The Phoenix Syndrome


a/n – Thanks to everyone who's been reading this story, I really appreciate it. Of course, as always, all of the recognizable bits of the Harry Potter universe belong to JK Rowling and her various and sundry corporate partners.


Chapter Seven – Beyond the Ever-Locked Door

As they reappeared in a nondescript corridor in the Department of Mysteries, all three witches involuntarily looked up as the phoenix riding on Hermione's shoulder began to trill a mournful song.

Before them was a door that was exceedingly unremarkable to the eye. Nothing would lead one to think that this door was the most secure entrance in the Department of Mysteries.

"Ah, home sweet home."

Shaking her head, Lavender watched Hermione carefully as she began to look unsure of herself. Nodding towards the door, she smiled knowingly.

"Lav, how do we get in?"

"I can get in because I work here and have a pass that will allow me access anytime I decide I need it. You, on the other hand…"

Trailing off, Lavender shrugged and chuckled at the look on Hermione's face. Nodding towards

Ginevra/Bellatrix who was quietly standing there, yet glaring at Hermione with a malevolent light in her eyes, she frowned.

"This one, on the other hand, can only be led in by someone worthy to open the door on her own merits, not with a cheat like this." Holding up an ancient iron key, Lavender flipped it up in the air and caught it handily.

"What merits? Lav, what do I need to do?" Biting her lip, Hermione kept glancing from Ginevra to the door and back again. "If you know…"

"What I know won't help you in the least. I know of three, maybe four people that might have a chance of getting through that door on their own merits, and you're one of them. All I can tell you is to remember what you know, and be true to what you feel."

Stepping forward, Lavender cast a simple spell with her off-hand and a hood appeared over Ginny's head. Sealed beneath her chin, there was a silken cord around her neck with a long tail that was in Lavender's hand. Smiling reassuringly, Lavender handed the cord to Hermione.

"The only way you'll be able to get that one in is like this." Looking down at the stiletto leather boots liberally spattered with gore, that still graced her feet, Lavender clucked once and banished the footgear with a simple wave of her hand. The stiletto boots were replaced by a pair of woolen socks, one of which was half off. "That's better."

"Lavender, I still don't understand."

"And you can't. Not until you experience it. Remember what you do know. I know what Albus told Harry about this room, use that."

Wrapping the slender silken cord around her hand, Hermione turned and walked towards the door. Ginny initially resisted, but as soon as Hermione tugged gently on the cord, she followed along.

Reaching the door, Hermione gently placed her hand on the knob. The door that failed to open for Harry so many years ago responded to her touch. Looking over her shoulder towards her friend, Hermione rolled her eyes at the gentle shooing motion that Lavender was making. The sight of the Lead Unspeakable motioning her on as if she were five years old and reluctant to go for her first day of school touched her sense of the absurd and elicited a smile, despite the situation.

As she turned the knob, the door began to open towards her. Brilliant white light came through the door as soon as it was opened, making it impossible to see into the doorway. As Hermione edged the door open, she was squinting with her eyes watering but she could see a rectangle of brilliant white light.

Taking a deep breath, Hermione nodded and started forward. Just as the light engulfed her, she heard Lavender call out, "Say hello to the Guardian for me" with a wistful tone as she passed through the light.

As if the light were a physical force pushing on her, once she was clear of the threshold she felt as if a great pressure was released and she stumbled a bit as she moved forward so they both were clear of the door.

The sound of the door shutting behind them caused Hermione to look back to check on her prisoner. While still standing docilely, Ginny's exposed flesh was covered in goosebumps and sweat was rolling off the witch. The transformation that Hermione had made to her clothing had been reversed by the passage through the portal, and she was standing there dressed in gore-spattered leather; slipshod, hoodwinked, and trembling.

"Deceptions cannot enter here."

Whirling around, Hermione started to raise her wand and stopped.

Stopped, because she immediately recognized the witch that stood before her. Long red hair, emerald green eyes, and a crooked smile, this could only be one witch, even if Hermione hadn't seen the pictures that Harry treasured above all things.

