And All Those Who Followed Her

(Basically if it sucks, I probably already have a plan for fixing it.)


Cautiously, glancing from side to side to ensure she was thoroughly alone, Harper eased open the broom cupboard door. Behind her, the corridor was deserted. Everyone was in the Atrium, hearing the Minister speak. Granger was sending those who didn't want to fight home, Harper knew; afterwards, the Minister and all those who followed her would descend into the innards of the Ministry, cowering, waiting for Tom Riddle's attack. Little did they know that, very soon, he would already be here.

The door swung shut behind Harper, hinges squealing quietly, and she stepped forward into the dingy, cramped cupboard. The walls were lined with shelves from floor to ceiling, and if Harper had stretched out her arms to either side of her body she could have touched both walls. She didn't, though. Instead, sliding a long roll of parchment from within her robes, she read - and muttered aloud - a long list of complicated enchantments. Harper didn't know exactly what the enchantments did, but she had been given her instructions, and she would follow them through. It had already begun, she reflected, fingering the long, sleek red hair that was coiled within her pocket.

With a flourish of her wand, Harper delivered the last of the enchantments. For a moment, nothing happened - and then brilliant-green flames burst into life. Harper leapt back, shrieking involuntarily as the sudden heat singed her skin. Two seconds later, they stepped through. Tom Riddle, tall, handsome, pale-skinned, and beside him his sister, scarlet eyes gleaming. She grinned malevolently as, stepping forward into the Ministry of Magic, she saw Harper. Tom grinned too, a twisted echo of the one Harper had seen so often at Hogwarts.

"You did well, Harper," he told her in a high, cold voice, reaching forward with long pale fingers to embrace her. When he stepped away, Harper clutched a bulging bag of gold in her hand, which she tucked gratefully into the folds of her robes. "How are things here?"

"The Minister is speaking to everyone just now," Harper said. "She's sending them home. The Aurors are getting ready to fight, and Harry Potter left to find some old friends of his and the Minister's. He isn't back yet."

"What about Lily Potter?" Elizabeth asked, her head tilted curiously to the side.

"I haven't seen her," Harper admitted.

There was a moment of rather awkward silence - and then Tom clapped his hands together happily. "No matter," he said. "Lily will turn up at some point, and besides, she isn't a threat. Did you do what we asked, Harper?"

"I did. I gave her the potion and she went out like a lamp." Turning to Elizabeth, Harper handed her the long red hair that was still clutched in her hand. The black-haired witch eyed it happily, then opened the folds of her wispy-black cloak to reveal a belt laden with a glittering array of potions and poisons. Pulling out one murky hip-flask, Elizabeth popped the hair into it. Inside, Harper could see the liquid begin to bubble and churn. "I stashed her in a cupboard up on Level Four," Harper continued. "She - she looked like she was in pain."

"Oh, she is." Elizabeth patted one of the vials hanging from her belt affectionately. Meanwhile, the hip-flask potion had stopped churning, settling down into a deep-purple colour. Elizabeth downed the liquid in one gulp. As Harper watched, wide-eyed, the black-haired woman's skin rippled and bubbled - and then Ginny Weasley stared back at Harper. Elizabeth's flowing black robes hung loosely on the red-haired woman's slighter body - Ginny's body - but Elizabeth's malicious grin was unmistakeable. She held out a freckled hand towards Harper, eyes brown and trusting.

"Shall we pay our dear Minister a visit?"

Harper flashed a sidelong glance at Tom. "What will you do?" she asked.

"I'm sure I'll think of something." Snatching a handful of crystal vials from his sister's belt, Tom flicked his wand above his head. With a shimmer, he disappeared from view. "I always do."


Where on earth were they?

Hermione stood in the deserted Atrium, the Fountain of Magical Brethren at her back. Two hours had been and gone, and yet Harry, Lily, Ginny and Harper were nowhere to be seen. Only Ron stood by her side - he and the brave (or foolhardy) few that had remained to fight instead of returning to their homes and families. The Aurors were up in their offices preparing, Ron told her. Ginny and Harper had to besomewhere in the Ministry - Hermione had sent them out to check for any holes in their defences and set some traps for Riddle. But they hadn't returned yet, and neither had Harry, dispatched to round up the old gang. Lily...Hermione had no idea where her niece was.

