The Seers' Truth: Beyond the Darkness
By Lady Lestrange
Chapter 34
Rapidly Encroaching Darkness
Disclaimer: The Harry Potter characters and previous situations belong to JK Rowlings. No infrigement is meant or implied. No money is made from this Fanfic. Thanks JK.
--Lady Lestrange
Special thanks to my beta, ennui de mort who always does such a good job being my extra muse as well as proofreading, moral support and just plain fun.
15 reviews: I really hate blackmailing you into reviewing, but hey, I'm a Slytherin. It's in my nature, so when there are 15 reviews for this chapter, the next one will magically appear. Love my readers and reviewers. Answers to the reviews follow the story. You guys are catching up to me, so maybe I should make it 20 reviews…
(A/N: I've been reading a number of fanfics in installments like this one myself, and find it is sometimes hard to remember exactly what has happened before-In a fic as complex as this one is, I thought having a reminder may be helpful for you. If you want to skip it, just page down.)
Up to this Point: Alternate 5th year book. Voldemort was uncertain which was the prophecy child, Samara or Ginny so he kidnapped them both. Beatrice made a mad dash after them in her animagus form. She has been since crucioed and rescued and returned to Hogwarts still in her bunny animagus form.
Harry, Ron and Hermione struggle to figure out how the prophecy might aid them. The trio travels to Hermione's house, Samara's house, the Riddle house and eventually the Snow Castle in search of the girls.
Ginny, who has a Dark Mark, is torn between the visions of Tom in her head and what to do to stay safe from Voldemort at the Snow Castle. Snape is an unexpected help to her.
Voldemort meanwhile has some unpleasant Christmas surprises in store for Harry and Neville. Neville's grandmother ends up in the hospital and the Dursley's are dead, leaving Snape as Harry's guardian.
Back at Hogwarts, the trio tries to ascertain how they will save the girls. They enlist Draco and Lauren's help.
Voldemort has some trouble within the ranks and sends Ethan to learn with Narcissa and Gloria. Meanwhile, the trio works out some differences with Draco, and miss a chance to save the girls. Now, Snape gives some timely advice and Harry invites Neville to their little planning gatherings, which ends in an altercation between Neville and Draco.
Voldemort sets his plans in motion by giving Samara the Dark Mark, but she is far from defeated by this. Ginny on the other hand is ready to give in to save her family. The plot continues as Volemort sets family members upon family members in a quest to destroy all who might thwart him.
Meanwhile, Harry considers the meaning of curcio and tries to puzzle out what Voldemort is doing by reading his scar pangs.
Ethan and Edward prove their worth to Voldemort and Beatrice is finally released from the bunny animagus.
Ginny, under polyjuice potion, is impersonating Madam Amelia Bones. She is following direct orders from Voldemort who is speaking to her in parseltongue from the small snake animagus she is carrying. She saves her father and her brother, but doesn't seem to be able to save herself.
However, Harry Potter and his trusty Gryffindor rescue squad is on the way. Unfortunately, they get waylaid. Ginny is unconscious and the girls are currently looking for the boys and wind up in Voldemort's dungeon with a slew of vampires and a three headed dragon. The boys, Harry, Ron and Draco are going to rescue the others from the veelas, but Valeriana and Narcissa get in the way--or not-- Luckily the twins are armed with puppy puffs and a sense of humor. Now, the intrepid trio have some difficulty determining a course of action. It's no wonder! Perhaps, they should put it to a vote there are so many people involved in the decision. Well, as Dumbledore says, "it is the decisions we make, that make us the witches and wizards we are!" And now, since the group has saved Neville, will they be able to save themselves. Oh, and Severus' unknown plan is finally discovered, but so are the children's escapades. Will they get out?
For further discussion, visit: YAHOO GROUPS, TheSeersTruth
Chapter 34
Rapidly encroaching Darkness
Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville squeezed under the Invisibility Cloak as they walked up the stairs to the entrance of the fourth floor. Harry had his hand on his wand and he could feel his heart pounding. Draco and Lauren walked cautiously beside them and Fred and George brought up the rear. There was no sign of Melisande and the Muggles.
