So, this is my first Harry Potter story, as well as my first fanfiction, as I usually write original stories, but to practise my English and to indulge in some of my favourite couples, I decided I'd finally give it a try. So please be gentle with me.
I had the idea of a Regulus & Hermione story for some time, but never went through with it, because I was caught up writing my own novel, and while it certainly is an interesting couple not many people consider it, but when I started reading Ready for the Storm by the incredibly talented Calebski (You should definitely read all her stories!), I found myself writing immediately.
This story is rated M for a reason and will most likely include adult themes/violence/murder in later chapters... So far I have got a general outline for the story, that will finish within 10-20 chapters, but who knows what will happen along the road.
For story-purpose, I tweaked Regulus' birth date a bit, and made him a bit older, he still died in 1979 though but was born in 1959, so at the point of his death, he is 20.
Beyond The Veil
The Prologue
Spring 2000
Department of Mysteries
The dark, empty corridors of the Department of Mysteries still creeped Hermione out, even though she had been working the past year as a newly appointed Unspeakable in training, alongside some of her Hogwarts classmates. While she had returned to Hogwarts to finish her last school year, she had been thinking about her future career, and even though Harry had tried to convince her, that she would make a great Auror, she eventually refused. She wasn't the person, that recklessly engaged in duels and tried to hunt down dark wizards, she knew that and everyone else as well, although Harry had been initially disappointed, when she had turned down Kingsley's offer.
Someone like her was much better suited for research, it was her field of study and something she loved. From the beginning of their Horcrux hunt until the very end she had been the striving force behind it. While Hermione had absolutely loathed the time they had to spent hidden, uncovering the secrets of the Deathly Hallows and Voldemorts Horcruxes had been one of the few things, that had brought her somewhat of joy during this time. So when she had received a letter of invitation from the head of the Department of Mysteries during the last months of her 8th year in Hogwarts, she immediately agreed to meet him. The prospects, that the mysterious tall man, who didn't even tell her his name had given her were more than what she could ever ask for. Hermione would be freely studying subjects, which were still a mystery to the wizarding world, especially the matter of time and time-travel was something she longed to research more profoundly since she had regularly used a time-turner in her third year.
The offer was not something she spent much contemplation on, while she had been offered more than enough positions within the Ministry or at other institutions, her mind had always gone back to the Department of Mysteries and her possible future as an Unspeakable. It was just so tempting to work with like-minded wizards and witches, who were as fascinated by the unknown as her.
When she had told Harry and Ron about her plans, they had seemed uneasy, while Harry begrudgingly accepted her decision, although he tried to get her to swear, that she would never enter the Death Chamber, Ron had actively tried to talk her out of it. To no avail, she stood by her decision and started her three-year-long apprenticeship to become an Unspeakable after she completed her 8th year at Hogwarts. To her surprise Zacharias Smith and Blaise Zabini were offered positions as well, thus the three were often forced to work together and formed an awkward, yet civil trio, although Hermione secretly thought, that Zabini was much nicer than the pompous git Smith. Eventually they all passed their first-year exams and had to choose one particular area of interest in which they would write their first research paper, Hermione had chosen time-turners, Zabini prophecies and lastly, Smith had picked the Veil as his first study object.
Hermione briskly walked down the hallway to her meeting with Zacharias Smith, who had boasted about a new breakthrough in his Veil studies, and that he would show her something spectacular, even though Hermione doubted it would be anything like that. After having to work with Smith for most of the last year, she had realised that he loved to exaggerate, and possessed a somewhat sneaky trait, which reminded her of his cowardly behaviour during the Battle of Hogwarts. She did not actively condone his actions at that time, but still, his escape before the battle, when he forcefully pushed first years out of his way to secure his flight stayed with her and made her somewhat critical and yet cautious of him.
Tired, she opened the door to the death chamber with a lazy motion of her wand, her eyes were immediately drawn to the veil, which stood in the middle of the chamber, though today it was uncharacteristically enveloped in a thin bluish mist.
"Zacharias?" Hermione asked softly and felt a shiver run down her spine when her voice echoed through the room. "I am really not in the mood for your games tonight, Smith!"
