Chapter 1
When Harry next opened his eyes he was seated in a pale room. It appeared to be a waiting room. As he looked around at the people who sitting there he saw Hermione. She was seated on a dark grey couch reading a heavy tome. Harry stood to go over to her when he saw a young blonde greet her. The blonde must have beckoned her for she quickly put her book down and followed the blonde out of the room.
Harry sat down rather annoyed that Hermione hadn't noticed him. He wondered about that dream he had the night before. He could never imagine killing her. She was his best friend; now that Ron had died. He wondered why it was that Voldemort had seemed so respectful of her after she had given him her jewelry.
Come to that why had she given her jewelry to him to begin with? After all Harry was her best friend shouldn't he be the one who had to give away her personal effects? He thought about her bracelet and remembered how much Ginny had wanted one just like it. He should ask her when she got back. He still had no clue what was on that necklace. She had worn that necklace and bracelet science he had known her and he still had no idea what the pendant was or what the design on the bracelet was supposed to be.
"Mr. Potter? Mr. Harry Potter?" the young blonde who had spoken with Hermione before asked softly. No wonder he couldn't hear her before if she always spoke like this.
"Yes, I'm Harry Potter." Harry was annoyed that his musings had been interrupted and apparently hadn't been paying much attention to her.
"Mr. Potter! This way please." The blonde was still speaking softly but there was a touch of steel to her voice now. Harry stood and followed her thru the door he had seen earlier. Hermione must have noticed him and asked for him to join her. That had to be it! She must not have wanted to make a scene before in the waiting room knowing how much he hated them.
The blonde was now standing next to an open door frowning visibly. She must have been talking again. He had zoned out and missed everything she had said on the walk.
"Please wait in here Mr. Potter. Someone will be with you shortly." She said as he walked thru the door. As he heard the door shut he looked around the room. The walls were bare and there were 3 seats set to face one wall. He sat down in the center one wondering when they would bring Hermione in. she must know what was going here, and where here was exactly.
Daphne had told him time and time again that he must always appear to be in control of the situation even when he knew that wasn't the truth. Harry hoped when he told her all about this later on that she would be proud of him. Hmm. In that dream he had last night Daphne was pregnant. Perhaps he should see if any of his wives were ready for children? There were five of them so odds were that one of them would be.
A dark haired woman wearing an iridescent gown slipped into the room carrying a rather large file folder. "Harry Potter, we meet at last." Harry nearly fell off his stool as he spun around to watch the woman who just entered the room.
"I see discussion shall have to wait looks like the shows about to begin." She leaned forward and touched a crystal that he had failed to notice hanging on the wall and it shimmered before becoming clear. It reminded Harry of a rather advanced version of a police window in those cop dramas Uncle Vernon was always watching. The window looked into a room with a conference table in the center. Seated at the head of the table where she could see the door was Hermione. He wondered if she was in trouble with the law before quickly dismissing the notion. She had been busy researching things for the war effort and brewing the potions they needed for the hospital wing and helping train the troops and couldn't have found time to get in trouble even if she had been so inclined. He had barely had time to spend enough quality time with his wives to ensure he wasn't nagged half to death and back again.
Harry was brought out of his thoughts again by the door in Hermione's room bursting open. Someone had ran and tried to tackle Hermione. Harry winced, that wouldn't go over well. Hermione wasn't the touchy-feely sort of person with anyone else but Harry. It was actually a matter of pride that he was one of the few people she touched casually.
As he watched the dark haired man who had ran at Hermione was knock on the floor a few feet from her. Her foot was now resting on his neck before Harry had even seen her move. Ah well, nothing new there. She was always crazy fast when you interrupted her reading.
"Sirius?" Hermione sounded convinced it was Sirius. Poor girl she must have been over doing it. He should see if someone would be able to take over for her for a day or two so she could rest. Everyone knew Sirius had died years ago. She had stepped back to the wall to allow the man to get up. As soon as he did he swept her into a hug that she didn't seem to be fighting to get out of. Harry stood annoyed that Hermione was hugging some guy thinking it was Sirius and the man had the nerve to allow her to.
"Hermione, Sweetie, I'm glad to see you. I'm just not glad to see you right now. Ya know? Do you know where you are Hun?" the man was trying to help her sit but she wasn't letting him clinging to him like a vine. Harry's annoyance was growing.
"Of course I do Sirius. I'm dead. So this must be the afterlife or the way into it. Didn't really expect an office building or conference room but I clearly recall dyeing. After all who can forget being stabbed in the chest by Harry?"
Harry's jaw dropped open. She thought she was dead? No wonder she didn't say anything to that Sirius look-a-like! Poor Hermione! He stood to go to her when the brunette beside of him put her hand on his shoulder and shoved him back down. "Oh no you don't Potter! There's a lot left for you to learn from this. So for now you're stuck watching! FYI she's NOT delusional. She's dead. BIG difference. Of course you probably don't even realize your dead too which is how you can be sitting here watching her meet with a few people. So unless you are going to say something intelligent or interesting hush!" Harry just gaped at the woman. He couldn't believe she thought he was dead and THIS was the afterlife. The woman had apparently had enough of his staring so she physically turned his head back to the scene in front of him. He wondered what he had missed while he wasn't paying attention. A firm smack on the back of his head with the file she had been carrying put that thought out of his mind all together.
"Sirius, not that I'm not happy to see you, but what are you doing here?" Hermione asked as she took her own chair.