"Lily Potter?" Hermione's voice came out a whisper, but the speaking of that name had a profound effect upon Ginevra/Bellatrix. The cable-tow was almost pulled from Hermione's hand as the witch behind her dropped to her knees, shaking her head from side to side.

"You were expecting the Headmaster?" Eyes twinkling, Lily smirked cheekily at Hermione. "Here in the antechamber to the Ever-Locked Room, there's always an appropriate Guardian when one attempts entrance on her own merits."

"And you just 'happened' to be on tap for today?"

Laughing, Lily's eyes twinkled with mischief and glee. "You don't believe that, and you know it. This day was years in the making; long overdue due to the best efforts of two of the most stubborn individuals it's ever been my misfortune to watch. Your grandmother Jane would have done just as well, though I claimed the right."

"Nana Jane?"

"A very determined woman, and more than just a wee bit put-out with her granddaughter. " Looking past Hermione to where Ginevra/Bellatrix was cowering behind her, Lily clucked her tongue.

"I'm not certain which of you I'm less happy to see, but the fact that you're both here in one person is just wrong, in and of itself. Both of you have a great deal to answer for."

"Can you help me?"

Recapturing Lily's attention, Hermione took a step towards her. While the witch in front of her still had the physical appearance of the young woman who had died that night all of those years ago, Hermione had no illusions about which one of the two had the experience here, which one was in charge.

"I need to help Ginevra, free her from the influence and control of Bellatrix so she can try to reclaim her life."

"Do you now?"

Turning her attention back to Hermione, Lily lazily waved her hand and a couple of overstuffed chairs that would not have been out of place in the Gryffindor common room during either witch's time at Hogwarts appeared between them.

"Have a seat; I can see this is going to take a bit longer than I thought."

Tugging gently on the cord connecting her to Ginny/Bellatrix, Hermione frowned in exasperation as she refused to move, kept swinging her head back and forth. Looking over at Lily, who was seating herself with an amused look on her face, Hermione rolled her eyes and cast a simple enchantment lengthening the cord so that she could be seated and still remain in control of her prisoner.

Walking over, she seated herself and tried to relax as the other witch was watching her carefully. In all of the moments when she had wondered about having the opportunity to meet Harry's parents if circumstances had been different, the current situation had never come close to being anything she would have imagined.

"Do you?"

Breaking the silence, Lily leaned forward and gave Hermione a careful, evaluating look. Seeing the confusion on her face, she sighed.

"Do you really think you have to give this one the chance to reclaim her life? Her place in my son's life?"

"Of course. This isn't her." Gesturing towards the witch on her knees dressed in leather fetishwear and spattered with blood and gore, she paled a bit but continued.

"For Harry's sake, if nothing else, I need to see he has the chance to make a proper choice about how to go forward."

"I see. So you're willing to close your eyes again and walk away from Harry, leaving him in the hands of this witch."

"She's his wife. And this isn't her; this isn't the Ginny we've both known for so long."

"Do tell. So this isn't who she is. The things she was a part of before and during the war aren't her responsibility? The things she's done since my granddaughter was born have nothing to do with her, correct?"

"Correct."

Trying to sound assured that what she was saying was the pure, unvarnished truth, Hermione found herself trying to keep a bit of disbelief from creeping into her voice. Much to her surprise.

"That's tripe and you know it."

Sitting back, Hermione glanced over at the witch who was kneeling on the floor. Fitting the things that Harry had told her into the things that she herself had seen over the years into the public image that Ginevra had always been very careful to present, something didn't add up. Turning her attention back to the other ginger-haired witch in the room, she sighed.

"There's no way to know, from my perspective. I'd like to think that Harry hadn't given his heart to someone like that. But people change, over the years." Trying to keep the bitterness from her voice, Hermione could feel the emotional tidal waves from the events of the last several hours battering against her self-control.

