I was going to wait until Wednesday but I left y'all hanging so here's chapter sixteen. Prepare for your mind to be blown.


Chapter Sixteen

September 8th, 1944.

"Pardon?" Mia asked, wondering if she'd actually heard Nina correctly.

"I know." Nina said, holding her hands up to show she wasn't armed, still sitting cross legged on the boulder with a severe expression. "I know who you are. Please don't freak out! The rock has runes at the bottom, see? Nobody can hear us unless I let them and I won't unless you tell me it's okay to."

All pretense lost, Mia raised her wand to Nina. "Explain why I shouldn't obliviate you."

Nina grimaced. "Well, for starters it wouldn't work unless you want to cause me to go utterly mad. Even then, I don't know. Skaði doesn't like it when people try to mess with my head, she may react adversely." Nina laughed shakily. "If I'm being honest; if I were in your position right now I'd consider just scrambling my brain into mush. Though, if you want a whole explanation you'll have to be patient because it's a long story."

Mia was losing her patience with the situation already and snapped, sparks crackling away in between her curls every second that passed without a real answer. "Fawley."

"Right, yeah." Nina breathed, her arms trembling ever so slightly, the healer in Mia recognized the beginnings of a panic attack but she couldn't bring herself to back down. This was too important, how could Nina know about Hermione Granger? What had she told Tom Riddle? "I'm willing to do an unbreakable vow right here and now. Just, careful with the wording? I can't control everything and I'd rather not die because of a fluke."

"We need another person for an unbreakable vow," Mia said, her white knuckle grip on her wand and the tenseness of the situation beginning to saturate her hand with sweat.

Nina nodded her head towards the tree line right by the lake. "Outside the warding I've got a friend of mine that will be able to oversee it and then leave, no questions asked, if you like."

"How could I trust your friend to not reveal that they know we've had a conversation that required an unbreakable vow?" Mia questioned, unable to hold back a scoff.

"I'll oversee his vow to you, if that's what you want to do. I trust him completely, he's… a lot like me, in some ways, very loyal to people he cares about."

Mia ground her teeth. "Who is it?" If it was Tom Riddle then she didn't know how she would get out of this situation without putting herself on the short list for people needing to be carted off to Azkaban by Auror's.

"His name is Zephyrus Mulciber, I doubt you've met him before."

A Death Eater, but not Voldemort himself at least. Forcing the unbreakable vow would work to keep her secrets, but really just how deep was Nina into Riddle's gang to be able to have one of Voldemort's Death Eaters at her beck and call? For the young man to agree to making an unbreakable vow with no explanation? Without Voldemort knowing about it?

Two unbreakable vows, Mia pondered. With my wording so long as it's careful wording. I may be able to utilize this and get all the information I need on Riddle without going to prison for it. "Fine, bring him in."

There was a shudder all around them. Mia hadn't noticed the warding when she'd stepped into it but she noticed it now. Must be because Nina was allowing it, if the warding was tied to Nina's runes on the stone.

"Zeph?" Nina called. An austere young man stepped around a tree several paces away and began trudging through the thick foliage toward the women. His face was hard and his dark eyebrows paired with near coal black eyes made him look like he was contemplating how best to gut you and be rid of the body so he could make it back in time for tea. He walked directly up to Nina, coming to a stand so his body was slightly turned in front of the younger woman, like he was ready to stand between her and incoming danger. He stopped and glanced at Mia with hands held slightly out and upward to show her he was unarmed.

Nina turned to Mia and gestured to the newcomer, his presence seemed to calm her because her shaking began to ease. A warm breeze began to pick up and it helped to settle the atmosphere, only just.

"This is Zephyrus Mulciber, he's one of my closest friends and even though you don't know it yet he's one of the few that you'll come to trust completely." She then turned to Mulciber with a small smile. "Zeph, this is Healer Mia Gardner. She's important to me; that's all you need to know for now. If it's okay with you, we need you to oversee an unbreakable vow and then make one yourself. Nothing as drastic as the one I'll be making; just one that says you won't mention this meeting to anyone else without express permission from both Healer Gardner and I."

Mulciber nodded, and Mia tilted her head just slightly, baffled at the dynamic between these two. She couldn't help but ask; "You so easily agree to an unbreakable vow with no explanation?"

