Cadmus reluctantly strode up to the gates of Hogwarts, not sure how he would be received. One did not just order Kalliope to do anything, but then again no one dared disobey the orders of the high priestess either. He found himself wedged tightly between the proverbial rock and a hard place.
He looked up at the night sky as he waited at the gate for someone to let him in. The same stars that he used to guide his way at night in Greece shown above him here. He hoped that it was a good omen.
Perhaps if he explained to Kalliope how much she was needed at the temple she would listen to reason. There had been a number of signs from the goddess lately, none of them good, which had the tribes worried. When they turned to the temple for help they found a lack of answers to their questions. Some even claimed that the goddess had deserted them. But Cadmus thought otherwise, he believed that all they needed now was a change of leadership, but that would follow the monumental task of convincing Kalliope to return with him.
"Cadmus, what are you doing here?"
The warrior looked up in surprise to see that Kalliope herself had come to greet him, "looking for an audience with you priestess."
"At this hour of the night?"
"The matter is a serious one, and requires your immediate attention."
Kalliope frowned, "and is this another scheme of Rheia's?"
Charlie's mouth fell open in surprise as the blanket hit him in the face, and barely had the presence of mind to catch it before it fell to the ground. He didn't even know what to say.
Yes, Meg had been a bit emotional the last couple of weeks, but they had all been under a lot of stress. He had left her sound asleep when he went on patrol duty earlier that night, and that was how he had expected to find her when he returned. He had not expected to come back this late, or early depending on how you looked at it, to an enraged wife who was kicking him out of their bedroom.
"What happened?" he finally managed to ask.
"You are what happened," Meg hissed at him, keeping her voice low so as not to wake the children.'
"I don't understand," Charlie was now thoroughly confused.
"I'm pregnant."
Charlie's face broke into a large grin, until he saw the look on his wife's face, "isn't that a good thing?"
"No it is not!" Meg was livid, "Alan isn't even a year old yet, I was not expecting to do this again so soon, and Voldemort is back! We're in a war. This is no time to be having a baby."
"Alright..." Charlie tried to proceed with caution, not wanting to upset his wife further, "I understand it may not be the most ideal situation, but we were planning on another child eventually."
"Yes, eventually, not now!" Meg was no longer watching the level of her voice. "This is not what I need right now. I'm supposed to be setting protection charms on the school, I can't perform all of them when I'm pregnant."
"Meg, darling, everything will be alright. It doesn't matter that this is not the most opportune time to increase our family, I know you still want this child."
Meg was not at all cajoled. Deciding that she wasn't going to waste anymore words on her husband she slammed the bedroom door in his face, leaving Charlie to make himself comfortable on the couch for the rest of the night.
Zach came back through the mirror and into his grandfather's sanctuary.
"Where is the girl?" Eric immediately asked.
"It was too dangerous to bring her back, she insisted that I leave her," he pulled his grandfather aside and quietly told him of the plans for the attack on the school, making sure that the girls could not hear.
Eric nodded gravely, "do what you must."
"I'm going to borrow a couple of things from your lab and then head back to the school to warn them, make sure the girls get back."
"Do you think they would be safer here?" Eric asked quietly.
Zach paused in the doorway for a moment, before finally responding, "no, I think not. We may need your help at the school and you can't leave them here alone, bring them back with you."
Eric gave a curt node of approval; he would guard Severus' children with his life. It was the least he could do. His eyes briefly met Nimue's. That girl was so quiet, he didn't doubt that she knew much more about what was going on than others gave her credit for. And with the way she was looking at him he had a feeling she knew the school was in danger. Dierna, on the other hand, seemed so wrapped up in the mirror before her that he doubted she even remembered there were other people in the room.
Dierna stared in wonder at the image in the mirror. Just a short time ago she had thought that she would never see Stefan again. And now there he was.
He looked horrible. He hadn't shaved in weeks, his clothes were dirty and tattered, he was thin. But he was there, and he was clearly alive.
She tentatively brought her fingers up to touch the glass, but drew them back again before they made contact. She wasn't quite sure what she wanted to do now. She was glowing from the fact that she new Stefan was alive.
"There now girl, you have your proof," Eric said kindly, "now you best be on your way back to the school."
"Aren't we going to do something?" Dierna asked, turning reluctantly from the image of Stefan, "we should go after him, we can bring him back."
