Disclaimer: We are the Harry Potter fic called "Not Myself". Resistance as you know it is over. We will add your reviews and flames to the bucket in the corner.  You will be sucked in. Resistance is futile.

Disclaimer for Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.  Nor the Borg.  Other people own them.

A/N: ^_^  Like the new disclaimer?

Not Myself by Saerry Snape

Chapter 138 – Halloween and a Development

Months passed and then Halloween came.  A costume ball was announced two weeks before the 31st arrived and the entire school was immediately up in arms to get a costume done.

Harry was surprised by Niamh when he went to visit her a week before the ball.

"Yer getting' to go?"

"Yep!" said Niamh proudly.  "Professor Dumbledore managed to get Madam Pomfrey to allow me to go.  Then I've got to come right back here."

"Tha's great," said Harry.  "How are ye goin' to…"  His voice fell off and he flicked his fingers at the rune-encrusted gauntlet.  As he did there was a surge of dark energy from it and he took a precautionary step back.

Niamh frowned and moved the gauntlet so it was hidden behind her.  She then replied, "Comic book character from a comic called Witchblade.  What about you?"

Harry smirked at her, emerald eyes dancing.

"Yell see."

Niamh scowled and waggled a finger at him.

"Braggart."

* * * *

Niamh arrived in the Great Hall wearing a leather jacket, blue jeans, and a plain white t-shirt.  A pair of sunglasses were tucked into her hair, causing it to spike even more wildly than normal.  She crossed over to where she saw Mika's shock of white hair and tapped his shoulder.

He whirled and when he saw her, exclaimed, "Niamh!  But…I thought…"

"The warden let me out for the night," said Niamh with a grin.  "With a little persuasion."

"That's great!  What about…"  He nodded at the gauntlet.

Niamh lifted it, flexing its clawed fingers.  One of the rune's glinted and she sighed.

"Harry told you?"

"He said it was killing you."

"Yeah…  But I'm not dead yet and I don't intend to die anytime soon," said Niamh.  She looked around and added, "Where is everyone?"

"Well," replied Mika, "Gin and Amanda are still downstairs figuring out their costumes and I haven't seen anyone else yet."

"What about Harry?"

"He vanished last night.  Haven't seen him all day."

Niamh's eyebrows arched up into her hair.

"What's he planning?"

Mika shrugged and replied, "He never told anyone.  None of us know – not even Jardin."

"Great.  Holy smokes, are those…the twins?"

Mika and Niamh stared as Fred and George sauntered in.  They were both wearing red jumpsuits with the first letter of their names on them and their hair, instead of being bright red, was electric blue.

"Its Thing One and Two," snorted Niamh as she laughed.

"Who?" asked Neville, who'd come up behind them.

"Muggle children's story," explained Niamh.  "Written by Dr. Suess.  He wrote one story where there were two tricksters simply called Thing One and Thing Two."

Mika laughed and said, "We have Thing Gred and Thing Forge!"

"Right you are, Mister Davids!" piped George.

"Yes," echoed Fred, "give the boy a Kewpie!"

"What are you two doing here?" asked Niamh in amusement.  "Didn't you graduate last year or was that another set of twins?"

"We did…"

"…but word has it that Harry's planning something…"

"…and we want to know what."

"Ever curious we are, you know."

"And always looking for new things."

"Your both nuts," said Mika.  "And do the teachers know?"

Fred and George just grinned and Niamh groaned.

"You both really are nuts."

"Thank you, thank you," said the twins, bowing several times.

Niamh shook her head then smiled as Ginny, Amanda, and Hermione joined them.  Ginny was dressed as Rowena Ravenclaw to contrast Mika's Salazar Slytherin while Amanda's sorceress matched Neville's sorcerer.  Hermione was dressed simply as a medieval noblewoman.

"Where's Harry?" asked the bushy-haired girl.  "And nice to see you out and about Niamh."

"Thanks.  I think Harry's being cryptic again.  Mik said Jar doesn't even know what he's planning."

"Yep," agreed Ginny.  "He's being cryptic again."

"Na really," said a voice from behind Mika suddenly.  "Jus' avoiding tha subject."

"Harry!" exclaimed Niamh, staring at him.  His dark hair, which had grown out only another inch since the beginning of the year, was wild and cascaded down past his shoulders to his waist.  A torn shirt with patches sewn roughly onto it hung limply from his lean shoulders, a pair of tattered blue jeans showing underneath it.  His feet were bare and one could see that they were just as scarred as the rest of him.

