A/N- Ok, here's the first chapter… please don't try to tell me my coma thing isn't right because I was in a coma for nearly one-month, angst/violent/love is my new passion- I hate fluff- writing it not reading it, I think SB/RL fluff is cute, thanks to those that have read, I need a fan base, my mood is slightly darker today than usual, and I don't know why- review and tell me what you think. Thanks, and Goddess bless.
-Chapter One: Salvation-
"Arthur, will she- is she…" Molly Weasley couldn't finish any of the sentences she started about the young woman- girl- who had fallen through the door.
"Molly…I'm no doctor, we can't make any move until Albus gets here, he'll know what to do, he always does." Molly Weasley snuffled a few times, before excusing herself from the front room.
Sirius Black and Remus Lupin sat away from the body- presumably female- watching every move it didn't make, Remus felt a strong urge to go and shake the tangled mass of gore until it moved, he didn't, of course, seeing as four of the Weasley children were now awake and standing at the foot of the stairs. Serverus Snape stood shadowed in the doorway, regarding the bloody body without any emotion- Spys.
A whoosh of dust and cinders, told them that Dumbledore had just arrived by Floo- he crossed the room with a grim look tattooed on his face. Turning the body over to see the face, his attitude suddenly changed. "Someone, help me get her to a couch, a bed, something soft, we need her alive." Sirius obeyed diligently, lifting the mess onto the loveseat a few paces away.
"Who is she?" asked Arthur Weasley, nervously twiddling his thumbs.
"Her name is Raven Turner, she's a double agent for The Agency, a collaboration of British and American intelligence working against Voldemort, she was trying to infiltrate his next move, trying to get close to him so that when the time came she could betray him, as you see it didn't work." Gingerly, Dumbledore brushed a glob of blood matted hair from the girl's forehead.
"But my god, she can't be any older than-"
"She's twenty-six, or was the last time I talked with her. She was the best of the best, and still will be if I can counter curse this before the magic spreads."
Everyone stood without breathing as Dumbledore and Snape, went about undoing the girl. When they had done all they could, Dumbledore cast a cleansing spell, wiping Raven clear of the dirt, blood, and bone, that had attached itself to her. After he was done, no one dared take their eyes from her; she was divine. Minus a few scrapes and bruises and the hole in her side, she was really lovely. Her hair was blood red, which had darkened from the drainage of her bodily fluid. The skin of her face and body were flawless, again minus a few scrapes and bruises and the hole in her side. Lying down, no one could guess her height, the clothing she wore was done for, even with a cleansing charm, nothing could repair the damage that had been done to her black robes lightly trimmed in gold. Her eyes fluttered for a moment before she fell completely still.
"Is she, you know, dead?" Ron asked softly, his voice shaking with worry.
"No, she almost was though, she's strong, of course not many people could take what she did, American, British, or anything else, Avada Kedavra… only one other person has ever survived it, and I believe he just arrived outside."
All the residents of number twelve Grimmauld Place, flew to the door to greet Harry, and warn him about the girl lying half-dead in the living room. Serverus stayed back to watch the girl. She was a fellow Spy, another member of masking identities to protect people that never showed a speck of gratitude. She deserved to rest, to die, she was nearly there, he just had to finish the curse… he couldn't, if he did, it would be only because she asked him to end her life, not because he suddenly wished it were him in her place…oh how he wished is were him.
"So she fell in?" Harry asked for the second time, he had been at Grimmauld Place for nearly fourteen days, and wanted to know everything that had happened.
"Yeah, Harry, it was totally gory, we couldn't even tell if it were a person, that's how bad she was messed up." Harry wondered the girl's importance, before resuming his questions about what had happened over the summer in his absence.
"And that's all that's happened so far, but Harry, honestly, I thought that girl was dead, she wasn't moving, wasn't breathing…she was dead, she survived Avada Kedavra just like you did, I bet she gets famous, she's probably really, wickedly, cool- only now she's not doing much to prove that." Harry shivered slightly, as a ghostly chill ran down his spine. Lupin stuck his head into the room-
"She's awake, I just wanted to tell you, her mind isn't all there yet, but she's up and looking around." Ron shook his head slowly up an down-
"Can we see her? I know none of us know her, but just so we can believe you." Lupin thought for a moment before replying:
"Alright. But don't crowd around her, she gets jumpy if you do, I bet it's what the Death Eaters did before they hit at her." Harry and Ron followed Lupin out of the room and into a dimly lit one a few steps down the hall, the girl was up and sitting, that at least was true, but her expression lacked humanity, it lacked soul.
"Sodding hell! Harry look at her eyes, there's no one there!" Ron whispered furtively, taking careful steps toward the bed.
