Author Note:
Episode Title: The Silent World of Gwen
Production number: Season 2 episode 5
Starring: The usual suspects
Special Guest Star: Gwen Potter
Special Appearance by: Selene Black
Not a Quinn Martin production.
(I own nothing, I wrote nothing. This is all just an illusion.)
….(Begin)
Harry arrived in the situation room to find Hermione bent over the master display table. Not even pausing to admire the point of view he looked at the table to see a bright orange light blinking somewhere in the middle of the North American continent.
"What's going on?" he inquired as Jean and Chubs entered the room behind him.
"We've detected a strong dimensional incursion in North America, Somewhere in the Ohio River Valley." Hermione explained pushing indicators and talking over a headset. "Padma is trying to lock it down but the satellites are not in a good position."
Harry nodded as he recognized what she was referring to. The E-scan satellites they had developed and launched into orbit to help detect magical energies, illicit weapon tests and other high energy events. "So does MACUSA have any idea?"
"They dispatched a security team to investigate but want us to send a team to make contact. They'll make primary threat assessment." Hermione clarified. "You and I will take a HERTS across in thirty."
"Alright, anyone else?" Harry asked looking at the other two Hermiones in the room.
"Keep it small. I don't want to confuse too many people." She said grinning at her counterparts.
"Fine by me. I can monitor from here." Jean said picking up another headset.
"Damn. Last time I was in Wheeling there was this really awesome pub right at the end of the suspension bridge. They had this thing they called the beast platter. A two pound platter of the best fucking chilli cheese fries in the world served with rolls and a bowl of Amish kraut. Plus they had this local beer that totally rocked." Chubs happily declared with a wide grin.
"When were you in West Virginia." Harry looked at the map quickly to see where she was talking about, as the indicator seemed to be localizing not far from there.
"Oh I got Ron to go on a driving trip across America for our Honeymoon. I swear if I had pushed him off Hoover Dam things might have worked out better." She said with a melancholy sigh of remembrance looking over Hermione's shoulder.
Hermione glanced at the big girl with a commiserating smile. "Not sure if this world is the same. Although if you want to go you can."
"Sweet dogs. I'll go pack." Chubs said turning and hustling out of the room.
"I'll get ready too."
….
Thirty minutes later they were boarding the sleek aerospace plane that engineers for the Granger Institute had developed. He was on the list to begin flight training for these beasts starting next month and couldn't wait. They were designed with a high energy thrust system that was thaumically enhanced to reduce the weight of the craft, while the hull had been alchemically treated to withstand greater thermal and flight loads.
Chubs was not looking as excited about the trip though, "You mean this thing is going to make me feel three times normal? Damn gurl I don't need no more ass on my ass." She grumbled to Hermione. Settling into her seat.
"That's the acceleration the craft will produce, inside the crew compartment we'll experience only 1 and a half gravities of acceleration thanks to a inertial shifting system that dampens the forces we feel inside." Hermione explained buckling into her own seat.
Chubs crossed her hands over her amble belly and said under her breath. "Would it have been too bad to put a window in at least."
Captain Briggs interrupted at that moment "Mrs Potter. We have clearance for Pittsburgh."
"Very well launch at your convenience captain." Hermione said sighing as Chubs winked at Harry. He swore sometimes she acted up with Hermione just to get her goat.
….
The US government issued black sedan was hurtling down the interstate with the MACUSA agent behind the wheel. Agent Daniels had been sent to pick them up when they arrived.
"So this person you found at the scene is a red haired female?" Hermione asked.
"Apparently. She had no visible wounds or other injuries. They took her to the hospital in Wheeling. Last I heard she was still in a coma." the agent said changing lanes swiftly.
"So where was the exact point of entry?"
"At the mound." he said squeezing between a semi-truck and the guardrail making Hermione close her eyes.
"What's wrong? You just flew here in a suborbital rocket plane and now you're getting carsick?" Chubs leaned over to whisper in Hermione's ear.
Ignoring her counterpart Hermione asked, "Could we slow down a bit?"
Agent Daniels glanced up in his mirror replying, "I'm just doing the speed limit."
"She's not a very good car passenger." Harry confided.
"I thought you folks flew here in a rocket plane?" The agent asked with a laugh.
"We did." Hermione said taking a deep breath, "Could you explain what you meant?"
"Sorry. The Mound is what locals call Grave Creek Mound. A rather large burial mound that was placed on the nexus of five class three or higher ley lines. The entire river valley is criss crossed with these things. She was found at the top of it sprawled out after one amazing light show. The folks at the museum didn't know what to think." He chuckled, "One of the ladies that volunteers there said she thought the entire place was going to blow up."
"So it was on a ley line nexus?"
