Well, now that we are technically out of pre-story mod, here's just a chapter on the back story. I know I promised we'd get into the book by this chapter but, I started typing this and fell in love with it!
Oh and by the way thanks to my reviewers...The Original Aussie Ninja, xXMizz Alec VolturiXx, Hanna Shadis 101, and Afrenchgirl...thanks for the encouragement you guys!
Read and enjoy!
Our Time is Running Out
Parchment 3: Deleted Memories and Recovered Weapons
Flame lit lanterns hung every few inches apart, along the gravel pathway. Their light licked and danced across the shiny rocks below. They cast their surroundings into a dim white light. The pathway was straight, leading from a large stone manor to an iron gate. Large thicker cut bushes bordered either side of the pathway. The moon shown down, giving everything a nightly glow. It had reached a 3rd of a way into the sky, signaling around 9 o'clock.
Several people stood on this pathway. Three with white hair, a man, a woman, and a young boy. They stood at the entrance to the manor, along with a figure who was darker, more out of place. The darker figure, stood with black hair, wildly tumbling down her back, and dark sinister eyes. A ways down the path were 4 figures, all adorning traveling cloaks. They headed towards a carriage, pulled by flying horses. Among them were a man, a woman, a pre-teen boy, and a young girl. The two groups stood opposite, waving to the other side.
The little girl stared down the path at the pale family, holding tight to her aunts hand. She was then guided into the carriage, and stared back out of the window. At the entrance was a boy, her age, with almost white hair. He saw her, and began making taunting faces. She repeated the gesture by pressing her face up against the glass, and pulling her ears out like a monkey. This lasted for several seconds, before their guardians saw them. A woman with two colored light hair, kneeled down, and shook the boy by the door. He jerked around and pouted at the ground. The girl was yanked down into her seat by a tall woman with brown hair. The two children looked back at each other one last time, and stuck their tongues out, as a last remark. The two females looked at each other and shook their heads, at the children's juvenile behavior. The carriage then began departing the premises.
The two parties, however, were unaware of a dark figure lurking in their presence. Two men dressed in dark red robes, appeared from behind the gated entrance. One was a tall man, with chiseled features, and a scar over his left eye. The other was a more stout man, not much shorter, with a circular face, and dark skin. The two looked at each other, with a nod, and apparated out of sight. With a loud "pop", they ended up in front of a large green stone manor. It had been hours since they began following the family. But, they only wanted one thing, the young girl in the carriage. At this time of night the whole family was asleep. The two men needed only to get inside, without anyone noticing.
The dark skinned man took out a bag of white crystals, and scraped them together. They produced a brilliant white spark. The other caught the spark of light on the end of his wand, and lightly blew on it. The spark turned into a brilliant white flame, which he tossed towards the front door. The white flame whizzed and popped, then hit the door with a thud and fell to the ground. The front door glimmered a brilliant shade of yellow.
"There aren't any curses left on the lock, Arclese. That house elf we sent a month ago did a good job of getting rid of them." Said the tall man to the dark skinned one, Arclese.
"Well, Tidon, I guess tonight is the night then. We have to take the girl."
The two figures, cloaked in red, made their way into the house with their wands drawn. The only being awake was a young house elf. Her features were pointed, and she was dressed in a burlap frock, with a rope tied around her waist. She peered around the corner at the two men, and made her presence known.
"Lita" Arclese said to the small house elf, "where is the little girl?"
"Lita knows where she is" she said in a high whisper, "but master must promise first that he will not harm her."
"how dare you ask something of your superiors!" yelped Tidon
"The young girl has been the only bearable one in this house. Lita wants to make sure she is safe. Lita thinks that, when the girl is older, she will make a better person out of others. And master must promise not to hurt her!" Lita stood with her chest out, and her hand on her hips. She looked at the two men with a determined face.
"Lita, we promise we won't hurt her!" said Arclese softly, "But you understand that she is vital to our mission…and therefore, she may experience some unhappiness."
"Alright, I will show you where she is. And of your other promise?"
"We will set you free…once we have the child!" sneered Tidon
"follow me…and transform"
The two men transformed into mice, and scurried around Lita's feet as she ascended the staircase. They headed down a tall hallway, with sleeping portraits. Lita had put an enchantment on them, so no one would wake up from their presence. They turned at the great stone tower, to the other wing of the house, and headed up a smaller flight of spiraling stairs. The night air was cold, and the moonlight was faded onto the window pane. At the end of the hall was a large white door. It was decorated with swirling black vines, that moved. Lita turned to the two mice as she reached the door.
"This is where she sleeps. The room below this one has a floo system. You can exit out there. I will stay out here and keep watch."
