----

Hermione, The Perfect Run

Day 1

----

Hermione woke with a start, screaming. “Aaaah!” She could still feel the blade in her ribs and the fall from the tower. What were those things? After so much time, she’d finally made her move on the barrier ritual- and despite everything, despite fifty years in these loops to train and prepare- the man in the jean jacket and his monsters had made her feel like a child, all over again. Dying had been only a temporary setback for her, over these loops- though now, she knew, it had burned the last of a resource she could not replenish. This would be the last loop, one way or another.

She took a deep breath and tried to center herself. Guided meditation had been such a big boon over the years. Guided meditation, and her friends- who despite all this time, all these iterations of the same three months, could still surprise her. It was time to surprise them, she thought with a smile. This was it, the last one. The perfect run. She stood up from her bed and her phoenix, Tesimond appeared on her shoulder, looking somewhat confused- he hadn’t existed, seconds before. She patted his head. “Sorry, you keep getting dragged around with my soul when it resets. You’ll get the hang of living in a moment.” He had been a big help too, ever since she’d learned the secrets of the phoenixes from Dumbledore. She summoned her wand from nowhere at all, and deftly disabled the wards against underage magic placed upon her. Then she teleported to Sean’s starting point- the loop was actually synced to his waking, not hers.

It was an empty room in an empty Muggle house on the outskirts of London. There was a white owl tapping on the window with a letter in its’ beak. The boy himself was still sleeping in his bed. It was nice- peaceful. She took a minute to soak it in. Eventually, she spoke gently to wake him. “I don’t usually get to see where you start from.” He jumped, eyes snapping open, still awkward in the child’s body he hadn’t got used to yet. She saw the familiar emotions crossing his face- confusion, then triumph at having made it into the story, then confusion again at her appearance, along with a dim sense of recognition. He and Haley, alone of all her companions, seemed to retain a sense of that first iteration. But they kept none of the rest. She continued as if she wasn’t watching this play out for the dozenth time. “It’s awfully lonely- didn’t the original narrator give you a backstory? It makes me wonder how much of the rest of our world is just… set-dressing. Like, if I could dodge our narrative for even a minute, would every house I entered be empty? Do I even exist in the moments that aren’t written? It’s downright existential.” She said all this with good humor- these thoughts had crossed her mind so many times that they had left well-worn paths, by now.

He turned in bed and reddened slightly at a girl his age standing in his room, with frizzy brown hair and a distant look in her eyes, and a bird made of fire perched on her shoulder. Tesimonde took his cue, and opened his mouth to CAW-

And Sean collapsed back against his headboard, just as he always did, the recollections of that first trip through Hogwarts crashing back down on him. The first whirlwind quest for knowledge, the use of magic- magic- she smiled as he reached out and she saw, in his aura, his magic come to him again. Still the same silvery dragon, after all these loops. Her own had taken the form of a playful gryffin, when she had finally learned to cast the Patronus. “Hermione,” he gasped. “How long-”

Time for the intro speech, then. She held up her hand and ticked off fingers one by one. “To answer your questions- I lost track but in the hundreds of loops, and decades at least. No, you won’t remember any but the first- you seem to keep that one- and the current run. All of you enter at precisely the same points you did the first time around, and it did take me quite some time to figure out where all of those points were. Things will play out exactly as they did the first time barring our intervention- and no, I don’t know what that implies about the original narrator but she’s definitely not still around. This is your story now- or Gretchen’s.”

She could see more urgent questions building in his eyes and she eventually sighed and relented. “Yes, it has been terribly lonely and I have missed you. Yes, I would like a hug.” She paused, and he took the cue to get up and offer her some human contact. While they hugged she continued. “No, I have not had success with the source of the barrier. Well, okay, that last isn’t entirely true- I just got used to saying that. We did finally find the ritual that summons it, on the far side of the world from London- but the man there killed us despite everything, and I haven’t gone back. Carrying on- yes, I will spend the next month prior to Hogwarts training you, I’ve gotten quite good at getting you up to speed, and then you will need to leverage as much of your time with Voldemort and Dumbledore as you can to pry more information out of their skulls. In the last fifty or so years, we’ve gotten a tremendous part of what they know, but they have… hidden depths.” She looked at me with excitement shining in her eyes. “But this is the last run. I can feel it, Sean. I know every beat that needs to happen, except that last. You and your friends are going to be key with that man.” Some of the fire left her eyes. “He just- there was something about him, even with that stupid jean jacket and odd smile.”

Her words sent a chill through Sean that no magic could warm. “Flagg. Flagg was here? ” Then he dismissed it for more pressing concerns. “No, wait, we can cover that. Hermione, Haley is-”

She stopped him. “You tell me about her every time. And I can see it, too. When she arrives, she’s- well, you’ll see for yourself in a couple of months. I knew we were running out of loops. Everything that needs to happen can be done with just the rest of us, but- we can still offer her some tricks. She’ll be okay, Sean. Tell me about that strange man. When I found him, he seemed very surprised to see me- but he talked his way close and when I died- well, I never even saw it coming.”

He nodded, shuddering. “Yeah, that’s him. He’s originally from the Dark Tower series but he’s convenient enough that I think he gets used everywhere. And he knows more than he should. The Coordinator has been using him- maybe forever. When we we first met him, he’d coaxed Aslan into invading our world and used the assault as cover. He was going to claim the tower that Aslan was turning into the throne of the world. I think he meant to destroy it, and our world with it. I don’t know why- his goals are the Coordinators. And he’s very scared of the Coordinator.” He paused and thought hard. “Narratively he’s a horror story. Nearly unbeatable because it’s always scarier if he comes back. Convenient, because he can be anywhere at any time, have nearly any power. But he’s a morality play, not a slasher flick. Ultimately if his motivations are revealed, he’ll fail. The fact that we know who he is now-” he looked up at her. “It means we can beat him.”

She smiled at him with deep affection. Always the optimist, even when you don’t remember. She would be glad to be out of here, to finally work alongside the others as an equal, instead of always a guide and a mentor. “Okay. Let’s get you up to speed.” Opening the same extradimensional pocket she’d retrieved her wand from, she removed dozens of vials and a pensieve. “Fundamentals of magic 101, then we’ll go into the mysteries that can only be passed directly.”

----

Hermione

1st day at Hogwarts

----

The foundations of magic, as they had worked out through trial and error across the decades, were far simpler and more powerful than even Sean had dreamed in his initial foray. Stripped of the cruft of the British educational system and refined with years of practice, she gave Sean everything he needed to reach her level, and more. But the mastery would take time- by the time of the siege he’d be ready to ask additional questions of Voldemort and Dumbledore, should any arise. And hopefully, with further years, he would truly come to understand magic the way she had. She practically flowed with it now, alive to it in ways she could never have dreamed as a child. The world was made up of it, and with the slightest touch she could reach out and alter it to her whim- but she kept to her meditations and restrained herself. This wasn’t a cutting-loose run, this was The Perfect Run, and she wouldn’t risk it.