When they reached the door at the top of the stairs, it was warded and Melisande was already there, working on the ward. The Muggles were all chattering excitedly. "I cannot get zee ward off," Melisande confided unhappily.
"Bloody Hell!" Draco swore. "Warded! If it's one of His wards—"
"It's not," said Lauren. "It's Alvin's. I recognize the magic." She knelt beside the door to begin deciphering the combination of charms that was attached to the ward.
After a while, the little group began to nervously discuss their plight. Harry hushed them as Shesha began to hiss anxiously, "Another comes."
"Lauren?" warned Harry, as he stoked Shesha. "Someone's coming. Shesha senses them. You'd better hurry."
"What do you think I'm doing?" snapped Lauren. "Hide."
Draco snatched the Invisibility Cloak from Neville and he and Melisande disappeared under it. A moment later Lauren disappeared as they pulled the cloak over her. Neville spun around with his hand stretched out searching for them. "Melisande?" he whispered.
"I have an idea," said Hermione, as she began rapidly transfiguring their robes to Durmstrang red, starting with Neville's, but within a moment, the door in front of the invisible Lauren swung open and they all clamored up to the forth floor. Behind them, the stairwell door closed like a prison gate.
No lanterns hung on the wall and in the misty shadows it was easy for a dementor to hide.
"Lumos," said Hermione, holding her wand high and sending light to the edges of the corridor. "I don't see any dementors here," she said.
"But zee temperature is cold," added Melisande, pulling the cloak off of herself and Lauren, re-joining the group.
"Yes," said Neville, "we could do warming charms."
"No," warned Draco as he shook out the Invisibility Cloak and folded it. "The temperature is our first alert that the dementors are near."
"One of us could just keep a Patronus," suggested Harry, holding out his hand for the Invisibility Cloak. Draco smirked at him and tucked it whole into his own pocket.
"No," said Hermione. "It takes too much energy. We might need that energy later."
"It's creepy up here," said Ron with a shiver that may have had nothing to do with the cold.
"The dementors feed on emotions," said Lauren. "If there are any up here, you are practically calling them to kiss you. It's just dark and—" She looked around nervously.
"There's nothing here," she said decisively a moment later. "Alvin wouldn't have lost any of the dementors up here. He would have been frantic to keep them all contained. What if they got off of this floor and kissed someone? He wouldn't do that."
"You're right," agreed Draco. "I trust Alvin." Nonetheless, he flooded the corridor with the noonday sun spell. There was nothing to see but cold stone walls. "And we are safe from the Death Eaters here. They won't come here unless He gives them a direct order."
"I hope Ginny and Samara are alright," whispered Hermione.
"You never really liked Samara," Draco accused. "You came here to save your boyfriend's sister."
"That's not true," snapped Hermione.
"You may be able to lie to your Gryffindor friends, but not to a Slytherin," said Draco. "You came for the littlest Weasel."
"Leave her alone Malfoy," snapped Ron, pulling his wand.
"Stop it," said Harry, decisively as he stepped between Ron and Draco. He looked from one to the other, willing them to keep the petty bickering to a minimum. It was going to get them all killed. No, said the voice of his conscience, you're going to do that with or without the bickering.
"And her name is Ginny," he added with a look towards Draco. The Slytherin's response was a careless shrug and a small smirk in Ron's direction. Harry rolled his eyes, even in a crisis; those two just had to antagonize each other. Harry turned to the female Gryffindor. "Hermione?" he said softly, hoping she at least would see reason.
"No, he's right," said Hermione. "I did come for Ginny. I didn't like Samara. Classes I had to study for, she seemed to breeze through. It wasn't fair that I was working, and she was just sliding by and getting as good if not better marks than me. I wanted to take her down a bit, but that doesn't mean I want her in the hands of the Dark Lord. She's still a classmate."
