Hermione Granger and the Year Hidden from Hogwarts
Harry Potter Fanfiction
Chapter 11
July 16th, 1991
"Wait! Hermione!"
"Dad, we can't! The music is getting louder." Hermione stared out over the rippling lake, topped with glittering moonlit diamonds. "Don't you hear it? You must hear it now!"
Cold water licked her bare toes as waves lapped the sandy shore.
"Hermione!" her dad called from a great distance. "Get away from the water!"
Other voices had joined in, but they were nearly incomprehensible.
She was wet up to her knees, and someone was shaking her shoulders. Twisting and wrenching herself free, she stumbled into the water up to her waist. "Let me go! Don't you hear that? I have to get to it!"
"Into darkness taking flight,
whispers on the wings of night,
follow me, my lovely tune,
as above the smiling moon,
Diddle-dee-dee, diddle-dee-doe,
not far now, not far to go…"
The moon disappeared behind cloud cover, robbing what little light there'd been to see with. Hermione blinked, the world lighting up in swirling blues and purples, weaving around her playfully, tugging her forward.
"So pretty…" she sighed, needing to tread water now that'd risen to her shoulders.
"Into twilight, into gloom,
sing the sound of dawdling doom,
follow me, my lovely song,
know that I can do no wrong,
Diddle-dee-dee, diddle-dee-doe..."
Furious angry clicks and squeaks sounded in her hair, and she batted at her ear, getting her thick curls wet. Something hissed and shifted before a sharp pain burned the side of her neck.
Hermione blinked, and the violet haze washed from her vision, clearing up to her normal metavision.
"D-Daddy?" she cried, realizing with her lightning fast mind the danger that she was in, but when she thought she was backing up, she'd actually slipped farther into the lake, dipping below the inky black depths.
The spell was truly broken now as her movements grew frantic. She fought the weight of her night clothes, hoping she was headed in the direction of the surface.
She was. As she broke free, her senses were assaulted, blinding spotlights, raised voices, and cold waves intermittently robbing her ability to breathe. Coughing wracked her body as she tread in place. Sound carried easily across the lake, making it sound as if voices came from all directions, further disorienting her.
"Daddy!" she spluttered when she caught her first full breath, only to have something wrap around her ankle and tug her below the surface.
Seaweed, she assumed until something glowing blue crawled down her form—the fire salamander—and lit the face of a terrifying, otherworldly creature with pointed features and sharp teeth.
Scared, her entire body erupted into flames, even underwater. Bubbles escaped the creature's mouth and it released its hold on her, allowing her to resurface.
"Hermione! Where are you?" her dad's voice reached her.
In her struggle, she'd wandered, or been dragged, beyond the circle of searching spotlights scanning the blue waves.
"Daddy!"
The lights jolted, settling on her cold face and robbing her of her vision.
"There! She's over there!"
"Hang on, Hermione!" her dad called. He was already halfway to her. It must've been him trying to shake her shoulders and tug her out when she was in a trance.
"No, Dr. Granger! Richard! I insist. You must get out of the water, immediately," came Dr. Hampton's voice, hoarse as if this wasn't the first time he'd issued the command.
With an inability to see, she switched to her other sight, as if it were infrared vision, the people on shore, even her dad lit up with the dull orange of strong fear or anxiety. The salamander on her shoulder glowed a sickly grey, much dimmer than it'd been before, and that worried her, but her attention stole to the outskirts of the chaos as the creature that'd tried to drown her ran onto shore, making a break for the tree line.
"There!" Hermione cried, using her arm to point at the retreating figure, glowing brightly. It turned sharply at the sound of her voice, his angular features cast in an furious scowl when it realized she was pointing at him.
She couldn't swim with one arm though, so she dipped below the water, only to have hands fist her night shirt in a tight grip and tug. For a second she worried there'd been two creatures, but she was hauled up and close to her dad's terrified black streaked with angry bolts of red.
