Chapter Eight- Darkness Supreme
A/N: Well gee, it only took me what, four months to get this chapter up? I'm proud, I usually abandon stories that are this long, but I've finished the last chapter. Go me! Well, thanks goes out to everyone who reviewed, and to Katie avec la fedora: Yeah, romance does screw up perfectly good friendships, but hey, this is Ron and Hermione. They're meant to be. At least in my stories, anyway... And thankee for reading. I miss you!
Anyway, here's the fic. *Sniff* Thanks for reading, and for info about the sequel, read the Authors Note at the end of the fic.
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"Welcome," Lord Voldemort hissed. "I'm so pleased you could join me."
This isn't real, Ron thought to himself, his wand slipping from numb fingers onto the floor. It's not happening. Any minute now this will crack, like those stupid dream-portal things, and we'll be back in a tunnel, or better yet, back home... and everything will be fine.
"Lord Voldemort," Sirius said coolly, gripping his wand tightly. Angelina backed up slightly, stepping behind Sirius. She was face to face with every child's worst nightmare, and she was going to have to fight it. Angelina clutched Sirius' cloak tightly around her and inhaled his scent. It calmed her, if only a little.
Kate felt her heart nearly stop at the sight in front of her. The sight of Lord Voldemort alone was enough to put terror in her heart, but the sight of a friend at his mercy was much, much worse. Kate felt her eyes turning to Ron, and her heart nearly broke. He was staring at Hermione, his eyes blank and an expression of pure misery and terror on his face. Kate felt tears gathering in the corners of her eyes.
Oliver closed his eyes and turned his head away. He gently felt for Kate's hand, and once he found it, he closed his own callused fingers around hers. Despair struck him deeply. How... how can we save her... and kill him? How can we fight... without breaking Ron's heart...?
Rowan stared ahead at the specter of evil that had imprisoned her, and could feel waves of evil rolling across her like an ugly stench. Obviously, the girl was his prisoner, but why was everyone looking so sad...? Did they know her? Rowan looked towards Ron, and suddenly she knew. Oh, she thought dimly to herself, feeling the waves of despairing love radiate from his tall lanky body. So that's who she is.
Arabella snarled and attacked.
"Stupefy!" she screamed, her voice raw with rage. Her anger magnified the attack, and as she screamed out the spell, she dove towards Lord Voldemort, all her anger and frustration against him powering her leap.
The spell shot forwards, hit the green circle which surrounded Lord Voldemort, and rebounded. It struck Arabella in the chest, mid-leap. She was knocked backwards, her head cracking against the stone floor. Blood pooled around her black hair, and her wand fell from her enraged yet lifeless fingers.
Everyone stared down at Arabella, her pale skin becoming even paler in contrast to her black hair and the deep red that seeped in a pool around her head. Kate gave a strangled and angry cry, then aimed her wand at Lord Voldemort.
"Expelliarmus!" she yelled, and had to dive out of the way as her spell rebounded, just as Arabella's had. Oliver conjured a broomstick and swung one leg over it, taking off as easily as though the days he played Quidditch for Gryffindor weren't long gone. Angelina quickly twisted her wand in a complex pattern, and a shimmering light wove itself around Oliver. He nodded his thanks for the protection spell, and began to fly around the ceilings to distract Lord Voldemort. Angelina quickly turned to Sirius.
"Give me your hand," she said quietly. Sirius looked at her, confusion in his electric blue eyes. Angelina felt herself staring, and blushed. "Give me your hand!" she insisted, and Sirius held up a callused and scarred palm. She placed the tip of her wand into the center of his palm, and closed her eyes. It took Sirius a few moments to realize that she was murmuring under her breath, and a moment afterwards he realized his skin had started glowing. Angelina's eyes were still closed, but her eyelids flickered and her brows furrowed with concentration. Sirius felt warmth grow from his hands, and he watched the glow spread along his exposed skin. Goosebumps shivered up his spine, and Angelina opened her eyes. "Protection spell," she said quietly. "They're my specialty."
"Thanks," Sirius responded. They stared at each other for a few seconds, then were distracted by Oliver crashing to the floor. Sirius jerked his hand away from Angelina and aimed his wand at Voldemort angrily. "Go do that spell to the others," he hissed, and then bellowed something at his wand. An angry green spark fell to the ground, and vines began springing up between the cracks of the stones. Vines with lots of thorns. They were growing towards Voldemort's Circle of Protection.
