Genesis: Part Three
The room slowly cleared, Miss Madys words still echoed in everyone's head.
"Tonight will be the day I give it every lasting life"
Hermione couldn't understand it, but she could feel something wonderful. As her eyes darted across the room to the window, as she saw the sun buring brighter, getting ever closer to the Earth as it scorched the surface, she could feel the most wonderful of feelings. Hope.
"Lets go somewhere" Harry said taking her hand in his and giving her a little squeeze, his cue to ask her to follow him.
Quicky Harry pulled her through the crowd, past faces she never thought she'd ever see. Past people who weren't human.
As she saw what could only be descrbed as a ball of fur about 3 foot wide she couldny understand what was so amazing about this. She had talked to ghosts of humans, traveled through time and even talked to things that weren't human, from Magicallds to demons. But none of those were called aliens.
She barely noticed as the door opened for them and Harry pulled her through into a medium sized room, large enough for a small, but enjoyable party. This room was once again completely barren of anything with texture or colour, a room where plain beige ruled again.
"All of those people are idiots!" Harry said in annoyance as he let go of her hand and tunred to look at her.
"Your only saying that because they kept ignoring your interruption" Hermione teased as she focused all of her attention onto Harry, not the hardest of tasks she had to admit.
"Wha-that's not it!" Harry said frowning "ok…maybe a little…but it doesn't change them beind idiots…rich idiots!"
"their rich?" Hermione asked curiously. She ahd just been in the company of rich aliens and didn't know if that made any real difference or not.
"insanely rich, rulers of worlds and pioneers of technology" Harry said tutting "you know how hard it is to get front row tickets to rock concerts…the end of the world is even harder than that!"
"I guess that makes sense" Hermione said acceptingly. She had decided the money didn't matter. Aliens were still aliens despite the contents of their bank account.
"Although, you'll be pleased to know, that thanks to my magic paper we're richer than those thickos" Harry said smiling for the first time since Miss Mady had appeared.
Hermione took a moment just to breathe it all in. She was in the year five billion, with Harry, and with what seemed to be an inpending disaster on the way. All was back to the way it should be.
"So…" Hermione asked as she looked about them to check they were alone before continuing "The Genesis Project?"
"Uh-huh" Harry said slowly with a grin.
"Is that a happy grin" Hermione said as she stepped closer to Harry "or a things-couldn't-be-any-worse-but-god-this-is-exciting kind of grin?"
Harry laughed loudly and turned around, looking throughout the room as if he was mildly interested.
"Oh, Hermione I'm hurt!" Harry said looking in horror at her "What do you take me for?...its definitely the second option"
"I feared it was that" Hermione groaned "you starting your tale then?"
Harry stopped walking around, turned and walked up to her, a curious look on his face as he surveyed her.
"What do you know of Genesis?" Harry asked.
"First book of the Bible" she remembered those long ago R.E lessons she had tried to forget since "God creating the world in 7 days and all that"
"And all that!" Harry laughed "way to go in shortening the creation theory"
"Well it's not like the world was created in seven days" Hermione said dismissively.
"Well…" Harry said slowly.
"Oh, come on" Hermione said rolling her eyes "I've seen a lot of things, travelled through time and even met aliens, but if you tell me the whole world and everything in it was created in seven days I'm going home!"
"Well of course it wasn't literally created in seven days, but some aspects of the story are true…light came first, man coming last" Harry said as if he was still weighing up the argument in his own head "maybe the use of seven days is just a metaphor…you've travelled through time and so you know how hard it is to wrap your head around time, no think of people born ten thousand years ago wrapping their heads around Darwinist theory spread out over billions of years?"
"I get your point, but do you really think there's a God and a plan involved in all of this?" Hermione asked. She had never heard Harry talk like this before, usually he was the one for definite answers, understanding what strange things happened around them, and creating a plan himself. Ever clever and always the master of his own destiny.
"I'd love to say no, that it's as impossible as it sounds, but who knows for sure?" Harry said shrugging his shoulders "Maybe this universe was created by someone, and maybe, if you had to give that person or thing a name, you could call it God"
Hermione took a step back to inspect Harry. He still looked like Harry but he sounded different somehow.
"Enough about this creation theory" Hermione said shaking her head. She needed to get away from theory and onto reality "So Miss Mady is trying on becoming a God and creating her own world?"
"Well…" Harry started.
"Actually, before you answer that" Hermione said interrupting him before he could give his speech "what kind of name is Miss Mady?"
"She's a neo-3 billion-feminist" Harry said rolling his eyes.
"And what does that mean?" Hermione asked chuckling at Harry's face. It looked like he had eaten something incredibly sour and was desperate to spit it out over himself.
