Disclaimer: I am just a mere visitor in the sublime world constructed by the brilliant mind that is J.K Rowling. Anything that rings a bell is hers

Chapter 48

Ky's POV

I winced as a blast of pain shot through my right shoulder. I craned my neck to see a red welt emerging on the taut muscle due to the branch that I backed into.

I heard a rustle of leaves and quickly ducked down, slightly annoyed that the bush that would have very adequately hid me an hour ago, was now much too small. I crouched down, my body growing with discomfort and I looked at the watch again.

Just one minute more. I crouched lower as I heard the rustle of leaves again and closed my eyes as if it would help me stay hidden for longer.

I opened one eye as I heard a twig break and clutched my wand painfully tight in my hand. Thirty seconds. The blood stopped pumping in my leg due to my position and I bit my bottom lip, begging for strength to prevent me from giving in and moving. I glanced back down at the watch but just at the moment it slipped off my hand.

Thud.

Just metal on grass. But it seemed to echo through the clearing.

Fuck.

I rolled over, ducking the spell that shot through the bush and climbed to my feet, ignored the zing of blood rushing back through my legs and aimed for my target.

I saw him, his dark hair on end from the chase and his smirk widened.

"Well. It seems the Princess did leave the castle after all."

One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Hypnotic. That's what they were.

Nine.

Mi was talking, explaining something, her voice an octave or two higher than usual. She was nervous.

Twelve. Ron was silent. I hadn't heard a peep from him. Was there blood on him? I remember there being blood?

Sixteen.

"Ky?"

The counting of his heartbeats stopped as his chest trembled as he whispered down to me. I looked up, my gleam of annoyance parrying his one of confusion, counting helped me keep it together. He knew that, didn't he?

I felt wires twine around my elbows and pull me away. Or push me away? Harry's fingers were pushing me away? Yes, they were. But I saw it. His eyes. They held me right there. In place. Frozen.

"Ky... please? Tell me what's wrong?"

He began shaking me. Shaking me so much that I couldn't see properly. He was a blur. Why wouldn't he stop shaking me?

"Ky, please, just tell us what happened? Shhhh..." Mi was patting my back and Harry was dragging a chair towards me, the shaking never stopped though...

"Sit down, please... please... Ky, please." I looked up at Harry. An emerald sheen of desperation with hints of fear. Scared. He was scared. I was scaring them.

"Kitten."

I snapped around at the voice, Harry still urging me into a seat whilst Mi rushed to the door. Teddy stood there, he glanced at Mi, raising his hands to her questions and walked towards me. Harry's hold got tighter, he was at my waist now, protective...

Unsure emerald green met reproachful blue and I took in a deep breath, this was no time for Harry and Ron to fight with Teddy. Teddy...

"Malfoy Manor." My voice cracked slightly, dry from the run up here from Nonno's office... away from him and Sev and Minnie and Davies and Bill and Fred... my eyes glanced at Ron. Ron whose eyes were fixed on me, dried blood crusting his lip. How?

"Malfoy Manor? What's going on?" Teddy met Harry's glare steadily, his hazel eyes calculating... plotting and planning...

"We need a plan."

There was a prickle of relief down my back as my voice sounded steady, I wiped my cheek with the back of my sleeve nonchalantly and slipped out of Harry's grip towards Teddy.

"What's the best way to get into the Manor? I know the wards on the place must be..." I took a deep breath, trying to beat away the thought of the impossibility of breaking the wards. "There must be weak spots, a chink in the armou-"

"What's going on?" Mi spoke to Teddy, it's as if everyone decided I was not in the mood to converse right now. Probably because of my earlier less than coherent behaviour. "Why is Ky talking about infiltrating Malfoy Manor?"

I didn't let Teddy respond, turning to Mi, "Silvain and Selina have been taken. They're in Malfoy Manor." I glanced at Teddy in appreciation at that part, Mi frowned in confusion and began to speak but I cut her off, "That's why we need to infiltrate the Manor. Save Silvain and Selina."

"We?" I looked at Ron, his brows furrowed, "I would think that's the Order's job."

"One would think that." I spat out bitterly, "But it seems..." I bit back my words, batting away anger and trying to regain clarity which I needed especially now, "They won't be helping."

I turned to Harry who had been watching me the whole time, I took a step forward, thinking about last night. Buckbeak, the lake, the fight on the grounds, the sleepover in the Common Room... it all seemed so small but never insignificant. I needed help and I never needed to ask twice. Not with him.

"Theodore, can you excuse us for a moment."

I snapped around at Mi's suggestion. Didn't she hear me? I just said we were going to infiltrate Malfoy Manor. He would be integral in this mission. He was the reason why impossibility was the adverse. He was the key.

