"Good afternoon Poppy, I was checking in on the clinic and decided to drop by. How are you feeling?"
Poppy looks up from the paperwork that she's doing, slowly, "Eli, I haven't seen you for years."
The Healer looks over from where he's treating a 3rd year for a sprained wrist, after falling from their broom during Quidditch practice, "Director! You know Mediwitch Pomphrey?"
Eli looks over, "Indeed I do Costigan, I did my journeyman training here under Poppy's tender watch. Now, Poppy, I heard you sprained something."
Poppy grumbles, "My magic."
"Oh, how fascinating, did a pain potion help?"
Poppy goes slightly green, "No, it made things worse. At least the purging potion afterwards was short lived."
"There must be a story behind it then, Costigan, pay attention, you may learn something."
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
Millicent looks over at Draco with a cringe.
"Hey Nott, look what I learnt to do over the holiday."
Nott looks over curiously, "What did you learn?"
Draco takes the tip of his wand and places it against his eyelid before doing something and suddenly it's inside out, "What do you think?"
"Ugh, that's disgusting. What happened to the haughty noble act?"
Draco laughs, "It's just us and Millicent, and she's already Danann's." he waves over at Millicent, "No offence, but your allies are just a little too powerful to try the whole political strong-arming thing. Father's said to leave you be, something about Greengrass and Patil working together."
Nott gapes, "Malfoy, your family is just rolling over?"
"I don't know, 'I'm too young to be told about sensitive stuff' you know what it's like. All I know is that Greengrass is somehow related to the sudden loss in tenants we've suffered. And the only major thing that's changed that could cause that is Greengrass is firmly aligned with the Danann family."
Nott winces, "I heard something about that, it doesn't help that it's an open secret that Potter is Danann now. I overheard my father saying that the Greengrass' have found a way to produce some rare potions ingredients cheaply rather than needing to import them from Iceland or the Russian Empire. I'm just glad that my family doesn't deal with potions."
"Gee thank…" Draco trails off as the entrance opens up and his mask comes back up. Shaking her head, Millicent steps into the mist and comes out in the Hufflepuff common room.
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
Harry blearily wakes up as someone shakes him, "Come one sleepy, we brought you some lunch before Herbology this afternoon."
Harry sits up and looks over at Neville, "Thanks, sorry about flaking out on you all."
Neville smiles, "Don't worry about it, everyone's in the common room if you want to talk about it? Not that they'd ever say they were interested you know."
Harry laughs, "I suppose the lunch is out there too."
"It is, you know the rules about food in the dorm room."
After splashing some water on his face and using a freshening charm, that one of the girls found over the summer, on his clothes, Harry makes his way into the common room where he gratefully tucks into a plate of food.
"Thanks for this, you want to know what happened last night?"
As everyone smiles at him, he sighs.
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
Harry and Marianne woke up as Morgana shook them gently, "Dawn is in a few minutes. If anything's going to go wrong, that's when it will happen. Go to the loo and come straight back."
Silently they both nodded before going through the mist to the Manor and back. Once they returned, they were both given a bowl of hot porridge with fresh berries to eat.
As the sun rose over the horizon, Kate woke up and assumed that she was still dreaming. Swinging off the bed, she shambled out of the cottage into the sunlight. There the warmth brought her back to the place where there was no chair. As her eyes start to cloud over again, she smiles as she sees her daughter is safe.
Marianne looked startled as Kate walked past, and quickly ran to catch up, "Mum! Mum! Wait, where are you going?"
Confused, Kate turned around, but now unable to see turns her face up to the sun. Marianne grabs her hand, and pulls as hard as she can, "Mum, don't go, you just came back to me, don't leave me again. Harry! Help!"
Harry stared frozen at the scene, the memory of this happening before just on the edge of his mind. As he watched, Airmed rushed over laying her hand on Kates arm to try to work out what was going wrong, "She's regressing. Whatever she did to pass the trial didn't quite complete itself. Harry, you're the only one that can save her, as she's passed the trial."
As Harry stood frozen in indecision, Morgana walked over and pulled him into a hug from behind, "It's ok to be scared, and it's ok to not know the answer. You are only 12 years old, and this is something that even I would hesitate with. No matter what happens, you are my child, and you will always be my child. All I ask of you is to make decisions that you can live with. You can ask for advice, but whatever happens you are the one that has to pay the cost, and you're not old enough to have to shoulder that burden."
Together they stood there watching as the sun crept closer and closer to clearing the horizon. As they do, Harry wrestles with himself and the knowledge that he can save Marianne's mother, but it means accepting more of that part of himself that is Brigid.
Just before the sun cleared the horizon, Brigid called out, "Acmhainneacht, have you forgotten your oaths already?"
While they were saying that Brigid strode over to their chosen as she turned, ponderously, towards them, "Acmhainneacht, you passed the trial on your own, after all thought you lost. You found your child, and yet you now seek to abandon her?"
