Okay, I do -not- own any of the HP characters, only Alexandria Firestorm belongs to me.
~~~
Six Sisters, and Shadows Eight
Snape stood before his class, staring out at them coolly from behind small rectangular lenses of bewitched glass. "Does not any one know the answer?" It was the beginning of a new year and the Head of Slytherin was worried for his new first years. They seemed to somehow be different. Less prepared and not so motivated to better the rival house of Gryfindor. He turned his cold stare to on Ravenclaw who sat in the front row, she was small and had the most frightening look about her as she matched his look. Snape had made it perfectly clear to Dubledoor that he did not agree with the idea of letting the child in. She was of mixed blood, and not a trace of muggle blood to be found in the mix. A motherless girl of red hair, white flesh, and red pupiles eyes was an omen if ever he met one. "Miss Firestorm, might you know?" He asked her raising an eye brow at her sudden smirk.
The fangs of a vampire gave her grin look to mean danger. "Tail of cat and eye of frog make a lovely dish of deadly smog." Her speech was difficult to decipher, slurring her words together and changing letter sounds out she quoted the exact phrasing from her text book which laid closed on her desk, the accent of a Germain nation evident. She leaned forward suddenly, her school cloak swishing about her she spoke in her native tongue, much to the baffled looks of her class mates, "What are you think old man?" She laughed.
Snape reacted as he always did, standing perfectly still and removing any emotion from his look. He answered her back in the same tongue, "Miss Firestorm, are you looking for me to take points from your house?" She answered by leaning back once more, her smile shrunk but still there.
A few hushed whispers surged threw the room as Snape gave the girl a cold hard look, this Ravenclaw had taken all the spotlights from his house along with the Gryfindors to hers. Dully he mused on Miss Firestorm meeting of Malfoy and Potter, surely they would put her in her place. This thought seemed to take some time but to those in the class it was nothing, just a pause between his words to the girl and him picking up his lesson. Class was over shortly, and lunch was next. Snape watched Miss Firestorms lazy movements and the disgusting nimble walk out off his class. "Vile mutt..." he muttered to himself, turning to his desk to grab up a crystal.
~~~
It had been odd in the Great Hogwarts school lately, and all the returning students felt it. The world of the school was sudden;y much quieter and the air was laced with tension. The teachers had rewarded few points from the houses and even yet taken away less. Harry turned his head, it was happening again, the sound of the students in the hall seemed to die away into hushed whispers of fear. He had seen the reason often enough not to be surprised but it was still so strange to see. She was small and light, her cloak flowing behind her and her red eyes watching with amusement. "Hello Harry-" She paused, walking toward him and stopping nearly and arms length away. "Harry Potter. I have so wondered how you should look." She smiled at him, brushing that inhumanly bright hair out of her face.
"Well, I see you know my name," Harry raised a brow, casting a glance at Ron who stood behind the short girl a good distance off yet still frozen as if in time. In fact Harry suddenly felt as if the world had gone still. He rubbed his neck, checking for his pulse in a secretive moment. "But I have no idea what yours might be." Harry studied her for a moment, noticing how she seemed to stand, proud.
"Alexandria..." She paused to grin at him, "I am registered as Alexandria Firestorm, the last name chosen for the Headmaster believed it suited me and one must have a last name to attend any school!" She laughed and Harry frowned, not getting what she found so amusing. As she laughed she turned away from him and the world felt as if to awake beneath his feet. He breathed in suddenly and realized he had been holding his breath.
"Oi! Harry!" Came Ron's call from the other side of the hall. The sound of it seemed earth shatteringly loud and a fear that it might offend the girl Alexandria was breath stealing. Many in the hall must have agreed, for there was a collective gas and the shuffling of feet became hurried. "Hey Harry, I saw that creepy Ravenclaw give yah a look." The tall boy wrinkled his nose, "I'd stay way from her if I was you Harry." Harry nodded in agreement with Ron. In a moment it seemed, they appeared in the great hall. Hermion was standing with...Alexandria. The pretty Gryfindor had a look of interest in her eyes as she spoke with the Ravenclaw. The pair stood next to where he and his two friends usually sat and those around them seemed to suddenly be very faded out from the world and all there was where the brightly colored Alexandria and Hermion. Ron cursed under his breath, and Harry frowned. As they neared the two girls Alexandria smiled.
"Tell me Hermion, do you understand?" The pale face of Alexandria Firestorm was tilted up to look at Hermion who was nearly two heads taller than she.
"'ey Herm." Ron greeted his friend shortly as the Gryfindor girl had opened her mouth to answer. The tall Wesley looked down his nose at Alexandria who smirked up at him in kind.
"Hello Ron, hey Harry how was your first class?" Hermion smiled at them, she seemed at ease and sat down in her usual spot with little thought.
"It went as well as a class with Draco and without Ron or Hermion can go!" He laughed, his own bad grammar and witty comment making him grin at her.
"Master Ron?" Alexandria addressed the tall boy smoothly, tilting her head to one side. "Is something wrong?" She paused, and when she spoke again her voice was laughing "You look a little ill."
