---
He did love her. It was the kind of love that made him sick to his stomach yet
giddy with pleasure...It commanded him and ruled his senses. It was cruel with it's sweetness and
merciless with it's beauty.
...Immortal, yet not ageless. Eternal life without eternal Youth, surely one of the
most bitter poisons.
|HPTC-Midnight Star|
---
Part 13- Carpe Diem
Imperial Alley, just after their meeting with the Fae Queen...
Albus Dumbledore led Cornelius Fudge out of the fog. He glanced briefly at Harry and the others. A thoughtful look came upon his face but he did not ask him a single question. His half-moon spectacles glinted in the moonlight.
Chaos looked up, it was already dark. Yet they had spent but twenty or twenty five minutes in the enchanted fog. Time probably works differently there. She reasoned.
Harry looked up to ask Dumbledore a question but his glance met a deserted alleyway. Dumbledore and Fudge had already Disapparated. They still had half the night and most of the next morning till they could safely return. Draco had hoped to travel on brooms by day and rest nearby Hogwarts by night.
The dark made the plan impossible. Harry was glad of the Nights' gloomy embrace, for it masked his expression. He had looked within himself and he had found what the Fae Queen had said. He did love her. It was the kind of love that made him sick to his stomach yet giddy with pleasure.
It commanded him and ruled his senses. It was cruel with it's sweetness and merciless with it's beauty. Harry told himself that he would refuse the Queen's offer. He would be honourable, he would live and die a mortal- yet even that was impossible- he was already immortal.
In his heart of hearts he knew that he would drink the Draught. The price of not sipping the elixir would be to live decrepit and shrivelled for eternity. Immortal, yet not ageless. Eternal life without eternal Youth, surely one of the most bitter poisons.
He caught Fleur smiling at him out of the corner of his eye. He smiled back blandly, the mortal world seemed of so little consequence. The loves and losses and petty tribulations truly meant nothing. Life itself was a meaningless exercise in self-fulfillment, gluttony and greed.
He felt like screaming in feral rage, his hands shook and mind felt as if it was on fire. He felt hopeless, torn...a traveller between forbidden worlds.
Yet he smiled at Fleur Delacour.
---
||
The Plane of the Trident, while the Queen talks to Harry
Gravero Gryffindor regarded the scene with an expressionless face. He could almost see Azaelyste glance upward at him. The planes were layered like a sandwich, one on top of the other, rimmed by primeval chaos. It had been a difficult concept to grasp in the beginning. Everything Gravero had been taught fought against it.
He could accept Magic, for it could easily be explained by the laws of Physics and Neurology. It was a known fact that humans use only upto ten percent of their brains. Magically receptive people simply used more. Wizards were the next step in the chain of Human Evolution.
Yet Darwins greatest flaw was regarding Evolution as linear. Perhaps it was, upto man, but humanity changed it all. A rational, sentient being with the ability to alter it's surroundings.
By all rules of Natural Selection, Wizardkind should have slowly infiltrated, weakened and finally taken over from normal man. Yet the opposite had happened. Magically receptive beings were shunned, hunted and killed.
The only way Wizardkind could preserve themselves was to dilute their blood with common man. So as the aeons tumbled away, wizards slowly came to resemble Muggles. Now wizards only used eight percent more of their brains, whereas ten millennia ago it was twenty percent. So as the world progressed, magic became weaker. Wizards now required their wands to do anything but the simplest magic. The Fae wrapped themselves in Enchanted Mist to avoid pollution of their species and retreated to a higher plane.
Gravero shook himself out of his ramblings. A visit was in order.
---
||
The Plane of the Fae, the group has just departed...
High Empress Azaelyste let her head droop. Her eyes were bright and sparkling, like polished gems, but hard like them also. Her face relaxed from the regal stiffness which she usually held it in.
She felt as if she was going to be sick. That boy had looked so much like Gravero...he had brought back beautiful memories. Achingly beautiful, especially now. Immortal life as the ruler of her kingdom was not enchanting, as most people thought, but rather stupefyingly boring.
The only period when she had enjoyed herself, apart from her youth, had been when Gravero and his friends were alive. They were unlike ordinary mortals, and often visited her in the lonely Kingdom of the Fae.
So many myths and legends were woven around the land, that Azaelyste sometimes felt the Kingdom ephemeral. It sometimes felt as if it really wasn't real, and that she was merely a figment of someone's colourful imagination.
But there were also times she felt starkly real. Three of her visitors had reminded her of the Trident; Hermione, Draco and Harry. She wondered if their lives would turn out like the old Trident.
