Listening to: Village on the Sand-Blackmore's Night
Well, here's chapter 25. I didn't get as much done over break as I'd hoped, but rest assured, I'll post next week, even if it's seven at night and I just finished.
Kudos to you who figured out the "Titanic" quote: "Freezing, maybe a couple of degrees over"-Jack (in this case, Neville)
Hee. Hee. Hee.
Please, review, I'm bored cause of the lack of reviews.
Chapter 25
It's hard. Once I start to sink into the trance, there's nothing I can do to fight it. Once a spirit enters, it's up to them to leave. If I try to force Her out, then I risk harming myself, than if She chooses to leave on her own.
-from the journal of Aster Jean Keeney 2 March 1971
"I'm not asking you to ring the Queen. I'm asking you to call your gran." Abigail waved the coin under Neville's nose.
"And my gran is a gossip. Ring Sirius." This was ridiculous. They were in a town large enough where they wouldn't draw attention, had gotten a bite at the local pub, and were now onto step two.
"He'll kill me. Times like this, maybe we should call Uncle Ted." Abigail threw her hands up and Neville had to keep himself from laughing. She looked rather comical doing that.
"Not, Uncle Ted." he said slowly. "But I have an idea." Abigail handed him the twenty-pence piece.
Neville dialed the number. "Hey Remus, are you busy?"
{PAGEBREAK}
When he got the call, Sirius was falling asleep in front of the television. "Hullo?" he asked. Although Harry had taught him how to use a telephone over the summer, he still got the sense of awkwardness of not being able to see the person at the other end.
"Sirius?" Tonks sounded like Remus had just woken her up. "You there?" And from the sound of it, she was more then ready to go back to sleep.
"Yeah," Sirius wondered what warranted a call this late at night. "What's going on?"
"Neville rang. He and Abigail are somewhere in Surrey. Remus is going to check it out."
He was wide awake at those words. "I'll be right there. Tell Moony I'm coming."
Five minutes later, Tonks, wearing a dressing gown and holding a cup of hot chocolate, answered the door.
"Where are they?" He asked, going into the kitchen. "At Harry's aunt and uncle's." Remus said. "They're going to spend the night there and continue to London in the morning."
"And how did they end up there?" Sirius sat next to Dora's cat, Romulus. The tabby was flicking his tail back and forth at the glass of milk Dora was drinking.
"They left Avalon, apparently and were heading to meet Lucius and Narcissa in London." Remus said, as though he was still processing the information himself. "And Abigail's still carrying twins, apparently."
"How can she still be pregnant, when she's lost one already?" Sirius felt dizziness at the news.
"Multiples run in her family." Tonks supplied. "Sometimes it's twins, sometimes one or two more." She shrugged. "Of course, her mum was practically Irish twins with Harry's dad."
"Family history aside," Sirius said. "Abigail's pregnant. And the crazy bitch of the family would like to kill her."
"So we have to reach them first."
{PAGEBREAK}
"Draco, you're doing it again." Draco snapped back to attention. It was the last class before the holidays started. Draco had been going through the perfect accident for Blaise Zabini, step by step in the last fifteen minutes of Transfiguration.
Sadly, he thought his mum would have a problem with him sacrificing a fellow student to his father's peacocks. Ah, well. He could always hang him from the Astronomy Tower and if Zabini slipped and fell while undoing the ropes, it would hardly be his fault.
Hermione jerked him out of a fantasy of Zabini plastered to the stone courtyard below by slapping him with her book. "Hey!" he finally broke his gaze with the window.
"This is becoming rather unhealthy, mate." Ron said as they entered the corridor with the other students.
"I just want to know what he knows." Draco said stubbornly. "And then-"
"Then what?" Ron asked. "You can just sit on it and not do anything."
"When you put it like that-" "I'm keeping you from getting smothered by your mum when she finds out what you did." Ron interrupted.
"Fine," Draco snapped. "But if we haven't heard from her by New Year's, then I'm going to find her and Neville."
He stayed silent until they reached the Great Hall. "Find your girl yet?" Pansy Parkinson earned a lot of laughs from the Slytherins as they passed. "Sure she hasn't decided to dump you for Longbottom?"
"That's it." He let his bag drop to the floor. "You want to go?" he asked, stalking over to them. Crabbe and Goyle, Parkinson's goons made an "Oooh" sound as he withdrew his wand. "Right here, right now."
Parkinson stood up. "Fine," she said, withdrawing her own wand from her robes. "On the count of three then. But first, who's your second?"
"Me." A voice behind him said. Draco turned. Astoria Greengrass was walking toward them. "Who's yours? Nott?"
"All right." Nott said, jumping up. Draco raised his wand, trying to remember a spell he'd glimpsed from Professor Snape's old book. Levicorpus! he thought, flicking his wand in Nott's direction. Nott screamed as he was hoisted into the air by his ankle. Gryffindors were laughing from the other side of the hall.
Parkinson took advantage of his distraction and a jet of blue light hit Astoria, who screamed as her head was knocked back. Draco had lost all sense of where he was and was focusing on nothing more than Parkinson's laughter. 'She-devil," he said, flicking his wand at her. Her nose began to bleed. He had half a mind to forget his wand and just slap her upside the head. Another jet of light whipped past him as they started exchanging spells, each too wrapped up in their own fury to focus on the other.
