Draco noticed that the corridor was definitely busier as they retraced their steps from earlier. It seemed that every door was in constant motion, members ducking in and out in an almost constant stream. The corridor was absolutely jam packed with them. Draco had to duck and weave to keep up with Vash as she resumed her earlier pace, seemingly unfettered by the crowd. Eventually the crowd slackened slightly, enough to allow him to walk beside her. A thought occurred to him.
"Vash?" he said.
"Yes?"
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Why not?"
"How did you beat the eye?" She hesitated before answering.
"Oh…that. Well I certainly didn't have quite as interesting a time of it as you did. No hallucinations or seedy fantasies." Seeing the scowl on his face, she smiled faintly. "There's no story there really, I just tried and tried and tried again. The damn thing nearly killed me before I figured it out."
"So how did you beat it in the end?"
"Magic!" There was false laughter in her tone now. She went quiet for a few moments before she spoke again. "Look, not everyone has a big epiphany, a grand, interesting story to tell. Some of us are just glad it's over." The way she said that was a clear indication that she was ending the conversation. They carried on without a word, returning to the arched corridor. Here too the activity was frantic. Any doubt about the role of the arches was dispelled for Draco as he watched members queue up and disappear into them.
"Where are they all going?"
"Different places, these arches connect to various points throughout Europe. Some are static, they remain connected to the same locations all the time, and some are free to be re-located as we need them."
"Ah…OK. So what's the big hurry then, how come everyone is in such a mad rush all of a sudden?" Vash moved over and joined one of the queues leading to one of the mobile arches. Draco could see it flash and change to different views as different people stepped up to it.
"Not entirely sure." She seemed pensive. "Nobody has told me of any emergency or anything. Oh well, don't worry, if we need to know we'll be told."
"Oh, I see. Where is Etean?"
"Waiting for us at the hilltop entrance."
"Why are we going there this way?"
"It's quicker this way. Unless you want to take the stairs?" Draco shook his head, there were a lot of stairs.
"No, this is fine, I was just asking." They were now next in the queue. The member ahead of them vanished and the arch became a black void again. Vash stepped up, placed her hand on the stone at the edge of the arch.
"Sliabh Cahill." The arch flashed twice then settled on the hilltop. Vash gestured for Draco to step through. He stepped up and walked into the arch. The same falling sensation that he had felt earlier hit him for a moment, then he blinked in the sunshine. It was the same hill he remembered from all those many weeks before. There was no mist this time, Draco could see endless green fields in every direction stretching away from the foot of the small hill. He turned around, it appeared that he had just stepped out of the door of the crumbling building. In a moment Vash appeared, apparently stepping out of the surface of the door itself.
"I was beginning to think you weren't coming." Draco spun around to see Etean standing a few feet away on the grass. He opened his mouth to answer but Vash beat him too it.
"Sorry boss, the arches were busy, what's going on? Where's everybody dashing off to?"
"Don't worry about that now, you'd better get back. Poliakov will fill you in."
"I thought I was going with you." Vash seemed surprised, almost disappointed.
"Plans have changed Shel, now you're staying here."
"But…"
"No buts Shel, you stay!" The force in Etean's tone made her jump, Draco too.
"OK, I stay." She lowered her eyes and shook her head slightly. "Sorry boss." Etean sighed. He turned to Draco.
"You ready to go?"
"Yes, I'd like to know where I'm going though." Etean waved the question off and whistled loudly, out of nowhere, the black carriage appeared and rolled to a halt a few feet from Draco. He motioned for Draco to get in and turned back to Vash.
"Good luck." He turned and climbed into the carriage after Draco. Draco just about heard her say:
"You too." Before they took off and were once again speeding through the sky. Etean stared out of the window as they flew.
"So, are you going to tell me what's going on now?" Draco asked, trying to keep his tone light. Etean didn't look at him.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that despite what you may think, I am not an idiot. Something big is going on."
"What makes you say that?"
"Two things. First, everyone in there has suddenly gone berserk in the last half hour. It strikes me as odd that such a rush of activity could have no cause and second, the way you acted with Vash." Now Etean looked at him.
"And how did I act with Vash?"
"Come on, don't play dumb, you're really bad at it. She obviously was as surprised as I was by the 'change of plans', and you really jumped at her. But it was that change of plans that really convinced me that something hairy has definitely happened."
"And why is that?"
