AN: Okay, so new chapter, nearing the final stages of the story now. It's been far longer than I expected. Sorry for the slow updates, but life, work and other stuff have kept me so bogged down I haven't had chance to do anything on this. But thank you everyone who is sticking with it. I hope you all enjoy it.

Chapter Twenty-Five: The Snake

The rumours about Skulduggery's departure from Hogwarts spread around the school like wildfire. Everyone had noticed the broken window on the First Floor and some had seen the aurors resting in the Hospital Wing before they were transported elsewhere. As a result there had been several different versions of events, most nowhere near the truth. One had even gone so far as to say that he had burnt down Dumbledore's office in his flight from the school.

The rumours did little to improve Valkyrie's mood. With Skulduggery gone, a huge part of her life at Hogwarts had vanished. Sure there was Harry, Ron and occasionally Hermione, as well as the twins, but they had lessons- she didn't. She was bored. She disliked normal life most of the time, but being stuck practically alone in Hogwarts was a whole new level. There were whole days where she would end up in the library, staring at books, bored, wishing she was back in Ireland. Sure, it would probably be raining and she would be soaked, but at least she'd be doing something interesting, not stuck doing nothing.

She couldn't help feel lost, trapped and even in one angry, frustrated moment... abandoned. Cut off from everything she knew. She knew it hadn't been Skulduggery's fault. She knew that he would have stayed if he could, that he wouldn't just up and leave her. But knowing something and feeling it, apparently, were two very different things. The logical part of her brain told her that even if he had fought and won, the Ministry would just have returned. But that didn't stop being on her own upsetting her, grinding at her, driving her insane. She hated the mundane. The ordinary. But now that was what she was stuck with.

There was only one saving grace about her time at Hogwarts without Skulduggery. Her new friends. Harry, Ron, the twins and even Hermione tried to keep her spirits up. The twins would prank as many Slytherins as they could, and Harry and Ron would try and keep her as occupied as they could even if it meant falling behind on some pieces of homework, though Valkyrie knew it didn't take much to distract Ron from his work.

However, despite all that, it still took a lot to keep her emotions in check. Frustration, anger and tiredness were not a good combination at any time. For some reason her dreams had started again. Night after night she saw the world burn. Her parents would die in front of her eyes. Sometimes she'd relive past horrors, being tortured, cut open by Melancholia and sometimes she even saw Vile. The images wouldn't get out of her head. She'd wake up sweating, her heart racing, blood pounding.

After yet another exhausted, sleepless night Valkyrie found herself once again alone in the Great Hall, except for a few stragglers late for lessons. She had taken to reading abandoned copies of the Daily Prophet for something to do before she trudged up to her room or, if she felt awake enough for it, took runs around the lake. She had to keep in shape somehow. However, there was one article that caught her eye, hidden away at the bottom of a page. If she hadn't been so bored she probably would have missed it. Frowning Valkyrie pulled the paper closer to her so as she could read the small print easier.

Rita Skeeter Missing?

An investigation has been launched into the possible disappearance of Rita Skeeter, ex-journalist, after her apartment was discovered to be empty by cleaner Pauline Kingsmoore. Miss Kingsmoore, 21, reported this to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and when Miss Skeeter did not return and friends and family could not confirm her whereabouts an investigation was launched. If there is any reader with any information on her whereabouts, no matter how slight, Ministry officials urge you to come forward. Contact details are below.

Valkyrie stared at the paper, not quite sure what to make of the article. She knew that Skeeter had vanished, much to her displeasure, thanks to the map that she had now returned to Harry. But that just confirmed Skulduggery's theory: somehow Skeeter had known they were onto her. But it was one thing to vanish from Hogwarts; it was another to disappear from Wizarding Britain. The Prophet didn't exactly seem bothered about it, but that was to be expected, they'd done everything they could to distance themselves from Skeeter as soon as they found out, officially, about how she obtained material.

It was entirely plausible that Skeeter was just dropping off the radar, maybe she had gone into the Mortal world, so as to let people forget what she had done. Valkyrie felt sure that the reporter wasn't about to let her whole career fall down around her. But somehow Valkyrie didn't quite buy that. Sure, it was plausible. But it was unlikely. Skeeter didn't seem the type to just back away from a fight. She'd want to make sure that Skulduggery and Valkyrie were taken down for what they had done.

