3. Revival of The Winter Queen
Harry opted to skip the feast so that he could be present near Hermione to welcome her when she was revived after their school nurse administrated the Mandrake restorative draught to the petrified student. As Madam Promfey prepared the final step, Harry sat down on a nearby stool and proofread the animagus transformation notes he had prepared for Hermione.
"I told you a hundred times to get lost but it's like you can't hear me, Potter," Madam Promfey snarked after she was done administrating the draught to Hermione.
"Sorry Poppy," Harry gave her a charming grin which gave her flashbacks of a certain marauder, just a bit taller with caramel-coloured eyes, "But I have to be there for my best friend when she wakes up with her beauty sleep otherwise what kind of friend would I be?"
The school nurse grumbled before her eyes fell on now her patient's and visitors' connected hands, "Yeah! Just best friends."
Harry blushed but didn't let Hermione's hand go and Pomfrey spotted a smug grin on her face, counting it as her win.
"Uggh..." Hermione whimpered in a dry voice which sent Harry scraping to get her water while Madam Pomphrey watched with amused eyes.
Harry brought the glass of water to Hermione's lips and she drank the water gratefully. As strength returned to her limbs, she looked around rubbing her eyes.
"Harry", she whispered her eyes wide as she saw the teary eyes of her best friend.
"Welcome back, my winter Queen," Harry said as he climbed on her hospital bed to give her a tender hug which was filled with feelings, "I have missed you."
Hermione was surprised as she saw Harry being affectionate. Her best friend, from what she knew, was shy, and awkward and never started physical contact. Her eyes widened as she remembered seeing scary yellow eyes in the compact mirror and she started rambling, "Harry... I found the Slytherin's monster. It's a basilisk and is using the plumbings to move around. We have to tell-"
Harry shushed her by placing a hand on her lips and chuckled when he saw her blush. He then sniffed pompously and spoke "Don't worry about it, my lady! Your knight in shining armour had recognised the beast with your help and had avenged you."
Hermione started giggling at his tone before she processed what he said.
"What! Harry James Potter!" Harry needed at the use of his full name, "Don't tell me that you fought the Basilisk alone without the help of any teacher. I might have not seen it clearly in reflection, but I saw enough to guess its bloody size and guess what? It was bloody huge!"
Harry rubbed the back of his head and said, "Well we tried to rope pompous Lockhart into hunting it after the heir took Ginny to the chamber of secrets. Unfortunately, he decided to Obliviate us and tell the whole world about how he saved us from the snake but couldn't save Ginny. Thankfully, Ron's broken wand backfired and we were safe. And guess what? Do you remember the book we saw Malfoy putting into Ginny's cauldron, it somehow stored this shade of 16-year-old Voldemort and it was possessing her to let the Basilisk loose? When I got there, alone because Ron had been separated due to a cave-in from a backfired spell, though I am glad because if he had been there he probably would have died. So when I got there, the shade was standing over unconscious Ginny and listen to this, it was trying to somehow come back to life by absorbing Ginny's life force and magic. It gloated about those things and then disarmed me when I tried to attack him. After that he set the Basilisk on me and let me tell you it was huge... almost 20 meters," Harry winced as Hermione's strong grip on him started to hurt but he continued, "Then suddenly, Fawkes was there with sorting hat and I am pulling the sword of Gryffindor out of it, yes it was our founder's sword. Riddle...that is Voldemort's real name... then taunted me about how some flaming chicken and a sword weren't going to stand a chance against the king of serpents, but then Fawkes blinded the Basilisk removing its most lethal weapon. Then Riddle started throwing spells at me and suddenly I knew how to use the sword while I had never been trained in it last 12 years of my life," Harry mused while thinking 'yes, I have trained with it in the coming 5 years' and continued, "I batted away Riddle's spell and then I got this crazy idea," Hermione snorted at that but Harry ignored it, "And I asked Fawkes to teleport me on top of the Basilisk's head, from where I used the sword to stab it through its head, thankfully ending it. But then again Riddle started monologuing and throwing spells at me, so I used the smoke screen spell the twins taught me to blind him and then stabbed that book with the sword. It started oozing black ink and from the scream and absence of the shade I concluded, that Riddle was quite dead... er at least the Riddle from possessing the book."
Hermione was looking at him with a mixture of awe and exasperation by the time he was finished with his tale which was actually epic in a kind of way.
"Only you Harry... Only you," Hermione exhaled as she tried to melt into Harry's embrace. Harry just kissed her hair the way he used to during Horcrux hunt and smirked as Hermine sighed and relaxed even more.
