A/N Heyo. Guess who had to go back to school! Me. Online school sucks by the way so that's fun. And...writing fanfic is so much more fun than doing school! Okay, enough complaining. Let's see here. So if you looked at my profile you probably saw I had a bit of writers block at the beginning of this chapter. I spent at least thirty minutes staring at a blank screen trying to figure things out. Sooooo. Yeah. As you can see it starts with this explanation of "the sacrifice" insert dramatic music of your choice. Hmmmm. And that's pretty neat. Anyway, what else. We've passed 16,000 views! AHAHHAAHAHAHAHHA. OMG. Right. I'm sorry if this chapter's timeline gets a little bit confusing. Oops. And I'm changing the update days to Saturday from now on because I have school on Thursday. Ew. I have no idea how long this fanfic will be, but i don't think I'm not even like halfway done yet. Anddddddd. At the very end of this chapter I use the word bloody, but I wanted to use another special word. Sadly this is rated T and I didn't think that would be allowed so insert favorite curse word there XD. And I mean very very end. Like second to last sentence. Okay. Thanks for reading and reviewing! And please please please review! It gives me so much motivation!

Special shoutout to KK for being an awesome reviewer! *sends love*

Warning: A crap ton of angst sorry. And a bit of gore.

Now on with the story

Chapter 22

Ithreal- A sacrifice that requires the essence of a ghost, blood of father and son, teeth of a muggle, white carnation for seasoning, three bones of the cursed, and one mortal enemy. The sacrifice is complete once mortal enemy is dead by boiling and their magic has been transmitted into a blood mixture which you must drink. Once you have drunk mixture all of your mortal enemy's power shall become yours.

Step 1: Take essence of ghost and trap in bottle, save for later.

Step 2: Take blood of father and son and boil to 325 degrees, preferably in cauldron so the rest of ingredients may be properly stewed.

Step 3: Snap out two muggle teeth and crush, sprinkle in blood

Step 4: Take white carnation and put on top, let dissolve in blood

Step 5: Remove the bones of the cursed from victims (bones should come from one person from a prophecy, one who is trapped in an unwanted destiny, and one who has lost the love of their life) Removal must not be done by magic.

Step 5: Take bones and place one by one in blood mixture. Mixture should turn violet. If it doesn't you did it wrong and must start all over. Should also be thick.

Step 6: Stir 100 hundred times counter clockwise.

Step 7: Bring out mortal enemy and prepare to put them in mixture.

Step 8: Stir 100 more times clockwise.

Step 9: Put mortal enemy in boiling blood mixture. Their magical essence shall be drained into mixture while they are boiled.

Step 10: Once the mortal enemy is properly boiled, drink immediately. Their power should be transmitted into you.

Congratulations. Enjoy your new powers.

Harry

Well shit. He was dead. Or going to be very very soon. Bellatrix had taken him into a large, cavernous room with a bigass cauldron in the middle. He really hoped he wouldn't be the one to go in that cauldron, but luck really didn't seem to be on his side lately. From where he was standing in a full body bind, nothing appeared to actually be in the cauldron. He and Bellatrix were the only one in this room. After Voldemort had appeared, he'd told Bellatrix to take him to the room prepared for "the sacrifice".

The sacrifice his ass. This was just a way to get rid of him that would make Voldemort more powerful. He wondered where his friends were. Where Ginny was. He even wondered where Snape was. Turns out Snape was here too. He'd caught a brief glimpse of him as he was being led away. These weren't very nice pre-death thoughts. He should probably be thinking about something much more profound. Like all the things he did (or didn't) get to do, while he was still alive. Technically he was still alive but that was really besides the point. He eyed Bellatrix, who was walking around the cauldron, examining it. The cauldron was a little larger than a bathtub. Had to be pretty big to make stewed Harry, he mused.

"Bella…" Came Voldemort's high, cold voice. It wrapped around the room in a bone chilling way. Bellatrix jumped from where she was over by the cauldron and replied,

"Yes my lord?"

"Go get the ghost essence. Harry Potter is secured?"

"Yes my lord, he is secured." Her eyes were bright, and she whipped her head around as if she might be able to see him.