"Oh yeah. There is one line that goes all the way over to the Serpent in Ohio another goes down into Kentucky. It links up with several major places." he said.
"Okay. Any details on the female?"
Agent Daniels casually reached inside his jacket to pull out a notebook, flipping through it one handed while the other one smoothly guided the car he read, to Hermione's discomfort "Female, early twenties, athletic build, long red hair, blue eyes, Caucasian, freckles, Wearing black robe, blue t-shirt, blue denims and blue hightop converse sneakers."
Harry grunted, "Aside from the eye color that sounds like Ginny."
"Yeah it does. Was there any sign that she had a companion with her?" Chubs asked as Hermione seemed unable to speak at the moment.
"Nah. The top of the place was all scorched off and the museum has a clear line of sight. Unless they popped out in the moments everyone was getting their vision back she was alone." the agent said flipping his notebook shut before he slid it into his pocket.
….
Standing in the room looking at the girl in the bed Harry sighed deeply, "That's Ginny."
Hermione was scanning her nodding, "Preliminary Analysis shows a .25% genetic drift from ours. This one has had a few injuries different, no pregnancy but she has been sexually active."
Harry nodded. Chubs looked at the doctor, "So what's with the IV?"
"She was severely dehydrated, showing signs of malnourishment and exposure." The woman in scrubs said. "IS she one of yours?"
"Yeah we think so. Can we see her belongings?" Hermione asked snapping her scanner shut.
Agent Daniels nodded, "Yeah they're over in the lab being checked for radiation, toxins the usual sort of stuff. We can go over there when you're done here."
"I'll stay with her. That way if she is from a dimension Harry or you are dead she won't freak out as much." Chubs said.
Harry nodded, "Good idea. Mione?"
Hermione nodded as she turned to follow Agent Daniels out. Harry paused to brush a stray flock of red hair out of her face.
Chubs patted him on the shoulder, "I'll let you know if she comes around."
"Thanks." He said leaving.
"So you guys really do all that mirror universe stuff eh?" The doctor inquired lightly.
"Oh yeah. Do you think she'll wake up soon?"
"I honestly have no idea why she isn't awake now other than the shock and trauma of doing whatever she did to get here, plus whatever she went through before she got here." The doctor said with a shrug.
Chubs settled into a chair sighing, "Well thanks doc. I got this now."
The doctor nodded then left.
….
At the lab Hermione and Harry were going through the new Ginny's belongings. Hermione read an inventory from the clipboard. The lab techs had cleared everything, at least from anything obvious.
The first thing Hermione picked up was a device that looked like an ancient bronze and brass flashlight with a shattered crystal at one end and several dials at the other.
"Do you think that's how she opened the portal?" Harry asked wrinkling his nose as he sniffed the burnt powder smell.
"Probably. It looks like to exploded." Hermione agreed taking it and bagging the device.
"Might be what injured her. Magical overload of her nervous system?" Harry theorized.
"Distinctly probable. She'll recover soon enough if that's the case."
Harry nodded as they moved on. His face impassive.
"Ring, gold, inscription With all my Love HJP. On left ring finger. That sounds like a wedding ring."
Harry looked at ring. Small tasteful and simple. Something he would have chosen. "Probably."
"Raddish Earrings? Now that's different. I wonder what their Luna was like."
"Well if you got the address we can go there and find out." Harry replied.
"True. Oh this is me." Hermione said opening the cameo locket on a small silk choker. "Apparently she and my counterpart are close enough to call each other sisters." She said showing Harry the picture of the two girls smiling and laughing. The word sisters etched lightly at the base.
"Well that's good to know." Harry smiled. "She was in Gryffindor." He picked up a neatly folded robe.
Hermione picked up a small gold chain with a snitch charm on it, "Nice necklace. I don't see any other jewelry listed here."
Harry shook his head. "No. She had two wands though." He said holding them up.
Hermione examined both carefully, "Cherry with Dragon Heart and Holly with Phoenix feather." She looked curiously at Harry,
"Yeah seems to be a world where she and I got together." Harry said neutrally.
"Okay lets look in the knapsack." Hermione said opening it. Beginning to empty it she found a prefect's badge, a few changes of clothes, some canned foods and water bottles. A cell phone, a wallet which she handed to Harry. Some more pictures and books.
"Well her name according to the id inside is Guinevere Molly Potter. Apparently lives at #12 Grimmould Place according to her Driver's licence. Has a library card in London, Crawley and Hogsmeade. An appointment on November 7th of last year for a cleaning at the Granger Dental Clinic and a ticket for a Chudleigh game for the 14th of the same year." He said chuckling gently. "I bet Ron was involved in that. Also a Diner's card and a Platinum Amex."
