Chapter 25: Dream Rune, Part 1: The Eyes of Odin

With everyone having arrived on the island, the trip to the Balkans went on. Narcissa was mostly stuck in the kitchen for the first day. Hildegard had offered to help with meals, seeing as this house was hers and everyone was technically her guests. The Dark Lord took the burden of cleanup away from them.

They reached the Strait of Dover toward the end of the day. Narcissa was a little nervous about it. Surely by now, the alarm had been raised in London about Scrimgeour and Azkaban. If the Ministry figured out that they were using the island to move around, they could be cut off here.

The Dark Lord had eyes on the space around the island when Narcissa went to bed. Nothing had happened by the time she woke up. They were still in the English Channel, but wouldn't be for much longer.

When Narcissa got up on Sunday morning, Britain had vanished below the horizon behind them. They were heading south again, due to start the day and a half journey across the Bay of Biscay. Reaching that checkpoint finally allowed everyone to lower the raised guard. They were in the clear.

A sleepy atmosphere fell over the island. Narcissa herself was sleeping deeper at night, and found it easy despite everything to feel some sort of relaxation. She had come full circle about Lucius, ignoring him the same way he ignored her. Wes kept to himself as well, Narcissa guessed for the sake of peace. According to Bella, Lucius had figured them out. Narcissa refused to hold her breath on what would come of that.

By Sunday evening, land had vanished in every direction from the island. The sun set around six o'clock where they were, which made it ideal timing for Narcissa to head out to the west-facing beach after dinner. Hildegard joined her, and Lys tagged along.

"You really learn to appreciate the simple things, don't you?" Hildegard asked Narcissa as the purple sky started to darken. "My cell window was on the northside of Azkaban. No sunsets, no sunrises, no direct sunlight."

"Yeah." Narcissa paused, thinking. "If you like the sun so much, then why pick a place for Chelone that spent two months in darkness? I guess I get it for the summer, but. . ."

Hildegard pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth as she considered Narcissa. "Any plans tonight?"

Narcissa shook her head. "Just a bath before turning in later. Why?"

"We could pop by Vann's pond on the way back to the house and get some mud if you're still interested in the dream rune."

"Sure."

"Let's go then, before it gets dark."

The beach wasn't bad for that, but the forest sure was. Narcissa held hands with Lys, along with Hildegard. Her guidance kept them from tripping. With a swipe of mud in hand, they carried on from Vann's pond to the house. Hildegard led Narcissa upstairs to her room.

Narcissa felt a bit like a teenaged girl as the two of them sat on the edge of Hildegard's bed. Rather than something like makeup being put on Narcissa's face, Hildegard drew something on her forehead. She was a lot more confident about placing a rune than Narcissa had been.

"Are you ready?" Hildegard asked.

"Whenever you are," Narcissa replied.

Nerves fluttered in Narcissa's stomach as Hildegard's irises luminesced. Hildegard raised two fingers to Narcissa's forehead. When she touched the rune, nausea briefly passed over Narcissa as Hildegard and her room disappeared from view.

Narcissa was downstairs in the library. A bright afternoon came in through the windows. The room was small—smaller than it had been when it was only Narcissa, Bella, Wes, and the Dark Lord on the island.

Hildegard sat at the table. She looked a lot like she used to before deteriorating in Azkaban. Her hair was long again and pulled back into a plait similar to what Dagmar commonly wore. Hildegard looked a little younger, maybe as if she was around thirty.

She used a black feather to write on some parchment. It was more of the strange language that Narcissa had seen in the library. Hildegard reached the bottom, reread what she'd written, and stood with it still in hand. She rolled it up and put it on one of the shelves. Stretching her arms for the ceiling, Hildegard arched her back and sighed. She glanced out the window, then looked again with her brow furrowed.

Someone in a white dress similar to the one Hildegard wore was running at full speed toward the house. Narcissa figured Lys, but she'd certainly never seen Lys act like that. Someone else broke free of the tree line, similarly in white and running like the first one. Narcissa furrowed her brow. This seemed to confuse Hildegard too. She left the library and headed for the front door. She came out onto the front porch as the first white-clad figure approached.

Narcissa blinked as the girl came close enough to see. It wasn't Lys—well, Lys was pulling up the rear. The first girl looked just like a teenaged Dagmar. Her face was drained of colour.

"What's up with you two?" Hildegard asked. Even though she spoke in the clicking and hissing language, Narcissa could understand her now.

"Something's come up onto the island." The girl even sounded like Dagmar, although she was out of breath. "I saw it, and Lys can't stop it. Neither can Vann."

"What is it?"

"Metal."

