Thanks so much for everyone's reviews, can't believe how amazing the feedback is, thanks so much. I am going to be sticking pretty closely to the canon, I'm sorry if that spoils this story for anyone who saw it going in a different direction. Don't worry though, things will change especially Draco and Hermione's relationship. I really hope this doesn't upset too many people and you carry on reading. Hope you enjoy this chapter, I'm sorry if there are any mistakes, have noticed a few in my previous chapters, will be going back and sorting them out. Once again thanks so much to everyone for giving my story a chance :)

Draco breathed Hermione in, smiling dreamily at the scent of strawberries. She felt wonderful against him, wonderful in a way that Daphne never did, there was something right and breathless about it that made him feel a bit like a teenage girl. He rubbed her back trying to warm her as she shook in his arms.

"Merlin, Granger, you're freezing," he whispered, and she nodded, burying her head into his neck, her warm breath ghosting his skin, making him gulp.

"We should probably head…" He didn't hear the rest of her words as the mist gathered around them and Hermione was no longer in his arms.

Edward hadn't really known what he'd been expecting, but the small grey stones that sat in his hand seemed somewhat normal. He moved them towards the fire watching with fascination as the surface of them refused to reflect the orange light.

"These are them?" He asked. He knew they were, but Bear's suggestion that they could answer all of their questions, in light of their normal appearance, seemed somewhat farfetched. Bear nodded, growling affirmingly. The large man sat opposite Edward over the other side of the fire, his axe balanced on his lap as he cleaned it almost lovingly.

"You know that's a weapon, not a woman?" Rhylan questioned as Bear took considerable time dragging a leather cloth over the craved surface of the blade, seeming mesmerized by something within the metal.

"Hah,' Bear guffawed, smiling amusedly to himself as he placed the leather cloth on the log next to him, "never touch no woman this way." Rhylan frowned at Bear's comment but shrugged, seeming not to want to continue with his line of questioning. Edward was somewhat glad, a lot of Bear and Rhylan's conversations ended with some sort of argument and it was the last thing he needed at that moment.

What he needed, what he wanted and craved was Mina. They could have been ages away from the village, away from Arden and Tharin. They could have been a distant memory, soon forgotten and replaced with other more pressing matters. He'd asked her every time, hinted that there was a life for them beyond all the pain, but she had always said no. Her loyalty and love for magic users was admirable and it was one of the qualities she possessed that actually left him breathless, but there was also breathless frustration. There was no talking to her, no convincing her. She would stay whether he begged or pleaded that she leave with him, she would stay whether it meant her death, she would stay even if he decided to leave her behind. He wouldn't of course, couldn't, his heart was tied to hers and wherever she wanted to be, he would always be there too, regardless of what that meant for him.

"What are they?" Taigen dumped the pile of sticks he'd been ordered to gather by Bear near the fire, settling himself onto a log and leaning down to admire the stones in Edwards' hands.

"Rune's lad, a means of lookin' into the past, the now, and seeing what will come of ya sorry ass." Taigen shifted uncomfortably, something in the way Bear said the last phrase suggested that what would become of Taigen's sorry ass wasn't going to be nice.

Edward shook his head smiling slightly to himself. Though Bear seemed to take great delight in scaring the young man, he had insisted that Taigen learn to fight properly, it was of course sometime after he'd guffawed rather loudly at Taigen's initial display of his fighting skills. Obviously, there was kindness in the brute, a kindness that was masked heavily with snarls and threats.

"I've never seen markings like this." He held up the stone and Bear chuckled.

"They'm ancient, wouldn't expect you to. Doe think no one but me Ma knew what them meant."

"So how are we going to read them?" Rhylan scoffed, grease dripping down his chin.

"You ain't gonna read shite, prob end up with a curse on all our 'eds." He shook his head before meeting Edwards gaze reassuringly, "I know enough, we can find out wha' we need."