"Mi, you can't be serious? We need Ted-"

"Please." It was her turn to cut over me and cast a brown ray of authority at her boyfriend. He stood for a moment, unmoving, and then was walking to the door.

"Teddy!" I shouted, making to run after him when a hand wrapped around my elbow. Neither coarse like Ron's, nor familiar like Harry's... dainty fingers that were the antonym to her eyes which seemed to drill a hole in my head with the very severity of her large orbs.

I glared at Jack Corner, then glanced behind me. It was a mass of trees, wide ones and tall ones but all equally unmoving. Dead end. Fuck.

"I knew you were impulsive. I even knew that you could be a bit ignorant at times. Naive. Normal girl stuff. But I didn't know-" He flung a spell at me and I cast a shield charm which hovered for a few moments due to my shaking hand, "- you would be run-away-and-try-to-infiltrate-the-enemies-lair-solo dumb. That's... something else."

I winced as an aquamarine spell grazed my shoulder and I looked at the space behind him, the entrance to the path. If I could just cross this clearing.

"Oh you're not going anywhere Princess. Well, not on your own at least. Imagine our surprise when we received word that you fled the castle. All because your silly little friends got captured." I bit back a growl, throwing an angry curse as a tear rolled done my cheek at his words.

"Awww... the little baby is crying for her little friends. Don't worry, they're not dead...yet. I'm sure Rabastan is taking good care of the girl at least... he was always partial for Blondes."

I sent a gouging curse at him but he flicked his wand effortlessly pushing it away, "It's true what they say, emotions cloud your judgement. They slow you down. Sit on your reflexes." He stepped forward threateningly and I gulped, "This is why your side will always lose. You. Your grandfather. Even your little Potter boyfriend..."

I took a step back, hitting the bark of the tree with a thud, "It's why I never regret my decision. Not even when Michael asked it of me... you see, I may have been a Hufflepuff when I was eleven, but I'm a Slytherin now. I'm a winner Princess, I'd do anything to win."

"Ky!" I heard the shout just as Jack stepped forward. He snapped around just as the hazel came into my periphery... then the emerald green... brown... blue... black... they all were here... they came for me...

"Avada Kedavra."

"NO!"

"No." Mi let go of me, turning around in anger, "No." She took a deep breath, holding her palms to her face, "No."

I looked at Harry who seemed to find immense interest in the floor, then at Ron who had sunk into the chair meant for me, "Are you sure they're taken."

"Positive." I nodded, glancing out the window, I felt like hours had fled by, not minutes. We needed to act... not stand here in... Whatever we were in!

"Does Fred know?"

I snarled at the question, "He knows that they've been taken! But Nonno AND Bill lied to him! They're pretending like they're still searching for Selina, like we don't already know where they are."

"How do they know where they are?" Harry's voice was level, to a stranger it would sound uncaring but I knew he was trying to calm the situation. Calm me down... I stopped crying but I begun wringing the side of skirt with nervous energy until it was balled in my fist and half my thigh was showing.

"I told them. Teddy told me." I informed and Mi turned around, dark bags under her eyes. I hadn't seen her in days; Godric knows where she was because when she said she was with Teddy she wasn't. Or at least she wasn't that one time and who knows how many times she lied...

"And you told them how you came about that information?"

I stopped ringing my skirt. What? "Of course not. I'm not an idiot, I would never get Teddy in trouble by revealing that he was the source of the intel."

"But you won't mind putting his life in danger by asking him to... to... to turn spy on the most famous of all the Death Eater hideouts!" She snapped and I blanched.

"I'm not asking him to turn spy! I'm just asking him to help!"

"Help! Help save Selina and Silvain! How Ky! Even if Theodore gets you in, how do you plan on getting out! Huh. How are we going to even leave this premise! How can you be so selfish!"

"Selfish? I'm trying to save Selina and Silvain!"

"At the expense of Theodore's life!"

"Teddy wouldn't-"

"Stop. Please just stop. The both of you."

Harry walked forward, pushing his round glances up his nose, "Hermione, you know Ky cares for Nott, she's just upset to find out about Selina and Silvain. We all are." He looked at me, "Ky. Your grandfather made a decision and I think you should-"

"You're not serious!" I gasped and he closed his eyes as if my voice pained him. Just when I thought that we were finally repairing... or at least getting back to tolerating each other.

"Ky, apart from the fact that asking Nott to plan infiltration of Malfoy Manor and how risky that is, we can't exact the plan. It's too dangerous."

