Who Will Save Your Soul?
By: Shining Moonlight
Disclaimer:JK Rowling and her publishers own basically everything but the plot and Pershine. Don't we all wish we could be as creative as her?
It was Snape. Always Snape. How could he make someone feel that they had to leave everything that meant anything to them? I don't know how anyone could do it, but it had been done. I was in such a reckless rage that I didn't even bother waking Harry. I hobbled back from the potions dungeons where I had been for the last five hours, cleaning out cauldrons and organizing cupboards with Snape standing over me menacingly.
When I had gotten up to leave he said flatly, "Weasley, why don't you run along to bed with the Muggle Miss Granger?" and smiled wickedly. Without hesitation I flipped him off and ran without a backwards glance out of the school. How could he know my feelings for Hermione? How? No one knew, not even Harry and especially not Hermione. I kept running, running deep into the Forbidden Forest, unaware that something was swiftly following me. I stopped and leaned against a huge oak tree, panting and out of breath. My anger quickly turned to fear as I heard the dry leaves crackle beneath a weight much heavier than my own. I tried not to move, not to breathe, but as I held my breath the thing behind me tapped me firmly on the shoulder. I jumped what felt like a mile and turned to look into eight large eyes. I began to scream, but it swiped my mouth, leaving sticky residue on my lips, disabling my speech.
"I am Pershine. Grandson of Aragog. Distant descendant of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. You will come with me." It said. Pershine then seized me and he maneuvered me through a yard of thick brush and then along a curving path bordered by trees on the left, and a small stream on the right. I bent under branches frequently, terrified of Pershine. We reached an opening in the Forest, a small clearing about twenty yards long with two large, tall, flat stones had been pushed together opposite each other. I was forced towards the further rock, which had moss and withered flowers growing on the natural sides. The side facing out of the clearing was completely flat and only had two markings on it. I got the impression that the rock had been cut in half for--
"Rituals. Tonight. You will join us as my guest." Pershine chuckled, his laugh quickly turning into a rasping cough. He waved a hand towards a small cave and two smaller spiders scuttled out and seized me under my arms.
"Hey!" I shouted, as Pershine took my hand and turned my palm face up. I clenched my teeth in pain when one broke the skin and slashed an "A" into my hand. Then, Pershine blew on it, creating a boiling of my skin and enormous surges of pain. Suddenly he stopped and the other spiders dropped me, whimpering, to my knees.
"Take him away to a room in the west chamber." Pershine said, then scuttled away. The two spiders forced me again to my feet and hurried me deeper into the forest until we approached a small cave, where I was met with a startling sight.
A dim chandelier was providing inefficient light to sweep across a stone room, which was quite small in size. There was a bench on one side of the room, built into the wall. The two spiders chortled malevolently as they turned into stunningly pretty women. I was dumbstruck by their appearance, which they seemed to be expecting. The one on the left hand side of me was dressed in an elegant purple, which was shimmering even in the dull light.
She looked familiar, and the way her hair fell reminded me so much of my old school acquaintance that I had to turn my head. Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown had disappeared shortly after the Christmas holiday in my sixth year and had been rumored dead for the remainder of that year and the next, though no one ever found the bodies. Everyone thought Voldemort had taken them and killed them, but the only evidence of this was Padma Patil's mind. She had begun to see things about a month after her sister disappeared. I was actually in the room with her and Hermione when she finally snapped completely.
"N-no don't take her, leave her be you monsters! Stop!" She had babbled, looking out the window of the empty common room with a horrified expression on her unnaturally pale face. Hermione had embraced her protectively while I stood in front of the window, hoping to block whatever she saw. Padma calmed down for a moment, but then she shrieked and flailed her arms frantically.
"Stop! Stop! Y- you, I know what you are-let my sister go, you evil-you terrible arachnid!" Suddenly she had stopped and began clawing at Hermione's arms. A blood-curdling scream of terror at something only she could see, only she could be tortured by, emitted from her strangled spirit.
"Don't touch me! Don't show me that!" and then she was crying hard into the carpet. She never stopped until they took her away. And now I knew what she had seen.
"Ron…I can't believe you've found us," Parvati, the girl in purple whom I had recognized and now understood, said glancing worriedly at the door. The other female, Lavender Brown, went to shut it. I was dumbfounded, thunderstruck.
Lavender whispered, "Parvati, we can't talk to him, we've got to leave!" But Parvati quieted her and spoke, answering my questioning gazes. "We were taken, Ron. Not by Voldemort, but by Pershine. They have enslaved us, bound us as well as our will to their ever-spontaneous wants.
