November 15, 2012 update: Story is complete. I might go back at some point in the future and polish it (it could use a lot), but will probably focus on other stories instead. Overall, I liked how it came out.
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This is probably too obscure for anyone here to be interested in, but I'm finishing it and figured I'd post it anyway in case anyone was interested. It won't be as polished as my other stories, but I enjoyed writing it a lot.

So Weird was a late 90s/early 00s Disney Channel show that was kind of a "X-Files for kids." In spite of being a kids show, it had a pretty good storyline (at least for the first 2 seasons).

For So Weird this takes place toward the end of the 2nd season. For Harry Potter, it takes place in the middle of final book (), so don't read if you haven't read the last book. The only change is that there are 7 intended horcruxes instead of 6. This is supposed to take place in 2000 (not technically the right year for Harry Potter, but I don't think that matters much).

There is a very bad trailer I put on YouTube a year ago here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOle1V1iZFo

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So Weird/Harry Potter: Magical Collision

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Opening (Fi’s voice): History is filled with reports of magic. From magicians and wizards to witches and sorcerers, people have long told stories of those who could control some power most can't see. Sometimes it's been seen as a pretty good thing and other times...well, you could get burned at the stake. For all the reports though, why doesn't more show up on the news? I mean if someone flies across the sky on a broomstick, I think that would be pretty newsworthy. If there really are people who can use magic so freely though it makes you wonder, where are they hiding? Also, where did they learn it?

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Prologue: Voldemort and the Cave

A 13 year old walked next to an older student through the woods. Jason asked, “Tom, how far away is it?” Jason was a 3rd year at Hogwarts on his first Hogsmeade visit.

“Not too far,” said Tom Riddle, a 6th year student. “It's about 25 minutes from Hogsmeade.”

Jason asked, “Are we going to get in trouble?”

“Don't worry,” said Tom in a friendly voice. “I'm a prefect remember.”

“Yeah,” said Jason. He was excited about the older boy’s attention and knew Tom Riddle would be a pretty good person to be friends with. This stroll away from Hogsmeade didn't seem quite right though. Jason ignored this feeling knowing he was being silly. Tom was even respected by several Gryffindors.

Walking over hills and through the woods, the two came up to another path. Jason didn't notice it and walked past it.

“Over here,” said Tom.

Jason looked at Tom and then saw the path. He all of a sudden didn't want to go any further. It just didn’t feel like a good idea. “Tom, I think I'm going to head back. Maybe some other time.”

The third year Hufflepuff was about to turn around when Tom held up an object.

Jason asked, “Where did you get that?”

It was a small ball. It would have been insignificant to anyone else, but Jason's little sister had given that to him a day before she had been hit by a car and killed.

Tom threw the object down the path.

Jason panicked and scrambled to it. Most of his instincts told him to turn around, but he couldn't lose that ball. Images of his 4 years old sister filled his mind.

He made it to the ball, and Tom was right behind him.

Jason was furious. “What did you do that for?!”

“Sorry,” said Tom sounding very apologetic. “The path has a spell on it that makes people not want to follow it. I had to get your mind very distracted to get you on it. You felt it right, the spell I mean?”

“Yeah,” said Jason still angry. He had definitely felt something telling him going down this path was a bad idea. He didn't feel it anymore, but it didn't really matter. “I think I'm going back anyway.”

Tom said, “Jason, I'm really sorry. I really didn't mean anything and would never let anything happen to it.”

Jason only looked at him, but his anger lessened a little.

“Can you imagine what's down this path that is so important someone would use a spell like this?”

“I don't know,” said Jason. “Why don't you just tell me?”

Tom said, “I will. You've really got to see it first though.”

Jason thought for a second and decided he was this far already, he may as well go a bit further. He wasn’t going on anymore adventures with Tom though. He nodded and the two walked forward. They came up to a cave.

“In there?” asked Jason.

“Yes,” said Tom. “There's something I've wanted to do in there a long time.”

“What is this cave?”

“It once belonged to a powerful wizard,” said Tom. “I want to show you something inside.”

The cave was very dark. The two walked for probably 15 minutes. They passed a large cavern that looked like a room of some kind and finally arrived in an absolutely gigantic cavern. In the middle was a huge glowing crystal hanging from the ceiling.

“That is neat,” said Jason. “What is it?”

Tom said, “It's called an Edington's Rock. It has very powerful magical properties. It's so powerful that it even blocks the trace from detecting our magic here.”

“Really?” said Jason.

“Really,” smiled Tom. He had never done an unforgivable curse on a human before. He pointed his wand at Jason.

Jason started, “I guess it doesn't really...”

“Crucio!”

Jason fell to the ground in fits of pain. Tom laughed, he laughed hard. This was fun. Today was going to be a good day.

----

15 years later:

Lord Voldemort approached the cave. It had been a long time since he'd been here. He had discovered it originally looking through old ministry records. He had performed his first unforgivable curse here, first on a human anyway.

Voldemort walked to the cave with two wands. One was his own, a wand he had trusted since age 11. The other was a much older wand. It was also the only object of a particular founder he had been able to find. This made six Horcruxes hidden. He would want to create one more to make it seven.

Voldemort laughed as he saw the cave entrance. Such wonderful memories here. It was amazing to think that afterward his memory charms had worked so well that the boy wasn't even afraid of him...well not to years later anyway.

Chapter 1: Separate Paths

A deep fog surrounded the London Airport as passengers departed the American West airplane.

Jack: “I cannot believe we are actually in London.”

Clu: “I know, you’re like a superstar now Mrs. P.”

Molly chuckled a little. “We’ll be lucky if this trip pays for itself, but it should be fun.”

Fi: “I cannot wait to see Stonehenge.”

Clu: “So do you think we could spend some time in London before heading north?”

Irene: “You guys know the plan. Shows first, then sightseeing. We’ve got to be in Scotland tomorrow.”

“Yea,” said Ned yawning. “I guess I better go get the rental van. Will you guys get the bags?”

Irene: “We’ll take care of them.”

Molly: “There might be a few things to do in Scotland.”

Carry: “We are sure the bridges are safe, right? That one they showed on TV looked pretty bad.”

Molly: “They’ve had a few accidents over here lately, but there is no reason to think there is any danger. The government is being awfully careful, so there should be nothing to worry about.”

Fi: “That’s not all that’s been reported weird over here lately though. The homicide rate is up 25% and a lot of people are missing. The fog has also been really thick.”

Jack: “Can’t we just leave the weird stuff behind for 2 weeks? Fi, we’re on another continent. We need to represent America.”

----

The sounds of waves hitting the beach could clearly be heard from Shell Cottage, the home of newlyweds Bill and Fleur Weasley. Just outside, listening to the waves and thinking was Harry Potter.

The trio had so much left to do and the costs were mounting. Cedric, Sirius, Dumbledore, Mad-Eye, and now Dobby were all dead. Harry looked toward the grave. Dobby had been heroic, far more than most wizards would even imagine possible from a house elf. Another life sacrificed to save his. Why did he deserve that kind of sacrifice?

Harry threw a rock into the water. He didn’t believe he deserved it. The worst thing was he didn't know how this would end even if they won. How many more would have to sacrifice themselves for him before Voldemort was defeated?

Harry sighed and lied down. If he didn't already have it, Voldemort would soon be getting one of the Hollows. The Death Stick would make an impossible task harder. Harry trusted Dumbledore, and he knew his deceased mentor wanted him to work on the Horcruxes, but Harry didn't like thinking of all that entailed.

There were still 4 Horcruxes left, one of Ravenclaw, one of Hufflepuff, one of Gryffindor, and Nagini. More than ½ the remaining Horcruxes still to go and Voldemort was more powerful than ever.

Harry cleared his mind trying to think things through again. One of the Horcruxes should be in Bellatrix’s vault. They would try for that soon, as soon as Griphook was well enough to go. Nagini would have to be the last one they tried. The other two were still mysteries.

Harry thought of the dream he’d had last night. It hadn't been the first time he'd had that dream and there was something in it that seemed important. It was a memory of Voldemort’s; he was sure of it. He had trouble remembering the details though. Voldemort, still Tom Riddle, had been walking down a path with a young student. That was about all Harry could remember.

“How are you doing?” It was Ron. He and Hermione walked up behind.

“Alright. Just wondering about the other Horcruxes.”

Hermione put an arm on Harry’s shoulder. “Let’s just worry about one at a time. We know where the next one is.”

Ron added, “That’s hard enough for now.”

“Yeah,” said Harry without smiling. “I guess you’re right.”

----

The band was setting up for their first performance, which would be that night. They were playing and staying in a medium sized hotel. It seemed kind of weird to Jack to have traveled thousands of miles and still be performing mostly in small towns, but there apparently had been enough demand to justify coming over.

Still, this wasn’t quite what he had been hoping for in their first trip out of the continent, not that he would say anything to his mom.

Molly walked up to him as he finished breakfast. “Hey, how you doing?”

“Good,” said Jack. “We’re in England, how could I not be good?”

“Actually we’re in Scotland.”

“Geography was never my strongest subject. How long till sound check?”

Molly sat beside him. “About an hour.”

“Can I help with anything?”

Molly glanced to the other side of the room. “Actually, I was thinking… there’s a hiking trail outside. Why don’t you take your sister and see what’s out there.”

“You sure you don’t want us to stay?”

“You’ve seen us do sound checks a million times. This is supposed to be a vacation for you guys. It may not be London, but try to have fun.”

Jack shrugged. “OK.”

----

A half-hour later Fi, Jack, Clu, and Carry were walking through a stretch of woods. The area was pretty hilly and not the easiest stretch of track.

This wasn’t quite Fi’s idea of a good time, but the view was at least pretty.

Clu said, “Do you think the next place we visit will at least have a mall?”

Carry said, “Manchester is bigger. There should be more to see there…Although,” he added, “I like these small towns better.”

“You’re crazy,” said Jack. “We come all this way…”

Jack turned back. Fi had stopped on the path about 20 feet back and was looking into the woods. “Hey Fi, what are you doing? Bird-watching?”

“Why don’t we try this path?” said Fi. She pointed down a path Jack hadn’t noticed before.

Fi was sure it was her imagination, but it almost seemed like the path was moving, very slowly, but moving all the same.

The boys didn’t say anything at all.

Fi turned away from the path and toward them. “Come on. This path looks better.”

Jack said seemed to break out of a trance, “No. Come on Fi. Let’s stay on the main trail.”

Fi ignored her brother. She had an almost unnatural urge to go down the path, almost like it was calling to her. She turned back toward it and took a step forward.

“NO!” shouted Jack almost in fear. He didn’t quite run, but he started walking quickly back to Fi.

The shock of hearing her brother yell like that made Fi pause.

Clu said, “I’ve got to agree. I don’t want any part of that path.”

“But it looks easier than the one we’re on,” said Fi. “Let’s just go down a little.”

Carry spoke this time. “No Fi, I think that would be a bad idea. It doesn’t look like it’s maintained very well. Let’s keep going on this one.”

In total shock, Fi didn’t fight when Jack took her arm and started directing her forward.

---

The path they did follow was a complete circle. It took the four teens about 2 hours to go completely around. Fi could not get the side path out of her mind though. It had been the only one off the main trail and her urge to go down it had been extremely strong for some reason. Equally odd were the others’ reactions to it. They seemed as dead sent against going on it as she had been pushed toward it.

When they made it back, Fi spoke, “I’m just going to circle back a little. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” She turned around and started walking immediately, hoping to avoid anyone telling her to stop.

Jack said, “You want to see what was down that path.”

“No,” lied Fi, “just the sign by the entrance.”

Jack started after her. “Yeah right.”

Fi didn’t answer him and kept walking.

“Wait,” said Jack after a sigh. “I’ll go with you.”

Fi stopped. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I don’t know why I didn’t want to go down it before anyway. Only a little way down though OK?”

“Sure.”

They turned to the other two.

Carry spoke, “I’m not sure why I didn’t want to go down it before. It just felt like a really bad idea at the time.”

“It felt like that to me too,” said Clu. “I can’t take anymore nature today though.”

Carry said, “I think I’m going to head back with Clu. Based on the way we packed, they’re probably still missing a guitar or two. Tell us if you see anything interesting.”

Fi and Jack nodded and headed back toward the beginning of the trail. After 15 minutes it was obvious they had missed something. Fi said, “I know we passed it before here.”

“Yeah, I thought so too,” said Jack. “We must have missed it.”

After heading the other direction for a while it was obvious they had gone too far again. Fi shook her head. “I don’t understand. It wasn’t that hard to spot.”

“I don’t know,” said Jack. “I didn’t see it until after you pointed it out. We need to head back though. Mom’s going to be worried.”

Fi sighed. “Yeah.”

----

Remus Lupin was waiting in a mostly abandoned cabin not too far from Hogsmeade. The Order used it every once in a while for special occasions. He was hopeful about this meeting even if he didn’t expect anything to come of it. The Order had to take every opportunity they could though, and there was a little bit of promise here.

Remus was definitely anxious for it to get it started though. In addition to having a newborn at home, the full moon was tonight and he wanted to be back in plenty of time.

Remus heard a pop outside and then a knock. He opened the door. “Welcome Alexandre. It’s great to see you again.”

“You as well Remus, old friend. Sorry to bring you out today of all days, but I wanted to bring the news as soon as possible, even if not as we hoped.” Remus had met Alexandre almost 15 years ago when the man first visited Britain. They had hit it off quickly. Distrust of werewolfs was no less common in France, but Alexandre would have none of that himself.

Remus spoke, “So I suppose we can’t be expecting any help from the French Ministry?”

“I’m afraid not. I wish I could have convinced them otherwise. They really are rooting for you, well most are anyway, but they don’t want to get involved. They aren’t quite sure how to fight You-Know-Who and are afraid getting involved will cause too many troubles at home. I’m sorry.”

“No need to be,” said Remus. “We expected as much.”

“How goes the fight?”

“Not so well. There’s not a lot we can do besides not support the Ministry. The victory for You-Know-Who will be long term. He controls Hogwarts and is shaping the minds of the young. We can counter that for a while, but I’m not sure we can forever.”

Alexandre nodded sadly. “I’m truly sor…” He looked toward the door. “Did you hear something?”

Remus had. He turned to the door just as it burst open with 4 Death Eaters. Remus drew his wand, but it was too late. Crabbe did a disarming spell and Bellatrix did a blasting spell and they both hit the back wall and fell to the ground.

Bellatrix laughed. “Oh, I’m sorry. Did I hurt the big werewolf?”

On the floor, trying to regain his breath, Remus said, “What do you want Bellatrix?”

Bellatrix got close to Alexandre. “What I want to do is forbidden.” She frowned for a second before her smile returned. “Well…until I’ve heard the report anyway. Rita…”

A bug in the corner turned into a woman. “Yes Bellatrix,” she said obviously not wanting to be here.

“What did they say? Please tell me I can have some fun.”

“The French won’t help.”

“A shame,” said Bellatrix. She looked at Alexandre with disgust. She put her face right up against his. “That means I can’t hurt you.” She backed away a little. “Lucky for you the Dark Lord respects your government more than you respect Britain's.” She turned to her side. “Crabbe get him out of here, make sure he has a pleasant trip home.”

