A/N: Hi!!!! This is like the fastest update I've done!!! Hope u don't mind
the shorter chapters (theyre not THAT much shorter.) Just tell me what you,
my readers prefer: Shorter chaps and more frequent updates, or longer chaps
and updates less frequently. Special thanks to PotterLover, who was amazing
enough to review all three chapters she read at one time!!!! *hugs another
great reviewer* Oh ya, my little sister has a magnificent crush on that
cute little blond kid who plays Draco. He IS so young in Ana and the King!
I don't have too many reviewers (YET, hehe) but the ones I do have are
AWESOME!! U guys give such long, wonderful reviews. Lbj5411, I'm flattered
that u have written the longest review 4 ME, yay!!!! P.S. you guys will
figure out the title of this chapter when you read the NEXT one. hehe
Chapter Sixteen: Prelude to a Kiss
" I always thought you were never very bright, Black, but I never thought you were a complete moron," Snape said coolly.
"Well unlike you, Snape, I don't have a horrible aversion to children. I can't stand here and do nothing until the Aurors come!" Sirius cried, with Professor McGonagall looking at him anxiously. It had taken her a while to get accustomed to Black being among them, when she had thought he was a criminal for thirteen years. But he looked sincerely concerned.
"Sirius, it is suicide. We are far too little in number. Even if we each conjure a Patronus, there will be 5 other dementors for each of us to attack us. Apparently they are no longer obeying the Minister of Magic. Surely you realize this?" she said.
"Of course I do, Minerva. But we're doing exactly what You-Know-Who wants! He wants us INSIDE the castle for a period of time to do whatever he pleases," said Black.
"Personally, I'd be quite pleased to see him get ripped apart by dementors. But I suppose Dumbledore might be upset if he found out that we let you go kill yourself," said Snape.
"Well if you're not going to help me, just tell him I snuck off without you knowing. I have a way of getting past the dementors."
"Yes, and this is the same Sirius who thought flying his motorbike across Hogwarts grounds was a good idea. The same man who thought luring me to a werewolf for a practical joke was a good idea."
"That was ages ago. We were children," he replied, every ounce of him trying to resist the urge to punch him in the face.
"And you haven't lost that foolish, reckless, 'I'm invincible' attitude you and James Potter shared," Snape said witheringly.
"Don't you dare talk about James, Snape: he saved your life!" he cried.
"Only to save his own cowardly hide!" Sirius was almost going to lunge at him, but Professor McGonagall held him back.
"Please, you two. This is not turning into a productive conversation," McGonagall was becoming irritated. She turned to Sirius, "How do you expect to get past the dementors on your own, Sirius?"
He smiled. "I escaped from them four years ago, didn't I?" Snape rolled his black, beady eyes. Then a thought occurred to Sirius. "I'm going to speak to Eve. She might have some useful information," he said.
"She's going to give YOU information that she hasn't already told all of us? Or Dumbledore?" Snape asked doubtfully.
"She can get past those dementors easily. That means she's involved with what's going on. It can't hurt to talk to her. Is she in her room?"
"No, she isn't. Mine is right next to hers, and I wanted to talk to her myself, but she wasn't there. She wasn't in the library, either." McGonagall said.
"The she might be in the Slytherin common room?"
Snape shook his head. "No, I was just there. Draco Malfoy was asking me about a certain potion," Snape replied.
'Then where else could she be? Perhaps she's taking a bath in the Prefects' bathroom," offered McGonagall.
Snape looked cynical. "We should probably search the boys' dormitories."
Sirius looked very worried. " I did say she could get past those dementors easily."
__________________________________________
Eve was standing in the same clearing she had been standing about a week ago. She was completely motionless, her ears pricked up for any noise. The moon was no longer bright, and the clearing was darker than before. She could barely make out a few stars behind the foggy clouds. The lengthened shadows of branches and leaves across the earth was eerie. But worst of all was the chill, which had increased in intensity now that the dementors were around the castle. Suddenly she saw a shadow of a man come out from the bushes: something she had been seeing a lot lately.
"Hello, father," she said.
