Dear lord! you guys this chapter took so long, i am so sorry about that!
School just started back, but I'm getting the hang of my schedule!
Anyways I want to send a special thanks to DizzyPottter, who has reviewed EVERY chapter, in about the course fo four days! Thanks for the support!
So read on and Enjoy!
Our Time is Running Out
Parchment 15: Dementors
Christmas time, in muggle life, is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year. There's supposed to be singing, presents, and twinkling lights. Everyone is supposed to sit around a giant decorated tree, and read the cliché Christmas books, with carols in the background. Families are supposed to be together, and happy. Draco never really had a perfect Christmas. There were a few good ones, when he was younger. However, most of them involved the same high society standards. Carrying himself in the same way, as if he deserved more.
He stared out of his bathroom window, watching the new snow fall in the morning sun. There was a strange sort of silence to snow. People always said it was, peaceful, or pure. He always just saw it as snow. It was bright, cold, and wet. And, though he would deny it, there was something almost magical to it. The way that the snow twirled almost weightlessly, put him in a trance. Reminding him of how the events up until now, had only become more complicated.
When he accepted the challenge of murdering Dumbledore, he did it to prove himself. It has, sincerely, proven to be more on his soul than he thought. On top of it all, his father was in prison, his mother was going mad with worry, and the last person he cared about, had become a pawn of Voldemort. Truly, this Christmas, would not be a normal one. He couldn't think of what was worse, here, or Hogwarts. There seemed to be no safe haven for him, or his thoughts.
He was suddenly interrupted by a loud thud on his bedroom window. Upon further inspection, he found a circle of powdery snow upon his window pane. With a small click, the window was opened. He peered his head outside, and began observing the scene. It was silent, the only noise was that of a bird singing a few miles away. Then, as if conjured from nothing, a snowball flew across the horizon, and hit him square on the cheek.
"Haha, good morning!" yelled Lixella as she glided towards the open window. She was hovering outside, on her Dawndrifter2005.
"Jesus! You know most people just knock!" he shouted to her, wiping cold water off his face.
"Yeah….but this is much more entertaining"
"Is this how you wake everyone up?"
"No" she glided towards him, "just you"
"Oh…so I'm special huh?"
She smirked, and kicked the wall next to his window. A flood of powdery snow, slid off of his rooftop, and landed on top of his head. Lixella just sat on her broom, hovering in mid air, and began laughing at him. He quickly closed his window, rushed downstairs, and retrieved his Nimbus 2001.
"Oh, you gonna try and catch me?" Lixella taunted as he opened the door, "good luck, I'm the best flyer in Lunareth!"
She darted off, with ridiculous speed. Draco followed quickly after her. Up ahead, she was laughing, almost maniacally, at his distance behind her. They darted over the trees, and flew quite a ways away from the house. He caught up to her pretty quickly.
"you think that's fast" he smirked as he flew along side her, "humph!"
He darted down into the forest, Lixella followed behind him. They began swerving through the branches. He decided to take it one step further, and flew down even lower, almost touching the ground. She looked down at him with a sour face, and nose dived to his level. They both took a sharp left turn, and she came dangerously close. She flew almost up against him, and touched his shoulder.
"Tag, you're it!" she said, and she shot 90 degrees into the air. Draco, who was still on the ground, looked around in confusion for a second, then shot straight up as well. They ascended higher and higher, up into the snowy clouds. It became so cold that Draco noticed his broom handle had begun freezing. But, Lixella was ascending higher, laughing the whole way up. She disappeared above a snow cloud. Draco stopped for a second, pondering if he should keep going. Then, he noticed that her laughing had stopped. Either she'd gotten so high that she couldn't breath, or something unnatural had stopped her.
He clutched onto his broom, and sped up above the snow cloud. When he finally reached the surface, he found something gruesome. A whole murder of dementors were sailing around. There had to be thousands of them. The air was dry and cold, it nearly sucked the life right out of him. He peered around, trying to avoid the dementors gazes, when he found Lixella. She was flying pretty quickly, fighting off a dementors that had caught her.
