Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Shared Flame	By : TheLadyMiya Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Hermione/Voldemort Views: 58981 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 5
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and I do not make any money writing this.

Chapter List
- 25
- 26
- 27
Hello! Sorry for the rather short chapter, but this is one of the most important in the story, so I didn’t want it to lose focus. Hope you like it!

I want to thank Nerys and Shan84 for betaing this chapter, and everyone else for reading and reviewing. I really appreciate your feedback.

Review replies can be found here: http://www2.adult-fanfiction.org/forum/index.php/topic/20494-shared-flame-by-lady-miya/

Chapter 25

After they had put a tired and cranky Althea in bed, Hermione went out to the kitchen to make herself some tea. After everything that had happened in the Burrow, she felt a bit shaky and needed something to relax.

Voldemort seemed to be in a foul mood as well, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to ask why. Merlin knows what he and Harry had talked about when they’d been alone in Ginny’s bedroom.

“Tea?” she asked instead.

“Fine,” he replied and sat down at the kitchen table.

A few minutes later, she had placed two steaming cups on the table.

“Why would someone want me to have an abortion?” she finally asked. The question had naturally been on her mind for the last hour, but she hadn’t managed to come up with a single answer to it.

“One would assume they don’t want my child to be born,” he muttered darkly.

Hermione took another sip, a bit disappointed that he didn’t seem to know the answer either.

“Our child,” she mumbled.

“Right.” Voldemort closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “But why?”

She regarded him closely. She suddenly wondered if he knew something about the child and just didn’t want to tell her?

“Perhaps they know something about it that I don’t?”

He opened his eyes and looked at her. “Are you suggesting that I know something about the child that you don’t?”

“The Healer, or whatever she was, said that children could be very dangerous under a bad influence,” she stated. “You could be considered a bad influence.”

“True, but if I were the bad influence, shouldn’t they try to keep Althea from me as well?”

She had to admit it didn’t make sense. “And you don’t have any plans on how to use this child to gain world domination or anything like that?”

He rolled his eyes. “Yes, of course, once the child is born, I’m slowly going to turn it into a copy of myself and together we shall rule the world. Hear my evil laughter.”

“A simple ‘no’ would have been sufficient,” she replied sourly.

He snorted and drank from his tea.

“Fine, so if you aren’t planning anything with it, why would they want to kill it?”

“I have no idea. It could be something you have done, or we together have—” Voldemort stopped mid-sentence, his mouth still a little open. His eyes were focused on something far off in the distance.

Hermione was about to ask what he was thinking when he rose, his eyes once again on her.

“I need you to go away and do something else for a couple of hours,” he suddenly ordered.

Hermione arched an eyebrow. “This is my flat; why should I leave?”

He scowled. “Then stay in the bedroom.”

She crossed her arms, getting angry. “I’m not one of your minions, Voldemort. Tell me what you are planning to do, and I may go away.”

His wand appeared in his hand. Before Hermione even had time to draw hers, he had already hit her with a spell, and she fell down, unconscious.

When she woke up, she was lying naked in bed. It was dark outside, and the round alarm clock on her nightstand told her it was six o’clock. Slightly disorientated, she couldn’t tell if it were early evening or morning. Looking around the room, she noticed that Althea’s bed was empty. Before she had time to start worrying, she heard the soft hissing of Parseltongue coming from the other side of the door. Voldemort was still there, then.

Her fury rising, she pulled on her dressing gown and opened the door. Voldemort and Althea were eating dinner together, but he looked up when she entered.

“Ah, you’re awake. Are you hungry?”

Her eyes narrowed, and she stalked to the table. Before the frustrating man could say anything else, she slapped him at the back of his head.

“Ouch,” Voldemort said, not sounding like he actually meant it.

She withdrew her wand, wanting to let him feel what it was like to become unconscious like that.

“NO!” Althea flew up from her seat and threw herself around Hermione. “Don’t hurt Daddy again!”

Hermione froze and looked down at her daughter. Althea’s wide brown eyes were filled with fear. Hermione recalled the last time Althea had seen her raise her wand at Voldemort. It had been the time she had tried to kill him. Guilt washed over her, and she sat down, embracing Althea.

“It’s okay, sweetie. I won’t hurt your father,” she mumbled to her daughter and sent Voldemort a deadly glare. He looked way too pleased with himself.

