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┄┄ .•* 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟏 *•. ┄┄
𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒆𝒇 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒅?
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Passing through the veil felt as if a glass of cold water had been poured on top of her. The chilly sensation going down her spine, contrasting against the heated atmosphere she had just left. Not that Hermione took notice, her mind too focused on one thing. . . . Her dad.
As the chilling feeling stopped, and the air around her became breathable and warmer, she knew she had been able to pass through it. Well, that and the fact that Hermione had toppled forward from her lunge at the archway and surely hit the ground, her backflushed against it as she gasped for air.
Hermione took deep breaths to try to even her breathing while closing her eyes. She heard a scuffle from beside her and soon enough felt someone hovering over her. She opened her eyes only to meet familiar silver ones.
"Dad?" Hermione muttered meekly and Sirius nodded as he brushed her hair out of her face.
"I'm here, Mia," he whispered.
"Thank God," Hermione sighed, and without thinking about how weak she was, she threw herself at him, hugging him as tightly as she could. He was there.
"ARE YOU BLOODY KIDDING ME?!" A voice roared from behind Hermione. She and Sirius stopped hugging, the two scrambling to their feet, and turned to the voice only to see a furious Annora Hale hurrying towards them. Hermione side-glanced at her dad, not daring to fully turn to him, and saw as his jaw was now on the ground, and he wordlessly mouthed at the blonde fury in front of them.
"Nini?" He finally whispered and her mum narrowed her eyes at him, advancing towards the man, with such poise, you'd think she was twenty feet taller than him when in reality it was quite the opposite.
That was when Hermione noted the other people surrounding them. Regulus and James were marching right behind them, their faces with expressions between amusement and bewilderment; Lily, Marlene, and Evan were not far behind them, though the two girls had sad smiles on their faces, and Evan. . . . Evan was trying to hide his emotion between his poker face—which would have worked if it wasn't for how he was fiddling with his fingers.
They were still in the Death Chamber, Hermione noticed as she looked at her surroundings, though everyone else had disappeared. There weren't any more screams or spells being fired—well, apart from the storm that would surely burst from Annora. Hermione turned her head around once more and her eyes widened as she saw the scene going on beyond the veil. She was able to spot Harry running after Bellatrix—
"Don't you 'Nini', me!" Annora shrieked snapping Hermione's attention back to them. Annora was now shoving her index finger in Sirius's chest as the man watched her in amazement. "How come you died?! Are you fucking serious!?"
That seemed to have gotten Sirius out of his daze, he blinked a few times as he looked at Annora, and then, his face blank, said, "I'm dead Sirius."
There was a moment of silence in which no one knew what to do. Hermione had half a mind to laugh, along with Evan and Marlene she noted—as they wore both biting their lips to prevent a laugh from getting out—but she opted not to. She instead watched, Annora's ragged breathing decrease as she looked into Sirius's silver eyes. The next thing they knew, Annora had wrapped her arms around his neck and smashed her lips onto his as if their lives depended on it—which was ironic being that they were both dead. Hermione saw her dad smile into the kiss as his arms snaked around Annora's waist pushing her closer to him. That's when Hermione thought she would interrupt them, not wanting to see her parents go at it in front of her, and being quite nauseous only from the moment of affection.
"Ahem!" She coughed loudly and they pulled apart as James Potter wolf-whistled.
Hermione immediately regretted having called their attention to her, and would much rather see them in a heated snogging session again, than having to face her mum's wrath. Because, indeed, when they snapped out of it, Annora finally rounded her attention on her daughter, her eyes becoming slits. Sirius had even taken to gripping her hips to keep her in place, wasn't Annora going to freak and eventually punch someone—not their daughter, mind you. Probably James.
"You!" Annora exclaimed, her index finger pointed right at her daughter, "What in the bloody hell were you thinking, Mia!? Going after this moron!?"
"I wasn't. . . .?" Hermione said grimacing with a shrug. She watched as Annora looked at the ceiling in exasperation and then turned around to exchange a look with Sirius. She then sighed dramatically and let herself fall back onto his arms.
Regulus rolled his eyes and coughed, avoiding all eye contact with his brother, causing Annora to stand upright again, forgetting all about her dramatic limp body impersonation, in order for Sirius to properly look around him.
"You're all here," Sirius said after a moment of silence, his voice bubbling with emotion as he looked around the many familiar faces from his past.
