War Games

Chapter Three:

No one else had known of the events that occurred just last night at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The rumor mill was once again having a field day. Everything from the prospect of Dumbledore going mad and running around with a chainsaw to a flock of Blast-Ended Skrewts invading the castle was explored. But not one of the hundreds of rumors flying around came anywhere near the truth. 

Harry, Ron and Hermione were all in the middle of Charms learning about a new spell called the Tracing Charm that allows you to find anything that you may have misplaced or anyone that you are looking for. At the same time, the three of them were discussing the events of the night before, as Charms was always the perfect place when you want privacy.

"You know, I could have lived without last night." Ron said trying to locate a lost button.

"I'm sorry I dragged along the two of you," Hermione lamented, "but I am grateful that I had the two of you with me."

"You still haven't told us about the valkyrie, you promised you'd tell us today." Ron said once more.

"Oh yes, I almost forgot, probably because of the lack of sleep," she said calmly as she collected a goblet from under a desk.

"So, what did she tell you?" Ron asked, egging her on.

"She told me it was about time I continued Evelyn's reign," she said this as if she just told them she got a new pair of socks. Harry and Ron exchanged confused looks.

"Hermione, who in the world is Evelyn?" Ron finally asked.

"Evelyn is my grandmother's name, she's also the queen of the Amazons before the reign of Vyrna's mother," she stated proudly.

"Hermione, that means," Harry said, finally breaking his silence, "that you have Amazon blood in you."

"Exactly, that's why I can communicate with valkyrie, and that's why this ring works on me," she said, lifting her right hand, beaming at her index finger where the ring gleamed.

"Don't remind me," Ron said lifting his left hand to massage his temples, "does this mean you're going to start throwing spears and hunting game?"

Hermione tutted, "Amazons don't hunt game, they're vegetarian," she said with a tone of importance, "but I don't think I'm about to leave the wizarding world to become an amazon, having their blood in your veins is only half of it, they're probably trained to be warriors from the minute they could walk, besides, I'm not so sure I'm as comfortable with seeing much bloodshed." she said the last part with a somber tone.

"It is a sad life isn't it, even with all that power, when you have to live to see death over and over again, it's just disheartening," Harry said.

"But aren't you pleased though, having Amazon blood, you can have both a witch's and a warrior's skill," Ron interjected, a tone of jealousy in his voice.

"I suppose I do feel pleased," she said, a bit uneasily at the tone of Ron's voice, "but there are other things I have to consider, like why my grandmother ran away in the first place, why she abandoned her fellow amazons. I'd hate to think that she did that for selfish reasons. And at the same time I don't want to learn that it was because of something terrible about the Amazons, or Vyrna for that matter."

"You'll learn when it's time, I just hope you won't get hurt when you do," Harry said, trying to lighten the mood.

"You're right, but we have something else to worry about, aren't you wondering how the assassin got in?" she asked her brows creased together. "Like what Dumbledore said, there are rooms in Hogwarts that you will never be able to find unless you know it is there, or if someone leads you to it, which is what happened to us. I can't stop wondering, how did she manage to find that room?"

"Maybe she followed us?" suggested Ron.

"No, I don't think that's it. She came inside before we even got there, the door was closed from the moment we got in, and she couldn't have apparated in, you can't do that here at Hogwarts," she rambled.

"But valkyrie did," Ron reminded her.

"Valkyrie's neither witch nor warrior, she's practically a mythical being, she's not affected by curses or enchantments, Vyrna said so," she explained impatiently.

"Are you saying that she got help from the inside? That one of us in that room purposely led her there?" Harry asked, lowering his voice.

"All I'm saying is that it's a possibility, she definitely knew Dumbledore was going to be in there, and she managed to hide from everyone the whole time. I'm guessing Lupin only managed to smell her because she was near enough," she said turning to Harry.

