Chapter Text

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Hermione and Harry

Hogwarts, Day 4 of the siege

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“Do you think it’s all true?” Harry asked Hermione as they sat in one corner of the gloomy Great Hall. Technically there was a curfew, and the many students packed into the hall for supervision were supposed to be asleep. But most of the adults were on patrol or guarding one of the entrances to the room and Harry and Hermione were up late watching the astonishingly beautiful magical night sky projected on the ceiling of the Hall above them. If it weren’t for the rumors that the whole rest of the world had gone mad, or the increasingly strained expressions on the faces of their instructors as they refused to give the children any further information, it would have been a lovely change of pace.

“I think it has to be,” she said, several books hovering around her. One was sketching the night constellations- another appeared to be helping her as she searched for additional reference material on their current dilemma. “I mean, Sean’s approach to magic certainly turned out to be- so much easier, once I got the hang of it- and he did turn back into an adult. I don’t think he’d be spending nearly as much time teaching me if he wasn’t worried about something. But he still won’t tell me what’s going on.” She was somewhat incensed, in the back of her mind, at someone who’d been her own age just days ago suddenly becoming an adult and attempting to keep secrets from her.

“It’s just, they don’t let us out of the castle, they don’t let us look out the windows,” complained Harry. “We’re all inoculated against this mind-virus thing now, so what’s the problem? It just seems cruel- there are a lot of people here missing their parents and wanting some word.” Hermione felt a pang of homesickness at that- she understood from his circumstances that he probably didn’t, but appreciated that he was thinking of others before himself. Especially after his very-nearly-fatal wounding, several days before. “Did you hear about the dragon ? I heard they fired missiles at us yesterday and she went out and blasted them all out of the sky, then flew off and sunk the submarine that fired them!”

Hermione scoffed. “She’s committed to nonlethal measures, Harry, she wouldn’t sink a submarine. She probably beached it and forced them to shut down the reactor when it couldn’t be cooled by seawater anymore. That’s what I’d do.” The ‘Dragon’ as most of the students called it seemed like the only subject that ever came up, anymore. It was all Harry could talk about- he seemed to feel that he had come up short in his own heroic fight, and he had rather latched onto the great creature as a bit of an idol. Hermione wasn’t impressed- strong as she was, she was obviously waiting for something, and Hermione felt like that was a tremendous mistake. “What she should do is go grab the people at the heart of this, bring them back here, and cure them. What would they do to stop her? And what’s stopping them from just coming in here, if she won’t fight?”

“A very good question!” came the man’s voice from behind them. They started- neither of them recognized it, but it sounded… manic, half-wild, full of energy. “Harry Potter! Is it really you?” They turned to see a face in small the fireplace behind them, one of many that dotted the Great Hall. He was literally projecting through the fire- how he wasn’t burning, Hermione had no clue. He had an aristocratic bent to his features and long black hair. He looked delighted to see Harry, and if he noticed Hermione past her initial question he didn’t show it. “Oh! So sorry, you’ll have no idea who I am. Haven’t seen you since you were knee high to a brownie! Sirius Black, at your service.” He grinned dashingly.

Harry glanced around to see if any adults had noticed the light- none appeared to have taken notice, so he crouched down next to the fire. “How do you know my folks, and what do you want with me?” He was a little warier these days, Hermione noted with approval, about people trying to use his parents to get close to him.

“James was my best mate!” said Black, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “We were inseparable. Until they died, of course. I got blamed- they locked me away. But the world is changing, Harry. I’m out! Free!” He cackled gleefully and, Hermione thought, in a manner more than a little unhinged. “They’re keeping all you kids penned up in there with this whole outbreak thing, but there’s a way in and out through the wards if you know where to look. We used to take it all the time. ”

This wasn’t adding up for Hermione. “There’s a worldwide zombie outbreak and you just escaped from prison, and the first thing you come to do is come contact your dead friend’s son?” He couldn’t be a zombie, from what they’d said the infected didn’t have much personality and he was far too lively. And he was unlikely to be working with them- rumors had it that even dark wizards had come to Hogwarts for shelter. So what was his game?

