Chapter Text
POV: Minerva
I tried to sleep.
Key word.
Tried.
I tried so very hard, but…
But…
I felt Hermione’s pain like it was my own.
My Omega hindbrain keening and whining all the while.
The younger Alpha had not left my classroom in the best state, but I did not know it would have this much effect on the both of us. I have extensively read about bondings, poured through tomes of the history on bondings and soulmates, and have experienced bonded couples firsthand numerous times, but…
But this was not a part of any of that experience…
Was this how Hermione felt before fixing one of the cracks in her magic core?
All the time?
Right at this very moment?
Did my words hurt her so much that she is now feeling that pain once again?
I internally asked myself those worrying questions and I could no longer take it.
I ripped the red and gold themed sheets off of my body, quickly removed myself from the bed, and started to pace the length of my chambers.
“Neit tae dae somethin... anythin... Neit tae fix this before it aw comes crumblin doun an a lose ma sun…” I mumbled angrily, my accent coming in thick, my hands tightly scrunching the green see-though gown that was on my body at the moment, my Omega pheromones coating this space with the one prominent feeling coursing through my very being.
Dread.
But what could I do?
Albus was clear-
My thoughts, the ramblings going on in my worried mind, came to a stop as a loud POP rang through my ears. Years of battle experience, of having gone through one war already, came flooding back and I wordlessly summoned my wand to my hand. I had the wooden extension of myself pointed at the intruder who dared to apparate into my chambers.
I was ready to erase them with my volatile magic…
But my eyes widened and standing before me was…
Albus Dumbledore himself.
My long time friend and the wizard who I was angry at.
“Hello, Minerva…” Albus started out, eyeing me warily, his tone one of forced calmness. “I would offer you a lemon drop, but we are not in my office and I have something of importance to talk to you about. It simply cannot wait, my old friend…”
“Aye, a agree, but a very much want tae hex ye intae oblivion, Albus Dumbledore!” I replied through gritted teeth, my pheromones scent turning from one of anxiousness to one of unbridled anger.
The older Omega dropped his strained smile and slowly put his hands in the air.
Albus was communicating to me that I was the one in control.
The older Omega was saying my anger was justified and he would not raise arms against me.
It was utterly infuriating.
“I would gladly take the verbal and physical lashes you would give me for my actions Minerva, but I come to you with a matter of great importance,” Albus stressed, worry etched into his wizened face, more wrinkles present than I had seen before.
“You said the other matter was of importance to and now my soulmate is going against an evil force.” I responded back, a hiss thrown in at the end, as I tried to calm myself.
“It was… it is important.” Albus repeated, conviction in his tone, his body straightening some at the words flowing out of his mouth. I could tell he had started to secrete some of his own calming Omega pheromone and I at least appreciated that. “Everything to do with ‘Mione is important. You know who she is, who she represents, and what she will do in the future.”
“Aye, I know Albus, but I thought I would be able to help.” I stressed as I finally lowered my wand and wordlessly returned it to where it once was. “While she is down there, we are sitting here with our thumbs up our arses! Brightest witch of her age…” I continued, pointing to myself at the nickname. “...And the many lauded titles you bare, but we both are condemned as spectators? Tha sin cruaidh agus mì-fhortanach! Mallachd na h-adhbharan! Feumaidh mi cuideachadh mo Alpha!”
(That is cruel and unfair! Fuck the fates! I need to help my Alpha!)
Albus sadly sighed and his face contorted into what looked like pain.
I looked closer…
Saw the minimal threads of magic around his person…
What caused him to use so much?
The older Omega trotted over to the armchair Hermione had sat on - that just so happened to be Gryffindor red - and gingerly sat down in it. He didn’t say a word, just observing my chamber like he had not been here before, but then he finally spoke.
“I wish there was another way. I wish I could do something, use my vast experience and power, but I cannot.” Albus responded, now looking far older than he was. “You know why. You know I am tied-” He started to say, but I interrupted the words.
“Aye, I know.” I said with a sigh of my own as I walked to the chair across from his and sat down in it. “I know…” I defeatedly repeated. “What was this important matter you needed to discuss with me?”
Albus’s face turned serious and he looked straight into my eyes.
“The Ministry was a diversion. It was a trap and I really am a fool.” Albus explained as he rubbed his hands over his face. “We may not be able to interfere, but we will be there for them. Minerva, Fates-be-damned, we will be there for them this night.”
But an irksome question wiggled itself to the forefront of my mind…
My Omega hindbrain echoing the sentiment.
