Stand Tall: Chapter Six: Monsters Abound

AN: I need to clarify. I made up Mirror Lady, she's not in any storybook you'll find. I confused someone, so I thought I'd let you all know.

There was a hand stroking through her hair and Hope felt drowsy, like her bones were made of lead. She liked it when George ran his fingers through her hair, curling a lock of her hair around his finger with a glow in his eyes and a "Did you think I was leaving without a goodbye kiss, Potter?" but this was different.

Hope was curved into the softest pillow and mattress on the planet and she never wanted to leave. She didn't know what month it was, or what day, or what hour, and she didn't care if she never had to leave ever again.

And the fingers running through her hair were soft and gentle. A mother's touch.

She remembered countless nights where she'd cried herself to sleep -silently, because the Dursleys would never have stood for her noise- in that little cupboard and fallen asleep to that gentle touch, to the press of lips to her hair and the whisper of "Rest well, my dear heart".

Hope would know that voice in life and in death and there had been years that she had thought it her mother, but she'd heard Lily Potter's voice before, terrified as she begged for her daughter's life…and Mirror Lady had a deeper voice with a lilting tone that you'd hear singing in an eerie forest in the dead of night.

"I miss you," Hope whispered.

"I know," came the returning whisper. "But I am always here, I am always watching."

Hope swallowed thickly, trying to keep from falling asleep -or was it awake since she was already asleep? Hope was so confused. "Will it hurt?" she asked finally. "Ripping out my magic?"

The hand in hair stilled briefly. "It will be absolute agony," Mirror Lady said in rawest voice Hope had ever heard. "But the freedom you will feel with it gone is indescribable…and I will be there, waiting for you."

Hope closed her eyes, and when she opened them, she was lying in her bed in the hotel room, breathing in and out heavily, pressing a hand over her eyes before looking down at her right arm. She sat up with a loud creak and Hermione mumbled out a tired "Hope?"

Hope flipped on the light at the bedside, fingers fumbling as she pulled off the brace that had been invisible against her skin until she undid the straps. "Hope?"

Her hand trembled, her whole arm shook, the blackness that had covered two fingers had overtaken a third and was stretching over her palm. She tightened her hand into a fist and gritted her teeth as Hermione came around the bed, unsurprised but concerned.

"I thought it was getting better," she said quietly, kneeling in front of Hope as she sat on the edge of the bed trying to stave off the tremors that the brace had suppressed the entire day.

"More like worse," Hope muttered, thinking back to that night, to that horrible night. Hope's two fingers had brushed against the Veil, against the gateway between mortal and something else, and that had consequences.

She hadn't realized it until later, not even considering how off her aim had been that night, but the tremors that shook through her arm that night weren't natural or normal, and she'd known that for a while. Hermione had been upset, Ron had been startled, but it wasn't something Hope had ever wanted people to know about it. Besides, it hadn't been a big deal at the time, just a few tremors, nothing to worry about. Hermione had been the one to get her the arm brace and enchant it to suppress the tremors, camouflaging to her skin; Hope had been having such a terrible time at that point that she'd choked up.

Then it got bad enough for George to notice. The alternating periods of fever and coughing fits and tremors had been rather obvious after they started living together. Hope had spent the whole year in a haze of illness and by some miracle, no one outside those three had noticed; Hope personally blamed that on the pepper-up potion she'd been downing by the bucket.

Maybe she shouldn't have told him about her approaching death date…he worried so much. And it wasn't like Hope didn't have a plan, maybe not a great one, but something was better than nothing. As it was, Hope was more worried about that him and his ear, even looking at her violently tremoring arm.

It used to last for seconds and then for minutes and this time, Hope struggled with the tremors for a quarter of an hour until they finally abated slightly and she felt like she could breathe again. They'd start up again in a few minutes, the tremor spell wasn't yet done.

"Hope?" Hermione touched the hand that had shaken so much. "Maybe you need to let a healer look at your arm…it's been a year and if its only getting worse…"

Her hand spasmed at the thought. "I'm fine," she bit out the usual answer, "it's nothing I can't handle." She couldn't tell her or Ron about her plan, they'd be horrified.

Hermione gave her a look full of doubt. "Hope," she pressed, "these kinds of…these kinds of tremors? They're getting to be something you can't handle…you need treatment."

Hope bit back a harsh laugh at that. She rubbed her fingers together, the ones that had breached the Veil before she'd been pulled back, the ones blackened. "Hermione," she almost sighed, "this isn't something that can be fixed by a healer or a doctor or anything else…it can't be fixed. I touched something godly, this is my consequence."