"But you can save us. I won't tell you how, it's too dangerous to say. Just remember our gowns, the ones my sister and I wore to the Yule Ball. Remember the colors and know that alone we are hopeless, but together we'll prevail." She carefully removed a bandana she was wearing which showed a line of shaven head branded with the word 'Argotian', a name the giant spiders have been called for seven millenniums, meaning "double-edged creature". I was shocked, but suddenly everything began to make sense.
"Ron! Listen to me...Harry and Hermione came searching for you and someone found him and she was caught." I wondered what the difference between being found and caught was. No sooner did that thought race through my mind than Parvati explained herself. "He's dead, Ron. There is nothing you can do," she stated bluntly. Then, Lavender reluctantly described Hermione's condition, which wasn't much better.
"They trapped her and put her in the Cage of No Return. It's a small barred room where doomed prisoners are put and tortured until they are killed. I think they're planning a bit of 'Mudblood fun'" As soon as she finished, there was a light knocking on the door.
"We've almost finished with him!" Parvati called, but winked at me to show that she was on my side. Then she took me and chained my hands and ankles to the wall. She continued to rip my shirt and bloody my face carefully.
"Sorry, but those bastards need to think we hurt you. Be careful, or they'll really hurt you," Then, both of them transformed again into ugly spiders and I noticed the numbers 234 was stamped to Parvati's right front limb and 235 to Lavender's. As soon as they left, Pershine was back.
"Are you having fun, human? Well, it's time for you to take your seat of honor." He took the chains from my limbs and bound my waist with thick rope. I was lead back to the field with the two curious rocks in the middle. I was then tightly tied to the flat one and was completely paralyzed by a fang-full of venom by Pershine. I felt my head hit something on the other side of the rock and I realized it was another person when I heard whimpering that sounded as if it was coming from a small girl. The circle felt much larger as what seemed like thousands of Argotians filled the clearing to watch what I immediatly felt wasn't going to be quite as peaceful as Pershine had made it seem earlier.
"So the beginning of the end draws nearer," he said. But I knew it wasn't just near- it had already swallowed me in.
~{}~{}~{}~
Three healthy looking spiders came in to view carrying a large wooden trunk. On the side the phrase 'the boy who lived, lives no longer' was carved in detail. My stomach flipped. Harry was inside and now I was watching his corpse being removed. Immediatly, I screamed hoarsely at the spiders. "Stop! Let him go! Have some dignity! Drop him!"
Right when my words reached their ears, they broke out into identical, mischievous grins. Only these smirks were not at all like the ones Fred and George often wore. These were all malice and no laughter.
"Drop him?" Pershine whispered, though it echoed throughout the clearing.
"Drop him?" He repeated dramatically, drawing everyone's eyes. "You heard him, men. Drop him. Let him go."
The spiders dropped Harry forcefully to the ground, and made their way towards me. One untied my hands and feet and forced some hot liquid down my throat. I stumbled towards Harry, sobbing on the verge of hysteria for my doomed friend. I fell to my knees before him and I looked into his brave, but vulnerable face. I saw a large gash, caked with dry blood, on the back of his head. I looked away in horror and clasped his cold hand in mine. I let out a yelp of surprise as I felt only air where Harry's hand had been. I looked at the spot where he lay, but saw only dry grass, bent as if from being weighted down. Pershine chuckled loudly as I shredded the crushed grass and looked heavenward.
"No," I called out to the clouds. "This cannot be; it cannot be!"
*
In no time I was, again, bound to the rock facing the terrible clearing. Pershine walked into view. "Sorry lad, your friend was found dead in the forest. Lying under the Tree. It's a very dangerous spot to be in. I guess someone already found him because he's got a mark on his ankle." He went on, smiling at my horrified expression and explaining my confusion away.
"You see, if something--anything living-- is found under one of the twelve Trees we have marked off, the lucky spider who finds it is allowed to kill it. I found you under one of those trees and a friend of mine found Harry. Also found under the same tree as Potter was that stupid Patil girl a year or so back. She would have made a marvelous servant, or even wife for one of the lowlier citizens, that is, before I drove her insane." He looked pleased and proud of himself.
Why? Why would you break her spirit, snap her heart, kill her mind? Why Pershine, why? I thought, and then asked aloud, "Why?" shakily, disgusted by his happy tone.
"She's the on that my grandfather wanted. She's special. She has a drop of our blood in her, how it got there we do not know, and she refused his offer of half his kingdom if she would only marry me, Aragog's only grandson. But still she selfishly refused and my grandfather went mad. Instead of behaving peacefully, he killed centaurs, nymphs, and satyrs ruthlessly. Then he killed a unicorn and killed himself when the blood on the Earth showed him what he had become in its reflection. After he died I sought vengeance on the cause, Padma Patil."
