Chapter 21: The one with Grey eyes

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.

A/N: This is rated mature for a reason people. Things are getting slightly darker…

Trigger warning: Images alluding to sexual assault in this chapter.

Chapter 20

"Crap!" I clutched my face, that was the third scratch, and I was afraid that by the time I got out of this mess I'd have no face left. Currently, that was the least of my worries. I can't believe I lost them. I was so sure that someone had called my name and in a multitude of shoves I found myself alone in a crowded forest, in a sea of strangers. I ran towards the centre, thinking that's where they'd go to get away, or more importantly to get Mi away.

Mi…. fucking sadistic bastard Malfoy… When he walked into the box today my heart froze, and a chill physically went down my spine… my intuition was screaming danger. Of course, I gave my intuition a big 'screw you 'and went to get a first-hand introduction to the madness.

What I didn't expect was to see into his mind, or thoughts, or was it fragments of memories. It's only happened a few times before, and I never really knew what the images I was seeing were. Fuck, I wish it were just his thoughts…his wicked fantasies. Or maybe something in the room triggered the memory for him? It's like when I see potato and the obvious thing to come to mind is vodka, or when I see a guy trying to scrape the gum off his shoes, naturally I think of Linus and Nessie. Triggered associations.

When Malfoy senior saw Mi, his mind went straight to muggle. A muggle he may have known…once. Was it not enough to rob a person of life, of their most basic of rights? Where was the need to destroy a soul? To break somebody so thoroughly that the thought of repair was a foreign prospect.

The woman's face burned in my soul, her golden-brown eyes and flowing brown hair darkened by the blood that surrounded her like a halo. Her pale skin aglow, her naked, marred body lying on the floor in an odd angle. Three men in black cloaks stood in front of her, a younger Lucius being one of them…adjusting his collar…smoothing out the wrinkles.

Sobbing in the corner…. I could not see the man's face, but he was being held back by another in a black cloak, his hand lying limply at his side, sporting a big skull tattoo. If that was the thought association Malfoy had when he saw Mi…a muggle-born…and now muggles being tortured…my pace quickened searching for them but comforting myself with the thought that Harry and Ron would never leave her side.

She had to be okay.

"Fuck", I clutched my knee, who put that stump there. Crap it was bleeding.

"Seems we have a lost little lamb. I knew it would payoff to leave those weak sods. Floating muggles…where's the fun in that." I snapped around, there was a masked man behind me. I straightened up, the pain from my knee vanishing. My intuition was screaming 'run', and this time I listened. "Hmmm, where the fuck do we think we're going lambie?"

My head seared with a shot of pain as it made contact with a low hanging tree trunk, before I could recover, I was grabbed by the shoulders and spun around as large hands found its way around my neck. Dark eyes glared at me through the mask, freezing me in place. The searing pain was fading into just a dull thudding reverberating in my ears, my senses becoming less and less aware of the hands around my throat.

Fuck… I just needed my wand. I tried grabbing it from the fondina at my hip, but I think all the blood from my hand was draining, trying to get oxygen to the organs that matter. I couldn't even move them an inch.

Suddenly, the constriction around my neck loosened and surprisingly I felt ice cold hands on my tummy and then drifting to my ribs. The blurry masked face getting wider...closer. The steel mask was on my lips.

And that was it.

Breaking point.

I fell to the ground as my magic flung the man away and he hit a tree. I looked at the shiny mask, at the black eyes and I grabbed my wand but something in the air caught both our attention, a sudden eery light in the darkness, and with a resounding crack he disappeared, leaving me looking up at a somewhat familiar grotesque skull with a protruding snake like tongue, floating in the dark sky. The feeling of recognition disappeared as my head snapped up at the breaking of a twig and grey met grey.

I held her tightly. Reassurance floating through me, I clutched her closely thinking of the scarlet haloed broken angel in Malfoy's mind and thanked heaven that I was just being paranoid. He wouldn't…that must have happened at another time, an era long over. If that image was even real, it might have just been his imagination. The cloaked figures from tonight were just fooling around…well all except one.

