So, this story is reluctantly posted…there are two main warnings for this story, 2nd is cursing, not the magical spells kind, and 1st is incest…

It's up to you all if you enjoy!

o.O.o

Hermione knew she was different from other people since her first day of primary school but hardly minded and kept her head down. She discovered, one day while running from a few bullies, that she could jump higher than the average human, another day she discovered she could set her bullies clothing on fire to create a diversion so she could hide, and on one particular day in First year, she discovered she could breathe underwater.

Her twin couldn't help being noticed on that particular day.

Arthur gave her bullies a thrashing that had him suspended for two days, but that also put him at the centre of attention. She was able to hide how others bullied her from her father and brother, but that day brought everything to light.

The day her brother was allowed back at school was the day of their fieldtrip to the Aquarium. He stayed particularly close to her throughout the day, but near lunchtime was when Roland and his friends were becoming bolder, seeing as their teachers were distracted by preparations. Roland chose one particular moment to shove Arthur into the glass of the tank where the sharks and other marine life were minding their own business. Somehow, miraculously, the glass didn't break until everyone was clear of the underground area, and somehow the sharks remained tranquil.

It was then that Hermione discovered her brother Arthur was just as different as her…and she didn't feel so alone anymore.

It was hard for Hermione to let her father and brother in on some of the moments of her life. She often wished for her mother, but a relationship between her mother and her small family was not to be. Her mother was alive as far as she knew, but stayed away for their protection.

Everyday Hermione repeated her mother's name, like a mantra, in her head.

Atlanna. Atlanna. My mother is Atlanna.

How she wished she knew her mother, that she could know the face behind the name and see more than a picture, that she could have at least one conversation with her about being different, because she suspected she was different from everyone in a way that wasn't half-Atlantean.

About the time of Arthur's display at the Aquarium, he started disappearing down to the shore every morning and afternoon. He asked Hermione to go with him a few times, but she was busy with various school projects and homework. He mocked her for always being at the top of the class and she would point out that he was right behind her.

Arthur liked being the 'average kid', but he was so much more.

Hermione felt he had a destiny that they couldn't yet comprehend.

"Hermione," her father called her one evening.

Her father lived for her and her brother.

She knew he still loved their mother with his whole heart and he kept busy with their daily lives to distract himself. Hermione suspected he needed the distraction so that he wouldn't throw himself in the ocean and swim after their mother.

He had been a lighthouse keeper when he met Atlanna, but now he could say he was also a dentist working with an older, more experienced colleague to discuss plans on opening a practice in their small coastal town. He still walked out to the edge of the dock every morning since their mother's departure, waiting and waiting for Atlanna to come back to her family, but he'd be ready to open the dentistry two hours before afternoon to work off his worry and disappointment that another day had gone by.

Hermione and Arthur watched him every morning and learned love and devotion from his examples. Not a day, hour, or minute went by that he didn't show that same love for Hermione or her older twin.

"Papa," Hermione smiled as he walked into their home and quickly served him dinner. He fondly pulled on her plait and kissed the top of her head before her brother ran downstairs to make up his own plate.

"How was school this week?" Tom asked his daughter.

"I kept Arthur out of trouble," Hermione said teasingly.

"Oi! I'm the one keeping you out of trouble!" Arthur exclaimed.

"I'm happy you're both keeping each other out of the Headmaster's office," Tom replied.

"Arthur is the one who's landed in Headmaster Dean's office a few times," Hermione said primly.

"And it was to keep the bullies in line!" Arthur defended himself.

"I thank you for that," Hermione responded, giving him a thankful smile. She put her head on his shoulder while reaching around him to give him a hug. Arthur scooted closer and placed his arm around her shoulder while they both ate and their father watched them with great affection.

A knock broke through their family moment and Tom looked at Arthur pointedly.

"If that's Headmaster Dean," he said playfully as he moved to stand.

"Sit, papa." Hermione quickly stood up and rushed toward the door, followed by Arthur. She opened the door to find an older woman and a scowling, raven-haired man wearing period clothing. Arthur quickly stepped in front of her while Hermione placed her hands on his shoulders. "Good evening," Hermione greeted.

"Can we help you two with anything?" Arthur asked pointedly, cutting through his younger sister's politeness.

"I am Professor Minerva McGonagall and this is Professor Severus Snape. May we speak with Tom Curry, concerning his daughter?" The woman asked.

"I'll go call him," Hermione said to their guests while Arthur questioned the two professors on the nature of their visit. She entered the kitchen to find it dark. "Papa?" Hermione asked into the darkness.

"Happy birthday to you," Tom started singing while lighting the candles on her birthday cake. "Arthur!" He called before singing the next line.

"We have visitors wanting to see you," Hermione said as they heard footsteps heading toward the kitchen.

"You and Arthur are more important," Tom replied, then started singing and lighting more candles on another cake when Arthur entered the kitchen. "Happy Birthday to my dear children, Happy birthday to you." He finished singing and waited patiently for Hermione to blow out her candles while Arthur was already digging into his cake.

"Thank you, papa," Hermione smiled before she cut out a few pieces of her own cake for their unexpected guests then put on some water for tea.

"Hermione tells me you are professors," Tom said to the two people in his kitchen while stealing bits of Arthur's cake and taking bits from the slice Hermione served him. "Sorry about my son," he said with a fond smile. "He has quite an appetite for cake."

"As I told your daughter and son, Mister Curry," Professor McGonagall began, "I am Professor Minerva McGonagall and this is Professor Severus Snape."

Professor Snape scowled at Arthur's manners, but Hermione merely smiled and handed him a cup of tea and another slice of her cake.

"We are here to offer Miss Granger a place at our school," Professor McGonagall continued speaking.

"Miss Granger?" Arthur asked. "There's no such person living here."

"There is," Professor Snape's deep bass corrected the younger boy with sharp precision. "Miss Hermione J. Granger-Curry, to be exact."

"Our Hermione has inherited," Tom breathed in amazement and smiled knowingly.

"I've inherited what?" Hermione asked.

"Magic, Miss Granger," Professor McGonagall spoke quite seriously.

"Magic?" Hermione and Arthur asked simultaneously with disbelieving expressions.

"Magic," Tom confirmed. "I knew you were just as special as your brother as soon as you entered this world, dadrling," he said to Hermione. "You both have great destinies to fulfil."

"Why am I Miss Granger?" Hermione asked. "How do you know I've inherited magic?"

"You held the glass together," Arthur said to Hermione with a thoughtful expression. "Our first year when Roland pushed me into the tank and the sharks started trying to break through, it was you that held it together until everyone was safely evacuated!"

"That type of glass is strong," Hermione reminded him. "It has to be to withstand all that water pressure."

"It should have broken before the sharks were calmed," Tom said to Hermione. "It was due to be replaced that next week."

"How did Roland and his thugs catch fire?" Arthur asked. "I saw them heading toward the infirmary months before the aquarium outing."

"They just did," Hermione said weakly.

"Those are very good examples of accidental magic," Professor McGonagall said, impressed. "You must be predominantly in tune with the fire element."

"So I may have magic," Hermione conceded. "Why are you calling me by my father's middle name, and more importantly, what school do you teach at and what positions do you hold?"

"First," Professor McGonagall started, "I am the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I teach Transfiguration while Master Severus Snape, known to you and the student body as Professor, teaches Potions."

"This is the most awesome prank you have ever played on us, dad!" Arthur said with a snort.

"This is not a prank, boy," Professor Snape hissed and scowled. He pulled out a polished stick from his sleeve and vanished the remains of Arthur's cake, leaving Arthur and his area spotless of icing and crumbs.

"Okay," Hermione said in a small voice. "I'm a witch and you knew, papa?"

"Yes," Tom said with a wide smile. "Your great-grandfather, Hermione and Arthur, on my mother's side was Hector Dagworth-Granger." Professor McGonagall let a small gasp escape and Hermione wondered at the woman's reaction. "He eventually dropped Dagworth to protect himself and our family from a wizard named Grindelwald. I understand that wizard was disposed?" He asked his two guests.

"He has," Professor McGonagall replied.

"I am guessing," Tom continued, "these two professors are calling you Miss Granger because that is how you are known in Hogwarts's Book of Admittance."

Arthur squeezed Hermione's hand in reassurance and she gave him a faint smile.

Her surname was only the first thing that made her feel separate from her brother and father.

The summer before her Second year at Hogwarts, she whispered to Arthur the details of her first school year her first night home. He worried and threatened to tell their father about her bullies and those who called her mudblood. He nearly told their father about Harry Potter and the dark wizard who killed his parents, the one who was waiting in the shadows to return to a human body.

Hermione made Arthur promise not to tell their father anything and locked away her history books. Arthur would get suspicious if he discovered she had done so, but he would busy himself with reading her other books and most likely not figure out he hadn't read any magical history books until she graduated Hogwarts.

She was counting on that.

The summer after her Second year, Arthur demanded a reason on why she hadn't written him or their father in months. She wished she could tell him the true reason, but had to tell him she had a quidditch accident in class and had been unconscious for most of the school year, then complained on how behind she was in her studies and shut herself away in her room to grieve and study.

She felt horrible, filtering the truth and twisting it into something else to ease her father and brother's minds and worries.

She made sure to write her family every other day during her third year. Arthur was her main comfort during the time Harry and Ron decided to ignore her for a few weeks. She took Arthur in confidence as to the true reason why her two friends weren't speaking to her.

'Harry's godfather escaped Azkaban,' she wrote. 'The school is on lockdown until Sirius Black is captured. Harry received an anonymous gift yesterday, it was the latest firebolt. I worried that Black had sent it and cursed the broom so I reported it to Professor McGonagall. Ronald convinced Harry that I was a jealous know-it-all and turned my completely reasonable worries into jealously.

As if I would be jealous of a broom!

We both know I have a certain fondness for land, especially water!

Arthur was her sole comfort during those days when Hermione worried that they were drifting apart, being separated most of the year and her hiding the truth that Voldemort would return in their lifetime. Arthur pointed out that Ronald was jealous of her friendship with Harry.

Harry and Ronald met first on the train which created a special bond between them. It made Hermione sad to realise the truthfulness of her brother's words. Her friendship with Harry, especially Ronald, was never the same to her again. Harry went out of his way to show how sorry he was when he saw her point of view, but Ronald expected forgiveness, which he never noticed strained their friendship.

Hermione was thankful to be home after that school year.

Arthur welcomed her back with his warm arms and strong, steady heart beating into her ear as she laid her head on his chest. Their papa wrapped the two of them in his arms before walking them out of the station. Hermione was thankful to be heading back home to her family.

If she sought out her father and brother more that summer they didn't complain. Arthur made sure to spend more time with her than he did alone on the shore near the cliffs.

Hermione wondered at the oddity that she was born near the sea yet had never swam in its waters. She found peace near shore, collecting shells and anything else that was left behind from the tide. It was during the time she considered wetting her feet that someone covered her eyes and spoke into her ear.

"Guess who?"

"Oh my!" Hermione squealed happily and turned into her friend's arms. "Harry! What are you doing here?"

"My aunt and uncle decided they were going to spend the summer near the ocean, and here we are," he explained with a goofy smile. "I never knew you lived here."

"No one ever asked," Hermione said with a shrug. Harry looked at her a few seconds then seemed sad.

"I've never asked much about you, have I," he stated. "I'm an appalling friend."

"You're not," Hermione replied. "At school, were away from our families and homes. It doesn't occur to most people to ask when those things are out of sight and mind."

"Ron told me all there was to know about the Weasleys the day we met on the Express," Harry pointed out. "It should have occurred to me to ask you about your family and home."

"Mi!" Arthur called from a distance, running toward them. "What are you doing out here?" He asked suspiciously, then looked down at her bucket and smiled. "More shells for your collection, I see."

"Harry, meet my brother Arthur," Hermione introduced her friend. "Arthur, this is my friend Harry, from school."

"Nice to meet you, Harry," Arthur said with a strained smile as he shook hands with Harry. Hermione noticed Harry wince though he didn't complain.

"Nice to meet you," Harry replied. "Hermione's my only other friend besides Ron."

"Did you get your feet wet?" Arthur asked Hermione, ignoring Harry's comment.

"I thought about it," Hermione answered, "but Harry distracted me from the thought."

"It's nearly lunch," Arthur commented as he placed his arm around her shoulders.

"I lost track of time," Hermione said, cuddling into him. "Why don't you come with us?" She asked Harry.

"My relatives locked me out of the room so I can come with," Harry responded and shrugged.

"They locked you out?" Hermione inquired as they started walking.

"Said something about not wanting to leave their delinquent nephew with their valuables," he mumbled for only Hermione to hear. She huffed indignantly in reply.

"Well you can have all your meals with us while you're here," she said determinedly as she marched the two young men into the house. "You two go wash up while I start on lunch. Arthur, please show Harry to my bathroom."

"Follow me," Arthur said, not pleased with the prospect of having Harry in their home for any length of time.

"I'm sorry, you know," Harry said to Arthur when Hermione headed into the kitchen. "I'm not sure if Hermione told you everything about our argument this past year, but I'm sorry I didn't listen to her to begin with. Hermione's this amazing person that I look up to, and I let Ron talk her down to me. I put him in his place. I didn't tell Hermione and I know Ron never will, but I let him know that Hermione was more of a friend than he was. I told him Hermione was looking out for me first, rather than letting fun on a maybe cursed broom come before my safety. I know he apologised to Hermione, but I also know he wasn't very sincere."

"Why are you telling me this?" Arthur asked with crossed arms.

"Because you're obviously looking out for Hermione," Harry said as they stopped in front of a door. "I want to be a better friend to her."

Arthur smiled and patted Harry's shoulder.

"Do that and we won't have any more problems."

Hermione had a platter of sandwiches set on the table with a cold pitcher of lemonade ready when they came back down. Harry waited for Arthur to dig in before Hermione urged him to do the same because Arthur would eat the whole platter before they could grab their first sandwich.

"You would fit right in with the Weasleys," Harry said to Arthur.

"The family seems too self-centred for me," Arthur replied, causing Hermione to snort.

"As if you don't seem that way," she responded.

"I take offense to that!" Arthur exclaimed.

"I said seem," Hermione pointed out. "Everyone knows you're a big fluffy teddy under all that muscle and machismo."

"Did you have to give that away?" Arthur complained. "I had Harry convinced I would whip him into shape if he ever messed with you again!"

"You didn't!" Hermione retorted, horrified.

"It wasn't so bad," Harry said reassuringly. "Though I think you're wrong about how tender Arthur is under all that machismo."

"Arthur is perfectly harmless," Hermione replied as she hugged her brother. He pulled her out of her chair and twirled her about the kitchen while she giggled and squealed.

"Perfectly harmless to you," Harry muttered while the two siblings were distracted.

"You get to be here for our party!" Hermione said excitedly when Arthur set her down.

"What kind of party?" Harry asked.

"It's our birthday party," Arthur answered. "Hermione's away at school when our day comes around so we celebrate together when she's home."

"You were born on the same day?" Harry asked. "That's cool."

"We're actually twins, Harry," Hermione laughed. "Arthur's older by an hour."

"You're a twin?" Harry said in astonishment.

"Yes, though Arthur didn't inherit magic like I did," Hermione replied.

"I thought you were muggleborn," Harry responded.

"Technically, she is," Arthur said. "Our great grandfather was a wizard though. He came from a long line of wizards but his son was a squib and married a muggle." They knew not to mention their mother was Atlantean.

"So, will you join us at our party?" Hermione brought the conversation back to topic.

"I'll do my best," Harry promised. "I'm supposed to be back at the room an hour before midnight, but I have to go see if my relatives need me."

