Hermione
Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit! She screamed out the words inside her head in panic as the Minotaur's large, flying fist somehow managed to barely miss her. A thousand shards of wood and leaf splintered into the air as the fist collided with a large tree behind her, decimating it in an instance.
She quickly ordered her two remaining thought projections to send dummy spells at the minotaur in hopes to draw its attention back to them. Thankfully, it worked.
Phew.
She had managed to just barely slow the path of the minotaurs incoming punch enough to give her some time to sprint away but that had been cutting it too close. She had to find a way to end this and quick, the minotaur was fully enraged now and if she spent much longer here she was toast, or perhaps a Hermione squash would be a better analogy.
Time for plan E. She told herself and mentally prepared herself for another round of spells.
She looked around trying to find the best object to use for her plan, settling on a fairly large stone the minotaur had dug out of the ground with an earlier punch. After checking to make sure the minotaur was still distracted by her sprinting thought projections, she used two quick cutting spells to sharpen the edge of the rock like an arrowhead.
Okay Hermione, relax, you can do this. She told herself as she focused her mind on her time magic. This spell chain may very well be her last with the amount of power it would take. She could not afford to miss or mess up.
"Wingardium leviosa, aevumorbioduo, aevuminfinitorro!" With a clear mind and a steady hand she cast the most difficult time-based spell chain that she knew. Her first spell was the simple levitation spell which she used to carry the sharp rock across the clearing, near the minotaur's head. That part was easy enough; the next two spells were the tough part.
Her second spell resulted in more than fifty of the same sharp rock appearing in the air all around the minotaur's head. Each of the sharp rocks were numerous copies of the original sharp rock that she had produced. All of the newly produced rocks represented future possibilities of the first rock. Unlike copies made with her geminio spell, each of the copies made with her aevumorbioduo spell were the real deal.
The third spell, aevuminfinitorro, was the most complicated and difficult spell in her time-based magic repertoire, especially when used in unison with her aevumorbioduo spell. The spell caused its target to travel through time between two predetermined locations at high speeds, an infinite number of times. In this case her target was the large number of sharp rocks floating above the minotaur's head. With her magic she made each of the stones second location on the opposite side of the minotaur, meaning each stone would have to travel through the minotaur to arrive at its future spot on the other side. Keeping a clear mind, she finished the final pushes of magic needed to complete the spell and in a flash of magic and at high speeds all of the stones shot forward along their determined path.
She watched in awe as her magic worked; this being the first time she had ever used the spells like this outside of practice rooms. Each sharp rock shot back and forth between its two set locations, moving backwards and forwards through time. And each time they traveled, they shot through a part of the minotaur's body, sending chunks of flesh, bone, and blood out along with them. She watched as the minotaur fell to its knees and let out a loud gut-piercing roar as the sharp rocks continued to shred it apart.
As gruesome as the sight was, she was rendered awe-struck as she watched her powerful time-magic work. Large pieces of the minotaur fell to the grass at its feet with loud thuds as the minotaur became more holes than minotaur.
With one final roar the large minotaur fell to the ground with a crash, as it could not possibly survive any longer with now having literally thousands of holes carved into its body. With a wave of her wand she ended her time-magic spell and all of the sharp rocks stopped in their paths and then vanished. The one, original rock, fell to the ground at the last release of her magic. Hermione immediately fell to her knees, exhausted from all of the magic and energy she had used during the fight.
"Bloody hell Hermione! What the fuck was that?" a voice said from the edge of the clearing. Even though she was exhausted she quickly got to her feet, turned, and raised her wand at the source. She relaxed, and allowed herself to fall back to her knees with a smile as she saw that it was Harry.
Thank god he was safe. She thought to herself at the sight of him.
Harry ran over to her when she fell to her knees again and took her into his arms.
"Are you okay, Hermione?" he asked her, his voice sounding concerned and his eyes looking worried. She just relaxed a little and enjoyed his touch for a few moments before answering.
"Yeah, I'm fine Harry, just exhausted," she answered, smiling at her best friend.
"You do realise right that you just took out a freaking minotaur on your own Hermione? I just arrived at the clearing and was about to try and help when I saw you start whatever the hell you just did," Harry said, his voice raised in excitement. She blushed a little at his words.
"I am kind of a badass aren't I, taking a minotaur out on my own? Hermione Granger, the great Minotaur slayer!" she said playfully.
"It was hot as hell," Harry told her, causing her to blush again.
He had never called her hot before.
"What was that last spell? Was that your parallel worlds spell? I've never seen you do more than just a few different future possibilities before, that was like a hundred!"