"Go…" Man that was creepy. Bellatrix bolted out of the room without a glance back at him. He really wished he was able to move, although even if he had been it wasn't like there was anywhere for him to go.

Bellatrix hurried back into the room a moment later with a little glass bottle. She walked to the cauldron and tipped some swirly white stuff into it. The cauldron immediately filled with a cloud-like substance, that gave the room a weird sort of cold. Where the hell did one even find ghost...essence? Harry wondered to himself. A masked Death Eater entered the room with Snape in hand. Harry felt incredibly nauseous. Why was Snape here? Did he get a front row seat to his demise? Harry's scar prickled angrily. Great. He had to deal with this on top of being thrown in a cauldron. One of Snape's eyes was a faint blue around the edges, like he'd been punched.

"Take their blood." Voldemort's voice arose in the room again and Harry shivered. Their blood. As in his and Snape's. So...would it be too much to hope Voldemort wouldn't throw him in the cauldron? He was still going to die. But at least he wouldn't have to die by drowning in, white ghost shit. The masked Death Eater who had led Snape in rolled up one of Snape's sleeves, exposing his pale white skin. Bellatrix came to Harry and did the same. If he was not in a body bind he would have spit in her face. Sadly the only thing he could do was blink angrily.

She pressed a knife to his skin and slashed. Internally, he hissed. Bellatrix caught the blood that rolled down his arms in a small wooden bowl. She carried it to the cauldron and dumped it in, the other Death Eater followed her example.

The blood turned the white ghost stuff a dark purple, and the mist thickened into a sludge like mixture. Oh God…Harry's mind was starting to whirl in panic. He did not want to go in that. But he couldn't do anything! How had he gotten himself in this position in the first place? By walking Bagel, right. Because him being Harry Potter meant walking his dog without an escort was dangerous. And why was Snape here? And the rest of the others for that matter?

Draco

Aha. Ahahahahaha. Shit. His life was a joke. He was a joke. Everything was one bloody sick joke. Everything. He didn't have a right arm anymore. It was gone. His right arm was gone. Of course they took the right one, because it would be too much to ask that they took his left so he could still write with his other one.

"Oh my God…" Lyra moaned, looking at Draco's armless arm. It was actually rather odd to look at. His shoulder was all that was left, one giant gaping bloody hole. They'd done a pretty shitty job of sealing the damn thing. Why they had decided to take his arm, well who knew why Voldemort did anything. Maybe chopping off teenager's arms was his new favorite pastime. Although it probably had something more to do with the fact that he was a traitor. Or some other dark lord reason. Bellatrix had held him down while his father sawed it off. Although it hadn't hurt for some reason. Which was a positive. He guessed. He was still missing his favorite arm. Draco and Lyra were in some sort of cell, again. And Hermione and Ginny were in another one. He hoped. Hopefully they weren't dead. A knot of worry seemed to have settled permanently into his stomach, he turned to Lyra.

"So. What do you like to do?" he asked her. Anything to get his mind off...well everything.

"What do I like to do? What do I like to do?" she shrieked, running her hands through her hair. "We're going to die and you want to know what I like to do!"

"Uh, yes?"

"Draco!"

"What? I would like to have some nice conversation before I die." He crossed his arms and glared at her.

She opened her mouth a couple times before responding.

"I like to...dance."

"Dance." he repeated slowly.

"Yes." she snapped. "What wizards don't dance!?"

"Like...ballet?" he asked cautiously. She stared at him flatly.

"No. Hip hop!"

"What in Merlin's saggy balls is hip hop?" Hip hop, he repeated in his head. Hip hop. It made no sense. Hip...and hop? What?!

"Merlin's saggy balls? Bloody hell was that supposed to be a curse?" She was sort of smiling now at least.

"Yes. Now what's hip hop?" he demanded.

"It's a style of dance." she said with an eye roll. A style….but style's were for clothes. Muggles made no bloody sense at all.

"Right." he shrugged.

"And what do you like to do?" She asked him.

"Me? Oh well I suppose I like to spend time with my...friends." Harry was his friend. And Hermione was his...girlfriend? He certainly hoped so, but it wasn't like it mattered because he was going to die anyway. All of those weeks crying in the bathroom had not prepared him for this. Draco was finally going to die.

