Unofficial Portkey Archive

A/N: Well…here it is, I'm terribly sorry that it has been so long, but my friend came into town, and I had to spend time with her. Then next week I'm going on vacation to Louisiana, so I might not be able to get everything up, but I will try. Please R&R it makes me feel special!

*****************************

"Before you did what?" Ron asked unbelievably

"Before I hid the Book of Deception! That vial of blood is the only clue to finding the Book of Deception because everyone else who knew where it was hidden died or their memory was altered." Persiam said. She stood up and walked away from them.

"Aunt Persiam, you couldn't have hid the Book of Deception, it was lost or hidden over two centuries ago." Lavender said.

Persiam turned to Lavender and put her hands on her shoulders, "Lavender you shouldn't have found out this way." She sat back down on the couch and Lavender sat next to her, "My life is complicated, there is much more to me than meets the eye. My life would be something you would call a sad story. I'm a little over 200 years old, this, judging from my appearance, would be hard to accept."

"Aunt Persiam?" Lavender asked hesitantly

"Lavender, I guess it's no secret I'm not your mother's sister, but I am your Aunt, just your Aunt many generations ago. I guess I should start at the beginning. I suppose this story starts with love, as many do, found, and lost. I met the man of my dreams when I was very young and still coming into my powers. We were instant friends but nothing more for many years but slowly our feelings changed and we fell in love. But in most love stories there was the outsider, the one who wanted someone but couldn't have them so instead sought out to ruin the relationship." Persiam stood up, "He was very special and meant so much to me…" she paused and seemed to be lost in thought.

"I know who you are!" Draco said suddenly, she looked up into his eyes.

"You would Mr. Malfoy; I'm sure your father would have mentioned me as a traitor, my lover and myself were very much against the Dark Arts. We were very hated at the time, not many people were against it, but we did have followers. The Book of Deception was in our hands and we did use it to our advantage, but the problem with it was that the curses had side effects, horrible side effects." Persiam stopped and thought,

"It was then that we decided there was no choice but to destroy the book or hide it. Well we tried to destroy it but it just didn't work, it just couldn't be destroyed. That was when we set off to find the perfect place, and I won't bore you with details but we found the cave of Deception. The cave itself has many secrets and it is very hard to access, few have ever succeeded, but we did, and there we placed the book. We didn't put any curses on the book to prevent people from taking it because the book itself has protections." Persiam turned to Lavender and looked into her eyes.

"I have never given this clue to anyone, just let them hold it, touch it, see if they could get anything off of it." Persiam said

"But wait, if you had you memory altered why do you know where it is?" Hermione asked. Persiam studied her.

"Because the cave of Deception was lost, it crumbled and no one has been able to find it. But this clue shows you how to get to the cave of Deception, if you can figure out how to use it." Persiam said looking at Lavender before leaning into her ear and whispering, "The secret lies in their hearts!"

As they all stood up to leave Persiam took the vial of blood and handed it to Lavender. She put it in her hand and closed it, "I know this may all seem like a lot to handle, but I ask you to bear with me, everything I do has a purpose and everything I say has a meaning." She said before turning away, but stopping quickly, and staring at Lavender. She turned took Lavender's hand and smiled at her, "Sorry!" she said before squeezing it causing the bottle to break in her hand.

*****************************

Lavender let out a scream of pain and dropped the bottle, but the damage was done, on her hand was a mixture of Lavender's and Persiam's blood dripping from her hand. "Oh my!" Persiam said.

"Lavender, what's wrong?" Lupin said coming to her, his eyes widened when he realized what was on her hand, "What happened?"

"I didn't realize my grip and I broke the bottle in her hand, I am sorry, but I must request that you leave my home." Persiam said pushing them towards the door, she looked at Lavender and pulled out her wand, tapping it on her hand, and cleaning up Lavender's hand. "Lavender, do not worry, the answer is in my blood, you'll be all right!" Persiam said before pushing her out the door. Lavender looked at everyone and closed her eyes, she saw something, some cave, it was in a familiar area, it was where the cave of Deception was, she recognized it. Then she saw a woman screaming in agony, standing over a dead man's body. Lavender's eyes shot open and she stared at Ron who was looking at her funny.

"Lavender, are you all right?" He asked.

"Stay here!" she said before turning back to her Aunt's cabin and opening the door. "Aunt Persiam, what the…"

Persiam looked at her, "Ahh, I see you had your first vision, I always thought the blood would do the trick." Persiam picked up her cup of tea but stopped before drinking it, "Well, you can sit down, I'm almost certain you have questions."

Lavender pretended she didn't hear her, "What was that, I just had some sort of visions of the Book of Deception, and a woman." Persiam looked down.

