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Serpent of the World	By : TheLadyMiya Category: Harry Potter > General > General Views: 9486 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and I make no money writing this story.

Chapter List
- 20
- 21
- 22
Here we are, the second to last chapter! It's been such a fun story to write, and interesting to focus on something other than ships. Though, my next story will probably be Tomione for real. If you can't stand the wait for that, you can check out the story I wrote for the exchange we had at Gutter City a few weeks ago. It's a Volmione called Curse of the Unicorn and you can find it at my Ao3 account!
Many thanks to everyone who have read, reviewed and rated this story!

Chapter 21
At first, Hermione had felt afraid of being down in the water, on their way to the Serpent of the World. But after an hour of swimming, she was quickly growing both tired and bored. They had seen plenty of fishes, but all of them had hurried in some other direction when they had come closer, due to their repelling spell.
Riddle didn't say much, but Hermione could see that he was keeping a watchful eye on the darkness around them. She wasn't sure what he was expecting, and she wasn't sure that she wanted to know either. Her knowledge of ocean life, magical and mundane, was limited. Yet, she guessed, that judging from the size of the ocean, it was possible that they wouldn't encounter anything dangerous at all. Except the Serpent that was.
No, she was getting more worried about what would happen once they had taken care of the Serpent. Loki was a big threat, but hopefully they would be able to defeat him with Odin's help.
However, Riddle was also trouble. Even Slytherin had thought as much. She didn't want a third war to start. Riddle would most likely go after Harry again, and then the whole thing would start anew.
The best case scenario would be if Loki just managed to kill Riddle before they killed him. But she couldn't count on that. Loki had to be stopped.
Even though she hadn't experienced firsthand what Loki could do to the world, it was clear that he enjoyed chaos. Letting the Serpent run amok? Even Riddle was easier to deal with. So it looked like she would have to deal with one bad thing at a time. The Serpent, Loki, and then Riddle.
And alongside, she had to make sure she wasn't killed, or broke any sex oaths...
"Look out!" Riddle suddenly shouted, aiming his wand at something behind her.
She managed to swim around just in time to see the biggest fish ever come at them. Its teeth were long and narrow, and its mouth big enough to swallow them whole. It was enough to make Hermione cast the first spell she could think of: "Impendimenta!"
Riddle had fired a curse just before she did, and their combined power made the fish shoot several yards backwards into the water, into the darkness.
Hermione stared at the direction it had disappeared into. "Do you think we got it?"
Riddle was gazing the same way. "Yes. I think we killed it. But you should keep an eye out as well. There is probably more than one of those down here."
The adrenaline enabled Hermione to move faster than she had before. "How did you even hear that thing?"
"I sensed it," he replied
"How?"
"There aren't a lot of living things down here. If you were paying more attention, you would have been able to sense it too."
Hermione scowled, but didn't reply. After all, she hadn't been paying attention. But now she focused on her surroundings.
It was hard to explain the sensation of being in the water, surrounded by nothing else. On land, there was always some movement or sound. Down here, it was a lot more tranquil, despite their adapted hearing. It was eerie.
They had been swimming for another hour when she finally sensed it. It was something huge and alive, but unmoving. The only light came from their wands, and they were almost upon it by the time they had spotted it.
Dark grey, scaly skin that almost merged into the colour of the ocean floor. A huge, grey mane, like a dragon's, sticking out from its back. And a head so enormous it almost looked like a small mountain.
Hermione suddenly understood the ramifications of this thing leaving its place at the bottom of the ocean. It could destroy a small country in a matter of minutes.
There was no way to see its entire head, but Hermione recalled the images from the scrying. Somewhere, not far away from them, lay its tail. Considering the length of the thing, it was probably quite tiny in girth. But she still felt sick looking at it. It was not just scary, but it felt … wrong. Unnatural.
"And just think, you fucked its father," Riddle muttered to her.
Hermione snapped out of her shock of seeing Jörmungandr in actuality, and smacked his arm. Riddle snickered. How could he not be fearful of this thing?
