The pain Hermione felt was something she never wanted to experience ever again. It was worse than any migraine or anything she could have imagined. She couldn''t tell how long it lasted, just that the moment it was gone, she blacked out. When she returned to reality, she was sitting on the couch, fanned by Elodie, and Brigitte gently stood over her, pressing a cold, wet sponge against her forehead.
"Hermione? You okay?" She whispered, seeing her open her eyes.
"No..." She groaned in answer, feeling she was about to cry.
"It will pass." Fleur commented from the side, setting up a portable Pensieve, pulling its pieces out from her holding bag. "I knew you were strong, Hermione, but you are even stronger than you think. When you feel ready, you can start remembering; now your thoughts should sort themselves out; you are no longer under their wretched spell!"
Although the others felt happy hearing it, they were all a bit taken aback by the harshness of Fleur''s voice and actions. Following her advice, when Hermione tried thinking, a sharp pain shot through her mind, making her wince, forgoing the idea for now. It was still too much.
"I''m fine..." she whispered, smiling at her friends, taking over from Brigitte to hold the icepack to her head.
Glancing at Fleur, she was already immersed in her memories, examining them without waiting. It was then Hermione realized how anxious and impatient Fleur was. Looking at her trembling figure, this Fleur Delacour was not the elegant and dependable student she looked up to. This woman was not the same one she remembered. That Fleur was an exemplary leader of the girls within Beuxbatons Academy... this... impostor was not her.
"Good... they are here!" Fleur exclaimed, raising her head, her eyes glinting in a savage light. "You did meet them, Hermione; they don''t even disguise themselves! Hah, the audacity! The only problem is that you were knocked out and don''t remember where their cabin was. You also missed a lot when they brought you out; you were probably, once again, sent to sleep. How many cabins are here?"
"Twenty... I think." Elodie answered as for Hermione; even recalling the number made her head feel it would split. Thinking itself was hurting her.
"We need to be careful." Fleur continued, walking up and down before them, her arms crossed and her fingers constantly tapping. "If they realize we are onto them, they can slip away. We will strike them hard when they are not expecting it. I bet they think they are safe... this is our best chance."
"How are we going to find them? Go knocking at the doors?" Brigitte asked jokingly, but the stare she received from Fleur made her drop the smile and feel threatened.
"Don''t sabotage me. This is a severe situation, and you are a liability if you are not being serious. Two boys already thought it was just a game and died..." Hearing that it wasn''t just Ceiline who perished further shocked the girls, but Fleur continued, not giving them time to process it. "I came prepared." With that, she brought out another bag from her holding bag, surprising the girls.
"What is that?" Lodie murmured, and Hermione answered, which she also always managed to do back in school.
"A Nab-Sack..."
"A what?" They asked while Fleur nodded in appreciation.
"It is an enchanted bag," Hermione continued, fighting back her headache, "that can hold multiple animals. There is a magical space created within where the animals can live while being transported from one place to another. It is usually used to transport magical beasts without the notice of muggles, but stronger creatures, like dragons, must be heavily sedated or subdued to be put into it."
"Even then, they can break out, so no, dragons and the like are transported in a different way." Fleur smiled, slightly correcting her, "And no, I am not planning on putting the fugitives into it. A mage can easily break out, tearing it apart. But I do have beasts here that will help us!"
"Roosters?" The girls asked her the moment she pulled one scared bird out by the neck.
"Somehow, the boy had learned to turn into a basilisk."
"WHAT?!"
"Yes." Fleur nodded, putting the bird back into the bag, ignoring the shouts of the trio. "And it is not just an imitation. His eyes can indeed kill, and his venom is deadly. I attacked its animagus body once; it can withstand spells, but we don''t know to what degree. That is why we MUST catch them off-guard. We have to eliminate the boy first."
"Eliminating..." Hermione murmured to herself, feeling Fleur did not mean knocking him out. It was at that moment that a young, male voice echoed within her mind, in her memories. "I don''t want to kill innocents. Don''t trust the Order; they are not as good as they paint themselves to be."
"His girlfriend is also tricky, so be on the lookout. She can turn into an owl, so don''t let her escape to the skies!"
"How can they be an animagus yet be this young?" Elodie grunted, feeling fear creeping up her back, "What are they teaching in that school of theirs?"The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
"All things that are wicked." Fleur snorted, "We heard that in their first year, the two killed a teacher because she disciplined them. Hogwarts is a bed of evil, filled with cockroaches and bedbugs! A good cleansing is what it needs!"
This was ridiculous. Of course, Hermione couldn''t say it out loud... but it was. She was speaking like a radical fanatic, like how she remembered the words of the first mages she ever met back in Britain. When her magic first manifested, she was still young, but she still remembered the strange people coming to their homes.
Her parents were strangely frozen in place while she was being examined and deemed to be a ''mudblood,'' which she did not understand back then. It was a scary experience because she was brought away. Kidnapped... and her parents didn''t even react to it. She heard the same words about being cleansed or getting rid of, right until she met with someone who was kind to her. She still remembers his name, Angus Anguine. She memorized it because the other men looked at him fearfully and obeyed all of his commands.