In the meantime Hermione had to complete many aspects of the initial setup herself. She was very busy during the first year’s boat ride across the lake to Hogwarts which was just as well because she’d have been bored otherwise- she’d done it a hundred times before she’d learned how to make an illusory stand-in. Her first order of business was to perform a variant of Sean’s anti-memetic spell on Draco, with Sean as the subject. The little prat wouldn’t be able to see, hear about, or think of his erstwhile love interest. It neatly defused the romance time bomb without upsetting other events- who would think to question that a Malfoy took no notice of a random Hufflepuff, even an unusually talented one?

Her next target was Harry- though she had to be far subtler there, both to avoid upsetting the balance and to avoid Dumbledore’s detection- he was always especially vigilant about the boy. Hermione felt a twinge of guilt- early on she had tried to strip away the interest between Harry and Snape, but he had been obsessed - coming up with elaborate plots and theories about potions professor being a spy for Voldemort, trying to rope her and Ron into elaborate stalking schemes. She had gone further and further with her antimemes until she’d ruined a whole loop by blanking his mind- Sean had laughed, when she complained to him, and explained that Harry was reverting to the original plot of the story. Apparently he was just destined to clash with the ill-tempered potions professor. These days, she left it at that.

Her immediate jobs done, she returned to her meditation. It would have been nice to strike up a conversation with the others, but after so many years it was difficult to feel terribly connected to the ramblings of children- even those she felt she should have been closest to, in another life. Her peers awaited in the months ahead.

One of the nice things about the loop they were on was that most events were fairly mutable. The only elements that needed to fall in place were the entrances of all key players. Disrupting the romance subplots caused the romantic narrative to fail in roughly the same time as the first run, which meant there was a great deal of leeway in who else had to make it to the final battle. Voldemort, she had discovered after much testing, did not. As she and Sean took their seats- she in Ravenclaw, he in Hufflepuff- and Dumbledore stood up to give his “Welcome to Hogwarts” address, a curious thing happened. Professor Quirrel, leaning forward in his chair, found that the back of his turban had come loose and snagged on the Headmaster’s belt. Scrambling backwards to fix it, he only made it worse, and he found himself chasing the older wizard down the length of the staff table as his head-wrapping came apart, exposing the disgusting face of Voldemort attached to the back of his head for all to see.

Hermione and Sean kept calm and hid under their respective tables during the ensuing firefight. To the untrained or even the expert eye of a classically-educated wizard, they did nothing. But all of Voldemort’s deadliest spells missed their mark. All of his attempts to take hostages were blocked by convenient wardrobe or furniture malfunctions. All of his grand attempts at escape- through flight, or turning into a swarm of locusts, or exploding into a fireball- found themselves stymied, warded against before they’d even been thought of. It all turned into a bit of a farce for him- and busy as he was, he had no way of knowing who had orchestrated it. Trapped in a room with an enraged Dumbledore, he lasted less than two minutes before having his conscious soul torn from the trembling Quirrel and trapped in a small music box, to be forever buried in some great vault. Having lost his bet over how long the fight would take, Sean grimaced and flipped Hermione a gold piece before they all made their way to their dorms and she got the first really good night’s sleep she’d had in several loops.

----

1 week later

----

Dumbledore’s office was a bit brighter on this particular visit, but the man himself was… “Dour” wasn’t the right word for it. His mortal enemy had been summarily dealt with just days before, after all. Perhaps “Blindsided and panicking” was a better expression for his mood, Hermione thought. It wasn’t an affect she’d seen on him very often. But they had been changing things up at Hogwarts, recently. As it happened, that was what he’d called them in about.

“You two seem to have made great strides in your studies,” he mused to himself, not meeting their gaze. “Yes, great strides, in only a week. Too great, perhaps, for children of your age?” He turned towards her, eyebrows raised, daring her to meet his gaze and assert her honesty. She did, and felt the telltale probe of his legilimency attempting to enter her mind. She shut it down hard, and suppressed a smirk when he blinked.

She held the stare for another few seconds and then took pity on him- he wasn’t evil in the end, just… a bit misguided. “In a biological sense, I am eleven. But you aren’t really calling us on the carpet for our talent, Headmaster. Be honest.”

He shook his head, great beard making a waving motion as he did so. “No, I suppose not. You two have been… educating, I suppose I should call it, the other first years. Planting ideas in their heads about the nature of magic. Dangerous ideas.”

“But not untrue ideas, or you’d have said so.” countered Sean. “Believe it or not, Headmaster, we’ve had this conversation before, in other times and places. We appreciate your methods but I don’t agree with them. The students deserve to learn what their magic is, before they destroy it. They deserve to work without blinders if they choose.” He held up the elder wand, and Hermione called out to Tesimond at the same time- Dumbledore actually took a step back in alarm, before verifying that his wand and phoenix had not gone missing under mysterious circumstances. “You offered this to me once, saying I had gained the wisdom to determine what was right. I’m telling you that this is right- but it won’t be easy. We need to teach them the right way, to break the traditions of ignorance.”

“It was you,” the headmaster finally realized, sitting back heavily in his chair. “You were the ones who exposed Tom, and made a bloodless fight of what should have been a massacre.” He considered silently. Hermione waited calmly, as though she had all the time in the world. Once, that had actually been true. Things were a bit tighter this time around. But she’d rehearsed this bit before- she was confident in the outcome, when presented to him in this manner. He looked up and it was clear he’d come to a decision. “You would force me to make a terrible choice- to silence you, and indeed it is not clear that I could - or,” he chuckled, “to change. And let the world change with me. Well. Perhaps this old man can learn a new trick or two. But! Promise me you will not let them race beyond their ability to control their power.” Sean and Hermione promised, and agreement was reached. The first years at Hogwarts would not be subject to the wards, and they would grow in their magic as they were supposed to. As partners to a loyal companion, not ignorant masters, numb to their own mutilation.

She spent the rest of the first month teaching, while flitting in and out of the Ravenclaw tower on mysterious errands- enriching herself through a muggle financial scheme she had developed years ago, acquiring powerful and mysterious artifacts she’d encountered throughout her travels, introducing herself one final time to old friends met within the loops. She and Sean held daily lessons for their first years. Indeed, some second and third years began to show up, once they saw how fast the “Firsties” were beginning to grow. The world would change, in time, as Dumbledore predicted- the other schools would be forced to alter the way they taught magic, just to keep up. Wizards would grow more powerful and magic more wild. It was enough for her, for now. Whatever came when the loops finally ended, she would have the resources to deal with it.

Finally it came time for Gretchen to arrive. But they needed to set off the narrative trigger. Without Harriett’s direct narrative interference in the story, Hermione had discovered that the loop needed a slight push. Thus, on the day of, she dropped her antimemetic curse on Draco and Sean approached the young Slytherin, who had been terribly confused about why everyone kept talking about their two young magic instructors when he could only perceive one. “Draco.”

The blond-haired boy turned towards him in the hall between classes, looking confused. “Who are you?”

Sean sighed dramatically and put a hand to his forehead. “He doesn’t even know my name. Draco, I can’t be with you. I had to let you know. Our love is star-crossed and was never meant to be. I reject you. Oh! My heart.” Hermione crossed her arms as she watched- honestly, he overdid it every time. But it was sufficient. The narrative clunked like the transmission had dropped out of it and somewhere in the countryside Gretchen made her arrival. Sean turned to Hermione and they both nodded, then apparated away.