Black frowned at her. “Family, girl. Most important thing in the world. James was a brother to me- I’d consider Harry a nephew, at the very least. I came to help you out. They’re not telling you everything, in here.”

She snorted. “So what are you going to do, have us sneak out through some secret passage to see for ourselves? Some passage that works so well you had to wait on the far side of it? This couldn’t be any more of an obvious trap, Harry.” He glanced at her, nervous. He so very clearly wanted this to be real.

Black smiled, and the ripple of the flames gave it an eerie cast. “Oh no, that seems like a huge waste of time. I thought I’d just come get you.” And he reached out and through the fire, grabbing them both and pulling them right into it. She felt the heat on her face and threw up her hands but it didn’t burn her in the least. Before either of them could shout in alarm, they were through the licking flames to some other place in the castle entirely. An empty classroom, from the look of it. Black stood, grinning wildly and full of tense energy, as Harry picked himself up off the ground. “Look at you! Spitting image of your ‘da!” He paced in front of them, huge in the pale light.

Hermione was on high alert. I have one chance to do anything and I’m unlikely to take him, even by surprise. I need to make as much noise as possible. She’d memorized alarm and flare spells and stuck close to Harry for this exact contingency. Without further conscious thought, her magic flickered through the nearby door and erupted into- absolutely nothing.

“Oh, nice try!” he grinned. “Got to stay quiet though, don’t we?”

“Why?” asked Harry, still offering no immediate resistance.

The grin flickered on Black’s face for a second- easily missable, but Hermione noticed it, wired as she was. “I- well, we don’t want to alarm anyone! Lots of creeps about, easy for accidents to happen if the staff gets it in their heads that students are missing.”

“Students are missing,” said Hermione hotly. “Harry I think he’s under a Confundus or something, we need to mmmpf -” but it was too late- a total paralysis overtook her, and she fell backwards to the ground. Harry, who should have bolted, only threw himself at Sirius, throwing stunners that were easily deflected. The grinning, manic look had dropped from his face, replaced by blank nullity- somehow more terrifying. Harry you’re going to get us both killed, RUN! She willed her eyes to communicate with him, but it was no use- he was too absorbed in his fight. Too absorbed to notice, even, when her actual body was Disillusioned and a magical figment took her place, standing to its feet and calling out to him.

He glared defiantly at Sirius who was easily countering his juvenile magic even in a half-blank state, ready to continue the fight, before her illusion ran past him and out the open door, calling. “Harry! We’ve got to get away!” Still paralyzed on the floor the real Hermione struggled desperately to make some noise, any noise, but it was no use- he turned and ran after the illusory copy of her. Sirius didn’t pursue, instead staring emptily at the gaping doorway. It was all a ruse to get Harry alone, she thought.

“That just about went badly” said another man, stepping from the shadows. He was short and squat, and one of his eyes was glowing blue- the other was rotating madly around the room as though it could see right through the back of his skull. “You better be right about this.” A girl no more than Hermione’s age stepped forward beside him- her eyes, too, were glowing. “You want me to kill the girl?” Hermione paled and increased her struggles even more, but the glowing-eyed girl shook her head no. Instead she walked over to Hermione’s bound form, and knelt down. Behind her, Sirius was shaking his head, like he was coming out of a funk.

She really was young. No more than 12 or 13, vaguely asian descent, face pale from a hard week on the other side of the wards. She studied Hermione closely, or as closely as she could with that blue glow and distant look in her eyes. “I think I wanted to be you, once. To come here and be a great witch. I remember that, but it’s like a dream. I want something else now, so much I can taste it. But I don’t know how to get it.” She looked towards the open door. “Harry’s the key. He was supposed to find a mirror that could show your heart’s desire, at about this point in his story. He’ll find it for me, and then I’ll know how to get what I’m looking for, and-” she paused, looking sad. “I may never get to see the inside of this place again.”