"Too dangerous," Eric said, his raspy voice as gentle as he could make it, "I will make sure that the Order knows exactly where he is, and that their next order of business will be to retrieve him. You must wait just a little bit longer, but he'll hold you in his arms again, wait and see."
"But I don't want to wait."
"Ah... the impatience of youth. Don't worry child, it won't be a long wait. Now then, I have a couple of books to return to your father, as soon as I get them from the lab I'm sending both of you girls back to the school, you'll be safe there."
"You had better have a damn good excuse for pulling me out of bed Potter," Severus growled.
Harry shrugged as he paced the confines of the Order headquarters, deep in the dungeons, "I'm actually hoping that there won't be any reason at all. I've just got this feeling..."
"I sincerely hope you didn't drag me down here to examine some nonsensical mess that you may have gotten yourself into."
"Its more than that," Harry ceased his pacing long enough stare moodily at a tapestry hanging on the wall.
"Then why don't you just tell us what it is so we can go back to bed," Severus hissed.
Sirius tried a less angry approach, "we're all worried Harry, and I know you've felt particularly useless recently, so anything you can tell us will help."
Harry continued to stare at the tapestry without really seeing it, "for so long I was connected to Voldemort, I could feel his emotions. It was almost as though they became a part of me I lived with them for so long. When we thought we defeated him," he paused bitterly here, part of him blaming himself for not making sure Voldemort had been completely annihilated, "when he was administered the dementor's kiss all emotions were gone, my contact with him was severed.
"They've slowly been coming back now that he is back. I woke up tonight because of them, he's planning something. I don't know what, but he seems very happy about it. And when he's happy that usually is not good for us."
Sirius sat down at the one table in the room, "then we have to figure out what he's happy about and plan to stop it."
"It's not that easy Black," Severus said sharply.
"And I suppose you're the one who can figure out exactly how to stop him, never mind that the rest of us are willing to help, is that it? You're just tired of Harry always being the hero..."
"I'm thinking realistically, I know much better than you how Voldemort does things."
"Ah yes, tell us Snape, how exactly does one who bears the dark mark think?"
Severus clinched his hand in a fist in a monumental effort not to reach for his wand and hex Sirius into oblivion, "I stand to lose more than you could ever imagine Black, should Voldemort play his hand as he chooses, do not cross me in this."
Sirius barred his teeth with animal like ferocity, "what, afraid that some of your friends from the past may not be so amiable towards you now?"
"Would you two stop it? One would think that you hadn't managed to put your differences aside for the past decade and a half the way you're acting now," Harry resumed his own seat, "we're all members of the Order and we need to work together if we're going to defeat Voldemort once and for all."
Severus felt the rage building within him, he did not appreciate being told what to do by the Boy-Who-Just-Refused-to-Die. "As I was trying to say before your dolt of a god-father insisted on offering his unwanted opinion, Voldemort likes nothing better than a good façade. If he is aware that your link with him has been fully reestablished he will take to projecting false emotions just to throw us off."
"So, for now we trust nothing," Harry said quietly.
"Exactly, and trust no one. Circe only knows where the dark lord has planted spies."
"So, we can assume that the school is no longer safe?" Sirius asked.
"We can assume that no one and no place is safe."
Dierna listened to the uneven tread of Eric's footsteps as he headed back towards his lab. Her mind was racing. It was now or never. She had to do something.
Hoping that her sister didn't know what was going through her mind she once again brought her hand up to the glass. It wavered a bit when her fingertips made contact with it, sending ripples over a liquid like surface. She wondered what it felt like...
Taking a deep breath she quickly stepped through the mirror before she could change her mind or Eric came back to stop her.
It was the most unusual feeling she had ever experienced. Traveling like this was not like anything she had ever dreamed of. It was like she was caught in a kaleidoscope, there was color and light all around her, but everything kept spinning wildly. All of a sudden it stopped and she fell out of the mirror on the other side.
She gingerly rubbed her knees as she stood up. Apparently some things didn't change no matter your method of travel. Be it floo, portkey, or mirror, unless you were expecting the stop there was a tendency to fall flat on one's face. But she quickly pushed that to the back of her mind as crossed the grimy floor.
Not giving her sore knees another thought she knelt on the hard floor next to Stefan. She very tentatively reached out a hand to touch his shoulder, needing the confirmation of actually feeling his flesh for it all to seem real. She knew a moment of pure joy when his eyes opened and she saw the spark of love in them when he saw her.
