Disclaimer: See Ch1. Lyrics are A Beautiful Lie by 30 Seconds to Mars.

Behind The Crimson Door
Chapter Eleven: Unreliable Rebellions

I'm running around in circles, baby
A quiet desperation's building higher
I've got to remember this is just a game

~*~

Amy was there, the pile of books suggested she was quite buried in work. Not far away on an opposite sofa lay the Boy Who Lived, staring off into some distant abyss. He did that a lot lately, in addition to quarreling with his nearest and dearest. The unwritten law of Gryffindor these days was to simply let him be; give him a wide birth whenever possible. The first years found this out the hard way.

"I checked this out for you," Ms. Costova smiled, handing the American a worn copy of Hogwarts; A History. Harry had yet to acknowledge her presence, but this was behavior as usual, and Ceres paid it no mind. The tawny owl was fidgeting and would wait no longer.

"Thanks, I'll give it a look over in just a sec, this guy looks like he's been here a while."

The seasoned witch looked to the feathered messenger with a glare.

"I tired getting it off, but the bugger bit me, twice," and showed her the cuts to prove it, "For your eyes only I guess."

Ceres approached the avian with hesitance, but it showed no sign of resistance when pale hands reached for the twine. There was no need for it to be, the creature had followed its masters orders, its job was now complete.

Parchment touched skin and an electric current of energy, white hot, seared her fragmented aura. The letter contained but one word; 'Soon'.

The girl had but a moment to drop the dark object before it burst in flames, the word carved out before her in fiery script before vanishing in a fireball. The smoke curled into a twisted symbol; a skull with a snake protruding from its jaws and arrows maddeningly in all directions supporting it. It lasted barely seconds; the thing quickly fading away like those memories of the past. A distant nightmare that simply could not be real.

"What the bloody hell was that?"

Amy's outburst and the explosion of dark magic had Potter's attention.

"I don't know,"

Oh, but this was a lie. The second that boundless force flowed through her veins Ceres Genavieve knew exactly what it was.

"Though, wild guess, I'm gonna say it was the guy whose trying to kill me."

"Voldemort?" the boy finally spoke, as if he had been attentive the entire time; which he probably had been, "That was the Dark Mark," he added, as if the American required further explanation.

"Well then he's not alone, cause the other half of that thing was the discordian star, the mark of a Chaos Lord."

Ms. Costova was baffled, Harry thoroughly perplexed.

"That's not possible, they all died in the last rebellion, back in the 1600's."

Now it was Ceres turn to be surprised, and it showed.

"What?" the witch asked indignantly, "One of us has to take notes."

"Well that's dandy, but apparently your wizard rebellions aren't that frigging reliable because at least one of them is alive."

"But we don't know that for sure," Harry interjected, "it could just be a sick joke from Malfoy--"

The girl shook her head vigorously, sending garnet locks in all directions before the boy could continue his accusative avenue of thought.

"No, there's no way. Draco is very smart, and very cruel, but this? The level of magic that letter contained is far beyond any of a Hogwarts student. Think of a sociopathic Dumbledore, that's pretty much what I'm dealing with."

"Well it doesn't change the fact that he's probably involved."

"I never said that," Ceres pointed out, "In fact, I suspect Wood's involved too. Is there anything you could tell me about him and the Order of the Phoenix? I wouldn't ask if my life didn't possibly depend on it."

The black haired boy scowled, and the American a not-un-characteristic glare that she had not had the displeasure of being on the receiving end of until this moment. It made her squirm worse than any of the men previously mentioned, his frustration near the breaking point of spontaneous combustion.

"I don't know anything about what's going on; the Order is keeping me in the dark. Sorry to disappoint you, but if you want answers you're on your own."

"Fantastic, thanks for all your help,"

"Anytime," he acidly replied.

There were a dozen or more things she wanted to say the boy. Advice on his predicament, and a few choice American phrases, but Ceres decided now was not the time for it. Sleep, she needed sleep. Actual rest on something other than a couch. Thanking her fellow Gryffindor for the book, she promised to read it in the morning and dragged herself up the stairs to bed.

How she managed to change clothes and climb into the four poster the girl had no idea. It must have been done simply on instinct, for her mind was racing, stumbling and tripping and falling only to get back up again on shaky limbs, over the nights discoveries.

That Oliver Wood was working for Dumbledore under the Order was a nearly indisputable fact. Draco Malfoy's position on the opposite side of the table, though unproved, was an easy enough assumption to make. What other reason could there be for his interest in her? She was everything he detested, not a single thing about her could have been attractive to him. Could it? No one really knew what the boy liked, as none of her friends truly knew him at all save for what he showed them. Which, let's face facts, wasn't much.

The decision of belief caused a very, very odd pang of hurt in the Gryffindor. Why should it matter to her whether or not the Slytherin Prince had feelings for her? She didn't like him, right? It was all only stupid hormones, wasn't it?

The memory of that touch came flooding back, and the feelings evoked made her cheeks flush a brilliant shade of scarlet identical to the bed she lay in. Ceres was only interested in the boy because of his esteemed interest in her, just a simple need for answers. That was all, wasn't? If so, did she not have the answers now? Why on Goddess's green Earth could she not remove Draco Malfoy from her mind? It had to be something.

No. It wasn't something. It wasn't anything but a need to answer the questions before the solutions brought her dead. That was the only answer. One should know when they liked someone. One would know. And Ceres knew she did not like Malfoy. Draco had to be working for whoever this Chaos Lord was, that was the only answer. His orders tonight came from Severus Snape, who no one really trusted; this seemed to be a common trait of the reptilian house of Hogwarts. Snape received his orders from someone not Dumbledore, otherwise there would be no reason for his adamant stance on seeing her to bed.

Now for the even bigger, nastier, question; what did they want her for? Sure, she was an accomplished witch, but there were plenty of Wiccans that could perform magic on much higher levels than she. Ceres tried to shake off the question before it made her dizzy, the answer would reveal itself eventually, of this she was certain.

She had to have priorities. She had to find out how the demon got in the school. She had to find out just who plotted the attack; someone in the school had to be in on it. She wanted to find out who the poems were from. She needed to get those notions of her head. She had to stay away from Draco Malfoy.

And she had absolutely no idea how she felt about the last.

A/N~ Hey everyone! The extreme lateness of this update is due to the fact that I am back in college, thus getting anything done outside of schoolwork and my novel is very difficult. If this seems short, fear not, chapter twelve is already underway. Should sometime in the upcoming week. Please R&R for it inspires to me write more, and update quickly. Hope you enjoyed the read!