AN: Don't own anything, as always.
I had a Guest commenting about how this was a self-insert fic… Now, I'm kinda sure I'm not a redhead planeswalker, it made me curious: do you agree?
CHAPTER 11 – Act on Impulse
"I see, interesting..." commented Kiora once the screeches had ceased "It's a little poem in mermish. I'll spare you the details, it essentially says that they'll take something you're attached to and hid it somewhere underwater, probably near a merfolk village. Oh, and you'll have only one hour to recover it."
"There are merrows in the Black Lake," supplied Hermione looking worriedly at Chandra "I guess your magic is hampered by the water, isn't it?"
"Completely useless," said the redhead grimacing "I guess that's what I get for speaking up to that Ministry guy, Couch or whatever."
"Though luck Red," said Kiora patting her on a shoulder "I suppose you cannot nominate a proxy?"
"I wouldn't hope so," commented Liliana looking thoughtful "Especially if the organizers bear a grudge against you. That said, we can always cheat."
"Cheating is against the rules, Liliana," warned Hermione in a stern tone.
The three planeswalker exchanged a look.
"Hermione, I know you've got this following the rule thing..." started Chandra slowly.
"Dreadfully boring if you ask me," interjected Kiora mirthfully "But it always worked for Turi, so whatever you think is best."
"Yeah, that. What I was trying to say though was that we're talking of me and Liliana here, not you," continued the pyromancer "We kind of disregard the rules."
"Disregard dear?" asked the necromancer in a fake effected tone "You're a wanted thief in at least two different planes and a walking powder keg at best of times, while I have the hobby of breaking the rules of life and death. We're as far as humanly possible from rules."
"Wait, what do you mean you break the rules of life and death?" asked a suddenly alarmed Hermione.
"She doesn't know?" asked Kiora raising an inexistent eyebrow.
"I thought we told her," said Chandra raising her hands in a placating gesture.
"It has surely come up at some point," assented the necromancer nodding "I'm sure I told her I..."
"You what Liliana? You told me you were an healer!"
Kiora snorted, Chandra facepalmed and the supposed healer stared at the witch as if she had grown a second head.
"Hermione, look at me," said Liliana in an emotionless, flat tone "Look at me very well. Do I look like an healer even a little bit?"
"Well, you come from a different world-" started saying the bushy haired girl.
"I'm a death mage, Hermione," stated bluntly the other "Precisely, a necromancer."
A shocked silence fell on the room.
"What in the blazes Liliana?" exclaimed Chandra "You cannot say this kind of things like that! You have to ease people into the idea!"
"You're telling me to be gentle?" bit back the necromancer "You?"
"She's kind of right Red..." admitted Kiora before turning on Liliana "That doesn't mean she's wrong though. Too direct girl, that was as subtle as a sandbar eel!"
"Who cares how she said it!" finally exploded Hermione, her hand flying to her wand "She just admitted to being a dark witch!"
"Yes, and if you don't put your wand back in your pocket you'll discover why I deserve that moniker," threatened the necromancer scowling.
"That's enough Liliana, no need to scare her," said Chandra using a hand to lower Hermione's wand "And yes Hermione. She was born with death magic and uses it, end of story ok?"
"But she-"
"Hermione," stressed the redhead interrupting her newest friend "She needs a flick of her wrist to kill you, slowly and painfully. I'm trying to keep you alive here, so shut it."
A heavy silence descended on the room, tinged darkly with worry and anger.
"Ok," finally said Hermione in a tiny voice putting her wand away.
"Good. You two can talk this out later ok? Maybe when Ajani is on hand to prevent meaningless... Damages," said Chandra nodding before turning to Kiora "What else can you tell me of the clue, Fishy."
"The clue, right." muttered Kiora before adding in a normal tone "Well, there's not much more to say about it, it's pretty straightforward. The only thing is that they might take a hostage instead of a thing, the phrasing is ambiguous, but it still needs to be something or someone you'd sorely miss."
"And who would they take? They can't take mom, you and the rest of the Gatewatch are out too, Ajani is a judge and Liliana would kill them all."