The two men entered underneath the door, so as not to wake the girl. Once inside, they transformed back into humans. Arclese crept over to a white wooden bed, across from the large window. It was white and curled on either end, with purple wool blankets. In the bed lay a small child. She was a young girl, no more than 7, with long black hair. Her skin was so pale, she almost glowed in the moonlight. Her face was peaceful, filled with the happiness of the dreams in her head. Tidon looked down at the small sleeping child. A look of confusion crossed his face.
"Is this really her?" he asked, "she hardly looks like the child that was foretold."
"A child with skin as pale as the moon, and hair as dark as a raven. Her eyes turned purple by the darkness in her blood. Born in the 13th generation to carry the cursed blood of Duskwood. But, with the power and skill of the name, Cruxshade. She will one day be awakened and resurrect the dark woodlings of the Evening forest."
Arclese recited the line straight from memory. He had been hearing it his entire life. He was the first one to prophesize that this child would be born. They intended to kidnap her, and raise her as a leader. Then, when the day came, she would be able to conjure them an army. That had been his plan ever since the prophesy came to him during a ritualistic sacrifice.
"take the potion! If she wakes up, we want her to trust us" he whispered harshly.
Tidon, his partner, took a polyjuice potion from his bag, and drank it. His features twitched around until his face turned into a resemblance of the girl's uncle Zander. He then picked the small child up out of her bed.
The young girl stirred awake, and opened her large teel eyes. She stared for a second at the man holding her. Her vision was blurred from sleep, but he looked like her uncle.
"Uncle Zander, where are we going?" she asked wiping sleep from her eyes.
"We're going on an adventure, sweet…heart?" said Tidon
"Uncle…my name's Lixella" she yawned, "you know that"
Lixella curled up against Tidon, and laid her head on his shoulder.
"Why are you wearing these funny clothes?" she questioned, more awake now, "and who is that man?" She pointed a small finger at Arclese, who smiled at her.
"go to sleep Lixella. When you wake up, we'll be on a grand adventure."
"What if I don't want to go?" she asked
"We have to go!" said Tidon
"I don't want to go uncle Zander. You promised we would visit the alley tomorrow, and show me the shops you own." she said. Lixella's uncle was invested in a series of shops on Nocturne Alley. He did not own them, but he had a great deal of money put in to keep them opened. Frequently, when she would visit, he would bring her along on his daily rounds. Lixella loved seeing the shops, especially Bourgin and Burkes, because of the wondrous items there.
"Well, we can't do that now…we're going to someplace special" Arclese said. Tidon was getting tired of the little girl's talking, she would wake someone up if they couldn't get her back to sleep. Suddenly, he felt his face twitching. In a matter of seconds his face had turned from uncle Zander's, to his own.
"You aren't uncle Zander!" the little girl whined, shocked by his transformation, "No! I don't wanna go….let me go!" She began to struggle out of his arms. They were only halfway down the staircase. Lixella began throwing a tantrum, but the house was too large for anyone to hear, immediately. Tidon removed his wand from it's case, and pointed it between her eyes. Lixella stared at the wand, cross eyed, and shaking.
"Imperio" he whispered, and an emerald mist floated out of the wand, and surrounded the small child. Lixella's eyes grew heavy, and she stared off into the distance.
"Keep quiet!" said Tidon. Lixella's mouth shut so tight, that she almost couldn't breath. "And, go to sleep until we tell you to wake up…and don't make a sound!" he whispered, rather annoyed. The little girl rested her head on his shoulder again, and drifted off to sleep. She became so quiet, that the two men were nearly concerned that she had stopped breathing.
They finally reached the room at the other end of the building. Lita waited for them outside of the door. She lead them into a room, that appeared to be a library of sorts. The walls were tall and the room was wide. Bookshelves covered every corner. At the center of the room was a large fireplace, with floo powder hanging from a bucket.
"This way, masters!" she said, "Is Lixella okay?"
"She's fine, Lita…she's been sleeping!"
"You promise not to hurt little Lixella?"
"Yes, Lita we promise" said Tidon, "Now get out of here!"
"but...you promised Lita you would free her" the elf shouted.
"Well, we ain't doin that" said Arclese, "we order you to spend the remainder of your days in this house. If the girl should turn up here again, you must protect her, and bring her back to us. She'll become your master then…you understand?"
"No! Lita will not stay in this house!" she yelped
"too bad Lita….you're my house elf…and I'm ordering you to stay here! And speak of this to no one…" yelled Arclese. He kicked the small house elf back, away from the fire place.
