Disclaimer: I own my original characters. Rowling owns the rest of the Harry Potter characters, places and situations. Philip Pullman is the creator of the His Dark Materials works. I took a few concepts from them.
Author's Note and Thank You's: First off, I'd like to apologize. I didn't thank anyone last week for reviewing. I was being selfish and absent minded. But you all know how much I appreciate your input and so I know none of you will begrudge me one tiny mistake.
Oliverwoodsgirl: that's so cool that you can read fanfiction while you're at school. I wish I could. But the UF libraries are so crowded that someone would probably be reading over my shoulder and thinking "Freak!" So…I hope Gabriel's real involvement doesn't disappoint you. You had some pretty good ideas, but none of them hit on the all too simple truth. As you wished: there is a scene in which Draco finds out about Lucy, but as I warned before: it's not pleasant.
Hibiscus: Thank you for your review. I know you must be busy and all but thank you so much for finding a moment to say a few things about each chapter. Your input is very helpful and I look at things a lot differently after your reviews—see something new in my characters. That's more valuable than you know.
Linda: I know you're out there somewhere and are intending to review again soon. But if you don't, your last one will sustain me for a while. It was long (always good) and quite encompassing in general pros and cons of the entire story. I always love a word of encouragement or criticism from you.
And Sara (soupofthedaysara): you know none of these chapters would have been written had you not chained me to the computer and forced me to write them.
Chapter Eighteen
Fields of Dead
"I can be anything that you want me to beA holy cross, some sympathy, oh
That reminds you not to bleed
I found a note down in your car
And you climbed up here to fall apart
Fall apart…
Hold your head high
Don't look down
I'm by your side
Won't back down
You wanted a hero tonight
Well, I'm not made of steel
But your secret's safe with me…"
Our Lady Peace: 'Made of Steel'
"They can't be far," Charlie was saying, not giving Ginny the chance to answer Harry. "Let's just search the grounds. They could have just wandered out of the wards and into the wood."
Ginny knew this wasn't true. She and Lucy would have seen them when they had come that way.
Everyone but the distraught parents of the little flower girl, Molly and Anni left the table. Ginny hurried to the door and up to the first landing before she heard Bill calling her name from the kitchen. "Ginny, come with me?" Bill asked. She understood that he didn't want her out of his sight and so nodded and took her cloak from his outstretched hand, shrugging it on and following him out the door.
"Wait, Bill," she had heard Harry as she made her way out into the snow alongside her brother. "Can Ginny come with me? She can show me the best places to climb trees. Gabriel likes trees."
It was a boldfaced lie and Ginny knew it. How could a four year old climb trees?
Apparently Bill had bought it.
"I'd like her to stay with me, Harry," Bill said only turning slightly as he made his way to a stand of trees at the back of the house. "But you can come with us if you'd like."
Ginny knew that Harry's interest merely rested in the fact that he wanted to get her alone and find out what she knew about this situation that no one else knew. He looked at her briefly before turning to Bill and taking him up on the offer of joining the search party.
Ginny kicked herself moments later when Bill raced off at a sound deeper in the forest, commanding them to stay where they were.
Ginny eyed Harry warily but said nothing.
Harry sat on a tree stump and blew into his hands. Clouds of frigid breath came out between his fingers as he stared at Ginny expectantly.
Finally he said, "You know where they are? Don't you?"
"I have an idea…a completely absurd idea of where they might have gone, yes," Ginny said plainly.
She kicked a little drift of snow in her highly inappropriate-for-walking-through-the-forest-in-snow shoes.
"Why do I get the feeling that no matter how absurd it might be, where you suppose they are, they very well might be?" Harry asked with mounting apprehension.
"Because I am a seer and that's not something you can question," Ginny said bluntly, staring at him, daring him to make the accusation that she knew was coming.
He surveyed her for a moment, his patience wearing very thin. "And why is it that you are still here, pretending to be looking for two children that you know very well are nowhere around here at all, but are in very real danger?"
"Because Lucy knows her father and what she can and can't handle? If she had wanted either of our assistance she would have asked for it." Ginny turned and began to walk back to the house but was stopped by a harsh word from Harry.
"Why are you walking away?" he asked.
"I have someplace to be," Ginny said and continued walking.
Sometime later Bill returned having found nothing. "Where's Ginny?" he asked, alarmed.
"It was too cold for her. She went inside," Harry lied and stood to follow after her, mentally berating himself for having been overly harsh with her. She was going through something that he didn't understand, but that was no reason to speak to her as if she had done something wrong.
He looked behind him and watched as Bill joined Fred and Charlie on the other side of the wood. Then he turned to the house to find Ginny.