Certainly it seemed as if it was going that way. Azaelyste had sensed that Hermione was with the pale Sorceror. She smiled and remembered how Helaine Wrathstorme had loved Daemersgrale Mortragen. They had loved each other with deep, passionate- such intense love. Then something happened.
Azaelyste didn't even know what- none of the three had ever breathed a word of it. But after that time, Helaine and Daemersgrale stopped smiling. Helaine drifted back to Gryffindor, they were friends of old. And even though Gravero was promised to her, Azaelyste, he had loved Helaine with deep loyalty. Azaelyste didn't understand how friendship could be so powerful.
Helaine had come to need Gravero, and in the end they had married. Gravero had forsaken the Empress for his friend. Azaelyste had been so enraged that she had forbidden him access to the Fae Kingdom. She had never seen him since then.
In her mind, she had offered him Immortal Love and he had refused. Harry Potter would be hers. She had waited a thousand eternities- she would not wait another.
"Zael."
She looked up, only one person had ever called Zael... "Gravero."
"How are you?"
"I am sure you know, for you picked exactly this time to call upon me after- oh, I scarce remember- four millennia?" Her voice was the acerbic and bitter tone of the jilted lover.
"Please, Zael, forgive me. My loyalties were to Helaine. She needed me, Zael, she needed me." Gravero said, intensely.
She looked straight into his eyes. "And I didn't?"
Gravero faltered, at a loss. "But Zael- you're...strong- you're a queen. You're a survivor...Helaine's not."
"Yes, I am an Empress, I am an High Elf, I am a Ruler of a great Kingdom....But I am- or was- also just a girl- asking to be loved. And...you said no."
Hermione enchanted a fire with a flick of her wand. It exuded warmth and light, but didn't burn the wood floor. The group had decided to pass the night at the Shrieking Shack, as it was quite close to the school. They had simply Apparated in, no questions asked. Chaos was in a trance-like sleep on the bed.
The thunder rumbled and the lightning illuminated the shack eerily for a short second. Harry wished he had a mug of tea- and then realised he could just conjure one up. They group eased themselves onto the dusty floor around the fire.
"Hey, I've got an idea- to pass the time, you know-" Hermione smiled, her eyes glittering mischievously. "Let's play truth or dare."
"Fine- it's just everyone has to be completely truthful, whatever it's about." Draco said, in a serious tone. "And never breathe a word of it ever again or to anyone else."
Harry looked doubtful, but Fleur laughed easily. "It will be fun. I do not know both of you very well, and Draco has never told me any of ze secrets." She glanced at Harry. "Harry will play also."
"Let's not do dares, okay? Truth is much more interesting." Draco smiled.
"Okay...um, I'll go first, shall I?" Hermione said. "Harry-" Hermione smiled rather evilly, as if savouring every second of time. "Are you a virgin?"
Harry looked mortified. "Hermione!" He gasped.
She laughed. "Answer the question, Harry."
Harry glanced at Draco before answering. "This is all your fault, you know, you've corrupted her."
"What can I say, I'm a bad influence."
Harry was torn between wanting to seem 'macho' and wanting to tell the truth. "Yeah."
"Kay, who did you come closest with?" She asked, eyes twinkling.
"Hey, that's two questions! It's not fair."
"Sod fair, answer the question, Potter." Draco interjected.
"Yes, 'Arry, answer."
"Ginny- Ginny Weasley." He said, looking slightly embarrassed. "Look, don't tell Ron, will you?"
"Course not, but Harry, you never went out with her." Hermione said.
"Yeah, well, Lavender and I had just broken up and I was feeling down...you know how it is. I didn't mean to go as far as I did." Harry drummed his fingers on the floor nervously. "I apologised, told her it would never happen again and-"
"And asked Cho Chang out." Hermione finished. Harry had a hurt expression on his face.
"It wasn't like that! Ginny and me have no common interests-"
"Except snogging, don't forget the snogging, Potter." Draco reminded him.
"Look, it was a mistake. Draco, what about you- are you a virgin?" He said quickly, to shift attention.
Draco shifted uncomfortably. "No."
Hermione tried to appear unconcerned. "Aha, so tell us yours, starting with the first."
Draco looked even more uncomfortable. "If you want to know, Potter, I don't remember, I was bloody drunk at the time. I don't even think I meant to-"
Harry wasn't even fazed. "That doesn't count, what about the next ones?"
"Um, Parry- Parthenope, she was the second one."
"Any more?" Hermione studied her nails.
