A/N: Rayne is in bad shape and everybody wants to know what's been going on. But they're all unaware of the danger that is lurking just around the corner in wait for her. Time to make a hasty exit!
Edited 18/12/09
Professor Snape marched up from the dungeons, his long strides eating away the stretch of corridors to the hospital wing. Rayne floated along behind him, as if supported by invisible hands, still out cold and a steady trickling trail of blood dripped to the floor from the wounds on her back betraying from where they had ventured. Filch would be seething when he discovered the rusty coloured stains that were tainting his usually gleaming floors, but no matter. Snape wasn't sure exactly how physiology worked for a demon, but if her body functioned anything like a human then Rayne was in urgent need of some medical attention.
Snape was more than certain that Madam Pomfrey would be able to have Rayne fixed up in next to no time, but it was essential that he hurried. After all, the girl was of no use to him dead.
With a flourish of his wand Snape threw open the large double doors that led into the ward of the hospital wing, calling out as he entered. "Poppy hurry, we have an emergency." He lowered Rayne onto the nearest bed dropping her a little roughly against the sheets but Rayne was still dead to the world and did not so much as flinch as her torn back rubbed against the rough fabric.
"My goodness, what on earth happened to her?" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed as she hurried out of her office.
"Don't ask Poppy, you'll not wish to hear the answer." Snape replied icily, his eyes narrowing as he looked over Rayne's broken and dishevelled form. " She almost choked to death and has lost a great deal of blood, can you help her?" He explained bluntly casting his gaze away from Rayne to look firmly at the schools nurse.
"Why yes indeed I can Professor, but what…" Madam Pomfrey began, a little hesitant under Professor Snape's icy stare, but she did not finish her question as he cut across her.
"I said do not ask." He snapped, "You know of her 'situation' and I trust that this will be taken into account whilst you are treating her." He then made his way back towards the doors, not at all willing to answer any of the questions he knew must have been burning inside of the woman, letting anything slip could seriously jeopardize his plans. "When she is capable of discussing things please send for me straight away, there are some matters that I must discuss with her urgently." With that he shoved open the doors and breezed back down the corridors towards the dungeons. He would have to give his plan a re-think.
The door slammed shut and Madam Pomfrey gazed at it bewildered for a few seconds before she remembered about the patient she should be treating. With a shake of her head Poppy turned away from the door, there was always something about that man I didn't trust and now this? He's hiding something I'm almost certain.
Poppy stood over Rayne and assessed her condition, for starters she'd need a blood replenishing potion and a decent healing charm for the cuts on her back but apart from that there was really nothing more that she could do. Rayne would have to be left to come around herself. Her breathing seemed fine and only the bruising around her neck gave any indication that she'd choked.
Madam Pomfrey leaned in closer to Rayne looking carefully at the pattern of the vicious bruises, only really noticing them for the first time. "But why they're finger marks!" She exclaimed in horrified tones. She wasn't exactly sure what she'd been expecting after hearing that the girl had choked but, upon seeing the marks, what they seemed to indicate became almost clear as day. Somebody had tried to kill the girl.
Madam Pomfrey stood back and wondered who could possibly have tried to do such a thing and, though it horrified her to think so, she could only draw one conclusion. "Oh Severus surely not." She muttered sadly. Of course she knew all about his shady past, what member of staff didn't but attacking a student? Well she never thought she'd see the day.
With a sigh and a shake of her head, Poppy turned away from the bed and headed towards the large cabinets that stored all of her medicinal potions; now she had a dilemma on her hands. What should she do? Should she go and inform Professor Dumbledore of her suspicions? Or would that just be jumping to conclusions far too quickly? After all she had no real evidence to suggest that it was Professor Snape who had tried to kill the girl and if anything he had helped to save her by bringing her up to the hospital wing so quickly.
