The Descendants of Isadora

"Hermione Granger?"

"That is indeed me," she said stoically as my brother and I looked at each other in astonishment.

"You are supposed to be dead," Ben said as she looked at him sternly.

"I just saved your life," she said folding her arms, "you could be a little more grateful."

"I'm trying to figure out how you're here," I said before a fight broke out.

"You don't need to know how I'm here," Hermione said, "all you need to know is that I am here to save you."

"Save us from what?" Ben asked as Hermione was checking the windows.

"That thing that almost killed you was sent by your dictator," Hermione said taking a book out of her bag and throwing it in front of us. It opened to a specific page that had a picture of whatever attacked us.

"A Fire demon?" I asked, "that's what attacked by brother?"

"If I didn't come, he would've roasted you and your brother," Hermione said.

"It says that only a witch or the Keeper of the Shadows can kill it," I said confused, "what is the Keeper of the Shadow?"

"Not what," Hermione said, "who. The Keeper of the Shadow is someone who guards a book that gives special people abilities to defeat a great evil. Do you have said book?"

"Like I told the demon we don't have the book," I said before my brother could speak.

"You told the demon that you did."

"So he would let my brother go," I said as Hermione walked over to me and grabbed my neck. I gasped for air as she squeezed my throat.

"You could've killed him anyway," she said as Ben came over and pried her hands off my neck. I coughed and gasped as I rubbed my neck. Ben went into the kitchen and took a book from beneath the sink and handed it to Hermione, but when she touched it it burnt her skin. "Dammit."

"Why can't you touch it?" Ben asked holding the book against his chest.

"Like I said only special people can touch it."

"Like who?" I asked touching the book. Nothing happened.

"Only descendants of the Potter line can touch the book," Hermione said taking out her wand and healing her hand. It was a rare sight seeing Hermione using her wand; reading it in history books and seeing it in person was a rare treat and oddly satisfying.

"You're saying we are related to Harry Potter?" Ben asked wide eyed.

"Not only Harry but Isadora," Hermione said as my head started to hurt.

"Isadora is the last known Potter descendant," I said recalling history books we had read in school. "Her last known place of origin was in Surrey and then she dropped off the face of the Earth. She had powers that were incredible: ESP, shape shifting, among other things"

"Yes I know," Hermione said, "I knew her. I saw her power first hand. That book was written by her and used by her."

"Why would she leave it behind?" I asked as Hermione sat at our dining room table.

"Because when she was attacked she spelled the book so only her descendants could read and touch the book," Hermione responded, "that's why i burned my hand. I'm not related to her, but you two are. You two are directly related to Isadora."

"How? We would have to be her children or..." I said suddenly stopping and pacing around the room. "Are you telling us that we are her children?"

"That is what I'm telling you," Hermione said as I kept pacing and trying to figure everything out.

"So it's just me and my brother or are there others?"

"There are three others," Hermione said making Ben's jaw drop, but as I looked at her she looked nervous and unsure of what she has just said; from that moment I began to not trust her. Suddenly there was a bang at the door that made us all jump; Hermione drew her wand and Ben grabbed his hunting knife while holding the book against his chest.

"We want the book! We know you have it!"

"Is there a way out other than the front door?" Hermione asked.

"There's a door through the floor that leads underground," Ben said as I glared at him.

"Open the door, Rey!" yelled a familiar voice.

"It's Gracey," I said trying not to listen to him. Gracey and I had a confusing relationship after my parents died; when I turned eighteen our relationship was upgraded to an adult relationship when we slept together, but when he told me he wanted us to be exclusive I packed my bags and high tailed it out. Not only that, but I realized who he really worked for and I made sure I quit my nasty habit before being sucked into anything.

"Rey Rey, please let me in," he said in his sweet voice.

I covered my ears and sank to the floor in tears. I couldn't take the sound of his sweet, strong, confident voice; it brought me back to when we were together. Suddenly I saw memories in my head; Gracey and I were sitting in our garden and he was telling me that he loved me and he went on one knee. I knew that this was the part where I said no and he would cry and I left him crying there, but something was different about this memory. It was altered; when I told him no, his face contorted in anger and he reached for my neck and started strangling me.

"He's killing her," I heard Ben yell from the sky.

"Let go of her mind!" Hermione yelled as there was a loud blast and suddenly Gracey was gone and I was lying on the grass confused in the silence. "Get her out of here!" As I lay on the grass, the world started to fade and I saw dirt, and I noticed that we were in a tunnel; we had to be in the tunnel underneath the house that led to the woods. There was a large blast from behind me that threw Ben forward knocking me out of his arms; I got up, disoriented, and tried to understand what was happening. I ran over to Ben, who had a large and deep gash above his eye, and shook him awake; it took him a few seconds to come to, but when he did he grabbed me and hugged me.

