In an instant her vision went black. The light from her wand was extinguished, obliterated by the choking darkness that surrounded her. It was so dark that she couldn't even make out her own body, or even see her feet as she stepped forward. She knew that her eyes were open, but she couldn't feel them anymore. Pepper opened her mouth to scream, or to cry out for help, but her mouth was quickly flooded with thick, putrid fog that felt like sludge on her tongue. She gagged on it, tripping and falling forward onto her knees. The air rushed around her, filling her ears with white noise and the ground moved beneath her knees. As suddenly as it had begun, it stopped.
Tiny pinpricks of light spotted her vision, slowly increasing in number until her eyes adjusted to the soft, gray light that surrounded her. She was still wrapped in the fog; only it had solidified now, binding her into place where se was kneeling. The liquid sludge in her mouth turned into a cloth gag, snaring in her teeth so that she couldn't even move to spit it out. Pepper turned her head wildly around her, her heart pounding furiously in terror.
"Hello?" Pepper tried to spit her words out around the gag. The result was a muffled gurgling that barely sounded human. She coughed a little, and the sound echoed around her. Pepper blinked twice, and her eyes focused to see the trees around her. The smallest of them had a trunk that was easily as thick as Gryffindor tower itself. The trees stretched up high, past where Pepper cold even make out the leafy tops of them. The trunks were swathed in thick webs of spiders silk, draping over every surface and creeping out onto the rocky ground beneath her feet. She was deep in the forest now, deeper than she believed any human would have gone before. Pepper choked back a sob.
"Pepper?"
The tiny moan came from behind her, and Pepper whirled around, forgetting how she was bound by the fog. She slipped as she turned, tumbling onto her side and tasting metallic dirt around the gag in her mouth. Grape stood a few meters away, stretched out across the trunk of another large tree. Her limbs were spread and bound by the same fog that held Pepper. Pepper tried to call out her friends name in happiness, but she choked on her gag.
"Pepper, where are we?" Grape's voice was panicked, and her deep blue eyes were threatening tears. "I can't remember how I got here, but I'm really scared, and…" Grape's voice trailed off into a sob. Pepper felt burning anger behind her fear. Her body was cold, so cold, but beneath her skin she could still feel the fire pounding through her veins. She just couldn't quite reach it. Pepper struggled for the flames, wishing desperately for some heat, anything that could allow her to burn through her bonds and go and comfort her friend. The only response to her pleas was the cold seeping through and from her prison, sending shudders running through her body.
Pepper stared at Grape, refusing to break eye contact with the frightened girl. She tried to reassure her with just her eyes, and by easing her own shaking, but Grape didn't look too convinced. Her tiny body was wracked with sobs and shivers of her own. Pepper tried again to spit the gag out of her mouth, but heaved furiously when the material seemed to liquefy again, turning back into the sludge that threatened to creep up into her throat and choke her.
"I would advise againsssst it." The harsh hissing whisper rang around Pepper on all sides, even colder than the ground beneath her. "I would hate to kill you before our war even ssstarted."
There was a rush of frigid wind, and suddenly Pepper felt a presence hanging over top of her. She couldn't see anything, but she could smell the rank odor of rotting flesh and disease. The air around her suddenly tasted like sulfur and wasting corpses. Bile flooded into her mouth, but Pepper couldn't spit it out past the liquid, slimy gag in her mouth. She trembled as the cold presence rush across her, caressing her skin in a way that was as intimate as it was disturbing.
"So thisss is the One Who Burnsss…" The coarse whisper of the presence hissed above her. "And I had expected more from the Pyramusssss line." There was soft laughter, a harsh wheezing sound that burned Pepper's ears, before the presence shifted away from Pepper's skin. She shivered, and the gag seeped out of her mouth, dripping across the forest floor. Pepper coughed furiously, spitting out the remains of the sludge and the bile that had filled her mouth onto the ground. The choking black substance rolled disgustingly across the ground, meeting with a cloud of dark mist that had formed on the ground.
Pepper watched in horror as the dark shadows twisted and formed themselves into a tall figure cloaked in black, made of the darkness itself. The form was undoubtedly that of a woman, though in the darkness of the night and the forest, it was difficult to tell. The cloaked figure hissed as it drew itself gracefully over the dead leaves and dirt that littered the floor, the cloak trailing behind as the figure made its way towards Grape. "The Dark Lady," Pepper breathed. The figure stooped, turning empty eyes hidden beneath a hood towards Pepper and laughing.
"Perhapsss you are more than I had thought," the figure mused. "You have heard the prophecy, girl?" Pepper shuddered, but didn't answer. The dark figure swooped forward, and Pepper felt hands, cold and rotting, grasping at her neck and pulling her up effortlessly off the ground. Pepper stared down at the hooded face, eyes wide as she glimpsed the silvery golden eyes of her captor. They were the same eyes that she would see in the mirror. She gasped, and the figure chuckled.
"You and I," The figure leaned towards her, breathing putrid air onto Pepper's face, "are dessssstined to fight a Great War ssssometime in our futuresss." The hand disappeared from around her neck, and Pepper dropped to the cold ground again, painfully. Sharp, shooting pain raced up her ankle as it slammed into the ground first, catching her weight. Pepper crumpled down onto the injured limb, tears springing in her eyes. "It only seemsss fair that I sssshould even the playing field."