I was shocked at hearing this story and the fact that it was true just wouldn't sink in. The last time I had seen Aragog, all of his people had been under his firm control. What had happened? Why hadn't Pershine taken over, restored the order?
I heard, once again, the crying of the young girl on the other side of the rock and reached my hand back to try and comfort her. "Save my soul," she whispered, and then she let out a cry as if she had been struck.
I had little time to dwell on her or the mystery of Aragog as a mocking laughter sounded from the right side of the circle. The crowd dispersed and formed an aisle to let six other monsters in. They seemed to be carrying an ancient Hindi litter. I rolled my eyes and thought bitterly, now I get to see the queen? But I wasn't at all ready to see a queen quite like this one. The troop reached the center of the clearing and set the litter down lightly. Then, one pulled the curtains back to reveal bars around the litter, like a cage. A huddled figure shook heartily in the furthest corner of the structure. She was dressed in what seemed to be a burlap sack with holes for her arms and head. The mob of spiders rushed to the side of the cage she was huddled in; rasping wheezes of sickening laughter filled the air. I tried to bring my hands over my ears, but the rope binding me to the rock would not let me.
"Help! Stop them, someone! Get away from me!" the figure screamed, flailing her arms. I felt anger such as I had felt at Snape's remark boil over.
My eyes burned and my teeth were clenched painfully as I whispered, "Get off of her," then I yelled, "Leave her BE!"
Hermione struggled as two spiders entered the Cage of No Return, took her arms and lifted her. They brought her painfully close to me and then dropped her, with force, at my feet. She tried to stand, but collapsed when Pershine kicked her harshly in the stomach. My wrists were bleeding from trying to get out of the ropes binding me. M teeth were bared at the pain and the anger, but I felt a sudden flutter of vain hope rise within me as Pershine bluntly picked her up. I began to cry, salty frustrated tears of anguish as he lifted her over his head by her right ankle, revealing all as the burlap covering she had on fell back over her head. She screamed as she fell, and scrambled for the scrap of burlap.
"Alright, back into the Cage with you," Pershine chuckled. He pushed her back into that Cage, giving me the fleeting hope that these monsters might let her live. All the sudden she began to scream and shriek things that brought uncontrollable chills to my spine.
"No-don't make him die! Let him live! Please take me instead! Not him! Please!"
I could not swallow because my throat was locked in uncontrollable, terrible agony. Pershine spoke.
"If that is what you really want, so be it." He beckoned Hermione closer to him.
"Imperio."
"No!" I choked desperately. In the next few seconds the air did not whip savagely past me, but I was kicked bluntly in the side of my knees by one of the guard-like spiders.
"Pershine," I rasped. "Kill her and doom yourself. How will you live with yourself? Kill her and you will have murdered something pure and innocent as the unicorns. Some of her pain will eternally reside in you."
Tension hung in the air as Hermione was suspended by her frail elbow and brought nearer and nearer to Pershine's ugly face. He turned to me, laughing insanely. "She did not need to die. Harry Potter did not need to die. Only you; but their love killed them."
He then brought her cheek still closer to his until his breath mingled with hers. "Sweet dreams, my dear. Avada Kedavra."
Hermione's face finally revealed the turmoil she had been undergoing. Her skin suddenly appeared waxy. A large spider took her corpse away swiftly. I knew I was on my dying breath and felt my restraints being loosened.
"Run," the voice behind me whispered urgently. I felt something being shoved into my hand and I looked down and saw a barrette with a button in the middle. Black hair was attached to it as though it had been ripped from its owner's head with great force. I ran my opposite hand over it gently and music played as I applied pressure to the button in the center.
"Who will save you souls?"
As if under a trance, I slumped to the ground and closed my eyes. I saw images rushing past me. Parvati and Padma sitting quietly by the bedside of a middle-aged woman, who handed them each a barrette shaped like a semicircle and then closed her eyes. Padma and Parvati sitting near the hedges of a front lawn giggling when a strange wind came. Pershine, a few years younger by the looks of him, came and carried Parvati off. Parvati looked back to throw a pink barrette at Padma's feet. When the barrette hit the ground it began playing 'Who Will Save Your Souls'. I woke up, as if from a deep slumber and announced, "I will!"
Pershine laughed at me, thinking I had blacked out from exhaustion. Unbeknownst to him, I held his downfall in my hand. I looked down at the barrette and found that I was holding not one, but two. I put them together and formed a perfect sphere. The music rang out twice as loud.
"Who will save your soul, when it comes to the powers now?"
I watched in shock as Pershine doubled over in pain. His hairy skin was melting and bubbling, taking on new form. The spiders all around him were as well. I looked back at Pershine.
"Malfoy."