Hermione watched with a small smile, her heart swelling and her inner fangirl starting to scream, as Sirius and James locked eyes, and, in no less than a second, they had darted to each other and embraced the other in a much-needed hug. She could've sworn she saw one or two tears slip from the eyes of each man. And soon enough Sirius was sobbing into James's shoulder, soaking his shirt, mutterings of "I should've saved you. . . ." and "it's all my fault. . . ." were heard as the onlookers watched with clenched hearts.
James was also sobbing by now, mutterings of "no, it isn't" and "peter was the one who ratted us out" escaped his lips as he too soaked Sirius's shirt, his glasses crooked on his face. Then when they pulled back, wiping their tears away, fixing their shirts in a "manly" way, and clearing their throats as if nothing had happened, James fixed his glasses and finally took a good look at Sirius. The next moment he was scowling.
"I was hoping you wouldn't be here so soon. . . ." he said, one eyebrow raised, and mostly every head in the room nodded in agreement.
"Yet here I am."
"Yet here you are. . . ." James nodded, crossing his arms in front of his chest and tilting his head smirking, "It's a shame you got old."
Sirius scowled at the jab, running a hand through his hair but then a smirk also grew on his lips, "It's a shame you didn't."
"Touche," James said after a moment of silence and laughed hugging his brother again.
When they finally pulled apart, again, Hermione witnessed something everyone who has ever read the books wanted to see. Sirius and Regulus finally looked at each other. Everyone was quiet for a moment, not sure how the interaction was going to pan out, but then they saw as a smile grew on Sirius's face and he lunged forward, tackling his little brother into a hug. Regulus was so taken aback by it, that he staggered in his step, and only didn't fall because Evan was able to steady him.
"I'm so sorry, Reggie," Sirius whispered to Regulus as he rubbed his hair. That was when Regulus finally took to hug Sirius back, all pretenses lost as he buried his face in his brother's shoulder.
"I'm sorry too, Siri," Regulus muttered, his voice muffled through the shirt, but Hermione could see the ends of his lips twitching up.
Sirius—pulling away from Regulus, after a long arse hug—proceeded to dramatically run in slow motion to hug "Flower", as the latter laughed, tears spilling from her eyes, and hugged him back. The next person was Marlene that grinned at him before hugging him, and lastly, a really awkward handshake with Evan Rosier.
Hermione who was watching the scene with a teary smile, smiled even more as her mother, though still looking resentful, approached her in a hug. "That was really stupid of you, honey," Annora whispered in her ear. "You weren't supposed to be here for another eighty or so years."
"I'm sorry. . . ." Hermione said as she buried her face in the crook of Annora's neck.
Suddenly Hermione fell another pair of arms wrapping themselves around the two of them and looked up to see Sirius smiling at them — he looked so happy at that moment, and it was obvious neither he nor Hermione wanted to face the facts. . . . They were dead—
"FAMILY REUNION!"
Hermione heard James shout and sooner rather than later the family of three were tackled to the ground by him, followed by Marlene and Lily. The two Slytherins decided to stay behind until both Marlene and Annora reached out to grab their hands and pulled them along.
By the time Annora noticed Hermione start to grow purple from the lack of air—which was weird because they were dead—they all got out of the tangled mess of limbs and were quickly standing again.
Hermione could only look with a happy smile as she saw the people in the room talking and reminiscing in old times. Her heart was swelling as she was finally able to witness Prongs and Padfoot in action, something she would have never imagine would happen, or Sirius reconciling with his brother. . . . And most of all her parents smiling together—
In the midst of everything, Hermione could hear faint murmurs. No. Not murmurs.
Cries.
She turned around looking for the source of the faint noise and her eyes finally landed on the archway only to see Remus, kneeling in front of the archway, looking heartbroken, his hair disheveled, as he kneeled in front of the Veil, sobbing desperately. There wasn't anyone around him. Hermione figured that the Aurors had probably taken care of everything already and he was the only one that stayed behind, not being fully able to understand how in one night he had lost his last remaining best friend and his daughter. Hermione gulped down a sob at the heartbreaking sight and slowly approached the archway.
With each step she took, she could listen more and more clearly to the wrecking sobs Moony was letting out, as she started getting closer though, his sobs started to die out, his throat probably sore and not being able to let out another noise, and he started to silently cry, tears pouring out of his eyes.
When she was finally in the dais of the archway, one step away from the veil, Remus stopped crying completely, his face paled as he looked her way. Literally at her. As if he was seeing a ghost, his mouth dropped.
