The Prime Princess

Draco marched through the deep snow and blizzard to get to the Vervain castle up on the knoll top. Harry and Hermione followed him with raised wands.

“Stupid Mudblood, Master wouldn’t hear you,” hissed Draco and shuddered in cold but was glad that his hair was back to its natural color.

“We’ll just see,” muttered Hermione and huffed. She was thinking of what had gone so wrong to throw her out of the other reality. Perhaps she had not been so strong as everyone thought. No, that was not it… Something more was there then mere strength. What was she missing?

“Malfoy,” she suddenly addressed to him and rushed to his side, “What if I had been Ariston from the start?”

Draco only stared at her like she had lost all her marbles and started to laugh.

“You? And Ariston! All the way?! Ha!” sneered Draco and cackled for the rest of the way up to the castle. Scrambling up the stairs, two house-elves appeared before them. Sashu and Mushu.

“Master does not want to be disturbed,” said Sashu and together the house-elves stood in their way.

“Master needs his rest,” said Mushu and pointed his finger at the intruders in very threatening way.

“Oh, he can have his beauty-sleep when I’m done with him,” growled Hermione but then she felt sorry for the poor creatures. They served Balthazar, the 7th, who was not a kind wizard as he had once been. All that had changed. Loosing a heart can do that to a person.

“Mister Potter and Miss Granger should rest too,” said Sashu and that sounded too menacing. Then the house-elf looked at Draco.

“And Mister Malfoy has not finished his assignment,” house-elf pointed out, “Master will not be pleased.”

Harry got enough of that power play and inched his wand just a little bit to the right form Draco and shot a stupefying spell on both house-elves. Hermione looked at him with a slightly worried face but then smiled broadly.

“That was brilliant!” she squealed and shoved Draco up the stairs and into the castle.
***
Vervain was huge from the inside. It seemed to go miles and miles in any direction. And it was also cold.

“Malfoy, where is Balthazar?” demanded Hermione as she started to wish for a map.

“Not gonna tell ya!” smirked Draco and got smacked pretty hard by Harry who had managed to push him onto the parquet and started to choke him.

“I am a desperate woman,” hissed Hermione, “And you don’t mess with one.”

“Where is Balthazar?” asked Harry before he smashed his fist into his face.

“I won’t tell!” howled Draco and grabbed at his bleeding nose, trying to twist back the broken bones.

“You will,” smirked Harry and got himself ready for another punch. Hermione watched his best friend torturing their nemesis from school years. It looked childish and then it suddenly resembled to Draco himself with his goons doing the dirty work. She was just like Malfoy and Harry her loyal bullterrier.

“Stop it!” she screamed over the yells and shouting, “Harry, stop it,” she sighed and stepped closer to pull Harry off of Draco.

“I’m sorry,” apologized Hermione to Draco and Harry were about to smack her too for that, “In the search of finding myself I have turned into real myself. I doubt you’d ever understand it but I have no choice. Legilimens!”

Darkness covered her eyes. She didn’t see anything but endless abyss and inside the gloom there was a figure moving closer to her. A pair of shining eyes looked directly through her. A candelabrum lighted itself and showed some warm light on him. Candle after candle the room was lit and before her stood Master Balthazar.

“Why have you interrupted my rest?” he asked and Hermione shook her head to get out of Draco’s mind and into the reality where the Master looked even more sinister.

“I… uh,” muttered Hermione.

“Mister Trotter,” he said and looked at Harry who gritted his teeth.

“Potter,” Harry hissed. Draco smirked and wiped his bloody nose with his sleeve.

“And you must be Ermine Cringer,” he added and didn’t even care to look at her. “What have you done to my help?”

“Er…” she still had trouble with words. Master Balthazar looked more evil than tales described him. He was agelessly handsome, slick and dark but the eyes betrayed him. Shining pale blue, almost white. Full of pure darkness.

“I uh…” tried Hermione but was weak.