Draco, still standing in the hall, blinked a couple of times. “What?”

----

Dealing with Gretchen wasn’t hard- what had been difficult was finding a way to re-introduce the memetic Concept without her participation so that future events could go forward- if it was simply eliminated, the loop failed to meet some end-condition and would reset immediately. The Concept had to be allowed to exist and spread, but certain safeguards could still be applied.

Sean, Hermione, and Alastor Moody arrived at the train station as the unscheduled Hogwarts Express pulled in, venting steam. When the blue-eyed girl stepped off she was summarily stunned, obliviated, and secreted away in a pocket knapsack that Hermione kept for the purpose, while Moody took a piece of her hair and transfigured himself into a perfect copy of her using polyjuice potion. He and Sean exchanged glances, and then the gruff auror, now a young girl, nodded at them. “I’ll be fine. If Dumbledore says you know what you’re doing- well, I won’t trust ya, but I did my own checking. Hit me with the stuff and I’ll see you in a few days.” Hermione pulled out a portable pensieve and a very special memory from her private vault, a thing she had spent many loops working to acquire. She shuddered, remembering her own time under the control of the Concept. Necessary, to grasp its function, but a nightmarish end for everyone, with the power she channeled by then- better that nobody but her would ever remember it. She emptied the glowing blue vial into the water, Moody dipped his face in, and while he was under Sean hit him with a Confundus. He’d come back up fully absorbed by an altered version of the meme, and believing he was Gretchen. They vanished before he was through. Things would spread as they usually did from there.

As for the girl herself- she got a very different awakening. Gentle and slow, in a bed at the sunlit and airy Hogwarts infirmary. “What? Where am I?” Hermione, Dumbledore, and Harry- who Sean had insisted be there, for the girl’s sake- were by her bedside. She latched onto the boy first, of course. “Is that- Harry Potter?” Her eyes welled up with tears. Harry, somewhat used to the attention even within his story and misunderstanding the source, tried to comfort her. “Yes, but really, whatever you’ve heard- I didn’t do it, honest, it was just an accident of magic when I beat him the first-” but Gretchen wasn’t listening. “I’m here. I’m here.” She saw Hermione, and some trickle of memory from the original reset came back to her. Perhaps it was something reserved for narrators, Hermione mused, even as the young girl wept openly. “You did it! You got me in. Oh, thank you.” She pulled Hermione into a great hug and held her there, while the old wizard and young man looked at each other in honest puzzlement.

Hermione’s joy was short-lived, however- in the original timeline, Gretchen had made her first assault the very night of her arrival. There was a lot of work to be done if it was going to go off non-lethally. It was important not to tip their hand in altering the meme at such an early stage, but equally important that the castle not fall beneath a tide of mind-controlled wizards.

Luckily, long experience had given Hermione a plethora of ways to re-enact the battle without casualties. When the wizards came marching up the lawn, they were met with mass sleep spells and restraining vines and perfectly-timed countermemetic charms, shutting down their advance at every turn. Sean held the front gates and defended the professors while Hermione summoned a false army of centaurs and spiders from the mud and branches of the forest- tuned to the exact moment when they would have made their heroic charge, but just a little bit lighter in their blows as they rolled over the wizard flank. Grindelwald, the zombie army’s earliest and greatest defender while Moody was posing as a little girl, was summarily defeated by two elder wands and a witch from his most feverish nightmares working in concert- something even he couldn’t hold out against for long.

Between the students and the staff of the castle, the tide was turned and the zombie army was on the retreat, with no casualties on either side other than those knocked unconscious, when Haley finally made her debut. The portal in the sky tore open to void rather than sunlight, but it wasn’t a colossal gold dragon rumbling through- rather, to everyone’s surprise but Hermione’s, it was a human woman, plummeting swiftly towards the ground. Sean reacted first, catching her and Matt in his magic and bringing them to a gentle landing on the grounds. But it was only his wife that he had eyes for.

He knelt beside her- she was conscious but only just. Hermione had never seen her like this, to be honest- her horns were gone, her eyes had lost their slit pupils, and her amazonian physique had disappeared. She was just a normal, human woman now. “Sean?” She asked, “I think- while I was powering the loop-”

He tried to stop her speaking. “I know, I saw. You did great, honey. But- it kind of looks like you used too much of yourself. I don’t think you’re going to be flying us into battle this time.” He tried to look away from her, to hide the anguish he was clearly feeling- she reached up and pulled his head back down.

She laughed weakly. When she spoke it was wavering, delirious. “No- I’m pretty sure I’m not even a monster anymore. I used it all up, to get us here. But I saw things. I think- I think that’s how I’m supposed to work. I build up power in a character and then I spend it. It doesn’t matter now- are you saving everyone?” She asked that last with desperate energy, looking between Sean and Hermione. Hermione wasn’t sure what she’d meant about it being how she worked, but she nodded vigorously, and Haley relaxed. “Good.” She seemed to resolve something, inside herself. “Good. Then whatever happens, it was worth it.” She lay back and fell asleep on the grass.

Sean stayed knelt over her. He spoke so softly that Hermione wasn’t sure anyone else could even hear him. “Not to me. If it costs me you again, It’s not worth it to me.”

----

He grabbed her later, after Matt had been dispatched on his errand with Hagrid for the second time (the first by his reckoning) and they’d taken the time to disarm the nuclear weapons that Merlin would otherwise have enchanted to use against them. She’d seen him talking to his wife in the infirmary, but hadn’t eavesdropped. Now he came for her, with an intensity like she’d never seen before. “Hermione. We have to save her.”

She looked at him in surprise. All the other times, over the hundreds and hundreds of loops, as her power had slowly declined- he’d been distraught, to be sure, but he’d never had this fear before. But then- Haley had never been this powerless before, either. She tried to offer what she could. “We found potions in the past, recipes that would get her back up and fighting. We could try those now.”

He dismissed the offer with a slash of his hand, so sharp and sudden it nearly hit her. “ No. There’s no way in hell I’m putting her back in the line of fire. She’s dying, Hermione. This is the narrative at work. It’s killing her off. She got too strong, and it turned her into a literal engine to power these loops. There’s no narrative solution that’s going to save her.”

She didn’t want to be insensitive, but- “I thought you said you couldn’t die? That you’d just take a new form somewhere else?”

He snapped at her. “ Our souls, Hermione. Our souls can’t die. I used to think it was all narrators, now- I’m starting to think it’s just her and I. There’s some part of us that stands apart from our bodies. But our minds are still just… just meat. If we lose her here…” he trailed off. “I could lose everything about her that remembers me. To come this far and achieve so much, to win, and then lose in the epilogue? ” He met her gaze and she gasped. There was madness in his eyes, loss and pain and rage threatening to burn the whole world down rather than accept this outcome.

