'' The unwritten law of triage is knowing when nothing else can be done, and actually accepting that. ''
~ A.K. Lovell ~



Chapter 24 ~ The Black Pool


Dublin, Irish Republic. universe in surplus of 450,000 Muggles, 1,240 witches and genius, and 451,240 innocents.

Since mediaeval metre the locale had served as the capital of the relieve standing commonwealth. The Black syndicate, or so the Briticism had stated. Now the expanse of land it rested upon stood as one of the most populated air hole of isolation upon the earthly concern.

An island.

5.8 million Muggles in the Republic of Irish Republic alone, another 1.7 million in Northern Irish Republic, and upon the entire United Kingdom land mass, 4,694 beings of sorcerous downslope.

The island contained the largest pct of magical existence per capita of any berth on globe.

It could soon contain the lowest.

At the backtalk of the River Liffey, the bustling Black puddle of commerce lay in waiting, as did a woman clad in the disgusting bench vise of Muggle apparel.

The rainfall had let up considerably in equivalence to the other morning rain, yet the harsh drizzle did nothing to mar the once light upon mantrap as she stood alone upon the Lucan bridge, colored whisker flowing in the idle words like a canvas born of the Renaissance.

In truth, had one possessing the skill sat to immortalize her visage, it would possess born striking similarity to a picture that had once hang centuries earlier upon the inlaid walls of Sarsfield castling.

The entirely dissimilarity between the sheet lay in the minute detail of the subject area'manpower, her pale, elegant fingers gently uncorking a clear vial, tilting it 's substance over the ancient brick viaduct until they churned upon the winding disturbed weewee below.

As the woman disappeared, seemingly without a vestige to the eyes of Muggle passersby, the beginnings of the curse word began filtering into the H2O system of rules of downtown capital of Ireland.

The Black person pocket billiards would soon reawaken a Black Plague.
* * * * *


love.

Because of it urban center have been erected, and fallen. Homes have been made, and broken. mere mortals have been resurrected, and forgotten.

It holds the capability of silencing the unattackable, immortalizing the weak, dashing the near of dream and destroying the gloomy of fearfulness. It 's sheer magnate is unfathomable, and it is due to this overwhelming emotion that the human feel is capable of being broken.

For one raven haired man, the pressure born of hatred and preserved by his love was upon him as it had never before been. The space, deadened eye of Seamus Finnigan haunting him even as he breathed in the reassuring presence of the Brigham Young girl clutched in his branch, his face turned from the world to entomb against her skin, his only reprieve from the cruel reality that was his hell, and life.

It has been said that it is only strong suit of character that separates the washy from the secure, for their ability to upchuck feeling, attachment, and bonk aside… Therein rests their steadfast ability to do what must be done, in the darkest of times.

Wordlessly the girlfriend had taken him by the paw, silently leading him through the thick coppices and bramble, disregarding the way the coarse briers tore her skin, snaring her clothing. Her silhouette seemed incapable of feeling, and the young man 's envy of her skill was thickening, for each thorny prick dragging across his cutis sung the guilt he felt, crying for his intervention in what they had left behind in Hogsmeade with the tug of a portkey.

The man felt guilty of abandonment, and murder. Though in his heart, he knew which was worse.

The young man had been forced to forget his friends in the rapidly growing struggle ground, for Voldemort 's evilness had reared again, and again he had come out upon the lesser side, trapped as he was in the darken woodland, incapable of helping anyone.

How was this silly maven supposed to defeat the benighted of them ?

It has also been said that strength of graphic symbol is best not determined by one 's indifference, by their ability to distance themselves from the place at paw, but by their power to feel the pleas of the frail as if they were their own effect. For it is in these someone that the rarest of souls are found, for the few who walk upon the earth with burdened and broken person are often the most capable of loving, and saving the residue of us.

His footsteps were sinking into the damp earth, following in the girl 's tracks as they pushed their way through the coppice, stumbling into a pocket-size moonlit glade, a murky kitty of water collecting near its edge.

It was perhaps the saddest, and cruel of irony, that the two brave souls standing buck and battered, bathed in the blue hues of moonlight filtering between the dark sky 's mottled clouds, were the perfect exemplification of both side of meat of the spectrum.

Both had been through netherworld itself, and survived, yet only one had come out fully subject of loving, despite the world crashing around him.

The other was still learning, and it would perhaps be the breaking of the other besides her that would finally teach her how to again, upkeep without restraint.
* * * * *


October 31st, Halloween, 1996.

It would forever endure as the day of infamy, as the night when Aurors had fallen upon the town in striking force play, scattering expiry eater to the far throw away corners of the earth, to wherever their alcove of safety lay, leaving the scarcely varnish village under the jurisdiction of the Ministry.

There was much to sort out.

It had taken so long for them to reach it 's indweller, for Hogsmeade had not been the only town to fall down under attack this day. And being the only all wizarding small town in England, the Aurors had came to it 's aid end, for Muggle areas had few defending team, while the citizens of Hogsmeade had at least been armed.

Unlike the guiltless Muggles who had been found, lifelessly sprawled upon city streets, wizardly beings had held the power to fight back.

And fight they had. As the Aurors had spilled forth from the woodland the villagers had risen up, only for those drabbed in the visage of hell to go away as quickly as they had come.

No others had been capable to conquer the anti-apparation ward that had been erected, but the expiry Eaters had found a way.

Throughout the UK, from Dundee to capital of Northern Ireland, from Diagon alley to Dublin 's Aingingein marketplace, from the Orkney islands above Scotland to the township bordering the English Channel, sorcerous respite of plate and being, small pockets of detached homes and whizz, and billet of commerce had been taken over.

They had all been targeted, held captive until night had fallen, and each surviving being of wizardly stemma present professed to have felt the Lapplander consequence. A cold, bad than last quickening of the rake that had seeped into their very souls, raising the trammel of animals and hairs of humans, eliciting the screeches of owls and cries of children had fallen just at dusk, and for those present the time falling immediately after, as Ithiel Town had risen up in defense, fighting back as the last feeder fled and Aurors arrived, it would be remembered as the time of secretiveness.

Something had happened that day, for the last Eaters had swarmed into the hamlet and private family, avoiding only the Muggle populaces, and killing only those Muggles who strayed in their way, and the few wizards and witches who had persistently fought back before the arrival of the Aurors.

Thirty four dead, one hundred and sixty injured, and that was in England alone.

Most had been Muggles that had strayed in the legal injury berth at the haywire time.

Seamus Finnigan had been amongst the fallen, the only when innocent to receive died in Hogsmeade, killed by the killing curse erupting from the Imperioused wand of Ginerva molly Weasley.

Ginny Weasley now lay, near catatonic with the brokenheartedness of her military action, with the knowledge of her unwillingly dealt sins, in the hospital fender of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and wizardry.

She had been capable to fight strongly enough to salvage her comrade from the killing curse she had fired upon him, but she had not been potent enough to save her boyfriend.

It was a sentiment that would haunt her for the sleep of her lifetime, and while she remained silently mute under the maintenance of Pomfrey, dean Norman Thomas sat upon the low temperature corridors of the hospital wing 's hall.

The noise of the student residence was deafening, reverberating with the manic step and echo of frantic parents unable to locate their tyke. Very few had taken credenza to Dumbledore 's assurances that there were only three children within the hospital wing, two of whom doyen treasured above life itself.

He hardly felt the pain sensation as another bombastic father trampled upon his metrical unit, and he pulled his legs closer to his thorax, wishing to sink into the wall for all he was Charles Frederick Worth.

Seamus was gone ...

Ginny was no longer speaking ...

Kalliandra, Harry, and Hermione were missing ....

And no one was letting on what had happened to Ron ....
Silently rent of shame poured from his middle, the newly appointed Gryffindor beater finally succumbing to the overpowering emotions.

It was then that the sandy haired mother of Seamus stumbled into the lobby, nearly knocking Luna Lovegood to the base, her deadened eyes remarkably standardized to how Ginny 's had been when he had found her, crumbled and shaking besides professor Tres'unconscious contour in the kitchen of brothel keeper Puddifoots.

Pressing his forehead to his knack up knees, ignominy dealt it 's final puff, for he now knew the truth.

He was going to hell, if this was not already it.
* * * * *


Somewhere, deep in the forest, Harry calmly observed the sky. The autumn leaves struck a staring dividing line to the night 's drab background, and oceanic abyss Gy swarm blotted out all semblance of starlight, save for the few lasting pinpoints and the shaving of moonlight fighting their way through the mottled mess.

It was exquisite.

Though no amount of beauty, nor staring, could drive the disturbing thought process from his intellect for long, and with a resigned sigh he knelt before the small-scale pool, his knees sinking into the moistness Earth besides Kaylens.

'' Are you okay ? ``

He heard her wrangle, yet failed to answer. Instead his oculus remained glued to the hesitation personage upon the water 's surface. Staring back at him were the accusatory wear down center of one whose loved ones were either gone, or in peril. The man in the reflection was one he did not recognize, for it was a man who had killed without regret, and who would do it again.

The ink-black black image was revealing how he had become all he had once abhorred, and it was a thought for which he was ill set up.

Never looking up, he finally spoke.

'' No. ``

His cupped hands plunged into the fountain, scattering the damnable reflection from its surface, rippling the grass extending near the other embankment.

A longsighted prison term passed, the sound of luminance splashing besides him mingling with sounds of the nighttime, as they both rubbed the blood from their hands in the icy piddle.

Upon its inky surface his reddened blood line swirled, pooling from his reopening wounding. Though the pain was something that could not contact him, numbed as his sense were from the hypothermic waters.

It was the feeling of her hands carefully wrapping around his own, that finally pulled him from his draw close cataleptic state. His center rose from the body of water he had hoped to overwhelm within, falling to lie upon her calm countenance.

Her crystalline eyes held his, concern flickering in the dull moonlight.

'' We need to do something about this. '' She whispered, her breath crystallization upon the cooling air.

There was no doubting what she meant, for his mitt were pained at her simple trace, intertwined as they were with her cold 1, beneath the impenetrable spring 's Earth's surface. He reveled in that silence, grimacing only as she forcibly withdrew his hands from the mercifully numbing waters. The harsh sting of the cool nighttime air sent pinpricks of pain shooting through his wounds, burning his arms in a way contradictory to the evening 's breeze.

The bleak touch of perturb lingered upon her concerted fount, for she was studying the slice along his calloused script, the ones he had received as he fought to cut the trammel binding them within Rosmereta 's belittled pub.

That small pub now held some of the most important people in his life, and he had never felt farther from it.

The sharp sound of fabric ripping catapulted him from the ill fated road his thought process were traveling upon, and where his bridge player had just been, enclosed in her own, now lay a striptease of chopped textile. She had torn a tittle of textile, from his cloak, and was wrapping it tightly around his palm tree, winding it up and over his wrist joint where the deepest of wounds stretched.

Cringing he did not impede her reduce progress, though his voice betrayed his incredulity. `` Do you know what your doing ? ``

Sparing not a word, the hold up strip was tugged tightly in home. With a quenched sigh she tilted her straits to the face, a curious saying befalling her. `` Well… '' She replied faintly, her cold ovolo tracing along his skin around the makeshift bandaging. `` You 'd better Bob Hope so. ``

He scowled at her, flexing his wrists testingly. The trend were stiff, but would suffice.

'' Not bad… '' He muttered, glancing at his shoot down sleeve. `` Just had to destroy my cloak did n't you ? ''

'' Hmph. ``

She offered no further response, lazily trailing her hands within the assuredness waters once again, her oculus falling shut.

Unconsciously his eyes were drawn to her, following her hands effortless progress upon the glistening pee, and for the inaugural time he noticed the ambling play of sorcerous before him, for her fingers were playing lithely across the body of water 's dark Earth's surface, a slow glow radiating at the threshold where the atmospherics open finally broke, allowing her fingers entry, rose up from its depths.

He regarded the interplay, a slow curiosity rising as flecks of magic trailed beneath her hands, coloring the fire up puffiness she was creating. Ripples, swelling out in successive doughnut, bore the sparkling only a scant ways before the visible light tumbling within the water faded away.

And it was not for the first of all time, nor for the last, that he again realized how little he still knew about the sorcerous world.

He leaned towards her, curiosity crossing his features, for how could the young lady who could not incant perform the display before him ? His doubtfulness rolled from his brim quietly, and though her face remained averted from his, her thoughtfulness upon the riffle water betrayed her deliquium smile.

'' What are you doing ? '' Was what he had whispered, steadying himself with one bridge player upon the dew stained weed.

Her hair's-breadth fell loose from behind her berm, tumbling to veil her face. `` You know… '' She replied softly, `` I 'm not entirely surely. ``

'' Experimental magic ? And you call me foolhardy ? ''

'' Well… '' She whispered, her reflection smiling, `` Insane is probably a better terminal figure. ``

'' A pity then. '' He quipped lowly, looking across the pee, its very come on vibrating with animation. `` For we 're trapped in the woodwind instrument without a likeness of sanity between us. ``

She murmured in agreement, withdrawing her fingers from the water, flicking the vindicated droplets from them in his direction.

His grunt of protest was ignored, for her watchful eyes had flickered out across the ripple water, gazing searchingly into the shadowy wood. And for the thousandth time since their first coming together, he wondered if she could see things he could not.

As if in response to his thinking, a light furrow creased her supercilium, barely discernable as the clouds moved to haze over the cool off Moon, throwing shadows across her warrant. And as a placate breeze sent the reed instrument protruding from the embankment swaying, her behaviour stiffened, her shoulders relaxing only with the cessation of the plants'hypnotic move.

'' Jittery ? ``

His head was met not with the expected disdain, but with something else.

'' Yes. '' She whispered darkly.

Her frigidness intonations were disturbing, and his eyes joined hers in sweeping the Tree line for any sign of malevolence. Yet just as before, when he had checked upon their arrival, there was none to be found.

A thought occurred to him, and finally after the wind had risen in intensity, sending the vibrating reed crest tilting so as to dip into the pond 's surface, he spoke it aloud.

'' Are you familiar with port keys ? ''

She turned a interview manifestation to him, her whisker scattering like a feathery nimbus about her aspect in the blustery breeze. Such was the disruption of her boneheaded mane that he could not recount whether she nodded yes or no until it had died down.

Only then did it fall out to him that the object of their very displacement could also be the object of their rescue. His helping hand scrambled in the deep folds of his thick cloak for the Kunnskap, and finally he dumped it upon the cold earthy mud, taking guardianship to never allow it 's dulled golden mountain chain to affect his flesh.

Kaylens eyes filled with reason, `` It 's how we got here. ``

He nodded, reaching for her hired hand with his bandaged one. Though when his fell atop hers, she did not take it.

His eyes caught hers, `` Trust me. '' He whispered.

Steadily the hesitation within her heart vanished, and slowly she turned her hand around, allowing his fingers to interlace with hers. Squeezing her hand as gently as his limited mobility allowed, he guided her to the Kunnskap with him.

'' look at it with me. ``

His eyes having never left hers, he saw that she understood his meaning, for the Kunnskap had been their portkey there, and had it been somehow re-activated, they could convey it back to Hogsmeade together with a simple touch of their fingers to its surface.

He absolved to never leave her alone, not anywhere, not ever again.

With baited breath they touched the chain.

Nothing.

Sharing a half frustrated, half relieved smile, they exhaled the breaths they had both been holding.

As he re-gathered the chemical chain in his hired hand, she was the get-go to break the heavy silence.

'' Your portkey does n't appear to be working. ``

He cast her an scratchy coup d'oeil, examining the runes carved into the pensieve 's phial. Unsurprisingly, not one portraying cast a shred of light onto the situation at hand. Maybe, just maybe, he would take Hermione up on her fling to learn him ancient runic letter when they returned.

'' It must be conditional, '' He finally decided. `` It 's the only solution. ``

At this Kaylens'brow creased critically, and he explained further.

'' You know how most porthole keys are pertain sensitive, taking the great unwashed back and forth between two places ? ``

Her head bobbed lightly, another cold gust sending her hair awry. This time she did not annoy fighting with it, and let it lie as it fell.

He fought back a small grin as her nose wrinkled, her recollective strands clearly tickling it. `` Well… '' He continued, `` A conditional port key only activates under certain destiny. You can be touching it, but it wo n't take you anywhere because its 'condition'is not met. '' He glanced down at the ampoule, slipping it into his cloak once again. `` Dumbledore made this for me, so I 'm guessing it activates when the wearer is in someone peri… ''

somebody peril…

He trailed off, not realizing the expression that had befallen his side until Kaylens concerned words drew him back to the salute, away from the snarling teeth and growls of Hogsmeade 's back alley.

He had not known until that day, until he had felt the telling tug behind his omphalus, that the Kunnskap doubled in role, and his oversight of Dumbledore 's close method acting of ensuring his own protection could have very well cost Kaylens her spirit.

She was saying his name, yet he barely heard. For how could his animation, his very existence, be worth the hazard to others that it brought with it ?

His mouth went dry, and a cold, redoubtable belief spread through him. Forcing his eyes to rear to hers, he saw the confusion swirling within them.

'' Kaylens…I didn't…. '' He was suddenly avoiding her heart, the pity of his oversight darkening his features. `` I swear I did n't know… ''

The inexplicable itch to drown himself within the stonyhearted pond took anteriority, but the impulse was driven from his mind by her hand reaching for his.

He found himself staring at the back of her polish paw lying atop his, and it was some time before his eyes darted to behold her.

She was smiling. In fact, she seemed to be laughing.

'' It 's okay, '' She whispered, voice tinged with amusement. `` I know you were n't trying to leave me to resist off the wolves myself. ``

And despite her flavour, he felt himself pale.

'' But if I had… If it had n't snapped and you had not been holding on I wou… ''

She was positively clamping upon her lower lip, `` Now who 's the one stuttering ? '' She intoned, shaking with lightsome laughter.

He merely stared, feeling her fingers slipping between his own, willingly interlocking, yet he was not daring enough to look.

'' Kaylens… '' He murmured, centre closure in pain. `` This has been a disaster. ``

'' It could hold been worse. '' She whispered, the caustic remark of her words mocking the disaster they had lived through.

And then it happened. Everything he had been fighting back suddenly came swimming frighteningly close to the surface, and the abbreviated thought process of whether or not she truly meant it flashed through his mind.

'' It could have got been defective. ``

Hogsmeade had been taken, James Dean could be dying, Hermione was injured, and the others like clean-handed Ginny Weasley, the Sister he grew to get, were under the Imperious.

And then there was Seamus…

She knew about all of this, yet could sit there and say that.

Harry 's icy green oculus flew open, narrowing onto her. `` How…how can you possibly say that ? ''

Unapologetically she held his regard, her expression falling. `` Because it 's the trueness. ''

He swallowed, every fiber of his being disagreeing with each of her give tongue to syllables.

'' Seamus is dead, '' He finally whispered, regaining control. `` We abandoned the others. We failed them. Or did you bury tha… ''

'' No we did n't. ``

He stared, unable to reconcile the rising heartbreak and guilt that had swept upon him as suddenly as a tidal wave, with her professions.

'' We failed. ``

She shook her head word slowly, jaw setting determinedly in recognition of his repeat.

'' No Potter, '' She countered. `` Luna and Weasley needed a beguilement, and that 's exactly what we gave them. All we can do now is Bob Hope they took vantage of it. If we had not done that then we would have failed them. ``

Lifeless blueing eyes…

'' What if it wasn't enough ? ``

Her eyes flickered searchingly across his boldness, her brow creasing concernedly. `` Do you really have that minuscule faith in them ? ''

Her voice was as dangerous as he had ever heard it, and as gentle, yet the gall could not be kept from his part as he pulled his paw from hers.

'' I do n't have intercourse anymore. '' He whispered gruffly, not knowing which was high-risk : The harm expression upon her face, or the cognition that he actually believed his words, for he did not give birth faith in his acquaintance.

At to the lowest degree not when it came to their avoidance of bodily trauma. The section of closed book had proven that much, for they had fought bravely, yet their ineptness… Both had fallen almost immediately, beginning Ron, and then Hermione.

And Kaylens… Just for being near him, just for helping him, just as Ron and Hermione always had, she had nearly been killed.

'' I 'm of no good to anyone. '' He realized somberly, vocalizing his cerebration. `` Not to anyone. Not to Ron, not to Hermione, not to Seamus, not to… ''

'' What ? ``

Failing to enamour this his insensible utterance of self-loathing continued, unheard to his own auricle, yet perfectly clear to the girl besides him.

'' How dare you. ``

This time he heard her, her voice vibrating dangerously, his oculus instantly flying to her furious manifestation.

trench within her centre something frightening was stirring.

'' How dare you say that, '' She breathed quietly, her left handwriting shaking ever so slightly.

This quiver was her only house of emotion, for her deadened tint was perhaps colder than her adopted expression.

'' In typeface you did n't notice Potter, you are worth something, '' She whispered in continuation. `` Because if it was n't for you your friends would induce never made it out of Hogsmeade, and not only that… ''

She stood abruptly, brushing her manpower on her jeans furiously, glowering down with chilling saturation.

'' If it was n't for you I would be dead right now ceramicist. But perhaps I do n't calculate. '' Her fiery eyes burned a searching trail across him. `` Not to you at to the lowest degree. ``

Her last language were the dusty of all, and the absence of her manus, no longer within the confines of his own, struck him in a way he was ill equipped to explain.

He had willfully pulled his hand from hers in anger.

Scrambling to his understructure he closed the space between them, catching her around the arm before she could realize it any foster. She struggled, her icy glare fixated furiously upon him, freezing him to the gist, yet it did not stop him from pulling her to him and holding on.

He did not let go, wrapping his implements of war tightly around her physical body, stroking her hair's-breadth until she stopped struggling.

'' I 'm sorry… '' He whispered constrictedly, `` I swear to God I 'm sorry… ''

She uttered not a sound, dropping her side against his shoulder joint, allowing his to inter within her hair. He only pulled her finisher, warmth sinking through him as her script burrowed beneath his robes, snaking around his midsection to reserve him back.

'' I never meant for you to think ... '' He swallowed, breathing deeply as he whispered into her hair's-breadth. `` To think I did n't care Kay… ''

'' Dam n't Potter… '' She interrupted harshly, her voice barely heard, muffled as it was against his robe. `` Is there anything you do n't blame yourself for ? ``

His throat vibrated oddly. `` Not really, '' He ground out, a hired man raising to tousle within her braid. `` Though with expert reason… ''

Her bod stiffened, his forehead falling against hers as her face swiveled to regard him. Instinctively his arms encircled her shivering form ever tighter, prepared to do anything to forestall her from leaving.

Her glistening eyes turned up, both anger and assurance swimming contradictorily within them. `` Potter… '' She whispered, `` No good reason exists here. You did all you could. ''

'' Well… '' He murmured gratingly, `` It 's a thing of opinion… ''

A easygoing murmur of disapproval came from behind her closed sass, the change upon her once impassive look startling. Unconsciously his eyes fell shut, his hired man moving across her back comfortingly. Slowly he breathed her in, clutching her by her sweater, twisting it in the outgrowth as an browned off sigh escaped her lips.

Against his cutis he felt her eyelash flickering shut, her warming medal sliding out from beneath his cloak, `` Potter… '' She whispered, rising her hands till they lay flatbed against his chest. `` Sometimes I really detest you. ``

Nodding against her skin, he inhaled deeply, their undecided difference of opinion fading from his mind. `` You 're in luck… '' He replied, whispering despite their solitude. `` Because the feeling 's mutual. ``

'' I 'm sure… '' She murmured back, brass upturning as a blustery autumn breaking wind sent her long tresses scattering haphazardly between them. His coat of arms pulled her in closer, the loosen position of his robe billowing out and enveloping them both.

For the longest time they stood there, him shielding her from the wickedness'icy claw, her shielding him from regress into the darkness of all he had been partly responsible for for. And for the thousandth fourth dimension since their course had first crossed, he found himself listening to her admonishments.

Predominant amongst them was his newly bestowed title, a strained smile crossing his face at the view.

'' baron of Idiocy… '' He murmured, a troglodyte hand sliding from where he cupped the rear of her head, falling to stay along her cheek. `` I ca n't think you called me that. ``

The delicate fingers lingering upon his chest curled, capturing the plica of his beer stained robes. `` From my point of view it 's fitting. ``

A sad chuckle caught in his throat. `` So I 've been told. ``

'' Mrmm… '' She murmured back. `` And I 'm sure it has sunk in as well as that froth you 're covered in. ''

He shook his head word, his nose tousling her hair further. `` barely remember… '' He growled quietly, `` I owe you. ``

'' Do you ? '' She asked, inclining her head word to look questioningly upon him. `` And I thought it was I who owed you. ``

Despite his lack of joy, he found himself smiling. `` You do, I just owe you a drink, and I do n't mean the kind in a spyglass. ``

Her eyes shone with sympathy, `` You mean the variety overturned upon my head. ``

'' Just wait… '' He whispered, his brim falling upon her exposed earlobe. `` You 'll sit down in the Great anteroom, and when you least suspect it… ''

'' Does it count that you deserved it ? ``

His pharynx vibrated lowly. `` And you do n't ? ``

'' Point taken. ``

'' You know… '' He mused aloud, `` You 're awfully agreeable tonight. ``

'' fountainhead I do n't fancy being strangled by you, '' She replied truthfully, eyeing him with entertainment. `` Alone, at night, in the Forbidden Forest… It 'd be quite easy for you to get rid of me. ``

His supercilium furrowed at her word, a shrewd expression befalling him as he pulled away to view her. `` We 're in the Forbidden timberland ? ``

God he hoped he had misheard.
* * * * *


The door of the incoming mansion needed naught to be thrown open, for in the mayhem of parents coming and going, claiming their children before fleeing, the looming entree remained passable to all.

Regulus pitch blackness strode through it, robes billowing ominously in his viewing, looking for all the world as if hell itself could not deter him from his mission.

Only those who looked him in the eye would see the uncertainty that lay beneath the surface.

It was upon the principal stairway that Dumbledore intercepted them, Tonks ushering Emily and a fully recovered Kenneth in front line of her, due to their slightly drugged state.

Muggle repellent charms be damned, she had force them through the Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth, for here they would be safe.

The door to Dumbledore 's office slammed shut on an outraged knocker, genus Regulus wasting not a moment.

'' He 's attacked everywhere has he not ? ``

Dumbledore crossed the room, quickly climbing a small run to retrieve a small paperback, leather-bound text. `` Of course. ``

Neither of the two men appeared uneasy with the early 's bearing. The unflappable elderberry bush appearing entirely unsurprised by the younger 's sudden return to the living.

'' Then his architectural plan remains the Lapp as before. ''

'' Indeed… '' Dumbledore replied calmly, descending his perch. `` It 's a shame the Ministry did not listen to the monition. ``

Tonks cast an askance glance the headmaster 's way, steadying Emily 's swaying phase with a bridge player. `` You knew this was coming ? ``

'' I had my suspicions, '' Replied the master, squatting in front end of Brigham Young Emily, extending the schoolbook to her. The auburn haired child took it without a thought process.

'' My child… '' Dumbledore requested kindly, `` Would you do an old man the favor of reading a bit to him ? ``

Emily 's headspring bobbed gently, opening the leather boundary Word of God with robotlike motions, and as she began to scan, the clouded look disappeared from her and Kenneth 's heart, as did their drugged states.

Ignoring Regulus'annoyed growl, Dumbledore responded to Tonks questioning look. `` The exclusively way to allow Muggles to feel at ease within our grounds, short-circuit of removing the Barbara Ward, is to read from this record book. ``

Tonks merely nodded, while Kenneth blinked confusedly. Emily, however, had already spied a squishy looking arm chair and wasted no time in making a bee line for it.

'' If you do n't mind, there is the belittled subject of a Dark Lord to go to. '' The leer Regulus used paled in comparison to his tone.

Dumbledore merely smiled and pointed Kenneth towards the Lapp president, where the President promptly passed out, his small daughter in his lap. It was only then that Dumbledore 's smiling exterior faltered, something far more serious flashing behind his half-moon spectacles.

Tonks remained silent, knowing full phase of the moon fountainhead she would better serve everyone by listening, for she was in the nighttime about what was transpiring. She, an Auror, was out of her region with the breakthrough of the multiple attacks throughout the U.K., while Regulus merely grimaced, as if having long expected such an unpleasantry.

The last remaining heir of the Black family gestured to the sleeping family. `` He 's come after the kinsperson before ? ``

Both Tonks and Dumbledore nodded, while genus Regulus paced.

'' He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named may be a lot of things, but capricious is n't one of them, '' Regulus said seriously. `` If he 's attacked them it 's not coincidence, it 's targeting. And I 'm willing to bet it has something to do with his plan of eradication. ``

Her warmness fluttered uneasily, `` Eradication ? ``

Regulus paused mid-stride, `` Surely your education was not that bereft of grammar to ply suitable excuse for your loser to translate such a brusque syllable word as eradication ? ``

Her darkness middle narrowed in annoyance, her tongue held in stop only by the study born of years under the supervision of Kingsley and Mad-Eye 's loose sceptre.

genus Regulus'equally sinister eyes left hers duly, his pacing resumed, `` At a time He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named desired merely the eradication of Muggleborns alone. The cleansing of our human beings would have sufficed, for then he would be free to rule it. ``

Reaching the wall he did an abrupt about-face, continuing undeterred upon his straight itinerary. `` His views eventually changed and he came to hope the end of both Muggles and Muggleborns, and if his plans remain similar to the plot of before, the secret plan I failed to assist in properly, than today marks the beginning of the pest. ``

Tonks breathed deeply, `` There has n't been a plague of antecedence here since… ''

'' The Great Plague of John Griffith Chaney in the seventeenth century. ``

All optic, including the drowsy Emily 's, turned to regard the portrait of Phineas Nigellus Black. Though while Emily gently tugged at her dozing founder 's arm, mumbling about the image man in awe, Regulus glared in annoyance.

'' Salutations grandfather, '' He greeted with considerable sarcasm. `` As always I am fortunate to have never been forced to suffer your condemnable, condescending bearing in life history. ``

Phineas ignored the revilement, choosing to even off Regulus by reminding him that he was his Great-Great-Grandfather, and as such demanded a large degree of respect.

'' That excitable rock doorknocker demands regard as well, but that does not mean we give it to him. '' Quipped genus Regulus, his long fingers creating a holler tune along the shelving.

The master 's eyes twinkled at the strait of Crusantheus'protestation from outside the threshold. `` Your presence has charmed everyone within earshot Regulus, I can only hope to earn such kudos by the end of our coming together as well. I 'm beginning to feel left out. ``

Simultaneously all of the portraits, Tonks, the doorknocker, Guy Fawkes, and a merman sculpture snorted.

Regulus and Phineas surveyed the room with identically decisive expressions, glowering at those coarse enough to snort in their civilized presences.

'' I 've wasted too many years abroad to idly endure around and be chortled at. There is again, the topic of a nighttime master to serve to. ``

Tonks sobered immediately, her eyes fixating upon the tyke and man under her protection, the ones Regulus himself was responsible for saving when she had failed.

Her oral cavity formed the words, her emotionless clip telling of her seriousness.

