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 69

Ky's POV

I gasped, my hands grasping at his shirt has his eyes remained trained on the keyhole has his slender fingers tinkered but there was no mistaking it. The hair, the eyes, the slightly dimpled chin, the sickle shaped scar on his right forearm when we were attacked by Palbei last Summer in Germany...

Godric... my hand fell away from his shirt.

"Oh. Surprise!"

Blishwick's beguiling laughter seemed to reverberate in the back of my mind as I tried processing how my very dead friend was now standing in front of me... impossible... I saw actual pictures of him... pictures that haunted my nightmares... the wounds... the blood...

"I know what you're thinking; my sister sent you visual proof and everything. In her defence, she thought the pictures were legitimate too. Banner has his uses in the weirdest of ways, who could have thought that you could actually doctor photos? Young wizards today, so... pioneering. It was in our best interest though to have you all think Silvain Sabre was dead, well it's in your best interest to still believe it. What you see before is nothing more than the body of a man you once knew. Now he is a-"

"Palbei..." My voice was nothing more than air that emitted as I mouthed the word yet he grinned in approval. I couldn't stop staring at Silvain's downcast black eyes... the straight line of his mouth...

"Ten points to Gryffindor!" The sharpness in Blishwick's voice was overpowering the silky smoothness and his madness was seeping through. "You see, as much as you blood traitors and mudbloods like to think it, blood is important. As Katerina discovered. Years, decades even, of trying to surpass her father yet the only true Palbei remained to be Silvestre Sabre, a sterile traitor... yet the Sabre line... the Sabre blood lived on."

I was framed against the iron bars, my hands hanging limp through the gaps, my wrists like jelly lying useless upon one of the horizontal bars as Silvain stood before me and my heart panged as I took in his buzz haircut... how he had loved his hair, the strands always long enough so he could mould it fashionably up or messily down... how he used to ruffle it after he spotted a pretty girl...

His biceps bulged has his hands moved the gate back and forwards, the rattling sound permeating the air as I stared at the black v- neck muscle tee that clung to his chest... the type of tee he would tease Hawke for wearing... where were his faded shirts sporting some half naked woman that was sure to offend at least half a room's occupants...

"The Sabre's naturally are an impossible family to capture. For centuries they were the guardians of the House of Regalien, secret magic and honed skills passed on from generation to generation for centuries...it is hardly surprising that the blood in their veins alone are sturdy enough to meld and shape to our liking and when we found ourselves with not one but two Sabres...ahh... alas not all stories have a happy ending. It seems that the fastidiousness of the transmutation process goes further and it only works on males..."

"We?" I had stepped back into the middle of the cell, his words like fluid that danced to its own melody, splashing this way and that but never soaking in.

"Yes. Like Malfoy would tell you, alliances are needed. I had a Sabre and Katerina needed one. I wanted a puppet and Katerina knew how to make me one. Of course, I can only borrow it now and again." He rolled his eyes exasperated, "The woman is impossible to bargain-"

There was a loud bang and I stepped back in shock as Blishwick's eyes bulged through the bars momentarily as his face was smashed into the cold metal.

Silvain whipped around, defending Blishwick without instruction just as my knees hit the ground for the second time.

"NO NO!" The voice was as familiar to me as my own; the midnight blue sky spiralled around-

I screamed, wrenching myself from the vision, it was as if my power had not just returned, but was wracking my body with a vengeance and making up for lost time.

My chest hit the ground as my elbows gave way and I forced my eyes upwards, straining to see what was going on. I could hear cold laughter as if from a distance, my body felt joint-less as I stared up at Vez's gold eyes, they were clamped on my own and bulging above his reddened cheeks.

"Silvain..."

It was useless, I couldn't even stand up as I watched Silvain's hands tighten about Vez's neck and I literally slithered forward in an effort to reach them, as the room was filled with the sound of rasping breath... of the struggle to survive... of the desperation to let a little of the air that we were all slaves to in...

It was as if a torch was plunged through my chest, my lungs burned and I coughed, the sound soft and feeble and I felt skinny hands pat my back as I straightened up.

"Ky. Ky?"