Alexandre was pushed to his feet. “I’m sorry.”

Remus said, “Don’t be. You did everything you could.”

Crabbe took hold of Alexandre and they popped away.

Bellatrix looked at Remus with an evil smile. “I hear you are a new father. I don’t think that’s legal anymore.”

“Voldemort,” Remus purposely said the word knowing the taboo didn't matter anymore, “has no right to…”

Furiously Bellatrix put her wand up to Remus’s chin. “How dare you say the Dark Lord’s name. He has every right.”

Remus looked to the ex-bug in the corner. “Do you agree with her Rita?”

Rita looked down. She was supposed to be a reporter, not a spy. The Death Eaters had found out her secret somehow and promised to let her go if she did a few favors. “I prefer to remain out of this conversation.”

“What should we do with him?” said one Death Eater that Remus didn’t recognize. “Bring him to the ministry?”

“No,” said Bellatrix quickly. “I think we can have more fun. There is a muggle village nearby and tonight is the full moon.”

Remus was horror struck realizing what she had just said. “You wouldn’t.”

“It would certainly be ironic if a muggle lover such as yourself caused so much damage to a village.” Bellatrix spoke with false horror. “Children left without their parents, parents left without their children. Oh how would you look at your son? It’s Teddy right?”

Remus couldn’t say anything that would help so he just looked away. Bellatrix put a paralyzing curse on him. It would break when he transformed. He watched in horror as they levitated him to within sight of the village. For the next several hours, he looked down on the village.

----

“The rock broke my heart like the waves of the sea.”

Fi listed to her mom’s singing as she thought about what she had seen that day. There was a path that had appeared that she, for some reason, had felt drawn too, but everyone else had felt drawn away from. Was that because she was a girl and they were boys?

Why had it disappeared later though? She had researched disappearing paths online and came up with very little. Looking closer at this area of the country though, there were some strange phenomena she had discovered. There were an unusually high number of people from the area who checked into hospitals with memory problems. The patients usually didn’t recognize losing any memories, but when they talked to others they realized what they remembered wasn’t right. It was odd because what they remembered doing instead was typically mundane. Sometimes it even happened to big groups of people. The problem seemed to be concentrated a bit north of where they were, but it was still something to take into account with this mystery.

As the song was ending, Fi went back to her computer and signed on. She had posted a message on her site and hoped she had a response. There was one.

“Maybe the path only shows up in certain types of light. You said it was early morning. Maybe too much light makes it invisible.”

Fi hadn’t thought of that. That was a possibility even if she doubted it. She thanked the message poster, one of her regulars from Ohio.

Fi looked outside. There was still a little bit of light. She avoided Jack and went straight to her mom who was just coming off stage. “Hey I’m going to walk over to the store down the street. I should be back in 10 minutes.”

Molly thought for a second. “OK, but I want you back before the end of break.”

“Sure Mom,” said Fi, knowing she was going to have to stop in the store now to avoid feeling guilty.

Fi went out and headed for the path.

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Notes: I originally had Wormtail in this chapter before realizing at the last minute that he was already dead. Rita's not as good in the role, but I think served the purpose all right. If you liked this, please review.

Before the story is finished (haven't included it yet) look for my Back to the Future reference. I'm going to try to add on to each of my stories.

Hmmm. It's... missing something, but I'm not sure how to explain. Maybe it'll come to me in time.

Also, I have a random request. This has the same title as another work done a few years ago and already in Completed and Cleaned Up subforum. Would you mind changing the title?

I changed the title here.

If you find out what's missing, let me know.

Chapter 2: The Night that Never Happened

Fi walked down the wooded path as the sun set. It was a little bigger hike than she had remembered and it was getting dark pretty quick. Still, she wanted to see if the path might appear in evening light. She found the spot she thought it had been, but there was no path. She continued for a little ways until she was sure she too far and then started heading back.

By the time Fi turned around to head back, the sun was down and the light was starting to disappear pretty quickly.

“Well that was a dead end,” Fi said to herself. She got a little nervous. She wasn’t scared, but being alone in the woods at night still wasn’t exactly something she tried to make a habit of. To make matters worse, rather than be a 5-10 minute walk, she’d actually been gone almost a half an hour, and she was going to be in trouble. Fi quickened her pace.

----

Remus felt the paralyzing curse lifting as the transformation began. He could see the town from here. They had left him facing it all day knowing what he was about to do. It had been pure torture.

Remus tried to resist his urges, but he hadn’t taken the potion yet, and he knew there was no hope. Within 30 seconds the transformation was complete, and the part of his mind that was his own was gone.

Remus saw the town below. He could sense people in it. He was about to run down when he smelled somebody closer. Behind him was a girl.

---

Fi saw the werewolf jump in front of her on the path. She gulped. “Not again,” said Fi to herself. “Nice werewolf.”

It growled. That was all Fi needed to hear. This werewolf was a lot bigger than the other one. This one probably wasn’t a little girl when it was human. She turned and ran the other way screaming for help.

The werewolf ran making up ground quickly. It jumped at her. It cut her a little on the leg, but Fi managed to otherwise avoid it diving off the path and into the woods. She darted between trees hoping to lose it.

It kept coming. Fi ran as fast as she could, but knew it would be no good. She came to edge of steep hill without realizing it. Unable to slow herself down, she fell down the hill hard. Branches scraped against her. Her knee hit a rock and started bleeding. Finally toward the bottom, she hit her head on a tree and lost consciousness.

---

Remus the werewolf looked at the girl lying down at the bottom of the hill and prepared to come after her. Something stopped him though. He could hear a noise. He turned around. Something was calling him. He could feel a presence. He couldn't see it, but he followed it.

He followed the presence, whatever it was, hour after hour. It infuriated him. He kept feeling like he was getting closer, but it kept slipping away. His werewolf energy propelled him to keep going though, and he did all night. Slowly the sun rose, the moon slipped away, and the werewolf felt himself changing.

Remus the man was very weak. That night had taken a lot out of him, but he could vaguely remember the girl. Where was she? He looked around and to his surprise she wasn’t far from him at all.

He walked to her, afraid for the worse. It didn’t look like she had moved all night. He checked her pulse. She still had one, but it was weak. She was shaking and must be freezing. He started with charms, but knew he was too weak to do this alone.

Remus grabbed her and prepared to apperate away. Then he saw her foot. He had done that with his claws. Probably not enough to do long term damage, but he wasn't sure.

Remus touched her arm, said a spell, and they were gone.

---

Fi woke up with a splitting headache. Where was she? She looked over and saw a man sitting beside her in a chair asleep. He didn’t look too well himself. In fact, he looked pretty weak. Fi started to panic and tried to push herself up. Her head pounded and she fell back into the bed in pain. The man woke up.

Through the pain, Fi looked at him. He gave her a weary smile. “Here, take this,” he said, handing her a bowl. “My name is Remus.”

His voice was kind and apologetic and Fi calmed down a little. “What is it?”

“Chicken soup. My wife made it.”

“Thanks,” said Fi. She took it, but didn’t move to drink.

“Please drink. Believe it or not, it really does help.”

Fi took a spoon full and surprisingly did feel a little better, not much, but her head cleared a little. She took a few more sips. She turned back to the man. “My name is Fi. Where am I?”

“You are at our house, well, where we are living at this week anyway. You had a little incident last night, but you should be fine.”

Fi struggled to remember. “Incident?” Then it hit her. “The werewolf! I came across another werewolf.” She put her hand on her head.

“Another?” said the man surprised. “You’ve seen more than one?”

An interesting response thought Fi. “Would you believe even one?”

“Yes,” said Remus. “I would, but you’re saying you’ve seen two?”

“The first one was a little girl in Iowa. Her parents didn‘t even know when we arrived. She’s doing better now though.”

Remus was at a bit of a loss. “So the American Administration of Magic didn’t know yet?”

Fi practically jumped up at that, not helping her headache. “The what?”

Remus silently berated himself. “Nothing. Forget it.”

Fi, now fully aware, got a good look around. The cottage seemed ordinary enough, but she saw what Remus had sitting beside him. “Is that a magic wand?”

Remus instinctively grabbed it. “Umm... Yes, not that it can do anything besides a few small tricks.”

“You just said American Administration of Magic and you’re holding a wand. If it can’t do anything, can I have it?”

Remus smiled. This was an interesting girl. Most muggles reactions were to do everything possible to deny magic, but this girl seemed to be doing exactly the opposite.

“OK,” said Remus conceding the point. “I will tell you that I’m a wizard.” He turned his wand to a table. “Wingardium Leviosa.” The table rose several feet.

Fi said, “That’s incredible!”

Remus said, “I suppose so. Now I need to ask you a few questions just to make sure you are all right.”

“OK,” said Fi.

“Do you feel any craving now?”

“Um...I’d kind of like some Tylenol.”

Remus wished he had a muggle born here. “What is Tylenol?”

Fi looked at him curiously. Did they not sell it Britain or did wizards not need it? “Headache medicine, like Advil or Aspirin.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. We’ve given you what we can. It will get better soon.”

Fi nodded slowly.

Remus decided to skip to the next test. “You have to be starving. Let me get you something more to eat. I’ll be right back.”

Fi thought that was odd, but the soup had helped and maybe this would too.

Remus came back with 2 steaks. “I wasn’t sure which kind you would like. Do you want it rare or well done?”

Fi looked at the two. One was as rare as you could safely make one and the other was overly done almost to a crsip. Neither looked very appetizing. “I’m not really very hungry anymore,” she lied.

Remus nodded. Fi figured out what this was about. “You were worried the werewolf affected me.”

Remus nodded, no longer trying to hide things. “Yes, but I think you are alright.”

Fi thought about how weak the man seemed. “Are you the werewolf?”

Remus stared at her. “Why do you ask?”

“You look exhausted and like you have been completely beat up. It doesn’t take rocket science.”

Remus nodded. Definitely very perceptive for a muggle girl. “Yes.” He sighed and sat down again. “I am truly sorry. I’m usually some place safe, but circumstances got beyond my control.”

“No problem,” said Fi comfortingly. She was far too interested in what was around her to be angry. “Not the first time I’ve run from a werewolf.”

“That is a pretty big coincidence.”

“Yea, well weird stuff tends to find me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you probably aren’t going to believe me, but let’s just say that I have come across vampires, all kinds of ghosts, gremlins, etc.”

She was right. He didn’t believe her. “So did you use garlic to stop the vampires?”

“Tried, it didn’t work. The only thing that seemed able to hurt them was actually…” She paused.

“What?”

“It sounds funny, but love. They were about to bite my brother and they saw the necklace his girlfriend gave him. It kind of stunned them for a moment.”

She was serious Remus realized. “Dumbledore would be proud.”

“Who’s Dumbledore?”

“A great wizard who died last year. He long proclaimed that love was the most powerful magic of all. It was not often easy to get people to believe.”

After a moment of silence, Remus asked, “Why were you in the woods?”

Fi explained about the path and going back to check it out. Lupin said, “Interesting.”

A baby cried in the next room. “I’ll be right back,” said Remus.

Remus came back in holding his son. “He was only born a couple of days ago.”

“He’s wonderful,” said Fi. She thought of her mom. “My family is probably worried.”

“Don’t worry about that.” They both heard a pop.

Lupin greeted his wife with a kiss. “Welcome back.”

Tonks smiled as she saw Remus and her son. “That was a lot of work to do by myself, but I think everyone’s memory is cleared. How is she?”

“Perfectly fine. She’s ready to go back. I’m sorry you had to do this. You shouldn’t have had to go on a task like this so soon.”

“No problem,” said Tonks faintly. “I’m in better shape than you.”

“Wait,” said Fi “You said memories. Are you making it so no one remembers what happened?”

“I’m afraid so,” said Remus. “It’s been a pleasure to meet you.” His wand rose, he said a spell, and the next thing Fi knew she was sitting outside the hotel, not sure what she had been doing.

---

He walked down the path with the nervous third year. He had practiced the Cruciatus Curse, but never before on a human being. This was going to be an enjoyable day.

“Tom, we’re pretty far from Hogsmeade. Are you sure this is the way?”

“Oh yes,” said Tom sweetly. “It’s an amazing sight.”

They approached the cave. Tom had learned it had magical properties. The trace wouldn’t detect his curses here. He smiled and looked at young Jason.

Harry woke up suddenly. There was that dream again. Voldemort had been thinking about it, it had been a good day for him. What were the details though? They kept slipping away.

---

Tonks walked up to Remus. “I know you are tired, but guess what I just found out?”

“What?” asked Remus.

“Harry is at Bill’s house.”

Remus, despite his weariness, sat up excitedly. “I need to go and tell him about Teddy.”

Firmly Tonks said, “You need to rest.”

That was definitely true, but it didn‘t matter. “I’ll rest tomorrow.”

If anyone is interested in this story let me know. If not, I'm probably going to stop posting here at chapter 4. I did rewrite chapters 1 and 2 a little.

Chapter 3: The Hidden Truth

It was a celebration at Shell Cottage as Remus told the good news of his son’s birth and asked Harry to be his godfather. There were toasts all around and it was the first time in a long while that everyone was genuinely happy.

As the night went on, Remus eventually made it to the story of the mysterious girl he had encountered.

Ron said, “So she is a muggle who encountered two werewolves, talk about bad luck. “ Quickly he added, “No offense.”

“Or good luck,” said Harry, trying to put aside his anger at Remus for getting involved when he had a newborn at home. “She was lucky to make it out each time.”

“That’s not even the half of it,” said Remus. “She told me some other stories I’m pretty sure are true. She’s seen vampires, trolls, and some other pretty powerful creatures.”

Hermione said, “What was it you felt? Why didn’t you attack her in the woods?”

“I don’t know. I think she has some kind protection, although what I don’t know. I should have asked her about it, but I’m not sure if she would have known anyway. It wasn’t exactly a ghost, but it felt kind of like one. What I do know is that it kept me away from her until the morning when it led me right back to her before I transformed. Someone is looking out for her.”

Ron said, “Still sounds dangerous; going against vampires and trolls without any magic.”

“I wonder if she is a vedin?” asked Hermione. Everyone else, including Remus, looked at her with blank stares.

“It’s someone who is pulled to gathering of magic, well not just magic if you read some accounts, but to usual circumstances. There have only been 4 or 5 confirmed ones, but it’s thought most don’t survive all that long.”

Remus said, “Wouldn’t she have to be a witch?”

“She’d probably have to have magic in her blood somewhere, but she wouldn’t necessarily have to be a witch herself.”

Ron asked, “What was she doing in the woods anyway?”

“Looking for some path,” said Remus.

Harry's attention went up 10 notches. Normally that would have meant nothing, but his dreams. It couldn't possibly be... “A path?”

“Yes,” said Remus. “She saw it earlier, but said it disappeared. Her friends felt pushed away from it, but she felt pulled toward it.”

“Where is she now?” asked Harry.

“Why?” asked Remus curiously.

“I can’t tell you that. I’m sorry, but I’m not getting you anymore involved. I need to talk to her though.”

Remus sighed. He wouldn’t get into another fight with Harry even if he resented being left out. Besides, Harry was probably right about him not getting involved while he had a young son. “In a small town close to Hogsmeade. Her mom is a musician; they won’t be there much longer.”

