Concurrent Existences
Chapter Five: Tsunamis
A lost feeling begins to burn.
Guts wrenching, guts a churn.
Irony thrown, here and there.
Enjoying the past without a care.
My plan will work.
For me.
For her.
For us.
Four months passed.
Hermione had still not decided when to leave. The spell work was all done. All she required was a flick of the wrist and a bit of luck. She just could not bring herself to go forward with her plan just yet. Even if it slightly risked distorting the time stream. Merlin, she was not even sticking to her own word anymore.
This would have much easier if she was the hateful bitch she was in the future.
Hermione's plan would only start when she actually left this time period, but leaving Bellatrix was one thing she could not bare to do yet. It also started to get slightly problematic when the dark witch began asking questions.
The brunette also needed to tell her that she was a muggle-born. The thought should not have been a problem, but her old fears of being discriminated against still lingered. She felt a phantom pain from the scar her beloved gave her as well.
"Bella. I have to be honest with you about something." Hermione held her breath. She was acting like an nineteen year old again when instead she was supposed to be somewhere around thirty-four mentally.
Bellatrix tilted her head in slight curiosity as she sat down in front of Hermione. They still met the same place everyday which was right by Black Lake. Students tended to avoid this area due to the fear of the giant squid grabbing them and eating them.
Hermione looked her girlfriend straight into her piercing dark eyes. Bellatrix abruptly started to sit up straighter when she realized the brunette had something serious to say. She held her breath just like the girl across her waiting for some possibly devastating news.
"I'm muggle-born." Silence.
Both witches let her breathes out.
"I know, luv." Bellatrix smiled at her girlfriend for a month. Her smile turned into a laugh as Hermione face was filled with confusion as to how she knew about her blood.
"One doesn't grow up in the most ancient House of Black without knowing all the existing pure-blood lines, dead or not. Besides, what kind of pure-blood name would Granger be?" If it was any other pure-blood Hermione would have hexed them or punched in the face like Malfoy, but she knew her girlfriend meant it in a weird happy condescending way.
"I just thought you would be more..."
"Prejudiced? Don't worry, luv. My hexes are for everyone." Bellatrix then made a wand swish with her finger. Hermione had no way to counter the snowball that smack her straight in the face. The dark witch may have had the first strike, but she was not about to lose to a wandless magic duel to her apprentice.
Apprentice.
Such irony still amused her. The battle was on.
Bellatrix had already run behind a tree for cover. The dark witch was not fooling herself that her girlfriend was going to go easy on her. She peered from her cover from behind the tree too see if the brunette was still in the area, nothing. At the last second, she sensed the use of magic from behind her and dove out of the way. Five snowballs had impacted where she was standing. She detected Hermione's magic signature, but could not pinpoint her.
"It's not nice to hit me in the face with a snowball, luv." Hermione's disembodied voice carried on like an echo throughout the woods, but Bellatrix could tell they were on the same elevation.
"Ventus!" The dark witch swung her hand downward and released a blast of wind that sent leaves and dirt flying towards all directions. As soon as she cast the spell, she saw what she was looking for. A few leaves hit solid air.
Gotcha.
"Stupefy!" The spell missed as the invisible Hermione was out of the way before the spell could close in. Bellatrix cursed and ran to the nearest tree to hide from any counter attack.
"Using a Bedazzling Hex to make yourself invisible? Really Hermione?" Her girlfriend had not taught her the Stealth Sensoring Spell. The brunette was such a cheater sometimes. All Bellatrix could hear was another disembodied laugh. It looks like her luv was not going to make it easy for her.
"Fumos." Smoke started pouring out of Bellatrix's hands. Both girls were deep enough in the forest beside Black Lake that the dark gray smoke would not be detected. Bellatrix now had time to cast her human detection spell. She would have used it earlier, but needed time to focus and concentrate. The Stealth Sensoring Spell would have been much easier to cast. She was not yet as good as her brunette girlfriend unfortunately.
"Homenum Revelio." It also irritated her that Hermione never needed to use words for her spells anymore. Non-verbal and wandless magic.
Such a cheat.
A moment of sensing and done. Now, she couldn't hide anymore.
Hermione knew her trick was up.
Their duels were always interesting if a bit random. "Did you like both Bedazzling Hex and Chameleon Charm combined? Good counter move with wind though. Let's finish this." The witch waved her hand and dispersed all the smoke conjured by her dark witch. She was really proud of the advancement of Bellatrix, not even she learned at this rate.
