Author: C. Night

Rating: PG-13

Category: Action/Adventure & Mystery

Disclaimer: Anything that you, Harry Potter fan that you are, recognize does not belong to me nor do I claim credit for it. J.K. Rowling and a bunch of other lucky people claim credit for the H.P. universe. I (sadly) do NOT.

A/N: In celebration of the end of midterms (for me anyway) - a new chapter. And it's pretty long too! Enjoy & Review!

Title: Getting Out or Dying Trying

Chapter 6: Crimson Tears

Silence.

That was all I could hear.

If I wasn't so angry I'd probably be crying.

How could I have been so stupid? Andrew is gone. I am blind, wandless (AGAIN!), and I have attained just about every injury imaginable. I feel like shit and I want... no I need to go home.

I rub at my eyes in some kind of futile attempt to rub my sight back and I curse when I tiny shard of glass from my hand scratches my eyelid.

A drop of blood forms and I can feel it slowly slipping down my shut eye. I wait and then feel it sliding down my cheek.

I imagine that it looks like I am crying blood.

The small droplet seems to have run itself out and stops midway down my cheek. I get a vivid mental image of myself, bruised and battered, sitting on the floor in a pile of glass shards and crying tears of blood.

The image disturbs me and for a split second I am glad of my blindness.

For without sight I cannot see the shell of my former self I have become through this episode.

Still, I feel the urge to stand, as if to prove to anyone watching or maybe just to myself that this wasn't over yet. My vision had to return soon and I would be back with vengeance... I hope.

I stand and my fingers grip the wall. I believe that when one looses one sense it is commonly known that all the other are somewhat heightened.

Well apparently Harry Potter has something else which is different about him. MY senses seemed to be extraordinarily heightened. I could feel each crack and crevice in the wall before me and it was almost as if I could sense it.

Even without my eye sight I could practically see the wall before me. I could smell my blood on my cheek and I could taste the saliva in my mouth. Everything was suddenly finely tuned.

I could feel the world, hear the world, smell the world and taste the world better than I ever could before. I felt flushed.

I felt high.

Now I have never been high in my life. I've never had the means or the particular desire but from what I had heard Dudley and his friends talking about I was just about as high as you could get.

I felt elated and unafraid. I felt invincible.

I felt like Harry Potter, the boy who lived through the killing Curse, should feel- like I could take on the world.

I put both of my hands on the wall and inhaled deeply. It was overwhelming me, swallowing me whole. I was drowning and screaming and crying and laughing... I was...

...enlightened.

The entire castle layout had been thrust upon my mind. I couldn't see it, but I could feel it. It felt like I had just absorbed the blueprint of the castle.

I laughed aloud and spun in a circle.

Not the best thing to do when you are blind and on some kind of overload from the layout of a magical castle.

I collapsed. I fell unconscious.

I cursed my foolishness.

When I woke up from my little "nap" I had no idea of the time and Estine was slithering up my arm.

I stared at him for a moment. Admiring his beautiful scales and then took note of the fact that my eyesight had returned.

"Master up! Master up! Master up!" the snake hissed in a monotone voice.

I stared at the creature with my brow furrowed.

"What's up with you?" I hissed.

Estine seemed to be shocked at my response. Apparently the little snake had not known I was awake. I wondered just how long he had sat there chanting that little mantra.

"MASTER UP!" the snake hissed loudly, straightening himself to peer into my eyes.

"Yes, I gathered that," I responded bitingly.

Estine continued to hiss something, but once again I was tuning him out. I was focusing. Apparently my little jaunt in the world of "being high off of your 4 senses" had still left me with the knowledge of the castle.

And...

I knew where an exit was!

I snatched Estine up mid sentence (something about him hunting for rats for me to eat... disgusting! Although there is one rat that I'd love for him to catch.) and sprinted down the hallways.

I went faster and faster pressing my muscles to their limits. Right...

Left... through the door...

Down the hall....

Down the stairs...

Right...

And... OUT!

I pushed the door open with a gigantic heave and it slammed against the outside wall. The seemingly metal structure emitted a loud 'gong' and Estine hissed in annoyance at the reverberation.