Harry stood up. “We have to go.”

Remus said, “I erased her memory. If you want to ask her about anything, you’ll need to make a remembrance potion.”

“We’ve got to find her before we worry about that,” said Harry already turning to the door as Hermione and Ron quickly got up.

-----

As the trio appeared on the outskirts of the village, Ron turned to Harry. “So explain this again. You’ve had a dream where You-Know-Who walks a student to a cave somewhere away from Hogwarts.”

“It makes sense. If Hermione is right and this girl is drawn to important things, she could have been drawn to a Horcrux.”

“Yes,” said Hermione, “but the others were drawn away from it. Harry, she is still going to be effected by magic. If You-Know-Who put a spell on the path, it should still have affected her just like everyone else…unless…”

“Unless what?” asked Ron.

“Well, there are a few spells that have been known react differently on certain people. It’s possible the spell doesn’t mix quite the way it’s supposed to with her. If she really is pulled to magic, then I guess the spell could have the opposite effect on her than was intended.”

They turned a corner. Ron said, “That looks like the hotel, I think. Is that how muggle hotel’s look?”

Harry nodded and turned to Hermione. “Do you have any muggle money?”

“Yes,” said Hermione reaching through the bag, “but listen Harry, we can’t just barge in there. A spell is not going to be enough to overcome that memory charm. We are going to need to make or find a remembrance potion first.”

Harry said, “We don’t know how long she is going to be here though.”

“Hmm,” said Hermione. “Maybe one of us could stay here with the invisibility cloak and keep tabs on her. The other two can go make the potion and we can meet somewhere later.”

“That could work,” Harry said. “I’ll stay here. Let’s meet back at Bill’s. How long do you think you’ll need?”

“Depends on if I have to make it myself. A day, maybe two.”

“Alright,” said Harry. “Hurry.”

Ron said, “We will.”

Hermione hugged Harry. “Be careful; we don’t want to draw Death Eaters here.”

Harry nodded in complete agreement. He headed toward the hotel.

---

“They say the truth will set me free.”
“In the darkness is the light”

Harry ended up paying to get in. He had thought about using his invisibility cloak, but there was too much risk he’d run into someone and that was more attention than he needed.

As he entered the main hall, Harry looked around for teenagers, hoping some sign would give away the girl. The crowd was fortunately mostly middle age. Scanning through, Harry didn’t see anyone he thought was less than 20. He decided he’d just keep an eye on the band, and they’d eventually lead him to her.

“This girl has walked through fire and ice, but I come out on the other side of paradise.”

When the show was over, Harry made his way toward the stage.

The band was putting away their instruments. He saw Molly Phillips and finally a couple of teens. There was a boy and girl both a bit younger than him.

Not sure what to do, Harry started walking to them before another women, clearly a manager of some kind, walked in front of him. “Can I help you?”

“Um… No thank you.”

Harry walked into a bathroom and slipped on his invisibility cloak. He came back out and the area had cleared enough that he could navigate. He kept an eye on Molly Phillips and her kids. Eventually they headed towards a bus, which he barely managed to make it on without running into someone. He hid toward one of the corners, and hoped he could avoid being caught. This had better be a short trip.

One boy said, “This bus isn’t anywhere near as conformable as ours.”

“Sorry Clu,” said Molly, “The bus wasn’t going to fit on the plane.”

“This is weird,” said the girl, presumably Fi.

“What?” said her mom.

“I don’t know exactly. I’ve got an e-mail here to a question I didn’t ask.”

“It’s probably spam,” said a boy.

“Carey, it’s from someone I know.”

“What did it answer?” said the last and youngest boy.

“She just asked if I found out anything about the disappearing path,” said Fi. “I don’t remember any disappearing path.”

“Maybe she meant to send it one of her other weird friends.”

“Funny Jack.”

Harry wondered how often things like this slipped by the ministry. The ministry hadn’t done the clean up here themselves, and Tonks may have been a bit sloppy, but Harry wondered. Most wizards didn’t entirely understand or appreciate muggle technology and he could see more and more cases like this slipping by them. The same policies that had been in place a hundred years ago just weren’t going to be as effective today.

“That’s really weird,” said Fi.

“What now?” asked Jack.

“I’m went back to my web history and I did a lot of searches I don’t remember doing.”

“Like what?”

“I researched a lot about the area around the hotel. Let’s see what this is all about…”

Jack shook his head and turned around. Fi kept looking things up, but Harry couldn’t see from his position what she saw.

---

Harry woke up the next morning with a bit of a backache. The others had slept in a hotel in Manchester, but he had slept on the bus. The pain wasn’t too bad though. He had slept for 10 years under the stairs and had hardly lived in luxury the last couple of months either.

It was interesting where this quest had taken him. He had seen his parents’ home, spent more time in nature than he ever wanted to, and now was on a muggle bus. When/If it was ever over, he wouldn’t miss this quest a bit. He thought of Ginny at the Burrow. He hoped he’d see her again, but he dared not let his thoughts drift that far ahead. There could be a future after Voldemort. For now, there was only defeating him.

The Phillips and company had cleared quite a bit out of the bus last night. Harry guessed they wouldn’t be back in for a while and decided it was worth the risk to leave the bus for a bit. Besides, he was hungry. He went into the bathroom and did a few spells to clean up before putting his cloak back on and heading into the hotel.

The hotel had a buffet breakfast and Harry discreetly picked up some food when he didn’t think anyone was looking. He saw the three Phillips eating breakfast at a table and headed over to see what they were talking about.

“It’s OK guys,” said Molly. “Listen, we’re in England and we aren’t going to let this spoil the day. He’d want us to have a good time.”

Everyone was pretty quiet for a minute and Harry became concerned. Had someone gotten hurt? Had there been Death Eaters? He should have come inside last night.

The conversation fortunately shifted to other topics, which suggested nothing too terrible had happened, but Harry was still curious. After a few minutes, Fi excused herself and headed toward the lobby. Harry followed her and watched her exit the hotel back toward the bus. He followed her outside and took off his cloak.

Awkwardly he said, “Hello.”

She turned around. “Hi,” she said with a bit of uncertainty in her voice.

“I’m sorry,” said Harry. “I was eating breakfast inside and couldn’t help overhearing part of your conversation. Is anything wrong?”

“No,” she said, not completely convincingly.

“Are you sure? I’m really not trying to nosey, just…well…concerned.”

Fi looked at him for a long moment before answering kind of sadly. “My dad died on this day 13 years ago.”

“Oh,” said Harry feeling embarrassed.

“I’m fine. The day just comes up kind of suddenly sometimes.”

Harry nodded. “I lost my parents young too.”

“Both of them?”

“Yeah,” said Harry.

“What happened?”

“Murdered.”

“That’s terrible. Did they catch who did it?”

“Kind of.”

“Kind of?” questioned Fi.

“Let’s just say he’s definitely not in jail today.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright. I’m trying to do something about it. What about your dad, if you don’t mind me asking?”

She paused a moment. “They say he died because of a car crash.”

Harry was solemn, but gave out a small chuckle.

Fi didn‘t take that well. “What so funny?”

“It’s just the way you said that and… I was told until I was 11 that was how my parents died.”

There was silence for a minute before Harry asked, “What really happened?”

“I don’t know exactly, but you wouldn’t believe me if I told you anyway.”

“I might,” said Harry. “I’ve had a few hard to believe stories to tell myself.”

“I’m not really sure. I’m still trying to work out the details, but I know he was dead before the accident.”

Harry nodded and decided not to press it. He had probably been here too long anyway. “I should go.” He turned around.

Fi surprisingly kept the conversation going. “Is there anything you need help with, about finding your parent’s killer?”

Harry paused. That was an unexpected offer. He turned back to her. “There might be something, but I can’t talk about it now. I’ll find you later OK?”

“We are only here for the night.”

“I know. Thank you.”

---

Harry appeared at Shell Cottage and rushed inside. Spotting his friends in the living room, he asked, “Did you make it?”

A little overdramatically, Ron said, “You have no idea how difficult this was. We had to get a few ingredients from Knockturn Alley.”

“Don’t worry,” added Hermione quickly. “We used polyjuice potion.”

Harry nodded.

Ron asked, “What about the girl?”

“She doesn’t remember anything,” said Harry. “She’s actually put together a few of the pieces thanks to her computer though.”

Hermione shook her head. “The ministry is going have to find some way to handle those eventually. I’m no expert, but I know they’ve changed the muggle world a lot.”

Harry said, “I don’t think I’ve been on one since I started at Hogwarts.”

“I’ve spend a little on them during the summer,” said Hermione. “I don’t use them a lot to fit into the wizard world, but I got an e-mail address last year.”

“E-mail?” asked Ron.

“Nevermind,” said Hermione.

“Ready?” asked Ron.

They both nodded. Harry took their arms and the three apparated away.

---

Fi had just finished using the hotel's pool and was heading back to the room with Jack. She pushed her brother a little. “I can’t believe you pushed me in the pool.”

Jack responded, “I seem to remember being pushed in by you twice.”

“Only once. The other time it was mostly mom.”

“Right,” said Jack.

Fi saw Harry. “Hey.”

“Hi,” said Harry walking up to her.

“Harry this is my brother Jack. Jack this is Harry.”

They nodded to each other. Harry preferred not to do this in front of her brother, but didn’t seem to have a choice. “Listen, after you change, could we talk?”

“Sure. I’ll meet you in the lobby.”

“Thanks.”

Harry left hoping she’d show up.

Jack and Fi headed back to their room. “Who was that?” asked Jack.

Fi shrugged. “I met him earlier today. He said something about investigating his parents’ murder.”

Jack hit the elevator button. “And why is he coming to you?”

“Probably saw my website.”

“Yeah. Fi we’re in another country. Even if weren’t, you’re not the cops. You have to be careful.”

The elevator opened and they both went in. “I’m just going down to the lobby Jack.”

“Fine, but I’m coming with you.”

“Fine.”

I'm enjoying it so far. However, one minor remark about the writing style is that your dialog is thin in places.

Also, what part of the world are you from? It's not hard to notice that you prefer using "said he/she" instead of "he/she said." While that's not a criticism, I would suggest mixing up the descriptions a little so that it's not so repetitive. When you have "asked she" twice in a row referring to the same person's dialog, it breaks the flow and jars the reader.

Thanks. I am from Ohio. I'll try to expand the dialogue a little more going forward and vary the said a bit more. Not sure exactly how I developed that style, but I do have a tendency to over use it and that's good advice going forward. Thank you.

I do have the first draft of the whole thing done (have for months). While this story is the least popular of the three I've got going, I've enjoyed it a lot as I think the arch from beginning to end fits in pretty well with both universes. It's also appealing because it's the only story I'm writing that isn't going to end with hundreds of thousands of words, and I stand a chance of finishing in a reasonable time frame.

I've got three ongoing stories and its my goal to get as much of them done by the end of summer as possible. I'm not going to be spending a lot of time editing this one as I know it's not as popular, but I'd still like to get it done all the same as I think it flows really nicely between the two universes. I'm going out of town tomorrow for a week, but might get one more chapter of this posted before then.

Chapter 4: Secret Revealed

The restaurant sat closed just outside the main lobby. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting at a table when Fi and Jack came in. They all stood up to greet the siblings.

”Hi,” said Fi who had not been expecting others to be here. All three were older than her or Jack, but not by too much. She got a little nervous for the first time.

Harry gestured to his companions. “These are my friends Ron and Hermione. This is Fi and her brother…”

“Jack,” said Jack. He shook their hands not liking the fact Harry hadn't mentioned others before. “What did you want to talk to my sister about?”

They all sat down and Harry started. “As weird as it sounds, we think she might remember something that’s really important.”

“We’ve never been in this country before,” said Jack. “What could she possibly remember?”

Ron said, “It’s kind of a long story.”

“I’m really interested in hearing it,” said Fi. This was kind of different than any of her experiences so far. She'd helped others before, but what could she remember about Harry's parents’ deaths?

Harry wasn’t sure where to start. “Um…This is going to sound really hard to believe.”

“Not for Fi,” said Jack.

Hermione held her wand under the table and quietly said a spell.

“You see, two days ago you encountered a werewolf.”

Fi shook her head. “No. That was months ago.”

“Maybe,” said Hermione, “but you encountered another one very recently. We know him. He put a magic spell on you so that you wouldn’t remember.”

“Magic?” said Fi a little skeptical.

Harry said, “Your computer had all kinds of things you didn’t remember. The spell is why you don't remember.”

With a little excitement and a little accusatory, Fi said, “How did you know that?”

Harry's face turned a bit red. “I sort of stowed away with you guys last night.”

“You were spying on us?!”

“Just trying to make sure I could find you after your family left town.” Harry looked around. No one else was in sight. “Wimguardia Leviosa” The salt shaker started floating.

For a second, all Fi could do was stare. Here was proof of something she had wanted to see for a long time. “That’s incredible,” said Fi. Something occurred to her. “You took food this morning. I knew I saw a hand appear out of nowhere.”

Hermione gave Harry a piercing look. “Yeah,” said Harry. “Thought I got away with it.”

“Jack,” said Fi tugging his shoulder. He couldn't deny this. “Do you see that?”

“See what?”

“The salt shaker,” said Fi bewildered. “It’s floating.”

“Is it?” said Jack. Fi looked at him. Something was definitely off.

“What did you do to him?!” said Fi suddenly very unsure about these people.

Hermione said, “It’s just a confusion charm. He’ll be fine. I promise.”

Fi raised her voice. “Take it off!”

Harry said, “We aren’t allowed to let muggles, non-magical people know we exist.”

Quickly Fi said, “So you’re going to do the same thing to me when you’re done?”

No one said anything. “Forget it then,” said Fi. She got up and pulled on Jack to follow.

“Wait,” said Harry. “Please. Lives are at stake.”

Fi looked at them for a minute before sitting back down. She said, “I’ll listen.” She looked back at Jack. “No promises though.”

Harry started. “There is a mass murder that is now in control of the Ministry of Magic.”

“Ministry of Magic?” asked Fi.

“It’s Britain’s magical government,” explained Hermione.

Fi nodded.

Ron spoke. “We need to defeat him or a lot more people are going to be hurt.”

Hermione added. “You’ve probably heard some of the news. Bridges collapsing, mass murders, major weather events, these are all either caused by him and his followers or cover-ups for what they have done.”

“What’s his name?”

“It’s tabooed to say,” said Ron. “If we say it, a dozen Death Eaters would be here.”

“His forces,” added Hermione quickly.

Fi asked, “How do you defeat him?”

“We can’t tell you everything,” said Harry. “It would put you in danger, but we need to find a few things first. We think you found a path in the woods which might help.”

“But I don’t remember…”

Hermione interrupted. “We can help with that.” She held up a vial. “This potion will make you remember everything you’ve forgotten.”

Fi nodded looking at the green potion. This would explain how magic could stay secret for so long.

“Will you help us?” asked Harry.

Fi thought for second. She’d help regardless, but she had to try this first. “If you let me keep my memories.”

The trio looked at each other. Hermione spoke. “We need a promise then.”

“What?”

“You can’t tell anyone about any of this.”

“OK,” said Fi quickly.

