To Descend

Lara

I rested my head against Remus and sighed deeply. I stared out of the train windows, the blur of the landscape, the light drifting of clouds, and tried to ignore Alex who was so blind of my presence. I felt as if I were intruding into his thoughts, now that he couldn't hear me and it confused and hurt me to no end. I kept thinking in half formed, jolty, sequences – expecting his mind to unconsciously fill in the gaps. I could feel him there; my brain expected him to work with me. Now I was finding I had to ignore the fact he was there just so I could think properly. It was exhausting and wasn't helped by Alex's own fatigue from the nausea and headaches that still managed to leak into my own bones.

I felt a flicker of magic in the room and my mind tensed, I tried to locate the cause but I could hardly control my own magic to find out. I shrugged it off and blinked the feeling away. I tried to settle down but now I was more aware I became very conscious that I needed to use the loo.

"Lara? You alright?" Remus' voice came to me as if through filters.

What's wrong with her – is she okay – what-?

Alex's thoughts jumped out at me but I forced them away, feeling guilty as I did so.

What was with that? I was either guilty for hearing him or guilty for pushing him away…

I turned to Remus and reprocessed his words again before nodding, dazed.

"Yeah, I've just to use the toilet" I mumbled, standing up. I felt him squeeze my hand and looked at him to see his anxious face and feel his worried thoughts.

"Okay, don't be too long, we'll be getting to the station soon" he said, releasing my hand and I nodded again before leaving the compartment.

I needed to go to the toilet.

I shook my head, feeling as if something had wedged itself in there.

Why do I need the toilet? I thought to myself but shrugged it off.

I suppose it doesn't matter, I could do with a little space either way.

It did confuse me though… this sudden urge… almost like –

"Larissa?" a voice said behind me and I recognised the mind before I saw the face.

"Regulus Black" I replied, turning to see him, poking his head out of a carriage.

He looked at me nervously and shifted his feet, his hand lying flat against the sliding door.

"Sorry, I don't mean to interrupt…" he said "do you mind if we have a quick chat?"

He looked at me with large innocent eyes, large innocent eyes in front of a shielded mind. I shook my head, still feeling the dragging texture of Alex's pain – even now.

"Sure… I guess so…" I said weakly, too drained to refuse.

I walked back to him and he stepped back, allowing me to enter in front of him. The door slammed shut. I caught a glimpse of the train windows and an intense feeling of not being alone washed over me before a blinding red light filled my vision and everything became black.

Regulus

I caught Larissa as she fell and lowered her gently to the floor. Next to me Darien removed the disillusionment charm and walked to his bag, pulling out a variety of potions. I looked down at Larissa's unconscious face and brushed away a strand of silver hair, her pale eyelashes stroked her cheek and her lips were slightly parted in shock. From here the scar over her face looked so much worse but I could also see how it had started to lose its intense red tinge. It didn't really matter; it just proved what she had been through. She was still beautiful.

"That was easy" I said quietly and Irvine glanced at me.

"Of course. She's probably exhausted from the state Alex is in – didn't I tell you there was a point to the poison we added?" he said lightly.

I glared at him but decided not to comment on his blasé tone.

He knelt down opposite me, on the other side of her head and his hand moved without hesitation to the inside of her left arm, pulling up her sleeve to reveal her wand strapped there in a holster made of white leather. I blinked, looking at Irvine curiously, and he glanced at me, his cheeks pinking.

"It was a gift from her aunt. She always wears it there... Alex has one too" he said as he began to remove the entire holster from her arm and attach it to himself.

I gently moved my hand to the top of her head and selected a hair, lightly pulling it away from the root. I stood and held it out to Irvine, my eyes fixed on the fine hair, as he rose to his feet and reached for one of the flasks. I watched as he tipped a bit of the sludgy liquid into a cup then, plucking the hair from my fingers with a glance, let the single silver hair fall into the potion.

It immediately started to change, the sludgy potion twisting into a semi-translucent silvery colour, like molten metal only lighter and with the liquidity of water.

Darien took a quick gulp and seemed to ponder the taste for a moment before chuckling and rolling his eyes.

"Tastes like vanilla" he said ironically, snorting.

I watched quietly as his hair started to grow out and adjust into Larissa's silver colour and the boned in his face morphed. His normally dark eye melded into grey and he began to shrink slightly till he was a foot shorter than me. I had to look away when Darien's pale, thin (and now baggy) shirt began to show a little too much of the body he now inhabited.

Merlin. That is weird.

Larissa Grey stepped out of the overly large shoes and knelt down to collect the smaller once. Darien Irvine looked up at me watching and scowled through her eyes.

"Stop staring dammit, you pervert" he said in her voice and I cringed.

"This is so wrong" I muttered, turning away so that he – Darien – could change into Larissa's clothes in peace.

"I still don't get why we couldn't just Imperio her" I said to the compartment door as I tried to ignore the rustle of clothes behind me.

"Because" the (her) voice reprimand "Lara and Alex's wills together are much too strong to hold securely – him unable to hear her does nothing to that"

"And the reason you were chosen?" I muttered, trying not to imagine what I would see if I turned now.

There was a feminine snort.

"I'm not a pervert" he said (Irvine, Irvine is saying it).

"Only because you're gay"

He laughed out loud and it must have been the first time I'd heard him laugh properly.