She didn't waste any time, letting him keep them afloat as she pointed across his shoulder. "It's going for the trees, right there!"
A couple of the men had caught on while she'd been beneath the surface and the Russian soldiers, bless their hearts, had taken off while two of the Chinese men with the mega torch lights swung around to illuminate the ensuing tussle.
"No!" came an unearthly cry as the unnatural being was subdued, dropping beneath the weight of a heavy net. It was over in seconds. They hadn't even finished swimming to the shore yet.
Charles had also jumped in the water at some point, soaked up to his chest, and he waded out to meet them and help hurry them out of the water in case there were any other dangers. "Bloody hell, this water's cold. Let's get you out!"
Hermione was still using her sight, so she noticed in her peripherals when the small salamander, the one that'd both broken her trance and helped save her from the elven beast, flickered in and out.
"No," she cried, feeling like each time it blinked out, her heart wrenched within her chest. "Daddy, the salamander!"
She slipped free from her dad and Charles, running the rest of the way to the shore where she dropped the small amphibious creature onto the sand. "No, don't die, little one. Come on!"
She heard murmured questions and conversation around her, but she paid them no mind, attempting to use her sight to search for the problem, but all it showed was that the salamander's core, once a bright, supernova thing, was nearly depleted.
Could she refill it? Hermione took a deep breath to focus herself, allowing the commotion happening nearby as the team of soldiers, spooks, and scientists subdued their target.
They could handle one creature that'd only gone after small children that'd been placed under some sort of spell.
"Come on," she called, keeping in her metavision so she could visually direct the flow of energy from her core down to her hands. When it reached her fingertips, she pushed, watching as scant amounts passed through the slickened skin of her tiny savior. It must've been visible to the rest of them somehow because someone gasped.
The salamander glowed brighter, no longer winking in and out, but it was still a far cry from where it'd been before taking a dunk in the frigid water.
Her sluggish brain gave a lazy turn before kicking into gear. It'd been attracted to her flames. Perhaps the water or cold, or a combination of the two was lethal to it.
She stopped pressing pure energy and manipulated it instead to her bluebell flames. Another gasp, but she didn't care. The salamander jolted into motion, running in circles on her palm and snuggling into her upturned thumb, deep in the heat of the fire until it had returned to its nova state.
Finally, finally, she allowed herself to relax.
They'd made it. They survived.
She'd have to answer for a lot of questions, but at least she would be alive to do it.
That was her last thought before she kilted to the side and collapsed into the wet sand, slipping into blissful unconsciousness.
July 21st, 1991
Charles stared, bemused as the creature curled up around his tea cup like a flaming stubby holder, sending his perfectly heated drink to a boil. "Er, Hermione, I don't suppose you could coax… er… what did you name him?"
Hermione huffed, releasing her hold on the mental image and trying her best not to itch at the plethora of diodes attached to her skull to analyze her progress. Since the incident in Russia where they discovered her ability to produce bluebell flames, Dr. Hampton had temporarily shifted gears from uncovering unknown creatures to pushing the bounds on her abilities.
"Ignis."
Charles, despite his vexation with the tiny blue creature curling up in a ring of ash on his notes, snorted. "Sticking with what works, eh?"
"What can I say? Latin resonates with me."
"Right, well, could you kindly encourage Ignis not to set my paperwork alight?" He paused at the smell of smoke, his head whipping around with a gasp. "Not my thesis on gradualism!"
Hermione rushed over to help him pat down the papers marked in a tiny line of bluebell flames from when Charles' exclamation scared Ignis into a scurry.
Once the commotion was over and the crisis averted, Hermione attempted to coax Ignis out from behind the stapler while Charles sat back in his desk, frowning at his research. Tiny four-pronged footprints with circular toe ends scorched a charred trail across his meticulous notes.