"You know, I have half a mind to wrap you in cotton and hide you somewhere. I was really scared when you were petrified, Hermione." Harry murmured into her ear as he held her tightly.
Hermione jerked back with a pout on her face, "Don't you dare Harry James! If I deserve to get wrapped in cotton then I don't know what should be done to keep you safe. Hmph!"
Harry snickered and then slapped his forehead, "I almost forgot," he took the notes from the side table and gave them to Hermione, "I have a welcome back gift for you."
Hermine opened the parchments to find a golden rose tucked into the first page, working as a makeshift bookmark, she sighed as the unexpected fragrance from a clearly non-natural rose reached her nose, "What are these notes for?"
Harry again rubbed his head sheepishly making Hermine narrow her eyes at him, "What did you do, Harry James Potter?"
"Uh... I found this hidden part in the restricted section of the Library and I was bored so I kind of went through it, err... to find some spells to battle the monster, but I found this very old book... Um, not exactly a book but a sort of animagus ritual journal written by Falco Aesalon, you know the ancient Greek wizard who is the first one recorded to become an animagus and had the animagus form of a Falcon. So I thought maybe I could have a bird form, you know how I like to fly. Though the records were in Greek I wasn't able to understand anything. So I was scouring the library for books to help me translate, when Madam Prince, who didn't want me to wreak havoc in her sacred library, taught me the spell to translate languages into English. So I used the spells and wrote the English version in these parchments and it was a good thing I did, because listen to this, as soon as I brought the journal back to the hidden place, it disappeared, not just the journal but the whole hidden section," Harry bull-shited quickly and thankfully Hermione was accepting them as truth. He felt a bit bad but there was no other way without going back onto agreement with some of the most powerful entities of the omniverse and there was no way he was going to do that.
"Oh, Harry! You know doing the animagus ritual on your own could be very dangerous. We should take this to Professor McGonagall-" Hermione stopped when she saw Harry looking guilty.
"What is it, Harry?" She asked forcefully.
"Uh... there's actually no need to go to her. I want us being animagus to be secret and it is completely safe, I can attest to it." Harry replied with a straight face.
"Harry... You didn't!" Hermione shrieked and Harry felt thankful for the silencing charm he had used after he had finished with an explanation about the chamber of secrets, "Oh Harry, what will I do with you?"
Harry just laughed nervously. Hermione's stomach growled and Harry smirked at her.
"Shall we go to the Great Hall, or would you prefer somewhere private, Miss Granger?" Harry asked.
"Um let's get to great hall. It's the last day you know, it's compulsory to attend the feast. Come on Har-ry!" Hermione got off the bed and proceeded to drag Harry to the great hall. She then turned towards him with her hands on her hips, "And I want to see your animagus form later."
"Yes, dear!" Harry answered smirking.
Hermine blushed and smacked him on his arm as she proceeded to continue dragging him off to the Great Hall.
--X--
"-and with that, I would like to give some last-minute points," Harry and Hermine heard as they entered the great hall amid Dumbledore's announcement. The old man didn't seem to mind the new addition to the Great Hall as he continued cheerfully, "Ah! Here are some of the people who we were waiting for. Students and staff, please give a large round of applause to Mr. Harry Potter, Miss Hermione Granger and Mr. Ronald Weasley for showing intellect and daring to protect the school."
All of the students started clapping together as Harry took a seat to the left of Ron Weasley with a blushing Hermione to his left.
Dumbledore continued, "I will start this by awarding Miss Granger 150 points and an award for special service for the school, for succeeding in identifying the Slytherin's monster and cracking its method of movement around the school. Even petrified, it was her sharp intellect and the clue she left by which Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley knew where to go to rescue the victim of Slytherin's heir's last attack."
The Great Hall other than Slytherins broke into tremendous applause in awe of what their fellow student had done. Hermione blushed even more and she gave a shy smile and tried to hide behind her curls. Harry did notice that and squeezed her hand for support.
"Next," Dumbledore continued in the same authoritative voice, "I would like to award Mr. Ronald Weasley 50 points and an award for Special school services, as he walked every step with Mr. Potter to help in getting rid of the danger to the school."
Ron was a bit red-faced both due to overwhelming pride and a bit of bitterness for Hermione getting more points and attention than him. Harry just shook his head and ignored him. It wasn't like their 'friendship' was going to last, especially after what he and his family had tried to pull.
"And finally," Dumbledore boomed, "I would like to award Mr. Potter, 200 points and an award for special school services, for not only following the clue Miss Granger left him and taking action against Slytherin's monster but also for successfully defeating it and protecting the school once more from threats. For that you have my gratitude, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore finished giving points raising his glass of Pumpkin juice to raise a toast for Harry, which was joined by almost every staff and enthusiastic student, "With that the winner of the house cup is GRYFFINDOR!"
