Chapter 4
Surprises
"Lower the bridge, it's Hermione!" the guard yelled down to his companions and the drawbridge was opened to allow her access.
Hermione ran right through and did not stop until she had reached the castle. Once in the great hall she found a servant and ordered, "Bring Queen Lily, Ginny, Ron, and Dumbledore to the library immediately!" The servant and rushed off to find the others.
Hermione took her time reaching the library to recover from her long run, though she took a few breaks along the way she had ran at top speed to reach the castle before the attack began. I hope we still have time she thought to herself, every minute waiting for the others to show made her more anxious. Finally, they all arrived. Ginny and the queen greeted her with hugs and Ron a kind smile.
"What happened to you, we were about to send out a search party to try and find you after you didn't report back" Ginny said letting go of her friend. The queen and Dumbledore had a seat as Hermione told them how she was captured, how she fled, and about the plan she overheard. Though she conveniently left out the part about Harry and the lake.
"I heard their horns as I ran through the forest but I didn't see anything, then again I probably wouldn't. Their army being invisible is going to be rather hard to fight." Hermione said. The queen looked worried, Dumbledore sat there in silence as he had throughout her tale, and Ron and Ginny looked pensive seemingly trying to figure out a way to fix the situation.
Ron was the first to break the silence, "Well even if we can't see them that is no reason to not be ready for an attack." Turning to the queen he stated, "With your permission, your majesty, I shall go and get the troops ready, sending archers to the towers and the walkways in between. The pikemen and swordsmen shall be alerted as well, we will not surrender this castle without a fight."
The queen nodded, "Very well Ronald, do as you must and good luck." Ron bowed to her and Dumbledore before leaving the room.
An invisible enemy, how can we defeat that? Hermione's thoughts were interrupted by the Queen Lily. "Hermione you've had long journey, I suggest you go to the kitchen and then straight to your room. A healer will be there to tend to your cuts and bruises." Sensing her protest the queen added, "Yes, you must do this now, for there may not be time later, Ronald can surely work a few hours without you. Ginerva please go with her and make sure she ends up in her room."
Ginny smiled at Hermione's scowl, "Yes mother, as you wish." The two of them began to leave the room when the queen called Hermione back.
"Hermione, I just want to thank you. You seem to save my kingdom time and time again; I don't know how we would have reached this moment without you." Hermione smiled at this, and the overwhelming sense of her love for the queen returned.
"Do not thank me just yet, your majesty, after we've won this battle then you can hand out thanks to more than just me." Hermione bowed and left the room with Ginny heading toward the kitchen.
Every head within the castle turned at the sound of the horns. They were close, too close. "Men prepare for battle, for the kingdom!" shouted Ron to the troops below. They all raised their weapons and shouted in unison, "For the kingdom!"
Hermione stood with her bow above the gate next to Ron, worry evident in her face. Invisible, how can we fight them if we can't see them? Come on Hermione think, think!
Suddenly an idea hit her. It was a long shot and she might not be strong enough for it but if it worked……
"Ron give me that length of rope" she said handing him her bow.
"The what?"
"The rope! Quickly, I have an idea." He handed her the length of rope which she tied around her waist and then tied a section off around some stone. Giving the knot a tug to make sure it would hold she turned to Ron, "When I shout let the archers' arrows fly, even if I'm down there, understand?"
"Yes, but what are you go-"Before he could finish his sentence she jumped down and fell straight for the ground. She cut the rope with her sword when she reached the ground and stood facing the forest, prepared for whatever came out.
The bushes and trees on either side of the path began to shake and footsteps could be herd along with the occasional clink of metal. Hermione waited a moment longer to be sure she was surrounded. She heard the whistle of a blade coming down and instinctively threw her blade up to parry. She parried an invisible blade and shouted.
"Revealus invisibus!" And heard a gasp from the men atop the castle. An army suddenly appeared from thin air, a large ferocious army that had started to climb the walls. Everything was frozen for only a moment's breathe until all hell broke loose.
"Now, shoot now!" Hermione shouted. She fell to her knees, the spell had taken quite a bit of her strength, to reveal such a large force. She heard Ron give the command and arrows began to fly down upon them all. The magic users among the enemy began to create shields and men scurried under them. Hermione raised herself up to her feet and headed straight for the nearest wizard, and cut him down from behind.
One down, she thought, a hundred more to go.
Suddenly the enemies surrounding her began to go after her with an alarming amount of rage evident, she was the one responsible for the destruction of the plan, she must pay!
Hermione dogged several blows and worked her way so her back was to the castle. She faced two at a time while the arrows from her comrades continued their deathly rain. Using a combination of parries and thrusts she disarmed and beheaded the two she faced. More came after her and her strength began to waver. She circled her blade around another's and twisted it so it flew from its owner's hand into hers. She cut down the owner and the two more that took his place. Slowly she was pushed into the center of the fray, keeping the wolves at bay while dodging arrows.
Someone was able to throw a lucky swing and it sliced her side. She fell to the ground in a pain and looked up at the men who had their swords raised. This is it she thought. The blades began to fall towards her when one of the men screamed as a sword appeared through his chest. The owner pulled his sword out and began to cut the necks of those standing over Hermione. The few that managed to slip away were felled by arrows.
"Come on!" the rider's voice shouted over the melee and held out his hand toward her. She took it and looked up to see the one person she never thought she'd see again. Harry! Before she could climb onto his horse a group of men attacked them and Harry fell from his steed who ran for the castle.
