Hey guys! I felt bad for leaving you with a cliffhanger, so I figured I'd make a quick update today. This wasn't going to be a long chapter, but I kind of got carried away. Oops. I'm sure you don't mind, though. C;
I messed a little bit with the books in this one, just a warning. I do explain my reasoning in the end, though.
I own nothing!
ENJOY!
Chapter 12:
"Hermione. . ."
"Shh! They're going to-"
"Hermione! I've . . .I've seen that symbol before."
"What?"
"That eye! On all of those gold trinkets . . . I've seen it before!"
And on that note, another Yugi appeared out of thin air, and they were all encased in a veil of darkness.
It seemed as though the shadows themselves were rushing at them, it looked like a solid wall. Ellie pulled Hermione in closer, terrified of it. Hermione buried her face in Ellie's chest, and Ellie buried hers in Hermione's hair. There was an instant pressure in her head, and she felt her knees go weak. Hermione must have felt the same way, because she collapsed alongside Ellie. They both fell down to their knees, completely dazed and weakened from the strange magic that Yugi's double seemed to have conjured up.
Amazingly, the invisibility cloak was still covering them both.
Ellie cautiously raised her head, and looked at her surroundings. She instantly wished that she hadn't.
In comparison to where she was now, the creepy dark side street of Knockturn Alley seemed positively welcoming.
They were in an empty void that went on forever, with shadows swirling in every direction. Billions of eyes were looking down at them, and even with the cloak covering them, Ellie felt very exposed. She pulled Hermione, who still hadn't raised her head from Ellie's chest, closer.
"Close your eyes. . ." She whispered to her friend, hoping to keep her from seeing what she was seeing. She realized her effort to be futile, though, because Hermione had slumped over in a dead faint before she had the chance to look around.
"Hermione! Hermione, come back to me, please . . ." Ellie sobbed quietly, clutching Hermione closer, and shaking her shoulders.. She did not want to face this abyss alone. But she still had her wits about her enough to know that she dare not alert the three boys in front of her of their presence.
This place was absolutely terrifying. Ellie swore that she could hear distant moans, and the longer she was in it, the weaker she felt. This has to be the place where dementors come from, Ellie thought. The feelings were the same, zapped of all energy and happy emotions, leaving only weakness and despair.
She instantly forgot about the symbol.
She was kneeling about ten feet behind Yugi and Malik, who were facing Ryou from across a huge span of empty space. The doubles seemed to have taken over Yugi and Ryou's bodies, as they both had a menacing look in their eyes that the two sweet boys Ellie knew could never have achieved. Ellie instantly realized that it wasn't Ryou who pushed her that night.
They both had duel disks attached to their arms.
When she saw the dueling disks, the pressure in Ellie's head increased by tenfolds.
"Bakura, I will not allow you to risk my hikari's safety with your petty thievery. Our secret must not be exposed." Yugi said in his deep voice. "I challenge you to a duel."
The last thing that Ellie saw was the sick smile on Ryou's face before she blacked out and fell right on top of Hermione's slumped form.
XXX
"Ellie! Ellie! Wake up! ELLIE!"
Hermione's voice was the most unwelcome thing in the world to Ellie right at that moment, as her head was pounding and she felt as though she had just run a marathon. She groaned loudly.
"Oh, come on! Honestly! Ellie!" Hermione apparently had no sympathy for Ellie.
She opened her eyes, only to see her best friend's pale face hovering over her. Ellie instantly knew why Hermione had no sympathy for Ellie: she felt the exact same way that she did. Head pounding, heart racing, shaking like a leaf, and just wanting to roll over and sleep for a hundred years.
"R-Ryou. . . and Yugi. They . . . that. . .place, it was horrible 'mione. . ." Ellie was struggling to even form a coherent sentence.
"Sh, it's okay. We're here now. They're gone." Hermione said soothingly, putting a hand on her cheek. "The invisibility cloak hid us the whole time. They have no idea that we saw that."
"Oh." Was all that she could say. "You didn't see it, Hermione, you're lucky."
The pair both sat in silence for a few minutes, not knowing where to start.
"Oh, Merlin. . ." Ellie finally moaned, looking at her watch. "We were supposed to meet Moody and the others an hour ago!"
Hermione gasped, and ripped the invisibility cloak off of them. She stuffed it into Ellie's purse, and they both stood on shaky legs and ran as fast as they could towards Diagon Alley. They ran a lot slower than usual, though, as they had both just been out cold for hours.
Ellie couldn't believe it. Harry and Ron must be absolutely frantic worrying about why they didn't make the meeting spot, and Moody would probably already have convinced everybody that they were dead already, or being tortured by Voldemort himself. Even if they did have Order members scouring the place for them, they never would have found them, as they were in a back alley with an invisibility cloak over them. Merlin knows that they had probably already given up looking for them in Diagon Alley.
