~A/N> Thank you so much for the reviews, and the feedback. The response has been fantastic :) Big thanks to
Lisa, as usual, for being the unstoppable force that keeps encouraging me to write. hugs
Three weeks later...
I'm going to find you,
I'll make you pay.
He won't live long
with you out of the way.
Your life means nothing
his love is not true.
The darkness is coming
and I will kill you.
Hermione sat up quickly in her bed, covered in sweat as she recovered from the nightmare. Closing her eyes, she took a
deep breath, steadying her nerves a bit.
'I'm so tired of the damn riddles,' she thought, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. Standing up, she made her way into the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face. Going back to her room, she went to the wardrobe and chose another nightgown. After changing, she didn't feel like going back to bed, even though her clock read 2:30 in the morning. Deciding to go downstairs for a little while, she pulled on her dressing gown and made her way down the stairs, surprised when she saw light coming from the drawing room.
Walking into the room, she didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but when she passed by the sofa closest to her she was surprised to see Sorcha sitting slumped down on it. Taking note of a glass full of amber liquid clutched in her trainer's hand, she sat in the sofa opposite her and asked quietly, "Sorcha, are you okay?"
She didn't move for a moment, and Hermione thought maybe she was sleeping. But then her eyes opened, red rimmed and bloodshot, and looked in Hermione's direction. "Wut'choo want?" she asked, her words slightly slurred.
"You're drunk."
"Not drunk," Sorcha replied, pushing herself up into more of a sitting position. "Just trying to forget the past."
"But why would you do that?"
"Because it hurts so damn much."
Hermione stared at her for a few moments, noting how much older Sorcha looked when her face was bathed by the flames from the fireplace. Quietly, hoping not to stir her anger, she said, "That's no reason to forget."
"How would you know?"
"What?"
"How would you know?" Sorcha repeated, focusing in on Hermione, looking suddenly sober. "You've lost your parents, and I know how much that can hurt, but what else have you lost?" When she didn't answer, Sorcha answered for her. "Nothing. You've not suffered the devastating loss of watching the man you love die because of your mistakes. You haven't had to bury him, wanting only to mourn him while everyone else is blaming you for his death. You haven't lost your unborn baby because, after being unable to protect its' father, you couldn't protect him or her either."
Hermione stared sadly at Sorcha as she broke down in tears, and wanted so badly to comfort her. Moving over to sit next to her, Hermione gently lay a hand on her shoulder and whispered, "I'm so sorry. I had no idea."
"No, you didn't," Sorcha replied, but made no move to push Hermione away. "No one does. Steven died seven years ago tonight. I lost the baby a week later, but nobody knew."
They sat silently for a while after that. Hermione moved her arm so that it was around Sorcha's shoulder, and to her surprise Sorcha leaned toward her to rest her head on Hermione's shoulder. They stayed that way for some time, until Sorcha was the one to break the silence. "I'm sorry."
"What for?"
"For treating you so horribly. I was a bloody bitch to you, and you stood up to me and took it. You're a better Guardian than I ever was."
"The way that you train me...was that how you were trained?"
"Don't I wish," Sorcha replied. "My trainer was a Guardian that had switched sides without anyone knowing. Damien had gotten to her, and the things she did to me in our training sessions...let's just say I was lucky to survive."
"Who..."
"I think that's enough for tonight," Jakob interrupted, while walking up to them.
"Oh, Jake. What am I going to do?"
Sorcha collapsed into tears once again, this time sobbing uncontrollably as Hermione tried to comfort her while looking worriedly at Jakob. Meeting her confused stare he said, "Why don't you go back upstairs and try to get some sleep? I'll take care of her now."
Nodding mutely, she watched as Jakob sat next to Sorcha, putting a comforting arm around her shoulder as she turned to him, burying her face in his chest. Wondering what exactly was going on with Sorcha, Hermione went back upstairs to her room, pretty sure she wouldn't be getting anymore sleep that night.
~*~
"I'm coming for you, Harry."
"No," Harry said, unknowingly tossing from side to side in his bed.
"I'm going to kill her, and then I'll kill you."
"No! Stay away!"
"The itsy-bitsy Guardian went down to hell one day..."
Sitting up suddenly in his bed, Harry flung the covers off of himself and ran to the loo, quickly emptying the contents of his stomach into the toilet. Walking up to the sink, he looked into the mirror and saw his face reflected, dark circles standing out underneath his eyes. Sighing tiredly, he splashed cold water onto his face and rinsed out his mouth. Shuffling back to his room, he changed out of his sweat soaked pajamas and knowing he'd sleep no more that night, sat down at his desk to write to Hermione.
