Journey of Legends
By: Cheddar Chapter
A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend: I don't own any of it except the plot and the characters who you all don't know from cannon. Don't sue me, I'm a very poor student with nothing but pocket lint to offer you. Although, if you want that then you can have it. If you want to know when I update, leave your e-mail in a review.
Chapter Five: Never Go Home Again
It was quiet in here. She had played that damned piano for hours until the light outside the room's tiny window had faded and now that she could no longer see the keys, it was silent as the grave. Her fingers still itched for the songs she had not played as if it wee incomplete. Incomplete... just like her.
It was true. She didn't belong here. The others were so sure of themselves and what they had done and who they had been but she had none of it. While they cried for friends and family lost she cried simply to appear like them. It was all a facade. A mask so she could fit in but she didn't belong. She didn't feel the pain that should have been behind the tears. She felt empty like something gutted.
Running a hand over the scars on her face Elyzabel wondered what it felt like to receive such scars. She had been shown a picture of herself earlier. Of herself before she'd gotten them. She'd been pretty, the kind of girl every one loves, but it didn't feel like her. It didn't look like her. That was the only thing she could feel. The fear of not knowing who she was. Of not knowing anything.
But no, that wasn't true. She knew this. The piano.. the songs... she knew them. In here she wasn't the Elyzabel petty they all expected her to be. She was some one else entirely. Someone who played piano and knew the instrument no matter what. Some one who didn't see any one in he mirror but what she needed to. Some one not Elyzabel petty.
Closing her eyes against the pressing darkness she raised her hands back to the keys and played with out her sight. Played what she knew.
***
Hogsmead had been gone for years now. The nearest town was sixty miles off but Helena had grown up strong and made the journey without complaint. She was tired by the time she reached the little village and stopped off to have a drink at a local bar before continuing on. She needed time to rest... and think.
The bar was crowed and dark which suited her just fine. Filled with muggles, the bar reminded her so much of her home she left so long ago to fight this crusade. But why? Looking around she wondered, not for the first time that day, what had made her go. It wasn't even her war to begin with. Stupid wizards... Stupid Divin... No, stupid Helena.
Sighing at facts and pain she could do nothing about, the small woman took a seat at the bar and ordered a drink. No, it didn't matter what she had. Rice? I've got a little... nothing expensive please. I've still got to get home tonight. Thank you. and with that she settled into thinking about where to go next.
Home had been at that school for so long that leaving it now felt as wrong as when she'd run away to join the resistance in the first place. But only this time her father wasn't behind her yelling at her. He was in front of her with disapproval in his eyes and a heavy hand. Talk about a catch-22. She had no where to go. Hogwarts was where Divin was, her home was about as welcoming as a cracked skull, and wandering about the countryside would get her caught by a muggle internment camp and she'd be dead anywhere. Why couldn't she just stay here forever?
"Those are some dark thoughts yeh're thinking there, girl." An old woman suddenly appeared at her elbow. Helena gave her a startled look. Could this woman read her mind? It wouldn't have surprised her.
"How did you-"
"Yeh're a breath away from telling the whole pub you're gonna shoot yeh self in the 'ead. I'm just the only one 'gonna say anythin'. And I bet I know what it's about too." Helena wanted to protest but the woman continued. "It's a boy. I knew it. Yeh got yeh self messed up in some lad and now 'e ain't what yeh thought 'e was. Aye. I'm right aren't I?" She nodded sagely as if she knew everything. "I knew it."
"Am I really that obvious?" Helena asked. But the woman ignored her.
"I was in love once. 'E turned out to be some great wizard who thought 'e could rule the world. Great wizard me foot! 'E had the wand of a two-year- old!" She dissolved in cackles of glee. The bartender gave the younger woman a sympathetic look but said nothing. "Yeah, and 'e was a mean ol' bastard too. Always talking about 'ow 'e was gonna rule the 'ole 'orld! Ha! 'E's dead as a doornail 'he is! Thank God. You believe in God girl? Ya should. 'E's the only real thing in this 'orld. And don't choo forget it neither." Helena said nothing. The only real thing she'd said. But what was real?
Real. That brought up some interesting questions in her mind. What was real? What was reality? Was anything that had happened in the past month reality? Had she just imagine standing up in front of all those wizards? Was that really her? She'd never had that kind of courage before. What was going on here? Was any of this really real? No, it couldn't be. Love wasn't real. This was just a trick her mind played on her heart.