Ron, who had a sudden epiphany, voiced his opinion, "I say it's that necromancer, I mean he's evil, he just killed her, maybe because he's afraid she'd tell on him!"

Hermione was obviously irritated at this, "Ron, that's just prejudiced, and besides, are you forgetting that they are all warriors? They all kill!" she screamed this last part too loudly that the class turned to look at her and Flitwick was eyeing her nervously.

"I mean this Charm kills! It will be very useful in the future," she stuttered. No one bought it, but then, no one really cared. Hermione took a deep breath and whispered a bit more cautiously, "Besides, you should be weary of the usual suspects by now."

"The what?!" Ron asked confused.

"Oh you know, Snape, Sirius, Noel, the kind of people you automatically take for the bad guy," she explained. Ron just raised his eyebrows.

"She's right you know, we should be a bit more critical when we think about these things, we shouldn't just look at the obvious," Harry said, nodding his head a bit. "I wonder what Snuffles is up to right now?" he asked, more to himself than to them.

"Let's just pray he's not hitting on Vyrna," Ron answered anyway.

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Vyrna and Sirius walked a few feet behind Noel and Kimo inside the Forest of Gholein that, according to Vyrna would lead to a waypoint to one of stations Voldemort had set up.

"He's been using warrior's methods, which is wise as most wizards are ignorant of them," she told Sirius, explaining to him that waypoints are one of the warrior's  way of transportation. "You do understand the plan don't you?"

"Vyrna, I've been to battles before, I can understand a plan quite well," Sirius said slightly irritated by the fact that Vyrna asked him if he understood the plan an average of twenty-seven times every fifteen minutes.

"I apologize for my impertinence, but I do not know the extent of your warring skills, I have to be assured that everything will go as I have devised," she said. "Please, would you like to review it?"

Sirius replied in monotone, "Kimo and I will go through the waypoint, as Kimo can disguise himself and I can transform myself into a dog," he said, "then we will set up a  port key on the other side for you and Noel because you cannot go through the waypoint, as it may recognize you and it may alarm the other warriors guarding the station."

"Good, good, you do know how to set up a port key?" she asked sincerely.

"Of course I know how to set up a port key!" he wailed looking incredulous.

"I was just being certain, I promised your godson I would return you alive, I cannot risk anything at this point," she said.

Kimo and Noel stopped and positioned themselves behind a rather large neem tree. They motioned for Sirius and Vyrna to follow them. When the two reached the tree, Kimo signaled for him and Sirius to transform themselves into their animal figures. Vyrna and Noel watched Sirius become a large black dog as Kimo disappeared and in his place was a blue-eyed wolf. The two animals looked strange together as they walked side by side towards a flat, gray stone with a white, circle insignia painted on it and two blue flames on adjacent corners. This, Sirius had guessed was the waypoint. As they reached the stone, Sirius followed Kimo and stepped on it, Kimo turned to Sirius with his wolf eyes and then moved his front paw, apparently writing something on the stone.

In an instant, everything blacked out, and it was as if they took one long blink and when they opened their eyes they were in another place. Far from the green, tree-infested forest that they left, they found themselves in the middle of a bare dirt road with no civilization evident in sight. Kimo stepped out of the waypoint and Sirius followed. As soon as they were a good distance from it, they transformed back to their human form. 

"Let's get this done already," Sirius said, anxious to get the two other warriors beside them, rather worried that there was only him and Kimo, and that there was a possibility that a hundred warriors or so maybe watching them at this moment. He brought out a map from his sack and pointed his wand at it. "Inifra!" he muttered. Immediately, a reddish violet circle appeared on the map, marking the spot that read Forest Gholein.

He turned to Kimo, "Now give me the tweed that I told you to pick when we were at Forest Gholein," he said.

"What tweed?" he said, giving him a confused smile.

"The tweed I said we needed so we could mark the place where we are now so we can set up the port key?" Sirius said as calmly although he was becoming frantic at that moment.

