Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, he - and related stuff, belongs to JK Rowling. I own squat sue me not.

Author's Note: More weirdness, and it's a mystery so abstract is the game. There are tones of clues in and around the whole story, have you picked them up yet? Have you? Anyway read on and tell me what you think. Please review!

::~::

It's plain to see that, not everything - is what it seems.

Black Sunrise

Do with me what you will, I don't have the will to fight you anymore.

If you are my death make it faster!

What is it we did to deserve this? Can we escape or is this the end? Have we lost?

I don't want your forgiveness.

Forgive me, for I have wronged you.

In a way this was bound to happen, we deserved it, we must accept our fate.

::~::~::~::

The silence was intense, Dumbledore watched as the entrance hall slowly filled up with hooded figures cloaked in black, and his worst fear had been brought to action. The Death Eaters were at the school. The second man by his side took a step back to assess the situation, but Dumbledore knew this wasn't a moment for talk, there were twenty Death Eaters, each equip to kill. All he could do was look around and see what Lord Voldemort had trained to take over his school. He had been a teacher when they were young, he had been Headmaster when they had been in Hogwarts - if there was one thing they should have learned - it was that no one gets past Professor Albus Dumbledore.

Astix looked across all the men, he couldn't see their faces, just their hoods, if this was it, then he was going to fight it... who wants to die like this? He thought, as his was the first wand to expel a curse, hitting the Death Eater dead centre; his aim wasn't to kill but to disable as all Auror's should at first aim to do.

"Accendo!" Was a high pitched hissing voice that appeared to echo around them, Dumbledore and Astix were surrounded by a ring to red flames as the Death Eaters split and ran around them, a swirl of black like ash in the flames as Dumbledore uttered a shielding spell protecting himself and his friend from the flames.

::~::~::~::

There was an illness in intensity, a power far greater than anything he was able to understand, it wasn't as if he could surmount it. It was all around him, like a fog... a black fog.

So you know how it feels to fall...

::~::~::~::

Quentus walked about towards Raine's office, but stopped himself - he ended up heading towards the opposite end of the school. Well deeper into the school anyway, but instead of going up the stairs, something drew him downwards... into the heart of the dungeons where shots of echoes chorused around his ears and everything seemed to be stopping, getting slower until the only thing he could hear was his own heart.

Panic and fear took over, shafts of lightning appeared in his mind bringing him to his knees. Breaking him in two; two frames of mind yet only one man. Eyes spinning, heart racing he collapsed into a heap on the floor.

Is there anything other than my reasoning that keeps you alive my boy? Are you gradually turning into the one person you loathed most of all? You're afraid aren't you? Well... you should be.

"Who was that?!" He rasped - but no one was there... he didn't think there was but then - it was there again, but like it was running around him, as if he were surrounded.

You're a corpse - and you can't even see it. We tried to save you but you didn't want to be saved. Now look at you. You're a wreck.

"Lies!"

What's worse is for your want to better me I tricked you - trapped you, now you'll never escape.

"Get out! Get out!" He screamed wheeling around wildly, flapping his arms about like he were trying to beat back the sound of a thousand voices closing in on him and for once all his fighting didn't stop the sounds. "It's all around me... what's happening? Let me go!"

Get a grip of yourself, you foolish boy. They think you killed me - don't they?

A hollow harsh laugh echoed around the cold corridor.

Quentus fell to his knees looking around - he knew whom it was and the tears in his eyes were of fear. This was one force he didn't know how to counter act - the only thing he had ever truly offered thought to fear.

As if you'd have the brains, or the skill to kill me. But I did a good job of framing you, and my poor wife, they think you killed her too don't they. A foolish act on my part... some people assume too much, my son being on of them, and Mr. Wise being the other. If he hadn't tried to save my reputation, perhaps the blame might have been laid in the correct hands - mine. The voice continued to echo all around him - but with the last word seemed to shake as if deeply sorry - he was shaking with rage, blinded by fear but so angry he could feel his fingers flexing through need to hex something. I tried to confess, but it didn't work... they wouldn't let me, and now because you chose to be in the wrong place at the wrong time you are not going to get much further without hindrance. Miss Stark will follow you to the ends of the earth until you're dead. So you see, in the end, we all get what we deserve.

Quentus stared at the floor.