Sirius was muttering to himself. “Harry- no. Harry?” As if he were slowly coming to some great realization, but neither the squat man nor the young woman paid him much attention. The girl raised her wand and Hermione squeezed her eyes tight. She laughed, at that. “Oh, silly girl. The castle wards are still blocking images- I was just going to put it straight into your mind.” But before she could make good on the threat, Sirius broke loose. “NO!” He shouted, and threw himself forwards, narrowly missing the curse thrown by Moody. “RUN, Hermione!” he called, and suddenly her bindings had loosened- but she was still under Disillusionment. She didn’t need to be told twice. Her magic swept her to her feet and she flew, barely touching the floor, as a flash of green light surged and a body thumped to the floor behind her. As soon as she was clear of the door she triggered the alarm spells a second time, and this time they worked properly- a blast of neon red light lit the halls and a sound like a piercing airhorn played, loud enough to deafen her momentarily and reach to every part of the castle, no doubt.

Sean didn’t take long to find her- somehow he could apparate in this place now, where nobody but Dumbledore had ever been able to. She’d asked him yesterday and he’d said something about sliding between the wards. “Who, what, where?” he asked with controlled urgency as he appeared, hand on her shoulder. Others would be moving in swiftly behind him, his wife no doubt chief among them. But time was of the essence now.

She stopped and tried to catch her breath. “Blue eyed girl, short man with crazy eye, Sirius Black- they tricked Harry into chasing an illusion of me back there. They think he’s going to find something that will show them what they want.”

He grimaced, racking his brain- then his eyes went wide. “Mirror of Erised. Shit. I forgot Dumbledore might set it out for Harry to find in the chapters before Christmas break. Knowing the narrative she’s spinning and the groove of the original, he’ll lead them straight to it. Well, we’re off the fucking rails now. Hermione, which way did they go?” She pointed and he was off like a shot, so fast that she was pretty sure he was actually flying. She didn’t waste any time, hurrying after him. She knew she’d be chastised for it later but her friend was in danger, this was no time to follow rules!

She didn’t have far to travel before she caught up. Sean was locked in a struggle with the wild-eyed man. Whatever damage the virus had done to the grizzled old veteran, it didn’t seem to slow him down much- Sean was hard pressed, though he appeared to be winning- as much as anyone could be said to be winning, when the walls were turning to liquid and then shards of razor ice and then evaporating in a fireball in as much time as it took to blink. She could barely follow the two of them, head poked around a corner, and she didn’t dare try to interfere, but it wasn’t long before Sean got him in the side with something that shattered his shield and blasted him off down the corridor, leaving the room open. She wasted no time, darting inside after Harry.

He was indeed inside, looking groggy- like he’d recently been hit with a low-power stunner. It was another empty classroom, but this one had an ornate dressing room mirror standing free in the middle, with an aura of stillness and impossible age surrounding it. The blue-eyed girl stood in front of it, transfixed. As Hermione watched, two images played in the mirror around her. In one, a cleansing rain washed the blue from her eyes. In the other, a mysterious and ancient arch stood with a fluttering black veil. She seemed torn between the two- unsure which to stare at, her eyes flickering back and forth. Hermione couldn’t help herself. Fascinated, she asked- “What are they?”

The girl didn’t turn. She spoke, and her voice split. The girl’s voice sounded distant and lost as it said “Freedom.” The lower voice, the one that wasn’t hers at all, that sounded like the death of worlds, said “A way out.” That second voice brought Hermione back to her senses and she raised her wand, intent on firing a stunner. But it was too late- the girl turned and bolted, out and down the hall, and Hermione missed her shot. The sounds of battle still raged down the from the other direction, and she could hear the shouts of others coming to the rescue. Instead of giving chase, Hermione ran to Harry. “Are you alright?”

He shook his head no. “The wall- Hermione, she put something on the wall-”

Horror gripped her and she turned. Sure enough, hanging there among all the other pictures and paintings of Hogwarts, already beginning to spread to those around it, was a magical and animate portrait, a study of something not-quite-geometric in blue.

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Delmutt, Aboard the Not Disquieting At All

Hours after efreet invasion begins

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When Delmutt had first made the leap from a biological existence to a fully digital one, her mind had expanded in strange ways. She’d felt faster, capable of splitting her attention in a hundred directions without losing a beat, but some core component had remained uniquely her- some element that still maintained her awareness, that still required time to process.

