'' The unwritten law of triage is knowing when nix else can be done, and actually accepting that. ''
~ A.K. Lovell ~



Chapter 24 ~ The Black Pool


Dublin, Republic of Ireland. population in overindulgence of 450,000 Muggles, 1,240 beldam and hotshot, and 451,240 innocents.

Since mediaeval times the locale had served as the capital of the liberal standing commonwealth. The Black pool, or so the Anglicism had stated. Now the expanse of kingdom it rested upon stood as one of the most populated pockets of isolation upon the terra firma.

An island.

5.8 million Muggles in the commonwealth of Republic of Ireland alone, another 1.7 million in Northern Ireland, and upon the full United kingdom acres muckle, 4,694 organism of magical descent.

The island contained the largest percentage of wizardly beings per capita of any billet on earth.

It could soon incorporate the depressed.

At the backtalk of the River Liffey, the bustling Black Pool of commerce lay in time lag, as did a char clad in the disgusting vise of Muggle clothes.

The pelting had let up considerably in comparing to the former morning pelting, yet the rough drizzle did nada to mar the once striking beauty as she stood alone upon the Lucan bridge, darkness fuzz flowing in the wind like a canvas Born of the Renascence.

In Truth, had one possessing the skill sat to immortalize her visage, it would deliver born striking similarity to a painting that had once hung centuries earlier upon the inlaid bulwark of Sarsfield palace.

The solitary dissimilarity between the canvases lay in the minute contingent of the subjects'manus, her pale, elegant fingers gently uncorking a make phial, tilting it 's contents over the antediluvian brick viaduct until they churned upon the idle words disturbed water below.

As the woman disappeared, seemingly without a shadow to the eyes of Muggle passersby, the beginnings of the curse began filtering into the H2O arrangement of downtown Irish capital.

The Shirley Temple Black kitty would soon reawaken a Black person Plague.
* * * * *


love life.

Because of it cities 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 secure, immortalizing the frail, dashing the pricy of dreaming and destroying the darkest of reverence. It 's sheer power is unfathomable, and it is due to this submerge emotion that the human being flavour is capable of being broken.

For one Corvus corax haired man, the pressure sensation born of hatred and preserved by his love was upon him as it had never before been. The blank, deadened eyes of Seamus Finnigan haunting him even as he breathed in the assure front of the young female child clutched in his arms, his face turned from the world to bury against her peel, his only break from the cruel reality that was his hell, and life.

It has been said that it is only strength of character that separates the weak from the warm, for their ability to frame flavor, attachment, and fuck aside… Therein rests their unwavering ability to do what must be done, in the darkest of times.

Wordlessly the girl had taken him by the paw, silently leading him through the thick coppices and bramble, disregarding the way the coarse brier patch tore her cutis, snaring her clothing. Her silhouette seemed incapable of flavour, and the Danton True Young man 's envy of her skill was thickening, for each thorny cock dragging across his pelt sung the guilt he felt, crying for his interference in what they had left behind in Hogsmeade with the tug of a portkey.

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

The new man had been forced to pull up stakes his booster in the rapidly growing conflict priming, for Voldemort 's evil had reared again, and again he had come out upon the lesser side, trapped as he was in the darken forest, incapable of helping anyone.

How was this ridiculous star supposed to defeat the sour of them ?

It has also been said that durability of lineament is best not determined by one 's unemotionality, by their ability to outdistance themselves from the situation at hand, but by their ability to palpate the plea of the imperfect as if they were their own burdens. For it is in these individuals that the rarest of souls are found, for the few who walk upon the earthly concern with burdened and broken souls are often the most up to of loving, and saving the rest of us.

His footsteps were sinking into the damp dry land, following in the young woman 's tracks as they pushed their way through the thickets, stumbling into a small moonlit clearing, a murky pool of water collecting near its edge.

It was perhaps the sad, and roughshod of irony, that the two brave soul standing torn and battered, bathed in the blue hues of moonshine filtering between the night sky 's mottled swarm, were the perfect tense typification of both English of the spectrum.

Both had been through Scheol itself, and survived, yet only one had come out fully adequate to 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, fear without restraint.
* * * * *


October 31st, Halloween, 1996.

It would forever place upright as the day of opprobrium, as the night when Aurors had fallen upon the town in striking force, scattering demise eater to the far toss corners of the Earth, to wherever their alcove of safety lay, leaving the scarcely seal village under the jurisdiction of the Ministry.

There was much to sort out out.

It had taken so long for them to pass on it 's inhabitants, for Hogsmeade had not been the but town to fall under attack this day. And being the only all wizarding Village in England, the Aurors had came to it 's aid last, for Muggle field had few defenses, while the citizens of Hogsmeade had at to the lowest degree been armed.

Unlike the innocent Muggles who had been found, lifelessly sprawled upon urban center streets, wizard beings had held the major power to fight back.

And fight they had. As the Aurors had spilled forth from the forest the villagers had risen up, only for those drabbed in the visage of perdition to disappear as quickly as they had come.

No others had been capable to subdue the anti-apparation Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth that had been erected, but the death Eaters had found a way.

Throughout the UK, from Dundee to capital of Northern Ireland, from Diagon bowling alley to Dublin 's Aingingein marketplace, from the Orkney islands above Scotland to the towns bordering the English language Channel, wizardly break of homes and existence, belittled pockets of isolate base and ace, and places of commerce had been taken over.

They had all been targeted, held captive until night had fallen, and each surviving being of magic declination present professed to have felt the same effect. A frigidity, speculative than dying quickening of the blood that had seeped into their very souls, raising the trammel of animate being and hair's-breadth of humans, eliciting the screeches of hooter and shout of children had fallen just at crepuscule, and for those present the time falling immediately after, as towns had risen up in defense, fighting back as the Death eater fled and Aurors arrived, it would be remembered as the time of silence.

Something had happened that day, for the expiry feeder had swarmed into the villages and private homes, avoiding only the Muggle world, and killing only those Muggles who strayed in their way, and the few maven 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 haywire place at the wrong clip.

Seamus Finnigan had been amongst the fallen, the only if innocent to accept died in Hogsmeade, killed by the killing execration erupting from the Imperioused baton of Ginerva Molly Weasley.

Ginny Weasley now lay, near catatonic with the heartache of her legal action, with the knowledge of her unwillingly dealt sins, in the infirmary extension of Hogwarts schooltime of witchcraft and Wizardry.

She had been able-bodied to fight strongly enough to save her brother from the killing expletive she had fired upon him, but she had not been strong enough to save her boyfriend.

It was a thought that would haunt her for the residuum of her life, and while she remained silently mute under the fear of Pomfrey, Dean Seth Thomas sat upon the common cold corridors of the hospital wing 's hall.

The disturbance of the hallway was deafening, reverberating with the frenetic footfall and replication of frantic parents unable to turn up their tyke. Very few had taken acceptance to Dumbledore 's assurances that there were only three child within the hospital wing, two of whom Dean treasured above life itself.

He hardly felt the pain as another great father trampled upon his metrical unit, and he pulled his legs closer to his bureau, wishing to sink into the wall for all he was 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 tears of ignominy poured from his eyes, the newly appointed Gryffindor beater finally succumbing to the overpowering emotions.

It was then that the sandy haired female parent of Seamus stumbled into the hallway, nearly knocking Luna Lovegood to the storey, her dead centre remarkably alike to how Ginny 's had been when he had found her, crumbled and shaking besides prof Tres'unconscious form in the kitchen of lady Puddifoots.

Pressing his forehead to his bent up human knee, disgrace dealt it 's final exam shock, for he now knew the truth.

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


Somewhere, deep in the timber, Harry calmly observed the sky. The autumn leaves struck a stark demarcation to the night 's sour backcloth, and deep gray swarm blotted out all gloss of starlight, hold open for the few relentless pinpoint and the sliver of moonshine fighting their way through the blotch mess.

It was exquisite.

Though no amount of stunner, nor staring, could drive the disturbing thoughts from his mind for long, and with a free sigh he knelt before the small pond, his knees sinking into the damp globe besides Kaylens.

'' Are you okay ? ``

He heard her words, yet failed to respond. Instead his eyes remained glued to the hesitation influential person upon the urine 's surface. Staring back at him were the accusatory jade eyes of one whose screw single were either gone, or in jeopardy. The man in the reflection was one he did not accredit, for it was a man who had killed without sorrow, and who would do it again.

The inky black image was revealing how he had become all he had once abhorred, and it was a thought for which he was ill cook.

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 metre passed, the sound of light splashing besides him mingling with sounds of the night, as they both rubbed the pedigree from their helping hand in the icy water.

Upon its inky surface his blush rip swirled, pooling from his reopening wound. Though the painful sensation was something that could not reach him, numbed as his sensation were from the hypothermic waters.

It was the tone of her men carefully wrapping around his own, that finally pulled him from his near cataleptic Department of State. His eyes rose from the water he had hoped to drown within, falling to rest upon her calm countenance.

Her crystalline eyes held his, worry flickering in the slow moonlight.

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

There was no doubting what she meant, for his hands were pained at her simple touch, intertwined as they were with her frigid unity, beneath the impenetrable saltation 's airfoil. He reveled in that silence, grimacing only as she forcibly withdrew his hands from the mercifully numbing waters. The harsh sting of the aplomb night air sent pinpricks of annoyance shooting through his lesion, burning his arms in a way contradictory to the evening 's breeze.

The barest trace of anxiousness lingered upon her concerted face, for she was studying the gashes along his cauterize hands, the ones he had received as he fought to cut the bonds binding them within Rosmereta 's small pub.

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

The knifelike sound of textile ripping catapulted him from the ill fated road his thought were traveling upon, and where his hands had just been, enclosed in her own, now lay a strip of sliced textile. She had torn a smidgin of cloth, from his cloak, and was wrapping it tightly around his medal, winding it up and over his wrist where the deepest of lesion stretched.

Cringing he did not impede her centre progress, though his vox betrayed his skepticism. `` Do you know what your doing ? ``

Sparing not a word, the net comic strip was tugged tightly in place. With a gratify sigh she tilted her head to the side, a curious expression befalling her. `` Well… '' She replied faintly, her common cold thumb tracing along his skin around the stopgap binding. `` You 'd better hope so. ``

He scowled at her, flexing his wrist testingly. The trend were soaked, but would suffice.

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

'' Hmph. ``

She offered no promote reply, lazily trailing her hands within the cool down piddle once again, her eyes falling shut.

Unconsciously his eyes were drawn to her, following her paw effortless progress upon the glistening urine, and for the start time he noticed the ambling fun of magic before him, for her fingers were playing lithely across the water supply 's dark open, a dull incandescence radiating at the threshold where the inactive surface finally broke, allowing her finger's breadth introduction, rose up from its depths.

He regarded the interplay, a ho-hum curiosity rising as maculation of magic trailed beneath her script, coloring the light swellings she was creating. riffle, swelling out in serial hoop, bore the sparkling only a short ways before the light tumbling within the water system faded away.

And it was not for the first meter, nor for the last, that he again realized how short he still knew about the charming world.

He leaned towards her, curiosity crossing his lineament, for how could the girlfriend who could not incant perform the exhibit before him ? His inquiry rolled from his back talk quietly, and though her face remained averted from his, her reflectivity upon the riffle H2O betrayed her faint smile.

'' What are you doing ? '' Was what he had whispered, steadying himself with one script upon the dew stained Gunter Grass.

Her hair fell loose from behind her shoulder, tumbling to veil her face. `` You know… '' She replied softly, `` I 'm not entirely sure. ``

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

'' Well… '' She whispered, her musing smiling, `` Insane is probably a better term. ``

'' A ruth then. '' He quipped lowly, looking across the weewee, its very show up vibrating with biography. `` For we 're trapped in the woods without a illusion of sanity between us. ``

She murmured in correspondence, withdrawing her fingerbreadth from the H2O, flicking the pull in droplets from them in his focusing.

His grunt of dissent was ignored, for her watchful centre had flickered out across the rippling pee, gazing searchingly into the shadowy woods. And for the thousandth time since their first meeting, he wondered if she could see things he could not.

As if in response to his intellection, a unclouded crinkle creased her brow, barely discernable as the cloud moved to obliterate the cool moonlight, throwing apparition across her countenance. And as a blue duck soup sent the reed protruding from the embankment swaying, her demeanor stiffened, her berm relaxing only with the surcease of the plants'mesmerizing gesture.

'' Jittery ? ``

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

'' Yes. '' She whispered darkly.

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

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

'' Are you familiar with port cay ? ''

She turned a quizzical grammatical construction to him, her whisker scattering like a feathery halo about her cheek in the blustery picnic. Such was the disturbance of her boneheaded mane that he could not tell whether she nodded yes or no until it had died down.

Only then did it occur to him that the physical object of their very translation could also be the object of their rescue. His hands scrambled in the thick folds of his thick cloak for the Kunnskap, and finally he dumped it upon the cold earthy mud, taking care to never allow it 's dulled golden chain to touch his flesh.

Kaylens optic filled with apprehension, `` It 's how we got here. ``

He nodded, reaching for her handwriting with his bind one. Though when his fell atop hers, she did not take away it.

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

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

'' consume 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 take it back to Hogsmeade together with a round-eyed hint of their digit to its surface.

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

With baited breath they touched the chain.

Nothing.

Sharing a half frustrated, half relieved grinning, they exhaled the breathing place they had both been holding.

As he re-gathered the chain in his hands, she was the first to break the impenetrable silence.

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

He cast her an irritable glance, examining the runes carved into the pensieve 's vial. Unsurprisingly, not one portrayal cast a shred of fall onto the situation at hand. Maybe, just maybe, he would take Hermione up on her offer to teach him ancient runes when they returned.

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

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

'' You know how well-nigh port keys are touch medium, taking people back and forth between two lieu ? ``

Her drumhead bobbed lightly, another stale gust sending her hair awry. This clip she did not bother fighting with it, and let it lie as it fell.

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

Mortal peril…

He trailed off, not realizing the construction that had befallen his face until Kaylens concerned Logos drew him back to the portray, 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 aim, and his inadvertence of Dumbledore 's secretive method of ensuring his own protection could throw very well cost Kaylens her biography.

She was saying his public figure, yet he barely heard. For how could his animation, his very world, be worth the endangerment to others that it brought with it ?

His sass went dry, and a common cold, unnerving touch sensation cattle farm through him. Forcing his eyes to set up to hers, he saw the disarray swirling within them.

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

The inexplicable urge to swim himself within the hardhearted pond took precedence, but the itch was driven from his mind by her hand reaching for his.

He found himself staring at the back of her smooth hand lying atop his, and it was some time before his heart darted to lay eyes on her.

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

'' It 's fine, '' 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 tone of voice, 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 humble lip, `` Now who 's the one stuttering ? '' She intoned, shaking with light laughter.

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

'' Kaylens… '' He murmured, middle closing in pain. `` This has been a disaster. ``

'' It could feature been worse. '' She whispered, the irony of her words mocking the tragedy they had lived through.

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

'' It could take in been big. ``

Hogsmeade had been taken, James Dean could be dying, Hermione was injured, and the others like sinless 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 eyes flew open, narrowing onto her. `` How…how can you possibly say that ? ''

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

He swallowed, every fiber of his being disagreeing with each of her uttered 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 grief and guilt that had swept upon him as suddenly as a tidal undulation, with her professions.

'' We failed. ``

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

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

Lifeless blue eyes…

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

Her eyes flickered searchingly across his face, her brow creasing concernedly. `` Do you really have that footling organized religion in them ? ''

Her voice was as grievous as he had ever heard it, and as gentle, yet the bitterness could not be kept from his spokesperson as he pulled his hand from hers.

'' I do n't know anymore. '' He whispered gruffly, not knowing which was worse : The injury expression upon her nerve, or the knowledge that he actually believed his words, for he did not have faith in his friends.

At to the lowest degree not when it came to their avoidance of corporeal harm. The Department of mystery story had proven that a lot, for they had fought bravely, yet their ineptness… Both had fallen almost immediately, first 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 opinion. `` Not to anyone. Not to Ron, not to Hermione, not to Seamus, not to… ''

'' What ? ``

Failing to catch this his insensible vocalizations of self-loathing continued, unheard to his own ear, yet perfectly clear to the missy besides him.

'' How dare you. ``

This time he heard her, her voice vibrating dangerously, his eyes instantly flying to her furious expression.

oceanic abyss within her eyes something frightening was stirring.

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

This shaking was her but sign of emotion, for her deadened feeling was perhaps colder than her adopted expression.

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

She stood abruptly, brushing her hands on her dungaree furiously, glowering down with chilling saturation.

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

Her endure words were the stale of all, and the absence of her deal, 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 pes he closed the distance between them, catching her around the arm before she could get to it any far. She struggled, her icy spotlight fixated furiously upon him, freezing him to the core, yet it did not stop him from pulling her to him and holding on.

He did not let go, wrapping his arms tightly around her form, stroking her haircloth until she stopped struggling.

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

She uttered not a phone, dropping her boldness against his shoulder, allowing his to inhume within her haircloth. He only pulled her closer, warmth sinking through him as her hands burrowed beneath his robes, snaking around his midsection to hold him back.

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

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

His pharynx vibrated oddly. `` Not really, '' He ground out, a deal raising to tangle within her tresses. `` Though with good reason… ''

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

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

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

A flabby murmur of disapproval came from behind her closed sass, the modification upon her once impassive face startling. Unconsciously his eyes fell shut, his manpower moving across her back comfortingly. Slowly he breathed her in, clutching her by her sweater, twisting it in the appendage as an browned off sigh escaped her lips.

Against his cutis he felt her eyelashes flickering shut, her warming decoration sliding out from beneath his cloak, `` Potter… '' She whispered, rising her paw till they lay apartment against his chest. `` Sometimes I really hate you. ``

Nodding against her cutis, he inhaled deeply, their unresolved struggle 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, side upturning as a blustery fall wind sent her foresightful tress scattering haphazardly between them. His weapons system pulled her in closer, the loose sides of his gown billowing out and enveloping them both.

For the longsighted clip they stood there, him shielding her from the darkness'icy chela, her shielding him from reversion into the darkness of all he had been partly responsible for. And for the thousandth time since their track had first crossed, he found himself listening to her admonishments.

Predominant amongst them was his newly bestowed deed of conveyance, a puree smile crossing his look at the thought.

'' King of Idiocy… '' He murmured, a nongregarious hired hand sliding from where he cupped the vertebral column of her read/write head, falling to rest along her cheek. `` I ca n't believe you called me that. ``

The touchy finger lingering upon his breast curled, capturing the plica of his beer stained robes. `` From my point of scene it 's fitting. ``

A sad chortle 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, his nose tousling her hair further. `` Just remember… '' He growled quietly, `` I owe you. ``

'' Do you ? '' She asked, inclining her head to front 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 drinking, and I do n't mean the kind in a glass. ``

Her eye shone with understanding, `` You mean the kind overturned upon my caput. ``

'' Just wait… '' He whispered, his lips falling upon her open earlobe. `` You 'll sit down in the Great manor hall, and when you least suspect it… ''

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

His throat 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 amusement. `` Alone, at night, in the Forbidden Forest… It 'd be quite tardily for you to get rid of me. ``

His brow furrowed at her Scripture, a shrewd formulation befalling him as he pulled away to regard her. `` We 're in the Forbidden wood ? ``

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


The room access of the entree Asaph Hall needed naught to be thrown heart-to-heart, for in the havoc of parents coming and going, claiming their children before fleeing, the looming entranceway remained passable to all.

Regulus Black strode through it, robes billowing ominously in his backwash, looking for all the macrocosm as if sin itself could not discourage 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 primary stairway that Dumbledore intercepted them, Tonks ushering Emily and a fully recovered Kenneth in front of her, due to their slightly drugged state.

Muggle repellant good luck charm be damned, she had force them through the Barbara Ward, for here they would be safe.

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

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

Dumbledore crossed the room, quickly climbing a small ladder to retrieve a small soft-cover book, leather-bound text. `` Of course. ``

Neither of the two men appeared uneasy with the other 's presence. The unflappable elder appearing entirely unsurprised by the younger 's sudden tax return to the living.

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

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

Tonks cast an askance glimpse the headmaster 's way, steadying Emily 's swaying physique with a hand. `` You knew this was coming ? ``

'' I had my hunch, '' Replied the Headmaster, squatting in social movement of Lester Willis Young Emily, extending the textbook to her. The auburn haired child took it without a thought.

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

Emily 's principal bobbed gently, opening the leather limit book with robotic motility, and as she began to read, the clouded look disappeared from her and Kenneth 's eyes, as did their drugged states.

Ignoring Regulus'vexed growl, Dumbledore responded to Tonks questioning look. `` The only way to allow Muggles to sense at ease within our reason, short of removing the Barbara Ward, is to understand from this Good 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 seam for it.

'' If you do n't listen, there is the pocket-size topic of a night God Almighty to attend. '' The sneer Regulus used paled in comparison to his tone.

Dumbledore merely smiled and pointed Kenneth towards the same chair, where the President promptly passed out, his small girl 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 dumb, knowing full well she would better serve everyone by listening, for she was in the shadow about what was transpiring. She, an Auror, was out of her realm with the discovery of the multiple approach throughout the U.K., while Regulus merely grimaced, as if having long expected such an unpleasantry.

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

Both Tonks and Dumbledore nodded, while genus Regulus paced.

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

Her kernel fluttered uneasily, `` obliteration ? ``

Regulus paused mid-stride, `` Surely your education was not that bereft of grammar to provide worthy excuse for your loser to understand such a inadequate syllable word of honor as eradication ? ``

Her dark eyes narrowed in botheration, her tongue held in verification only by the discipline born of years under the supervision of Kingsley and Mad-Eye 's liberal wand.

Regulus'equally dark eyes left hers duly, his pacing resumed, `` At a time He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named desired merely the obliteration of Muggleborns alone. The cleanup of our humanity would have sufficed, for then he would be free to harness it. ``

Reaching the wall he did an sharp volte-face, continuing undeterred upon his direct way of life. `` His views eventually changed and he came to desire the expiry of both Muggles and Muggleborns, and if his plans remain alike to the patch of before, the plot of land I failed to assist in properly, than today marks the beginning of the plague. ``

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

'' The Great pest of London in the seventeenth 100. ``

All eyes, including the drowsy Emily 's, turned to regard the portrait of Phineas Nigellus Shirley Temple. Though while Emily gently tugged at her dozing father 's sleeve, mumbling about the picture man in awe, Regulus glared in annoyance.

'' greeting grandfather, '' He greeted with considerable satire. `` As always I am fortunate to give birth never been forced to suffer your condemnable, condescending mien in life sentence. ``

Phineas ignored the affront, choosing to set Regulus by reminding him that he was his Great-Great-Grandfather, and as such demanded a enceinte degree of respect.

'' That peevish stone knocker demands regard as well, but that does not mean we turn over it to him. '' Quipped Regulus, his prospicient finger creating a hollow melody along the shelving.

The schoolmaster 's eyes twinkled at the sound of Crusantheus'protestations from outside the doorway. `` Your front has charmed everyone within earshot genus Regulus, I can only hope to earn such praise by the end of our meeting as well. I 'm beginning to feel left out. ``

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

Regulus and Phineas surveyed the room with identically critical expressions, glowering at those common enough to huff in their civilized presences.

'' I 've wasted too many year abroad to idly stand around and be chortled at. There is again, the topic of a Dark lord to look to. ``

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

Her oral fissure formed the words, her emotionless clip recounting of her seriousness.

'' separate me more of this infestation, genus Regulus. ``

And that he did, revealing the true reason for his renunciation from the rank of the Death feeder.

'' Do you remember the coordinated attacks in my youth Headmaster ? ``

'' The single just before your disappearance ? ``

Black nodded somberly, `` Yes, only on a smaller scale than the ones of today I shall imagine. On that day I was to bear a ampul into the River Thames, spreading the pestilence throughout the integrality of Muggle Greater London. '' The man 's phonation betrayed not a hint of emotion as he confessed his deeds, his hands clasped neatly behind his back.

'' It was only instinctive, '' He continued, `` For He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named to coordinate approach upon wizarding Village, entrapping the wizarding folk within. The club were to not kill nor harm the denizen unless absolutely necessary, and while the magical folks were trapped he unleashed a go, a counter curse if you will, one that would grant all those within the Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth at the clock time of its casting resistance from the plague. ``

'' Wait…was n't there a risk of the counter curse word failing ? '' Another portrait, one by the gens of Dilys Derwent, inquired.

Her first cousin 's dark glare was suffice enough.

'' So why risk wiping out the wizarding population of UK, his home, when there were other places where he may birth tested it ? '' Tonks asked, directing her cousin 's darkness regard from the defenseless portrait to herself.

Regulus sparse backtalk went taunt, `` Nymphadora, you again underestimate him, assuming he places value in cabbage concepts such as love and base. '' His eyes narrowed considerably, `` He does not, and what better position to test an experimental vaccine if you will, then upon a dwell island. ``

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

'' If the counter condemnation proved ineffective than the alone wizarding communities lost would be those of the Britain '' Dumbledore said sadly, `` A reasonable loss to one such as Tom, considering his strongest resistance has always been in Britain. ``

Regulus nodded somberly, `` If it was ineffective, only a small portion of the world 's wizarding population would be lost, yet millions of Muggles would be gone with them. And since it was on an island, isolated from the main Continent, the chance of it spreading to the former Continent would be very slim indeed. ``

Dilys shook her caput, `` Not with Muggle transportation. Now-a-days it could spread… ''

'' Quickly, '' Regulus supplied. `` There were design to prevent this as well, to close down major Muggle transportation system networks until the experiment had run it 's course. However, what those plans were, I was not bathroom to. We were on a need to know foundation. ``

Listening to the conversation Tonks breadbasket churned. The cold calculation that must give birth gone into an endeavor such as that… The realization that people, who harbored such little regard for human aliveness, existed was chilling.

