Hogwarts heirs

Chapter 4

Hermione woke with a start many hours later. A gray light filled the room and she blinked to adjust her eyes to it. She sat up slowly, feeling a slight headache coming on her. She glanced at the nightstand and grabbed the glass of water, drinking it and feeling more awake. Silence filled the entire Hospital Wing and she quickly realized she was alone. The watch on her wrist told her it was 6 o'clock, so naturally everyone else was still asleep.

For a brief moment, Hermione wondered why she was in the Hospital Wing and what had transpired the day before. Then it all came flooding back to her and her eyes widened in shock. She remembered collapsing and the pain that had coursed through her body, she had never felt a pain so intense before. She remembered waking up to find Harry, Ron, Madame Pomfrey, and Professor Dumbledore all standing over her looking very worried and grave. And then she remembered everything Dumbledore had told her, from the Prophecy of Merlin to her being the Heir of Rowena Ravenclaw.

Hermione was puzzled though, so many things did not seem to fit into the story. She now understood why she was the Heir of Rowena Ravenclaw, she had been hand-picked by her centuries ago, which still made her head swim from that realization. It was almost unbelievable, she had been picked by Ravenclaw herself! But many things were so strange to her still. Merlin had lived centuries before the Founders, she had known that from the many books she had read on him, for Hermione found him to be incredibly fascinating, so how had he made the prediction of the Heirs if the Founders had not existed in his time? Had he predicted the Founders then the Heirs or had he lived an extremely long life?

Hermione wracked her brain to try and remember. She knew she had read an entire book devoted to just Merlin and she vaguely remembered it saying he had been born in the sixth century and she knew for a fact Hogwarts was founded in the eleventh century. There was five hundred years between the two, could Merlin possibly have lived that long? Hermione was frustrated, normally this kind of information came naturally to her but right now her brain felt very fuzzy and she just wanted to sleep once more.

Then, as if Hermione had a book right in her lap and was reading from its pages, words filled her brain from a passage in one of the books about Merlin: Merlin lived within the sixth century and is mainly known for riding alongside King Arthur and his Knights. Many legends surround this entire tale and Merlin especially has had quite many myths spun around him. A majority are not true but one exception is his amazing gift as a Seer and a Prophesier. Merlin foretold many great events and people in history, every one of which came true. Though many say Merlin died, no evidence of his death was ever found and he merely just disappeared it seemed. A few mentioned seeing him centuries after King Arthur's reign and that he was still foretelling many events, some of which were said to be recorded. Whether this is true or not, few know. What is known is that Merlin's legacy still lives on and many of his prophesies are still waiting to come true.

Hermione's memory of that passage stopped as quickly as it started but she now had more information then she had before. I knew it! she thought, I knew there had to be answers to all of this! But there's still so much I don't know...why didn't Dumbledore just get it over with and tell us everything? What's holding him back?

Hermione continued to ponder this over the next hour, making her head hurt even more. And just when the sun was beginning to peak its golden rays through the windows, a cold feeling suddenly fell into the pit of Hermione's stomach. It washed over her entire body and she felt light-headed as Dumbledore's last words to her before she fell asleep floated back to her: 'The one you love most dearly.'

"Oh my God," Hermione managed to choke out, her hand going to her mouth. Without even thinking, she threw the covers of the bed off of her and dashed to the door, not even bothering to put a robe over her nightgown. She ran flat out all the way to Dumbledore's office, praying with all of her heart that her worst nightmare wasn't about to come true. She finally skidded to a stop before the stone gargoyle and started rattling out passwords.