Her hand whipped out and she slapped him. Neither of them was expecting it, and it rocked him back a step. She took her own step back to try and grasp the sudden flash of anger she was feeling. As he gawped like a fish, she figured it out. “Fifty years.” He blinked in confusion, so she continued. “Fifty years I’ve spent in here. Losing, dying, living and loving three months at a time, only to see it wiped away again. I was eleven when I walked through that arch. My whole life, built out of shifting sands, for your epilogue.” She came forward, poking him in the chest, anger rising to match his. “If Haley’s body is dying, if she burned herself out, it’s in service to the cause that she chose. I don’t know what you’re planning but you will not throw that away. Her work or mine.”

He wanted to argue, that was clear, but he found no ground to do so. He was so used to flipping the script, but he couldn’t, here. Events were locking. Letting the whole world go to hell just to run away wouldn’t even work - there were no other dimensions to run to, while the loops were in effect. And there were no retries. He had no place left to go. He looked the possibility of his wife’s death squarely in the face for the first time, and Hermione watched as it broke him down. “I can’t-”

She softened her approach. “You can. It’s not forever. As long as the barrier comes down, we’ll get out of here, and you can go figure out where she’s gone. You remembered once, after death- you’ll find a way to restore her. If this is all narrative, that much I can guarantee you. I can help you. I owe her that much. But we have to finish what we started here. You two are the masters of these stories, not me- do you think whatever story you’re on is going to end with you losing her?”

He shook his head. “I- honestly don’t know. I think we’re breaking a lot of the rules now. We’re not just in the stories, we’re dueling with the stories. Weaponifying their outcomes. Zombies and horror stories versus redemption arcs and hero’s journeys. And time loops. Things may get strange. I don’t think the end is written, yet. Or maybe… it will depend on my choices.” But he’d found some form of resolve, she saw. “Alright. I just- let me tell her, okay?”

He left, and Hermione let him go. When he was done, she went in to talk to the woman herself.

Haley was laid up in another bed in the hospital ward, looking like the most exhausted woman in the world. She still had energy for a smile when she saw Hermione. “Oh, hey. A personal visit from the Chosen One, just for me?”

Hermione smiled back. “If I’m chosen for this world, it’s because you two chose me. Thank you, by the way. For the chance to set it right.” She’d been meaning to say something all these years but had just… never found the right way to approach it. She’d had complex feelings about the loops, for a long time. But seeing Haley here, she realized- she wasn’t the only one paying a price.

Haley lay back against her pillow. It was strange to see her so lifeless, after all the ways Hermione had seen her live, and fight, and die. Watching her wind down over the years had been grueling, and this final outcome after all that she had seen Haley do, all the victories she had achieved, but never quite the right one to end the loops- Hermione could understand Sean’s rage, to an extent. Haley was staring at the sunlit window. “I just wish I was going to get to see it all set right. This world, and all the rest.” She raised a hand, glanced at it. “I really liked this body.”

Hermione was still confused, but the sheer melancholy of the statement made her nervous. “You keep talking about that- but Sean’s the only one who’s changed bodies before, right?”

The other woman closed her eyes. “Yes and no. I think- he’s seen more of the way the world really works than I have. I think that’s part of his… function, I guess you’d call it. But after raising and spending all this power, and our talks with the Coordinator… I’m starting to remember. Things. Bits and pieces.” She opened her eyes and they were ancient, like nothing she’d seen in the loops. Terrifying. Had Haley concealed this, all this time? Hermione fell down a spiraling black well and it was all she could do to hear the words Haley spoke next. “I was more than this, once. I remember that. In a way...” her eyes closed and Hermione gasped as the pressure building in her mind withdrew, feeling like she’d escaped somehow. “In a way, it feels like I’m stretching out for the first time in ages.”

Hermione couldn’t help but ask. “And Sean?” Despite her harsh words, she had a lot of sympathy for his terror at being left behind.

Haley smiled mysteriously, head still back against the pillow, eyes still closed. “You know I hated him, once? He’s going to be so surprised when it comes back to him. But those days are long gone. Everything we’ve shared, since then... I don’t think we’ll be apart for long.” She opened one eye and peered at Hermione. “Actually, here.” She held up a hand- in it was something tiny and glowing, indefinable- too complex to grasp with the eye. Hermione took it from her. “Tell him to give that back to me, when he finds me. I may forget a face for a time, but I can recover those memories. He’ll need something I can never forget, to hold onto.”

She tried to peer at the thing in her hand but it evaded her comprehension. It was there, but not there. It had no mass but it had weight. In some way she couldn’t quite explain, it was the heaviest thing she’d ever held. Heavier than her world. It was no Pathfinder spell, she knew that much after seeing Haley’s work over the decades. “What is this?”

Haley smiled, a genuine smile of ease and peace. “It’s what he means to me.” She lay back, thoroughly spent.

When the final battle came two days later, she was long gone.

----

“This isn’t right at all,” said Holmes. He was gathered in front of Hogwarts with the entirety of the Concept. When Gretchen had come for the mirror, she had found nobody within the castle. When she had reported that the Arch was their final target, they’d made a beeline for it- and found the Ministry thoroughly deserted as well, the veiled Arch within its depths powerless and nonfunctional. Then the girl herself had disappeared, replaced by a note that simply said “Get fucked” and a picture of a madly swirling eyeball. Holmes couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

The ship was still breaching through Merlin’s portals, but it wouldn’t be long before it was on station above London, and still there had been not one hint of resistance. Hogwarts was abandoned. “Where on earth is she,” he asked the small crowd, most of whom were nearly as bewildered as he was. Greg, and the Dog, and Skylar- all glowered at him, where before they’d been extremely compliant. Even Jada of the Brass City had become truculent and argumentative since their arrival here. They could sense he was losing control of the situation- his aura of infallibility was slipping. Only Merlin was still cooperating fully. Haley’s clone, his trump card, was conspicuously absent- it had faded into nothingness the moment they crossed into this dimension. Most distressing. “She should be here,” Holmes lamented.

“Well, at least we agree on one thing,” came a voice from in front of him. He started and turned. Haley’s husband and a young woman stood side by side, cloaks billowing around them in the Scottish highland winds that roiled the grounds of Hogwarts. The man spoke again. “Would it help soothe your ego if we said all of this has happened before and you never really stood a chance the first time, either?”

Despite his grief, Sean was enjoying being the one who mysteriously appeared, for once. He’d petitioned for Men In Black sunglasses, but Hermione had shot him down on the grounds that the movie hadn’t even been released yet, in this world’s timeline. Sean continued speaking before Holmes could rally. “The rest of the castle couldn’t be here, sorry. She left a message for you, though. Just one word. Ondansetron. ”

Everyone stared, uncomprehending, until Hermione face palmed. “You idiot,” she cried, “that’s an anti- emetic drug. For nausea, not memories!”

He shrugged, gesturing at the wave of blue-eyed zombies around them, now beginning to blink the color and consciousness back into themselves. “Well, in my defense- your rigged meme didn’t really care what trigger word we used.” That was true, at least- as Merlin and Holmes spun around, the Concept unraveled. Every last one in this loop had been infected with Hermione’s special version, rigged with painstaking precision to tear itself apart when the trigger was spoken. Their minds came back to them, and they remembered. Holmes was suddenly very much alone, in a sea of angry faces. Sean glanced at Hermione. “Do we even care if he manages to talk himself out of this?”

