Chapter 10: Improvements

It was now mid-March, and the elections were being held in mere days. Hermione would have been interested in Harriet's take on things, but she was still not talking to Hermione. She spent most of her time with either Ginny and Luna outside of class or Fay and Sally inside it. In Arithmancy she sat with Sue Li.

No word had come from Dumbledore. Hermione wasn't surprised. Morgana wasn't likely to make mistakes. Publically, she was acting exactly the same towards Hermione as she ever had. Hermione had returned the favour. There really wasn't any advantage to Hermione letting random people know who Morgana was, not yet anyway.

Still, Hermione was concerned about the lack of updates. And she certainly didn't want to be seen going to the Headmaster by Morgana or Harriet. So that was why she went to Professor Snape's office hours.

"Miss Granger?" said a surprised Snape, "I have never seen you here before."

"Yes well, I don't want to approach the Headmaster again," said Hermione.

"Ah," said Snape knowingly, "Yes, my investigation. I suppose you want an update. Unfortunately I don't have one."

"I'm not surprised," said Hermione, "She's a really good liar."

"Have you made any progress?" asked Snape.

"I have one card left to play," said Hermione, "It should at least give us warning if Morgana tries to steal Harriet away. It'll be ready in a week or so. It might break her free of Morgana. But if it doesn't, nothing will, save Harriet herself."

Snape sighed wearily. "Dumbledore is being overcautious in regards to the Board of Governors, I think. Or maybe…"

"Maybe?" probed Hermione.

"Dumbledore feels guilty about how he handled Harriet's overall situation," admitted Snape, "It is possible this has left him exceptionally vulnerable to her aura."

That made a scary amount of sense to Hermione. Guilt was one of the worst emotions to have to fight through when dealing with an aura.

"Perhaps I should take action," admitted Snape.

"What action can you take?" asked Hermione.

"There is one thing I could do," said Snape, "I would rather eat poison than do it, but for Lily's sake, for Harriet's sake, I might do it."

"Oh," said Hermione, suddenly understanding, "Sirius."

"Just so," said Snape.

"Well, he is going to be busy with the election for the next few days," said Hermione, "He hit the campaign trail against Greengrass hard."

"Thank you for reminding me," said Snape, "I hate politics."

"You sound like Harriet," said Hermione wistfully, "I miss her."

"She will come around, one way or another," said Snape.

"I know," said Hermione, "It doesn't make this easier."

XXXXX

Ginny Weasley sat back in the Gryffindor common room. She should have been at the self defense meeting, but Harriet had stopped going ever since her argument with Hermione. Hermione, Ron, and Angelina had all decided to keep running the group, and Cedric had even decided to join them. But Ginny didn't want to seem disloyal to Harriet. Luna was still going, but Luna could easily go without Harriet knowing about it. She didn't even have to lie about it, as she seldom talked about anything other than nargles and crumple-horned snorkacks and other such creatures these days. Luna was clever that way.

For Ginny it had been difficult. She very much agreed with Hermione that Morgana was dangerous for Harriet, but she couldn't very well tell Harriet that. Her entire job was to be an ear for Harriet to talk to. She dutifully reported what she learned to Fred or George, who relayed it to Hermione. None of it was useful though. All Harriet wanted to talk about right now was politics. She had gotten caught up in the election.

Ginny quietly noted that Harriet still claimed to hate politics. But she sure seemed to have a knack for it. Harriet had been brought up with politics. She resented the Wizengamot for how much of Sirius' time it took up, but in the end, Harriet was good at the minutiae of politics.

"So you think that Greengrass has been gaining ground on Crouch?" asked Ginny.

"Somewhat," agreed Harriet, "But that is mainly because Jr. disappeared. Greengrass has done a good job capitalizing on that. It looks like nepotism gone bad."

"Do you think it will change the outcome?" asked Ginny.

Harriet shook her head. "Sirius doesn't. He thinks that Greengrass lost too much early on with his big pureblood platform. He's mostly gaining among Crouch's law and order people. Which is really bad for Crouch in the long run, but in the short term he should survive."

"Crouch basically doesn't have a base anymore, does he?" asked Ginny.

"Exactly," said Harriet, "Even if he wins, his political career is probably on its last legs. He'll be lucky to serve out his whole five year term. If he does get removed in the next few years, it could finally allow a progessive to take power."