'' order me more of this plague, genus Regulus. ``

And that he did, revealing the confessedly reason for his apostasy from the social status of the destruction Eaters.

'' Do you think of the coordinated attacks in my youth headmaster ? ``

'' The one just before your fade ? ``

Black nodded somberly, `` Yes, only on a smaller scale than the ones of today I shall imagine. On that day I was to have a ampule into the River River Thames, spreading the plague throughout the entirety of Muggle capital of the United Kingdom. '' The man 's voice betrayed not a tip of emotion as he confessed his title, his hands clasped neatly behind his dorsum.

'' It was only innate, '' He continued, `` For He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named to coordinate tone-beginning upon wizarding villages, entrapping the wizarding folk within. The fiat were to not kill nor harm the inhabitants unless absolutely necessary, and while the magical folk were trapped he unleashed a spell, a buffet curse if you will, one that would grant all those within the wards at the time of its casting immunity from the plague. ``

'' Wait…was n't there a risk of the counter torment failing ? '' Another portrayal, one by the epithet of Dilys Derwent, inquired.

Her cousin-german 's wickedness limelight was answer enough.

'' So why peril wiping out the wizarding universe of Britain, his plate, when there were other shoes where he may have tested it ? '' Tonks asked, directing her cousin 's dark gaze from the defenseless portrayal to herself.

Regulus thin lips went taunt, `` Nymphadora, you again underestimate him, assuming he places note value in abstract concepts such as love and house. '' His eyes narrowed considerably, `` He does not, and what estimable place to try an observational vaccinum if you will, then upon a inhabit island. ``

Dilys Derwent 's eyes widened, and Kenneth let out a jolting snore.

'' If the counter curse proved ineffective than the but wizarding residential area lost would be those of the U.K. '' Dumbledore said sadly, `` A fairish deprivation to one such as Tom, considering his strongest underground has always been in Britain. ``

genus Regulus nodded somberly, `` If it was inefficient, only a small portion of the man 's wizarding universe would be lost, yet million of Muggles would be gone with them. And since it was on an island, isolated from the independent Continent, the chances of it spreading to the former continents would be very slim indeed. ``

Dilys shook her head, `` Not with Muggle Department of Transportation. Now-a-days it could spread… ''

'' Quickly, '' Regulus supplied. `` There were plans to forestall this as well, to shut down major Muggle fare networks until the experiment had run it 's course. However, what those architectural plan were, I was not privy to. We were on a need to know base. ``

hearing to the conversation Tonks abdomen churned. The cold computing that must have gone into an endeavor such as that… The realization that the great unwashed, who harbored such lilliputian regard for human life, existed was chilling.

Her parents history of such sullen metre were what had driven her to join the social station of the Aurors in the get-go place, even if she herself harbored no personal memory of those days.

She had been only seven upon the ides of June, when the towns had been held during the day lit hours for grounds never discovered.

Regulus Negroid was now revealing the undisclosed reasoning behind the 24 expiry that had occurred that day. For his job had been to loose the plague that dark, once the wizarding communities had been safely and effectively immunized.

The Plague had never been unleashed, for genus Regulus Black, the trusty son of a nobleman pedigreed sept, had never shown. And now that same son was setting the vial, the Sami vial that he had kept for years in his possession, upon the headmaster 's desk.

'' Whatever it does, it was rumored to make the Bubonic Plague seem like the flu. ''

It would be the deadliest pest to befall the major planet, and according to Regulus, the Saami plague would let been unleashed under similar circumstances.

Similar circumstances had occurred that very day, and Dumbledore was just informing them. Fawkes disappeared in a torrid puff of heater, sent to summon Severus and the dependable of healers to began examining the venomous contents of the vial.

With an ashen fount Tonks took it all in, only one thought resonating within her head.

God help us.
* * * * *


'' Kaylens ? '' He questioned hesitantly, waiting for some response. Yet she only regarded him quizzically, nodding slowly in answer to his interrogation.

They were in the Forbidden Forest, and her with her foolish naivety had not thought once to refer it before now.

They were in the Forbidden Forest…

How in the hell on earth could she have know that ?

His expression instinctively hardened, as did his hand upon her, for temporary worker closing off within a woodland was one thing, but isolation within the Forbidden Forest was an entirely dissimilar matter.

middle sweeping the timber 's menacing tree line of work defensively, he remained unresponsive to her questioning heart. His lone reaction was the slight slackening of his arms around her form as he silently prayed their condom would defy out.

Unsatisfied, yet helpless to improve matters, his arms fell to her waist, hands stiffening along her spine. `` Kaylens… '' He whispered lowly, `` Why did you not guess to bring up this earlier ? ``

Her pectus rose against his, her slow breath crystallizing on the cooling air.

'' What good would it give done ? '' She whispered back. `` It was n't worth mentioning. ''

Swallowing hard he regarded her through narrowing slits. `` Perhaps I 'm wrong, '' He said lowly, `` But when something concerns our safety I 'd think it Worth mentioning. ''

'' If I had told you before, what would you have done ? '' She whispered dryly. `` We 're in too deep to put on the line travel, especially in the darkness. ``

'' I like the iniquity. ``

'' So do arachnids. ``

His middle narrowed further, `` How could you possibly know about them ? ``

Lifting her chin defiantly she met his gaze, `` Hagrid. ``

He nodded, voice heavily laced with sarcasm, `` And I 'm sure he 's in the practice of telling all his scholarly person about Aragog. ``

Her construction defied his test, for her optic told him she knew exactly of what he spoke as she shook her head. `` No, but I was like him ceramicist. I ca n't do magic, just like he was forbidden to after his riddance, so we had something in common… ''

Grinding his dentition to forestall an ejaculation he listened warily.

'' The only thing that saved him was being able to crop with the creatures of this forest Potter, did you fuck that ? ``

He shook his head disbelievingly, `` You ca n't work around them without a verge, it 's too dangerous. And unlike you he at least had his… ''

'' Umbrella ? '' She whispered shrewdly. `` No. Not at first. ''

'' And what does this have to do with you not telling me where we were before now ? ``

'' Everything, because when I first came here Hagrid showed me how the woods was divided into quadrants of each magical coinage'territorial dominion. ``

He inclined an eyebrow questioningly, encouraging her to continue.

'' This quadrant is rather near their nest. ``

His blood line grew cold in memory of his last experience, hands tightening along her back further. `` You still should experience told me, '' He whispered.

She smiled sadly, `` Since when did I have to inform you of everything within my psyche ? ''

'' Since now. ``

She shrugged impassively, `` I 'm surprised you did n't know. It was your port key that took us here, so I assumed you had known where it had taken us. ``

Exasperatedly his eyes fell shut, chest of drawers rising as he inhaled deeply, `` Did I just imagine telling you Dumbledore made it ? Or did I not already relay that I had no hint that the vial was a port wine ke… ''

'' You told me that recently, '' She interjected. `` We were here in silence for hours. How was I to intuitively jazz that you were unaware of our localization before then ? ``

'' You should birth said something the endorse I told you I had nothing to do with the port key Kayle ... ''

'' Considering that you were in mid-apology I 'm going to discord, '' She whispered, leveling her gaze to his. `` It 's not often that one sees the great thrower apologize about anything and I was n't about to break up that. ``

His hands dropped at her Good Book, for the conversation had turned in a strikingly different focal point. She merely took a pace back, regarding him from a safe distance with masked eyes.

'' It 's the the true ceramist. It did n't even pass to me that you were clueless about where we were until a second ago. Before I was busy being concerned that you were actually able of showing some likeness of human emotion…. '' Her eyes narrowed, whole step drowned in sarcasm. `` Asides from anger or misgiving that is. ``

With that she dropped down to the ground, becoming utterly fascinated by the swaying reeds as he was left with cypher but her dorsum to regard.

This was not how it was supposed to be. She was the one who 's emotions were constantly masked. She was the inhuman one, not him.

By the time he was done telling her that, in not quite compact prison term, he was reasonably sure that her expression would shop uncongenial intent towards him.

Though as he moved to fend besides her kneeling form, suddenly the escalation of their contention seemed worthless as he glimpsed her shoot down expression. Turning away from him, the rachis of her wrists began wiping at her eyes.

It was a long clock time before either again radius, the only audio the howl of the wind between the forest 's trees.

'' Kaylens I… ''

'' No… '' She whispered, `` Do n't inconvenience oneself. Just recognize that some us do not have the lavishness to leave alone our feelings unmasked. ``

Only one word came to beware, and he spoke it, unable to articulate in any other way his motion as to why she had until this very day refused to bear witness any likeness of her truthful self to him.

'' Why ? ``

Her head bowed low, the goal of her long braid dangling loosely in the ripple water. Finally, a pocket-sized stretch of eternity qualifying, she again spoke.

'' If you had the choice between keeping multitude safe, or putting good citizenry at risk, what would you do ? ``

Her password were chilling, and he found himself standing still, frozen in that mo, heart thudding louder than it ought. Never before had someone uttered the password, or given representative to the question that so oft haunted him.

Not in the way she just had.

She turned on the wet grass, her shining orbs rising in a determined way, betraying all the pain she had until now kept so carefully hidden.

'' How can you let yourself wish for others, when it could destruct them ? ``
* * * * *


Dean felt empty as he numbly shoved past the Fat Lady 's portrait. Whether the parole had fallen from his sass or not was something he would never fuck, and something the Fat Lady would keep to herself.

'' Neville. ``

He addressed his residence hall fellow in a monotone, unable to look the boy in the eye, even as Neville smiled sadly, hauling his bole down the stairs.

It was well after midnight, the legal age of the students already gone, taken away by their kinfolk. Those remaining till the succeeding aurora, or indefinitely, as doyen was planning, would already be in their dormitories.

Save for Neville, who 's gram had just arrived to take him home.

Neville shook his head sadly, `` It is n't right. I should n't impart like this. ``

Dean shrugged, walking past him up the trajectory. `` Then do n't. ``

The early boy paused in his tracks, turning and nearly losing his trunk in the summons. `` It 's not that simpleton. ``

Dean sighed resignedly, `` It is Neville. Just take a pedestal for once. Do n't punt down. '' Like I did…

Neville 's face furrowed anxiously, `` And what happens if she does n't let me ? ''

'' We are at war Mr. Thomas the doubting Apostle, and soon you will be forced to choose a side ! ``

A strong hand stretched out to rest against the dusty stone rampart of the pillar, and Dean steadied himself from the onslaught of bad memories.

'' Dean what if she tries to make me ? ``

'' Make your selection ! ``

His expression hardened, hand leaving the paries as he turned to regard his skittish looking hall spouse, whose neck was craned high to see where he stood high-pitched up upon the stairs.

'' Neville… '' He said seriously, his rich interpreter echoing upon the hollow rampart of the tower. `` No one can cause you do anything. Not unless you are too watery to suffer up for what you want, '' His eyes narrowed dangerously. `` Or for what you think is right. ''

Swiftly he strode down, taking the step two at a time until he was again unwavering with the nervous looking boy.

'' No one can force you to do anything, '' Dean imparted, his disconsolate oculus squaring off with Neville 's. `` Not McGonagall. Not Snape. '' His continued, his own internal ira growing. `` Not even Voldemort himself. ''

Leaning in Dean let his dark stare drill into Neville 's light one. `` And especially not your Gran, '' He whispered fiercely. `` No one can impel you to do something you do not already desire to do. So if you think staying here is the right matter, then you beneficial do it, lest you regret it later on. ``

Neville Longbottom looked at him as if he had never before seen him, and gulped apprehensively, for in Dean 's normally congenial eyes there was no pity.

'' There 's nothing worse than looking back and wishing you had done something differently. '' Dean imparted intensely, straightening as a queen cat bounded down from the girl 's dormitory. `` And I would think that someone who could face down decease Eaters, defending himself the way you did back in Hogsmeade, would not be one for backing down. ``

With a last glance at the cat Dean trudged up the flight of stairs, hell knack on retrieving Ronald Weasley 's things. How in the hell he was to get Ginny 's was another thing entirely, but the just thing he really knew, or cared about at that moment, was the satisfactory audio of Neville 's automobile trunk dropping to become abandoned on the stairs.

Later, when Dean came out of the dormitory, he would be greeted with an empty mutual room, Neville 's unrelenting shout of being needed at Hogwarts filling the halls.
* * * * *


interior Harry felt something break, for Kalliandra 's language were hitting tight to home than she could ever realize, for what had haunted him had haunted her.

Deep in the timberland, the impenetrable muteness was again shattered by her cheerless voice.

'' Once someone cares for you, and I mean truly charge Potter, no quantity of resistance will be capable to push them away. '' Her haunting words fell to the unfeeling ground, her human face once again lowered. `` Once you let someone in there really is no going back, and doing that… ''

She paused, Harry 's tenderness wrenching at the actualisation befalling him.

'' It 's something I can not do. '' She finally whispered, center again falling upon the dark waters.

In that instant, the air current stirring the grass around his feet, he realized how abysmally poor fish he had been. Kalliandra 's words had never rang truer. And though he felt as if he were missing some integral point, for how the words applied to her he knew not, he did eff how they applied to him.

Ron and Hermione would never forget his side, not ever.

A prospicient time ago they had said there had been a full stop where they could turn back, and they had not.

Harry ceramist suddenly realized when that moment had been, for both of them.

'' I think I can guess the untimely variety for myself thanks. ``

Ron 's side had glowed with acceptance.

'' It was my idea Professor. I went looking for the trolling. I had read about them and thought I could handle it. If Harry and Ron had not come when they did, I 'd probably be utterly. ``

A sad grin tugged at his core, for Hermione granger, knowing them as nothing other than cruel taunting boy, had broken every lesson she had that Halloween night.

And she had done it for them.

The compass point where he could protect his friends had retentive since passed. The meter where they could have been kept condom was over, and if he truly wanted them to hold out their best chance would be together, not apart.

He had been a fool to suppose otherwise.

oculus blinking rapidly, he regarded the girl who had brought this to Light, torn between whether to swim her or bosom her. Though all he could make for himself to do was quietly watch, paralyzed by the sheer thought of speaking when he was only just realizing how little he understood about her.

In that moment he was struck by the acute hurting he had failed to before notice. Even the fleeting glimpses he had before stolen… None of what had filtered through when she had been caught unaware… None of it could compare. Not to the sorrow flitting through in every pained crease of her supercilium, in every shaky hint indrawn, and in every halting gesture.

The rather plain, disheveled girl before him, the one capable of holding so often in, was suddenly strikingly beautiful.

In a mo of indecision he crossed to her. Gone was the stumbling boy who had once been unable to articulate a coherent thought around saddened female person. Now, in the look of necessity, drawn together by context, he found that his concern suddenly lay with the just somebody he held the power to help.

Kaylens.

Laying a helping hand upon her berm, the realization that her cloak was gone struck him. Once he had removed it, accessing her dresser in the alley, he had never re-fastened the clasp.

It had been left behind, and in the rapidly chilling air she had let slip not one complaint.

Despite the rigidification of her shoulder joint beneath his throbbing palm, he knelt down, one arm snaking it 's way around her quivering form. goosebump were rising across her neck where her tresses had been swept aside, her skin far too cool for his liking.

Lowering his sassing to her ear his breath traced along her skin, his chin falling to lie on her shoulder as he spoke.

'' You 're refractory, missing your cloak, and did not opine to say a Scripture, '' He whispered, pulling her against him, trapping her arms against her pectus with his own. `` And….you look like nether region, and I do not envision having you not only irritable but disgorge. ``

'' Like hell… '' She muttered softly, her words vibrating with her chattering teeth. Casting his eyes to the water he could see her reflection, and perturb aspect. `` You should see yourself. ``

'' I 'll let you revel in that torture alone, '' He responded softly, the chilling breeze sweeping the clouds aside once again, revealing the shaving of synodic month residing there that All Hallows Eve.

Her spark filament tickled his facial expression, his eye falling shut as he reveled in the strange sentience, only opening as he felt her turn to involve him.

Before she could talk his helping hand rose, silencing her.

'' Thank you, '' He whispered, watching the anger fade from her eyes. Now only confusedness, mingled with mild surprisal, swirled within her fiery globe. The wrinkle of her eyebrow was enquiry enough, and he shook his head, mumbling how it was heavy to explain, for how could he bestow the realizations her single condemnation had brought.

Unable to do so, he tightened his weaponry around her, pulling her to her feet before releasing her. Shrugging out of his cloak he spread it before them upon the cold earthly concern, earning a puzzled spirit from where she stood, her own arms now wrapped tightly around herself.

Her back talk parted slightly, though her protestation fell silent, for a thick wool mantle now lay where his cloak had been a moment before.

Pocketing his verge he nodded satisfactorily. `` Transfiguration, '' He offered by way of explanation, wrapping it around her shoulders, his hands lingering there. `` If we remain here, we 'll be dependable ? ''

Haltingly she nodded, a golden braid falling loose from behind her ear, swinging freely in the luminousness duck soup that cast it across her font, her nozzle crinkling ever so slightly as the tress tickled her nose.

His paw rising to brush it aside, he watched her eyes turn to the forest, studying it with a barely hidden yearning.

'' We 're welcome here, '' She whispered softly, `` For now at least. ``

And against every ingrained inherent aptitude, he trusted her unquestioningly.

'' Then here we 'll stay. ``

Sliding his hands down her arms, taking her hands in his, he led her away from the water and towards a large oak with a comfortable looking trunk.

Within min a soft, smoke-free firing burned before them, his back to the oak and her resting comfortably against his dresser, his arms encircling her tightly as she pulled the woolen blanket to her chin, covering them both.

Beneath the woolen cloth, where no middle save theirs could see, two hands intertwined around a golden chain, a low vial carefully clutched between their palms, just in case.



A/N : glad Belated Holidays everyone ! And thanks to IchigoPan for the cover girl spread out image. : )

Also, par lecturer request I shall post in the commend section whether or not a report is complete, and the issue of chapters nowadays upon recommendation.

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'' exemption is what you do with what 's been done to you. ''
~ Jean-Paul Jean-Paul Sartre ~




Chapter 25 ~ execration by choice


Some would believe that they had been condemned by fate, others that they had been condemned by choice. In the retentive run, those who believe that freedom can only be found by the choices one makes with what they have been given, are closer than either extreme.

Those who had cared for the deadened and dying during the Bubonic Plague, risking exposure so that others could be spared, made the best choice they could with the dire circumstances life had dealt them. And though Thomas More than three C had passed since anything of interchangeable symmetry had struck civilized society, history would soon reprize itself.

Bathed in the inky hue of darkness, upon the shores of the River Liffey, a man with a fishing pole smiled into the moonlit sky. The rain had long since let up, and he basked in the early dawn 's fragrant aroma, enjoying the spray of the river splashing against the shoreline.

He would soon be the first to buckle under to the world 's gravid plague.

He did not know this, not that early sunup as he sat upon the dewy grass, eagerly anticipating the aurora sunrise he had awoken so former to see. He could not foresee this anymore than he could foresee that his wife and three shaver would be the next to succumb, leaving their once vibrant home devoid of laughter, dearest, and life.

They would all be dead within seventy-two hours.
* * * * *


Neville .... Dean ....

Beneath a thick, wickedness humeral veil of russet toned chain, two dark eyes fluttered blurrily. The optical meat of her mental capacity were not prepare to have the signals traveling across her optic nerve. The pain sign were still far too overwhelming.

Despite this the daughter 's eyes fluttered open, peering into her new hell.

A fuzzy, rectangular outline, the people of colour of a finely aged manuscript 's pages ... it rested besides where she lay, her dead body feeling unnaturally unscathed upon the smooth satin canvass. Somehow she was left with the lurking champion that everything should not be quite decently ... ..with what though ... .for certainly her skull was whole.

The little girl 's brilliant mind felt somehow ... violated. As if soul had been poking about within it, without her limited permission.

As if someone had been searching through her most cherished memoirs ...

Again the names came to her, hitting her with the strength of a heavily muscled serpentine tail.

Her pleasant hallucination born of slumber were shattered, her brim parting with an indrawn gasp as the foreign, foggy room fell into stress, as did the woman resting within the in high spirits backed professorship, legs elegantly crossed, a cruel, taunting look stretched taunt across her lips. And like a predator stalking its prey, the woman 's eyes were purposeful, triumphant, and locked upon her own.

Somewhere in her recovering mind the girl realized that the woman was intent on stealing her innermost secrets, and what better here and now to do so than within one 's waking moments, when their defenses were the lowest.

Voldemort'social station were fell and calculating, containing master tacticians whom she both admired and loathed with every fiber of her being. Yet despite this admiration, she would die before allowing them in.

Silently she swore this, and in the dimmed room the girl did the just matter she knew how to.

She fought.

As the woman 's arrogant laugh filled the way, for the girl was no match for the woman 's preparation, a crucial mistake was made, for in that one moment of underestimate the Mudblood was able to push back, catching sight of what the adult female was really after.

Lord Voldemort was in the room, unseen to the lady friend 's eyes, and the daughter suddenly understood that she was the come-on that was to entice in the avowedly prey.

Hermione sodbuster began screaming for her best acquaintance to block out everything Voldemort showed him.

A cruel lighter cut through the air, and as the little girl fell defenseless to the Cruiciatious execration, passing into another pain induced slumber, Harry Potter tossed violently within his own.
* * * * *


'' Sit ! ``

The small of her back hit the basketball backboard of the chairperson, painfully.

Yet that was zip in comparison to what she would do to Regulus. Over the past times few hr, where they had been all but forced to remain hole out up in Dumbledore 's office, her notion of genus Regulus had done a complete 180, followed by a 360. And now he had been presumptuous enough to physically force her away from the door, which she had been using in an endeavour to vacate the premises.

She felt needed elsewhere.

She snapped her scepter out, aiming at her infuriating cousin with every intention of ordering him to endure aside, when Dumbledore 's voice thundered loudly, its ancient baritones echoing throughout the tower.

'' Enough ! ``

external respiration heavily, her dark eyes fixated furiously upon Regulus'complacent verbalism, her voice addressed the master. Unsurprisingly her tincture were LE than pleased at the data she had just gleaned from their impromptu meeting.

It had been the reason for her give out endeavour to leave.

'' Explain ... '' She spoke less than warily, `` How you can justify refusing to allow for me, an Auror in slip you forgot, to find Harry when you have just admitted that you know where he is ? I can be trusted to find him ! '' Regulus scoffed loudly at this, receiving a swift beef in his unprotected shin.

Ignoring his grimace and failed attack at dignity she continued adamantly. `` schoolmaster ... one student has already been killed, and if Harry is out there alone he ... ''

'' He is not alone. ``

She closed her eyes, drawing an annoyed hint between her teeth. `` Oh ? ''

Dumbledore seemed vaguely amused by her reaction. `` Of course not. He is with another educatee. ``

Tonks blinked, flabbergasted. Suddenly she was having a very unvoiced time separating her avow oath as an Auror to do all she could to protect the inexperienced person, with her swearword to the rules of order to believe its membership and its founder. Particularly when that same founder had just finished informing her that he had known the positioning of three of the missing students all along, yet had failed to inform the Ministry official and Order members scouring Hogsmeade of that apparently miniscule fact.

'' A scholarly person ... and who would that bump to be ? '' She muttered, choosing to put it simply.

Dumbledore removed his spectacles, polishing them gently. `` Kalliandra Kaylens. ``

Her eyes widened in Bob Hope that she had misheard. `` That girl Remus has been tutoring ? '' She nearly shouted. `` She 's practically a Muggle ! ``

Dumbledore cast a peculiar glance her way. `` Sometimes you may be surprised at what non-magical masses are capable of. ``

Regulus sneered, `` Oh yes ... I 'm sure they are natural at evading the Unforgivables of the night God Almighty 's handmaiden. ``

'' Of course of instruction you 'd have intercourse all about that would n't you Reggie ? '' Tonks snapped hotly, ignoring the disapproving eyes of the Headmaster as she turned her hot temper directly on him.

'' What in the name of Merlin are you thinking Headmaster ? '' She questioned shrilly. `` You 've allowed half of the purchase order to think that Harry is missing yet tell the ex-Death eater on the pip the second everyone is out of earsho ... ''

'' I 'm in earshot ! ``

'' Shut up !'Tonks and Regulus shouted simultaneously as Regulus practically flew across the room, giving the already closed doorway a sound bitch. Crusantheus, the door knocker, could be heard swearing violently on the other side.

'' Tonks ... '' Dumbledore said, sounding slightly amused, `` I have my reasons for doing things. ''

Regulus'eyebrow arched so highschool Tonks swore he must have stolen Snape 's patented spirit of smugness.

'' leave me to venture a wager ... '' Regulus interjected snidely, looking pointedly at her. `` But I am guessing that Dumbledore does not trust everyone in this niggling fowl society you have both spoken so adamantly about tonight. ``

It was derisory, yet she knew her cousin 's peak held a government note of truth.

'' Is n't it a pity, Nymphadora ... '' Regulus continued, pacing in nominal head of her seated figure, `` When you can not even entrust your fellow shuttlecock witness with the whereabouts of the baby wench ? ''

She scowled, forcing herself to look away from his facial expression of superiority. Instead she observed what Dumbledore was doing, watching as the quills finished penning upon each scroll, then rolling themselves in succession, the ink already fading upon each.

It was a conjuration of the orderliness, used only in fourth dimension where the level best of security was needed, for only those bearing the mark of the phoenix would be able to see the truth printed upon those scrolls.

The use of it disturbed her greatly, for why would Dumbledore want risk penning instructions when he could inform each recipient verbally via flow ?

'' schoolmaster ... '' She said warily. `` Please let me remember Harry. As an Auror you have to sympathize that I can not stand aside and allow Harry and Kalliandra to be put in risk. '' She stood, ignoring Regulus'attempts to block her route, and strode straight to the window overlooking the castle ground. Dumbledore stood besides this same window, an odd look deepening his already lined features.

'' master ... '' She said, eyes shining with importunity. `` You know salutary than anyone what kind of citizenry are after Harry. Just tell me where he is at, because wherever he is he could get .... ''

'' Killed ? '' Dumbledore supplied, tearing his optic from the dark scenery. `` Tonks, I understand your business organisation. Yet if we never allow Harry to survive on his own how can we expect him to exist this war ? ``

She frowned, her silence his answer.

The Headmaster nodded solemnly. `` The time when we could protect the tike from the horrors of war has long since passed. Now all we can do is hope that we have prepared them well enough. ``

Tonks sighed sadly, watching as the flight feather began inscribing the names of the addresses upon the rolling Egyptian paper rush coil. Harry 's figure was amongst them, but not Remus.

turn to Dumbledore she questioned him with her eyes. `` What if we have n't ? ``

A comforting deal touched her shoulder, Dumbledore 's twinkling eyes again holding a sense of hope.

'' If I 'm not mistaken, I do believe you were always a inviolable proponent of giving at least Harry more than freedom. If you had not believed him, a student, ready, would you really have suggested that ? ``

Swallowing she nodded, glancing towards where Kenneth and Emily slumbered, a meretricious stertor from Kenneth the sudden attractor of her attention.

Dumbledore chuckled. `` Perhaps we ought to move them to my individual poop. I dare say they could possibly be more comfortable there. ``

She nodded vaguely, and within minutes was levitating the Irish whiskey President in a very undignified way, his blazonry and legs hanging quagmire as he sleep danced through the highly arc doorframe, leaving the office of the Headmaster and entering Dumbledore 's private study.

genus Regulus followed behind, Emily in his branch, and the most funny locution upon his face. He rather looked as if he had drunk sour Milk River containing the elixir of aliveness. Regardless the expression vanished as he placed her upon the couch besides her father, a look of relief overtaking him as he rid himself of the seven yr old burden.

'' Nympahdora ? ``

Her hands froze upon the woolen blanket, the one she had been draping across her charges sleeping forms, for Dumbledore 's representative was no longer right behind her.

Trepidation shook her.

Turning, as if in tedious apparent motion, her brain recognized that except for her sleeping armorial bearing, that she was now alone in the room.

Both her first cousin and the master stood just beyond the elbow room 's threshold, a flavour of resigned solemnity upon their faces.

'' I am sad Nymphadora .... '' Dumbledore 's vocalism floated through the doorway eerily. `` But there is something I must do, and I have a tactual sensation that genus Regulus may be the solely one leave to stand spectator without protestation. ''

What rite ?

The survey 's finely carved room access began swinging shut.

She bolted for them, not knowing why, yet knowing there was no fourth dimension. Her metrical unit vanish across the flooring, her eyes catching ken of the papyrus scroll clutched within Dumbledore 's aging hand, its addressee forever burning into the untried Auror 's mind.

Tom Marvolo Riddle.

It was only then that it finally dawned on her ... what Dumbledore intended to do. And as she tripped, falling flavorless upon the floor, her eyes upturned, straining for a sight of the roof within the headmaster 's office.

Upon the tower 's conical cap were the ancient words of power, and they were the finale vision she had before the subject field door slammed shut with a resonating finality.

Lying stunned upon the floor her thoughts faltered, for upon the parchment bound for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named an ancient oath was surely inscribed. Dumbledore 's magical signature tune was the one responsible for writing it beneath the social organisation of big businessman, and thus she knew that Dumbledore had sworn to meet with the most dire of villains to begin the negotiation for the surviving student of his.

Hermione Granger.

Beneath the room access a fiery tendril could be seen.

The blood bound ritual had begun ...
* * * * *


In the thick of night lightning flashed.

phantasm were streaking across the ground, illuminating the nighttime abyss surrounding those who slumbered far from the oncoming storm. There, mysterious beneath the darkened boughs of night, dreams both haunting and beseeching plagued the girl 's dispirited turning within the coat of arms of Morpheus.

Yet something far more solid than the purveyor of dreams clung to the female child, smoothing away the goose skin rise upon her arctic skin, for even as the man she leant against dreamt his promise to safeguard was being unconsciously kept.

In his munition the girl failed to hear the oncoming storm, only awakening from her cool slumber as the calloused hands around her tightened, the man 's stabilize breathing falling and rising erratically, for REM was suddenly failing to bottle up his military volunteer brawny systems.

Something had changed ...

Kally was flung to the priming with a scratch, her dead body hitting the dew kissed soil with emphatic chroma.

coughing, there upon the ground, she scrambled away, rolling and slipping as the sky thundered, the first droplet of the icy onslaught catching her in the face. Reflex Max Born of one cruel freak 's sadism, and a lifetime of paranoia, sent her scattering from her shielder on instinct.

Sliding upon the dew kissed grease, scrambling to her fundament, blinking back the dregs of sleep and the dark of Night, her mind finally processing what was occurring she ceased to act. Standing there with the air current whipping bitterly around her, the rising air 's pall seeping through her poor wearable, she laid middle upon her unwilling assailant.

potter ...

The mind numbing confusion that befell her, the form that always seemed to accompany his presence, returned as she watched him. His bright center closed against the brewing storm, his human face contorted, and even from where she stood she could see the phrenetic meridian and valleys his heaving pectus made.

It was happening again, the thing she had merely glimpsed that Night in the common room, falling victim to it within the torch-lit corridors ...

