My first foray into the world of High School DxD crossovers was, admittedly, not one of my best. I think of Fall to Zenith as being okay, but not great. I did better with my later crossover with Final Fantasy IX, Black Mage of Kuoh. And my attempt at a second crossover, Sympathy for the Devil, faltered pretty badly, partly due to the reviews that had me realising the story's faults.

whitetigerwolf recently posted a challenge, one of many Harry Potter/High School DxD challenges they have done recently, but this one got my attention more than any other: namely the 'Hogwarts Pieces' challenge, where either Harry or Hermione were Devils, recruiting members of their Peerage at Hogwarts. Having done Harry as a Pureblood Devil for Fall to Zenith, I actually decided on Hermione, and given her brown hair of canon, I decided to make her a Bael, and thus the cousin of Rias Gremory and Sirzechs Lucifer, and as a nod to Fall to Zenith, made her part-Fallen as well. Hermione Bael is the working title of the story, but it may yet change.

I also, after discussion with whitetigerwolf about the challenge, decided to give Harry the Boosted Gear. I originally considered Albion and having Vali killed off (sorry, Vali fans), but it was whitetigerwolf who suggested having Harry having the Boosted Gear and Issei having the Dividing Gear. Having Vali absent from this timeline also makes an interesting knock-on effect for his faction of the Khaos Brigade, as well as for other factions of the DxD-verse. Because of Hermione's mother being a Fallen and close to Raynare, Raynare is never a villain...though she's still snide towards Rias and her Peerage.

As you may note below, quite a bit of this first chapter was copied and pasted from Sympathy for the Devil. Hope you enjoy.

Incidentally, I've started a new poll on my profile for fresh franchises for me to do stories based on. While the most voted-for franchise won't necessarily get a story, it will give me an indication of what is more popular. Amongst the new options since the previous poll last year include Is This a Zombie? and The Saga of Tanya the Evil.

HERMIONE BAEL

CHAPTER 1:

BOOKWORM OF THE BAEL AND THE BOY WHO LIVED

It's odd how fate works out at times. Some events can change things for better, or for worse. How that happens can be a matter of perspective.

Certainly, the death of Vali Lucifer, the half-human scion of the Lucifer line of Devils, as a young child was a tragedy, and the world was poorer for his absence, even if he would grow into a battle-hungry young man in other timelines, the destined wielder of the weapon known as the Dividing Gear, and the Heavenly Dragon sealed within it, Albion. In going too far with their abuse, his father and grandfather had robbed themselves of an opportunity to wield power by proxy, though they never would have succeeded, anyway. Vali died unmourned in a world that should have mourned his passing.

But the death of the boy who would become the latest White Dragon Emperor upset the order, for Albion's rival, Ddraig, the Heavenly Dragon sealed within the Boosted Gear, had yet to be given to a new master, one who would become the next Red Dragon Emperor. These two had a rivalry that spanned centuries, and the Dragon Emperors with opposing powers were destined to clash. Vali's demise also had an impact on the burgeoning organisation known as the Khaos Brigade.

Shortly after Vali's untimely death, Ddraig and Albion were soon given their new chance. But fate, it seemed, had a perverse sense of humour, as it often does. Ddraig was destined to become the Sacred Gear of Issei Hyoudou, an otherwise unremarkable Japanese boy who would grow up to become a pervert of prodigious proportions…well, prodigious in his perversion, anyway. But Vali's death upset things, and it was Albion who would become sealed within Issei.

As for the Boosted Gear, and with it, Ddraig? Well, as noted before, fate has a somewhat perverse sense of humour. Ddraig found himself sealed within a child who, frankly, needed his power, only for said power to be sealed for about fifteen of the first sixteen years of his life.

A power that was about to be unleashed thanks to the foolishness of the child's guardians…

Harry Potter woke up reluctantly. Not just reluctantly, but with a fog over his most recent memories, along with his mind. He wanted said fog to remain: something told him that amnesia was preferable to recollection. Sadly, memory is a treacherous and fickle bitch, not being there when we need it, and being there when we don't.

Soon, like water filling a glass, memory came back to him. The joyful memories of the past year. The Tri-Wizard Tournament. A good chunk of the school turning its back on him, including his so-called best friend Ron, only to start praising him when he prevailed against a dragon. The graveyard. The death of Cedric. The resurrection of Voldemort. The duel. Crouch Junior disguised as Moody. The Minister not believing him. Then…going back home. He remembered dragging his trunk to the front door of the Dursley home…and then, darkness.

Then, in the depths of oblivion, he seemed to hear a tenebrous voice.

"Harry Potter. RISE."

Leading to, it seemed, this. It took him a while to go from cataloguing his recollections to analysing sensations. And as he did so, he came to a number of conclusions, a couple of them rather alarming.

