Part 5 of 6 of the Ultimate Truth series. Please enjoy and just a reminder, I do not own Harry Potter.
The sun was bright this last morning of the school term, but Airiala only felt darkness.
The pages that Lando had given her weren't wrong, but she realized now that they didn't apply to the Wind Elemental. She was too free and too unlikely to fall in love.
She looked down at the diary she had just read, the diary that contained the Ultimate Truth.
Tears filled her eyes and slowly made their way down her cheeks, but she didn't allow herself to make a sound.
It made sense now why her powers weren't working, why she having so many issues with it. She had told Severus that she basically felt nothing but friendship for him. A lie just as Wendy had told, claiming indifference rather than just coming out and admitting the feelings.
Gabriel had asked Wendy if there was any reason not to return to the priesthood and Wendy didn't admit how she felt, just as Severus had asked her if that night meant anything to her and she blamed it on loneliness.
Now Severus hated her and it was only by admitting her love for Severus that she would be able to activate the Ultimate Truth, but doing so would kill her. If she continued to say nothing and allowed her indifference to stand then she wouldn't be able to use her powers to help in the battle.
She would be a burden to everyone and could end up getting someone killed.
She stood, letting the diary fall to the floor at her feet. She looked out the window at the rising sun and knew that today would be the day that Voldemort would attack, today would be the day that she would have to finally admit the Ultimate Truth.
Today would be her last day on Earth.
Raina could tell that something was wrong.
The wind outside wasn't moving. It was almost like the world had stopped, but she knew that couldn't be the case.
The wind would always remain in motion as long as the Wind Elemental was alive, and Airiala was alive.
She looked out across the lake and saw no ripples, no waves, not a single bit of motion. It was frightening, looking out a window at what could be a painting.
She looked at Pyro, who had walked up next to her, and he too had a look of worry upon his face when looking out across the still landscape.
"This isn't good," he said.
"I know," she replied, "but I don't know what it is at all either. I have no memory of this ever occurring before. Do you?"
Pyro shook his head. "None. It's like this has never happened before, but at the same time I have feeling like it has. Like it happened and I just don't...remember..."
Pyro turned to Raina with shock in his eyes. Raina narrowed her eyes in confusion. "What is it Pyro?"
"I don't know..." he said before turning away from her, running his hand in a frustrated gesture through his hair. "But usually I remember everything from my past lives, but an event where the power of one Elemental doing something like this...it's blank."
Raina nodded. "I know. It's almost like..." Her eyes widened as a thought crossed her mind. "You don't think that Airiala...?"
Pyro nodded to the unfinished question.
"I think the Wind Elemental has discovered the Ultimate Truth."
Lando was in a great mood.
Airiala was no longer going down into the dusty dungeons, that nasty Potions Master wasn't talking to her anymore, and Airiala was right there and nearly his.
All he had to do now was reel her in.
He knocked on the door to her room, a bouquet of daisies in his hand. He wasn't sure what type of flower she really liked, but he hoped that it was daisies. They were simple, yet beautiful, just like her.
The door opened and Lando's smile dropped.
Airiala looked like she hadn't slept in days, her hair was flat and lacked the brightness it normally had, and her eyes...
Her eyes almost looked dead.
"Airiala? Are you okay?"
She looked at him, or more likely looked through him. "Lando?"
He nodded, confused by what he was seeing. How was this possible? What had happened to his beautiful Wind Elemental?
Severus was busy cleaning up his office. It was what he always did on the last day of the school year and he wasn't about to change it now.
Besides, he hadn't really cleaned up since that night except for his papers and it finally was driving him mad. Anger filled him as he lifted another item back onto it's shelf.
Airiala did this. Airiala ruined his office.
Airiala hurt him just as Lily had, only worse. At least Lily hadn't slept with him out of loneliness or pity. Lily, at least, had the decency to walk away and ignore him instead of filling him with hope and then bashing it into the ground like Airiala had.
She was the lowest person he knew and he no longer wanted to think about her at all.
He put away another potion item and turned to get the next one. His thoughts still filled with Airiala.
He had just placed the last item back on it's shelf, his mind still whirling with thoughts of Airiala and his current anger at her when he felt a sharp pain in arm followed by a violent shake of the ground.
Lando opened his mouth to speak when the building rocked violently. The daisies in his hand went flying as he body slammed down to the ground. He looked over at Airiala and found that she too had hit the ground.
Footsteps were pounding on the ground and the other Elementals came around the corner.
"It's time," Pyro said firmly. "He's here."
They wasted no more time and proceeded to run down the hallway. Students were clogging everything and it made it difficult to run. They knew that they only had a matter of time before Voldemort arrived and made his official move.
That first hit had been a warning shot, he wouldn't do such again.
They found Harry, surrounded by Ron, Hermione, and a whole gaggle of teachers. Severus was not among them.
Airiala mentally shook the thought from her mind. She couldn't think about him right now, she couldn't think about Severus. She had to focus at the task at hand. If what she believed was true and her words to Severus the other day had caused her powers to short out she would need ever ounce of her concentration to get any movement out of the wind.
She shouldn't think at all about...
"Severus!"
Airiala turned her head and saw the man approaching, wand in hand. He walked right passed her, not even sparing her a glance. Her chest constricted in pain at the indifference he showed her.
"Minerva, he's coming fast. We need to find a way to slow him down a little until the Order members can arrive."
Raina stepped forward. "I have an idea." She turned to Lando. "Can you make the ground nothing but dirt?"
Lando nodded and then lifted his hands before jerking them down towards the ground. The grass that had been growing so beautifully was gone, leaving nothing but a dirt field in it's wake.
Raina stepped forward and took a large water bubble from the lake and dropped it onto the field, turning all the dirt into sticky mud.
Pyro smirked. "Good plan Raina, that will slow them down a little, but their magic will still reach us." He turned to Airiala.
"Do you think that you can make it windy out there, enough that the magic spells they may hurl at us would be pushed off course?"
Airiala took a deep breath. To do that would require a large amount of her energy, and she wouldn't be able to do anything else in the meantime. She glanced at Severus and then back at her fellow Elementals.
"I can," she said before stepping forward.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before forcing her powers. The wind began to blow, gently at first and then a little more powerful.
Under normal circumstances, something like this would be nothing, but at this moment it was taking every ounce of her power to get the wind to blow at all.
"Come on Airala," Raina said. "You can do it."
Airiala fell to her knees, her body was crying out to stop, but she continued to force it. She knew that it would be difficult, but this was getting ridiculous.
Across the now muddy field, men emerged from the Forbidden Forest. Deatheaters, one and all, being lead by Voldemort.
He was a hideous man, resembling more of a snake rather than a man, bald and pasty white and no real nose, only slits where the nose should be. Pyro kept his eyes on Airiala as tried to make the wind blow harder while Lando and Raina continued to make the mud field muddier and Lando even went to work moving the mud around to make it more difficult to walk on.
Airiala looked up at the approaching army and knew that this power wasn't going to be enough.
If she wanted to protect her friends and her Elemental family, she had no choice.
She was going to have to tell the Ultimate Truth.