My name is Ron Weasley.
Harry hadn't spoken since the argument yesterday afternoon. He had shrouded himself in a cloak of maddening ignorance, becoming unaware of all that which was around him. I constantly found his gaze resting upon Hermione, though sometimes I caught him staring at me.
Poor boy. He deserved to be pitied, though he did not see this. I continued to do so anyway.
I pondered over his argument. Most of what he said had been cryptic. I had not understood what he had been talking about.
"Ginny?" I asked quietly. It was very early in the morning, about five or six. Everyone, by this time, had adjusted to the time change so that they were still sleeping.
She murmured something in her sleep. It sounded oddly like, "It's only a spider, Ron…"
Across the clearing, Harry moaned. I heard him shift uneasily on his bedroll and froze, head cocked and listening. His moan rose in volume. "Sirius… Sirius… Come back. You have to come back! You always come back… you always come back… you can't die…"
He fell silent once more, though his breathing was harsh and erratic.
I chewed thoughtfully on my lower lip. Should I wake him? He was obviously dreaming about Sirius's death. I sighed and decided against it.
I shook Ginny's shoulder again. "Ginny…" I whispered.
Her brow furrowed and she stirred, waking. "Ron…" she croaked without opening her eyes. "Go back to sleep. 'S too early."
"Please?" I wheedled.
She opened her eyes and focused on me. Propping herself up on her elbows, she asked, "What?"
"I—I just wanted to ask you something."
"Couldn't you do this later?" she asked, irked.
"No. I don't want the others to hear."
"And why not?"
"Because."
"Because
why?"
"Please?" I tried again.
She sighed, rubbing her eyes. "Fine."
"Would you answer me truthfully?" I prodded on anxiously.
"Whatever."
I took a deep breath. "What was Harry on about yesterday?"
Ginny seemed suddenly wide-awake and surly. "Why are you asking me?"
"Because Harry won't talk to me and you seem to be the only one apart from him who knows what is going on."
She thought on this. "Logical," she conceded.
I waited politely for her to continue.
She thought for a moment, studying my wheelchair. "You won't believe me."
"You're my sister. Of course I will."
She stared up into my eyes, as if she were searching for something. Her brow creased once more. "But you're not my brother," she said, very quietly. "Not anymore."
"What are you talking about?"
"You're not the brother I grew up. Not Quidditch-loving, brash, spider-fearing Ron. Not the Ron who knew nothing about emotions. Or who cared. Not the Ron who nearly died to save Harry from enslavement. Not the Ron who went into the Department of Mysteries to save Sirius. Not the Ron who has stuck by Harry through everything he had to endure.
"You're still Ronald Bilious Weasley. Just not the one I know."
I remained silent, too shocked to say anything.
"You-Know-Who took your memory away," she continued quietly. "And now you're someone else. It's the same thing with Hermione. He did it to make Harry's life a living hell. To break him into pieces. Small, individual little pieces."
"That can't be true—"
"It is," she interjected, looking straight into my eyes. "I said you wouldn't believe me."
"But how could that be?"
Her stare was piercing now, and unblinking. "You never pitied Harry. You were his best friend because of who he was. And Hermione was his girlfriend. You were fine with this. You never minded. In fact, I remember you following them around after the Yeerk invasion and telling them how long it took them to get together."
I stared at my sister, gazing but not really seeing.
"We're going to go back to the Yeerk facility to get Harry's magic back. But it's also to get your memories."
"Ginny… that can't be true." I said softly.
She glared at me definitely, squaring her jaw. "Well, it is."
"And I'm not afraid of spiders. I stopped being afraid of them years ago."
For a moment, she looked as if she were torn between laughing and crying. She turned her face away from me and closed her eyes. "Go back to sleep, Ron."
I nodded and rolled away quietly. She turned over on her mat and went still, faking sleep though I knew she remained awake.
I was just nodding off when I snapped back into full consciousness. A yell split the cool morning air and Harry bolted upright, looking about wildly. His hands flew to his scar.
"What now?" demanded Hermione thickly, glaring blearily at Harry.