"And you'd risk your life for nothing more than a classmate?" asked Draco confused. "What do you get out of it?"
"People should look out for each other," said Hermione. "If we don't, then we are just like the animals, just looking out for themselves."
Draco harrumphed and turned away, but after a moment he came back. "That's what you think of me, don't you?" he asked. "You think I'm just an animal since I put self preservation above all this Gryffindor rescue nonsense."
"Do you?" said Harry softly.
"Yes!" Draco hissed.
"But you are here for Samara. What do you get out of it?" Harry asked, but Draco just smirked at him.
"You re so clueless," he insulted the Gryffindor, but then he continued, his voice losing its arrogance. "It doesn't matter," he said despondently. "We can't get the wards down to get to his floo. It's impossible."
"Gryffindors don't quit at the first sign of trouble," said Harry. "I didn't think Slytherins did either."
"He's awesome at wards. You would think that—he had other—talents. The number of people he's killed, the variations of how he killed them, different methods of torture, all the new animals he's created and he's conquered death. It's enough to keep anyone busy for several lifetimes. Who would think he would have time to master wards?"
Draco shook his head, "But it was one of his first accomplishments before he even left school. Before I was born he set the wards at Malfoy Manor with my father. It was a wedding present to my parents. Everyone knows that wards should periodically be changed, and when I was six, there were new developments in warding spells. My father tried to update them. He almost died. He spent six months in St. Mungo's, and the wards remained unchanged. My father later realized that he couldn't change them without an active Dark Mark. My father is a very accomplished wizard. They were his own wards, on his own house, and they almost killed him. Do you really think the little weasel is going to get in?"
There was complete silence as they considered his revelation.
"I can't kill him with my wand," said Harry. "They are brother wands and won't duel. I have to find another way, and it would be best if we could keep the Death Eaters away. After all, only I can kill Voldemort, but any of them can kill me." Green eyes met gray ones, and for a moment neither moved. "I need 'magic unknown'. There's something else." Harry put his face in his hands. "Something I should know, just out of my reach."
"You can do it, Harry," said Draco.
Harry looked at him sharply. He had expected those words from Ron—from Hermione, but not from Draco, and, yet, there was a familiarity about the moment. It made him remember learning to Apparate and Sinistra's insistence that they help one another.
"Samara believes in you," said Draco.
"You called me by my first name," Harry observed softly.
"Well, hell, if we're going to die together we might as well be on a first name basis," laughed Draco and Harry realized Draco was once again hiding behind his flippancy.
"We should explore," Draco said, turning away from Harry. "Look for another way off of the floor incase we are surprised by Death Eaters and we need a back up plan." He shrugged. "Who knows, maybe the weapon Potter needs is on this floor. That would be Gryffindor luck, wouldn't it?"
Harry noticed that Draco was back to calling him Potter. Maybe calling him Harry was just a moment of weakness—or a moment of strength.
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"It won't take Him long to realize we aren't in our rooms," said Samara as they hurried along the corridor. "Have you ever set up Apparition wards?" she asked Ginny.
"No, but we'd better learn soon. If He Apparates into our rooms and we aren't there—" Ginny let the thought trail off. Her aura darkened as if that thought was too awful to think about.
"It's not that hard to set Apparition wards," said Samara, interrupting Ginny's morose thoughts. "I've done it, and you're good at wards in general, Ginny, but we have to hurry. We need to be out of here before they come."
"But I'm tired," Ginny said. "The ward in the dungeon and fighting the dragon—"
"I know," Samara consoled. She could see the fatigue, but Ginny was still a strong witch with strange and powerful reserves from somewhere Samara didn't completely understand, but the power of the yellow aura was obviously stronger than the blue. "Between us, I think we can do it. It doesn't have to last forever, just slow them down a bit so we can get to his floo. It's a daring enough move that I don't think anyone will follow us."
"The Death Eaters won't follow," said Ginny. "None of them would dare enter His private chamber." Her own aura flickered in fear at their audacity.
