Chapter 3 Discussions and a Memory

Persephone had waved her hand and everyone was standing in the center of a small living room. Deep plum walls and black leather couches made this room seem oddly cozy. Curled up on a couch near the fireplace was Hermione, there was a light lavender throw covering her up as she dozed.

Harry walked over towards the couch where Hermione was resting before he could wake her though; Sirius snagged his arm yanking him through the room and over to the far corner next to the door. "Sit down Harry, your father and I want to talk to you a moment."

Harry sat down next to his father on the couch. He wasn't sure exactly what they were going to say but he knew it wouldn't be good. He had made so many mistakes, he was also fairly sure he didn't know all of them yet.

"Harry, son, I know you're having a hard time right now. Learning what you have thus far must have hurt terribly. There's more to come, Harry. It will get worse before it gets better. I want you to keep in mind that it WILL get better though." James kept his eyes on his son. He wasn't sure that he was the best candidate to have this conversation with Harry. Lilly and Rowena would have been better in his opinion.

Sirius chimed in drawling Harry's attention to him as he sat on the floor in front of them. "You understand Persephone is a goddess right?" Sirius waited for Harry to nod before continuing. "She's a goddess of change, of life and death and as such she can grant you this chance as long as it's done before Hades comes back. Hades is the main god of the underworld and he hates for anyone to enter and then be able to leave again. She is hoping to send you back in time, eventually."

"Wait a minute! She can send me back in time? Why not just do that now?" Harry couldn't contain the hope in his expression. There had been so many lives lost in the battles of the war; the last battle at Hogworts had taken out most of the Order members and DA members left.

"No Harry, she can't, not yet anyway. She managed to check out the Tapestry of the Fates. Even sending you back for a year which is pretty much what she's limited to without getting in trouble with, well, whoever it is that goddesses get in trouble with, won't be enough to bring back balance to the world. To truly bring back balance she would have to be able to send you back much farther. However she needs permission to do so. She needs you to prove to them, whoever them is, that you can do this."

"You and Hermione were both hurt, Harry." Harry suddenly felt like he was back with the Weasley twins, James and Sirius were taking turns talking, though thankfully they weren't alternating sentences. "Rowena wouldn't tell us much about what Hermione has been through but we do know her father died when she was a baby, and that her mother died when she was five. Her mother's second husband was a problem. Exactly what kind of a problem I don't know. When Rowena mentioned him she starting ranting in some langue I have never heard before."

"Is that what I said wrong? When I mentioned her parents? I mean, I knew I said something wrong I just wasn't sure exactly what it was." Harry interrupted. He was glad someone was actually trying to talk things over with him. Things were very confusing in his head right now. He had memories he had no recollection of having, and adding that to this situation he was just plain scared. He looked down at his hands, staring at the blood left on them. Had he done the right thing? He had killed his soul mate, his best friend.

~*~*~*~Memory~*~*~*~

The last battle with Voldemort at Hogworts had been pretty much a last stand for the side of light. There had only been 150 left on their side when it had started. The death eaters completely out numbered them. Ginny and Daphne were pregnant and couldn't fight. Susan and Hanna had been busy helping Madame Pomfrey. Luna was trying to console the few small children that were there, although they weren't interested in hearing about Nerla the Nargle.

They had never considered that Voldemort was able to enter the castle whenever he wanted to. They thought they had been secure and would be able to pick them off from the high ground. The Death Eaters had apparently followed him up from the chamber of secrets and swept through the castle leaving injured and dead in their wake. Madame Pomfrey and the girls had been locked in the hospital wing trying to insure they had everything ready in case of an attack. It was one of the few places the Death Eaters didn't enter.

All of the sentinels along the castle walls were quickly dispatched it was only when they entered the courtyard near the transfiguration class room that any fight was given. It had been pure luck hat had allowed the small band to defeat those sent in that direction. Not long after the last Death Eater had fallen they heard Voldemort shouting for Harry to come out.