She had been so stupid! The Order had all gone to so much trouble trying to protect her, and she repays them by putting herself in a position of incredible danger. What if Ryou, Yugi or Malik had seen them? With their powers, and their terrifying other halves, they could have done any number of things to the both of them. Had anything happened, Hermione's fate would have been her fault, because it was her idea to follow them in the first place.
The anxiety and guilt in her stomach doubled, tripled, and quadrupled the more she thought about it.
As she was lost in her own mind, Ellie didn't realize when Hermione flung her arm out to stop her. Ellie doubled over, winded by the sudden blow to her stomach.
"Shh!" Hermione hushed her, yanking her into the shadows behind a rubbish bin. When Ellie didn't stop wheezing she slapped a hand over her mouth. "It's Lestrange and Malfoy!"
Ellie wrestled Hermione's hand away. "Lestrange?" She whispered, inching forwards so that she could see around the bin properly. Hermione yanked her back. "Isn't she supposed to be in Azkaban?"
"I thought so. But Ginny reckons she heard Lupin and Tonks talking about her escaping in July. But what is she doing out in the open?" Hermione mused, before pulling Ellie back once again. "Stop it! Are you trying to get caught?"
"Shh! I can't hear!" As the pounding in her head had not yet lessened to a reasonable level, Ellie had to strain her ears to catch the conversation being held between Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange.
She finally managed to stick her head around the corner in a discreet enough fashion to subdue Hermione's frantic efforts to pull her back. Ellie peered through the (smelly) pile of rubbish and saw a short, dark woman with black hair that was curly enough to rival her own. The woman could only be Bellatrix Lestrange. Azkaban had subdued her beauty, but there was still a fire in her eyes that made Ellie inch back into the hiding spot in which she came from. Lestrange was whispering urgently with the tall, pale Lucius Malfoy.
She and Hermione both pulled out their wands.
"You will place him under the Imperius Curse, Lucius. He is one of few who can actually obtain this prophecy. Our Master says that there is no excuse should you fail." She sneered intimidatingly at the much bigger man, making her seem as though she were the taller one.
"I will not fail. I have that fool in my pocket, I will-"
SNAP! Ellie whipped back into the shadows, looking frantically at Hermione. Her face was pale, her mouth opened in a silent gasp of horror. Hermione gestured to the discarded quill that she had stepped on. The resulting noise should have been quiet, would have been soundless had they not been in such a quiet atmosphere. But the lack of noise and the tall brick walls surrounding them only caused the tiny crack to sound like a gunshot.
"Shh! Lucius! I heard something."
"I just saw somebody behind that rubbish bin, Bella."
"REDUCTO!" Bellatrix's spell hit the bin that the two girls were hiding behind, and it quickly reduced itself to a small and insignificant pile of dust. There was nowhere left to hide, both girls were out in the open. Ellie stood up slowly, her shaking wand hand raised in front of her. To her right, Hermione mimicked her movements.
"Well, well, well!" Bellatrix cooed, a huge smile on her face. "What do we have here? Two little eavesdroppers?"
Malfoy's face did not show one speck of the amusement that was on his coconspirator's. "No, Bella. Friend's of the Potter boy's. Granger, isn't it? And," He raised his wand, and pointed it directly in Ellie's face. He finally cracked a smile. "Milton. Elizabeth Milton. The mudbloods."
"Both of them?" She giggled keenly, sounding for all the world like a young schoolgirl. "You don't say. Tell me girls, what brings you to Knockturn Alley?" She was inching closer to them, her smile getting wider and wider.
"School shopping." Ellie replied, her mouth dry as ash. Nobody knew that they were here. Hermione inched closer to her, and their arms brushed. With her friend closer, Ellie suddenly felt more confident. "What about you? What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in Azkaban?"
Ellie felt more than heard Hermione gasp beside her.
The two Death Eaters sneered. "Shouldn't you be at home, with your filthy muggle families?" Malfoy hissed, inching closer as well. Ellie raised her wand higher. Her hand was no longer shaking.
"How dare you," Bellatrix screeched at them. "Little girls should be seen and not heard."
"Ellie," Hermione hissed, sensing that this already dangerous meeting had taken a turn for the worse. "Let's go." She began pulling Ellie away, they were backing up the way that they had came, but being late for Moody was the least of their worries right now. Ellie reluctantly went with her, not turning her back to the Death Eaters.
"Oh, the wittle girls are scared," Bellatrix preened, cackling loudly, but staying where she was. Ellie made a move towards her again, but Hermione yanked her back again. "Oh, Merlin! Look at her, Lucius. Little Elizabeth thinks that she can fight me."