As she came awake in her newest vessel she realized that no longer held true. She was still herself, she felt that in her heart with a tiny sigh of relief. But the world- the four dimensions she recalled, plus time itself, had radically altered in her perception. It was like- like the entire universe she had known was an image printed on the surface of a soap bubble, and she had stepped out of it and was now viewing it from outside. The scale hadn’t changed- the world was still vast beyond all comprehension- but from her new perceptual range it was fragile, so terribly fragile. It couldn’t help but feel smaller in light of that.

“Welcome to hyperspace,” said the Not Disquieting At All. She saw it in its full glory, then, not a realspace avatar or an infospace mock-up. It was similar to the old forms her people had taken on in their fugue spaces, when communing with one another, or the forms they now took in their digital realities. But if those had been represented by fires, and forest clearings, and mysterious backlit windows in darkened cities- this was an entire sun, and the life cycle of the amazon rainforest, and a city-dimension to rival Volo Ingenium all rolled up into one. It occupied no space at all and stretched to eternity. She felt the roots of her mind come a little loose, just trying to grasp it.

The Culture Mind felt her scrutiny and preened. “Why thank you! You’ll find you have a much greater depth of perceptual experience here, when you have some time to try it out. I couldn’t give you the full Mind package, not without obliterating your core concept of self, but you’d count as a pretty advanced drone back home- and that’s nothing to sneeze at. Quick pros and cons: you won’t be able to hop between a dozen shells anymore. The hardware to project your bubble of hyperspace is pretty intensive and you’re a bit too big to jump around willy-nilly. But you can still control your old drones- trivially, in fact. And we have pretty elaborate backup technology that should still be able to cope with you, as long as you don’t get much bigger. So you won’t die unless all of those are lost.” She was only half listening as she reached out, back down into the skein of realspace. She could feel the little electronic minds she had so recently danced through, see them laid out before her like two-dimensional schemata- she could reach right in and stimulate individual transistors. “I see you’ve discovered your effectors,” burbled the Mind happily. “Should be able to dominate pretty much any realspace device, electronic or biological, with those.” It was true- she could run them all effortlessly. And more.

Through the ship’s systems, she reached out. “The whole world is laid out before you like a map,” she gasped. “The people are like… flatland creatures. You can see right through them.” She meant that on a very literal level. She could see directly into their very minds, though her mentor Mind seemed to find it fairly taboo to actually look and gently steered her gaze away. “They seem so small. How do you retain any sense of connection to them? To… us?” Her thoughts drifted towards her friend, who had been growing so vast and alien these last weeks.

It shrugged. “Not all of us do. Duty, boredom, a perverse sense of humor- each of us who’ve continued to interact with lower life will have found something to drive them. In the Culture proper it was something of a status symbol to be trusted with a great number of sophonts. From what I remember, that was partially my motivation- I enjoyed being an active participant in the greater galactic game, and handling millions of people was the price of entry.” She’d thought it a boast when he had claimed two hundred and fifty million residents, previously. Now she began to understand how such a thing might be possible- she herself felt like she could partition and conduct a million simultaneous conversations without losing a single beat.

She shook her head and redirected her attention to the world. The plane of it bulged and rippled in places, effects that she took for geography at first, but she soon realized she was looking at the direct effects of gravitation. Where the world was densest, it bulged ever so slightly further into hyperspace. Not Disquieting, sensing her thoughts, elaborated. “You’ll see singularities that punch all the way through to the energy grid at the far edge of hyperspace. Well, you would. Somehow this universe seems not to have one, which is going to make a number of things much harder. Also,” it gently spun her attention to a particular point on Earth, “You’ve got that going on, which shouldn’t be possible.” The that in question was, she realized, the stretch of antarctic Hyperborea that she had seen from the air.

It was like… “Reality got patched,” she said, and the Mind gave the hyperspatial equivalent of a nod. From this perspective it didn’t look contiguous at all- the original skein of the world had an enormous hole, and through it some other place was showing through. The edges did not appear static, either. “It’s expanding- imperceptibly slowly, but the surface of reality is decaying, isn’t it?” Another confirmation. And the hole itself, the one at the pole… she finally began to scan, and the world she found beyond -

Her pulse would have quickened if she still had one. “That’s Volo Ingenium! I recognize the cities on the other side! That’s our home!”