"Severus was right, I don't think I do want to know what's been going on here, far too many complications." She muttered grabbing a vial of blood replenishing potion and turning back towards the bed. No I can't do anything just yet, once the girl wakes up I'll ask her a few questions herself then take it from there, she concluded. That seemed like the only logical path of action. One thing was for sure, however, she'd not be leaving Professor Snape alone with the girl.
Dropping the vial of potion down onto the small table set beside the bed, Poppy rolled the demon girl onto her side to take a closer look at the cuts on her back. Waving her wand she muttered a spell under her breath and watched as the bleeding slowed to the barest weep. Unfortunately the preserving potion that had been inside those jars had a peculiar effect on the wounds and prevented them from closing properly, they would have to be given time to heal naturally but at least she would lose no more blood.
Carefully laying her back down Madam Pomfrey uncorked the vial of blood replenishing potion and, lifting the girls head, tipped it's contents between her dark lips ensuring that it was swallowed and that she did not choke, not again tonight. Now there was nothing more that she could do for the girl except let her rest and then question her when she awoke.
Rayne's head throbbed painfully as she stirred against the clean, starched sheets of the hospital wing bed. It hurt to move, even to open her eyes was an effort as she peered around the room; squinting through barely cracked eyelids in some attempt to identify where she was.
Well she wasn't dead, that had to be certain, being dead surely wouldn't hurt this much. No she was alive but only just. Her mouth felt like cotton wool and it was horribly painful to swallow. Lifting a pale hand Rayne traced the garish bruises that wrapped themselves around her neck and closed her eyes again in horror at the memory.
"Shit," she whispered hoarsely, swallowing hard against the damaged flesh of her throat, the events of the night flooding back to her clear as day. Grimacing, Rayne pulled herself to a sitting position gasping at the stabbing pains that ripped across her back as she dragged her torn skin against the sheets.
Breathing hard against the pain of moving Rayne swung her legs over the side of the bed and steadying herself to stand when a fierce burning erupted on her wrist. The thick black lines of the glyph that was etched into her skin began to glow red hot, the lines lengthened to meet in the centre of the ring and the whole thing cooled to a deep blood red.
Rayne looked on in fear as she recognised the sign, her crystal purple eyes shining with tears. She'd been exiled, banished from the Order and marked with a price on her head.
That was it she had to get away from there. Demons would come in swarms to find her, kill her all for a taste of the Orders praise. Hoping desperately that they would be honoured in her place for punishing her for failure. They would never get the praise they longed for but that didn't matter to Rayne, they would still have her head.
Rayne rose to her feet, the pain in her head and back all but forgotten in her earnest panic to get away. She tried to straighten her crumpled robes but soon gave up; they were already torn and so thick with blood that a few creases would hardly notice in comparison. She scanned the room quickly and saw no sign of Madam Pomfrey, she must have been nicely tucked away in her living quarters by then given the lateness of the hour. If Rayne was quiet she could slip away unheard.
She breezed swiftly across the room towards the large double doors and paused for a second, double checking that she was still alone, before cracking open the door and slipping out into the dimly lit corridor.
Rayne didn't bother to sneak nor peer around corners for any Prefects or Professors that may be lurking there, waiting to catch some unsuspecting troublemakers who were out of bed in the middle of the night. No, anybody who got in her way that night would be in a whole world of trouble themselves. She'd stamped down on her instincts and desires to tear people to pieces when they pissed her off since she'd arrived there but that night things had changed. She had to get away from Hogwarts and nobody was going to stand in her way, her very life depended on it.
The majority of the demon population knew exactly where she had been sent and who knew how many blood thirsty bounty hunters were already winging their way towards the school. Rayne had no choice she had to run, try to confuse those that were after her, perhaps hide for a while until she could think of something that might help her.
Rayne made it down to the dungeons without any hindrance, good, I'm sure Filch would much rather go without having to clean up someone's brains after I'd splattered them all over the walls, she thought bitterly to herself. Things there had not gone at all to plan and, one thing that was damn certain, if Snape had just minded his own business she wouldn't be in this situation. "Poking his big nose in where it doesn't belong, maybe he'd like a real taste of the horror that he's so interested in." Rayne spat, sneering as she approached the hidden entrance into the Slytherin common room.
