Chapter 6: Confrontation
*
Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers, not
me.
*
AN: Thanks so much to all of my reviewers- thanks again for pointing out
the mistake Mione Weasley.
Between you, you've managed to pick up on most of what's going on: you
haven't guessed everything. My biggest surprise is revealed here.
*
The next morning, Hermione found herself in Dumbledore's office. She rubbed sleep out of her eyes and did her best to take in the office. Harry and Ron where there of course, Harry sitting on the chair beside her- his green eyes dark with resolution and Ron standing behind her- a strong hand clasped on her shoulder in protection. They where there to discuss the Basilisk Dreams.
Standing at the window; looking distant was Sirius Black. Hermione recognized the sullen mood that overcame Ron sometimes- usually after they had fought and wondered once more about Cassandra Vablatsky. The woman herself was perched on a chair a little way from Harry's- paler than ever and her blue-grey eyes seemed softened by sadness: Hermione also noticed that she kept glancing from Sirius to Harry.
Also present was Remus Lupin: his mission had failed apparently and he had returned the previous night injured. He stood in the shadows towards the back of the office: surveying, it seemed to Hermione: Sirius and Professor Vablatsky.
Dumbledore himself sat behind his desk, absently stroking Fawkes the Phoenix. He looked grim and melancholic: decidedly unhappy about what he was going to tell her. She met his twinkling blue eyes and could see encouragement shine out through them. Clearing his throat he began to speak:
"I am afraid; there is only one solution to this dilemma Miss Granger." He began, "And that is to re-visit your dream."
Hermione felt the terror sweep over her, behind her; Ron was up-in-arms.
"What?" He asked loudly, "Are you mad, she can't do that! It's."
"Ron!" Hermione interrupted, "Let him finish."
"I know it will be difficult but I can see no other way around the situation." Dumbledore said sadly.
"The plan is," Professor Vablatsky interjected, "That I will be able to follow you into the dream and find its source of power."
"Once the source is found," Sirius finished for her- finally turning away from the window, "Then we can eliminate it, and hopefully cut the link between you and Voldemort forever."
Hermione let the information seep in, plunged in cold and cruel dread. To go back? Back into the chamber? Hear that voice again? Look into those clod yellow eyes? It was too much.
"Hermione?" Dumbledore was asking.
"Yes," She said.
"There is one other thing: something that could turn the entire war to our advantage if you could do it?" The Headmaster said quietly. Hermione felt Ron's grip on her shoulder tighten.
"What do you want me to do?" Hermione said, already resolved to do what he wanted no matter how much peril it might place her in.
"You must understand that you aren't being forced, we will understand if you don't want to do it." Dumbledore said softly.
"Hermione." Ron started to say.
"What is it?" Hermione said firmly stopping him.
"We could stop your connection to Voldemort with just one dream," Dumbledore said, "But if you were to visit for several nights we could determine where Voldemort is."
"It would be an advantage" Remus said coming out from the shadows. Hermione forgot her own uncertainty for a second when she saw his face- a patchwork of bruises!
"But you don't have to do it," Professor Vablatsky said.
Hermione looked to Harry, whose expression was unreadable; if it where he in her place, Hermione knew that Harry would do it: he would face up to the dream. She looked away from him, up to Ron whose sapphire blue eyes where begging her not to do it- to save herself.
She looked to Remus: his battered face a sign of his bravery, to Sirius who had been in Azkaban for half of his life thanks to Voldemort then to professor Vablatsky who had suffered some unknown hardship during the last war.
Finally she looked back to Dumbledore: he had always sacrificed so much and been so brave. She wasn't like him- or any of the others, but if she could help she would.
"I'll do it," She said quietly.
The room erupted into chaos: Ron began shouting at her- his words of discouragement lost in the din. The three teachers had come together and Remus seemed to be in the middle of an argument between Sirius and Professor Vablatsky. Harry sat silent- locked in silent conversation with Dumbledore.
Hermione shut her eyes- images of the snake instantly flashing up in her mind: the cold cruel voice drowning out the arguments.
"Stop!" Dumbledore's voice sounded, sending her eye lids flying open and stopping the arguments.
"Hermione," He said softly, "We'll start tomorrow, come straight here. Yes, you may accompany her Harry, Ron. I've given the school a week's holiday there's too few teachers."
The three nodded.
"No, if you go down to Professor McGonagall's office I think she has some duties."
Hermione allowed herself to be lead gently out by Ron, her mind still in overdrive.
