Chapter 2: Silence Mixed With Grief

The icy wind continued to howl ferociously sending many to find comfort in the confinements of their pristine homes. The shackles of the roofs of many houses clicked and clattered upon the wind's command. Snow and wind covered anything in their way. The snow slowly covered the ground making it seemingly rise by two feet. The sun threatened to fall and the moon taking its place. The harsh blizzard continued to blow as four traveling companions tracked through the deep snow in order to get to shelter. After much harsh labor, they finally reached their destination and upon arriving there, they shook off the snow and immediately lit the fireplace to warm away the cold.

Hermione and Ron cuddled together near the warmth of the fire while Harry sat on the chair nearest the warmth and Lumina stood leaning against the window frame. Her eyes gazed outside the window, watching the snow and wind mercilessly beat against any object that hindered their path. Someone was out there, she knew it, her instincts knew it and they were never once been wrong. Her eyes shifted toward Adene who was perched atop an ornament. A smile played upon her lips. She could not count the number of times the bird saved her life. Her eyes returned to the window carefully watching anything that might be there, if any. Though her eyes are paying attention to the outside, she quietly listened to the whispered conversation traveling between the three misfits.

Hermione straightened her back and turned her attention to the quiet Harry. She whispered, "Harry, I still don't trust this person. What if she's working with Lord Voldemort?" Ron involuntarily cringed at the mention of his name. Hermione lightly slapped his shoulder. "Ron, just get used to saying and hearing his name. It's just a name."

Harry joked, "It's not as if we say his name three times he'll appeared out of nowhere in front of us." The three shared a light laugh. Hermione's expression turned serious once again.

"Harry, I'm serious. How do you know if she's really on our side? What if she's just pretending to be our friend? Just like how Professor Snape pretended to be Dumbledore's friend but in the end, Snape killed him." A looming silence enveloped them. No matter how many times they say it, no matter how many times they relived it, the pain still lingered, stabbing at their hearts every time, each more painful than the last. Adene flew to perch on her master's shoulder and cuddled against her cheek. Harry's eyes filled with grief once more. A part of him still couldn't believed it happened and the other tried to put it behind him, telling him nothing can be done to undo the event. He blamed himself for letting it happen; he felt he could've done something to prevent it although he did not know how. After what seemed like an eternity of aching silence, Harry spoke.

"Hermione, I know you don't trust her and you think she'll do the same thing Snape did, but I feel as if she can be trusted."

Hermione angrily whispered, "But Harry, we never saw her until after Dumbledore's death. What if she just came to watch the agony in everyone's face and to see Dumbledore's dead body and sneer at him?" Suddenly, Lumina stormed out of the room with Adene trailing behind trying to catch up with the fast girl. The three stared after her retreating figure, not even bothering to run after her.

Ron finally spoke up, "What the bloodly hell was that about?" The three looked at each other in confusion, silently asking if one or the other knew what happened. Still the three did not do anything. A pop sounded out of nowhere and a house elf appeared near the fire. The house elf bowed to the three. Smoke rose from near the house elf and when she looked down a fire was eating away her foot causing the little elf to run about in circles knocking down many furniture attempting to rid the fire. Hermione cast a water spell eliminating the fire and in the process drenching the house elf. The house elf thanked Hermione. She snapped her fingers and all the overturned furniture reverted back to their normal position.

The house elf spoke, "May you be Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ronald Weasley?" The three nodded. "I have a message from the Headmistress. She demands that you come back to school and leave the you-know-who business to the Ministry."

Harry shouted, "We can't go back! We have to find Voldemort's Horuxes and find a way to defeat him. The prophecy stated that I'll the one who will defeat him and I can't do that if I'm in school."

The house elf cringed at the mention of his name. A strange howl emitted outside; one that didn't belong to a regular wolf. All the residents stared outside the window, trying to see beyond the wind whipped white sheet to see what caused the sound. The door banged opened making all of them jump in surprise. Lumina stormed in muttering something under her breath. All of them stared at her; not because she was covered in snow, or the fact that she had multiple six inch gashes all over her, but because of the six foot werewolf she was dragging behind her with the help of Adene. She passed them and went toward another room. She opened the door and tossed the werewolf inside with ease and slammed the door and locked it. Only then did she notice everyone staring at her. Her expression remained unreadable. She noticed the house elf.

