You, the readers, get to determine the fate of this story. I'm posting six chapters. Give me thumbs up or thumbs down.
The Bat Returns From Hell
- Chapter 6: Endings and Beginnings
The police were puzzled, but had no grounds to take Harmony into custody. There was no contraband - no unregistered weapons - not even any fire to account for the scorch marks all over the woman's bedroom.
Nor did anything explain why several neighbors would simultaneously report loud noises and odd lights - and why the police thought they had seen the same thing.
Only a young woman having a nightmare.
Once the young lady calmed down, she was not much more help. She answered their questions only in the vaguest terms. She was pleasant - thankful even - but there seemed nothing to investigate. After fifteen frustrating minutes, the police left.
By then Harmony Farmer's landlord arrived. Unlike the police, he was unconstrained by the niceties of due process - the terms of his form lease had seen to that. Five minutes after the police departed, Harmony found herself evicted.
Not that she really minded - it was less messy that way, since she had to get out of there pronto. She had not had this kind of nightmare, generating spontaneous magical emissions, since she had gone Muggle after leaving the Institute.
Those emissions would be noticed, and would send the damned goblin bounty hunters after her again.
Fortunately, she was on her boss' good side at the moment. The magazine would help her.
It did. Within minutes of ringing up Emily on her mobile, a messenger was on his way - bringing keys to one of the visiting model flats that Runway maintained in the Village for out-of-town girls attending shoots. Those apartments were considerably more posh than the one-bedroom walkup that her Personal Assistant's salary allowed.
On her way out, she wandlessly Obliviated the landlord, and erased all traces of her existence from his records.
Nobody thought to ask why Harmony had not requested movers to help with her things.
* * * *
By mid-afternoon Harry was standing on their flagstone walk knocking at their green-painted door.
"Remus, I know you're in there," he called out. "I need to talk to you - and Tonks too."
He heard footsteps inside. A small part of the door briefly turned transparent. Harry heard the appropriate spell being uttered, and the door clicked open.
"Hi, Uncle Harry," the little black-haired boy greeted. "They'll be down in a bit - at least Daddy will. They were … playing."
Harry grinned. After almost nine years of marriage, Remus and Tonks still could not keep their hands off of one another. "Thanks, Tommy. Can I come in?"
The little boy hesitated - knowing that his uncle and his mum were not on the best of terms. "Umm … yeah."
Harry tousled the boy's hair as he entered the cozy house. It was perfect for that family. He knew, because he had helped them buy it when Luna wanted to sell and go off to chase her will-o-wisps.… Before nine-eleven.… Before he had gone nuts….
"Would you like to play with Molly?" he asked the boy.
The tyke's eyes lit up. "Yeah," he burbled. "That would be great! We could ride Auntie Gin's peggy ponies!"
Harry smiled crookedly. "Sure Tommy, if that's what you want to do…." That would be at their - no, now Ginny's - country place, where they kept a pair of young Pegasi - a baby blue one (Molly's favorite colour) for her, and a hybrid (that could turn white or pink at will) for his daughter's little friends.
"Hello, Harry."
Harry turned and saw a rather sloppily dressed Remus Lupin clomping down the stairs.
"Afternoon, Remus," he addressed the older man neutrally.
"Tommy, why don't you go see Mum. She'll read you a book…."
"Okay, Daddy. Can it be the one about Uncle Harry? Cousin Ronnie says it's really cool," Tommy asked in that whiny voice he used when he thought that what he wanted might not be allowed.
"I don't know about that…. You know what Mum says…," Remus replied.
"Aawww … Daddy."
"Go on…. Uncle Harry and I have to discuss boring grown-up stuff."
The outwardly nine-year-old boy nodded and scampered up the stairs.
"So what brings you around, Harry?" Remus remarked as he summoned a Butterbeer. "Not the playdate, surely. That could have done by Floo."
"It's done," Harry told him. "I need to talk to you … and Tonks too. I know she's been in touch with her…."
"So you cut the knot," Remus mused. "For the best, I guess. You were gentle about it, I assume."