What if that was not enough?
What then?
I did not have the answer…
I did not have the answer?
Godric…
“Och, I do not have the answer…” I brokenly whispered, lip quivering, Albus looking at me with concern, and my Omega pheromone finally making my worry known.
And that innate realization made me crumple into my seat and weep at my own uselessness…
⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆
When the three of us stepped through the door, the world changed.
The chamber beyond was not merely dim, but it was swallowed whole by darkness. A thick, oppressive blackness clung to the space, heavy and absolute, devouring the faint light that trailed in behind us as though it had no right to exist there. It was nothing like the previous room. There was no glint of motion, no echo of life, only a suffocating stillness that pressed in from all sides.
Even as a witch, I couldn’t see.
The darkness wasn’t the simple absence of light, it was something deeper, something that felt almost deliberate, as though the room itself rejected illumination. It curled at the edges of my vision, swallowing depth and distance until the space around us felt endless and claustrophobic all at once.
And it was familiar.
The realization struck with quiet, creeping dread. It reminded me of the void I had once been trapped within, that endless, hollow nothing, where time lost meaning and thought echoed back upon itself. The memory surfaced unbidden, cold and invasive, and a bone-deep chill traced its way down my spine…
Merlin, Morgana, Nimue, and Circe…
I pray to the Fates themselves that this doesn’t last…
And seemingly the Fates did hear my prayer…
Because the torches that were close to us flickered to life and bloomed into an otherworldly blue flame tinged with white at the flames edge.
It gave the chamber some light and I was grateful for it.
I also noticed that there were other torches, but they were not lit.
“We need to move forward.” I loudly rumbled. “My educated guess is that movement triggers the flame to life.”
“Makes sense to me.” Neville agreed.
Luna just nodded her head at my words, so we cautiously started to move forward from the entrance we were still standing in front of.
One by one, the torches lit, emitting the blue-white flame until they all revealed the mammoth chess board that was in the center of the chamber.
I didn’t like how the pieces looked at my person.
The innately magical stone chess set stretched across the room like a battlefield locked in anticipation, and the life inside each marble figure stirred with ancient magic…
Watching.
Waiting.
Not even Mr. Filch or a rage-filled troll made my skin crawl the way they did.
This game wasn’t going to be symbolic.
It was going to be real.
“We’ll need to take the place of the…” I said, my voice sharper than I meant it to be. “...missing pieces that aren’t on the board.” I added as I pointed to where said pieces were indeed missing.
The far side of the board loomed before us, waiting.
Gleaming black pieces stood in rigid formation, their polished surfaces catching the dim light as though drinking it in. Swords were raised in silent challenge, each figure towering - some nearly my height, others surpassing it - casting long, jagged shadows across the stone. They didn’t move, didn’t breathe, and yet there was a horrid and dreadful sense of awareness about them, as though they watched us all the same.
Encircling the chamber, braziers burned with that same unnatural blue fire, their flames steady and cold, casting a spectral glow that transformed the entire space into something ritualistic…
…something staged.
And just beyond the board…
There.
A single door stood waiting, set plainly behind the opposing side, almost too obvious in its placement. It was unguarded, unobstructed… conspicuous in a way that felt deliberate. An invitation.
Or a promise.
Our way forward.
But…
The air around the pieces thrummed with danger.
I glanced at the Beta Ravenclaw, who serenely stood beside me, dreamy as ever, her pheromones calm as rain that pitter-pattered against my bedside window. The Omega Gryffindor stood a few meters back, fidgeting with the sleeve of his red and gold lined robes. His own pheromones were faint, but anxious, like sunlight behind a fog.
I was still proud of Neville, for the progress he made, but he had this look in his eyes that made me wary.
We might have been witches and wizards - thinking, autonomous, entirely capable of making our own choices - but the instinct to protect the Omega Gryffindor thrummed beneath it all, undeniable and fiercely alive. It wasn’t something I had consciously chosen, nor something I could easily ignore.
My Alpha hindbrain had already risen to meet it, alert and coiled with purpose, ready to confront and vanquish anything that dared stand in our way.
“I’ll do it.” Neville quietly whispered, his eyes lingering on the large game of wizards chess, specifically on the black pieces that were at the ready.
I blinked at that.
“Do what?” I asked, slightly confused by Neville’s declaration.
“I’ll play too.” Neville repeated, still not looking up. “Gran properly taught me wizards chess. I’m… I’m actually kind of good at it...” He admitted.
“You?” I said in response.