"stupefy" she shouted, as she threw spell after spell towards the dementor.
Draco sped after them, he was not going to let Lixella lose her soul. After everything that had already happened, it was all she had left. He came up behind the dementor, and quickly removed his wand.
"Expecto patronum!" he shouted. It was challenging, because he had never produced a full patronus before. A white shimmering light, slithered it's way towards the dementor. He couldn't tell what it was, but it was something. The shield, however, didn't last long, and the dementor spun around and went after him.
Draco had no time to escape, within a second, the dementor had caught him. He heard a loud shrill screech, and all he could feel was numbing cold. An array of terrible memories flashed before his eyes, from his father being thrown in prison, to the bird dying in the vanishing cabinet.
Suddenly, he heard a cry from a distance. Then, a strange creature ran in-between them. It resembled a gryphon, but it had the head of an owl. He'd never seen anything like it. It threw the dementor a few feet away. Draco had a terrible ringing in his ears, and then he fainted. He fell off of his broomstick and began falling towards the ground, with great speed. Lixella, who was concentrating on the dementor, noticed that he had disappeared. She stopped her patronus charm, and raced down towards him.
He opened his heavy eyelids, and almost screamed. His broomstick was miles above him, falling as well. Then, Lixella showed up next to him, and ducked down to gain more speed. He caught on to the back of her broom, and she reached out a hand to help him up. He hoisted himself up, but the dementor had begun chasing them again. Draco tried his hardest to keep it away from them both, but he could only conjure so many patronuses.
"It's not working" he said, firing a stupefy charm, "what should we do?"
"I dunno!" she said, as she descended into the forest. They began twisting through the branches again. Until, she crashed into one of them. The two of them ended up on the ground. He fumbled around for his wand, and noticed that Lixella had been knocked out by the crash. Then, four dementors swooped down, and began feeding on Lixella.
Draco tried using everything, but he couldn't keep them all away at once. It was hopeless, they were going to lose their souls right then, and there. Suddenly, a shining white being appeared. It was a banshee, the one that he had seen in the forbidden forest. She swooped over to the four dementors, and let out a high pitched screech. The vibration of her voice was so massive, that the dementors couldn't handle it, and quickly fled.
"Nee Chyaa Rhiem Crushii" she said, in a raspy voice.
"I…I can't understand you" he said, quite truthfully. The banshee leaned down towards Lixella, and held her hands over her torso.
"Ryii nyim Chariumm" she chanted. Lixella slowly opened her eyes. She shot up, and proceeded to hug the banshee.
"Cordellia!" she said, "I can't believe you saved us….oh, god! Where's Draco?"
Cordellia pointed a white finger behind her. Lixella turned around, and ran over to him.
"Holy hell! Did it get you too?" she said, as she nearly tackled him to the ground with a hug.
"No" he said, slightly out of breath, "just really weak is all. Who is that?"
"Oh…Draco, I want you to meet Cordellia. She's sort of my mentor."
The banshee smiled at him, and bowed her head. She glided over towards them. Cordellia muttered something in her native language.
"She says 'it's nice to meet you', she's met you before ya know?" said Lixella
"You can understand her?" he asked
"Yeah, I was one in a past life. I'm um….I'm the reincarnation of their….of their queen."
Draco's mouth dropped almost to the ground. He understood now, just why Voldemort wanted her as a death eater. He buried his face in his hands. Cordellia looked at Lixella, confused.
"He didn't know" she told Cordellia
"Well, it's good to know that you've figured it out" said Cordellia, " Now, I can further teach you, of your past"
Suddenly a loud screech was heard from a distance.
"That's sister Lacy!" she began heading away, "I have to go now…meet me outside of the forest, in front of the manor, when the moon reaches the top of the sky!"
Lixella nodded, and Cordellia disappeared into the woods. She turned back to Draco, whose expression was beyond confused. He hadn't understood a word of what they'd just said.