He snorted, tossing his head proudly and ignoring the sudden fit of dizziness. "I feel fine." He found much pleasure in the frown he saw cast over Alexandria's face but had little time to revel in his victory before falling back, fainting from some grasping hand freezing his heart in his chest.
~~
Her voice was like a Sirens call, rising high above the screams that came from behind the closed doors of the great halls. Harry shrieked but could not force himself to move as the black shadow flew from the still body of Ron whose weight was crushing the tiny Alexandria as she screamed out in some old tongue that was only gibberish to all others in the hall. Ron seemed to be gone from the world and Hermion was tugging on Harry's cloak, pulling him down beneath the table.
The Black shadow swirled and writhed above them. Another voice shouted out in the hall and Harry felt confused, as if not knowing which voice was good. An evil glint sparked from the red eyes of Alexandria as she sunk to the ground with Ron's head cradled to her chest. Her angry babbling increased, a long nail slicing Ron's cheek and drawing healthy red blood. Bloodied fingers touch her lips as she pauses in her cries. Again she shouts throwing her arm out in front of her the red of Ron's blood flowing her stretched fingers like an extend red light into the black shadow which twisted and screamed though mouthless it was. Harry yelled at Alexandria angrily as the creature seemed to grow from her red spell. The other voice increased in it's desperation as Rona limp body slept against Alexandria. Blinded by the fear of Alexandria's unknown intentions Harry surged forward, away from Hermion, throwing his weight against the slight girl who flew back by the force. Harry yelled at her as the creature's last scream drowned out all sound.
Eyes of red stared widely at Harry, Ron lay forgotten behind them. "What's wrong Harry? Why are you angry over a dream?" Harry suddenly felt himself slacken against his will, sleep feeling inevitable.
"What...?" He began before slipping away into some place where on forgets.
~~
Draco sat in confusion. It was so strange how it all had come to pass. His father had warned him of the new first years /They are dnagerous/ he had said /do not cross them/ and then he hears of Ron being attacked by a black shadow and of how the new red eyed Ravenclaw had saved him. But something smelt foul about the old thing and he could not bring himself to believe the story. Yes, he did believe that the gangly friend of Potter had been attacked by someone. This was evident by the angry wound across his cheek. But as for the Ravenclaw saving him, this was difficult, Ron could not put to ease any of Draco's doubts and Hermion refused to speak of the incident, always sneaking around at night. Draco had yet to get a chance to speak to Potter who had been asleep in the medical ward for a good month while the one attacked had awoken within a day. Madam Puff had refused Harry any visitors and Draco had witnessed the Ravenclaw girl attempting to gain entrance many times. What she was up to he did not know, but he had been there when Ron had awoken to amnesia with no memory of the past since mid summer. But odder still was that he did seem to know Alexandria, at least know her face. The Slytherin commons room was a buzz with many versions of the story and it all was giving the blond boy a frightful head ache. He sunk deep into his armchair, fingering the silver pendent his mother had given him. It had been a secret, the only secret he had from every one but her. Even his father knew nothing of its meaning.
"What's that?" Came the voice of Pansy from behind him. Her wide eyes looked at the pendent curiously.
Draco let a wicked grin flash over his face, " Why, its a Wizarding charm, it protects me from..." Pauses dramaticly to let her take his tease.
"From?" She asked, leaning forward, eager know.
In his mind Draco rolled his eyes but on the out side he flashed a smile at it, "can't you guess?" Pansy shook her head, " It protects me from..." He leaned forward and whispered into her ear. She gasped at his untrue words not seeing it as the lie that it was.
"Really!?" She asked excitedly, Draco nodded, "No way!" He nodded again.
"It's true...but" He gave her a sensual smile, "You must not tell a soul. All right?" Pansy bobbed her head up in down to show that she understood even though, much to Draco's amusement, she really did not. "Now go." He waved his hand in dismissal, " I am in the middle of some serious research." He stood, pulling his cloak back over his maroon dress shirt.
"Bye-bye, Draco!" Pansy smiled at him warmly and he secretively cringed. Calmly he left the common room threw the portrait porthole, smiling at the painting who gave him a wink.
"Don't get caught..." It hissed at him, grinning as Draco sauntered off on his quest.
~~~
Harry was trapped in his dream scape. Long chains twisted around him, stretching him tall and holding him suspended the empty blackness of his mind realm.
"Harry, Harry Potter you must be strong." Came a chanting voice. A form appeared before him, he had been visited by such visions often. She was long, her gown of sheer blue dancing around her and filling his mind with the beautiful color of it. She was lovely to his eyes, her long blond tresses flowing loosely and brushing his cheek as her arms encircled him in an embrace. "You cannot let yourself be defeated. Hold on, we will save you!" She kissed his neck and let him go her fingers touching his bounds. "These chains are your own, only the blood on sister's hand can give you the strength to break them."
"No!" Harry cried out irrationally. Thrashing in his bounds, causing her to shy away from him, he began to scream out at her.
