Chapter 21: Reasons

When I arrive at the meeting place I find one hundred people crowded in the hallway. I frown a bit before spotting Venera unlocking the door and weaving my way through the crowd. As soon as she gets the door open I pull her safely into an alcove in the hall as the students stampede into the room. Once the stampede passes I say, "Are you alright Venera? You nearly got trampled."

"I'm fine." she says before we exit the alcove and I look at the two other followers who didn't join the stampede; the two teachers.

Venera smiles at them and Flitwick says, "Let's head in now."

We walk in and the room quiets. I walk with Venera to the front of the room where she smiles at the crowd. I sit on the front desk as she says, "So, welcome to the first meeting of the year. I have some exciting news that the Slytherin followers have already heard..." she pauses, probably for dramatic effect, "Lady Leah has been reborn. She is currently at this meeting." They all begin muttering excitedly and I slowly let my aura project itself so I don't overwhelm them. They all fall silent, looking at me with shocked, awed looks. I smirk a bit and Venera says, "I'm pretty sure you can tell where she is right now."

The meeting continues and after the meeting we go to the classroom that the teachers had been setting up when I received my solo mission where apparently they're having a party. I stay at the party until the end before heading out to go to dinner. As I'm walking I run into Nymph, who just tripped and almost got another concussion but I stopped her. "Are you alright, Tonks?"

I look at the new voice and see a brunet girl with brown eyes. "Yeah." Nymph tells her while standing up, "Sorry for almost crashing into you Shock."

"No problem." I tell her with a smile. "I was just headed to dinner. Would you two like to walk there with me?"

"Sure thing cuz." Nymph says and we begin heading to the great hall. "So, Shock, what have you been up too?"

"Mainly researching for a mission." I tell her. "I beat up thirty people this morning because they attacked me, now I apparently need anger management."

"Are you alright?" Nymph asks in a worried voice.

"Yeah, they only landed a few shots." I say as we enter the great hall and a group of five fifth year Gryffindors walk up to me, all of them look beat up. I scowl up at them before asking, "Is there a reason you're approaching me?"

"We wanted to apologize for attacking you." one of them says nervously. "We're sorry we were just angry at the loss of points putting us in the negatives."

"That was the red heads fault." I tell them. "He lost the points, place the blame where it belongs and don't beat up eleven year old's."

I walk away from them and sit at the Slytherin table. I eat before heading back to the hospital wing, where I sit next to Shadowsong. He smiles at me and I take a breath before catching him up on everything that's happened since we were seven. When I get done he gives me a wide eyed look before saying, "Wow...that is a bunch of stuff. I'd like to meet ma, soon as I'm able to stand on my own, of course. Oh, and can you bring our new twins here to meet me soon? Or would you rather I be well enough to stand before meeting them?"

"That's up to you, Shadowsong." I tell him as I feel the twin connection between us form again.

'Thanks sis.' he thinks to me and I grin.

'Woah, wait, who was that? That was a new voice.' I hear Pedro ask and laugh.

'I'll introduce you to him officially once he's ready. That was Shadowsong. I finally got him back.' I tell him before looking at Shadowsong and saying, "That was Pedro."

'I'm Wanda. The boy was Pedro, can't wait to meet you. From what we've heard, you and Shock tend to freak people out with how in sync you are.' Wanda thinks and Shadowsong grins.

'We do. Can't wait to see everyone's faces when we show up to dinner one of these nights.' I think at the same time as Shadowsong.

"Miss Shock, he needs to rest now. You can come back in the morning. It's almost curfew." Madam Pomphrey tells me and I sigh before standing.

I kiss Shadowsong's forehead before saying, "Goodnight, brother. See you tomorrow."

I then turn and walk out, heading to my room and laying in my bed happily. I research for a while before going to sleep and deciding to do my favorite nightly pass time...I'm going to give Sigyn nightmares. I enter her dreamscape and see that she's dreaming of memories. Memories of me and her as children, racing in grassy fields, she's watching the memories play out so I walk over and sit next to her, watching the younger us.

"This is one of my favorite memories." she mutters as she watches it. "The day before Leah met Sif. The day before Sif ruined everything."

