The Prime Princess

“This is the best day of my life,” said Hermione and looked around in the Great Hall. “I’m a Head Girl and Granger is thrown out of Hogwarts! I’m so happy!”

Draco only huffed. Well, he was happy for her and all but in the inside he wasn’t so happy. His father was at school to look after Hermione. Now that really pissed him off. Hermione didn’t need babysitting anymore after that Mudblood was taken care off.

“She might come back,” said Blaise and munched on his salad, “She only got 30 days.”

“But still. I’m free!” said Hermione and then turned serious, “And I’ve got NEWTs coming. Bugger.”

Blaise grinned and stole a carrot from Hermione’s plate.
***
Lucius waltzed besides Snape. He was rather delighted after hearing what had happened to Carmen Granger. Little Weasley was also out of the picture that gave him quite a material to rub under Arthur’s nose. And he practically got to rule over the school after the governors had heard what was going on there. Dumbledore of course was not very happy but had to accept that or otherwise school would have lost its funds.

“Have you talked to her yet?” asked Lucius and walked out of the grand doors to take a stroll on the green grounds.

“On what subject? At classes…” started Snape carefully beating around the bush. Lucius watched him in disbelief.

“On us!”

“Oh,” said Snape dumbly, “Well, no.”

“Ah, I thought so. Then I have to do it myself.”

“Lucius, don’t you think we should wait. She has gone through a lot lately and I don’t want to…”

“Oh, she needs rattling, that’s what to come to her senses,” said Lucius and looked at gnomes hiding in the bushes and Professor Sprout teaching younger students how to get rid of them. Snape thought better to shut up.

“She needs to see the real world. Remember when she had woken up in the Hospital Wing? She had cried. I had been there to hold her and she had said that she no longer knew whom she loved and if she had ever loved. She had doubted in her feelings. Severus, she doubted in Draco and that Italian boy! Do you know what that means?” asked Lucius excitedly. Snape only rolled his black eyes.

“What then?”

“That we have a chance here!”

Oh, dear Merlin, he’s grasping straws, thought Snape. He tries so hard to find a way to get her back in an honest way. If it were me, I’d probably use some potion but even I’m not that retched.

“Oh, that’s lovely,” said Snape and watched Professor Sprout doing a spectacular job on the gnomes.
***
Harry, Ron, Hermione, Draco and Blaise sat on the stands of the Quidditch pitch and talked. More like argued. Actually Harry and Draco were yelling at each other over the incident of Carmen and Ginny.

“You could have protected them!” shouted Harry.

“They were practicing dark arts!” retorted Draco.

“That has not been proven yet!”

“Well, be happy then. If it had been proven, then they’d be in Azkaban by now!” yelled Draco. And this went on for quite a while. Ron, Blaise and Hermione just looked at the show and went on with studying for NEWTs.

“Hermione,” said Ron and looked at her, blushing.

“Yes?”

“Is it possible that other people can also look just like you?” he asked but his question didn’t make any sense.

“What are you talking about?”

Ron pointed his finger at three figures stepping up on the stands. They wore cloaks but the hoods didn’t hide their faces. They really looked like different versions of Hermione. Perhaps a bit older versions. Blaise looked up from his notes and stared at the strangers approaching.

“Oh no,” growled Blaise instinctively.
***
Lucius and Snape had finally reached to the Quidditch pitch where his own fame had started. He remembered what it was to be in the team. He had been a Prefect and finally also a Head Boy, just like his son. He had been driven by power…

He and Snape had been friends from the start. And then there had been a certain griffindor with red hair and emerald eyes. A Mudblood. Snape had been so obsessed over her but Lucius had made sure that Mudbloods were worth nothing and he had been right – damn filthy slut had soon chosen new friends.

Suddenly he noticed a small group of people on the stands. He recognized some of them. Something strange was in the air; he felt the electricity and waves of magic brushing past him.

“What is going on?” asked Lucius.

“They are leaving,” said Snape quietly.

“What? To where?” demanded Lucius and got angry.

“Away.”

“They are not taking her,” hissed Lucius and rushed towards the stands with his wand aiming at the backs of black cloaks. Snape ran after him.
***
Purple lightning strung out of the Portal Platform and created a vortex that throw up loads of passengers. It was a mess of legs and hands writhing around bodies. Technicians looked at them and then started to help them up.

“Who the hell…” started Saga when she got free and looked at Lucius who was dumbstruck. He stared at Saga who looked just like Hermione.

“You shouldn’t be here,” said Saga but stared back. Hermione stood behind Saga and looked at the two of them.

“Hey, are we gonna stay here forever?” snipped Hermione. Branwen grinned and showed her sharp teeth as she guided them away from there. Hel followed them with boys. Potion Master was in their tail but kept looking over his shoulder at Lucius and Saga.

Lucius started to get over the shock.

“What… Who are you?” asked Lucius carefully. Saga sighed.

“I’m Saga of Asgard,” she said.

“But you look like…”

“Yes and no. I’ll explain it later but now I have to put you away before…” but she was too late. General Lucianus paraded in and looked around. And then he noticed his wife with some blond man. Sort of familiar man.

“Hello, you’re already back,” he said gingerly and kissed his wife, giving the stranger a clear sign that Saga was his. After releasing her, General looked at Lucius and grinned.

“Ah, another twin. Where is he from?” asked General and inspected Lucius who looked at his replica. He had fallen back into the shock.

“Midgard,” said Saga.
***
Branwen and Hel had found unoccupied compartment for all the passengers they had brought back. Most of them took it quite casually but two of them were confused and terrified. Harry had some idea about this before but still he was as stunned as Ron.

“What is happening?” asked Snape.

“I guess you could call it the Last Battle,” said Branwen with a grin. Her long white hair cascaded over her shoulders, making her look very attractive but poisonous. She was a Wraith Walker after all and nothing could change that.

“Everyone is going to die,” said Hel morbidly from her black misty cloud she had pulled around herself.

“What? No!” yelped Hermione and started to think. She had finally gotten her Switchers work together and trust each other but was she ready. She had to be. Billions of lives were counting on her.

“So, it’s starting again?” asked Draco grumpily.

“It’s gone on like this forever. It has never stopped,” corrected Hel.

“What do you want us to do?” asked Hermione suddenly. Branwen stopped grinning, which was a bad sign.

“We want you to die,” said Hel in her ragged voice. The mist faded away and for a moment everyone saw her drained face that had seen death in every second of her life.

Hermione, Draco and Blaise tried to understand the meaning of her words but failed miserably. Harry and Ron were speechless but Snape was ready to ask something.

“You expect them to do what?”

“We expect them to die,” confirmed Hel.