In the room that she shared with Titania, Luna sat up sharply, her eyes wide.
"Luna?"
"She's coming" Luna's voice was quiet, a bare whisper of sound. "At midnight, tonight, she will arrive at the shack. We have to be ready. We will need to bring her into the castle, she will need the same potions as Paddy. She will be his sister. She… she has lost everything. Only you and Paddy remain of those she loved. She will need our love." Luna flopped back onto her bed as though she were a puppet and someone had cut her strings.
"Who is she…?" Titania whispered.
"The dragonrider of Gryffindor."
Titania and Luna sat just inside the entrance to the shrieking shack waiting for 'the dragonrider of Gryffindor' as Luna called the unnamed female.
A subtle shift in the air currents was the only warning the two animagi had before she appeared. Ragged hair and torn clothes told them that she'd come from a harsh place. But it wasn't until she turned and the moonlight washed over her face, that Titania realised who it was.
"Hermione…" She whispered as she stepped from the shadows, her hands resting on her head, fingers linked together.
The older woman spun to face the voice, a wand in her hand but a gun also at the ready, the sight of a young blonde girl, made her hesitate.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Titania Grimmley." Came the answer, easily given. "The Seer called you 'the dragonrider of Gryffindor'. What dragon did you ride?"
"A Ukrainian Ironbelly. Two of my friends and I freed a captive Ironbelly and rode it out of the cave system where it had been imprisoned." The woman replied.
"What does the 2nd of May mean?" Titania asked but she was almost certain that this was her Hermione.
"Freedom."
"Oh, thank god." Titania whispered and let her shoulders slump, her hands falling to her sides. "I went into the veil at ten minutes after three on the 3rd of May 1998. The last thing you said to me was 'be happy, remember us but be happy'. And I am."
"Harry?!" Hermione squawked.
"Hi, Mione." Titania waved cheekily.
"What the hell happened to you? Did someone do this to you? Or is this… just how you are, here?" Hermione demanded.
"A little of one, a bit of another, some of the other."
"Will you explain? Please?" Hermione's voice was sharp but not hard or cold.
"I woke in the hospital wing, the night we rescued Snuffles and I decided that I wasn't going to do it again. Between him, the crazy elf that dropped us at shell cottage, me and the Room where the D.A. trained, I got out. Out from under the control of the wizard that left me the snitch." Titania was answering but to understand who she was talking about, you had to know of the events and who was involved in them. "We spent hours in the Room, hashing things out. I destroyed the items that were the reason for the camping trip and Snuffles and I had the Room provide the potions to change us. I am now Titania Dorea Grimmley and Snuffles is my father, Nigel Patrick Grimmley, commonly called Paddy. We used a variant of your third-year transport, to get ourselves set up and well, here we are. Three turns, he said." Titania's fingers moved as though turning the hour-glass of a time-turner, she knew that Hermione needed a brief outline before she would begin to ask questions.
Luna stepped from the shadows and stopped beside Titania. "We can help you. Hermione Granger is still up in the Gryffindor tower. You aren't replacing her, so you'll need a new identity." She held up a familiar map.
Hermione looked at them, before focusing on Titania. "You're… you used to be Har- Him?"
"I did."
"You took his place here?"
"I did."
"But you're still here?"
"And he's not." Titania nodded.
"How can you help me? If there's still a Hermione in the castle, how can you help me?"
"We spoke to Da and he'd like to have a sister. The Room can do all the potions and provide all the documents you need." Titania answered.
"Does anyone know? Other than Luna?" Hermione asked.
"Sort of…" Titania grimaced. "Snape, Flitwick and Uncle Moony all know that Da was Snuffles. We had planned to tell Gred, Feorge and their chocolate sidekick about Da, this summer. But no-one knows about the veil and Harry. We wanted to be out of school before we spilt that cauldron."
"Snape knows and he hasn't told... Professor Dum- the Head of the Order?" Hermione's eyes widened, before she cut herself off in the milddle of the Headmaster's name and changed to a descriptive.
"Yeah, he's not too happy with the old man." Titania smirked.
"Snape, Professor Moony and Professor Flitwick wanted to hire us, the Princesses of Pranks, to prank him. So, Titania decided that they should know where her pranking skills come from, or at least some of them."
"Oh, hell." Hermione sighed. "Snuffles as you father… crap. What year are you in?"
"Third, but we're going to skip fourth and go straight to fifth." Titania grinned.
"Have you started a prank war with the twins, yet?"
"Nope. We work with them far more than against them." Luna shrugged.
"Is the castle still standing?" Hermione asked, more than half serious.
Titania and Luna just laughed.
"Come on. Let's go make you Da's little sister. I need an Aunt." Titania grinned.
"Uncle Paddy will meet us back here, in a couple of hours, so we've only got limited timeframe." Luna added. "The Express goes back to London in three days, it's the end of the year. You and Uncle Paddy can meet us on the platform."
