Chapter Ten
Escape from Salvation
Petunia laid with her hands and feet bound in the middle of a torch bordered circle. Two giants sat arguing before her, and their angry voices grabbed her consciousness and forced it to the surface. She wiggled and struggled against the cords that were cutting into her skin. She stopped after she spotted the pair in front of her. Laying herself out flat she listened.
"-so stop being a cowered," one was saying.
"I'm not a cowered. And you still haven't answered my question. What's up with the Muggle?" the female testified.
"She's Lily's sister."
"So?"
"So we need bate. The entrance to The Warehouse is right under our feet. We've been able to crake most of their defenses but the farther down you go the stronger the spells become. Lily would never leave her sister."
"And that's a good thing?"
The first giant rolled his eyes and slapped the female up side the head. "You're thicker then a troll. Of course it's a good thing! As long as Lily's unprotected we can take her. Potter will have no choice but to come groveling to us knowing we have his wife."
"But if he thinks the negotiations have dissolved wouldn't he just send the Arours after us?"
"Of course he wouldn't."
"But how do you know? By doing this we could very well have signed our own death warrants."
"Are you questioning me?!" he yelled making the whole place rumble.
"I'm just trying to knock some sense into you. There's no need to get involved in any of this-"
"Or perhaps you just want to join the wizards."
"How could you say such a thing? That would be treason!"
"Exactly. Keep your nose clean," he said getting to his mighty feet and slouching away so his head wouldn't hit the top of the ceiling.
The female giant watched him apprehensively until he was out of site. She turned her head to Petunia and whispered, "I know you're awake, Muggle, so you may as well stop playing around."
Petunia opened her eyes and slowly lifted herself into a sitting position. They shared a tense stare before Petunia made a brake for it. She got to the edge of the circle before being propelled backward through the air. She landed hard on the concrete floor while the giantess sat and stared. Petunia straitened herself up again, mustering up as much dignity as she could. "What do you want from me?"
"Nothing much, really," the giantess said. "Your job is simple. Basically your time hear will be spent waiting, screaming, and eventually dieing. As you no doubt heard from my charming companion, you will be serving as bate."
Petunia interlaced her hands to keep them from trembling. She had never been more afraid in her life. "How did you know I was going to be in that orchard? I told no one but Neo's father and-"
"-your mother. Now are you so sure it was your mother you were speaking to at the funeral? With the right potion, anything is possible, my dear."
She felt her stomach quiver independently from the rest of her body. "It was you?"
"No, Muggle, not me. I wish you no harm. But I can not say the same thing about my brothers and sisters. They are afraid, and fear can make people do horrible things."
It was fast becoming clear to Petunia why I had spoken to Dumbledore with such fear about the giant. It was also becoming clear that this was no ordinary giant. "Who are you? Why are you so eager to find James?"
"My name is Fridwulfa. I am the head of an order of giants called The Blackguard. I, by no means, have a lot of authority in the giant community so I don't know exactly why the giants originally wanted James."
"What do you mean, 'originally wanted'?"
"For months the giants have been conducting negotiations with the wizards to take a more active role in the war in exchange for their protection. It is common knowledge that Voldemort hates James, and it doesn't make any sense to me that they would want him as their representative. It would make them obvious targets for the Death Eaters. Their only way out now is to join them. That's why they want James now; they need to appease the Dementors before they can join them. This leaves the Blackguard between a rock and a hard place. We've been able to hide among the giant's ranks very easily. Our numbers are small but we're growing steadily. We've been talking with the same people the giants have but we're no closer to getting a home of our own nor are we any closer to getting the Aurors to stop killing us. Why can't they get it through their thick heads that they're not going to survive this with out help…"
Petunia's head was spinning. "Wait a minute… Wait a minute. What exactly are the Death Eaters, the Aurors, the Deventors-"
"Dementors."
"What ever. And, and what is this Voldemort, and what war are you talking about? Did I miss anything?"
