Chapter 28

A Dark Ritual

Hannah POV

I was thrown back in the dungeons, Laventhorpe smirking at me.

"Thought you were so smart, did you, Potter?" she laughed. "You should have hidden instead of going back to your precious Draco."

I shook with fright, knowing now that I was doomed. I was going to die that night.

"Get her ready for the ritual tonight." Cronus ordered his wife, smirking evilly at me. "You will die tonight, Potter, you will go like my daughter did…you will never live to see your wedding."

I shivered as Cronus left, leaving the woman who brought me back to that horrible castle with a black dress with red beads in the bodice.

She grabbed my wrist, stripped me and threw me into a steel tub, anointing a pentagram on my forehead, over my heart, at my wrists and on my stomach.

She smirked and threw the dress on me before zipping it up.

Calling what I wore a dress would have been an insult to dresses. It was no more than a skimpy top, revealing the anointed pentagrams on my stomach and over my heart with a nearly see through skirt.

My hair was nearly ripped out with the brush that Laventhorpe tugged through and it fell in waves down my back. I was scared at this point. I was practically being dressed for the abyss. Dressed for an eternity in hell.

Laventhorpe left and let Malfoy in.

I paled, now afraid to try to make a sound.

"My last chance…" Malfoy smirked, grabbing my arm.

I screamed, now starting to punch him with everything I had, kicking, biting, clawing, trying to fight his advances off.

But it was all in vain. Malfoy shackled me to the wall.

I screamed some more, squeezing my eyes shut to zone out of the room.

"DRACO!" I screamed. "DRACO!"

Flashback

"DRACO!" I shouted, waving my hand in front of his face in second year. "Are you ok?"

It was just after History of Magic and Draco was still sitting at his seat, head in hand and staring blankly where I had sat.

Draco jolted and looked at me. "Uh…yeah…sure…fine."

"Good, come on." I said, grabbing my book bag. "We have Potions next and you know how Snape gets when someone's late."

Draco grinned and stood up, only to have Pansy throw herself into his arms.

"Dracy, will you work with me this Potions class?" Pansy asked, looking to him hopefully.

Draco looked from Pansy to me, back to Pansy and back to me.

I hung my head. Draco's girlfriend was more important. I started back to the dungeons.

"No." Draco said, setting Pansy down. "I have a more important partner to work with."

I looked behind me and saw Draco smirking at me.

I grinned as Draco walked away from Pansy and walked with me to Potions class.

I couldn't help the smile that threatened to split my face in half. Draco had blown off his own girlfriend just to hang out with me.

"Thanks for that." I said with a grin. "Back there."

"Hey, you're my best mate." Draco smirked, throwing an arm around me. "If I had to make potions with anyone, I'm glad it's you."

I grinned some more, taking the gum Draco handed to me. "I'm glad it's you, too." I said with a laugh.

I shuddered when I was left alone. In mere hours I was going to be lead through the halls to my death.

I paced around, shaking with fear as I looked around the cell. There was no way out of my predicament…

I broke down and started to cry. I was never leaving this castle alive!

I wasn't going to get married. I was never going to see Draco again!

"Draco I'm scared!" I sobbed to myself, hugging my legs.

They had the Tome…they had me…I was done for, the world was done for now that I was going to die.

I curled into myself and tried to take one last nap.

Meanwhile

Lucius was in the library of the castle, lightning flashing in the mist outside. He was staring into the flames with an air of reluctance in the black ritual robes and mask he wore.

Is it completely necessary to kill the young Potter brat? he thought. We could easily get her blood without killing her.

"Lucius, my friend, it's nearly time to send the harpy where she came from at last." Cronus cackled with a smirk. "Are you ready?"

"All but." Lucius stood. "Cronus, is it mandatory to kill the girl? isn't there another way to obtain her blood without killing her?"

"Lucius, the Dark Lord has wanted her kind dead since the prophecy was made by that foul Seer before the Potter twins were born." Cronus growled. "I want that girl dead after what she did to my little girl. Wait…you aren't going soft…are you?"