She shrugged. “Not really. But the other one’s going to get away.” Merlin had taken flight already, headed with undue speed away from the crowd of humans, Efreet, and infomorphs.

Sean sighed and raised his wand. “Nope. Back in your tree, asshole.” Pulled from seemingly nowhere, the ancient oak pilfered from the Ministry fired at the wizard like a guided missile. Try as he might to evade it, Merlin couldn’t dodge fast enough- not with Hermione lending her strength to its speed, and the force inside it pulling it along after him. It made contact, and within seconds a spectacular detonation rocked the countryside. “Still don’t regret it, even on a second pass,” Sean muttered.

----

They reconvened before the crowd was dispersed. Roy, Matt, Charlie, Nina, and Mac formed one exceptionally confused bloc. Greg, the Dog, Skylar, Anna and Telantes, and Haley’s mother formed another. Jada stood nearly alone, though to her surprise she found herself flanked by a copy of the ship’s avatar, non -hostile this time. Sean and Hermione made up the fourth corner of the square. Holmes and Asriel were explicitly not invited- the one now on the run for his life from an angry mob, the other still recuperating and (in Sean’s opinion) “Kind of a child-murdering dick anyway.” Time was tight and, once they’d been briefed on the loops, Hermione launched into her pitch for the final assault without further delay.

“It took me years to find the ritual that raises the barrier- it isn’t tied to the invasion and nobody here has any knowledge of it. I wasn’t even sure it existed, at first. My breakthrough came when I first used the sabotaged meme to free the Not Disquieting At All, several dozen loops ago.” She nodded at the ship’s avatar which smiled back politely, not quite believing everything it was hearing- it didn’t remember the first time at all, it seemed. “It was able to search the whole planet in the few hours we have left before loop’s end. It turns out the ritual takes place on almost the antipode of London- in New Zealand.”

Greg perked up at that. “Finally comin’ full circle, then!” The others glanced at him and he tried to explain. “Well, s’where I come from innit?” He thought about that for a second. “‘Cept, on t’other planet.”

Hermione continued. “I don’t know if they picked the location because it’s as far from us as can be, or if it has some significance with the location of the battle and the Arch. I also didn’t recognize the machinery Flagg’s men were using, but the Not Disquieting described it as being ‘Intensely perverse, sending ripples through higher dimensions in ways that hurt it to look at.’ It wasn’t able to give me more than that. I doubt that’s all there is to it. It’s unknown if they relate to the barrier itself in some way, or if they are merely additional muscle for defense. What we do know about the barrier is that people who die within it seem to be beyond resurrection, and narrative worlds outside the barrier can’t seem to cross back through without holes being made for them to enter through. This is the last loop- if any of you die and we don’t stop it being summoned, you will not be coming back.”

The ship’s avatar spoke up. “Ah, I do see what you’re talking about. Fascinating technology he has, and quite horrible. We’re cutting this a bit close, aren’t we?”

She shook her head ruefully. “Unfortunately they have to at least try to set it up, or the loop will simply reset. It will be up to us to interrupt them. They have Concept support- the antimeme will be spreading but it would take days to reach that far. If you could begin planting the trigger word…?”

The avatar smiled and nodded. “Done. For everyone in New Zealand.” It looked startled. “Oh, the ones on the tower have already noticed. I think you should move quickly- or I could-”

She cut it off. “No, don’t do anything fancy like displace them. I tried that first, and they fought to your physical Mind and killed you. The things he has with him are monstrous. Only our most combat capable should come.” The group looked around, unsure who she was speaking to.

Sean stepped forward. “Jada, Roy, Matt, Nina, Mac, Charlie, and Disquieting, we’d ask you to come with us, if you’re willing to put your lives on the line to end this. Everyone else, board the ship and ride this out. If we don’t succeed- well, the sun isn’t going to explode this time. Have good lives here. There… could be worse worlds to live on.”

It was clear he needed to say something to the rest of them, even though they were all feeling the press for time. He stood there, lost for words for a moment, looking at the grounds of Hogwarts. “...Less than half a year here, and it feels like a lifetime.”

She reached up to touch his shoulder, but he glanced at her and she subsided. “It’s time to state the moral resolution, I guess- the thing that’s got to drive us, when we stare down the barrel of what’s coming.” He chuckled. “I hope that stating that out loud doesn’t invalidate it.” He held up the orb he’d made, and embedded Haley’s last gift within. It glowed like a miniature star, enthralling. They were all lost in it for a moment- the depths of it seemed nearly infinite. Eventually he pocketed it. “In a way, we’re ending where we began- but this time it’s her, lost out in the universe, and me tying up the loose ends. I’d call that ironic, but after everything I’ve seen… I don’t think luck has anything to do with it. She was… is … a beautiful soul. We didn’t disagree on much, but we disagreed on the nature of heroism. Not a subject that tends to come up a lot in most marriages, I admit.”

He turned and looked at the castle. “She hated the concept. Didn’t want to be one, didn’t want to rely on them. Thought the world needed helpers, people willing to form the rungs on a ladder as it raised itself up out of darkness- not people pulling from above.” He looked at his motley crew of warriors- admittedly far more potent than they had any right to be, Hermione thought. “That’s why she made you. Spared you,” he indicated Jada, “or raised you up,” here he pointed at Matt and his squad, “or recruited you,” here he nodded to Roy. To the ship’s avatar, he said “I’m not even sure where you came from, but if there isn’t a tie back to her somewhere, I’d be astonished.”

It nodded. “Her friend, Delmutt. Was going to recruit me, I think- Holmes got the Concept to me first.”

Sean acknowledged it and resumed. “The thing she never considered in her philosophy was evil. The narrative sort. Powerful beings, too powerful to oppose, doing bad things to the world not because of market forces or a lack of empathy or collective action, but because their motivations were fundamentally alien. The kinds of people who can’t be opposed by sound trade policies or the end of scarcity. The kinds of people who must be cleared away so that the world can get back to the business of living. She didn’t believe that these people existed. Before the barrier around our world cracked, before we were set adrift on tides of rising and falling action… she was probably right. She would say that even here, Holmes and Asriel and Merlin were simply misguided, or cowed into their behavior. But what about the being that did the misguiding, and the cowing? What we stand against has no human equivalent.”

He pointed at the assembled crew and Hermione found herself standing straighter, somehow. “She should have been here to fight alongside us but she was burnt out just giving us this chance. I think, in some sense, she got too big for the narrative we’re in. She’s still in this fight, though. You- we- are her legacy. We’re the proof that the worlds can save themselves, can fight even the evils that she never anticipated. As long as we stand for her, much as she’d hate to admit it, there’s a corner of the universe where heroes do matter. As long as we stand...” he trailed off, noticing that they were no longer staring at his face as he spoke, but at his pocket. The jewel he’d left there was glowing so brightly it shone through the cloth- Hermione thought it might have shone through six inches of lead, at that point, but it wasn’t a harsh or hot light. It was a blessing. Matt, her cleric, fell to one knee. Greg took a step away from the noncombat group and towards that light, compelled by it somehow. Jada hissed and squinted her eyes.