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to loose you. The Aurors are dark wizard catchers but they aren't very strict about sticking to wizards, especially now a days. The Death Eaters are Voldemort's supporters. Most of them are there of their own free will, but there are rumors that Voldemort has developed a cures that will allow him to take control of any given individual. Voldemort is the one that started the war. It's basically a battle between his supporters and the rest of the world. He's bent on destroying every wizard that exists. He is the most evil, most powerful dark wizard ever and it is widely accepted that he is immortal. There are even some that fear to speak his name and that number is growing very quickly. It's not just wizards he's after anymore either. His most resent additions are the Dementors. They're… well, they're not nice. They're faceless creatures of the night. They suck the happiness from the surrounding air. They trap you in your own mind with nothing for company but the worst memories of your life. They feed on happiness. Soon you start to go mad and when they have no further use for you they suck your soul out through your mouth. They call it the Dementor's kiss. But you don't die; they would never allow something so merciful. You sit there… rocking back and forth… as mere shell… there's nothing more to you then a heart beet… drool… and shit-"
"Stop!" Petunia cried clamping her hands over her ears and shaking slightly. "I don't want to know. I don't want to hear it! I don't want to believe it!"
"Then why did you ask?"
"I don't know! Because I'm stupid, how's that for you?"
"Sounds plausible," she said with a small smile.
"Why didn't Lily ever tell me?"
"Probably 'cause she knew you'd react like this."
"When did all this happen? Why did all this happen?" Petunia asked to try and clear her mind of the Dementors.
"Why? Like I said, my brothers and sisters are scared, and very prideful. There are three types of giants in the world, the Ignorant, the Intelligent, and the Kind. These divisions aren't just a matter of disposition, they're biological. It's almost like the human blood type; we don't know the mechanism that controls it. For centuries the Ignorant, cruel and resentful as they were, ruled the Intelligent and the Kind. We tolerated this, we bit our tongue and did what ever they told us because the worst thing you could ever have on your hands is an angry Ignorant. But then one day, about forty years ago, something happened that no one could have ever predicted. A very dangerous young man killed an Ignorant. No one had ever been able to kill an Ignorant and this… child, fresh out of school was able to do it. It the rest of us hope and opened the door to revolution. But it didn't last very long. The boy that had killed the Ignorant turned out to be Voldemort. Most of the Intelligent and Kind thought this meant the change had been brought about by the devil and stopped resisting the Ignorant. By doing this they created a civil war. The Ignorant were no longer content with ruling they wanted to destroy. Those that remembered the old ways, the once that weren't slaughtered, started meeting in secret. At first we were very scattered and just talked about what we were going to do. One of the… the Ignorants tried to kill me and a group of giants that had gathered in the forest helped me escape from him. That was when I joined them, that was when I left my family. My husband, my little boy, they never knew what happened to me. We became organized when Voldemort started gaining power and it became clear that most of the giants were more then a little willing to join him. I don't know why they elected me as their leader, maybe it was because of how well I understand their desire for a home and to get away from all this destruction. If the wizards can't find us our own home then we will fight. I refuse to let my people die out because of the Ignorants spinelessness!"
It took me several hours to get to The Warehouse after Dumbledore alerted us. James was to fallow at a ten minute distance so that if one of us was attacked the other could sneak around and help. I was traveling with Ardief Nockvan, Dumbledore's most trusted friend. James was traveling with Sirius.
We didn't have much time left, there was only a half hour till sunrise and we still had a while to go to reach The Warehouse. The streets became steadily more and more deserted as we moved swiftly through the concrete jungle. When we were about a mile away from The Warehouse we started to run, the urgency of our need to get there becoming more imposing with every step.
"I still think we should have told Petunia. She has the right to know," I said after a while.
"We've been over this before, Muggles can't know about The Warehouse. And besides there's no reason to believe that the giants have any interest in her."
'But she's not a Muggle,' I said to myself. I shook my head and said, "I have a funny feeling about this."
"You have a 'funny feeling'?" he said with a smirk. "I tell you, Hun, intuition is highly over- AAAGH!" A raven had come swooping down out of no ware as they reached the intersection before the factory. The raven dashed around Ardief's flailing arms, screeching and flapping frantically. "Get this damn thing off me!" he yelled loud enough to wake the dead.
