Title: Code of the Griffin
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Nothing Specific, general for first few books.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I do not own Hermione, or Luna, or Ginny, or Cho, or... I would buy them all but I am broke.
Summary: From a war ravaged future, someone is sent back in time to change the course of the war.
AN: Fair warning, there is a lot of dialog in this chapter, but there was no way around it. The conversation is something I have had in mind since back around chapter 2. I hope you like it.
Hermione sat only in a pair of thong panties in the Ruling Lady accommodations that she had been provided. Her Evening Dress Uniform was hanging over the door to the wardrobe, with the Circlet of Eastern Reach resting on the work table. It was almost eight am on Christmas morning, but she had not slept from the Ball yet. The Ball itself had lasted until three am and she had stayed till the last guest was gone, and afterwards she had returned to her quarters, removed the dress and circlet, sat on the couch and not moved since, lost in memories.
It had been hard wearing that dress again, she shared a long, and at times painful, history with it but the formal nature of the event had required it. Duty before everything else. And her first duty was to Harry.
Her eyes went to the dress and a single tear rolled down her cheek. The dress had been with her, in one form or another for almost her entire life. For the last few thousand years it had been her Evening Dress Uniform. For countless victory celebrations, formal functions and at least three ambushes with deadly fights she had worn the dress, with the rank insignia and sword.
Centuries before the formation of the Order, she had worn another version of that dress, with thinner, crossing back straps and the skirt lower on the right leg. That incarnation had been in a deep Mangath Blue, and she had worn the circlet for the first time, on the day she had gone from being the Premier of Mangath and was crowned Empress of the Eastern Reach.
The coronation dress itself was almost an exact replica of a much older dress, the major exception being the colour. During the ball Hermione had danced exactly once, her one dance with Harry. They had danced before to the song she had arranged to be played, danced in the original dress that had inspired all the others. That had been an emotional dance for Hermione. She remembered every moment of the day that they had danced that dance. On that day the dress had been white and she had made the single most important vow of her life. It had been the day she had married Harry and the song had been the music to their first dance as husband and wife.
Shaking herself from her memories, Hermione got dressed in her working uniform, gathered up the Christmas presents for her Gryffindor friends and made her way out into the Common Room.
Harry was having a great Christmas morning. He had left the Ball at a little after one, escorting Janet back to the Ravenclaw Common Room, where she had given him a kiss on the cheek and said that she had a good night. Afterwards he had slept well, with only one nightmare about his captivity. At five am he was awake and down in the common room. For the first time in his years at Hogwarts Christmas presents were being hand delivered rather than delivered in a pile by the House Elves, as almost everyone was still at Hogwarts rather than at home.
Presents were exchanged as people came down from their dorms. Katie Bell had come down early and had given him a book on Seeker tactics, and he had given her a broom maintenance kit, the same present he had given the other two Gryffindor Chasers. Alicia had gotten him a new pair of dragon hide Quidditch gloves, while Angelina, always the provocative one, had gotten him a hardened Dragon hide Box, with the comment that she had to guess his size.
For Ron and the Twins, Harry had gotten them pendants that were made from chips of the gateway they had used for cover during the Battle of the Word Cup. Ron had gotten him a knife while the twins had given him some of their experimental, concealable weapons.
Just before eight Kate West entered the Gryffindor Common room, just as Harry had asked her the night before. Harry had spent a lot of time arranging Kate's present, even getting the assistance of Sirius. When he handed her the envelope, Kate looked a bit sceptical, but when she opened and read what was inside, she jumped up, gave Harry a huge hug and kissed him on the mouth.
Hermione's entrance into the Common Room was announced by a gasp, and the clatter of presents falling to the floor. For a second, a look of hurt crossed her face, then her Order mask snapped into place and she turned on her heel and left the Common Room.
Hermione was devastated. Oh sure, she had promised herself that of Harry fell in love with another that she would let him have his happiness, and she would. It didn't mean that she was overjoyed when it happened right in front of her. Especially not after the emotion of last night, and that dance. Luckily there were very few people out and about at this time on Christmas morning, because she was striding through the halls not watching where she was going and would have walked right through someone. She heard the footsteps trying to catch up with her, and she started walking faster, but the broke into a run.
Finally fed up, she spun around and lashed out with a fist. Harry deflected the punch in a move she had taught him, and countered with a move that tried to secure her arms.
"Hermione, what's going on?" Harry asked.
