Chapter 7
"No, absolutely not!" Sirius bellowed. "I won't allow it!"
Ginny sighed in frustration as her adoptive father paced about the empty classroom of the villa like a caged animal. They had been debating the demand on the note for the past ten minutes and he was adamant that she would not be going into the House of the Undying alone. And she was just as adamant that she had to.
"Father we don't have a choice," she said painstakingly through her teeth. She had been trying to convince him of the need to act quickly and was rapidly losing patience. "We don't know what they are doing to the children and Vellaena and the message was quite clear. I'm to come immediately and to come alone."
"You realize that you're going to give them exactly what they want by doing this," he said wheeling to face her as he paced. "Ginny the warlocks are dangerous even after their power has waned all these years later. And a dragon would be the greatest way to restore their power to its former glory. And you will be taking one to them."
"I know," Ginny said calmly but then raised a hand to interrupt her adoptive father who looked as if he were about to explode. "But it's not as if I'm going to be helpless. I have my magic and Septimus will be with me the entire time. If I don't go, they will kill all of those children. That is not something I want to live with on my conscience when I could have done something to prevent it."
Sirius ran a hand through his unruly black curls. "Then you will at least allow me to accompany you into that place."
Ginny shook her head. "You can come with me as far as the perimeter of the House of the Undying but no further."
Sirius's face was growing completely red but Ginny again interrupted him when it appeared he was about to interrupt. "They will know that I have brought help and then the terms of their message are null and void. As long as I follow them to the letter, they will not harm the children because they have no reason to."
"And how are you so sure?"
Ginny smiled. "Because they are more concerned with myself and the dragon than they are about school children. They knew that the only way to get me to come and to bring
Septimus was through my heart. They gambled that if we are as benevolent as we claim to be that we wouldn't stand idly by while they take Qarth's children captive."
"And they were right," Sirius said in a frustrated growl. "Damn them."
Ginny gave him a grim smile. "I'll be alright. I'll have Septimus with me the entire time and you know how protective he is. Granted he's not all that big yet but dragons are volatile creatures when they are angry despite their size."
She said this full well remembering the Tri-Wizard Tournament that had taken place when they were in school as well as the dragons that the champions had been forced to face in the first task.
She crossed the room to him and took his hand. "I know that you're worried, I am too but it's not as if I'll be alone. I have my magic, and besides I don't think they're going to do anything to harm me."
She didn't really believe her words and Sirius didn't looked the slightest but reassured. "Ginny, the Undying are not to be crossed. I have heard that they can change their appearance at will. They may present themselves as beautiful human beings full of youth and vitality in the prime of their lives but I have also heard that these are merely disguises for horrifying creatures with blue skin and blue eyes for their constant drinking of shade of the evening."
Ginny grimaced but gave him a small smile. "So in essence they are crazier than the warlocks themselves?"
She had read a little bit about the Undying in Sirius' library around a month ago and the idea of them did give her the creeps.
Despite himself, her adoptive father gave her a small but grim smile. "I suppose that's one way of putting it. But in essence they are more dangerous. I have heard in the days when the warlocks were more powerful it was common practice for the Undying Ones to feast upon the flesh of their victims and drain the life out of them."
That gave Ginny pause. So we have glorified blue vampires here as well? This world just gets better and better. It's ironic that there are elements of it that are similar to home.
She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. "It doesn't matter. All this does is show me that I have to go. God only knows a sight like that would be enough to drive young children mad with fear. This is our responsibility. This school was started by us, it is up to us to remove the children from that house of horrors."
She saw then the resignation in his eyes and that there would be no convincing her otherwise. His mouth set in a grim line and a small snarl escaped his throat.
He looked at her for a long moment, his black eyes hard. "Half an hour, that's all I'm going to give you before I come in after you, warlocks, Undying or no."
She smirked at him. "I don't doubt it. I won't be long."
But she was rather hard pressed to hide her own worry from herself because she had a feeling she knew why they wanted the dragon. Because their own power had increased in the weeks since Septimus had hatched and now Pyat Pree had seen the silver mark on her hand he would know that dragons had been reborn and magic had returned to the world.
If her line of thinking was correct, than they would wish to keep Septimus and thus herself near them at all times to ensure that their magic remained and that it was strong.
Seven hells this was a nightmare!
Ginny swallowed hard and gave her adoptive father a grim smile. "I am going to my room to retrieve Septimus and then…..we are going to make for the House of the Undying with all haste. We've already wasted too much time."
She hurried from the classroom leaving Sirius to bark orders to his guards and took the stairs two at a time, all but sliding down the marble floors of the hallway in her haste.
She quickly lowered the wards of the room when she reached it and opened the door before shutting it quickly behind her and closing her eyes, taking a deep breath.
Even for her Gryffindor sensibilities, this was going to require a lot of daring. She had fought and killed men before but it was never something she had relished. Taking a life was a heavy burden no matter how necessary it had been at the time. She was only sixteen after all, killing or being in dangerous situations shouldn't be something she was used to and certainly not something she should have to partake in.
And yet here she was in Qarth about to walk into a building famed for its magic and hopefully not die in the process.
Ginny wasn't so foolish to believe that she would be able to come out the House of the Undying without having shed some blood but she comforted herself with the knowledge that whatever she might find there was not human and had stopped being so a long time ago.
Also, now was not the time to be contemplating the philosophy behind killing. She had a job to do and a dozen children to rescue.
Ginny suddenly had flashbacks of what happened in her fourth year at the Ministry when she and Harry and Ron and Hermione and Neville and Luna had gone to the Department of Mysteries to rescue Sirius. It was a fantastical but also terrifying place simply because of the unknown elements that were attached to it. There was a good deal of prophecies hidden there as well and the dark lord had sent his followers to find the one about Harry.
This is no different than me going into the Department of Mysteries, Ginny thought to herself taking a deep breath. I came out of that one alive, surely it will be the same for this one as well.
But then she remembered that Sirius had died in the Department of Mysteries and a cold feeling settled in the pit of her stomach.
He won't be coming with me this time, she thought fiercely to herself. I won't risk his life for a second time. He's all the family that I have left.
Ginny had come to love Sirius like a father in the last two months since she had lived with him in Qarth. And she would be damned if something happened to him and she could have prevented it.
She hurried over to Septimus's cage which was resting in the sunshine as the dragon napped and slowly pulled the woven basket door down.
"Come out little guy," she called softly. "I need your help."
She could see the small white dragon lying curled up on the floor of the cage with his head nestled beneath his wing, but at the sound of her voice, the dragon lifted its head and gazed at her with one of its large yellow eyes.
He stretched like a cat and then padded out of the cage and onto her outstretched hand, crawling up it to her shoulder where he perched firmly.
The red head reached out to stroke his wings and he must have sensed her distress for he nuzzled her cheek with the top of his head.
"I need your help to dispatch some very dangerous men Septimus," Ginny said softly when the dragon croaked in question at her. "We need to go to the House of the Undying and rescue the children. You will help me won't you?"
The dragon didn't reply as dragons normally don't do but Septimus nuzzled closer to her and she took that as all the confirmation that she would need.
She took a deep breath and quickly disillusioned him before she strode for the door of the chamber and stopped at the door, taking one last look back before she shut it.
I will be back, she thought fiercely.
Sirius was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. He knew she would have hidden Septimus in case anyone were to see him, but he nodded when he saw her.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked.
Ginny gave him a grim smile. "I don't have much of a choice do I? I have no idea what they will do to the children and I don't want to know. You and I are really the only ones that can go in there. And I refuse to let you endanger yourself. Harry and I already lost you once, I don't want to lose you again."
