Disclaimer: As always I do NOT own Harry Potter.

Chapter 9

"This time is so boring. When will we get to do something?"

"Oh quite your whining Strange, if I have to continue listening to you for the remainder of our stay here, then I may consider committing murder to spend the rest of my days in Azkaban." Malley snapped.

"Well, excuse me I don't have an equally prissy grandson to spy on to fill up my free time!" Strange snapped.

"Well at least I know that my pureblood legacy continues!"

"Why…now that you mention it…what did happen to my line?" Strange mused glancing around the space.

"From what I've gathered, they are in Azkaban." Blake interjected smirking.

"As I recall so is yours!" Strange retorted.

"One is in, one is free, and one is married to Abraxas' son." Alphard didn't once lose his smile.

Strange scowled choosing not to answer the statement. Almost mercifully, Marvol entered the room drawing the attention of the other three.

"My Lord, when will we get to do something?" Strange questioned sitting up. "I'm getting tired of only doing little things."

"You call cursing Peter-What's-His-Name small?" Abraxas quizzed from his position against the wall.

"Okay, that wasn't that small, but we used to do so much more!" Strange jumped off the couch, eyes alit with memories. "We used to rule the school! Or at the very least Slytherin! We were the best generation of Slytherins this school had ever seen! I mean look at this generation! They're nothing compared to what we are! Or were… or whatever, time travel gives me a headache."

"Easy Strange," Tom responded calmly. "Patience is a virtue that should be constantly practiced. For at the end of that rainbow there is always something waiting."

"Oh great, our lord has begun to lose it." Strange muttered barely managing to duck from a bright red spell that blew apart part of the wall behind him. "I apologize my lord, I just can't help but think about how a talentless baby bests you in this time."

Strange wasn't so lucky this time dodging Marvol's spell.

Elaina sighed, stretching her neck. After five hours of work she had finally finished all of her homework. Now she had…two hours of free time before she had to go back to the tower. She groaned. Only two hours. Her head hit the desk.

"Ow." She rubbed her head sitting back up. Looking at the giant mess that was known as her work, she sighed and sluggishly began to gather her stuff. Paper upon paper and book upon book, every time she moved something into a nice stack it was like another one was there to take its place. She scowled.

Quickly, and as sneakily as she possibly could, she looked around. Front, back, she even looked up. Nothing and no one. She carefully pulled out her wand and with a simple flick of it, the papers sorted themselves into her bag and the books flew back to their original position.

"I THOUGHT I SAID NO MAGIC IN THE LIBRARY!"

Elaina jumped at Madame Pince's loud scream. Panicking she looked around as she answered.

"Sorry Madame." Quietly she muttered to herself. "How does she do that?"

"OH DON'T GIVE ME THAT HOGWASH, WE BOTH KNOW YOU AREN'T ACTUALLY SORRY!"

Worried for her health Elaina quickly grabbed her bag and rushed out of the library. Once out of the large area, she stopped and scanned her surroundings. She yawned. She figured that she should really do something in the two hours, but she felt just so tired. Maybe she would just stroll around the castle.

She took a deep breath, before turning left and starting her journey. It didn't take her long however, to grow bored of her chosen past time and decide that maybe she should just head back to the tower.

Without another second thought she spun around and headed back to the staircase, but as she passed a corner a sight out of the corner of her eye brought her to a stop. Strange, looking even more suspicious than normal, looked right-before that presumably left- before ducking into a room. Her heart racing, Elaina darted behind the corner just in time to miss Strange's head popping back out.

Something puzzled Elaina, though. It puzzled her greatly. Strange had just ducked into what was well known to be a girl's bathroom. Furthermore, something about that particular bathroom was ringing some far-a-way bell inside of Elaina's head.

Slowly, Elaina peeked her head around the corner. The hallway was empty. At least, for now it was empty. She took one last deep breath, and rushed toward the stairs. Every few seconds, she glanced back toward the restroom.

Almost immediately after she had passed the hallway to the restroom, she ran into something, or rather someone, hard enough to send both of them tumbling to the ground. Her on top of the other, made more awkward upon her realization of just who that someone was.