I glanced around the large room, much too big from my seat on the red carpeted floor which scratched against the back of my legs. My eyes found Linus', he was staring down at me, midnight blue eyes wide and brimming with tears.

"Linus! What hap... dad?"

I glanced at the door as Len walked in, his head just above the door handle, his mouth hanging open as he stared at the figure on the floor, his backpack falling onto the floor in a soft thud.

The tall body lay unmoving on his stomach and my vision blurred as a pudgy hand banged on the heel of the figure's foot and I felt calloused skin.

"Wake up!"

"No Ky." My hand was snatched away from the foot and my head forced around, my vision was blocked by Linus's blue shirt, not before I spotted a white scatter cushion with a large indentation in the middle, as if someone had sat on it but with tiny dots of blood splattered about it.

"Dad!" Len's voice was from a lifetime ago, almost girlish, "Linus, what happened? Everything's burnt?"

"I just walked in... and found him like this. I think Ky got into mum's stuff, she must have lost control and she lit the box on fire. It must have been a mistake... maybe he had a heart attack when he saw that... that all mum's stuff was destroyed? I phoned the ambulance."

"Okay... everything in the box is burnt Linus?" Len's voice was heartbreakingly sad, "Why would she burn everything."

"Why do we do anything that we do? She must have been scared or something, I don't know how she even found the box because he hid it away. Maybe he shouted at her or something, you know she can't control her reactions."

There was a sound of footsteps, "That must be the ambulance, quick hide the burnt box, how will we explain it!" Linus hissed and then my eyes found his face as he let go of my head but still hugged me to his chest, just under his chin. He stretched his neck so he could look down at me, "I got you Principessa, no need to be scared."

"Dad got mad."

Linus' lips trembled as he stared down at me, his twelve year old shoulders dipping like it had the weight of a hundred years on them, "I know. I'm sorry baby. I'm sorry." He glanced away, "Len."

"Come here cucciolo. Len's got you." There was sudden whooshing feeling and swiftly I was tall again, but not that tall, I stared into warm hazel eyes as Len carried me in his arms, he pecked me on the forehead and then pulled me closer to him and I placed my chin on his bony shoulder, the blackened wall in the corner the only sign there was ever a fire just as the footsteps grew louder...

I coughed, this time the sound grating on my nerves as the blood spat out in thick globs and I clutched my chest. My father... he tried... he tried smothering me? He tried killing me?

There was a loud thud and my head snapped to the commotion outside the gate and the scream froze on my lips as I stared at the empty golden eyes that lay wide and unblinking just beyond the bars, his once red cheek now pale and smashed against the Dungeon floor.

"Vez!"

The shout caused another slew of blood as I crawled to the bars just as I heard something click. I pushed my wrists between the rods of iron and reached out for him... he can't be... no...

"You're dismissed."

My fingers grazed a spot a good meter away from the body which already seemed to be consumed by the cold in the room, and scratched the floor in desperation, reaching for him frantically as if my touch would bring life back miraculously.

The room echoed with the reverberation of iron on iron and I snatched my hand back as the gate swung open.

For a second I considered scrambling away, as far from the entrance that I could situate myself but I stubbornly stayed put as I watched his shiny black shoes take the two steps required to reach me. I stared at the crisscross pattern of his shoe lace, the aglets shining in the torch light that seemed to have grown brighter with time or perhaps my eyes were becoming accustomed to the dark.

I watched as his pale thin fingers, adorned with a large silver ring on his right hand, the B set in the ring lost in the sharp twists and turns of the pattern, grasp at the black slacks that covered his thigh and pull it up slightly, allowing him the ability to crouch down to my height.

I kicked at the ground and tried to hoist myself up enough to sit up, my left shoulder bone pushing out between the bars at my back and there was a burst of fire as his fingers burned against my cold shirt as he helped me to my sitting position.

I wanted to bat his hand away but I could barely keep my eyes open and I wondered why I continued fighting the sleep, perhaps it was best to be unconscious for whatever he planned.

I watched almost as if I was in another vision as he reached forward, his eyes glimmering as his hand shook in front of my face, hesitantly as if petting a tiger, or perhaps my vision was that blurred that it looked that way.