"Sirius?" asked Ginny.

"Maybe," said Harriet.

Ginny sat uncomfortably. She had to say something. It just felt wrong not to.

"Harriet," said Ginny, "How long are you going to fight with all your friends?"

Harriet opened her mouth, then closed it. This line of questioning didn't exactly target Morgana, so Ginny figured it would be safe enough.

"Morgan…" started Harriet.

"I do not believe that Morgan wants you to be estranged from all of your friends," said Ginny.

Harriet pursed her lips, but didn't say anything. It was a very uncomfortable line of questioning for Harriet, but since Ginny was actually verbally supporting Morgana, Harriet would hear her out.

"I wish it were that simple," said Harriet.

"So do I," said Ginny sadly.

In a way, this was something Ginny had wanted. She had wanted to be Harriet's best friend for years. And here, for one moment, she was. She could live up to what she had imagined. But it was all an illusion. Harriet was not herself.

"I think that if Hermione tries to mend fences, you should at least listen to what she has to say," said Ginny.

"That much, I can do," said Harriet, "But I doubt it will change much."

"Harriet, I think she has feelings for you," said Ginny, "But she is afraid to express them to you."

"What? Why?" demanded Harriet.

"She thinks Morgan will use it against you," said Ginny.

"Oh," said Harriet, her face drawn.

Ginny nodded. She knew it was not much, but hopefully she had paved the way for Hermione to make her big play. She wondered what was taking her so long.

XXXXX

The election did indeed narrow, but as Sirius had suspected, it wasn't all that close. Most witches and wizards still remembered the pureblood rhetoric of the Death Eaters, and wouldn't vote for anyone who pushed too hard for "pureblood rights." Greengrass had indeed gone just too far for most people. Those who had switched to support Greengrass had been, again as Sirius predicted, law and order types who didn't care if the laws they followed discriminated against Muggleborns (and certainly not Muggles) but only cared if those laws were followed.

Which wasn't to say that Crouch was popular. The bulk of moderates and apolitical people who voted for him had largely done so in spite of their reservations. He was seen as a corrupt insider. His electoral reforms, which had made him popular to begin with, were now seen as not having gone far enough by most people. And the progressives, of course, did not trust Crouch at all, as his constant attempts to pass draconian legislation against various magical creatures had alienated them.

The long and short of it was that Crouch was going to have to placate some of these groups that were angry with him. The progressives had gained two seats in the Wizengamot, both at the expense of purebloods. As it was, the Wizengamot's elected seats now had a plurality of progressives, with 15 seats out of 40. The moderates held 12 elected seats, the law and order faction held 9, and the purebloods held 4. This did not count the inherited and granted Wizengamot seats, of course. Still the purebloods only controlled about a quarter of the Wizengamot seats at best, and more often, when attendance among the granted seats was low, controlled only about 20% of the seats.

Still, for Sirius, the election had been a triumph. Progressives were more powerful than they ever had been. And it was clear that both of the open department heads were going to go to progressive aligned candidates. They were already pushing for a muggleborn to head the Department of Magical games and Sports, and Augusta Longbottom was pushing hard to be named head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation.

Sirius knew that Crouch was definitely going to do that. He had already privately said he was planning on expanding the powers of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, which was likely to sweeten the pot for Augusta. Still, Sirius had to wonder what Crouch had intended for him. He wasn't calling him to his office at the Ministry at 9:00 in the morning the day after the election for no reason.

"Congratulations Minister," said Sirius as he was let into Crouch's office.

"Thank you," said Crouch, "I am grateful for your support. I have already put out an alert in the DMLE to apprehend my son, and I have formally sent a petition to the Chief Warlock asking that he be removed from his position."

"I am sorry that it came to this," said Sirius.

"My son is a Death Eater," said Crouch Sr., trying to seem stoic, "I should have done this before. But I did not, and I paid a political price for that."

"Well, we'll see just how severe that gets," said Sirius, his tone non-committal.

"I don't suppose I could get you to take one of my department head spots?" asked Crouch.

"No thank you," said Sirius, "I am not interested in making myself answer to you directly."

"What if I said it was DMLE?" asked Crouch.

Sirius hesitated. The DMLE did have more independence than the other departments, in the same way that the Aurors had less oversight than the rest of the DMLE. Still Sirius knew this wasn't a real offer.

