Disclaimer: HP belongs to JKR/OCs belong to me

Chapter 2: Fate's Offer

Note: A small nod to Quantum Leap is included here.

Harry walked slowly into the heart of the room. "Hermione, is it really you?"

Unlike in Harry's dreams, Hermione actually stepped towards him. "It is."

"But how?"

A voice came from behind Harry. "I can answer that question."

Harry turned on his heel to face the owner of the voice. "Who are you?"

A tall blonde woman in a flowing silvery-white gown stepped towards him. "I am one of the three Sisters of Fate. You may call me Clotho."

Harry felt a little in awe of the beautiful, almost ethereal, looking woman. "Is it because of you that I'm here?"

"It is." Clotho walked over to where Hermione was standing.

As she did, Harry couldn't help but stare at the contrast the two women provided, Hermione's dark coloring standing out against the paleness of Clotho's skin, but he quickly recovered himself and asked, "Then why use Hermione to bring me here?"

Clotho placed a hand on Hermione's shoulder. "Because even though I watch the world, I have no physical connection to it, and this is one of the few places in your world where I can appear like this. I therefore needed Hermione to bring you to me."

"Why?"

"You need to put right what has gone wrong," Clotho informed him.

Harry gave a brief laugh as he remembered a program he used to watch when he was a boy. "Who do you think I am, Sam Beckett?"

Almost as one, Clotho and Hermione both frowned and asked, "Sam Beckett?"

Harry explained, "He was the main character from a Muggle television program where he continually leapt through time trying to put right what once went wrong. The ending was pretty dismal as he never managed to return home."

Clotho was amused by Harry's reference. "Well, Harry, in that case you might say that you're the wizarding version of this Sam Beckett. Because your alternate moved through time to change things, you now find yourself being asked to do what Sam Beckett did: you need to put things right. And like him, you too will never be able to return home if you agree to do what I ask."

"So this is a request rather than a demand?" After spending so many years as an Auror, Harry was pretty astute at judging people, and he had a feeling that he wouldn't be leaving this room until Clotho got what she wanted.

"I cannot force people to act against their free will. I'm simply a type of guardian." Clotho was actually far more than a simple guardian but she wasn't going to tell Harry that.

Harry wanted to make certain that he'd got his facts straight. "So because my alternate changed the timeline, I'm now obliged to put things right?"

"Unfortunately your alternate is guilty of making a monumental mistake, and someone has to pay the price," Clotho said, and, fed up with standing, she lifted her hand and several wooden high backed seats appeared. "I think we'll be more comfortable if we're not standing around, so please sit down."

Harry did as invited. "But why mess with things now? They don't seem to me to be that bad: Voldemort is dead, the Ministry is somewhat less corrupt, and everyone I know seems to be leading a fairly happy life."

"It isn't this world that's in trouble." Clotho watched as disbelief rippled across Harry's face. "I'll let Hermione explain."

Hermione, who had sat down on the other side of Harry, turned to him. "The other Harry was destined to change time but his Hermione wasn't supposed to have survived the sacrifice. When he refused to let her die, he messed up big time, Harry."

Harry failed to see how another world had anything to do with his alternate's tinkering. "But we already knew that he'd messed up. How could Potter's mistake have endangered another world?"

"Peri was correct when she said that the other Harry's spell sent out ripples across time changing things from how they should've been. But, Harry, the spell also sent out ripples across the infinite worlds that are out there. The ripples barely scratched the surface of most worlds but in a few of them, things aren't what they should be."

Hermione knew that Harry would be horrified if he could see what Clotho had shown her could happen if Harry refused to intervene; it had been one of the reasons Hermione had agreed to help Clotho.

Harry turned to Clotho. "So how did the other Harry affect these worlds?"

"Because of the connection provided by the Propylaeum…" Clotho stopped in mid-sentence as she was cut off by Harry.

"What's the Propylaeum?"

Clotho pointed to the archway behind her. "That is the Propylaeum."

"I thought it was simply an archway that sent people to their deaths."

During his time as an Unspeakable, Harry had seen all the relevant data that been collected on it, and none of it had ever mentioned travel to other worlds.

"For some, yes, that is simply what it is. But in every world there exists certain artifacts that provide their owner with the ability to use the Propylaeum to travel from one world to another," Clotho explained. "In this world, those objects are known as the Deathly Hallows."