~{}~{}~{}~
Why? This doesn't make sense! Why?! My brain screamed as I tried to stand. Draco, his blonde hair askew and his face bright red in twisted excitement stood before me. The first expression he had worn, immediately after the unexpected transformation, had been of shock and extreme pain. Parvati stepped out from behind me, shedding the bandana she wore as she walked.
"You." She stated, the loathing and burdens she carried with him to blame causing her voice to shake.
"You let him go, you hear? Leave him alone." She walked right up to him, until he was only inches from her beet-red face.
Then, she spat at his feet and said, "Some pure-blood, you monster. Now, I. Want. My. Sister."
I tried to run at Draco when I saw him reach into the back pocket of his black robes, but I heard a harsh voice in my head yelling, Do not move. Stop running.
I only managed two measly steps before Malfoy's sick pale hand emerged from his pocket, his wand triumphantly clasped in it. I got three pathetic feet closer to my destination before Malfoy muttered, "Crucio, you stupid servant. No, Avada Kedavra."
And I was finally able to charge at him as soon as she, like Hermione, fell to the ground at the mercy of this merciless monster. When I had my free will back, only then did I drop to my knees as Malfoy had wanted. But he just chuckled demonically.
"Weasley, you are the dumbest prat I've ever seen! If you would've listened to me, you would've understood everything and killed me while you had the chance, therefore saving at least four lives. And if you would've ignored Snape's comment, which I so brilliantly paid him to ask, well then you would've never landed in this mess and the idiotic Patil twins' deaths wouldn't have been your fault as they are now."
While he was taunting me, it dawned on me just how obvious everything had been. Snape never talked to me unless he really had to. Pershine had said he was an indirect descendant of Slytherin, which couldn't be true unless he was a wizard. Then I shifted to what Parvati had said in the dungeons. Pick and turquoise ball gowns. Pink and turquoise barrettes! But how would they help good prevail? I was jerked out of my thoughts by a sobbing coming from behind me. I suddenly remembered the girl and sprang up, knocking Malfoy's wand away from him. I shoved my hand into my own pocket and retrieved my wand.
"Accio!" I shouted and his wand flew into my hand. I then pivoted and dashed toward the rock. I struggled to untie the cords binding the girl and gasped when Padma Patil stepped shakily from behind the rock.
"R-ron, do you remember me?" she asked, looking through me rather than at me. I nodded and turned back to Malfoy.
"Don't try anything!" But he only laughed with an insane grin on his face.
"It's almost nightfall. He'll be able to turn back then. We've got to leave!" Padma said, sounding very young, but stripped of any child-like innocence she might had had.
"What do I do?" I asked, stepping closer. But she only stared into my eyes as if trying to silently communicate.
"Don't waste your breath, Weasley. Her mind is blocked there." Malfoy said laughing again. When I turned back to Padma she was staring blankly at nothing. She had become a mindless minion and I knew I had to hurry to save us both. The sun sank behind the horizon and for a moment I was certain Malfoy would win.
His skin bubbled and sprouted hair as he doubled over and grew six additional hairy legs. When the transformation was completed, Pershine straightened up. Give me the wand, I heard being shouted into the depths of my mind.
"NO!" I shouted, drowning out the voice. "I won't let you kill her! You and I are the only ones that can possibly die now, but by my honor, she will live!"
"Yes, I have no doubt that by your honor she will. But I will crush your honor. And I will not die tonight because she is the only living person who knows how to kill me and she cannot think for herself!" I pondered this and knew the key could only be found by me, but it was sheathed in her mind. I was certain of my only option.
I turned my wand upon Padma and whispered, "Imperio."
Suddenly, she gazed upon me, not past me. Tell me how to destroy Pershine, I thought, directing it at Padma. She nodded and stared deep into my eyes, just as she had done before, but now I knew what she had been trying to say. My next order to her was extremely harder to issue because I knew it would result in murder. Sing the barrette song until I tell you to stop. She again nodded, putting her full trust into my inexperienced hands.
"Who will save your soul? When it comes to the powers now? Who will save your soul, after all those lies that you told? Who will save your soul, if you won't save your own?" she sang in a pure voice as Malfoy crumpled to the ground and shuddered into his human form.
I have made someone commit homicide, I thought, feeling sick with the realization. I pulled out of Padma's mind and looked at her blank face with sorrow, knowing that it would never smile or frown because the mind behind it was as blank as the expression she wore. Why? I asked again. You know, another voice answered.
A hand tapped me on the shoulder and I turned to look into Padma's smiling face.
"Let's go home," she said.
"I'd like that very much," I answered, mimicking her smile and knowing somehow that all was well.
...
A/N:I would've divided this into three chapters at the '~{}~{}~{}~' marks, but it seemed too short that way, so I made it all one. What'd you think? I have a soft spot for Padma..what can I say? I like her. Well, please review, okay?
