Enigmatical Prince

9

Hermione sighs as she gets up and leaves the court yard. But once she was out of earshot, Cygnus opens one eyes and sighs as he states at her back longingly. "I'm sorry." Cygnus whispers in the wind, as he gets up and leaves the court yard.

Hermione walks away, completely unaware that Cygnus was awake the whole time and had just opened his eyes as she was leaving. The only thing she was hearing was the rustling of the wind as the leaves on the tree gently stirred. But she was surprised to hear a whisper of someone saying "I'm sorry." She quickly turned around to try and figure out who it was but she could see no one there. She shrugged it off, thinking she must have been hearing things. She continued on with her walk, trying to forget about the weird incident.

As the days went by, Hermione started to notice that Cygnus has been pulling more pranks than usual. He was even targeting the professors, which was odd since he usually just pulled pranks on other peers. She wondered why he was suddenly getting even more mischievous. Was he doing it to get back at Harry and Ron? Or was there some other reason for why he had been pulling more pranks than before? She was starting to get curious but before she could think more about it, she saw another prank that Cygnus had pulled. As she continued to watch, she also noticed that Cygnus seemed to talk the most to Luna than other Ravenclaws. What was even weirder was that they had grown very close with each other. She couldn't help but feel a sudden wave of jealousy whenever she saw them together. It wasn't like her to feel this way but she couldn't shake the feeling of jealousy that would wash over her whenever she saw them together. She knew it was not fair for her to feel that way and she felt guilty about it.

For the following days, Hermione tries her best to push back her feelings to focus on investigating the Drake family. She, Harry, and Ron have yet to get any new information about Cygnus's family, and it was starting to frustrate them on how little information there was about the Drake family.

"This is impossible!" Ron exclaims, flopping down on to one of the couches in the Gryfindor common room. Harry sighs in frustration, flopping next to Ron on the couch. "No matter, how much we try to investigate the Drakes we aren't getting any closer to figuring this out!"

Hermione sighs sitting across from the two boys. She was also getting frustrated but not because of how their investigation was going. She was getting frustrated with the feelings she was getting when it came to Cygnus. "Maybe we should focus on our Potion's assignment first." Hermione suggest wanting a distraction from Cygnus and their investigation about his family.

Harry and Ron groans at her suggestion. "Mione, the assignment isn't due until next week." Ron complains not wanting to do the assignment. Hermione rolls her eyes at Ron's complaint. "Ron, if we do our assignment now we'll have more time to investigate the Drakes." Hermione reasons as Harry nods his head in agreement while Ron simply groans again.

The trio heads over to the library to get their work finished faster. As Hermione browses the shelves trying to find a book to help her in their potions assignment, a book falls on her head from a high shelf. "Ow!" Hermione exclaims, rubbing her head in pain as she looks down to see the book that fell on her, was actually a yearbook that had opened up, she looks closer to see a familiar face and name.

"Harry! Ron! Look what I found!" Hermione calls trying her best not to catch the librarian's attention as she rushing over to the two boys, who looked at the yearbook in her hands curiously. "Look!" Hermione whispers to the boys as she points to a boy in Slytherin robes. The boy looked exactly like Pisces. They look over to the name below the boy's picture. "Rigel Alberio Drake..." Harry read out loud.

"That's Cygnus and Pisces's father?" Ron asks shocked at how much Pisces's resembled this guy. Rigel and Pisces both seemed to have the same nonchalant attitude, judging from how they have the same expression on their face. "It must be. He looks exactly like Pisces." Harry says as he and Ron continue looking at Rigel's picture. Hermione on the other hand was looking at the boy next to Rigel.

'Cepheus Alderamin Black... He looks a little like Sirius." Hermione thinks to herself as she looks at Cepheus's picture wondering if he was related to Sirius, Harry's godfather. Hermione remembers that Sirius mentioned that he had two brothers but one was missing, while the other one was dead.

"We finally have a lead!" Harry exclaims loudly getting him shushed by the librarian. He quickly apologizes to the librarian and turns back to look at Rigel's picture again smiling. Ron smiles with him.

Hermione nods her head in agreement. If they found out more about Rigel they might know more about the Drakes. She cast one last glance at Cepheus's picture, making a mental note to research more about him too, since he might also have a connection with the Drakes or Sirius.

The boys try to convince Hermione to ditch their homework to investigate Rigel, but she didn't budge and insisted that they finish their homework today. Harry and Ron sighs in defeat and does their potion homework quietly. Hermione sighs and tries to focus on her parchment but she can't help but feel her thoughts drift to Cepheus and Rigel.

She wonders more about the Drakes and that they finally got a lead after weeks of investigating about them. She also wonders about how convenient it was that a yearbook containing a picture of Cygnus's potential father just fall on her head. She wonders if all that was happening was all luck or something else...