Title: The Myth of Innocence
Author: Catalina Royce
Disclaimer: These stories are based on characters and situations created
and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books,
Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made
and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Rating: R
"Is it a demon?"
"No."
"A ghost?"
A slight pause... "Sort of. I think."
"You don't know?"
"Not for certain."
Hermione's voice became shrill. "You expect us to perform an exorcism on someone when we don't even know what's possessed her? Are you insane? Do you know what that can do? An exorcism is dangerous enough at the best of times."
A very male sigh of exasperation. "Yes, Granger, I do know what can happen. But while you've come up with absolutely zilch to help us, I've been researching my facts. Virginia is possessed by a witch called Adaline."
"Maybe Adaline's a benign force?" There was such a hopeful tone to the boy's voice. She recognised it as the redhead's. Adaline peeked around the slightly open door.
"Oh sure," the first male barked. "She used to lure males in and when they swore their love for her, she had their heads chopped off. She's a right pussy cat, can't you tell?"
The redhead's voice became anxious. "Harry, don't you remember when Voldemort left Quirrel?"
A short, sharp silence. The female spoke again. "We can't presume that, Ron. I mean, there are different types of possession. She could just be inhabiting the body and not have even touched Ginny. I know that much. There are two types of possession. The other one...well, let's not think about it."
"But what if it is the other one?"
The last male, the one with black hair spoke up. "We do it anyway. We all love her equally, but we can't afford to have Adaline and Voldemort out there together. From what Draco has said, Adaline is ruthless. What if Voldemort and Adaline were to pair up?"
The redhead spoke. "Harry, you can't honestly ask me to put my sister in jeopardy because there's a chance that maybe whatever has taken her over will join with Voldemort."
"I'm not asking, Ron." The black haired boy looked at the other three teenagers in the room. "I'm saying, we might have to. We need to be prepared for that."
Once again silence drifted through them.
Adaline retreated from the door and made her way back to her hospital bed. So they wanted to exorcise her, did they? She shouldn't be surprised. After all, for most of her life her family had scorned her. Why should she expect this time to be different?
As she pulled the blankets up over her, she bit her lip. But Thom – Draco – why would he betray her? Perhaps he wasn't Thom after all. Perhaps he was just..just this century's version of Thom. And her body was this century's version of her. Perhaps that was all life was – just a repetition of a person's life until they got it right. Perhaps before her there was someone else who got it even more wrong. Perhaps her predecessor had never even met Thom.
The thought of living without having ever met Thom chilled her to the core. She relied on him so much, and he on her. He had loved her so much. Almost as much as this century's Thom had loved this century's Adaline.
And she'd killed that chance of happily ever after, for them at least. Caught up in their own love, Thom and Adaline had destroyed another love before it could ever reach fullness.
Adaline choked back a sob. They could have been happy. They could have learnt what it meant to survive when no one wanted you to. They could have been the ones to break the cycle of unhappiness that all the past and future Adalines and Thoms had gone through.
And because of her, they wouldn't be able to. Her soul was fused with this one; the only way for her to stay in this body. If they destroyed her...it was too much a burden thinking about.
And if her actions and the consequences spilled over onto the next generation of Adaline and Thom? What if they had come full circle, and Adaline and Thom never met, instinctively knowing that to be together would be too painful to even try? Adaline would always be trapped in her own myth of innocence, unable to escape from the family that loved and at the same time hated her, unable to find out why she longed for someone to sweep her off her feet and show her the world outside of her locked cage of purity.
And that was what it was. A cage. Broken as soon as the right person came along. But what if that myth was never destroyed?
Adaline wiped her hand over her eyes. She would figure it out. This century's Adaline would love Thom, and they would survive for the future. They just had to. She wouldn't let them collapse.
The four entered the room, a heavy silence between them. She looked over them, a chill shuddering up her spine. They would destroy her. And she...she would aid them, just to leave it possible for herself and Thom to one day find love with a happily ever after attached. She would destroy herself in the name of love.
But first, she just wanted to pretend that Thom – Draco – loved her. And in that pretence, she'd give away the secret to her destruction, and hope that she had enough time to save her counterpart.
Forcing the sadness and guilt back, she gave the performance of her life. Her eyes lit up and her mouth smiled at the four. "I need to talk to Draco."
Draco. Draco. He would always be Thom to her.