She suddenly felt cold in her dark blue robes, blaming it partly on the depressing aura, that the veil emitted, sometimes she still dreamed of Sirius falling through the veil, his shocked face before he was somehow pulled by an unknown force in direction of the veil burned itself inside her memory and she could still hear Harrys cries as he desperately tried to follow his godfather.
The veil was a mystery, a riddle, that so far no one had uncovered, solved. In the past centuries countless of wizards and witches had tried to find an explanation for the veil, for its purpose, his origin and finally its strange power and yet they all had failed. Some had even gone mad to the point they willingly passed through the veil. Eventually, researchers got gradually less. Most Unspeakables put their efforts into different research and the death chamber was almost forgotten, some even called for a seal off, as they thought this chamber to be too dangerous to enter.
Nothing of that sort happened, but after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, a newfound interest in the Veil arose, since strange voices, that seemed to originate from the veil, were not only heard by those, who had been in direct contact with death, but also by others, who had never faced death in any sort. Today though the veil stayed silent, while Hermione's eyes were transfixed on the giant archway. Something was off, she realised with a gasp. Not only was the mist baffling, but also the aura surrounding the veil had changed, the air was practically buzzing with magic.
"Smith!" Hermione tried it again. She was sure, that he, to a certain degree was responsible for this change, or did at least know what triggered it.
"Granger, Sorry. Sorry," Zacharias quickly appeared behind her in the hallway. "I was caught up with business."
She resisted the urge to roll her eyes at his arrogant tone, and simply nodded in direction of the archway, "So what was your memo all about? A breakthrough? In your Veil Studies?"
"Well come on in. I am quite sure my research results will astonish you," he said smugly and lead her to a wooden desk, that was placed on the left side of the room, near the ascending steep steps, which enlaced almost the whole chamber. The dais with the archway was merely a few metres away.
"I am sure they will," she replied a moment too late, as he was rummaging through his notes, which were sprawled out on the table. Suddenly, Hermione felt a cold rush of air in her face, the notes on the desk rustled, sheets fell down and were carried away by a surprisingly strong wind. She nervously registered, that the wind seemed to come from the direction of the veil, while Smith, apparently unaware of what had transpired pulled an old tome from under a stack of unreadable notes.
"This, Granger is the key," he informed her proudly and gestured to the veil. "You remember the runes on the archway, don't you? The ones no one so far was able to decipher? Well, I have."
She doubtfully arched her eyebrows, "That is impossible, Smith. Show me the book."
A snobbish smile appeared on his face, as he handed her the tome, "Granger. Give me some credit. I took Ancient Runes in my NEWTs and received an O, so please spare me that look on your face. I knew exactly what I did."
Appalled she looked up, "What do you mean, you knew exactly what you did?" she slowly asked, bracing herself for his answer. "You did not use those runes, did you?"
"I tried some spells, and may have used a summoning rune, that dated back to the time this archway was built, I am pretty sure the runes are actually written in ancient italic script, that's why no one figured it out until now, they just didn't think about this possibility!" Smith claimed excitedly while gesturing to the archway, where she could make out the faintly blue glowing runes, which were inscribed just above the actual veil.
"They are glowing," she stated faintly.
"I know, it must be the side effect of the spell, but I wouldn't think too strongly about that, it is merely proof my experiment worked."
Hermione regarded him with disdain before she scanned the runes he marked in the book. "What kind of spell did you use anyway? Besides, what do these runes stand for?"
Smith walked over to her side, and snatched the book out of her hands, "Granger, like I said. A summoning ritual. We already know, that some people passed through the veil without actively dying on this side, That got me thinking, that we could try to bring them back with the help of these runes. Actually, I personally think the veil was created for the purpose of bringing dead people back to life."
"With a simple summoning spell? Do you honestly think it is that easy? I seriously doubt it," she coldly replied. "Besides, do you even have a permission for your experiments, I remember reading using magic on the archway is restricted to Unspeakables in training, and if I were you, I'd be a bit more careful with those claims without even having proof."
