A/N: There is a scene in this chapter where Hermione refers to something that happened in the movie, "Goblet of Fire," not the book. I almost always use the books as canon, not the movies, but for the sake of this story, made a small exception.
Chapter 6
Hermione put one hand to her head, and with the other, tried to steady herself against Harry's bed. Bone deep fatigue was setting in. Things were starting to spin and get dim around the edges. She didn't think she could fight it much longer. "I don't feel quite right," she said, right before passing out.
"This was definitely not part of the plan," Jonas muttered as Essie magically widened Harry's bed, and Jonas lifted Hermione's unconscious form onto it. Jonas looked at the newly enlarged bed, then cocked an eyebrow at Essie. She simply shrugged.
"What are we going to do?" Essie asked. "She was the only one who could touch him, and if he doesn't get treatment…" Her voice started to tremble.
"I think I know a way around that," Jonas said. "I just need to quickly double check a couple of things. In the meantime, administer the stabilization serum to Hermione, and do a thorough scan on her."
Essie nodded as Jonas exited the room.
~~~~~~~
Everything faded away, and Hermione was left with blackness and that dizzying spinning sensation. There was a brilliant flash of red, then sudden stillness. Hermione's vision cleared, and what she saw took her breath away. The blackness was still there, but it was the blackness of space and sky, now littered with an ocean of shimmering stars. And that was only the beginning.
She gazed upon an infinite sea of multi-colored points of light that coalesced in the center of a galaxy-sized sphere. It rotated ever so slowly, and as it did, Hermione saw the points of light were intricately connected to one another. It made her think of an unimaginably large snowflake. Fascinated, she took a closer look, and realized the multi-colored lights were images. She was stunned to see herself in them.
As she focused on one, it started to move, much like a wizard photo. It was a scene from her life, only not anything from the life she remembered. Instead of a black pointed hat, she was wearing a black mortarboard, graduating from a Muggle university. Another image seemed a bit more familiar. She was at Hogwarts, but instead of sitting with Ron and Harry at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, she was sitting with the Ravenclaws, clearly one of them.
Not all the images were so benign. She saw herself and Harry back at the end of the final confrontation with Voldemort. Only this time, Hermione was shocked to see herself hit with the rogue spell instead of Harry. Her first thought was that she would gladly trade places with Harry, to spare him from the spell. However, she saw something she hadn't expected. As she watched, she saw him by her side, doing everything in his power to revive her. Of course she and Ron and Harry would do the same for one another, whichever one of them was in need. But this was different. There was something in the way he looked at her, touched her. There was a depth to his devotion that stirred something deep within her. She felt a flutter of response, quite unexpectedly.
Hermione pulled back, startled and confused, and then something caught her eye. A nearby image had a halo around it, a sort of glow. At first she couldn't figure out why. The moment within the halo seemed insignificant. She was sitting on the edge of Harry's bed at the Burrow, about to wake him. However, she saw two distinct chains of images branching off of that one moment, neither of them being what she remembered experiencing that particular summer before fourth year.
She followed the first one, which veered off to the left. In this course of events, she and Ron became closer. Much closer. They were at the Yule Ball together, dancing and having a marvelous time. Fascinated, Hermione leaned closer to the image, then suddenly found herself in the image, experiencing it as if she were really there.
Memories and emotions of this Hermione flooded her mind. The scholar in her was furiously taking notes, but the other part of her, the part experiencing the Yule Ball, was quite preoccupied with something else. Ron's arms were around her, his face quite near. His lips met hers, and she ceased to think at all.
Hermione's pulse quickened as she and Ron kissed. She was quite enjoying it, but something didn't feel right. There was some sort of dissonance in the back of her mind. Then she remembered. This isn't really me. In that instant, the image dissolved and Hermione found herself outside of it, back amid the sea of images.