"Yes you were having visions of me, when I hid the Book of Deception. See Lavender people come from all around to hold that blood take a drop of it and things such as that, but no one has been able to find where it is. I didn't understand it until you came here, how to access the book, or how to work the bloody, no pun intended, clue. But you see the answer is in my blood, you, you Lavender are my blood therefore making you the only one able to make it…work. Do you understand?" Lavender looked at her.

"No, I mean yes I understand that, but that woman she was you, and you hid the Book of Deception, that was hidden over two hundred years ago, explain to me how that is possible!" Lavender said

Persiam sighed, "You don't want to know the truth, but I'll tell it to you anyways. I am Persiam Deppart, I am 233 years old and I am trapped looking like I am 30 until I get my revenge on those that killed my lover."

*****************************

"What is taking Lavender so long?" Ron asked pacing around the yard.

"Ron, sit down!" Hermione said, getting tired of him asking the same question over and over.

"Yeah if that was Harry in there you wouldn't be sitting down!" Ron said sitting down next to Harry.

"Stop, the two of you! We don't need your fighting, it won't help matters. Hermione, Ron's worried about Lavender, and Ron, Hermione's just worried about you, so stop jumping down each other's throats." Harry said standing up and walking away to sit on his own. Hermione watched him walked away and sighed, he was doing it, he was pushing her away. She was about to get up and help him when his parents started after him, she felt odd, jealous, even though she shouldn't have. Ron noticed,

"Hermione, I'm sorry for snapping at you, I shouldn't have, I'm just worried about her, I mean I know its her Aunt, but she's still my girlfriend, I'm allowed to worry right?" Ron said looking at her.

"Yeah, sorry for snapping at you too, I'm just worn out!" Hermione said dismissively.

Hermione looked away and Ron sighed, "We all see it, you know, he's not just pushing you away, he's pushing us away too." Hermione looked up her eyes full of tears.

"I know, but this time he promised he wouldn't, he looked me in the eye and told me he wouldn't." Hermione said with letting the tears fall. "He told me he loved me, you know." Ron looked at her with surprise in his eyes, "Yeah he did, after I told him I loved him, after I told him that I couldn't live without him. I just, I love him so much and you know there are times when I just can't picture my life without him, and I don't want to either. But…" Hermione said staring at Ron, "…he doesn't love me!" when she said this Ron just looked at her, "He can say it a million times, but that won't change what I see in his eyes." Ron sighed and leaned into hug her.

"Hermione, he may not love you yet, but just give it time, it's a big step, you know, Harry never had loving parents like we did growing up, he never saw love." Ron said still hugging her. Hermione looked over at Harry and saw him looking at her and just shook her head.

"I keep saying that in my mind but I just can't believe it, I can't keep making excuses for why he won't love me, and if things don't change I don't know if I can stay with him." Hermione said letting go of Ron, she looked over to Harry and saw him talking to his parents, "I can't keep pretending he loves me if he really doesn't!" Ron was about to open his mouth and respond when Lavender walked out and said the furthest thing from everyone's mind.

"I know how to get to the cave of Deception!"

*****************************

That night they all set up camp in the same fashion as they had before Harry was sitting in front of the fire when he saw Lavender and Hermione walk out into a clearing. Harry got up to follow her when he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Ron standing there. "Hey mate, can we talk?" Harry nodded and sat back down still looking at Hermione.

"Harry, I got to ask you a question, Hermione and I were talking today after you stormed off. She would probably hex me into oblivion if she knew I was talking to you about this, but I feel I need to tell you." Harry looked at him, "Well, of the two of us, it's no secret I am the dense one, but in this case, you have chosen to be dense and it might cost you Hermione." Harry opened his mouth to talk but Ron held up his hand to stop him, "Hear me out before you talk. Hermione was telling me that you told her you loved her and that she loved you back. Now I've known from the beginning that your feelings have always run deeper than friendship, but I was surprised when she told me you told her you loved her. I knew she loved you, but I didn't know you loved her, and I don't believe you do…"

"Ron, how can you…"

"…and neither does Hermione!" Harry stopped and looked at Ron. "She sees it in your eyes, and she told me that she can't keep pretending that you love her when you don't. Now I love you two to death, and it pains me to see you two like this so work it out." Ron said standing up and walking over to Lavender leaving Harry dumbstruck. Harry looked up and saw Hermione staring at him and he stood up and walked over to Hermione.

"Harry…I thought you had gone to be…" but Hermione was interrupted when Harry's mouth covered hers. Hermione was so shocked by this she didn't know how to react, then recovering from shock she pulled back from Harry and smiled, "What brought this on?"

"I talked to Ron…" Her smiled faded.

