Argh, shit. Sorry about that, I don't know what went wrong. Bloody fanfiction.net has been screwing me around lately, and I was too tired to stay up to check the chapter was up. ;; Guess I should have, huh?

Erebus: No, someone is not having writers' block, for once. ;; I do realise that ff.net can remove the last chapter, although that was actually the site's fault so maybe they should consider looking into it, but the one before that wasn't wasting space at all – it had some very important information (the update) in it, and if it hadn't been there a lot of people would have gone on to next one and ended up not understanding anything at all. I'm not planning to taunt at all, at any rate – quite the opposite, in fact.

Eva Phoenix Potter: Thanks for the hug. ^^ I need it right now, since I'm at home alone with my brother. I'm sure you can imagine the frustration and pain that entails…

Firefox: I think I'd have to agree with you on it not being the best of chapters. ^^

Chapter Forty-Six, Part C

Harry fell onto his bed and stared at the ceiling, wishing he could keep his emotions as cold as the stone that was above him. He twisted and rolled onto his side, curling up into a ball as he did so.

"Do you know what these are?"

"Shut up," Harry murmured, raising his hands to block his ears.

"These are the thumbs of your daughter."

"Shut up."

"We killed her, you know. It was your fault."

"Please…"

"We can kill more, if you want. Kill everyone that was in your life and before they die we'll tell them why they had to die. Because of you. Because you wouldn't tell us what we wanted to know."

"Oh God."

"You don't want to see him, mother. He's like a skeleton that's had skin stretched over it so tight it's almost not there, and he screams. Screams and cries and curses everyone he sees, and when he's not doing that he's singing. The doctors think he's remembering what he heard while it was being done. Over and over again, just the same line."

"I can't stand it anymore."

"Oranges and lemons, oranges and lemons…No! I don't want to see, don't want to hear! Stop it, stop it, leave the poor thing alone. All alone, no one to save me, such is life. Ha ha ha, I laugh, but no one laughs with me. Why is that? Ha, ha…Oranges and lemons, oranges and lemons…"

"I don't want to see, don't want to hear…"

"He's disgusting, and Father loves him. You can see it in his eyes, the adoration. I can't stand it. Can't stand to be near such a thing, to have it put its hand on my head and smile at me, like I've done something good. Like I'm a puppy that's just learnt a new trick."

"Who are you? Can you help me – help us?"

"But I can't escape. There's no way. I'm trapped, caught in the web and there's no way out but death. There never was."

"Caught…"

Harry shut his eyes, keeping them tightly closed in an effort to ward off the images that were beginning to play through his head. He screamed, but it didn't shut out the voices. By the time he felt something tug at his hair and wrap around his arm, he thought it was just another dream. Later, when he was lifted and carried from the room, he wasn't aware of anything at all.

* * *

Echolalia found herself waking from her hibernation, disturbed by a noise. She had found a little hidey-hole in the wall and had filled it with tissue paper before crawling in, and it had kept her just warm enough to enable her to fall asleep, although the cold had still bothered her. Later on, when the cold of winter had gotten to be too much for him, Sebastian had joined her and solved the problem. She felt him move beside her, and guessed that he had also been awakened by the noise.
She heard it again; a sound so soft that she was surprised it had disturbed her at all. It was followed by a wretched scream that grew higher and then cut out suddenly. Echolalia rocketed out of her nest and turned to face the source of the noise. Harry was curled up on his bed, whimpering softly. He was clutching one hand to his face, and the other was clawing at his arm. As she watched, he screamed again and his hands clenched violently, small puddles of red pooling under and around his fingernails as they cut into his skin. She flew over and tugged desperately at his hair, but he didn't seem to notice it. Sebastian had slid over and wrapped his body around Harry's arm, but that didn't have any effect either. She moved to the door, but it was locked, and the handle would have been too heavy for her to shift even if it had been unlocked. Frustration grew inside of her. Harry was her friend, and she couldn't help him because of a stupid door! Something inside of her shifted and changed as her frustration peaked. She had heard of it of course – it was a moment that came about sooner or later in every faerie's life, when someone they cared for was in such danger that they would do anything to be able to help them – but she hadn't expected to experience it for quite a while. Everything seemed to change, and it took her a while to realise that there was a silver-grey glow around every object in the room. She moved towards the door again and pressed a tiny hand against it. When she applied a bit of force her hand moved
into the door. She pushed forward again, and moved on through it. It was a little like walking through thick sap, and while she didn't feel any kind of pain, it did make her uncomfortable. After a moment, she emerged on the other side and, ignoring the startled looks on the students' faces, flew off in search of help.