Harry still didn't see the connection. "So?"

Clotho continued with her explanation. "You, and not your alternate, were destined to face Voldemort and kill him. Voldemort was meant to die in that duel with you, and he was never meant to go through the Propylaeum."

Harry paled as he recognized the significance of the word 'through'. "You're telling me that instead of going into the veil and dying, Voldemort went through it and that he's alive in one of these other worlds?"

"I am. If you'd faced Voldemort that day instead of your alternate, you would've defeated him. Instead, Voldemort went through the Propylaeum." Clotho watched as understanding registered on Harry's face.

"He had a Hallows, didn't he?"

Hermione confirmed what Harry suspected had happened. "He was holding the Elder Wand when the other Harry forced him into the veil."

Harry realized that his alternate had probably unleashed a monster on another world. "Shit!"

"Exactly." Hermione knew from Clotho what would happen if Harry refused to help. "Harry, the people in that world need you. If you don't step in and help, then Voldemort will eventually achieve the immortality he's been seeking, and he'll also discover that he isn't bound to one world alone."

Harry was silent for a while as he processed what he had just been told. "It's been thirty years since Voldemort went through the veil. Why now?"

"Because you weren't ready until now."

"What do you mean, Hermione, I wasn't ready?"

Clotho answered him. "At first, you simply weren't receptive enough to the dreams. By the time you were, you were tied to your children."

Harry felt a wave of despair as he thought about his children. "I still don't exactly feel good about leaving them."

"I promise you that they'll be fine, Harry," Clotho assured him. "All four of them will have long and happy marriages with their chosen partners."

Harry let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you for telling me."

"You haven't mentioned your wife, Harry." Hermione, of course, knew about Seville.

"Do you know everything about my life, Hermione?"

"I've been watching you almost since the day I died."

"In that case, you're probably more than aware that while I love Seville, I've never felt the same way about her as I feel about you, even now." Harry directed his next question at Clotho. "Will Seville be all right?"

"She'll take some time to get over the news of your supposed death but she'll eventually recover."

Harry hoped that Seville wouldn't mourn him for too long. "Will she remarry?"

Clotho was to disappoint Harry. "You mean as much to Seville as Hermione does to you."

Harry closed his eyes. "Not quite what I wanted to hear."

"I really shouldn't have told you any of this," Clotho admitted. "But I wanted you to know that your children will be happy and won't suffer for what I'm asking you to do."

"But my wife will." Harry ran a hand through his hair, displaying his agitation. "Is there nothing you can do for her?"

"No, but she has her children," Clotho told him. "And she will find comfort through them."

Even though Harry had thought long and hard about his decision to respond to the dreams, he was now having second thoughts when faced with the reality of what he was going to do to his family. "What happens if I refuse to help?"

"You may return to the life you were leading." Clotho nodded towards the door that led out of the Death Chamber. "All you have to do is step through that door."

"And what about Hermione?"

Hermione took Harry's hand into her own. "I'll move on, Harry. My time here is almost over. That's why I've been moving away from you in the dreams."

Harry looked down at Hermione's hand. "I've never known a ghost to be able to do that. I can feel you but you're cold. So precisely what are you?"

"I'm not exactly a ghost but I'm not living either." Hermione squeezed Harry's hand. "In this room I can feel, I can touch, and I can move around but I can't move outside of it, which is why you always saw me in this room. Our love for each is other is what allowed you to see me here."

Harry hated the thought of Hermione being trapped for so long in the white room. "Why didn't you move on to the other side?"

Hermione refused to meet Harry's eyes. "I'd rather not tell you."

Harry lifted Hermione's head with his finger. "I want to know, Hermione."

"You don't need to know."

Harry gave Clotho a steely glare. "If Hermione won't tell me, then perhaps you will."

"Are you positive you really want to know, Harry?" Clotho knew that the truth would bring no joy to Harry.

"I do." Harry sat back and waited expectantly.

"Very well. Before we begin I should tell you that I have two sisters: one determines the length of a person's life, and the other severs it. The length of Hermione's life had been determined by my sister, Lachesis, before Hermione was born, and it should've lasted far longer than it did."

"So Hermione's here because she shouldn't have died when she did?"

"Not exactly," Clotho said. "Harry, you should've heeded what Hermione was trying to tell you in your dream."

