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The most extreme events in life are silent. The fear that lodges your throat, the pain that renders speechlessness, the elation that words cannot express. Death is the final extremity, the long mute that we never recover from.
Harry was experiencing a silence. From when the deadly note lazily drifted into his hands to the chill that crept into his core when all denial was abandoned. And now he was making his way through the Great Hall, toward the double doors he needed to reach.
A flash of yellow-red stepped into his vision and his hand which was outstretched for the doorknob, met the soft fabric of a robe. Slowly, his hazed green vision traveled upward to the face.
An exotically beautiful face glared back down at him. "Aren't you supposed to be in class?"
Something in the rich, satin layers of her voice began to awake him from the comatose state his mind had decided to rudely take. However it left room for only one other emotion.
§
Hermione stumbled on her robes while running, Ron grabbing her wrist to help her stand while keeping up the fast pace.
"Thanks," She said quickly before they both returned their frantic calls.
"Harry!"
"Mate, come on, what's up?"
Their best(and most troublesome) friend had been delivered a note by the snowy owl just this morning. Hedwig had not waited for a reply, and when the teen had read the letter, he found something in the package. Clutching both in his hands, the Gryffindor walked straight out of the dormitories and he was certainly not headed for first period with Snape. So, being concerned and quite decent people, Weasley and Granger had followed after him.
"Harry, what is wrong?" The bushy-haired bookworm finally managed to catch up to professor and pupil, Ron right on her heels.
Blair's eyes vaguely drifted over them, giving a nod of approval while her attention was obviously still on the rebelliously mute boy in front of her. Kryeen asked a very acceptable question that both teens wanted an answer to and then Ron saw it. It was the simple fact that he was the only other male that only the youngest male brother noticed it. His best mate had snapped at her words. He caught that hazed fury in Harry's green eyes just in the last moment.
A strong fist swung at the surprised DADA teacher, coming short due to the quick arm that had grabbed the 'chosen one' by his collar.
"You," Potter spat out, making the immortal blink. She had only seen him this... enraged at her during the test, after she had purposely pushed his buttons.
Did I do something lately? She wondered vaguely,coming up blank.
"Harry," The keeper croaked palely behind him. He had learned not to mess with the unpredictable woman.
"It's all your fault! If you had only helped! All this wouldn't have..." However the seeker could no longer find words to express his total fury.
A flinch hadn't moved Aduru's face as golden eyes swept over the black-haired youth.
"You're not making any sense. Try again before I knock it out of you." Somehow her voice didn't have the usual scathing tone.
The reluctant celebrity might have noticed that if he was not exhausting every emotional outpour at the moment. With shaking hands, the wizard dove into his robe and pulled out a thin, cream-colored parchment. It didn't look like much of an opposition, in the death dealer's eyes. However she took it, read the neatly scrawled and suspiciously loopy handwriting. After less than a moment, bird-like eyes went back up to scar-face.
"So that girl has been swiped and you are going to play the hero and go save her?"
The two other exchanged a confused glance, but the brash aura, frightfully reminiscent of the one he wore when 'rescuing' Sirius last year, still remained as words came in response.
"Well since you are so happy staying out of stupid mortal affairs, it doesn't really matter what I'm doing now does it?"
Blair's glare hardened. "If you go to the death eater camp you will cease to be the boy-who-lived very quickly."
"Death eater camp?" Hermione yelped in alarm.
Harry was shaking with barely controlled feeling. "I won't leave her to die!"
"Harry, what is going on?" Ron demanded a bit firmer.
Pulling in a deep breath, the green-eyed warlock turned to his best friend. "Ron... they took Ginny."
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The youngest and only female child of the Weasley's was not a very happy camper. Here she was, just practicing some early-morning Quidditch when the quaffle escaped her and went into the forest. Used to much more frightening things then the Dark Forest (Her mother's anger as one of them, Tom Riddle a close second) the pretty fifth-year made her way into the twisting branches for the red ball when she was hit with a paralysis spell, and a bag shoved over her head. Blindly carried, the witch was promptly dropped in a cold, dark place she quickly realized was a cave. No, Ginny Weasley was not a happy camper.
"Are you just going to sit there?" She snapped at the only other life.
Her guard glared at her with stubborn dark eyes.
"Yes, that is my job." The death eater replied with an irate voice.
The captive sighed exasperatedly. "I've been dumped in some cave with a stiff, absolutely fantastic."
The young man (he couldn't be over 30) had plain features. Dirty blond hair, dark brown eyes, fine lips, and a square nose. He was neither gorgeous nor ugly, a great blend of cliche. He gave her an odd look.
"You should be scared. You're in a death eater camp, little girl."
In response, the chaser shot him a withering gaze and snorted. "Really? Because all I see is a boring guy with bad taste in clothing and some moss on the walls."
"Once I'm done with you I will become a death eater too."
"The moss is more frightening than you."
The man's hard stare turned into open bewilderment as he looked over the teenager before him.
