Its Illusions I recall: Part Two
Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels,
The dizzy dancing way you feel,
As every fairy tale comes real…
Draco Malfoy, last of the Malfoy line stood before Voldemort's throne and shuddered. It used to be where Professor Dumbledore sat in the hall of Hogwarts.. Voldemort's face was covered with some sort of barbaric mask- obsidian, with eye slits and a design etched on to it. Voldemort snarled softly to the guard who promptly sped away.
"So… one of the Malfoy's. A traitor. Always been my servants, the Malfoy's ." Voldemort's voice was deep, guttural and rasping. Probably not his own, thought Draco Malfoy.
"You have not heard, presumably about the small band of renegades who have escaped my grasp, time and time again. This morning, I sent a substantial number of soldiers to deal with them."
Voldemort paused.
Draco's thoughts were scattered, pounded by the realization. Someone's alive, someone's alive, alive… Alive, it's got to be some one from Hogwarts, alive…
" They have put a rather complicated boundary curse around them. It can only be broken by one thing. A once evil, now reformed pure-blood wizard of an ancient Slytherin family line working a complicated curse. I've searched all the world, boy…you are the only one."
Draco choked." I won't do it!" he managed to shrill.
"Ah. I thought you might say that."
Then Voldemort stood up, and placed a sturdy hand on the arm of the throne. The remaining guard cringed as he steeped down.
"I can't blackmail you. There are a number of ways I could force you, but there's always the chance you might commit suicide. Oh, well. Hypnotism it is. "
Draco's heart thundered. He's going to hypnotize me. Remember! Alive, they're alive… someone's alive against him…
"Malfoy, look at this charm-stone…"
Alive. Got to be alive…
" Go to this boundary. Go when I tell you…"
No…Someone is alive…
" Look closer. Closer. What do you see?"
No! Alive!
"What do you see, Draco?"
"I see me… Destroying. The. Curse."
No. Alive! They have to be ali-
-
I've looked at love that way.
But now it's just another show,
You leave them laughing when you go,
And if you care, Don't let them know,
Don't give yourself away…
Colin was beginning to feel uneasy. Hermione (professor of potions for one term only)had told him that nothing could go wrong. He didn't feel so sure of that himself. What if a reformed wizard could be found? Hermione said that there was a very slim chance Voldemort would know the countercurse. Just in case, they had made sure they were well armed. A barricade of tables, chairs and metal pipes pinched from Diagon alley reinforced the walls and blocked the stairs. Anyone coming down them would first have to go through a lot of magical bombs and muggle gunpowder to get to the bottom. Once down there, they would have to stand like sitting ducks picking at least five magical locks and more than ten chains. That would leave them free to be pelted by debris by special guarding gargoyles Seamus and Dean had conjured up. As a final measure, they had buried about four feet of unexploded muggle gunpowder that Justin and Lavender had rigged up to remote control explode. No one liked the idea of a self destruction mission, except maybe Binns. It was better than serving Voldemort, though.
The only way to apparate in would be if you were the aforementioned wizard or with him. That was what Colin was nervous about.
Dean Thomas's thought's were on other matters, like the day of mass slaughter he had seen. All the students of Hogwarts and most of it's previous ones had been there to attend a funeral- Albus Dumbledore's funeral. Everybody was too subdued to put up much of a spirited fight; a although a few exceptions were made. Fred and George Weasley blew up a troll, and Professor McGonagell went down tackling a werewolf, and even Neville turned a vampire into a snuffbox.
It didn't make any difference, though. The students were just slaughtered, like cattle. A few managed too escape blocked from sight by the whirling maelstrom of colors. Dean was knocked out and left for dead. It still made tears rise in his eyes and his throat feel blocked when he thought of Voldemort. A million times he had wondered what it would be like to kill him…
I've looked at love from both sides now,
From win and lose and still some how,
It's love's illusions I recall
I really, really don't know love…
At all…
A dark, thudding noise was inside Draco's head. He looked and saw that he was fully kitted out with muggle and wizard weaponry. What am I doing here? He thought slowly.
"To choose." He heard the voice, but it was somehow twisted, jeering.
"Choose what?" he asked thickly.
Still, the mysterious voice was evading him. He was standing in a cavern, dark, and gloomy filled with eerie lights and phosphorescent rocks. He could almost, but not quite, see.
" Choose your fate. Choose whether you live or die."