"Well that confirms she was married to her Harry. Nice to see the library cards." Hermione smiled.
"Yeah." Harry flipped through the pictures then stopped. Turning the one around he saw Hermione's eyebrow lift, It showed Harry holding Ginny, Luna and Neville with Hermione and Ron in the middle. Hermione's belly was obviously round and swollen in pregnancy.
"Well they didn't waste any time." Hermione observed.
"Obviously. So what do you think?" Harry asked, glancing at the agent standing nearby.
"She seems to have had a normal average life. There's not enough here to go on to say anything else."
Harry nodded, "Can you show us where she arrived?"
"Yeah sure. You think this is going to happen again?"
"I doubt it. If this device is any indication it was probably a one time event."
"Alright. You want us to send the rest of her stuff back to the hospital for when she wakes up?"
"Yes please." Hermione said.
….
Chubs was watching the Jerry Springer show with the volume turned down chuckling when she heard the soft groan coming from the bed.
Turning the TV off she stood up, checking the displays she saw that nothing seemed abnormal so she held Ginny's hand.
The red head opened her eyes to look around in confusion but not alarm. She made eye contact with Chubs who smiled in as comforting and friendly way as she could.
"Who are you?" Ginny rasped like she wasn't used to talking.
"Well my friends call me Chubs so you can call me Chubs too." She grinned.
Ginny snorted in amusement before taking a deep breath. She closed her eyes briefly but held Chub's hand tightly. "You're real?"
"Well. About as real as it gets hun. You okay? You need anything?"
Locking eyes with Chubs she said in a worried tone, "Only to know who am I?"
Chubs clicked her tongue as she thought for a second, "You don't know who you are?"
The girl shook her head slowly, "I. I thinnk I know it then it slips away again."
Chubs squeezed her hand, "Well you took a pretty big shock. So that's what probly knocked it loose. You able to recall anything?"
"I. I don't know. Things are so blurry and confused in my head."
"Alright hun. I'll give you a few pointers down the right track and see how you do. Alright with you?" Chubs said sitting on the side of the bed.
Ginny nodded, "I'd like that."
"Alright. My friends went through your things. I hope you don't mind but you kinda showed up unexpectedly and out cold."
"If it lets me know who I am I don't mind." She said with a worried smile.
"Okay. Your name is Guinevere Molly Potter. That ring any bells?"
She blinked for several seconds, screwing her face up in concentration she shook her head.
"I bet your friends called you Gwen. What do you think about that since Guinevere is a heckuva mouthful." Chubs suggested.
"Gwen. My name is Gwen. Gwen." She seemed to latch onto that like a lifeline. "That feels right. I must have been called Gwen." She smiled in relief.
"Great. Now you know anyone named Harry?" Chubs asked
Ginny's hand reached over to her left hand but she was frowning, "It. Maybe?"
"Okay. One step at a time. One step at a time. How about someone named Hermione?"
Ginny shook her head, "I don't know. It feels like I should maybe."
Chubs raised her eyebrow, "How about someone named Ron?"
"Ron? Ron?" She tested the name several times. "Was he. Is he someone important to me? That name feels familiar. Sort of."
Chubs shrugged, "Maybe. We don't know enough about you. We was kinda hoping you could tell us."
"Oh. I'm sorry. I just don't know." She sighed slumping back in the bed.
"Alright. Let me get the doc so they can check you out. We don't want you to wake up just to get sick again."
"Thanks Chubs. You're nice."
"Hey I try to be. Besides you're too horizontal not to be nice to. I wait until folks are standing before I give them a hard time." She grinned causing the red head to laugh comfortably.
….
Hermione was standing in the middle of the burned circle atop the huge conical mound she appeared on. Harry looked around at the wide open area that was in the middle of a small town. There was a large razor wire encircled imposing edifice across the street that was the state prison. Houses lined the park that the mound sat within. A small stone building off to the side that was the museum and gift shop.
"I'm getting residual readings of a major dimensional rift being opened here. No subtlety at all."
"No sign it was Rogue?" Harry asked kicking the ashes along the side of the gravel walk.
"Different energy signature and frequency. The way he travels is like using a scalpel, this was an atomic powered chainsaw." She shook her head.
Harry's phone rang causing him to step aside.
"Agent Daniels, the witnesses, how did they describe this?"
Flipping his notebook out he said, "Like the finger of God had reached down and ignited the Earth itself. A thunderous explosion. Like an atomic bomb went off. Like plucking a giant guitar string of doom. I like that one personally, but if you'll notice some of the houses around we've had teams out casting repario all day. Multiple windows got shattered, some minor injuries."
