They never really considered me much of an observant person, in fact, most of my classmates at Hogwarts considered me a complete goofball waste of robes and skin, but I was always listening and paying attention to everything. It's really what finally got me a job as an Auror. It was odd really that the three people who I know embodied bravery to a T were also the three people who embodied stupid blindness as well. Harry Ron and Hermione, Courageous and brick stupid. Sometimes I think Hermione and Ron pushed their engagement and marriage because they WANTED Harry to stop them, as if it was just another of their stupid fights. Instead, Harry just let the perfect girl for him marry his best friend and he went to sulk Merlin knows where. It makes me wonder if the scar-head isn't the man behind Batman's mask. - Neville Longbottom Second Lt. Her Majesty's Auror Corps.
Chapter 6: Truth and Consequences
Harry slowly felt his consciousness returning and sighed when he realized he was lying on a soft bed. He assumed Remus or Tonks had picked him up from the scene. He sensed someone seated beside the bed and rested his wrist over his eyes. "How long have I been out, Remus?"
"Ten hours, Harry," Hermione replied in an even tone. "Or do you prefer to be referred to as Batman?"
Harry carefully sat up and kicked his legs out over the side. And glanced around to find himself in Hermione's bedroom. "Ron brought me here, and you figured out how to remove my mask. Clever as expected."
"Why are you doing this?" Hermione asked holding his mask in her hand. "Haven't you had enough fighting in your life? Wasn't what we went through at Hogwarts enough for you?"
"You wouldn't understand," Harry said looking over himself. "Where's my belt? Oh, so you know now too?" Harry said finding it on Ron's shoulder as he leaned against the doorway, giving him a cold glare.
"What wouldn't we understand? Of course we can't if you don't explain why you're playing masked avenger!" Hermione snapped angrily, her arms trembling in her rage.
"Don't see why you're asking," Ron sighed, shaking his head. "You know he's just going to Obliviate us."
"I think I'll let it go this time, I'm tired of casting it on you every few months." Harry said deadpan causing both Ron and Hermione to stare at him wondering if he was joking or not. "I've Oliviated you ten times in the past two years, Hermione, and Ron twelve times. I don't want to risk permanent injury." He stated, and then snapped his head to the side rolling with Hermione's slap.
"Wicked, I've figured out he's Batman more times then you Hermione," Ron said proudly, and then shrinking back at the brown eyes of fury turned to him for a moment before returning to Harry.
"How could you?" Hermione hissed lowly with a good mix of hurt and anger.
"Simple. It's my fight. My responsibility," Harry stated as if it was obvious.
"How did you come up with that?" Hermione asked, her eyes burning even hotter then before.
"Voldemort ruined my life, took it away from me," Harry said his jaw muscles flexing. "He didn't do it alone. I won't stop till they're all where they can't harm anyone else ever again."
"Oh boohoo!" Hermione threw up her arms dramatically. "The Boy Who Lives believes the sob story himself! Oh this'll make Rita Skeeter so HAPPY! What is it Harry? Your parents died, Sirius died, and Albus died, so now you get to sulk in your little tights? CRY ME A FUCKING RIVER!"
"You don't …"
"You think you're the only one who loved them? You think you're the only one who lost loved ones in the war?" Hermione asked, shooting to her feet and on her tip toes to get into his face. "My Mum and Dad died in it too. My parents died when I was seventeen years old, Harry, I was old enough to remember them. I was old enough to know they loved me. All you've done is cling to a photo of two people you weren't even old enough to remember. Voldemort didn't ruin your life, Harry, YOU ruined it yourself!"
Harry said nothing, just returned a stony emotionless gaze.
"Damn you … DAMN YOU!" Hermione slapped him again. "Albus, Sirius, and your parents died fighting for their cause and you dishonor their memory with this shit?" She screamed, throwing the mask into his chest.
"Snape's all that's left, Harry, what then? WHAT THEN?" Hermione asked, reaching up to grip his shirt. "Death Eaters will all be gone and then what? Go hunting common criminals? Spend the rest of your life roaming rooftops waiting for someone to kill you? Is that what Lily Potter had in mind when she took that curse for you, Harry? Is that what your mother and father died for? What Albus and Sirius died for?"
"They're not here to ask, now are they?" Harry asked coldly, only to receive a third slap.
"Shut up. Shut up and listen and listen good Harry James Potter," Hermione hissed. "You like to blame everything that goes wrong in the world on yourself. Let me add something to your conscious. Do you know what really pushed Ron and I to get a divorce? Do you know how many times a day Ron and I heard someone mutter about how we left you behind, how we pushed you away with our marriage?"
"Hermione!" Ron stepped forward but Hermione held up a hand to stop him.
"He needs to hear this," Hermione snapped, before turning back to Harry to glare right into his emotionless green eyes. "We didn't break up our marriage because of any kind of misunderstanding or lack of caring. And it definitely wasn't because of the sex, which was the best part. I still love Ron, Harry. Just not in that way. I always loved someone else and I'm pretty sure we both knew about it even back then. He had the opportunity to step up, to save me from marrying my brother in every way but blood. He had the CHANCE to SAVE me, Harry, and what did he do? He let me go and do it and he walked away and left me to think I'd never see him again. Did that make me sound selfish to you? That I'm blaming him for my mistake?"