Sirius bristled at the mention of his godson's name but he nodded. "Alright but I am only giving you half an hour. If you're not out by then, I am in coming in after you."
Ginny nodded. "Very well then. I suppose we shouldn't keep the warlocks waiting any longer than they need to be. I have an appointment with those blue lipped bastards and I mean to keep it."
Ω
It didn't take long to get to the house of the Undying. But perhaps the fact that it was in the center of Qarth helped as well.
The enormous grey and brown tower rose over the entire city like some menacing giant waiting to step on and crush the ants that were living beneath its feet.
Not a very comforting metaphor.
With Septimus on her shoulder, Ginny marched up the path for the tower with determined strides. She was nervous but there wasn't anyone else but her who would be able to do this job and she would be damned if she didn't try.
As she stood there before the building however and observed it fully for the first time, Ginny was a little surprised to see a ruinous plain building like this existed in such a magnificent city as Qarth.
I can certainly see where the term Palace of Dust comes from, she thought wryly to herself.
The House of the Undying was an ancient grey stone ruin. Surrounding the perimeter of the building itself were several groves of black barked trees with inky blue leaves which she was sure were used to make the drink that the Qartheen had dubbed Shade of the Evening.
No buildings were anywhere near it and it seemed as if the house itself occupied a spot where there was a distance of several hundred yards between it and the rest of the buildings of the city.
Septimus seemed to find the sight displeasing as well for upon seeing it he hissed and smoke seeped out from between his sharp teeth. He let out a low growl as if he knew that this was a dangerous place but a second later, Ginny happened to see the source of his disquiet.
Standing under the shade of one of the black barked trees nearest her was the warlock Pyat Pree. He was watching her with his unnatural blue eyes and he had a slight smile on his face as if he were feeling very pleased with himself.
Smug bastard…..he's getting exactly what he wants and I can't do a damn thing about it.
Sirius growled low in his throat at the sight of the warlock and Ginny reached out to take his hand. "Please don't do anything rash. You make him angry and we might never see the children alive again."
He nodded his face hard. "Alright, I'll behave."
Ginny took a deep breath and released the spell of disillusionment on Septimus so the white dragon was now visible to the warlock who was walking slowly towards them.
"Lady Ginevra," he called as soon as he neared her. "How good of you to come. And you've brought your dragon as well."
"You didn't exactly give me much of a choice," Ginny said glaring up at the tall warlock. "It was either come and bring the dragon or you would have killed all those school children and Vellaena as well. You're a fool if you think I would allow something like that to happen."
He spread his hands in a placating gesture. "Is it so wrong to desire that a once great house such as ours be brought back to its former glory? To wish that the old things were restored? Surely you can see the logic in that."
Ginny nodded at the House of the Undying. "Right now all I can see is the building you call home and the fact that it is keeping me from getting to my goal of getting the children and getting out. Shall we get on with it, or are you going to continue to waste my time?"
The warlock looked amused. "Perish the thought my lady. Come along and I will be happy to show you our glorious house."
Sirius stepped forward then to make his presence known and glared at the warlock with enough heat that if looks could kill it would have set his purple robes on fire. "One moment Pree. If anything happens to my daughter in there, I will not hesitate to burn your precious sanctuary to the ground with you in it. Is that clear?"
"Crystal my lord Gryffindor," Pyat Pree said serenely as if Sirius had just been commenting on the weather.
He then offered his hand to Ginny who with great reluctance took it and allowed him to lead her towards the temple. Septimus hissed the moment the warlock laid a hand on
Ginny's arm, but Pree simply smiled serenely at the small creature before leading Ginny towards the house.
As the neared the grove of black barked trees, Ginny suddenly felt a cold feeling come over her and she fought not to shiver.
The moment they stepped beneath the shade of those dark trees, the sunlight disappeared and the air was tinged with an ominous chill.
It was much darker than she would have anticipated and all of a sudden, the beautiful red head felt nervous. Gods I hope this trip does not end with insane sorcery and broken necks.
The path to the House of the Undying suddenly seemed longer and the stones began to elongate as she and the warlock walked farther and farther away from the path where they had left Sirius.
"Where are you taking me?" the red head demanded.
"Why to the House my lady," Pree replied calmly. "Do you recall when I asked you to look into the face of the gem and see its many facets? This is no different than that.
Sometimes you have to look closely at something in order to see what lies beneath it."
Ginny ground her teeth together. Merlin, do all of these blue lipped bastards speak in riddles?!
She was just about to give voice to this question when she realized how quiet it was. Not only had the sun been hidden behind those black branches, but there was not a sound of birds in the trees and it was as if the noises of the city had long since faded away.
It was as silent as a tomb.
All of a sudden, Pree made a sharp turn to the left and Ginny was forced to follow him beneath the line of dark trees until they had reached a door in the side of the tower.
But this wasn't any normal door and Ginny was slightly unnerved when she looked at it.
It was tall and oval shaped and set in the wall, fashioned into the likeness of a human face. Its eyes were large as if they were two tunnels beckoning her into their dark depths.
What a singularly bizarre and unpleasant sight.
The two of them stopped at the door and Ginny glared at the warlock. "Now what?"
He turned to face her and she blinked when she saw that he now had a slender crystal goblet fixed in his right hand.
"What's that?" she asked warily.
He held it out towards her. "Anyone who enters the House of the Undying and seeking an audience with them must drink Shade of the Evening so that they may hear and see the truths laid before them. Following the rules is very important."
Ginny eyed the dark blue liquid with distrust and distaste. "And there's no other way to get in here without….drinking this?"
Pree smiled, but there was no warmth in it. "I'm afraid not Lady Ginevra. The only way to reclaim what you have lost is to seek an audience with the Undying Ones so they may point you in the direction you wish to go. The only way to see them is if you drink the Shade of the Evening and if you do not than that which you have come here looking for will never be found. In essence, what is in this goblet is your only way in."
Ginny glared at him. Smug bastard.
She saw now that she had no other choice. If she wished to have any hope of finding the children than she had to drink what was in the goblet.
And so she took a deep breath and raised the slender crystal flute to her lips, not even hesitating before she drained the glass dry. It was far bitterer than the wine she had had to drink since she had arrived in Qarth and once or twice she had to fight the urge to gag, but somehow she managed to get it all down.
When she lowered the glass from her mouth and swallowed hard in disgust, the crystal flute was immediately pulled from her hand by Pyat Pree and the door to the House of the Undying swung open with a creak.
"And now you may enter," Pree said, stepping aside for her and making a grand sweeping gesture as if he were welcoming her to the Ritz Carlton.
How wonderful.
She paused before she stepped over the threshold and gave him a meaningful look. "I take it I'm going to have to find the Undying on my own now won't I?"
He almost looked insulted by such a question. "Not at all my dear. When you enter, you will see three doors ahead of you. In order to reach the Undying, one must always take the first door on the right and always take the stairs up. You must not enter any of the other chambers in the House until you reach the audience chamber. And in order to leave the audience chamber, you must take the same path that you took before; always the first door to the right and always up the stairs."
His directions were very specific and Ginny narrowed her eyes at him warily. "And what if I choose a different path?"
His smile turned slightly menacing. "Then you will not like the consequences. The rules of the Undying are not to be broken."
How comforting.
She was about to step foot over the threshold once more before she had one more thought and turned to him. "One last thing."
"Yes?"
"You're not coming with are you? To give me the guided tour?"
To her surprise, he laughed. "The rules of the Undying are very specific my dear Lady Ginevra. He who enters, must enter alone….or not at all."
And if that's not ominous at all.
Ginny turned towards the door and squared her shoulders again. "Very well then. I suppose I should get this over with."