He had found her on the roof of all places. There was one thing that he could never understand about Ginny and that was her fear of heights. But she sat nervously on the edge watching the parties of people below searching for the two lost children, unaware that there was another person missing and none of them were lost in those woods, but were lifetimes away from this place.
"Don't look down, that's the biggest part of the fear. You just have to believe you won't fall," Harry said from behind.
Ginny smiled and wiped a tear from her cheek.
"And know that there will always be someone there to catch you," Harry added. He came and sat next to her.
"I'm afraid," she admitted, not taking her eyes off of the movement below.
"You don't have to go after them. Just tell me where they've gone. I promise I won't make you come with me," Harry urged.
Ginny looked up at him, disappointment written on her face. "I would go with you, Harry. I'm not afraid for myself. I've seen…" she trailed off. Giving words to her fears, her visions, would make them real. She hesitated.
Harry took her hands in his. They were ice cold and shaking.
"They aren't even in this time. They are in another time."
Whatever Harry had been expecting, it wasn't this. He blinked and asked her to repeat.
She smiled and proceeded patiently, "A Time-Turner has the capabilities, when altered, to take you back to the distant past—as far as you wish to go. This is, of course, not exactly legal." Harry seemed confused so she slowed it down a notch. "You have to think of time as a destination. Just as London is a destination, so is the year 1352."
"So you're saying both Lucy and Gabriel took the midnight train to 1352?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Imogen, or Lucy and I have done it a lot. We've visited Azria and Mungo…and uncovered a plot of Lucius Malfoy's that has something to do with…actually I don't know what, but he and Eowyn Slytherin were up to something. Lucy found out that it had something to do with children, and Gabriel specifically."
Harry's eyes widened. "Oh God. That doesn't sound good at all."
Ginny shook her head in agreement. "I need to get back there and warn Azria, Galahad, Isaiah and Mungo. I'm not sure what state we'll find things in back there. I'm not ruling out dangerous or mortal peril." She looked at Harry tentatively. "I'm not asking you to go, but I have to. They are my friends and they need me."
"Then I'll go with you," Harry said, giving her hands a squeeze. "I wouldn't let you do this alone."
Ginny smiled again, brightly this time. Her heart seemed to tremble less.
"I need to change and so will you. Can we get out of here without being found out?" Ginny asked.
"Yes, I need to stop at home to pick up—," Harry began.
Ginny stood up and finished for him, "Your sword, yes." She made to crawl down the drainpipe and into her bedroom window. "Meet me outside the garden in five and we can swing by your place before leaving 1997 entirely."
"Don't say that…it sounds terrifying," Harry said, trying to smile. Ginny could tell he was nervous, but hiding it for her sake.
***
"Miss Spencer?" Professor Snape asked perplexed to see her standing on the other end of the door to his office.
He was the only teacher on the grounds, Imogen found, as luck would have it.
Professor Snape eyed her warily. She was wearing a black cloak that was torn at the shoulder, covering some sort of period clothing. Snape decided not to ask about that. He didn't much care for her fashion sense, but that was her affair, as it was.
"I must say you look like you've recovered quickly. How may I help you?" he asked officially.
"I can't find Sirius and I thought you might be able to help me," Imogen said in a doubtful voice.
"I am not Mr. Black's keeper. I wish I could help you. Is there some sort of trouble?"
Imogen drew a sharp breath. She had debated on the short trip from Hogsmeade to the castle over whether she should tell Snape. Finally she decided that it was necessary. "Jill Parry's son was taken at the Weasleys' tonight and I know who's taken him," she said, holding her breath as he stared at her with his black and calculating eyes.
"Black and Mrs. Parry did come by this way, but left immediately with the Headmaster. This business about her son, why didn't you say anything about it before they left, why are you telling me?" Snape asked, not unkindly.
"It was my father. I know he took Gabriel. I knew for sometime. I just…I don't know…" Imogen faltered.
"You just didn't want to betray your father?" Snape offered.
Imogen nodded regretfully. "I know I should have—"
"No, Miss Malfoy. You did what you had to do. It wasn't wrong. Do you know where he might have taken the child?" Snape asked evenly, something like pity or understanding flashed across his face briefly when she met his eyes.
Imogen stood up and backed away. "I just wanted to tell someone, to be accountable. I don't want help. I have to fix this mess on my own. I just wanted to let someone know that I knew all along. I'll fix this—" she said with a nervous step toward the door.
Snape's attention was divided for a moment when Mae Lupin appeared in his fireplace. "Do you have a moment?" she said in a kindly voice. "In all of this distress, I haven't been able to calm Arabella down. She's been asking for you."
Snape eyed Imogen and told her not to move and then turned back to Mae. "I'll be right over." As he said this, he heard the door to his office shut. Imogen had gone.