"We have to make our way toward the castle Hermione, come on!" Harry grabbed her wrist and began to pull her while deflecting blows from surrounding blades. She withdrew her hand and picked up a fallen blade and began to hack her way towards the castle with him. The only ones left in their wake were dead with bleeding chests or cut throats and more fell as they finally made it to the castle wall.
"The rope, Ron! Throw down the rope!" Hermione shouted toward her friend above. Ron heard her and fired off an arrow which found its target, a warrior coming up behind her. He gathered the rope in his hands and threw it down towards Harry and Hermione only to pick up his bow and fire off five more shots.
Harry cut down one more man before grabbing the rope. Harry turned to her, "You first I'll cover you, go!" Hermione hesitated for only a second before beginning to climb. She was about a quarter of the way up when she heard a scream from below. Harry's side had been pierced from behind.
"Harry!" she shouted in fear. Letting go of the rope she fell on the death eater only to puncture his neck with the knife she carried. "Harry, hold on!" Quickly thinking she tied the end of the rope around his waist and made sure it was secure. "Ron! Pull up the rope, Quick!" And Harry began to rise out of the fight. She turned her back to the castle with her sword raised with little energy left. She could see that even though their numbers had vastly decreased she knew she couldn't fight them all.
A spell
She shouted the first spell that came to mind and prayed it would be enough. "REDUCTO!" Men flew from her from all sides, some landing on their own blades while others died from the impact of hitting the ground. Surprised she repeated the word.
"REDUCTO, REDUCTO, REDUCTO!!" She screamed over and over again, pushing and tossing the men further and further away. Finally there were only a few handfuls left that had survived or had not run into the forest. The drawbridge could finally be opened, and her comrades came pouring out to take care of the survivors. She collapsed and the last thing she saw before drowning in darkness was the men of Gryffindor defeating the death eaters.
"Hermione…….Hermione please wake up"
She heard her name a few more times before her eyes consented to open. Standing around her was Ginny with her fair share of bruises and a cut across her arm. She had been one of the first onto the battlefield. Ron was there as well, scratches evident through his tunic and a bandage was wrapped around his upper arm.
On her left side stood a dream made into a reality. "Harry?" She croaked. He smiled and took her hand, rubbing the back of it with his thumb. Her entire body went calm at his touch and she momentarily closed her eyes.
"Feeling any better? You used up quite a bit of energy." He suddenly looked very serious. "You shouldn't have come back for me, you could have been killed. Why didn't you keep climbing?" It was evident he was a little angry but it was the worry in his voice that kept her from retorting harshly.
"You were in trouble, and I could do something about it. I wasn't going to leave you." She whispered, her eyes never leaving his. "What are you doing here anyway, why did you come?"
"I couldn't very well let you go, now could I? Especially with you being injured like that. I followed you from a distance so I could keep an eye on you and not have you suspect someone was following you." He took her other hand in his. She felt his warmth radiate into her but a sense of fear accompanied the warmth. She loved his touch more than anything, what she was scared of was how quickly she was falling for him and she barely knew him.
Someone cleared their throat and Hermione's attention returned to her two friends. "Oh, sorry, this is Harry, he helped me getaway from Voldemort when I escaped. Harry this is Ginny, Princess Ginerva, and Ronald the general of all the Queen's armies."
Ron and Ginny exchanged an odd look between each other, and then turned to consider Harry for a moment.
"It's nice to meet you, Harry" Ginny said slowly, as if unsure about her words.
"Thank you for helping Hermione, she's a little too headstrong sometimes." Ron said with an indifferent tone.
"The pleasure was all mine really" Harry regarded them with a smile while releasing Hermione's hands. A silence ensued that Hermione found odd. This lasted for only a few moments before the queen came in followed by Dumbledore.
"Hermione, dear, are you feeling better? I heard what happened and I rushed over as soon as I could." Lily took Hermione's hand, "It seems we are once again indebted to you, but what were you thinking, do you have any idea how close we were to losing you?"
Hermione smiled at Lily's worried tone; it felt good to have someone care about her like this in absence of her own mother. "I'm really quite fine, your majesty, just a few bruises. I should recover soon enough to rejoin the fight."
"You will do not such thing!" Lily said with a firm voice. "You are to have at least a week of rest, and nothing less, do you understand me? I will not have you permanently injuring yourself in anyway and that's final." For the first time Lily look up and took notice of the company in the room. When her eyes fell upon Harry they widened and her jaw fell slightly open in a very un-ladylike way.
"Harry" she whispered. Harry nodded and then looked to Ginny and Ron, who nodded as well. Hermione sat
there all the while confused.
"Your majesty, how do you know Harry? Will someone please tell me what's going on" Hermione was becoming slightly frustrated.
Ron was the first to answer her, "Perhaps we should let you rest a bit before we go into anything-"
"No, I would like to know now thank you. Now what is going on?" Hermione looked at Harry and then in turn Ron, Ginny, and Lily.
Lily still seemed to be in a world all her own because she took no notice of Hermione's frustrations, simply whispered, "Harry…..my son has come home!" And promptly ran around the bed to envelope Harry in a large hug.
It took Hermione a few seconds to realize what was just said. Harry is…the prince?
************Author's Note**********************
Hi, I have no excuse for not updating, or for the mistakes that are found in this chapter. I read over it but I'm a flawed human. I've had fencing and work and everything else but the truth is I just wasn't inspired. I'll try to grind out another chapter if you really want it. Thank you for the review!
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