"Marvol!" She quickly scrambled to untangle herself from the Slytherin and remove herself from his person.

"Tom." He responded smiling as brightly as always. He began to push himself up as she took a step back to give him room.

"What?"

"Tom, I told you to call me Tom, Elaina," He clarified dusting himself off now that he was off of the ground.

"Just as I told you that we are not that close," Elaina retorted smiling just as falsely as Marvol. "And stop calling me by my first name."

Elaina didn't give him time to respond. Instead she just stepped around him and swiftly began to climb the stairs.

Marvol glanced from her toward the restroom behind her, eyes narrowing.

"Hey Elaina, where are you going?"

"I'm headed to the hospital wing! Little Finnegan is supposed to wake up today and that prefect might be doing better!" Elaina called out over her shoulder as she jogged down the steps.

Faye shook her head a small smile pulling at the corner of her lips.

"Worrywart! It's a wonder they didn't name you prefect early!"

Elaina's response was sticking out her tongue at the laughing blonde, before she exited the line of sight.

"I'm so relieved," a voice whined. "Only a few more months and we can drop this act!"

"Yeah," a higher pitched voice interjected. "I'm getting tired of acting below my rightful status!"

"Unfortunately for the two you, there is one little problem with that wish." Another voice almost taunted.

"And what would that be Blake?" The first voice snapped.

"Easy Strange," Blake ground out. "We have been given explicit orders to stay hidden until we get specific instruction otherwise."

"What do you mean you failed?" A soft, penetrating voice wheezed. The figure below him started to quake uncontrollably. Everyone knew what was coming. It was just a matter of time.

"I-I-I'm sorry M-Master! W-We-."

"And don't you dare try and pull that sorry as an excuse and use it!"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" All three of them stared at the darkened figure in amazement. "Might I remind you two nitwits just how important it is that we have her?"

"No." The two chorused. But then the shorter of the two, the youngest, spoke up.

"Sir, wouldn't it just be easier to kill her now and just take her blood."

Blood ran cold around the room at the boy's words.

"I suppose it would be, if I was talking about the short run. But I want the long run."

The two kneeling shared a worried glance. Something seemed a little off for their master. Almost on cue their Master threw back his head and started cackling.

Elaina shot up in a cold sweat. She sat there, sheets pooled around her legs, and her breath coming out in short quick pants.

A crack of lightning outside the windows lit up the room.

Elaina shifted her dead stare from her bed to the pattering rain against the window.

'What is this feeling?'

"MREOW!"

Elaina jumped, nearly falling out of her bed.

"Shade! What are you…Shade this isn't like you, normally you're either asleep on your pillow or nowhere in sight. What's up?" Elaina questioned repositioning herself.

The cat let out a loud mreow and pawed at the sheets in front of her. Elaina turned her attention to her cat's paw. Something glinted in the minimal light filtered in through the drapes.

"What do you have there Shade?" Elaina bent closer to the glint, but whatever the item was it was small and dark enough that she could not quite make out the details. Eyes still focused on the item in fear of losing track of its location, Elaina reached over and grabbed her wand out from underneath her pillow. At the same time her free hand reached over to pick up the small item. But before she could a small furry paw slashed her hand.

"Ow!" Elaina quickly withdrew her hand. "What was that for Shade?"

"Mreow!"

Elaina humphed at the sharp response of her cat and brought her wand up.

"Lumos."

"What?"

CRASH!

"M'Lord."

BOOM!

"M'Lord."

"WHAT is it Malley!?"

Malley flinched under the harsh gaze of the newly red eyes. Those red eyes held more power than any one person could ever imagine. He had only seen them that red a handful of times and whenever they went red for this length of time the results were never good. Malley quickly found himself at a deep loss of words.

"WELL?"

"M'Lord. I…what I mean to say…we…that is…Blake, Strange, and I were wondering…just what are you looking…for…?"

