St. Mungo's

Following the funeral, Eva and I spent the following three days at the mansion. One could argue that we were recuperating from recent events. Certainly, for me that was true. Since my shoulder and thigh had been cut by a relatively powerful curse, the wounds were healing at a snail's pace. Blood constantly oozed from the gashes and a witch came to the mansion twice a day to change my bandages and check their condition. As such, my energy levels were less than optimal.

While I was resting, I took the opportunity to peruse through my mother's diary as well as some books in our library. Sarah's diary contained no jarring or shocking family secrets; it simply detailed the happenings and feelings she went through in her life. As I read through it, I paid careful attention to my emotions. When I felt the full range of emotions – sadness, nostalgia, joy, grief – during my read-through, I again had a feeling of incongruity. Those emotions were not mine.

I then performed a series of experiments. One by one, I recalled different memories from my past life. They ranged from seductions and sexual encounters to assassinations to my grueling training, both in combat and intellectual pursuits. When I thought of intimate memories, feelings of bashfulness, curiosity, and fright surged through me. For assassinations, I felt repulsion and a desire to throw up the contents of my stomach. For combat training I felt fear, while for intellectual learning I had more of a resigned feeling.

Ultimately, not one of the strong emotions I felt were ways that I, Agent 57, should have felt when recalling those memories.

This basically confirmed one of the hypotheses I had had. The original Keira was not dead. Somehow or another, our consciousnesses or souls were within the same body. Had we fused together? Perhaps. Would she one day resume control over this body? Maybe.

As of now, I had no answers, but I was determined to seek them out.

Speaking of seeking out answers, over these past three days I had spent a great deal of time pondering over the direction I wanted to take in life. I was now free to do as I wished – within reason, as I assumed the original Keira would interfere with things she strongly opposed.

Naturally, now being in a magical world, I was determined to learn as much magic as possible. Being a soldier previously, I also wanted to keep my body fit. I knew I didn't want to follow someone else's orders. Nor did I want to kill needlessly in this life. And, largely due to how I was rigorously trained since birth, it was part of my nature to hate being idle.

But none of this told spoke as to who I wanted to become. Being from an extremely wealthy family, the possibilities were endless, but I didn't know which possibility to seize.

By the end of these three days, I decided to shelve the issue temporarily. For now, I would just focus on getting stronger.

For Eva, these three days were used not so much to recuperate as to help her escape from reality. Her best friends were dead, her husband was in a St. Mungo's ward being treated for his insanity, and she had just assumed the role of my mother.

Each morning she would sleep in until almost noon. Though she put on a happy appearance when she was around me and did her best to act normal, I could tell her smile was strained. When she cooked – she insisted on cooking despite the dozen house elves owned by my family – she would only pick at her food.

To try and cheer her up, I would start up conversations about various magic creatures I had read about these past few days. I chose this topic because Eva had been working and studying to get her teaching certificate in Care of Magical Creatures – Elric had also been aiming for his teaching certificate but in Defense Against the Dark Arts. In the wizarding world, to get a teaching certificate one had to privately tutor for 2500 hours, get letters of recommendation from ten families who were not related to the teacher, and pass both a written and practical test at the Ministry. Eva, being only a little over twenty-two years old, had already nearly reached the tutoring hours needed.

I was happy to find Eva's eyes light up at the topic. We spent hours talking about different creatures. I would often interject with questions about how to care for them, their habits and habitats, and dangers one could face. With each of my questions, Eva became more enthused. Her speaking became more rapid and her voice raised in volume. Inwardly, I couldn't help but chuckle. She was a true research nut.

On the morning of the fourth day since the funeral, Eva had started to return to her old self. Instead of waking up at noon, she woke up at 10. Instead of a totally forced smile, it was only partially forced.

Seeing this, I decided to broach the topic of visiting Elric – something I wanted to do out of both desire and duty. "Eva, I want to go see Elric today."