"Alright," Hermione smiled. "I hope we'll see you tonight for dinner."

After Arthur and Harry left the house, Hermione headed out to her father's practice to take him a lunch. His business partner had retired at the beginning of her Second year of school and her father seemed to always forget to take a lunch with him to work. The walk to the practice was exercise and more fresh air for her, but sometimes the people she came across on the path left something to be desired.

"Princess," Roland and one of his friends stopped her. She tried to go around them but they blocked her. "What's wrong?" He asked mockingly as he traced her shoulder with his fingers. "The only attention you want is from your father and brother?"

"Get your brain out of the gutter before I get it out of your skull," Hermione threatened and shook off his hand.

"How's a delicate little princess like you going to do that to a tough man like me?" He scoffed tightening his hand around her arm and pulling her into him.

"Leave me alone!" She pushed him back but he laughed at her weak effort. She would have used her full strength but he would find himself flying over a mile with nothing to stop him.

"You can't hurt fly, princess," he laughed as he tried to kiss her on the mouth but she turned her head. "Don't be like that now."

"Get away from my sister," Arthur growled behind Hermione.

"There's your handler now," Roland smirked.

"Are you alright, Hermione?" Harry asked. Hermione turned to see her friend standing beside her brother, both with clenched fists and jaws.

"And who would you be?" Roland asked Harry. "Haven't seen you around these parts. You think he's another of Princess's cocks?" He asked his friend.

"I see you still haven't learned your lesson," Arthur hissed as he wrenched Roland's opposite arm and crushed his wrist between his fingers. Roland whimpered and quickly released Hermione. "The last time I told you it would hurt if you ever came within 50 yards of my sister, and you would regret it if you ever touched her. I see you're going to have to regret it."

"Arthur," Hermione gasped, horrified.

"I'm sorry!" Roland squealed. His friend turned tail and ran, leaving Roland to fend for himself.

"Not as sorry as you're going to be in a minute," Arthur promised.

"He's not worth it, Arthur," Hermione pleaded as she tried to pull him away, but he seemed to have gotten stronger than she remembered. "Please, let's just go to uncle Glen. He'll straighten out Rolan-"

"Arthur," said a foreign voice with an exotic accent. "Why are you using violence against this…child?"

"He was hurting my sister," Arthur growled to the man as he wrenched Roland who sobbed and moaned in pain. "No one hurts my sister."

"Your sister?" The man asked, confused. Hermione turned to quickly glance at the man who in turn looked at her with surprise. "Queen Atlanna!" He murmured in shock and quickly bowed.

"Atlanna is my mother," Hermione said warily as she stepped closer to Harry. "How do you know her?"

"I am Vulko," the man answered. "Arthur can tell you more about me," he said while glancing at Harry and quickly turned to Arthur. "Do what you must to protect your sister."

"Why thank you," Arthur grinned and punched Roland. Hermione gasped at the sound of a few cracks.

"Arthur! No!" She shouted as she ran to him and pulled down his raised fist. "Please, wait!" She pleaded. "He's already hurt more than enough, let's just call on Glen to take care of Roland. We can walk him down to the constabulary so uncle Glen can take our statements and leave them to deal with him."

Arthur picked up a moaning Roland and set him on his feet. Harry suspected that would be him if he ever hurt Hermione emotionally or physically. He winced when Arthur punched Roland with an uppercut and they all heard his jaw crack.

"Arthur!" Hermione screamed.

"I'm done," Arthur said, then picked up Roland and tossed him over his shoulder. "Are you coming?" He asked.

"We should probably get him to the A and E, then call uncle Glen," Hermione said worriedly as they started walking.

Arthur laughed.

"Uncle Glen will do," he said firmly, leaving no room for Hermione to protest. "You should get dad's lunch to him. Uncle Glen can talk to you later tonight," he said to Hermione. "Coming Vulko?"

"I shall wait for you down on the shore," Vulko replied Arthur then turned to Hermione. "I look forward to meeting you again, may I ask your name?"

Hermione looked at Arthur uncertainly.

"Sorry, Hermione, meet Vulko," he introduced her. "He's an old friend of mums. He's good, don't worry."

"Nice to meet you," Hermione said uncertainly as she shook the man's hand. "How long have you known my brother?" She asked suspiciously.

"I've known him since he was six," Vulko answered as he followed Hermione and Harry.

"You've known Arthur since we were six?" Hermione asked, surprised. "How did I not meet you until now?"

"An oversight on my part," Vulko answered. "Something that must be fixed right away. I must speak with your father."

"Alright," Hermione said tentatively as she took Harry's hand and squeezed it. "We're heading to his practice right now."

She spent the next few weeks avoiding Vulko, often using Harry as an excuse to not follow her brother down to the shoreline. She created projects and tasks that Harry helped complete. They had just finished rearranging the furniture in the main room while her dad relaxed and read from the journal when their fireplace flamed up with green flames and a red head slid into their living room.

"Harry! Hermione!" Arthur Weasley greeted enthusiastically.

"That. Was. Awesome!" Hermione's brother shouted excitedly when Mister Weasley slid out of the fireplace. "You have to show me how to do that, Mi!"

"You'll have to wait until I graduate," Hermione reminded her brother. "Mister Weasley," she turned to the older man who was introducing himself to her father while asking questions about various muggle appliances and objects in his view. "What brings you to our lighthouse quarters?"

A few more red heads flew out of the fireplace before Mister Weasley could answer and Hermione found herself exasperated with the family helping themselves into her home without any sort of permission from her or her family. She shared an annoyed glance with her father and brother.

"Nice home you have here, Harry," Ronald said, passing by Hermione without so much as a word or nod in greeting.

"It's Hermione's home," Harry corrected him. "She's been kind enough to let me spend the day with her while my relatives are out."

"Well what are you doing with 'Mione then?" Ron asked insultingly. "You should have come to our house. It's better than 'Mione having you stuck in a book all summer."

"Hermione," Harry said pointedly. "Has been planting in her family's garden for some fall harvesting, she's hardly had her nose in a single book the whole time I've spent with her," he said, then talked over Ron before he could speak again. "I've been with Hermione because my relatives are vacationing in Hermione's hometown and I've quite enjoyed being here."

"Then you should have owled me so you wouldn't be stuck with 'Mione all day," Ron said stupidly.

"Harry has hardly been stuck with my sister all day," Arthur said in annoyance. He could be a little numb in the head at times, but Ronald Weasley needed to have his head shaken a few times for him to wake up and think. His knuckles cracked and Harry gulped quietly. "In fact, it was Harry's choice to spend time with Hermione. He could have been out sunning on the beach or collecting shells, yet he was here of his own free will…without any of your input."

"Play nice, Arthur," Hermione said nonchalantly, doing her best not to smile. "Ronald is quite obtuse so you'll have to be as plain with him as vanilla."

"Oh?" Arthur asked.

"Why are you telling my dad to play nice?" Ron asked.

"My name is Arthur too," Arthur replied condescendingly, "and to be plain as vanilla Harry found your company lacking in intelligent conversation and tact, which is why he chose my sister Hermione over you. The reason I keep emphasising my sister Hermione's name is because she hates your nickname, and before you tell her she doesn't really mind it, I can tell you she does mind it. A whole lot. Hermione finds it quite annoying, so annoying that even I feel annoyed for her."

"Who do you think you are speaking for Hermione like that?" Ron asked indignantly, redder than the shirt he chose to wear that morning.

"Are you an imbecile?" Arthur asked. "Did you completely miss the whole sentence where I referred to Hermione as my sister? Maybe I should make that plain too, for your small brain," he growled. "Hermione is my little sister, my twin, we share the same mother and father, thus making us siblings. We came from the same womb. The same sperm and egg produced us, thus making Hermione my sister and me her brother."

"Calm down, Arthur," Tom warned and placed his hand on Arthur's shoulder.

"You should listen to your-"

"Enough, Ronald," Mister Weasley warned. "You have quite put your foot in your mouth for one day. Best be on your way home while I have a talk with Mister Curry and Harry's relatives."

"Bu-"

"Now, Ronald," Mister Weasley warned. "We will be having a conversation when I return home."

"Come one, baby bro," George said as he escorted Ron to the fireplace before he could protest again. He pushed him into the floo with a few grumbles while Hermione struggled not to roll her eyes.

It had been quite peaceful until Ronald Weasley came stumbling in with his inanity and tactlessness.

"I'm sorry for having it out with your son," Arthur apologised to Mister Weasley. Hermione nodded at him and he was relieved she wasn't glaring at him anymore...his sister could really make his life miserable if she chose to. "I'm sorry, dad," he said to his father.

"You were standing up for your sister," Mister Weasley replied. "I can only admire you for wanting to protect Hermione."

"We'll talk later," Tom said to Arthur.

"Now, I'm sorry for invading your home, Mister Granger," Mister Weasley said to Tom, "but we've come to invite Hermione and Harry along to the Quidditch World Cup!"

"It only happens every four years!" Fred and George said excitedly as Mister Weasley continued explaining.

Hermione frowned at them when they tried to get Arthur to try one of their confectionaries and stopped them from planting a dung bomb in one of his pockets. Arthur proved himself to them by stealing a couple of their bombs and planting one each in their shirt pockets.

"No fair," George said.

"Yeah," Fred continued, "He's got height on us and longer arms."

"Say, he's even taller than Percy," George pointed out.

"He'll probably be taller than us all by the time he's 17," Fred surmised.

"Why's Hermione so short and you're so tall?" They both asked Arthur.

"Genetics," Arthur and Hermione replied.

"I'm about the same height as our mother, according to our papa," Hermione said. "So not fair."

"I'm going to be even taller than you," Arthur grinned.

"You'll get colder before me," Hermione teased.

"I can carry you on my shoulders if you get hot down there near the ground," he retorted.

"No, thanks," she returned. "I'd rather not get a nosebleed all the way above sea level."

"Hermione, Arthur," Tom interrupted them with a grin. "Mister Weasley and I were just discussing the World Cup. Do you want to go, Hermione?" Tom asked. "You'll stay with the Weasleys the rest of the summer."

"Oh," Hermione a little dully. "I have a few autumn plants that need repotting, some summer harvests that need to be jarred and stored properly. I still have to rotate our food storage and Arthur promised to help me clean out the water tank this year-"

"Arthur and I can easily do that list ourselves," Tom said over Hermione.

"I usually do these things," Hermione quietly replied, doing her best to hold back her tears. "My summer is yours and Arthur's."

"You can refuse, of course," Mister Weasley spoke up.

"I don't feel right cutting my time short with my family, Mister Weasley," Hermione replied. "Though I thank you for the offer."

"It's quite fine, Hermione," Mister Weasley smiled reassuringly. "Harry?" He asked.

"Er," Harry looked uncertain.

"You should go," Hermione prodded. "It's your chance to leave your relatives behind."

"Do you think I would be able to come back after the World Cup?" Harry asked Mister Weasley.

"Perhaps Ginny and Ron would like to visit a few days after the Cup," Hermione suggested. "If that's alright with you, papa?"

"That's alright with me," Tom replied. "Perhaps we can extend the invitation to your two older sons?" He asked.

"I'll have to discuss this with Molly," Mister Weasley said, "but I think she would agree that we would enjoy a few days to ourselves. Mind you," he turned to Fred and George, "if your mother agrees we'll be sending Bill to check up on you."

"We'll be perfect angels," George and Fred said innocently.

"I'll believe that when Arthur and Hermione can eat chocolate malts without getting a sugar high," Tom snorted.

"You'll do," Mister Weasley chuckled. "Mind pointing me toward your relatives, Harry?" He asked.

"Perhaps it's best you go along, papa," Hermione warned.

"I'll show you to them," Arthur offered, stepping in front of Harry. "You should get Hermione to show you the water tank," he said to Harry.

"I'd like to see that too," Fred jumped in.

"Likewise," said George.

Hermione and Harry spent the next thirty minutes keeping Fred and George from getting into mischief at the water tank. George nearly fell in and Hermione had only been to the swimming hole five miles from their home once. Arthur was the stronger swimmer. Hermione was sorely lacking in swimming skills compared to her brother.

Nearly an hour later Hermione was becoming worried at her father and brother's absence. Harry helped her convince the twins into her home again so she could start on a late lunch, but she could tell he was a little worried himself at Tom, Arthur, and Mister Weasley's delay.

Hermione jumped when a knock sounded at the door and looked at Harry before putting down the knife for the salad she was preparing. Harry followed her to the door but Hermione was relieved and a tad annoyed at Vulko standing on the other side of the threshold.

"Hermione," he said in a way that seemed like something should be said before her name. He always blinked after and she knew he was uncomfortable with addressing her so informally.

"Vulko," Hermione replied. "You've come in time for lunch," she said with a smirk.

His eye twitched uncomfortably but took her up on her offer to join them. It was further than she had allowed him into her life after their first meeting.

Vulko had only known of Arthur. Queen Atlanna never had a chance to mention her daughter, Arthur's twin sister, before she was banished to the Trench. He suspected his Queen had tried to tell him of Hermione but lacked timing. Discovery of Arthur's existence only stunned their King long enough for his Queen to extract a promise from Vulko.

"Please, Nuidis," Queen Atlanna begged, "please train Arthur and-"

She never had a chance to mention her daughter.

Princess Hermione of Atlantis was completely unknown to King Orm and every underwater kingdom and their subjects. She had been unknown to Vulko until two weeks before, but now he knew it was his duty to train Princess Hermione alongside her brother.

She was hard to catch alone. The few occasions he was able to catch her alone she outmanoeuvred him by requesting his help with various tasks she had given herself, Harry Potter would then show up and she would dismiss him, leaving him without another opening to suggest training to her.

The princess was frustrating and he was at his last straw with her.

He was close to dragging her into the ocean and forcing training upon her. Arthur would be upset, naturally being overly protective of his younger sister, but Vulko could deal with Arthur.

"Fred! George!" Hermione chastised the two fiery headed boys. "Sit down and slice those cucumbers before I have to stick you to your seats!" She snapped at them.

"Yes, Mi," they replied and yelped, then rubbed their bottoms.

"My brother and father are the only people who can call me Mi," she hissed at them.

"Sorry, Hermione," they both apologised.

"Vulko," Hermione called him to attention. "This is George and Fred Weasley. Troublemakers. Don't take, eat, or drink anything they hand you and you'll be fine."

"I see," Vulko said warily.

"We're home!" Tom called out.

"Lunch will be done in five," Hermione replied. "Just need to set the table."

"I'll help with that," Arthur said as he entered the kitchen and started helping Harry with setting out plates, silverware, and glasses.

"There's enough here for everyone, Mister Weasley," Hermione said to him. "You both look exhausted," she said to her father and Mister Weasley.

"Vernon Dursley is-" Tom bit his tongue before he said something that might offend Harry.

"I understand," Harry responded. "I've had to live with them all my life."

Tom placed his hand on Harry's shoulder to show him solidarity, "You just come to us if you ever need anything, or contact Hermione. We'll find a way to get you away from your relatives."

"Arthur!" Hermione exclaimed over her brother's shoulder. "You're bruised! What happened?" She demanded.

"I never knew muggles could repel spells," Mister Weasley commented.

"It's just an amulet I had help creating," Hermione quickly replied. "Muggles aren't resistant to spells at all."

"You'll have to tell me how you created the amulet," Mister Weasley said interestedly.

Vulko received second-hand experience in how Princess Hermione deflected Mister Weasley's interest.

He started on his lunch, expecting the food and drink to be bland or odd, but received a mouth full of flavour washed down with something sweet and tart. He was nearly embarrassed to realise his eating was on par with Prince Arthur.