"Of course," Mulciber responded with a slight accent (was he Italian?), looking at Mia with a curious glance and drawn brows. "Nina wouldn't ask it of me if it wasn't imperative. I've known her since we were toddlers; she doesn't utilize people she cares about selfishly." He glanced back at Nina. "All you need to do is ask and we will be there."

Childhood friends. That would explain the closeness. Mulciber's willingness to step in front of Nina to put a block between Nina and what he perceived as danger. Mia knew that if Harry asked her to make the unbreakable vow with little explanation she'd likely have done it too. She would've asked questions about it, though. And Harry wouldn't have asked her to do it without explaining why.

"We?" Mia questioned as Nina smiled at Mulciber and leaned down, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. He raised his arms around her torso and helped her off the boulder, pulling a leaf off her shoulder as he stepped away with a fond smile.

"He means those of us who grew up together." Nina said, twisting around and dusting dirt off her arse. "Progeny of the old families. Well, a few of us anyways. Some have grown up to be little shites we don't associate with anymore. You've met one like that recently; my elder twin, Lucas."

Purebloods. Mia thought. She's talking about the pureblood families. Most specifically 'we' likely encompasess everyone within Riddle's gang. Just who the hell is Nina Fawley? "We should do the vows; it's nearly dinner and I'm certain there are people who will wonder where you are, Miss Fawley."

Nina brushed her hair over her shoulder and gestured to Mulciber as she walked towards Mia. "Zeph can just tell them I'm having a second go at my trail because I want pudding tomorrow. They all know I'm a health fanatic."

"It would be more believable if I said you were doing it because you wanted to ask the elves for dessert while studying tonight, instead. I'll tell them I came to ask a question about my relic, see if you'd found anything in the library yesterday. You haven't, in case they ask." Mulciber mentioned coming to stand between the two women but off to the side. He withdrew his wand as Nina and Mia grasped forearms.

"Right, that works. I'll remember to do that so no one gets suspicious."

"Ready?" Mia asked, interrupting them and glancing between the two. They both seemed to remember what they were doing and nodded at her. The twisted, fiery cords of an unbreakable bond wrapped around the women's arms. "Will you, Nina Fawley, swear to never reveal the conversations we had between us this day or any other day unless I have given you permission to do so?"

Nina contemplated the word choice for a moment then shook her head. "No. Sorry, can you reword it? If we just talk about an injury I've had and I happen to mention to someone 'Healer Gardner says it's not lethal' or something I don't want to die for it."

Nina was right, so Mia hummed a moment as she reconsidered the word choice. "Will you, Nina Fawley, swear to never reveal anything about my personal affairs, be they trivial or catastrophic, to anyone without my permission?"

"I will."

"And will you swear that you'll never intentionally cause harm, be it physical, mental, or emotional, to me in any way?"

"I will." Nina didn't hesitate at all that time.

Mia pulled back as the vow's cord began to vanish. She felt the vow settle against her chest, lighter, like a feather settling against her, than the one she'd agreed to with Nick Morello. She turned to clasp arms with Mulciber, Nina now withdrawing her wand and the cords wrapping around their arms.

"Will you, Zephyrus Mulciber, vow to keep this and any other meetings between Nina Fawley and I a secret? To never utter, write, or otherwise communicate about it or any other meeting in the future to anyone without express permission from both Nina Fawley and myself?"

"I will."

They released arms as the vow took effect, much like Nina's had. Mia hadn't known it felt different when you were the one receiving the vow as opposed to being the one making it. The one she'd made with Morello had sat heavy like a weight in her chest for weeks until she'd gotten used to it. She could still feel it sometimes.

"Thank you so much Zeph. I really appreciate you." Nina was saying, hands clasping the one Mulciber made the vow with tightly between hers. She was looking up at the young man with a large smile. "Truly, let me know what you want for your birthday, I'll make it happen."

Mulciber laughed and used the flat of his hand to press down on the top of Nina's head until she was struggling to stay standing upright. He towered over her, at least a head taller, and Nina swiped at his chest with a grin. Her arms were too short to reach him where he stood. They looked rather like an old cartoon Mia had grown up with and Mia had to bite her cheeks to keep from smiling, despite the severity of the situation. "My birthday? Come with me to those temple ruins I found this past summer. I think you'd like to examine them as much as I did."

