185I'm so sorry for making you wait for a year! It really wasn't my intention at all! Time slipped by with University and a full time job over the summer and now back to University...I'll try my damn hardest not to do that again and I thank everyone who's stuck by this story and pestering me about the next chapter.
"Mary and I use to get along when I was younger when father was still alive. She would fight to get my small household money so I could have clothes. It was near the end of father's reign that that Mary's relationship with me started to become strained. Katherine Parr I guess could be partly responsible for that. It was no secret that she was a protestant when Anne Askew was burned. Mary and her use to get along great before they split in religion and started talking to me about it, which is why I could never become a Catholic even during Mary's reign and it was the way I was raised too. Not as fanatical as Edward was, but I was defiantly not a Catholic. That bloody Bishop Gardener was another big factor, making Mary see enemies even where there weren't any. I'm sure you know about her reign and everything. I never did get to talk to her properly after her coronation, at least in a sisterly fashion where I wasn't accused for being in a rebellion or something. I want to talk with her and ask her why. Why she didn't go through with any of her threats. Why she left me as queen when she knew that I would never let the country remain Catholic, I don't know." Harry was quiet as he thought about this.
On one hand, he would get to see his infamous Catholic sister who was hell bent on returning the country to Catholicism but on the other, would she be reasonable? He had a troubled look on his face as he thought about this. "I don't know Liz (Harry was the only one who got away with calling her that). I mean, on one hand, I'd love to meet her but on the other hand, would she actually be reasonable to talk?" Elizabeth wasn't sure as she has no idea on what her sister's temperament is like anymore. She lost that ability after riding through London for her coronation. "I don't know," She admitted.
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In a large room with rich, deep red carpet covering the floor, books covering a wall, large windows on the outside wall and a large portrait on the wall opposite of the books, two men were staring out the window. "The whore still lives then? And you bloody well didn't tell me?" The younger one murmured quietly at first then ended at a roar. The elder one scowled.
"Yes, she does and this is her we're talking about, the same one that ensnared the King with witchcraft. He was too kind with beheading her. She must've used witchcraft again because she lost a lot of blood and there wasn't any way that she could've lived." The younger man rolled his eyes at this familiar argument that's erupted since the summer after feeling the shift in the magic of the world.
"That's called being a hypocrite and you didn't look too attractive without a head either Uncle." He pointed out. "Watch it nephew!" The Uncle growled. The nephew shrugged his shoulder, not really caring about his Uncle's pettiness. His Uncle may have a different agenda, but they both had the same end goal: kill the last of the Boleyn's; Anne, her bastard daughter and her bastard son. He would've known if the curse was fulfilled when Elizabeth died but it was still active, albeit dormant. He confronted his uncle who hunted down the midwife who confessed to nothing and killed her in a fit of rage. It always did help that witches lived longer than normal humans so it's much more satisfying during the kill.
"Boleyn would've upgraded the wards so she won't be easy to get to."
"Which leaves the bastards." The Uncle had a feral grin on his face at this. "You know that the heretic queen and her bastard of a brother are at Hogwarts." The nephew just shrugged, not really caring about this. "Tell me nephew. How do feel about learning magic?" The nephew narrowed his eyes at that. "You know very well what my stance is on that."
"Oh I know. I just want to see how good of an actor you are. You will go to Hogwarts." The nephew's head snapped up at that and his eyes darkened in disgust.
"That's a new low even for you Uncle," he growled. "I'm still wondering why I even bothered with you after losing your head," the nephew pondered. "Besides, this is a centuries old grudge. You won…for a time." The nephew knew how to spark his uncle's temper. Sure enough, he got slammed against the wall. "Do not talk about your mother that way!" The uncle snarled. His nephew had a slight look of amusement at this.
"Oh I'm sorry, are we talking about the same woman who abandoned me to whore herself out to someone else with a higher status? Forgive me for not caring that she's dead." He said dryly. "Besides, my quarrel is my own. A blood feud if you will because of old man Boleyn. An eye for an eye if you will against my father."
"Of course, your father's clan." His uncle said with sarcasm leaking slightly from his words. His nephew frowned slightly at that.
"You wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for my uncle. I was all for letting your headless body rot." His nephew never fails to remind his uncle that he never wanted to work for him and would gladly burn him to the ground if he gets the chance. "Of course, my dearest other uncle that got beheaded, we never bothered with since he was an irrational fool and now you would torture me with all those young and dumb teenagers who I would love to bash their heads against the wall."
"If you do that to the bastards I won't care. Now you're going to Hogwarts and that's final!"