*
Cassandra sat a few metres away from the whomping willow- the little spot surrounded by other trees that the Marauders and their female companion's had favoured. Her mind was so lost in the past that she did not notice the approaching vision as it entered her mind soon though she was fully aware that what she was seeing was no memory but a glimpse of the future.
She was surrounded by fog. Everything seemed to be engulfed in a thick blackish mist that threatened to choke her. Where was she?
The castle, she realised, Hogwarts. The great stone entrance hall now appeared before her the wooden doors torn away, left smouldering in the hall way. Bodies scattered the stone steps and destruction was everywhere.
In one corner a slender red haired girl sat sobbing, crying out- "They can't do it! He's too powerful!"
Panic flushed Cassandra- this couldn't be the future- Hogwarts was a haven, Voldemort and his deatheaters couldn't get in! The stench of death was everywhere- students and teachers alike lay dead.
*
He found her there: sitting rigid as a stick. Her hair blown up around her- despite the windless day. Her eyes the same desperate violet that filled them whenever she was being plagued by visions.
She was screaming in desolation: whatever she saw was obviously bad. Sirius felt the impulse to go over and be ready to comfort her when it was over- yet those days where gone.
Suddenly her hair fell down, her body relaxed and her eyes turned back to blue-grey.
Impulsively- he rushed to wrap his arms around her and sit her down on one of the large boulders that they had always hung around in their school days.
* She was sobbing uncontrollably- this was not uncommon after a vision, and she trembled violently.
Suddenly he was there- like once before- his arms around her- comforting her. Confused she looked up- into the alarmed eyes of Sirius Black once more.
It was so alien and yet so familiar to sob into his chest, to be drawn back into the present by strong loving arms. To be made feel warm and safe once more by Sirius Black: a second chance?
She knew it wasn't right- they weren't the idealistic teenagers they had been, they weren't the same young people who had stood beside their best friends as they were married and they weren't the same two who had been chosen as god-parents for their son: Harry.
She should pull away, she didn't deserve his comfort- his pity- least of all his love.
*
It felt like they were teenagers back at Hogwarts as he held her tight- waiting for her sobbing to die down. He didn't know how she would respond; she had been so cold, icy. He didn't suppose he had been much better.
In the past she might have drifted off to sleep, soothed by his embrace. He knew how much the vision wore her out.
He wasn't at all surprised when; as soon as her sobbing was under-control she pulled away, and turned her face from him.
"What happened to you" He asked softly. "Do you still think I'm guilty? I understand if you do, I mean who would believe Wormtail was evil if they hadn't seen it for themselves?"
She spun to face him then. Her lovely blue-grey eyes full of guilt and regret.
"No." She said.
"Then what?" He asked.
"I."
"What?"
"I can't tell you," She replied.
"You've got no idea what it was like!" He exclaimed beginning to get angry, "That place- that prison! Stuck there all the time knowing I was innocent- knowing that poor Harry was stuck with those awful muggles!"
She looked down, a tear spilling down her snow-white cheek.
"Harry! Why didn't you take him? You're his godmother for crying out loud!"
She met his eyes then- "I tried! Dumbledore wouldn't let me- he said that as long as he was with the Dursley's he was safe and besides he couldn't have grown up knowing that everyone knew his name!"
It was his turn to look to the ground- his cheeks burning in shame: how could he think so little of her?
"Then why Cassandra? What is it?" He said, grabbing her arms forcing her to look him directly in the eyes.
"I'm no better than Wormtail," She said her voice soft and frightened.
"You betrayed us too!" Sirius cried, incredulous, "And Dumbledore still trusts you?"
"No- nothing like that." Cassandra said horrified.
"Look, Cassandra," He said firmly, "I've gone though years of imprisonment for what happened back then, for years I couldn't grieve properly for my friends knowing that their real murderer was still out there free! The least you can do is tell me what you've done"
She pulled herself away standing up and turning her back to him.
"I saw it," She whispered, "I saw everything Sirius! Wormtail's deception, Voldemort killing Lily and James, baby Harry surviving and destroying Voldemort; I saw you being thrown into Azkaban: I saw it all before it happened."
Sirius couldn't speak: the shock was too much. Cassandra- his fiancée had known that their best friends where going to be killed, had known why their god-son would become world famous. She hadn't said anything: just let it happen.
"When?" Was all he could think of saying.
"When I first held Harry at the hospital. I was the first you know? You and James where on a mission and the nurse gave me him- to take to Lily."
"That was almost a year before it happened!" Sirius said angrily. "You could have stopped everything! Lily and James would still be here today. You could have saved them!"
"You can't change something that comes to you in a vision!" She said miserably, "Dreams are warning, visions come true!"