Hermione ground her teeth together, wanting to reply, wanting to counter, but something stalled her. Hope had always had a healthy love of the classical myths and occasionally swore by them ("Sweet Persephone!" "By Hades, kill me now!") but Hermione had never quite believed her about what she said she'd seen when she'd flatlined after Dudley pushed her in front of a car at ten, about the eyes she'd seen beyond the Veil…it seemed too…unlikely. Magic, Hermione could believe, but myth? Somehow it was too much for her mind to comprehend. Even Nath…he didn't seem quite as godly as Hope had described him.

It was hard to believe, but she couldn't deny that there had always been…something strange about Hope, who seemed to prefer death-defying acts and near-death experiences and walked away from both without too much difficulty. And predicting death and being particularly on point about it…

"Go back to bed, Hermione," Hope said to her, standing and grabbing a book from beside her. "I'll just wait for the storm to pass."

Hermione wanted to argue, but Hope patted her arm as she passed her, the beginnings of another tremor spell winding down the arm once more. Hope was always the more stubborn of the three of them…and this wasn't something Hermione could run to get a professor for, it was too late for that now. This wasn't a Firebolt that might be hexed by a supposed wanted criminal, this was Hope's health, and ultimately, it was her choice to do or do not do anything about it.

Even if Hermione didn't agree, she'd respect it.

Trust went both ways.

Hope rubbed at her face with the hand that had finally stopped shaking, before grasping at the door to the bathroom, not really looking where she was going but then she heard a "Hope? Gods, what happened to your neck?"

She blinked a few times owlishly, to look around and realize that she'd made her way back to what the Patil twins called 'the Neitherlands' and they were both looking at her in horror. They'd taken the easy way out, they knew, but there had been no need to hop on a train to London when their home was in another dimension.

That shit was wild.

Hope looked down at her neck, as best as she could, realizing the bandage had come off her stitches. It wasn't a great look, Hope knew, but she was still alive, so yay for that.

"I got attacked, it's not a big deal," Hope waved them off. "George lost an ear, I'm more worried about that." Ron had said he'd asked for her, said Fred had stood up to Nath for him (that one had wrenched at her heart), and Hope knew he wouldn't die -she could feel it in her bones- but it didn't make her heart ache any less to know that now they both bore scars for her choices.

(He wouldn't agree with that, but it was how Hope felt)

Parvati sighed heavily, like she'd known, and Padma pressed a hand painfully for her mouth.

"It'll heal," Hope was unconcerned with more scars. Remembering the disagreement she'd had with Hermione before the fighting had started. "Actually, I have two questions for you two, something you might be able to help me with."

"Name it," Padma asked eagerly, while Parvati remained reserved, like she knew what Hope was going to ask. She'd become much quieter since the term's end, Hope noticed.

"Well, one was Hermione's idea," Hope couldn't very well claim credit for it, "do either of you know sign language so we can communicate with each other without revealing what we're saying to the other side?"

Padma's expression turned downright demonic and Parvati gave Hope a look that clearly read 'what have you done?'. "You've come to the right place!"

"What's the second one?" Parvati asked to stall Padma's excitement.

"Your magic was removed, you said," Hope said to Padma, as she was the one to explain everything to Hope. "Could you show me how you did it?"

Padma and Parvati shared a glance.

"We can remove your magic," Parvati said after a long moment, "but we can't destroy it, gods can destroy magical cores, that was the big issue with us when we had ours removed."

"That's why you became warlocks?" Hope asked, still not very familiar with the term, but Padma had explained it simply: warlocks got their powers through a pact with a deity while sorcerers inherited theirs from their bloodline. Once you got to the whole 'witch versus wizard' debate everything got a bit confusing.

"She made a deal with Varuna, who we're related to," Parvati jerked a thumb towards Padma, who beamed, "and I made a deal with Apollo. They destroyed our respective magical cores in exchange for the deals we made."

But Hope was used to bad deals and she couldn't help but be uneasy at the idea.

"You don't have to make that kind of decision now," Padma added quickly, "removing your magic is a bigger issue…there's no way it won't hurt."

"I've been getting that impression," Hope remarked dryly. "And Nath's dodging my calls now, so I think my death date has been moved up." Death had never been a frightening prospect, but Hope had so much to put in place before her body grew cold, her heart still in her chest.

Parvati chewed on her lip. "The Lord of Shadows keeps many secrets," she said cryptically and Hope gave her a surprised look. "The danger you face has two sides, one in plain view, and one in the shadows. You're proof of the mergence of opposite pantheons, that means the path that lies before you will be fraught with twists and turns that all lead back to one place…" She was reminding Hope of Trelawney in third year, eerily on point yet not totally there, like she was seeing something beyond Hope.

