Chapter 6

Devoted

That Sunday the eight friends all worked on a homework assignment. They all sat outside near the lake.

"How could Snape do this!" said Ron who was sitting with his back up against the willow tree pulling at the grass, "he assigns us homework the weekend of the dance!"

"He is just trying to get you ready tot the big test you have coming up," said Hermione who lay with her face facing the sky while resting her head on Ron's lap, "even though he is a great prat. It probably is for your own good."

"Still," said Harry, struggling with the same assignment while laying on his stomach on the ground, "he could have made it a little bit easier."

"AH!" said Luna throwing down her books, "nobody ever warned me how hard 6th year would be."

"Of course my dear brother gave me absolutely no warning," said Ginny sending a glare in Ron's direction.

"Snape does this on purpose," said Neville who was sitting cross-legged working on Snape's assignment, "it is his form of sick entertainment."

"Do you need help Neville?" asked Raya who was sitting nearby with her Charms book open on her lap facing the tree.

"No way Ray! You're helping me first!" said Draco who had his back against her back and he was facing the opposite direction.

"Fine!" said Raya turning and helping Draco with his Potions essay.

Harry took this time to move over to Ron and Hermione. Ginny who noticed Harry moved also scooted closer.

"Have you ever noticed how close those two are?" whispered Harry.

"Yeah," said Hermione, "but you heard Dumbledore. They go way, way back. They are like brother and sister."

"Well Raya is my sister!" said Harry, "not Draco's!"

"Are you jealous?" asked Ginny half teasing, half dead serious.

"Yeah," said Harry leaning back, "I guess I am."

Suddenly Draco cried out in pain and clasped his arm.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" he cried.

"Draco?" asked Raya, "Draco what is it?"

"My arm," said Draco, "my mark!"

Raya gasped and stood up abruptly and Draco did the same.

The other six all glanced at each other, all thinking the same thing. What did Draco mean by mark? Was it the Dark Mark? Was Draco really not good after all?

Harry and his friend's attention went towards the doors to Hogwarts when the flung open and a very worried looking Dumbledore strode out towards the group. When he got very close he stopped.

"Raya, Draco, come with me," he said, "immediately!"

Raya and Draco rushed to his side and finally into Hogwarts.

"Now," said Ron, "the question is this. Do you do what we all know we want to do and go and follow or should we just stay here like we know we are supposed to?"

They all looked at each other. Got up and ran into Hogwarts.

They ran down the corridors and finally they saw the end of Raya's school robes float around a corner.

"There!" pointed Luna and they all quickly followed.

They were just about to round the corner when they heard the footsteps stop just where they were going to turn.

"Raya," said Dumbledore, "they have come. They know that you are here, that is a thanks to Lucius of course, and they will stop at nothing to come here and kill you."

"I have stopped them before," said Raya, "with Draco's help we can ward them off, as always."

"I am afraid it will take a much greater force this time Raya," said Dumbledore, "Voldemort has discovered the secret to how to make things live. He is building an army of creatures unknown to come and snatch you away."

"How do you know this?" asked Draco.

"I have seen it with Professor Trawlaney," said Dumbledore.

"That old bat!" said Draco, "then we must not take this treat seriously. She says that everyone is coming to their doom. According to her I should be dead five times over."

"Do not be so sure," said Raya, "Professor Trawlaney pretends to not know what she is doing. I know. But I have seen her truly find her inner Seer. She is one that does possess the second sight. Remember Draco. When I went to Hogsmeade that one time when I was eight. I went to her. I saw her. She told me you would be leaving me. And then when we turn eleven you had to go off to school."

"Anyway," said Dumbledore, "we must get you to safety."

"But Professor," cried Raya, "I can't go. What about Harry? I just got to start being with him as a sister. I can't just leave him now. He'll think I don't love him!"

"Raya," said Dumbledore, "if you stay here you will die."

"I don't care," said Raya, "many times before have I looked death in the eyes."