Hermione softly laughed behind her palm and gave him a fifth serving that he ate at a more dignified speed.

Tom and Arthur spent their time answering questions Mister Weasley had about muggle electronics, gadgets, and appliances, even children's bathing toys. Vulko tried to seem uninterested in their conversation but couldn't hold back his curiosity. A question slipped out that Hermione answered for him.

He was surprised at the depth of her knowledge.

Princess Hermione would be a priceless asset to Atlanta.

Now he understood how Arthur would bring their two worlds together.

"We'll see you in two days," Arthur promised Tom as they departed.

Hermione hugged Harry goodbye and told him to be safe. They saw the Weasleys to the living room while Vulko stood astonished at their transportation.

"They disappeared into the flames," he said, stunned.

"It's called flooing," Hermione said before heading back into the kitchen. He followed her after a few moments and helped her with cleaning up. Tom had gone back to work and Arthur was working on a summer project for school. Hermione was all alone and her friend wasn't there to distract her this time.

"May I talk to you about training, Princess?" Vulko asked.

"If I can point something out," Hermione replied.

"You may," he responded.

"Why do you want me to receive the same training as my brother?" She asked. "Atlanta only knows of Arthur. What would happen if they found out about me? Would I become something to be traded and bargained off to another kingdom for business, something to be bartered for peace? I refuse to give up my freedom for those archaic beliefs.

"I know what coming into contact with the ocean would do," she continued. "I figured that out when Arthur started training with you ten years ago. Orm will feel my presence, he'll send spies to look for me and all it will take is one glance for them to know who I am. I am the spitting image of my mother, after all."

"You are," Vulko agreed, but Hermione continued, not giving him the chance to persuade her toward something she felt was wrong for her.

"My days on land will be as limited as my mother's. I'll be dragged to Atlanta and either banished to the Trench for having the gall to exist, or married off to some barbarian who will do their best to prove I'm a mudblood," she hissed at him.

"Who called you a mudblood?" Arthur growled.

Hermione paled and her jaw clicked shut.

"Did you think you could bury our connection so deep that I wouldn't be able to 'see' you? Did you think you could hide your history books from me and I wouldn't find them?" Arthur asked. "That I don't know Voldemort is expected to rise again? That your friend Harry is tied up in some prophecy of him being a saviour for the world?"

She swayed and quickly grabbed the counter.

"What's this about a prophecy?" Vulko asked suspiciously.

"Did you know I write to Professor McGonagall?" He asked, ignoring Vulko. "I started during your Second year when you stopped writing. I know you spent those months in the hospital wing, petrified from the basilisk. Did you know I had to let Professor Snape test the potion to revive you on me?" He continued. "Our physiology is a mixture or our mother and father, if I hadn't suggested this to Professors McGonagall and Snape then you would have died from the regular antidote for petrification!" He barked.

"I know about Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew," Arthur revealed. "I know everything about your Third year from Professor McGonagall's point of view, but not yours." He took a deep breath. "Why did you start separating us from the truth? Why did you start separating us from your other world?"

"It was to keep you and papa safe," Hermione replied as she wiped at her eyes. "You don't know what I've seen, what I've experienced, Arthur. It was to keep my family safe from monsters like those men who think themselves gods and rulers of those weaker than them."

"We are supposed to be in this together!" Arthur shouted.

Hermione flinched, stepping back in surprise at his vehemence.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "Harry needs me."

"What about dad and me?" Arthur asked with a raised voice. "Do you think we don't need you too? Were you ever going to tell us about Voldemort?"

"I was going to tell you after I graduated Hogwarts," Hermione replied.

"Who was the blond rat that called you a mudblood?" He asked again.

"I thought I hid that," Hermione murmured.

"Why did you think you could hide it from me in the first place?" He inquired.

"I love you, Arthur," Hermione replied. "You're my other half, my soulmate, my irreplaceable friend and brother, but I wanted something for myself. You have Atlanta, you're the heir, the rightful king. I'm just Hermione, your shadow who will be overlooked because I was born female, dismissed because I'm a girl, traded off because that's all I'm good for in their eyes.

"I'm something valuable to Harry, to this cause. I may have to fight for equal rights, but I do have freedom to live and marry who I choose, when I choose, and one day these will come at a cost I will gladly pay if it means you and papa get to live and I die."

"What kind of society are you caught up in?" Vulko asked, horrified.

"I'm only as tangled up in that world as I want to be," Hermione retorted. "It's a lot better than being tangled up in Atlanta."

"I understand your feelings-" Vulko tried to explain.

"My feelings?" Hermione asked. "My feelings!" She shrieked.

"You should leave for now," Arthur suggested quickly, trying to tug Vulko out the door.

"My feelings!" Hermione repeated.

Vulko yelped and started patting his clothing, trying to put out a small fire that started on his shoulder. Arthur kept pulling him toward the nearest exit while Hermione glared daggers at him and he started fighting more small fires.

"How is this happening?" Vulko asked. "This is supposed to be safe from this element!"

"You'll find Hermione is more than special," Arthur commented as he pulled Vulko out the door.

Vulko was nearly set aflame, but they reached the ocean in time for Arthur to pull him under while Hermione stood on the dock and glared down at the spot Vulko had disappeared from.

"It's best you stay away from Hermione for now," Arthur said to Vulko. "What happened just now was just a taste of what she could do if she really put her mind to hurting you."

"She didn't even touch me," Vulko replied warily.

"Imagine if she did mean you harm," Arthur pointed out before turning to head back. "It might be safe to never bring up training to her again. If you feel you should still train her, consider doing so further inland. The sea isn't the only place with water."

Arthur spent the rest of the summer close to Hermione, often glaring down Ron when he stuck his foot in his mouth and upset Hermione. He became wary of Hermione and more conscious of his words during that summer he spent with his siblings and Hermione's family. Arthur wasn't satisfied that Ron had permanently learned to behave around Hermione, they wouldaway at school long enough for him to unlearn everything that had been glared into him.

He continued to write Professor McGonagall about what was going on at Hogwarts and was satisfied when Hermione started matching what the professor wrote in her letters. Most of the time Hermione knew more than her professor and he wondered why the adults at Hogwarts weren't paying better attention to their pupil's knowledge.

When the Yule ball came around, Arthur wrote out a polite request to Professor Snape to please keep an eye on Hermione. He didn't trust Krum and Ronald was already his tactless, imbecilic self again. He shared a few details of Ronald with Professor Snape in his request and received a short note in reply.

I will.

P. SS

Hermione wrote the next day, telling him of how Professor Snape was being harsher toward Ron than he usually was.

Arthur sat back with a satisfied smile.

Hermione felt her body react when she was submerged into the lake for the second task. The merman carrying her off with the others who were supposed to be rescued carried her with more care than she expected.

"You're supposed to be sleeping, Princess" he said to her.

"How do you know that?" Hermione asked in alarm.

"We know who you are, Princess Hermione," he replied. "We are the subjects of the Missing Kingdom. We are ruled by Chiefs because our Kings and royal families have died off long ago. You are the first of royal blood to find us. We now bow to you and support you as our Queen."

"Why me?" Hermione asked. "I'm female."

"We are not as closed-minded as the other kingdoms," he said with an amused smile.

"I'm not even an adult on land, how can you all support me as your Queen?" She asked.

"We've heard tales of your bravery, knowledge, and loyalty," he explained. "This last year alone, we have seen all three qualities in you. You called to a werewolf, putting your life at risk to save your friends. If those are not the actions of a ruler then we should have perished long ago.

"Sleep, Princess Hermione," he said softly, "Queen of the Missing Kingdom."

Hermione found her eyes drifting lower and lower until they finally closed.

She wondered what the merman's name was and thought she really must have been tired to forget her manners. She later wrote to Arthur of her vivid dream, mocking herself for thinking herself a Queen. He replied with his own amusement, but Vulko urged her to return to the merpeople before the week's end.

Hermione was surprised and highly unamused to find she hadn't dreamt at all.

When she exited the train at King's Cross, she didn't wait for her father and brother to find her. She reached out through her bond with Arthur to find them. When she found him, she hugged him tighter than a crustacean with fish caught in its claws, nearly breaking down when he hugged her back the same way.

Their father sensed something happening and hugged them both tightly before guiding them out of the station. Hermione shivered at the youngest Malfoy's gaze but determinedly kept staring straight ahead. Inwardly, she worried at his malicious stares at her family.

Arthur hugged her harder while Hermione melted into him. He was her safe harbour in a port that was overlooking the storm raging above them.

And it had only just begun.

o.O.o

"Arthur Curry!" Hermione growled as he pulled himself up onto the edge of the dock.

"Hermione Curry," Arthur mocked with a smirk.

"I told you I needed you to be back ten hours ago!" She snapped. "I had to rely on Vulko for helping me organise rotation shifts for the merpeople! You know they're wary of him because he still follows the old ways!"

"You think they think of me any better?" Arthur asked wryly.

"I know they do," Hermione retorted.

"Then why was Lahite glaring at me the whole time I was giving you advice last week?" He asked smartly.

"You rejected her advances," Hermione replied, trying not to laugh.

"Oh, well," he said while messing up his hair even more than it was after his swim, "no offense to her, but she's not my type."

"What is your type?" Hermione responded. "No, wait. Don't tell me. I'll just get something sarcastic in return, then I'll be left wondering if you were serious."

"You should try seawater sometime," Arthur said as he stood up. "All that freshwater is softening you up."

"I have to get back to work," Hermione digressed. "Papa needs his lunch in an hour, I already have it packed. All you'll have to do is deliver it."

"Why do you keep working for that damn Ministry?" He asked, walking beside her.

"It pays for my clothing and your hair products," Hermione responded.

"Oi!" He exclaimed as he opened the front door for her, then followed her into the main room. "I'm not the one that uses up five bottles of hair potion every morning in an effort to tame my wild curls. If you'd just embrace the sea you wouldn't have to pay an arm and a leg for that!"

"Nice try," Hermione retorted. "See you after work," she called over her shoulder before throwing in floo powder and shouting her destination into the floo.

"Eight years later and she still resists any training," Vulko murmured next to his ear. Arthur jumped and glared at the older Atlantean.

"You've gained a nasty habit of sneaking up on me," he muttered as he headed into the kitchen to grab a glass of water.

"Have I?" Vulko asked. "Or are you just not listening for my footsteps?"

"Whatever," Arthur retorted. "What brings you to the surface today?"

"Come with me to Atlanta," Vulko said.

"You're funny," Arthur replied, deadpan.

"The people need you-"

"They have Orm," Arthur responded. "My answer is going to remain a firm no, now are you done? I have things to do, messages to answer," he said as he headed out the door, followed by Vulko.

"You're heading out to sea now," Vulko pointed out. "Why not detour for a minute or two," he suggested.

"Because lives are counting on me," Arthur said as he dived into the water and jetted off without any goodbyes.

He later celebrated his save with his dad at the local pub. Tom was proud, he had every reason to be for his son and daughter, but he also worried, especially for Arthur. It was nigh time destiny had come to kick Arthur's arse to tell him to get a move on with saving his people, because like it or not, those Atlanteans were his people, King Orm or no King Orm.

"Thanks for leaving me out tonight," Hermione said beside him. "Papa has already had enough and I see you've made some pub friends."

"Mi!" Arthur happily shouted. "Meet my sister," he said to his new friends. "No looking or touching. The last person who took liberties with her ended up in the hospital for a month," he threatened.

"And that's our signal to get home," Hermione said with a roll of her eyes. "Say goodbye to your friends Arthur, come along papa." She pulled her dad to his feet and Tom stumbled before Arthur steadied him. Arthur pulled Tom's arm over his shoulder to guide him out of the room. Hermione was just opening the door to the truck for Arthur to settle their dad inside but Tom passed out before Arthur could.

"Perhaps I should apparate papa home instead?" Hermione suggested.

"That might be better," Arthur replied. "I'll get the truck home- Who are you?" He asked the redhaired woman standing a few yards in front of his family. He handed off Tom to Hermione with a warning glance, then turned to see her looking at Hermione with wide, sad eyes. "Get home, Hermione," He growled. "Now!"

Mera jumped back when Hermione twisted on her heel and disappeared with a loud crack into thin air. She looked up and around for Hermione, but she had completely disappeared.

"Where did she go?" Mera asked. "She looks like Queen Atlanna. She's Atlanna's daughter. What's going on?"

"Go back to Atlanta and forget about my sister," Arthur threatened. "Your problems are with me."

"Problems?" Mera replied. "Problems," she stated briskly. "King Orm is threatening war on the surface world, you have to stop him Arthur."

"That's the beauty of being a surface walker," Arthur smirked at her. "I don't have to help you or Atlanta with anything I don't want to."

"People will die!" Mera called as he climbed into the truck. "Atlanteans will be slaughtered for a hopeless cause!"

"Atlanta killed my mother!" Arthur yelled. "I can care less if you slaughter yourselves over something you consider hopeless!" He drove off, leaving her to sulk her way back into the ocean. His hands tightened over the steering wheel at the vague memories he had of his mother.

The only clear memory was of her smiling at him and Hermione with tears in her eyes while their father held them in his arms. She dived into the ocean and never came back up. Hermione cried for days and he held back because she had been crying enough for the both of them. Hermione clung tightly to her family because she was afraid of losing him or their father, or, the heavens forbid, both of them.

He rounded the road curves at a high speed, the lighthouse was in view and He could see Hermione pacing impatiently in their father's room upstairs. He never noticed the tidal wave until it was a second too late to slam on the brake pedal that broke under his foot.

"Arthur!" Hermione screamed out the window. The sea was lapping at the window frame and he could see her frightened eyes and shaking hands and she searched for him.

"Take dad and go to Harry's!" Arthur shouted back. "Go now!" He yelled as their home ominously swayed with the water. He heard her apparate as the water receded back until he was able to stand on land. The lighthouse was fine, from what he could tell from the outside, but their home would need work.

He opened the windows and doors on the ground floor to let out the remaining water. It slowly started to rise and gather into a large ball and he turned to see Mera calling the water to her, removing it from the house and back toward the ocean.

Crack!

"Arthur!" Hermione called as she tackled him with a hug. "What happened? Do you think there was an earthquake on the ocean floor?"

"We need to get out of the house, Mi," Arthur said as he guided her out, keeping his arm around her waist. "It's not as sound as you think."

"Hermione," Mera breathed as she looked Hermione over. "I'm Mera."

"Hello," Hermione said uncertainly.

"Please," Mera begged Hermione. "Come with me to Atlanta."

Hermione snorted while she stepped further into Arthur, "Not you too." She rolled her eyes. "I'm going to check on the kitchen garden," she told Arthur. "We need to see if anything is recoverable and take clippings. I need to transfer our food storage to the lighthouse before papa comes back home. I need you to check the water tank to make sure it's not contaminated. I'll ask Harry and the Weasleys over to help us move our things over so we can strengthen the foundation and outside walls."

"I'm going to Atlanta," Arthur said to Hermione.

She stopped planning and looked up at him with wide eyes.

"You're just like them down there," she said finally said with a quiet voice. "Not like up here on land where you're stronger than that man who broke the Guinness record last year. You're not invincible."

"I never thought I was," Arthur softly replied.

"I refuse to let you go!" Hermione snapped. "We have no obligation to those, those-" she glared at Mera who looked sad. She chose not to complete her sentence. "We have no obligation to them," she repeated.

"King Orm is bringing war to the surface world," Mera said.