“This is really important,” said Hermione. “You will be in real danger if you do.”

Fi nodded.

Hermione handed the bottle to Fi.

Fi looked at the potion inside and then held it up as to make a toast. “Well,” said Fi. “Here's to lost memories.”

The potion tasted horrible, but Fi made herself sallow it. At first nothing seemed to change. Then her mind started to go blank and she had trouble remembering anything. Finally her senses came back.

“Do you remember?” said Ron.

Fi wasn’t sure at first.

“That path?” said Harry.

“Right,” said Fi and she did. She remembered seeing it and everyone else being pushed away. She remembered Remus and being chased by him and waking up later. “I remember.”

Ron asked, “What do you remember?”

“What do you want to know?” asked Fi.

“Everything,” said Harry.

Fi said everything she remembered, down to the sign she read a little before the path appeared. It was less than the trio had hoped for, but at least a little more info all the same.

“Now what?” asked Fi.

Harry said, “We’re going to try to find the path.”

“What if you can’t see it?” said Fi. “No one else noticed it but me before.”

Hermione answered, “It’s possible that only witches and wizards can normally see it and you are an exception for some reason.”

Ron added, “If we can’t see it, we might be back.”

“I’ll do some more research,” said Fi.

“Thanks,” said Harry, not sure what good muggle resources could do.

“Is Jack going to be OK?”

Hermione answered, “A little suggestible for another hour or so, but it’s already wearing off. You should take him upstairs.”

“I could get used to this Jack,” said Fi smiling. “Let me know how it goes.”

“If we get a chance, we will,” said Harry. He wasn't sure if he'd be back even if they were successful.

----

Harry, Ron, and Hermione apparated back to the trail and started following it.

Ron was the first to ask the obvious question. “What do we do if we can’t find this?”

“We’ll have to bring her back,” said Hermione.

Harry was very against that idea. “She doesn’t have any magic. This is really dangerous.”

“I think Hermione is right,” said Ron. “What else will we be able to do?”

The thought of getting a muggle girl any more involved in this sickened Harry and he wasn’t sure he’d go along with it. What exactly would they say to her mom if anything happened? He didn’t say anything to the others though.

Ron said, “Remus did say she has some protection.”

“I’m still curious about that too,” said Hermione. “I doubt she knows what it is though.”

The trio passed the sign Fi said the path had been past, but they didn’t see any path. They circled back and tried again without any luck. Finally they went the complete circle, but didn’t see a single diverging path.

----

“You were the best friend I ever had. O, Rebecca.”

Jack sat beside Fi. “What are you looking for?”

“Just something about the last town we were in and that trail we were on,” said Fi as she clicked another link.

“What about it?”

“I thought I saw a separate path coming from it.”

“So?”

“So, it was the only path off the main trail. I want to know what it led to.”

“Just where it went, nothing weird or paranormal?”

“Not sure exactly. I think it led some place important.”

“We are on vacation you know,” said Jack. “Really Fi, just for this trip, could you give up the computer?”

“Sorry Jack. This is important.”

Jack shook his head and walked away. “Important,” he mumbled under his breath.

Fi opened a new e-mail. She read it quietly to herself, saying the last part out loud as everything started to click together. “What time did I did see it?”

“See what?” said a familiar voice.

Fi turned around and saw the magical trio. “Any luck?” she asked.

They shook their heads. “Nothing,” said Ron. “You are sure it was there? We walked around twice”

Fi smiled. “Yes, but I think it’s moving.”

Hermione instantly became intrigued. “What do you mean?”

“Come look at this.”

The three looked at the computer. “What is it?” asked Ron.

“It’s a map of the area around the park,” said Fi. “Someone put it online earlier this year.”

Hermione frowned. “It only shows the one trail.”

“Yea,” said Fi, “but look at the name of the trail.”

“Clock trail,” said Ron. “So what?”

“That what I thought at first too,” said Fi. “But look at it. It’s almost an exact circle. That is pretty odd.”

“Go on,” said Hermione as her own mind started racing.

“Something didn’t seem right, but I wasn’t sure until I got this last e-mail. I saw the trail at about 11 o’clock. If we say the circle is like a clock and north is 12 o’clock, then 11 should be right here.” Fi pointed at a spot on the screen.

“Is that where you saw it?” asked Harry.

“Town is right over here,” said Fi pointing out the town. “That means we would have entered the trail about here and that should be almost exactly right.”

Hermione smiled. “That’s really good. It’s about 7 now. That means, if it follows standard times and shows up for both AM and PM that it should be about here.”

“That’s great,” said Ron. “Let’s go.”

Hermione frowned. “It’s not that simple. We had to have passed it when we were there earlier.”

“You couldn’t see it?” asked Fi.

“No,” said Hermione.

Fi knew what that meant. “I’ve got to come with you.”

Harry reacted instantly. “No. We couldn’t do that.”

“How else are you going to? I want to come.”

“I’m not risking anyone else,” said Harry trying to avoid attracting any attention to the table. They were toward the back, but he still didn’t want any eavesdroppers.

Fi didn’t understand. “You don’t have a choice.”

“Listen,” said Harry. “I just buried a close friend and that wasn’t the first person that’s died protecting me. I’m not going to bring anyone else into this.”

Fi didn't have an immediate comeback to that. After everyone was quiet for about 30 seconds, she said, “So you’re just going to let, whaterver-his-name win?”

“No, but…”

“I’m coming,” interrupted Fi. Risk or no risk, they weren't going to be able to do this without her.

Ron and Hermione didn’t protest. Finally Harry sighed. “OK, but some ground rules first.”

Jack and Clu started walking back to the 4. Hermione did a quick couple of spells, keeping her wand barely visible. They turned around dazed. Fi didn’t like that, but guessed there was no other choice.

“Are you listening?” said Harry who all of a sudden had a lot more respect for Dumbledore.

“Yea,” said Fi.

“You do whatever I say.”

“OK,” said Fi.

“If we are being attacked and I say run, you run.”

Fi bit her lip, not wanting to agree.

Harry said, “It’s the only way you are coming.”

“Fine,” said Fi. “I promise.”

Harry nodded. He tried to think of anything else, but he guessed that covered most of it. “There is probably going to be a lot of powerful magic set-up here. The last time I went someplace like this it was heavily booby trapped. You can’t run ahead and you have to be very careful. I don’t know if we can protect ourselves, let alone you.”

Fi nodded, not losing any of her determination to go. “When do we leave?”

“After the show,” said Hermione. “I don’t want to try any confusion charms on your mom while she’s on stage. Say you’re going to bed afterward and I’ll use a few charms then.”

Fi nodded. “I’m going to go see how Jack and Clu are doing.”

“OK,” said Harry.

Hermione glanced at Fi’s open computer. “Mind if we look at your website?”

Fi nodded. “Go ahead.”

Hermione could see why Fi had chosen this spot. It had a phone jack so that she could connect to the internet.

The website was pretty impressive. Hermione figured that computers were probably something she would have become very interested in if she hadn’t gone to Hogwarts.

“Ghosts, demons, Spirit-Realm…” said Hermione to herself as she did a quick scan of pages. “Some of this is pretty good information, but other parts are like reading the Quibbler. Still, for a muggle website, it’s very good.”

Harry wondered about that. “Why do you think the American Ministry let's it stay up?”

“I doubt the American Administration of Magic even know it exists,” said Hermione. “Most magical governments are years behind understanding muggle technology. Even if they did know, they probably wouldn’t bother. There are thousands of books on the paranormal and almost none are taken seriously. Most are frauds and it would be almost impossible to stop them all anyway.”

Harry nodded.

---

In spite of her determination, Harry had successfully convinced Fi that this was going to be a really dangerous mission. She couldn’t avoid it, not with so much at stake, but she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t worried.

“Hi Jack. Hi Clu.”

“Hi Fi. Great music right?”

“Yea,” said Fi. “I just want to say I love you guys.”

The charm kept them from fully comprehending the oddity of her coming up and saying that.

Jack was dancing a little to the music. “Love you too sis.”

“Yeah,” said Clu.

----

I'll be gone for the next week, but hope to finish this one shortly after I get back.

Chapter 5: Into the Woods

The plan went off without a hitch. Fi said she was going to bed and Hermione used small confusion charms to help the lie work.

The four stood outside ready to leave the hotel. Summer or not, Fi had goosebumps. “So how does this work again?” Fi said nervously.

Harry replied, “Just hold on to my arm.”

She held on tight, closed her eyes, and felt something happen to her body. When she opened her eyes, the sight had changed and the temperature had dropped. She was back in Scotland.

Amazed, Fi said, “Didn’t think I’d see this place again so soon.”

Ron said, “Hopefully you’re not attacked by a werewolf this time.”

“Yea,” Fi said. “No full moon tonight though.”

Ron said, “With our luck, tonight will still count as one.”

Fi said, “I know the feeling.”

“Which way?” Harry asked, looking between Fi and Hermione.

Hermione pointed. “North is that way. Turn right onto the trail.”

Harry took out his wand, “Lumos.”

“Be careful,” said Hermione. “There might be muggles around.”

“I could definitely get used that,” Fi said, admiring the magic. She pulled out her own flashlight.

Fi had a million questions for them. She was with real wizards and a witch and wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass. “So how exactly did you get involved in all this again?”

Ron answered as he glanced from side to side. “Long story. The better question is, when have we not somehow been involved with all of this.”

Hermione gave a fuller answer. “You-Know-Who has a fixation for Harry and Harry’s not exactly one to stay away from trouble.”

As she examined her surrounding for the path, Fi asked, “Why? Why does he care about so much about Harry?”

Hermione gulped, not sure if she should answer.

Harry decided she’d earned this much. “It’s OK. There was a prophecy that said I could challenge him. He tried to kill me when I was a baby, but my mother gave her life to protect me and his magic backfired. He didn’t have a body for the next 13 years.”

Fi thought of their initial conversation. This man was the one who killed Harry’s family. Fi said, “That’s how your parents died?”

“Yeah.”

There was an awkward silence for the next minute, but Fi had more questions and felt she was running out of time. “So how do you become a witch or wizard? Are you born that way or do you have to learn it? My aunt gave me an old witch’s spell book that’s been in the family. I know it can do at least a little magic.”

Hermione answered, disturbed by the last part, but waiting to answer it. “You are born with magic. You don’t know about it until you get older though. There are signs when you are growing up and the Ministry of Magic records your use of it and then invites you to Hogwarts, a school of witchcraft and wizardry. It’s similar in America with the Administration of Magic.”

Hermione paused for a second. What kind of book did Fi have that would let a muggle use magic? “As for the book, how do you know it does magic?”

“My aunt had it. It was a very old family heirloom. She used it in a Macbeth play and it actually created a dragon.”

That stopped Hermione completely. She turned around and looked at the girl. “That has to be very dark magic, particularly if one can use the book for spells when they aren’t trained. Do you know where it came from?”

“I’m not sure exactly. It came from some of our ancestors from Ireland. My dad found it and gave it to my aunt.”

Hermione said, “You really you shouldn’t have that.”

Fi was firm in her answer, “Not a chance I’m giving it up.”

Hermione didn’t push the issue. Now wasn’t the time. She was curious about one thing though. “Do you know your ancestors surname?”

“Their last name was O’Sianhan.”

Hermione nodded.

“What?” Ron and Fi asked together.

“The O’Sianhans where a powerful group in Ireland for centuries. About a hundred years ago there was a civil war which divided much of the family. It was pretty devastating. Some who survived probably did flee to America.”

“Does that mean…” started Fi, but Hermione cut her off already guessing what Fi was going to ask.

“You’re not a witch. The Administration of Magic would have discovered that, no question. You do have magic in your blood though.”

Fi smiled at that thought.

---

Twenty minutes into their trek, Fi saw the path. It was dirt and really there was nothing specular about it. Why she felt drawn to it was something she couldn’t explain, but the feeling was just as strong as last time. She wanted to go down the path and it took a lot of effort to stop herself. “I see it.”

The other three turned to her. “Where?” Harry asked.

“Right there,” Fi pointed.

Now the trio saw it. Ron saw the dirt and then looked up at the sky. “Maybe this isn’t a good time. We should come back when it’s lighter.”

“I think you’re right,” Hermione said. Why had they come at night anyway? “We don’t have to go right now.”

Harry shook his head. “No.” Part of his mind said his friend’s logic was right, but he pushed that aside. “We can’t put this off. We know where it’s at now.”

Fi stepped on to the path and took a couple steps in. She slowed to let the others catch up. They weren’t nearly as quick as she was.

The trio slowly walked toward Fi. Harry pushed himself on to the path first and forced several more steps before turning back to look at the others. Later he’d think that if anything decided to attack them then, they’d probably have been done for. Going forward took all their concentration.

Hermione pushed forward next. Her logic tried to tell her it was better to wait, but she kept walking as she argued internally with herself. As she caught up to Harry, she noticed the urge to avoid the path was starting to dissipate.

Ron didn’t want to go on the path, but he remembered the last time he’d gone with his urges against his friends. He’d left them in the woods and hadn’t been able to get back for weeks. That wasn’t going to happen again. With a lot of determination, he walked until he caught up with his friends.

“I think it’s starting to clear,” Hermione said.

Harry agreed. “Yeah.”

“Just keep walking,” said Ron.

After another 20 feet, the feeling was gone entirely and they could walk easily down the path.

Hermione thought things through. “It must have just been at the entrance.”

“Yeah,” said Ron. “Weird.”

Hermione said, “Even for You-Know-Who, that is pretty impressive magic.”

Harry nodded and then looked to the youngest member of the group. They had let her take a big risk coming with them, but they didn’t need her anymore. “You can go back now Fi. It should be safe back there. Head to town and we’ll get you back when we’re done.”

“No way,” said Fi. “You don’t know the effect won’t come back.”

Harry said, “If it does we’ll come back and get you, but it was probably just by the entrance.”

Deciding on another approach, Fi said, “And what if there is something back there waiting on us to come back? I won’t stand a chance by myself.”

Harry almost dismissed the thought, but it was possible. “Fine. We’ll take you back and apperate back here.”

“I don’t know if that would work,” said Hermione. “This path is moving remember. I don’t think it’s that easy to get back on.”

Harry hated being the responsible one here and thought of reminding Fi of her promise. “We didn’t have a choice before, but we do now. Fi, you did your part.”

“I’m not that much younger than you.”

And here he was again with the opposite role he’d had for many years. “No, but you do have a parent and brother who don’t even know you are gone and you don’t have magic to protect you. We might not be able to help you ahead when we get into trouble.”

Ron added, “And trouble’s coming. It always finds us.”

Fi decided to stall. “At least let’s make sure the cave is ahead.”

Harry reluctantly agreed to that much. It wouldn’t be far and the next batch of traps would probably be inside. “Afterward you are heading back though.”

A few minutes later, the path went over a hill and, as they reached the peak, they could see below. Harry saw the cave. “That’s it.”

Ron asked, “The cave from your dreams?”

“Yeah, where he took that kid and tortured him.”

Harry turned to Fi. “Thank you Fi, but it’s time for you to go back. We’ll take you back to edge. Just head back to town from there.”

“Let’s just go a little further,” said Fi trying to walk ahead.

