~~ Chapter Twenty-Two: Revelations ~~

            Alina Terringer stood on a walkway of the castle that housed Skyliner Wizarding Academy deep in the mountains of Switzerland.  The cold wind of late October whipped around her as she gazed into the distance.  She barely registered the frigid temperature, though.  Her mind was focused on other things.

            She almost didn't hear the sound of approaching footsteps over the howl of the wind, but sure enough, someone was coming.  She turned her head in the direction they were coming from, and gasped as she recognized the person.  "Lucius?  What are you doing here?"

            "I had to see you," he said, taking her in his arms.  "I'm so sorry for what happened.  Please, come back.  You belong at Hogwarts.  Don't leave us."

            "Did they find the Nundu?" she asked.

            "The Nundu is gone," Lucius said.  "We're safe now."

            "Is it dead?  Will it return?"

            "It is dead."  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a long white tooth on a leather cord.  "Here's the proof."

            Alina took the tooth from him.  It was a good four inches long, and sharp as the blade of a knife.  She closed her eyes as tears streamed down her cheeks and started to freeze in the cold air.  "Finally, it's over."

            "Yes, it's over," he said.  "Will you come back?  We need you."  He took her face in his hands and smoothed away the tears.  "I need you, and I love you."

            "I don't belong in your world, Lucius," she told him.  "We're too different.  Your lineage, your creed… I would never be accepted."

            "Yes, you will," he said.  "I promise."  He leaned forward and kissed her quickly.  "Alina, come back."

            He kissed her again, this time longer and with more intensity.  The wind whipped their clothing and hair all around them, and they had to stop several times to get hair out of their faces.  This eventually got them laughing.  "Maybe we should go inside," she suggested, running her fingers through his shoulder-length blonde hair.

            He kissed her on the cheek.  "Good idea."

            But as they turned to go inside, they found themselves face to face with a giant leopard.  She knew at once what it was: a Nundu.  The Nundu let out a vicious snarl, and its huge paw swung at them.  It made contact with Lucius first, slicing his chest open.  "No!" Alina cried, dropping to her knees and pulling his dying body close to her.  "Lucius, no!"

            His grey eyes gazed at her for a moment, and then went blank as all life left him.  She looked up, just in time to see the Nundu bring its claws down on her.

            "Professor!  Professor Terringer, wake up!"

            Alina could feel someone shaking her, and she opened her eyes.  There was no Nundu standing above her.  It was the headmistress of Skyliner, Lydia Vierra, and she was in her bedroom at the Swiss wizarding school.  "It was a dream," the headmistress told her.  "It was just a dream."

            "I'm sorry, Professor Vierra," Alina apologized, rubbing at her eyes to keep the Skyliner headmistress from seeing her tears.  "It's just…"

            "What?" inquired Vierra.

            "Forget it," Alina said, sitting up in her bed.  She hugged her knees close to her body, and rested her head on top of them.  "It doesn't matter.  It was just a dream.  It's all right now."

            "You were screaming," Vierra said, "and I don't think it is all right."  She paused, then spoke again.  "Who is he?"

            "Who?" Alina asked, confused.

            "The man whose name you cried," Vierra explained.  "Someone special to you?"

            Alina knew she was talking about Lucius.  She closed her eyes to fight back the forming tears.  This was the fifth straight night she'd had the same dream, down to every last detail, and every time, she thought it was really happening.  "No," she said, even though she knew it was obvious that she was lying.

            "You miss him," the Skyliner headmistress said.  She closed her eyes and tilted her head back.  "You worry about his safety.  You love him, but he has hurt you deeply."  She opened her eyes and looked at Alina.  "Am I right?"

            "I thought you weren't allowed to do that on school grounds," Alina said, referring to Vierra's ability to perceive the feelings of others.

            "Who says I'm using magic?" Vierra asked.  "Your thoughts are obvious, Professor.  A Muggle could sense them.  Now tell me his name, or I will break the rules and read your thoughts."

            Alina sighed sadly.  "His name is Lucius Malfoy."

            "The Lucius Malfoy?" Vierra said.  "The one whose family was slaughtered two months ago?"

            "Yes."  She lifted her head and looked at the ceiling.  "I love him, Professor Vierra, but… but I can't be with him.  It wouldn't be right."

            "And why not?"

            "For the simple reason that he's from a family of wizards that dates back to the Roman Empire and I'm from a family of Muggles that dates back to the Roman Empire," she replied.  "People like me are not accepted in his world."  She then told the headmistress about the conversation she and Minerva Dumbledore overheard between Lucius and Arthur Weasley.

            "Maybe it's not what it looks like," Vierra suggested.  "Maybe you acted too hastily."

            "Or maybe I'm just a fool for thinking Lucius Malfoy could ever love me."

            Vierra hesitated before responding.  The Malfoy family was well known throughout the entire wizarding world, and from what she had seen and heard about them, they weren't the type that one wanted to get involved with if one could help it.  How kind, friendly, respectable Alina Terringer could ever fall in love with the disagreeable, deceitful Lucius Malfoy was beyond her comprehension, and she told her so.

            "You don't understand," Alina said.  "You don't know him.  He's not like that anymore.  He's changed."

            "Then why are you here and not with him?"

            She closed her eyes, and a silent tear trickled down her cheek.  "I… I don't know."

            Severus Snape let out a long sigh of annoyance and looked at Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy.  "How long has he been in there?" Snape asked.

            "Three days," Harry answered.  "Straight."

