Disclaimer: All original characters, situations and plot ideas belong to JK Rowling. I make no profit from this.

Warning: This story is rated M for sexual situations and scenes, language, and darker themes in the story.

A/N: Last chapter is just about finished, just looking over it to make sure it's *perfect*!

**Did you think I was done writing sad things? Nope, get ready**

A Riven Heart

Chapter 36

August 27th, 2006

"Pansy," Harry said to her, gently shaking her awake. "Sorry to wake you."

She mumbled sleepily, the last shades of that strange dream falling away, her body still curled up in the protective space of Neville's arms. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing wrong… but I did bring your mother here to the hospital and she's been asking for you."

She turned over to look into bright emerald eyes. "Denise is here? You got her to come?"

He shrugged in an easy way. "It wasn't that hard... she listens to me."

Well that's unexpected...

She grunted. "You're lucky. So lucky." She sat up and stretched, her mind feeling clearer after another night of good rest. She looked down at Neville, who had been sleeping heavily the past two days, healing all the damage that had been inflicted on his body. She kissed his cheek and whispered against his skin.

"Rest for now love, I'll be back." She felt what she only describe as a kiss come down through their bond, his love for her evident even while he slept.

She slipped her feet into the flats she had by the bed and stood up, following Harry out of the small and private room she and Neville had been moved to the day before. The rest had helped. Knowing Neville and Theo were okay helped more. Now she felt hopeful. Denise was going to get the help she needed. Finally.

"Ginny and Hermione are still working on the mirror." Harry said, leading her up two flights of stairs. "Hermione's sure there's something up with it… she getting that crazy look in her eyes when she's on to something so…"

When they emerged into a private ward on the 4th floor, she was ambushed by a patient with short brown hair and a pale face.

The woman, smiling, patted her cheeks over and over after crushing her in a quick hug.

"Oh… er hello…" she said awkwardly.

With a final pat, the woman turned and ran away to the other side of the room just as quickly as she showed up.

She turned to Harry, who was giving her one of his crooked smiles. "Okay, well my mother definitely belongs here."

He let out a laugh and beckoned her to follow him to the end of the ward. As a joke it had worked, making Harry laugh. But it was an old hurt for Pansy. Denise was curled up comfortably on a bed of pillows and she was humming peacefully.

"Wow…" she whispered to Harry. "She looks better already."

"I still don't know what she did to that mirror, Pansy. If you could get anything out of her about it…" he rubbed the back of his head, making his hair stick up.

"How's Draco?" she asked.

"Miserable. They know we – you, actually – took out those Death Eaters and captured McGee, they are pissed. And he hasn't heard a word from his mum since that first night."

"Gods, I wish this was over." she said. She didn't see the emotion that passed over Harry's face.

Denise finally looked up, "My flower."

Pansy smiled, sitting on the edge of the bed. Harry stepped back to give them some privacy, and yet she knew he was guarding her. And didn't that just get her heart strings going? "So you'll listen to the bloody Chosen One but you won't listen to your own daughter?"

Denise giggled. "Well he's special, dear. You're not."

Rolling her eyes Pansy crossed her arms under her chest. "Thanks mother."

"But I had to be here, because you were going to be here." Denise rambled off, fidgeting with the covers.

"Is that so?"

"Yes, because it's time for me to go, my love." Denise mirrored Pansy's position but reached out, pulling on Pansy's arms, and gripping their hands together.

"What do you mean? You just got here." Pansy steeled herself, knowing that Denise was going through one part of her craziness. At least this wasn't the violent one. And no way she was allowing Denise to leave.

Denise looked better, she sounded better but Pansy still couldn't shake the strange sensation she always got when she was around Denise, a feeling that she was going to cause her pain… maybe even death.

"I mean, it's time for me to go now love." and she reached forward, placing a hand on Pansy's cheek as a mother would do to a child. An instant of clarity in her bright blue eyes. "You've been the light of my life, now it's time for you to see."

And with a gentle movement, Denise reached behind her and brought out a plain glass cup...

Pansy raised her eyebrows. This craziness knew no boundaries apparently.

"Where did you get that?" Beyond confused as she was usually around Denise.

"Time for you to see." Denise repeated and brought the glass down hard on her knee, shattering it into pieces.

"Mother!"

Pansy stood up with a jolt as Harry rushed forward to help. But it was too late. Denise grabbed a large, jagged piece of glass and swiped at Pansy, leaving a gash on her forearm several inches deep and running the entire length of her forearm... and with the same piece plunged the sharp end directly into her own chest right above her heart.

Breath rushed from her chest, an empty feeling hollowing out a piece for itself there.

"Nooooo!"

The sound was torn from her, she felt her body fall forward, her hand ripping the sharp piece of glass from her mother's body and throwing it behind her. She felt her hands press into the hole with desperation, trying to hold pressure over the wound, but blood gushed out like a bloated river and stained her hands and fingertips.

Then she felt her mother take a final breath before going still, blood seeping out from her open heart wound.

Healers ran forward, pushing her aside and attempted to revive Denise, but it was too late. Pansy knew it with the same feeling she had other the past several weeks... that odd sensation of magic that felt so alien to her...

