Sorry, it took so long. I just don't find the time.

Thanks horsecrazy13, you only need to be a little patinet with me but I definitely won't abandond this story.

Star and Lightning

31st Chapter – The Aftermath

Albus Dambledore sat in his office holding his head with both hands. His head had gotten so heavy suddenly and the twinkle was long gone from his eyes. Leading the fight against the most evil wizard alive was a hard job and he always suffered from setbacks, but this time… Harry and his twin sister had been the Light Side's hope. But now…

Fawkes chirped softly and Albus looked up. The Phoenix cooked his head and ruffled his feathers. Even his black eyes had lost their sparkle and his shoulders seemed slumped. But something in his attitude seemed to say 'I told you so'.

"Yes," Albus muttered softly. "you realized that there was something dark about her and rejected her. I should have taken your warning more seriously."

Then he felt someone taking the stairs to his office, Harry Potter. Albus sighed, this was hard on Harry as well.

Harry shuffled into his office and slumped into an armchair. When he finally looked up, Albus flinched: His emerald eyes looked desperate and were filled with fear, hurt and unbelief.

Slowly, he started speaking: "I can't belief it. She's been…" He shook his head fighting back tears. "His Heiress. I trusted her, I loved her, I still do. She meant so much to me, my family. My own sister, Voldemort's Heiress. Why?"

"To be quite honest with you, Harry, I did fear that she would be an easy prey for Voldemort. I was sure that he would try to get her on his side. You know, his view of the world is quite familiar to her." Harry opened his mouth to protest, but Albus forstalled him.

"No, let me explain. For him, the only thing that matters is power. If you don't have enough power to make others fear you, you have to serve those who have power. Love and friendship and happiness don't exist for him, there's only greed, ambition, hate, envy and pain. Life on the streets is very much like that, you can only survive there if you have power or someone who has power protects you. Elisha understands his way of seeing the world, she understands his concept of power, maybe better than the concept of friendship and love. And he gaver her a chance to participate in his power. She was longing to use her magical powers, she wanted to learn everything about magic.

"And we both know how manipulative Voldemort can be. Who knows what he promised her or how he threatened her. Which leads us to an other question: Why didn't we notice anything?"

"Hermione suspected that something was wrong with her, but Ron and I didn't listen. I was so blind, I'm supposed to be her brother for Merlin's sake! I should have realised something was wrong. If I had only watched her more closely…" Harry almost cried now. Albus thought about interrupting him, but he couldn't give any comfort, so he remained silent. "Her reaction to the prophecy should have been a clear warning…"

"You told her of the prophecy?" Albus asked concerned.

"Yeah… she cried and told me that she'd fail me. I only thought that she wasn't self-confident enough, that she… but she must have already been his heiress then…"

"I suppose that she joined him after she was kidnapped. When she came back, she was distraught, usual reaction to being kidnapped, but there was something about the way she behaved… I then decided to watch her closely, but obviously not closely enough. I should have had an intense conversation with her about the dangers of the Dark Arts right then. Three weeks ago, when she came into my office demanding a permission to use the library's restricted section, it was already too late.

"But it's no use crying over spillt milk. Now, we need to find her before Lord Voldemort does. I suppose that after her betrayal she'll be on the very top of his "Top Ten Wanted"-List. I don't think that there's any chance he'll accept her again, not after she's shown love for you. Don't give her up yet, Harry. Give her a second chance, she isn't evil, she isn't as cold-hearted as Voldemort. Remember what the boggart showed her, what her greatest fear is. She gave you the tool to restore Hogwards wards. She isn't lost on us, yet. A lot of things can happen now. And now I want you to go to bed. In the morning many things look a lot better than in the evening."

Early the next morning, when Harry lay awake in his bed, his mind was a whirlpool of thoughts and memories. The scene in the Defence classroom kept repeating in an infinite loop. Always again he heard the high-pitched voice saying "I'm proud of you, my heiress." and always again, he saw his own dead body. Suddenly, a sharp pain stabbed behind his forehead and Harry cried with pain. So Voldemort knew now. Harry had never experienced him so angry before. He writhed in agony and didn't notice the boys in his dormitory jumping out of bed and frantically getting Professer McGonnagal who quickly brought him to the Hospital Wing. Finally the pain lessened as he lost consciousness. But even in the deep blackth of unconsciousness, he couldn't escape Voldemort. He was pulled to somewhere and found himself witnessing a deatheater meeting

Lord Voldemort was furiously pacing his throne hall. Whenever his fiery gaze met one of his followes, they flinched and backed off. Five Deatheaters had already experienced his wrath and were lying on the floor. Suddenly, Lord Voldemort spun around facing his servants and barked: "I want her!"

Then he sat down stiffly and announced in a calm voice full of suppressed anger: "I trained her to be my Heiress. She would have been perfect: powerful, intelligent, ambitious, hurt by the world, my greatest foe's sister. I didn't expect her to be capable of foolish love for her brother, to be so weak.

"I want you to track her down and bring her to me alive! Kill that woman who raised her and annihilate the muggle street gang she lived with! Make it as painful for the victims and as disastrous as possible! Lucius, Bellatrix, you will lead that attack and you'd better not come back empty-handed."

When Harry regained consciousness, the early morning sun was already shining onto his bed. Ther was a knot of worry and fear forming in his stomache. Even though Elisha had betrayed him, he still loved her.

At the same time, a lone girl was sitting on the pavement in a busy part of London crying silently. Her clothes were torn and her hands and face dirty. She stared dully straight ahead and didn't notice the people walking by looking at her with anger or pity.

A slender, young woman with red hair walking on the other side of the street, saw her, looked away and looked again. Her eyes went searchingly up to the girl's forehead. When she saw the scar, she gasped and ran cross the street without looking right or left.

At the sound of squeaking cars' brakes and a familiar voice calling an almost forgotten name, the girl's head jerked up. In the same moment, a bright green light hit the woman, who slumped to the ground immediately, and about fifty figures wearing black robes and hoods and white masks appeared on the street. The girl jumped up drawing her transparent wand and the battle began…