"Ky where the fuck were you!" I let go of Mi and looked at Harry, his face pale and hands shaking. He was breathing heavily; I don't think I've ever heard him swear, I didn't think he knew how.

"What he means to say is, we were really worried about you. We realised we lost you and we tried going back but we couldn't find you." Mi let go off me and looked down at me, "Godric Ky what happened to your face." She started inspecting my scrapes and I just laughed softly,

"A few branches ran into me."

"Ran into your leg too?" Ron came over and was staring at my knee. It seemed I scraped it quite badly on that stump and I'm sure I broke something on impact. He threw my arm around his neck, "Honestly Ky, are you trying to show up Harry. What with the detentions and the injuries…"I sighed as the pressure was relieved from my leg, I was stubbornly using it when I left him, looking for these three.

I looked up and Harry was staring at me, a calculating look on his face but Mr Weasley's voice calling us into the tent broke our attention and we went in.

Bill took one look at the lot of us and rushed over, the bloodied bed sheet that he was holding to his injured arm abandoned on the kitchen table. He looked at my face, but his eyes quickly went to my knee, Charlie hot on his heels. They both dropped down and hiked up my trousers staring at the ugly bruise over my knee. The blood was dried up and most of it was just superficial scrapes, but I practically had to drag myself to Harry, Mi, and Ron when we found them. I definitely seemed to have -

"Fractured knee cap. See quite a lot of them on the job. Running from dragons. Fell down?"

I looked at Charlie's concerned face and forced a smile through the mounting pain. Seems my reservoir of adrenaline was disappearing, and my perception of pain was taking its place.

"Ran into a stump." I smiled but I felt something wet on my cheek and I could slap myself. I was being such a girl, crying over a little scrape. I mean it's not like anything happened. Just a little bit of pain, nothing I can't handle.

"I don't even know how you're still walking with that leg. Here," Charlie picked me up in one swift movement bridal style, and I ducked my head into his chest, embarrassed at my tears. "I'm taking her to the mediwizard camp."

"Ok, I'll come with." Mi walked to the flap and thankfully Charlie stopped her.

"It's ok Hermione, I've got this, I'll wait whilst they see to her, and I'll call you once they're done." Mi gave him a doubtful look, "I promise. You just rest, you kids had a rough night." And I felt us float out of the tent.

"It's ok to cry Ky. Doesn't make you less of anything. I guess it comes from having brothers, feel like you have to 'man up'. Ginny does that. But it's ok, everybody cries. Everybody hurts."

He was right. Everybody hurts, but I wasn't crying because of the physical hurt. I was being such a dumb girl and I wanted to pull my hair out of my head.

I shivered in disgust as I remembered the ghost of the man's fingers on my ribs. Fuck, it's not like he touched me anywhere that mattered or anything. I was ok. I protected myself. I didn't let anything happen.

I was ok.

I was fine.

I was alright.

Fuck why was I still crying? Fuck. I lay on the magical stretcher, why didn't we think of conjuring one before. I closed my eyes and let the Healer look at my leg. Not flinching as he touched the bruise, rendered immobilised by the image that burned in my head. Scarlet halo on dark hair, grey eyes…tan skin. No that couldn't happen, that era was gone. We were safe.

I was safe.

"Ky?" I heard Mi's groggy voice in the tent.

"Yeah, it's me Mi, couldn't spend another second in that tuna smelling tent. High tailed it, sorry for disturbing your sleep."

"How's your leg feel…I visited once Charlie said I could, but you were out for the count. The healer said you were lucky that the fracture was nondisplaced, but the collagen filling potion takes a day to heal but you should-"

"Keep off my feet as much as I can. Yeah, I know," I lay the infernal crutch down and crawled into bed. "You know how kindly I take to rules. So, what was that in the sky?"

I listened as Mi spoke, taking it all in. Well, it made sense that Voldemort had supporters that went by a certain name. And of course he had a mark, I mean that's like the first thing megalomaniacs dream up. I can just see the little fucker doodling it in his charms book, with little hearts around it. He probably dotted his I's with the dark mark.