1. He was in bed. Not an unreasonable state of affairs considering he had just been unconscious. But then, you came to the other points, like…

2. He was naked. He NEVER slept naked. The Dursleys would have beaten him black and blue (not that they didn't anyway) if he had at 4 Privet Drive, while sharing a dorm room with others also would have put a stop to such activities, even if he wanted to. Which he didn't. Concerning though that was, it was compounded by…

3. Someone else was sharing his bed with him, someone who was also naked, and, judging by the feeling of two fleshy orbs on his upper back, was of the female persuasion to boot. Said someone had him in a gentle embrace. That was one of the few things preventing him from panicking, if only to avoid waking his captor.

4. He was in an unfamiliar bedroom. A rather luxurious one at that.

Deciding that he needed to extricate himself from his current situation before anything further could happen (as compromising as the situation was, he was sure he hadn't lost his virginity to his bedmate, unless she had been nasty enough to do it while he slept, or else used a Memory Charm), he slid out of his bedmate's embrace, and stood up, as calmly as he could.

As he looked around, he heard a gentle yawn behind him. Then, he heard a very familiar voice murmur, "Oh, is it morning already?" A little more clearly, she then said, "Harry…please don't panic. I brought you here after…what happened."

Harry turned to face her. This time, he had a clear view of the girl he had seen in glimpses. Too clear. As he had feared, she didn't have a single stitch on as she sat up, the action doing distracting things to her breasts. Her buxom body was something many a woman would envy having, even if she was about his age. Brown eyes flecked with violet looked at him with concern and amusement, and her hair was beautiful brown waves…framing a very familiar face.

It wasn't quite the same face. It was too beautiful to be the same face, not exactly. And yet, it was so familiar, and Harry was almost certain that it was the same person.

Which meant that he had been sleeping in bed with a naked Hermione Granger, and Hermione had become more beautiful somehow. He'd heard of beauty sleep, but this was ridiculous.

Harry stammered, blushing furiously, and feeling aroused, despite himself. Given that his dorm-mates had smuggled in adult magazines on occasion, he wasn't unware of what a nude girl looked like. But it was still embarrassing, all the same. "Umm, we didn't…you didn't…"

She rolled her eyes. "No, we didn't do anything, beyond sleeping together in the most literal sense. A couple of my cousin's quirks rubbed off on me. But you were badly injured, and I used strong healing magic to heal your body. It requires full body contact to be effective, though. Hence…"

Harry blinked. "And in what book did you find that, Hermione?!" he yelped.

"No book," Hermione said, getting off the bed, and walking over to some clothes on a chair, donning some underwear. "Sorry. Amusing though it is to see you flounder around trying not to look at my body, I know it's making you uncomfortable. I think it's better that we both get dressed before I explain further." She indicated another chair, where some clothes for him were folded up.

Harry did so quickly. Soon, they were both dressed, and Hermione indicated for him to sit down in one of the chairs. After he had sat down, Hermione looked pensive. "I…don't honestly know where to begin. I've…been hiding things from you, Harry. Hiding things for a long time. I've tried to think about the best way to broach the subject with you, and I couldn't."

"Hermione…you're my friend," Harry said, noting her distress. He was a little annoyed at her admission that she had been keeping secrets from him, but her obvious distress at doing so helped him. "I…I trust you."

"I'm not sure you will after what I have to tell you," Hermione said quietly. "Maybe I should start with the basics. I'm not human. I never was." On Harry's blank stare, she gestured towards her body. "I made my body look less desirable rather deliberately. It was part of going undercover at Hogwarts. In truth, I know probably more about magic than even adult wizards and witches, though there are some that I don't know about. That's one of the reasons I accepted the Time Turner back in Third Year."

"If you're not human, then what are you?" Harry asked, dreading the answer.

"A Cambion," Hermione said. "In other words, my father was a Devil. And my mother was a Fallen Angel." Suddenly, two pairs of wings seemed to sprout from her back, both as black as pitch. One was like a pair of bat wings. The other pair was like those of a raven.

Harry stared blankly. Hermione Granger, one of his best friends, was part-Devil. He couldn't even begin to think of a response to that. Well, until he asked, "Are we in Hell?"

"No, no…this is a different place entirely. This is the Underworld. Think of it as another dimension where Devils and the Fallen reside. Besides, many of the more malicious Devils perished in a number of wars. You'd be surprised, but many Devils are very like humans, mentally. One of my cousins, for example, is the current ruler of the Underworld, holding the title of Lucifer. But Sirzechs is a really nice guy. If anything, we're more hedonistic than humans. That's not to say that there aren't Devils like those you hear about: there's far too many of those. But we're as varied as humans in terms of temperament. I am of the Bael clan, and, well, they didn't take too kindly to my father falling in love with a Fallen Angel. My cousin Sairorg was treated dismally because he didn't manifest our trademark power. Though my aunt Venelana was treated better because she managed to marry Zeoticus Gremory. Anyway, long story short, we don't do the whole 'souls in exchange for power' thing. At least not unless they have something really worth it in mind."