I tried to grab the bird but it turned and slashed my hand from the wrist to the joint between the thumb and index finger. I leaped back and held my hand, watching, horrified, as the raven plunged it's beak into Ardief's eye. He fell to his knees, screaming as blood pored down his face and the raven proceeded to puncture his other eye. "Go, Lily, run! Run and don't stop until you reach the third chamber down!"
I backed up slowly; unable to take my eyes off this gruesome seen. I impulsively put my good hand over my mouth and started to scream.
"NOW!" he yelled, and the raven did its holy duty, driving its beak through his neck. Ardief made a bizarre gurgling sound, causing blood to splash up as though from a small spring, fell limp, and was dead.
The raven turned its fierce yellow eyes on me; they said quite clearly, "You're next my dear." I turned sharply and ran as fast as I could. Rusted metal beams and long forgotten fire escapes darted passed me in a lifeless ballet of panic. The night closed in on me and the faster I ran the farther my sanctuary seemed to become. Time slowed and I watched, as though outside myself, my cloak catch the wind and ripple out past my scampering feet. I watched as my boots hit puddles like oversized bullets and shattered the murky water. I ducked and squeezed my way through fallen construction beams and mutilated chicken wire. My breath became painful and visible inside my own body, it fashioned its own messengers of anguish; tearing at the soft tissue of my lungs. Twice I tripped over unseen obstacles and thought that at any moment the raven would surely kill me. Turning the corner into an alley way I saw the light of the fading moon. It drew my gaze in that direction and led me safely to the door of the factory, right in the middle of the alley.
I threw open the door with great relief and slammed it shut behind me. I kept my eyes shut tight and stood, panting with my back against the cold metal. 'I'm here,' I thought, trying to control my heart, 'thank God I made it.'
"Lily, move!" I heard someone say. On instinct I duct and covered my head. The sound of metal on metal rang through my ears. My eyes shot open and found two enormous shins three feet in front of me. They fallowed the shins up an incredible distance and met the glare of a very amused giant. The giant raised the axe that he held like a toothpick and swung it at me again. Quite apart from conscious thought my legs carried me half way across the long cold gray building.
I dove, headfirst into a windowless car and started searching for my attendant. To my horror I saw Petunia, crouched in a Vianivect circle guarded by a very fierce looking giantess. Our eyes met and petunia mouthed the word, "It's a trap."
That was the least of my problems at the moment; the giant that had swung the axe at me was now lifting the car I was in like it were a toy. I swiveled around the tattered magenta leather seat, wildly looking for anything that would help me. Above me and closing in fast was a catwalk nearly a story off the floor. I crawled to the right side of the car, as far over as I could, and with a great leap of faith, I through myself out the car window. I soared like a hawk through the air and the tip of my fingers touched the wire mesh of the catwalk. I clung to the mesh and tried to stop myself from falling and going forward at the same time. At the apex of my forward motion I was nearly wrenched away from the catwalk, with all the might in time and space itself I held on and heard three of my fingers brake. Because of the glorious effects of adrenaline I felt no pain and I was able to pull myself up even though the metal literally cut me to the bone.
Blood dripping down from my hands I dashed down the stairs. I caught a glimpse of Petunia through the bars; she was sitting, staring, like a zombie. It only then occurred to me to take out my wand. The giant barred down on me like a bull elephant in heat. "Pedieohered!" I called and the giant stopped in his tracks, his feet stuck to the floor. The jinx was only temporary so I made a run for it.
On the other side of the room Petunia was pleading with Fridwulfa for help. "Please, can't you do something? I- If you don't agree with him then stop him!"
"I can't," she said looking in on us, "they don't know who among them is Blackguard. If I act they'll surely kill all of us and my sacrifices will be worth nothing!"
"He'll kill her!"
"He would never kill her. He needs her alive, she's no use to him dead. All he'll do is throw her in there with you. Things can go in the circle but they can't come out."
"And what good will that do?!"
