A/N: To new Faves and Follows: I love you all! :)

Raven that flies at night: I hope you like this one :)

Love. Fiction. 2019: This one's for you!

Chapter 18: At World's End

Unedited...

It felt like the end of the world.

Like Death itself…

Like Death had chosen this very island to be its home. And this ship to be its messenger… A ship of the most haunted kind with rotting wood and slime and overgrowth, tearing through the rough waters off the bay of a ghost island. A city that was once alive and thrived on the labour of many willing hands that built the great castle and ruled these shores that was now, a mere shadow—a forgotten memory shrouded in darkness…

Caedesmort.

This was Caedesmort, now a barren island with a never-ending stretch of dead, unoccupied shoreline, leaving behind a scene of complete and utter desolation. Sloops and other vessels were anchored all along the coastline, some still flying the death's head flag, the same flag that was flapping above her head on this cursed ship. The wind carried the sickening smell of putrefying flesh from across the harbor, as if the carcasses of a thousand animals were rotting somewhere on the shore.

Isabella didn't see one bird, not one tiny movement, not ONE sign of life for as far as the eye could see… Where have they all plunged into? Is this place even real, or is it all in happening her head…?

A sudden whoosh brought her back to her senses. The easterly winds were growing stronger and wilder now, slamming into the ship and making it rock more violently than ever, almost as if an invisible hand had turned up the intensity upon their arrival… Fear gripped her heart as the ship lurched and swung from side to side, almost throwing its inhabitants off the ship whilst tearing through the waters, a terrible wind howling in their ears.

Another rock and this time, Isabella entirely lost all balance.

Falling flat on her back, she felt herself land on something extremely greasy and slimy, almost as if it were made of a giant slice of rotting casserole! Repulsion took over instantly as she slipped and skidded even more trying to get back up to her feet, and just as she found her footing and turned around, horror struck—her face was mere inches away from what looked like a skull that still had bits of decayed flesh sticking all over it!

The scream that emanated from her throat was nothing like ANYTHING she had heard in all her life! Shrieking on top her voice, she found herself fleeing backwards on all fours as quickly as possible, and as far away from it as possible!

"What? WHAT? WHAT IS IT?!" she heard Lily scream from the back, but Isabella didn't (couldn't!) respond and continued to scream and crawl away in utter and complete dread, unable to even see clearly now.

Before she even knew what was happening, several hands caught hold of her and pulled her up to her feet, gripping her firmly as if assuring her that all was well... Except ALL WAS NOT WELL! She opened her eyes and found Peter holding her from either side with Lily crouching behind an equally horror-stricken James, while Sirius was examining the corner that Isabella had been a second ago.

That's when she saw it.

There were dead, and decayed bodies ALL over the ship, at every nook and every corner, woven and melded right into the ship itself! The thick overgrowth she had seen at first really has been the remains of about a hundred or more crewmen (or whoever it is they were), squawking and gawking back them in the most terrible way possible!

"My god, what have we GOT ourselves into!" yelled Peter, having gone all white in the face. "What are we supposed to DO here?!"

"What Dumbledore sent us to do," James spluttered feverishly his glasses now an opaque white in colour as it fogged up against the salty air. "It's hitting me now... This is not just about getting Regulus out of trouble, it's much bigger! And I'm ready to bet on my broom that he does not want these heirlooms getting into the hands of the Ministry and the Dark Lord alike!"

"We're losing time, then," Sirius muttered and straightened up.

"And our senses…!" cried Peter, looking incredulously between his friends. "Lads, this is dangerous...!"

But neither James nor Sirius were paying any attention to him anymore. Sirius had ripped Remus's notes out of Peter's pocket and the two of them were already poring over it. "Okay, so it's just like the Whomping Willow," Sirius noted breathily. "The ship comes alive the minute someone lays hands on the helm because turning it in the right combination alone would open the vault within. I just need to follow the instructions Moon's written down here..." he said, pointing at the parchment.

"And it's in the heart of this ship," James said, looking up and getting everyone's attention. "Slytherin's heirloom, I mean," he said, even as rest of them drew out their wands, a mingled expression of fear and determination hanging in their faces—all except Peter, who was mutely shaking his head at his two best friends in utter disbelief.

"You can't be serious!" he said, looking unforgivingly at them.

"Merlin's beard, you think I want to be here?" said Sirius. "You think I woke up today and thought, 'hey, won't it be terrific if we all pissed around a homicidal island and GET KILLED in the worst way possible'?!"

"I'm just saying Dumbly is off his rocker, sending us here!"

Sirius and James and exchanged exasperated looks.