"It wasn't too dangerous when you lot went running after Sirius last year." I snapped and regretted saying it almost instantly but there was nothing to be done by it, he looked down, wounded and my anger flared now that it was directed at myself as well.

"Fine. Fine." I pushed Harry out of my way ignoring the jolt of electrictity when my front made contact with his.

"Ky, don't do-"

"I'm not doing anything!" I felt a drop fall on my flaring nostrils and I banged my hand on the table, "Contrary to popular belief, I AM not an idiot. I know I can't go..."

I took a deep breath and twirled around, banging the door open. I would do ANYTHING for them. If Harry came in and told me... well Harry didn't have much loved one's to complete the analogy. If Ron came in and told me that any of his brothers were taken, I would go with him. No questions asked. Just like that!

"Ky." I turned, a sigh of relief at the familiar redhead.

"Ron." I smiled.

"Look," He scratched his head, "This whole situation sucks. It does... just... you know... don't tell him OK? Don't tell Fred. He'll do something stupid and then George would do something stupid and then we're all going to have to do something... stupid... so just..."

I looked past his shoulder, watching as Harry and Mi came out of the classroom muttering continuously. Harry saw me and walked forward but I already started down the corridor.

I glared at a group of first years who just made their way up the stairs and the corridor filled with a cacophony of sounds as the first lesson of the day came to an end. I heard a few greetings but I didn't process it enough to respond.

"Watch it." I snapped as a hand steadied me from my fall due to my rebounding off a hard surface which turned out to be a person.

"But of course. Watching it is what I do best." My frown fell as I looked up, I glanced backwards but it was too busy to see behind me which was a good thing as it meant the same could be said for the other way around as well.

He nodded his head to the portrait of the Hounds playing Poker with a smirk and I entered into the secret passage... finally... someone on my side!

"KY!"

One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

Blinks.

Then came his frown.

My cheeks tightened as my lips stretched out as Jack looked down at his wand and the lack of emerging green light and magic. I smiled at the Runes I drew around his feet, hidden underneath the leaves that were placed just so. It didn't take him long to realise he stepped into a warded circle, something I had drawn up a good ten minutes before he even entered the Forest.

His brown eyes glared at me as he lunged forward just as I felt light illuminate the clearing at the multiple spells but I was nothing if not fair. If he couldn't wield a wand, I wouldn't.

I walked into the circle with ease, watching as the spells bounced off it, no entry or exit of magic.

He smiled, "You are an idiot."

I rolled my eyes as he raised his wand, I flicked my right wrist and the wand flew from his hand just as I flicked my left hand and long ropes emerged from Roger's wand and twisted around him from neck to toe.

"Ky!" I felt a hand at my shoulder and Len's back to my face as he stood before me. Harry pulled me to his side as Hermione gasped for breath at the entrance to the clearing where Sev stood. Roger Davies was glaring at me in his boxers next to Ron, who was looking at me in wonder.

My eyes snapped forward as Jack groaned as Len kicked him in the side, "Fucking arse. At least he managed to deter you, what the hell were you thinking!"

I rolled my eyes at Len, but before I could say a word the familiar baritone cut in.

"Well as usual she was not thinking. She was just doing, selfishly doing as always. We say no but of course the all wise Kyrianna Thornton knows better. Knows better than a whole organization of wizards who know better. Tell me Bane, were you going to just knock on Malfoy Manor, scurry the peacocks away and traipse in after Bellatrix welcomes you through the door, bring Selina and Silvain home after you and Bella have a spot of tea in the Drawing Room. Mayhap-"

"I wasn't going to Malfoy Manor." I snapped at Sev, annoyed and slithered out of Harry's grasp.

"So I suppose you stunned Mr Davies and locked him in the first floor broom cupboard, stole his clothes and a few strands of his hair just to go out jogging. " He snarled as he glared at Roger's red shirt and blue jeans that were practically falling off of me, I glanced at Roger who looked at me with unhindered fury.

I sighed, "If not Malfoy Manor, where were you going Ky?"

I looked at Len, slightly guilty at the look of disappointment on his face, much preferring Sev's anger. "Nowhere. I mean... just here."

"Why here?" Mi walked forward, casting a nervous glance down at Corner.

"Well not here in particular." I sighed, best start at the beginning, "I just needed to leave the castle and for people to know that I left so Alya can find out. Of course she did and she sent Jack."

"I don't understand." Ron frowned, "Why did you want Jack to come?"

"Because she thinks she's a bloody genius." Sev's glower simmered to a frown as my plan dawned on him, "How were you to ensure that Bellamy finds out."

I glanced at Mi and she narrowed her eyes as I glanced away, "I made sure. Anyway now that we have Jack-"

"It won't work." Everyone looked down at the floor, where Jack lay tied up and he smiled superiorly, "She won't trade them for me. You're an idiot for thinking so. Anyway, they're probably dead by the time the letter reached her."