"Of course," Harry responded. "Ginny deserved no less. She was always good to me … and she loves Molly as much as I do. It was always going to be amicable."
"You were always an honourable man, Harry," Remus said with a sad smile. "You made an honest woman of her, and spared Molly all that stigma…. Even though I know now it must have killed you inside."
Harry shook his head. "That's why I had to end it. It became a lie. A beautiful, bright, shining lie, but a lie nonetheless. Can I talk to Tonks…?"
"You know her conditions, Harry," Remus reminded. "And you know I agree with them."
"That's done too," Harry said softly. "As soon as Gin files the papers, the Google stock belongs to her and the bounty ceases."
"Good," Remus grunted. "That was a bad idea from the moment go, Harry. You can't force someone to come back … not someone like Hermione, anyway."
Harry stiffened. "I had to try," he began. Then he stopped. Rehashing those arguments was pointless - particularly since he now conceded he was wrong. "Forget it, that's over…."
"Maybe for you, Harry, but not for her, you know." Remus chided.
"Yeah…, you're right," Harry nodded. "Now the real work begins … and I'm starting from less than zero."
"I doubt that," Remus told him. "She's still out there - still hiding - and if she's hiding, rather than just telling you to pound sand, there's a reason. I think it's still there…. Surrounded by a lot of scar tissue, no doubt, but still there…."
"Remus, is that Harry I hear?" came the familiar voice from upstairs.
"Yes, Luv," he called back. "He's just leaving…."
"No, I'm not," Harry declared loudly enough that she had to hear. "I'm not leaving until I talk to you. The divorce is final; the bounty's gone. I know you've been in touch with her."
"I know you know, Harry," Tonks said from upstairs. He heard movement, and a little boy's protest. Tonks give Tommy his Pygmy Puff to keep him company.
"Please talk to me," Harry asked urgently. "Is she all right? Does she need anything … anything that she'll accept, anyway?"
Tonks descended the stairs in a nondescript gray robe, wearing her hair conservatively (for her) in mid-shoulder length black, with a few metallic red stripes. Harry had not seen her face to face since Molly nearly died.
"So, you're coming to your senses after all this time?" she asked with more than a touch of sarcasm.
Harry ignored the barb, which was deserved. "I know she contacted you for the manuscript…," he began.
She cut him off. "So, she was entitled."
"I don't care about that," Harry soldiered on. "All I care about is did you tell her … about Molly?"
Tonks paused and took a breath. "Yes, Harry. I told her … not for your sake, but because I thought she needed to know."
"What did she say?"
"She hung up on me. Haven't heard from her since."
* * * *
The red-haired woman stared morosely at the fully executed set of legal papers. All she had to do was file them, and she was single again. She had not envisioned this ending. Since she was ten years old, she had seen herself with Harry for life.
Such irony - as ironic as stepping into the footsteps of the most notoriously Pure-blood family in Britain, as the next Lady Black.
She sighed. "Oh, Harry…," she murmured to a man no longer there. "Did you ever really love me?"
She knew why he asked her to marry him.
That was another issue. She also envisioned herself with a brood of children like her mum - not the single daughter she had after all these years. She loved Molly more than anything, more than herself and more even than Harry, but Molly's only-child status was another of life's not-so-little ironies.
The Healers finally concluded that both she and Harry were adversely affected by that spell. Harry had gone from almost radioactively fertile (he was tested before they started training) to out of phase with every female in the world except her.
She, however, was rendered incapable of having any more children.
At least that's what the Healers said. She somehow lost her eggs - permanently. Harry remained in phase solely with her, due to their evident conception of Molly moments before whatever happened to him … that night. They said that she and Harry were very lucky to have Molly. No prior conception, no being in phase. No phase; no chance for children. Simple as that.
So they had done it. Destroyed Voldemort - or at least destroyed the evil in him. But that weird, wonderful spell … nobody, not even Hermione, could have predicted the ultimate outcome.
It turned out to be a newborn baby. The spell returned Tom Riddle to a state of innocence, returned him to what he was before his mistreatment in that horrible orphanage.
