The Slytherin Heiress

Chapter || 21

I stumble down the steps, my heart worn and tired as Harry drops to his knees. Voldemort is dead and so is Vera. My heart aches just thinking her name.

I make my way to her body and drop to my knees. Her skin is pale and cold, her lips parted. If I stare long enough perhaps I can trick myself into thinking she is simply asleep. A hand is placed on my shoulder and I flinch away. Harry Potter stands over me before kneeling beside me.

"She knew didn't she?" He asks. "She knew she was a horcrux."

I simply nod in reply before a question rattles in my skull.

"How are you alive?" I asks him.

"I'm not sure." He says.

"You have to know," I say choking back a sob. "You have to. Maybe whatever you did can bring her back too. Please Harry."

He looks at me sadly before his eyes narrow. My stomach turns as he looks at Vera.

"Accio stone." He says.

A stone flies past my head from the direction of the forest. He holds it out to me, glancing around him.

"What is that?" I ask.

"The resurrection stone."

"You're not playing me are you?" I ask. "I know I was cruel to you but this is just-"

"I'm not." Harry interupts. "How do you think I'm here?"

I take the stone and he instructs me to flip it three times in my palm. I look at him quizzically before I decide I have no better option. I flip it three times and seemingly nothing happens.

"This is cruel, Potter." Pansy says beside me, I hadn't realized her and Balise were here as well before I place my head in my hands.

╔═══*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*═══╗

White light blinds my eyes. I push myself to my feet and find myself to be surrounded in pillars stretching forever. I'm dead. This is death.

I make my way to a white stone bench and see a disfigured thing covered in blood cowering under it. It looks like my father before he was reborn. I stumble back and take in my surroundings once more before a figure steps from the end of the room. I move to grab my wand. Apparently there is no wands in the after life.

"Who are you?" I ask.

The sillowett turns to a tall woman with long blonde hair. She wears green robes and a kind smile. I watch her carefully as she steps closer her smile turning bitter.

"My sweet child." She mutters and her face becomes familiar from an old blurred portrait of her and my father and I was a babe.

"Mum?" My breath leaves my body as I throw my arms around her.

"My darling girl, look how you've grown. You are so beautiful." She says before I pull away.

"Am I dead?" I ask.

"Not yet," she explains. "Your body is, but this is meant to be an in between. This is a place for souls who were not yet ready to pass."

"So I'm a ghost with 'unfinished business?" I ask and she chuckles.

"In a way." She says, stroking my cheek. "You did a very brave thing today."

"I, I didn't even know what I was doing." I say honestly. "Did it work?"

"Not yet." She says. "Time is an odd thing here. As of now in life your body lays in the courtyard while the battle continues."

"How do you know this?"

"Look for your self." She says.

She waves her hand and I watch the battle Draco fights as well now, battling a Death eater.

"Draco, he. . ." I begin before I choke on a sob. "He's fighting, I have to help. I have to go back."

"Not yet my dear." She says, taking the image away. "The time will come, I promise you, as of now you would only only interfere."

"Interfere with what?" I ask.

"The great prophesy." She smiles. "I see them, all will be right I am sure of it my child."

"You can see the future?" I ask.

"In a sense, yes." She says. "That is why your father wished for me to join him. That is why I married him, why I chose to have you. You were always apart of the plan, but that does not mean I love you any less. I only wish I could have been there to watch you grow by your side."

"How did you die?" I ask. "Father said it was in the first battle but. . ."

"Your father was the one who killed me." She says coldly. "I did not prove useful to him anymore. To protect you I told him that you would help him rule, that without you his plans would decay."

"Mother?" I begin and she nods. "What will become of Draco?"

My mother smiles softly and presses her lips against my temple. All will be well, that is one story I want you to live through. I won't spoil it."

I feel a tug in my gut.

"It seems your time has come my dear." She says not allowing me to respond. "I love you Verena. I am always with you, remember that."

"Wait mum, I-"

"I am so proud of you." She presses a soft kitt to my temples before I am ripped from her arms.