"You kept it all to yourself! You knew I was innocent!"
"I told Dumbledore." She said softly, "What proof did I have? If I had come out and said you were innocent: who would believe me? We were engaged- it would have looked as if I was emotionally unstable."
"That night," Sirius said with a far off look in his black eyes, "Dumbledore accepted so easily that I was innocent- sent Harry and Hermione off with her time-turner to rescue me! Because of you?"
She nodded.
"You just stayed silent all of these years."
She nodded.
"Couldn't Dumbledore have said."
"No," She interrupted, "Dumbledore had already saved other suspected death eaters- people where beginning to get suspicious besides the evidence pointing to your guilt was too great. Then he managed to get Severus Snape redeemed..."
"Snape!" Sirius cried outraged, "Snape was saved and not me!"
"I'm sorry." She whispered, "I'm so sorry."
With that she fled- running away from him back towards the castle. He was left with his own thoughts whirling around his head: confused and unhappy.
*
Hermione had just finished the extra duties Professor McGonagall had given her when Ron came seeking her out.
"Oh Hermione!" He said, "Why did you agree?"
"I have no choice Ron," She replied calmly.
"Please don't go through with it, I couldn't bear it if something where to happen to you." He said grabbing hold of her wrist as she tried to move away from hum.
She looked up into his dizzyingly blue eyes, what was he saying?
"I've got to." She said, suddenly feeling tears well up in her eyes.
"Oh Hermione," He said again, hugging her- this wasn't normal for him. Ron usually kept out of her personal space.
She allowed herself to be held- not thinking about what it meant. It just felt safe being in Ron Weasley's arms.
When he moved away and they began walking back to the common room Hermione felt such a terrible sense of loss: as if she has just left the place she belonged.
*
Hours later- Sirius sat at his office staring into space when there was a knock- Remus came in not waiting for an answer.
"She's just told me." Remus said, tears in his own eyes.
"I don't believe she knew!" Sirius said desolately.
"She said when she was at school- her gift was not a gift at all but a curse." Remus said pensively.
"I don't know what to do!" Sirius said looking lost.
"Forgive her?" Remus asked.
Sirius shook his head, "I already have- oh Remus I'd give anything to have her back!"
"I know." Remus said patting his old friend sympathetically on the back.
"I can forgive her: but will Harry find it so easy?"
*
AN- Well what did you think? I found Cassandra's confession hard but there you go. Anyway please review and send me your thoughts or questions.
*
The next morning, Hermione found herself in Dumbledore's office. She rubbed sleep out of her eyes and did her best to take in the office. Harry and Ron where there of course, Harry sitting on the chair beside her- his green eyes dark with resolution and Ron standing behind her- a strong hand clasped on her shoulder in protection. They where there to discuss the Basilisk Dreams.
Standing at the window; looking distant was Sirius Black. Hermione recognized the sullen mood that overcame Ron sometimes- usually after they had fought and wondered once more about Cassandra Vablatsky. The woman herself was perched on a chair a little way from Harry's- paler than ever and her blue-grey eyes seemed softened by sadness: Hermione also noticed that she kept glancing from Sirius to Harry.
Also present was Remus Lupin: his mission had failed apparently and he had returned the previous night injured. He stood in the shadows towards the back of the office: surveying, it seemed to Hermione: Sirius and Professor Vablatsky.
Dumbledore himself sat behind his desk, absently stroking Fawkes the Phoenix. He looked grim and melancholic: decidedly unhappy about what he was going to tell her. She met his twinkling blue eyes and could see encouragement shine out through them. Clearing his throat he began to speak:
"I am afraid; there is only one solution to this dilemma Miss Granger." He began, "And that is to re-visit your dream."
Hermione felt the terror sweep over her, behind her; Ron was up-in-arms.
"What?" He asked loudly, "Are you mad, she can't do that! It's."
"Ron!" Hermione interrupted, "Let him finish."
"I know it will be difficult but I can see no other way around the situation." Dumbledore said sadly.
"The plan is," Professor Vablatsky interjected, "That I will be able to follow you into the dream and find its source of power."
"Once the source is found," Sirius finished for her- finally turning away from the window, "Then we can eliminate it, and hopefully cut the link between you and Voldemort forever."
Hermione let the information seep in, plunged in cold and cruel dread. To go back? Back into the chamber? Hear that voice again? Look into those clod yellow eyes? It was too much.
"Hermione?" Dumbledore was asking.
"Yes," She said.
"There is one other thing: something that could turn the entire war to our advantage if you could do it?" The Headmaster said quietly. Hermione felt Ron's grip on her shoulder tighten.
