CPOV
He came back without her, screaming about how she'd gone. Left him standing in the woods, staring at the spot where she'd disappeared. She'd gone into the Gap, was ready to sacrifice herself to save the world. Edward had grabbed him by the shoulder, but had been shaken off. He hadn't budged from his bedroom window since.
"If I'm not back in a day, I've died and I'm sorry."
"Sorry, Edward?"
"That's what she said to him. Before she left him. He calls it "Apparating" in his head. Well, before she went off to save the world, she told him that. Now he's tearing himself apart. He's terrified she won't come back - and not just because of this human business. He loves her. He knows that she's his mate."
"Christ. He knew the moment he saw her in that clearing, didn't he?"
"Yes, but he's only now realising who she will be to him. And now she's gone off on this suicide mission."
"Edward, have you read from her mind what this Gap truly is?"
"It's hell, Carlisle. I think the people who wrote of it in the Revelations either saw it or knew about it. The descriptions of it match what I saw in her mind. If she walks out of there, she will have had to sacrifice something big. I don't know what -"
"But it'd be something huge, right?"
"Something life-changing."
Conversation ceases after that. All night, Jasper stares out of his bedroom window, never once moving, glaring at the clearing out of his sight. How will we know when she returns, I wonder? Will she walk back to the house? Will she be able to walk back? Will we be alerted somehow? Edward is listening out for her thoughts, but he can't hear her at the moment. Hermione is far beyond the reach of our powers, untouchable by anything we can do for her. She's fighting alone, and that frightens us all.
"There was a boy called Harry in the office she took me to." Jasper has finally left his post. Hermione has less than a hour left of the day she told Jasper she'd be back in. "When she took us back to the clearing we found her in, spoke to the woman in that office - she took me there. And there was a boy called Harry. He took her in his arms, and made her swear she'd come back alive. She made that promise, took a baby scan picture from him, and then left. And all I could do was watch. He didn't even try to stop her going." Time is rapidly running out. "Now she has thirty seven minutes to come back to me. And in my heart, Carlisle, I know that I am never going to see her again."
I said nothing to him. What could I say? I couldn't promise him that she would be OK, that she'd live and come back to him and make him human. I couldn't promise him that in thirty-seven minutes, he could hold her in his arms and tell her how he felt. Jasper is centuries away from being picked up and cuddled, reassured that everything will be fine. I share the lump of icy dread that tells me that we have seen the last of Hermione.
APOV
I have tried, again and again, to see something in the future that will tell me if Hermione will return. Jasper blurs still, remains human in my visions, but it doesn't mean Hermione lives. Perhaps he will cross the worlds like she did, go to that other place, ask them to change him back to being human and normal.
I feel the need to try and explain my feelings towards Hermione and Jasper's transformation. Carlisle and the others choose to believe that I am jealous of their closeness, that she can give him what I cannot. Jasper and I were never meant to be, but I love him all the same. I had gotten so used to having him around, having him as my brother without his attentions being anywhere else, I couldn't handle this new girl coming along and taking him from us with her bewitching prettiness and magic. I thought I would be glad when she went away, but it's tearing my brother apart. I cannot stand and watch him suffer so badly. I make my decision very quietly. I shield my thoughts from Edward, and slip away. I know that Jasper sees me, I make sure he does. But he doesn't try and follow me. He turns his back on me, and goes away from his window. If I lose him now, it will be only my fault. I pray that my actions now can save her for him, and earn his forgiveness.
EPOV
I notice, after perhaps ten minutes, that Alice has stopped reciting The Pardoner's Tale in Gaelic in her head. I can't hear her at all. I search methodically first, then more frantically, casting my mind much wider. But there's nothing. No sound.
"Carlisle," I bellow, making for the stairs. "Alice is gone!" I search our room, search the house and grounds, but there's nothing. I follow her scent, Carlisle, Jasper and Emmett hot on my heels. She took a car, and all I can smell is burning rubber. She could have gone anywhere. "This is your fault!" I shout, rounding on Jasper.
"Me?"
"You, you and all this with Hermione!"
"Christ, Edward, don't be stupid."
"I know," I say, shoulders slumping. "I know."