At Minerva's suggestion Remus and Tonks adopted him, with a cover story that Tonks had just become pregnant. With nobody the wiser, this time Tommy was growing up loved, like all children should be.
Unable to conceive and not having to work, Ginny started a string of lovingly run orphanages for wizard children all over the British Isles. "Every child a wanted child," was her slogan. She whole-heartedly threw herself into this endeavor, and Harry cheerfully funded it.
Harry had been wonderful - and she had wronged him so.
All three of them were unconscious due to magical depletion after Voldemort had been destroyed. Ginny awakened first, after about ten days. Dutifully, she helped nurse the other two.
Thankfully, neither of them were conscious for the funeral when her family buried Ron - and Bill, also killed in the final battle while fighting with the goblins to liberate Hogsmeade.
Hermione came to after almost a month. By then Ginny knew she was pregnant with Harry's child. Ginny was a smart girl. Harry did not fancy stupid witches. She could tell what that news did to Hermione.
Hermione was still in the Hospital wing, only two days after regaining consciousness, when Ginny announced, "Hermione, I need to tell you something."
"Go ahead Gin," she said with a weak smile. "You know you can tell me anything."
That was the truth. Even though it had become painfully obvious to her that Hermione must have loved Harry for quite some time, Hermione had supported her relationship with him, and, after some hesitation, backed her insistence upon performing the Puissance d'Amour Curse with Harry. Hermione brewed her potions and helped talk her through the many rough spots of that training.
But that horrible night, when she and Harry had faltered, Hermione had cast the curse herself, adding her power to theirs and putting them all over the top.
But in doing that Hermione also revealed - to Ginny, and certainly to Harry - the depth of her love for him. They both felt it.
"I'm pregnant … with Harry's child," she told Hermione.
Hermione gasped, Ginny saw the pained look come over the older girl's face. Hermione lowered her head into her hands and started to shake.
"I'm sorry, Hermione, I thought you'd be happy for us," she said when Hermione stayed speechless.
That had some effect. Hermione tensed and appeared to be fighting for control of her emotions. She raised her head. "I - I am," she said quietly, without real feeling in her voice. "Congratulations … really. That's wonderful. I assume you told him…."
"He's still unconscious, Hermione."
"No, I meant, you did tell him … beforehand … that you would take the antidote to the Contraceptive Potion so he'd have that extra edge we talked about with Fleur."
"Umm… No, I didn't," she confessed. "It would have distracted him. He had so much to go on with. He was really … difficult … those last few days - after we got Snape's message. He had trouble concentrating. I didn't want to make him worry about anything else."
That was the truth.
But it was not the whole truth.
She had done it to give him every chance she possibly could to destroy Voldemort. But she also did it because of Hermione.
Even though Ginny was Harry's girlfriend - and then his lover after Fleur and Hermione uncovered the Puissance D'Amour Curse - she envied Hermione. Those two had deep conversations that Ginny could never hope to match. Ginny had seen the way Harry looked at Hermione, even while Hermione advised him about how best to shag Ginny. Ginny also saw how she started looking back at him when she was certain he would not see it.
That scared Ginny. She lived in fear that at any moment - especially with Voldemort gone - Harry would end their relationship and take up with Hermione.
Sometimes she thought the only thing holding those two back was their friendship with Ron, Hermione's ostensible boyfriend.
Harry had the strongest sense of honour she had ever seen in a boy. Ginny could predict how he would act if he got her pregnant. Ginny knew Hermione knew that too.
Ginny loved Harry more than anything.
That was a second reason she took the antidote.
Harry remained unconscious for another two weeks. Hermione concluded that he must have feared another, better-known adverse effect of that curse - its capacity to consume the very love that powered it and leave the former lovers without feelings for one another.
Hermione discussed Harry's condition with one of Harry's many trainers, an old Chinese Wizard. He taught Hermione a special Legilimency that allowed her to enter Harry's mind, find his consciousness, and convince him this was not true - that the love that vanquished Voldemort also survived the Dark wizard's demise.