Eva's smile instantly disappeared. Biting her lower lip, I could see worry and even fear paint her face. After a minute of thinking, she finally said, "Alright. There's no point delaying it. Besides…I want to see him too." She said the last part in a whisper, almost as if she were trying to convince herself.

"But first we should stop at the Ministry to take out your parents' will and fill out the paperwork for me being your guardian."

An hour later we found ourselves in the Ministry. As soon as they arrived, a Ministry employee noticed their presence and scampered off in a hurry. At the Administration Registration Department, the department head, a nervous-looking wizard by the name of Frederick Moon, was waiting for them. It was clear from his almost scared attitude that he had heard about the previous Ministry incident with Keira and had been warned to handle her with his utmost care.

Thanks to the Ministry's attitude, we were given priority over everything else. The will was simple, my parents leaving every single asset they owned to me. Though I hadn't perused through them yet, my mother had already given me all the financial statements, property deeds, contact details, etc., before she died.

Eva assuming official guardianship over me also took very little time. I also took that opportunity to change my name to Keira Knight Eilean. This had gotten me a warm smile from Eva.

Finally, everything taken care of, we left the Ministry and apparated outside of St. Mungo's. Then, walking through the window of a condemned red-bricked department store, we crossed the magical barrier and entered St. Mungo's proper. Eva then led me up to the Janus Thickey Ward on the fourth floor.

Entering a room, I got my first look at the now insane Elric. His hair was disheveled and his unmatched clothes were wrinkled. When he saw Eva walk in, his face lit up. "Eva! Are you ready for our date tonight?"

Eva froze on hearing his question. Her face was stiff while her eyes were wild as if wishing to flee the situation. After a few seconds, she managed to calm down. A big smile then overtook her face and she even began to twirl her hair around her finger. "Of course," she said in a cheery voice. "I can't wait to see what you've got planned."

Elric gave out a loud, boisterous laugh. "You won't be disappointed. I already confirmed it with Devin and Sarah and they're still good for tonight as well. Just don't forget to wear your best dress." Elric and Eva continued flirting with each other and talking about their fake date.

I stayed in the corner of the room, more than a little shocked. I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't this. It was as if Elric had forgotten everything in the past 5-6 years and he had reverted to being a teenager in love. I kept cursing the Death Eaters over and over in my head as their conversation continued and the hurt in Eva's eyes grew deeper. What the Death Eaters had done – and Voldemort for that matter – were not actions in the pursuit of some ideal. The actions weren't even geared towards societal domination. It was pure psychopathy, plain and simple.

My anger was raging in me. It was a fire that came from both mine and the original Keira's emotions. She was sad and angry at seeing her godfather in the condition he was. I was angry because, while war and death go hand-in-hand – no one should be made to suffer like this.

After what seemed like a half hour had came and went, Elric finally noticed me. "Oh, hello little girl. What's your name?"

I gave a quick glance to Eva, wondering if I should respond to him in a certain way. She looked back at me but gave no indication on what I should do. So, I simply answered, "Keira, sir."

His brow momentarily scrunched up on hearing my name, but he quickly returned to his jovial self. "Nice to meet you, Keira. Where're your parents? Surely you're not here all alone are you?"

"I…umm…"

"She's my cousin," Eva interjected hurriedly. "I don't think you've met my Uncle Gregory yet, but this is his daughter. She's just visiting for the weekend. But don't worry, her being here won't interfere with our date. She can stay in my room reading while we go have fun." She spoke all this in a single breath.

Elric's eyes lit up. "Your cousin, huh? Well, it's my pleasure, Miss Keira. Maybe you can help me charm your cousin a little," he said, winking at me.

"Of course," I said, picking up on the act. "I'm sure I can think of a way to…"

"But," he interrupted, his face no longer smiling, "why are you here at Hogwarts?"

As soon as those words left his mouth, the smiles vanished from mine and Eva's faces. We knew we had messed up.