"Because, Lord Etean, you are not one to change your plans at such short notice unless you have no choice. That much about you I am certain." Etean didn't move for several seconds, then he smiled and leaned forward.
"Well done Malfoy. Truly well done. You're right about me, I hate changing my plans for any reason. It's just messy."
"So…are you going to tell me or not?"
"Well if you're sure you want to know…look under your seat." Draco reached down, in a moment his fingers brushed against a package. He pulled it out, it was a brown leather folder. He undid the strap and opened it. It was full of parchment, the topmost sheaf seemed to be the front page of the daily prophet.
"What…?"
"Don't ask questions, not yet. That stuff is for later, first I'll run through the highlights."
"OK."
"Right, two nights ago Azkaban was destroyed."
"WHAT?"
"I said don't ask questions until I'm finished. The prison was attacked and pretty much levelled. We have no proof as to who did it, but it doesn't take a genius to figure it out."
"Voldemort! He broke my father out didn't he?"
"We are working under the assumption that he did. It seems pretty clear that your father and several others escaped, we're not sure exactly how many. The explosion pretty much destroyed all trace of their getaway." Draco sat back and closed his eyes. He had been expecting this day to come, but that didn't make it any easier. Etean continued talking.
"Now, we had been expecting Voldemort to pull something like this. The way we saw it, it was always going to be a necessary step in whatever plans he was making. He simply needed the assistance of his Death Eaters and well, there were quite a few of them in Azkaban. Too many. We had planned for this and, though the suddenness of it surprised us, we were ready to cope with it.
"Then there was last night."
"Last night?"
"Yes, but then last night something happened that we hadn't planned on happening, not this soon anyway. Last night the Death Eaters attacked the Ministry of Magic."
"What?"
"Please, enough with the questions Draco. Let me talk."
"Sorry."
"Right, now it wasn't a big attack, there were less than a half dozen Death Eaters involved by all accounts. But that wasn't the problem. The problem was the target."
"Wha…" Draco's voice trailed off as Etean raised an eyebrow at him. "Sorry."
"It was a precision attack, they broke into a Ministerial department and stole something. Something we didn't want them to find for a long time. Take a look." He gestured to the folder, Draco picked it up and thumbed through it. "The sketch near the back." Draco found it and pulled it out.
"This?"
"Yes." It was a sketch of a small stone tablet covered in strange writings and symbols. "Ever seen it before?"
"No. What is it?"
"That, Draco is the reason that The Circle recruited you."
"This?...What?"
"You knew coming into this that The Circle was planning on moving on Voldemort and you knew that we planned on using you to do it. What you didn't know was how we planned on using you or why we chose you in the first place. It has to do with who, or rather what you are."
"And what am I?"
"Do you believe in fate Draco?"
"You mean all that predetermination rubbish? No."
"No, me neither, I find it all very boring. But I can also see where the idea came from. Certain things about us, about the way we are born do affect our lives in many ways. One of these things is our abatiles. Each is unique, no two are the same. If you know how to look at them, they can tell you a lot about a person. Yours, we discovered, in particular is rather interesting, and not in a good way I'm afraid."
"I'm still not following you."
"Patience you will soon enough." He gestured to the sketch again. "We call that the Abatile Neshatz – the Soul Seeker." Draco didn't have a clue what that meant.
"Oh, yeah. Right." He said sarcastically.
"Yes, right. It's old, predating the Empire by a long way. We don't know exactly who made it, but we know what it does."
"And what does it do?"
"Well amongst other things it can locate and identify specific patterns within a soul and amplify them so they can be seen." He raised a hand to cut off the question that Draco was obviously going to ask. "As I said we don't know who made it, we do however know who used it.
"That tablet was used by the Emperors to choose their heirs. They didn't rely on blood to decide who succeeded them, they wanted a much safer and more reliable method. A wise choice given the power and responsibility they were passing on. That's where that tablet comes in. They used it to control and ensure the succession of their throne. Each one used the tablet when they were nearing the end of their reign, it allowed them to see the face of their 'aquelle dechar' – literally translated it means the one who was to come after. In modern terms it meant their heir, the one person in the entire world that could take their place when they were gone. More often than not it chose one of their children, but not always. The tablet examined the Emperor's soul and chose the person who was best suited to replace them. This ensured that the new ruler would be strong enough to carry the Qui-del Zahar and rule the Empire. It was never wrong, right up until Charon, the stone chose the right person every time."