A quick move freed her arms and for a second Hermione seriously considered hurting Harry, as payback for the way he unknowingly hurt her, but this was Harry.
"None of your business, Staff Sergeant. You are dismissed." She snapped.
"Oh no. You do not get to pull the CO card, not this time." Harry shot back. "Talk to me Hermione. You are my friend, or at least you used to be."
"Used to be." Hermione half whispered in shock. "Am I not good enough for you any more, Potter?"
Harry's eyes shot wide.
"I did not deserve that." Harry said slowly, barely containing his anger. "Not after everything I have done and suffered for you. If we are not friends anymore it is because you don't act like it, Granger. Or should I say, Grand Marshall."
"Fine, you don't like it, the leave. You can take West, go live somewhere is peace and raise a brood of kids. You two have been all over each other since I risked my life to rescue you, so go and have a safe life while I take care of every bastard who is trying to kill you." Hermione shot back.
"Kate?! What the hell makes you think I like Kate?" Harry said in genuine surprise.
"Ten minutes ago. Common Room. Kiss. Ringing any bells?" she replied sarcastically
"So not what you think it is." Harry replied, blushing.
"So enlighten me. Is it just practice or something?" Hermione said, venom dripping from her voice.
"Christ Hermione, for a genius sometimes you can be so bloody stupid. I just adopted her as my god damn sister, ok?" Harry replied sadly, stopping Hermione in her tracks. "Neither of us have any real family, except Sirius, and the things she did to keep me safe in…. Now she is formally Lady Kate West-Potter of House Potter. If I die without children then Kate and any kids she have will inherit."
"If that's what you've been planning, then why have you been so distant? And I don't mean after. Even before you were distant from me, Ron, Neville, the whole Order. You have always been fine on duty, but off duty…" Hermione trailed off, not sure how to articulate what she meant.
"Because I figured it out." Harry replied, making Hermione's heart skip a beat. "I figured out how much of a burden I was to you in the last timeline."
"Burden? We rallied around you, you defeated Voldemort. You were never a burden." She said, confusion crossing her face.
"Sure, so you say, but what was the cost. You took care of me afterwards. So was it physical or mental? Was I a cripple or a vegetable? Was I able feed myself? Whip my ass? Did I know anything of what went on around me?"
Hermione could see the anguish in his face, hear it in his voice, feel it in his eyes. He honestly believed that he had been a burden, a handicap that had been a drain on his friends and it rendered her momentarily speechless.
"You know what, I hope I was mentally disabled. I don't think I could have dealt with it otherwise. You having to give up so much to care for me. You spending time with him." Harry said dejectedly.
"Him?" she asked, confused.
"Your husband. Every day I wonder who he was, will be, whatever. I ask myself every time I see you talk to some guy if he is the lucky one who marries you. Or is it someone else. Just tell me it isn't Draco."
"It isn't Draco." Hermione assured him, seeing the desperation in his eyes.
"I couldn't stand it if Draco was married to the girl I love…" Harry said, before clamping his hands over his mouth.
"You love me?" Hermione asked, her heart soaring.
"Oh well, Knezle's out of the bag. Yeah I love you, always have. That's why I hate that I was such a burden on you. That I stopped you living your life." Harry replied.
"Harry, you were never a burden. I have only loved one person in my life, my husband." She said, thinking of a way to explain. "Oh damn it, there's only one way to prove it to you. Expecto Patonum."
Hermione saw Harry stare as she conjured her Patronus. The silver warrior in full plate armour with sword and shield appeared next to Hermione, facing the pair.
"Harry, my Patronus is special not only because it is human formed. It is my Husband. The man I have loved for ten thousand years." Hermione said.
She stared at the silver warrior for a moment and then nodded. The warrior sheathed its sword, then raised the visor on its helmet. Harry stared into the eyes of the silver warrior, eyes that on a real person would be green. His own eyes.
"I did not take care of you because you were injured or sick. I spent the most glorious decade of my life at your side, as your wife. We live, loved, fought, made up. We were about to have a child when you and the baby were both torn from me." Hermione whispered, just loud enough for Harry to hear.
Harry's legs just dropped out from underneath him as he went into shock. He had been jealous of… himself?
"Great. We finally tell the kid and he goes into shock." The Grand Marshall said, standing at the holographic table in the middle of the mindscape.
"He has a lot to process." Young Hermione Granger said from the library area. "So what are we going to do?"
"What we have been doing for the last ten thousand years." Hermione Potter replied. "We will wait for him."
TBC…