A/N: Thanks for reviewing guys and in answer to pstibbons question about Freya, yes she is dead, but this is a world of Magic so almost anything can happen. I won't give anymore away now.
Ron was in a foul temper, this was supposed to be his year, his time to shine and get the girl. He had come to this realization when he had seen how Ginny was looking at a picture of Harry before they left to go to Grimmauld place earlier in the year, he thought 'That could be me…No will be me and Hermione, Once she sees that Harry will be with Ginny she will want someone else to be with like that, and that's when it will be my time', but no the uppity witch said that she didn't care for him as a boyfriend, didn't like him that way, but that wasn't good enough for Ron. He wanted Hermione, all he had to do was find a way to get her, but it would be hard as she was going all moon-eyed over the new guy. Well Ron would show him, he would challenge him and prove that he was better than this scarred pretty boy, and he'd do it when Valerian was least expecting it.
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It was the Saturday morning scheduled for the Gryffindor Quidditch trials, surprisingly most of Gryffindor House had turned up for the trials, much to Harry's delight, there were also a few people from other houses there, much to Harry's annoyance. He had got down to the pitch a good hour before the allotted time for the trials, firstly to calm his nerves, being Quidditch Captain wasn't as easy as he thought it was back in First Year. He had noticed that Ron was there, dressed in some of the school's spare Keeper gear, he would have to get some of his own if he was picked, at the moment he was waiting for the stragglers to come along, well actually he was waiting for Rags and Hermione to get there, they had agreed to come down last after everyone had gone past them in the Great Hall, to make sure that everyone who wanted to try out was given the opportunity.
Although Rags had asked them to forget their conversation in the Room of Requirement, none of the other three had. They didn't pester him about it but the did treat him a little differently, not so much that people noticed, but Rags did, they treated him like one of their own, someone who had gone through something terrible and had lived to tell the tale, Rags had never been happier.
Harry looked over at Ginny and she shrugged her shoulders, indicating that she had no idea that there were this many people in Gryffindor that were interested in joining the team, he pulled her in for a quick kiss, which drew one or two catcalls from the assembled Gryffindor's before the stragglers arrived and he had to officially start the tryouts, he turned and looked back at the castle and saw the shapes of Rags and Hermione making their way down to the Quidditch pitch. He frowned slightly, during September he had slowly grown apart from his two best friends, Ron because he was always pursuing Hermione and not giving her any space, and Hermione because she was giving him grief about the Potions book he ahd picked up from Professor Slughorn. She was always going on about it, even the other Gryffindor's were starting to get irritated with her, it seemed, to Harry, that the only one with the patience to stand her at the moment was Rags. To tell the truth Harry was just irritated with Hermione for accusing him of cheating because he was following a book that made different suggestions to the potions that they were making than the prescribed text, and as such he was getting better marks than her.
"I just don't understand how he can use that book, the methods are not in the textbooks, there were just written in there by the previous owner this Half Blood Prince, they could be for anything I mean he didn't even know if they would work, it's…" "HERMIONE" the loud bellow not only shocked Hermione into silence it shocked most of the assembled Gryffindor house into silence also. Rags, was almost glaring at Hermione, something that the young witch found quite scary. "Now that I have your attention, I understand that you are frustrated by being beaten in Potions class; I understand that you are annoyed because the instructions that Harry used are not the normal method; but you need to ask yourself a question. Is this book worth risking your friendship with Harry?" With that he walked towards the rest of the group a shrugged off his outer school robe.
It was then that the rest of the assembled Quidditch player hopefuls realised that he wasn't wearing the training robes of Gryffindor house, like the rest of them were. He was wearing a light grey top, which looked like it was made out of several bits of grey coloured fabric, all layered together to make a comfortable, padded, light garment. He was wearing black pants that were loose enough for comfort but tight enough for fast movement, he was also wearing black boots, which buckled at the side, all in all he made quite an imposing figure, and more than one of the girls felt their hearts flutter at the appearance of this handsome young man, although it was completely missed by the man in question. Walking over to the pile of Quidditch equipment Rags selected himself a thick wooden bat, twirling it through his fingers he nodded to himself as though satisfied with something, he nodded to Harry and said "I think we're all here Harry, ready when you are."
Harry shook himself out of his shock as he saw an upset Hermione make her way into the stands, he had heard what Rags had said, and knew there was something wrong with Hermione but this was not the time to address that problem. "Ok, well for those of you who don't know me" there were more than a few giggles at that statement, even Rags cracked a grin "well welcome to the Gryffindor house Quidditch tryouts, those of you who pass today will immediately be posted to the team, now all positions are up for grabs so everyone is on an even footing, the six that are picked today will be joined by two reserves, now lets get started Chasers first. Ginny you played Seeker last year when I couldn't play so I want you up there with the first bunch, ok let's get started."
It soon became apparent that some of the hopefuls were only there to be close to Harry, these were quickly dismissed with an annoyed remark, along with the irritating amount of girls from the other houses, most had come out to see Harry, but a non small amount had come out to see Rags, something, that to the amusement of Harry, seemed to scare Rags. Rags proved he was to be an excellent choice for beater, his flying could use some improvement, but his large size and physical prowess made him a natural choice, a boy called Jimmy Peakes was selected to be the other beater. Once the process was underway it soon became apparent who was going to be on the team and who was not, at the end of the tryout session the team was, posted on the Gryffindor notice board and submitted to Professor McGonagall for final approval.
