Chapter 81
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Numb and exhausted from that awful vision, she knew she saw what Nagini saw, and felt what she felt.
She sat in Dumbledore's office, leaning back in her chair with her legs pulled up so she could curl her arms around them and lay her head on her knees. Her face was expressionless as Dumbledore spoke to the portraits on the wall.
Phineas woke up with a grumpy frown. "Did someone call?"
"I need you to visit your other portrait again, Phineas," Dumbledore gave him an unsatisfied look. "I've got another message."
"Visit my other portrait?" He gave a long, extended yawn to emphasise his next point. "Oh no, Dumbledore, I am too tired tonight."
The portraits began an outrage, angry at Phineas' response to Dumbledore's request. Their yelling was strong and forceful. How dare he not help the Headmaster of Hogwarts? Such insubordination! They all were honour bound by their previous roles as Headmasters and mistresses.
Rebekah had her head on her knees, hugging them as the portraits screamed at Phineas. After a minute or so, she had enough. The blood lust she felt from Nagini was still going through her veins and she couldn't keep it to herself for much longer.
"Will you all shut up! " She snapped her head at all of the portraits. "I'm tired, I haven't had a decent night's sleep in twenty eight hours, haven't eaten in twelve, and you're all working on my last nerve! Phineas, get to the house and tell Sirius that Mr Weasley is injured wherever he is. The Weasley family needs to be informed of his injuries before he bleeds out a little too much."
"Thank you, Miss Potter," Dumbledore said, watching her before turning around and pulling his wand out and summoned his Patronus, a beautiful Phoenix that matched Fawks. "I've sent word to the Ministry, there should have been two Aurors with Mr Weasley."
"Dead," Rebekah started but stopped herself as soon as the doors to the office opened again. The remaining Weasley family came into the room, all four dressed in their night clothes along with a determined McGonagall.
"What's going on, Rebekah?" Ginny gasped as she came in with her brothers. "McGonagall said something about you seeing Dad getting hurt?"
Rebekah let Dumbledore answer. She couldn't answer, she was still trying to comprehend what she saw, what she felt, what she wanted to do to Dumbledore as the blood whistled in her head and thumped adrenaline through her system.
"Your father has been injured during the course of his work for the Order of the Phoenix and Ministry," Dumbldore stated without any room for them to interject. "He has been taken to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. I am sending you back to Sirius's house, which is much more convenient for the hospital than the Burrow. You will meet your mother there."
"How are we supposed to get there?" Fred asked.
George suggested, "Floo powder?"
Dumbledore nodded. "You are going straight to hospital. He is waiting there for you. Miss Potter, are you joining them?"
"No," She shook her head and turned her head to the Weasleys. "I've already got plans for Christmas and this won't change them. I hope your father gets better, give him my best wishes in getting healthy."
McGongall had turned the fireplace on, connecting it to the network before nodding to herself and turning back to the four Weasleys. "It is ready to go, Albus."
"Thank you, Minerva," Dumbledore gestured for the Weasleys. "Go on, your mother will be at the hospital already but you will meet Sirius at the other side."
"Thanks, sir," Fred said before taking a handful of Floo powder and shouting for the hospital. The rest of his siblings followed in an orderly manner.
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Twenty minutes later, Rebakah curled in a high back chair with Sirius in the one next to her. McGonagall and Snape were also there. Her hands clasped around a mug of hot chocolate, blanket over her legs and shoulders. She only looked into the hot brown liquid as she recalled what she saw.
"For the last few years I've dreamt only of a version of Tom Riddle," She said, "Every night, every time I fall asleep, I go to this dreamscape that includes myself and a young Tom Riddle before he became Voldemort."
She didn't care that Snape almost hissed at his name.
"He is always my age, but since I've aged because of the Time Turner but remained physically the same, he has grown too. He's been really snippy the last couple of weeks, probably due to the real life version being unhappy," She sipped her hot chocolate. "At each age, he gains more knowledge. He knows more about Magic than he did when he was twelve."
"How old is he now?"
"In his twenties now, I think,"
"This new dream, how was it different from previous ones?" Snape asked.
"Instead of visiting Tom, I became Nagini, or I saw what she did through her eyes." Rebekah wrung her hands together, making the joints click a little. "She was on the ground, slithering and sliding smoothly. She didn't make a sound as she looked around the corridor, seeing everything in a strange array of vibrant colours. At the end of the hall was Mr Weasley, half asleep on the middle chair before a huge door."
"The other Aurors?"