Harry and Hermione had moved over to the where the outside wall had once been. They saw the ruins of Hagrid's hut and near there they saw several Death Eaters holding students tightly against them. When Harry didn't come out Voldemort had the first death eater slash the throat of the first student letting the body crumple in the grass. He called out to Harry once again before nodding at the second death eater.

"Are you watching Potter? " Voldemort asked, Harry noticed for the first time that Voldemort was actually using his wand to make his voice carry not yelling. Voldemort nodded at the third; and another student was killed. "You have one hour to deal with your dead and surrender yourself Potter! " Voldemort then removed his wand from his throat motioning his minions back towards the forest where it seemed they had made camp for the assault.

When Harry looked over at the small band he had been fighting with he found Hermione pulling off her black jacket and using it to try and stem the flow of blood from Neville's abdomen. He quickly told everyone else to try and find all the hurt and the dead and bring them here. He knew Hermione would have some kind of wards laid by the time everyone was assembled so that there wasn't such an obvious weakness in the defenses of the castle. Harry then strode quickly to find his wives. When he got to the hospital wing he was hugged by all of his ladies.

That first hour went by so quickly. They were still moving everyone in the courtyard to allow for the healers to move between the bodies easier, and those who were capable not to have to split their defenses. He never noticed that the time was up until Voldemort had called out again.

"Harry Potter since you refuse to hand yourself over these deaths are on your head!" Harry walked over to the hole in the wall and watched as three students were quickly killed. "If you surrender yourself, Potter, I will spare those left alive in the castle." As Voldemort spoke several Death Eaters stepped out from beneath the trees of the Forbidden Forest. Harry felt faint at the numbers they would be facing. He looked over at his wives remembering that two of them were pregnant. His life for theirs, there was no contest.

"Since you didn't surrender the first time though, you will have to bring me a sacrifice. Think Potter, your death and a death of a person that you value highly for the lives of all your little friends left alive. You have one hour to gather up the bodies and say goodbye before I kill the last of these pathetic children and destroy the castle." With that Voldemort and his minions melted back into the trees.

~*~*~*~ Memory Ends~*~*~*~

"Harry?" Rowena had come over to them at some point. She looked a bit concerned. Hmm come to think of it so did his father and Sirius.

"Sorry, just thinking of where I went wrong." Harry answered softly. "I'm just not sure that I know exactly what I've done right and wrong anymore. I've been fighting as long as I can remember. If it wasn't fighting my relatives to survive, it was fighting to be normal, or fighting Voldemort to protect a world that WANTED to be ignorant. Hermione just got lost in the shuffle, I guess. I'm not sure that I was a very good friend; let alone a good soul mate." Harry looked up at Rowena with tears in his eyes. He had honestly never meant to hurt anyone; he just didn't know what he should have done. Now they were talking about him being able to prove that he could handle going back to fix things before they got quite so screwed up; he just wasn't sure that he could handle it. If he knew what he had done wrong he wouldn't have done it in the first place.

"Harry, I wish you could have all the time that you and Hermione need to deal with things and decide if and how you want to proceed. I'm afraid that isn't possible though. Persephone can only stretch the time here to a certain extent before the other gods notice it. You must go back in within three days from your death if you're going to be able to go with her plan at all." Rowena put her hand on Harry's shoulder taking the seat on the other side of him. "As for Hermione, well she's a smart girl Harry. She understands more than you know, but that doesn't mean she isn't hurt. She's got issues from before you knew her just like you do; which you both are going to have to be deal with eventually. Your issues and hers just to be clear, there's a lot of pain there neither of you has completely moved on from. However, she also has had to feel every touch you experienced with the women you slept with. That hurt her Harry. I know you didn't realize you were hurting her but it did. Eventually that has to be dealt with." Rowena hoped she was making the right decision. Hermione didn't trust many people; she would need people to be there for her no matter who went back to the world of the living; assuming one of them did at all. She hoped Harry would realize that he had to go slow with Hermione.