"Not like this!" Dumbledore interrupted loudly, "you have never seen such enemies in your day Raya. Not even in the other worlds that you have trodden. They have the will force of nothing like I have ever seen. Raya. He has become more powerful than me."

"No," whispered Raya softly her eyes filling with tears, "he can't. He can't."

"Raya listen to me," said Dumbledore, "leave tonight."

"Harry," started Raya.

"Harry can't protect you from this," said Dumbledore, "nobody can. You cannot hide behind Harry's shadow any longer. They have come for you."

"I will never stop until my life has been forfeited to protect her," said Draco fiercely.

"Not even you Draco," said Dumbledore softly.

"I must try for it is my oath," said Draco, "I took the oath. What is an oath worth if I cannot fulfill it."

"Your oath was to protect the Potters not fight beside them," said Dumbledore.

"Then I will complete my oath and more," said Draco, "I never leave her side."

"And what of the other Potter you oathed your life to?" asked Dumbledore, "why do you go with Raya rather than stay with Harry?"

"Please sir," said Draco, "wherever Raya goes I must go. I promised her. I swore I would never leave her alone again."

"You leave tonight Raya," said Dumbledore, "they come tonight."

And he walked away.

Harry and his friends slowly made there way outside and back to the tree.

"What comes?" asked Ginny, "what creatures? Why do they want Raya?"

"What worried me is what Dumbledore said," said Hermione, "He has become more powerful than me."

"What was Draco talking about an oath to the Potters?" asked Harry.

Hermione's eyes got real big. Harry turned around to see Raya and Draco standing behind him.

"An oath Harry," said Draco, "of defending you."

Harry jumped. When had they gotten there?

"He took it when he was eleven," said Raya, "two months before he had to leave for Hogwarts."

"It hurt," said Draco, "a lot. But I had made up my mind."

"How does taking an oath hurt?" asked Neville. "It's just saying a bunchy of promises in front of a lot of people."

"No," said Draco, "I also had to get this."

Draco lifted up the sleeve to his robe and his shirt until they saw on his near his shoulder, on his arm, was a mark of a sword with a rose winding up the blade.

"It's a symbol," said Draco, "works exactly the same way as the Dark Mark."

"And you are bound not to the dark lord but to the Potters?" asked Luna.

"Yes," answered Draco.

The rest of the day was spent finishing their homework. They had made a silent agreement not to bring up the discussion between Dumbledore, Raya, and Draco.

That night everyone in the common room got up to go to dinner. Harry looked up just in time to see Raya looking nervously at Draco and him returning the glance. Raya finally stood up.

"A half an hour to dinner," she stated. She looked at the eight friends sitting around the fire, "come with me."

She led them down a long hallway that Harry never knew existed before. He doubted Fred and George even knew it was here for this hall was never on the Marauders Map. At the end of the hallway there was a long thin door. That was dusty and looked like it has never been used. Raya stood in front of the door and took out her brilliant wand and said, "Lando Seearmen."

The door creaked slowly open and Draco and Raya stepped inside.

The others stepped inside and stared in awe. There was a room about the size of a large classroom that was dimly lit with torches all around the walls. Yet this was no ordinary room. The walls were lined with weapons of all sorts. From swords to crossbows to throwing knives to spears. There were more weapons Harry or his friends had ever seen.

"What is all this for?" asked Ginny looking at a very large axe.

"My training room," said Raya, "I use it when I am preparing for a battle."

"What sort of battles?" asked Luna trying not to touch anything on the walls for fear that they would jump her.

"Any," answered Raya, "battles with dark wizards, goblins, landows, hethras, and many others."

"Landows, hethras?" asked Ron, "what are those?"

"Terrible creatures," said Raya, "I fear some of them may come tonight."

Raya walked over to the wall and removed the sword that she had used her first night at Hogwarts.

"This," said Raya bring her sword down in the air like she was fighting, "is Talatha, blade of god."

"Sirius's," said Draco, "he left it for her."

She spun around wielding the sword.