~*~
The next morning, Hermione woke up to the sound of tapping on her bedroom window. Getting up slowly and shuffling over to open it, she was pleasantly surprised as Harry's owl, Hedwig, flew in and perched on the edge of the bed.
Harry had started writing the day after he had experienced the nightmare in which she had died, and they had been writing back and forth ever since. He would write of his training and experiences with Ron and Luna while she would tell him of all the training she was going through. She had even written about her and Jakob's run in with the Shadocks when they had been in town. Harry had expressed his concern, and she had told him that as far as she knew they were not planning on going back.
Now, this morning, she gently removed the note from the owl's leg and fed her a few treats in thanks. Unrolling the parchment, she read through everything Harry had written, and unsettled by what she read, grabbed her dressing gown. Clutching the letter in her hand, she rushed downstairs to the kitchen where she knew she would find Jakob. Greeted by the smell of eggs, sausage, and various other breakfast foods she walked over to where he stood in front of the stove cooking and held the roll of parchment out to him. "What's this?" he asked, taking it from her.
Reading it over, his expression changed from relaxed to one of concern and when he finished he looked at her and remarked, "This isn't good."
Pushing away the sudden pang of fear that she felt, she said, "I had another dream last night too, about Damien. He was singing another one of those damn riddle songs."
"What were the words this time?"
Reciting it word for word, she stopped and asked, "What does this mean?"
"It means that Damien is trying to get to you whatever way he can, even if it means using Harry to do it. I just don't understand how the two of them could be connected at all."
"I think I do," she replied. "When Harry was held prisoner down in that dungeon on New Year's day, both Voldemort and Damien were there. When Voldemort fired the killing curse at Harry, Damien entered Harry's body. He took it over so that he could direct the curse out of his body, basically killing Harry and Voldemort at the same time."
"That could definitely do it," Jakob agreed, turning back to the food. Making up two plates for them, they sat at the table so they could eat and continue the conversation. "Anytime an entity enters into a body, it leaves its' mark on the person's soul. If that person survives the experience, then they walk around with a part of that entity inside of them for the rest of their life."
"So a part of Damien...attached itself to Harry's soul?"
"I believe so," Jakob answered. "That would establish an automatic connection to Harry, and give Damien access into his subconscious mind."
"And what about Soul restoration spells?" she asked.
"Well, there's no bodily possession involved, but it works much in the same way."
"Oh."
When she suddenly got quiet, he looked at her pointedly and asked, "Why? Have you performed a Soul restoration spell on someone?"
Unable to meet his penatrating gaze, she replied, "Two someones, actually."
"Hermione!"
"I didn't know!" she replied fervently. "The first one was out of sheer panic, and the second one was supposed to be more of a...sacrifice."
He just stared intently at her for a while, his silence making her uneasy. Finally, he quietly asked, "You performed a Soul restoration spell on Harry in that dungeon, didn't you?"
She hadn't told anyone about performing that spell on Harry, and sighing she admitted, "Yes, I did. I was prepared to give up my life so that he could live. And I died as well."
When she didn't explain further he asked, "How is it you're still alive then?"
"Do you know of Elysian?" she asked.
"My mother used to tell me stories about it, but I didn't think it was a real place."
"It's real, I've been there a few times now, and one of those times was when I died. To make a really long story short, I was given another chance at life...they granted me resurrection."
"That's unheard of."
"I gathered as much by how my mother and Lily Potter, Harry's mother, reacted while I was there. Micah, my Guardian Angel, was there when I arrived. He explained that the Seraphs believed that for future events to unfold, I had to return to Earth. And here I am."
After digesting everything she had said, he asked, "Did Sorcha know all of this?"
"Most of it," she admitted slowly.
"Back to Harry for a moment," he said, switching gears. "So as of right now, he's walking around with not only a piece of Damien inside of him, but a piece of you as well?"
"And a small bit of Voldemort, too."
"Oh, of course, how could I forget him?" Jakob asked, sarcasm lacing every word. "What a mess, Hermione. I don't know how Harry's stayed sane for all this time, having had two evil spirits and one spirit of light leave a mark on his soul."
"So what do we do now?" she asked, concerned for Harry's safety more than ever. "Do we fill Sorcha in on everything."