"Why are you here Rowena? Why not Hermione's mother, or her father? Not that I don't like you or anything; but everyone else makes sense to me. Sirius was the only father figure I knew, Mom and Dad are well, my parents. I would naturally want to see them." Harry wasn't sure how far he would be able to probe before he was shut out; but he wanted to know something! After all any insight into Hermione right now would be a good thing.

"Hermione's father, Richard, was of my line. He married, as is tradition of all Ravenclaws, the woman he was betrothed to, Lorna. When he died he was leaving her. He had packed some of his clothes and got in his car and drove off; only to crash in the rain not half an hour later. When Lorna remarried, she did it on the rebound barely knowing the guy at all. By the time Hermione was 2 he had developed a major drinking problem. Instead of allowing the security people to do their jobs she allowed them to be dismissed from the house.

"John was a violent man, Harry. Lorna lost herself in the medicine she would get from her many visits to the doctor after the beatings he would give her. She died of an overdose when Hermione was only five. Lorna's will had plainly stated that Hermione was to go to John. He hated Hermione. Hermione had money; he couldn't touch it because it was locked in trusts until she came of age. Hermione had power; if she had understood he was wrong to hurt her and told her mother's relatives he would have been lucky to be in jail and not dead. She was a Duchess as a small child; he had no title. They had to move out of the large house they had been living in because the house had belonged to Hermione; he was scared that he wouldn't be able to get rid of the guards her grandmother had wanted her to have if he kept living there."

"Wait sec, guards? Duchess? Dear gods is she a princess too?" Harry couldn't believe that he didn't know this stuff about his best friend. Just because he had never wanted to tell anyone about his life before school didn't mean that she couldn't tell him!

"No, she's not a princess, not technically, though she IS in line for the throne. Her great-grandmother is the current Queen of England. Her god-father is her great-uncle, the Crown Prince. That's who she wanted her jewelry to go to, by the way. The bracelet is traditionally passed through the Duchesses of Ravenclaw, it's a maternal title. She was the last of my line. She gained the bracelet from her father's great-grandmother. Rayla had been the last witch in the line before Hermione; she died just before Hermione entered Hogworts, which is when the bracelet was passed to her. The necklace carried the crest of the royal family." Harry was shocked. He looked quickly at his father and Sirius, both of whom looked a bit confounded as well. At least he wasn't the only one who this was news to. Honestly, being dead wasn't as big of a shock as this!

His soul mate was bloody royalty! How on earth could she have managed to lead such a harsh life if she was royalty? Did they overlook her too? Harry's musings were cut short when Hermione sat up. He darted over to her side before anyone could stop him.

"Hermione, can we talk please?" Harry asked softly. He didn't want to pressure her into talking with him but he really needed to speak with her. Even if it was only to give her a chance to yell at him; it wasn't like he wouldn't deserve it after all. Harry looked around and noticed that everyone had gathered by the couch he had just left. He hoped that would allow them some privacy.

"What did you need Harry?" Hermione asked staring at the fireplace.

"I wanted to tell you how sorry I was Hermione." Before Harry could go on Hermione interrupted him.

"Don't please don't, I'm not ready to hear that yet. I still need some time to process this before we talk about that." She had turned to face him. Her brown eyes were pleading with him. He didn't think he could deny her anything when she had that expression on her face.

"Alright, we don't have to talk about that now. Just promise me that when you're ready to talk you will let me know. I don't want to mess this up by not knowing when we should talk; alright?" Harry smiled as she nodded at him. "So what do you think about this whole return to the living deal?"

"I'm not really sure, but I know if we do agree to do it I don't want to be the one who has to go back. You have more to go back to. After all you're not only the Boy-Who-Came-Back-From-The-Dead-Again, but you also have kids coming. You should be able to at least see them be born."

"Actually only one of those kids belongs to Harry." Persephone walked back over to them. She grabbed Hermione's arm dragging her over to where the others were sitting. Harry was oddly glad when Hermione snagged his arm as she was being pulled away. Maybe he hadn't completely screwed it all up then.

A/N hope this chapter manages to clear up a few questions thanks for the reviews thus far