Rowan was nearly paralyzed from the emotional overload she was receiving. She opened her mind and began to gather all the anger and pain from her friends, and the residue left over from the dead people's fear. She sharpened it into a lance with her mind, and slung it at the Dark Lord. He glanced in her direction for a second... and her lance rebounded, exactly as Arabella's spell had. She tried to slam up her shields... but it was too late. The mind-bolt fried her mind and she collapsed to the ground, eyes rolling up into her skull and her spirit leaving her body.
Kate rushed over to Oliver's unmoving form. Oh God, oh God oh God oh PLEASE don't let him be dead, please please please please don't let him be dead, oh not now, not now, oh why, oh he CAN'T be gone, no... She reached out a hand and wrapped it around Oliver's wrist, feeling for a pulse. She felt one, and breathed a huge sigh of relief. It was strong. He was only unconscious. "Enervate!" She whispered, and Oliver stirred. Kate breathed a sigh of relief.
"Extraticus!" Angelina shrieked, and a ring of blue light flashed from her wand and slammed into the green barrier. The green flickered, and was having an obvious fight with the blue. Angelina began to waver, her eyes rolling back into her head, but she gamely held her wand up so her spell would fight the green barrier. Oliver pointed his wand and muttered something, and a stream of red shot from his wand into the barrier next to Angelina's blue. Sirius morphed into a dog and slunk into the shadows, eyes never leaving the fighting. Kate shot a jet of black lightning into the barrier, and with the hand that wasn't holding her wand began to draw characters on the floor around her using the blood of one of the dead people lying on the floor.
Ron had retreated far into his own mind, trying to simply will the entire scene in front of him to vanish. It isn't real, he kept telling himself, its not real. It's not. She's fine. This isn't real. Tears began to gather in his eyes, and his nose itched. His mind was bringing him back to reality, gently telling him that this was real, and if he wanted to make his eyes dry up and shrivel because he wasn't blinking, well, that was his problem.
"THIS IS NOT HAPPENING!" Ron screamed to the ceiling, anguish evident in every one of the words. His face was a mask of pain, and he dropped to his knees, despair pulling her cold hook through his heart.
Ron's screams broke Voldemort's concentration for a second, and his barrier raised an inch off the ground, so now there was an inch of an opening. Sirius, as a dog in the shadows, saw this, and leaped. He transformed back into himself quickly, and Summoned Ron's dropped wand. He then carefully Banished it so it slid under the barrier and stopped directly under Hermione's feet. Lord Voldemort hadn't noticed. Sirius carefully whispered "Wingardium leviosa!" The wand floated up, gently tapping Hermione's foot to get her attention, then floating upwards until her hand wrapped around it. Sirius smiled, turned back into a dog, and slunk back towards the others.
Angelina's body was feeling weak. She could hardly keep her arm up anymore, much less force raw power through her wand. The blue line coming from her wand was wavering in intensity, and it finally vanished. Angelina collapsed limply onto the floor, her energy gone. Kate and Oliver began to feel the strain of constantly forcing energy out of themselves. Kate stopped her flow of black lightning and began to concentrate on the strange marks she had made around herself. They began to crack, and soon there were holes in the stone floor. Kate quickly took a bag of what looked like sand from her belt and filled up the holes with the sand. It began to glow, and she leaned back on her heels and closed her eyes. The sand glowed brightly, then vanished... and so did she.
"Wicked!" Kate's voice exclaimed. "I love invisibility spells!"
Oliver saw the wand in Hermione's hand. His eyes widened, and he looked up directly into her eyes. She nodded at him slightly, her fist closing even tighter around the firm wooden handle.
Sirius transformed back into a man and began to drag Angelina towards the corner of the room. She was completely passed out, her skin was pale and cold. Sirius wrapped his cloak more tightly around her body and looked up... just for a moment...
And the entire room seemed to explode.
At the exact moment that Hermione cast the most powerful protection spell she knew over herself and then performed the most powerful explosive curse known, Harry came charging into the room, only to be hit by the powerful explosion residue.
Hermione lay on the floor, unconscious. Ron's wand had exploded, scorching her hand even through the spell she had cast over herself, but it had worked. Voldemort's barrier was down... but he wasn't.
Lord Voldemort stood, laughing, next to the cauldron filled with blood. His wand was smoking, but he showed no visible sign of the explosion which had originated less than an inch from his body.