"Sorcha's not here," he replied, not looking at her as he got up and cleared the table of their dishes. "She left early this morning, and I don't know when she'll be back."
"But my training..."
"Will be done by just me from now on."
"Oh, okay," she said, shocked that Sorcha had just left like that.
As she turned to leave the kitchen, Jakob said, "Hey, Hermione, who was the second person you performed that spell on?"
"Luna Lovegood," she replied, wondering if she should warn both Harry and Luna about the mess she'd made by saving their lives.
~*~
In the early morning hours of Christmas Eve, Hermione lay tossing and turning in her bed while she slept, her mind assaulted with images of her parents being killed, Harry falling dead in the dungeon, and many other people dying that she had never seen before. "No..." she mumbled, still deep in sleep. "No more..."
Just as an image of her childhood home burning filled her subconscious, the form of Lily Potter appeared, and with a wave of her hand the images were gone. "You have to wake up, Hermione. You have to get up and warn Jakob...Damien knows where you are. He's coming for you both."
Waking instantly, Hermione sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed, her heart beating rapidly in her chest, only to stop cold. There, seeming to float in front of her, was Lily. "I just dreamt of you..."
"It wasn't a dream," an intangible Lily stated. "It was a warning, you have to leave right now."
Standing up, Hermione moved to go to her wardrobe so that she could get clothes to change into and swayed unsteadily on her feet. Her stomach churning and her head pounding, she stumbled the rest of the way and quickly changed into jeans, jumper, and her trainers. As she dressed, she realized her whole body ached, and she cursed her immune system as she realized she probably had the flu. With Lily still urging her to move quickly, she swore to herself as she pushed her sick and traitorous body out of the room and down the hallway to Jakob's room. Pounding loudly on the door she called, "Jakob, we have to go. Damien knows we're here and he's coming for us." Continuing to pound, a small amount of relief joined the fear she was feeling when she heard him call out that he was coming, audibly stumbling around just before he finally opened the door.
"How do you know that Damien's coming?" he asked, immediately wide awake when he saw how scared she looked, and how pale she was.
"Lily Potter told me," she replied, her impatience growing. "She appeared to me, to give me the warning. We need to go right now!"
Noting the fear in her eyes and waver of her voice, he said, "I'll go get dressed and be right out." He closed the door and quickly started to gather his clothes, his heart beating hard in his chest as he thought of the evil that was coming for them.
While she waited, she stood leaning against the wall opposite his door, praying that he would hurry. When he rushed out of his room, he looked at her appearance more closely and asked, "Are you alright? You don't look well."
"I think I've got the flu, at a really inopportune time," she answered, grabbing his arm to pull him impatiently down the hallway. "But I can't dwell on that now, we have to get out of here."
As they made their way to the staircase, intent on getting downstairs so that they could emergency floo out of there, Damien appeared behind them and said, "Not leaving on my account, I hope?"
Panic washed over her as she turned and came face-to-face with Damien, realizing he was just mere steps away. "Run!" Jakob shouted, grabbing onto her hand and pulling her down the stairs behind him. She wanted to scream for him to stop, that there was no way to out-run the Shadock, but when her gaze traveled back to where he had been, he was gone.
"Where'd he go?" she asked, trying to pull her hand out of Jakob's iron grasp. Just as the question left her lips, Damien appeared on the step ahead of them, and Jakob stopped suddenly. Before either of them could react, a jet black curse hit Jakob in the chest, knocking him backwards so that he hit six steps up from where he had stood. Unable to gain his footing, he tumbled down two or three more stairs, coming to a stop on the step just behind Hermione.
"You can't escape me," Damien taunted, his laughter seeming to echo off of the walls around them.
Knowing that they had to get out of that house, Hermione conjured a white orb in her hand just as she had done months ago in town, and poured forth all of her magical energy while doing so. Drained from the exertion, she threw the blinding white sphere toward Damien, and when it hit him square in the chest his shout of anger was enough to shake the house on it's foundation.
Consumed by her pure magic, Damien disappeared in a blinding white flash of light. Panting hard after expending so much of her magic, Hermione turned to where Jakob still lay and said, "We have to go, right now. Can you walk?"
"I think so," he replied, standing up slowly.
Taking his hand, she tried to ignore her aching muscles and joints as she led him downstairs, her head spinning the entire way. Grabbing some floo powder, she threw it in hurriedly and without a second thought pulled Jakob in with her, knowing that neither of them could risk being in that house for another moment.