By: Shining Moonlight
Disclaimer:JK Rowling and her publishers own basically everything but the plot and Pershine. Don't we all wish we could be as creative as her?
It was Snape. Always Snape. How could he make someone feel that they had to leave everything that meant anything to them? I don't know how anyone could do it, but it had been done. I was in such a reckless rage that I didn't even bother waking Harry. I hobbled back from the potions dungeons where I had been for the last five hours, cleaning out cauldrons and organizing cupboards with Snape standing over me menacingly.
When I had gotten up to leave he said flatly, "Weasley, why don't you run along to bed with the Muggle Miss Granger?" and smiled wickedly. Without hesitation I flipped him off and ran without a backwards glance out of the school. How could he know my feelings for Hermione? How? No one knew, not even Harry and especially not Hermione. I kept running, running deep into the Forbidden Forest, unaware that something was swiftly following me. I stopped and leaned against a huge oak tree, panting and out of breath. My anger quickly turned to fear as I heard the dry leaves crackle beneath a weight much heavier than my own. I tried not to move, not to breathe, but as I held my breath the thing behind me tapped me firmly on the shoulder. I jumped what felt like a mile and turned to look into eight large eyes. I began to scream, but it swiped my mouth, leaving sticky residue on my lips, disabling my speech.
"I am Pershine. Grandson of Aragog. Distant descendant of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. You will come with me." It said. Pershine then seized me and he maneuvered me through a yard of thick brush and then along a curving path bordered by trees on the left, and a small stream on the right. I bent under branches frequently, terrified of Pershine. We reached an opening in the Forest, a small clearing about twenty yards long with two large, tall, flat stones had been pushed together opposite each other. I was forced towards the further rock, which had moss and withered flowers growing on the natural sides. The side facing out of the clearing was completely flat and only had two markings on it. I got the impression that the rock had been cut in half for--
"Rituals. Tonight. You will join us as my guest." Pershine chuckled, his laugh quickly turning into a rasping cough. He waved a hand towards a small cave and two smaller spiders scuttled out and seized me under my arms.
"Hey!" I shouted, as Pershine took my hand and turned my palm face up. I clenched my teeth in pain when one broke the skin and slashed an "A" into my hand. Then, Pershine blew on it, creating a boiling of my skin and enormous surges of pain. Suddenly he stopped and the other spiders dropped me, whimpering, to my knees.
"Take him away to a room in the west chamber." Pershine said, then scuttled away. The two spiders forced me again to my feet and hurried me deeper into the forest until we approached a small cave, where I was met with a startling sight.
A dim chandelier was providing inefficient light to sweep across a stone room, which was quite small in size. There was a bench on one side of the room, built into the wall. The two spiders chortled malevolently as they turned into stunningly pretty women. I was dumbstruck by their appearance, which they seemed to be expecting. The one on the left hand side of me was dressed in an elegant purple, which was shimmering even in the dull light.
She looked familiar, and the way her hair fell reminded me so much of my old school acquaintance that I had to turn my head. Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown had disappeared shortly after the Christmas holiday in my sixth year and had been rumored dead for the remainder of that year and the next, though no one ever found the bodies. Everyone thought Voldemort had taken them and killed them, but the only evidence of this was Padma Patil's mind. She had begun to see things about a month after her sister disappeared. I was actually in the room with her and Hermione when she finally snapped completely.
"N-no don't take her, leave her be you monsters! Stop!" She had babbled, looking out the window of the empty common room with a horrified expression on her unnaturally pale face. Hermione had embraced her protectively while I stood in front of the window, hoping to block whatever she saw. Padma calmed down for a moment, but then she shrieked and flailed her arms frantically.
"Stop! Stop! Y- you, I know what you are-let my sister go, you evil-you terrible arachnid!" Suddenly she had stopped and began clawing at Hermione's arms. A blood-curdling scream of terror at something only she could see, only she could be tortured by, emitted from her strangled spirit.
"Don't touch me! Don't show me that!" and then she was crying hard into the carpet. She never stopped until they took her away. And now I knew what she had seen.
"Ron…I can't believe you've found us," Parvati, the girl in purple whom I had recognized and now understood, said glancing worriedly at the door. The other female, Lavender Brown, went to shut it. I was dumbfounded, thunderstruck.
Lavender whispered, "Parvati, we can't talk to him, we've got to leave!" But Parvati quieted her and spoke, answering my questioning gazes. "We were taken, Ron. Not by Voldemort, but by Pershine. They have enslaved us, bound us as well as our will to their ever-spontaneous wants.
