Hermione made a quick stop by the Gryffindor dorms to pick up the supplies she would need for the ritual. Harry had been able to conjure everything she needed, even the hard to find items. He, of course, did not know what Hermione's true reasoning had been for wanting them. The only part he could not conjure was the gold she would need and that would have to come from one of her most cherished possessions: a bracelet that her mother had given her. It saddened her to lose the bracelet, but she decided it was being used for a good purpose. After gathering everything she would need Hermione made her way to the Room of Requirement, which she had decided would be the best place to perform the ritual.
"I need a place to perform the Ritual of Heron." Hermione thought as she walked back and forth in front of the spot on the wall where the door to the Room of Requirement would appear. As she past the third time an ornate door slowly formed, just as she had expected. When she entered the room it was far different than she had expected. The floors and walls were all a dark stone instead of wood as they normally were. The room was quite small compared to what how the room normally appeared. The four walls were all approximately equal in length and Hermione guessed they were each about twenty five feet long. A single torch was placed on each wall and as a result the room was still quite dark. Seeing the intimidating room, Hermione had a moment of doubt about whether or not to go through with the ritual. But eventually her doubt faded and she proceeded with the complex ritual.
The room had evidently prepared the first step of the ritual for her. A perfectly circular ring of white sand was waiting in the center of the room, just as she needed it to be. The first step was for her to draw the nine runes in the correct order on the ring. As she drew them she thought about how it would have been impossible for her to complete this without the book she had found. For one thing the runes she was currently drawing were not actually runes at all, at least not like modern witches and wizards were taught. The runes the school taught students were of Germanic origin but these were much older Phoenician symbols, although they were used for similar purposes. This, of course, made sense to her considering the ritual itself was older than the runes she knew of.
Once she was satisfied she had drawn them properly she began placing the elements on the runes they corresponded to. This step had taken her months to finally get right, and the excitement of finally seeing it completed was indescribable. Finally they were all in place and she was ready to begin the ritual. For a moment she stood in the center of the ring looking at what she had done feeling slightly anxious about what she was about to do. As far as she knew she would be the first person in two thousand years to perform this ritual that had been heavily sought after ever since.
After a few moments Hermione decided it was time to complete the ritual and began chanting the words that were required. It was in Greek and was long enough that she had spent a week translating and memorizing. It was not a spell exactly, in fact it was worded more like a very poetic prayer asking permission to face judgment and expressing hope that they would be found worthy. Once she had finished the prayer once she began again, as the book had instructed. As she did so she pulled a small knife out of her robes and made a small cut on her hand. The blood quickly began to pool in her palm as she walked over the first rune slowly, careful not to spill any of the blood on the ground. She slowly tipped her hand over, allowing a few drops of blood to land on the rune. As soon as it landed the small amount of nickel laying on top of the rune burst into flames and was absorbed into the ring of sand. Hermione took that as a sign she had performed that part correctly and repeated it on the other runes. Soon all of the runes had been activated and all of the elements absorbed into the ring.
For a moment nothing happened and she feared that she had made a mistake, but a second later the torches on the wall went dark and the sand ring began to glow. A strong wind began to blow, but strangely none of the sand that made up the ring around her was effected. In the darkness Hermione almost missed seeing a black circle forming on the edge of the ring. It stood vertically and was completely dark, in fact the only indication it was even there was that she expected to see something in that direction and didn't. Finally the wind died down and she saw some shape moving at the center of the circle. She looked closer, trying to figure out what it was as the shape grew larger and larger. Eventually she recognized it to be a person walking towards her. That is when the realization that she had created a portal hit her, however she had no clue where it went. She was now past what the book knew about the ritual and was completely on her own.
She eventually saw that the person approaching her was a woman with bright green hair dressed in black and brown robes of a design different than any she had ever seen. The woman looked to be in her early twenties, although there was no way for her to tell if how the woman looked was actually an indication of her true age. Soon the woman was at the edge of the portal watching Hermione, but she did not step out of the portal and into the room.
"Who are you, child? And why have you opened the door between our worlds?" the woman asked gently. Even though she was asking for information, Hermione did not find her to be threatening.
"My name is Hermione Granger." she replied. "Honestly, I wasn't sure what this ritual would do. A war is starting in my world, and I was looking for a way to protect my friends and family."
"A noble goal." the woman answered with a nod of her head. "And you speak honestly, but not completely. There is more to your decision than you admit. You also wish to prove yourself and accomplish something that few others have."
"That's true." Hermione admitted, surprised that the woman knew so much about her. She wondered if her mind was being read somehow during the conversation. "May I ask who you are?"
"You may ask, but I may not say." she answered with a smile. "I have been many things in my life, but at the moment you may think of me as a gatekeeper. I have seen your mind and am willing to help you. But my help, and the help of those in my world, does not come without cost. Are you willing to pay the price?"
"What is the price?" Hermione asked uncertainly. "For that matter, what is the benefit?"
"Come, I shall explain on the other side." the woman said. "You may return here at any time if you wish, but if you do agree to our terms there will be no turning back. I will only ask once, if you say no the gateway will close and you will never be able to activate it again. Will you come?"
Hermione said nothing for a minute, trying to decide what to do. Although the woman seemed trustworthy there was really no way to tell. Finally she decided she had come too far to just turn back now and said "Yes. I'll come." She then stepped through the portal and the two of them began walking through to the other side.
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