Harry Potter & The Other Realm

Chapter Two

Warlocks & Wizards

"What was that about?" Ron Weasley asked, as he and Harry climbed through the portrait hole, into the Gryffindor Common Room.

Harry Potter shrugged, avoiding a group of excitable first years to approach the round table in the window-box, where their friend was seated, a huge pile of books mounted up around her. "All right, Hermione?"

They both started to pull out their chairs, which had been dubbed their official seats, as the place where the famous Gryffindor Trio would congregate, when they weren´t at class or otherwise.

Even the first years had been warned not to go near the chairs by the years spread between them and the Sixth Year trio. Rumours abounded about what would happen if one of the trio arrived to find their chair being sat in.

Most of the awe-struck first years - for the most part - subscribed to the oddly-popular theory that Hermione would place some rather unpleasant spells on them and Ron and Harry would haul them off into the Dark Forest, at night no less, and leave them there, in a fit of rabid rule-breaking.

None of the trio had a clue about the legend surrounding their possessiveness of their little corner.

Their studious friend raised her head, her hair as bushy as ever, her forehead creased in a very obvious frown as she looked from one face to the other. "Where have you two been?" she asked. "Your class finished ages ago!"

"Would you believe we actually went to the library?" A sceptical look crossed the young witch´s face and Ron smugly deposited an immense pile of books on the table in front of her. "See."

Studying them, Hermione sniffed. "Makes a change," She turned her gaze up to the two boys, her brows beetling in puzzlement. "Is something the matter? You both look like you´re thinking about something..."

"You make it sound like a rare occurrence," Harry remarked.

"Why do you think I commented on it?" Hermione countered.

The pair of boys exchanged looks again. "All right. We were on our way back from the library and a girl ran up from the potions labs," Harry explained quickly, his voice low. "She was wearing muggle clothes and looked a bit lost."

"She didn´t know she was in Britain," Ron added.

"A muggle?"

Harry shook his head. "I don´t think so."

"But she was barking mad!" Ron´s voice overlapped Harry´s. "Said something about going into a linen cupboard to get homework and ending up in the potions cupboard, then Snape showed up and she scarpered," He paused, then added. "At least she had the right idea there."

He didn´t notice the wide-eyed look on Hermione´s face. A delighted grin spread on her lips and she immediately starting scanning the pile of books around her. "This is absolutely fascinating!"

"Er...what is, Hermione?" Harry asked.

"Oh no...it can´t have been that..." Hermione shook her head, talking to herself. "It would be impossible..." She reached into her pile of books and expertly negotiated one of the bottom ones out of a pile.

"What is it, Hermione?"

"I don´t think she was mad," the girl answered, flipping rapidly through pages of her books. She came to a stop at a chapter and turned the book so both boys could see it. A large picture of the globe appeared, different colours marked here and there on it. "I think she must be from outside the international convention."

The expressions on Ron and Harry´s faces suggested that they had no clue what she was talking about.

The expression on her face suggested she wasn´t at all unfamiliar with this reaction.

"Look, you know there´s a Ministry of Magic, don´t you?"

"We´re not thick, y´know," Ron put in, sounding a little cross. "Hello? Dad and brother work for it?"

Hermione gave him a look and he snapped his mouth shut. "Well, some countries have members for the global Ministry, like we do. They´re the blue spots there," She pointed to the European areas and much of Africa and Asia. Her finger moved to the deep ruby patch that was North America. "Do you notice something?"

"You´ve got nail varnish on?"

"I meant with the book, Ron."

Ron blushed beetroot, turning his eyes to the book. "Um..."

"Why is America red?" Harry studied the map. "And what are those purple spots?"

Hermione smiled, clearly proud that he had realised what she was pointing out in the book. "Like I said, some countries have members in the global Ministry. The purple sections are neutral areas, where magic is counted as part of the nature of the country, like Ireland and Scotland - a lot of the Celtic nations are automatically considered magical in some way."

"But why is that America...thing red?"

Giving Ron a patient look, Hermione returned her attention to the map, tapping the red patch. "America is one of the ones who had to be different. In the Americans´ case, they have the Other Realm, which means that an entire realm of Witchcraft and Magic exists on an entirely different plane."

"A different plane of existence?" Harry shook his head in disbelief. "That´s mad!"

Hermione nodded enthusiastically. "But it´s still there." She said, turning the hefty book back around and studying the page. "It says here that usually, only witches and warlocks can enter, although I have heard there are exceptions."

"Uh...warlock? Is that just a different word for wizard?"

"Practically," Hermione nodded, continuing eagerly. "The thing is that some of these witches and wizards... they´re not regular people. Most of them aren´t even partially human, although they looked and act it. They can live for thousands of years."

"Thousands?" Ron gulped. "And I was thinking that Dumbledore was old and he´s not even two hundred..."

"And they don´t use wands," Hermione´s face was aglow with excitement.

Harry and Ron exchanged knowing looks. They had only see her with the giddy flush in her cheeks on occasions when she had overcome something that had been puzzling her or gained excellent grades in tests.