I felt the warmth of his finger at my lips and I watched as he brought his now blood stained index to his own mouth and enclosed it momentarily between his lips, "I hate blood."

He stared at me for a moment longer, as if wondering just why I was so bloody and in the next snake like movement he placed his right hand tenderly on my left cheek, "Why are you so cold?" His voice shook in genuine anger as he moved his hand below my chin and used his lengthy fingers to push my cheeks together and dragged my face closer to his.

The glimmer in his obsidian depths had been replaced by a maddening gleam that seemed to radiate from the heart of his pupil which was impossibly hard to detect and my fingers flexed as I attempted to move my hands that sat flaccid on either side of me.

"Shhhh. Bash is here. Shhhhh." His nose bumped against mine and his moist breath splashed across my face as I realised that I had been whimpering, "Shhh. No need to be scared."

He traced his nose across my left cheek and inhaled my hair on his path down to my neck, "I'm so sorry." The muscles at my neck contracted as I felt something wet drop on it, "I'm so sorry for hurting you. I just... you just were so... you kept fighting me and fighting me and you had all those protective spells on you and I lost control... I was so happy to see you were alive at the Third Task!"

I realised he was talking about the events of two years ago as my back left the rods of steel has heat crept across it and I was pulled to his chest and my head lolled back and he stared down at me, one long tear trailing down from his left eye, "So beautiful." He touched my cheek, pushing away the blood with morbid fascination.

I felt his arm circle my bust as he pulled me closer to him still, "So tiny. So beautiful. So cold." His face broke into a blinding smile, "You're being such a good girl. Such a good girl. So still. So obliging. See, it doesn't have to be hard. Pain is not necessary. Shhhh."

My whimpers were stifled by his lips and the last vestiges of hope left me as his tongue invaded my slack mouth and he pulled back quickly, yanking my hair and pulling my head further backwards, "Don't!" He snapped, "Why must you reject me! I alone know the real you, the true you... so beautiful... so precious... you're like everything I ever imagined but better than my comprehension... LOOK AT ME!"

My eyelids had fluttered close but were popped open by the ear splitting strike across my left cheek and my head banged against a bar on its way down.

"I CAN SMELL HIS STENCH ON YOU!" My head left the bar again as he grabbed a fist of my shirt, which was actually Harry's, and pulled me back to him, "Clothed in his filth like a penniless whore! YOU'RE MINE!" He ripped through the shirt with his bare hands yet his eyes stayed clamped to my own, "SAY IT!"

Spittle sprayed my face as he grabbed at my neck, clutching tightly as he glared down into my orbs, "SAY IT!" He screamed, tightening his hold until the loss of air accompanied my head ache and chest pain and my eyes blurred and I didn't fight it... I couldn't fight it... there was no red face struggle... no grasping at his hand... just me limp and dying as I could do nothing but watch him. Suddenly his features calmed from the cold fury to pained sadness and he shook his head in defeat and desperation but his hold never loosened, "Where are you?"

"I'm right here." My back hit the floor as the smack of flesh on flesh echoed through the cell, followed by the clanging of falling metal.

I sucked in air like a dementor sucked in happy memories and the familiar burn of rushing air into my starved lungs sparked a tingle of life in me.

I glanced up and my eyes met fiery hazel orbs that perused my body in one smooth flick and turned back to Blishwick who was getting back on his feet, wiping the blood from his now cut open lip.

"Pick it up." Len's voice was as dictatorial as a wielder of the imperius curse and Blishwick glanced at the large sword at his feet, its twin lying in my brother's left hand, dancing light bouncing off it merrily from the torch light just outside the cell.

"My dear Lorenzo-"

"Pick it up." His voice was a deathly whisper.

"I'm afraid I have-"

"Fine." There was a second clang of steel on stone as Len let his weapon fall to the floor and lunged forward.

"Avada Kedavra." The steady baritone enunciated to perfection and the green light wove its way across the open sky like a thousand shards of beautiful emerald specks that surged through the light grey robes-

"Ky?" I was sobbing, my head ached beyond measure, indescribable pain raced through my body and it seemed like every breath I took was like poison. "Ky!"

