Chapter Three: The Ties That Bind
Saturday, May 8th 1999.
Harry woke with a start, his mind throbbing heavily but not quite what he would consider a headache. His eyes adjusted quickly to the dark room, thanks to a golden light that entered through the flap to his right and he realized that he had been laid out on the couch in the living area of their tent.
A quick glance at the watch Luna had bought him for his birthday the year before to replace the one the Weasley's had bought him that was destroyed by the Killing Curse in the forest showed it to be nearly four in the morning, but suddenly he was wide awake. His mind was beyond active and he felt the urge to get up and do something, regardless of the time.
He stood and glanced in the direction of the girls' rooms, but decided that it would be unkind to wake them at such an hour, so he simply left the tent and gazed at the gathered items in their piles, noting with a smirk how many of the items had been misfiled together when their purpose was so counter to the groupings they had used to classify them.
His gaze settled on the plinth, the sword still buried in its surface, he stepped towards it, gazing into the dull green orb at its end. He stretched his hand out to the hilt and stroked upwards, his fingers sliding over the leathery surface before they met the cool glassy surface of the orb and he swirled his finger three times counterclockwise around the orb before he slid it down the length of the handle and turned to the corner he knew the emitter was embedded in.
A shimmer in the air signified the projections' arrival and he looked into the eyes of the aged figure. He smiled to himself before his mouth opened and he spoke. "Greetings, Myrddin."
The figure paused, about to deliver its preprogrammed speech, and it turned to face him directly. "Welcome, young one."
ϟ
Hermione stumbled drowsily into the main portion of the tent, a loud yawn on her lips as she tucked her robe tighter around her form, trying in vain to keep the warmth of the night's rest wrapped about her body a little longer before dealing with the struggles of the day. She had stayed up far too late the night before and was a long way from her usual bright self come the morning as a result.
She glanced over to where Harry lay on the couch and rolled her eyes at his impetuous habit of running into things without thinking first. Her mind gradually registered the fact that something was wrong with the place she had left the boy the night before. She swept her eyes over to the couch once more and this time her brain processed what was missing from the image before her.
"Harry?" She asked the cool morning air, before letting a soft growl from her lips. "I will kill him."
Hermione grabbed her wand from the table and rushed out of the tent, flicking a spell at Luna's door to wake the other girl so she could aid in tracking their once more wayward friend. She paused as she stood outside the tent and swept her eyes over the cavern. They came to rest on Harry standing at the plinth gesturing wildly with his arms.
Relief began to fill her body as she noted that he was not only awake, he was talking and moving. Meaning that he must be past whatever had caused his difficulties the day before. But it was quickly replaced by another far greater urge.
"HARRY JAMES POTTER!" She yelled, the sound echoing loudly in the enclosed space.
He turned on the spot and grinned at her, a sight that would normally disarm her rage, but not today. "Hey, Hermione."
"What in the name of all that's…" She charged towards him. "You have a lot of explaining to do! Do you have any idea how worried we were?"
"Worried?" Harry asked, his eyes tracking the second drowsy figure that had appeared beside Hermione.
"You were basically catatonic all night. We had Poppy here to look at you. What did you do?" Hermione demanded as she stormed over to the base of the raised platform.
"I didn't do anything. I just woke up and wanted to talk." Harry stepped backwards at her heated approach, but had nowhere to go once his legs hit the plinth behind him.
"Start talking!"
"I don't know… I found the mirror thing yesterday and I don't remember after that until I woke up at four am. And I came out here to talk."
"What? Why would you come out here to talk? Is Dobby back?" Hermione asked, momentarily distracted from her anger by the oddity of the statement.
"Hermione." Luna interrupted pointing past Harry. "Look."
Hermione glanced at the tired blonde and took a step closer to the girl. She followed the extended finger over Harry's shoulder and noticed a smiling aged figure staring at her. The Merlin illusion was back and for some reason wasn't disappearing. The image turned to Harry and spoke, but Hermione could not understand the words. They sounded almost like Latin, but something about them was off.
Harry smiled and nodded to the image as he replied in the same language and Hermione's temper grew again. "HARRY! What is going on?"
"Er, well that might take a while to explain." He replied, glancing at his watch. "We've been talking for hours now."
Luna stepped forwards and joined Harry on the platform, tilting her head as she watched the image of the old wizard track her progress. Hermione was amazed at how lifelike it seemed now, compared to when it delivered the message a few days prior.
"Hello, sir. My name is Luna."
The image smiled, and Hermione was once more reminded why people had compared Albus Dumbledore to the mythical figure. He gave a slight bow but did not speak to the girl in reply.
