Disclaimer: Once again, J.K. Rowling owns everything except, Will Hazel, Eli, and of course, the plot.

Another once again: many thanks are due to everyone who has reviewed!

Paths of the Grave and Shierden

Chapter 3: Upon Waking

"Hello? Oy! Are you okay?" a voice from the back of Hazel's mind awoke a monstrous headache. Someone…talking to her?

"I'm...fine, I think…" Hazel mumbled, opening her eyes to a freckled face looking down at her. She recognized it, from Hogwarts, but the name escaped her. "Hello, erm…who are you again?" Hazel stared at the familiar stranger, hoping she knew who he was.

"Must have been hit by a memory charm, mate. The name's Ron. I think I've seen you before…just don't know where," Ron, who must have been in the same year as Hazel, was now blushing with embarrassment.

Ronald Weasley… "Ron? Ron…Weasley? You're best mates with Harry Potter, right?" Hazel whispered, surprised the name had come to her. Then again, all of her memories were flooding to her mind.

"Yes. Why?" Ron questioned, oblivious to what the girl he found was getting at.

"Oh, er…no reason. By the way, I'm Hazel…Shierden," she smiled with relief. Knowing that proper help had finally come, she closed her eyes and lay back on her torn blanket by the trashed campfire in the middle of a vast wood. Hazel was no longer the frighteningly frail girl as the night before, but the frank and forceful woman she had always been.

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Eli observed the canopy above the great black bed he reflected upon. His memories lost in the midst of a gregarious migraine, he wondered about his sister and how she faired. On instinct Eli tried to escape upon waking, only to find the door carefully locked and his wand missing. Crack! He disregarded the noise. Eli concentrated on the voice he heard the night before (or the last time he was conscious). There seemed to be no time in this horrid place he found himself in, only muted candlelight and a black room. Will…the shadow in the darkness. If it had not been his brother that night, then someone impersonated him with proficiency. Abruptly, Eli became the panicky prankster he embodied until…the night before. Something came over him that night in the forest. Then, he remembered Hazel, her eyes glazed upon a snowy face. "She saw Will then," he thought out loud to himself.

"Already going crazy from isolation?" a man asked from a dark corner, his words oozing with a lovely hatred. Eli realized the noise he ignored signaled Apparation.

"Will…" Eli scoffed dryly, "Where am I? And where did you go?"

"Oh, I've been here and there," Will replied, casually avoiding the first question," But Eli, I have never felt so…alive."

"What are you TALKING ABOUT?" Eli tried to say, but at that moment, a sharp knock on the door interrupted. The door cracked open, almost silently.

"Will…" a voice called urgently from the small crevice. "Will, the Dark Lord is impatient…He wants to know what the boy has chosen."

Eli glanced at his older brother. Dark Lord? Will left us for…Eli thought. It all made sense. The abrupt journey without a goodbye… The pain in his brother's arm excused by a cut before he left; all of it proved Eli's second greatest fear…Will was a Death Eater.Eli sat in shock, focusing on nothing, and pondered about everything that suddenly made sense.

"I'm taking care of it…" Will worded silently back to the darkened doorway. He turned to Eli with a guilty smile. "Okay Eli," he turned to his younger brother with false repentance, "you caught me. I'm scum in the bloody rotten dirt and I shouldn't have left you and yer sister alone. I'm sorry…could you ever forgive me?" Eli glared at him, eyes filled with scorn.

"Why should I trust you anymore? You're-you're one of them... A Death Eater..." Eli turned his head in disgust.

"You don't have any reason to trust me…and believe me, you really don't" Will sighed, "But the thing is, Voldemort is anxious for more Death Eaters…That means you, mate."

"WHAT!" Eli gasped as he coiled back into the bed's abyss. How could he become a Death Eater? Did he have a choice? Many thoughts raced through his mind.

"But," his brother added, "I may have a plan…"

"Will I like it?"

"Most likely not," Will answered his brother. "However, the way I see it, you only have two choices…"

Author's note: Okay, so this chapter was short…A little too short if I do say myself…But I really needed to end it here because of certain……things. Well, that's all I have to say for now. See you later!