The students cheered, throwing their pointed caps in the air as the decorations and flags of Hogwarts turned into Gryffindor colours. Once again there was the same subdued air among Slytherins that the rest of the Hogwarts houses ignored.
The students started on the feast enthusiastically as soon as food appeared on their tables on Dumbledore's command of 'Tuck in.'
--X--
An hour out of curfew, a confused and protesting Hermione was being led somewhere by Harry.
"Harry," Hermine whispered seriously, "Where are we going? It's curfew already and if someone catches us we might be expelled!"
"Don't worry my Winter Queen no one can find us under the cloak," Harry smiled reassuringly at her and replied while adding 'Not anymore at least. Adding my blood to hallows was a good thing to do as it now resists any external charm placed by anyone other than him. Let's see how twinkly trying to see through my cloak next time.', in his mind.
"What's with the nickname, Harry?" Hermione grumbled a bit inquisitively.
"Well you are named after Hermione in 'The Winter Tale' and you were in a deep sleep for a long time, just like Snow White, but being a princess no matter how beautiful just didn't suit you," Harry grinned but continued hurriedly when he saw her expression faltering after he rejected the idea of her being a princess, "I mean look at most of the princess in stories. They are pretty but useless only waiting for their prince charming to come and save them. You Hermione aren't like that. You are a fighter, a warrior... like Artemisia of Turkey, Zenobia of Palmyra, Mulan of China and Rani Lakshmibai of India. But I also know that you will be as great if not greater than any of them one day... So I call you my Winter Queen-"
Harry was cut off as Hermine nearly tackled him to the ground with a tight hug. Thankfully they were near the classroom where Harry was taking her, well at least where he planned to have the first part of the conversation in, so he pulled them both into the classroom quickly and locked it with a wave of his wand. It was the same classroom that held the mirror of Erised and Harry knew that the alert ward and listing charm of Dumbledore's was still active. He wanted to get the old got off his back about him being a horcrux after all.
"Hermione, are you alright?" Harry asked as he rubbed her back soothingly.
"Y-Yes. It's just you never said s-such things before and I was kind of taken by surprise you know," She replied wiping her tears.
"Yeah... I was quite blind, wasn't I? It only took a giant Basilisk and, dying and coming back to see clearly," Harry replied self-deprecatingly.
Hermione's eyes were wide as she heard him talk about dying, "What are you talking about, H-Harry?"
Harry ran a hand through his hair as he started, "Hermione, I didn't tell you everything in the Hospital wing because I didn't want to overwhelm you. I-When I stabbed the diary, Riddle's shade had already thrown a killing curse at me which hit me as soon as I was done stabbing the diary. When I woke up, I found myself in a replica of King Cross, just completely white, and there was a disfigured and very ugly baby that reeked of evil a few meters away from him. Then there was this person, I met, whose name I can't remember," Harry continued, only lying for a bit, "They told me that homunculus... that is the disfigured infant, was an astral representation of a part of Voldemort's soul that was actually logged into my scar."
He nodded at the horrified sound Hermione made and continued, while running his hand through his hair again, "Yeah... My mum's sacrificial protection was the only thing keeping it from possessing me like the diary did to Ginny. Riddle's Avada Kedavra somehow destroyed the soul piece instead of my soul and because of that, I was able to survive this time."
Hermione clutched at his t-shirt even more tightly simultaneously, tightening the hug as she asked in a shaky voice, "How did that happen... the piece of his soul inside your scar?"
Harry sighed, "Well it's even more complicated and disgusting to hear. The person that I met in limbo, told me that Voldemort had created something called a Horcrux, and not only one but many... I guess it's at six including my scar, you know... so that he could have seven parts of his soul... magically strongest number and all that. Horcrux means the container of Voldemort's soul pieces and it is created by the heinous act of murder, not killing in a fight or something but a murder and Voldemort wanted to make a horcrux from my death, so he came prepared ritual and all that. Unfortunately, my mum's death worked as a murder and when the killing curse sent at me rebounded the part of his soul he was preparing to use in a horcrux bonded with the only living thing present there, that was me. Thankfully, it's gone now and ironically, he was the one who destroyed it, by his own hands."
"Oh, Ha-ry! Why do all bad things happen to you?" Hermione sighed as she melted into his hug once again.
"Well, it's not all bad. I have you as my best friend, don't I?" Harry asked rhetorically.
