A/N:
Just so everybody knows, and it is explained more in the chapter, HERMIONE is now ANASTASIA. You'll see why she wants to be called that and why, therefore, I have to call her that. I know it can be confusing with all the different characters, but I'll put a list of all the characters in the story at the end of the chapter, to try to stave off that confusion.
Um, I guess I owe a really long and heartfelt apology to anyone who liked this story, mostly in part because I haven't updated this story in 2 years (!!). All I can say is I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Here is your 4,800 word chapter as a peace offering…
I took the cannonball down to the ocean
Across the desert from sea to shining sea
Love is a ghost train…
Remember everything…
When only memory remains…
Counting Crows
January 1997Draco was really quite put out. He thought he had been truly menacing, really. To be truthful, he was absolutely furious about what she had done to Hermione, but more than that, he had wanted to find out why Sirena had done those things. And so he had used his usual strategies: be charming, then, when you have the upper hand, bring in the ruthless and intimidating.
It was rather insulting that she had laughed at him.
"'No one disrespects a Malfoy'?" she laughed. "How perfectly quaint, son of Malfoy. You really believe that, don't you? Well, let me explain it to you, boy: Lord Voldemort may disrespect whomever he chooses. You are nothing compared to my greatness, boy, and disrespect to your family is hardly an issue here. The issue is of whether or not you will live to sire the 108th Malfoy. That is up to you, boy. Release me now, or die."
Draco raised an eyebrow. "Right," he said sarcastically. "I am so afraid of you. You with your pitiful fifth-year magic. And like you even know You-Know-Who; your little threat about his 'greatness' is kind of empty, little girl—"
Sirena laughed again. "'Little girl'? Boy, do not shame yourself with such talk. Surely you recognize Lord Voldemort when you see him?" Sirena spread her arms out.
This time, both of Draco's eyebrows went up.
Sirena threw out a hand and, palm facing Draco, lowered it carefully. Draco felt his knees bend on their own accord and buckle.
He now knelt before Sirena Brown, who glared at him imperiously. "No?" she asked. Then she smiled, a truly evil smile. "Perhaps not. I suppose that while I inhabit this body, I ought not to expect to be recognized. Honestly, child of Malfoy, did you really think that Sirena Brown could have done any of the things that I have accomplished in the last few days? Did you really think that Sirena Brown would have done any of these things?"
Draco's jaw dropped.
It's time, she decided. It's time to move on, move away from what I was. I am a new person; my name is Anastasia.
Yes, it was time for Hermione to move away and become Anastasia. This realization came to the Spencer family slowly, with Alex and Izzy, Anastasia's two youngest sisters knowing first. They knew that in order for Hermione to accept all that had happened she needed to accept that she was truly Anastasia Spencer.
As Hogwarts had been closed for the rest of her fifth year, Hermione/Anastasia spent the time between January and September getting to know her family better, more deeply. She moved wholly away from her already estranged Muggle parents, the Grangers, and became a true Spencer daughter. She learned, with the help of her new sisters and friends, how to laugh again, how to smile. The pain and guilt of Ron's death lessened with the months she spent with her family.
Harry Potter, having lost his better half, was inconsolable for the entire spring. Arthur Weasley had been sent to fetch Harry back to the Burrow shortly after Ron's death, and Harry had been living at the Burrow ever since. He couldn't face anyone else; his guilt was too strong. He knew that if Ron had not felt the need to prove himself to Harry, he would never have gone to Brown Manor. Harry sought refuge from the questioning outside world at the Burrow, in the arms of his Ginny. They had quite literally clung to each other since January, each one bracing the other against the storm of emotion that swept over them. Harry, in the beginning, had been worried that the Weasleys blamed him for Ron's death, but that had not been the case. Molly Weasley had told him simply, as he'd walked in the door two days after Ron died, "We're all in it together, love."
Harry, like Hermione, spent the summer healing.
