Sorry it took so very long to update my lovelies but I've just been so busy! smacks wrist I know…I'm a naughty girl, but alas (nine sickles and a dungbomb) I have left you in suspense long enough...read on my lovelies, read on!
Chapter 15
Dragging himself up the stairs, he smiled as he heard the calls of his family and friends as they searched for the girl, a metamagus and they expected her to come out of hiding just because they called her name…he grinned, silly people, and hefted the dripping sack of rats further up his shoulder and his grin changed to a grimace as he thought of the staining the rat's blood would do to his new dragon hide jacket. As he shifted the sack, he looked down, and stopped dead, there were sets of shoeless footprints in the dust on the stairway, leading up to his exact destination. He smiled grimly and thought that it just reinforced his idea that life was not without a sense of irony…
She stirred from her sleep and curled herself into a tighter ball, her wings proving to be a soft cushion for her weary head. Her fingers curled tighter into the hippogriff beside her and she whimpered, a vague name forming briefly on her lips, "Voldemort", before being swept away in a deep sigh like a leaf in a late autumn breeze. The hippogriff looked down at the girl leant against his side, her top shredded where eagle-esque wings had sprouted through it and curled themselves around the girl, whose goose-pimpled arms stopped shivering as warmth spread through her cocoon of feathers, he cocked his head for a moment as if listening and whinnied softly as he preened her hair with his beak, and shifted slightly to allow the girl to coil further round herself.
He reached the doorway of the room and stepped inside it quietly, wincing as the floor creaked slightly under his weight. His deep blue eyes swept around the room, searching for the metamagus and any sign of a struggle of any kind. His tanned hands untied the knot in the sack as he whistled softly, "Buckbeak…here boy…" and a soft whinny alerted him to the hippogriff's presence off to the left of a stack of boxes and hay. He shook his head slightly at the hippogriff's obnoxious nature and crept over to the spot where he had heard the hippogriff call from. His breath hitched in his chest as he came round the hay bales and he looked down on the girl and hippogriff lying relaxed on the floor.
Buckbeak looked up briefly, and, seeing a shock of red hair went back to preening the girl who was wrapped protectively by his wings, and her own. Charlie Weasley had once seen a muggle programme called "gargoyles" and in the episode he had watched, a muggle girl had become a gargoyle…the girl before him scarily reminded him of that episode, except, her transformation seemed softer, more innocent, it may have been the fact that she didn't look like stone, or it may have been the midnight blue hue that her wings took on when the light shimmered off them, that did it, but either way, he couldn't resist crouching down next to the sleeping figure, and, with a warning snort from Buckbeak, gently shake her into consciousness.
Her eyes shot open, and her pupils rapidly dilated as her wings snapped out around her, the force of it driving Charlie back as she sprung into the air, her wings carrying her to the rafters in the ceilings, where she perched, regaining her breath, and staring wide-eyed at the young wizard who was on his back on the floor, thanks to the force of her wings backlash. He recovered rapidly and picked himself up off the floor and brushed himself down, "wow," he commented lightly, as he looked up at her, "that's some power you've put in those wings…did you make them willingly or did you not realise they were there?" she started, and focused properly as to where she was, looking about her as she gently fingered the soft down on the underside of her wings, before speaking softly to the man below her, "I didn't realise…I do that sometimes…they just happen, sometimes I don't seem to have any control over my powers at all…" she narrowed her eyes at him, "you're Charlie right? Well, won't the others be pleased you finally found me, why did they send you? Do they deem me a magical creature? Is that it? They thought that they'd better send good ole Charlie, who's worked with dragons, a lone girl with animal power, should be easy after a Hungarian horntail right? Send him; he knows how to handle wild creatures!" she laughed bitterly as she watched her nails lengthen and retract like cat claws, "oh lookie!" she sang out gleefully, "I've lost control of it again! Isn't that funny? Guess I won't be so easy to get now will I, Charlie boy?"
"Do you really think I was sent up here, by Dumbledore or by any of the others, don't delude yourself, I wasn't even looking for you, I merely came up to feed Buckbeak his dinner, see?" he gestured towards the bleeding sack and continued, "and another thing, they don't think of you as an animal, as some kind of dangerous creature, they think of you as a girl, a girl who has problems curbing her anger and controlling her emotions…isn't that what you are? I do believe you just proved that by lashing out at me a second ago…" he shrugged, "when I saw your footprints up the stairway I thought about going back downstairs, not mentioning I saw you, and letting the others continue on their wild goose chase and leave you in peace a while longer, but then I remembered the rampage Buckbeak went on the last time someone forgot to feed him, and I decided that may have been rather selfish of me…" he looked back up to be greeted by the sight of an empty rafter, and jumped as a hand was placed softly on his shoulder, he spun to see Ebony, her wings folded neatly behind her, smiling sadly at him, "can't get rid of my wings…" she said by way of explanation and he gently guided her to the stair way as she closed her eyes continuously as she tried to retract the large inky black and shimmering blue wings that sprouted from her shoulder blades.
Even as they reached the bottom of the stairs Ebony was still unsuccessful with her attempts at getting rid of the wings, she seemed to have grown them subconsciously, and it seemed that that was the only way to get rid of them. "Oh bother," she muttered irritably as she passed a portrait where a group of eighteenth century ladies were giggling at her from behind their fans and muttering things like "scandalous" and "the youth these days…" So irritated was she, that Ebony had taking to swearing at any painting which made a comment out of the ordinary, which lead to a rather amusing journey back to the kitchen for Charlie, who was amazed at some of the phrases that came from Ebony's direction. He smiled humorously as they passed down the stairs to the entrance hall, "my, my, who's the little potty mouth?" he commented lightly, and was rewarded with a scowl and a barrage of dirty phrases from Ebony.
