Chapter #8 Where Was The Prince?
Prince Viktor looked up from a detailed drawing of the anatomy of a centaur as the clock struck ten. He smiled to himself. Hermione, bless her Arithmancy-loving heart, would be in that dratted forest right now.
"I'm going for a ride," he announced to his best friend, the Count. Florin was a small country; there weren't too many nobles. A few lords, a few more knights, and Severus Snape was the only Count. "Coming?"
"If my liege so wishes," Snape answered.
However, when they arrived at the stables, Crookshanks was standing in the walkway between the stalls, whinnying and looking very distraught.
"What is it?" Viktor asked, after bowing. Hippogriffs and his father were the only things he would bow to. He looked all over the beast, and his hand found a stretch of material attached to the saddle. He pulled it out, and Snape sucked in his breath sharply. "Guilder," Viktor said shortly. "They've kidnapped my princess." He swung himself onto a Nimbus Prime, barked at Snape to mount a broom himself, and took off.
Nimbus Primes didn't have much speed, but what they lacked in that, they made up for in agility. They were truly a Quidditch broom. It helped, because Florin was like Greece; very mountainous.
Eventually, Viktor, the Count and a few soldiers were hovering over where Ron and Potter had duelled. Prince Viktor thought quickly, and reached a very plausible conclusion. "There was an almighty duel," he announced. "It ranged all over. They were both masters." (Prince Viktor wasn't given to complex sentences.)
"Who won?" asked the Count. "How did it end?"
Prince Viktor frowned, staring at the footprints. "The loser … ran off alone, and the winner … followed those footprints – towards Guilder."
"Shall we track them both?" asked the sergeant.
"The looser is nothing," Prince Viktor said dismissively. "Only the princess matters. Clearly, this was all planned by Guilderian warriors. We must all be ready for what lies ahead," he added darkly.
"Could this be a trap?" asked the Count.
"I always think everything's a trap," the Prince answered. "It's why I'm still alive. Mad-Eye Moody is my idol."
Some time later, because Nimbus Primes aren't much good at navigating slopes, they were at where Ron and Hagrid had fought.
"Someone has beaten a Giant," Prince Viktor remarked, and added authoritavely, "There will be great suffering in Guilder if she dies."
They took off again. It was slow going again until the reached the summit. Prince Viktor set his jaw at the sight of Percy, obviously dead, and picked up the vial Ron had left, sniffing at it.
"Iocane," he announced. "I'd bet my life on it. And there," he pointed, "are the Princess's footprints, She's still alive – or was, an hour ago. If she is otherwise when I find her, I shall be very put out," he continued ominously. He summoned the now-functioning flying carpet, and the group flew on that to the next mountain. "They are headed dead into the Forbidden Forest," Viktor explained to Snape, "into which even I do not go. If they make it out, we shall be there to greet them.
A.N: This is a pre-DH story, but even the Post-DH Severus has Count Rugen's fascination with pain. I'm not sure if Hippogriffs whinny, can someone tell me? 'Nimbus Prime' is a spoof of 'Optimus Prime' from Transformers. (Which I have never seen.) Reviews are always appreciated. Next chapter should be up on the weekend.