Hildegard looked toward the tree line, gaze searching. Nothing was there. She looked back at the girl. "In the house with you, then. Lys, protect her."

"All right," Lys agreed with a nod. She put an arm around the girl's and led her past Hildegard into the foyer. They closed the door behind them. After a short, muffled scramble on the other side, everything fell quiet again.

Hildegard moved to the edge of the porch. A breeze picked up. Under a blue sky and bright sun, Narcissa could see how maybe Hildegard had a difficult time believing anything was wrong. Hildegard was just as leisurely moving down the steps. She looked around in every direction, waiting.

Narcissa saw it before Hildegard, her stomach dropping even if there was no danger for her in the situation. Something black glinted in the sunshine. Hildegard started walking toward it.

The black was armour. It looked like plates to Narcissa, and sharp in places. Points rose off the shoulders and poked out from places like the elbow, knees, and then the temples of the helmet. It carried a mace. It started in a jog across the clearing.

"I don't suppose there's any point asking why you're here?" Hildegard called out to it.

She spoke in a different language, one that at least sounded human. When it garnered no response, Hildegard huffed as if annoyed. Her eyes luminesced, and she pointed two fingers at the figure. Green light jetted across the clearing. It hit the figure square in the chest and broke like foam on the beach.

Hildegard's eyes went wide before luminescing again. She tried the Killing Curse again, to no avail. A Stunning Spell went next. No matter what Hildegard sent at it, the figure continued its quickening advance.

It was big. Narcissa hadn't realized with distance, but it stood at least seven feet tall. Hildegard took a few steps back toward the house before a crack of the air around where she stood preceded her suddenly having moved fifty feet toward the side of the clearing. The figure altered trajectory, but didn't slow down.

Hildegard's eyes luminesced again. The sun seemed to grow brighter with it, enough that the clearing had to disappear behind Narcissa's cracked eyelids. It verged on painful.

"Is there nothing to say that could soothe you?" When Hildegard said that in the clicking and hissing language, something about each syllable lulled Narcissa toward calmness. "Nothing that could stop you?"

That didn't work either. Hildegard kept moving around the clearing, buying herself time, but the figure just kept coming. Hildegard was leading it in circles. While she did, the day dimmed and Narcissa felt static in the air. The figure showed no sign of noticing. When a new breeze picked up, the hair on Narcissa's arms went up as the air brushed them.

Hildegard shifted across the clearing again. As soon as she did, she raised two pointed fingers toward the sky and caught a strike of lightning. Her skin glowed with it, her eyes turning completely white. Still, the figure ran on toward her. Hildegard lashed at it, sending the lightning across the clearing. It cracked upon contact. The figure fell backwards as Hildegard emptied her body of all the stored energy.

She heaved for breath afterward, sweating profusely. Hildegard barely even reacted as the figure stood up again. It had flung its mace. It returned to the figure's hand as if recalled with a Summoning Charm. It continued its advance on Hildegard, slowed to a walking pace. Narcissa couldn't tell if that was the result of being hit, or if it was just aware that it had won by fatigue.

Hildegard trembled, her head tilting further and further back as it approached. With them side by side, the figure was probably closer to nine feet tall. It extended its mace to the side of Hildegard's head, lining up.

"Why?" Hildegard asked.

She didn't get a response. The figure drew its arm back.

Before it could connect with Hildegard's head, Narcissa clenched her eyes shut. The air changed slightly, and the ground underneath Narcissa's feet felt more solid. Someone gasped nearby.

Narcissa was in Dagmar's old bedroom. She recognized the layout from when she'd slept in there before, although the bed was more suited to a teenager than a toddler. Lys and the girl that looked like Dagmar were sitting on the edge of the bed. The girl turned wide eyes on Lys.

Lys' brow wrinkled. "It's you, isn't it?"

"It killed me." Hildegard stood. "I don't know that it's going to stop, either. I'm not sure what to do."

"Who do you think sent it?" Lys followed her out of the room.

"Not a clue." Hildegard glanced back over her shoulder. "Could be anybody, really. Maybe the wrong person died here, and this is revenge. A death golem. . .that's powerful magic."

"How do you stop it?"

Hildegard hesitated at the bottom of the stairs. Rather than go out the front door, she headed back toward the kitchen. She quickly peeked out a window before stepping onto the back porch, Lys in tow. Hildegard crept silently down the steps.

"The only thing it seemed to react to was force," Hildegard whispered to Lys. "It's not technically alive. It won't react to anything that targets that."

"So what are you going to do?" Lys stayed close to Hildegard as she peered next around the corner of the house."

"Break it," Hildegard replied.