The cloaked figure made its way towards Grape again, who had been watching the entire exchange silently with tears in her eyes. Her tiny breaths came in even shorter gasps as the dark figure drew closer and closer. It reached out a gray, fleshless hand towards Grape's face. Grape screamed, squeezing her eyes tight shut. "Grape!" Pepper shouted helplessly, struggling against the freezing fog that held her. The flames were just out of her reach, but Pepper could felt hem growing hotter in her palms as the pounding and the voices pressing in her head increased.
"The Ssseer," The figure's voice was taunting as she took in Grape's tiny, shuddering form. "The last of Giselle'sssss line. Reveal to me the prophecy!" Two slimy fingers stretched forward and touched themselves gently, almost tenderly, to Grape's trembling eyelids. Pepper froze, staring with wide eyed fear and anticipation, as Grape trembling ceased and her body grew deathly still. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, Grape's eyes shot open wide, and they burned violet.
Grape's mouth opened, and her voice came out, hoarse and entirely not her own. "In triumph, darkness shall rise again." Grape's eyes, though burning brightly with violet fire, were hollow and distant, staring off into nothingness as the words of the most ancient prophecy forced themselves out of her throat. "Servant as master, Death losing hold. Darkness falls at the hands of the Dark Lady." Pepper stared in horror as the Dark Lady, the cloaked figure, stepped away from the Seer in satisfaction, drinking in the haunting words that Grape now spoke, the words that had plagued Pepper's nightmares since she had first heard them. "And the One Who Burns as the Phoenix shall come. Beside her stands the Son of Lightning, and she shall have power that Evil knows not. Her choice alone to save or destroy. The one who burns, Burns as the Phoenix, shall come."
Grape fell forward, slumping against the bonds that held her to the tree trunk. Her eyes faded from bright violet back to deep blue before closing tiredly, and her mouth hung open as the last of the rasping words were issued from her mouth. The bonds holding her to the tree disappeared, and Grape fell onto the ground, hitting face first against the dirt. Pepper bit back a soundless scream and rolled away from the sight of the dark figure advancing towards her.
"Ssso you would be the one to desssstroy me?" The hissing voice mocked and challenged her all at once. "You, and the pathetic ssson of the Potter boy. I sssshould think he will be the firsssst one of your friends to die." The presence drew closer, the whispered words touching Pepper's skin and she fought for the flames once more. "I could kill you ssso easssily… But why not let you ssssuffer? Why not make you watch asss I kill your friendsss. One. By. One." The figure laughed viciously without any mirth. "For that matter, why not ssstart now? I have no need for your Ssssseer any more."
The presence drew away, presumably towards Grape, and that's when the barrier of cold broke. Pepper gasped as the flames came rushing back into her body, heating her skin until it glowed bright, cherry red. The heat burned through the coldness of the fog that bound her, turning the thick substance into unsubstantial mist. Pepper rose furiously to her feet, the voice in her head pounding again. Burn, they insisted. The heat from her ruby charm would normally have seared her skin, burning it black, but she barely felt it in comparison to her own temperature. Flames sparked into existence along her arms, licking their way across the limbs and catching onto her chest. Her entire torso burned with golden fire, illuminating the harsh lights that now filled her eyes.
"Stay the hell away from my friends," Pepper warned, her voice multiplied by itself as it echoed through the forest around her. The figure paused on its path to Grape, turning to stare at the glowing girl of fire setting the small clearing ablaze. Pepper tensed slightly as the figure raised both hands… and brought them together slowly, repeatedly. Applauding her.
"Impresssssive," the voice hissed. "But you have no idea who you are meddling with, girl."
"Then why don't you tell me?" The words burned through the air as she spat them at the figure. Tiny sparks flew from her mouth as she spoke, as if the fire was physically burning inside of her now.
"There issss more to thisss than you know," the voice laughed. "You cannot win thisss war, girl. You never will. Bessssst give up now, and let your friendsssss die painlesssssly. Or fight me, and watch them sssuffer!"
The last word was shouted loudly, and Pepper almost flinched back from the sharpness of the words. The figure advanced towards Grape again, and Pepper felt the anger rising in her chest again. The flames in her hands grew hotter and more substantial, and she hurled them, one by one, towards the cloaked figure. It whirled and blocked each blast with a spill of icy air from its hands, knocking the flames aside so they met the cool, mossy trunks of the trees around them and fizzled out of existence when they couldn't catch alight. The figure continued on its path toward the unconscious girl on the ground, and the voices in Pepper's ears grew even louder. Give in, they pleaded. Give us control. Let us Burn.
Until that moment, Pepper hadn't even noticed the amount of energy and power that she had been holding back in her attempt to keep control over the fire that burned in and around her. She didn't want to give up her control to that darker side of the flames, but she didn't see how she could stop the Dark Lady without them. Pepper sighed, closing her eyes as the pounding pain in her head took over. She opened them again as she felt her body heat spiking and rising well above levels that were humanly possible. Her vision was filled with a flame colored haze as she felt the air around her sizzle and catch alight itself. The figure turned, stunned, abandoning Grape as the dark shadows curled back in on themselves, seeping into the figure as it shrunk and dissipated into a cloud of dark, creeping fog that slid back over the trunks f the trees, disappearing into the forest. Then Pepper closed her eyes as the heat burned away any thought control, and she felt herself sinking lower and lower to the ground in exhaustion. The last thing she heard before the world disappeared was the sweet, melodic sounds of phoenix song.