Alternate Endings
Chapter 1
From Dusk to a Different Dawn
By: Deep Shadows & MotheroftheHorde

Part 2 - Twilight

Two hundred and twenty three years in the past...

"I HATE YOU!" Miranda screamed at him as another contraction ripped through her. Severus stood, holding her hand as the mid-wife prepared for the birth of the child that could be his. Miranda's husband was once again in Germany, sending his condolences that he could not be with his wife during this special time. Severus and Miranda had been back together for almost three years, her husband never knowing. Her son, was actually her husband's as well, but for a time, they were unsure and with this child they had decided to not find out.

"Breath, in, out." Severus spoke calmly, this not being the first time he had been with her as she gave birth. She glared at him as she hissed her breath out.

"I AM BREATHING!"

"Alright, Push." The mid-wife stated and Severus prepared to have his hand wrenched off by her. She grunted and hollered as she pushed and Severus couldn't help but feel a little guilty since he was almost sure this was his fault. After at least what he counted four pushed there was a very audible child crying and a very tired Miranda lying on the bed. He was only able to count up to four because at that point he was more worried about losing his hand than counting. The child was passed off to a helper to be cleaned and once that was done, Severus was holding a dark haired girl in his arms. It was a hard emotion, adoration and worry, but he didn't like to think of those things at the moment. He passed her off to her mother who promptly looked at her and said "Artimis." Severus smiled slightly, wondering if he should make himself scarce because once Lord Callabella knew 'his' next child was born he would have to make an appearance. Deciding to leave, he kissed Miranda on the head and nodded politely to the mid-wife's dark-skinned assistant.

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Smiling, Blane took away the birth bloodied cloths as the first stage of Artimis's life began.

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Somewhere in time and space Author snickers in a well stocked alchemy lab.

Blane stood at a table, a chalice full of molten glass to one side and the cloths she had collected from the birth of Artimis. Separating the clothes into two piles, she used her magic on one of them, focusing everything from the birthing: pain, joy, guilt, relief, fear, the blood, and the extra life force of birth, pooling it all into a single droplet, setting it into the stone she had gone back to get. It was a part of the original darkness, before the 'let there be light' part of time, and as such it absorbed everything, emotions, substances, energy and magic. She placed the droplet in the stone to start the spell. The second pile of the bloody cloths were cleaned by calling forth everything into the chalice. Now that she had started it would only have to get other components from the most important and powerful moments in Artimis's life. The stone would go into the hilt of the sword Artimis would carry into battle.

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Artimis at age 7 -- The worst day of her life...

The end of the day. She could finally go home and play with her sister and color. She and her older brother were walking home from her friends house with her house elf nanny, Tabby.

Almost falling backwards to look to the top of the house, she noticed there seemed to be green fireworks.

"Look Apollo, fireworks that move." Artimis stated, holding her brother's hand.

"I don't like snakes." He stated as he pulled her toward the door to the house. When Artimis walked in she felt cold, and there was weird noises coming from upstairs.

"Apollo, where's mummy?" She asked and he silenced her, holding his finger to his lips. Artimis, scared for reasons unknown to her, she fled toward the stairs, wanting to get to her mother's bedroom. Her brother, called for her, but didn't seem to follow her as she took the stairs two at a time. Artimis noticed the door was open so she threw it open and shrieked in fear. There were things going on that she couldn't understand, so horrific that she froze. Her mother was surrounded by black cloaked figures as she lay on the floor, seemingly in pain. She was crying and Artimis went to run to her. Ignoring the sounds of the people around her, she got to her mother, crying as she noticed that her oldest sister was lying on the floor next to, seemingly not moving.

"Mummy?" She spoke and her mother looked at with fear on her eyes. She moved her lips to speak as another word was spoken from dark cloaked figures. Artimis was suddenly off her feet and thrown back out the door by a spell. Scared, mad, and not really knowing what to do, Artimis screamed and ran once again to her mother. If she was with her mother, she was safe, no one could hurt her if she was with mother. Her mother shook her head and seemed to be trying to urge Artimis the other direction, but Artimis got to her side and then began yelling at the black cloaked figures to get away from her mother and to stop it. Her reply was laughter, and once voice echoed above the rest. If it hadn't of been evil laughter, it would have been the kind of laughter her father did, proud and loud and flowing like water, except it was evil laugher at a very bad situation. Her mother made a strange sound and Artimis turned to see her coughing and spitting up blood. And a few moments later, her mother stopped moving. That was when Artimis was really mad. She knew her mother was hurt and they had done it to her. She got up and walked up a person in the dark cloaks who was close to the door, like he was trying to get away too and she looked up at him.