"You'd never sack Amelia," said Sirius.

"No. But I could promote her," suggested Crouch, though his easy-going tone indicated he wasn't really arguing the point.

"To what?" asked Sirius, "She'd be wasted in a purely political role."

"She would," agreed Crouch.

Crouch shook his head. "Listen Sirius, I need you in my Cabinet. End of story. Without you, I will eventually lose any support from the progressives."

"Well, the position of Royal Court advisor has been vacant for over 250 years," laughed Sirius.

"You are actually not far off from my intent," said Crouch, "I want to revive the position of Deputy Minister for Magic. And I want you to fill it."

"Wait, there hasn't been a Deputy Minister since the 1910's," said Sirius.

"1916," confirmed Crouch, "The last Deputy Minister was from Ireland and declared himself Minister for Magic for Ireland when Ireland rebelled. Kind of soured the Wizengamot on the position."

"What would my powers be?" asked Sirius.

"The same as ever," said Crouch, "The Deputy Minister would succeed me if I died or was removed, would be a part of my Cabinet, and would set the legislative agenda of the government."

The position of Deputy Minister had emerged from the major reforms of the Wizengamot in the 1830's. Once the Minister for Magic was directly elected, the Wizengamot had wanted a way to mitigate the Minister's power over them. So they had established the role of Deputy Minister for Magic, which was not only the successor to the Minister, so the Wizengamot could remove the Minister and put in their own candidate if necessary, but he ran the Wizengamot in place of the Minister.

"Wait, you would let me set the legislative agenda?" said Sirius, barely able to believe what he was hearing.

"Yes," said Crouch, "And yes, I know that means I would not be able to override your decisions."

Sirius considered this. Due to its origins, the Deputy Minister had always been appointed by the Wizengamot. This meant that any powers that they possessed were out of the Minister for Magic's control. This had been part of the problem with the last Deputy Minister. He had prevented the Wizengamot from acting for weeks before officially joining the Irish independence movement.

"You do realise that this will make it easier for me to remove and replace you," said Sirius.

"From what I see, if you wanted to replace me you would have run against me," said Crouch, "Greengrass, on the other hand, might very well try to take me down just because he can. But if his success would inevitably mean that you would become Minister…"

"I see what you mean," acknowledged Sirius, "If you're an annoyance, I'm a disaster."

"Well," said Sirius after a moment, "if it will annoy Bryant Greengrass it can't be all bad. I accept, pending Wizengamot approval."

"Good! Good!" laughed Crouch, "I may not have much else going for me, but with your assistance, I think we can finally begin to dismantle the pureblood state."

Sirius knew that this would take some explanation. To the other progressives. And to Harriet.

XXXXX

Hours later, Sirius returned home. He hadn't expected to spend all day at the Ministry, but he had been sure to let Kreacher know he would be late. All in all, it had been a productive day. It was a virtual certainty he would be appointed as Deputy Minister.

"Hey Kreacher," said Sirius as he popped out of the floo.

Kreacher turned to him, and nodded. "You are late," he said.

"Only by ten minutes," said Sirius, "Come on, I was helping put a new government together, something I did not expect to do."

"You have a guest," said Kreacher, his tone neutral, "In the sitting room."

"How long have they been waiting?" asked Sirius.

"Fifteen minutes," sniffed Kreacher, as if it had been fifteen hours.

"Thank you, Kreacher," said Sirius, "I will speak with them directly."

Sirius quickly marched into the sitting room. "I am so sorry for the delay, it was a busy day today with…" began Sirius as he entered the sitting room. But then he stopped dead in his tracks.

His guest was Severus Snape.

"Severus," said Sirius, not bothering to hide his shock, "This is a surprise. Still, my apology for lateness does stand. Has Kreacher offered you tea?"

"He has," said Snape, "I declined. All you done with all your… important business?"

"If I had known you were coming I would have been punctual, but as I did not, and my business was actually important…" began Sirius.

He stopped himself. "Sniping at you is pointless, and counterproductive. You wouldn't be here unless you had no remaining options. So what brings you here?"

"Harriet," said Snape, "I believe Morgana is trying to twist her to evil ends."

Sirius pursed his lips to hide his chagrin. "Tell me everything," he said.

Minutes later Sirius was deep in thought as Snape finished his account.

"Hermione was the one to notice first?" asked Sirius.