"Sirius, you never said that," Kimo said.

"I clearly said that when we started the plan, once before we entered, and then again while we were walking," he said, panic-stricken.

"Then why didn't you get it?" he asked, still smiling, but not as calm anymore.

"Because you told me you already did!" Sirius, now absolutely freaking out.

"Sirius, I'm sorry, oh God, I have failed Vyrna! She's really going to kill me!" Kimo said pacing back and forth, giving Sirius a headache.

"Shit! We have to go back, it's the only way," Sirius said, trying not to lose his head.

"No, too late, I can smell them, they're coming. Transfigure to a dog and quick," Kimo said, quickly going back to his wolf form, Sirius followed suit.

After a few minutes, they saw a group of men wearing wolfskin vests and leather pants approaching the waypoint. "Barbarians" Sirius thought. They were apparently looking for something, maybe they managed to find out about the arrival of Sirius and Kimo.

"Damn it!" Sirius thought, things were definitely not going as planned.

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"They're taking too long. Sirius said three turns of my minute glass is enough," Vyrna said, she and Kimo were still hiding behind the neem tree.

"I bet Kimo fucked up, that incompetent fool!" Noel bellowed under his breath.

"Don't jump to conclusions, we don't know what happened, and we're supposed to know Kimo better than that," Vyrna said, trying to calm her friend down.

"Then that Sirius must have done something wrong, I don't trust him," he said.

"Remember the time when I advised you not to jump into conclusions," she said, surprisingly amused.

"Well, we have to blame someone!" he reasoned.

"Maybe there is no one to blame."

"Are you kidding? There is always someone to blame," he said certainly.

"Shhh!" she said, pointing her finger towards the other side of the waypoint. Noel paid more attention this time. In the absolute stillness, they could hear slight cracking of twigs and leaves every few seconds. They listened for a while, trying to assess the situation.

Vyrna spoke in the lowest voice possible, "About four coming from the south and another three coming from the south west, neophytes, they know we're here so they're attempting a slow attack. What do you think, should we take them?"

"There must be at least two there that are experienced warriors, seven against two, not good odds. This is not a time to play hero, we have to think of the other two too, think of something else," Noel whispered.

"We can't just wait for them. I say we go through the waypoint and find Sirius and Kimo. Sirius will be able to think of someway to get us back, but let's do a little damage here first. We have to stall them, then destroy the waypoint from the other side," she said quickly, Noel nodded in agreement.

"Draw a lightning fury, and I will leave Fire Golem here, fast attack, are you ready?" Noel said. It was Vyrna's turn to nod. She and Noel quickly ran to the center of the waypoint, as soon as they were visible, seven barbarians appeared from behind the trees, drawing out clubs and hammers, but Vyrna had her javelin ready and immediately threw it at the barbarian nearest her. As soon as it hit the unsuspecting victim a lightning bolt jolted out of the javelin creating a chain reaction, hitting four others beside him. The bolt was not enough to kill them but disoriented them for awhile, giving Noel enough time to call out his fire golem.

"Attack the barbarians!" he commanded and the golem immediately pounded the barbarian to his left setting it on fire. Vyrna immediately kneeled down and started writing the code needed to get to their destination. And everything blacked out.

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Harry, Hermione and Ron thoroughly enjoyed this year's Defense Against the Dark Arts. For the first time, they had a female DADA teacher and Hermione loved each and every minute of it, especially since their professor was obviously very fond of her. Her name was Elisa Genge, and like Professor Moody, she was once an Auror. She had dark olive skin, curly hair black as night, and piercing blue eyes. Unlike Moody though, she followed rules to the book and gave detentions and took points from houses instead of turning students into ferrets whenever they crossed a rule. Also, she had opted to stay clear of the topic of unforgivable curses and instead went the way of Professor Lupin and taught them about dark magical creatures. Today, they were learning about something called Nessarias. She brought a tiny package to class that was covered with a white cloth. As soon as the class was settled, she removed the cloth revealing a glass aquarium, inside it was a small circular organism about the size of a soup bowl.