"But there are so many things that I have done... some things that even you cannot contemplate. I know you had no spine - but I have aligned myself with the very worst..." his voice was hoarse and dark. "It feels good... like - I can't describe it. He sees the worst in me, and uses the energy from my rage to something far worse. I'm going to destroy your student... or should I say daughter, because she was more of a daughter to you than a student, you were kinder and a better father to her than your own flesh and blood."

My son never had the will to learn what I wanted to teach him... he was too busy teaching himself. Far too smart for his own good and as he grew older we grew more distant until he hated me. She was easy to teach because her own family was unable to see what potential she had just because she was a girl and meant to look pretty to snag a husband. If that is how anyone was meant to see their future they had my pity. I could also see her ending up in you shoes had she not been correctly guided - it was too late for you.

"So you took pity of that charming little girl and turned her into a heartless, stone cold witch who would kill without mercy," Quentus was looking about him now trying to find the source of the voice, but it was a whisper in the wind. He was talking to the beyond - he began to shake again - cold, so cold.

Exactly, the world needs a few more like her.  She does what she has to, to survive, just like you. Just like I did, until I died. If isolationism is the only way to move forward then that - is what must be.

"But there was one thing you never knew about me... you never knew why I left Hogwarts when I was sixteen."

I was never interested. I knew you were rotten - smelt it on you as soon as Astix brought you in.

"I was tracking someone..." The echoing sound died out around him and Quentus felt cold.

"Tracking who?" Quentus looked up wildly from the floor.

"Ah... Professor Wise," he oozed.

"Who were you talking to?" Astix asked, his wand at the ready - his hand was shaking - watching as Quentus hoisted himself up from the floor. At first he looked uneasy but soon glided back into his snide manner in another persons company. Quentus removed the Death Eater outer robe, and brushed off the black robes he had under them, it seemed to Astix that even someone as roofless as Quentus, felt as if he had been infected by some form of virus he just couldn't shake off - he dropped the black Death Eater robe and mask to the floor without care.

"It's not important," he said his voice smooth, pushing the bridge of his glasses up his nose.

"What are you doing Maytricks? I always thought I could trust you... but Raine was right - you are a sinuous eel," Quentus looked at Astix and smirked before omitting a dry laugh.

"There is so little you know Wise, and yet so much you should do," Quentus looked at the older wizard from head to foot. He had bright white hair that flicked outwards from his thin but well structured face, covering his sapphire eye were a pair of small rectangular spectacles, that sat on the end of his straight nose, at this point in time his expression, was that of disgust. Astix was quite a tall man, though not quite as tall as Quentus, who at this point was standing to his full height looking down his nose at Astix who's hands were shaking. "Is that fear Professor?"

::~::~::~::

The school appeared to be over run... Death Eaters everywhere. The staff were running around trying to round up the students to get them to safety. Sometimes Dumbledore wished he had some form of lasso to bring them all together. Dumbledore had ordered that they all be brought to the Great Hall where at least they would all be together, but getting them all there while the school was in this state was going to be another thing.

Harry, Ron and Hermione - who had chosen this night - yet again - to go for a wander around the school, rather than do what they were asked. They had been to Hogsmeade - again... they knew they weren't supposed to, but the chance to go and watch the sun set from the cliffs was too much to pass up on, that and they just liked to get away from the stress of the school, now that they were taking their N.E.W.T.s.

"I think we'd better get back to the school, it's a little later than we had anticipated," said Harry, while Ron tried to get to his feet.

"I guess so," Ron said absently, he'd not said much to Hermione all evening, Hermione however, had tried to talk to him, but he was still annoyed with her because of the way she kept looking at Malfoy.

One by one they wrapped their cloaks around themselves and headed back to the castle, Ron taking a little longer to stare into the moonlight then the other two until the whole night sky went black.

"Umm, guys, something's happening..." Ron muttered while he heard the sound of Hermione, and Harry, walking into each other.

"Who turned out the lights?!" Harry asked.

"Lumos!" Hermione muttered while holding out a guiding light heading them back from the cliffs to the secret passage into the school. She thought better of asking questions but to get straight back to the school where they would surely find out what was going on.

"I don't like this," Ron grumbled. "Just as everything starts to settle down again something else comes to bite you on the bum."

"Ron, remember what 'Mad Eye' Moody said in our fourth year," Hermione said in a matter of fact tone, Ron imitated her in a very childish manner without uttering a word, she shot him a venomous look and kept her mouth shut.