Tears shone in her clear blue eyes, "Do not fight us!" She sobbed suspended there before him in his mind. "If you fight you won't be able to stop it! You won't be able to wake up!" To Harry's wild dismay her shape began to fade away and another came before him, a black shadow.
"Hush my boy, do not listen to there lies. Stay asleep, here you are safe. Fight away the evil that will try to break your bounds of justice!" The voice was silky top hear and at the sound of it Harry's thrashings subsided once more.
"Why am I hear?" Harry gasped, his heart hurting in his chest. "I am so alone..."
"Your not alone..." The creature hissed at him seductively, the shadow moving to encompass him. "I am hear to protect you from the evils of the sisters six." A shadowy hand moved threw the dark mist that surrounded him and ruffled his hair.
Harry trembled, "No!" He wept suddenly, not trusting the shadow just like he did not trust the light. The shadow shrunk away and twisted into nothing. "No. You will not get me! I will not let evil have me!" He shouted out at the forms who danced in his mind, both of the sisters six and of shadows eight. Four sisters have spoken to him by his count and no others, two had not come. Why not? He trembled and his chains jingled with the slight movement. The shadows eight tempted him with there promise and they where all the same. Why was he the one lost in this world. Why was he not with his friends.
~~
Snape looked at his student, his eyes trying to see the truth behind those flame eyes of hers "Miss Firestorm, why has Mr.Potter not awoken yet?" HE asked this question he knew the answer too. Rolling his distrust of her to the forefront.
"You know perfectly why old man. You where in the dark ones service once. One such as Harry Potter reacts to the Shadow Eight as such." Her words came in her on tongue and her look was serious.
Snape snarled at her, "The Shadow Eight you say? He is not powerful enough to release them and how do you know of the Shadow Eight?" A rush of fear suddenly sparked within him but he swallowed it down and did not want to let it show.
Alexandria frowned, her brow wrinkling and her hand moving to her chest, beneath her cloak. A tinkling sound proves that she has grasped some chain or pendent hidden like her person among the folds of her dark cloak. Wild red hair hung about her and a glare surfaced in her eyes of which Snape had never seen the like. "The Sisters Six And Shadows eight fight eternal till the late. When sun is gone and shadows seep to the minds of dawn so does the boy of storm live in bonds." In shame she tilts her head down, "I shall only say that how I know of them is that I do. I cannot explain to you who cannot under stand. There are but few who can."
"Tell me who!" Snape hissed, grabbing the slight girls shoulders and shaking her, "Tell me." Alexandria whimpered in his grasp but said nothing.
Just then she was saved by one whom she had yet to even see. Draco had opened the door to Snape's class room. "What's going on?" He asked coldly, looking at Snape who had lifted the small Ravenclaw up off the floor. The old teacher let go and she drooped to the ground, her feet moving she ran to him throwing her arms around Draco.
She whispered something and Draco felt a sharp pick at his neck as her nail drew blood. "Wait!" Snape shouted at them as the two where engulfed in Alexandria's Blood spell. The girl whispered again and Draco felt himself holding her tightly to him afraid that if he let her go he would vanish from existence.
Snape watched in horror as he reached out to grab her away from Malfoy and his hand passed threw them. H could not touch them, what he say of them where only their shadows, they themselves where gone somewhere. The shouts had roused Dubledoor who then came stumbling into Snape's class room only to gasp. "Snape! What is this?" Dubledoor stood frozen as he had just passed straight threw Draco Malfoy and Alexandria Firestorm. Snape stood close to the blood spelled pair, Dubledoor behind him, adjusting his spectacles as if not believing what his saw.
"She took him away. That little mutt you brought here has brought evil with her." Snape's shouts where no longer mirrored in his movements. His hands searched threw the vision of Draco and Alexandria as if expecting to suddenly be able to touch them.
"But..." Dubledoor stopped his old eyes amazed by the thing before him, "Why I have never seen-" They seemed frozen as if time had stopped for them there and they where now living in smoother plane of time. "Snape. This is not black magic."
Snape felt furry grow in him but he pushed it down, "It's not white magic either!" He turned to face the old head master dutifully. "So ong as she is here I cannot conduct class. Potions will have to be canceled." Snape took a move to go threw the door and just as he stood among the vision of Draco and Alexandria Dubledoor stopped him.
"Do not jump to conclusions my old man. I have an instinct that she is not so evil as you think."
Snape's face contorted and he felt his stomach churn as he stood nearly one with the girl he thought so wicked. "Your instincts have often led you astray, forgive me for saying but I shall never trust a red eyed mutt." And with that he left, leaving Dubledoor alone to stare at the pretty vision of two frozen in an embrace.
~~
Draco blinked. He had not been here a moment ago. "Draco Malfoy?" Came the voice of Alexandria Firestorm. Looking around he spotted her, they where standing in an endless field of blowing grass and she was nearly ten feet away from him. "Draco Malfoy?" she repeated. Stepping towards him she looked as if to be reaching out for something.
"Yes,...?" He answered her hesitantly, raising one eyebrow as if suddenly doubting if this was reality.