"I am going to watch you die." She hissed, angry, upset and wanting to know why they were doing this to her mother. She was going to go back to her mother at as a hand grabbed hold of her arm. It was her father's hand as he yanked her out of the room, the figures disappearing and fleeing as a grand fatherly looking figure and some ministry people rushed in. Artimis began thrashing and crying and screaming to get back to her mother. She knew that if she wasn't with her mother something bad would happen. After a few moments Artimis was released and she ran to her mother, she was coughing and wheezy and Artimis could barely hear her speak.

"I love you sweetheart." She whispered and Artimis looked at her, holding her hand close to her chest.

"I love you to mummy." Artimis cried and her mother smiled at her, reaching up to turn her to look at her.

"Listen to me darling. Fear doesn't make you weak, it makes you cautious. Never forget that, My Artimis." She whispered, her voice faltering as she spoke. She laid her head back and sighed loudly, but then she didn't breath in again. Crying, she looked at her father and her brother who look horrified, and then she screamed, burying her face in her mother's blouse, trying to get her to wake back up. Her father grabbed her around the waist and picked her up and Artimis kicked and screamed. Artimis looked in horror as people began to pick up her mother and sister, a dark skinned woman cleaning up the blood her mother had spit and coughed up. It was that day she vowed that every person who had been involved with the cause of her mothers death would die and she would be there to watch.

(Snape Point of view here Deep Shadows Squees)

He was glad for the mask, it would hide his tears. The only bloody time he would be glad and hated the mask at the same time. Could I save her? He asked himself and he realized that it would be disastrous and he would die as well. But why must I watch? They know this is torture.

Severus stood tensely by the door waiting for someone to show up and save the day, to rescue Miranda. He knew he couldn't and she knew he couldn't, but he prayed that Andres would come home. Then he heard footsteps and thanks the lords until he saw who it was that threw open the door. Artimis, a lanky little excuse for a seven year old was there. Seven, she's seven already. She's so big. He thought sorrowfully and then his attention was turned to what she was doing. She fearlessly dove through the deatheaters, sitting at her mother's side.

"Mummy?" The raven-haired child spoke and Severus cringed as he watched his love look up at her daughter with fear etched in her face. He could feel the look reaching him as well, as if pleading him to at least get Artimis out. Severus tried to think of what to do and then he grabbed his wand, muttering a spell that threw Artimis out of the room and into safety, so he hoped. Still wracking his brain for a way to save Miranda, he was better knowing Artimis was safe. He was suddenly shocked when he heard a scream and the small body came blaring past him and he was unable to move to catch her arm to stay her. There was a chill in the room and he himself was a bit worried beyond what he had already been, If he couldn't move, he couldn't get her out of here. He could see the pleading look on Miranda's face as she tried to urge her daughter out, but the child would not listen. Artimis, seemingly fearless began telling the deatheaters to leave her mother alone and to get out and that they would be in big trouble if they didn't. The other deatheaters simply laughed at her and that moment would now become even more so an event etched in his memory. Miranda began to choke on her own blood, he imagined her lungs were almost full now by the way she was breathing and Artimis took on look at her and then locked eyes with his. His very being froze as she stood and marched up to him, her normally blue eyes solid black.

"I am going to watch you die." She said but the words coming out of her mouth was not in the voice of a child, but with the full grown vengeance of an adult hell-bent on his death. He would have quivered with fear if could have moved. He could feel a coldness creeping up his legs and he wasn't to sure what kind of magic this child was wielding, but he was almost sure that because he was a coward and did not save Miranda, the child, who was more than likely his own daughter was going to slowly kill him for revenge. As those thoughts cross his mind, Artimis was suddenly snatched from his vision and he could move. He first movement was to escape and with a mournful glance at the barely breathing Miranda he dissapparated, praying that they could save her. Landing back in his hovel, as he like to think of fit, he swallowed the knot of dread when he realized that the small girl he had just left had made a death threat on him and he was almost sure she intended to keep it.

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Back to the lab Author snickers againThe labs owner was busy getting younger while helping a young man create a kingdom...

Blane very carefully added the blood from Artimis's mother and sister, and the tears from Artimis's soiled handkerchief into the chalice. Blane had to be very careful not to add her own tears to it, because it was very hard to watch something like that happen and choose to do nothing about it. That was the hardest part, of her ability to 'twist and travel' in time and space because it hurts less to watch something and not be able to do anything about it, then it is to watch knowing you can do something, and choose not to help. Any changes would start an alternate life and she had made the promise to the one she had met..