"Yeah, but if I remember correctly, that wasn't the real 'Mad Eye' was it? It was some weird arse impostor. I mean we don't exactly have a good track record for Dark Arts teachers. I mean, we've had well, basically Voldemort, and Lockheart speaks for himself but I'll classify him as a vegetable, and a werewolf, not that I dislike Lupin, but it's not like he was there when we needed him. Then there was Moody, well I've not got a lot to say there, and we had Alcove, she was okay only she seemed more afraid of the stuff she was teaching than we were and now we have Stark. Now I was beginning to like Stark even if she was a little off hand and weird. She had a way with people, especially Snape and Malfoy."

"You only liked her because she humiliated the two people at that school you hate the most," Hermione said indignantly.

"Well she's gone now so what does it matter," was his reply to Hermione who remembered well the threat she'd received before Stark went away.

"Enough... lets just get back to the common room," Harry snapped when a dark shadow past the one eyed witch. He thought best to ignore it, normally when he followed something late at night into places he shouldn't do he got into more trouble than he considered it to be worth.

"Alright Harry, keep your wig on," Ron said throwing an arm over Harry's shoulder before pushing him forwards out of the opening by the statue. "You really have got to learn to chill out!" He stated before a second figure came racing down the dungeon corridor. "Whose that?"

"What are you three doing out of the Great Hall?!" The man roared a look of horror and anger on his face.

"Umm... nothing..." Ron said coolly.

"Did you not hear the call for everyone to go to the Great Hall and wait for further instructions and to find out what is going on?! Haven't you any idea what is going on?!" He continued.

"No..." Ron said bluntly, Hermione jabbed him in the ribs. "And I don't know who you are either."

"My name is Professor Wise, Mr. Weasley, and it would do you an awful lot of good to listen to someone for once. Now get to the Great Hall before something else happens, I don't wish to have to inform Professor Dumbledore that three of his favourite students have been slain by Death Eaters," Astix said harshly.

"How do we know you're not one?!" Harry said shortly raising his wand to Astix who pulled out his identification. "You could still be a Death Eater," said Harry throwing a casual glance at the identity tag.

"Not without the bloody Dark Mark I couldn't - now get out of here before they notice you're out. You'll be the one their after again, Mr. Potter - now do yourself a favour and get out of site."

"Astix Wise?" Hermione said thoughtfully.

"Yes," he said standing to his full height and drawing his wand ready to run off in the other direction trailing the previous shadow.

"Aren't you an Animagus?" She said in a interested tone.

"Perhaps when the school isn't under attack Miss Granger..." he sounded vexed by her sudden interest. "This is not the time. But have you lot not heard me, run... go... just make sure you don't try and confront those things. I don't want to hear that any of you tried to be heroic." Without another word he'd shot off in the other direction his black cloak rippling behind him as he shot down the corridor.

"Pretty fast for an old guy isn't he?" Ron said smiling looking at the other two as they watched Astix shoot off, Harry and Hermione didn't seemed impressed by Ron's comment. "I don't think we handled that too well. I mean, it wasn't a good plan to question a Ministry Auror, let alone accuse him of being a Death Eater. Nice work Harry," said Ron, knowing full well he'd started it.

"How did he know our names?" Harry said thoughtfully.

"He works in the Mysteries Department, who knows, how he knows. He's a very interesting man, teaches Potions in some... heck I don't even know. Some form of University for wizards that no one is supposed to know about except the alumnus. I really hope I'm good enough to go there. Hey - I think that is one of the first Unspeakables I have actually spoken to."

"Hermione this isn't the time for you to recall Animagi and Ministry dudes. The school is under attack... hang on why are we standing here. Let's get out of here before we become part of the furniture," Ron muttered as they streaked along the corridor as stealth fully as they could.

::~::~::~::

"I don't need to fear you. You're about as much use as a candle without a wick. As a young man I never trusted you, and as you matured I watched you change, I tried to be nice to you, to befriend you, but you backed away. Every time I felt I made a little progress you knocked me back."

"Well what you believe about all the people you know is about to be turned upside down - defend yourself!" Without another word of warning Astix had formed a shield around himself as Quentus drew his wand and fired at the older wizard without uttering a sound.