She thought Hermione would insist upon performing this rather dangerous magic alone. But the girl studiously included her - if she wanted to go along - because of the pregnancy.
She did not really want to go. The risk scared her. But because her baby deserved a father, she swallowed her fears and participated.
The Chinese Legilimency worked, and they brought Harry back.
When finally he was conscious again, after they exchanged greetings, Hermione uttered what must have been the most difficult sentences of her life:
"Harry, you and Ginny need to talk. I believe she has something she needs to tell you."
Then she left the two of them alone in Harry's sickroom.
By the time Harry and Ginny left that room, Ginny was his fiancée.
Hermione distanced herself from Harry after that. She was alone a lot, because Ron was dead. She said she was sad because she never "got closure," with his funeral occurring while both Hermione and Harry were still in comas.
Ginny sensed, however, that she was actually pining for someone still alive.
She tried to include her. She asked Hermione to be her maid of honour. She accepted.
Typically, Harry did even better. He asked Hermione to stand for him in place of the parents he had never known.
Three days later Hermione had disappeared.
Harry was never the same after that. The wedding went ahead, of course, and Molly was born. But then came the discovery that, between the two of them, they could not conceive again. He threw himself into becoming an Auror - although he could have had any position he wanted, just for the asking, after destroying Voldemort.
She threw herself into her charity work.
They grew apart.
They tried to "rekindle their love" several times. One of those was a two-week getaway to Xanadu in Tibet. Nine-eleven happened, and for a few horrific hours Harry thought Hermione died when the second tower collapsed. He left abruptly and Apparated all the way to New York.
He was wrong. His Gobbledegook was never the best. Her distress call sought help, not rescue. He never found Hermione - the Muggles must have collected her. He did get his name in Guinness Magical Records for the longest non-stop Apparition to a previously unvisited point.
Although she suspected it for years, she knew at that point she was playing second fiddle to someone not even there.
Then Molly nearly died. Nothing made sense until Hlr. Huxley convinced Harry to ask Hermione to be tested. Harry only told Ginny about that later. Somehow Hermione was located. All Ginny knew was that Tonks was involved.
She would never forget Harry telling her the results.
"Ginny!" he called breathlessly as he burst into Molly's room at St. Mungo's. The previous evening Molly went into what they feared was an irreversible coma. "Healer Huxley thinks she can save Molly!"
She threw herself in his arms and wept - too overcome for words. Finally, she got out, "How?"
"He says she needs Muggle dialysis and a bone marrow transplant," Harry told her.
"But … but … that's impossible … we've been over that. Molly's too much of a Pure-blood…."
"Umm … I'm afraid that's not quite so," he told her, his own face teetering on the edge of tears.
He was always the strong one, though, and kept his composure - with Molly's life at stake. "Healer Huxley had a hunch that something odd happened when she was conceived. He was right. It wasn't … just the two of us…."
Harry struggled for words, but Ginny had a premonition.
"What was it, Harry?" she asked seriously. "Was it her … Hermione?"
"Yes," Harry replied. "Somehow, she's … she's … Molly's magical mother. You're the birth mother, and she's the Charmonial mother. Healer Huxley never saw anything like it."
"The way we cast that spell to destroy Voldemort that night was unique," she said as she felt her life go up in smoke. She would have broken down - except for Molly; they had to save Molly.
"Er … should I prepare myself?" she asked her husband. "For bone marrow donation?"
The look on Harry's face would stay with her as long as she lived. "No," he choked out. "Healer Huxley says it can't be you. They need the Charmonium. It has to be Hermione…. She's apparently a perfect match."
"And … she'll do this?" she asked robotically. Without it, she knew Molly would die in less than a fortnight - and they could never have another child.
"Yes," Harry told her.
Harry married her because she was the mother of his child - not because he really loved her. And now she knew, even that was not entirely true. Not long after that, she first asked him if he wanted a divorce.
- 5 -
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\HP & The Fifth Element.Bat from Hell Ch 6 Endings and Beginnings.doc.doc 12/28/06
-->