She went back to the "haloed" (as she thought of it) moment, and looked at the chain of images that spun off to the right. She wanted to follow it, but something was holding her back. A suspicion crept into her mind. She distinctly remembered her memory of sitting on Harry's bed, watching him sleep. At the time, she was trying to sort out her feelings for Harry and Ron. If down that one chain of images was a Hermione with Ron, then down the other would be a Hermione with…
She couldn't even think his name, for a riot of butterflies erupted in her stomach, with a matching flush in her cheeks. This is ridiculous! Hermione thought. She tried to banish the butterflies by focusing on her discovery: the halo marked that moment as a turning point. She looked around and saw here and there at odd intervals were many, many haloed images. All of them were turning points in her life, and all of them had multiple chains branching off of them.
So maybe, she thought, if I can choose the right moment, I can find Harry, and find our way back. She looked around at the seemingly infinite images, and her heart sank. The enormity of the task was crushing. She took a long, hard look at all the images she could make out, and especially all the chains of events branching off of the haloed images. It hit her that the smallest choice could have insanely far reaching effects, and not just for her, but for everyone around her. Trying to sort them all out was like trying to sort out ripples from raindrops hitting the surface of a lake, with their countless rings overlapping and colliding into one another. What if I choose the wrong one?
She remembered the moment at the Yule Ball with Ron, and how it dissolved because it wasn't really her. But if I'm free to choose… then it hit her. The past was done. She couldn't inhabit that past because those decisions had already been made. She had to look to the future, and make her choices there.
In a stunning moment she realized, I've already chosen.
~~~~~~~
Harry had lost all track of time. He was fascinated by being able to see, and even experience (if he chose) all the various possibilities. There was one cluster of images he couldn't help but be drawn to, again and again; those with his parents alive and raising him. It was even better than the Mirror of Erised. With the mirror, he could only look. With these images, he could actually enter them and experience them.
At first he kept getting bounced out of the images. Every time he'd think, "I wish this was my life," he'd remember himself, and find the image shattering around him. However, he was getting quite good at simply accepting the experience as real. He was able to stay in it longer and longer.
It was bliss beyond belief to not be the famous, "Boy Who Lived." He was a normal wizard child, surrounded by doting family and close friends.
Unfortunately, there was an aspect of this existence that Harry had never even thought of. It didn't matter which image Harry chose to inhabit, or how long he stayed in it. At some point, a Darkness would fall over his utopia, no matter how hard Harry tried to find chains of events that avoided it. It came in many forms. In a number of images, Neville Longbottom was "the chosen one." Harry watched him struggle with it his whole life, the expectations, the pressure. In some, Neville would crack, or worse. In others, Neville would grow powerful and arrogant, and even join the ranks of the Dark Side. Harry kept searching for a path where Neville conquered over Voldemort, but he just couldn't find one. And the more he searched, the guiltier he felt, knowingly choosing to pass his burden onto someone else.
All I want to do is to have a normal life with my parents. Is that asking so much? Harry wondered. A tiny voice of reason from somewhere within him answered, But at what cost? The worst is over. You've succeeded. Why go back now? But I've been robbed of a whole lifetime with my parents. You've had a terrible past, true, but have you even thought of your future? The future…
Harry realized he'd been so caught up in the past, he hadn't given a thought to the future. The future had never been something Harry had had the luxury of planning, especially during the last year. Everything was about finding that next Horcrux, surviving the next fight, making it through to the final confrontation. He hadn't even counted on walking away alive. He was prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice, if that's what it took to finally, completely defeat Voldemort.
But here he was now; alive and free. The future stretched out before him with infinite possibility. The notion was staggering.
A whole new constellation of images appeared before him, most of them brightly lit. Endless possible futures were there for the taking. He saw himself in various careers: auror, hit wizard, unspeakable, professor, professional Quidditch player (after all, he was young and his seeker reflexes were as sharp as ever). Farther away, he saw some possible, yet fairly unlikely career choices. Even though it was right before his eyes, he still had a hard time imagining himself being a dragon feeder at Gringotts, or training security trolls.
Another aspect of his future caught his attention. Family. It hadn't crystallized for him until that moment, but it only made sense that he would want a family. He found himself in front of a cluster of images where he seemed to be at least several years older. In most of them, he seemed to be literally crawling with kids, and from the looks of them, presumably his own. Getting ahead of myself a bit there! The thought of children at this point in his life seemed strange. But then he wondered who he was going to be having these children with.