Without rational thought she ran to him, the one she barely knew, who had foolishly saved her biography on Thomas More occasion than she cared to count. Dropping besides him, her knees sinking into the deaden mud, she felt her fingerbreadth stall, uncertainty gripping her chilled form.

Something was wrong ... this sensation ... the uncertainty ... .it was alien and fleeting ...

Though living 's ruthlessness had once taught her the fiend of inaction.

Forcing herself, will herself to act, she gripped his shoulders, calling his name as loudly as she dared. In the quickening snap the blanket that had sheltered them billowed out, tumbling with the wind to lay sprawled across the wet ground.

'' Pott-tter ... '' The chill crept into her vocalisation, the hint stealing her Holy Scripture for its own cagey purpose. Slowly she watched, nearly feeling his lips moving in a unsounded duologue to which she was not privy.

Beneath her fingers she felt the growing rigidity of his berm, a terrifying intensity radiating from him as the rain began to fall in wooden-headed soaker, rain splattering upon his effort dampened brow.

When the life giving water reached his unsightly scar, a sizzling rose into the air.

Lightning criss-crossed the night.

One-one thousand ...

Gingerly her fingertips traced his supercilium, brushing along his matt-up hair. Before the searing maven within her human body even registered her hand was recoiling, a suppress cry of pain caught within her pharynx.

In the darkness she could not see her reddened fingertips, but she knew the burns to be there.

Two-one thousand ...

Voice constricted, from what she knew not, for aught in the magical humanity could now surprised her, she screamed at him. Foolishly she screamed, roaring in a contest to lift above the malarkey as she gripped his shoulder, shaking his already vibrating manikin.

His Adam 's apple rose and fell, as if he too were screaming to be heard by one incapable of doing so.

Three one-thousand ...

'' Potter ... '' She questioned, knowing her vocalization would not give him. `` What 's happening to you ? ''

Four-one thousa ...

smack shook the sky, a animal howl carrying upon the breaking wind from a distance far too nigh. Her narrowed eyes flew to the woods, ill-equipped as they were to reveal its hidden dangers.

God Remus ... where are you .... He would be able-bodied to see, to come home the Night 's veil.

Unconsciously, as her ill fated sentiment plagued her, her finger coiled around Harry 's shoulders, relishing the odd protection his law of proximity brought in the face of the unknown.

teeth chattering she began a soundless mantra.

'' One-one thousand ... ''

Within her ears the steadfast rhythm of her heart pounded achingly loud, and further wrawl cutting upon the gusts of the growing onslaught sent a current running through her chilled veins.

'' Two-one thousa ... ''

Again the sky split open, rumbling as if hell itself were fighting to break through, and as if in some fell unison with the sky pain erupted around her slender, unclothed arm.

Tight finger now clenched callously around her wrist, her detached handwriting slipping from Harry 's shoulder, clutching at his fingers, prying them away from the crushing force of his strong hands.

In the eerie light of the tempest she struggled with him, his dormant figure writhing against her as if he were a man watching, silently reliving, the carnage of all he held dear.

She too had learnt the truth of such repugnance far too Danton True Young ....

A halter audio resounded within his throat, her own constricting at the trouble creases lining his sweat soaked brow.

'' hoot you Potter ... '' She implored breathlessly, feeling his steadfast clasp tightening further. `` semen back ... ''

Thunder clapped across the heroic sky, her breathing spell coming out in ever cleared cloud. `` You 're insufferable ... '' She gasped through clenched, chattering tooth. `` ceramicist please ... this hurts so very much ... ''

Somehow, despite the howl of the breaking wind, her affright pleas broke through, reaching the God of Sleep, for Morpheus released his vice grip upon the world-beater of Idiocy 's psyche.

In a moment, in one little, sharp spasm, she was yanked against him, thrown across his legs as he jerked awake.

Frightened and cutting tire eyes flew capable, staring through the cold rainwater at her, not fully seeing ...

Yet pain and shame swelled within them.

Coughing, breathing heavily from her exertion and up gibbousness of fear for he alone, her Holy Scripture came unbidden.

'' What happened ? ``

Blinking the water from his eyes, his glasses long since flung to the soil, he swallowed painfully, his vocalization coming out in hoarse rasps.

'' Kaylens ... '' He rasped, `` He 's got her. ``

'' Of trend ... '' She murmured sardonically. `` Yes ... that explains everything ... ''

With assess movements she slowly removed herself from where she lay upon his saturated pegleg, collapsing onto the muddied ground besides him. The thickening mud rose around her, threatening to overtake her uncaring figure.

'' potter .... '' She finally whispered, allowing her centre to flicker shut. `` What just happene ... ''

'' Do n't arrive at me lie to you. '' He whispered brokenly. `` I wo n't. I ca n't. ``

Somehow, as she felt his soma moving to shield her from the element, she managed a answer.

'' Harry ... '' She murmured incredulously, `` Then tell me. Who has who ? ``

Her heart flickered open, and the sharpest strumpet in the world locked onto her own.

'' Voldemort has Hermione. ``
* * * * *


Remus staggered from the bowels of the Forbidden Forest. From where he had been drug, and left.

'' You 're services are no longer required rakehell traitor. Our Lord shall summons you when our services are again ... .needed. ``

Lucius'word of honor were chilling. Though not nearly as often as his act this night.

He remembered everything ...

Even now the blood lust taunted him, alluring him with its putrid aroma rising from his tatterdemalion clothing.

Ron 's blood ...

Before him loomed Hogwarts shoal of witchcraft and Wizardy, his tedious pace leading him past the ragged looking Ministry officials.

He was just another injured bystander to them, and was paid no heed.

On the soil a dust-covered creme tent flapped in the violent hint, Mediwizards roaming around the first step in the canvas tent. Within its straighten out interior he glimpsed Rider Haggard parents lining up with their children, bag in tow, as they waited for Ministry transport away from the scene of today 's crimes.

No one would chance a walk to Hogsmeade, not now, not even with Ministry protection.

With staggering footmark Remus made his way to the castle. He had a report to make, and a sin to beg penance for.
* * * * *


The sure thing swim within his eyes was astounding. Even in the night of night, as he hovered above her prostate chassis, she recognized that.

Her lip parted, a silent question unspoken as his illogical assumption settled in, for how could one know the whereabouts of one they could not see ?

They could n't. He could n't. And yet ...

She believed him.

In the past he had been pitiless and cruel, illogical and brash, and yet he had never given her a ground to doubt nor distrust him.

Everything that had passed between them before had been the indirect result of her own privateness, of her own perpetuated Trygve Halvden Lie, of her own sins ...

He had been right to holler her a Death Eater. Though she had not know of the title, she was as good as one.

Blinking the rain from her middle she took a chance.

Her first chance.

'' So ... what do we do ? '' She asked.

His silence was palpable. The cracking of breaking boughs in the forest, their tumultuous descent to the afforest level, and their net soggy thunder against it were all she heard above the wind.

His jaw remained slack.

'' potter ? '' She whispered, knowing he now show her sassing, for her lenient answer was inaudible.

His wet pilus swayed as his header was shaken, slinging water upon her as his waterlogged mitt curled around her arm. `` You believe me. ''

It was a command. Not a question.

chill, the off-white mystifying tingle taking over, she nodded. `` S-shocking, I k-know. ``

His solemn regard studied her, eyes moving to where his hired hand lay. A perplexed expression broke his quiet.

'' Did I hurt you ? ``

His tone carried a note of self disgust, yet the corners of her mouth tugged gently upwards at his concern.

'' C-could n't if you t-tried, '' She stammered.

A dig chuckle escaped his throat, his hand rising along her arm, smoothing away the goose bump rising upon it. `` respectable ... '' He responded. `` Because we have to allow. ``

Her face scrunched up, her blue-tinged lips no longer felt by her.

'' How ? ``

Grasping her with both hands he assisted in up-righting her, rubbing her munition vigorously. `` We walk ... '' He whispered, `` Run if necessary, and hope that nothing eats us. ``

As if on cue, from the depths of the woodland 's shadows, a savage emerged.

Her shaky breathing stop dead thrower 's bridge player upon her, his intuition alerting him of what she already knew.

'' Run ... ''
* * * * *


He wanted to lie to himself, to tell himself that he had not committed the act that he had.

The trueness persisted.

Remus'feet unconsciously moved down the corridor, water system dripping in his wake upon the stone storey. He had not reported into Dumbledore. He had not alerted the Order of his yield.

There was something he had to do first.

Remus pushed open the hospital wing room access, leaving a muddy depression where his hand had resided.

muteness greeted him within the candlelit infirmary, the only respite the sound of upstage thunder as the tempest rolled south, away from Hogwarts'grounds. At the annex 's far end three curtained off areas hung stagnant in the stuffy atmosphere, yet the aroma of rain lingered within his nostrils.

And stemma ...

It did n't choose the inner eye to know that his victim lay nearby.

His echoing footfall led him to the start sectioned expanse, where he found what he was looking for.

Ronald Weasley sat erect, gazing out the window upon the splinter of quarter lunation peeking through the violent storm clouds.

Remus'stomach twisted rebelliously as a voice broke the silence.

'' You want to talk ? ``

Remus remained frigid to the spot, nodding as he felt the verdict of an problematic execution trial being handed down.

Remus was certain that they had already told the Weasley 's unseasoned son his fate, and by now the changes would deliver already begun, affecting his senses ... his scent ...

His presence would confirm what the young Gryffindor most likely already suspected. Ron would now bonk the one responsible for condemning him.

turning on the surgically plumb white tile, Remus dimly remembered the understanding for why the stone floor had been overlain with the Muggle alternative, for even a firm round of scourgifying turn were not enough to absent the filth of pedigree from ancient stone. The past war had brought far too often of that within Hogwarts bulwark, and tile was much easier to pick.

Fleetingly, Remus wondered if his own stemma were about to again, be removed from it.

His eyes rose shamefully to the boy he had cursed, his pride forcing himself to not look away as he awaited whatever hateful quarrel were sure to get, for he was surely deserving of them.

Though none did.

'' Ronald ... '' His interpreter came out thick and gravely, articulateness abandoning him. `` Whatever you ask ... This is the second time I 've endangered you and I ... '' He faltered. `` I am good-for-naught ... ''

It took every ounce of his rapidly diminishing braveness to remain standing in the presence of one he had so horribly wronged.

Lightning illuminated the room, filtering in through the hospital wing windows, and Ron set his jaw. `` You did n't mean to prick me, so do n't interest about it. ''

Thunder rolled, vibrating the tiles beneath his soles.

Ron cringed, obviously unaccustomed to the sudden amplification of all surrounding sounds.

Such was the effect of becoming a lycan.

As the thunder diminished, his former student frowned pensively. `` For the first time in my animation Professor.. I 'm dissimilar. '' The stripling extended five of his digits, frowning further at the sight of the abnormality lying just beneath the surface. `` Everything ... from now on ... '' He continued oddly, `` It is all going to be different. ``

Shame nearly sent Remus tumbling to his genu. `` All because of my recklessness ... again ... you could give birth been ki ... ''

'' So could have you, '' Ron cut in sharply. `` Yet that did n't stop you from doing your duty, Professor. ``

In the minute of secretiveness that followed, the youngest Weasley son suddenly did something completely unexpected. A tardily, sad smile crept across his feature film, and then Ronald Billius Weasley looked him directly in the eye.

'' Whatever the reason was for sending you out to cavort with those other ... '' Ron swallowed hard, `` werewolves ... It had to be important, otherwise you would n't hold been there. ``

Remus remained silent. He could not give into his own self-deprecating desire to turn over and flee, he owed the new werewolf Thomas More than that.

'' This is a war. Before you bit me I had no rattling talent to offer. '' The untested man 's words were sluggish, and for once, painstakingly thought out. `` To everyone I was just ... a preventive, just another mediocre wizar ... ''

'' Your tycoon was never mediocre, '' Remus interjected painfully.

Ron shook his forefront, his fingers scrunching the gross whiteness of the hospital weather sheet. `` It does n't count ... I simply could n't do anything the others could n't already do better than I. But now .... ''

Light bluing centre looked up, meeting his haunted ones. `` But now professor ... ''

Remus again nearly choked at the ill-bestowed rubric. `` I have n't been your Professor for some clip Ronald. ``

A rather dangerous expression touched Ron 's mouth. `` Well ... '' He said, flexing his fingers. `` That 's about to change. ``

And with reflexive pronoun upper, right where Ron 's clenched fist had been clenched around them, Remus realized that the hospital sheets now lay shredded.

Where Ron 's fingers should be, there were claws.

frigidness comprehension dawned upon him, for somehow the boy had inherited the power to transform at will, yet the bloodlust Remus felt running within his own veins was nowhere to be seen within the boy 's eyes.

All that lay there was a dangerous glint.

'' My friends are out there, and I intend to find them. '' Ron avowed. `` So ... ''

A carnal timbre edged into the young Weasley son 's voice.

bluing, ovular eyes, met his own.

'' So Lupin ... How 'd the social club fancy a mo set of ravenous Fang ? ``










A quick short letter : The medical checkup and biology lover may pick up a few things in this chapter and the upcoming ones, so please be forewarned that any parapraxis on the fiber'region regarding such things is entirely knowing. I want to prove that they are imperfect and not entirely well-educated about certain thing. It would n't be fun if the case never made mistake. *cackles*

Thank you to Njhill22 for all of your assist with this chapter. I may very well have lost my sanity had it not been for the 5 am belated night writing sessions that we had to recur to ! And thank you to IchigoPan for putting up with a bit of lovely rambling as well ! Now on with the chapter !








'' Amidst pit there is always light, it is just a matter of finding it. ``
~ stranger ~


Chapter 26 ~ The reason for the War



It had taken her all of ten mo to picture it out.

Breathing heavily, her mousy hair strewn about, she again rose her leg to push back the full power of her exercising weight against the mahogany tree doorframe. The audio reverberated throughout the room, echoing from the ancient gemstone walls in a way that mirrored her increasing, autonomous anger.

She should have known.

Cursing she stepped back from the unmoving entryway, her feet stumbling clumsily across the uneven trading floor boards. Her dark eyes swept the high rafters criss crossing the cylindrical tug, at a loss.

Dumbledore had hanker since earned the rubric normally reserved for Remus alone, for that 'damnable man'had thought of every conceivable escape endeavor and blocked her advancement at every turn. One thing was sealed : The headmaster was surely against anyone knowing of his programme, and from the looking at of things she would not be escaping any fourth dimension soon. Certainly not in time to alert anyone before it was too late.

If only she had realized ! Then she would n't be trapped like some mythical Rapunzel caught in a god-awful fag tale.

Her oculus landed upon the night windowpane physique, her thinker briefly mulling over the possibility of growing her hair into a retentive enough plait to send Emily scurrying down.

She snorted. Even if the Bothans were not under an enchanted eternal sleep Kenneth would surely shinny her alive before allowing her to release his girl into an impromptu acrobatic chimpanzee. Of course Emily had seemed rather taken by that exhibit at the Phoenix parking area Zoo ...

As if reading her cerebration Kenneth growled a little.

Men ... She thought angrily. Even in their quietus they shot down her melodic theme !

Turning her attention to the door shape she did the exclusively matter she could think of, and rearing back her leg she charged. Only this time the door swung open as if in sync with the divinity of clumsiness, and she found herself sprawled across the headmaster 's emptier office.

Rolling onto her back, flopping like a fish on the story, her dark eyes fixated furiously upon her cousin.

'' You ... '' She roared, kicking the doorway to the study shut with her feet. She was not eagre for Kenneth nor Emily to hear this if they awoke at this rather untimely interval.

Regulus gazed down his nose in amazement. `` Cousin were you really waging war on his work door the entire time ? You do realize that is hand-crafted mahogany ? ``

Growling she scrambled to her feet, `` I swear to Merlin genus Regulus ... you tricked me ! You allowed him to ... ''

He scoffed loudly. `` No one allows Albus Dumbledore to do anything full cousin. He merely does it whether you are in concurrence with his decisions or not. Surely you would be aware of that by now. ``

'' He 's mighty you kno ... ''

'' Shut up Crusantheus ! ``

Regulus cast an unnaturally good-hearted look at the door as she again rounded on him.

'' He made the Unbreakable vow did n't he ? '' She demanded. `` He 's going to trade himself for Hermione Granger if he can is n't he ? And you let him ! ``

'' Like I could bar him ? Besides, it was n't that bad of an ide ... ''

'' You could have refused to stand witnesser ! '' She hollered. `` He could n't have done it without one ! ``

Regulus'eyes roamed the way curiously, as if she were an inconsequent bug, before his oculus finally landed upon a low storage locker. `` Well ... '' He commented, walking towards it. `` If not I he would have found another person to ... ''

'' The purchase order needs him Regulus ! '' She shouted, tailing him closer than a shadow. `` We ca n't survive witho ... ''

Regulus spun to face her. `` Do n't devaluate yourself cousin. From what he said he may have founded your piddling aviary administration, but he is no more authoritative than the relief of you within it. ``

She gasped. `` You gag ? ``

The perfect image of Oliver Stone glowered back. `` Do I look like one to jest ? ``

Her breathing spell came in furious puffs as he began rummaging through the contents of Dumbledore 's deceptively modest liquor cabinet. A considerable time passing before he emerged, a crocked, satisfied transmission line straining his mouth, and a garnet hued bottleful in hand.

She was barely collecting herself, her wand arm twitching dangerously as she seriously contemplated whether or not her cousin was an alien species.

'' Le Vin de Chateau Latour ... '' Regulus commented admiringly, ignoring her as if nothing of import had occurred. `` Dix-neuf soixante-dix, une belle année. ``

Her dentition ground so grueling she swore to God he would be receiving the dental consonant bill.

'' For the less refined in the way, '' He continued, his unfaltering middle never leaving his recently procured booty, `` Nineteen seventy was an excellent year. ``

A loud pop resonated within the room, the rising hue of her cheeks evidencing her increasing blood imperativeness. Merlin ... she was getting as bad as Kingsley with that !

'' This detail time of origin, '' Regulus continued undeterred, `` Presently runs over one hundred and twenty four Syrian pound a nursing bottle. Just imagine what it may throw run once fully matured. A ignominy this Latour takes ten to fifteen years ... ''

Between her gritted teeth she managed a growling. Regulus ignored this, painstakingly choosing a rather worn and bright orange mug from Dumbledore 's limited glass selection. His nose crinkled in antipathy as the mug 's emblem Go Cannons sparkled up at him.

'' Allowing his vintages to go to waste ... '' Regulus grumbled disapprovingly, pouring the opaque, yet red fermenting into his mug moodily. `` I would birth thought better of the old man ... ''

'' That old man has Sir Thomas More moral vulcanized fiber than you could ever wish to possess, '' She snapped.

'' I do n't doubt that, '' He replied evenly.

Her middle widened furiously. `` Why in the hell would Dumbledore contain you into his authority ? You were a cowardous traito ... ''

Regulus'chicken feed slammed down, shattering.

'' NEVER PRESUME YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THAT NYMPHADORA ! '' He roared, eyes igniting dangerously. `` I am far more familiar with each one of my treacherous, unfaithful acts than you shall ever be. But know this ... ''

Regulus'armorial bearing rose, despite his already rigidly erect posture.

'' If it were not for those cowardly act of mine then the Muggle public would take in been wiped out a long ... fourth dimension ... ago. '' He hissed quietly. `` My cowardly nature preserved the knowledge of what could deliver happened ... .keeping it safety until it was needed again ... ''

'' You should cause come forth with it sooner, '' She challenged. `` As soon as you heard He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was back you should have ... ''

'' Oh ? '' He snapped condescendingly. `` And how was I supposed to know that my former slithering Divine had crawled back from the grave accent whilst in the Muggle realm Nymphadora ? Particularly when those of you at the Ministry do your best to keep apart our world from the Muggle realm ? fountainhead congratulations Nymphadora ! Because despite Voldemort 's respectable efforts at mayhem and misery your treasured Ministry has done its job well ! Not a Holy Writ of his return leaked to me, even though I was listening for word ! ``

Seething venomously she leveled her sceptre at him, eliciting a derisive laugh. `` Where 's Dumbledore ? ``

'' Why at a encounter with that slithering serpent of a darkness Creator I suspect. Surely you could have guessed that at least. ``

Her spunk thudded unnaturally.

'' Let me out Regulus. ``

'' I wish I could cousin, '' He said, turning back to the wine. `` But it was his desire for neither of us to impart until the deal was dispatch. Something about pesky, meddlesome, bullheaded Aurors ... ''

She growled, resisting the impulse to attack.

Regulus merely snorted. `` I would conceive that you, being parting of his little volary society, would by now realize that he knows what he is doing. Even I know tha ... ''

Swearing loudly she kicked the rampart, rattling Phineas'portrait, forcing their hanker dead relative to hang onto his frame 's border for fear of being dislodged from it.

Regulus sass twitched wickedly, ignoring the choice words that came flying their way as he addressed his cousin. `` Now if you want to destroy the portrait then by all means, do so Nymphadora. However, in the interim it seems that your best bet is to slacken and take in a drinkable, because you clearly need one. ``

Scowling she slapped the proffered glass away.

Now it was Regulus'turn to see her as if she were an alien species.


* * * * *

Elsewhere in the rook Remus had discovered that he had developed a darkness, one with a discrete limp and a blinding shock of red hair.

'' You 're sure about this ? '' Remus asked, sprinting around a corner with a flying Weasley trailing behind. Ron had just finished recounting what he had overheard the adult speaking about as he and Ginny had feigned sleep in the wing, and Remus was left with an uneasy feel of coldness.

Not only were Harry and Hermione missing, but so was Kalliandra. Ron had had no information regarding Tonks, and knowing her profession ....

Remus had felt slightly ill at the idea of any of them suffering while he had strolled leisurely down the castle 's corridors, ineffectual to go faster for fear of leaving the sick ward 's escapee behind, which was precisely why he had thrown a levitation charm at the immature man, sparing Ron the trouble of having to fight with his self-sizing crutches.

Molly Weasley would have him shipped to St. Mungos in individually plastic wrapped slice if she ever caught wind of this.

Ron 's human face, screwed in careful concentration as he attempted to avoid hitting his straits on the ceiling, shot him a withering look.

'' My friends are out there Remus, and I do n't stand for to sit idly by while the ordination ahem and haws over what the secure course of natural process is. I want into the rules of order, and I want to aid. ``

'' And if they vote against that ? ``

Ron grinned tensely. `` I 'll endanger to impart them a well-disposed nip on the leg. After all, I 've missed dinner tonight. ``

Remus nearly laughed, caught off guard. `` entertain cannibalism are we ? ''

'' Nah, Snape hardly qualifies as human being so I seriously doubt it would calculate as cannibalizing. Especially since he 's likely the only one to vote against me. ``

'' You 're forgetting your mother. ``

Ron paled considerably, his freckles standing out. `` She 'll just have to understand, '' He growled determinedly. `` About Ginny too, she 'll recoil back, and when she does she can help me notice the SOB that Imperious-ed her. ``

Remus smiled sadly. Ron was more alike to Sirius than he would ever screw. Perhaps that, more than anything, was why he had agreed to take Ron with him to give Dumbledore his shabby report.

As Ron had said, the good werewolves had to stick together, and he deserved to know of the underground werewolf activity as much as anyone.

The former werewolf could still be out there ...

The intellection spurred him into a faster sprint, and ignoring the Gryffindor 's sudden protest Remus began dashing down the stone corridors, his concern rising exponentially at the affected quiet upon the schoolhouse.

Snapping the countersign he and the floating Ron mounted the steps to Dumbledore 's power, a degraded argument increasing in volume as they approached. Forgoing formality he set Ron down hastily, grasping the door handgrip and tugging.

It was locked.

'' Headmaster ? ! '' He shouted, pounding upon it fiercely. `` master I ne ... ''

'' Remus ? ! ``

At the voice his clenched fist froze, inches above the cringing bronze Crusantheus, the argumentation within the authority detrition to an unceremonious halt.

'' Tonks ! '' He shouted with barely concealed succor. `` Tonks wha ... ''

'' Oh thank God ! '' Interrupted Crusantheus, moaning. `` They 've been going at it for an hour ! I ca n't take it anymore ! ''

Remus was about to inquire as to 'who'precisely had been going at it when Ron 's disordered grumble interrupted him.

'' Since when did Dumbledore get a talking door knocker ? ``

'' Since his brother had me imported from Scotland little man, '' Snapped Crusantheus indignantly.

Ron bristled, `` Little ? ``

Remus dropped a stick hired man upon Ron 's shoulder. `` Best not to take in conversation ... '' He muttered out of the recess of his mouth.

Crusantheus'own dropped astray. `` I heard ... ''

'' We know ! '' Shouted two voices simultaneously from the antonym side of the door.

Remus'ears reflexively picked up, the casualness of the unidentified vocalizations unnerving. `` Tonks let us in, '' He shouted, frowning.

'' We ca n't ! '' He heard her moaning, `` Dumbledore made an Unbreakable vow and has left to verbalize to You-Know-Who and he 's engage us in here ! We ca n't get out and no one can get in ! ``

It took a moment for her Bible to process correctly, and apparently it did for Ron as well because simultaneously they both voiced aloud their thoughts.

'' What ? ``

A distinct banging could be heard from within the business office, as if someone had taken to kicking random objects.

Again, the unidentified masculine voice floated beneath the door. `` You might as well tell them ... ''

'' Tonks who is that ? '' Remus interjected.

There was a pause.

A very foresightful pause.

'' You would n't consider me if I told you. ``

'' Try me, '' Remus insisted.

'' Later Wolfy. ``

He groaned, while Crusantheus snickered. In response Ron grabbed the titty and began banging vigorously, only ceasing the hostilities when Crusantheus nearly bit off his fingers.

Remus ignored this. `` Tonks tell me I misheard ... ''

'' You did n't, '' She groaned. `` Hermione Granger is missing. '' Ron paled considerably, his shoulders stiffening at the admonisher. `` You-Know-Who has got her, and Dumbledore thinks it 's to lure Harry into telling him the prophe ... ''

'' WHAT ! ? '' Ron shouted, clearly having been deprived of this knowledge. `` Tonks did they line up Harry ? He ca n't do tha ... ''

'' Remus what the hell is Ron Weasley doing with you ? Is n't he supposed to be in the ... ''

'' Hospital backstage, '' Remus supplied.

'' I 'd like to put him in the infirmary wing, '' Growled Crusantheus menacingly, snapping eagerly with his jaw 's hinge.

'' Bugger off you rusted piece of ... ''

'' RONALD ! ``

Crusantheus bronze clapper began clinking out a jubilant melodic phrase, clearly ecstatic at Tonks'reprimand. `` Aha ! wagerer stifle it finger's breadth or Ms. Windpipes in there will shut you up for me before you can say Hoggy, Hoggy, Hogwa ... ''

Remus finally gave in to the urge to silence the damn thing, unable to opine. Crusantheus'sudden muteness earned him a loud exclamation as the nameless voice from within began praising the overlord and maker.

He knew that voice ...

'' So Nympahdora you want to tell them or should I ? '' Asked the man, sounding as if he were clearly enjoying something.

ass him Ron made a strangled sound of realization.

'' Sothis ? ''

A tacky thump evidenced the unidentified man 's displeasure.

'' If I get mistaken for Sirius one more than time I 'll hex that door knocker ... ''

Crusantheus began pounding his handle furiously, a panicked expression in his bronze eyes.

Tonks, on the other script, sounded like she was tap-dancing. `` Ah-ha ! I 'm not the only if one who made that mista ... ''

'' You 're my full cousin ! You have no excuse ! ``

'' sod off ! We thought you were dead ! ``

'' Really Nymphadora you have no creativity ... ''

Really ... You Gryffindors have no creativeness ...

Remus'thinker spun, an replication from the past striking a dissonant chord.

Staring at the operate room access something clicked.

'' Regulus ! `` He growled, smashing himself against the door. `` I swear to God if you 've harmed her ... ''

'' Nymphadora were you and your friends hit with a paranoia charm ? You can answer me honestly with full moon organized religion that this conversation will remain secret. ``

'' Oh yes, do n't take care us ! '' Chimed in several unseen portraits.

'' So you 're a psychiatrist and a medico ! ? '' Tonks spluttered.

'' Tonks ! ? '' He shouted through the door. `` Tonks ! What the hell is going on in there ? ``

'' Apparently an epiphany, '' Drawled Regulus lazily.

'' Shut it both of you ! '' Tonks snapped furiously, the speech sound of stamping infantry reaching his perked ears.

He withdrew his ear from the door just in fourth dimension, its entire form shuddering violently as she kicked it from the early English, rendering Crusantheus cross-eyed.

Mahogany door or not, Remus suddenly wondered if that were thick enough to protect him from whatever hex the pissed off Auror had in brain for him. He knew her far too well to entertain any hope of escaping completely unscathed.

Sneakily, with stealth indicative of the low marks she had received on the stealing and Tracking component of her Auror examinations, a wand tip snuck beneath the crack between the door and floor.

Remus stared at this odd activeness, puzzlement the name of his expression. Unfortunately he hesitated just a second too long, for a hot stream of searing sparks suddenly ignited his trouser, a exonerated Ah-ha resounding from the pink haired wonder witch as Remus hopped around, nearly tumbling down the winding stairway in his attempts to douse them.

'' Made her wild did you ? ''

As Ron snickered he had to forcibly limit himself from snarling in the Weasley 's oecumenical direction.

'' Tonks, '' He groaned hoarsely, leg still steaming. `` What on earth is wrong ? ``

'' What 's wrong ! ? What 's incorrectly ? '' She clipped with skepticism. `` You show up after nearly a month and ... ''

'' Two weeks, '' He corrected, re-approaching the door as if it were a shark.

'' amercement ... Two calendar week and ... ''

'' Did the estimation of talking it through like rational adults ever occur to either of you ? '' Regulus'softened vox interjected curiously.

'' stuff and nonsense a drogue in it Reggie, '' She barked. `` The fanged admiration has emerged from his self-induced isolation and now he wants to know what 's wrong. ``

Another tacky thump shook the door, his stomach wrenching as he practically felt her leaning against the other side.

Cautiously approaching he ignored Ron 's startled stare, pressing his hands against the rough grain. `` Tonks ... '' He whispered gratingly, `` I ... .We do n't have clock time for this now ... ''

'' Gee, what a surprisal ! '' She exclaimed sardonically. `` Wolfy does n't give fourth dimension for me, who would 've thought ? ``

genus Regulus emitted a low whistle, clearly closer than before. `` Trouble in paradise Lupin ? Honestly is n't she a short young for you ? ``

The discrete sound of soul being smacked echoed through the door and down the stairwell. The sullen hotshot within his dresser failing to ameliorate.

'' At risk of infection of being hexed ... ''

Remus turned, eyeing Ron with barely concealed annoyance.

The Gryffindor swallowed loudly. `` Harry 's still out there and we have to observe him. We could send Hedwig ... ''

'' Dumbledore already sent Fawkes, '' Tonks muttered. `` He 's a step ahead of us as always, yet kept muttering about how Harry could fend for himself now. ``

Remus'eyebrow furrowed. It was not like Dumbledore to result someone unaided. Not at all.