"Doesn't look too scary does it? Can anyone tell me what they are?" Inevitably, Hermione's hands shot up in the air.

"They are Nessarias, they strive in highly salinated water, they are known flesh-eating creatures, one is not actually enough to consume an entire human beings flesh, but they can be a danger when they move in schools. They also cause suppuration and ophthalmic infection," Hermione stated.

"Very good as usual, ten points to Gryffindor." Hermione smiled satisfied. "Can anyone tell me now what spell is best used against these creatures?" Again Hermione's hands were visible.

"The 'Sulfolonas' spell is particularly used for this specific creature," she said.

"Good, take ten more points for Gryffindor," Professor Genge said, giving Hermione a smile, "But it is more complicated than pointing your wand at the creature, there is a certain technique and timing is very important. The creature is not actually affected by the 'Sulfolonas' curse, but a part of it, called the pili, the one used to attach itself to the human skin, is. You need to make sure that you hit the pili. Nessarias are very fast, but their movements are routinely followed so timing is the key. The first thing it does is release a pus-like secretion that numbs the skin, after about fifteen seconds, it attaches a pili to the skin, only for a fraction of a second, so it's really hard to catch. The pattern actually depends on the length of the pili from each other, by the time it has its full turn, you should be able to realize the pattern. Now, let's all try it shall we."

Professor Genge began bringing in more aquariums containing Nessarias and the students grouped into three or four for each. Ron was having a hard time catching the pili, Hermione was able to predict its movement in an instant, and Harry was able to catch on a short while after. Neville's sleeve got caught in one of the pilis and his entire robe almost got sucked off. That signaled the end of DADA and everyone got out of class, thankful that their flesh were still intact.

"The day's finally over, I can get some sleep," Ron said a bit groggy, as he still missed the sleep from last night.

"Aren't you going to dinner first?" Hermione asked.

"No, skip dinner, get more sleep, that's the plan," he said determined. He heard no more from his two friends and retreated back to Gryffindor tower.

"That leaves us then," Harry said.

"Well, let's go," she said , leading the way to the Great Hall. But before she could go further Harry suddenly grabbed her arm and stopped her. Hermione looked at him searchingly but his face betrayed nothing.

"Do you mind if we could talk for a while?" he asked casually.

"We can always talk, you don't need to ask that," she said, finding the situation a bit strange.

"Can we go outside?" he asked.

"Harry, it's getting dark, I don't think we should leave the school grounds," she said.

"We'll just stay by the doors then, so no one would hear us," he insisted. Hermione eyed him strangely but followed nonetheless. They passed several Gryffindors on the way to the Great Hall but Harry didn't seem to notice them. He was bent on reaching the entrance hall with his two knees still intact.

"Harry, what's this all about?" she asked when they finally reached the doors.

"I wanted to talk to you about the kiss," he said.

"Oh that, of course, why didn't I think of that," she said.

"You didn't think about it?" he asked, a bit hurt.

"No, of course I've thought about it, but I don't want to think about it too much. I don't want you to think that we have any sort of responsibility towards each other. I mean, we're only fifteen and that was a beautiful moment, and I don't want to ruin it by having any sort of expectations, we can leave it just as it is," she said, but added in a small but distinct voice, "for now."

Harry took in every word and immediately understood, but somehow he was still dissatisfied. He didn't have the guts to tell Hermione though. "You're wonderful you know that." It was the only thing that came to his mind.

"So are you Harry." She smiled as she took his hand and led him back to the Great hall

 

"Bone Spirit!" Noel bellowed, his flail releasing once more the silver mist in the form of a skull reducing the waypoint they had come from into a pile of rubble. He looked to his side to find two animal forms coming towards them. It was the dog that transformed into his man form first, prompting the other to follow. Vyrna who was out of breath earlier, regained her composure and asked calmly, "What went wrong? Why weren't you able to establish a port key?"