Beside her, perched on the white-marble brim of the fountain, Ron squeezed her hand. He seemed to know what was on her mind. "They'll be here," he told her. Behind Ron she could see the golden statues and the crystal-clear water of the fountain. The old fountain, destroyed in the Second Wizarding War, had been a crude thing, depicting all those the Ministry had termed beasts looking up to their witch and wizard betters. When it was rebuilt, Hermione had made sure that the house-elves, goblins and centaurs took a place side by side with the humans, as equals.

The Second Wizarding War, she thought idly while she waited. That was what they called it. Would they call this the Third Wizarding War?

"See," said Ron suddenly, eyes brightening. "There's Ginny now."

Hermione turned. Stepping out of a golden-gated lift, indeed, were Ginny and pretty young Harper. Both made a beeline across the Atrium towards Hermione; Harper walking oddly stiffly, while Ginny swaggered confidently beside her. "Where have you been?" Hermione demanded urgently. "Everyone is gone, Riddle and his sister could be here at any moment!"

Ginny shrugged easily. "Just taking care of a few problems, Hermione. Nothing to worry about." She glanced at Harper beside her, and the young girl nodded.

"Nothing to worry about," Harper affirmed.

"Uh-huh." Still rather puzzled, Hermione turned back towards the fountain. "Well, get comfy. We could be here a while."

Some time passed in silence. The tension in the air among the Ministry's workers was palpable. They fidgeted endlessly, or sat against the black-marble walls, or walked in constant meandering circles, all waiting for something - anything - to happen.

The first thing they heard was the low whirring of the lift as it descended towards the Atrium. "That'll be your Aurors, Ron," Hermione said, getting to her feet as the golden-gated lift slid downwards into view. "It's about time-"

But Hermione was interrupted by the soft ding as the lift-doors slid open - and the panicked, urgent yell that followed. Whirling, Hermione saw two vaguely-familiar Aurors rushing out of the lift into the Atrium. One was a short brown-haired woman who Hermione half-recognised as having been a few years behind her at Hogwarts. Natalie something. The other was a tall lean man with bright-blond hair and spectacles. Together, spluttering and panting with exertion, they dashed across the Atrium floor towards Hermione and the others.

"The - Aurors-" the tall blond-haired man managed to choke out, planting a heavy hand on the fountain's brim to support himself. "All of them - they're - they're-"

"They're what?" Hermione demanded of the man - but suddenly, he foamed at the mouth, screamed and slid to the floor, lifeless. Harper clapped a hand to her mouth in horror; Ron cursed; a strange gleam came into Ginny's eyes. All around, fear suddenly flared into life in the workers of the Ministry's eyes.

"They're poisoned," said Natalie the brown-haired Auror in a sad, quiet voice. "They were all having a drink of water - I said I didn't want any...Simon..."

Her face went pale as a sheet as she stared down at the dead Auror. Frantically, Hermione turned to Ron and Ginny. "He's already here," she said, already running towards the lifts. "The rest of you stay here. Ron, Ginny, Harper, Natalie, come on!"

Two minutes later, they skidded to a halt. Hermione and Ron were first into the Auror Office; Ginny, Harper and Natalie trailed just behind. The room was full of bodies. A few stirred weakly as Hermione approached, horrified; more didn't. Harper looked away uncomfortably; for a moment, Hermione swore she saw Ginny's mouth twitch towards a smile. "Bloody hell..." Ron murmured, pale-faced, stepping over the limp extended arm of a face-down Auror. "How..."

"Wands out," Hermione interrupted softly, turning to the others. "They're here."

"But - how can he be here?" Ginny stammered. "Ri-Riddle?"

"I don't know," Hermione said, raising her wand to chest height, "but he is. Keep your eyes open."

She knelt to examine one of the bodies - and it was then that they heard a distant scream. "Oh, what now-" began Harper, but Hermione raised a hand for quiet.

The sounds were distant, but there; shouting, screams, fighting. "That's coming from the Atrium," she realised. "Come on."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "We're running again?"

Hermione gave her a funny look. It wasn't like Ginny to be so crass. But there wasn't time for that now, so ignoring the red-haired woman's outburst, Hermione hurried back towards the lifts, Ron hot on her heels. She feared what they might find. She had left the few Ministry workers that had chosen to fight in the Atrium. Had they been slaughtered too? Two minutes later, Hermione had her answer. The lift down was the most nervous ten seconds of her life. All the while, she tapped her foot impatiently - and then the golden doors swished open, revealing the Atrium - the deserted Atrium.

