Round Six - Cannons Chaser Three: The Matrix
Optional Prompts
(Object) Mirror
(Word) visitor
(Word) incident
Beta'd by: isaacswolfsbane, The Kawii Neko
Word Count without AN: 2,754
"Theo, we have a visitor." The man looked up from where he had been crouched over the crumpled, bleeding body on the floor. Blaise was standing in the doorway, nose scrunched as the smell made its way to him.
"Oh?" Blaise nodded and held out a small white cloth. Theo grinned, accepting the outstretched handkerchief and wiping the blood off of his fingers. "Who is it?"
"Hermione Granger from the Order is standing outside our doors. It seems she wants to take a dive in one of our Pensieves."
"Excellent. Kingsley here appears to have had an incident with my knife collection. Do clean it up, won't you?"
Welcome to the Matrix.
Inside, all of your wildest dreams and fantasies will come to life.
Inside, you can be anyone you want to be.
Hermione scoffed at the words monogrammed onto the surface of the large mirror-like window. She had heard about this place—a place where books come to life and you get to live out the lives of your favorite characters. It sounded too good to be true.
And it was.
"Why am I here again?" Hermione turned her head to glance over her shoulder and muttered into the small microphone embedded in her shirt collar. She drew her lower lip into her mouth and looked back up at the door, playing the part of a nervous first-timer.
"Because all of our other informants have disappeared and you drew the small straw?" Harry's voice crackled through her earpiece, and it was only the saving grace of twenty years of acting lessons that stopped her grin from showing on her face.
Hermione took a deep breath and entered the building.
She could totally do this.
Tom Riddle is the founder of the Matrix. His company, The DeathEaterz, is a technology company that focuses on gaming. Three years ago, they created what's known as The Pensieve. A device that allows the user to play the game as if they were a character in the game. Malfoy Industries, a high-rate research facility, had partnered with the company in order to mass produce and build multiple places around the world known as The Matrix.
She could not do this.
Floor to ceiling bookshelves lined the walls, smaller bookcases filled to bursting were sprinkled here and there across the many lounges. In the back corner, a small display showed a snacks, coffee and tea menu for those who wanted to stay but were thirsty or hungry. The lighting was neither harsh enough to make you squint nor soft enough to make you grow gradually blind.
It was perfect.
Fuck, it was perfect.
"Welcome to the Matrix, Madam. What can I do for you today?" a soft voice spoke from her right, and when Hermione turned, she had to physically beat back her rising blush. The man was almost as beautiful as the collection of books surrounding her. Dark brown eyes sparkled under the soft lighting and black hair fell gently across a smooth forehead. His teeth were perfectly straight and white, but not an obnoxious bleached white. (This appealed to her dentistry-ish side. Her parents would definitely approve.)
"I—" Hermione cleared her throat. "I don't really know actually. I've never done anything like this."
"Are you playing innocent here, 'Mione?" Ron's voice echoed into her ear this time and Hermione felt her teeth scrape against each other. Her ex might be smart, but he was extremely annoying at times.
"That's perfect." The man casually stretched his arm out to drape it across her shoulders and began to lead her to the shelves near the back. "What is your favorite genre?"
The Pensieve is a device that goes over your head before sealing around your neck. Once the seal is complete, the helmet-like device then begins to fill up with liquid. No one knows what exactly this liquid is made up of, but it allows the user to breathe normally and without fear of drowning. Once the device is filled to the top, the wearer would then 'fall' into the pre-programmed realm. This is known as immersion.
"Happy endings."
Theo almost tripped over his feet at the woman's response. He had known the second she stood in front of his door that she had been sent to infiltrate, the information coaxed out of Kingsley had told him as much. In fact, she was high up in the rankings of this mysterious 'Order' Lucius has brought to his attention.
"That's not exactly a genre, Miss…."
"Granger. And it is a sub-genre in the internet world." The chit actually turned her nose up at him! At least she used her real name, although he was surprised she hadn't given him a first name. Most customers did, unless they were raised like Blaise, Draco, or himself. From what he had gathered from her comrades, she was middle-class at best. "I don't really care what else happens in the story, except that the main character gets to have a happy ending for themselves."
"What an interesting choice of words; is there to be no happy ending for the rest of the characters?"
"There is no need for it. What fun is living when there is no destruction to survive? What fun is loving if there is no hate to overcome? No, I much prefer my side of fluff with a main course of angst."