Draco didn't care about the risk to the wizarding world; if it had been Virginia instead of Adaline he would have joined her in whatever havoc-reeking she'd have wished. But she wasn't, and that was the point. She wasn't Virginia, and she didn't belong in this life. She had stolen Virginia from him, and for that he would make her pay.
Virginia and he had conquered so much to be together. She'd beaten Ginny, she'd overcome prejudices, they'd been able to ignore the Trio and had overcome jealousy. They'd started the beginning of a life together, a real life that would heal them both.
Would he and Virginia ever be together again?
Draco tried to ignore the doubts rising in his mind. They'd find a way, no matter what happened. They would find a way. He had to believe that; there were no other options.
The Trio left him with her, and she slid herself off the bed. If he ignored the way she spoke – her vowels and her speech were different to both Virginia and Ginny's – he could almost tell himself that she loved him. I lie, perhaps, but it was the only way to live at this moment.
"What did you want to talk to me about?"
Her eyes drifted down to his chest in a gesture of submission. "I wanted to talk to you. I miss you. I haven't seen you for…an eternity."
He smiled softly, a wistful quality in his eyes. "I know, love. I missed you too." He missed Virginia. All of her. Even her sarcastic and caustic comments. They hadn't been together long enough, goddamn it. They should have had more time.
"Thom," she whispered, "I know it's you. I just wanted to ask you. You mentioned once that they'd only ever be able to destroy us by allowing us to hear the cry of a Kiji whilst speaking the chant of Viduus." She hoped that she wasn't being too obvious about giving away the path to her destruction. The last thing she needed was to make him believe that it had been too easy, for him to become suspicious and not believe it would work. "Do you think that may still be possible? I..I don't want to die again, Thom. Leaving you once was hard enough."
He hugged her, and she thought she would die from the bittersweet feelings coursing through her. Would he ever forgive her for hurting his Adaline? She hoped so. Never, in any lifetime would she want Thom to hate her. His hand stroked up her back rhythmically, and he muttered soothing nonsense words which were so incredibly powerful, for all their inanity. If she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine it was her Thom.
"It'll be okay, Adaline. We'll always be together, no matter what."
She wondered if her Thom had ever made it to another life. He had given so much to her, and all she wanted now was to belong to him. To be with him.
She didn't like this world much anymore. There was too much that she didn't know, too many people who didn't know her. No one took an interest, and even this Thom wasn't exactly like her Thom. He knew her so less well. Perhaps it was the beginning of their romance.
A romance that she, Adaline, had cut short.
Draco stared down at the girl in his arms, chest feeling like steel bands were wrapped around it. He'd seen her look of desolation just seconds before, and couldn't understand it. Perhaps she missed her family? His thoughts were interrupted as Adaline pulled back and looked him square in the eye. "I need to use the library. I need to get there. Can you help me? Madame...she would not let me out unaccompanied."
"Why do you need to use it?"
What to say? She couldn't tell him about the division of souls that she was hoping to research; he would be suspicious. It seemed she had hesitated a fraction too long, so she replied quickly, not thinking over her answer. "I'm looking for something to cement me here. For some reason I feel...almost detached with this soul. Like I'm being divided from the soul I took over. I need to research it, in case I have."
He nodded. "I don't think Madame Pomfrey will let you leave the hospital wing, but I will go to the Library for you and ask Madame Pince about…the divisions of souls, was it?" He'd have to tell the Trio that they'd need to act quickly, while Adaline and Virginia were still capable of being separated without losing Virginia. He'd go to the Library, too, and come back almost empty handed, to prevent her doing anything that would weld Virginia and Adaline's souls together.
"Thank you, my love. I am always grateful for your support." Draco would help her, just as Thom had always helped her.
She knew now that she never should have tried to live longer than her lifetime, and she had to find a way to fix things.
"What in hell is a Kiji?"
"I have no clue, Ron, what do you think I'm trying to find out?"
"Honestly, Hermione, with you, you never know."
She let her quill drop onto the table. "Well, I don't exactly have much to go on, do I? All we know is that it has a cry, which we presume makes it a bird. I can't find it in any of my textbooks – not even Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them, and everyone knows that it's the one that carries the most mythological species known to wizard kind!" Her voice had risen steadily until her voice pierced the quite hush of the library.
Ron stared at her, then plonked down on the chair beside her, clapping one of his hands onto her shoulder. She could feel the heat of his long fingers through her robe, and for a second she closed her eyes, before sighing and apologising. She could never stay mad at him, no matter how much she wanted to. He was just so adorable and naive. He could never understand what he had done wrong, and his face when he got angry was so cute – not that she'd ever tell him that.