***
"Ginny..." It was really her. Wasn't it? Or was the early evening dimness making him see things? Like the mirror of Erised showing him what he wanted most: To see someone from his past. Some one who knew him as more than some great over blown warrior. And there she stood. Ginny Weasley in the edge of the woods looking not a second older than he remembered her.
"Oh, Harry!" she exclaimed throwing herself into his arms. He didn't know what to do. Her arms were hard as stone and just as cold. He blinked. What was going on? "Oh, Harry! I missed you so much! Do you have any idea.... Harry?"
"Ginny?" He searched her face for anything that might give him a clue to what was happening. She was so pale!
"Oh! Harry, I'm sorry... I thought... Please don't be angry."
"Why would I be angry, Ginny? I'm just... God, this is all so strange."
"Well, I thought that after... After what happened when you... You died... Harry, It's been a long time."
"So I hear."
"Harry..." She hadn't changed a bit.
"What are you? What kind of demon are you that torments me. You wear her face but she's dead." Ginny was afraid of how cold his voice had suddenly gotten.
"I'm... Harry, I'm a vampire. But none of that matters now. Harry! We're together. I'm not alone any more. We're not alone... any more."
"No," he said. "I guess we aren't." She smiled at him shyly and once more walked over to hug him he held her at bay. "No, let's walk for a while. None of this. It doesn't mean anything." And he took her hand and they began to walk as the sky got darker above them.
***
"Can you believe her? I mean really!... Rich? Richard Milo, are you listening to me?" Adela stomped her foot and Rich grimaced at the thought of what he knew he had to do.
"Adela, We need to talk."
"We are talking! I mean seriously, that Milana thinks she's God's gift to-"
"-Adela!" He never raised his voice and it made her look up. "We need to talk. Now."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "What do you mean, Rich? What's going on?"
"Adela-"
"-Are you dumping me? You prick! After everything we've been through together!" She gasped. "You're seeing her... No! You're sleeping with her! You're screwing that little bitch behind my back aren't you? You fucker!" She was screaming now and everyone in the corridor had looked up from whatever they were doing.
"Adela listen to me," he pleaded.
"No! you listen to me, Richard Milo. I... I... I hate you!" And with that she burst into tears and ran off down the hallway with people looking after her. Sure they all respected her but it was out of fear and seeing her 'get dumped' by her boyfriend was sure to be the best entertainment they'd get in a while.
But Rich looked lost. She was all he'd known. What was he supposed to do now that he had his wings back but no desire to fly?
***
Guy didn't know what it was about Milana Knight that kept him searching but once more he found himself wandering the corridors searching for the girl who occupied all of his thoughts.
So far he'd checked everywhere he could think of. All of the class rooms and had a friend check the bathrooms for him while he checked the kitchens and Great Hall. But she was no where to be seen which meant she was either outside or in the Slytherin dorms. Both places which Guy found off limits to him as a student after dark.
Sighing he sat down on the nearest stair. It wasn't that he loved her, not in that way at least, but he felt like a big brother towards her. She was always something of a victim and Guy wanted nothing more than to protect her from the Adelas the world had to offer her. But he couldn't. And he knew it. There was nothing to be done.
***
Alexa sat in her room with a book spread out before her. The words were strange to her and yet she could understand every one of them. And reading helped to block the pain. All those people she'd lost. All of her friends and her family.. all gone...
But in this book she learned about each of her fellow warriors. It was a new History of Modern Magic. It was interesting too, which helped keep her awake. She turned the page just as a wave of coughing overtook her body. It shook every part of her and rattled her bones. Her eyes streamed with tears as she felt the familiar taste of coppery blood fill her mouth. And as the pain subsided her tears did not stop. They had brought her back so she could die once more.
***
Xira Newt sat in her room with a thin blanket over her shoulders and a cup of warm pumpkin juice in her hands. She hadn't taken more than two sips of the drink still thinking that she needed something strong. But that would dull her senses and this was a time when she needed all her wits about her. So pumpkin juice it was, however long it had been since she'd tasted the stuff.
In the past few days she'd gone from being dead as could be to being once more alive and kicking and while everyone thought she should be the happiest person in the world, she wasn't. It hurt. She'd been so happy before with family and friends and her lover. Yes, her lover. Juan had been her younger sister's former fling when Xira met him but the two had soon developed their relationship. He didn't mind that they were both nearing fifty. He wanted to marry her. But before he could get up the courage to ask her formally, they were both dead. At least they had died together. The gods had granted them that much sanity. But the sight of that white dress in her closet with the black scarf hung on a nail near-by had brought her up short. He'd loved that dress and the scarf was a gift on their last Christmas together.