She was about to pull him up so that they could go back when there was the sound of shattering glass. Instinctively she brought her arms up over her head to protect her face, as Stefan rolled over to avoid the shrapnel.
As the last shards fell around her and Dierna cautiously opened her eyes she thought she would be physically ill. The pieces of glass lying around her were the mirror. The last thing she remembered was a strong pair of hands picking her up, as another pair held something over her face.
Nimue's shriek rang through the mirrored room, causing Zach and Eric to come running. Trying to remain calm she desperately gestured to the now dark mirror in front of her, "she went through to get Stefan, I would have stopped her, but I didn't know she was going to actually do it... and then someone broke the mirror on the other side."
Eric swore loudly and quickly pressed his hand against the silver tree, "Hogwarts, the dungeons, west side." Instantly all the mirrors in the room began to pull up images as they cycled through the mirrors in the school, trying to get as close to the location Eric had given as possible.
Finally finding one that satisfied him Eric pushed his grandson towards it, "go now, tell them about the impending attack and what happened. Bring back whoever the school can spare from their defenses."
As soon as Zach was on his way Eric placed his hand back on the tree and gave new orders. The mirrors began shifting images again as they searched for him.
"What if Dierna just finds another mirror? Can't she just come back that way?"
"It doesn't work like that child," Eric said as he examined the views his mirrors were giving him. The mirror has to be currently projecting its image here for it to work. I have to be able to see your sister for her to use the mirror to come back, which is why I'm searching for her now."
"What happens when you do find her?"
"Hope that she is alone, go in, grab her, and come back."
"That sounds simple enough."
Eric shook his head grimly, "it's much more complicated than that. Chances are she's got a pretty good guard on her by now, and we can only hope that she hasn't been brought to Voldemort."
Slowly the mirrors began to stop changing and each one finally rested on a different image. Eric nodded in satisfaction, "good, that gives us nearly every room in Voldemort's lair. Your sister is not appearing, but we should be able to pinpoint her soon."
Nimue bit her lip worriedly as she looked around her at all the images. As she glanced at all the images surrounding her an idea began to take form in her mind. Perhaps there could be a trade... she knew that Voldemort wanted her after all... maybe if she went through...
She glanced at Eric. His back was currently turned to her. She would have to act quickly for it to work, and she couldn't go into an empty room, Eric would only follow her and bring her back.
She glanced around and moved to a mirror slightly to her right. There were several occupants, men that she didn't recognize. This would work perfectly.
Deciding it might be best to alert someone to her plan she brought her small hand up to the necklace at her throat, she pressed her thumb into the small indentation of the smooth stone that hung from the chain, and when it began to glow warmly around her neck and she was confidant that her summons had been received she stepped through the mirror.
Kalliope was jolted awake by the necklace she wore, the stone pendant hanging from it was burning hot against her chest. The shock of being awoken so quickly left her short of breath as she hurriedly untangled herself from the blankets and searched for her robes.
"Kalliope, why are you up?" Remus asked groggily.
"I have to go."
Remus was now fully awake. "Go where?" he demanded, his tired expression turning into a frown.
Kalliope paused for a moment as she gathered her thoughts, realizing she wasn't sure where Nimue was. She closed her eyes and softly murmured a prayer to the goddess as she opened up her mind, letting her spirit search for Nimue. "No..." the word came out as a gasp. As she connected with Nimue she received in the little more than a half a heartbeat the girl's plan to sacrifice herself for the safety of her family and her knowledge of Voldemort's plan to attack the school.
The priestess threw on her robes in a rush as she drug Remus out of bed, "go to the Order headquarters now, you will be needed, I must go to Nimue."
Remus grabbed Kalliope's wrist as she ran for the door and pulled her back to him, "where are you going?"
Kalliope kissed him with a tenderness that belied her worried state, "I will be fine, do not worry about me. I must go and you must protect your students."
"The time is nearing," Rheia's voice filled the small confines of the inner sanctuary. "Kalliope will return to us, her place is here, in this temple. But I fear that she must be helped along if she is to return here."
A small group of senior priestesses gathered around, ready to do their leader's bidding. They had already prepared the scrying bowl and a ritual fire burned near by, putting out pungent smoke from the dried herbs that had been tossed in. The air inside the close space was heavy with the fumes.
