Disclaimer: If I were J.K. Rowling, then would I be sitting in a college dorm room six miles south of Portland?
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Chapter 14: The Two Rings
King Lucius Malfoy, the ruler of the Kingdom of Slytherin, was not having a good day. Things had started going downhill when the Heir to the throne of Gryffindor had become a Mage Knight. Then, his own son, Draco, had betrayed him and also become a Mage Knight. Now it seemed to be only days before the Mage Knights would get a hold of the mysterious two Rings of the Lion and the Phoenix. Though, nobody knew exactly how those two rings worked, everyone knew for certain that they would be the key to the downfall of the Death Eaters.
Lucius groaned and placed his face in his hands. "I'm doomed," he muttered. "The cursed knights are closing in on me and all I have on my side are a bunch of incompetent fools."
"Come now, surely not all of us are incompetent." Lucius jumped when he heard the voice. Icicle had entered the throne room with a malevolent smirk on her face. "I see you are having a bad day," she said.
"What do you want?" snarled Lucius.
Icicle smirked. "Oh, not going to use manners for the one who's going to hand you the rings to you on a silver platter?"
Lucius looked startled. "You? How? We don't even know where they are," he snarled.
"Oh, but I do. We've never had any use for the Mirror of Erised. I've known all along."
"WHAT?!" Lucius leapt to his feet, his face red with fury. "You've known all along and you've never told me?! WHATEVER FOR?!"
"One reason," smirked Icicle. "Because the rings will only accept one person and one person only to remove them from their resting place. Dumbledore knew all along who this one person is. We've only figured it out recently. We simply decided that it wasn't necessary for you to know yet."
Lucius calmed down a little as he asked "And your plan is?"
"Simple, really. I will let that person remove the rings, whereupon, I will steal them."
"Excellent," smirked Lucius. "It looks like I'm in your debt, but what does that matter? Go take the Rings. Oh, and take Crabbe and Goyle with you, just in case."
Icicle bowed and strolled out of the room. As she was about to exit, she caught sight of Riddle, who was leaning on the wall in a corner hidden by shadows. He caught her eye and gave her a sinister grin.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Harry and Hermione were sitting in front of a rocky hillside that was the entrance of the Caverns of Power. It was sealed shut with a large boulder, and they had been sitting on a grassy ledge in front of it for the past hour and a half. It was already dark and the full moon was climbing.
They had been traveling for the past three days, mostly with an awkward silence between them. They had no problems chatting with each other at first, but after a while, Hermione couldn't help but feel nervous around Harry. If she hadn't been so intent on controlling her own feelings, she would have noticed that Harry also seemed a little nervous around her.
As they sat next to each other on the ledge, Hermione couldn't help but notice how close they were to each other. She jumped a little when Harry suddenly spoke.
"Hermione, I probably shouldn't bring this up now but...I think...if I don't tell you this now..."
"What is it Harry?" she asked. She finally noticed how nervous he looked.
"Well...uh...you remember what we talked about during Ginny's birthday. About love and such?"
Hermione sadly thought, 'Yes, when I forgot about our social standings and kissed you.' "I remember," she said.
"Well...I wanted to tell you that...I think...no, I've found the right person. The woman I want to spend the rest of my life with."
Hermione felt her heart plummet. She thanked God that it was dark as she fought back tears. 'He's met right noble woman for him,' she thought bitterly. 'Stop it, Hermione! You've always known that the two of you would never be together. All you can do is be his friend and wish him happiness.' She forced a smile on her face but avoided his eyes. "Well congratulations," she said. "Now tell me, who's the lucky girl?"
Harry seemed to be contemplating something before he looked at her. "Well, you see Hermione..." He never got to finish for at that moment, the full moon rose high enough so that its light hit a boulder on the rocky hillside. With a grinding sound, the boulder rolled away, revealing the entrance to the cave.
"Well, we better get this job done with," said Hermione. She sprang to her feet and strolled into the cave. Harry got up and followed after her.
After they walked down a long corridor, they entered a large room about the size of the Great Hall at Hogwarts. The stone room was completely bare, except for a marble podium in the center of the room. Placed on top of the podium were two rings: one was gold and the other was scarlet. They were plain rings; the only decoration they had were pictures of animals. The gold ring had a lion drawn on it while the scarlet ring had a phoenix.
"There they are" said Harry. He made his way to the podium. Unfortunately, when he was about a meter away, he walked into an invisible wall. "Dammit!" he cursed. "There's got to be some sort of trick here. What could it be."
Hermione made her way right next to Harry. She looked at the rings for a moment before she said, "Let me try." She raised her hands to the invisible wall, only that it wasn't there any more! Instead, there was a brilliant flash of light and the rings disappeared!
Hermione started to panic. "Oh no! What did I do?! Where did they go?!"
Harry however, was smiling at her. "Look at you hands," he said. Hermione looked down at her hands and gasped. There they were: the Ring of the Lion was on the ring finger of her right hand and the Ring of the Phoenix was on the ring finger of her left hand.
Harry started laughing. "So that's why Dumbledore wanted you on this mission," he said. "He probably knew all along that you were the only one who could take the rings from here! Tricky that man, really. Gee whiz. And to think that I thought that it would be my royal blood that would..."
Hermione's mind suddenly went blank as soon as Harry said "my royal blood". A number of past incidents filled her head. How King James and Queen Lily had been assassinated sixteen years ago. How Harry had said that his parents died when he was only a year old. The name Godric Gryffindor written on Harry's sword. The way he was close to Lords Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, Lily and James's best friends. How Sirius and Remus mentioned that they were close friends with Harry's father, Prongs. The way the Gryffindor soldiers respected Harry. How she had never heard of the House of Potter amongst the Gryffindor nobility. And Harry's emerald green eyes. How everyone said he had his mother's eyes. When Hermione had looked at the portrait of Queen Lily, she had thought the eyes looked familiar. Of course they looked familiar: they were identical to Harry's!
Tears suddenly started falling down her face. Harry noticed the tears and took a step towards her. "Hermione, what's wrong?" he asked, concern shining in his emerald eyes.
"You're a prince," whispered Hermione. "You're King James and Queen Lily's son. You're the heir to the throne of Gryffindor. Why didn't you tell me?"
Harry was surprised. "I thought you knew," he said. "It wasn't a secret. I thought everybody knew that the House of Potter was the Gryffindor royal family."
Hermione remain silent for a moment as she stared into Harry's green eyes. She finally whispered "I love you, Harry." Then, before he could stop her, she turned around and ran out of the room.
'Idiot!' she thought to herself as she ran, more tears streaming down her cheeks. 'Why did you break down again?! Why did you tell him that?! He loves another woman! Now your friendship with him is ruined!' But there was no way that she could have kept it within herself any longer. It was bad enough that he was a knight and she was a farm girl. But now, she knew that he was actually a prince and whatever slight hope she had of being with him had crumbled away. Giving into despair, she had broken down completely.
Hermione continued running until she exited the Caverns of Power. She stopped short right at the mouth of the cave. A woman was waiting for her. A beautiful woman, with long golden blond hair and icy blue eyes. She was wearing tight, revealing, black robes and was carrying a dark staff, decorated with dragon claws. It was Icicle!