"Perhaps" he chuckled "but I also know how she acts, which you don't"

Darien

So that was our plan. Poison Alex at dinner so he wouldn't be able to tell that I wasn't actually his sister and additionally weaken Lara. Get the rat to confound Lara into going to the toilet with the help of his desperate secret girlfriend. Switch and have me fool the dim-witted Gryffindors into believing I was their good friend/sister/girlfriend Lara Grey then give them the slip and apparate back to the Grey manor. Meanwhile Regulus would keep real Lara Grey incarcerated till we got to the station then portkey away to wherever Mr. Grey had decided confidentially to send his only daughter. Thus Regulus and myself escape death – for now - and I once again enhanced my title as a complete and utter bastard.

Simple.

The goodbye kisses though... now that was more painful than the guilt.

Alex

"-Causality of wa-"

"- MY COUS-"

"-We'll find her-"

"-Much as we c-"

"-T GOOD ENOU-"

"-Could be anywh-"

"-Don't you worry-"

"-YOU MEAN TH-"

"-Head start-"

"-Say she was acti-?"

"-said 'sorry-?"

"Al?"

I looked up in a daze and saw Sirius kneeling before me. I launched myself at him and began sobbing blindly into his shoulder. Everyone was talking over each other in this small room and in the middle Andy was shouting at the officials, her husband upstairs with Dora. The emotions were high and, my thoughts slightly clearing now, I could feel them as a hazy, thrumming pulse around me. Doubt, panic, acceptance, annoyance... all of them tense and painful to feel.

My sister.

It was becoming obvious to everyone who knew Lara that the Aurors knew shit all what to do and the Order didn't have enough information or places to start.

My sister.

Sirius held me and I clung to my fiancé like he was my last life line.

"-Manor hou-"

"-You-know-who-?"

"-DON'T YOU SE-"

"-The father-"

"-Imperius?"

"-HAD BETTER-"

"-unlikely that we-"

"SILENCE!"

The room became quite and turned to look at me. Sirius was sitting back on his arms where he'd fallen when I'd stood up. I felt my magic course through my skin and behind me something shattered. Most people were looking at me in shock and a little fear. Andy stood in the middle looking smug. Others looked annoyed, some were just gloomy. I glared around the room threateningly, my whole being charged with anger. When I spoke though my voice was quiet, level and I imagined that if my sister were here right now that we would speak in unison.

But it was just me and I would have to make do for the both of us.

"You are getting nowhere with this pointless bickering. Either you have no hope, like you" I jabbed my finger at a ministry official that I felt resignation pulsate from "and therefore need to leave or grow a little optimism for the sake of mine. Or you actually think about what you're doing instead of discussing how pointless and difficult it all is. Do something, don't just stand there. You don't have information? Get some" and get a pair while you're at it, I thought to myself.

I swept my eyes over them and then I turned on my heel and stormed out of the room to the spot where my sister had disaperated.

I felt Sirius follow me; he said nothing just kept close to my side while I breathed in deeply the cold night air.

I wanted to scream and writhe and shout and hit something probably bone breaking for my knuckles. I felt every cell in my body trying to fall in on its self and my vision kept bringing back the image of Lara's figure twisting away from me and the words that her lips had left.

"It's all my fault, again, I really am so, so very sorry Ally"

Oh, I knew exactly who left those words for me, it didn't matter how. They reeked of him in every way. The sincerity, the guilt yet the lack of will to do anything about it. The coward. Merlin I hated him so much. I hated that I still loved him deep in my heart, though that love was plagued and twisted now with pure, unadulterated hate.

How can you hate a person but love them?

It had been a perfect plan. A perfect bloody Slytherin plan. He always did have the best imagination - we used to commend him for it. The bastard. He always made the plans and they were always perfect, loop holes stitched up, almost artistic. I hated him.

Ally.

I hated how it used to be us. We. Irvine and the Grey twins. Ally and Darien. Me and you. The fraud. I hated how he had shattered me. I hated how he sold me and my sister out. I hated that he infected all my happy memories of my childhood.

I hated how he had stolen my sister from me.

I screamed to the sky, animalistic, my hand curled into a fist and I felt sharp pains in my palm where my nails dug. Hands wrapped around my waist and pulled me into a hard chest. The darkness pressed into my skin and loneliness filled my thoughts.

Remus

Remus,

Lara has been kidnapped. We don't know how but I think it is pretty obvious who. I've just arrived at Andromeda's house, Alex is... a state. I'm so sorry. It's completely mad here, the Aurors are trying their best and the Order too has got involved but it's... not looking good. I don't know what to say. You're welcome to come over. You can have Lar- the spare room.

Sirius.

Lily

Dear Lily!

Help! Have you heard? Those bast- Did Sirius tell you? Holy fu Merlin. Lily, they've taken Lara! They've taken her! I want- don't know- what to do. I wish- can't think! I'm going to Andromeda's place. Alex is there. Tell the othe- James. I'm going to kill- go. I'm going to go.

Remus.

James

Dear James,

Remus just owled me about Lara. I can't believe it! I haven't stopped crying since I got the letter. Remus is going crazy, you should have seen his letter and he asked me to tell you about... it. But of course you must already know - you were with Sirius after all. Remus has gone to stay with Alex and Sirius, I wish I could go too, Petunia is driving me mad blaming me for my parents... and now this. I just can't believe it! Lara! What are we going to do? What in Merlin's name should we do? What if they- hurt her? What if she-

I'm so scared, James, I'm terrified.

Love Lily.

Severus

Mr Snape,

Your initiation is tomorrow evening. Go to the three broom sticks at seven sharp. You will be escorted. Stay hidden. Tell no one. Now destroy this letter.

Morsmordre

In those last letters there was meant to be cross outs - sorry for the confusion.