With a shock that ran up her spine, she realized her mother was dead. She was an orphan... her mother was dead. Dead. Killed herself...

Dead.

The shock sizzled and turned into something else, something heavy and magic and sharp and hurting. It spread down her arm and bee-lined for the cut in her forearm, the one Denise had made. When it met the edge of the cut, she screamed out, in pain, in shock, in grief, and felt her body begin to convulse. A second or an eternity passed.

She felt herself rise, then a snap like she was disconnected from her body and she stood separate from everything that was happening.

She looked down at her own body, lying on the ground, twitching. Harry turned looking for her, confusion written all over his face. When his eyes landed on her body, he dropped immediately to his knees beside her and begun shaking her.

"Pansy?" he shouted, but the sound was not Harry's voice.

She turned, feeling like nothing more than air. Her mother stood before her, long blue-black hair cascading down her back in gentle, healthy curls, younger by at least twenty years, wearing the sweet smile Pansy hadn't seen since she was a little girl, as if Pansy were looking into a mirror. Except the eyes. Denise had the bright ice blue eyes of Pansy's great-grandmother.

"Mother?"

"My girl… I have… so much to tell you… I have watched you this whole time, I'm so proud of you. I couldn't ever tell you because… well…" and the airy vision that was her mother turned to the body she used to be. "I wasn't myself. I haven't been myself in a long time, my girl."

"What is this? Am I dead?" She felt panic, but it felt far away. Her body on the ground still convulsing, Harry waved over some Healers, but she couldn't hear them.

"No my dear girl, I'm sorry it had to be done like this. Your grandmother did the same to me, you know? She cut me with a knife and then killed herself. I was so scared. She wasn't anything like I was in the end… but she was bad enough… you get your eyes from her you know..."

"What… Mother I'm very confused…"

"I know you are… It's the eye my dear, The Sight. I would never have passed it on to you willingly, but… the mirror… you can only work it if you have The Sight. It was brilliant of him, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, even he couldn't get to that thing he put in the mirror. It was completely safe, even from himself. Unlike you, he doesn't have The Sight.

"He wanted to kill your grandmother, but she had already passed on the gift. He didn't know about me, otherwise he would have probably killed me long ago… but when he killed your father… my mind shattered… and I was trapped… everything was… not right. But I held on to the memory of you, barely." Denise made a motion like she wanted to touch Pansy's face, her ghostly eyes shimmering with light Pansy didn't understand.

"Now you have my gift my darling girl. You can go into that mirror and destroy that thing and then Harry Potter can kill You-Know-Who for good. I've seen it. And your soul mate bond will protect you from the madness that comes with this gift. I promise you baby girl, it took a long time for me to finally get Neville Longbottom and you together but you'll be safe now."

Pansy tried to process everything but it was too much, her physical body was pulling her with a growing tug, her dominant thought being that she shouldn't be away from her body for too long…

"But… Mother…" She fought it.

"I know, don't worry. You will remember and hopefully you'll remember me like this and not like…" she waved a soft hand towards her physical body.

Pansy looked between them then down at her own body which was twitching less and less, Harry shaking her and yelling out, but she couldn't hear him. Not where she was. But the tug grew stronger.

"We're running out of time, my flower." Denise said with a sad smile. "I'm so proud of you, you have filled my heart and my life with joy since the moment you came into this world and I regret that you've lived with nothing but grief and pain. But I know you'll be okay, you will know that joy. I've seen it. Just… hold on to that, alright? I love you, my darling girl. I love you."

"Wait… mother…" but as Denise repeated those last three words to her, the sound got quieter and quieter. Her body faded and then Pansy snapped back into her own body with a painful jolt in her heart.

Harry was shaking her roughly, his voice crushing down on her ears. "Pansy!"

"Stop." her teeth rattled in her head but he finally stopped. His hand slid down her arm and came into contact with bare skin.

She tensed and her vision split. Out of one eye she saw Harry, kneeling before her with a concerned face, and behind him the body of her mother with frantic Healers surrounding them.

They were still trying to revive Denise, but she was long gone now.

Out of the other eye she saw the dark drawing room in Malfoy Manor as if she were standing there. All around her stood people, bloody, bruised, battle worn people. In the middle, Voldemort stood with a distorted body and a wand pointed at Harry Potter. Harry was covered in blood, but tall and standing his ground, his own wand pointed at the disturbing sight of Voldemort's body. Voldemort laughed, but Harry laughed too, though it sounded hollow. He nodded to his left and Draco Malfoy walked into the room, throwing down a golden shield on the floor. The shield was cut down the middle, as if it had been stabbed.

The sight of the shield made Voldemort scream and cast the Killing Curse at Harry. But Harry was already moving his wand. He disarmed Voldemort and his body shattered into pieces. Instead of celebrating, Harry sank to his knees and that's when she saw the bodies in the corner.

Ginny.

Theo.

Percy.

Mrs. Malfoy.

Mr. Weasley.

Dead.

Her body physically relaxed and her split vision cleared.

But her mind was screaming.