Bellatrix took a step out from her hiding place. The two witches stood around ten meters from each other with grins plastered on their faces and hands by their waists. The muggle-born told Bellatrix one or two stories about the Wild West, cowboys in particular and how they the duel. It was humorous that the pure-blooded witch was doing something so muggle-ish. Both reacted at the same time they heard a bird call.
Both hands were being waved into the air quickly drawing various symbols. One hand for slinging a quick non-verbal spell while the other continuously casted Protego and parried other spells. Hermione might have known more spells, but that did not mean she was a better duelist than Bellatrix who fought students on a daily basis. The war hero might have had some experience from the war, but that did not all translate to dueling experience.
Bellatrix only had one artifact, but Hermione was playing on the same level. The single artifact would maintain the Protego while they would be free to cast the spells they wanted.
Over five minutes had passed. Both witches held their ground, barely moving an inch. The concept of this kind of training duel was to toughen them up when there was no way to fully dodge spells. Increasing stamina and endurance was always a good thing aside from learning to shield and parry offensive spells.
Hermione took a risk and cast two offensive spells with both hands, but both spells were quickly absorbed into the Protego shield when Bellatrix caused the shield to widen for a split second. The grinning dark witch did not miss the opportunity.
"Flipendo!" She could not help but shout out the spell as hit Hermione and tossed her backwards on the ground. Bellatrix looked smug until her girlfriend still was not moving. The smug look fell as she rushed to the brunette witch. She knelt down by Hermione and saw her lips trying to say something. Was it some kind of last message or something? Hermione's eyes snapped open the same time Bellatrix froze and fell backwards to the ground.
"I said Petrificus Totalus, Miss Black." The smartest witch of her age stood up and dusted herself off. As soon as she finished, she went over and straddled Bellatrix's frozen hips. She could see the anger in her dark girlfriend's eyes, "cheater", was all she could read. Such a cute thing.
"I kind of like you like this." Hermione pecked the side of her lips. "Under me, I mean, not frozen." Hermione giggled as she pressed another kiss by the frozen witch's neck. "How does it feel to have a muggle-born on top?" She unbuttoned the dark witch's collar and placed a kiss on the middle of her chest. Hermione teased her frozen witch a bit more before undoing the spell. The reversal of positions when the dark witch was older was just terribly ironic. Having so many years to get over something apparently does help.
The dark witch did not hesitate taking revenge right after. Not that Hermione was complaining. She wondered what her friends and family would think if they saw her now. It didn't really matter though.
She was happy.
Five months passed.
It had been five whole months since Hermione arrived in this time period. After a few seemingly innocent questions and deduction of the sisters age, she had already concluded that it was the year 1968. It was nearly thirty years back in time. She wasn't exactly sure if it actually had any connection to the amount of time she spent in the time limbo.
Her spell had gotten her thirty years into the past spending approximately fifteen years in a time limbo. She was not entirely sure if the numbers meant anything or if it was based on how much magic she used, but no one had really traversed time properly. No one that survived to tell their tale at least.
The brunette had learned that Bellatrix was indeed the smartest witch of her age. In the past five months, she had never seen Bellatrix open one single book and apparently Bellatrix had O's in all twelve of her N.E.W.T.s. Hermione only had ten since she had dropped out of Muggle Studies and Divination. She somehow knew that Sybill Trelawney was laughing at her.
The not-yet-Death-Eater was actually smarter than her, but never actually applied herself or cared too much about her studies. Everything Hermione taught her had been absorbed like a sponge. One demonstration of the spell had always been enough for Bellatrix to duplicate it. The dark witch did not even learn the theory behind the spells before replicating it! No wonder the woman was the right hand of Voldemort. She was probably better than Voldemort if she was still sane at the time. The unwavering loyalty Bellatrix had to Voldemort was the only thing actually keeping her on a leash. She wondered if Bellatrix had been manipulated the same way she had been with Compulsion Charms.
Highly possible.
Hermione still could not figure out what had happened to her girlfriend in the future. How the dark witch actually got so... dark. The tales the three Black sisters told her were of a slightly strict, but loving father and a quiet, but supportive mother. Where did everything go wrong? Was Voldemort just the root cause of everything?
Hermione sometimes wished that she could have been sent a few more years into the future to when the catalyst for Bellatrix's change arose. She immediately shook her head when she realized she wouldn't have ever met her dark haired witch at this state if it did. A swift temptation to use the Time-Turner also hit, but she that would further erode her already declining Time-Turner.