Marvol's glare was murderous. Malley instantly regretted speaking up. Unable to stand the intensity, the blonde began to stumble back, tripping only a few times over the bits and pieces of items and furniture torn to shreds by Marvol's rage.

"Are you questioning my actions Malfoy? Do you think that you have a right to know all of my motives?" Marvol's tone was ice cold, colder than ice even. It easily sent shivers down all of the witnesses' backs.

"O-O-Of course not…" Malley stuttered stumbling over the leg of a bed frame. "…M'Lord."

A sharp crack of lightening from outside of the castle broke through the tension, and for a brief few seconds everything seemed frozen. Slowly the red bled from Marvol's eyes and they returned to their marble blue-grey. Taking a deep breath, Marvol spoke.

"I am a merciful lord, Malley, so I will ignore this little slip-up this once."

Malley visibly relaxed, though he was still tense. Quickly he bent into a humble bow.

"Thank you, my lord."

Marvol appraised his little group before taking a few steps toward the door.

"It doesn't matter. It is obviously no longer here."

Malley hesitated, throwing a cautious glance at the three others in the room, before speaking.

"If…If you don't mind me asking…my Lord…what is no longer here? …My Lord…"

Marvol came to a stop and placed his hand on the wood of the door frame. Stroking the wood, Marvol glanced over his shoulder.

"A ring Mr. Malley. A ring, if you must know, is no longer here."

"It's rather pretty," Faye observed cocking her head a little to the right. "In a dark and menacing way, but still, it has its charm."

Elaina gave her friend an unamused glance before reexamining the small piece of jewelry floating in front of the two.

"Can I touch it?" Faye slowly reached up, failing to completely mask the twitching of her hand. Immediately Elaina flicked her wand and the ring flew back into the sack specifically charmed to contain the dark magic.

"You could 'ave just said no," Faye muttered.

"Unfortunately Faye, you give me such little time to react, and for that reason I'm sorry that I wasn't able to spit out a no," Elaina responded holding the small drawstring bag by the rope. "But I don't know if you noticed it or not, but this ring pretty much oozes dark magic. Furthermore, I think that it did something to Shade."

"What do you mean?"

Elaina glanced around the common room before gesturing toward the stairs leading to the girls' dormitories.

"Come on, I'll show you."

It was like the two decided to play follow the leader. First Elaina got up, and then Faye. First Elaina walked toward the stairs, then Faye walked toward the stairs.

Then Peter came down the other stairs.

"Hey Elaina, Faye, are you two…" But the two had already disappeared up the girls' staircase where no male student ever dared hope to go

"What's wrong with Shade?"

"I don't know, but it started pretty soon after he brought that ring back." Elaina stated as she watched her cat hack up a ball of quickly greying fur.

Shade, once a healthy and fit cat was now skin, bones and clumps of black and greying hair. Elaina's heart plummeted. She knew that she should probably at least take her cat to the hospital wing, or even Dumbledore, but something was telling her that nothing she did would help, except for whoever that ring belonged to.

"You should really take that cat to Madame Pomphrey at least." Faye responded.

"I know, but I have this gut instinct that nothing I do will help." Elaina whispered dejectedly.

"You care for Shade, Elaina, you need to…"

"Of course I care for him!" Elaina snapped before pulling in on herself. "He's my cat, my friend, and I've been trying everything I can find to help him. I even snuck into the restricted section to find solutions. But nothing is working…"

"I'll ignore the part about the restricted section for now." Faye muttered racking her brain for how to respond. "Have you…"

"I think I found how to fix it there's just one problem."

"What's that?"

"It requires the person responsible for the curse."

"…But it's like you said, you think. Which means you don't really know." Faye insisted eyeing her friend. She understood the uncertainty her friend was suffering. If she randomly showed up with her cat under the effects of a dark spell, questions would be raised. But underneath that part of her that wanted to support her friend's decision to not get help, something told her that this was a pre-cursor to something that Elaina would desperately need help for.

Elaina didn't respond. Instead, she decided to stand there and stare at her clearly dying cat.