Kate, invisible, narrowed her eyes and leapt at him, performing a leaping kick. Her foot caught him in the chin, and he fell backwards into a pile of smoking bodies. Kate picked him up by the collar of his robe and punched him in the face, then brought her knee up into his groin. Blood spilled out of the corner of his mouth. Lord Voldemort, however, was prepared. He shoved his wand into her chest, cutting through her thick robes with its knife-like point, then whispering a spell to himself. Kate was blasted across the room, and slammed into a wall. She slid to the floor, blood spilling from her back.
Oliver uncovered his eyes to see Kate suddenly appear in the air next to Lord Voldemort, fly backwards in the air and slam into a wall. His vision suddenly went hazy, and he felt a scream tear from his throat. He found strength to cast a spell... "Incendere!" Oliver screamed, and Voldemort's robes were suddenly burning. Oliver passed out with the effort of the spell, combined with the effort of trying to bring down Voldemort's barrier before.
The Dark Lord simply glanced at his flaming garments and they stopped burning. With a hysterical laugh he launched several explosive fireballs around the room, and stooped down to pick up Hermione's unconscious body. He needed her blood, he needed to start the ritual now, or he would lose his chance...
An explosion slammed into the pillar directly next to Sirius. He looked up to see it falling, but it was too late. He shoved a semi-conscious Angelina out of the way of the falling stones.
Harry got up, dazed and wondering what was going on. Before he could voice his confusion, a half-conscious Angelina stumbled out of the dust and a pile of stones fell directly in front of him. Angelina screamed, a high, angry scream that sounded much like Ron's scream for Hermione. The last thing Harry saw before a stone knocked him out was Angelina diving into the pile of stones, pushing them away in a frenzied search.
All Angelina knew was that she had to find Sirius. Tears streaked down her face and dripped onto her bleeding hands, stringing the cuts, but she kept forcing rocks away. She had to find him. She had to. Her hands suddenly touched something soft... and she knew. Knew that Sirius was dead, crushed beneath the rocks... crushed for her. He could have leapt away. She could be lying under there, bleeding and cold... but he was. Angelina looked up, red clouding her vision. She ran at the Dark Lord, teeth bared, nails outstretched, like some bloodthirsty barbarian. Lord Voldemort's eyes widened a bit in surprise and fear... this girl running towards him had hair matted and sticky with blood, cuts and bruises on her face and body, a torn cloak around her ripped robes and her eyes were cold with rage. Her lips were forced into a snarl. Voldemort knew that this was an attack of pure anger, with no planning or strategy. He smiled a little to himself, and when she got close enough, simply stabbed her straight through the chest with his silver knife. He'd wanted to use the mudblood's blood for the finishing touch for the potion, but this one's would do just as well.
Angelina did not feel the cold silver drive through her. She simply felt an all-consuming rage, and she bared her teeth and snarled at this... this creature. She raked her nails along his face, drawing blood that looked tinged with black. Angelina's hands went around his neck, and she began to choke him. This surprised the Dark Lord. Didn't the girl realize there was a knife coming out of her back? She was as good as dead. Even his death wouldn't save her life... so why was she fighting? He tugged the knife out of her chest and stabbed her through the side of her neck.
Angelina felt a burning pain, and colored spots began to flash in front of her eyes. She no longer had the strength to keep herself up, and she slid to the ground, eyes fluttering. She could see something strange, though... Lord Voldemort was standing over her, his hands coming ever closer towards her... but behind him...
Lord Voldemort started and turned around as he heard the sound of something shattering... and he let out a high pitched wail. Arabella stood in a pile of glass shards and blood. The glass cauldron he had been using for the spell was shattered. The ritual could not be performed. Lord Voldemort wailed and aimed his wand at Arabella, only to be tackled from behind by a mop of black and red hair. Both Harry and Ron had come to their senses, it seemed, and had deemed the situation desperate. Lord Voldemort stumbled, then twisted like a snake, throwing Ron off of his back and into the broken glass and blood. The Dark Lord wrestled with Harry for a bit, trying to get the tall man off of his back.
"What are you waiting for?!" Ron shouted to Arabella from the floor. Arabella had her wand aimed at the fighting pair. "Blast him!"
"I can't! They're moving around too much, I might hit Harry!" she yelled back as a blast of yellow light came from Harry's wand. It rebounded off of Voldemort's skull and blasted into the stones a foot away from Ron's face, knocking him unconscious.