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
Ginny smiled and winked. "Chronic boredom and a wet but."
The confused expression never left his face. "You've been captured by death eaters and you're not afraid?"
The red-head shrugged, her hazel eyes sparkling in the damp. "Well... This isn't the first thing to happen to me and I doubt it will be the last. This is war, and I'm still alive and relatively unharmed."
She had been commenting half to herself before, but now her focus was directed to the wizard before her.
"I guess, I realize that curling up in fear doesn't help anything so I just... deal with it."
Critically he surveyed her countenance. Upon finding no lie (Though he wouldn't have seen a lie even is she hadn't been truthful. She was good at lying, after all.) Finally the man broke into a grin and his entire being seemed much more relaxed.
"I'm Aidan."
Perhaps he does have a personality. The Gryffindor blinked before smiling herself.
"Ginny,"
Though I can't trust him. He is working for the death eaters after all.
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Blair gritted her teeth in anger as she sped through the skies.
Of all the damn ideas that kid could come up with this one takes the Nobel.
The dimming brightness of the cerulean sky did nothing to ease the immortals nerves. Normally she would be relishing in the heightened adrenaline levels that came with an oncoming struggle. However, anxiety had now taken its place. As she continued toward the center of dark energy, her mind thought back to the last few events that led her to this point.
Ron had reacted accordingly, his face pulling a comically uncomprehending look before fury and fear flooded into his honest eyes.
"Who did?"
The question wasn't really needed, but somehow the brother hoped beyond dreams that his gut was wrong.
But the defeated, resentful look filling his friend's eyes reassured him before the words. "Voldemort,"
Ron swore.
"But what does he want with Ginny?" Hermione asked, confused as to what an insignificant girl could be to the dark lord.
At this, Harry's entire face darkened several shades at a frightening level.
"He... he is using her to get to me." The frown seemed so permanent on his lips.
The note came out of their professor's hands and was read by both male and female.
Silly boy,
An informant told me that it would be of some interest to you that the blood-traitor's daughter is currently being held at our camp outpost. She remains safe until sunset. A portkey will be placed to lead you to her whereabouts if you are stupid enough to play the hero again. You will not escape this time, Potter.
It was signed with a skeleton wrapped by a snake, the Dark Mark.
Suddenly Kryeen's words made a cynical amount of sense.
"Harry, you can't! It's a trap!" Hermione said shakily, on the verge of tears.
"I don't have a choice." Each syllable was pronounced with dark determination.
"I'm coming." The older Weasley suddenly interrupted a retort from the girl.
"Ron!"
"No. This is my fault, and I have to deal with it." The last Potter stated firmly.
"Bloody hell, she's my sister!"
It seemed the two boys were going to fight when a most unlikely peace-keeper stepped in.
"Shut up, both of you." Okay, the Aduru was not used to that role.
"No," Harry rounded on her stubbornly. "Look, this isn't your fight so then... fine. But it is mine."
It was proof that the boy-who-lived had grow older that he no longer even attempted to blame his teacher. It was a combination of the scar on his arm, the clenching in his heart, and the way he knew somehow that she would simply accept it and undo it or accept it and scoff.
Damn bird, Blair thought to herself with growing irritation. She was a death-dealer, for crying out loud! She didn't know how to treat a kid. But of course, Daemon had been right. The strange, flame-haired woman did not want any damage to come to her student.
"Going and getting your head blown off isn't going to get the girl back." Eposis snapped back.
"Neither will staying here and not doing anything!"
"Stupid brat!" She hissed heatedly. Daemon was self-sufficient. She protected him from any physical harm, kept his soul tied to the body, and let him do as he pleased. She didn't have to convince Daemon not to go on suicide missions. The phoenix was too smart for that. But Harry had that annoying habit of putting others before him. The hero in him refused to sit by and watch people suffer.
bChivalry died years ago, idiot! The golden-eyed witch thought sagely. "Look, just... don't do anything irreversibly stupid for an hour or so. I'll see if I can talk to Tom about dealing with useless people."
Harry blinked, but the shadowed look on his handsome face hardly passed. "Fine."
Professor Kryeen has lived too long in lies to not tell one when said to her.
"Keep an eye on him, or better yet, get inventive with duct tape, plaster, body parts, and enclosed rooms."
With the strange direction, the even stranger woman walked off briskly, going presumably to Voldemort.
Immediately the black-haired teen had turned back to the double doors.
"Harry, I'll jinx you." Hermione stated firmly, drawing her wand.
Ron looked between them, and gave a twisted sort of smile. "And I'll take that crazy up on the duct tape idea."
Hard emerald eyes turned to bore into them.
"Don't you want to save Ginny?"
Ron flushed in anger. "Of course I do, moron! She's my sister! But—"
"Then why are you stopping me?" The underage wizard cut in.
"We're a team. The golden trio of Hogwarts. We do things together, Harry. That is how it has always been... why are you trying to push us away now?"