"But you can save us. I won't tell you how, it's too dangerous to say. Just remember our gowns, the ones my sister and I wore to the Yule Ball. Remember the colors and know that alone we are hopeless, but together we'll prevail." She carefully removed a bandana she was wearing which showed a line of shaven head branded with the word 'Argotian', a name the giant spiders have been called for seven millenniums, meaning "double-edged creature". I was shocked, but suddenly everything began to make sense.
"Ron! Listen to me...Harry and Hermione came searching for you and someone found him and she was caught." I wondered what the difference between being found and caught was. No sooner did that thought race through my mind than Parvati explained herself. "He's dead, Ron. There is nothing you can do," she stated bluntly. Then, Lavender reluctantly described Hermione's condition, which wasn't much better.
"They trapped her and put her in the Cage of No Return. It's a small barred room where doomed prisoners are put and tortured until they are killed. I think they're planning a bit of 'Mudblood fun'" As soon as she finished, there was a light knocking on the door.
"We've almost finished with him!" Parvati called, but winked at me to show that she was on my side. Then she took me and chained my hands and ankles to the wall. She continued to rip my shirt and bloody my face carefully.
"Sorry, but those bastards need to think we hurt you. Be careful, or they'll really hurt you," Then, both of them transformed again into ugly spiders and I noticed the numbers 234 was stamped to Parvati's right front limb and 235 to Lavender's. As soon as they left, Pershine was back.
"Are you having fun, human? Well, it's time for you to take your seat of honor." He took the chains from my limbs and bound my waist with thick rope. I was lead back to the field with the two curious rocks in the middle. I was then tightly tied to the flat one and was completely paralyzed by a fang-full of venom by Pershine. I felt my head hit something on the other side of the rock and I realized it was another person when I heard whimpering that sounded as if it was coming from a small girl. The circle felt much larger as what seemed like thousands of Argotians filled the clearing to watch what I immediatly felt wasn't going to be quite as peaceful as Pershine had made it seem earlier.
"So the beginning of the end draws nearer," he said. But I knew it wasn't just near- it had already swallowed me in.
~{}~{}~{}~
Three healthy looking spiders came in to view carrying a large wooden trunk. On the side the phrase 'the boy who lived, lives no longer' was carved in detail. My stomach flipped. Harry was inside and now I was watching his corpse being removed. Immediatly, I screamed hoarsely at the spiders. "Stop! Let him go! Have some dignity! Drop him!"
Right when my words reached their ears, they broke out into identical, mischievous grins. Only these smirks were not at all like the ones Fred and George often wore. These were all malice and no laughter.
"Drop him?" Pershine whispered, though it echoed throughout the clearing.
"Drop him?" He repeated dramatically, drawing everyone's eyes. "You heard him, men. Drop him. Let him go."
The spiders dropped Harry forcefully to the ground, and made their way towards me. One untied my hands and feet and forced some hot liquid down my throat. I stumbled towards Harry, sobbing on the verge of hysteria for my doomed friend. I fell to my knees before him and I looked into his brave, but vulnerable face. I saw a large gash, caked with dry blood, on the back of his head. I looked away in horror and clasped his cold hand in mine. I let out a yelp of surprise as I felt only air where Harry's hand had been. I looked at the spot where he lay, but saw only dry grass, bent as if from being weighted down. Pershine chuckled loudly as I shredded the crushed grass and looked heavenward.
"No," I called out to the clouds. "This cannot be; it cannot be!"
*
In no time I was, again, bound to the rock facing the terrible clearing. Pershine walked into view. "Sorry lad, your friend was found dead in the forest. Lying under the Tree. It's a very dangerous spot to be in. I guess someone already found him because he's got a mark on his ankle." He went on, smiling at my horrified expression and explaining my confusion away.
"You see, if something--anything living-- is found under one of the twelve Trees we have marked off, the lucky spider who finds it is allowed to kill it. I found you under one of those trees and a friend of mine found Harry. Also found under the same tree as Potter was that stupid Patil girl a year or so back. She would have made a marvelous servant, or even wife for one of the lowlier citizens, that is, before I drove her insane." He looked pleased and proud of himself.
Why? Why would you break her spirit, snap her heart, kill her mind? Why Pershine, why? I thought, and then asked aloud, "Why?" shakily, disgusted by his happy tone.
"She's the on that my grandfather wanted. She's special. She has a drop of our blood in her, how it got there we do not know, and she refused his offer of half his kingdom if she would only marry me, Aragog's only grandson. But still she selfishly refused and my grandfather went mad. Instead of behaving peacefully, he killed centaurs, nymphs, and satyrs ruthlessly. Then he killed a unicorn and killed himself when the blood on the Earth showed him what he had become in its reflection. After he died I sought vengeance on the cause, Padma Patil."
I was shocked at hearing this story and the fact that it was true just wouldn't sink in. The last time I had seen Aragog, all of his people had been under his firm control. What had happened? Why hadn't Pershine taken over, restored the order?