Then again, he had done his fair share of destruction. He probably just felt the family bonds.
Slightly disgusted, she raised her wand. "Okay, let's do this. You'll command it to sleep, and I'll perform the spell."
"Very well. On three. One, two…"
They began. She went through the wand movements, one after another, while chanting the spell Salazar had taught her. The movements were actually easier to do in the water. Like it was meant to be performed down here. She had never felt so graceful before.
At the same time, she could hear Riddle speak in Parseltongue next to her.
"Go back to sleep, brother Serpent, for the world is a boring place. Go back to the land of dreams, where you can eat humans all day."
Even though the words weren't that important, as long as the command was for it to fall asleep, Hermione felt quite put off by Riddle's choice of words. Did he want the Serpent to wake up one day, eager for some human flesh? Well, she would just stop him as well, if it came to that.
They finished the spell, light and bubbles coming out of their respective wands. Hers were in light blue, while his were in green. They flew through the water, hitting the Serpent. For a moment, the whole body shimmered in a soft turquoise light, then it seemed to have been absorbed into the body.
Hermione held her breath for a moment, waiting for something more to happen. Had the spell worked? How would they know? The Serpent hadn't been moving or anything before.
But then she saw it. The body seemed to sink lower into the ground, as if it was relaxing. The giant head trembled and fell to its side, creating such a big wave that it sent Hermione and Riddle backwards. She let out a yelp in surprise and grabbed Riddle's arm.
This was probably good, because by the time they came to a stop, the Serpent had disappeared from view.
"Well, that was that," Riddle said, pulling his arm away from her grip, making the light at the tip of his wand brighter again.
Hermione nodded, unsure of how to feel. It had been easier than she had thought. And at the same time, she had a horrible sense of foreboding. Jörmungandr might have been put to sleep, but there were still two Serpents to take care of, as far as she was concerned.
But she couldn't worry about that right now. They still had to make it back to the surface and she would rather not be surprised by any other long-toothed fish.
She and Riddle had been swimming towards the surface again for almost an hour, when Hermione got the feeling that someone was watching them. She glanced behind, but all she saw was a small fish, hardly big enough to do any damage.
Hold on. The fish was quite small. Didn't small fish usually swim in streams? And why was it following them? The other small fish they had seen had hurried away when they had come closer.
It was gleaming like silver in the light of their wands, and as she looked at it, the silver began to flicker faster.
"Riddle," she said in warning, stopping completely and turning around.
Riddle spun around in the water just as the fish reached them. Though, it wasn't a fish anymore. It had transformed into Loki.
"You two seem just hell-bent on ruining all my fun," Loki said with a sigh, bubbles escaping his mouth, voice still clear. She wasn't sure what spell or potion he had used to breathe underwater, but he seemed to be at as much ease here as he was on land.
"You're too late," Hermione said. "The Serpent is asleep again, and will stay so for the next few hundred years."
"So it would appear," Loki said casually. "Oh well, I can wait. I'm sure there are plenty of other things I can do. Like killing you."
Hermione felt Riddle grab her shoulder, just as she had cast a protective spell over herself. She wasn't sure what happened next. Loki must have cast some spell, because there was a flash as something collided with her shield. However, Riddle did something else which caused them both to fly backwards through the water, up towards the surface, at a terrible speed.
Did Riddle know a spell to move faster through water? How come he hadn't used it before this then? It would have saved them a lot of swimming!
They broke through the surface, but their movements didn't stop. Instead, Riddle whisked her up into his arms and they rose into the air. Hermione let out a scream in terror as the dark ocean fell away from them. She hated heights! What if he dropped her?
"Open my bag and summon the carpet," Riddle told her, his voice sounding strained. She realised he must be using a lot more energy and strength than usual. To what end, she wasn't sure.
Not wanting to fall back into the ocean due to any wrong movement, and neither wanting Riddle to faint from exhaustion, she slowly turned in his arms, opening the bag hanging over his shoulder.
"Accio carpet," she said, her voice as weak as she felt.
