Vashelle walked fast, by the time Draco reached the start of the arched corridor, she was halfway down it and showed no signs of stopping.
"Hey…Vashelle…wait for me." Draco called as he ran after her. She didn't stop or show any signs of slowing so he called again and sped up. He had just about caught her when she rounded on him, her wand raised under his chin.
"First thing, I don't wait for anyone. You keep up or get left behind. Second, my name is Vash…just Vash. Got it?"
"But, Poliakov called you…"
"Lord Poliakov can call me whatever he likes. You cannot, understand?"
"Fine yeah, I get it. Sorry."
"Right then," she lowered her wand and continued down the corridor with Draco in tow. "I hate when people call me Vashelle…it makes me sound like some sort of prissy lady."
"But that is your name though yeah?"
"Only to my parents. No one I can slap has ever called me it twice." Draco paused.
"Your parents, you mean…"
"No you idiot, Lord Poliakov is not my father."
"But then…" Vash stopped in her tracks.
"Are you really that stupid Draco Malfoy? Lord Poliakov is on the council, he has been for longer than any of the others. You really think I'm going to correct him?"
"No, I guess not."
"Of course I'm not. I wouldn't be stupid enough to correct any of them. And believe me, you don't want to either."
"No, I don't think I do. Especially not that…what was his name? The other one?"
"You mean Lord Menai? No, take it from me you do not want to make him mad at you." She shivered. "He is not one to take an insult lightly."
"I don't doubt it. That thing, that harpy, he acted like it was his pet or something."
"It is, one of them anyway. He raises them." Now it was Draco's turn to shiver, he couldn't imagine anyone willingly keeping one of them, let alone a nest.
"Raises them? Exactly how many of them are we talking about?"
"Not sure exactly, a lot. They breed pretty rapidly, or so I'm told."
"Why would anyone choose to keep those things around?"
"It's his job. His brief on the council is to oversee all affairs relating to magical creatures. As to why he keeps harpies specifically…He seems to like them, they match his personality."
"Yes but…aren't they dangerous. I mean, I still don't know what I did to make it attack me before."
"You didn't do anything, that's just they way they are. Unless they know you can beat them, they attack." They reached the end of the arches and continued into the corridor, Vash started examining all the doors, like she was looking for something, some small thing on them.
"Oh, right. Erm, how do you beat them? Just in case I happen to meet another one someday." Vash continued to be preoccupied with the doors.
"Cold," she said over her shoulder, "Harpies, hate the cold. You felt its breath right, how hot it is? Well there some internal fire or something that keeps them alive, you put the fire out and poof, no more harpy."
"I'd better remember that."
"Wouldn't be a bad idea. Finally, I wish they wouldn't keep moving this place." She reached out and opened one of the doors."
"What place?" asked Draco as he stepped through after her. The room they entered answered the question for him. It looked like a tailor's storeroom. Rolls and rolls of jet black cloth filled the shelves that started at the floor and ran all the way to the ceiling. Vash turned and looked at Draco with a calculating expression.
"Now then, what size will you need?"
"Size?"
"Yes, for your cloak. Every member gets a cloak."
"Oh that well I'm…"
"Shush, it's OK. Wait here." And she was gone, vanishing between the stacks. He heard a lot of rustling and tearing followed by a loud crash and a tirade of swearing.
"Are you alright?"
"Bugger it, yes I'm fine. One minute." There was a series of flashes from somewhere amongst the shelves and she reappeared, carrying a bundle of black cloth in her arms. "Now, here we are. Bloody stuff doesn't like being cut." She unrolled the cloth. He could see it was a cloak, identical to the one she wore. She draped it around Draco's shoulders, it was a snug fit around the neck, the hood hung down over his back and tugged at his throat. Other than that it was a pretty good fit, it hung down to the ground but never seemed to actually touch it. Draco was surprised at how light it felt, he had thought that everyone in The Circle was being baked alive under their perpetual cloaks but it was as if he wasn't even wearing it.
"So…now I'm dressed for the occasion huh?"
"Yeah, now you look like you belong
here. But this isn't just good fashion
you know?"
"How so?"