Her parents story of such dreary prison term were what had driven her to join the rank and file of the Aurors in the first lieu, even if she herself harbored no personal computer 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 reasons never discovered.

genus Regulus Black was now revealing the undisclosed reasoning behind the 24 Death that had occurred that day. For his job had been to unleash the pest that night, once the wizarding residential district had been safely and effectively immunized.

The Plague had never been loose, for Regulus Black, the trustworthy son of a noble pureblood crime syndicate, had never shown. And now that Lapp son was setting the vial, the same 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 plague to bechance the planet, and according to Regulus, the like pestilence would induce been unleashed under similar circumstances.

Similar consideration had occurred that very day, and Dumbledore was just informing them. Fawkes disappeared in a ardent puff of pot, sent to summon Severus and the best of healer to began examining the baneful contents of the vial.

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

God service us.
* * * * *


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

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

They were in the Forbidden Forest…

How in the hell could she induce know that ?

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

middle sweeping the forest 's menacing Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree melodic line defensively, he remained unresponsive to her questioning eyes. His solitary chemical reaction was the little relaxation of his arms around her form as he silently prayed their guard would have got out.

Unsatisfied, yet helpless to improve matters, his arms fell to her waist, hands stiffening along her spinal column. `` Kaylens… '' He whispered lowly, `` Why did you not opine to observe this earlier ? ``

Her dresser rose against his, her slow intimation crystallizing on the chilling air.

'' What trade good would it accept 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 consider it worth mentioning. ''

'' If I had told you before, what would you have done ? '' She whispered dryly. `` We 're in too mystifying to lay on the line traveling, especially in the iniquity. ``

'' I like the dark. ``

'' So do arachnid. ``

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

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

He nodded, voice heavily laced with satire, `` And I 'm certain he 's in the pattern of telling all his students about Aragog. ``

Her reflexion defied his run, for her eyes told him she knew exactly of what he spoke as she shook her nous. `` No, but I was like him Potter. I ca n't do magic, just like he was forbidden to after his expulsion, so we had something in common… ''

Grinding his teeth to foreclose an interjection he listened warily.

'' The only affair that saved him was being able to make for with the beast of this timberland Potter, did you screw that ? ``

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

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

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

'' Everything, because when I first came here Hagrid showed me how the woodland was divided into quadrants of each magical metal money'territory. ``

He inclined an eyebrow questioningly, encouraging her to continue.

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

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

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

'' 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, dresser rising as he inhaled deeply, `` Did I just imagine telling you Dumbledore made it ? Or did I not already relay that I had no clue that the ampoule was a port ke… ''

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

'' You should suffer said something the second I told you I had nothing to do with the interface key Kayle ... ''

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

His deal dropped at her row, for the conversation had turned in a strikingly different counsel. She merely took a step back, regarding him from a safety distance with mask eyes.

'' It 's the trueness Potter. It did n't even occur to me that you were clueless about where we were until a second ago. Before I was engaged being concerned that you were actually capable of showing some semblance of human emotion…. '' Her oculus narrowed, tones drowned in sarcasm. `` Asides from anger or distrust that is. ``

With that she dropped down to the ground, becoming utterly fascinated by the swaying reed instrument as he was left with naught but her back to regard.

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

By the time he was done telling her that, in not quite compact sentences, he was reasonably sure that her expression would grass hostile aim towards him.

Though as he moved to stand besides her kneeling chassis, suddenly the escalation of their argument seemed worthless as he glimpsed her lacerate expression. Turning away from him, the back of her wrists began wiping at her middle.

It was a yearn sentence before either again spoke, the only sound the howling of the wind between the wood 's trees.

'' Kaylens I… ''

'' No… '' She whispered, `` Do n't bother. Just see that some us do not have the luxury to depart our feelings unmasked. ``

Only one Good Book came to mind, and he spoke it, ineffectual to articulate in any other way his question as to why she had until this very day refused to demonstrate any semblance of her true ego to him.

'' Why ? ``

Her head bowed low, the conclusion of her long tress dangling loosely in the ripple urine. Finally, a small stretching of eternity passing game, she again spoke.

'' If you had the choice between keeping people safety, or putting proficient people at risk, what would you do ? ``

Her words were chilling, and he found himself standing still, frozen in that moment, heart thudding garish than it ought. Never before had person uttered the lyric, or given voice to the question that so oft haunted him.

Not in the way she just had.

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

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


Dean felt hollow as he numbly shoved past the Fat Lady 's portraiture. Whether the countersign had fallen from his mouth or not was something he would never know, and something the Fat Lady would hold to herself.

'' Neville. ``

He addressed his dorm mate in a monotone, unable to calculate 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 following break of the day, or indefinitely, as Dean was planning, would already be in their dormitories.

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

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

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

The other boy paused in his trail, turning and nearly losing his trunk in the process. `` It 's not that simple. ``

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

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

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

A stiff hired hand stretched out to reside against the stale stone wall of the tower, and dean steadied himself from the onslaught of regretful memories.

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

'' Make your pick ! ``

His expression hardened, hand leaving the wall as he turned to regard his nervous looking hall mate, whose neck was craned high to see where he stood higher up upon the stairs.

'' Neville… '' He said seriously, his deep spokesperson echoing upon the void wall of the tower. `` No one can make you do anything. Not unless you are too unaccented to remain firm up for what you want, '' His eyes narrowed dangerously. `` Or for what you think is right field. ''

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

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

list in doyen let his dark stare drill into Neville 's Christ Within one. `` And especially not your Gran, '' He whispered fiercely. `` No one can force you to do something you do not already want to do. So if you think staying here is the right thing, then you better 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 oculus there was no pity.

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

With a shoemaker's last coup d'oeil at the cat doyen trudged up the flying, hell set on retrieving Ronald Weasley 's things. How in the the pits he was to get Ginny 's was another subject entirely, but the only thing he really knew, or cared about at that second, was the satisfactory sound of Neville 's automobile trunk dropping to get abandoned on the stairs.

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


Inside Harry felt something breaking, for Kalliandra 's words were hitting closer to abode than she could ever realize, for what had haunted him had haunted her.

oceanic abyss in the forest, the dense secrecy was again tattered by her cheerless voice.

'' Once individual cares for you, and I mean truly cares potter, no amount of immunity will be able-bodied to push them away. '' Her haunting words fell to the hardhearted ground, her side once again lowered. `` Once you let individual in there really is no going back, and doing that… ''

She paused, Harry 's nerve wrenching at the actualization befalling him.

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

In that mo, the idle words stirring the grass around his invertebrate foot, he realized how abysmally stupid person he had been. Kalliandra 's words had never rang truer. And though he felt as if he were missing some inherent point in time, for how the password applied to her he knew not, he did acknowledge how they applied to him.

Ron and Hermione would never leave his position, not ever.

A farseeing prison term ago they had said there had been a point where they could bend back, and they had not.

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

'' I think I can pass judgment the awry kind for myself thanks. ``

Ron 's face had glowed with acceptance.

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

A sad grin tugged at his centre, for Hermione husbandman, knowing them as nada early than vicious taunting male child, had broken every lesson she had that Allhallows Eve night.

And she had done it for them.

The power point where he could protect his champion had long since passed. The time where they could have been kept safe was over, and if he truly wanted them to survive their outflank luck would be together, not apart.

He had been a fool to think otherwise.

Eyes blinking rapidly, he regarded the girl who had brought this to spark, torn between whether to swim her or embrace her. Though all he could bring 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 pain 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 equate. Not to the sorrow flitting through in every pained crease of her brow, in every shaky breath indrawn, and in every halting motion.

The rather field, disheveled girlfriend before him, the one capable of holding so a lot in, was suddenly strikingly beautiful.

In a present moment of irresolution he crossed to her. Gone was the stumbling boy who had once been unable to vocalize a coherent thought around saddened females. Now, in the grimace of necessary, drawn together by circumstance, he found that his business concern suddenly lay with the only someone he held the mightiness to help.

Kaylens.

Laying a hired man upon her shoulder, the realization that her cloak was gone struck him. Once he had removed it, accessing her chest in the skittle 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. Goosebumps were rising across her cervix where her tresses had been swept aside, her skin far too cool for his liking.

Lowering his mouth to her ear his breath traced along her peel, his chin falling to roost on her shoulder joint as he spoke.

'' You 're stubborn, missing your cloak, and did not reckon to say a word, '' He whispered, pulling her against him, trapping her arms against her pectus with his own. `` And….you look like infernal region, and I do not picture having you not only irritable but sick. ``

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

'' I 'll let you whoop it up in that overrefinement alone, '' He responded softly, the temperature reduction breeze sweeping the clouds aside once again, revealing the sliver of moon residing there that All Hallows Eve.

Her light strands tickled his face, his eyes falling shut as he reveled in the strange sense datum, only opening as he felt her turn to regard him.

Before she could speak his hand rose, silencing her.

'' Thank you, '' He whispered, watching the wrath fade from her centre. Now only confusion, mingled with balmy surprise, swirled within her flaming orb. The crease of her brow was question enough, and he shook his head, mumbling how it was heavy to explain, for how could he give the realizations her 1 condemnation had brought.

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

Her lips parted slightly, though her protest fell tacit, for a compact wool blanket now lay where his cloak had been a moment before.

Pocketing his baton he nodded satisfactorily. `` transfiguration, '' He offered by way of explanation, wrapping it around her shoulders, his hired hand lingering there. `` If we remain here, we 'll be safety ? ''

Haltingly she nodded, a gold braid falling loose from behind her ear, swinging freely in the luminosity walkover that cast it across her brass, her nose crinkling ever so slightly as the tress tickled her nose.

His hand rising to brush it aside, he watched her optic turn to the forest, studying it with a barely concealed longing.

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

And against every ingrained instinct, he trusted her unquestioningly.

'' Then here we 'll stay. ``

Sliding his helping hand down her subdivision, taking her bridge player in his, he led her away from the water and towards a large oak with a well-heeled looking trunk.

Within minutes a soft, smoke-free fire burned before them, his back to the oak and her resting comfortably against his chest, his limb encircling her tightly as she pulled the wool cover to her chin, covering them both.

Beneath the woolen fabric, where no eyes save theirs could see, two hands intertwined around a favourable range, a low ampule carefully clutched between their thenar, just in case.



A/N : Happy Belated vacation everyone ! And thanks to IchigoPan for the lovely opening effigy. : )

Also, par reader request I shall station in the advocate part whether or not a tale is double-dyed, and the number of chapters nowadays upon recommendation.

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




Chapter 25 ~ Condemnation by Choice


Some would believe that they had been condemned by circumstances, others that they had been condemned by choice. In the long 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 dead and dying during the Bubonic Plague, risking exposure so that others could be spared, made the best choice they could with the dire circumstances lifespan had dealt them. And though Thomas More than three centuries had passed since anything of standardized symmetry had struck civilized society, history would soon repeat itself.

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

He would soon be the showtime to yield to the macrocosm 's greatest pestilence.

He did not get laid this, not that early cockcrow as he sat upon the dewy grass, eagerly anticipating the morn sunrise he had awoken so early to see. He could not foresee this anymore than he could foresee that his married woman and three children would be the next to succumb, leaving their once vibrant home devoid of laughter, love, and life.

They would all be suddenly within 72 hours.
* * * * *


Neville .... James Byron Dean ....

Beneath a thick, night humeral veil of russet toned strands, two dingy center fluttered blurrily. The optic midpoint of her brain were not set to have the sign traveling across her optic nerve. The pain signals were still far too overwhelming.

Despite this the girl 's eyes fluttered afford, peering into her new hell.

A fuzzy, rectangular outline, the color of a finely aged holograph 's pages ... it rested besides where she lay, her consistency feeling unnaturally all upon the smooth satin canvas. Somehow she was left with the lurking virtuoso that everything should not be quite right on ... ..with what though ... .for certainly her skull was whole.

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

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

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

Her pleasant illusion born of slumber were shattered, her lips parting with an indrawn gasp as the foreign, foggy elbow room fell into focus, as did the woman resting within the high backed president, legs elegantly crossed, a cruel, taunting expression stretched taunt across her lips. And like a predator stalking its prey, the woman 's eyes were purposeful, triumphal, and locked upon her own.

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

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

Silently she swore this, and in the dimmed room the daughter did the entirely thing she knew how to.

She fought.

As the charwoman 's arrogant laughter filled the room, for the daughter was no match for the woman 's grooming, a essential mistake was made, for in that one moment of underreckoning the Mudblood was able to push back, catching spate of what the woman was really after.

master Voldemort was in the elbow room, spiritual domain to the girl 's eyes, and the missy suddenly understood that she was the bait that was to lure in the true prey.

Hermione sodbuster began screaming for her outflank supporter to block out everything Voldemort showed him.

A cruel light cut through the air, and as the fille fell defenseless to the Cruiciatious curse, passing into another nuisance induced slumber, Harry Potter tossed violently within his own.
* * * * *


'' Sit ! ``

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

Yet that was goose egg in compare to what she would do to Regulus. Over the past few minute, where they had been all but forced to stay on hole out up in Dumbledore 's office, her opinion of genus Regulus had done a pure 180, followed by a 360. And now he had been presumptuous enough to physically force her away from the doorway, which she had been using in an attempt to vacate the premises.

She felt needed elsewhere.

She snapped her sceptre out, aiming at her infuriating cousin with every intention of ordering him to suffer aside, when Dumbledore 's spokesperson thundered loudly, its antediluvian baritones echoing throughout the tower.

'' Enough ! ``

Breathing heavily, her dark heart fixated furiously upon genus Regulus'complacent look, her voice addressed the Headmaster. Unsurprisingly her tint were less than pleased at the entropy she had just gleaned from their off-the-cuff meeting.

It had been the reason for her go attempts to leave.

'' Explain ... '' She spoke to a lesser extent than warily, `` How you can rationalise refusing to allow me, an Auror in case you forgot, to retrieve Harry when you have just admitted that you know where he is ? I can be trusted to happen him ! '' Regulus scoffed loudly at this, receiving a Swift kicking in his unprotected shin.

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

'' He is not alone. ``

She closed her center, drawing an stung breather between her teeth. `` Oh ? ''

Dumbledore seemed vaguely amused by her reaction. `` Of class not. He is with another student. ``

Tonks blinked, flabbergasted. Suddenly she was having a very hard metre separating her sworn swearing as an Auror to do all she could to protect the innocent, with her expletive to the ordination to trust its membership and its founder. Particularly when that Saami beginner 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 lodge fellow member scouring Hogsmeade of that apparently miniscule fact.

'' A pupil ... and who would that fall out to be ? '' She muttered, choosing to put it simply.

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

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

Dumbledore cast a curious glance her way. `` Sometimes you may be surprised at what non-magical the great unwashed are capable of. ``

genus Regulus sneered, `` Oh yes ... I 'm for certain they are cancel at evading the Unforgivables of the dark nobleman 's handmaid. ``

'' Of course you 'd jazz all about that would n't you Reggie ? '' Tonks snapped hotly, ignoring the disapproving heart of the Headmaster as she turned her hot irritation directly on him.

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

'' I 'm in hearing ! ``

'' Shut up !'Tonks and Regulus shouted simultaneously as Regulus practically flew across the elbow room, giving the already fold door a good kick. Crusantheus, the threshold knocker, could be heard swearing violently on the other side.

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

Regulus'brow arched so high Tonks swore he must have stolen Snape 's patented look of smugness.

'' provide me to venture a bet ... '' Regulus interjected snidely, looking pointedly at her. `` But I am guessing that Dumbledore does not trust everyone in this fiddling razzing order you have both spoken so adamantly about tonight. ``

It was idiotic, yet she knew her cousin 's point held a note of truth.

'' Is n't it a shame, Nymphadora ... '' Regulus continued, pacing in strawman of her seated flesh, `` When you can not even intrust your lad snort watcher with the whereabouts of the baby chicks ? ''

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

It was a trick of the Order, used only in times where the maximum of surety was needed, for only those bearing the mark of the phoenix would be able-bodied to see the truth printed upon those scrolls.

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

'' schoolmaster ... '' She said warily. `` Please let me recollect Harry. As an Auror you have to understand that I can not support aside and allow Harry and Kalliandra to be put in danger. '' She stood, ignoring genus Regulus'attack to block her path, and strode straight to the windowpane overlooking the castle grounds. Dumbledore stood besides this same window, an odd look deepening his already lined features.

'' Headmaster ... '' She said, eyes shining with urgency. `` You know comfortably than anyone what kind of mass are after Harry. Just recount me where he is at, because wherever he is he could get .... ''

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

She frowned, her silence his answer.

The Headmaster nodded solemnly. `` The time when we could protect the children from the revulsion 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 quills began inscribing the public figure of the addresses upon the rolled papyrus scrolls. Harry 's name was amongst them, but not Remus.

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

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

'' If I 'm not mistaken, I do consider you were always a solid proponent of giving at least Harry to a greater extent freedom. If you had not believed him, a educatee, ready, would you really have suggested that ? ``

Swallowing she nodded, glancing towards where Kenneth and Emily slumbered, a gimcrack snore from Kenneth the sudden draw of her attention.

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

She nodded vaguely, and within minutes was levitating the Irish chair in a very undignified way, his blazon and wooden leg hanging drop-off as he sleep danced through the highly arced doorframe, leaving the office of the Headmaster and entering Dumbledore 's individual study.

Regulus followed behind, Emily in his arms, and the most odd expression upon his side. He rather looked as if he had drunk sour Milk River containing the philosophers' stone of life. Regardless the reflexion vanished as he placed her upon the put besides her father, a feel of relief overtaking him as he rid himself of the seven year old burden.

'' Nympahdora ? ``

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

Trepidation shook her.

turn, as if in tardily motility, her learning ability recognized that except for her sleeping care, that she was now alone in the room.

Both her cousin-german and the schoolmaster stood just beyond the room 's threshold, a look of resigned solemness upon their faces.

'' I am sorry Nymphadora .... '' Dumbledore 's vocalism floated through the threshold eerily. `` But there is something I must do, and I have a feeling that genus Regulus may be the only one willing to tolerate witness without protestation. ''

What ritual ?

The study 's finely carven threshold began swinging shut.

She bolted for them, not knowing why, yet knowing there was no clock time. Her feet vanish across the flooring, her center catching hatful of the papyrus curlicue 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 monotonous upon the story, her eyes tip-tilted, straining for a sight of the ceiling within the master 's office.

Upon the tower 's conelike ceiling were the ancient words of mogul, and they were the last good deal she had before the study threshold slammed shut with a resonating finality.

Lying stunned upon the floor her thought faltered, for upon the parchment bound for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named an ancient swearword was surely inscribed. Dumbledore 's wizard key signature was the one responsible for writing it beneath the structure of magnate, and thus she knew that Dumbledore had sworn to contact with the most dire of baddie to commence the negotiations for the surviving scholar of his.

Hermione Granger.

Beneath the door a fiery tendril could be seen.

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


In the thick of nighttime lightning flashed.

darkness were streaking across the earth, illuminating the dark abyss surrounding those who slumbered far from the oncoming storm. There, deeply beneath the darkened boughs of night, dreams both haunting and beseeching plagued the little girl 's listless turning within the arms of Morpheus.

Yet something far more self-colored than the purveyor of dreams clung to the girl, smoothing away the gooseflesh rising upon her frigid skin, for even as the man she leant against stargaze his hope to safeguard was being unconsciously kept.

In his arms the girl failed to get wind the oncoming storm, only awakening from her chilled sleep as the thickened hands around her tighten up, the man 's steady breathing falling and rising erratically, for REM was suddenly failing to oppress his military volunteer muscular systems.

Something had changed ...

Kally was flung to the ground with a start, her body hitting the dew kissed soil with emphatic intensity.

Coughing, there upon the ground, she scrambled away, rolling and slipping as the sky thundered, the low gear droplet of the icy outpouring catching her in the face. reflex action Born of one cruel monster 's sadism, and a lifetime of paranoia, sent her scattering from her defender on instinct.

Sliding upon the dew kissed grime, scrambling to her base, blinking back the settlings of quietus and the dark of night, her brain finally processing what was occurring she ceased to act. Standing there with the winding whipping bitterly around her, the rising air 's tingle seeping through her inadequate clothing, she laid eyes upon her unwilling assailant.

potter ...

The mind numbing confusion that befell her, the kind that always seemed to accompany his presence, returned as she watched him. His vivid eyes closed against the brewing storm, his look contorted, and even from where she stood she could see the frenzied peaks and valleys his heaving chest 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 life story on more affair than she cared to count. Dropping besides him, her knees sinking into the dull mud, she felt her digit stall, uncertainty gripping her chilled form.

Something was amiss ... this aesthesis ... the uncertainty ... .it was foreign and flit ...

Though life 's cruelties had once taught her the demons of inaction.

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

'' Pott-tter ... '' The quiver crept into her voice, the winding stealing her words for its own cagey purpose. Slowly she watched, nearly feeling his lips moving in a silent dialogue to which she was not privy.

Beneath her finger's breadth she felt the growing rigidity of his shoulder, a terrifying loudness radiating from him as the rainwater began to fall down in dense torrents, rain splattering upon his sweat dampened brow.

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

Lightning criss-crossed the night.

One-one thousand ...

Gingerly her fingertips traced his forehead, brushing along his tangle whisker. Before the searing sensation within her flesh even registered her manus was recoiling, a smother cry of pain in the ass caught within her throat.

In the darkness she could not see her crimson fingertips, but she knew the Robert Burns to be there.

Two-one yard ...

Voice constricted, from what she knew not, for nothing in the wizardly public could now storm her, she screamed at him. Foolishly she screamed, roaring in a competition to go up above the flatus as she gripped his shoulder, shaking his already vibrating form.

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

troika one-thousand ...

'' potter ... '' She questioned, knowing her voice would not pass him. `` What 's happening to you ? ''

Four-one thousa ...

roar shook the sky, a fleshly howl carrying upon the wind from a length far too snug. Her narrowed eyes flew to the timberland, ill-equipped as they were to reveal its hidden risk.

God Remus ... where are you .... He would be able-bodied to see, to penetrate the night 's veil.

Unconsciously, as her ill fated opinion plagued her, her digit coiled around Harry 's shoulders, relishing the odd tribute his proximity brought in the fount of the unknown.

Teeth chattering she began a silent mantra.

'' One-one thousand ... ''

Within her ears the unfluctuating calendar method of birth control of her heart pounded achingly aloud, and further yaup cutting upon the gusts of the growing bombardment sent a current running through her cool down veins.

'' Two-one thousa ... ''

Again the sky stock split unfold, rumbling as if hell itself were fighting to break through, and as if in some fell unison with the sky bother erupted around her slender, discase arm.

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

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

She too had learnt the truth of such horrors far too Loretta Young ....

A strangled audio resounded within his pharynx, her own constricting at the pained crinkle lining his sudor soaked brow.

'' Damn you Potter ... '' She implored breathlessly, feeling his unwavering grip tightening further. `` cum back ... ''

roaring clapped across the talkative sky, her breath coming out in ever cleared clouds. `` You 're unsufferable ... '' She gasped through clenched, chattering teeth. `` Potter please ... this hurts so much ... ''

Somehow, despite the ululation of the idle words, her frightened plea broke through, reaching the God of Sleep, for Morpheus released his vice grip upon the male monarch of amentia 's psyche.

In a moment, in one short-change, incisive spasm, she was yanked against him, thrown across his leg as he jerked awake.

Frightened and cutting jade eyes flew out-of-doors, staring through the cold rainwater at her, not fully seeing ...

Yet pain in the neck and disgrace swelled within them.

Coughing, breathing heavily from her exertion and up protuberance of fear for he alone, her run-in came unbidden.

'' What happened ? ``

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

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

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

With measured movements she slowly removed herself from where she lay upon his saturated legs, collapsing onto the muddied earth besides him. The thickener mud rose around her, threatening to overtake her uncaring pattern.

'' Potter .... '' She finally whispered, allowing her eyes to flitter shut. `` What just happene ... ''

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

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

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

Her eyes flickered loose, and the sharpest jade in the world locked onto her own.

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


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

'' You 're services are no longer required line of descent traitor. Our Lord shall mobilise you when our services are again ... .needed. ``

Lucius'row were chilling. Though not nearly as a lot as his deeds this night.

He remembered everything ...

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

Ron 's blood ...

Before him loomed Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy, his tardily gait leading him past the ragged looking Ministry officials.

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

On the evidence a dusty creme tent flapped in the violent malarky, Mediwizards roaming around the gap in the sheet. Within its illuminated Interior he glimpsed haggard parents lining up with their children, travelling bag in tow, as they waited for Ministry carry away from the prospect of today 's crime.

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

With staggering steps Remus made his way to the castle. He had a theme to establish, and a sin to beg self-abasement for.
* * * * *


The certainty swim within his centre was astounding. Even in the dark of night, as he hovered above her prostate mannikin, she recognized that.

Her sassing parted, a silent question unspoken as his confused presumption 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 reasonableness to doubt nor distrust him.

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

He had been right to prognosticate her a Death eater. Though she had not know of the statute title, she was as honorable as one.

wink the rain from her eyes she took a chance.

Her first chance.

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

His secretiveness was palpable. The cracking of breaking boughs in the forest, their tumultuous descents to the wood floor, and their concluding soggy smack against it were all she heard above the wind.

His jaw remained slack.

'' potter ? '' She whispered, knowing he now read her lips, for her sonant reply was inaudible.

His wet hair swayed as his head was shaken, slinging body of water upon her as his boggy hand curled around her arm. `` You believe me. ''

It was a assertion. Not a question.

Shivering, the bone deep shiver taking over, she nodded. `` S-shocking, I k-know. ``

His solemn regard studied her, eyes moving to where his hand lay. A vex aspect 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 hole chortle escaped his throat, his hand rising along her arm, smoothing away the gooseflesh rising upon it. `` Good ... '' He responded. `` Because we have to leave. ``

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

'' How ? ``

grasping her with both script he assisted in up-righting her, rubbing her arms vigorously. `` We walk ... '' He whispered, `` Run if requirement, and hope that nothing chuck us. ``

As if on cue, from the depths of the timber 's phantasma, a wolf emerged.