The warlock didn't answer, but she didn't expect him to. He waited until she had crossed over the threshold into the House of the Undying before giving her an eerily calm smile.
In the next instant, the door behind her had shut, leaving her in total darkness.
She had somewhat expected it, so she wasn't altogether surprised. It seemed to be the intention of the warlocks to imprison her in this place, although she had no inclination to comply with their wishes. She was here for the children and then she was going to get the hell out.
The only problem was that she had no idea where they were and the Undying were her only chance of finding them.
She wanted for her eyes to adjust as best as possible to the darkness before she held her hand up and whispered, "lumos."
Instantly a dull light lit the room from the palm of her hand. The light was a pale blue color but it would suit her needs well enough. It was by that light that she was able to look around and see that she was in a circular chamber. It had impossibly high ceilings and was made completely of stone. There was a musty scent in the air as if it had been a while since any fresh air had been allowed to inhabit the place. She was standing in the center of the room and directly ahead of her were three doors spaced evenly apart just like Pyat Pree had said.
"Well as much of a right bastard as he is, at least his directions can be trusted," Ginny muttered to Septimus who bobbed his head on her shoulder. "Now he said to go through the first door on the right and whenever I am presented with a set of stairs to always go up them but never down. Isn't that right?"
Septimus didn't answer, but she hadn't expected him to.
Instead, she made for the first door on the right and placed her hand upon the knob. After taking a deep breath, she wrenched the knob to the right and flung the door open.
And just like in her dream, she was presented with a long stone hallway that was lined with torches. It seemed to be on an incline so she knew she was traveling in the right direction. Pyat Pree had told her to always go up and never down.
I suppose I should listen to what the old bastard says. Finding the Undying are my only chance for finding the children and Vellaena and getting the hell out of here. If that means I have to go up then I'm going to go up.
Septimus hissed on her shoulder and she absently patted his head. As soon as she stepped through the door on the right side of the room, it swung shut behind her and aside from the light from the torches on either side of the halls, she was in total darkness.
"Great," Ginny muttered, "Just great."
She extinguished the spell she was using and hesitantly pulled one of the metal torches free from the wall. It was probably better to save her energy for using large amounts of magic at another time.
She knew she wasn't going to get out of this without some blood being spilt so it was probably better to save her energy for all of her deadliest spells.
What did unnerve her though as she walked down the hall of the House of the Undying, was just how quiet it was.
There were no windows in the building so she knew she wouldn't hear the sound of wind rustling from the outside. But there was also no sound from the outside of any birds, or people talking in the street and as far as Ginny knew, there should have been. They weren't that far from the marketplace of Qarth for there to be absolutely no sound.
This is a place of strong magic, it would figure that there would be no sound. I'll bet when someone comes into this place, the Undying would want them to feel isolated, as if they're all alone and there's no one to help them. It's a psychological technique. I suppose I should give the bastards credit. They know all about how the human mind works.
She continued to walk up the hallway, the only sound meeting her ears were those of her footsteps on the stones.
At the far end of the passage, she came upon another door. This one was identical to the one she had gone through and Ginny paused before taking another deep breath, laying her hand on the knob and throwing it open.
She was confronted with another chamber only this one seemed to be as high as the first one with the door from the outside.
As Ginny held up the torch to have a look around she realized that the most prominent thing in this chamber was an enormous winding staircase that led upward into the darkness to parts of the house that were unknown. There were no windows in the chamber as well so the only light that she had was coming from the torch in her hand. The chamber was completely circular as well and she could barely make out the curving stones
Great, she thought. Now not only am I in a magical haunted house, but it seems to be alive as well and have a mind of its own. Fabulous.
She hesitated only a moment before heading for the stairs and slowly starting up them. The lack of sound was really beginning to unnerve the red head but she fought to remain focused and Septimus hissed quietly on her shoulder. As small as it was, it was a comfort.
Climbing the stairs felt like a task in and of itself because the higher she climbed the hotter the air seemed to get. Because there were no windows in the chamber, the hot air had nowhere to go and Ginny practically began to feel the sweat sliding down her back.
Merlin how long does this go on for?!
The darkness of the chamber was so intense, that the torch she was holding only seemed to cover her in a dome of light and went out for about a few feet but stopped soon after that as if it had hit a wall of blackness and would go no further.
Ginny couldn't even tell how long she had been climbing or how far she had risen off the ground.
She had just reached a state of consciousness where she was close to pulling out her hair when all of a sudden, her foot connected with one of the stone ledges of the stairs and she nearly tripped before catching herself on the railing.
Cursing, she managed to pick herself up and as she did so, she raised her head and was confronted with a platform just ahead of her on the steps upon which was perched another door just like the first two.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Ginny hurried towards it and placed her hand on the knob before yanking it open and hurrying inside.
To her irritation, she was presented with another long hallway much like the first one she had walked down. This one was lined with torches like the one she was holding in her hand but this one seemed even longer than before.
Also unlike the first one, Ginny was surprised to see that there were several doors lining each side of the hall as if there were hidden chambers in this section of the house.
Fortunately, she remembered the words of Pyat Pree not to enter any of the chambers until she reached the audience one.
She could see a door at the other end of the hallway and assumed that was where she was supposed to go.
However, she hadn't expected for each of the doors of the rooms to be open. In fact it didn't appear as if there were any doors at all, just open doorways and Ginny couldn't stop herself from looking in as she passed them by.
However she wasn't expecting what she would see to be as…..bizarre and disturbing as it was.
Inside the first chamber, she was stunned to see a beautiful woman lying naked on the floor being ravished but four short ugly dwarves. The woman had beautiful golden hair and she was in the midst of crying out, but she didn't know if it was for help or in ecstasy.
What the bloody hell?
In the back of her mind, Ginny knew this wasn't real and was just some sort of bizarre vision that she was having but the utter obtuse nature of the situation made her have to blink and swallow hard a few times before she turned away from the doorway in disgust.
I certainly hope the next thing that I see won't be as bizarre.
She turned away from the door with the bizarre little men inside the room, trying without success to mentally erase what she had seen. I don't think that's something that's ever going to get out of my mind.
When she reached the next room and looked inside however, the vision in there immediately chased the first one from her mind.
She was standing looking at a long room that was occupied like a long stone table with pillars all around it. It appeared as if there were some sort of bizarre dinner party going on. The chairs around the table though were occupied with beings that made her want to back away in horror.
Ginny wasn't so distracted by her mission here that she had forgotten about her dream that she had had a few weeks earlier.
The one where she was standing in the throne room that was covered in snow and a series of monsters made entirely of ice and Merlin knew what was were surrounding her. A fully grown Septimus had been the only way to take her out of that situation and get her to wake up.
Now she was standing looking into what appeared to be a bizarre dinner party where those same ice monsters were all sitting around a table and feasting on something that she couldn't see.
The most gruesome sight of all however was the fact that scattered about the room, on the floors and tied to the pillars and on the backs of chairs there were corpses lying about in a truly morbid fashion.
Some were strung up by their hands and others were lying gutted on the cold stone floors about the dining table while the monsters feasted.
But the most startling that almost had the red head backing away from the door in shock was the figure seated at the head of the table was the very one she had been confronted with in her dreams.
It was the tall figure of the monster made out of ice with the spikes of ice growing out of his head in the shape of a crown. He had a goblet of wine in his hand and as Ginny watched, he opened his mouth and emitted a peculiar roar that had a shiver going down her spine.
It was then that she noticed the…..decorations or rather lack thereof in the center of the table.
They were all the heads of prominent animals and she watched in horror as the blood dripped down off of each one, skimming the table and dropping onto the floor.