"Why doesn't he talk to me?" She asked Harry.
"Er, he doesn't understand English just yet."
"Nonsense," Hermione chided, stepping forward as well. "He spoke English perfectly when he delivered the message about the tests."
"That was a recording, programmed to scan the mind of the one it was delivered to and match their language as closely as possible. It begins the scan from the moment someone enters the lab and by the time the image appears, it has completed the translation. This is a direct link to the computer system. It can't make the translation in real-time just yet."
"Computer? Harry, we're in a dank cave. There is no computer here."
"Well, not what we would traditionally consider a computer. But that's what it is. It computes information and provides feedback. It's built into the plinth." Harry smiled as he patted the large stone block that appeared as if it had been carved in place from the very stone of the floor.
Hermione sighed as she could not make what she was seeing and what Harry was telling her make sense.
The image spoke aloud once more and Harry responded again, the language still sounding foreign and familiar all at once.
"What language are you speaking then?" Luna queried. "And how did you learn to speak it?"
"Well, the language is called Alteran, after the people who speak it. I, er, learned it from the mirror I guess. At least, that's what Myrrdin says."
"Myrddin?"
Harry gestured to the image and smiled. "Myrddin."
"You mean Merlin." Hermione corrected.
"He is called that now, but that's just because words change over time. He was once called Moros too. It's quite fascinating really."
"Harry, you called this place a lab," Luna said. "What do you mean?"
"Myrddin says this place is his lab. He built it fifteen hundred years ago to do some incredibly important research. I'm not sure what just yet, you two sort of interrupted that part of the conversation. The treasure wasn't there initially. The knights brought it all from across Arthur's domain after he ascended and Merlin disappeared."
Harry turned back to the image and once more conversed with it in the foreign language. Hermione began to get frustrated at her lack of understanding and swept her eyes over the plinth, noticing the book laid there for the first time.
"What is that?" She asked, stepping towards it.
Harry followed her eyes and smiled. "It's Myrddin's diary. It recounts his return to mortal form and the beginnings of his experiments here. He provided it to me right away, but I found it easier to just talk to him instead."
Hermione grabbed the book and noted it was in the same writing as the tests and the scroll. She moved away from the others and returned to the tent, where her notes were still laid out on the table and she began to attempt a translation of this new text, to try and confirm Harry's statements. She was glad he seemed to be mostly ok, but the discussion out there was annoying her and she did not want to be angry at her friends.
"HERMIONE!" Harry's shout drew her attention from the book she had only made it a few pages into as he stuck his head in the opening. "We have a problem."
"What?" She asked, jumping up and rushing out after the disappearing head to find him running away from her up the stairs. As they approached the large bend in the pathway, she noticed a figure lying on the floor of the tunnel unmoving. "Not again."
"Myrddin told me someone had activated the mirror device. Looks like Luna didn't like having me translate everything."
"This thing knocked you out for hours, Harry. Why did you tell her where it was?" Hermione's anger was growing again.
"It didn't hurt me, Hermione. It just shares a lot of information at once. Our brains need time to let it process and unspool before we can use it, so it shuts off all unnecessary use of processing power to allow it to work faster."
"Unnecessary…? Harry, that's…" Hermione shook her head and pulled her wand. "Stay here. I can't talk with you right now. I'll take her back to the tent."
She waved her wand and levitated the tiny girl, gently floating her through the tunnel and away from Harry. She tried her hardest to ignore his comments as she vanished around the wall at the entrance and hid once more in the tent, watching over the second of her friends to be knocked out by this mysterious mirror in the space of a day.
ϟ
Luna awoke and stared up at the roof of the tent, delighting in the shape of the repeating design in the fabric weave in its surface as she let her mind drift slowly over the new information in her brain. It was fascinating just considering all that she now knew thanks to the device. She smiled as she sat up and turned to see Hermione looking intently at a book on the table before her, her pen shifting rapidly on something that was out of view.
The blonde silently watched her closest female friend as she worked. Noting the way her brow furrowed when flummoxed, how she bit her lip when contemplating what she was working on, how her expression eased to joy when she uncovered something new. It delighted her to see the girl working away at something, freeing herself from her usual worried state.
Luna stood and tucked the blanket around herself as she stepped over to the table, still unnoticed by the furiously writing girl before her. Luna turned her head slightly to better read the text Hermione appeared to be translating and was buoyed when she realized what once was gibberish now made sense. The mirror had worked exactly as Harry explained it would.
Her eyes drifted over the scroll Hermione was using to translate the book and surprise overtook her joy for a moment. She reached out and grabbed the fabric, lifting it up to better read the writing.