"Not that we're actually that close to begin with," commented the necromancer shrugging "Just like you're not very close with either Luna or Hermione here."
"That leaves a thing..." muttered the redhead pensively before suggesting "My goggles?"
"I think the what is superfluous right now," said Hermione speaking up but looking everywhere but at Liliana "You need a way to survive underwater for an hour in freezing cold water and to defend yourself from the creatures of the lake. A source of light would be useful too."
"I can take care of the defense part, if you can find a way to walk on the lakebed," suggested Liliana "I just need to find the closest graveyard. Or any corpse, really."
Hermione became a little green at the suggestion.
Chandra stared at her for a moment to avoid another episode before adding: "I can warm the water up so I don't freeze, but nothing else."
"If you want, I can teach you a basic light spell," suggested the witch with a sigh "You might need a focus to cast it though..."
"I can map the lake for you, but I might look suspect," said Kiora scratching her chin "The merrows aren't the nicest of fellows, they'd tell someone if I went snooping around..."
"They might snitch about my bodyguards too, that'd be annoying," pondered Liliana "I need to think of an alternative..."
"This leaves breathing underwater... And I have no idea..." summarized Chandra frowning.
"And proper attire," added Hermione.
The redhead gave her a suspicious look.
"You cannot swim in leather and chainmail armor!" protested the witch "And certainly not naked!"
The three planeswalkers smirked.
After their little episode during the discussion about the clue, things became tense between Hermione and Liliana, with the bushy haired girl trying her best to avoid the necromancer or, when it wasn't an option, to ignore her.
"You and Liliana have to solve this thing," stated Chandra almost a week after they had discussed the clue and Kiora's subsequent departure.
She and Hermione were in an unused classroom, with the latter trying to teach her the lumos charm wandlessly and silently. It wasn't proceeding well, so they had decided to take a break.
"It's easy for you," said the witch a tad bitterly "You'd think the same had you grown up here."
"You think I find it ok? No! Death magic is repulsive Hermione, I agree, but our magic is innate. She had no choice in this, she was born a necromancer."
"There's always a choice Chandra. She could have chosen a different way to employ her talent."
"Like protecting the Multiverse?" teased the pyromancer "Objectively, yes she could have chosen differently here and there, but in the end? She could have been far worse: she's stable, collected and works towards the betterment of any plane we visit. You should sincerely be more worried of me."
Hermione paused, visibly lost in thought.
"She's the same woman you got to know in the past month, I promise."
The witch nodded, then got up and made to leave the room.
"Keep practicing, we'll continue tomorrow," she said stopping on the threshold before leaving.
"I better browse the library... Let's hope they have some good fire suppressant spells around..." muttered Chandra getting up and leaving the room too.
The talk between Hermione and Liliana went well, meaning that the necromancer didn't get a new undead handmaiden and the bushy haired witch got to ask as many questions as she liked. This, unfortunately, had the side effect of stimulating Hermione's curiosity in just how much Liliana's magic was different from her own kind, something that the necromancer found immensely funny.
Apparently, Liliana had a thing for corrupting young and impressionable minds when Jace and Gideon weren't around to rein her in. Unlucky for her, the Hogwarts library was devoid of anything even distantly relating to necromancy and, even if there had been any books, they would have been in the restricted section, which helped keeping Hermione away from the darkest branches of magic.
In the end, around mid-December, things went back to normal in their little group, for how normal things could be with three planeswalkers.
Chandra continued her lessons one evening a week, describing the various planes she, Liliana and Ajani had visited, often using Dumbledore's pensive to show landscapes or unusual races or creatures. They purposely left Zendikar out after Madam Pomfrey informed the leonid of the number of students requesting dreamless sleep potions after they had viewed Chandra's memory of Ulamog. Similarly, they also avoided those planes that might have a negative impact on the audience, or at least their darkest aspects.
Ten days before Christmas though, Hermione brought a message from professor McGonagall that shook their normalcy: there was going to be a ball on Yuletide, a tradition of the Tournament apparently. Normally, this wouldn't have even touched the little group, but since Chandra was a champion and a Ajani a judge they were required to attend, and the redhead had to have a date too. This brought a problem to light:
"I don't dance," stated Chandra upon hearing of the ball "I'll attend, I'll even dress up for the occasion if I have to, but I refuse to dance."