"Why are you telling me this?" Harry asked.

"Because I didn't want there to be any more secrets between us. And before you ask, yes, the God of the Bible is real. Angels are real. Centuries ago, there was a devastating series of wars between the forces of Heaven and the Underworld. Even now, the three factions who took part are in a tenuous stalemate, more of a ceasefire than an actual peace. Of course, there are other factions involved: other deities exist, like those of Norse or Greco-Roman or Hindu mythology. Or Shinto. In fact, Japan is of considerable interest to all factions for various reasons. Plus, another of my cousins, Rias Gremory, she's a total Japanophile. Sorry, I'm getting off-topic. The wars between Angels, Fallen or not, and the Devils, left our peoples depleted, and a civil war within the Underworld depleted it further. You see, many of the old guard of the Devils, including the original Lucifer, Leviathan, Beezlebub and Asmodeus families, wanted to continue the war, even if it meant the end of our kind. But other families wanted to just live in peace and avoid the extinction of our people. My cousin Sirzechs was one of those who led the 'New Satan' faction, and they won."

"A civil war? Like that Voldemort caused?" Harry asked.

"Yeah. The Old Satan faction were very much like the Purebloods under Voldemort," Hermione said. "Though even now, there's still similar attitudes amongst the Devils. My being a Cambion isn't viewed that well by many, and it's really only Sirzech's influence that protects my family. That, and the protection of Azazel. He's the leader of the Grigori, the main organisation of the Fallen. He's very like Sirius, Harry. While many Fallen would attack Devils on sight, Azazel is another matter. Plus, my mother has a couple of friends that are like honorary aunts of mine: Raynare and Mittelt. And again, I'm getting off-topic. Okay…well, you want to know what you're doing here, in my house, and why you needed to be healed."

Harry blinked. "I…don't remember what happened. But I think my uncle did something to me."

"He did." Hermione pulled a crinkled, blood-spattered paper out of her jeans pocket, and handed it to Harry. It showed a magic circle, elaborate and complex and arcane, with the words 'Make Your Dreams Come True' below it. "This is a summoning circle, which Devils hand out to humans. We grant them wishes in exchange for, say, items of value, or a small portion of their lifeforce. I prefer the former, obviously. I actually had one of my familiars handing these out in Little Whinging while keeping an eye on the Dursleys. Vernon took one of them. To summon a Devil, you just think hard on your desire while using it. But Vernon also thought to be rid of you. He took you into the basement while you were unconscious, and stabbed you through the heart. The sigil activates when blood is spilled on it to, for reasons I will go into. When I came before him, he was, understandably, surprised. You see, he wanted magic for himself and his family in exchange for your life. He is being dealt with, along with your aunt and cousin. The neighbours think they've gone on holiday."

"Hang on a moment," Harry said, opening his shirt and touching his chest. "You said he stabbed me through the heart. But…I'm alive."

"Yes. And this is probably the part you'll hate me for," Hermione said quietly. She plucked a box from seemingly out of thin air, and opened it, showing a number of chess pieces within, all pawns, and all glowing red. "Evil Pieces," she explained. "The Underworld is obsessed with chess, and to replenish our numbers after the wars, we developed this. We recruit other beings, humans, Fallen, magical beings, and so on, to become part of what is known as a Peerage. When we merge these chess pieces with a being, they become a Devil. They can even resurrect the newly-dead. Too long dead, and they remain dead. So you were lucky that I managed to save you in time."

"Are you saying…?" Harry began, a chill running down his spine.

Hermione nodded solemnly. "Yes. You're a Devil now, Harry. You're now the Queen of my Peerage…"

CHAPTER 1 ANNOTATIONS:

Well, there's a turn-up for the books. Hermione is a Cambion. And yes, I know that's technically a part-human, part-Devil. But I wanted to use Nephilim for half-Fallen, half-humans, despite it being used for half-Angel, half-Devils in DMC: Devil May Cry.

Followers of my previous work will note a lot that was copied and pasted from Sympathy for the Devil. Hey, recycle what you can, right?

Incidentally, this takes place in Year 5, but with the ages of the characters from the Potterverse shifted up a year, so students are 12 when they start at Hogwarts. It's also ten years ahead of canon, so instead of 1995, this story takes place in 2005.

No numbered annotations this time.