Harry immediately knew to which dream Clotho was referring. "You're telling me I should've waited instead of waking her up before she died?"

"You should have." As Clotho had expected, her words were bringing Harry nothing but pain. "Your decision to wake her caused Atropos to prematurely sever Hermione's thread."

"But you said it was predetermined."

"It is, but even we are bound to follow the rules of the universe, and you changed the balance of it when you woke Hermione up. Atropos had no choice."

"But we couldn't find anything." Harry thought back to the conversation he had had with Severus by the lakeside. "We'd searched everywhere."

Clotho spoke again. "Not everywhere. If you'd waited just a little while longer, Perenelle was meant to discover the answer. But as you know now, by then Atropos had severed the tenuous thread that held Hermione to your plane of existence."

Harry dropped his head into his hands. "Why didn't I wait?"

"It's partially your alternate's fault that you made the decision you did. If you hadn't merged with him, the Harry you would have been would've refused to give up and would have waited. It was your alternate's personality that helped shape your decision."

Harry accepted that but he couldn't bring himself to believe that Peri would have deliberately prevented him from having a life with Hermione."But why didn't Peri tell us about it?"

"She found the answer just hours after you'd awoken Hermione. She didn't have the heart to tell you."

Harry's head sank back into his hands. "I'm so, so, sorry, Hermione."

"Harry, it's all right."

Harry looked up at Hermione with tears in his eyes. "No, Hermione, it's not. It's my fault that you're dead. I selfishly wanted to talk to you once last time. If I'd just waited you'd still be alive."

"Harry, it's too late for regrets." Hermione had had years to face the reality of the truth. "Once you leave here, I'll be able to move on."

Harry glared angrily at Clotho. "Why didn't you just let her move on when she died? Why tie her here? I'm imagine you could've found some other way of letting me know my help was needed."

"Hermione agreed to do this of her own free will, Harry." Clotho had not been surprised when the girl had agreed.

"Why, Hermione?"

"Because I preferred to visit you in your dreams rather than never to see you again," Hermione said as she held a hand out towards the veil. "And because those people who lie beyond the Propylaeum need you. Right now, it's them and not me that's important."

"You'll always be important to me." At that moment Harry was unconcerned about anyone other than Hermione, and he turned on Clotho. "If she wasn't meant to die when she did, then give Hermione her life back. I'll take her place."

Clotho refused. "That isn't your destiny, Harry."

"Fuck my destiny!" Harry had had a bellyful of prophecies and so-called destinies. "Hermione doesn't deserve this."

Clotho wasn't frightened by Harry's anger, as she knew it was directed at Harry himself. "It isn't a question of who deserves what, Harry. Hermione will move on no matter what happens now."

"Let her return, please." Harry moved to stand directly in front of the blonde woman. "I'd do anything for her."

Rising, Clotho placed a soft hand on Harry's cheek. "Harry, I'm sorry but I cannot do that."

"Do you want to me to beg?" Harry fell to his knees. "Because I'm begging. Don't make her suffer for my mistake."

Hermione reached out to Harry. "Get up, Harry."

Harry climbed to his feet and took Hermione's hand in his own. "I still love you, Hermione, and I'd do anything for you, even give up my life if you could have a chance at life again."

Hermione let a single tear fall. "Harry, I don't wish to live again if I can't be with you."

Harry scowled at Clotho. "I'll help you if you agree to let her live. She can come with me to this other world."

"I can't breathe life into someone who's dead, Harry. I'm sorry," Clotho said apologetically.

Harry refused to believe that someone so powerful as the Fates had to be could do nothing. "There must be something you can do."

There was, and so Clotho said, "Because you both have sacrificed so much, I'm going to give you a choice, Harry. You don't wish to be parted from Hermione, do you?"

Harry immediately shook his head. "I don't."

"There is a way for you to be with her." Clotho knew that she would now find out how much Harry really wanted to be with Hermione.

"Then do it," Harry demanded.

"Don't be so hasty." Clotho moved to stand in front of the couple. "You have no idea what I'm going to demand in return for granting such a boon."

Harry suddenly found himself worried for his family. "You won't hurt anyone, will you?"

"No, I won't." Clotho smiled. "Harry, if you wish to remain with Hermione then you must give me your soul."

"My what?" Harry wanted to make sure he had heard Clotho correctly.

Clotho repeated her demand. "I want your soul, Harry."