_______________________________________________
Draco was still in his room, hating himself. He was so nervous, and even though it was foggy and chilly outside, he was drenched in sweat. Because it was clinging to him, he had removed his shirt (A/N: Lucy that's for you too. Oh no, you're not going to pay attention to the rest of the story). He had just talked with Snape minutes ago. He had asked him about a potion, although it was really an excuse to slip in a question about a much more powerful poison. He couldn't believe he had been reduced to wmanipulating his favorite teacher, to use his own knowledge against him. What made it worse was that he wasn't in his usual sour mood. Although it was hard to tell with Snape, he seemed a little happy that a student had been interested in a potion, and he sincerely wanted to help him. Even though Eve was best at Potions, Draco was still his favorite student. Snape didn't like everything coming so naturally to her; Draco had to actually do research and practice to be good in Potions, and Snape acknowledged that. Then again, he did know my father: maybe he just feels sorry for me, Draco thought miserably.
And now, seconds ago, Eve had used his trap door to get out of the castle, to talk to her father. That meant one thing which made his stomach cringe: he would talk to him next. His Deatheater initiations would begin that very night. He was dreading it to a point that he was feeling nauseous. He couldn't even go to Dumbledore for advice. For one thing, he was still a Malfoy after all, and their inherent pride gave him an aversion to asking any past Gryffindors for advice. But also, if he didn't show up that night, his father would surely find a way to kill him.
_____________________________________________
"Good evening, my dear," came a high voice from the cloaked figure facing Eve.
"It would be a good evening without such a chill in the air," she replied.
"A diversion. A way to tell Dumbledore I do not fear him; I can surround and terrorize his precious school with ease. Also, I want nobody to disturb us tonight."
"And what do we have the pleasure of doing?" she asked sarcastically.
"Don't talk to me with that false tone. If you knew you wouldn't enjoy it, you wouldn't be here right now."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," she said with deathly calm.
His face was covered by his cloak, but his voice showed a tone of almost sinister pleasure. "You know very well.. You know who you are. You know everything; you just deny it to yourself."
Eve's anger was rising. 'Okay, then let's just pretend I don't know. Explain to me what we're doing here."
He continued, intentionally misunderstanding her request. "Ahhh, what we're doing here. You know you were put on this earth with special powers, Eve. Which invariably means you need to use them. We all have some purpose on this earth, but you, my dear, you have a destiny to fulfill."
_____________________________________
Somebody rose quickly in one of the Gryffindor boy's dormitories. For once, it wasn't Harry. But the uneasy rustling in the bed next to his woke him up anyway and he absently fumbled with his glasses.
"Ron, what's up?" he asked quietly as he put them on and opened the drapes on around his four-poster bed. Through the dim moonlight Ron looked deathly pale. Despite the chill in the air he was sweating. "What's wrong?" he whispered.
Ron mumbled, "I'm not sure. It's just that I had this awful dream and I couldn't sleep since."
Harry tried to cheer him up. "What did you dream? That you were playing Quidditch in front of the whole school naked?" But it wasn't working. Ron gulped and looked more somber than he had ever looked before.
"No, it's just. I dunno, I have this horrible feeling that something awful is going to happen." ___________________________________________
Sirius had no choice; he had to go after her alone because he was the only one who could get past the dementors as a dog. Being blind, the dementors only feel emotions, and as a dog his were less human. He crept silently past them. Only one of them stirred its head towards his direction. Sirius held his breath, hoping it would look away. It broke away from the motionless line and took a step towards him. Sirius was becoming overwhelmed by a glacial wave. He had to fight against it.
Sirius burst out running as fast as his paws could go. After he was well inside the forest, he looked back to check if anybody was following him. They weren't. His rapid panting slowed down and he walked on, still checking behind him. But as soon as his head turned forwards he stopped dead in his tracks.
The first thing he saw was a silvery glow, but it was not from the moon. A short, cloaked figure was standing in front of him, twirling his wand around his one normal hand. His face was contorted into a grin.
"Hello, Padfoot, old friend."
_______________________________________________
Eve sputtered indignantly. "Destiny? You and all these prophecies go on and on about fate. What's the point of living, if you only fulfill a preordained prediction? That's not a life; it's not your OWN life," her voice was quavering like the twitching leaves in the slight wind which had mysteriously risen from the stillness of the forest.
" Do you know why you are able to perform magic without a wand?" His question seemed so random that Eve was silent. " A wand is used to concentrate magic from your being, from the earth itself, to perform spells. You are so concentrated with magic already you do not need a wand, and so when you touch one it explodes. Your fate was to have power. I don't think you chose that." Eve's breathing was becoming heavier. She remained silent still.