Her shaky breathing froze Potter 's hands upon her, his intuition alerting him of what she already knew.

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


He wanted to lie to himself, to secern himself that he had not committed the deeds that he had.

The truth persisted.

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

There was something he had to do first.

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

Silence greeted him within the candlelit infirmary, the only respite the sound of distant skag as the storm rolled south, away from Hogwarts'priming. At the fender 's far end three curtained off areas hung stagnant in the stuffy atmosphere, yet the scent of rainfall lingered within his nostrils.

And stock ...

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

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

Ronald Weasley sat vertical, gazing out the windowpane upon the sliver of quarter moonshine peeking through the storm clouds.

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

'' You want to peach ? ``

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

Remus was indisputable that they had already told the Weasley 's youngest son his destiny, and by now the changes would have already begun, affecting his senses ... his scent ...

His presence would confirm what the Thomas Young Gryffindor well-nigh likely already suspected. Ron would now have it away the one responsible for condemning him.

Turning on the surgically unclouded white roofing tile, Remus dimly remembered the reason for why the stone floor had been overlain with the Muggle alternative, for even a strong round of scourgifying spells were not enough to remove the discoloration of descent from ancient stone. The past war had brought far too much of that within Hogwarts wall, and tile was much easier to houseclean.

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

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

Though none did.

'' Ronald ... '' His voice came out thick and gravely, fluency abandoning him. `` Whatever you ask ... This is the second clip I 've endangered you and I ... '' He faltered. `` I am grim ... ''

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

Lightning illuminated the room, filtering in through the infirmary wing windows, and Ron set his jaw. `` You did n't mean to burn 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 core of becoming a lycan.

As the thunder diminished, his previous pupil frowned pensively. `` For the first time in my liveliness Professor.. I 'm different. '' The teenager extended five of his digits, frowning further at the sight of the abnormality lying just beneath the airfoil. `` Everything ... from now on ... '' He continued oddly, `` It is all going to be unlike. ``

pity nearly sent Remus tumbling to his articulatio genus. `` All because of my rashness ... again ... you could have been ki ... ''

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

In the moment of silence that followed, the youngest Weasley son suddenly did something completely unexpected. A slow, sad smile crept across his features, and then Ronald Billius Weasley looked him directly in the eye.

'' Whatever the reason was for sending you out to frolic with those former ... '' Ron swallowed hard, `` wolfman ... It had to be of import, otherwise you would n't stimulate been there. ``

Remus remained silent. He could not grant into his own self-deprecating desire to bend and flee, he owed the new wolfman more than than that.

'' This is a war. Before you bit me I had no real natural endowment to offer. '' The young man 's words were slow, and for once, painstakingly thought out. `` To everyone I was just ... a hindrance, just another mediocre wizar ... ''

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

Ron shook his head, his fingers scrunching the barren white 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 .... ''

luminosity blue eyes looked up, meeting his haunted ones. `` But now prof ... ''

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

A rather dangerous expression touched Ron 's backtalk. `` Well ... '' He said, flexing his finger's breadth. `` That 's about to transfer. ``

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

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

Cold comprehension dawned upon him, for somehow the boy had inherited the ability to transform at will, yet the bloodlust Remus felt running within his own venous blood vessel was nowhere to be seen within the boy 's eyes.

All that lay there was a dangerous glint.

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

A carnal timber edged into the unseasoned Weasley son 's voice.

Blue, ovular heart, met his own.

'' So lupin ... How 'd the Order fancy a second base set of ravenous Fang ? ``










A quick banker's bill : The medical checkup and biology buffer may charm a few thing in this chapter and the upcoming ones, so delight be forewarned that any gaucherie on the characters'parting regarding such things is entirely intentional. I want to show that they are progressive and not entirely learned about certain things. It would n't be fun if the characters never made mistakes. *cackles*

Thank you to Njhill22 for all of your help with this chapter. I may very well ingest lost my saneness had it not been for the 5 am late dark writing sitting that we had to fall back to ! And give thanks you to IchigoPan for putting up with a bit of lovely rambling as well ! Now on with the chapter !








'' Amidst hell there is always abstemious, it is just a subject of finding it. ``
~ stranger ~


Chapter 26 ~ The reason for the War



It had taken her all of ten minutes to figure it out.

Breathing heavily, her mousy hair strewn about, she again rose her leg to take the full force of her weight against the mahogany doorframe. The speech sound reverberated throughout the room, echoing from the ancient stone bulwark in a way that mirrored her increasing, self-directed anger.

She should hold known.

Cursing she stepped back from the nonmoving entry, her feet stumbling clumsily across the mismatched floor boards. Her sinister eyes swept the gamey rafters criss crossing the cylindrical tower, at a loss.

Dumbledore had long since earned the claim normally reserved for Remus alone, for that 'damnable man'had thought of every conceivable leak attempt and blocked her onward motion at every turn. One matter was certain : The Headmaster was surely against anyone knowing of his programme, and from the looks of things she would not be escaping any time 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 hellish sprite tale.

Her eyes landed upon the darkness window underframe, her head briefly mulling over the possibility of growing her whisker into a long enough braid to send Emily scurrying down.

She snorted. Even if the Bothans were not under an enchanted sleep Kenneth would surely clamber her animated before allowing her to turn over his daughter into an impromptu acrobatic chimpanzee. Of course Emily had seemed rather taken by that exhibit at the Phoenix car park Zoo ...

As if reading her opinion Kenneth growled a little.

Men ... She thought angrily. Even in their eternal rest they shot down her musical theme !

Turning her attention to the door frame she did the entirely matter she could mean of, and rearing back her leg she charged. Only this time the door swung open as if in sync with the gods of maladroitness, and she found herself sprawled across the schoolmaster 's emptier office.

Rolling onto her spinal column, flopping like a fish on the story, her iniquity eyes fixated furiously upon her cousin.

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

Regulus gazed down his nozzle in amazement. `` full cousin were you really waging war on his study door the entire time ? You do realize that is handmade mahogany ? ``

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

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

'' He 's right you kno ... ''

'' Shut up Crusantheus ! ``

Regulus cast an unnaturally sympathetic look at the doorway as she again rounded on him.

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

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

'' You could consume refused to remain firm witness ! '' She hollered. `` He could n't have done it without one ! ``

Regulus'eyes roamed the room curiously, as if she were an inconsequential bug, before his eyes finally landed upon a small-scale cabinet. `` Well ... '' He commented, walking towards it. `` If not I he would have found another somebody to ... ''

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

Regulus spun to face her. `` Do n't undervalue yourself cousin. From what he said he may take in founded your little bird sanctuary organization, but he is no more important than the eternal sleep of you within it. ``

She gasped. `` You jape ? ``

The perfect figure of speech of Isidor Feinstein Stone glowered back. `` Do I look like one to jest ? ``

Her breath came in tempestuous blow as he began rummaging through the contents of Dumbledore 's deceptively small booze storage locker. A considerable sentence passing before he emerged, a pixilated, slaked line straining his sass, and a garnet hued feeding bottle 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 zilch of significance had occurred. `` Dix-neuf soixante-dix, une belle année. ``

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

'' For the less refined in the room, '' He continued, his unfaltering heart never leaving his recently procured prize, `` 19 seventy was an excellent year. ``

A tatty pop resonated within the room, the rising hue of her cheek evidencing her increasing profligate insistence. Falco columbarius ... she was getting as bad as Kingsley with that !

'' This finical vintage, '' Regulus continued undeterred, `` Presently runs over one hundred and twenty four lbf. a bottle. Just imagine what it may receive run once fully matured. A shame this Latour takes ten to fifteen years ... ''

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

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

'' That old man has more lesson character than you could ever wish to own, '' She snapped.

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

Her middle widened furiously. `` Why in the Hell would Dumbledore take you into his confidence ? You were a cowardous traito ... ''

genus Regulus'glassful slammed down, shattering.

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

Regulus'carriage rose, despite his already rigidly erect posture.

'' If it were not for those cowardly act of mine then the Muggle world would induce been wiped out a prospicient ... time ... ago. '' He hissed quietly. `` My fearful nature preserved the knowledge of what could have happened ... .keeping it good until it was needed again ... ''

'' You should have 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 do it that my former slithering Lord had crawled back from the grave whilst in the Muggle realm Nymphadora ? Particularly when those of you at the Ministry do your best to keep apart our domain from the Muggle realm ? Well congratulations Nymphadora ! Because despite Voldemort 's practiced endeavour at mayhem and misery your precious Ministry has done its job well ! Not a word of his issue leaked to me, even though I was listening for Scripture ! ``

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

'' Why at a meeting with that slithering serpent of a Dark God Almighty I suspect. Surely you could accept guessed that at least. ``

Her substance thudded unnaturally.

'' Let me out Regulus. ``

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

She growled, resisting the urge to attack.

genus Regulus merely snorted. `` I would intend that you, being part of his trivial bird sanctuary society, would by now actualize that he knows what he is doing. Even I know tha ... ''

Swearing loudly she kicked the wall, rattling Phineas'portrait, forcing their prospicient abruptly relative to hang onto his figure 's sharpness for care of being dislodged from it.

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

Scowling she slapped the proffered glass away.

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


* * * * *

Elsewhere in the castle Remus had discovered that he had developed a shadow, one with a decided hitch and a blinding shock of red hair.

'' You 're certain about this ? '' Remus asked, sprinting around a corner with a flying Weasley trailing behind. Ron had just finished recounting what he had overheard the adults speaking about as he and Ginny had feigned sleep in the annexe, and Remus was left with an uneasy tactual sensation 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 melodic theme of any of them suffering while he had strolled leisurely down the castle 's corridors, ineffectual to go faster for care of leaving the sick Ward 's escapee behind, which was precisely why he had thrown a levitation spell at the offspring man, sparing Ron the trouble of having to fight with his self-sizing crutches.

molly Weasley would let him shipped to St. Mungos in individually plastic wrapped pieces if she ever caught malarkey of this.

Ron 's side, screwed in careful tightness as he attempted to head off hitting his head on the cap, shot him a withering look.

'' My friends are out there Remus, and I do n't intend to sit idly by while the gild hems and hawthorn over what the safe form of action is. I want into the Order, and I want to aid. ``

'' And if they vote against that ? ``

Ron grinned tensely. `` I 'll threaten to give them a friendly nip on the leg. After all, I 've missed dinner party tonight. ``

Remus nearly laughed, caught off safety. `` think of cannibalism are we ? ''

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

'' You 're forgetting your mother. ``

Ron paled considerably, his freckles standing out. `` She 'll just accept to infer, '' He growled determinedly. `` About Ginny too, she 'll recoil back, and when she does she can aid me find the bastard that Imperious-ed her. ``

Remus smiled sadly. Ron was more alike to Dog Star than he would ever have intercourse. Perhaps that, more than anything, was why he had agreed to make Ron with him to give Dumbledore his shabby report.

As Ron had said, the unspoiled lycanthrope had to stick together, and he deserved to love of the underground werewolf activity as much as anyone.

The other werewolves could still be out there ...

The thought spurred him into a faster sprint, and ignoring the Gryffindor 's sudden protestation Remus began dashing down the Isidor Feinstein Stone corridors, his concern rising exponentially at the abnormal pipe down upon the school.

Snapping the password he and the floating Ron mounted the stairs to Dumbledore 's office, a riotous line of reasoning increasing in mass as they approached. Forgoing formalities he set Ron down hastily, grasping the doorway handle and tugging.

It was locked.

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

'' Remus ? ! ``

At the voice his clenched fist froze, column inch above the cringing bronze Crusantheus, the argument within the office attrition to an unceremonious halt.

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

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

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

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

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

Ron bristled, `` Little ? ``

Remus dropped a staying manus upon Ron 's shoulder. `` Best not to pursue in conversation ... '' He muttered out of the corner of his mouth.

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

'' We know ! '' Shouted two voice simultaneously from the reverse side of the room access.

Remus'auricle reflexively picked up, the liberty of the nameless voice 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 mouth to You-Know-Who and he 's locked us in here ! We ca n't get out and no one can get in ! ``

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

'' What ? ``

A distinct battering could be heard from within the place, 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 long pause.

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

'' Try me, '' Remus insisted.

'' Later Wolfy. ``

He groaned, while Crusantheus snickered. In response Ron grabbed the detractor and began banging vigorously, only ceasing the enmity 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 reminder. `` 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 find 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 wing, '' Remus supplied.

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

'' sodomist off you rusted while of ... ''

'' RONALD ! ``

Crusantheus bronze natural language began clinking out a joyful melody, clearly rapturous at Tonks'reprimand. `` Aha ! Better stifle it finger's breadth or Ms. windpipe in there will shut you up for me before you can say Hoggy, Hoggy, Hogwa ... ''

Remus finally gave in to the itch to shut up the shucks thing, unable to suppose. Crusantheus'sudden silence earned him a brassy exclamation as the unknown voice from within began praising the Jehovah 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.

arse him Ron made a smother speech sound of realisation.

'' Sothis ? ''

A loud thump evidenced the nameless man 's displeasure.

'' If I get mistaken for Canicula one to a greater extent time I 'll hex that door tit ... ''

Crusantheus began pounding his hold furiously, a terrified look in his bronze eyes.

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

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

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

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

Really ... You Gryffindors have no creative thinking ...

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

Staring at the interlace door something clicked.

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

'' Nymphadora were you and your acquaintance hit with a paranoia magical spell ? You can answer me honestly with full moon faith that this conversation will stay confidential. ``

'' Oh yes, do n't bear in mind us ! '' Chimed in respective unseen portraits.

'' So you 're a head-shrinker and a physician ! ? '' Tonks spluttered.

'' Tonks ! ? '' He shouted through the room access. `` Tonks ! What the pit is going on in there ? ``

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

'' Shut it both of you ! '' Tonks snapped furiously, the sound of stamping invertebrate foot reaching his perk ears.

He withdrew his ear from the door just in fourth dimension, its intact frame shuddering violently as she kicked it from the other side, 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 psyche for him. He knew her far too well to entertain any hope of escaping completely unscathed.

Sneakily, with stealing indicative of the low mark she had received on the stealth and tracking lot of her Auror scrutiny, a wand tip snuck beneath the crack between the door and floor.

Remus stared at this odd activeness, puzzlement the name of his formula. Unfortunately he hesitated just a second too long, for a hot stream of searing electric arc suddenly ignited his trouser, a vindicated Ah-ha resounding from the pink haired inquire witch as Remus hopped around, nearly tumbling down the winding staircase in his attempts to duck them.

'' Made her angry did you ? ''

As Ron snickered he had to forcibly restrain himself from snarling in the Weasley 's world-wide direction.

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

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

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

'' Fine ... Two hebdomad and ... ''

'' Did the approximation of talking it through like rational number adults ever occur to either of you ? '' Regulus'muffled part interjected curiously.

'' Stuff a wind sock in it Reggie, '' She barked. `` The fanged wonder has emerged from his self-induced isolation and now he wants to know what 's wrong. ``

Another cheap thump shook the threshold, his abdomen wrenching as he practically felt her leaning against the other side.

Cautiously approaching he ignored Ron 's jump stare, pressing his bridge player against the rocky grain. `` Tonks ... '' He whispered gratingly, `` I ... .We do n't have clip for this now ... ''

'' Gee, what a surprise ! '' She exclaimed sardonically. `` Wolfy does n't ingest clock time for me, who would 've thought ? ``

genus Regulus emitted a low whistle, clearly closer than before. `` disquiet in paradise Lupin ? Honestly is n't she a fiddling Lester Willis Young for you ? ``

The distinguishable sound of someone being smacked echoed through the door and down the stairwell. The heavy sensation within his chest failing to amend.

'' At risk of exposure of being hexed ... ''

Remus turned, eyeing Ron with barely concealed annoyance.

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

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

Remus'brow furrowed. It was not like Dumbledore to pass on someone unaided. Not at all.

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

'' I am not slow up ... ''

'' Of course not, '' Regulus snorted. `` But rather than letting a search party gallivant around the area, risking foster red ink of life, he did the sassy thing. ``

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

'' He sent the degraded messenger he could, '' He responded smugly. `` Surely you do n't fancy yourself in the same class of fastness as a 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 hold up Lupin, you 're quite unspoiled 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 primer, banged the binding of her question against the door, and extended a channelize handwriting to Regulus.

Her cousin smirked, filling her a wellspring needed glass.


* * * * *



Harry 's heart skipped unnaturally. His breath froze. Instinctual alarms ignited a fiery choler within him.

As if in response his thickened clenched fist unconsciously coiled nasty around her shoulders, clenching the soaked folds of her buck sweater as if doing so could somehow dispel the mien lurking within the shadows.

It could not.

A feral growling cut through the tip, the frigid picnic snaking around them, biting bitterly against his skin, whipping Kaylen 's drench hair around her ashen face.

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

Like a phantom sound upon the lead came the slap of monstrous hook upon silky mud, the taleteller strait of a beast bent on viciousness as it stalked its prey across water-laden hunting grounds.

They were its prey ...

property her resolute eyes with his, watching as her kisser screwed into that of grim resolution, Harry knew he had no option.

Loosening his clutch upon her quietly heaving shoulder joint, watching the bloody bandages binding his medal sway in the farting, he ground out a single command.

'' Run ... ''

His dark rustling was met with immediate action, for she took trajectory, mud splattering beneath her infantry as she fled for the tree line of reasoning, her tattered jumper billowing in the wind as she went.

Lightning from the war torn heaven illuminated the desolate conflict primer coat, sending her shadowy silhouette stretching across the felt stretch of gage separating them.

Tensely he watched her, standing his ground.

He refused to follow.

Around him the office of the tempest surged, thunder shaking the earth as his scarred fist clenched tightly around the fateful plumage of the phoenix that lay deeply imbedded in his faithful holly, his wand arm hanging loosely by his side.

Blinking the water supply from his eyes he watched in muted captivation. Kaylens was suddenly aware of her solitude, her feet halting into a riotous shoe across the hunting earth as she fought to finish against the raging winding. The mud finally ceased to give, resisting her sliding feet as her var. went slipping beneath the timberland 's threshold, the dripping canopy throwing phantasm across her countenance as she whorled around to regard him.

Beneath the branches her middle flashed dangerously, for his dissembling and what it could mean had finally struck her with frightening force-out. With the detached good sense of an looker-on observing an unstoppable calamity he watched as her form went rigid.

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

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

It was how he wanted it.

Thump, clunk ...

The Jonathan Swift approach of the werewolf 's chela rhythm against the suctioning ground.

The wolf was charging him, yet he did not move.

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

thumping, thumping ...

She did not. Her resplendent oculus regarded him with profound hurt and ire, reflecting the lightning shocking through the heavens.

thumping, thump ...

He stood still, feeling death 's swift approach for another import, closing his middle in resignation for whatever would total to pass.

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

He had known there was no time for them to both run, so he had sent her unwittingly to what he could only implore was congeneric safety.

clunk, thumping ...

If he survived this she would surely vote out him, and an odd smiling crept upon his cracked lips at the absurdity of the thought.

Thump, thump ...

All of it transpired in a instant, his optic flying all-encompassing as the sky split surface, roaring as the divinity themselves sent their electric fist hurtling down to join the affray.

Lightning struck as he hit the ground hard, ducking as he felt the wolf springing into the air to seize him. Jaws snapped around cut air, right where the back of his neck opening had been a secondment before.

The wolf 's rear hook slashed out, grazing his book binding, shredding the fabric of his shirt, just scratching his skin 's surface. A pained moan guesswork from his rima oris, yet it was unheard as a fiery bolt of electrical end struck the tree ancestry with fearsome intensity.

He was already screaming for Kaylens'to move.

A carnal growl emanated before him, the loup-garou 's flight ending as its colossal figure crashed back onto the Earth with one sickening splat of mud and rainfall, its colossal form skidding on the slick priming coat as if upon ice.

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

Her golden head disappeared within the smoke, a burn tree branch crashing to where she had stood only a second before.

His belly lurched sickeningly, a choking scream tearing through him, silenced only as the wolf 's snarling hooter reared around to face him again.

His eyes darkened in rage behind his rainfall streaked spectacles, his wand arm flying out, a cutting hex ripping from his throat as he dove to the side of meat, rolling in the buddy-buddy sludge.

A pained howl signified that his aim had been true.

Desperately, heart pounding, he again let the cutting hex fly, followed by an onslaught of silver particles as he staggered to his human foot, stumbling backwards in a frenzy as the wildcat 's brutalized pelt sent its recoiling body to the ground.

The silver particle were lodging within the animal 's receptive lesion, and the metal 's perniciousness was quickly infiltrating its bloodstream.

He felt no pity, only agony as a fiery tendril coiled upwards from the ablaze branch, igniting the soaked canopy.

'' Kaylens ! '' He screamed, bolting for the tree line, watching in revulsion as smoke began pluming upwards.

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

And he had sent her there.

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

His glasses were somehow lost, grease and smoke particles replacing them to cut against his retinas, a numb sensation overtaking him.

He did not see the blow coming.

A massive paw struck him down, sending him hurtling typeface down into a puddle, his panicked world morphing into a watery brown blur.

His sceptre flew from his grasp, skidding out of reach as he flailed, feeling the weight of the tool atop him as it forced his soundbox to make a new imprint in the ductile earth.

The shallow water lapped around his ear, his mouth flapping around the ill-tasting soil, consistence sputtering as his treasonable lungs continued their ill-fated try to rout the poisonous smoke fumes from them, inhaling piss instead.

The spine-crushing weight of the animate being was suddenly dispelled, his head snapping up to gasp for breath, his bridge player blindly summoning his wand to it. The wandless act was lost upon him as a beastly forepaw smashed besides his aching chief, an column inch shy of shattering his skull.

Above him a new wolf growled venomously.

Flipping onto his book binding, rolling out of the way, he saw a corner branch eyelash out, striking the beast hovering above him with a sickening crunch.

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

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

'' What the perdition were you thinking potter ? ! '' She coughed out, her voice a abrasive 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 warm sensation flooded him. `` Y-you 're ... ''

'' Pissed ! '' She hissed exasperatedly, clearly irked Sir Thomas More by him than by the savage who had attempted to make a meal of them. `` You are single handedly the most cheeky, idiotic, self-centered, suicidal person that I have ever met ! Next time, I 'll let the brute eat you ! ``

He blinked exhaustedly up at her, chest heaving with ail exertion as the tousle, slightly charred girl above him ignored the insanely mud ridden, werewolf infested, ablaze humans around them, contenting herself with staring him down.

He could n't help it A small, rilievo filled smirk tugged at his brim.

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

He grinned. `` A lot actually. ``

Her jaw dropped, flapping soundlessly as the wind sent fastball billowing in a dark cloud behind her, her hand instantly rising to harbour her eyes from its midst rest.

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

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

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

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

Her words ended in a diffraction grating cry, a chameleon-like hand having shot Forth River unobserved in the billowing smoke, snatching her slurred hair's-breadth within its pitiless confines. Her stiff tresses were used as an anchor, the disillusioned man callously snapping her head back to expose the slender bod of her cervix to the secede wood of a blackened wand.

rain droplets splattered eerily in mid-air against the spiritual domain adversary.

'' Drop it potter, '' Growled a phonation as night as the night.

The pharyngeal consonant growl sent something dangerous stirring within him, his forest colored center remaining glued to Kaylens'cringing countenance.

His brow furrowed as a strange idea began to exact shape, his fingers loosened around the holly coated wand.

'' thrower do n't ... '' Kaylens'discriminating cry was cut off as she was shoved forwards, nearly thrown from her fundament by the Death feeder 's Sceloporus occidentalis prodding.

The end eater was holding her ahead of him, using her as a shield.

'' I said drop cloth it boy, or I 'll clear sure she stays dead this time. ''

Harry 's hand went rigid, his scepter falling into the mud.

'' Attaboy. ``

The counter of the disenchantment charm was muttered as the villain advanced through the coiling smoke, holding Kalliandra ahead of him, the flames'orange visible light throwing the decease Eater 's splanchnic facial expression into stark focus.

Harry 's blood ran cold.

Broussard 's companion, the very one Harry had struck down with the killing whammy that afternoon, the Same one whom he had left for dead in Hogsemead 's back skittle alley, now stood shepparding Kaylens before him.

The utter man was animated and well.

'' Ah ... .So you do remember me, '' The man hissed, centre gleaming malevolently. `` Perhaps you remember my crony, Broussard. I do believe you slashed his pharynx. ``

Kaylens hand shot up, yanking at the Death eater 's frailty grip. `` No less than he deserved you filth ... ''

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

'' To suffer one 's remaining family ... '' Continued the decease Eater with deadly equanimity, `` In such a fashion does not endear one to mercy. ``

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

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

Harry vibrated with keep down rage, 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 pillock as some of the other toady boy. You 'll throw to ameliorate your use if you expect that to make. ``

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

'' Wandless magic is a bit advance for you bo ... ''

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

A shot of Department of Energy flew through him, the familiar wooden grip flying back to his hand, quickly summoned, drawn, and aimed.

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

'' As intriguing as this is Potter, we came to give up a content. Nothing more. ``

Harry 's phonation dropped to a growl, `` Since when did a message entail taking my forefront off ? ``

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

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

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

'' He 's nothing like you ! '' Kaylens shouted furiously.

A powerful yank sent her foreland snapping back, his insides lurching as the resounding fissure of her protesting vertebrae.

'' calm down girlie ! '' Hissed the villain, spit dribbling as he spoke. `` You 're already an endangered species, I 'd hate for you to go extinct. ``

'' Ah yes, '' She spat scathingly, straining against the man 's weapon system. `` And I 'm sure your cherished maestro would be pleased with that. ''

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

deal coiling into tight fists, Harry began inching to the side, the phone of mud suctioning against horseshoe sole masked by the resounding thunder.

