-1A Time for Truth

Light flooded around Rayne and Draco and the unpleasant sensation of being nothing but a disembodied thought melted away as the stepped out of the darkness into the harsh glow of a street lamp. The hour was growing early back in the wizarding world and the dim, pale dawn was slowly beginning to creep over the sky. Draco looked around at far more comfortable surroundings and couldn't believe just how relieved he was to be home. He had no idea where they were but everything was so familiar and friendly looking that he couldn't hide his delight.

He peeled his hand away from Rayne's, the damp stickiness of blood had fused their skin tightly together so that it was almost a chore to let go. He did though, and as quickly as the gore would allow him. He took a moment to look around, to enjoy being back and being alive before he turned to glare harshly at Rayne. "What in the hell happened back there?" He spat angrily.

Rayne's eyes were once again their usual crystal purple selves, the power of her bloodlust having dissipated as they travelled, and she was beginning to feel more like her normal self yet again. For a moment she registered the question Draco had asked her but couldn't comprehend an answer, what exactly did he mean? In the end she ventured to ask him, but before the words had barely left her mouth a crushing sense of realisation fell over her. She actually considered killing him.

It was as if something back there had clouded her vision, her mind, but the more she thought the more the scenes came flooding back to her and they made her feel a little sick. He must had realised what she had been thinking and if simply replaying the memories in her mind were enough to scare Rayne then how exactly did she think Draco had been feeling at the time. "Draco." She said looking at him, her eyes wide with both horror and shame. "Oh God…I don't….I'm sorry." She said meekly, not knowing what she could say to make things better.

And apparently what she had said was far from what he wanted to hear. He raised a hand and shook his head in anger. "Save it Rayne. I don't want your apologies, I want the truth."

Rayne frowned, confused. "The truth about what?"

"Everything." Draco exclaimed, becoming exasperated. He didn't do well with getting scared and having to admit that he had been was even worse. The emotions tended to be covered up with anger and right at that moment he was taking it out on Rayne. But if they both were very honest she probably deserved most of it.

"All of those things he said…You were going to kill me Rayne, I know you were considering it." He ranted, barely pausing between sentences. But he took a breath a sighed, calming his anger slightly before going on. "Everything you told me before was a lie wasn't it. So tell me the truth, what were you doing at Hogwarts? Why did they send you there and why do they really want you dead." He demanded.

Rayne squirmed slightly under his demanding tone, this was a conversation she was hoping to avoid or at the very least she wanted to have it under lighter and more happy circumstances. "It's a long story Draco I don't really know where to start." She muttered meekly, still holding on to some vain hope that she could avoid having to tell him everything.

"Then start from the beginning. Because I tell you what Rayne, since I left everything behind to come with you I've got nothing but time." Draco shouted, his anger spilling over once again.

Yet rather than giving in and beginning her story anger began to flare inside of her too. So it seemed that an argument would ensue, but somehow the truth was bound to come out. Truths have a way of showing themselves in the throws of powerful emotions and anger was one of the strongest.

"I hardly asked you to come with me did I Draco, that was your choice. I only agreed to let you come along so you would stop holding me up." Rayne shouted back, her eyes bright and ablaze with rage. "I would have gone alone and none of this would have happened. You should have stayed behind, stayed…" She paused, defeated. Her arguments were lame and for whatever reason she just could not stay angry at him. He had every right to be angry with her and like it or not he wanted the truth and if she didn't want to just walk out on him there and then she would have to tell him. "…Where it was safe."

"Rayne I do not need nor do I want to be protected, I made a choice and would think you could at least appreciate my company. What I want is for you to tell me the truth why are you here? What is really going on." Draco continued, his tone softening as his anger began to burn out. "I think I deserve that Rayne. After the time we've spent together I at least deserve to know the truth."

He had a point, he did deserve to know the truth, certainly if they wanted anything more to do with each other and Rayne could hardly deny him of that. Not now at least, despite it all she had grown rather fond of having him around, plus she felt considerably guilty about thinking of killing him down in the demon realm. Perhaps the truth would buy her some of his forgiveness.