"Willful girl!" Snape raged as Mae disappeared from the fireplace. He grabbed his cloak and followed after the little Slytherin with a set expression of displeasure. He briefly thought about stopping to tell Mae he'd be a little late, but decided against it.
He fought the urge to curse as he caught sight of the raven-haired figure of Imogen as she disappeared into the Forbidden Forest. He followed, but lost her completely soon afterward.
***
Draco returned to his grandmother's house with a sense of growing unease.
He knew the cause for his unease as the music of a piano—his piano, wafted through the warm currents of the house. His father was there.
Walking into the room, he stared at his father's back as his fingers roved over Draco's beloved keys with an almost mechanical grace. There was no feeling in his playing.
He finally spoke. "What are you doing here? Come to bargain with my sister's body? Meet me for the New Year and we can dig up mum together…you know, as a family," Draco said, barbed sarcasm spilling from his lips.
His father stopped his playing and turned to Draco, his sympathetic expression made Draco want to throw it back in his face.
"I'm sorry that you had to see that, Draco," Lucius said.
"I'm sorry you had to do it. That wasn't what I asked you. What are you doing here?"
"I came to tell you that you have been deceived. That was not you sister buried there. That's not who you've been grieving for and visiting and tormenting yourself over. It was Elena Vassikin who was buried there, next to your mother, under Lucilla's headstone," Lucius said, thinly veiled amusement on his face.
If Draco was expecting an answer that had stung that much, he wasn't prepared for anything like this. He couldn't have foreseen that answer. He struggled to remain standing, but eventually had to sit. "What have you done with her?"
"The question, Draco, is what has she done to you? I always warned you that she would be your undoing, she and that Weasley. But you need not worry about Virginia. We have come to an understanding." Lucius was being cryptic on purpose. Draco was impatient for him to make sense or get the hell out.
"Start making some sense or leave, father. This is my house and I think I would be justified in kicking you to the curb," Draco said calmly.
"What was the one thing that you said I couldn't give to you? You would be deaf to my proposals unless there were one thing above all others that I could restore to you?" Lucius riddled patiently.
"Lucy…is this some sort of a joke?" Draco narrowed his eyes, tying to anticipate the way in which his father was trying to hurt him this time.
"Lucilla is alive. Do not underestimate your old man. Take this as proof of my love and devotion to you, Draco. You asked and you shall receive," Lucius said.
"Necromancy is illegal, and I must say, very disturbing and if I find out you have raised Lucy from the dead I will kill you. I swear to God I will." Draco was on his feet standing over his father, holding his stare with a fiery fury he hadn't realized that he possessed anymore. He meant every syllable he had spoken.
Lucius, for his part, laughed at his son and his adamant behavior. "I said that she had never occupied that grave. She's never occupied any grave, Draco. She never died. I have not raised her from the dead. I told you that I never killed her to begin with."
Draco was stunned. He didn't know if he wanted this to be true or not. Would having Lucy alive again be enough for him to supplicate himself to his father? A second later he had thought that it was the dearest wish of his heart. He would give up his free will to have her, give up his very life just to see her again.
"I want proof," Draco said.
"Proof you shall have. Come with me," Lucius answered derisively.
Draco gave a moment's pause and was sufficiently satisfied with his father's sincerity. It didn't come along often. It was unmistakable when it came out of hibernation, his sincerity.
***
Ginny stood with her cloak wrapped tightly around her. Harry waited at the gate for her as they had planned.
"You all set then?" Harry asked.
Ginny didn't answer because Ron and Hermione had come from around the corner of the house where they had set off in search of the two missing children.
Harry felt Ginny tense next to him and she gripped his arm painfully as they watched Fred, George, Charlie and Bill come in from the opposite side of the house. Bill was carrying something, someone, a little girl. She wasn't moving.
The two of them watched on as Bill went in past them with the small, dead form of Gabriel's companion, the flower girl. There was no blood on her, but the blue pallor of her skin left no question that she was not alive.
"Her hair, she was blue, she looked like Lucy. Oh…I'm going to—," Ginny began. She couldn't finish her thought but half collapsed into Harry who was caught off guard himself, nearly stumbled with her extra weight.
"Where did you find her?" Hermione asked as she and Ron followed the dead girl and the other searchers inside. There followed a scream from inside that could only have been the girl's mother.
Ginny let out a small sob as she heard the mother's anguished howl.
Harry held her to him and whispered near her hair, "Ginny, we should go. There's nothing we can do for her."
Ginny nodded and let herself be led away.
She was still silent and tearful when they left Harry's house in Belfast. She had transfigured his clothes to match hers in time period and style. Pinned to his cloak was the fibula that Faramir had worn so many times when Ginny had seen him. She wondered faintly if she would be able to tell them apart, but brushed the thought away. It was silly. Harry had a way of looking at her that suggested familiarity, adoration, love. She had been through the worst with him and would go into much more—and he with her.