"No, of course not." Lucius huffed.

"However, if you wish, we could find a way to keep her here and obtain her blood." Cronus smirked. "If you wish to keep her body for your…pleasure."

Lucius smirked as him and Cronus left.

"Like fire, Hellfire…now Potter it's your turn. Choose me or your pyre, be mine or you will burn!"

Hannah POV

All I heard as I neared the drawing room was the Death Eaters' chanting…the same chanting from the Hunchback of Notre Dame…before Frollo tried to kill Esmeralda by burning her at the stake:

"Dies irae dies illa solvet saeclum in favilla. Quando Judex est venturus. Confutatis maledictis flammis acribus addictis. Voca me cum benedictis. Confutatis maledictis. Gere curam mel finis."

Again a tremor went through my spine as I translated the chant into English.

"Day of wrath that day shall consume the world in ashes. When the Judge is come. When the damned shall be cast down into the searing flames. Call me with the blessed when the damned shall be cast down. Help me in my final hour."

I already knew this would be my final hour. I was doomed to die that night.

I shuddered as Chelsey threw me into the room, Electricia having slackened her grip, almost numb to what was going on. Her eyes swam with tears as Chelsey held onto my shoulders.

Most Death Eaters continued to chant And He Shall Smite the Wicked as Cronus Zimmerman stepped forward. "The murderer Harley Quinn has been found guilty of the fifty three counts of murder she was charged of. The sentence…death!"

I took a deep breath as Cronus drew his wand and drew over the large pentagram on the stone floor. Meanwhile Electricia ripped the neckline of the top I was wearing, not meeting my eyes, or anyone else's eyes in the room before she stepped back.

Where the pentagram was touched with Cronus wand, flames erupted.

"The time has come, Gypsy." Lucius smirked, stepping forward and grabbing my arm. "You stand at the edge of the abyss. Yet even now it's not too late."

I looked at him through my eyelashes with a dark look.

"I can save you from the flames of this world and the next." Lucius muttered in my ear. "Choose now. Me…or the fire."

I growled. He was pulling the Frollo thing! My life for being his mistress for the rest of a life I could have that was miserable and tortuous.

I spat in his face. "Never!" I shouted. "I'd rather die than live a life where I was only loved for my body!"

Lucius growled and handed me to Chamberline. "The gypsy Harley Quinn refused to recant! This vile witch as put the souls of every person in England in awful jeopardy…"

As Lucius spoke, Chamberline led me to the flames and pinned me to it, letting the fire burn a path into my skin as she shackled me to the floor.

I grunted, trying to fight my way out.

"We shall smite the wicked and plunge them into the fiery pits of hell!" Lucius growled as Cronus grabbed the Tome.

"And now it is my duty to send this little harpy back to the soul place she belongs!" Cronus growled, opening the book and drawing a dagger:

Darkest gift from one so light

Bequeathed for the Darkest fight!

Trace the mark against her skin

To summon the darkest witches again!

I felt the cold of the dagger against my skin as the fire died, now becoming embers as Electricia put out the flames in my skirt.

Cronus gently cut open a pentagram on my forehead, making me jerk around wildly to break out of this grip. I needed to break out.

Cronus' hand constricted my throat as he took my one wrist and slit it open, marking another pentagram before matching the other wrist with the same mark.

I writhed, twisting my shackles and fighting not to scream, failing when I felt the dagger at my heart.

One stab…just one stab to my heart and it was all over. Not just for me…but for Draco as well.

Over the years Draco and I had become like an intermingled braid. You sever one line, you have to cut the other. If I die, Draco dies, if Draco died…I'd be too powerless to carry on. We'd both die of a broken heart.

I was almost sobbing, chest heaving as Cronus started to cut into my chest, drawing that same pentagram shallow enough not to hit the bone, but deep enough that it bled pretty bad.

