. You were only curious, you couldn't have known this. It's my fault that I brought this up in the first place."
Wiping his tears, he continued.
"You mustn't tell this to Harry, Miss Granger. When the time will strike right, he will know. Now, as I was saying before. It was prophesied that two kings will fight for the true title as the king of all titans and only one of them would make it to the top."
Hermione passively nodded and urged him to continue.
"And then imagine my surprise when just a few short weeks later, the prophecy surrounding Harry was spun. It made me come to two conclusions. One of the kings is the boy in the prophecy and the other has to be Lord Voldemort. It was all too coincidental for it to be true. They just happened a bit too close."
Dumbledore then stood up and said, "Pack your things, Miss Granger. Pack your things and grab my hand. I'll notify your parents of your absence."
So she got up, packed her essentials in a duffel bag and took firm hold of Dumbledore's arm as they apparated away to his destination.
One Year Later. 18 August 1996-
The Minister had officially made it known within the Ministry that Voldemort was back. So, they gathered massive forces to fight them.
In Hogwarts, Harry was writing his History of Magic O.W.L exam. He couldn't remember an answer for a particular question for the life of him. As he was trying to remember the answer, he first saw some brief odd flashes in his mind. Then they became more fluid but their magical presence was so strong that he fell down on the ground from his chair in the Great Hall. He has a vision of Sirius being tortured by Voldemort for information regarding a prophecy.
Neville also somehow, got a fleeting vision of his grandmother being tortured.
Sirius refuses to part with the answer, so did Augusta.
Voldemort tortures them further. Harry and Neville were rushed to the Hospital Wing to be treated, then they broke out, gathered his friends and travelled to the Ministry of Magic on Thestrals.
Three hours later, they reached the Ministry. Harry has brought Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. Once they reached the place where Sirius was being tortured in Harry's vision, they fell into a trap wrought by the Dark.
A full-scale battle was being fought. This was the first major fight of the war. They were in the hall of prophecies, talking to Death Eaters. They had planned for this. They knew it was a trap. So, they had informed the Order but Sirius wasn't there at that moment. Harry ordered the others on the count of three, that they were to throw the disarming charm to get out of the circle and get an offensive stance.
Nobody noticed Harry take the Prophecy orb and nobody paid any heed to an Ouroborus sign on the floor.
They all raised their wands and roared.
"STUPEFY!"
Death Eaters were blown back. They all made a mad dash towards the exit. And they entered a big room which had an odd archway.
A sign on the door read.
'DEATH ROOM'
But they didn't see that as they were in a hurry as adrenaline was pounding in their ears.
Just a moment before the Death Eaters began to stream in, Harry sent a quick Patronus to the Order. Then with nothing else to do, he pulled his wand out and pointed towards the entrance and commanded, "Get behind me" while trying to steady his hold on the wand and clenching the Prophecy in his hand. All of the other teenagers copied Harry's stance and stood behind him, all pointing their wands at the door.
Then all of a sudden, the Death Eaters flew in with such force that the teenagers weren't prepared. They all flew over the teenagers and due to the sudden arrival, nearly everyone took a defensive stance on the floor by curling into a ball due to the sudden attack. Some tried to fight them off but to no avail. And then all of a sudden, the area cleared and Harry noticed that he was the only one on the floor. Heart thudding in his chest due to dread, raspy breaths coming out of him, he looked around and slowly stood up. The sight he was greeted by made him feel sick.
All the Death Eaters had taken his friends and held them at wand point. Neville, Ron, Ginny, Luna and Hermione. He took notice of each of the Death Eaters which held his friends at wand point. His heart thudded to a stop once he realized Neville was being held at wand point by Bellatrix Lestrange and Hermione was being held by Antonin Dolohov. She tried to wrestle out of his grip but to no avail. As he was looking around, he heard the click-clack of a cane and a foot. He turned around to meet the source of the sound and found a familiar head of platinum blonde hair but older.
It was Lucius Malfoy.
"Did you actually believe-" he then gave a mocking smile, "-that you were enough to stop us?"
He walked up to Harry and continued, "You are weak, you understand that? A band of what- five? Six teenagers? Against us? Are you out of your goddamn mind?"
Harry just stared on with anger.
He then walked beyond the point where Harry was standing and marvelled at a sight behind them, "Good lord..is that the Longbottom's boy you have there, Bella?"
Bellatrix gave a wicked smile and pushed the wand into Neville's ear, getting a pained scream from him.
Turning his eyes away from the sight, he stared deep into the pits of Harry's eyes and stuck out his hand.
"Potter, give me the Prophecy. Give it to me and we shall spare you."
