Angel of the Apocalypse
Chapter Three: Light of Shadows
Gavin and Ginny continued to talk on and off through out the day. He walked her to and from her classes. Ron was seething; there was steam practically coming out of his ears. Everyone was on edge, but over the next few days, the strange occurrences had stopped.
However, poor Professor Trelawney never recovered from her strange illness, so she was moved to St. Mungo's Hospital. The students who were in the class when she started having the convulsions, said what they had seen scared them. Ginny didn't want to talk to Hermione about it. And worse, she was starting to dislike the rumors that she and Gavin were an item. The girls thought that it was sweet, but some crueler ones said that he was only dating her out of mercy. The boys were wondering what he saw in her, but he gave no answers. He had no idea what the concept of dating was.
Fred and George were trying to prank Gavin, but were unsuccessful. The guy had no sense of humor at all. The lizard was bothering Ron the most. The stupid thing was just creepy. Harry said that it reminded him too much of a snake.
Hermione wasn't too happy with Gavin either. For once, someone was giving her a run for her money in the classes. Gavin was very intelligent. Even though he didn't show off in class, his test grades were higher. He surpassed her in Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Hermione really liked Professor Kelly, and she was a fair woman, so Hermione couldn't question her. Professor Snape was mean, but also fair, so Hermione decided just to work harder at the classes.
The new substitute for Divination, Madame Delphi, was from Greece. She didn't make the class any harder than Professor Trelawney. She didn't even go out of her way to predict Harry's death. Furthermore, she told Harry and Ron that she knew that they were making up predictions and said that they should at least make the star charts look correct.
Ginny avoided all physical contact with anyone, including Gavin. She still felt guilty about what happened to Professor Trelawney, and she got very defensive when someone said that she was a crackpot. Gavin remained on constant watch, if he could have been in the girls' dorm with Ginny, he would have been. The selfish part of Ginny wanted to get away from him, so that she could have her normal life back. It wasn't the best life, but it was hers. She didn't have everything she wanted, but she had control. Or some control. At this point, Ginny felt she didn't have control over her own life.
Harry wasn't too happy with Ginny being with Gavin. He found himself constantly watching them together. Yes, they didn't act like a couple in front of everyone else, but what were they doing in private? He wrote to Sirius about Ginny's strange behavior and Gavin. The fact that his scar didn't hurt was added at the end as a post script. Sirius was glad to see that Harry was having some normal teenage problems. He wrote and asked Harry why he cared so much about who Ginny liked to spend her time with. And he also added, that Gavin was probably just a friend, and that there was no need to worry.
Snape was about ready to leave to go back to Voldemort, but that would leave his house unattended. Professor Sinistra graciously accepted the duty of being head of the Slytherin House. He wasn't happy about leaving behind his students. He knew that the school was safer because he felt better that Professor Kelly was there.
Professor Dumbledore contacted his contacts at the Ministry, which included Mr. Weasley. He expressed concern for his daughter having to watch Professor Trelawney's attack. Mrs. Weasley sent an owl to Ginny, asking her if she was fine, which made Ginny feel even guiltier.
The odd thing was Gavin gave Ginny the option of telling people about her powers and duties, but she refused and insisted to keep it a secret. "It's hard enough just to be normal," she told Gavin.
"I don't understand you humans at all. You strive to be like everyone else yet you still want to be different. It's very contrary," said Gavin in wonderment.
"I just want to make it through Hogwarts without being noticed as much as possible. I've resigned myself to being invisible and I'm happy this way," said Ginny.
"You still want Harry Potter to notice you. You should thank me because he is," said Gavin.
"Just my luck. He notices me and I tried to kill him," said Ginny with a groan.
"That was an accident," said Gavin. He was trying to do his homework for DADA. Professor Kelly was teaching them how dark arts evolved over the centuries and how the defenses were created. He thought it was all pretty primitive. He also thought wands were pretty primitive. These humans were doing things the hard way. However, it was easy work and other than protecting Ginny, he didn't have anything to do.