The atmosphere in the kitchen was very strained as they entered, and they evidently hadnt been expected as the contents of the room all proceeded to give a collective intake of breath, which made it sound like a very small hurricane had momentarily passed through, and was funny enough to break off Ebony's rude tirade as she snorted with laughter at the look on everyone's faces. "What? Couldn't you find me?" She asked snidely, as everyone turned to Charlie, no doubt for a reasonable explanation from someone who didn't treat them like four year olds. He happily filled them in as Ebony slid down the wall to the side of the kitchen, next to the pallor door, finding that her wings didn't seen to object to being crushed against the wall, they felt just as an extra pair of arms would though, and she was sure that if she continued to lean on them for any prolonged time, they would go dead, and she didn't wish to experience pins and needles somewhere she never should technically have them. A butterbeer floated in front of her face, she looked up to see Remus at the head of the table, his wand casually twitching inconspicuously at his side as he glanced swiftly behind him, before focusing once more on what Charlie was telling them, his smirk proved her suspicions as she grasped the bottle and popped off the cap.
Eyes were starting to turn towards her as she vaguely heard Charlie explain the power of her wings, and her current predicament. She got very self conscious and wrapped herself in her wings, amid gasps from a few of the order members, thankfully, not only did the wings block her sight, but they also seemed to block her sound, so she couldn't hear a third person account of her actions from earlier, something she was thankful for, due to the fact that she had found it increasingly annoying that she was being discussed as if she wasn't there. She was quite happily recounting every trick she had done the last time she had had wings (it had been the last summer, when her stepmother had screamed at her, so she had taken off and flown all over the south of France for the day, finding it strangely compelling to talk to the other birds and sky life) when she felt her senses prickle strangely, she cocked her ears as they turned large and bat-like and heard, or rather, felt, the magical whisper from an unknown source, she felt the magic's path turn towards her, and she threw up her wings to cover her entire body as the spell hit, rebounding off her now adamantine wing feathers. She lowered her wings angrily as she sprung up to find a smug Mundungus with his wand out and a horrified group of order members, a brief "told you so" was all he could manage before he was swept from his feet by a forceful Ebony who had sprung across the kitchen and was know baring her extended canine fangs scarily close to his neck. "What in the Goddess' name do you think you're doing you stupid fcuktard?" she hissed as she heard movements behind her. "Erm, I was…proving…" Mundungus gasped for breath and Ebony loosened her hand a little as she called over her shoulder, "I'm not going to kill him…just maybe…seriously maim…" Mundungus whimpered and rushed on with his explanation, "I was provin' that your wings could be a…whatsit…asset! Yeha, asset! Cos you can change em and stuff…see?"
She sighed and let go off Mundungus, hearing a satisfying splat and then…"ouch…" from the floor where he had dropped to the ground after she let go. Her flared wings snapped back in and resumed their normal place on her back as she relaxed, and turned to the horrified Order members, she caught the eye of Hermione who quickly averted it to her shoes, she suddenly felt very small. "Heh…yeah, I'm sorry about that…get a little over worked sometimes, not every day someone shots an offensive spell at you now is it?" She muttered as she shuffled her feet, suddenly very conscious of how everyone's eyes were on her. She felt a hand on her elbow and whipped around to find Remus there, smiling gently down at her, "lets go find your room shall we Ebony?" he asked kindly as he waved the Order members away. He lead her out to the entrance hall where he enveloped her in a hug, "it must be hard Ebony, I know, the separation, the humiliation, the suspicion from even those you thought were you friends, I saw how Hermione turned away, but you shouldn't blame her, you're not something she can figure out with solid fact and book knowledge, that's hard for her to take. I just wanted you to know, that if you ever feel it gets too much, you can come to me, cos I've been there, I know you know I'm a werewolf, and I'm honoured that you don't seem to care. I barely know you Ebony, but I can tell that in your life, its not been easy, and its not looking too easy for you any time soon either, and that can really take it outta people…you don't believe me, take a look at Harry, if ever there's an example of how much hardship can befall someone so young, it's him, poor sod…what he needs, and you too, is someone to take your mind off it, while you plug away slowly at the bad times to come, if anything, I'd say you needed to comfort each other…" he hugged her again and they were both about to go up the stairs as the front door to Grimmauld Place burst open, and Kingsley Shacklebolt entered, followed by…
Draco.
And time seemed to slow as Ebony burst from Remus grasp and literally flew to Draco's side, a tender hand reaches out to touch his pearly skin, once so flawless, but now covered with a thousand cuts that ran scarlet and ruby down his renaissance cheeks, the colours melding with the dark hues of blues, greens and purples as the beginning flourishes of darkening bruises blossomed on his soft skin. So helpless he looked, as he gazed up at her with blank and lifeless grey eyes, that as she heard other people come running out of the kitchen to see, her wings instinctively snapped out and enveloped both of them in a safe dome of downy feathers as she snaked her arms around him and he snuggled into her chest, wincing with each movement. "he's so very angry Ebony…" he whispered softly, so softly, she almost didn't catch it as his head lolled to the side, he was fighting off sleep to tell her what had happened, "he's so very angry…and he knows…that…I love you…" and his body fell limp in her grasp.
I'm so very cruel aren't I? Now…don't worry children… (Because I can't stand to have you think the unthinkable) he IS NOT DEAD! Okay? Now review, even if it is to tell me how horrible I am…
Wow…just realised…longest chapter yet…WAYAHY! OVER 2000 WORDS! dances how cool! I write my chapters in Microsoft Word and this chapter was over 5 pages! WOW!
Might I also add that...HAHAHA...Reading back on this is strange...I WILL post the rest of the chapters I've done and will TRY my level best to actually get through and finish this off...
Reviews make me happy...
