Disclaimer: Nope, don't own, don't sue.

AN: Well, it has been a long road. I finally finished my first chaptered story. I had a hard time writing this chapter so please be gentle. Sorry for the long wait but here it is, the long awaited conclusion to The Keepers.

Chapter 11: A New Beginning

When Hermione awoke several hours later, she felt rejuvenated and ready. This was her battle; these people, these Keepers had taken away her friends and now it was payback. Before she had gone to sleep that afternoon, she had thought long and hard about what Cooper had told her before he disappeared, about him not really being gone because she still had her memories. She realized that she was going to finish this for him, to prove to herself that she could move on. Once this fight was over, she was going to stay and thus prove to everyone that Hermione Jane Granger didn't run when times were tough.

She entered the kitchen with a renewed spirit and determination. The others were there and all had their game faces on.

"Okay, let's go over this one more time," McGonagall said. "Harry and Hermione, you two are facing the Zeichen; Snape, Ginny and I will take care of the spell to kill the Keepers. The rest of you will stand guard outside Headquarters just in case anyone tries to flee. Got it?"

They all nodded, then set out. Harry and Hermione went head of the others, using Tonks' instructions as to where their Headquarters were. Once they were in the vicinity of the huge warehouse where the Ceremony was taking place, Harry threw the invisibility cloak over himself and Hermione. They shuffled forward, careful not to make too much noise. They waited just outside the door until a rather large group of people were admitted. They stuck close to the group and just barely made it inside.

The interior was simply a warehouse where a large mass of people were milling about, not quite certain what they were to do next. It appeared that the Head Keepers kept their followers in the dark about what was to take place during the Ceremony.

Harry and Hermione walked along the wall, searching for the place in the wall where the door that led to the real Ceremony was going to take place. He ran hid fingers along the wall, paying careful attention to the shifts in the magic; Hermione made sure that the cloak covered them and watched the attendees about the room. Most had a vacant look in their eyes, like they didn't quite know what to do without being told. Hermione felt pity rise within her.

"Ah ha! Here it is. Hermione, I've found it." Harry whispered feverishly in her ear. She turned and saw that his fingers were splayed on a section of wall that appeared older than the wall of the warehouse. This was the connection. "I can't figure out how to get past its defenses though."

Hermione studied the wall and felt herself being pulled into a trance. She let her magic flow from the very core of her being and spread to her senses. Everything was heightened; her sight, her touch, even her emotions. She allowed the magic to guide her to the clues that would unlock the mystery. Her hand was pulled from her side and her fingers traced a circle in the wall that glowed with a golden light. Once the circle was complete, words danced in front of her line of sight. Ask and you shall receive. As soon as she spoke the words aloud, they dissipated and she felt herself returning from the trance.

"What did you see?" Harry asked as soon as the blank look left her eyes. He had known that Hermione possessed this ability when the Order had been discussing how to access the Ceremony.

The circle of gold still glowed. Hermione was eying it when she responded, "This circle came to me and words. Ask and you shall receive. I don't understand how the two coincide…Alohomora." She muttered the spell under her breath, tapping the circle. Nothing. "Open, please…Open sesame?"

"Open sesame? Maybe…" Harry pulled out his wand and traced it inside the circle spelling the word OPEN.

The word glowed for a few minutes before the circle and words were engulfed by the wall. At first the wall didn't do anything, then suddenly, a faint gold outline appeared of a door before that too dissolved leaving a winding corridor lit by torches. Harry and Hermione quickly stepped inside and the wall congealed behind them.

"How…?" Hermione couldn't even voice her question.

"Something Tom did in the Chamber of Secrets, except with his name. Dumbledore was always drawing up chairs, literally so I figured, why not." He explained as they hurried along the corridor; the invisibility cloak stashed in Harry's bag. The corridor itself was very primitive. The walls were packed dirt with stone peaking through occasionally, and the torches would have been better suited in the Middle Ages. It twisted and turned similar to Diagon Alley, wanting to confuse and worry its wanderers.

They didn't meet any other members and decided that the Ceremony must be starting soon. Harry and Hermione quickened their pace and a few minutes later, they heard a steady chanting that became louder as they drew nearer.