'' Slow to catch on as always Nympahdora, '' genus Regulus remarked condescendingly. `` Did it ever occur to you that in lieu of sending a potentially slack scout ... ''

'' I am not dim ... ''

'' Of row not, '' Regulus snorted. `` But rather than letting a search political party gallivant around the area, risking further personnel casualty of life, he did the smart affair. ``

'' Which is ? '' Remus could hear Tonks practically hiss through her teeth.

'' He sent the libertine courier he could, '' He responded smugly. `` Surely you do n't see yourself in the same family of upper as a genus Phoenix, do you cousin ? ``

Remus'eyes widened in understanding. `` He sent them a portkey. ``

'' Exactly ... ''
Suddenly everything came together, and it gave him an idea.

'' Ron, Tonks ... '' He stumbled to explain. `` I have to ... ''

'' We know, '' Tonks muttered. `` You have to go. ``

He hesitated.

'' What 's the appreciation up lupin, you 're quite good at that so get on with it already. ''

Cringing inwardly he turned and ran for the owlery.

'' I 'll just stay here then ? '' Ron yelled sarcastically after his retreating figure.

On the early side of the door Tonks growled, dropped cross-legged to the ground, banged the dorsum of her top dog against the door, and extended a pointed hand to Regulus.

Her full cousin smirked, filling her a wellspring needed glass.


* * * * *



Harry 's mettle skipped unnaturally. His breathing spell froze. Instinctual alarms ignited a fiery anger within him.

As if in reply his thickened fist unconsciously coiled nasty around her berm, clenching the soaked congregation of her shoot sweater as if doing so could somehow dispel the presence lurking within the shadows.

It could not.

A feral growling cut through the wind, the frozen child's play snaking around them, biting bitterly against his skin, whipping Kaylen 's soaked whisker around her blanched aspect.

There was nowhere to run ... but they had to try.

Like a phantasma strait upon the wind came the smacking of monstrous claws upon slipperiness mud, the tattler speech sound of a wildcat set on barbarity as it stalked its prey across water-laden hunting grounds.

They were its fair game ...

Holding her resolute eyes with his, watching as her visage screwed into that of stern resolution, Harry knew he had no alternative.

Loosening his hold upon her quietly heaving shoulders, watching the bloody bandages binding his palms sway in the jazz, he ground out a undivided command.

'' Run ... ''

His wickedness whisper was met with quick military action, for she took flight, mud splattering beneath her groundwork as she fled for the Tree line, her tattered perspirer billowing in the lead as she went.

Lightning from the war torn Eden illuminated the desolate battle ground, sending her shadowy silhouette stretching across the matted stretch of locoweed separating them.

Tensely he watched her, standing his ground.

He refused to follow.

Around him the index of the violent storm surged, thunder shaking the earth as his scar fist clenched tightly around the fateful plume of the capital of Arizona that lay deeply imbedded in his congregation holly, his wand arm hanging loosely by his side.

wink the water from his oculus he watched in tone down fascination. Kaylens was suddenly mindful of her solitude, her infantry halting into a tumultuous skid across the hunt ground as she fought to stop against the raging jazz. The mud finally ceased to contribute, resisting her sliding human foot as her form went slipping beneath the forest 's doorway, the dripping canopy throwing tincture across her countenance as she whorled around to view him.

Beneath the branches her eyes flashed dangerously, for his deception and what it could mean had finally struck her with frightening force. With the detached common sense of an onlooker observing an unstoppable calamity he watched as her form went rigid.

She knew there was no time to reach him. His ploy had worked.

Merely six meters separated he from her, yet the distance was uncrossable.

It was how he wanted it.

Thump, thud ...

The Jonathan Swift approach path of the lycanthrope 's hook beat against the suctioning ground.

The woman chaser was charging him, yet he did not move.

Silently his eyes plead with Kaylens, urging her to run.

clump, clunk ...

She did not. Her glorious heart regarded him with profound distress and ira, reflecting the lightning shocking through the heavens.

thumping, clunk ...

He stood still, feeling death 's swift advance for another moment, closing his optic in resignation for whatever would do to pass.

It was stupid person, it was brash, it was the act of a true Gryffindor.

He had known there was no fourth dimension for them to both run, so he had sent her unwittingly to what he could only pray was relative safety.

clunk, thump ...

If he survived this she would surely kill him, and an odd smile crept upon his nuts backtalk at the absurdity of the thinking.

Thump, thud ...

All of it transpired in a instant, his eyes flying wide as the sky split open, roaring as the gods themselves sent their electric fist hurtling down to join the ruffle.

Lightning struck as he hit the footing hard, ducking as he felt the wolf springing into the air to capture him. Jaws snapped around thin air, right where the backbone of his neck had been a second before.

The wolf 's rise chela slashed out, grazing his cover, shredding the fabric of his shirt, just scratching his skin 's surface. A pained moan shot from his mouth, yet it was unheard as a fiery bolt of electric death struck the tree line with dreaded intensity.

He was already screaming for Kaylens'to move.

A sensual growling emanated before him, the werewolf 's flight of stairs ending as its colossal form crashed back onto the earth with one sickening splat of mud and rainfall, its stupendous cast skidding on the slickness priming coat as if upon ice.

'' Kaylens move ! '' He screamed, watching as a fiery shower of embers rained down from the split bole upon her.

Her favourable head disappeared within the smoke, a electrocution Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree tree branch crashing to where she had stood only a second before.

His stomach lurched sickeningly, a choking scream tearing through him, silenced only as the beast 's snarling neb reared around to present him again.

His eyes darkened in cult behind his rain streaked methamphetamine, his wand arm flying out, a cutting hex ripping from his throat as he dove to the side, rolling in the thick sludge.

A pained howl signified that his aim had been genuine.

Desperately, heart pounding, he again let the cutting hex fly, followed by an onrush of silver mote as he staggered to his feet, stumbling backwards in a frenzy as the wolf 's brutalized pelt sent its recoiling consistency to the ground.

The silver particles were lodging within the animal 's undetermined wounding, and the metal 's toxicity was quickly infiltrating its bloodstream.

He felt no pity, only torment as a fiery tendril coiled upwards from the ablaze branch, igniting the blind drunk canopy.

'' Kaylens ! '' He screamed, bolting for the tree short letter, watching in horror as smoke began pluming upwards.

It was his defect ... she had n't seen it in clock time ... she had been watching his personal fight instead of running farther ...

And he had sent her there.

The noxious exhaust fumes came hurtling at him upon an icy blast, choking his lungs, and her name, which his lips had been expelling, came out instead as a nettle cough.

His glasses were somehow lost, dirt and smoke atom replacing them to cut against his retinas, a numbing sensation overtaking him.

He did not see the blast coming.

A massive paw struck him down, sending him hurtling face down into a puddle, his panicked world morphing into a watery Robert Brown blur.

His wand flew from his handle, skidding out of reach as he flailed, feeling the weight of the creature atop him as it forced his organic structure to make a new imprint in the ductile worldly concern.

The shallow water lapped around his ears, his sass flapping around the ill-tasting soil, body sputtering as his traitorous lungs continued their ill-starred endeavor to drum out the poisonous smoke fume from them, inhaling water instead.

The spine-crushing weight of the creature was suddenly dispelled, his head snapping up to gasp for breathing place, his script blindly summoning his wand to it. The wandless act was lost upon him as a beastly forepaw smashed besides his aching mind, an inch shy of shattering his skull.

Above him a new Friedrich August Wolf growled venomously.

Flipping onto his back, rolling out of the way, he saw a corner tree branch lash out, striking the beast hovering above him with a sickening crunch.

The second werewolf, the one he had failed to see in prison term, fell limp to the ground.

Emerging from the burning bay of trees Kalliandra callously threw the branch at the puppet, ensuring another blow to its head as she appraised her handiwork. A second later her burning centre were fixated upon him, a furious facial expression crossing her carbon black stained features as he was left sputtering upon the ground.

'' What the the pits were you thinking thrower ? ! '' She coughed out, her phonation a coarse rasp. `` This is the like stunt you pulled in Hogsmeade ! Are you that daft ? ! ``

Still gasping for breath he realized that he had been right. She was going to pop him.

A ridiculously tender star flooded him. `` Y-you 're ... ''

'' Pissed ! '' She hissed exasperatedly, clearly irked more by him than by the masher who had attempted to realise a meal of them. `` You are single handedly the most brash, idiotic, self-centred, suicidal individual that I have ever met ! Next time, I 'll let the wolves eat you ! ``

He blinked exhaustedly up at her, chest heaving with offended sweat as the disheveled, slightly charred girl above him ignored the insanely mud ridden, werewolf infested, aflame populace around them, contenting herself with staring him down.

He could n't help it A small, moderation filled smirk tugged at his back talk.

'' What, '' She grunted wearily, `` Could you possibly find funny about this ? ''

He grinned. `` A lot actually. ``

Her jaw dropped, flapping soundlessly as the wind sent weed billowing in a dark cloud behind her, her hired man instantly rising to shield her eyes from its thick residual.

'' Kaylens, '' He commented, wiping mud from his boldness, `` You 're a rather wild person you know that ? ''

For a second she appeared to stammer. `` Potter ... '' She threatened raspily, `` I 'm going to kill you. ``

He nodded solemnly, gingerly up-righting himself. `` Well ... '' He grunted, botheration searing his berm. `` Get in line. ``

'' piece of ass that. I get the first crack at ... ''

Her words ended in a grating cry, a chameleon-like hand having bourgeon forth unseen in the billowing green goddess, snatching her thick hair within its pitiless confines. Her dowse tresses were used as an anchor, the disillusioned man callously snapping her capitulum back to give away the slender pulp of her neck opening to the secede wood of a scorch wand.

rainfall droplets splattered eerily in mid-air against the unseen adversary.

'' Drop it ceramicist, '' Growled a representative as dark as the night.

The guttural growl sent something life-threatening stirring within him, his wood colored eye remaining glued to Kaylens'cringing countenance.

His brow furrowed as a unusual idea began to take form, his finger loosened around the holly coated wand.

'' Potter do n't ... '' Kaylens'sharp cry was cut off as she was shoved forwards, nearly thrown from her ft by the death Eater 's Swift prodding.

The Death feeder was holding her ahead of him, using her as a shield.

'' I said dip it boy, or I 'll make for certain she stays drained this time. ''

Harry 's manus went unbending, his wand falling into the mud.

'' Attaboy. ``

The counter of the disillusionment good luck charm was muttered as the villain advanced through the coiling smoke, holding Kalliandra ahead of him, the flames'Orange River light throwing the decease Eater 's visceral face into stark focus.

Harry 's blood ran cold.

Broussard 's companion, the very one Harry had struck down with the killing oath that afternoon, the same one whom he had left for stagnant in Hogsemead 's backbone alley, now stood shepparding Kaylens before him.

The idle man was awake and well.

'' Ah ... .So you do remember me, '' The man hissed, eyes gleaming malevolently. `` Perhaps you remember my brother, Broussard. I do believe you slashed his throat. ``

Kaylens script shot up, yanking at the Death eater 's vice grip. `` No to a lesser extent than he deserved you filth ... ''

A violent knee joint to the spine sent Kaylens crumbling to her knee, her form suspended by the callous grip on her long locks.

'' To lose one 's remaining kinsfolk ... '' Continued the dying Eater with deadly equanimity, `` In such a manner does not endear one to mercy. ``

'' Now you know what it feels like ! '' bicker Kaylens, her hands clawing tightly at the man 's massive forearms as he drug her forward.

The Death Eater ignored her, his foul regard fixated upon him. `` You 're a foolish boy Potter ... dabbling in Unforgivables ... I 'd shoot down you if I could ... ''

Harry vibrated with repressed fury, eyes darkening. `` Then why do n't you ? '' He challenged, `` Get rid of the fifth wheel, and it 'll be just you and I. ``

The villain laughed bitterly, `` I 'm not as dullard as some of the other lackeys boy. You 'll stimulate to amend your handling if you expect that to put to work. ``

'' Fine, '' He spat darkly. `` I 'm unarmed, you 're not. Care to let her go before that alteration ? ``

'' Wandless illusion is a bit advanced for you bo ... ''

Something within him snapped, the unconscious magic he had drawn upon in here and now of need finally snapping into place.

A shot of Department of Energy flew through him, the fellow wooden handle flying back to his deal, quickly summoned, drawn, and aimed.

Only where the Death Eater 's marrow had been now rested Kaylens, for the baddie had yanked her forcibly from her knees to again harbor him. Her cry of bother echoed through the clearing, rising above the crackling of burning wood.

'' As intriguing as this is Potter, we came to deliver a message. Nothing Thomas More. ``

Harry 's vocalization dropped to a growl, `` Since when did a substance entail taking my head off ? ``

The man 's rim curled into a snarl. `` It did n't. That was just fun. ``

'' A rather reprobate idea of fun, do n't you think ? ``

'' Considering what you did to my brother, I 'd say I 'm in the presence of similar company. ``

'' He 's zilch like you ! '' Kaylens shouted furiously.

A brawny yank sent her top dog snapping back, his interior lurching as the resounding sally of her protesting vertebrae.

'' quiesce girlie ! '' Hissed the villain, spittle dribble as he spoke. `` You 're already an endangered species, I 'd hate for you to go out. ``

'' Ah yes, '' She spat scathingly, straining against the man 's blazonry. `` And I 'm certainly your preciously maestro would be pleased with that. ''

vibration violently he watched as she writhed against her captor, the pachydermatous man glaring vindictively down.

Hands coiling into mingy fists, Harry began inching to the side, the sound of mud suctioning against shoe soles masked by the resounding thunder.

If he could get an slant around her, he could make his snapshot ...

'' And to cerebrate, I thought catching Veelas was the rack up assignment ... but no matter ... ''

It took everything he had to suppress his outward horror, for the man had already drawn and used the unseen obelisk, plunging it shallowly into the flesh of her shoulder joint, dragging it across her skin. A second gear later the scoundrel had a cylindric vial held beneath her freely flowing blood, bottling it as her eyes scrunched in a atrocious face, her mind undoubtedly feeling history repeating itself.

'' There, that oughta appease my Lord in the event of your untimely ... '' The man was running his verge along her wound, a black light radiating as her flesh sealed beneath it. `` Well ... .end anyway ... ''

Blinded by rain, Harry 's middle went White River with choler.

'' You wo n't lay a finger on her. ``

In the shadows the man smiled. `` It seems I 've already rest several. ``

As he stood there, the running mud curling around his invertebrate foot, he felt sick. He was cornered, for if he acted brusquely Kaylens was dead. And if he failed to act, they could both fill the Same fate.

His inured center narrowed, chest rising with stressful exertion, as the vile man continued speaking.

'' All the Dark God Almighty wants is the vaticination ceramist, yet if you continue this stubborn refusal that little mudblooded champion of yours will wind up dead. '' The man grinned evilly. `` And we all know you do n't want that to fall out. ``

His wand shook, so hard was his traction upon it.

'' Just believe ... what has your stubborn refusal gotten you thus far ? Certainly it did admiration for improving that roue traitor Joseph Black 's stream province howeve ... ''

'' Sirius was a adept man, '' He heard himself hissing.

The man merely inclined an brow. `` Ah yes, I seem to remember him fancying himself as such even during our school years. He, the baronial Shirley Temple Black, always criticizing Broussard and I ... the two Detreck chum were vile to him, even the one from his own planetary house ... ''

Harry felt unwell, ire and hatred vibrating unceremoniously within.

'' Your sire was much the same ... both never sparing even a idea for the noble Negroid 's own kin ... '' He continued, the same quality of favorable position dripping from his words. `` Sirius always wondered what finally sent genus Regulus to the rank of the destruction Eaters. Would you like me to separate you ? ``

Kaylens attempted to wind away, the massive man easily batting her attack aside.

'' The deciding element you see, was Sirius'stubborn refusal to recognise his brother as an equal, '' He revealed. `` The arrogant fool followed those resisting the Dark Godhead blindly, never stopping to consider who was really in the right. He and the relaxation of those Gryffindor gull following Dumbledore never even understood our reasons ... ''

'' Oh ? '' Harry shot out, `` And how are we justifying cold-blooded murder these days ? ``

The man 's teeth glinted in the firelight. `` There 's no need to absolve anything, because the war athirst Muggles will not be content to leave our kind alone forever. It 's kill or be killed ceramicist. The dark Lord is simply acting preemptively, before those filthy Muggles get the luck. ``

'' And what of the anti-Muggle hospital ward ? '' Harry asked scathingly, thinking quickly. `` If you 're really as higher-ranking to them as you 'd like to believe, then all of your 'pureblood'magic ought to preclude that, would n't you think ? ``

The last Eater Detreck laughed. He actually laughed.

'' William Tell me thrower, with all of the inter-marrying between mavin and Muggles, how would you nominate keeping our humans forever hidden ? Eventually we will become reveal, and when that happens the Muggles will accredit the potential difference menace we hold. ``

Inching towards the heat of the flack, and its veil of smoke, Harry allowed him to blab, wracking his mind for a plan.

'' Once that happens I 'm quite trusted they will be bang-up in showing us mercy. Perhaps the same kind that was given to the Jews of their second domain War, or that which was shown to the indigenous people of the Americas when the new lands were discovered. Or to the witch of capital of Oregon ... ''

Kaylens cut him off.

'' You ca n't possibly believe every Muggle is like tha ... ''

A dagger was jabbing to her pharynx, silencing her words as blood prickled her skin. A sadistic spirit of calm crossed the eldest Detreck 's face as he held it there.

'' You see Harry, Muggles are unlike us, '' Continued the monster. `` They have yet to appropriate their animalistic natures, and for that they must be silenced, before they can silence us. ``

'' And all of this entails killing Muggleborns how ? '' Harry pointed out, desperate to save the man talking.

'' Every war has fatal accident Potter, and in this one anyone sympathetic to those crude tool runs the risk of becoming one. ``

'' They 're not primitive ... ''

'' Yet they wage war upon other body politic, killing their own kind without sentiment, acti ... ''

'' Since Death feeder do the same thing I guess you would cognize. ``

'' Our killing is at least educated, and justified by to a greater extent than war over edge. ``

Harry 's vox shook with suppressed rage. `` Nothing can rationalise inhuman blooded murder ... ''

'' You would know then, '' Hissed the man, sneering spitefully. `` After all, once a killer, always a sea wolf, or am I wrong on that ceramist ? ``

He remained silent, watching as Detreck slowly lowered his blade from her throat.

'' Despite what you think, you are very very much alike us Potter, and thus my Almighty has a proposal of sorts for you. ``

Watching the tensity leave Kalliandra 's neck, her nerve slumping gratefully forward without care of impalement upon the knife 's brand, he grunted. `` So what deal is it this prison term ? sum him and he spares my life ? ``

'' No, simply reveal the missing portion of the vaticination in telephone exchange for your protagonist 's family 's lives. ``

'' And Hermione ? ``

The man 's heart glittered evilly, acrid smoke billowing out with a change of the winds.

'' In the Department of Mysteries, in the Granville Stanley Hall of Prophecies, you remember the shelves upon shelves filled with the fortune telling of seer past ? ``

'' Yes. ``

'' Then surely you were not arrogant enough to believe that yours was the only foretold regarding this war. ``

His shoulder joint stiffened, for he actually had.

From the timber 's edge, scant beat away, resounded the snap of a shoetree limb as it finally burnt away. It fell into the burning underbrush, sending a flare of fervor bulging outwards on impact.

In the cacophonous roar of heat and fire all company scattered, the smoke glade in clock time for Harry to see Kaylens still in the baddie 's vice clench, her manifest bolt for freedom hindered by the man 's powerful arm which had tightened around her.

Her cubital joint to his torso went ignored, the massive man 's heftiness protecting him. Detreck merely grunted, hauling her to her substructure as the smoke dispersed, the rain beginning to smoother the flames.

'' We waste clock time. In the manse of prophecies there is another with your figure on it, or did that decrepit old man fail to inform of you of its existence as well ? ``

Somehow he managed to forfend snapping his wand, despite the shaking of his fists.

'' When you find that, and divulge its capacity, only then will our Maker resign your valued Mudblooded friend. ``

'' You 're lying, '' Harry spat, the pungent taste of smoke on his tongue. `` If I told you, he 'd kill her anyway. ``

The man 's lips curled. `` Perhaps ... but if you had something else to offer him, something in addition to that ... something he very much desired ... than perhaps once you 'd discover the second prophecy, he 'd return her if your watchword was given to let out another once the interchange was made. ``

Harry shook his head disbelievingly, `` Since when has ole Riddle trusted my word ? ``

'' How daring you defile his name ... ''

Harry nearly laughed, `` Defile ? Just so you know, as soul well acquainted with his Muggle Church Father 's headstone, I can assure you that is indeed his name. ``

Kalliandra 's head was suddenly yanked violently back, the sceptre again to her throat. All mentation of traumatizing the demise eater with mockery of its drawing card flew from his mind, his eye glued to her pale, soaked face.

'' What else does he want to bed ? ``

The eldest Detreck leered triumphantly, `` When you find the prophecy regarding 'the girl of a man of world power upon Gaelic soil'you will have what he is looking for. There is no name attached, therefore it may be seized by anyone. ``

Through the wind instrument Harry 's yell seemed almost faint. `` And if I do n't find it ? ``

'' Then that Mudblood of yours die. Unless you find something better to tender. ``

With icy certainty Harry realized that the conversation was nearly over, Kaylens'destiny hanging in the balance.

'' You see boy, you may cause defied our Lord thus far, but you ca n't forever. In the end he wins, you lose, and if Dumbledore 's ill-thought ohmic resistance continues ... ''

A prod in the shoulder joint sent Kaylens stumbling forward, her hands suddenly bound.

'' Then all these fifth wheel will meet the Same lot as those baronial parents of yours. ``

Kalliandra 's oculus flew up, surprise flitting through them even in the swarthiness. He met them, painfully holding onto them, grasping for seconds through the downpour so she could see how dismal he was, for the past tense, for where his short sightedness had landed them, and still ... for what he may take to do.

There was simply no metre left.

Somehow, the headache swimming within her golden orbs conveyed what he needed to know.

She understood.

His jaw set determinedly, he re-aimed his wand.

'' Stupefy ... ''

Kalliandra went crumbling to the flat coat, her limp form lying in a unmarried mud-sodden heap, the expiry Eater 's human face twisting in surprisal as another stunner flew from Harry 's wand.

He had done the one thing Detreck could not stimulate counted on. Injuring a fellow, thereby removing her from scathe way while simultaneously clearing the route to the opposition.

His sweetheart struck the enemy directly in the breast, a second before a roughshod phonation resounded behind him.

'' Crucio. ``

Harry fell hard, his organic structure imprinting the soft reason as a chiliad white hot knife sliced slowly, than brutally at his flesh. His vision was blinded, by mud, rain, and pain, yet he still saw the haired man, half-way through the werewolf transformation, walking around him, reviving Detreck ...

The werewolf Kaylens had taken out had awoken.

As he screamed, convulsing in pain, rolling in the slipperiness stream that had become the clearing 's grounds, he heard their contestation voices.

'' ... .belongs to the Dark Jehovah, not us ... .we ca n't harm him ... .leave it to him ... .dealt with in due prison term ... .orders were ... .deliver message ... .leave them .... ''

The unceasing excruciation suddenly lifted, his tortured cheek still spasming as he somehow rolled to face them. His hand flopped around pathetically, fingerbreadth closing without strength upon slight air, searching for the conversant holly Natalie Wood he had lost a custody of during his convulsions.

'' You can waste meter chasing after us, or her potter. Think about it. ``

The wet air resonated with the sharp cracks of disapparation, his muscular synapses finally firing at his command. With tenderness outshining the most grueling tribulation of human endurance he thrust himself up, his hands sinking into the muddy grease, eyes frantically scanning the clearing.

Kaylens was nowhere to be seen.

Heart lurching sickeningly, he stumbled to his feet. Sliding, staggering, he peered through the darkness, summoning his wand from where it had sunk beneath the uprooted grass.

Lightning flashed, casting an eerie glow across the water.

Kaylens lay facedown, floating within it.

His feet moved, faster than he would have thought possible, plunging into the chest deep water. Quickly he propelled himself to where she lay submerged, floating just below the surface. Only her spring articulatio radiocarpea, pushed upwards by the mollify water system 's imbrication, remained emerged in the air, her fuzz fanning out behind her promontory

His weapon system quickly sought her, wrapping around her berm to perpetrate her out, letting her suddenly system of weights light hard against him.

His mitt fell to her chest, his spoken quarrel a whisper against the storm.

'' Ennervate ... ''

The warmth spread from between his fingers, his unconsciously done magic triggering no reaction in her.

The spell was removed, yet she remained unresponsive. He had expected coughing, shouting, something.

It was only then that he realized it, but no breather came from her graying lips.

United States Department of Defense lesson had taught him about more than countering magical spell, and he was already turning her hitch form to face him, using the body of water 's buoyancy to cradle her as her face lolled back.

His numbing, pained fingers quickly wiped the plastered whisker from her back talk, a nauseated flavour rising in his bureau as his eyes flickered across the vacant grounds.

The Death eater were gone ... .they would not come up back.

tenderness wrenching, he acted, pressing his mouth against hers as he pushed preciously atomic number 8 in, breathing for her, listening to the odd hiss of his breath making its way through her air passages.

pulling away, waiting for the rise of her chest against his, he felt nothing.

Panicked oculus flickered over her peaceful face before his mouth once again descended, capturing her icy mouth with his own in another hint of despair. One arm was tightening around her, the other cradling her head as he pinched her nose.

Again he waited.

The rise in her dresser as he had breathed had been barely discernable, and now there was aught. A undivided view flitted through his frightened mind. He was doing this wrong.

In that single moment of paralyzing horror he suddenly understood. Her air passage was clogged.

He had to clear it.

He was already turning her hitch form around, allowing her back to fall against him as his fists sought her midsection. With a single, knock-down drive he thrust them in and upwards, feeling her body spasm in a pocket-size frisson.

Again he repeated the motion, thrusting forcefully. Her limp conformation seized violently in reaction, her amphetamine organic structure falling forward as a racking cough shook her, the piss expelling from her lungs. Harry lunged forward with her, arms wrapping around her chest of drawers, preventing her face from again hitting the treasonous water.

His forearms strained against her as she convulsed, choking on the malarkey, gasping as coughing after shuddering cough shook her thin soma. Shivering in the frosty water his pounding spunk calmed until she leaned loosely forward, gasping breathlessly.

Without a Logos he pulled her against him, clutching her quivering class flush to his own, her heading falling against his shoulder. Her shallow panting caressed his skin, the rising of her chest against his reassuring him in an inexplicable way.

Slowly he fought to check the hitching of his own debauched drawn breath, for after everything he felt ready to crumble, only he suddenly found himself the pillar to which she clung.

Resting his chin atop her nous, peering into the Nox, he silently prayed that what he had overheard was accurate. For if he was really considered Voldemort 's toy, needed to perform a job, then he truly was untouchable.

In theory they would again be safe, until enigma decided to again 'chat .'

As of now, if he were wrong, then their only when refuge would be the pee they stood shivering within, and he had yet to properly master the bubble-head good luck charm for hiding beneath its turbid depth. Now their just true protection lay within the velum of cat-tails rising high above the shimmering water system 's control surface, obscuring them from all.

Icy flatus howled, sending the John Reed around them dancing.

Breathing unsteadily, the scent of fire Wood filled his anterior naris. The storm was slowly winning the conflict against the blaze, extinguishing the aflame underbrush and tree diagram, and the light of the fire was slowly dying. Tilting his aspect down he watched the fiery orange tree glowing reflecting from her wet buttock, lending some warmth to her wan hue.

'' Are you alright ? '' He finally whispered, his shivering hand smoothing her tangled, sopping tomentum from her face. She simply breathed against him, haircloth dripping across his shoulder joint, her entire physical body quivering.

Tightening his weapon around her, he again whispered his query, his questioning lips brushing along her earlobe. `` Kaylens ? '' He murmured shakily, breathing against her hair. `` You okay ? ``

In his arms she nodded imperceptivity, his trepidation for her alone sending his heart thundering. His fill-in was palpable, as was the flavour of her beneath his handwriting.

His personal spitfire was blissfully unaware, but she had scared the infernal region out of him.

Raindrops continued falling, heavy and inviolable, splattering against the water with mesmeric melody. Somehow, without reasonableness, his knuckles were rising, tracing alone her jaw transmission line, a drowsy mussitation leaving her picket, cracked lips at his touch.

Instinctively his impregnable weaponry began enveloping her tighter, pressing her to him needingly, his understanding elusive. Surprisingly her finespun manus were responding, rising to urge against his chest. Her lenify fingertips brushed his bare skin, sliding along his pectorals where his sweater hung tattered and liberal, courtesy of the lycanthrope'claws and the forest 's snaring bramble.

Beneath the ripple water a entitle tingling was radiating onto him, traveling wherever her cool skin fell into striking with his own, as if tiny bits of stable electricity were passing between them.

Somehow he understood, for he was feeling her true magic. She seemed unaware that she was releasing any, but her distinguish signature tune was trailing across him in a maddening way, just below the rippling surface, veiled from his eyes.

Yet somehow, he could not bet away.

Slowly, surely, the maddening sensory faculty of her fingers tangling within his sweater drove the unconscious care from his mind, his bright eyes finally falling shut to the nighttime, hiding beneath the dark, matted hair's-breadth slung dripping across his mark brow.

Upon his neck he felt her lip parting, an dog-tired sigh escaping against his pelt. His face dipped in response, burrowing within her pelting scented hair.

'' You know ... '' He disclosed softly, shivering in the wind. `` You may be more problem than you 're worth. ``

A mild laugh, scarcely there, sent his skin tingling.

'' Oh ? '' She breathed, her hoarsely spoken news tinged with amusement. `` And you 're not ? ''

'' dot take, '' He conceded, a low laugh vibrating his throat.

The sky lit up, shining with anomalous brilliance as lightning flashed in the distance. The icy Ethel Waters lapping against them, the malarkey howling eerily between the trees.

'' Potter .... '' She mumbled, his hand rising to fall upon the politic skin of her neck at the auditory sensation. `` What happened ? ''

Her voice was barely a voicelessness, trailing away as his digit went trailing down the smooth hide of her cervix, feeling her pulse beating with geometrical regularity beneath them.

'' Apparently, '' He murmured gruffly, her light breathing a plumage tracing across his hide, `` I ca n't leave you alone for a hour. ``

'' I could say the same for you, '' She said breathlessly, shivering as his work force rose along the contours of her signifier. first his hands were gripping her shank, next rebellion along her sides, sliding to caress the skin covering her ribcage, just beneath her breasts.

His breath hitched with hers, her arms rising to gird his neck, cupping the back of his head. Quickly her hands were becoming lost within his untamable hair, the Sami willfulness that he had so oft heard her criticize, yet now felt her reveling in.

The earthy odor of mingled mud and rain was somehow soak upon her, drawing him in more than he could allow, more than he should allow. Yet he was, his backtalk already lowering to hers, the thickly strung stress of a one thousand harsh substitution vibrating between the two as his mouth fell upon hers, capturing her sass as he had when pulling her limply from the icy water. Only now her mouth was moving against his, the taste of salty sweat lingering upon his tongue. Her gustation was mingling with the refreshing pelting pouring upon them, cascading down their faces.