Gryffindor Quidditch Team
Chasers: Katie Bell, Demelza Robbins, Ginny Weasley
Seeker: Harry Potter (Captain)
Keeper: Ronald Weasley
Beaters: Ragnar Valerian, Jimmy Peakes
Reserves: Mike Jones, Jenny Frakes
But perhaps the best thing that came out from the Quidditch trials was the fact that Hermione apologised to Harry for her recent behaviour. She had said that she didn't know what was wrong with her, that she ahd stuck with him through worse things that some sill Potions book and that she was very confused and upset by the whole thing. Harry being Harry forgave her on the spot, dried the tears that were flowing down her cheeks and told her that he wasn't the only one that she needed to speak to about the matter, she also owed Rags an apology for nattering, whining and bitching at him for more than a week about Harry and his potions book, but when the pair of them and Ginny looked around for their large friend he was nowhere to be seen, as the three of them went laughing and joking back towards the castle, neither of them noticed the scowling figure of Ron Weasley standing near the Quidditch changing rooms, the ideas running through his mind were both dark and dangerous, involving the eventual winning of Hermione and the removal of Ragnar Thorkild Valerian.
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It was a few days after the Quidditch trials, and September was well and truly heading towards October, the school was getting colder, with student s spending less and less time in the corridors between classes and wearing thicker and thicker clothing, so much that some of the first years looked like fast moving balls of wool. Hermione had never gotten the chance to talk to Rags after the Quidditch trials, he seemed to withdraw from his friends, almost like something was eating away at him, Hermione charged herself with finding out what it was, she and the others still spoke with him during the day and evenings, but almost as soon as the others started to drift towards bed he was gone, nowhere to be found.
Hermione didn't know why she had wandered down to the common room that night, but something seemed to draw her out, maybe it was the fact that there appeared to be no danger and or mystery going on this year as there had for the last five years. She entered the common room and noticed that there was no one else there, she pulled her robe tighter and was about to return to bed when she noticed that there was a satchel, very like the one that she and most of the other, slightly more studious, students favoured. Hermione picked up the bag and noticed two things about it at the same time, one it was filled with sixth year books, the other were the initials inscribed on the buckle R.T.V., Hermione had found Rags' bag, she looked around for any sign of him, but the common room was just as deserted as before.
Summoning her Gryffindor courage she crept to the door of the boys dormitory and gently edged open the door and snuck a look inside, noting that Harry was sleeping in his bed, so was Neville, Dean, Seamus, even Ron, but Rags' bed was definitely empty. She hurried over to Harry's bed and gently eased the Marauders Map from its hiding place underneath his pillow, she then took a huge gamble on their friendship and snuck the invisibility cloak out of his trunk and threw it round her shoulders, now she had a friend to find, and the means to do it.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" whispered Hermione just outside the portrait hole, while tapping the Marauders Map with her wand. She and Harry had discovered something quite interesting about the map, it had not shown the room of requirement before as the holder of the mad did not know where the room was located, but seeing as they now knew, as did all the members of the DA, the position was shown on the map, along with whoever happened to be inside. Quickly unfolding the section that detailed the Room of Requirement Hermione noticed that indeed there was a Ragnar Thorkild Valerian in the room, although the figure seemed to be darting about exceptionally quickly, too quickly to be walking or pacing. But that was not all, there was another figure in the Room, that of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.
Hermione reached the seventh floor corridor with little difficulty, when you had been sneaking around the school after hours as much as she, Harry and Ron had during their five years at Hogwarts you become remarkably good at beating the castles security. She walked around three times to summon the door to the Room of Requirement, all the time thinking 'I need a way to get into where Ragnar Valerian and Albus Dumbledore are, without them seeing me' much to her surprise after her third lap a shimmering oval appeared in the wall, shrugging her shoulder Hermione thought to herself 'Well if Harry and Ron were here we would already be through the door so its up to me to try to get myself killed…or expelled' with a shudder she quickly darted through the door, it closed seamlessly behind her, what she saw shocked her to complete stillness.
--
There was only stillness and silence, no sound reached his ears, yet all sounds reached his ears, his eyes at one time saw nothing and everything. Every iota of concentration in his body was focused on the blade in his hands and the song that this blade sang. The song was accompanied by the solid sound of the blade biting deep into the targets, deflecting their blades, and quite effectively, and literally, reducing them to mere pieces of there former selves. Then the wand came into play, thirteen inches of ebony with a dragon heartstring core, curses and hexes flew faster than the thoughts that were used to cast them, no incantations were heard, but by looking at the spells one could see that they were of a Dark alignment.
Soon there was nothing left and the shadowy figure drew himself up to his full height and spoke with a voice that Hermione knew all to well "There you are Professor that is a result of what we spoke about at the beginning of the year" Ragnar turned his sword hanging loosely by his side to face Professor Dumbledore who had moved out of the shadows, where he had been summoning the shadowy opponents that Rags had dispatched. "Very impressive Mr Valerian, although there is, I believe, someone else that you need to talk to at the moment." He indicated, with a nod of his head, to where Hermione still stood under the invisibility cloak, "Until we next meet Ragnar" with that he strode from the room and closed the door behind him.
Ragnar on the other had had whirled around to face where Hermione stood and seemed to slump over now that someone else knew one of his secrets "You may as well come out where I can see you." Hermione slowly pulled the cloak over her head and looked at Rags with several things shining in her eyes, fear, awe, confusion and many questions. Ragnar slipped his want into his arm holster and with a flourish sheathed his long katana in its midnight black sheath angling downwards from his left hip "Go on Hermione ask away, I won't lie?"
A/N Ok first shot at a cliffie, tell me what you think, too much, too little, yes before anyone says it, I am giving Rags more abilities, no he will not be a god character, but I have a very specific kind of character in mind. If you have a question about Rags, send me a message, or leave ur question in a review (hint hint) and I'll be happy to answer, so long as I don't give the plot away. Oh anyone who guesses the plot gets a cookie Cheers everyone TBK