"What will happen to me when the judgment is over?" asked Ginny out loud. Gavin looked at her and shook his head, "I don't know," he answered truthfully.
~*~
Professor Kelly was in her apartment in the castle changing after taking a long bath. She looked at herself in the mirror. There were strange marks on her body. On her lower abdomen, there were faint stretch marks. It was strange because for as long as she could remember, she had always been slim. The marks were distinctive.
About fifteen years ago, Moira Kelly woke up in a Muggle hospital and was told that she had been in a coma for the past two months. She had lost two years of her life. She had no memories about what happened to her in those years. According to the doctors, they couldn't tell her exactly what happened. She was found outside the hospital. The strangest thing was they couldn't find any other records about her. There was barely a paper trail.
Upon physical examination, they told her that she had had a baby. A baby? She was only twenty years old. How could she have had a baby during that time? She couldn't even remember being with anyone. The last thing she could remember was going out for a moonlit stroll one evening and everything going black from there. The stretch marks showed that at one point her belly was actually larger than usually. The doctors did an intrusive test and told her that at one point her womb was occupied by a baby and that there was some scaring from tearing. The baby had been delivered. She was in denial until her breasts started lacating. Moira realized she was producing milk without a baby to feed; it was heartbreaking. It was even more painful when her breasts stopped producting milk.
Moira felt horrible. She had the feeling that someone had stolen two years of her life and possibly her child. The child would have been the same age as Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Was the child a boy or a girl? She felt horrible because she was also away when James and Lily Potter died. She left Harry at the mercy of the Dursleys. Moira met them on one occasion with James. James smiled and bared them while holding her back from seriously hurting them with a hex.
Having no idea what happened to her, Moira decided to go and learn more about what could have happened to her. She devoted her life to looking at the Dark Arts. She wasn't an Auror, but an expert against the Dark Arts. Moira told none of her friends about what happened to her. Remus was unreachable. Pete was supposedly dead, while Sirius was in Azkaban for the crime of killing him without a trial. James and Lily were gone, and Harry was about the same age as the child that she knew in her heart she had lost. Sirius told her about how much Harry had grown and that she should take him out of the Dursleys because he couldn't. Sirius was still on the run, and he wanted to see him without any trouble, and besides, Moira had more of a reason to take Harry in. Moira felt guilty because she didn't think of herself as a good mother. How could she possibly take in Harry?
She had strange dreams that she was pretty sure were memories that were erased from her mind. She had dreams where she saw a man standing in the moonlight waiting for her. She had dreams of being held and loved by someone with strong arms. And sometimes, she had dreams were she remembered being with child, but at the same time she was anxious. And she didn't know why either. The man in her dreams was always hidden, but she trusted him. It was something out of Psyche and Cupid.
Psyche and Cupid is a Greek myth about how two people fell in love in the darkness. Cupid fell in love with Psyche when he was given orders from his mother, Aphrodite, to make sure that she fell in love with the ugliest man. However, he fell in love with her when he first saw her, and refused to do as his mother had asked. Instead, he didn't shoot any of his arrows, rather the men admired her, but went on to marry someone else. Her two sisters were married before her. So, Psyche's parents consulted an oracle who told them that Psyche was meant for some kind of monster in a distant place. They dressed like she was dead and left her. A wind came and picked her up and brought her to a beautiful place. She had invisible servants who attended to her needs, and during the nights, she had a wonderful husband with her in bed. Psyche didn't know who her husband was in the dark because she couldn't see him. Later on, her sisters came for a visit and told her that she was married to a monster. Not wanting it to be true, but not trusting herself, she lit a lamp after their lovemaking and found the most beautiful man with her in bed. It was Cupid. The oil from the lamp spilled on him and burned him. He flew off saying that love cannot live with there was no trust. The story for Psyche and Cupid ended happily for them because she was later given the status of a god by Zeus himself, and Cupid came to claim her back after he had healed from his burn.
