Ah do nawt own zeez characters.

Chapter Twelve: Waiting Games

I sat on my bed, legs crossed, my fingers curled around the silver necklace around my neck. There was a meow at the window. Lysander sat on the sill. I hadn't seen him for a long time...not since Christmas, in fact. I let him in and he wound around my legs.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him. He only blinked at me. There were no notes tucked beneath his collar. I shrugged, and went to sit down again.

"Evey?" I was startled from my thoughts by Rose, who came to sit next to me. "Sorry, I...I'm just a little shocked still." It was about an hour after the meeting in the Room of Requirement.

"It's...a lot to take in. I know." I said.

"This...this is really happening, isn't it?" I nodded. "Are you alright?"

"I...not really."

"What's the matter?"

"I'm...worried."

"About...Will?"

"Yeah." She looked at me.

"Evey, talk to me." I sighed.

"It's just...Will didn't tell you this tonight, but...he's been ordered to...well, to kill me." Rose's jaw dropped.

"Y-you don't think-?"

"No! No, of course not!"

"Then what's wrong?"

"Well...it's exactly the opposite, really...you should have seen him...before. His father sent him a...sort of drawing of me...dying. I guess it was meant to encourage him. When he saw it, he went...crazy. Crying, everything. It...scared me. I just hope he's alright." I petted Lysander, who had curled up in my lap.

"You...you really love him, don't you?"

"Yeah. I do."

"Everything will work out, Evey." Rose said, giving me a small smile. I returned it as best I could. "I wonder where Lydia and Alyssa are?" At that moment, the girls in question burst through the door, giggling about something. Our conversation effectively over, I transferred the cat from my lap to my bed and changed into a knee-length chemise.

"I still don't understand how you wear those things in the dead of winter," Rose said, already in her pajamas. I shrugged. Lysander was sitting on the bed, staring at me without blinking.

"What? Merlin, you're a strange cat." He only purred, and snuggled against me when I lay down.

"They've stopped communicating with me. They know I can't be trusted anymore." Will ran a hand through his hair absentmindedly. We sat in a sort of half-circle in the Room of Requirement.

"So...where do we go from here?" Fred asked. Will sighed.

"It's...hard to say. They have the upper hand right now. They know exactly where we are, but they could be anywhere."

"You think they'll try to come here?" James frowned. Will shook his head.

"No. The school's too heavily guarded right now for them to risk a direct attack. Besides, they need me alive. They won't do anything drastic without knowing more about their situation."

"A...direct attack. What other kind of attack is there?" Lily said uneasily. Will gave a humorless smile.

"What I mean is, I don't think they'll resort to anything rash until they know more about their situation."

"They'll send scouts?"

"Possibly. Some of the portraits are on their side, too. That's why we can't discuss anything without a muffling charm."

"So there's nothing we can do in the mean time?" Hugo asked quietly.

"All we can do is wait," Will said helplessly. There was a pause.

"That's not true," Rose said, standing. "We can arm ourselves!"

"With what, Rose?" I asked quietly.

"Not literally 'arm.' I mean, we can try to learn a little about what we're facing. Read up on dark magic and rituals, learn a few tricks of our own, so that if we do get caught in an attack, we'll be ready for them!"

"She's right," Will said. "We can't know what their planning, but we can at least try to prepare."

From that moment forward, every spare moment we had was spent pouring through the dark arts books in the library. We read until lines of print were bored into our retinas, studied diagrams until we were blue in the face. Defensive spells were practiced on weekends in the Room of Requirement, dark rituals were discussed over meals. We added countless spells to our arsenals, sharing the really useful ones with each other, and discarding the others. On top of this, exams were quickly approaching. Rose helped me run through Transfiguration and Charms, but it seemed that school had been set on the back burner to make room for our fast-approaching doom. What little sleep I got was with Lysander draped over my neck and Roxie curled up in the crook of my knees. With all the madness going on, I hadn't so much as picked up a paintbrush in what seemed like an eternity.

Exams arrived, and I focused as best I could. The only one I was not worried about at this point was Defense Against the Dark Arts. After hour after fun-filled hour sitting in stuffy rooms and writing until our quill-hands throbbed, we were dismissed for the day. My cousins, Will, and I all decided it was too nice a day to return to the library. We ventured out onto the grounds, where a lovely spring afternoon was in full-swing. We sat down at the shore of the lake, skipping stones and talking idly. I heard a familiar shrieking noise and turned to see Artemis plunging out of the trees. I turned to greet her, but was suddenly filled with a wave of panic. I jumped to my feet, my body tensing.

"What is it?" Will asked, standing up with me.

"Something's wrong," I said, running to meet Artemis.

"Evey? What is it?" The rest of the group trailed me as I sprinted toward the hippogriff.

"Get Hagrid! Quick! Something's wrong in the forest!" I swung atop of Artemis fluidly and she reared, turning to gallop back to the forest. Her panic was my own as we rushed through the trees. We weren't far in when we slowed. My right hand gripped my wand anxiously as Arty broke through some undergrowth into a clearing. Centaurs stood in a circle around a crumpled figure. I launched myself off of Artemis, breaking through the circle to the lifeless shape.

"Firenze!" I cried, kneeling next to him. His long legs were pulled against his belly, hooves jutting out at odd angles. His hands grasped at the dirt, as if he had died trying to crawl away. "Firenze, no! What happened?" I demanded of the nearest centaur.

"He was attacked. Tortured." I felt a sob rack my body.

"How? Who could have done this?" I shouted.

"Dark forces know much. He should not have meddled where he wasn't welcome."

"No! It was because of me! I asked him to help me...this is...all my fault! Firenze, I'm so sorry..." There was silence, as they watched me cry against his broad, cold side. I wasn't aware that the others had arrived until I felt Will's arms around me. Gently, he guided me to the edge of the circle. As soon as I left Firenze's side, the centaurs began to cover him with dead pine needles and dry wood.

"It was not your doing, child. Firenze knew. He always did have a soft spot for humans." An old, grey centaur told me before joining his fellows in covering Firenze's body.

"What are they doing?" I asked Hagrid shakily.

"They think tha' centaurs need t' be returned to th' forest when they die. They'll burn 'is body and stand a vigil for him." I shuddered. Will held me closer.

"Hagrid, I don't think..." I heard Will say. There was an agreeing grunt from Hagrid, and he led us back out of the forest.

"They did that," I murmured to Will.

"Yeah."

"What do we do?" He didn't answer for a while.

"I don't know."