I however was not concerned with that. I was relishing the sight before my eyes.

I was outside.

The fresh, crisp air burning in my lungs. It appeared to be either late afternoon or early evening I couldn't really tell however as the skies were clouded with puffy gray masses.

"Looks like snow," I whispered to Estine. I am not really sure why I whispered, but it was one of those moments in life when you just whisper.

As if you've entered a church or a classroom filled with students. It is not exactly necessary to whisper, but you do anyway.

I was cherishing the moment. 'The moment,' I said to myself, 'that I finally escaped this nightmare.'

I took a step outside and the graying grass crunched under my trainers. Estine retreated to the inside of my sleeve, curled tightly against my arm attempting, desperately to avoid the bitter edge of the cold.

I, however, did not mind. It felt as though I had been suffocating in that castle, overheating, stuck in the sauna from hell with no way out. And now, I was free, breathing the cool air I wanted to scream out my joy for everyone to here.

But I didn't- too risky. The blue robed phantoms (as I began to refer to them) could be anywhere and I'd rather not push my luck.

As if suddenly remembering that it was there I ran one of my hands over my broken jaw as I walked toward the large forest to my right. My palm ran over the stubble developing on my jaw line and cheek and I sighed, "Can't go 24 hours without shaving," I said aloud.

I nearly laughed at the thought; I think the least of my problems right now should be where to get a razor (or a wand to do it the magical way).

I sighed as I thought about just how much I had grown up since last year. Once the midget of my year, I'd say I've done pretty well.

Alright well I am still one of the shortest boys in my year... ok I am still the shortest but it isn't my fault! 5 foot 6 inches is pretty good. At least I am now two decent inches taller than Hermione and about half of the other girls in my year.

And I have matured in other ways. The shaving thing was definitely a surprise. A bit of fuzz developed on my cheek and chin over the summer I spent training (at an undisclosed location... which cannot even be revealed to my subconscious) but when Remus finally asked me if I needed to borrow a razor I was a bit shocked to say the least.

I find that while I don't mind letting a five o'clock shadow show on my face every now and then (when I am too lazy to shave it) growing a beard or a moustache seems WAY too old... and way too Dumbledore.

I also filled out a bit. Thank goodness. Spending a summer with food available to me whenever I wanted it... amazing what it does for a person.

You may wonder why I didn't develop during the school year when I get food regularly every day. I would think that would be because of stress.

Though I love Hogwarts it is insanely stressful and although my summer was a bit stressed it was nothing compared to dealing with Triwizard tournaments, Dementors, and insane High Inquisitors.

So Harry Potter finally filled out... and got a bloody good haircut. For the first time in my life I actually got a haircut which I like. Of course my hair is still insanely messy but it is shorter. Easier to deal with and if I use enough gel Remus and I discovered that I can actually get it to look somewhat styled.

Not that I ever waste my time doing that every day. Who do I look like, Draco Malfoy?

I was a bit self conscious about my scar being a bit more easily seen as my hair (which used to be able to obscure the entire lightning bolt if pressed flat) can now cover only about half of it.

Training also got me a decent set of lean muscles. 'Not that they are very happy with me at the moment,' I thought as my legs continued to scream out in pain at my previous sprint through the castle.

All in all I now look like a 16 year old.

Shocking isn't it?

Remus also insisted that I buy myself some half decent clothes while we were out getting school supplies so I guess I look normal now.

The female reaction seemed to me to be non existent, but Hermione seems to think its not. Every now and then she will say that according to Lavender and Parvati I look "dark and mysterious" when I don't shave in the morning.

I am not sure if that is true or if she is just looking for an incentive for me to shave- as she hates it when I don't.

Either way it worked. The last thing I need is Lavender hanging on my arm clamoring on about my new "look".

For her own safety I think that she'd better steer clear of Blaise while discussing my new sense of style.

That could get ugly.

My new clothes seemed to have struck a cord with Ron, but he has been a better sport about it recently as it has been about 4 months since school started now.

I jolt back to reality when I realize that I have been absentmindedly rubbing my broken jaw which now hurts like hell.

