Hermione and the Radiant Chaos
Chapter 1
Unwavering Loyalty
Deep in an crumbling castle nestled deep in the English countryside an ancient woman crumpled in exhaustion. However, in that moment space and time began to shudder, and warp out of shape. Space and time folded and lost cohesion. In that second, everything ended. Yet, even in the loss of reality and existence a single being still breathed. It was the old woman.
Painfully she stood up.
"It looks like it's working then." She said weakly.
She then began to wonder the emptiness of space and time. Eventually she found what she was looking for.
"It's like a slideshow of...my own life..." She said as she looked at the pictures in front of her.
1999 A.D.
"Without wizards we have done quite well my lady." The goblin said to a much younger woman.
"It's sad to think that we magic-folk were truly such terrible creatures." The girl sighed.
The goblin patted her back gently.
"Not all humans were terrible to us. Dumbledore, Potter and you all treated us well. You and the Noble one treated all non humans as equals, and we took that idea to heart my lady."
"What do you mean?" The brown haired woman asked.
She ignored the 'my lady' since the goblins, house-elves, centaurs and other races insisted on calling her that.
"A Senate has been formed to negotiate between the various races. Veelas and Giants were too human to keep their magic. House-elves are now assisting us goblins, and The centaurs have control over Scotland. They named Hogwarts a hallowed ground, due to Lord Harry Potter's sacrifice."
"It's strange that they decided to honor him."
"Not really, the whispers of all that he did, and all that he was willing to do for non-humans reached them, and they decided that he was worth honoring, even in their minds."
"He certainly is someone worth honoring." She agreed sadly.
Ragnok shook his head sadly.
"My lady, please Lord Potter would not want you to remain in such agony. He'd want you to move forward with your life."
"That's true Ragnok, but Harry...He was..."
"You loved him." Ragnok said.
"I always will." She replied simply.
"What keeps you going then My lady? If you don't mind me asking."
"I won't give up on Harry; ever."
"My lady, Lord Potter has been in his grave for some time now..."
"Even so, I can't give up, there has to be something I can do to be with him again."
"My Lady, surely you aren't suggesting death!"
"No, I am not thinking about killing myself." She shook her head.
"Then what do you plan on doing?"
"I'm going to live, and I will find away to be beside him again."
"Magic then?"
The young woman nodded.
"Magic indeed." She agreed.
The old woman smiled at the memory. Even now goblins, centaurs, house-elves and many more still lived hand in hand. Certainly, goblins were the 'neo wizards' because of their powerful magic, and incredible strength. Yet, unlike the humans before them goblins treated the others well.
The government they had designed was unique and it worked.
It had several levels, and they worked as a team instead of a bureaucratic monstrosity that the Ministry of Magic once was. To the old woman's delight they had created a society of equality, and she hoped that one day her world would reflect theirs.
Shaking those thoughts off the frail bodied woman moved passed the image and to another one.
This picture made her heart miss a beat.
She was holding the hand of a deathly pale woman.
October 21st 2003 A.D.
"Molly, I'm sorry it took me so long to get here." The woman apologized as she entered the hospital room.
"Tha's alrigh' dear..." She said weakly.
Molly Weasley's husband sat beside her and was stroking her left hand.
"I wish I could cure you..." She said as she sat beside Arthur.
"I know." She said weakly.
Before the day ended, Molly Weasley lost the battle with the cancer that had consumed her liver.
It was another thing she would never be able to forgiver herself for.
Wiping away her tears furiously the ancient woman looked at another image.
A brown eyed woman stood in front of an ancient Aztec temple.
January 2nd, 2103 A.D.
"This is it...The temple of the exiled ones...I hope I find what I'm looking for in this library..." The woman muttered.
Shifting through thousands of scrolls she flicked her wand at them and sent them into a trunk.
"I'll take every document here, and look through them. Even if there was never a magic made that can do what I need to, maybe with the right information I can do it myself." She mused.
She smiled as she remembered her four centuries long journey. She had traveled across the globe, and found anything that related to magic. By the time she was done there likely wasn't more than a few scrolls that she hadn't found.
The next picture she saw made her wince in pain.
2105 A.D.
Albania
The woman slid passed the door leading to a former school in the depths of Albania.
She knew it was dangerous, yet it had information she hadn't gained yet. She wandered the ruins for a time before she finally figured out where all the documentation had been kept. It was on the second floor, and the door to the library had been shut. So, thinking nothing of it she reached out, grasped the handle in her left hand and as she turned the knob her arm burst into black flame.
The woman screamed in agony as she fought to block the fire from consuming her. She managed at long last, but in the process her arm was a complete loss. It was now merely a burned stub.
The woman unthinkingly rubbed the cold replacement where her left arm had once been.
The next image was that of her experience where she lost her right foot and shin.
2236 A.D.
The brown haired, one armed woman was leaving an ancient Celtic Library. It had been armed with several traps and so she had tread carefully. However, even cautious people can be surprised.
When the walls began to close against one another she tried to destroy them. The detonation curse merely bounced off of their gray stones harmlessly. With that, the woman decided to run for the exit, and she made it...mostly, her leg from the knee down had been caught as she had tried to leave. It had been because of the her opening the door, the walls had sped up, and had caught her.
It was agonizing. It was immense pain. And she was unable to move. After a short while panic had begun to set in. She knew that if she were to do nothing she would die trapped like that, she couldn't use her portkey or another means of transportation.
Grinding her teeth, she knew she had one choice.
The ancient woman shuddered as she recalled the loss of her leg. It was one memory that she she never wanted to remember, and yet she did.
As she walked she saw random images, each from her life and they reminded her of her past, of her failures, and of her weakness.
Finally she came to an image that she instinctively knew was the one.
A little eleven year old girl sat nestled on a twin sized bed, in a decent sized room, bookshelves lined the walls of the bushy haired, bucktoothed little girl's room. The paint, where it was visible was a simple pale blue, and on the girl's large desk several textbooks lay, and at the edge of the mahogany desk were several honors for academics. In the center of the desk was a half completed essay with a word count already easily surpassing one hundred thousand words.
It was the room of a scholar.
There were no toys, nor were there dolls or other 'silly' things that resided in her room.
The little girl, only in age was an unusual girl, an outcast and yet...There was someone that would later love her and treat her as a queen. He would show her what life was truly about and in turn, she gave her heart to him unconditionally.
The old woman smiled as she reached out and touched the image. Space rippled and all but the image she touched shattered, and after a whirl of lights her age began to melt away, a thousand years fell away from her, and her lost left hand, and right foot returned to her. She felt the part of her that died so long ago be reborn within her. She felt her barren womb heal and knit itself back together.
The brown haired girl smiled as she looked about her room that she hadn't seen in a millenia.
Her name was Hermione, and she had someone to love.
Hello Hermione! 1773 words, Eternal Wizard Will be the next update, and I enjoyed this chapter a lot. Sure, not a lot happened but, Its getting there.
So what do you think happened? (Dumb question? Maybe...)
Well I think we can agree that while Hermione's taken a beating over the years, she's turned into one tough cookie ^.^
I like this one, and it's flowing easily. Enjoy!