Lumina asked, "Sola? What are you doing here?"

The house elf known as Sola looked up at Lumina. Sola ran toward her and speedily spoke to her. Lumina smiled. "Sola slow down. Take a deep breath and speak slowly." Sola retold what she was sent her to do and how Harry and the others refused to go back.

Sola addressed Lumina, "Please Lumina you must convince them. Maybe they'll listen to you since your Dumbledore's dau-" Lumina quickly clamped Sola's mouth and held her close. The immediate action perked Hermione's suspicion and she looked at Lumina with more suspicion in her eyes than before. Lumina gave a quick smiling apology and power-walked downstairs. The three stared at her once again, wondering what exactly happened. After a few minutes, Lumina came back. She stopped as soon as she reached the top of the stairs noting how the three stared at her. She shook her head. She must've caused some confusion and even more suspicion on her character and purpose. If only they knew, but she knew that they couldn't…not yet anyway. She had her reasons for withholding information; they might get hurt for just knowing it. With a wave of her hand, more comfortable and decent furniture appeared. The trio looked around with surprise expressions on their face. Lumina wondered why they had those expressions; have they never seen magic performed? Lumina smacked herself mentally; she remembered now of how Dumbledore said she was special…this must be the reason. She never had to use a wand like the rest to perform magic; all she had to do was either wave her hand or chant a spell but the thing with spells, she had to rhyme them, a part she didn't like.

Lumina spoke, "I'm sure you want to be more comfortable right?"

There were no responses whatsoever; they all just stared at her. She sighed. She was getting tired of them just staring at her as if she was something unexplainable…but there's the irony, she was something unexplainable. She chuckled to herself.

Hermione shouted, "What are you laughing about?"

Lumina drove her attention to Hermione. "Nothing important. Just a thought I had." As she expected Hermione glared at her with those suspicious eyes. Lumina discarded the look and said, "Well, you all must be tired so why don't you rest. I'm sure Hermione that you and Ron can share the same bed without giving into temptations?" The couple both blushed a deep red at Lumina's implication which caused her to laugh merrily. Lumina was about to walk into the room in which she threw the werewolf in when Harry spoke up.

"What happened with Sola?"

Without turning around, she answered, "I took care of her." The trio looked at her with horror. Lumina laughed. "I believe you misinterpreted me. I told her to tell the Headmistress that you three are on an important mission with my help." As soon as she finished she unlocked the door and went inside. Harry was a relieved that the house elf will not pester them about going back to Hogwarts or the chance that the Headmistress will come herself and drag them back to school. Lumina's safety lingered in Harry's mind; she was alone in the room with a potential Death Eater.

Hours had passed and already Ron and Hermione were asleep in separate beds. Adene was perched on the arm rest of the couch. Harry was pacing the room back and forth while Adene's eyes followed his every movement. Incoherent muttering occasionally came from Harry's mouth. Adene sighed to herself…if that was possible. She was honestly worried about the boy. He hasn't done anything but worrying himself to death. She could feel the tension lingering in the silence. To ease the unseen force she spoke to Harry.

"You mustn't worry so much Potter. After all, my master can look after herself. She's done so for many years."

Adene's voice stopped Harry from pacing. He slumped unto the couch and looked at the ceiling. Another moment of silence passed. Adene had the feeling that this would happen a lot from now on, especially since her master was being so secretive... which will probably be the main reason since it gave the trio much to think about. Adene nearly jumped when Harry spoke.

"Adene, what can you tell me about your master?"

Adene answered, "I'm afraid not very much. She does not want much to be revealed about her."

"Why?"

"She has her reasons and I trust her."

Harry agreed. He did trust her although he could not explain why. Maybe it was because of her appearance or her voice of how it sounds so reassuring. Suddenly Harry wondered how her lips felt against his. He shook his head. Where did that thought come from? He couldn't risk being in a relationship since she would be in danger. That was the reason he broke up with Ginny. Wasn't it? He was staring to have second thoughts about his decision with Ginny. Not once had he thought about her ever since he started this journey. More thoughts streamed through his head; not one managing to stay in place. His thoughts came to a stop when the door slowly opened. Lumina came out of the room and this time closed the door without locking it. Even though he could barely see in the dark, he thought he saw blood on the side of her face. She covered herself with her trench coat and headed downstairs. Harry quickly jumped out of the couch almost causing it to topple over making Adene squawk in surprise and ran toward Lumina and grasped her arm firmly.