Harry stood in her way. He respected her determination. He’d been in her shoes before and it bothered him to be on the other side now, but he knew it wasn’t right to involve her anymore and this was where he was drawing the line. “You don’t know what kind of things he, what You-Know-Who does. There was practically an army of the dead the last place I went like this.”

“If he set-up…” said Fi. Something caught Fi’s eye and she turned around. “What was that?”

Harry and Hermione turned. “Where’s Ron?” asked Hermione.

Ron was staring at a little ball of light. He wasn’t sure what it was, but for some reason, that didn’t seem to matter. Fi screamed at him to get away, but that didn’t really register.

The light entered Ron’s body, and he fell to the ground.

The three ran towards him with Hermione making it to him first. “Ron!” she shouted. She got to him and knelt down.

Ron sat up and Hermione hugged him tight. For one terrible second, she’d thought he was dead.

“Are you OK?” Hermione asked, barely controlling her emotions.

“Fine,” said Ron, with a voice that sounded odd. “Never better actually.” He ducked out of Hermione’s hug, stood up, and started stretching his arms. He shouted, “I feel great.”

Fi, who had kept a comfortable distance between herself and Ron shouted at Harry and Hermione, “That’s not Ron!”

Hermione looked at her confusingly. “Of course it’s Ron.” There was uncertainty in her voice though.

Ron appeared right beside Fi. Harry and Hermione were shocked to see it done without an apparating spell. “What makes you say that Little Duck?”

Harry stepped back and drew his wand, pointing it at Ron. “What have you done with Ron?”

Fi took a step back from Ron. “He’s a Will-O-the-Wisp, an evil spirit.”

Hermione sounded completely dazed, but there was a small amount of recognition in her voice. “A Will-O-the-Wisp?”

Ron looked at Hermione. “You’ve heard of us?” said the spirit. “Good.”

Hermione shook her head. “They are just legends. They were never real.”

Ron mocked being hurt. He put his hand to heart. “Never real, breaks my heart to hear that I never existed.”

“They’re real,” said Fi. “This one is particularly nasty.”

Ron smiled at her. “Didn’t we have such fun though Little Duck? Don’t make it sound like it was all a great tragedy.”

Fi held up her fingers counting off what they had experienced together. “Let’s see. You possessed Jack and planned on keeping control of him. You threatened to leave us all in the Nexus. You possessed Mom. You left me in a burning building. No it was not fun.”

Hermione seemed to come to all at one time. In an instant she was up and her wand was pointed at Ron. Slowly and with a lot of command she said, “Get out of his body now.”

Amused, the spirit grinned at Hermione. “You do like his body don’t you.” It appeared right beside Hermione, with his arm over her shoulder. “It’s really no different with me here.”

Hermione pushed him away, stepped back, and kept her wand pointed at him.

“You heard her,” said Harry. “We want our friend back.”

Fi smiled for the first time. “I’ll get him out. I invoke your one true…”

“Wait,” said the spirit. “Don’t you at least want to know why I took all the trouble to come over here?”

“Not really,” said Hermione. “Get out of his body now!”

Much to his own shock, Harry took a couple steps forward and put his hand on Hermione’s arm. He hated this spirit for doing this, but he had to be the calm one here. “Let’s listen first,” said Harry. He looked at Ron. “And then you’d better leave immediately.”

“Of course, of course,” said the spirit.

Fi had been burned by him offering help already. “I think I agree with Hermione. Last time we met, he left me and my mom in a burning building.”

“Now to be fair Little Duck, that wasn’t what I was planning. I actually was trying to help a bit.”

Fi just went to the next thing on the list. “And the time before that when you possessed Jack and wanted to take over his body permanently.”

Ron bowed to Fi. “You beat me fair and square. Now let me just ask a question.”

“What?” Fi asked with little patience.

“What are you doing so close to the place we first entered this world?”

Fi said, “What do you mean where you first entered this world?”

Ron leaned against a tree and started scratching his back on it. “Hundreds of years ago, a wizard used to live in that cave. He did all kinds of experiments, opened a door to the Spirit Realm.”

Fi tried to connect the pieces. “And that’s when you came into this world? I thought you could come and go as you pleased?”

“Now, sure, but not then. He opened the door and some of us came through. The first person I ever took control of was his wife.”

“That’s horrible,” Hermione said. She still hadn’t lower her wand at all.

“Come now,” said the spirit. “You aren’t going to fire that at your dear Ron are you? He seems to have quite a few feelings for you. I think I could act on them a little better. Maybe sometime while you are both still alive.”

Hermione’s eyes were ice cold. “Get out!”

“What happened next?” asked Harry. He could barely utter the words, hating to see Ron possessed just as much, but a part of him knew that the more they found out, the more likely they were to live. “What happened to this man?”

“He decided he’d made a mistake creating the portal.”

“I wonder why,” Fi said sarcastically.

The spirit pointed, “See that archway above the cave entrance?”

Fi and Harry nodded.

“It keeps creatures from the Spirit Realm from passing. He knew we had other ways of returning so he built it to make sure he wouldn’t be disturbed by us in the cave. I got him for that though.”

“How?” asked Fi, not sure she wanted to know the answer.

“I went to the Mystery of Magic. He had been writing them, begging for help to close the portal. Fortunately they were half convinced he was mad by then. It didn’t take much more to convince them completely. As his wife, I came in and said he booby trapped the whole area; he had a goal of killing at least 50 wizards.”

“So they didn’t help,” said Fi shaking her head in anger.

“Nope. Instead they came and put a spell on the path to discourage anyone from coming any closer and made it unplotable. It was quite a nice revenge.”

Harry said, “So he never closed it?”

The spirit shrugged. “He must have done something. Otherwise a whole host of creatures would have broken out eventually. That archway is powerful, but wouldn’t stop them forever. I started possessing muggles after that. Much more interesting.”

Fi asked, “When did you figure out how to get back to the Spirit Realm?”

“Back was the easy part. None of us had any trouble returning to the Spirit Realm, but finding a way back into this world again was difficult. Most of my kind left here quickly and didn’t return. I was the last to leave. I really liked this world though. I went and explored, found Texas to my liking. I eventually decided to go home, but was determined to get back to this world. It took me almost 200 years to figure out I could use the nexus as a bridge.”

Fi tried to do the math, but didn’t have enough information. “How long after you got back did you find us?”

Ron laughed, but this time there was a bit of hurt there. “I figured the way back to this world not so long ago. I knew there had been a girl drawing all kinds of attention to herself. She was poking around the edges. I thought what better place to go back than to see her. Of course I didn’t anticipate how clever you were Little Duck.”

Fi added, “And having your power limited.”

Ron’s smiled faded. “No, not quite the triumphant return to this world I was expecting. I could be a real help now though. Get rid of that archway and I’ll come with you.”

Fi said, “And leave as soon we are surrounded no doubt.”

“Imperius” shouted Hermione.

The spell hit Ron, but his smile returned. He shook his finger at Hermione. “Naughty, naughty girl. I’m afraid that an unforgivable curse won’t get me out of this body though.”

“No,” said Fi, “but this will, I invoke your one true name, Bricriu, depart this mortal body.”

The spirit was pulled from Ron’s body, and Ron fell to the ground. The ball of light started flying into the woods, but turned and gave one final message to Fi. “Rest assured, I will be seeing you again Little Duck. If you live through the night that is.” It flew out, leaving the four behind in the dark.

Ron saw the ball of light leave. He was on the ground and wet. “What happened?”

The others explained. Fi said, “Hermione was determined to get it out. She never lowered her wand for even a second.”

Hermione blushed a little. “Yeah,” said Ron a little color there too. “Thanks.”

Changing the subject, Hermione said, “Maybe You-Know-Who didn’t set any traps. The Ministry already had one he wouldn’t expect anyone to get around.”

“Maybe,” said Harry. He had only gone into one of Voldemort’s hiding spots, but that cave had been booby trapped pretty severely even though it was already a hard place to find. He sincerely doubted Voldemort would have this any less guarded.

They started walking again. Fi walked beside Harry. “So have those two ever admitted they like each other?”

Harry rolled his eyes. “They’ve been like this for years.” He forgot about telling her to turn back.

---

As the four walked toward the cave entrance, Hermione noticed the ground about to change and stopped. “Wait.”

The other three turned to her. “What is it?” Fi asked.

“Look at the ground.”

Ron said, “There are some cracks.”

“They are in some pattern,” said Fi. “I have no idea what it means though.”

Harry looked back to Hermione. “What is it?”

Hermione looked closer. “I remember this from ancient runes. It’s a very powerful guard spell.”

Harry asked, “Did the Ministry put it up?”

“I doubt it,” said Hermione. “This isn’t their style, not even back then.”

Harry thought of the Will-O-the-Whisp’s story. “Especially if they were afraid to approach the cave.”

Hermione nodded.

“What’s it do?” asked Ron.

“It’s a little different than I remember, but I’d guess it tries to scare you out of coming further.”

“What do we do?” Fi asked.

Hermione thought for a second. “We go on. It will try to get us to turn around. Just keep going no matter what.”

They nodded and walked forward together.

---

Hermione saw her friends disappear and gasped. She took a breath and kept walking. This was going to be some kind of test and she wasn’t about to fail.

She saw an old man standing by the cave entrance. “Hello there Hermione.”

She kept walking, ignoring the man. He kept speaking to her. “I know that you know the secret of this test, and I can’t stop you. I’m not even going to try.”

Hermione ignored him. She didn’t run, but walked quickly. She was halfway there.

“Do you realize that I am appearing to you as Godric Gryffindor?”

Hermione gazed at him for just a second. It was indeed Gryffindor. She looked back away. “You’re not real.”

“You’re quite right. I am created from the spell of the rune and from your own mind. Since you know the trick, you will make it through easy enough. Please let ask you one question first though.”

Hermione’s determination to continue through as quickly as possible battled her interest in an image of such a historic figure. Her determination won and she kept walking.

Gryffindor continued anyway, “You and I are both people of history; we understand it; we study it. With history in mind, ask yourself this. Is it always best for individuals to stay and fight? Against incredible odds, how often does it really work out?”

Hermione understood his point. She was almost to the cave entrance. She finally stopped and turned to him. “No matter the odds, we have to try to do what is right.”

“You’ve been very lucky many times Hermione. If luck is just a coincidence though, you know it won’t continue. Soldiers become heros on the battlefield one day, heroically saving a comrade without ever getting hurt and a causality the next day quite often. This is bigger than you Hermione. Voldemort has the Ministry of Magic under his control and most of Britain. He can kill anyone he wants. Even if you can win, it will only be with a lot of help. If you really understand history, you’ll leave and if you come back, it will only be after you have secured reinforcements from other countries.”

As much as she wanted to, Hermione realized she couldn’t dispute the validity of much of what he said, but she also remembered that Voldemort didn’t know the trio was after Horcruxes. A bigger group wouldn’t be able to hide that as easily and getting any kind of army was unlikely. Hermione stared at it for a moment. “You may be right, but it doesn’t matter.” She walked into the cave entrance. Gryffindor vanished.

---

Harry saw his companions disappear. “Hermione, Ron, Fi…” he said. Then he heard a scream, a scream from a very familiar voice.

All thought disappeared from his head and Harry ran to the source of the scream, to a figure lying on the ground.

She was face down, but the red hair was as vibrant as ever. It was Ginny.

Harry turned her over. There were cuts everywhere. Blood covered her robes. A huge scar went right across her face. “Ginny…Ginny…” he said panicking. Tears and every fear in the world came to him.

Her eyes opened.

Harry said, “You’re alive.” Deep down he started to realize this wasn’t real, but he couldn’t react to that yet.

“I won’t be,” Ginny said faintly.

“But,” said Harry extremely confused in spite of Hermione’s warning.

“I’m not real like this Harry,” said Ginny, “and you know that, but this will be the future.”

Harry remembered this wasn’t real, remembered what Hermione had said fully now. Still he had trouble letting go of her.

“What do you mean, ‘this will be the future’?”

She looked at him with a face that said boys are stupid. He’d seen that one more than once and even over the disfiguration he could see it now. It was so real. She answered, “Do you really think our relationship will stay a secret forever? Harry we were at Hogwarts together, rumors spread as soon as we were seeing each other. Voldemort will find out and…”

She slowed and Harry looked at her. “I won’t let him,” said Harry, but he lacked conviction.

“You can’t stop him. He’ll use me to get to you or just torture me in your place. There’s only one way to stop it.”

“How?” asked Harry. “Destroy him?”

“That will take too long,” said Ginny. “He’s getting tired of waiting for you. He’ll dive more into your personal life sooner rather than later.”

“Then how?”

She looked him in his eyes. “Get us out of here.”

“You’d never go,” said Harry.

“I would with you. So would Mum, so would everyone else. Harry we can’t beat him and even if we can, it’s not worth it. If you say leave Britain, most will follow you. We will, with a little convincing. Mum is already scared to death. If you say we need to leave now, we will.”

Harry closed his eyes. This was a trap and he knew it, but it was a really good one. He put Ginny down and walked forward without looking back. It was harder than on the beginning of the path, much harder.

She said, “I love you.”

Harry didn’t respond, but his heart ached and guilt overran him. He walked through the gate and bumped into someone. Ginny was gone.


---

Fi saw her wizarding companions disappear. “Guys…”

Were they really gone or was the rune just playing tricks on her? She took a step backward. She could see all three of them on the path walking. Harry started running to the side. Hermione walked quickly across. Ron took a few steps forward. Fi held her breath and took a step forward again.

This time she noticed, someone standing on the other side and her heart skipped a beat. It couldn’t be.

“Hello Fi,” said the man with a voice filled with so much love.

“Daddy.”

“Yea Fi. It’s me.”

Fi shook her head. “You’re not real.” She started walking through the area as quickly as she could.

“Fiona, please,” said the figure. “It is me. You’ve already seen how things in these parts affect you differently than the others. This spell is no different.”

Fi turned to him. “What do you mean?”

“This area is still on the path and the spells put on it affect you differently.”

“Why?”

“Why are you drawn to everything you have encountered? Why was I?”

“Are we vedins?”

“That’s as good a word for it as any I guess. Come here.” He held out his arms.

Fi couldn’t resist and walked to him, even as part of her mind continued to scream that this wasn’t real. He hugged her. It felt so good. She wanted to know him for so long.

“Daddy, how could you get here?”

“It took a lot of work. I had to warn you though.”

Fi let go a little and looked up. “Warn me of what?”

“Fiona, you can’t go any further.”

The clouds in her mind started to part and Fi cried. This wasn’t real and she knew it for sure now. This wasn’t her dad. She took a step back and started walking toward the cave, trying not to look at the figure as she headed toward the cave entrance.

“Fi, please listen. You don’t understand. You know I’ve been protecting you right?”

Fi didn’t answer. He continued. “I can’t in there. The magic blocks me. Fi, I don’t want your mother to lose you. She couldn’t take it after everything else.”

Fi kept walking.

“Fi, I died because I did something like this. It left your mother alone and you without any memories of me. Please don’t do this to her and Jack.”

Fi wasn’t sure what to believe anymore, not entirely. She stopped just before the cave entrance.

“What’s ahead?” asked Fi.