His wearable clung wetly to him as his bridge player sought out her tangled hair. He frenziedly felt her deepening the touch of their mouth, the raspy stubble of his chin scratching her in the process. A flimsy growl sent his own lips trembling against hers with laughter, her hands squeezing his shoulders in retaliatory way. His own mouth was parting again, gasping, never relaxing the pressure against her mouth as he fought for breath against her, feeling her doing the same.

A endorsement later he again seized her, his lower lip being tugged gently between her own, an odd growling coming unbidden from his throat. For a angry moment she quivered with seeming entertainment before his agile paw responded, running along her neck 's vertebrae, a startled whimper falling from her lithe rim.

'' Kaylens ... '' He murmured, his branch desperately gathering her against him, his lip deliriously relishing her perceptiveness. Suddenly he was ignorant of the rain pouring around them, aware only of her hands wicked onslaught as they slipped beneath his shirt 's collar, sliding along the bare tegument of his shoulders, caressing his back. His whisker dripped into his face, and with induce breaths their ill-concealed rage radiated, their rima oris moving in a stormy fervor. Within his arms was the young woman Harry had feared to have lost before he had known what it was to have, and he had no plan of letting go.

Slowly, panting breathlessly, Kalliandra pulled away. Her digit still clung to him, the pelting pouring freely upon her flushing hide. Water droplets were dampening her brow, and her fingers slipped out from beneath his shirt to linger upon his collarbone. Unable to let her leave he leaned his supercilium against hers, cupping her face in his hands, feeling her cilium fluttering capable against his cheeks.

His own loose woman center flickered hazily unfold, meeting the deep hazel unity regarding him. She was blinking against the rain, her jumble eyes revealing her barely concealed emotion.

respiration heavily he leaned forward, brushing his mouth against hers, kissing her slowly. He was taking his time now ... without the boot, without the desperation, without the fear of having nearly lost her. Thumbs running along her high jugal bone, carefully wiping the mud from her boldness, his backtalk moved needingly across hers.

Again they parted, her mouth moving in a flaccid, disbelieving susurration.

'' You 've lost your mind ... ''

'' I know, '' He murmured, pressing his oral fissure to hers chastely. `` You wo n't distinguish anyone will you ? ``

She smiled against his backtalk, shaking her top dog slowly. `` No ... '' She whispered, amusement tingeing her intonation. `` This wo n't depart the clearing. ``

'' Good, '' He quipped, smiling deviantly. `` I would feature hated to Obliviate you. ``

'' What makes you think I would have minded ? ``

burial his lips near her ear, he emitted a low growl, `` You would have. ``

'' Hmph. ``

Combing his fingers through her thick, mud-laden hair, he felt her slender form again began to shiver, her quivering more pronounced than before.

Wrapping his blazonry tighter around her chassis, he murmured his oddity. `` Does this mean you 've forgiven me for stunning you ? ``

She grumbled indecipherably for a instant, before suddenly growing tense, her face swiveling towards the visible clearing, optic flickering with sudden recollection.

'' Harry .... '' She whispered seriously, all lightness gone from her part. `` What happened to the death Eate ... ''

'' Gone, '' He assured softly, `` They 're gone. They wo n't be back. Minus the utterly one. ``

Her heart remained adverted, warily gazing through the rain into the wickedness of Night.

'' How can you be sure ? ``

He smiled sadly, the warmheartedness within him slowly dissipating as his war filled experiences, the ones that had taught him the ruler of engagement, flew through his mind.

'' Because .... '' He whispered hauntingly, `` They delivered their substance. They had their fun. For them that was enough, for the meter being. ``

'' So their fun was trying to drown me, '' She questioned bitterly, `` Or threatening you with Hermione 's animation ? ``

'' Both. ``

Her eye flickered across his, her expression sending something wrenching inside.

'' That man wanted you to tell him something, `` She said seriously, watching him carefully. `` Yet you would n't. Why ? ``

He swallowed hard, his Adam 's apple rising strongly within his throat. `` Because I 'd rather die than tolerate them the information they need. ``

'' Than what stopped them from forcing you to go with them ? ``

His manus rose, trailing across her cheek, her breath faltering at his trace. Without reasonableness his hilltop was again pressed against hers, her face so close that he could see the brown flecks within her irises dancing with each flare of lightning.

'' Even if they had, '' He whispered sullenly, `` Even if they had tortured Hermione right in front of me, I still would never tell. Because the indorse I did we would have all been utterly. ``

Distant scag shook the sky, Kalliandra 's eyes falling shut against the wet onslaught. His remained upon her, never leaving as her chest rose and fell against his. The gentle cycle of her respiration was inexplicably calming.

'' If the man is so ruthless ... '' She finally spoke, `` Why would he offer up you the choices he did ? ``

'' Because as ruthless as he is, he 's also intelligent. Voldemort knows his lonesome chance in hell of getting anything out of me would be by offering an exchange : Hermione for the data, at a achromatic location. '' He paused, breathing heavily, watching the stirring across her endorsement.

'' It 's the but way I could ensure her safety, '' He finished solemnly.

Against his forehead he felt a light frown creasing her brow. A here and now later her veiled eyes fell open, observing him guardedly.

'' How could Voldemort possibly do it what you 're thinking ? ''

His fingers clenched and unclenched around her branch in a tense musical rhythm. `` Because Kalliandra, Voldemort and I have been playing this biz for a long fourth dimension. And were both getting better at it. ``

Her mouth parted questioningly, his fingerbreadth rising to iron out carefully against them, silencing her queries.

'' Please, do n't ask. I do n't want to lie to you, '' He pleaded breathlessly, lips hovering centimeter from her own, praying she understood.

She did.

Against him she nodded, wet droplets cascading down her blanch face. This clock time it was she who sealed the stint place between them, her slick arm winding around his neck, her soundbox pressing blossom against his.

For some reason, as her parted lips allowed his natural language entry, he suddenly felt more afraid than he ever had.

The stake had been raised that day, for with his best Quaker gone he suddenly had so a great deal to lose, and it was the fille he remained lace with that had sent fissures running through his heavily erected walls.

pull away, gasping fervently, he suddenly was unsure of whether to hate her or lie with her for that.

'' You 're infuriating ... '' He murmured, nose nuzzling her cheek.

'' Likewise, '' She gasped breathlessly, water-laden Strand of tomentum falling over her eyes

They simply remained, hovering within the embrace of the other, until a flash of red crossed the night, circling to rest upon the pool 's edge.

Whilst she stiffened, Harry almost laughed in relief.

The fiery phoenix was watching them silently, something suspiciously like an old rag dropped near its feet, its feathery head cocked at a peculiar angle.

If Harry had not known better, he would say Fawkes looked amused.









Recommended narrative :

blast and earth by sagesolon Rated : Mature Genre : secret, Action/Adventure, dramatic play
The Weasley 's and their adoptive family have worn through the rise of Voldemort and the Final Battle. There have been many deaths, but what happens on the brightest of day 's has repercussions far and wide ranging. Now they are left to pluck up the piece. Welcome to a storey of hope, where the survivor are left to follow the clues, attempting to solve the mystifier before the in series killer rap again. While this is a relatively new floor it contains one of the most connive plots that I have been lucky enough to stumble across. Pairing : Harry/Hermione

Hearts, prevention, and Scars by sagesolon Rated : ripen Genre : romance, Action/Adventure, Angst
The final fight has long since past, yet to the elect One its repercussions sting as painfully as they did on the day he lost her. His only when solace is found within his nightly escapes to the Muggle realm, to where he is unrecognized in the dimly lit saloon, to where he is no longer in a Earth that constantly reminds him of the red hair of his dream. Yet when a Muggle as a lot in want of solacement as he makes the mistake of sending a friend to ask for his phone number in a aroused pub, Harry suddenly finds a rest to that lingering despair. The only job is how to excuse his populace to one mental object with magic batting order conjuration ? Well ... the bait of a vacation definitely has its good stop ! This story has an almost flick noir timber at its first, and it progresses into a very 'feel good', laugh out loud, read. Pairing : Harry/Muggle OC












A few basics to note :

Red ancestry cells contain haemoglobin, which transports Oxygen throughout the consistence. If these were suddenly taken away, you would suffocate even if you were still breathing.

Platelets are responsible for the body 's power to form origin coagulum. Without platelet, you would phlebotomize to destruction from a unsubdivided cut on the arm.

Sorry for the extemporary biology lesson, but in writing this chapter I did not feel like explaining these staple concept since I assumed that the characters, due to one too many infirmary wing sojourn, would already acknowledge what these are. I also took a few originative shore leave, so acquit with me on those.






'' Hope is the fellow of power, and female parent of succeeder ; for who so hopes strongly has within him the gift of miracles. ``
~ Samuel smiling ~



Chapter 27 ~ The comrade of Grief


Near dawn she found him there. He was still awake, as she had known he would be.

dean was flat on his back, staring at the rich, blood red canopy of his bed. His eyes had not moved from the canopy in time of day, for fear of seeing the empty bed besides him, and they did not be active as his bed hangings stirred in the eerie light.

Ginny slipped between them, crawling across the top until she lay besides him. Wordlessly he had wound his arms around her small frame, an icy painful sensation twisting within him. It was a threatening guilt, for he had his friend 's tender consolation while her beau had naught to see save for the cold Theodore Harold White tack draped over his conclude optic.

Seamus was gone, and it felt like a dagger had been driven through him.

It dawned a shadow, gray-red dawn, and the sinister rain outside continued, pooling upon the windowpane Beverly Sills. He could not close the windows, nor pulley block out the chilled wind, for when he had first seen Seamus'empty bed that night he had thrown open each battery-acid, tearing the wooden panels from their hinges.

Now the urine dripped onto the flooring, the irregular rhythm serving to drive him closer and closer to the breakage point in time. It was a sound Neville seemed forgetful to, for his hall mate 's steady stertor filled the air, and with each passing profound Dean felt the itch to smash something violently.

His finger twisted in Ginny 's red hair, reminding him of her presence. Though Seamus was gone, she was still there.

He had a reason to stay strong.

Still he did not look at her. Gradually her quiesce breathing spell became regular, but his dark center remained open, staring at the canopy.

It was all he could do.
* * * * *


Harry watched as Angelina ran from the room, ineffectual to shake the icy sensation slithering within him. He knew he should not manage, he could not ...

Yet he did.

instant after port-keying to lupin 's manor house, as he had regained his footing in the candlelit foyer, Kalliandra had lost consciousness. His shivering consistency had clutched her against his chest, and that was how Angelina had found them.

It was becoming clearer, the harshly exchanged words between Kaylens and the headmaster ... the ones he had overheard in the infirmary annexe ... It seemed historic period ago, yet they echoed hauntingly unused within his head.

'' Considering that I 'm the one you ca n't cure ... ''

'' Kalliandra, looking at it as a death sentence will not help matters. ``

'' You 're right. zip will. ``

Angelina had claimed that the strong-arm stresses of the night had just finally taken their toll, saying how magical travel was often too much for a weakened torso to take. She had told him everything was going to be fine, to not worry ...

Her eyes betrayed her words for the lies they were.

'' Harry, set her there. Help me get her sleeves ... ''

Angelina was back, having returned with a hoard of supplies. He did as he was told, laying Kalliandra on the faded lounge. She sunk into the torn up cushions, stuffing bulging out at the additional system of weights. It appeared to be the only existent piece of article of furniture on the first floor, and he too squeezed onto it.

He could n't leave her.

Reaching down he grasped the manacle of her wet sleeve, rolling it up. With every inch of exposed flesh another bruise was revealed, his insides twisting at the thick, trench purple marks lining her delicate skin. In the wickedness of the clearing he had not even noticed ...

Angelina knelt besides them, her hands moving methodically, with the estimate trend born of her healer grooming. His former teammate was now cleaning the interior of Kalliandra 's elbow, inserting a pocket-size needle into the blue logical argument of her vein. He could only look out from where he sat on Lupin 's fatigue couch, holding Kaylens messy head of haircloth in his lap.

'' Harry take this ... restrain it high ... ''

He nodded mutely, taking the clear plastic bag from her, watching the yellowish-brown fluid sloshing within it. Following Angelina 's pedagogy he held it shoulder high school, unable to take out his eye from Kaylens'serene grimace. Her deep hazelnut eyes were now hidden behind blench lid, her face in despairing need of washing. A streak of mud still highlighted her os zygomaticum, a gray coat of ash tree lending her a ghostly, freckled visual aspect.

Reaching down Harry brushed her hair aside, revealing a dried smear of blood concealing near her hairline.

A deep contusion was forming there as well.

In liquid motions his former housemate attached a long, cleared tube to the IV in her arm with a tranquility clink, retrieving the fluid filled bag from him. With both of his hands finally free he found himself smoothing the hair away from her face, wiping the mud away with his thumbs.

He could feel Angelina 's middle on him. `` She needs to rest Harry. ''

He did not answer right away, contenting himself to watch as Angelina wove her wand, the IV bag rising to stay suspend in mid-air. Slowly the liquid began dripping from the bag into a small, tube-like chamber.

Swallowing hard, his gaze rose pointedly to Angelina 's.

'' What are you giving her ? ``

Angelina never ceased working, and she was already shooing Harry 's hands out of the way as she carefully grasped Kalliandra 's other gimp arm, tapping just above the human elbow with her wand.

Kaylens'sorry vena bulged just long enough for another syringe acerate leaf to be inserted, only this time Angelina was drawing blood sample distribution, rather than starting a trickle infusion.

'' Angelina ? '' He prompted gruffly.

The young healer sighed wearily, `` It 's a mixture of red blood cells and blood platelet Harry. '' She pulled back on the syringe, and it began filling with a viscous, dark red blood.

Harry hastily looked away.

'' Why does she take that ? '' He ground out, his vocalization hoarse with exhaustion.

Leaving the phonograph needle in her arm Angelina unscrewed the full syringe drum, setting the blood sample upon a natation tray she had conjured. She made straightaway body of work of attaching a new, vacuous one to the needle as she repeated the cognitive operation.

'' How about you Harry ? '' Angelina asked dismissively. `` Knowing you, you 've probably managed to bang yourself up good. ``

'' Do n't change the subject. ``

Angelina 's black eyes darted up, `` I 'm not. But I 'm a healer, that 's why Dumbledore left me to wait for you two. I just had to chink. ``

His wear down eye turned to his own hired hand. He flipped them over, observing his healed, calloused palm. The deep solidus the broken glass had left were gone. Guy Fawkes'tears had healed them, dripping into his wounds when he had reached through the thick rain to remove the port key.

Before he even had a chance to inquire why Fawkes had bothered healing such minor harm, the Phoenix had flown away.

'' I 'm exquisitely, '' He replied staidly, realizing he meant it. No longer could he feel the stinging scratches, torn by the wolfman 's pincer, down his back. Even the pearl deep chill the icy rainfall had left was gone.

All that was left was the queasy sensation churning within his stomach, his only sculptural relief the female child in his lap, who was incapable of responding adequate to allay his fears.

'' What 's wrong with her ? ``

In the empty, windowless elbow room, Angelina removed the needle from her arm.

'' Nothing that ca n't be treated, '' She responded quietly, rising from her knees, apparently done.

'' That 's not what I asked. ``

He did not drop the way her eyes avoided his.

'' Nothing that I can tell you. For what it 's worth ... I 'm sorry about that Harry. ''

He swallowed, the sound seeming a great deal louder in the still air. He bowed his head, spying a spot of gray ash near the recess of Kalliandra 's mouth. Without thought his thumb wiped it away, his stiff behavior relaxing as a sleepy heart murmur emerged from her cold sass.

Angelina watched it all, silently placing each of the blood sample distribution into a cool carrying case. For a moment her clinical nature vanished, a sad look overcoming her ebony features.

It was then that it all came together for Harry. Every little point that she had let slip, every sign of fatigue, every Good Book the decease eater had said ...

'' It has to do with what she is, does n't it ? ''

Though he had asked, there was no dubiousness in his tone.

Angelina rose a sceptical brow, `` Then you do have sex ? ``

His eyes rose to hers, `` Yes. That 's why you could n't tell me. Dumbledore is n't cognizant I know. ``

She sighed tiredly, but he was already continuing. `` Ron and the others, you said they 're all right and that they were taken to Hogwarts. ''

She just nodded, earning a gruelling look from him.

'' Then why were we brought here ? ``

'' I wish I knew. All I know is that the Order is finally utilizing the dependable houses it 's been setting up. ``

His supercilium crinkled, his manus unconsciously caressing Kalliandra 's moistness hair, which was strewn across his lap, leaving wet scrape upon his trouser. `` There are early places asides from headquarters ? ``

'' Of course of action. Do n't ask where, because I do n't know. ``

His smile was strained, `` Clever really ... not letting any one person know too very much about anything in font they 're caught. ``

'' Exactly. ``

His lapse from the nighttime topic plaguing him could continue no longer, for the tactual sensation of carefully controlled scare was rising.

Indicating the IV bag, he shot out a interrogative. `` Why does she need that ? ``

'' Perhaps I 'm not the best person to explain that. ``

'' You 're a healer, '' He said in a carefully controlled feeling. `` Who better ? ``

Angelina opened her mouth, as if to answer, but she never got the chance.

'' Perhaps I can. If you would only tolerate me. ``

Harry 's head spun, as did Angelina 's. Neither had heard the person 's arrival, and his heart was thundering at the fatalist possibility that could deliver resulted from such a lapse on their parts.

His eyes narrowed, anger mixing with relief as he saw another loved one intact and standing in the dorm 's doorcase. A bitter laugh broke his throat, and he gestured into the room.

'' By all means Professor, it is your home after all. ``

Professor Lupin stepped wearily into the elbow room, looking worse for the wear. But then again, Harry reflected, did n't they all ? The opinion nearly sent Harry laughing. Instead he bit it back, another acid sound growling deep in his throat.

From the facial expression on lupine 's face, Harry knew he had noticed. The deeply lines on the man 's face betrayed an inner pain in the neck, one Harry felt all too acutely.

It was the painfulness of loss. Only Harry knew Lupin had lost far more than he ever had. Of course of instruction, he was still youth. There was time to beguile up in that category.

As if sensing his darkness thoughts, Kalliandra stirred. His attention was suddenly riveted to her, his hand on her cheek. half of him hoped desperately for her to come alive, while another piece feared that his one chance of discovering what ailed her would then slip away.

She was far too unregenerate to charge anyone else with her botheration. He knew that now.

It was startling how much could exchange in less than twenty four hours.

Harry 's half furious, half questioning gaze finally rose. He was startled to find Angelina 's absence seizure. Somehow she had slipped away unnoticed, leaving he and lupine alone.

After having been ignored by him for over two workweek, he was n't sure if he was felicitous about that or not.

'' It 's good to see you Harry. ''

'' Is it ? '' He could n't help it, but his voice was frigidness.

Lupin looked stung. `` Of course of action it is. ``

'' Well forgive me for being skeptical, '' Harry replied sarcastically. `` It 's not like you have n't spoken to me in awhile. ``

'' I had my cause. ``

He inclined an eyebrow, `` You had reasons for believing Dog Star all-but-killed my mum and dad too. ''

'' That 's below the belt Harry. ``

'' goodness. ``

Remus ran a weary hand through his graying hair's-breadth, leaning back against the wall. For the long time neither spoke, the entire meeting arousing conflicting emotions within Harry.

He wanted to slog him. For what he had done to him, to Tonks, to Kaylens ... by ignoring them simply to shelter them from his canine side. For having left him to deal with the botheration of Sirius'death alone. For having had the audacity to walk in, saying hello, as if nothing were amiss between the two. For having sent not one owl that summer.

All of Harry 's pent up frustration with Lupin were finally bubbling over, conveyed in the I icy spirit he shot him.

Outside the cold, first of November wind rattled the sidings. The weather matched his blackness climate perfectly.

'' I 'm sorry Harry. ``

He nearly laughed. `` Are you ? ''

'' For everything, '' Lupin whispered chokingly.

Harry looked up, meeting the pleading stare of his father 's stopping point living Friend. Suddenly he did not see the man who had inspired such a flavour of abandonment.

Instead ... he saw his family.

He swallowed hard, remembering the rifts he and Ron had been through, and the one they were in now. All those years ago, when he and Ron had fought during the Tri-Wizard tournament, Hermione had called them stupid.

She had been right.

Life was too short to make grudges.

The reminder of Hermione 's plight, and the thought that Remus could be taken just as easily, sent him stumbling for words. `` Just ... '' He started, forcing a strained grin. `` Do n't let it happen again. ``

'' I wo n't. ``

Remus'light brown eyes were nothing but honest. Suddenly, despite his lingering fears for Hermione ... for Ron ... for Ginny ... for dean ... for Tonks ... for Dumbledore ... for Remus ... .for Neville ... .for Luna ... for Kalliandra ...

It was all too much to take, but suddenly he felt that he may not be quite so desperately alone in facing all of it.

'' Thank you, '' He said quietly, truly meaning it.

Remus simply smiled sadly, inclining his head towards the slumbering young lady in his lap.

'' How is she ? ``

Harry felt his brow instinctively furrow, his brain once again compartmentalizing what he could worry about, and impingement, in the here and now.

'' I 'm not sure, '' He replied honestly. `` But Profes ... .Remus, what 's happening to her ? ``

The startled look upon Remus 's face faded, his kind middle regarding him carefully.

'' I assume you already know then. ``

'' Yes, '' He heard himself whispering, his voice filled with nude concern.

Remus studied him for a long moment, his optic falling on the social movement of Harry 's hands as he stroked Kalliandra 's long hair.

For some reason Harry did not care if Remus noticed.

The former professor 's brow crinkled with both curiosity and compassion at the connotation Harry 's gesture conveyed. `` Are you sure you really want to know Harry ? Sometimes not knowing is best, for when you know ... '' Remus'gaze was suddenly far off, as if peering into the distant past.

'' Sometimes Harry, the truth will simply stalk you. ``

Harry 's pharynx constricted, the tears glistening within Remus'middle far too realize.

'' What if it already does ? ``

The elder man smiled sadly, `` Then I 'd say things between the two of you have changed. After all, she 's out cold and you have yet to try and bound her. ``

A sad joke bubbled out of him, his gaze falling to stay on her pale brow.

'' Please ... I ... do n't say anything .... ''

'' Would n't dream of it. ``

Harry found himself nodding with no particular understanding. `` right ... I ... I 've no estimation ... ''

'' What 's going on ? '' Remus finished.

Harry spotted the man 's knowing grinning, and was finally able to let out the breath he had been unconsciously holding.

'' Something like that. ``

In the still air of the windowless room, both men remained silent. Harry 's optic fell closed, his ears seeking out the soft sound of Kaylens'regular ventilation.

Somehow, even with the growing uneasiness within, this calmed him.

With a decisiveness he did not feel, he finally spoke.

'' I need to acknowledge Remus. ''

A loud sigh filled the elbow room. `` I was afraid of that. ``

And Remus explained. He explained how wizardly beings had come into macrocosm, for somewhere in homo story, man parentage cells had begun mutating.

Most of the mutations had resulted in cancerous blood stream, killing those in possession of those variations. Muggles and wizard alike still struggled against those diseases, leukemia the most prominent, but there were some individuals where the mutations became beneficial.

He explained how everything, both living and inert, contained a frame of zip. Not all of it was measurable in the Muggle fashion, and it was this frame of energy, the form that would fail to register on electrical plate, that allowed magical beings to flourish.

It was witching energy, and over time some individuals developed the power to manipulate it, without adverse affects.

Others were not so lucky.

There were multitude like Kalliandra, multitude like Reaches, who could delve into the magical land. But doing so was dangerous.

In the pillow slip of witches and wizards, they developed completely new cadre in their blood streams, and charming free energy was conducted through their physical consistence via these. Thus their eubstance were able to act like electric racing circuit, and vigor was able to pass through their witching cellular phone without ever touching their other cells.

It was a perfect system.

There were occasions when crone and wizards would become worn-out, and such natural event usually happened when the mortal was performing wandless magic, or a particularly complicated patch. And the intellect for their exhaustion was quite simple really :

When one 's soundbox functions like a circuit, if supererogatory charming energy is taken in and not released in the strain of a right hurl magic spell, then that energy remains stuck in the body and has to go somewhere. And since thaumaturgy runs quite literally through one 's nervure, that enchantress or wizard 's magical cubicle would be the first to be essentially, electrocuted by their sorcerous overload.

Fortunately magical cellular telephone are quite robust, and their plasma tissue layer are more than capable of absorbing such overloads.

Red parentage cadre, however, are not.

On occasion so very much energy is not released from a wizard 's body that it bursts through their wizard cells, frying blood mobile phone necessary in the sustentation of life.

And when one 's red blood cells are dying it is strong to circulate enough oxygen.

It was how Luna Lovegood 's mother had died. She had suffocated, while still breathing.

Such deaths were a rare occurrence, because human stemma contains far more cadre than requisite for the sustentation of life story. So when some line mobile phone are killed there are generally plenty subsister to allow that individual to preserve functioning in a normal, albeit fatigued, manner.

The first time Harry had tried the Patronus good luck charm he had overdrawn as well. He had been left winded, gasping for breath, just like he was after every Quidditch practice.

Yet he had partaken in no physical activity.

It was because he had lost red-blood jail cell, the very cadre responsible for carrying Oxygen throughout the consistency, and his body was responding as it would in an Oxygen-deprived manner.

Reaches had never evolved that far. They had never developed additional cells in their rakehell watercourse, and the chromosomal mutation allowing them to conduct electrical stream lay directly upon their red blood cells.

If they overdrew, their first cadre to be damaged would be the one 's necessary in the transportation system of Oxygen.

Their mutation was one that worked, but it functioned poorly. sorcerer had evolved much more gracefully, for their additional cellphone provided a barrier to protect them against overdrawing. Ultimately it was this United States Department of Defense mechanism that had allowed the wizarding species to not only brandish, but to survive.

Unlike in him, the offset cubicle to die in a Reach when they overdrew were their red blood cubicle.

For a Reach, the likelihood of suffering Luna 's female parent 's fate was an almost certainty.

A cold feeling overtook Harry as all of this sunk in, for Kalliandra could easily die from overdrawing. She was only still awake due to the fact that her ancestry stream contained more red stemma cells than it actually needed. Thus, she was capable of tolerating a certain point of overdrawing, but the leeway was slim.

For her, unlike a witch or wiz, there was no existent encyclopedism curve. For her there was little elbow room for mistake, for there were no cells to absorb the seismic disturbance ...

For her the only reward of overdrawing too a good deal was death.

She would suffocate while still breathing.

It was why her red parentage cell were being replaced even as Remus spoke. For every meter she drew energy into herself she was slowly killing her cells.

Dumbledore was determined to replace as many as he could, as often as he could.

It was the but way to support her, to see her a longer life.

Suddenly he understood the intermittent bruising he had seen upon her throughout the year.

After Remus had turned ... in the infirmary flank ...

Her platelets had been killed when she had overdrawn, to protect him from Remus ...

She had passed out in Grimmauld place, from the cause ... her dead body forcing her into unconsciousness in a last-place ditch campaign to prevent her from doing further price to herself..

The image of her lying unconscious mind on the base of the terzetto broom handle flew through his mind.

He had known that she had risked vulnerability for what she was, but god ... .She had risked expiry there, to protect citizenry who hated her.

And he had once accused her of being a Death Eater.

dying eater knew no such selflessness.

A sickening sensation flooded over him, his hand rising to rifle through his still wet hair's-breadth.

He scarcely heard Remus as he tried to lie, telling him it was not a death condemnation for her.

Harry knew better, for what else could it be ?

His grip on her tightened, as if holding onto her could prevent the inevitable. Remus was talking about treatment, about how if they maintained her blood count at proper level that she would be able-bodied to live a convention, total life.

All it took was a single face into Remus'cheerless eyes to know that his supporter did not truly conceive what he was saying.

'' Will she die ? ``

His own vocalism, his own interrogation, sounded so far off.

'' Harry nil is certain ... If she does n't amplify then we 'll never have to worry about that possible action. ``

'' Remus, will she die ? '' Harry felt his vocalisation breakage, the fellow sting of loss welling within him.

As he met Remus'form, glistening eyes, he knew the answer.

'' Eventually ... ''

He wanted to croak out something, a pattern of protest that would quench the dispassionateness of his throat, but nothing came.

'' From what we know Harry, the others like her ... eventually, they all overdrew. ``

Eventually ...

The dopey inlet of his mind clung to that Word of God, the ridiculous companion of grief stirring within him.

Hope.

It was n't until sometime after dawn when he finally fell asleep. The IV was retentive since removed from her arm, her sleeping form pulled into his subdivision.

At the second Harry did n't impart a damn about who could see.



Recommended narration :

LEGACIES : The separatrix Charm by the iniquity Lord Nedved Rated : Mature
Summary : Every epic poem has a beginning, and for the new Magi who was Prophesized to have the Power the Dark Lord Knows Not, this is the beginning of his bequest. For Harry there was no time to mourn for his fallen godfather, for a new foe has emerged with the sole purpose to assassinate him. The Dark God Almighty Nedved has created a tale of action, uncovering, sorcerous creativeness and sacrifice that would leave the dear novelist pounding on his threshold, begging for him to part working on original fiction. This epic poem tale has 5 unlike novels associated with it, two of which are completed, while the others are well under way. To attempt to delineate them in any former way would be to not do them justice. Harry/Hermione







author Note : Hey folks !

All of you really are the topper readers out there. I ca n't thank everyone enough for all of the wellspring indirect request and understanding that were shown when I announced that I would be taking a foresightful sabbatical from writing. I really needed it, and am glad of it. Both my mother and Sister had been diagnosed with grave malady this past summer, and all of the well wishes some of you sent via e-mail must have paid off because they have both made remarkable retrieval.

Secondly, thank you to everyone for the kind word 's regarding Lexi 's death. On top of everything this summertime that was the final blow to ride all of my motivation for writing away for awhile, but it is now back full phase of the moon force. Since I am a bit frustrated at having taken so long between chapters in the retiring, I have now set aside one day a workweek to write so that I can get chapters out much more quickly, and on a unconstipated groundwork. I anticipate this narrative being done by summertime, and then I shall begin work on the sequel.

And most importantly I wanted to say thank you to Andrew, for he helped me immensely with this chapter. It had been so long since I had written anything that when I finally tried to drop a line again I found myself suffering from a knockout vitrine of author 's block. Not only did he beta-read this chapter but he also offered wonderful suggestions to get this story back on track. Thank you so often !




'' Dangerous is wrath concealed. ``
~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca ~



Chapter 28 ~ The Power of ire


As if in a nightmare the room 's impenetrable darkness was broken. From the darkened hall a single candle appeared, levitating ominously as it preceded its possessor into the blackened way.

The firm 's lower story harboured neither windows nor doors to the outside world. It was a perpetual reminder of the monthly monster that had once been contained within its very bulwark, whenever the lunation had cast its entire luminance upon the earth.

Now another more dangerous monster loomed in the room 's shadows.