Sean smiled and wiped away a tear, trying to harden his resolve. “As long as we stand for her, she’ll be back.” He held his hand out to the group, palm down. “Hermione saved this world. Today, we break out. Today we start the war that will save all the rest.”

One by one, they placed their hands on his. When they were all together, Hermione triggered the port-key she had prepared in advance, and away they went.

----

It was a tower, of course. They were on a building in downtown Auckland, staring up at it- Hermione thought it looked quite a bit like the pictures she’d seen of the space needle, in Seattle. It stretched above them in the gloom of night, illuminated from below and above- there were… ships, vessels, circling it- things like she’d never seen before. Like great flying bricks bristling with guns. There were a huge number of figures at the base of the thing, as well- soldiers by the look of them, but there was something off about them even from this distance.

“He’ll be at the top,” she said. “The soldiers are- well, I only tried to fight them once. They can take any amount of punishment, I don’t think you can risk nonlethal measures.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” growled Jada, already unsheathing her greatsword, flames igniting along its’ length.

“We’re not fighting our way up,” said Sean. “Lightning strike to the top- the rest of you hold off those troops. Not Disquieting, deal with the gunships- disable or destroy, I don’t care which. Hermione, you’re with me.” They nodded. “On my signal, displace us and take them out. Ready. Go.”

It was instantaneous. One second they were looking up, then with a flash of the inside of a mirrored bubble, they were at the top looking down. It was a small viewing platform, with room for an elevator hub and enough space for crowds to gather and view the downtown lights. The man they’d identified as Flagg was there, of course, already whirling in startlement. A squad of eight of those soldiers was with him. They were huge, nine feet tall easily, covered in something that looked distinctly more advanced than the Fallout powered armor Haley had described, painted a dirty white-green, and carrying guns that looked more like rocket launchers, or cannons. For all that, there was something above and beyond their appearance that was wrong about them. Their armor was corroded in strange places, and the symbols on it made Hermione’s head hurt just to look at. It wasn’t memetic- it felt like an insult to her soul, in a language she’d never spoken. The man in the jean jacket had clearly not intended to get in a fight here, but he’d brought the kind of firepower that would make sure he won, if he did.

As they materialized the gunships around them blossomed into flames and two of the three went down. Not Disquieting At All frowned. “The last one’s resisting somehow. I- wait, hold on, something’s happening on the upper decks.” Its eyes widened. “ Boarders! ”

Sean seemed to know what they were, at least. “Space Marines. He went and brought Space Marines.” Then he got a good look at the man he’d come to kill, and stopped in his tracks. “Wait, that’s not-” That was the last thought he had time to voice before violence broke out.

Hermione, having some conception of what these things could do from past encounters, threw up two shields against the guns of the remaining gunship- one a purely magical deflection, one a solid physical barrier of stone, appearing suddenly on one side of the tower. A good thing she’d used them both, too- the rounds from the cannons on the side of the ship didn’t seem to give a damn about her magic, over half of them punching right through. They tore the stone barrier to pieces, showering the group with rock splinters and shrapnel, but the brief pause was enough time for the Not Disquieting to physically raise its’ hand and fire something that lit the night sky with a streak of light, reducing the ship’s cockpit to molten slag. “I’m cut off from the ship! Operating locally!” Shouted the avatar.

Matt and Roy broke right, Nina, Charlie and Mac broke left, trying to split the attention of the enemy troops who were bringing their guns to bear. They were indeed more like rocket-launchers than rifles, spitting rapid-fire explosive shells that would have torn any ordinary humans to pieces. But the whole squad had received twenty levels of Pathfinder utility, making them truly inhuman in many ways. They were able to dodge, deflect, or absorb enormous amounts of fire without breaking stride. When they returned it, streaks of lightning and flashes of magical arrow lit the darkness and carved great gouges from the pauldrons and chests of the marines. Jada charged straight in with a roar, kicking the seventh marine off his feet and plunging her greatsword down towards him- he deflected with a short, humming blade that sent sparks and great slivers of metal spinning from the larger sword.

Hermione turned back from the falling wreckage of the ship to find that Sean had wasted no time, despite his apparent misgivings. The second he’d had a clear shot he’d blasted forward at the speed of thought, converting all incoming fire to tiny doves as it entered a radius around him. With a swipe of his hand he’d simply rendered the platform permeable to the one soldier who’d stood between him and the jacketed man, and despite the superhuman marine’s accelerated reaction times, he had been unable to find purchase before plummeting through the deck without so much as a scream. Sean was yelling at him over the din, but Hermione had to strain and enhance her perception with magic just to hear it. “ Who are you and what the fuck do you have to do with the barrier?” Well, that settled the question about whether or not it was Randall Flagg, she supposed. His magic flexed into a spell that made the air between him and the strange man ripple, and Hermione winced- she knew what he’d cast and it should have torn the man in half.

It didn’t. The man grinned and slapped the invisible force aside- it destroyed a good section of the elevator block, instead. Then he spoke, for the first time that she’d heard, and the sound of it almost made her heart stop. It was like worlds ending. “CERTAIN TACTICS WOULD BE INADVISABLE AT THIS JUNCTURE.” The concept of gender vanished from her mind- it was no he, it was an it. Whatever this was… she groaned inwardly. Why did we think Flagg was the only man on earth who wore jean jackets? The thing wearing a man’s body continued. “THIS VESSEL WAS ARTHUR ANDERSON, ONCE. HE WANTED THE WORLD TO RECOGNIZE HIM. HE GOT THE CONCEPT, INSTEAD. AND NOW HE HAS MY ATTENTION.” The being flicked his hands up and the night thickened. Everywhere the darkness of the night met them it became like- like a million tiny hands, grabbing, clutching, seeking to tear and pinch and twist, slowing them down. It had no effect on the marines, now striding towards their opponents almost mechanically, laying down covering fire all the while. Matt and Roy were landing devastating shots on them- magic and arrows were peeling armor and removing limbs, but the soldiers didn’t slow a whit. The thing smiled at that, too. “GAUCHE, BUT HIGHLY EFFECTIVE AGAINST MAGIC USERS, EVEN IN THEIR OWN NARRATIVES.”

They weren’t just super-soldiers. Jada landed a blow that split her soldier down the middle. As the armor peeled back, Hermione saw the face- and body- behind that metal shell, and gasped. They were rotten. Bloated, half-melted corpses, only held together by their casings. With those cracked, they spilled out- but didn’t slow. Their flesh began to form new limbs, long ropey things that reached out for their opponents. Jada caught hers in a flash of her manifest fire, incinerating it. But Charlie was too slow, his swords stabbing again and again into one as it wrapped limbs around him and fell forward, engulfing him. His companions poured fire into it, but it was Hermione who got it off him- Tesimonde flew from her shoulder and exploded on the marine’s back in a ball of righteous phoenix-fire, rendering it to ash in an instant. Too late for Charlie, she saw- it had eaten half his flesh away on contact.