Draco spent it locked in the bottommost dungeon of Malfoy Manor. Shortly after Lord Voldemort revealed himself to be inhabiting the body of Sirena Brown, Marcus Brown and Wormtail had physically axed their way through Draco's walls of protection and accosted him. Draco had little time to reflect on Voldemort's revelation because his father showed up at Brown Manor immediately. Draco watched, rendered immobile through Sirena's powers, as Voldemort declared Lucius to be a Death Eater worthy enough to host him. Lord Voldemort shed the host of Sirena Brown, leaving her tired, useless, and looking about five years older than she actually was. He inhabited the body of Lucius Malfoy and imprisoned both the strong-willed Sirena and the stronger-willed Draco in the dungeons.
It was definitely an eye-opening summer for Draco. With food and water only being brought to them sporadically by Pettigrew, and nothing at all to occupy their time, Draco and Sirena talked away the days, learning more and more about each other with each passing week. Draco learned of how her father betrayed her to the Dark Lord, how he sold his younger daughter as proof of his loyalty to Lord Voldemort. Voldemort had been excited to enter Hogwarts again, and as Sirena, he could move about freely. The Dark Lord was also captivated by Sirena's extraordinary powers. She had just learned how to channel her magic without using a wand, and he considered her to be one of the strongest witches he had ever come across. Voldemort was fascinated by the possibility that the Chosen One could be more powerful than she was.
Sirena explained to Draco that it took an incredible amount of power for Lord Voldemort to keep her under the Imperius Curse night-and-day for several months. She explained that Voldemort had had to slowly leech power from his Death-Eaters in order to keep control. Sirena confirmed Draco's suspicions that the time he had seen pleading in her eyes was one of the few times she had regained control of her body.
Draco was astounded, in turn, to learn of Voldemort's plans. The Dark Lord had amassed huge amounts of information at the beginning of his reign of terror in the months before Draco was born. In learning of the prophecy that the Aurors had spoken of at the Inquest, Voldemort quietly informed several of his closest Death Eaters that if he should fall, they needed to look for a child that fit the prophecy and remove it. Of course, Voldemort's intent was to have the baby killed, but his minions, frightened by the sudden destruction of their Master, snatched the first baby that came to mind: the new Spencer girl, who was rumored to have a very strong magical potential.
Sirena had learned, through her symbiosis with the Dark Lord, that Nott, Zabini, and Goyle, three of the nastiest Death Eaters, kidnapped the baby the Muggle way: physically. They used no magic, so no trace of them would ever be found. But instead of killing the baby, they dropped her off at a nearby orphanage. And this was how Hermione became a Granger and a Muggle.
Draco was astonished by the complete incompetence of the Death Eaters. He could not believe the explanation was so simple. And he had to know: "Does this mean that Hermione is not the Chosen One?"
Sirena laughed hollowly. "I kept trying to tell him. It is so unlikely that the Death Eaters actually snatched the right baby. I wonder if we'll ever know who the Chosen One really is."
They fell silent for a while. Draco was trying to think. Something was tugging at the back of his mind.
"Sirena?"
"Hm?"
"What do all the old myths say about the Chosen One?"
"Oh, there are several myths about the Chosen One. The prophecy started the whole business, but since then, people have been seeing things in dreams and the Seers, every once in a while, will predict something about it. The strongest thing that has come up since the original prophecy is that until the Chosen One realizes that they are the Chosen One, their powers will be extremely limited. I think that early on, many witches and wizards with little power were watched for signs of being the Chosen One until another Seer predicted that the level of power that the Chosen One would demonstrate would be so extraordinary, it would outrank any normal witch or wizard even before their Realization. They called it the Day Of Realization, by the way. The day when the Chosen One comes into their full power by truly recognizing themselves. They say that on that Day, the Chosen One will bend the earth with their power, destroying all evil and cleansing the magical world." Sirena looked thoughtful. "I wonder if we'll even be alive to see it, Draco."