Because this time I'm probably not coming back. This time you really could die, and I won't let that happen. The tragic hero thought in bittersweet chord. He knew what he had to do, while the more clever witch had her guard down. It went against everything in him to do it, but a haunting image of two cold bodies flashed through his mind and the scarred 6th year felt his hand move on instinct.
Without saying a word, his wand moved in a swift pattern. Both red-head and brunette went down stiffly under the power of wandless magic. Somehow the sun-tanned boy doubted Professor Lupin would approve of his usage of the new spell he had taught him.
"Sorry you two." Harry said softly, propping them safely against the wall where the next person would see and free them from the full body-bind. "But I have a promise to keep. I can't let anything happen to either of you."
He lingered for a moment, the choice of leaving determining the long and spiked road he was picking by leaving them here. It was a path of loneliness that the chosen one would take because his sorrow now was nothing compared to the anguish that would happen if he last one of his two best friends. So Harry Potter made the choice. He accepted his role as the self-sacrificing hero as his back turned to the two people he had clung to for so long. He would no longer run from Voldemort... from fate. A faint smile appeared on his lips.
"I have to leave you both so you can be safe... I have to let go."
And with those words, the last surviving Potter walked out to the Hogwarts grounds.
Blair had been the one to find a frozen Ron and Hermione. Cursing, they both recounted the tale. The spell allows the person to hear and see their surroundings, after all.
And that was how the Aduru Eposis ended up soaring toward the death eater encampment with that forgotten feeling in the pit of her heart.
The letter said that the brat had until sunset. I'm running out of time.
The wind was suddenly very infuriating, cutting against her progress.
They are probably going to give her to Draeg, since the vampire's element is night. Shit, that kid can't fight an immortal!
She pushed her power-lined body harder, using that horrible crunching feeling as energy.
If he gets himself hurt I will personally drag the idiot back to the castle and beat the living— That feeling occurred again, and the fiery witch scowled as she identified it from the recess of another time.
It was anxiety. It was desperation.
It was the fear of loosing someone who matters. That was it.
Blair was truly afraid for the first time in so very long.
Because after all this time, she had someone that could be taken from her again.
§
"Why do you want to be a death eater?" The prisoner asked in a lull during the conversation.
Aidan rolled his eyes. "It's the best thing, of course."
"Oh, sorry I must have missed that between the mass murders and insane leader." The Weasley female replied with drooling sarcasm.
The blond man scoffed. "But that is it. If you're on their side, you won't be hurt."
Ginny eyed him in silence before speaking again.
"I have a family... a mother, a father... a few too many brothers. When this war started, I was afraid of loosing them. You see, in our own way we are all a part of the resistance. Except my prat of a brother who sucks up to Fudge like he's going to have a massive...Anyways, with so many of us I was worried that we wouldn't be able to make it through. But then my brothers Fred and George said something to me. They're the pranksters of the family so I never expected anything so... wise to come from them, but..."
She raised her pale hands to signify a simple acceptance.
"They said 'Don't be silly sis.' 'Of course we have to stay in the war, no matter what.' 'That's right, you see it's ten time better to go down as a martyr for what you truly believe than to sell your soul for a few more years.' 'Yeah, you see martyr's aren't forgotten so they live forever.'"
Aidan was silent, his dark green eyes filled with doubt as the girl continued.
"And even though their idiots... I still think they're right."
The young man was silent for a long time, lost in thought by the melancholic expression on his face.
"Death Eaters don't just kill, Ginny." He used her name for the first time. "They torture, manipulate, instigate... They can break a soul."
But the bold red-head just smiled back at his statement.
"Only if you let them."
Aidan snorted, seeming to catch himself. "What does a kid know about his ways?"
The younger glared. "At 11 I met Voldemort."
The older jumped at the name, wide-eyed.
Ginervia had gotten used to hearing it after spending time of the Order of the Phoenix headquarters.
"I somehow ended up with his cursed diary, and ended up possessed by his teenage memory. I live with half the resistance and my best friend in Harry Potter himself, which is why I'm guessing I'm here anyway."
Recovering from shock, Aidan smirked. "Clever little one, aren't you? Yeah, you're here to lure that brat to him."
"Harry won't die." There was no fear, no hesitation in her tone.
The man cocked an eyebrow. "And why is that?"
"You have to know him to understand."
"Hmph,"
"He's too damn stubborn to die that easily."
The warlock looked his captive over again.
"You really have faith in him don't you?"
"...Remember that story I told you about martyrs?"
"Yeah,"
"He's a living martyr."
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Hehe! Of fun, fun! I love the plot in this chapter. BTW- A little peek at next chapter:
"You fool!" Draeg began laughing hysterically, making every human present wince. "After all you went through before you actually allowed yourself to become attached again? And to a human? That is too much! And now you can't complete the ring!"
"I don't need the ring. I never have." She spat in reply.
"But as long as it remains incomplete you yourself were unfinished. But now that your heart is working again..."