He blinked a few times. "Er. Just a nightmare," he said, running his finger down his scar.
"Great. Now I'll never get back to sleep."
He seemed to realize suddenly that he was angry with us. The muscles in his face went taut and he lowered his glower to the grass.
"Want to talk about it?" I suggested weakly.
"No," he snapped.
"What time is it?" Ginny asked loudly.
Hermione pulled back her sleeve and consulted her watch. "Ten fifty."
"Shouldn't we head over to the barn?"
Hermione and I chorused our agreement. Begrudgingly, Harry nodded.
We all got up and changed into fresh pairs of clothing. This done, I hurriedly combed my hair with my fingers. I gave Harry a sideways glance. He wasn't even bothering with his hair.
By the time we got to the barn, everyone else had arrived. Each Animorph had taken up his or her own customary place. I wheeled over to my usual corner and turned around, leaning forward on the armrests.
No one spoke for a long time.
Jake broke the silence with, "I think it's time to go back to the Yeerk facility."
This caused instant uproar.
"What?"
"It's only been a couple of days!"
"I don't know a lot of curses!"
"That's insane!"
Are you sure this is wise, Prince Jake?
"I don't think I've trained enough…"
"Without my magic?"
Don't you remember what happened last time?
Jake held up his hand for silence. Everyone eventually quieted down. All eyes were on him.
"I've thought about this all night," he said. "They won't be expecting it. Both Controllers and Death Eaters. They probably think we're—we're—we're wherever they think we stay, licking our wounds. And I'm not saying go in for Harry's magic. Not yet. I'm saying we should go in and show them we're not shaken easily… especially by this. And Ax?"
Yes, Prince Jake?
"Don't call me 'prince'."
Yes, Prince Jake.
"I can see where you're coming from," Ginny said slowly.
There was a general murmur of agreement, begrudging though it was.
"Cassie?" he asked after these died down. "What about you? You aren't getting any… bad feelings about this, are you? Like something will go wrong?"
Cassie squirmed, looking decidedly uncomfortable when all attention shifted to her. "Uh… no. Not now, at least. If something comes up, though…"
"And you, Harry?"
Harry shook his head and spread his hands open wide. "Nothing. And usually I don't get any 'bad feelings' about something unless it involves Voldemort." —Hermione and I shuddered— "If my scar starts to sting, I'll make sure you know."
Across the room from me, Rachel said, "Let's do it."
Marco
threw up his hands. "Oh, no. Oh no oh no oh no. That's a bad sign. A bad
sign! Whenever Rachel says 'let's do it', it means something insane is
going to happen!"
"'Insane' meaning…?" asked
Hermione.
He rewarded her with a blank stare. "Er… insane. Insane means… insane."
Obviously, no had questioned him about this before.
She raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth to speak. Before she could say anything, however, I interjected with, "There's a slight problem, Jake."
He nodded, politely waiting for me to go on.
"Hermione and I don't know many curses."
This met complete and utter silence. Ginny's mouth opened slowly and didn't close. Harry blinked in surprise, his eyebrows shooting up.
"You two helped me learn curses for the Triwizard Tournament in Fourth Year!" he accused.
"We did not," Hermione shot back.
He flared his nostrils. "Yeah, but you read so much you should know half the curses ever made!"
"I never remember what I read! At least, not for long! I wouldn't be able to remember what we did two years ago!"
He gawked at her.
"Well, can't you fight with the spells you do know?" Jake prodded.
"I suppose," she said slowly.
He rubbed his hands together briskly. "Then I say we should go today. Now. We'll take them off guard."
"Thestrals?" asked Rachel.
He nodded.
At once, each Animorph began to morph. I shuddered, but watched the transformations in horrified fascination. I had never seen anything quite like morphing before.
After a few moments, they popped out of existence. I squinted at the place they had once stood, trying and failing to see them. A shiver ran down my spine when someone ambled past me and brushed my arm.
While this had been going on, I hadn't noticed Harry shrugging into his manticore-skin robe. This I noticed now, as he pulled the tie around his waist tight. He walked forward purposely and swung himself onto someone's back.