Sliding the sword of Gryffindor into its sheath, Harry buckled it under his cloak and looked up, shaking his snow-dusted hair out of his eyes and caught Ginny's look.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Thanks for coming with me," she said.
"I wouldn't let you go alone," Harry answered.
"I know. I owe you thanks for a lot more though," she admitted.
Harry smiled and smoothed out his cloak. Taking her hand he Apparated them to Hogsmeade without another sentiment.
It was pitch black. The moon was thin and pale and shone only in the faintest sliver, giving no light to the travelers.
They cut off of the path well before they came into sight of the school. Into the woods they plunged deeper, Harry trusting Ginny to guide him, unfamiliar as he was with the forest. He had been in here on two occasions, both unpleasant.
With Ginny in front, leading, Harry stumbled only slightly. They relied on each other, picked the other one up, held branches out of the way for the other, in every respect worked as a team. It would be the last time. Their paths unknowingly split in the nearest future. Not even Ginny, the seer, had foreseen it.
As if they had sensed it unconsciously, Harry and Ginny tightened their grasp on the other's hand, clinging together in the dark, while they had the opportunity to.
"Here," Ginny said finally. They had some to a low stone wall, the remainder of a wall, really. Harry recognized this place. He had been here in his first year. He had seen the unicorn with life ebbing away in a small stream of mercury from its neck. He had thought that it was a tree he had stumbled over as the pain in his scar had driven him backward and bodily to the ground. He now knew that he had stumbled over the wall of a ruin that he had never known was there.
She held him back a moment later when he inched closer to where the bailey and the castle keep would have been themselves. There was someone there. A tall, cloaked figure lurked at the edges of their vision. Someone was paroling the ruin, lost or looking for something.
Ginny made a sign to Harry that they would have to use the Time-Turner here to avoid being seen. "We'll end up just outside of the wall. But that should be no problem. It's night there as well. So no one will be able to see us either way."
Harry nodded and let Ginny slip the chain of the hourglass around his neck and breathed in sharply as Ginny turned the charm, the forest fading from behind them only to be replaced by the wall, built up and an open field sloping down to the west, to a river.
There was a mill on fire. Yelling, shouting, people running and confusion.
***
"She has been playing you for a fool the entire time. You might know her better under one of her many assumed names, Imogen Spencer. Does that name ring a bell?" Lucius had put on his best, it's-for-your-own-good-that-you-know-this voice.
Draco felt every word acutely, yet it was not his father that he was angry with. How had he not known that Imogen Spencer, shy and quiet Slytherin with the temper of a dove and yet of a viper when provoked, was his sister. She had seen him mourn the loss of Lucy and had sat there and thrown sympathy at him. He couldn't imagine what sort of ends she thought would come of this. It felt like nothing but betrayal and cruelty to him—things he had thought to be beyond Lucy's nature.
"I can't be certain that you would find this a kindness, Draco. You nearly worshipped that girl. No doubt you harbored adoration of her angelic qualities, adoration that is unfounded now that you know the true and plainly deceitful nature of the child. I tried to keep you from her, from the hurt I knew she would cause you. I'm sorry that I couldn't." Lucius was pacing in the dark and dank entrance to the chapel at the outskirts of Hogmeade.
"I want to see her. I won't believe a word you say until I see her safe, in front of me, for myself," Draco insisted, trying to keep the sting of his father's words from ringing true.
"Patience. There are some things that you need to understand, conditions to the bargain that you have made. The first," Lucius said, ticking them off on his fingers. "Your loyalty is required. I will kill her outright if I feel your allegiance sway in the least."
Draco eyed him coldly and nodded.
"Secondly, this ridiculous relationship with Arthur Weasley's daughter will end immediately."
Draco knew this was coming. He had expected his father to want him severed from Ginny for a long time now. He had already done that. He had left her and anything that he had hoped might come about was crushed under the weight of his leaving. Still he had never wanted to be in the position to chose Lucy over Ginny or vice versa. "It was ended a long time ago," he answered dully.
"Liar. I had a lovely little chat with Virginia yesterday. Although she assures me that your relationship has ended, it was by no means ended "a long time ago" as you put it."
Draco spun around at this. "When did you speak to her?" his eyes narrowed dangerously.
"This is precisely what I mean. This fervent sentiment must stop. You should not care when or where it is that I spoke with her. She means nothing to you, remember?" Lucius countered.
"After I left her. You came looking for me at grandmother's house on the coast?" Draco stated.