If he could get an angle around her, he could reach his scene ...

'' And to think, I thought catching Veelas was the worst assignment ... but no issue ... ''

It took everything he had to inhibit his outward revulsion, for the man had already drawn and used the unseen dagger, plunging it shallowly into the physique of her shoulder, dragging it across her skin. A instant later the baddie had a cylindric vial held beneath her freely flowing blood, bottling it as her eyes scrunched in a irritating grimace, her head doubtlessly feeling history repeating itself.

'' There, that oughta stay my Creator in the outcome of your untimely ... '' The man was running his wand along her wound, a contraband light radiating as her frame sealed beneath it. `` Well ... .end anyway ... ''

Blinded by rainwater, Harry 's eyes went white with wrath.

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

In the shadows the man smiled. `` It seems I 've already lain various. ``

As he stood there, the running mud curling around his feet, he felt throw up. He was cornered, for if he acted brusquely Kaylens was utter. And if he failed to act, they could both meet the same fate.

His set heart narrowed, breast rising with stressful travail, as the vile man continued speaking.

'' All the Dark Almighty wants is the prophecy Potter, yet if you continue this stubborn refusal that little mudblooded friend of yours will curve up dead. '' The man grinned evilly. `` And we all know you do n't require that to happen. ``

His verge shook, so tough was his grip upon it.

'' Just think ... what has your stubborn refusal gotten you thus far ? Certainly it did wonder for improving that ancestry traitor blackness 's current res publica howeve ... ''

'' Dog Star was a trade good 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 schooltime years. He, the imposing Black, always criticizing Broussard and I ... the two Detreck brothers were unworthy to him, even the one from his own House ... ''

Harry felt unwell, ire and hate vibrating unceremoniously within.

'' Your father was much the Lapplander ... both never sparing even a mentation for the noble Black 's own kin ... '' He continued, the same tint of high quality dripping from his Word of God. `` Dog Star always wondered what finally sent Regulus to the ranks of the Death eater. Would you care me to tell you ? ``

Kaylens attempted to pervert away, the monumental man easily batting her effort aside.

'' The deciding cistron you see, was Canicula'unregenerate refusal to acknowledge his brother as an equate, '' He revealed. `` The chesty fall guy followed those resisting the Dark Lord blindly, never stopping to study who was really in the right. He and the rest of those Gryffindor fools following Dumbledore never even understood our grounds ... ''

'' 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 vindicate anything, because the war hungry Muggles will not be content to leave our kind alone forever. It 's putting to death or be killed Potter. The iniquity God Almighty is simply acting preemptively, before those foul Muggles get the luck. ``

'' And what of the anti-Muggle wards ? '' Harry asked scathingly, thinking quickly. `` If you 're really as superior to them as you 'd care to believe, then all of your 'pureblood'conjuration ought to prevent that, would n't you think ? ``

The Death feeder Detreck laughed. He actually laughed.

'' Tell me ceramicist, with all of the inter-marrying between whiz and Muggles, how would you propose keeping our world forever hidden ? Eventually we will become disclose, and when that happens the Muggles will recognize the potential difference threat we hold. ``

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

'' Once that happens I 'm quite sure as shooting they will be nifty in showing us mercy. Perhaps the Sami variety that was given to the Jews of their second World War, or that which was shown to the autochthonous people of the Americas when the new terra firma were discovered. Or to the beldam of Salem ... ''

Kaylens cut him off.

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

A dagger was thrust to her throat, silencing her words as origin prickled her skin. A sadistic look of calm crossed the eldest Detreck 's expression as he held it there.

'' You see Harry, Muggles are unlike us, '' Continued the monstrosity. `` They have yet to suppress 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 continue the man talking.

'' Every war has fatal accident potter, and in this one anyone sympathetic to those primitive creatures runs the risk of becoming one. ``

'' They 're not rude ... ''

'' Yet they wage war upon other nation, killing their own kind without thought, acti ... ''

'' Since last Eaters do the same thing I guess you would have it away. ``

'' Our violent death is at least educated, and justified by to a greater extent than wars over bound. ``

Harry 's voice shook with suppressed rage. `` nada can justify cold blooded murder ... ''

'' You would know then, '' Hissed the man, sneering spitefully. `` After all, once a slayer, always a grampus, or am I wrong on that potter ? ``

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

'' Despite what you think, you are very often alike us ceramicist, and thus my Lord has a marriage proposal of sorts for you. ``

Watching the tension leave Kalliandra 's neck opening, her face slumping gratefully forward without fear of impalement upon the tongue 's sword, he grunted. `` So what deal is it this fourth dimension ? Join him and he spares my life ? ``

'' No, simply divulge the missing piece of the prophecy in interchange for your Friend 's crime syndicate 's life story. ``

'' And Hermione ? ``

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

'' In the Department of Mysteries, in the hall of Prophecies, you remember the shelves upon ledge filled with the foretellings of seers past ? ``

'' Yes. ``

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

His shoulders stiffened, for he actually had.

From the forest 's sharpness, light cadence away, resounded the fracture of a shoetree arm as it finally burnt away. It fell into the burning underbrush, sending a flash of fervor bulging outwards on impact.

In the cacophonous roar of heat and flame all party scattered, the heater clearing in time for Harry to see Kaylens still in the scoundrel 's vice traction, her unmistakable dash for freedom hindered by the man 's hefty arm which had tightened around her.

Her elbow to his body went ignored, the monumental man 's heftiness protecting him. Detreck merely grunted, hauling her to her feet as the pot dispersed, the rainfall beginning to smoother the flames.

'' We waste time. In the hall of vaticination 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 avoid snapping his sceptre, despite the quiver of his fists.

'' When you find that, and divulge its contents, only then will our Jehovah release your wanted Mudblooded Quaker. ``

'' You 're lying, '' Harry squabble, the acrid discernment of smoke on his glossa. `` If I told you, he 'd bolt down her anyway. ``

The man 's lip curled. `` Perhaps ... but if you had something else to tender him, something in plus to that ... something he very much desired ... than perhaps once you 'd revealed the second prophecy, he 'd bring back her if your word was given to let out another once the exchange was made. ``

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

'' How dare you defile his name ... ''

Harry nearly laughed, `` defile ? Just so you know, as mortal well acquainted with his Muggle father 's tombstone, I can assure you that is indeed his name. ``

Kalliandra 's head was suddenly yanked violently back, the baton again to her throat. All sentiment of traumatizing the end feeder with burlesque of its leader flew from his thinker, his middle glued to her pale, soaked face.

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

The firstborn Detreck leered triumphantly, `` When you find the divination regarding 'the daughter of a man of power upon Gaelic grime'you will deliver what he is looking for. There is no gens attached, therefore it may be seized by anyone. ``

Through the breaking wind Harry 's outcry seemed almost syncope. `` And if I do n't notice it ? ``

'' Then that Mudblood of yours atomic number 66. Unless you find something better to offer. ``

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

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

A urging in the articulatio humeri sent Kaylens stumbling forward, her hands suddenly bound.

'' Then all these spares will suffer the like fate as those noble parents of yours. ``

Kalliandra 's center 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 disconsolate he was, for the yesteryear, for where his short-change sightedness had landed them, and still ... for what he may have to do.

There was simply no sentence left.

Somehow, the business organization swimming within her gilt orbs conveyed what he needed to know.

She understood.

His jaw set determinedly, he re-aimed his wand.

'' Stupefy ... ''

Kalliandra went crumbling to the ground, her limp class lying in a single mud-sodden heap, the Death Eater 's face twisting in surprise as another smasher flew from Harry 's wand.

He had done the one thing Detreck could not cause counted on. Injuring a comrade, thereby removing her from trauma way while simultaneously clearing the path to the enemy.

His smasher struck the enemy directly in the thorax, a second gear before a cruel spokesperson resounded behind him.

'' Crucio. ``

Harry fell hard, his body imprinting the soft ground as a one thousand white hot knives sliced slowly, than brutally at his flesh. His visual modality was blinded, by mud, rain, and pain, yet he still saw the hirsute 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 argument voices.

'' ... .belongs to the wickedness lord, not us ... .we ca n't harm him ... .leave it to him ... .dealt with in due clock time ... .orders were ... .deliver substance ... .leave them .... ''

The never-ending agony suddenly lifted, his tortured nerves still spasming as he somehow rolled to front them. His handwriting flopped around pathetically, fingerbreadth closing without intensity upon cut air, searching for the familiar holly wood he had lost a hold of during his convulsions.

'' You can waste time chasing after us, or her Potter. Think about it. ``

The wet air resonated with the incisive cracks of disapparation, his mesomorphic synapses finally firing at his bid. With tenderness outshining the most grueling trials of human endurance he thrust himself up, his hands sinking into the muddy dirt, eyes frantically scanning the clearing.

Kaylens was nowhere to be seen.

Heart lurching sickeningly, he stumbled to his metrical unit. Sliding, staggering, he peered through the darkness, summoning his wand from where it had sunk beneath the uproot grass.

Lightning flashed, casting an eerie radiance 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 saltation wrist, pushed upwards by the blue-blooded urine 's lapping, remained emerged in the air, her hair fanning out behind her head

His arms quickly sought her, wrapping around her shoulders to get out her out, letting her short weight fall strong against him.

His hand fell to her chest, his spoken words a whisper against the storm.

'' Ennervate ... ''

The warmth spread from between his finger, his unconsciously done legerdemain triggering no reaction in her.

The magic spell was removed, yet she remained unresponsive. He had expected coughing, shouting, something.

It was only then that he realized it, but no breath came from her graying lips.

defense force lessons had taught him about more than countering patch, and he was already turning her gimp var. to face him, using the water 's buoyancy to cradle her as her facial expression lolled back.

His numbing, pained finger's breadth quickly wiped the sealed hair from her brim, a sick of flavor rising in his chest as his heart flickered across the vacant grounds.

The Death Eaters were gone ... .they would not get along back.

marrow wrenching, he acted, pressing his lip against hers as he pushed precious oxygen in, breathing for her, listening to the odd razzing of his breather making its way through her air passages.

pulling away, waiting for the ascension of her chest against his, he felt naught.

Panicked centre flickered over her peaceful face before his mouth once again descended, capturing her icy lips with his own in another breath of desperation. One arm was tightening around her, the other cradling her head word 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 nix. A I sentiment flitted through his frightened mind. He was doing this wrong.

In that single moment of paralyzing revulsion he suddenly understood. Her air passage was clogged.

He had to clear it.

He was already turning her hobble anatomy around, allowing her backrest to decrease against him as his fists sought her midriff. With a single, mighty drive he thrust them in and upwards, feeling her body spasm in a humble frisson.

Again he repeated the question, thrusting forcefully. Her hitch flesh seized violently in answer, her upper body falling forward as a racking cough shook her, the H2O expelling from her lungs. Harry lunged forward with her, arms wrapping around her chest, preventing her cheek from again hitting the traitorous water.

His forearms strained against her as she convulsed, choking on the wind, gasping as cough after shuddering coughing shook her dilute frame. Shivering in the frigid weewee his pounding eye calmed until she leaned loosely forward, gasping breathlessly.

Without a word he pulled her against him, clutching her quivering mannikin flush to his own, her head falling against his shoulder. Her shoal heaving caressed his skin, the rising of her chest against his reassuring him in an inexplicable way.

Slowly he fought to control the hitching of his own quick drawn breathing space, for after everything he felt set to crumble, only he suddenly found himself the column to which she clung.

Resting his chin atop her head, peering into the night, he silently prayed that what he had overheard was exact. For if he was really considered Voldemort 's toy, needed to perform a task, then he truly was untouchable.

In hypothesis they would again be condom, until Riddle decided to again 'chat .'

As of now, if he were wrong, then their exclusively refuge would be the body of water they stood shivering within, and he had yet to properly master the bubble-head magic spell for hiding beneath its murky depth. Now their only true protection lay within the veil of cat-tails rising high above the shimmering water 's surface, obscuring them from all.

Icy wind howled, sending the Reed around them dancing.

ventilation unsteadily, the scent of burned-over Sir Henry Joseph Wood filled his nostrils. The storm was slowly winning the battle against the blaze, extinguishing the aflame underbrush and trees, and the light of the fire was slowly dying. Tilting his cheek down he watched the fiery orange luminescence reflecting from her wet buttock, lending some warmth to her blanch hue.

'' Are you alright ? '' He finally whispered, his shivering handwriting smoothing her sweep, sopping whisker from her face. She simply breathed against him, hair dripping across his articulatio humeri, her entire form quivering.

Tightening his blazonry around her, he again whispered his inquiry, his questioning lips brushing along her ear lobe. `` Kaylens ? '' He murmured shakily, breathing against her hair. `` You okay ? ``

In his arm she nodded imperceptivity, his trepidation for her solitary sending his heart thundering. His ease was tangible, as was the flavor of her beneath his deal.

His personal spitfire was blissfully unaware, but she had scared the Hades out of him.

Raindrops continued falling, grave and strong, splattering against the water supply with spellbinding melody. Somehow, without reason, his knuckles were rising, tracing alone her jaw blood, a drowsy murmur leaving her pale, cracked brim at his touch.

Instinctively his substantial arms began enveloping her tighter, pressing her to him needingly, his understanding elusive. Surprisingly her delicate hands were responding, rising to iron out against his thorax. Her gentle fingertips brushed his bare skin, sliding along his pectorals where his perspirer hung tattered and loosen, good manners of the werewolf'claw and the forest 's snaring bramble.

Beneath the wavelet piddle a blue prickling was radiating onto him, traveling wherever her poise skin fell into contact with his own, as if lilliputian snatch of static 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 severalize signature was trailing across him in a maddening way, just below the rippling surface, veiled from his eyes.

Yet somehow, he could not appear away.

Slowly, surely, the maddening virtuoso of her finger's breadth tangling within his jumper drove the unconscious concerns from his mind, his smart eyes finally falling shut to the dark, hiding beneath the shadow, matted whisker slung dripping across his scarred brow.

Upon his cervix he felt her lips parting, an exhausted suspiration escaping against his skin. His face dipped in answer, burrowing within her rain scented hair.

'' You know ... '' He disclosed softly, shivering in the hint. `` You may be more trouble than you 're worth. ``

A soft laughter, scarcely there, sent his peel prickling.

'' Oh ? '' She breathed, her hoarsely spoken words tinged with amusement. `` And you 're not ? ''

'' percentage point take, '' He conceded, a low laughter vibrating his throat.

The sky lit up, shining with anomalous brilliance as lightning flashed in the distance. The icy waters lapping against them, the wind howling eerily between the trees.

'' Potter .... '' She mumbled, his hand rising to come upon the quiet cutis of her neck at the sound. `` What happened ? ''

Her voice was barely a whisper, trailing away as his fingers went trailing down the smooth skin of her neck, feeling her impulse drubbing with regularity beneath them.

'' Apparently, '' He murmured gruffly, her light breathing a feather tracing across his skin, `` I ca n't leave you alone for a second. ``

'' I could say the Saame for you, '' She said breathlessly, shivering as his hands rose along the contours of her form. kickoff his hands were gripping her shank, next rise along her sides, sliding to caress the hide covering her ribcage, just beneath her breasts.

His breath hitched with hers, her arms rising to circle his neck opening, cupping the back of his point. Quickly her hands were becoming lost within his untamable pilus, the same willfulness that he had so oft heard her criticize, yet now felt her reveling in.

The earthy scent of mingled mud and rainfall was somehow intoxicating upon her, drawing him in more than he could provide, more than he should permit. Yet he was, his lips already lowering to hers, the thickly strung latent hostility of a thousand harsh exchanges vibrating between the two as his mouthpiece fell upon hers, capturing her sass as he had when pulling her limply from the icy body of water. Only now her oral fissure was moving against his, the perceptiveness of salty sudor lingering upon his spit. Her preference was mingling with the refreshing rain pouring upon them, cascading down their faces.

His habiliment clung wetly to him as his men sought out her drag tomentum. He frenziedly felt her deepening the contact of their lips, the fierce stalk of his chin scratching her in the process. A slim scold sent his own lips trembling against hers with laugh, her men squeezing his shoulder in retributive way. His own mouth was parting again, gasping, never relaxing the pressure sensation against her lips as he fought for breath against her, feeling her doing the same.

A second later he again seized her, his miserable lip being tugged gently between her own, an odd growling coming unbidden from his throat. For a tempestuous mo she quivered with seeming entertainment before his agile script responded, running along her neck 's vertebrae, a startled whimper falling from her sylphlike lips.

'' Kaylens ... '' He murmured, his arms desperately gathering her against him, his backtalk deliriously relishing her taste. Suddenly he was ignorant of the rain pouring around them, aware only of her hands disgusting onslaught as they slipped beneath his shirt 's dog collar, sliding along the bare pelt of his shoulders, caressing his rachis. His pilus dripped into his grimace, and with rush along breaths their ill-concealed Passion radiated, their mouths moving in a stormy excitation. Within his limb was the girl Harry had feared to have lost before he had known what it was to have, and he had no plans of letting go.

Slowly, panting breathlessly, Kalliandra pulled away. Her fingers still clung to him, the pelting pouring freely upon her flushing tegument. Water droplets were dampening her brow, and her finger slipped out from beneath his shirt to hover upon his collarbone. ineffectual to let her leave he leaned his brow against hers, cupping her nerve in his hands, feeling her eyelashes fluttering open against his cheeks.

His own jade oculus flickered hazily out-of-doors, meeting the deep hazel unity regarding him. She was blinking against the pelting, her confused heart revealing her barely concealed emotion.

Breathing heavily he leaned forward, brushing his back talk against hers, kissing her slowly. He was taking his time now ... without the rush, without the desperation, without the fear of having nearly lost her. thumb running along her high cheekbones, carefully wiping the mud from her face, his lips moved needingly across hers.

Again they parted, her mouth moving in a delicate, disbelieving whispering.

'' You 've lost your creative thinker ... ''

'' I know, '' He murmured, pressing his sass to hers chastely. `` You wo n't tell anyone will you ? ``

She smiled against his lips, shaking her head slowly. `` No ... '' She whispered, amusement tingeing her intonations. `` This wo n't leave the glade. ``

'' salutary, '' He quipped, smiling deviantly. `` I would get hated to Obliviate you. ``

'' What makes you think I would bear minded ? ``

Burying his lips near her ear, he emitted a low growl, `` You would have. ``

'' Hmph. ``

Combing his fingerbreadth through her thick, mud-laden hair, he felt her slender variety again began to throb, her quivering more pronounced than before.

Wrapping his arms tighter around her form, he murmured his curiosity. `` Does this mean you 've forgiven me for stunning you ? ``

She grumbled indecipherably for a moment, before suddenly growing tense, her face swiveling towards the visible clearing, eyes flickering with sudden recollection.

'' Harry .... '' She whispered seriously, all lightness gone from her part. `` What happened to the end Eate ... ''

'' Gone, '' He assured softly, `` They 're gone. They wo n't be back. Minus the dead one. ``

Her eyes remained adverted, warily gazing through the rain into the darkness of night.

'' How can you be sure ? ``

He smiled sadly, the warmth within him slowly dissipating as his war filled experiences, the ones that had taught him the rules 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 life ? ``

'' Both. ``

Her eyes 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 allow them the information they need. ``

'' Than what stopped them from forcing you to go with them ? ``

His paw rose, trailing across her cheek, her breather faltering at his touch. Without reason his brow was again pressed against hers, her face so close that he could see the brownness flake within her sword lily dancing with each flash of lightning.

'' Even if they had, '' He whispered sullenly, `` Even if they had tortured Hermione right field in straw man of me, I still would never tell. Because the second I did we would experience all been dead. ``

Distant smack shook the sky, Kalliandra 's center falling shut against the wet onslaught. His remained upon her, never leaving as her chest rose and fell against his. The patrician rhythm of her breathing was inexplicably calming.

'' If the man is so unpitying ... '' She finally spoke, `` Why would he pop the question you the choices he did ? ``

'' Because as ruthless as he is, he 's also intelligent. Voldemort knows his only opportunity in snake pit of getting anything out of me would be by offering an interchange : Hermione for the selective information, at a neutral fix. '' He paused, breathing heavily, watching the inspiration across her countenance.

'' It 's the only way I could check her safety, '' He finished solemnly.

Against his forehead he felt a illuminate lour creasing her eyebrow. A here and now later her obliterate eyes fell surface, observing him guardedly.

'' How could Voldemort possibly know what you 're thinking ? ''

His fingerbreadth clenched and unclenched around her implements of war in a tense rhythm. `` Because Kalliandra, Voldemort and I have been playing this game for a yearn sentence. And were both getting better at it. ``

Her mouth parted questioningly, his fingers rising to urge carefully against them, silencing her queries.

'' Please, do n't ask. I do n't require to lie to you, '' He pleaded breathlessly, back talk hovering cm from her own, praying she understood.

She did.

Against him she nodded, wet droplets cascading down her paling face. This clock time it was she who sealed the scant distance between them, her slick coat of arms winding around his neck, her body pressing flush against his.

For some reason, as her parted lips allowed his tongue submission, he suddenly felt more afraid than he ever had.

The post had been raised that day, for with his undecomposed supporter gone he suddenly had so a lot to lose, and it was the girl he remained lace with that had sent fissures running through his heavily erected walls.

Pulling away, gasping fervently, he suddenly was unsure of whether to hate her or have it away her for that.

'' You 're infuriating ... '' He murmured, nose nuzzling her face.

'' Likewise, '' She gasped breathlessly, water-laden strands of tomentum falling over her eyes

They simply remained, hovering within the embracement of the other, until a instant of red crossed the night, circling to rest upon the pond '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 feathered forefront cocked at a peculiar angle.

If Harry had not known better, he would say Guy Fawkes looked amused.









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A few basics to note :

Red blood cells contain Hb, which transports Oxygen throughout the trunk. If these were suddenly taken away, you would suffocate even if you were still breathing.

thrombocyte are responsible for for the soundbox 's power to form line clots. Without platelets, you would run to dying from a unproblematic cut on the arm.

Sorry for the ad-lib biology object lesson, but in writing this chapter I did not sense like explaining these introductory concepts since I assumed that the reference, due to one too many infirmary wing visits, would already know what these are. I also took a few creative liberty, so pay with me on those.






'' promise is the companion of superpower, and mother of succeeder ; for who so hopes strongly has within him the endowment of miracles. ``
~ Samuel smile ~



Chapter 27 ~ The fellow traveller of brokenheartedness


Near aurora she found him there. He was still awake, as she had known he would be.

doyen was flat on his binding, staring at the rich, rakehell red canopy of his bed. His middle had not moved from the canopy in hours, for fear of seeing the empty bed besides him, and they did not proceed as his bed hanging 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 pocket-sized frame, an icy pain in the ass twisting within him. It was a overweight guiltiness, for he had his friend 's fond comfort while her beau had naught to see save for the cold Patrick White sheet draped over his close eyes.

Seamus was gone, and it felt like a dagger had been driven through him.

It dawned a dark, gray-red dawn, and the sinister rainfall outside continued, pooling upon the windowpane sill. He could not close the windows, nor cylinder block out the chilled wind, for when he had first seen Seamus'vacate bed that dark he had thrown open each dot, tearing the wooden gore from their hinges.

Now the water supply dripped onto the base, the temporary rhythm serving to drive him closer and closer to the breaking point. It was a sound Neville seemed unmindful to, for his dorm mate 's unshakable snores filled the air, and with each passing wakeless Dean felt the urge to smash something violently.

His fingerbreadth twisted in Ginny 's red fuzz, reminding him of her presence. Though Seamus was gone, she was still there.

He had a reason to remain strong.

Still he did not look at her. Gradually her hush breaths became regular, but his dark eyes remained spread out, staring at the canopy.

It was all he could do.
* * * * *


Harry watched as Angelina ran from the room, unable to judder the icy sensation slithering within him. He knew he should not care, he could not ...

Yet he did.

Seconds after port-keying to lupin 's manor, as he had regained his ground in the candlelit hall, Kalliandra had lost cognisance. His shivering body had clutched her against his bureau, and that was how Angelina had found them.

It was becoming clearer, the harshly exchanged dustup between Kaylens and the master ... the unity he had overheard in the hospital wing ... It seemed ages ago, yet they echoed hauntingly sassy within his head.

'' Considering that I 'm the one you ca n't heal ... ''

'' Kalliandra, looking at it as a destruction condemnation will not help matters. ``

'' You 're properly. cipher will. ``

Angelina had claimed that the physical stresses of the night had just finally taken their price, saying how magical travel was often too much for a weakened soundbox to charter. She had told him everything was going to be hunky-dory, to not interest ...

Her eyes betrayed her tidings for the Trygve Halvden Lie they were.

'' Harry, set her there. help oneself me get her arm ... ''

Angelina was back, having returned with a cache of supplying. He did as he was told, laying Kalliandra on the faded couch. She sunk into the torn up cushions, stuffing bulging out at the additional weighting. It appeared to be the only when real firearm of article of furniture on the first floor, and he too squeezed onto it.

He could n't depart her.

Reaching down he grasped the cuff of her wet arm, rolling it up. With every inch of exposed flesh another bruise was revealed, his interior twisting at the midst, thick purple fool lining her frail cutis. In the dark of the clarification he had not even noticed ...

Angelina knelt besides them, her hands moving methodically, with the calculated movement Max Born of her healer training. His early teammate was now cleaning the inside of Kalliandra 's elbow joint, inserting a small needle into the blueish line of her venous blood vessel. He could only watch from where he sat on Lupin 's worn couch, holding Kaylens messy head of pilus in his lap.

'' Harry control this ... adjudge it high ... ''

He nodded mutely, taking the clean-cut charge card bag from her, watching the yellowish-brown fluid sloshing within it. Following Angelina 's instructions he held it shoulder high, unable to bump off his eyes from Kaylens'serene face. Her inscrutable hazel oculus were now hidden behind pale eyelids, her face in desperate need of washing. A streak of mud still highlighted her cheekbone, a gray coat of ashes lending her a ghostly, freckled appearance.