“I don’t know,” said her dad. “I can’t see it.”

“I’m sorry,” said Fi. She took a step forward and entered the cave, bumping into someone.

It was Harry. He didn’t seem to be in any better shape than she was.

Fi lost track of everything as she walked forward. What was going on?

Hermione looked at the two entering the cave. “Harry, Fi…are you OK?”

Harry nodded very slowly without much thought. Fi didn’t say anything. Hermione asked her, “What did you see?”

“My dad,” said Fi, “and I’m not sure he wasn’t real.”

Harry said, “I’m not sure what I saw isn’t going to be real either.”

---

Ron looked around and saw the others had disappeared. “Just part of the trick,” Ron said to himself, trying to remember Hermione’s words. He walked forward, but saw a person standing in front of him. It was Voldemort.

Ron took his wand out, but was so shocked he dropped it. He ducked down for it, raised it quickly, his hand shaking. Maybe Hermione had read this wrong; maybe this sent a message to You-Know-Who to come.

The figure didn’t threaten him or seem to respond to the wand though. All he did was smile. “Hello Ron Weasley.”

Ron gulped. “You know who I am?”

“Yes.”

“Are you real?” asked Ron.

“Yes, but I am not the real Dark Lord.”

Ron said, “So he doesn’t know we are here?”

Voldemort shook his head. “No, but it doesn’t matter. He will find out about this quest soon enough. You don’t think you could destroy 7 Horcruxes without him knowing do you?”

Ron responded, “We’ve already destroyed three.”

“Yes,” said Voldemort dismissingly, “a fact that will make him quite mad.” Voldemort’s smile returned. “Let’s think about those three though you have found shall we. One was given to your sister. One was found and destroyed by Dumbledore. The last’s location was penetrated mainly by Dumbledore. Even if you find this one, you still have 3 more to get to and must do so on your own without dying. What do you think Hermione would tell you the odds of that are?”

“We’ll beat you,” said Ron feeling a little more confident with this not being the real You-Know-Who. He could barely look at the man still though.

Voldemort took a few steps away from the cave and gestured for Ron to go on. “Go ahead.”

Ron looked at him nervously. “Are you going to try to curse me?”

“I can’t,” said Voldemort. “I’m not real. The magic here is not strong enough for that.”

“Then why just let me go?” Ron asked.

Voldemort smiled. “Because you are more an ally to me than to them.”

Ron shook his head. “That’s bonkers.”

Voldemort’s smile grew larger. “Is it?”

Ron didn’t answer. Voldemort continued. “You don’t have Hermione’s intelligence, not by a long shot. You don’t have Harry’s courage, determination, or so called destiny. What do you contribute?”

Ron was at a loss, his fears overwhelming his ability to see what he had done.

“You left Hermione and Harry once. They weren’t the same afterward. You left in anger, hurt them, and let Harry’s wand be broken too.”

“But….” Ron said.

“You came back and started everything all over again. You still don’t contribute, but you take food, you take attention, and you bring nothing.”

Ron took a deep breath. He had to push on. Get past this thing.

Voldemort didn’t say a word, not until Ron reached the exit. “You could write them a note if you wanted. Push it through and then leave. Apologize for being so useless and tell them they are safer without you.”

Ron swallowed and rushed through the cave entrance.

----

It took the group a few minutes to compose themselves. Fi particularly was harder to get back to normal.

“You’re right,” said Fi, still with a few doubts. “It had to be one of his illusions. That wasn’t my dad.”

Harry thought about taking her back again, but this far in he wouldn't let her go back on her own and he didn't like the idea of going through that last trap more than necessary.

Hermione finally said, “We should get going.”

“Yeah,” said Ron. “I can't wait to see what's next.”

Fi tried to calm herself and focused back on the mission. “What is it we are looking for exactly again?”

“Not sure exactly,” said Harry. “It should be old though.”

“Why though?” Fi asked. “Why do you want it? I mean I know you need it to defeat You-Know-Who, but is it a weapon?”

“Not exactly,” said Hermione.

Harry said, “It's better if you don't know exactly.”

Fi had enough of that. She stopped and anger overcame her worries. “You wouldn't be here if it wasn't for me! Ron would still be possessed if I wasn't here!” She slowed down. “I have a right to know what is going on.”

Ron and Hermione looked to Harry deferring to him. Dumbledore had entrusted the secret to him and it was his to share or keep. Harry couldn't break his word to Dumbledore to tell Fi any more than he had avoided telling Ginny, Mrs. Weasley, or Remus. “I can't tell you,” said Harry, holding up a hand to stop her responding. “I promised I wouldn't and you already know more than anyone else in the world besides us. Let's just leave it at this, You-Know-Who can't be defeated without us destroying what is in this cave.”

Fi was pushed between emotions for a minute, but decided to accept the explanation. She wished to know more, but this really wasn't her quest and she had pushed at other points.


The group started looking around the cave.


The group started looking around the cave.

Just in case anyone tried reading this quickly after I posted, chapter 5 was initially missing a good chunk of the chapter (only for a couple of minutes).

Chapter 6: Jonathon Fortune

The passageway was narrow. Since entering the cave, the four teens had been following the cave deeper underground. The magic in the cave stopped Fi’s flashlight as soon as they entered, but the three wands allowed them to see ahead. After a few minutes, Harry saw the passage start to widen and then open entirely into a large open space. There were things lying around in it. They’d been long abandoned, but were certainly from a human. “What is this?”

Hermione looked around quickly as she entered. “I think he lived here - the wizard that will-o-the-wisp talked about.”

Fi came in and saw a bed, bookcases, piles of notes, and lots more.

Ron shook his head. “He must have been bonkers. Why would he actually live here?”

Hermione shook her head sadly. “It probably wasn't his plan to be here that long. He came here for research and ended up here longer than expected.”

Harry pointed. “There's the passage out.”

Fi was already heading to the side. “Let's look around first.”

Hermione agreed. “It might provide us with us information.”

Harry walked toward Fi quickly and turned to the other two. “Let's stay together.” Voldemort could have easily left a trap here.

“Fi,” said Hermione curiously. “What is the Spirit Realm?”

Fi thought for a second. “I'm still not exactly sure. For a while, I thought maybe it was where you went when you died, but I’m pretty sure that’s not right, at least not very often. It connects to our world though. I’m just not quite sure how.”

Hermione thought about all she’d seen tonight. It was amazing how much was out there that people were clueless about. She would have easily gone her entire life without knowing about witches/wizards if she hadn't been one. Now she was literally finding about another world entirely. How many secret worlds had always interacted with the one she grown up with?

Ron interrupted Hermione’s thoughts. “Look at that.”

“Bones,” said Harry. “Is that the wizard?”

Hermione walked to them. “I don't know, but they've been there a long time.”

Fi’s curiosity was far more powerful than her caution. She took a few steps from the group. “Look at this, a letter.”

The others walked to her. Ron asked, “What’s it say?”

Fi picked it up and read it out loud.

July 17th, 1798:
Last Testament of Jonathon Fortune:

I am about to die, that much seems clear. It’s important that anyone here understand this cave and the risks it contains. My story could fill a book, but I will fill only this one piece of parchment and hope it serves all the purpose that anything more detailed could.

I sought most of my life to find and understand the afterlife. After decades of study, I thought I found it and a way to connect to it. Perhaps I did, but I don’t think many humans are in what I found. Either way, I opened a doorway in this cave to a world I’ve since heard referred to as the “Spirit Realm.”

I encountered creatures from this realm of both kindness and extreme cruelty. Some entered our world, although most could not exist for long here and for that I’m grateful. Regardless, my wife and I realized the existence of the gateway was dangerous to the entire world and sought to close it. Sadly, the gateway was already feeding on the magic of the cave and closing it proved impossible for us alone. Even attempts to close it often proved useless as “Spirit Realm” beings already in this world fought our attempts.

The archway you hopefully saw before entering this cave was one of our solutions. It at least stops “Spirit Realm” beings from reentering the cave (another is immediately before the doorway to prevent new ones access to the rest of the caverns). Before it was finished, my wife had something happen to her worse than death (my just punishment, but not hers).

I have been unable to find anyway to destroy the gateway. I’m not sure it can be anymore. Using an elaborate (and hopefully permanent) pictogram however, I was able to close it.

On the chance that the pictogram is ever changed or needs reconstructed, I am attaching a diagram below. Establish a new one of the same configuration to close the gateway once more.

If the gateway is undisturbed, DO NOT ALTER IT. If the ministry finds a solution, I of course wish them to use it, but otherwise nothing good will come of it.

While constructing the pictogram, I fought a creature I was unfamiliar with it and it stung me. No magic has been able to address my wounds and I have lost feeling in most my body. Please head my warning and leave this cave now.

Sincerely,

Jonathon Fortune


They stood in silence for a minute.

Fi spoke first, “I’m guessing You-Know-Who probably didn’t listen to the warning.” Fi wondered if she would have or if her curiosity would have pushed her forward.

Ron said, “Knowing him, we are probably going to have to go in that place.”

Despite the dangers, that prospect excited Fi. “Really?”

Harry shook his head. He realized he was getting better at thinking like Voldemort. “I doubt it. You-Know-Who wouldn’t want to put a Horcrux somewhere it could be easily disrupted. I bet it’s back there, but well away from the…gateway.”

Hermione looked to Fi. “What is the formation he's talking about?”

Fi held up the paper and Hermione took it. There was a circle and inside it many straight lines going from one side to the other or stopping in the middle.

Hermione nodded. “So as long as the pictogram he set up stays in that formation nothing can exit the Spirit Realm?”

“I guess,” said Fi.

Harry looked at Hermione. “What do you think the pictogram is?”

“Not just a drawing in the sand or even done with paint. He wanted something permanent. I’m not sure.”

Harry looked around again before saying, “Let's go.”

---

The four continued on a winding path that led out of the big room. Harry had been through a dark cave before and didn't have pleasant memories of it. The others weren't enjoying the experience either.

Ron said, “It just feels like it would be so easy to be trapped down here.”

Logically, Hermione said, “There hasn't been any extra paths. We're not going to get lost.”

Remembering 2nd year in the caves leading to the Chamber of Secrets, Ron said, “Not unless there is a cave in.”

Hermione didn’t have an answer for that.

The path started to widen and light shown ahead.

Fi pointed ahead to something. “It’s another one of the barriers, like the one before we came into the cave.”

The others looked and sure enough, there was another one just like in the front of the cave. Harry said, “Fortune must have put it here so he would be safe back there.”

Ron stared at it for a moment. “Something is wrong.”

“What?” Harry and Fi asked.

“I don’t know. It just looks…newer”

Fi walked quickly up to it. “You’re right. The one out front was cracked. It looked really old. This looks…a lot newer.”

Harry agreed, but tried to think of a good reason for that. He said, “There's no weather in here. Maybe the rain and wind made the other look a lot worse.”

Fi nodded in agreement. “Yea that should protect it a lot.”

Hermione nodded, but leaned in close to the archway anyway. “You two are right, but still...let's see.”

Hermione pointed her wand at it. “Temps” Grey smoke emerged from Hermione's wand.

“What's that mean?” Fi asked.

Harry and Ron turned to Hermione too.

Hermione gulped. “It means this one is less than 50 years old.”

Ron said, “Then?”

Harry answered, “You-Know-Who must have built it.”

They all looked at each other.

Speaking more to himself, Harry said, “Why would he build one here though?”

Fi asked, “To keep something out of here or maybe something in there?”

“What do we do?” asked Ron. He looked at his friends and then added, “I mean I think we need to just keep moving,”

Harry nodded. There wasn’t anything else to do. “Yea, but stay alert.”

The four walked through the passage and were in gigantic cavern. Its ceiling was probably 30 feet up and it was as wide as a Quidditch pitch. Above them, hanging from the ceiling was a giant crystal glowing bright green. The light gave the whole area an eerie look.

Disbelievingly, Hermione said, “That can't be.”

“What?” asked Ron.

Hermione took a few steps forward. “I think it’s Edington’s Rock.”

Not sure where he got the memory, Ron said, “They use that in some wands, don't they?”

Hermione nodded, genuinely impressed. “Yes. It's not used much in Britain, but it is other places of the world. Only trace amounts though. A crystal that size could fill wands for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. No wonder this cave has so many magical properties.”

Fi took several steps closer to it. The crystal was large, but its bottom was still a good 12 or so feet from the ground. She was so focused on it, that she didn’t notice the danger until it was right on top of her.

Fi looked up just in time to see some sort of huge creature come down and grab her.

“Fi!” shouted the others as it took her up. Fi felt her arms being stretched.

Fi shouted, “Let me go!”

The creature turned its face toward Fi and gave her a devilish look that made Fi's heart skip a beat. It wasn't just some dumb bird and it had no intention of setting her down.

Harry tore the bag from Hermione and started digging through. After a moment he found what he was looking for. He pulled out his Firebolt and lifted off toward the creature.

Even with his Firebolt, the creature was halfway across the cavern before Harry caught up. He maneuvered below it, praying that if it dropped Fi, he could get her before she hit the ground below.

“Stupefy!” he said as powerfully as he could.

The bird quickly stopped and turned around. Harry shot past it before turning around himself.

The bird just sat there in midair for a moment before...laughing.

It took off again just as quickly as it had stopped. Harry shot toward it. It turned quickly and in the dim light, it took Harry everything he had to avoid hitting the wall of the cavern and no doubt killing himself.

Fi felt aches and pains growing around her body and the bird-like creature was not concerned for her comfort in the least. She felt about ready to throw up at the speed they were going.

The creature stopped again and Fi felt herself drop. It wasn't far.

Fi looked around and saw she was in some kind of strange nest. It was made of pieces of rock instead of any normal nest and there was some kind of goo on the ground below her. She was still probably 20 feet above the rest of the cavern.

She saw the bird switch directions and head back towards Harry. “Look out,” she screamed. Her scream wasn't that loud though. Her movements all around had slowed. After a few more seconds she realized she couldn't move at all. Something, possibly the goo below her had stopped her movements. All she could do was sit there and look ahead at the cavern around her.

The creature flew towards Harry at lightning speed and Harry had to duck down quick to avoid getting hit by it. He circled back up, but the creature was on top of him again. It would have got him, if two blasting spells didn't come from the ground below him as Hermione and Ron joined in the fight.

The creature stopped and looked around at the three. It laughed again, harder this time.

The creature ignored the two below and focused on his competitor in the air. Harry dashed away and was using every trick he could think of just to stay a step ahead of the creature.

Ron looked at Hermione “What do we do? Our magic isn’t putting a dent in it.”

Hermione thought, but was coming up with nothing. “I’m…I’m not sure…”

Ron looked to the center of the cavern again. “Maybe we can make that crystal fall on it or something.”

Hermione looked at the rock. Of course. “Harry! Lead it to the Edington's Rock.”

Harry didn't hear her. Hermione said a spell to increase the volume of her voice and repeated her directions. She prayed he heard her this time, but didn't have time to think about it.

“Come on Ron,” said Hermione grabbing him and pulling him. “Get ready to do another blasting spell.”

The two ran towards the center of the cavern.

Harry had heard Hermione, but following her directions was not an easy task as simply avoiding the creature was his current top priority. Slowly, he did lead it to the center of the room though.