There was the head of a stag, along with the maned head of a lion, its furry maw still open in a roar as if that had been the moment when the beast was decapitated. There was the head of a wolf sitting among the dishes along with the body of a trout between its teeth. A golden rose was sitting atop its head but it didn't take a botanist to tell that the rose had wilted and died a long time ago.
Most prominent of all that could be seen was the head of a black dragon sitting in the middle of the table and Ginny gasped, raising a hand to her mouth in horror.
What the bloody hell is this? She thought in shock. Some kind of version of an apocalyptic future that has yet to happen?
Just because she lived on the other side of the world didn't mean that Ginny didn't know the stories of the White Walkers and how they had invaded thousands of years ago in the days of the First Men.
They had never made it as far south as Essos but that didn't mean that the stories still weren't told by shamans and religious men who prayed against such occurrences happening ever again.
Her gasp must have alerted the attention of the crowned figure at the center of the room and Ginny was horrified to look up and see that the monstrous creature was staring at her with its glowing blue eyes.
Painstakingly as if he were taking his own sweet time to do it, the monster raised one of its eerily long arms at her, and pointed a bony finger in her direction.
Instantly, Ginny felt cold all over, as if she had been covered in ice and she stumbled backwards, eyes still fixed on him.
He opened his mouth again and emitted a peculiar roar like she remembered him doing the first time.
All of a sudden, a concussion filled the room that didn't make a sound but was deafening. Ginny felt as if an enormous pair of hands had filled the bizarre dining hall and clapped as loudly as was humanly possible, because then a breathe of wind all but blew her back from the doorway with Septimus hissing on her shoulder.
And just like that, the entire room went back….she couldn't see into it anymore.
Ginny stumbled back from the doorway and continued her pace along the hallways a bit more quickly. I'm not sure that I want to see anymore.
The hallway seemed to elongate as she hurried down it and Ginny realized she was no closer to the door at the other end than when she had come through the door from the stair well the first time.
She gritted her teeth. Whatever you do don't panic.
The red head passed another doorway and she seized upon the crazy notion that she should look in one more….just to distract herself. The last thing she wanted was to seize up and not know what to do.
It was crazy sure, but at the time logic wasn't making sense.
So as she passed another doorway on her right hand side, Ginny took a deep breath…..and looked in.
What she saw made her gasp and take a step back faster than the vision of the monsters had.
Because she was staring into her own dining room at the Burrow.
They were all there….Mum….Dad….the twins…..Percy….Charlie….Bill….Ron…..Harry and
Hermione.
Her entire family was there…..they were all sitting around the table talking and laughing together as if they hadn't seen each other in years.
Ginny felt tears well in her eyes as she watched them. They were all together again and whole as if none of them had been touched by the war…..as if they had never suffered any pain or loss in their lives. As none of them were all dead.
Ginny pressed her fist to her mouth to choke back a sob and took a deep shuddering breath as she gazed on the familiar sight. She had spent so much times on moments like this taking it for granted…..not appreciating what she had.
I suppose it's true what they say, she thought bitterly to herself as she watched her family. You never know what you have until its gone.
Fred must have said something particularly funny at that point for Percy's ears went red and Ron almost choked on the bite of the roll he had taken.
Harry leaned over and pounded his best friend on the back, trying to contain his own laughter, but Hermione looked scandalized.
She couldn't hear what had been said but she had a feeling that it was something only Fred would say.
Seeing George with both ears was bad enough but at the sight of her brother who had been senselessly killed in the last battle not long before Harry was enough to make her vision go blurry and cause her to blink hard. She felt the hot tears slide down her cheeks and took another deep shuddering breath.
It's not real, she thought fiercely to herself. It's just these blue lipped pious bastards trying to mess with you. Now turn, and walk away.
But she couldn't.
It was as if they had seen inside of her head, seen all of her deepest darkest desires and wants and hurts and had taken them all and it had culminated in this vision that she was seeing of something from her past that she couldn't have.
All of a sudden, Fred looked up from his place at the table and caught sight of her. His face lit up with a huge smile and he pointed at her. "Hey Gin! What are you doing standing out there watching us? Come on in and pull up a chair!"
At the sound of his voice and the direction from which it came, the rest of the family looked up and upon seeing her got big smiles on their faces.
Harry then got up, and she felt a stabbing pain in her chest upon looking at him. His green eyes turned soft when he looked at her just as they had done before the wedding and he had had to tell her goodbye.
He smiled and she wanted to sob when she saw that smile of his. It was a smile that said that she was his whole world and he wanted her with him no matter what, come what may.
"Come on love," he said and she could feel the tears flooding down her cheeks again. "Come inside. You're been outside for too long. It's time to come back to us."
He walked closer and held out a hand toward her. "Come on Gin….it's time to come home."
Everything….Everything inside of her was screaming at her to reach out and take his hand. She could practically feel her fingers twitched as if her muscles were crying out for his hand in hers and she moved her hand closer to the doorway.
Ginny wasn't thinking, she knew she wasn't. But in that moment it didn't seem to matter. She would have given everything to see her family and friends again one more time and here they were…..calling for her to come to them.
How could she ignore that?
She reached her hand out towards Harry's outstretched one and their fingers nearly met when something strange happened.
Her hand was just about to cross the threshold of the door when Septimus issued a roar.
It was deeper and louder than any she had ever heard from him and it seemed far too big for his small frame.
At the sound of it, Ginny jumped and backed away from the door, memories of what Pyat Pree had said crowding into her mind.
You must not enter any of the other chambers in the House until you reach the audience chamber.
Instantly, Ginny realized how close she had come to ruining everything and shuddering sob, came from her throat as she pressed her fist against her mouth in an effort to calm herself down.
It wasn't real…..it wasn't reall….it wasn't real…..
She chanted the words over and over in her head until they finally registered in her brain and they were enough to calm her down. She felt Septimus nuzzling her cheek with his head in an attempt to comfort her and reached out to stroke his wings.
After a few minutes and she had successfully calmed herself down, though her eyes were still leaking tears, Ginny slowly straightened up and made her way back down the hall towards the door at the other end.
She was determined that she wasn't going to look through the other doors, terrified of what she might see this time.
Her mind was curiously numb as she walked alone and she felt drained, almost as if that one vision of her family had succeeded in taking all of the energy out of her.
She kept going though, knowing that as soon as she reached the end of the hall and opened the door there that she would find the audience chamber and the people that she was looking for.
So Ginny didn't look through any of the other doors as she walked along and curiously enough, the more of the doors she passed and didn't look into, the more she felt her energy coming back to her.
Feeling slightly better, Ginny was surprised when she reached the end of the hall at last and laid a hand on the door knob.
She gripped the torch with her other hand and tightened her fist on the knob, preparing to go in. This is it.
After squaring her shoulders and taking a deep breath….Ginny clenched the knob in her fist and wrenched the door open before striding inside.
And found herself in a cold stone room with pillars lining the sides of it. The only light was coming from a circular blue window directly above the middle of the room and above a long table that was also made out of stone. There was no food on the table but there were crystal goblets placed strategically every few feet that were filled with a dark liquid that she was willing to bet was Shade of the Evening.
It was cold in there and she had to fight the urge to shiver uncontrollably. As it was, she had to rub her hands up and down her arms in an attempt to warm them.
Behind the pillars that lined both sides of the room, there was nothing but absolute darkness and try as she might she couldn't see past it.
I assume this is the audience chamber.
There were twelve chairs around the table, five on one side, five on another and one on each end of the table.
And all of them but the one at the end closest to her were occupied.
