A/N: First off I would like to mention that as of last week, my story Family Life did make 100,000 hits. Currently, last week, it chalked up another 1,000. I am very excited.
Also, you remember back a long time ago I told you one day you were going to see what Bo really was all about?
Welcome to 'one day', folks.
And as always,
Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I turned on my computer this morning, and lo and behold, there was this story on it. I have no idea how it got there. But I read it over, thought it was pretty good and thought I should do something with it. So I decided to post it on Fanfiction.Net.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!
Chapter Thirty-Four: Control - Part Three
Orion lay on the ridge of the small hill, watching the entrance to the cave as he had for almost the whole night. He had watched so many Deatheaters come and go from the lair he was starting to recognize not only familiar faces, but learn some of their habits as well. If certain ones would leave, he could almost predict when they would return. Others arrived early in the evening, but simply stood by the door, waiting for someone else before entering. Others came, entered, and left within a few minutes. Others had come and entered, but he had never seen them leave again.
Al in all, the activity reminded him something of a beehive.
Over the passing hours, slowly learning these things had been a great help in laying out his plan. He was learning how often people came and went. Where the guards were posted. Who was inside the lair at any given moment and approximately how many. All of these things were absolutely vital for his plan to go right.
Occasionally he became bored with the proceedings below, and would roll over on his back and stare up at the night sky. The air around him filled steadily with the sounds of the forest waking to the coming night. High above him his namesake charted a course across the star-strewn sky. Off to the right another namesake followed its own familiar path.
Sirius.
Almost unbidden Orion's thought's focused on his younger brother. The impetuous one of the family. The impulsive one. The reckless one.
A frown creased itself across his lips. Why had he done the things he had done? Made the choices he had made? Didn't he understand that family came first? Everything else was secondary to that. Your friends. Your relationships. Everything.
But Sirius never understood. He seemed to simply plug into everything blindly. Or more...selfishly. Not caring what loyalties were broken or what person was hurt.
Slowly Orion could feel the anger rising in him. But he shook his head and quickly redirected the anger. He had to stop using Sirius as a spring board. One day he could make a mistake, lose his concentration, and he didn't even want to think of what could happen then. So instead he focused his thoughts back where he needed them to be. On Katlin.
Orion rolled over on his stomach and watched the cave entrance again. He didn't want to miss her. Not tonight.
Finally his patience paid off. A tall, thin figure with long, dark hair emerged from the cave. Silken streaks of red caught the dim illumination from the cave entrance behind her, shining with a bright and unmistakable radiance.
Katlin.
She moved with the grace of a lioness leaving her den for a nights hunting.
She turned briefly for a moment, glancing around her as thought something had suddenly caught her attention. In the dim light, Orion saw the small diamond pendent wink at him in the darkness. A smile crossed his lips. She still wore it. She hadn't taken it off. An oversight, most likely, but one he attached more hope to than one would have thought possible.
Orion watched the figure as though he were transfixed. Although months had gone by since he had seen or spoken to her, she still had the same effect on him.
Orion let his thoughts drift back to happier times. Back when he had Katlin in his life still. When they had loved each other. When they would lay in each others arms at night, peaceful and contented.
And slowly, very slowly, those thoughts began to shift. Bright happy moments began to turn darker with the realization that they were now gone.
That they wouldn't come back.
Not ever.
And who was responsible?
Orion kept a small part of his mind working on that idea as he pulled himself to his feet, still watching his light as she stepped away from the cave entrance and disappeared into the woods.
She was gone now. Safely away from what was to come.
Orion began to make his way slowly down the hill. As he went, a few other left the lair. Orion didn't concern himself with them. A few rats were bound to escape. He would simply have to take what he could get.
Finally Orion came to the edge of the forest. From the cover of the trees he stood and watched. And waited. A few more Deatheaters left. Orion mused on how fortunate they were that Voldemort had chosen them that night for some task. Orion smiled as he listened to a few complaining as they left the lair.
Idiots! He thought. They had no idea just how lucky they were.
When he was satisfied that most of the activity was done for the moment, Orion reached back into his mind and brought forward again the thoughts he had been nursing there.