Blane continued to metaphorically turn the pages of Artimis's life, gathering bits here and there to add to the strength of the spell. She gathered the clothes from her first menstruation, the tears of joy following her first kiss and the sheets from when she lost her maidenhood. Watching as Artimis developed through out her life, she found that Artimis's shadows, even though for the first part of her life were tied to her emotions, they slowly became controlled by her. They helped to tie her to her best friend, a white haired seer named Alexis. The shadows had kept them alive, even when everything else said they should have been dead. It was her shadows that kept her from being burned alive by Alexis, and her shadows that led Alexis back to her when she became lost in her animagus form in the woods. Blane collected the blood from all their fights, and the tears from both their laughter and their sorrows

It did not shock her that Alexis's ability to wield fire, which due to her extreme nature and anger, made Artimis's shadows take a stronger hold. At one point, they had tried to take over, but Artimis showed her will power off by controlling instead of being controlled.

As Artimis grew up, her dangers in life seemed to grow. Blane noticed that danger, blood, sadness, and death seemed to followed the young woman most of her life. She watched on the sidelines as Artimis burned her own father at his funeral pyre, taking care to gather the tears from Artimis and some of the ashes that had both Artimis and her father's blood. Shortly after that was when Artimis let go of her control for the first time and she let her shadows completely destroy a building and all with in it. The shadows possessed her for sometime after that and Artimis had to fight them or else she would have killed her family in one fell blow, but the Artimis Blane had met succeeded. There was another loop in time though, where Artimis did not fight back and killed the one she seemed to love the most, her friend Alexis. Blane left that loop alone not wanting to muddle the spell.

In the house where Blane had first appeared, there was a room that absorbed powerful magic so it could not harm the household and this room was chosen as a secondary power source for the spell. There were runes that kept the magic circulating until it faded, but Blane added one rune that drained a little bit of magic to feed the spell she was weaving.

One of the times where Blane had problems controlling her desire to help and not interfere was in what Artimis' generation referred to as The Final Battle. It was this battle where the villain of Artimis' time was defeated by being turned into stone that was shattered into four pieces. Two of those pieces were entrusted to Artimis's family and the house gladly gave up one of its stones to her with a little asking.

Blane had found something amusing about the house, it was very intent on its family survival and any person intent on helping had things done for them. Blane once thought she was going to have to fight with the door to get the stone of Voldemort, but the door simply and silently opened, even though Blane knew very well it had been locked. She was almost sure the house elves, who seemed completely in tune with the house, had done something to gain her this favor.

Blane added Voldemort as a detector of sorts, because evil knew evil, and Voldemort was very evil so he would recognize threats to the family. Blane hoped Artimis's family would soften the wounded soul, freeing it from its pain, making it part of a true family for the first time in its existence.

Continuing on Artimis's life she gathered the cloths bloodied from her first child's birth and the tears of joy from her wedding.

The next major section of Artimis's life were her teaching years, years filled with joy, sadness and pride. Blane added to the molten glass all the tears, sweat, and the emotions that got fueled in to it. She added the jacket of her mentor, which was used instead of cloths when she had her son. Many hardships fell her family, as well as several joys occurred in the years that followed.

The best joy seemed to come from her family's camping trips and her greatest sorrow came when she had to turn her nephew in to prison for his evil deeds, when her best friend, who had come to be a sister to her, could not.

One thing that was constant as time passed on, Artimis's internal structure never seemed to change. It was always family first, then herself, then the world, but she never lost her humor, it seemed to keep her sane. She was as humor filled as a teenager as was the woman Blane had met with the laugh lines etched in her face. When Alexis killed herself, Artimis didn't seem so much sad as she seemed shaken. Blane collected far less tears from that then she would have guessed, but she had heard Artimis and Alexis speak of Alexis's planned death before it occurred.

Artimis did cry for many nights when her husband died and those tears too were added, as well as the bits of hair Artimis had pulled out in her frustration. That was another time when Artimis almost lost control, but once again she overcame.

After adding all the components she needed to complete the spell, she was ready to return what she had removed to it's rightful owner.

Yet Another Segment of this story...
You know this was only supposed to be a one shot...
Hate it and love it when that happens...

Toodles,
Deep Shadows
and MotheroftheHorde