They came around to the front of the house. Where Hildegard had been before, there laid a white form speckled red. The death golem had moved on. What looked like scalp and strands of hair clung to its mace as it advanced toward the house.

Hildegard stepped away from the corner. Her eyes luminesced again, and she held a flat palm in front of her. The air waved in front of it like on a hot day. Even though the death golem continued its unwavering advance, Hildegard didn't let that bother her. Lys seemed to fret enough for both of them, crouched down with her fingers over her eyes. When the air in front of Hildegard's hand reached a certain opacity, she stepped forward and punched the area.

A sonic boom made Narcissa jump, along with Lys. The ground pulled up where the energy passed over. When it hit the death golem, pieces of armour scattered like ashes in a breeze. They landed all about the yard.

Everything went still again.

"Lys," Hildegard said to get her attention.

"Yes?" She was still shaking.

"Go get Vann, will you?"

Lys skittered off, taking a wide berth around the destroyed death golem. Hildegard headed toward its helmet. She poked it with her toe. The mace was nearby. She picked it up with a grunt. Holding it forlornly, Hildegard studied it. Near the bottom of the shaft, there was a marking etched in red light. Hildegard scratched it with her thumbnail. When she broke the circle enclosing it, the light faded away. Hildegard let the mace fall over after its head thudded against the ground.

She headed over to her old body. It was a grizzly sight. Narcissa stared at the mess of hair, blood, and grey matter that replaced where Hildegard's head had one been.

Lys returned with Vann. The two of them looked at Hildegard's old body with similar grimaces.

Hildegard met Vann's gaze. "Would you two take the parts of that thing to your pond? Take them deep. I broke the rune that animated it. It won't get up again."

Vann started off toward the closest piece of armour, but Lys lingered. "Do you need any help with your body?"

"No, it's okay." Hildegard sighed. "I can handle it."

That didn't mean it wasn't a nasty job. Hildegard's nose wrinkled as she levitated what remained intact and headed for the path leading to the graveyard. The sky had cleared, and the breeze had turned nice again. The latter fluttered through the field's grass as Hildegard set her body down near where the Dark Lord had buried his.

Hildegard dropped down beside her old body as if suddenly exhausted. Bent over her lap, her shoulders trembled. Hildegard held her head as a sob sounded from behind her hair.

Narcissa wanted to rest a hand on her as comfort. If Hildegard had taken over this girl's body the same way the Dark Lord had Dagmar's, that was quite a loss for Hildegard. At some point, through the snotty and tearful mess that had become Hildegard's face, she found enough strength to sink her old body into a makeshift grave.

Hildegard stayed afterward. Eventually, Lys found her there.

"It's all done," Lys told her. "Are you okay?"

"I will be." Hildegard sniffled. "I didn't feel anything, but poor Dagmar. I'll miss her."

Lys hugged Hildegard. "It'll feel like no time at all before she's back. Better that than both of you going that way. How awful."

Hildegard nodded, lips trembling. She rested her head against Lys and let herself be gently rocked into some sort of comfort. With it, Hildegard seemed to grow tired.

The day melted away, turning to night. Hildegard was back at the house, up in her room. She wore a nightshirt and sat on the bed. Even after seeing everything that Narcissa had, she had a hard time reconciling this vulnerable girl—this child—to Hildegard. She supposed that would be a lot harder if she didn't already know it was possible for Dagmar's body to act as a conduit for souls in transfer.

Hildegard eased back against the bed's headboard and folded her legs. She rested her left hand palm-up on her knee. Her eyes luminesced, and light similar in colour started running down her arm. Hildegard's pinky twitched when it reached her hand. Two orbs manifested and danced slowly around each other. Hildegard's eyelids half-closed under weight of her focus. Almost mindlessly, her right hand slipped under the bottom of her nightshirt. It rested on her lower abdomen. One of the orbs broke form. Like stellar debris being pulled off by a black hole, wisps of it travelled back up Hildegard's left arm and down the right.

A sigh ended Hildegard's concentration. The room returned to darkness around her, spare what the moon provided. Hildegard laid down. Her attempt to sleep came with a confusing onslaught of images, broken by Hildegard jolting out of slumber. She kept dreaming about the death golem. Every time she woke up, she was more drenched in sweat than the last time.

Hildegard merely resigned to getting up in the morning. Narcissa followed her out of the house. They'd barely stepped into the forest when Lys caught up.

"You look like you barely slept," Lys said.

"I didn't," Hildegard replied. "Not very well, anyway."

"I'd be surprised if you did."

"This can't happen again." Hildegard looked at her. "I have no idea who sent that thing, and if they know it didn't manage. We at least know how to handle it, I guess. Still, I'm going to have Chelone move us somewhere else for a while. The golem just came up on shore, or what? How did it get here?"

