The Veiled Mysteries

A/N: Hello! Sorry for the delay in posting this, I had a major writer's block, because I wanted to make this chapter really good... So I hope it lives up to your expectations. So... Here's chapter twenty-two!

Disclaimer: Nope, only the plot. And that's all I need.

"Some say love, it is a river
that drowns the tender reed.
Some say love, it is a razor
that leaves your soul to bleed.
Some say love, it is a hunger,
an endless aching need."

"The Rose"- Bette Midler.

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Sirius ran to the door and swung it open. In the doorway stood Tonks, about to turn around, with her jaw slightly open. Lupin came to stand next to Sirius and raised his eyebrows at her girlfriend.

"Having a nice time?" Sirius snarled, towering over her. He was terrified. For one horrible second, he had thought Harry had been on the other side of the door, listening to what he had just confessed. He was torn between feeling relieved or just pissed off because Lupin had made him admit everything concerning the affair.

"I'm- I'm so sorry," Tonks nearly wailed. "I- I was looking for Remus and- I heard you scream..." She trailed off. Sirius closed his eyes and rubbed them.

"What did you hear?" He asked tiredly. Great, now Tonks knew all about it.

"Come in," Lupin said. "The last thing we need is someone else taking hold of this," he added when Sirius glared at him. Tonks blushed as she complied and entered the room, wriggling her hands. She didn't speak again as she examined the floor.

"So? What did you hear?" Sirius prompted, slamming the door behind him. Both Lupin and Tonks were startled by the sound.

"Everything," Tonks answered in a small voice, looking up slowly. "Did you- did you really...? Hermione and you...?"

"That would be none of your business, but yeah," Sirius told her, turning away. What if she told someone about it? Not that Tonks would do that on purpose, but...

"Oh, Sirius," Tonks breathed. "That's why... When I gave her your present... Oh, I should have known," she told him. Sirius didn't grace that comment with an answer, but Lupin did.

"We were just talking about that, as you must have heard," he said; and that calmed Sirius down a little bit. Tonks again broke eye contact.

"I'm sorry, I really am." She whispered.

"Apology accepted," Sirius grunted as he started pacing back and fro through his room. Whether he forgave her or not, it was too late to cry about it. "Tell anyone and I'll murder you." He added simply, not looking at her. And the worst part is that some part of him really meant it.

"Of course not," Tonks retorted, sounding offended. "Hermione could have told me," she stated after a while, making Sirius gaze at her. "With me dating Remus and all..."

"She was fifteen when it happened," Lupin said before Sirius could open his mouth. "That technically makes Sirius a paedophile... I wouldn't have said anything either," he told Tonks. Sirius's cheeks, once again, glowed red.

"Remus, what the hell? Are you going to continue making me feel like a monster?" He angrily asked. He felt mad enough to spit.

"Sorry."

"Are you going to tell anyone?" Tonks wanted to know, frowning slightly.

"No." Sirius's voice was hard and concrete, as was his answer. This was no one's business but his... He didn't even want to imagine Ron's and Harry's faces.

"I don't think you're being fair to Harry," Lupin commented, draping his arm around Tonks shoulders. "He doesn't deserve being kept in the dark about this."

"Remus Lupin, I swear that I'm really going to kick your ass," Sirius warned. "He doesn't need to know!"

"I agree with Sirius on this one," Tonks said; Lupin shrugged. "What were you saying about that book?" She questioned.

"We need to enter Hermione's room to get it," Lupin responded. "The sooner, the better." Sirius stopped pacing around at this.

"I won't go in there," he immediately said. No, he wouldn't enter the bedroom of someone whom he had loved and was now gone. It was as if someone told him to enter Lily's and James's house. There were lines that simply couldn't be crossed.

"I'll go," Lupin volunteered softly. He didn't like the idea either, but there was a bigger purpose now: bringing Hermione back.

"What about Harry?" Tonks asked barely above a whisper.

"He won't be able to stand it," Sirius said sadly.

"And how do you know? Have you spoken with him about it?" Lupin asked curiously.

"We talked about Hermione... And that was enough proof for me," Sirius replied flatly. A silence fell above them before Sirius let out a long sigh. "I wish I could see her again," he said in a rugged whisper. He was not looking at them, so Lupin and Tonks shared a worried look. Had he realized what he had said?

"In a way, you can," Tonks whispered back. Sirius shook his head slowly.

"Pictures are just doppelgangers," he argued.

"Not a picture..." Tonks trailed off. Lupin suppressed a gasp when he realized what his girlfriend meant.

"I don't think that's a good-"

"Let me decide that," Sirius cut him off abruptly, making Lupin frown. "You were saying, Tonks...?"

