Chapter Twenty-Seven
Hey you guys... miss me? I'm sorry I stopped writing for so long without any warning, but I wrote a story that absolutely had to be done by the beginning of June. It's the end of May, so I'm right on schedule. It's more than twice the length of FDTMA and only about sixty pages shorter than LLOA... 113 pages in four or five weeks. I can't post it either, because it's all original stuff that might--might--end up being on a few local bookshelves. *shrug* If my writing style's changed at all, blame the story I've been working on. If I accidentally typed "Zac" instead of "Harry", or if I do so in the future, I apologize. :o) Save Yourself and probably Ashes to Ashes--and a few new stories soon enough--will be updated, so keep an eye out for those. I apologize for this chapter being so short, but it is a chapter, remember. :o)
Aimée
Your brother's dead… your brother's dead…
Draco's words repeated over and over again in my mind like a ruthless mantra, refusing to sink in to my impossibly clouded mind. I stared at the man standing next to my bed for what seemed like an incredibly long amount of time. He gazed back, his gray eyes filled with compassion and sympathy over my family's loss.
"Which brother?" I choked out, praying to any and all gods it wasn't one of the twins. I would never have been able to live with myself if I had something to do with the death of one of my littlest siblings. I knew what it was like to be wretched away from your second half, and the notion perhaps Castor or Pollux was now lying in a grave somewhere chilled my very soul.
"Ethan," Draco whispered, reaching out with his pale hand to take my own. "He tried to kill you—he shot the Killing Curse at you, but…" he sighed, squeezing my shaking hand gently. "It rebounded, just like it did with Voldemort."
"Rebounded?" I asked incredulously. "That isn't possible though… I thought Mum did something…?"
Draco shook his head, his—longer, I noticed—blonde hair falling into his eyes. "No one knows what happened. There's a team of mediwizards and witches working on it even as we speak, but no one's been able to come up with an explanation as of yet."
I closed my eyes, the image of Ethan's face as a child haunting my mind. His death was almost unimaginable, but I wasn't going to pretend he and I were the best of friends. We had never gotten along, and as much as it pained me to admit it—as wrong as it felt—I was possibly the one person who was as indifferent to the death of the nineteen year old as was possible, given the fact I had known the boy for his entire life.
"You were found not guilty," Draco answered my unspoken question even before I had a chance to come up with the idea that I had in fact been convicted. "I saw it happen, Harry. You didn't even have your wand out—the words were spoken by him, not you."
My mother's tearstained face replaced Ethan's, and a sudden wave of guilt washed over me despite Draco's gently reassuring words. Regardless of his actions—even though he had fully intended to kill me, and had even gone as far as to utter those two forbidden words the wizarding world had banished from society in fear of the results, I was still responsible for my brother's death. If it hadn't been for my goading, my persistent need to watch him wither in humiliation and suffering, he wouldn't have had the incentive to pull his wand on me and have his lips for the words that had become his death sentence.
"Harry…" Draco brought one pale hand up to carefully touch my cheek, where a single tear had rolled down and had finally come to rest as it hit the man's thumb. He brushed the drop of liquid away, transmitting his very thoughts and feelings into me with just that simple gesture. As abruptly as a lightning bolt, the memory of our ability arose from my subconscious and into my grieving mind, reminding me of the gift both he and I possessed.
What happened?
Draco threw a startled glance my way, almost as if he had completely forgotten about our unspeakable talent. He slowly allowed his hand to drop back down to mine, his own eyes reflecting the dim light in the room.
I ran into the room just as Ethan shot the spell at you. Everything happened so fast, I really can't say what happened, but I do know the spell somehow seemed to surround you, as if it were familiar with your very essence—as if you were a friend. It then shot back to Ethan before I had time to do anything, and then next thing I know there are two bodies lying in the middle of our living room.
There wasn't any blood, was there?
Leave it to you to find such a mundane and insignificant question at a time like this, Harry. And to answer your question, yes, but only from your forehead.
My forehead?
I lifted up my stiff left arm to touch what used to be a scarless forehead, surprised to find a rough, bumpy slash cut across my forehead slightly to the right.
Why…?
I don't know, Harry. I don't have any answers for you—no one does, not even your dad.
How is he?
Professor Snape? He's shaken up, of course, but I suspect he'll be all right. It's your mother you may have to worry about. She lost her second child, and she's become paranoid one of the others will die. It's understandable, but irrational.