"Dead. She had bitten them when they went for coffee, leaving them on the ground. She didn't want to eat them, hissing about them smelling disgusting. Just as much as she wanted to attack him, she had orders not to but the impulse was strong. When he got up and drew his wand, she had to attack. She struck three times, piercing his throat with her fangs easily and realizing in the blood she spilled. He screamed and screamed, and she just watched as he fell silent on the floor where he slumped into the pooling blood…"
Rebekah sighed as her shoulder ached, she just rubbed at it and hoped the pain and desires to hurt something left her. Her teeth ached, as did her bones. She felt the need to shift but shook it down for now.
"Can I go to bed now?" Rebekah asked, her fingers almost having a bruising grip on her biceps. "I'm exhausted and frankly, I've got a bone to pick with a certain Wizard inside my dreams."
"Are you still going to spend your holidays with the Dursleys?" Sirius asked to which she nodded. "Alright. And your group?"
"Blaise has already spoken to his mother, she says she's willing to say that everyone is staying round hers during the holiday. Keeps Draco, Astoria, Daphne, and Theo out of their houses then."
"And Petunia is alright with having nine teenagers in her house?" Snape raised an eyebrow. "Nine Wixen teenagers?"
"Uncle Vernon is out of town for the holidays, and Dudley has decided to stay at his school for it too," Rebekah said, looking anywhere but at the adults. "I don't want to leave her alone during the holidays, it isn't fair. And besides, she wants to officially meet all of my friends."
"Good luck to her…"
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She couldn't go back to her dorm, not when her friends were so close to there. Even with the ache in her gums and bones, and the hunger in her throat, Rebekah knew if she got near her friends, she wouldn't attack them but she would be tempted.
Rebekah didn't want that temptation.
She sat in the Chamber of Secrets, the fireplace roaring between the ankles of the statue of Salazar Slytherin. Most of the ground was cold and damp, not icy and frozen like the lake outside. It was the middle of december and there were a couple days left before the school term ended.
Legs tucked up, she sat there with her arms around them and her chin on her knees. Dress in nothing but plain shorts and a black tank top, she still couldn't feel the cold leaking into her system.
The creatures around her could see this and knew she wasn't going to do anything else to keep herself warm besides sitting in front of the fireplace. Paladin had to let Emperor curl up around Rebekah first, letting the Familiar keep the Witch warm before he could curl around them too.
Her ankles were cross but her arms still hugged her legs, Enyo sitting between her feet with Fidele wrapped around the mini Dragon. Hedwig was cuddling into her side, annoyed and concerned that she wasn't petting her or even acklowgemeing their presence.
It might have been seconds, perhaps minutes or even hours, but time passed and she turned her head and requested Talpey please find and bring the Mirror of Erised here.
The mirror, in all of its Magical glory that supposedly knew what the heart knew, had changed the reflection and it just made her think.
She started to cry.
The nine members of the Crown sat next to her, all happy, all adults, all grown and together still. They were all on the floor, huddled together like teenagers and best friends till the end of time. Sirius and Remus stood behind them, Snape looking at the group in fake disapproval but there was amusement hidden in his dark eyes. McGonagall just shook her head but said nothing. To one side stood the Dursley family, healthy and happy to see them. To the other was the Malfoy family, no longer as stiff as they were before.
Everyone looked happy, healthy, at home.
Even her creatures were in the background; Emperor, Tercet, Tatia, Hedwig, Fidele, Paladin. She could even see Vibora hiding being Paladin.
Tears pricked, she could see them, and they stuck to her lashes so she had to wipe at them.
"Rebekah?"
She turned her head to see the Crown standing a few metres away. "What are you doing here?"
"Snape said he knew you didn't come back to the dorms, he wanted us to make sure you were alright," Astoria spoke up. "Are you?"
"I'm not," The tears welled again. "I'm really not. I had Voldemort inside of my head. He possessed Nagini and I could see what she was doing. She killed two Aurors and almost killed Mr Weasley. It was as if I was her and I can't shake the… the hunger off."
"Is that why you came down here instead of the dorms?"
She kept her gaze away. "I have bloodlust and I almost attacked Dumbledore because of it."
"You didn't though,"
"I almost did!" She shook in anger at herself. "I could have and it scares me that I had a moment of weakness. Weakness is what gets me killed."
She didn't realise how close they got, taking steps closer as she refused to look at them.
"You really think you're alone in this?" Draco scoffed and suddenly got closer to her. "Move over. I have known you since First year. You are not weak, Rebekah. You literally had me almost disowned from our group because I was being a bigot and a racist. You forced me to change because I value your friendship, our friendship over traditions that my father and his father taught him."
"You're just less of a bigot now," Rebekah whispered, wiping her tears as the rest of the group moved around until they sat with their backs against the huge snake behind them.
Paladin knew to keep his eyes closed when they were in here, he didn't want to hurt them.
He was a protector, but so was Rebekah.
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