Again he thought of Katlin. Of the life they had had together. The one he had planned for them. Of how it had all now been destroyed. And who was responsible. And with those thoughts came the anger and the hatred. And when that reached it's peak, he began to add to it. He thought of the beautiful woman he had loved so desperately. Enough to set aside who she was. What she was. What she had done. To simply love her with his whole being. To hold her, caress her, make love with her. To sit at night and simply talk with her, her body resting comfortably against his as she snuggled closer to him on the sofa before a cheerful, friendly, warm fire. The nights they had gone out to dinners, or plays, or simply for a walk.
He let the errant thoughts continue. Happy memories. A time in his life when he truly felt peaceful and content and happy.
He thought of her. Of how beautiful she was to him. Her mind. Her body. Even her soul was beautiful to him. For in the depths of the darkness were it dwelled for so long, it had still found enough light in it to love him in return.
And now it was gone.
Orion's brows knitted together as he focused now on that thought. His Love was gone. All the love, the happiness, the peace, and the contentment that had been his life were gone.
And who was responsible for that?
Orion directed his thoughts now to only that one question.
Who was responsible for it all?
His lost love.
Who was responsible?
They were.
The Deatheaters.
All of them. Even the ones who didn't know her. They all shared the guilt by association. They all had torn his love away from him. Plunged him back into the painful loneliness that had been his life before she came. They all were responsible.
And they all had to pay.
Anger. Hatred. Pain.
Orion focused on the emotions with every part of his mind now. Tears came from the pain. But he quickly forced them back.
Tears were release. And he didn't want anything to be released yet.
Anger. Hatred. Pain.
He wrapped himself in the emotions as he slowly stepped out from the cover of the trees. He could feel a tremor start within his body from the pent up emotions. And he smiled.
Anger. Hatred. Pain.
Orion stood now only several hundred yards before the cave entrance. The emotions within now screamed for release. The very air around him began to vibrate with them as he closed the distance even more between himself and the entrance to the Deatheaters lair. Orion seized hold of that energy and pulled it back within himself. No escape but for where and when he would allow it.
Anger. Hatred. Pain.
The force within him was almost painful now. Like a dam trying to hold back a flood as the raging waters slammed against it.
Orion concentrated. He had to hold onto it. He had to maintain control of it. Release only when and where he dictated. Random release was wasted energy.
Orion kept walking until he was barely a hundred yards away from the entrance.
Finally he stopped. He stared at the dim illumination within. He could heard the shuffle of movement further down the corridor.
He could imagine their faces.
Their voices.
He thought of the things they had done.
He thought of his plans for a happy future now destroyed.
He thought of his lost love................the dam gave way.
Hands balled into fists at his sides, droplets of blood coming from between white-knuckled fingers, Orion threw open the gates and let the fury rage on in a new direction.
Directly on a path to the Deatheaters lair.
The streak cut a path of its own through the air, leaving something blacker than the night it had gone through behind.
Orion watched it go.
And smiled.
Suddenly, before him a man appeared in the cave entrance. He must have been in a side corridor, attracted outside by the sound that would have seemed as a sudden rush of strong wind down the corridor he stood off of. The man seemed utterly surprised to see Orion standing there. A solitary figure, standing still as stone and completely unafraid.
"Hey!" The man called out. "What are you doing here? Who are you?"
When Orion didn't answer, or even seem to hear him, the man quickly pulled out his wand.
But he never used it.
Slowly, quietly, a sound behind him drew his attention away from the man in front of him and back to the cave entrance.
It began as a low rumble. A few stray rocks came rolling down the sides of the mountain and rolled past his feet. The man turned and listened.
He felt the ground under his feet begin to shake slightly. Like a small earthquake.
Slowly the sound and the shaking increased. But not in intensity. In sound. The rumble remained low, but now it was a menacing sound. One that made you afraid even if you didn't know the source. The shaking under his feet seemed to reach lower. Deeper into the earth. The force driving it almost a physical thing on its own as it moved the ground around it.
The man's eyes widened in fear as he took a few steps back from the cave entrance.
Then the screams started. Horrified. Afraid. Painful.
Rocks began shaking loose higher up and come rolling down the steep mountain side, clearing a path of destruction and carrying dust and debris with them. The man jumped aside just in time to avoid a larger one as it swept past him. But his attention quickly returned to the cave entrance. A thin cloud of dust had started to form there, obscuring further the dim light from within.