Are they angry with me?
Of course not! You didn't do anything wrong—stop blaming yourself, please. There was nothing you could have done, and in all perspectives of the case, you were acting in complete self-defense. You had no control over the situation, and your parents are just relieved you're all right. I don't think they could have handled losing both you and Ethan in one night.
So they're not mad?
No, Harry. They're not mad.
I allowed myself to sigh with relief as my eyes closed once again, our hands still clasped together. A wave of darkness and regret passed through me, lulling me gently into the deep abyss of a slumber I so desperately needed.
Within the deepest reached of my soul, I prayed that perhaps I would wake up and it would all be a dream. Ethan wouldn't be dead, I would be lying in our large bed next to Draco, his light breathing all the sound I had to lull me to sleep. With a sudden flash of delirious insight, I realized my world—my whole family's world—would never be the same again.
I suppose out of all the things I heard and realized that night, it was that which scared me the most.
There's always something
In the way
There's always something
Getting through
But it's not me
It's you
Sometimes ignorance
Rings true
But hope is not in
What I know
Not in me
It's you
It's all I know
I find peace when
I'm confused
I find hope when
I'm let down
Not in me
But in you
I hope to lose myself
For good
I hope to find it in the world
Not in me
It's you
It's all I know*
*Switchfoot, You
Ariadne: Yep, Ethan's dead. Gone, deceased, outta here. Yep, that's exactly why Harry was on trial, good job. :o) He's not going to Azkaban, don't worry.
Belle: I'm sorry! I'll try to lay low with the cliffies for a while. This isn't a cliffie, is it? S'just a little blurb that'll turn into incentive. Yeah, in this story, it's more or less a Voldemort = Ethan type thing. I'm glad you liked it, thanks!
Cat Samwise: I'm sorry, is this the end of eternity? Hopefully not. Sorry I didn't post soon, I'll try to keep up in the future.
eiknlng: You won't find out what's really in store for a chapter or so... this is really just a little interlude. Sorry :o)
Fire/Dickens/Polyre: Shush, you. You know what's going to happen.
gwen: He's innocent, calm down! Well, there is always a trial to make sure it was self defense, even in our court system. He was in a coma cuz I felt like sticking him in a coma, and it does seem fitting. :o)
Gwen De'Paul.o: LOL, I'm glad you liked it! Harry and Draco may adopt, I haven't decided yet. It'd be fairly cliché though, so... I don't know. They always seem to adopt girls, don't they? Hmm. Thanks for the suggestion!
Hana: Nah, Harry's clear. *pouts* Ethan was my favorite (second--third, to the twins) character to write. Eh, well. All good things must come to an end.
Heathen Fair: Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I'm glad you liked it :o)
h-grey: Nope, he's not going to jail. Harry and Draco will be happy eventually, I think. Yep, Castor and Pollux will be in the story soon enough. If I'm reluctant to give up LLOA and FDTMA when it's all over, I'll probably write a little blurb on them.
Joycelene: Ooo, good saying. I've actually never heard that before... Eh, Cassandra gets her own. She'll have her family to help her out (seeing as how the Snape family will probably dump her... not the kid though, don't worry).
Jupi: Of course your opinion matters! Everyone's does... don't ever say that about yourself. You matter just as much as everyone else does. I'm terribly flattered you like it so much, thank you :o)
Kiwi: I'm evil? I'm sorry. Nope, Harry hasn't died yet, big plus! It gets worse, trust me.
Klee: My, aren't we feeling a bit vengeful? I'm sorry it took so long... I know I promised you another chapter something like two weeks ago. It's late, I know, but I really, really needed to finish PA. LOL, I told you about the next few years, right? *tries to remember* Hmm...
lynn: Yeah, Ethan is sort of a Voldemort... got killed cuz he tired to AK Harry here. You'd think they'd learn eventually? Voldemort was wiped out in LLOA, chapter... Fifty-one? Maybe. Something like that. *shrug*
Morien Alexander: I'm glad you liked it. :o) I'm sorry it took so long to update, hopefully it won't happen again.
ravenchel: The second time? You read through both LLOA and FDTMA twice? Wow! Thank you :o) I'm flattered to be an inspiration to you.