I heard, once again, the crying of the young girl on the other side of the rock and reached my hand back to try and comfort her. "Save my soul," she whispered, and then she let out a cry as if she had been struck.
I had little time to dwell on her or the mystery of Aragog as a mocking laughter sounded from the right side of the circle. The crowd dispersed and formed an aisle to let six other monsters in. They seemed to be carrying an ancient Hindi litter. I rolled my eyes and thought bitterly, now I get to see the queen? But I wasn't at all ready to see a queen quite like this one. The troop reached the center of the clearing and set the litter down lightly. Then, one pulled the curtains back to reveal bars around the litter, like a cage. A huddled figure shook heartily in the furthest corner of the structure. She was dressed in what seemed to be a burlap sack with holes for her arms and head. The mob of spiders rushed to the side of the cage she was huddled in; rasping wheezes of sickening laughter filled the air. I tried to bring my hands over my ears, but the rope binding me to the rock would not let me.
"Help! Stop them, someone! Get away from me!" the figure screamed, flailing her arms. I felt anger such as I had felt at Snape's remark boil over.
My eyes burned and my teeth were clenched painfully as I whispered, "Get off of her," then I yelled, "Leave her BE!"
Hermione struggled as two spiders entered the Cage of No Return, took her arms and lifted her. They brought her painfully close to me and then dropped her, with force, at my feet. She tried to stand, but collapsed when Pershine kicked her harshly in the stomach. My wrists were bleeding from trying to get out of the ropes binding me. M teeth were bared at the pain and the anger, but I felt a sudden flutter of vain hope rise within me as Pershine bluntly picked her up. I began to cry, salty frustrated tears of anguish as he lifted her over his head by her right ankle, revealing all as the burlap covering she had on fell back over her head. She screamed as she fell, and scrambled for the scrap of burlap.
"Alright, back into the Cage with you," Pershine chuckled. He pushed her back into that Cage, giving me the fleeting hope that these monsters might let her live. All the sudden she began to scream and shriek things that brought uncontrollable chills to my spine.
"No-don't make him die! Let him live! Please take me instead! Not him! Please!"
I could not swallow because my throat was locked in uncontrollable, terrible agony. Pershine spoke.
"If that is what you really want, so be it." He beckoned Hermione closer to him.
"Imperio."
"No!" I choked desperately. In the next few seconds the air did not whip savagely past me, but I was kicked bluntly in the side of my knees by one of the guard-like spiders.
"Pershine," I rasped. "Kill her and doom yourself. How will you live with yourself? Kill her and you will have murdered something pure and innocent as the unicorns. Some of her pain will eternally reside in you."
Tension hung in the air as Hermione was suspended by her frail elbow and brought nearer and nearer to Pershine's ugly face. He turned to me, laughing insanely. "She did not need to die. Harry Potter did not need to die. Only you; but their love killed them."
He then brought her cheek still closer to his until his breath mingled with hers. "Sweet dreams, my dear. Avada Kedavra."
Hermione's face finally revealed the turmoil she had been undergoing. Her skin suddenly appeared waxy. A large spider took her corpse away swiftly. I knew I was on my dying breath and felt my restraints being loosened.
"Run," the voice behind me whispered urgently. I felt something being shoved into my hand and I looked down and saw a barrette with a button in the middle. Black hair was attached to it as though it had been ripped from its owner's head with great force. I ran my opposite hand over it gently and music played as I applied pressure to the button in the center.
"Who will save you souls?"
As if under a trance, I slumped to the ground and closed my eyes. I saw images rushing past me. Parvati and Padma sitting quietly by the bedside of a middle-aged woman, who handed them each a barrette shaped like a semicircle and then closed her eyes. Padma and Parvati sitting near the hedges of a front lawn giggling when a strange wind came. Pershine, a few years younger by the looks of him, came and carried Parvati off. Parvati looked back to throw a pink barrette at Padma's feet. When the barrette hit the ground it began playing 'Who Will Save Your Souls'. I woke up, as if from a deep slumber and announced, "I will!"
Pershine laughed at me, thinking I had blacked out from exhaustion. Unbeknownst to him, I held his downfall in my hand. I looked down at the barrette and found that I was holding not one, but two. I put them together and formed a perfect sphere. The music rang out twice as loud.
"Who will save your soul, when it comes to the powers now?"
I watched in shock as Pershine doubled over in pain. His hairy skin was melting and bubbling, taking on new form. The spiders all around him were as well. I looked back at Pershine.
"Malfoy."