A new set of images was before him. He expected to see himself with Ginny, which he did in many of them. There were also some random images of himself with various girls he hadn't even met yet. The chains branching off of those didn't go very far. Then he saw something that gave him an unexpected jolt. Hermione.
~~~~~~~
Jonas looked at Hermione and Harry, lying side by side on the bed. "You know Essie, having them together like that actually makes this a lot easier."
"It just seemed like the right thing to do at the time." Essie blushed a little and continued, "She's responded well to the serum, and seems to be stable. However, I'm worried about the magic seeping from that burn on her cheek. I thought it would have lessened as the burn healed, but it hasn't. If anything, I'd say it might be getting stronger."
"That might turn out to work to our advantage," Jonas said.
Essie looked puzzled. "What do you mean?"
"I'm going to try something that will work with the link those two have. If it's successful, then any treatment we give Hermione will also affect, and therefore treat Harry." Jonas began preparing items on a floating tray near Hermione's side of the bed.
"That's amazing!" Essie said. "But I have to ask, where did you get the idea for this type of Healing magic?"
Jonas smiled. "Spent a summer in California interning with a group of American Healers specializing in alternative healing magic."
"Isn't that frowned upon by the Healer's Ethics Committee?" Essie asked.
"Bunch of old sticks in the mud, set in their ways," answered Jonas. "Right," he rubbed his hands together. "Essie, I need you to hold that empty phial for me, please."
Essie held it ready for him, curious what he was going to do.
"This is rather inelegant, but we're not going for style." Jonas took a small knife from the floating tray, put it in Hermione's hand, and wrapped her fingers around it. Holding her fist closed around the knife, Jonas took Hermione's hand and made a small cut in Harry's palm.
"Jonas, what are you going?" Essie gasped.
"Trust me," he said, as he took the knife from Hermione's fingers. Jonas wiped the knife against the edge of the phial, so a tiny amount of Harry's blood clung to the inside of it. Jonas took Hermione's hand and made a cut in her palm to match Harry's. He placed Hermione's hand over Harry's, palm to palm.
Jonas took the phial from Essie. He began adding ingredients: holly, broom, rose, and vervain. He aimed his wand at the phial, and with a quiet, yet strong voice began to incant, "Fire, air, water, and earth, bind with blood, bind to rebirth. What is done to one, is experienced by two, now linked together, by blood and in truth." Gold, blue, red, and green sparks leapt from the tip of Jonas' wand, and swirled around the phial. The sparks circled faster and faster, until they blurred together into a ball of bright white light. After a moment, the ball of light faded, revealing inside the phial what looked like liquid light. It shimmered and flowed like a living thing.
Essie's eyes were round with awe, as Jonas tipped the contents of the phial onto Hermione's lips. The light spilled into her, then slowly, a glow began to spread all throughout her body. Jonas and Essie watched as the glow traveled down her arm, through her palm, and began to flow through Harry's palm, up his arm to the rest of his body.
Jonas let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He looked at Essie, who was still a bit dumbstruck. "Now if you wouldn't mind Essie, giving Miss Granger another dose of stabilization serum?"
~~~~~~~
Hermione. She was there, waiting for him, smiling. Without thought, he was in the image, there with her. Only this time, he didn't feel as though he was trying on someone else's life. He felt thoroughly himself, thoroughly real, and quite thoroughly alive. All his senses were humming with a taut electricity.
Hermione was glowing. Harry was sure that if they touched, it would send off sparks. He had to find out.
Hermione saw the light in Harry's eyes, and the love. It was intense, unspeakably beautiful, and incredibly, hers. She felt as though the fire of the sun ran through her veins.
Everything, every moment, every decision, led to this.
He leaned in, closing his eyes as he tilted his face…
She closed her eyes as his lips brushed hers.
The decision had been made. Everything else faded away.
~~~~~~~
Harry and Hermione opened their eyes.