"Do you know why you have green eyes? Your mother didn't have green eyes, and strangely enough, neither did I." Curious, Eve thought, he's using past tense. Did? What color were his eyes now? He continued, "It is a little known fact that in the magical world green eyes are a mark of something unique in an individual. Dragons with green eyes were more powerful than others. The same is true for all magical beings. Even house- elves. Our great ancestor, Salazar Slytherin knew this: that is why he chose green for his house color."
"And silver?" Eve breathed.
"Silver is the color of the moon, the substance that wards off evil- it is deadly to werewolves, for example. He admired powerful things, and by procuring the one thing that can be used against you, making it your own, you can attain ultimate power. That is what I did, using the blood of my enemy--Harry Potter-when I used the potion to revive my powers and my body. And now, green and silver-they will be united once again to continue Salazar's work, to fulfill the prophecy."
When he mentioned Harry's name it was like a ripple of consciousness among the flood of information deluding her brain. But then, what did he mean by green and silver? "Silver," she had spoken the last word aloud, in a grim repetition of her last words before that.
"Yesss," he hissed in a snakelike tone, "he will be joining me tonight, right after you." These last words brought an awful comprehension and she tried to deny it, showing fury instead of the fear and pity she really felt when she realized who he was talking about.
"What makes you think he'll join you? Or that I will join you?"
"Because you are my daughter. The same blood that flows in my veins, that used to flow in Slytherin's, flows in your veins also. I know you hear it in your dreams also. I am, and forever will be, a part of you. What does Dumbledore offer you in his so-called side that he calls good? People never appreciate the good things you do. They forget easily, but they will never forget the bad things you do to them. You will merely inhibit yourself. I am offering you power, more power than anything you have ever imagined, even more power than I can attain. You will be a fool to refuse this."
"You offer me the world, and yet you took away the one thing that was my happiness! The one person I loved. You cannot give me the one thing I want most in the world!!" Eve was practically screaming in rage, tears flowing down her hot cheeks. Fury was radiating, pulsating around her. A crack of thunder broke the sky.
"I have given you something that no one in the world has given another."
"What is that?" she snapped.
"Come here, let me show you," he said, with the same deathly calm tone Eve had begun with. She didn't want to be an inch closer to him, but her feet moved, seemingly against her will. When she realized it he was inches away from her. She did not bear to look at him, she was terrified at what she would see under that hood.
Then she heard it, it was barely audible, but she heard it, and it chilled her. He gave out a short laugh, almost a sharp chuckle. He laughed, and in less than an instant, quicker than a flash of lightning, he raised his hand and she saw something flash and disappear in the moonlight-a knife. Warm blood darkened her robes and with the agonizing pain in her chest and awful comprehension she realized where the knife had gone.
_____________________________________________
Chapter Sixteen: Prelude to a Kiss
" I always thought you were never very bright, Black, but I never thought you were a complete moron," Snape said coolly.
"Well unlike you, Snape, I don't have a horrible aversion to children. I can't stand here and do nothing until the Aurors come!" Sirius cried, with Professor McGonagall looking at him anxiously. It had taken her a while to get accustomed to Black being among them, when she had thought he was a criminal for thirteen years. But he looked sincerely concerned.
"Sirius, it is suicide. We are far too little in number. Even if we each conjure a Patronus, there will be 5 other dementors for each of us to attack us. Apparently they are no longer obeying the Minister of Magic. Surely you realize this?" she said.
"Of course I do, Minerva. But we're doing exactly what You-Know-Who wants! He wants us INSIDE the castle for a period of time to do whatever he pleases," said Black.
"Personally, I'd be quite pleased to see him get ripped apart by dementors. But I suppose Dumbledore might be upset if he found out that we let you go kill yourself," said Snape.
"Well if you're not going to help me, just tell him I snuck off without you knowing. I have a way of getting past the dementors."
"Yes, and this is the same Sirius who thought flying his motorbike across Hogwarts grounds was a good idea. The same man who thought luring me to a werewolf for a practical joke was a good idea."
"That was ages ago. We were children," he replied, every ounce of him trying to resist the urge to punch him in the face.
"And you haven't lost that foolish, reckless, 'I'm invincible' attitude you and James Potter shared," Snape said witheringly.
"Don't you dare talk about James, Snape: he saved your life!" he cried.
"Only to save his own cowardly hide!" Sirius was almost going to lunge at him, but Professor McGonagall held him back.
"Please, you two. This is not turning into a productive conversation," McGonagall was becoming irritated. She turned to Sirius, "How do you expect to get past the dementors on your own, Sirius?"
