Jekyll and Hyde

Tyene: A story finally finished! Maybe you'll actually wait for another one to finish up before writing three more.

Wanda: (is binge watching The Clone Wars)

Tyene: (glances at the script writing machine) (groans) ...Hopefully. The disclaimer in the first chapter.

Chapter 20: Bow Out Gracefully

Sierra woke up after Helen.

Being separated from her twin at long last initially made her dizzy. She sat up in the Hogwarts infirmary and stared in wonder at her hands. Helen was in a bed next to her and smiled brightly when she heard her twin groan.

"Sierra! You're awake. That's so nice."

Sierra blinked a couple times to refocus her vision; she was still feeling the effects of the magic drain that had given her this new body. "...Helen?" She looked at her twin, rubbing the side of her head. "Fuck, my head hurts."

Helen reached over and picked up a vial on the bedside table. "I had one too; Poppy gave me a potion and left this one for you."

Gratefully, the more cynical redhead accepted the vial and downed it in one gulp. "Thank you," She said. Thank you. The words felt nice.

Helen smiled in return. Oftentimes Sierra had wondered how the other girl managed to remain so cheerful and upbeat; now she was beginning to think that regarding the world positively actually gave her more strength.

"...Dumbledore, see to them!"

Both girls looked up in alarm to see that they had guests. Sirius bounded in and sat down between his girls, looking at them in concern. Remus was right behind him, and behind him was Dumbledore and Minister Fudge.

"The children aren't ready for an interrogation, Cornelius-"

"I don't have time to be delicate, Dumbledore! Some lunatic is using the Dark Mark to stir up trouble in my country! I need to know who was responsible!"

"Because I've told you who was involved already, Cornelius."

Sierra frowned. I don't like the sound of that, she thought.

Cornelius looked haughty and pissed off. Dumbledore had his trademark 'vague grandfatherly annoyance and disapproval'. Sierra had an inkling that it had something to do with the graveyard they had been transported to.

"What's going on?" Helen asked anxiously. "Is there a problem?"

"The Dark Mark was found at the graveyard the two of you were recovered from." Sirius explained, squeezing his goddaughter's hand in a reassuring way. "Since last night, there have been rumours of people in Death Eater masks approaching that area."

"Death Eaters. So, the guys who attacked the Cup are coming back." Sierra guessed, eyes narrowing as she remembered Leona and the murder of the little girl's parents. "Where's Leona? How's she taking this?"

"She's with Ron and Ginny." Sirius said, glancing over at her and giving her a small smile. Sierra hesitantly returned the gesture – it felt strange but nice; she rarely smiled. "She's a little nervous, but Ginny's keeping her distracted."

Helen let out a small sigh of relief. "that's good to know. Voldemort's already hurt her enough as it is."

Fudge turned purple. "Voldemort has not come back! This is just some random lunatic, lost in his own madness."

Sierra's eye twitched. And since every child in the Riddle family was famous for having difficulty controlling their temper, she swung her legs over the side of her bed and snapped, "Are you willingly blind, or just stupid?"

Fudge sputtered, "What? You foolish child! My judgement of the situation stands; there is no way that Voldemort had returned! Those who served him are either in jail or have returned to society."

Sierra stared at him for a second, before abruptly she burst out laughing. She laughed for a couple of seconds, leaving everyone staring at her, before she said, "Wow, that was the single biggest hunk of bullshit I've ever heard in a few sentences. That was so insanely idiotic and delusional, I wish I could bleach my brain to wash out all the stupid. You dumb fuck, what the hell do you think happened?"

Remus's jaw dropped. Helen looked like she was memorizing new words she hadn't heard before. Sirius, meanwhile, just looked impressed.

"A bunch of huge Moldyshorts fanatics were discovered outside of Azkaban, after the TRI wizard tournament was illegally given a FOURTH member and someone turns up dead. Gee, I fucking wonder, is this some sort of conspiracy? I don't know, maybe it just can't get under that hideous hat of yours – assuming that is a hat, and not a grossly disfigured pimple caused by a massive brain tumour. I swear every time your fat gob opens, you lower the collective intelligence of any given room by 5 percent."

Fudge turned purple and made a squeaking noise like a kicked mouse.

Sierra regarded Fudge with supreme contempt for a second before snapping,"If I gave even half a shit, I would try and ram this through your brain with a baseball bat, but after that came out of your mouth I'm not even going to bother. Go ahead. Stick your head in the sand like the ostrich you are and earn yourself a Darwin award, just don't expect me to stick around for it and haul your giant ass out of the fire again. Frankly, if you believe your own lies, you deserve it."

She got up and took her sister's hand. "Come on, guys. Let's get the hell out of here before everything goes to hell."

"Go where?" Sirius asked as he got up.

"How about the Bahamas? I liked that place." Helen suggested tentatively.

Sierra reached up and ruffled her sister's hair in response. "Sure, sounds nice."

"Wait!" Dumbledore gasped. His plans were falling to pieces as the young Girl Who Lived and Voldemort's daughter moved to leave Britain for good. "You can't go."

Sierra paused and turned to give him a cold look. To the headmaster's shock, he was reminded quite fiercely of not Tom Riddle, but Lily – the look Lily had always given people who had pushed a joke or a comment too far. "Why not?" She asked coldly.

"Because the wizarding world needs you! Voldemort needs to be defeated!"

"...Are you not the fucking 'only one he ever feared?'. Why are you placing all the guilt and the responsibility of defeating a mass murderer on the shoulders of a fourteen year old girl alone? Maybe a world like that deserves to be destroyed."

Helen glanced at Sierra, concern plain in her eyes. Sierra glanced at her and said, "That's what the aurors are for. Protecting people. Isn't that right, Minister?"

With that last parting shot, the group left the room. Leaving Fudge to nurse his bruised ego, and Dumbledore to wrap his brain around the fact that he had just seen a Riddle reject power and violence.

What a rare sentence, indeed.

**Later**

Sierra, Helen, Sirius, Remus, the Weasleys, and Hannah all moved to the Bahamas after Voldemort's second return. Dumbledore lead the charge against him, and the stangent and backwards world found itself locked in a permanent stalemate since everyone was so bigoted while the half bloods eventually bolted to relative safety.

End

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