Replacing Eva's smile was a look of fear. She hesitatingly took a step back, away from Elric. "S-she's here…b-b-because," she stuttered. As she panicked, she moved her hands about and the light just so happened to glint off her wedding ring.

"Eva," Elric started coldly, "why do you have a ring on your ring finger? Did you get engaged?"

"N-no! Of course not!" Eva hid her hands behind her back and tried to take off the ring, but it was on too tightly.

Elric slowly rose from his bed. He glared at Eva as he did so. "I can tell from your reaction that you are. So, who is it? What man did you whore around with behind my back? Tell me!" he yelled as he lunged forward, hands outstretched to Eva.

Eva avoided his hands, dodged around him, and ran for the door. Tears fell rapidly from her eyes and I could hear her sobs as she fled the scene. As a motherly-looking Healer entered to restrain the raging Elric, I ran after Eva.

As I left the room, Elric's yells continued to ring in my ears. "Get back here you whore! Everyone's going to know you're a filthy cheater!"

With my short legs, it wasn't as if I could catch up to Eva. It was only after making four turns that I found at the end of a hall seated on the ground, back pressed up to the wall and her knees held up to her chest. With her head bowed, I could see her body shake as she cried.

Quietly walking up to her, I could hear her talk to herself. "How am I supposed to do this? He's…he's going through such a hard thing and I can't even stand being in the same room as him. He's my husband and I'm terrified of him. What kind of wife am I? How can I be a mother if I'm like this?"

Looking at her, I realized the sadness I was feeling was inherently different from how I felt at my parents' funeral. Then, I felt the sadness of loss. Now, it could only be described as heartbreak.

I kneeled by her side and did my best to wrap my arms around her in a hug. "The hardest thing in this life, is to live it," I quietly said. "At the end of the day, we either give up or we take one step forward, no matter how small." I knew my words were more mature than what a four-year-old should say, but I had long since known I wouldn't be able to act my age.

Though I wasn't sure if my words truly registered with her, Eva buried her head in my shoulder and cried. The logical part of my personality couldn't help but remark on the oddity of an adult relying on a child for emotional support. However, I figured that when someone was sad, it didn't really matter who comforted you so long as someone did.

We stayed there for quite some time. During that time, my emotions and thoughts never calmed down. I hated how Eva had to go through something like this. I despised the fact that the original Keira was deprived of her parents. I was frustrated that, despite living in a world filled with magic, Elric couldn't be healed.

These feeling weren't mine alone. I could sense that the original Keira felt the same way. At that time, our thoughts and feelings were truly aligned for the first time and it felt as though we were becoming closer to each other. A fire burned in our heart, pointing us to the future we wanted.

As Keira, we wanted to become someone that saved people. We wanted to become the type of person that could remove the sadness and suffering from the world. We wanted to find happiness for ourselves and our loved ones.

Of course, if enemies got in our way, we wouldn't hesitate to eliminate them. Everything evil would be eliminated so that the good could thrive.

Death Eaters? We would take everything from them.

Voldemort? We would make him rue the day he had been born before we annihilated him and his horcruxes.

Elric and others couldn't be healed? We would develop the spells and techniques to heal everyone we love.

All the people who died or whose lives were harmed by the coming wizard war? We would save all we could and bring them to our cause.

The continuing and growing conflicts between the wizarding world and muggles. We would become powerful enough to break down those walls.

For centuries, though its wealth had grown, the Eilean family had slowly withered until there was only me. But the Eilean family would remain in the background no longer. I would make it thrive and become a powerhouse that leads the world forward. I, Keira Knight Eilean, will lead the world to a better future.

My resolve growing firmer by the second, I pulled a little away from Eva and held her by the shoulders, staring firmly into her eyes. In a resolute tone, I said, "I don't know how to make an Unbreakable Vow. Nevertheless, I swear to you on the Eilean name that I'll find a way to heal Elric. I vow that one day you and he will be together again, complete and whole."