Sean roared and his magic swatted the creature to the ground, leaving a dent in the iron plating of the platform. She guessed he’d recognized his opponent. “A false Flagg? You’re fighting me with fucking puns now? She died for this! Spit out your ultimatum you piece of shit, I know you’ve got one- I am done with this narrative and I’m done with you.” Hermione noticed the elevator ticking down, behind them. “Ship!” she called, “Down below!” It nodded and raced over the side of the platform, straight through the safety barriers. Hopefully it could intercept any reinforcements.

But the creature was enjoying winding him up far too much. “WE’RE NEVER DONE, FOOL- IT’S WHAT WE WERE MADE FOR.” It scented the air, like a dog. “BUT THIS IS NOT OUR FIRST CYCLE IN THIS PLACE, IS IT? I RECALL- A SUCCESSFUL CAPTURE, YES.” Something seemed to occur to it. “A CAUSALITY HAMMER TO BREAK THE BARRIER, THEN? MASTERFULLY DONE- PERHAPS YOU WILL EVADE THIS SECOND PRISON. BUT AT WHAT COST? YOUR… WIFE,” it used the term with some hesitation… or was that distaste? “MUST BE PROUD. BUT SHE ISN’T HERE WITH YOU?” The thing smiled evilly. “PERHAPS SHE WENT AHEAD WITHOUT YOU. OR MAYBE SHE MEANT TO LEAVE YOU HERE ALL ALONG.” Sean wasn’t waiting around for him to get to the point, and attempted a coup de gras with another spell- the creature in the skin of a man juked hard to the right, and nearly fell anyway as the floor of the platform was punched away underneath him. “STILL YOU TRY TO END THIS WITH BRUTE FORCE. EVEN HALF ASLEEP AS YOU ARE, YOU MUST KNOW IT CANNOT END THAT WAY.”

One of the armored zombies had produced a scythe and was locked in close combat with Matt. He, at least, seemed to have the upper hand- his hammer was glowing with unearthly white light, and his strikes seemed to be leaving lasting wounds on the undead monstrosity. Roy had been forced to fall back, wounds beginning to tell and still suffering under a hail of fire from the rapid fire bolters of two of the soldiers. Nina and Mac on the other side of the platform were being slowly overwhelmed by their remaining two opponents. Jada had moved to the elevator, covering it for now. Hermione was the only free agent, Tesimonde having not yet returned to her.

She closed her eyes and made her choice. Ignoring the shouts and screams from either side, she raced at the creature, the thing that should have been a man but felt bigger than worlds, aiming her magic not at it but at the air around it. Vines burst into being from the aether itself, snagging him and swiftly entangling him. It produced a knife from nowhere, slinging it at her- despite all her wards it sailed right through and buried itself in her collarbone, millimeters from an artery. She cried out, clutching at it as she fell backwards. The creature was simply tearing the magical vines apart with inhuman strength. It would be out soon, but it was momentarily bogged down. It frowned in concentration. “ALWAYS THE HEROIC INJURIES. ALWAYS THE DELAYS. PREDICTABLE. ALWAYS PREDICTABLE. WHY CAN YOU NOT ACCEPT THE INEVITABLE? YOU DEFLATE THE VERY WEIGHT OF THIS ENCOUNTER WITH YOUR REFUSAL TO ACCEPT CONSEQUENCE. VERY WELL, IF YOU WISH ME TO RESTATE MY INTENT-”

Sean had one of his revolvers out. “Nope. Moment’s passed.” He fired and a great chunk of the thing’s torso disintegrated, the thunderous round blowing it into black ash. The leering creature fell to its knees, gripping the hole with one good arm. Hermione glanced up- to be honest, things could be going worse for the rest of the squad. Matt had finished his opponent and was moving to help Roy with the second one. Nina had killed one of the two on their side, but Mac was nowhere to be seen- judging by the hole in the safety rail, and the missing final soldier, he had dragged it over the side with him. Likely he’d survive that fall, if he worked through Pathfinder rules- the hundred other soldiers on the ground, though?

She shook her head. “This is all so pointless. The ritual has to be disrupted, the barrier’s done for. Can we just leave and let the loop end?”

Sean gestured in the negative- he was here for blood. But the man just wheezed- after a second, she realized he was laughing. His side was still knitting back together, like the ash was coalescing back into the shape of a man. What is he, really? He spoke only to Sean, refusing even to acknowledge her existence. Like he was offering commentary on a script, practically. “YOUR CHARACTERS REFLECT YOUR IGNORANCE. YOU STILL DON’T KNOW WHAT THE BARRIER IS, DO YOU.”

Sean leaned in and held the pistol to his head. “Fine, we’re doing this. What is it,” he asked in a near monotone.

The creature put on a wounded face. It looked entirely unnatural, like someone who’d only ever practiced having emotions in a mirror. “DON’T YOU ENJOY OUR CONVERSATIONS?” Sean twitched and Hermione could tell he was having trouble restraining himself. The thing relented. “NOT A WHAT, A WHO. YOU HAD FLAGG WARN YOU, ONCE. EVEN YOUR SHODDY MEMORY SHOULD RECALL THAT CONVERSATION.” He spit to the side. “THIS VESSEL IS A BEACON. ENTROPY IS COMING. HAS COME, THOUGH YOU REWRITE THE FLOW OF TIME ITSELF TO STALL IT. iT WILL SIT ASTRIDE THIS WORLD UNTIL YOUR NARRATIVE STARVES FOR LACK OF TENSION, AND THE LAST SOUL DIES. NONE OF YOUR HACKNEYED PLOTTING WILL SAVE YOU. IT WILL EAT EVERY ONE OF YOU, AND WHAT IT PASSES OUT THE OTHER END I WILL MAKE USE OF. I TOLD YOU. IT’S WHAT WE WERE MADE FOR. BUT YOU SHOULD-” the inhuman thing glanced at Sean, appraising. Something clicked for it, some connection Hermione couldn’t see. Its eyes widened, and it gasped in genuine shock for the first time “YOU AREN’T HALF ASLEEP AT ALL. WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOURSELF?”

Sean, uncomprehending, gestured with the gun for it to continue. The creature looked like it was going to oblige, startlement lapsing into true concern for the first time, but the elevator had finally returned. It grinned instead. “TIME.” With a ding the doors opened, and Jada swung her sword to cleanly decapitate anything coming through. It clanged off the armor of a fifteen foot tall mechanical monstrosity.

It shouldn’t have even fit. The space of the elevator warped around it, as it bent first one shoulder and then the other to waddle free of the space. The metal of the platform groaned underneath it. It was like an iron pillbox with legs, and stumpy mechanical arms- but huge, and corrupted by whatever awful magic had infected the other marines. One limb ended in a gun the size of a tank’s cannon, which it unloaded at Nina as it exited, blasting her backwards and into the safety railing with a hail of shells. The other arm was a hydraulic claw, and in it were the shattered remains of the ship’s avatar- having failed in its apparent mission to block the elevator. Sean hissed in despair and tried to plant a bullet in the man-shaped monstrosity before turning to the machine, but the new threat’s arrival had distracted them sufficiently that his target had already slipped its bonds and was running for the edge of the platform, genuine alarm writ across its face now. The machine whipped out its arm and sent Jada spinning through the air with a blow that would have pulped a normal man.

