Chapter 61
Eyes snapped opened.
A heavy breathe was let out.
The body in the bed sat up.
She knew something was desperately wrong; otherwise the two men who had sat by her bed for the past god knows how long would have been with her. Wouldn't they?
She knew where she was of course. Her old room at the Hogshead. She had been at Grimmauld Place for quite some time; she must have been for she had become quite accustom to being there.
It had never been home though. The room where she had been kept had never felt warm or welcoming to her. It had been a make shift hospital room, nothing more. It wasn't like this one. This one was where she had slept by Harry for so long. She remembered something about the Death Eater's finding out about Grimmauld Place. Harry, Ron and Hermione had come there, on the run from the Dearth Eaters when one came with them to just outside the house. Aberforth had been furious that they had to move to another safe house and had refused to go on the run, preferring to go home and let what was going to come, come.
Harry. His name raced desperately across her mind. And perhaps even more importantly than him...
"Alice. My Alice." The hoarse voice felt scratchy as it made its way out her throat. After all it had been... well, she didn't know how long since she had last used it. Where was her daughter? Who had her baby?
Getting out of bed, her legs felt painful to move. She had been in one attitude for far too long and she knew it. That was why every move hurt so much.
But she had to move, she could not stop. Everyone she knew was in danger. The last five minutes had changed everything. They had been speaking in what they thought to be hushed tones but she had heard what her brothers had said. Voldemort was at Hogwarts and they had gone to fight him. By her reckoning Sirius and Harry were could to be there too. Only god knew where Alice was she thought.
She had to get to her boys. They were her main priority.
It was so odd that this should be the thing to bring her about after all this time; she thought absent mildly as she found her dressing gown and put it on. It had not been the birth of her daughter. In her own warped mind she had never been worthy of Alice. Why should she get to raise such a brilliant and beautiful daughter when she had killed her own mother? She had not forgiven herself and she would not. How could she? But neither would she allow those she loved to get themselves killed and her not be there to help.
She didn't know how she could help them. But she could. She was sure and she had to get to those she loved.
Going out of the room into the well trodden passage that would bring her to the living room she tried to image another universe, where Kendra had survived. But it was impossible. The past could not be changed. Not in the way that the future could be.
Arriving in the living room she saw that the portrait of herself above the fireplace had been left wide open. That was how you got to Hogwarts from the pub; she had heard her brother say it! She was going to be reunited with Harry.
But ... there was a battle going on at Hogwarts. She was going to need her wand ... but she had no idea where it was, was without a hope of finding it and every moment that she was not running to Harry was a moment she was wasting. Against her better judgement she tore down the passage. She had to get to him. She knew she was defenceless. But really, what could she do with a wand?
Arriving at what she could only guess to be the Room of Requirement, she saw it was empty. A door way led to what would surely be the madness that Hogwarts castle was in. She had to get in there and find those she loved so desperately. She was not losing any of them now. Not now.
"God help me."
Leaving the safety of the Room of Requirement she went out in to the hall to find exactly what she had been expecting to find. Only it was so much worse... even she knew there had been a war going on but she had not thought it was going to be so bad.
There were people running, to and fro, some screaming in agony, others dodging hexes while opponents shot them at each other.
The lights, the bangs, it was just like it had been that night when she had been sent into the future.
Part of her – for a split second the more dominate part – told her to go back to the Room of Requirement and wait for it all to be over. To get to safety. Then when it was all done she might go and find Harry.
But the fact remained that if she did wait for the battle to reach it climax, not only Harry but her big brothers too might be dead. She was not going to let that happen. If she waited, then this time it could really be too late.
With a fresh determination rising in her heart she forced herself to go on. Alice, Harry, Aberforth, Albus, Sirius.
Hermione... Ron... the twins... Ginny...
They were all down there, she would bet anything. She had to get to them and she had to help them.
She just had to try. She would shame herself and her family if she did not. Dodging what hexes she could, she tried to remain on her feet which seemed like enough of a challenge for the time being.
She ran down the stair cases, which even now in the heat of the battle seemed to be changing. They could betray by member of the side of light to her or his death. All she could do was hope that her luck held out.
She looked about herself desperately. She had to get to the Great Hall as soon as she could. It was imperative. That was where the battle was going to go on, the greater part if it she knew. What a stage it would be for the Dark Lord.