"Elaina, you 'ave to get 'elp from somebody, Madam Pomphrey… Dumbledore, 'eck, maybe even Professor Snape." Faye insisted. "Dark magic is not something that you should, or can, handle on your own."

A strangled sob fell from Elaina's lips as she stood fists clenched and head hung. Faye waited a few moments for her friend to get it out to speak. But before any words came out, Elaina beat her to it.

"I know."

"Miss. Proe, I hope you understand the penalty for dealing with dark magic?" The normally quirky voice sounded harsh, reprimanding. Elaina couldn't look the headmaster in the eye as she answered.

"Yes Professor, I know them very well..."

"Then may I ask what made you practice on this poor creature?"

Elaina's eyes snapped up to his at that, eyes blazing.

"I assure you Professor I did not do that sort of thing to my cat let alone to other people in general."

Dumbledore stared down through his crescent spectacles. The twinkle in his eyes that usually brought some comfort alongside the uneasiness was strangely missing as he appraised his student.

"All right, I suppose this matter should be up for consideration." Dumbledore seemed to muse. "After all, there really is no proof that you were the one to cast such a terrible curse."

Translation: I am sorry.

Elaina narrowed her eyes. She didn't believe him. No she believed part of his story just not the majority.

"Yes, I do believe there isn't." Elaina mentally slapped herself for what she had just said. If she had wanted to say the one thing that would make her sound suspicious that was it. "Now if you would excuse me, I would really like to go see how my cat is doing."

With that said, she stood up pushing the wooden chair back as she did and glided out of the room, not bothering to wait for the headmaster to respond.

"Hey, is she okay?"

"Who? Elaina?"

"Yeah, the Ravenclaw seems a little down."

A third person scoffed interrupting the two Hufflepuffs' conversation.

"'A little down' would be quite the understatement," The person pointed out. "The girl's been dragging her feet, the great hall has conjured up her own personal little rain cloud, and she has been staring at that bowl of porridge for ten minutes."

"I wonder what's wrong with her," the first student pondered ignoring the third's existence.

"I heard something happened to her cat, and whatever it was not even Madame Pomphrey can fix it." The second girl gossiped.

One of the boys in the group snickered.

"A cat? She's moping about a— ow!" He rubbed his head glaring at the girl next to him.

"That is not nice, that cat was her familiar! Of course the two were probably close!"

"Are you sure? Because I don't recall seeing Proe with a cat 99.99% of the time."

"Yeah, if you're looking for "close" you should look at her and Marvol!"

The group went silent for a bit all turning themselves to observe the snake's table.

"Quite odd don't you think, that a house that preaches blood purity allows into its walls the skin of muggles don't you think?"

"There has been muggleborns and halfbloods in Slytherin, Tobias," One of the girls lectured.

Tobias glared at the girl and opened his mouth to retort but was cut off by another in their little group.

"They're just not advertised."

"Let alone well liked."

"Getting back to the topic at hand, Proe and Marvol do seem to be rather close. They always seem to "bump" into each other," One guy observed. "Furthermore, they always partner with each other during potions. I wonder why that is? Maybe they have a-."

"DON'T say it!" One of the girls hissed leaning over the table to glare at her compatriot.

"Why not? It could be true. Proe and Marvol could be in a—."

"I SAID DON'T. Say it!" The girl snapped.

"—Relationship." The boy finished, flinching under the weight of the glares his female companions were giving him.

One girl though, quickly regained her composure and stated what she saw as a truth.

"It doesn't matter, there is no reason that Tom would enter any steady relationship so soon.

Her voice spoke of the finality of the subject.

"ACHOO!"

"I asked for quiet Miss. Proe! Next time hold the sneeze in!" Moody snapped with only the tacking of his cane as background. Both of his eyes, including the glass one, glared at her.

"My apologies professor!" Elaina sniffed pinching her nose.

"Remember, CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

The door slowly creaked open. The figure paused, waiting to see if the noise had alerted anyone. When no further noise was heard in response, he carefully slipped inside and wand at the ready began to scan the beds. Empty. Empty. Not the one. Empty.