"You have it then?" She was very close tohim no, she stopped just out of reach. "The thing your mother gave you?"
Draco narrowed his eye's suddenly. "...my mother?" Draco felt his hand twitch as is wanting to go to his chest and make sure the pendent was still there, hidden beneath his shirt.
"The icon.... The Lady Light?" Draco blinked aware of how dangerous it would be to give anyone who might use it The Lady Light.
One voice in his head whispered, funny, it did not sound like his voice at all. He heard his on rational voice say. The other voice said smoothly. Draco looked at Alexandria. "Yes I have it." He told her stiffly. A smile spread over her face and she moved at is to embrace him again. "Wait." He laid his hands on her shoulders and held her away from him for a moment, "I won't give it to ou though."
It was a said sight that made his heart quake, she frowned, "You don't have too.... do really not trust me so much? " Draco grabbed her up quite suddenly and held her tightly against him.
"Forgive me little one." He said, the words sounded strange tohima s if he where not speaking them at all. There was another pick, this time on his arm. In a rush of air they where suddenly back in Snapes class room. The girl stretched up ontoher tip toes to whisper to him.
"Do not let any one touch The Lady Light...protect her." She then kissed his cheek and let him go.
~~
Ron Looked around the great hall. "So this is where is hapepned then, a two months ago you say?" He asked HErmion, not bothering to look at her.
The smart girl sighed heavily, "Yes, as I have told you many times. Ron?" She looked up at him, her book suddenly less interesting.
"Hmm??" The great hall did not look as if it had been the stange for any great battle, to him it looked as if it always did.
"You -did- remember to tell your mum you where going to stay here this chirstmas break?"
"Of course!" Ron turned and grinned down at her. "I told her that 'Harry and Hermion are staying and since it is or last christmas at Hogwarts befor we graduate we wanted to spend it together.' smart eh?"
Hermion let out a gasp of releif, "Good, I was afraid you would have forgotten."
Rolling his eye's the red headed boy sat down, "I am not an idiot...". Hermion looked up and opened her mouth to say something but she was silenced by who she saw in the door way.
"Draco's back." She said quietly, standing up and motioning to him.
"What are you doing?" Ron hissed at her, pulling her back down to her seat, "I don't want that washed out snake any where near us!"
"Just trust me." Hermion pulled her sleeve free and brushed past him goingoff to meet Draco halfway. "Draco, did she find you?"
"Who?" Draco raised a brow at her, he was not about to give anything away to a Mudblood.Especialy any secret of his. Calmly he made as if to push by her but she grabbed his wrist.
"Alexandria Firestorm..." She told herself, . Hermion watch Draco carefully, her mind working fast as she went over every thing shehad learned in the recent months.
"More like I found her..." Draco blinked, he knew Alexandria Firestorm to be the red eyed Ravenclaw, but one had to make sure. "The girl with the red eyes right?" Hermion nodded and Draco was once again put of by the muggle borne girl. "Yes, I found her being -shaken- by Snape. It was very funny." He grinned at Hermion who frowned.
"Shaken?"
"Oh yeah, Snape was mad. I heard him shouting and when I looked in her had her up in the air-" By this tiem a few others in the room had noticed Malfoys return since his long absence.As he talked about how Snape had been acting the real jerk thi year Hermion somehow managed to manuver him ito a darkened corner of the great hallHe blinked as the sudden change of stage hit him.
"Draco, do you know how long you've been gone?" Hermion tensed as she spoted Crabb and Goyle standing up and looking over at them.
"Not to long." Draco drawled, nolonger ammused by her frown and rather bored.
"Nearly a month." She told him shortly, turning her gaze on him. For a moment Draco felt himself falter. The muggle born girl had a strange expression on her face and it reminded him very much of Alexandria Firestorm. There was a moment and he heard the familar heavy breathing of his two oversized minnions as they approached them. Hermion moved, it was so quik he was not sure waht was going on until minutes later. Hermion Granger, his sworn enemy had her arms locked around his neck and her lips firmly pressed to his...and even worse he had been returning the kiss in full force. All in all he was utterly disgusted at the display until he realized that Goyle and Crabb had begun to move away. Hermion broke the kiss and wiped at her mouth, Draco felt insulted.
"You should not have done that." His stare grew dispasionate and his voice was vopid of the anger she was sure would result from her tatics of scarring off any interuptions.
"It doesn't matter! You have to listen to me." Hissing she matched the look of Draco in defiance, he could not belittle her...not anymore. She was at the head of the school. I -am- just as good as him! she told her self, despratly attempting to maintain her footing in the contest of sharp looks.
"They are going to tell Pansy about it." Draco continued on as if she hadn't said anything. "She will come over here." he walked passed her and sauntered over to the Slytherins, not bothering to look up at the person who had just walked into the door.
~~
Alexandria took a deep breath and made her way quikly over to Ron. "Master Ron?" She smirked at him, his response to her was normal, he groaned.
"What is it know you little Ravenclaw?" He sent her an annoyed look, her grinning face was the bane of his Universe...after Malfoy...oh and after You know who, Being poor, and the twins insisting on 'testing' their new products out on him.