"I must warn you two, that if you plan to get any closer, be prepared for her to attack." Dumbledore sat in a chair by the window, his eyes twinkling darkly at them, the expression on his face, one they had never seen.
"Professor Dumbledore, sir, how do you know her?" he sighed deeply into his beard, "She is my niece, Mister Weasley, her mother, my sister, died giving birth to her, and her father died a few years later. I am the only family she has, and she is all I have left as well. We get in touch at least twice a year, I know all her secrets, and she knows mine." Dumbledore sighed again and sank back into the chair, suddenly looking older than he was. Harry went to say something of comfort, when a scream began emitting from the girl on the bed. The bedroom door flew open and a soon menagerie of people were trying to calm the girl all at once, Dumbledore held up his hand, and everyone quieted down.
"She's screaming." they all looked at him as if he's just realized that fact, "She's screaming, which means she will come back, we can not be sure how long it may take her, but she will come back, if she does not…I tried my best to help her along in life." the screaming stopped as suddenly as it had started, the vacant gaze of the bed occupant, shifted lightly over the room, stopping on Dumbledore, a light of faint recognition sprung up in the depths of the blood red holes. "Raven, Raven dear, it's me! Uncle Albus, do you remember me?" the pain in Dumbledore's voice was too much for most of the occupants to bear and they bolted from the room to give Dumbledore some privacy, only Harry and Snape, remained.
"Mmmfm." was all she was able to spew out, her blank eyes held the answer to Dumbledore's question. She knew him, and she was trying desperately to say so…. But her mind would not move her mouth into the shape of the letters she meant to say, or have her vocal chords form the movements meant to make the sounds. She closed her eyes and rested her head against the headboard of the bed, Dumbledore was at her side in an instant.
"Don't worry, Raven, you'll be better in no time at all, you are doing remarkably as it is. Don't exert yourself too much, you are not completely healed, you never will be…" Dumbledore choked back a sob as Raven's now pleading eyes looked to him expectantly, as if waiting for something amazing to happen. "I'm so sorry Love, not even I can accomplish a miracle, it is a miracle that you even made it to this house, that you even lived, so please, don't look for more miracles, I will give you everything, but I can not give you that, I cannot give you a miracle."
"Will she make it?" Lupin asked, his head bobbing through the door.
"Yes, Remus, she'll make it, how long the recovery process will take, is another matter entirely," Dumbledore glanced back at the bed, his eyes glazing over with a sadness no one should ever carry. "We'll just have to wait for nature to take it's course…I'll be with her as long as it takes." he went and gave her a kiss on the forehead, her features had returned to their original state, she was like a blank canvas waiting to be painted…or a flower that couldn't bloom until the soft rays of the sun hit it's petals with a warm, nurturing glow…
Raven couldn't find her way out of the fog. Once in a while, she thought she heard something, or saw something that reminded her of a face…she tried to utter the name on her tongue, her mouth felt clumsy as she tried to cry out what she knew. They couldn't hear her through the fog, whatever They, were. She had screamed just to see if she could, that had caused the mists to clear for a moment, she had been able to glimpse life outside her hazy world, then when she had stopped, the mists had formed a wall in front of her vision again.
Damn it! She was supposed to be able to fight things like this. All her life she had fought things like this and won…and now, now she couldn't even clear her mind, what could she do? Voldemort had taken away her mentality, leaving her with a vast expanse of fog and mist. He had failed to do to her what he had done to so many others, but in failing he had won, he had taken away from her what made her human, what made everyone human, he had taken away her life, and she would get it back.
Raven focused all her energy on clearing the fog from her mind. At first nothing budged, then as if pushed by a violent force, the mist lifted, and Raven could see. She was lying in a bedroom, a bedroom that's décor needed to be desperately redone. That was a good sign. She could tell that the bedroom needed refurbishing, that was a very good sign. Slowly, Raven worked on moving her hand, the fingers moved first. One, two, three…finally the hand itself, Raven could have cried from the ecstatic energy she felt as she brought the hand into her eye's view. The other hand took longer to move, after a few trying minutes, the hand was brought to Raven's face. She had not only moved the hand, but the arm as well.
Raven had no idea what time it was or how long she had been moving her ligaments around. All she knew was that she had fallen asleep from the effort of moving, and now Uncle Albus was sitting in a chair by her head, his eyes closed. Raven carefully maneuvered her leg to the edge of the bed, she had no idea if she could stand yet, but she was willing to try.