"Mia?" Remus choked out, his voice raspy.
Hermione was now a hundred percent certain he could see her. Her jaw slackened and her eyes widened forming circles the size of Galleons. The people behind her grew quiet, their conversations starting to die out as they watched curiously. They had no idea as to why she seemed to be so enthralled by the veil.
"Moony?" Hermione tried and Remus let out a relieved sigh as he clambered back to his feet, wiping the tears away from his face.
"Moony?"
She heard the people behind her question but Hermione ignored the murmurs, her whole attention was on the broken-looking werewolf in front of her.
"Can you get out?" Remus asked her desperately.
Hermione tried to say something, but in all honesty, she wasn't sure of what was happening. She looked back at her mom, and dad, and everyone else—who were looking as lost as Nemo—and then back at Remus.
"I dunno. . . ." Hermione whispered with a small shrug.
She put her hand forward reaching out for the transparent veil before her. As her hand went beyond the veil, the same feeling of cold water passed through her small hand, her bones chilling as she touched it. Her hand passed through it and now she could clearly feel the air growing warmer and the chilly sensation moving to her wrist, as the air of the room surrounded her hand. Hermione pushed it back, gaping at her fingers—as was everyone else—as she moved her hand around.
"Mia? Did you—Did you just pass through the veil?" Annora asked in awe and Hermione nodded unsurely not moving her gaze from her hand.
She finally snapped her eyes back up at Moony again who was looking at her in hope.
"Can you pass through?" he asked again.
Instead of answering right away, Hermione held up a hand signaling for him to wait, and dashed towards the others, a big and hopeful smile gracing her features.
"Guys, I can bring you all back!" she said barely being able to contain her excitement. The others didn't look so joyful.
"What?" Evan was the first one to ask, after a few seconds of silence.
"Think about it, " said Hermione the grin not leaving her face, "I'm a bridge between life and death! That portal lets the living go through but they can't come back because they died! I'm already dead, or did die, whatever; the point is I can pass through!"
"Yes, " Lily started tentatively, "but that doesn't mean we can go with you. . . ."
"Sure it does!" Hermione said not taking notice of the sympathetic faces around her. "I'm telling you if you can pick up stuff and give it to me; I can bring someone back!"
"Hermione that's only objects and food, " Marlene said and Hermione shook her head.
"No, it can't be, " she denied shaking her head, the smile faltering slightly, "let's just try? Please?"
"Honey, we can't go back now. . . ." Annora said smiling sadly as she reached out for her daughter's hand.
"Why not?"
"We're already dead, " James answered with a sad smile. "We've accepted it. But you—you still have everything waiting for you."
"I can't go back alone. . . ." Hermione said shaking her head. "Dad?" Hermione said turning to her father as if he was her last hope.
Sirius glanced at his friends and finally Annora, who nodded at him, and then he turned back to Hermione with a smile.
"I'll go with you, Mia, " Sirius said. "Of course I will."
Hermione beamed at him but it was gone within seconds as she looked at the others. Though, they didn't seem as sad as she was, instead they were smiling warmingly and encouragingly at them.
"Are you sure you don't want to?" Hermione asked.
"Go live your life, Mia, " Regulus said rolling his eyes. "You can see us every day, anyway."
"We'll always be looking after all of you, " Marlene added with a small smile.
Hermione bit her lip, as she looked at everyone again and nodded reluctantly. She and Sirius made their way to the dais—after a really passionate hug between him and James, a hug between him and everybody else, and another five-second snogging session with Annora. Remus was still standing there, beyond the archway. As they approached it he smiled eagerly at her again. Hermione smiled back.
"Who're you smiling at?" Sirius muttered frowning at the empty veil in front of him.
"Moony. . . . Can't you see him?" Hermione asked and Sirius shook his head.
Hermione frowned and sighed, looking back just one more time at her mom and friends, and then took her dad's outstretched hand only to hear two gasps.
Remus and Sirius were looking in shock at one another. Remus seemed even paler than he was when he first saw Hermione and Sirius just looked relieved. Hermione, however, smiled. She was right. She was a bridge between them.
With Remus's encouraging relieved smile and one last look behind them, both father and daughter took the couple remaining steps toward the veil; the feeling of cold water running down their bodies, stopping as they breathed in the air from the land of the living.
That was the last thing Hermione remembered before her mind went blank and her eyes rolled to the back of her head, falling unconscious on the ground.
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