Disclaimer: The Harry Potter series belongs to J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros. Inc., Scholastic, Bloomsbury, Raincoast, and any other affiliated party.
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Chapter 5: To Durmstrang
A few hours later, the company sprang out of the fireplace of Hogwarts castle, having used Floo Powder. They were greeted by the castle's guardian, Albus Dumbledore.
"Good morning," he said. "And what brings you three here so early in the day?"
Ron and Ginny explained all that had happened to Dumbledore. Harry simply remained quiet the whole time, simply holding the sleeping twins. After the Weasley's had finished explaining, Dumbledore turned to Harry, a grave look on his face.
"I assume you will be going to Durmstrang to find your wife," he said. "I must warn you, sending a Mage Knight to Durmstrang, even a lone one will constitute an act of war against Durmstrang."
"As far as I'm concerned, we're already at war with Durmstrang. At least Gryffindor is," hissed Harry. Dumbledore simply made a grave look.
"I need to ask you a favor," continued Harry. "While I am gone, I want Lily and James to be kept here at Hogwarts. This castle is the safest place in Magiterran. I'm not going to let my twins be kidnapped again."
Dumbledore looked down at the sleeping twins, his twinkle back in his eye. "I'm sure Hagrid would love to take care of them."
"I'm sure he would," said Harry. He finally let a small ghost of a smile cross his features.
Ron spoke up; "Ginny and I will go with you to Durmstrang."
"No! This is my fight. I'm not going to let anybody else get involved in my personal affairs."
"Must be one heck of a personal fight if your whole kingdom's going to war against Durmstrang," said Ron sarcastically. Harry simply stared at his best friend.
"But, if we are going to war, I need you here to command the military," argued Harry. "Who's going to take command if you're gone with me?"
"You have no need to worry about that," called a voice from the shadows. Harry was completely startled as Lords Sirius Black and Remus Lupin stepped out of the shadows. "We'll take full control. After all it used to be our job," said Sirius with a grin.
"But," said Harry. "You two are retired. I can't just let you two get back into working over this."
Remus started chuckling. "Harry, did you honestly we would just sit around in our manors while the Alliance goes to war again. I think I remember that the condition for our retirement was that we spring right back into active duty when duty calls."
Harry remained speechless for a couple of minutes looking absolutely stunned. Eventually however, he made a grin and allowed a tear to roll down his cheek. "Thank you, everyone," he said. "You don't know how much that means to me."
* * * * * * * * * *
Hermione woke up with a headache and only a vague recollection of what had happened. After a few moments of thinking, she recalled everything and sprang up. She found herself in an unfamiliar four-poster bed with purple sheets in an unfamiliar room. She also found herself dressed in purple, unfamiliar night robes. Hermione fingered the back of her ear and was relieved to find that her shrunken staff was still there. A second later, an unfamiliar man wearing purple kingly robes entered. He smiled and said, "Velcome Queen Hermio-ninny."
"Who are you? Where am I?" she demanded.
"I am Viktor Krum. You are in Durmstrang. I am sure zat you vill be very happy here."
"Take me home, now!"
"But Hermio-ninny, zis is your home."
"No its not!" yelled Hermione. "Take me back to my family, now!"
Krum simply sighed. "You vill hav to readjust," he said. "Zis is your home now. You vill just hav to deal vith it."
"GET OUT!"
"Hermio-ninny,"
"GET OUT! NOW!" Hermione threw a vase on her bedside table at Krum. He dodged it and the vase shattered on the wall.
Reluctantly, Krum left the room and shut the door behind him. Hermione climbed under the sheets on the bed, buried her face into the pillow and started crying.
* * * * * * * * * *
After Krum left Hermione's room, an old man wearing elegant looking scarlet and black robes approached him. He had gray hair and a twirled goatee. This was Igor Karkaroff, prime minister of Durmstrang.
"How did she take it, Viktor?" he asked.
"Not very vell," he answered. "But I believe zat she vill come to love it here."
"The sooner the better, Viktor," said Karkaroff. "Give her gifts, jewelery, things so beautiful that she won't look away. Give her servants that would obey her every need. Throw lavish feasts in her honor. The sooner she accepts Durmstrang as home the better it is for her."
Viktor nodded. "I vill get on it right away." He walked away leaving Karkaroff behind.
Karkaroff stared at Krum's retreating figure before he lifted his left arm to his mouth. After looking around and making sure that no one else was there, Karkaroff whispered, "Everything is going as planned, master."
A high-pitched voice hissed back, "Good, good."
* * * * * * * * * *
It took a few days to prepare a portkey that would take the Mage Knights to Durmstrang. Furthermore, they also had to locate an area of the continent where the Mage Knights could enter from without being detected. After studying all of the available maps, they decided on a peninsula in the southern most part of the continent. It was quite far from the royal capitol way up in the north but it was the most sparsely populated part of Durmstrang and the least likely place where they would run into any people.
Harry was highly impatient about the amount of time it was taking to prepare. Of course, in his present state, he probably would've charged right into the royal palace astride a dragon if anybody hadn't held him back. He wasn't involved much in the planning, electing to spend time with his children before rushing off to save their mother.
Finally, the day arrived. Although Harry wanted to get to Hermione as fast as possible, he was very reluctant of leaving James and Lily behind.
"Don' worry abou' it, Harry," said Hagrid as Harry passed him the babies. "Dumbledore and I'll protect them with our lives if we 'ave to." Hagrid had taken an immediate liking of the twins as he rocked them back and forth in his huge arms. He chuckled when Lily pulled at his beard.
"Your majesty." Harry whipped around to face three Gryffindor Mage Knights: Sir Angelina Johnson, Sir Katie Bell, and Sir Alicia Spinnet. "We will be personally protecting the prince and princess," said Sir Alicia.
Harry smiled. "Thank you," he said. "I suppose I owe you three in that case."
Sir Angelina grinned. "Anything to serve the royal family."
"Actually," said Sir Katie. "Its not us you should thank. Sir Ronald was the one who asked us." Harry glanced at Ron who looked away looking sheepish.
"Well, are we ready to go?" asked Ginny.
Harry kissed Lily and James on their heads once more before walking up to the Weasleys.
"We'll take care of 'em, Harry," said Hagrid. "That's a promise."
"Good luck," said Dumbledore.
Without, a word, Harry, Ron, and Ginny took hold of the portkey and disappeared.
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A/N So, how did you like this chapter? Hope it helps the story run by smoothly. So anyway, please R/R. Next: We got dragons!