He smiled. "I escaped from them four years ago, didn't I?" Snape rolled his black, beady eyes. Then a thought occurred to Sirius. "I'm going to speak to Eve. She might have some useful information," he said.
"She's going to give YOU information that she hasn't already told all of us? Or Dumbledore?" Snape asked doubtfully.
"She can get past those dementors easily. That means she's involved with what's going on. It can't hurt to talk to her. Is she in her room?"
"No, she isn't. Mine is right next to hers, and I wanted to talk to her myself, but she wasn't there. She wasn't in the library, either." McGonagall said.
"The she might be in the Slytherin common room?"
Snape shook his head. "No, I was just there. Draco Malfoy was asking me about a certain potion," Snape replied.
'Then where else could she be? Perhaps she's taking a bath in the Prefects' bathroom," offered McGonagall.
Snape looked cynical. "We should probably search the boys' dormitories."
Sirius looked very worried. " I did say she could get past those dementors easily."
__________________________________________
Eve was standing in the same clearing she had been standing about a week ago. She was completely motionless, her ears pricked up for any noise. The moon was no longer bright, and the clearing was darker than before. She could barely make out a few stars behind the foggy clouds. The lengthened shadows of branches and leaves across the earth was eerie. But worst of all was the chill, which had increased in intensity now that the dementors were around the castle. Suddenly she saw a shadow of a man come out from the bushes: something she had been seeing a lot lately.
"Hello, father," she said.
_______________________________________________
Draco was still in his room, hating himself. He was so nervous, and even though it was foggy and chilly outside, he was drenched in sweat. Because it was clinging to him, he had removed his shirt (A/N: Lucy that's for you too. Oh no, you're not going to pay attention to the rest of the story). He had just talked with Snape minutes ago. He had asked him about a potion, although it was really an excuse to slip in a question about a much more powerful poison. He couldn't believe he had been reduced to wmanipulating his favorite teacher, to use his own knowledge against him. What made it worse was that he wasn't in his usual sour mood. Although it was hard to tell with Snape, he seemed a little happy that a student had been interested in a potion, and he sincerely wanted to help him. Even though Eve was best at Potions, Draco was still his favorite student. Snape didn't like everything coming so naturally to her; Draco had to actually do research and practice to be good in Potions, and Snape acknowledged that. Then again, he did know my father: maybe he just feels sorry for me, Draco thought miserably.
And now, seconds ago, Eve had used his trap door to get out of the castle, to talk to her father. That meant one thing which made his stomach cringe: he would talk to him next. His Deatheater initiations would begin that very night. He was dreading it to a point that he was feeling nauseous. He couldn't even go to Dumbledore for advice. For one thing, he was still a Malfoy after all, and their inherent pride gave him an aversion to asking any past Gryffindors for advice. But also, if he didn't show up that night, his father would surely find a way to kill him.
_____________________________________________
"Good evening, my dear," came a high voice from the cloaked figure facing Eve.
"It would be a good evening without such a chill in the air," she replied.
"A diversion. A way to tell Dumbledore I do not fear him; I can surround and terrorize his precious school with ease. Also, I want nobody to disturb us tonight."
"And what do we have the pleasure of doing?" she asked sarcastically.
"Don't talk to me with that false tone. If you knew you wouldn't enjoy it, you wouldn't be here right now."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," she said with deathly calm.
His face was covered by his cloak, but his voice showed a tone of almost sinister pleasure. "You know very well.. You know who you are. You know everything; you just deny it to yourself."
Eve's anger was rising. 'Okay, then let's just pretend I don't know. Explain to me what we're doing here."
He continued, intentionally misunderstanding her request. "Ahhh, what we're doing here. You know you were put on this earth with special powers, Eve. Which invariably means you need to use them. We all have some purpose on this earth, but you, my dear, you have a destiny to fulfill."
_____________________________________
Somebody rose quickly in one of the Gryffindor boy's dormitories. For once, it wasn't Harry. But the uneasy rustling in the bed next to his woke him up anyway and he absently fumbled with his glasses.
"Ron, what's up?" he asked quietly as he put them on and opened the drapes on around his four-poster bed. Through the dim moonlight Ron looked deathly pale. Despite the chill in the air he was sweating. "What's wrong?" he whispered.
Ron mumbled, "I'm not sure. It's just that I had this awful dream and I couldn't sleep since."
