A/N: Thanks so much to everyone for their wonderful reviews. Sorry for the long wait but it has taken me quite some time to find the best way to write it. I hope that you guys enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think and review. Thank you so much.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. See previous disclaimers.
Chapter 25
Hermione woke up to find that her arms and legs were tied to a chair and looked around and saw that she was in a dark room without much furniture. She also realized that she didn't recognize where she was and that her head was throbbing.
"I see that you finally woke up. How's you head?" A familiar voice said.
Hermione looked up to see Allie sitting in front of her with her hair done up in little waves with a small smirk.
"Allie, my head hurts. But you seem to know something about that," Hermione answered.
"I'm sorry about your head. I told them to be more careful but they don't always listen," Allie replied with a shrug.
"I'm sure that you did and by the way where am I?" Hermione asked rolling he eyes.
"You're in a room specifically reserved for special guests like you," Allie replied with a small smile.
"How nice of you Allie but where exactly is here?" Hermione replied with a scowl.
"Do you remember where you were last?" Allie asked.
"You mean that I'm still in the same apartment?" Hermione asked.
"You could say that in a way, but more like underground but let's cut the chit chat now and ask what you really want to ask me," Allie added looking nonchalantly at her nails.
"Are you the one behind Lisa's disappearance and Chloe's outburst?" Hermione asked.
"Maybe I had a hand in moving those events along," Allie replied crossing her legs.
"What does that mean?" Hermione asked.
"It wasn't very difficult. The power of suggestion can do wonders, especially with a bit of help from magic," Allie replied.
"So basically you tricked her into it," Hermione retorted.
"I wouldn't use the word tricked exactly, it was her choice to do it in the end," Allie answered.
"That's twisting the truth," Hermione replied sharply.
"It's all about perspective. Your perspective may not always be right," Allie short back.
"So what is your perspective then?" Hermione asked raising her eyebrows.
"Chloe was getting quite nervous and feeling a bit guilty about something so I suggested that maybe a confession would help keep her conscience clean," Allie answered.
"So you think that you were helping her then?" Hermione commented.
"If it makes her feel better then yes I think I did," Allie answered.
"But she wouldn't have done it if you hadn't make her do it," Hermione added.
"That's where you're wrong," Allie said with a laugh.
"What does that supposed to mean?" Hermione replied.
"Well you obviously don't know everything do you?" Allie said with a laugh.
"What are you talking about?" Hermione pressed.
"The magic I used on Chloe doesn't pull things out of thin air. It is based on some thought in their minds," Allie explained.
"You mean that it brings even the tiniest thoughts that cross their mind to their attention?" Hermione inquired.
"Yes and it makes it more likely that they would do what they are thinking about," Allie added.
"You mean basically they do things without thinking?" Hermione pressed.
"You could say that I guess," Allie replied.
"Just because you think of something doesn't mean that they would actually do it," Hermione cried.
"But you don't know that do you?" Allie asked.
"Not exactly but from what I can see……" Hermione started.
"What you see? You don't her that well," Allie scoffed.
"And you do?" Hermione countered.
"Better than you do and like I said, that appearances can be deceiving," Allie retorted.
"Fine, what happened to Lisa?" Hermione asked shaking her head.
"Since you have watched some of the video I'll keep it simple. Remember the call that I received for Lisa?" Allie asked.
Hermione just nodded in response.
"Well she happened to mention that she was thinking about trying to come back so I just basically kept my eye on her, metaphorically speaking of course," Allie replied.
"What did you do to her?" Hermione demanded.
"I didn't do anything," Allie replied stressing the "I".
"Well then where is she?" Hermione asked again.
"Relax, she just taking a very long nap," Allie answered.
Hermione sighed in relief then asked, "Just sleeping and was it really Chloe who helped you?"
"Yes it just a very very long nap for now. It does look like Chloe doesn't it?" Allie replied with a smile.
"You mean it wasn't her?" Hermione inquired.
"It is and it isn't," Allie answered standing up.
"What does that mean?" Hermione asked.
"It means exactly what I say it means. Things aren't also what they seem," Allie responded.
"Stop trying to be so cryptic. Is it her or not?" Hermione asked exasperated.