"I was in charge of setting up the circle, of deciding where it would be so one of the Death Eaters could come in and cast it. It was the only help they would give us."
"So?!"
"So I put it on top of the entrance to The Warehouse. That bolt," she said pointing at a bolt welded to the floor, "marks the entrance. No matter how hard she fights only three trained Aurors could ever hope to take down a full grown giant. She will be put in hear and as soon as you're three levels down in The Warehouse you'll be safe!"
Petunia turned her head sharply in my direction just in time to see me get tossed across the room by the back hand of the giant. I looked up at him, blood running down my nose, my hands shriveled, swollen, and unable to touch anything.
"Give up?" he asked me.
I got up and ran into what was formally the manager's office. Huddling under an old wood desk I looked around for something to throw at the giant. There was nothing there but a broken chair, a wastepaper basket, and the desk itself. What was I going to throw at him? Then it hit me to throw the desk at him, the picture window was at lest that big. It was very painful for me to hold my wand and I dropped it once before taking aim. "Oustile!" I yelled, standing up very quickly. The desk crashed through the window, showering the concrete floor with bits of glass, and then flew up, hitting the giant squarely on the head.
The giant felt the tip of his eye, which was now bleeding, and turned his wrathful gaze on me. He was finished with playing games. He bent down and reached through the window of the office, he picked me up with the greatest of ease and lifted me so that we were eye to bloody eye. "You shouldn't have done that, little lady. I have news for you; I don't give a damn about you, or James, or Voldemort. No wizard is going to scare me into submission. You know what that means little one? It means it's time to die."
"Do something!" Petunia yelled to Fridwulfa.
Fridwulfa looked from Petunia to me and back. If she stopped him he'd know she was the part of the Blackguard, he already was suspicious and that was all the excuse he needed to suck her memory dry. But if she- yes it was the only way, she couldn't sit and watch while an innocent was killed.
She got up and barreled toward the giant slamming him into the floor. His hand opened as he hit the concrete and I was able to roll out of his grasp. Fridwulfa turned to me and yelled, "Go, run to the circle, and get into The Warehouse, now!"
I ran to Petunia. She stood in the middle of the circle, her hands shaking over her mouth, her eyes bulging. "I don't know how to disrupt the circle," I told her. She didn't answer; she just stood there and stared blankly at the pair of giants.
"I knew you were no good. I'll have your head for this, Blackguard!"
"You can't stop us, Zurben, there are too many of us and were right under your nose. My children will bring you down, you wait and see, Voldemort will fall and the giants will be extinct. They may not remember our name but they will remember our legacy."
"They'll never believe you're any better then a plague! I will very much enjoy cracking open that head of yours and killing every one of your supporters, humans among them. Voldemort holds our only salvation and I am truly sorry you don't see that."
"The devil always turns on his dark angels eventually, I'm sorry you don't see that."
"I'm going to relish killing your dreams before you, and then slicing your neck. Would that be a satisfactory death for you?"
Fridwulfa smiled a kind of wicked smile that sang, 'have I got a secret for you'. "You honestly think your going to get anything from me? Do you really think I would let you kill me?"
"I don't see that you have much choice in the matter." Zurben said with a great deal of satisfaction.
"Don't I?" Fridwulfa said seductively. She reached in her pocket and pulled out what was unmistakably a bomb.
I turned back to Petunia and started walking around the circle desperately looking for a hole in the circle I could pull Petunia through. "In here," she said, not taking her eyes off Fridwulfa.
"What did you say?" I asked.
"In here. The entrance is in here." She sounded more like a talking doll then a woman, but I trusted her none the less.
"It's amazing what Muggles will sell for the right price. Know the truth before you die, Zurben; we will never yield!" she yelled before setting off the detonator.
Petunia and I had just reached the bottom of the second flight of stairs when the blast went off. A wall of fire came flooding through the chamber and I grabbed Petunia's hand jumping the last few steps. I through my hands over my eyes and the flame reached the third chamber. We were no more then two inches from the fire but it burned neither of us, the charm set down ages ago was still functioning and it protected us from the heat.