"I'm a Metamorphmagus, remember?" She said quietly. "I'll change as an apology for... for overhearing." She stood there, staring at him, waiting for him to agree or decline the proposition. Lupin's arms were crossed, and he didn't say anything either. For a couple of minutes, Sirius just didn't know what to do. He longed to see Hermione again, but... Wouldn't it be a little disturbing? Tonks would never be Hermione... And when she changed back into her original body, would he be able to handle the deception? Would the truth of Hermione's death be embossed in his brain forever more?

"Okay," Sirius's irrational side spoke. "Change... Please." Lupin let out a huff and Tonks nodded, breathing in deeply before screwing her face up. In a matter of seconds Hermione stood in front of him, smiling. Sirius's mouth was slightly agape as he took in how much Hermione had changed. She had been pretty at fifteen, beautiful even, but she had grown into the gorgeousness of a woman. Her hair was longer, less wild; her features had sharpened, too. She wasn't thin but she wasn't nowhere near fat, either. She was perfect...

"This is wrong, Sirius, for Merlin's sake!" Lupin exclaimed angrily, avoiding looking at 'Hermione'.

"When you want me to change back, just say so," Tonks told Sirius, who was gaping at her. Truth to be told, it was unsettling.

"Speak again," Sirius requested softly.

"Um... I know Hogwarts, A History, by heart?" Tonks tried, and Sirius beamed. It felt so good to hear Hermione again, and to see her...

"ENOUGH!" Lupin ended up yelling. "This is not just wrong; this has leapt into plain perversion! Tonks, change back right now! If you want to be morbid then be so, but not in front of me!" He ordered. Before either of them could speak, a strangled gasp was heard from the doorway. Lupin, Sirius and Tonks whipped around to see Harry pressing against the hallway wall, his eyes popping out of his sockets. He didn't appear to be breathing.

"Harry?" Sirius asked, petrified. He could not even imagine what was going inside his godson's head, and only know did he see how distorted the situation really was. Moony had been right all along... Maybe Sirius was sick. How could he have agreed to Tonks impersonating a dead person? It was twisted... It was disrespectful...

"What- What is Hermione doing here?" Harry asked in a high pitched tone, still pressed against the wall. Tonks suddenly looked as though she was about to cry; she screwed up her face again and returned to her original body. Her eyes were red.

"I'm so sorry, Harry-" she started.

"No, don't you apologize," Lupin interrupted her, glaring at Sirius, who still looked carved out of stone.

"Whose idea was this?" Harry asked in a trembling voice, rage flashing in his eyes. When no one answered, Harry unglued himself from the wall. "Whose idea was this?" He repeated loudly. Tonks really did begin crying, and Sirius looked close to following her example. "Have you got no shame?" He wanted to know before turning around and stomping away from the door; they were able to hear a door being closed so harshly that it surprised them that Grimmauld Place didn't shake.

"I'm- I'm an idiot," Tonks sobbed, shivering. Sirius fell against the wall of his room and lowered his head, still not speaking a word.

"You were both wrong," Lupin said firmly. "Padfoot, honestly..."

"I know," his friend said coarsely. "I know."

"We're leaving, Nymphadora." She nodded at this, still sobbing, and she embraced Lupin. "Sirius, you owe Harry an explanation. I'm not returning here until you have all this straightened out." Just as he finished speaking, with a loud POP they were both gone, and Sirius still didn't dare to gaze up. His hands covered his face as he crouched over in true shame for what he had done. Once he had collected himself he uncovered his face and breathed in deeply, heavily starting to walk towards Harry's room. What to tell him? How to explain this to Harry, without telling him about the affair? Much sooner of what he would have liked, Sirius found himself standing in front of Harry's door, shaking as though he was about to meet a Dementor inside. Closing his eyes, as though expecting an AK, he knocked on the door.

"Harry? It's- It's me, Sirius."

"Come in," Harry's voice boomed through the door. Breathing in deeply, Sirius pushed the door open to find Harry looking through his window, with his arms crossed.

"Harry-"

"I don't want any explanations," Harry cut him off, glaring at him as he turned around.

"And what about an apology? It was wrong; we'll never do anything of the sort again." Sirius replied, boring his eyes into Harry's.

"I hope not, Sirius." His tone was hard, but not dripping hatred like moments before.

"I'm going to have nightmares for weeks," Sirius mumbled, looking down.

"Join the club; we have jackets," Harry retorted. Sirius allowed a small smile to show, and his godson's features softened a bit.

"I'm really sorry, you know," Sirius said again. "Don't get pissed with Lupin. He tried to stop us."

"Just don't do it again," Harry said with a sigh. "I almost had a heart attack..."