"Yeah, it was, and that was the first time I did more than ten. I combined it with my infinite-journey spell. I'd say the combo is a pretty good one," she answered, proud at her work.
"It was freaking amazing, and kind of a terrifying combo. I don't think anything could have stood up against that Hermione," Harry said, complimenting her again.
"Thanks Harry. Did you get the scroll by the way?" she asked him, curious to know how his part of the task had gone.
"Yeah, I got it back to Marik easy enough, and brought Beauxbaton's champion Oliver a troll in the process," Harry answered her.
"How do you bring someone a troll? And had Marik had any troubles?" she asked, wondering what he meant.
"I'll tell you later, we need to keep going. And no he said that he had it pretty easy so far when I arrived. Here take these, and give me your wand real quick," Harry told her, and handed her a rune. She wasn't sure why he needed her wand but she handed it to him.
"What is this rune?" she asked while looking it over, trying to decipher it's carvings. She was sure if she examined it long enough she would be able to tell, but figured Harry could save them time if he just told her.
"Marik made that one specifically for you since you have the wand in the group. He said it will slow down the drain on your magic so you can cast more spells and last longer. Curindus!" Harry cast the spell she recognized as the restore spell at her and immediately she felt a little bit better. "I couldn't get full results using your wand, but I didn't want you to waste any more energy. By the time we find our enchanted door with that and Marik's rune you should be close to full power again," Harry told her and handed her back her wand.
"Thanks Harry. Did Marik manage to carve any more runes?" she asked him as Harry helped her up to her feet.
"Yeah, he carved all three. The other two are area effect runes. One is a magic boost rune and the other is an emergency shield rune."
"Those will both come in handy I'm sure. I didn't even have time to look for any potion ingredients by the way, sorry," she apologized to Harry. The minotaur had took up so much of her time the thought of looking for ingredients had never even crossed her mind.
"It's fine. I was in such a hurry to get to you I forgot to take the potion flask from our base anyways," Harry said, laughing at his mistake.
"Oh well. Now let's get going," she said and started off, but then quickly realised she was so turned around from her duel with the minotaur that she had no idea which they were going. "Uhh Harry. . ." she said embarrassed.
"Yeah Hermione?" Harry asked her.
"I got so turned around in my duel, I don't actually know which way we should go now," she confessed to him and Harry laughed again.
"Don't worry I do. Come on," Harry said playfully, and started off towards the other side of the clearing. She followed his lead as Harry lead her through the forest.
As they continued on towards the center of the forest she certainly felt like with each step the forest somehow became denser. She had to take the lead with her wand after a few minutes so that she could cut a path wide enough for both of them to get through. She was sure Harry could have got through much easier in his animagus form but he stayed in his human form to keep pace with her throughout their journey.
"Harry look," she whispered, pointing over a nearby tree stump ten feet in front of them. There was another small clearing, a little smaller than the one she had found earlier in the task in front of them. Sure enough at the center of the clearing were three doors, each one glowing from the enchantments placed on them.
"We made it," Harry whispered back. Hermione was just about to start off towards the doors when she caught a flash of blue in the corner of her. She quickly pulled Harry back behind a nearby stump as she looked for what had caught her eye was.
"Its Fleur and Weiss."
"Guess that means Oliver is still back at their base. Let's wait for them to go through, I don't want to risk having to get in a duel with them unless we have to," Harry whispered back to her. And the two of them waited anxiously, watching as the two French champions approached their doors.
"Do you think the doors have traps in them?" she asked Harry as she continued to watch the two girls.
"Looks like they are checking for that now," Harry answered her. Hermione could see Fleur with her wand out scanning over all sides of the door checking for any hidden spells. After a few moments both of the girls apparently found nothing and Weiss opened up the door. In the blink of an eye both girls entered the door and disappeared.
"Let's go!" Harry said and pulled her into the clearing. The two of them ran up to their door and Harry patiently waited as Hermione did a few spell checks just in case. After sensing that the door was clear Harry opened it and led the both of them in.
"HOLY FUCK HERMIONE WATCH OUT!" she heard Harry scream as he pushed her down to the ground. Her eyes had barely adjusted to wherever they had been transported to when a flash of blue light came hurling over their heads.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" she screamed out in a panic. She got to her knees as quick as she could with her wand raised and tried to look around and figure out what was going on and where they were. Her eyes went wide in panic as her eyes wandered around the area they were in. A fear unlike she had ever felt immediately set in as her eyes found what had sent the light their way.
