Disclaimer: The big, blue, wet thing is from Muppet Treasure Island.
A/N: Please review. Reviews truly mean the world to me, I'm not kidding. Flames are welcome if they are not unfounded. Thanks.
Chapter Three
A person was approaching him. The person wasn't tall, but couldn't be considered short. He was dressed in black robes, trimmed with gold. His face wasn't visible, as his entire head was cloaked, casting a shadow above his face. He carried a wand like a sword, wielding it as if he could use it to ward off enemies (which he could).
Harry sat up again, a splitting headache pounding near his temples. "What do you want?" he croaked, venom dripping from his words.
"What do I want?" the hooded figure repeated. "Or what I am ordered to do? I want nothing more than to escape this life. But I am ordered not to. III have been ordered to make sure you are still alive."
"Well I am," Harry said, still sounding as harsh as possible under his conditions. "And I would like to be left alone with my thoughts."
"But couldn't I please stay?" Harry's lips parted in shock.
"What?" he stammered. "Aren't you my enemy? Didn't you capture me and bring me here? Or…or help plot it?"
"No. I told you, I want nothing more than out of this life. I was dragged here, and I have yet to find my way out." The figure drew back the hood of his cloak. And Harry let out a gasp of surprise, heard by no one but himself.
~*()*~
"Is everyone okay?" Hermione asked in a worried voice. "Did everyone get through?"
When no one answered, Hermione grew panicked, looking around the barren landscape. She had landed on a great plain, bordered with few trees and some strange, bluish clusters of rocks. A high wind had picked up and was blowing her hair over her face, obscuring her vision.
"Hello?" she called, more loudly this time. "Did anyone go through with me?" Far in the distance Hermione thought she heard someone calling out. The voice was coming from her left, if there was a voice. She began running that way.
"HELLO?" she yelled again, hurting her throat from yelling like that. When Hermione had crossed a large cluster of rocks, she heard a voice behind her say, "Mione? Hermione!"
Hermione turned around to see Ginny huddled in the lee of the rocks, hoping to get out of the wind. "Ginny! Oh, Ginny! Have you seen anyone else?" Hermione asked immediately, her eyes filling with tears and embracing her friend as if they hadn't seen in years.
"They weren't with you?" Ginny asked, her eyes now threatening to overflow.
"Oh, no," Hermione wailed. "There must have been a defect in the potion. Or the charm. Or someone spoke something wrong, or a million things. Oh, Ginny, I hope they're safe!"
"Me too, Hermione. Me too."
They stood like that for an indefinite time, holding each other, lest the other fall. They were both unsure if the others lived, but as long as they supported each other, it would be all right.
~*()*~
"Hello? Is anyone else here?" Ron's cries carried very little in the small room. It was all white, with no apparent walls, ceiling or floor.
"Hello?" he tried again, still receiving no reply. He bent down to inspect what he was standing on. It was swirling ceaselessly. Although it looked quite like mist, it appeared to be fairly solid. It was supporting his weight, at least.
"Hellooo?"
Ron looked up. "Who's there?" he called into the mist.
"Ron? Ron? Is anyone there?"
He began to run toward the voice. But the closer he got, the voice seemed to grow fainter. When he went the opposite way, it grew yet fainter.
"Ron." He heard it again, this time as if the one speaking were muttering in his ear.
"Who is it?" he asked. "What do you want?"
There wasn't a sound. He felt defeated. And completely alone. He kept running in all directions, hoping to find one of his friends. After what felt like hours later and he still hadn't found anything, he felt more alone than ever. He hadn't known solitude until then. It was awful not to have the company of another, even an enemy. He collapsed on what felt like the floor, sobbing.
~*()*~
"Draco? Is that you?"
"Ginny?"
"No, it's Lavender. I don't know where Ginny is. For that matter, I don't know where Ron and Hermione are, and I sure don't know where Harry is."
"Not good. Not at all. Have you any idea where we are?"
"None. Sorry."
Draco sat up, groaning. And gasped. He and Lavender were on the ocean. Yes, on is the correct word. The water was flowing, but they were being supported by it. He cupped his hands and let water flow between his fingers.
"Wow," he said. "Did you put a charm on this to support us?" he asked Lavender.
"Put a charm on what?" she asked.
"The water."
"What water?"
"What do you mean 'what water'?" Draco shouted. "The water we are sitting on! You know, the big, blue, wet thing? Water!"
"We aren't sitting on any water," Lavender told him, looking at him as if he were a bit off.
"Then tell me, what are we sitting on?"
"Sand," was the prompt answer.
"Lavender, tell me this. What's in my hand?" Draco asked, as he cupped his hands around water again.
"Sand," she repeated.
"This isn't good," Draco said in response, rubbing his temples. "We aren't seeing the same environment. You see that we are in the middle of some desert. I see us on the ocean." Draco covered his face with hands.
"You mean underwater?"
"No. Like I said, on the water. As if it were a tangible substance able to support our weight."
"Well, at least we can see each other," Lavender said brightly.
"Can you touch me?" Draco asked between hid fingers. "Put your hand on my shoulder."