I glanced through my hair which had fallen across my face and saw Len on the opposite end of the room, Blishwick's collar in his right fist, his eyes trained on me as I fought this demon that was killing me from the inside. He tossed the man aside uncaringly and fell to his knees, clutching me and pushing the hair out of my face as he stroked my cheek.

"Shhh." It was strange how drastically different the sentiment was from his lips in comparison to Blishwick's and my skin tingled with warmth. "Len's got you. Shhhh."

He pushed something onto my lips and I tasted the raspberry flavour slither over my tongue, the familiar taste of the Vitamix calming me much like the familiar scent of him did and I no longer felt like I was at death's door.

The sudden glint of light flooded my eyesight and my mouth opened but no sound came out except the wracking of my body as it rejected my power and I watched as Bastian Blishwick stood to his feet, the sword in his hand hurtling towards my brother's back.

I flinched as the taste of rust filled my mouth and stung my cheek and I gasped as I stared into his obsidian orbs... and watched with morbid fascination as his headless body folded onto the floor... the bleeding stump that was his neck glaring at me not a foot away.

"Don't look." Len let the blood smeared sword clatter to the floor once more and shielded my eyes from the bloodied mess that was the head of Bastian Blishwick.

He pulled off his light green shirt in a fluid motion and I felt warmth ghost over my bare skin as he covered me... the fragments of Harry's white shirt hanging loosely from my shoulders as it was torn apart from the middle, the remnants bunching up underneath my arms as Len's shirt pulled them closer to my skin.

"Len." My voice was hoarse and my brother gazed down at me with hazel concern as I seemed to be floating as he lifted me bridal style into his arms.

He looked as if his worst nightmare was brought to life, my head jostled slightly as he ran forward, my right ear at his bare chest as the melody of his beating heart lulled me slowly into my senses.

He halted and I felt my hair whip around me as we surged upwards and then fall all over my face when his feet met the solid ground of the upper floors of the dungeons.

I closed my eyes, hastening to count the thuds at my ear and I could feel my fists tighten once again over the reins of my life, my fingers lifted and touched his chest, I almost imagined steam as my frost met his lava and I smiled as if his heart whispered secrets into my ear. Something about my smile disrupted my count as I heard it... a skipped heartbeat and my smile widened.

"Mr Thornton! Salazar, is she-"

"She's not okay Liam, but she will be. Did you get more of the Vitamix and the Wide Eye?"

"Here." There was a chink of glass on glass and I felt the familiar concrete of the dungeon floor beneath me.

"Drink." Len muttered, giving me little choice in the matter as he pushed the contents into my mouth, one after another.

I coughed but pressed my lips together, forcing the liquid to stay in my mouth and it was the first victory I had all night.

"Who are they?" There was obvious concern in Len's voice and I pushed my palm into the ground as leverage as I straightened my back against the wall. We were just below the stairs that lead to the Entrance Hall, well masked by shadows. Lying on their backs next to the opposite wall was Anna Smith and Lucan Banner.

"Draco told me to wait here after I brought you to Ky and lucky I did. They pitched up but I managed to subdue them, Banner with a lot more effort than I hoped... I think I cracked his skull." There was no pride in the boy's voice.

"You did what you had to do Liam." I watched as Len grabbed the boy's shoulder in comfort, they were both kneeling around me.

There was a bang from upstairs and Len let go of Liam as if in shock and jumped to his feet, "I have to go. Keep Ky down here, I'll come back for both of you when this is over."

"Len." I shuddered to my feet, the Vitamix and Wide Eye finally doing its job and Liam quickly wrapped a hand around my waist for support. "I'm coming-"

"Shhh, Principessa. Shhh." My eyes closed at the comfortable heat as his hands enveloped my face. "Liam, make sure she doesn't sleep, I think she has a concussion. I love you."

He jabbed his lips on my forehead and then fled up the stairs, I magnetically followed but Liam easily stopped me.