Harry headed straight toward the crystal and did a quick dive below it. The creature had already started to descend anticipating the move. Harry hoped this worked as he couldn't keep this up much longer.

“Reducto!” Ron and Hermione shouted as the creature went below the crystal. Their spells didn't affect it much, but it wasn't far from the edge and hadn't been anticipating them. It went up just a little and snagged the crystal. The room filled up with a bright explosion as the creature disappeared entirely. Not a trace of the bird fell down below.

Harry heard the explosion, but it still took him a bit to piece together what had happened. He thought he had lost sight of the creature at first and that worried him. After he realized what had happened, he looked down and saw his two friends were OK. He headed back to the nest, back to Fi.

She was standing up, but not moving. “Fi,” Harry said. “Are you alright?”

She didn't answer. He saw the ooze at her feet, saw it had extended itself up to her knees. “Wingardium Leviosa.”

Harry slowly lifted her down with his wands directing her toward the ground. As he did, the ooze fell off her slowly. When she was 5 feet off the ground, she started moving. A little nervously Fi said, “Please don't drop me.”

“Don't worry,” said Harry.

He set her down and landed himself.

Fi could move again. She had never experienced anything quite like that. She'd been in danger before, but never like that, never just like a rag doll being carried across the room and thrown to the side.

She went up and hugged Harry. “Thanks,” she said. “I owe you my life.”

“Anytime,” said Harry, who felt guilty again for bringing her here.

Hermione and Ron made it up to the two.

“Are two alright?” asked Ron.

“Fine,” said Harry still a bit winded.

“Never better,” said Fi trying to lose some of the fear she still felt. What still was ahead?

Ron said, “I don't see the portal. Do you think it's in here?”

Fi answered quickly. “I don't think so. We never saw the pictogram.”

Hermione nodded in agreement. “Let's look to see if any other caves lead out from here.”

Hermione and Fi led. After a few minutes, they found another archway. Fi said, “This one looks older.”

“It's not weathered like the one outside,” said Harry, “but it does look older than the last one.”

Fi said, “Why would You-Know-Who build the one back there if there was already one here?”

Harry had already figured that one out. “He wanted to keep that bird in here, to keep anyone from making it further.”

“But that would mean...” started Hermione.

“That he went into the Spirit Realm,” finished Fi who was much less disturbed by the prospect than the others.

Ron asked the question Fi had earlier, “Could he have hidden it in the Spirit Realm?”

Immediately Harry answered, “No.”

“I don't think so either” said Hermione. “Using the cave is one thing, but he wouldn’t leave a Horcrux where something powerful might get it and destroy it.”

“I guess,” Fi said. She was still almost disappointed even after her near death experience. “Then why go over though? Just for that bird, kind of thing?”

No one answered. No knew the answer.

After a few more minutes they came across one more room. This one was much smaller than the last cavern, but still fairly big. Right in the middle above the cavern was another Edington's Rock hanging down. While much smaller than the other, it took up a greater portion of the small room. Right below it sat the portal.

The portal glowed red and on the other side another world could clearly be seen. It was a dark world, maybe not technically darker than the cave, but if felt that way.

----

Trying to get back to writing and while this story was always meant to be a quick one without as much polish as others, I enjoyed it and figured I'd start with is as I can actually say it's done after this. If anyone is reading this, enjoy.

Chapter 7: The Spirit Realm

“The Spirit Realm,” Fi said quietly as she looked at the portal, the gateway. This was actually a passage to that world. Somewhere over there was her father. She forgot the mission they were on, forgot her worries, forgot her fears.

Fi took a few steps closer. She went past a large iron structure on the ground without even noticing it.

The wizarding trio was memorized by the portal as well and no one noticed how close Fi was to it, until she was almost on top of it.

“Fi!” shouted Hermione. “Don’t!”

Harry started to run. Fi was already to the portal though. She reached out her hand, intending to push it into the Spirit Realm. As her hand reached the barrier though, it stopped as firmly as if it had hit a brick wall. She could see the other side, but some invisible force prevented her her from going in.

Harry reached Fi and and pulled her back a few steps.

Fi's senses started to return to her. She didn't take her eyes off the portal, not completely, but she said, “I couldn't go through.”

The others looked at each other. Ron said, “Thanks for small favors.”

Regaining her thought process fully, Fi looked around the cavern. She saw the iron contraption on the ground she'd passed when coming up to the portal. It took up a good portion of the cavern all by itself. Realization struck her. “That's the pictogram Jonathon Fortune set up to block the portal.”

Hermione examined it. “It’s a very solid and looks magically protected. I suspect it would even survive a cave in.” She gulped and then added, “I’m glad it’s still active.”

Harry stepped over to it. “You-Know-Who must have opened it up to get that bird-thing out. I guess he put it back afterward.”

Ron pointed to the side of the room. “Look over there.”

There was another small passageway at the back of the room. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and reluctantly Fi walked to it. Unlike the other tunnels in the cave, this one didn’t go on. It appeared to dead end not far ahead. Before the dead end though, was an object.

Almost to the very back of the passage, a pedestal sat. On top of it, sat a wand.

Hermione jumped in excitement. “The wand of Gryffindor. That's got to be it.”

Fi asked, “Who's Gryffindor?”

Harry responded without taking his eye off the wand. “One of the founders of Hogwarts, Britain’s school for witchcraft and wizardry. You-Know-Who has been using items from them.”

“For what?” Fi again asked.

Harry shook his head. “Doesn't matter. We need to destroy it.”

Fi didn't question the lack of information this time. “OK.”

Ron said, “Let's go then and get it over with.”

“Wait,” Hermione said. “Look at the edge of the cave ahead.” She pointed to a spot a little ways down.

Ron strained his eyes and could see an orange glow seeming to radiate around the edges of the cave ahead. “What is it?”

Hermione said, “I'm not sure...unless...” She paused.

“What?” asked the other three impatiently.

“I think it's a secret lock.”

“A secret lock?” Harry asked.

“Great!” said Ron.

Fi asked, “What a secret lock?”

Hermione looked for another minute and nodded to herself. “It’s actually kind of like a door. It blocks anyone from entering unless they have 'the key.'”

“The key?”

“Not really a key,” said Hermione. “It can be anything, but the door will only open and stay open when it's held.”

Ron rubbed his face with both hands. “So it's not probably not even in the cave. For all we know You-Know-Who has it with him right now.”

“I don't know,” Harry said while taking a few steps toward the orange glow. “I don't think he would want to take the chance it would be lost. I think he might keep it here. He trusts his traps to keep anyone out.”

Fi quickly walked away from the narrow tunnel and back to the portal. Her mind was already spinning with an explanation, but she wanted to check first.

Hermione kept looking ahead at the wand. “I don't know. Wouldn't it be smarter to take it out of the cave? He trusts no one would steal it from him too. He could hide it in Gringotts or something.”

Fi stood by the portal and smiled. She turned back to the trio. “Hey guys. Is that it?”

The trio turned around and came back to her. As they reentered the room, they looked again into the portal. Sitting just a little ways inside of it was a large metal object.

Hermione nodded. “I think so. It makes sense when you think about it. It’s nearby, but there is still a puzzle before we can get it.”

“How do we get it?” Ron asked.

Fi looked back at the iron design on the ground, the pictogram as Fortune had called it. It was exactly as Fortune had drawn. “We have to move something on the pictogram. It needs to be in this shape to keep the portal closed. If we change something, it will open again.”

Ron put his hand to his head. “So we actually need to go inside that place.”

Hermione nodded. “This isn't going to be easy. Fortune magically reinforced it hoping it would never move again. It will try to maintain its current shape and we don't want to force too hard or we might not be able to get it back.”

There were dozens of iron bars going across the object. Fi said, “Look for one that seems looser. You-Know-Who has already done this once. Maybe we can move the same thing he did.”

Ron found it after a few minutes. The bar didn’t really move, but with his wand he could get it to turn a bit (a very little bit) side to side.

Harry looked at Hermione. “Do you think we can move this enough to break the spell keeping that shut?”

Hermione nodded slowly. “We can probably get it out of position for a few seconds at a time. We'll need someone, preferably two of us, to stay by this and use their magic to push it out of place every time someone wants to go in or out though. The spells Fortune put on this are going to force it back on otherwise and I don’t think we want to weaken those spells.”

Harry nodded. “I'll go in. You and Ron use your magic to keep it open.”

Fi volunteered next. “I’m going too.”

“No,” said Harry.

Fi wasn't missing this opportunity. “I'm going in. I know more about it than you and my dad is over there somewhere.”

Harry finally brought up the agreement. “Remember the promise you made.”

“You've never been there,” Fi said.

“Neither have you,” countered Harry. “I at least have magic to protect me. You don't.”

Fi injected, “I'll leave at the first sight of anything, but I can't miss this. I've been looking too long.”

Harry wondered if he would have been the same if Dumbledore had told him to run and he guessed under similar circumstances he would have been.

Harry stared at her. “A single word from me and you leave.”

“Promise” said Fi agreeing quickly.

Harry shook his head reluctantly. If she listened that easily, she wouldn't be here in the first place. He really didn't like this role reversal at all. He looked at Ron and Hermione. “Stay here and be ready for anything.” They nodded.

Harry and Fi went up to the portal. Harry gave a signal to Hermione and Ron and they did charms on the bar to move it away slightly.

Harry and Fi took a step forward and walked into the Spirit Realm.

It was a very odd sensation for both of them. Their senses seemed to be working overtime, yet almost nothing was in view. The world seemed dark. Even though they were walking, there didn't seem to be a ground. Above where the sky should be, it seemed very bright.

Fi wondered if this was what the entire Spirit Realm felt like or if this was only a part of it. Was it the same everywhere? Jonathon Fortune had talked of evil creatures coming through, but was that really what most on this side was like? She wished she could explore more. She knew that would be asking for trouble though.

'Nothing so far;' thought Harry. That was good. The two made it to the metal object, a bust of some kind. Harry tried to pick it up, but it wasn't moving anywhere. He tried a couple of spells, but they did no good. The bust just sat there. Fi tried picking it up too without any luck.

Harry looked back through the portal and shouted to Hermione and Ron. “I can't move it!”

Ron shouted back. “Hold on to it again.”

Harry didn't exactly understand the reason for that, but he touched the bust again and held on.

Ron looked away from the portal and Hermione, catching on, did the same.

Ron shouted back. “The glow is gone. Just hold onto to that for a minute and we'll get the wand.”

Harry nodded. So they’d have to stay here while Ron and Hermione got it. “Just try to hurry.”

Ron looked at Hermione. She gestured for him to go. “You go,” she said. “You're faster. I'll open up the portal as soon as you are safe.”

Ron nodded. Hermione’s magic would probably be the most likely to open the portal for Harry and Fi anyway if need be. He ran to the entrance of the tunnel, to the wand of Gryffindor and to the next Horcrux.

---

Harry heard a loud crackle behind him and he hoped it was his imagination. It wasn't.

A large creature, about the same size as the bird was coming up beside them. Harry looked to Fi. “Run now.”

“But..”

“Now!” shouted Harry. Fi didn’t hesitate this time and ran to the portal. The creature came up quickly, but was too far back to make it up to them before Fi made it to the portal.

Hermione used as much magic as she could and was able to hold the portal open long enough for Fi to step back through.

On the other side, Harry saw the creature getting closer and closer. It had slowed down again, but was almost to him. “Please tell Ron to hurry.”

----

Fi and Hermione looked down and saw Ron at the end of the cave. He wasn't moving though. He was just standing by the wand.

“Ron!” shouted Hermione.

He didn't respond.

She shouted again, “Ron!” but it was no good. The Horcrux had him stuck somehow.

Fi realized she was the only one who could do anything here. “Stay here and let Harry back as soon as we are back passed the lock.”

She ran to Ron.

---

The creature made it to Harry. It was kind of like a loin, but bigger and its skin seemed to be made of rocks. It had the same look of intelligence the bird had, but it was stronger and Harry wasn't sure how he was going to deal with it.

“It's OK,” said Harry to the creature. “I'm not here to hurt you.”

To Harry’s astonishment, the creature spoke. “That's nice to know.”

“Yeah,” Harry said. “I'll be leaving in just a minute.”

The creature bent down next to Harry and stared at him. Then it looked to the portal. “Tell your friends to open the door and let me through.”

Harry looked through the portal at Hermione who seemed frozen. “I...I can't do that.”

The creature pointed a claw at the bust Harry was holding onto. “Was is it your friend who placed that here?”

“Not exactly,” said Harry not sure of the right answer.

“I waited here for 150 years, wanting to get through. It never opens, so I left. I came back 10 years ago and someone had visited. I missed my chance, but I'm not going to miss it again. I want into the land of the living.”

“I'm sorry,” said Harry, “but...”

The loin like creature slashed down and hit Harry hard on the head. He fell to the ground unconscious. His hold on the bust did not disappear entirely though.

----

Fi made it up to Ron. “Ron!” she shouted at him, but he didn't respond. He was holding the wand.

Fi took the wand from him. She knew that was a risk, but she had to get him out of here. As soon as felt the wand in her hand, her mind filled with images.

She saw a car cruising along the highway. Her dad was in it. Then she saw him pass out and car crash.

Suddenly she felt like she was somewhere else. She was in a graveyard. The sun was out and the birds were chirping, but it wasn't a pleasant day. She saw her mom, crying beside a grave and a crowd gathered around. She looked to see her father, this had to be his funeral, but she realized that wasn't right either. Jack was there. Clu, Irene, Ned, everyone was there. No, this was the present or maybe the future. She took a step forward toward the grave and saw the casket was open. In it she could see her own body.

As another image started to emerge, Fi fought to regain her senses. Very distantly, she felt someone dragging her, but that was more a dream to her than these images. These images felt as real as actually being there.

Fi saw her mom dead. She had been shot in a dark alley and was bleeding badly. Then she saw Jack dead. He'd come to her rescue and had been attacked by a werewolf. After that, she was on a ship in the middle of bad storm and saw Ned and Irene drowning.

----

Hermione gasped as she saw Harry fall. The creature looked at him again and prepared to make another attack. It was going to kill him. Hermione did the only thing that would stop it. She opened the portal back up.

The creature saw it and smiled. At an unbelievable speed, it rushed through.

As the beast entered the cave it paused and smelt the air around it. It was definitely in the mortal world. “Thank you little girl. I think I'm going to like this world.”

Nervously and stalling, Hermione said, “I'm glad.”

The creature looked around the cave. “I think I'm ready for my first meal.” It looked straight at Hermione and her heart skipped a beat.

Hermione pointed her wand at the beast.

The creature shook its head. “You don't think that's really going to work do you. Go ahead and try one spell. I'll give you that much of a chance.”

Hermione summoned all her courage. Loudly she shouted, “Reducto.”

The spell hit the creature and he didn't even flinch.

“Living magic is so weak,” said the creature. “Anything else?”

Hermione knew her spells would be useless. She dropped dropped her bag and frantically pulled out the only weapon in it, the Sword of Gryffindor.

The creature’s eyes widened. “Now that’s more like it. If I'd known you had something like that I probably would have just eaten you to start with. It won't matter though.” It took a step forward.

