Reader Awareness: This chapter has a pretty violent fight scene in it. It's more graphic than my other fights scenes. You have been warned.

Chapter 21

Vengeance

The mist was thick and heavy around her feet as she walked through the woods. She had long passed the Forbidden Forest and was now in another, more treacherous forest, near the mountains.

Raya tensed and turned sharply as she heard a noise behind her. Like a twig snapping and then she relaxed and turned around and walked forward once more.

Draco followed her, walking slowly beside her.

The trees seemed bent with pain and they formed a dark arch over them as she passed soundlessly under them. Soon they came to a small clearing. The trees formed a neat circle and the moon shone directly in the middle.

"A place for performing rituals," Raya whispered to herself.

She stepped into the moonlight.

Immediately a strong wind, carrying a foul smell, sounded through the trees.

And then silence.

Raya exhaled deep and she could see her breath making a light cloud that danced and shot through the air for only a moment before disappearing into the night air.

Then she heard a rustle in the trees and foul stench return to her nose. She did not turn this time however but instead reached slowly inside her long coat and pulled out two swords. Both were smaller than regular swords and didn't have straight edges. The blades were almost in the shape of a thin fire flame, flickering and uneven. As the blades glowed silver, the hilt glowed white gold.

The rustling in the trees increased as whatever was coming came closer. Then she saw them.

A large group of cloaked figures came slowly into the clearing. Black capes and robes covered all but their ironclad hands that gripped cruel blades.

"You are not wizards," said Raya frankly to them, showing no fear.

"No," one hissed, "we are the Undead."

They disrobed themselves. They were zombies, the living dead. Their skin was rotten and their long pointed teeth were yellow. Their clothes were nothing but torn pieces of black or brown cloth. Indeed their only form of protection was their armored hands that were but mere gloves.

However unprepared to fight these monsters seemed Raya was not fooled for a moment, looking unready was their strategy. She had dealt with such creatures before.

One of the undead stepped forward.

"You are going to die," it hissed, "a painful death!"

"I highly doubt that!" said Raya.

The zombie brought up his sword.

"Die now," said the zombie as he swung, but Raya cut him off with her two swords.

The zombie hissed and little bits of yellowish spit came out of its mouth and landed on Raya's face. It sizzled and burned her.

"Insides like acid," laughed the zombie gloriously.

He brought his sword around again hoping to catch her in surprise but Raya was not fooled for a minute.

"I do not go down that easy," she said.

The zombie barked an order in an unknown language and the others were quick to comply. Although Raya did not understand the word she quickly caught on to pretty much what the command meant, "surround."

For the zombies circled around her. Raya narrowed her eyebrows in concentration. Then she felt warmth near her hand, familiar warmth that seems almost like a whisper of the past.

What she didn't know was that it was Draco holding her hand. Trying to encourage her that it was going to be all right. That nothing was going to go wrong. That he was looking after her.

And although Raya could not hear his thoughts she felt comforted by this familiarity and she gripped her sword with new strength.

The zombies came at her. All at once. And she is ready for them.

One from behind her came to her first. She turned just in time to meet his blow and then turned sharply and her two smaller blades slice through the zombies middle. She retreated her hands backward quickly so the acid blood wouldn't burn her.

And immediately she clashed swords with another zombie. As she dueled with this one another zombie came from behind her with an axe and she quickly extended her right leg straight back and quickly, as she brought her leg upwards, she pressed the small button on her shoe. At once a wooden steak emited from the bottom of the shoe and the zombie ran into it. The steak went right through its stomach.

The zombie retreated backwards, weakened, but not yet dead. With the zombie in front of her still slashing at her as she blocked his blows in the front she kicked her leg even further upwards and slamed the streak into the zombies face. And now he stumbled backward and dropped to the ground, dead.

And now Raya could turn more of her attention towards the zombie in front of her. Raya took her fist and rammed it into the zombie's stomach. The zombie bent forward a little as a reflex. Raya took this time to position her swords at the zombie's neck and the moment that he lifted his head she pulled and watched the zombies head fall to the floor.

She instantly brought her two swords down towards the ground and caught the feet of an approaching zombie. The zombie fell to the ground but was not dead. The zombie took out a small stabbing knife and attempted to stab her leg. But Raya blocked the hit with one of her swords, the blade of the zombie slid slightly and made a slight cut on her forearm.

Before the zombie could take another stab at her she pointed her swords downwards and fell on top of the zombie putting both knives through him. She turned, still on the ground, and held up the swords in front of her face in an X as another zombie brought his sword down. The sound of metal upon metal was heard. The zombie snarled and kicked Raya over. Raya was lifted slightly into the air and landed hard on a rock. Her shoulder began to bleed. She clutched it tightly as she got up, but there as no real time to nurse the wound. When the zombie made it to Raya, she cut off his feet. He howled in pain as he dropped to his knees. Straight away she took her swords and cut off his head.

