Welcome to Parchment 2! I want to start by thanking Cassia4u and xXMizz Alec VolturiXx, for being my first two reviewers! Thanks so much guys, I wasn't sure about this story. But now that I have some good feedback I'm going to keep writing it. I also failed to mention that this takes place in the 6th book. And bare with me if I get some details wrong, I remember very little since I read it over a year ago. I'm currently re-reading it.

But anyways...thanks for tuning into my fanfiction, and Enjoy! oh, and review ^_^Thanks!


Our Time is Running Out

Parchment 2: The Cruxshade manor

~ Lixella ~

Lixella stared out the window of the flying carriage. They had been soaring over the Atlantic ocean for the past 2 hours. The water was sparkling a brilliant shade of dark blue. It amazed Lixella that the colors were vivid even from the clouds. It was lovely outside, and the clouds rolled by gracefully. However, the mood in the carriage was dull. The entire journey consisted of her staring out the window. Her aunt would chime in every few minutes with some small talk.

"so, that school you go to…what's the name of it?"

"Lunareth"

"Ah yes! Lunareth….what year are you again?"

"This is my sixth year, aunt Iris"

"I remember my sixth year in school…"

The conversation always headed towards some story of aunt Iris's "glory days". She would talk about her large group of friends in slytherin house. How they all came from upstanding families, and basically ran the school.

"Do you have dorm houses in Lunareth?"

"Yes"

"oh, really? Which one are you in?"

"Mothwing, it's the house for the intelligent qwirky people. Basically the ones who are intuitive, creative, and have great potential but don't often flaunt it. My mother was in it, too."

"That sounds like Ravenclaw house, at Hogwarts. Do they have one that resembles Slytherin?"

"Probably Venomix, it's the house for the bad kids."

Aunt Iris's face showed little humor towards that statement. Of course, there was more to Venomix than being "bad". It was the house for the kids who were cunning, clever, and desperate to prove themselves. Though, most of them were a bit misguided. But, Lixella didn't want to compliment her aunt, in any way possible.

"Did you have any friends there?" she stated as if it was meant to be an offensive question.

"Quite a few actually. We were all pretty close in Mothwing. I'll miss Nym Muse the most though, she's my best friend."

Nym Muse and Lixella had been best friends since their first year. They met on the Lunareth skyrail. The skyrail transported students via a series of flying boxcars to Lunareth in Salem, Massachusets. Each student had a special port key, that took them to a destination, where the skyrail picked them up. For the kids in Sleepy Hollow, the port key was a lantern that only turned up between the hours of 3 a.m. and 3 p.m. at a dock by a lake. Once at the port key, you only had to recite the destination, Lunareth sky port. Then the students and parents would transport to the american wizarding sky port, near New York City.

Nym was beating up a boy in the corner who had just made fun of her hair. Her hair was red and purple, and oddly genetic. Lixella started to pry her off of the boy, whose name was Mickey Mageling. He was the same age as them. He lived in Sleepy Hollow, and Lixella used the same port key as him. Once Nym was pried off of Mickey, she demanded to know why. At this point in time, Mickey said something very stupid.

"God, Cruxshade! I can take her on myself, thanks" he stood up, "I don't need a stupid girl to save me!"

Lixella stared at him, in shock. She looked over to Nym, whose jaw was nearly on the floor.

"Oh really?" lixella said, "Nevermind, umm….who are you?"

"Nym…Nym Muse" said the red and purple haired girl.

"Well Nym….please proceed with your previous engagement. Clearly I am not needed here! I apologize for interrupting your work." Lixella turned to walk away, "Oh….and bite his ankles. That makes him scream like a little girl!"

Ever since then, the two of them had been best friends. They were sorted into the same house, Mothwing. Around their 3rd year, they decided to make it their goal to bring down Mickey and his band of Venomix minions. Throughout the year they devised a series of pranks. These consisted of hexes, jinxes, and a few potions that turned peoples noses into duck bills. Nym was the greatest person Lixella had ever met. The two of them would get in and out of heaps of trouble. Living without her would be one of the hardest challenges Lixella had ever faced.

She began staring out the carriage window again. They had finally reached land. The sun was going down, far off in the distance. She turned to look out the other window, and saw Lita sitting quietly in the corner. Lixella hated the idea of house elves, it was a pet peeve of hers. Her family had a few house elves. Her favorite was named Minni. She was a very sweet house elf, and did not deserve to be chained to house chores. The other house elves felt that they had no choice but to work at the Duskwood estate.

Minni was Lixella's relief from her pure-blood life. Around her 4th year at Lunareth, Lixella came home for Christmas. There was a big party, with her extended family at the house. One of the family members, on her mom's side, kicked Minni against the front door. It injured her, badly, and took weeks to get her back on her feet. Lixella had been working on a Christmas present for Minni, she gave it to her early. It was a dress, small enough for a house elf. She had bought it in the children's section of a wizard clothing store. Minni was so happy that she ended up crying, and promised to come back and see Lixella. However, it was impossible for her to find Lixella, now.

"Ah, here we are!" her aunt exclaimed as she peered out the window, "Oh! Look…Zander is home. He must be here for your big arrival."

Her uncle Zander was rarely ever at his home. He spent his days at the ministry, or Nocturne alley in Bourgin and Burkes. Lixella hadn't seen her uncle Zander since she was little. In fact, the last time she saw him was during the only memory she had of her childhood. As she remembered, he was tall, with skin a bit darker than hers. His hair was black and rather short. He always wore pin striped suits, covered by a black cloak. His figure was well built, with long legs. His hands were wide and manlier than her father's, his were long like Lixella's. His face was angular, and he had a well cut mustache. His eyes were a bright green. She wondered if he still had the mustache.