"How is that an adequate present?" Nina groaned as Mulciber removed his hand. She rubbed at her head. "I'll go, of course, but don't think I won't figure out something awesome for your birthday Zeph."

He rolled his eyes at Nina, then glanced back at Mia with a slight bow. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Healer Gardner."

"Likewise." Mia replied, skeptical about him. For a Death Eater, Mulciber didn't seem so bad. But most of them in her time had easily fooled everyone around them into believing they were good, morally upright people who only wanted the best for the magical world. She wouldn't be so easy to charm, in fact they'd likely never be capable of charming her.

As the women watched Mulciber retreating through the thick foliage, Nina turned back to Mia. "Everything is warded again and Zeph is on his way back to the castle. I suppose I should start now."


Nina doesn't ask favors. Zephyrus knew this like he knew water was wet and the sky was blue.

She also didn't keep secrets from Tom Riddle, it was unheard of in their circle. Nina was the closest thing Tom had to family, and they could see how his relationship with Nina had affected him for the better over the years. He'd been calmer, less prone to violence or losing his temper on unsuspecting fools since the Easter holiday in their fifth year. None of them dared ask what had happened but the rumor had spread quickly that Nina and Tom had come to Kings Cross together with Hector Fawley.

Among the Knights it was known that Tom became a ward of Nina's grandfather the summer between their fifth and sixth year; and that Nina had taken to staying with her grandparents. She'd stopped coming to society events altogether. They'd all wondered in the past year if Nina and their lord had become involved, but they had no real proof and asking would've been met with swift discipline from Tom.

(And now with her engagement to Orion, and that the Black heir still lived it was clear Tom and Nina were not involved.)

Zeph knew all of this, and as the heavy weight of an unbreakable vow settled into his chest he rubbed at it, allowing himself a moment in the privacy of the lake trail to frown where no one could see him.

It was unprecedented for Nina to ask a favor of him; it was further unprecedented that she had a secret she was keeping from Tom. He'd never thought she'd have cause for that. Tom would allow her whatever she asked, Zeph didn't think he'd ever heard Tom tell Nina 'no' about anything or stopped her from trying to do exactly what she wanted.

This was huge.

Why ask him, at that? Enoch would've been a better choice, Zephyrus thought as he broke free of the trail and began making his way towards the courtyard. Enoch was quieter, people would never expect his silence to be hiding something.

But Enoch Avery was more observant, and he may have rejected making a vow. Or… or he'd have asked questions and come up with a better solution. Zephyrus huffed lightly as he entered the open corridor, his steps echoing across the stone floor.

Nina mentioned Healer Gardner was important to her. The way she'd stressed the word important had him thinking. To Nina, the only things she thought were important were the people she loved, her gods, and the mountains of Norway.

He doubted Healer Gardner had anything to do with Norway, being American, and she hadn't been here long so she couldn't possibly rank within Nina's loved people. Zephyrus nearly paused as he turned a corridor that would lead him to the great hall, but he was able to recover and keep moving.

What did Healer Gardner have to do with the Norse gods? Thinking back, he felt the static of the mediwitch's magic radiate off her as she stared down Nina with her wand in hand. It was powerful, and lethal, and it reminded him of Jupiter just enough that he'd positioned himself in front of Nina just in case.

His heart rate stuttered for a moment and he took a deep breath before he walked through the double doors into the Great Hall, the uproar of dining students serving to remind him it was time to put these thoughts away for later.

He swung into his seat beside Tom, nodding at the others.

"Have you seen Nina?" Orion asked, the slight urgency in his tone betrayed his concern. "She's not at the Hufflepuff table."

"Do cease worrying, Black," Lysander said with an exasperated sigh, "you've asked each of us as we sat. She's probably lost track of time, what of it? She knows where the kitchens are, and in case you're forgetting the heads can call the houselves to their rooms."

Orion sneered lightly, fork stabbing at his shepherd's pie. "Sure, but what if something happened? She could be bleeding in a low traffic corridor for all we know."