The collection of people sitting in those chairs were some of the most beautiful individuals that Ginny had ever seen. There appeared to be six men and six women seated around the table. Ginny saw some with long golden curls or straight black tresses. Some had coppery waves and their eye colors ranged from green to violet and every color in between.
The men wore robes that lay perfectly against the hard muscles of their bodies and the women had curves that would have made many of the girls that Ginny had gone to school with cry in jealousy.
She was feeling a little self-conscious just sitting there watching them.
They appeared to be engaged in an intimate conversation for many of the women were laughing huskily at something that had been said.
Finally, the man at the end of the table that was facing the door she had gone through, one of the most handsome men she had ever seen with golden curls and deep grey eyes the color of storm clouds looked up at her and flashed a smile that was almost blinding. "Lady Ginevra Gryffindor. We have been waiting for you. Please….come and take a seat."
Unable to think of anything to say at the moment, Ginny slowly walked forward into the dull blue light towards the table. Before she could lay a hand on the chair however, a small figure darted out from the darkness on the left hand side and pulled the chair out for her to sit.
Ginny caught a glimpse of the small figure and realized with shock that it was a dwarf. It had a snout like face and was dressed in purple and blue livery. His hair was grey and greasy and he didn't look at her as he pulled out the chair for her.
He must be a servant, she thought absently.
The moment she stepped in front of the high backed chair and seated herself in it, the dwarf, with surprising strength pushed her chair in right up to the table before disappearing into the darkness once more.
"Don't mind him," the blonde man said again, calling her attention to his once more disturbingly perfect face. "He serves our needs well enough and only comes when we call for him."
"I take it you don't get to too many visitors here," Ginny said as she looked around the room cautiously and made note of the dust she could see drifting on the ground throughout the room.
She hadn't meant to be making a joke but the Undying all laughed just the same.
"There are few that are worthy to enter our house," the beautiful woman with the dark tresses and emerald green eyes said who was sitting to the right of the blonde man.
"There are many that try, and many that succumb along the way to meet us."
"So am I to understand that those….rooms along the hallway to get here weren't my welcoming party?" Ginny asked sarcastically. "Because you know I always thought that the simple approach of a hello how are you was the best way to greet someone."
They laughed again, but she wasn't being funny.
Ginny took a deep breath, trying to rein in her temper. "Look, I don't want to be here for any longer than I have to be. Can you just point me in the direction of the children and Vellaena and I will be on my way."
"I'm afraid it doesn't work like that Ginevra," the blonde man said and Ginny wanted to scream at his maddeningly calm tone. "You see, we asked for our servant Pyat Pree to bring you to us by whatever means necessary but up until now, you don't know why."
Septimus hissed on her shoulder and the man's eyes fixed on the dragon. "That is part of the reason….but you are the other."
"And what could you possibly want with me?" Ginny demanded.
"A sorceress of your calibre comes into this world once in a lifetime. Your father's power is like yours as well. But there are things about your power and about the magnificent creature on your shoulder that you do not know….things that we would teach you."
Ginny raised an eyebrow, not impressed at all. "Pardon me, I really didn't come here for a magic lesson. I know all the magic that is necessary for me to know and I am aware of the special bond I have with Septimus. I hatched him, I was the first one to touch him and I bear his mark on my hand. I'm here for one purpose only."
"And how do you hope to communicate with Septimus if you do not know the secret speech of dragonkind?" the dark haired woman asked and Ginny frowned at her. "I beg your pardon?"
"The language of your dragons my dear," she said patiently. "How do you think it was that the ancient Valyrians were able to tame master and communicate with their dragons?
It was through magic. A powerful magic that has not been seen in this world since the Doom. And it is a magic that you and your father possess. And with it, you will bring the world to heel."
Ginny was silent for a moment. "Really? And you've come to believe this about me how?"
"The mark on your hand for one. You are one who is dragon blessed. This means that a dragon has hatched for you, that you are its mistress and that you will share a connection with this dragon that will be unique to all others. Only those who are dragon blessed may pass through here. That is why your father was required to remain outside."
Somehow required didn't seem to be the right word to Ginny, but she kept her mouth shut. "And so what…..you want to teach me?"
"Is that so profane a thing? The blonde haired man asked again. "To have a sorceress of your calibre in our hallowed halls would once more lend credence to the name of the Undying. We would be revered once more."
"So it's power that you want?" Ginny scoffed. "And here I thought with the way Pyat Pree introduced me to you that it was more sophisticated than that."
"Is power a thing that is not worthy to be noticed?" the dark haired woman asked. "We all seek it. The now deceased Thirteen sought it. Xaro Daxos sought it, the merchants in the harbor seek it, the masters seek it, the slaves seek it, you and your father seek it. To want power is no immoral thing. In fact there is no such thing as immorality, there is only power and those who do or don't seize it."
Ginny had the oddest sense of déjà vu after that and she glared at the Undying. "Look I didn't come here to discuss philosophy. I came for the children. Now where are they?"
The dark haired man smiled at her. It was an eerily calm smile like the one Pyat Pree had given her before she entered the House of the Undying.
"But of course my dear," he said. "Simply walk through the door that is behind my chair and you will find them."
"And how do I know I can trust you?" Ginny asked warily.
"You don't," the dark haired woman said. "But if you don't than you will remain here and the children will not be found. It is your choice."
It didn't take Ginny long to decide.
She had no sooner passed the blonde man's chair when she heard him call out after her. "And Lady Ginevra?"
She paused. "Yes?"
"Try to keep an open mind about what you might see."
Ginny whirled around to demand what it was that meant by that but the moment she did so, the table, the goblets and the Undying had completely vanished…..and she was standing alone in a long stone room with two doors on opposite sides of each other.
This is turning out to be one hell of a day.
And then she turned around and wrenched open the door.
Ω
It was only when she stepped through and pulled the door shut behind her that she realized she was only in another room.
Except this time it wasn't connected to another long hallway with another set of doors at the end.
Ginny felt her eyes widen as she was standing in a magnificent throne room.
It was as large as the Great Hall of Hogwarts and seemed twice as grand with its enormous pillars and grated braziers.
It must have looked even more magnificent when it was in its heyday.
Now it was only a ruin.
As Ginny looked around, she could tell that something horrible had happened in this place. There was not a living soul anywhere though she had a feeling this throne room had once been filled with people.
It appeared to be the former place of a great court within a great kingdom.
As she looked around, she took note of the massive structure and the high arched ceilings. There was a window at the other end whose glass was stained and fashioned into the effigy of a seven pointed star.
It was situated right above a raised dais and upon that dais there was a throne.
Some might call it magnificent, but to Ginny it looked rather ugly.
This looks familiar, she thought to herself. This is from my dream….how is this possible? I haven't told anyone about this…not even Sirius.
She slowly walked down from the steps on where she was standing to the side of the room and walked into the middle of the former court.
The pillars that lined the sides of the room were massive but they also looked bone white and as Ginny looked around she could tell that everything in the room was covered in a blanket of white. She looked up and realized right away why it was so cold in here.
The entire roof of the throne room had been torn open and there were gaping holes in the ceiling as if some monster had swooped down, taken hold of the roof in its talons or claws and rent it in two.
For a moment, Ginny wondered if a dragon had performed such a feat. It would have to have been a fully grown one several decades old at least in order to do such a great show of strength. But it seemed that that was the only way possible. It also gave rise to why it was so cold in the room.
Falling through the roof and coating every surrounding surface in a blanket of white was a thick layer of fresh fallen snow.
It was silently coming down around her and landing on Ginny's fiery locks, also coating her in white.
How on earth is it snowing this far south? Ginny wondered to herself.