Smith shuffled his feet but did not answer her. Instead, he kept glancing at the Veil and finally back to her. For a split second, he regarded her with something oddly similar to pity, until his face went blank again.
"I am sorry, Miss Perfect, but sometimes you have to break the rules to achieve something. I am sure especially someone like you would agree."
"While I see your point, I disagree, Zacharias. The instances in which I broke the rules were of different nature, I had a valid reason, mainly to stop Voldemort, but you are just looking for a chance to impress the higher-ups while disregarding the standard procedure and endangering yourself and others. We do not know how the Veil works, but we do know that once you pass it, you never come back. Smith, all I am saying is that you should be more careful," Hermione said as gently as she could muster.
She knew Smith would probably be unresponsive to her criticism, as he always was, but she hated how he seemed so indifferent towards everyone else except himself, even if danger seemed quite apparent. One year of working together had taught her, that he cared only about his own success, other than that he led a completely superficial and vapid life, which consisted of dating pretty witches, meeting his mates for Quidditch and dining in the most expensive restaurants London had to offer. Despite loving to boast to others, especially Hermione about his influential family, she ironically had overheard how he unsuccessfully tried to gain support from a few high ranking ministry officials to finally get a seat at the Wizengamot for his family. So far she had kept silent about this embarrassing scene, although she had been tempted to use it against him.
"I am careful," spat Smith viciously, before he walked up to the archway and turned to her. "I don't see how I need to listen to you, Granger. I am merely doing what I am supposed to do, and that is studying the Veil."
"Oh please, as if you actually care about your studies!"
Faintly she could hear a low rumble in the distance, but brushed it off, she currently had more important things to worry about, was is just her imagination, or did the mist grow thicker?
"Now tell me, why exactly the magic in this room seems to be on the very edge of exploding?" She enquired sharply and stared in Smiths direction, as he seemingly grew uncomfortable.
"I... don't know."
"What do you mean? You were the one who... did this!" Angrily she put her hands on her hips and looked up into his pale face searching for any signs of regret, instead, she just found anger.
"Look, I used one of these spells or rituals in the book you're holding. Just a simple summoning spell," he repeated between clenched teeth, although he almost seemed confused by his own insistence. "Here, right there. The runes on the Veil fit with the ones the author listed at the bottom of the page. Obviously that cannot be coincidence, so naturally, I tried the spell he suggested and it did have an effect on the Veil. I read various historical reports on the experiments they conducted on the veil, none of them produced any signs or effects on the archway. So this can be considered a breakthrough, you cannot argue with that, Granger."
Hermione stared blankly at her co-worker before she slowly replied. "Well, to some extent perhaps yes, though I'd hardly consider ominous mist, glowing runes and a malign magical aura a positive sign. Something is terrible –," she abruptly stopped mid-sentence when a rune in Smiths book caught her eye. Hermione quickly compared the runes he marked with the ones inscribed into the archway, trembling she lowered the tome in her hands. She suddenly felt as if all air had vanished from her body, it was difficult to breathe and her heart started racing.
"Cat got your tongue, Granger?"
She did not answer him at first, too shocked was she from her discovery. A thousand thoughts went through her mind, but none appeared to be calming. If the runes Smith had used for his ritual were indeed wrong then the consequences could be disastrous. More importantly, what could possibly happen if the Veil were to set free its magic? She honestly did not want to know, the thought alone generated a tight knot in her stomach and she dimly registered that the deep rumble had grown stronger in intensity and its echo had an almost deafening effect.
"They don't match... the runes don't match," she finally croaked out.
Smiths' face went white, "No, I checked. For countless times, I checked. They match!"
"NO!", she screamed in his face, angrily he snatched the tome out of her hands and frantically studied the runes, before his shoulders fell in defeat, "Oh Merlin."
Hermione almost felt pity witnessing Zacharias Smith so lost and confused, and yet she reminded herself that he was the one who had been irresponsibly trying spells on an ancient magical structure. She took a deep breath to calm herself down, at least one of them had to keep a clear head, taking Smiths hand she led him to the door, where he all of the sudden wrenched himself out of her grasp.
"What are you doing?"
