A/N: Please review.  I've already posted four chapters of this fic, and I haven't gotten a single review.  Flames are welcome if they are not unfounded.  Thanks.  This is my fifth chapter, and I still haven't gotten a single review.  I am disappointed with all of you.  The least you could do would be to tell me what you liked/disliked about my writing. 

Chapter Five

Ariadne had left his cell, saying she had "chores to attend to."

He was alone.  And bored.  He had had fun teaching Ariadne an entire Hogwarts education, it took his mind off the idea that he was a prisoner and had no ally. 

But he had an ally.  Ariadne had said she wanted to escape too.  Maybe they could form a plan together when she came back.  That is, if she came back. 

Harry leant back against the cold wall.  It was covered in gouges, counting using the four lines and a slash method.  Someone had obviously been here for a long time. 

He began to count them.  Eventually, he ended up with a total of 704.  With a jolt he realised that he had carved the marks.  Every one of them. He had been here almost two years.  But he didn't feel two years older.  And Ariadne had been here a majority of the time he was.   

Had he really carved all the marks adorning the wall?    Had he really been here for almost two years?  But he remembered his watch ticking off twenty-four hours and picking up a rock and carving another mark.

But he didn't.  He couldn't have.  Two years is too long.  What about Hermione and Ron and Ginny and Lavender and Draco?  Wouldn't they have remembered him?  Wouldn't they have come for him already?  Hermione wasn't stupid, she would have figured out where he was.

Hermione isn't stupid, he corrected himself.  He was already thinking in past tense.  How morbid.  But he had been in the same cell for two years that didn't feel like two years.  The most could have been two days because he was unconscious for a time.  He couldn't have been unconscious for over a year.  He would have needed food.

Harry slid to the floor, still debating whether or not he had completely lost two years.  He turned around and felt for the slashes on the wall.  There wasn't anything there.  Not a single mark.  But he remembered carving them!  He remembered!

Yet…it was becoming hazy.  It wasn't as clear as it had been seconds before. 

Harry stood, looking for any of the marks the remembered carving but didn't.  Nothing covered the walls.  They were smooth as marble. 

He spun in circles, looking.  And as he spun, he lost the memory of carving.  He stopped, wondering why he was spinning.  Nothing of the memory remained. 

Harry sat, waiting for Ariadne to return so they could plan their escape.  He never knew that from the watchtower above, a lone figure had watched his every move.

"Ah, excellent.  The spell worked.  He is not immune," the figure muttered, then strode swiftly away.         

~*()*~

"Who did he meet?" Hermione asked Lavender and Draco.  They shrugged.

"I have absolutely no idea," Draco said.  "He fell from the sky, grabbed our wrists and we ended up here."

"That's a great description," Ginny snapped.  "We can picture it perfectly now, thanks."

Draco backed off.  

"Sorry Draco," Ginny apologised.  "I didn't mean to snap.  But we have been trapped here, looking for Harry, and for you guys, for everyone, and it has been very stressful.  I just need to rest.  But I really am glad to see you."  This said, she walked to him and kissed him, as if to support her words. 

"All right, we have to find out what Ron was talking about," Hermione said, directing her words mainly to Draco and Ginny, who were still in each other's embrace.  She was the only one without her fiancé there, and felt the loss. 

"Well, he isn't exactly in any condition to tell us," Lavender said, pointing to Ron, who was still lying on the ground, asleep now.

"Can we wake him up?" Draco asked.  "This is kind of important."

"Well, I don't know what else to do," Lavender said.  """We could carry him, and just start walking in whatever direction we like, but that would be pointless wouldn't it?  Or we could just sit here, waiting for him to wake up, but that could be a while.  We don't know what he went through.  Or we could wake him up because we don't know what he went through.  He might be able to tell us something important."

"That's a well-informed opinion, that is," Draco muttered.  Ginny shot him A Look, then said, "I guess our best choice would be to wake him up."  She bent down and shook her brother's shoulder slightly.  "Ron?  Ron, get up.  You're late for Transfiguration."

"Huh?" Ron asked, always the intelligent one, his head coming off his arm.

"Good, you're awake," Ginny said brightly.  "We have a couple of questions."

"The answer is no," Ron said, lying his head back down. 

"No Ron," Lavender said.  These are important."

"What?" he asked grudgingly.    

"Where exactly did you go?" Hermione asked, sitting beside him near the rock. 

"Where did I go?  When?  Am I really late for transfiguration?"  Hermione restrained a cry of annoyance at Ron.  Maybe he was confused.

"Just now, before you rescued Lavender and Draco.  Where were you?"

He tried to remember, and it came to him.  "I was in…the Core of the Elements.  You know what the elements are, right?" he asked.

Hermione ticked them off her fingers.  "Water, Wind, Fire and Earth."

"Well, the one in charge, whose name Hermione said meant Element, her name was Natura'ae; she said I was in the Core where each Element dwelled until she was needed."

"Wait, back up," Draco said.  "Are you saying that each element, meaning wind, water, fire and earth, is a woman?" 

"Yes and no," Ron said.  "The Element…what was it?…dwells within them.  It is their life essence.  You know how the ancient Greeks called it the life spark?  Well, theirs is the element.  There were four of them, and the leader."

"Wait, what did you say their names were?" Hermione asked Ron excitedly.

"Aqua'ae, Aura'ae, Fidelia'ae, Flamma'ae and Natura'ae."

"Water, wind, earth, fire and element," Hermione muttered to herself. "Give or take.  It only sounds a little like Latin.  Very strange."  Louder, she said, "Well, guys, as far-fetched as it may seem, Ron may be telling the truth.  No one knows how the Elements came to be, they were always there.  My guess is that Ron is right, he wasn't hallucinating or anything.

"I wasn't hallucinating!" Ron protested indignantly.  "Why would I dream about this, or make it up?"

"We know you weren't lying," Lavender soothed.  "We knew."      

"But, you said I was…what?  A descendent of Water?" Hermione asked.   

"Yeah.  She said…hang on, it's coming to me.  Hermione is a descendent of Water, though it was under no willingness.  She contains this, it is her Essence."

"See?  I was right!" Hermione crowed.  "Their essence, or life spark, or whatever, is the Element.  It is who they are.   Get it?"

"Kind of," Ginny said, looking utterly confused.

"But I'm a descendent of Water?  That must mean I am a descendent of Aqua'ae."  She walked away, still muttering audibly to herself.  "But under no willingness?  That must mean someone found them, really liked her and chose he to be some sort of whore.  'Under no willingness', it sounds kind of like rape.  And I contain this because I am the result of the rape.  Wait, I have it!"

"You have been saying that all too much recently for my comfort," Draco said. Ginny elbowed him. 

"That means I am Water too.  Which means I can also use Water.  If Aqua'ae could, and she was an Element, that means I am too.  So there must be some way I am linked to Water, or just plain, non-capitalised water."

She was met with blank stares all around.

"Why me?" Hermione asked the heavens.  "Oh, why me?"

No one's expression changed. 

"Okay, we'll review the facts," Hermione said, sighing.   "There were five women, right?  And they were each an element.  So, the one that was Water, Aqua'ae, was obviously used as some sort of whore.  She got pregnant and I am one of her direct descendents.  So I am Water too.  Understand?"

"Ohh!"

"Finally!" 

"So, now what are we going to do?" Lavender asked. 

"Find Harry," Hermione said decisively.