"He's such an imbecile," Hermione snorted. "The only sea dwelling people who can cause harm to us land walkers are those with royal blood, the others are easy bait. Let him start this war he wants so much. I want to see him crushed for continuing his father's legacy and his execution of my mother," she hissed as she inched menacingly toward Mera who slowly backed away, though Hermione was nearly a head shorter. "You think you know everything about us land people, but I promise you, no one has ever scratched the surface of our deepest secret. King Orm should be afraid. Very. Afraid."

Arthur guided Hermione back to his side before looking down at her and brushing her tamed curls aside.

"You already know the cost of a full-scale war," he said to her softly. "If I can stop this before it begins-"

"You're too impulsive," Hermione glared up at him then looked away before pulling him up to her room.

Mera watched as Hermione pulled out a purple handbag and securely wrapped it around Arthur's wrist and tapped it with a stick. She stared in astonishment when it emitted a white string of light that anchored itself to Arthur and faded.

"Only you will be able to remove my handbag," Hermione explained to him. "If you take it off it will follow you wherever you go. So, unless you burn it to dust, you'll never be rid of it." She tapped one Arthur's tattoos and slowly bleeded the ink from his skin. Arthur's veins rose to the surface of his skin as he clenched his jaw, yet never uttered a single sound from the pain Mera was sure he was experiencing.

Hermione wove different threads into Arthur's ink and settled it back into the same pattern on his skin with the single difference of the ink shining gold and green when the light reflected on it just right.

"You know what to say if you need me," Hermione murmured. "If I feel you are even an inch from death, I will be at your side in a second."

"That's not fair," Arthur complained. "I wasn't able to do that when that scum tortured you!"

"It couldn't be helped," Hermione said dismissively. "This can be. Take him," she said to Mera, "but be warned that your life will be forfeit if I lose my brother."

Somehow, Mera knew Hermione's words were a promise she would keep.

"Be good for Mera," Hermione said to Arthur. "She seems nice and I'm sure she doesn't want my kind out for her head."

"Arthur might behave better if you came with," Mera said, trying to convince Hermione to go along with them.

"I have my own affairs to tend to," Hermione said dismissively. "I'm playing the wild card this time," she smirked at Arthur.

April 1998

Arthur's knees hit the sand.

He could see Vulko standing over him asking after his health but Arthur's jaw was clenched shut and his carotid artery pumped with his rapid heartbeat. Vulko reached out to touch Arthur's shoulder, but the terrifying scream ripping out of his chest had him pulling Arthur up and ushering him into the lighthouse.

"Hermione!" Arthur sobbed as he tried to stand, only to be knocked to his knees with another episode of pain. "GARH!"

Tom nearly had a heart attack when he came home to Arthur's screaming. It went on until the sun started setting on the horizon. Arthur melted into his pillows and waited for the next wave of pain all through the night and into morning. Tom and Vulko paced the room while watching over him until the sun was high in the sky again.

"She's alive," Arthur said hoarsely as he shakily stood up. "Hermione's safe."

"Thank God," Tom said with relief. He sank into an armchair Vulko had brought upstairs for him and was doing his best to stay awake while Arthur and Vulko planned in Atlantean.

"I'm leaving to find my sister," Arthur said to Vulko. "I need you to stay and watch over my dad while I'm gone."

"I should come with you," Vulko replied.

"No," Arthur said firmly. "You need to determine if anyone found Hermione last night. I may not have been the only one to pick up on her pain."

"You're connected," Vulko pointed out.

"Orm is too," Arthur responded. "If he felt her last night, then Hermione needs to stay in the Wizarding World. No one can find her there."

"How will you find her?" Vulko asked.

"I'm connected to my sister more than Orm," he said. "Orm lacks our full connection. Hermione said it's because he's never nurtured it and he concentrates his hate on me so he doesn't feel her."

He gathered his clothing and a few mason jars filled with Hermione's preserved soups and jams. He wrapped up a loaf of bread then headed to the garden shed to pull out the motorcycle he had been working on while his father was busy at the practice. Vulko watched and protested, but Arthur chose not to listen. He barely slung his leg over the bike before Vulko pushed a first aid kit into his chest.

"It's not much, but you never know," he said.

"Please help my dad with his lighthouse duties," Arthur said before starting up the bike and roaring away at full speed.

He spent the next week riding and searching forests before he ran out of food supplies. He'd have to make his way to the ocean to fish if he was to survive, then he thought of Hermione's merpeople and Hogwarts.

Fish weren't only in the sea, they lived in freshwater too.

Hermione mentioned the Ministry protected the Giant Squid habitat in the Black Lake, and the Giant Squid protected the merpeople in return. If a muggle were to come across the Giant Squid, they'd claim to have seen the Loch ness monster, which Hermione found ironic because her peoples' name for the Giant Squid was Nessie.

Arthur laughed as he headed to his bike again and headed toward Scotland, the home of the 'Loch ness monster'. He arrived at the muggle side of the lake and hid his bike in a cave before wondering what the merpeople would think of him. Would they know he was Hermione's older brother? Would they capture him and keep him until Hermione rescued him if she survived?

He dipped his hand into the lake and rested near a tree for nearly an hour until he noticed someone looking at him curiously from the water. They observed each other until Arthur walked into the Lake and submerged himself.

"You are the older brother of our Queen," the merman spoke. "We sense she is in great danger. It does not bode well if you are here in her place."

"I felt her too," Arthur replied. "She's fine for now, but danger still follows her. I understand your home is near Hogwarts, Hermione's school. I need to wait for Hermione near there. I have a feeling we'll see Hermione before the final stand takes place."

"Come," the merman beckoned. "You shall soothe the Kingdoms fears for our Queen."

"What's your name?" Arthur asked.

"I am Malko, Queen Hermione's Chief Advisor," he answered. "The people are waiting, Prince Arthur."

He assuaged the Kingdom's fears that they would lose their Queen. Malko mostly rolled his eyes and tried not to smile a few times, but the people seemed to be back to normal, according to Malko. Malko kept him busy with mundane matters and pointed him towards manual work when he started getting restless. The people started liking him as much as Hermione, which helped him feel close to his sister.

Every day he felt for her, waited, and searched the surface.

It was nearly a month before a great shadow passed over them and he looked up with everyone.

"It's Hermione," he breathed and shot up to the surface in time to see Hermione leap off a great dragon and free fall into the lake. He was off again, catching Hermione as she touched the bottom of the lake. He wrapped himself around Hermione while laughing at her.

"And you call me a foolhardy!"

"Arthur!" Hermione shrieked into his ear, but he held onto her instead of pulling back and refused to let her go.

"Hermione," Arthur whispered, finally taking in what was missing.

She was thinner in his arms, pale, and malnourished.

"I'm sticking to your side from here on out," he promised her.

"You can't," Hermione vehemently replied. "You remember what happened to me Fifth year. I nearly died from Dolohov's spell and if I didn't have a shield I would have. You don't have that protection."

"You didn't feel what I felt when you were tortured," Arthur responded. "I felt you dying. My soul was tortured along with you. I would have died with too if you hadn't survived. We can either go into this together or I'm having Malko lock you down in the caves until it's all over."

"Malko wouldn't dare!" Hermione protested.

"I would," Malko replied as he swam up to them.

"We all would, my Queen," a merwoman spoke. "If it kept you safe, we would positively respond to Prince Arthur's orders."

They could hear calling for Hermione above them and Hermione looked anxious.

"You must wait until sunrise," she finally said to Arthur as she pulled out a silvery cloak from her handbag. "It's an invisibility cloak. Don't do anything rash before finding me. Malko can show you up to the castle's dock."

"If I see any fighting on the grounds tonight then I will start looking for you before sunrise," Arthur replied. He pulled Hermione into a hug again. "Be safe, Mi. You've already proven I can't live without you."

"I can't promise anything," Hermione whispered. "I love you and papa. Always."

Malko escorted him through the lake to the edge of the Dark Forest. They could hear footsteps, dancing, and raucous laughter. He paused to listen to some of the Death Eaters' morbid plans for various 'mudbloods' until a shadow flew over them and landed near the edge of the Lake.

"Snape," one woman sneered.

'Snape,' Arthur quietly growled. A few Death Eaters whirled and pointed their wands at the Lake before Snape stepped into the water and barked at them for being imbeciles.

It was his chance to get the one who had murdered Hermione's Headmaster, to repay him for betraying his trust.

He reached for Snape but Malko held him back and shook his head.

They were too close to the surface.

Arthur glared, but carefully swam away with him. It wasn't the time to pick a fight with the wizard yet. He would make sure Severus Snape regretted murdering later.

Malko waited with him under the boathouse while the students gathered in the Great Hall at Hogwarts. They could hear the children's frightened murmuring while teachers and Hermione planned and evacuated students.

"They're not going to get all the young ones out on time," Malko said worriedly.

"What about the centaurs?" Arthur asked. "Hermione said they find adults who hurt any foaling of any race revolting. "What if I can sneak groups to them in the forest and take them to the centaurs?"

"You'll have to watch out for the Acromantula nest," Malko warned.

"They'll have trouble getting through me," Arthur smirked.

"But they won't have trouble getting to the children," Malko pointed out.

"Got it," Arthus replied. "Watch out for the Acromantula nest. We should go find one of the centaurs."

"There has been a spy listening to the Death Eaters for the past hour, come," Malko called as the swam near the floor of the Lake and carefully surfaced near the centaur.

"We come in peace," Arthur whispered and found himself holding an arrow before it could pierce him between his eyes. "I'm Queen Hermione's brother, Arthur," he said fast as the centaur reached for another arrow.

"Yes," the centaur said quietly. "I see now."

"Let's move a further down from the Lake," Arthur said as he donned the invisibility cloak while walking more inland.

"You're not like your sister," the centaur stated curiously. "Your destiny is to unite all our worlds. You are not meant to be here."

"Yet I'm here," Arthur replied. "The children up at the castle. Most of them won't be evacuated on time. Can I bring them to you and your people?" He asked.

"We will do what we must to protect any foaling," the centaur promised.

"See you in a few minutes," Arthur said as he walked back toward the water.

"Avoid Hagrid's hut at the edge of the forest," the centaur advised. "If you come across any trouble, tell them they will have to deal with Magorian."

"Will do," Arthur responded as he submerged himself into the water. "I'm heading up to the castle," He said to Malko. "Hopefully we can have the younger students evacuated before sunrise."

"You have three hours before daylight breaks," Malko said. "I wish you luck."

"We'll need all the luck we can get," Arthur said softly before taking off toward the boathouse. He carefully made his way into the castle and found Professor McGonagall at the entrance hall, directing various students, staff, and other people who looked like they were pulled straight out of bed or walked in to find refuge in the castle.

He looked carefully for Hermione, but couldn't find her anywhere near the entrance hall.

"Is that you, Arthur?" Professor McGonagall quietly asked next to him.

He removed the cloak and she stepped back to look up at him.

"It is," he answered with a wry smile.

"I remember you were just a wee lad when we met seven years ago," she said with a small smile. "Hermione told me to box your ears for ignoring her instructions, but I think you're too big for me to stretch up all the way," she chuckled.

"Thank you," Arthur laughed. "I heard the evacuation," he said. "The centaurs agreed to protect the younger students and I've come to take them to him."

"Thank Merlin," Professor McGonagall responded while she called together a group of students. "Mister Curry is going to escort a you to safety within the forest," she said to the group. "If any one of you causes him trouble you can believe I will be allowing Filch to set up his chains," she threatened.

The young group of students gulped, looking up at them with wide eyes after Professor McGonagall's threat.

"Creevey!" McGonagall snapped, called two young men toward her but also causing a few students to jump at her whip-like voice. "You will help Miss Granger's brother in any way he needs," she warned. "He's a muggle," she said more quietly to the two young boys. "Miss Granger would be thankful if you kept close to him."

"Yes ma'am!" The oldest Creevey said determinedly.

"Good," McGonagall briskly replied. "These students are relying on you and Arthur to get them safely away from the castle."

"No offense, ma'am," one of the Creevey's said, "how can a muggle help any?"

"You'll find, Mister Creevey," Professor McGonagall spoke sharply, "that Arthur is just as extraordinary as his sister. Time to get moving!" She barked. "I want you all standing in two lines with not one toe out of line!" She warned.

"We need to be very quiet while out there," Arthur said to the children. "Not one sound! No whispering and definitely no hard breathing. Your life and the life of the people in your group will depend on your ability to do this."

They made it safely to the boathouse fifteen minutes later. Arthur and the Creevey boys loaded the children onto boats before Colin questioned the spell on how to get them to row themselves to the opposite end of the lake.

"No magic needed," Arthur said as he stepped into the water. A few merpeople lifted their heads out of the lake, causing the children to murmur before they were shushed and reminded their safety depended on their ability to stay silent. "Watch our backs," he said to the oldest Creevey as he pushed him and his brother into a boat and followed the others out onto the lake.

He could tell Colin and Dennis were teaming with questions as the boats glided through the water. It was dark and no one would be able to see them out on the lake unless they possessed a special ability. They made it safely to the opposite end of the lake where Magorian greeted them before escorting the children into the forest. McGonagall organised four more groups of twenty students after the first, letting Arthur and the Creeveys escort them to the forest safely.

It wasn't until the last group was in the middle of the Lake that they ran into trouble.

Howls pierced the air and the students started to panic when they heard something large enter the water and start noisily toward the boats.

Arthur plunged his head into the water and barked, "Faster! They're on us!"

Malko relieved him of his boat, leaving Arthur to meet a thick, grey-haired man head on.

The man grunted in pain but didn't spare a moment's thought that he might be Arthur's prey instead of Arthur being his prey.

"You should have stuck to the surface, wolf," Arthur growled.

"You think you can take me?" The wolf laughed. Two others laughed behind him and Arthur snapped their necks faster than the grey-haired wolf could blink.

"You're in my territory," Arthur said lowly. "You'll regret challenging the Prince of Atlantis."

"Atlantis is a myth," the man said as he pulled out a wand.

Arthur plucked it out of the man's fingers in a blur then grinded it to dust between his fingers.

"Isn't magic a myth?" Arthur asked before chasing after the wolf as he started swimming for land. He was playing with the wolf before killing him. He knew bloodthirst when he saw it in someone's eyes and the wolf needed to be disposed of quickly. "You think you can run from me?" Arthur laughed right behind him.

The wolf pulled out a twisted dagger and shoved it into his chest.

Arthur laughed when the blade snapped, causing the wolf to look up at him with wide, frightened eyes as he started standing.

"It doesn't feel very nice, being the prey, does it?" Arthur smirked before pulling the wolf underwater. He struggled and punched at Arthur, but Arthur merely laughed more as they reached the bottom of the lake and the wolf's face turned more red from lack of oxygen. "Enjoy the comforts of the Lost Kingdom," he said as he shoved the wolf into a cage and tightly locked it.

He reached the boats just as they reached the centaurs.

A Death Eater was waiting for them in the shadows and the kids nearly shrieked when he popped out at them from behind a tree, but quieted when Arthur appeared before them and blocked a spell heading toward the group. The Death Eater stared at him in disbelief when it bounced off his arm.

"I suggest you run," Arthur said to the wizard.

He whimpered before turning tail and screaming through the woods.

"Excuse me a moment," Arthur said to the stunned children as he bent his knees and jumped.

The shrieking stopped a moment later before a splash was heard in the lake and Arthur was standing next to the students again.

"Get a move on before more of them find you!" He quietly admonished them.

He later found Hermione duelling in the courtyard and promptly pounced on the Death Eater she was duelling.

"Hey, baby sister," Arthur greeted.

"You're surprisingly late," Hermione commented as another Death Eater quickly took the place of the last.

"Had to evacuate a few groups," Arthur commented as he side stepped a spell and quickly disposed of another Death Eater. He was quickly gaining their attention and Hermione was becoming worried that they wouldn't be able to take them all before they were both hurt.