Suddenly the corridor ran abruptly into a large circular room with an alter in the center. A lone figure was standing on the alter with his arms extended towards that ceiling in a pose reminiscent of the Christ. He wore a simple white robe with a blood red symbol painted on the chest. It looked like a sand dollar, with five lines extending from a point in the center towards the ring that encompassed it all. Five people stood around the man wearing robes of blood red with their hoods pulled up to cover their faces. A steady stream of light energy was flowing from the outer men to the man on the alter.

Harry rushed forward and began the assault on the men in the outer circle. Hermione however felt herself pulled into yet another trance, this time not of her will. When she opened her eyes, she was surrounded by a white mist that had no end and no beginning. It was timeless. Hermione looked about her and waited. This is a game, she reminded herself. The Zeichen wants to throw me off. She sat down.

Nothing happened for a good half hour. Hermione found the entire proceedings very boring but she never said a word, or showed her true emotions. Suddenly, the mist began to swirl and darken in color to a deep mahogany. From within the center of the blood cloud came a figure. He wore robes of the purest white, no mark marred the stately robes. He was older, about fifty with crow's feet at the corner of his eyes and deep lines around his jowls. His hair was salt-and-pepper that had been clipped neatly into order. He appeared to be someone's grandfather but Hermione knew better. This was the Zeichen; he was a master of deception. She could tell his true nature by looking in his eyes; it's always in the eyes. They were a pale blue and cold, very cold. They held the dispassionate look of a cynic.

"Miss Granger I presume. Well, it is a pleasure to finally meet you." His voice was soothing and melodious. It could put even the fussiest baby to sleep.

"You don't seem to fit the description I was given, Mr. Parson. According to my calculation, you should only be thirty yet you look to be fifty at the least."

Parson smiled a knowing smile. "You calculate correctly. This is simply a guise until my true form can be revealed. I so wanted to face Potter but I guess I shall settle for you; the smartest witch of your age."

Knowing he wanted to goad into the responding without thinking, Hermione remained silent. This only caused him to throw his head back and laugh, loud and long. It wasn't a pleasant laugh but like it came from someone who had forgotten what it was to laugh. It was a harsh cacophonous noise that echoed into the nothingness.

"You truly are a smart little girl, aren't you? Well, no matter. When I set my riddle before you, it won't be something so stupid as you seem to think. Come now, I didn't even ask you a question."

"It doesn't have to be a question. It can be anything that I respond to."

Parson raised his eyebrow and looked knowingly into her eyes. "Really? Are you willing to stake you life on that?"

At the determined set of her jaw, he smiled again. It appeared as if this was bringing him much pleasure; a game of cat and mouse, but who was the cat and who was the mouse? "Well, I don't mind staying here and having a nice quiet discussion. As you can see I've got all the time in the world."

For all his cavalier attitude, Hermione knew differently. She saw his eyes dart around at his feet even so often and the way his shoulder would twitch ever so subtly, like trying to brush a fly that was an annoyance in his ear. She smiled inwardly, but her face was a mask of stony silence.

"You're probably wondering why I chose this over being an auror. I mean, I had a comfy job, did noble work, got paid comfortably to do it to, but it wasn't enough. The people I captured were just like you and me, why should I send them to jail for simply standing up for their beliefs, hm?"

Parson began to pace around Hermione, but she remained stationary, following him with her eyes. "The victors of any war always paint the losers as evil and deserving of punishment. Most of the time the only one deserving punishment is the leader; the others were simply pawns in a game." His eyes alighted and the corners of his lips upturned at a thought. "Like chess."

As soon as Hermione heard those words, she knew what was coming next. Ron. "Didn't your friend Ron enjoy playing chess? He understood; he understood the way wars are fought…If I recall correctly, he fancied himself a knight in the match to get the Sorcerer's Stone…Yes, I know about that match, the world knows about that match. Don't you see the problem, though? In the real game, he was nothing but a pawn; we all were. He was just another casualty of war, lost to the statistics of who died and who didn't. That's why you left, isn't it? Nobody appreciated the true casualties of war. The world returned to normal and moved on. You couldn't though, could you? You were forced to remember everyday what you had lost, what you were losing."

Through his little speech, Hermione's temper was rising. Her angry at this man for what he was saying. He had no right to talk about Ron, he didn't deserve that right. More than that, she was angry at herself because part of her wanted to believe what this man was telling her, that it was the world's fault that she had left. Finally, her emotions got the better of her and she screamed, "STOP!"