"Okay. Well not much we can do about that. Send the bill to the Granger Institute." Hermione said before being interrupted by Harry.
"She's awake. She's got amnesia but she's awake."
Hermione set her lips before saying, "Okay. Let's get back there."
….
Ginny was sitting up enjoying a plate of food and watching a basketball game with Chubs when Harry and Hermione walked in. Ginny looked over at them with a brief expression of surprise and confusion. "Wow you look like the picture of the guy in the book."
"So you got your things?" Hermione asked.
"If those are my things. I'll have to take your word for it." She said with a wry grin.
"Well from what we can determine they are your things. The doctor said we can take you to our home as soon as they get the paperwork finished." Harry said reassuringly.
"Okay. Chubs was saying you like to adopt lost kittens." She laughed.
"Something like that." Hermione said with a laugh.
Sighing deeply, "I'm sorry for just dropping in like this. I don't remember any details from before I woke up here."
"We have some mind healers back home that specialize in magical injuries. They might be able to help you, or at least point you in the direction you need to go to recover." Harry explained.
"Good." Ginny sighed.
The nurse came in with her papers and got everything ready. Chubs handed the girl her things. Harry turned to step out when Ginny quickly said, "You don't have to go. Er. Unless you can't or don't want to. I mean. I feel like I don't have to hide from you."
Hermione shook her head, Harry cleared his throat before saying, "If you're sure. I don't want to make you uncomfortable."
"You don't make me uncomfortable. To be honest I feel like I should know all of you. I mean in the pictures it seems like I knew you." She said stripping the hospital gown off to reveal a skinny body with several scars on it. The right thigh had a strange wriggling burn across it that ran diagonally from hip to midpoint.
"How did you get that?" Chubs exclaimed.
"I tried to knock, I jumped. I got hit?" She said running her finger over it. Her face scrunched as she tried to remember. "I got hit by a spell. I was with someone."
"Okay. Just relax and let it come on its own. The more you try to force it the harder it is to remember." Chubs said.
Hermione looked at her in confusion. Chubs shrugged, "Lockhart was an asshole who used the Obliviate on young girls. Harry worked to help them recover the buried memories so the bugger could get what was coming to him."
"Oh. That's good." Harry nodded.
"Yeah sometimes if you come at the memories sideways, sort of sneak up on them you can get them to come back." Chubs said helping Ginny with her robes.
"Nice idea. I sort of remember a blurry combat was how I got that. It burned like crazy, I think I thought I was going to lose the leg." Gwen said with a shake of her head.
"Well you probably had a battle of the Ministry. That seems to have been a common thread among a lot of worlds." Hermione stated.
Ginny nodded as she finished getting dressed. Sliding the earrings in she smiled, "Okay. Well let's go see if we can jog any memories."
….
The flight back had been enjoyable as Gwen and Harry discussed the various Quidditch teams. She had no memory of them but an interest in Quidditch. She could recognize the various pieces of equipment when Chubs would flip them up onto the screen in the seat backs.
Arriving at the Institute Hermione nodded to the technician that met them. "Ron and Ginny are waiting in the lounge. Neville and Luna will be joining us in a few. If you want to meet them?"
"That's this world's version of my brother and myself?" Gwen asked.
"Right. Ron came in from the world he's a section chief at now. He's married to several Lunas." Harry laughed, "And one very gruff Lavender. Ginny married Neville, although her and Luna are uh. Friendly."
"I still can't get over you guys and the harems." Gwen laughed.
"They technically aren't harems." Hermione corrected with a huff causing Chubs and Gwen to laugh even harder.
Walking into the lounge Gwen froze when she saw the four month pregnant version of herself. She carefully and slowly walked forward to stare at the local Ginny who was standing patiently smiling.
"Hi." Gwen said uncertainly.
"Hi. You okay?"" Ginny asked.
"I think so. This is just weird. I went through the looking glass big time." Gwen said with a sigh.
"Hey that's okay. No one'll cry off with your head." Ron grinned.
"You're Ron. My brother?"
"Yeah. Pretty much. I try not to figure out all the metapsycho stuff about counterparts and alternate realities."
"Good idea. That sounds rather simpler." Gwen chuckled.
The group settled in to talk and introduce themselves to Gwen. She was happy to meet everyone but aside from certain feelings and flashes of half remembered vague impressions had no insight into her past.
They took her to dinner at the Burrow where Molly fussed over how skinny she was and gave her extra helpings. She laughed and then cried a little bit as she said she felt sad but couldn't understand why.
Winding up the evening with Selene at Grimmould Place Gwen was getting ready for bed when Chubs came in after knocking.
"Hey. Harry and Hermioen are getting ready to go home. You going to be okay?"
"Yeah. Selene is a nice woman."