"Why didn't Charon use it?"
"He did, but it didn't work, he saw no one. That was the final reason why he chose to shatter the Qui-del Zahar, by showing him nothing, the tablet told him that there was no one in the whole world that could rule after him – the line of Emperors was broken, the Empire was doomed."
"But what does this have to do with me?" Etean became very serious.
"Voldemort now has that tablet and we can only assume that he knows how to use it. When he does, what face do you think Voldemort will see?" He paused, staring at Draco. Draco's mind went numb, it couldn't be…
"Me?" Etean nodded slowly. "But…how? How can I be his heir, I'm not even related to him."
"That doesn't matter. This is nothing to do with being related to him, you don't have to be. But you are his heir. Now he knows it, he's going to come looking for you. Don't you see? You're his rival."
"Rival?"
"Yes, why do you think Voldemort has gone to all this trouble to get the tablet?"
"I don't know."
"Voldemort wanted the tablet so that he could identify his heir. Why? I can guarantee you it isn't because he wants to make friends with you and play happy families. Voldemort is, and has always been obsessed with power. He has gained quite a bit of it and now he is desperate to hang onto it. He wants to eliminate you. He won't suffer a rival. Someone who could challenge him."
"But I'm not his rival, I don't want to challenge him."
"Is that so? Isn't that what you agreed to do? You joined The Circle, knowing that you would be going up against him one day."
"Yes, but I only agreed to help you destroy him. I never wanted to face him alone and I certainly never signed on to replace him. I don't want to be the Dark Lord."
"Nothing says you have to. Your life is will be what you make it and nothing more. All that this means is that you have the potential to take his place as Dark Lord. Potential, that's all. It doesn't mean that you have to do it or that you're evil, just that you could one day reach the same level as he has." Draco shook his head, he couldn't believe this. He felt sure that he was going to throw up. Him? Take over as Dark Lord? He couldn't. Then his mind stopped, a question popped into his head.
"Hold on. You said that Voldemort got the tablet too soon. You wanted him to get it. You wanted him to find out that I am his heir didn't you?"
"Yes, we did."
"Why?"
"Why do you think? I told you we were trying to bring Voldemort down, how did you think we would do it?"
"Well I…I don't know. I certainly didn't think you'd be using me like…like bait."
"We are not just using you as bait Draco, in fact you're the hook too."
"What?"
"The Circle has decided to fight Voldemort, the problem is finding him and getting him to stay still long enough to destroy him. He doesn't exactly advertise his location and believe me, we're tired of trying to second guess him when it comes to his own plans. We needed him to play this game our way, we needed a means to get him to come to us."
"Me?"
"Yes, when we learned about you, the plan was obvious. We only needed to ensure that you were strong enough to beat him when the time came, then we had to let him know what you were, and what you could do to him and he would do the rest."
"Yes but it didn't work did it? I am not strong enough to beat him."
"No, you're not. He found the tablet too soon, we don't know how he did, but that is pretty much irrelevant at this point." Draco stood up, swaying slightly as the carriage rocked underneath him.
"Yes, at this point we're pretty much fucked. No, I'm pretty much fucked!" His tone did nothing to hide the panic he was feeling. Etean stood and grabbed him by the shoulders.
"Calm down Draco, you are not fucked…yet. We can still do this, our plan can still work."
"How?"
"By keeping you away from Voldemort for as long as we can. Long enough for you to learn all that you need to know to be able to beat him."
"And how the hell do we do that?"
"By sending you to the one place he can't get to you, the only place you'll be safe for long enough learn all that you need to know."
"Where?"
"Hogwarts."
"Hogwarts?"
"Yes, that castle is protected in ways you don't understand. Voldemort can't touch you as long as you're there."
"But how can I learn what I need to know at Hogwarts?"
"I'll teach you."
"You?"
"Yes," he laughed, "I'm going with you."
"But…can you do that?"
"Yes, it's not that hard to get accepted. The preparations have already been made."
"But why? Wouldn't it be better if I just stayed at The Academy? I could learn it all there. Voldemort couldn't get me there could he?"
"No, he couldn't and yes, that is an option. We could just return to the shadows and wait until you have completed your training. Voldemort would waste countless time trying in vain to find you."
"Sounds good to me."
"Does it? Say we do it, say we wait. Suppose for a moment that it takes you a year to complete the training. No, suppose six months, what else do you think he will be doing during that time apart from hunting for you?"
