Author's Note: Good God! Has it been that long? Well, apparently, it has. I'm sorry for the lacks of updates and such... schoolwork was just so overwhelming that I couldn't even take the time to write down ideas of the next chapter. Not to mention that all this while, I've been enjoying a little romance of my own... so, forgive me? Please? Anyway, I am back and I am ready to finish this story! But, of course, one chapter at a time. So, for all of my supporters, readers, reviewers, this one's for you all! Thank you for the constant support and the emails. I treasure them all! Sorry that this chapter was quite short, I know it's frustrating that you had to wait all this time for this measly chapter of mine. Sorry... Patience, I guess. I'll come up with the next chapter soon. Read and enjoy!

Chapter 21: To Take Away

The sun was setting. The huge fiery ball was just dipping low on the horizon. To others, it would be a time for melancholy thoughts and peace. After all, this was just a bit of light before dusk took over. But to some, this was the time to attack.

Gareth Durant looked at the horizon, watching closely as the black of night started to bleed into the red, orange and yellow trail left by the sun. He was filled with a sense of pride. From the stories that his father, Madigan, had told him back then, he had to pay very close attention to the sunset.

The reds of the sky signified the phoenix, the Durant emblem. The oranges signified to the fire that they held, the power that they would hold on to, the passion they were born with. Ah, but the yellows... Madigan has not wanted to confess. He wanted his son to be proud of him, to love him. He did not want Gareth to think that he was less of a man because the woman that he was married to was not the woman he loved most dear. And so, he kept the meaning of the yellow streaks of sun on the sky to himself.

But Gareth found out just as well, or made inferences with his own childish gullibility. Either way, he came to know the story that will forever change his life... from his own mother, no less. But the story was so centered on Madigan being a great man, a great warrior, that it held half-truths and mostly lies. His mother, bitter that Madigan did not grow to love her even though she'd borne him a son, became ill because of jealousy and hate. This sickness she'd carried with her through the years, even more after Madigan had been killed. She took to drinking and staring unseeingly at a blank wall of the castle. She was too weak to move, too powerless to stop the maddening things around her.

So Gareth came to the conclusion that his father's death had been the cause for his mother's demise into unreality. It caused him to hate Draco, unknown of, unseen.

It was one night, when Gareth was around fifteen or sixteen years old when his mother told him what he desperately wanted to know. His mother told him that Madigan was a good man. Always caring, always loving. He had the mistake of wronging a man who had so much power over him and so he paid with his life. The man who killed Madigan was Draco Malfoy, son of Lucius Malfoy.

Gareth did not know that this story was false. He did not know that it was the product of his mother's imagination and mental illness. All he knew was Draco killed Madigan for no apparent reason. He had concluded in his mind that Draco killed every last Durant alive because of... of what, Gareth did not know. He never wanted to ponder on it. He wanted his emotions to take hold of him, let thinking be damned to hell!

He wanted revenge. Of the worst sort, of the most despicable kind. He wanted to watch Draco's reaction when he would find out, when he would pray and beg for mercy... Because of a woman he loved so dearly and who meant nothing to Gareth.

He wanted Draco to scream, to cry. He did not want Draco to look away when he would feed her into the flames then take her out so that he could do more. He wanted Draco to feel what he felt when he saw his father's head on a stake, bloody and dishonored.

What Gareth thought by the meaning of yellow in the sunset was honor and family pride. He could not have been more wrong; for what Madigan really meant in the very depths of his soul was not honor nor courage.

It was surrender... to love.

The night was beginning to fall. Two years after the death of Lucius Malfoy and the escape of Narcissa and Draco, Madigan Durant had been dreading sleep ever since. Night was cruel to him. It taunted him and made him restless. Now he knew how his victims felt when he suddenly entered their homes and gave no mercy to their screams and pleads. He was pleading for a good night's sleep. But it never came. And so, he was continually weak each day.

The ale didn't suffice to make him sleep, as he had tried many times before. It made him drowsy, he noted. But that drowsiness only made his nightmares come even more alive than they possibly were. He was sure others could see the looming mist of green air around him, almost suffocating him. But the others could not. And Madigan was not to let anybody know that he was becoming more and more insane.

The night, for Madigan Durant, was to be as merciless as the vengeance for Lucius' death.

The lies... the deceptions he told everyone. He was now suffering from the night's own deceptions. For in the stillness of the night, the blackness of its veil, a man – merely a child, then – was waiting in its folds, ready. He judged the scene before him, noting the guards and the soldiers milling about. They had been on another raid, he noted, and despised Madigan even more.

He waited. Until all the guards fell back and slept soundly. Until all the soldiers retired to their makeshift tents. Until he saw their leader, Madigan, walk near the edge of camp and take deep breaths. Those would be his last, Draco promised himself. Then he began to move. Slowly, so as not to disturb, yet fast enough not to lose Madigan in the night.

When Draco drew near, he could hear what Madigan was softly saying. Foolish words, Draco thought. The man was going insane... And with this observance, Draco unsheathed his sword...

With one quick movement, Madigan's body fell to the ground... Not a scream was heard from him, not even a single utterance. He had not even turned to meet his attacker.

And with Draco's realization that he had killed the man who had killed his father, Draco fell to his knees and looked to the sky, praying for forgiveness.

Gareth looked to the sky, which now had the first few stars peeking out from the sky. He knew what he had to do, he had no doubts about it. If he would die, then so be it. But now before taking Draco's life and laughing at what the fates had in store for them.

Father kills father, son kills son.

Pride and vengeance matter the most. Fear could be escaped. Hatred would be a waste of time. Love could be replaced...

And with this, Gareth took a deep breath before turning away from the sight. Tonight would be the means to the end.