Xira could have kicked herself. She'd let her guard down for Juan. She'd slipped out of her spy mind-set like a dress and it had gotten them both killed. But she wouldn't allow that to happen this time. Never again...
A Knock at the door brought her out of her reverie. Crossing to the door she saw Weland someone or other. She hadn't bothered to learn every one's name. "Can I help you?"
"Can I come in?" She raised a questioning eyebrow at him. "Look, I know we don't know each other very well and all this... Well, I just can't stand being alone for very much longer." Xira could sympathize with that.
"Yeah, Sure. Welcome to my humble abode." She made a mock sweeping gesture into the room and they both cracked cautious smiles.
"Am I the only one who's been going crazy since this morning? I mean, come on, since when have muggles been allowed access to the magical world?" Xira shrugged at this. She had always lived when muggles knew of their existence. It had always been a proven fact. She couldn't imagine it any other way.
"No, I don't think you're alone in the feeling kind of strange bit at all." He given her a slight smile but it didn't reach her eyes.
"It seems like this whole thing is just... I don't know... It's like a script written by a bunch of monkeys chained to typewriters or something! There is no rhyme or reason to it! I mean, we were never meant to meet." He slung himself into a near by chair and Xira bit back the urge to tell him to help himself to a seat. She didn't understand the short man before her. What on earth was he rambling on about?
Sitting down she listened as he continued. A spy learns to listen. "I was supposed to die a long time ago. I did die a long time ago! But You didn't. You weren't even born yet and some how, here we both are in a world we were never meant to see and no one has a clue what's going on! I mean good god! Did you hear what he was telling us about down there? It's crazy! All those fucking idiots thinking they can take over the world so they bring us back from the dead and frankly, I don't know about everyone else but I was happy... I was so fucking happy..." As Weland drew his rant to a close his voice choked up. Xira saw tears glisten in the man's eyes. "They don't even celebrate Halloween any more. Do you know that? Today id Halloween. My kids would have been planing their costumes or talking about the great feast if they were here at Hogwarts. But these kids don't have the energy to think about a party with this war going on. I looked at them this morning and i thought, 'my God, not one of them knows what today is!'"
A moment of tense silence descended upon them before Xira spoke. "But would you go back? I mean, If you went back to the moment you died and changed it so that you never died because you knew about all of this, would you?"
Weland thought about it. "No, they were all long dead by that point. But I would have made it so that they couldn't have brought me back." And Xira knew she agreed with the man before her. The man who had put on such a great show of being fierce and intimidating. He was crying. Xira almost was.
Another knock at the door drew them both out of their morbid thoughts. Before Xira could get up to open it, Dane Irish stepped into the room. "I heard people talking. I couldn't find any one to talk to. Do you think I could stay here a while?" He looked like a little boy in a man's body. Xira ran an apprising eye over him from his short spiky blue hair and his soulful brown eyes and down his lean frame covered by a robe so very different from the ones she had known. He must have had them from before... Before.
Weland looked at her as if to ask permission. How had she become the leader of men once more? She sighed. "Sure. It's not like any of us have anything better to do." He gave a thin smile of thanks before sitting in a chair near-by. Xira ignored that it was the chair she'd been sitting in and took the last chair in the room.
Weland spoke first. "Is it true? What Max said?" Dane's eyes narrowed as if to asses what was behind the question.
"Yes. I'm gay all right? If you have a problem with it I'll leave. I don't have to stand for it." There was a definite challenge in his voice.
"No, It's fine." And so the evening wore on with questions about lives that were lived long ago but begun again. Answer about love and heartache and the peace of being dead.
A little while later, they heard the soft sound of a piano coming from someplace near-by. Dane got to his feet as quietly as he could and almost jumped when he found Xira standing just inches from him. Together they eased towards the door and opened it when the sound became a little louder.
With Weland following them, they crept out into the hallway and followed the sound up a flight of stairs and down a narrow and dark corridor. They came to a door that was solid wood but cracked open a bit. Pushing it open they saw one of their fellow warriors at a piano that took up half the room. Elyzabel Petty took no notice of them as they enter but she knew they were there. Like flies in the background.
Silently the other three crept into the room and stood around the walls. Dane sat on the dusty ground and leaned his head back against the wall behind him and closed his eyes. And the song played on.
***
They spent the rest of the early evening time wandering the halls and laughing about all the things that they had gotten up to in their days at the school. Down in the dungeons they laughed at the memory of Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret. In the old DADA room they fondly recalled Lockheart's Cornish pixies and Harry told her about his meeting with Lupin and Snape walking in on it. She smiled wide enough to show her fangs and it stirred a memory of another girl with fangs... but they didn't talk about the very end and he wouldn't think of the pain either.