"Well I'm sure she'll be disappointed to hear that. She wants everyone to think she's this dark evil bitch." Chubs teased.
"Yeah I know. Sort of how you want everyone to think you're just a dumb chav." Gwen replied.
Chubs shrugged, "All the world's a stage."
"Yeah. So which role do you think I played?"
"The good friend and wife." Chubs said honestly.
"I wish I could remember." Gwen said sitting on the bed.
"Well Harry, and Ron are going to go through tomorrow and see." Chubs said sitting beside her.
"I still say I should go with them." Gwen swallowed hard as she looked worriedly at Chubs.
"And Hermione said you need to recover. Plus what if there was some major trauma over there that would set you back even more. Maybe you fled for some reason. Who knows maybe you're the next Voldemort over there. The great and mighty dark lord Gwen."
Gwen laughed, "Stop being silly. I really doubt I was a dark lord."
"I really doubt it too, "Chubs chuckled, "But I still don't think you should push it too hard. Let the boys go see what happened, then if they get in trouble we can go rushing in to rescue them as usual." Chubs declared with a wink.
Gwen leaned over to give the bigger girl a hug, "Thanks Gwen. I'm glad I met you."
"Of course you are. What's not to love about a big girl." She laughed hugging a laughing Gwen back.
….
The briefing room the next morning saw the group staring in shock at the scenes being relayed via a probe. The view of Hogsmeade was dead tress and grass as far as they could go. Animals and birds all laid still and slightly mummified, as did the people.
"It's like they all just got hit in the middle of what they were doing." Ron observed as there were several people sitting slumped over tables at the three broomsticks.
"Is it just magicals or did the mundane world get hit too?" Harry asked.
"It seems to be widespread. The probe is not detecting any radio, television, military or other electronic broadcasts. There isn't any aircraft in the probe's sensor range. And we overflew Dufftown once we had checked Hogsmeade and it was the same." Hermione explained.
"What do you think caused this? Some kind of disease?" Jane asked.
"Gwen's blood came back clean of anything we could detect. So if it is one she was immune. Plus I have no idea of any disease that works this fast. Its like one second they were alive then the next dead." Jean II stated.
"Okay. I want all of you to suit up, full bio-hazard protocols. Jean will be in charge of the medical and science. Harry I want you and Ron to check out the Burrow, Rookery, Grimmould, Longbottom Estate the usual sort of places. I'm going to have the probes start circling out and see if they can find anything unusual."
"And how do you define unusual in all of that?" Ron asked waving at the screen.
"That's going to be a bit of a sticky wicket but we'll get it figured out.
….
The three explorers walked in the skin tight white suits with the sealed helmets down the main street of Ottery Saint Catchpole. Hermione had placed the wormhole on the village square.
"Wow look at this. The newspaper is dated from over a year ago. June 21st." Ron said pointing at the headlines in the newspaper machine outside the pub.
"A year ago? These bodies should have decomposed by now." Jean frowned looking at the body of a person behind the wheel of their car, "These look like simple chemical reduction reactions. Weathering caused by exposure to the elements. Bacteria and animals should have reduced all of these bodies down to nothing but bones by now."
"Yeah well the first one of these bodies that moves is getting blasted into next year." Ron said fingering his wand.
"There is no indication that any of these are inferi." Jean said huffing.
"Still be on alert. We have no idea what happened to cause all of this." Harry reminded them.
"Okay but the portable lab kit isn't picking up any pathogens, radiation is well within normal. No chemical toxins either. Oxygen and all of the other atmospheric gases are well within nominal parameters. I don't think this is still an ongoing emergency. I think whatever happened was swift, sudden and gone as quick as it came." Jean explained.
Harry grunted, "Still let's not get sloppy. Okay head to the Rookery."
The Rookery it turns out had been converted into a magical creatures preserve with the structure destroyed and in ruins to the foundations. A new building had been built and animals laid strewn in the brown dead grass.
The Burrow was not much different than usual. Ron took a bracing posture as he opened the door, glancing in he turned around and nodded for them to follow him.
Once inside the place looked normal with family portraits hanging on every wall. Ron and Hermione standing happily at their wedding. Harry and Ginny at their. There was no picture of Percy or the twins.
"All the hands are off of the clock." Ron observed bending over to pick up the small spoon shaped items. "No Percy. No Fred or George either." Ron said with a sad tone.
"They may have been lost in their war." Jean said sympathetically.
"Probably." Ron said carefully setting the spoons on the mantel of the clock.
"I found your mum's address book." Harry called out from the little room beside the kitchen. He knew Molly kept the room as her defacto office, storage room and personal space. This one seemed to be no different. "Ron and Hermione have a place in Crawley not far from her parents apparently."