"She's the same manipulative, amoral, self-centered little slitch today that she was when she started slipping a love potion into Harry's juice the week before you went back to school for your sixth year." Seeing the shocked look on Hermione's face, Lily held up her hand to forestall any interruptions and rolled on.

"She was going to have 'The Boy Who Lived' and she certainly wasn't going to let any muggleborn swot stand in her way, especially not with Molly and Albus egging her on." Eyes flashing, Lily threw a look at the hoodwinked witch that caused her to flinch, even without being able to see it.

"Ginevra, I'm talking about you. You did just fine on your own until two years ago when you let your little friend out to play, isn't that right?"

Visibly struggling to speak, Ginny strained to respond. Bits of words were forced out, but something was keeping the witch from answering the question posed by Lily.

"Is Bellatrix fighting her for control?"

"She's finding out the hard way that she can't consciously lie in here."

Even with her face hidden, the struggle Ginny was going through was very evident. Whatever it was she was trying to say in response to Lily's question, apparently it wasn't going to come out and something else was struggling to be said.

Shaking her head in exasperation, Lily twisted her hand in a curious pattern and Ginny's struggles ceased. Seeing the look in Hermione's eyes, she chuckled. "She wouldn't tell the truth; she's probably convinced herself that the lie was true, so I removed the requirement for her to answer that question."

"Requirement?"

"The 'Guardian' can require any candidate to answer three questions before they move forward. While Ginevra certainly isn't a candidate to pass beyond in the normal sense, I can still exercise that authority with her."

"And what would you have me answer?" Suddenly seeing the peril that accompanied this situation, Hermione began to wonder exactly what Harry's mother would want of her.

"Afraid of me discovering some deep dark hidden secret? Worried that I'll find out you said 'yes' to your Bulgarian bon-bon because you wanted Harry to react?"

"It wasn't totally like that…"

Trailing off, images from her fourth-year began flashing through her mind. Her disappointment that Harry never thought of asking her, her accepting Viktor's invitation to see if that would show Harry that she was someone worth noticing. How Harry's look when he saw her coming towards him for the first time that night had taken her breath away and touched her deeply, somewhere no other man had ever touched before or since. How she had railed at Ronald after the dance, but it was really Harry she had wanted to grab and tell to wake up.

"It was totally like that, for all the good it did me." Blushing, she looked down at her hands. "I couldn't think of what else to do."

"Asking Harry to the dance never occurred to you?"

"Of course it did. Witches don't ask wizards to the Yule Ball, regardless of how much they want too." Looking guilty, Hermione thought back at all of the wasted chances over the years while they were in school, chances that she had squandered because she wanted Harry to make the first move.

"How much did you know about Harry's childhood?" Innocently asked, Hermione could feel a power to Lily's question that far belied its casual manner of asking.

"In school I didn't 'know' anything but what Harry wanted known. I knew things weren't right, that things were probably very bad, very wrong there in Surrey. The night we rescued him, the things I saw there, confirmed every nightmare, every misgiving I'd ever had."

Tears forming in her eyes, Hermione thought back to the painful confessions that Harry had made to her after the war, and the only lies she had ever told to him when she pretended that she had never suspected the extent of the things that had gone on before he came to Hogwarts.

"Child, you helped to make the unbearable bearable for him," Lily responded quietly. "More than anyone else, you were the one who stood by him, supported him, even when he was being an incredible arse …"

"Yes, yes. All hail the swot. The scheming deceitful bitch who wormed her way into Harry's life and poisoned him against every other witch."

Drawing herself up defiantly, or as defiant as one could be on one's knees, blindfolded and held on a tether, Ginny glared in the direction of the two witches.

"I should have been the one he turned to, the one he loved. The one that stood with him to share the glories that were his by right. Instead you played on his sympathies, bound him with his pity for someone as pathetic and ordinary as you. You weakened him with your muggle ways; your constant reminding him that he owed you for pathetically following him around, hoping for a scrap of his time, his regard."