"One." Draco said with difficulty. "Pansy Parkinson."
"Whatever happened to her? She left the middle of the year." Harry said. "Not that I miss her or anything..."
"She's dead." Draco replied, contrite. "Her whole family. Parkinson tried to defect and Voldemort found out. My father threw them all off the cliffs after Voldemort murdered them."
The room grew silent. The matter of fact way in which Draco said that three people had been murdered at his house was chilling.
"Fleur, your turn. Dish the dirt on your many suitors." Draco said, dispelling the pall of gloom.
"My first was zis boy- Antoine. He was sweet. Ah- after zat Roger Davies, from your school- we went out for six months after ze Tournament. Zen Bill- Bill Weasley, ah, he was a cool one." Fleur said, remembering the whole year Bill and she had been an item. "Zen Damien, and zat is all." She smiled at a flabbergasted Harry. "Ah, 'Ermionay, now you tell us."
Hermione didn't smile. "I came pretty close with-" She coloured slightly. " Viktor Krum and um, Dean Thomas. Remember, we went out after Lavender broke up with him to go out with you?" She told Harry.
"Don't I? He wouldn't talk to me for a month."
"My turn again- Draco-" She stopped, her smile dissipating. "You must be truthful."
"Aren't I always?"
"Draco-" Her voice had faded to a whisper. "Have you ever- killed anyone?"
"You mean myself...or by my inaction?"
"Both."
"I have watched my father, the Death Eaters and Voldemort kill countless people. People you might even know. Ministry people, important people who refused Voldemort and defectors. These years, like the beginning years of Voldemort's ascent, have been marked with disappearances and killings. I've seen most of them." He stopped.
"But I have killed myself- before, before everything...my father used to make me kill the prisoners for training." His face was set in stone. "It feels like- nothing. I never knew those people, they weren't exactly human to me, you know? They were alive, but I never identified with them. Maybe I would have felt remorse if I had known their family and their friends."
"I'm not proud of it, but I feel no remorse. I didn't care. There is no power in killing. There is no power in death. Nobody's afraid of death, per se, they're just afraid of not living."
---
||
Just outside the shrieking shack...
Draco walked in silence. Hermione followed him. He spun around suddenly.
"Do I scare you, Mia?"
Hermione hesitated but stiffened her resolve. "Sometimes, Draco, yes."
"Why?"
"Because you're so wonderful to me, but so ruthless to everyone else. You're so contrasting, Draco. It's like you've got a split personality, one is Draco Malfoy...and the other Sorceror Valwracen."
"I'm not asking if you will love me after the war, Mia. I'm asking if you can. Can you ever love Sorceror Valwracen?"
"I- don't know. One thing I do know, Draco, love is not only blind, but completely insane. It shows up in the oddest of places. All I understand is that I love you now. Tomorrow's much too bleak. Live for today."
"Carpe diem." Draco whispered, drawing closer. "Seize the day."
He kissed her.
---
||
In front of Hogwarts, the Graduation ceremony is nearly complete...
Fleur looked around for Padma, Ron, Sirius and Lupin. They were supposed to meet them at this spot, in fact, they were five minutes overdue. The crunching sound of footfalls on the soft, leafy earth rang out behind her. She turned with a welcoming smile on her face.
"Padma- mon dieu! What is wrong?" Padma's clothes looked disheveled, her right cheek had a fearsome deep yellow-purple bruise on it and her face was tear-streaked. "Harry, Draco, come quickly!" She called, behind her.
"What- Padma, Ron, are you alright?" Harry exclaimed, seeing Ron in the same condition behind her.
"Draco, Harry- I'm so...sorry." Tears ran down her face afresh. "They attacked us in the night- someone had tipped them off. They just- just came in and started destroying...everything. They found Ron and me in the Library and tied us up. I refused to tell him where the others were so-"
"Who's 'him'?" Draco asked sharply.
"Lucius Malfoy." Ron said, grimly. His voice shook, but he was much calmer. He was holding his left arm and wincing. "He hit her, so I tried punching him out with my left."
"Never a good choice. Father's got lots of practice defending himself." Draco remarked.
"I noticed. Unfortunately he caught my arm and- dislocated it, I think. So then all these Death Eaters go barging through the house. They found Lupin- he was with Sirius. They tied them up and they- they took them, Harry- both of them."