"It just means he trusts us more than anyone else," James muttered. "Come on, Pete, we can't do this without you…"

Peter gaped. "James, what if something were to happen to one of them?" he asked, pointing at the girls.

"Nothing's going to happen," Lily said before James could say anything. "We'll take care of each other," she breathed, almost close to tears now.

James closed his mouth and looked triumphantly at Peter. "You hear that?" he asked, smiling at him. "And we've have been through far worse, this is nothing."

"Also, I'm positive I didn't DIE the last couple of times we broke the rules wholly 'cause of you," Sirius smiled tiredly at him. "Come on, for Regulus, if not for me."

Peter graced with him an unsure look, before sighing in defeat. "Alright," he shrugged resignedly, his face still etched with worry. Despite his reluctance, though, he still went on to say, "Wherever you two are."

"Good!" smiled Sirius, before nodding at the others. "Alright, positions, everyone," he muttered, getting down to business immediately. Getting behind the uncontrollably spinning wheel, he waited for the others to gather around amidships and get into positions.

Fear and dread slowly started to sink into Isabella as she got ready for whatever it was that was in store for them in the next couple of minutes, even as a terrible storm started swirling above them.

"Oh god, here we go," Lily whispered, sliding her hand into Isabella's.

A crack of thunder suddenly rumbled above them, striking her straight in the gut.

"Okay, lads, get ready in three..." Sirius muttered, his hands hovering above the wheel.

Isabella's breaths became shorter and shorter by the second, even as the clouds burst open over them.

"Two..."

The waves were crashing into the ship more violently than ever now.

"One!" he screamed and launched himself on the helm. The others tightened their grips on their wands as Sirius whirled the wheel with all his might, until the first lock dial clicked loudly.

Almost at once, an eerie green light burst out from the helm and spread out far and wide in the blink of an eye.

Isabella was almost panting now as she suddenly felt her surroundings loosen up and get mouldy, almost as if everything around them was coming alive, awakened from a sleep that had lasted a thousand years... The sound of wood creaking and chains dragging from several levels below them filled the air, resounding over and above the noise of the deadly waves. The air around them had gone still, and Isabella felt a sinister, almost evil presence creeping up on them. This ship wasn't just here to protect its treasure—it was assigned to kill anyone aboard...

The four of them in the centre, moved closer and closer in fear, facing their backs to each other as a darkness descended upon them.

And then, out of nowhere, several eyes opened at once—ALL AROUND THEM! There were eyes everywhere... To their right, to their left, at the bottom, on the masts, on the stairs—EVERYWHERE!

"Lichs..." whispered Lily, her voice shaking uncontrollably with terror now.

Cracking and breaking away from the hard wood emerged several heads, some just skulls, some still bearing some hair, some entirely unfathomable pieces of just a bunch of bones sticking together! The dead were awakening and they were coming for them... And almost as if this was a synchronised swimming competition, all the heads turned towards the bunch of teenagers at the same time and in the same speed, conveying one message: murder.

Isabella whirled around and looked up at Sirius's white face who was also surveying the army of the undead breaking away and finally breaking free from their confines of the ship as the guardians of its treasure. And before she even turned back around, she knew someone was standing right in front of her, their hand outstretched!

Without even opening her eyes, she cried, "Petrificus Totalus!" with her wand aimed vaguely at the image she had seen in her peripheral vision. A blast and a scream later, she found her attacker freeze in place before getting blasted to bits, its skull still alive and throbbing! She had just enough time to grace the writhing skull a horrified look before she realised they were surrounded.

In the blink of an eye all hell broke loose as an army of lichs pounced at them from every direction, clashing against spells that blasted out of four VERY powerful wands, all at once! Screaming and howling in the most unearthly way possible, the sightless and daunting remains of dead wizards jumped and grabbed at the five of them only to get blasted into nothingness.

"SIRIUS, LOOK OUT!" yelled James and threw a curse in his direction, squarely hitting a lich that had crept up behind him, knocking its head right off. To Isabella's complete horror, though, the lich rose back up to its feet, now headless and seeming even more fearful than ever!

"Oh my god, what are they?!" Sirius screamed, lashing at it again and again and never seeing the end of its life!

"They're lichs!" screamed Lily. "They're creatures created using very powerful necromancy to bind one's soul to their intellect or "phylactery"..."

"Lily! LILY! English, please!" Isabella screamed frustratedly.

"They're wizards who've been made immortal! In death!" she screamed, making everyone stop for just a second to exchange looks of horror before going back to blasting their enemies.

"Oh my god, DIE! Just DIE!" yelled a horror-struck Sirius and slashed at the lich again and again before it finally shattered entirely.

