Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING BUT THE PLOT!
Hello everyone! Thought I'd let this out a few days before the New Year!! Lol... Hopin you enjoy!!
I just wanna thank EVERYONE who has reviewed! You have no idea how happy I was to have received any in such a quick time! THANK YOU ALL!
Oh, and I have decided to have had Hermione attend Hogwarts. I wanted to stick as much as I could to the book, and I just personally like her attending Hogwarts a lot better, tho I was really torn as to where I wanted her to attend, since I felt that Beauxbatons was a MUCH better choice as far as this story goes.... being that they wouldn't have met at ALL!
But alas, I went with what I felt I liked better, and besides... I like the idea of the Royals attending the Former Royal Palace of Hogwarts! I dunno.... it was a tough choice! But I hope you like this chapter!!
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Chapter Three: Shadowed Figures & Good-Bye's!
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The large black lake loomed solemnly as a flat rock pelted its way across the smooth velvet. A small 'plunk' was heard, followed closely by a long distressed sigh. On a large protruding rock, at the edge of the lake, sat the prince of Gryffindor. By the state of his extremely tousled hair and pained expression, one could easily tell he was deeply troubled. As he sat on the large rock, he softly sent his last rock to go skidding across the black waters. He loved this place. Whenever something troubled him deeply and he felt he needed to free his mind, he would fly to the one place he could seek refuge, on the banks of the Black Lake. This lake was a well-known lake, for it shared its shore with the legendary Hogwarts castle, now a famous school of witchcraft and wizardry. He looked across the lake at the glowing castle. It was like a beam of light in a sea of darkness. Oh, how he missed those years at Hogwarts! Years of laughter and adventure! Years void of the burdens of royalty! Void of despair.
Hermione - yes he had heard of her. In fact, he had attended almost every class session with her as well during his time at Hogwarts! Yet, he had never gotten to know the top-scoring student in all of Hogwarts. Spending most of her time in the library, similar to all of the Ravenclaws, Harry had never actually spoken to the princess - ever! To tell the truth, he hadn't even paid much attention to her what so ever. He didn't even know what she really looked like, apart from her bushy hair and timid personality.
"Ugh!" Harry groaned as he shoved his hand deep within the pocket of his robes. 'This isn't fair' he thought as he extracted a small golden ball from it and held his palm open, allowing it to rest in it. Small, silver wings then unfolded from the little ball and it leapt into the air just above his palm, whizzing around happily. The Snitch. It had been a gift from his father when he was 15, and ever since traveled around in his pocket. It was a great stress reliever!
As Harry stared thoughtfully at the black lake, the snitch flew gently around him before going for its escape. Within seconds Harry had caught the speedy snitch in one fowl swoop, without taking his eyes off of the giant squid that had surfaced from the lake. This continued for a few minutes, Harry all the while thinking of what had happened earlier this morning!
"How could they do this?" he muttered. 'An Arranged Marriage?' he thought, 'Why?' He knew his father had always been adamant that the kingdom be strong and unified, but arranging him in a false marriage to a princess he didn't even know? What, for the sake of expansion? It was outrageous!
A cool breeze came whirling off of the lake, rustling Harry's hair and the leaves about him. The breeze felt good, cool on his face and refreshing. He continued to catch the snitch while thinking of ways of getting out of this nightmare.
"Hey there, stranger!" came a silky voice from behind. Harry whirled around to come face to face with a dark beauty.
"Cho." he said softly and lovingly. Cho smiled. "What are you doing here?" Cho softly made her way over to the large rock Harry had set himself upon.
"Well," she drawled as she hoisted herself up onto the rock beside Harry, "I had heard you'd ran off, after some unpleasant news, and thought I'd come and see what was wrong." she finished.
Harry looked at her for a moment before looking back to the lake. "You mean they sent you to find me, right?" Cho laughed slightly.
"No!" she said. "Your father has all of Gryffindor out to find you, pretty much, what good would I be to them?" Harry went to speak but Cho stopped him. "When I heard you had ran off, I was worried, and I wanted to help," she added sincerely.
"How did you know where to find me?"
"I remember last night you telling me that Hogwarts always felt like your sanctuary when things got rough. So I figured this might be the place you went to. A lucky guess, nothing more." she said as she looked at Harry. "Harry, what's wrong?"
