Shadow Walks
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
--Green Day, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"
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Chapter Twelve:
I'm looking past the shadows in my mind into the truth --Lifehouse, "Breathing"
"Harry, what the hell is going on?" Kingsley Shacklebolt strode into the Level Four Detention facility, with an incredulous look on his face.
"Bellatrix Lestrange is alive," Harry said quietly, not looking at all triumphant or superior, despite his mocking words to Malfoy. "And she's over there in cell B." He cocked his head toward the room in question. "Malfoy's in C."
"Draco Malfoy?" Kingsley echoed. "Harry, I - "
"She was living in his house, Kingsley," Harry said, raising his voice momentarily, but striving to drag it back under control. "They were working together. The French group is tossing the place as we speak. There's bound to be evidence."
"There's bound to be? Harry, you were supposed to have that before you went in."
"I thought… in light of the circumstances - "
"What circumstances?" Kingsley asked, gently, but intently. "Under whose authority did you go into Malfoy's villa?"
"Mine," a voice piped up from behind him, and they both looked up in astonishment. Luna was standing there, looking as serene as she always did, with her butterbeer cork necklace double-stranded around her head like a garland. Ron was hovering protectively at her elbow.
"And mine," said another, as Calpurnia Wilcott appeared from around the corner just behind his two flatmates. Kingsley Shacklebolt's eyes flicked from one to the other in turn.
"Explain," he said in a terse voice.
Together, Luna and Calpurnia began to tell their tale to the Head Auror, and Harry found himself not really listening until they got to the part about finding fibers from a modified invisibility cloak, and doing a black market trace on who owned such an item. Harry did his best not to look surprised, wondering if they'd actually found such evidence, or were making it all up.
"What is the meaning of this?" came a new voice, trampling over the last half of Calpurnia's sentence. Harry recognized it instantly. Ron said,
"Bloody sodding hell."
Percy Weasley strode around the corner, still dressed in his crispest black Ministry robes, despite the fact that it was after-hours, and all but the on-duty Aurors who'd been called in were in street clothes. His eyes tripped over the scene, lingering with superior disdain over his brother and his best friend. Righteous indignation rose up in Harry, and he elbowed his way past Kingsley.
"I'll tell you what the meaning of this is," Harry offered. "The meaning of this is that Bellatrix Lestrange is not dead. Your little Ministry pet, Malfoy, has been hiding her from the government for five years. There were key facts in evidence that were overlooked or not examined at all, because the Minister was so eager to brush everything under the rug and close the case."
"Your long enmity with Draco Malfoy is obviously clouding your judgment," Percy said superciliously. "It is lucky for the Auror Department that an agent with such flagrant prejudices will not remain on staff for much longer." The threat was unmistakable. Percy and Harry stared at each other with evident loathing, and the tension snaked thickly throughout the corridor.
"Your position up the Minister's arse is obviously clouding your judgment," Harry said, pulling a transparent, wafer-thin object from the pocket of his cloak. "I have a recording of everything that happened in the Malfoy villa tonight." He tossed it to Percy, who caught it, looking flustered. "I trust that the recording, together with the testimonies of these Unspeakables, will shed a little light on the actual facts of the investigation."
The entire hallway was silent, watching Percy with expectant gazes. Percy, for his part, looked like he didn't really appreciate the position into which Harry was forcing him.
"Rest assured, Mr. Potter," Percy pontificated, sweeping the entire corridor with decided hauteur. "This will be investigated thoroughly by the Executive Staff."
"Good. It's been a long time coming," Harry countered neatly, with a tight smile. Percy glowered at him, and turned to Kingsley Shacklebolt with artificial deference.
"I'm sure that you could release Lord Malfoy on his own recognizance, while the investigation is being conducted," he said. Harry spluttered a protest, and Luna moved behind him to hit him sharply on the back. Ron coughed something that sounded like "arse-kisser" and Percy's ears turned red.
"You cannot be serious," Harry said, once he could speak again. "He attacked two Ministry employees - that at least can be backed up by these witnesses. What does Malfoy have on you people? Is he paying you off or - " he stopped abruptly, and Kingsley stepped neatly into the gap.
"I'm afraid that will be quite impossible, with the seriousness of the charges against him being what they are," the Head Auror said diplomatically, offering an apologetic smile to the Minister's First Assistant. "If the investigation finds that Mr. Malfoy is innocent, he will, of course, have our humblest apologies."
Percy strode away, in a flourish of black robes and indignation. Kingsley watched him go, and then turned to address Harry, who, he was nonplussed to see, had his head back in the Floo.
