-The Graveyard, Chapter Forty Eight-
CECILY POV
I turned back around to face it as the person got off their broom right before the barrier and stood there, waiting. I could here someone calling me, and the cold air was now chilly and harsh against my skin.
Suddenly angry, I bolted to the ground and got off about 12 feet from the ground, tucked and rolled, and stayed where I was, a good 20 yards away from the barrier. From this close, I could see the person had silvery blond hair and a willowy frame, instantly alerting me to the fact that it was a she.
Lupin bounded up next to me, as a wolf. By drinking some of my blood unknowingly, it had freed him from the changing at the full moon, now he could change as he pleased. He growled at the figure, who stayed where she was.
"Lupin, you know it's the safest if I go, right?" I said, and he whined. I looked at him, and all his hair was standing up, watching the figure.
Without another word but a gentle pat on his large shoulder, I shouldered my broom and swiftly closed the distance until I was only a foot away from the barrier. As I got closer, I could see the person was Malfoy's mother, Narcissa.
My hatred increased exponentially. How dare she show up here.
"The Dark Lord will be pleased to see that you survived." She said calmly, but I could see the malicious intent behind her eyes. I didn't even flinch, but on the inside, I was reeling. He had suspected that I would live…
"A little birdie told me you were blessed by the founders. Congratulations." She said snidely when I still didn't speak.
"If you're talking about your son, Draco, you should substitute bird for troll." I hissed. Her eyes darkened, but she stayed where she was.
"I'm not here to trade insults with you…Cecily. I'm here to deliver a message." She said with exaggerated patience.
"Well then give it." I snapped. A wide smile broke over her face.
"The Dark Lord sends his greetings, and passes on a wish for you. He wishes you a very Merry Christmas." She said this so sincerely, my mind snapped to a red alert.
I quickly ran Narcissa's soul information. This wasn't Narcissa, she was in her manor by a heat source, probably a fire. Dread seeping up to me, I checked Voldemort's. He was out in the cold…
"Is he to scared to come here as himself?" I asked angrily, letting him know I knew that he had used a Polyjuice Potion. Voldemort grinned.
"Oh Cecily, you make me so happy." He sighed. I stood there in total shock. For most of my life, he had yelled insults at me.
"You're twisted." I whispered, and turned to go, when something twinged in his soul information that made me stop. When I had said 'twisted', something very large had shifted. All the evil had tried to cover a wider net, but his love for me had…stopped it?
"What's inside you, Tom Riddle?" I asked softly, almost to myself. "What kind of evil could have such a hold over you?" He frowned, and there was an awkward moment as the potion wore off, and then Lord Voldemort stood just a foot away from me, behind a magical barrier he couldn't break.
"Evil is a matter of perspective, Cecily." He said, but I shook my head.
"Something's got you, hasn't it? You never wanted to be evil, did you? Tell me, Tom." I said, and he looked very angry, but it was the huge suffocating mass of evil, I could feel it.
"Don't you dare talk to me like that. I don't need help." He snarled. I thought about it. If his words weren't negated (if the don'ts weren't there) there would be a rough form of a cry for help in there…
"Why are you here?" I asked quickly, trying to keep him thinking as I thought wildly. It could all be a trick, but the soul never lies…
"I wanted to see you. You are a great happiness to me, Cecily." He said, and as he said it, the good trapped under the evil swelled with joy, making his words his own.
Without hesitation, I protected my own mind, then prodded the evil. It roared up, and I stabbed viciously at it until it retreated. I could tell from touching it, it had to live in a object or a person, it couldn't exist on its own. Maybe he got it from a Dark artifact, he had been obsessed with Dark Magic in school…
"Cecily, I have to leave." His voice broke me from my thoughts. It was once again, his own. I could hear a subtle difference in the way he spoke, and the way the evil made him speak.
I instantly felt torn. I wanted to help him, as crazy as it sounded, but at the same time, I wanted him to leave and never come back.
"Don't let it control you. You know who you are, get rid of it." I said to him, and the evil stirred restlessly, making him twitchy.
"I have to go," he said, and quickly mounted his broom and sped away, leaving me standing on two sides of two different barriers. One with me out in the snow, and the other inside me, inside my heart.