"Greyback was found at the edge of the Black Lake before this started," Hermione said as they started fighting their way toward a tree.

"What's your brother doing here 'Mione?" Ron stupidly asked.

Hermione clenched her jaw and Arthur slipped on a piece of rubble, crushing Ron as he fell down on him.

"Oops," Arthur said without apology. "You're fine though, eh Ronald?"

Obviously the summer the two spent near each other brought out the worst in them.

"You cracked my ribs," Ron whimpered.

"Stop being a baby!" Harry snapped at him and pulled him up onto his feet. "You're lucky Hermione hasn't told Arthur what you tried to do down in the Chamber," he said quietly to Ron who paled.

"Heading to the Shrieking shack," Hermione said to Arthur while Harry whispered to Ron. "You brought the cloak?" She asked.

Arthur handed it to her before picking the three of them up and running in the direction Hermione pointed out to him. When they made it to the Whomping Willow, Arthur stared at it before stepping in the direction of one of its thicker branches and pulling it taut while the tree struggled to free itself from his grasp.

"Show off," Harry laughed as he ran to press a knot at the base of the tree while Arthur protected him from any branches.

The rest of the branches froze in place, allowing Arthur to slide in before Hermione so he could help her in after him. They quietly made their way up to the shack. Hermione held Arthur in place before he could go after Nagini or Voldemort after the snake attacked Professor Snape.

No matter how much Severus deserved death, Voldemort was worse. Arthur was compelled to put an end to him but Hermione reminded him that was Harry's destiny. Hermione put her effort into saving Professor Snape. She searched his various pockets while keeping her thin fingers pushed into the wizard's neck to keep him from losing so much blood.

"The teal one, Arthur, hurry," Hermione said while Ron ran his ever-thoughtless mouth.

One glare from Arthur shut the boy up and Hermione was able to finish working on Professor Snape in peace.

The professor's wounds knitted together more slowly than Hermione preferred, leaving red puckered skin behind. The professor looked up at her thankfully before struggling to sit up to clean himself of his own blood.

"We should go," Harry said to Hermione. "We still have to kill Nagini."

"Look," Professor Snape gasped before Arthur could reach for him. "Look. At. Me."

They all looked and Harry stumbled back after a few moments after looking into their former Professor's eyes.

"A-Arthur," Harry stuttered. "He's innocent."

"What?" Hermione asked.

"He's innocent," Harry repeated. "We have to get him out of here before either side finds him."

"Are you crazy?" Ron shouted. "He killed Dumbledore!"

"I've had it with you," Arthur growled and lifted Ron off the ground by his shirt. "Always running your mouth and never thinking about anyone but you and yourself. If I ever see you anywhere near my sister after today, you will regret it, if you contact her you will hurt, if you hurt her emotionally or physically, I can promise you will be an inch from death when I'm through with you. Harry can speak for himself, but don't ever ask him for Hermione."

He released Ron and the red-head crumpled to the ground with a groan.

"Let's get Nagini," Harry said before Ron could open his big mouth again.

Arthur lifted Professor Snape while Hermione covered him in Harry's invisibility before he was lifted onto Arthur's shoulder. Professor Snape was safely hidden in the Headmaster's office before they made their way downstairs again to join in the fighting again, but were stopped when Nagini slithered behind a group of students and headed straight for them.

"Stop," Arthur commanded, holding out his hand. Nagini looked at him curiously while Harry and Ron stared at him with gaping mouths. "You're a wicked thing," he said quietly. "You love the blood of humans. You deserve death."

Nagini hissed as she stood up nearly taller than Arthur and struck at him, but he moved to the side and grasped her near her head and grabbed her tail when she swiped at him in an attempt to get him to release her head. He pulled her taut, causing her to scream in pain. Everyone stopped to watch Arthur take on Voldemort's snake. A few Death Eaters tried to attack him but were held off by Hermione and Harry with a few other students and members of the Order.

"You will taste your own blood before death eats you," Arthur promised as he pushed her tail into her mouth and she bit down in an attempt to inject her venom into him. She screamed as she writhed and twitched before Arthur finally ripped her head from her body and tossed it away from them.

The snake withered and dried up until it was dust.

"What happens when a horcrux bites itself?" Hermione asked.

"It dies," Harry answered as they watched Nagini's ashes float away. "Who needs a basilisk tooth when we have Arthur," Harry cheered while Hermione laughed and hugged her brother tightly.

"You dare!" Voldemort hissed. "You dare destroy what is mine!" He spat at Arthur.

"It's not like the thing didn't deserve it," Arthur shrugged. "Perhaps you should have kept her on a leash and she wouldn't have gone away."

"How dare you speak to our Lord with your filthy tongue!" A female Death Eater spat.

"There, there, Bella," the Voldemort smirked at her, which only encouraged the woman more.

Hermione stepped closer to Arthur while she shivered and Arthur spotted Harry moving closer to her on her unprotected side.

"The only one filthy here is you," Arthur grimaced. "When was the last time you bothered to clean your teeth? Or take a bath for that matter?"

A few people laughed while the female growled at him and a dark purple spell cut his arm before he could blink. She cackled and Hermione gasped before tightening the grip on her wand.

"Hurting me is one thing," Hermione hissed as she raised her wand, "but hurting my future King is another!"

"King?" Bella laughed mockingly. "She calls her brother a future King!" She cackled, but stared at Hermione in surprise as she stood in front of her with a smirk on her face.

"You messed with royalty," Hermione murmured for only her to hear. "Now you pay the price." She effortlessly blocked every spell Bellatrix could throw and Hermione only smirked wider when the woman started growing worried.

Harry was duelling a few other Death Eaters behind her, it was Voldemort's plan to tire him out before he could face him.

"My turn," Arthur said behind Hermione.

Bella cackled at the switch.

"You think you can beat me?" She laughed wildly.

"I know I can," Arthur said as he plucked her wand from her hand and grinded it to dust in his palm. "I believe I did the very same to Greyback's wand this morning in the Lake."

She stared at him, stunned, and Arthur took the advantage to punch her sternum.

She flew up through the rafters, breaking a few before coming down to land with a sickening thud as she looked off to the side with lifeless eyes.

"No one hurts my sister and gets away with it!" Arthur growled at the Death Eaters surrounding him, Hermione, and Harry while Voldemort screamed at Arthur. "Jump," he said to Hermione before grabbing the back of Harry's collar and breaking through the ceiling in the Great Hall, Hermione laughed as everyone stared up at them with no little surprise.

Arthur manoeuvred Harry onto his back as they descended and broke through the ceiling again.

"Oops," Arthur commented as they heard an ominous crunch in the rubble below them. "I think you were supposed to defeat him," he said to Harry as he kicked away the rubble to find Voldemort crushed to death.

"Voldemort's dead!" Harry shouted at the quiet wizards and witches surrounding them in stunned silence. "We've won!"

A loud roar rose up throughout the hall as Harry's cry slowly soaked into their tired minds.

"You were quite the wild card today," Hermione smiled at her brother as he lifted her up onto his shoulders to keep the crowed from crushing her along with him and Harry.

Present Day

Hermione was busy rearranging her family's food storage when a pale hand with long fingers reached up to readjust the glass jar she set up on the shelf. She stopped for a moment before starting again and handing Severus Snape jars for the higher shelves while she stocked the lower ones.

"Perhaps you might help me in the kitchen garden also," Hermione said to him before stepping out of the semi-dark pantry when they were done. "The water washed away most of our ripened plants, but I'm hoping to recover the roots."

"Lead the way," Professor Snape drawled.

Hermione found Mister Malfoy overlooking the destroyed garden and paused in her steps. The Malfoy family had mostly kept to themselves after the war even though Professor Snape proved they helped him in his spying. It was why he was so successful. She often visited with her professor when he offered and slowly became a friend to them, despite the Weasley's, especially Molly and Ron's, protests.

Mrs. Malfoy was hanging out clothing on the drying line with a few of the Malfoy elves helping and wringing their ears every time their Mistress reached for another article to hang up. She merely shooed them away and instructed them to find more clothing, jewellery, shoes, bedding…anything they could recover from the water damage.

"Thank you for your help," Hermione said as she came to greet Mister Malfoy.

"Severus said we were becoming ghosts, sheltered in the Manor as we were," Mister Malfoy drawled.

"I can see his point," Hermione teased. "I think I can see the ocean through your chest."

"You're hilarious," Mister Malfoy deadpanned, but his lips twitched and Hermione took that as a win.

"I was just about to see what can be recovered from the garden," Hermione said. "Perhaps you might want to work on my library, or perhaps you might be more comfortable with helping my papa decorate the lighthouse."

"Both seem interesting," Mister Malfoy replied.

"Perhaps you can save my papa from putting up those fish plaques he likes teasing me with while you're busy with either," Hermione chuckled, then gasped and held her chest.

Professor Snape and Mister Malfoy caught her before she sank to the ground. She could hear them calling to her, but she dared not answer while she concentrated on her visual connection to her brother. He was chained, no one had ever succeeded in physically tying him down. She looked where he was looking and gasped at the person standing before him.

That could only be Orm.

Their half-brother.

Her connection broke with her surprise and she cried, "He has Arthur!" She sobbed. "He's going to kill him like our mother."

"Shh," Narcissa held and rocked Hermione while Tom peeked out a window from the lighthouse before rushing outside at the commotion he heard in his yard.

Professor Snape pulled Hermione into the lighthouse and shoved a glass of water into her hand that he swiped from a helpful house elf. He guided it to her lips before she could protest and took a few sips at her dad's prompting.

"Be calm," Professor Snape murmured. "You must have a contingency plan for saving Arthur."

"It's harder to think when more is on the line than it ever was with Harry," Hermione quietly replied. "I have to go to him."

Professor Snape turned to talk with the Malfoys for a few moments while Hermione started gathering a few of her things into another handbag. He pushed Harry's cloak into her arms and looked at her pointedly.

"Potter entrusts you with that," he said. "It will come in handy at the right time."

Hermione turned to notice him slipping on his travelling cloak and stopped him.

"Professor," she started, "where I'm going, no ordinary human can survive."

He tilted his head and looked down at her.

"What makes you think I'm ordinary?" He bent and whispered into her ear. "Do you think I would not recognise Queen Atlanna? That I would not also recognise her in you, her daughter?"

Hermione gaped for the first time in her life.

"But-"

"I believe we're the only two of our kind," he said as he placed a few enchanted candles into her handbag.

"Hermione," Tom called as he entered her room carrying a familiar item in his hands.

"Arthur was supposed to take that," Hermione said with a roll of her eyes. She motioned for Professor Snape to place it into her handbag while putting together some food for them.

"They'll be coming for this," Professor Snape murmured before he looked up at the Malfoys. "I believe you had better get Mister Curry to your Manor right now."

Tom was about to protest but Hermione hugged him.

"Please stay safe for us, papa," she said to him with tear-filled eyes. She watched while the Malfoys escorted him to the floo and they disappeared into the flames. The elves followed a few minutes later with some of Tom's things. Hermione thought her home quite empty and lonely for the first time in her life. Her vision slowly blurred around the edges and she grabbed Professor Snape's arm to remain steady.

Arthur was standing before Orm with a replica of the trident in her handbag, their mother's trident. She could tell Arthur's was not of a quality as superior as its original. Orm was setting him up and the imbecile had taken the bait. Orm rose above him while Arthur watched.

Hermione growled as she pulled on Professor Snape, threw the invisibility cloak over him, reached deeper into her connection with Arthur, and apparated.

"Hermione!" Arthur growled at her as he rose and found her waiting behind Orm at the top.

Orm turned and watched Hermione in bewilderment mixed with a large amount of shock.

"You imbecilic, brash-" Hermione bit her cheek as she glared at Arthur.

"Mother?" Orm asked in a quiet voice.

"Funny you should call me that," Hermione said sharply as she turned to her estranged brother. "Most of my life I wondered what I would do if I ever saw you. I tried to think of how innocent you were when your father sent my mother off to be executed, how helpless you might have felt because I remember feeling that same helplessness when my mother was forced to leave to protect my brother and me.

"I thought, surely, you could see how wrong your father was," she spat at him and he replied with a flinch. "I have never been wrong in my life and I'm sorry to say I was wrong about you! From the moment I learned you continued your father's twisted teachings, I started to dislike you. Then you attacked my friends and family and now… now I hate you! Your father killed my mother!" She shouted at him. "And by extension you have to!"

"I never-"

"I only have two words I want to say to you for the rest of my life!" Hermione shrieked at him as she pushed her invisible professor into Arthur and shouted her last two words to distract Orm. "Fuck you!"

She felt the whoosh of them being pulled away by the portkey she had woven into Arthur's tattoos and smirked at Orm when he realised Arthur had disappeared into nowhere.

Then she collapsed.

Pain ripped through her skull and she thought she might have splinched her brain when she apparated with Professor Snape in tow to her brother's side. The bright glaring lights that lit the room around her and someone lifting her into their arms while barking orders made her want to silence them all and darken the stadium with a few spells.

Hopefully Professor Snape could keep Arthur tied up until she was fit to portkey home. She felt like she might die before that happened.

She heard herself moan in pain before the darkness took over.

"Lower the lights!" A deep voice commanded when her eyes fluttered open and she whimpered before covering her head with the blankets. "Call the healers!"

She felt him place his hand over her old wound and she hissed at the pain.

"Who did this to you?" Orm asked.

Hermione peaked up from beneath the blanket and looked up past him before covering her mouth and vomiting at the side of the bed she had been placed in. She started gasping for more air while Orm slid in the bed behind her and started rubbing her back.

"Stop that," a kind voice directed. "Too much oxygen will cause you to faint again. You've exhausted yourself past your limit. I can tell by a few of our tests you were malnourished for a period of time. Tell me about that."

Hermione bit her tongue as she evened out her breathing and tried to slow her racing heart, but only succeeded in causing panic.

"The walls are too close," she sobbed and struggled to leave the bed. "Please, I don't have it. I promise we didn't steal it!" She screamed. "We found it in the forest!"

"She's having symptoms of severe trauma," the healer said worriedly. "This place is unfamiliar to her. She needs more familiar surroundings."

"Her place is in Atlanta!" Orm snapped. "These surroundings will be familiar to my sister now!"

Hermione sobbed as he gathered her into his arms before he left the room and took her into a bigger chamber. She startled him when she screamed at the top of her lungs. He nearly dropped her in surprise.

"It's a fake!" She screamed. "It's a fake! Please! I've never been to your vault!"

"Atlan," Mera murmured as she rushed toward Hermione. "What's happening?" She asked as she tried to help calm her.

"She's had a severe trauma in her life," Orm answered worriedly. "She's reacting badly to her exhaustion. Is there nothing you can do?" He asked the healer before Hermione started screaming again.

The healer numbed Hermione's neck before injecting her with some medication that helped her sleep right away.

Orm ordered a bed to brought to his sitting room immediately and Mera worried that Hermione might never escape her younger brother for a while. Arthur was probably going crazy wherever Hermione had sent him. They were all lucky Orm had spoken nothing of Hermione committing treason.

It was in Hermione's favour that she looked exactly like Queen Atlanna.

"The bed is ready," Vulko said to Orm while he continued looking down at Hermione.

Orm gently placed her on the bed and tucked her in before sitting at her side. Vulko chanced a glance with Mera. They both worried before departing Orm's sitting room to discuss what to do next while Orm was distracted by the discovery he had a sister.

He called for Hermione to be cleaned and dressed in the finest of clothing and returned to find Hermione dressed in a colour that matched her dark golden hair and wrathful eyes so different from his own.