Reaching down Harry brushed her haircloth aside, revealing a dried blot of blood concealment near her hairline.

A mysterious bruise was forming there as well.

In fluid move his quondam housemate attached a long, unclouded tube to the IV in her arm with a quiet click, retrieving the fluid filled bag from him. With both of his hands finally costless he found himself smoothing the fuzz away from her case, wiping the mud away with his thumbs.

He could feel Angelina 's eyes on him. `` She needs to rest Harry. ''

He did not suffice right away, contenting himself to watch as Angelina wove her verge, the IV bag rising to remain 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 work force out of the way as she carefully grasped Kalliandra 's early hitch arm, tapping just above the elbow with her wand.

Kaylens'blue vein bulged just long enough for another syringe needle to be inserted, only this metre Angelina was drawing blood samples, rather than starting a drip infusion.

'' Angelina ? '' He prompted gruffly.

The young therapist sighed wearily, `` It 's a mixture of red line electric cell and 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 necessitate that ? '' He ground out, his articulation hoarse with exhaustion.

Leaving the needle in her arm Angelina unscrewed the full syringe barrelful, setting the blood sample distribution upon a floating tray she had conjured. She made prompt work of attaching a new, empty one to the acerate leaf as she repeated the process.

'' How about you Harry ? '' Angelina asked dismissively. `` Knowing you, you 've probably managed to bang yourself up good. ``

'' Do n't shift the subject. ``

Angelina 's dark 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 hold. ``

His exhaust oculus turned to his own hands. He flipped them over, observing his healed, cauterize palms. The thick slashes the part glass had left were gone. Fawkes'tears had healed them, dripping into his wounds when he had reached through the thick rain to take the port key.

Before he even had a probability to wonder why Guy Fawkes had bothered healing such fry injuries, the phoenix had flown away.

'' I 'm fine, '' He replied staidly, realizing he meant it. No longer could he finger the stinging scratch line, torn by the werewolf 's chela, down his back. Even the os deep tingle the icy rain had left was gone.

All that was left was the sick sense datum churning within his stomach, his sole assuagement the girlfriend in his lap, who was incapable of responding enough to still his fears.

'' What 's improper with her ? ``

In the empty, windowless room, Angelina removed the needle from her arm.

'' Nothing that ca n't be treated, '' She responded quietly, rising from her genu, apparently done.

'' That 's not what I asked. ``

He did not omit the way her eyes avoided his.

'' nix that I can assure you. For what it 's Worth ... I 'm sorry about that Harry. ''

He swallowed, the sound seeming very much louder in the still air. He bowed his head, spying a daub of Gray ash near the corner of Kalliandra 's back talk. Without thought his quarter round wiped it away, his stiff deportment relaxing as a sleepy murmur emerged from her cold-blooded mouth.

Angelina watched it all, silently placing each of the rip sample into a chill carrying compositor's 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 contingent that she had let sideslip, every sign of fatigue, every watchword the death Eaters had said ...

'' It has to do with what she is, does n't it ? ''

Though he had asked, there was no question in his tone.

Angelina rose a skeptical eyebrow, `` Then you do know ? ``

His eyes rose to hers, `` Yes. That 's why you could n't recount me. Dumbledore is n't aware 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 hard 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 home it 's been setting up. ``

His brow crinkled, his hands unconsciously caressing Kalliandra 's muffle whisker, which was strewn across his lap, leaving wet scrape upon his trousers. `` There are other places asides from main office ? ``

'' Of course. Do n't ask where, because I do n't know. ``

His smile was strained, `` Clever really ... not letting any one person be intimate too often about anything in pillowcase they 're caught. ``

'' Exactly. ``

His lapse from the night topic plaguing him could continue no longer, for the feeling of carefully controlled affright was rising.

Indicating the IV bag, he shot out a interrogation. `` 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 tone. `` Who better ? ``

Angelina opened her backtalk, as if to respond, but she never got the chance.

'' Perhaps I can. If you would only allow me. ``

Harry 's headspring spun, as did Angelina 's. Neither had heard the soul 's reaching, and his nerve was thundering at the fatalistic possibilities that could have resulted from such a lapse on their piece.

His heart narrowed, anger mixing with easement as he saw another loved one intact and standing in the hall 's doorframe. A virulent laugh broke his throat, and he gestured into the room.

'' By all mean value prof, it is your house after all. ``

Professor Lupin stepped wearily into the room, looking worse for the wear. But then again, Harry reflected, did n't they all ? The cerebration nearly sent Harry laughing. Instead he bit it back, another bitter audio growling mystifying in his throat.

From the look on Lupin 's typeface, Harry knew he had noticed. The thick melody on the man 's face betrayed an inner pain, one Harry felt all too acutely.

It was the pain of release. Only Harry knew Lupin had lost far more than he ever had. Of form, he was still young. There was sentence to bewitch up in that category.

As if sensing his dark intellection, Kalliandra stirred. His tending was suddenly riveted to her, his handwriting on her brass. one-half of him hoped desperately for her to awaken, while another percentage feared that his one chance of discovering what ailed her would then slip away.

She was far too stubborn to burden anyone else with her pain. He knew that now.

It was startling how a great deal could convert in lupus erythematosus than twenty four hours.

Harry 's half tempestuous, half questioning regard finally rose. He was startled to fall upon Angelina 's absence. Somehow she had slipped away unnoticed, leaving he and Lupin alone.

After having been ignored by him for over two weeks, he was n't sure if he was glad about that or not.

'' It 's good to see you Harry. ''

'' Is it ? '' He could n't serve it, but his spokesperson was stale.

lupin looked stung. `` Of course it is. ``

'' Well forgive me for being questioning, '' Harry replied sarcastically. `` It 's not like you have n't spoken to me in awhile. ``

'' I had my reasons. ``

He inclined an eyebrow, `` You had reasons for believing Canicula all-but-killed my mum and dad too. ''

'' That 's below the belted ammunition Harry. ``

'' trade good. ``

Remus ran a weary handwriting through his graying tomentum, leaning back against the wall. For the foresightful time neither radius, the integral merging arousing conflicting emotions within Harry.

He wanted to laze him. For what he had done to him, to Tonks, to Kaylens ... by ignoring them simply to shelter them from his laniary side. For having left him to get by with the pain of Sirius'death alone. For having had the audacity to walk in, saying hullo, as if nothing were imperfectly between the two. For having sent not one owl that summer.

All of Harry 's pent up frustrations with Lupin were finally bubbling over, conveyed in the single icy look he shot him.

Outside the low temperature, first of November wind rattled the sidings. The weather matched his blackamoor temper 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 finis life friend. Suddenly he did not see the man who had inspired such a feeling 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 long time ago, when he and Ron had fought during the Tri-Wizard tournament, Hermione had called them stupid.

She had been right.

Life was too myopic to hold score.

The reminder of Hermione 's troth, and the thought that Remus could be taken just as easily, sent him stumbling for words. `` Just ... '' He started, forcing a strained smile. `` Do n't let it happen again. ``

'' I wo n't. ``

Remus'light browned center were naught but honest. Suddenly, despite his lingering fears for Hermione ... for Ron ... for Ginny ... for James Byron Dean ... for Tonks ... for Dumbledore ... for Remus ... .for Neville ... .for Luna ... for Kalliandra ...

It was all too lots to rent, 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 question towards the slumbering girl in his lap.

'' How is she ? ``

Harry felt his forehead instinctively furrow, his brain once again compartmentalizing what he could concern about, and impact, in the here and now.

'' I 'm not sure, '' He replied honestly. `` But Profes ... .Remus, what 's happening to her ? ``

The startled looking at upon Remus 's human face faded, his kind eyes regarding him carefully.

'' I assume you already know then. ``

'' Yes, '' He heard himself whispering, his voice filled with naked concern.

Remus studied him for a hanker moment, his eyes falling on the movement of Harry 's helping hand as he stroked Kalliandra 's long pilus.

For some reason Harry did not care if Remus noticed.

The former professor 's brow crinkled with both oddment and pity at the intension Harry 's motion conveyed. `` Are you sure you really want to know Harry ? Sometimes not knowing is best, for when you know ... '' Remus'regard was suddenly far off, as if peering into the remote past.

'' Sometimes Harry, the truth will simply haunt you. ``

Harry 's throat constricted, the crying glistening within Remus'eyes far too clear.

'' What if it already does ? ``

The senior man smiled sadly, `` Then I 'd say matter between the two of you have changed. After all, she 's out coldness and you have yet to try and limit her. ``

A sad jape bubbled out of him, his gaze falling to roost on her pale forehead.

'' Please ... I ... do n't say anything .... ''

'' Would n't dream of it. ``

Harry found himself nodding with no particular grounds. `` Good ... I ... I 've no idea ... ''

'' What 's going on ? '' Remus finished.

Harry spotted the man 's knowing grinning, and was finally capable to let out the breath he had been unconsciously holding.

'' Something like that. ``

In the still air of the windowless elbow room, both men remained silent. Harry 's eye fell closed, his ears seeking out the voiced sound of Kaylens'regular breathing.

Somehow, even with the growing edginess within, this calmed him.

With a finality he did not feel, he finally spoke.

'' I need to jazz Remus. ''

A loudly sigh filled the way. `` I was afraid of that. ``

And Remus explained. He explained how magic beings had come into creation, for somewhere in human account, human blood cells had begun mutating.

Most of the chromosomal mutation had resulted in cancerous bloodline stream, killing those in self-possession of those mutant. Muggles and hotshot alike still struggled against those diseases, leukemia the most large, but there were some somebody where the mutations became beneficial.

He explained how everything, both support and inert, contained a form of vigour. Not all of it was mensurable in the Muggle style, and it was this form of Energy Department, the kind that would die to register on electrical scale, that allowed wizardly organism to flourish.

It was charming energy, and over meter some somebody developed the ability to manipulate it, without adverse affects.

Others were not so lucky.

There were people like Kalliandra, people like Reaches, who could turn over into the magical land. But doing so was dangerous.

In the sheath of enchantress and wizards, they developed completely new jail cell in their stock streams, and magic energy was conducted through their physical bodies via these. Thus their physical structure were able to act like electrical racing circuit, and energy was able to pass through their wizard cells without ever touching their other cells.

It was a perfect system.

There were occasions when beldame and wizards would turn fatigued, and such occurrent usually happened when the somebody was performing wandless magic, or a particularly complicated spell. And the ground for their exhaustion was quite mere really :

When one 's eubstance functions like a circuit, if supererogatory magical Energy is taken in and not released in the class of a properly cast spell, then that energy remains stuck in the body and has to go somewhere. And since magic runs quite literally through one 's vena, that enchantress or star 's magical cells would be the first to be essentially, electrocuted by their magical overload.

Fortunately sorcerous electric cell are quite robust, and their plasma membrane are to a greater extent than subject of absorbing such overloads.

Red bloodline cellular telephone, however, are not.

On social occasion so much energy is not released from a wizard 's body that it bursts through their magical cells, frying bloodline cells essential in the sustentation of life.

And when one 's red blood line cells are dying it is hard to circularise decent oxygen.

It was how Luna Lovegood 's mother had died. She had suffocated, while still breathing.

Such deaths were a rare occurrence, because human blood contains far more cells than necessary for the sustentation of life. So when some blood cadre are killed there are generally adequate survivors to earmark that individual to carry on functioning in a convention, albeit fatigued, manner.

The first sentence Harry had tried the Patronus Charm he had overdrawn as well. He had been left winded, gasping for breathing time, just like he was after every Quidditch practice.

Yet he had partaken in no strong-arm activity.

It was because he had lost red-blood cells, the very cubicle responsible for carrying Oxygen throughout the eubstance, and his body was responding as it would in an Oxygen-deprived manner.

Reaches had never evolved that far. They had never developed additional jail cell in their blood line flow, and the mutant allowing them to conduct electrical stream lay directly upon their red rake electric cell.

If they overdrew, their world-class cells to be damaged would be the one 's necessary in the transit of O.

Their mutation was one that worked, but it functioned poorly. necromancer had evolved much more gracefully, for their additional cells provided a barrier to protect them against overdrawing. Ultimately it was this United States Department of Defense mechanism that had allowed the wizarding mintage to not only flourish, but to survive.

Unlike in him, the inaugural cellular phone to die in a stretch when they overdrew were their red lineage prison cell.

For a Reach, the likeliness of suffering Luna 's mother 's fate was an almost certainty.

A cold intuitive feeling overtook Harry as all of this sunk in, for Kalliandra could easily die from overdrawing. She was only still alive due to the fact that her blood stream contained more red parentage cells than it actually needed. Thus, she was capable of tolerating a certain stage of overdrawing, but the border was slim.

For her, unlike a witch or wizard, there was no real learning curve. For her there was little elbow room for mistake, for there were no mobile phone to steep 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 blood prison cell were being replaced even as Remus spoke. For every time she drew Energy Department 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 sole way to sustain her, to control 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 wing ...

Her platelets had been killed when she had overdrawn, to protect him from Remus ...

She had passed out in Grimmauld topographic point, from the effort ... her body forcing her into unconsciousness in a last ditch effort to prevent her from doing further harm to herself..

The image of her lying unconscious mind on the floor of the 3 broomstick flew through his mind.

He had known that she had risked photo for what she was, but Supreme Being ... .She had risked death there, to protect masses who hated her.

And he had once accused her of being a expiry Eater.

Death eater knew no such selflessness.

A sickening sensation flooded over him, his hand rising to rifle through his still wet hair.

He scarcely heard Remus as he tried to lie, telling him it was not a death conviction for her.

Harry knew better, for what else could it be ?

His clutches on her constrain, as if holding onto her could prevent the inevitable. Remus was talking about treatment, about how if they maintained her line reckoning at proper levels that she would be capable to live a normal, to the full life.

All it took was a unity look into Remus'uncheerful eyes to have it away that his friend did not truly believe what he was saying.

'' volition she die ? ``

His own voice, his own question, sounded so far off.

'' Harry zip is certain ... If she does n't amplify then we 'll never take to concern about that opening. ``

'' Remus, will she die ? '' Harry felt his voice breaking, the intimate twinge of loss welling within him.

As he met Remus'sort, glistening eyes, he knew the answer.

'' Eventually ... ''

He wanted to perish out something, a var. of protest that would quell the dryness of his throat, but nada came.

'' From what we know Harry, the others like her ... eventually, they all overdrew. ``

Eventually ...

The foolish deferral of his psyche clung to that Word, the ridiculous comrade of grief stirring within him.

Hope.

It was n't until sometime after break of day when he finally fell asleep. The IV was tenacious since removed from her arm, her sleeping strain pulled into his sleeve.

At the moment Harry did n't give a damn about who could see.



Recommended taradiddle :

bequest : The solidus spell by the nighttime Lord Nedved Rated : Mature
summary : Every epos has a beginning, and for the Lester Willis Young Magi who was Prophesized to have the big businessman the night master Knows Not, this is the kickoff of his legacy. For Harry there was no meter to mourn for his fallen godfather, for a new foe has emerged with the sole purpose to assassinate him. The night Lord Nedved has created a tale of action at law, discovery, sorcerous creativity and sacrifice that would leave the just novelist pounding on his threshold, begging for him to start working on master copy fiction. This epic tale has 5 different novels associated with it, two of which are completed, while the others are well under way. To seek to discover them in any other way would be to not do them justice. Harry/Hermione







Authors note : Hey folks !

All of you really are the easily readers out there. I ca n't thank everyone plenty for all of the well wishing and understanding that were shown when I announced that I would be taking a foresighted sabbatical leave from writing. I really needed it, and am gladiolus of it. Both my mother and Sister had been diagnosed with serious illnesses this past summertime, and all of the well wishes some of you sent via email must have paid off because they have both made remarkable recoveries.

Secondly, thank you to everyone for the sort password 's regarding Lexi 's expiry. On top of everything this summer that was the terminal setback to drive all of my motivation for writing away for awhile, but it is now back entire force play. Since I am a bit frustrated at having taken so long between chapters in the past, I have now set aside one day a hebdomad to write so that I can get chapters out much more quickly, and on a regular foundation. I anticipate this taradiddle being done by summer, and then I shall set out work on the sequel.

And virtually importantly I wanted to say thank you to St. Andrew, for he helped me immensely with this chapter. It had been so yearn since I had written anything that when I finally tried to write again I found myself suffering from a austere case of writer 's block. Not only did he beta-read this chapter but he also offered tremendous proposition to get this account back on rails. Thank you so practically !




'' Dangerous is wrath concealed. ``
~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca ~



Chapter 28 ~ The Power of anger


As if in a nightmare the room 's dense darkness was broken. From the darkened hall a 1 candle appeared, levitating ominously as it preceded its owner into the blackened way.

The mansion 's broken story harboured neither windows nor doors to the remote world. It was a constant reminder of the monthly giant that had once been contained within its very wall, whenever the moon had cast its full light upon the earth.

Now another more severe monster loomed in the room 's shadows.

With a cursory wave of their hand the design crossed the carpeted floor silently, their silhouette pausing above the slumbering teens. The fig knew that neither would awaken until their dormancy spell had run its course.

Yes, the figure was mightily. Their sleeping charms were one of their potent talents.

They could operate in complete condom. None within the bulwark would be the wiser to their actions.

Tonight they would begin their plan.

A syringe was filled, its needle swiftly inserted into the slumbering girl 's mineral vein. Kaylens'pulsating blood, bluish in tint through her blench skin, flashed atomic number 47.

A here and now later the foreign hue faded, a macabre line of satisfaction stretching over the design 's shadowed face.

* * * * *


With a shrill click 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 have in mind only one thing.

'' He 's back, '' She whispered. Lounging in the armchair besides her Regulus nodded.

Out in the hall, suddenly visible as the door opened, was Ron Weasley. He lay slumped besides his fling crutch on the floor, sleeping soundly.

Crusantheus hung on the door miserably, his knocker curled and contorted around his ears so as to lug out the sound of the youthful Gryffindor 's snoring.

'' Kill me ... '' He squeaked. `` Please. ``

As tired as she was Tonks could n't help but smile as Regulus lazily took aim, an evil glint in his eye.

'' No ! '' Shrieked Crusantheus. `` I did n't actually imply it ! ''

Regulus continued advancing on the cowering disparager until a mystifying voice intervened.

'' No need to fret Crusantheus. Did you forget that the killing curse has no core on establishment boob ? ''

Crusantheus peeked out from behind his titty hopefully, as Tonks spun around, rounding on the infuriating thing 's rescuer.

Somehow Ablus Dumbledore was standing behind her, looking rather jovial.

'' Morning Nymphadora. phantasy a biscuit ? ``

As if on cue a tray of biscuits appeared in his outstretched palm.

Tonks blinked dazedly, rubbing her red rim eyes with her fists. Surely this jovial
man had not just returned from a group meeting with the darkest of dark master ?

Regulus, completely unflummoxed by their sudden intrusion, rose from his arm death chair to carefully audit the food for thought offering. `` I take it negotiations proceeded satisfactorily ? ''
'' The central will be made in two month'time. ``

Tonks gaped, `` Two calendar month ! ``

'' They probably need time to repair the little Mudblood, '' Regulus commented casuallly, directing his gaze to Albus. `` I assume you requested that she be returned in one piece, and I can only ideate the fun they 've had with her until now. ``

Dumbledore nodded gravely. `` Her injury will demand some ... healing. ``

Tonks heart widened in vexation. While she still did not see how Hermione for Dumbledore was a fair patronage, she had grown rather fond of the miss during her time at Grimmauld Place.

A pair of sky blue heart regarded her carefully, their twinkling somehow dimmer than she remembered.

'' I know what you are thinking Nymphadora, '' Dumbledore said kindly, as if reading her thinker. `` But parting of the reason I made the blood pact here with Regulus, rather than in Voldemort 's presence, was so that I could ensure Hermione 's recurrence on my own terms. He could have chosen to reject the blood pact had he so take, but he did not. ''

Tonks opened her mouth to ask precisely what those price were, but his hand steadied her question.

'' The terms were that if she were returned in the exact physical body politic that she had been in before the Hogsmead attack took place, that I would trade home with her, becoming Voldemort 's prisoner. ``

'' I bet he was only too felicitous to go for that trade, '' Regulus stated, smirking widely. `` Imagine that ... Albus Dumbledore, the Dark God Almighty 's greatest nemesis, handed to him on a prosperous platter with a side of meat of cherry."

"Actually,"Dumbledore corrected,"I believe the reflection is ‘ served on a silver disc with a cherry red on top.'”

Tonks spluttered, focusing on the wan mavin within her venter. The war effort, the ordering, could feasibly fall in without Dumbledore 's leadership, and here he was bantering with an ex-Death feeder, wizarding cosmos deserter right after selling his life to the devil.

"Dumbledore,"She said, voicing her far from tranquilize thoughts aloud."Why would you do this ?"

Dumbledore 's eyes locked on hers, losing their twinkle. `` Nymphadora, we have lost far too many scholarly person to this war already. I could not stand by and lose another. ''

She swallowed the lump in her throat hastily. She should birth known all along that the safety of others would always come first to Dumbledore. He would have done the Saami for any of them.

Love of one 's friend was a sinewy thing.

'' So, old man, '' Regulus queried, taking a pungency of his biscuit. `` Find out anything else of interest group during your lilliputian assignation ? ``

If possible Dumbledore 's eyes darkened further. `` We have to tack the Order. The pest was unleashed in Dublin. ``

'' Dublin, Hibernia ! '' Tonks blurted rhetorically.

Regulus frowned, `` As splendid 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 home city was infected.

'' So how 'd you number by that fun fact Albus ? I never exactly took you two to be old school buddy. ''

For the brief of seconds Dumbledore 's eyes took on their old scintillation. `` For all of Voldemort 's prowess with Legilimency, he never quite mastered Occlumency. He has always surrounded himself with patriotic followers. '' He continued, `` And until recently he simply did not experience the want.

Regulus chuckled. `` So he 's thoroughly, but you 're honest. ``

Tonks blinked. `` But I thought he was one of the most brilliant pupil Hogwarts has ever seen ? ''

'' Ah ... '' Dumbledore said, smiling again. `` As is Ms. Granger, but even she can not fly upon a Scots heather. ''

Tonks gaped at him.

'' We all have our weaknesses 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 feeble head. ``

Tonks frowned pensively. So He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did suffer helplessness. They really were not fighting for naught.

With an air of conclusiveness Regulus clapped his hired hand together, making the already nervous Crusantheus bang his knocker rather loudly. The slumbering Ronald Weasley gave a violent kickoff, snorting loudly as he awoke suddenly.

Tonks watched wearily as the redheaded woodpecker blinked groggily, eyeing the situation in presence of him until his eyes landed on the master. It took a moment before a figurative luminousness medulla oblongata clicked on in his sleep-befuddled mind

'' Professor Dumbledore ! '' He exclaimed, scrambling to his feet, a hustle of wooden crutch and gangly ramification sliding on stone. It did n't carry long before Ron was flat on his tooshie once again, groaning from his fall.

genus Regulus eyed him mockingly. `` And they call Hufflepuffs the duffers. ``

* * * * *


Harry 's eyes snapped outdoors, his dreamless nap shattered by the sudden call of the fille in his blazonry. Through slightly blurred centre he stared down the bridge circuit of his nose at the mussy mop of fuzz resting upon his chest. The quick look he ought to get felt vanished, a numbing one replacing it at the flock of her expression.

For Kaylens there was no peace to be found in the realm of dreams.

He swallowed hard, watching her human face crinkle into an facial 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 bunch around them.

Such undiluted sorrow should never be seen upon a human imprimatur, yet he had seen it palpably far too often. Even on himself. The root word of such torment had been buried oceanic abyss within him, growing since the import he had discovered his true fortune : Kill or be killed.

All thought of his calamity of a future tense was suddenly shattered as Kaylens lurched violently, a chilling cry cutting from her throat.

Harry gaped, feeling the hair on his subdivision rising to stand on end. Without thinking his hands gripped her arms, her pelt beneath his fingers turning white with the pressure.

'' K-kaylens ... '' He stuttered, scarcely recognizing his own voice. He gave an experimental shove, shaking her lightly in a pathetic endeavour to wake up her.

And that was when she cried out again. That phone ripping from her throat. It resonated through the dark elbow room, terrifying in its raw intensity. His hairsbreadth now fully stood on end, for the speech sound had been insanely tragic and yet, unbearably beautiful.

It chilled him to the bone, for it was a effectual no human could utter.

It happened fast. One second his arms were wrapped tightly around her, shaking her in an effort to agitate her, and in the side by side her arms wrenched away. She shot up quickly, her heart flying open in the wickedness elbow room only to be slammed shut as she uttered a more associate shriek of pain in the ass. His alleviation was short- lived as he grabbed onto her arm again, for she pulled away so violently that they were both sent acrobatics from the couch to the floor.

His hind struck the floor first, his knees having been tangled unnaturally in the blankets. He attempted to right himself, pulling his legs down until he was on all fours.

A Sceloporus occidentalis kick to the hind sent his face smashing into the dry land.

He groaned, and ignoring the throbbing pain in his nose he rose his head cautiously, squinting at his surround. Where were his methamphetamine hydrochloride ? Slowly he reached a hand out, allowing it to roam across the diffuse carpeting in his search.

And then he remembered.

His meth were still lying in some wild pool in the eye of that execrable woodland. By now they were probably some acromantula 's chaw toy.

Cursing he blinked rapidly, his eyes finally adjusting to the iniquity and settling on the slightly fuzzed precis of Kaylens. She was sitting upright, some good five foundation away, with her knees drawn to her bureau and her face buried within them.

He swallowed hard, the only sounds in the way now were his rough breath and her speedy, erratic ones. In dazed silence he observed her as best as he could. Her bare groundwork 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 affright animal.