" - of paramount importance," Harry was saying. "Do you understand? It needs to be done immediately, and turned over to no one but myself or Head Auror Shacklebolt." A pause. "Yeah, no problem. Thanks."
Harry withdrew from the Floo, and squinted up at Shacklebolt.
"Damn!" he said. "I forgot about my glasses." He made a motion as if to re-enter the Floo, and ask about them, but he stopped and shrugged. "They've probably been smashed anyway."
"You look like hell," his boss said, eying his disheveled appearance with askance. The lurid red of his inflamed eyes contrasted vividly with the green of his irises. "What happened?"
"Malfoy threw Floo powder in my face," Harry said, rolling his eyes and looking thoroughly disgusted with himself.
"You should get that checked out," Kingsley said. "And you'll need - where are you going?" Harry was tossing another handful of Floo powder in the grate. "You need to be debriefed."
"It's going to have to wait, Kingsley," Harry replied, politely but firmly.
"You've just recovered a Death Eater that was presumed dead, and her co-conspirator. The press is going to have a field day, and Scrimgeour is going to have quite a bit of explaining to do. We've got to make sure this is done by the book. What could be more important than that?"
Harry lifted bloodshot eyes to his boss, and stared at him for a long moment.
"Oh," said the Head Auror, after a moment. "Oh." Harry quickly scanned his wand at a locked storage room, and darted inside, returning with a standard issue Pensieve. He withdrew three or four shimmering strands rather quickly, and handed the bowl to Kingsley.
"I think that will speak for itself. You can give a duplicate to Percy, if you'd like. I just - I don't know how much time I have." His eyes flickered curiously to Luna. "And - and I've got to get to the Department of Mysteries. There might be a way to get her back, but I don't know how long I'll - "
"Harry, I - " Shacklebolt began, and then stopped, turning instead to Luna. "Miss Lovegood, I'll send an owl to your supervisor, letting him know that you are under direct orders from me to aid Auror Potter in any way possible." Luna nodded, her blue eyes bright and solemn. He looked back at Harry, laying one hand companionably on his shoulder. "I don't know exactly what's going to happen here, but I'll do everything in my power to ensure that your job is here for you when you get back."
"Just make sure they stay where they belong, sir," Harry said, nodding down the corridor toward the cell doors.
"You have my word. Good luck," Shacklebolt said, refraining from asking the thousands of questions that buzzed inside his mind. I hope you find what you're looking for, Harry.
"Thank you, sir," Harry replied.
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Harry took the Floo to the main Ministry lobby, and Luna and Ron followed him, after Calpurnia agreed to be the one to stay and give a statement about the cloak fibers. The Detention Facility was connected to the Ministry by secure Floo, but it was enchanted to move about randomly so that it was inaccessible by lift.
Ron noticed with a sharp glance that Harry's hands were trembling, but no one said a word until they had entered the Department of Mysteries, empty since the end of office hours, and stood before the door to the multiverse room.
Harry shoved his hands violently into his pockets, as Luna opened the door. He felt as if there should be some sort of fanfare, perhaps a drum roll or heralding trumpets - or perhaps a portent of doom instead. This seemed like the most momentous occasion of his life.
"Merlin's Beard!" Ron exclaimed, gaping as he tried to take in the room. The walls were nearly covered in small golden hooks, with each hook supporting a single gold chain, suspended from which was a crystal pendant. The sizes and colors varied. There were a few high work-desks, neatly lined with various containers and vials, with lab stools nearby. There was also a rolling step-ladder like those found in libraries, to access the higher rows of hooks, but the rest of the room was bare and unadorned.
There are thousands. Malfoy might have rather understated things, Harry thought.
"What do the necklaces do?" he asked, swallowing the rather large lump in his throat.
"This is only one of an untold number of universes," Luna began. "There is a necklace for each one that we've charted so far."
"So far…?" Ron sounded incredulous.
"We - we've found that we can magically adjust the harmonics of the crystal slightly, and end up in a new alternate reality. We can then calibrate a blank crystal, and map a new universe." Harry blinked at her, finding that he had not really understood most of what she'd just said.
"So, you put on a certain necklace, and go to a preset universe every time?"
"Yes. They got the idea from the Bermuda Triangle. It's rather like a larger version of a necklace. Only those people don't have one to get back, you see, because it's more due to the - " She stopped. Harry's face had gone pasty white.
"Then he was telling the truth."
"Who was, Harry?" Ron asked.