“Malfoy, show them back to the guesthouse,” snapped Master Balthazar and turned around. Draco grabbed at ogling Hermione and pushing her in front of him, he stole back his wand and started to escort griffindors out of the castle.

“Master!” came a cry from the front door. Harry was first to set his eyes on ragged Connor who rushed into Entrance Hall and fell on his knees.

Master Balthazar turned around in a flash and glared at his servant slouching on the cold floor. He stuck his elegant nose up high and walked to Connor who was mumbling something.

“Who did this?” he inquired coldly and Connor pointed at Hermione.

“That girl, she’s the one to blame,” said Connor in shaky voice and bowed before his Master.

“The girl?” he whispered almost as if he were surprised and turned to look at Hermione. “Just a spell. That doesn’t prove anything.”

“She took the blood test!” protested Harry.

“Did she?”

“Yes,” answered Draco when his Master looked at him, “It showed the crest of Balthazar’s Cross.”

“Ah,” said Master, “She probably used someone else’s blood.”

“No! I am the lost Ariston!” screamed Hermione, “Grangers kidnapped me to get ransom but the plan went down the drain! They lost their own unborn child and decided to substitute it with me!”

Master Balthazar stared long and hard at her but nothing in his attire changed.

“You don’t look like Ariston,” he said.

“Of course I don’t! Grangers never fed me with beauty potions or stuff like that when I grew up!”

“It’s enough. I no longer want to see you or other impersonators of little Ariadne, the most holy child ever born in Ariston line!”

Draco hearing the cue, started to shove them again towards the door.

“Do you wanna know why I… Ariadne was so holy?” yelled Hermione and struggled with Draco, “She is the Reaper amongst Walkers!”

That got the attention of the Master.

“What did you say?” he asked quietly and slowly glided to her side, his pale blue eyes shining in the candlelight.

“In every Ariston line, in every alternative reality, in every parallel universe there is a Walker destined to fight with Ancients,” Hermione summed it up, “And Ariadne is one of them.”

“How do you know this?” hissed Master Balthazar.

“Sometimes in our sleep we see visions of our other lives in other realities. And sometimes we experience déjà vu when two very closely similar realities come so close to cross right through each other. That is the nanosecond you sense the other reality you have created by choosing one option of many to solve a situation. I know at least 60 alternative realities and 9 parallel universes where all the lost Ariston heirs have become Walkers or Rangers. It’s their call to be the best. To be a hero. To save the world.”

“And what do you want from me?”

“To get the attention of the world. To come back as Ariston and go back to the battlefield as Reaper and rid the world from Ancients,” said Hermione.

Harry stared at her. Was that really her plan? What kind of a plan was that?!

“And how exactly…”

“Saga will find me from here. She’ll take me back,” she said to Harry and suddenly one thing made sense to her. It had happened before. Hermione Granger had died in hospital in the same time as she had in battle. Her soul had taken over the vacant body and woken up.

“How can you be sure?”

“I have died so many times,” whispered Hermione and yanked her hand free from Draco’s grip and looked at her palm were the incision had already healed but left something glowing under the skin.

“The Mark. Saga can ‘see’ the Mark from any universe,” she said louder and raised her hand for everyone to see. The glowing symbol shivered a bit and then took the shape of Balthazar’s Cross.

“Forever fighting for freedom with passion,” said Hermione and Master Balthazar together.

“Let them go,” he said sternly to Draco and went to Connor. He cast a spell on him and turned him into a wolf again. Draco huffed and pushed Hermione away from him. Black wolf circled around his Master and licked his fingers when he took in the position next to him.

“Go and rest. Tomorrow you have to convince your ‘parents’,” he said walked out of the foyer with the wolf in his tail.

“Okay! That went well,” cheered Harry and was about to leave when Draco stepped in front of him.

“Don’t think you have won. This isn’t over. She is and will be a Mudblood,” sneered Draco in his face. A punch knocked the wind out of him. This time it was Hermione.

“And you are and will be a spoiled brat,” retorted Hermione and walked out with Harry.