Note: Melissa is Hermione's real mother: for a full account of who she is, reread chapter 7: Riddle's Truth. I hope that you will have a better idea of who Stacy is this chapter, but I'm not going to come out and actually say who she is out of the story until the end, but by then it should be obvious.
CHAPTER 11: Mysteries in the Calm Before the End
"It's getting late," Salazar said abruptly when he saw Hermione and Severus wanted to talk more about Stacy.
"Actually," he corrected himself, looking at his watch. "It is late. I'll bring you to your rooms now." He pressed a button on his watch and the three of them teleported to another pat of the house.
This part was modeled a bit after the original structure of the building, albeit a bit larger. There were two rooms, then a bathroom, then another room. On the other side there were three more room and in the middle of the wall was a picture of the Durselys. It had stayed at Artemis's request.
" 'It was there house,'" Salazar could recall her saying. " 'It's only polite that we remember that.'" And so there the picture stayed. Salazar had a feeling Artemis just wanted a picture of Petunia Dursely: apparently Harry and his aunt had become closer after his fifth year, or more accurately, after Sirius's death. Artemis just wanted to honor the woman who would have been her great aunt for that.
"This is your room, Hermione, and, oh, damn," Salazar said, looking crestfallen.
"What now?" Hermione asked, thinking something was seriously wrong.
"Um," Salazar said, fidgeting a little. "You don't mind sharing a room, do you?"
"No," Severus answered smoothly, looking a Hermione to check. She nodded. "But next time you plan on having company, make sure you can count above six." Salazar disappeared.
"Six?" Hermione asked, opening the door.
"There are six rooms," Severus explained. "But eight of us."
"Oh," Hermione said, understanding. The room was nice, a tan rug covered the floor and there was a reasonably nice bookcase. It connected to the bathroom and surprisingly there was a small balcony. However there was one problem.
"He never said when we agreed to share a room," Severus said finally. "That he wanted us to share a bed as well." Many dirty thoughts flashed through Hermione's mind.
"I could sleep on the floor," she said hastily.
"No need," Severus said. "No one shall be sleeping on the floor tonight." With a wave of his wand a smaller bed appeared. "Now do you want the bathroom first?"
* * * * * * * * * THE DARK PALACE * * * * * * * * *
"What's this?" Stacy wondered. To all appearances it seemed to be a muggle elevator, but things like that supposedly didn't work here, whether it was Hogwarts or the Dark Palace. She pressed the button on the wall and the doors slid open. She observed the inside with cool disinterest. From the ceiling hung heads, some old and rotted, some appearing fresh, a day old at most. Bodies, both headless and those with theirs still attached. Small and large coffins lined the back wall, just before them was a long table, jars filled with a green liquid stacked upon it. She knew that body parts the death eaters deemed worth saving were in them.
Stacy was revolted a bit, but not because of what it was, but rather what it proved. The death eaters were heartless, and this was what they did to a slave who displeased them.
"You will pay, Tom," Stacy whispered. "And for everyone you've hurt or killed you'll suffer and eternity, mark me words." She stepped back and pressed the button, then continued onward.
* * * * * * * * *
"So, what'd you think?" Artemis asked. Harry looked at it hard.
"It should do," he replied.
"Good," she said, placing a black sheet over it. "Now tell no one."
"All right," he answered seriously.
"Now come on," Artemis said. "I'll take you to your room." And they disappeared.
* * * * * * * * *
"Hey," Ryan said as Artemis and Harry appeared. Sirius grinned.
"Hey," Artemis responded. A second later all the Weaslys and the Malfoys (just know Padma is to be considered a Weasly, all right?) appeared beside them.
"It seems a lot smaller in here with all these people," Vickie complained.
"Get over it," Cherie snapped.
"Make me," Vickie retorted.
"I will," Cherie said nastily.
"Now children, save your bickering 'til later," Ryan said, waving his finger. "Tsk, tsk, your parents would be very upset with you."
"Of course we would," Ginny said. "Now which room is mine?" Soon everyone from the present had been shown his or her rooms, Harry and Sirius agreeing to share. Oddly enough, in their room there were two beds (leaving us to wonder what point Salazar was trying to get across…).
"G'night," Artemis and Ryan said, Vickie and Cherie still to upset with each other.