"I believe Miss Granger," said Snape.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I do as well," said Sirius, "she is very reliable for a fifteen year old girl. Dumbledore though… I mean I get it. I understand why Dumbledore wouldn't want to go to the Board. But surely he knows I can keep a secret."

"I suspect Dumbledore is being over cautious," said Snape, "He doesn't like trusting people sometimes. And perhaps there are magical reasons for it as well. Dumbledore has a weak spot when it comes to Harriet."

"Would you stay here for a few minutes?" asked Sirius, "I want to bring someone in who might be able to help us."

Snape nodded, and Sirius turned to the kitchen. "Kreacher!" he shouted.

Kreacher entered the room. "Yes master," he said reluctantly.

"I need to speak to your niece, Valerii," said Sirius, "could you contact her? It's an emergency."

Kreacher's eyes narrowed. "I do not know where she is," he said, his tone betraying the truth he was hiding.

"Kreacher," said Sirius gently, "She offered to help me protect Harriet. I need her help. I will not harm her in any way. I will not try to return her to captivity. I probably couldn't, even if I wanted to. The very fact that I refer to her as her shows you the truth in what I say."

Kreacher considered, then nodded. And then he disappeared.

"Severus," said Sirius quietly, "I… I know you probably aren't interested in any sort of apology from me."

"Most astute," said Snape, his face turning sour.

"Unfortunately, I feel that I have to do so," said Sirius, "Not for my sake, mind you. But for Harriet's. I have told her how much I regret how I treated you. But the truth is that it is all meaningless. Because I haven't told you. And I regret my actions. I am truly sorry."

Snape stayed silent for a moment. "I understand Sirius," Snape said finally, "I cannot forgive you, but I understand that you are not looking for forgiveness. And you are right. Harriet deserves a father who can admit his mistakes."

"Please don't call me that," said Sirius, "James and Lily are Harriet's father and mother."

There was a long silence again. "I suppose I feel the same about Lily," said Snape grudgingly, "but it shames me to think that way. Harriet should be allowed to move on with her life, and not be forced to live in the shadow of two people she never really knew."

"Oh, goddammit, you're right," said Sirius, "I never even thought about that. It isn't fair that I deny Harriet a father because I can't get over James' death."

The air was suddenly thick with an awkwardness that neither Snape or Sirius could really express. So it came as a relief to Sirius when Kreacher and Valerii appeared.

"Has Morgana made a move?" asked Valerii.

"Maybe," said Sirius, "Snape can explain."

It wasn't long before Snape had once again told his story, and Valerii sat musing.

"Curious," said Valerii, "Harriet is likely very special, yet Morgana is clearly more interested in her than we thought. There is a missing element. Is Harriet… how do I put this delicately for your wizard sensibilities? Is Harriet particularly close to other girls?"

"She hasn't confided in me, but I believe Harriet is a lesbian," said Sirius.

"Good, I'm glad I didn't have to tiptoe around that," said Valerii, "That could explain things. Some things. Still, the level of obsession Morgana must have… why would she fixate on Harriet?"

"Because Morgana believes herself a failure," said Sirius, suddenly understanding, "Don't you see? Morgana needs Harriet because she believes that her own weaknesses are what caused the Guardians of Atlantis to fail to repair the Atlantean Runestone. She wants Harriet to do what she can't. Before she wanted Harriet to stay away from dark magic. But now that she has fallen she believes Harriet will need dark magic. And Harriet will never willingly turn dark."

"Perhaps," said Valerii, "Well, in any case, Morgana has made a small mistake at least. We have the capability to remove a geas now, something we did not have in Morgana's time. And by we, I mean the Guardians. If we do it, it will take at least a month, a month when Harriet will be unable to leave Avalon. It would be far preferable for her to break the control on her own."

"And we do not know how Morgana will react to us taking Harriet away," noted Snape.

"Yes," said Valerii, "From what you have Hermione is quietly working to sow all the doubts Harriet will need to break free when Morgana tries to complete the geas. Still, if Hermione fails, and Harriet rejects her without comment, let Sirius know. We will need to move immediately."

"We do have one issue," said Sirius, "Harriet can apparate."

"We can put up an anti-apparition field at Avalon," assured Valerii.

"Does it stop elf apparition?" asked Sirius, "Because I'm pretty sure that is what Morgana taught Harriet."