"Well, how does it look like? I am getting help," Hermione replied exasperated, something about Smiths behaviour unsettled her, his eyes kept glancing to the Veil as if he was waiting for something particular to happen, while the look in his face was downright chilling. "This... situation is definitely out of hands, so we should better be alerting the superiors. Perhaps they know more about these strange side effects to your experiment."
"I don't think that is necessary, Granger."
Frowning she faced him, "I very much think so, Smith."
Before she even realised what was happening he had pulled out his wand pointing it in her direction. A determined expression had found its way in his face, "I can't let you do this. Do you honestly think I would risk my Unspeakable career for this? Come on, I thought you were smarter than that. I might have made a mistake, but everyone does at some point, it wouldn't be fair if I had to pay for it. Don't worry, I will just erase your memories of the past hour, nothing too damaging. I am not that cruel."
Appalled Hermione instinctively grabbed her own wand, the sudden turn of events infuriated her to the point where she wanted to curse him on spot for his childish, yet selfish behaviour, though her more rational side urged her to negotiate with him first, "Zacharias, be realistic. They will notice if you have meddled with my memory, and don't you think you are overreacting a bit... you might get a fine, but they certainly won't fire you."
They should though, she thought darkly.
For a moment, it seemed as if her words got through to him until he sent a stunner in her direction that she easily reflected. She did not want to fight him, but it looked like he didn't give her any other option. Angrily she shielded herself from the curses he sent her way, they weren't particularly dark curses, but she could feel her defence weaken simply due to the sheer amount of spells he tried to curse her with. Grimly Hermione considered her options, she could either fight back at Smith or run away to her superiors informing them of the dangerous condition the Death Chamber appeared to be in, but would she even make it that far without Smith reaching the point where he'd use more dangerous spells? Though she knew he was by no means a remarkable duellist she wanted to be on the safe side as she feared she got a bit rusty herself. Her last duel had been ages ago.
A sudden thunderous sound caught their attention and Hermione realised with apparent terror that it originated from the Veil, she felt the magic shifting in the air, sizzling with power, as they both lowered their wands silently observing the archway. Flashing lights appeared in front of her vision when she saw something resembling a swirl appear within the veil. Tightly she shut her eyes to the point where it hurt, hoping that if she would open them she would be at home, or at least somewhere else and that none of this had happened, but her hopes were futile, she knew that. There was no way she could ignore her current situation, especially now that it became hard to breathe, as the thick magical aura of the Veil engulfed her, seemed to swallow her whole.
"Smith!"
"Granger! We have to –" his voice got cut off by a sudden intense gust of wind, his notes were fluttering through the air and Hermione had to squint her eyes to detect Smith in the dark mist. He was crouched and apparently searching for something on the floor. Slowly she crawled in his direction, her anger at him forgotten, though she swore to herself that she would get her revenge if this was over... and if they would survive.
"We need to get out of here", she screamed in his face after she arrived at his side and pulled at his robes.
"My wand, I need my wand!"
"Smith! Don't worry –, you can get a new one, we have to hurry! Come!" Hermione desperately tried dragging him to the direction in which she suspected the door. Their movements were slowed down by their disorientation and the icy wind that enveloped them like a thick blanket, but they somehow managed to walk a few metres when Smith abruptly pulled away from her. Annoyed Hermione looked over her shoulders to demand that he'd stop obstructing their escape when she saw the terrified look in his eyes. Before she knew what he was doing he gripped her wrists so hard his short nails were digging into her skin.
"What are you –?" She didn't get to finish her question since she was violently ripped forward into Smiths direction in the very next moment. Dimly she registered Smiths laboured breathing next to her ear before they were both brutally pulled into the direction of the Veil. When the realisation hit her that they would most likely pass through the other side they were already just a few metres away from the archway. Desperately she met Smiths gaze and tried to free herself from his strong grasp.
"DON'T!" Smith cried in terror, his eyes widening.
The wind roared loudly as they were dragged closer to the bluish glowing Veil, Hermione tried hard to think of anything that she could do, but her mind had gone completely blank. Was she really going to die like this? After they had just won the war and she had barely adjusted to her new life? There wouldn't even be a corpse, no one would know what had transpired, except that she had disappeared together with Zacharias Smith.