"Dagmar and I were just walking along the beach when it came out of the water," Lys said. "It started toward us right away. I tried to lure it off, but it wouldn't listen. Didn't care about Vann's music. It really wasn't alive?"

Hildegard shook her head. "A construct."

"You think moving will prevent another one coming?"

"It would make us harder to find, at least." Hildegard pulled the shawl tighter around her as a cool breeze came up. "I think I would also like some kind of warning system for the island. I might try and see where that golem came from."

"How?"

"I'm not totally sure. Maybe just start by seeing what exactly is going on in the world beyond our island. We can't really afford to live in ignorant isolation anymore. It could've just as easily been Dagmar bludgeoned to death yesterday. Or you, or Vann. I can't have that happen."

Hildegard and Lys ended up where Chelone's head was. Chelone untucked it the same way Narcissa had witnessed when the Dark Lord woke her up, and seemed to understand without spoken word where Hildegard wanted her to go.

Hildegard shivered again as they started to move. "We might as well head south anyway. It's starting to get cold."

"True enough," Lys agreed. "I'm a little chilled in the mornings."

Hildegard walked toward the water's edge and let out a long, low whistle. It got caught in the wind, almost as if it twirled around like a leaf. Eventually, something small and black appeared in the sky. When it flew closer, Hildegard held her arm out. Narcissa wouldn't have trusted the raven's claws, but it seemed to be cautious in how it balanced itself on Hildegard's forearm.

Hildegard's eyes luminesced, and she ran a finger over the raven's head. As she did, its right eye turned blue to match hers. The raven took off, circling above.

Lys had taken a seat in the sand. "That's all you have to do, then?"

"Mhm," Hildegard confirmed. "It'll alert me if anything seems off once it has an idea what's normal for us. I can also look through its eyes anytime I care to."

"Handy."

Hildegard's memories took on a more dream-like tone after that. Narcissa stood as a spectator to the passage of time. The island seemed to grow warm again as Chelone resettled somewhere closer to the equator. Hildegard spent a lot of time on the beach, charming raven after raven to act as her eyes beyond the island. Narcissa could tell when Hildegard was looking through one of them because only her right eye would luminesce. Hildegard seemed to be sleeping better. As the days after being attacked by the death golem turned into weeks, Hildegard started paying more attention to her lower abdomen. There was an instance after getting out of the bath that she stood in front of the mirror and rubbed it. A bump was starting to grow there.

It was a little strange for Narcissa to watch a fourteen year old girl approach pregnancy so maturely and matter-of-factly. When Hildegard's bump was quite large, her age got addressed between her and Lys. They were walking along the beach together, Hildegard rubbing her lower back.

"I've never given birth this young before," Hildegard said to Lys. "I hope it'll be okay."

"Nervous?" Lys asked.

"A little. I want it to be over more than anything else."

Narcissa remembered feeling that way. Like with the death golem, she worried for Hildegard even though she knew everything had to turn out fine. It didn't mean Narcissa grimaced any less when Hildegard's memories took her to the upstairs bathroom. Hildegard laid in the bath, shifting as if trying to get comfortable. If her face wasn't screwed up in agony and discomfort, Narcissa would've guessed that she sweat because the water was too warm.

Hildegard moved carefully as she climbed out. She barely bothered to dry off before throwing her nightshirt on. Back in her bedroom, she paced back and forth.

"Come on," she whispered under her breath. "You are one angry-feeling little girl."

Narcissa would've laughed if she wasn't so empathetic to the discomfort Hildegard was experiencing. She didn't remember it for herself, but something in Hildegard's expression hit home. Narcissa couldn't imagine doing this all alone. Even with Lucius beside her while delivering Draco, Narcissa had been terrified by how much pain one body could possibly feel.

Hildegard moved things around on the bed, shifting pillows here and there. She tried to get comfortable, and seemed to find some success on all fours with pillows under her stomach. Hildegard buried her face in another one. It muffled her laboured breathing, grunts, and groans. Finally, after what felt like forever, she reached down between her legs. Narcissa's eyes widened as the crowned head gave. With the shoulders past, there was nothing stopping Dagmar from finding purchase against Hildegard's forearm.

With that, Hildegard's body trembled and she very weakly laid down on her side. She brought Dagmar up against her chest with shaking hands. Her eyes luminesced briefly, and Dagmar's mouth opened to allow a small amount of fluid to float out. She started to cry after that.

"Aw, hello," Hildegard said, her expression melting as Dagmar idly punched the air. "Welcome back, my girl."