"Do we have to search the rest of the house?" Ron asked with a slightly plaintive tone.
"Are you okay Ron?" Harry asked.
"Yeah its just getting to me. There's always some kind of noise around you know? Animals, birds, airplanes flying overhead, cars out on the road in the distance. This place is just quiet. It feels dead, totally dead." He shivered visibly.
Jean put her hand on his arm, "Keep calm Ron. If that's true then panic is the only thing that can hurt us here."
"You don't know that. Is the air safe? Is it safe to just be standing here? Maybe there's some kind of radiation we haven't discovered yet. You don't know. You don't know." Ron wailed.
Jean grabbed him by the shoulders, "Dammit Ron straighten up. Now is not the time to go to pieces."
Ron slumped into a nearby chair with his head between his legs, Jean started to say something but Harry shook his head. "Ron. Take a minute and compose yourself. I don't think we need to look around the place anymore."
The helmet moved imperceptibly in a nod. The three waited a few minutes before heading out again.
….
Longbottom estate was swiftly checked. Neville was not in the building but Luna was. She was in a office that had maps and papers and notes, all neatly annotated in her small neat swooping script. Ron stayed outside as they searched the office.
"She seemed to be working to try and find something or someone. Many of these maps are ley lines, magical sites, ancient places." Jean observed. Turning to see Ron standing there with a strange look on his face as he stroked Luna's hair.
"Ron?" Jean asked with some concern.
"She looks like she should get up. Like she is just resting a moment." He said in a soft strange voice.
"Ron?" Harry repeated more firmly.
"She shouldn't be left like this. This is wrong." Ron continued in that same soft voice.
"We'll take care of her and the others when we find out what happened Ron. We can't risk moving them until we know for certain what killed them." Jean said in a calming soothing tone, yet firm.
"I'll just sit with her until you do." Ron said dragging a chair across to her.
Jean pulled Harry out of the room, "Is he going through withdrawal of his Luna gestalt or something?"
"I don't think so. This is just such a. This is so far outside the boundaries of rational thought that I'm having trouble not going bibbity." Harry replied.
She nodded, "I know. The concept of this is scratching at my mind too. Maybe if we buried her it would help him?" She said looking at Ron who was talking to the corpse of Luna.
"Do you need any evidence from her?"
"No. I doubt one more is going to make that much of a difference. Whatever it was it didn't originate here or have anything to do with her." Jean reported.
"Okay." Harry walked back into the room, "Hey Ron. We can give her a burial. It'll be okay. She won't have to stay like this."
Ron looked up at harry with a nod. They three of them managed to take the light body outside and after digging a grave lay her within. Harry took a moment to let Ron say a few words then they quietly left.
….
The three landed the brooms they had borrowed from the Longbottom estate in the front garden of the Granger-Weasley abode. She had apparently had him hyphenate their name.
A small statue of an Otter and Jack Russell playing sat on the front steps. A solid practical sedan sat in the driveway.
"You might want to stay out here Ron." Harry suggested.
"No its okay. I can handle it. I'm sorry for back there. This place, its just getting to me."
Harry nodded, "I know. Its like everything is just off from the way it should be."
"I think this is the most off normal world we've been to yet man." He gave a lopsided grin.
"Maybe." Harry said as he turned, "Okay Jean open the door."
Jean had been chosen to open the door in case there were any wards since she was another Hermione. Figuring if any wards were active they would be able to be felt by her. There were no wards active here either. Entering the neat and tidy home they found her laying on the couch with her arms crossed over her breasts. A book face down on her stomach. Her eyes were closed and aside from some skin discoloration and the lack of movement of her chest she looked like she was asleep.
Staring at the body of a version of his Hermione he felt the same clawing irrational panic Ron must be fighting. Glancing at Jean who was scanning the body clinically she at least seemed to be handling it well enough.
"She is about six month pregnant. There has only been chemical reactions to break down any organs and tissues, no bacteria or parasites." She reported snapping the scanner closed. "The baby would have been a boy." She finished with a strange tone. So maybe this was affecting her after all.
"Hey there's a note in here." Ron called from a room off of the kitchen. "Its in Ginny's handwriting."
Jean seemed to compose herself before they joined Ron. It was a small office with books and a large whiteboard.
Written on the board was, "To whomever finds this. They are all dead, everything is dead. I am dying too. Luna had some device she was always talking about that she said could open magic doorways. Hopefully I can go back before this happened and save everyone. If not maybe I'll wind up someplace better. If not then I won't be any worse off. I loved them all. Goodbye."
"Well. That explains how she got the device." Jean said after a few moments.
"Yeah. Unfortunately that doesn't get us any closer to finding out what happened to this world." Harry said.