"Why is she here?" he asked, "doesn't she live near Hogwarts? And what do you mean reincarnation? And what the bloody hell were you two screeching to each other?"
"Hrm" Lixella sighed, "I'll explain everything on the way back. We have to find your broom, before the dementors figure out we aren't protected anymore"
They ended up finding Draco's broom, a few feet from their crash site. Lixella's broom had minor damages on them, nothing that a broom shop couldn't fix. On the way back, she explained the full experience she'd had in the forbidden forest, on the night of the dance. She also told him about her research, and how she'd found out about the deal between the banshees and her family.
"So, your family never murdered them for their powers?" he asked
"No" she said, staring at the ground, "They absorbed the powers so that they could harbor them through generations. Then, when Aileen would be reincarnated, she would have her banshee magic. My family killed them to save them, not because they were evil."
"Bloody hell!" he whispered, "and Voldemort thinks you're some kind of dark weapon!"
Lixella stopped in her tracks. She looked up at him, with serious eyes.
"I will never use these banshees for that terrible man's thirst for power!" she said forcefully. "I swear that I will find a way out of this! Even if it kills me."
"You can't be serious?" he asked, with a nervous laugh, "You can't face Voldemort….he's not yours to face!"
"I don't want to kill him" she said, "I'll leave that to Harry, but I have to stop him!"
"You'd better have some amazing plan, Lixella. He's not exactly a weakling. He'll have back up too."
"I know…" she said, staring at the ground again, "but, I can't just step aside, I'm not that kind of person. No matter how much he wants me to be that person, I refuse to."
He couldn't believe her. She had been plotting against Voldemort this whole time. He'd never known anyone to try their hand at running away. Well, he'd known several people, but they'd failed, and they were killed. She was serious about this. Draco found it hard to accept, but Lixella was much more courageous than she made herself out to be. She'd been taking on all of this responsibility, of raising the banshees, fighting off Voldemort, and coping with it all. And, she'd done it without question.
"You" he said, "you should've been in Gryffindor"
"Eh" she stated plainly, "I was shooting for Ravenclaw. But, I will say…..Slytherin is pretty fun!"
The two of them had reached the manor. They went inside and placed their brooms back in their closets. It was around 2 o'clock at this point.
"I'm freezing! I think my feet are numb.." Lixella said, removing her riding boots.
"Hey, come in here" Draco peered out of the dining room, "It's really great!"
She walked into the dining room, and gasped. The whole place had been decorated with holly and garland. The best part, however, was the table full of food. Hot dishes covered the table, giving off a mouth watering aroma.
"Why is there so much?" she asked
"I guess they put it out for lunch, but no one's touched it" he said, sitting down. Lixella stomach began growling. She sat down too, and began fixing herself a plate. The two of them sat there, not saying anything, just eating.
"Ugh…" sighed a voice from the corner, it was Narcissa, her head in her hands, "you two would find the food first. Draco, what did I tell you about eating before you are told it is time!" She scolded him.
"Sorry, we uh" he stuttered.
"We got attacked by dementors" Lixella stated plainly.
"You what?" Narcissa shouted, "What were you doing around dementors?"
"Umm…chasing, each other" continued Draco, "On….our brooms"
"Bloody hell…" Narcissa closed her eyes and sighed heavily, "did you think that was a good idea?"
"Well.." said Lixella, "it was only, one"
"no….it was four" Draco said, Lixella elbowed him in the rib cage.
"You two, you will be the death of me!" she stated, and sat down in one of the chairs. The room became awkwardly silent for a few seconds. Lixella despised silence, so she tried to change the subject.
"So.." she started, "why do you have all of this food out?"
Narcissa lifted her head up, after dropping it onto the table.
"It's for the Christmas party. We have one every year. And I was about to go get you two, so we could go shopping for presents."
Lixella nearly jumped out of her seat. This was one of the first good things to happen in a long time. She loved present shopping, and Christmas parties. She could not wait to go buy gifts for everyone.
