Her Knights

Lady Countryrose

Ch. 3

Hermione was still in Dumbledore's office when his fireplace lit up. Indicating incoming floo. Letting them know that someone was coming through. The headmaster gave Hermione a knowing look. Before making his way towards the fireplace. Where...one by one, four boys came rolling out of the green flames.

Hermione had gotten up and made her way towards the window. Where she could look out towards the grounds of Hogwarts. She had already given what memories for Dumbledore to use for the boys to swim around in. While she waited with baited breath on what's to come. She had even appointed what classes she wanted to further her education with. Her list of supplies was already in her bag.

"Hey Dumbledore, we got your message," voiced one of the boys in the background. A voice that she hadn't heard since fifth year. The year that Harry had lost his godfather. "So what's all this about a bird needing to have knights to follow here?"

Hermione nearly shivered, trying to fight off a bit of emotions running through her. It would not bold well to tear up, knowing that there were a least a couple of ghosts in the room. 'Erik, where are you?' She was a bit of surprised that she was dependant on him. Even though that they had just met that day.

As if she had summoned him by thought, a snake came slithering into the office. Coming towards her as fast as it could travel. She noticed that the snake was indeed a cobra. She was kind of hoping that it was a maroon color but was shocked to see that it was an albino with purple eyes.

Hermione clammed her heart rate by telling her that it was only Erik. As she saw him climbing up her leg. As he wrapped around her a few times. Before wrapping around her left hip across her front towards the lower part of her right boob. Before going around the back, across to where he stopped at her left shoulder. He hissed at her, causing his tongue to vibrate her left cheek, causing her to giggle.

"Who's that," asked another voice that she knew to have been her professor at one point of her time.

"She is the person I would like to talk about," stated the professor. "Only after I show you something first." He waved his wand, causing some cabinet doors to open to reveal a stone stand. It brought out from a hidden part of a wall.

"Why do we need to use a pensieve sir," asked Remus again.

"Come, like I said there are things I need for you to see first." Dumbledore waved the four towards his pensieve. Seeing that it was the only answer they were going to get from the headmaster. All four of them ducked their heads into it. He then turned towards Hermione, "I sure hope it was enough memories for them to go on…"

Hermione simply nodded, before turning back towards the window again. She saw the Forbidden Forest, as birds of many feathers flying high. A sigh had left her lips, feeling the pressure of the snake wrapped around her, gave her a light about of tightening. She had found the small gesture to be...a bit of comfort.

After about twenty or so minutes had passed. All four of the boys stepped away from the pensieve. By the feeling of raised hairs on the back of her neck. She knew that every one of them was looking towards her. Causing Cobra to turn towards them, flapped out his extra scaled sides to huff at them.

"What the bloody hell," exclaimed Sirius. She knew his ruff sounding baritone anywhere. "That is a cobra! What is it doing in the school and around her?"

"Did you see what you saw," asked Hermione in her no nonsense tone of voice. She was starting to get tired. 'Who knew time traveling could tire one out. Plus trying to convince your old headmaster that you're not evil. What a day…'

"Who's Harry Potter," asked a voice that she had never heard before. It caused her to turn around, only to see that the one with glasses had stepped closer to her.

"Your son," she stated calmly.

"With," he asked with a pleading look. He looked more like a puppy dog that he should have. When she knew that he could turn into a beautiful stag.

"Lily," she answered softly.

"YES," the boy jumped up and hollered. Causing the snake next to her to hiss very loudly.

Hermione giggled as she raised her finger up and lightly petted his chin. "It's alright Cobra," she whispered softly towards Erik on her shoulder.

The other dark-haired boy raised his eyebrow. "Can you kindly tell us what's going on? I mean, I know my family is into snakes and all. I can't imagine you and I are related or anything."

"You'll be right, Sirius," Hermione smirked at him kindly. "We're not related. Up until the end of sixth year. I had believed that I was a daughter of muggles."