There was a flurry of black as the two ran around in circles firing wildly at each other... it was like a silent battle with only the echoes of the corridor to accompany the eerie scene as their feet fell into new positions and the sounds accompanying the explosions.

All of a sudden as if out of nowhere Quentus was running at Astix however he didn't stay running in the same direction until an illusion that looked like many black shadows approaching thundered around him and without warning he was face down on the cold stone floor his glasses smashed before him and his wand out of reach, he couldn't believe it, his understudy had beaten him... and he hadn't seen it coming.

His back felt like it had been broken in two, his vision was a blur and bloody was trickling from his left eye as he moved his hands feebly to find his glasses... there was a crunching sound and clicks of stalking footsteps came closer and the crumpled remains of his glasses were placed into his out stretched searching hand.

"Looking for something Professor?" Came a short drawling voice before he heard folds of robes fall gently near him and his palm closed around the mangled frames, the lenses cutting his flesh. He didn't know what to say, he just let everything happen and listened before the robes lifted sweeping the floor once more and what he could only assume was Quentus' foot was crushing the object in his grasp making him gasp in pain. "Does that hurt Sir?" He hissed.

"Do what you've got to Maytricks... this isn't over yet let me assure you," Astix grimaced. "I've endured far worse pain..."

"Would you like me to tell you about pain? How it feels to be passed on because people don't feel they can trust you?" Quentus rasped, Astix just lay dormant waiting for the pain to lift.

"What does that have to do with anything, you revelled in being seen as a threat," Wise wheezed. It became apparent that Quentus wasn't listening.

"Do you want to know why people can't trust me?"

"You say all this like it's my fault!"

"But you see Professor - it is your fault," Quentus rasped before he felt the rug pulled out from under him and he too was on the floor. Astix was now supporting himself against the dungeon wall with one hand, the other reaching out the where Quentus lay.

"Not expecting that?" Astix asked as Quentus regained his breath.

"To the contrary," he muttered as he threw both wands down the corridor and out of site.

"I don't know what good you think that will do you... I don't need mine," Astix said fire in his eyes, Quentus lifted an eyebrow and sneered as his teacher.

"Neither do I..." Astix looked startled at first then narrowed his eyes at the man twenty years his junior.

"I would never have believed you were once a Gryffindor," the white haired wizard growled.

"If you had been a smarter Ravenclaw you might have picked up on a few other things... but then how could I not be a Gryffindor considering who my mother is."

"But you're a Muggle born," Wise was so sure of this fact.

"Wrong again Sir - my, my won't Rowena be disappointed. I am of pure blood, and what courses through my veins is the very reason people fear me."

"You cannot squeeze blood from a stone Maytricks," Astix now appeared to have gathered his energy again even if he couldn't see properly.

"And you cannot keep confusing me with an inanimate rock," Quentus barked.

"Leads to be seen," Astix said as the ground appeared to spring to life and pull Quentus down.

"Do try something less easy to disintegrate," Quentus spat as the land crumbled and fell back to where it had started. "I'm ashamed to say that at one point I actually respected you, but then you never did know what you were actually talking about. It's like everything you spout - bull shit."

"I'm surprised I took a liking to you to start with - there was something about you I thought I could communicate with but you were just impossible after a few years, and not surprisingly I gave up - now look where we are."

"Hmm... licence to kill you could say, and yet you're still a gutless fish out of water," Quentus drawled.

"If you knew who your parents were why didn't you go to them instead of running to the Ministry parading the - I'm lost and need help routine; it starts to get old in this job," Astix said coldly.

"Who says I hadn't trailed them there?"

"Are you suggesting the Minister has a bastard son? With you on the loose I guess that would make perfect sense," Astix spat.

"Not the Minister, I don't believe that the Minister would have been so foolish," Quentus said calling his wand back and twirling it round his fingers. "Look into my eyes and tell me you can't see where I got all this malice."

Astix kept his distance looking into Quentus' glittering sapphire eyes which were trying to hide behind dark tinted lenses shadowed under the eyes due to lack of sleep and defined cheek bones highlighting the shadows down to his smirking thin lips.

"All I see is years of torment, someone that still doesn't know which direction to go in," Astix said sadly. "You're a lost soul, I've always known it."

"Shame - you could have stopped it," Quentus said bitterly.