Bear gestured for Edward to hand him the stones and he did, a weight settling in his stomach that he shamefully recognised as fear. He knew how powerful magic could be, had seen and fought it first hand, and this, it felt like magic. While his heart knew where his allegiances lay he couldn't shake how uncomfortable it felt to be delving into the depths of something that he had been taught to fear all his life. He supposed he should be used to it, two magic users had healed him, he'd felt the effects, was alive because of it. Bu this was new, he had never delved into magic himself and he still wasn't sure that he should, it felt far too much like playing with fire.

Bear managed to fold his legs beneath him, again showing an unusual amount of grace for a man of his stature. He drew a large rune in the dirt, muttering unintelligible words under his breath and Edward was sure that he could feel the air shift around him as if it had turned to look in at their small campfire in the woods, holding its breath for something, anything. He glanced up at the shadowed trees against the night sky and gulped when realised that the wind was no longer gently moving them too and fro, they were still in the night even though he could feel the breath of wind on his face.

Bear placed the stones in a circle around the rune, giving each stone a name that Edward had never heard before, the language strange and guttural, something from another time that had not been uttered in years. There was a feeling of age all around him, ancient and unchanging, and when each stone gently touched the earth Edward felt as though they were slotting back into place, the soil welcoming them back to where they had always belonged. All the noises of the world seemed all at once hushed and far too loud as if the bustle of life had quieted so he could hear the music of everything else loud and clear. It was beautiful and overwhelming, and he felt as though he needed to run from their tiny encampment and be back in the word that he knew. He glanced at Rhylan and Taigen, wondering if they were experiencing anything close to what he was feeling. Their wide eyes told him that they had to at least feel it too and that calmed him somewhat.

As soon as the last stone completed the circle everything seemed to return to normal, or at least that's what it felt like, the oppressive air seeming to relax. Edward noticed though that while the trees were once again blowing in the breeze he could no longer feel it on his face.

"We are…" Bear scratched his chin as if he were struggling with how to word it, "we am in the magic, doe leave till its complete." He met each of their gazes levelly, waiting till they nodded their understanding.

"Righ'." Bear shifted till he'd made himself comfortable, rubbing his hands together, "wha' is it we wanna ask, hold the questions in ya mind and focus on the runes."

"Won't that confuse the magic, all of us asking different things?" Bear simply laughed at Rhylan's question shaking his head.

"Dunno wha' kinda primitive shit you've been messing with, but this is real." With that, he nodded at each of them before turning his attention to the runes. Edward focused his mind on Tharin, of Mina, of the magic users asking with all he had for guidance, for knowledge of what was to come. He thought of the most distant of futures and begged for an answer to it, for knowledge that there would not be an end to what he and Mina had.

The vision seemed to fill the space, taking it over till it was just Edward and the stars before him, and he was travelling through them at such a pace he felt himself leaning back, even as he felt the log beneath him, even as his shoes dug into the earth. The stars took him further and further into the darkness till he was looking at an old man kneeling at a large bowl, tears were dripping from his eyes and each time they hit the floor the whole image rippled with his pain. Suddenly he was moving again, lifting and falling into the depth of the large bowl where blue light clung to him and he could feel every emotion. Within its depths he saw Mina waiting beneath a tree, her hair short around her head, blossoms woven to a crown upon her head and she was smiling so bitter-sweetly that it made his heartache. He saw war, cries and anguish, men wielding weapons that glowed the darkness and witches and wizards falling beneath them. He saw fire and green light mixing into a sickening roar that burnt his skin and filled his senses with ash and smoke. He saw stone giants crumbling and releasing small golden globes of light into the night sky and two children dressed strangely falling together. He almost fell off his log as the young girl's face filled his mind, her brown eyes looking into him, pearlescent light glimmering around her. He had the certainty that he should know her, or that he would know her and then everything faded. The campfire was once again crackling, the wind was once again blowing the trees and ruffling his hair and all the others around the fire were staring wide-eyed into the orange light of the fire as if they had seen the whole world laid out before them and they were unsure what to do with it.

