I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters

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"Another story, another story!"

The moment Hermione had stepped foot inside the Gutlin-house, Evelyn had talked about nothing else but her previous bed-time stories. It pleased Hermione to know that the girl actually liked her stories, and it pleased her even more to see she could hold it as a treat above the little one's head. If she wasn't behaving herself before dinner, no bed-time story. It saved Hermione quite some time in cleaning the mess after Evelyn would have been gone to bed.

Now the girl was actually ready to go to bed, she had to keep her promise; Evelyn had kept hers and had behaved.

"Okay, okay, I get it. Well, let me think...Okay, I think I've got something."

She had been thinking the whole afternoon. It would be hard for her to tell Evelyn exactly what happened this year at her school. Partly, because it was still fresh in her memory, but partly also because though her second year had had an happy ending, and her third year she had made an happy ending, this one would be hard to turn into a happy ending. She would have to make it more fairy-taled, and less true.

"Long ago, there was a land that was many days' journey from here, called... um...Bulgaria." Evelyn giggled at the name.

"And in this land there reigned a handsome prince. He was tall, and strong and sweet, and everything every princess longed for." She looked at Evelyn.

"Isn't this about Harry, Ron and Sophie?"

"No, it's not."

Evelyn pouted. "But what about Ginny and Harry?"

"Well, they already lived happily ever after, remember? There's not much to tell about them anymore."

Evelyn nodded hesitant. Hermione proceeded:

"But the prince hadn't found a princess. So he travelled to a land that was a bit nearer to us, because there was a challenge and a ball. He hoped that he could find a princess there.

"First, there was the challenge. The prince had to fight a dragon and steal a dragon egg, but he wasn't allowed his sword. He only got a wand. And besides the prince, there were two other noblemen who also had to fight a dragon. The first one, Sir Cedric, transformed a stone into a dog, in the hope that the dragon wouldn't notice anything but the dog. It seemed to work, but suddenly..." Evelyn gasped.

"Suddenly, the dragon did see him, and it burned him." When a frightened look crossed Evelyn's face, Hermione added: "Only a little bit, mind you. The dragon was mean, but not that mean.

Then, it was the prince's turn. He waved his wand at the dragon, but nothing happened – it just made the dragon angry. The prince... let's call him... um... Vict...Vincent... um, yes... Vincent got a bit scared. He had forgotten that dragons couldn't be easily harmed by magic."

"Then what happened?" Evelyn asked. Hermione smiled a bit. She seemed to be telling this story much better than she had thought. It seemed more like a story then like the truth.

"Well, Prince Vic-, I mean, Prince Vincent, thought long and hard. And then he remembered that the weakest point of a dragon was its eyes. So, he shot the dragon in the eyes. The dragon was blinded for a moment, and in that time, Prince Vincent snuck to the nest, took the egg out, and returned to the other people who had been watching him. Everybody screamed and was happy for Prince Vincent. Then it was the last knight's turn. His name was Sir Harry."

"Sir Harry? What knight is called Harry? That's not a real knight's name! You always like to add a 'Harry' in your story."

"Okay, what do you think he should be called?" Hermione sighed.

"Sir Harold."

"Okay, then we shall call him Sir Harold. It was Sir Harold's turn. And Sir Harold was actually a bit smarter than Prince Vincent and Sir Cedric. He conjured a broom and flew into the air to distract the dragon, then he flew down very fast and took the egg."

"That's not fair!"

"How come?"

"He made it too easy!"

Explaining to Evelyn that Harry had taken just as much of a risk, maybe even more with the dangerous dragon he'd gotten, would be too hard, so Hermione changed the story a bit.

"Well, that's what the rest of the people also said. So Sir Harold wasn't allowed to come to the ball and Prince Vincent was the winner."

"Is this the end?" the five-year-old asked. "Because then it's a stupid story. I liked the stories you told me about Harry, Sophie and Ron much more."

"No, no, this isn't the end. Not by far. They had to go to the ball first, remember?" Evelyn nodded, but still looked critical.