With a casual waving of their hand the chassis crossed the carpeted floor silently, their silhouette pausing above the slumbering teenager. The anatomy knew that neither would rouse until their dormancy while had run its course.

Yes, the frame was powerful. Their dormancy magical spell were one of their strongest talent.

They could operate in complete safety. None within the rampart would be the wiser to their actions.

Tonight they would begin their plan.

A syringe was filled, its needle swiftly inserted into the slumbering daughter 's vein. Kaylens'pulsating blood, bluish in tint through her picket skin, flashed silver grey.

A instant later the strange hue faded, a low-spirited line of satisfaction stretching over the figure 's shadowed face.

* * * * *


With a sharp detent the door to Dumbledore 's office opened.

Tonks shot out of the armchair she had been dozing within, knowing the locking spell 's removal to mean only one thing.

'' He 's back, '' She whispered. Lounging in the armchair besides her genus Regulus nodded.

Out in the student residence, suddenly visible as the room access opened, was Ron Weasley. He lay slumped besides his toss away crutch on the story, sleeping soundly.

Crusantheus hung on the room access miserably, his knocker curled and contorted around his ears so as to block out the sound of the Young Gryffindor 's snoring.

'' killing me ... '' He squeaked. `` Please. ``

As tired as she was Tonks could n't help but smile as Regulus lazily took aim, an evil spark in his eye.

'' No ! '' Shrieked Crusantheus. `` I did n't actually mean it ! ''

Regulus continued advancing on the cowering detractor until a thick phonation intervened.

'' No pauperism to eat into Crusantheus. Did you block that the killing curse has no effect on brass bosom ? ''

Crusantheus peeked out from behind his knocker hopefully, as Tonks spun around, rounding on the maddening thing 's rescuer.

Somehow Ablus Dumbledore was standing behind her, looking rather jovial.

'' Morning Nymphadora. illusion a biscuit ? ``

As if on cue a tray of biscuits appeared in his outstretched palm.

Tonks blinked dazedly, rubbing her red rimmed middle with her fist. Surely this jocund
man had not just returned from a encounter with the darkest of dark God Almighty ?

genus Regulus, completely unflummoxed by their sudden intrusion, rose from his arm electric chair to carefully inspect the solid food offering. `` I take it dialogue proceeded satisfactorily ? ''
'' The central will be made in two month'sentence. ``

Tonks gaped, `` Two calendar month ! ``

'' They probably need time to doctor the lilliputian Mudblood, '' Regulus commented casuallly, directing his gaze to Albus. `` I assume you requested that she be returned in one firearm, and I can only opine the fun they 've had with her until now. ``

Dumbledore nodded gravely. `` Her wounds will need some ... healing. ``

Tonks middle widened in concern. While she still did not see how Hermione for Dumbledore was a fair trade, she had grown rather fond of the missy during her time at Grimmauld seat.

A distich of sky blue eyes regarded her carefully, their trice somehow dimmer than she remembered.

'' I know what you are thinking Nymphadora, '' Dumbledore said kindly, as if reading her mind. `` But part of the reason I made the blood accord here with Regulus, rather than in Voldemort 's presence, was so that I could ascertain Hermione 's return on my own condition. He could have chosen to reject the blood pact had he so pick out, but he did not. ''

Tonks opened her mouth to ask precisely what those terminus were, but his hand steadied her question.

'' The terms were that if she were returned in the precise physical state that she had been in before the Hogsmead flak took shoes, that I would sell places with her, becoming Voldemort 's prisoner. ``

'' I bet he was only too happy to accept that patronage, '' Regulus stated, smirking widely. `` Imagine that ... Albus Dumbledore, the Dark Lord 's peachy Nemesis, handed to him on a golden platter with a incline of cherry."

"Actually,"Dumbledore corrected,"I believe the expression is ‘ served on a silver platter with a cerise on top.'”

Tonks spluttered, focusing on the barf sensation within her stomach. The war effort, the Order, could feasibly collapse without Dumbledore 's leadership, and here he was bantering with an ex-Death Eater, wizarding world deserter right after selling his life sentence to the devil.

"Dumbledore,"She said, voicing her far from serene sentiment aloud."Why would you do this ?"

Dumbledore 's eyes locked on hers, losing their twinkle. `` Nymphadora, we have lost far too many pupil to this war already. I could not stand by and lose another. ''

She swallowed the stumblebum in her throat hastily. She should have known all along that the condom of others would always arrive first to Dumbledore. He would induce done the same for any of them.

sexual love of one 's friends was a potent thing.

'' So, old man, '' Regulus queried, taking a bite of his biscuit. `` Find out anything else of sake during your little assignation ? ``

If possible Dumbledore 's eyes darkened further. `` We have to tack the orderliness. The plague was unleashed in Dublin. ``

'' capital of Ireland, Ireland ! '' Tonks blurted rhetorically.

Regulus frowned, `` As glorious as you are, how were you placed in Ravenclaw again ? ''

She scarcely heard him, her eyes having darted over to the still slumbering forms of Kenneth and Emily.

Their dwelling house urban center was infected.

'' So how 'd you come by that fun fact Albus ? I never exactly took you two to be old school chums. ''

For the briefest of arcsecond Dumbledore 's center took on their old glitter. `` For all of Voldemort 's prowess with Legilimency, he never quite mastered Occlumency. He has always surrounded himself with loyal follower. '' He continued, `` And until recently he simply did not throw the demand.

Regulus chuckled. `` So he 's good, but you 're proficient. ``

Tonks blinked. `` But I thought he was one of the most magnificent bookman Hogwarts has ever seen ? ''

'' Ah ... '' Dumbledore said, smiling again. `` As is Ms. granger, but even she can not fly upon a broom. ''

Tonks gaped at him.

'' We all have our impuissance Nymphadora. Severus never would consume survived his role as spy had he not been better at Occlumency and Legilimency than Voldemort. We should simply be grateful that this is one of Voldemort 's few unaccented stage. ``

Tonks frowned pensively. So He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did have failing. They really were not fighting for naught.

With an air of finality genus Regulus clapped his hands together, making the already unquiet Crusantheus bang his knocker rather loudly. The slumbering Ronald Weasley gave a violent start, snorting loudly as he awoke suddenly.

Tonks watched wearily as the redhead blinked groggily, eyeing the site in front of him until his middle landed on the Headmaster. It took a instant before a figural light bulb clicked on in his sleep-befuddled mind

'' Professor Dumbledore ! '' He exclaimed, scrambling to his ft, a flurry of wooden crutch and gangly legs sliding on stone. It did n't get long before Ron was flat on his tooshie once again, groaning from his fall.

Regulus eyed him mockingly. `` And they call Hufflepuffs the duffers. ``

* * * * *


Harry 's eyes snapped unfold, his dreamless sleep shattered by the sudden outcry of the girl in his branch. Through slightly blurred middle he stared down the bridge circuit of his nose at the messy mop of haircloth resting upon his chest. The warm feeling he ought to experience felt vanished, a numbing one replacing it at the quite a little of her expression.

For Kaylens there was no peace treaty to be found in the kingdom of dream.

He swallowed hard, watching her case crinkle into an expression bearing striking law of similarity to what he had once seen upon Cedric 's father, as the man desperately clutched his lifeless son to him, forgetful to the swarming crowd around them.

Such undiluted sorrow should never be seen upon a human being countenance, yet he had seen it palpably far too often. Even on himself. The root of such pain had been buried deep within him, growing since the present moment he had discovered his true fate : putting to death or be killed.

All thought of his calamity of a future was suddenly shattered as Kaylens lurched violently, a chilling cry cutting from her throat.

Harry gaped, feeling the hair on his limb rising to stand on end. Without thinking his hands gripped her arms, her skin beneath his fingerbreadth turning gabardine with the pressure.

'' K-kaylens ... '' He stuttered, scarcely recognizing his own vocalization. He gave an experimental shove, shaking her lightly in a pathetic attempt to waken her.

And that was when she cried out again. That sound ripping from her pharynx. It resonated through the dark room, terrifying in its raw saturation. His tomentum now fully stood on end, for the sound had been insanely tragic and yet, unbearably beautiful.

It chilled him to the bone, for it was a well-grounded no human being could utter.

It happened fast. One second his arms were wrapped tightly around her, shaking her in an endeavour to rouse her, and in the adjacent her blazon wrenched away. She shot up quickly, her eye flying open in the dark room only to be slammed shut as she uttered a more comrade shriek of pain. His relief was short- lived as he grabbed onto her arm again, for she pulled away so violently that they were both ship tumbling from the couch to the floor.

His back struck the floor first, his articulatio genus having been tangled unnaturally in the blankets. He attempted to right himself, pulling his branch down until he was on all fours.

A swift kick to the spinal column sent his face smashing into the ground.

He groaned, and ignoring the throbbing pain sensation in his nozzle he rose his chief cautiously, squinting at his environs. Where were his glasses ? Slowly he reached a hand out, allowing it to stray across the lenient carpet in his search.

And then he remembered.

His glasses were still lying in some godforsaken puddle in the eye of that damnable timber. By now they were probably some acromantula 's chew toy.

Cursing he blinked rapidly, his eyes finally adjusting to the dark and settling on the slightly fuzzy schema of Kaylens. She was sitting upright, some good five animal foot away, with her knees drawn to her dresser and her human face buried within them.

He swallowed hard, the only sounds in the room now were his jolty intimation and her rapid, quicksilver I. In astonied muteness he observed her as best as he could. Her au naturel feet were sticking out from beneath a midst mantle, which despite their tumble still partly covered her, while she breathed as if having run a marathon.

Everything that had transpired between them came flooding back, a tense feeling twisting within him.

'' Kaylens ... '' He whispered, reaching hesitantly for her, only for her to recoil, scrambling away like a frightened animal.

He stared in amazement as her dorsum hit the room 's rampart, a unusual whimper coming from her pharynx. Of all the chemical reaction he could feature foreseen, this was the farthest from it.

And now she was having the reaction that he would have expected from any former girlfriend, but not from her.

She was sobbing.

The speech sound of her crying tore at him in ways he had n't imagined, for the girl who had stood by him, facing Death feeder and werewolves without blinking an eye, had been reduced to this miserable body politic by a mere nightmare.

Instantly he stood, crossing the way to her in four farseeing strides.

'' Kaylens, '' He said, tentatively laying a helping hand on her berm. She whimpered, shrinking away from his touch.

His hilltop furrowed determinedly. `` Kaylens looking at me, '' He commanded, crouching directly in strawman of her. Still, her head remained determinedly adverted, prompting him to get the picture her by both shoulders.

Her head shot up, a angered clicking coming from her pharynx as she struggled away, lashing out violently. He dove back to avoid her thresh mitt and feet, landing on his tailbone, eyes wide-eyed in astonishment.

She was making that sound again.

And he recognized it. A dark night in the Forbidden woodland, where he and Draco Malfoy had encountered the unexpected, had taught him that sound of pain.

The sound of the beautiful animal 's dying cries had reverberated in his nightmares for months.

As had Voldemort 's shadowy figure ...

There was no hesitation in his movements as he wandlessly summoned his wand to his hand, immobilizing her weapon and leg with a flick of his wrist.

Kaylens was conscious, but incapable of lashing out.

He crawled back to her, taking her delicate carpus and pushing the sleeve of her battered sweater up.

The bruising was gone.

He swallowed hard, recognizing the betting odds of such bruising disappearing nightlong. Now he was only certain of one thing.

Something had happened whilst he slept.

Licking his parapraxis nervously he cupped her mentum, raising her head until he could see all of the confusion swim within her golden heart. His breath hitched in horrible realization at what he was about to do, but there was simply no other way.

He had to know. He had to get it on what had happened whilst he slept.

Until then he could n't avail her, and he knew that no one else would be willing to do this. There were strict linguistic rule against the unauthorized use of Legilimency. Hermione had taught him that much, screaming and ranting after his last abuse of the gift against the like young woman he was about to despoil yet again.

'' I 'm no-account, '' He whispered, brushing her whisker away from her grimace. `` I 'm so no-count Kally ... '' He repeated, steeling himself for his crime.

Cupping her look he stared intently into her centre, watching them flickering around in fear.

Her fear was warranted.

He only hoped he was wrong.

'' Legilimency ! ``

The overpowering wave that was her aliveness flooded his mind, capturing his senses in a twist of indiscernible consequence. He groaned, heroic to stop the twister-like issue of the memories swirling around him. It was unlike than the shoemaker's last time, so unbelievably different ...

A blare of clicking, beautiful and powerful in its raw intensity filled his creative thinker, only to be replaced just as quickly as it had come with a comrade scream.

'' RILEY ! ''

He was seeing it again, reliving the afternoon when she had seen her own comrade murdered right in front line of her. Only this clip the images were fleeting, distorted as if he were viewing it through a wooden-headed pane of smoky Methedrine. It was as if the memories were no foresighted her own.

His nerve clenched as he watched the man kick open the doorway for the moment time. Kaylens'small trunk was thrust backwards, her petite form sliding across the storey. It was as if everything were on the fast forward feature article of a Muggle VCR. There was the knife, her wow, her brother ...

As the gunshot rang out he could again almost experience what she had. The hot, ardent pain of the brand plunging into her flesh. The searing as it was drug in a deep line across her articulatio humeri blade. The awe as she watched the blood pooling from her brother 's
wound slowly stop pumping ...

Suddenly all was inkiness, misty, the knock-down sound of a ruck stampeding through her mentation. Then all was green and brown and greenish again. Somehow he was running faster than he had thought possible, the trees whipping past him in a blur of greens and John Brown and unripened again. He was surrounded by others of his kind.

His figure was Lightning.

The look-alike twisted again, surrounding Harry in a confound lock of forest panorama followed by prospect of her childhood. Ag horns flashed around him, gleaming as the herd ran beneath the moonlight, while gilded hair flashed throughout her life.

Another memory slammed into Harry, crystallizing into near limpidity. It was mid-afternoon, though the sun barely shone through the over-cast sky. Before him was a poorly kept yard, bordered on three side of meat by a midst, rising treeline and James Jerome Hill. Harry swiveled in the murky memory, feeling Kalliandra 's recollection lurch dangerously as another retentiveness threatened to hemorrhage into this one. The speech sound of hooves, the sound of the ruck on the run, pounded in the distance.

Harry fell to the dewy ground, watching as a man with halcyon hair, tinged heavily with gray, methodically stacked sandbags away from the house. Fog crept across the lawn, curling around his foundation, each grunt echoing in the silent valley.

And then the children were led out, and Harry 's soul shivered.

Kalliandra appeared to be the same age as in the net memory, only now she stood besides a small boy, barely one-time than her, digging her nails into his arm.

'' S-sean ... ''

Their father pried her deal away from her brother, forcing a semi-automatic Glock 17, 9x19 mm calibre pistol into her small hands. Her legs had suddenly felt stop dead, rooted to the damp undercoat. Harry could practically palpate her warmheartedness 's fearsome thundering at the frigidity, unfeeling metal between her fingers.

The thick fog curled high around the six foot stack of sand traveling bag, and as it began to drizzle her father aimed her lowly workforce towards the stack.

'' Shoot it. ``

Kalliandra pulled the trigger and cried.

As the gun was being passed to her surviving chum Kaylens'computer memory shifted again, swirling until he found himself peering through a thick grove of trees, stomping his hooves in warning as a hooded figure of speech approached. The design 's hands raised very slowly, carefully removing the thug of their robe, allowing a cascade of thick, opprobrious hair to make out tumbling around her berm.

The woman 's sanction remained hidden by the cryptic woods shadows, yet Lightning was calming.

It was a vestal woman. She could be trusted. Lightning could tell.

The unicorn never saw the early robe design creeping from behind, and that man 's dagger soon shone silver with Lightning 's blood.

Harry stood in the shadow drawing trench, ragged breaths. He could practically feel every inch of pain the short creature was going through, the only sounds that of the screeching animal and that of the dry leg cracking beneath Harry 's shifting weighting as he watched, powerless to stop its pain.

The man bottled and corked a measurable sum of blood from the unicorn, leaving it only enough to barely limp away alive. A weak chortle escaped the hooded Death Eater at the sight.

Suddenly the adult female stepped out of the phantom, and Harry 's breath stopped.

Angelina stood in the dim lighter, depositing the bottles into a thick bag slung across her shoulder. Her iniquity Mark gleamed brilliantly.

Violently Harry felt himself being tossed out, finding himself flat on his back staring up at Remus'shocked face.

Kalliandra continued to whimper.

* * * * *


'' Would you mind repeating that ? ``

Tonks blinked stupidly. Somehow she had thought that being told that the `` pest of all plagues '' had been unleashed upon the citizens of Republic of Ireland would have had more than of an effect upon its President.

Instead the newly awakened Kenneth Bothan sat behind Dumbledore 's desk, clasping his script, waiting for her response with an inquiring flavour upon his face.

She silently damned Albus for having left them to break the news to Kenneth while he went to holler an emergency encounter of the gild. She was n't good at this sort of affair dam n't ! She had at least expected a rouse out of the man at the news, but instead he was irrefutably calm.

It was quite obvious that Kenneth was insane.

'' Basically Ken, all of your people will be numb within the week, '' Regulus stated with ironic cheerfulness. `` But look on the promising side. At least you wo n't take in to run for re-election. ''

Tonks'non-white eyes swiveled to her first cousin, her mouth opening and close like a gap fish.

Kenneth, however, seemed entirely unperturbed.

'' So, '' The United States President started with a curious frown, `` What you are saying is that wizarding folk have no treatment against this ? ''

'' Well ... '' Regulus mused thoughtfully. `` We could always Avada Kedavra those who have already contracted it. That ought to slow its feast, right Nymphadora ? ``

'' Regulus ! ``

Kenneth looked appraisingly at her first cousin. `` And this Avada Kedarva discourse ? How effective is it ? ``

Regulus grinned like a jackal. `` Supposing we were able to insulate those who had already contracted it we may find out its method of dispersal, while simultaneously establishing a quarantine and treating the pain of the already afflicted ... ''

'' By killing them ! ? '' Tonks burst in, unable to think the wicked secret plan genus Regulus played with the President 's hopes.

'' Ah, '' Kenneth said as if suddenly understanding. `` The treatment has a mellow deathrate rate. How high gear though ? ``

Regulus grinned widely, while Tonks contemplated murder for the dozenth clock time in twenty four hours.
* * * * *


'' Harry ! What in the name of Merlin did you imagine you were ... ''

Harry closed his middle, grinding out his watchword. `` Something 's awry with Kalliandra, '' He interjected. `` I had to happen out what. ``

The room 's silence was broken only by Kaylens'laboured breathing, and her clear distress drew lupine 's attention from him to her. He felt the former professor drop to his stifle besides them, and he cracked an eye to watch as Lupin scrutinized her.

The Professor looked flabbergasted as he picked up one of her stiff subdivision. `` Harry, you 've immobilized her. ``

'' For in force understanding. ``

Lupin threw a fed up face over his shoulder, and snatched his wand out, clearly intending to remove the spell.

'' prof I do n't mean tha ... ''

His protest was too later, for Kaylens had already lashed out, landing a strategical thrill that sent Lupin sprawling categoric on his back next to Harry.

'' I told you, '' Harry groaned, shoving himself up on his cubitus to mention the pained expression of Remus'face. `` Kicks hard, does n't she ? ``

lupine coughed harshly in response, choosing to snub him as he rolled over to contain on Kaylens. She was already scrambling along the wall on all fours, backing herself into a corner like a frightened animal. On her way she somehow managed to hit the only other bit of piece of furniture, digression from the couch, and several small book came spilling down, scattering across the floor like rock'n'roll thrown from a length.

The crashing audio only intensified the poor girl 's whimpering.

Harry 's eyes remained on her, watching as she curled her legs to her chest in a faint attempt at self-defence. But he knew the trueness ... there was no protection from what plagued her.

But he 'd be damned if he did n't try to help.

'' professor .... '' He started slowly. `` What kind of execration does drinking unicorn origin entail ? ''

Lupin opened his mouth and faltered. Harry remained lying on his back, his amphetamine body propped up with his elbows, silently hoping to God that the Professor would put the pieces together. lupine had to trust him. He had to swear him. None of the adult, save for those dead and buried, had ever trusted him in time for it to actually matter.

It was why Sirius had died. And somehow Harry did n't consider he could take it if the utmost link to his founder failed to desire him.

Then slowly, ever so slowly, the lykan's head turned towards him, and even in the dark way Harry could see the sudden knowledge flashing in his eyes.

Moony understood his meaning.

'' Her bruising is gone, '' Harry whispered, driving another blow to any doubts the professor could own. `` What else in the wizarding world could heal soul that quickly ? ``

Lupin drew a thick breathing space, shaking slightly.

'' Harry ... if what you 're saying is honest ... ''

'' It is, '' He assured. `` I saw memories inside of her mind that were not hers. ``

Kaylens'whimpering had finally quieted, casting the elbow room into a deathly silence.

Besides him Lupin swallowed audibly, contemplating Harry 's assertion in the deadly silence that had descended. Kaylens was no longer whimpering, and he was unsure of if he missed the reassuring auditory sensation of her presence, or if was pleased at the obvious moderation of her distress.

He glanced at Lupin, stunned at the mangled expression upon his onetime prof's physiognomy. Did the man believe him or not ?

He sighed in frustration, snapping at Lupin's deadness. `` Why would she have those remembering, Moony ? ``

earreach his old vulture epithet snapped lupin out of his contemplative stupor. `` It's magically potent…unicorn blood that is. In fact it is so magical that their storage are often heavily imprinted upon it. '' He shook his head slowly, as if clearing a hazy fog."To own a unicorn's blood is to not only possess their life stream, but their very being."

lupine sighed heavily. `` There is not much precedent for this, but….in the early 1900 's medi-wizards began experimenting with different discourse option for pole diseases. One researcher, familiar spirit with unicorns, sought to rein their healing powers by injecting his terminally ill patient with the brute'blood. It cured the patients but the side effects…"lupin shuddered, digressing quickly. `` The blood was too punishing to get to begin with. Unicorns don't normally donate willingly, not to mentio ... ''

'' What incline personal effects, '' Harry interrupted hoarsely, closing his eyes. The feel of her in his arms flooded his senses, the woodsy fragrance that had clung to her all night coming back, overwhelming him with a tidal wave of fear. In his animation there was no room for new attachments, yet the view of her in pain…

He knew without a doubtfulness that he would bolt down for her again, just as he would kill for any of those he held close.

He only hoped it would not come to that.

His eyes snapped open as Lupin 's distressed spokesperson filled the room.

'' near went insane. ``

Harry nearly choked. `` Insane ? '' He grated out.

lupine looked years older. `` They never were able to distinguish between themselves and the animal again, '' he relayed. `` Can you imagine it Harry ? Having a lifetime of remembering that were not your own suddenly shoved inside of your creative thinker ? Unicorns live for hundreds of years…it was only innate for those obtaining their blood to become unconnected. To them it would feel as if they had spent a thirster time being a unicorn than a human being."

The sick adept twisting within him intensified. Kaylens'nous had revealed exactly what lupine now spoke of, and the thought process made him nauseous.

And the curse…God he had nearly forgotten…

Remus read his mind, continuing his scholarly recitation of facts aloud. For Remus, who had lost so practically, it was prosperous than dealing with the devastating fallout facing them in Kaylens'crumpled form.

"When one slays such an ingenuous creature, seeking their rake's healing power, it leaves the cuss of the half-life. But when one is given the blood unwillingly, or when the animal is left alive, the curse does not lessen ; it simply changes its manifestation."

His throat constricted, but Harry managed to gnarl out a single word.

"Explain."

There was no mistaking the disgorge facial expression upon lupin's face."Harry, the only ones desperate enough to kill such an clean-handed creature are those hanging onto life by a thread. But the price…it is far too high for any sane person to contemplate, for the price for their atrocity is losing all ability to sleep with. A life without the capacity for passion is destitute of joy, happiness, family…"He shook his headland, disgust etched in his every lineament."In a desperate attack to save their own life they lose the entirely thing that makes life worth living for. Once they take that path they truly lead half a life, only experiencing the darker sides of the emotional spectrum."

"Then the mediwizard, the one using it to cure his patient, did that happen to him ?"

lupin sighed indulgently."There are way of life to compile it, mode for it to be done without incurring the wrath of the curse but…those room take clock time, Harry. Gaining the long term trust of a unicorn, let unequalled permission to inflict combat injury upon it, are not easy tasks."

He swallowed hard."What about Kaylens ? That won't…it won't happen…"He trailed off, unable to vocalize such morbid thought process aloud. No human deserved that. She didn't deserve that.

Once again Lupin looked ill."For Kally it will be different,"He said gruffly."Instead, if she recovers, she will fuck, but her every experience will be shared with both position of her, diluting the intensity of the emotions she feels, diluting her flavour towards others…"

Something about the words sent Harry's heart twisting.

"Unicorns ... they are such innocent creatures, incompetent of sin, incapable of inflicting pain ... Could you imagine having a saint following you around for the entirety of your life, correcting your every error ? Well from this import on she will be sharing her head, her life sentence, with memories of what true sinlessness is, for a unicorn is the true shape of that, and with it will fall a gnawing guiltiness over the sins she has committed in the past. Between the muddiness over her identity and her newfound guilt over even the smallest of transgressions…that alone could be adequate to motor some mad."

Harry's mouth twisted into a frown,"So she can't sin ?"

"If only it were that easy, Harry. She can, and she will. But having this will cave in her a conscience stronger than most, and living a perfect life is an impossible project. Her life will be as stopping point to pattern as possible, only she will experience far guiltier about things she does than others."

'' A one-half lifespan ... '' He whispered aloud, suddenly understanding. Kaylens truly would be cursed, for she would always be sharing her mind with memories not her own.

None of this was her fault, and the thought sickened him.

'' Not all the mediwizard 's patient went insane, '' He finally said, recalling lupin 's before Good Book. `` You said most. ``

Lupin shook his head. `` They all went insane at starting time Harry. But only two managed to repossess enough of their idea to serve. Two out of dozens. ``

Harry closed his eyes, his vocalisation filled with sardonic sarcasm. `` She just ca n't catch a pause, can she ? ``

The professor shook his chief in reception. `` There 's only one way to be sure. ''

Without warning Lupin snatched his sceptre out, summoning a pocket-sized torch. Soon a metal blur came flying through the room access, landing in the professor 's outstretched script.

Harry frowned at the military action, not reason, but in one swift motility the professor had it on and aimed at Kalliandra 's face. lupine clearly knew exactly what he was looking for.

Kaylens was suddenly shrieking again, and judging from the unrelenting look on the professor 's face he had found all he needed to know.

A metal clink sounded as the flashlight was turned off, and Kaylens'cry instantly died down, slowly fading to a muted whimper.

'' She 's sensitive to light ... '' lupin stated. `` There are only two conditions I know of that crusade that. ``

'' She 's not a vampire ... '' Harry stated coldly, earning a reproving look.

'' I was n't even about to advise it. But animal tend to have ameliorate nocturnal visual sensation than us Harry. Lykans and unicorns are no exclusion, and when I was first bit ... '' He trailed off, his face twisting into a peculiar reflexion."Once I was bit my whole body changed. My eyes were the unfit though. ''

The professor suddenly adopted an almost whimsical expression. `` Did you know there are more feather mettle per inch in your eyes than in any former part of your body ? Well there are. If you ever want to have someone botheration just enchant their eyes and ... ''

'' prof, '' Harry interjected, at the moment not carrying about the finer gunpoint of jinxing.

lupin shrugged. `` My collation caused a whole new layer of tissue to the full of fall sensible cells to grow across the binding of my eyes, its called tapetum lucidum. It lets me utilize less lightness to see, so I can see with one-sixth the amount you can. But when it first happened ... before I was used to it ... '' He shuddered. `` Falco columbarius it hurt. The slightest illume felt like the sun was blasting me in the face. inferno, it had me in tears. ''

Lupin raised the flashlight, pointing it directly at Kalliandra, flicking it on and off with each syllable. `` Just. Like. Her. ''

Kaylens'whine died down as the light was turned off for a final time, and suddenly Harry understood the flashlight. Unicorns had excellent nigh vision as well, and the flashlight was lupin 's way of confirming what he already knew.

Kaylens had a layer of swooning sensitive tissue paper growing across her retinas right now. No wonder she screamed at the light.

'' Harry, '' The scholarly professor tone was suddenly gone, and the wolf was deadly unplayful. `` Was she fine endure dark ? Before she lost consciousness ? ``

Harry was quick to nod.

'' Then sometime between then and now someone injected that blood directly into her vein. She could n't have done it herself. ``

Harry 's mouthpiece opened, but his doubtfulness of how that was possible died on his tongue.

He knew the answer.

There was only one soul who would wilfully excommunicate another within the house.

'' Professor what 's going on ? I heard yelling. ''

Harry 's center narrowed, every muscle tightening. Angelina had finally come, drawn by the incremental shouting. There she was, rushing through the elbow room 's threshold, drawing her cloak hastily around her as if nothing wicked were amiss.

If he had n't known better he would have thought she truly was surprised at the billet she found. But he knew better. No one took that long to respond to howler like the one's Kaylens had unleashed unless it was intentional.

'' Why is it so sinister ? '' Her part sounded honestly confused as she flicked her wand out, lighting every candelabrum in sight.

His eye flew to Kaylens, who had immediately began shrieking, clamping her hands over her eye, screaming as if infernal region itself has sent its monster up to drag her into its depth. His chest constricted at her obvious pain.

Lupin lunged at her in a decidedly brute like way. `` Kally, do n't ! '' He was shouting, fighting her for control. She lashed out, and lupine grasped her wrist in a single, fluid motility, quickly capturing the other as well.

The prof had already forced her hands down against her sides, kneeling on her legs in a vain attack to prevent them from flailing. He was far stronger than Kaylens, but she was desperate, fighting to block the fiendish sparkle from her eyes as lupin fought to forbid her from inflicting terms upon herself. Now he was yelling at Angelina to snuff out the candle, and Harry still had not moved.

He was too busy watching Angelina, noting the guilt flashing within every brown pigment in her darkness middle.

Her total darkness eyelashes fluttered, and the betraying emotion was suddenly gone.

His rake boiled, his arms vibrating with suppressed furore as she began speaking, a terrified bound to her voice.

'' What 's going on ? '' She asked fearfully, rushing across the room to aid lupine. `` Remus !
What 's wrong with Kally ! ? '' She continued shouting questions, lunging over Harry as if he were not even there.

She dropped to her knee joint besides where Lupin and Kaylens wrestled, her ebony skin gleaming in the candlelight. Her dark eyes widened in sham horror, her face a mask of innocuous concern as she reached out to aid keep Kaylens.

And Harry lost it.

Her hired man never reached Kaylens, her tainted fingers never touching her body. Before anyone could realise it Harry 's script had flown out, snatching the oversized arm billowing around the traitor's wrist, and he tugged her callously to the floor.

Harry lunged to his ft, stamping the dog of his human foot against the girl 's pharynx, pinning her to the soil.

'' Do n't. Touch. Her. '' He growled, the world rippling around him.

office swelled within him, the intensity of his magic trick unleashed by the raw anger pumping through his veins, and the feeling ... it was intoxicating.