"Yes. I have to admit that I do see the attraction of her. Beautiful and engaging, we had quite and interlude. Why, if I were your age—," he sneered.
"For the love of all things scared, do not finish that sentence! I won't see her again…on the condition that you leave her alone as well. This part of the contract is void if you go near her," Draco said adamantly.
"Agreed. Now that you know my plans, are you agreed in supporting my alliance with Eowyn Slytherin? We will need your help especially." Lucius stopped his pacing for a moment to smile as he glanced out the window.
"Agreed, although I will hold firm to my belief that you are a raving mad lunatic and deserve to be hospitalized for your own good," Draco opined.
"It is heartwarming that you have my welfare in mind. And do please note that if you question my sanity again I will snap your neck, that of your sister and Ginny Weasley and have nothing more to do with any of you." Lucius leveled a cold glare at him, daring him to challenge his stability of mind once more.
The door opened. But even if it hadn't, Draco wouldn't have challenged his father again. He was no coward but he was also no idiot and he knew when there was a fight he could not win.
Imogen stepped in, soaked in snow. The bottom two inches of her hem was wet with mud. She shook herself, apparently unaware that she was in the company of the two pairs of cold gray eyes that stared at her.
"Lucilla, I am pleased that you could join us," Lucius smiled.
Imogen, or Lucy, looked up quickly and stared at her father, reluctantly meeting the gaze of her brother in no doubt that her father had filled him in on her past six months of activity…none of which included being dead.
"Follow me, the both of you," Lucius said, not allowing for the introductions that wouldn't have followed anyway as neither if them had anything to say to the other at the moment.
***
Draco showed no sign of surprise when they stepped out of the bailey and into a castle that did not exist in his own time. He glanced to Lucy briefly and then to his father, both of whom, seemed very at ease and familiar with this route and its end. He could see over the outer walls, as they climbed stairs on the outer edge of the ancient keep—unmistakably, Hogwarts. He briefly estimated that this castle must be situated deep within the present day Forbidden Forest. But there was a river, he knew there must have been at one time. In Hogwarts: A History there was made a mention of an iron-working mill. It had to have been powered by a river, now a lake, nearly gone, like the ruin of the fortress he now stood in.
He caught the sapphire glint of Imogen's eyes as she glanced up at him momentarily. Lucy, he reminded himself, not Imogen. She placed a tentative hand to his arm. He would have liked to think that it seemed cold and unfamiliar to him, but it wasn't. Lucy hadn't changed as much as their father would have liked him to believe. He pulled his arm away, regardless. He wasn't ready to deal with this yet. And he wouldn't have thought that a false sense of forgiveness would be appreciated by Lucy anyway.
She opened her mouth to say something but decided against it in the next moment. He was glad for her caution. He had very little patience left. Losing his temper would only have encouraged his father. It was important that he realized, however displeased Draco was with Lucy in this moment, he would be lost to his father the moment that he mistreated her. And Lucius seemed almost hungry to make her suffer…or both of them.
They came to a dark oak door where Draco could see a light under it. There were two stony-faced guards in the surcoat of Slytherin at the door. Draco was unmoved to notice that his father had weight with these thugs. They moved aside to permit him and the others.
The woman that greeted them in hushed tones was unexpectedly pleasant and beautiful, like a tiger behind glass. He knew that a step too close would have him in her merciless jaws. There was an air of malcontent and deceit that wafted on the cool breeze of the room, like the faintest of expensive perfumes. She leveled a gaze at him that suggested that the sight of him amused her. Draco paid as little attention to her as possible, but was careful to take in every detail.
The reason for her hushed tones was clear as Draco entered fully into the room behind Lucy. There was a small boy asleep on the bed that took up half of the small tower chamber. He held a strange familiarity for Draco and he stared at the child, trying to place his face. It couldn't have been this woman's son—the idea of Eowyn Slytherin procreating was as ludicrous as the idea of Snape having a child. The weirdest mental picture came into Draco's mind that he immediately banished.
Lucy seemed to know the child immediately and made to cross the room and wake him, she was stopped immediately and forcefully by Lucius. His steel grip loosened as Eowyn glided over to him from the bed and begged a word with him on the roof. She glanced briefly at Draco and smiled. The two left the room and its three occupants. Lucius had promised that escape was beyond them and that it would be useless for Lucy to waste the effort of trying to wake the boy, who was under the influence of a very strong sedative potion.
With the shutting and bolting of the door and a word to the guards outside, they were left alone, Lucy with her head in one hand as if the room were spinning, Draco staring at her with cold and expressionless eyes and Gabriel asleep on the bed, seemingly peaceful.
"Draco, say something," Lucy said finally, looking at him urgently through Imogen's eyes.