Lavender tried. Her arm went right through him.
"We aren't really in the same place," Draco said. "We can see each other, but we are in completely different places. And we could disappear from each other's vision at any time."
~*()*~
The hooded figure was a girl. A young girl of approximately fifteen. She would have been a fifth or sixth year at Hogwarts.
Harry stared.
"What?" she asked. "What's wrong?"
"You…you're a girl," he said, sounding stunned.
"Yes, I am," she replied, her tone implying that this was the most obvious fact in the world.
"But…but, you looked so…I couldn't tell when you had your hood up."
"I know. It has an Obscuring Charm on it, making it impossible to make out what my face looks like. My mother made me put it on."
"Who's your mother?"
There was a long pause. "I don't know," the girl said finally. "I mean…I know, but I don't. I've never seen her face. At least, not that I remember. But she's a horrible person. And that's why I want out of this life. I hate Dark magic, but I don't have a choice whether or not I practice it."
"Why don't you have a choice?" Harry asked. "Why don't you just escape?"
"I've tried, believe me. Ever had the Cruciatus Curse put on you?"
"Yeah, Harry said, remembering his fourth and fifth year. At the end of fifth year was the last time Harry had ever seen Lord Voldemort, though he knew that seeing him again, hopefully for the last time, was inevitable.
There was another pause, in which the girl sat down, her legs tucked under her. Harry took the time to study her.
She had long, dirty-blonde hair and black, almost liquid-looking eyes. She was fairly small, and of about average weight. "My name is Ariadne," she said, her voice echoing in the small room. "I don't know my last name."
"Harry. Harry Potter."
"I know," Ariadne said, grinning.
"Did you go to Hogwarts?" he asked her.
"No. My mother trained me in all I know. And most of it is Dark magic. I know a few normal spells, but most of them are for self-defence."
"Do you have a wand?"
"Right here." Ariadne took it out and showed it to him, almost as if she needed his approval of it. It was an ebony black material, one that didn't much look like wood.
"What is it made of?" he asked curiously. "I haven't seen anything like it."
"I not sure. But then, I don't know a lot in life."
"Well, let's start practising. I'll take you through an entire Hogwarts education, as we are both stuck here and seem to have all the time in the world. And while we work, we can think of ways to get out."
"Sounds good," Ariadne said. "Start your teaching."
A/N: Ariadne's name is pronounced air-ee-AD-nee.
~*()*~
He sat up; face still not dry of tears. One slid to the floor as he whispered, "I wish I was with someone else. Anyone else." As another tear slipped off his face, he was whisked away in a vortex of black, sucked down until he knew no more.
~*()*~
"Draco, what are we going to do? If one of us disappears, we would be alone. And I still don't quite get it. How can you see me, but I am not really there?"
"Lavender, we went over this. Many times."
"I know. But I still don't get it."
"Lav, what's on your left?"
"Well, really far out there's a cactus."
Thank you, Lavender. Thank you. I mean, do you see any water? Because I am surrounded by it. I am floating on top of it."
"No, no water. And I still don't understand why we can see but not touch each other." Lavender's brow furrowed.
"You're only seeing a shadow of me, Lav. The real me is where I am sitting. You see a shadow, which is why your arm goes right through me. And I see you because your shadow is with me."
He was met with an even more clueless look. "All right, it's like this: I am like a ghost. A ghost's soul is there, but not his body. You see my soul."
"Oh, I get it!"
"About time. That was the last time I was going to explain."
~*()*~
Hermione and Ginny were still huddled near the rocks, while the wind still whistled and howled around them.
"Do you think we'll die?" Ginny asked Hermione, her face muffled because her head was buried in her robes.
"I'm honestly not sure," Hermione replied. "After all, we're all just pawns in a giant chess game. Much as we think we are knights, bishops, or even kings or queens, we are merely pawns. Meaningless, except to each other."
Her statement hung in the air. Ginny didn't reply. They both knew that Hermione's statement was true, so they remained silent, both thinking about it. And they listened. Listened to the wind, which seemed to be calling to them.
"Ginny! Hermione!" it called, just barely reaching their ears. And then an unconscious Ron was dropped in front of them.
~*()*~
"You're a pretty fast learner," Harry said to Ariadne.
"Thanks. But it is probably in part that I have been learning Dark spells since I could hold a wand and if I didn't get it right, the Cruciatus Curse. So I have learnt to learn quickly."
"I see what you mean. I know how the Cruciatus Curse feels—terrible."
"I know. But should we try another spell?"
"All right. We'll try the…oh, what's it called? It makes a light go on at the end of your wand. Do you know it?"
Ariadne shook her head, indicating no.
"The incantation is this: Lumos." A light instantly appeared at the end of Harry's wand. "Now you try it," he said.
Ariadne tried, and succeeded quickly.
Unbeknownst to them, another Dark figure watched them from afar. "Very good, my dear Ariadne," it whispered. "You have just wont he award for Best-Plan-Maker. But you have also won Plan-Destroyer. She has befriended him!"