The Rouge Glow-worm: Megan, you're hilarious. I took your advice... took a month off, and look where that got me. Two hundred pages to print out and edit. *sigh*
yiota: I hope you weren't dying to know what happens... else I'm pretty sure you'd be dead by now. :o)
Hey you guys... miss me? I'm sorry I stopped writing for so long without any warning, but I wrote a story that absolutely had to be done by the beginning of June. It's the end of May, so I'm right on schedule. It's more than twice the length of FDTMA and only about sixty pages shorter than LLOA... 113 pages in four or five weeks. I can't post it either, because it's all original stuff that might--might--end up being on a few local bookshelves. *shrug* If my writing style's changed at all, blame the story I've been working on. If I accidentally typed "Zac" instead of "Harry", or if I do so in the future, I apologize. :o) Save Yourself and probably Ashes to Ashes--and a few new stories soon enough--will be updated, so keep an eye out for those. I apologize for this chapter being so short, but it is a chapter, remember. :o)
Aimée
Your brother's dead… your brother's dead…
Draco's words repeated over and over again in my mind like a ruthless mantra, refusing to sink in to my impossibly clouded mind. I stared at the man standing next to my bed for what seemed like an incredibly long amount of time. He gazed back, his gray eyes filled with compassion and sympathy over my family's loss.
"Which brother?" I choked out, praying to any and all gods it wasn't one of the twins. I would never have been able to live with myself if I had something to do with the death of one of my littlest siblings. I knew what it was like to be wretched away from your second half, and the notion perhaps Castor or Pollux was now lying in a grave somewhere chilled my very soul.
"Ethan," Draco whispered, reaching out with his pale hand to take my own. "He tried to kill you—he shot the Killing Curse at you, but…" he sighed, squeezing my shaking hand gently. "It rebounded, just like it did with Voldemort."
"Rebounded?" I asked incredulously. "That isn't possible though… I thought Mum did something…?"
Draco shook his head, his—longer, I noticed—blonde hair falling into his eyes. "No one knows what happened. There's a team of mediwizards and witches working on it even as we speak, but no one's been able to come up with an explanation as of yet."
I closed my eyes, the image of Ethan's face as a child haunting my mind. His death was almost unimaginable, but I wasn't going to pretend he and I were the best of friends. We had never gotten along, and as much as it pained me to admit it—as wrong as it felt—I was possibly the one person who was as indifferent to the death of the nineteen year old as was possible, given the fact I had known the boy for his entire life.
"You were found not guilty," Draco answered my unspoken question even before I had a chance to come up with the idea that I had in fact been convicted. "I saw it happen, Harry. You didn't even have your wand out—the words were spoken by him, not you."
My mother's tearstained face replaced Ethan's, and a sudden wave of guilt washed over me despite Draco's gently reassuring words. Regardless of his actions—even though he had fully intended to kill me, and had even gone as far as to utter those two forbidden words the wizarding world had banished from society in fear of the results, I was still responsible for my brother's death. If it hadn't been for my goading, my persistent need to watch him wither in humiliation and suffering, he wouldn't have had the incentive to pull his wand on me and have his lips for the words that had become his death sentence.
"Harry…" Draco brought one pale hand up to carefully touch my cheek, where a single tear had rolled down and had finally come to rest as it hit the man's thumb. He brushed the drop of liquid away, transmitting his very thoughts and feelings into me with just that simple gesture. As abruptly as a lightning bolt, the memory of our ability arose from my subconscious and into my grieving mind, reminding me of the gift both he and I possessed.
What happened?
Draco threw a startled glance my way, almost as if he had completely forgotten about our unspeakable talent. He slowly allowed his hand to drop back down to mine, his own eyes reflecting the dim light in the room.
I ran into the room just as Ethan shot the spell at you. Everything happened so fast, I really can't say what happened, but I do know the spell somehow seemed to surround you, as if it were familiar with your very essence—as if you were a friend. It then shot back to Ethan before I had time to do anything, and then next thing I know there are two bodies lying in the middle of our living room.
There wasn't any blood, was there?
Leave it to you to find such a mundane and insignificant question at a time like this, Harry. And to answer your question, yes, but only from your forehead.
My forehead?
I lifted up my stiff left arm to touch what used to be a scarless forehead, surprised to find a rough, bumpy slash cut across my forehead slightly to the right.
Why…?
I don't know, Harry. I don't have any answers for you—no one does, not even your dad.
How is he?
Professor Snape? He's shaken up, of course, but I suspect he'll be all right. It's your mother you may have to worry about. She lost her second child, and she's become paranoid one of the others will die. It's understandable, but irrational.
Are they angry with me?