Kate raised her hand to defend herself, an action that allowed Brigid to take the hand and pull her head, painfully causing her new bark to crack under the strain, to meet her own.
Suddenly they were together, in her mind, looking at memories of her past as well as [Harry/Brigid]'s past.
They watch as Kate smiles at a very young Harry and Marianne before pulling out some of her nail polish and showing both of them how to put it on. Another where she helped Harry brush Marianne's hair and braid it into pig tails, and then helped Marianne do the same to Harry. Another where she glances at the clock before hurrying upstairs to make sure that Harry is cleaned up before Shaun gets home.
More and more memories go past from before and after the chair, of times when she stood up and protected people however she could. Reminding her that there is more to her life than just that one moment.
As [Brigid/Harry] guided Kate through her life, they also pulled on their domain, and reversed the decline of her magic, almost rewinding time to the moment she arrived in Hogwarts.
Just before Harry's body is no longer able to take anymore, they return Kate to the moment she stepped from the tree. There they walk with her through her journey through the mist and into Hogwarts where she found Marianne.
As she saw that last memory, Kate realised that it wasn't a dream, her daughter really had called out to her and she really went to find her. With a snap, her eyes opened and the bark that formed around her fell away. Her circlet appeared on her brow and glinted in the sunlight as the flower bloomed with a riot of colour.
Kate dropped to one knee, "Thank you goddess, thank you for showing me and bringing me back. I don't think I'm yet ready to agree to the last oath, and I don't think any of your future chosen ever will. However, I believe that I am closer than I was when you asked me."
[Brigid/Harry] reached down and pulled her up by her hand, "I named you sister, and sister you are. Welcome to our family."
As they said the last, a pulse of magic leaves Kate, knocking everyone around them off their feet as her magic and Brigid's magic finally align together.
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
Harry cries as he finishes his story, "I almost let Kate die because I was afraid of losing myself."
Padma gets up and sits next to Harry, wincing slightly as she does, and hugs him gently, while Marianne sits on the other side, "Harry, I haven't yet told everyone about what happened over the holiday. You all know that Kali basically forced me to be one of her chosen. What I haven't mentioned is that," Padma licks her lips before continuing, "that there's a constant song inside me. It never goes away, and it can only be quenched with blood or violence. Usually both. Kali has been teaching me to dance the dance of destruction, and the key for us is to remain in control. I have slaughtered 9 herds of sheep, and 2 shepherds who were only trying to defend the flocks. I can't even feel bad about it for long because of the shell of darkness that is building around my soul. Not like the those who do evil and grow to enjoy it, but an actual shell to protect my light. I'm not sure I'm explaining it properly."
Harry smiles at her wanly, "I know in my head that I'm still only 12 years old, and can't be expected to know the right decisions to make. Mum made sure of that before I made the decision. I know that she'd have supported me if I was too late. But in my heart, that's where I'm afraid, where I feel like…"
Marianne continues where he left off, "…you're going to lose yourself in the sheer amount of life Brigid has lived. It doesn't matter that they're no longer part of what's there. Every time you touch that vast sea of memories you feel like you've just lost a bit more that made you, you."
Harry nods while the others look at them sympathetically, Daphne smiles wryly, "I might not be going through that, but I keep being prayed to in order to help people with clearing old buildings or building new ones. I'm still getting called to the USA to help with the Hurricane clear up. Though I'm glad that all the survivors have either been rescued or died, as I think I managed to get a couple of hours sleep a day during that point."
Susan looks at the 4 of them, "You know, you're not selling me on the whole Celtic magic thing here. It's a good thing I'm already learning it. Now, we need to leave if we don't want to be late, as it's a 5 minute walk to the greenhouses."
Sue Li laughs, "Susan, we can literally get there in a matter of seconds."
Susan smiles sheepishly, "Oh yeah."
During the middle of the lesson, Daphne swears briefly as she's pulled into the mist.
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
Morgana walks easily down the narrow trail to Kali's shrine, sparsely populated due to the fact it's after dark. With her glamours and moving magic into the mist, she's able to approach the statue without alerting Kali, who is praying to a small statue of Shiva.
As she stands there Morgana looks at her as a woman as well as a goddess. Grimacing, she thinks of her students and Harry and her shoulders slump.
When Kali finishes praying, Morgana clears her throat.
"Kali, you co-opted one of my students. I am here to discuss terms with you."
Morgana melts into the mist as Kali turns around swinging her sword, when she returns to the world she parries the blade with her own blade, "I am here to talk, but if you need violence first, we should go somewhere that mortals aren't in danger."
Kali pauses, showing that she's not completely lost, "You covered in darkness, why listen to you?"
Morgana turns her face skyward, while keeping her eyes on Kali, "Fine, I'll take us to my domain, and we can let you vent so that we can talk."