The halls were deserted as they made their way back towards Harry's room. Ginny giggled behind him. Something she had not done in centuries for what had she to laugh at? Only lovers and children laugh the way she had not for so long. But she seemed determined to make up for all of that now. They bother were.
Coming down the hall they heard a piano song coming from someplace above them. Ginny heard it first and took off in search of the source. Soon they heard low voices carrying along with the song. But the piano was indifferent to the voices.
Coming to the end of the hall, Ginny pushed open a door and Harry saw a few of the other warriors sitting or standing against the wall. "Well at least she remembers how to play." he heard himself whisper.
"I should have known you'd be here" came another voice. Xira Newt. Her voice held no emotion.
Ginny almost smiled at the woman. "Hello, Xira." There was a softness in her eyes like pity.
"You two know each other?" Dane asked from his place on the floor.
Xira looked away. "We did." She seemed ashamed.
Weland walked over. "Well, we're luck Marcus isn't here. This pretty girl would be dead in a heart beat. No pun intended." He sneered at the other man's name but smiled at Ginny as if she were a young girl who should be flattered and fawned over.
"We were just talking," said Dane. "About Halloween." Harry and Ginny shared a smile.
"They don't celebrate it any more." Ginny looked ashamed to have to tell them that.
"Yeah, we figured that one out," Weland laughed. "It's today," he said.
"Well, then, Happy Halloween."
There was a tense silence broken by Dane. "It seems wrong. Like we're breaking some code of time or something." They didn't have to ask what he meant. The whole Halloween thing had been a farce. Trying to hide the pain... the past.
"I know what you mean. I think we all do." And so the night wore on. And Elyzabel played.
***
A few hours later Ginny noticed as Harry's head began to droop just slightly. Taking him silently by the hand she stood and he followed her out the door. They left in their wake, Dane, Weland, and Xira sleeping softly in various poses about the room but Elyzabel's notes never once wavered.
Once in the hallway again she led him by the hand down towards the kitchens. Harry's eyes misted over at the familiar place. He wondered if the sight of the Gryffindor Common room might affect him similarly. All those memories that seemed like only yesterday and yet here he was, a thousand years later... as if nothing had happened.
"Tell me..." Ginny looked at him startled. It must be hard to startle a vampire. "Tell me what happened after I... After I..." And that was a s far as he got before she took his hand and sat him down at a table with a plate of food before him. He hardly noticed it but picked at as she sighed and began to speak.
"You know about Dumbledore and Hermione and..." Her voice was choked. "And Ron. You know about that." He nodded. "Well, Snape, he died. When you, well when you cast that spell, everyone with the dark mark died and even though Snape wasn't really one of them he died too. Um... Malfoy... err... Draco. He grew a lot. He changed. He got married to some witch and they had a few kids. They were all Ravenclaws. I think that seeing so many people die really changed his mind. Remember how he was going to become a Death Eater?
"Who else? Oh, yes. Sirius was never cleared. I'm sorry, Harry. It just never happened. He thought of you when he was dying. I went to see him. He was an old man though. Don't let it fool you. He was never quiet the same but he had moments when he was happy, Harry. Don't you ever forget that. He loved you. He lived for you." Tears fell down his face and from her's as well.
"And Lupin?"
"He was killed. When you... After, well, the ministry began to kill any werewolves they could find saying that they had helped Voldemort. Lupin was such a front runner in the war that he was one of the first taken out. Oh, gods, Harry! I'm so sorry I let all that happen. I could have... I... I'm so sorry." And she wept.
Harry closed his eyes and leaned forewords. His lips brushed hers' in an impulsive moment that seemed to take over and blocking out the pain of true loss he kissed her and felt her return the favor. And all the while one thing kept running through his mind. He'd been with her all night until now it was nearly Dawn and not once had he said her name.
***
Too much pain. It hurt too much. Milana's face was red and contorted with the pain that only a teenage girl can feel. Tears soaked her robes and the sheets she had buried her head in to weep. It was too much.
With a grim determination she rose from her bed and walked over to her desk. Pulling out the picture of Harry Potter she sighed. 'I'll bet you never felt like this huh?' Setting the picture back down she pulled a knife from the draw and pulled the knife across both wrists and waited for the pain to end.
It's finally done. I really don't like this chapter too much but give me some hints as to how to make it bettert. I tried to write it faster so every one would stop bugging me about it. Help me out here guys and gals. Drop me a review! Please!