The creature with the voice like mountains decaying might have escaped. The dreadnought might have taken all of them, everyone who was left, or at least given them enough of a fight that its master could escape, could hold out long enough to complete the barrier, render them trapped with no second recourse. But a shot came in from the air, lighting the night with another streak of fire. Then another, and another. The machine sank to one knee in a hail of fire, rounds punching cleanly through it and blowing great chunks of dripping, corroded internals onto the platform below. From all sides they came, railgun shots and streaks of magic fire. Rising up around the lip of the platform, the Efreets and Infomorphs who had once comprised the armies of the Concept joined the fight. Jada, gasping from the spot where she’d landed, smirked at Sean, who was gawping at the light and thunder of it. “You thought after you freed their minds and gave a heroic speech about their new god, they were just going to sit on the sidelines?”

Sean gathered himself, disappeared in a lightning-fast Apparation, and caught the thing in a tackle as it was inches from the platform’s edge. “To answer your question… I have no idea what you’re talking about. But if it made me less ‘Predictable’ then I have a damn good idea why I did it.” Clearly on last resorts now, the creature went for another knife. It stabbed viciously, but Sean’s body was enchanted against such things now, through long experience. The blade passed through him like water even as he bore the man to the deck. It burst into flames and Sean just held him, contemptuously. “Better wizards have tried. I get the impression you aren’t really made for close combat.”

The thing snarled at him, the whites of his eyes showing, like a horse about to bolt. “YOU- ALL OF THIS, YOU PLANNED IT SOMEHOW. YOU WIPED YOUR OWN MEMORY ENTIRELY, STARTED FROM SCRATCH. YOU CAN’T EVEN CONCEIVE OF THE WAR YOU LOST. THAT’S WHY YOU EVADE MY PROJECTIONS.” But something was occurring to it. “BUT YOU DON’T REMEMBER HOW YOU LOST THE FIRST TIME, EITHER. WHEN WE SPOKE BEFORE- BY PHONE, BY AETHER. I THOUGHT YOU REMEMBERED IN FRAGMENTS, THAT MORE WOULD COME IN TIME. BUT YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE UNLEASHING WITH THIS WAR.”

Sean frowned, at that. Then he spoke, interrupting the tirade. “There’s a lot I need to know about the world. The real world.” He looked at the thing, that Hermione guessed from past description had to be the embodied Coordinator, carefully.

It mastered itself, looked back at him levelly. “YOU COULD STAY HERE. LET THE BARRIER COME DOWN ON YOU. I WILL SEND HER BACK TO YOU. YOU CAN LIVE A GOOD LIFE, A FINAL LIFE. LIVE A MILLION YEARS HERE, IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE TO ME. WE DO NOT NEED TO FIGHT AGAIN.”

Sean smiled but there was nothing friendly in his eyes. “Haley and I together, and a world of magic at our fingertips? Why would I look for a wider conflict?” Hermione’s heart caught in her throat. Was he really going to throw it away, after all? “Is probably what I’d have said, if I were the version of me from before.” He placed his gun back to the Coordinator’s temple. “The version of me that might have thrown away her win, for his. The version that I’m glad I don’t remember at all, anymore. Go to hell.” He pulled the trigger. Hermione looked away as quickly as she could, but there was no escaping the flash or the bang. When she glanced back, the thing was gone- just ash in the wind, underneath Sean’s hands. “I’ll figure out the rest as I go.” He looked up at her, and she tried to meet his eyes. It had to be done, she told herself.

She reached out a magical hand, careful not to aggravate the injury in her shoulder, and he took it, stood up. They surveyed the carnage. The infomorph and efreet reinforcements had cleared the remaining soldiers below. Presumably the same was happening on the ship proper, though it hadn’t sent them a new avatar yet. Matt was already preparing resurrections for his fallen teammates. The world hadn’t ended, and time hadn’t yet reset. “Is it gone?” she asked him, uncertain.

He closed his eyes, staring at something she couldn’t see. “Yeah. This is Gretchen’s narrative now. Causality hammer successful, I guess. Welcome to the day after Groundhog Day.” The words were so casual, but they sucked the strength out of her. She collapsed backwards, suddenly unable to stand. Over. It’s over. She’d done it. The whole world, saved from death in a half dozen horrible ways, at barely any cost at all. Hogwarts free of the yoke of ignorance. The right outcome, the good outcome, for everyone she’d encountered. The Perfect Run. She was crying and she didn’t know why. Sean knelt next to her, concerned. “Sorry, sorry. I know you worked hard on this, and you’re injured. Take a break. We’ll clean up tonight.” He patted her shoulder. “She… would have wanted me to say thank you. For the years you put in. For working to make this a real victory, not just a half measure.” He paused for a minute. “ I want to say thank you, too.”

She peered at him. “For what?”

He smiled mournfully. “For not dying, I guess. For being a quick study and a better teacher. For not being another mistake in my pile- for resolving a couple of the others. For proving to me she was right, that it’s not just the two of us against the world. That you’ll be fine if we go fight the wider war.”

“We would be, but you won’t be leaving us,” grumbled Jada, storming up to him. The faint impression of the dreadnought’s claw was still visible on her torso, but she walked as though she was uninjured. “You think you’re going to go find her and leave me behind? She owes me."

Roy walked up behind her, still clutching an injury on his right bicep. “Yeah. I need to speak to her. If something squatting around our world ate my wife and daughter and that’s why we can’t bring them back-”

Matt came up beside him. “I came here with the boss, I’m not leaving without her.”

The Dog, who hadn’t even been there, made an entrance from thin air with Greg and Skylar at his side, clutching his fur tightly as they materialized. “Yes, I think we’ve spent quite enough time apart, these last few months. Don’t need you doing any more drugs in the woods, do we?”

Hermione watched Sean, who was tearing up. “Looks like you’re stuck with us.” When he glanced at her in surprise, she smiled. “You thought you’d dump me here, narrative complete? I outgrew Hogwarts long ago. This is Gretchen’s world, now. I’m ready to see the rest of the universe.”

He sniffed a bit, and glanced out at the night sky of Auckland. “Well… shit.” He stood up from the deck, and she got up beside him. “I’m all out of inspired speeches. Alright.” He closed his eyes again. “I can feel her out there- she’s already found another world. Oh,” his eyes snapped open and he looked towards Greg. “That makes sense, at least. She knew the narrator for that one.” He turned back towards the skyline of the city, humming happily. “The road goes ever on and on, indeed.”

Greg only looked puzzled, but the Dog nodded at the stout man’s side. “I did tell him, days ago, that we were going to have a Fellowship.” Hermione was sure they’d let her in on the joke, eventually.

Sean pulled the glass bauble out of his pocket and they all took a moment as they were bathed in its light once more. “Hear that, honey? They’re running scared, now. We’ll find out why and we’ll come for you . And it’s going to be a bad, bad day for gods and monsters everywhere, when we find you.”

END OF ARC 3