She returned her gaze to the chair at the end of the room and tried to focus on it rather than on how cold she was becoming.
Slowly the red head walked toward it and the closer she became she was more and more aware of how ugly it was.
She had never seen such a hideous looking chair in her life. It appeared to be made of a collection of melted down swords and appeared very uncomfortable. The blades of the swords formed the back of the chair and were sharpened to points which made her imagine that someone might just as easily cut themselves on this chair as sit in it.
It was clearly a throne for that of a conqueror. Ginny imagined that whoever had first fashioned this seat had taken all the swords of his enemies and melted them down to form a chair for himself that everyone might remember. It was clearly more a symbol than a throne and Ginny imagined this piece of décor would serve as a reminder to everyone who looked on it that whoever had sat on this chair was someone to be feared and obeyed because of what they had done to their enemies.
But now it was empty….empty, cold and dead.
What happened here? Ginny wondered to herself, forgetting for the moment that she was trying to seek her own way out of this strange place.
She walked closer to the throne and up the steps until she was standing at the top of the dais before the very throne itself.
It was even uglier and more grotesque up close as opposed to when she had seen it in her dream but Ginny had a feeling that what she was seeing in this room was only the aftermath of a great battle that had taken place for it and what she was seeing was the devastating effects of what a loss meant.
In a way it almost reminded her of the way that Hogwarts might look if Voldemort had survived the final battle and decided to make Hogwarts the seat of his rule.
Or perhaps this was the way it would look if everyone good and bad had died in that battle.
There were no bodies on the floor of this throne room but she could just imagine them lying there, strewn about in the positions they were in before they died.
She shivered again and this time it wasn't from the cold.
Why am I seeing this? She wondered to herself. It obviously seems like this is extremely import but I have no idea why I am seeing it again for a second time and that I'm awake to.
She took a step closer to the throne and hesitantly reached out a hand towards it, wondering for a moment what it would be like to sit in that chair.
It had no sooner crossed her mind when sitting down on the throne became suddenly infinitely more appealing and Ginny began to feel a strong pull towards it.
She took another step until she was within touching distance of the throne if she would just reach out her hand towards it.
As if in a trance, Ginny slowly raised her hand to do so and was stopped only when she heard a sound behind her.
It was almost like a high pitched screech although she knew it hadn't come from any dragon.
A cold feeling settled in the pit of her stomach and Ginny swallowed hard before turning away from the throne to face the sound of the noise.
When she did so, a hand flew to her mouth to stifle her scream.
Standing a few feet behind her was the creature straight out of her nightmares. It was taller than she was and appeared to have skin made of glass or ice although given where she was ice seemed more appropriate. Its cold features were chiseled into an expression of utter malice and Ginny could feel the depth of its hatred.
It's even uglier in person.
It had no hair although there appeared to be an odd version of a crown on its head but the spires of said crown seemed to be coming right out of its forehead, making Ginny shudder in disgust.
Its eyes were the most icy blue she had ever seen and much lighter than her own sapphire orbs. They stared at her unblinkingly and it took a step towards her.
Ginny backed up until she was against the throne itself and the torch fell from her trembling fingers.
The creature issued another screech from its horrible mouth and moved closer until it as standing right in front of her.
It reached out a hand as if to touch her and Ginny held her breath.
Just then she heard a clanging sound from nearby and she opened her eyes to see a twinkling of silver behind her on the throne.
It was the sword of Gryffindor.
And it wasn't the one she had seen Neville pull out of the hat at Hogwarts either. This was the one that had been encased in glass beneath Sirius's villa in the vault. It seemed to shine silver in the grey light and the rubies in the pommel seemed as dark as blood.
Without even thinking Ginny reached behind her, seized the sword and drove it through the creature's torso with all of her might.
There was a long pause as the monster looked down at its chest and seemed to realize what had happened. The moment this occurred however, the monster itself shattered into a million pieces as if it were made of glass.
Ginny was standing there with the Valyrian steel great sword in her hand and breathing hard as if she had just run a marathon.
What the bloody hell was that?!
She glanced down at the sword, expecting to see ice forming on it, but it appeared as unblemished as when she had seen it the first time.
She could only ponder why this particular sword had chosen to appear to her now. The name of Godric Gryffindor was still etched into the hilt of the blade beside his son Edric's and unless it was Ginny's imagination, the words seemed to shine even brighter than before, making her feel a little better.
I have to get out of here.
All of a sudden, she heard another familiar screech and her blood ran cold.
The red head looked up from the sword to see that whatever that creature was, it must have had friends because rising from the piles all around the room were dozens of the things. They all had peculiar swords that looked to be made of glass in their hands and their ice blue eyes were all fixed on her.
Septimus hissed on her shoulder and Ginny glanced quickly at the small dragon, remembering what the larger version of him had done in her dream.
This time however, there was no fully grown Septimus to save her.
Fire works on them, she thought desperately. I need to use fire!
She took a deep breath and steeled herself to use one of the deadliest spells she knew. It would take a lot out of her, but she had a feeling that now that she wasn't in the dream world, these things could hurt her and she needed to use every weapon at her disposal.
So the red head shut her eyes and her teeth and held out her hand, "Incendio!"
Instantly the body of the nearest creature was set ablaze and it shrieked in agony.
Ginny wasted no time in this small victory and immediately set the bodies of the rest of the creatures on fire.
The throne room was filled with multiple shrieks of agony and pain as the corpses of ice staggered toward her, determined to finish the job their leader had started and wring the life out of her.
Ginny however had no intention of letting that happen and so she looked around desperately for another way out of the throne room that was now covered in smoke and flames.
And when she turned around, she remembered the door she had come through and dashed towards it as fast as possible.
She could still hear the shrieks of the creatures behind her but she paid them no mind as she grasped the knob and yanked it open before she dashed inside and slammed it shut behind her.
The red head stood there for a moment, leaning her head against the door and breathing hard as she tried to calm her racing heartbeat.
Seven hells that was ten times worse than the dream I had. Why on earth would they show me that?
She stayed there, leaning against the door for a few minutes before she managed to pull herself together and turned back around expecting to see the audience chamber of the Undying once more.
But instead, she turned around to find that she was in a beautiful garden.
It was nighttime and there were bright stars shining overhead along with a full moon. She could hear the sounds of the ocean in the distance and smell the salt air on the breeze.
The garden she was standing in was surrounded by beautiful flowers that almost appeared as if they were glowing. The sweet scent of them was on the air and Ginny took a deep breath, glad that she finally seemed to be somewhere where she might find some peace at least for a little while.
The garden was small and circular and there seemed to be a stone flower bed full of the glowing buds in the shape of a C.
Standing just outside of the flowerbed were several towering weirwood trees that Ginny imagined would be excellent for providing shade as well from the heat of the sun.
Now the trees were helping to shuffle in a cool night breeze into the garden.
Just then the sound of a tiny mewling cry caught Ginny's attention and she whirled around, still gripping the sword of Gryffindor with Septimus on her shoulder, ready for a fight.
Instead, what she saw at the far end of the garden, sitting on a bench made her eyes widen and her jaw go slack.
It was her.
That was to say that Ginny saw herself sitting on a bench in the garden full of glowing flowers. The other Ginny was older than the one who had come into the House of the Undying but only by a few years.
This Ginny was in her early twenties perhaps and she was even taller, and even more beautiful than Ginny had ever thought it possible for her to look. Her long scarlet curls hung almost to her waist and her eyes were as blue as the Jade Sea, her skin the palest of ivories.
She was wearing a deep blue dress that had a plunging neckline and bared the small of her back. There were pearls and sapphires woven into her flame red hair and on her finger was a silver ring.
