The Phantom Stranger

The Phantom Stranger is the twentieth chapter in the Wombles Seven.

Hermione didn’t know what to do.  She wasn’t thinking straight.  She saw a knife on the table and took it in her hand.  Then she slowly and quietly started to walk upstairs.

Hermione opened the door to Harry and Ginny’s bedroom then closed her eyes and braced herself for the moment to come.  She couldn’t bear to look at what she was doing so she turned her head away and took a wild swing with the knife.  But she felt another hand clasp it.  Hermione turned to look at Ginny, but Ginny wasn’t there. Instead, there was a man wearing a long purple trench coat with a matching trilby hat and a blue eye mask. He seemed to be glowing.

“Hermione Granger” said the man.  “It’s Weasley.” Replied Hermione, not really knowing why she cared.  “For now” said the man, tilting his head.  “What do you mean?”  “There’s no telling what you’ll be called by the end of this year.  It could be Weasley.  But it could go back to Granger.  Or perhaps it could be… Potter?”  “How do you know about-“  “I only know what I was told by a higher authority.  But it’s enough.  Now let me ask you this… who do you love?”  “I don’t know…”  “And that is your problem.  Clearly, you don’t care much about killing Mr Potter’s wife.”  “What?  Of course I care!  I just-“ “Have a clouded judgement.  So, this perhaps could mean you love him?  Or since you didn’t stop to think how killing his wife would affect him- perhaps it means you don’t?”  “…Who are you?”  “You can call me the Phantom Stranger.  But I’d prefer not to reveal my true name.”  “Well, stranger, I don’t have time for-“  “Of course you do.  The exact time that is required for this little meeting is zero hours, zero minutes, zero seconds, zero milliseconds.  No time at all.”

The Phantom Stranger stood up.  “Now, I’m afraid I’m forbidden from altering any outcomes- but I can give you some advice to help you reach it.”  “Go ahead.”  “I already have.  You simply need to decide who you love and choose them.  The great Harry Potter or your husband Ron Weasley?  Must be difficult.”

Then the Phantom Stranger disappeared, and Hermione found herself standing over Ginny again.  She put the knife down in guilt, then walked out of the house.

As Hermione was walking, she saw a flash of blue coming from a nearby building.  Then she heard screaming.  Familiar screaming.

Hermione ran toward the building and burst through the doors.  The guards tried to stop her, but she knocked them out with a spell.  Then she ran to the blue glow.  There stood an aging man who looked very stern who was bald apart from grey hair around the back and sides.  He had stubble growing and had an old fashioned brown pipe in his mouth. But what was unusual about him was that the blue glow was coming from him.  In his hand was a glowing blue stone and standing in front of him was a very worried looking Ron.

“Hermione?  No, stay back!  M is using the Philosopher’s Stone dangerously!  Get to safety!”  “I thought the Philosopher’s Stone was red though?”  “There are multiple Philosopher’s Stones!  The red one was destroyed!  This one is made from a different substance!”

“Yes, this one is made from Blue Kryptonite.”  Hermione, Ron and M all turned their heads to see Lillian Luthor.

Lady Diana had woken up not knowing where she was. The last thing she remembered…well, she wasn’t sure really. She knew her name, who she was. But as for what she had been doing a week ago, a day ago, even an hour ago…she simply didn’t know.

Suddenly, in the pitch darkness of the cell, a light shone. It was a lantern, being carried by Long Since Forgotten Steed. She heard his words as if they were from a long distance away. “Ready, Diana?”

“It’s Lady Diana.” She replied weakly. “I know.” Said LSFS. “I don’t care.”

“I don’t know what you even want.” Said Lady Diana, already getting weary of the conversation. LSFS smiled evilly. “We want you to make our power stronger. More…permanent.  So we can keep somebody in their dream state forever.”

“Why would I do that for anyone?” snapped Lady Diana. Snapping seemed to take up all her breath and give her a harsh headache.  She groaned, leaning into the wall and almost fainting. The reply came in a millisecond, accompanied by a long, sharp knife. “You are about to find out.”

Lady Diana woke from her nightmare with a gasp. It had been a mere fragment of what had happened months ago. She had pretended to cave in and obey but instead she had broken their power so that it did little harm and simply pulled people into the depths of a curious imagination.

She opened her curtains, still wondering why TODE hadn’t just tried to hypnotise her. She could think of a reason, only not why they’d know it.  It was the main thing that bothered her, really. Especially when that reason also meant that Cadmus might come after her.

The woman who’d flung the door, meanwhile, was looking at what she truly believed was “fake” footage of Katy being evil and trying to figure out how she was going to prove it. Obviously, she hadn’t come even close to succeeding due to the fact that it wasn’t fake.

“There has to be some way that I-“ she began, but she was cut off by being knocked out since Mordax had just come in to take her to fill in as somebody’s prop on Room 101, like Audrey earlier had.

The woman who’d flung the door was surprised when she woke up to discover that she seemed to be quite paralyzed. Somebody next to her was saying, “I want to put Teresa Lisbon in.”

“What? What do you want to put me in?” she attempted to say but of course she was unable to speak.  This was clearly rather disturbing for her.