ꜱᴇʀᴘᴇɴᴛɪɴᴇ ꜱᴇʀɪᴇꜱ | ᴛᴏᴍɪᴏɴᴇ

Serpentine, ch. 35

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

"Hermione?" Harry said again, as though he was savoring the sound of her name after being deprived of saying it for so long. Then, like waking from a dream, he shook his head and said firmly, "Hermione, this is between me and Voldemort. He's right, you're interfering. You need to step aside."

Harmony said nothing to him. She didn't look away from Voldemort.

Though Harry was taken aback by her behavior, he did not lower his wand.

"My Lord," Harmony pleaded, as though trying to coax the blazing sun to stop shining. Several people gasped when they heard this. She didn't care. "My Lord, please listen to me. You must leave here. You have to forget about Harry tonight."

Voldemort barked out a laugh, cold and humorless. "You're mad, woman. Why should I do that?"

"What are you saying, Hermione?" Harry said. "What has gotten into you? How can you call him that? Your Lord?"

Again Harmony ignored Harry. I'm saving your neck, she thought, but directed her words only to her Master. "You need to trust me. You said that you did earlier, because you gave me the charm."

"I thought I could trust you," he said. "That was before I discovered you'd only been lying to me since the day we met."

"I never lied to you!" Harmony protested hotly. "I just didn't tell you the whole story."

"You lied."

"You never asked me about where I came from. You accepted me for who I was, and was proud of me all the same."

"I was proud of what you could do."

"But so what if I'm Muggleborn! It's only my heritage. It has nothing to do with what power I'm capable of," Harmony insisted. "It doesn't change anything."

"It changes everything!" Master replied, his eyes wide. "Have you ever heard of a Mudblood who ruled over Slytherin Purebloods? It's inconceivable."

"But how can you say that?" she exclaimed. "You, yourself, have Muggle blood running through your veins."

The whispers from the crowd ceased. No one dared breathe a sigh. It was as though the world stopped turning.

Voldemort's eyes had gone so cold that she froze under his gaze. "My mother was a direct descendant of Salazar Slytherin himself. That is more than most Purebloods can say." He paused, letting his words sink in. Then his hostile eyes looked over her shoulder at Harry. "Now get out of my way."

It was as though his words unleashed the gates to hell. A flood of Aurors stormed the entrance of the Hall. With fifty or so witches and wizards blazing a trail of spells in their wake, the Great Hall was thrown into immediate chaos. The crowd of people scattered, causing a great deal of confusion as Aurors came with their eyes and wands trained on the Dark Lord at the center of the room.

Voldemort and his reluctant heir did not say another word, but exchanged a glance as their quarrel was momentarily forgotten. Harmony jumped closer to him, and with their combined power they conjured a Cascadia. Because their energies were united, the shield surrounding them rippled with countless shades of blue.

Some Aurors collided into the shield like it was a brick wall and they crumpled to the ground, unconscious. The rest of the army lobbed spell after spell at them in hopes of weakening their defenses. But with the two of them combined, their Cascadia protection was unwavering.

When Harmony was sure that they were safe, she turned back to her Master. She was met with furious blue eyes that flashed fiercer than the blue light of their shield.