"Yes, princess, yes…let your heart beat faster…allows more blood to pass through the wounds." Cronus smirked before carving one more pentagram into my stomach, again deep enough to bleed, but not shallow enough not to be lethal.

Cronus rose and every candle in the room was lit, sending the room into an eerily hellish light through the room.

The sweet blood of one with wit

One with affinity for spirit

Will bring the gift to one who drinks their strife

Bring the Ravencrofts to life!

Before I could grasp anymore what the ritual would do to me, Cronus was straddling me, licking the blood that was pooling at my face off, sucking the bleeding skin.

I shuddered, trying to shake my head as Cronus moved to suck the blood from each of my wrists, down to my stomach and then back up to my chest, licking and sucking the blood from my chest, swallowing it down until he shot away with a gasp.

"Cronus, my love…" Laventhorpe started.

"No…" Cronus murmured before coughing, almost looking as if he was dying…as if my blood was killing him. He hacked, coughed, retched until he fell to the floor, twitching and convulsing, practically foaming at the mouth. He gave one last twitch and fell still.

"Cronus!" Suspiria wailed, kneeling down at the still body of her husband. "Give me his wand, I'll kill the bitch my-"

That's when Cronus moved, he was levitating. His eyes flew open, they were darkening from the ice blue I saw in his only daughter before I killed her to the metallic blue I saw in my own eyes.

"The power…" Cronus growled. "THE ABSOLUTE POWER!" he shouted as the pentagram I laid on burst into flames again, starting to burn me alive.

I screamed, arching my back to get away from the flames, writhing with pain. "HELP ME!" I screamed.

"Yes…Yes!" Cronus shouted. "YES! THE GIRL WHO LIVED AT MY MERCY!"

I writhed more, already knowing that I was on fire. Every part of me burned. My element was slowly destroying me from the outside in.

Cronus levitated where he stood and started to call the elements. "All my elements come to your new Lord and Master!"

Each candle burned brighter, the flames I was being burnt in becoming almost impossibly hotter. The smell of fresh flowers by the sea hitting my nose as the wind whipped around the room.

Finally, it stopped, my body being subjected to roasting in the first level of hell instead of the seventh level…and then finally the burning stopped altogether, the flames in the pentagram fizzling out.

Every breath was now a struggle for me. I couldn't move. I was helpless. All I could do was listen to Cronus performing the ritual:

Dreadful Darkness, here my cry;

Bring back one who cannot die

Let the evil from the past

Breathe again with fiery blast

Let the dark wind quiff the night

To blow away the force of light.

Now I summon ancient power.

THIS IS EVIL'S FINEST HOUR!

Instantly the pentagram burned brighter again as white haze started to appear before my eyes.

For a minute I almost screamed at the thought of having to go towards the light, but the haze started to take the form of two people.

The Ravencrofts had risen again.

Both Ravencrofts, so I looked to Sarah Ravencroft, hoping for help from her instead of her daughter Andromache.

But what shocked me was the beautiful woman I had known to be the good Necromancer turned to Cronus.

"I thank you for bringing me back, Necromancer…" Sarah grinned.

"MOTHER!" the woman with a lock of black hair in front of her eye screamed. "MALES ARE NOT NATURALLY CAPABLE OF RECEIVING THE GIFT!" she shouted before looking to me. "SEE! He's used this poor girl to feed his own hellish thirst for world domination!" she hovered next to me as I felt myself start to go blank.

I felt Andromache's cold hand touch my blistered and bloody chest. "Abused Wicca used for wrong…"

"BE SILENT!" Sarah shouted as the door burst open.

"No…no…" I heard Draco mutter.

I coughed again before letting myself slip away.

Draco's POV

Alvaro and I had been in Scotland for hours, trying to figure out where Laventhorpe had dragged Hannah off.

"HERE!" Alvaro shouted, pointing up to a castle.

There was flickering light in the highest turret and I swore I heard a scream.

For a minute I thought I was hearing things from worry, then I heard another one.

Then I lost it.