Draco was at an honest to goodness loss for words, something he had never experienced before in his life. "Welcome back," he said in flat sarcasm.
Lucy closed her eyes for a moment, as if willing herself not to reply to that, resigned to the fact that forgiveness would not come easily to her this time as it had with Harry and Ginny. She sat down on the bed and gathered Gabriel's unconscious form in her arms and placed a hand to his cheek.
"Were you there? Did you see what the rest of us found in that room? The blood, Lucy…you orchestrated all of that…my worst fear had come true and you were the artist of it. What do you want me to say? What I want to know is how you found it necessary to lie to me…why I had to find out about all of it through father?" Draco raged. He swallowed hard. She hadn't seen him this upset since the time that she begged him to give her the news that she would never walk again.
Lucy was speechless for another moment. The she undid the clasp of her cloak and spread it over Gabriel, laying his head to rest on her lap.
"You couldn't know. Draco, what would you have done in my position?" Lucy said, stopping when her voice had risen to an inappropriate level.
"I would tell you what I would do in that situation if I knew what the situation was. You don't even see fit to tell me that much," Draco countered, still aloof and leaning against the opposite wall.
"Now you're just being difficult because you're upset. Just listen to me," Lucy said, using her most appeasing voice.
Draco made no movement to stop her and made no gesture that he wanted her to continue. She continued anyway. "I killed Elena." Again he showed no surprise or astonishment. "I fought her. I thought I would lose, but I had to try. I couldn't just let her kill me without a fight. After the fact, I realized that I would never make it out alive with her blood on my hands…I couldn't even walk."
"I would have found you eventually. You didn't have to do that to me," Draco said softly.
"Shut up and let me finish," Lucy snapped. "I just switched identities. I was going to leave but that was when you all found Elena, and thought it was me."
"So, you—as Elena spied on us to see how we would react when faced with your dead body…interesting," Draco said hollowly.
Lucy decided to ignore this. It was fair—untrue, but fair. "I knew I had to get rid of the big guy and keep Harry from being bound up. If he was free, I knew that the two of you could handle the rest of them together."
Draco looked up at her sharply. "You think very highly of Potter, don't you?"
"Draco, please," she warned and continued. "I know Ginny couldn't do much of anything. I was afraid that she wouldn't make it out at all. But I knew that Harry would get her out and I had to get the wards down."
"There you go with Potter again. Could you leave Boy Wonder out of this, please?" Draco snapped.
"You would have just left her there in the state you were in. Don't pretend that you didn't want to kill her yourself. I wanted to tell you, Draco, honest I did. Do you think I wanted you to suffer?"
"You want me to answer that honestly?" Draco said.
Lucy bit her lip. "Draco, I was found out by a few Aurors. Being that I am under-aged, they let me off lightly. Arabella Figg argued my case and let me stay with her. She kept me out of Azkaban in exchange for some spying. I happen to be good at it and so I agreed. I couldn't tell you, I couldn't let you know. I wanted to, honest I did."
"Imogen—tell me about Imogen and why she was at Hogwarts before all of this started. You're hiding something more. I swear to God, Lucy, if you don't start being honest with me I will walk away from this, from you and father and…I don't know…kill myself or become a Hare Krishna, or something drastic."
"I'm getting there, Draco. Jesus, will you just calm down for two goddamn seconds?" Lucy yelled. Gabriel stirred but did not wake.
"Don't use that language with me or around that kid. Besides, I have the right to be angry, don't you think?" Draco argued.
Lucy took a deep breath and continued. "It was the easiest choice, really. I was afraid. I knew that if I went to prison, it would be only a matter of time before father found me again and got my murder right for once. I went with Arabella and became a mole for the Ministry subversives. Minister Grey is in father's pocket, I'll have you know."
"Why am I not surprised?" Draco said sarcastically.
"Yeah, well…I went to work for him. There was a condition that Arabella granted me, the only thing I asked for in return. I wanted to stay at Hogwarts and look after you."
"Look after me? What did you think I would do? Kill all of the Gryffindors and then turn the wand on myself?" Shoving his hands in his pockets, he looked at her with an insulted glint to his gray eyes.
"I invented Imogen just after you tired to kill yourself the first time. I was worried about you. I couldn't bear to go back to France and to school knowing that you might try something like that again."
Draco scoffed. " I made a promise that I wouldn't. Does my word carry no more weight than yours now?"
Lucy narrowed her eyes at him. "That's not fair."
"Oh, I think it's more than fair. I believe what you're telling me now…but I can't trust you, not after this. I have never given you a reason to doubt me. And I would have gotten you out of this mess. I wouldn't have let them use you. I'll kill every one of them if we make it out of here alive." Draco was pacing.