Then suddenly, like a candle being extinguished, the light went out completely. And with it, the screams were silenced.
The man watched in horror as the mountain side before him seemed to expand outward. He stumbled back several yards, afraid the entire mountain was going to suddenly explode right before him.
But abruptly the movement stopped. It seemed to stall for a moment. Then, without warning, the mountain contracted back on itself. Not a single shingle of rock fell outward. The entire mountain simply seemed to collapse in on itself.
A large gathering cloud of dust plumed up from the center, growing in mass and density as it rose into the air.
The man stood watching in silence.
He looked up slowly as small bits of ash began to fall to the ground around him. He held his hand out, catching a few in his palm. As he brought them closer to examine them, he realized that the objects weren't ash, but small, black, charred flakes.
He turned back to the mountain, now a nearly ground level heap of rubble littering the ground. Not a single sound came from within.
The Deatheater turned very slowly to where the man had been standing.
All that greeted him was the dark night.
(Next week, the Deatheaters reaction to the destruction of their lair.)
Q&A
nessie: Ohhhhh, Scottish?! Does we live in Scotland, Dear? PAR likes Scotland very much!
Yes, yes. chapter was short. over and above everything else, people seemed to latch onto that one point more than anything else. But I never promised all the chapters would be long. I think the problem is I just spoiled you guys with long chapters for too long.
I have a hard time, Dear, imagining that you wouldn't be good with figurative language. Some of your reviews are extremely entertaining and very creative. I would think writing an essay for you would be child's play.
Good luck anyway.
sweets: Thank you, Dear. It is never easy to lose someone.
OK. I'll try to clear this up for you. In regards to being in danger because she's a Deatheater, why should that be any different from how things were before she met Orion? Aurors were still after her then.
As for your next point, Katlin never was an informant for the ministry. That was just a cover Orion came up with to get the Aurors to stay away from her in a fight. Sort of his way of protecting her. If they think she's working for them, they'll be less apt to kill her on sight.
Things only stand to get messier.
The only reason I banned you from guessing, Dear, was you were just too GOOD at it. You were negating my having to write this thing at all.
And it wasn't really a ban, so to speak. Just a general discouragement.
Eva Phoenix Potter: Afraid of what Orion might do? Well, currently he's just wiped out a lair of deatheaters. Good or bad thing, folks? You decide.
skahducky: Indeed, you learned a good deal more about Orion's enigmatic little boggart in this chapter. Mostly that he isn't just all cute and cuddly. Bo is an extremely dangerous force, currently in the hands of a very angry young man. Bad equation, folks.
How can helping Katlin benefit Dumbledore if she doesn't remember it? Well, Dear, who was it that placed that memory charm? Who do you think could remove it if they needed to? That's commonly referred to as a ace up your sleeve. Of course, now the question is, would Dumbledore actually use that trump card he's holding against Voldemort if he had to, knowing the repercussions to Katlin if he did?
Katlin never mentioned Dumbledore's name to Bo, not thinking Bo would know who Dumbledore is (which he does, by the way). She only referred to him as the 'old wizard', as per Bo's conversation with Orion.
Sailor Sol: Thank you for the condolences, Dear.
Yes, yes. It was short. What can I say?
I would be the last one to imply Orion is acting with the wisdom of the ages here.
What people do in the name of love, Dear? Try 'revenge'. 'Love' has very little to do with Orion's actions.
Silverfox: Short chapter packed with a LOT of possible trouble! Most of which came to light in this chapter.
Orion doesn't need to pretend Katlin is his informant. Just convince his superior that she is. Our boy is doing the 'living in the moment' thing right now. Cover your * today, worry about it all over again tomorrow.
What's he about to do with poor Bo? Think of it as 'taking him out for walkies'.....and a little exercise.
Trust me, my father would not like the people I work with.
Roll (aka Semmel): The point is, Dear, that you DO review. And for that I am grateful.
Dear, if you don't have exams in those subjects, why study?
Anyway, congratulations on graduating. Always exciting.
No offense taken, Dear.
Reviews are as of 02152004.
And remember,
Even if you're on the right track, you still get run over if you just sit there.