Ginny's words hammered into Hermione as they played on every fear, every insecurity, she had experienced regarding Harry over the years. Had she limited him? Was she good enough for someone like Harry? How could she possibly stand beside 'The Boy…

"Not again. Never again. Come what come may, I'll not abandon him again. By all that's Holy, we'll make the decisions this time. Not you, your potions, your mother, or Albus sodding Dumbledore is going to take that from us this time. We may decide to walk away from it, but we will decide this time."

Having risen from her chair, Hermione towered over Ginny as she knelt on the floor. Glaring daggers at the younger witch, and her quite mad mental hitchhiker, Hermione wrapped the cable-tow around her hand to shorten the lead, and then turned quite abruptly to face the other ginger witch across the room.

"Ask what you will, I'll hazard your trial to make up for the fact that I betrayed you son."

Smiling coolly, Lily's eyes narrowed slightly as she took in the change in the Hermione. "And just how did you betray my son?"

"Twice I betrayed him. The first time by not noticing what happened out sixth year, not seeing the changes in both of us and realizing it for what it was. I was afraid of losing him, afraid that Death would take him from me so I allowed him to withdraw into her arms instead of fighting for him. I used that poxy book as an excuse, but it was my fear, my inadequacy that I allowed to come between us. If I would have thought…" Breaking off, Hermione blinked tears from her eyes as the bitterness from that year began to well up in her.

"If I would have thought, I would have recognized what was happening and reversed the potion's influence so he could have chosen between us honestly. And the second time was after the war. I refused to allow us to have a choice; I blindly went along with the expectations of everyone around us and allowed both of us to settle. We might have been pants as a couple, but we should have been the ones to decide that."

Arching an eyebrow, Lily stared at her for a moment before turning her attention to the witch kneeling behind her.

"Ginevra, she's going to allow him to choose, what say you to that?"

"Please. There's no choice and she knows it. His pity…"

Breaking off, Ginny's breathing became labored as she tried to force the words past some constriction in her throat. Shaking her head, Lily chuckled as she watched the younger witch attempt to speak.

"I warned you, you cannot lie here. And the punishment only gets more severe, so I suggest if you aren't going to be honest with us, you should pass." Making the gesture again, Ginny's struggles ceased. "We'll consider that one answered."

Turning her attention back to Hermione, Lily coolly appraised her again. Smiling to herself, she blinked and then continued.

"What are you going to do about Ronald, your husband?"

Lily's question sent Hermione's thoughts into a spin. Closing her eyes, she thought back over her relationship with Ron, before he essentially withdrew from their marriage after his career as an auror was cut short after an incident that left him unable to fully return to the field as an auror but unwilling to accept an administrative position within the corps or elsewhere in the Ministry.

Thinking back over how things had stood between them at the end of the war, and how the dynamic between the 'Golden Trio' had altered over the years, she saw that she was as central to what happened as he was.

"I owe him an apology and penance for allowing myself to marry him when he wasn't my true love. Though I did love him, I was never 'in love' with him and I settled and did him a disservice. Not wanting to hurt him, I ended up hurting him horribly."

Pausing for a second, Hermione looked down and half turned to glance at the kneeling witch behind her. Unable to see her face, Hermione could read the tension and stress she was under as Ginny realized her fate was tied to Hermione's success or failure. Turning back to Lily, she smiled blandly and continued.

"While he's responsible for the choices he made, I'm going to take a leave of absence from the Department so I can be free to testify on his behalf when it comes to the sentencing phase of things. I don't know the extent of his culpability in what went on, but the Ron I came to know and respect years ago might cheat on his wife if she were an annoying enough shrew, but he'd never knowingly cooperate with those terrorists, even to hurt me.

"I don't hold him blameless in this, but I intend to ask no forfeit for what has happened when the time comes to dissolve our marriage. Hopefully we can both accept and forgive the other, return to the friendship we had before we tried to be something we weren't."

"I see." Looking thoughtful, Lily glanced past Hermione to where Ginevra was kneeling behind her. Shaking her head at the young witches' attempts to speak, she waved her hand again and the bound witch's struggles subsided.