Once a person is fully immersed, they have no awareness of the outside world. All of their focus is on the story they've just dived into; be it a video game, a movie, a play, a book, or even a tv series! All actions done to the character they've chosen to live as will be replayed back onto the diver.
Replay: The brain will reflect the brain of the character. For example, if the character gets a papercut, then the nerves in the finger will send pain signals even if there is no physical cut in the real world.
Hermione casually scanned the bookshelves as they continued towards the shelf at the very back. So far, there had been no signs of her co-workers' presence, and that was worrying. Severus and Kingsley had been on assignment for the past six months. They had only missed their last check in three days ago. It made no sense for there to be nothing to guide her in the right direction.
"Very well," the man gently pulled her to a stop before gesturing towards the bookshelf in front of them. "This shelf contains most of our 'Happy endings' genre. Look through the books until you find one of your liking, feel free to take your time. Once you've found your book, come find me and I'll help you with your first dive."
Hermione nodded slowly as the attractive man scurried away in the direction of the back door. The man had left so abruptly and she hadn't received any information. She hadn't even gotten his name!
Damn.
That meant she would have to keep coming back.
Diving is a term coined from the word diverse. Due to the number of genres that a diver was allowed to choose from, Tom Riddle began to refer to the jump between fantasy and reality as 'diving'.
Once you are immersed, you are able to do many things. A) Follow the storyline and enjoy the story as it was written. B) Choose a background storyline and watch the story unfold from the sidelines. C) Follow the storyline and change things slightly as you go. D) Don't follow the storyline and see what happens. Most people will choose option A, and only a few will choose options B or C. Only one person has ever chosen option D.
Albus Dumbledore was a seventy-five-year-old man dying from pancreatic cancer. He volunteered to be the first person to test the theory of plot-divergence. The story chosen, Daniel Radcliffe and the Philosopher's Stone, lead to his death. Now all experiments with option D are restricted to children stories.
Hermione had been diving with the Matrix for the last two months, and she had yet to uncover anything. Harry and Ron were slowly going mad as they waited for intel.
"Hermione, all you've been doing so far is hopping back and forth between the world of Shakespeare and flirting with Theo. We need more information!" Ron waved his hands about as he ranted, Harry shaking his head on the screen next to him.
"I hate to say this, but I agree. I think you're getting distracted. Do you want me to come down and help out?" Harry paused, eyeing the screen for a moment before continuing. "Is it Severus? I know you're worried about him, but it's been three months, Hermione. I don't think he's coming back."
"No," Hermione shook her head and leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm almost in. Give me another month and then you can come in. Although, I don't think that will be necessary."
"Fine, but you have until the end of this month. That's all we can give you."
The screen went black, and Hermione leaned forward, burying her face in her hands.
Two weeks.
She could totally find their two missing teammates and shut down the Matrix in two weeks.
Totally.
Theo stared at Hermione.
"You want to what?"
"I want to try option D using Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream."
She was crazy! The woman was going to get herself killed, all to try and infiltrate his company. Then again, if she did this herself, he could get rid of one-third of the Order's chain of command right here, right now.
"When we talked the other day, you said all of your test subjects have been white males ages thirty to eighty." Hermione stood up and began to pace back and forth, her hands weaving through the air. "That's a large limitation! We've proven that the brain works differently for both genders and age. No one's even tested to see if there's a difference between race! So why are you limiting yourself to only one range? I will sign whatever you need me to sign, but this is an experience I simply can not pass up!"
Theo sat back in his chair, drawing his ankle up onto his knee as he regarded the pacing woman. Hermione had a point. Blaise had been adamant about not including women as test subjects due to their minds being too emotional. He was beginning to see how wrong this was.
Hermione was pointing out how wrong this was.
"I will even give up my place in the Order."
The Order is a government owned organisation that investigates rival companies. Their methods are questionable at best, most crossing the line to illegal, and all companies deemed unworthy are destroyed. Harry and Ron are the heads of the organisation, both men taking over when Albus Dumbledore died in the Pensieve experiment. Hermione and Ginny are the next in line to lead if anything should happen to the current leaders.
Hermione smiled as she her opened eyes. She had betrayed the Order three months ago, and it was the best decision she had ever made. She no longer listened to Harry and Ron chatting about which football team was the best while she went on dangerous missions. Yes, she would miss her boys, but Theo and her new life were worth it.