The carpet unfolded in the air and Riddle sat down on it. It continued to move through the air at a faster speed than before, but Riddle seemed relieved to be rid of her weight.
"How did you do that?" Hermione couldn't stop herself from asking. Being on a somewhat solid surface again made her fear slightly easier to handle, and she could afford to be amazed.
"I absorbed the energy from the magic you and he caused, channelling it into another spell to make us move faster. We have to get to Odin before he does," Riddle stated, and opened his bag again. "We have to take the antidote for the potion, though, otherwise we will start to feel faint soon from being out of the water."
They both swallowed the antidote, and Hermione could feel her body returning to normal. At once, she began to shiver due to the cold water still clinging to her, and it was only on the second try that she managed to summon her clothes and put them on.
"Help me strengthen the flying spell," Riddle urged her. "We have to move faster if we are to beat Loki to the grave."
Forcing her fear aside, Hermione sat up straight and did as he asked. The acceleration made her almost lose her breath. Underneath her, the water swished by and before she knew it, they were above land again. How they could move so quickly, she had no idea. It shouldn't be possible. Even though it was theoretically possible, it required enormous magical strength. Were she and Riddle really that powerful together?
They must be, because not even an hour had passed when they began to slow down, finally coming to a halt over the familiar grave of Odin.
She turned around to express her surprise to Riddle, only to have to catch him when he almost fell off the carpet. His face was ashen with exhaustion.
"Let's go," he hissed, pushing away from her, and starting to make his way inside the grave. He was breathing hard.
So it seemed even Tom Riddle had his limits when it came to magic. How on earth were they going to fight Loki if he was this tired? She knew she wouldn't be able to do it alone! Why had he pushed himself so hard? Or was he counting on Odin sending Loki away again?
She hurried after him and reached the coffin before Riddle.
"Odin?" she asked, uncertain if the skeleton could hear her. Did she have to touch it? She decided that it was best to try.
It the years that came, Hermione would try to remember exactly what had happened when she had touched Odin's skull. But there was no real chronological sequence to the event. What she managed to conclude was that the first time she had been in contact with Odin, he must have used Legilimency on both her and Riddle, because there was no way he could have known all the things that suddenly sprung to her mind. Odin had a plan. A finished plan that would take care of all her problems. He didn't tell her as much as planted the complete idea of the plan in her mind. It was so obvious that she wasn't certain if it hadn't been her own plan all along, but Odin had just speeded up her thought process. There was a way she could fix this.
The realisation flooded her with relief and determination. She could fix this.
When the contact between them broke, she felt as if hours had passed, but it couldn't have been more than a few seconds. Riddle had pulled her back.
"What?" she asked, still dazed with the idea she had got. It was a brilliant plan, but the problem would be to execute it.
"We do this together," Riddle said sternly, watching her with suspicion. "Did he tell you something?"
"Yes," Hermione said, knowing it would be pointless to lie to him. "Yes, he knows how Loki can be killed, we just have to—"
"Oh, no, no spoilers, please," came the oh-so-familiar voice from the entrance of the tomb. "I can't wait to see how you think you can make your way out of this one."
Loki giggled as he made his way up to them. "But first things first."
He held out his hand over the coffin, and the earth beneath it opened up, swallowing the coffin whole.
Knowing that this would be the only distraction, Hermione grabbed Riddle's hand, spun them around, and Disapparated. As soon as she had got her bearings, she did it again, and then one more time.
When they landed the third time, she sank to the ground and threw up. Next to her, she could hear Riddle doing the same thing. This was one of the reasons why no one advised you to Apparate more than once in a row. The risk of Splinching increased every time, and it was very disorienting. But it had been her only chance. And Odin's confidence in her made her think she could do it. Otherwise, she wouldn't even have dared to try it.
"Come on, come on," she muttered to Riddle, forcing herself to stand up. She grabbed him and forced him forwards, through the gates and into the zone where it was impossible to Apparate and Disapparate.
"Where—" Riddle stopped abruptly. Even in the darkness he had clearly recognised where she had brought them.
Hogwarts.
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Serpent of the World