"I don't know."
"Well I'll fill you in then. We've had a bit more time to think this over this morning. Here's what we have come up with.
"Voldemort will continue doing what he has always done, torturing, terrorising and murdering innocent people. He will carry on as he did before but with one major difference."
"What?"
"You! He knows what you are and your absence will convince him that you know too. The only conclusion he will come to is that either you are hiding, too scared to confront him, or that you are waiting for the right time to come back and attack him. This, by the way is exactly what you will be doing. In either case his reaction will be simple. His uncertainty will force him to redouble his efforts to hold onto the power he has and his attempts to attain more." Etean sat down. "In short, things will get worse, a lot worse. And it will be all the harder for us to strike at him when we try to." He paused and waited for Draco to sit down. "Does that sound like a good situation to you?"
Draco thought about it, desperate to find some flaw, something wrong with Etean's reasoning. But Etean was right, that is precisely what Voldemort would do. So what? So what if Voldemort went on a rampage and levelled the whole world? If Draco had to face him, better that he faced him when he was ready, when he could…could what? What was Draco's aim here? Did he really want to destroy Voldemort? Yes he had decided that he did but why? Was it about doing what was right and if so, right for whom?
The more he thought about it, the more certain that he hadn't even considered what was right when he had made the decision. This was about getting out from under his fathers thumb, about gaining some independence. But if he did want to be independent, to make his own way in the world without his father or anyone else barking orders at him then he had to face facts. Decisions and actions have consequences and now he would have no one else to blame it on. If people died because of him, because of a decision, a choice he made then it would be his fault. It didn't matter if they were muggles or wizards, it would still be his fault and no one else's.
"No, it doesn't sound like a good situation at all. But how does me going to Hogwarts make it any better?"
"Because while you're there, you'll be visible. He will be able to see you, but not get to you and that will drive him mad. More importantly it will make him fixate on you and blinded to all other concerns. While he is busy plotting to get at you, he won't be plotting and killing elsewhere. What's more, if we do this right, he won't even know that you know any of this. He won't see you training, won't see you prepare. When you do go up against him, he'll underestimate you and you will be at the advantage."
Draco lowered his head into his hands, the cold realisation of his situation set in. Somehow he had never really thought about the reality of what joining The Circle had meant. Now, it was before him and it terrified him.
"I can't do this."
"You have no choice."
"Why? Because of The Circle? Because of your rules?" Fear fuelled the anger in his voice. He felt trapped, he wanted to run but he couldn't, they were still in the air, there was nowhere to go.
"Yes, the rules still bind you but that is not why you have no choice. This is a situation that you cannot escape. No matter where you go, nothing you can do can change what you are. Only by destroying Voldemort will you have any future." Draco didn't lift his head. If what Etean was telling him was true, then he was right, there was no way out except to face Voldemort. Etean leaned forward and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I told you when this started that you would not face him alone I to that I hold. When the time comes Draco, I will face him with you."
"I thought The Circle moved in shadows, you nudge and whisper."
"That's true, but I did not say The Circle will be with you, I said I would be."
"Can you save me from Voldemort?"
"I don't know, maybe, maybe not. All I can say is that I will try."
The Carriage rocked over, starting its descent. Draco sat up and looked out the window. He suddenly didn't want to talk about this anymore.
"So, what now? What do we do until its time to go back to Hogwarts?"
"Not much, just wait."
"Wait?"
"Yes, but not for long, it'll be time to go back in five days."
"Five…but that's impossible…it's only…what date is it?"
"August 26th. Don't worry, nobody ever keeps good track of time in The Academy." Draco moved closer to the window and looked down, they were descending towards London.
"What's to stop them coming for me before we go to Hogwarts? This is a little public don't you think?"
"Maybe, but we intend to keep them busy over the next few days. That was where everyone was rushing off to earlier. They are going to create a diversion, several diversions actually. We really have no choice. This is the only place we can go. Besides it's where we need to leave from to get to the school." The carriage headed down.
A/N: Some of you reacted to the Granger situation, you were curious and I have to admit, that is what I wanted. Cheers for the reviews, it seems you really like this story. Well keep reading, we are not there yet. And by the way, the Granger thing, if I've left you hanging…tough. Did you really think I was just going to tell you…You're just going to have to wait.
Bubye for now.