Harry began to kick the back of the Dark Lord's legs and began to stab Lord Voldemort with the blunt point of his own wand. The other man was protected from magical assault, and Harry was at an advantage while on his back: The Dark Lord had difficulty hitting him with anything other than the back of his arm.
Lord Voldemort finally realized a very easy way to get Harry off his back. He slammed his body backwards so Harry was slammed into the ground with the Dark Lord on top of him. Harry was knocked senseless in the fall, and Voldemort got up, gathering his robes around him. He looked up...
To find the angry blue eyes of a pale and bloody witch with her wand pointed directly in between his eyes.
"Avada Kedavra!" she said, winking, and it sounded very much like the way a cheerful person would say "See you later!"
The green light struck Voldemort straight in between the eyes. There was a rushing sound and a cracking noise, and the Dark Lord's skin began to crumble and turn black. She watched until the threat to the Free Wizards was just a pile of dust, and then aimed her wand at his.
"Avada Kedavra," she whispered. The green light hit the wand... and the wand exploded in a burst of sickly green energy. It gathered into a cloud that flew into Arabella, flowing into her nose, eyes, ears, and knocking her to the ground where she lay, allowing herself to lose consciousness.
Lord Voldemort was dead.
When Harry came to, he was lying on the ground with his hand clutching someone else's hand. He glanced over to see that his companion was a very dead corpse. Harry groaned, jerked his hand away from the dead body, and sat up.
The room he was lying in was a mess. Lying not two feet from him was a pile of greenish ashes, and a thin line of gray dust. Arabella lay on top of a bloody body, her hand still clutching feebly to her wand. Harry turned. Kate was still lying slumped against the floor... she hadn't moved since she'd been hurled there. Angelina...
Harry hurried over to Angelina, hands shaking with worry. Her body was jerking slightly, and blood flowed sluggishly from her gaping wounds.
"It's... the only... way..." she gasped. Harry panicked.
"No, no, Angelina, you're going to be fine," he said, groping for something that wasn't soaked in blood. Angelina smiled, her ashy lips pulling over her teeth so that she looked like a skeleton.
"Tell Fred... I'm sorry," she whispered, eyes blinking rapidly. Harry felt tears gathering in his eyes.
"Angelina... please don't die," he whispered. "Come on, you're the only Chaser Wood'll ever accept onto a team as Right Flank..." he stopped, unable to speak. Angelina looked up at him, and shook her head slightly... then turned her head to gaze at something behind Harry. It took him a moment to realize she was dead. Tears fell from his face and dripped onto her chapped lips, and he closed her eyes with blistered and bloody hands.
Hermione woke, her swollen eyes almost refusing to open. She let out a series of coughs and inhaled deeply. There was a scrambling noise, and suddenly hands were helping her to sit up.
"Hermione!" It was Harry. She breathed a sigh of relief, and reached out to him. He hugged her tightly, as though it had been years since he'd last seen her.
"Harry... what happened?" she asked, looking around at the damage. Her eyes fell on Ron's body, lying at a funny angle in a pool of blood, shards of glass, and stones. Scorch marks covered one side of his body. "Oh God!" Hermione leapt over a pile of bodies and knelt beside her love, Harry at her side. She felt for a pulse, and finding one, groped around her for a wand. Harry pointed his wand at Ron and muttered "Enervate!"
Ron opened his crystal blue eyes slowly, groaning in pain. The first thing his muddled eyes fell upon was Hermione... and he suddenly stopped hurting. He shot up and grabbed her, hugging her close and kissing her hair. At first, Harry couldn't tell what he was saying, but after a moment realized it was "You'reokayyou'reokayyou'realiveohgodyou'reokay..." and discreetly slid away from them and turned his back, becoming very interested in the ceiling. After a few minutes, he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked behind him. Ron and Hermione stood there, hand in hand, eyes shining. Without a word the three of them embraced, and there wasn't a single dry eye between the three of them.
"Now that we're done being mushy," Hermione said, breaking the silence as they all broke the hug, "We've got some work to do."
The three friends looked around them, surveying the destruction. Bodies were everywhere, blood was everywhere, and stones were scattered around the room. Dead vines lay in a circle around the broken glass cauldron. Hermione, without a word, took her hand from Ron's and hurried over to Kate. She gently felt for a pulse, then looked up and smiled. "She's just unconscious," Hermione announced gladly. "Her pulse is strong." Ron headed towards Angelina, but Harry put a hand on his wrist.