Escape from Salvation
Petunia laid with her hands and feet bound in the middle of a torch bordered circle. Two giants sat arguing before her, and their angry voices grabbed her consciousness and forced it to the surface. She wiggled and struggled against the cords that were cutting into her skin. She stopped after she spotted the pair in front of her. Laying herself out flat she listened.
"-so stop being a cowered," one was saying.
"I'm not a cowered. And you still haven't answered my question. What's up with the Muggle?" the female testified.
"She's Lily's sister."
"So?"
"So we need bate. The entrance to The Warehouse is right under our feet. We've been able to crake most of their defenses but the farther down you go the stronger the spells become. Lily would never leave her sister."
"And that's a good thing?"
The first giant rolled his eyes and slapped the female up side the head. "You're thicker then a troll. Of course it's a good thing! As long as Lily's unprotected we can take her. Potter will have no choice but to come groveling to us knowing we have his wife."
"But if he thinks the negotiations have dissolved wouldn't he just send the Arours after us?"
"Of course he wouldn't."
"But how do you know? By doing this we could very well have signed our own death warrants."
"Are you questioning me?!" he yelled making the whole place rumble.
"I'm just trying to knock some sense into you. There's no need to get involved in any of this-"
"Or perhaps you just want to join the wizards."
"How could you say such a thing? That would be treason!"
"Exactly. Keep your nose clean," he said getting to his mighty feet and slouching away so his head wouldn't hit the top of the ceiling.
The female giant watched him apprehensively until he was out of site. She turned her head to Petunia and whispered, "I know you're awake, Muggle, so you may as well stop playing around."
Petunia opened her eyes and slowly lifted herself into a sitting position. They shared a tense stare before Petunia made a brake for it. She got to the edge of the circle before being propelled backward through the air. She landed hard on the concrete floor while the giantess sat and stared. Petunia straitened herself up again, mustering up as much dignity as she could. "What do you want from me?"
"Nothing much, really," the giantess said. "Your job is simple. Basically your time hear will be spent waiting, screaming, and eventually dieing. As you no doubt heard from my charming companion, you will be serving as bate."
Petunia interlaced her hands to keep them from trembling. She had never been more afraid in her life. "How did you know I was going to be in that orchard? I told no one but Neo's father and-"
"-your mother. Now are you so sure it was your mother you were speaking to at the funeral? With the right potion, anything is possible, my dear."
She felt her stomach quiver independently from the rest of her body. "It was you?"
"No, Muggle, not me. I wish you no harm. But I can not say the same thing about my brothers and sisters. They are afraid, and fear can make people do horrible things."
It was fast becoming clear to Petunia why I had spoken to Dumbledore with such fear about the giant. It was also becoming clear that this was no ordinary giant. "Who are you? Why are you so eager to find James?"
"My name is Fridwulfa. I am the head of an order of giants called The Blackguard. I, by no means, have a lot of authority in the giant community so I don't know exactly why the giants originally wanted James."
"What do you mean, 'originally wanted'?"
"For months the giants have been conducting negotiations with the wizards to take a more active role in the war in exchange for their protection. It is common knowledge that Voldemort hates James, and it doesn't make any sense to me that they would want him as their representative. It would make them obvious targets for the Death Eaters. Their only way out now is to join them. That's why they want James now; they need to appease the Dementors before they can join them. This leaves the Blackguard between a rock and a hard place. We've been able to hide among the giant's ranks very easily. Our numbers are small but we're growing steadily. We've been talking with the same people the giants have but we're no closer to getting a home of our own nor are we any closer to getting the Aurors to stop killing us. Why can't they get it through their thick heads that they're not going to survive this with out help…"
Petunia's head was spinning. "Wait a minute… Wait a minute. What exactly are the Death Eaters, the Aurors, the Deventors-"
"Dementors."
"What ever. And, and what is this Voldemort, and what war are you talking about? Did I miss anything?"