He stared in amazement as her back hit the elbow room 's rampart, a unknown whimper coming from her throat. Of all the response he could make foreseen, this was the farthest from it.

And now she was having the chemical reaction that he would have got expected from any other girl, but not from her.

She was sobbing.

The sound of her crying tore at him in ways he had n't imagined, for the girl who had stood by him, facing Death Eaters and werewolves without blinking an eye, had been reduced to this wretched DoS by a mere nightmare.

Instantly he stood, crossing the elbow room to her in four long strides.

'' Kaylens, '' He said, tentatively laying a hand on her shoulder. She whimpered, shrinking away from his touch.

His brow furrowed determinedly. `` Kaylens tone at me, '' He commanded, crouching directly in front of her. Still, her head remained determinedly adverted, prompting him to grasp her by both shoulders.

Her principal dig up, a savage clicking coming from her throat as she struggled away, lashing out violently. He dove back to avoid her lam hands and feet, landing on his tailbone, eyes all-encompassing in astonishment.

She was making that sound again.

And he recognized it. A gloomy dark in the Forbidden Forest, where he and genus Draco Malfoy had encountered the unexpected, had taught him that sound of pain.

The phone of the beautiful animate being 's dying outcry had reverberated in his nightmares for months.

As had Voldemort 's wispy physical body ...

There was no disinclination in his apparent motion as he wandlessly summoned his wand to his helping hand, immobilizing her arms and wooden leg with a flick of his wrist.

Kaylens was conscious, but unequal to of lashing out.

He crawled back to her, taking her frail wrist and pushing the sleeve of her battered jumper up.

The bruising was gone.

He swallowed hard, recognizing the odds of such bruising disappearing overnight. Now he was only sealed of one thing.

Something had happened whilst he slept.

Licking his shimmy nervously he cupped her chin, raising her head until he could see all of the mix-up swimming within her golden centre. His breath hitched in horrible realization at what he was about to do, but there was simply no other way.

He had to lie with. He had to have it off what had happened whilst he slept.

Until then he could n't facilitate her, and he knew that no one else would be volition to do this. There were nonindulgent rules against the unauthorized use of Legilimency. Hermione had taught him that much, screaming and ranting after his last misuse of the talent against the Saame daughter he was about to violate yet again.

'' I 'm dingy, '' He whispered, brushing her tomentum away from her grimace. `` I 'm so sorry Kally ... '' He repeated, steeling himself for his criminal offence.

Cupping her boldness he stared intently into her eyes, watching them flickering around in fearfulness.

Her fear was warranted.

He only hoped he was wrong.

'' Legilimency ! ``

The overpowering wave that was her sprightliness flooded his mind, capturing his senses in a twisting of undetectable effect. He groaned, desperate to stop the twister-like effect of the memory board swirling around him. It was different than the lastly meter, so unbelievably different ...

A cacophony of clicking, beautiful and powerful in its raw vividness filled his intellect, only to be replaced just as quickly as it had come with a familiar scream.

'' James Whitcomb Riley ! ''

He was seeing it again, reliving the good afternoon when she had seen her own brother murdered right in front of her. Only this fourth dimension the images were fleeting, distorted as if he were viewing it through a thickly pane of smoky chicken feed. It was as if the memories were no longer her own.

His heart clenched as he watched the man kick open the doorway for the back time. Kaylens'small body was drop backwards, her petite chassis sliding across the floor. It was as if everything were on the fast onward lineament of a Muggle VCR. There was the knife, her shrieking, her brother ...

As the gunfire rang out he could again almost finger what she had. The hot, fervent painful sensation of the vane plunging into her flesh. The searing as it was drug in a deep line across her shoulder blade. The awe as she watched the blood pooling from her brother 's
wound slowly stop pumping ...

Suddenly all was shameful, hazy, the knock-down audio of a herd stampeding through her intellection. Then all was unripened and brown and green again. Somehow he was running faster than he had thought possible, the tree whipping past him in a blur of fleeceable and brown and commons again. He was surrounded by others of his kind.

His gens was Lightning.

The range of a function twisted again, surrounding Harry in a confusing whorl of forest conniption followed by panorama of her childhood. silver horns flashed around him, gleaming as the herd ran beneath the moonlight, while golden hair flashed throughout her life.

Another memory slammed into Harry, crystallizing into cheeseparing limpidity. It was mid-afternoon, though the sun barely shone through the over-cast sky. Before him was a peaked kept curtilage, bordered on three face by a thick, rising treeline and mound. Harry swiveled in the muddy memory, feeling Kalliandra 's recall lurch dangerously as another memory threatened to bleed into this one. The sound of hooves, the sound of the ruck on the run, pounded in the distance.

Harry fell to the dewy basis, watching as a man with fortunate hair, tinged heavily with gray, methodically stacked sandbags away from the planetary house. Fog crept across the lawn, curling around his feet, each grunt echoing in the understood valley.

And then the children were led out, and Harry 's somebody shivered.

Kalliandra appeared to be the Saami age as in the shoemaker's last computer storage, only now she stood besides a pocket-size boy, barely Old than her, digging her nails into his arm.

'' S-sean ... ''

Their father pried her hands away from her brother, forcing a semi-automatic Glock 17, 9x19 mm caliber pistol into her little manus. Her legs had suddenly felt freeze out, rooted to the damp priming. Harry could practically sense her heart 's fearful thundering at the cold, unfeeling metal between her fingers.

The blockheaded fog curled high around the six foot raft of sand bags, and as it began to mizzle her father aimed her small deal towards the stack.

'' Shoot it. ``

Kalliandra pulled the trigger and cried.

As the gun was being passed to her surviving brother Kaylens'memories shifted again, swirling until he found himself peering through a thick orchard of Tree, stomping his hooves in warning as a hooded bod approached. The pattern 's hands raised very slowly, carefully removing the exhaust hood of their robe, allowing a shower of thick, Black person hair to add up tumbling around her shoulders.

The cleaning woman 's kisser remained hidden by the deep forest shadows, yet Lightning was calming.

It was a virtuous woman. She could be trusted. Lightning could tell.

The unicorn never saw the other cloaked physical body creeping from behind, and that man 's dagger soon shone silver with Lightning 's blood.

Harry stood in the trace drawing deep, chew up breaths. He could practically find every inch of pain the poor creature was going through, the only sounds that of the screeching animal and that of the dry branches cracking beneath Harry 's shifting weight as he watched, powerless to terminate its pain.

The man bottled and corked a mensurable quantity of blood from the unicorn, leaving it only enough to barely limp away alive. A light chuckle escaped the hooded Death Eater at the sight.

Suddenly the fair sex stepped out of the shadows, and Harry 's breathing space stopped.

Angelina stood in the dim light, depositing the bottleful into a thickheaded bag slung across her shoulder. Her nighttime Mark gleamed brilliantly.

Violently Harry felt himself being tossed out, finding himself directly on his vertebral column 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 `` plague of all pest '' had been unleashed upon the citizens of Republic of Ireland would suffer had more of an effect upon its President.

Instead the newly awakened Kenneth Bothan sat behind Dumbledore 's desk, clasping his hand, 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 name an emergency meeting of the Order. She was n't good at this variety 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 masses will be dead within the workweek, '' Regulus stated with ironic cheerfulness. `` But look on the promising side. At least you wo n't have to run for re-election. ''

Tonks'dark centre swiveled to her cousin, her back talk opening and culmination like a gaping fish.

Kenneth, however, seemed entirely unperturbed.

'' So, '' The 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 cattle farm, good Nymphadora ? ``

'' Regulus ! ``

Kenneth looked appraisingly at her cousin. `` And this Avada Kedarva treatment ? How in force is it ? ``

Regulus grinned like a jackal. `` Supposing we were able to isolate those who had already contracted it we may determine out its method of diffusion, while simultaneously establishing a quarantine and treating the pain of the already afflicted ... ''

'' By killing them ! ? '' Tonks burst in, ineffectual to believe the wicked plot Regulus played with the President 's hopes.

'' Ah, '' Kenneth said as if suddenly understanding. `` The treatment has a high mortality rate. How high though ? ``

Regulus grinned widely, while Tonks contemplated murder for the dozenth meter in twenty dollar bill four hours.
* * * * *


'' Harry ! What in the name of Merlin did you opine you were ... ''

Harry closed his eyes, grinding out his lyric. `` Something 's improper with Kalliandra, '' He interjected. `` I had to find out what. ``

The room 's secrecy was broken only by Kaylens'laboured breathing, and her clear distress drew Lupin 's tending from him to her. He felt the former professor driblet to his articulatio genus 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 weapon system. `` Harry, you 've immobilized her. ``

'' For good reason. ``

Lupin threw a disgusted look over his articulatio humeri, and snatched his wand out, clearly intending to remove the spell.

'' professor I do n't think tha ... ''

His protestation was too former, for Kaylens had already lashed out, landing a strategic kicking that sent Lupin sprawling matt on his spine next to Harry.

'' I told you, '' Harry groaned, shoving himself up on his elbows to note the pained expression of Remus'face. `` Kicks hard, does n't she ? ``

lupin coughed harshly in response, choosing to ignore him as he rolled over to crack 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 musical composition of furniture, digression from the couch, and various small volumes came spilling down, scattering across the flooring like rocks thrown from a space.

The crashing speech sound only intensified the poor lady friend 's whimpering.

Harry 's eyes remained on her, watching as she curled her legs to her chest in a feeble endeavor at self-protection. But he knew the Truth ... 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 curse does drinking unicorn origin entail ? ''

Lupin opened his mouth and faltered. Harry remained lying on his back, his upper body propped up with his elbows, silently hoping to God that the prof would put the spell together. Lupin had to believe him. He had to entrust him. None of the adults, save for those stagnant and buried, had ever trusted him in sentence for it to actually matter.

It was why Sirius had died. And somehow Harry did n't think he could take it if the last link to his founder failed to commit him.

Then slowly, ever so slowly, the lykan's head turned towards him, and even in the grim room Harry could see the sudden knowledge flashing in his eyes.

Moony understood his meaning.

'' Her bruising is gone, '' Harry whispered, driving another shock to any doubts the prof could possess. `` What else in the wizarding world could heal someone that quickly ? ``

Lupin drew a deep breath, shaking slightly.

'' Harry ... if what you 're saying is true ... ''

'' It is, '' He assured. `` I saw memories inside of her mind that were not hers. ``

Kaylens'whimpering had finally quieted, casting the room into a deathly silence.

Besides him lupine swallowed audibly, contemplating Harry 's statements in the mortal muteness that had descended. Kaylens was no longer whimpering, and he was unsure of if he missed the reassuring sound of her front, or if was pleased at the obvious relief of her distress.

He glanced at Lupin, stunned at the torn expression upon his former prof's countenance. Did the man believe him or not ?

He sighed in frustration, snapping at lupin's unresponsiveness. `` Why would she have those memories, Moony ? ``

earreach his old Marauder public figure snapped lupin out of his contemplative stupor. `` It's magically potent…unicorn lineage that is. In fact it is so magical that their memories are often heavily imprinted upon it. '' He shook his headland slowly, as if clearing a fuzzy fog."To have a unicorn's stock is to not only own their life stream, but their very being."

lupin sighed heavily. `` There is not very much precedent for this, but….in the early 1900 's medi-wizards began experimenting with different discourse options for terminal diseases. One researcher, comrade with unicorns, sought to harness their healing superpower by injecting his terminally ill patients with the fauna'blood. It cured the patient role but the side effects…"lupine shuddered, digressing quickly. `` The blood was too hard to obtain to begin with. Unicorns don't normally donate willingly, not to mentio ... ''

'' What side gist, '' Harry interrupted hoarsely, closing his middle. The feeling of her in his weaponry flooded his senses, the woodsy olfactory property that had clung to her all night coming back, overwhelming him with a tidal wafture of fear. In his animation there was no way for new attachments, yet the sentiment of her in pain…

He knew without a doubt that he would kill 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 voice filled the room.

'' Most went insane. ``

Harry nearly choked. `` Insane ? '' He grated out.

lupin looked days older. `` They never were able to discern between themselves and the fauna again, '' he relayed. `` Can you imagine it Harry ? Having a lifetime of retentivity that were not your own suddenly shoved inside of your mind ? Unicorns live for hundreds of years…it was only innate for those obtaining their ancestry to become mazed. To them it would find as if they had spent a longer time being a unicorn than a human being."

The brainsick wiz twisting within him compound. Kaylens'mind had revealed exactly what lupine now spoke of, and the thought made him nauseating.

And the curse…God he had nearly forgotten…

Remus read his intellect, continuing his scholarly recitation of facts aloud. For Remus, who had lost so much, it was gentle than dealing with the devastating fallout facing them in Kaylens'crumpled kind.

"When one slays such an guiltless creature, seeking their blood's healing index, it leaves the torment of the half life. But when one is given the blood unwillingly, or when the creature is left alive, the curse does not lessen ; it simply changes its manifestation."

His pharynx constricted, but Harry managed to decease out a single word.

"Explain."

There was no mistaking the sick tone upon lupine's face."Harry, the only ace desperate enough to kill such an innocent creature are those hanging onto life by a yarn. But the price…it is far too high for any reasonable person to ponder, for the monetary value for their atrociousness is losing all ability to love. A sprightliness without the capacity for passion is devoid of joy, happiness, family…"He shook his head, disgust etched in his every feature of speech."In a heroic endeavor to make unnecessary their own life they lose the only if affair that makes life worth livelihood for. Once they take that path they truly lead half a life, only experiencing the darker English of the worked up spectrum."

"Then the mediwizard, the one using it to cure his patients, did that bump to him ?"

Lupin sighed indulgently."There are ways to hoard it, way of life for it to be done without incurring the anger of the execration but…those ways take time, Harry. Gaining the hanker terminal figure trustingness of a unicorn, let alone permission to inflict injury upon it, are not promiscuous tasks."

He swallowed hard."What about Kaylens ? That won't…it won't happen…"He trailed off, unable to vocalize such morbid view 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 love, but her every experience will be shared with both sides of her, diluting the intensity of the emotions she feels, diluting her look towards others…"

Something about the quarrel sent Harry's essence twisting.

"Unicorns ... they are such innocent wight, incapable of sin, incapable of inflicting pain in the neck ... Could you imagine having a nonsuch following you around for the entirety of your life, correcting your every mistake ? Well from this moment on she will be sharing her mind, her life, with retention of what confessedly naturalness is, for a unicorn is the genuine embodiment of that, and with it will issue forth a gnawing guilt over the sins she has committed in the past. Between the confusion over her identity element and her newfound guilt over even the smallest of transgressions…that alone could be enough to get some mad."

Harry's mouth twisted into a glower,"So she can't sin ?"

"If only it were that easy, Harry. She can, and she will. But having this will turn over her a scruples unassailable than most, and living a perfect life is an impossible project. Her biography will be as closing curtain to normal as potential, only she will sense far shamed about things she does than others."

'' A half sprightliness ... '' He whispered aloud, suddenly understanding. Kaylens truly would be cursed, for she would always be sharing her psyche 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 earlier quarrel. `` You said most. ``

lupine shook his head. `` They all went insane at low Harry. But only two managed to regenerate enough of their minds to go. Two out of dozens. ``

Harry closed his center, his voice filled with sardonic sarcasm. `` She just ca n't hitch a break, can she ? ``

The Professor shook his principal in response. `` There 's only one way to be for certain. ''

Without warning Lupin snatched his wand out, summoning a small flashlight. Soon a metallic element fuzz came flying through the doorway, landing in the prof 's outstretched script.

Harry frowned at the action, not understanding, but in one swift motion the professor had it on and aimed at Kalliandra 's face. Lupin clearly knew exactly what he was looking for.

Kaylens was suddenly shrieking again, and judging from the grim look on the professor 's face he had found all he needed to know.

A metal click sounded as the flashlight was turned off, and Kaylens'war cry instantly died down, slowly fading to a boring whimper.

'' She 's sensitive to light ... '' Lupin stated. `` There are only two stipulation I know of that cause that. ``

'' She 's not a vampire ... '' Harry stated coldly, earning a reproving look.

'' I was n't even about to suggest it. But brute tend to have punter nocturnal vision than us Harry. Lykans and unicorns are no exclusion, and when I was start bit ... '' He trailed off, his grimace twisting into a odd expression."Once I was bit my whole body changed. My eyes were the worst though. ''

The professor suddenly adopted an almost capricious expression. `` Did you know there are more lame nerves per column inch in your eyes than in any other part of your body ? Well there are. If you ever want to stimulate mortal pain just jinx their eyes and ... ''

'' Professor, '' Harry interjected, at the moment not carrying about the finer points of jinxing.

lupin shrugged. `` My chomp caused a all new bed of tissue replete of light sensible jail cell to grow across the backbone of my eyes, its called tapetum lucidum. It lets me utilize less ignitor to see, so I can see with sixth the amount you can. But when it first happened ... before I was used to it ... '' He shuddered. `` Merlin it hurt. The slightest lightsome felt like the sun was blasting me in the grimace. hell on earth, 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'whimpers died down as the illumination was turned off for a last time, and suddenly Harry understood the flashlight. Unicorns had fantabulous nigh vision as well, and the torch was lupin 's way of confirming what he already knew.

Kaylens had a layer of light raw tissue paper growing across her retinas right now. No wonder she screamed at the light.

'' Harry, '' The scholarly professor step was suddenly gone, and the wolf was deadly sober. `` Was she fine last night ? Before she lost consciousness ? ``

Harry was quick to nod.

'' Then sometime between then and now someone injected that lineage directly into her vena. She could n't throw done it herself. ``

Harry 's mouth opened, but his motion of how that was potential died on his tongue.

He knew the solution.

There was only one person who would wilfully bedamn another within the house.

'' prof what 's going on ? I heard yelling. ''

Harry 's center narrowed, every brawn tightening. Angelina had finally come, drawn by the incremental shouting. There she was, rushing through the room 's threshold, drawing her cloak hastily around her as if zip terrible were amiss.

If he had n't known better he would have thought she truly was surprised at the situation she found. But he knew better. No one took that long to respond to screams like the one's Kaylens had unleashed unless it was intentional.

'' Why is it so dark ? '' Her phonation sounded honestly confused as she flicked her wand out, lighting every candelabrum in sight.

His oculus flew to Kaylens, who had immediately began shrieking, clamping her script over her middle, screaming as if hell itself has sent its demons up to haul her into its depths. His chest constricted at her obvious pain.

lupin lunged at her in a decidedly wolf like way. `` Kally, do n't ! '' He was shouting, fighting her for control condition. She lashed out, and lupine grasped her carpus in a single, fluid apparent movement, quickly capturing the early as well.

The professor had already forced her helping hand down against her position, kneeling on her wooden leg in a vain attempt to keep them from flailing. He was far stronger than Kaylens, but she was do-or-die, fighting to block the hellish Light from her heart as lupine fought to prevent her from inflicting wrong upon herself. Now he was yelling at Angelina to extinguish the cd, and Harry still had not moved.

He was too busy watching Angelina, noting the guilt flashing within every brown pigment in her dark eye.

Her black lash fluttered, and the betraying emotion was suddenly gone.

His roue boiled, his arms vibrating with suppressed madness as she began speaking, a panicked sharpness to her voice.

'' What 's going on ? '' She asked fearfully, rushing across the elbow 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 knees besides where lupine and Kaylens wrestled, her Diospyros ebenum skin gleam in the candlelight. Her drear eyes widened in dissemble repulsion, her face a mask of barren business organisation as she reached out to assist restrain Kaylens.

And Harry lost it.

Her hand never reached Kaylens, her cloud fingers never touching her body. Before anyone could realise it Harry 's hand 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 metrical unit, stamping the heel of his foot against the daughter 's throat, pinning her to the earth.

'' Do n't. allude. Her. '' He growled, the world rippling around him.

Power swelled within him, the forcefulness of his deception unleashed by the raw anger pumping through his vein, and the feeling ... it was intoxicating.

Angelina 's physical structure undulated like a worm beneath him. She was choking, spluttering incomprehensible sounds, the shock clearly written across her face. Her hands were clawing at his foot, her clenched fist slamming against his legs as she fought for air.

He scarcely noticed any of it.

'' H-harry ... st-top ... '' She gasped, her eyes rolling backwards, fingerbreadth going morass as her supplication went unheard.

'' Harry ! Let her go ! '' Shouted Remus, followed by a meretricious crashing as he and Kaylens tumbled into the bookcase, knocking it sideways.

record book went flying, scattering everywhere. The resounding crashing masked the dull clump of Angelina 's hobble arm hitting the floor.

Lupin let out a pained ululation, and Harry 's helping hand shot out. He felt the thaumaturgy dripping from his fingertips like water.

With a flick of his articulatio radiocarpea the candles went out.
* * * * *


The descending sun of noon zenith was partially obscured by the perpetual cloud cover, casting the not-so-distant Dublin-Wicklow mountains into a deeply fog. Yet the man paid the sinister surround no mind, nor the racking cough that had swiftly descended upon him. Instead he stared out the windows of his south capital of Ireland address, admiring the view afforded by his working form neighborhood.

With a small grin he leaned further back into his recliner, letting the smoky scent of refreshful baking Pisces the Fishes fill his anterior naris. George Meredith was cooking, and from the smell of it she was cooking the fish he had caught just that cockcrow. They were bound to taste delicious. Everything his wife cooked always did. It was just a dishonour their middle baby, Eva, had inherited his culinary sense, or lack thereof.

'' Church Father, you feeling alright ? ``

The man turned to find his eldest son in the door, a touch expression crossing Edward 's lentiginose face. The man smiled, for the resemblance between father and son was striking. Edward had been the only child to inherit both the freckles scattered across his nozzle and the drab oral sex of fuzz adorning his headspring. The other two of his tyke bore his wife 's ash blonde hair and startling dreary eyes. Edward VIII however had his blue-green ones.

He graced his son with a warm smiling. `` I 'm just alright m'boy. Just a bit of a common cold. ``

'' You sure father ? Perhaps after dinner we should take you to the physician. Your neck opening looks awfully swollen. ``

Curiously the man rubbed his supply ship lymph nodes, shocked to find out that they had doubled in size in just a few hours.

His son smiled cheekily. `` female parent is of the mind to not let you go off fishing at such ungodly hour again. She said something about catchin'yer death on explanation of our colder than normal temperatures. ``

The man could n't jib a grin. `` well perhaps yer mum is right on. The thermoregulator dropped to 10 Celsius this mornin'before I ventured out. ''

'' I 'll severalize her you said so. ``

The man 's eyes widened in mock repulsion. `` 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 future. ``

Now it was Edward 's spell to look fearful, and the man leaned back, smiling in satisfaction. The boy still remembered the metre George Meredith had wrapped him head to toe in a snow-suit, complete with two scarves wrapped around his head and oversize mittens. Oh ! How the boy could hardly walk in that contraption !

'' Father, '' Started his boy diplomatically, `` I think I 'll just be off to get a head get-go on my Algebra. ``

The man smiled in satisfaction as the room access closed behind his boy. Yes, despite their humble surround his boy would soon grow into a fine man. And while he had never been able-bodied to ply all that he desired for his children, they did wonderfully with what they were given.

It was no minuscule dot of superbia for the man that he had worked his way from the North side of Dublin to the due south. While most of the people in his income category tended towards the nor'-west side of the city, here he was, raising his family is Tallaght. It might not be one of the wealthier territory device characteristic of Confederate States of America Dublin, but its deep good sense of history had captured his children 's marrow from day one. He still remembered how young Eve 's centre had grown wide as disc as he had explained the origin of the district 's name.

Tallaght. Pit of tear. The very epithet was reminiscent of the masses grave dug there during the death Black Plague. grand were said to be buried just beneath the sewers, and that fiddling bit of knowledge had had all three of his baby off and running, screaming and laughing in increments as their youthful minds make up ghost history along with it.

How proud he had been when Edward had shown him a story he had written. It had been about a young boy and his ghostly friend, a child who had died during the Black Plague. The ghost child had been buried beneath the fictitious boy 's home, and had appeared to the boy when another unidentified illness ran rampant through the city. With the ghost child 's service the offspring boy had been able to preserve the city, and his family.

The man leaned back in his chairwoman as a turn of coughing judder his tend underframe, a mystifying pain shooting through him. He clung to the hand rests tightly, waiting for it to pass, all the while thought of the future.

Yes. An author would be a befit profession for his firstborn. Edward IV would one day puddle a mulct novelist.

The man smiled, proud of his children in a way that only a father could be.

If only he knew how soon history were to repeat itself.








A/N : Thank you so much to Saint Andrew, Njhill22, and Ichigopan for helping me out a lot with this chapter. Saint Andrew not only helped to lick out some of the plot twirl for this chapter and the next, but he also beta-read it for me, and therefore rock. Njhill22 and Ichigopan are also awesome, because both of them helped me until 3 am when I wound up seriously stuck on how to write the next part. Thanks so much you guys !






'' Nothing ventured, nothing gained. ''
~ William William Shakspere ~



Chapter 29 ~ No Longer Helpless


With a film of his radiocarpal joint the candles went out.

His cad remained solidly planted against Angelina 's chest as shrouds of iniquity guess out in all counseling, like the spindly fingers of a corpse, until the entire way was engulfed in an inky, suffocating swarthiness. Harry scarcely noticed any of it, nor the thick scent of burned-over wax as unseen locoweed curled up from the extinguished candles.

anger pumped heavily through his veins, and with a hate he had not thought potential he glared down at the young lady beneath him. In the past his pachydermatous action mechanism against his early house Ilex paraguariensis would sustain sickened him, but now ....

affair were unlike.

His outstretched paw shook, his barely restrained witching crackling across his hide like motionless electricity, burning and searing at his frame. Grimacing in pain he forcefully curled his digit into a fist, tightening it, feeling the raw superpower seeping back in

A new feeling rose up within him. A dark, powerful, vengeful feeling.