"What?" Ron asked, confused. Harry bit his lip and wiped a silent tear that was tracing a path in the dirt on his face.
"She'd dead, Ron," he replied quietly. Ron's eyes opened wide, and he looked back at her. Angelina lay in blood, her arms scattered around her, eyes closed, the silver knife still in her neck. Hermione dropped Kate's wrist and slowly rose to her feet. Her lip trembled, and she put a hand over her mouth to stifle a sob. Ron looked at the ground.
"Oh," he said quietly. "I guess we'd better... see who else made it." Harry nodded slowly, wiping another tear away quickly. He then turned and walked over to Oliver and took his pulse quickly. Determining that he was alive, he whispered "Enervate!" and Oliver's eyes opened groggily.
"Harry?" he muttered, sounding sleepy. "What's going on?"
"Nothing," Harry replied. "We won. He's dead."
"Oh... Kate!" Oliver shot up, looking around wildly. He tore across the room and knelt by her side, whispering nonstop to himself. Hermione revived Kate quickly and left them alone. She suddenly noticed Arabella lying by two piles of greasy dust, and walked over to check if she was alive or not.
Hermione steeled herself for death. She hardened her insides, preparing herself for the knowledge that some of her friends would be cold and lifeless, and would never again laugh or eat or talk or get dressed on Christmas and jump onto the foot of her bed. Some of her friends would never live to see the reconstruction of the wizard world. Hermione shut down her insides, knowing she'd pay the price of hysteria later, but also knowing that remaining in control now was more important.
Arabella was alive. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief and performed the revival spell.
Harry was the one who remembered Sirius. He'd forgotten when he woke, but seeing the toppled column reminded him of why Angelina was dead. Who knew why she'd gone crazy when Sirius was killed? He couldn't help but think that her rage and pain had resembled Ron's to a frightening degree, but then his mind shut down and Sirius' death really hit him.
Remus is going to slaughter me, he thought numbly to himself, staring at the bloody corner of a robe that peeked out from under the pile of stones. Several more tears tracked their way down his cheeks, but he ignored them. He's gone. He's gone. A strangled sob escaped his lips, and he sank to his knees, putting a hand over his eyes.
Before anyone knew what they were doing, then all stumbled over to Harry and knelt in a rough circle. Everyone simply knelt there and cried.
When they were finished, and there was no more room for tears inside of them, they stood up, everyone supporting everyone else. Harry cleared his throat and managed to speak in a low voice hoarse from sobs.
"It's not over yet," he said softly. "His Death Eaters are still out there, and there's the other Dark Creatures to deal with. But He's gone, so they will be without a leader. I think we have our work cut out for us."
"How are we going to get back to headquarters?" Oliver asked.
"We get off Hogwarts grounds and Apparate. Now that no one's monitoring the Apparating, we can use it again." Everyone nodded. "Do we want to get our packs?" Everyone shook his or her head. "Then let's go." The ragtag group headed for the doors.
Behind their backs, something amazing began to happen.
It started as a soft glow in the ashy remains of the Dark Lord, then grew in intensity. The group turned and stared as the entire room was bathed in a glow that got steadily brighter, until they had to shield their eyes.
After a minute, the glow vanished. Harry opened his eyes and gasped.
Hogwarts was back. They were standing in the Great Hall, complete with tables and banners on the wall. The blood, dead vines and the loose stones were gone, and the bodies were all lined up on the floor. They were clean and unmarked, and their robes were immaculate. Sirius, Angelina and Rowan lay side by side, and Harry couldn't help but notice Angelina's hand was very close to Sirius'.
"What magic is this?" breathed Ron, looking around.
"I expect it's the Post Mortem reaction," Hermione replied, looking around, just as amazed.
"Swallowed another textbook, Hermione?" Harry asked, eyes wide open.
"The Post Mortem reaction occurs after a wizard's death," Hermione explained, searching the walls with her eyes. "When a wizard dies and his wand is broken, the spells he has performed that require energy directly from his wand to keep the spells in place break."
"Oh," Arabella said, stunned. She suddenly put a hand to her temple, as though she had a sudden headache. Her eyes flashed green for a second, then reverted to normal. She looked up again.
"Why are they... cleaned up like that?" Oliver asked, choked.