"SPITFIRE!" I shouted, starting to run to the castle.

Diamond followed me as I burst through the door, following the sounds of screams from both Death Eaters and my sweet, sweet Spitfire.

I found the stairs that lead up to the room where the screams originated and started to run.

I heard maniacal laughter. "You won't be able to save her!" I heard Laventhorpe's singsong voice trill through the stairwell. "You're too late…she's dead!"

I started to run up the stairs and found the door just as I heard a ghostly voice start chanting.

"Abused Wicca used for wrong…"

"BE SILENT!" another ghostly shriek sounded as I busted the door down.

The Ravencrofts had risen again when I got through the door, the Death Eaters were scattering, leaving my father, Electricia Munville, Cronus and Laventhorpe in the room, well, beside Hannah.

"No…no!" I muttered.

Hannah was laying on a pentagram, strapped into the floor, most of her body burned and bloody, pentagrams were engraved around her body.

Andromache Ravencroft was knelt over her body and Sarah Ravencroft was standing with the Death Eaters.

"STAY AWAY FROM HER!" I shouted to Andromache.

"No, no…" Andromache drew herself up and locked eyes with me. "I am not the evil one…that's my mother."

"Nightshade…" I started.

Sarah shrieked with laughter. "Lucinda!?" she shrieked. "That old hack had the story wrong. I was hiding as Andromache from the start since I escaped to London from Salem!" Sarah laughed.

Cronus cackled evilly. "Ah, the famous Sarah Ravencroft…working for me!"

Sarah flew over to Cronus. "WHAT DID YOU SAY!?"

The fire on the pentagram ignited again and Hannah started to scream.

"Malfoy, you get Hannah out of that pentagram!" Diamond told me.

I started to unshackle Hannah from the pentagram, grabbing my wand to somewhat heal the burns along her body so she could be carried.

"STOP HER!" Sarah screamed.

Cronus raised his hand and I went flying through a gush of water, splashing Hannah with some as well before grabbing her.

"Lucius, deal with your son and I'll deal with his love right now." Cronus smirked.

"No." my father said with a smirk. "I'll take her right now."

"YOU WON'T TOUCH HER!" I shouted.

But I was too late. My father had taken her away.

I ran out after them, Andromache, Diamond and oddly enough, Munville following me.

I looked to her. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"Look, we all get I'm a psychopath because I just want you to fuck me crazy…er." Munville started. "But if Hannah makes you happy, I guess I'm on bored. And I couldn't forgive myself when I looked into her eyes before all this happened. She was pleading."

I rolled my eyes and ran, Diamond having stopped.

We left him behind and followed my father up to the very top of the castle, where he was holding Hannah out the window.

"I can't have her…no one will." Father growled before he let go of her wrists.

I ran to the window and jumped after her, grabbing her waist and holding onto one of the gargoyles, pulling both of us up as she started to come around.

"D-Dray…" she moaned.

"Hush, Hannah, I got you." I told her, stroking her hair as her eyes opened.

I held onto her. "Hold still, sweetheart." I said, placing my hand over her shoulder and focusing on my element to repair the worst of her burns.

What I did cleared up her skin as well, it went from an almost cooked meat colour to an angry red, like a bad sunburn.

"YOU ARE ALWAYS RUINING EVERYTHING!" my father shouted, crawling out the window.

Hannah instantly started to scream, she screamed and screamed, burying her face into my chest.

"This time, Potter, you will die!" Father shouted, drawing his wand.

Hannah screamed again as I clung to her, the gargoyle was starting to break.

"Hannah, I need you to trust me." I told her. "I'm going to let go."

"NO NO!" Hannah screamed, shaking her head.

"Hannah, trust me." I locked eyes with her. "If we don't we're going to fall to our deaths." I said before letting go, holding on to a backup window ledge as father climbed onto the gargoyle we had just dropped from.

"You're dead, Potter!" Father shouted, drawing his wand when I heard a crack.