"I'll show you," she looked at the shelves, they were quivering, "But not in here, they aren't happy." She headed out of the room, Draco followed her. As the door closed behind him, he felt a strange urge to go back in, to climb up onto one of the shelves. Vash tugged on his sleeve. "Come on, snap out of it. It'll get over the loss." Slowly, painfully Draco followed her down the corridor.
"What will get over the loss?" He kept looking behind him, fighting the urge to run back to the room.
"The cloak silly. It doesn't want to leave its friends."
"It's friends?"
"The rest of the cloaks, they like being together. It's always kind of tough for them when one leaves."
"What? You mean this…its alive?" He stared at the cloak, it didn't look alive.
"No…well yes, I guess it is sort of."
"How do you mean sort of?"
"It's enchanted, they all are. They kind of all have their own personalities. They sort of remind me of puppies."
"Puppies?"
"Yes, puppies, they act the same as a big litter of puppies. You just took one of them from the litter, and it wants to go back. At first they hate being separated, but then they get over it, they grow to love you. And they look after you."
"How exactly?"
"That's what I am about to show you." She stopped and opened another door. This room was familiar. It was identical to the training room he had faced the eye in, except this one was darker, the crystal in the ceiling gave no light, the only illumination in the room was from torches attached to the pillars. Vash walked to the centre and stopped. "Watch." She commanded. And she was gone!
Draco was astonished, she had just vanished right in front of him. One second she was there, the next she wasn't. He walked over to where she had stood and waved his arms about, trying to see if she was really gone. He could find no trace of her anywhere in the room.
"Boo!" Her voice sounded right in his ear scaring the wits out of him. He jumped away from her and turned to see her bent double laughing hard.
"Are you trying to give me a heart attack or something?" He snarled when he had recovered the power of speech.
"No…it's just…do you know how funny you looked waving your arms like that." She straightened and started waving her arms in an imitation of his earlier behaviour. Draco was not amused.
"Great, yeah. Very funny. Positively hilarious in fact. Do you feel like telling me how the hell you did that?" Vash took a minute to get herself under control before answering. She tugged at her own cloak.
"The cloak did it. It's just one of the tricks it can do. You try it."
"How exactly do I try it?"
"Well that's the tricky part. You have to let the cloak know what you want it to do and it'll do it. Here." She took out her wand and waved it in the air. A full length mirror appeared out of nowhere. Draco could see himself reflected in it. "Try it, just think real hard about not wanting to be seen, you want to hide. Keep saying it to yourself over and over. It should catch on soon enough and do the rest."
Draco looked at his reflection in the mirror. He thought about how he wanted to become invisible, he wanted to hide. Over and over he said it inside his head but nothing happened, his image remained.
"It doesn't work."
"It will, you just have to make it listen that's all. Try to sense it, to feel its presence." Draco concentrated, extending his senses, the now familiar golden glow came back. He could sense Vash, the room, the power all around him. "No," Vash's voice cut through the sensation. "You have to focus, you're not interested in sensing everything, you'll give yourself a headache that way, focus on the nearer, the cloak right next to you." Draco allowed his eyes to close, he took a deep breath and drew his senses in. He pulled back from the world, back from the room, back from Vash, to himself. Then he felt it, the tiny presence surrounding him. "There, that's it. Hold on to it, concentrate on it, ignore everything else." Draco pushed his mind to focus on the cloak's presence. He could almost feel an emotion within it. He focused more on it, trying to isolate it from the world around him. Draco could feel it stir as he concentrated on it. The emotion was still there, he could feel it – fear.
"It's afraid! It's afraid of me."
"No, it's just afraid to be away from the others that's all. It doesn't want to be away from them. What are you going to do about it?"
"I don't know. What can I do?"
"Get to know it, it's going to be your friend, your puppy, remember?" Feeling slightly foolish Draco tried to think of his cloak as a living thing. It certainly felt like it was alive, tiny but alive. He reached out to try and touch the tiny presence. It stirred again. 'It's OK. You don't have to be afraid. Everything will be alright.' He repeated it over and over until finally, the fear faded. The presence stirred again, it felt – happy.
"I think it likes me." He laughed.
"I know, take a look." Draco opened his eyes and yelped in surprise. He could no longer see his reflection in the mirror.
"I…I did it."
"It did it. You just convinced it that it should listen to you."