"Touchy aren't you? Yep, you're right that it isn't Chloe but we didn't use any polyjuice potion to do it. You have heard of people with the ability to transform into any shape that they want right? Allie replied amused.
Hermione nodded and said, "So that was who we saw in the screen?"
"Yep," Allie answered standing up.
"But I don't get why you would do that to Chloe?" Hermione asked.
"That would be partly your fault then wouldn't it?" Allie answered looking at her.
"How is it my fault?" Hermione retorted.
"If it wasn't for you, Harry wouldn't be avoiding me and I wouldn't be forced to make sure that someone else went home and not me," Allie replied.
"Harry makes up his own mind so if he decided for himself that you might be the one for him then there isn't anything I can do about it," Hermione answered.
"But you can influence his decisions and obviously you told him about your suspicions about me," Allie countered.
"Fine then why did you do that to Lisa?" Hermione asked.
"I didn't want to but she wouldn't listen to me when I asked her not to come back," Allie answered.
"What does it matter though? You know the rules and that there isn't a way for to come back," Hermione pointed out.
"I don't want to take any chances and it wasn't just that," Allie answered.
"What else? Did she say something that you didn't like or did she find something out about you?" Hermione asked.
"You think you are so clever don't you? You don't know anything about anything." Allie added annoyed.
"No major harm? What about Lisa's family? Nobody knows where she is and you're taking away hours of her life. And because you're letting Chloe taking the blame for something that she didn't do. You could cause her to have this accusation follow her for the rest of her life," Hermione said strongly.
"It's not like I planned to do it and it isn't really my fault," Allie retorted.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Hermione asked.
"We're running out of time here so why don't you ask what you really want to know?" Allie replied
after a moment of staring at her watch.
"Are you in a hurry or something?" Hermione asked.
Allie walked up closer to her and waved her hand.
All of a sudden Hermione felt a sharp pain go through her and cried out in a gasp.
"What was that?" Hermione asked grimacing in pain.
"Just a little punishment for those who ask too many questions but if you keep your smart aleck comments to yourself then you won't have to find out what more it can do," Allie replied.
Hermione nodded and asked, "Are you really my sister?"
"I wish it wasn't rue but unfortunately we really are sisters," Allie answered.
"But it's not possible. I would remember having a sister," Hermione answered slowly.
"It's like I want you for a sister either but it is the truth. I wouldn't make something like this up and you did see for yourself while you were snooping around," Allie replied.
"I do remember seeing something like this. How did something like this happen?" Hermione asked out loud in shock.
"It's quite simple, they had to choose between the two of us and they chose to keep you," Allie replied.
"Choose between us for what?" Hermione asked confused.
"To send us off to be trained at Faerway's," Allie answered.
"I don't get why one of us would be sent off to Faerway's if we're both magical. Shouldn't we both be sent off to Hogwarts?" Hermione asked.
"Well I guess you don't know everything do you then? As you know that many prophecies made about every single person. Well there was one about the Granger family. One that mentioned that one of us was born to become a special magical individual who needed go for special training," Allie explained.
"I've heard that there are many prophecies concerning everybody but what I don't understand is why I don't remember any of it and my parents don't seem to remember either," Hermione asked.
"Obviously they erased me from your memories," Allie answered with a scoff.
"That is obviously possible but I still don't believe that Mum and Dad would ever want to choose one daughter or another," Hermione answered.
"Since you know them, of course you would say that. Well they obviously did since you're still living with them and I was shipped off to school far away," Allie explained bitterly.
"I'm sure that there's more to this story than you know since I don't think you'd remember everything since it was such a long time ago. I'm sure that they would have wanted to keep you too" Hermione suggested.
"You don't know what happened either so maybe you shouldn't say anything," Allie replied sharply.
"That may be true but you're acting like you know everything," Hermione pointed out.
"Have you ever thought that maybe I do know?" Allie asked raising her eyebrows.
"How would you know?" Hermione asked.
"I have my ways and my sources," Allie replied.
"Where?" Hermione started to say before she felt a pain once again.
"Stop asking so many questions and just get up," Allie told her.
*~*~*~*~
Harry had been walking around trying to see if he could find Hermione. He tried looking into a few of the places that she had mentioned but he didn't see her and he asked around as well but so far still no luck.