"What do you want me to do?" Hermione said, already resolved to do what he wanted no matter how much peril it might place her in.
"You must understand that you aren't being forced, we will understand if you don't want to do it." Dumbledore said softly.
"Hermione." Ron started to say.
"What is it?" Hermione said firmly stopping him.
"We could stop your connection to Voldemort with just one dream," Dumbledore said, "But if you were to visit for several nights we could determine where Voldemort is."
"It would be an advantage" Remus said coming out from the shadows. Hermione forgot her own uncertainty for a second when she saw his face- a patchwork of bruises!
"But you don't have to do it," Professor Vablatsky said.
Hermione looked to Harry, whose expression was unreadable; if it where he in her place, Hermione knew that Harry would do it: he would face up to the dream. She looked away from him, up to Ron whose sapphire blue eyes where begging her not to do it- to save herself.
She looked to Remus: his battered face a sign of his bravery, to Sirius who had been in Azkaban for half of his life thanks to Voldemort then to professor Vablatsky who had suffered some unknown hardship during the last war.
Finally she looked back to Dumbledore: he had always sacrificed so much and been so brave. She wasn't like him- or any of the others, but if she could help she would.
"I'll do it," She said quietly.
The room erupted into chaos: Ron began shouting at her- his words of discouragement lost in the din. The three teachers had come together and Remus seemed to be in the middle of an argument between Sirius and Professor Vablatsky. Harry sat silent- locked in silent conversation with Dumbledore.
Hermione shut her eyes- images of the snake instantly flashing up in her mind: the cold cruel voice drowning out the arguments.
"Stop!" Dumbledore's voice sounded, sending her eye lids flying open and stopping the arguments.
"Hermione," He said softly, "We'll start tomorrow, come straight here. Yes, you may accompany her Harry, Ron. I've given the school a week's holiday there's too few teachers."
The three nodded.
"No, if you go down to Professor McGonagall's office I think she has some duties."
Hermione allowed herself to be lead gently out by Ron, her mind still in overdrive.
*
Cassandra sat a few metres away from the whomping willow- the little spot surrounded by other trees that the Marauders and their female companion's had favoured. Her mind was so lost in the past that she did not notice the approaching vision as it entered her mind soon though she was fully aware that what she was seeing was no memory but a glimpse of the future.
She was surrounded by fog. Everything seemed to be engulfed in a thick blackish mist that threatened to choke her. Where was she?
The castle, she realised, Hogwarts. The great stone entrance hall now appeared before her the wooden doors torn away, left smouldering in the hall way. Bodies scattered the stone steps and destruction was everywhere.
In one corner a slender red haired girl sat sobbing, crying out- "They can't do it! He's too powerful!"
Panic flushed Cassandra- this couldn't be the future- Hogwarts was a haven, Voldemort and his deatheaters couldn't get in! The stench of death was everywhere- students and teachers alike lay dead.
*
He found her there: sitting rigid as a stick. Her hair blown up around her- despite the windless day. Her eyes the same desperate violet that filled them whenever she was being plagued by visions.
She was screaming in desolation: whatever she saw was obviously bad. Sirius felt the impulse to go over and be ready to comfort her when it was over- yet those days where gone.
Suddenly her hair fell down, her body relaxed and her eyes turned back to blue-grey.
Impulsively- he rushed to wrap his arms around her and sit her down on one of the large boulders that they had always hung around in their school days.
* She was sobbing uncontrollably- this was not uncommon after a vision, and she trembled violently.
Suddenly he was there- like once before- his arms around her- comforting her. Confused she looked up- into the alarmed eyes of Sirius Black once more.
It was so alien and yet so familiar to sob into his chest, to be drawn back into the present by strong loving arms. To be made feel warm and safe once more by Sirius Black: a second chance?
She knew it wasn't right- they weren't the idealistic teenagers they had been, they weren't the same young people who had stood beside their best friends as they were married and they weren't the same two who had been chosen as god-parents for their son: Harry.
She should pull away, she didn't deserve his comfort- his pity- least of all his love.
*
It felt like they were teenagers back at Hogwarts as he held her tight- waiting for her sobbing to die down. He didn't know how she would respond; she had been so cold, icy. He didn't suppose he had been much better.
In the past she might have drifted off to sleep, soothed by his embrace. He knew how much the vision wore her out.
He wasn't at all surprised when; as soon as her sobbing was under-control she pulled away, and turned her face from him.
"What happened to you" He asked softly. "Do you still think I'm guilty? I understand if you do, I mean who would believe Wormtail was evil if they hadn't seen it for themselves?"