No, what was far more likely was that Skeeter had been silenced. Someone as ruthless as the man behind all this wouldn't leave a trail behind, not for long. There was that neat trick where people forgot who he was, apart from Narcissa Malfoy, thanks, Skulduggery had discovered, to the extensive Occlumency training she had received. But now they knew that he was somehow involved, he would probably be looking a more permanent solution. Murder. Sure, it was a leap, but it was a little leap, more of a hop in Valkyrie's eyes. He'd done worse, after all.

Sliding her hand into the depths of her jacket pocket she pulled out her phone. Thanks to the many symbols inside and the small cradle that had been created in the Sanctuary earlier that year, the phone barely ever ran out of power. The cradle worked a lot like the one that house her uncle's echo stone. It fed a constant stream of low level magic into the phone, which was then converted by the many carefully etched symbols inside. Skulduggery had wanted to be able to stay in touch with the Sanctuary while they were at Hogwarts and letters were far too slow. So, the cradle had been made.

She opened up her contacts, scrolling down the unsurprisingly short list of names, until she landed on Skulduggery's. Hitting the call button she put the phone to her ear and waited. Ringing sounded at the other end. It only took three rings before she heard that velvet vice for the first time in almost a week.

"Valkyrie."

"Hi, you busy?"

"Not at all," Skulduggery said, although the shouts in the background, followed by a shout that Valkyrie was sure would send Professor McGonagall's eyebrows into her hairline. "Actually, could you hold on for just one moment?"

"Sure."

"Thank you." There was a sound of muttering and then a cry of pain, followed by a shout. "Right. Sorry, Mister Reeve here wouldn't do what he was told. I thought it best to show him the error of that."

"You didn't hit him too hard, did you?"

"That depends."

"On what?"

"On what you mean by too hard." Skulduggery told her. "That said, he does seem to be bleeding a lot. Anyway, what did you call for? I'm guessing it wasn't to chat."

"Unfortunately, no." Valkyrie said, with a sigh. She and Skulduggery rarely just chatted over the phone. When they were together, that was a different story, but Valkyrie far preferred face to face than phone conversations. Although, most of the time it could hardly be called face to face when she was talking to a skull. But she chose to ignore that. "Rita Skeeter's gone missing."

"That's not good." Skulduggery said after a moment of silence, all be it for the whimpering in the background.

"No," Valkyrie agreed. "It's not. They're saying she's just disappeared, vanished."

"You don't agree." It was more of a statement than a question.

"Not really. Do you?"

"No." Skulduggery said. "She was a loose end. Loose ends have a habit of being killed. I'd just hoped that we could get to her before they did. I'll tell Ghastly when I see him."

"Thanks." Valkyrie smiled, although he couldn't see her do so. "How're things, anyway? Anything happen I should know about?"

"Not really." Skulduggery said, but at his words there was an angry, muffled sound of protestation of the man, Reeve, behind him. "Of course, how rude of me, Mister Reeve here was arrested on a three counts of attempted murder and bodily assault. I didn't think it was necessary for me to personally deal with it but the new Elder insisted that I -"

"A new Elder?" Valkyrie asked, cutting across him. "I ask if there's anything I need to know and you don't mention the fact we have a new Elder?"

"Ah, I suppose that could be considered news. Yes, we have a new Elder. She doesn't like me much, and with Ghastly organising talks with the Germans, she's ordering me about. It's very demeaning." Skulduggery said, clearly frustrated with his new found circumstances.

"Who is she?" Valkyrie asked.

"You haven't heard of her." Skulduggery said. "Wise suggested her, they were in the war together. Doctor Byrne wouldn't have been my first choice, but then my name was once more suggested. I refused, naturally. That's when Wise came up with Byrne. But of course our new Elder is looking into everything we do, she's not happy that Nye is working here. Don't worry, I've convinced her to let it stay for now."

"Thanks."

There was the sound of a door opening down the phone, someone in heels walking and Skulduggery cursing. The phone was fumbled and all Valkyrie could hear was confusion, voices and the whimper of the man in the chair before the line went dead. She stayed there for a second, the phone stuck to her ear as she contemplated what her partner had just said.