"Rome?" Hope offered helpfully.

Parvati didn't smile. "To the Castle With Seven Locks."

Hope crossed her arms, frowning, pulling slightly at her stitches. "The Castle With Seven Locks doesn't exist."

Parvati arched an eyebrow. "If Magic-Spinner was real, if the Beast With No Name was real, why can't the Castle With Seven Locks be real?"

"A person and a monster, I can believe, but a castle within a realm only reached through gateways rarely seen, on the underside of that realm, bathed in darkness and death? If I believed in that I'd never sleep, Parvati."

Parvati gave a conceding half-shrug. "I'll give you that…but you know what people say…history became legend, legend became myth, and some things that should not have been forgotten were lost."

Hope considered her. "Is that why you snuck into the Mirror Room for Iolanthe Peverell's book?"

Parvati shot her twin a glower and Padma whistled to herself. "I wasn't aiming for Iolanthe's book, I was aiming for Adelaide's."

Hope blinked in surprise. "You didn't find it?"

"Maybe someone had it removed, or I just missed it." Parvati shrugged, looking uncomfortable, remembering her time in that room. "I won't go back into it, regardless…that place…" She shuddered. "It messes with your head."

Padma cleared her throat, turning Hope's attention back to her. "Parv and I can perform the spell it takes to remove your magic, but it'll take time; we're warlocks, we need the right circumstance…in your case, the right phase of the moon, the position of the Pleiades, and the location of the casting."

"Which should be in Greece," Parvati interjected. "She may be half-Celt, but the spell is going to affect her godly side, and Thanatos is Greek, so to Greece we go."

"Half-Celt?" Hope asked in confusion, but neither heard her.

"That sounds like a terrible idea!" Padma gaped. "There's monsters in Greece!"

"There's monsters everywhere, Pads," Parvati retorted. "And they often take the face of men."

"I am a lesbian for a reason!"

"Oohkay," Hope said awkwardly, forcing them to remember that she was in the room.

"It'll take a few days," the pair said as one, before glowering at each other, apparently liking it less when they spoke at the same time than Fred and George did.

"But! We can teach you sign language, no problem!" Padma added brightly, stage-whispering "Elder hates that they taught us that, too."

Hope laughed.

But when she left, Parvati left her with even more cryptic words.

"There are monsters everywhere, Hope. Deal with the ones before you, but do not forget the ones that linger in the shadows. They await your doubt, your vulnerability…show them the Seventh Shadow Weaver is just as strong as the first. Always be ready, because they will come. He will come and he cannot be as easily killed as Tom Riddle."

The idea that killing Tom would be easy compared to the Beast With No Name…but there had been something in Parvati's eyes, some pain and regret that Hope couldn't quite place. And her shoulders had trembled when Hope had given her a one-armed hug.

"Take care," Hope told her, giving them both a smile. "Call me when you're ready to kill me."

Only Padma laughed.

Hope was used to standing out in a crowd, but this time she made an effort to disappear. She darkened her hair to the color of brown that was Hermione's with eyes to match. Anyone would've thought they looked like sisters, which was the point. Hope's hair and eyes were as distinctive as her scar at this point.

They'd walked into Gringotts and walked out with all the gold, silver, and bronze that had been left in Hope's vault -the only one that she had access to- and every document that Gringotts had for her family. She wasn't sure if they'd be important, but she'd rather have them than leave them with Gringotts.

When they'd left Gringotts, half of the gold had been switched for Muggle pounds.

Hope and Hermione had been so paranoid and cautious the entire time, and while everyone seemed to be in a hurry, that was the way it had been the previous summer, and not a murmur about the disappearances of all the students that were a part of the Resistance had been breathed, let alone in the Daily Prophet Hope swiped.

But it felt like a storm brewing.

Sirius' words to Hope before her fifth year echoed in her ears.

"Do you really think there's going to be a war, Sirius?"

"It…feels like it did last time."

Hope breathed out sharply, her fingers tingling, before taking Hermione's hand as she apparated them away to load up on non-perishable food, just in case, before high-tailing to the hotel to sort through their combined stuff.

And that was how Ron found them a few hours later, not even knocking as he opened the door. He cleared his throat as he stepped into the hotel room, keenly aware of the one wand and one outstretched hand aimed at him (Hope was always a better shot with her blood magic). "So, how's everything been going?"

Hermione lowered her wand with a smile while Hope attempted to look as though she'd been messing with her hair but couldn't quite make it work.

He could see gold, silver, and bronze separated from what he knew to be Muggle pounds on the table, just like they said. It looked like a lot of money and another day, another time that would've annoyed him, but he knew that Hope would've traded all the money in the world for even a moment with her parents once more.

