Sirius stood in the middle of the room, and his arms were spread in a beckoning hug, and he had a smile on his lips that didn't reach his eyes. Rory ran forward, and past Harry, as she wrapped her arms tightly around Sirius's middle. She cried hard into his shirt, but Sirius smile didn't fade, and his eyes never moved from Harry. Harry felt a protective wave for Rory come over him, and he fought the urge to take her from Sirius's amrs, and fear gripped his heart and squeezed tight.
He surveyed the room, and the light that seemed so bright outside, was now only a dim light from a gas lamp, and it only highlighted Sirius, his arms wrapped around Rory as she cried, his face still pasty white, looking almost lost. Harry's unease grew as he stared hard at the deep black shadows that crowded the room. He could swear they moved! The shadows had stirred, and as he stared hard at the disturbed area, a shape began to form. That is, until, his attention was drawn in a different direction, and the shape disappereared into the black void.
"Harry, come join me, lcome give your old man a hug," His voice seemed jolly, but not as it usually was.
Maybe Harry was wrong, and everything was just fine. Ginny had once called him paranoid, told him he couldn't shut his brain off. This would be an perfect example of that, he was in the same room as his father, a man he hadn't seen in over three months, and all he could do was be suspicious. So what if Sirius looked haunted, his father always had the tendancy to look haggard and tired, even after a full night's sleep. Harry took a step forawrd, but Luna hand rested on his arm for the breifest of seconds.
"I sense unease," she explained flatly, looking around the room with her blue eyes, they never looked so glossy, as if she was just awakening from a dream. But they held Harry for a moment, as if captivating him, and telling him she had the same suspicions. For a moment Harry considered turning around and hexxing his father just to make sure, but then the thought turned bitter in his mind, and it made Harry feel sick with himself.
"Don't be daft," he spat visciously back at Luna, though he really knew he yelled at her because Harry was feeling guilty about not trusting his own father either. "Its my dad, I trust him more than I trust you, Loony Lovegood!"
Luna looked undisturbed by his harsh words, which made Harry even more infuriated. Harry had wanted her to lash back, and to shake him back to his senses, to tell him everything wasn't right. But, Luna just stood there with the same placid face and Harry ran toward his father.
It felt great to wrap Sirius up in a hug, and to feel his father's solid figure next to him. As Sirius hugged him, and Rory, back, Harry began to feel safe again. He felt angry with himself for being mistrusting, and was thankful that Sirius was so forgiving of it. He hugged Sirius even tighter, and felt Rory's hands as she hugged their father too.
A clicking sound filled the room, and it swelled Harry's heart with the familiar dread as cold metal touched his wrist. He stepped back from his father who was staring down at Harry's arm, and Harry looked down too, and that's when he saw it. Where Rory and Harry's hands touched, a set of handcuffs binded them together, and it was Sirius, who was now prefroming the stucklockus spell on them.
"Daddy!" Rory cried as she oulled in vein at her restraints, it created deep violet and red bruises where the metal pressed hard against her wrists. Harry looked down in silent rage as he saw that Rory's panic was pulling on his own handcuff, and the silver metal rubbed his skin raw. "Let us go!"
Sirius looked sick and sad, but his hollow smile remained, as he took both their wands from them and stepped back. Harry felt hot tears run down his cheeks as he realised what has happened, their own father has turned! Rory still tried to pull off her handcuffs, and Jess ran up to her.
"Luna," Harry said turning to her, and he began to open his mouth, planning on telling her he was sorry for saying those things to her, but she gave a small nod, as if to say that an appology wasn't needed. Ever so subtly, with only Harry noticing, Luna drew out her wand and muttered a few words under her breath, and Harry knew she was alerting Dumbledore's army.
Harry turned back to his dad, and his heart sank further, as he saw Sirius backing into the shadows, that ate him up until only his face was visible, and his eyes were blank as thety stared at Harry.
"Why, dad?" Harry whispered in a torn voice.
"He's coming for you, son, he'll eat you both up." Sirius replied through his smile.
"Daddy!" Rory squealed. "Don't say that! We'll get out of this, together."
But Sirius' reply was only silence as he stepped further back into the shadows until even his form disappeared, and Harry couldn't see his father anymore.
"Coward!" Harry screaned into the night but there was no reply.
"Jess," Rory began, she had calmed down slightly but her voice was still very croaky from her tears. "Stop fussing over these handcuffs, its no use. You need to go find Grandpa, he's in here somewhere. And, when you do, I want you and Luna to sneak out and give him to grandma, also collect and debreif the Army."
"They'll be here soon," Luna piped up. Rory nodded the two of them off into the shadows that was slowly closing in as the gas lamp's light began to fade. Harry wondered who she meant, the Army or Voldemort. But before he could ask, Jess and Luna had faded into the darkness, and Harry said a little prayer for them, for everyone who he loved.
Ginny came up beside him, looking like a huntress, ready and willing to follow him into battle, she looked over to him. Her eyes blazed with the fury he felt for his father who hid just beyond the shadows, how did she know how he felt? How did she make him feel like he was understood when he felt as desperatly as of place as can be.
