Author: Diva-Elf

Title: Through the Mists of Life

Rating: R

Genre: Humor, Angst, Action, Adventure, Drama, Romance

Summary: AU. Abusive Dursley's, new powers, fighting, pranks, surprises, and new allies.

Warnings: Battles; people's heads coming off; blood, guts, and gore; implied slash

FOR RETURNING READERS: We highly suggest (or really, really hope) that you re-read the story, as there are small, but important, changes. Thank you.

From Both of Us: For those faint of heart, we suggest, for the sake of your sanity (or heart palpitations) that you skip over a few of the battle scene descriptions. However, as we doubt any of you will actually have a heart attack and die from Diva's less-than-beautiful descriptions, ignore this warning. And also for those who do not, in particular, like male/male or female/female pairings, please be aware that while they are not emphasized, they are implied. If you don't like this, then you can ignore it or stop reading, but we hope you do the former, because, as we've already stated, they are merely implied. Except in one chapter, quite a ways from now, but we believe it's only about five sentences or so where it is clear. (And, for those of you who do not mind slash, the pairing of that scene is Siri/Remmy.)

Thank you,

Diva-Elf

--Banii-chan

-------------------------------------------

- - - - -

Chapter Six- Of Sacrifice

- - - - -

Diva exited the portal on the outskirts of a forest, but instead of the lush green rolling plains that were supposed to be there, there was only a vast expanse of burned ground and a few dead, mangled bodies that must of belonged to the Elven border patrols. She nudged her horse forward with her legs, but her horse didn't move.

"What is it, Spirit?" Diva asked her horse. Spirit didn't answer like Diva though she would. Instead, she started to back up to where the portal had been.

"We can't leave, Spirit," Diva said, getting Spirit to stop and dismounting. She walked over to the spot where Spirit had backed away from. Diva noticed something that she hadn't noticed before. A barrier.

Frowning, Diva raised a hand and pressed her hand against the barrier. The sound of electricity buzzing filled the air then a bolt of lighting shot out of the barrier and hit Diva square in the stomach.

Only to blast her back by about a hundred feet and into a tree.

"…ow…" Diva said, blinking a few times before getting up, rubbing her stomach. She looked balefully at Spirit. "You could have told me that thing was there, you know." Spirit hung her head low to the ground, while Diva grumbled. Morgan dismounted and walked over to Diva to check her over. Diva held up her hand to Morgan.

"I'm fine, Morgan," she said. "Just a few bruises is all."

"Getting hit in the stomach with a lighting bolt, then slamming into a tree leaves more then a few bruises," he said with a disapproving frown.

"Give me the lecture when we get back," Diva said. "Right now, we all have to get beyond that barrier and find out what's happened here." She walked back over to the barrier.

Calling up three Elements at once, she tried to take the barrier down. Mind and Earth to search the barrier for a weak point and Thunder to fend off the lighting bolts that tried to attack her.

The buzzing and cracking of electricity filled the air, the bolts of lighting clashed together and sent shock waves through the air. The horses in the group started to prepare to run back the way they came, but their riders held them steady, calming them in their own ways.

A pearly dark green light pressing against the barrier was sending ripples outward. The other's saw what she was trying to do and joined in. The Chaians sent a dark green light from their hands and merged it with Diva's. Slowly, the barrier weakened, and finally went down. They stopped their attack against the barrier.

Diva's eyes had changed to an amber color in frustration. That was not an Elven barrier, they would have been able to pass right through if it were. That was a Dark barrier. Diva ejected her wings and took to the sky, Spirit and the demons following her in the air and the Chaians on land. The Elven Palace came into view, half if it was in ruins and the other half was on fire.

Diva landed and quickly took care of the flames, but not as quickly as she had hoped. These were fresh flames, and harder to suppress. She then ran into the smoldering building. In the Entrance Hall, Diva found one of the queen's servants regaining consciousness. Diva walked over to the servant.

"Where's Queen Nonla?" The servant pointed to a pair of large oak doors, slightly burned and looking as though they had been blasted open.