Remus closed his eyes for a moment. "Why does this sound like it's going to get worse?"

With sorrow eyes, Hermione nodded. "Because it did. At the end of sixth year. I was taken out of school by a couple of Death Eaters…" She got all the boys to hiss at that bit of information. "...only to be drag towards Voldemort. Only to find out...I'm his daughter."

"YOU'RE WHAT," cried out all the boys in the office. Causing Hermione to glanced down towards the floors in shame. While the snake hissed even louder than before. Popping out his sides, to make him more menacing than before.

"Let me guess." Sirius started walking towards Hermione with hate in his eyes. "You can speak to snakes?!"

Hermione glanced towards Erik. "I know you can understand me, but can you say something?" The albino snake turned towards her and hissed. She turned towards the boys and shrugged. "I don't speak snake because all I hear is him hissing at me."

James walked towards Sirius and dragged him back from the girl with the snake. Hermione could only be glad, not really knowing what Erik could do under pressure. "Leave her alone, Pads. I believe her when she said that she didn't know that he was her father."

"So," Remus smiled softly. "You know all about…?"

"Yes," she smiled softly. "That you're a wolf, a dog, a stag…" She then turned towards Peter with a harsh look in her eyes. "...and a rat."

James glanced towards Peter than back at Hermione. "What do you know about Peter? I saw how Remus and Sirius ran into each other again at Shrieking Shack. But I had a hard time understand that bit of information."

"Do you want to tell them, Pete? Where do you run off...while your friends are planning pranks and you're nowhere to be found," she asked sweetly. She started to walk towards him in slow-moving steps, with precise poise. "How you became unavailable a few times...for a full moon excursions this past summer?"

"H...how?"

The three other boys glanced towards Peter with raised eyebrows. They knew that he had been shy most of his life. But to hear the sound of despair in a way.

Hermione then turned towards the snake. "Time for you to show yourself after everyone leaves office. I want a vow from everyone. That whatever they learned, they don't speak about it again. Not without my permission at least."

The snake hissed at her before getting off of her. He slithered a ways a bit before changing into a man before their eyes. His purple eyes flashed for a moment. "Why spoil my fun, sweetheart?"

"SWEETHEART," gasped the four other younger males in the room.

Remus glared towards the maroon-haired male. "Erik Prince, what are you doing here?"

The once cobra turned towards the other men in the office with a smirk on his lips. "What? I can't be anywhere where my betrothal goes?"

Sirius glanced towards Hermione with sorrow in his eyes. "Betrothal?"

"Yeah," Hermione gave a soft smile. "Father's doing…"

It was enough to let everyone know. She had no power on who she was to marry. Just like most pureblood families of the age. Hermione turned towards her betrothal. "Now Erik, I need them to be on my side. If I want to have a world without a war."

Erik shook his head before glancing at the four Gryffindors. "I don't think they'll even want to help." He then turned back to Hermione. "Sorry, sweetheart. You'll have to live with what you get."

Hermione glanced down with sorrow. "I was just hoping that if I have to change things. I would do it with people...I had either grown up knowing. Or were there for me...when I needed them." She turned back towards the window. "I guess I can be wrong…"

Peter stumbled as he made his ways towards her. "What did I do...when I followed your father?"

"Pete," gasped his three friends. "So...you're working for him?"

Hermione sighed, not bothering to look at him. "You turned your back on James and Lily when they really needed you the most. You sold them out when he wanted to kill their son."

"I...I wouldn't…"

"You ran after realizing what you had done. When you knew that Sirius would be coming after you. You then killed twelve muggles to frame him for killing them and you. When you ran out of the area, after cutting your finger and becoming a rat." Her voice had sounded far and distant. Not wanting to invest any more emotion in the man that helped destroy her friend.

Erik saw Hermione battling with her emotions. He could tell even without being a snake. He could almost taste it in the air in his human form. He then glanced at the four other student males in the office. He knew that something was going to happen, he just didn't know how it would play out.