After a few minutes of heart pounding anxiety, the inevitable happened. A storng gust of wind blew in through the door. A pair of red snake eyesc cut through the darkness to find Harry's, and sheer dread hit Harry, making him feel light headed and woozy.
"Sirius, come." Voldmoert hissed as he enterred the room, about ten other Death eaters swooped in after him and hid in the darkness. Harry couldn't beleieve waht he was seeing! His dad was actually obeying Voldemort!
"Daddy! Don't!" Rory shouted, she tried to run after him, but Harry pulled hard on their handcuffs and Rroy was sent reeling back. She hot Harry a pained look as Draco stabalised her.
"Daddy! Don't!" a deatheater mimicked from the shadows. The gas lamp only illuminated the four of them, standing alone in the middle of the room, making only them and Voldemort's red eyes visible.
"Wondering why your father is acting so strangely, Potter," Voldemort asked calmly from the shadows.
"Imperious curse," Draco asked, his drawl suggested he was bored with this whole chirade.
"Ah," Vodlmeort hissed. "Luscious, you taught your son well. It is a shame he will have to be killed for his betrayal."
"Yes, but I will draw some pleasure from being the one to put an end to the little brat's traitor life," replied of voice Harry recognised as the dispicable Luscious Malfoy.
Draco had a nerve to pretend to stifle a yawn as he drawled, "Can we stay on topic?"
Voldemort's jeering laugh rang out in Harry's ears, like fringernails on chalkboard, but he didn't show his flich. But in the darkness, he found Rory's hand and squeezed it tightly.
"I cursed him just as you were all drifting safely to sleep," Voldemort took a dramtic pause as he falshed his face in the gas light for all to see, the sight of his pale skin sent shivers up Harry's spine. "On chirstmas eve."
"He knew..." Rory muttered as she held to Harry tighter than ever. "He let them take us by suprise." Harry's eyes foudn hers as they welled with tears.
Push them away, he wanted to tell her, but she just blinked a few times and tears ran down her cheeks, resulting in a wave of cruel laughs and insults from the concealed death eaters. Draco turned a full 360 degrees, as if he was trying to size up the unseen beings, and that only made them laugh harder.
"I can't wait," Voldemort admitted, he continued to circle them, he was still just out of reach of the light, so Harry could still only see the red slits Voldemort called eyes as they squinted at Harry and Rory. "To tell Sirius what he has done, betrayed his only family... tsk, tsk, how cruel."
"You're the cruel one," Rory shouted, but Voldemort ignored her.
"I'll show him your bodies, and I'll laugh as he weeps." Voldemort said, his voice had a viscious edge that stabbed Harry with each word.
"Well, you know what they say Harry," Voldemort said, sensing his obvious sadness. "Can't save them all."
"I'll keep that in mind," Harry replied with just as much venom. "Now step into light, you bloody coward. At least let me see the face of who is going to 'kill' me." Harry forced out a bitter laugh as Voldemort stepped into the light.
"Nice,' Rory said snidely. "Practice that walk infront of a mirror?"
"Mind your tongue, little lady," a death eater spat from the darkness surrounding them, everyone laughed but Voldemort's face remained as hard as stone as he gazed at the two Potter siblings.
"Shall we end this, Tom?" Harry asked bravely.
"Don't call me that," Voldemort snaps back at Harry, he had found his weakness, the only weakness Voldemort has, his past, the truth...
"Sorry, Tom Riddle," Harry said again, and Voldemort breathed heavy to keep his anger in check.
"Its-" Voldemort began, but Rory jumped in.
"Snugglepuss?" she asked, and Ginny smirked at the shocked silence that ensued form Voldemort's followers, only Draco's bitter HA! could be heard echoing.
"Sirius, wands," Voldemort said calmly. Sirius walked out like a zombie to Voldemort's beckoning hand, and it took all Harry had not to run up and pull his father to his side. Sirius handed Voldemort Harry and Rory's long wooden wands then descended back into the shadows. Voldmoert stood with them firmly grapsed in his hands as he stared at Harry and Riry.
"You want to give them back, or do you want a moment alone with them?" Rory asked, alone was given a suggestive slant that made Harry snigger, and that only further infuriated Vodlemort.
"No! I am not giving them back," Voldemort said triumphantly.
"That's not a fair fight," Harry yelled as he lundged for hsi wand, Voldemort side stepped and Harry fell to the floor. He scrambled to his feet and staggered backwards.
"What kind of Evil Matermind dark lord would I be if I played fairly," Voldemort asked, and Rory was shaking her head as if disgraced.
"You should have that printed as a slogan," she said bitterly.
Suddenly the door to the pool house flew open again and extinguished the small gas lamp, and that resulted in plunging the whole room into darkness. Before Harry could react to anything that went on around him, a hand was placed firmly on his shoudler. A set of lips moved to his ear and he felt her hot breath against his neck, and he recoginsed the smell of rose petals she carried.