With newfound determination she stared at his hands which were still holding her firmly in space, bruising her wrists. Silently she repeated the incantation Relashio in her mind, focusing all of her energy on him. Although she had trained her Wandless magic skills after she started her Unspeakable apprenticeship, however using an actual curse on another person was something even accomplished wizards needed years to master. Nervously Hermione closed her eyes and tried it again until she heard a painful scream coming from Smith, his hold on her relaxed for a split second. A time that she used to break free from his grip, immediately the pull towards the Veil lessened, it almost seemed as if only Smith was intended to be pulled through.
Before Hermione could continue her chain of thought, his face had contoured in rage and he tried to grab her hands again, as she tried to shake him off, he got hold of one of her robe sleeves, victorious he smirked up to her while she felt the sharp tug in direction of the archway again, which was barely three metres away from them.
"Let me go!" She urged him, desperately.
He laughed maniacally, "No! If I die, I'll take you with me!"
"Don't be ridiculous!" she screeched.
Even through the wind, she could hear the voices now, whispers that were enticing her, calling out her name. She knew that it was an illusion but hearing the voices of people she loved and would never see again let her for pause for a moment, whereas the aching of her heart intensified, hot tears were running down her cheeks. Her right hand instinctively grabbed her wand, she needed to make her decision now, but how could she? Leaving Smith to his obvious fate would haunt her forever, but wasn't it his fault that she found herself in such a predicament anyway? She felt angry that she still was so torn over sacrificing Smith, while he evidently did not have a problem dragging her down with him. A small voice in the back of her head urged her to finally cut him off, furiously she ignored it, helplessly trying to come up with an option that would rescue him, but she had to accept the bitter truth
Resigned she pulled out her wand completely and pointed it at her sleeve, she did not waver when Smiths' eyes widened terrified, silently begging her to reconsider, Hermione, however, had made her decision.
"I am so sorry," she whispered, not sure if he could hear her. "I... I don't want to do this, believe me, but... but I need to."
Zacharias Smith kept silent, though he did not let her go. The felt the archways magic surrounding her, small light flashes emerged from the tip of her wand.
"Diffindo."
Although her desire to close her eyes and not witness the next scene was strong she did not shut them when Smith was violently pulled through the veil. Within seconds he just disappeared behind the transparent curtain, his face drained of all colour was the last thing she saw. For what felt like an eternity Hermione knelt on the cold stone floor, staring through the Veil, still holding her wand in her hand, her knuckles had long since turned white. She did not even register how silent the Death Chamber had become and that the runes above her head were still glowing faintly.
Reluctantly she got up, staggering through the room to the door when she noticed a body not far from where she stood. A million thoughts rushed through her mind, was is it possible that Smith somehow managed to come back? Or had it all been a hallucination?
She slowly walked over to the person, her heartbeat pulsing in her ear whereas her breathing pace increased. Finally, she stopped dead in her tracks. It was not Smith, she noticed first of all. A tall man was lying unconscious on the grey tiles, his dark hair appeared to be wet and hid almost all of his face so that she could just make out his mouth in the dim light of the room. His lips were almost blue and his skin looked sickly pale whereas the man's weak breathing was ragged and uneven. Hesitantly Hermione crouched down touching his hand, immediately she pulled back as if she had burned herself, he had felt like a corpse.
Swallowing hard she regarded him, even his robes which appeared to be expensive were soaked with water that smelled mouldy and of death. Where did he come from, she thought faintly before she registered the ring on his finger.
It was a signet ring, she realised after a few moments before she carefully pulled it off his finger for closer examination. A green stone was inset in the simple gold ring and when she squinted her eyes, she could even notice the engravings of a coat of arms.
A very familiar coat of arms that she had seen countless times she had entered Number 12 Grimmauld Place, one that was engraved in her memory. Before she could even start thinking her mind completely shut off. With a loud thud Hermione's body hit the floor, though she did not feel pain, instead, she simply passed out.
A/N: Oh my... don't you love it when Zacharias Smith is a dick? And is there any fic where he is not?