"A neo-feminist" Harry answered still scrunching up his face "around the year 4 billion and change the feminist movement reached it peak and with artificial insemination becoming as easy as popping down the shops to buy a loaf of bread it didn't look like stopping any time soon"
"So she doesn't have a father?" Hermione laughed "That's not surprising, she does seem like a bitch"
"I think the terms Neo-Bitch" Harry teasingly corrected her "and with the world election being won by a landslide by women every 4 years a family eventually became the hereditary rulers of the planet, which really means the Queen…and they adopted, very feministlty named, the title miss"
"So Miss Mady is Queen of the World?" Hermione asked amazed.
"Technically, but not really" Harry laughed "her ancestors definitely were, her mother probably even counted, but she has no subjects. And a Queen without any subjects is just a woman with a gold hat"
Hermione couldn't help herself but laugh picturing the Mad Miss Mady sitting on her throne, looking exactly like Queen Victoria. But Queen Elizabeth would never try to steal someone's eyes.
"So, Miss Mady is a barking mad Queen of the World" Hermione said as she processe d all of this information "now what's this Genesis Project?"
Harry sighed deeply as if preparing himself for a moment.
"Where to start" Harry said shaking his head.
"The beginnings usually the best place" Hermione teased with a smile.
"Ok…" Harry beamed at her "you covered the real beginning brilliantly with `and all that'"
"Thank you" Hermione smirked.
"So…I guess it starts with the Terrans…about the year three billion their sun imploded and their planet was being sucked into the black hole that was created, and with it one of the greatest civilizations of all time was close to disappearing in the blink of an eye" Harry explained as he smiled to himself "Can you imagine it? A world of incomprehensible beauty and art, to be destroyed by nothingness just because it was in the wrong place at the wrong time?"
"Couldn't they move?" Hermione asked seriously.
"A whole planet?" Harry laughed "There isn't a removal company big enough for that job!"
"So what happened" Hermione asked dreading the answer.
Harry paused as his eyes scanned the room once more. Hermione figured he was either trying to check they were alone or was buying time as he thought. Or, ultimately worse, both.
"No one really knows" Harry said finally, his eyes avoiding Hermione's "It's the greatest mystery of all time"
"What do you mean by no one knows?" Hermione asked "they must know something"
"What is known is only confusing" Harry replied quickly "and you don't want to bother hearing it"
"Try me" Hermione said slightly insulted.
"Ok…" Harry replied as quickly as ever "The Terrans knew their time was running out so they tried, naturally, to come up with ways to…"
"Not disappear down a black hole" Hermione finished for him.
"Exactly" Harry continued "but the problem was that all known science pointed to the fact that it was impossible…so they started brand new, cutting edge, beyong all known theory science"
"And they named it the Genesis Project" Hermione said softly
"I guess your not just a pretty face" Harry teased
"Ha ha" Hermione said sarcastically "and this is what Miss Mady is doing now?"
"It sounds like she thinks she has" Harry conceded, worry lining his words for the first time.
"If the Terrans did it why couldn't she do it 2 billion years later?" Hermione asked.
"Now that's a brilliant question!" Harry said looking impressed at her which made Hermione blush slightly "but your missing one major point…the Terrans didn't do it"
"What?" Hermione said, her mouth almost hitting the floor "You mean they fell into the…"
"No one knows for sure what happened, that's the mystery" Harry leant closer to her as he usually did when he was into explaining things like this "The Terrans, just a random day 2 weeks before they were supposed to fall into the black hole, just…disappeared"
"What do you mean dispappeerad?" Hermione asked sceptically.
"Gone. Vanished. Kaput" Harry said smiling "all radio waves just stopped and when ships were sent to investigate they found nothing…the planet had just disappeared"
"How can a planet just disappear?" Hermione asked.
"If people knew that then it wouldn't be a mystery, would it?" Harry teased patronisingly.
"Do you think it fell into the black hole ahead of schedule?" Hermione asked nervously. A whole planet full of people just disappearing. A whole planet full of people dying.
"That's one theory, and there's some pretty good, but really boring maths, that backs that theory up. But…" Harry said slowly.
"Maybe the Genesis Project worked?" Hermione said amazed.
"Exactly" Harry suddenly shouted loudly making Hermione jump, a wide grin was spread across his face as he smiled down at her "Lets find out what's going on so we can stop it"
"What?" Hermione said bemused.
"What?" Harry shot back equally as bemused.
"Why would you stop it?" Hermione asked.
"What?" Harry replied lamely, still confused by this turn in the conversation.
"If Miss Mady has found a way of stopping the world from dying, why ever would you stop her?" Hermione was purposefully talking slowly and calmly, trying to pull Harry into a debate rather than just making him go on a rant was a fine skill that she was only just starting to learn.
"Because…" Harry said looking in deep thought for a second before replying "It wasn't supposed to happen"
"In the other world it wasn't supposed to happen" Hermione countered quickly "but as you keep telling me the two worlds are completely different"
"Well I was an idiot" Harry shot back hotly.