The silence was deafening till finally Harry commented.
"Are you finished?"
Hermione took a deep breath, straightened her shoulders and held her head high. With her eyes locked with his she made a confession that made Ron do a double take. "I couldn't see it then but I can see it now. When I was at Hogwarts, in the war with Voldemort, I fell in love with the bravest man I had ever met: my best friend Harry Potter. But I haven't seen him since my wedding with Ron. He ran away and a pathetic coward came back in his place. When MY Harry decides to come home, I'll be waiting," She said grabbing the belt from Ron and shoving it in Harry's arms. "Now leave. The sight of you makes me sick."
For a fraction of a second life seemed to fill Harry's eyes, as for only a moment his eyes flashed with hurt. The moment lasted for a second only to be hidden by the lenses of his mask. "Thank you for tending to my injuries, Dr. Granger," Batman growled walking past her and Ron on out of the room.
Hermione simply turned her back and hugged herself. Ron stood for a moment at a loss of what to say do or where to go. "Hermione?"
"Go home, or go to Luna … I don't care, Ron," Hermione's shaky voice spoke though she refused to face her ex husband and best friend. "I just want to be alone right now, ok?"
Ron stood for a moment before running out of the room and found Batman opening a window. "Hold on a tick, Harry, we haven't had our peace just yet!" He called out and the Dark Knight froze half way through the window and glanced back at him. "If there's any of my best mate … any of my brother left in there, answer me this. Is this really about revenge? Is this really about what you just said? Hermione maybe upset enough to buy that, but I've been trained better then to believe that."
"No." He said simply. "You know as well as I do nothing's that simple."
"Then what is this about?" Ron asked shaking his head in confusion. "Why are you doing this to yourself then?"
"You already know the answer." Batman said in Harry's voice as he climbed out the window and disappeared into the shadows.
Back inside the bedroom Hermione sat down on her bed, and opened the dresser. She reached inside and pulled out a picture of herself, Harry, and Ron from first year. She stared at the moving pictures for several moments and the moment her younger self hugged Harry she let loose a scream and threw the picture with all her might into the wall. The frame and glass broke on impact ripping the picture and fell to the ground. She threw herself down on the bed and let her painful sobs escape her throat as she cried into her pillow.
(-V-)
The Batmobile slowly came to a stop in the Batcave, and the Dark Knight climbed out and made his way to the vault. "Ron's been calling," Remus spoke evenly from the stairs. "He told us what happened."
"Oh?" Harry asked as he removed the cape and cowl and hung it in the vault.
"I didn't know you Obliviated them once let alone as many as you told them," Remus said crossing his arms.
"Ahuh," Harry replied removing his gloves and top. "It was for their own good."
"So they know … what does this mean for your personas?" Remus asked, already knowing the answer.
"It means nothing. They just understand now why I can't have anything to do with them," Harry stated pulling on a pair of jogging pants and a tee shirt.
"I've stood by and let you hid away behind that mask hoping that sooner or later you'd realize you're running down a dead end road," Remus said, walking toward his best friend's son. "Harry Tom Riddle's dead. It's over. You can let it go!"
Harry said nothing as he went to his computer. "Harry, talk to me! Ron and Hermione love you. Tonks and I love you. You don't have to hide in the shadows …"
"There could be another right around the corner," Harry said, "What will happen if another Voldemort comes? I can't go about my life as if he never existed. I know what can happen and I can't live with the knowledge it could happen again."
"I've wanted to say this to you since you put on that damned costume, Harry, but Tonks stopped me every time," Remus fumed, "This mission of yours, it's not noble. It's not admirable. It's SUICIDE!"
"I know," Harry replied, searching for any signs of Snape in England in Muggle and magical reports over his computer.
"We're leaving tonight," Remus finally said after a moment of silence. "I can't sit by and wait to watch the last of my past die. I hope someday somehow you find peace Harry, for your parents' sakes…" he said walking up the stairs, leaving Harry alone in the dark cave.
(-V-)
Severus Snape smiled longingly as he carefully placed human skeletal remains in a mud and moss filled casket.
"It's been so long," Snape whispered as he carefully placed the bones of the skeleton's hand in their correct place. "Too long, my love …"
Once the Skeleton was completed he stood back and reached for a smoking goblet and slowly poured the contents over the skeleton. The steaming pale pink fluid slowly covered the bones, before he sat the goblet to the side and pulled his wand. "Soon my beloved … we will be together and no one will separate us…" He said before waving the wand over the remains and whispering an incantation.
Instantly the mud and moss covered the bones making what appeared to be a human female skeleton.
"Soon, my flower …" Snape said touching the mud-corpse's cheek. "Soon …"
To Be Continued
A/N: I know this was a short chapter but it got what I needed in it and it's been long enough since my last update of this story. Next Chapter: A Light in the Darkness