Gliding as if enchanted, the small wooden boats carried the new students to the stone landing. It was Hagrid's that arrived first, and with a stupendous effort he hosted himself out of the boat, almost capsizing it in the process. But the boat righted itself, in an almost indigent manner, and then began to slowly and steadily sink into the lake. Hagrid grunted to no one in particular and then,
"Alright, come on now, out of yer boats!" The children's faces, illuminated by the numerous torches on the cavernous walls around them, watched in wonder until the last of the boat had disappeared into the water, and only tiny ripples remained of evidence of its existence. Hagrid, confused by their hesitation began assisting the first years, by picking them up and transferring them onto the landing. Every time a boat was emptied it too followed Hagrid's and sank slowly and deliberately into the lake. At last every boat was emptied, and Hagrid, casting a lingering look on all the first years before him, sniffed, wiped his nose on his sleeve and then said,
"Now, just go up them stairs, and you'll meet a professor, I don't know who it'll be tonight, could be Hermio- err- Professor Weasley, or it could by Professor Longbottom, but yer to follow them from there, understand?" His gruff voice sounded snuffly as he strained to hold back the tears that threatened to fall. It always touched Hagrid to see new Hogwarts students with their whole student career before them, all of them scared and anxious. They all nodded, their eyes owlish looking in the glow of the light, Hagrid sniffed again, and then gave great whooshing movements with his hands indicating for them to go. They all turned haphazardly towards the stairs, and the silence that had more or less befallen them over the lake, was broken by a wave of chatter and excitement, now that they were actually inside Hogwarts.
Two little girls Hagrid noticed lagged behind, standing at the far side of the room, one pulling gently on the others arm, while the other stared down at the still rippling water.
"Come on Macayla, we'll miss the sorting."
"But where did they go? Why did they sink? I don't believe it…" said the girl leaning over the water, her sallow face reflecting the waters movements. The other girl laughed warmly, and put her arm around Macayla's shoulder.
"Silly, its magic, they'll come back up next year, when they have to bring more students across the lake." But Macayla suddenly jerked out from the little girls arm, her face contorted in a scowl, she backed away from her, towards the wall.
"How do you know!?" She demanded angrily. The brown headed little girl turned towards Macayla bewildered.
"My mother told me,"
"Well your mothers a liar, I don't believe it! Its not real! This is all a trick! I'm not crazy!" Hagrid thought this should be the point where he intervened. Stepping out from the shadows, he walked towards the girls, a fixed smile upon his face, he had had to deal with this sort of reaction before, it was rather common among muggleborns. Once he remembered, a little boy had caused such havoc on the platform that he had had to stuptefy him just to get him into the boat.
"Well now, what's all this about here, not arguing already are we?" Both girls spun around to face Hagrid who loomed feet above them. Fear splashed onto the brown headed little girls soft features for a second, and then was replaced by a warm smile, while the other girl Macayla only backed further against the wall, her dark eyebrows knitted together fiercely.
"No, sir, my friend just doesn't't understand where the boats went; maybe you could explain it to her, sir?"
"Gladly, but not right now because you both are about to miss the sorting ceremony, but if you come by my cabin tomorrow for tea, say around 4, I'll tell you all about them, and anything else that may be confusing to ye." The little girl smiled brighter, her jade green eyes seemed evade the candlelight and the darkness giving off an almost eerie glow all to their own.
"Thank you, sir, we'll be there."
"Good, now run along." With reluctance Macayla allowed herself to be pulled away from the wall towards the stairs, where everyone else had already disappeared, casting queer looks occasionally back over her shoulders, both to Hagrid, and the long lost boats.
With an unexpected crash Ron and Hugo landed in Fred's house, right onto of their dinning room table. The table smashed in half, and in a mess of fish, china, and silverware, the father and son were on the floor.
"Damn!" Ron bellowed, after realization set in. "Damn! Hugo, you alright?" Ron sat up, bits of potatoes in his hair, and looked down at his son who was wincing as he pulled his hand out of a hot tea kettle.
"Yeah, just burned my hand, and hurt my bum….gosh do you think Uncle George will be mad?" Ron looked up quickly for any sign of his brother or his brothers family, but oddly enough they seemed to be no where in sight. Even stranger, was the fact that though they had fallen on the dining room table, they were not in the dining room. They were in fact, exactly where Ron had intended to land, in the foyer. Ron instinctively reached for his wand, which like Harry he now carried in his back pocket. Hugo noticed his father's action, and fear compounded over his features, and in the mess of food and china he inched closer to his dad.
"It's probably a trick dad, right? A trick of Uncle George's?" Ron glanced down at his son's worried face, and forced himself to smile reassuringly.
"I don't know, Hugh." He said truthfully, and he slowly erected himself into a stand, pulling Hugo up by his unburned hand. "Stand behind me OK," Ron said to his son, while casting his eyes suspiciously around the room. True he had been tricked countless times by Fred, and his three sons who were a lot like him, but somehow this didn't feel like a trick. Maybe it was from working as an auror so long, maybe he was just paranoid, but as Ron glanced around the unusually silent house he couldn't help but sense darker forces afoot. Then suddenly the whole house went pitch black, and the room rocked violently to one side. Hugo whined in fear and hugged his father's free arm with all his might.
"Lumos!" Nothing happened, "Lumos Maximus!" Nothing. "Peruvian all purpose darkness powder, Hugo stop crying….Its going to be alright." Ron's heart was pounding in his head, in his line of work he had been in much dangerous situations but never had he had his son with him, and never had his family been at stake…not since the war. "Hugo listen to me, behind you is the door, do you feel it?"