"Yes you were, but this time you were right" Hermione smiled "in this world Miss Mady still has her eyes and isn't after yours, that shows the worlds are different"
"But it also shows what kind of a person Miss Mady is" Harry shot back "or have you already forgotten the story of attempted eye-thievery?"
"That wasn't her" Hermione said flatly.
"Trust me, it was" Harry said determinedly.
"Trust me, as a person in a world which already ha…has one Hermione Granger that she isn't the same" Hermione said. This comment seemed to work for a moment as Harry's eyes misted over slightly as he looked at her for several seconds.
"This world only has one Hermione Granger now" Harry said, his voice breaking slightly "and I think one Miss Mady is one too many"
"But what if this was supposed to happen and you alter time?" Hermione asked desperately.
"It wasn't supposed to happen" Harry replied confidently with a little shake of his head "there's no way the universe or fate would let that…woman…achieve the Genesis Project!"
"Are you sure you're not jealous?" Hermione teased hoping.
Harry threw his head back and his laughed bounced of all the walls and filled the room and for a moment Hermione laughed to.
"Definitely not jealous of her" Harry said as he started to control himself again "but the point still stands, she could never have done this…and if she has, well then I have to stop her because it's not natural"
"So what if she's cheated or manipulated her way to this point" Hermione asked seriously "she wants to save the Earth from dying. That seems a pretty good deed from my point of view"
"Everything has a time to end" Harry said quietly "even planets"
"But what if it didn't have to end, what if it could carry on forever" Hermione said eagerly.
"Things need to end so something can replace it" Harry explained, he seemed to be getting angrier and angrier by the second "as King Mustafa once said, it's the circle of life"
"I always wondered why the antelope really had to die" Hermione said shaking her head. This caused Harry to laugh despite himself, and when he finished Hermione could tell he was softening.
"Hermione, dearest time travelling companion…" Harry said in a fake soft lovey voice "I think my little brain is overfilling from discussion about God, Genesis, eye-thievery and Disney classics…can we please find out what exactly is happening so we can stop it?"
"I'm not going to help you" Hermione said firmly. However the butterflies fluttering through her stomach at the idea of not agreeing with Harry told her that her heart wasn't into the idea and only her pride kept her going. Her pride and her memories of home, of Planet Earth that was on the verge of death.
Harry looked at her amazed. His eyes had opened and his jaw had dropped so it hung by itself as he starred at her. Several very long seconds passed before he blinked, closed his mouth, gave his head a little shake and took a step closer to her.
"Fine…" Harry said, his face softening as he shrugged "but when Miss Mady holds that proverbial scalpel over your eye…expect to hear the loudest I told you so of the whole of history"
"If that happens, then I wouldn't expect anything else from you" Hermione laughed.
Harry turned to walk away suddenly but Hermione held out a hand and pulled him back.
"Where are you going?" Hermione asked as she came face to face with him.
"I'm going to find out about this Genesis Project" Harry said before quickly adding "don't worry I'm not going to confront her…yet"
"Good" Hermione said softly "I think I'll go talk to some aliens"
The two looked at each other and laughed for a few moments. A natural still eventually came over them as they prepared to walk away from eachother, and however small amount of time they were to be apart it was still hard to take that first step.
"Be safe" Harry said with a soft smile.
"I will" Hermione replied. Her pride felt like giving up, like following Harry as he confronted Miss Mady. But she had her own idea on what must be done. Her own plan to follow through with.
Hermione turned to leave, but stopped in her tracks. She turned to Harry once more and leant up, pressing her lips hard against his cheek, feeling his smooth skin against the corners of her lips.
She broke the kiss almost instantly, nervous of his reaction. And even more worried that if she hadn't stopped, she might carry on forever.
"You come back to me in one piece" Hermione said, her heart hammering in her chest.
And she turned on her heel and stepped towards the door that automatically opened for her to a room full of excited chattering people. But she hadn't gone to talk to aliens as she had told Harry, but to talk to another human.
Miss Mady.
*
Hey. I hoped you liked that chapter, I know not much happened, but I need some Harry Hermione interaction early on to set the scene.
Next thing, I'm sorry for taking so long to update this story. I think it must be a month or so now. My best friend gave birth to a baby, Imogen Alice 8 pounds 8lbs, and that's been a lot of work and also smiles. Plus my brother had a project for University where he had to produce a pilot episode for a Television show. So for the last month I've been writing that script almost daily. A LOT of work! It's turned out well and he'll be shooting it in the summer. I know it's only a university project, but it's a real thrill to know your words and ideas will get turned into something, even if not many people will see it.
Anyway. Baby takes up time, but script is over now, so you can expect more quick updates from now on.
Till next time…
Jms Granger…
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