Persistent Illusion

Sable Xane

Rated M

Disclaimer: Warnings: Summery: See Chapter One as I don't want to inflate my word count any more than it already has been.

A/N: First, don't get in a hurry for Seph. Second, I should not have to point this one out, but my time line is mostly non cannon. Third, with the exception of parts of the back story, the events of Dirge of Cerberus and Before Crisis will not exist. Lastly, due to RL I will still not be able to update as often as you or I would like. I literally only have a couple of hours a week I can work on this. Unfortunately chapters will likely remain fairly short so that you don't have to wait months between updates.

Chapter Three

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.

-H. P. Lovecraft

XXX

Once the light of the fires in the village had faded amongst the dense trees he had a far more difficult time trying to navigate the uneven forest floor. He was still weak and his step unsure. The light from his wand did little to ease the long shadows.

Still, he could only push onward. He had no way of knowing where he was headed, but back was no option as far as he was concerned. He had thought about trying to dissapparate, but in his current condition he wasn't certain of his chances to do so without splinching.

Eventually he came across a rocky outcropping. Two large boulders held up three smaller ones over a large pile of small rocks. He cast several charms at the stones to see if the structure was at all stable. Deciding that it was, at least to an extent, he made short work of excavating the cavity. Several more charms stabilized the formation and sealed the gaps left between the larger stones.

Shoring up the structure had not taxed him magically, but his physical strength had almost vanished. He crawled into the little cave he'd created for himself and blocked the hole. He cast a couple of warming and cushioning charms before curling up falling into a deep sleep.

XXX

He woke again an unknown number of hours later. There was a cacophony of sounds from the forest around him and he had no doubt that the sun had found its way into the sky.

At this point his stomach was protesting his neglect to fill it quite loudly. Despite how much he wanted to curl back up, he knew that he would not regain any strength if he did not find food and water.

That was not what had woken him though. He drew carefully in on himself and listened. He was certain that he could hear whispers, or perhaps just voices in the distance. He waited, uncertain, until the voices faded away.

He thought to himself that he needed to be more careful as it seemed someone had been able to follow or track him.

He carefully opened small holes in his shelter to check in each direction. He was unable to see anything and the birdsong didn't indicate any disturbance. He shifted the barrier out of the way so that he could exit his refuge.

It was already late into the morning, and if it had not been for the plume of smoke rising above the treeline in the distance he would not even have known which way he'd come. He'd not covered at much ground as he thought.

Continuously grateful for the cover of his cloak, he hurried as best he could away from the morning sun, away from the smoke.

He eventually managed to scavenge any number of strange berries and nuts that his magic told him were safe to eat. He'd not tried to catch any of the small song birds that populated the trees as he felt it would be too much work to catch, clean, and cook them for so little meat. He did keep his eyes open for larger game.

Several days passed in that way. His strength slowly began to return to him.

He'd grown more wary when he failed to come across any further sign of civilization.

He'd come to a cliff overlooking a wide plane and decided to turn south to look for a way down.

He'd begun to develop a constant sense that he was being watched. The paranoia crawling up is spine grew daily, but he had little choice but to keep moving forward.

He had spent some time each night sorting through the mass of items that he'd crammed into the trunk. Most of the items were of little to no use. One item that had found its way into the throng was the wizarding tent that he, Ron, and Hermione had used on the horcrux hunt. In fact, most of the items were so ridiculously random that he had no idea how they'd all managed to end up in that one room. Many appeared to be little more than nick knacks.

There were a large number of books, most of which he hadn't bothered with at the time. There were many of his old school books though and he'd been able to find several useful spells that he'd previously never learned.

He was playing at survival and he knew it. Each day that passed left him a bit stronger. He was almost ready to see if he could simply apparate to Hogsmeade or The Leaky Cauldron, though something in the back of his mind whispered that he shouldn't risk it.

He was getting frustrated over the looming sense of foreboding that seemed to constantly crawl up his spine. Despite the lingering feeling that he was being watched and the snatches of indecipherable voices in the distance he'd not seen any sign of life or civilization since departing the burnt out village.

He'd debated with himself about leaving the shelter of the forest, but as the trees thinned and the cliff side smoothed out into the plain he decided that it was better to keep pushing onward.

Having lost the cover of the trees he became more diligent about setting up proper wards around his campsites and erasing his trail.

He decided to continue heading west. There was still little to see, but after several long days of travel he came to a beach and what he could only assume was the sea.

XXX

TBC

The time line will start to progress much faster next chapter.