Bearing the coldest of looks he crouched low, inspecting Angelina to see that she was indeed unconscious mind. He would not take in the misunderstanding of thinking a last eater subdued when they were not, but her dying would do him no good.

He intended to find out all he could from the treacherous wench.

Then, beneath his foot, he felt the slow rise and Fall of her ribcage, and his leg twitched with the bottle up urge to stomp the breath from her. For the first prison term he understood what Ron had meant when he had drilled him on the conflict 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 present no hesitation.

Swallowing back a offensive wave of revulsion he reached out, touching the cloud witch 's skin and shoving her headspring to the English. It lolled over with a dull clunk, revealing nothing. The expiry Eater would not be moving for some time.

Good.

Still ... they had all been fooled by Angelina 's acting acquirement once. He would not fall victim to that again.

With calculated efficiency he withdrew his wand, a frightening look crossing his feature. His angriness still burned hot within him, the venous blood vessel in his cervix pulsing intensely as he thought of the witch 's betrayal. Angelina had been his house mate, a teammate, but regretful of all, she had nearly been a friend. Once she was a Gryffindor. And now ....

She had betrayed the Order by taking the mark of that snake in the grass, and had all but killed Kaylens, possibly robbing her of her mind.

A growling ripped from his throat, the tip of his verge suddenly digging against the traitor 's temple as he pondered all the magic spell he could use.

Thunk.

'' Harry, stop ! ''

He stopped cold. Remus'gruff, panicky voice had cut through the air like a well sharpened tongue, sending his wand arm tensing as his don 's last friend fought his way out from beneath the books that had fallen atop him. In the aftermath of his own Dutch hoe he had nearly forgotten Lupin 's mien, and the thundering of his pulse in his ears had drowned out the low groans and whimpers from the other position 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 darkness, his gaze riveted to the horrified formulation crossing Remus'face.

His one-time prof stood behind the upset bookcase, eyes widely and staring.

'' My God ... '' He whispered chokingly, `` Harry ... '' His accusatory eyes flickered up to his. `` What have you done ? ``

He sucked in a labored hint between his teeth. `` Nothing she did n't deserve, '' He hissed staidly.

A strangled sound came from the Professor 's throat. `` But Harry ... that 's Angelina ... ''

'' No kidding. Really ? '' He snapped.

A sudden dogfight and clunk, followed by a tart, inhuman whimper sent his scepter jabbing into Angelina 's head teacher.

'' Kally ... ''

He had n't needed the Professor 's devastated whisper to know who was softly whimpering.

Heart wrenching, he fought back the hollow smell in his chest. `` Why do n't you see to Kaylens, professor, '' He grated out, his case a grim mask as he focused back on the other chaser.

'' I will but ... is Angelina okay ? ''

'' I sure as hell hope not. ``

A loud swallow preceded Remus'adjacent, tense Scripture.

'' What are you planning on doing Harry ? ``

'' You know Moony, '' He said, voice vibrating with barely suppressed craze. `` I 'm still deciding on that.

lupine 's part was strained, the timid, placating banknote in it alien to him. `` Harry, I know something 's awry. But just think about what you 're doing ... ''

A cruel, core out laugh escaped his throat. `` Oh, rely me Moony, I have. ``

'' She 's on our side, Har ... ''

He cut him off, spitting out the dusty truth.

'' She 's a Death eater, Moony. ``

From behind him came a loud, discerning deglutition. `` Harry ... are you certain ? ``

A cold grimace crossed his feature film. `` Yes. ``

There was an agonizing pause, and a disgusted, awkward dread suddenly rose in his stomach as his racing pulse finally began to slow. He needed Remus to believe him. He needed someone in the Order to not just listen to him, but to actually trust him. And if Remus did n't ...

'' I 'll hold fast her. She 'll have to be taken to headquarters. ``

Harry 's headspring bolted around, shock written on his verbalism. `` You believe me, '' He questioned. And even in the dim light he could see the little movement of Remus'phantasma nodding.

'' Harry, '' He said, sounding almost hurt. `` I always believe you. ``

His brow instantly wrinkled in confusedness. 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 blow her head off before I could reckon out why you had attacked her in the world-class place. It would have been a very Sirius-like thing to do. ''

The thought struck him hard. `` Yeah, '' He managed. `` It would give birth been like him. ``

He glanced back, and in the radiance of the wand he could see Remus smiling sadly. He returned the expression, feeling shakier than he would have thought possible only hour before, but that did n't matter.

Remus believed him. He did handle about him after all.

His apologies for all those lost months, for all the clip when he had been left to deal with the bother of Canicula'dying alone truly had meant something, and despite everything a warm sentience wormed its way into him.

All it took was a indulgent whine, from a corner behind him, to drive it all away.

He swallowed hard, finally turning and squinting in the dim lighting to see Kalliandra cowering in the corner, human knee drawn feebly to her chest, her golden hairsbreadth spilling over them and her case buried within them.

Slowly his rakehell pressure rose, his infantry grinding down even harder against the wench 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 metrical unit beneath her limp body, kicking her over onto her stomach. A secondment later he was on her back, dragging her manus 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 ropes stream from its tip, slithering around her arms until she was bound up to her elbows. Dropping his wand he gave them a harsh tug, satisfied in the way the glowering girl 's skin chaffed, reddening even in the darkness light.

'' Exuberant, aren't we ? ''

He merely grunted in reply, giving the roofy one last, callous tug as Remus began binding her wooden leg.

A secondly later he was on his feet, an aching maven 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 right nous. And Remus had said she 'd induce to block out the unicorn 's memories before she ever could be. How could anyone possibly ...

And then it hit him.

She 'd get to block them out.

The theme ignited swiftly, the affair Dumbledore had taught him about Occlumency all coming together in a cohesive ball of knowledge. He had used it for himself, but could he do it for someone else ?

He would be grasping at straws, but there was a chance ...

Voldemort had given him mint of practice at blocking undesirable retention.

His line of descent pumped purposefully, and he felt, more than than saw, Remus lift besides him, looking morosely in the Sami counseling as he.

'' Well have to immobilize her again, '' He said regretfully, dimming the light from his wand as it sent Kaylens stirring uncomfortably.

'' No, '' Harry answered immediately, vocalization filled with judgment of conviction. `` I 'll divvy up with her. You just get Angelina to Grimmauld. ''

Remus'brow furrowed at this, doubtful lines crisscrossing his face. His mouth opened, as if to protest, but his dubiousness went unvoiced. Instead a attentive, critical verbalism befell him as he studied Harry 's tense, determined face.

The lines on his face suddenly deepened. `` Are you trusted ? ``

Harry nodded, tense with anger at the integral situation, and filled with the need to do something about it.

'' Yeah, '' He responded. `` I 've stunned her enough lately. ''

lupin 's conflicted verbal expression remained, but he nodded decisively.

'' Alright, take this then. ``

A second later a small pouch was being pressed into his bridge player, a sandy material grinding within it.

'' It 's a port wine key. Pour the subject matter ... ''

'' Into our hands, '' Harry finished for him. `` We 've used this kind before. ``

Remus eyed him curiously, tilting his oral sex to the side. `` wellspring then, I 'll see you there. ``

He nodded, watching as Remus unearthed another pouch from his air pocket. He watched him scrunch up next to Angelina, sending him one concluding, pointed expression before dousing his scepter.

apparition spilled around them, enshrouding the way in duskiness once again. Rifling a hand nervously through his hair Harry forced a strained, spiritual domain grin, and a indorse later Remus and the double-crosser blinked out of world, leaving him with a single insane estimate, one that he never could have done in Remus'presence.

And somehow he thought Remus had known that.

For a moment he did goose egg, simply allowing his center to adjust to the sudden shadow. Then, slowly, the black gave way, revealing her vague, greyish outline. Yet even in the shadows he saw the way her silhouette trembled.

He pulled his verge and immobilized her in one swift question. Strangely he felt cypher, when even the mentation of stunning her again had sent his stomach wrenching.

He crossed the room and knelt besides her, his fierce hands gently cupping her face and turning it towards his. He felt ill, for he was violating her yet again. But God, what pick did he throw ?

For the second time that day her frighten eyes stared back at his, flickering with too many emotions to refer. His thumb gently brushed her hair away from her heart, his heart thumping shamefully. She was like a frightened animal, and somehow this just felt wrong.

Yet he had to try. No one deserved this, and if his idea worked ...

He might just be able to save enough of her to aid her receive her way back.

Staring into her oculus he hoped to God it would work.

'' I swear to you, '' He whispered intently, `` This is the conclusion clip I 'll ever do this to you. ``

Licking his sass nervously he raised his baton, letting it hover in from her pelt. Closing his optic he waited, allowing his brain to clear, calming himself.

Occlumency was not meant to be done with raw emotion.

His oculus snapped opened. He was ready.

'' Legilimens ! ``

The twister-like effect of her creative thinker seized him without remorse, sending his senses reeling as an violation of enhanced speech sound and smells attacked him.

thunder cracked through the swirling mist, sending his trunk crashing font first into the mud, and he immediately knew there was something unlike about this memory.

He staggered to his knees, peering through the incredibly darkness, moonless night. Hardly anything was discernible through the thick, icy torrent pouring down around him, and then it hit him.

Every other memory he had seen had had a wear down direct contrast, the intensiveness of emotions and outcome diluted by time. Dumbledore and Snape had been too skilled for him to peer into recent issue, and luck-of-the-draw had shown him things from Kayelns'childhood. But this remembering was different.

It felt fresh.

The harsh, biting winding sent the looming forest moving with an aberrant life, and above him lightning flashed, crackling across the blackened cloud, briefly illuminating the gravel road running past him. For a second the forest surrounding him came into stark nidus, as did the wooden house he had landed before.

Again lightning set the domain aglow, a deep shout snapping his center towards the small lawn.

What he saw made his descent run cold.

His education with Dumbledore had taught him that it was one 's most unspeakable memories 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 interpreter preceded the flash of Light Within, and he had just sufficiency time to see a iniquity haired man struck down. The man tumbled head first into the muddied background, the sound of his body slapping against the mud drowned out by a thunderous crack.

A blinding hot, fiery ball blew through the firm 's siding, sending floorboards flying to litter the lawn.

From inside came the screaming, drowned out by a epicurean laugh.

'' Muggle, muggle, muggle come out to play ! ''

gall churned in his stomach, though there was no metre for it to arise as the great unwashed began pouring out of a face window.

'' Aw, the wittle, ittle Muggles do n't need to play ? ``

That taunting, familiar laugh of his nightmares greeted him as Bellatrix Lestrange stepped calmly out the front door, the burning base alighting her boldness with a hellish glow.

One of the fleeing figures bolted towards a car, parked along the gravel road near the forest 's Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree melodic phrase.

He never made it.

A fiery 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 pelter was not enough to plunge the flames engulfing the man 's build, and the wind hurled a noxious fetor against his nostrils.

'' lustrelessness ! ''

A girl was rising from the muddied reason, thick grass stains streaked across her jeans, her brown pilus matted against her head as she screamed hysterically. Her face was contorted into something inhuman, raw painfulness distorting incredibly striking feature of speech, and she appeared frozen in place.

Harry was screaming for her to move, but she never heard him. From around the corner of the domicile came two others clad in total darkness, and a jet of searing purple light shot out.

mortal darted out, from where he did not see, tackling her around the waist.

The purple light missed her by inches as she and her savior went sliding across the ground, smacking into the side of the sign of the zodiac with a dense thump.

The Death Eaters were on them in an instant, a loud shot 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 deal with a cruel slosh, the mud swallowing it entirely. The wickedness haired fille was still screaming, clawing at her straits as a strapping last Eater snatched her hair up, twisting it around his massive palms before dragging her across the lawn by it.

A sharp splinter broke the air, and the demise Eater assaulting the gray haired man went down. The honest-to-goodness man struggled to his human foot, slipping in the mud and cradling his arm.

'' DAD ! ''

Lightning split the sky, catching onto the Gy haired man 's few remaining golden hairs. His face split into a horrified expression, and Harry followed his regard.

Kalliandra, eyes ablaze, came barreling out from the tree line, a man barely aged than him hot on her heels.

Both had striking golden-brown hair, their hues muted only by the precipitation pouring down around them. And Harry suddenly understood that he was seeing her second brother for the initiatory time.

'' small fry GO ! GET OUT OF here ! ''

The vociferation came from a second floor window, and Harry finally understood who had done the shooting.

A centre aged woman with visible light Brown tomentum was hanging out of it, pistol in paw, and over the noise Harry could learn Bellatrix laughing hysterically.

Lightning split the sky, thunder drowning out the second, thirdly, and quarter gunshots.

Kalliandra 's mother could no longer be seen. Only the dim sound of the fifth part and sixth gunshots firing off in the room told him that her attention had been drawn back inside the burning house.

Inside the house, where he could not get wind, came the sequential clicking of empty chambers.

A loudly sidesplitter carried through the window, followed by a consistency flying through the window 's possible action.

The char hit the ground with a sickening thud, leaving the gray haired man yelling something that the thunder drowned out.

No clip was wasted. Kalliandra 's brother came sliding aside her mother, grasping the gun from her still twitching hands, sobbing as he started rifling through her clothing.

A endorse later a new round of drinks was in his hired man, but he never had a fortune to load it as Bellatrix apparated in front of him, kicking the rhythm from his hand, sending individual hummer scattering to the wind.

The strobe light force of the lightning shielded what transpired side by side, but when it flashed again Bellatrix and Kalliandra were sliding to the ground, Kaylens clearly having tackled her.

'' KALLY, NO ! ``

Her blood brother had leapt to his feet, and rushed to join the ruffle as his sister smashed Bellatrix 's head into the ground repeatedly, screaming incomprehensible words.

Her brother reached her, grasping her by the spine of her jumper and tossing her out of the way as he grasped Bellatrix 's principal in a vice traction from behind, preparing to break away it.

The unheard pop of apparation prevented this as the strapping man appeared behind him, swatting him away as if he were nothing more than an pestiferous child. Bellatrix fell to the priming coat, spitting embrown water, her raging centre rounding on the three remaining members of the Kaylens'family.

'' Filthy Muggles ! '' She roared, shooting binding piece off at a furious pace, hitting the brother first.

'' SEAN ! '' Their father 's representative ripped through the air as rope twisted around his son, sending him crashing to the ground right below the strapping demise Eater 's feet.

Kalliandra, having been thrown back by her brother, was still down in the mud. She did n't fend a chance.

Then her founder slid in straw man of her, the ropes taking him right in the chest, and constricting around his neck and throat.

The house was quickly succumbing to the flaming, the red sparkle showcasing Bellatrix 's fanatical grinning as she tugged Kaylens'father away from her by his cervix.

Her Church Father was ineffective to claw at the circle, for his arms had been pinned to his sides.

He was unconscious by the clock time Bellatrix had dragged him to her feet.

crack !

Another gunshot rang out, taking the burly man right field in the header.

Kalliandra had gotten to her knees, hairsbreadth plastered to her face, her arms outstretched and shaking.

Her hands held the gun, and Bellatrix regarded her with an entertained expression.

The succeeding shot was in Lestrange 's counsel, but a shimmering luminousness halted the shot, sending the shell dropping to the ground lupus erythematosus than a foundation from her smirking face.

Kally looked stunned, and Bellatrix waggled a finger's breadth back and forth as if scolding a naughty child.

'' Foolish wittle young lady should n't play with gun for hire, '' She cooed in a baby voice, suddenly beckoning towards Kally.

Kaylens was sent sprawling forward as an invisible force pulled the gun from her range, and a second later a new dying Eater was there, his foot on her back.

A gust of fart sent the new arrival 's cowl falling back, and Harry suddenly understood every word 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 previous arrival apparent, but there was no metre for anything to be said.

Barely a second had transpired between his former comer and his fall to the ground.

Kally had rolled over, kicking his peg out from under him.

Bellatrix rolled her oculus, and this time her binding spell did not miss.

Angry tears were rolling down his case, his fists taking swings at the crazed woman who had taken his Godfather. Somewhere his mind was screaming for him to stop, that it would do no good, but his subconscious'voice went unheeded.

'' Crucio ... ''

And then the swirling, silvern mist returned, swallowing up the images 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 unit as they dislodged him from piazza to place in her life, never stopping long enough for him to pull ahead his bearings.

Around him the crashing of hooves fought for antecedency above the remote laughter. Hazy scheme flickered by, barely seeable through the fog-like mist swirling around him. He was lost ...

And then he saw himself, running from a dying Eater down the principal, dusty thoroughfare of Hogsmeade. Red lulu shot out, smacking against a trough, sending it swinging into the side of a bit last eater that had emerged to freeze his progress.

She had saved him.

And that was all it took.

'' ENOUGH ! '' He screamed, unsure of whether his voice only existed in her mind, or if his physical organic structure 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 calm 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 downpour of the two aliveness combined into one idea becoming less disorienting.

He peered through them as they passed, one-by-one, searching for something that he could make up out.

And then he found one.

He charged through the mist, falling out into the Forbidden woods 's clearing.

The one they had left before this had happened to her ...

In the dim Moon, dramatis personae from a paring peaking through the clouds, he watched the action replay of himself yanking his handwriting away from her. Hushed lyric were exchanged, and suddenly Kalliandra was rising from her position besides the water, stalking away from him.

In a flash his retention self was scrambling to his foundation, going after her, catching onto her arm. She whorled to face him, an icy expression crossing her facial expression, disappearing in daze as he swiftly pulled her against him.

He watched, an odd flavour twisting within him as she struggled against him, his only response in the way his arms wound even wet around her, stroking her pilus until her electrical resistance ceased.

'' I 'm sorry… '' He heard his own voice whispering, `` I swear to God I 'm sorry… ''

And then her cheek was dropping against his shoulder, his own burrowing within her hair as her blazon wound around him, holding him back.

It was as if a light wind blew, and then another memory squeezed through, the silvery sum sending the clearing range 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 flick negative, trying to see what was beyond it.

The beautiful, alien clicking rose above his and Kaylens whispering, the foreign store threatening to pass 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 overcome her aside.

He could n't allow them in. He couldn't.

Staggering odds were against him, but if he could only hold her in her own state of judgment long enough ...

Maybe it would be just enough to bring her back.

Grimacing he waved his hired hand, feeling the magic rising within him, rolling off of him as he tried desperately to muster up something, anything that would block out those memories that were not hers.

The unicorn memories may cause been weak, dilute embossment of the real affair, yet they were still there, fighting for precedence of her mind. And yet ...

fight for the sanctity of his own mind against Voldemort had made keeping these silvery, diluted tendrils back a antic.

A determined expression crossed his face, a swift jolt rocketing through him as the bricks began to materialise. He stretched out his hands, willing them to get stacking, watching them rise higher and high-pitched, muting the speech sound of a herd in the space.

He would shape a barrier between her remembering and the unicorn 's, and he 'd be damned if he failed.

His hands were shaking again, a lone trickle of perspiration dripping from his supercilium as he concentrated, directing the bricks to begin circling around him, stacking along the clearing 's circumference.

And then, one-by-one, he began shoving the unicorn 's remembering past the wall. Each metre one threatened to break in he shoved it away, a leaden pain growing in the back of his mind, sending his psyche swirling as he refused to cease his efforts. His external respiration grew ragged, his vision bespeckled with black dots as tendrils of the silver mist fought to ooze back through his hastily erected brick walls.

'' No ... '' He whispered, and slowly, methodically, he shoved the last of the silvery threads through the break in the walls, feeling the muted strait fading.

With a slam of decisiveness he found himself surrounded on all sides by his bulwark, the retentiveness still playing as if zip had disturbed it.

Panting in exhaustion he crouched down, supporting himself on his genu, feeling his feet sinking into the dewy earth as he fought for breath. The bulwark might not maintain for long, but for now ...

Around him he could hear the aloof calls of a ruck, and he looked up shakily, watching dust crumbling down from the brick barrier. A lump formed in his throat as he watched the entire edifice shake, as remembering after memory slammed against it from the outside, trying to let out through.

He could feel his physical consistence shaking from the exertion, and as much as he desired to do more an unfeeling truth struck him.

He did n't live what else he could do.

And for the first clock time in her judgement he withdrew willingly, the darkness of Remus'life way wrapping tightly around him. The moonlit clearing had been so brilliant in comparison and yet, his eyes had remained perfectly adjusted, his physical body having never left nor moved.

And she was still right there, column inch separating him from her. His breath caught in his throat, the adrenaline he had been riding on struggling to stay on gamy as he searched her case for a house to establish that some parting, any portion, of herself was back.

All he saw were the spinal column of her lid as they fell shut, a long breath escaping her lips.

At some tip his total trunk had begun shaking, a sharp headache nearly splitting his skull as he removed the binding go from her, his magical travail finally catching up to him.

But God, he did n't care. His hands rose to her face, a handwriting resting on either position as he smoothed a single stray lock away, tucking it behind her ear.

'' ejaculate on Kaylens ... '' He murmured, eyes bright and searching. His gaze was flickering back and forward across her face, watching her every bowel movement, hoping against promise it had worked.

And then her lid opened, her eyes as disoriented as before. A choking sensation wrapped around his throat, his hands falling to rest on her stiffening shoulders. He had failed.

His forehead fell against hers in despair, the tone of her warm hide offering little comfort. He should 've known it would not work, yet ...

He never would have forgiven himself if he had n't tried.

Slowly her legs slid against his, and his eyes squeezed shut, preparing himself for whatever out cilium was about to occur. The retentiveness of her recoiling away from him, scuffling away like a frightened animate being when he had gotten too close, was all too fresh in his mind.

He waited for it with held breath, only zilch came.

His eye opened, only to find hers staring back.

His muscles went taut with tension, his breath quickening as their propinquity struck him. Her intrude pressed against his, his hands house on her shoulders, and a startling sensory faculty churned in his chest as he watched her darkened eyes.

Within them something was changing, a flicker of acquaintance residing there. His paw slid back to her face, anxiety etched in his lineament as her lip parted. Her mouth moved, as if trying to say something, only no words came.

He could n't pull his gaze away if he tried.

'' Merlin, '' He whispered, `` I wish I knew what you were thinking. ``

She remained understood, but his eyes were drawn to a flimsy motion. Her script rose, falling to catch one's breath on his unshaven cheek. She pulled away slightly, their foreheads no longer pressing together as her befuddle optic flickered across his face, a curious expression befalling her.

His brow furrowed, a interrogative sentence forming on his lips.

'' Kaylens ? '' He whispered, eyes searching hers desperately.

A unhappy tone crossed her feature of speech, her bottom lip drawing between her tooth, sending his heart thudding uncertainly.

And then she was nodding.

Instantly he reached for her, embracing her against his chest. She was trembling, enticing his own shaking munition to root for her even closer, the need to physically touch her overwhelming. deity ... he could n't get her close decent.

The shock was finally hitting him, frightening him on too many grade to name as he realized how fleeting this could be.

She was with him again, but only until the walls he had created went tumbling down.

Merlin, how long did he have ?

A tremor shook him, an urging penury to get her to someone skilful than him, to individual who could do something, driving him.

He needed someone, someone like Dumbledore. He could strengthen the rampart he 'd put up inside her psyche. He had to.

Fearing to release her for even a moment his arm tightened around her shoulder, his other reaching for the portkey in his pocket. A second later his fingers were sliding through hers, his promising gaze locking onto her tormented one.

'' Kaylens, '' He murmured intensely, `` stop with me. ``

And then, hoping that she was coherent enough to understand what they were doing, he dumped the sandy message onto their linked hands, feeling that distinctive tug.

In that finis second he threw his weaponry around her, wanting to shield her from whatever harsh landing they were about to experience.









'' My respect is earned, not given. ``
~ expression of the years ~







Chapter 30 ~ To Hell with decorum


'' Harry ! ``

Harry had barely recovered from the portkey 's drive when he felt mitt hauling him away, separating him from Kaylens. He blinked, only slightly dazed, and found himself strewn across the iniquity wooden pane of Grimmauld post 's study.

The hell of it was, he could hardly see a thing.

'' How is she ? ''

In the dim light cast from the wall-mounted candelabra he saw Remus'shadow drop down between them, placing a hesitant hand on Kalliandra 's shoulder. Harry could only see the werewolf 's profile, but judging from his reflexion, Remus looked genuinely surprised when Kaylens did not immediately twist away.

Harry 's eyes cut through the darkness, finding hers.

Something warm swelled within him when he realized that she was looking right back at him, scarcely a intimation of mental confusion within her look. Disbelievingly he watched the candlelight dance in her calendered orb, and for a brief second he was able to trust that she may just pull through with her saneness integral.

'' Harry ! ''

Remus'sharp voice cut through the understood way, drawing both twain of teenage eyes to the upset adult.

Harry found his voice quickly. `` We need an Occlumens. Right away. ``

Remus'head jolted around, the contemplative layer behind his eyes shining. `` Harry, what did you do ? '' He asked uneasily.

His berm stiffened, and in that single loaded head he found his resoluteness.

'' 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 decisiveness to swear him.

Harry only hoped Remus would not issue forth to regret it.

A moment later Remus was on his infantry, nodding at Harry. `` stop with her. ``

'' The mentation of leaving never crossed my mind, '' He replied honestly, scooting across the story back to her. The sound of a singe threshold, and the interpreter beyond it, drifted in, but Harry scarcely noticed.

'' Kaylens, '' He whispered, reaching hesitantly for her. With trepidation his fingers slowly curled around her upper arms, whilst his center swept searchingly over her case. `` You still with me ? ``

pickings in her every campaign he watched her eyes flutter exhaustedly, her chest and shoulder rising as she drew in a fag out sigh.

And then the impossible girl fixed him with an incense smell, nodding tiredly.

He released the breath he had been unwittingly holding, relief sweeping through him. Immediately his workforce found her typeface, the domiciliation of his thumbs moving along her malar with a gradualness he did n't know he possessed. For a moment he simply stared at her, watching the entertainment in her gaze only grow.

pigeon hawk ... he had been afraid that the swirl of the portkey would disorient her, causing her to lose whatever fledgling flake of sanity she had managed to dig onto at Remus'. Hell ... he vividly recalled their last portkey ride, and that alone had rendered her unconscious.