James turned Peter with a harsh look towards Peter. "Peter, why," he simply asks the boy, who he had thought was his friend. "After all that we've been through. Why did you turn your back on us and go to him?"

Sirius glanced towards the other dark-haired male. "Why even bother of knowing, James?"

"He owes us at least that much, Sirius."

Peter glanced towards the ground, as a sigh left his lips. He looked more wimpy looking than most of the time at Hogwarts. "Because I was tired of being picked on… The Slytherins would not stop their tortures in the halls. I was even tired of being in your shadows...knowing you're all going to be great one day. And I'll even be long forgotten…"

"Do you think turning back on your friends is any better," replied Hermione. Still looking out the window. "You spent most of your better life stuck in your rat form. Being a pet rat to the Weasley family…"

Erik started laughing full heartedly. "Oh...that's rich." He laughed even more.

Sirius glanced towards the headmaster. "Does he have to be part of Gryffindor?"

"I'm afraid so," stated Albus Dumbledore. "It's only for the remaining year…"

Sirius turned towards Hermione. Erik saw that he was struggling for whatever question that was fighting to come out of his brain. "What else...or how else do we die?"

"James by Voldemort, same as Lily. You're deranged cousin killed you," stated Hermione with sorrow in her voice. Erik could tell it was hard for her to even relieve that much to them. "That's not all, even Voldemort had a part in your brother's death."

"My brother," gasped Sirius. Erik saw that Sirius was having a hard time understanding this. Even if he remembered that the brothers hadn't talked, not since Sirius had left the Black family. "What happened to my brother?"

Hermione turned towards him. "He found something that no one was expecting him to find. A way to destroy Voldemort…"

Dumbledore turned towards Hermione gaping at her. Erik felt himself wanting to know. He really wanted to end her father. But he wasn't going to openly act on it. Not when others could do it for him. He was tired of being under someone else's power. He wanted to be a free man.

"Tell me," glared Dumbledore with heat in his eyes. "How can we destroy him?!"

Everyone within the office shivered from the power. Along with anger from the aged headmaster.

"Not without a VOW, headmaster!" Everyone shivered after hearing the young woman turned towards the aging man. With her own power in an answer. It was enough for Erik to be proud of knowing he wasn't marrying a pushover. "I want to make SURE," she turned her focus towards Peter with heat in her eyes. "That NONE will talk MY father about ANY OF THIS!"

The headmaster seemed to have put aside of power for the sake of realizing. That Hermione was stating something obvious. Protect all sorts of information and the people behind such information. Because without Hermione, there would be no backup plan. Or security in protecting the Wizarding World.

Hermione must have seen the determination in Albus Dumbledore's eyes. Because she walked towards Peter Pettigrew and grabbed his hand, in a vice-like hold. The headmaster waved his hand over them to lock them in a vow.

"Do you Peter Parsable Pettigrew swear that whatever has and will be said in the office of Headmaster Dumbledore. You will not speak of it again."

"I do…"

"Do you swear that you will keep all of my secrets, secret."

"I do…"

"Do you swear to protect me and your original friends from all sorts of danger, as we make a new world."

"I do…," gasped Peter before the cords of the vow squeezed on their hands. Ever-tightening them to the fate that Hermione had ironclad him into.

Hermione turned towards James, just as she let go of Peter. "He'll be our spy. Even when others will not tell me everything. Even while in his rat form, he'll be able to find things out for us." James nodded his agreement.

She then turned towards the headmaster. As Erik saw her eyes heat up, causing something in his pants to pop up in attention. 'Merlin...does she knows what she's doing to me?'

"Horcruxes," she simply said. It was enough to cause everyone to hold their breath, as they heard the word that left her luscious lips.

Dumbledore closed his eyes, groaning. "Of course," he opened them as he glanced towards her. "How many?"

"During my time, we believed to have been seven." She glanced towards the window. "At this moment, there will only be five."

"Do you know what they are," he asked/demand.