The new Elder didn't sound like fun. But fun wasn't what they needed right now; they needed someone prepared to do anything. The fact that she was testing out someone with even Skulduggery's reputation, being incredibly insulting from his point of view, showed Valkyrie that Byrne wasn't about start trusting too easily. She was taking it seriously. Maybe that was what the council needed. Being a doctor, it wasn't as if she wasn't used to making snap decisions, acting when needed, getting her hands dirty. It made a change from game playing like Mist always had.

But the news of the new Elder paled somewhat into insignificance next to what he had said about Skeeter. There hadn't been much need to persuade him- if any. Part of her had been hoping she would be wrong, told her that it was just as simple as it looked. But he was right. She would have been dangerous if she had been left alive. It was logical. But that didn't make her feel any better about it all. A woman was dead, albeit a woman Valkyrie hadn't much liked her, but that didn't mean she had wanted her dead. In a cell, sure, but not in a ditch somewhere.

Leads were closing down around them before they even had a chance to follow them. Whoever was behind all this wanted to make sure that she had no choice but to continue on with this game. That little bit of knowledge did little to improve her already foul mood. She was stuck. If she backed out now they would never find out who was doing all this. That was why she kept going. She wasn't about to let them get away with it.

Surprisingly the news of Skeeter's disappearance didn't spread around the school. It probably had something to do with the fact that it was hidden away in the Prophet. Skulduggery's unexpected departure had faded somewhat in the minds of the student body, now all their focus was on the Third Task. With a month left to go, and the champions about to find out, supposedly for the first time, what the task was, the students were getting excited for the finale of the tournament.

That evening Valkyrie, thanks to the tiny Professor Flitwick, found herself walking with the rest of the champions down to the pitch. She hadn't wanted to go, mainly because she knew what the task was, despite the rules. But she had to keep up the pretence. Although, that didn't mean she was going to join in and pretend to be shocked, she wasn't in the mood. She'd been stuck, alone, in the library all day. All apart from lunch when Harry had come and saved her, at least until he had had to go back to lesson.

"What do you think it'll be?" Cedric asked from ahead of Valkyrie as they walked towards the pitch with Bagman in the leading. The blonde man was practically bouncing with excitement as he walked. With the mood Valkyrie was in, it made her fists itch. "The task? Dad thinks it'll be something like the dragon again."

"Or vorse." Krum muttered darkly. "It is ze last task, zey vil not go easy on us. Many have died before."

"Life and soul you are." Valkyrie said, glowering.

"He has a point," Fleur chimed in, her perfect face tense and stiff. There was self-doubt and a tinge of fear in those deep, crystal eyes. It was weird. The part-veela had always been so sure of herself. Except unlike China, she had little reason to be. Fleur was often how Valkyrie thought a young China would be; cold, yet hiding a fragility deep inside her. "Zis task is 'ardly likely to be easy. Eet eez designed to test us."

"Come now!" Bagman boomed, interrupting the champions. "This is meant to be exciting!"

"Easy for you to say." Valkyrie muttered. "You're not the one competing."

"Now, champions, welcome to the arena for the Third and final Task!" Bagman roared happily as they entered the confines of the pitch. With a month left to go until the task, Valkyrie had been expecting something a little more impressive. As it was, there was a series of small, thick hedges bisecting and intersecting one another across the pitch. The maze had yet to grow, but Valkyrie suspected that when it reached full height it would be huge.

She ignored Bagman as he prattled on, excitedly telling them about what to expect and the task that they would soon be a part of. A part of her wanted the stupid thing to just hurry up and happen. That way she could get it all over with, get out of this tournament that she hadn't even asked to be a part of and back to her normal life with family and her partner. That was where she wanted to be, even now, even with the new friends that she had made because this wasn't her life. No matter how much she might have enjoyed some of it.

"Well at least we know officially know now," Harry mused as they trudged back towards the castle. "It was a nightmare avoiding talking about it in front of Hermione."

"Maybe she'll finally stop complaining about your combat training when she realises it's for this." The girl had been obsessed with, not so much outright, but definitely quietly disapproving of what Valkyrie was teaching Harry. She probably thought it was barbaric or something else along those lines. But it wasn't breaking the promise she had made, if anything it was keeping him safe.

"I doubt it, she's been trying to find spells that will do the job better. I don't think she gets that it's just in case I drop my wand."