~~~
Six Sisters, and Shadows Eight
Snape stood before his class, staring out at them coolly from behind small rectangular lenses of bewitched glass. "Does not any one know the answer?" It was the beginning of a new year and the Head of Slytherin was worried for his new first years. They seemed to somehow be different. Less prepared and not so motivated to better the rival house of Gryfindor. He turned his cold stare to on Ravenclaw who sat in the front row, she was small and had the most frightening look about her as she matched his look. Snape had made it perfectly clear to Dubledoor that he did not agree with the idea of letting the child in. She was of mixed blood, and not a trace of muggle blood to be found in the mix. A motherless girl of red hair, white flesh, and red pupiles eyes was an omen if ever he met one. "Miss Firestorm, might you know?" He asked her raising an eye brow at her sudden smirk.
The fangs of a vampire gave her grin look to mean danger. "Tail of cat and eye of frog make a lovely dish of deadly smog." Her speech was difficult to decipher, slurring her words together and changing letter sounds out she quoted the exact phrasing from her text book which laid closed on her desk, the accent of a Germain nation evident. She leaned forward suddenly, her school cloak swishing about her she spoke in her native tongue, much to the baffled looks of her class mates, "What are you think old man?" She laughed.
Snape reacted as he always did, standing perfectly still and removing any emotion from his look. He answered her back in the same tongue, "Miss Firestorm, are you looking for me to take points from your house?" She answered by leaning back once more, her smile shrunk but still there.
A few hushed whispers surged threw the room as Snape gave the girl a cold hard look, this Ravenclaw had taken all the spotlights from his house along with the Gryfindors to hers. Dully he mused on Miss Firestorm meeting of Malfoy and Potter, surely they would put her in her place. This thought seemed to take some time but to those in the class it was nothing, just a pause between his words to the girl and him picking up his lesson. Class was over shortly, and lunch was next. Snape watched Miss Firestorms lazy movements and the disgusting nimble walk out off his class. "Vile mutt..." he muttered to himself, turning to his desk to grab up a crystal.
~~~
It had been odd in the Great Hogwarts school lately, and all the returning students felt it. The world of the school was sudden;y much quieter and the air was laced with tension. The teachers had rewarded few points from the houses and even yet taken away less. Harry turned his head, it was happening again, the sound of the students in the hall seemed to die away into hushed whispers of fear. He had seen the reason often enough not to be surprised but it was still so strange to see. She was small and light, her cloak flowing behind her and her red eyes watching with amusement. "Hello Harry-" She paused, walking toward him and stopping nearly and arms length away. "Harry Potter. I have so wondered how you should look." She smiled at him, brushing that inhumanly bright hair out of her face.
"Well, I see you know my name," Harry raised a brow, casting a glance at Ron who stood behind the short girl a good distance off yet still frozen as if in time. In fact Harry suddenly felt as if the world had gone still. He rubbed his neck, checking for his pulse in a secretive moment. "But I have no idea what yours might be." Harry studied her for a moment, noticing how she seemed to stand, proud.
"Alexandria..." She paused to grin at him, "I am registered as Alexandria Firestorm, the last name chosen for the Headmaster believed it suited me and one must have a last name to attend any school!" She laughed and Harry frowned, not getting what she found so amusing. As she laughed she turned away from him and the world felt as if to awake beneath his feet. He breathed in suddenly and realized he had been holding his breath.
"Oi! Harry!" Came Ron's call from the other side of the hall. The sound of it seemed earth shatteringly loud and a fear that it might offend the girl Alexandria was breath stealing. Many in the hall must have agreed, for there was a collective gas and the shuffling of feet became hurried. "Hey Harry, I saw that creepy Ravenclaw give yah a look." The tall boy wrinkled his nose, "I'd stay way from her if I was you Harry." Harry nodded in agreement with Ron. In a moment it seemed, they appeared in the great hall. Hermion was standing with...Alexandria. The pretty Gryfindor had a look of interest in her eyes as she spoke with the Ravenclaw. The pair stood next to where he and his two friends usually sat and those around them seemed to suddenly be very faded out from the world and all there was where the brightly colored Alexandria and Hermion. Ron cursed under his breath, and Harry frowned. As they neared the two girls Alexandria smiled.
"Tell me Hermion, do you understand?" The pale face of Alexandria Firestorm was tilted up to look at Hermion who was nearly two heads taller than she.
"'ey Herm." Ron greeted his friend shortly as the Gryfindor girl had opened her mouth to answer. The tall Wesley looked down his nose at Alexandria who smirked up at him in kind.
"Hello Ron, hey Harry how was your first class?" Hermion smiled at them, she seemed at ease and sat down in her usual spot with little thought.
"It went as well as a class with Draco and without Ron or Hermion can go!" He laughed, his own bad grammar and witty comment making him grin at her.
"Master Ron?" Alexandria addressed the tall boy smoothly, tilting her head to one side. "Is something wrong?" She paused, and when she spoke again her voice was laughing "You look a little ill."
