Elemental Love

Any character or place that you recognize belongs to J K Rowling

PROLOGUE

Hermione Granger stared forlornly at the grave of her familiar. Crookshanks had gotten sick all of a sudden and died. She felt empty. She needed to find a new familiar to replace her beloved pet. She sighed and returned to her room. She looked through her picture book. Harry had given it to her at Christmas. It was a record of everything they had done together. She hadn’t even known that most of the pictures had been taken. Harry had explained that he had found out that Colin Creevey had been sort of stalking them so Harry had explained to the boy that he would hex him or he could hand over the pictures. Hermione had laughed at that. She felt lonely. Neither of her friends had written to her lately. She missed them terribly and looking at pictures of them didn’t help. She slammed the book shut and lay back on her bed.

“Hermione dear there’s someone here to see you.” Her mother sounded slightly worried. Hermione hurried downstairs to find her mother and father sitting on a couch across from the most stunning woman she had ever seen. She looked to be about twenty three years old and had flawless skin that seemed to glow. Her hair was blond and hung in waves down to her waist. She was tall and thin and all in all had looks any woman would die for. Hermione had never seen her. She opened her mouth to ask what was going on and then felt slightly faint. A moment later she collapsed on the floor sound asleep.

“You see Jane. I told you. I’m going to take her back to Oronte with me. I’ll bring her to see you again when she has trained.” The woman said. Jane Granger huffed.

“Fine; just promise to take good care of her.” The woman nodded and, picking up the unconscious girl disappeared in an instant.



CHAPTER ONE

Hermione awoke slowly and looked around her room. It was lovely. The floor was carpeted in a soft silver. The bed she was lying in had sheets of silk in the same color as the carpet and a canopy about six feet above her head. There was a wardrobe in one corner of the room and a desk in another. She had no idea where she was or how she had gotten there and that made her nervous. She leapt out of bed and, finding that she was clad only in a thin silver nightgown, hastened over to the wardrobe.

The wardrobe was full of old fashioned dresses. Hermione pulled one out and looked at it. It too was silver and would hang right down to her toes, the top was tight but the bottom was loose. A black ribbon hung around the waist. Since that was about the only thing available Hermione slipped it on. The only shoes in the wardrobe were old fashioned hunting boots made of leather that hugged her legs. The bottom was thick to protect her feet but the rest of it was thin and flexible. What kind of place was this? She wondered.

Cautiously, because she was unaware of where she might be, Hermione set out to explore the house. The rest of the house looked like a large cottage. Eventually she heard singing and followed it on silent feet. When she saw who was singing her memories came back. It was the woman who had been in the living room with her parents when she passed out.

“Where am I?” Hermione asked. The woman turned on her heel not looking remotely surprised that she was there.

“Well hello sleeping beauty. You are in the waking cottage of Oronte.”

“Ooookay. Who are you?”

“Oh excuse me for not introducing myself. I am Ilma. I’m your grandmother on your mother’s side.”

“WHAT?! Wait, you can’t be my grandmother. You can’t be more than twenty three.”

“Actually I’m seventy eight.”

“That’s impossible.”

“I think my dear that you need to listen and not question; but first I think some breakfast is in order. You have been asleep for a week and you must be famished.”

“A WEEK?!”

“Stop asking questions and eat that.” Ilma said, placing a plate of pancakes in front of her. As Hermione began to eat Ilma began to talk. “First I suppose I should tell you a tiny bit about where you are and why you have never seen me before now. Oronte is mainly comprised of forest and meadow. No muggle has ever set eyes on it.”

“But I’m muggle born. I thought none of my relatives were wizards.”

“Stop interrupting. I am not a witch and before you ask what I am I will tell you. I am an elf and so are you.” Hermione scoffed.

“Me? An elf? Yeah right.”

“If you doubt it then reach up and feel your ears.” Doubtfully Hermione reached up and touched her ears. She let out a tiny squeak as she found that they now tapered to a point at the top. “Now that we have that confirmed I will tell you why you are here. There are many elves but nearly all of them live in Oronte. Elf families work strangely. Every other generation has the blood. The Granger family is one of those families. So I, as your grandmother, have the blood. Your mother did not and now you do. An elf comes into her own between the ages of seventeen and nineteen so it is remarkable that a sixteen year old is coming into her gifts so early. Never the less, I felt that you were ready and came to fetch you. Now, when an elf is ready to come into her own she falls into a deep sleep and undergoes a change. They become more graceful and beautiful. The longer they are asleep the more beautiful they become. You, my dear, have stayed asleep the longest of any elf I have ever known and you are stunning. You will not be allowed to see the change that has come over you until I have taught you the things you need to know. You are not even allowed to see your hair which I have wrapped in a ribbon. After you change you stop aging for a while. Every ten years your looks age one year. You can grow as old in looks as a human can and die when you look old enough but you will live for many hundreds of years.” Hermione listened to all this raptly but she still had some questions.

“What are the things that you are going to teach me?”