Draco very nearly had a heart attack when he saw both himself and Granger appearing in Edwards memory, they were falling, falling together, stone giants falling behind them. He couldn't even see where they were or what exactly it was they were supposed to be doing, but they were falling, and he was holding her close, pointing his wand towards the sky. The Hermione's face had appeared, her brown eyes looking at him in the way that always made his legs weak. He couldn't understand any of it, why were they there, why were the runes drawing them into the past. He thought maybe it was a trick of the Sensieve, but he could feel Edwards's confusion as real as he had felt anything.

"Wha' you see?" Bear asked, rubbing his hands together and meeting Edward's gaze. There was something different about the large man as if he had been given knowledge of something dark and deep, something that he wasn't supposed to see.

"Death, war, glowing weapons. There was a bowl and a man and…and some children, but they looked…they looked strange." Bear nodded.

"Them runes show many things, some certain, some uncertain. Some far away, some close."

"I saw, I saw a storm, lightning shattering the earth, rain to flood the world, and men, Tharin's men. I was fighting them, with two axes', they had lightning in them. That can't be real can it?" Taigen muttered turning his wide eyes to Bear.

"You am on bout magic, anything's possible. Wha' bout you?" He turned to Rhylan who's lips were pressed into a thin line.

"There was a great house on fire, I saw the glowing weapons like Edward. I saw a young wolf, ice and snow deeper than any I've seen. I…" He looked up at Bear and paused, his lips tugging down at the edges before he shook his head. "It's like you said, I saw lots of things, but not everything is certain."

"Ar, that's true, but some things am." At that he glanced back at Taigen, "some things am."

Edward felt that there were many things that they had all seen that they were unwilling to share, voicing them bringing about a reality that none of them wanted to face.

"Can we change anything." Bear shrugged at Rhylan's question.

"Some say tha' nothin' is set, wha's to come is ever-changin' cos of all we do or doe. Other's well, they think different, sayin' everythin' is like stone, never changin an always been."

"So, what do we do?" Taigen asked, exasperated.

"Well, we know that Tharin is making weapons to defeat all magic users, and we have some idea of his plans," Edwards muttered, thinking of the girl within his vision and wondering who she was. He didn't know her, had never met her, never met anyone like her, but she looked so familiar that he felt as though he should.

"And I have always been of the mind that inaction is a worse crime than action." Bear grinned at him, palming his axe happily.

"Let's fuck some shit up."

Even Rhylan in spite of what he had seen was grinning at Edward, nodding his head in agreement.

"You won't find me agreeing with him often, but what he said. Let's put an end to Tharin Morax, one way or another."

Taigen was glancing at each of them with wonder in his eyes as if he was once again seeing his visions laid out before him.

"An wha' of you." Bear reached out, gently lifting Taigen's chin and meeting his gaze, "you with us?" Taigen's chest seemed to swell with pride, his eyes sparkling in the dark as he struggled to keep his bottom lip from wobbling. He nodded once, and Bear laughed.

"Ar thought you might. Fire's gettin' low, why doe you go an get some more wood?" Taigen jumped to his feet without complaint, disappearing into the darkness of the wood. Once Bear was certain that Taigen had made his way far enough into the trees he turned back to Edward, his voice low.

"You know wha' we have to do."

Edward did, he knew all too well what needed to be done. It was the only clear way forward if they didn't take it then thousands of people would die, very likely a whole race of people would be wiped out. But the path was littered with bodies and covered in yet more blood of innocent people who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Casualties of a cause they had absolutely nothing to do with.

"Yes."

"I'll do it," Rhylan stated quickly, throwing a small branch into the dying flames.

"No. I will do it." Edward corrected, lifting his hand when Rhylan went to argue. "I would not ask you to do anything which I would not. This blood will be on my hands."