"Bring my mother's best crown," Orm said to Vulko when he returned to find Orm once again at Hermione's side.

Atlanna's crown was cleaned and polished before Orm ceremoniously placed it on Hermione's head with such care Mera hadn't seen from Orm since they were children. They all watched it gleam while Hermione slept on peacefully.

"He called her Hermione," Orm softly said as he looked down at her with a gentle expression. "She must have been sent by the gods as my messenger."

Mera succeeded in withholding her gasp as he tenderly brushed his fingers through Hermione's hair. She quietly stepped out of the sitting room and later met Vulko in another meeting spot they had secured as a backup. He urged her to leave before Orm turned his attention back to becoming Ocean Master and bringing war to the surface. Now was the right time to help Arthur to find King Atlan's trident so he could stop the war and rescue Hermione.

"Your bracelet," Vulko said before Mera could leave. "It is King Orm's way of tracing you."

Mera checked in on Hermione again to find Orm still sitting at her side. Hermione's hair was now elaborately plaited and she was wearing another of her mother's crowns with a cream dress. The healer was standing over her, checking her vitals while running a few tests.

"Her energy levels are still lower than what is healthy," the healer said. "We have been discussing why Princess Hermione's condition hasn't improved. We believe she needs something we can't provide."

"What might that be?" Orm asked coldly.

The healer paused before carefully answering, "This is our Princess's first exposure to our environment. She is not ready to be here as long as she has. If she stays, we might lose her so soon after finding her. Princess Hermione needs air from the surface," she finished.

Mera quietly left them and Atlantis as unnoticeably as she could. Arthur proved harder to find than she expected, but a man eventually came to the Curry home to check up on it and she seized her chance to find Arthur.

"Stay where you are," the man said dangerously as he stepped behind her, keeping the long stick in his hand pointed straight at her.

"I need to find Arthur," Mera said calmly. "Hermione is in more trouble than anyone can comprehend."

"My life debt to her hasn't throbbed," the man drawled. "I don't believe you."

"I said trouble, not danger," Mera replied. "Orm believes Hermione was sent to him as a messenger by the gods."

The man was quiet as he stared into her eyes.

"Hermione has been unconscious since she saved Arthur from competing for his place as king," she explained. "Did Arthur tell you the last two words Hermione said to him before she made him disappear?"

He tightly grabbed her arm before she felt a large push against her brain and whimpered at the foreign pain. Before she could defend herself, he twisted them. She gasped as her stomach tried to escape her through her oesophagus. The man tipped a phial into her mouth and she was surprised at how quickly her stomach settled.

He submerged them in foreign water before she could protest and Arthur met them halfway toward the bottom.

"Mera," Arthur said with surprise.

"Your sister is in trouble," the man growled.

"We know she's in trouble," Arthur replied with a scowl.

"Arthur," Mera was finally able to speak after all the twisting, pulling, and unfamiliar headache. "You need to find King Atlan's trident. We need to rescue Hermione and stop the war at the same time. We need to rescue Hermione," she stressed again. "We can only do that when you are more powerful than Orm."

"Prince Arthur," Malko said as he swam up to him. "Shall we prepare for war?"

Mera looked Malko and the rest of his people in surprise.

"You are the people of the Missing Kingdom," she breathed.

"My sister would want to prevent that as long as possible," Arthur replied to Malko. "Severus is more knowledgeable about the recent ways of Atlantis. Please speak with him before deciding to join in Orm's war."

"We should leave immediately," Mera said to Arthur. "Orm is still distracted by the discovery of Hermione. Vulko will keep him distracted with becoming the Ocean Master if he loses interest soon."

"Please bring Queen Hermione back to us," Malko pleaded to Arthur before he could leave.

"I will do anything to bring my sister back to us," Arthur promised.

"Who's that?" A small merchild asked, pointing up at the surface.

A red beam shot down at them and the boy's small thud on the lake floor sounded louder to them than it actually was.

"Vashno!" Malko shouted, racing to lift the small child into his arms.

"You'll pay for that!" Arthur shouted as he raced up out of the water and pointed his trident at the thing looking up at him before another red beam shot out of the red eyes of his helmet. Arthur had to divert on his path down and landed on one knee. He looked up at the creature menacingly. "You must tell me your name so I know who I'll have the honour of killing," he said darkly.

"You should call me Manta. The honour of killing you will be all mine," the thing retorted. "You killed my father and I will repay you for that."

"I only kill for good reason," Arthur responded. "If I killed your father then he deserved it."

The thing yelled and rushed at him with a sword. It scraped his arm before he could comprehend that Manta actually drew blood from him.

Arthur pulled Manta down and crushed the pack on his spine into the lake rocks a few times. Manta's pack whirred and he moved to the side before another beam was released.

"Step back," Severus hissed from the lake shore.

Manta stood up, laughing at him before he shot another red beam at Severus.

"Oh, shit," Manta muttered after the beam stopped and Severus stood unruffled on the shore.

"My turn," Severus smirked, lifting his wand. "Sectumsempra!" He said with more aggression than Arthur realised Severus carried.

The spell sliced through Manta's helmet and armour before they could blink.

"Sh-it," Manta gasped before coughing up blood.

"Leave him," Severus said when Arthur moved to pull Manta's helmet off. "Nothing in this world can heal the injuries from that spell, only I know the counter to it. He'll die a murderer like his father. No one will miss him and no one will mourn him," Severus smirked at Manta as he coughed up more blood and tried to summon up at least some anger from his chest, but the dark-haired man standing over him was right. No one would miss or mourn him.

"Murdering freak," Severus hissed before aiming a spell at his suit that rendered it completely useless.

Arthur and Severus watched as Malko angrily tugged Manta into the water. The dying man gurgled and convulsed but neither resurfaced again.

"Vashno," Arthur said as they watched the Lake lap at the rocks. Severus's sour face and silence was all he needed in reply. "Maybe you should key yourself into whatever Hermione did to my tattoos," Arthur suggested to Severus.

Severus lifted his wand and prodded at Arthur while he twitched uncomfortably. He hummed a few times and once muttered, "Curious." He pointed at a certain spot on his chest next to his heart, causing his tattoos to bleed from his skin again, it was more uncomfortable than the first time. Severus hummed again and muttered an incantation before carefully replacing his tattoos as Hermione had done.

His ink curiously moved as if it were alive and Severus smirked in satisfaction.

"Coming?" Mera asked Arthur as she stared at his tattoos before looking up at him.

"Watch over the merpeople for Hermione," Arthur said to Severus before he set off with Mera. It was a few minutes before they reached a small village. Everyone waved at Arthur and requested his autograph along with a picture. Mera patiently waited for him to finish up but more people kept arriving. She finally pushed him through the crowd as he waved goodbye to them.

"Hermione is usually with me to hurry things along," he said to Mera before she could express how annoyed she was.

"Arthur!" A blond young man ran up to them.

"Hey, Draco," Arthur greeted. "How's my dad? He still doesn't know about Hermione, right?"

"Yes," Draco answered. "Mother and Father are keeping him sufficiently distracted."

"My dad's already getting up there in age," Arthur said. "Distraction is good for him in this case."

"Where are you two headed?" Draco asked.

"We're searching for a weapon that is powerful enough to help me defeat the person holding Hermione prisoner," Arthur answered quietly, looking around to make sure he wasn't heard.

"I need to help," Draco replied. "I need to help you bring Hermione home."

"You can help us up to a certain point," Arthur conceded. "After that we must go places that you will definitely not survive."

"We all know you and Hermione are special in some way," Draco said as he led them to an apparition point. "I'll help as long as you let me. Brace yourself," he warned Mera, then twisted on his heel. She felt her body compressing to fit inside a small tube before coming out the other end. She gasped for air and tried not to be sick again, but felt better than she had when Severus transported her to another location.

"This is one of our safe houses," Draco explained. "We can discuss anything freely here."

"How do we find King Atlan's trident?" Arthur asked Mera.

"We have to hear his last message first," she replied. "We have to use the technology of the Missing Kingdom to play the message."

"I take it the kingdom is missing for a reason," Draco said.

"It was lost because the sea retreated from the area," Mera answered. "We know where it's located." She pulled up a map where a red dot blink at them near the centre.

"We'll need a portkey and we can be there in two days," Draco said.

"That seems quick for surface people," Mera replied.

"Surface people?" Draco asked.

"We should get going if we want to get there before it gets dark," Arthur said, not answering Draco, that was Severus's place.

¬o.O.o¬

Hermione's eyes fluttered open and she blinked away sleep and sunlight. She sighed in relief while breathing in the sea air deeply. A small smile crossed her lips before memories of standing at the top of the lighthouse with her papa and Arthur crossed her mind. She always imagined her mother standing next to them, taking in the fresh air as they all did before heading down to the kitchen to start on dinner.

"I hope that smile is for me," a low voice said.

Hermione opened her eyes to see deep blue eyes looking down at her. She looked up at the blurred man curiously before someone else called her attention.

"Princess Hermione's energy has risen to a better level for her recovery," someone spoke next to her.

"Madame Pomfrey?" Hermione asked, squinting her eyes at the woman. "Is it over?" Hermione asked. "I remember falling into the Black Lake. Did I hit my head on the way down?"

"Is the Black Lake the last thing you remember, Princess?" The person checking her vitals asked.

Hermione's brow furrowed at the hand over her wrist, taking her pulse.

"Where are my glasses?" Hermione asked.

"Do you normally wear glasses?" The man sitting next to her asked.

"I-I don't know," Hermione replied.

"What's your full name?" The woman asked.

"Hermione," Hermione answered. "I'm Princess Hermione…right?"

"Are you calling yourself Princess Hermione because you heard me mention her?" The woman asked.

Hermione was quiet for a moment.

"Yes," she finally answered. "No, my name is Hermione, but I'm not a Princess. I don't think I am at least. I think I'd recall being related to Queen Elizabeth. I've no such memory or impression of calling her grandmama. I think my mother's is a Queen though," she said. "That feels right…maybe I am a Princess if my mother is Queen of some exotic island or country."

"What about your father?" She inquired.

"He's not a king," Hermione replied with certainty. "He loves us very much. His life revolves around us being happy."

"Who is us?"

"You're asking too many questions," Hermione said to the healer who wasn't Madame Pomfrey. "I don't even know your name."

"My name is Pacria, I'm a healer," the woman answered.

"Healer Pacria?" Hermione answered. "You don't feel familiar at all."

"Tell me about the Black Lake," Healer Pacria politely requested.

"It's near my former school," Hermione answered. "You're not like me," she said to the woman. "You call yourself a healer but you would have known how to help me if you were like me."

"What do you mean?" The man next to her asked.

Hermione squinted her eyes at him.

"Everyone knows I was tortured," Hermione answered. He inhaled sharply, she felt his grip on her hand tighten. "Or I thought everyone knew. Maybe only I knew and felt like everyone knew," she wondered. "She wanted information from me and I was able to lie," Hermione smirked at him. "I kept Harry safe."

She looked thoughtful and the healer allowed her to think before asking, "Who is Harry?"

"Harry is my surrogate brother," Hermione replied. "We were hunted." The man next to her let a growl start in his chest and Hermione startled, but patted his hand. "They named Harry Undesirable No. 1, I was No. 2."

"Did you hide from those hunting you?" Healer Pacria asked.

"Of course," Hermione replied with a roll of her eyes as if she thought the healer's question was thick. "We hid in the forest. It was a horrible year, we had to live off roots and tree bark. Sometimes we were able to catch a rabbit for stew."

"You became severely malnourished that year," the woman stated.

"Yes," Hermione answered. "Madame Pomfrey said my malnourishment and torture affect my memory when I overextend myself." Her brow furrowed. "I don't think I was supposed to tell you any of that. You feel wrong."

"Tell me why you were named undesirable," the woman prodded Hermione to answer.

"My head hurts," Hermione said in reply. She pointedly looked away from the healer and the man next to her dismissed the woman. "I still need glasses," she said before the healer could leave.

They spent the next minute examining Hermione's head before the woman clicked her tongue.

"You seem to be suffering from a slight brain injury," she concluded. "If I prescribe you glasses, it may permanently ruin your eyesight if you don't need them. It's best we hold off on those for a day or two."

"Alright," Hermione pouted. She allowed the woman to tuck her back into bed.

"I'll come by in five minutes to give you some sleep medication," Healer Pacria said before leaving the room, giving Hermione no time to protest.

"Something is odd about her," she murmured. The man next to her squeezed her hand and Hermione looked up at him.

"Do I seem familiar?" He asked quietly.

"You do," Hermione gave him a soft smile. "You remind me of Draco," she said.

"Tell me about Draco," he bade her.

Hermione sighed and leaned back into her pillows before closing her eyes.

"Draco and I didn't always get along," she started. "We were enemies at the very beginning. He hated me because I was everything he was taught to abhor. My blood was dirt to him. He called me a mudblood in our second year after I proved I was better than him despite my heritage.

"Our third year of school I confronted Draco for acting up and injury he received. He caused someone or something innocent to be marked for death," she said unsure of herself. "I saved them," Hermione smiled, "but I also gave Draco a piece of my mind…and I punched him," she laughed. "We learned to tolerate each other after I punched him.

"He was forced to kill somebody our sixth year of school," Hermione said sadly. "Dumbledore. Dumbledore was our Headmaster. Draco didn't want to do it but his parents were being threatened. Voldemort-" Hermione suddenly gasped and looked scared.

"What's wrong?" The man asked.

"You can't say You-Know-Who's name," Hermione whispered, frightened. "We should leave before they come for us!"

"We're very safe here," the man said with certainty. "I assure you no danger will find us here. Please, tell me more about Draco."

"Draco," Hermione murmured as she slowly calmed when nothing happened. "Draco learned how wrong his father was about people like me. We're all the same, we feel the same things, we bleed and die no matter how pure or dirty our blood is. They were going to bring in a dementor just for him after the war, but Professor…our Potions Professor…he proved Draco was innocent. I saved our Potions Professor. V-Voldemort," she looked around in fright again, "he set his pet snake on Professor Snape." Her brow furrowed again and she looked thoughtful.

"I think Voldemort might be dead," she finally said thoughtfully.

"Tell me what you know about dementors," the man said carefully.

Hermione shuddered and pulled the blankets up around her.

"They feast on happy memories and suck out your soul when they're finished with those," she whispered with a shudder. "It's a fate worse than death and supposedly more painful than childbirth. The victims…there's nothing left behind, their bodies waste away for years. They're mindless, soulless husks."

She felt him shudder next to her.

"You look tired," she said to him just as healer Pacria entered her room again. She welcomed the sleep that was quickly overcoming her and slightly opened her eyes to find the healer gone. He was settling into bed next to her and she snuggled into his familiar body.

"Sleep," he said softly.

She welcomed the black oblivion soon after.

Vulko tried not to be too surprised to find King Orm wrapped around Hermione's smaller body upon entering the king's bedchamber. He cleared his throat and turned to look away, waiting for Orm to notice him near the doors. Orm slowly rose and covered himself with a robe.

"Matters of the kingdom cannot wait any longer," Vulko announced. He turned to find Orm pulling back his hair. "I will wait for your decisions in the meeting room." He quickly left and stopped himself from running back to drag Hermione away to safety.

Orm found him staring out at the horizon when he entered the room. Vulko seemed conflicted, but then he turned to bow, as custom called for, and Orm imagined he might have seen something that wasn't there. Perhaps he himself was the one that was conflicted.

"King Nereus," Orm greeted his guest.

"You've been busy," Nereus mentioned. "How is the Princess?"