"My most prized possession," said Raya, "it seems I will be needing it tonight."

"Are you leaving?" asked Harry and knew that he would be sad with either answer.

"No," said she calmly. "I'm meeting them head on. Let us see how powerful Voldemort's creatures really are."

"If Dumbledore says that they are strong, doesn't that mean they are very strong," said Neville, casting nervous glances over the sword in Raya's hand.

"We will see," said Raya.

She brought down another blade that was quite magnificent and tossed it to Draco. He caught it easily.

"Barablade," said Draco, "blade of power."

"You six must not go to dinner," said Raya, "you will stay in Gryffindor Tower. Together. Never separate. Separation is when Voldemort flourishes."

"No," said Harry and took a blade down from the wall. "We fight as well."

Raya raised an eyebrow quizzically. Then without warning she brought her sword down upon his. He just blocked the blow with his sword.

"If order to fight," she said, and she raised her sword and spun around, "you must be quick."

On her last word her sword clashed with his again.

"I," started Harry then spun around and tried to hit her but her sword was already there when he brought it down, "am."

Raya stepped back with her sword faced parallel to her face.

"You will need to be faster than that in order to fight," said Raya, "You will stay in Gryffindor Tower."

She turned around to collect more weapons.

"And why should I listen to what you tell me to do?" asked Harry.

Raya spun around.

"Just because you are the older twin does not mean that you have authority over me!" yelled Raya from across the room.

"I'm older?" Harry thought, but he tucked that information into the back of his mind for later reference.

"Well just because you are more important doesn't mean you have authority over me!" Harry yelled back.

"Important!" yelled Raya, "the Ministry of Magic does even know that I am alive. How am I important?"

"You claim that you are to be more powerful than Voldemort! I'm the one that defeated him that night. I'm the one that has defeated him year after year since I was eleven," yelled Harry.

As soon as the words escaped his lips Harry knew he had gone too far. And from the look Draco was giving him, everyone else thought so too.

"Year after year!" said Raya, "Oh! Boo-hoo! Try nearly every day since you were two. Then come back to me and tell me that you are more powerful. Everyday I have fought with him physically and mentally. Everyday I have been reading terrible things about you and never knowing whether they are true or not. Knowing that you, like most people, didn't even know I was alive. Being tortured to the point of death so that I would give the enemy information about you and your whereabouts. With you sitting there thinking that you are such a victim when all these people love and care for you while you put down the only friend that I have. Don't talk to me about importance and power until you have walked in my shoes, Potter."

With that she turned and walked through a small side down and slammed the door shut. Harry turned around. Even his friends looked shocked at what he had yelled at Raya.

"I can't believe you Potter," said Draco and Harry turned around again.

"I'm sorry," said Harry, truthfully he was. He knew it had been an awful thing to say.

"You have no idea what she has to go through. What she has been through. She hasn't even told you the worse things that she has been through. Cause they still hurt. How would you feel if you were sitting there seeing things that aren't there as vividly as if you were there? She was there when Sirius died. She was watching through a mirror and screaming but no one could hear her. She was miles away sitting on her bed in the abandoned house. She's been through things Potter that you can't even imagine. How would you feel if the father," Draco said and he paused and seemed to almost choke on his words, "the father of your best friend tried to get information from you by chaining you to the ceiling and beating you until you were nothing but teared flesh and leaking blood."

Draco took a deep breath before continuing

"Doing something terrible like that," Draco finally said but he couldn't get himself to say much more, "and having your best friend find you just in time and beat his own father up for doing it."

Harry stared. He couldn't believe it. Raya had been through all that torture just for him. Just so that he would be safe.

"Yeah Harry," said Draco, "my father did that. Not only that but I had to wear a mask covering my face so my father wouldn't know it was me. And I threw him out the five-story window, Harry. A five story window! Just do as she says Potter. She knows a hell of a lot more than you do."

With that Draco followed Raya by going into the side door and slamming it shut behind him.

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