"It's Ellie." She snapped, completely resisting Hermione now. "Only my mother calls me Elizabeth."
"Of course dear," Bellatrix's grin became insanely wide, displaying almost all of her teeth. "But not for long. Your family will be the first to go. Just you wait, sweetie. I'll make their ears bleed with the sound of their own screams, they'll be begging for deat-"
"Ellie!" Hermione screamed as Ellie suddenly lunged forwards. Luckily, Hermione was on her right side and had a firm grip on her wand hand, otherwise Ellie would have tried to curse them right then and there. "Stop it!"
"Aw! Look at wittle Elizabeth trying to get to me, Lucius," Bellatrix went on, completely unfazed by Ellie's rage. "A shame." She sighed. "Such determination and fire was wasted on a mudblood."
"You act like bloodlines are such a big deal. Did your boss ever tell you that he's a half-blood himself?" Ellie gave a fruitless yank, trying to free herself from Hermione's grasp. No one threatened her family and got away with it. That wiped the smile off of Bellatrix's face. "Oh, so he didn't? Your pathetic Voldemort isn't as pure as you thin-"
"YOU DARE?" Bellatrix shrieked, raising her wand higher. "YOU DARE INSULT THE DARK LORD? USE HIS NAME?" Her cheeks tinged red with rage, and she started towards Ellie. "I will teach you some respect, filthy mudblood! Crucio!"
Ellie screamed, and dropped out of Hermione's grasp. She had never had the Cruciatus Curse placed on her before, and this was a million times worse than she could have ever imagined. She reckoned even being burnt alive could not hurt this much. Ellie fell to her hands and knees once again, landing hard on the cobblestones, scraping her skin, not even feeling the pain of it through the curse.
Her agony did not last long though, as she heard her best friend instantly come to her defense behind her.
"Expelliarmus!" Hermione cried. Bellatrix did not lose her wand, but it at least distracted her enough to lift the curse off of Ellie. She screamed in fury, calling Hermione things that Ellie had never even heard before. Malfoy stepped forwards into the fray, and Ellie shakily got to her feet and raised her wand.
But before anymore spells could be sent, there were four loud cracks, and Moody, Tonks, Kingsley, and Lupin apparated into the middle of everybody.
Four stunning spells went flying for the two death eaters, but neither of them made their mark as there were two more cracks as they disapparated.
Moody cursed loudly, and then rounded on the two girls. "And what in Merlin's name are you two doing in here?" He demanded, stumping forwards and cupping Ellie's face in his grizzled hands. "Are you hurt, Milton?"
"No, sir." She mumbled, her gaze on the ground.
Her instantly rounded on Hermione. "Granger?"
"I'm fine, Professor." She replied quietly.
"Good." He grabbed both of their arms, and spun on the spot. Ellie had not been expecting this, and she would have fallen to the ground a third time had she not been feeling as if she were being forced through a tube, with the air being forced out of her lungs. Was this an after affect of the Cruciatus Curse?
Just when she thought that she couldn't hold out any longer without having more oxygen, her feet slammed onto the ground, and she did fall again. Looking up, Ellie realized that they were in front of the Order's Headquarters. They had just apparated!
"Up, Milton, up!" Moody grunted, grabbing her arm again and dragging her inside the house. Tonks, Kingsley and Lupin were all behind them, wands out and heads swiveling, keeping watch for any potential threats.
Hermione, Ellie noticed, was walking on her own. It seems that the Cruciatus Curse took a lot more out of her than she thought.
Once they were all in, the door slammed ominously behind them. Moody finally let go of her arm, and Ellie would have fallen once again from sheer exhaustion had Tonks not taken pity on her and put an arm around her waist.
"Kitchen. Now." Moody snapped, waving them through.
"Hermione!"
"Ellie!"
Just before they walked into the kitchen, the girls heard their names being screamed from the landings, and eight pairs of feet pounding down the stairs. Ellie tried to give them a grin to reassure them, but it only came out as a grimace and probably only made things worse.
It seemed that all three transfers had made it back safely, and there was no sign of the magic that they had used to bring Ellie and Hermione to that . . . place.
Mr. Weasley asked them all to stay behind while they were questioned.
Ellie knew the only reason that Harry and Ron chose to stay back without a fight was because they knew that Ellie and Hermione would fill them in later, and probably give them more details than they gave the Order.
The door behind them clicked ominously as it was shut, successfully separating Ellie and Hermione from the rest of their friends.
"Oh, girls!" Mrs. Weasley ran forwards, taking Ellie from Tonks and squeezing her and Hermione in a big hug. "What happened? Are you alright?"
"We're fine," Ellie replied, allowing Mrs. Weasley to guide her to a chair. She noticed, with a small smile, a handful of fleshy strings wiggling their way under the door. Nobody else saw what she did.