Something about Nereus's words brushed Orm the wrong way, he could see how Vulko twitched beside him and he knew it was a signal his advisor felt the same. King Nereus had lost his wife in his younger years, for him to be expressing something close to interest in Hermione meant he might be looking for a new Queen, or someone to warm his bed.

"It's quite disappointing that we will have to move Princess Hermione to a surface location," Orm replied. "This is her first exposure to the sea, she is having problems adjusting. It is the reason we are meeting at the surface."

"This is why you haven't discovered her," Nereus gathered. "You would have felt her bond to you and your home as your brother did. Perhaps a tour of the ocean before war will help her accustom to her home."

"We don't have the time," Orm responded. "I'm reluctant to take Hermione back to Atlanta. A tour may be too much. The healers say she must spend years near the surface before she can adjust to the depth of Atlanta, short trips to our kingdom will help her gradually adjust."

"Forgive me for interrupting," Vulko said before Nereus could offer his personal assistance in helping Hermione during one of her trips.

Nereus hinted at Hermione once more in their conversation and Orm couldn't deny their trip to the Fisherman Kingdom would be short. It was expected of him to introduce her to the kingdoms and Hermione's presence might help persuade the Fisherman King to take up their cause.

Orm excused himself with the excuse that Hermione might be confused at his absence if she woke up to not find him. He felt lucky Nereus accepted his excuse without question and hastily departed. Vulko's reaction was curious, for the first time Orm questioned his trusted advisor.

Hermione seemed to be gaining back colour and life. Her cheeks were a nice pink and her lips had more plump and colour.

Hermione's hair was different from their mother's hair in a way that suggested Hermione's curls had a life of their own. It was an absurd thought, but Orm thought it meant Hermione was as full of life as her silky hair. He wondered at her personality, her like and dislikes, not including himself. He hoped bonding with Hermione helped strengthen the threads of their nearly non-existent relationship.

"Orm," Hermione's eyes slowly opened.

"You know who I am?" He asked.

"I only have one blue-eyed brother," Hermione said wryly. She slowly sat up with his help, holding onto his arm tightly while the room spun. "I must have done a number on myself," she muttered.

"You don't remember earlier?" Orm asked.

"What about earlier?" Hermione responded.

"Do you wear glasses?" He curiously enquired.

"For reading, mostly," she replied. "I don't need them for anything else."

"Tell me," he said as he escorted her toward a door with his hand placed gently under her elbow. "Have you ever been tortured?" He asked darkly.

Hermione laughed hesitantly and said, "No."

His hand slid down the top of her arm and he pulled her arm up by her wrist before she could stop him, then brushed his thumb over the letter D near her wrist.

"You are a horrible liar," he quietly growled. "We leave for the Fisherman Kingdom in ten minutes. I will send someone in to help you prepare."

"I don't need help," Hermione called as he briskly exited. She muttered to herself as she started pulling pins and ties out of her hair then looked around for a brush or comb.

Someone started combing her hair for her, startling her badly and she felt her hip jar and pop when she hit the corner of the counter in front of her.

"I am very sorry, Princess Hermione," the woman behind her said hastily.

Hermione turned and saw that the woman was about to cry, she quickly set her mind at ease. They had her hair plaited and she wore a little colour on her lips because the woman said it was all Hermione needed. Hermione tried to dismiss her when she needed to dress, but the woman, Hermione was hesitant to call her a maid, was tougher to send away than she originally thought.

She could tell the woman tried not to seem surprised at all her scars, and she mostly succeeded. When her hip was revealed the woman was horrified at the black bruise starting to form on her pale skin.

"I won't tell if you don't," Hermione said before the woman could apologise. "Let's hurry before Orm sends someone else in to speed us along."

"Right," the woman replied weakly. She slid a dress down over Hermione's head when it started to become clear Hermione could hardly lift her leg and move her hips together to slide the dress on. They finished with two minutes to spare. Hermione was finally able to dismiss the woman without any more trouble. She wondered where her wand was as she sat at the vanity and fiddled with the various cosmetics and creams organised on the table.

Orm entered a moment later with a familiar emerald handbag gifted to her by Narcissa after the war. She knew there was a spare wand in there that Professor Snape had insisted she keep close to her. She needed that wand now to dull the pain.

"Do I get to have my handbag back?" Hermione asked.

"You're not a prisoner," Orm replied as he handed it to her.

She bit her tongue to keep herself from retorting, then her cheek as she slowly stood up when he held out his elbow for her to take. He took the handbag from her and placed it on the vanity. Hermione felt exposed without her handbag. She knew she had to hide her reaction to the need to keep it near her or he would take it away again out of suspicion. She placed her hand on his elbow before her stomach plummeted to her feet.

"Is there a reason Wivna left in tears?" He inquired as he took her arm in his and frowned at how she clutched him, grasped the vanity with her other hand, and her eyes glazed over. "Hermione?" Orm called worriedly before starting to call for the healer again.

"No," Hermione stopped him as she pried open her handbag and revealed three phials. She struggled to uncork the first one while Orm watched curiously until she finally opened it and quickly swallowed the contents. He was amazed at how quickly she regained vitality and held herself more elegant and gracefully.

Hermione truly was a hidden diamond that he found he wanted to keep locked away from all others. She swallowed another phial before pulling out a stick from the handbag and tucking it up her sleeve.

"What do you want with that?" Orm asked. "It is a foolish thing to keep as a memory of the surface."

"The land is my home, Orm," she said softly as she brushed her fingertips across his cheek. He tilted his head to lean more into her palm. "Every day I wondered what it would be like to meet you. I wanted to know what you looked like, if you resembled mum as much as I do, if you inherited her love for all creatures and her penchant for adventure.

"I still don't know most of those questions I want to ask you so much," she said softly, "but I do know I inherited her sense of adventure. I've had more than enough of that in my life yet I don't know if you feel the same or if your heart pulls you to explore everything around you as mine does."

She pulled herself up to kiss his cheek and he leaned into her before he heard her continue in a whisper, "I'm sorry I lied about hating you."

"You don't?" He asked as he grasped her arms and cupped her elbows.

"You are my brother," Hermione said as she looked up at him with her golden eyes, so different from their mother's. "I suspect I've inherited an irritatingly compassionate heart from our mother, or so I've been told it's particularly irritating from a man I once saved," she laughed and stepped back to gather her handbag and secured it to her wrist. "He also told me I share a hero complex with my best friend Harry." She thought it best not to audibly include Arthur. "Which is why I have to apologise."

"Why?" Orm asked.

"Because Atlantis is on the verge of war with the land walkers," she replied as she pulled on her connection to Arthur while looking at Orm and smiling softly. "I may never again have the chance to tell you how much I love you."

Orm stood in stunned silence at the vacant spot Hermione had been standing on not a moment before he blinked. His ears rung from the loud crack that pierced the air as he recalled her soft smile and her last words.

"Guards!" He shouted.

Hermione nearly swore she could her him all the way near the Trench. She idly wondered how he would explain her disappearance without sounding like he might be losing the plot, but her current worry was flying towards her with an amused smile before he grabbed her and pulled her up into an air pocket with Mera.

Hermione coughed and tried to pull air into her lungs when they reached the shore. Arthur worriedly searched through the handbag around his wrist.

"It took longer than I expected for you to escape," he said as he pulled out different phials then looked down at Hermione worriedly as her eyes started glazing over. "Stay with me," Arthur said worriedly as he lightly slapped Hermione's cheek. "You should have given yourself proper time to recover before another round of apparating halfway across the world!" He finally found the phial he was searching for and nearly cracked the glass as he pried out the cork. "You know your body has never been the same after your torture during the war!" He hissed as colour started returning to Hermione's cheeks.

"What torture?" An unknown voice asked.

Arthur turned to see Hermione looking down at him with blue eyes and white hair before hearing Hermione gasp. Hermione and Atlanna were clinging to each other while Atlanna kissed every inch of Hermione's hair face with a wide smile. They both laughed with Arthur when he pulled both of them into his arms and lifted them off the sand.

The three of them spent a while staring at each other and memorising faces and smiles. Atlanna kissed each of her children before turning to Mera and pulling her into another hug.

"How are you alive?" Mera asked with tear filled eyes.

"Everyone assumes that being exiled to the Trench means death," Atlanna explained. "I'm one of the lucky few to survive." She turned to see Hermione and Arthur pointing at the massive whirlpool in front of them.

"I won't let you go alone," Hermione said to Arthur.

"You haven't fully recovered!" Arthur snapped. "I'm going in alone and you are going to stay here."

"I didn't come all this way just to send you to your death!" Hermione bit at him. "Whether you like it or not, I'm going with you and you won't be here to stop me!"

"Hermione must go with you," Atlanna interrupted their argument. "You both must work together for Arthur to fulfil his destiny."

"Mum has spoken," Hermione gloated.

"If I have to save your arse at least once," Arthur threatened.

"That was years ago," Hermione complained as they walked toward the whirlpool. "Stop rubbing that in my face, there was a battle going on around us!"

They turned to look at Atlanna and Mera with smirks before Arthur grabbed Hermione and jumped.

Arthur cradled Hermione protectively as they eventually rolled to a stop. There, sitting four paces away from them, was King Atlan and his trident. He started walking toward it when Hermione stopped him.

"Oi, dunderhead," she said softly as she stared behind them. "Are you so thick you haven't even bothered to check our surroundings?"

"There's nothing there," Arthur said dismissively.

"I beg to differ you arrogant arse," Hermione retorted with her wand raised.

Arthur pulled her out of the way in time to duck a large tentacle seeking to smash them.

"You dare," the creature hissed at them. "You dare invade my home?"

"Someone sounds familiar," Hermione muttered as they ducked another tentacle.

"Think we should name it Bella?" Arthur asked.

"If she throws another, 'You dare!' at us then I think I will," Hermione replied.

The creature stopped attacking and they looked up at it warily.

"You understand me?" It asked.

"Surprisingly for me," Hermione answered, "I thought only my brother had that particular gift."

"We're sorry for invading your home," Arthur said, "but we need King Atlan's trident to stop a war."

"You, half-breed, think you're worthy of wielding King Atlan's trident?" Bella sneered. Hermione was determined to call the creature Bella in her mind with her snooty, murderous attitude. She looked up at Arthur and saw his lips twitch in amusement.

"No one is or ever will truly be worthy of wielding the trident of Neptune," Hermione responded.

"We wouldn't even be here if we needed the trident to stop a war," Arthur said. "My sister and I have seen too much of war in our lifetime."

"You may both try to take the trident from King Atlan, but when you fail, I will have you for supper," Bella promised. "I have not eaten in centuries."

"You said both of us," Hermione said just as Arthur stepped toward the trident then stopped and turned protectively toward Hermione. "We have only come for Arthur."

"You shall go first," Bella ominously chuckled.

"Harm one hair on my sister's head and you shall pay with your life," Arthur said darkly as he turned toward the creature.

"Go get the trident," Hermione said as she raised her wand. "Bella is going to find out how we did away with her namesake in a second."

"You dare challenge me?" Bella scornfully replied.

"Again with the 'You dare'," Hermione retorted.

"We might have to teach this bitch how to expand her vocabulary," Arthur responded.

"You dare!" Bella screeched at them as she raised her tentacles.

"Protego horribilis!" Hermione shouted with her wand raised.

The creature screamed in terrified pain as it flew back.

"Grab the trident, now!" Hermione called to Arthur as the creature picked itself up and started charging toward them with its mouth wide open in anticipation of its supper. Bella hit Hermione's shield again and nearly flew out of Atlan's throne room, she shouted in rage and raced toward Hermione unnoting of the smirk across Hermione's lips.

Atlan turned to dust behind her and Arthur successfully wielded the trident of Neptune. Bella came to a surprised stop before bowing and murmuring, "My King."

"Remember what I said about harming my sister?" Arthur growled.

"I apologise, I-"

"Thought we were weak, unworthy, lowly half-breeds?" Hermione asked as she placed her hand under Arthur's on the trident. A golden wave of light pushed Bella back and she screamed in pain. "I am not without mercy," Hermione said as she removed her hand and lifted up a wand as golden as the trident, "but I do believe in innocence being proven before guilt."

"I believe there are too many bones lying at the ends of Bella's tentacles to ever prove she is innocent in any way," Arthur declared as he raised the trident. "Therefore-"

"Therefore," Hermione interceded and pointed her wand at Bella, "you shall live the rest of your life as a pygmy goby." A golden light flashed from her wand and the creature squeaked in terror.

"What have you done?" Bella cried. "I'll rip off your arms and legs before tearing off your head and eating you!"

"Pygmy gobies only live for fifty-nine days," Arthur said while Hermione giggled at the fish spewing out threats and nibbling on her nose.

"Somehow I think the fisherman will be thankful," Hermione replied as she closed her hand around Bella and conjured a fishbowl for her. Bella swam around the bowl Hermione warded so she wouldn't escape. "I think we'll put you in papa's waiting room aquarium," she said with a smirk.

"I'll bet you're going to let Darla handle her before putting her in the tank," Arthur commented.

"There's an idea," Hermione said as he put his arm around her waist. They were landing in front of Mera and Atlanna before Hermione could blink. "I wonder," Hermione said as she held up her wand. "Accio!" She whispered as she concentrated on the image of her wand. She waited patiently while Arthur looked around, waiting for something to fly at his head because it happened a few times before he learned to duck.

Hermione pouted after a few minutes and tried not to look too disappointed.

"I guess my wand is lost forever," Hermione said disappointedly.

"Is this a wand?" Atlanna asked as she held her hands together in front of her face with a familiar cherry coloured stick between her hands with the end pointed right between her eyes.

"It worked!" Hermione cheered as she plucked her wand from her mother's hands and grimaced when she noticed it was covered in ick.

"I think it took out a few of the Trench before reaching us," Arthur laughed while watching Hermione scrub the blood and gore off her wand.

"If we're done," Hermione said when her wand was polished, sanitised, and safely tucked into her sleeved next to her modified wand. "We have a war to stop, and I think I know where Orm will be."

"Where?" Arthur asked.

"He should be arriving to see the Fisherman King about now," Hermione replied as she transfigured her golden dress into something more practical. "Really, as if this Gryffindor didn't have enough gold," she muttered and looked up when Arthur whooshed past her and back into the ocean with Mera.

"Does Arthur always leave so rudely?" Atlanna frowned.

"Unfortunately," Hermione said with a roll of her eyes. "Come." She pulled out a portkey and held it out to her mother. Atlanna screamed, then laughed as they were flung up out of the ocean high into the sky before descending and landing in a lake.

"What was that!" Atlanna asked.

"Queen Hermione!" Malko called as he swam toward her and quickly bowed. "We shall call a feast to celebrate your arrival!"

"Not quite," Hermione said quickly. "I've come to gather a few of you to help me stop Arthur and Orm from killing each other."

"Arthur now wields the trident of Neptune," Severus drawled.

"Severus!" Atlanna said with surprise.

"My Queen," Severus deeply bowed and turned to Hermione. "We can do nothing but watch."

"You shall do nothing," Hermione replied. "I need you to be able to pull me out if Orm decides I'm his enemy or tries to keep me again. Not one of you will fight unless it is to get my mother or me out of reach. We will be heading into a battle so do not be surprised if we must defend ourselves."

"I shall be your shadow," Malko promised.

Hermione placed a necklace around his neck and said an incantation, a few other guards swam closer and offered to go along. Hermione handed each of them a necklace.

"These shall get you back home if we are separated," Hermione said to them. "Thank you all for helping me. Mum," Hermione said as she held out a silk rope to everyone and waited for her mother to grab hold.

"I will enjoy the story of how you became a queen, Hermione," Atlanna said as she grabbed a part of the rope, then they were flying away again.

