A/N: A fun little chapter with soul-wars and terror all round.

Thanks Tomfeltonssexiiwun! Glad you're enjoying it :)

Thanks Minimouse- I'd love to read your story! Glad you're enjoying it!

Thanks Meredith- I like the name, and it's meaning too! I'm sure I'll resurrect her before the end of the story…

Thanks jamesismysweetheart- glad you're enjoying!!

Thanks AnnabelleElizabeth- I love it, don't you! I have plans… ^_~

Thanks Jaelle- I know… thanks for bringing that to my attention. Don't worry, it'll get sorted out soon enough.

And now… on with the story!

Chapter 30

"Hello," Hermione said coldly, as she entered the room she had been directed to. The figure on the bed writhed into a sitting position, opening bloodshot eyes to peer at the intruder.

"Hello," the woman croaked, equally icily. Hermione sat in a seat beside the bed, wondering what would do this to a woman. She knew the answer, of course. A pain-spirit.

The woman's face- although probably beautiful before- was reddened and angry, blistered and swollen. In several places her flesh was eaten away, and from these places, clear fluid wept, mingled with traces of blood. She looked as though she had been attacked with strong acid, her hair and clothes charred around the edges.

"You look a little worse for wear," Hermione stated, glaring at the woman. Despite her horrific state, she couldn't find any way to feel compassion for her. This woman had nearly murdered her daughter, and it was only by luck that she had been rescued. She wouldn't have cared either way.

"A little," the woman glared back, her eyes, though watering, still piercingly blue.

"Good to see you've learned the error of your ways," Hermione looked the woman over- her legs and arms were eaten almost beyond recognition- her fingers were eaten through the bone. The pain-spirit had had a ball with this woman. There was little way she would ever even be able to life a wand again.

"The only error I ever made," the woman hissed from behind her blistered mouth, "was to try to complete my rainbow." Then she closed what remained of her eyelids and refused to be drawn any further.

Hermione was left to puzzle over her parting words. But, seeing she would get no further reaction from this woman, and that she was hardly a threat any longer, she apparated to the Auror Training Facility, beginning the long trek up to the building. The flowers, as she walked up the path, were beginning to die, reminding Hermione that summer was nearly over for another year. Hermione smiled sadly at the beginning buds of the autumn roses, getting ready for their dying display before they fell back into dormancy for another three months, getting ready to burst into colour in spring again.

Finally, Hermione reached the large, double doors that presented themselves before her. She announced her name and business ("Hermione Granger, Auror- to speak with Kate Tiaret"), and passed through unhindered. She walked up the seemingly endless stairs; finally reaching the door that announced her mentor's name. The door was ajar, which seemed odd to Hermione. Her eyes narrowed, and she pulled out her wand, holding it before her, she stood to one side of the door and pushed it inwards.

The door creaked inward, the inside of the doorway darkened. Hermione circled around the doorframe, keeping to the inward wall. She inched along the short entryway where Kate kept her coats, and rounded the doorway at the other end. This door was firmly shut. Hermione touched the knob- it was startlingly cold. Hermione wrenched the door open, blundering in. The scene inside shocked her.

Four men in black floor-length trench coats surrounded Kate, castrate on the floor. She was writhing in pain, making inarticulate noises in the back of her throat. The men surrounding her were muttering under their breaths. Hermione stared, wide eyed, at the scene, before something hit her sharply on the back of the head. The world blossomed into sharp relief, before fading quickly to black.

~*~

Ruth sat at the table, astonished.

"You mean, you just taught yourself?"

"Yup," Draco grinned, loving the attention, and her startlement, "I had a bit of spare time, so I decided to learn."

"It's not something just widely known about- how did you discover it?" Her Spartan eyes were wide in disbelief.

"I was meditating- something I learned how to do in Auror training- and I just took that step forward, you know, out of myself. I was confronted with this world that I knew nothing about. I did a bit of research, and then practiced at home. Turns out, I'm a natural," he gave her a showy smile, opening his arms wide. His robes pinched his shoulders, and he inwardly reminded himself that he needed to order new ones.

"I can't believe it," Ruth muttered, shaking her head. "I'll never understand. It took me years and years with my Apprenticemaster, and even then, I was a nervous wreck without my circle. It took me years, decades to get to where I am now. And you've only been practicing for eighteen years?" Ruth drilled her fingers across the table repeatedly.