He tried calling her phone but all it did was keep ringing which worried him more. She was not someone who would leave her phone behind. He remembered the one time she had almost forgot her phone she was back within a few minutes to pick it back up. He laughed softly as he remembered how flustered she was at not being able to find her cell phone.
Harry decided to try to find the apartment he had gone to with Hermione. He forgot what the exact address was though but he did remember the area where the apartment was and headed towards the apartment.
*~*~*~*~*
"Where are we going?" Hermione asked.
"Some place where you can rest," Allie replied.
"So how has your life been?" Hermione tried again.
"You really want to know?" Allie sneered.
"Of course I do or I wouldn't have asked," Hermione replied.
"I started school around when you were 10 and we began training. The school work was tough and involved a lot of hard work. Luckily a couple of the teachers Madeline and Ms. Koucher helped me out and took care of me as their own. If it wasn't for them I would not be able to have done as well as I had in school," Allie answered with a small smile.
"It sounds like they treated you well," Hermione said softly.
"They were really great but they weren't my parents," Allie said in a sad tone.
"Are you okay?" Hermione asked softly.
"Mind your own business and keep on walking," Allie turned and snapped while giving her a slight push.
"Okay… but can I ask you one more question?" Hermione asked as she could walk forward.
"You obviously won't give up until you get all your answers won't you? Go on and ask then," Allie replied shaking her head.
"So how did you found me and why did you do it?" Hermione asked.
"I'm getting there. I've always known that I didn't know who my parents were and it never really bothered me until I heard other people starting talking about family and I think I heard them talking about my sister but they wouldn't tell me so I hired someone to look into for me after nobody would tell me " Allie added.
"Patrick McFlamboyle. Right?" Hermione asked.
"I see that you were snooping around. Yes I hired him and after about a few days he finally found the name of my biological parents. Afterwards I began search for any smidge of information on you guys. Mum and Dad were dentists and I only found little information on them but they apparently did pretty well and I found some articles on you in elementary school. Since you were quite an academic achiever, I found that was quite strange so I began thinking that maybe you were also in the magical world and then I found out a lot about you just from reading the newspapers and books as well as people talking about all your latest accomplishments. " Allie explained with a bitter tone in her voice.
"You were asking about me?" Hermione asked.
"Well I needed to know what type of person you were since we are related biologically at least," Allie replied.
"And what was your impression of me?" Hermione inquired.
"I think that a lot of people think that you're a great person and on paper I would have to agree. You've always had this great life and a family. Some people might not be so lucky and resent that," Allie pointed out.
"Are you one of those people?" Hermione asked.
"I don't resent you for that but I definitely don't think that its fair that you got everything. Perfect parents, friends and fame," Allie shouted.
"So you joined the show because of that?" Hermione asked.
"Arrogant much? Everything isn't about you," Allie retorted.
"Then why did you join the show?" Hermione asked.
"For the same reason any other girl joins the show," Allie replied.
"You want to find your perfect match?" Hermione asked.
"Of course don't you?" Allie inquired.
"Of course, so you didn't know Harry joined the show at first," Hermione asked.
"I didn't know but it worked out well because I did want to meet him," Allie added with a smile.
"So you do like him?" Hermione asked.
"Does that really matter? Now come on over here," Allie replied as the smile left her face and pushed her towards a narrow opening.
"I really want to know," Hermione tried again rubbing her arm.
"So what if I do? My chances now are much slimmer since you told him to be wary of me," Allie responded with bitter tone to her voice.
"How did you know that?" Hermione asked.
"I have my ways but it was quite obvious that you didn't like me very much so you would say something like that to him," Allie replied.
"If you didn't do anything suspicious then there wouldn't be anything to be worried about," Hermione pointed out.
"Don't get on your high horse with me. Everything is your fault after all," Allie answered.
"You can't keep blaming everything on me," Hermione told her.
"Stop talking," Allie told her as she pressed a button to open the door.
"You keep on saying that it's not ALL your fault so is there someone else helping you?" Hermione pressed.
"Just come on inside," Allie responded after a moment and grabbed her arm after she didn't see to move right away.