"If it's any consolation," Hermione began, calling forth her own flame since it always enticed Ignis from his hidey holes. Sure enough, he leapt from his spot, circling her palm briefly before scurrying up into his second favorite spot as he nested in her thick hair against her neck. "It wasn't the kind of dissertation you hang on the refrigerator."
Charles spluttered, lowering his work to glare at her. "I beg your pardon? I earned my DPhil with that paper."
"Yes, and I realize they tell you to narrow your focus when coming up with a topic to discuss, but Darwin had it right by not talking of the five theories of evolution as separate entities."
"But I was trying to account for the anomalies we've been running into when it comes to creatures. While Dr. Hampton seems to be convinced that magic is in the works to explain them, I'm not entirely convinced that evolution isn't behind these sightings, so I was passionate enough about the topic—"
"But those cases are classified!" Hermione spluttered.
Charles rolled his eyes. "I didn't mention the great disappearing silver ape in my report, Hermione, but I was laying the groundwork for a book in case we ever get the clearance—"
"Did Dr. Hampton know about your chosen topic? It sort of seems like playing with fire—"
"And you'd know all about playing with fire—"
A throat cleared. "Ahem, are you two done squabbling like siblings? We've talked about this, Charles. If you don't want to lose an argument against a ten-year-old girl, don't leave the opportunity open to accept feedback."
Charles choked, but Hermione moved over to Dr. Hampton with a smile. "I'm nearly twelve now, actually. What are we working on today?"
Dr. Hampton smiled down at her. "More of the same, I'm afraid. That elven creature from Russia wasn't receptive to any interactions today, so we won't be exploring that venue. Although we could run some tests with that lizard of yours…"
"No," Hermione gasped, stepping back instinctively. "I mean, no. Ignis doesn't need to be tested."
"But—"
"No, Dr. Hampton," Hermione repeated, not raising her voice, but being firm.
"Okay, fair enough. I just think it might be helpful to have another example of how these creatures seem to use magic. Paired with your sight—"
"Ignis has only ever used flames around me, and I've mastered that. So yes, I guess you're correct. We'll do more of the same. Visualization techniques, meditation, and what I remember from Invisibilis when he was here."
Dr. Hampton got back on track, lifting up some papers on his clipboard to read some notes. "Ah, yes. I had a thought. Remember how you described the, er, Invisibilis as using a purple hued power? Maybe you can focus on that aspect. Maybe its not enough to direct the flow of energy, but you have to somehow manipulate the colors as well. Is your energy normally blue?"
"Bluebell, like the flames…" Hermione's head cocked to the side. "But how… oh like the light waves on a spectrum, maybe there's a way to adjust the flow of the energy to short the lengths and change…"
Hermione trailed off as her thoughts flew too fast to verbalize, but the doctors were far used to that by this point and knew it was more fruitful to allow her to work through her conclusions.
She blinked into her metavision, staring down at her hands. Starting with something easy to direct the energy, she produced her flames. Once the flow was established, she tried her best to push the energy faster, to shorten the light waves, tuning the frequency.
She huffed in frustration, contemplating the problem.
Charles cleared his throat. "Blue is already a rather short wavelength. Perhaps it might be easier to try slowing the frequency instead to something in the red category."
Hermione nodded, agreeing with his thoughts. "Yes, of course." Staring at the energy in her hands, she wondered if there was a way to hold and play with the same energy within her hand instead of expending a constant flow that seemed to dissipate into the air.
An avenue for further examination later.
She took a deep breath, slowing her heartrate since she had no idea how else to start. Once she did that, the bluebell shifted into something more aquamarine. In her excitement, she lost her hold on her metavision and thus her control on the color of the energy, but she didn't care. She beamed up at them. "Did you see that? Did you see?"
The two lab men exchanged a glance. "Ah, no, we didn't see anything. But perhaps you could walk us through everything so we could note it down for future exploits."
Hermione was slightly disappointed, but she didn't let it get her down too much. After months of fruitless self-study, she'd made progress.