"Lianna's better," Draco added. He was filled with a pointless desire to see the woman gasp in surprise. It made her face elongate, and her ears twitch. And, Draco admitted silently to himself, I adore the attention.

"What?" The woman sounded outraged, slapping her palms loudly on the table. "How can she be better?"

"Well," he drawled, "She learned how to talk in minutes, and I towed her here after a few hours. And even now, she's roaming the highways of the soul, learning the ropes." Maybe I've gone too far, Draco thought to himself, when Ruth's face went dead white. I always knew my bragging would get me in trouble one of these days.

"She's out there alone? And you let her? Don't you know what sort of people are out there?" Ruth's anger carried her to her feet, and her eyes were blazing with outrage. Draco quickly saw that he had misinterpreted her- she wasn't angry with him; she was upset about Lianna. That's ok then! Draco sighed, relieved.

"She's fine. In fact," Draco pulled out his enchanted watch, "I've got a lesson with her in five minutes. She's probably just doing homework now. This little chat's been so much fun," he smirked, "but I must be going now. Places to go, people to see and all that." Ruth quivered with rage for a moment, before letting it go, and beginning to laugh.

"Ah, you are so transparent, dear. I look forward to another chat with you at another time, Draco." She smiled beatifically at him, and Draco grinned back, exiting the room carefully.

"That is one odd woman," he remarked to himself after he had closed the door firmly behind himself. He began to whistle as he trotted down the hallways to the classroom set aside for his tutoring of his daughter.

When he reached the room, he knew that something was wrong. The pillows that had been strewn across the floor were broken apart, and feathers were still floating down from the ceiling. Draco spun his eyes around the room from the doorway until he spotted her.

Lianna's eyes were blazing darkly, her cheeks burning and her hair standing on end. She turned from her destruction of pillows to see Draco, and hissed, right from the depths of her being. Draco took a step backwards. He glanced at the floor- the circle was unbroken. How is she out then? His mind screamed as he dodged a lunging attack from his possessed daughter. Her eyes gleamed burnished crimson in the bright sunlight of the hallway. Draco grabbed Lianna's arms and used his knee to hold her body away from himself.

I can't hold her like this for very much longer, he realised as his arms began to quiver. Hiding in the woods for eighteen years didn't help my physical fitness any. And, with a momentary thought, Draco did the only thing he could think of.

~*~

Into the darkness he plunged, his silver light flipping around desperately for the sight of his daughter's body. There! He spotted it, and surged towards it, leaving his darkened body behind.

He stopped, halting a few paces from her. There- a thread, into her body. He touched her lifeline, and gave it a tiny jerk. Bring her back, he thought to himself. Then, he took a hold of the thin thread that snuck down her throat. He began to pull it.

It cut his fingers like silk, like diamond wire, but even the pain of this didn't stop him. He wound it around his hands and pulled. Suddenly, the glowing golden light of his daughter's aura appeared.

"What's going on, dad?" she queried, looking interested at him. He grunted and pulled another few inches of the glowing green line out of the body.

"Your body has been possessed. I'm fighting on two fronts here. Think you could help?" Grunt, another few inches. He wound it around his hand again. He could see glowing silver light streaming from his wounded hand. He kept pulling.

"How could it get in?" she whimpered, "I had the circle." Nevertheless, she took a hold of the body that was her own, and began to pull it backwards from the shoulders. Together, they heaved and pulled until he finally removed a tiny bubble on the end of the string. He removed the silk from his hand, and the body reformed.

"You are evil!" The creature screamed, twisting into a twister, rustling the sparse wind into their hair and heaving past them into the darkness beyond.

"What was that?" she exclaimed, gazing after it, rubbing her hands against her upper arms protectively.

"That," he replied, "Was a lost soul. Its body died, perhaps, before it could return, or someone else took it. That is what will attack you if you are out here too long. Shall we go home and continue the lesson?"

She nodded, and he left to return to his body. He fell into it, the world spinning around him…

~*~

There was an ear-piercing shriek when he opened his eyes.

"What?" He exclaimed as he stood up from where he had collapsed. He looked at his hand, and realised that he would need help with it. Then he looked to Lianna.

She was covered in blood, yet she wasn't looking at herself.

"Draco?" she whispered, tears in her eyes; "Maybe you shouldn't have come after me until you had tied me up."

Draco looked down at his body, and saw why she had screamed. The world swirled away into darkness again.