Darkness Within (Bri and Rich)

Briony was down in the potions room she had at the basement of her house, it was cool and dark the perfect conditions to store potions ingredients, and she knew that it was very rarely that her husband ever came down here to check on the things she was up to, which was very very good since she was doing something that she knew would definately not gain his approval. She could feel the other side to her struggling against her control, but all that struggling was making her weaker and weaker, and both of them knew it.

With a satisfied smirk on her lips, Briony poured the finished potion inot avial and waited for it to cool, it was going to be plain sailing from here on out, she was going to be without hassle from her other self, free to do as she pleased when she pleased to do it and she would soon not even have to answer to that pain of a husband that kept getting in her way, as soon as this was done, she intended to break things off from him, literally.

Now the potion was cool Briony flipped her hair back from her shoulders and raised the vial to her lips, so focused on attaining the goal that she had been after since she had inhabited her other selfs body, she had become so weak and so feeble in her ways, and she was about to become the feirce and strong woman that she had once been in the past once more.

And she couldn't be more excited.

Richard had been waylaid at the ministry by aurors he knew that his wife's darker half had bribed. All to keep him busy while she did something that took his wife even further from him. He hadn't been waylaid for long but it had been messy. So messy that his upper right body was now bare as the clothes there had been burnt off. His skin was perfectly fine though, if covered in blood.

Fortunately it wasn't his blood.

Unfortunately he'd have hell to answer for when Christopher got him dragged into his office.

Right now he didn't care though. Right now he had to stop his wife from doing something she'd regret. Because god help the Dark One if she took his wife from him. He opened the door to the cellar and made his way down quickly.

He immediately spotted Briony in the process of drinking a potion. She was about half way through when Richard reacted, immediately turning the rest of the potion to water even as she drank it. Meaning she'd only get half the dose. He just hoped that it wasn't something you shouldn't add water to. Richard growled a little bit,

"What was in that potion?" he demanded darkly, "I swear to god... if you've done anything to my wife... Just... tell me what was in that potion. What does it do?"

Briony's eyes widened when she heard someone approaching she knew that it would be Richard and she attempted to drink the potion even faster but when it hit her lips it was merely water, scowling she threw the potion to one side, she didn;t know what was going to happen to her now, she didn't know how her mind would react to only taking half of the doseage.

Growling a little bit Briony placed her hand on her head and closed her eyes, she could feel something changing within her and that wasn't good, it seemed that this potion had merely given her lighter counterpart an energy boost and she was trying to fight her way through to becoming dominant once more.

"It was a potion..." she started through gritted teeth "To destroy my lighter personality...but since I only took half the dose I don't fucking know what's going to happen!"

Sinking to her knees she tried to stop the blaring pain in her head and she gripped her knees tightly.

Richard's eyes widened when she told him what she had intended to do. He was glad he'd got here in time to, apparently, mess it up because it would have been hard on him to kill an evil woman wearing his wife's skin. But he would have done so.

He moved closer, kneeling down beside her when she sank down to her knees. Richard placed a hand on Briony's shoulder,

"Briony I know you're in there fighting!" He spoke to the lighter personality, "You can take her down. You're the best fighter I've ever seen. Now take back your body Briony!"

He hoped that what was going on was the signs of the lighter Briony winning but he also didn't want her to be in too much pain. God why the hell did he had to suck so much at potions? If he had done better in Potions class he might have been able to help more than just shouting encouragement.

Briony could hear her husband calling to her, but she was too busy trying to fight her way from inside her mind, it seemed that she had been able to break free of her mind scape prison and she was rapidly becoming more and more dominant in her own mind she and her darker half were almost at the same level now and she could feel herself growing more powerful.

Although she could also tell that her darker half was not going to give up without a fight and she was on the verge of blacking out there was so much pressure being forced together inside her mind, but she tried to keep herself awake and fighting just like her husband had told her to.

Fixing her mind on her good thoughts, her happy experiences, Briony tried to harness them and she pushed herself fowards, finding herself clicking into place like she had wanted too since she had broken through in her office and she blinked for a moment, holding her hand up and seeing if it responded.

Which it did.

Giving a shaky smile she whispered;

"Richard..."

Before she blacked out on the cool stone floor of the basement, and hoping that would be the end of that.

Richard waited, terrified, as his wife trembled and shook as the mental battle raged on. He was helpless here and they all knew it. He sighed a little bit and gritted his teeth. There was nothing he could do but hold her and wait. And the waiting was killing him. He squeezed her from his position of holding her round the shoulders.

When she moved her hand shakily he blinked a few times.

Immediately he turned to look at his wife and was rewarded with a shaky smile and his name. He grinned wider than he had done in almost a year. It looked like his wife was back, not the Dark One who would most likely have tried to kill him.

His eyes widened through when she blacked out but he was just fast enough to prevent her knocking her head on the floor. Picking her up, he carrried her up to their bedroom.

-- Time Skip - Twelve Hours Later --

Richard sighed a little bit as he finished peeling the remains of his shirt and suit jacket from his body. His right arm was now caked in dried blood but he was too tired to really do anything about it. That and it hadn't started to itch yet so he was alright with it for now.

He'd had little Raven sent to her godfather, Cobalt, for the night and that had been the only time he'd left the bedroom since he'd taken his wife here to rest up. The chair he'd created at their bedside was uncomfortable but that was on purpose. He didn't want to fall asleep. He wanted to be here when she woke up.