I replaced my hand in my pocket and sighed when I reached the very edge of the forest.

'I guess it's now or never,' I thought. 'But then why am I so terrified?'

"Ah! Yes the no wand thing could be an issue!" I say aloud. "How the hell am I getting through the Forbidden Forest with no wand?"

"Luck Master. Luck," I hear Estine respond to my question from my sleeve.

I smirk; yes I guess its time for Harry Potter to get lucky. And fast.

I approached the forest and paused. "Urg... I wish I had a wand," I muttered. Estine poked my lightly on the arm with his head in annoyance.

"Alright, alright, I'm GOING!" I whined as I walked straight into the forest.

It seemed to not be as bad as I had thought.

I found somewhat of a trail and Estine continued to hiss at me if I ever strayed from my perfectly eastward destination.

Apparently snakes had a terrific sense of direction.

Right foot, left foot,

Right foot left foot,

HISS! Turn slightly left, right foot, left foot...

The forest was getting darker and I was beginning to get nervous.

The cold air was nipping at my nose and it seemed that my fingertips had no feeling in them whatsoever.

I stumbled on a jagged rock and fell to the hard, cold ground.

I cursed as I felt Estine slithering underneath my right arm. The poor snake probably got hurt worse than I did.

I quickly jumped up and examined his body.

"Estine is alright Master," the snake said solemnly. His tone shocked me as I had never heard the jolly snake sound anything less than... well jolly.

"If you're sure," I said to my companion.

"Continue on Master, continue," he responded.

So I did.

The forest was getting colder and darker and although I had not been approached by anything yet the noises around me were getting louder, and more and more foreboding.

There were many creatures in this forest, of this I was sure, but it seemed to me that they were warning me. Urging me to get out now while I still could and they would not harm me. Unfortunately I could not comply with the request.

It must have been at least an hour later when it began to snow.

The flakes coated my cloak and gave my hair a fine misting of what looked like powdered sugar.

'So it looks like we get a white Christmas after all,' I thought. 'But WHY couldn't it wait until I wasn't freezing to death in the Forbidden Forest?'

"Well, Estine now seems to be the ideal time for me to get lucky. How do you suggest I go about doing that?"

But for the first time, Estine seems to be annoyed with me for speaking, "Master must hush! Master quiet, must quiet!"

I obediently ceased talking and continued to march on, being much more alert now that it seemed that something had Estine on edge.

Silence.

"He comes! HE COMES!" Estine hissed loudly breaking the eerie silence that had descended upon us for about a half hour.

"What? Who?" I said urgently to the snake. "Who is coming? What's wrong?"

"Master must run, master must hide!"

Not questioning the snake I tightened my grip on him and turned to find a hiding place, but my plan was cut short.

"No!" Estine hissed once more, "Master must leave Estine. Master must go alone so he will not find him. Master go, GO!"

"What?" I hissed back confused, "I am not leaving you out here alone!! We're either both going or no one is!"

Estine looked at me in panic, "Master knows not of Neolik! Master Neolik evil! Neolik will hurt good kind master of Estine! Master Neolik will crush master... pound! Crush!"

Estine then proceeded to describe (with sound effects) just what this Neolik fellow had done to his last master.

To say I was revolted would be an understatement.

As Estine made yet another crunching sound... I revise that statement. A massive understatement.

"Well," I interrupted the storytelling snake, "Let's get out of here!"

I turned to run with Estine, but was surprised to find that he had slid from my wrist and hit the floor. The snake was obviously trying to separate and spare "his good kind Master" from the wrath of the terrible Neolik.

'Well screw that!' I thought. 'Let's leave the hero complexes to me thank you very much!'

I dove down across the snow powdered ground and snatched the snake up before he could get away from me.

"NO! Estine we are going to face this Neolik. And we are going to do it together!" I yelled at the struggling snake.

"Well," a silk hiss broke into the conversation, "It appears that little Estine has found himself another master. And look who it is- Harry Potter. What an honor."

I looked up sharply from my position on the floor and found myself staring straight into the red eyes of a vile, huge and most definitely poisonous snake.