But, the more lichs they killed, more and more seemed to break off from their corners and inch closer to the bunch of petrified teenagers. For the next several minutes, all Isabella ever heard over and above the terrible sheet of rain that slammed into them were the screams of spells and curses ricocheting in every direction, each helping the other out in one way or the other.

"Aqua Eructo!"

"Reducto! Diffindo!"

"Incendio!"

"Petrificus Totalus!"

"Arresto MOMENTUM!"

"Impedimenta! IMPEDIMENTA!"

"INCARCEROUS! Sirius, HURRY UP, MATE!" wailed Peter, as he ducked and ran behind the stairs that led to the upper deck where Sirius stood.

"Everyone SPREAD OUT!" screamed Isabella as she ran towards the porch side. "Make them come after you so they'd leave Sirius alone!" she said, slashing two lichs at one go.

The storm was howling louder around them, and the sea wilder than ever as the ship crashed on through the gale.

"Augmenti!" screamed Lily from the other side of the mast, even as a lich jumped up on Isabella from the back and wrapped its hands around her neck! She instinctively reached for her throat and tried to wrench the cold, dead hands off her while another one crept up from below knocked the wand off her hand before gripping her legs. The rain hammering down on her face only seemed to make matters even worse! Fear and panic seared through her like hot water as she saw her wand hit the wood below and roll over to the other side.

"Lily! LILY!" she screamed, while jumping and flailing on the spot to get them off of her even as ghostly screams of the undead engulfed her.

"LILY!" she yelled even louder when help didn't come. She felt her air supply get cut off entirely, making her face turn blue. Blood pulsed through her eyes as the dead hands tightened its grip slowly and steadily.

"OH MY GOD, LILY!" she heard someone scream out on top of their voice, followed by a whole lot running, scrambling and screeches of spells hitting odd bodies before they fell thud to the floor!

Unfortunately, though, Isabella herself was on the brink of dying if someone didn't get to her quickly enough. "She's fine! Go get Izzy!" yelled someone else.

"REDUCTOOO!" someone yelled, and she felt her attacker burst to splinters behind her, finally knocking the wind behind back in her throat. Coughing violently and rubbing her aching neck, she looked up through watery eyes to find James blast her second attacker in the blink of an eye and run straight towards her.

"You alright?!" he panted, reaching her in seconds.

"I'm fine! How's Lily?!" she asked.

"Not dead!" he barked back frustratedly. "I mean, how the BLOODY hell did she think an 'Augmenti' was going to do the trick, eh?"

"Augmenti? Wh—WHY...?"

"Well, she didn't want to harm these 'wizards,' THAT'S WHY!" yelled a murderous James. "She's MENTAL, that one!"

Shaking her incredulously, Isabella sprinted to the other side of the mast to find Peter guarding Lily who was bleeding profusely from the neck. "Oh my god, WHAT'S HAPPENED TO YOU?!" screamed Isabella even as she and James attacked a bunch of dead men closing in on them—basically their plan had worked. The farther they went, the more of them came scuttling after them, leaving very few to tackle with for Sirius, who was still struggling to get the combination right.

"She got bit!" spluttered Peter, braving the thrashing rain and fighting off non-stop.

"YOU GOT BIT?!" screamed Isabella, and almost resisted the urge to scold her. "IS THERE AN ANTIDOTE IN YOUR BAG?!" she screamed manically.

"No, nothing!" Lily croaked, unable to even open her eyes properly now. Isabella's head was all of exploding now as she envisioned the poison gushing through her veins.

"Iz, throw a healing charm at her! And pray that she doesn't DIE before we leave here!" James growled bitterly.

"Okay, okay, I'm ON IT!" screamed Isabella and quickly dropped down to her knees. Bringing Lily's head on to her lap, she pointed her wand at her throat where the bite marks were visible and quickly chanted an incantation under her breath. A white wisp-like smoke appeared out of her wand and swirled around Lily's throat, burning and frothing at her skin as it went. Begging and praying and shaking all over in mind-numbing fear, she pushed on, continuing to mutter the incantation until, finally, the open gashed closed up and Lily gave a strained yelp before coughing her lungs out.

"Oh, thank Merlin!" screamed Isabella and wrapped her hands tightly around a Lily's very blue face. James gave them a quick sidelong glance, and almost burst to tears before smacking down another dead wizard down.

"Lily, are you alright?!" sobbed Isabella.

Still coughing and rubbing the side of her neck as if the Charm burned her very flesh, she nodded weakly and looked up.

"Izzy, find a way to send her back. Now!" yelled James.