Draco leaned his head back and smiled a little. God, this was just terrible. Sitting here in a dungeon, on the floor, not having anything to eat for the better part of two days, not having had a haircut in over a month, conversing on old mythology with the former handmaiden to the most evil power in the world. Draco shuddered to think of what his skin looked like after not being bathed for nearly six weeks.
The worst was over, though. The caffeine withdrawal had been excruciating, as had the tentative relationship between the two captives. She spent most of the first two weeks explaining to him just what, exactly, had been happening. And it had taken him several days to get over his mistrust. Sirena was, after all, the person that had kidnapped Hermione the second time, killed Ron Weasley, and pretty much driven his Hermione to suicidal depression. Or so he thought.
August, 1997
Anastasia Spencer was finally happy. She was finally happy. Her family loved her, and accepted her for who she was. She met so many new people though her sister Victoria, so many new friends. She finally felt like she belonged somewhere. She was no longer the third wheel of the Harry-and-Ron Show. She was no longer the boring bookworm. Hermione Granger was gone. Forever.
And on top of all of the new and exciting things that had stumbled into her life, there was Cal. Cal had been there, with her, every step of the way, on her summer of recovery. Cal was handsome, loving, caring, funny, sensitive, and kind, all of the things Draco could never hope to be. And Cal had never left her side, never abandoned her just when she needed him most. Unlike Draco.
Draco Malfoy was on Anastasia's mind very little these days. In the first few weeks after Ron's death she had pestered the Malfoy family as to his whereabouts, and had received no reply. Dumbledore could not find him, and she didn't know anyone else who even cared if Draco was still alive. She thought about him less and less as the weeks went on.
She was happy with the Spencers and with Cal. She loved being enveloped in that familial coziness that she had never experienced with the Grangers. It was something borne of blood, she was sure. And Anastasia was sure that she was starting to love Cal. He had not pushed her, had not tried to begin a relationship with her before she was ready for one. But he was there for her, and became one of her closest friends. She could not deny that she wanted them to be so much more. She wanted Cal.
Little did she know that it was all Cal could do to keep himself from under control when she was around. He knew he was in love with her, the sweet, innocent, caring girl that had been so devastated by the loss of her best friend. He had fallen for her over the summer; every time he saw her, there was something else about her that captivated him. He wanted to hold her, protect her, and love her until the day he died. But he would wait until she healed. He respected her enough to wait. His love was strong enough. He could wait for her forever. Or so he thought.
August 30, 1997
A clattering sound woke Draco. It followed immediately by the telltale whining and creaking of the heavy iron grate the separated the Brown's back dungeons from the ones closer to the door. The back dungeons, Draco thought, made the front ones look like The Savoy. He slept on a ratty pile of straw, for Christ's sake. He had never before slept on anything less than 2,000 thread count pure silk sheets. He was not fed anything, much less the exquisite delicacies that he was accustomed to. He was incredibly put out.
"Gee, Parvati, I don't know," came a hushed, worried voice. "I don't hear anything."
All at once, Draco and the now-awake Sirena Brown started hollering and yelling at the tops of their lungs. Draco preferred to think of his whimpers of "Oh God, to have coffee again!" as manly, authoritative demands.
Lavendar Brown and Parvati Patil appeared in front of Draco's cell. In the pitch-black darkness, it seemed as if they had come from nowhere.
"Oh, my God," gasped Parvati, stepping away. "You keep people down here?"
"Merlin's beard," said Lavendar, completely taken aback, "I had no idea… excuse me, sir, are you alright?"
"No, I am not 'alright' you dithering idiot," snapped Draco forcefully, "Unlock this cell instantly, or I will be forced to… well… trust me, it'll be bad."
"Oh," said Lavendar, fumbling with the set of keys in her hand, "I suppose one of these might unlock you, sir."
"It's a one-key-fits-all lock, Lav," said Sirena dryly, from the cell next to Draco's.
"Sirena!" Lavendar exclaimed, rushing to her sister's cell door. "Oh, holy heavens, Sirena! What are you doing down here? Where have you been? What is going on?!" She burst into floods of tears and Parvati, looking stricken, patted her gently on the back.