"That's why I've already sent the letter, an hour ago. Made sure it reaches her-"

"And I suppose you threatened to kill me...ugh." He grumbled as Len kicked him again. He opened one eye as Len levitated him off the ground, "You're an even bigger idiot than I thought you were before. Trade!" He scoffed as he floated away and I stubbornly straightened my back. Sev shook his head in disappointment and followed them.

"I cannot believe you did that! You went behind my back when I specifically asked you not to get Theodore involved!"

We barely reached the Entrance Hall when Mi started and Harry pulled us into the empty class room that the First Years waited in before the Sorting.

"I didn't get Teddy involved. His involved already Mi! We all are!"

"You know what can happen if someone finds out that he's been helping you Ky! They'll kill him!"

"Nobody will find out!"

"How do you know that! How can you be so selfish!"

"Selfish! Mi! Selfish!" Ron looked awkwardly at the closed door as footsteps faltered at the sound of my voice, "I'm trying to save Selina and Silvain!"

"At the price of everyone else's life! Including your own! Jack Corner could have killed you!"

"No, I took the necessary precautions! I was ready for him!"

"Godric, are you listening to yourself! You put yourself in danger. You put Theodore in danger. You put everyone of us who ran after you in danger! Who's to say they weren't more Death Eaters out there!"

"Hermione!" Harry raised his hand but she snarled at him.

"No. No. Enough defending her! She needs to realise that her actions have consequences! You are not invincible Ky! You are-"

"DON'T YOU THINK I KNOW THAT!" Ron flinched as I walked forward, "Don't you think I know how mortal I am! Don't you think I am aware of the amount of times that I have come this close to death." I bit my lip as it trembled, "Don't you know why I'm even alive."

She blanched as my voice died out. Selina and Silvain may have just been Order members to them. But to me they were my sword and shield through a Summer plagued with attacks both big and small. They were company when I felt alone and humour when I thought nothing would be funny again. They were there when Harry was with Ginny, Mi with Teddy, Ron with Bobby. They were always there... for me...

"I thought I heard your voice!" We all snapped to the door as Bobby waltzed in, taking in my clothes with a wrinkled nose, "What in Godric's right gonad are you wearing..."

"Lavender, now isn't exactly the best-"

"Who is talking to you Ronald." She shot him a nasty glare, it was probably the off time of their on and off relationship. She turned back to me with an upturned nose. "I knew you were seeing someone. Parvarti kept telling me I was reading too much into it, but I knew you couldn't be single for that long. Especially after having him on your resume." She glanced at Harry whose brows were furrowed.

"Bobby-"

"Is it a quidditch player though? A famous one? Come on, do share, we're all friends here-"

"Lavender-"

"I suppose you knew the whole time Hermione. So much for friends. And I told you when Juliette thought she had Herpes." She scoffed, "Anyway, I know whoever he is, he must be rich. Eagle owls don't come cheap." She brandished a letter from her pocket as if it was a grenade.

"Lavender this really isn't-"

"Oh no need to be jealous Harry. Or is there need. You two aren't..." She glanced between the two of us and gasped, "Godric did you two sleep together last night! Really!"

"Lavender. Please-"

"Fine. Fine. Heaving Helga you lot and your secrecy. We get it, you're the Chosen One. You have things to do. Don't be so exclusive Harry, it will bite you in the bum in the end." She sighed, tossing me the letter, "Anyway, I think this one's already over you, Chosen One or not. She and her secret quidditch player have nicknames for each other, if you're his Lambie, what's he? Lion. Lion and lamb... ugh that's just-"

I stopped listening as I looked down at the envelope. In excruciatingly flawless penmanship there was one word. Lambie.

"Ky, don't open it."

It was as if I was in a trance though, I flipped open the slip of paper and I felt my throat spasm.

"Ky." I let them fall to the floor, retching again as the words blurred before me.

My Dearest Kyrianna

Oh how I love to play games. Holding Jack ransom. Ingenious. That was a great first move. Now I wonder how you would execute your second. As you can see I executed my second quite thoroughly. I only wish you were as good as my brother with a camera. He did do quite a job. He says hello and to remind you that Jack looks best from his right side.

Waiting your response and visual aid with keen anticipation

Alya

Somewhere there was a splatter as someone threw up just as I fell backwards onto the warmth.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five...

I tried to focus on the thuds but I failed as each time I closed my eyes I could see them... the both of them...my shield and sword... broken, bloodied and defeated on the floor... never to be raised again.

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Kalina