"Hey! Luna?!"
Hermione leapt from her seat and wrapped the girl in a tight hug, making it very difficult for Luna to read the scroll. She smiled and allowed her free arm to wrap around the brunette in response.
"Are you alright? Why did you do that? I was so worried about you."
Luna smiled wider and pressed her free hand over Hermione's mouth, stopping her stream of questions and drawing a glare from the girl from over top her fingers. "I'm fine, Hermione. Better than fine."
She stepped away from the once more angry girl and lifted the scroll to where she could read it once more. "I can read this now. Which, I knew would happen. That's what the device is for. But I wasn't expecting to be able to read all of it. Well, I can still read the Latin as well as I could before, which is to say, not at all. But I can read all four of the other languages."
"What? Why would you be able to read all of them?"
"Because Myrddin knew all of them at the time that he made the device and wrote that scroll. I guess he didn't bother adding Latin as he assumed anyone who found it would already speak it." Harry's voice came from behind her. "He also told me Luna should be waking up about now. How do you feel, little moon?"
He walked over and gave her a firm hug as well and Luna let herself fall into the warm embrace. "Great. My head is throbbing a little though."
Harry nodded. "That goes away after a few hours. But it's so worth it."
Luna eagerly nodded as the two pulled apart and she noticed Hermione standing off to the side slightly. The other girl looked uneasy as she watched them both. "You're worrying about nothing, Hermione. Myrddin made the mirror for this very purpose. To teach others the basics in case the worst should come to pass."
"It knocked you both out. For hours. We have no idea what the long term side effects could be."
"So far, ability to read, write and speak four new languages, and a deeper understanding of math and science I am pretty sure I didn't have before." Harry grinned.
"It could be dangerous." Hermione insisted.
Harry stepped over to the worried woman before him and wrapped her reluctant form in a hug. "I know that you worry about us, Hermione. But this is not something you need to be concerned about. I didn't realize that the mirror would impart knowledge when I found it, but now I understand better how it works, it's perfectly safe."
"Because it said so? It sounds an awful lot like brainwashing to me."
"Mankind fears what it does not understand," Harry whispered.
Hermione sighed heavily in his arms and pulled away from him. "There has usually been a good reason for that fear throughout history, Harry. Forgive me if I exercise a little prudence around a device that messes with your brain."
The brunette turned and disappeared into her room, a solid click sound indicating she had locked the two of them out for the time being.
ϟ
Monday, 10th May 1999.
Having taken the scroll for herself before hiding away, Hermione remained locked in her room, only venturing forth for late-night or stealthy bathroom breaks. The tiny Ravenclaw girl had perched outside of her room for hours on Saturday night, narrating her discoveries of the day to the silent girl within, but after a while, she seemed to give up her efforts to include Hermione against her will. Harry tried twice to draw her out but had no more success than Luna had and Hermione lost herself in her work as much as she could.
Every time she opened her door, she found a new meal prepared and placed on a tray outside, kept warm by a charm she herself had developed during the previous year and a half. One of many that she'd designed in their struggle to survive in the wilderness during the war and then perfected as part of her self study NEWT coursework.
Luna had been a huge help during this time, as Hermione had buried herself in her work the moment she returned from Australia empty-handed as a way to divert her attention from her failure but this device was dredging it all up again.
She understood their excitement at learning new information, it had been a driving force behind many of her own actions over the last fifteen years of her life, and had gone into overdrive upon learning that magic was real.
But the idea of an unknown force messing with her mind just hit too close to home right now. She had suffered in silence for over a year now as she studied by Luna's side, the pair of them working through hours and hours of NEWT studies and still finding time to help Dobby through his recovery and creating new spells to aid Harry in his desire to get away from the world and explore.
She felt bad for turning the other girl away, knowing that at times she hurt over her loss just as much as Hermione was herself. However, it seemed that Luna had reached her limit of tolerance today.
Hermione gazed in shock at the shattered remains of her door and the glaring blonde standing beyond it, wand in hand. Before she could find the coherence to utter a word, the other girl stepped inside and with two more waves of her wand, the door was repaired and back in place.
"Look, I get it," Luna said as she tucked her wand away and slowly approached the bed. "You're angry, but I also know that you aren't angry with me and Harry."
Hermione moved to speak but found herself silenced somehow, unsure of when the blonde had managed to cast such a spell on her during her loud entrance.
Luna climbed onto the bed and pushed the book and scroll aside, perching dead in front of Hermione who began trying her utmost to ignore the invader of her privacy. "You're angry at yourself." Hermione's eyes rushed to stare down the audacious girl before her.