Hermine looked up at him with her eyebrows raised, "Wasn't that Ron?"
Harry really wanted to explain why he didn't want to do anything with Ron, but unfortunately, he couldn't. So he quickly started thinking about a justified excuse as he blurted out, "Well you see Hermione, Ron, as much fun as he is," here Harry grimaced, "he is not the best friend material."
"And why is that?" Hermine asked frowning.
"Well there are many reasons but firstly he does not treat you with the respect you deserve," Harry started and Hermione's eyes widened, "and secondly, he is actually quite jealous of my supposed wealth and sees himself in my shadow, which means he would take any opportunity to escape it as long as it's not too damaging. We saw the example this year, remember when everyone started believing that I was the heir of Slytherin, he started to distance himself from me, at least publically. Though he did follow me to the Forbidden forests, to face the accromentula, but I don't know if it was because of his loyalty or his desire to have some glory for himself. I also caught him glaring at you in today's feast when Dumbledore awarded you more points than him. So I have decided that I will slowly try to distance myself from him."
Hermione's eyes widened as she understood what Harry was saying but there was a flicker of doubt on Hermione's face, or at least Harry thought it was, so he added with a grimace, "Er... I wouldn't mind if you want to be friends with him-"
Harry was cut off by Hermione's snort, "Yeah you don't look quite convinced of that," She shook her head and continued, "Harry, I am not really his friend, am I? We both only tolerated each other for your sake, you know. If you aren't friends with him, we will automatically lose interest in each other as there is absolutely nothing that is common between us, other than you, Harry."
Harry grinned and he took her hand and started pulling her out to their next destination. After all his mission of indirectly telling about Horcruxes and the destruction of one in his scar was completed, successfully and he didn't want old Twinkly to learn about other things he was going to tell Hermione.
Soon they were on the seventh floor, and Hermione watched Harry pace in front of Tap Dancing Troll's portrait. She put her hands on her hips as she questioned, "What are you doing, Harry?"
He was stopped from answering by Hermione's self-answering gasp. He grinned and pointed at the end newly appeared gate, "This!"
He led her to the complete replica of Gryffindor's common room and settled themselves on a couch.
"Harry! What is this place?" Hermione asked, a bit excitedly.
Harry grinned as he opened his arms dramatically, "This my dear is a special room designed by Lady Rowena Ravenclaw herself and is called Room of Requirement. It could assume the shape of any place you want to and give you anything as long as they are present in school and isn't the student's private property. Also, it can't conjure food and money, you know the famous laws of transfiguration and conjuration. I happened to find the place when I needed a place to practise my spells."
Hermione was amazed and started to ramble, asking him questions about the place. Harry patiently sated her curiosity and waited for her questions to end. Once they did, it was she who asked, "So why did you bring me here, other than showing me this masterpiece of course?"
"Um... I wanted to show you my animagus form and also tell you one other thing, I forgot about," Harry replied sheepishly.
"Oh... Show me... Show me!" Hermione grinned excitedly.
"Alright, but don't panic, ok?" Harry replied with his own grin.
"Why would I panic? What animal are you, Harry Potter?" Hermione demanded.
Harry's grin turned impish as he winked at his crush, "Wait and watch!"
Hermione watched on her toes as Harry rippled into 420 pounds of orange and white fur with black stripes with a purplish scar running on the right side of his face, missing the emerald colour eyes.
She took an instinctive step back in the face of the apex predator but then remembered Harry's words about not panicking, which was easier to follow as she saw Tiger-Harry lay on his back, showing her his stomach. Taking a determined breath and summoning her inner lion, she stepped closer and went on her knees to marvel at the majestic animal from a close to distance. Tiger-Harry started purring like a house cat as soon as she started to run her hand on his stomach, making her giggle. She could tell that the tiger was not in his prime and had more room to grow, but couldn't ignore the tight-packed muscle, wondering for a moment if Harry had them in his normal human body, hidden within loose clothes. She shook her head as if to shake off the thought, and looked down at the tiger's Inquisitive expression and shook her head indicating nothing. After playing with Tiger-Harry some more, she stepped back and Harry changed back only to be crushed in a hug by his excited best friend.
"It was great Harry. It really works and it takes considerably less time too. Do you think I would be able to become one so fast? What do you think my form will be?" Hermione started rambling in Harry's embrace.
Harry chuckled before answering and Hermione instinctively shivered as he spoke into her skin, "Calm down Hermione. I know it works and you will also take the same amount of time as I did, a few days less or more. As for your animagus form, I think a cat would rather suit you, wouldn't it?"