"Yeah…that's what I meant." Draco twirled on the spot, marvelling at how he had no reflection. He looked at his hands, he could still see them. They looked different, fainter but he could see their impression on the world around him. He turned to face Vash again.
"You can still see me right?"
"Right, but you are invisible. I see you the same way you see me, through your effect on the Ether."
"The what?"
"The Ether, the magic that surrounds us, what do you call it?"
"Actually, I haven't been calling it anything. I have mostly been thinking of it as 'the other world'." He blushed as Vash laughed again.
"Really? Well I guess that's as good a name as any for it. Are you not bored being invisible yet?"
"What? Well yeah I guess. How do I turn it off?"
"The same way you turned it on, ask the cloak." Draco concentrated, he found the cloak's presence. It was easier now he knew what to look for. 'Thanks, you can stop now.' It felt weird thanking an item of clothing like that but it worked, he looked up to see his reflection reappear on the mirror.
"I like this cloak. What else does it do?"
"It's hard to say, they are all different. You'll just have to get to know it yourself. Look after it though. You look after it, and it will look after you."
"Right, got it." Vash nodded.
"Are you hungry?"
"What?"
"Hungry? As in do you want food?" She made a gesture, the kind you do to a baby bringing an imaginary spoon to her mouth. Draco scowled, causing her to break into another fit of laughter. Thinking about it though, it had been ages since he had last eaten, he actually wasn't sure when that was.
Not bothering to wait for his answer. Vash shook her head and waved her wand in the air. The mirror vanished, replaced by a table and two chairs. She waved the wand again and the table filled with food, bread, soup and mounds of mashed potatoes, a generous lunch. She sat down and helped herself to some bread. Draco didn't waste time, he sat down and heaped potatoes onto his plate. It was several minutes before his mouth was free enough to speak.
"So, how long have you been a member of The Circle?" Vash looked preoccupied, staring into space. He had to repeat the question for her to hear him.
"What? Oh, about two years now."
"And what do you do? I mean, I know what Etean said The Circle does, but he was short on specifics."
"Specifics? Well I just gather information really. My father is a politician, a member of the German Ministerial Cabinet. I usually just keep an eye on him, read his papers when he's not there, generally snoop about. What I learn, I report back. That's it."
"That's all? In that case why did they recruit you? Why not just make your father a member?"
"That's not how the circle operates, we listen, spy and nudge. We don't control. If my father were directly involved, it would create an immediate conflict of interests for him and for The Circle. That would lead to a lot more problems than it would solve believe me. It's…simpler this way."
"Etean controls directly, he's on the French Administrative Committee."
"Well actually no, he isn't. His father was and he will be someday but he's still too young. But even so Etean is the exception, not the rule. The Etean family has, over the generations grown more and more powerful. They have been able to swing the votes in France for centuries, just by nodding. In the end, giving them a seat on the committee was the only way to moderate their influence. This way, everyone has an equal vote. Even if most still side with whatever the Etean's want most of the time." Vash leaned back, tilting her chair onto two legs. She was silent for a while, lost in thought again.
"Do you mind if I ask you a question Draco?" she asked out of the blue.
"No," was his response, through a mouthful of mash, "please."
"How did you do it?" Draco swallowed.
"Do what?"
"Master the eye?"
"I'm not really sure. I think I…I don't know."
"You really are a bad liar Mr. Malfoy." Draco sighed.
"Promise you won't think I'm crazy?" Vash let her chair fall back onto it's four legs with a thump.
"Ohhh, this sounds interesting. Go on then, tell."
"Well…I had some help…someone helped me."
"That doesn't sound crazy to me." Draco shook his head.
"No, you don't understand. The one who helped me…well she wasn't real. I saw her, felt her touch me, spoke to her, but she wasn't really here. It was all in my head."
"Now that sounds crazy. Are you sure you weren't just dreaming?"
"That's what I thought, it was all a dream. But there are things I can't explain if it was just a dream."
"Like what?"
"Well there's my chest for one thing. It was hurt, badly burned by the eye but it got better after she came and cleaned it. It was smaller, almost gone in the morning. She healed the wound for me…but she wasn't even here."
"Ah, now I get it. You're more complicated than you look Draco."