Luna gave her a soft smile in return and continued. "Harry had no idea that the mirror would harm him, and there are no writings on or near it to indicate its function. He does have a horrible habit of looking before he leaps, in this case very literally, and you feel that you have to be there to save him from himself when he does."
Hermione tried to ignore the sense in what Luna was saying. She didn't want to forgive them for their actions just now. She was still stewing in her anger. And while she knew what Luna was saying was true, it still hurt that she had been ignored about the object.
"Your anger isn't because of how the device works. You're angry at yourself because you still feel guilty."
Hermione's eyes once more found Luna's face and the care and love in her eyes nearly cracked her resolve. "You don't know what you're talking about." She mouthed silently.
Luna shrugged. "In a way you're right. I've never modified someone's memory before. But I know what it's like to have a parent who might as well not exist to you anymore."
Hermione noted the tears in the corner of Luna's eyes as she tried to engage her. The two of them had been each other's rock through some of their darkest moments since last May. Both had seen and endured horrible things, and yet the moments that haunted them the most they both felt were self-inflicted. Though Hermione still couldn't understand how Luna could blame herself for how her father had acted when she was taken.
"You know that no matter what it takes, Harry, Dobby and I will help you find them. If it takes one hundred years and we have to search the entire globe."
Hermione stared at Luna for several long moments before her resolve cracked entirely and she felt the tears pour forth. Luna was right, she wasn't angry at her friends for their actions, but at how they had triggered a resurgent hatred of herself for what she'd done to her own parents. She felt the arms encircling her and Hermione buried herself into Luna's shoulder and let all the pain she was feeling out, now grateful for the silencing charm as it allowed her to scream the pain away without bursting the eardrum her mouth was mere inches from.
"We love you, Hermione. Our dysfunctional little family needs you. Just like you need it. We're here for you. Please don't shut us out like that."
Hermione nodded into Luna's shoulder as her body shook with gasping sobs. She always tried to be the strong one, to be there when Harry had another horrible nightmare or when Luna woke screaming because the residual injuries that Bellatrix had left her with were twinged as she turned in her sleep. Sometimes it was easy to forget that they'd all suffered in their own ways. That they had bonded into this odd little unit because of that rather than in spite of it.
She knew not how long had passed before she finally managed to pull away from the comfort of the embrace, but her throat was sore from the sobbing and her eyes were puffy and red. Luna looked into her face and wiped away the residual tears from her face, a light smile on her face the entire time.
"Better?" Luna asked as she lifted the silencing spell.
Hermione nodded as she began to wipe her cheeks clear of the tear tracks. "But not completely. I still need some time alone."
"Of course." Luna shifted off the bed and leant down to kiss the top of Hermione's head softly. "Just remember we're here for you, whatever you need."
The girl lightly skipped to the door and swung it open to reveal Harry standing there one arm outstretched and the other holding a tray of food. His eyes flicked from Luna to Hermione and back before he lifted the tray and wandlessly levitated it slowly over to Hermione's bed. His casual show of power brought a reluctant smile to Hermione's face as the scent of her dinner filled her nostrils and set her mouth watering.
"Come, Harry. She'll let us know when she's ready to talk." Luna took his hand and guided him away from the room, the door sealing once more with a loud click.
Hermione removed the cover from the platter to reveal a delicious chicken schnitzel with baked vegetables steaming underneath. She felt infinitely lighter than she had in days after Luna's barging in. She wanted to be a little angry at the girl for not letting her stew, but she knew that she had needed the talking to more than she wanted to admit.
ϟ
Hours later Harry was reclined on the couch reading one of the thick tomes they had uncovered in the treasure of the lab while Luna mirrored his actions at the table in the centre of the room. Both tried their hardest not to turn and look when they heard the unmistakable sound of a lock opening and bare feet walking out across the tiled surface.
Hermione could see the muscles in her male friend's neck twitching as he fought the urge to rush over and hug her. The apologies circling in his mind were as plain to her as the words of her favourite book.
"Good evening." Her words broke the spell over the room and Harry was on her in a second, his arms about her waist as he tucked her tightly against his body.
"I'm sorry. You were right, I didn't mean to upset you…"
"Harry, stop. Luna was right. As much as you seem to be a trouble magnet, I'm not really mad at you."
"Still, I should have come and got you both when I found it. It was reckless and you are right to be mad at me."
"I'm not mad. Not anymore. But I can tell you I am not sticking my head in that thing until I know for sure it is safe." Harry nodded rapidly. "So… Can you introduce me to Myrddin so I can discuss it with him? With your help as translator of course."
