The old man slowly paced the perimeter of his small cell, his head bowed and his withered hands held before him. Every now and again he would halt and press them together, a look of weary concentration on his face, as he tried to feel any twinge or trace of the old magic. A slight tingle? Was it there, or was it just another false shadow, a phantom of wishful thinking? No, it was there, he felt it...
"We were so stupid, so blind..." he murmured to himself as he resumed his shuffling. Again and again his thoughts returned to the past, to the long stretch of years that had led him to this bitter place. After the end of the Second War in 1997... or was it 1998? We thought it was all over, he thought wearily. We thought we were safe, that no threat like him would ever arise again. So we rebuilt our little world, mourned for the dead, and went on with our lives. The next decade was a happy blur... getting married, our first children, starting our careers, building the house... we were all so busy and content that we never noticed what was going on outside.
There were warnings but we ignored them. Those of us who had one foot in the other world sensed that things were changing, but we never dreamed they would go as far as they did, as fast as they did. By 2020, they had the whole of the planet mapped and on the implacable grid. By 2025, neutron energy and collapsed space technologies emerged seemingly out of nowhere. And by 2030... that was when we began to take note, but it was too late by then. The silly, stupid humans that we had mocked and thought harmless, whom we had always dazzled and fooled with our ways... they had changed. They gave themselves cybernetic limbs and augmented their minds with computers, they spliced their genes and halted the aging process. They became ruthless, intelligent, with spirits as pure and as hard as diamond. And the entire world became theirs.
We were always outnumbered, but for the first time we were outclassed. Such battles there were, and we lost nearly all. In the end, they took our greatest weapon and turned it against us. Magic, that most ancient of mysteries, was finally dissected. It was ripped apart, analyzed, and replicated. The bioelectric plasmic effect they call it now. And they control it now, as they control everything...
..again he raised his hands and focused, and felt the tingle return, a tiny spark of his former glory. His tolerance to the dampening medications must be increasing. By pure force of will he was beginning to overcome them, to reignite the fire that once burned wild and free.
He heard footsteps then and the series of whirring clicks that indicated that someone was approaching the door. Was it that time again so soon? He squared himself and prepared to bravely face the grim floor warden, or perhaps someone worse. But when the door swooshed open he trembled at the sight of his visitor. It was her. But she had been utterly transformed. When they had last met, she had been a slouched and greying middle-aged woman. Now she looked sprightly and slim, a facsimile of her long-vanished youth. Her skin glistened with a glimmer of silver, and her slender limbs moved with effortless precision beneath a form-fitting suit of gleaming armor. Her hair, woven of metal strands, flowed behind her. She was startlingly beautiful, but it was a cold and dangerous beauty. He knew that he was seeing one of the first new full-body conversions.
"Hello, Harry."
"Hermione."
A polished badge on her chestplate read "Hermi:O.N.E." He glanced at it, and muttered "cute."
"It's a bit daft, but fitting" she said with a smirk. "for i am one of the first of the dawning age."
"How nice for you, then."
"There is still time, Harry," she said, her voice calm. "You can join us. I have far more authority than i did the last time we spoke. Your crimes against the New Order can be erased, quite easily. You can be given a new identity, a new body, such as mine. It is time to forget the old ways, Harry. There is no other logical choice. Please, Harry? All i need is your consent, and i can arrange it all. You have thought that your life is nearing an end and have perhaps become accustomed to the darkness in which you live. But i tell you that a rebirth beyond your wildest imaginings awaits, if only you are sensible enough... and brave enough to accept it."
He had expected this. He had already made his choice.
"Where's Ron?" he inquired.
Even through her artificial silver eyes, he saw a flicker, a sign of the horrible truth. She almost stammered, then her face became an expressionless mask, eyes narrowed.
"I see," he said in a weary voice, "and i tell you, Hermione, or Hermi:O.N.E., or whatever you call yourself, that i will never join you. I will rot in the blackest depths of Hell before i forgive these.... MUGGLES!" He spat the long-forbidden word with surprising vehemence.
She stepped back from him, sensing the energy that was building up in his ancient body. A blue glow surrounded him like a halo, and he spread his arms and looked upward to the unseen sky. A shaft of deathly light erupted from somewhere inside him, ripping through his throat with a violent scream. He slumped to the floor, dead, his blood pooling on the clean plastic floor.
Hermi:O.N.E. considered the corpse for a few moments. Before summoning the staff, she bent and touched his forehead with a finger, and within seconds had a complete map of his DNA contained safely within her memory banks.
Sentimentality, she told herself. But one never knew. Poor Harry, always getting into trouble without her. She'd get him out of this one whether he liked it or not.
"The master of death? We shall see, Harry, we shall see."
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