"I guess Winky can use underwear now, no need to go commando anymore."

"KY! I cannot believe-"

"Chill Mi…joke. It's screwed up, I never liked that Crouch. And not just because he looks like he cuts his hair one strand at a time. Didn't manage to get a look at the guy that sent it up?"

"No. Mr Weasley said he's definitely a death eater though because he knew the spell-"

"Ky? Mione" We looked at the flap of the tent and two heads were sticking in. One all smiles and the other looking decidedly grumpy.

"What are you boys up to! Ron! Harry! Its 3-"

"Shhh don't complete that sentence Mi. 3….21?"

"27."Harry's eyes softened a bit. "Well Ron, we checked, she's alive. Now can we get back to sleep?"

Ron on the other hand walked into the tent and sat at the edge of my bed. "You ok?"

"Nothing a little potion won't fix." Ron was giving me a deep look; it seems that he wasn't as tactless as everyone thought him to be. He gently picked my feet up and put it on his lap and got more comfortable on the bed. Harry walked in and sat at the end of Mi's bed. Ron propped his head up on his hand, "So Mione told you about Wonky Winky!"

"Ronald-"

"I've heard and about Batty Barty too?"

"Must have heard about Loony Ludo pitching up before all of that."

"And the Megalomaniacs mark in the sky."

"Stop please, before I kill myself." Harry said dramatically and lay back on Mi's bed. He must be tired; melodrama wasn't his usual thing. I started laughing and he looked at me,

"Well, what would happen if you tried to kill yourself. I mean if Voldey tried and the curse backfired, if you try and the curse backfires and then of course it realises it's you and it backfires again…it'll be an infinite loop. Please, none of us want to see that."

Ron laughed, "Girl's got a point."

"No, she doesn't. Firstly, I am not immortal; the curse backfired because of my Mothers protection when she died to save my life."

We fell silent for a moment. "Way to make it awkward Potter."

"I was not trying to make it awkward; I was just pointing out that-"

"We were just complimenting you on your immortality. Some people." I looked at Ron whose blue eyes twinkled amused at me, "hear hear" he responded in agreement.

"Oh no Harry, there's two of them. What should we do?" Mi looked at Harry with a mocking exasperated look on her face.

"I'm sure there's a cliff around here somewhere. Ky would make it nice and easy and just trip over a stump and fall down, it's Ron we have to worry about." Harry's emerald eyes twinkled at me.

"That's easy. Grab a piece of steak and throw it over the edge." Mi laughed at her own joke. Ron and I looked at each other and simultaneously flung pillows at them. Harry dodged his but Mi somehow got both in the mug.

"So much for injured." Harry said adjusting his glasses.

"My leg's hurt, nothing wrong with my arm."

"You sure? Because you missed me by like a foot."

"Good dodging skills are nothing to be proud of, coward." I smirked at him, and he smirked back.

"I like to call it flexibility."

"Like a ballerina. Come on Potter, give us a twirl." Harry glared at me, and Mi and Ron laughed out loud. "Can we go before we wake your sister?"

"Too late for that, I was awake ever since Ky barged inside."

We looked to the third bed. A tousle of red hair emerged from the white sheets.

"Harry run! Come on!" Ron grabbed a confused Harry and made a beeline for the exit.

"Turn a person's hair into worms just once when they wake you up and suddenly you get labelled as 'not a morning' person." She sighed and turned and snuggled into her blanket. I looked at Mi and she smiled at me. I snuggled into my blanket, and I started drifting to sleep, all images of broken angels forgotten.

A/N: I know this chapter seems a bit confusing, something so dark in the beginning yet light in the end. I just want to delve a little in Ky's psyche, her motto is deny, deny, deny. Growing up with the adverse circumstances makes her feel like she should be tougher, that's why she berates herself for giving into her emotions. Like crying. Her feelings will be explained further later but I just wanted to fill you in that she's not over it, she's just in denial.

Feedback as always is appreciated.

Kalina