Finally the figure came to a stop and grinned.

"Sorry y'little brat, can't 'ave y'rememberin' anything. Obliviate."

"I wonder what is wrong with Marvol." Faye mused glancing over to her left where Marvol sat sulking in his seat.

"Who cares?" Peter exclaimed. "What we should be wondering about is the second challenge. Potter got lucky the first round, but what I want to know is how he is going to survive the second round!"

"'Onestly what's with you and this stupid tournament?" Faye complained. "It has turned you into an even more self-centered little prat!"

Elaina tore her gaze up from her book in shock at her friend's words. Warily she glanced between her French friend and her other friend, she supposed he still was her friend, who was red in the face. Both looked ready to explode. Suddenly Faye shot out of her seat.

"You know what! I am not going to deal with this now!" The next thing either of them knew she was storming off only to plop down next to Beauxbaton students that they could only assume were friends of hers.

Cautiously Peter turned his attention to Elaina.

"So what do you think is wrong with Marvol?" He tried asking.

"Don't even try and go there."

A loud thud against the wood of the table brought Marvol out of his intent studying of the five uses of wolfsbane in potions. He glanced up to see a balding and sickly looking cat laid out on top of his very important potions essay. His eyes travelled farther up to see a pair of blue eyes glaring down at him.

"Elaina, how surprising it is to see you down here in the snake's den."

Her eyes only narrowed.

"Fix him."

Marvol waited for more to come out of her, but it quickly became apparent that she was not offering any more than two words.

"I really must inquire, how did you gain entry to the Slytherin dormitories?"

"Fix him."

Marvol felt ire build up inside him as the frustrating wo-girl only repeated those two words. Gritting his teeth he decided he wasn't going to get anymore unless he addressed her statement.

"And what makes you think that I could fix your precious little pussycat?"

After only a brief hesitation her hand came down slamming a dark velvet draw string bag onto the table in front of him. Rushed her fingers quickly opened it and shook the bag empty.

"This is yours is it not?" The sharp clang of metal against the wood drew his attention. His eyes darkened.

Light flashed across the sky. Not one ray of that light, though, reached the room. She only heard. She had no idea where she was. She had no idea if she was alone. She had no idea how she got there. But she was sitting, on something soft, though her arms rested on what felt like stone.

Suddenly light burst from four pedestals in the room, temporarily blinding her. It didn't take long to adjust to the little light from the four flames. The room was circular. There were four chairs, including hers. She could see no one else. Just the tops of chairs. The chairs seemed a little elevated from the center of the room.

The center almost looked like what the Ancient Greeks might call the orchestra.

A loud crack of lightning struck the center of the orchestra and for the first time Elaina could see that she was not alone. Each of the four chairs were occupied. Directly across from her sat the Hufflepuff champion, Cedric Diggory. In the chair to her right sat Potter, and in the chair to her left Marvol sat perched upon a throne as if he owned not only the chair but the entire room.

No one said a word, though anyone could feel the murderous waves rolling off of Potter. Elaina looked across at Diggory questioningly, but he only shrugged his shoulders.

In an instant Potter was off of his throne, wand drawn and in the center of the ring, aiming at Marvol. Marvol only smirked victoriously as if he had just won some great prize.

"This ends tonight…" The rest was too muffled for Elaina to hear.

A flash of light and all of a sudden the scene changed. Marvol, Diggory, and Potter all now stood in the ring wands drawn. Elaina's eyes unconsciously wandered as she took in the four additional figures around the thrones. Malfoy, some unnamed individual-though he was clearly Hufflepuff, Granger, and behind herself, Elaina saw Lovegood.

A sudden chill filled the room.

Elaina brought her gaze back to the center. Diggory and Potter were obviously trying to tag team Marvol. She froze. There. Above Marvol, a giant, white, spidery hand was creeping out of the shadows with just as menacing a wand pointed at the two opponents. Elaina's blood ran cold even as her body went into autopilot. Whipping out her wand and jumping out of her seat…

END OF CHAPTER 9