Althea started to sob against Hermione’s chest. Hermione stroked her hair, trying to calm the girl down. Voldemort slid down from his chair as well and spoke a few comforting words in Parseltongue. At least Hermione thought it was comforting, judging by the softness in Voldemort’s tone.

“Let’s continue to eat, Althea,” Voldemort said in English after a moment, leading Althea back to her chair. “I’m sure your mother is hungry as well. That’s probably why she tried to hurt me.”

Hermione glared at him again, but followed his lead and sat down at the kitchen table. Althea had stopped sobbing, but she continued to look at Hermione with worry. Not until Hermione had served herself some of the rice and fish stew did Althea turn back to eating.

“I can tell what you’re thinking, Hermione,” Voldemort said casually. “And before you start coming up with ways to hex me in my sleep, just let me explain why I did it.”

“Fine. Talk,” Hermione said, carefully keeping her temper in check.

“Do you understand German?” he asked.

“Hardly anything,” she answered and started eating. It was just as delicious as it smelled. Damn him. Someone so evil shouldn’t be allowed to create wonderful things.

“Very well, I’ll summarise for you. If you think I’m lying, you can take the book and do your own translation.”

“What book?” she asked, starting to become curious. She knew Voldemort wouldn’t curse her for just anything. If this were about a book, then it was probably a very special book. Hermione liked special books.

He went to the coffee table at the other side of the room and picked up a book and a notepad before he came back to the kitchen table.

“Mum, will you be nice to Dad now?” Althea asked. She had finished eating, and Hermione guessed she wanted to go and play but wasn’t sure she could leave her parents alone.

“Yes, very nice,” Hermione said, doing her best to sound honest. “Why don’t you sit on the couch and paint something pretty? That way, you can see that I won’t hurt him.”

Althea seemed very pleased with that proposal and skipped to the couch. Hermione shook her head. Merlin, that girl had a shifting temperament, just like her father. That thought did not comfort Hermione at all.

“This book,” Voldemort said once Althea was at the couch. He placed a book down in front of Hermione. The binder was blue without any pictures or text, except on the side where a title in German was written. She opened it but couldn’t understand any of the text; the letters were so tiny and the sentences so crowded that she had to squint her eyes to even attempt to read one line properly.

“What’s it about, then?” she asked and pushed the book back to him, resuming her eating.

“I think several people have contributed to its contents, but the author, Konrad Bäcker, has put it all together. He was his own publisher, but few were interested in his writings, and it only sold a couple of copies.”

“But what is it actually about?” she asked again, getting annoyed.

“I stumbled across it because it contains an explanation for Legilimency through touch,” Voldemort said slowly.

Hermione’s eyes widened in curiosity. “And what does it say about that?”

“There have been documentations throughout history of wizards and witches who have had the ability to use Legilimency through touch on one witch or wizard, but only that specific person. They were never able to duplicate it with another individual. These pairs are referred to as people with a Shared Flame.”

“Shared Flame?” Hermione asked, not familiar with the name.

Voldemort flipped the pages again. “Loosely translated, this says: ‘In almost every culture, references to this phenomenon can be found. In Ancient Greece, the great magical theorist, Plato, described it as Soul Mates. This interpretation of the phenomenon has been passed on to every European culture and its subjects. It also goes on to explain how in certain Asian countries it was seen differently. They referred to it as Magic Mates, Soul Bonds, etc.’ You get the picture, I hope?”

Hermione could see on Voldemort’s face that he actually believed this. If he were about to mock the theory, his lips would have been curved upwards in an arrogant look. Now, he only seemed to be serious. She nodded.

So, he continued quoting:

“‘Even if people acknowledge their belief in Soul Mates, they mean it as something coming from true love. These studies, however, show that, what can be described as Soul Mates, doesn’t necessarily have to be a connection of love. Instead, what binds them together is something in their magical being. Since the term Soul is an already established term—which means the core of one’s being—we describe this phenomenon with a different term, namely that two people have a Shared Flame.’ And yes, that is what it says in the book,” Voldemort added when he saw her raised eyebrow. “That was just a summary; he describes quite greatly why Soul is a bad term to use on this phenomenon since it’s so connected to religious beliefs, whilst this is science.”

“When was the book written?” Hermione asked.

“1970. The author spent his whole life researching this.”

“It sounds like it was written by a Muggle,” Hermione remarked.

Voldemort grimaced. “That’s because it is.”