By: Cheddar Chapter
A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend: I don't own any of it except the plot and the characters who you all don't know from cannon. Don't sue me, I'm a very poor student with nothing but pocket lint to offer you. Although, if you want that then you can have it. If you want to know when I update, leave your e-mail in a review.
Chapter Five: Never Go Home Again
It was quiet in here. She had played that damned piano for hours until the light outside the room's tiny window had faded and now that she could no longer see the keys, it was silent as the grave. Her fingers still itched for the songs she had not played as if it wee incomplete. Incomplete... just like her.
It was true. She didn't belong here. The others were so sure of themselves and what they had done and who they had been but she had none of it. While they cried for friends and family lost she cried simply to appear like them. It was all a facade. A mask so she could fit in but she didn't belong. She didn't feel the pain that should have been behind the tears. She felt empty like something gutted.
Running a hand over the scars on her face Elyzabel wondered what it felt like to receive such scars. She had been shown a picture of herself earlier. Of herself before she'd gotten them. She'd been pretty, the kind of girl every one loves, but it didn't feel like her. It didn't look like her. That was the only thing she could feel. The fear of not knowing who she was. Of not knowing anything.
But no, that wasn't true. She knew this. The piano.. the songs... she knew them. In here she wasn't the Elyzabel petty they all expected her to be. She was some one else entirely. Someone who played piano and knew the instrument no matter what. Some one who didn't see any one in he mirror but what she needed to. Some one not Elyzabel petty.
Closing her eyes against the pressing darkness she raised her hands back to the keys and played with out her sight. Played what she knew.
***
Hogsmead had been gone for years now. The nearest town was sixty miles off but Helena had grown up strong and made the journey without complaint. She was tired by the time she reached the little village and stopped off to have a drink at a local bar before continuing on. She needed time to rest... and think.
The bar was crowed and dark which suited her just fine. Filled with muggles, the bar reminded her so much of her home she left so long ago to fight this crusade. But why? Looking around she wondered, not for the first time that day, what had made her go. It wasn't even her war to begin with. Stupid wizards... Stupid Divin... No, stupid Helena.
Sighing at facts and pain she could do nothing about, the small woman took a seat at the bar and ordered a drink. No, it didn't matter what she had. Rice? I've got a little... nothing expensive please. I've still got to get home tonight. Thank you. and with that she settled into thinking about where to go next.
Home had been at that school for so long that leaving it now felt as wrong as when she'd run away to join the resistance in the first place. But only this time her father wasn't behind her yelling at her. He was in front of her with disapproval in his eyes and a heavy hand. Talk about a catch-22. She had no where to go. Hogwarts was where Divin was, her home was about as welcoming as a cracked skull, and wandering about the countryside would get her caught by a muggle internment camp and she'd be dead anywhere. Why couldn't she just stay here forever?
"Those are some dark thoughts yeh're thinking there, girl." An old woman suddenly appeared at her elbow. Helena gave her a startled look. Could this woman read her mind? It wouldn't have surprised her.
"How did you-"
"Yeh're a breath away from telling the whole pub you're gonna shoot yeh self in the 'ead. I'm just the only one 'gonna say anythin'. And I bet I know what it's about too." Helena wanted to protest but the woman continued. "It's a boy. I knew it. Yeh got yeh self messed up in some lad and now 'e ain't what yeh thought 'e was. Aye. I'm right aren't I?" She nodded sagely as if she knew everything. "I knew it."
"Am I really that obvious?" Helena asked. But the woman ignored her.
"I was in love once. 'E turned out to be some great wizard who thought 'e could rule the world. Great wizard me foot! 'E had the wand of a two-year- old!" She dissolved in cackles of glee. The bartender gave the younger woman a sympathetic look but said nothing. "Yeah, and 'e was a mean ol' bastard too. Always talking about 'ow 'e was gonna rule the 'ole 'orld! Ha! 'E's dead as a doornail 'he is! Thank God. You believe in God girl? Ya should. 'E's the only real thing in this 'orld. And don't choo forget it neither." Helena said nothing. The only real thing she'd said. But what was real?
Real. That brought up some interesting questions in her mind. What was real? What was reality? Was anything that had happened in the past month reality? Had she just imagine standing up in front of all those wizards? Was that really her? She'd never had that kind of courage before. What was going on here? Was any of this really real? No, it couldn't be. Love wasn't real. This was just a trick her mind played on her heart.