"We'll have the whole summer to catch up." Titania assured her. "But Da will bring you up to speed on what we've done, before you have to deal with the twins and all of us." She lead the way towards the tunnel that would lead to Hogsmeade. "If we use the passage from the ruins of the Cock and Bull, it will let us out behind Gregory the Smarmy's statue on the fifth floor. From there you'll have to use a disillusionment charm, while Luna and I use my cloak. Professor Snape is meeting us on the fifth floor, we asked him to let us come here but we let him think it was to get something from Da, to continue the pranks against the Headmaster."
"Oh, good lord…" Hermione moaned. "Snape's helping you prank the Headmaster…"
Three hours later, the two young witches watched as Paddy and the newly named Philomena Myah Grimmley, commonly called Myah, apparated away from the ruins of the Cock and Bull.
"Well, I suppose it's back to bed for us." Titania said tiredly. "The nanny-nap I had this afternoon has well and truly worn off."
"I do hope not, Miss Grimmley." Snape's voice issued from the shadows. "I believe I have been lied to." Both Titania and Luna spun to face the black on black shadow that was Severus Snape. "I think an explanation is owed. Don't you?"
Titania looked to Luna and waited while the other blonde contemplated whatever was running through her head. Eventually, the young Seer nodded.
"Tell him." Luna said.
"From when?"
"The beginning."
"The beginning?" Titania gasped. "All of it?"
"All of it."
"Okay… If you're sure?"
"I am." Luna nodded. "He's been quite helpful and if he knows everything, he'll be even more likely to help."
"If you say so." Titania sighed. "Alright Professor, I don't suppose we could go somewhere a little less… exposed? This is going to take a while."
"How long?" Snape looked from one girl to the other. What was he missing?
"A couple of hours." Titania sighed. "At least."
"Hmm…" Snape studied the girls, before reaching into his pocket and retrieving a small phial. "Half each. Go back to your dorms and get dressed for the day. Have breakfast and meet me outside that… interesting… room."
"But classes?" Titania jerked her hands, in a 'what?' motion, as she asked.
"You pair are excused from classes for the remainder of this year and I have no classes until mid-afternoon. The pleasure of having exams monitored by the WEA." Snape answered.
"Oh, yeah, forgot that." Titania grimaced. "Alright. Outside the Room in two hours?"
"Yes, that be suitable."
Snape studied the two girls before letting his head fall into his hands. "Why must Blacks and Potters always be the bane of my existence?" He muttered, the story he'd just been told was enough to give him nightmares.
"I have no idea, Professor." Titania replied, with a cheeky grin on her face. "But if it's any consolation, I wasn't very nice to Da when he told me how he and James had treated you. The thought that someone else would treat me like he treated you hit him like a bludger. He didn't like it, not at all. And? I'm not a Potter, anymore. Da's not really a Black, either."
"No… I suppose not…" Snape sighed. "Who else knows?"
"Me, Da, Luna and you." Titania replied. "Uncle Moony and Professor Flitwick know what you knew, until now, anyway. The twins and Lee know that we're the Princesses of Pranks, but nothing more. The Headmaster knows I am a Princess of Pranks and suspects that Luna is my co-Princess but has no proof." She shrugged. "Outside that? No-one."
"And where did the… local, you called them… Potter and Black go?"
"We're not certain, Professor." Luna answered. "We think they went into the veil, but we have no way of knowing for certain."
"If they did, there's a strong probability that they're dead." Titania added. "The veil works on judgment of the soul going into it. In more ways than one."
"I don't follow." Snape frowned.
"If the local Black believed that the veil would kill him, he would die." Titania explained. "Then the veil would judge the darkness… the evilness for lack of a better word… held within his soul. Then it would decide where to send that soul. But if he believed that the veil wouldn't kill him but would send him somewhere else? Then the veil would judge his soul and send him there. Heaven? Purgatory? Hell? Wherever he would get what he deserved."
"Which is how you came to be here?"
"Not really." Titania shrugged. "I just wanted to go wherever Da was. In his case? I don't think he had a chance to think about the veil and what it was, before he was knocked into it."
"Yes, given what you've told me, I think that may be accurate." Snape allowed his head to nod fractionally. "And the woman? Who was she?"
"That reality's version of Hermione Granger." Luna answered.
"Really?" Snape blinked. "She seems a shadow of what I would have expected the Gryffindor Golden girl to be as an adult."
"Yeah. It was… bad…" Titania sighed. "We only got a brief outline of what happened to her since, but it was bad…"
"How bad?"
Titania closed her eyes as she repeated what Hermione had told her and Luna. "The Lestranges lead the last of the DeathEaters. They targeted everyone that wasn't one of theirs. But they strung it out. They had the Ministry and they used it. In the twenty-two years since? No muggleborn survived to receive a Hogwarts letter. Known muggleborns were hunted down and depending on their age and position, were either forcibly bonded to a DeathEater, had their magic bound and used as slaves or just killed. Halfbloods were kept as servants, again depending on their parents' blood, as to what level of freedom they had. Pureblood families were taken and divided up. Babies and young children were removed from 'blood traitors' and given to DeathEater families. The girls were given as wives or concubines to the lower DeathEater ranks. Anyone not a DeathEater wore a suppression cuff that limited what magic they could do. Resistance was… it was there, but they mostly used muggle means of transport and weapons. Draco, Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy ran a… let's call it an underground railway… smuggling halfbloods and babies out of the wizarding world to those waiting in Europe and America. Hermione was the last muggleborn in Britain."