Hermione blinked at him. He actually believed something that had to do with magic but was written by a Muggle? Could pigs fly as well? However, if she gloated now, he would probably not say anything else. Instead, she saved the gloating for another time.

“So, Shared Flame? How do they describe it?”

Voldemort, looking a bit uncomfortable, continued: “The phenomenon is when two people have the same of something described as ‘Flame’.”

“Which is?”

Voldemort put the book open on the table and then looked at her. “What is magic, Hermione?”

“The energy we control and can use to affect the world around us,” Hermione said, quoting the book Magical Theory almost word for word.

Voldemort snorted. “Yes, but what does it mean?”

“It means that ...” Hermione hesitated. This was starting to feel like a school test, and she didn’t want to fail. “We have this energy inside us... Is that the Flame they are talking about?”

“Yes, but you are skipping too far ahead. How come wizards and some animals can use magic, whilst Muggles and the majority of other animals can’t?”

“They don’t have magic inside them,” Hermione replied slowly.

“A theory as to why Muggle-borns have magic is explained here.” He pointed at the book and began reading again. “‘Sometimes it happens that a wizard or a witch acquires a Flame that is too big for one body to handle. When this happens, the Flame will split in two and jump into another suitable body.’ Therefore, the Flame, or magic, or whatever you wish to call it, is the same in two different bodies.”

Hermione stared at him, blinked, and stared again. Then, she scowled. “Oh, come on, you don’t expect me to fall for the whole ‘Mudbloods have stolen wizards’ magic’ again, do you?”

“I didn’t say steal,” he replied sourly.

Her scowl deepened. “Sorry, no, you just happened to find a book in a foreign language that says Muggle-borns don’t have magic of their own but get it from others. You can’t tell me this won’t end up with you thinking I owe you all my magic—”

Suddenly, no words came out of her mouth. She growled silently at Voldemort; he had cast a Silencing Charm on her, and she didn’t even notice.

“Let me finish first. I’m not truly convinced that this is true, but there are a lot of things that make sense. Like their explanation on how this ‘Sharing’ of a ‘Flame’ happens. They claim to have a documented case. A witch tried to get more magic through a ritual; however, afterwards, she felt weaker. A month or so later, another witch was born to Muggle parents, not far from where the first witch had done her ritual. This witch developed the same strong magical abilities as the older witch. When they met, a strong bond was formed between them.” Voldemort tilted his head. “You were born September 19th, 1979 in Romsey, correct?”

The bad feeling in her gut increased as she reluctantly nodded.

“Do you know what I did in August 1979?”

She pressed her lips together and shook her head.

He put his hands together over the top of the book. “I had just heard about a prophecy that spoke of a boy who would be my downfall. I tried to do a dark ritual, which would assimilate a lot more magic for me. The perfect place to do so was in a forest just outside Romsey. I thought I failed because I woke up the next day feeling rather bad, and it took me quite some time to recover and regain my strength again.”

Hermione stared at him. He smiled, reached across the table and grabbed her hand. Sparks of pleasure travelled up her arm.

“I don’t believe in coincidences, Hermione,” he said mildly, looking down at her hand as he stroked her fingers gently. She was too shocked to move. “And I don’t believe that Soul Mates have anything to do with love. Yet, when we touch … Why would I find it so pleasurable if it weren’t because I met a part of myself? A part that is longing to come back to me.”

He looked into her eyes again. “You are a witch because I shared the ‘Flame’ that is my magic with you.”

Hermione withdrew her hand as if he had burnt her. This was surreal. Perhaps it was just a coincidence? Coincidences did happen sometimes. It had to be a coincidence! She had always thought that she was just the next stage in the evolution of her family, or that her family had some magical blood in their past somewhere that had just become activated in her again. Of course, his theory didn’t necessarily contradict any of the theories she had had. He had said that the Flame jumped to the nearest suitable body. Of all the people who had been born in Romsey around the same time as she was, why would his ‘Flame’ jump to her? Perhaps she would have been a witch anyway, but not as powerful?

“There is one thing that doesn’t make sense... Dumbledore said that Harry and Ginny were Soul Mates as well.”

Not until he answered did she realise she had got her voice back and had spoken out loud.

“Dumbledore was wrong about what a Soul Mate is, Hermione,” Voldemort reminded her. “We came to that conclusion right after you‘d seen him. In his eyes, Potter and Weasley may have been a perfect love match, and they may fit into Plato’s description of the term Soul Mates, but they are not connected in the same way as we are.”