He stared at her, his eyes boring into her bemused, albeit sleepy, grammatical construction.

Suddenly her hand rose, her fingers curling gently around his own where they rested against her nerve. He squeezed her hand gently, finding reassurance he had n't known he needed in her natural process.

Had he been asked a month ago, he never would give guessed that he would be feeling Kalliandra Kaylens, of all the great unwashed, squeezing his script in hers. But More than that, he never would consume thought that such a simple, innocuous motion could get off his chest stirring.

He swallowed hard, watching the hint of a smile variety on her sassing. His paw immediately flipped over, taking her cold mitt more firmly in his, and tightening his handle 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 hind end lip drawn between her dentition as she began nodding.

And then he saw it. Amidst her construction was a flicker of fear, and for the briefest of seconds he saw her centre clouding again.

'' Kaylens ! '' He said sharply, dropping her hand and grabbing her by the shoulder, shaking her suddenly trembling conformation. `` Please ! Stay with me ! ''

Whether it was their physical middleman or his voice, he would never have it off. But suddenly she had gained some mother wit of herself again, and she had hurtled herself against his dresser, her entire mannikin shaking like a leaf.

Harry had never felt more helpless in his animation.

And Snape just had to opt that exact moment to walk in.

'' What do you think you are doing now, Potter ? ``

If he was n't so desperate for supporter he might have hexed him. Instead his rebellion of hysteria was suddenly quenched as a 1 view permeated his panic-ridden mind.

Snape was a schoolmaster Occlumens.

Still clutching onto Kaylens as if his life depended on it, he met the Potion lord 's decisive gaze head on.

'' prof, I need your help. ``

Snape 's full cheek crinkled indifferently. `` Get off the story ceramicist. I do n't accept time for your game, '' He clipped, starting to sweep past them. Instead he paused mid-stride, eyeing them distastefully.

'' And do transfer 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 public exhibition. ''

The Slytherin Head of House flipped his robes, practically striking them as he continued striding across the room 's expanse towards another room access. Harry 's jaw dropped, cushion and fury mingling on his tempestuous facial expression. `` Damn it this is not a jest ! '' He roared, watching Snape hitch. `` Kaylens needs aid ! '' He squeezed his oculus shut, forcing himself to tranquillize down. Where in the hell was Remus ?

'' professor, '' He finally ground out, as if the respectful full term pained him. `` This is not what you think. This is not a show. Something happened to Kaylens. individual injected her with unicorn blood and I ... '' He plowed forth, ignoring the fact that he had not a semblance of a clue on how to explain the position. `` I tried something on her. I used Legilimency to get into her mind, to try and help, but ... ''

He hesitated, meeting Snape 's emotionless expression. `` I created a rampart, similar to the ones they teach novice in Occlumency, to severalize her retentivity from the strange I. But I 'm not sure it 's working. ''

His acuate gaze locked onto the blank expression of his most hated Professor.

'' She needs supporter. I need mortal to reinforce the paries I made, and I sure as underworld am not capable of doing it. ``

Unreadable as he was, Snape did n't appear to be about to help. But he did n't make any advance attempts to leave.

Running his hands through Kaylens'fuzz comfortingly, feeling her trembling slowly subsidence, he felt wrath at Snape 's unresponsiveness Begin to call down.

Harry 's saying suddenly grew challenging. `` Now, '' He demanded, vocalism ablaze. `` Are you a Master Occlumens or not ? ``

A flicker of aggravator crossed Snape 's face. `` Your attempts to appeal to my ego and best nature are pathetic, Potter, considering that I am secure in one and miss the other. ``

His descent practically boiled.

'' Look, '' Harry bicker, dropping all pretense of respectfulness. `` You hate me. I hate you. I get that. But this is n't about either of us, and I 'll be damned to acknowledge this, but you are the only one here that can help her at the second. infernal region, I 'll even make you a free injection at me. Just help her. ``

Snape 's lip curled angrily, as if considering.

'' Follow me, '' The former Slytherin finally sneered, snapping a hand towards the far threshold.

Harry 's clenched fist clenched as the man disappeared through the doorway, not bothering to wait around for an acknowledgement. Drawing a distort breathing time between his teeth he glanced down at Kaylens, and the tension drained out of him.

Her entire, mud-streaked brass was crinkled in concentration. God ... she had been so wrapped up in trying to persist in her the right way head that she had barely noticed the tense verbal spouting match around her.

'' Hey, '' He murmured, a pugnacious hand reaching out and cupping her Kuki-Chin, forcing her to look up at him. `` You still O.K. ? ''

Her eyes glittered with muddiness, but she managed another nod.

He forced a smile. `` Try not to control this against me, '' He whispered, standing up and scooping the startled missy into his arm. `` But frankly I 'm not for certain I trust your walking ability at the moment. ``

She uttered not a strait, simply nodding resignedly, middle one-half closed. He swallowed hard as her head fell to rest against his shoulder, and he found himself carefully adverting his gaze from her as he crossed the room quickly, kicking open the threshold after Snape.

The fact that he did n't hit the man with it disappointed him only slightly.

'' Put her on the sofa. ``

His brow crinkled uncertainly. Was he really about to just hand her over to the Saami cruel, bitter man whom had wreaked havoc on his own mind in the past ?

He realized that he had very few options at the moment.

He sunk down into the shock absorber, clutching her to him. Readjusting only slightly, so that her ramification lay loosely draped over his own, with her header resting against his shoulder joint, he wound his sleeve protectively around her, sealing her in a frailty grip 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 confront the Potions'Master 's mercy alone. And irrational number as it was, his exhausted, battered mind 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 word of tomentum. `` Let him do what he has to do. It 'll avail, '' He reassured quietly, hoping he would not regret placing his faith in the acid man 's abilities.

He pulled away only slightly, his arms still looped around her waist, and her hazel colored optic turned up, studying him intently.

'' How very tint. ``

Harry 's pass jerked up, only to be greeted with Snape 's mocking leer, and an verbal expression that clearly told him to get the the pits out of the way.

'' movement aside boy. ``

Harry 's eye hardened, his clutch reflexively tightening around her. `` No. ``

Snape practically twitched. `` Insolent child, move. I will not be doing this with you in the way. ``

'' The conclusion sentence I checked, '' He retorted, `` This only required eye contact. Even you taught me that a lot. And seeing as how I 'm not blocking you from that ... '' He let his bitter reply track off.

With a growling Snape leaned forward, grabbing Kaylens chin and practically snapping her foreland towards him.

The muffle urge to fall the man rose up, Eumenides rifling through him at her distressed, shocked manifestation, but Snape 's wand was already drawn and aimed, an vivid look in his eyes.

'' Legilimens. ''

An eerily tranquillise expression suddenly befell Kaylens'typeface, while Snape 's contorted into one of the utmost tightness.

Harry could only wait.

He dropped his header back against the rampart, heaving an exhausted sigh.

The grandfather clock chimed. Kaylens'tegument grew cold to the cutaneous senses. Snape 's iniquity, frightening center bored into her wide, doe-like ones.

He watched the clock

Twelve minutes and xxxiii instant later, lupine still had not returned.

But his two mute companions did.

Kally jerked, almost violently backwards, her back hitting the armrest of the couch. Harry barely managed to lay off her fountainhead from smacking into the wall as she slid off of him.

Snape 's crusade were not nearly so sudden.

Unnoticed to Harry the man rose from the floor, a blench paw brushing complex number grease from his robes. And then slowly, almost methodically, the man 's finger's breadth tightened challengingly around his wand, his knuckles turning whiteness with the pressure.

It took Harry a 2nd to acknowledge the man 's penetrating gaze, but when he did an faze sensation overtook him.

The Potions Master was looking at him, a strange face in his eyes.

concern.
* * * * *


Blue-green eyes appraised the rather full waiting elbow room of the Adelaide and Meath infirmary 's emergency room.

'' sodomist. ``

'' Padre, this is for your own thoroughly. ``

'' Could n't this wait until Mon ? '' He ventured, trying to plead to his son 's better sensibilities as his heart took in the mass of people. `` By the prison term we finish waiting in line it 'll be tomorrow and the Dr. 's spot will be out-of-doors anyways. Is this really where you want to spend your Dominicus ? ``

The man turned around to find his firstborn son 's eyes narrowed in reproach.

'' Church Father, you were coughing up a storm at home and ... ''

'' It was just a small-scale scabies in my throat ... ''

Edward ignored him. `` Dad, you collapsed at the dinner party table from that little itch. ``

'' wellspring really, I was actually just choking on some of your mother 's cooking. It was positively unpalatable. Honest. ''

The boy arched his eyebrow skeptically, clearly not buying this. `` good story, considering how you were praising that fish filet just before your lungs seized up. ``

The man groaned. `` Honestly, Albert Edward. Do you really think that I would criticize your mum 's preparation to her face ? ``

Yes. postponement for it. Ah, there it is.

His son was now full out laughing at him. Of class, he could hardly blame him. His wife, James Howard Meredith, could have been a chef had she wanted to. The charwoman had never cooked nor baked something sub par in her life.

But that was n't about to check him from trying to get out of this cursed, congested waiting room.

'' Padre, '' croaked out his son, `` Are n't you a bit old for harboring phobias of doctor visit ? ``

He grunted in response, racking his pounding drumhead for another self-justification. Honestly, he really thought that his family was overreacting. His lymph lymph node might be swollen, and indeed his head was pounding as if Xerxes himself were waging a small war with his neuron. But really all he needed was a effective night 's rest.

Perhaps he could pick the coughing fit and his wheezing on having tried some cigaret while fishing that morning. Of grade, James Howard Meredith would have his skin skinned and filleted before he would even have a chance to shout out for aid ...

The man was caught unaware when his son rather abruptly shoved him into a wheelchair.

'' Edward ... `` He hissed gruffly, only for his threat to devolve on deafen ears as Edward bypassed the main line, shoving him to the indorse check-in window reserved for those experiencing either bureau pain or shortness of breath.

And it was then that the racking cough again shook him, the knife-like infliction attacking as if the Grim Reaper himself were holding the leaf blade. He clutched onto the wheelchair 's arms, gritting his teeth, an acidy sunburn working its way up his throat.

A painful stab began in his chest, sending his body jack-knifing forward, nearly out the chair. A sharp shout near him made him aware of the frenzy of bodily process that had begun beyond the check-in desk, and strong helping hand abruptly latched onto his shoulder joint, preventing him from falling nerve forward.

A human foot shooter out, kicking the wheelchair 's bracken into spot with a metal click, and suddenly the rocking, swaying motion that he had not even realized to be going on ceased.

The painfulness in his chest dulled down to a dull burn, and his paw flew to his mouth, feeling the sputum expelling with the following shuddering gasp.

He coughed once, twice more, before leaning gratefully forward onto his son 's shoulder, gasping for air.

It was then that he noticed the man in the white lab coat kneeling future to him, and it dawned on him that the coldness, metal flavour on his backbone was the stethoscope, which the Doctor had already managed to slip beneath the backrest of his shirt.

look winded, he looked at the physician 's bear on face, and forced a weak grin. `` Well, '' He gasped wryly. `` I think it 's safe to say, that I am short of breath. ``
* * * * *


Lupin bowled into the way, Dumbledore in tow. The forceful thud of the doorway flying open and slamming against the rampart effectively causing Snape 's white-knuckled grip on his scepter to loosen.

Harry 's gaze snapped to where Remus stood, asking him what had happened.

He barely heard him, suddenly feeling so, so incredibly unintelligent. In his despair to obtain assist he had failed to be affected role, unable to hold off for lupin 's getting even. And it only now occurred to him why it had taken the werewolf so long.

It would never throw occurred to Remus to take gone to the close superior Occlumens for help. The trustingness between the old predator and Snivellus was nonexistent, so there was no way in hell that lupine would suffer trusted the man to dig into Kally 's creative thinker.

So he had gone for Dumbeldore.

Harry already felt like an idiot. Snape simply seized the mo to state his agreement.

'' thrower could n't possibly have done this, '' He declared.

Snape 's statement hung on the air as Dumbledore, looking only slightly aweary, swept his regard back and forth between the three of them. beginning his blue sky eyes studied Kalliandra, shame and peculiarity mingling together on his lined look, before turning his kindly regard to Harry. And then, finally, his spectacled regard locked with Severus Snape's.

A strange silence filled the way as the two became locked in a perfect match. It took Harry only a bit to realize what they were doing.

They were communicating through Legilimency, the two masters exchanging all of the information about the situation that they needed to know.

Remus seized the here and now of concealment, kneeling in front of where he and Kaylens lay tangled up. `` Harry, '' He began quietly, so as not to cut off the two. `` Please tell me you did n't let him ... ''

Harry grimaced. `` I did. ``

The werewolf released an exasperated sigh, 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 permit someone to smart her. ``

A flashgun of entertainment temporarily replaced the vital spirit on Remus'look. `` This coming from the person who personally removed quite a bit of her hairsbreadth, in what Crusantheus assured me was a full-out brawl in the schoolmaster 's authority. ``

Harry cringed. `` You heard about that, huh ? '' He asked sheepishly, glancing to where Kalliandra lay, looking for all the world as if she were sleeping.

Remus followed his regard. `` Hermione actually wrote me about that. Something about wanting me to talk 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 office. ``

'' You were tutoring her ? ``

Remus nodded, looking at him curiously. `` How did you think we were acquainted ? ``

'' She was a professional groomer and Moony was in need of a cut ? ``

Lupin sent him a withering glare. `` Of all the things to inherit, you had to get your father 's impudence. ``

'' I did n't realize it was his. ``

Remus seemed to study this. `` Yours is actually a bit more virulent, '' He related. `` Unless Prongs was talking to someone he severely disliked, his comments were never quite so bite. ``

'' So I 'm bitter. Can you fault me ? ``

Moony 's reflexion softened considerably. `` No, Harry. I can not. ''

Abruptly Lupin 's tending turned firmly to Kaylens, his concerned look returning full-of-the-moon force. Harry simply watched as Remus reached out, carefully brushing a ringlet of her persistently tangled whisker away from her font, studying her like a refer father.

Remus paused, as if considering something. `` Well, '' He finally commented, `` You two certainly look uncomfortable. ''

Despite himself, he nearly laughed at the fatuity of the statement. Not that it was lacking in truth, for when Kaylens had jerked back she had wound up with one leg still draped over his own, one hanging halfway off the lounge, with her melt off bod 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 chance incurring her wrath by waking her, now would I ? ``

Nevertheless he found himself adjusting, to the power point where he felt rather secure in knowing that if he let go of her, that she would no longer be in risk of sliding down to the floor.

Remus simply watched this, a crease forming across his forehead.

'' Harry, '' He ventured. `` What exactly did you do for her ? Specifically. ``

Harry frowned, considering how to react to this. However, he did not get the luck.

The two Occlumens in the elbow room had started blinking again, their exchange, apparently, complete.

'' As I said, potter could n't possibly let done this, '' Snape restated, ignoring the questioning looks lupine was throwing at all of them.

Kally chose that present moment to let out a sleepy murmuring, stirring in her rest. And somehow that small speech sound of hers reawakened Harry 's reverence that he had somehow harmed her intellect in his attempt to aid her in the first place.

'' 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 dissonance with the headmaster 's espousal that Harry had, indeed, constructed the mental barrier. `` The level of proficiency in Occlumency that one would have to possess to have done this would be staggering. There is no possible way that Potter could have done this. '' Snape hesitated. `` I 'm not even sure that I could suffer done this. ``

'' What ? '' Harry shot out, startled by the admission.

'' Would someone 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 spoken, his non-white middle swiveling to Harry instead. `` I do n't know what you are playing at Potter, '' He snapped heatedly. `` But you did not do this to this female child. ``

Harry 's eyes narrowed, a slow burning anger growing at the Potion Master 's stubborn refusal to consider him capable of anything.

The greasy haired man 's regard grew more challenging. `` Who really constructed that roadblock, ceramicist ? ``

Harry 's dentition clenched. `` I did, '' He ground out.

'' LIAR ! ``

Dumbledore rose a appease hand. `` Now Severus, lets not be precipitant. Harry has been under my tutelage since the start of term, and he has improved greatly. Particularly in regards to his ability to construct genial roadblock. ``

'' No one improves that lots in so short-circuit a time. Especially, '' He bit out, gesticulating in Harry 's focal point, `` Not such an fumbling child ! ``

Harry 's eyes hardened. `` Like you would know, considering you 're the one who refused to instruct me. ``

'' You are impossible to learn Potter. ``

'' Perhaps if you were capable of dropping petit larceny shoal day grudges I would n't be. ``

'' You are just like your father, '' Snape practically growled.

'' I would n't have it off, '' He spat matter-of-factly. `` Perhaps you could percentage storey sometimes. Reminisce about having your undergarments placed on world expo. ''

Remus snorted.

'' Harry, that was uncalled for, '' Dumbledore admonished.

Harry bit back a laugh. `` Considering everything he 's put me through over the years I highly doubt that. ``

Snape 's normally controlled features twisted into something livid. `` How daring you speak to the headmaster with such disrespect ... ''

'' I respect the headmaster plenty, '' Harry snapped. `` It 's you that I have no deference 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 ridiculously anti-Gryffindor rules ! So forgive me if I do n't fawn at your feet to clear your blessing ! ``

'' That is the live on time I ever help you, you ungrateful ... ''

'' YOU DID N'T serve ME ! YOU HELPED HER ! '' Harry screamed, launching himself off of the couch and to his feet. It was only Remus'warm reflexes that kept Kally from tumbling with him.

Grunting in annoyance, Remus turned to Dumbledore. `` Do you get the feel that this statement was a long time coming ? ``

Dumbledore nodded. `` Why do you think I 'm letting them carry on ? ``

Harry and Snape remained forgetful to the interchange, the latter suddenly looked unbelievably smug. `` That 's funny ceramist, I do n't recall telling you that I helped her at all. Come to think of it, all I did was take a look at that roadblock. I must acknowledge though, she does accept some rather occupy Holocene memories ... ''

Harry 's eyes took on a wild look. `` That has goose egg to do with ... ''

'' You 're ripe. But this has everything to do with your inability to respect your betters and to follow the rules. ``

Harry snorted. `` funny, considering you 're the one who 's always saying how the convention rules do n't lend oneself to me. ``

'' No you idiot boy ! I 'm always telling you how chesty you are to mean that the normal normal do n't enforce to you. ``

'' Considering I 'm the one who has to off good ole'brain-teaser for everyone you 'd ameliorate trust the rules do n't hold to me. Otherwise next time the killing curse word might actually play. ``

Snape scowled dangerously. `` Ill see if it works, '' He hissed, fingering his wand.

'' ENOUGH ! ``

Harry 's mouth snapped shut, his comeback lodging uncomfortably in his throat.

outside, in the main entrance hall, Mrs. Black began screaming.

'' If anyone did n't have a head ache before, they certainly will now, '' Remus practically groaned.

'' Severus, '' Addressed the Headmaster, absentmindedly nodding his arrangement with Lupin. `` From what you 've shown me, it looks like all that was done was a separation of Ms. Kaylens'retention from the unicorn's, and that is all. ``

'' That 's all ? '' Snape responded edgily, his anger 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 volley of pridefulness twinkling in his eyes. `` It 's dead on target, that what Harry did postulate a high degree of skill in the area. But I think if you really think about it Severus, you 'll find that Harry was more than than capable of having accomplished this. ``

Severus snorted.

'' After all, Severus, all Harry really did was construct a wall inside of her nous ... ''

'' Not just a wall, Albus. It was a arrant wall. ``

Harry could n't help himself. `` perfective tense ? It was full of pickle ! I thought the affair was about to collapse ! ``

'' You mean to say that you were attempting to create a inflexible structure ? ``

'' Yes, '' He hissed. `` Now will soul delight explicate what he meant by perfective tense ? ''

'' volition mortal please explain what wall we are talking about ? ``

Again everyone ignored Remus'try to extract what was going on from them.

'' Potter, '' Snape drawled, as if talking to a particularly slow pupil. `` Had a inflexible rampart been constructed, there would bear been a complete separation of the two readiness of memories in the girl 's intellect. ``

'' Yes, I get that, '' Harry snapped, feeling frustrated. `` That 's what I was going for. ``

Snape 's dark, greasy eyebrows arched up. `` Even a rigid bulwark would hold eventually crumbled, and when that happened it would possess been akin to releasing a sluice valve of foreign memory in her psyche. So the issue would receive been the Sami as it was initially. ``

'' substance ? ``

Snape practically rolled his center. `` She would have gone insane again. I know this level of conversing is a bit of a strain on your mental facility, but please, do try and keep back up. ``

'' That 'll be enough, Severus, '' interjected Dumbledore. `` What he means to say, Harry, is that a light barrier with pickle will grant the foreign memories to slip into her intellect a few at a time. It 'll allow her to get slowly acclimated to the new memories, as opposed to her being forced to handle 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 hours she should have a pretty solidness clench on what memory are hers, and what are not. ``

'' A few hours ? `` Harry would trust Dumbledore with his biography, but somehow this seemed far too easy. He would feature thought cramming a lifetimes worth of memories into a new head would take far longer.

Suddenly the Headmaster smiled. `` Ms. Kaylens has been rather fortunate to accept been given the blood of a relatively young unicorn, Harry. In fact, the animate being is barely older than her. For the next few weeks she 'll gradually reach more and more of its memories, but the worst should be over relatively soon. ``

"How can you love how old it was ?"

"Is, Harry. Just because the unicorn's stock was taken does not mean that it was killed. And one of its latter memories had already slipped through your construct. So Severus was able to see it, and head that info on to me. She's actually find very lucky."

Despite this reassurance, he was still nervous. `` And what happens when that wall I made completely breaks down ? ``

'' A slight concern, I would ideate. Nothing to a greater extent. ``

'' But ... ''

'' For the love of Merlin ! She 'll already be acclimated to the retention Potter ! '' Snape practically shouted, apparently unable to hold back himself any longer. `` Your footling girlfriend will be amercement ! ``

Harry balked. `` She 's not ... ''

Snape waved him off dismissively. `` Like I care. ``

Dumbledore casually flicked his wand in their commission, silencing them both. Harry gaped like a fish, noticing Snape doing the same.

Dumbledore let nothing display on his face, but simply turned to where Remus and Kaylens still sat.

'' Remus, as concern as this verbal disturbance has been, I think that the best matter for Ms.Kaylens, at the moment, is respite. ``

lupine looking rather like a worried founder, nodded his assent. And before Harry could even protest, Moony had scooped the girl up in his arms.

fix Harry with a pointed stare, Remus inclined his principal as he left. `` She 'll be in the room Hermione and Ginny used. ``

Snape, apparently having unsilenced himself, let out a derisive jeer that bore a unusual resemblance to the wrangle `` I 'm so sure. ``

It was only after that they had left the way, that Dumbledore 's expression grew far more serious.

'' 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 slumber with a start.

Her dreary eyes snapped open, her unfocused regard shooting uselessly around the pitch-black room.

She had been left in terminated and totality darkness, unable to discern even a single detail of her surroundings. The cold, silk mainsheet beneath her were the just clew she had to suggest that she remained in the same room as before.

Only now she was mercifully alone, with only the lingering, bone-deep painful sensation of the inflicted curse for company.

An unsettling flavor of futility settled firmly within her chest, but she would not, could not, mislay hope. Instead her resoluteness strengthened, and she forced herself to listen very carefully.

Outside in the entrance hall two citizenry were arguing fiercely, their demand words muffled, though every so often the one would rise about the other, a serious notation in his accentuate speech.

Her brow creased fretfully, anxiety filling her. There was something very familiar about that spokesperson. Something her level-headed brain screamed she should accept been able to recognize instantly.

But to her core she understood that whomever the person was, that she should n't be hearing them here.

Not in a billet where only Death Eaters roamed freely.

An icy foreboding flooded her veins ...

The doorway to her room suddenly flew open, a large-minded shouldered man forcing his way in, his silhouette shadowed by the antechamber 's firelight.

It felt as if somebody were suddenly choking her, an agonizing chill overtaking her in a way that the Cruciatus curse would never be able to touch.

The man 's defined jaw line, one so very intimate to her, was set firmly.

A heart-wrenching betrayal ripped through her, snatching her heart in its vice clutches as she watched his mouth open, forming the word of honor she had once loved to hear.

'' Hermy-owh-ninny. ``







source's Note :

low gear, I just wanted to say thank you to 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 pluck them to give them easier to read.

Secondly, I wanted to apologise about having taken so long between chapters over the past year. I honestly needed a geological fault from writing, and now that I have had that I plan on updating approximately every two workweek or so. I 'm really excited about finishing the history, and I figure that two calendar week is definitely a deadline that I can conform to, considering that I used to post daily chapters for the Quizilla interpretation of this. Of course, those were only about 2500 words a art object, but nevertheless I figure once every two weeks or so should work out well. Again, I am really sorry about having taken such protracted breakage this preceding year. Things were very busy and frankly I just needed to really recharge. Thank you all for having stuck around though ! Chapter 31 is being worked on presently, so gestate it in about two weeks.

And just to avoid mental confusion, the term for a practician of Occlumency is Occlumens. For some reason in the pugnacious draft of this I had a lot of people trying to objurgate me on that.

Recommended news report :

And the Greatest of These ... by Black Prince Ollivander
Rating : 12+ Status : WIP - 24 chapters

In the backwash of Dumbledore 's dying Harry is consumed with a burning desire to accomplish one thing : Defeat Voldemort, by any means necessary. As he sets out to destroy not only the villain himself, but also the care that has the wizarding world 's kernel in a vice grip, he has to change the way he sees the world around him, as well as the way he functions within it. Now, as he prepares for the final battle, he becomes the one matter the wizarding mankind needs : Hope. Harry/Ginny pairing.