"I'm not going anywhere!" Lily yelled back idiotically. "I'm staying, I can fight!"

"NO, YOU CAN'T!" howled back Isabella. "You need to get treated right away, Lil, don't be stu—"

"I'M STAYING!" she screamed and when she saw the murderous glare on Isabella's face she added, "As in, not here, obviously! I can't fight them... They might be trying to kill us, but they really were just a bunch of well-meaning poor sods who..." Lily sobbed, making Isabella want to practically hex her in the face. "I know, I suck!" she cried out even as egotistical tears streamed down her face.

"But..."

"No, you listen to me," she said, cutting her short. "Time's running out and someone needs to speed things up, anyway, right? So, I'll go on to the next kingdom, somewhere I can be of actual help! But while I'm there, doing whatever it is that I need to do, you lot need to FINISH it up here and JOIN ME IN ARMINDALE! What. So. EVER!" she said, fiercely. "ALL OF YOU, ALL FOUR OF YOU! No one gets left behind, YOU HEAR ME, JAMES?!" she screamed at James's back.

A still shaken James, turned his head just a little to his side and grudgingly nodded before going back to screaming out curses. "And contain your stupidity just a little bit, over there, yeah?" James called out over his shoulder. "Please?" he added sarcastically to which she merely rolled her eyes.

Isabella quickly jumped back to her feet and took her position next to James and Peter while Lily rummaged into her purse and magicked the chess board out of it. With the board and the pieces still swirling about in midair, she gave Isabella a slight nod before slamming her hand on the hard, wooden board.

Almost at once she got sucked into thin air, her image swirling out of recognition in a whip of colour. But, before the swirling mush disappeared entirely, something flew out of it and landed next Isabella's feet. She looked down and found tiny wooden bishop piece roll back and forth on the wooden floor, waiting to take the rest of them out of this hell hole.

"How're we doing, Sirius?" yelled Peter from down below, even as three or four lichs rounded up on them like sea of locusts!

"Almost there, lads!" came the strained voice of Sirius, who was knocking them backwards and forwards with every turn of the wheel.

"Mate, you're killing us!" yelped James, as the army of the undead grew stronger and larger in number.

For just a split second, time stopped as Isabella surveyed the army of corpses walking towards them, leering and snarling viciously. That's when she saw it, saw what Lily saw in them: they really were just a bunch of unfortunate sorcerers retaining just a semblance of life despite having their bodies reduced to mere shrivelled husks by an evil necromancer. They were nothing but helpless people trapped in the middle forever…

She snapped back to reality just as quickly as she heard the boys thrashing at them with all their might!

"Incendio! INCENDIO!" screamed the three of them, trying to throw them off as much as possible, but it was not enough. Isabella's brain was on fire now as it envisioned all the possible worst-case scenarios, making her grow more desperate with every breath.

And just when she thought all was lost, that this was how she was going to meet her end, however, an explosion loud enough to blast her eardrums erupted, hurling them backwards.

Bodies of hundreds of lichs got thrown up in the air as well, splattering them all with their decayed remains, making them brace themselves from getting hit by their flesh and muck.

"It's open, lads!" screamed Sirius. "The chest, IT'S OPEN!"

Isabella opened her eyes and got her breath knocked right out her lungs: there, right in the centre of the ship, was a gaping hole the shape of a massive eye with a single green light blasting out from its very core.

"Peter, quick, before the vault closes back up!" screamed Sirius, holding on to the wheel with all his might. One tiny slip and the vault get slammed shut again.

"ON IT!" yelled Peter and that's when Isabella saw it, making her heart jump right into her mouth.

Peter leaped high into the air and even as he started to land back on his feet, his body had started to shrink, growing tiny hairs that seemed to get longer and thicker. The thicker his hair got, the smaller his body got! His face had started to contort unto itself, changing shapes most weirdly before it solidified in the shape of a rat! And before she knew it, a large, brown rat leaped high in the air, jumped and scampered over broken wood pieces at the speed of light before it reached the eye of Slytherin's vault.

The ship was already started to close back and Sirius's hands had turned a deep shade of red from all the effort. One more second and either his hand would break off or the helm itself would roll off its hinges!

"Hurry up, Pete!" yelled James even as the rat grabbed the large green locket up in its mouth and turned at lightning speed towards them.

"I cannot hold any longer, Wormy!" howled Sirius and even before the words had left his mouth, the wheel snapped out of his grip and started rolling uncontrollably in the opposite direction.

The wide gaping hole in the middle slowly began to close back up as the wooden pieces started falling back into their original places, to lock the vault once and for all before the next adventurer came a-seeking.