"Yes," Hugo whispered after a moment, terror in his voice.
"Can you turn the knob?" Hugo rummaged around with his hand, finding the knob he turned, it wouldn't budge.
"It's stuck." Hugo whispered back. Ron sighed, his last hope that this was all his brothers doing drained out of him, his brother would never lock them in…no matter what else, he wouldn't lock them in.
"Stand out of the way, Hugo." Hugo moved around his father, still hugging his arm. Ron pointed his wand towards the door, "Alohamora," He thought the spell this time, nothing. Half a dozen other complex unlocking, destruction, and penetration spells later and still nothing. One thing was for certain, this was dark magic.
"Dad!" Hugo's voice had raised an octave, and the shriek brought Ron out of his contemplation, in the corner of the room, a greenish mist had started to appear.
"Deletrius!" Ron shouted out loud this time, his wand pointed at the mist. Horse laughter echoed across the room, Hugo screamed. "Show yourself!" Ron shouted, sounding braver than he felt. He would give anything to not have had Hugo with him. The laughter died, like thunder dying on the wind, and the mist started to spiral and coil, like a long snake unraveling into the room. 'why now? Why this time' thought Ron miserably as his son wept on his shoulder, 'TIME!' "Quintas!" Ron shouted again as loud as he could making Hugo jump. There was a loud crack, and the silhouette of a house elf stood before them, slightly blocking the mist.
"Yes, master?"
"Quintas take Hugo ho-" The room rocked so violently that Ron, Hugo, and Quintas flew against the wall, dishes soon flowed, and broken glass and furniture covered the trio. "Take Hugo!" Ron bellowed over the crushing noise that surrounded him, the room rocked again, and he fell onto the ceiling. He heard Hugo scream again, close, he reached for him, but the room was too dark he couldn't see. All that was visible was the green mist that surrounded him now, swirling and spiraling around him. He raised his wand again, "Evanesco!" He shouted, and miraculously the mist seemed to weaken, like he had poured too much water into tea.
"Master Ronald?!" Quintas yelled suddenly right in his ear. The room lurched, this time full circle, a block tumbling down a hill. Ron was slammed again and again into the wall, into loose furniture, something snapped, his wrist?
"TAKE HUGO, GO!" Was all Ron could manage over the roar that surrounded him. What had happened? Images popped into Ron's head of Voldemort returning, of throngs of death eaters, of a new dark lord, a new threat, but over it all he thought of Hugo, of Fred, his nephews, his sister in law…where were they. The room came to a dead stop, Ron landed in a pile of wood and glass, his whole body throbbing. "Hugo?!" He called, no answer. Ron closed his eyes against the darkness, praying that Quintas took him. The green mist seemed to have vanished, and now the whole room lay in utter darkness, he noticed though that there seemed to be a slight breeze, and it seemed colder than it had before…as if he wasn't in Fred's house at all…but somewhere else.
The horse laughter started again, coming from all sides of him. Ron went to raise his wand, only to discover that it wasn't his wand anymore, it was broken. Fear quaked through his bruised body with an intensity Ron hadn't felt since the time he and Harry had gotten stuck in the throng of spiders in the forbidden forest. He was wandless, he was in a void, and he was off his guard.
"Why didn't you leave with your house elf, Relis?" Came the deepest most ragged voice Ron had ever heard, making his skin crawl. He looked around futilely for its source, feeling a hot sticky substance run down his face into his mouth, blood.
"Who are you?" Ron asked, wishing his voice didn't crack as he said it.
"I asked you first?" The horse laugher kicked in again, so loud that Ron had to cover his ears to keep from screaming.
"An auror never leaves a scene!" Ron yelled, deciding that under the circumstances it would be better not to tantalize his captor.
"An auror? Is that what you call yourself?" Croaked the voice in mock amusement.
"Yes, what do you call yourself?" Ron's brain was racing again, no wand, no Hugo, it was getting colder and colder ever minuet, he had to act fast. He wasn't good at wandless magic, not at all, but he had to try. In his mind, silently, he began muttering an incantation.
" Fair enough, Relis, I am Mordred."
"What have you done with my family?" Ron shouted again, all the while muttering in his head.
"Oh, don't worry about them. They told me you might drop in for dinner, so I thought I'd speed up the process…were you surprised, Relis, with my little trick?"
"What did you do with them?" Ron demanded again, the laughter again, booming this time.
"I'll admit I am disappointed with you Relis, your brother put up a much more worthy fight, and you a…what was it Relis…an auror?" Ron's body shook violently; he closed his eyes, concentrating with all his might on the incantation now. His mind blazed, he thought the voice was talking again, but he couldn't hear it. Wind tussled his hair, and lifted the sweat from his brow.
"You Relis……wand……..return……I will again…….our blood…..brother…..Hogwarts" Then he felt it, the magic grip his heart, a warmth that alone beat out the cold. He felt he was doing a patronas charm, his body lifted into the air, the walls were reverberating, if there were walls. The voice was screeching now, it was a horrific sound, but Ron was immobile, he couldn't cover his ears. He muttered aloud now, over the wailing monster. And then at last as he was being transported, he felt his mind slip into unconsciousness, his last thought of Hermione and Harry.
Sorry it took me so long..hope you enjoy...please review too, tell me what I could do to make it better. Criticism is welcome.