"Excuse me," Draco said, too politely. "Could we perhaps get a move on the 'freeing-us part' and leave the 'explaining-the-obvious' part for a better time?" His hands shook and he swore that his eye was beginning to twitch. Browns tended to have that effect on him.
"Oh!" exclaimed Lavendar, "Of course, sir." She stuck the rusty key in the lock and gave it a hard turn. Nothing happened.
"Try Alohomora with it," Draco screeched.
"Of course, I'm sorry, " Lavendar, through her tears, managed to set both Draco and Sirena free.
As they hobbled up the stairs to the basement, Sirena explained what had happened to them.
"You're not really Draco Malfoy!" Both Parvati and Lavendar had not recognized Draco, through his filth and long hair. He was not surprised.
"Well," Parvati said conversationally, "We did know that you had been missing all summer as well, we just never put the pieces together."
Draco said nothing, but grimaced. These two had to be the dimmest witches he had ever had the misfortune of crossing paths with. With any luck, some of the other witches and wizards, like say Albus Dumbledore, had noticed the coincidental disappearances and had been searching for Sirena and Draco. And had good explanations ready for why they hadn't found them. It wasn't like Brown Manor was hard to get into.
Lavendar and Parvati led the two weary and worn jailbirds into the kitchen, where they sat down on actual chairs for the first time in nearly seven months. It hurt Draco to think that they had been locked in those dungeons since late January.
"When is it?" he asked suddenly.
The two dimwits looked confused.
"What month? What day?" asked Sirena more gently, with a pointed look at Draco.
Draco sank back in his chair. Ready as he was to rip into the first people he saw, Sirena was right, he needed to cool off first.
"Oh," said Lavendar brightly, "It's the 30th of August. And it's the funniest thing, too, Sage, dear, because I've been with Ti all spring and summer…"
"What do you mean?" Sirena interjected quickly.
"Well," said Parvati slowly, "They closed Hogwarts for the rest of the spring term, because of… well, Ron Weasley."
Draco sat straight up. He had forgotten about that.
Sirena pulled her legs up and hugged them close to her chest. Draco remembered her doing that in the dungeons whenever she was uncomfortable. She did that a lot when she talked about the things she had done while Lord Voldemort had taken control of her.
Parvati went on hesitantly, "Ron Weasley was killed in January, and because he devoted himself to finding Ron's killer, Professor Dumbledore decided that it would be best if the Hogwarts students came back in September instead of January. So everyone had a term off. We spent it all at my house, and sent Mr. Brown an owl telling him so. Then we came back here so that Lav could grab something from her room and so that she could see you, Sirena. You'd gone MIA all summer, but we figured you were holed up here with your father working on some project. Anyway, that's what we thought because Mr. Brown never sent us an owl back."
Sirena nodded sadly. Last summer, she and her father had spent the entire three months working on their family genealogy and had almost attacked Lavendar when she had interrupted them. They hadn't taken owls or received any visitors. Tears started to form in her eyes. She bit her lip to keep herself in control.
"And so we showed up here this morning and couldn't find any signs of life. There was dust everywhere and everything looked abandoned," Lavendar continued. "But we thought we heard voices coming from the gargoyle in Daddy's office. And it has never been haunted before, so we thought we'd go look through the house. When we got to the basement, Ti found this nasty old rusty door under a box that looked like it had been moved not too long ago. So, we opened it and heard something talking down there in the… well, the dungeons." She giggled.
"Not funny," said Sirena quietly. "They really are dungeons. And it's been horrible."
Lavender and Parvati were both quiet.
"What had Dumbledore been doing all this time?" demanded Draco suddenly.
"I don't know," Lavendar said, shrugging. "We haven't heard anything from Hogwarts other than things we'd expect, like textbook lists."
Sirena sighed. "I need to be clean before I start having to think about this," she said, raising herself up gingerly from her chair.