"Peter, HURRY UP!" screamed Isabella as the wooden pieces laid themselves almost entirely over the crypt. And just when the last piece was about to take its place, Peter scuttled up and neatly leaped out just in time!

Everyone blew a sigh of relief as the rat came scampering back towards them, the emerald locket hanging securely in its mouth. All the lichs seemed to have dropped to the ground too, slowly melting and merging with the ship once more, never to be awakened again... Hopefully.

And just like that, the storm started to blow itself out and the weather slowly cleared up. The violent waves that were crashing into the ship even up until a second ago started to decrease in size until it became completely still.

And now, all they could hear was the gentle breeze blowing through their wet faces and the dead waves licking away at the walls of this forgotten ship.

Isabella sank to her knees in exhaustion while the boys all looked at each other, a sense of admiration etched in their faces.

"Nicely done, Pads," James smiled.

Sirius smiled. "Say that to Wormy," he replied instead, gushing with pride at his best friend.

At that very instant, the tiny wooden bishop piece that Lily had thrown at her a while ago rolled back towards Isabella, waiting.

"To Armindale, then," she said and looked towards Sirius.

~oOo~

The four of them got spat out of the invisible bubble they had got squeezed into a second ago, their surroundings spinning into view around them.

Gulping in lungfulls of air, Isabella forced open her streaming eyes, and took in the view in front of her. And for several moments, she felt very confused about where she was or what she was looking at...

At first it appeared as though they were lying on the stone floors of an ancient castle that seemed eerily regular, except everything was wrong about it: The floor wasn't a 'floor' anymore five feet away from where she sat, because it was suddenly the ceiling of another space to which a stairway descended upon. To her right, she a tunnel leading into the black depths to Merlin-knew-where, and to her left, she saw a vast sheet of water standing tall without dripping a drop of water on the floor she was sat in! And when she looked up, her breath hitched in her throat because it was nothing like ANYTHING she had ever seen before!

There were at least a dozen more staircases sprouting surreally in all directions distorting space and logic ENTIRELY! They had been plunged into a world that defied all the universally-accepted laws of gravity, because the castle featured impossible constructions and multiple vanishing points that could possibly never exist spread across at least six different gravity wells! Basically, they were in the centre of a structure where windows led to outdoor parks standing upside-down, where chandeliers hung side-ways, where staircases ran straight into a wall, where water bodies could stand tall and where an entire castle could be built upside-down, enough to drive anyone mental in a matter of seconds!

"Castle of Illusions," James muttered, gaping at the structure and sounding equally dumbstruck. "This was the reason why no one could penetrate the walls of Armindale... They went crazy simply trying to find their way about," he said.

Sirius graced him with the most bewildered, if not slightly disappointed, look he could possibly muster.

"What? My bed's closest to Moony's!" James guffawed.

Sirius shook his head even more in mock disillusionment. "Mate, I will KILL you if I lose the bet to Moon!" he said, sporting a death-glare at James despite the smile on his face.

Isabella blinked. "What bet?" she asked, sounding exhausted and appalled at the fact that her two idiot friends could even think of something else at a time like this!

Peter rolled his eyes. "Remus took Sirius up on a bet in second year stating he'd make James a civil human being by the time we graduate," he said, sounding just disgusted as Isabella was feeling at the moment.

"And what happens if Remus wins?" she asked before she could stop herself.

Sirius's eyes widened in terror even as James scoffed. "Yeah! Like that's ever happening! Like I'm ever letting my best friend, nay, my BROTHER, lose a bet!" he grinned, stupidly jumping on Sirius and wrapping his hands around shoulder in the most feral fashion.

There was just one problem, though: Sirius still looked utterly unconvinced, and scared even, at James's proclamations.

"Seriously, what happens if Remus wins the bet?" Isabella pressed on. To be frank, she herself didn't understand why wanted to know this so badly.

Peter deadpanned at her. "You don't wanna..." he simply said. "You'd lose the will to live, Iz!"

She squinted at him. "Try me."

Peter smirked at his two best friends who had sunk into a full-blown argument now and said, "If Remus wins the bet, he gets to jinx Sirius right in the balls three times! As hard as he can. The best part, though, is that he can dole them out whenever he pleases!" he said and burst out laughing.

Isabella, however, wished she hadn't... Oh, how she wished!

Still simmering in shock and still unsure if she had heard him right, she said, "I could literally have lived my whole life having never known this fact. Literally!"

Peter merely shrugged. "Can't say I didn't warn you!"

Looking up, she let her thoughts wander to the castle one more time. How were they going to find Lily in here and how were they ever going to get out? Will they ever leave this place...?