What he focused on was when someone was wrenching his wand away from him. He fought, firing spells at random bystanders who jumped back in alarm. "Drop it," the person tugging him away said. "It's over." It wasn't until he heard his wand clatter to the floor that he stopped struggling long enough to realize it was Ron and Harry pulling him apart while a couple of Ravenclaws held Parkinson.
"What is going on here?"
{PAGEBREAK}
That night, in one of the Dursley's guestrooms at Number Four, Privet Drive, Abigail found it hard to sleep. Every time she started dreaming, it was a nightmare. Death, fire, and destruction had haunted her dreams for some time now, the most prominent being seeing Hogwarts on fire. Seeing students fight for their lives, and Death Eaters taking over the castle, she found herself restless to prevent it.
So, she settled in the kitchen, stirring a cup of hot chocolate in a mug, careful to keep watch on the time. Taking a sip, she wondered what would happen tomorrow, when Sirius and (thankfully) Remus were due to arrive. The taste in her mouth changed and she sputtered, spitting the liquid out, coughing. She looked at the liquid. It was red, like blood. She took a breath to calm herself. She checked the mug. Nothing was wrong with it. She tasted it again. It was once again the smooth, chocolate mixture it was supposed to be.
She glanced at the clock on the stove. Three a.m. she should probably get to bed. She finished the mug and set it in the sink. Before she could look away, however, she saw the mask of a Death Eater staring at her through the window.
She screamed, drawing her wand from the pocket of her dressing gown. Footsteps on the stairs told her that she'd woken people up. "What's going on?" Neville asked, opening the door with so much force it slammed into the wall. Vernon and Petunia Dursley appeared behind him, followed somewhat hesitantly by their son who'd only arrived that afternoon. Abigail couldn't speak and pointed to the window.
"There's nothing there." Neville said. "Abigail?"
She only shook her head.
{PAGEBREAK}
Undisclosed Location, England
3 April 1965
Aster Jean Keeney was not happy. Her brother's fiancée had put her to bed earlier, and yet she couldn't sleep. Something was going to happen. Good or bad, she didn't know. She just knew that she had to keep an eye on her older brother.
So, when Brice had gone back downstairs, Aster snuck out of bed and followed her. Sitting in a shadowed spot by the railing, she was able to overlook the sitting room where Arthur and Brice were talking. Snippets of conversation reached her, but the only words she understood were "an attack" and someone called "Tom Riddle", since they were speaking English, which she hadn't learnt well yet. Her mummy had told her about a bad man who wanted her and her brother dead. Tom Riddle had once been one of Mummy's choices to help serve Avalon. When she asked why he wasn't with them at Mercy Hall, her mum smiled and said "Quand tu seras plus, tu comprendres (When you're older, you'll understand)."
She thought he sounded better than James Potter who would pinch her when his dad wasn't looking and purposefully ruined her favorite handkerchief.
It was when she thought of falling asleep then and there, that she heard noise. Instead she moved closer towards the hallway that led to her room, but still remained along the railing. "Brice, se Aster et c'est parti!(Brice, get Aster and go!)" Was that Arthur shouting? Arthur never shouted, not even when she had not listened to him and climbed up the apple tree at the Titanica.
Brice didn't need telling twice, she hurried out of the room and Aster knew she was headed for the back stairs, which would take her closer to Aster's room at the top. Aster debated going as Arthur pulled out his wand. Men dressed in black came in. One of them looked like an older version of Arthur, except his hair was long, which Aster thought was silly. She knew that she had to keep quiet.
The two exchanged heated words that reverberated in Aster's ears, while the men in black began destroying the paintings Brice had worked so hard to find. In an instant, the taller man had Arthur held up against the wall and drew out a knife, and cut his throat. "Artur!" Aster called. The men in black looked up at her and Aster froze. One of the men barked something and they started heading toward the stairs.
Aster ran back to her room and closed the door behind her. The men must've found Brice because they had stopped and sounded mad. She could hear Brice crying. Then, silence.
She opened her window. She had climbed from the window to the tree only once. James Potter had dared her to, only to tattle to Arthur. She saw some of the men run out of the house and set it on fire with their wand. She hesitated before she heard more coming up the stairs. She jumped and landed in the tree. Fortunately, they were waiting for her at the other side of the house.
Climbing down slowly took forever. She heard a shout from one that had killed her brother and knew she would be in more trouble if she stopped. She jumped reaching the last branch nearest the ground and felt a pain in her ankle. She hobbled away, hoping that there was a good hiding spot.
The barn was in flames as she made her way past it, feeling as though she were going to be sick. There was a stream nearby. Arthur and Brice had taken her to it only today. And the oak tree had a little hole where she could wait for someone to help her.
She heard yelling and tried to move faster but the pain in her ankle was getting too much to ignore. She stumbled and fell. Mummy was going to be mad when she saw the grass stains. Oh well. Aster crawled to the edge of a small bunch of trees and prayed that no one would find her.
Okay, I know the flashback seems unfinished, but I feel like I owe you all an explanation to future chapters. Trust me, it'll make sense in a few. I'm also going to start wrapping things up as I feel as though I've dragged it on long enough.
Happy Weekend!
Mischief Managed,
R2-D2106
Listening to: What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger)-Glee version