I didn’t mean to sound surprised, but I’d never heard the Omega Gryffindor raise his voice in class, let alone offer to take charge in a perilous situation.
It was one thing to make a conscious decision to move forward, but another to act.
Neville nodded at the word that flowed from my lips.
“I know it’s strange. Everyone expects me to be bloody terrible at things, but… I always liked wizards chess. It makes sense. No one's yelling, no one's expecting me to blow something up… It's just me and my brain engaged in a game. Just rules, outwitting the other side, and battling to win without an incantation or wand.”
I hummed in consideration.
There was a steadiness in the Omega Gryffindor’s voice that made me pause. I studied him - really and truly studied him - since he had reavowed the Gryffindor oath. He still looked soft, hesitant, and he still stuttered when he got too anxious, but those green eyes of his were tracking every piece on the board, measuring their weight, their range, their possible behavior. He was playing the game before the game had even started, moving the pieces in his mind, countering imagined moves, and I was impressed.
I looked back at the board, then at Luna.
The Beta Ravenclaw tilted her head, catching my gaze, and it seemed like we were in agreement.
“Neville is more than most witches or wizards give him credit for, you know?” Luna murmured as she looked at me. “And… I think the pieces will like him more than us.”
Luna said it like a secret only she was allowed to know.
That means this is Neville’s test then…
“…Alright,” I said, a confidence in my voice that was bolstered by the two’s actions. “You lead, Neville. Tell us where you need us. This is clearly a test that will utilize your skills, so we will leave it up to your discretion.”
Neville’s head jerked up.
“Really?” Neville asked, surprise in his tone.
“Yes. If you’re sure you can do it.” I replied, folding my arm across my chest, the pain still lingering in my body, but I continued to push through it for the sake of my friends.
The Omega Gryffindor smiled, small but certain.
“I’ll be the knight.” Neville said, turning toward the mount. “Hermione, I think you should take the queen-side castle. It fits your style. Formidable and strong. Luna, you’re the bishop. They move diagonally, and you’re good at finding paths, seeing things, other people miss.”
The Beta Ravenclaw nodded as if Neville had just told her something she already knew.
I mounted my rook that was by the Queens side square, deeply inhaled while letting the heavy magic wrap around my person, and tried to be one with my Alpha hindbrain.
The moment all three of us took our places…
The opposing pieces sprang to life.
Swords clanged against shields.
Horses pawed at the marble.
The match had begun.
The Omega Gryffindor called the moves, calm but commanding.
“Pawn to E5. Luna, one diagonal left. Hermione, hold position. You’re covering our queen’s flank.” Neville commanded, a tremble to his voice, but his posture was straight and his eyes scanning the board.
I obeyed, faintly surprised by how readily I fell into the rhythm of Neville’s strategy. He wasn’t a flashy player. There was no unnecessary flourish and no dramatic sacrifices made for spectacle alone. Every move he made was precise, deliberate, and carefully considered, as though he were thinking several steps ahead while the rest of us were still catching up.
It wasn’t about an Alpha's domination.
It was about flow.
Anticipation.
Control without arrogance.
I wasn’t used to letting anyone else lead, let alone a male Omega…
But this…
This was different.
The Omega Gryffindor did not merely see the board, he understood it, as though every move had already been written and he alone possessed the key to reading it. His gaze flicked across the pieces with quiet intensity, tracking patterns and possibilities that lay far beyond the present moment. He wasn’t reacting, but orchestrating. Each command he gave was precise, inevitable - guiding us along a path only he could perceive - as though we were moving through a story whose ending he had already calculated.
Luna moved like mist at his direction - silent, fluid - and impossible to predict. She slipped across the board in ways that defied expectation, bypassing threats before they could fully form, her presence a quiet disruption to the enemy’s rigid formation.
And I…
I became the force he needed.
I held my ground and struck when he told me to, channeling every ounce of strength into a single, devastating blow that shattered an opposing bishop into rubble. The impact reverberated through my arms, magic surging up through bone and muscle alike, as though the board itself acknowledged our unity.
It was…
Seamless.
And strangely, I felt no pain.
The usual, gnawing fracture within my core - the instability that had plagued me - was absent, held at bay by the ancient magic woven into the board. For this fleeting moment, whatever force governed the game had suspended my horrid suffering, allowing me to move without hesitation, without weakness.
But then the black queen advanced.
“She’s baiting us!” Neville yelled from the knight’s square, gripping the saddle’s edge. “She wants me to move. She’s hoping to expose the bishop’s line.