Harry looked at his friends one after the other. "DONT GIB TO EM HARRY!" Neville yelled out but only to have the wand in his ear again as he gave a pained scream
Harry smiled and turned to Lucius and said, "Your hair is just as pathetic as your spawn, you know that? And both of you have the same pompous walk for Merlin's sake. You really ought to change your name to Lucius 'the Peacock' Malfoy."
Said Malfoy was seething with anger.
"Why do you even need this huh? For all I know, this could be just a regular glass orb and you are wasting your time," and then he mockingly laughed.
Maintaining a straight face, he punched Harry and took the prophecy orb. As he was looking at it victoriously and raised it into the air, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Confused, he turned around to meet the face of an angry Sirius Black.
"Get the fuck away from my godson," and then he delivered a nasty right hook to Lucius Malfoy right in the face. Lucius Malfoy went following off the dais with a broken nose as blood spurted from it. As Sirius punched Lucius, reinforcements arrived and he went to look after Harry.
As a consequential effect to the punch Lucius suffered, the sheer force of the punch broke Lucius's nose and had him flying off the dais with the prophecy launched into the air, above his head. As he tried to catch it, it landed right infront of his fingertips and broke into a thousand pieces as mist gently rose up from the shards and dissipated in the air.
Malfoy could only stare at the ruins of the Prophecy and slump with defeat.
As Sirius delivered the right hook, Order members also arrived with tons of Ministry Hit wizards and Aurors. Alastor Moody, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt,Arthur Weasley, Sirius Black, Amelia Bones and surprisingly Augusta Longbottom. These were the ones that Harry recognised on the spot. There were plenty more Order members and Ministry Wizards.
The Death Eaters matched their numbers.
As Sirius reached Harry, who was taking cover behind a big boulder, he began, "Harry, take the others and get out of here now."
Harry answered back with quick baited breaths, "What? No! I am staying with you."
Sirius licked his lips and put his hand on Harry's shoulder. He looked him straight in the eyes and softly said, "You have done beautifully, now let me take it from here."
And as he said that, the pair could hear a familiar snarl from Lucius Malfoy as he drew his wand.
"Black," he snarled and began firing.
Sirius took Harry to the other side of the boulder for only to have another Death Eater fire at them and Padfoot masterfully deflecting those spells.
A full-scale battle was being fought. Unforgivables and equally Dark Curses were erupting from the ones fitted in dark robes and equally dark hexes from the other.
Every magical for themselves. Six Order members and six ministry wizards paired with each person Harry brought from Hogwarts. Everyone of them had an order member and a ministry Hit-Wizard paired along with them.
Harry was paired with Sirius and Kingsley Shacklebolt. They were up against Lucius Malfoy, Rodolphus Lestrange and Thorfin Rowle.
Harry was duelling Lucius. Sirius battled Rodolphus and Kingsley duelled Rowle near the dais of the archway.
Harry disarmed, banished, stunned and bounded Lucius Malfoy in one spell chain.
Sirius saw that and while he was dodging curses, momentarily forgot that Harry wasn't James and he called out, "Nice one James!", feeling as if he was fighting the first war all over again.
Then Bellatrix appeared and threw a stunner at Sirius. Sirius dodged it and laughed out.
"C'MON, YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT!" he yelled, his voice echoing around the cavernous room.
The second jet of light struck him squarely on the chest. The laughter had not quite died out from his face. But his eyes widened in shock.
Harry rushed towards the dais, wand out.
It seemed to take Sirius an age to fall: his body curved in a graceful arc as he sank backwards through the ragged viel hanging from the arch. Harry saw the look of mingled fear and surprise on his godfather's wasted, once-handsome face as he fell through the ancient doorway and disappeared behind the veil, which fluttered for a moment as though in a huge wind, then fell back into place
Harry heard Bellatrix Lestrange's triumphant scream, but knew it meant nothing-Sirius had only just fallen through the archway, he would re-appear from the other side any second...
But Sirius didn't reappear.
"SIRIUS!" Harry yelled. "SIRIUS!" his eyes glowed blue as due to his emotional high, his Magus Titanus was coming through.
Harry's breath was coming in searing gasps. Sirius must be just behind the curtain, Harry would pull him right back out...
But as he bolted towards the dais, Remus grabbed Harry around the chest, holding him back.
"Harry, there's nothing you can do-"
"GET HIM! SAVE HIM! HE ONLY JUST WENT THROUGH!"
"-its too late, Harry."
"We still can reach him-" he struggled hard and viciously against Remus but he wouldn't let go...
"There's nothing you can do, Harry, absolutely nothing... he's gone"
Harry never felt more empty.
On Neville's side of things, he was on the other end of the room. Bellatrix re-appeared and shot a Killing Curse towards Augusta Longbottom.
Augusta dropped dead.
He frantically looked for the killer. Once he saw Bellatrix, he escaped from Moody's hands and chased her down. Harry was also itching to go after Bellatrix but he didn't as he didn't want to do anything stupid. But for Neville however? It was too much.
