Disclaimer: I do not own HP or CN.
Words of Appreciation: Thank you for reading. Thank you for your reviews Cosette24601!
Lastly, Author's Note: For background music, I would suggest any of Ludovico Einaudi's songs. My top 5 picks would be Primavera (of course), I Giorni (this would be perfect song for Edmund/Hermione interactions), Fairytale (the name says it all), Ora (this is just my personal favorite) and last but not least, Solo (a fast and furious version is called Nightbook—I like Nightbook better sometimes)—divenire is a really wonderful song but it doesn't quite go with my story. You know what? Whatever, just choose ANY of Einaudi's music. Every single one of them is amazing.
Edmund was not in a pleasant mood. The trip was long and exhausting. He was wet, and the armor was getting heavier after every moment. All the more reason to not fail, he thought as he smiled toward the mass of students in front of him. Nothing changed since the last time he visited. All students were divided into four different sections, each section with the house symbol above them.
"Remember never to favor any particular house when you're there." Susan had said.
Edmund was aware of the tensions between the houses and the importance of his neutrality at Hogwarts. While he quickly observed the location and general characteristics of the four houses, Trumpkin, in his deep voice, formally introduced him to them all.
"His Majesty, King Edmund the Just, Duke of Lantern Waste, Count of the Western March, Knight of the Noble Order of the Table, and the Lord of the Great Western Wood."
When Edmund offered a small bow to no one in particular, Trumpkin placed the crown in its proper place. King Edmund, he was. In his best regal manner, Edmund greeted the students.
"I'm terribly sorry to appear in such an inappropriate form and for having you all wait another day due to my delay." He turned toward Dumbledore who was standing by his side. "I am ever grateful for your hospitality, Professor."
Professor bowed and quietly replied, "My pleasure, Your Majesty."
Edmund turned toward the audience once again. "I hope you aren't too upset that I came instead of Queen Susan." He almost gave a sheepish smile that made girls, oblivious to the fact that it was all planned, whisper/exclaim "He is shy! That is too cute!"
Keeping his pretentious smile tightly on his lips, Edmund continued to finish his greeting words. "I look forward to the rest of my stay at Hogwarts. I'm sure that, as kind and wonderful you all are, you will make it a memorable experience for me."
Covering most of her face with her hands, Hermione spied the king through her fingers. After the shock of realizing the past fault passed away, she was now able to really notice the decent look of the king. She tried to compare the young boy she just remembered to the presently standing proud man. His face was leaner but the brows, eyes, nose and lips all had the same particular shape to them. It was as if somebody just slightly stretched the young boy (vertically, of course) and sprayed some mature aura on him. He can't be too far from my age, Hermione considered.
During the dwarf's oration of the king's titles, the frequency of Ron's grunts and scoffs increased. "I don't remember hearing all those names when Queen Susan was here."
Harry furrowed his brows at Ron. "That's because she had no particular ones, Ron. What's wrong? Why are you keep grunting and making weird noises?" He asked in a hushed voice. King Edmund was talking.
"I'm not making any weird noises. It's just all ridiculous." Ron grunted again.
"I think you're just jealous. Don't be." Right after Harry finished these words, Professor Dumbledore clanged his glass and announced the feast to begin.
Conversations exploded everywhere. Harry, partly relieved not having to talk so quietly, sighed. He watched as King Edmund was led to an elegant chair beside Dumbledore's seat. His men (and centaurs) were led to several empty spots of a table on the side. Ron and Hermione were both wordlessly eating. Not able to stand the silence, he spoke out.
"So what are we up to?"
Ron glanced up at him then stared back down at his food. "We'll going to need ball gowns. Professor Dumbledore will have a welcoming ball again." He did not sound as excited as he was last year when the ball was for Queen Susan.
Hermione chuckled a bit. "Don't worry, Ron. Your party attires are getting gradually better."
Harry chuckled along at her remark. Ron just glared at the two playfully and rolled his eyes. "Mother finally understood that I'm old enough to pick my own clothes." That led to all three of them mildly laughing. As the laughing decreased, Ron looked at Hermione and advised, "I guess you don't want to look beautiful at this ball if you don't want to be noticed by the oh, glorious! King."
Since the Yule Ball, Hermione has never looked less than "beautiful," according to the other students. In fact, she became quite popular after every ball Hogwarts had, but due to Ron's preclusion of any male's affectionate approach, Hermione never knew how attractive she became—or she pretended not to know (Harry was sure that she had some sense of it all).
Hermione blushed at the emphasized "beautiful" but frowned at Ron's sarcastic tone. Harry just shook his head at Ron's sudden bad temper. Harry knew that Ron had some kind of romantic feeling toward Hermione but was too proud to speak of it first. He also knew that Ron was the one who blocked all those male students trying to chat up with Hermione for the past couple of years. He saw it happen in the library once.
"Hermione is not here. Get out." Ron ordered quite sternly.
The other boy scoffed. "She's right there behind you, you maggot. What are you in the first place?"
Indeed, Hermione was just several feet away, totally absorbed in her reading. Harry was reading by her side until he decided to look for a different book and left. On his way back, he found himself sort of eavesdropping the conversation.
"How about this? She doesn't have a time for a blighter like you. And as for me, I'm a person who, for certain, knows that you aren't good enough for her at all." Harry never knew that Ron could speak so smartly. There were some more ugly words that were passed to each other afterwards, but in the end, the boy (who was a Slytherin anyway) left with an extremely red face.
That day's account was still fresh in his mind. It was also the reason why Harry started to act carefully around Hermione when Ron was also present. He did not want to upset his best friend. The saddest thing was that Harry could not feel the same nervous, romantic feeling from Hermione. Hermione was not romantically attracted to Ron at all, at least, as far as Harry could observe.
As the feast continued inside the grand castle of Hogwarts, an unknown fog seeped in from the Forbidden Forest. It was sickly green in appearance and more of a mist than a fog. Like a snake, it crawled across the wet ground, intertwining to obstacles like suffocating a prey. It was an embodiment of a pure evil.
The peculiar time flow of Hogwarts was once explained—it flowed with that of the Pevensies. When the Pevensies, after their fifteen years of reign during their first visit to Narnia, returned to England, to their former young selves, Hogwarts time flew back as well. Voldemort was long gone dead, so he could not come back (how Dumbledore came back is a mystery, even to the author, but assuming that his spirit was alive—helped Harry to fight Voldemort during the killing curse—and his body was physically unharmed, it seems possible).
The thing was, if there was a good, then there had to be a bad. No one can have a happy ending forever. However the cruelty, that was the law of the reality. When Voldemort, the purest evil of that time, was not able to fulfill this simple rule of the world anymore, a new form of evil that contained every bits of malice and depression of this world appeared: the Green Mist.
Author's Note (Yes, again): Tada! So that's what I was talking about. Harry thought he was imagining remembering the centaurs, but it was just a bit of his real memory that was forgotten when the time went back. Ron, for the same reason, without realizing, said "another" dark lord. That was the secret!