"Okay. So, Sir Harold understood he wasn't allowed to come; he stayed home. But he had also brought two other people with him to the challenge, and they were still allowed to attend the ball. One was the brave and handsome Sir Ronald. Ronald was the best friend of Sir Harold. The other one was a princess. She was also a very good friend of Harold. She wasn't that beautiful, but she was smart and liked to read and she was always around when Sir Harold or Sir Ronald needed her help." She glanced at the girl, but it didn't seem to recognize that the story seemed to get the same characters as yesterday.

"Her name was... Princess..." She couldn't come up with a name. If she would say Sophie, Hermione was sure Evelyn would recognize it, and it seemed to make the story more real once she did. She looked at Evelyn. "Do you know a good name for the princess?"

"Um...Princess Evelyn!"

"Okay, so her name was Princess Evelyn. She and Sir Ronald were allowed to go to the ball."

She hesitated for a moment, but then decided that it wouldn't matter if the girl heard it. Evelyn hadn't noticed that Sophie and princess Evelyn were the same, let alone recognize that they were symbolizing the girl sitting next to her.

"Princess Evelyn always had liked Sir Ronald a lot, so she hoped that he would notice her, and ask her to the ball. But Sir Ronald was a bit foolish: he was looking around, to take a girl that was more pretty than Princess Evelyn. And right before the ball, Prince Vincent noticed Princess Evelyn. He thought the princess was beautiful enough. So he asked her to come to the ball with him. And Princess Evelyn was of course very flattered and she knew that she couldn't expect an invitation from Sir Ronald, so she said yes."

"And then what? Did they live happily ever after?"

But Hermione was by this point enjoying the story too much to end it there.

"No, no, not by far. The ball wasn't over yet, was it?"

When Evelyn didn't answer, but only nodded a bit, she continued, "Prince Vincent tried and tried, but he didn't understand anything about Princess Evelyn. He didn't know that she would have liked it more to go out with Sir Ronald; he just thought that she didn't love Prince Vincent enough.

In fact, Princess Evelyn had a wonderful time at the ball, but she thought the whole time that she would've have a better time if she had gone out with Sir Ronald. So, instead of trying to have a good time, and forget about the stupid guy that hadn't asked her, she asked Prince Vincent to get her some drinks and went to find Sir Ronald. Sir Ronald was angry at her, though: Princess Evelyn was going out with the opponent of Sir Harold! How could she do that? He didn't understand that Princess Evelyn had only said 'yes' because he hadn't asked her himself! Princess Evelyn didn't wait for Prince Vincent to come with the drinks: she had screamed in a very un-princess-manner at Sir Ronald, and went to the Royal toilets to cry about it."

Hermione saw that Evelyn was absorbing every word she said. Pleased, she continued:

"Prince Vincent, meanwhile, had fallen in love with Princess Evelyn. But he also had to return home to rule his own land, so he asked Princess Evelyn if she would come with him.

Princess Evelyn told him she'd have to think about it: It was a very hard choice to make; Prince Vincent did love her, but she didn't love him. She could go with him and try to love him: she hadn't really tried, after all. Or, she could stay here. She liked Sir Ronald, though he obviously didn't like her back." She took a breath, thinking about what should come next.

"But before Princess Evelyn could make up her mind, something terrible happened."

Evelyn looked up.

"What happened?"

"Well, I haven't told you about the Dark Wi- I mean, King, yet, have I?"

Evelyn shook her head.

"He was very mean, and wanted to rule over all the lands in the world. Sir Harold had defeated him once, but now he was back, and more cruel and angry than the last time. He had came back to revenge himself on Sir Harold,. First, he killed Sir Cedric."

"No!"

"Yes, I'm afraid so," said Hermione. She felt some tears behind her eyes. "But, Sir Harold managed to escape from the dark king again. He had to go into hiding to fight against the dark king, and so did Ronald and his family, because they all were in great danger. They asked Princess Evelyn to come with them."

"Did she do it?"

"Well, Princess Evelyn had a problem. She had to choose between Prince Vincent and her friends, Ronald and Sir Harold."

"What did she do?"

"She thought. Long and hard. But she honestly didn't know what to do," she said, suddenly losing her confidence and curious about the girl's thoughts. "What do you think she should do?"