***
"Ginny..." It was really her. Wasn't it? Or was the early evening dimness making him see things? Like the mirror of Erised showing him what he wanted most: To see someone from his past. Some one who knew him as more than some great over blown warrior. And there she stood. Ginny Weasley in the edge of the woods looking not a second older than he remembered her.
"Oh, Harry!" she exclaimed throwing herself into his arms. He didn't know what to do. Her arms were hard as stone and just as cold. He blinked. What was going on? "Oh, Harry! I missed you so much! Do you have any idea.... Harry?"
"Ginny?" He searched her face for anything that might give him a clue to what was happening. She was so pale!
"Oh! Harry, I'm sorry... I thought... Please don't be angry."
"Why would I be angry, Ginny? I'm just... God, this is all so strange."
"Well, I thought that after... After what happened when you... You died... Harry, It's been a long time."
"So I hear."
"Harry..." She hadn't changed a bit.
"What are you? What kind of demon are you that torments me. You wear her face but she's dead." Ginny was afraid of how cold his voice had suddenly gotten.
"I'm... Harry, I'm a vampire. But none of that matters now. Harry! We're together. I'm not alone any more. We're not alone... any more."
"No," he said. "I guess we aren't." She smiled at him shyly and once more walked over to hug him he held her at bay. "No, let's walk for a while. None of this. It doesn't mean anything." And he took her hand and they began to walk as the sky got darker above them.
***
"Can you believe her? I mean really!... Rich? Richard Milo, are you listening to me?" Adela stomped her foot and Rich grimaced at the thought of what he knew he had to do.
"Adela, We need to talk."
"We are talking! I mean seriously, that Milana thinks she's God's gift to-"
"-Adela!" He never raised his voice and it made her look up. "We need to talk. Now."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "What do you mean, Rich? What's going on?"
"Adela-"
"-Are you dumping me? You prick! After everything we've been through together!" She gasped. "You're seeing her... No! You're sleeping with her! You're screwing that little bitch behind my back aren't you? You fucker!" She was screaming now and everyone in the corridor had looked up from whatever they were doing.
"Adela listen to me," he pleaded.
"No! you listen to me, Richard Milo. I... I... I hate you!" And with that she burst into tears and ran off down the hallway with people looking after her. Sure they all respected her but it was out of fear and seeing her 'get dumped' by her boyfriend was sure to be the best entertainment they'd get in a while.
But Rich looked lost. She was all he'd known. What was he supposed to do now that he had his wings back but no desire to fly?
***
Guy didn't know what it was about Milana Knight that kept him searching but once more he found himself wandering the corridors searching for the girl who occupied all of his thoughts.
So far he'd checked everywhere he could think of. All of the class rooms and had a friend check the bathrooms for him while he checked the kitchens and Great Hall. But she was no where to be seen which meant she was either outside or in the Slytherin dorms. Both places which Guy found off limits to him as a student after dark.
Sighing he sat down on the nearest stair. It wasn't that he loved her, not in that way at least, but he felt like a big brother towards her. She was always something of a victim and Guy wanted nothing more than to protect her from the Adelas the world had to offer her. But he couldn't. And he knew it. There was nothing to be done.
***
Alexa sat in her room with a book spread out before her. The words were strange to her and yet she could understand every one of them. And reading helped to block the pain. All those people she'd lost. All of her friends and her family.. all gone...
But in this book she learned about each of her fellow warriors. It was a new History of Modern Magic. It was interesting too, which helped keep her awake. She turned the page just as a wave of coughing overtook her body. It shook every part of her and rattled her bones. Her eyes streamed with tears as she felt the familiar taste of coppery blood fill her mouth. And as the pain subsided her tears did not stop. They had brought her back so she could die once more.
***
Xira Newt sat in her room with a thin blanket over her shoulders and a cup of warm pumpkin juice in her hands. She hadn't taken more than two sips of the drink still thinking that she needed something strong. But that would dull her senses and this was a time when she needed all her wits about her. So pumpkin juice it was, however long it had been since she'd tasted the stuff.
In the past few days she'd gone from being dead as could be to being once more alive and kicking and while everyone thought she should be the happiest person in the world, she wasn't. It hurt. She'd been so happy before with family and friends and her lover. Yes, her lover. Juan had been her younger sister's former fling when Xira met him but the two had soon developed their relationship. He didn't mind that they were both nearing fifty. He wanted to marry her. But before he could get up the courage to ask her formally, they were both dead. At least they had died together. The gods had granted them that much sanity. But the sight of that white dress in her closet with the black scarf hung on a nail near-by had brought her up short. He'd loved that dress and the scarf was a gift on their last Christmas together.