"If they could get in," said Samara. "If we can get in—"
She broke off as she saw Ginny's aura flicker from blue to yellow and back again. Her friend's eyes got the far away look that filled her on occasion and a rather silly smile creased her lips. Her aura strengthened, lightening to a pale golden yellow. "Tom?" Ginny whispered, but she didn't miss a step.
SSSSS
"What do you think we should use as the ward?" Ginny asked Tom and he began to coach her through it's planning as they walked.
By the time they arrived at their rooms, Ginny was ready. Truthfully, the wards only took a few moments to set, but it took less time for the Death Eaters to Apparate. They had only just finished the wards around Ginny's room when the pops of Apparitions sounded. Habit forced them to run into the first open room: Samara's.
Even as they barricaded the door with an additional ward, Ginny realized that this was a mistake. "They'll get in here," said Ginny. "They know we are here! This was stupid. We shouldn't have come in here."
"Well, Ginny, at least you are recognizing when you are acting like a brainless idiot. That's a start, I suppose. We can only hope that you live long enough to continue making these grand strides toward sentience."
"They won't get in that easily," said Samara. "They can't Apparate."
"But we can't get out," cried Ginny.
"Actually, that's not quite right Ginny."
They stared at each other in horror for a moment before Ginny said, "Can you make a Portkey?"
"Ginny?"Samara shook her head no.
"Maybe the niche in the wall spell—" said Ginny.
"No," said Tom. "You can't use it to go through the wall. You have to come out on the same side you went in and it's a timed spell. We don't know how long they will stay."
She heard the voices of the Death Eaters coming closer.
"Ward the door," ordered Tom.
"But we already have—"
"Ward the door!" demanded Tom. "Use the twelve point ward. We need time."
Ginny obeyed just as the Death Eaters reached it. Ginny heard the impact of the spells against the door and looked at Samara.
"What are we going to do?" Samara wondered aloud.
"I don't know," Ginny said. "Tom? Can you help me to make us a Portkey?"
"No, but I can Apparate you," said Tom."We just put up Apparition shields," said Ginny. "How can we?"
"Idiot," Tom snapped. "Of course I left a hole for us to slip through. It was automatic in the making of the ward: always allow your personal escape route. Didn't you see it?"
"No, I—" then as Ginny looked more closely, she understood. There was a hole, keyed directly to them. No one else would be able to Apparate through it, but theoretically Ginny could, if she could Apparate at all. "I can't," Ginny thought. "I can't Apparate even if I have no stress. In this situation, it's impossible! Even if I could Apparate, I can't hope to have that kind of precision, and what about Samara?"
"I can bring Samara. You know I can do it for you," said Tom calmly. "Just to the forth floor corridor. Remember?"
"I've never been there."
"I have."
"When?" blurted Ginny, and was immediately treated to the sight of a well dressed young man who looked amazingly like Maura, but was talking intently to Grindelwald—and Tom. All of them were positively smoldering with Fire Elemental. She could almost smell the smoke and the blood.
"No, never mind. It doesn't matter," thought Ginny, trying to shut out Tom's memory. "Why can't you just help me to make a Portkey?" snapped Ginny.
"Portkeys use the same premise as Apparition, Ginny. Apparition is actually easier, and I can't use a Portkey through the hole in the ward. The escape route is made for Apparition, not a Portkey. Ginny Love, I know what's worrying you; I won't keep control. As soon as I Apparate us, you can regain control," Tom said reasonably.
His voice had no hint of the earlier banter. He was cool, almost clinical. It was the attitude he got when he wanted to do a particularly difficult spell and it needed his full attention. Like he was in the Chamber, Ginny thought.
"No!"
"There's no other way," said Tom as the light of spells battered the door. "They will break through, and soon. We can't hold them here, and there is no time. You have to trust me."
"No. There has to be another way." In her fear, she had spoken aloud.
"Another way?" questioned Samara. "What other way, Ginny?"
"Ginny Love."