Dagmar quietened when Hildegard offered her a breast. From there, Hildegard's memories took on a dreamlike quantity again. Instead of a bump on Hildegard's belly used as an indicator for time passing, now Narcissa watched Dagmar go from being a newborn to a baby, and then into her toddler years. In all that time, Hildegard still occasionally tapped into the eyes of her ravens.

Time slowed its passage when Dagmar was around four or five years old. Hildegard and Lys sat outside on the front steps, watching her chase a couple butterflies with a small net.

"I think I heard about someone who might know about that death golem," Hildegard told Lys.

"Oh?" Lys waved back at Dagmar.

"There's a lot of chitter on the mainland here about a powerful wizard," Hildegard replied. "He's young, but ambitious. He's also not from this region originally. He's here to learn."

Lys bunched her lips in thought. "Do you think he sent it?"

"Doubt it, but I'm not completely sure at this point." Hildegard twirled some hair absently around her fingers. "I'll keep an eye on him, anyway. I won't risk reaching out until I'm certain about that much."

Time marched on again. Hildegard kept an eye on the man she'd mentioned. It didn't surprise Narcissa that it was the Dark Lord. He was indeed young, and still in the body he'd been born into. Sight through the ravens' eyes didn't give much hint of what he was up to at the time, although other familiar faces appearing at his side rooted Narcissa in a sense of time. Bella, Rod, Amycus, and Antonin joining him placed this all in the late sixties.

Meanwhile, Dagmar sprouted like a weed on the island. She grew taller. Around the time she was nine or ten, Hildegard put the same runes on her like she wore. Dagmar's unbridled magical abilities began to focus with it. As she neared her teenaged years, glimmers of the rebellion that accompanied that stage of life started to show. She sought independence, bickered with Hildegard over silly things, and slept nearly half the day.

On one such morning when Dagmar slept in, Hildegard and Lys walked the beach alone and discussed the Dark Lord again.

"He's a Parselmouth," Hildegard told Lys. "I could actually talk to him rather than use Legilimency."

"That's much more convenient," Lys replied. "I don't suppose he'd speak even your first tongue, huh?"

Hildegard shook her head. "He's English, not Norse. Even if we were from the same side of the sea, I don't recognize any languages I hear in Scandinavia anymore. They've changed since I lived among wizards. They've even changed since I had my clan."

"It's certainly been a while." Lys rubbed Hildegard's back.

"I'm thinking about going to see him, anyway," Hildegard said. "My only concern is the people he's with. They might think I'm trying to hurt him. He's been trying to help creatures that get treated the same way I did. If the wizarding councils aren't after him already, they will be soon enough. They don't like that."

"No, they don't."

Whether it was that same day or just sometime in the near future, day dissolved to night. Dagmar was being snippy and grumpy before stomping her way up to bed. A little while later, Hildegard headed outside. Lys sat on the front steps.

"You're sure you don't want me to come with you?" she asked.

"I'd rather you be here in case Dagmar wakes up," Hildegard replied. "She might be scared if both of us are gone and nobody can tell her where we went."

"All right."

Hildegard headed to the beach. She closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she was looking at the island from the mainland. On this side of the water, Hildegard looked a little anxious.

Hildegard headed inland through the trees. Her right eye alone glowed blue, and Narcissa caught a glimpse of a raven up above the tree canopies. Hildegard was using it to guide her to wherever the Dark Lord had made a camp. Soon enough, tents and a decently-sized fire appeared through the trees. Hildegard released her druidic hold on the raven and crept forward of her own accord.

She stopped shy of where the fire's light reached. Hildegard's eyes luminesced again. When she exhaled, something strange happened at the camp. Bella slumped over first, then all the others. The Dark Lord stood, the laugh he'd just been sharing with everyone gone from his expression. Something like black film fell over the area, although Narcissa could still see through it.

The Dark Lord reached into his pocket for his wand. He stood completely still, listening. Hildegard stepped up so quietly toward the edge of the small clearing that he didn't seem to notice her footsteps.

"Voldemort?" she addressed him in Parselmouth.

The Dark Lord's eyes narrowed. "Who's asking?"

"My name's Hildegard. I'd like to speak with you."

The Dark Lord sent a beam of green light in Hildegard's general direction. It missed her by about ten feet. Hildegard rolled her eyes before her gaze drilled into the Dark Lord again. Like everyone else before him, he slumped to the ground.

Hildegard lifted the shroud that covered the area. She came up closer, looked around at all the Death Eaters, and levitated the Dark Lord. As a second thought, she picked up his wand. He floated beside Hildegard on her way out of the clearing, back toward where she'd come from.