Diva thanked the servant and placed a healing spell on him. She then headed through the doors the servant had pointed towards. It looked as though this had been the Throne Room.

The Room was half destroyed and guards lay dead all around. At the back of the Room, in front of the Thrones, lay two bodies. Both were dressed finely.

Diva recognized them. One was the queen and the other, her mate, the king. Running across the room, Diva knelt beside the king to feel his pulse. There was none. Hot tears of anger and grief welled up in her eyes.

"From earth to sky, from sky to Heaven, may you rest eternally in peace." Diva said, using a hand to make three signs in the air for the Soul Sending, the elven ritual of the dead. His body glowed a soft white light, then the light moved into the air and headed towards the sky. Diva got up, walked over to the queen, and took her pulse. But instead of the non-beating coldness that Diva had expected to feel, there was warmth and a faint pulse. As quickly as she could, Diva cast a healing and revitalizing spells on her.

"Queen Nonla?" Diva said in Elfish. "Queen Nonla, open your eyes, please, Queen Nonla." The Elven Queen groaned and opened her eyes; relief spread over Diva. At least she would live.

"The Jewel," Nonla said weakly, amber eyes dull. "He went after the Jewel."

"Where is the Earth Jewel now?" Diva asked, an unknown emotion entering her voice. Was it fear? But, she had never been afraid. Not even when she had fought Sutain, the Zian, why now?

"The Jewel is in the Guarded Chamber." Then she feel back into unconsciousness.

"MORGAN!" Diva yelled. "MORGAN! GET IN HERE! NOW!" Morgan came stumbling into the throne room.

"I didn't do it?" Morgan said, blinking in confusion.

"You didn't do what?" Diva asked, staring at him strangely.

"Nothing," Morgan said. "Last time you yelled like that I was in trouble."

"Look after the Queen," Diva said. "I'm going to check the Guarded Chamber where the Jewel is supposed to be." Morgan nodded and started to fully heal the Queen. Diva ran out of the room and towards the catacombs that lay under the palace. On her way she passed a couple of demons.

"Your Majesty," one called. She paused and turned to them.

"Yeah?"

"What of the Queen Nonla?"

"Morgan is with her. She'll be fine." The other two demons paused in their surveillance to turn to her.

"She was injured?" another demanded. Diva nodded. The three started to curse in their natural language, looking utterly pissed.

"What disregard for Great Destiny's law!" the first one spat. "To harm the Queen- it figures a human would beak the foremost law. He should hope no demon on the World of Fire learns of this blasphemy." Diva shuddered. That would not be a pretty sight- thousands of demons scouring the earth to find and destroy Voldemort. Although, the torture scene would be pretty fun to watch…

"And of his Lordship?" the third asked, her eyes bright. Diva looked away, tears once more pooling in her eyes. The three demons were silent, and Diva continued on her way.

While talking to Queen Nonla, she had gathered all the information that she needed through a mind probe. She zigged-zagged through the catacombs and came to the entrance of the chamber.

Where there was once great ornate oak doors, only splinters and ashes remained, and inside an empty pedestal stood. Diva walked inside the chamber; fell to her knees in front of the pedestal and started released the tears that had welled up in her eyes.

"Damn you Voldemort," she said. "How many more lives are you going to destroy just to get power? DAMN YOU!! HOW MANY?!?!"

She hit the pedestal with her fist and it crumbled into a fine powder. She felt small cracks go throughout her hand. Great, another broken hand. What a fine day this was turning out to be! She didn't care though. Diva just stayed there and cried.

She cried for her family, who was ripped apart; her people, who were torn in two; for all the loses in the war on Garthon. She cried until she had no more tears to cry, but she let dry sobs rack her body. She was lost in a world of flashbacks and memories an only came back to the real world when Morgan placed a hand on her shoulder.

"We're ready to go," he said. "All the survivors that have been found immediately are being taken back Hogwarts to be treated." Diva nodded and wiped her eyes.