"Ron, RON?" Hermione yelled "I'm gonna kill him!" Hermione turned to walk away but Harry stopped her.

"No wait, we need to talk!" he said

"Why talk you already know about my insecurities, so what exactly happened, huh, what did he tell you?" she asked putting her hands on her hips.

"What the bloody hell is going on out here?" Sirius said exiting his tent followed by Remus and James. "Some of us are trying to sleep!" Lily and Lavender followed by Ron and Draco soon joined the group of spectators. When Hermione saw Ron she advanced towards him causing him to back up in fear.

"Ronald Weasley, you told him, you told him what I told you? That was not for him to hear!" Hermione said stepping towards him to have Lavender step in front of him.

"Hermione, come with me!" Lavender said grabbing her arm.

"Wait!" Harry yelled, "We were talking we need to finish this." Hermione pulled away from Harry.

"I have nothing to say to you, as far as I'm concerned Ron told you what I was feeling, why should I tell you?" Hermione yelled at Harry.

Harry looked around at his parents and Sirius, "Hermione, this is not a conversation that we should be having in front of everyone!"

"I think here is fine! You know Harry I tried to make up excuses, saying you never had enough love in your life, I mean let's face it until Sirius came back into your life you didn't really know love, and I'm not even sure if he filled the place in your heart that needed to be filled, but you know what, I thought I did." Hermione yelled at him, "I thought that maybe if I told you I loved you it would help, and I did, I didn't expect you to say it back, but you did." Hermione turned away and then looked back, "And at least when you told me I expected you to tell me the truth, not tell me what I want to hear!" she said before running back to her camp. Lavender just looked at Harry and stepped towards him.

"Lavender, I'm really sorry that you had to see that…" but he was interrupted by Lavender's hand connecting with the side of his face sending him back a few steps.

"Stay away from her!" Lavender said before heading back to her tent. Lily and James just stared incredulously at their son. Sirius coughed and excused himself followed by Remus, Ron and Draco.

"Harry?" Lily asked. "What the bloody hell was that about?" Harry sighed and quickly filled his parents in on the details of how he had told Hermione he loved her, and how he had meant it.

"So you did mean it when you told her?" Harry nodded. "Well obviously not, otherwise she would have seen it in your eyes." Lily said

"Mum, you're supposed to be on my side!" Harry said.

"I'm not on anyone's side unless they are right, Harry we may not have been there but I know you were raised with dignity, you told that girl you loved her and she told you se loved you, she meant it you didn't. I am going to go talk to that girl, but she's right you should have told her the truth, not what she wanted to hear." Lily said before heading to her tent.

*****************************

The next day as they were traveling there were obvious separation issues among the group, Hermione and Lavender wouldn't even look at Harry let alone talk to him, Lily would just send disappointing glances towards Harry and Ron, Draco, James, Sirius and Lupin were sort of thrown into the middle. By mid-afternoon Sirius had finally had enough, "Okay Hermione and Harry come here!" he said causing the whole group to stop. When Harry and Hermione didn't budge, Sirius conjured a box and grabbed them and thrust them inside locking the door behind them. When he turned around he saw the shock in everyone's eyes. "I'm sorry, I just couldn't take it anymore, now does anyone else have a problem with anyone?"

Harry and Hermione were banging hard on the door and trying everything, they had left their wands outside so they were trying to kick it open. After ten minutes of incessant knocking and banging Hermione sat down, she looked up at Harry and sighed, "What's the use?"

"What's the use? Oh I'm sorry I was under the impression that you didn't want to be in the same room as me!" Harry said looking at her.

Hermione stood up, "I don't but you know what were gonna have to talk about this sooner or later!" she looked at him, "I don't see why you couldn't just tell me the truth when I told you I loved you, I mean, was that so hard?"

"Well what did you expect me to say? Did you expect me to say, `I have feelings for you but I'm not in love with you'? Excuse me if I was under the impression that most girls wouldn't lik…"

"I'm not most girls Harry! I'm Hermione the girl you have known since you were eleven!" Hermione yelled interrupting Harry.

"Well what do you want me to do now?" Harry asked sliding down the wall, sitting down. Hermione sighed and sat down.

"I don't know, I just don't know!" Hermione looked down then back at Harry, "Harry, maybe this is my fault; maybe it was just too soon for you to know that I love you."

"Hermione don't think that, I do love you, I've realized that now. I may not have when I first said that, but I do now." Harry said sitting next to her.

Hermione looked into his eyes; "Do you mean it?" Harry leaned into kiss her but she pushed him back, "You break my heart, I'll hex you so bad you'll wish I was you-know-who!" Hermione said before letting him kiss her.

Document created with wvWare/wvWare version 1.0.0

-->