"I'm sorry. I'm just," she shrugged, dislodging his hand. "You know, edgy." She looked back down at the book, trying to ignore the images of cutesy couple scenes with Ron that were running through her mind.
He'd be a fantastic boyfriend – totally obtuse, of course – but so caring and tender, and even slightly…clumsy? The thought made frown. She had no right imagining Ron as anything other than a friend.
His hand brushed a piece of her hair back from her face. She looked up with a frown, and his forefinger traced the lines made on her forehead. "You frown too much, Hermione. If you're going to get wrinkles, they should at least be laughter lines."
She sent him a wan smile. "I hate to remind you, Ron, but these days there isn't a heck of a lot to smile about."
"I know," his voice was soft and oh, so gentle. She had to repress a soft shiver of awareness – of hope. He was just in one of his moods, of course. Come tomorrow, they'd be back to 'good old pals', the entire scene forgotten. "But I don't like seeing you sad, 'Mione."
She knew what would follow. His speech about her being another sister to him, about how she'd always be his best friend. She didn't honestly think she could bare it, not with Ginny being in jeopardy, and their NEWTs only a few months away, all of them facing a life after Hogwarts, with all its uncertainties.
They were interrupted by a short cough. Hermione looked up to see Cho Chang hovering uncertainly near their table. "Have you...have you seen Harry?" She asked shyly.
Hermione wondered cynically what it was this time. The new flying instructor [Madame Hooch had been promoted to some mysterious and as-yet undefined position in the Games and Sports section of the Ministry of Magic at the beginning of the year] and Harry were always conducting an off-again on-again flirtation that sometimes bordered on an actual relationship. Neither Hermione nor Ron bothered to keep up with their petty arguments anymore, instead just shrugging and agreeing with whatever Harry said about her at the time. They made sure, however, to be totally non-committal about Cho. After an incident where Hermione and Harry had spent the last 12 hours bitching about Cho, Harry had turned around and accused Hermione of trying to destroy their half-relationship.
"No, sorry, Cho." Hermione rifled through the pages of her book again. There had to be something there, surely.
"Oh." Cho just stood there, and Hermione looked up, an irritation lurking in her eyes. Cho was a nice person, really, but Hermione saw no reason to include her totally in whatever they did. Hermione's nails started a rhythm on the desktop, and Ron hastily covered her hand with his. Hermione's blood pressure shot up, her pulse thumping through her veins.
She had to calm herself, now.
"What are you looking for?" Cho asked.
Plastering a smile on her face, Hermione muttered, "We're looking for a description of a Kiji."
Cho's eyes widened, and a true smile broke over her face. Hermione started to glean what it was Harry saw in her. When Cho wasn't moping about what a horrible life she'd had, she was really quite pretty. "But I know what that is. My family is Chinese, of course, but we have some relatives in Japan. A Kiji is a type of bird. It's a pheasant, said to be the soul of a woman that's died."
"Of course!" Her mind taking a mental step to the side, Hermione could see perfectly well how that would work. She jotted down the description, then smiled up at Cho. "I honestly don't know where Harry is, sorry. Perhaps he's down at the Great Hall? He seems to eat a lot, these days," she joked weakly.
Cho nodded her thanks and left silently. Hermione went over all the information she had, piecing together the facts. It was a few seconds before she realised that Ron's hand hadn't moved from its position atop hers. She looked at him in shock, noting that he was staring down at their hands with some surprise. "Ron?" She asked warily.
"I never noticed how small your hands were, 'Mione."
Somehow, the situation had shifted without her realising it. She tried to shrug it off, tried to ignore the hope in her heart. "That's what happens when you're Ron Weasley and your hands are growing as fast as everything else." Dear god, she hadn't meant to say that. It sounded so...so sleazy! The innuendo there was so obvious, but she hadn't meant it, she really hadn't!
He laughed. She blushed, grinning with embarrassment. Her watched her smiling, his free hand coming up to trace her lips. "That's better." His voice was so much huskier than usual. She could feel herself melting. His thumb was still resting on her lip, and it seemed only natural to make a slight movement with her lip, as if about to bite it, and draw his thumb into her mouth.
What in hell was she doing? A voice screamed at her. And, then again, there was another little devil inside her, giving her confidence. After all, Ron hadn't pulled away, had he? In fact, those were his hands coming up to frame her face, his lips drawing ever nearer. His mouth kissing her.
