In The Darkness
Chapter Seven: Words
With a rush of breath Draco flushed with colour and his eyes snapped open, his backbone snapped straight and his all his limbs outstretched as his bones went rigid and his muscles tightened uncontrollably, every inch of his body was in pain like a thousand hot needles were pressing into him. Gritting his teeth Draco contained the scream that was building up inside of him and began to convulse as all his nerves began to shoot off, causing his muscles to spasm and jerk like some grotesque puppet on a string. Moving swiftly Hermione pulled her wand from her robes and knelt down beside Draco as he began to slowly strain and gain control over his muscles, beginning to mutter an enchantment that would soothe his pain she shrieked with surprise when his ice cold hand snapped up and grasped hers around the wrist. 'No…see to…Harry.'
Unclamping his grip on her arm Hermione moved to Harry where Ron had already flipped over his body, his eyes were wide open and there seemed to be no breath in his lungs, putting her hand over his heart Hermione couldn't feel any movement of blood around his body. Feeling his wrist Ron put his head to Harry's chest, there was no movement at all, 'Jesus Harry don't do this,' making a fist he punched the muscles over Harry's chest, 'don't bloody die on us now.'
'Stand back Ron,' Hermione said as she aimed her wand at Harry's heart, 'Elecutus!' she chanted and a yellow beam shot from her wand and spread into his body, running along the veins that had begun to stand out on his arms. 'He's dying Ron, I can't stop it!' there was a hopelessness in her voice that Ron hadn't heard before.
'Get the kids away,' he said, 'don't let them see this,' the words came out harsh but immediately Hermione stood and picking up Philip and leading a dozy Minerva by the hand she took them into the next room. 'Come on you bastard,' Ron muttered as he thumped Harry's chest again, 'fight, you never quit before don't you start now, stay alive!' For the second time that evening one of the doors in the flat suddenly burst open as Neville, leading a small group of Ministry wizards came charging in with wands outstretched, causing Ron to lose concentration and hit Harry below his neck with a sickening crack. 'NO!' Ron shouted as he felt bone break beneath his hand, pulling it back he found it shaking uncontrollably, covered in a syrupy red liquid.
* * *
'He came back to save us and…and…I killed him…'
'He was already dead Ron,' Draco muttered.
'No…' Ron's voice was racked with pain, tears burned his eyes and his throat was choking, 'I could have saved him.'
'No one could have saved him,' Draco replied, 'you know what that was, that blue aura – Ron he gave me…he gave me his life.'
'That's not possible…even for a mage, you can't give away your life, your soul, it's not something that can be touched Draco, no one can grasp their soul, take it by the hand, manipulate it, it's just not possible…'
'Then why…why did I survive?' Draco lifted his head from the floor of the morgue where they had been sat for the last hour since Neville had arrived at the flat. Gazing into Ron's eyes he saw nothing that could answer, instead they both sat in silence, wondering just what the hell had happened that evening.
* * *
'Well, where are they?'
'We don't know Master, Malfoy was of no use.'
'And Potter?'
'He was not there, nor were the Weasleys or Longbottom.'
'So…was Malfoy fleeing from them or from us?'
'Maybe both my Lord.'
This is an interesting development, alert your spies in London, I must have news.'
'Very well.'
* * *
Hermione looked up from stroking her daughters hair as her husband walked in from the room that held Harry's body, 'Hey,' she whispered, not knowing what else to say, or even if she should. Looking closely she saw the tearstains that ran down Ron's cheeks and saw the weariness in his eyes, in her own heart she felt the pain they shared, to find an old friend and then to lose them. Looking down she saw that Ron had not washed his hand of the blood that had soaked his hand, quietly chanting a Levitation Charm she rose leaving Minerva and Philip dozing in the air and sat down beside her husband. 'We should wash your hand…Ron…come on,' and with the tenderness of a mother to a child she led him to the sink that was in the anteroom. Looking over the taps she chose the one labelled with two 'H's and an 'O' so that pure water flowed into the sink, placing his hand in the water she slowly rubbed his hand with hers so that the blood came off.
'I didn't even get to say goodbye,' Ron whispered to her.