Hermione helped me onto Cassie's back (I learned this later, when she demorphed).
Ginny gasped in surprise and leapt forward when someone nudged her back. "Marco!" she cried. Then, glaring at where she though he stood, strode forward and walked into someone else.
I love how she plays hard to get, sighed Marco. Had I been able to see him, I'm sure he would have winked at me.
I clung to Cassie's neck, squeezing my eyes shut. My legs dangled uselessly by her sides. I glanced left. My wheelchair hovered beside me, in Ax's mouth.
Let's go! cried Jake.
I sucked my breath in between my teeth when Cassie leapt into the air. My stomach performed a few acrobatics. The ground rushed by beneath us.
Only seconds later, we were circling down to land by the Yeerk base.
Hermione retrieved my wheelchair from Ax and wheeled it over so that I could slide down into it. I settled myself, pulling out my wand and fidgeting nervously with it.
Harry slid lithely to the ground and jerked the hood of his robe up to cover his head as the Animorphs demorphed. He flexed his hands. Shifting his weight from one side to the other, he fixed his stare on Hermione again. His eyes flickered with both anger and sorrow.
"Okay," said Jake, peering through the bush that separated the woods from the parking lot. He was crouched and prepared to morph. "Since it's Visser Three running this, the guards that Ron and Ginny stunned to get in have been killed. These guards won't be much different, but now they're on the lookout for you."
Ginny nodded. I swallowed noisily. I didn't remember this, but I nodded anyway.
"Hermione, do you think you could hit them from here?"
Hermione nodded and kneeled down beside him, sliding her wand through the leaves. Narrowing her eyes, she took aim and whispered, "Stupefy!"
A jet of silver light erupted from the end of her wand. It struck the guard full on. He crumpled to the ground and didn't stir. Fortunately, he had been standing beneath the camera and therefore out of its view.
Behind me, I heard a loud snapping noise. I glanced over my shoulder just in time to see Jake halfway through his morph, striped fur covering his body and fangs the size of my little finger extending past his lower lip. I shuddered and looked away.
Can you blast the cameras out or something? he asked in thought-speak.
"Don't know how," she replied.
He turned to Ginny. She nodded grimly and pointed her wand, murmuring, "Reducto!"
The camera exploded.
Okay, move out, Jake said, slinking forward. Marco and Rachel followed him. Just behind them, shoulders back and head held high, Harry strode. He twitched the hood to cover his startlingly green eyes. Cassie and Ax fell behind him, looking for all the world like an honor guard.
I was jerked out of my musings when Hermione took the back of my wheelchair and pushed. My wheelchair lurched forward and, with some effort, eased out of the carpet of leaves onto the pavement. Ginny fell into step with us.
I titled my head back slightly. Silently, Tobias swooped forward toward the Animorphs.
Jake stopped before the door. Ginny?
Without need for further instructions, she fried the Gleet BioFilter. I stared into the dark corridor. No lights were on and it was seemingly empty.
He disappeared inside, blending easily with the shadows.
"Hermione?" I asked quietly as she wheeled me inside.
She murmured in reply, "Yeah?"
"What're we going to do? We don't know any curses or jinxes!"
Her lips pulled into a grim line. "We'll just do our best. We survived last year, didn't we?"
I nodded, studying my wand.
Marco took out the first two guards we came across by slamming their heads together. Needless to say, they weren't going to be waking up for a while.
The next couple of corridors were empty.
"Um… excuse me?" I whispered timidly into the deadly silence.
Jake's ears swiveled around, followed quickly by his head. What? he demanded, amber eyes darting around the corridor.
"Doesn't it seem a little… strange, to you? You know, that there's no one around?"
He paused. I didn't notice that— he began.
He never had the chance to finish.
They came out of nowhere. A dozen of them appeared, surrounding us. Spell whizzed in all directions. I threw myself forward and out of my wheelchair, narrowly missing a curse intended for my head.
Harry threw up his robed arm, deflecting a spell. It ricocheted off his robe and burned a hole in the ceiling. The spell illuminated his face for a moment, allowing me a glimpse of his face. All that could be seen beneath the hood was his nose and mouth. His jaw muscles worked furiously.