---

Ron hadn’t dared touch the wand again, but as Fi held it tightly, he pulled her back into the main room. Once they were in it, he hit Fi’s hand knocking the wand of Gryffindor to the ground

After the wand touched the ground, Ron realized they weren't alone in the room. He looked up. “Hermione, what's that?”

The beast ignored the newcomers and it charged at Hermione. Ron tried a spell on it, but it kept charging and knocked Hermione against the wall. She passed out, bleeding in several places.

----

Harry felt someone nudging him. For a moment, Harry had no idea who he was or what he was doing. His mind wandered back to his room under the stairs.

The person nudging him was persistent though. “Harry you must wake up.”

Harry sat up and saw a man sitting beside him. His memories started to return. He tried to place this man. He couldn't. “Who are you?”

The man kept his arm on Harry’s shoulder. “My name is Rick. I'm Fiona's father.”

Harry looked at the man closely and could see a little family resemblance. “So you really are here?”

Rick nodded, “Yes. We don't have time to discuss that now though.”

Harry looked up concerned. Where was the creature? He looked through the portal and saw Hermione standing her ground against the beast. “I have to get back.”

Rick ignored him for a second and continued, “The creature has one weak spot. It's on the lower back on its right side. It's barely noticeable, and on this side isn't even a weak point, but in the mortal world if you hit it hard enough, it should kill him.”

Harry looked back at the portal. He saw Hermione on the ground. “Hermione!” he shouted and ran to the portal. He walked right through it, but wasn't back in the real world. He turned around and saw the portal still there, but he remained in the Spirit Realm. The iron pictogram was back in place on the other side and the portal was closed. Desperately, Harry turned back to Fi’s father. “Can you help me?”

Rick nodded. “I can open it for a second, but only a second. Are you ready?”

Harry nodded and anxiously said, “Yes.”

A tear came to the man. “Tell Fi that I love her so much and am really proud of her.”

“I will,” Harry promised.

“Now!” shouted Rick.

---

With fear and fury, Ron shouted, “Hermione!” He ran straight for the creature. He used every curse he could think of in the 5 seconds before it knocked him to the side and he too passed out with a big cut gashing blood from his head.

After her experience with the wand, Fi was having trouble fully recognizing reality, but she saw Hermione and as Ron charged the beast walked over to her. As Ron went down, she realized she was in trouble and picked up the sword of Gryffindor. What she would actually do with it, she had no idea.

How could she possibly subdue this thing? The best thing to do would probably be to get everyone past the archway, but she knew there was no time for her lifting them. Then another thought came to her head. The Horcrux had stopped both her and Ron cold. Maybe it would affect this creature the same way. Fi glanced around and saw the wand sitting on the opposite side of the room. If she ran to it, the creature would hit her long before she made it to the wand. Her only hope was to get it talking.

The creature stared at her for a moment, unconcerned with her thoughts. “You're Fiona Phillips.”

“Yeah,” said Fi. “How do you know me?” She slowly edged back to the Horcrux.

The creature kicked a little dirt. “You have been poking around the edges, around the connections between our worlds.” With a hint of amusement it said, “There's some who don't like that too much.”

Fi continued to edge around the room. “What about you?”

“I have nothing personal against you. I do want a good supper though.”

“Why people?” asked Fi. “Aren't there other things you can eat?”

The beast said, “Nothing tastes better than mortals fear and it’s been far too long since I've had any.”

The beast was done talking then and charged. It would have hit Fi, but she was knocked out of the way just before it made it to her. As she fell, she dropped the Sword of Gryffindor.

Fi looked up and saw...”Harry. How did you make it back?”

Harry didn't say anything, but he did pick up the Sword of Gryffindor.

“O good,” said the creature. “I get one more to eat. I was afraid you were left behind.”

Harry stared at it, trying to show none of the fear he felt. “It's riskier in this world for you. You can be hurt a lot worse here.”

The creature looked at Harry as though he were a small child. “It's not too risky and I can eat much better here.”

Fi made it to the Horcrux. She sat beside it, but didn't pick it up yet. She tried to summon her courage to touch it even for an instant.

“You should leave,” said Harry.

The creature shook his head, apparently done with talking. It ran forward to Harry.

Fi picked up the Horcrux while already forcing her hand into a throwing motion. She forced herself to ignore the terrible thoughts it brought to her mind in the instant before it left her hand and went flying toward the beast. The wand hit the beast and it immediately jumped back and fell to its side. Harry had a couple seconds where it was slowed down and he used them.

On the creatures back, Harry saw a small bump. He pushed the sword through that part of him. It was extremely tough, but this section was looser than the rest of the hide. The creature cried out in pain and started jerking, but seemed unable to get up. Harry pushed the sword in deeper before jumping to the side.

The creature seemed to melt away. It was almost as if it dissolved into the air. After 10 seconds, it was gone entirely, leaving only the Sword of Gryffindor in place.

Fi looked from it to their companions on the ground. “Harry,” said Fi. “Ron and Hermione.”

Harry ran to his friends. He came across Hermione first. He shook her and she coughed. She did have a lot of blood on her, but she sat up. “Harry...”

He ran to Ron who was in much worse shape.

“What happened?” asked Hermione to Fi as she tried to bring the world back into focus.

“Ron's hurt,” said Fi.

Hermione jumped up. It was too quick. She almost fainted form the sudden activity combined with her head pounding. Fi directed Hermione to Ron, and Hermione started on healing spells.

It took a couple of minutes, but the cut on Ron's head was healed and he woke up.

---

It almost an hour before everyone felt up for moving again. “Where's the Horcrux?” asked Harry.

Fi went over and pointed to where it had fallen.

Ron looked at the thing and remembered the last Horcrux they’d held onto for so long. “We should destroy it now. Touching it is a lot worse than the locket.”

“Yeah,” Fi concurred. “I could barely stand it.”

Harry nodded and picked up the Sword of Gryffindor. He walked up to it.

Fi stood and grabbed his arm. “Can I?”

Harry was surprised by the offer, by the request actually. He decided if she wanted to though, she'd earned the right. “It's not fun.”

“I know,” said Fi. “But I could feel the evil in it. If I can, I want to destroy this one.”

Harry looked at the other two who shrugged and then handed the sword to Fi.

She brought it up to the wand. This man whom she did not even know a name for had killed a lot of people including Harry’s parents. He’d used the Spirit Realm as a simple hiding place. She pushed the sword down on to the wand.

Fi saw her dad's crash again and then she heard a voice. “I can stop it,” said a voice. “I can bring him back for you. Just bring this to me. Don't destroy it and I will give you back your father. Harry knows I can do it. I am the master of death and life.”

Fi ignored the voice and kept pressure on the sword. She picked it up and threw it in again cutting the wand into 3 pieces.

She saw Jack dead, Mom dead, Carrie dead, Ned dead, Irene dead. She took the sword out and pushed it back in. She heard the voice again. “This isn't imaginary. This is the future. Do you think you can come close to death this many times and have nothing happen?”

She saw herself dead. Jack and Mom were crying at her grave. Then the images stopped. She pushed the sword in several more times, but the evil presence was gone.

Fi didn’t take her eyes off the remains of the wand. “That was a piece of him, a piece of You-Know-Who.”

Harry finally nodded. “A piece of his soul. He scattered it around so that he could live forever.”

Fi understood now. So that's what they were looking for, for the scatter pieces of this madman so they could finally stop him. “How many are left?”

“Three,” Harry said. “We've destroyed four now.”

Fi was still holding back a tear, but smiled anyway. “You guys are pretty good.”

“You're not bad either,” Harry said. He put his hand around her shoulder.

---

Before they exited the cave, Harry took Fi to the side. Ron and Hermione were ahead, exhausted and with worse wounds than either of them. “I saw your dad.”

“What?!” Fi exclaimed.

“He helped me after that creature hit me.”

Fi's eyes were watering. She'd been there, but missed him. “If I'd stayed...”

Harry put his arms on each of her shoulders. “If you'd stayed, we'd all be dead.”

Fi looked down on the ground. She had been so close.

“He wants you to know that he loves you and is very proud of you.”

Through her tears Fi smiled.

---

The four arrived back at the hotel just after sunrise. Fi wasn't sure how she was going to make it through the day as she felt like she wanted to sleep for a week right now.

“Here,” Hermione said, handing Fi a bottle. “Drink this.”

“What is it?” Fi asked worried, “more memory spells?”

Hermione shook her head. “We won’t break our promise on the memories. It’s a very basic energy potion. You'll fall asleep almost instantly when it wears off tonight, but it should get you through the day.”

“Thanks.” Fi drank it and did feel energy pouring through her.

“Thank you,” Hermione said back. “We wouldn't have been able to find the Horcrux without you and without it, we can't win this war.”

Ron said, “Yeah. I never thought someone without magic could be useful.” Ron realized that came out bad just as Hermione hit him.

Fi asked, “Are you two going to go ahead and kiss at some point?”

They both stopped talking and turned red.

Harry ignored his friends discomfort. “Thank you. We've got to get going. We think we know where the next one is, and we can't wait too long.”

Fi nodded understandingly. “I have a million more questions, but I guess I found enough. If you ever need any more help, you know who to come to.”

Harry nodded.

Fi said, “Just use my e-mail address.”

Hermione nodded.

Ron asked, “What exactly is that again?”

Fi looked at him like he was crazy. “Is he serious?”

Harry answered. “The wizarding world doesn't exactly use computers,”

Fi looked genuinely stunned. “Wow. I guess that makes sense with electronics not working so well, but...but they're so convenient. You can find out so much more in an hour than a day in the library.”

Ron laughed hard. “Now you have offended Hermione.”

“I'm not offended,” said Hermione, although she didn't exactly seem to completely agree either.

“After this is over,” Fi said, “I'd love to hear about it and maybe finally learn You-Know-Who's name.”

Harry nodded. “It's a promise.”

Fi spotted Jack.

Jack walked to them. “What are you doing up so early? It's vacation which means you’re usually not up till about noon.”

Fi hugged him. “It's great to see you Jack.”

Jack hugged back a little confused. “You too sis.”

Note: For this chapter I am assuming a slightly different end to season 2 and a very different season 3 to So Weird.

Epilogue: Six Months Later

Fi sat in her room back at home. Her mom announced she was abandoning the road trip for awhile and was focusing on a CD at home. It was kind of nice to be home even if not as many weird things happened.

Fi opened her labtop. She wanted to do some more research on Yetti's and she did still have a bit of homework too. She checked her e-mail and she had one from an account she didn't recognize with the title “From Your Friends in Britain.”

Fi opened it.

Dear Fi,
Thank you for all your help on our quest. I saw on your website that you are at your home and not traveling around right now. Is that still accurate? If it is, is there anytime we could meet? We can be there pretty quick.

Hermione Granger

Fi smiled and put in a time and said to meet at a local restaurant.

“What are you reading?” Jack asked, looking in Fi's open door.

Fi said, “Just an e-mail from a friend.”

“Still think that was a UFO?”

“Hey, there's been other reports of UFO's in the area. It could definitely have been.”

Jack held up a flyer. Fi read it. There had been an air show in the neighboring town.

Fi turned a bit red. “Even if that one wasn't, doesn't mean none of them were.”

“Right,” said Jack. “Are you ever going to stop with this weird stuff? We're home now.”

Fi turned the question around. “Are you ever going to quit doubting?”

Jack smiled. He had to admit Fi had gotten him more than once and there was a lot of strange things that had happened on their trips. “No chance little sis.”

“I'll convince you one of these days,” Fi said.

---

As Fi sat at a table, she saw three older teenagers enter the restaurant. They must have been successful thought Fi because they actually looked younger than she remembered them before.

“Hey,” Fi said.

They all said, “Hi.”

“So,” asked Fi as they sat down, unable to stop herself any longer. “Did you win? Did you beat You-Know-Who?”

They smiled. “We did,” Ron said with some stratification then added, “Well Harry did.”

“We all did,” Harry said. “It took all of us to do this.”

“So what was his name?” asked Fi. “Can we say it now?”

“Voldemort,” Harry said. Ron cringed.

Fi asked, “What happened? I want to know all the details.”

The three told her about Gringots, about the Battle of Hogwarts, even about Harry actually having a piece of Voldemort inside him.

Fi said, “So what now? What are you guys going to do?”

“Have a normal life,” Ron said.

“Maybe not normal,” said Hermione. “A less stressful one though.”

“Did you too ever get together?” Fi asked.

They smiled. “About 2 days after we left you,” Hermione said.

Harry added, “And at the most ideal time. They've been going like that for more than 3 years and they choose to express their feelings for each other in the middle of the final battle against Voldemort where time was of the essence.”

Fi laughed at that. “Better late than never.”

“What about you?” Harry asked. “Anymore adventures?”

“A few,” said Fi. “My mom fell for a merman for awhile, I was almost killed by demons on a roof, but my dad saved me.”

“You saw him,” said Harry.

Fi nodded slowly. “Only for a minute, but I did.”

“Good,” said Harry glad she got her wish. He looked at her face. “You're still looking for him.”

“Something took him, took him too early. I don't know if that means he's really dead or not. I would have helped, but the demons came back and he had to leave.”

“Anything since then?” Hermione asked.

“I've got someone who swears a Yetti keeps appearing outside their house at night.”

Hermione said, “I swear she's Luna Lovegood's twin.”

“Who?”

Hermione just said, “A very good person.”

Fi didn't know if it was compliment or an insult so just kept going, “Hey you guys could stay around for awhile. You never know, you might get rapped up in another paranormal experience.”

“No thanks,” Ron said. “I've had enough adventure for two or three or ten life times.”

Hermione said, “I checked your name with the Department of Magic before we visited.”

“Really,” Fi asked, very interested. “What does it say?”

“Nothing,” Hermione said. “I checked a couple other records and they do record some of the things you've talked about, but you've missed their attention completely somehow. I guess you aren't drawn to exactly the kind of magic it looks for.”

“I'm not sure if that is good or bad,” Fi said.

“We didn't mention your involvement,” said Harry. “We gave everyone else credit for what they did, but we didn't mention you.”

Fi figured it was since she was a muggle and then realized the bigger reason. “You don't want anyone knowing about the cave.”

Harry said, “Or the Horcruxes themselves either. Both could lead to big problems down the line. That's not why we didn't mention you though.”

Hermione said, “If we do say you helped a lot, the Ministry will be grateful, but you also have a lot closer eye put on you here. I think that probably would be a good thing, but...”

Fi thought for a second. She remembered losing her memories before and shook her head. “No. I don't want to risk it. I don't want them messing with my memories.”

Harry nodded having expected the answer. “If there is anything you need, use your e-mail. Hermione is going to be keeping tabs on it.”

Hermione smiled, “I'm going to be working on new rules related to muggle technology and how they relate to the statue of secrecy, so I'll need to stay up to date.”

Fi nodded and asked a couple of questions about the statue of secrecy, then about Hogwarts, and would have gone on, before Hermione said, “I think we've already said way too much.”

Fi nodded. She had enough. “Thanks for everything.”

“Thank you,” said Harry. “And remember...”

“I'll write,” said Fi. “You need to write back every once and awhile too.”

“I'll just owl,” said Ron.

Fi laughed not realizing he was serious.

The End