This Voldemort... she didn't know how dangerous he was but she did know that he had put her entire family in danger for the past.... Well, she still didn't know how long she had been ill. She would put a guess at a year or perhaps more.
Long enough to have a daughter...
But her thoughts were stuck on Voldemort. He had been back before she had fallen into her coma. For decades he had haunted the Potters. He had to fall that night, he simply had too for he had been haunting the lives of those she had loved for too long. He was a black cloud. And now that she had woken up perhaps things were going to be different for her and Harry. Even as she walked she allowed herself to dream. She had been stunk in a coma, but to her the night in the Room of Requirement that she had shared with her love did not seem to be twenty four hours ago. How could it be that time could seem to take a minute and a lifetime to pass all at once?
Suddenly her train of thought was disturbed by a pair of arms. "Remus! Have you seen my Remus?" the voice asked with a heartfelt plea - it was longing for this Remus obviously. She had heard that name more than once though she could not remember who it belonged to. Her memory felt fuzzy...
"But...you're Ariana!" The panic had gone out of this women's voice and astonishment had come into it.
"Yes I am. To the best of my knowledge I have not seen this Remus though I think I know who he is. Harry Potter? Have you seen him?" there was extreme anxiety in her own voice now. She had to find her way to her sweetheart.
The women's face fell and gently she shook her head.
Then she had not seen him.
There seemed to be a fear about the women and a great sadness when she had asked about Harry. She prayed to god once more than nothing had happened to her Harry. She had to get to him.
The two women as quickly and as easily as they came together brook apart going on their separate journeys to find those that they held so dear to their hearts. Under any other circumstance, Tonks would have felt duty bound to protect this girl but as it was, she had to get to her own husband who was now also the father of her tiny son.
Ariana continued on her flight to the Great Hall though it was proving harder and harder to keep her emotions in check, when it was one of those times when it was imperative that she did, for to have another attack now when she had only just come about would spell disaster for her. What did keep her focused were thoughts of a certain Boy Who Lived.
As she run, she remembered all the time they had spent as one when they had been in school together. When they had enjoyed spending lazy afternoons in one another's arms and when they had built snowmen when it Christmas. She remembered every touch and every kiss that had led her to fall illogically and irrevocably in love with him.
All the time when she had been thinking these thoughts she had been running as fast as her aching legs would carry her. And then she had got to her destination.
She was outside of the Great Hall, and as she poked her head about the door she could see the madness that was going on inside of it.
Indeed it was not like the night when she had been sent into the future. It was ten times worse. She did not understand how there could be so much hatred in the world. What lead another human to want to end anothers life? Honestly, it made no sense to the gentle teenager, who knew she was a killer herself.
How old was she even now?
Her wild thoughts for a time were interweaving and fragmented, as they had been so many times before. But then everything changed. On just the sight of him everything changed. He was there.
Had she not seen him she would have noticed that dead bodies were laying about her and the relatives, despite the fact there were people who were still duelling people around them, had fallen to their knees and were weeping over the still warm corpses of their loved ones.
Harry seemed to be locked in a confrontation with someone that could only be the Voldemort who she had heard so much about but not yet had the pleasure to be introduced to yet, she thought sarcastically. But she didn't even really see him because there was her hero of a lover. He was all that mattered to her in that heart beat. He was so close to her.
Out of the corner of her eye though she saw something rather unnerving. A man, who was so unsavoury looking that she guessed he could only be a Death Eater. He was raising his wand and he was going to curse Harry. She just knew it in her heart.
She focused on her love, wanting to scream out for him to turn but for some strange reason she knew she could not. It was as if her voice was not working. It just wouldn't let her scream.
It was then that she did something she had never before done. It was a contradiction in itself.
Controlled uncontrollable magic.
-
Even as he stood there confronting Voldemort Harry knew that something had happened. There was something about him. The only thing he could think to liken it to was the protection his mother had given him when she had died to save his life. But whereas Lily's protections had defended him internally, it was if this protection that he had felt come over him fortified him externally.
Instinctively, he knew that something hit this protection and - it just bounced off. It was as if nothing could get through to him, but he knew innately he could send magic out of it.
He was protected and Voldemort could not get to him as long as it stayed. The invisible bubble saved his life.