Xira could have kicked herself. She'd let her guard down for Juan. She'd slipped out of her spy mind-set like a dress and it had gotten them both killed. But she wouldn't allow that to happen this time. Never again...
A Knock at the door brought her out of her reverie. Crossing to the door she saw Weland someone or other. She hadn't bothered to learn every one's name. "Can I help you?"
"Can I come in?" She raised a questioning eyebrow at him. "Look, I know we don't know each other very well and all this... Well, I just can't stand being alone for very much longer." Xira could sympathize with that.
"Yeah, Sure. Welcome to my humble abode." She made a mock sweeping gesture into the room and they both cracked cautious smiles.
"Am I the only one who's been going crazy since this morning? I mean, come on, since when have muggles been allowed access to the magical world?" Xira shrugged at this. She had always lived when muggles knew of their existence. It had always been a proven fact. She couldn't imagine it any other way.
"No, I don't think you're alone in the feeling kind of strange bit at all." He given her a slight smile but it didn't reach her eyes.
"It seems like this whole thing is just... I don't know... It's like a script written by a bunch of monkeys chained to typewriters or something! There is no rhyme or reason to it! I mean, we were never meant to meet." He slung himself into a near by chair and Xira bit back the urge to tell him to help himself to a seat. She didn't understand the short man before her. What on earth was he rambling on about?
Sitting down she listened as he continued. A spy learns to listen. "I was supposed to die a long time ago. I did die a long time ago! But You didn't. You weren't even born yet and some how, here we both are in a world we were never meant to see and no one has a clue what's going on! I mean good god! Did you hear what he was telling us about down there? It's crazy! All those fucking idiots thinking they can take over the world so they bring us back from the dead and frankly, I don't know about everyone else but I was happy... I was so fucking happy..." As Weland drew his rant to a close his voice choked up. Xira saw tears glisten in the man's eyes. "They don't even celebrate Halloween any more. Do you know that? Today id Halloween. My kids would have been planing their costumes or talking about the great feast if they were here at Hogwarts. But these kids don't have the energy to think about a party with this war going on. I looked at them this morning and i thought, 'my God, not one of them knows what today is!'"
A moment of tense silence descended upon them before Xira spoke. "But would you go back? I mean, If you went back to the moment you died and changed it so that you never died because you knew about all of this, would you?"
Weland thought about it. "No, they were all long dead by that point. But I would have made it so that they couldn't have brought me back." And Xira knew she agreed with the man before her. The man who had put on such a great show of being fierce and intimidating. He was crying. Xira almost was.
Another knock at the door drew them both out of their morbid thoughts. Before Xira could get up to open it, Dane Irish stepped into the room. "I heard people talking. I couldn't find any one to talk to. Do you think I could stay here a while?" He looked like a little boy in a man's body. Xira ran an apprising eye over him from his short spiky blue hair and his soulful brown eyes and down his lean frame covered by a robe so very different from the ones she had known. He must have had them from before... Before.
Weland looked at her as if to ask permission. How had she become the leader of men once more? She sighed. "Sure. It's not like any of us have anything better to do." He gave a thin smile of thanks before sitting in a chair near-by. Xira ignored that it was the chair she'd been sitting in and took the last chair in the room.
Weland spoke first. "Is it true? What Max said?" Dane's eyes narrowed as if to asses what was behind the question.
"Yes. I'm gay all right? If you have a problem with it I'll leave. I don't have to stand for it." There was a definite challenge in his voice.
"No, It's fine." And so the evening wore on with questions about lives that were lived long ago but begun again. Answer about love and heartache and the peace of being dead.
A little while later, they heard the soft sound of a piano coming from someplace near-by. Dane got to his feet as quietly as he could and almost jumped when he found Xira standing just inches from him. Together they eased towards the door and opened it when the sound became a little louder.
With Weland following them, they crept out into the hallway and followed the sound up a flight of stairs and down a narrow and dark corridor. They came to a door that was solid wood but cracked open a bit. Pushing it open they saw one of their fellow warriors at a piano that took up half the room. Elyzabel Petty took no notice of them as they enter but she knew they were there. Like flies in the background.
Silently the other three crept into the room and stood around the walls. Dane sat on the dusty ground and leaned his head back against the wall behind him and closed his eyes. And the song played on.
***
They spent the rest of the early evening time wandering the halls and laughing about all the things that they had gotten up to in their days at the school. Down in the dungeons they laughed at the memory of Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret. In the old DADA room they fondly recalled Lockheart's Cornish pixies and Harry told her about his meeting with Lupin and Snape walking in on it. She smiled wide enough to show her fangs and it stirred a memory of another girl with fangs... but they didn't talk about the very end and he wouldn't think of the pain either.
