The Queen of Middle-Earth | Aragorn & Hermione

Chapter 1

"Sometimes the wrong choices bring you to the right places."

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Six months earlier, somewhere in England, Hermione, Ron and Harry had been invited to Fleur's and Bill's wedding.

It was a huge ceremony and the Weasleys had done their best to make the wedding as magical and beautiful as possible with the circumstances that were going on at the moment. It wasn't easy for witches and wizards to be themselves. Whenever magic was performed or even only spoken of, the humans raised the alarm. Witch-hunters were hunting the sorcerers down and they became cleverer every day.
Hermione remembered the days at school in history class, when they were talking about the witch-hunt in the middle ages. Back then the church only hunted women down, who were only in the slightest way different. Men weren't accused of witchcraft, even though wizards existed just like witches, even back then. At school in the muggle-world they taught the people, that sorcery and magic were only myths and that they should never make the same mistake the church had made back in the middle ages. Sadly humans were too scared of anything more powerful, than they were, so as soon as they found out that witchcraft wasn't a myth, they started to hunt sorcerers down again. It wasn't uncommon Hermione had been hiding or running away from humans who tried to catch her. She tried not to use spells on muggles, but sometimes she had no choice but to defend herself with magic. It didn't matter anymore anyways, because she had given herself and her skills away a long time before people started to hate magic. In the neighborhood, everybody knew about the magic she possessed, so she couldn't live at her own house like a normal person anymore.

At the wedding there were a lot of wizards and witches, who kept watch during the ceremony. They would send a light ball into the tent, where the people were celebrating as soon as they saw humans crossing the border of the magical bubble they had created to hide the party.

Hermione looked out for her friends. Harry and Ron had been her best friends ever since she had met them ten years ago. Ron was standing in a corner with beer in his hand, gazing at some French girls dancing to the music. Hermione had to laugh at that picture; Ron would never stop drooling over Fleur's friends.

Harry was on the other side of the tent, talking to some people. When he saw her looking at him he nodded at her and started to walk over to her.

"Nice party isn't it?" He said when he arrived at her side.

"Yes, the Weasleys really did a great job." She answered.

Hermione watched how Fleur and Bill were dancing in the middle of the dance floor. She smiled. They looked so happy and in love, that it made Hermione feel a bit envious. Finding someone she'd want to spend a lifetime with was unimaginable for her, she feared she would never find a man she could love like that.

"Having fun?" Harry asked Ron with a smirk, when he joined them.

"Absolutely!" Ron smiled. "Did you know that "amor" means love in French?"

"Ron it's amour!" Hermione corrected him.
"Whatever." He took a sip of his beer. "I think I am in amour with one of the girls over there."

The witch rolled her eyes at her friend. Just when she wanted to tease him with the word he had just learned, people started to scream.
Hermione looked over to where the screams came from. There it was: the light ball everyone was afraid of that night. People started to run across the tent, trying to reach family-members, friends or the exit.
"Witch-hunters!" someone screamed.

Hermione saw Fleur and Bill kissing each other tenderly.
"I love you." Fleur whispered.
Somehow this picture seemed familiar, like she had seen it in a dream a long time ago.