The gargoyle started to drop and father slipped, holding onto the statue until it cracked.

Father looked terrified as it broke off. Father started screaming as he fell down from the top of the highest turret of the castle.

"BURN IN HELL YOU SON OF A BITCH!" I shouted.

Hannah stopped me. "No…" she whispered before aiming her hand towards my father.

Instantly Father started to slow down, stopping three quarters of the way down to the ground.

Hannah shook and shook her head. "No." she growled before letting him fall. "I want him hurt…but not dead. I want him to have to call me his daughter in law…knowing that he raped the woman who's going to bear his grandchildren."

I smirked and started to pull her into the window, finding Suspiria standing there.

"You spared her, you little fucker!" she snapped, throwing her hands at me.

Then it hit me…Suspiria Laventhorpe was a Necromancer, too! I dodged her dark wave of air and found a wave of earthly energy.

She dodged my spell as I sat Hannah in a chair, starting to conjure up another wave of Dark Necromancy.

I conjured up another wave of Earth magic, throwing it at her the same time she threw her wave of Dark magic at me.

The two waves intermingled, and yet my magic was slowly overpowering the Dark magic. But Laventhorpe was slowly able to overpower me.

"Too late for you and Potter now, eh?" Laventhorpe sneered. "Tell your precious Mudblood mother-in-law to be hi for me."

I growled, looking over to a petrified Hannah…

With a sudden burst of power, I knocked Laventhorpe off her feet and threw her into the wall, where she slumped.

I grinned, picking Hannah up and running to get Diamond, Munville and Andromache.

I found Diamond and Munville easy enough, but we were trapped in the castle as long as Cronus had Hannah's powers.

I set Hannah in my arms and ran up to where I first found her, finding Cronus writhing in the air, moaning with obvious pleasure.

"The power…the absolute power! It's mine! ALL MINE!" Cronus shouted.

Lightning started to flash through the castle and Hannah was forced out of my arms to float with Cronus, obviously terrified.

"Alright, you little slut, there's only room for one Necromancer in this world, and you, little mouse are getting too big for your whiskers!" Cronus cackled.

Suddenly, dark tendrils found their way around Hannah's wrists, neck, waist and ankles, a dark blue glow to them.

Suddenly Hannah started to scream as if she was being shocked, body tensing and writhing in the air as if she was hit with the Cruciatus Curse.

Then it hit me. She was being electrocuted. She was literally being executed right before my eyes.

"This isn't Necromancy!" I shouted.

"It is…just not the Necromancy you're accustomed to." Andromache muttered. "This is the Dark Necromancy. It's reserved for the Dark wizards who try to take powers from the real Necromancers. There's different elements for the Dark Spectrum. Electricity, Sensuality, Darkness and Death."

"But he was able to call the other elements!" I protested. "You're here, aren't you?"

"That's the thing. Both Spectrums are available to natural Necromancers and those who take their powers. The Dark Spectrum could lie dormant for eons in Necromancers. Hannah has both Spectrums… she can control everything if she learned how to control the full Gift."

"She won't have the Gift for long if we don't stop Cronus for killing her!" I panicked as Hannah started to fall limp.

"Leave it to me, lest you forget that I have the Gift as well." Andromache grinned.

"You're dead!" I told her.

"Death doesn't revoke the Gift." Andromache smirked before shooting up, blowing Cronus away from Hannah.

"CATCH HER, MALFOY!" Andromache said as Hannah dropped.

I caught her and held her tightly as Andromache held Cronus with pure air power.

Her voice suddenly became melodic, almost as if she was serenading him.

You foul, loathsome evil one;

Shame for the things that you have done.

Taking power, drinking life

I will end this poor girls strife.

Your evil now has been undone

Power return from whence you've come!

Cronus instantly started to convulse again, collapsing to the floor as he started to glow, the light flying through into Hannah.

Her body instantly started to glow again, red to blue to yellow to violet and back again, restoring her broken powers.

Cronus collapsed, falling still, but chest still rising and falling. He was going to live.

