the last verse ; harry potter [2]

twenty eight ; the galaxy untold

Vera Beauregard opened her eyes to the sight of stars.

They were everywhere; stars amongst swirls of cerulean and lilac and black, stars shrouded in the mist of the universe, clustered into galaxies and solar systems. She had the entire universe right before her eyes; each cosmic burst and each pulsing star and each dying light as far as the universe existed. It was unlike anything she had ever seen before. Unlike anything she could've ever dreamed.

She was sitting upright. She knew only because the entire universe shifted beneath her. There was a weight on her right shoulder; a hand, warm and small and delicate atop the woman's light dress.

"Where am I? What is this--I can't see, I can't see, there's only stars--"

The hand gripped tighter, reassuringly. "Please, calm down, look at me, look at me---"

She did. First, it was only the endless universe to her left, then a face began to soak through. Youthful and dark, her hair pulled back into a messy plait. The girl shone of familiarity, the same eyes and the same face and the same bones beneath the same skin. She was a mirror of her mother and father. She was a mirror of the bloodlines she had coursing within her.

"Focus, focus on me. . ." the girl was saying, and Vera obeyed. Soon, the entire galaxy began blotting out of existence, slowly and slowly until she could see the windowless room around her and the young girl beside her. The galaxy was not gone; it lurked in the shadows, hid inside of the girl's eyes, alighted with each quick movement like an aura. It was there, always with her.

"Mum?"

Vera had been staring at the girl's eyes. She saw the northern constellations within them.

"What did you just call me?"

Diana's constellated eyes widened, panicked. "Oh, I didn't mean---?"

"You called me 'mum,'" said Vera in a whisper. "Diana?"

The word rang throughout the galaxy around them like gravitational waves. Something so painfully right lurked behind the word. A mother and her daughter; blood and blood. A unification of lost souls destined to find each other some day. It was all the words Vera could've said and more. It was all of the years lost, all of the years the had never had. It was the stuff of dreams. The stuff of far-flung hopes.

Diana's words failed her. Her beautiful mother, a face no older than a young woman, with kind, powerful eyes and dark hair, just like Diana's. This was the stuff of Diana's dreams. The stuff of her far-flung hopes.

"You found me," whispered Vera.

And those words hit Diana all too powerfully. All of her years had been leading to this, each conversation with Dumbledore, each silent night at St. Mungo's; she lamented the same song for as long as she could remember: I will find you.

You found me.

Diana couldn't remember what her place in this war was anymore. Was it to destroy the man she shared blood with? Was it to wake her sleeping mother in the Chamber beneath the castle? Was it to save each one she held dear? She couldn't remember which one she was meant to do from the very beginning. Maybe it was all of them. Maybe they were all the same thing.

"You are so beautiful," Vera breathed. She tucked a stray lock of hair behind her daughter's ear. "I am so proud of you. . ."

"I found you," Diana whispered. "I finally found you."

Vera smiled. It looked so natural to Diana, as if she had grown up her entire life seeing this woman's smile every day.

"What happened to you?"