He snorted, tossing his head proudly and ignoring the sudden fit of dizziness. "I feel fine." He found much pleasure in the frown he saw cast over Alexandria's face but had little time to revel in his victory before falling back, fainting from some grasping hand freezing his heart in his chest.
~~
Her voice was like a Sirens call, rising high above the screams that came from behind the closed doors of the great halls. Harry shrieked but could not force himself to move as the black shadow flew from the still body of Ron whose weight was crushing the tiny Alexandria as she screamed out in some old tongue that was only gibberish to all others in the hall. Ron seemed to be gone from the world and Hermion was tugging on Harry's cloak, pulling him down beneath the table.
The Black shadow swirled and writhed above them. Another voice shouted out in the hall and Harry felt confused, as if not knowing which voice was good. An evil glint sparked from the red eyes of Alexandria as she sunk to the ground with Ron's head cradled to her chest. Her angry babbling increased, a long nail slicing Ron's cheek and drawing healthy red blood. Bloodied fingers touch her lips as she pauses in her cries. Again she shouts throwing her arm out in front of her the red of Ron's blood flowing her stretched fingers like an extend red light into the black shadow which twisted and screamed though mouthless it was. Harry yelled at Alexandria angrily as the creature seemed to grow from her red spell. The other voice increased in it's desperation as Rona limp body slept against Alexandria. Blinded by the fear of Alexandria's unknown intentions Harry surged forward, away from Hermion, throwing his weight against the slight girl who flew back by the force. Harry yelled at her as the creature's last scream drowned out all sound.
Eyes of red stared widely at Harry, Ron lay forgotten behind them. "What's wrong Harry? Why are you angry over a dream?" Harry suddenly felt himself slacken against his will, sleep feeling inevitable.
"What...?" He began before slipping away into some place where on forgets.
~~
Draco sat in confusion. It was so strange how it all had come to pass. His father had warned him of the new first years /They are dnagerous/ he had said /do not cross them/ and then he hears of Ron being attacked by a black shadow and of how the new red eyed Ravenclaw had saved him. But something smelt foul about the old thing and he could not bring himself to believe the story. Yes, he did believe that the gangly friend of Potter had been attacked by someone. This was evident by the angry wound across his cheek. But as for the Ravenclaw saving him, this was difficult, Ron could not put to ease any of Draco's doubts and Hermion refused to speak of the incident, always sneaking around at night. Draco had yet to get a chance to speak to Potter who had been asleep in the medical ward for a good month while the one attacked had awoken within a day. Madam Puff had refused Harry any visitors and Draco had witnessed the Ravenclaw girl attempting to gain entrance many times. What she was up to he did not know, but he had been there when Ron had awoken to amnesia with no memory of the past since mid summer. But odder still was that he did seem to know Alexandria, at least know her face. The Slytherin commons room was a buzz with many versions of the story and it all was giving the blond boy a frightful head ache. He sunk deep into his armchair, fingering the silver pendent his mother had given him. It had been a secret, the only secret he had from every one but her. Even his father knew nothing of its meaning.
"What's that?" Came the voice of Pansy from behind him. Her wide eyes looked at the pendent curiously.
Draco let a wicked grin flash over his face, " Why, its a Wizarding charm, it protects me from..." Pauses dramaticly to let her take his tease.
"From?" She asked, leaning forward, eager know.
In his mind Draco rolled his eyes but on the out side he flashed a smile at it, "can't you guess?" Pansy shook her head, " It protects me from..." He leaned forward and whispered into her ear. She gasped at his untrue words not seeing it as the lie that it was.
"Really!?" She asked excitedly, Draco nodded, "No way!" He nodded again.
"It's true...but" He gave her a sensual smile, "You must not tell a soul. All right?" Pansy bobbed her head up in down to show that she understood even though, much to Draco's amusement, she really did not. "Now go." He waved his hand in dismissal, " I am in the middle of some serious research." He stood, pulling his cloak back over his maroon dress shirt.
"Bye-bye, Draco!" Pansy smiled at him warmly and he secretively cringed. Calmly he left the common room threw the portrait porthole, smiling at the painting who gave him a wink.
"Don't get caught..." It hissed at him, grinning as Draco sauntered off on his quest.
~~~
Harry was trapped in his dream scape. Long chains twisted around him, stretching him tall and holding him suspended the empty blackness of his mind realm.
"Harry, Harry Potter you must be strong." Came a chanting voice. A form appeared before him, he had been visited by such visions often. She was long, her gown of sheer blue dancing around her and filling his mind with the beautiful color of it. She was lovely to his eyes, her long blond tresses flowing loosely and brushing his cheek as her arms encircled him in an embrace. "You cannot let yourself be defeated. Hold on, we will save you!" She kissed his neck and let him go her fingers touching his bounds. "These chains are your own, only the blood on sister's hand can give you the strength to break them."
"No!" Harry cried out irrationally. Thrashing in his bounds, causing her to shy away from him, he began to scream out at her.