"It's a nice memory." I say with a shrug. "Sure would be a shame if someone messed with this dream, huh?" I look over at her with a smirk and she turns to face me. "Confess what you did."

"No." she tells me defiantly.

I sigh before saying, "If you insist on doing this the hard way we can." I then change the memory to the memory of my death. We come walking along on the path home, me saying how I couldn't wait to get home and relax. "What a nice place to die." I say while looking around at the scenery. "Calm and peaceful. Nice view."

I turn back to Sigyn, who now has tears in her eyes as she says, "Stop it."

"Just you and me, on our way home from a stressful battle." I say.

"I want to wake up now." she says and I chuckle.

"Too bad." I say with a grin, "You ever have a nightmare you can't wake up from no matter how hard you try too? That's what I made here. That means that you need to see it through until the end."

"Stop the memory." she orders me.

"No." I say. "I think you should watch it."

She looks at the other us and watches her pull out my sword, which she offered to carry for me, as I chat. "Please." she whispers, looking almost remorseful. "Please don't make me watch this. Not after the memories I already watched tonight. Any memory except this one, please."

Dream Sigyn walks up behind Dream me and stabs her through the back. "Ooh, that looked like it hurt." I mock as Dream Sigyn says the same thing. "I'm sorry. But you really shouldn't have replaced me like you did."

The memory ends there but I reset it, "What are you doing? You said I had to see the memory through to the end."

"I said you have to see the dream to the end. But you need to feel something." I tell her.

"But I do feel something." she insists. "I'm sorry for killing you."

"That's not what I meant." I say before putting her in the place of dream me and smiling at her. "I think you should feel everything I did in that moment."

Dream Sigyn stabs Sigyn and she gasps as I send her all the pain and betrayal I had felt when she stabbed me that day. She drops to her knees as the dream becomes a black void and voices begin yelling at her about how all of this is her fault, she deserves it and all that stuff. She looks up at me as I walk over to her and asks, with tears streaming down her face, "Why? Why are you doing this?"

I tilt my head and ask, "Why did you kill me?"

"You replaced me!" she sobs.

"Why did you kill me?" I ask again. "There's another reason. It isn't just because I became friends with Sif. That's not something the Sigyn I know would kill over."

"I did it because you replaced me!" she yells.

"You're lying." I tell her. "Tell me why you killed me."

"You left me!" she snaps. "Replaced me with Sif, I couldn't kill her so I killed you."

"Couldn't kill her?" I ask. "Why? Why kill me when you apparently couldn't kill Sif?"

"Because you loved her!" she yells before seeming to realize what she said and looking down, letting out another sob. "You loved her so much that...I couldn't hurt her because then I'd have to see you hurt. I've never been able to see you heartbroken, Lee."

I tilt my head a bit before asking again, "Why did you kill me?"

"Because...because I knew you'd be reborn. I figured maybe...maybe you wouldn't remember. I could get a redo. Make sure that you never met Sif and..." she sighs, "I was being stupid. Stupid and desperate. I wanted my Lee back and in that moment I didn't care how I got it."

"Make sure I never met Sif and what?" I demand. "Why did you kill me?"

She looks up at me, a sad, desperate look on her face as she pleads, "Please let me wake up."

"Not until I get an answer." I tell her as I sit down. "I hold the power to trap you in a never ending nightmare until you do what I want you too. Tell me what you wanted."

"I...I just wanted you back." she tells me, looking broken. "I want my best friend...I want the girl I fell in love with when we were ten."

"Maybe you shouldn't have killed me." I tell her. "Then you wouldn't be going through this nightmare. You were my best friend, Sigyn. So all of this," I gesture around the dark area. "this is your fault. You will keep having these nightmares until you confess to Odin."

"Please, no." she begs, "I haven't had a good nights rest in a week."

"Fine." I say and she gives me a hopeful look. "I'll give you a few nights of peaceful sleep, for old times sake...but these nightmares will continue in three days. Starting three nights from now, I cast a curse upon you, Sigyn. You will have constant nightmares, increasing in severity until you finally confess what you have done."

I leave before she can respond and calmly begin walking around the dream walker realm.