"What is this place?" Hermione asked looking around and seeing all there was a small enclosed space.
"This is a place for you to rest in," Allie explained.
"Well that's very nice of you but I don't need to rest," Hermione responded as she looked around.
"Who said you had a choice?" Allie asked.
"What are you going to do?" Hermione asked nervously.
"Relax for a bit and as long as you do as you're told everything will be fine," Allie told her with a bright smile.
"You're not going to…" Hermione asked.
"Get rid of you? I wish I could but obviously if you really disappeared that would cause Harry to worry and all so it's not something that I can easily do," Allie replied with a laugh.
"Okay so where am I going to rest?" Hermione asked.
"I thought that I'd let you take care of that yourself," Allie answered.
"But my hands are tied, how do you expect me to do anything?" Hermione asked.
Just then the phone rang and Allie picked it back up and after a few moments she turned off the phone and turned towards her and said, "I will be back in a little bit."
Hermione was curious as to whom she was talking to on the phone and started to figure out if she could get herself out of the rope that was around her legs and feet. She began looking around the room to see if there was anything that she could use to loosen the rope around her hands. But as she looked around she didn't see anything that was lying around and decided then to try a spell and mumbled `Losiado vibroso' as she waved her hands.
It didn't work at first but then she tried it a few more times and finally it was successful and she was able to untie her feet and headed towards the door to find it blocked.
"I knew it wouldn't be that easy," Hermione murmured to herself and tried a couple of unblocking charms and spells and seemed to have lessened its power but did not remove the whole obstruction. Frustrated she leaned against the wall and felt a loose brick in behind her and removed it to find a key pad and got shocked as she tried to press the buttons to unlock it.
Hermione just sighed and quickly took out a pen she kept in her pocket for emergency situations. It was device that she had helped to develop in order to use magically enhanced safes. It was still not fully developed yet though since there were a few kinks to yet be worked out. She then pressed the button and moved the pen over the keypad as if she was spraying something. There seemed to be a spark appeared and she smiled. She then opened the lid on the pen and pulled out another small device and attached that to the keypad. Setting in the program to find the combination on the lock and within a few minutes the blockage disappeared and she quickly waved her hand and everything went back to her pocket and she walked out of the room extremely quietly.
~*~*~*~*
Harry went to the neighborhood but all their apartments looked the same so he checked out a few apartments before he finally found the one that was now empty and looked around and saw nothing out of the ordinary but he still felt like something was wrong so he tried calling Hermione again and that's when he heard a small beeping sound and he investigated to find that the sound seemed to have originated from behind the wall indicating that there must be a hidden compartment somewhere in the apartment. He then did a quick scanned the wall and found the position in the wall and took out his wand and cast a little unlocking/revealing spell that acts on opening any secret compartments. It is a very useful spell that saves a lot of time in determining how to unlock the door to the secret compartment.
Within a couple of minutes the door to the security room appeared in front of him and he walked inside the room and tried to spot where Hermione's cell phone may be and dialed it again and within a couple of minutes he found the phone near the door and by now he was certain that something bad had happened to her. Her phone was a little battered and opened which was so unlike Hermione.
He then searched for an opening that could led into a secret passage. The room looked clean and there were no boxes anywhere. It looked like nobody had lived there for ages. But he had a feeling that she would be still be nearby so he continued searching through the floor boards or any hiding places in the wall.
Harry took his wand out once again and tried using another spell that he had used numerous times before and finally saw some movement in behind one of the mirrors. He did find it strange that there was a mirror in this room and decided to see if he could move the mirror and found that it was closed quite shut. So he used his wand to loosen the mirror and the mirror opened slightly and Harry easily moved the mirror out of the way and saw that it led to a narrow staircase and Harry followed silently downstairs.
*~*~*~*~*~
Hermione heard some voices coming from another room a few feet away and moved closer to see who was having the conversation.
"Do I really have to do that?" Allie asked.
"Yes. That is part of our deal," Another face replied.
"But that wasn't part of the original plan," Allie replied.
"A lot of things happened that weren't in the original plan so things had to change," the person replied.
"But it's not exactly how I wanted it to go," Allie commented.
"I know but in the end the result should be the same," that person added.