"Maybe it does." Ron said picking up a sheet of paper, "Apparently Ginny, er Gwen, was kidnapped. Harry, Neville and me were out looking for her. They had called and wanted information about the Ingleborough, Forest of Bowland. So she was still doing research." He said with a hint of pride in his friend.
"That's in Lancashire isn't it?" Jean asked.
"I guess. I've never been there." Ron said with a confused shrug.
Harry thought for a moment. "There was a place in Lancashire on Luna's map." He activated his communicator, "Mione. I need a data dump on the Ingleborough, Forest of Bowland, Lancashire. Is there anything significant about that magically."
"Give me a moment." The reply came quickly. A moment later, "Map coordinates have been sent. Its essentially the center mass of the U.K. by one measurement. A high rocky outcropping ringed by a wall. Iron age presence. Some possible magical residue from human sacrifices." She read out.
"Human sacrifice?"
"Nothing archaeologically confirmed but it was a place that was occupied for several hundred years during the iron age." Hermione said. "You think whatever happened happened there?"
"Its possible. Their Hermione was researching everything she could about it from her home." Harry said with Jean and Ron nodding.
"Okay, I'll send several drones to scan the area. If there is anything I'll update you."
"Do it on the fly. We'll head there now." Harry said turning to leave the house.
….
The three of them arrived at the rocky crag after being guided by one of Hermione's drones. She had overflown the outcropping and found a cluster of bodies. Many of them robed and masked.
Landing they could see that the bodies were of various men and women wearing what could only be described as neo-death eater robes. They were scattered around as Neville and Ron were obviously in the middle of combat. The red head had one hand holding his wand and the other had the mask he had ripped off of someone in the other. Harry didn't recognize the person unmasked.
"Well looks like they were giving them what for." Ron said going over to his counterpart's body.
"I suppose." Harry said heading for the rock that had been transfigured into an impromptu altar. His counterpart and Draco Malfoy were laying side by side. The sword of Gryffindor nailing Draco to the ground through his chest. A large book was pinned to his chest by the sword.
Jean was scanning the two of them as Harry rolled his counterpart over. The sheer anger in the expression on his face was not surprising to Harry. If it had been Rhonda or one of the Hermiones he would have reacted the same.
"This book. It seems to have been written in blood and bound in human flesh. Somehow when the sword stabbed it the book seems to have been killed? It's all burned and shriveled around the stab wound." Jean said in shock and horror.
"Their sword is probably infused with basilisk venom too. That'll kill anything." Harry said casually staring into the face of his counter part. He took the glasses off and put them in the pocket of his counterpart. Closing the dead version's eyes he waited a moment before looking at the book and Draco.
"That's ancient Kandorian. Selene has a few books she found in the Black library written in that." he said. Pulling the sword from the body and the book Harry half expected something to happen and was ready to plunge the sword back. When nothing happened he gestured for Jean to take a few steps back. He took a few deep breaths then hacked the book and Draco into small pieces. Once that was done he levitated his counterpart a few yards away and then began to spray the book and Draco with a high temperature fire.
….
"So it looks like Draco was in the middle of a ritual to sacrifice you when Harry, Neville and Ron showed up. There was a fight and Harry wound up stabbing Draco through the heart and the book he was reading from with the sword of Gryffindor. When that happened it apparently caused a pulse of death magic to travel outwards instantly across the world. We found signs of people having died within roughly the same few seconds it seemed like." Hermione explained to Ginny as they sat in the drawing room of Grimmould place. She had been staying there with Selene getting adapted to the Alpha universe and working with Chubs and a mind-healer to regain any of her own memories for the last week.
Gwen had not managed to recover anything other than a few basic memories. She still had all of her magical skills as well as flying on a broom so the memories had to be specifically blocked by her trauma the healer had said and would not return until she recovered from it. Chubs was somewhat more optimistic and said Gwen would get them back soon as she wanted to.
Gwen sat quietly with Chubs beside her, Selene and harry sat to her right on a loveseat and Hermione in a chair opposite her. Ron and the local Ginny sat on the love seat to her left.
"Why did I live? How. How did I live and they all die?" She demanded turning the gold band on her left hand around on her finger.
"It was probably because you were in the center of the explosion. The altar and any preparations they had made must have helped protect you." Hermione said with a small hand wave.
"Sort of like being in the hole of a doughnut." Chubs clarified, "You just got lucky hun."
Gwen frowned at Chubs before saying, "That's not what I was meaning. Why did I live? What was so special about me that they died and I lived."
Selene snorted, "That is a question that may be ruminated upon until Gabriel blows his horn and the stars grow dark my dear. It is not for us mere mortals to understand the ineffable mind of the source and creator."