Harry tried to cheer him up. "What did you dream? That you were playing Quidditch in front of the whole school naked?" But it wasn't working. Ron gulped and looked more somber than he had ever looked before.
"No, it's just. I dunno, I have this horrible feeling that something awful is going to happen." ___________________________________________
Sirius had no choice; he had to go after her alone because he was the only one who could get past the dementors as a dog. Being blind, the dementors only feel emotions, and as a dog his were less human. He crept silently past them. Only one of them stirred its head towards his direction. Sirius held his breath, hoping it would look away. It broke away from the motionless line and took a step towards him. Sirius was becoming overwhelmed by a glacial wave. He had to fight against it.
Sirius burst out running as fast as his paws could go. After he was well inside the forest, he looked back to check if anybody was following him. They weren't. His rapid panting slowed down and he walked on, still checking behind him. But as soon as his head turned forwards he stopped dead in his tracks.
The first thing he saw was a silvery glow, but it was not from the moon. A short, cloaked figure was standing in front of him, twirling his wand around his one normal hand. His face was contorted into a grin.
"Hello, Padfoot, old friend."
_______________________________________________
Eve sputtered indignantly. "Destiny? You and all these prophecies go on and on about fate. What's the point of living, if you only fulfill a preordained prediction? That's not a life; it's not your OWN life," her voice was quavering like the twitching leaves in the slight wind which had mysteriously risen from the stillness of the forest.
" Do you know why you are able to perform magic without a wand?" His question seemed so random that Eve was silent. " A wand is used to concentrate magic from your being, from the earth itself, to perform spells. You are so concentrated with magic already you do not need a wand, and so when you touch one it explodes. Your fate was to have power. I don't think you chose that." Eve's breathing was becoming heavier. She remained silent still.
"Do you know why you have green eyes? Your mother didn't have green eyes, and strangely enough, neither did I." Curious, Eve thought, he's using past tense. Did? What color were his eyes now? He continued, "It is a little known fact that in the magical world green eyes are a mark of something unique in an individual. Dragons with green eyes were more powerful than others. The same is true for all magical beings. Even house- elves. Our great ancestor, Salazar Slytherin knew this: that is why he chose green for his house color."
"And silver?" Eve breathed.
"Silver is the color of the moon, the substance that wards off evil- it is deadly to werewolves, for example. He admired powerful things, and by procuring the one thing that can be used against you, making it your own, you can attain ultimate power. That is what I did, using the blood of my enemy--Harry Potter-when I used the potion to revive my powers and my body. And now, green and silver-they will be united once again to continue Salazar's work, to fulfill the prophecy."
When he mentioned Harry's name it was like a ripple of consciousness among the flood of information deluding her brain. But then, what did he mean by green and silver? "Silver," she had spoken the last word aloud, in a grim repetition of her last words before that.
"Yesss," he hissed in a snakelike tone, "he will be joining me tonight, right after you." These last words brought an awful comprehension and she tried to deny it, showing fury instead of the fear and pity she really felt when she realized who he was talking about.
"What makes you think he'll join you? Or that I will join you?"
"Because you are my daughter. The same blood that flows in my veins, that used to flow in Slytherin's, flows in your veins also. I know you hear it in your dreams also. I am, and forever will be, a part of you. What does Dumbledore offer you in his so-called side that he calls good? People never appreciate the good things you do. They forget easily, but they will never forget the bad things you do to them. You will merely inhibit yourself. I am offering you power, more power than anything you have ever imagined, even more power than I can attain. You will be a fool to refuse this."
"You offer me the world, and yet you took away the one thing that was my happiness! The one person I loved. You cannot give me the one thing I want most in the world!!" Eve was practically screaming in rage, tears flowing down her hot cheeks. Fury was radiating, pulsating around her. A crack of thunder broke the sky.
"I have given you something that no one in the world has given another."
"What is that?" she snapped.
"Come here, let me show you," he said, with the same deathly calm tone Eve had begun with. She didn't want to be an inch closer to him, but her feet moved, seemingly against her will. When she realized it he was inches away from her. She did not bear to look at him, she was terrified at what she would see under that hood.
Then she heard it, it was barely audible, but she heard it, and it chilled her. He gave out a short laugh, almost a sharp chuckle. He laughed, and in less than an instant, quicker than a flash of lightning, he raised his hand and she saw something flash and disappear in the moonlight-a knife. Warm blood darkened her robes and with the agonizing pain in her chest and awful comprehension she realized where the knife had gone.
_____________________________________________