Of course not! You didn't do anything wrong—stop blaming yourself, please. There was nothing you could have done, and in all perspectives of the case, you were acting in complete self-defense. You had no control over the situation, and your parents are just relieved you're all right. I don't think they could have handled losing both you and Ethan in one night.
So they're not mad?
No, Harry. They're not mad.
I allowed myself to sigh with relief as my eyes closed once again, our hands still clasped together. A wave of darkness and regret passed through me, lulling me gently into the deep abyss of a slumber I so desperately needed.
Within the deepest reached of my soul, I prayed that perhaps I would wake up and it would all be a dream. Ethan wouldn't be dead, I would be lying in our large bed next to Draco, his light breathing all the sound I had to lull me to sleep. With a sudden flash of delirious insight, I realized my world—my whole family's world—would never be the same again.
I suppose out of all the things I heard and realized that night, it was that which scared me the most.
There's always something
In the way
There's always something
Getting through
But it's not me
It's you
Sometimes ignorance
Rings true
But hope is not in
What I know
Not in me
It's you
It's all I know
I find peace when
I'm confused
I find hope when
I'm let down
Not in me
But in you
I hope to lose myself
For good
I hope to find it in the world
Not in me
It's you
It's all I know*
*Switchfoot, You
Ariadne: Yep, Ethan's dead. Gone, deceased, outta here. Yep, that's exactly why Harry was on trial, good job. :o) He's not going to Azkaban, don't worry.
Belle: I'm sorry! I'll try to lay low with the cliffies for a while. This isn't a cliffie, is it? S'just a little blurb that'll turn into incentive. Yeah, in this story, it's more or less a Voldemort = Ethan type thing. I'm glad you liked it, thanks!
Cat Samwise: I'm sorry, is this the end of eternity? Hopefully not. Sorry I didn't post soon, I'll try to keep up in the future.
eiknlng: You won't find out what's really in store for a chapter or so... this is really just a little interlude. Sorry :o)
Fire/Dickens/Polyre: Shush, you. You know what's going to happen.
gwen: He's innocent, calm down! Well, there is always a trial to make sure it was self defense, even in our court system. He was in a coma cuz I felt like sticking him in a coma, and it does seem fitting. :o)
Gwen De'Paul.o: LOL, I'm glad you liked it! Harry and Draco may adopt, I haven't decided yet. It'd be fairly cliché though, so... I don't know. They always seem to adopt girls, don't they? Hmm. Thanks for the suggestion!
Hana: Nah, Harry's clear. *pouts* Ethan was my favorite (second--third, to the twins) character to write. Eh, well. All good things must come to an end.
Heathen Fair: Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I'm glad you liked it :o)
h-grey: Nope, he's not going to jail. Harry and Draco will be happy eventually, I think. Yep, Castor and Pollux will be in the story soon enough. If I'm reluctant to give up LLOA and FDTMA when it's all over, I'll probably write a little blurb on them.
Joycelene: Ooo, good saying. I've actually never heard that before... Eh, Cassandra gets her own. She'll have her family to help her out (seeing as how the Snape family will probably dump her... not the kid though, don't worry).
Jupi: Of course your opinion matters! Everyone's does... don't ever say that about yourself. You matter just as much as everyone else does. I'm terribly flattered you like it so much, thank you :o)
Kiwi: I'm evil? I'm sorry. Nope, Harry hasn't died yet, big plus! It gets worse, trust me.
Klee: My, aren't we feeling a bit vengeful? I'm sorry it took so long... I know I promised you another chapter something like two weeks ago. It's late, I know, but I really, really needed to finish PA. LOL, I told you about the next few years, right? *tries to remember* Hmm...
lynn: Yeah, Ethan is sort of a Voldemort... got killed cuz he tired to AK Harry here. You'd think they'd learn eventually? Voldemort was wiped out in LLOA, chapter... Fifty-one? Maybe. Something like that. *shrug*
Morien Alexander: I'm glad you liked it. :o) I'm sorry it took so long to update, hopefully it won't happen again.
ravenchel: The second time? You read through both LLOA and FDTMA twice? Wow! Thank you :o) I'm flattered to be an inspiration to you.
The Rouge Glow-worm: Megan, you're hilarious. I took your advice... took a month off, and look where that got me. Two hundred pages to print out and edit. *sigh*
yiota: I hope you weren't dying to know what happens... else I'm pretty sure you'd be dead by now. :o)