"Oh my, that is good to know," said Valerii, "It isn't possible to block elf apparition and wizard apparition at the same time. And I doubt anyone else knows how to block elf apparition."

"There is one point that no one has brought up," said Snape, "Are we absolutely certain that Morgana isn't working with The Dark Lord?"

"But Voldemort wants to kill Harry, not turn her into his successor!" objected Sirius.

"She could be working with Voldemort for her own ends I suppose," said Valerii, "That would mean she intends to… could that be why? But…"

"What is it?" demanded Sirius.

"Maybe nothing," said Valerii, "I need to speak to the Master on this matter. That being said, I find it difficult to believe that Morgana would take up with Voldemort. What I will say is that we are currently capable of tracking and contacting Harriet, no matter where she is taken in the world. If Morgana tries to steal her, we can take her back, almost instantly."

"How can you do that?" demanded Snape.

"Harriet passed the tests that Percival laid down on the Path of the Founders. And she swore the oath of the Guardians of Atlantis," said Valerii, "She is one of us, whether she knows it or not. And because she does NOT know it, she can't block our tracking,"

XXXXX

Parvati had been especially upset at Harriet's refusal to talk to her friends. It was all so stupid! Yet Hermione refused to react the way Parvati thought she should. Why she wasn't more upset was a mystery to Parvati.

So when Hermione asked Parvati to meet her privately, Parvati was curious.

"So, are you finally going to do something about Harriet?" asked Parvati.

"I have been doing something," said Hermione, her tone annoyed, "I just needed to make sure it would work."

"I just don't understand how you are so calm," stated Parvati.

Hermione sighed and brushed her hair back with her hand. "I just know that despite appearances, things are going fairly well."

"Going well!?" demanded Parvati, "Harriet refuses to talk to us. And…"

Suddenly, Parvati noticed Hermione's hand. It was wrapped in a bandage.

"Hermione, are you cutting yourself?" asked Parvati seriously.

Hermione's eyes could not have rolled any more in response to that comment. "Oh Parvati, that is precisely the wrong observation," said Hermione, "Technically, yes, I did have to cut my hand in order to take my blood out of my body. I needed a little you see."

"Hermione, you don't have to lie to me," said Parvati.

"I am making Blood Runes Parvati," said Hermione, "And until today I wasn't having much success. But I am good now."

"Blood Runes? Isn't that dark magic?" asked Parvati uncertainly.

"If you use someone else's blood it certainly is," said Hermione, "At least if you take it by force. But I did not do that."

"But…" continued Parvati.

"Listen Parvati, I am now ready for the next step to help Harriet, so as much as I would like to indulge your every question, I do not have time," said Hermione extremely crossly, "Do I need to get Lavender or Neville instead? Or are you going to let me tell you what I need you to do?"

"What do you need, Hermione?" said Parvati, letting the matter drop for now.

"I need you to apologize to Harriet, without any reservations. Then let her know I want to apologize as well," said Hermione.

"All right," said Parvati, "I can do that. But before you talk to Harriet, you should know something. She's in love with you."

"I know," said Hermione, her face softening, "It's what I'm counting on."

"Okay," said Parvati as she steeled herself to talk to Harriet.

Here goes nothing, she thought to herself. And she hoped that Hermione knew what she was doing!

XXXXX

Hermione walked into the Path of the Founders. The magic that had protected this place was gone, now it was just one of the places summoned by the Room of Requirement. Maybe it wasn't really the Path of the Founders anymore, but just a facsimile made by the Rooms magic. It didn't matter. Hermione walked over to the pedestal that had once held the Grail. Hermione wondered what would have happened if Morgana had taken up Harriet's offer of a drink from the Grail. Would it have stopped their current predicament?

Maybe not. Maybe this was always going to come. Or maybe things would be worse. Hermione didn't know.

"Hermione," said a voice. Harriet's voice.

"You wanted to see me?" asked Harriet, her tone distant, but not unfriendly.

"Yes," said Hermione, gathering her courage, "I did. We need to reconcile our differences. We need to come to an understanding."

"Will you admit that Morgana means me no harm?" demanded Harriet.

"No I will not," said Hermione

"Then what do we have to discuss?" asked Harriet.