Tears shone in her clear blue eyes, "Do not fight us!" She sobbed suspended there before him in his mind. "If you fight you won't be able to stop it! You won't be able to wake up!" To Harry's wild dismay her shape began to fade away and another came before him, a black shadow.
"Hush my boy, do not listen to there lies. Stay asleep, here you are safe. Fight away the evil that will try to break your bounds of justice!" The voice was silky top hear and at the sound of it Harry's thrashings subsided once more.
"Why am I hear?" Harry gasped, his heart hurting in his chest. "I am so alone..."
"Your not alone..." The creature hissed at him seductively, the shadow moving to encompass him. "I am hear to protect you from the evils of the sisters six." A shadowy hand moved threw the dark mist that surrounded him and ruffled his hair.
Harry trembled, "No!" He wept suddenly, not trusting the shadow just like he did not trust the light. The shadow shrunk away and twisted into nothing. "No. You will not get me! I will not let evil have me!" He shouted out at the forms who danced in his mind, both of the sisters six and of shadows eight. Four sisters have spoken to him by his count and no others, two had not come. Why not? He trembled and his chains jingled with the slight movement. The shadows eight tempted him with there promise and they where all the same. Why was he the one lost in this world. Why was he not with his friends.
~~
Snape looked at his student, his eyes trying to see the truth behind those flame eyes of hers "Miss Firestorm, why has Mr.Potter not awoken yet?" HE asked this question he knew the answer too. Rolling his distrust of her to the forefront.
"You know perfectly why old man. You where in the dark ones service once. One such as Harry Potter reacts to the Shadow Eight as such." Her words came in her on tongue and her look was serious.
Snape snarled at her, "The Shadow Eight you say? He is not powerful enough to release them and how do you know of the Shadow Eight?" A rush of fear suddenly sparked within him but he swallowed it down and did not want to let it show.
Alexandria frowned, her brow wrinkling and her hand moving to her chest, beneath her cloak. A tinkling sound proves that she has grasped some chain or pendent hidden like her person among the folds of her dark cloak. Wild red hair hung about her and a glare surfaced in her eyes of which Snape had never seen the like. "The Sisters Six And Shadows eight fight eternal till the late. When sun is gone and shadows seep to the minds of dawn so does the boy of storm live in bonds." In shame she tilts her head down, "I shall only say that how I know of them is that I do. I cannot explain to you who cannot under stand. There are but few who can."
"Tell me who!" Snape hissed, grabbing the slight girls shoulders and shaking her, "Tell me." Alexandria whimpered in his grasp but said nothing.
Just then she was saved by one whom she had yet to even see. Draco had opened the door to Snape's class room. "What's going on?" He asked coldly, looking at Snape who had lifted the small Ravenclaw up off the floor. The old teacher let go and she drooped to the ground, her feet moving she ran to him throwing her arms around Draco.
She whispered something and Draco felt a sharp pick at his neck as her nail drew blood. "Wait!" Snape shouted at them as the two where engulfed in Alexandria's Blood spell. The girl whispered again and Draco felt himself holding her tightly to him afraid that if he let her go he would vanish from existence.
Snape watched in horror as he reached out to grab her away from Malfoy and his hand passed threw them. H could not touch them, what he say of them where only their shadows, they themselves where gone somewhere. The shouts had roused Dubledoor who then came stumbling into Snape's class room only to gasp. "Snape! What is this?" Dubledoor stood frozen as he had just passed straight threw Draco Malfoy and Alexandria Firestorm. Snape stood close to the blood spelled pair, Dubledoor behind him, adjusting his spectacles as if not believing what his saw.
"She took him away. That little mutt you brought here has brought evil with her." Snape's shouts where no longer mirrored in his movements. His hands searched threw the vision of Draco and Alexandria as if expecting to suddenly be able to touch them.
"But..." Dubledoor stopped his old eyes amazed by the thing before him, "Why I have never seen-" They seemed frozen as if time had stopped for them there and they where now living in smoother plane of time. "Snape. This is not black magic."
Snape felt furry grow in him but he pushed it down, "It's not white magic either!" He turned to face the old head master dutifully. "So ong as she is here I cannot conduct class. Potions will have to be canceled." Snape took a move to go threw the door and just as he stood among the vision of Draco and Alexandria Dubledoor stopped him.
"Do not jump to conclusions my old man. I have an instinct that she is not so evil as you think."
Snape's face contorted and he felt his stomach churn as he stood nearly one with the girl he thought so wicked. "Your instincts have often led you astray, forgive me for saying but I shall never trust a red eyed mutt." And with that he left, leaving Dubledoor alone to stare at the pretty vision of two frozen in an embrace.
~~
Draco blinked. He had not been here a moment ago. "Draco Malfoy?" Came the voice of Alexandria Firestorm. Looking around he spotted her, they where standing in an endless field of blowing grass and she was nearly ten feet away from him. "Draco Malfoy?" she repeated. Stepping towards him she looked as if to be reaching out for something.
"Yes,...?" He answered her hesitantly, raising one eyebrow as if suddenly doubting if this was reality.
"You have it then?" She was very close tohim no, she stopped just out of reach. "The thing your mother gave you?"