"Go and fight of course! Why couldn't prince Vincent stay also to fight?"

"He had to rule his country," she mumbled, not sure why Victor couldn't help and fight.

"Chicken," Evelyn mumbled. Hermione continued as if she hadn't heard.

And then – She still didn't know if it had been the best decision,— she found fighting at Ronald and Sir Harold's sides to be more important at that moment. So she chose to go with Ronald and Sir Harold. She asked to Prince Vincent if they could just be friends for the moment. And Prince Vincent, noble as he was, understood."

"He understood? Wasn't he mad that she didn't want to be with him?"

"Well, he understood that Princess Evelyn wanted to fight first."

"But... but... he loved her! How could he let her go?" Hemione stared at Evelyn for a moment, as if she was the daughter of her doubts and hesitations in her head. How quickly could that girl change her mind? A moment ago she had told her that Evel- no, Hermione- had to fight.

"Because he didn't know for sure if she loved him back! And he understood that she needed to be with her friends first," Hermione answered. The memory of saying goodbye to Victor had just appeared into her head and she felt guilty all over again.

"So they didn't live happily ever after?"

"I think Princess Evelyn and Prince Vincent did live happily ever after, just not with each other. Prince Vincent would find another princess, one who was probably more beautiful and could really love him back. And Princess Evelyn would fight for a long time, but then would win."

"But would that stupid Sir Ronald ever notice her? Would he ever like her?"

"Well, not at that point. I'm not sure if Princess Evelyn and Sir Ronald would ever love each other. But they were still best friends, and at that moment, they just had to fight for Sir Harold."

"I bet they will come together!" said Evelyn, waving her hands energetically. "I bet he is her true love! He is just too stupid to notice it, yet!"

Hermione started to laugh.

"I don't think so, Evelyn. Princess Evelyn and Ronald are just friends, for that moment. And besides, they're so different... I hope Princess Evelyn her feelings for Ronald will fade, and that she will start to like someone else."

"Of course not! Besides, who else could she marry?" Hermione frowned.

"You go sleep now, and think of another prince Princess Evelyn could marry."

She tucked Evelyn in, kissed her good night, and walked to the door. By the time she had reached it, she heard Evelyn mumble angry: "I still think it's Ronald….."

Hermione went downstairs and sat on the sofa, a bit confused. She had already made up her mind about where to go this summer, but somehow, Evelyn had made her a bit hesitant. Was she really abandoning Victor?

She could easily go to Victor's place in a few weeks, and have a wonderful summer, as he had proposed in that letter. But she also knew that if she had understood Ginny's letter from a few days ago correctly, Ron and his parents were going into hiding any moment now. She couldn't leave them! Sure, Ron had been a prat last year, but he probably didn't understand how she felt and how much he had hurt her. She never had told him, so how would he know? She snorted, feeling a bit ridiculous. Who would have thought a little girl and a fairy-tale would have made matters more difficult? Weren't fairy-tales supposed to be simple and straight-forward?

Her hand travelled to her bag, from which she withdrew two letters. One was still from Victor, in which he again asked her to come to Bulgaria. The other was from Ron, delivered last night. If a stranger was to read it, they wouldn't get much from it besides how the weather was, how they would move to Snuffles' old house in about a week and how his parents were in constant contact with Dumbledore.

Yet Ron's letter had another layer, one with an invitation to come and help.

Victor's was just a letter with an invitation. She needed to make a decision.

But then, remembering the story she had told, she shook her head and pulled a piece of parchment out of her bag; she had made her decision, and she was going to stick to it. Quickly, she wrote a reply to Ron:

Dear Ron,

I can't wait to see all your new friends and help you with moving in. Let me know when you need any help. I can't write much at the moment: I'm baby-sitting my muggle neighbours' daughter. Hope to hear from you soon.

yours,

Hermione

Princess Evelyn was ready to fight.

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Hoped you liked this chapter too... I'm not very glad about how this pter turned out, but you can only change a whole fanfic so many times before I just get tired and post the thing...

Let me know what you thought about this story and if you liked it, you might want to check out some of my other stories...

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