He wanted the first thing she saw to be him waiting for her to wake, her hand held gently in his own.

Briony groaned slightly and she felt herself surrounded by her bedsheets, her comfortable matress beneath her, and she immediately snapped her eyes open. How long it had been since it had been her behind these eyes, moving her body, being the one feeling the sheets around her and not merely looking at the scenes unfolding from the back seat.

Rolling onto her other side, she felt Richard's hand in her own and she looked up into his eyes, seeing the state that he was in, her first thought was;

'What did I do to him?!'

But then she recalled through her memories and couldn't find any evidence that her Darker side had harmed him, so she thought that it must have been something that happened through someone elses doing and not her own.

"R-richard." she uttered her voice came out normal, even though she had not used it herself for months, she couldn't help but let a smile creep onto her lips and she squeezed his hand gently "You look like hell love."

Richard's head moved upwards so fast that the casual observer would have said he was going to have whiplash. He grinned wider when she didn't seem to be in too much pain. Instead she seemed to be simply enjoying the fact that she was the one in control again.

Of course she was more than a little bit concerned about his appearance.

He should have really thought about cleaning himself with a charm or something but it had just slipped his mind. There were more pressing concerns for him. Like his wife lying in bed with an unknown potion working on her. He grinned a little bit wider when she smiled a little bit. Richard chuckled, which soon became a full-blown laugh,

"You should see the other guys." he immediately quipped before squeezing her hand softly, grinning happily, "Welcome back Briony. You wouldn't believe how much I've missed you."

Briony sat up in bed and let her head swim for a few moments before allowing her legs to cross and herself to look at Richard properly and immediately she was filled with an intense sense of guilt, and an intense amount of emotional pain for the things that she had done, or rather, not done in the last few years that she had been in this state.

She couldn't believe how old baby Raven was now, and she had missed her last birthday, she had missed taking her to the ministry nursery school, and why? Because she was too busy out killing people, hunting things and getting high on red sand.

She couldn't bare to look at herself in the mirror any more.

Feeling the tears well up, when Richard was so accepting, so happy to have her back, Briony let them spill over her cheeks and she didnt even bother to hide them from him as she let them softly plip down onto the bedspread.

"I...I'm so sorry Richard...I..." she spoke, her voice, cracking painfully "I...I tried..." Briony whispered unable to speak through her crashing sense of grief.

Richard could tell that Briony was not as happy as he was right now. She was busy thinking about all of the things that her Darker self had put their family through, no doubt, while she could only watch. He had to admit that there wasn't a way to really sugar coat it.

Dark Briony had, to put it bluntly, fucked everything up.

Their daughter, Raven, was afraid of Briony now. Deathly afraid. The last time Dark Briony had smiled at her, little Raven had run away screaming to hide behind his legs. The things she'd done to him he was less concerned about even if Briony was. What had been done to him was made up for by the fact that he had his wife back.

He held onto her tightly, hugging her to him closely as she cried into his chest. Richard cooed into her ear gently as he gently played with her hair,

"It's alright Briony..." He whispered to her, "You won the fight, it's over now. You're back in control and you're back where you belong."

Briony couldn't help it, she felt like she had become the monster like her father had been to her, her child had run screaming from her and she had only been satisfied with this outcome, she had only been happy that she had finally gone out of her way, when she had wanted to do so much with her, and now, she could never have her daughters full trust, not after this.

"I...m-my baby is afraid of me Richard." Briony whispered, her voice breaking over the word 'afraid' like it pained her to even say it, let alone think about it, or be with her daughter.

And both of them knew that she had hurt things beyond all measure for their family, she had missed a year of her daughters life, of a happy life with her husband, and her friends...how she had treated her friends. It was a wonder that Richard had even stuck by her this long.

"W-what should I do...?" she asked, vunerable and scared of how to come back from this "W-what do we tell the board of Governors...? W-what..."

Richard could only dread to think what Briony saw herself as right now. He'd have to do his best to nip that in the bud because she was not a monster or anything like that. She had just been affected by a spell and that was all. Sure it had been a long time but still, there was nothing to be done about it for now. What was done was done and they'd heal together,

"She's also afraid of the monster in her cupboard and the dark." he told her gently with a careful, faint, smile, "She won't always be afraid of you. You'll get her trust back."

The pain wasn't about to go away immediately, no matter how well he was masking it right now. He'd been told, repeatedly and by someone with the same body and voice as his wife, that she didn't love him. That he was nothing to her. It didn't do much to reassure him that it hadn't been her at the time,

"What should we do, you mean." he corrects with a small smile, "We're in this together. As for the governers... they accepted Dumbledore's shit for years. You were hit by an unknown spell, was more reason than he ever gave them."

Briony could tell that Richard was trying to make her feel better but she didn't know how effective it was right now she was just a ball of emotions and she didn't know how to make head nor tail of it, she just wanted to get things straight in her mind and from then she would be able to move on and get her life back.

"I hope for my sake you're right Richard...I..I should have fought harder, I should have been able to...t-to help her, help you." she whisper softly "I left you all alone to raise our baby Richard..."

Gently Briony leany forwards and placed a soft kiss on her husbands lips, she felt herself shaking as she pulled away. she hadn't kissed him in so long, and she felt herself feel slightly less tense now that she had done, she knew that everything would go well as long as he was here.

With a soft laugh Briony nodded "I guess so Richard, I'd like to think that my strategy for saving money was a bigger hit than his old man ramblings however." she smiled "Come to bed?" she asked softly.