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to loose you. The Aurors are dark wizard catchers but they aren't very strict about sticking to wizards, especially now a days. The Death Eaters are Voldemort's supporters. Most of them are there of their own free will, but there are rumors that Voldemort has developed a cures that will allow him to take control of any given individual. Voldemort is the one that started the war. It's basically a battle between his supporters and the rest of the world. He's bent on destroying every wizard that exists. He is the most evil, most powerful dark wizard ever and it is widely accepted that he is immortal. There are even some that fear to speak his name and that number is growing very quickly. It's not just wizards he's after anymore either. His most resent additions are the Dementors. They're… well, they're not nice. They're faceless creatures of the night. They suck the happiness from the surrounding air. They trap you in your own mind with nothing for company but the worst memories of your life. They feed on happiness. Soon you start to go mad and when they have no further use for you they suck your soul out through your mouth. They call it the Dementor's kiss. But you don't die; they would never allow something so merciful. You sit there… rocking back and forth… as mere shell… there's nothing more to you then a heart beet… drool… and shit-"
"Stop!" Petunia cried clamping her hands over her ears and shaking slightly. "I don't want to know. I don't want to hear it! I don't want to believe it!"
"Then why did you ask?"
"I don't know! Because I'm stupid, how's that for you?"
"Sounds plausible," she said with a small smile.
"Why didn't Lily ever tell me?"
"Probably 'cause she knew you'd react like this."
"When did all this happen? Why did all this happen?" Petunia asked to try and clear her mind of the Dementors.
"Why? Like I said, my brothers and sisters are scared, and very prideful. There are three types of giants in the world, the Ignorant, the Intelligent, and the Kind. These divisions aren't just a matter of disposition, they're biological. It's almost like the human blood type; we don't know the mechanism that controls it. For centuries the Ignorant, cruel and resentful as they were, ruled the Intelligent and the Kind. We tolerated this, we bit our tongue and did what ever they told us because the worst thing you could ever have on your hands is an angry Ignorant. But then one day, about forty years ago, something happened that no one could have ever predicted. A very dangerous young man killed an Ignorant. No one had ever been able to kill an Ignorant and this… child, fresh out of school was able to do it. It the rest of us hope and opened the door to revolution. But it didn't last very long. The boy that had killed the Ignorant turned out to be Voldemort. Most of the Intelligent and Kind thought this meant the change had been brought about by the devil and stopped resisting the Ignorant. By doing this they created a civil war. The Ignorant were no longer content with ruling they wanted to destroy. Those that remembered the old ways, the once that weren't slaughtered, started meeting in secret. At first we were very scattered and just talked about what we were going to do. One of the… the Ignorants tried to kill me and a group of giants that had gathered in the forest helped me escape from him. That was when I joined them, that was when I left my family. My husband, my little boy, they never knew what happened to me. We became organized when Voldemort started gaining power and it became clear that most of the giants were more then a little willing to join him. I don't know why they elected me as their leader, maybe it was because of how well I understand their desire for a home and to get away from all this destruction. If the wizards can't find us our own home then we will fight. I refuse to let my people die out because of the Ignorants spinelessness!"
It took me several hours to get to The Warehouse after Dumbledore alerted us. James was to fallow at a ten minute distance so that if one of us was attacked the other could sneak around and help. I was traveling with Ardief Nockvan, Dumbledore's most trusted friend. James was traveling with Sirius.
We didn't have much time left, there was only a half hour till sunrise and we still had a while to go to reach The Warehouse. The streets became steadily more and more deserted as we moved swiftly through the concrete jungle. When we were about a mile away from The Warehouse we started to run, the urgency of our need to get there becoming more imposing with every step.
"I still think we should have told Petunia. She has the right to know," I said after a while.
"We've been over this before, Muggles can't know about The Warehouse. And besides there's no reason to believe that the giants have any interest in her."
'But she's not a Muggle,' I said to myself. I shook my head and said, "I have a funny feeling about this."
"You have a 'funny feeling'?" he said with a smirk. "I tell you, Hun, intuition is highly over- AAAGH!" A raven had come swooping down out of no ware as they reached the intersection before the factory. The raven dashed around Ardief's flailing arms, screeching and flapping frantically. "Get this damn thing off me!" he yelled loud enough to wake the dead.