The only sound was the soft trickle of fountain-water, and the scuff-scuff of Hermione's boots on granite, and one distant flickering fire at the other end of the Atrium. She didn't understand, Hermione thought frantically, running forward into the Atrium, glancing from side to side - they were here five minutes ago! "Oh dear," Ginny remarked dryly, glancing towards the Floo-fire burning fifty feet away in one of the alcoves that lined the walls. "Seems something scared our brave workers away."

"Ginny..." Heart hammering, Hermione turned towards her step-sister to make some chastising remark - but then she saw it, and froze. Ginny's wand was levelled unseen at the nape of Natalie the Auror's neck. Too late, Hermione reached for her own wand.

"Stupefy!" Ginny yelled.

At that range, a Stunner was devastating. Natalie's head snapped forward with a sickening crunch, and the Auror's limp body was blasted across the room. She bounced once on the granite floor, skidded, then crashed to a halt against the white-marble of the fountain. By then, both Hermione and Ron had their wands levelled at Ginny's chest - but, for just an instant, seeing those oh-so-familiar brown eyes, they hesitated.

Ginny laughed cruelly. "You know, there's a thousand more effective spells," she said, "but there's something satisfying about a Stunner, isn't there?"

"Stupefy!" Ron bellowed.

Ginny deflected it as if swatting aside a curious fly on a summer evening. The deflected red blast hit Ron in the chest. He staggered, forced back a step, sunk to one knee - and then Ginny's white-hot curse finished him off. The second Hermione saw that curse fly past - felt its heat, its raw power - she knew this wasn't Ginny who stood before her. It was her. Hermione sent a curse of her own flying towards Not-Ginny. Grinning, her eyes gleaming so maliciously that Hermione wondered how she could have ever been deceived, Not-Ginny deflected Hermione's curse into the ceiling. For a long moment she stared at Hermione, Not-Ginny's head tilted curiously, mockingly to the side - and then she shook her head, and Ginny no longer stood there.

It was a pale-skinned woman with long jet-black hair. Elizabeth. For what seemed to Hermione like a very long time, they stared at each other, circling slowly on the dark-granite floor of the Atrium. "You're not going to attack me?" Hermione enquired in a voice that sounded a lot braver than she felt.

Elizabeth smiled. "You are my brother's to kill."

"Am I?" Hermione sent another curse towards Elizabeth, but the woman dodged it nimbly. "What shall we do now, then? Play cards?"

Elizabeth said nothing more, and onwards they circled. Harper was still cowering by the fountain, taking shelter from the flashing curses. When Hermione had the fallen Ron at her back, she risked a glance over her shoulder, and saw that her husband was regaining his feet. "You OK, Ron?" she called, eyes already back on the pale-skinned witch, watching this unfold with a curious smile.

"I've been better," he grumbled, scrabbling to his feet wand in hand.

As he stepped to Hermione's side she raised her wand, ready to strike at the black-haired witch - but then Elizabeth's crimson eyes flitted over her shoulder to something beyond, something tall and pale in the corner of Hermione's eye, and she realised how perfectly she had been sewn up. There was only one thing to do. She risked a momentary glance at Ron, and saw understanding in his eyes. "Now!" she yelled, whirling towards Tom Riddle, her wand already levelled towards his chest. "STUPEFY!"

Riddle was caught off guard by the speed of her attack. He barely got his Shield Charm up in time, and staggered backwards under the force of Hermione's curse. Behind her, she knew Ron and Harper would be duelling Elizabeth, but she couldn't risk a look. She had to press the attack. "Stupefy!" she yelled, again and again, and Riddle backed away frantically. The words of untold curses rose to his lips, again and again, but Hermione chased them away with a Stunning Spell. He didn't have time to counterattack. One Stunner grazed that handsome black hair; another slipped through Riddle's guard, hitting him in the arm, spinning him round - and for a second Riddle stumbled, and his wand slipped to his side.

Hermione slashed her wand and, beneath Riddle, the granite floor fell away. He fell with it. The last thing Hermione saw was a pair of confused crimson eyes. Victorious, she muttered "Duro," and the floor resealed itself in the space where Tom Riddle had fell. Hermione turned away, cheeks flushed. She hoped it was a long fall. She turned away and saw Ron blasted across the Atrium again, arms flailing wildly. Every fibre of her being wanted to rush to him, but she knew she couldn't. First, she had to deal with Elizabeth.