"But I'm not really sure if it will work," Allie commented.
"We have a lot of faith in you and I'm sure that you will do a good job," that person added.
Hermione tried to move in closer to see who Allie was talking to and accidentally tripped on something and when she looked up she saw that other person was no longer there.
"What are you doing out here?" Allie demanded.
"You didn't exact me not to try to escape?" Hermione replied.
"Of course not but I would have thought that you would have already left," Allie replied with a shrug.
"I didn't actually think that I would get caught and don't expect me to stay here either," Hermione added as she moved away.
"You're not going anywhere," Allie told her as she went to go grab her arm.
Hermione shook it off and kicked her and ran forward.
Allie grimaced and took out her wand and pointed towards Hermione.
Hermione doubled back and turned around feeling the pain and took out her wand and said, "Tremiosa,"
Allie stood still and grabbed her leg.
Hermione took this opportunity and said, "Expelliamus."
Allie's wand went off far away from her and she said, "I can't let you leave unless you promise to keep everything you learned here a secret."
"You know that I can't do that," Hermione told her as she continued forward quickly.
"Well then you can't leave," Allie said quietly with a wry smile.
Hermione continued forward but she didn't seem to be getting any closer to the exit. All the entry ways seemed to look alike so she tried to use her own senses to find her way out of the mess. When she found a door at the end of the tunnel and grabbed the door and the atmosphere became black and blurry and she felt herself falling until she landed in a room on her feet and became quite unbalanced and landed on the bottom.
"Are you comfortable?" a cloaked figure asked.
"Who are you?" Hermione asked.
The cloaked figure laughed and took off to reveal her face.
She had sleek black hair, dark eyes and pale hair that very much resembled bellatrix Estrange and said, "You can't be. You're locked up," Hermione asked shocked.
"You're right I'm not," She said with a smile.
"Then who are you?" Hermione asked.
"I'm her daughter, Carlineux," She replied.
"But as far as I can tell, she didn't have any kids," Hermione replied.
"Well you didn't know you had a sister either did you?" Carlineux retorted.
"Do you know Allie?" Hermione asked.
"Of course I know her. We've gotten to be pretty good friends and let you know on a little secret," Carlineux replied.
"What?" Hermione asked.
"Allie doesn't even know that she is only playing a part in our plan," Carlineux added with a laugh.
"What plan?" Hermione asked standing up.
"Sit down," Carlineux ordered and with a wave of her hand a chair appeared behind Hermione and she sat down.
"What plan?" Hermione asked rubbing her ribs.
"Everything has been planned quite in detail. First of all the fact that Harry was picked to be the bachelor and Allie getting picked as well," Carlineux added.
"You mean it was all a set up?" Hermione inquired.
"Well not everything. I happened to meet Allie at school. We just told her a little lie and showed her a little of what happened. We told her that your parents chose to give her up instead of you," Carlineux explained.
"Why?" Hermione asked.
"Because we needed her, when I spotted her I thought that she reminded me of you," Carlineux replied.
"How did you remind you of me if you have never met me?" Hermione asked.
"I learned a long time ago who I was and I also found that they didn't think of me as a daughter at all because I wasn't born like them. I wanted them to like me so I was reading all about how you and Harry has been labeled as "heroes". So I thought of a wonderful way for them to like me and it involved both you and Harry," Carlineux explained.
"So why do you need Allie for part of your plan?" Hermione asked trying to get up but her feet were unwilling to move.
"Stop trying to move. It won't work. Because is Allie is the most like you," Carlineux explained.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Hermione inquired.
"You will soon find out," Carlineux replied with a mysterious smile.
Allie ran into the room and whispered something in Carlineux's ear.
"You're in luck. You know what we were just talking about? You'll have your answer soon," Carlineux told her.
Hermione just looked up at her with curiosity.
"Get up, Harry's on his way," Carlineux told her with a wave on her hand.
"He's here and you're not at all concerned?" Hermione asked.
"We're going to give him a test to see how well he knows who you are," Carlineux replied.
"What kind of test?" Hermione asked.
"Why don't you turn around?" Carlineux asked.
Hermione turned around and saw herself.
"What is going on?" Hermione asked herself in shock.
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