"What are you going to do about Severus, Theo?" Blaise's voice echoed through the open door from the living room. "He's been in our care for almost seven months now and we still have yet to break the man."
Hermione froze. Severus was here? Her fiancé was alive? But Theo had told her he and Kingsley had escaped a week after capture. She had been led to believe the two men had run off together.
"Throw him in the isolation chamber. Since he doesn't want to speak, I'll have to give him a worthy send off. Hermione will tell me all I need to know as long as I keep up this charade."
Footsteps grew louder and Hermione quickly shut her eyes, growing limp and allowing her mouth to fall open slightly. The other side of the bed dipped, and then a warm arm was wrapping itself around her waist.
"Sleep well, my queen."
"Severus, let someone else go in your place." Hermione was begging this time. Her fingers grasped at the woolen coat, twisting into the fabric as if she could screw him in place. "Theo is dangerous! Kingsley has already been taken; I don't want to lose you either!"
"Hermione, I don't have a choice. Orders are orders, and if not me, then they'll send you." Thin fingers trailed lightly across her wet cheek before a pair of dry lips pressed softly against her forehead.
"I'll return to you, my heart."
Severus walked out the door and was declared MIA five days later.
Theo stared in silence at the man before him. Stringy black hair dangled limply across pale skin, specks of red littered here and there. Severus Snape was a tough man to crack. He had stayed quiet throughout all of their… chats. No screaming, no pleading, no information, nothing. And Theo knew exactly what to do now that he had a certain curly-haired lady warming his bed.
"It's a shame that you decided to stay silent." Theo stepped closer, casually rolling up the sleeves of his shirt as he continued speaking. "I've had to go a different route in gaining my information. It's surprisingly pleasant; all I have to do is spout a few romantic phrases and Hermione is screaming everything I need to know in the throes of passion."
Severus' head snapped up, dark eyes glaring at the figure stalking closer. Theo grinned, coming to a stop directly in front of the man. He reached his hand up and undid the top three buttons of his shirt, pulling the collar to the side to expose the bruises littering his neck.
"She's a feisty lover. I'll be a little disappointed to see her go soon."
"Don't you fucking touch her." Theo chuckled at the rasped words. Once, they would've frightened him, but he had seen Severus covered in his own bodily fluids. He had seen the man flinch at the sight of his knives. There was nothing frightening about that.
"Oh, I already have. She rather enjoyed it too; I still have the marks on my back to prove it." Severus was no longer looking at him, instead; his eyes were focused over his shoulder, unwavering. "What, nothing to say anymore?"
Theo tsked, shaking his head before sighing.
"Pity."
"Hermione are you sure you want to do this?" Harry frowned at her. The two were sitting in a small café, in the back corner by the restrooms.
"He killed my Severus, Harry. I'm going to destroy him." Hermione's grip tightened around her mug. "If I have to sacrifice my happiness to do so, so be it."
"Ron won't be happy about it."
"Not to sound rude, but I don't really care what Ronald thinks right now."
"Alright," Harry sighed before draining the last of his latte. "I'll start gathering the false information for you to leak to Nott."
Hermione stepped lightly over Blaise's body. The man had thought that he could have his way with her while Theo was gone, and now he was dead. Before he died, however, Hermione had been able to retrieve the location of Severus.
Ten minutes later she was standing outside of a small door, hands clutching her favored Glock. Ginny had taught her how to shoot, and Hermione had quickly earned the nickname Sniper. It was time for her to stop hiding.
She slowly opened the door, grateful for Theo's need of modern technology. Severus was strapped to an upright table, wounds littering his thin body. Theo stood in front of him, talking away. Her eyes quickly locked with Severus' and she held a finger up to her mouth. They could have their reunion later.
"What, nothing to say anymore?"
Hermione crept up behind Theo silently, raising her weapon up above her head.
"Pity."
She quickly brought her gun down, pistol whipping the back of Theo's head. Theo dropped, splaying across the floor.
"Sorry I'm late, Love." Hermione grinned. "You would not believe the things I had to do to find you."
Now, I know some of you are going to point out Severus being a little OOC here, so i thought that I should explain the "my heart" part. I have this headcannon that Severus Snape is a closet romantic.
That's it.
That's my explanation! XD
Thank you for reading, and enjoy the rest of your 24 hour day!