"Emerald Moon," She breathed with a sigh. No, there was no time for revenge, no matter how sweet it would taste. Every moment she wasted allowed the impending danger to draw closer still. Besides it could very well have been Snape that had saved her from her fathers assassination attempt in the first place so technically she owed him something. Allowing him to keep his own life would suffice.
In long sweeping strides Rayne breezed her way across the common room and towards the girls dormitory. She slammed open the door and ran up the stairs, ignoring the pounding in her head as it echoed with every heavy footstep. She stormed into the dormitory, not caring if she awoke the entire room. With all of the conflicting emotions that were rioting inside of her at that moment she was just itching for someone to take it out on.
Rayne flew to her bed and swung open the heavy lid of her blackwood trunk, allowing it to slam against the foot of what was her bed. She dug around amongst it's varied contents and pulled out a change of clothes, not only were the ones she was wearing ruined the Hogwarts uniform would be far too distinguishable once she was away from the school. She tore off the torn robes and discarded them on the floor, exchanging the badly stained white shirt for a more comfortable one in deep red. The sensible grey skirt too was torn away and Rayne slid on a pair of black trousers made from thick and worn leather.
Slamming shut the trunk lid Rayne stood and straightened her clothes, by now the entire dormitory was awake and watching her curiously. "What are you doing? Don't you realise what time it is and you come barging in here making a load of noise and waking us all up!" Pansy spat angrily.
Rayne rolled her eyes and ignored the girl's complaints. Muttering a few words under her breath she waved a hand and watched as her trunk disappeared from view, sending her things on ahead they would only slow her down while on the run.
"What the fuck was that?" Pansy said, pulling herself from her bed and starring with a frown at the spot where Rayne's trunk had once stood. "What's going on, who are you?"
"Nobody you'd like to know," Rayne hissed with venom in her voice, "But you don't need to worry about that now, I won't be back."
"What do you mean, where are you going?" Pansy asked before a smirk crept to her lips, "Oh wait, I get it now. Things not going so hot with Draco? Not that I couldn't see that coming, I mean you're not really his type. He likes his bits of fun that's all you must be able to see that…"
Rayne put up a hand cutting Pansy off mid sentence. "I don't have time to listen to you drivel." She said irritably, pushing past the blonde girl and heading back off down the stairs.
"How dare you cut me off!" Pansy yelled, running barefooted down the cold stone steps to wheel around in front of Rayne and stopping her in her tracks. "How dare you, don't you know who I am?" She demanded.
Rayne groaned in exasperation, "Yes you're an irritating little girl who needs to get out of my way!" She spat through gritted teeth only to be met by the feel of Pansy's wand digging into her ribs, she hadn't even noticed her pick it up, way to let anger cloud your perception.
"Care to rephrase that?" Pansy asked, a knife-edge to her voice.
That was the final straw for Rayne; she saw red. "I don't have time to play silly games." She yelled, flinging a hand forwards and releasing her rage upon the unsuspecting Pansy.
The blonde girls pale eyes widened as she felt herself lifted from the ground to suddenly fall backwards down the stairs. She opened her mouth and let rip a blood curdling scream as she plummeted to the ground, crashing hard into the partially open door and landing with a painful thud against the common room floor. Pansy felt the air smacked out of her lungs and she lay gasping and shaking on the, thankfully carpeted, floor.
Rayne strolled down the remainder of the stairs having officially lost her rag. Pansy's screams must have awoken the entire house as students from varying years, all barefooted and tousle haired, poured into the common room curious to know what the commotion was about that had risen them all from their happy slumbers. Rayne stepped into the room, her eyes ablaze with the dark, angry fire that fuelled her power, causing those in the room to shudder and give her a wide berth. Who knew what she could be capable of with that wild psychotic look in her eyes.