The kiss was short, just a peck that lasted a second. But a second was long enough to change things between them irrevocably.
He kissed her again, softly, before sitting back with a sigh. He ran his hand through his hair, messing it all up. "Hell, Hermione, I'm sorry."
With a frown, she turned back to her work muttering, "Don't be."
He slung his arm around her shoulders. "We'll talk about this after we get Ginny back, okay 'Mione?"
"Okay, Ron." She smiled.
"Good." He checked his book bag, then looked up at her. "Got all the information we need?"
"Yes." Was her weak reply.
"Let's go then." They walked out in a friendly but at the same time tense silence. Both of them knew something had happened in the library, something so much more profound then just a few quick pecks. It was the beginning of something, definitely.
She could hear their voices outside the door; a muttering of echoes on stone. They'd be in the hospital wing, she was sure.
"Are we ready? Have we got everything?"
"Well, we've got the spell and the chook. That's all we need, right?"
"Yeah, apparently. And it's a pheasant, Ron, not a chook." The girl's voice.
A pheasant. A spell. They were going to destroy her. No! It was too soon! She hadn't had a chance to figure it all out. She hadn't yet divided from the soul she'd welded herself to. She needed more time. They wouldn't do this, surely.
Then they walked in, determination on their faces. The boy with black hair was holding the Kiji, a handful of feathers in his grasp. Adaline gasped and shook her head. No, please, She thought, It is too soon. I haven't had a chance to make things right.
But then the black haired boy pulled out the bird's feathers, his face set in a mask. The Kiji squawked with indignation. Adaline whirled to face Thom. "You don't understand!" She cried in horror, as the girl started chanting words. "I haven't had enough time!"
"Dimitto."
Each time the bird squalled she felt a sharp pain in her head. She needed to make things right! She needed to tell them, to stop them before the killed the girl they loved! "I need more time!"
"Aeternus."
Her hold on this body was leaving her. She collapsed on the floor, sobbing with the effort of staying in this place. Please, she thought weakly, don't do it. I haven't made it right.
"Abicio." The last word was punctuated by the squawk of the Kiji, and Adaline was torn from the body. Ginny's body fell unconscious, slumped on the floor. Draco picked her up tenderly and laid her down on her bed. Virginia would be all right now, he told himself. They hadn't had time to weld together. She'd be all right.
Blaise walked in, his face fresh, totally devoid of any of the havoc the other four had been going through. Because he, at least, had not been a party to their turmoil, to their decision. Blaise wasn't blind, however. He looked from Harry, still holding the Kiji, to Ron, to Hermione, then finally to Draco, whom had Virginia cradled tenderly in his arms, his face full of doubt and a painful, desolate hope.
Blaise's harsh voice shot through the group. "What the fuck have you done?"
And somewhere within the bruised and battered body of Miss Weasley, a consciousness slowly uncurled itself from its rest, roused by the sudden emptiness within her body. It took note quickly, before sliding back into the deep abyss it had used to protect itself from the world.
Author's Note: *laughs* What can I say? When it comes to Ron-Hermione, I'm just a softie. I didn't plan to write their 'romance', as such, it just appeared. Anyway, I had such a good time writing this chapter, and I hope you enjoyed it, too. A few explanations in regards to the method of destroying Adaline;
First of all, not an exorcism. I was looking down that path, but it had so many bad connotations to it that I decided I'd use a magical solution rather than a religious one. The definition of a Kiji [taken from pantheon.org -- great place for information.] is:
A bird (pheasant) which may be the soul of a woman who has died.
And the definition of Viduus is the following:
The Roman deity who separates soul from the dead body.
I decided to combine the two, and, thus, the spell.
As always, props and thanks go to: Nicole, my beta reader, for a) beta reading the story, and b) Coming up with the title for the chapter [because she's so much more imaginative than me when it comes to that.]; Qiana, for listening to my mad ideas; and last, but definately not least, those who review my stories: You guys are the ones who get me motivated when I feel lost within a story.
Important: I have just uploaded my Harry Potter website. It's a collaboration between myself, Qiana Elfsong, Nicole, and Jiwwy. However, at the present moment, only my stuff has been uploaded. Check it out at . It has all my old stuff, as well -- at least, the stuff that I have. All my stories will be uploaded there first from now on, so keep checking back to the updates page for news!