When they entered through the door in the clearing they apparently had been transported into a large cavern. On their left, right, and backs were towering black cave walls that were dripping with streams of black water. The walls seemed to stretch endlessly up into the air until they disappeared into the blackness that was the roof. A good twenty-five feet or so in front of them the cavern's floor turned to murky water, and inside the water. . . She didn't even know where to start.
Inside of the water was. . . chaos. . . Five huge serpent heads that resembled a dragon were roaring at them. The huge dragon-like heads were perched on top of long scaly necks that resembled a snake's body. Each of the long necks was slithering around violently making it impossible to tell which neck belonged to which head. All she was able to tell was that at some point each of the necks seemed to close in on center point down in the water. Before she could observe any longer two of the heads fired off two enormous balls of blue magic at Harry and her. They both sprinted to the other side of the cavern and dove out of the way as the balls of magic collided into the wall behind them and seemed to disappear without an explosion.
"Harry it is a hydra!" she started to shout as they both got back to their feet. "And from the looks of its spell that just hit the wall the cavern walls are enchanted to absorb magic on impact or something!"
"If it is a hydra than that means we have to take out heads two at a time until we find each head's pair head. The main head will be invulnerable until both pairs of twin heads are taken out," Harry shouted back at her as Hermione tried to remember everything she had ever learned or read on hydras.
"Protego totalum!" she shouted as two of the heads had shot forward towards the both of them. She sighed in relief as both heads recoiled in anger after colliding unsuccessfully against her shield. Her moment of relief disappeared quickly though as Harry again pulled her across the hall and they dove to the ground to avoid two more blasts of blue magic.
"Hermione start trying to hit the heads with blast spells and whatever else you got in you. The pain receptors for the head you hit should be in its twin's head so I'm going to try and find out what the pairs are. Don't worry about shielding me I can do my own shield wandlessly! And here!" Harry shouted at her and placed one of Marik's runes onto the ground. She watched as the ground around the rune started to glow with a gold aura, and she knew that any spells cast in that circle would have an extra bang to them. The problem was with this much chaos she wouldn't be able to stand still in the circle for long periods of time.
"Glacia saggitas!" She quickly aimed the ice arrow spell at the head furthest to the right. Ten ice arrows shot like a bullet out from her wand and nailed the far right head right between the eyes. She had to quickly run and dive out of the way as the head she hit thrashed out at her in anger.
"Hermione that head's twin is one of these two on the far left, they keep switching, protego, spots so I can't tell exactly which one though. Let me hit that one and you try and blast both of these at the same time!"
"Right then, SWITCH!" she shouted at him and began running towards his side. "Protego totalum!" She threw up a shield when they both met in the middle of the cavern as three rays of blue magic came charging at them. Thanks to the magic boosting rune her shield was able to withstand the three blasts. As soon as the blue light ended they both continued to the opposite sides of the cavern.
"Stupefy!" she heard Harry shout the spell wandlessly from his side of the cave. She raised her wand, not failing to notice while she did how much her arm was shaking from the nerves.
"Diffindo, reducto, expulso!" She fired off three high powered spells, landing the first two spells on the furthest left hydra head and her last spell on the one next to it. The spell chain normally with as much power as she had put into it would have taken a lot out of her, especially after a long duel like she had had earlier, thankfully, thanks to Marik's energy rune in her pocket she still felt good to go.
Her first seam splitting spell along with the blast spell caused the hydra head to explode in a large release of blood and teeth. She recoiled as some of the flying teeth almost hit her. Her expulso spell exploded a large chunk of skin on the other hydra's neck but for the most part did not faze the beast's rearing head at all.
"Protego!" She threw up another shield as the head she had hit again charged in anger at her. She recoiled a little from the impact of the head on her shield but continued moving as it pulled back.
"We need a new plan Hermione look!" Harry said as they met back up in the middle, he was pointing at the head she had just blown up. She watched in horror as a smaller head began to protrude from the neck and grow back into its original size.
"What happened?" she asked, looking confused.
"Stupefy is the strongest spell I can cast right now without a wand, and it had no effect on the head I attacked. You are going to have to hit both twin heads at the same time," Harry shouted back at her as they continued to sprint across the cavern.
"Protego totalum!" She threw up the shield as another burst of blue magic flew at them. "How can I do that? They are too far apart!" she asked him, not hiding the panic in her voice.
"I will use my legilimency to create hallucinations and put thoughts into some of the heads and try and buy you some time. You use your geminio spell to add the confusion. Order them to spread out as much as possible and you try to cast as many spells from inside of Marik's rune as you can," Harry shouted his plan at her. For the second time that task she was amazed at how he was able to think of a strategy in a time like this.