"What's all this?" he asked, leaning down to kiss Hermione's cheek, making her smile faintly.

She was surrounded by a number of strange cans with pictures and words on them. "Food, non-perishables seemed like the best option. It seemed like a good idea to have something rather than nothing…it probably won't be enough to last all of us when we finally get to Pithos -and we've still got to check it out- but it won't take us months to get there, so we should be set."

"And Pithos might be headquarters but we're not all gonna be staying there," Hope added without looking up from the book she was inspecting, "we'll all split off once we give them their names and partners and specializations."

That development had been fairly recent, but Hope was enforcing the buddy system, given how things seemed to go sideways whenever anyone went off on their own –Katie, Ginny, Daphne, Astoria. She had all the partners picked out…except for her. They were an odd number, leaving Hope on her own, but Hope figured she was pliable enough to work with different pairs whenever she needed to.

Ron arched an eyebrow, lifting one of the cans with interest before snorting as Hermione waved her wand to send the vast array of cans of supposed food into one of the two beaded bags, which gave no indication of what lay within it. The undetectable extension charm did its work. And then she started in on the large pile of books.

"You were saying something about books," Hope mentioned from the opposite bed, pausing to drink the cup of juice beside her. "Horcrux books, but I didn't think there were any."

"Well, er, there weren't any in the library," Hermione admitted, pink suffusing across her face. "Dumbledore removed them all, but he-he didn't destroy them."

Ron took the time to goggle at his girlfriend as if he had never seen her clearly. "How in the name of Merlin's pants have you managed to get your hands on those Horcrux books?"

"I, well—" Hermione appeared rather flustered. "Dumbledore must have taken them off the shelf after Riddle read them, but he didn't destroy them, so I just did the Summoning Charm on them after the funeral and they zoomed out of Dumbledore's study window right into the girls' dormitory."

"Is that why you took so long coming down to the common room?" Hope asked.

Hermione nodded her head.

"It just occurred to me that the more we knew about them, the better it would be... and I was alone in there... so I tried, and it worked. They flew straight in through the open window and I packed them," she admitted, "I can't believe Dumbledore would have been angry, it's not as though we're going to use the information to make a Horcrux, is it?"

"Hermione," Ron snorted, "do we look like we're judging you?"

Hope sniggered into her cup of juice. "So, what did you find?"

Hermione stood to pull a book she had hidden under her bed, touching it as little as possible. It was thick and bound with black leather.

"Secrets of the Darkest Art," Hope read out the faded title. She handled it easily without as much disdain as Hermione, but she'd always been more interested in topics that others considered dark and unspeakable.

"It's a horrible book," Hermione said with a look of displeasure, "really awful, full of evil magic. I wonder when Dumbledore removed it from the library…if he didn't do it until he was headmaster, I bet Riddle got all the instruction he needed from here, since it gives explicit instructions on how to make a Horcrux."

"Why did he have to ask Slughorn how to make a Horcrux, then, if he'd already read that?" Ron asked, eyeing the book warily.

"That was about what would happen if you split your soul seven ways," Hope corrected.

"If you do all that, you know, split your soul and hide the piece an object…can you even put yourself back together?" Ron asked.

Hope shrugged. "I dunno."

"You can, actually." Hope wasn't even surprised to discover that Hermione had the answer. "But it would be excruciatingly painful."

"How so?" Hope asked, a frown marring her forehead.

"You've got to really feel what you've done. There's a footnote. Apparently, the pain of it can destroy you. I can't see Riddle attempting it somehow, can you?"

"No," Hope and Ron said at once.

"But how do you destroy them?" Ron added. "It's not like we should just go around carrying bits of Voldemort's soul with us."

"Has the book got anything about that?" Hope asked hopefully. That would certainly make it easier.

"Yes," Hermione said with a grimace, "because it warns Dark wizards how strong they have to make the enchantments on them. From all that I've read, what Hope did to Riddle's diary was one of the few really fool proof ways of destroying a Horcrux."

"A basilisk fang can destroy a Horcrux, but is it the only thing that can?" Hope asked, snagging the biscuit Ron was trying to steal from next to her juice.

"Oh, no," Hermione said, screwing up her face in thought. "But it does have to be something so destructive that the Horcrux can't repair itself. Basilisk venom only has one antidote, and it's incredibly rare—"

"Phoenix tears," Ron agreed. He had been holding Hope when the Fawkes had cried onto her wound, thinking, rightly so, that she was dying.