Moira felt that way. She had fallen in love in the dark, but didn't have any memories about it at all. The man was a mystery now, but she knew that at one point she knew everything about this man.
Moira sighed as she dressed for the day. She was just happy to be back at Hogwarts.
~*~
Somewhere, deep in the shadows where the hanging gardens of the forbidden Babylon laid, a group of powerful wizards and witches were congregated. They awaited word from the four horsemen.
A black raven flew in and landed on the center of the circular table that they were all gathered at. It's much larger eye glowed and a message could be heard in the minds of the wizards and witches. "The Angel has been found. Her powers have began to grow stronger. Soon, it will be critical," said the leader of the group.
"We must act before she destroys us all," said a witch.
"What about the Death Eaters?" asked one of the wizards. "Perhaps we should wait until she destroys the evil one."
"We cannot take that risk. The Dark Lord can be defeated by the other wizards. If she gets strong enough to defeat him, then she will not be able to be contained," said the leader.
"She is just a child. She is fourteen years of age," said another one of the witches. Her voice sounded compassionate.
"A child that has the power to destroy the world as we know it," said the leader.
"But, to murder a young life…" said another wizard.
"We have no choice. The child must be contained by any means necessary. The decision is final," said the leader.
"Send orders to the Horsemen. Kill her," he told the raven. It flew off to give the order.
~*~
"Werewolves are not all bad people. They are innocent victims who were attack by other innocents who have no control over their powers of transformation," said Professor Kelly.
Ginny was currently in her DADA class. Recently, she had been very distracted, but the lesson about werewolves proved to be most interesting because of what Professor Kelly was saying. At least, they only have to worry about a full moon. I have to worry about controlling myself all the time, thought Ginny. She raised her hand. "Everyone knows about Professor Lupin, Professor Kelly. Most of us liked him very much. If none of us ever knew that he was a werewolf, we would have not known the difference at all," said Ginny after Professor Kelly nodded at her.
"Prejudice is something we must overcome. None of us has the right to judge everyone else," said Professor Kelly.
Ginny looked down immediately. That was something she really didn't want to hear. The word "judge" wasn't her favorite word at that point. How could she judge people? She looked at her class. She had opinions about people, but that still didn't mean she had the right to tell them what she thought of them. Ginny was the bottom ring of the social ladder at Hogwarts. There were people in the younger years who were more popular than her. Not that Ginny cared, they could have all the attention they wanted as long as they left her alone.
Another thing that bothered her was that Gavin wasn't with her. At least, he could contain her powers and help her. She had to concentrate hard. And every once in a while that pain in her chest would come and she would have to focus to keep it away. It was the warning sign that something was about to happen. The bottles at Potions started to vibrate during one of those times. Snape's sharp eyes watched them start. He was starting to believe that there was some kind of correlation. Ginny was scared that he would figure out that it was her that caused it.
Her brothers believed that she was having just a strange mixture of bad luck and coincidence. First, the incident at Potions, and then Divination. No one would suspect that a small, pixie-like girl could have so much power.
Dumbledore kept an eye out as well as all the teachers. No one knew what was happening, and Ginny hated the idea that they were all sitting ducks. She was having a harder and harder time trying to contain her powers.
"Werewolves must take the newly developed wolfsbane potion. You will learn how to brew that in Potions. My job is to tell you how to spot a werewolf. Anyone?" asked Professor Kelly.
Colin raised his hand and she nodded, "They disappear every month for a few days during the full moon." His voice sounded timid because he knew that wasn't exactly a magical answer.
"That's good. Ten points to Gryffindor, It's a good common sense answer, Colin. We shouldn't just pay attention to the magical signs. We should pay attention to everything. Now, what did Professor Moody tell you all last year?" asked Professor Kelly.