"Flat 23 Nocturne Alley" yelled Tidon as he threw the powder down. Green flames engulfed the three figures in the fireplace. In seconds, they vanished up through the chimney, leaving only ashes. Lita got up and turned around. Her head hung below her shoulders. She could not believe that she was stuck in this house until the girl returned. She could only hope that the men weren't harming her, and that she'd return one day, and free Lita. The little girl was the only pureblood she knew that had any kind of compassion for other magical creatures. Then, a terrible thought crossed her mind. What if the masters turn Lixella into one of those terrible people? What if she becomes like the people in the house? If so, then it would all be Lita's fault.
"Lita must warn someone!" she ran down the hall, around the tower, and to the bedroom of her new owners. She busted through the door so quickly that it almost dented the wall.
"Master, please wake up, Lixella is…"her mouth shut tight. She remembered that she was ordered to not speak a word of what had happened.
Uncle Zander shot out of his bed, waking his wife, who looked completely puzzled.
"How dare you wake us in the middle of the night!" yelped aunt Iris.
"What the bloody hell is wrong, Lita?" he demanded with force, "tell me!"
"pah…"she had regained her speaking abilities, "little Lixella…she's not in her bedroom, sir! Lita heard a loud popping noise in the foyer and went to go see what it was. But, there was no one, so I chased two mice I found! I lost track of them, but then I noticed Lixella's door was open so I checked and she was gone!"
Zander almost jumped out of his nightshirt. He quickly located slippers, and hastily put them on. He and Iris then sped down the hall, towards Lixella's guest room. The door was wide open. He rushed across the floor, and yanked the wool sheets off of the bed. To his dismay, Lixella was no where to be found. He went into a panic. He woke his son and conjured every house elf they had. He ordered them to check the entire estate, front to back. There was no sign of her.
Finally, after 4 hours of searching all the land he owned, Zander admitted defeat. He called up the Magical Law Enforcement Squad, and reported a kidnapping of his young niece. He knew that if his brother got wind of this, William would never forgive him.
After an entire summer of searching, Lixella was found sitting outside of a shop in Nocturne alley. When she was asked why she was there, she said that she couldn't remember. In fact, she couldn't remember a lot. It was suspected that the wizards who kidnapped her, knowing that they were at large, used the occlumency charm to wipe her of her memories from the past few months.
Zander received a call that his niece had been found. His brother had come to stay with him, for the week. However, when they reached the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, little Lixella was not the same. The head of misplaced magical children brought Lixella out to them. She ran over to her father and gave him a big hug, telling him that she'd missed him over the summer. Her father, with distraught, noticed that her eyes had changed to a deep purple. It was as he'd feared, someone had figured out the secret of their daughter. The worst part was, she did not remember any of that whole summer. Bits and pieces came back to her, at random times. But the only clear memory she could recover, was leaving Malfoy manor that night. She mentioned about someone lifting her from her bed, but they whispered something funny to her, and she fell asleep again. It was suspected that the wizards used the imperius curse. Lixella would forever spend her life trying to recover that summer. However, it would take years before someone was able to bring those memories back to her.
Around 10 years later, a flat above a store in Nocturne alley lay in shambles. The oak wooden walls were singed with ashes, and the whole place smelled of burning death. The floors were covered with clutters of items. Everything had been strewn about, from books, to chairs. Two dark red cloaks hung from an alter by the fire place, in the living room. On the floor, lay two bodies. One was a stout man with dark skin, named Tidon. The other, a tall pale man with chiseled features, named Arclese. The two lay in a pool of blood, both with shocked faces, forever stained on their lifeless features.
A snake slithered between them, circling the room with curiosity. Two men cloaked in black were rummaging around the house. A third figure in a billowing dark robe paced the room. His pale eyes peered around the disgusting flat, and halted at an enchanted shelf. He recited a phrase and the shelf gracefully opened to reveal a pensive. Around the pensive lay vials of memories. Each memory had a date on it, along with the name "Cruxshade".
Voldemort stared intently at the bottles of glimmering memories. His eyes moved up until they met with a swirling glass orb. It began whispering to him. He picked it up off of the shelf and held the orb to his ear. It foretold of a child, born pureblood of two strong families. Who was identified by purple eyes, and the name Cruxshade. Voldemort listened with interest as the prophecy went on. A cynical smile crept over his face, as the prophecy told of an army that she could raise from the darkness.
"When the child comes of age as a witch she will possess the power to raise that which her family vanquished. And the dark woodlings shall not see her as the enemy, but as their leader. She needs only to have her other side awakened by the age of 17."
"Stop searching, you great buffoons!" yelled Voldemort, "I've found what we were looking for. Send a summons to the death eaters, they must be told to look out for a girl named Cruxshade."
I really want to know how she came up with the name Voldemort...it's just so, fitting ya know?
anyways, an appearance by the dark lord himself, always fun when dead bodies are involved!
Chapter 4 coming soon...I think I'll title it "Boy from the past" or "Hey, you're that mean kid!"
please review...and thanks for the support ^_^