"Then I managed to do a Summoning Spell without my wand and call it to me. I snapped the ropes and we rushed upstairs to Narcissa." Padma's face twisted and she sobbed softly then stopped. "You-Know-Who was already in there. He was talking to her real calm and all. Saying some stuff about your sister and her father. I wasn't listening- but then she said 'never' in this really clear voice. I think he put a Lucidity Charm on her. He got all crazy and just freaked. He started pacing the room and threatening her. Then he said he'd make her drink VeritaSerum, he had this vial of it. Then she said 'you'll never know' and then she- she...."
Padma wiped her eyes. "She took her wand and- Draco, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry- she killed- herself."
Draco was surreally calm. His eyes glittered menacingly and his face had hardened irrevocably. He slowly stepped backwards, almost as if in a daze. Hermione reached out to touch his shoulder. He jerked his body away harshly, still looking down. He glanced at her, finally.
"You love me, don't you Hermione?...Well, she loved me, too." He turned away. "You'll be next."
"Why is he doing this?" Harry whispered. Draco turned and glared at him.
"Isn't it obvious, Potter? He's showing us that perhaps we can defend ourselves, but we're still vulnerable. He's telling us he can crush everything dearest to us at the merest moment." Draco's voice was bitter.
"There's not supposed to be any trickery before the War." Ron said, his voice monotonic.
"You think Voldemort cares?" Draco had thrown back his head and straightened to his fullest height. The black glittery cape billowed behind him on a ghost wind. "I will crush his armies soldier by soldier if I must. Voldemort will be killed."
"Malfoy, isn't that impossible?" Harry asked hoarsely.
"No." Draco looked thoughtful. "He still cherishes hopes of Ascending to the Trident. To become part of the Trident you must someday die, or someone else must give you immortality. Voldemort took it, that is not allowed. On the date of Ascension, his mortal years will catch up with him. He should have been dead many times over already. Whether he Ascends or not, he will be dead. Our job is to make sure he doesn't Ascend."
Padma and Ron looked at a loss. Padma suddenly remembered something. "Harry, Draco, he left this letter addressed to you two. Told us to deliver it."
Harry tore open the letter and showed the contents to Draco.
You may be invulnerable but your family and friends are not. Beware, for your love is like the Mark of Death upon the loved ones.
The WereWolf and the Dementors Prisoner are with us. Perhaps they will be returned to you, then perhaps not. Narcissa Malfoy is dead. If we cannot punish you then they will be punished in your stead.
This is a warning, Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter. Heed it well, or lose everything you love.
---
||
Outside Hagrids Hut, a minute to go...
Harry heard voices inside the hut, Dumbledore was probably giving them their presents now. Silence descended. Harry waited a few extra moments before giving the signal to move in. He knocked on the door.
Dumbledore opened it. "How'd it go?"
"Depends." Harry said, his voice heavy. "We got the Healer. We rescued Narcissa and Sirius, but Narcissa was injured. Some of her soul was sucked out, she was blind and only semi-lucid. Lupin and Fleur joined us. We left Padma, Ron, Lupin, Sirius and Narcissa at Malfoy Manor when we went to find Chaos. Padma and Ron met us at the Front gate. Sirius and Lupin have been taken and Narcissa's dead."
"I'm sorry it turned out like this. Voldemort will return his captives, I am sure of it." The pale blue fire was blazing. "We will defeat his minions and him." "For that we'll have to start training." Draco said, his face normal once more.
"Yes, thousands have started arriving at Hogwarts. I have already set up training posts all over the grounds. We just need people to man them. You six, Chaos, we require you elsewhere, will be at the main posts. You'll need to know Archery, Swordfighting or fencing, hand-to-hand combat, Spearhandling, Strategems of War and Flying."
"But I don't know the first thing about SwordFighting!" Hermione burst out.
"Yes, but Draco does. Each one of you are especially adept at a one task. Teach each other so you may teach others."
"Right, I'll do the SwordFighting and fencing." Draco said.
"Archery. It's the only sport I'm actually good at." Hermione said, as the others stared.
"I'll do Stratagems of War, it's quite like chess." Ron said wearily.
Harry looked undecided. "I'm best at hand-to-hand, but who'll do the flying-"
"Don't worry, I'll 'andle the Flying." Fleur said, pronouncing 'flying' more like 'fleeing'.
"'Kay, I'm doing spearhandling, then." Padma remarked.
"But can you?" Draco looked skeptical. In reply, Padma pulled her broom from the backpack and enlarged it.
One second Draco was smiling smugly and the next he was on the floor, still grinning. "Believe me?"
"Oh yeah." He replied, rubbing his ribs. "She's definitely doing the SpearHandling."
---
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