He stopped in his pacing and his musings, but it was with a little smirk upon his face. He knew that he had gotten to her. "I didn't leave because nobody remembered. I left because I was scared; scared of what my friends were becoming. I didn't want to be like that; I wanted to make my life worth something."

"Please, that is just pathetic and you know it. The world pushed you away, Harry didn't need you, Ginny didn't need. They had each other. You were nothing without Ron and the world was telling you in blatantly obvious terms." His words were malicious and cruel and meant to hurt her, break her.

"No, you're wrong. They do need me. I broke Harry out of his stupor; I gave Ginny back her life. Ron doesn't define me anymore." Hermione was so mad; she wasn't really paying attention to what she was saying.

"Really? Harry didn't need you; he just needed someone to yell at him. You just happened to be there. After that, the rest came but it all centered on that one action and it didn't even have to be you. Why do you even bother? Nobody needs you; nobody wants you. Why fight?"

Hermione was about to tell him exactly why she bothered, that it was the right thing to do, that people did need her but then she thought about it, really thought it through. Why did she fight? Was it for the people she fought for, or was it for another reason?

She stood for several minutes in silent contemplation, carefully piecing together her answer. Finally she responded, "Because I want to fight. It is my choice and nothing you say will change my mind. I want to feel like I'm making a difference regardless if I actually am. I don't have to help people; I could turn my back on my friends, on my family, on everything I know right now and leave, but that's not what I want. I want to be a part of something bigger than you and me. That's why I fight."

She had closed her eyes when she was giving her answer and when she opened her eyes she was back in the circular room. Harry stood alone on top of the alter, looking winded and weary. The men in blood red robes were no where to be seen, however five scorch marks marred the floor where they had been. Harry raised his wand and shouted, "Terminus!" A bright red light shot into the air and in the form of a familiar phoenix, it wound it's way out of the room, down the corridor and off the spread it's word.

Harry jumped down and they left he room without a word to each other. As soon as they passed beneath the doorway, a terrible crumbling noise could be heard behind them. The room had imploded upon themselves and was left in nothing but ruins. They looked at each other, before grabbing hands and running for all their worth. They could hear the corridor falling away behind them and knew they needed to get out of the warehouse before the entire place buried them alive.

They burst into the main area of the warehouse and found it oddly empty. Nobody was there, no Order members, no Keepers, there weren't any bodies. They continued their mad dash across the room and reached the main doors. Harry pulled at one of them and found them to be locked. The rumbling was growing louder as they tried different spells to open the doors. Finally Hermione pulled herself into a trance once more. This time she knew what to do. Hurrying, she traced her finger in a circle and inside the circle spelled the word, OPEN.

Harry grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the building before she was able to complete her trance. This disturbed her and this time when she opened her eyes she was sitting on the floor of a strange room. When she turned around, she saw a strange sight. There standing before her were all the people that had been taken from her. Ron walked over to her and helped her up.

"I don't understand. Am I dead?" Hermione felt tears prick at her eyes.

"Sweet don't cry. Don't you think heaven would be better than this? We're here because of your conviction. You realized that it is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities(1). You had forgotten that for a while, but now we are here to remind you of that once more before we go. We chose this fate, don't ever doubt that, or yourself." Ron and the others stayed where they were, as he quietly told his tale and Hermione didn't move to be closer. She finally accepted what had happened in her life and knew that she would be alright.

The next thing she knew, she was staring at the worried faces of Harry, Ginny and Order members. She smiled up at them as she sat up and became engulfed in a hug by Harry. "I thought I had lost you."

She looked around her and said, "No, you won't ever lose me again." Hermione, Harry and Ginny began the long trek back to headquarters, each regaling the others with what happened; Hermione learned that Coop was right, she would never tell them what had transpired between herself and Parson.

When they were at the steps of Grimmauld Place, she turned and smiled a knowing smile at Harry. "I believe you owe me chocolate ice cream." Ginny and Hermione laughed as Harry groaned, remembering his promise earlier. They entered the house and as the door shut behind them, so had a dark and painful chapter in their lives. After the Last Battle, nobody had really moved on, but now after this true last battle, they were slowly rebuilding their lives.

1. quote from Chamber of Secrets, pg 333 american paperback

so what did you think? good, bad, ugly? drop me a line and give me your opinion please. thanks for sticking with me on this, well, that's all folks. luv ya bm