“I will teach you wandless magic, hand to hand combat, and how to play the Varya and speak the elven language. The most important thing an elf learns is elemental magic. It is one of our gifts to be able to manipulate the elements. It isn’t easy but don’t worry. It won’t take too long. Elves learn fast. If you are ready we can start this afternoon. The sooner you finish the sooner you can see yourself and return to your parents.” Hermione sighed. Of all people this had to happen to her.

“Alright we can start this afternoon.”

And start they did. That afternoon Hermione began the difficult task of learning hand to hand combat. As the days passed her days took on a routine. Every morning she would eat breakfast with Ilma, then she would work on wandless magic, then hand to hand combat, and in the evening she would learn how to play the Varya and speak elvish.

The Varya was like a small, delicate harp. The strings were hard and at first they cut Hermione’s fingers horribly but after a while she developed calluses and the playing got easier. The first night Hermione could not fall asleep, in fact she did not feel the least bit tired. When she asked Ilma about this she explained that elves only needed to sleep about once a month for about two days. This sleep was called the Loralya sleep. So Hermione had to find something to do during the night. She discovered that she very much liked writing songs although they were never something she would want to share with anyone.

Three weeks after Hermione arrived at the waking house Ilma announced that she had taught her all that she could and Hermione realized that she was right the same moment that she realized that they were talking in the elven language and she understood every word.

“There will be a ceremony in the woods tonight to make it official but until then go outside and explore but be wary of where you go. I have told you that you can communicate with animals and if you do not control yourself you will hear everything and it will overwhelm you.” Hermione nodded. She was excited to get to explore Oronte. She hadn’t gotten to go more than a hundred feet from the house at a time although she was never told why.

Oronte was the most beautiful place Hermione had ever seen. It wasn’t too hot or too cold but just warm enough that the slight breeze that blew often was welcome. Everything was green except for the abundance of wildflowers that grew everywhere. Eventually she wandered into the forest. She opened her ears slightly and listened to some animals but there wasn’t anything particularly interesting going on.

As she walked Hermione slowly realized that there were tree houses hidden up among the branches of the trees. They were so well hidden that only someone with sharp eyes or someone who was looking for them would have noticed them at all. Hermione was sorely tempted to climb up to one to get a better look but thought better of it. She didn’t want to intrude on someone else’s property.
A snake slithered across her path. It was a beautiful creature and unlike any snake Hermione had ever heard of. It was silver with a thin black stripe wrapped in spirals around it. It was about as long as her arm and as thick as a large rope. It looked up at her with intelligent eyes and Hermione opened her ears.

“You are a new one. What isss your name?” It asked curiously.

“Hermione Granger. What’s yours?” she replied using the elven language that every creature except humans understood.

“Slizor.”

“What kind of snake are you?”

“I am one of a kind. What you would call a familiar.”

“Who’s familiar are you?”

“I am no one’sss. There are many sssuch creaturesss in the wood. When an elf undergoesss the change he or she mussst find a new familiar. I have not been picked.” Hermione felt sorry for the snake.

“You can be my familiar Slizor.” Slizor slithered up her arm and hung himself around her neck.

“It would give me great pleasssure Mistresss.”

With her new familiar wrapped around her neck Hermione wandered on until she came across an old elf. He was the only other elf apart from Ilma that she had ever seen. He approached her and bowed.

“Miss Granger I was sent to guide you to the place where your ceremony will take place.”

Hermione just nodded and followed him. He led her to a large clearing. In the center was a large silver fire. The edges of the flames were black. The whole clearing was full of elves; young elves, old elves, elves somewhere in between. Ilma approached Hermione.

“My dear it is time I told you the whole truth. Not only are you an elf, you are elven royalty. When my aging reaches thirty you must take over the throne.” For a moment Hermione was just numb but then she grew angry.

“And you didn’t see fit to tell me this beforehand?!” Slizor hissed in her ear.

“Calm yourself Mistress. Even elves can have bad judgement sometimes.” Hermione calmed herself.

“Is that your new familiar Hermione?” Ilma asked, avoiding answering the question.

“Yes. His name is Slizor.” Ilma nodded.

The ceremony did not take long. They made her say an oath to always protect those in need and never use her powers for evil. They unbound her hair and placed a circlet of silver on her head. Lastly they brought out a large, ornate mirror and held it up. Hermione tried to find herself among the mass of elves but could not. She scratched her head, puzzled. One of the elves in the mirror did the same. Hermione tilted her head from side to side. The same elf copied her. She gasped. She didn’t look anything like herself. She hadn’t just changed she had transformed. She was tall and slender but with curves. Her hair was glowing silver with one jet black streak at the very front and hung in loose curls down to her waist. Her skin was pale and seemed to glow. She was beyond beautiful. Hermione fought down the insane urge to laugh. It was so ironic that she, the only person who couldn’t care less, would get the looks any girl would die for.

A/N Please review but only give suggestions and compliments. I recently got a comment in one of my stories that said i was a horrible author and shouldn't be allowed to write and let me tell you it didn't make me feel good. Anyway, new chapter up very soon. Reviews keep me going. Love yall. Bye