He went full aggressive on Bellatrix. His rage powered his spells. And he didn't realise but his eyes were glowing green. His Magus Titanus and his rage were powering his spells.
They duelled. Alastor saw this and turned to help him. Once Bellatrix saw she was losing and she was outnumbered two to one, she rushed to the floo and she flooed out.
On Harry's side, after recovering from his shell shock, he saw that his opponents were down. They defeated their opponents, he looked around to see if anyone needed help. He saw Hermione duelling Rabastan Lestrange. Neither was winning or losing. She was so focused on winning that she didn't see Antonin Dolohov sneaking up on her from her right.
Both parties were equally injured. Hermione had a broken left arm, lacerations across the side of her body and nasty bruises on her face while Rabastan looked to be worse off. As Hermione was about to utter a cutting curse, Dolohov slashed his wand diagonally and he sent a purple flame towards Hermione, non-verbally. Harry called out, "HERMIONE DUCK!"
She heard this and tried to duck but the spell hit her and she fell down like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
The rage Harry felt couldn't be put into words.
Bloodlust flowing through his veins, he jumped in and took Rabastan and Dolohov head-on. He was magnificently standing his own ground.
Dolohov sent a steady stream of iron pikes which Harry redirected back to Dolohov who had to end the spell. Rabastan sent a beam of electricity which narrowly missed Harry but as he was ducking down to dodge it, Dolohov sent a massive arrow which staked the teenager right in his thigh, making him lose blood.
Fast.
While duelling both of them, he sent a beam of blue fire. His eyes glowing blue before casting.
"NUCLEI SPIRITU!" (1) called out Harry and aimed for Dolohov's heart.
A blue beam erupted from Harry's wand and rushed towards Antonin Dolohov.
It instantly incinerated whatever came in its path. Dolohov had conjured up a piece of granite but it went through that, his battle armour and the battle-charmed clothes he wore beneath it and it went through him
The blue beam tore through his instantaneously burnt and tore through his skin, muscles, bones and his heart, resulting in a gaping hole in the middle of his torso.
Harry shifted his wand to Rabastan but he had summoned a huge gust of wind and smoke and the beam seemingly went through it. When the smoke settled, there was nothing there. What actually had happened was that he escaped after he saw what that spell did. He didn't want to be on the receiving end of it. And frankly, no one would want to after they had seen what it could do.
Once Dolohov was down, he rushed to his main priority. Hermione.
As he approached her, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. This wasn't supposed to happen. This never did. It should've been Harry, not her. These thoughts ran rampant across Harry's mind. Hermione was always the one who would be safe. She always waited for him. She never was struck down.
This wasn't supposed to happen.
He approached her body in bated breaths and shook her a bit to wake her up.
"Hermione?"
Harry shook her body as he tried to get her to wake up and see life in her eyes. He would do anything to see her breathing again.
Anything.
At this point he didn't care anymore, he couldn't care less to put up a shield around him because the one that mattered the most to him was unresponsive.
Utterly unresponsive.
His mind was beginning to shatter into a million pieces as the grief overpowered him.
The curses passing overhead mattered less to him as the agony clouded his mind and he couldn't think clearly at all.
Harry shook her body and lightly slapped her face to wake her up.
"Come on, stay with me Hermione. You're okay. Stay with me. Please"
Nobody noticed his figure on the ground, hunched over Hermione's body in defeat.
Thanks to Harry's latent magic that erected notice me not charms and protective shields around the duo.
Within the barriers, Harry could only cry and rage in frustration as the only beacon of hope he had, flicker away and in his grief filled eyes, die.
He was utterly lost. He had no clue what to do, who to call for help and whom to cry to.
Why did she have to come with me?
He always had hope that Hermione would make it through with him being the only casualty. But throughout his life, all he has known was failure.
Why was she the one to go? Why her?
As the reality of Hermione being dead hit him, his body wracked with sobs as tears spilled from his eyes. Tears of guilt that he couldn't save her, tears of grief, misery and sorrow.
However, they stopped as soon as they began.
Due to his heightened senses, Harry could hear a faint heartbeat coming from within Hermione.
He was utterly relieved. So, he quickly put her injured part on a statis charm and looked around to find help. He saw Remus ushering the kids away and sending them back. He took Hermione with him and went with them.
He vowed to himself that he will live to see the end of the war and spend his life with her till he dies. Thinking that, his focus was brought back to Hermione in front of him and a while later, they returned to Number 12 Grimmauld Place. He vowed to himself that he will kill Voldemort.
Whatever it takes.
AN: Thought this would be a good place to end. Be on the lookout for more and please review.
(1) Atomic Breath. This is the spell for the ATOMIC BREATH.