The door began to glow green and then she heard the hissing. Voldemort speaking to her in parseltongue. "(Young one! Give up this foolishness. If you open this ward immediately, I will be forgiving. If you do not, you will have to be punished.)"
Ginny's blood ran cold. She had hoped it was only the Death Eaters, not Him. This changed everything. "You promised me, I could go home!" shouted Ginny in a pique of Gryffindor bravery.
There was a moment of silence and then the hissing continued. "(Virginia, stop acting like a spoiled toddler.)"
"Tom?" Ginny said, her resolve breaking with her panic. "Help me."
"(You know I will break this ward. I will have you.)" The hissing voice continued, cold and determined and extremely angry.
"The choice is clear," said Tom. "You have to trust me, Ginny Love."
Through all this Samara was silent although she too heard the parseltongue. Ginny looked at her imploringly. "Ideas?" she mouthed.
"The Emerald," Samara mouthed back.
"(I—I have to get the emerald—You told me to—)" Ginny hissed nervously, adding "(Master,)" at the last minute.
"(Yes,)" agreed Voldemort in Parseltongue.
But before Ginny could hear what He was saying, Tom suggested the deafness spell. "So he can't piggy back any more commands on your current Imperius."
She could almost feel Tom thinking, calculating. Every bit of playfulness had been sucked out of him by the situation.
"He can summon me," thought Ginny, panicking even as she obeyed Tom's instincts. She raised her wand and whispered the word, "Obscurdesco!" The world went silent, but Tom's voice in her head was still unaffected by the spell since it didn't go through her ears. She was never so grateful to hear his voice in her head.
"He couldn't summon you now without invalidating the Imperius,"Tom explained. "Since you told him you were going for the Emerald, he knows you will be ruled by His Imperius. Why would he take the trouble to cast a spell of that magnitude twice? It would be a monumental waste of power."
"Does he know who's here? Does he know about Harry? Can you sense anything from him Tom?"
"Too dangerous," Tom said his voice impossibly calm as if he needed to convince her of his rationality. "Salazar is alert and focused on you. He would sense me. You need to get out of here," said Tom "And you need my help. We need to Apparate, and we need to do it now."
She hesitated, looking for the trick, but there didn't seem to be any. "Do it, Tom." she said, tensing and waiting for him to wrest control from her.
She felt the familiar tingling sharper than usual and more focused, but control of her body remained her own. "Ginny Love, don't fight me."
"I'm not," she whimpered, filled with fear of both Tom and Salazar and the Death Eaters closing in. "I want to let you have control, but I can't seem to let go," she said. "It's so empty. It's—" she struggled to explain the feeling to Tom, but he already understood.
"It's like death," he said.
She nodded although he couldn't see her.
"I'm here," he repeated slowly in her head. "I'm here," and she found herself clinging to him, even though with him came the pain of possession.
She remembered how it had happened before in the Chamber:
Sparkles of fire and light invaded her until she was irrevocably his. There was nothing between them then but fear. She would have struggled, but there was no where to go. He pointed out to her that without him, she had no Parseltongue, and the basilisk would kill her. She had cried and pleaded but in the end, she had no choice. Ginny had melted into him then and let him take her, abandoning her own will in favor of his and she knew nothing until he demanded she participate in the spell that thrust Salazar from them. The magic was beyond her then, filling her with an animal panic that consumed every logical thought.
He knew she was afraid of him, but he didn't care. He knew she was afraid of the magic, but he didn't care. He knew he was hurting her, but he didn't care about that either. He still pushed her forward slowly, tightening around her will until it was his, until she was his. He simply didn't care that it hurt her. He didn't care that it frightened her. It frightened her then. It frightened her still.
"I'm scared Tom."
"Oh, Ginny Love. You're no longer eleven. You can do this—We can do this."
Ginny took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Just do it, Tom. There's no other way."
"No. You aren't going to blame this on me. Not this time." A flurry of emotion from Tom came with the memory: frustration and a dozen other garbled emotions. "It was different when you were eleven," Tom continued. "I couldn't expect you to participate. I had to do—what I did, but not now. I don't have to now."