"Harry... We need to enter Hermione's room." Sirius blurted out, totally out of the blue.

The air seemed to get thicker and colder, or thinner and heated.

"Whatever for?" Ah, there it was. The aggressiveness was back.

"The book she had. Lupin thinks it may say something... useful."

"And what do you think?" Harry asked him. Sirius shrugged.

"I don't need false expectations."

"Me neither... But maybe she could come back," Harry retorted hopefully. "Okay... We'll get it tomorrow."

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In the second floor landing, the hallway was crowded- even Draco, dragged by Ginny, was there. Everyone was staring at Lupin, who was about to enter the room, anxiously. Harry was in the living room (he had said that over his dead body he'd ever get near that room again), but Sirius was in the group, trying to look cool and calmed. He was still ashamed of what he had done yesterday, as was Tonks. She had not been able to look at Harry in the eye, not even after Harry himself had told her that she was forgiven.

"Well..." Lupin started, breaking the tense silence, as he raised his wand. "Finite Incantatum." The door made an odd squelching sound and Lupin pushed it open carefully, stepping inside slowly. Sirius leaned over to take a peek of the room, but immediately retreated. He felt dirty; he didn't have the right. Wishing he could forget about yesterday, he looked away quickly... Lupin exited Hermione's room a few minutes later, clutching the black book, and raised his wand again. "Colloportus," he said, and the door closed itself with the same sound. Everyone eyed the book curiously.

"Well then... Shall we go down?" Luna was the first to speak, tugging on Ron's hand.

"Let's," Ron muttered, and they all followed Lupin through the corridor and down the stairs like a troop following a general. They reached the living room and Harry stared up at them immediately, his eyes travelling down to the book. He swallowed. Everyone situated themselves as close as possible save for Sirius; he contented himself by observing from the sidelines. Lupin opened the book and frowned as his eyes followed the appearing words.

"Well?" Ginny suddenly asked, gripping Draco's hand. "What does it say?"

"So far, it explains what's beyond the Veil," Lupin answered, thoughtfully tracing the lines with his fingers almost admiringly.

"Trust only my mother to have a book of that sort," Sirius commented. Lupin smiled slightly.

"Indeed... Well... It says here that the Veil is supposed to act as a limbo. If you fall, you're neither dead nor alive... Yes..." he muttered.

"Nothing that we don't know already," Harry interrupted this time. "Skip all that." Lupin did as told and began scanning through the pages quickly; his eyes becoming only two gray blurs. He was reaching what it looked to be the middle of the book when he let out a small exclamation of triumph.

"What?" Tonks asked urgently.

"Here it is," Lupin said, his eyes widening as he read. "It talks about a potion... The chances to bring someone back are almost..." he trailed off, earning a how of frustration from the six persons around him.

"Give me that," Draco said, leaning over to snatch the book from Lupin's hands. His brow furrowed, as he read what the book said, almost in concentration. "Bloody hell... Everything must be perfectly calculated... The birthday dates... The date to drink the potion, the time..." He recited slowly.

"What birthday dates?" Ron asked. Draco shook his head.

"The one from the person you're trying to save, and your own," he responded, scratching his chin. "There must be a connection, because-" here he turned over the page, "Because... You must love the person who has passed on?" Draco finished in an unbelieving voice, raising his right eyebrow. It was lucky Sirius wasn't drinking anything, because he would have sprayed them all.

"Well obviously," Luna said. "Love helped Harry defeat Voldemort. Why shouldn't it be able to revive the departed?"

"But it says here that you must..." Draco closed his mouth, leaving the sentence hanging.

"You must what?" Harry asked, exasperated by their nonsense.

"It's a sacrifice... And, it says here, that almost by default you must love the person deeply in order to be willing or wanting to exchange your life for theirs," Draco said before looking at Sirius, who was suddenly pale. Everyone turned to look at him, sporting puzzled glances, save for Lupin and Tonks. "However, the love that the person who is going to sacrifice him or herself, professes, is not enough to counteract the unmoving laws of nature. And thus, the potion is needed..." Draco trailed off, and he jumped two pages forwards. His eyes widened just as Lupin's and he nodded mutely as he read, oblivious to the murdering growls of the rest.

"My turn," Ron stated, prying the book off Draco's hands. He had to lean slightly over the torn and old pages to read. "There are two potions for the exchanging of the lives," he told them. "Blimey... Some of these ingredients can only be found in Knockturn Alley... These are the most complicated potions I've ever known... And that's saying something..." He mused.