"Exactly," said Hermione. "Our problem is that there are very few substances as destructive as basilisk venom, and they're all dangerous to carry around with you. That's a problem we're going to have to solve, though, because ripping, smashing, or crushing a Horcrux won't do the trick. You've got to put it beyond magical repair."

"And you're saying once we do that, we destroy that bit of soul?" Hope asked.

"Quite effectively," Hermione agreed.

Ron checked his watch. "Guys, I've only got another forty-five minutes until Dad wants me back…"

"Right," Hermione agreed, "we should get to sorting…I'm thinking no to Defensive Magical Theory."

Hope scowled at the book. "The real question is why didn't you throw that out before sixth year?"

"I can't throw away books!" Hermione sounded horrified as Ron howled with laughter.

Hope shook her head, turning back to the books in her pile, returning to an earlier conversation. "Anyways, as I was saying before, we should be sticking to more Muggle stuff, I think. We'll be harder to track, traveling by Muggle means and using Muggle technology."

Ron had to agree with her there, there was little chance of Riddle doing the same if he had the opportunity, given how much he hated Muggle-borns, using Muggle technology was a no. There were a series of names in each contact list, but no one knew their codenames yet, so they didn't know which member of the Resistance correlated with which name, which was honestly a safer option for the Resistance. The less members you knew, the less you could rat on.

He picked up a round item with a tag in Fred's handwriting that said: Explosive! Throw and run!

"Ron?" Hope's brow wrinkled. "Are you okay?" Both she and Hermione were looking at him in concern.

"Sorry," Ron said quickly, "I just, I don't know, I feel like it just kinda hit me…we're really doing this, there's really going to be a war."

Hope's lips thinned, her expression a serious slate while Hermione bit her lip. "War's been going on for as long as we've been alive, Ron, its only picking up traction now."

"And you're not afraid?" Ron asked archly. "Of dying or anything?"

"It's not dying that's the problem, I've died before, it's not so bad…it's what you leave behind." Hope thought about her parents and Sirius. "I don't mind dying, but I'd rather not." Her thoughts lingered on Padma and Parvati.

Hermione sighed in exasperation. "You're impossible."

Hope flashed her a smile, all bared teeth. "But, sometimes you're in need of a little death."

And Hermione grimaced, remembering Hope shouting on her mobile earlier.

("It's my life, and my magic, and my body!" she'd raged. "You don't get a say in what I do with any of them!")

"Still doing that whole 'faking your death' thing?" Ron asked, not necessarily moving off of the subject, just slightly to the left.

Hope picked up a jug next to her full of dirt. "Doll ready and waiting," she said. "Hermione doesn't want to kill it."

Hermione huffed. "That's like being okay with killing my best mate, no thanks."

Hope rolled her eyes. "I'll kill me, then, it'll be cathartic."

Hermione's expression was horrified but Hope turned her attention to Ron. "How's George?"

"Had Fred apparate him away from the Burrow almost as soon as he woke up," Ron informed her, taking the books she gave him, putting them in the pile she directed. "He was stumbling a little, but Angie's saying the ear is where balance is, so once he gets used to it, he should be okay. He says he's the hotter twin, 'just ask the Girl-Who-Lived'."

Hope couldn't help but laugh.

"Fred was like 'I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm hotter, actually', and it only went downhill from there," Ron shook his head fondly. "My brothers are morons."

"That happens," Hope sniggered. "How do you feel about taking Ginny and clearing out Grimmauld Place?"

"I thought you wanted to do that?" Ron's brow furrowed in confusion.

"I think we've got enough eyes on us," Hope threw a glance towards Hermione, who nodded seriously. "And Ginny'll go mad cooped up in that house with your mum."

Well, she wasn't wrong there.

"And when you're done, trick it up with every explosive you can think of," Hope added, her grin demonic. "Ginny'll like that."

She had to, given the Irishman she was dating that liked to set fire to absolutely anything he touched. Ron bobbed his head in agreement.

"You two gonna be all right?" His eyes lingered on Hope's throat, which was healing slowly, only because she wasn't using any magic on it.

Hope waved him off and Hermione stood quickly to kiss him soundly. "We'll be all right," she promised. "Let us know if you find anything interesting, yeah?"

Ron tipped an imaginary hat before saluting Hope, which she waved off.

"Aren't the Order watching Grimmauld Place?" Hermione asked once he'd gone.

"Yeah, but they'd never make it through the front door," Hope snorted. "Which I'm sure pisses off Moody to no end."

Hermione gave her an exasperated look while she cackled.

AN: A few tweaks here and there, but in a few chapters we'll really get fully into the changes. Mirror Lady is very important and I'm looking forward to her official meeting with Hope.

As always: please review!