"CONSTANT
VILGANCE," said the class in unison.
Despite the fact, that Professor Moody wasn't himself, his "replacement"
did really teach the classes last year thought Professor Kelly grimly. Moira knew why Serevus wanted the job of
DADA so badly: he believed that he could teach them better than anyone because
of his experience with the Dark Arts.
He wanted the students to be prepared.
After a few more painful
minutes for Ginny, the class had finally concluded and she was the first one
out the door. Gavin was already waiting
for her. He walked with her silently
back to the tower. Her brothers weren't
too happy with what was going on still, so she avoided them.
They decided not to leave her with much choice. "You know I know that you haven't told Mum yet about him," said Fred, gesturing with his thumb to Gavin.
Ginny paled over slightly. It was bad enough that the school thought that she was dating Gavin. "He's just a friend. And I can't believe that my own brothers are more willing to believe a bunch of half baked lies about me over what I have to say," said Ginny through her teeth.
"Well, then why don't you tell Mum and Dad about your new friend?" asked George.
"Why are you talking about him like he's not here?" asked Ginny. Gavin was standing right there, thinking how strange they were. What were they afraid of?
"What do you have to say about yourself?" asked Ron to Gavin who looked at him blankly.
"I sense a lot of tension from all four of you. Is it normal in your family?" asked Gavin. Ron looked red in the face immediately and grabbed Gavin's shirt. Ginny sighed. How many confrontations were they going to have to have? Her brothers were the stupidest blokes in the world. And Gavin was being an unknowing smart ass. Ginny figured out that he didn't know any better. "Let's go, Gavin," she said as she grabbed his arm. Gavin pulled Ron's hand off him calmly. "We're going to the library to snog!" she shouted back to her brothers as she left with Gavin.
"What's that?" he asked as they left. Fred, George, and Ron had their jaws dropped as they left. They were also red in the face. "Who wants to write, Mum and Dad?" asked Ron.
"I'll do it," volunteered Fred. He was the older twin after all. Even if he was older than George by a couple of minutes, he was still the oldest one out of the Weasleys currently attending Hogwarts. "We'll use Pig to send the letter," said Ron. He thought it was strange that Gavin didn't know what snogging was, even Americans knew what that was. He shook his head as he joined his brothers in writing a letter home.
Ginny couldn't believe that she said that to her brothers. She didn't look back to see how they took it. Her face with red with embarrassment. Gavin was still trying to figure out what snogging was. Finally, he gave up and turned his attention back to Ginny. "I'm so stupid," she muttered.
"No, you're not," said Gavin immediately and almost automatically.
"What's going to happen next?" asked Ginny out loud and she gasped when her eyes fell on a window. "What's wrong?" asked Gavin. Ginny pointed to the window with a trembling hand. Gavin turned and frowned. There was another one of those strange ravens at the window. It's larger eye was staring at Ginny. Gavin put himself in front of her. He raised his hand and sent a flash at it. He looked at her grimly and said, "Time is running out."
"You mean that the horsemen will come here. They can get into Hogwarts?" asked Ginny.
Gavin nodded without saying anything. "They will most likely try to kill you," he answered finally. He took a hold her arm and started to walk away from the window. Ginny thought that Hogwarts was the safest place in world, but if they could get in there. "What will happen to anyone who tries to stop them?" she asked out loud.
"They will simply go through them. No normal wizard has faced off with the horsemen and survived," said Gavin.
"You mean, they'll kill anyone who tries to stop them from getting to me. What about you?" asked Ginny.
"I can stand up to them. And so will you once your powers are strong enough," said Gavin. Ginny bit her lip. The horsemen could probably kill all the teachers, and she thought that they should at least be warned about the situation. Perhaps, they could come up with something to protect themselves. She never felt so sick in her life. People were going to die either way.