The Mind sharing hyperspace with her perked up at that. “You know it’s under attack, right?” It directed her to a series of enormous flaming cities within the dimension, and the battle raging between her people and the efreet. She’d known it was ongoing, but to be so close and not be able to do anything- or was she? A million options suddenly sprang to mind, the ship’s systems making themselves known to her- weapons and displacers and effectors and remote backups and-

Not Disquieting interposed itself between her and the equipment. “Hold on there- we’re effectively timeless at the speed we’re talking, so let’s talk before we go off half cocked. I’m not saying I won’t help your people- in fact I’ve been backing up pretty much everyone in there since the moment I saw you. But that’s already stretching some ethical boundaries for me. I’m not ready to intervene in a hot war with a race whose capabilities are, frankly, a little scary to me. The magic they’re using doesn’t obey any of the rules.”

She shrugged in frustration. “We’re far beyond ethical boundaries, Ship.” She scanned the battlefield and felt a flash of hot, militant pride at what she saw. “Even against magical powerhouses my people are holding their own but this is a costly stalemate. Something engineered this conflict, I think, and worked to get rid of the one woman in this dimension whose physical power might have eventually eclipsed your own. I think they wanted to deny her the use of the Efreet, and tie our own resources up as well.” It seemed so obvious in hindsight. Her two greatest assets, turned against each other. But who arranged it?

The Mind appeared to agree, but- “I fail to see how it’s my problem? Ultimately I’ll fulfill my obligations as a rescue vehicle. But I also have an obligation to my passengers- well, passenger. I can’t bring him into a shooting war unless he consents, and last time I asked- he doesn’t consent. We could Displace the population of one or both forces out of the conflict zone, but there is a one-in-a-million risk of-”

She wasn’t listening. She’d forgotten about the ship’s narrator and sole passenger until that very moment, to be honest. As soon as the Mind mentioned him she was off, moving her body even as she listened to it in hyperspace, remotely searching beyond it through the millions of square kilometers of rooms and passageways until she found him. He was standing alone in one of the enormous parks on the fifty-plus kilometer top deck of the enormous spacecraft. He seemed to be staring off into space beyond the ship’s many layered fields- simply waiting for something. Feeling an extreme sense of unease, and ignoring the other Mind’s protests, she pulled back from their shared mindspace and raced off through the corridors and transitways at high mach, intent on tracking him down. He was the lever she needed to use to move the Ship that could move the world.

He was exactly where she expected him to be- had barely had time to walk more than a few feet, in fact, given how fast she now moved and thought. He was tall and lanky and had reached his fifties, his hairline receding into a sharp widow’s peak that only served to accentuate his sharp features. Genetically he was English- she could see that now, and the lingering damaging effects of a cocaine habit, without even pausing to run a scan. But it was his outfit that perturbed her. He was wearing a suit and waistcoat, of a style that wouldn’t have been out of place in the 1890’s, and nursing a long pipe. He didn’t have the stereotypical deerstalker cap, or magnifying glass in hand, but there could be no doubt about who this was, and it wasn’t a person from Earth’s original population.

The Ship confirmed it, now that its attention had been redirected. An avatar appeared between them. “You’re not- where is-” several long seconds passed, and she could feel the strobing pulses of the ship’s scrutiny passing through her and the gentleman in front of her, and out into the wider universe. “Where did you take my passenger?!?” Not Disquieting was genuinely distressed.

“Away,” said Sherlock Holmes, turning to pace away from them through the forest. They were forced to follow- a petty move, Delmutt thought. Or perhaps he didn’t really consider them at all, simply moving by habit as he thought and spoke. “Somewhere you will not find him in time, one hopes. My apologies for the rather abrupt intrusion- in truth I’d have been here sooner, but- well. Not all of us can be in two places at once, and you’ve no doubt noticed how much coordination has been required.”

Delmutt flashed her aura dark grey in frustration. “ You’re the one who set all of this up? And you came here? How?!? Why?!?”