"Oh!" she said excited, "I would love to go shopping!"
"Yeah…" said Draco, sarcastically, "sounds great…just what I wanted to do today"
"Draco, as if you have anything better to do!" snapped narcissa, "Well, then you two go put on something, umm, dry, and I will be waiting for you downstairs. I'll give you, let's say, half an hour."
"Yes!" Lixella rushed out of the dining room door, and headed upstairs.
"Draco" said Narcissa
"Yeah….I'm goin'!" he stated, rolling his eyes, and slowly got up to leave.
After half an hour, they headed out towards the Leaky Cauldron. Diagon Alley had not changed since Lixella was last there. In fact, it had become even worse. She could've sworn that there were at least three more shops open when she was shopping for school supplies.
Nonetheless, she was happy to be buying gifts. She bought two books, one for Luna called, "The Strange and the Stranger", about odd animal sightings. One for Hermione called, "Trying to Survive Wizard Stupidity", which was about surviving stupid people, mostly guys. For Neville, she got an everlasting cherry bonzai tree, exclusively from Japan. For Jynx and Ron she purchased identical pranking kits from Weasley Wizard Wheezes. Harry, however, took nearly all day. She honestly did not know him that well, but she wanted to get him something. She figured that it would come to mind, eventually. For Nym, back in America, she bought her a rather lovely necklace, with a picture of the tow of them as toddlers. It was strange for her to have enough money to buy a gift for everyone, she even got something for her relatives. After all of the shopping was done, they headed out of Diagon alley.
Lixella stopped suddenly, in front of a flower shop. Draco and his mother noticed she'd stopped, and turned around. She was just standing in front of the window, staring into it.
"Go on in, Lixella" said narcissa, "I'm going to go visit Mr. Burke"
She nodded, and headed inside. Draco and his mom headed off towards Bourgin and Burkes. Once in, she began asking the shop keeper about a bouquet of gardenias and lavender, that was in the window. She bought them, and headed out of the door, looking at the pot with sad eyes.
"Lixella?" said a voice from a distance, "what's with the flowers?"
"Oh! Hi there, Harry." she said, "they're umm, they're for my parents, grave. Gardenias and Lavender grow around our house a lot. So I figured they would like it."
"I'm so sorry" he said, and put an arm around her, "you having a good Christmas?"
"Umm…" she couldn't possibly tell him about the death eaters, "yeah. Pretty good so far. My house is being searched though, dunno why."
"Yeah, I um…I saw that in the paper. They haven't found anything though, have they?"
"I dunno. I'm staying with the Malfoys right now."
"Bloody hell, I'm so sorry."
"No, it's fine. It'll just be a weird Christmas, ya know?"
"Well, you're more than welcome to come to the burrow for their Christmas party, that's Ron's house, he said they'd love to have you there"
"That's awfully nice of you Harry, I'd really like to get away from 'upperclass' right now" she said, thinking about the death eaters. She placed the pot and her bag son the ground. They sat on a near by bench and began talking of their break so far. After a few minutes, Ron and Hermione called Harry over from a distance.
"Hey, it's okay, it'll be a god Christmas" he said, as he got up.
"Yeah…I hope so" she said, tugging on her left sleeve.
"See ya later…and happy Christmas, Lixella" Harry pulled her into a hug. As he pulled away, he glanced down towards her left arm, his face revealed a slight look of shock.
"did he know?" she wondered. If Harry found out about her curse mark, Lixella wasn't sure what she would do. Certainly, she did not want to lose his friendship. She waved them all good bye, and headed to Bourgina nd Burkes to meet the Malfoys.
Christmas time is here! Pretty excited about that party, are you? me too, as soon as I can write it, I will :D
Anyways I would also like to thank Yuna113, Maybelt's Fate, Zyophia Clari, Indigofrisbee, Blaze Banks, xXMizz Alex VolturiXx, and lenie945 for their support so far!
See you in the next update ^_^ Happy travels!