Fire gathered at his fingertips. He thrust his palms at the Death Eater nearest him. The unfortunate soul then disappeared in a whirling vortex of flame.
I was brought back to my own situation when a spell scorched the ground next to my arm. Rolling, I propped myself up on one arm and said the first spell that came to mind: "Wingardium Leviosa!"
A Death Eater shrieked in frustration as he was lifted from his feet and hovered helplessly in midair. With a snarl and howl, Cassie leapt at him. She hit him full in the chest and brought him to the ground. His wand rolled away across the floor. His voice rose in a horrible scream I shall never forget, which was abruptly cut off when Cassie ripped out his throat.
I shuddered.
His mask snapped off. Beneath, I saw Macnair. He had once, only a short wile ago, worked in the Ministry with my father as an executioner of deadly magical beasts. Like Buckbeak.
Now it came to my attention that a battle raged around me. I had experienced this only once, and that time had been extremely short.
The blade of Ax's tail whistled by my air. I jerked back away from it. Above me, I heard a scream of pain and something thudded to the ground beside me. I looked down to see what it was.
And nearly threw up.
A human arm, cut off at the shoulder, lay beside me in a puddle of blood.
I glanced around at the wall to my right when I heard a very familiar scream. Hermione pushed herself against the wall, screaming in terror and horror. Her eyes were as round and large as plates in her white face. Tears of panic streaked her face. Hands pressed firmly over her mouth, she stared out over the battle.
Seconds later, she fainted.
I suppressed a sudden wave of nauseating fury. I had no time for this!
Swiftly, as I had grown used to this, I army crawled across the ground and swung back up into my wheelchair.
Reinforcements! cried Tobias in a voice strained with exhaustion.
As one, Animorphs, Aniwizards, and wizards turned to look down the corridor. A flood of Hork-Bajir and Taxxons flooded toward us.
The Death Eaters disparated.
YAAAH! screamed Rachel, throwing herself on a Taxxon.
Havoc exploded up around me. Flashes of the battle reached my numb brain. Ax, across the corridor, fighting off two Hork-Bajir with his tail Blade. Jake backed into corner, ears flat back on his head, taking on four Taxxons. Rachel laughing manically as she gutted a Taxxon, then screaming in rage as another clamped its mouth on her back. Tobias, fighting to stay in the air, feebly diving at the Taxxons attacking Rachel with his talons extended. Cassie howling and fending off two Hork-Bajir and a Taxxon. Marco, on his back, struggling with a Taxxon whose mouth was attached to his shoulder. Ginny whirling her wand around her head, a stream of endless curses issuing from its tip. Hermione, on the floor, out cold but unharmed.
At last, my eyes came to rest on Harry. Heat rolled off him, causing the air around him to shimmer. He cupped a ball of flame in each hand, drawing his arm back and throwing them like a Chaser does a Quaffle. The fire threw long shadows on his face. He was unrecognizable with the cold fury that twisted his features.
All the air exploded from my lungs when the body of a dead Hork-Bajir toppled back on top of me. I gasped and my breath hitched in my throat when I felt razor-sharp pain in my abdomen. A strange keening noise escaped my lips and I squirmed beneath its weight.
My eyes watered in pain. I managed to shoulder it off me.
"Aaaagh," I choked. Its elbow blade slid out of my abdomen. Dark blood stained my shirt. I stared at it dumbly.
The Taxxons near me went crazy. As one body, they lunged for me. My eyes widened.
I was suddenly encircled by a column of flame. I rocked back and forth, eyes widening. Heat pressed against my skin, almost burning me from its proximity. The flames were orange, tinged with blue.
My hands slid down to my injury. Blood seeped through my fingers.
The flaming vortex disappeared. Cool air rushed toward me. I shivered and pressed harder on the wound.
Harry was suddenly at my shoulder. "Are you okay?" he asked, his voice hoarse.
I moaned.
He looked down and, gently, pried my fingers from my abdomen. His jaw muscles went taut when he saw the stab wound.