I screamed. You would have too. And I, startled, quickly snatched up Estine, and backed away from the 6 foot long, at least half a foot wide being.

The disgusting snake hissed at me in what I distinctly recognized as a laugh, "This is the brave and mighty Harry Potter who has escaped the master of my young sister so many times before?"

I paused in shock, 'The master of his sister?? What the hell?' And then I figured it out.

There was only one person who I had escaped on many an occasion- Voldemort. And Voldemort, though master to many people, was only the master of one snake- Nagini.

Looking back at the so called Neolik I could see the resemblance and where else would Tom Riddle, a Hogwarts graduate get a snake to be his servant but the Forbidden Forest.

"And this is the mighty Neolik? I must say that I am disappointed. Estine described you as such a great creature. Not some vile scum unworthy of gracing the bottom of my shoes," I responded in a mocking hiss.

Estine looked just about really to strike me if it would get me to shut my mouth.

I was not concerned; I was discreetly trying to slip away. Though stepping slowly backwards was pretty pointless when Neolik kept drawing ever closer.

Then I made my big mistake.

I turned my head slowly and tried to see if there was anything behind myself and Estine. The plan was that if there was nothing obstructing our path I could turn and try to sprint away from the snake.

After all what was the point of ever trying to fight this snake with no wand?

But when I turned my head slightly to the side Neolik struck like lightning and I felt two fangs sink into my neck.

The position of the strike was eerily similar to the exact spot where Estine had thrust his fangs in the blue clad woman's neck hours ago.

I started vaguely at the thought that that event was a few mere hours ago.

It felt like a lifetime.

My hand somehow found its way to my neck and it was immediately coated with my red coppery blood. The liquid seeped on to my fingertips covering my entire hand in moments like a sleek fitting glove.

'Those fangs must be huge,' I thought dimly as my blood continued to pour out of my neck.

Estine was hissing up a storm and I almost fainted when the snake sprang from my arm and sunk his little fangs into the much larger snake's body.

Neolik seemed to scream out (or at least hiss in a way very similar to a scream) and thrashed about until my precious little Estine was flung from his body.

The little snake hit a nearby tree with a sickening smack and when he hit the floor he was not moving.

I screamed out louder and more viciously than I have since Sirius's death.

"No, no, no," I muttered under my breath, "he's not dead. No he's not."

"Oh Harry Potter look what you've done," Neolik hissed at me and before the snake could even hiss out another word I was advancing on him.

I had never felt angrier in my life and as blood seeped from the gashes in my neck I understood something with more clarity than I ever had in my life.

Neolik must die.

My right fist clenched and my nails bit into the flesh of my palms. I had no weapon. I was going to rip this snake apart with my bare hands.

I ran faster than I ever had in my life and tackled the huge snake down to the ground.

It thrashed under me and I could feel it beginning to twist itself around my legs. Neolik, it seemed was going to try to strangle me.

"You wish," I muttered aloud with a slightly crazed tone to my voice.

But I realized with a start that the snake was much stronger than me and that if I didn't do something I was going to to end up just as Estine had described his last master... dead, dead, dead, crush, pound, splat.

The thought of Estine made me pause. Neolik seemed to take my halt in motion as a sign of my surrender as he seemed to be now taking his time to wrap me up in himself.

Previously he had been going faster as I had been struggling. I had just bought myself a few more seconds.

I tried to think of what I did the last time I was faced with a huge snake after me, but unfortunately it id not look like the Sword of Gryffindor would be coming to aid me this time.

But WAIT! Dumbledore said it only would have come to me if I was a true Gryffindor.

There has to be someway I could get it now. Even without Fawkes or the Sorting Hat.

I just had to think. Alas that was becoming difficult as my air supply was getting limited. I wrenched my arm up and out of the tight hold Neolik had it in and inhaled deeply before the extra space I had created by removing my arm was gone.

Neolik tightened around me once more.

But both my arms were still free.

I focused on my reasons for wanting the sword- to avenge my wonderful snake.

I focused on the cruel deed done to my lovely Estine.