The girl's nose was flared in anger, her slitted eyes flashing dangerously as she saw Hermione turning towards her. Behind Elizabeth, Harper dawdled awkwardly, but the pale-skinned witch ignored her.

"Missing your brother?" Hermione enquired lightly.

Snarling, Elizabeth slashed her wand wildly. Sensing, somehow, that a Shield Charm might be of little use in deflecting this spell, Hermione dived aside. Elizabeth's curse passed by with a muffled whump, and Hermione rolled to her feet. She flicked her wand, and long grasping tendrils snaked towards Elizabeth, groping, grasping. One wrapped around the girl's waist, and began to squeeze and squeeze - until Elizabeth yelled furiously and the tendrils burst into flames.

The fires raced along the ropes coiled around Elizabeth's waist as if they had been dipped in oil, and before Hermione's eyes the burning ropes came alive, hissing spitting serpents that leapt towards her. If she had been a little quicker - if Hermione had had the reflexes of Dumbledore, say, or even Snape or McGonagall - she would have flicked her wand towards the fountain. The water would have risen into the air, flew towards her, doused the flaming ropes out. Hermione could then have turned the fountain-water into a watery spear, plunged straight towards Elizabeth's icy heart. The heart that had killed Rose.

This, in the millisecond before the burning ropes coiled around her throat, went through Hermione's mind. But she wasn't that fast. She could only watch.

Watch - and see the onrushing blur in the corner of her eyes. Harry crashed into her like a freight train, bowling her over, knocking Hermione to the granite floor with a bone-shaking thump. They rolled once, twice, then were on their feet. Elizabeth's curse singed the floor where they had lain, but already the pale-skinned girl's attention was elsewhere, duelling Neville and Luna and the real Ginny. As Hermione watched, Elizabeth ducked an Impediment Hex from Luna, took two hasty steps backwards, threw an off-balance curse towards Neville, who stepped aside neatly, then dived aside out of the path of a rampaging Bat-Bogey Hex.

As Elizabeth leapt to her feet and felled Ginny with a slash of her wand, more were flooding into the room all the time; Bill and George and Charlie and Teddy Lupin and more. "Where's Tom?" Harry asked urgently, shouting in Hermione's ear to be heard over the din. "Where is he?"

"He-" Hermione ducked reflexively as a colossal blast from Elizabeth's wand sent Neville, Luna and Bill skidding back six feet- "he fell."

Harry blinked. "Fell where?"

"Er-"

But Hermione was interrupted by a colossal crash. Granite dust suddenly choked the air as the floor exploded upwards and a figure rose from below, tall, dark, terrible, scarlet eyes burning. "Tom-" Harry began softly.

Riddle's curse took him in the chest. Limp, Harry crumpled to the floor, whether unconscious or dead Hermione could not tell. Too late, she reached for her wand, though Riddle's second curse was already flashing her way. Dimly, in the corner of her eye, she noticed the air shimmering, and a flash of red appearing as if from nowhere. But it was too late-

"Protego!" Lily yelled, as her father's Invisibility Cloak slid to the floor. Tom Riddle's curse rebounded harmlessly, and too late, those scarlet eyes slid towards Lily. "Stupefy!" she screamed furiously.

Lily's curse swatted Riddle from the air. He fell to the ground, slid ten feet, then crashed into the black-stone wall. Dazed, he didn't stir. Distantly, at the far end of the Atrium, Hermione heard Elizabeth's desperate last stand continuing, but she knew it couldn't last. We've won! Hermione was jubilant. She turned to Lily, but the twenty-one year-old girl was at her fallen father's side. Hermione saw Harry's eyes flutter open weakly, and her jubilation only grew. Glancing around, she searched for the nearest warm body to hug.

"We did it!" she exclaimed, wrapping her arms around her young secretary, who looked oddly glum considering recent events. "Harper, we did it!"

"I'm sorry, Minister," Harper replied in a sad whisper.

"Sorry for wha-"

And then Hermione screamed. Staggering away from the younger woman, she saw the knife protruding from her ribs. No, she thought, grasping for the knife's hilt with suddenly-feeble hands, no, this isn't fair, Harper please, Harry, Ron, Rose, someone help me-

Hermione slumped to the midnight-granite floor. As the world faded to black, the last thing she heard was a girl's scream, and frenzied footsteps, and a high, cold laugh.