"Ky you can't-"

"I have to go up and help!" My voice was soft, depleted after all the screaming and my head ached constantly and I wondered whether Len was right, that I was indeed concussed on top of suffering from the side effects of my visions.

"There's no need. Everything's been taken care of. Hermione is safe. I saw her myself when I went up there to get the key from Draco and give the message of your whereabouts to Len. Alya had flung a killing curse at her but she's okay." He hastened as my eyes widened, "Theo was there. He couldn't physically get to her in time but he threw a stunner at Hermione which hit first so when she fell the curse missed her. Ingenious actually. Theo got hit after that. A stunner, not a killing curse. A stray one. But they're both okay. And I saw Ronald Weasley and... well... I didn't see Harry Potter but he was supposed to be with the Headmaster. Draco's talking to him right now, he's defecting! Ky, we're all coming over to the Light side. Mother and Ari are actually in Hogsmeade, waiting for us to give-"

His words became background noise quickly as I recalled one of my many visions.

"Draco!" I gasped, remembering what I saw of him and Nonno in the...

The emerald shards pushed its way through the light grey robes and the midnight blue eyes dilated in surprise, his eyes the exact same shade of the sea of blue at his backdrop which he fell into, his arms wide and the scream that followed threatened to pull the stars from the sky.

"NONNO!" Linus had barged through the door, his footsteps like thunder on the Astronomy Tower as he pushed the figure in black out of his way as he grasped at the empty space where Nonno had stood not a moment ago.

Linus stood at that Turret for one deep, horrified breath, as if contemplating the possibility of jumping after the man as the Tower erupted into raucous laughter.

The green light hit him silently, Karetnikov's voice drowned out by her peers cheering, and it hit him faster. It hit him sharper. The emerald shards clustering together almost like a spearhead right through Linus' heart and the onyx eyes widened in shock as the boy in front of him fell backwards into the night's sky...

"KY!" Liam was coming in and out of focus as my body moved backwards and forwards as he tried shaking me out of my trance. "Oh thank Salazar, I thought-"

For one frozen moment the vision sunk into my very skin... the sights... the sounds... the people...

Then time re-started as the steps flew past me as I jumped them, thundering across the Entrance Hall.

Nonno. Linus.

"KY!"

Nonno. Linus.

I jumped down the front steps, the blades of grass a sea of green that moved fluidly below my feet.

"Accio Kyrianna's Thunder." I shouted the spell, I spared one minuscule moment on imagining my dorm where the broom lay, the movement that brought my wand from my fondina lost in my desperate plight and I was back in the sea of green.

"KY!" Something hot grazed my arm but I didn't care for the footsteps that were suddenly behind me, pelting forward to the tallest tower.

A blue light shone in my periphery but it never reached me hitting the translucent shield charm that the redhead had erected, Ron's blue eyes on me, "KY WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"

I continued forward, a violet spell whizzing past my eye but the footsteps all but disappeared as pink hair jostled me out of the way of crimson light.

"Ky you're-"

I barely touched the ground when I jumped back to my feet, my broom hovering a few feet from me.

I glanced up but I could see nothing in the dark night, the Astronomy Tower never ending above me. I grasped my hand about the handle-

"KY!" Ron's voice echoed through the large grounds just as the green invaded my periphery and in a surreal moment of heightened clarity I saw her just behind the emerald shards. Her red lips held wide in a smirk and her electric blue eyes captivating me even now.

Nonno. Linus.

Heat engulfed me and life was soft again... pain free... and dark... so very dark...

Like grains of sand the air stung my eyes as they flung open and somehow I registered that the darkness was but a blink and the softness...

I lifted my head away from the heat and in a moment that stretched into a century my eyes met hazel orbs...

Life sunk its knife deeper as twin thuds shook the very core of my existence and I stared at the light grey robes that were now an arm's length away.

"KY!"

I leaned forwards, hypnotically as emerald orbs floated towards me in the distance, between the running legs and the opened mouths and...

I pressed my ear against his chest seeking a sound that never came as my eyes fluttered shut.

Softness.

Silence.

Darkness.

Nonno. Linus.

Len.

...That was hard. So very hard.

Kalina