"And why is it that you feel that a cat would feel so home with me, Mr. Potter?" Hermione asked, her eyebrows frowning.
"Well let's see. You are intelligent, independent, curious, graceful, affectionate, strong and territorial. Do you think any other animal than cats has all of these as their personality traits? Additionally, you don't like spotlight, which means you would probably be a small animal going from it," Harry explained and he could see that Hermine was contemplating what he had told her and seemed to quite agree with him.
She narrowed her eyes at him again, "You said that I will be a small animal because I hate the spotlight. What about you? You are the only one I could think about who would hate the spotlight even more than me, so how come you are such a large tiger?"
Harry sheepishly scratched the back of his neck and replied, "Er... Let's just say that I was more in need of strength than anonymity and believe me that my animagus form is quite useless outside of intimidation or a few combat situations. No matter tigers being ambush predators, none of it would help me in espionage. Though this method of reaching animagus transformation has physical effects on your human body. "
Hermione blushed as his last sentence made her think about the possible muscles tucked under the loose t-shirt. She still stammered her question, "P-Physical? To what end?"
Harry grinned and removed his glasses, which Hermine only now noticed, were new, both frame design and colour, "Well for one, I don't need glasses to see clearly anymore. I have quite a good vision, better than most humans. And my natural strength has also been increased after I became animagus."
"Why do you wear them then? And when did you get the new pair?" Hermione questioned.
"I got them yesterday and they are enchanted to see any type of wards that may be around us," Harry replied.
"Did you owl order them?" Hermione questioned and then narrowed her eyes when he winced. It was becoming a quite common thing to do today.
"Uhmm... I might have sneaked off to Diagon Alley yesterday," Harry replied preparing himself for coming scolding only to be surprised when it didn't come. He looked at her only to find her shaking her head in exasperation.
"How many rules did you break in the past few days Harry?" she asked.
Harry snorted, "That's rich coming from you Miss 'Rules doesn't matter if I deem them unnecessary', or should I say Miss 'Polyjuice', or maybe Miss 'check the restricted section using your invisibility cloak'."
Hermione slapped his arms and growled playfully, "You have been a bad influence on me, Mr. Potter."
"You say like you don't like it," Harry replied cheekily earning himself another slap on his arm.
"So why did you 'sneak off' to Diagon? I know that you wouldn't have done that just to fashion yourself with a pair of fancy glasses," Hermione enquired.
"Yeah had few things to do, you know fily holdings and all that. But mostly, I was there for my new wand," Harry replied and presented his new wand to Hermione.
As soon as she took it in his hand and gave an experimental swish, it started giving out a shower of sparks like her own wand had done as she bonded to it. She looked at Harry in askance and was surprised to find a red hue on his cheeks.
"Let me tell you the whole story," Harry offered and began as he saw Hermione nod in affirmation while using his wand to levitate few things around the room. For some reason, he felt immensely happy when he saw her using his wand to do magic at ease, "Well first thing happened when my Holly and Phoenix feather wand stopped working for me after I died the second time. According to Mr. Ollivander, it was because of the death of my 'inner quester', as Holly Wood is known for choosing the wizard who have a spiritual quest to complete. I agree that it might have something to do with that, but he isn't not completely correct."
He took a deep breath and continued when he saw Hermione's nod of encouragement, "What I haven't told many people is that the Holly wand shared a history with Voldemort's wand, particularly their cores. They were called brother wands because they shared same origin of their cores, that is Dumbledore's Phoenix who provided two tail feathers at the same time. My theory is that, while the wandwood, Holly, might have chosen me as my I did kind of had a spiritual quest in first year, you would know, being the part of it after all. But the core, all it chose was part of Voldemort's soul stuck in my scar," He smiled as Hermione squeezed his hand in support, "So when Ollivander tried to fit me with the wand, I was supposed to bond with if not for my scar, this wand that chose me- 11 inches, Walnut with core of dragon heart string, the dragon's whose mate provided the core of your wand."
Hermione's eyes widened and her face went red as he finished the last sentence and she asked in dazed voice, "What does that mean for us?"
Harry sighed and controlled himself from saying something too cheesy. He would woo Hermione but it would be from his heart and skill not from the sharing...mate-cores? mate-wands?... eh... whatever. He placed his hand on hers and replied, "For now it only means that we could use each other's wands as easily as ours."
Harry swore he saw mixture of both relief and annoyance on her face, the annoyance part giving him a hope that she might have same feelings for him that he carried for her. They stayed and talked about few other things and practised some spells after exchanging their wands, before leaving for their dorms. They have to catch a train, next day home after all.
--X--