~{}~{}~{}~
Why? This doesn't make sense! Why?! My brain screamed as I tried to stand. Draco, his blonde hair askew and his face bright red in twisted excitement stood before me. The first expression he had worn, immediately after the unexpected transformation, had been of shock and extreme pain. Parvati stepped out from behind me, shedding the bandana she wore as she walked.
"You." She stated, the loathing and burdens she carried with him to blame causing her voice to shake.
"You let him go, you hear? Leave him alone." She walked right up to him, until he was only inches from her beet-red face.
Then, she spat at his feet and said, "Some pure-blood, you monster. Now, I. Want. My. Sister."
I tried to run at Draco when I saw him reach into the back pocket of his black robes, but I heard a harsh voice in my head yelling, Do not move. Stop running.
I only managed two measly steps before Malfoy's sick pale hand emerged from his pocket, his wand triumphantly clasped in it. I got three pathetic feet closer to my destination before Malfoy muttered, "Crucio, you stupid servant. No, Avada Kedavra."
And I was finally able to charge at him as soon as she, like Hermione, fell to the ground at the mercy of this merciless monster. When I had my free will back, only then did I drop to my knees as Malfoy had wanted. But he just chuckled demonically.
"Weasley, you are the dumbest prat I've ever seen! If you would've listened to me, you would've understood everything and killed me while you had the chance, therefore saving at least four lives. And if you would've ignored Snape's comment, which I so brilliantly paid him to ask, well then you would've never landed in this mess and the idiotic Patil twins' deaths wouldn't have been your fault as they are now."
While he was taunting me, it dawned on me just how obvious everything had been. Snape never talked to me unless he really had to. Pershine had said he was an indirect descendant of Slytherin, which couldn't be true unless he was a wizard. Then I shifted to what Parvati had said in the dungeons. Pick and turquoise ball gowns. Pink and turquoise barrettes! But how would they help good prevail? I was jerked out of my thoughts by a sobbing coming from behind me. I suddenly remembered the girl and sprang up, knocking Malfoy's wand away from him. I shoved my hand into my own pocket and retrieved my wand.
"Accio!" I shouted and his wand flew into my hand. I then pivoted and dashed toward the rock. I struggled to untie the cords binding the girl and gasped when Padma Patil stepped shakily from behind the rock.
"R-ron, do you remember me?" she asked, looking through me rather than at me. I nodded and turned back to Malfoy.
"Don't try anything!" But he only laughed with an insane grin on his face.
"It's almost nightfall. He'll be able to turn back then. We've got to leave!" Padma said, sounding very young, but stripped of any child-like innocence she might had had.
"What do I do?" I asked, stepping closer. But she only stared into my eyes as if trying to silently communicate.
"Don't waste your breath, Weasley. Her mind is blocked there." Malfoy said laughing again. When I turned back to Padma she was staring blankly at nothing. She had become a mindless minion and I knew I had to hurry to save us both. The sun sank behind the horizon and for a moment I was certain Malfoy would win.
His skin bubbled and sprouted hair as he doubled over and grew six additional hairy legs. When the transformation was completed, Pershine straightened up. Give me the wand, I heard being shouted into the depths of my mind.
"NO!" I shouted, drowning out the voice. "I won't let you kill her! You and I are the only ones that can possibly die now, but by my honor, she will live!"
"Yes, I have no doubt that by your honor she will. But I will crush your honor. And I will not die tonight because she is the only living person who knows how to kill me and she cannot think for herself!" I pondered this and knew the key could only be found by me, but it was sheathed in her mind. I was certain of my only option.
I turned my wand upon Padma and whispered, "Imperio."
Suddenly, she gazed upon me, not past me. Tell me how to destroy Pershine, I thought, directing it at Padma. She nodded and stared deep into my eyes, just as she had done before, but now I knew what she had been trying to say. My next order to her was extremely harder to issue because I knew it would result in murder. Sing the barrette song until I tell you to stop. She again nodded, putting her full trust into my inexperienced hands.
"Who will save your soul? When it comes to the powers now? Who will save your soul, after all those lies that you told? Who will save your soul, if you won't save your own?" she sang in a pure voice as Malfoy crumpled to the ground and shuddered into his human form.
I have made someone commit homicide, I thought, feeling sick with the realization. I pulled out of Padma's mind and looked at her blank face with sorrow, knowing that it would never smile or frown because the mind behind it was as blank as the expression she wore. Why? I asked again. You know, another voice answered.
A hand tapped me on the shoulder and I turned to look into Padma's smiling face.
"Let's go home," she said.
"I'd like that very much," I answered, mimicking her smile and knowing somehow that all was well.
...
A/N:I would've divided this into three chapters at the '~{}~{}~{}~' marks, but it seemed too short that way, so I made it all one. What'd you think? I have a soft spot for Padma..what can I say? I like her. Well, please review, okay?