"But you're required for the opening dance!" protested Hermione "It's the tradition!"
The pyromancer would have said something like "I torch traditions'" hadn't Ajani placed a front paw on one of her shoulders and asked if she could actually dance. The redhead's silence was very conspicuous.
"I'll see if there's something like a dance class for beginners," said the leonid good-humouredly "After all, I somewhat doubt the dances here will involve ritual paint and large bonfires like on Naya."
With that, Ajani left the room to find the transfiguration professor, humming a fast-paced tune to himself.
"That's all nice and well," interrupted Liliana, a mischievous smirk creasing her lips "But our resident hothead needs a date for the ball too. Who are you going to ask? And more importantly, what are you going to wear?"
"Oh no, I know where you're going with this and the answer is no," stated the pyromancer shaking her head "I'm not letting you play matchmaker with my date, I'll think of it myself. And neither with my wardrobe. Where can I buy some clothes, Hermione?"
"Oh, come on Chandra," protested the necromancer pouting like a five years old who had been banned from cookies "Let a girl have her fun!"
"Next weekend is an Hogsmade weekend, we can go looking for something together..." explained the bushy haired girl while studying Liliana's face.
"Great, a girls only outing! Just what the three of us need!" exclaimed the necromancer bouncing back to a mood far too peppy for everybody's continued safety.
It soon became apparent that, despite her supposed mental instability and her proved danger, many young males at Hogwarts thought that having the Rose Potter at their arm for the Yule Ball was something worth the risk that was Chandra Nalaar. The pyromancer rebutted every single one of them, even the nice ones, on the base of a snap decision taken thanks to her first petitioner: Draco Malfoy.
The blonde Slytherin had decided, with the help of his mother and father, that having Chandra accompany him would be extremely beneficial both to the Malfoy name and to the Dark Lord's cause. Not wanting to waste any time and risk of losing his chance, he approached Chandra at the first occasion he got: at dinner the day the ball was announced.
"Our first meeting didn't go over well," he said coming up to Gryffindor table where the three planeswalker used to eat with Luna and Hermione "But I'm sure it was due to being in a new place and everything."
"What do you want Malfoy?" asked the bushy haired witch before Chandra could come up with anything other than "Who are you again?"
"I'm not talking with you, mudblood. I'm here for Potter," he answered in a cutting tone before turning to the redhead and saying haughtily "Since last time you didn't know better I'll forget it and offer you the chance to have the honour of taking me to the Yule Ball."
For once, Hermione was too stunned to say anything, just like many others in hearing range. Unfortunately for Draco, Chandra wasn't one of them and she had finally remembered him.
"Yeah, not going to happen," she said in a flat tone "I wouldn't take you even if you were the last living being in the castle."
"Think you can do better than me?" dared the blonde "I'm the best choice if you haven't noticed."
"I wouldn't be so sure," said Liliana shrugging "It's full of cute boys and girls around here, I'm pretty certain you wouldn't be in the top ten if I bothered making a dateability scale."
"It's not that hard," said the pyromancer ignoring her fellow planeswalker's disturbing remarks "I can summon a better date than you, Malfoy."
"You wouldn't dare choose an inhuman beast over me!" protested the boy, so very sure that his pure blood made him better than anyone else, let alone not-humans.
Chandra narrowed her eyes dangerously, ready to take him up on his dare, while Ajani shook his head and muttered something about "wrong thing to say".
"You know what Malfoy? I think I'll do just that," she said as long wisps of smoke started rising from her hairs "I'll summon my date for that blasted dance!"
"Now you've gone and done it," muttered Liliana facepalming before turning to the blonde and adding "Better get away in silence before she decides to demonstrate. Go."
Since that moment, Chandra had made up her mind and, in the name of putting Malfoy in his place, she proceeded to show that mules weren't the most stubborn creatures living on Kaladesh. She refused all those checking if the rumor was true, those dared by their friends, the idiots after her fame, and even a timid boy from Gryffindor that admitted to actually being interested in the real her.