"I couldn't have stopped it, that inset when you were only a little boy. You were doomed from birth Quentus."

"From conception actually - not that you took any interest then, you certainly won't now," Quentus said his eyes turning ice white, Astix started to go pale. "I bet you don't like the idea you helped create a monster do you. What's worse is you could have stopped it."

"I don't understand," Astix mumbled blanching.

"You are the one I was tracking, the great Astix Wise, my teacher, my idol, until I discovered you were the reason for my misery, you and my foul tempered mother."

"You can't be serious," Astix said his knees beginning to feel weak.

"Perfectly," Quentus said shortly.

"But, I've never... I mean to say..." Astix became very awkward, Quentus gave a harsh laugh.

"You lost a certain friendship because of it, ring any bells?" Astix went white and collapsed a second time, this time with no will to get back up again when a powerful force knocked him into the ground as if it were breaking every bone in his body and he led on the floor, letting everything go. "I don't think I need do any more, the guilt should finish you off. And remember in the few minutes before you die that you could have prevented this if you had only the decency to take responsibility for a mistake you made. But you're too much of a coward. Good bye, Sir, Professor Wise... Father, you'll tell me what hell is like won't you? I can guarantee you'll be going there sooner than I." With that he left the elder man lifeless on the floor satisfied that he had now taken away the one person that destroyed his life to begin with.

Don't hurt her! You can do what you want to me but... What have you done to her?!

A slipping feeling over took him, he was turning into the monster that raised him.

You're beginning to understand now aren't you! Killing your father solves nothing, it just makes you a murderer, it was the spirit from before, Quentus looked about insanely.

"Now to get rid of the one person in your life who shouldn't have been part of it," Quentus muttered to open space, his voice was dripping with rage.

You'll regret it. Just like he did... remember - you made sure of that.

"He killed my Mother!" Quentus screamed.

But you forget your real mother is very much alive.

"She isn't my real Mother - my real Mother is dead... murdered by her husband... because of me," Quentus threw up all over the floor, something within him was reacting violently against the actions he had taken in his life.

And you made him regret it didn't you?

"To his very core!" Quentus rasped looking up from the floor.

The first taste of blood Quentus. You enjoyed it didn't you, the sound of his breath ceasing - able to feel his heart stopping under your fingers as you pressed your hand to his pulse. It isn't easy being the adopted son of a Muggle - but Doctors do have some neat tricks don't they?

"Some of the best... life and death."

And as you killed that man you knew then didn't you? You would kill again - you'd enjoyed the anticipation with a wild, and almost sexual desire. And we took you on - but I knew what you were up to. I could see it. That is why you were attracted to Raine wasn't it? She was ruthless and cold, almost as icy as death itself in youth and she knew exactly how to play you didn't she?

Quentus threw a dark look into the surrounding passage. "Like a fiddle," he growled.

So you see - she's done it once before, I'm very sure she'll do it again.

"There is where you're wrong," were the final words of the dark Sorcerer.

::~::~::~::

And I will tip toe down that line but I will feel unstable.

My life is a circus

And I am tripping down that tight rope

Well there is nothing to save me now so I will not look down.

('Thrown Away,' by Papa Roach.)

::~::~::~::

And when you echo we hear you,

Never breaking spirit.

And when you call we'll not fear your name,

Ever present memory.

The end is closer than we think,

You're always by our side.

So steal us one by one and lighten up this night,

And return to us some of what we knew was the sunshine in our lives.

::~::~::~::

Author's Note: Bloody hell that chapter took forever to write! And to be honest I'm not too sure what just happened. I'm working on understanding it, though I make no promises. Anyway one question of you guys? Where'd all my reviewers go? You all seem to have taken a holiday, WAAA! I think that is partly why it too so long, I was sad that not many people reviewed, it can really put a crimp on your day. Oh yeah, and check out one of my other stories, I'm really pleased with it. It's called 'Purveyor of Poisons,' and it's a Snape/Rosmerta fic, well will be as soon as I get round to it, but it's just a bit of a laugh, and everyone whose read it thinks Lucius is a sexy beast. Well I'm still faithful to dear old Severus, but that is my first story that consists of only cannon characters. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Anyway, gotta go and stuff.

Yours wavering between depressed (due to drop in reviews) and happy (cause she finished this chapter).

I.C. (lazy) Fire

silver_shadow54@hotmail.com