"Oh dear God." Snape whispered.
"Yeah." Titania sighed. "And then it got worse. Their potions masters went to work. A virus was created. Muggles were dying, worldwide, the virus only targeted muggles. The muggles called it a pandemic, thousands were dying every day and it was just getting worse. Then the potions Masters lost control of it, over the summer of 2020. The virus began to mutate. No-one was safe. It began to feed on magic. Magicals began to get sick, so did magical creatures. If you had a core, it went after you."
"How did Miss Granger escape?"
"She didn't." Titania said. "Not really. The virus stripped the magic from her. Not having magic made it harder for the DeathEaters to hunt her, all their spells needed a magical signature to track someone and she didn't have that anymore."
"She's a squib, now?" Snape asked.
"She was." Titania nodded. "But coming through the veil healed her, gave her back her magic. She has to get used to having access to magic, all over again. She was the first muggleborn to have suppression cuffs placed on her back after the war, and even after she escaped from the Lestrange brothers, she couldn't remove the cuffs. It wasn't until she caught the virus that the cuffs were removed. The DeathEaters laughed when they found her as a squib."
"Yes, I can imagine, they would have." Snape whispered.
"They threw her into the veil. Told her that she was nothing now." Luna said.
"She was quite surprised to fall out of the veil here, with her wand in her hand, they'd snapped that years ago." Titania went on. "She didn't know where else to go, so she was coming to the shack, it was the resistance's meeting point. No-one would expect the resistance to meet so close to the DeathEater controlled Hogwarts."
"They controlled Hogwarts?" Snape moaned.
"They controlled everything." Luna said.
"What will happen to her now?"
"Da's got her." Titania said. "We did some more conversion potions, she's now his younger sister. He's going set her up in a cabin on our property and see if he can get her in to see the mind-healer that we saw. Let her see that she's safe and protected before helping her to work out what she wants to do in the future."
"Who will she be? Her name and position, I mean?"
"She now his sister." Titania answered. "Her name is Philomena Myahlissa Grimmley, family call her Myah. Like Da, she was home schooled. Over a year ago she was attacked by muggles and her wand broken, she was held captive by them until just recently. They tortured and abused her. The Room put the relevant documents in the relevant places, both in the magical and muggle worlds with backdated missing person reports lodged. She's got an appointment with St. Mungo's for later today to see what help she needs. Da wants her to see the same mind-healer that he and I saw, but he also wants her to see a muggle rape-counsellor."
"Do you think she will recover?"
"Mion- Myah is strong, she won't let the Lestranges stop her from reclaiming her life. She'll recover." Titania smiled sadly. "It will take a while, but she'll recover. We sent a platinum and diamond time-turner with Da, if she needs extra time."
"And how will having her here, affect you?" Snape asked.
"It probably won't." Titania said. "She's in a bad place, mentally. For a while, at least, I'll keep my distance, she's not too accepting of what I did to become Titania. She believes that I should have found another way."
"And what do you think?"
"I'm happy, right now. I like being Titania. I like not being 'the Boy-Who-Lived'. I like not being under Dumbledore's thumb. I like having Da as my father. I like having Luna stay with us. I like having the twins live with us. I don't want to go back to being Harry. And just now, Hermio- Myah can't get passed the fact that I'm not Harry, anymore and I don't want to be Harry, anymore."
"Miss Granger is quite… resolved… in her opinions." Snape nodded.
"You have no idea, Professor." Titania laughed.
Getting off the train, the two girls and the twins, looked around for Paddy, expecting to see Myah at his side. They found the two adults, tucked into a corner with Myah looking a little overwhelmed by the mass of people filling the platform.
"Da!" Titania hugged her father tightly before turning to Myah. "Hello, Aunt Myah."
"Hello, Titania…" Myah gave her a small smile. "It's good to see you."
"And you, too." Titania tilted her head as she studied Myah. "You look good."
"I've had a couple of months to recover." Myah said, which clued the two girls into the fact that Myah had used the time-turner to assist in her recovery.
"Guys? This is Myah, my younger sister. She's recovering from a bad experience, so I would appreciate you not pranking her too much." Paddy said as he hugged each of the children.
"We'll be good, Uncle Paddy." Fred gave Paddy and Myah a smile. "Prank wars are announced at breakfast and last only until dinner time. If you want to escape, Uncle Paddy's office is neutral ground and a prank-free territory, as are the potions lab and the greenhouses."
"Excellent, Fred, thanks." Paddy grinned at the redhead.
"I think I can deal with that." Myah gave him a tentative smile.
"If you can't, just let us know, but no wars will go passed dinner, so you don't have to worry about being pranked in your sleep." George assured the witch.