" 'Night," Everyone from the present responded and then shut the doors to their rooms.
# Everyone come down here now # a voice they hadn't heard in a year commanded in the members' of the Order minds.
"Could it be him?" Vickie asked.
"It sounds like him," Cherie said in uncertainty.
"Could be a trick," Ryan warned.
"We won't find out from here," Artemis reminded them. "We should go and check it out." Nodding in agreement, they all vanished to another part of the house, a part that was rarely used and for good reason. It was all that was left of the original building: in the reconstruction, somehow the foundation had been pushed down, far into the earth. Down there it was dark, Artemis had no way to link the central wiring to that part, and it was damp. The little moisture that was left on earth, with rainfall now so scarce, had seeped through the walls and moss and other things grew happily. Air was perhaps not scarce down there, but it was not pleasant to breath, tasting of wet plants and wood, not to mention smoke, though no one was sure why, so the remaining Order made a point to avoid having to go down there.
Except, of course, when they did not want to risk being over heard. No sound came out of there, and during the beginning of Voldemort's reign, Cherie and Vickie could remember that if the Order's headquarters, Grimmwauld at the time, was too far away, as the building had begun on 4PD, the Order members would go and hide there, never once had anyone been discovered.
And of course, down there was where Stacy had been born, if that's how you want to view it.
Now, as the last survivors of the Order appeared down there they were nervous. Unless Salazar really was down there, really was back to normal, then someone was in the house and knew about the only truly safe part in it.
"Salazar?" Artemis called quietly. "Are you there?" A hand went around her mouth and another around her waist.
* * * * * * * * *
Hermione came out of the bathroom, now in the pajamas she had found.
"It's funny," she remarked. "How everything here is so much a like as in our time, but no matter how similar it looks, it feels different. Severus?" She looked around but couldn't see him.
"Severus!"
"I'm out here," he said. Feeling foolish she walked out on to the balcony and stood beside him. Severus was leaning against the railing, looking up into the black sky. He wore long, green pajama bottoms but no shirt. Feeling extraordinarily like a normal teenage girl, she looked at him, her eyes drifting over hi top, observing his build. He was strong, much more muscular then she would have guessed, and scars marked his chest and back. Rather than perhaps seem repulsive, they merely added to his quality, an added mystery. She wondered where he had gotten them all, maybe from death eater meetings? At any rate, Hermione found him very pleasing to look at.
"So," he said, the corners of his mouth twitching. "Where you worried about me?" Hermione decided to go with the honest approach.
"Yes," she said simply. He looked startled at her answer.
"Hermione," Severus said firmly. "I don't want you to think that just because we supposedly end up falling it love, you don't have to like me. You could do better than an old, heartless bastard."
"Could I?" she replied softly. He looked at her, and unasked question in his eyes. "Severus I don't like you because of what Selina said. I don't even like you because Dumbledore made you my guardian or the fact that you are, were, my teacher. To be honest, I like you because of how you are, and from what I can tell, the real Severus is not who he shows to eveyrone else."
"How can you be sure?" he whispered.
"I'm a good judge of character," Hermione said smiling. "Now we should go to bed."
"All right," Severus said with a small smile that made him look…nice. "You know what Hermione," he said as they walked in. "I don't think we're going to make it back in time for graduation." Hermione got into the bed Severus had conjured up and laughed.
"I think you're right, Severus," she said. He started to protest, saying he should sleep in that bed, after all, he had been the one to create it, but she shook her head and ordered, "Bed. Now."
"Yes, oh master," he replied jokingly and for a moment Hermione could see how she ended up falling in love with him.
"Good night, Severus," she said softly. For a minute there was no reply and she began to wonder if he had already fallen asleep.
Then, "Good night, Hermione." In the darkness she smiled.
* * * * * * * * * IN THE DARK PALACE * * * * * * * * *
Stacy turned a corner and found herself looking at a corridor filled with portraits of men, woman, and animal who were most certainty not evil. She smirked. Apparently even wit hall the dark power the death eaters and dark lord had put into remodeling Hogwarts, they had not been able to entirely wipe out the castle's good.
Good. There was no good in the world.
* Flashback *
Groggily, she opened her eyes. Wait, why was she here? No! She was dead, she was not supposed to have to deal with this world anymore.