"I'll get our sprite to look at that soon," he murmured, gripping my shoulder tightly for a moment. Then I lost him again as he plunged forward, back into the battle.
Gritting my teeth, I sat up straighter. The rational part of my mind informed me I was losing a lot of blood, and fast. The panicked part screamed that I was going to die.
Squinting, I raised my wand in a shaking hand. I opened my mouth to say a spell and stopped, grunting, as something slammed into the back of my wheelchair. I was decked with a fresh wave of pain.
From what I saw of the battle, we were losing. And we were losing badly. Marco knuckled by me, covered in ghastly gashes. Cassie had lost her tail and a good-sized chunk of her nose. Rachel's arm was hanging on by only a few threads of sinew.
Feet away, Tobias crashed to the ground. Can't—oooh—my wings—so tired… he moaned.
Painful though it was, I managed to wheel forward. I bent down and scooped him up into my lap. Blood gushed from the wound. I titled my head back, moaning.
Ron?
"Yeah?" I asked, pushing myself to the wall. My wheelchair slid awkwardly across the ground, which was slick with blood.
Who else have we lost?
"Me, you, and Hermione."
Hermione? He seemed surprised.
"Yeah, she fainted one minute into the battle. She's over by the wall somewhere. Hopefully, she hasn't been stepped on yet."
Hermione? he repeated.
I didn't repeat myself, as I was being to find it hard to speak.
A flash of orange and white streaked by me. Jake bounded past, leaping on a Hork-Bajir with a world-shattering roar.
In my lap, Tobias said, Were you stabbed by a Hork-Bajir?
I nodded, mouth dry.
You got off lightly. It's not as deep as it could have been… but it's still life threatening. We'll get you help as soon as this is over. Which, hopefully, will be soon.
"It—doesn't—feel—light," I croaked.
FALL BACK! FALL BACK! roared Jake, suddenly. Marco! Grab whoever got injured! And Ron! C'mon, move, move, move!
My wheelchair jolted as Marco lifted me from the floor. Anyone else? he demanded.
"Hermione," I panted. "Over—there."
He bounded over to Hermione, picked her up, and dumped her on my lap. Tobias gave a protesting yelp at the pressure.
And, quickly, we all retreated.
We met no resistance as we fled back into the forest. After we got a mile or so in (there were about five miles to nearest civilization), Marco dropped me and promptly demorphed.
The others followed suit.
"Cassie," Harry said, pulling his hood back. "Ron got stabbed."
Cassie gasped and rushed over to me. Gently lifting Hermione and Tobias's weight from my lap, she lifted my shirt and looked at the wound. "It's bad," she concluded.
"But you can heal him," Harry insisted. "You're an earth sprite!"
She looked him dead in the eye and said, "I can't."
"Yes, you can. But I can't. I've never shown it before, and the time I take trying will only cause him more pain. SO JUST DO IT!" he thundered.
She jumped and, lowering her gaze, went back to my wound. I closed my eyes and took a ragged breath. A gray void had appeared at the edges of my vision and was slowly enclosing it in a blank abyss.
She put her hand over the wound. I gasped in pain, skin crawling. Her brow furrowed and she began to murmur to herself. She held her breath.
I took a deep, shuddering breath as an odd sort of numbness cooled the pain. It spread through my body, calming my flaming nerves. I sighed in relief and closed my eyes.
When Cassie took her hand away, she was trembling with effort. I looked down. A thin, pink scar was all that was left of the terrible wound.
"Thank you," I said quietly.
She nodded and sat back on her haunches, tight-lipped.
The Animorphs then proceeded to morph thestral and we flew home, with no one so much as speaking a word at our horrible defeat.
A/N: Weeeell… here I am again. Sorry this 'un took so long. I'm getting ready for school, so I have all my summer reading and all that fun stuff. Durn it all!
I just want to remind you all: I will never stop this story. Too many people like it. Even if I haven't posted for 2 months, I'm going to pick it up. REMEMBER! And CONSTANCE VIGILANCE! ::wink wink::
Stay tuned for "Chapter 17: Elemental Fury (Tobias)"!!!