Switching her gaze to her husband's face she saw only a distant gaze, focusing on nothing, trying to ignore the pain inside, silently she watched as a single teardrop brimmed over and fell. Using her other hand she dried the tear when she suddenly felt his other hand tighten on hers in the water, looking down her mouth dropped open at what she saw. The blood that had washed from Ron's hand was not dissipating but had instead all stayed in a pool floating on the surface, as if forming a skin against the water. Hardly daring to breathe she slowly rubbed her husband's hand again and more of the blood flowed off and joined the skin until none remained, as if in a dream she removed both their hands without being aware of it, her gaze still on the patch of blood, or was it?
As soon as their hands were removed from the basin the filmy liquid spread out tiny rivulets over the water's surface, each one twisting and writhing as if living, all of them moving with a smooth motion, slipstreaming through the water unheeded. Unaware that they were both pressing deeply into each others hands Ron and Hermione continued to watch, their breath remaining caught in their mouths until the rivulets stopped moving, then as one they both shouted for anyone as loudly as both could manage. Seconds later Draco burst in from the morgue his wand raised to defend while Neville charged through the door that led to the corridor outside, 'What in the hell is going on?' he asked, but the dumbstruck couple could only gesture at the basin with manic gestures. Seconds later Neville and Draco began to yell at the tops of their voices.
* * *
The 'blood' in the basin had formed words, the first were what had caused everyone to yell, the rest was a mystery to them and the Ministry wizards who had joined them:
This is Harry, I'm not dead…well actually I am and this is just a message to whoever breaks the globe around my neck. The liquid that spurted onto your hand is part of a complex solution called Messaserum that enables any message to be stored, and mine is most important. Firstly, I'm not so dead that I can't come back, secondly is this:
'Burzum-Ishi, Thani de Dumbledore et Riddle evielller ad age pour de Ishi. Le deu et tre de Dumbledore's Luthien ete vincere ou ure weorold ete endian.'
To revive me you need to find someone who can recant this legend in English, but only one person can do so and they are not mentioned in the scripture. Whatever is happening that may have caused my death, I will return to fight if there is anything left worth fighting for, if I have died because it is my time, then so be it and I will rest in peace. The person who can translate the script is known to many but only revealed to a few, my clue is that they wandered homeless in search of a friend for many years but were forgiven when it mattered least. Good luck to you all and Godspeed.
'What the bloody hell does that mean?' Neville burst out all of a sudden, dispelling the calm that had settled on the room. Hermione opened her mouth to answer but shut it when the door opened from the hallway and the Minister of Magic walked in, calmly dismissing the two Ministry wizards to guard the entrance Cho shut the door and sealed it with a charm. Moving over to the sink she read the message while everyone remained quiet around her, looking closely Hermione thought she caught a hint of emotion in the witch's eyes, was it sorrow, or something else, either way Cho was in deep thought over the matter.
Eventually turning away from the basin Cho addressed them all calmly and clearly, 'I have been expecting this for the last fifteen years,' she began tiredly, 'before I graduated from Hogwarts, which as you know was a year before you, Harry came to see me. He told me about this message, and before you ask I am not the lonely wanderer, but I know who is…You see Harry knew that one day he would not have his wand, or would need to sacrifice himself for another, in any way, he knew he would die. He also said that you would all be here, including the children,' at this point she gestured round at the four who had remained in the room and the floating infants, 'perhaps there was something to be said for his divining skills after all,' she added this with a glimmer of a smile towards Hermione.
'For now this is not relevant though, we will see to Harry's revival soon enough because I have no doubt that we will need his help, there is a lot to fight for. You may have heard about the violence that has been erupting throughout the world, in both magical and Muggle communities, well while this is all to common in the Muggle world, indeed the violence follows their trends for the last millennia at least, it is uncommon to us. We have not seen the like of this since Voldemort's return and the war we all fought against him then, something has been happening and the sudden reappearance of Harry, not to mention Draco, well that only convinces me further that all is not right.'
Standing and moving to the door she turned once more her voice now strong and full, 'I don't know what is happening, but I do know that you four and Harry are a solution, it always seemed like a group of you were saving our world – do it again.' Removing the charm and opening the door she said once last thing before closing the door and leaving, 'Padfoot is the wanderer you are looking for.'
A/N: Well almost all of that script is mine so I need no added disclaimer, and don't try and translate it because soon it will be revealed – possibly. Next is chapter 8: padfoot.
PS: Sorry this was a kinda wordy chapter – but what do you expect?