But it was not the physical adornments that caught and held the younger Ginny's attention….it was the fact that the older Ginny had a child nestled in her arms.
It was a little boy, she could tell and his hair was a beautiful silvery blonde, the kind of hair that had been best known for the Malfoy family trait but somehow on this little boy it looked so beautiful.
As if in a trance, Ginny wandered closer to the older version of herself, unable to do anything but look.
When she was looking over the shoulder of her older self, she saw that the baby's eyes were open and she gasped when she saw her own sapphire blue eyes reflected back.
What is this? She thought her hands trembling.
"My beautiful little boy," the older Ginny whispered to the baby nestled in her arms. "My little Daemon. You'll never know the hardship I had to endure growing up in a world at war. You'll never know insanity or war, or grief. I promise you I will ensure that you are happy. I just wish my mother could have met you….she would have loved you."
The older Ginny's voice broke on the last word and younger Ginny was hard pressed to stop the tears from falling again herself.
Somehow she knew she was looking at an older version of herself, a future that may or may not happen where she had a child and was obviously very happy.
But who is the father? Younger Ginny wondered to herself. Who did I marry in order for this to be possible?
"There you are."
Both Ginnys looked up at the sound of an unfamiliar voice.
It was only the younger Ginny that gasped though.
For standing at the edge of the garden staring right at the older version of herself was the most beautiful man Ginny had ever seen in her entire life.
He had pale silvery blonde hair just like the babe resting in her arms and deep violet eyes that were looking at her with an incredibly soft hue to them. His body was lean and powerful and as hard as the blade of a knife.
The tunic he was wearing was a dark blue which gave him an even more striking look and highlighted every muscle in his upper body. There was a sword at his waist but his hand was nowhere near it.
Instead his arms were folded across his chest and he was looking at the older version of her as if she were the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
The look in his eyes, one of pure unadulterated love made younger Ginny want to cry all over again and she had no idea who this man was. But the one thing she did know was that this was obviously the baby Daemon's father.
Older Ginny smiled gently at him. "I've been out here the whole time my love."
The man nodded and walked closer. "I had been looking for you. Lord Tyrell is one of those nobles who just can't seem to listen to sense."
"It seems as if that's the case with many of the nobles here," older Ginny muttered and the man laughed.
"Be that as it may my love we need to properly entertain them all. The last thing we need is hurt feelings and bruised egos. Alliances aren't made that way."
He walked closer as older Ginny huffed and if it was possible, his eyes grew even softer when he saw the baby in her arms. "Is he asleep?"
"Yes."
Younger Ginny watched as the beautiful man sat down on the bench and shifted her older self so she was sitting somewhat in his lap. He wrapped an arm tightly around her waist and tilted her head so he could kiss her very gently.
Younger Ginny watched with a lump in her throat at the obvious and very public display of love between an older Ginevra and this unknown man. He was obviously a very important noble but that was really all she could tell.
"He's beautiful isn't he?" Older Ginny said wistfully and the man who was her husband smiled. "And he has his mother's eyes. I remember when I looked at you for the first time I never thought I had seen eyes so blue in my life. I recall thinking that someone must have taken drops of the Jade Sea and placed them on your eyes when you were young."
Older Ginny scoffed and looked down at her son. "I hope you don't grow up to be as eloquent as your father little one."
"And why not? Daemon should be exactly like me."
"Hmm perhaps not exactly like you."
Unbidden, tears had formed in younger Ginny's eyes as she watched her older self and a man whose identity was unknown be so obviously in love.
Who is he? She thought desperately to herself. How did I get here? Is this real? Will this happen? Is this the future….or is someone toying with me?
She was shocked at the sharp stabbing pain that filled her chest when she thought of the possibility that this could all be a game….that it might not exist.
Because the truth was, though she had no idea who this man was, or how her older self had gotten to this point…..she wanted this…..badly.
She hadn't even realized how badly until she had seen it.
This older Ginny had a handsome husband who adored her and his child nestled in her arms.
Marriage wasn't something that the sixteen year old Ginny had thought about at all when she had unceremoniously fallen through the Veil into Qarth, but now here it was….right in front of her face.
She turned her face away as hot tears ran down her cheeks as the older Ginny and her husband exchanged soft kisses and touches while they looked down at their son.
Why am I being shown this? She thought. Is this simply another way for the Undying to torture me into giving in to what they want? Because if it is…..than I feel like its working.
She turned back to the scene before her and took a deep shuddering breath. As painful as it was, she wanted to gaze on it for as long as possible so it would be a reminder of how happy she could be. Of life might have been like.
Older Ginny wrapped her free arm about her husband's shoulder and leaned her cheek against the top of his head. He buried his face in the crook of her neck and breathed deeply.
"I love you," he said quietly. "You know that don't you?"
A beautiful smile crossed older Ginny's face and she turned his face towards her so she could look at him. "I know. I love you too."
She leaned down and gently brushed her lips across his.
Younger Ginny had to force herself to look away at that point and pressed a fist to her mouth to keep the sobs in.
It wasn't fair.
She would never have this…..so why were the Undying torturing her with something that would never be?
Maybe to break me, she thought bitterly to herself. They want me to stay here forever and if I am able to lose myself in this odd reality than perhaps that's what they think will convince me to stay.
She scrubbed furiously at her eyes that were pooling hot tears and looked up once more to see the scene one more time.
Ginny then gave a small cry of dismay when she realized she was back in the audience chamber of the Undying and said members who held that name were back sitting in their chairs around the table.
With a furious growl, she stalked toward them. "I've played enough of your little games. Now, where. Are. The. Children?"
There was no answer right away and Ginny reached the chair where the blonde bastard was sitting and grabbed it before reaching out and wrenching it towards her.
What was sitting in the chair made her stumble backwards with a hand over her mouth to hide her scream.
Now she fully remembered what Sirius told her before she entered this place.
All the beings sitting in chairs around the table were no longer the beautiful people she had spoken to before but decaying decrepit creatures with blue skin and eyes and long teeth.
The one who had once been blonde rose from his chair and started towards her with a grim smile on his face. "They're here…but you'll have to find them first."
And that was when the definition of blood on the floor really came into play for Ginevra Gryffindor.
As the rest of the blue skinned Undying rose to their feet from the table and effectively cornered her, Ginny realized she wasn't going to get out of this without getting some blood on her hands.
She refused to apparate out like a little coward before she found the children and if the House of the Undying had as many magic properties as she had seen, she wasn't sure trying to leave the unconventional way would work.
In the span of time it took for her to think this, the Undying had her utterly surrounded.
"Now will you let us teach you?" one of them asked.
Ginny surprised herself by laughing. "Before or after you drain me of my blood and feast on my flesh so you can keep up the appearance that you aren't blue skinned monsters?"
This apparently revealed to them that the gig was up because before Ginny knew it, they were upon her.
With a wave of her hand, she sent one flying into one of the pillars and stabbed another in the gut with the sword of Gryffindor, causing it to illicit a horrifying screech.
Septimus was hissing furiously on her shoulder and the moment of them got too close to her, he would open his maw and shoot a jet of flames towards them lighting them on fire.
It didn't take long before hundreds more blue skinned monsters were pouring into the room.
Ginny looked around her in horror. How many of these bastards are there?
She was beginning to tire and just managed to duck when one of the Undying threw themselves towards her.
Just then she heard a sound that was more welcome than any that she had ever heard before.
"Ginny!"
The red head looked up in shock to see that Sirius had somehow entered the room and was fighting his way towards her.
The expression on her adoptive father's face was ferocious and for one instant, Ginny caught a glimpse of the man he must have been when he was a part of the Second Sons.