Draco narrowed his eye's suddenly. "...my mother?" Draco felt his hand twitch as is wanting to go to his chest and make sure the pendent was still there, hidden beneath his shirt.
"The icon.... The Lady Light?" Draco blinked aware of how dangerous it would be to give anyone who might use it The Lady Light.
One voice in his head whispered, funny, it did not sound like his voice at all. He heard his on rational voice say. The other voice said smoothly. Draco looked at Alexandria. "Yes I have it." He told her stiffly. A smile spread over her face and she moved at is to embrace him again. "Wait." He laid his hands on her shoulders and held her away from him for a moment, "I won't give it to ou though."
It was a said sight that made his heart quake, she frowned, "You don't have too.... do really not trust me so much? " Draco grabbed her up quite suddenly and held her tightly against him.
"Forgive me little one." He said, the words sounded strange tohima s if he where not speaking them at all. There was another pick, this time on his arm. In a rush of air they where suddenly back in Snapes class room. The girl stretched up ontoher tip toes to whisper to him.
"Do not let any one touch The Lady Light...protect her." She then kissed his cheek and let him go.
~~
Ron Looked around the great hall. "So this is where is hapepned then, a two months ago you say?" He asked HErmion, not bothering to look at her.
The smart girl sighed heavily, "Yes, as I have told you many times. Ron?" She looked up at him, her book suddenly less interesting.
"Hmm??" The great hall did not look as if it had been the stange for any great battle, to him it looked as if it always did.
"You -did- remember to tell your mum you where going to stay here this chirstmas break?"
"Of course!" Ron turned and grinned down at her. "I told her that 'Harry and Hermion are staying and since it is or last christmas at Hogwarts befor we graduate we wanted to spend it together.' smart eh?"
Hermion let out a gasp of releif, "Good, I was afraid you would have forgotten."
Rolling his eye's the red headed boy sat down, "I am not an idiot...". Hermion looked up and opened her mouth to say something but she was silenced by who she saw in the door way.
"Draco's back." She said quietly, standing up and motioning to him.
"What are you doing?" Ron hissed at her, pulling her back down to her seat, "I don't want that washed out snake any where near us!"
"Just trust me." Hermion pulled her sleeve free and brushed past him goingoff to meet Draco halfway. "Draco, did she find you?"
"Who?" Draco raised a brow at her, he was not about to give anything away to a Mudblood.Especialy any secret of his. Calmly he made as if to push by her but she grabbed his wrist.
"Alexandria Firestorm..." She told herself, . Hermion watch Draco carefully, her mind working fast as she went over every thing shehad learned in the recent months.
"More like I found her..." Draco blinked, he knew Alexandria Firestorm to be the red eyed Ravenclaw, but one had to make sure. "The girl with the red eyes right?" Hermion nodded and Draco was once again put of by the muggle borne girl. "Yes, I found her being -shaken- by Snape. It was very funny." He grinned at Hermion who frowned.
"Shaken?"
"Oh yeah, Snape was mad. I heard him shouting and when I looked in her had her up in the air-" By this tiem a few others in the room had noticed Malfoys return since his long absence.As he talked about how Snape had been acting the real jerk thi year Hermion somehow managed to manuver him ito a darkened corner of the great hallHe blinked as the sudden change of stage hit him.
"Draco, do you know how long you've been gone?" Hermion tensed as she spoted Crabb and Goyle standing up and looking over at them.
"Not to long." Draco drawled, nolonger ammused by her frown and rather bored.
"Nearly a month." She told him shortly, turning her gaze on him. For a moment Draco felt himself falter. The muggle born girl had a strange expression on her face and it reminded him very much of Alexandria Firestorm. There was a moment and he heard the familar heavy breathing of his two oversized minnions as they approached them. Hermion moved, it was so quik he was not sure waht was going on until minutes later. Hermion Granger, his sworn enemy had her arms locked around his neck and her lips firmly pressed to his...and even worse he had been returning the kiss in full force. All in all he was utterly disgusted at the display until he realized that Goyle and Crabb had begun to move away. Hermion broke the kiss and wiped at her mouth, Draco felt insulted.
"You should not have done that." His stare grew dispasionate and his voice was vopid of the anger she was sure would result from her tatics of scarring off any interuptions.
"It doesn't matter! You have to listen to me." Hissing she matched the look of Draco in defiance, he could not belittle her...not anymore. She was at the head of the school. I -am- just as good as him! she told her self, despratly attempting to maintain her footing in the contest of sharp looks.
"They are going to tell Pansy about it." Draco continued on as if she hadn't said anything. "She will come over here." he walked passed her and sauntered over to the Slytherins, not bothering to look up at the person who had just walked into the door.
~~
Alexandria took a deep breath and made her way quikly over to Ron. "Master Ron?" She smirked at him, his response to her was normal, he groaned.
"What is it know you little Ravenclaw?" He sent her an annoyed look, her grinning face was the bane of his Universe...after Malfoy...oh and after You know who, Being poor, and the twins insisting on 'testing' their new products out on him.