Draco heartily agreed and both of them trudged upstairs without another word.
Anastasia and Cal were strolling through her parents' garden, talking quietly.
"I start school the day after tomorrow," she said shyly.
"Yes," he said, hesitantly. "And you leave tomorrow?"
"Yes."
"I see."
After a while, she took his hand and said, "Cal, will you write to me?"
He smiled and brought her hand to his lips. "Every day," he said quietly.
Anastasia smiled. She loved how peaceful and calm their relationship was. It was steady, constant, tranquil. Adult.
Her stomach flipped at the thought of leaving him. Cal squeezed her hand.
She smiled. He always seemed to know what she was thinking.
Cal was afraid he was going to wrench her hand right off, he was gripping it so hard. He felt sick at the thought of leaving her.
They wound their way through the garden and back up to the house. Up the stairs, still smiling and looking at each other, but without speaking a word.
Slowly and quietly, into Anastasia's bedroom. Gently and smiling, undressing each other.
When they made love, it was an epiphany unlike any Anastasia had ever experienced. She felt whole, completed. She knew then that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with Calvin McGregor.
Cal could not believe that their connection could be any deeper, but he was wrong. He had never felt so attuned to any one person in his entire life. He knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Anastasia Spencer.
Draco was clean. His clean hair was cut just to his chin and fell into his eyes in deep, swirling locks. Those clean eyes were bright, infuriated. And his clean nails dug into the ratty, flaky skin of Peter Pettigrew.
"You filthy rat-faced…" Draco proceeded to swear to the best of his abilities. He and Sirena, having evicted the clueless Lavendar and Parvati ("Fine! We'll just go back to Parvati's, where at least we're wanted!") rigged the entire house with traps set to catch Pettigrew.
They knew he would come to "feed" them. And they were ready.
"Draco!" Sirena scolded lightly. She sat, dressed casually in a light blue cashmere sweater and crisply cut blue jeans, with her now clean shoulder length curly hair pulled back from her face by golden hairpins with two crossed wands on them. Gold bracelets jingled at her left wrist. She flipped her hand over and Pettigrew was flung from Draco's clutches and against the opposite wall.
"Amazing," she said calmly from her seat on her favorite gold armchair. "I'm afraid that the Dark Lord was quite mistaken, Peter."
Pettigrew whimpered, pinned to the wall.
"He seemed to think that he could sap all of my energy. He barely touched the surface, I'm afraid. I've grown stronger every day, although I have been dying to get out of those magical cuffs. Did you know that it took my sister two hours just to get mine off?"
Pettigrew began to slobber; he was petrified of Sirena.
She laughed coolly. Draco, who was taken a little off guard by Sirena's composed manner, sat gingerly on the green and gold sofa near Sirena's armchair.
"Sirena, don't you think it's time to dispense with the pleasantries and get to the point, then?" Draco said through gritted teeth.
Sirena smirked. "But of course."
She stood suddenly and strolled casually over to Pettigrew, who began to wet himself.
"Peter, I'm going to ask you very nicely. I won't harm you if you be a nice little rat and tell me where the Dark Lord is…" She placed one hand on either side of the wall next to Pettigrew's head. She stuck her face very close to his.
Pettigrew made a sharp squeaking noise, but answered her quickly, "Ee's at Malfoy Manor, Miss Sirena. Ee's waiting for you, Miss. Waitin' for you ta come for 'im. Been waitin' all summer for ya ta free yerself, Miss."
Sirena snorted. "So quickly do you betray your Master, Wormtail."
Pettigrew paled, but remained in control of himself. "Ee told me ta tell you where ee is, Miss Sirena. Eye'm under orders ta tell ya where ee is."
Sirena pursed her lips, but drew her hands toward her in a pulling motion. Pettigrew remained well above the floor, but moved away from the wall towards Sirena. She moved her hand forcefully across her body, right to left, and Pettigrew swept across the room towards the study.
"Be right back," Sirena said sweetly to Draco, who was now lounging, cat-like, on the couch.