"I don't know," answered Hermione. "It... it could be the magic of Hogwarts itself. There is magic, old magic, in these very stones. Maybe... its the castle's way of saying thank you."
"Thank you," Harry said to the open air. He turned back towards the doors. "Come on," he said, beckoning for the others to follow. They turned and followed him out the doors.
Epilogue
Harry shuffled a packet of papers and stapled them together. They were his official reports, combined with the official reports of all the surviving members of Mission Team Alpha- the team that had defeated the Dark Lord. He was putting them on file, and then he was going to go through the list of fatalities in the Subspace Hideout's fight with the Death Eaters. They had attacked while he was away, and it had nearly killed the Resistance. The fight was far from over, Harry reflected soberly. Many of the Death Eaters had been killed, and Severus Snape had returned to the Subspace Hideout alive and fairly well—it had been he who warned the Resistance of the Death Eater's attack.
Harry put the report on file, and picked up the folder that contained the official report of the attack. To his relief, only three people had truly died, but the list of the wounded was extensive and contained both Fred and George Weasley. He suspected their more grievous wounds were from Mrs. Weasley once she'd learned they'd been hurt. To his surprise, however, there was another list tucked away behind the list of wounded. It was a list of new recruits to the Resistance's waning numbers. He glanced through the names, recognizing a few, a smile spreading on his lips. There were at least fifty people on this list! He checked the total count at the bottom: Fifty-six. Fifty six new people, some of which declared extensive training under specialty knowledge. Harry's heart lightened. Perhaps ridding the world of every trace of Voldemort's presence wouldn't be as impossible as he'd previously thought.
Ron and Hermione sat on Fred and George's beds in the medical wing. The twins sported broken arms and an equal amount of cuts and bruises, but they were healing. Madame Pomfrey had explained that she couldn't heal their bones, because by the time she got to them the bones had already begun to set. There was a potion working it's way into their arm bones to dissolve them, and then they would have to grow new arm bones. The twins were joking about Lockhart again, and Hermione was still blushing and being teased about her crush on him. No one had forgotten that phase of Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Kate and Oliver were avoiding each other, as usual. They'd both become extremely skittish around the other, even though it was obvious how they both felt. Currently, Oliver was sitting in his room, and Kate was being chased down the corridor in a game of tag against some of the smaller wizard children. Before she could turn into Oliver's corridor, Alicia opened Oliver's door and placed an illusion on the corridor so the door into Oliver's room looked like a way out. Kate, predictably, ran right into his room. She stopped short when she saw him, and Alicia slammed and locked the door. She high-fived the children who'd been chasing Kate, and informed the two locked in the room that they weren't coming out until they talked things through.
Remus Lupin sat in his room, staring dejectedly at a picture of Sirius. It was from their school days, so Sirius's hair was long and shaggy. He looked like a rock star, Remus reflected sadly. He got up and placed the picture back on the dresser. Other photos waved and winked at him. James and Lily grinned and waved from their wedding picture, he and Sirius wrestled on Sirius' bed at school, a smiling fifth year James planted a kiss on Lily's cheek and she got up and chased him. There was one picture that had been partially destroyed. It was a picture of three boys, all wearing graduation outfits and waving diplomas triumphantly towards the camera. Where it was torn, it looked as though there might have been another boy at one point, but it was hard to tell. Remus touched a picture of Sirius on his motorcycle, wearing a leather jacket and ratty jeans, winking at the camera. He put his thin face in his hands and two cold tears trickled down his worn cheeks. He reflected that once again, he was the last of their band left.
Arabella sat in her room in silence. She was clutching her head in pain and rocking back and forth. Her lips were moving rapidly, but no sound could be perceived. Her eyes flashed a bright, acidic green...
Fin.
A/N: Well, that's the end of that, folks! Now, just to let you all know, there will be a sequel to this... probably called "Darkness Rising" or some such nonsense. If you'd like me to e-mail you when it's posted, tell me in your review, or e-mail me at LilithAD at aol. Thanks for reading this. Hey, did anyone catch the Sirius/Angelina subtext that I planted in there? I just thought it was an odd combination, don't worry, I am still an avid Sirius/Remus supporter (Long live the One True Way!) as you can probably tell by the second to last paragraph. Anyway, it's been fun everyone. Peace!
--Lilith
"Omnie mutantur, nihil interit." [Everything changes, but nothing is truly lost.]
-Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: The Wake