Taking one last sneering look at Pansy, Rayne turned on her heel and swept out of the common room without so much as a backward glance. That was it, she could get away so long as no more interference or distractions came her way. She could leave, hide and survive to see the morning, all she had to do was get out of the damned school.
Draco stormed into the common room. He'd been waiting for Rayne to come back from her detention but she'd been gone for hours, far longer than she should have been. Rather than becoming concerned he had become sulky and put out, deciding to retire to bed rather than wait for her any longer. He had gone to bed irritable and had been woken by screaming coming from the common room, whoever it was would feel the full extent of his wrath that was for sure.
He entered to find Pansy struggling up from the floor, fighting violently to breathe and shaking beyond belief. The shattered fragments of her wand lay strewn on the floor beside her and a hysterical anger contorted her face. "What the hell happened here?" He demanded, rushing to kneel beside the blonde Slytherin girl.
"That…your…she," Pansy stuttered, still fighting to fill her lungs with air. Taking a painful deep breath she managed to burst out, "That psycho girlfriend of yours."
"What, Rayne?" Draco asked wondering when exactly the demon girl had become classed as girlfriend status. "What happened, where is she?"
"She's crazy," Pansy said, her words coming more easily as breathing became less of an effort. "But don't worry, she's gone now and she wont be back." She chuckled softly, sitting up and trying to cling lovingly to Draco.
"She's what?" He exclaimed, standing so suddenly that Pansy fell back, unceremoniously, against the floor. Turning quickly he hurried towards the door and flung it open. "Rayne!" He yelled down the corridor towards her slowly shrinking figure.
Rayne sighed and stopped in her tracks. "Draco, I have to go. I'm…sorry." She called back as the familiar voice called her name. She didn't turn to look at him, he was classed as a distraction and there was just no time to deal with that. As much as it pained her to think about, she'd have preferred to leave and not seen him again before she went.
Draco ran down the corridor, cutting across in front of Rayne as she tried again to leave. Why do people keep doing that? She thought biting her lip in frustration. "Draco please I can't stay here anymore." She explained softly, attempting to side step him and not have to meet his sliver-grey eyes.
He snarled angrily and roughly grabbed her by the shoulders, "Stop trying to run away, why are you going?" He demanded, his grip on her shoulders tightening and Rayne winced in pain as his fingers dug into the unhealed wounds on her back. "What's wrong? What…happened to you?" He asked, noticing for the first time the rings of dark bruises that encircled her throat.
Rayne swallowed hard and turned away from him, "I can't stay here Draco, it's not safe anymore." She said softly, "I've been banished from the Order, apparently I'm expendable to keep their secrets safe, and now every demon whose ever wanted a taste of glory will be winging their way here, all gunning for my blood."
"I don't understand." Draco said softly, loosening his grip so that it became a soft caress against her bruised neck and moving so that she would finally look him in the eye.
"You don't have to understand, just know that if I stay here I'll be killed. They've tried once and now they won't stop until it is done, I have to go and hope that they don't catch me."
"Then let me come with you." Draco said suddenly, as a wave of ideas engulfed him.
"What? Don't be ridiculous. Draco I don't have the time to argue with you, I've wasted far too much already." Rayne said becoming exasperated. Not that the idea of some company wasn't nice but it just wasn't practical, if he came then he would also be in danger.
"Then don't argue." He said straightening his robes and starting to lead Rayne down the corridor. "I'm coming with you." He said decisively. Going with her would be far more profitable than staying in school, the information that he could learn and the company wasn't bad either. Snape believed that there was something highly worth knowing about her and her kind and Draco would find out just what that was, away from the prying eyes of the school.
"Fine, just don't slow me down." Rayne replied as she started in her swift stride, footsteps ringing against the stones.
"So, where are we going?" Draco asked with a grin as he rushed to catch up with her.
"First, back home. I need to pay a few people a visit."