I tried to grab the bird but it turned and slashed my hand from the wrist to the joint between the thumb and index finger. I leaped back and held my hand, watching, horrified, as the raven plunged it's beak into Ardief's eye. He fell to his knees, screaming as blood pored down his face and the raven proceeded to puncture his other eye. "Go, Lily, run! Run and don't stop until you reach the third chamber down!"
I backed up slowly; unable to take my eyes off this gruesome seen. I impulsively put my good hand over my mouth and started to scream.
"NOW!" he yelled, and the raven did its holy duty, driving its beak through his neck. Ardief made a bizarre gurgling sound, causing blood to splash up as though from a small spring, fell limp, and was dead.
The raven turned its fierce yellow eyes on me; they said quite clearly, "You're next my dear." I turned sharply and ran as fast as I could. Rusted metal beams and long forgotten fire escapes darted passed me in a lifeless ballet of panic. The night closed in on me and the faster I ran the farther my sanctuary seemed to become. Time slowed and I watched, as though outside myself, my cloak catch the wind and ripple out past my scampering feet. I watched as my boots hit puddles like oversized bullets and shattered the murky water. I ducked and squeezed my way through fallen construction beams and mutilated chicken wire. My breath became painful and visible inside my own body, it fashioned its own messengers of anguish; tearing at the soft tissue of my lungs. Twice I tripped over unseen obstacles and thought that at any moment the raven would surely kill me. Turning the corner into an alley way I saw the light of the fading moon. It drew my gaze in that direction and led me safely to the door of the factory, right in the middle of the alley.
I threw open the door with great relief and slammed it shut behind me. I kept my eyes shut tight and stood, panting with my back against the cold metal. 'I'm here,' I thought, trying to control my heart, 'thank God I made it.'
"Lily, move!" I heard someone say. On instinct I duct and covered my head. The sound of metal on metal rang through my ears. My eyes shot open and found two enormous shins three feet in front of me. They fallowed the shins up an incredible distance and met the glare of a very amused giant. The giant raised the axe that he held like a toothpick and swung it at me again. Quite apart from conscious thought my legs carried me half way across the long cold gray building.
I dove, headfirst into a windowless car and started searching for my attendant. To my horror I saw Petunia, crouched in a Vianivect circle guarded by a very fierce looking giantess. Our eyes met and petunia mouthed the word, "It's a trap."
That was the least of my problems at the moment; the giant that had swung the axe at me was now lifting the car I was in like it were a toy. I swiveled around the tattered magenta leather seat, wildly looking for anything that would help me. Above me and closing in fast was a catwalk nearly a story off the floor. I crawled to the right side of the car, as far over as I could, and with a great leap of faith, I through myself out the car window. I soared like a hawk through the air and the tip of my fingers touched the wire mesh of the catwalk. I clung to the mesh and tried to stop myself from falling and going forward at the same time. At the apex of my forward motion I was nearly wrenched away from the catwalk, with all the might in time and space itself I held on and heard three of my fingers brake. Because of the glorious effects of adrenaline I felt no pain and I was able to pull myself up even though the metal literally cut me to the bone.
Blood dripping down from my hands I dashed down the stairs. I caught a glimpse of Petunia through the bars; she was sitting, staring, like a zombie. It only then occurred to me to take out my wand. The giant barred down on me like a bull elephant in heat. "Pedieohered!" I called and the giant stopped in his tracks, his feet stuck to the floor. The jinx was only temporary so I made a run for it.
On the other side of the room Petunia was pleading with Fridwulfa for help. "Please, can't you do something? I- If you don't agree with him then stop him!"
"I can't," she said looking in on us, "they don't know who among them is Blackguard. If I act they'll surely kill all of us and my sacrifices will be worth nothing!"
"He'll kill her!"
"He would never kill her. He needs her alive, she's no use to him dead. All he'll do is throw her in there with you. Things can go in the circle but they can't come out."
"And what good will that do?!"