"Okay, I'll tell you." Rayne gave in with a sigh, stepping backwards she leant against a tall brick wall behind them wondering where to begin her story. "You're right, the story I told you about why I was here wasn't true. Not even close. I mean yes for a while I did live with a wizard family and that's how I got my place at Hogwarts, but it was for more like a few months rather than years." Rayne began to look a little sheepish as it dawned on her just how many lies she was going to have to reveal and even then after he knew everything would he still feel the same about her as he had before? Would the truth not just send him running as he would if she told him nothing. Couldn't she just save them both a whole lot of pain?

But she had started, why face looking cowardly and backing out, and so Rayne resigned to continue. "You probably already guessed they'd been hexed, mindless drones in the end really, but they played along like they were supposed to so they got to live, for the time being at least." She then paused, unsure of where to go with her story next. What she'd said explained how she was there but nothing of why and when it came to that question she didn't know where to start.

"The Order…" Rayne began, frowning at her false start before beginning again. "The Blood are the highest faction amongst the demons, the ruling party if you like. They keep things in order, make all the decisions regarding our entire race and is made up of the greatest power the demons have to offer. If things need to be done it is The Blood that will get it done.

'The Blood decided that they were tired of living underground, decided that they were tired of their banishment…And decided that it was time to take back the world above."

***

The night was waning and yet still Lucius stood in the darkness of his dungeon, the large table in front of him littered with ever more scraps of parchment, bubbling cauldrons and one pristine bottle of blood red potion that Lucius regarded gleefully. He had the key to getting what he wanted, the way to stop that wretched girl from disappearing on him again and most importantly of all a way to ensure that through all of it she would have no way of hurting or even killing him at all.

The potion ready now all Lucius needed to do was wait for the two of them to surface again, it was only a matter of time.

A flicker of something from one of the instruments in front of him caught Lucius's attention. His cold grey eyes skimmed up to the large pensive like basin and a malicious smile crept to his lips. There they were, clear as day and but an apparition away. This time he would have her for sure.

***

"They'd watched you all for years, studied every aspect of your way of lives. Even watched the muggles, as you call them, for a while. But they knew all along where the greatest power and their greatest obstacle lay. Take the magical world and the muggles would so easy fall in line, or die either way was good for them." Rayne went on, recapping the details as if she were telling an epic legend but it came all too soon for her to tell her part in it.

"After they had learned all they wanted from watching you all, the Blood believed they knew the best way in, the best place from which to infiltrate your world."

"Hogwarts." Draco muttered as he listened intently to Rayne's story. The facts beginning to unfold and become clear the more she spoke.

"Yes," Rayne nodded, looking gravely at Draco and holding his cold gaze as she continued to speak. "A place of great power, that had stood strong despite everything that had ever tried to destroy it. Take Hogwarts and the rest of the wizarding world would soon crumble in it's wake." She sighed and slid down the wall so that she sat on the ground in the pool of the dimming streetlight. "So that is why they sent me. Over all of the years Hogwarts was the place that they'd learned the least about. They knew a lot of general knowledge about it yes, and that it was the place that seemed to be the strongest and safest haven for all of the wizarding kind. But it was also a place of great secrets.

"They knew it was Hogwarts they needed to take, but they needed more information about it. From the inside. They could hardly plant a demonic professor anywhere but why not a student, and apparently I was the perfect candidate. The family and the ministry were easy enough to bewitch so that they would do what The Blood wanted. Brought me a place into the school, where I was to go to study what happened. To learn the weak links the fragile places, to report what I knew back to the demons and to eventually open the door through which they could plague your world."

"You were planning our downfall, our destruction. The whole time you knew that in the end we all would die and it would be because of you and yet you could still play along with the day to day life there, so happily. You could still play with and manipulate me knowing that you could easily kill me in the end, did everything really mean that little to you?" Draco ranted, realising that he was revealing a little more about his true feelings and emotions than he'd have liked to but he was sure it was buried deep enough in his anger and shock that she wouldn't notice too much. "Or I guess I should know that already after what happened down there, how ready you were to kill me then to buy back your own life."