"No," she shook her head. "Except it would be something that he; himself, valued. I know at least one of them and that was his old diary that he had at the school. The others; I can only imagine, to be of historical value."

Dumbledore then turned towards Erik, himself. "What about you, since you can't tell anyone outside of this office. Knowing...that you'll keep your betrothal safe."

Erik laughed darkly, as he glared towards the elder man. "Don't even use those words, headmaster. Not when I'll never turn my back on her… She is mine to protect after all." He turned towards Hermione, giving her a loving smile. Showing her that he was perfectly alright facing the old man. "But to answer you...I've heard...rumors."

Sirius grumbled, "Figures...a snake would know what's going on with the master snake." He crossed his arms over his chest as he huffed.

"Sirius," growled Hermione, as her eyes flashed a heated glare at him. Causing the said man to gulp and Erik of wanting her more. "You will knock that off…" Her words dragging off, hinting at a punishment in her hidden tones. "I know well enough Sirius and I can get some...girls. To play hard to get and say that it came from your...own...sweet...lips."

James and Remus were laughing wholeheartedly. While Peter looked uncomfortable but gave a slight laugh. But Erik chuckled because he was in Heaven. Hearing Hermione showing who's boss delighted him so. 'Oh, I'm loving her more…'

Dumbledore looked like he was trying to fight a smile, seeing that Hermione had gotten Sirius. In ways that no one had even imagine to try before.

Sirius raised his hands, "Fine!" He let a deep growl to leave his lips. "You know princess, being your knight isn't going to be a walk in the park. Don't you know?" He glanced towards Erik, with a glare. "So...what's our job?"

Erik's lips pulled into a smirk. "Since I'll be traveling around the castle as Hermione's accessory. You're going to be Dumbledore's student appointed knights. While Voldemort is doing the same with...his younger recruits that are still in school. So far, we know it will be through Lucius Malfoy and his...underlings."

"What's your job, other than being a snake that is," asked Remus. Erik could tell he was the main brains behind most things. While James and Sirius were the human muscle.

"Well, I'm to protect her. As best I can, while I'm to detect someone trying to poison her. While in snake form, I can taste the air around her drink and food." He crossed his arms over his chest. "I know that once people within the school will try to poison her. It's just a matter of time."

James gave a thoughtful look. "There's more than that, isn't there? I mean, she really can't go to school with that madman's name, right?"

"That is another reason why I'm here, I'm giving her my name through marriage. It's to protect her while." Erik chuckled. "Even he had thought about that. He knew there was a law to protect witches through marriage and he's using it. So, Hermione and I will be married before July 31st for the school records to take effect."

Remus nodded, "It makes sense." He rubbed his chin, before glancing towards Hermione with a thoughtful look. "Do you have an idea of who...else will be your knights?"

"I'm betting on Severus Snape," which caused a few hissed from the Gryffindor men. "At least Regulus Black...other than Lucius that is." She closed her eyes, as she shook her head. "I don't know who else is still at the school…that he might use."

Sirius huffed, "He could use Rabastan Lestrange. Since his brother had graduated from school. Like...a couple years ago." He then turned towards James with a raised eyebrow. "Then there is...Dolohov."

James nodded, he then glanced towards Peter with a glare. "Who else Pete?"

The rat shivered, trying to not stutter in front of his once so-called friends. "Crouch and Rawle...are also...a good bet."

Hermione moved towards the desk and sat in on of the chairs. She allowed a sigh to leave her lips. He could tell that she was tired. It must be stressful for her. Facing enemies...allies at one point...and change of time. He could only imagine, but glad he didn't have to face that...not like her.

"Anything we need to discuss," Erik asked. He needed to get Hermione out of there and soon. They needed to get back to Malfoy Manor before dinner time. He could see that it was getting a bit close.

Remus glared towards Peter. "What are we going to do with Peter, we really can't have him running off to them. At least not anytime soon."