Hermione

Well first she had been on potions duty. Apparently Death Eaters were complete idiots and needed a teenage girl to tell them how to brew a potion. She didn't even know what the potion was supposed to be used for. They just wanted to know how to crush teeth, and which way was counterclockwise. Honestly. Complete idiots. Not telling them what to do was punishable by death. Shocker.

And now she was being led to another cell. The Death Eater leading her opened the door and shoved her in. She slid to her knees with an umph.

"Hermione!" Draco gasped, hurrying to her. He gathered her in his arms. She lifted her hands to the sides of his face, taking her finger up and down his cheek. Hermione then decided to pull a Harry. Because they were going to die, so might as well have one last excellent make out. She brought her lips to his and their mouths parted. He kissed her once, twice, and she realized she would never have enough of this. Of him. The feel of his lips on hers. His lips parted hers, and his tongue went in in a slow, sinuous twirl and-oh. A warm feeling was pooling throughout her entire body, sending her already frayed nerves into an even deeper frenzy. It helped as Draco pressed himself closer to her, as that was probably the only thing holding her up as their tongues wrapped around each other's. Kissing him felt like it could break open this cell, shatter everything like it was shattering her. She was melting, burning, her heart pulsing throughout her entire body. She was falling. Falling for Draco. Too bad they were going to die before she could love him.

Harry

Bloody hell he'd just gotten his arm chopped off. By Snape. Although it wasn't Snape's fault, no matter how much Harry would have liked to blame it on him. He'd been imperiused by none other than the big bad Bellatrix. And now Snape had passed out. Apparently blood made him squeamish, fascinating.

His arm had been replaced by one that was much like the hand Wormtail possessed, silver and shiny, a shimmering shape that was nothing more than a shadow of what had once been. It had hurt like hell getting the thing chopped off, Snape had used some sort of very long knife, on Voldemort's demand.

"Now it is your turn…" Voldemort's voice rang through the room again. He had still yet to show himself.

"I'm not doing anything you tell me to do." Harry snapped, trying to keep his voice firm.

"Bring out the girl…"

Lucius Malfoy walked into the room with Ginny in his grasp. A fist went around his chest, squeezing and squeezing and squeezing until he could hardly breathe anymore. Ginny.

She was shaking her head wildy, eyes wide and bright.

"Chop off his arm…" Voldemort commanded. Harry's pulse fluttered in his neck, and he felt sweat begin to slide down his back. Bellatrix shoved the same long knife Snape had used on him into his hand.

"Wake him up…" Seriously. He couldn't just chop it off while he was asleep? No of course they had to wake Snape up and then chop off his arm. Merlin above he did not want to do this, but it wasn't like there were any other options.

Bellatrix gave Snape a kick to the ribs and he jolted awake. Harry tried to convey with his eyes how sorry he was. Even though Snape had done the same to him it hadn't been of his own free will. Snape blinked a few times before holding out his arm wordlessly. Harry took a shuddering breath and held up the knife.

Ginny

She wasn't down there anymore, she was free, but no one else was. She didn't want to be free if her friends hadn't escaped with her. And she hadn't even escaped, she'd been rescued, and someone had gone in her place. Her mother was holding her close, shaking her head against Ginny's shoulder.

"My darling, stupid girl." She was murmuring.

Flashback

She was huddled in the corner of her new cell, alone, trying not to think about anything. If she started thinking her thoughts would spiral down and down until she felt completely and utterly hopeless. The door opened and a cloaked figure slipped in. Shit. Was she going to die already? Ginny stood up, shaking slightly. The figure strode towards her, an arm outstretched. They reached her and Ginny took a wild guess and slammed her knees into their crotch. They walked sort of like a man, she thought. Her guess was right as he went down to his knees with a groan. She was about to go for another one when he lifted his hood from his head.

"It's me Ginny." he moaned.

"Oh shit, I'm so sorry professor Lupin." She took in his graying hair and shabby clothes should've given it away damnit! Her detective skills were off, being a guest of Voldemort did that to you, she supposed.