Rheia closed her eyes and swayed slightly as she stood, arms out with her palms turned out "the girl's fate is not yet clear to me, the one who I would have save our ways, there is another one who wants her too." The high priestess sank to her knees by the fire, "the goddess protects her own, and she has spoken. Kalliope will be returned to us, but it will be at a high price." Her voice became deeper and mellower as she sank deeper and deeper into the trance, "a sacrifice must be made, one the like of which has not been seen since Agamemnon raised his blade to Iphiginia. A life must be cut short; blood must be shed, before the goddess will raise her hand in our defense. The girl's thread has been spun and measured; it is only waiting to be cut."
Zach was sorely tempted to utter some of the more expletive phrases his grandfather was fond of using, but resisted. He was well aware of the frequency with which the password to the Order headquarters was changed, but had not expected to ever find himself without the new password.
So he now found himself standing before the tapestry of Circe and being denied entrance, "I know you recognize me, you have to let me in!"
"Sorry love," Circe looked far more interested in the goblet in her hand than the man standing before her, "orders are orders, you have to know the current password. Doesn't matter if I do recognize you, could be the effects of polyjuice for all I know."
"But this is urgent!"
"The answer is still no."
"Would you consider changing your mind if I set you on fire?"
Circe began to look alarmed, she wasn't authorized to let him in, but if he set her on fire she had no way of putting it out.
"Now love, let's not be too hasty, I'm just following orders..."
"Paganus," a deep voice said from behind them.
Circe gave a slight nod of her head as the entrance slid open.
"Remus," Zach looked slightly relieved, "I was beginning to think I'd never get in." His look turned deadly serious, "I have to find Professor Snape."
"I've already been to his quarters, I believe he is already here. What happened?" Remus looked concerned over the state the younger man was in.
Zach gave a slight shake of his head, "I think it would be best, and faster, if I only had to explain once."
Dierna returned to consciousness slowly, and for several bleary moments was not quite sure where she was. But as her vision cleared and she saw the crumpled form of Stefan lying at her feet it all came rushing back.
Her first coherent thought was that they had to escape. Her second was that the task seemed impossible. It took her a full minute to realize why she was standing above Stefan. Her hands had been tied high over her head to a post in the wall, forcing her into a rather uncomfortable posture. Her wand was also missing.
The only reassuring thought she could muster was that she was tied with ropes, not chains or magic. She wasn't sure why it was comforting, but it made her feel a bit less helpless.
She was trying to come up with a plan when the door on the far side of the room opened long enough for a masked man to practically throw her little sister in, before it was slammed shut and locked.
"Nimue, what are you doing here?!" Dierna's eyes grew large.
Nimue shrugged, "I couldn't let you come here alone."
"You shouldn't have come."
"But I did. Maybe they'll release you in return for me."
"My children are WHERE?!" Severus' voice rose perceptibly at the end of his question. He didn't wait for a response, he grabbed his cloak from where it hung over the back of a chair and headed towards the door.
"Wait for just one minute Snape," Sirius quickly came to his feet, "Voldemort wants nothing more than to see you dead."
"He doesn't want me dead, he wants to make my life a living hell," Severus snapped.
Sirius kept on, "you can't just go barging in there demanding your children back."
"Then what do you propose I do Black?" Snape snarled, "I cannot leave them in his clutches."
"I'm going with you."
"Me too," Harry said, coming to his feet as well.
Minerva, having been roused from bed to hear Zach's report remained seated, "you three best be off quickly," her voice was sharp and a bit higher pitched than usual, "Merlin only knows what those poor girls... go. Remus, you and Zach go wake the others, make sure the school is defended."
"Where will you be?" Remus asked as he headed towards the door.
Minerva rose very slowly, "I am going to Morgan. Her husband and two of her children are in mortal danger tonight, she must be told and she should not be left alone."
Kalliope pushed back the hood of her cloak as she stepped appeared next to the decaying building. Although the late spring night was warm it felt very cold here. Even the stars above seemed to shine a bit dimmer.
She barred her teeth. He was here. She knew it.
What had started merely as a rescue mission was becoming much more. The chance for vengeance was close at hand.
She took several more steps towards the house, trying to decide on her best course of action. As a priestess she was in no need of an invisibility cloak to mask her presence. The elements obeyed her, they were at her command, the natural world was the domain of the goddess, it would ensure her safety.
She was brought to a halt as a breeze played through her hair. It was no natural occurrence. She tensed, every muscle in her body readying for action, "Rheia..."
Without seeing her Kalliope knew that the head priestess was there. It may not be physically, but her spirit was present. She knew the old woman was ready to interfere in some way, but she didn't know how.