Erik nodded, "I'll explain to the Dark Lord…" He had gotten a few glares and growls for that. "...that we had seen him and was being detained by his friends. Due to them finally, catching him and not letting him out of their sights for a few days."

Hermione nodded before glancing towards Dumbledore. "Can you make it to where Peter has to report everything to James." Erik had seen all sorts of expressions on many faces and few were more surprised than anything. "Since he's living in the dorms with them anyway. I won't be available to get anything out of Peter. Not when I have most of them following me…"

"Agreed," stated the headmaster with a nod. He glanced towards James. "I'm going to need reports as often as you can give me. Even it means that you being Head Boy to report me about other things around the school…"

"Understood, sir."

"Good," he then turned towards Hermione with a raised eyebrow. "When will you report to me...about the other knights?"

"When I report to you about my name change," stated Hermione kindly. "That way it wouldn't be...suspicious for writing to you..sir." She took a deep breath. "I'll even come up with a communication device, to where I can get a hold of any...of the knight around the castle. I did it before...I should be able to do it again." She glanced towards James. "Can I owl you...once I have them ready?"

"Sure," he gave a small smile. "Send them to Potter Manor of Godric's Hollow. Can you give us the heads up on what it is?"

"I might have to think it over. I used to use Galleons that would heat up to a time and date." She placed a finger under her chin as she tapped it. "I might have to charm some notepads or...something. Since it would have to show more information and stuff like that." She has a knowing look towards them. "But I know you have...an enchanting map, so I don't need to make one for you."

"OF COURSE," growled Sirius harshly. "What else do you know!"

"Cloak," she gave a weak smile. "The shack."

James shook his head, "Okay! You know us...very well it seems." He chuckled. "I guess there really isn't anything you don't know about us. You had even told us about our forms." He glanced towards Remus. "You even told him and he's not bugging out about it, why is that Moony?"

Remus shrugged, "I don't know. But I don't...feel anything ill intentions from her." He gave a kind smile. "We can trust her."

"Thanks, Remus," Hermione spoke with a bit emotion behind her words. It was enough to let Erik know how grateful she was. To know that at least one of her old friends was trusting her.

What Erik was going to have a hard time doing. Is allowing himself to trust the troublemakers of Hogwarts to...protect her. Even when he could at least one...of their group. Is having issues with everything.

Hermione turned her focus towards Sirius. "Will you...be willing to...work with Reg…?"

"Yes," the raven-haired male, without glasses nodded. "I will. I really didn't want him to be...a Death Eater."

"I'll do what I can prevent it...from happening. But if he already has it...I'm sorry in advance."

"Understood."

Erik felt that the time of communicating had come to an end. He walked up towards Hermione and helped her to her feet. "Sorry, but we must get going." He glanced around, seeing that the troublemakers wanted to get to know her. "But...he's expecting us…."

Dumbledore nodded, "Yes. You should go." He glanced at the other boys. "You lot stay here, we still have other...issues to discuss before you leave as well…"

Hermione gave him a small smile. "Since I'm going to be given a private suite. You're thinking about giving them a dorm size one...aren't you?" Her eyes sparkled off mischief, knowing that it could only be true.

"You caught me," he stated kindly with his own blue eyes sparkling. It was the first time since they had been in the office that the headmaster...seemed kind to her.

"I won't tell if you don't," she stated with her lips pulled into a heartwarming smile.

Dumbledore for the first time since Hermione had been in his office, laughed. Causing his belly to jiggle as Erik moved her towards the fireplace. "Now you've done it, sweetheart. You've gotten him to laugh like old Saint Nick." He gave her peck on the nose, "Is there anything you can't do?"

"Yeah," she spoke sheepishly. "I can't...fly."

Erik allowed himself to chuckle as he shook his head. "Figures, my wife-to-be likes to have her feet on the ground." He pushed her towards the fireplace grabbing some floo powder. "Just fuken tasket…" He threw the powder down, calling out, "Malfoy Manor!"

Then they were rushed through the floo network once more.