"Idiots!" Sarah Ravencroft hissed, raising up to the roof. "THIS TIME IS SURROUNDED BY IDIOTS!"

The dark tendrils came back.

"Cronus was right…there is room for only one Necromancer in this world…and it won't be your precious Hannah!" Sarah cackled, sending the tendrils towards Hannah…straight to her heart.

I shot a wave of earth towards the tendrils, sending them scattering to different parts of Hannah's body, exactly where Cronus had shocked her.

Hannah screamed, obviously lost in the pain she was feeling.

I took the time to sneak to the Tome, only to be shocked myself.

"YOU WILL STAY AWAY FROM THAT TOME, YOU STUPID BOY!" Sarah bellowed, her voice deep as if she was possessed.

Andromache looked to me. "Trust me, this is something Hannah has to do…I'll distract my mother, you get the Tome."

I nodded and Andromache shot up.

"Mother, you win, I can't fight you anymore." Andromache muttered.

"Excellent, my daughter. Excellent. Now, the first thing we must do is finish off this pathetic mortal." Sarah cackled, sending an almost impossible wave of electricity coursing through Hannah's body, making her scream louder as I grabbed the Tome.

Andromache floated off and looked to me. "Turn to the middle of the book. That's where the resurrection spell is. There's a backup spell. But a living Necromancer has to do it."

We both looked to a writhing Hannah.

I took a breath. I was taking the chance. I grabbed Hannah and pulled her back, getting myself shocked in the process.

"Hannah, listen to me." Andromache said to a semiconscious Hannah. "This spell will send my mother back into the book. You need to read it."

Hannah nodded as I held her up as she started to read it.

Ancient evil get thee hence,

Only good can recompense

For the misdeeds you have done

Witch return from where you've come!

Sarah Ravencroft instantly started to spin.

"NO!" she shouted, starting to be dragged towards the book.

"Farewell, Mother!" Andromache growled.

Sarah was screaming in anguished defeat as she swirled into the book, the book falling shut on her just as Hannah collapsed, blacking out.

"Why weren't you sucked back in?" I asked Andromache.

"She said ancient evil. I'm not an ancient evil." Andromache grinned before looking at Hannah. "You should get her back to England." she said.

"Yeah, let's find Diamond and let's go."

"No need." Diamond stood in the doorway, wand in hand. "The Death Eaters are tied together in the Grand Hall." he told me.

"My father?" I asked.

"Alive, but injured. Crushed by a gargoyle." Diamond told me.

I looked to him. "I don't know how to thank you, mate." I said, suddenly feeling guilty about shouting at him and shunning him. "You probably saved her life."

Diamond nodded.

"You know…if you didn't tell me about everything that happened or where Hannah was…she'd be dead." I said.

"Tell me something I don't know, jackass." Diamond said sternly, but with a joking tone.

I snorted. "You know…I don't think it's too late to add one more person to my party for the wedding." I said with a smirk.

Diamond smirked. "Good." he laughed. "Well, come on. If there's gonna be a wedding at all, we have to get her back to Hogwarts."

I nodded as Andromache hovered next to me. "That's a point." I pointed out before we Disapparated back to school.

"Hannah!" I heard Potter shouted when I got her to the dorms.

Somehow Potter had a feeling that she was going to be brought here.

I threw the Tome onto the bedside table and laid Hannah in bed. "The Death Eaters are being caught now." I smirked. "Although we will need McGonagall to supervise the Transfiguration exams for old times sake."

"The Tome!" Granger said, taking the book and looking through it.

"Got it back." I smirked. "Almost killed Hannah in the process, but I got it. And ironically, Sarah was the bad Necromancer and Andromache…right here." I gestured to the Necromancer's ghost at my side. "was good."

Andromache grinned as I sat down. "The Death Eaters are back in Azkaban…the Tome's back, Cronus is probably destroyed…now all we have to do is wait." I said. "We just wait for Hannah to wake up."