There's not much I can do when I stall out mid-sentence.
amythest as well as KoChanneo - Do either of you sleep? Oo;;
MostEvilKitten - Thanks for the praise ^__^
micah - I'm a god of fucking? Okay, yeah, I know what you _really_
meant but I have a dirty mind as of late. Well, considering I have 779
reviews at this moment, you're most assuredly not the only one!
~>~ - Writer's block.
Adrielle - My mind is very twisted, and I am friends with very strange
people (Leigh, aka Priest Li Xiang, for example...) and that's where
my ideas come from ^__^
Oops - Yeah, most people are shocked when they find out that there's
no 'next' after reading 53 chapters. But look! Here's chapter 54!
Pamela - Draco's in the American High School because Black Rose is
writing a spinoff.
CastusAlbusCor - *laughs* At least you didn't do like some people I
could name and waste the majority of their sleeping hours reading it.
Lady Russell Holmes - There's been some fanart over on the mailing
list.
Cassipia - ... Okay, sure. Now... what type of 'love' is it? *pervert
grin*
Shila - Finally got some more up for ya.
Sera Luanma/K-ko - Wow, that's the most in-depth review I've had in a
long time. I'm glad you like what I've written, and that Nathaniel's
appearance did not put you off of it.
Eaiva le Fay - *snickers* Maybe there's a minotaru, maybe there's not.
You'll just have to wait and see, non?
Black Rose - Mmhmm, Sev is coming your way. Just have to get that part
written up. Probably around chapter fifty-six or fifty-seven.
Phoenix Flight - *chuckles* I get the feeling that a lot of my readers
get their 'evil' kick out of this, when they don't normally, as you
said, "turn a blind eye" to that sort of thing. I couldn't find a way
to put Remus in this chapter. He just didn't want me to put him in,
and since he's my muse, I have to listen to what he says. *nodnodnod*
Flummox - Hello my evil minnion. Sorry this took so bloody long... Ah
the warm fuzzies of Harry's scary-ness. It's all fun ^__^ Nate's motto
when it comes to the ladies: run away... especially if they're
throwing boots!
Scamber Dragon - I hope I'm forgiven for the er... two months it's
been since I put the last one up...
Tiny - The end of last chapter was my way of kicking Nate out of the
story for awhile, actually. He was just taking over. So I made him go
track down good old Arthur Weasley. That'll get the parents in, too.
Now, if I could just get a good hold on the characters again...
Ever notice that they have the most pathetic insults in Harry Potter?
If I was writing it they would be cussing not calling people
'dunderheads'. Therefore, I'm not writing it, nor do I own it.
---
Blackened Sunrise
Chapter Fifty-Four - Finding
The Itch
---
Silence.
It had taken almost ten minutes to realize that the grinding of the
moving passages had begun to quiet, and much longer to listen to them
come to a halt. Why had they stopped moving? Well, this _would_
certainly make things easier, she mused, fingers reaching back to
brush along the golden length tucked into her belt. And what exactly
was this bar for? Or the black stones in her pocket?
It was confusing, but everything had been since she had found out that
Harry wasn't the boy who had vanished the Wizarding World a year and a
half earlier.
Shaking her head, Hermione sighed, tilting her head back and rubbing
at the bridge of her nose. Not only was she confused, but she was
getting very, very annoyed. When would she get out of this bloody
maze?! Growling, she dropped her head and started to take another step
when she froze. Was she seeing things?
She stepped back to her last position, tilting her head.
Nope, definitely not seeing things.
There was a crack of even more darkness in the wall; the crack was
perpendicular to the passage, exactly where she stood. If she had
taken but that one more step, she would have missed it. Curiously, she
stepped closer, and realized with a start that there was a ring of
gold at the top of the two inch-wide crack. She tugged the gold bar
out of her belt, looking at it's end, then the gold ring.
They were the same size.
Carefully aligning the two, she began to screw in the end that the
chain fell out of into the golden ring. One final twist and...