"How do you mean."
"Well let's see, you learned from Etean right?"
"Yeah so?"
"So he must have told you about how your mind works. The way instinct takes over when it's needed?"
"Yeah and?"
"And, what do you think you've been doing all this time?"
"What?" Vash sighed and stood up.
"Everything you've been doing has been designed to rebuild your instincts. Your ability to consciously perceive the world around you has been built on these instincts. You have learned to tap into them and direct them. But you haven't tapped all of your instincts. Some of them are still buried."
"I don't follow you." Vash walked over to him and grabbed his hand. She pulled up his sleeve.
"Look at your arm. Really look at it." Draco complied, allowing his senses to expand, he looked at his arm. Vash reached out and picked up a knife from the table. She brought it up and ran it along Draco's arm. He screamed and tried to pull away as she cut him but she held him tight. She finished and dropped the knife with a clatter onto the tabletop. Draco stared at her, rage boiled up within him.
"What the hell did you do that for?"
"Don't be such a baby, keep looking at it." She released him and he pulled away from her and stood up, cradling his arm. "Look at it!" she repeated. Draco looked down, he could see the wound as a gash of blinding light on his arm. The ripples around it were in chaos, twirling and twisting about. Then they settled down and started to form more simple patterns. They started to flow inward towards the cut. They disappear into it in a continual stream. The cut got smaller and smaller as they did until it was completely gone. Draco stared at his arm in disbelief, he rubbed his skin, there was no trace of the injury.
"How did you do that?"
"I didn't, you did."
"What?"
"Parts of your brain have accepted your training, the new view on how things really work a lot quicker than you have. The part of you that normally deals with healing cuts and scrapes like that one is now aware that it can do its job a lot quicker if it uses the 'the other world' to help speed things up. That's how the cut healed and that's what happened to the burn on your chest. It just got better."
"That's what happened to me? That's why I saw Hermione?"
"I don't know about that. I'm not a qualified psychiatrist but if I had to guess, I'd say that you just dreamed about the girl. Why? Well only you know that?" Her face lit up with a wicked grin. "Maybe you just wanted her to be with you." The tone of her voice left no doubt as to what she meant. Draco scowled.
"You don't know what you're talking about so just drop it."
"Fine, have it your way. Come on, we had better be going."
"Where?"
"Etean wants to see you."
"How do you know that?"
"One of these days Draco Malfoy, you might just figure something out for yourself. Come on."
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Frank Granger woke up. The pain in his stomach had woken him…again. He looked over at the clock, it was after four in the morning. He rolled over to pick up the bottle of indigestion tablets from the locker and noticed that his glass of water was empty. 'Didn't I fill that last time?' he thought to himself. But it didn't matter, he needed to get more water to take his tablet. Groaning he got up. Sarah rolled over beside him and mumbled something which he ignored. She was still asleep so whatever she had said, it wasn't meant for him. He pulled on his dressing gown and headed out of the room.
As he walked down the corridor he paused. He thought he had heard a noise from Hermione's room. He listened. Nothing. Frowning he put his hand on the handle, he didn't like to invade her privacy, but he wanted to be sure she was alright. He silently opened the door and looked in. In the moonlight, he saw his daughter still fast asleep in her bed. He shook his head and closed the door, not noticing as a shadow beside the bed moved slightly. Frank continued down the stairs to the kitchen, pausing to swear as he remembered that he had yet to fix the loose step. Behind him Hermione's bedroom door opened and closed without a sound. Click! He turned on the kitchen light. There was the faintest creak from the loose step, but Frank was already at the sink, the noise from the water hid the sound. He filled his glass and set it by the sink. Then he opened the bottle of pills and tipped some into his palm. He put the bottle down and took up the water. He half turned round, swallowing the pills with a long draught of water. He lowered the glass and noticed the small green bottle on the table. His eyes fixed on it, that didn't belong there.
SMASH!!!!! The glass shattered on the floor, covering his feet with water and broken shards as the hooded figure appeared in the kitchen doorway. He slowly reached up and lowered his hood.
"Hello Frank."
A/N: HEHEHEHE I love leaving you in suspense. Maybe I wont add the next chapter for a week?
Just kiddin, itll be up soon I promise.