"It was my fault Vyrna, I had failed, please feel free to punish me," Kimo volunteered.

"There is no need for that, we have more to consider right now. In a few minutes, they will be informed of our presence. I have mapped out a plan, please listen carefully, Sirius, you can Apparate back to the village near Hogwarts. Noel and Kimo, there is another waypoint, it must be where those barbarians passed through. I trust you will be able to find your way, be quick about it. I will stay here and finish the mission," she said with finality.

"Will you be all right alone?" Sirius asked.

"How patronizing! Of course she will be all right alone," Noel said irritated.

She took a deep breath, trying not to lose her patience, "I thank you for your concern, Sirius, but there will be less risk if I were to go alone. I live solely for the mission, please remember that. Noel, Kimo, go on your way now." With this, the two men set out in the opposite direction to search for the other waypoint.

When they were alone, Vyrna raised her javelin and cried, "Valkyrie!" Once more, the magical being appeared before their eyes, illuminating the darkness that was now enveloping them.

"Follow Sirius, Hermione will be your master while I am gone, protect her as you will me," she instructed.

"Are you sure Hermione can handle her?" Sirius asked, a bit disconcerted.

"Do not worry, she will follow Hermione's every order as she is one of us. She will cloak herself as well, so she will not attract much attention," Vyrna assured him.

"You mean, Hermione is..." Sirius asked his eyebrows knotting itself.

"Yes, she is, now go," she said and Sirius simply nodded and Disapparated in front of her eyes, Valkyrie following shortly.

Once left alone, Vyrna set out to run down the dirt road with very quick and very quiet legs.

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Harry lied awake on his bed that night unable to get the image of Hermione out of his head. He did not understand himself, all he wanted was to have a talk with Hermione, to make sure that everything was all right between them and he managed to do all that. But why is he fidgeting right now, as if he had failed to do the one thing he really wanted? He wanted to insert his hand to his ear, swim it around his brain and pull out the answer.

"Harry, go to sleep," it was Ron's voice.

"I thought you were asleep," Harry said.

"I was, and then you decided to play a game of ‘fidget around my bed noisily until I annoy the hell out of Ron,’" he said, practically inaudibly.

"Sorry, I can't sleep," he answered.

"I have a suggestion, try closing your eyes, it works, really," Ron replied sarcastically.

Harry took a deep breath, normally he would have forced Ron out of his bed and then force him again to listen to him and finally force him to give a reaction to his problem. A lot of forcing was involved. But he knew that this was something that he cannot share with Ron, or something that his best friend could help with.

So Harry lay there until dawn, fidgeting occasionally, annoying Ron every five minutes until he fell asleep with a perturbed statement on his face.

In the morning, he woke up with a very painful headache, he turned to his left, surprised to find Ron already out of bed. He looked at the clock at his bedside table, he was relieved to find that it was only eight o' clock and he was not going to be late. He got out of bed, took a quick shower, and changed to his robes.

He went down to the common room and found Hermione and Ron sitting very near each other, with a book in front of them. For some reason, his headache worsened. She must have heard him coming down as she turned her head and smiled at him. But her smile quickly turned into a frown realizing that he was rubbing either side of his temples with his fingers vigorously. She quickly stood up and stepped away from Ron, who was now also aware of his presence.

"Are you all right Harry?" she asked, her eyes full of concern, as she felt his forehead with her right hand.

"Just a headache," he said, but not moving her hand away as it provided some comfort.

"He couldn't sleep last night, probably having daydreams about some girl," Ron snickered from his chair. Hermione didn't laugh though, her cheeks turned slightly red. She removed her hands from his head and immediately attempted to change the subject.

"Are you going to be all right? You really do seem in pain, why don't you go to Madam Pomfrey?" she said in quick succession.