"For a muggleborn you'd think she would understand." Valkyrie said. But she had a feeling she knew why Hermione detested physical conflict. It wasn't hard to miss the signs of bullying. "Still, can't be helped. Are you still alright for tomorrow night?"

"Yeah, sure."

Valkyrie was about to respond when she was cut across by Krum in his usual graceful and diplomatic manner he said; "I vould like a vord."

Whatever it was it seemed important to Krum, the nervous look on his face and the deepened scowl on his features was a dead giveaway. So, Valkyrie smiled, waved to Harry and continued walking as he and Krum waited for the others to carry on to the castle before talking.

Not before long Valkyrie found herself walking the halls of Hogwarts alone. Fleur had gone back to the carriage and Cedric down the Hufflepuff Common Room. But her solitude was interrupted by a voice behind her. Valkyrie turned, fighting every instinct to have to click her fingers and light a flame, ready to fight. But she still felt her fists curl and her eyes narrow. The girl, to her credit, didn't move. Instead she allowed a slim smile to pull at her thin lips.

"Sorry, I hope I wasn't interrupting anything." The girl said the light dancing on her pale skin as she looked at Valkyrie from her position by the window. Valkyrie recognised the dark emerald robes of Slytherin. There was something about her that Valkyrie vaguely recognised. Her dark red hair framed her face as she looked at Valkyrie through her pale blue eyes. There was something oddly familiar and it took her a second to realise just who this girl was. She was younger than Valkyrie, in Harry's year, but it was how he had described her and that confident air. There was only one person it could be. Daphne Greengrass.

"No."

"Good." Daphne said her smile fading slightly as she looked at Valkyrie. There was a moment where she just stood there, as if trying to make up her mind what to say or do next and whether she should actually be there at all. "I'm sorry. I wouldn't normally come to you with this, Valkyrie, you don't mind if I call you that, do you?"

"Sure."

"Thank you," Daphne said, speaking a little hesitantly. "Do you mind if we speak about this somewhere else, it's a little personal."

"Yeah, that's fine." Valkyrie nodded, more than a little confused as to what was going on. As far as she was concerned she didn't really know Daphne Greengrass. She knew enough, based upon everything that Harry had told her about the girl, but that wasn't much and it wasn't exactly unbiased either. So why had the Slytherin sought her out?

"In here?" Daphne asked, nodding to a classroom further on down the hall. Valkyrie followed the girl towards the room, making sure to keep behind her. For everything that Harry had said about her, all the complementary things, there was still the fact that she was cunning and ambitious. There was no getting away from it. That added to the fact that her father was on the list of ex-Death Eaters Skulduggery had produced before he left did little to make Valkyrie feel comfortable. With everything that had happened, all the plots against her, she felt deserved in the right to be a little paranoid.

With a wave of her wand Daphne lit the many candles around the room. The girl seemed completely unperturbed by Valkyrie hesitance to follow her, perching against the desk at the far end of the room. She set her wand down on the desk, keeping her eyes on Valkyrie as she did so. The way her hand pushed it away from her seemed more than a little deliberate to Valkyrie, as though the girl was trying to show her that her suspicions were unfounded.

"What's this about, Greengrass?" Valkyrie asked after a long moment, slipping her hand into her pocket and finding the ring within its depths. A ripple of shock spread across the other girl's face when Valkyrie said her name. "I'm not the only one that Harry talks about, you know."

"He talks about me?"

"Occasionally."

"Only occasionally?" Daphne asked the ghost of a smile returning.

"What is all this about?" Valkyrie tried again, her tiredness not helping her short temper. She didn't like being played.

"My father." Daphne answered, the smile dropping off her face as her eyes darkened. There was an edge to her voice as she spoke and Valkyrie felt her wariness ebb away as she looked at the girl. Her hesitance to approach Valkyrie had been replaced with a sorrow, no a grief that was buried deep down inside her and only just coming to the surface. "He was a Death Eater, at the height of the war. But he saw something, something so terrible that he left, backed out. He hasn't told me. He hasn't told anyone. If it hadn't been for the Dark Lord's supposed death I doubt he would have survived. My mother was not so lucky... But, we both know that the Dark Lord is not dead. Far from it. His servant came for my father."

"What did he do?" Valkyrie asked. "Your dad. Has he gone back?"

