The Prime Princess

Half an hour had passed when Bill Weasley finally sat next to Hermione and hung his head between his hands. He had done everything but still it wasn’t enough.

“In spite of everything you have a strange curse upon you that I can’t break. I just don’t know how,” Bill admitted and turned to look at Hermione who was staring her hands. A symbol of three rings glowed inside her palm just under the skin.

“It’s so complex and far-reaching that it would enquire several curse breakers if they’d only know what it was,” said Bill with a sigh.

“I see,” told Hermione and stood up. “I need to go to the hospital.”

“What?!” came from Harry and Ron who had eavesdropped the conversation behind Mrs. Weasley’s back. Pansy only rolled her eyes and stepped in front of Hermione.

“Why? Do you not feel alright?” she asked tenderly.

“I need to see him,” whispered Hermione and Pansy suddenly understood. She nodded and turned around.

“If this is okay then we’d like to visit an old friend in St. Mungo. It’s Christmas after all,” said Pansy with a broad smile and helped Hermione to stood up.

“We are coming with you!” blurted Ron and blushed when everyone stared at him, “Zabini… and Malfoy also,” he added quietly.
***
Hospital was decorated in Christmas spirit and little charmed angles were singing merry songs to everyone who were walking in corridors. Hermione and Pansy were marching in front, griffindors followed them and in the tale came Blaise and Draco.

“Here we are, Room 113,” announced Pansy and pushed the door open to let Hermione in. Boys stared the door held open for them and declined.

Pansy huffed at them and went inside after Hermione.

The room was dimly lighted but Hermione spotted the white hair almost immediately shining in the dark. Pansy stood guard besides the door and turned her eyes away from Hermione who was advancing the bed next to the window. She sat on the edge of the mattress and leaned over the sleeping wizard.

“Lucius?” whispered Hermione, trying to hold back the tears. One icy gray eye opened and softened when he recognized her.

“Mione?” groaned Lucius and his shaking arm rose to touch her to make sure she was real.

“Mione!” Lucius grabbed around her and crushed her to his chest, breathing in her spicy scent. She just let him to hug her to suffocation. Nothing was more important to see him happy.

“Are you okay?” she managed to ask but Lucius still smothered her. Finally she ripped herself free and stared his content face. He was high, that’s for sure.

“Where were you? What they did to you? No matter, you are here now,” he said and kissed her hungrily. Hermione tasted the potions on his lips and swallowed a grown as she thought of the damage Draco had caused.

“I love you so much,” purred Lucius and she smiled, wanting to say the same but she wasn’t sure about that anymore. She needed some time to sort out her feelings.

“Me too,” she said instead and brushed a kiss over his forehead.
***
There was a little cafeteria in one wing of St. Mungo. It was nothing fancy but did serve the best buns in the world. Hermione, Pansy, Blaise, Harry, Ron and Draco sat around one table and ate some sugar cones with strong coffee.

Hermione was feeling much better when she had seen Lucius was getting better. She had been so happy that she had accidentally run into a patient whose name she didn’t know but Neville was with him. And to apologize, she had shook his hand, feeling so high above the sky that she didn’t even realize that Neville had started to cry. And the next moment he was hugging her and saying how much that meant for him.

“Anyway,” started Harry and then shut up when Neville came to their table dancing while walking. His face was tearstained but he looked so cheerful that Pansy waited him to explode.

“Um, Hermione,” he said, getting cautious as all four slytherins ogled him like he had totally gone crackers.

“I just wanted to say… um, to say thank you!” he said and let tears roll down his face again.

“What did I do?”

“You somehow cured his father,” whispered Pansy to her ear and congratulated her on the miracle.

“Oh? I see. Well then, welcome,” she said and smiled to Neville who took off running to his parents waiting for him on the door of the cafeteria. Hermione looked them leave and sighed. Harry coughed to get the attention.

“Before all this,” he waved his hand to give the some measure to all the events, “I came upon something.”

“What? Discovered that Ginny wasn’t really a virgin?” asked Pansy and laughed. Ron turned red but held his anger from blowing up.

“Er,” Harry stared at Pansy, “Well, there is that. But what I meant to say, is that I finally understood the concept of Hermione not being the Reaper.”

Pansy stared back at Harry. She had no clue what the scarhead was babbling about.

“Since when Hermione was ever a reaper?” asked Pansy.

“That’s the point! She never was a Reaper!” exclaimed Harry triumphantly. Silence took over the table as no one else there was sure what he was talking except for Ron who had a slight idea.

“But I am a Reaper,” whispered Hermione, “I take lives to take lives of the enemy.”

“Yes, but then you didn’t know,” said Harry and leaned back on his chair, “Switcher. Actually two Switchers to be exact.”

“Excuse me?”

“Zabini and Malfoy. They are Switchers. They can divert the incoming power you draw from innocents to come from the enemy itself. Meaning, you’d be sucking the life out of Ancients before you kill them with the final blow!”

Hermione just gawked at him. She had nothing to say. Her mind was totally blank but then some guilty thoughts started to drift out. She no longer needed to kill millions and millions of people to get rid of Ancients. A Hiveship full of life was no longer necessary.

“How can you be sure?” she asked quietly, thinking of the possibilities how to kill an Ancient.

“Remember Cu Siths? The train?” asked Blaise, “We were there and somehow we managed to get your attention from feeding from poor passengers to Mirkhounds themselves.”

“And back then we had a connection between us. I don’t know if because of Marks or something else, but we have blocked each other out,” grumbled Draco who had been quiet for the whole time.

“Because we couldn’t trust each other anymore,” said Hermione coldly and looked at Draco who felt awful enough. But he didn’t move. Hermione looked harder. He didn’t even breathe! She looked at others and discovered that the whole scene had frozen to still.

“What the heck?”

Hermione turned around and noticed that everyone in the cafeteria had frozen. She was about to unfreeze them when she heard Time Walker’s voice.

“Reaper, I’m sorry for this to take so long. Elohim has finally gathered all the volunteers you requested,” said Saga as she navigated around the frozen people to get to her.

Hermione just stared at her and mulled over what Harry had just said.

“I no longer need them,” she said quietly but her voice seemed to echo louder than she had expected.

“No longer need them?!”

“You are the All-Seeing-Saga, why didn’t you see that I didn’t need them?” asked Hermione bitterly and hated Saga for not seeing the future. She could have saved her from having guilty conscience.

“You are the Reaper and-”

“No, never was a Reaper. I never was a Walker. I don’t even belong to this world!” she cried out and suddenly she remembered the lightning hitting her on the lakeshore. She had died there… No, the other one had died… And then she had wakened up alive.

“I don’t belong here… The curse Weasley couldn’t break…”

“What the Hell are you talking about?” demanded Saga and stared at her. Hermione looked up with big brown eyes.

“I’m not Hermione Ariston.”