With one swing, Raven had both legs draped over the edge, with one push, she had both feet on the ground, then with one final nudge, she stood up…only to have her legs buckle beneath her. She let out a moan like wail as her body hit the floor. Albus jumped up with sudden force, hitting his head on the low ceiling-
"Raven…Oh my dear niece, you're out of bed, on your own, I'm so very proud of you." he dropped to his knees and pulled Raven into a tight embrace, "I feared that, like your mother, I had almost lost you." Raven noticed, to some extant, that her uncle had tears running down his cheeks, so she did the only thing she could think of to do, she wrapped her arms around him and cradled her head in his shoulder, when she tried to speak the comforting words in her mind, they would not form; instead they came out:
"Mmmfm." just like they had before.
An hour or so later, Dumbledore had carried Raven downstairs into the sitting room. Setting her up on one of the couches, he sat down across from her, his eyes full of laughter and glee. The others joined them a few seconds after, a red haired woman screeching something along the lines of: "I knew she'd come out alright, she's Dumbledore's niece!" a group of teens stood away from the chaos of the group, along with two dark haired men, that stood off in a corner.
"Mmmfm!" they all laughed, Dumbledore the loudest, just happy that she was alive. Raven grew tired of trying to say what was on her mind, and retreated back into the vast valleys and rivers of her imagination. Serverus and Sirius saw this, and looked to each other for reassurance. Sirius was the one that went towards the ecstatic group.
"Dumbledore, I think that Raven is a bit overwhelmed by all this group effort. Maybe you could…entertain her tomorrow?" Dumbledore smiled, a sweet gesture.
"Of course you're right, Sirius, I believe she's exhausted, are you tired, Raven, I should really ask you." she cocked her head to the left, her deep blood red eyes seeming to yell at him- "Yeah, I'm tired, but I can't sleep until I talk." he went to lift her from the couch but she made some wildly violent movements with her hands, causing him to stop, for fear that she might harm herself.
"Raven, what are you telling me?" Raven grunted while making her hand movements- memories of Agency code came to her, and she started signing the symbols, hoping that someone would know what she was saying. Luckily someone did, the deep resonant voice reverberated in Raven's ears.
"I can understand you, I'm not tired," the group looked at Serverus as if he'd just stepped off an airplane from some misguided country. "I came here…Voldemort is planning something…didn't hear what…was cursed before got that information- cursed before mission completed…" Serverus became confused as Raven's hands flew into a wild flurry of gestures, she had become excited from the small fact that someone could understand her.
"We already know that he's planning something, and anyways, Snape could always get us the rest of that, he's a spy too, and a Death Eater." at Ron Weasley's last words, Raven turned to him, her eyes full of wonder and amusement.
"Mmmfm, too, mmmfm?" they all looked questioningly from Raven to Snape to Dumbledore, Dumbledore beamed.
"Did you hear that? She said too, oh she's recovering faster than I'd hoped!" seeing as Raven couldn't respond to this verbally, mentally she smirked out: Yeah, you're excited because I said too, just wait, tomorrow I'll talk just like I did, then I'll blow your socks off!
So the wonderment that was held over Raven's head like a halo, continued. Everyone paid close attention to her, she felt like a two year old that had just done something miraculous- but the feeling that she had expired when she couldn't bring herself to talk. She withdrew from the bustling of happy people, and submerged herself in script that had been sent to her by Joaquin.
"Anything good in that manuscript of parchment you're going through?" Serverus Snape, Raven had learned his name from listening to different conversations, was standing in her bedroom doorway, Raven went to stand, but he waved her back down, "I was asking to make polite conversation, no need to worry yourself." Raven could have beaten him, so she told him so, with a few hand gestures related to the code, and few of her own- those few just to add insult. "Testy aren't we? I had to ask, what did you hear from the Death Eaters? It might have been different than what I was told." Raven glared at him a few seconds, before blatantly telling him to go screw himself- in a flurry of hand motions of course. "Tsk, tsk, Raven, such foul language, or is that hand movements?" Raven felt a rage spark up within her. How could this man, make her so, unbelievably angry, before she could think of something to do, she had opened her mouth, and before she could think, she was growling at him:
"Why, you aggravating, despicable man, you know I can't talk-" Raven stopped yelling to stare flabbergasted into space.
"You can't talk?" he smirked with satisfaction, "That wasn't a rant I just heard from your lips? Hmmm, you seem able enough to me." Raven leapt up, without delay she wrapped her arms around Snape's neck and kissed him deeply. The kiss meant nothing to Raven, it was simply the only way she knew how to thank him, but to Serverus…it was bliss. Pure unadulterated bliss. As quickly as it happened it ended, Raven running out to yell at everyone at the top of her lungs.
Who said secret agents couldn't show emotion?
A/N- Any good? give me reviews and i will gladly write more.