I must have been gone longer than half an hour, she thought absently.
They fought their way towards each other through the maze of the Undying that were crowding in upon them.
As soon as they were back to back, Septimus surprised Ginny by unleashing a roar of flame that had the two of them completely surrounded by a ring of fire with the Undying on the outside.
"How did you get in here?" Ginny demanded as she gave her adoptive father a quick hug.
"Didn't I tell you that I was giving you a half an hour to get in here, get the children and get out? I was serious about that Ginny, you've been gone longer than half an hour. I was coming in after you."
He paused and glanced around the Undying who were just outside of the circle of flames that were surrounding him and Ginny. "Looks like I was just in time too."
"I had it handled," the red head protested.
"I can see that," he said wryly.
"Did you find the children?" she asked, in no mood for his teasing. "Not yet. That damn bastard Pree said one had to follow all the rules in order to get to the audience chamber of the Undying so I did."
"Is he still waiting outside?"
"In a manner of speaking," Sirius said grimly. "He's dead. I had to kill him when he refused to let me go in."
"I appreciate the tenacity father," Ginny said with a grim smile. "But I have a feeling we're paying for it now."
"Well then there's only one way to pay back our debts," Sirius replied. "Let's kill these pricks, get the kids and get the hell out of here. I mean to burn this place to the ground with Fiendfyre."
"Sounds good to me."
And then they got to work.
Ginny used more magic in the House of the Undying than she had in the two months since she had come to Qarth. When you are using every muscle and sense and reflex to the full however, you don't have time to contemplate your actions, you just act.
Time seemed to slow in a haze of blue skin and crazed eyes and long teeth while Ginny dispatched with the Undying alongside of her adoptive father and Septimus set fire to the ones that got too close.
When she wasn't using her magic, she was using the sword of Gryffindor to cut off or cut through the Undying
But as many as they took care of, there always seemed to be more coming and after a few minutes, Ginny realized with horror that there were too many of them.
She would need to do something drastic in order to end this or she and Sirius were both dead.
So she did.
After taking a deep breath, Ginny hissed out the word to the spell that she had used what seemed like a lifetime ago in the Department of Mysteries.
"Multiplio."
The effects were instantaneous.
Immediately she felt a searing pain in her chest as if she were being ripped apart and doubled over.
Sirius let out a muffled curse in the next minute and she knew the spell had done its work.
A second later, the screeches of the Undying cut off and there was the sound of multiple thumps of bodies dropping to the ground.
Ginny dropped to her knees, sighing in relief as the pain in her chest faded but barely able to stand as the fatigue was making her dizzy.
Sirius dropped to his knees beside her. "Hey are you alright?"
She nodded.
"What the bloody hell was that?" he demanded.
Ginny took a few deep breaths before she was able to push herself back onto her knees and gave him a weak laugh. "I learned it in the restricted section in my last year of school. It's a spell that basically splits you into multiple people so you can be in more than one place at once. It's very handy when you want to kill people."
"I should say so," Sirius muttered as he looked around the room at all of the downed blue bodies.
"I'm not sure if I'll be able to use any more magic today without hurting myself as that spell puts a serious drain on your core," Ginny muttered. "I'll be lucky if I can even apparate out of this god forsaken place."
"You let me worry about the magic," Sirius muttered helping her to her feet. "Now come on, I think we need to get out of here."
His words were punctuated by the sound of a pounding on one of the doors in the audience chamber.
"That must be the rest of the warlocks," Ginny whispered. "Someone must have heard the fight."
Sirius looked at her urgently. "Let's go."
Ω
After that, it was surprisingly easy.
They found the children being guarded in a room on one of the lower levels of the ground floor of the House of the Undying.
With a wave of his hand, Sirius broke the neck of the warlock guarding them before the bald bastard could even blink and Ginny hurried to break the chains of the children who were crying out in relief when they saw her.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a shaking Vellaena reach out and hug Sirius to which he returned.
As soon as the children were free, Ginny had them all join hands and she and Sirius and Vellaena led them outside.
As soon as she felt the sun on her face, Ginny wanted to drop to her knees and sing hallelujah.
She turned to her father who was glaring at the House of the Undying with a look of abject hatred on his face after he had led Vellaena and the children off to the side beneath the trees so they might rest as many of them were looking scared and startled.
"I think it's time we actually reduce this place to a palace of dust," she muttered and he nodded.
And so with the help of Septimus, she and Sirius lit the House of the Undying ablaze with Fiendfyre and though Ginny was drained after, it seemed that getting out of that place had helped restore some of her energy
As soon as that accursed place was reduced to a literal palace of dust, and all the warlocks and Undying in it were dead, Ginny turned to her father and gave him a hug.
"Thank you," she whispered. "For not listening to me when I told you not to come in after me. I don't think I would have made it out of there alive otherwise."
"Sure you would have," he replied. "You would have thought of something."
They were interrupted a moment later by cheers and Sirius, Ginny, Vellaena and the rest of the children turned around to see that they had attracted quite a crowd with the flames.
It turned out that word had gotten around the city of what Prat Pree and the warlocks had done in kidnapping the children although Ginny had no idea who had spread the word and a crowd of people along with several terrified parents had congregated outside of the house of the Undying to see if their children were being rescued.
As the dust cleared and the smoke settled on the old pile of rubble the sound of cheers could be heard from the gathered crowd, along with the chant of "Gryffindor."
As Sirius and Ginny turned to face the crowd that had gathered the relief on many of the people's faces was plain to see. It was obvious that the warlocks had been hated and feared throughout the city.
"Gryffindor! Gryffindor! Gryffindor!"
All around them the chant for her and Sirius's name was going up, surprisingly along with a few calls of King Sirius and Princess Ginevra.
Ginny cast a look at her adoptive father and smiled. "It seems the people have chosen a new leader."
He looked at her incredulously. "Me?"
"Yes you. Now that the Thirteen are dead, along with Xaro Daxos and the warlocks and Undying are no more, all the opposition we might have faced here is gone. You are now indisputably the King of Qarth."
"Ginny's right," Vellaena said as she appeared next to him. Her face was smudged with ashes and her dress was torn but she appeared none the worse for wear. "The people want you as their leader. And it appears that they won't have anyone else."
Sirius looked out over the crowd who were busy chanting his and Ginny's names as they were some kind of saviour and slowly a smile wound its way across his face before he turned to his adoptive daughter.
"King Sirius Gryffindor of Qarth and his daughter Princess Ginevra," he mused. "I think I like the sound of that."
"From the looks of it the people do as well," Ginny muttered.
She was still feeling drained from what she had seen in the House of the Undying, but for the moment she pushed it aside. "What is your first decree your grace?"
Sirius still looked a little shell shocked but the people had spoken. He was now a king.
"Very well then," he said in the authoritative tone that he only used when he was speaking to his men. "First we need to return the children to their families."
"And then?" Ginny asked.
"What is a kingdom without an army to protect it?" Sirius asked. "After we see to the city, we need to find one that will do just that."
Ginny looked out over the crowd and gave a grim smile. This would be a day that she would always remember as the day change was brought to Essos and the day that the reign of King Sirius Gryffindor began.
Ω
Sorry for the long wait between updates everybody. But hopefully the fact that this is a much longer chapter than normal makes up for it. Several of the visions that Ginny saw here were identical to the ones in a Clash of Kings when Dany was in the House of the Undying. And yes the last one she was saw, that was also Rhaegar as you all know by now that he is going to be the main love interest in this story. I did want to throw a little romance up in here. Anyway, I will try to update the next chapter as soon as possible. Don't forget to review and enjoy!