"Malfoy. He said she was stranded. Bellatrix put a necklace on Hermione, but yanked it off of her neck before the transfer was complete. She can't get back then - if she doesn't have a necklace?"
"Someone would have to take the necklace to her," Luna said. "Does Malfoy still have it? Inventory never showed one missing, but - "
"He put a fake in its place," Harry supplied for her. "You wouldn't have noticed it unless you tried to use that exact one."
"He must have thought the odds were in his favor," Ron said glumly, his eyes raking over the vast array of necklaces on the wall.
It's been returned. You'll never be able to figure out which one we took.
But Harry did know. He'd seen it in Malfoy's mind. Renewed determination stole over his features, and he moved with purpose to an obscure corner of the room, his eyes roving around the necklaces hung there. And there it was… the dust was disturbed, the necklace showing much less disuse than its neighbors. He reached out and grabbed it; the chain felt ridiculously fragile and tiny in his clumsy fingers.
"This is it," he said, and neither Ron nor Luna questioned how he knew. "Do the spell," he instructed Luna. "I'm going to bring Hermione home." Tears shot into his eyes as he spoke her name. His stomach was queasy, and his joints felt loose and wobbly. But Luna was shaking her head, and Harry felt his heart stop.
"It's not that easy, Harry. If - if she had a necklace too, it would have probably stabilized her enough to keep her in that specific reality. We don't actually know for sure, because nobody's ever been in an alternate universe for that long. She'll - she'll probably have moved."
"Moved?" Harry's voice was sharp, without comprehension.
"Into another reality - somewhere else. There's no way to tell where." Harry's mouth went dry. He pressed the pads of his fingers onto his closed eyes, until he realized how much that hurt.
"I - I don't understand…" he said faintly. So close, so close! His pain glimmered faintly in Luna's eyes, reflected back at him from her face, and she tried to speak normally.
"We all - everyone is - everyone has a certain - people are always keyed to a certain universe. Alternate realities would normally repel you, because that isn't where you belong. The crystal and the spell help to counter that. The Bermuda Triangle happens to be a - a `pass' between such universes, where an outside mechanism isn't required, but those are very rare. If Hermione was pushed into a universe as a crystal was removed, then each universe would expel her, with her own universe's signature calling her, until eventually she found her way home or - "
"Or?" Harry prodded. Luna looked pained.
"We haven't tested how long one can safely stay in an alien universe. If she comes across one similar enough to ours, she might be able to stay for awhile, but she'd never know when she'd move again."
"It's been five years. Why hasn't she made it back?" Ron wanted to know.
"Ronald, look at the necklaces. And those are only the ones we've charted. There are more…countless more."
Harry looked at the chains, some of them swinging barely perceptibly, probably moved by the draught from the door. Hermione… He pulled the necklace he held over his head.
"I'm going to find her," he said stubbornly, as if expecting their protests. "If - if Hermione and I both come from the same universe, then I should follow the same path she did, right?" Luna nodded, somewhat helplessly.
"Theoretically…" she said feebly.
"Harry… you can't be serious…" Ron said. "You can't go alone."
"I can, and I will. You two have to take care of each other." His face was grimly determined. "I'm going to fix this." Ron appeared to want to protest, but Luna's face was calmer. She very nearly seemed to be expecting this, and Harry wondered - not for the first time - exactly how Luna Lovegood knew the things she knew.
"You'll have to deactivate the crystal, so you'll travel between the universes, but I'll - I'll show you that spell - and - and the one for reactivation. When you find her, you should be able to use the necklace to come back home." Her eyes were welling with tears, but Harry seized on the simple word she'd used, probably without even realizing it. When…when I find her… "We should go somewhere else. You won't want to appear somewhere restricted, or you could get into trouble."
"I know where we can go," Harry said quickly. The three of them exchanged a glance. They knew…without Harry having to say anything at all.
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Only a short while later, they were striding through the main gates of Hogwarts, though they quickly left the path to cut across the green instead. The black depths of the Forbidden Forest stood not too far away. Harry made his way to the spot he'd left earlier today - well, yesterday, by now, he mused.
"How long do you think it will take to find her? If I follow the same path she did…" he asked, turning toward Luna, who was taking two strides for each of theirs.
"You - her signature might call you to her, so you'll probably travel more quickly than she did. Like attracts like, you know. But it still could be…"
"Years…" Harry supplied for her. Ron looked shell-shocked, his mouth opening and closing without sound.
"If - if you enter a universe, where you already exist," Luna began, sounding almost like Hermione in lecture mode. She was trying desperately to quickly give Harry all the information he'd need, without succumbing to her emotions. "You'll be forced out of phase. No one will be able to see you or hear you. You won't be able to physically interact with anything. You won't hunger, tire, or age."