"I kept an eye on things after I was gone." The Sirius wanna-be replied softly now looking at the table instead of Hermione. Well at least that was an improvement. "I saw what happened. I knew you would be arriving soon. I just had to come and see you kiddo. Even if you never want to talk to me again I had to tell you I was sorry."
"Oh Sirius, there's nothing for you to apologize for. You didn't know. Harry's just like that I guess." Hermione had placed her hand over the man's while she spoke. Harry frowned.
"Sirius Orion Black! How dare you sneak in here and wonder about! Do you know what will happen if you get caught?" Harry looked over at the door of the room to see what resembled his parents.
"Yes Harry. Those ARE your parents. You REALLY are dead." The woman by his side said before he could yell about someone impersonating them. He wanted so much to yell at her that if he were really dead then HIS parents would be visiting HIM; NOT Hermione! Though he tried to yell he just couldn't get his mouth to open or his throat to produce a sound.
"I told you, unless you're going to say something smart or interesting you're not allowed to talk at all right now. Pay attention." He decided to ignore the woman and focus on the scene in front of him.
"Hermione, may I call you Hermione?" The Lilly look-alike asked. Upon receiving a nod in reply she continued. "I just wanted to say" Hermione had apparently had a clue where this was going because she cut the woman off.
"Please Mrs. Potter, don't apologize to me. I know what happened. Honestly I don't blame you or your husband, or Sirius. None of you are responsible for what happened. If truth were to be told he was lied, to abused, manipulated, and just all around ill-used. Those people hold a share of the blame; the ones who did this to him. Hell, even HE holds a share of the blame, I'm sure I do as well. However you three do not. All you had ever done was love him. You did what you could and that is all any of us can ever do. Harry was lucky to have you, all of you, for as much time as he did." Hermione had stood up and was looking fierce as she replied to the red headed woman. Harry couldn't remember her ever getting that look on her face and it NOT leading towards violence.
The wall between the rooms was suddenly gone and though Harry couldn't get up to go greet them the woman beside of him didn't seem to have that problem.
"I couldn't agree more! Honestly you three have been moping so much its becoming detrimental to the Elysian Fields! As for you, Sweetie, brace yourself, I know you're not all about hugging. I can't help it though, you NEED to be hugged for a bit." The woman had walked over and shut the door as she spoke and it seemed that every eye followed her as she moved around. She had turned towards Hermione and waited for her to nod before sweeping his best friend into her arms and stroking her hair. "You poor, poor child, it's ok to cry." She held Hermione as she cried. Harry wasn't sure if he was upset because she was crying or because some woman he didn't know had a hold of her while she did so.
The people who looked like his parents took seats next to the wanna-be Sirius. No one seemed to pay any attention to the fact Harry was still stuck and silent on his chair. The dark haired woman just held Hermione until she was merely sniffling rather than sobbing as if her heart was shattered into dust. She then gave Hermione a tissue that seemed to immediately clear up the after effects of all that sobbing. She then led Hermione back to the head of the table and helped her sit down.
"Well as you guessed, Sweetie, you're dead. This is the place where you would NORMALY be assigned on to your afterlife. However your case is a bit different than most." The door opened again and Harry watched another woman come into the room she had light brown hair and was wearing a dark blue dress with bronze knot work on it. "Rowena, you're late, again." Harry looked back and forth between the lady beside Hermione and the newcomer.
Hermione didn't hesitate for a moment. She stood quickly and swept into a deep curtsy. Since when could she curtsy? The new lady looked at Hermione and smiled before going over to her. Harry wanted to get up and keep anyone else from approaching Hermione. The poor girl was obviously out of it if she was letting all of these people near her. His Hermione was standoffish and didn't like being near a lot of people.
"Please rise Your Grace. I would not have you pay court to your own grandmother no matter how many times removed." She helped Hermione settle back into the chair before taking her seat to Hermione's right. The table seemed to shrink leaving two places to Hermione's right before the table ended the woman that had been in the small room with Harry took the seat at the foot of the table.
"Well, now that we are ALL here, I'll introduce everyone." Harry found himself moved to the seat across from his father sitting near the end of the table by the dark haired woman. He still couldn't move on his own or talk. "Hermione of course is sitting at the head of the table to her left is Sirius Black, next to him is Lilly Potter, who is sitting next to her husband, James. To Hermione's right is Rowena Ravenclaw an empty seat for anyone else we may need to summon and then Harry. I am Persephone, I'm THE goddess not named for her. Got it?"
Harry had a bad feeling about this. If that woman was right then he was really dead. That meant he had really killed Hermione, and he had two kids that were going to have to grow up without their daddy.
"Okay, down to business. Normally I wouldn't be the one doing this but since my father decided to snag my husband and the fate of the world literally rests upon Harry and Hermione, you get to deal with me. Harry died by doing one of the worst things I can personally imagine. He killed his soul-mate, Hermione. That naturally had the effect of killing him as soon as her soul was gone from the realm of the living."
A/N: a few things to point out: I'm not British, so I doubt I'll get the slang right. My story DOES mention royalty and I will do my best to get the ranks and all their little quarks right but I doubt that will actually happen. The current queen of the real England isn't in my story so I will have room to mess around with the family lines. Harry had actually married sb/ha/ll/gw/dg before dyeing however once he gets together with Hermione he is no longer with them. He will NOT be having a harem that she's in or head of. Thanks for the reviews