Zephyrus sighed and barely controlled his eye roll. If only Nina knew how much Orion pestered everyone about her over the years, even before she'd befriended Tom. Blacks' obsession knew no bounds. "I just spoke with her, that's why I'm late. I tried to catch her coming back in so I could talk to her about the relic I found. She's taking an extra lap around her jogging trail; said she wanted dessert tonight while she studied. Something about burning extra calories?"

"That sounds like Nina," Thoros said with a fond smile.

Zephyrus hadn't been worried about any of them buying his story. But his dread began to settle in as Tom's head turned ever so slightly toward him, his perfect eyebrow raising minutely, conveying that he didn't believe Zephyrus. As Tom was the one who knew Nina the best, Zephyrus wondered what he'd given away and how.

Zephyrus remained as calm as he could, controlling the cold fear that swept through his body, and began to eat. He noticed out of the corner of his eye when Tom's lips curled into the smallest, most subtle smile.

The smile his lord would use when he had a mouse caught between his great coils.


"I think it's time you start." Mia prompted, arms folded across her chest, wand poking out of her hand.

Nina nodded and took a deep breath. "I practice Seiðr, and I'm in training to become a Völva . I mentioned that the other day but I didn't explain those things. Seiðr isn't like the magic we study here. It's older, more rooted in the old ways before we relied so heavily on wands as a conduit." Nina shrugged and gestured at nothing with her hands. "It's shamanism, Völva are essentially shamans. I typically take a more ritualistic approach to my practice; I don't go looking for visions but when I was young, and I first met him, Loki advised me to look anyway."

"Loki, the trickster god?" Mia asked with a raised brow, distributing her weight to the left as her right leg began to tire.

"Yes," Nina said, turning her neck until it popped and gave a small sigh of relief. "Don't judge the gods based on their myths, he's a trickster god, yes, and he does help just as often as he hinders. He's ambiguous, certainly, but he's also my patron deity and he's always done right by me."

Mia had nothing to say to that, so she motioned for Nina to proceed.

"I've known from a young age I wasn't meant to be alive." She paused for a moment and Mia let that sink in. "At seven, when Loki asked me to utilize Seiðr to grant me a vision, the ritual forced me to see a different world and in it I saw you; your previous life. How bad that war against Tom was." She rubbed her hand over her forehead. "I know what happened to you, what happened to Tom. I saw you struck through a ley line. Thor's favor has followed you in all your travels."

Nina had… seen Hermione Granger's life? She… she knew about the second war against Voldemort? Nina was a seer. She'd seen the future, Hermione's future.

Mia could feel her heart rate thrumming wildly, she gripped her wand tighter as her vision tunneled.

"Thor's favor?" Mia asked, brain still trying to comprehend that Nina was a seer. This was a new angle. Besides realizing she wasn't aging she'd not contemplated the lightning had much to do with how she fell through the ley line. At most she speculated that the lightning had damaged the ley line and made it possible in the first place. If a deity was involved, what was his purpose? Why her?

And did she even want to tread into that? Until recently she'd never given deities a thought, not once in all her years.

Nina nodded and tilted her head to the side, studying Mia. "Haven't you noticed how at peace you feel in the midst of a storm? How your magic had always crackled like lightning and now you can wield it like a weapon?" How the bloody hell did Nina know that? "Or how you always do whatever you can to protect everyone around you? Have you noticed how you quite literally find yourself on the frontlines of a battle even when you do not try to? You go out of your way to make yourself as strong as possible and you use those strengths to protect humanity. You may not realize it, but you are in Thor's favor. You embody many of his virtues."

Mia was trying to wrap her head around this new theory while Nina started again, arms out and hands waving in front of her. The younger woman's eyes were huge as she spoke.

"It's not as though you need to suddenly seek him out or anything. The gods don't force their way into human lives; they wait to be invited. Well," she huffed a laugh and pulled her hands back to rub her neck, smiling as if at a joke only she understood, "invited-ish. I'm just telling you that if you do seek him out you'll likely find yourself with a patron deity. And you don't have to be a Norse Pagan to have a Norse patron, just to be clear."

Nina drew her wand and conjured a couple of lounge chairs out of some pebbles she'd levitated from near the boulder.