The halls flooded with light, and after so long in darkness, she
hissed and threw up an arm to protect her sensitive eyes. Goddamn but
that had hurt.
She started when the golden bar slipped through her fingers-- she had
expected it to be stuck in the top of the crack/roof when she had
connected the two pieces. Apparently not, as she held the now
five-foot golden bar in her hands. It wasn't quite long enough to be
considered a true wizarding staff, but nowhere near short enough to be
a cane. So what was it?
In the newly lit passages, she investigated the bar very carefully.
How... unusual... experimentally, she tugged lightly on both ends of
the gold.
They separated, and the length of chain extended between them--
connected somehow. How interesting. It appeared she had gotten her
hands on a flail of some sort. Not that she had even seen a solid gold
flail before.
Well, that would just be stupid to have a solid gold flail. It would
bend on impact. Must only be gold-plated then.
She reconnected the two ends, turning a flail back into a staff,
whirling it skillfully around her hands, feeling at ease with the five
foot length of gold-plated steel. Well, at least she felt at ease with
it until it spun out of her hands and clattered to the floor.
The Enchantress blushed and repeatedly thanked God that there had been
no one around to witness her fumble with her new weapon. Picking it
up, she changed it back into it's flail format, and tucked it once
again into her belt. It was going to take some time to get used to,
and to learn how to use, but she'd deal with _that_ when she got out
of this goddamned maze.
Well, at least there were lights now. Hermione took out her athame and
scratched a small 'x' into the wall beside the crack. Then she turned
and began to wind her way through the maze once more.
---
Weapon calmly used what was left of the drow-girl's shirt to wipe her
blood from his hands. The crowds had fled when he began to tear into
her, and so it was only he, Helkaer, and Sulnore left on the streets.
The rightful Heir crossed her arms, gaze cool as she watched the edan
clean himself off after destroying one of her peoples. She could find
no reason to care about the foolish girl who had brought her own death
down upon her head.
But the one-eyed warrior-priestess was getting impatient, "Well,
Weapon? How long is this going to take? I'm not getting any younger."
"Calm down, Princess," Weapon returned in his soft monotone, "You'll
have your throne within the day."
"I'd better," snapped the irrate drow. Helkaer snickered softly,
smirking at the dirty glare that the female shot him. Weapon tosses
aside the cloth, reverting to Harry with a sickening lurch as his
wings were sucked back into his body. The green-eyed youth blinked and
smiled.
"Well, that was fun!" cheerfully, he began to walk through the now
silent streets, once again headed for Sulnore's mother's palace. They
were unobstructed, the whispers of Weapon's brutal slaughter of the
girl racing on ahead of them.
---
The youngest Weasley was fit to be tied.
Her eyes blazed-- quite literally-- as she stomped around the Great
Hall. Where the _hell_ were Draco, Hermione and Harry?!
Everyone else was gathered int he Hall with her, but those three
appeared to have vanished completely. Sirius and Katar stood like
guards at the door, the four Druids were gathered at a table, talking
with Ron and that 'cracker' girl, while Trelawney appeared to be
attempting to convince Snape that she really _could_ see the future.
It didn't appear to be working-- nor was Virginia's attempts to locate
the Three Freaks using the spirits and elementals she could see. They
were just... gone.
Annoyed, the youngest weapon reached out as far as her senses--
amplified by the Power-- could reach, and yet there was still n-- hold
up. Right there, on the edges of her control, she could just barely
sense a weapon. Focusing her power in that direction, she was
surprised to realize that it was Draco.
In America.
What the _hell_ was he doing in America?
"Snape," her voice rang out sharply, catching the Potions Professor's
attention, not to mention the attention of everyone else int he room,
"Do you know of a scrying potion?"
"... I do," the former Deatheater admitted after a few moments, "Why,
praytell, do you ask?"
"Because Draco's in America, and I'd like to know what the bloody hell
he thinks he's doing there."
---
End Chapter
Chapters will be a bit shorter than normal, until I can get back into
the 'writing groove'. It'll happen, just maybe not perfectly quickly.
I'll try, though.