"You want to know the reason I can't do it?" asked Hermione, "It's because I love you. You are my best friend, and I love you. Maybe I even… well, what's important is that everything I have said about Morgana, I have said because I love you, and I want you to be happy and safe. I believe, I truly believe, that Morgana is doing things to you that are harmful. I won't say otherwise."

"That being said," continued Hermione, "I have already said it. You know how I feel. And if you are willing to take some small precautions, I won't bring it up again."

"That… might be acceptable," said Harriet as her face contorted in the struggle between her love for Hermione and the magic that was binding her, "It depends on the precautions."

Hermione pulled out a small runestone from her pocket. The Norse rune for power was written there. In red. In Hermione's own blood. She placed it on the pedestal

"You made your own runestone," said Harriet, wondrously.

"I did," said Hermione with a smile, "Now I want you to trust me. Can you do that?"

"With my life," said Harriet immediately.

"Bring out your runestone," asked Hermione.

Harriet took out her wand, then pulled the runestone from the pommel setting. She placed it on the pedestal.

Hermione pulled out a knife and two small paint brushes. "I need you to trace over the blood on my runestone with your blood, and I will trace over the blood on yours with mine. Our bloods must mingle for this to work."

Harriet took the knife and cut herself on the hand. Scarlet drops of blood welled up and she dipped one of the brushes in it. She then began tracing her blood over the rune on Hermione's runestone. Hermione unwrapped her hand and cut open her hand again. She took the other brush and began tracing over Harriet's runestone.

When they finished, Hermione wrapped her hand in a fresh bandage, and gave one to Harriet as well. Then Hermione drew her own wand. With a shout in Old Norse, she cast the spell from the book that the Goblins had given her. The blood on both runestones suddenly had dried.

"Pick it up," said Hermione, her hand now trembling with anticipation.

Harriet picked up her own runestone, while Hermione picked up hers. Hermione closed her eyes, and concentrated.

" And now, no matter where you are, or where I am, I can speak to you in your mind," thought Hermione at Harriet.

" These runestones allow us to communicate telepathically!" thought an excited Harriet.

" Now, if Morgana tries to do anything that you don't approve of, you can contact me, no matter what," thought Hermione, " As long as you do not tell her about this she will not be able to stop you from contacting me. Promise me that you will keep this on you, promise me that you will not tell Morgana, and I will drop this."

"I promise," said Harriet, "But…"

"But?" asked Hermione.

"I would like you to have my runestone," said Harriet, "And for me to take yours."

"Well that will work," agreed Hermione, "And I would love to carry a part of you around with me."

The two girls traded the two stones breathlessly. Then Hermione leaned in and kissed Harriet on the cheek. Well she aimed for the cheek but hit the corner of Harriet's mouth instead. Pulling away, Hermione looked into Harriet's eyes.

And suddenly they both threw their arms around each other.

"I missed you," breathed Harriet.

"I missed you," breathed Hermione.

They held each other for a long time.

XXXXX

Morgana was finally ready to finish her story. With Hermione out of the picture, she now could tell Harriet about her time as a Dark Lady. Harriet wasn't quite ready to accept dark magic, but that could come after the geas was completed.

Harriet seemed more excited than usual when she came in, which was good. It suggested she was finally adjusting to her new situation. Morgana decided against mentioning it, which was, in retrospect, a mistake.

They went over a few spells first. Harriet was quite competent at apparating. But she was phenomenally good at casting Morgana's Anti-Magic spell. As far as Morgana could tell, Harriet had never had an Anti-Magic spell explode. What that indicated was a little worrisome to Morgana, in that it made it seem as if Morgana herself was doing something wrong with her own spell.

"So you were going to tell me about the two years between the battles of Camlann and Hogwarts?" asked Harriet after a while.

"Ah, yes," said Morgana, "Well, I spent most of that time trying to get into Avalon. I even cut a deal with the goblins because I thought they could help. When it turned out they couldn't help, through no fault of their own, I killed every goblin I could find. Not my proudest moment."

"You killed every goblin you could find?" asked Harriet.

"Yes," said Morgana, "whole settlements wiped away. No survivors. Not even children. I was desperate to save Arthur. What I didn't know was that I was too late. Arthur had died about a year after coming to Avalon. Every action I took during that last year was pointless."

"So you regret it?" asked Harriet.

"I do actually," said Morgana, "when you make a mistake you should always own up to it. Of course it wasn't just Arthur I wanted, I also wanted the Atlantean keystone in Avalon. The Camelot stone, or rather the Jerusalem stone, had disappeared as well."