The smile on Harry's face was filled with mischief as he grabbed her hand and almost dragged her from the tent. "Harry… slow down."
His pace slowed as they reached the plinth and with a strange movement of his fingers over the sword, the image of Merlin reappeared before her.
"Ah, you have returned." Hermione was speechless as the figure looked directly at her and she understood every word he said. "The others have been most unsettled in your absence."
"How?" She whispered.
"It took some time, but having two fresh samples from the repository helped. As they downloaded knowledge, so too did they upload some in return. I am not quite fluent in your English, but I'm learning fast."
"How?" Hermione repeated, still lost in her roiling thoughts at the incredible rate at which the illusion had learned their language.
Both Harry and Merlin chuckled at the look on her face and she blushed slightly. "Stop that."
"Hermione has misgivings about the device," Harry explained, turning back to face the image. "She was hoping that you might give her a rundown on how it works. Set her mind at ease that Luna and I aren't in danger for having used it."
"Were it a typical model of its kind, she would be right. As far as you have come since we returned from Pegasus, your minds are not yet ready to take in all the knowledge of our kind. Millions of years of history alone would turn your mind to mush. This one I crafted personally using much more advanced knowledge than that my ancestors used when creating the technology."
"Technology?" Hermione queried.
"Yes. What else would it be?"
"Aren't you magical? Like us?"
"Ah, yes. Harry had begun to explain that when we last spoke, but we did not get far. It seems your absence greatly lowered their desire to interact with me. There were magical beings the last time I walked the earth. I made friends with a few of them. But what I've witnessed of your craft in this cavern does seem to have come a long way from what they practised in that time."
"And what time would that be?"
"Er…" Merlin paused and Hermione couldn't help the smirk that rose on her face at the image having taken in some of Harry's vocal tics as well as his grasp of the language. "Extrapolating… one moment."
The image closed its eyes and seemed to be thinking hard. "What is he doing?"
"I told you, it's not really Merlin. It's a computer. It has to compare the information to figure out the timeframe. We haven't really discussed the date, so unless he got that in the 'upload' from Luna and I…"
"Calculated. Answer:" The image lost the stiffness that had overtaken it and turned to face Hermione once more. "By your time scale, I last walked among mortals around the tenth century of the Common Era. At least, that was the last time my records were updated, but something was off about the user at the time."
"Off how?" Harry asked.
"He did not seem himself. It was not relevant at the time so I have dedicated no processing power to analysing it in the interim. Only seven access events have occurred since that time."
"Tenth century… that's well outside the generally accepted time scale for the Knights of the Round Table."
"Arthur's court continued long after he passed from this plane. His most trusted continued to adventure and explore for many years after his ascendance. It was they who delivered these many trinkets to this place."
"Wait, if you knew Arthur and the Knights and yet were still walking the earth in the tenth century… you'd have been…" Hermione was stunned at the very thought.
"A long time by human standards. But even now some of your magical brethren reach incredible ages. Did you not learn of one such individual in your early learnings?"
"Flamel?"
"It's not impossible." Harry shrugged.
"You also seem to forget that despite my appearance, I was not a human like you."
Hermione looked at Harry in confusion. "Did Luna not summarize that bit for you?" She shook her head. "It turns out that the man we now call Merlin was actually the second life of a being born as Moros. Moros of Atlantis."
Hermione's eyes bulged as she heard the name. "You're kidding!"
"'Fraid not. Apparently, Atlantis was once the capital of a massive empire, but it didn't sink beneath the waves here on Earth. It left Earth millions of years ago and travelled to another galaxy. Which is also where the Alteran people came from in the first place. Well, another galaxy again."
"You're telling me that Merlin was an alien?"
"By all accounts we've been able to find so far," Luna said from behind Hermione, startling her. "But the full account is in the book you secreted away for two days."
"You mean he doesn't know the full story?" Hermione asked, looking at the image.
"No. It was not necessary for me to know the full history of my people. I have the basics required to function in my role, and a few additions that were made over time, but most of my knowledge base regards the Sangraal and the Ori threat."
"The what now?"
Merlin took on a much more serious pose, standing taller than before as he faced the three humans. "A very dangerous threat that originates in the Origin galaxy. A danger my fellows refused to recognize, and the driving force behind the creation of this laboratory."
"When we got the serious face there, we were unwilling to proceed further without you," Luna said softly from her side.
Hermione turned to look at the girl before flicking her eyes to Harry. He gave her a serious look and entwined their fingers together. Hermione took a few steadying breaths before she glanced up at Merlin again.
"I think we need to know what this threat is; exactly."