A year was the most Hermione could stay before she would be too attached to this time period. She was already attached to the three sisters, especially to Bellatrix, but staying any longer would further the chance of disrupting time. More than what she already disrupted anyway.
Hermione gasped as someone poked her side. She was ticklish, damn it! The brunette nearly tumbled over and fell into the water if she did not use a Hover Charm by instinct.
"What on earth are you doing on top of the giant squid?" Bellatrix was riding her broom, hovering over her with her head tilted a bit.
The brunette was slightly bored that day when she saw the giant squid near the surface of Black Lake. Long story short, she and the giant cephalopod were now friends. Hermione then spent the rest of the day laying down the squid's head, it did not seem like it minded anyway. It was probably starved for company with everybody being afraid of it.
"Well, I was bored and Tenty seemed lonely."
"Tenty? Merlin. Did you name it?" Only her girlfriend would try to domesticate and make friends with a giant squid. Hermione would probably befriend that half-giant living near Hogwarts too.
Little witch has way too much time on her hands.
Bellatrix knew her girlfriend still hid so much facts from her, but they've been getting to know each other for months. The eldest Black sister believed and trusted Hermione. The brunette was almost as smart as her, so she knew not to pry.
"He didn't seem to mind. Come, sweetie." Hermione patted her side. It looked dry enough aside from a bit of slime on the side. Bellatrix Black would not be caught in slime.
Nasty.
"Two months as girlfriends and you decide to call me sweetie? Bloody hell. Sweetie and Tenty. I'll stay on my broom, thank you very much." Bellatrix chided her. She was not against the pet name, but she would die if ever Hermione called her that in front of anyone. They needed better pet names. Her brunette witch more than her.
Tenty, who names anyone Tenty?!
Hermione just laughed at the quip. The raven haired witch knew her girlfriend was not going to un-name the beast. It seemed that Tenty would indeed stick. How could anyone find a giant slimy squid cute? The giant cephalopod trained it's eyes on Bellatrix. Was it- Was it trying puppy dog eyes?
Hermione began to wonder out loud if there was a way to communicate with the giant squid. The giant squid seemed have a degree of intelligence, but it was always a one-way communication. Her girlfriend continued to ponder if Legilimency would work. Hah! It looked like her smart witch did not know Legilimency, well that's something to start working on.
Bellatrix continued to hover on her broom while Hermione enjoyed laying down on the soft squid. The two just continued to converse for the rest of the day instead of practicing magic or dueling. Apparently, Bellatrix had been skipping classes, that is why she was so early from time to time. She mentioned how many of the professors did not care since she had already done everything required in her classes.
At one point the black haired witch nearly fell into the lake after nearly dozing off.
Luckily, she had fell on top of Hermione.
Unluckily, her hand had hit the slimy part of the squid.
Eck! Blasted squid!
Hermione began to laugh as Bellatrix scowled, but the scowl did not last as she swiped the slime on Hermione's robes. The indignation the brunette felt was justified and pushed her soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend into the water. Sadly for Hermione, Bellatrix grabbed an ankle, making them both plunge into the water.
Their laughter started as they emerged from the surface of the water. Both witches continued to play and splash water at each other. Bellatrix was pretty sure she was winning, well, until Tenty wanted to play.
"Luv, I think your pet wants to-"
Bloody hell.
Tsunami.
Spells used are mainly taken from HP lore and a few others are translated from Latin.
Ventus - Strong blast of wind.
Flipendo - Pushes target, knocks out weaker ones.
Fumos - Smokescreen
Homenum Revelio - Human Presence Revealing Spell, slower than Stealth Sensoring Spell.
AN: Thank you for the feedback! Hermione is still enjoying a bit of time with Bella, so I do hope you enjoy it too!
Hermione knows she has to leave soon anyway. I also wonder what her plan will be? Taking Bella with her, that would probably blow up the future. Not really sure how much she cares anymore though. Hermione knows too much, I don't even know how her mind functions anymore. x.x
I sometimes swap focus from character to character, does it work out? Hope it isn't confusing people.
This is also the first time I've written a real battle down. Hope it wasn't too bad either.
Just realized the chapter is a bit shorter, sorry! As always, don't hesitate to tell me if there are major grammar errors so I can try and change them.
Questions, comments, constructive criticism and suggestions are always appreciated!