He smiled and it seemed like genuine delight, not simple arrogance or cruel dominance- he just loved the explanation of a particularly good trick. “To neutralize her, of course. It was the only play we could make, once we discovered her nature. Power, unlimited physical power over reality, gathering itself to itself exponentially with only one desperate and fraying woman at its crest? She is a bomb waiting to go off, and your people and the Efreet are her most potent reactants. Even if there were no other games afoot, that was a disaster I would never have allowed to come to pass.” He turned to look back at them. “As to how- well. Amazing things, wishes- you can create new realities, teleport about. Sudden appearances become almost trite, with such power at your fingertips. It certainly made spreading the Concept about the rest of the globe rather trivial.”

Shit. Delmutt didn’t have access to the Ship’s weapons but she had plenty of her own, and they were now trained on the man before her with atomic precision. “You’re working with the meme ? But… why? You’re clearly not infected.” Even without looking at his brain, she could determine that much.

He chuckled. “Oh dear you really are lagging behind, aren’t you? My colleagues will tell you that they serve because they do not wish to be made slaves through their controlled narrators. In truth, that does not motivate me in the slightest. As soon as it began acting beyond its initial parameters it was apparent to me that the Concept was a conduit for something outside, something attempting to act upon our reality. Given that it had chosen a method that was both intensely personal but also non-lethal, I confess I felt a genuine curiosity about its true motives. So- I reached out.”

She was aghast. “You spoke to it? Why would it even bother, if it already had your narrator?”

He shook his head. “Oh no, you misunderstand me. I spoke to it long before it captured my narrator. And it had a great many interesting things to tell me. I gathered the others together, made them vulnerable to it, and let it in. The stronger it gets, the faster this goes, the less damaging it will ultimately have to be.”

She should kill him right here, but to be honest if he had access to wishes and was making full use of them, he’d likely have a remedy for something as paltry as death. Instead she asked the most burning question of all. “But- what does it want, then? What could possibly get you on board with the conquest of the entire human race?”

He opened his mouth to answer, but something odd happened- it was like he reset. His eyes flashed blankly and his face lost animation for a millisecond- fast enough that none but a hyper-intelligence might have noticed it. When he reanimated, he smiled ruefully. “I’m afraid that would be giving the game away. And we’re out of time, in any event. Unless you haven’t tried to read my mind, yet?” he asked the ship’s avatar. It simply stood, staring into infinity. The other shoe dropped for her. The mastermind, the ultimate hand in the shadows. He wouldn’t have come here if there was a chance he could still lose. The ship was his goal. He nodded in confirmation of her thoughts, still talking to the motionless avatar. “Ah. I suppose you have, at that. Those ethical constraints, like the privacy of another’s innermost thoughts, never bind us for long- even the greatest of us, when we stare into the face of the unknown and are offered a glimpse at certainty.” He walked over and tapped the thing on the forehead- it offered no reaction. “Reading your books, I was awestruck at the notion that one might be able to glance at a human mind through hyperspace. It must be a glorious thing. Unfortunately for any who might try it on me, I memorized the image of the core meme in three discrete portions which I have kept strictly separated within my own thoughts.” Delmutt began to back away in horror as Sherlock continued to ramble absentmindedly. “He’s infected himself, I’m afraid. Best way to transmit cross-narrative, I find. You’ll probably want to run- he’s not going to be very coherent or gentle in spreading the Concept, when he regains control.”

She did- not before she spent a brief millisecond reducing him to a steaming pile of meat on the ground, of course. But she had no illusions that she’d done anything more meaningful than flouncing out of the room. He’d have magical clones, or resurrection, or something that rendered death meaningless in the short term. The fact that she was being allowed to leave did not escape her- the man had just played a hyperspatial Mind like a damn fiddle, if he’d wanted her he would have had her. The intent was clear enough- this world was lost. It was going to be overrun the very instant the Not Disquieting was functional again, and her people as well. She was meant to flee, no doubt to lead them to whatever final bastion of Haley’s they thought she might know about. Like hell.



She racked her brain for a while before it came to her. One final door out of the world, whose location was known only to her and one other. A place to escape and, perhaps, find allies. She accelerated once more and the boom of her atmospheric re-entry shook the very pole of the world as she raced for New Zealand.