"Sorry, my lower back and my neck are killing me. I must've slept wrong last night." Mia sat in one as Nina lowered herself into the other. "Anyways, where was I?" She looked at the sky for a few moments. "Oh! After that first vision it was like the floodgates had been opened. Over the next several years, even without rituals, I saw you in France as my great grandfather's apprentice. Then I began to see you in New York City as a nurse with a love so sweet I mourned the loss with you." At this, Nina's face contorted with real sadness and Mia felt her chest tighten as she remembered Silas.

Folding one leg over the other, Nina leaned back and cleared her throat. "I saw you in China, when you learned long forgotten lessons about metaphysics and trained until you began to understand. In Russia, blurring the lines between magical healing and healing with the Dark Arts and blood magic. I watched in awe of you in Poland, easily the darkest, most horrifying part of your history… honestly I can't imagine how much you've struggled. How much pain it's taken for you to become so strong..."

Nina trailed off when her voice cracked, throat bobbing and eyes red rimmed, brimming with tears. Tears for Hermione. "The whole time I knew that eventually after all those travels and all the bullshite that happened to you that you would wind up in my life. There was no other explanation for why I kept seeing you. The only visions I ever managed were about you. I am not a seer, I'm not gifted."

Mia shifted uncomfortably in her seat, brows drawn. "I don't understand. If you're not a seer then why would you see so much of my history; of the future?"

"To be fair, I did see the past in regards to you, not only the future that you lived in. But in any case." Nina smiled and leaned forward in her chair, almost out of it. "You inadvertently created me, Hermione Granger. Without you there wouldn't be Nina Fawley."

Nina's spine curved as she leaned forward and laid her arms across her knees. "I once told Tom Riddle that I am a wolf, and I told him I refused to be one of his sheep. I still refuse to be a sheep, understand, but you? You, Hermione Granger, I will follow." Nina said this as if there were no other conclusion, no other possibility. "You created me; I was born to be your right hand, your confidante, and one day, if you'll have me, your friend."

It was the conviction in Nina's voice that caused Mia's heart to drop, like she'd been walking up stairs and thought there was one more only to have her foot hit the floor earlier than she anticipated. It was the unyielding look of pure confidence in Nina's icy gaze that told Mia the younger woman absolutely believed everything she said. It was a sudden understanding that Nina Fawley was laying herself proverbially at Mia's feet, offering herself as some kind of Lieutenant and Mia the General. Almost as though...

"You make it sound as though you're preparing for war." Mia stated, shifting in her seat. The words came out more breathlessly than she thought they would. She cleared her throat.

"I am." Nina deadpanned. The look on her face was resigned, Mia knew the look. She'd seen it on the faces of every soldier that marched out into the line of fire never to return. It made her chest ache as she forcibly shoved down the influx of bad memories. "The future is bleak and you're the one that will bring everyone together so we can all save it. Your presence has set things in motion that never were in your time. I've waited for years for you to show up; now I must warn of the danger at our doorstep. You may not believe me; but I can show you. If you'll let me?"

Everything about the future was uncertain now that Mia had changed the timeline. An alternate dimension indeed, she thought. Nina said that the future was bleak, and in order to save it Mia would be needed. Bloody hell. Harry I think your danger magnetism must have rubbed off on me, you absolute prat.

"How will you show me? Legilimency?."

"No," Nina retrieved her wand from up her sleeve and stood. She tapped her wand to her finger producing a small bead of blood and walked over to Mia. "Blood magic. I'm pants at legilimency and I have no penseive handy." She proffered her hand to Mia. "Taste it, you'll see what I've seen."

She'd done blood magic before, in Russia. Mia had a brief moment where she thought about how far she'd come in her life that the thought of tasting another person's blood didn't even cause her to flinch as she grasped Nina's hand and licked the bead right off the younger woman's finger. Her head spun as visions rapidly assaulted her brain. None of them linger before dropping into the next one.

Grindelwald, inside the gates of Hogwarts. The shield falling under the weight of a heavy magical attack. Heavier than Voldemort's attack on the school.

Dumbeldore, splayed upside down at the top of the Quidditch posts, blood dripping down his body and falling to the ground below. His face contorted in pain; frozen in death.

Irma Pince, blood spattered behind her between the shelves. A dead first year shielded with her body.

Several people in Slytherin robes, people Nina must know, dying in various terrible and tragic ways.

A news report flashing on the television, a global announcement that witches are real and lethal and they wanted all the world to burn.