"No." Daphne replied but that did little to appease the darkness on her face. If anything it only made it intensify. "He did not. I almost wish he had. He has spent his life trying to undo what he did during the war. That man, he made my father pay for his decision to not return. He... He tortured him. He cut his face open. To... to remind him of what he's done. "

"I'm sorry." Valkyrie said, words failing her as she looked at the girl before her who was silently crying. Tears trickled down her cheeks but she brushed them away with force, used the sleeve of her robe to wipe her face. "Can't they do anything for him?"

"Wounds from dark magic don't heal." Daphne told her in a quiet, shaky voice. It hit Valkyrie that this was probably the first time she had told anyone and she was telling someone she didn't even know. It was a rapid change from the confident, if not slightly apprehensive girl a few moments ago. But Valkyrie could hardly blame her. "It's why Harry has his scar, it's why my father will keep his."

"I am sorry about all this." Valkyrie said again. "But, why are you telling me?"

"Because my father woke up today." Daphne answered. "He told me what had happened, before my step-mother found him. That man that came for him... he wanted... he wanted my father to help him kill you. You and your friend."

Valkyrie didn't say anything, she didn't know what to say. It wasn't exactly news to her, but she could hardly let Daphne know that. Her father was in hospital after someone had used his face as a chopping board. But why had Voldemort gone for Daphne's father? Money. But surely if he needed money he could just steal it from Gringotts, he'd stolen the stone years earlier. It didn't make sense, he had all the help he needed from his servant. Why would he need more?

"You seem pretty calm about this." Daphne said when Valkyrie didn't speak. "That or you should be a Slytherin."

"You get used to threats after a while, it comes with the job." Valkyrie replied with a shrug. "What do you mean I should be a Slytherin?"

"I may not be the best example at the moment," Daphne said with a shaky laugh as she brushed off the last of the tears on her cheeks. "But Slytherins, true Slytherins, not petulant teenagers like Malfoy, don't let anyone know they're plans."

"The whole cunning and ambition thing?"

"Precisely." Daphne nodded. "My father always taught me to guard my secrets and to never share anything that you don't expect can be used against you. Tonight I may well have just failed to do both."

"Then why did you tell me all of this?"

"Harry." Daphne answered. Valkyrie had known that Harry was close to the Slytherin, but she had always suspected that there was a chance she could just be using him for her own means. She had never known that those feelings were returned, but as she stared into her pale eyes and saw underneath the shimmering surface that she wasn't lying. "He cares about you and I care about him. Although, that was never my intention."

"What do you mean?"

"Look around you. Most of the Ministry of Magic were taught in these very halls. Alliances and friendships forged in this place can last a life time. With Malfoy's fall from grace I had to forge another friendship, Harry fits the bill. He may be popular now, but the public are fickle. They will turn on him. Who do you think that he will hold in higher regard, those who stuck by him when times were tough or the sheep that flock to him?"

"That's all it was, you were just using him? All this time?" Valkyrie asked stunned. She wasn't quite able to believe what she was hearing. Sure, she'd heard worse from Serpine or Sanguine, but they weren't girls. They were world-weary and a little bit insane. But Daphne just stood there, like what she was saying was normal.

"In the beginning, yes. It is the way of our world," Daphne replied with a slight shrug. "For centuries ambitious witches and wizards have used this school as a meeting ground. I may not like it, but if I am to become more than just a wife to a Pureblood Lord, then alliances need to be forged. Most of us are aware of the rules."

"Except Harry?"

"Exactly. He has been nothing but kind to me, he accepted me as a friend rather than see me just as someone he can use and toss aside."

"That's a bit weird."

"I imagine for you it would be," Daphne said with a little laugh. "But sexism is still entrenched in my world. It was what my father fought for... fights for."

"He's going to be okay," Valkyrie told Daphne, whose face had fallen once more, the shadow falling over her pale eyes. "But if it makes you feel any better when I get my hands on Voldemort I'll throw in a punch from you."

"Do you really think that you can beat him?"

"It's what I do."

"Let's just hope that's enough," Daphne said, taking up her wand and sliding it back into the depths of her robes before sliding off the desk she had been sitting on. "For all our sakes." There was a sad smile, far more haunted and tired than it should have been. "Goodnight, Valkyrie and thank you."

And with that she walked away, leaving Valkyrie alone in the empty classroom.