It was he who explained to her what was happening and told her that he would save her. Becoming a witch was the scariest experience Hermione had ever had to go through. Realizing that there was a wholly hidden word, one where she was an unwanted person because her parents were magicless, was not something that she could understand back then. It just made everything even more terrifying.
Still, she was, in the end, reunited with her parents, without the usage of spells, and after a long explanation, she and a handful of other kids who were in the same predicament were secretly transferred to a small village. They didn''t stay there for long, only for around a week, getting supplies, their first wands, and whatnot, before they were put on the move again, using ancient magic, transporting them straight to France under the mask of a thunderstorm.
It was after she attended Beauxbatons that she finally learned that it was a version of a Port Key they used back then to escape from Britain. The magical knowledge housed in that beautiful chateau of a school was awe-inspiring. Even after everything she had to go through, the world of magic was her new passion. Finishing her first year, she had nowhere to go, so she remained there throughout the summer, spending most of her time in the library. Its effect was visible the moment their second year came, as Hermione became the top student of her year, heads above the rest. Some even considered accelerating her and making her skip a year or two, but she refused. She didn''t want to finish school early... she wanted to stay there. As long as possible...
"Hermione?" Brigitte asked, seeing her distant gaze, jolting Hermione''s body with her words.
"Sorry... my head is not straightened out yet..."
"You all three just focus on the girl!" Fleur expressed, dressed and ready, waiting for them as she wanted to go and find her marks. Looking at her, she held a weird, anteater-like creature in her hands that was constantly sticking out its purple tongue, licking the air.
"A Sniffler?" Hermione whispered, standing up, realizing it was brought here to find Fleur''s enemies as the beast was hypersensitive towards magic. It would seek it out and be near mages, constantly feeding off the residue of magic surrounding them.
"Yes." Fleur smiled with confidence, "This one is already fed up with my magic, so it will want some new snacks. We will let it find our fugitives. Your job will be to fight and capture the girl; leave the boy to me!"
...
....
......
I was pretty tired as we stayed up all night and barely slept throughout the next day. Quincy was finishing up the potions, bottling those that were ready. To not be in the way, I checked our supplies, organized our bottomless bags as much as possible, and prepared to leave soon.
"We will sleep like a log tonight!" I joked while Squeaky served us dinner an hour later.
"For sure!" Quincy agreed with a yawn, "Just smelling the food makes me sleepy..."
I was about to reply when I felt something that eluded me for months now. That tingling sensation shot up my spine like a needle, signaling the approach of imminent danger. In turn, it sent all my senses into overdrive, slowing time for my brain and making it process everything that was happening around me. I already knew this meant that Herpo wasn''t sleeping; he was simply ignoring me... until now... When I was in genuine danger. I wanted to shout, stand up, and cover Quincy, but my body was already in motion, raising my wand to cast a spell. As to what spell? I didn''t even know myself.
It sounded like a train derailing next to us, crashing through our cabin, but it wasn''t that. It was snow. It was like an avalanche coming through the roof, burying us instantly. Somehow, I knew that it wasn''t an avalanche. It was a spell... I could sense the magic in the air and the way the snow lifted out, forming something that of a fist and smashing back down; it was enough to tell me we were being attacked.
...
....
......
Hermione, Brigitte, and Elodie stood frozen in place, their wands slightly trembling in their hands as they watched a ten-meter-tall troll-like golem made out of pure snow pummeling the log cabin, smashing it into smithereens. This was... wild, destructive, and deadly... Yet Fleur stood still, controlling it with her wand, sending in attack after attack.
The ambush was a success, but if anything, Hermione was doubting they even survived it. This was way too brutal. Was this still the Fleur Delacour she looked up to? She barely recognized the young woman and those cold eyes that watched on without blinking.
When the golem stopped attacking, Fleur dispelled it, letting the snow fall to the wayside. What remained behind were the ruins of a home and three bodies lying there.
...
....
......
I felt my head pounding as something was desiring to take control over me. I could hear Herpo''s voice telling me the same thing repeatedly.
"Change... Change already... Change boy... Change..."
I managed to protect myself... somewhat. The shield charm I raised resisted, but I still felt horrible. Worse... looking up, I recognized Quincy, lying there face down in the snow... Squeaky wasn''t moving either, and I could see a tinge of red around her body. I heard muffled voices speaking in French, and I didn''t need to focus to pick out Fleur''s voice.
"Change... Or you die..."
"Leave... none alive..." I grunted, pushing myself up, shaking off the snow as I felt my body swell, ripping my clothes apart.
"Sssssssuperb...." echoed a loud hiss, sending shivers through the four Beauxbatons'' students as an enormous snake rose up from the cold snow before them, its scales glittering in an unusual, dark-purple color, filled with the power of the dark arts.