"Listen to yourself. You're not making sense now. Besides, it was Peter I had to do this for. What kind of person would I be if I told him to turn himself in and then ran when it came my turn to be judged?" Lucy added reasonably.
"Peter? Peter who?" Draco asked.
"Pettigrew," said Lucy simply.
"Peter Pettigrew…what the fuck, Lucy?" Draco's eyes were wide with astonishment. "Is this what you do for fun? You fuck with the minds of Death Eaters, spy on the Minister and fake your own murder?"
"Yes, that's not the point though. I had to do this. I hope you see that." She laid Gabriel down gently and moved to stand in front of Draco, placing a hand on either side of his face. He would have looked away, but there were tears in her eyes.
"Please tell me you understand why I did this. I didn't want to hurt you. That was the last thing I wanted, Draco. I didn't do this because I wanted to see you suffer, though I do admit that I did hurt you, I didn't want to, I didn't intend to. I'm not perfect, but I tried to do the right thing and I'm sorry you hate me for that."
"I don't hate you. But, Lucy, you've put us both in a position where we don't have very many options. We might not get out of here alive." Draco stared at her. There was no sympathy in his eyes, but deep regret. "Father will kill us both if we aren't completely loyal. Can you be loyal? At least act it?"
"No," Lucy said, removing her hands. "He doesn't want loyalty from me, just you…it's always been just you. He wants me to die."
"Then I'll just have to die with you," Draco said, lifting her chin with one hand, he stared ardently into her deep blue eyes that he remembered to be the lightest sky blue.
A flicker of a hopeless smile fluttered across her face, reflected by his.
***
"And what assurances do we have that these children won't turn on us, Lucius?" Eowyn asked, pulling her corn silk hair into a knot as the wind blew savagely around them.
"He would do anything to keep her safe, especially now that he knows what it feels like to lose her," Lucius replied simply. They watched the progress of the preliminary raiding party as it set fire to the mill and disposed of its residents and workers, most of whom floated down the river with the chunks of ice dispersed from the underside of the bridge, now ablaze in the glorious chaos below.
Pity, most of the peasant filth that worked the fields had fled, recognizing war on the horizon. They were not likely to stick around unless there was something at stake.
His cold gray gaze rose to the dominating castle beyond. They were to siege it at dawn and its inhabitants were to be slaughtered. Lucius dreamt of ending the Hufflepuffs, Gryffindors and Ravenclaws in one clean sweep. Oh how easy it would be! He was impatient for some bloodshed.
"You make it sound as if her survival was all part of your plan. It is, perhaps, fortunate that I see through to your true nature or I would be fooled, like your son, by your play-acting God. You don't dazzle me, Lucius Malfoy. Is my army far off?" Eowyn said with an unimpressed air.
"Just over the ridge. They are only a few hours off. They will be here by daybreak."
"It is a pity that they were not here before my enemies removed themselves to that fortress. It is indestructible. There is but one weakness, a passage. But what I would do to know its entrance. I would murder them all in their sleep. Isaiah first of all—but I would wake him with a kiss first so that he would know that it was I who was his downfall. I swore to him that I always would be. And Mungo—I would laugh as I plunged a dagger into his all too generous heart. He sickens me, they all do."
Lucius watched with growing admiration as she enumerated the ways she would delight in the deaths of her enemies.
"Tomorrow will be soon enough."
"Ride out with your son tonight. Speed them along. I will look after the girl and the child. You can give your son my assurances that no harm will come to them while in my care…so long as he does not endanger them with silly heroic gestures and bravery. He was built for more glorious things than chivalry and bravery, I could tell when I looked on him." Eowyn waved a hand and Lucius nodded, leaving the lady to watch the ongoing destruction of the Hufflepuff lands and structures.
When Lucius had returned to the room where his children had been locked with the child he had stolen for his later ambitions, he was dressed in the surcoat of Slytherin, in everyway similar to the dress of the guards outside except that the emblems of silver on green marked him for commanding. He looked in every way at ease in these foreign garments.
It appeared as if his son and daughter had made their amends. How tedious, he thought as he eyed them from the entrance.
"Come with me, Draco," Lucius said with impatience.
Lucy and Draco exchanged a look that their father couldn't interpret. He cursed their mother and thought that it would have done well to kill her sooner, before her sentiments could have taken root in his son. Sentiment breeds weakness. He would see that this lesson took root in his son, a root that killed all good intention and honest feeling, except the honest feelings of hate and anger—they alone were useful.
"Lucilla, you will remain here with the child. The Lady Slytherin will be in momentarily." He turned to Draco and continued, "You have her word and mine that your sister will come to no harm. The child will be safe as well. You will come with me, but first you will change."
Draco said nothing, but followed his father from the room, not trusting himself to look back. He thought he could feel the tangible reality that he would never see his sister again, now that he had found her again after all of this time.