"Speaking of which, I am pretty sure that the Unspeakables have the Camelot stone," said Harriet, "It doesn't seem to be at the Ministry though. I mean it's hard to tell, what with Whitehall's proximity to the British Museum and the Olympus stone, but the Department of Mysteries and the lower courts do seem to be closer the source of the magic field."

"You deduced that with precious little evidence," said Morgana, extremely impressed, "It took me years to suspect that the Unspeakables took it. But apparently the beginning of the Unspeakables was that Merlin ordered them to take the Camelot stone and hide it. I don't know how they did it, but they clearly succeeded."

That being said, Morgana did suspect she knew how they had hid the stone, but she had never actually ventured into the Department of Mysteries to confirm it. If it was true… well that would be something. And it would mean that the Unspeakables might be a great deal more dangerous than she thought.

"In any event, I hesitated to get the Roman Stone from Hogwarts," continued Morgana, "I felt it was best to leave the school for magical children alone, and I felt they could make good use of it. Then Percival came back with the Grail."

"You see Percival had become the Grail's new Guardian," explained Morgana, "He had not had any intention of ever returning to Britain. But somehow he had heard of Arthur's injury, and had returned with the Grail to heal him. And one of the first people encountered was a goblin. So Percival immediately learned all I had been up to, and so he fled to Hogwarts."

"And you followed," said Harriet.

"And I followed," agreed Morgana, "I… well I destroyed most of the school, had bested all four Founders plus Percival in a five on one battle, and was demanding they hand over the Grail when Merlin snuck up behind me and planted a dagger in my back. That gave me some real fucking clarity."

Morgana sat back, not caring about the distant look in her eyes that made her look wistful. For a moment she almost regretted what she was doing to Harriet. She almost could see, right in front of her the scene where she had lain defeated, all her sins laid out in front of her.

"Merlin did what he had to do," said Morgana, "I did not have control over myself. I had become a danger to the entire world. And you know why? Because I had no one to tell me differently. And I died because I had no one to watch my back."

And suddenly the moment was gone, and a new certainty that she was right impressed itself upon Morgana.

"That is what I am training you for Harriet," said Morgana, "Together we will watch each other's backs, and we will defeat Voldemort, and we will repair this broken world."

"Sounds great," said Harriet, "And we won't be alone, you know. Hermione will come around."

"You know she doesn't think very much of me," said Morgana, slightly annoyed that Harriet's thoughts were still turning to Hermione.

"She thinks everything of me though," said Harriet with a smile, "So much so that she agreed to stop undermining you, for my sake, even though she still doesn't trust you."

Alarm bells began to ring in Morgana's head. This was not right! Something had gone terribly wrong. Harriet should not have accepted anything less than a complete retraction of Hermione's accusations against Morgana as an apology.

"You have reconciled then," said Morgana.

"Yeah," said Harriet, "she even kissed me. Not on the lips yet, but almost. She's my best friend, and I know she loves me. That's more important than anything."

And suddenly the full scope of Hermione's plan was visible to Morgana. The girl really had outsmarted her! Morgana had experienced close family and romantic relationships, but had never had a very close friend. And Hermione had guessed that, and used it as her blind spot. Morgana had assumed that Harriet's feelings for Hermione were just a crush, but that had been wrong, so wrong. Aside from Sirius Black, Hermione was probably the single most important person to Harriet.

Which meant that if Hermione was allowed to interfere with Morgana's attempt to spirit Harriet away, she probably could at least defeat the geas. That was okay. Morgana would find some way to keep Hermione occupied. As long as Hermione couldn't contact Harriet at the critical moment Morgana could still pull this off. And then Morgana would have to find a way to deal with Hermione. She suspected the older girl would be far easier to control than Harriet.

"Well that is good news," said Morgana, her smile turning vicious.

Author's Note: Short note this time, I actually hadn't intended to have Sirius apologize to Snape originally. But I got to that awkward silence and realized that Sirius had actually matured enough at this point that he wouldn't let this opportunity go to waste. Sirius has come a long way, and he is showing generally better judgement. Despite this, Sirius is making a pretty (ahem) serious mistake by waiting to deal with the geas on Harriet, but it's a mistake that is born of his complete lack of understanding of just how dangerous Morgana is.