He whispered, "What happened?" He tried to turn her face toward him but she wouldn't cooperate.

She answered, "He was a Death Eater. That's all you need to know. I took care of the rest."

Harry urged her continue but she refused to go into further detail. Harry could tell she was beyond tired and that more than interrogating went about in the room. For one he noticed she did not lock the door after closing it. Two she wrapped herself with her trench coat and three she had blood smeared on the side of her face. Harry once again tried to turn her face to him and this time she complied since she was too tired to resist. The moonlight managed to shine through the window and stay lighted on the two. Harry never had seen anything more beautiful than the sight in front of him. The moonlight seemed to make her skin glow and make her emerald eyes shine with the same brilliance as the stone itself. Harry drank in her majestic beauty and ingrained the image into his memory. A drip drip echoed through out the room. Scratches reverberated through the wooden floor. An eerie silence spread across the room. A swift figure moved along the wall and then to the other; it seemed as if it was everywhere and come out and strike anywhere. Instinctively, Harry shielded Lumina from the unseen danger by wrapping her in his arms. Lumina eyes widened in surprise. Never before had anyone attempted to protect her. This action was quite new to her and she did not know what to do.

Harry pulled out his wand, preparing to strike whatever lied in the shadows. Moments passed and nothing out of the ordinary happened. Still, Harry refused to let his guard down. Lumina spoke, "You should worry more about your sleeping friends than me." Harry looked down at her. She smiled at him and patted his cheek. "Don't worry, I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself." Harry hesitated. Protecting her would be an excuse for him to hold her like that. Abiding to her silent and gentle command, he walked over to Ron and Hermione and saw that no harm was done to them. Thankful his friends were ok, we went back to where he last saw Lumina standing. When he arrived he saw she was nowhere to be seen. He looked around frantically, his panic level rapidly rising. Losing control of his common sense, he went to the room where the werewolf was held hostage and opened the door. The moment he opened the door, a large furry beast leapt at him causing him to fall on his back. The werewolf was constantly attempting to bite Harry's face but Harry held him back by gripping its mouth. Harry's wand was far to his left. If only he could reach it then he could blast this thing off of him. A loud boom sounded throughout the room and the beast slumped on Harry; its weight squeezing the air out of him. Harry managed to lift the brute off of him. He stood up looking over the beast that tried to kill him. The werewolf slowly changed its shape to resemble one of a human man.

The transformation confused Harry. He then remembered about the penetrating sound. He turned to his left and saw Lumina staring at him with worry in her eyes. She walked over to him and cupped his chin moving his face from right to left examining any signs of injuries. After Lumina's examination, Harry returned his gaze to the dead corpse. Lumina spoke.

"When a werewolf dies, they return to their human shape."

Harry turned his attention to her. He inquired, "What killed him?"

Lumina showed him a silver pistol. "Silver is like poison to them. So one hit to the head can instantly kill them." She paused. "I hate to resolve into violence, but I had no choice."

Because of me, Harry thought. Harry stared at the corpse; it reminded him of his former defense against the dark arts teacher, Professor Lupin. Harry was about to ask Lumina how she knew about the change a werewolf goes through after it dies, but before he could ask her eyes were devoid of life and she collapsed. Before she fell to the ground, Harry caught her and carried her in his arms. Her trench coat opened and for the first time, Harry saw the gashes clearly. It then hit him; those were not ordinary cuts, those were werewolf claw marks meaning she would turn into a werewolf. The idea horrified him, but no matter what he would help her in any way he can. Another mark caught his eyes; right in the center of her stomach a one inch diameter circle was oozing out blood. Harry's eyes widened in surprise and fear.

Well there you go for those who actually read this. Sorry for not updating sooner. Got sidetracked with school, preparing for college, other stories and the other things in life. Well, I hope you enjoyed reading this and please review.