His head was spinning now. A young girl- or was it a boy? Stepped into the meager light. White , pale hair was arranged down her back. Yes, she was certainly a girl. There was something not quite right about her. Something was off-key, unnatural. She couldn't be alive, she was to ghostly, yet too solid to be real.
"What do you mean, my fate? And who are you?"
" I am a dream. Not your dream… more a collective dream. Call it a wish. When so many in the world are oppressed, it comes naturally for them to wish for one like me."
"Not real, not quite un-real" This was a different voice.
Stalking, deathly, evil! Panic rose in Draco's throat.
This time a man steeped out of the shadows. He was tall, imposing, and very realistic. So were the assortment of weaponry hung from his belt.
"I am an un-dreamer," the man said flatly. " My name is Cade. I make sure that peoples fantasies do not invade the real world." Draco felt angry.
"What is real? How do you know our world isn't just a dream? And you and me, and Voldemort? A figment of some author's imagination?" that was the blonde girl.
"How did I get here?"
"You are just very deeply unconscious. Everything you do here affects your body which is under Voldemort's spell. If you lose your duel, you will not be able to resist his hypnotism. You will release the curse and all will die."
The girl stepped forward. " You cannot win without me, Malfoy. Your war would be meaningless. There is only one way to help your people."
Draco understood, and turned to the man. "I have to fight you, don't I?
"Yes. You must win or you will lose all. Your soul. Your world. Your dreams."
Tears and fears and feeling proud…
Draco picked up a ceremonial dagger.
"Can't I fight with a wand?"
"No, Draco. "
"Or even a gun?"
"No, Draco."
"Or even just a sword…"
"No, Draco."
He scowled. The rules were simple. A duel to the death. No running.
The un-dreamer had a matching knife, and they walked into the arena, an area of stone marked by two posts.
Malfoy had a strange prickly feeling of terror.
Then without warning, the un dreamer, Cade, lunged.
To say I love you right out loud…
Ducking reflexively, Draco missed the blade by inches. He jumped as hard as he could away, and hit the ground as Cade leapt for him.
Rolling on the hard floor Draco felt the cold stone beneath him drop away. Startled, he realised Cade had dragged him upwards.
A splintering sound and sharp pain robbed Draco of breath, as Cade's fist found his face. A kick in the stomach made him double up, but he dodged about four feet back before Cade did more damage.
Cade threw his dagger stealthily. The knife came spinning towards him. Blood was all over place and somehow he couldn't bring himself to realize it was his own.
Draco Malfoy, heir of Lucius Malfoy staggered, and not quite literally, he died.
And dreams and schemes, and circus crowds…
Colin heard a deep, booming noise, and jumped up.
A shimmer of light appeared, so bright and dark at the same time it was impossible for Colin to see it. Then, out of the limbo, came a familiar face.
Draco Malfoy.
The changes that being hypnotized brought to Draco were startling. His eyes were blank and his pupils dilated so much they filled his irises. His walk was fixed and precise and his teeth were bared back.
In one hand he carried the remains of a broken wand. In the other was a long, white knife dripping with blood.
I've looked at life that way…
Colin shrank backwards. Malfoy raised his knife and brought it down on the shocked form of Lavender Brown. She didn't even have time to scream. The sinuous form of a snake was around Justin Finch-Fletchley's neck, and previously several unnoticed soldiers were slowly reaching for weapons.
But now old friends are acting strange…
Hermione Granger did have time too scream, and did for a few seconds.
Then like the world was coming into focus, a thousand shards of glass leaped from a soldiers wand towards them.
Colin shut his eyes and didn't even open them when the glass opened slices in his face. Instead, he threw himself on the floor and searched for the automatic destruct button.
They shake their heads…
Colin put his finger on the trigger and squeezed it.
They say I've changed…
He started a silent countdown, and stood up. A hideous sight greeted his eyes. Hermione and Lavender were dead and Dean was nearly dead. Four seconds, thought Colin.
Malfoy, with his blank dark eyes stalked towards Colin.
But something's lost, But something's gained,
Two, thought Colin sadly as he picked up a fire axe. No use. He could hardly lift it. Meanwhile, Malfoy was headed towards him with a very threatening expression.
In living every day.
I've looked at life from both sides now-
Colin knew he was going to die. He just wanted to do it his way, and severely mess up Voldemort's plans, because most of the explosions underneath him had a nuclear content.
From live and die, And still somehow,
Malfoy saw the timer show zero. And, for the next few milliseconds of his life, he was glad. And he just had time to answer a simple question.
Did I lose the duel or not?
It's life's illusions I recall.
I really, really don't know life at all.