"So what's the difference between the potions?" Lupin wanted to know. Ron turned the page over, frowning. "The first one allows you to fall through the Veil, retrieve the person you have lost, and come back alive and well, both of you. It takes a year to brew." He jumped two pages ahead. "The second one... It takes six to eight months to brew, depending on the purity of the ingredients. This one only brings back the person you wanted to save..." His voice cracked at this, and he looked up at what he had just read. Ginny was still about to break the bones in Draco's hand; Harry had gone as pearly white as a ghost, and Tonks was biting her lower lip sadly; Sirius was staring at the floor... Luna placed her hand over Ron's.

"I'll continue," she gently said, taking the book from Ron's death like grip, and began reading in silence.

"Why didn't she choose the first one?" Ginny squeaked.

"Because she didn't want to come back," Harry whispered, covering his eyes with his hand. His tone was so heavy, so distressed; his statement was so truthful that it was useless, and beyond sad.

"But why?" Ron asked to no one, running his fingers through his hair. No one replied to this, and they stared at each other for what felt like hours. Maybe, reading this book had not been such a great idea after all. A hoarse gasp broke all their reveries, and the heads snapped in direction of Luna, who was covering her mouth with his hand. A look of horror, mixed with sorrow, clouded her usually happy eyes.

"What is it, love?" Ron questioned, alarmed, putting an arm around her shoulders. Luna shook her head frantically, tearing her eyes away from the yellow pages.

"I- I don't think we should continue reading this," she choked.

"Why?" Harry demanded. Luna only shook her head.

"We shouldn't read this," she repeated.

"Oh, hand that book over," Harry finally spat, stretching his hand to get the book.

"No!" Luna exclaimed, widening her eyes as she moved the book out of his reach. She sounded scared. A pregnant silence fell over the living room at this statement.

"Luna, we can't stop now. We're too involved," Sirius suddenly spoke, finally finding his voice. What could be written in that book? "If we stop, it'll only drive us mad. Give it to me... I'll read it." Luna apprehensively stared at Sirius's stretched hands, and reluctantly handed the book over to him. He was right- They didn't have another choice. Sirius narrowed his eyes at the spiky handwriting and saw that it was the list of ingredients for each potion. "Here are the ingredients, yes..." He muttered the name of some of them, but didn't recognize them. He fingers traced each of the ingredients as he read, and when he reached the last one he frowned. "What the hell?!" He exclaimed.

What was this potion, for Merlin's sake? Had Hermione really drank that? Had she actually brewed such a vile thing?

"What, Padfoot?" Lupin wanted to know, slightly rising from the couch he was sitting in. Sirius shook his head in complete disbelief, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him.

"Three droplets of blood from a person or a number of people who also loved the deceased one," Sirius recited, and paid no heed to the various gasps. Sure this potion was a nasty piece of work, but why had Luna gotten so upset about it?

This question was answered as he read the paragraph below the list of ingredients. This time, Sirius really got unsettled.

"Bloody hell!" He exclaimed. "It says here that the person who is about to make the sacrifice must carry an imprint of another person who loved the one that had fallen into the realm of the Veil-"

"Sirius, don't," Luna begged in a whimper.

"An imprint?" Harry questioned, confused, ignoring Luna's plead. Sirius nodded almost absentmindedly, still disturbed over what he was reading.

Had Hermione done this to someone?

"Yes, an imprint... In this case, an imprint in the mind, the soul... And the body," he responded.

"What, like a scar?" Draco asked.

"Not such an obvious mark... It says that it has to run deeper than that... In fact... This book states that the only satisfying imprint you can have is by-"

"Don't!" Luna whimpered again, but no one was paying enough attention to her.

"By intercourse. You know... Shagging," Sirius finished, disgusted. Had Hermione really done that? Apparently, yes... The potion had worked... Had Hermione loved him so much, in order to not only drink that potion, but also gathering everything that was needed? The coffee table nearly upturned when someone got up quickly from one of the couches, and Sirius lifted his eyes to meet the ones of his godson's, glossy and red; staring back at him with such a hectic mix of impotence, deception, anguish and pain in his eyes that Sirius almost felt his own pupils burning. Harry's lips were pale; there was not a hint of any kind of colour on his face. His fists were clenched, and his back was straighter than a pin. Sirius opened his mouth to ask what was wrong when a lone tear fell from Harry's eye, and it suddenly struck him why. Sirius's mouth was suddenly very dry.

Harry loved Sirius as a mentor, as a friend, and as a fatherly figure. Nobody, at least since James and Lily died, had loved him as much as Harry, besides Hermione.

His three droplets of blood into the potion. His imprint on Hermione's body...

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A/N: Well! There you go... I absolutely loved writing the last part of the chapter; and there is more to come about this! Ah! I hope this was good enough... So please let me know by reviewing! Until next chapter!