"Okay, go!" she shouted and ran off towards the middle of the cavern where Marik's rune was. "Geminio!" She cast the thought projection spell and summoned fifteen different Hermione thought projections around the cavern. She ordered each of them to spread out and move around in their areas, she would make sure each time she fired off a spell that all of the projections would follow suit.
"Legilimency!" she heard Harry shout his spell from somewhere else in the cavern as she ran. When she arrived inside the rune's area of effect she raised her wand at the far right head again.
"Reducto, diffindo!" She fired off the rune-boosted spells at the far right head. In another chaotic gruesome eruption the head exploded as her blast and seam splitting spell collided with the beast. She didn't waste anytime to celebrate though, but instead, she quickly bolted to the left side of the cavern where she knew the twin head had to be somewhere.
"Displodo, reducto, diffindo, reducto!" She fired off the powerful and difficult spell chain as she ran, aiming the first two spells at the far left head and the next two spells at the head right next to it. Her first displodo spell was a strong burst-magic spell that along with the powerful reducto blast spell was more than enough to explode the large hydra head on impact.
"Protego!" As she turned to look at her spell results on the second head she threw up another shield just in time before a burst of blue magic along with a charging head came straight at her. As both the spell and the beast's head collided with her shield she was able to see that her third spell, the seam splitting spell, along with her last blasting spell were also enough to explode the second head she had aimed at. She started to run back towards the center.
"That worked Hermione! Good job! Three more to go!" Harry shouted at her from across the cavern. "Protego!" She heard him throw up another shield. "They are starting to get immune to my legilimency Hermione so hurry or things are going to get a lot tougher."
"Right!" she shouted back as she arrived at the center of the cavern again. From their strategy she knew she would have to find the next two pairs of heads to defeat before they could take out the final hydra head. One of the hydra heads on the left side had already begun to regrow, since its twin head was still active among the sea of necks and heads. Deciding with the quickest strategy of finding the last remaining twin heads that she could think of she raised her wand.
"INCARCEROUS MAXIMA!" she screamed out the rope spell, forcing as much of her magic as she could into it. Thanks to Marik's rune, Hundreds of ropes shot out from her wand and she carefully aimed them with precision. Rope after rope found its way around each remaining head of the hydra. As the last few ropes coiled around their targets she pulled all of the ropes towards the center of the cavern, gathering all three remaining heads as close together as she could manage. She allowed herself a brief second to clear her mind and ready herself for what she was about to do.
"REDUCTO, AEVUMORBIODUO!" Again with as much magic as she could muster she sent two more powerful spells directly at the three gathered heads. Even with Marik's replenishing stone in her pocket the amount of magic she had used in her last three spells had almost drained her completely. With her first spell she mustered up as big of a blasting spell as she could manage, her second spell was where the real drain on her magic kicked in.
Again, for the second time this task, she used her parallel worlds time-magic spell. Aiming at her reducto spell she created two other future possibilities of her powerful blasting spell. The result was three of her maxed powered reducto spells being sent at the hydra, one for each head. From the loud explosion spell on impact she didn't even need to see the heads to know that her spells had been enough to explode at least two more heads.
"HERMIONE WATCH OUT!" she heard Harry scream as he collided with her body. Harry almost knocked the wind out of her when he grabbed her body and dove with her to the ground. Getting the wind knocked out of her was the last of her problems though. As she spun towards the ground in Harry's arms a single powerful beam of blue magic collided with her right arm extended upwards into the air. The pain that followed was immediate.
"AHHHHH!" she screamed out in the worst pain of her life. She looked down at her arm and saw bubbling burns all over her skin. If that wasn't bad enough she could tell from the blood, and pieces of bone sticking out of the skin that her arm was certainly broken, and badly too. Her body involuntarily thrashed around on the ground in reaction to the pain.
"Hermione!" she heard Harry shout, and through the gaps of pain in her vision she could see that he had placed Marik's emergency rune-shield around them. "Give me your wand, Hermione!" Harry shouted. She was in too much pain to react though. After a brief moment though she felt him grab her wand out of her burnt and broken hand.
"H-h-harry, my-y wand-d-d h-h-and. . ." she screamed out through tears and shots of pain, trying to tell him that it had been her wand hand that was injured.
"I know Hermione, I know. . ." she heard Harry say, even in her pain she could sense cracks and tears behind his voice. "Hermione I'm so sorry!" Harry told her as he shouted, she felt a tear from his eyes fall onto her face.
"W-w-hat's w-w-r-rong?" she asked, concerned about what he was apologizing for and worried her injury was worse than she knew.
"I'm sorry for this. . . stupefy!" Harry cast the stunner and in a flash of red light her world to black as she was knocked unconscious.
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