"I was in charge of setting up the circle, of deciding where it would be so one of the Death Eaters could come in and cast it. It was the only help they would give us."
"So?!"
"So I put it on top of the entrance to The Warehouse. That bolt," she said pointing at a bolt welded to the floor, "marks the entrance. No matter how hard she fights only three trained Aurors could ever hope to take down a full grown giant. She will be put in hear and as soon as you're three levels down in The Warehouse you'll be safe!"
Petunia turned her head sharply in my direction just in time to see me get tossed across the room by the back hand of the giant. I looked up at him, blood running down my nose, my hands shriveled, swollen, and unable to touch anything.
"Give up?" he asked me.
I got up and ran into what was formally the manager's office. Huddling under an old wood desk I looked around for something to throw at the giant. There was nothing there but a broken chair, a wastepaper basket, and the desk itself. What was I going to throw at him? Then it hit me to throw the desk at him, the picture window was at lest that big. It was very painful for me to hold my wand and I dropped it once before taking aim. "Oustile!" I yelled, standing up very quickly. The desk crashed through the window, showering the concrete floor with bits of glass, and then flew up, hitting the giant squarely on the head.
The giant felt the tip of his eye, which was now bleeding, and turned his wrathful gaze on me. He was finished with playing games. He bent down and reached through the window of the office, he picked me up with the greatest of ease and lifted me so that we were eye to bloody eye. "You shouldn't have done that, little lady. I have news for you; I don't give a damn about you, or James, or Voldemort. No wizard is going to scare me into submission. You know what that means little one? It means it's time to die."
"Do something!" Petunia yelled to Fridwulfa.
Fridwulfa looked from Petunia to me and back. If she stopped him he'd know she was the part of the Blackguard, he already was suspicious and that was all the excuse he needed to suck her memory dry. But if she- yes it was the only way, she couldn't sit and watch while an innocent was killed.
She got up and barreled toward the giant slamming him into the floor. His hand opened as he hit the concrete and I was able to roll out of his grasp. Fridwulfa turned to me and yelled, "Go, run to the circle, and get into The Warehouse, now!"
I ran to Petunia. She stood in the middle of the circle, her hands shaking over her mouth, her eyes bulging. "I don't know how to disrupt the circle," I told her. She didn't answer; she just stood there and stared blankly at the pair of giants.
"I knew you were no good. I'll have your head for this, Blackguard!"
"You can't stop us, Zurben, there are too many of us and were right under your nose. My children will bring you down, you wait and see, Voldemort will fall and the giants will be extinct. They may not remember our name but they will remember our legacy."
"They'll never believe you're any better then a plague! I will very much enjoy cracking open that head of yours and killing every one of your supporters, humans among them. Voldemort holds our only salvation and I am truly sorry you don't see that."
"The devil always turns on his dark angels eventually, I'm sorry you don't see that."
"I'm going to relish killing your dreams before you, and then slicing your neck. Would that be a satisfactory death for you?"
Fridwulfa smiled a kind of wicked smile that sang, 'have I got a secret for you'. "You honestly think your going to get anything from me? Do you really think I would let you kill me?"
"I don't see that you have much choice in the matter." Zurben said with a great deal of satisfaction.
"Don't I?" Fridwulfa said seductively. She reached in her pocket and pulled out what was unmistakably a bomb.
I turned back to Petunia and started walking around the circle desperately looking for a hole in the circle I could pull Petunia through. "In here," she said, not taking her eyes off Fridwulfa.
"What did you say?" I asked.
"In here. The entrance is in here." She sounded more like a talking doll then a woman, but I trusted her none the less.
"It's amazing what Muggles will sell for the right price. Know the truth before you die, Zurben; we will never yield!" she yelled before setting off the detonator.
Petunia and I had just reached the bottom of the second flight of stairs when the blast went off. A wall of fire came flooding through the chamber and I grabbed Petunia's hand jumping the last few steps. I through my hands over my eyes and the flame reached the third chamber. We were no more then two inches from the fire but it burned neither of us, the charm set down ages ago was still functioning and it protected us from the heat.