"Hello, Melissa," Severus said. He stood at the foot of her bed.
"No," she croaked.
"What was that?" Severus asked, slightly apologetic.
"Not Melissa," she hissed. His eyes widened a little.
"Have it your way," he said in a cool manor.
"Why- alive?" she demanded.
"We needed you," he answered, a strange look, one almost of pity in his eyes.
"How?" she coughed. Severus sighed.
"Have you ever heard of the spell, Inventios l'Arios?" he asked.
"No," she spat. He smirked.
"I thought not. Well your precious tome," her eyes narrowed, "Cast that spell on you when you were pregnant. He did not know one of the effects of the spell, however."
"What-was-it?" she asked stiffly.
"In a sense, it bound your soul to the mortal world forever," he said, looking at her straight in the eye. "However, your body was dead, so we gave you a new one and then summoned your spirit to it."
"What?" she asked, horrified. He got something out of his pocket and held it up. It was a mirror.
Hesitantly, she looked into it. A pale, thin, blond-haired, blue-eyed woman stared back. She may not be Melissa, but she at least expected to look like her. She did not know who this woman was.
"Who-am-I?" she whispered. He put the mirror back into his pocket.
"Since you no longer wish to be Melissa, who you are is up to you to decide," he informed her, his eyes observing her coolly. "If it helps, though, your new body, genetically, would be traced back to myself, my wife, our children, the two Potters, the two Blacks, the three Weaslys, and the three Malfoys. Perhaps that will help you decide." Then he turned and left.
* End Flashback *
"I am Stacy," she whispered to the empty halls. "The one who had no life and no death. I am eternity."
* * * * * * * * *BACK AT 4PD * * * * * * * * * *
Hermione tossed and turned in her bed. Her dreams had turned into nightmares and she saw Hogwarts burning green, covered by the dark mark, she saw everyone lying dead on the ground, their blood creating a small pond, covering their bodies. And then she saw and endless black, and the black was the worst of all.
Within it was nothing, for everything was gone, and it moved toward her, waiting to consume one final meal.
She woke with a start, gasping for breath, trying to calm herself. Hermione looked over at Severus and saw he was still asleep, but clearly not enjoying it anymore than she had. So she did something that before yesterday she wouldn't even have considered: she got up, took a blanket with her, and lay down beside Severus. Pulling the blanket over both of their bodies she tucked herself under Severus's head and felt him slowly stop shaking. And without realizing it she too, felt asleep.
* * * * * * * *
"Hey," a familiar voice said. The hand came off Artemis's mouth. "Didn't you trust me?"
"Salazar!" Artemis cried in delight. She twisted around in his embrace and kissed him. Ryan, Cherie, and Vickie gave the couple a few minutes. After all, Salazar hadn't really been around for an entire year.
"Why did you call us, Salazar?" Ryan asked when he could contain himself no longer.
"Stacy is in the Dark Palace," Salazar answered grimly. "And you know what that means."
"Yes," Artemis said sadly. "We have to…"
* * * * * * * * * NEXT MORNING, DARK PALACE * * * * * * * * *
Selina had gotten no sleep that night, far to frightened, trying to figure a way to get out. But even when morning came 'round she could not move, so any plans she had were useless.
The cell's door creaked open and in stepped Lucius Malfoy who seemed to be in a particularly bad mood and Peter Pettigrew.
"Sure you can handle this," Wormtail asked, sniggered. "Or should I get someone who's unconscious as well as paralyzed?"
"Shut up!" Lucius growled. "Something was different about that girl. I'll have no problem with this one. Anyway, a little fun should brighten up my day." He eyes Selina, lust and cruelty mixed in his eyes. If she could have screamed, she would of. But instead Selina was forced to watch as the two came closer and closer to her, praying this wasn't the end.
* * * * * * * * *
I am so happy! Thank you so much for all your reviews, I can't believe I 46! All my standard comments, all ideas on a girl for Harry, and any questions you might have, are the same. Next Chapter: In the other chapters 9 & 10 I started to explain Dumbledore's part in this story, but next chapter you will get the whole story. I can only hope it is as shocking as I hope it will seem. Also, Stacy is explained more fully- there's more to her then what I've given away. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, PLEASE REVIEW! ~ Remo