The carriage landed, and Lita rushed out of the carriage to get the bags. Two more house elves exited the house to open the carriage door, and retrieve luggage.

"Zander, darling!" her aunt called out, extending her arms. Lixella stared at the Cruxshade manor, it was what she remembered. The whole manor was shaped like an L, with a large tower at the axis. The house was three stories, counting the servants quarters at the top. The house was built with green stone. At the base of the tower was the entrance to the house. It had black stone stairs that lead to three archways. The middle arch was higher then the others, and lead to large double doors. The columns that held up the entrance were black carved spirals. The corners had small towers on one end. The other end was circled off into a large ballroom, with tall tinted windows. White roses were spread along the base of the house. The carriage came around a dirt entrance, shaped like a circle. The entrance of the estate was gated off with black iron fencing.

Lixella stood and marveled at the manor. It was extravagant, in every sense of the word. There were even hanging lanterns on either side of the double doors. They were bent to resemble vines curling up a wall. She used to come to the Cruxshade manor often when she was younger, but couldn't remember most of the trips.

"Lixella, I haven't seen you in years" she turned to see her uncle Zander. His arms were extended outward and open, waiting for a hug. He still had the mustache.

"uncle Zander!" she yelped, she ran over to hug him. Lixella really did like her uncle Zander. They didn't agree on everything, but she always thought he was a good uncle to her. Like her parents, he was a death eater. However, it was hard for her to judge him for that seeing as practically their entire family were, too.

"Is Arthus here too?" she asked. Arthus was her favorite and only cousin. He was much older than Lixella, and had graduated Hogwarts a year earlier. He worked at the ministry in the department of mysteries. He wanted to specialize in divination. However, his parents did not approve of it. Lixella learned a lot of pranks from Arthus, he was her magical mentor at one point in their lives.

"No, I'm afraid Arthus is away on business" said her uncle, "We won't be seeing him until Halloween, at least"

She frowned, Lixella missed Arthus, a lot. He was the only family member that understood what it was like to disagree with your parents morals. Like her, he didn't like the pure-blood standard of society. In fact, he was nearly sorted into Gryffindor, but the hat decided on slytherin instead. Arthus was fine with it, since most of his friends were in slytherin, too.

"Well, I guess we should get you to your new room" her uncle exclaimed. Lixella frowned, remembering that this was her home now.

"Hey.." her uncle grabbed her shoulders, "it's okay, I miss them too". Her uncle drew her into a tight hug. Tears ran down Lixella's face, she couldn't bring herself to fully cry. She had to be strong. If she wasn't, then she would lose her sanity.

Her uncle showed her to her room upstairs. It was about the same size as the one at the Duskwood estate. However, this one had considerably higher ceilings. The carpeting was white. The Windows were tall and wide. They faced the back of the house. In the distance was a small pond, with floating lilly pads. The entire room was empty, aside from a large queen size bed on the opposite wall. It had a canopy, with purple curtains that hung down from the black iron bars. The metal work looked French. The head board had black iron that curled to resemble thorny vines, In the center was an empty circle. The foot board was also black iron, and resembled the head board almost perfectly, also with an empty circle.

"All right.." her aunt said as she entered the room, "let's set this place up"

She wheeled in a large trunk, that wasn't Lixella's.

"I hope you don't mind. I bought you a few things. We haven't used this room since you were little."

The trunk popped open with a flick of her wand. Out of it jumped two wardrobes, a vanity set, a dresser, a desk, and a chair. Each item was painted either white or purple. They all had curled detailing on them, giving them an old French look. The chair was interesting. It was a large and white, with a purple cushion. However, the bottom resembled a rocking chair.

"I thought you'd like these colors because they show up a lot around your house."

Her aunt was surprisingly considerate, for once. She then went on to paint the walls light purple. She enchanted the walls so that it had black butterflies that flew around every few minutes. They also flew when Lixella opened her wardrobes.. After the furniture was all set up, aunt Iris waved her wand one last time, and set all of Lixella's things in their proper places.

"Ah…"she said, lowering her wand, "this is a lovely room"

"My god! Thank you aunt Iris!"

"oh it's no problem dear…I hate unpacking myself. I thought it would help you if I did it for you." She walked around the room, inspecting that everything was in it's place. She stopped abruptly once she saw the bed.

"Oh yes…this is a special bed. You can put whatever you'd like in the circles." she tapped the bed twice and shot a stream of light at each circle. The black iron, on the head board, curled into the Cruxshade family crest. Then, the black iron, on the foot board, curled into a willow tree, the Duskwood crest. Lixella began to tear up again. She hated being so emotional, but it was impossible to control.

"There you go dear! Now, we'll be eating dinner at around nine tonight. Since we got here late. Oh, and tomorrow your uncle is taking you to Diagon alley to pick up your books. He also has some business at Bourgin and Burkes. Your Hogwarts letter came in the mail today! Congratulations. I know you'll do just fine!"

Her aunt left the room, closing the large white door behind her. Lixella walked over to her new desk and picked up the Hogwarts letter, scanning the books she'd need. She'd have to get a new uniform, too. Everything was changing, so quickly. All she could do was sit and watch it happen.

She decided to write a letter to Nym. After all, Nym was the only one left who could really be missing her. She wished that she could keep going to Lunareth. But, the skyrail didn't depart from anywhere in England, or Europe for that matter. She would have to go to Hogwarts. Hopefully, her time there would help her pull herself back together.


Yay! Finally out of pre-story! next chapter we get to finally see Lixella in a part of the book!

Thanks for reading! come back soon! and review please ^_^