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Harry looked at Elizabeth. "You ready?" Taking a shaky breath, Elizabeth steeled her nerves and nodded. Harry placed the Resurrection Stone in the palm of her hand and turned it three times. Elizabeth concentrated on Mary when she felt a cold gust of wind in her face. Opening her eyes, Elizabeth could only stare at her sister. Mary looked like she was in her twenties around the time of Elizabeth's second step mother, Anne of Cleves. Her auburn hair was shining and the lines and wrinkles from stress of her rule and husband here absent.
"Mary?" Elizabeth asked, curing that fact her voice shook. Mary looked at Elizabeth with ice cold blue eyes.
"Sister." Harry was under a disillusion spell so Mary can't see him, wanting to know how his two sisters acted like. "Is this Purgatory or Hell?" Mary asked. Elizabeth knew Mary wanted her to say Hell.
"In the land of the living," She said, knowing that will get a reaction. "You're lying! You can't possibly be alive. You don't want to admit that you're in Hell."
"I'm not in Hell sister, I never was. I was trapped here after I died in this plane." Mary scoffed. "Mary, I just want to talk."
"Why should I waste my breath on a heretic like you?"
"Because you can't leave until I say you can." Mary looked outraged. "I knew it! Was the whore also a witch as well?" Elizabeth was now very mad.
"No, not enough for spells if that's what you're implying."
"Lies!" May shrieked at her. Elizabeth was now fed up with May. She took out her wand and took vicious satisfaction when Mary recoiled at the sight of it.
"Let go of your hatred to my mother Mary! Father would have divorced her one way or another regardless." Mary looked at her with an unimpressed look. "If I could show you the copies of letters from father to Rome and Wolsey that showed father wanted to divorce Catherine before mother came into the picture I would! But I don't have the books on me right now. There's so much you don't know Mary. Why can't you let go of the hatred? It's poison! We could have had a prince older than Edward who wasn't as sickly." Elizabeth cried. She never knew how much she wanted to get this off her chest and into the open without the consequences of being executed.
"What prince?" Mary asked.
"That would be me." Harry took off the charm and Mary's eyes widened. Harry looked an awful lot like King Henry with a couple of exceptions.
"And who are you?" Mary demanded harshly. Harry gave a small bow but Elizabeth couldn't tell if it was a sarcastic one or not.
"Henry Tudor. Son of Henry VIII of England and Anne Boleyn, technically born in 1534." Mary looked at Harry with a calculating eye.
"You're lying." She said with narrowed eyes. Harry raised an eyebrow.
"What do I have to gain if I was?" Harry countered. "The Tudor court is long gone and there's another monarch on the throne so what do I possibly have to gain from lying?" Elizabeth did have to give Harry point for that one. There really is no reason to lie to Mary, but Mary was always stubborn like her mother and when Catherine and Henry went at it during those extremely rare times, apparently it wasn't pretty and the way Catherine went about during the King's Great Matter was another example of Catherine's stubbornness. Mary didn't have a retort for that. She just stood silent and watched the two with cold eyes.
"Mary what happened to us?" Elizabeth asked. "We used to be sisters, you used to be kind and thoug-"
"I was never your sister!" Mary said cutting Elizabeth off. "Not with the whore being your mother! If only you succumbed to that sickness then all tracing of Anne Boleyn the great whore would've died along with you!" Elizabeth stepped back with her face chalk white.
"You really hate me that much." She said softly. "You wish that I was the sickly child while Edward was the healthy one and I died." Elizabeth couldn't say anything else before walking to the blank wall before a door came into existence and left.
Harry watched Elizabeth leave and his eyes turned cold at his older half-sister. "You really are a cold hearted bitch aren't you?" Harry had no reservations on insulting Mary. She doesn't mean anything to him like she does to Elizabeth. "You think that burning 300 innocent people would save your soul and theirs by having them die in agony? That's all you're remembered for these days, Bloody Mary. There's even a rhyme that school kids made up about you as well! Your precious church is no more than burning ashes these days! No government listens to the church anymore and England has never had a catholic monarch after 1688." Harry took vicious satisfaction as he watched Mary flinch with each point and gave a grin that looked better on his father's face when he wanted someone's blood. "Your mother died not of poison, but of sickness. Jane Seymour, her family ordered to have me poisoned as a newborn. The family you loved only because they helped bring my mother down. I know mother isn't innocent." Harry wasn't an idiot in that regard. He knows that his mother pushed and prodded his father to do things that today would be horrifying, but that was life in the sixteenth century. "But you would condemn me because of who my mother is." Harry gave Mary a disgusted look. "To think I was excited to meet you and have an older sister." Harry looked Mary straight in the eyes. He was searching for something but didn't find it. Turning away, he turned the stone once more and Mary vanished.