"Ellie is not fine," Hermione interjected bossily. "Lestrange used the Cruciatus Curse on her."
Mrs. Weasley gasped, and immediately began brewing a strong pot of tea for her. "You poor dear!"
Sirius suddenly came bursting into the room. "Where are they?" He looked around wildly, his eyes landing on Hermione, who was standing next to Ellie's chair. He hurried over, and pulled Hermione into a hug. He released her, guided her to a chair next to Ellie, and he immediately took up a post behind her, his hands resting on her shoulders protectively.
"What the hell were you two doing down Knockturn Alley?" He demanded, squeezing Ellie's shoulders hard.
Ellie didn't know how to answer. They couldn't tell them the truth, they would never believe them! She opened and closed her mouth like a fish, desperately searching for something to say.
"We followed them. We, well, I saw Malfoy turn into Knockturn Alley. I wanted to follow him. It's my fault." Hermione said, hanging her head quite convincingly. Ellie's jaw dropped. Hermione was taking the blame? And lying? She desperately wanted to argue and take the blame away from Hermione, but she knew that if they changed the story it would look suspicious, especially to all of the aurors trained to detect a lie.
And, when Ellie thought about it some more, she realized a little too late what Hermione had already thought of. The three transfers were out there listening at the door with Harry, Ron, the twins and Ginny. They couldn't know that Ellie and Hermione had seen their magic. Who knows what they would do to protect their secret?
"You mean to tell me," Lupin asked from his perch across the room, "That you two followed a known death eater into Knockturn Alley, of all places?"
"Yes," Hermione stuck her chin out defiantly.
"Why?"
"I wanted to hear what he was planning." Ellie jumped in. She finally looked up from her scraped and bleeding hands to meet Lupin's eyes. Sirius' hands on her shoulder's gave her courage. "We all know Malfoy wouldn't risk getting caught in Knockturn Alley without a good reason."
"So?" Kingsley, every the strong silent one, finally jumped in. "What did you hear?"
Ellie and Hermione looked at each other. "They're, well, he. . Voldemort wants Malfoy to imperius someone to get a. . ." Ellie looked at Hermione.
"To get a prophecy." Hermione reached over and took Ellie's hand. "She said that there was no excuse for him to fail."
Everyone in the room looked shocked. A lot of the adults exchanged worried glances that told Ellie that they knew something about the prophecy.
"And then what?" Mr. Weasley said shakily, finally breaking the silence.
"Then Ellie tried to take on Lestr-"
"And I could have taken her if you weren't holding me ba-"
"If I hadn't of held you back you would have gotten killed!"
"She was threatening my family!"
"If you used magic again, the Ministry would know!" Hermione fired back hotly. "It's bad enough that I had to use a disarming spell to throw her off. I hope that they don't find out. . "
"They won't, Hermione." Lupin smiled at her reassuringly. "They can't detect one single underage disarming spell in a wizarding area." He rounded on Ellie. "You, however, better not have used a single spell. You can bet that they will be checking your wand at your trial."
Ellie smiled sadly, and looked at Hermione. "I'm sorry. Thank you for holding me back."
Hermione smiled back, but there was a look in her eyes that said that they needed to talk.
Ellie instantly remembered the symbol on Yugi, Malik and Ryou's strange items. And her heart sunk. She remembered the symbol, but not where she had seen it. With all of the excitement today, Ellie completely forgot that she had no idea where she had seen it before.
Mrs. Weasley slid a hot meal in front of both of them, along with their tea.
"Eat up, dears. You'll feel right as rain by the morning."
Sirius let out a loud laugh from behind Ellie, making her jump. "Yeah, you'd better hope so. We're tackling the basement tomorrow."
xxx
You would think, that in the Shadow Realm, that Ellie and Hermione would be revealed. Well, at least I think that they would be. Not really sure how it works with invisibility cloaks, especially this very 'special' invisibility cloak. Anyways, my point is, theoretically, they should have been revealed. However, for the purposes of this story, they weren't. We can't have all these secrets out already! They're not even at Hogwarts yet.
Also, another author twist: Lestrange is out of Azkaban! Harry + co. know who she is already. They don't however, know that it was Neville's parents that she tortured (well, Harry does). They just know that she tortured some random couple, got sent to Azkaban, and is one of Voldemort's most loyal supporters. Also, for the purposes of this story, she broke out of Azkaban soon after Voldemort came back. It was obviously not publicized by the prophet, but the Order knows about it. (This actually will have some significance later on. I'm not just twisting canon for the hell of it.)
And about the Eye of Horus. You guys really thought that I'd tell you where Ellie's seen it before already? Come on, I wouldn't have a story if I let out all my secrets now. C;
I hope you enjoyed!