The halls were deserted as they made their way back towards Harry's room. Ginny giggled behind him. Something she had not done in centuries for what had she to laugh at? Only lovers and children laugh the way she had not for so long. But she seemed determined to make up for all of that now. They bother were.
Coming down the hall they heard a piano song coming from someplace above them. Ginny heard it first and took off in search of the source. Soon they heard low voices carrying along with the song. But the piano was indifferent to the voices.
Coming to the end of the hall, Ginny pushed open a door and Harry saw a few of the other warriors sitting or standing against the wall. "Well at least she remembers how to play." he heard himself whisper.
"I should have known you'd be here" came another voice. Xira Newt. Her voice held no emotion.
Ginny almost smiled at the woman. "Hello, Xira." There was a softness in her eyes like pity.
"You two know each other?" Dane asked from his place on the floor.
Xira looked away. "We did." She seemed ashamed.
Weland walked over. "Well, we're luck Marcus isn't here. This pretty girl would be dead in a heart beat. No pun intended." He sneered at the other man's name but smiled at Ginny as if she were a young girl who should be flattered and fawned over.
"We were just talking," said Dane. "About Halloween." Harry and Ginny shared a smile.
"They don't celebrate it any more." Ginny looked ashamed to have to tell them that.
"Yeah, we figured that one out," Weland laughed. "It's today," he said.
"Well, then, Happy Halloween."
There was a tense silence broken by Dane. "It seems wrong. Like we're breaking some code of time or something." They didn't have to ask what he meant. The whole Halloween thing had been a farce. Trying to hide the pain... the past.
"I know what you mean. I think we all do." And so the night wore on. And Elyzabel played.
***
A few hours later Ginny noticed as Harry's head began to droop just slightly. Taking him silently by the hand she stood and he followed her out the door. They left in their wake, Dane, Weland, and Xira sleeping softly in various poses about the room but Elyzabel's notes never once wavered.
Once in the hallway again she led him by the hand down towards the kitchens. Harry's eyes misted over at the familiar place. He wondered if the sight of the Gryffindor Common room might affect him similarly. All those memories that seemed like only yesterday and yet here he was, a thousand years later... as if nothing had happened.
"Tell me..." Ginny looked at him startled. It must be hard to startle a vampire. "Tell me what happened after I... After I..." And that was a s far as he got before she took his hand and sat him down at a table with a plate of food before him. He hardly noticed it but picked at as she sighed and began to speak.
"You know about Dumbledore and Hermione and..." Her voice was choked. "And Ron. You know about that." He nodded. "Well, Snape, he died. When you, well when you cast that spell, everyone with the dark mark died and even though Snape wasn't really one of them he died too. Um... Malfoy... err... Draco. He grew a lot. He changed. He got married to some witch and they had a few kids. They were all Ravenclaws. I think that seeing so many people die really changed his mind. Remember how he was going to become a Death Eater?
"Who else? Oh, yes. Sirius was never cleared. I'm sorry, Harry. It just never happened. He thought of you when he was dying. I went to see him. He was an old man though. Don't let it fool you. He was never quiet the same but he had moments when he was happy, Harry. Don't you ever forget that. He loved you. He lived for you." Tears fell down his face and from her's as well.
"And Lupin?"
"He was killed. When you... After, well, the ministry began to kill any werewolves they could find saying that they had helped Voldemort. Lupin was such a front runner in the war that he was one of the first taken out. Oh, gods, Harry! I'm so sorry I let all that happen. I could have... I... I'm so sorry." And she wept.
Harry closed his eyes and leaned forewords. His lips brushed hers' in an impulsive moment that seemed to take over and blocking out the pain of true loss he kissed her and felt her return the favor. And all the while one thing kept running through his mind. He'd been with her all night until now it was nearly Dawn and not once had he said her name.
***
Too much pain. It hurt too much. Milana's face was red and contorted with the pain that only a teenage girl can feel. Tears soaked her robes and the sheets she had buried her head in to weep. It was too much.
With a grim determination she rose from her bed and walked over to her desk. Pulling out the picture of Harry Potter she sighed. 'I'll bet you never felt like this huh?' Setting the picture back down she pulled a knife from the draw and pulled the knife across both wrists and waited for the pain to end.
It's finally done. I really don't like this chapter too much but give me some hints as to how to make it bettert. I tried to write it faster so every one would stop bugging me about it. Help me out here guys and gals. Drop me a review! Please!