"Okay," she said. "I'll be right there." Morgan nodded and left, knowing that Diva would rather compose herself alone. Diva got up off of the floor, and dusted herself off. Her back and stomach were feeling better. She looked down at her hand. It wasn't swollen or red. Diva chuckled, leave it to Morgan to cast a healing spell while giving her a message. Diva made her way out of the catacombs and to the front of the palace.

She had Nonla ride on Spirit while she flew. The Elven Queen was too weary to protest against it, as she usually would have. Diva made a portal that would take them directly to her company's camp in the forbidden forest.

Diva exited the portal, pulled her wings in and landed. Everyone looked up when the portal had opened; they guessed by the look on their queen's face that something went wrong. A few seconds after Diva had come out of the portal Spirit exited, carrying the Elven queen.

All the closest Chaians rushed forward to help the injured that had started to come out of the portal. Diva made sure that the Elven Queen was comfortable and organized rescue teams to go back to the city and check for more survivors, before going up to Hogwarts and telling Pheonixx what had happened.

The demons had gone off somewhere. Diva didn't know where and right then, she really didn't care.

-

Harry was sitting across from Pheonixx in the Great Hall eating lunch, or, at least watching Pheonixx eat lunch. Which had so far consisted of five oranges. Pheonixx put the last of her orange in her mouth and picked up another.

"That's your sixth orange!" Harry said. Pheonixx blinked at him.

"So?" Harry shook his head and went back to his sandwich. Moments later, four Earth demon warriors walked into the Great Hall. They each spotted the oranges on the table and rushed forward in a stampede. Pheonixx pulled the bowl towards her, hugging it to her body, and growled.

"Don't even think about it." Just as she finished saying that, four more bowls of oranges appeared on the table. Eyeing their Queen, the other demons made a grab for the other oranges. Diva walked into the Great Hall.

"Phee," Diva said. "Bad news."

"What? The oranges are bad?" Pheonixx asked. Diva raised an eyebrow and blinked.

"Uhh… no," Diva said slowly.

"Good," Pheonixx said. "What's the bad news then?"

"We didn't get there in time," Diva said. "There was a barrier that we had to take down. Voldemort has the Jewel." Pheonixx started to swear in her natural language.

"Destiny damn him," she said, calming down. "Survivors?"

"From the castle, twenty three, not including the queen. The king is dead. They're at the camp. I've sent more rescue teams to see if there any more people still alive." Pheonixx was silent for a moment.

"Wait… barrier?"

"Yeah, threw a lightning bolt at me. Smashed me into a tree." Pheonixx coughed and looked away from her.

"I knew there was something I forgot." Diva stared.

"What?!" Pheonixx looked everywhere but at her. "What do you mean you forgot?"

"I, uh… just forgot?" Diva growled… very literally. Harry took a sip of water and eyed Pheonixx, looking interested. The other demons stopped eating their oranges long enough to look between the two Queens. Then, deciding that the oranges were more important, went back to eating them.

"How'd you know the Jewel was in trouble?" Harry asked. "And that there was a barrier?" Pheonixx shrugged.

"As the Queen of Demons, I can feel when any of the Jewels are in danger. And I saw the barrier through my Manipulation abilities and flew over it. It was only about ten feet high." Diva narrowed her eyes until they were nearly slits.

"You know, that information would have been useful earlier." Pheonixx adopted an innocent look and took another orange from her bowl, which was nearly empty, having been eating them since Diva had entered the hall. Harry gaped for a second then shook his head in wonder.

"And there goes number seventeen." He sighed and decided he wouldn't ask for now. Sirius just smiled.

"You'll understand soon, Harry," he said, patting his godson on the shoulder.

"Besides," Pheonixx said, "you should have just been able to walk through it, as a distant relative of the species. Diva shook her head.

"It was a Dark barrier."

"Well, then that does change things, doesn't it?" Pheonixx said absently. She was about to reach for the last orange when it flew out of the bowl and into Diva's outstretched hand. Pheonixx glared and Diva growled, making Pheonixx pout. Diva turned and walked out of the Great Hall. The bowl of oranges re-filled itself and Pheonixx quickly grabbed another.

From the stairs Diva could hear Harry say-

"How can somebody eat twenty oranges?!"