I focused on my impending doom. Oops not a good idea to think about that... er-

I focused on everything Estine had done for me...

I felt something in my right hand. It was cold and sleek and had a few round lumps coming out of it.

I was too afraid to open my eyes and look. I wanted to pray that it really was it. I wanted to...

Neolik tightened around me once more and I decided, 'Bugger this I'm looking!'

I opened my eyes and there it was... The Sword of Gryffindor in all its glory. The egg sized rubies were glistening in the hilt just as I remembered them. The name of Godric Gryffindor was engraved on it I was sure, but I didn't have the time to look.

I used what little room I had left to maneuver and thrust the sword deep into the treacherous snake wrapped around me.

Neolik hissed out in agony and I yanked the sword out and thrust it in again.

I was caught up in some kind of rage and I plunged the sword in and out and in and out making dozens of huge gashed in the snake which of unfurling around me in its agony.

All my suppressed anger, fear and fatigue were taken out on this snake. I almost cut my leg with the sword as I dealt yet another blow. And then I stopped.

Neolik was dead.

Of this I was sure, but Estine. Was he dead?

"Please, no," I whispered heatedly, "Please please, please no! I said nothing would happen! I promised! I promised!"

I fell to the floor near Neolik's corpse and my vision was getting blurry. I distractedly remembered that I was still loosing dangerous amounts of blood from the gashes in my neck.

It seemed that Neolik wasn't poisonous or, er- something because I wasn't dead or feeling too uncomfortable.

Except from the blood loss and lightheadedness... and that sick feeling in my stomach...

...ok maybe he was poisonous.

I slowly crawled over to the tree which Estine had hit on his way to the ground. To tired to stand I clutched the Sword in my hand and crawled across the snow.

I heard a slight rustling in the trees behind me and when I slowly turned back to look all I saw was a trail of blood in the once pristine white snow.

I indistinctly wondered where all that blood was coming from.

Finally I got over to Estine's body and gently hissed to the immobile snake, "Estine get up. Master's here now. Up Estine! We've got to go now."

There was no response.

I picked the snake up with my blood soaked hands and turned him over. His light green eyes were still open but had lost all of the life once in them.

Estine was dead.

I had broken a promise. The first broken promise of my life.

Estine was dead.

I cried...finally.

As the tears rolled down my face I wondered if I was crying blood.

'It seems that blood is coming out of every other part of my body,' I thought, 'why wouldn't it come from my eyes too?'

I was saved from contemplating my crimson tears when the world went blissfully black around me.

Silence.

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Author (C. Night) Notes: Not my longest chapter. But definitely one of my best. We shall miss you beloved snake. But alas he had to go. Go ahead and voice your protest if you are angry (by reviewing lol), but it had to happen. I even mentioned Neolik in the very first chapter. It was coming the whole time. Poor snake, but Harry's got finish this alone. We're getting toward the end folks another 3 or 4 chapters left. Maybe five, but that's a stretch.

Now to the wonderful people reviewed the last chapter...::sniff::... shorter list this time:

NightSerpent (NS): Yes well if you thought I was a mean evil writer then, I am sure you hate me now. Hehehe... this is fun! Keep reading and thanks for reviewing!

SilverDragonHawk: Adrianna and Andrew... poor little kids. More to come with them. I am glad you like Andrew he's the good twin... but what does that make Adrianna?? Hum... Keep reading and thanks for reviewing!

Wandering wolf: I wouldn't say I'm sadistic... ok yes I would. But it's just so much fun this way! Keep reading and thanks for reviewing!

Sea Turtles: The Andrew thing is a bit odd. I actually know no one with the name... part of why I chose it. If I write about characters with the same names as someone I know I tend to want to write them like the actual person. But anyway Andrew is a very nice little boy in my story so I'm sure the ones you know are very nice too. Keep reading and thanks for reviewing!

Until next time... review!

* I'm telling you it isn't as bad as you think. You don't even have to be a member of the site. Press the Purple-ish button that says "Go" make up an interesting alias for yourself and tell me what you think. No big deal... and it makes me very happy! And who doesn't want that?? *

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