"No, I wasn't…I didn't…That was different." Rayne struggled to say. Things were definitely going badly. "Honestly Draco I don't know what happened down there, perhaps it was just being back after being away so long or something Caleb did. I don't know but it wasn't me, not really, not anymore." She said in form of a bad apology. "It used to be me, before I would have killed you without a second thought. The only reason I didn't start as soon as I got to that school was because they'd ordered me not to, I wasn't to kill anyone only to observe them. To not give myself away to them. But something has changed Draco, something inside of me is different I can feel it." She pleaded with him, holding a hand to her chest as she spoke.

"You I never wanted to kill, not even from the beginning. I felt your power, the potential you have. Felt it when you felt mine back on the train, remember. From then you were more than just something to play with Draco, I knew what you could be and with our help, our power it could be amazing. Wars are best won with alliances and I'd hoped that in you we could have forged a strong one, that with you and people like you we could have taken the world for our own, lived side by side again. Our powers are different but still twinned with each other Draco, you know it as well as I do and it is this power that should rule."

Draco listened as she spoke, amazed at the things she was saying to him. He had imagined something awful but what he had imagined was nothing compared to what she told him. Awful indeed was her story but still fantastic and tempting at the same time. He'd wanted in her as an ally since the moment he had felt her power. He had seen great potential in her and her kind, believed that they could be of great use and benefit to others like he and his father and now he knew that she too had wanted that very same thing. She was right, together, the mixing of their kin powers could have done great things but now was it too late for all of that? Had the truth been revealed too much too late to save things?

"But I revealed too much of what I am, what my powers and my orders were. It's not your fault Draco, I should never have gotten so close to you, told you so much…" Rayne shook her head, an embarrassing wave of emotion threatening to engulf her as tears grazed, hot and stinging, at her eyes.

"But you didn't tell me anything Rayne, not until now. I didn't know any of this, you told me nothing what happened?" Draco asked frantically wondering how the words 'it's not your fault had arisen'. Since when had things even been conceived as his fault? Those words are never spoken unless the thought has run through somebody's head already.

"But I did, I told you about The Blood. Told you what I really was, not just a demon but the power I have." Rayne explained, turning her face away as her will gave way and the tears began to fall. "You might not have understood the significance yourself, but you told people who did, or at least were suspicious. You told Snape, he told your father…"

"How do you know this?" Draco cut in, questioning with a frown crossing his brow.

"Your father was there the night I was attacked Draco, he and Snape wanted me for something. But the demons got to me first. That is why they want me dead, because they were too close to finding out everything. I don't know what they were planning but whatever it was the demons were scared of it, and that is why the plans were scrapped and why I am wanted dead. I failed them, supremely, and death is my penalty."

"'Death is your penalty'?" A cold and all too familiar, drawling voice broke through their quiet conversation and dragged Rayne back to her feet.

Lucius stood towering above the two of them, a callous smirk on his lips as he observed the two. "How very interesting. But, do tell me, penalty for what exactly?" He asked, eyebrows arching highly on his angular face.

Rayne's breath caught in her chest in yet another embarrassing emotion, this time she felt gripped with fear. As if things down in the demon realm hadn't been bad enough but now they were back and yet again she was being stalked, and not by a demon. Was there really no place Rayne could go to escape? She raised her amethyst eyes to meet his, holding his gaze steady despite the fear that had her shaking on the inside. She did not answer his question not just for the fact that she didn't feel like recounting the entire story yet again.

Lucius regarded her for a moment, obviously coming to the conclusion that she was not going to answer him and he merely shrugged. "Well no matter," He said dismissively, digging into the pocket of his robes and pulling out a bottle containing his blood red coloured potion. "There will be plenty of time for questions later." Swiftly he uncorked the bottle and threw the contents into Rayne's face.

Rayne hardly saw the movement and had no time to defend herself or protect her eyes as the potion was thrown towards her. She felt it splash, white hot, across her face. It burned her eyes and clung wax like to her skin, spreading outwards covering her, choking her. Her breathing came in ragged gasps, both from the effect of the potion and from simple fear of what was happening to her. Her vision became dark and cloudy at it's edges as her body collapsed to the floor. As the abyss engulfed her Rayne heard Lucius utter softly, "All the time in the world." Then there was nothing but darkness.