HPOV
Burning. It looks like fire, but the flames aren't hot. Flames leap high, but nothing burns. And yet the whole world looks like ash. I can hear screams, screaming babies, toddlers and adults. Laughter, the kinds of laughs you hear on Muggle horror movies when it's meant to be the Devil, deranged and manic. It's kind of hard to focus on any one place. I swear I can see shadows leaping and dancing out of the corners of my eyes, but as soon as I look at them, they're dancing away out of sight. The first Wizarding Law springs to mind, and I close my eyes, trying to blot out all the moving monsters that are so common for children's nightmares. A place of evil true, requires sacrifice due, sacrifice of goodness whole and tainted not. Was I meant to bring a baby, slit it's throat on an altar? I can't see an altar, which relieves my mind quite a bit, as I can't say I would have been able to sacrifice a child, regardless of the cost. I can only start walking about, and seeing what I can find. I draw my wand, assume the position of ready to fight. I'm ready for Voldemort's, Devil's, big black clouds of evil. Anything. I might not have a game plan, but I can still be ready to defend. Keeping up a constant shield is a massive power drain, and I know that I'll need all my strength to fight it off, whatever it might turn out to be.
I've only been walking for a moment when there is definite movement straight ahead. The flames seem to be moving, separating to form a path. Am I meant to go down it? Is it a trap? I get ready, crouching into stance, ready to defend or attack. There's a figure down there, moving rapidly towards me.
"Show yourself! I'm armed!"
"Hermione Granger. The girl who saved the world."
"Identify!"
"Hermione Granger. The girl who saved the world."
"My name is Hermione Granger, yes. I was one of the people who helped save the Wizarding world."
"Hermione Granger. The girl who saved the world."
"Stop saying that! Tell me your name!"
"We have told you."
"We, who the hell is we? I warn you, I will attack."
"There are thousands of us. How will you attack us all."
"Come closer."
"No."
"Come closer."
"No."
"Then," I say, smiling, "we will play this my way. Augmenti Majoris!" A jet-stream of water flies out of my wand, and I turn in a circle, playing it onto the flames. I'm actually a little surprised it works, but the flames die, and now I can see that I am surrounded. "Show yourself, or so help me, I will destroy this world and everything in it." There is a hiss of rage, but finally movement. The black shadow ahead of me steps forward. My eyes widen, and I gasp.
Hideously distorted and disfigured, horribly burnt and charred, the figure is still recognisable. It's me. One thousand times over, it is me.
"We are Hermione Granger, the girl who saved the world."
"You can't be. I am Hermione. You are projections or distorted images, you are not Hermione Granger."
"We are you. You, the epitome of all that is good and Light in the world. Born without any sense of being evil, without even a smear upon your soul. A gift from the angels."
"Everyone can be evil."
"You cannot."
"I have killed. I have injured people, I have done evil things."
"We are those evil things. For every wrong you committed, seven of us were made."
"But you said there were thousands of you. How can there be thousands of you?"
"We needed to remain alive. The Gap is your Creation, Hermione Granger, the girl who saved the world.
"Are you saying that you bred?"
"In a manner of speaking."
"How was this created? You said it was my creation, but how could I have done this?"
"We are your nightmares. This is the nightmare of your childhood. Afraid of nothing but fire and fear. We are that nightmare, our world is your nightmare. You are very clever, Hermione Granger, the girl who saved the world. Logic saved you, and made us. You could ignore so much of what you did, and so your mind found a way to make that possible."
"Why give this information to me so easily? You must know what I am here to do."
"Of course. We are you."
"Wait," I say, suddenly. "Just wait a minute. The Gap has existed for centuries. It didn't just spring up. So how could I have created it, when I'm only eighteen? Explain that, if you're so clever."
"We are you. You are clever, and thus are we."
"So explain the problem."
"The Gap has been an idea for centuries. It has not always existed. The Wizard writers of old used it as a metaphor for the evil in the world. Your mind used that ancient idea to make it a reality."
"Do you know what caused the cracks?"
"We do not."
"Will destroying this place make them close?"
"Yes."
"Will destroying it simply create another, through an act of such evil?"
"No."
"Would you judge me?"
"No."
"Will you help me?"
"No."
"Can I stop the cracks coming back again? Forever?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"You have to die, Hermione Granger, the girl who saved the world. The sacrifice that must be made will be your own life. Give your life back to the angels who made it, the blessing and the curse. The Gap will close, the cracks will vanish, and you will be dead. You have to die."