Chapter 2: The Unthinkable.

I left the club having had the best time and being thoroughly drunk. I had the bar man call me a cab, which was now waiting just outside the door. I gave the man the address in downtown London and sat quietly in the back trying not to puke all over his seats. When the cab reached my home I stumbled out of the car and up the stairs to my flat. My father and brother waited for me there.

Stumbling I made my way into the kitchen in search of a glass of water and some aspirin. I quickly downed the pills and headed toward my room for some well-needed rest. I had no idea that the news I was going to receive in just a few moments would have me jumping around in fear for my life.

I hadn't expected them to be in my room that night, they had always sent word ahead to be sure I would be home and wouldn't have any visitors. Matthew stood tall beside our father with a look of utter terror in his eyes. I had no idea what was wrong and at the moment I didn't care, all I wanted to do was sleep. Nothing was going to stop me. Oh how wrong I was.

"No!" I have always given him the same answer every time he came to bug me about joining his side of the war. Harry was my best friend, weather he liked it or not. So I simply stayed out of the war as much as possible. Some called me cowardly behind my back but I had nothing to fear and I planned on keeping it that way. I had no desire to die for something I don't really believe in or completely understand. Thus both sides of the war were out for me.

"You no longer have a choice in the matter, Gabriel, I'm afraid," Tom answered in his customary superior tone. "Something has happened that has changed all of your plans to stay out of the war."

"I swear I have told you every time you come to see me that my name is Hermione not Gabriel, and I would really appreciate it if you would not call me that. Now, what do you think has happened to change my mind this time Tom?" he looked at me as if I were crazy. He still had problems with my choices.

"Someone has informed your little friends at the Order that I have a son and a daughter. They have already tried to kill Matthew. I am sure that they will be coming for you. I want to take you and your brother into hiding, and don't give me that look; at this time you no longer have a choice. If I have to pack for you I will." The look in his eyes told me that he was not kidding. Some one had found out about Matthew and me. They had told the Order. I had to run… I had to get away. Harry was going to kill me and there was nothing I could do about it. He probably didn't even know exactly who I was and who he was going to kill for the sake of getting closer to my father.

Soon I was darting around the room in search of all that I would need. I couldn't believe someone had sold my brother and me for his or her own lives. Why couldn't they have died for my father instead of selling out? 'I swear I am going to find that son of a bitch and kill him myself.' I thought to myself. 'How could this have happened?'

As I ran around I asked Tom, "Do you have any idea who did this?"

"A few." He answered modestly. "I have no idea exactly who until I can risk getting my death eaters together. I know you and Matthew have kept even the fact that you two are related a well kept secret, so I doubt that either of you has told any one. So that leaves only the few people I trusted with the secret of you existence. The only person who knows that can be excluded is your mother and she would never tell a single soul to save her own life." Tom looked worried, and slightly… human. I had seen him show emotion in moderation, but never in all the five years I had been close to my father had I seen him show enough emotion for him to look in the slightest bit human again. As I looked at my father, and actually saw him for the man and the father that he really was, I realized I had not given him enough credit for ignoring us for so long. It must have hurt him very much to give us up. I must admit though, him seeming in the slightest bit human was even more intimidating that before. For so long, for me at least, he hadn't been. But things change. Time changes the way you see the world around you.

"If you are ready, I think it's time that we get going. There is no telling what time they will be showing up." As if in response a loud bang came form my living room. I couldn't help but scream. I couldn't even move. People were yelling. They were coming for me…

"In the bedroom. Look at the light. She's in there." Harry's voice sounded from just down the hall. Even though his voice was muffled I knew it was him.

"Gabriel! Hurry we have to go. Quickly. They're coming for both of us remember?" Matthew yelled in fear. Until that moment I had never known real fear… I do now. It is a feeling I will never be able to wash from my mind.

Just then the door crashed down in front of Matthew and me. The look on Harry's face when he saw the tree of us in the same room was of utter shock. For a moment no one knew what to do, suddenly I felt my father's hand on my shoulder, then the feeling of being squeezed through a small tube. When the feeling subsided I found myself in the foyer of a mysterious house.

Back at Hermione's flat

Harry had no idea what waited for him on the other side of the bedroom door. At least he knew her name now. Gabriel. Such a pretty name.

He broke down the door ready to see to it that they succeeded this time, but he had no way of knowing that the second he saw her he wouldn't be able to even breathe.

With a crash he began to let himself into the room when the sight of the women standing in front of him made him stop in his tracks. 'What was Hermione doing here?' He asked himself. Then everything clicked.

Flashback

"Why won't you help us in the war Hermione? And give me a real answer, no bullshit this time." Harry asked with a look that said he wasn't kidding around.

"I just won't Harry and you can hate me all you want for it. You are not going to change my mind."

"I want a real reason. So many people we know are putting their lives on the line for this, but for some strange reason you wont. There has to be something you aren't telling me Hermione."

"I have much more to lose by joining either side of the war than you do Harry. And yes there is something I'm not telling you, and if I thought it would help you Harry I would tell you, but it won't. It will only make you job harder than it already is. Please Harry just drop it."

Flashback

He realized now that he should never have dropped it. He should have pressed her for all the answers. Well there was nothing he could do now. He was here to do what he had to do. When he finally got his wits about him he realized that he had lost his chance. They were gone. It was as if they had never been there at all.

Back with Matthew and Hermione

Tom led us quietly through the house. The only thing I knew for sure was that this was not my mother's house. Although lavishly decorated it lacked the sense of homeliness. Quickly and quietly we passed room after room and climbed to the third floor of the giant that was to be my home away from home.

Suddenly I got the feeling that I was being followed. I hurried to catch up with my brother and father.

"Tom, you are aware that we are being followed right?" I asked in a whisper.

Apparently he had not known because he stopped and turned around abruptly. The light from his wand illuminated the face of a young man. Directly behind us stood…