"Still I don't understand how this could have happened this way." Ron said. "How stabbing Draco could have caused the death of an entire world."
"Well, that Harry, stabbed Draco and the book through the heart, with a basilisk infused blade. In the middle of a ritual to raise an army of darkness. Its amazing the world isn't filled with Inferi or demons or who knows what. He must have arrived at just the absolutely right point to do the wrong thing." Selene pointed out shaking her head ruefully.
"Was that book what I think it was?" Hermione asked.
"Oh yes. It appeared to be a copy of the Necronomicon Ex Mortis. The book of the dead. There are rituals in there to resurrect the dead, or create an army of inferi among other fun filled exciting things." Selene gleefully said. "I have never personally seen a copy. Supposedly the Catholic church hunted them all down during the inquisition. All I have ever personally seen, even on my world was second hand tales, fragments copied by memory from those who had read it without going completely mad."
"And that is why stabbing a book could cause that." Harry said with a frown. Ron mouthed the word wow as he shook his head.
Gwen sighed, "So can you figure out what happened after that?"
"We can only speculate but it seems like you wandered around for almost a year. Eating canned foods which had their nutritional value decreased by the same magic that killed everyone. You eventually went to your Luna's where you recovered an object. You then went to Ron and Hermione's and activated the device. Sometime after laying her out on her couch with a book. We went through Luna's notes and it seems to have been a version of the Atlantean device we found that opened the interdimensional realm up to us. We think it had been damaged so when you activated it your mind was injured." Hermione stated as clinically as she could, taking a deep breath she finished.
"These people they were my friends. Even if I can't remember them they deserve better than being left on a dead world." Gwen said after several minutes of quiet contemplation.
"We agreed. We brought their bodies back and placed them in the morgue here under a stasis field. We can hold a memorial for them and bury them on the grounds of the estate. I've set aside an acre for them." Harry said softly.
"Thank you. I appreciate it."
"Hey its okay. Its just what we do." Ginny said.
"So what will happen with me?" Gwen asked with a soft tone. "I can't go home."
"Well you'll stay here. Be our friend and maybe call this place home." Selene said.
"If not we can find a world for you to go to out of the ones we have. You look just different enough that with a new name and identity you could have a good life if you wanted." Hermione pointed out.
"But I'd like you to stay. I know Rhonda and I wouldn't mind another sister." Ginny said with a grin.
Gwen looked around, nodding with tears in her eyes she said, "I'd like that."
….
The five coffins had been lowered and the graves filled. Gwen, Rhonda and Ginny stood side by side as the small crowd drifted apart. People shaking her hand or hugging her as they left. The sheer number of Weasleys that had shown up made her smile slightly.
Rhonda turned to Gwen with a hug and led her back into the house. Ginny beside her as the five graves with their unfortunate residents settled under the Cornwall soil. The stasis field released so they could join this world too.
Review Responses
OfficerDonNZ: When someone as tightly wound as Hermione breaks she would break spectacularly. I always saw Luna as the light fluffy bunny that will shove you in a chipper shredder with her bare hands if you cross her too hard. If you are someone she loves she will love you hard but if not. Well let's just not dwell on that.
I have a few ideas involving Ginny like that. I touch on it a bit in a few other stories but I agree. Ginny by the time of the seventh books, and most assuredly afterwards, should be so deep in therapy that her doctor has a new car and boat paid for.
Looking back from this far out I have to agree about the changing the plot in mid-story. I admit to sometimes changing my mind on the route I was going and having to scramble to make the new path make sense, she kinda just went oh this now what we're doing and I ohh look squirrel..
Wiebenor: Its not entirely impossible that you are a slight bit confused. I wrote the main story this one is based on called Slide by Slide. Then I got the idea to continue that by adapting it into a sort of episodic tv show style collection. Sort of like the original story was the Stargate movie and this is the Stargate SG-1 tv series. By my count there should be 15 chapters (Including this one) as I've not removed any. The original story only has 8 but they are in the 10k words per chapter format. As its a continuing themed collection I do reuse a few thematic elements and characters so it might seem like there is some deja-vu. Which is why I'm trying to experiment with the format a bit. Some of the stories and ideas may move away from the base formula. I'm not certain. This is pretty much the most Alternate universe story as I can get.
Thanks for the info on the app. I'm not a technophobe, exactly but let's just say I am not a major adopter of it. I have a windup alarm clock, I just bought my first smartphone last month, and I'm still typing on a windows 7 laptop. For my note-keeping I use several of those Composition books with the black and white marbled covers which I write everything down in. So the app probably isn't for me. Thanks for the information though and maybe someone else will see your review and find it helpful.