***
"Shit!" Harry muttered surprising Ginny briefly before she turned to see what had made him swear. He was clutching at his right arm, just below the shoulder.
Arrows came whining down around them.
Ginny chanced a look up at the wall and saw the glinting of armor and the silver and green of Slytherin archers, aiming down at them.
"Shit. This one must have been taken by Eowyn's troops already," Ginny said. "We're at the wrong castle."
"Great," Harry said sarcastically.
They moved quickly along the wall, the shadow and the little light that was offered by the moon were their allies and they had soon moved out of range and sight of the arches, down to the sloping shore of the river. Upstream quite a way the mill was blazing hot and providing most of the light that they were navigating by.
Ducking behind a thicket of reeds as a marauding band ran past and up the path toward the mill, Harry put his hand to his sword and turned to Ginny. "How are we going to get in there?"
"We're not. We have to get to Mungo and Azria and the others. Isaiah must have an army around here. We would be safe if we could get to them." Ginny was breathing hard and Harry was anxious to move down stream and away from the light of the fiery mill. It all seemed to be working toward their capture.
"But wouldn't Lucy and Gabriel be inside the fortress with all of the Slytherin guards on the top shooting at us?" Harry asked sarcastically.
"Yes. Try if you would like to get in there, Harry. But I have to find a way to cross to the other side and get into Hogwarts. Azria is there and that's where I need to go, understand?" Ginny was firm on this point. Harry conceded reluctantly, looking around.
A moment later he had decided. "We'll have to cross the river here. It's the narrowest place I can see, and we're not getting across by that bridge," he said, pointing to the place where one of the wheels had broken off in a hiss of fire and water and half-sank as the current swept it past them.
Another moment and the way was clear for them to struggle across with little outside notice. More than once, Harry had to reach out and pull Ginny toward him as she struggled in the current. She found it hard to keep her feet under her and her teeth were chattering. Both were in a strong current and water up to their shoulders.
They reached the shore quite a way down stream from where they had begun.
A small avenue of trees and a steep slope would see them to the fortress that would one day be Hogwarts school.
Chattering teeth and wracked with cramps, Ginny pulled herself up onto the bank next to Harry and stood tentatively on wobbly legs. Harry stood next to her and at a look from her, both started off toward the cover of the avenue.
Her feet had no more feeling than a tingling phantom limb and her breath was becoming labored but Ginny shuffled on behind Harry without a word.
Harry could see the individual outlines of the trunks that would provide them with cover. He longed for that protection as they were utterly exposed out here on the open plain—and easy target for either side. He was cut from his estimations with a startled cry from Ginny.
He wheeled around with a hand on the hilt of the sword and found Ginny sprawled over a body. There were bodies next to her, under her, all around her. Harry could make out some forms that were still moving at a distance from them. He reached down with an outstretched hand to help her to her feet. His hand was seized by another of the bodies, half-dead and completely dead that made up this field of dead—a killing field. It was evident that a skirmish had taken place here not long ago. Some were still howling for water as they died. The man who gripped his arm begged for water now.
When his explanation to the dying man that he did not have any water didn't appease him, Harry tried to tug his arm free. Even in the throes of death, this warrior was strong.
He watched in horror as the man Ginny had fallen over, a Slytherin guard by his surcoat, seized her and pulled her under him, large hands wound around her neck. Ginny, in her surprise, cried out and tried to kick with her feet that he had pinned down efficiently enough with her left arm between his knees. Her free hand scratched and tore at his face and he hardly seemed to notice.
She was turning pale and blue even by the faint moonlight and her movements were becoming lethargic as her air slowly ran out under the guard whose words Harry could not understand. His meaning had remained clear, though. He would kill Ginny and this man who had a steel grip on Harry's arm and pulling him down and down would kill him.
Clumsily with his left hand, Harry reached his sword and swung down, cutting the man's arm free from its body. He didn't even make a sound as Harry's blade severed his arm completely. He spat and cursed moments later and then continued to die.
Harry rushed the man who had Ginny pinned to the ground. He spun and brought the sword down on the man in a fury.
Ginny coughed and massaged her neck as Harry rolled the enormous guard off of her. Her face was spattered with arterial spray and she wore the most shocked of expressions, but under that Harry could see that her color was slowly washing back into her cheeks.
She said nothing, but closed her eyes and expelled a ragged breath that Harry knew was all the thank you that she could muster at the moment.
With his sword at the ready, Harry waited for Ginny to catch her breath and clear her head. When she looked up and asked, "How did you know how to use that sword, Harry?" he didn't answer but grabbed her arm and ran full out for the avenue of trees and away from the field littered with carnage and dead.