"I'll be fine, let's just go down to breakfast, I'm starving," he said.

"Okay," she answered. Ron stood up and led the way to the portrait hole, Hermione followed him and then Harry.

Care of Magical Creatures was their first period that morning, and the three of them headed down to Hagrid's hut as soon as they finished breakfast. When they got there, most of the Gryffindors had already arrived and so did the Hufflepuffs with whom they had that subject with. They noticed everyone flocked around the pen that housed the Blast-Ended Skrewts last year, obviously, the creature they were going to study today were more appealing than those. They squeezed themselves between the crowd and their eyes widened at the beautiful creature in front of them.

"A rainbow goddess!" Hermione squealed in delight.

"A what?" Ron and Harry asked in unison. They were fascinated by the swan like creature in front of them whose furs were bright, smooth and colorful as rainbows.

"Right ye' are, Hermione. This here're rainbow goddesses. Beautiful aren' they? Easy to raise too, they can fend fer themselves," Hagrid said, appearing from behind them.

"Is it true, Hagrid," Hermione asked, "that when they weep, it means good fortune is coming?"

"Wouldn't hurt to believe that, would it?" They took turns petting the beautiful creature and feeding it with brussel sprouts, which it appears to like.

The rest of the day was uneventful, and at the end of the day, Harry, Ron and Hermione went down to the Great Hall for dinner. In the middle of everything, a brown barn owl coursed through the window and dropped a short note on Harry's lap. "Meet me at the Transfiguration classroom, Snuffles," it simply said.

Hermione looked at Harry, "Vyrna?"

Harry shook his head and showed her the note. "Let's go," she said. Harry looked at Ron and he nodded as well.

They quietly made their way to the said meeting place and carefully opened the door. Sirius was standing by the window, his back to them.

"Valkyrie!" Hermione exclaimed, "but where's Vyrna?"

"Don't worry, she's fine, she just needed to take care of some things," Sirius explained not wanting to excite her too much, "but she asked me to take Valkyrie to you, I think she may be worried about you."

"Why?" Hermione asked perplexed.

"For the same reasons we're all worried about all of you," he said, not planning to go into details, "I just came to tell you, that our mission did not go as we planned, but we will take care of it. Kimo and Noel are all right as well." He lied at this last part, he hasn't heard from either of them yet, but knew better than to worry about two warriors.

"I will be staying at Remus' for awhile, I just wanted to make sure you are all all right," he said.

"When are you coming again?" Harry asked, wishing he had more time to speak to his godfather, preferably alone.

"Don't worry, I won't be away too long," he said, clapping his godson on the back.

"Well, good luck," Harry said.

"Be careful, the three of you, all right, and Hermione, I hope you won't mind extending Valkyrie's protection to Harry and Ron," he said with a wink.

Hermione beamed proudly, "You can count on me."

He transformed back to a dog and moved outside the door. After he had left, Harry and Hermione noticed Ron staring at Valkyrie, they just realized that it was the first time he saw her.

"Um, Hermione, I don't think you can hide her in your room," he voiced out, but Hermione already had the answer to the problem.

"She says she can cloak herself, and she'll be spending a lot of time in the Forbidden Forest anyway," Hermione explained.

"When did she say that?" Ron asked perplexed.

"Do I have to explain this again?" Hermione said raising an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah, sorry, forgot about that," Ron apologized never once moving his head, he was still in awe of Valkyrie.

Harry moved closer to Hermione and whispered, "Do you think he reacts the same way to all blondes?"

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Vyrna managed to return through the other waypoint of Forest Gholein, finding herself amidst a different set of trees and plants. Her suit of armor was covered in blood, but it was not hers. She had lost another mercenary. "You can't think about that now, the important thing is that you managed to gather the information you needed," she kept repeating to herself. She felt weak, but knew she needed to get to Dumbledore. Hogwarts was in danger.