"Third time pays the bill, as my da used to say." Pausing for a second, Lily's eyes caught Hermione's and held them.

An incredible sense of déjà-vu came over Hermione as those emerald green eyes caught her up. So similar to Harry's, but different in that there were depths there that no living mortal could achieve. Helpless to break free, and unwilling to, Hermione could feel that the other witch was peering down into her soul.

Blinking, Lily released Hermione and smiled as she waited for the other witch to collect herself. When she saw that Hermione was ready, Lily asked her final question.

"That Night," she began, and there was no doubt in Hermione's mind what night she was refereeing to, "would you?"

"Mine is the same answer as you gave 'That Night'. If I had been there, without a hesitation, not a second thought," Hermione replied.

Both witches blinked tears from their eyes and smiled. Lily gestured graciously towards the door on the other side of the room.

"The door awaits your hand. What's behind the door will do what it does. Whether it's what you were hoping for, I cannot say." Smiling sadly, Lily stood and strode over to where Hermione was standing.

Wrapping her arms around her, she hugged her tightly. Unlike the hugs of Molly Weasley, which were often confining and restricting, this one was supportive and conveyed many different levels with the simple gesture.

As Hermione returned the hug, she whispered, "I'll remind him he's loved and cared for. By both of us."

"You two are getting a bit of a late start, but be happy together," Lily whispered in return. "James and I have been waiting for this, but you two find your own level, your own path."

Stepping back, Lily held her at arm's length and looked at her for a long moment. Stepping forward, she placed a kiss on Hermione's forehead. "Once things settle down, give Harry a kiss for me."

Stepping back, Hermione wrapped the silken cord around her hand until she was standing beside Ginevra/Bellatrix. Looking down at the waiting witch, she sighed and shook her head.

"All right, whichever one of you is in charge for now, stand up."

Watching as Ginevra/Bellatrix struggled to her feet, Hermione wrapped the cord again, taking up the slack created when she stood. A gentle tug was all she needed to start her prisoner towards the door.

As they crossed the room, Hermione could feel Lily's gaze on them. Pausing just shy of the door, she turned and smiled at her.

"Before I forget myself totally, Lavender told me to tell you 'hello'." Looking quizzically at Lily, Hermione arched an eyebrow as she saw the smirk on the other witch's face.

"I'll pass the word along to Colin." Seeing the shocked look on Hermione's face, Lily rolled her eyes. "There's more to Lavender than most people think, even back then. You, of all people should know that. Colin threw himself in front of a spell that was aimed at her back that night. That's how she was injured by Greyback, avenging Colin's death. She never knew how he really felt until the moment he died."

"She said she had the right…"

"Aye, as the Lead Unspeakable, she has the right to pass through here. Doesn't mean that the Powers won't assign her an appropriate Guardian to ease the burden on her soul. The two of them complement each other, even separated by his death, and she draws comfort and strength from talking with him, from time to time."

"And Colin?"

"Doesn't begrudge her the comfort and love she and her Canadian auror have for each other." Pausing for a moment and thinking about the foreign born wizard who had filled the hole in Lavender's heart, a Canadian born in the Maritimes who topped six six, Lily smirked. "Though that certainly doesn't keep Colin from teasing her about 'the long and the short of it'."

Smiling ruefully, Hermione took one last look over her shoulder at the mother of her oldest friend, the mother of the wizard who had held her heart since she was twelve. Lily Potter, eyes twinkling in a manner that Albus could only have dreamed of, made a shooing motion with her hand, giving her a flashback to both what Lavender had done minutes before and to Hugo's first day of primary school when she had done the same to get him to take those last few steps into the building.

Taking a deep breath, Hermione tugged on the tether and stepped up to the door in the opposite wall that had appeared when Lily had given her blessing to her. Placing her hand on the simple wooden latch, Hermione lifted the latch and pulled the door towards her. The impression of a large circular room, dimly lit struck her as she stepped across the threshold.

As her foot touched the earthen floor beyond, her eyes widened in disbelief.

"Oh my God!"