She swept Pettigrew into the study, down the stairs, and into the back dungeons, where she promptly locked him in.
"You stay right here," she said, and without a backward glance, turned and left.
Upstairs, Sirena entered the sitting room, and said, "Come on, Malfoy. Let's go."
Draco grinned. This was his kind of girl. She knew it was time to kick some ass.
August 31, 2004
Anastasia, despite having parted with Cal that morning, floated to the Hogwarts Express. She was so happy. She took her place in the prefect's cabin, with only a slight pang when she thought that Ron should be here with her. She bit her lip. This was going to be a tough year, with everything reminding her of her best friend. Which reminded her, she needed to find Harry. She knew from her letters from Ginny that he was holding up as best as could be expected, but he wasn't really up to seeing her yet. Perhaps now, after they'd been able to come to terms with Ron's death, she would be able to see Harry. She hoped so.
One person she hoped that she wouldn't have to see was Draco Malfoy. He had been so wonderful to her last year, and she had completely destroyed their relationship. From what her older sister Victoria told her, Draco had spent the better part of a week at her side, consoling her, being with her. Then he had left with the intention of finding out who had killed Ron. And he had never returned. Anastasia knew that wherever he was, he was trying to avenge Ron. For her.
And she had declared herself in love with him less than nine months earlier. How would he feel, having risked his life, having spent nearly the entire year trying to ease her pain, having to come back to her telling him she loved Cal? How would he feel? Anastasia could take a wild stab and guess that he would feel as if she betrayed him. Because if he had treated her this way, she would have felt betrayed. And used. And abused.
Oh, God. What was she going to do?
Draco did feel abused, but it wasn't because of Hermione. He felt abused because he had been abused. Seven months without coffee was, in his mind, cruel and unusual punishment. And abuse. Could he stress any more that he was abused? Severely. He had been kept away from his 2,000 thread count silk sheets. His favorite Brie cheese was nowhere to be found. This absolutely constituted abuse. The whole locked-in-a-dungeon-for-seven-months thing was secondary. He was going to get the filthy bastard who took away his coffee.
Sirena, poor thing, had been listening to such declarations for an hour. "Draco. Stop. I was there. I know."
"Well," said Draco snottily. "Just warning you. If I find out it was your dad, I won't even save you a piece of his ass to kick, my girl. He is going DOWN!" Draco was a little excited about being finally able to get some justification.
The two of them were flying, side-by-side, rather expeditiously towards Malfoy Manor.
They never made it.
A/N:
WHOO! I did it! Yeah, baby! That's what I'm talking about!
A chapter two years in the making! And it actually isn't even as good, I suppose, as it could be, but I'm done messing around with it. It's fine this way, and I'll take your complaints graciously.
I know I promised a pregnancy, but I think you know who it's gonna be. Since, you know, they were the only people getting it on in this chapter…
And I know I promised a death, and I may actually go back on that, but IDK??? Maybe I'll kill somebody. It just got so depressing after Ron died, so I may try to lighten things up a bit for a while.
Oh, yeah and I thought the ending of this chapter was dragging a bit, so I cut it and pasted it into the beginning of Chapter 11. (That would be the Draco-Sirena marriage part!)
Erm, what other promises can I make for the near future?? Hmm, well, you should read The Seer: Adam's Story if you can, because it clarifies about where this story is going to end up. As in, one of the last scenes from the last chapter of LD is in Adam's Story…
So. Chapter 11 will hold: Draco and Sirena's marriage (who'd've thunk?), a pregnancy, Harry and Hermione's reunion, an explanation from Dumbledore, and somebody cheats on somebody!! (who is it? Harry? Ginny? Draco? Sirena? Cal? Hermione? WHO KNOWS?!)
Anyways, sorry this was so long in the making, again. Please review if you have the heart and/or willpower to ('cause in order to figure out what's been going on here, you'll probably have to go reread the rest of LD… sorry).
:) SB