"Good defense." he said with a weak smile. "Give me your hand." She did as she was told.

"What about the others?" she demanded. "Harry and Draco, Her-"

"I'm going to get them out, don't worry. Now I need a strand of your hair." he told her.

"My hair…" She gasped. "You're going to use polyjuice! Professor!" she began to protest.

"We are all going to get out, I just need a strand-"

"You promise." she interrupted. "I don't want to be saved if the others aren't going to be saved too."

Lupin hesitated a moment before nodding. "Okay, I promise. Your hair." She pulled a strand out and handed it to him with a shaking hand. He took it with a nod.

"I'm going to give you a portkey, it's going to take you to the village right above here." Ginny bit down on her lower lip and nodded.

Lupin took out a hair brush from his cloak and handed it to her. She looked in his eyes a moment before the world spun out beneath her and she vanished to the world above.

Harry

He had fallen to the floor, his cheek now pressed against it, the ground was sticky and warm. He wanted to close his eyes and never wake up, or maybe he would finally wake up and this entire year would be nothing more than a nightmare. Harry couldn't believe he'd just chopped off Snape's arm, he tried to block out the screams, the feeling of blood spurting between his fingers and onto the floor...where he was laying now. The floor was covered in blood. He was covered in blood. Harry tried to get up from where he was lying, he slipped and his hands automatically went out to catch him.

He thought he heard laughter in the background as he fell to his knees. His hand shook as he lifted it to brush a strand of head from his forehead. It left a streak of blood on his cheek. Harry stared down at his hands, the blood dripping from his fingers, steady and never ending. The fact that it wasn't even his blood made it even worse. He began to shake, it started in his hands then rocketed through his entire body. Harry wasn't dying, he knew that. But it sure felt like it, looked like it.

"Bring out the others…" A cold air brushed Harry's ear, as if Voldemort was breathing right into it as he spoke. Arms yanked him up from the floor forcefully and walked him to the cauldron. Harry turned his head to where Snape was kneeling, his hand over the stump where his arm had just been. Harry could feel his heartbeat in his ears as Lyra, Draco, and Hermione were all led into the room. Everyone's eyes grew wide at the sight of him. Ginny was still in Lucius' Malfoy's grasp, trying to stomp on his toes to get him to release her.

"I will put him in myself." Voldemort commanded. Through Harry's whirl of panic stricken thoughts one stood out. Put. He was going to be put in that purple sludge mixture that looked like it was boiling now.

Voldemort swept into the room and strode to Harry. His scar began to burn, like it was on fire. The pain was so bad he screwed his eyes shut. Voldemort grabbed his chin and he gasped.

"Finally. I will be the one to destroy Harry Potter. The boy who lived, shall die today." He heard a choking sound from behind them and he opened his eyes to look at where Snape was obviously desperately trying to say something. What he would never know because Voldemort whipped out his wand and began to levitate him. He cried out in surprise as he was lifted into the air. His limbs flailed wildly, trying somehow to stop this from happening.

Voldemort dangled him over the cauldron, his face now only an inch from the boiling purple sludge.

"Perhaps…" Voldemort began. "We should put the Weasley girl in with you. You seem to have taken quite a liking to her." Harry was pretty sure his heart stopped beating all together.

"Bring her over Lucius."

He heard the footsteps of both Ginny and the older Malfoy as they approached the cauldron.

"Awww. Ginny Weasley." Voldemort said slowly. An angry tear traced it's way down Harry's blood stained cheek and into the sludge.

"I'm not Ginny." She said. "I'm bloody Remus Lupin."

And then Voldemort dropped him into the sludge.

A/N Ummmm. So cliffhanger again? This one has been the worst one so far I think XD. So sorry for the gore. It's not even that bad but I was like EWWWW when writing it. And had to write a bit of kissing to just you know, add some flavor to the angst. I don't even know what I'm saying, school is frying my brain. Blame it on Apush. Oh and I'm sorry for the super stupid cheezy falling line about kissing Draco, but they were going to die! And do please review! It always makes me so happy! Okay. See ya Saturday! Oh and look the title actually has meaning! What'd you think about that? Okay okay. Now i'm done.