She spun to face him then. Her lovely blue-grey eyes full of guilt and regret.
"No." She said.
"Then what?" He asked.
"I."
"What?"
"I can't tell you," She replied.
"You've got no idea what it was like!" He exclaimed beginning to get angry, "That place- that prison! Stuck there all the time knowing I was innocent- knowing that poor Harry was stuck with those awful muggles!"
She looked down, a tear spilling down her snow-white cheek.
"Harry! Why didn't you take him? You're his godmother for crying out loud!"
She met his eyes then- "I tried! Dumbledore wouldn't let me- he said that as long as he was with the Dursley's he was safe and besides he couldn't have grown up knowing that everyone knew his name!"
It was his turn to look to the ground- his cheeks burning in shame: how could he think so little of her?
"Then why Cassandra? What is it?" He said, grabbing her arms forcing her to look him directly in the eyes.
"I'm no better than Wormtail," She said her voice soft and frightened.
"You betrayed us too!" Sirius cried, incredulous, "And Dumbledore still trusts you?"
"No- nothing like that." Cassandra said horrified.
"Look, Cassandra," He said firmly, "I've gone though years of imprisonment for what happened back then, for years I couldn't grieve properly for my friends knowing that their real murderer was still out there free! The least you can do is tell me what you've done"
She pulled herself away standing up and turning her back to him.
"I saw it," She whispered, "I saw everything Sirius! Wormtail's deception, Voldemort killing Lily and James, baby Harry surviving and destroying Voldemort; I saw you being thrown into Azkaban: I saw it all before it happened."
Sirius couldn't speak: the shock was too much. Cassandra- his fiancée had known that their best friends where going to be killed, had known why their god-son would become world famous. She hadn't said anything: just let it happen.
"When?" Was all he could think of saying.
"When I first held Harry at the hospital. I was the first you know? You and James where on a mission and the nurse gave me him- to take to Lily."
"That was almost a year before it happened!" Sirius said angrily. "You could have stopped everything! Lily and James would still be here today. You could have saved them!"
"You can't change something that comes to you in a vision!" She said miserably, "Dreams are warning, visions come true!"
"You kept it all to yourself! You knew I was innocent!"
"I told Dumbledore." She said softly, "What proof did I have? If I had come out and said you were innocent: who would believe me? We were engaged- it would have looked as if I was emotionally unstable."
"That night," Sirius said with a far off look in his black eyes, "Dumbledore accepted so easily that I was innocent- sent Harry and Hermione off with her time-turner to rescue me! Because of you?"
She nodded.
"You just stayed silent all of these years."
She nodded.
"Couldn't Dumbledore have said."
"No," She interrupted, "Dumbledore had already saved other suspected death eaters- people where beginning to get suspicious besides the evidence pointing to your guilt was too great. Then he managed to get Severus Snape redeemed..."
"Snape!" Sirius cried outraged, "Snape was saved and not me!"
"I'm sorry." She whispered, "I'm so sorry."
With that she fled- running away from him back towards the castle. He was left with his own thoughts whirling around his head: confused and unhappy.
*
Hermione had just finished the extra duties Professor McGonagall had given her when Ron came seeking her out.
"Oh Hermione!" He said, "Why did you agree?"
"I have no choice Ron," She replied calmly.
"Please don't go through with it, I couldn't bear it if something where to happen to you." He said grabbing hold of her wrist as she tried to move away from hum.
She looked up into his dizzyingly blue eyes, what was he saying?
"I've got to." She said, suddenly feeling tears well up in her eyes.
"Oh Hermione," He said again, hugging her- this wasn't normal for him. Ron usually kept out of her personal space.
She allowed herself to be held- not thinking about what it meant. It just felt safe being in Ron Weasley's arms.
When he moved away and they began walking back to the common room Hermione felt such a terrible sense of loss: as if she has just left the place she belonged.
*
Hours later- Sirius sat at his office staring into space when there was a knock- Remus came in not waiting for an answer.
"She's just told me." Remus said, tears in his own eyes.
"I don't believe she knew!" Sirius said desolately.
"She said when she was at school- her gift was not a gift at all but a curse." Remus said pensively.
"I don't know what to do!" Sirius said looking lost.
"Forgive her?" Remus asked.
Sirius shook his head, "I already have- oh Remus I'd give anything to have her back!"
"I know." Remus said patting his old friend sympathetically on the back.
"I can forgive her: but will Harry find it so easy?"
*
AN- Well what did you think? I found Cassandra's confession hard but there you go. Anyway please review and send me your thoughts or questions.