Others were coming toward her. She met one and they brought down their weapons on each other's. She turned her head around quickly when she heard another zombie coming up from behind her. She then turned around and stabbed the zombie behind her with both her swords on the zombie's shoulders. She then put all of her weight on her hands with the swords and pushed herself up until she was parallel to the ground, then in the next moment she kicked the zombie that had been coming at her from behind.

He flew backwards towards a tree. On that tree was a cruelly shaped and had a snapped branch sticking up the side and when the zombie landed the branch struck his head. Then Raya, still parallel to the ground quickly took her swords and cut off that zombie's head. She returned her feet to the ground.

There were three zombies left. It was too easy.

"Voldemort will have his prize!" said a zombie.

But rather than lifting their swords they discarded their weapons. Raya watched as they brought their armor-clad hands in front of their faces. And she watched as knives came out from their fingertips. The zombies were grinning like mad, and laughing evil throaty laughs that could make blood curdle.

"Your blood is mine!" said a zombie stepping forward, his rasping, hollow voice resonating in the clear night air.

"My blood is no one's," said Raya holding her sword out in front of her ready to attack, "I am here to avenge a death. And I will not stop until all my blood has spilled."

"You're the Potter girl!" cried another zombie gleefully, "you are sad of the young Malfoy's death."

He laughed and it sounded like an animal's laugh.

Raya was infuriated.

Without a warning she stabbed the zombie in the middle. He fell over but before he fell to the ground Raya caught him by his hair, or the little bit of hair that was in a ponytail on top of his head. She pulled his head back so his throat was exposed.

"He is not a Malfoy!" she hissed and stabbed at the exposed neck.

"We send greetings," said another, "from Malfoy senior."

"Lucius," said Raya through gritted teeth, spiting out his name as though it was the foulest thing that could be spoken.

"He sends this," said the zombie and he tossed Raya a small round glass ball, looking very similar to a Remembrall. But this was a communicator.

She was confused, however, at the fact that she was off guard and the zombies did not attack.

"Why do you not attack me when I am unaware," asked Raya.

"Master Malfoy said not to kill you until after you have heard his message," said the zombie.

She dropped the ball on the ground. The glass shattered and a purple mist formed a circle in front of her. Then Lucius's face appeared.

"Potter," he said with uneasy coolness, "how are you, my dear? Besides depressed of course of your dear boyfriend's death."

"He was never my boyfriend, Lucius, of that you know well," said Raya trying to act as cool as he was.

"Ah yes," he said smiling, "well nevertheless it was how he thought of you in the end."

Her fury was starting to get hard to hide.

"My son was a fool to consider you anything, really" continued Lucius matter-of-factly.

Raya saw Lucius Malfoy make eye contact with something behind her very briefly.

"And you are a fool. The moment you let my son into your life you let in your weakness and your downfall," Lucius added.

Raya brought one of her small daggers behind her back so the sharp blade point was sticking out behind her. She knew he had signal one of the zombies to come from behind her and she could hear the soft pad of the zombie's feet against the soft dirt ground.

"I have no weakness," Raya said and the zombie ran into the knife and fell dead.

"And yet you're courage runs thinner as we speak, your blows are less of what they used to be," said Lucius.

"Courage is not measured by the skill of your blow nor its strength, but the wisdom that is behind it," said Raya. "Which is why I have always been more courageous than you."

Draco smiled at Raya walking beside her and hoping he could give her strength. For a moment both Raya and Draco could see the look of uneasiness pass through his gaze but it was only a moment. It then returned to its cool, calm, evil state.

"If you had wisdom, why did you love my son rather than sending him back to me and into the future that was to be his, a death eater's future," said Lucius.

"If you had wisdom you would realize that it was the right choice to love him and keep him away from such a fate," said Raya, "and especially away from a monster like you."

"How dare you break my family apart," hissed Lucius his face reddening.

"I did nothing, it was your son's choice, and the right choice," said Raya, "your son amounted to more than you ever will in your short, meaningless life."

"If my life is so meaningless why did I have a great impact on you, by killing the one thing you loved most?" asked Lucius cockily.

Raya's face grew hot and in her fury she threw her dagger at the one remaining zombie and he fell.

"Don't you dare bring that up," hissed Raya.

"Just remember this Potter girl," said Lucius, "I live to make your life a living hell."

With that the smoke vanished talking Lucius's face with it.

Raya took a deep breath in and closed her eyes. A wolf howled in the distance. The familiar warmth that had once before grasped her hand she felt now on both shoulders.

Draco sighed deep in thought. What love did his father and Raya talk about? Was it the kind of love a sister sends a brother? The kind of love Raya felt for Harry? Or was it the way he, Draco, felt for her? The kind of love that means that you want to spend the rest of your life loving that person and letting them know how great they are or how much they mean to you? He couldn't help hoping, even if he was dead and nothing could happen, that it was the latter.

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