"What do you mean you don't have to now?" she mentally shrieked. "There are Death Eaters at the door—He's at the door—Voldemort—Salazar!"
"We do this together or not at all."
"Tom! We will die. I will die. You will—will—" She broke off, horrified.
"Together or not at all," he repeated calmly. "Where's your Gryffindor sense of adventure?"
"Tom, please!" She felt the panic rising, overtaking her. She felt as if she couldn't breath, couldn't think. Hot tears were rolling down her face. "I should have been a Hufflepuff!" she muttered.
Again the sparkles of pain came, running under her skin over her entire body, she closed her eyes and let it happen, wanting to just melt away from it.
"No," said Tom. "You're not participating. Reach for the magic. Remember in Quit when two people touch, it stops hurting? It becomes shared?"
"It didn't stop hurting—before—" whispered Ginny. "In the Chamber—"
"I know," whispered Tom. She felt the waves of guilt coming from somewhere deep within him, and yet, he was telling himself, telling her, that he was justified, even though she had been a child. There was no other way. She had been lost already. The question was not would she be possessed. It was would she be possessed by Salazar or by Tom. "I know," whispered Tom in her mind. "It's different now."
She felt his sorrow to the depth of his soul, and yet he wouldn't have changed what had happened. What he meant was that he was different now, but was he really?
Ginny shuddered, feeling the constant prickling of his magic against hers, hot and insistent. "How is it different?"
"I was hoping you would tell me," said Tom softly.
"I can't touch you."
"Yes, you can, Ginny Love. You just have to reach with your magic, not with your hands. It's more elusive, but possible. It's intentional magic. Feel your intent."
"How?" said Ginny desperately, fighting against the prickling feeling of magic against her skin. "I don't know how to do this."
"Intention," said Tom. "Stop fighting it! You have to want to—Wish it real—"
"I do—I want to—" said Ginny, desperately thinking of the Death Eaters outside and the danger. The desire to escape was foremost in her mind, with it, threatened panic. A sob escaped her and she clenched the sleeve of her robe in her hand twisting it viciously.
"Ginny Love," said Tom calmly, his voice rather hypnotic in her head. "Help me. Help us. Stop thinking about the Death Eaters and think of me! Think only of me. Close out every other thought. Reach for me. Your intention must be clear and uncluttered." The thoughts as they came to her were soft as a whispered breath. She could almost feel his cool fingers grasp her wrist—fingers touching her face with awe that she would agree to this. That she would say yes—again. Fingers of his magic were wrapping around everything she held dear, and she vacillated between fear and wonder.
She could nearly see him, nearly touch him. She could feel the breath of his magic against her face. It was so fleeting. The taste of his magic was tantalizing, just out of her reach. She could almost smell it burning. Almost—
"Shut everything away from you but me. Think only of me, Ginny, and reach with your magic; reach with your soul."
He and his magic seemed to exist across a great chasm of pain and fear and she couldn't breach it. She couldn't stop hearing the Death Eaters at the door. She couldn't stop thinking of the Chamber of Secrets. She wanted desperately for him to come to her, for him to just take her over as he had done before. "Just get it over with, Tom," she thought. "You come to me—possess me."
"No. Not-This-Time." His thought was calm, impossibly calm in the turmoil of fear she had built.
She felt as if he had been gently coaxing her closer to him for hours, but they didn't have hours. It could have only been moments.
Her eyes met his intense green eyes in her mind, as green as Avada, she thought and yet she was still drawn by it. She felt his magic all around her searing and powerful and suddenly a sense of calm came over her too. The desire to escape and the will to help each other took second place to the need to trust one another with their magic. He had done this for her, again and again and trust did not come easily to him. Not that he had a choice, said a small mutinous voice. He had trusted her. He had trusted her with his life when he chose her over Salazar in the Chamber. He trusted her when she went for her Dark Mark, but she had never trusted him. It was time to trust him, wasn't it?