Magickfolk trying to apparate, but caught in netting with electricity flashing over the ropes; keeping them bound.

A mushroom cloud over Godric's Hollow, muggle tanks invading Diagon Alley. Magicfolk dying with gunshot wounds.

Wands being snapped; Magicfolk burning at the stake. A chant from a hungry crowd. 'Burn the witch, burn the witch, burn the witch.'

Mia wrenched herself out of the visions so violently she raced to her feet and moved away from the chair, clutching at her chest as she tried to control her erratic breathing. "Bloody hell, when did you see all of this?" Mia asked, her head spinning and temples throbbing with the strain of the new information.

"I saw all those futuristic flashes over the summer. Those visions were far less graphic than Poland; trust me when I say they're the least of my trama." Nina frowned, laying a hand on Mia's shoulder to steady her as the older woman swayed. Mia wrenched herself away, ignoring Nina's resigned frown. "If we're going to prevent that future, then we're all going to have to find a way to work together. You and Tom must work together."

"I can't work with Voldemort." Mia sputtered with vehemence. "I can't."

Nina looked at her sadly."If I knew the monster you did, I would agree. But Tom is different in this new reality; he's not on the same path as the Voldemort of your time. I saw what he became, and I've done everything within my capacity to save him."

With a trembling hand to her throbbing head, Mia scoffed. "I'm not sure I believe him to be saveable."

"I'll list the differences in him." Nina offered, a guiding hand outstretched to lead Mia back to her chair. Mia went, ignoring the hand, because she felt so shaken she may collapse where she stood. "He only has one horcrux, and if you look at the records, no student has died here at Hogwarts in over a century. Hagrid graduated last year. Tom doesn't use the alias Lord Voldemort among his followers, I know he created it but I haven't heard it used. He hasn't tortured anyone at school since I've managed to befriend him, and he's not brutalizing his followers. He bosses them around, treats them like second class citizens in comparison to him and he's scared the shit out of them just by being so bloody powerful but he's never turned a dark spell on any of them. At least not yet. I'm sure he will."

Mia considered these changes, feeling more lightheaded and dizzy now than she had when Nina had shown her the visions.

She'd really gone and made a mess of things while trying to force them to remain as they were before she traveled back.

"He's onto you now." Nina frowned, her voice gentle. "One of his followers overheard your conversation in the library with Pince. You've piqued his interest; it only took a week for him to realize you were more than you appeared. He's ordered everyone to use their considerable resources to find whatever information there is on the globe about you, and he wants a full report by Samhain." The young witch leveled a serious look at Mia. "And they will find far more than the Auror's did. From someone who knows him quite well, my advice is to impress Tom more. Show him that you're someone he can't even begin to control."

Mia was struggling with all the new information. She wanted nothing more than to retreat into her beaded bag and think about everything she'd learned for a week at least and come up with some kind of workable plan. To conjure and destroy things in her meditation room. To scream, to have a meltdown. She had to get away from Nina and just think.

A large part of her wanted to kill Nina. Kill Tom. Cut losses and run.

But she couldn't, because then she'd be a fugitive. It was hard enough the last forty years just trying to stay away from everything and change nothing. But now…

So much had changed.

"Of course, you're going to do as you please, and I'll back whatever decision you make. Showing him that he can't control you will make him want to collect you. All I want to say for now, because I can see you need time to adjust to this information, is that if you and I are both in his ear, how much do you think we can get done for the better? Tom Riddle, still a very powerful, very dark wizard, never becomes Voldemort. If he maintains his mental facilities? If he makes friendships, instead of just contacts and followers out of power hungry sycophants?"

An interesting thought. But could Mia really believe Voldemort could be anything other than the monster she knew him to be?


Note: All of Part I. Everything we saw and know? Yeah, those were Nina's visions.

Please allow me to introduce the real Nina Fawley everyone. Hermione's number one fan and the first (in fic) Tomione shipper! I love writing her character, she's just so gray! She loves Tom sooo much but she's also considered herself Hermione's agent since day one without ever meeting the woman. Just know that everything Nina does, she does it because she's trying to save everyone she cares about from a fate she's actually seen them suffer. Also, daaaamn Thoros was right about Muggles becoming a problem one day…