Clearly, she had been dying to tell them about this...Other Realm and had just been awaiting her chance.

"So, what do they use if they don´t use wands, Hermione?" Ron leaned back in his seat, making a gesture for her to continue. "Their fingers?"

The witch´s face fell. "Oh...you read about it."

"You what?"

"They...do use their fingers," she said. "They point at whatever they want to do magic to, then do it."

"How?" Harry demanded.

Hermione opened her mouth to reply, then closed it quickly, looking puzzled. "I-I can´t actually be certain at the moment," she said. "But I´m sure there are probably some books in the library about it...it really is an awfully interesting subject." She had regained the glow. "I hope I get a chance to meet her! I think it would be fascinating to see her doing magic and to ask about the Other Realm."

"If she gets away from Snape," Ron put in.

"But how would someone from that Other Realm thing end up in Hogwarts in the first place?" Harry asked, scratching his head, looking very confused. "Wouldn´t someone here have to be connected up to the Other Realm?"

"That´s usually the prerequisite," Hermione was flicking through pages of the hefty book. "Where did you say you saw her?"

"Coming up the stairs from the dungeons," Harry replied. "She ran right into us and stopped to help us pick up our books. Someone yelled to her..."

"And then Snape showed up. She had the right idea and ran off," Ron added. "He didn´t look very happy."

Their friend nodded. "I think that means she appeared into his room and got away, which is probably why he was coming after her..." She pursed her lips. "Although Snape having a connection to the Other Realm is a bit odd."

"Maybe that was why he was soon keen to catch her," Ron commented, looking at the book, interested. He didn´t notice Hermione staring at him with expression of one who had just had an epiphany.

"Of course!"

"Eh?"

"He has a concealed connection to the Other Realm in his supply cupboard, which he shouldn´t have and he wanted to hide it!" She yanked another book out of her pile, sending a cascade crashing down onto the floor.

Several third years, seated at another table jumped in fright, watching warily as Hermione withdrew her wand and easily performed a spell that stacked all her books in a neat vertical column.

"Vertical book-stacking..." Harry noted, dead-panning, studying the large pile that stood almost as tall as him, then looking at Hermione. "Surely no human would stack books like this."

"Harry!" She laughed, shaking her head, as she opened the thick tome she had liberated from the pile. "You are awful."

"What are you on about?" Ron demanded.

"Nothing important," Hermione shot a warning look at Harry, who just grinned at her. "It doesn´t say anything about hidden connections here...but I don´t think Snape is allowed to have one...there isn´t meant to be any connection between our world and theirs, on that kind of level."

"We can´t go into theirs?"

Hermione´s face creased in confusion, as she scanned the text. "I think that we are allowed in, if we are taken by one of their...kind, I suppose. It´s just that you aren´t meant to connect directly and there isn´t a much more of a direct connection with our world than ending up in Hogwarts," she sighed. "Something tells me that that girl is going to be in a lot of trouble, if Snape gets hold of her."

Ron looked at Harry. Harry´s brows rose so high they disappeared into his hair. Ron just grinned at him. "Go on, mate," he goaded, nudging his friend. "You know you want to say it."

Harry looked like he was trying to hide a grin of his own, green eyes glinting with mischief. "That is," he said, Ron punching the air triumphantly. "If we don´t go and find her first."

"We really ought to go to Dumbledore..." Two pairs of eyes turned to Hermione, who rolled her own eyes. "Fine!" she huffed. "But if we get in trouble, again, I am not taking the blame for any of this!"

"Right," Ron was on his feet in an instant. "We´ll just not bother to tell Dumbledore that you´re the one who told us all about that Other Realm thing and about Snape´s illegal connection and that you weren´t involved at all with this..."

Hermione pursed her lips, assuming her `I am not amused in the slightest´ face, her hands on her hips. "Ronald Weasley," she said, raising a finger to point at him. "One of these days..."

"I know, I know," He winked at her. "You´ll turn me into a ferret." He swung around his chair. "But it can wait until we find this witch and you tie her into a chair and interrogate her about her world." One of the witch´s brows rose. "What? We all know you were planning questions in your head already."

"I most certainly was not..." She trailed off as her two friends gave her questioning looks. "Oh, all right! I was!" A small smile crossed her lips. "You two know me far too well, you know."

"Course, Hermione," Harry nodded towards the door. "C´mon. Let´s go and rescue the weird witch-person from Snape."

"Do you think she´s the same age as us or old?" Ron asked as they crossed the floor to the portrait hole. "I mean, if they live for thousands of years, d´you think they´ll still be that cute when they´re..." Ron trailed off, aware he had made a very blatant faux pas. "Um..."

"Cute?" Hermione said shrilly.

"In...in a kinda weird, blonde way...?"

Hermione huffed again. "Well, really! I thought you were concerned about her welfare, not because she was good-looking."

"If it helps, I´m concerned with annoying Snape too," Ron said hopefully.

Climbing through the portrait hole, Hermione glanced at him. "Well, I suppose that is always an added bonus."

"Definitely had a bad influence on her," Ron muttered to Harry, as they followed her through the hole.