"You're okay!" he said squeezing me.

"Yes I am," I said trying to get him to focus. "What is happening?"

"Gracey wanted the book and Hermione was negotiating with him," Ben explained wincing from his eye wound, "she said that we would give him the book if he released you and when he refused Hermione took out her wand and that's when hell broke loose. They started firing with their guns and somehow she was killing them left and right until Gracey destroyed her wand and from there I have no idea what happened. She told me to carry you out and that's what I did."

"We have to go back and get her," I said as I heard rumbling from above. The rumbling started traveling down the tunnel and dirt started flying; it was like an earthquake was happening above us.

"The ground is collapsing!" Ben yelled, but it was too late; I covered Ben as dirt started falling on us; the weight of all the dirt broke my arm, but I needed to protect my brother. He had his hands covering his face and he looked at me as we got covered by dirt; he mouthed thank you and then everything went dark. I remember sniffing dirt, which was nasty and made me cough. I felt like I was buried under twelve feet of dirt, like I had purposely been buried alive, but I managed to dig my way out; I reached my hand up to reach for some ground and I was able to pull myself out. I yelled as I leaned on my broken arm and flopped on the ground; I breathed heavily as I caught my breath, stood on my feet, and cradled my arm with my other arm. I coughed and dusted myself off, but I needed to dig my brother out; I dug as deep as I could until I reached him. I pulled him out, somehow, and tried to wake him up.

"Ben," I said shaking him. He coughed and pushed me away.

"I'm alive," he said dusting himself off, but winced when he wiped over his eye wound. I helped him stand and we took in our surrounding; not only was our house not standing anymore, but bodies littered the ground.

"The house must have exploded," Ben said as we walked around looking for Hermione. "How could the explosion reach us from below?"

"It must have been that powerful," I said finding one of the guns from Gracey's army. It's a laser gun called an AT518; this emits the power of the sun and concentrates it into a powerful laser that instantly kills whomever it hits. "The shock wave from one of these things can decimate villages so our house was just a straw house to the big bad wolf." We searched the wreckage for anybody we knew, but we couldn't find Hermione nor anyone from the army. "I'll check over here." Ben nodded his head and we split ways; I checked over by where our kitchen was a found a hand sticking out from beneath wooden beams. I rushed over and pushed the beams off whomever it was, but to my dismay it was not Hermione.

"Rey Rey," he said hoarse. I stepped back refusing to listen to him, but then he said something I didn't expect. "I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?" I asked very confused. "Why are you sorry?"

"For how I treated you," Gracey said groaning from an open rib wound. He pulled me down to face level and continued talking, "I was forced to engage with you on behalf of our dictator. He threatened to kill me if I hadn't and I am sorry for deceiving you. I did really love you. The proposal...was real."

"I know it was," I said as I started to cry. "I'm sorry that I left. I was scared."

He handed me something from his pocket and said, "Keep it." I opened my hand and noticed I was holding the engagement ring he had used to propose to me; my hand shot to my mouth and I started to cry harder. As I went to say something, I looked down and noticed that he was unresponsive; "Gracey?" I shook him a few times and noticed that he was gone; I never got to say goodbye. I kissed his forehead, whispered "Goodbye. I love you." and closed his eyes.

"Rey!" Ben yelled as I rushed over. He had found Hermione, but she was under a heavy metal beam. "Help me lift this. On three. One...two...threeeee!" We lifted as fast as we could until the metal beam was off of her and we noticed what damage was done; she had a huge gash across her abdomen, her leg was broken in three places, her face was covered in blood and ash, and her shoulder was dislocated. She coughed and tried to breathe, "Where's my wand?"

"It was smashed," Ben said as she sighed, but she ran her hands over her leg and groaned as it healed. She wobbled as she stood and healed her arm, groaning as well, and healed the wounds on her face and abdomen; she came over to me and looked at my arm. "This will hurt." Seconds later, she ran her hand over my arm and I felt each bone reconnect and snap back together and it was such crippling pain it almost brought me to my knees. After my arm was healed, I was breathing heavily and sweating. "Told you." I gave her the evil eye and we proceeded to walk around the wreckage; "What now?" I asked her.

"We leave and find the other," Hermione said heading toward the forest.

"Do we follow her?" I asked.

"Unless you want to stick around until more of the dictator's army show up to kill us," Ben said as I looked from him to Hermione.

"Wait for us!" I yelled as we ran to join her as we entered the woods to our new destination.