Well, that was true at least. Harry and Ginny had never behaved the same way around each other as she and Voldemort did. Harry hadn’t even been interested in Ginny until several years after they had first met. It wasn’t like Voldemort and she, who had got together because their bodies seemed drawn together.

“But how could this be?” Hermione asked out loud. “Are all Muggle-borns a result of powerful wizards and witches trying to get more magic than their bodies can handle? Because I know of several Muggle-borns who aren’t very powerful.”

He tapped with his right index finger on the book. “The wizard or witch doesn’t have to be powerful to begin with. The body can take in more magic; like I do when we have sex. It’s when the body tries to take in a lot more magic at once that this seems to occur.”

“So all Muggle-borns have a Soul Mate or someone with the same magic as them?”

He shrugged. “The book does leave the possibility open that a Muggle-born can occur for other reasons. There doesn’t have to be one big explanation for why there are Muggle-borns in the world. In fact, I don’t think all Muggle-borns are created this way. Magic to increase your own magic is considered Dark Arts. And there are only a few practising dark wizards and witches these days, and yet, there has been a steady increase in Muggle-borns.”

Hermione hated the unspoken “but you are created this way”. She did not want to be a result of Voldemort taking on more than he could manage.

Voldemort continued: “However, this theory about a Shared Flame does explain something I have been puzzled by for quite some time. Namely: Why so many dark wizards and witches have had Muggle-born spouses or lovers who were always younger than them. It also explains why some notorious Muggle-haters have been with Muggle-borns. Like Grindelwald.”

Hermione absorbed this new knowledge in silence for a few minutes. “But if this is true, why hasn’t this theory been tested before? A lot of people have tried to find out why Muggle-borns exist.”

“Yes. But since this book was written by a Muggle, no-one will actually believe it. I wouldn’t if it hadn’t happened to me.”

“So you do believe in it?” she asked.

“It explains everything we have experienced in a reasonable way. The pleasure to touch is because the magic in us wants to be united. The Flame gets, for lack of a better word, ‘happy’ to be together. The Legilimency through touch, which you do, is the same. My magic recognises yours as part of my magic, and thus, my Occlumency can’t stop you since it would be like stopping my own thoughts. However, I should point out that I can do the same to you, even if you had strong abilities in Occlumency, which you don’t. That being said, I will conduct my own research before I draw any conclusions based on one person’s theory.”

Hermione wasn’t very fond of this at all. “But this doesn’t make sense. How could a Muggle find out all of this? This is something not even modern wizards know a lot about.”

“Konrad Bäcker was a Muggle physicist and biologist. Apparently, his daughter was a Muggle-born who found her Soul Mate or Shared Flame,” Voldemort replied dryly. “Turns out you are not the only Muggle-born who tells her parents everything. Although, in her case, with ‘everything’, I do mean everything. At least you have the common sense to keep some things hidden. She told her father every single detail of her life. That was why he studied it. He wanted to find a way to break the bond between his daughter and her Soul Mate.”

“Who was he?”

“Grindelwald of course.”

Hermione sighed. Of course. “Did her father succeed?”

“No. As you know, Dumbledore beat Grindelwald. Bäcker discovered then that his daughter was very unhappy to be away from him. She never managed to find another lover.”

Hermione sat in silence and thought about what he had told her. It did sound more believable than anything else she had heard and read about the subject so far. Still, it didn’t really change anything. They would still get married. She was still pregnant. They still didn’t know why someone appeared to want her unborn child dead.

“Does it say anything about why someone would want to murder the second child of a couple with a Shared Flame?” she asked after a long while.

“No. Some of the cases Bäcker studied had children, but he didn’t comment upon it other than that the children were magical.”

“Are any of them alive today? Perhaps we could find them and ask?”

Voldemort smiled. “That was why I told you about this. Together, I believe we can track them down. Bäcker doesn’t mention any of them by name, but I’m sure he must have kept a record somewhere. It’s a long shot, but maybe some of them have had a similar experience, and then, we may find out the motive behind the person who is trying to kill our child.”

He was right; it was a long shot. Hermione pressed a hand against her stomach. She would do anything to find out why someone wanted her child dead. If they knew why, then maybe, they could also find out who it was. Once they knew that … Well, Voldemort might be the mass murderer in the family, but Hermione knew she would be able to give him a run for his money when someone was threatening her children.
- 25
- 26
- 27
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Shared Flame