Malko was gasping for air behind her while Arthur and Orm were fighting in front of them while the Fisherman King's men surrounded the two.

"Cousins," said the Fisherman King with surprise. "Queen Atlanna, Queen Hermione," he bowed.

"King," Hermione responded with a low curtsy, then turned to hear Arthur and Orm clashing with their tridents. Arthur was suddenly standing over Orm with Orm's silver trident in pieces at their feet. Hermione was suddenly in front of Orm. "Stop this at once!" She demanded, staring up at Arthur. The tip of his trident was touching the base of her neck and Arthur was looking down at her in surprise.

A drop of blood floated up and Arthur's eyes grew wide as he lowered his trident.

"Orm," Atlanna said as she came to stand beside them.

"Mother?" Orm breathed, surprised.

"Queen Atlanna!" Vulko gasped.

"I am dissolving Atlanta's call of war on the surface," Atlanna spoke to the congregated witnesses.

"Queen Atlanna," King Nereus said apologetically. "You have been exiled from Atlanta," he pointed out.

"As Atlanta's rightful King and heir, I reinstate Queen Atlanna of Atlantis," Arthur declared. "Her dismissal of war on the surface shall be heeded."

"Guards, please escort Prince Orm-"

"No!" Hermione interrupted Vulko. "Please," she said to Arthur, "allow Orm to come home with me. Right now, all he's done is take steps to make the ocean a better place for the kingdoms."

"You know there was damage done to the surface," Arthur said to Hermione.

"And you also know I will make sure Orm make amends for that damage," Hermione responded.

"I think Hermione's way is better for Orm then placing him among those in confinement for a time," Atlanna said to Arthur.

"You know best, mum," Arthur said, then helped Hermione up and discreetly dabbed a drop of dittany on her neck with a quiet apology. Hermione smiled in reply before hugging him and turning to her guards and Orm.

"Let's go home," she said to them and placed Orm's hand over her bracelet before activating her portkey.

Orm gripped her in surprise as they were ripped out of the ocean and rapidly winding through the air above the ocean and surface before they landed in a vast lake. Dozens of people surrounded them and started cheering when they saw Hermione and her guards appear behind them.

"War between the ocean and land has been diffused," Hermione announced.

The crowd roared.

"Tonight, we shall feast in celebration!"

A child swam up to her and wrapped her arms around Hermione before blowing a raspberry against her stomach with a giggle.

"Will the teachers of Hogwarts be joining us, Queen Hermione?" The girl asked.

"We shall see," Hermione smiled. The girl practically bobbed in excitement before swimming away.

"Queen Hermione?" Orm finally spoke.

"These are the people of the Missing Kingdom. I'm afraid they practically adopted me during my fourth year at Hogwarts." Hermione explained. "Come. I need to speak with Severus and Minerva about what's been going on here on land since your warning."

She showed him to the boathouse, trying not to be too obvious in watching him as they walked onto the dry ground. Hermione bounced up the steps with an excited laugh as she ran up the hill.

"Hurry!" She called down to Orm as she reached the top. She was practically jumping on her toes as he reached the top and looked up at the most amazing structure he had ever seen that wasn't in ruins. "Welcome to Hogwarts!" Hermione smiled. "This is where I spent six years of my life learning magic!"

"Learning magic?" Orm asked in surprise.

"Yes," Hermione answered with a wide smile. "I'm a witch," she said with an even wider smile. "Severus and I are the only two Atlanteans with the gift of wizardry." She laughed as she walked towards the castle with a spring in her step. "Come on slow poke!" She called back to him.

He quickly caught up to her as they neared the courtyard.

"Are you and Severus courting?" Orm asked.

"I think his spouses would have a problem with that," Hermione replied with a laugh.

"Hermione!" A blonde-haired woman called out to her.

"Narcissa!" Hermione called back. They met with a hug and kissed each other's cheeks before Hermione turned to Orm. "Meet my brother Orm," she said. "Orm, this is Narcissa Malfoy. We've come to invite a few of you down to the lake for a feast," she said to Narcissa.

"How lovely," Narcissa replied. "What is the feast in honour of?"

"This and that," Hermione responded. "I'm not too sure I translated Chief Malko correctly."

"You underestimate yourself," Narcissa said as they entered the entrance hall. "Minerva was worried you might miss our tea. Severus was not too reassuring," she said with a roll of her eyes.

"There was some unexpected family business," Hermione said excitedly and stopped near the Great hall. "Narcissa." She was practically bouncing on the tips of her feet. "My mother is alive!"

"Oh!" Narcissa gasped. "How wonderful, darling!" She pulled Hermione into a hug then escorted them at a faster pace to the Headmaster's office.

Hermione was pulling Orm along by the hand while Narcissa practically dragged them down the corridors. They stopped in front of a large land creature that Orm wasn't familiar with, but Hermione said, "Fairy wings," and the creature slid aside to reveal a rising staircase.

"Severus!" Hermione shouted as she threw open a heavy wooden door that banged into the stone wall. Stacks of paper floated toward the floor while a raven-haired man glowered at Hermione for her abrupt entrance. "Severus!" Hermione called again and pulled the man up out of his chair while he glared down at her murderously.

Orm was ready to pull Hermione away and challenge the man to a duel but Hermione continued speaking.

"My mother is alive, Severus," she practically yelled in his face as she pulled him into a hug that he didn't reciprocate, but instead pulled away uncomfortably and inched closer to Narcissa who looked highly amused.

"You must not abuse Severus so," a blond-haired man drawled with a small smile tugging at his lips. "It leaves Narcissa and I with bleeding ears when he rants so. Then we have to figure out something creative to shut him up."

"Do feel free to bite your tongue!" Severus snarled.

"I so did not want to hear that," Hermione cringed.

"You shouldn't have rushed in here and…" Severus cringed, "embraced me," he said as if the word itself were highly offensive.

"Do get over yourself," an older woman said with amusement as she entered the room and called a name. A little green creature popped into the room with a tea service and Hermione was busy hugging the older woman as she introduced Orm. "I see we have much to talk about today," Minerva said.

"Aunt Minnie!" Arthur called as he entered the office with Atlanna and Tom right behind him.

"You must be Hermione and Arthur's mother," Minerva said as she greeted the woman.

"Meet Atlanna," Tom said to Minerva. "Atlanna, this is Minerva McGonagall, Severus Snape, Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy."

"Papa," Hermione hugged him after he introduced Atlanna.

"Hello, dove," Tom smiled. "It feels like forever since I last saw you."

"You better not have skipped any midday meals," Hermione replied.

"I know you'll hex me if I have," Tom chuckled. "I settled for a few of your preserves for lunch."

"Good," Hermione said with a satisfied nod. "How have repairs on the house been going?" She asked him and the rest of the room.

"Draco is overseeing the last of them now," Lucius replied.

"I don't think we can thank you all enough for coming to my family's aid," Tom said to Lucius and Severus. "That tidal wave almost swept Hermione and I away. I'm happy she's safe."

"You know I can take care of myself, papa," Hermione responded. "Besides, that wave brought our family back together." She smiled at Orm and her mother. "I can only be thankful for whoever sent it."

Four months later

"Hermione," Arthur said as they watched Orm struggle to pull seventy pallets of bricks that he knew for a fact weighed a ton per pallet. Hermione had Orm busy with helping towns along the coast rebuild. She kept him busy until the sun set each day and had him working before the sun could chase away the midnight shadows.

"Arthur," Hermione greeted, then shouted at Orm, "Put your back into it! You know we have to get started in an hour!"

Orm grunted in reply as he slowly made his way uphill.

"Why are you torturing our brother?" Arthur curiously asked.

"You've been spending most of your time in Atlanta," Hermione snapped at him.

"I'm sorry I haven't been around to see you as often," Arthur said hastily.

Hermione's face softened but there was still something bothering her.

"Has mum ever told you about familie who didn't get along and bonded so they could be closer?" She asked.

"Mera told me-" Arthur suddenly growled as he glared at Orm and jumped up onto the pallets he was pulling uphill. Orm grunted and glared up at Arthur. "Brother," Arthur said with a sinister air. "I just realised we don't have a strong bond."

Orm looked up at him blankly before his eyes slightly widened.

Five months later

"What do you mean there's two?" Hermione shrieked at Madame Pomfrey.

"There's two?" Came Orm's horrified voice from the other side of the curtain.

"There's two," Madame Pomfrey confirmed as she ran diagnostics again.

"There's two!" Atlanna shouted excitedly while Tom stood stoically behind her.

Never, in all his years, would he imagine himself becoming a grandfather to his grandchildren twice. It was all a mess because Atlanteans were weird, his children were horrified, and Atlanna was happy they were all getting along despite the situation. Learning about various traditions that the people kept under the sea were enough to keep him up at night.

At least his children were happily horrified, if not just plain horrified.

"Gah!" Hermione shouted as she waddled out from behind the curtain, followed by Orm on the other side of her with his own small belly.

"There's two," Orm looked about to cry but Hermione glared up at him with murder in her eyes.

"There's two," she hissed at him. "This is all your fault! I hope you know you're the one that's going to feed them at night and change their nappies!"

"There's two," Orm repeated.

"Won't Arthur be proud!" Atlanna beamed. "You must be so proud, Orm! You're both having twins!"

"Don't remind me," Hermione glared at her mother. "Where's Narcissa?" She asked. "I'll bet she still wants to adopt."

"Does she want two more?" Orm asked Hermione.

"Find your own family to pawn off your babies on!" Hermione bit out at him.

o.O.o

"Ah!" Hermione screamed.

"This is so exciting!" Atlanna said to Narcissa while each of them held back one of Hermione's legs. "You get to be Nanna Cissa and I'll be Grandma Lanna!"

"I. Hate. You!" Hermione screamed at Orm while banging his head with her bedpan. "This is all your fault! You should have told me we bonded!"

"That's Auntie Mi," Mera cooed from behind the curtain, having birthed a day before.

Nereus was behind the curtain with his new grandchild while Hermione screamed and eventually sobbed when a new cry was heard. He peeked around the curtain to see a small red thing laying on her chest as she cradled its blonde head.

"It's a boy!" Atlanna happily shouted as she covered her grandchild with a blanket and swaddled him.

"Her leg!" Madame Pomfrey called.

Atlanna hastily pushed the boy into Nereus's arms and rushed back to Hermione.

Hermione's golden eyes were looking up at him from the small babe's face and he softly smiled.

"Hello little one," Nereus said quietly as he leaned closer to Mera and Arthur. "Meet your Aunt Mera and Uncle Arthur."

"He's so precious," Mera said as she held her daughter next to her cousin. They both grunted before their hands escaped their blankets and reached out to grasp each other's. "Oh," Mera looked happy. "I just know they're going to be great friends!"

"Perhaps they will get married," Nereus grinned.

"None of that nonsense," Mera replied while Arthur cooed at the babies and held his nephew up when he started to fuss again.

Another cry pierced the air and Madame Pomfrey announced a girl. Arthur took his nephew to meet the new baby while Madame Pomfrey instructed Hermione on how to nurse.

o.O.o

It took Hermione a few months and a few odd comments from Mera to realise Nereus was courting her. She dismissed Mera because Nereus was also treating Orm the same, but Mera merely smiled as if she knew a succulent secret and Hermione had to bite.

Nereus was courting her and Orm.

Orm was oddly receptive of Nereus, but it took Hermione a few weeks and a talk from Narcissa and Atlanna to help Hermione realise she had feelings for Nereus…and even longer to accept that her feelings for her brother were more than just that of siblings, it helped that they weren't raised together as siblings.

There was another period of time before she could admit those feelings and realise that it wasn't uncommon between half-siblings.

After three years of courting, Hermione was holding a small, red-haired baby in her arms and smiling tiredly up at Nereus.

"Your son," she said as she handed him their child.

"At least it was one this time," Orm said as he stared down at the boy.

"I have a son," Nereus said quietly.

"One to take your place," Orm said.

Hermione rolled her eyes but kissed her daughters on their heads before sending them off to Atlanna for their bedtime story.

She would fight tooth and nail to prevent her daughters from being forced into an arranged marriage. Orm and Nereus knew that but she didn't think they knew how hard she would fight.

Several years later, when her daughters were on the cusp of becoming adults, she overheard Nereus and Orm discussing marriage arrangements with several bachelors asking for her daughters. Her husbands never knew one of her stronger hexes until she burst into the study and they found themselves groaning in pain. Hermione summarily dismissed the wide-eyed bachelors with the warning that if they didn't win her daughters' hearts and give their hearts in return, they would find themselves facing the end of her wand with the killing curse slipping off her tongue.

The unforgivables weren't outlawed in Atlanta.

She would be able to get away with it.

"I told you both my daughters would not be forced into arranged marriages," Hermione hissed at her husbands as they rolled around on the floor in pain, simultaneously trying to beat away the bat boogies she had hexed them with.

"I think," Nereus groaned and chuckled painfully. "I think they pissed themselves in their haste to get away."

Hermione's lips twitched.

"They did," Orm said with a pained laugh.

"Arthur won't be pleased you tried to arrange a marriage for Aura and Aurora," she snapped at Orm who paled and weakly swatted at a bat boogie that landed on his face, leaving him covered in green ick. "I'm not even pleased that you thought I would allow this!" She hissed at him and Nereus and turned to leave. "You're both sleeping in the sitting room for the rest of the month!"

The study doors slammed closed behind her.

"I should have remembered how fierce our wife can be," Nereus grunted.

"Wh-when do you think this will wear off?" Orm asked.

"Maybe if S-Seeley comes to check up on us," Nereus replied.

Orm paled unnaturally.

"Hermione sen-sent him to the surface," he moaned.

Hermione later headed off Seeley before he entered the study and explained to him why she had hexed his father and dad. He opened the door and his low chuckle floated through the room.

"Seeley," Nereus tried to say to his son.

"Mum explained the situation to me," Seeley said before pulling out his wand and released them from his mother's hexes. "I won't clean the boogies though," he chuckled again. "You'll have to give mum the satisfaction of walking through the throne room to get to your chambers."

Hermione felt vindicated when her husbands were still the talk of Atlanta and Xebel for the next month. The incident was forgotten about when Hermione announced her oldest son, Arthur, was taking her place as King of the merpeople with Hermione the second as his Queen. Orm still twitched at his son's namesake, but otherwise never loved him any less.

She was proud of her daughters and sons, especially when more suitable suitors stepped up asking to court her daughters. Arthur, Nereus, and Orm made sure to test them rigorously throughout their courtships until only the most dedicated and loyal remained, and Seeley was finally married to Harry's daughter Lily, his soulmate.

She was happy and loved, as well as having love in return, and now her children had the same.

Though her husbands were itching for another hexing.

Nereus and Orm escaped to the surface before Hermione found them and hexed them for putting her in the same position again.

"I better not be having twins!" Hermione yelled at them as the healer checked her.

"Didn't mum ever tell you that us wizards live longer and healthier lives?" Seeley smirked at his father and dad before closing the sitting room doors on their pale faces.

o.O.o

So, I wrote this story the morning after I watched the movie at the cinema and it's been sitting in my UNPUB folder for ages, along with six other stories that I may never post. The only reason this story is seeing 'the light of day' is because a friend was being nosy and is now threatening me with my most embarrassing moment…and that moment is embarrassing! (I'll never tell about that moment so don't ask! Lol…) This was my first time playing around with an incest fanfic and the story is mostly unedited and I wanted to change a few things…but I have to hurry and post or I'll be deleting my Facebook just to avoid having to see my embarrassing moment posted for everyone to read!

I'd rather avoid that, thank you very much…

I hope you all enjoyed the read…or didn't…your choice completely.