Hermione blinked and gasped, "You…you…"

"You look like a street rat," finished Mika, arching a pale eyebrow at the tall boy behind him.

Harry laughed and said, "Ah am a street rat, Mik.  'Ow ye doing, Ni?"

Niamh smiled and shrugged before replying, "Fine."

Harry nodded and didn't push the subject even though he wanted too.  Niamh could see the worry in his eyes and she gave him a brighter smile.

This wasn't a night to worry about things.

* * * *

"Whatta party…" breathed Niamh as Mika, Harry, Ginny, and Hermione walked her back to the hospital wing.  "I'll remember that for a while."

"Especially the twins dancing," commented Mika.

Ginny moaned, "I'm so glad my mother didn't see that…"

Harry laughed then frowned at Niamh as she lifted her left hand to her forehead.

"Ni?  Ye alrigh'?"

She smiled at him and replied, "Fine, Harry.  Nothing wrong with me."

With a bright grin, she strode forward a few steps – then staggered.  Harry lunged forward but Mika intercepted him and shoved him back.  The green eyes flashed black then returned to green as the logical part of his brain figured out that Mika had been protecting him from the Gauntlet.

"Let's get her back," said Mika.  "Mione, how about a spell?"

Hermione stepped forward and flicked her wand at Niamh, who floated up into the air and out of Mika's grip.  She had fallen unconscious and her head lolled back so her eyes (which were still open) stared straight at Harry.  He turned away with a shudder.

Ginny frowned after the two then gently touched Harry's arm.  He jerked and stared down at her.

"Harry…" she began.

"I know whot I 'ave ter do," said Harry stonily.

Ginny blinked.

"What?  What are you talking about?"

"I know whot I 'ave ter do ter save Ni," replied Harry.

Ginny's eyes widened as she realized what he was talking about and her grip on his arm tightened as she exclaimed, "Harry, you can't!"

The emerald orbs underneath the mane of wild, dark hair flashed black again and Harry jerked his arm out of her grasp.  He leaned forward with his teeth bared and spat, "Try an' stop me."

With that he turned and sprinted down the corridor towards the hospital wing.  Ginny shouted after him then followed, hoping that she could catch him before he did something foolish.

* * * *

Harry rushed into the hospital wing just as Mika and Hermione were coming out.  He ignored the questions they threw at him and hurried back to the room where Niamh was lodged.  Madam Pomfrey wasn't there so the dark-haired girl was lying limply on her bed.

Slowly, he moved towards the bed, his stomach wrenching as the dark magic in the gauntlet swirled to life.  It cast out tendrils to feel at him, making him want to throw up the food he'd eaten earlier.

Swallowing hard, Harry looked at Niamh's face.  He brushed a lock of dark hair away from her closed eyes and whispered, "I'm not goin' ter let ye die."

Taking a deep breath, he slammed his mental walls up and heard a dim shout from Jardin in his head.

Then his hands touched the cold metal of the gauntlet and…

Pain.

Agony.

Then sweet, blissful darkness.

Harry let the darkness take him as he sank to the floor beside Niamh's bed, his right arm curled against his chest.  With a moan, he fell onto his side with a dull thump that brought Hermione and Mika running.

They arrived in time to see him roll onto his back, his green eyes clouded and unfocused.

The Gauntlet of Aerilsed, its runes pulsing with dark energy, smashed against the ground as Harry's right arm fell from where it had been curled.

"No," gasped Hermione, her hands over her mouth.

Abruptly Niamh stirred.  Her eyes opened and she blinked, lifting her head.  She grabbed her right arm suddenly then looked down at the floor.

Blue eyes widened in fright and Niamh fell off the bed in her rush to get to Harry.  She collapsed in a boneless heap beside him before she flung herself onto his chest, shrieking unintelligibly.  Mika hugged the newly arrived Ginny close and wrapped an arm about a shaking Hermione as they watched.

There was nothing else they could do.

Harry had changed Niamh's vision of the future the only way he knew how.

By taking the Gauntlet of Aerilsed from her.

A/N: This'll be the last update for three days, folks.  I'm off with my friend Sarah and her mom tomorrow afternoon to Memphis, TN, for the Midsouth/Deepsouth Con.  Be back sometime on Sunday and then there probably won't be work for a few more days as I've got band contest that Monday and probably won't be back till late.  So we're looking at the next update on any of my stories to be a good couple of days away.

See you lot when I get back!  =D