"We all 'av blood on our 'ands, hell I'm fuckin covered in the shit. No need for you to be a fuckin' saint about it."

"If anything happens this will be my fault, they will come for me. That is all." Rhylan lowered his head, quickly taking Edward's statement as an order and after only a moment of frowning Bear grumbled his agreement.

"If I do not succeed one of you will have to take my place."

"We will."

"Not a fuckin problem, Kiri been wantin' to bite into some shits."

Edward tried to smile but he couldn't, he would be killing again, murdering innocents for the 'right thing'. He wondered if this was what was always supposed to happen, that the runes had shown certainty and no matter what he did the outcome would always be the same. The thought scared him because then all the death would be for nothing, and he would simply be a murderer. He felt as though he wanted to look into the runes again and ask them to answer him properly, to show him whether this would always be his fate, the fate of a killer.

The campfire melted away and then Edward was stood outside a small hut. Draco could make out an anvil in the darkness, embers of a furnace glowing mutely in the dark. He gently turned the handle, walking into the house, the wood floor hardly creaking beneath his light footsteps. The blacksmith and his wife lived in a simple one-roomed hut, the fire burning up one corner, sacks piled up near a small table that housed remnants of the dinner that the old man had probably enjoyed.

Being the blacksmith of a small village meant that Surrol earned a lot of money for him and his wife, but the money disappeared on alcohol and various other things that he enjoyed doing, like meeting young women who sold their bodies and showing them that Surrol still had it in them to show them a good time. He had heard the old man slurring these words more times than he could count, a woman on either arm. Surrol was scum, his fist directed at his wife more often than not because she did not fight back.

Killing Surrol was easy, easing the blade into his neck as he covered his mouth felt almost like justice, a world full of hurt that he'd inflicted on others coming around to meet him in the form of Edwards blade. Bear had told him to stop being saintly, but he'd felt almost like he could be saintly standing over the man and watching as he stared wide-eyed and scared into the darkness Edward knew was in his gaze. His blood soaked into the hay beneath him, the rush of it warm and thick. It always surprised him how much blood people held within them, it poured and poured and poured. He could already hear it dripping onto the stone floor in fat heavy drops that sounded so loud in the silence.

When the man finally stilled Edward checked the wife, sighing happily when he noticed that she hadn't stirred, she looked almost serene and happy as if she knew somehow that many of her troubles were over. Taking a deep breath, Edward stepped away from the bed and made his way round to the mother's side where the blacksmith's son lay. It was quite often said that the boy did everything alone, his father spending so much of his time drunk. He couldn't remember the child's name, he just knew that he could not live, not with his father's talents. Tharin would find someone else to make the weapons it was a certainty but that would take time and time was what they needed.

He realised with shock that he was crying, tears racing down his cheeks. He knelt down next to the boy and wished that there was another way, but he had to do the right thing, he had to save the magic users, he had to stop the war from happening and killing them. He hated being right, but he had always known that he was. Sometimes doing what was right meant doing what was wrong.

Draco fell to his knees when the memory faded, his stomach once again emptying at the sight of Edward killing yet more people, roiling with the sickness Edward had felt at what he had to do. His arms shook as they held his weight and he shook his head, there had to be another way, there had to be a better way. All of his thoughts ground to a halt however when Hermione was next to him, her hand on his back and on his cheek, asking him if he was okay. He rested his head on her shoulder and breathed her in, letting her make everything better like she always seemed to.

"You know, seeing other people's memories suck." He laughed as she giggled, rubbing his back comfortingly. He looked up and froze as he took in the sight of her face close to his, brown eyes full of warmth and care, bushy hair framing her face, the night sky glinting behind her head in the magical ceiling of the Sensieve's room. He'd seen her look like that before, he'd seen her look like that through Edwards' eyes.

"He saw you, he saw us." He mumbled, and Hermione's brow furrowed.

"What? Who, who saw us?"

"Edward, he saw us, he looked into the future and he saw us."