“She’s very vain, that one. She always overreaches and will always resort to evil deeds… But will she win the war? Or just the battle?” Luna whispered, her voice taking on a different tone.
I had no earthly idea what the Beta Ravenclaw was talking about, but if I had to guess…
I would say that Luna's eyes were a milk-white at the moment.
Neville exhaled, but his lips were moving not even a moment after the sound.
“Okay. Hermione… When I give the signal… take her out.” Neville yelled out.
“That I can do.” I responded as I looked at the unnerving black queen, looked into those sickly green eyes, and it sent a shiver throughout my person. “But you’re not sacrificing yourself. Godric Gryffindor himself be damned, but you’re not doing that today, Neville.” I commanded, ferocity lacing every word that spilled out of my mouth.
“I’m not. I won’t.” Neville quickly said. “We’re not doing that. We don’t need to. But we do need to lure her one square closer.”
The Omega Gryffindor made the move himself, deliberately clumsy, as if he were a daft novice. The black queen surged forward, striking down his knight’s pawn with a crash of stone and vicious magic. She had taken the bait, moved that one square, but my own anxiety flared at the thought of him being hurt.
My Alpha hindbrain screamed to be his shield, my pheromones secreting from my person in thick waves, and I helplessly looked on at the scene playing out.
The scent of dust and rock filled the air….
But it finally cleared and revealed an unharmed Omega Gryffindor.
Neville winced but remained upright.
Not hurt…
For Salazar’s sake…
Thank the gods themselves…
The enemy queen was now perfectly exposed.
“Now!” Neville shouted as his green eyes snapping to my own.
I surged forward.
My rook collided with the black queen in a storm of shattered marble and shrieking metal.
It was like a battle of wills for a split moment, my own magic against hers, and I got a flash of my own body crumbling under her weight…
But…
The flash, that odd moment disappeared and…
The black queen collapsed in pieces at my feet.
The black king raised his sword and laid it at his side.
Checkmate.
The pieces stilled.
Then, one by one, they bowed, the magic holding them dissolving into a gold mist.
At the far end of the chamber, beyond the towering wizarding chessboard, a door stirred.
It didn’t simply open, it groaned - the sound deep and ancient - as though the very stone resented being moved after so long. The hinges protested in a low, drawn-out creak that echoed through the room, lingering in the air like the final note of a warning.
Slowly, deliberately, the door gave way.
Beyond it lay a corridor swallowed in darkness, its depths unreadable, the shadows within seeming thicker than they had any right to be.
It didn’t invite entry.
It waited for us.
Gaia, we’ve done it.
Together.
The Omega Gryffindor shakily dismounted and dropped to one knee.
The Beta Ravenclaw was already beside him, checking his arm.
“Are you alright?” I asked, crouching beside Neville, worried about the state of his person.
“I’m fine.” Neville replied, breathless but smiling. “It worked. It actually bloody worked.”
I stared at the Omega Gryffindor and allowed a small wolfish smirk to appear on my face.
“That was… brilliant, Neville. Utterly mad, but… You were brilliant.” I said, meaning every word.
Neville flushed red at the compliment and was biting his lip in contemplation.
“Y-You really mean that?” Neville asked, a slight stutter to his words, and bewilderment in his tone.
“Of course I mean it. You commanded that board like a general who had fought a thousand battles” I answered, nothing but sincerity in my answer.
“Gran always says Omegas shouldn’t lead…” Neville mumbled and sniffled at his words. “Says we’re supposed to support their Alpha, raise the young, and obey. Be… quiet.”
I frowned at that and my Alpha hindbrain also made my displeasure known.
“That’s complete shite and nonsense.” I said with a low growl.
The Omega Gryffindor's smile turned faint and watery.
“Didn’t feel like it when I was one and I had just bloody lost everything...” Neville softly whispered, his gaze looking out at nothing as he no doubt remembered some horrid memory.
“Well…” Luna said, pulling out her wand to wrap a cloth around his hand that had been cut “You’re not one anymore. You’re a wizard, a brilliant wizard no matter what anyone says, and someone who is blooming into themselves.”
Neville blinked at her and was stunned into silence.
“T-Thanks Luna…” Neville responded, the pink in his cheeks growing darker, his pheromone communicating his lack of experience in procuring compliments.
I helped Neville to his feet.
“Come on. The stone isn’t going to guard itself from this evil.” I said as I looked over to the now open door.
“Right. Let’s finish this. Together.” Neville said, nodding his head.
“Together.” Luna repeated as she entwined her hands in ours and started to walk to the door.
Together…