She had a sort of softness in her voice that made Harry melt. Harry looked at her gently, and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "Do you really want to know?"
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"Lily, will you please look at me!" James yelled frustrated. Within the Castle, Lily had refused to talk to her husband, and even look at him since the happenings of this morning. She didn't believe in this arrangement, and appalled the way her husband took to breaking the news to her son! "Lily! Why are you so upset? This is for the better good of both Kingdoms!"
"Better good?" she snapped, acknowledging James for the first time. "What good will this bring? Huh, James? Our son will be miserable, and so will poor Hermione! This is just another weak scheme of yours to strengthen your Kingdom, you haven't put a single thought into what it may do to your son!"
"Harry is a strong man, he can do this Lily." Lily shot James a look of pure fury. "Yes you are right, this will strengthen Gryffindor, but I have put into thought what this will do to Harry and Hermione. The two of them are very strong willed, but they will learn to love each other soon enough!"
"Learn to love? James! How you are able to but those two in such situations and still sleep at night ceases to amaze me!" Lily looked into James eyes with a sad expression as she placed a delicate hand on his chest. "Why can't you just let Harry marry for love? Like we did?" James froze for a minute. Yes, it was true that the two married for love! A love that would last forever. Suddenly James expression changed, from sentimental to one Lily couldn't understand.
"Because fate isn't as kind as it was to us." and with that James broke from Lily's touch and stormed out of the room, leaving behind his confused, angry, and hurt wife.
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The wind rustled Harry's hair as he finished up his grueling story, the golden snitch long forgotten and back in Harry's pocket. Cho stared solemnly at the lake.
"So," she started. "You're to marry Princess Hermione?" Harry nodded. "I see..."
"Cho, I was wondering, maybe you could -"
"No Harry. I know what you're about to say, but I can't!" Cho interrupted.
"But, you and the Princess are very close! If you could only persuade her to -"
"Harry," she said calmly "I cannot go against my kings wishes! I'm sorry." she said meekly. She stood and made to leave, but Harry caught her hand.
"Cho." Cho slowly turned to look to him, tears filling her slanted eyes. He held her hand tight and pulled her into an emotional embrace. Cho wrapped her fingers tightly around the folds of his shirt as silent tears fell. But as suddenly as the tears fell, she pulled out of the tight embrace and stepped away from the prince.
"I'm sorry Harry." she told him, not bothering to wipe the tears. "I have to go." and with a swish of robes Cho was gone. Harry wanted to chase after her, but thought against it, not wanting to make matters worse. He sighed deeply and picked up a flat rock. he tossed it up and down a few times before, as hard as he could, chucked the rock with a heavy cry of frustration, into the lake.
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James stormed into his office area and slammed the door!
"Women!" he yelled in frustration. He walked over to his desk and fell tiredly into his comfortable chair and ran his hand through his hair.
"Trouble with the Misses, eh?" said a voice from behind. James quickly sat up and spun his chair around.
"Huh?" a shadowed figure slowly came off the wall it had been leaning against and walked into the light. "Sirius!" Sirius cringed.
"You never call me Sirius! This is bad." he joked. James laughed.
"So what are you doing here? I thought you were still in Hufflepuff till next week!" James asked.
"Yea, well, when I heard the news I hurried back!" James looked a little confused.
"And what news is this?" James asked.
"About Harry and beautiful bride-to-be !" exclaimed Sirius. He walked over to James desk and sat in one of the chairs across the king and propped his boots up onto the desk. "So, when were you lot planning on telling me that my Godson was getting hitched?"
"How did you find out?" asked the king.
"Ahh, well you see, King Amos and I had gone over to Ravenclaw, apparently the morning after you had left, to speak over some negotiations. When we arrived, we were quite unpleasantly put face-to-face with a raging Princess, a fuming King, and a weary Queen. Heh, quite a show, I'll say." Sirius laughed a little, but after seeing the tired face of his best mate and receiving no feedback, decided to continue with his story. "Well anyway, after finally getting to the King, that is after Hermione had locked herself within her own room and placed countless advanced locking charms on it so complicated that the King couldn't break through, we were told of the betrothal. And I'll tell ya mate, the shock of hearing it from Richard before you, that hurt."
"Sorry mate. I meant to tell you when you came back." James told him.
"Eh, no worries Prongs." Sirius said. "So, where is dear ol' Harry?" James sighed and shook his head.