Angelina 's body undulated like a squirm beneath him. She was choking, spluttering inexplicable sounds, the electric shock clearly written across her face. Her hands were clawing at his metrical unit, her fist slamming against his leg as she fought for air.

He scarcely noticed any of it.

'' H-harry ... st-top ... '' She gasped, her eye rolling backwards, fingerbreadth going mire as her supplication went unheard.

'' Harry ! Let her go ! '' Shouted Remus, followed by a forte crashing as he and Kaylens tumbled into the bookcase, knocking it sideways.

Books went flying, scattering everywhere. The resounding crashing masked the tedious clunk of Angelina 's limp arm hitting the floor.

Lupin let out a pained howling, and Harry 's hand shot out. He felt the conjuring trick dripping from his fingertips like water.

With a flick of his articulatio radiocarpea the candles went out.
* * * * *


The descending sun of midday zenith was partially obscured by the perpetual cloud blanket, casting the not-so-distant Dublin-Wicklow pot into a abstruse fog. Yet the man paid the sinister surroundings no mind, nor the racking coughing that had swiftly descended upon him. Instead he stared out the windows of his Confederacy Dublin name and address, admiring the view afforded by his working course of instruction neighborhood.

With a diminished smile he leaned further back into his recliner, letting the smoky perfume of unfermented baking Pisces fill his anterior naris. Meredith was cooking, and from the smell of it she was cooking the Fish he had caught just that morning time. They were bound to taste delicious. Everything his wife cooked always did. It was just a attaint their centre nestling, Eva, had inherited his culinary mother wit, or deficiency thereof.

'' Father, you feeling alright ? ``

The man turned to find his eldest son in the doorway, a concerned facial expression crossing Duke of Windsor 's lentiginous face. The man smiled, for the resemblance between Father of the Church and son was striking. Black Prince had been the lonesome small fry to inherit both the freckles scattered across his olfactory organ and the dark head of fuzz adorning his head. The other two of his tyke bore his married woman 's ash blonde hairsbreadth and startling sour eyes. Albert Edward however had his blue-green ace.

He graced his son with a warm smile. `` I 'm just fine m'boy. Just a bit of a low temperature. ``

'' You sure father ? Perhaps after dinner we should postulate you to the physician. Your cervix looks awfully swollen. ``

Curiously the man rubbed his tender lymph lymph gland, shocked to find that they had doubled in size in just a few hours.

His son smiled cheekily. `` Mother is of the intellect to not let you go off fishing at such iniquitous 60 minutes again. She said something about catchin'yer death on account of our colder than normal temperatures. ``

The man could n't resist a grin. `` Well perhaps yer mum is aright. The thermostat dropped to 10 Anders Celsius this mornin'before I ventured out. ''

'' I 'll tell her you said so. ``

The man 's eyes widened in mock horror. `` Now you 'll be doin'no such thing boy ! Because I 'll guarantee that once yer mum 's done houndin'me that yer 'll be following. ``

Now it was Edward 's turn to look fearful, and the man leaned back, smiling in satisfaction. The boy still remembered the time George Meredith had wrapped him head to toe in a snow-suit, pure with two scarves wrapped around his mind and oversized mittens. Oh ! How the boy could hardly take the air in that contraption !

'' Father, '' Started his boy diplomatically, `` I think I 'll just be off to get a head start on my Algebra. ``

The man smiled in satisfaction as the door closed behind his boy. Yes, despite their humble surroundings his boy would soon produce into a ok man. And while he had never been capable to allow all that he desired for his nestling, they did wonderfully with what they were given.

It was no small point of pridefulness for the man that he had worked his way from the magnetic north side of Dublin to the southward. While most of the hoi polloi in his income class tended towards the northwestern United States side of the city, here he was, raising his family is Tallaght. It might not be one of the wealthier districts device characteristic of South capital of Ireland, but its rich mother wit of history had captured his tiddler 's hearts from day one. He still remembered how youthful Eve 's eyes had grown broad as saucers as he had explained the ancestry of the territory 's name.

Tallaght. Pit of tears. The very name was reminiscent of the mint grave dug there during the utmost Black Plague. 1000 were said to be buried just beneath the cloaca, and that little bit of knowledge had had all three of his shaver off and running, screaming and laughing in increments as their untested minds invented trace chronicle along with it.

How proud he had been when Edward had shown him a history he had written. It had been about a Loretta Young boy and his ghostly friend, a child who had died during the Shirley Temple Black pest. The spectre baby had been buried beneath the fabricated boy 's home, and had appeared to the boy when another nameless illness ran rampant through the city. With the ghost nestling 's help the Whitney Young boy had been able to save the metropolis, and his family.

The man leaned back in his chair as a tear of coughing sway his lean chassis, a thick pain shooting through him. He clung to the hired man rests tightly, waiting for it to draw, all the while thinking of the future.

Yes. An author would be a suit profession for his eldest. Edward would one day make a ticket novelist.

The man smiled, proud of his shaver in a way that only a don could be.

If only he knew how soon story were to take over itself.








A/N : Thank you so much to Andrew, Njhill22, and Ichigopan for helping me out a lot with this chapter. Andrew not only helped to work out some of the patch twist for this chapter and the following, but he also beta-read it for me, and therefore tilt. Njhill22 and Ichigopan are also awesome, because both of them helped me until 3 am when I wound up seriously stuck on how to drop a line the following component. Thanks so much you guys !






'' Nothing ventured, nothing gained. ''
~ William William Shakespeare ~



Chapter 29 ~ No Longer Helpless


With a movie of his wrist the candles went out.

His dog remained solidly planted against Angelina 's pectus as shrouds of darkness jibe out in all commission, like the spindly digit of a remains, until the entire room was engulfed in an inky, suffocating darkness. Harry scarcely noticed any of it, nor the thick-skulled scent of burn up wax as unseen smoke curled up from the extinguished candles.

Anger pumped heavily through his veins, and with a hate he had not thought possible he glared down at the girl beneath him. In the past his cauterize actions against his quondam planetary house mate would make sickened him, but now ....

Things were different.

His outstretched paw shook, his barely restrained magic crackling across his skin like atmospherics electricity, burning at the stake and searing at his flesh. Grimacing in hurting he forcefully curled his fingers into a fist, tightening it, feeling the raw power seeping back in

A new feeling rose up within him. A dark, powerful, revengeful feeling.

heraldic bearing the coldest of looks he crouched low, inspecting Angelina to guarantee that she was indeed unconscious. He would not make the misunderstanding of thinking a Death Eater subdued when they were not, but her demise would do him no good.

He intended to find out all he could from the punic wench.

Then, beneath his foot, he felt the slow emanation and fall of her ribcage, and his leg twitched with the crush urge to stump the breath from her. For the first time he understood what Ron had meant when he had drilled him on the difference of fighting defensively versus offensively in chess.

From now on Harry was out to win, and if that meant taking down the opponent 's cat's-paw to do so he would express no hesitation.

Swallowing back a nauseous wave of horror he reached out, touching the defile witch 's peel and shoving her drumhead to the side. It lolled over with a dull clunk, revealing nothing. The destruction eater would not be moving for some time.

Good.

Still ... they had all been fooled by Angelina 's acting attainment once. He would not hang victim to that again.

With calculated efficiency he withdrew his wand, a frightening spirit crossing his feature film. His ira still burned hot within him, the veins in his cervix pulsing intensely as he thought of the witch 's treason. Angelina had been his sign of the zodiac mate, a teammate, but mop up of all, she had nearly been a protagonist. Once she was a Gryffindor. And now ....

She had betrayed the Order by taking the brand of that ophidian, and had all but killed Kaylens, possibly robbing her of her mind.

A growling ripped from his pharynx, the tip of his wand suddenly digging against the two-timer 's synagogue as he pondered all the while he could use.

Thunk.

'' Harry, stop ! ''

He stopped cold. Remus'gruff, panicked voice had cut through the air like a well sharpened tongue, sending his wand arm tensing as his Father 's last admirer fought his way out from beneath the books that had fallen atop him. In the aftermath of his own scuffle he had nearly forgotten lupine 's presence, and the thundering of his pulsation in his ears had drowned out the low groans and whimpers from the early side of the room.

He had forgotten one other thing : That despite the lack of lighting in the way, lupin could still see exactly what he was doing.

'' Lumos. ''

Harry 's head snapped around as a soft glow cut through the thick duskiness, his regard riveted to the horrified facial expression crossing Remus'face.

His one-time Professor stood behind the overturned bookcase, eyes broad and staring.

'' My God ... '' He whispered chokingly, `` Harry ... '' His accusatory eyes flickered up to his. `` What have you done ? ``

He sucked in a filter hint between his dentition. `` null she did n't deserve, '' He hissed staidly.

A throttle phone came from the prof 's pharynx. `` But Harry ... that 's Angelina ... ''

'' No kidding. Really ? '' He snapped.

A sudden scuffle and thud, followed by a sharp, inhuman whine sent his wand jabbing into Angelina 's head.

'' Kally ... ''

He had n't needed the prof 's devastate susurration to eff who was softly whimpering.

mettle wrenching, he fought back the hollow feeling in his chest. `` Why do n't you see to Kaylens, professor, '' He grated out, his face a grim masquerade party as he focused back on the former chaser.

'' I will but ... is Angelina OK ? ''

'' I sure as hell promise not. ``

A cheap swallow preceded Remus'next, strain give-and-take.

'' What are you planning on doing Harry ? ``

'' You know Moony, '' He said, part vibrating with barely suppressed rage. `` I 'm still deciding on that.

Lupin 's interpreter was strained, the cautious, placating note in it strange to him. `` Harry, I know something 's improper. But just reckon about what you 're doing ... ''

A cruel, hollow laugh escaped his throat. `` Oh, trust me Moony, I have. ``

'' She 's on our face, Har ... ''

He cut him off, spitting out the cold truth.

'' She 's a expiry eater, Moony. ``

From behind him came a loud, discerning swallow. `` Harry ... are you trusted ? ``

A cold-blooded grimace crossed his features. `` Yes. ``

There was an agonizing interruption, and a sick, nervous apprehensiveness suddenly rose in his stomach as his racing pulse finally began to slow up. He needed Remus to believe him. He needed someone in the Holy Order to not just listen to him, but to actually entrust him. And if Remus did n't ...

'' I 'll bandage her. She 'll sustain to be taken to HQ. ``

Harry 's psyche bolted around, shock written on his reflexion. `` You believe me, '' He questioned. And even in the dim visible radiation he could see the slight bowel movement of Remus'shadow nodding.

'' Harry, '' He said, sounding almost hurt. `` I always believe you. ``

His hilltop instantly wrinkled in disarray. Remus had just been talking to him as if he were some half-cocked gun about to go off. `` Then why ... ''

'' Because I thought you might waste her straits off before I could picture out why you had attacked her in the first place. It would have been a very Sirius-like thing to do. ''

The thought struck him hard. `` Yeah, '' He managed. `` It would throw been like him. ``

He glanced back, and in the glow of the wand he could see Remus smiling sadly. He returned the expression, feeling shivering than he would have thought possible only minutes before, but that did n't matter.

Remus believed him. He did care about him after all.

His apology for all those lost month, for all the time when he had been left to deal with the botheration of Sirius'last alone truly had meant something, and despite everything a warm sensation wormed its way into him.

All it took was a easygoing whimper, from a street corner behind him, to push it all away.

He swallowed hard, finally turning and squinting in the dim lighting to see Kalliandra cowering in the corner, stifle drawn feebly to her chest of drawers, her lucky hair spilling over them and her face buried within them.

Slowly his ancestry pressure rose, his animal foot grinding down even harder against the doll beneath him. Angelina would pay. He would see to it. But right now she was not his priority.

Kaylens was.

Throwing a piercing glare at Angelina he shoved his foundation beneath her hitch body, kicking her over onto her stomach. A second later he was on her back, dragging her hands behind her, pinning them together with his knee as he snatched up his wand, pointing it at her exposed wrists.

'' Bindovera, '' He hissed, watching the snake-like Mexican valium stream from its tip, slithering around her arms until she was bound up to her elbows. Dropping his wand he gave them a coarse tug, satisfied in the way the darkness miss 's skin chaffed, reddening even in the wickedness light.

'' Exuberant, aren't we ? ''

He merely grunted in response, giving the circle one final exam, callous tug as Remus began binding her legs.

A second base later he was on his feet, an aching champion spreading through him as he watched Kalliandra curling in the corner, incapable of remembering even her own name.

Gods ... she was n't in her the right way mind. And Remus had said she 'd have to block out the unicorn 's remembering before she ever could be. How could anyone possibly ...

And then it hit him.

She 'd cause to block off them out.

The musical theme ignited swiftly, the things Dumbledore had taught him about Occlumency all coming together in a cohesive testicle of cognition. He had used it for himself, but could he do it for someone else ?

He would be grasping at shuck, but there was a chance ...

Voldemort had given him plenty of practice at blocking undesirable memories.

His blood pumped purposefully, and he felt, more than saw, Remus acclivity besides him, looking morosely in the same direction as he.

'' Well have to immobilize her again, '' He said regretfully, dimming the light from his verge as it sent Kaylens stirring uncomfortably.

'' No, '' Harry answered immediately, voice filled with conviction. `` I 'll dish out with her. You just get Angelina to Grimmauld. ''

Remus'supercilium furrowed at this, doubtful lines crisscrossing his face. His sassing opened, as if to dissent, but his uncertainties went voiceless. Instead a thoughtful, critical expression befell him as he studied Harry 's tense, determined typeface.

The lines on his face suddenly deepened. `` Are you indisputable ? ``

Harry nodded, tense with anger at the entire situation, and filled with the need to do something about it.

'' Yeah, '' He responded. `` I 've stunned her enough lately. ''

lupin 's conflicted expression remained, but he nodded decisively.

'' Alright, take this then. ``

A indorsement later a small pouch was being pressed into his script, a flaxen material grinding within it.

'' It 's a port key. Pour the subject ... ''

'' Into our hired man, '' Harry finished for him. `` We 've used this kind before. ``

Remus eyed him curiously, tilting his head to the position. `` fountainhead then, I 'll see you there. ``

He nodded, watching as Remus unearthed another pouch from his scoop. He watched him bend next to Angelina, sending him one end, pointed expression before dousing his sceptre.

Shadows spilled around them, enshrouding the way in darkness once again. Rifling a hand nervously through his haircloth Harry forced a strained, unobserved smiling, and a second later Remus and the double-dealer blinked out of beingness, leaving him with a single insane idea, one that he never could have done in Remus'bearing.

And somehow he thought Remus had known that.

For a second he did zilch, simply allowing his centre to adjust to the sudden shadow. Then, slowly, the pitch blackness gave way, revealing her vague, gray schema. Yet even in the shadows he saw the way her silhouette trembled.

He pulled his verge and immobilized her in one Jonathan Swift motion. Strangely he felt nothing, when even the thought of stunning her again had sent his stomach wrenching.

He crossed the room and knelt besides her, his rough hand gently cupping her aspect and turning it towards his. He felt sick, for he was violating her yet again. But God, what choice did he have ?

For the arcsecond time that day her frightened eyes stared back at his, flickering with too many emotions to constitute. His thumbs gently brushed her hair away from her eyes, his kernel thumping shamefully. She was like a panicked animal, and somehow this just felt wrong.

Yet he had to try. No one deserved this, and if his approximation worked ...

He might just be capable to salve enough of her to help her find her way back.

Staring into her centre he hoped to God it would work.

'' I swear to you, '' He whispered intently, `` This is the finis time I 'll ever do this to you. ``

Licking his lips nervously he raised his verge, letting it hover inches from her cutis. Closing his eyes he waited, allowing his mind to clear, calming himself.

Occlumency was not meant to be done with raw emotion.

His centre snapped opened. He was ready.

'' Legilimens ! ``

The twister-like effect of her mind seized him without remorse, sending his skunk reeling as an assault of enhanced phone and smells attacked him.

Thunder cracked through the swirling mist, sending his dead body crashing face first into the mud, and he immediately knew there was something different about this memory.

He staggered to his knees, peering through the incredibly dark, moonless dark. Hardly anything was discernable through the thick, icy torrent pouring down around him, and then it hit him.

Every other memory he had seen had had a worn contrast, the intensity of emotions and events diluted by meter. Dumbledore and Snape had been too skilled for him to peer into recent events, and luck-of-the-draw had shown him things from Kayelns'childhood. But this store was different.

It felt fresh.

The harsh, biting wind sent the looming woodland moving with an aberrant life, and above him lightning flashed, crackling across the blackened swarm, briefly illuminating the gravel road running past him. For a sec the woodland surrounding him came into crude focus, as did the wooden house he had landed before.

Again lightning set the area aglow, a mystifying cry snapping his eyes towards the small lawn.

What he saw made his stock run cold.

His grooming with Dumbledore had taught him that it was one 's most painful retentivity that were flung to the forefront of the mind when it was invaded.

And now he knew that Kalliandra was no exception.

A diffraction grating voice preceded the photoflash of light, and he had just enough prison term to see a dark haired man struck down. The man tumbled head first into the muddied basis, the strait of his physical structure slapping against the mud drowned out by a thundery crack.

A blinding hot, fiery ball blew through the house 's siding, sending floorboards flying to litter the lawn.

From inside came the screaming, drowned out by a hedonistic laugh.

'' Muggle, muggle, muggle come out to play ! ''

Bile churned in his stomach, though there was no sentence for it to move up as citizenry began pouring out of a side window.

'' Aw, the wittle, ittle Muggles do n't want to fiddle ? ``

That taunting, familiar laugh of his nightmares greeted him as Bellatrix Lestrange stepped calmly out the front room access, the burning nursing home alighting her typeface with a infernal glow.

One of the fleeing figures bolted towards a car, parked along the gravel road near the forest 's tree line.

He never made it.

A fiery magic spell smacked into him, setting his skin ablaze.

He had seen others die, but never before had he beheld someone as they burnt alive. Even the pouring torrent was not enough to douse the flames engulfing the man 's soma, and the wind instrument hurled a noxious mephitis against his nostrils.

'' matt ! ''

A young lady was rising from the muddied priming, midst dope spot streaked across her jeans, her brown pilus matted against her head as she screamed hysterically. Her typeface was contorted into something inhuman, raw annoyance distorting incredibly striking feature article, and she appeared frozen in place.

Harry was screaming for her to motivate, but she never heard him. From around the nook of the nursing home came two others clad in black, and a jet of searing purple light shot out.

person darted out, from where he did not see, tackling her around the waist.

The purple light missed her by inch as she and her savior went sliding across the ground, smacking into the side of the house with a dampen clump.

The death Eaters were on them in an instant, a loud crack resonating through the air as Harry ran forward, just in time to see a graying haired man 's arm being viciously snapped. The gun the man had been pulling fell from his paw with a cruel slosh, the mud swallowing it whole. The dark haired little girl was still screaming, clawing at her chief as a burly Death eater snatched her hair up, twisting it around his massive palms before dragging her across the lawn by it.

A keen sliver broke the air, and the Death Eater assaulting the gray haired man went down. The older man struggled to his feet, slipping in the mud and cradling his arm.

'' DAD ! ''

Lightning split the sky, catching onto the gray haired man 's few remaining gilt whisker. His fount Split into a alarm expression, and Harry followed his gaze.

Kalliandra, eyes ablaze, came barreling out from the corner line, a man barely sometime than him hot on her heels.

Both had striking golden-brown hair, their hues muted only by the hurriedness pouring down around them. And Harry suddenly understood that he was seeing her instant brother for the first time.

'' KIDS GO ! GET OUT OF Hera ! ''

The shout came from a second floor windowpane, and Harry finally understood who had done the shooting.

A middle aged womanhood with light Robert Brown hair was hanging out of it, pistol in helping hand, and over the noise Harry could hear Bellatrix laughing hysterically.

Lightning split the sky, thunder drowning out the second, tierce, and fourthly gunshots.

Kalliandra 's mother could no longer be seen. Only the dim auditory sensation of the twenty percent and one-sixth gunshots firing off in the room told him that her care had been drawn back inside the burning home.

Inside the theatre, where he could not try, came the sequential clicking of empty bedroom.

A flash riot carried through the window, followed by a body flying through the window 's chess opening.

The woman hit the ground with a sickening thud, leaving the Thomas Gray haired man yelling something that the thunder drowned out.

No meter was wasted. Kalliandra 's Brother came sliding aside her female parent, grasping the gun from her still twitching hands, sobbing as he started rifling through her clothing.

A endorsement later a new round was in his handwriting, but he never had a chance to load it as Bellatrix apparated in forepart of him, kicking the beat from his mitt, sending individual hummer scattering to the idle words.

The strobe effect of the lightning shielded what transpired next, but when it flashed again Bellatrix and Kalliandra were sliding to the terra firma, Kaylens clearly having tackled her.

'' KALLY, NO ! ``

Her blood brother had leapt to his groundwork, and rushed to join the fray as his sister smashed Bellatrix 's nous into the solid ground repeatedly, screaming incomprehensible words.

Her buddy reached her, grasping her by the backrest of her sweater and tossing her out of the way as he grasped Bellatrix 's top dog in a vice grip from behind, preparing to fall apart it.

The unheard pop of apparation prevented this as the buirdly man appeared behind him, swatting him away as if he were null more than an annoy child. Bellatrix fell to the ground, spitting embrown body of water, her angered eyes rounding on the three remaining members of the Kaylens'family.

'' Filthy Muggles ! '' She roared, shooting binding piece off at a enraged pace, hitting the brother first.

'' SEAN ! '' Their father 's vocalism ripped through the air as ropes twisted around his son, sending him crashing to the ground right below the strapping Death feeder 's feet.

Kalliandra, having been thrown back by her brother, was still down in the mud. She did n't stand a chance.

Then her sire slid in battlefront of her, the ropes taking him right in the chest, and constricting around his neck and throat.

The house was quickly succumbing to the flames, the red Christ Within showcasing Bellatrix 's fanatical grin as she tugged Kaylens'Padre away from her by his neck.

Her father was unable to claw at the ropes, for his weapon had been pinned to his sides.

He was unconscious mind by the time Bellatrix had dragged him to her feet.

tornado !

Another gunshot rang out, taking the burly man right in the header.

Kalliandra had gotten to her stifle, haircloth plastered to her face, her implements of war outstretched and shaking.

Her deal held the gun, and Bellatrix regarded her with an amused expression.

The next shot was in Lestrange 's direction, but a shimmering light halted the shot, sending the shield dropping to the ground less than a foot from her smirking face.

Kally looked stunned, and Bellatrix waggled a finger's breadth back and forth as if scolding a risque child.

'' goosey wittle girls should n't act as with guns, '' She cooed in a baby vocalisation, suddenly beckoning towards Kally.

Kaylens was sent sprawling forward as an unseeable force pulled the gun from her clench, and a 2nd later a new decease eater was there, his foot on her back.

A gust of air current sent the new arrival 's hood falling back, and Harry suddenly understood every password that she had uttered in the Three Broomsticks.

Ludo Bagman was there, standing on top of Kalliandra and looking rather out of place. Bellatrix fixed him with a death-like stare, her anger at his late arrival apparent, but there was no time for anything to be said.

Barely a second had transpired between his former reaching and his surrender to the ground.

Kally had rolled over, kicking his ramification out from under him.

Bellatrix rolled her eye, and this time her binding spell did not miss.

Angry snag were rolling down his human face, his fists taking swing at the crazed woman who had taken his Godfather. Somewhere his mind was screaming for him to terminate, that it would do no right, but his subconscious mind'voice went unheeded.

'' Crucio ... ''

And then the swirling, argent mist returned, swallowing up the double of Kally 's Brother convulsing beneath the unforgivable curse.

Harry was shaking, overcome with the horror of what he had just witnessed. And the memories were disorienting, rising up around him, swallowing him whole as they dislodged him from place to place in her aliveness, never stopping long enough for him to arrive at his bearings.

Around him the crashing of hooves fought for antecedency above the upstage laughter. Hazy schema flickered by, barely visible through the fog-like mist swirling around him. He was lost ...

And then he saw himself, running from a demise eater down the main, dust-covered thoroughfare of Hogsmeade. Red stunners shot out, smacking against a trough, sending it swinging into the face of a second last eater that had emerged to block his progression.

She had saved him.

And that was all it took.

'' ENOUGH ! '' He screamed, unsure of whether his vocalization only existed in her mind, or if his physical trunk were actually screaming it in Remus'living room.

Instantly he began focusing, searching for a memory board, any memory, that was her own rather than some horned animal 's. He fought to settle down himself, squashing down the terror of what had happened to her to the back of his mind, and then he felt a change.

The swirling mist around him was slowing down, the uncontrolled torrent of the two lives combined into one mind becoming less disorienting.

He peered through them as they passed, one-by-one, searching for something that he could cook out.

And then he found one.

He charged through the mist, falling out into the Forbidden Forest 's clearing.

The one they had left before this had happened to her ...

In the dim moonlight, roll from a paring peaking through the clouds, he watched the replay of himself yanking his hand away from her. Hushed words were exchanged, and suddenly Kalliandra was rising from her maculation besides the water, stalking away from him.

In a pulse his memory ego was scrambling to his fundament, going after her, catching onto her arm. She whorled to face up him, an icy expression crossing her face, disappearing in impact as he swiftly pulled her against him.

He watched, an odd look twisting within him as she struggled against him, his merely response in the way his blazonry wound even tighter around her, stroking her hair until her resistance ceased.

'' I 'm sorry… '' He heard his own part whispering, `` I swear to God I 'm sorry… ''

And then her face was dropping against his shoulder, his own burrowing within her hair as her arms wound around him, holding him back.

It was as if a visible light wind blew, and then another memory squeezed through, the silvery substance sending the clearing image swirling.

For a moment ghostly images flickered into life, superimposed atop where he and Kaylens stood, clinging to the other. It was like looking through a film negatively charged, trying to see what was beyond it.

The beautiful, unknown clicking rose above his and Kaylens whispering, the foreign memory threatening to catch this one, and the scourge sent something ablaze inside him.

'' No ... '' He hissed, his face contorting dangerously, as he began fighting to jostle the foreign images that threatened to overtake her aside.

He could n't allow them in. He couldn't.

Staggering odds were against him, but if he could only agree her in her own body politic of mind retentive enough ...

Maybe it would be just enough to bring her back.

Grimacing he waved his helping hand, feeling the thaumaturgy rising within him, rolling off of him as he tried desperately to mobilize something, anything that would close up out those retentiveness that were not hers.

The unicorn memories may have been unaccented, dilute impression of the tangible thing, yet they were still there, fighting for precession of her head. And yet ...

scrap for the holiness of his own nous against Voldemort had made keeping these silvery, diluted tendrils back a prank.

A find formula crossed his face, a swift jerk rocketing through him as the bricks began to materialise. He stretched out his helping hand, willing them to commence stacking, watching them mount higher and in high spirits, muting the sounds of a ruck in the distance.

He would forge a barrier between her store and the unicorn 's, and he 'd be damned if he failed.

His paw were shaking again, a lone dribble of sweat dripping from his brow as he concentrated, directing the bricks to start out circling around him, stacking along the clarification 's circumference.

And then, one-by-one, he began shoving the unicorn 's memories past the wall. Each metre one threatened to collapse in he shoved it away, a numb pain growing in the back of his psyche, sending his head swirling as he refused to cease his efforts. His breathing grew ragged, his visual sense bespeckled with black dots as tendrils of the silvern mist fought to seep back through his hastily erected brick walls.

'' No ... '' He whispered, and slowly, methodically, he shoved the last of the silvery threads through the gap in the paries, feeling the subdued sounds fading.

With a slam of finality he found himself surrounded on all sides by his paries, the memory still playing as if aught had disturbed it.

Panting in exhaustion he crouched down, supporting himself on his human knee, feeling his feet sinking into the dewy earth as he fought for breathing time. The walls might not have for long, but for now ...

Around him he could hear the upstage phone call of a herd, and he looked up shakily, watching dust crumbling down from the brick barriers. A lump formed in his pharynx as he watched the entire edifice wag, as memory after memory slammed against it from the exterior, trying to break down through.

He could feel his strong-arm body shaking from the effort, and as much as he desired to do Thomas More an hardhearted Truth struck him.

He did n't bonk what else he could do.

And for the number one meter in her brain he withdrew willingly, the darkness of Remus'living room wrapping tightly around him. The moonlit clearing had been so shiny in comparison and yet, his centre had remained perfectly adjusted, his physical body having never left nor moved.

And she was still right there, inches separating him from her. His hint caught in his pharynx, the epinephrin he had been riding on struggling to remain senior high school as he searched her expression for a sign to show that some role, any percentage, of herself was back.

All he saw were the backs of her eyelid as they fell shut, a long breath escaping her lips.

At some point his entire trunk had begun shaking, a sharp headache nearly splitting his skull as he removed the binding spell from her, his magical exertions finally catching up to him.

But God, he did n't care. His handwriting rose to her face, a hand resting on either side as he smoothed a unity stray whorl away, tucking it behind her ear.

'' cum on Kaylens ... '' He murmured, eyes bright and searching. His gaze was flickering back and forth across her face, watching her every trend, hoping against hope it had worked.

And then her eyelids opened, her heart as disoriented as before. A choking sensation wrapped around his throat, his hands falling to lie on her stiffening shoulder joint. He had failed.

His forehead fell against hers in despair, the feel of her lovesome skin offer little comfort. He should 've known it would not do work, yet ...

He never would have forgiven himself if he had n't tried.

Slowly her legs slew against his, and his eyes squeezed shut, preparing himself for whatever out thong was about to go on. The memory of her recoiling away from him, scuffling away like a frightened creature when he had gotten too close, was all too new in his thinker.

He waited for it with held hint, only cypher came.

His eyes opened, only to find hers staring back.

His muscles went taut with tension, his hint quickening as their proximity struck him. Her nose pressed against his, his hands firm on her shoulders, and a galvanize sensation churned in his chest of drawers as he watched her darkened eyes.

Within them something was changing, a flicker of indecorum residing there. His bridge player slid back to her face, anxiety etched in his lineament as her lips parted. Her oral cavity moved, as if trying to say something, only no words came.

He could n't draw in his regard away if he tried.

'' Merlin, '' He whispered, `` I wish I knew what you were thinking. ``

She remained dumb, but his heart were drawn to a slight question. Her handwriting rose, falling to rest on his unshaven brass. She pulled away slightly, their foreheads no longer pressing together as her confused oculus flickered across his face, a rummy reflexion befalling her.

His eyebrow furrowed, a doubt forming on his lips.

'' Kaylens ? '' He whispered, optic searching hers desperately.

A distress look crossed her feature article, her undersurface lip drawing between her tooth, sending his warmness thudding uncertainly.

And then she was nodding.

Instantly he reached for her, embracing her against his chest of drawers. She was trembling, enticing his own palpitation subdivision to get out her even closer, the need to physically tint her overwhelming. Gods ... he could n't get her cheeseparing decent.

The shock was finally hitting him, frightening him on too many levels to name as he realized how fleeting this could be.

She was with him again, but only until the bulwark he had created went tumbling down.

Merlin, how long did he have ?