"How will I see Hermione?"
"If she's in phase, you'll see her like you see everything else. Necklaces shouldn't affected by phase, so you ought to be able to extract her. I don't know what will happen if both of you are out of phase together. It's feasible that you might be able to see each other."
"What if it's a universe where I don't exist?"
"If you've died, or were never born, then you'll appear in that universe exactly as you are now. Same rules, same physical laws, everything. You should be able to do magic, so you can Glamour yourself if you want to avoid unwanted questions."
"And if I'm in phase, while she's there, but out of phase?"
"Then you won't even know she's there. You wouldn't be able to see or hear her. Chances are, she wouldn't even realize that you weren't the Harry indigenous to that universe."
"This is ridiculous, Harry!" Ron burst out suddenly. "I regret every day what happened to Hermione, and there's not one second that goes by that I don't hate myself for my part in it, but this… this is like a searching for a Crumple-Horned Snorkack with earmuffs on." The corners of Luna's eyes crinkled slightly at the reference. "Don't do this."
"I have to do this," Harry said steadfastly. "Besides it won't be entirely random, right? Our signatures will be drawing us together." He turned back to Luna, encouragingly. "That's what you said, right?"
"It's very important to remember that there's not a shred of proof to back most of this up," Luna said very seriously. Harry reached out and chucked her chin, his green eyes glinting with fondness.
"I'd take a theory from you over facts from most people, any day." They stared at each other for a moment, until Ron cleared his throat roughly. When Harry turned his attention toward Ron, he suddenly found his vision obscured by a spray of water.
"Luna, what the hell?" he spluttered, as she continued to aim her wand at his face, moving when he moved to continue the contact. As the cooling water refreshed his tender eyes, he realized what she'd been doing. While he wiped his face on the hem of his cloak, she pulled the clip from her hair and transfigured it into a pair of spectacles.
"You might need these," she said, her fingers lingering gently in his hand as the transfer was made.
"Thanks," he said, adjusting the prescription with his wand, as he settled them on his nose. The nearly light-hearted moment seemed to have vanished as unexpectedly as it had come. Dimly, he could remember another brainy girl's voice primly saying, Oculus reparo.
"I - I guess I know you well enough to know that there's no talking you out of something you've gotten your mind set on," Ron finally ventured awkwardly. "It's your saving-people thing, I reckon."
"Hermione has a knack for always being right, doesn't she?" Harry responded, and they both gave a slight grin at each other.
"I can't help but think that - that somehow this is all my fault." Ron grew serious again. "If only I'd kept my big stupid mouth closed, then I - then I would have - none of this would -" His eyes drifted toward the vast dark shadow of the forest; they were murky and troubled.
"If you'd been with Hermione, you'd have likely been killed, Ron," Harry supplied grimly. "Having seen what happened, knowing what they were planning, there's no doubt in my mind that you'd have only been in their way." He stopped and laid one hand on Ron's shoulder, looking deep into his friend's blue eyes to make absolutely sure he understood. He had to noisily swallow, before he could speak, but he managed to say in an almost normal voice. "I'm glad you weren't there. I couldn't - I couldn't have borne losing you both."
"Harry…" Ron got out before his voice cracked and vanished, eyes swimming with tears that he self-consciously tried to dash away with the back of one hand. A muscle worked in Harry's jaw, and he sighed gustily, before rolling his eyes at himself.
"I'm going to bring her back, Ron," he said, with all the solemnity of a sacred vow.
"I know," Ron replied. Harry nodded once, and flicked his eyes toward Luna, while Ron's gaze grew sober and determined. It was like their exchange at the hospital, wordless, but fraught with meaning.
"Do you know the incantation?" Luna asked, as she twiddled her wand nervously between her fingers.
Harry nodded, and she deftly instructed him on the proper spells to use to toggle the crystal once he'd arrived. Her eyes were ice-blue and diamond-hard as she spoke the words, and he knew - without her having to say it - the importance that he remember it exactly… It was his - and Hermione's - ticket home.
He tapped the crystal pendant on the chain with his wand; it seemed to shiver slightly at the contact.
"Adjicio universum," he said.
And the world as he knew it fell away.
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AN: Well, I'm back! It was interesting, but fun, and we are all glad to be home. Traveling with kids is never easy, quick, or efficient - but it was a good time!
And here is chapter 12. Hope you enjoyed it. You may leave a review on your way out if you like
lorien
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