His magic was a wild buzz of pain against her. She remembered it like this from the Chamber and she remembered it got worse—so much worse. She remembered him telling her to trust him then, and she had. She had said, yes, and the pain had exploded into an unbearable violation of her magic, her soul, herself, and she had vowed never to trust him again. Never. Never. There were a thousand reasons to deny his trust. But it didn't matter then, he was already in control of her body. He had hurt her. Tried to take her body for his own. Tried? No he didn't try; he did take it. That was then.
What about now, she asked herself? Now, he had lived within her in some manner for the past four years, but always under her control; always tethered. Dare she release him even to save herself? Did she trust him now? Or was it something more that they shared? Now—was it different now? Washe different?
In that blink of a moment, she knew her intention was to trust him with all she was. She did trust him, and the magic burst forth from her in a monumental blast as she flung herself across the chasm of fear into the warmth of his magic, melting into his will in an explosion of beauty and wonder that literally took her breath away—her breath, her feeling, her self. She did not even feel her hand close around Samara's, nor the Apparition that followed—once, twice, three times.
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Answers to Reviews:
A/N: First of all, I want to let you know that I am updating even though I did not SEE 15 REVIEWS. Unfortunately, fanfic ate some of my reviews. They are still counted as 15, but I only have eleven, so if you reviewed the last chapter and remember what you wrote, or even if you don't, I'd appreciate a note saying what you thought. It's sad to lose the first 4 reviews. I've grown accustomed to the first few reviews being really insightful, and now I've missed them on a chapter I really wanted feedback on to be sure I didn't lose anyone so if you are confused by anything, let me know. I want to fix it. LL
DarkLordLongbottom: Draco leaving them all to die would be "funny"? All my readers seem to need some serious help…sigh…not that your author doesn't feel the same way. LOL
DraginLover :Thanks for re-reviewing. I'm sad I don't know what you said the first time though. I really wanted feedback on this chappie. Sigh.
Riddled-Slytherin Poor dear, reviewed twice with a hurt arm. Glad you liked the Snape and Volde part. I wasn't sure about it.
Alaxander thanks
Chernobyl : Please stop forgetting to review. I need you. Glad you enjoyed the Ginny/Tom. I agree if there were any Weasley's in Slytherin, it would be the twins or maybe Percy, he's pretty ambitious. I'm not terribly fond of the Marauders so I haven't given them much thought on how "Gryffindor" they are. I think you will begin to see some of the typically more Slytherin/Gryffindor behavior of the twins in my book shortly. I believe everyone has sort of a dominant personality and then a lot of traits of another. In the twins case, they were definitely Gryffindor/Slyths. Like Hermione is obviously Gryffindor/Ravenclaw, and Tom is Slytherin/Ravenclaw or maybe if he hadn't been the heir of Slytherin he would have been sorted Ravenclaw/Slytherin. Anyway, that's what I think.
akiel "WOW I JUST CAUGHT UP" So what have you been doing? So that's why you haven't been reviewing. Oh well, I hope you stay with us for a while.
Trillium
"I don't know if I'm more amused or freaked out by the Snape/Voldi scene." Thank you. That was a scene I was worried about. I'm glad someone addressed it.
Elbereth The kids really have been trying to move. They just have been thwarted at every turn. I mean they barely got there when the boys got abducted by the veelas. Then they had to deal with Narcissa and Valeriana. Yes, they want to move, but now the wards are back up, so they are stuck.
Kemenran You said: "I do hope that Snape would be able to leave the Castle, with the children." Everyone look, it's a review of record length for Kemenran. Congratulate her, but Dumbledore is not under polyjuice. That is what Snape wanted to prove when he used one of Dumbledore's hairs. I don't think a hair taken from a person under polyjuice would work properly. I think you would change to the real person, not the person you appear to be
Potter-gurl17: speechless? Cool.
Little Red Rabbit: thank you.
A/N: And now, I know that awful cliffie must be bothering you, so go ahead and review and I will update soon. You know what it takes…15 reviews.