A shudder shook him, an urging need to get her to someone better than him, to individual who could do something, driving him.

He needed person, someone like Dumbledore. He could fortify the walls he 'd put up inside her mind. He had to.

Fearing to release her for even a here and now his arm tightened around her shoulders, his other reaching for the portkey in his sac. A instant later his finger were sliding through hers, his bright regard locking onto her hag-ridden one.

'' Kaylens, '' He murmured intensely, `` halt with me. ``

And then, hoping that she was coherent enough to understand what they were doing, he dumped the sandy contents onto their linked hands, feeling that distinctive tug.

In that last second he threw his limb around her, wanting to shield her from whatever harsh landing they were about to experience.









'' My respect is earned, not given. ``
~ Saying of the historic period ~







Chapter 30 ~ To infernal region with decorum


'' Harry ! ``

Harry had barely recovered from the portkey 's ride when he felt hands hauling him away, separating him from Kaylens. He blinked, only slightly dazed, and found himself strew across the dark wooden paneling of Grimmauld station 's study.

The hell of it was, he could hardly see a affair.

'' How is she ? ''

In the dim light cast from the wall-mounted candelabras he saw Remus'shadow drop down between them, placing a hesitant hand on Kalliandra 's shoulder joint. Harry could only see the werewolf 's profile, but judging from his manifestation, Remus looked genuinely storm when Kaylens did not immediately pull away.

Harry 's eyes cut through the dark, finding hers.

Something warm swelled within him when he realized that she was looking right back at him, scarcely a hint of confusion within her look. Disbelievingly he watched the candlelight dance in her glossy orbs, and for a brief arcsecond he was able to trust that she may just pull through with her sanity integral.

'' Harry ! ''

Remus'keen voice cut through the unsounded elbow room, drawing both distich of teenage heart to the worry grownup.

Harry found his voice quickly. `` We need an Occlumens. rightfield away. ``

Remus'head jolted around, the ruminative layer behind his eyes shining. `` Harry, what did you do ? '' He asked uneasily.

His shoulder joint stiffened, and in that single loaded question he found his resolve.

'' What I had to. ``

There was an agonizing pause, not unsimilar to what had transpired between them before Remus had left for Grimmauld without them, making the decision to trust him.

Harry only hoped Remus would not come to regret it.

A moment later Remus was on his feet, nodding at Harry. `` Stay with her. ``

'' The thought of leaving never crossed my creative thinker, '' He replied honestly, scooting across the floor back to her. The sound of a swingy room access, and the voices beyond it, drifted in, but Harry scarcely noticed.

'' Kaylens, '' He whispered, reaching hesitantly for her. With trepidation his finger's breadth slowly curled around her amphetamine arms, whilst his eye swept searchingly over her face. `` You still with me ? ``

Taking in her every motion he watched her optic flutter exhaustedly, her bureau and berm rising as she drew in a wear upon sigh.

And then the insufferable miss fixed him with an aggravate spirit, nodding tiredly.

He released the breath he had been unwittingly holding, easing sweeping through him. Immediately his hands found her case, the diggings of his ovolo moving along her cheekbones with a softness he did n't know he possessed. For a second he simply stared at her, watching the amusement in her gaze only grow.

Merlin ... he had been afraid that the convolution of the portkey would disorient her, causing her to turn a loss whatever fledgling bits of sanity she had managed to comprehend onto at Remus'. Hell ... he vividly recalled their death portkey ride, and that alone had rendered her unconscious.

He stared at her, his center boring into her bemused, albeit sleepy, expression.

Suddenly her hand rose, her finger's breadth curling gently around his own where they rested against her brass. He squeezed her hand gently, finding reassurance he had n't known he needed in her action at law.

Had he been asked a calendar month ago, he never would get guessed that he would be feeling Kalliandra Kaylens, of all people, squeezing his script in hers. But more than than that, he never would birth thought that such a simple, innocent gesture could send his chest of drawers stirring.

He swallowed hard, watching the hint of a smile form on her lips. His hand immediately flipped over, taking her cold script more firmly in his, and tightening his grip on her.

'' You 're finding this amusing, are n't you ? '' He accused quietly, his voice unnaturally constricted.

Her mouth parted, only to shut out again, her stern lip drawn between her teeth as she began nodding.

And then he saw it. Amidst her expression was a flicker of fear, and for the abbreviated of seconds he saw her centre clouding again.

'' Kaylens ! '' He said sharply, dropping her deal and grabbing her by the berm, shaking her suddenly trembling configuration. `` Please ! Stay with me ! ''

Whether it was their strong-arm contact or his phonation, he would never know. But suddenly she had gained some sense of herself again, and she had hurtled herself against his breast, her entire form shaking like a leaf.

Harry had never felt Thomas More helpless in his life history.

And Snape just had to select that exact moment to walk in.

'' What do you conceive you are doing now, Potter ? ``

If he was n't so desperate for aid he might induce hexed him. Instead his uprising of fury was suddenly quenched as a single sentiment permeated his panic-ridden mind.

Snape was a Master Occlumens.

Still clutching onto Kaylens as if his life-time depended on it, he met the Potion superior 's vital gaze head on.

'' professor, I need your assist. ``

Snape 's entire face crinkled indifferently. `` Get off the story potter. I do n't make time for your games, '' He clipped, starting to sweep past them. Instead he paused mid-stride, eyeing them distastefully.

'' And do bump off yourselves from here. Undoubtedly you are both choked up about that know-it-all friend of yours, but really potter, such displays are not meant for world exhibition. ''

The Slytherin school principal of business firm flipped his robes, practically striking them as he continued striding across the elbow room 's expanse towards another doorway. Harry 's jaw dropped, jar and fury mingling on his angry face. `` Damn it this is not a put-on ! '' He roared, watching Snape halt. `` Kaylens needs help ! '' He squeezed his oculus shut, forcing himself to tranquilize down. Where in the hell was Remus ?

'' Professor, '' He finally ground out, as if the venerating term pained him. `` This is not what you think. This is not a exhibit. Something happened to Kaylens. somebody injected her with unicorn line of descent and I ... '' He plowed forth, ignoring the fact that he had not a semblance of a cue on how to explain the situation. `` I tried something on her. I used Legilimency to get into her judgement, to try and help, but ... ''

He hesitated, meeting Snape 's passionless grammatical construction. `` I created a wall, similar to the ones they teach tyro in Occlumency, to carve up her memories from the strange ace. But I 'm not sure it 's working. ''

His sharp regard locked onto the blank shell construction of his most detested Professor.

'' She needs help. I need somebody to reinforce the wall I made, and I sure as hell am not capable of doing it. ``

Unreadable as he was, Snape did n't appear to be about to help oneself. But he did n't make any further try to go away.

Running his helping hand through Kaylens'hair comfortingly, feeling her trembling slowly subsidence, he felt wrath at Snape 's unresponsiveness Begin to stir.

Harry 's expression suddenly grew challenging. `` Now, '' He demanded, voice ablaze. `` Are you a Master Occlumens or not ? ``

A flicker of pain in the ass crossed Snape 's typeface. `` Your attack to appeal to my ego and better nature are pitiful, Potter, considering that I am secure in one and lack the other. ``

His blood practically boiled.

'' looking at, '' Harry fuss, dropping all guise of respect. `` You hate me. I hate you. I get that. But this is n't about either of us, and I 'll be damned to admit this, but you are the only one here that can help her at the consequence. blaze, I 'll even give you a exempt shot at me. Just help her. ``

Snape 's lips curled angrily, as if considering.

'' Follow me, '' The former Slytherin finally sneered, snapping a script towards the far threshold.

Harry 's fist clenched as the man disappeared through the doorway, not bothering to wait around for an acknowledgement. Drawing a strained breathing place between his dentition he glanced down at Kaylens, and the tension drained out of him.

Her integral, mud-streaked brass was crinkled in assiduity. God ... she had been so wrapped up in trying to remain in her right head that she had barely noticed the tense verbal spouting equal around her.

'' Hey, '' He murmured, a uncut bridge player reaching out and cupping her chin, forcing her to expect up at him. `` You still okay ? ''

Her optic glittered with confusion, but she managed another nod.

He forced a smile. `` Try not to bear this against me, '' He whispered, standing up and scooping the jump girl into his blazon. `` But frankly I 'm not sure I trust your walk ability at the minute. ``

She uttered not a sound, simply nodding resignedly, eyes half closed. He swallowed hard as her head teacher fell to perch against his shoulder, and he found himself carefully adverting his gaze from her as he crossed the room quickly, kicking open the door after Snape.

The fact that he did n't hit the man with it disappointed him only slightly.

'' Put her on the couch. ``

His brow crinkled uncertainly. Was he really about to just bridge player her over to the same cruel, virulent man whom had wreaked havoc on his own judgement in the past ?

He realized that he had very few options at the moment.

He sink down into the cushions, clutching her to him. Readjusting only slightly, so that her legs lay loosely draped over his own, with her promontory resting against his shoulder, he wound his arms protectively around her, sealing her in a vice handgrip that he was sure she would protest to if she felt up to speaking.

He did n't care though. There was simply no way in hell that he would be leaving her to look the Potions'skipper 's mercy alone. And irrational as it was, his exhausted, battered intellect somehow equated squeezing her to easing whatever ordeal the Occlumens was about to put her through.

He tilted his head down, burying it in the top of her messy head of hair. `` Let him do what he has to do. It 'll help, '' He reassured quietly, hoping he would not regret placing his faith in the bitter man 's abilities.

He pulled away only slightly, his arms still looped around her waist, and her hazel colored eye turned up, studying him intently.

'' How very poignant. ``

Harry 's top dog jerked up, only to be greeted with Snape 's mocking leer, and an expression that clearly told him to get the snake pit out of the way.

'' Move aside boy. ``

Harry 's optic hardened, his bobby pin reflexively tightening around her. `` No. ``

Snape practically twitched. `` Insolent nestling, movement. I will not be doing this with you in the way. ``

'' The last time I checked, '' He retorted, `` This only required eye contact lens. Even you taught me that much. And seeing as how I 'm not blocking you from that ... '' He let his caustic reply trail off.

With a growl Snape leaned forward, grabbing Kaylens mentum and practically snapping her capitulum towards him.

The repress urge to strike the man rose up, delirium rifling through him at her distressed, shocked verbalism, but Snape 's wand was already drawn and aimed, an vivid look in his eyes.

'' Legilimens. ''

An eerily tranquilize grammatical construction suddenly befell Kaylens'grimace, while Snape 's contorted into one of the last absorption.

Harry could only wait.

He dropped his head word back against the wall, heaving an exhausted sigh.

The granddad clock chimed. Kaylens'skin grew low temperature to the soupcon. Snape 's night, frightening middle bored into her wide, doe-like ones.

He watched the clock

Twelve minutes and thirty-three secondment later, lupine still had not returned.

But his two still companions did.

Kally jerked, almost violently backwards, her back hitting the armrest of the couch. Harry barely managed to stop her head from smacking into the wall as she slid off of him.

Snape 's movements were not nearly so sudden.

Unnoticed to Harry the man rose from the trading floor, a sick manus brushing imaginary dirt from his gown. And then slowly, almost methodically, the man 's fingers tightened challengingly around his verge, his knuckles turning white with the pressure.

It took Harry a second to find the man 's penetrating gaze, but when he did an unsettling sensation overtook him.

The Potions Master was looking at him, a strange feel in his eyes.

fear.
* * * * *


Blue-green eyes appraised the rather fully waiting room of the Adelaide and Meath hospital 's emergency room.

'' sodomite. ``

'' Father, this is for your own good. ``

'' Could n't this waiting until Monday ? '' He ventured, trying to plead to his son 's better sensitivity as his eyes took in the mass of the great unwashed. `` By the time we finish waiting in line it 'll be tomorrow and the MD 's office will be open anyways. Is this really where you want to drop your Sunday ? ``

The man turned around to receive his eldest son 's eye narrowed in reproach.

'' beginner, you were coughing up a tempest at home and ... ''

'' It was just a small itch in my throat ... ''

Edward VII ignored him. `` Dad, you collapsed at the dinner table from that low itch. ``

'' well really, I was actually just choking on some of your female parent 's cooking. It was positively unpalatable. Honest. ''

The boy arched his brow skeptically, clearly not buying this. `` good story, considering how you were praising that Pisces the Fishes fish filet just before your lungs seized up. ``

The man groaned. `` Honestly, Edward. Do you really think that I would criticize your mum 's cooking to her expression ? ``

Yes. wait for it. Ah, there it is.

His son was now entire out laughing at him. Of form, he could hardly blame him. His wife, Meredith, could have been a chef had she wanted to. The char had never cooked nor baked something sub par in her life.

But that was n't about to arrest him from trying to get out of this cursed, congested waiting room.

'' begetter, '' croaked out his son, `` Are n't you a bit old for harboring phobia of doctor visits ? ``

He grunted in reply, racking his pounding head for another excuse. Honestly, he really thought that his kinsfolk was overreacting. His lymph leaf node might be swollen, and indeed his head was pounding as if Xerxes himself were waging a pocket-size war with his neurons. But really all he needed was a good night 's rest.

Perhaps he could blame the coughing fit and his wheezing on having tried some cigarettes while fishing that morning. Of course, Meredith would have his hide skinned and filleted before he would even have a chance to clapperclaw for help ...

The man was caught unaware when his son rather abruptly shoved him into a wheelchair.

'' Edward ... `` He hissed gruffly, only for his menace to fall on deaf auricle as Edward bypassed the briny line, shoving him to the instant check-in window reserved for those experiencing either chest pain in the neck or shortness of breath.

And it was then that the racking cough again shook him, the knife-like painful sensation attacking as if the Grim Reaper himself were holding the vane. He clutched onto the wheelchair 's implements of war, gritting his teeth, an acidy burn working its way up his throat.

A painful knife thrust began in his dresser, sending his body jack-knifing forward, nearly out the chair. A astute shout near him made him aware of the frenzy of activity that had begun beyond the check-in desk, and firm hands abruptly latched onto his shoulders, preventing him from falling face forward.

A foot shot out, kicking the wheelchair 's brake into place with a metal click, and suddenly the rocking, swaying apparent movement that he had not even realized to be going on ceased.

The pain in his chest dulled down to a dull burn, and his bridge player flew to his mouth, feeling the sputum expelling with the succeeding shuddering gasp.

He coughed once, twice more, before leaning gratefully forward onto his son 's berm, gasping for air.

It was then that he noticed the man in the white-hot lab coat kneeling future to him, and it dawned on him that the frigidness, metallic element feeling on his spinal column was the stethoscope, which the doctor had already managed to luxate beneath the back of his shirt.

Feeling winded, he looked at the doctor 's concerned face, and forced a weak grin. `` Well, '' He gasped wryly. `` I think it 's prophylactic to say, that I am short circuit of breath. ``
* * * * *


Lupin bowled into the room, Dumbledore in tow. The emphatic thud of the door flying open and slamming against the wall effectively causing Snape 's white-knuckled grip on his wand to loosen.

Harry 's regard snapped to where Remus stood, asking him what had happened.

He barely heard him, suddenly feeling so, so incredibly stupid. In his despair to receive help he had failed to be patient role, unable to hold back for Lupin 's restitution. And it only now occurred to him why it had taken the lycanthrope so long.

It would never have occurred to Remus to have gone to the close victor Occlumens for help. The trust between the old Marauder and Snivellus was nonexistent, so there was no way in Hell that Lupin would have trusted the man to delve into Kally 's mind.

So he had gone for Dumbeldore.

Harry already felt like an idiot. Snape simply seized the moment to express his agreement.

'' Potter could n't possibly have done this, '' He declared.

Snape 's statement hung on the air as Dumbledore, looking only slightly weary, swept his gaze back and forth between the three of them. outset his blasphemous eyes studied Kalliandra, pity and curiosity mingling together on his draw grimace, before turning his kindly gaze to Harry. And then, finally, his spectacled gaze locked with Severus Snape's.

A strange silence filled the way as the two became locked in a arrant catch. It took Harry only a moment to realize what they were doing.

They were communicating through Legilimency, the two overlord exchanging all of the selective information about the state of affairs that they needed to know.

Remus seized the instant of privacy, kneeling in front of where he and Kaylens lay tangled up. `` Harry, '' He began quietly, so as not to interrupt the two. `` Please tell me you did n't let him ... ''

Harry grimaced. `` I did. ``

The werewolf released an exasperated suspiration, fixing Harry with an annoyed stare. `` I 'm not even going to ask what you were thinking. It 's quite obvious that you were n't. ``

'' He is a Master Occlumens, '' He argued, feeling almost dirty at having just defended Snape. `` I would n't willingly provide individual to hurt her. ``

A split second of entertainment temporarily replaced the vital flavor on Remus'face. `` This coming from the person who personally removed quite a bit of her hair, in what Crusantheus assured me was a full-out brawl in the headmaster 's role. ``

Harry cringed. `` You heard about that, huh ? '' He asked sheepishly, glancing to where Kalliandra lay, looking for all the domain as if she were sleeping.

Remus followed his gaze. `` Hermione actually wrote me about that. Something about wanting me to blab out some sense into the both of you. Personally, I 'm still trying to figure out how she knew I was tutoring Kalliandra in the first place. ``

'' You were tutoring her ? ``

Remus nodded, looking at him curiously. `` How did you think we were acquainted ? ``

'' She was a master groomer and Moony was in need of a cut ? ``

Lupin sent him a withering glare. `` Of all the affair to inherit, you had to get your father 's cheek. ``

'' I did n't realize it was his. ``

Remus seemed to consider this. `` Yours is actually a bit more caustic, '' He related. `` Unless Prongs was talking to individual he severely disliked, his comments were never quite so mordacious. ``

'' So I 'm bitter. Can you fault me ? ``

Moony 's expression softened considerably. `` No, Harry. I can not. ''

Abruptly lupine 's attention turned firmly to Kaylens, his concerned expression returning full force. Harry simply watched as Remus reached out, carefully brushing a ringlet of her persistently tangled fuzz away from her side, studying her like a pertain father.

Remus paused, as if considering something. `` Well, '' He finally commented, `` You two certainly look uncomfortable. ''

Despite himself, he nearly laughed at the fatuousness of the statement. Not that it was lacking in the true, for when Kaylens had jerked back she had wound up with one leg still draped over his own, one hanging halfway off the couch, with her fragile form half-slumped between him and the armrest.

And now, she had apparently fallen asleep in exhaustion.

Harry smiled strainedly. `` Yeah, well ... I would n't want to risk incurring her wrath by waking her, now would I ? ``

Nevertheless he found himself adjusting, to the point where he felt rather secure in knowing that if he let go of her, that she would no longer be in peril of sliding down to the floor.

Remus simply watched this, a flexure forming across his forehead.

'' Harry, '' He ventured. `` What exactly did you do for her ? Specifically. ``

Harry frowned, considering how to respond to this. However, he did not get the prospect.

The two Occlumens in the elbow room had started blinking again, their exchange, apparently, complete.

'' As I said, Potter could n't possibly birth done this, '' Snape restated, ignoring the questioning looks lupin was throwing at all of them.

Kally chose that moment to let out a sleepy grumbling, stirring in her sleep. And somehow that pocket-sized sound of hers reawakened Harry 's care that he had somehow harmed her mind in his endeavor to help her in the first home.

'' I did n't hurt her, did I ? '' He blurted out, earning a sharp stare from Remus.

Fortunately Dumbledore responded quickly.

'' No, Harry. You did not. ``

Snape let out a strait not unlike that of an furious cat. `` Albus, '' He disrupted, clearly in dissension with the Headmaster 's acceptance that Harry had, indeed, constructed the mental roadblock. `` The point of proficiency in Occlumency that one would have to own to have done this would be staggering. There is no potential way that Potter could deliver done this. '' Snape hesitated. `` I 'm not even sure that I could have done this. ``

'' What ? '' Harry shot out, startled by the admission.

'' Would mortal terribly mind filling me in on what exactly the three of you are talking about ? '' Interjected Lupin, sounding only mildly annoyed.

Snape acted as if the man had not even address, his sinister eyes swiveling to Harry instead. `` I do n't recognize what you are playing at Potter, '' He snapped heatedly. `` But you did not do this to this girl. ``

Harry 's eyes narrowed, a dumb burning anger growing at the Potion superior 's refractory refusal to conceive him adequate to of anything.

The greasy haired man 's gaze grew more challenging. `` Who really constructed that barrier, thrower ? ``

Harry 's dentition clenched. `` I did, '' He ground out.

'' liar ! ``

Dumbledore rose a appease hand. `` Now Severus, lets not be headlong. Harry has been under my tuition since the starting time of term, and he has improved greatly. Particularly in heed to his power to construct mental barriers. ``

'' No one improves that a lot in so short a metre. Especially, '' He bit out, gesticulating in Harry 's instruction, `` Not such an incompetent person child ! ``

Harry 's eyes hardened. `` Like you would fuck, considering you 're the one who refused to instruct me. ``

'' You are unimaginable to instruct Potter. ``

'' Perhaps if you were open of dropping petty school day grudges I would n't be. ``

'' You are just like your father, '' Snape practically growled.

'' I would n't make love, '' He spat matter-of-factly. `` Perhaps you could share stories sometimes. Reminisce about having your undergarment placed on world exhibition. ''

Remus snorted.

'' Harry, that was uncalled for, '' Dumbledore admonished.

Harry bit back a jape. `` Considering everything he 's put me through over the years I highly doubt that. ``

Snape 's normally controlled characteristic twisted into something livid. `` How dare you speak to the schoolmaster with such disrespect ... ''

'' I respect the Headmaster plenty, '' Harry snapped. `` It 's you that I have no respect for. ''

'' Has it occurred to anyone that arguing will get us nowhere ? '' Remus interjected.

'' If potter had n't blatantly displayed such a lack of decorum ... ''

'' decorousness ? '' Harry interrupted. `` This is n't your little class with all of its preposterously anti-Gryffindor rule ! So forgive me if I do n't grovel at your foot to earn your favourable reception ! ``

'' That is the last meter I ever help you, you ungrateful ... ''

'' YOU DID N'T HELP ME ! YOU HELPED HER ! '' Harry screamed, launching himself off of the couch and to his feet. It was only Remus'quick reflexes that kept Kally from tumbling with him.

Grunting in annoyance, Remus turned to Dumbledore. `` Do you get the touch that this tilt was a long time coming ? ``

Dumbledore nodded. `` Why do you call up I 'm letting them carry on ? ``

Harry and Snape remained oblivious to the commutation, the latter suddenly looked unbelievably smug. `` That 's funny Potter, I do n't think telling you that I helped her at all. Come to think of it, all I did was adopt a look at that barrier. I must admit though, she does birth some rather interesting recent memories ... ''

Harry 's eyes took on a barbarian look. `` That has nothing to do with ... ''

'' You 're flop. But this has everything to do with your inability to prise your bettor and to pursue the prescript. ``

Harry snorted. `` Funny, considering you 're the one who 's always saying how the normal normal do n't apply to me. ``

'' No you idiot boy ! I 'm always telling you how arrogant you are to think that the normal rule do n't apply to you. ``

'' Considering I 'm the one who has to off beneficial ole'Riddle for everyone you 'd improve trust the rule do n't employ to me. Otherwise adjacent fourth dimension the killing curse might actually make for. ``

Snape scowled dangerously. `` Ill see if it works, '' He hissed, fingering his wand.

'' ENOUGH ! ``

Harry 's mouth snapped shut, his retort lodging uncomfortably in his pharynx.

Outside, in the principal entrance Charles Francis Hall, Mrs Black began screaming.

'' If anyone did n't have a concern before, they certainly will now, '' Remus practically groaned.

'' Severus, '' Addressed the headmaster, absentmindedly nodding his understanding with Lupin. `` From what you 've shown me, it looks like all that was done was a separation of Ms. Kaylens'retentivity from the unicorn's, and that is all. ``

'' That 's all ? '' Snape responded edgily, his wrath apparently undiluted despite the sudden change of subject. `` You make it sound as simple as identifying one species from the other. ``

Dumbledore shrugged, looking at Harry with a sudden burst of pride twinkling in his eyes. `` It 's confessedly, that what Harry did involve a high degree of attainment in the area. But I think if you really think about it Severus, you 'll ascertain that Harry was more than capable of having accomplished this. ``

Severus snorted.

'' After all, Severus, all Harry really did was construct a wall inside of her mind ... ''

'' Not just a paries, Albus. It was a double-dyed wall. ``

Harry could n't aid himself. `` perfective ? It was full of jam ! I thought the thing was about to crumble ! ``

'' You mean to say that you were attempting to create a inflexible bodily structure ? ``

'' Yes, '' He hissed. `` Now will mortal please excuse what he meant by perfect ? ''

'' testament someone please explicate what wall we are talking about ? ``

Again everyone ignored Remus'attempt to extract what was going on from them.

'' ceramicist, '' Snape drawled, as if talking to a particularly retard pupil. `` Had a inflexible wall been constructed, there would have been a dispatch legal separation of the two lot of retentiveness in the girl 's head. ``

'' Yes, I get that, '' Harry snapped, feeling frustrated. `` That 's what I was going for. ``

Snape 's dark, greasy eyebrows arched up. `` Even a stiff wall would have eventually crumbled, and when that happened it would have been akin to releasing a floodgate of extraneous memories in her mind. So the effect would have been the like as it was initially. ``

'' Meaning ? ``

Snape practically rolled his heart. `` She would have gone insane again. I know this story of conversing is a bit of a strain on your mental quickness, but please, do try and keep up. ``

'' That 'll be enough, Severus, '' interjected Dumbledore. `` What he means to say, Harry, is that a weak barrier with maw will allow the foreign memories to slip into her psyche a few at a time. It 'll countenance her to become slowly acclimated to the new memories, as opposed to her being forced to negociate them all at once. Now I imagine the task of sorting through everything will be rather draining on her ... ''

Snape snorted. The master ignored him.

'' But in a few hr she should have a pretty solid hold on what memories are hers, and what are not. ``

'' A few hours ? `` Harry would rely Dumbledore with his life-time, but somehow this seemed far too easy. He would birth thought cramming a lifetimes worth of remembering into a new head would direct far longer.

Suddenly the Headmaster smiled. `` Ms. Kaylens has been rather golden to experience been given the bloodline of a relatively untried unicorn, Harry. In fact, the animal is barely older than her. For the following few weeks she 'll gradually advance to a greater extent and more of its computer storage, but the uncollectible should be over relatively soon. ``

"How can you screw how old it was ?"

"Is, Harry. Just because the unicorn's ancestry was taken does not stand for that it was killed. And one of its latter memories had already slipped through your construct. So Severus was able to see it, and pas that information on to me. She's actually puzzle very lucky."

Despite this reassurance, he was still uneasy. `` And what happens when that wall I made completely offend down ? ``

'' A slight headache, I would conceive of. Nothing more. ``

'' But ... ''

'' For the love of pigeon hawk ! She 'll already be acclimated to the retentiveness Potter ! '' Snape practically shouted, apparently unable to contain himself any longer. `` Your little girlfriend will be ticket ! ``

Harry balked. `` She 's not ... ''

Snape waved him off dismissively. `` Like I care. ``

Dumbledore casually flicked his wand in their way, silencing them both. Harry gaped like a fish, noticing Snape doing the same.

Dumbledore let cipher appearance on his nerve, but simply turned to where Remus and Kaylens still sat.

'' Remus, as interesting as this verbal fray has been, I think that the best thing for Ms.Kaylens, at the second, is rest. ``

Lupin looking rather like a concern don, nodded his assent. And before Harry could even protest, Moony had scooped the fille up in his arms.

Fixing Harry with a steer stare, Remus inclined his promontory as he left. `` She 'll be in the room Hermione and Ginny used. ``

Snape, apparently having unsilenced himself, let out a jeering jeer that bore a foreign resemblance to the actor's line `` I 'm so certainly. ``

It was only after that they had left the way, that Dumbledore 's expression grew far more grievous.

'' Harry, '' He stated seriously. `` I think it 's time you explained exactly what happened with Angelina. ``
* * * * *

'' VHERE IS SHE ! ? ! ? ``

The man 's voice rose furiously, awakening her from her Crucio-induced sleep with a start.

Her coloured eyes snapped open, her unfocused regard shooting uselessly around the pitch-black room.

She had been left in staring and total darkness, unable to pick out even a undivided point of her environs. The frigid, silk sheets beneath her were the only clue she had to intimate that she remained in the same room as before.

Only now she was mercifully alone, with only the lingering, bone-deep pain of the inflicted whammy for company.

An faze feeling of futility settled firmly within her pectus, but she would not, could not, turn a loss Bob Hope. Instead her resolve strengthened, and she forced herself to mind very carefully.

Outside in the hall two the great unwashed were arguing fiercely, their exact words muffled, though every so often the one would rise about the former, a dangerous note in his punctuate speech.

Her brow creased fretfully, anxiety filling her. There was something very familiar about that interpreter. Something her levelheaded mind screamed she should have been able to agnize instantly.

But to her core she understood that whomever the person was, that she should n't be hearing them here.

Not in a place where only Death Eaters roamed freely.

An icy foreboding flooded her nervure ...

The door to her room suddenly flew undefendable, a broad shouldered man forcing his way in, his silhouette shadowed by the hall 's firelight.

It felt as if someone were suddenly choking her, an agonizing gelidity overtaking her in a way that the Cruciatus cuss would never be able to touch.

The man 's defined jaw subscriber line, one so very associate to her, was set firmly.

A heart-wrenching betrayal ripped through her, snatching her heart in its vice handle as she watched his mouth open, forming the give-and-take she had once loved to hear.

'' Hermy-owh-ninny. ``







generator's Federal Reserve note :

First, I just wanted to say thank you to St. Andrew for having helped me out so much with this chapter. He has not only beta-read the last few chapters, but has also helped me to pull off them to relieve oneself them prosperous to read.

Secondly, I wanted to excuse about having taken so long between chapters over the past year. I honestly needed a break from writing, and now that I have had that I plan on updating approximately every two weeks or so. I 'm really excited about finishing the tale, and I figure that two workweek is definitely a deadline that I can run across, considering that I used to post daily chapters for the Quizilla version of this. Of course, those were only about 2500 words a piece, but nevertheless I figure once every two calendar week or so should work out well. Again, I am really distressing about having taken such lengthy time out this past tense class. matter were very fussy and honestly I just needed to really recharge. Thank you all for having stuck around though ! Chapter 31 is being worked on presently, so expect it in about two weeks.

And just to deflect muddiness, the term for a practician of Occlumency is Occlumens. For some understanding in the rough draft of this I had a lot of people trying to correct me on that.

Recommended taradiddle :

And the Greatest of These ... by Edward Ollivander
Rating : 12+ condition : WIP - 24 chapters

In the wake of Dumbledore 's death Harry is consumed with a burning desire to accomplish one matter : Defeat Voldemort, by any means necessary. As he sets out to destroy not only the scoundrel himself, but also the care that has the wizarding world 's heart in a frailty grip, he has to alter the way he sees the reality around him, as well as the way he functions within it. Now, as he prepares for the final battle, he becomes the one affair the wizarding world motivation : Hope. Harry/Ginny pairing.