"Don't know Padfoot. He took off this morning after we told him the news." Rubbing his temples in hope that the migraine would pass, James closed his eyes and tried to block all reality from his mind.
"Well, I'd say he took it rather well then." Sirius joked. Then he suggested, " Did you try looking at the Palace in Godric's Hollow? He tends to go there when he's upset."
"Yes, yes! I've tried everywhere. I've got men out looking for him now! I don't know what to do with him. Lily doesn't understand, and now she isn't even talking to me." Said James. He was silent for a while before suddenly speaking. "He claims to be in love with the daughter of Wu Chang. He hardly knows the girl! He only met her yesterday morning. Quite rash if you ask me, to know one for so little and claim endless love!"
"Personally I enjoy rash thinking!"
"Sirius!" yelled James.
"Ok, ok!" laughed Sirius as he put his hands up in defense. "How about Remus? Tried gettin advise from him?" questioned Sirius.
"Nah, Remus's logic rivals that of Lily's! What I need is to talk to Harry." James said.
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It was nearing evening, so Harry had decided to make his way home. He carefully watched to make sure he wasn't seen my any of the guards before swooping soundlessly into his opened bedroom window. After dismounting the Firebolt he had received from his Godfather Sirius, he made to lean it against his cupboard, knocking another broom down in the process.
He picked the broom up and admired its sleek silver handle and its slender form. 'This isn't mine.' he thought.
"Hi Harry." came a voice from within the darkness of his room. Harry quickly recognized the voice as he looked in the direction the voice came from. into the moonlight came the raven beauty Cho. The moonlight illuminated her every feature, from her figure to her lips to her tear-filled eyes.
Before he had a chance to ask what was wrong, Cho ran to him, enveloping him tightly as she buried her face into his chest.
"Cho," Harry choked out. "What's wrong?" Cho wouldn't answer, she had begun to cry deeply into his chest. Finally Harry was able to sooth her, and she began to calm down. "Cho, what happened?"
"Well, after I left you in the clearing, I had returned home and received a letter from Hermione. She seemed desperate and requested that my return to Ravenclaw be immediate!" Cho stopped as she began to cry once more. Harry sat her down on his bed and sat beside her. After she composed her self she continued. "I wrote her back telling her that I would return as soon as I could. Well, I had began to prepare my things right away, and set off to tell my father of the letter. But when I told him, he began to question me about my relationship with you. He asked of my feelings for you and when I told him, he demanded that I end our relationship immediately." Tears fell from her eyes, but refused to cry again.
"What?" Harry yelled and stood. He made to protest but Cho stopped him.
"Harry, there's more." she said painfully. Harry sat back down and allowed her to continue. "I came here to tell you in person of my return to Ravenclaw. I wanted to be the one to tell you, but ..." she didn't want to continue.
"Go on, but what?" Harry persisted, dreading the worst.
"But ... that is... umm... I wont be returning to Gryffindor after this. For years, King Amos of Hufflepuff has been offering my father the position of High Advisor, seeing as they have been close friends for years, and now my father has chosen to take the offer. We will be leaving for the Hufflepuff Kingdom as soon as I see to Hermione." she finished.
"What? You can't be serious!" cried Harry. "This is because of the stupid marriage contract between Hermione and me, isn't it? Because I care for you, they are taking you away to rid themselves of the obstacle that stands in the way!"
"Perhaps Harry, but you must understand, I don't want you to turn this into a big deal, ok!" she told him.
"What? What do you mean?" he retorted. "They are taking you away from me because of this thing, and you don't want me to try and stop them? Why not?"
"Because Harry, this is my King and my Princess and I cannot go against them, no matter what the reason. I'm loyal to them Harry, and I'm sorry." Cho stood up and walked over to where her broom was propped. She wiped the offending tears that were cascading down her cheeks, but she new that this is what she had to do! Before she grabbed her broom she turned to Harry. "Harry, please try to understand this is for my country that I do this, but I want you to know that I will always love you!"
Harry looked at her, and hurt filled his eyes. He understood what she wanted from him, and for her he would respect that.
"Goodbye Harry." she said as more tears fell.
"'Bye love."
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So, how'd you like it? Was it good?
Personally, I find it REALLY corny... but I want Harry to seem that way ... but it wont be for long... heh! .... I hope.... :P
Thanx for reading!
SilverMagick131