            "He doesn't eat, he doesn't sleep, and he doesn't talk to us," Draco added.  "That's why we owled you.  You're the only one that can get him to snap out of it."

            Snape sighed again and looked at the large door that led into Lucius Malfoy's bedchambers.  "Lucius, open the door," he said.  "We have to talk."

            Lucius didn't respond.

            "I was hoping it wouldn't have to come to this," Snape said, mostly to himself, and reached for his wand.  He pointed it at the door handle and said, "Alohomora."

            Nothing happened.

            "We've tried that," Harry said.  "It's charmed."

            Snape swore under his breath, put his hand on the door handle, and gave it a shake.  "Lucius Antellius Malfoy, if you do not open this door, I will rip it off its hinges, and don't think I won't!"

            "I never knew your father's middle name was Antellius," Harry whispered to Draco.

            Draco shook his head.  "Neither did I."

            "What's your middle name?"

            "Demerius," Draco answered with a grimace.  He hated his middle name.  "Yours?"

            "James."

            "Don't make me do this, Lucius," Snape said to the door.  There was still no response from Lucius.  Snape looked at Harry and Draco.  "Stand back, boys."

            They did as they were told.  Snape pointed his wand at the door, shouted some magic words, and pulled his hand back.  The door was ripped from the wall.

            When the dust and debris settled, Snape put his wand away and stepped inside the room.  "Lucius?" he said.  "Where are you?"

            A glass door led out to a small balcony.  Snape saw Lucius sitting down with his back against the railing, with his eyes toward the sky.  He was as still as a statue.  "Come on, Lucius," Snape said, walking out onto the balcony.  "Snap out of it.  What's wrong with you?"

            For almost a minute, Lucius didn't even blink.  Finally, his weary voice said, "What have I done, Severus?  What have I done?"

            "What have you done?" Snape asked.  "I'll tell you what you've done.  You had everything going for you and you let one little mistake ruin it all."

            Lucius closed his eyes.  "I love her, Severus."

            "I know you do, and she loves you.   Why won't you tell her?"

            He opened his eyes and dropped his gaze to the floor.  "I don't know how."

            "Maybe you do, and you're just afraid."

            Lucius looked up at Snape and glared at him.  "You're right, I am afraid," he snapped.  "Afraid of how the wizarding world would react if they knew I fell in love with a Muggle-born."

            Snape sighed, closed his eyes, and slowly nodded his head.  "That," he said, "is why you lost her."

            Lucius stood up, placed his hands on the railing, and looked at the garden below.  "I know."

            Snape moved so he was standing next to his friend and leaned against the railing for support.  "So what are you going to do?" he asked.

            Lucius smiled for the first time in two weeks.  "Go to Switzerland, of course."

            "And what are you going to do once you get there?"

            "I'm not quite sure," he admitted, "but I'm sure something will come to me."

            Suddenly, Harry and Draco came running toward them.  Harry had a piece of paper in his hand, and both boys looked frantic.  "Father!  Professor Snape!  Something terrible has happened!" said Draco.

            "What?" Snape and Lucius asked in unison.

            Harry handed Snape the letter.  "I just got this," he said.  "It's from Ron.  Oliver and Hermione are missing."

            A worried look crossed Snape's face as he read the letter.  "Oh, no…"

            "It makes sense, Minerva," Albus Dumbledore said to his wife as the two of them returned to the apartment provided to them by the Ministry of Magic to gather the things they would need for their journey.  "Loch Lomond was where Fudge's body was found."

            "But, Albus," Minerva replied, "do you think it could be a trap?"

            They reached the entrance to the apartment.  Dumbledore placed his hand on the doorknob and looked at her.  "I know it's a trap."

            He opened the door, and the two of them went inside.  "If you know it's a trap, then why are you walking right into it?" Minerva asked.  "That's probably just what they want!"

            "Of course it's what they want," Dumbledore said.  "They know we know it's a trap, and they know there's no way we'd walk right into a trap that we already knew was a trap, so that's what we're going to do.  We'll walk straight into their trap and take them by surprise."

            Minerva sighed and shook her head.  "I don't understand your logic sometimes."

            He drew her into his arms and kissed her on the forehead.  "I love you, Minerva," he said.

            She rested her head on his chest and ran her fingers through his long white hair.  "I love you, too, Albus, but your idea is crazy."

            "Of course it's crazy.  That's why it's going to work."

            That drew a smile out of her.  "Whatever you say."

            "You don't believe me, do you?"

            The smile vanished.  She pulled away from him and looked deep into his blue eyes.  "Albus Dumbledore, I have never doubted you, ever, and I am not going to start now," she said sternly.  "If you think for one second that I will not support any decision you make, you are seriously mistaken.  Do not question my loyalty to you ever again."

            Dumbledore was taken aback.  He hadn't expected such a harsh rebuke.  "I'm sorry, Minerva.  I didn't mean it like that."

            She closed her eyes and nodded.  A tear slowly trickled down her cheek.  "I know."

            He leaned forward and kissed the tear away.  His next kiss was on her mouth, and she returned it with so much intensity that it took his breath away.

"Oliver, do you think we're going to die?"

            Oliver Wood looked at Hermione Granger and nodded.  "Yes."

            Hermione sighed.  "I thought so."

            "What about you?" Oliver asked.  "Do you think we have a chance?"

            She shook her head.  "Not a snowball's chance in Hell."

A/N: Yeah, this one took a little longer than past updates… bear with me though; I'm suffering from writer's block and a head cold.  *sniff*  We should start to see some action in the next chapter, so keep your eyes open.