Breathing out a shaky breath, Harry nearly slid to the floor with all the emotions running rampant in him. He didn't realize just how much hate Mary carried around in her ever since their father turned completely away from Catherine. Harry has read about her and admired her strength but would shake his head how her stance was hurting her daughter and wouldn't let go of her pride or title to let Mary live a life without the hatred of her father. No one really knows when Henry wanted that divorce but Harry does remember Anne saying that the king was spending a lot of time with Wolsey on the issue long before she came into the picture.
Taking a few more deep breaths, Harry got up and went to find Elizabeth. Taking out the map, he looked until he found her dot on top of the astronomy tower. He dodged the prefects and teachers as he made his way up and saw his sister with her back turned to him. "Elizabeth?" Elizabeth just continued to stare blankly into the forest in front of her. Harry came up slowly behind her until he was standing beside his sister.
"I thought she loved me." Elizabeth said. She held herself and bit her lip to stop it trembling. "It's silly, but I always did love my sister, even after all the horrible things she did. I'd be a hypocrite to say I was a saint. But, I thought she could look past everything to see I'm not our mother and I'm not father. I'm just Elizabeth." Elizabeth snorted here. "Elizabeth, child of Anne the Whore and Henry the bloodstained lecher. I remember my father once mumbling that like he was remembering someone saying it. I like to think mother said it to spite him." She turned away.
"We can't change the past Elizabeth. If Mary wants to hold onto it, there's nothing we can do other than just accept it and move on. Besides, you have me and mother here with you. You aren't alone this time around sister." Elizabeth looked up at Harry with a small smile. "You're right. Let's go, it's after curfew." The two siblings got up and left for Gryffindor tower after the emotional day they just had.
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Neither sibling got much sleep that night. Elizabeth was replaying everything Mary said, along with her traitorous mind supplying what the courts and her father would say to her and about Anne. She just stared at the ceiling, not being able to sleep. Harry was still angry about what Mary said to his sister. Deciding that he's not going to get any sleep, he dug out one of the books Neville gave him and lite up his wand before he began reading the dry text long into the early morning.
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"You look like a hippogriff ran you over." Ron said. Harry gave him a look. "That's really flattering Ron, thanks." He said drily. The two boys made their way down for breakfast where most of the house was already there. Taking a seat and piling on the food, Harry looked around and saw that the teachers were all glaring at Umbridge who paid them no mind. "Wonder what that's about." Harry wondered out loud. "The teachers?" Ron asked. Neville came up to them.
"It's a new Educational decree." He said in disgust. "Umbridge is taking control of all punishments and privileges."
"I bet that made them happy." Harry said sarcastically. Neville nodded. "Umbridge is going to abuse this, along with all her other power," Ron said with a surly look before going back to his sausage.
"I can't believe this!" Hermione said in outrage when she found it on the wall. The four made their way to the wall (which the Weasley twins have now dubbed 'The Wall of Doom'), where the decree is now hanging. "Before it was only for a couple of exceptions but now this is taking it too far!" Hermione ranted. "Hermione," Harry said. "We can't do anything about it right now. We have class anyway." Hermione nodded but was still fuming as they made their way to transfiguration class. Harry was slightly worried that he didn't see Elizabeth down at breakfast but couldn't do anything about it right now and focused on getting to class.
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Elizabeth woke up with a groan. She didn't want to get up, not after the day from yesterday.
"Come on Elizabeth!" Elizabeth ignored her roommate and buried her head further in her pillow while wallowing in her misery. She didn't care if it was being childish but she didn't want to face the world right now. She felt the covers being ripped off and gave her roommate Vicky an evil glare for that.
"Come on Elizabeth, you know how Snape gets!" Growling, Elizabeth got up with great reluctance. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Elizabeth went straight down to potions while skipping breakfast.
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"I didn't see you at breakfast." Harry commented when he found his sister at lunch.
"Slept in." Harry gave her a look that said he didn't believe her one bit.
"Oh she slept in. Had to drag her out of bed." Vicky commented since she was a few seats away. Elizabeth glowered at her as she ate her lunch.
"Did I miss anything?" Elizabeth asked her brother. Harry shook his head.
"Other than another decree by Umbridge, no."
"I'm really starting not to like her." Elizabeth said lightly. Harry gave her a look at that.