Then it was time. He had to finish this. There had been enough pain, not only for him, but Sirius who had lost a best friend to the first war; Albus who had worked so tirelessly to put as stop to Tom Riddle his entire life; Aberforth, who had to go in to hiding; the Weasley's, who had cared so lovingly for Alice; Remus, who had just married...
His parents.
That was enough motivation to get him thought this. But then another pair of faces flashed into his mind.
His daughter. His sweetheart.
It was for them that he was really doing this. For his girls.
He continued the conversation he was having before he felt the protection encase him. The end was near. He could smell it, touch it, taste it...
"So it all come down to this doesn't it? Does the wand in your hand know its last master was Disarmed. Because if it does... I am the true master of the Elder Wand."
A red light burst into the room as if it was a sun from the very heavens. They might as well have come from above.
Simultaneously the two wizards made their moves.
"Avada Kedavra!"
"Expelliarmus!"
A bang went off, as if a canon had been fired within Hogwarts. In all happened in a split second. Before he knew it, the realisation that Voldemort was dead hit him. The man who had caused him so much grief and heartache was gone. The monster that had killed Lily and James was dead.
He was gone and could no longer hurt him. Voldemort was not coming back this time.
About him, a cheering erupted, all his friends, from the beloved companions who had helped him on his way here – they were celebrating what they had all had a part in bringing about. The fact that Voldemort was dead. He was gone forever.
Harry turned. He wanted to know what had happened. Who had given him that protection?
But he could not see anyone. All he saw was a bubble like object that encased a human. It was like the bubbles he had seen Dudley blow as a child (he had never been allowed too). But it was brilliant, and full of colour, the most vivid purples, the purest blues and the most vivacious red. Inside of it he could see something moving. Someone moving. And then, just like bubbles he had seen as a child it pop.
After all the bangs, the crashes – the bubble broke with a simple pop. It was a gentle sound.
The someone who had been encased in it was revealed to him. It was a girl. She looked as if something miraculous had happened to her. As if something had changed within her. As if a life time of suffering had come to its end.
But it didn't matter to him what had just happened – not just then. All that mattered was who the 'her' was.
His knees felt weak. He had just killed Voldemort and he had had enough courage to do that. But the sight of the girl on the floor made him weak to his very soul.
At last, the miracle he had been praying for had all along.
Their eyes met - her eyes were open! Deep and blue like her daughters, and she feasted on his own. She had never seen them look just that green before. Not quite that green... But as her eyes burned hot with tears it was harder to see him.
Blinking furiously, she tried to regain her focus. She could not lose sight of him. She didn't want to at least, not for a moment.
Bending down just in front of her so that they were at the same height, he knew both of them were well aware that they were being watched by the whole Great Hall. All eyes were on them. But neither of them cared. Everyone else could go to hell for in that moment - all that mattered was the two of them and the fact they were back together.
He reached out and took a bunch of her bow lank, greasy locks in his hand gently. She was not as she had been.
She was even better.
For all her imperfections.
"I have been waiting for you longer than you know..." he whispered as he sat on the floor unable to support himself.
Voldemort was gone and Ariana was back all in the same day. It had happened in the space of five minutes. It was as if she was back because he was gone. Now that he had done what he had too – now he had fulfilled the prophecy he could be with her again.
She was his reward.
"Harry ... Harry..." it was as if his name was the only word she knew.
It was like they had never seen one another before – not properly. Both of them reached out to cup the others face, happy relieved tears trickling joyfully down their faces.
"It's you. Baby..." he whispered as he pulled her closer and their foreheads kissed. Their noses were touching and gently she brushed his with her own.
"Harry..." she gave way to her own sobbing and he pulled her close. Ariana nuzzled into him, kissing his neck as she did so. She had never been so alive. She had never known who she was more. She had never been so sane in her entire life.
"Alice..." she whispered into him. "I want our Alice."
From across the hall two loving brothers and an emotional godfather watched the reunion, none of them having the heart to interrupt the moment that rightfully could only ever belong to two people.
But even as they watched it, Albus realised what had just happened to his sister. His heart sunk.
A/n: Ok, I know Voldemort told the Death Eaters they were not to fire on Harry in the original, but I just had to get one of them so that Ariana's actions in the final battle counted for something. I hope you thought this way of bringing her round worked as an idea. I must admit that over all, I quite like this chapter as it turned out the way I had always planned it too.
As ever, please review!