"The army is outside, stall for a moment, and we will crash in, there are hundreds of us, little of them." sang Luna's voice in his ear and Harry felt a shiver come over him. The end was near! Harry could feel it, and his wand cried out in the darkness from Voldemorts grasp. Harry wouldn't end this with out his wand.
"Enough of this foolery!" Voldemort shouts. The gas lamp is reunited by a wand, and light is glowing strong once more, sending the shadows in to retreat, they aren't fully gone, but it gives comfort to knwo that the deatheaters must be cramped up against the wall to hide from sight.
Voldemort lets out a checkle as he finally takes in Ginny and Draco. Harry puffs out his chest, ready to snipe back and forth with Voldemort, so he can kill time. Voldemort lowers his head with a smile.
"I forgot I was going up against four pathetic teenage sourcerers." he chuckles idly, and as he played with Hary and Rory's wand as if it were hsi own, Harry only felt the hate that bubbled up inside him, and thretened to boil over any moment.
"We forgot we were facing a group of Mid-Life crisis wizards who turned to the darkside for thrills," Rory replied just as easily.
"Careful," Voldemort says in a cold voice that makes Harry go numb. "This isn't Halloween, you can't just go home and go to sleep, wake up and its over. You've got to be up and ready to go." Vodlmerot's sickly red eyes run down Rory suggestivly and Rory turns a few shades paler. In a hotter voice, Voldemort adds, "You can always be ready to go with me."
"You killed my mother," Rory said through gritted teeth, her fists were curled up into balls so tights that Harry saw her knuckles go white as snow.
'Ah, yes, your muggle mother," Voldemort begins, then his suggestivness hits the floor as his tone turns to digusted. "That makes you a halfblood."
The crowd around them hiss and boo from their shadows, a flash of lightning from outside scares some, but Voldemort remains calm as he jeers Rory. Only Harry saw the large mob of Hogwarts students, as they silently descended on the poolhouse, led by Luna and Neville. They had been momentarily illuminated by the lightning that cracked the sky before they were plunged into darknesss once more, like they never existed.
"Shame your mother had to die, I could have used her for other purposes," Voldemort carries on, and Harry bites his tongue. He recognises that tone to Voldemort's hisses, he is trying to bait them, but Harry isn't going to fall for it. Unfortunatly, its too much for Rory and she lundges at Voldemort.
Her wand had been momentarily alofted, as if he was usuing it as a microphone, but now Rory had her small hands wrapped around it. She stood toe to toe with Voldemort as she grapsed at her wand, and pulled feircly, trying, and failing, to get it from his long grey boney fingers.
"Let go now," Voldemort says in a long thretening hiss. "And I will spare you from this slaughter."
"I don't want to be spared!" Rory cries out in desperation as she yanks on the wand.
As that confrontation waged on, all the windows to the poolhouse exploded inwards, showering them with shattere glass. And as the wind blew feircly into the small house, Luna, followed by Neville, jumped in screaming a war cry as they took the small group of death eaters by storm. One by one, more and more DA members flood the poolhouse, and though their skills weren't a match to the death eaters, they were soon an equal match as the numbers were out weighed.
"This can only end badly for you, Potter," Voldmoert yeleld to Rory over the screams surrounding them. Harry began to fight his way over to his sister who still grasped to her wand. "You can end it now, and the end is painless."
Harry gave the room a quick glance in time to see Luna fall back from a huge gash across her cheek, and blood flowed and seeped out onto the floor. Harry gave a flinch and moved on towards Rory and Voldemort.
Together, you two are unstoppable! it was what everyone had said. Yeah, you can match his power, but with Rory, you'll beat him for sure! Harry knew, that to finish this, he would have to finish Voldemort off with Rory's help.
"You've ended to many lives already," Harry caught Rory saying, and jsut as he neared, the unthinkable happened.
"Then what's one more?" Vodlemort asked her plainly.
Then, in a raging shout, while both their hands were on Rory's wand, they both shouted. "AVADA KEDAVRA!"
A huge green orb began to form at the tip of Rory's wand and expanded out until both she and Voldemort were only covered. The room was bathed in the sickly green colour, and fight slowed as they all truend to gawk. Inside, Rory sweated perfusely as she struggled to keep up with Voldemort.
Togther... It was something Rory had said to Harry in his first dream about her. We can help each other.
Harry dove forward into the green orb, that swallowed him whole, and he placed his own hands on to the wand that felt red hot. And, only after a few moments standing there, the orb began to compress. Finally, almost as Harry's strength was beginning to waver, the Green just imploded!
Harry was sent flying through the glass dorr, Voldemort's head was whammed hard into the brick wall behind him with a sickly thud, and Rory... she lay motionless on the floor where the orb had once been. Slowly the screams and voices form everyone became subdued, as if Harry was underwater. Then, the colours blurred, dulled, then faded. Untilthere was nothing...
Nothing but blackness, the sleep that had been a long time coming...
(A/N) What do you think? I want reviews people! Only three more chapters! GASP! I'm soo sad to see this go!
In the next chapter Rory sees the kitchen, and in it is the thing of dreams...