~*~
Pansy Parkinson wasn't going to take Ginny Weasley much longer. All the girls in the school wanted to go out with Gavin. Well, most girls, Hermione was always around Ron. And Cho Chang wasn't in any shape to be dating currently. Ginny was still insisting that he was just a friend. She was wondering why it was all right for Hermione to have two guy friends for five years without anyone blinking, and why it was wrong for her to have one guy friend.
The Slytherin were also insulted because Gavin had chosen the Gryffindor over them. And Pansy knew that if she were dating Gavin, perhaps Draco would be jealous. Draco didn't pay much attention to Pansy because she was so needy and whiney. Pansy figured that it would be easy to steal Gavin away from Ginny.
Ginny decided to go to the roof of one of the buildings to get away from everyone about a week after her last fight with her brothers. She was just tired of everything and everyone. Gavin let her be alone for a while. She was looking at the sky above her. She preferred it to the ground below. The ground below with all its activity reminded her that there was a lot of things to consider. At least, the sky looked like it held nothing. Pansy smiled when she saw her red hair blowing gently in the wind on the roof. Perfect. I can go up there and scare the little pixie away from Gavin, and then Draco will notice me for the perfect and beautiful woman that I am, thought Pansy.
She separated from her crowd and went towards the tower. She had her wand with her. Her extra year of magic lessons above Ginny would give her an advantage. When she reached the roof, Ginny was still staring at the sky.
"Hello little pixie Weasel," snarled Pansy. Ginny turned around surprised and stepped back along the edge of the roof.
"What do you want?" asked Ginny.
"I came here to tell you to stop going out with Gavin Skyler. He should waste his time with little poor girls like her. I don't know what kind of love potion or spell you have over him, but I'm telling you to stop," said Pansy.
Ginny laughed at her comment, "You think that Gavin and I are going out? If you do, then you've surprised me. I didn't think it was possible for you to be dumber than you look," she said.
Pansy's face turned red, and she drew out her wand. "I'm going to make it look like you fell by accident," she said.
Ginny was scared at that moment. "Look…Pansy, I'm not going out with me. You can have him. I don't care. Let's not do anything foolish here," she stammered. At that moment, she felt that familiar pain on her chest. "You don't know what you're doing," whispered Ginny. She clutched her hand on her chest.
Pansy didn't care. She raised her wand ready to do a hex strong enough to knock Ginny off the roof, but she was never able to even chant a single syllable. A pain ripped through her body and cuts came from within her own skin, surfacing and breaking it. The cuts appeared all over her body. Her face and arms were the only parts that Ginny could see, but she knew that the cuts were everywhere. Pansy let out a horrifying scream. She never imagined such pain was possible. The cuts were starting to form on her internal organs, causing her to twist in pain. Pansy was in too much pain to notice anything else. She had passed out and fell onto the rooftop. Ginny's eyes were glowing gold. She looked like a demon and she tried to control her powers to stop what she was doing.
Someone's soft lips pressed against Ginny's in a flash. Her power broke at the moment and she passed out into that person's arms. The only thing Ginny wanted to do was sleep at this point. Tears fell out of her eyes as she went into slumber.
Gavin held her in his arms and looked at Pansy who as lying in a pool of her own blood. From what he could tell, she was still alive. Barely. He raised his palm to her and chanted a spell that would keep her alive until someone came to help her and heal the cuts. Gavin looked down at the ground. A raven was in the trees. And off in the distance the Horsemen started to thunder towards Hogwarts.
AN: A lot of stuff happened in this chapter. I thought that there should be some humor with Ginny's bros. I also thought that it was good to bring in the mysterious past of Professor Moira Kelly. The professor for DADA always have some strange going on with them. Also, I hope you enjoyed the story of Psyche and Cupid. ^_~
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. He and all his friends are J.K. Rowling's. I do own Gavin Skyler and Moira Kelly. The story of Psyche and Cupid can be found in Mythology by Edith Hamilton. Also, I am not held responsible for any spoilers from the Harry Potter books that you may encounter.