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 78

"YOU!"

Her light green eyes glinted as she sauntered into the room, two tall men walking in after her. The one on her left was wiry with short black hair, his small blue eyes swept the room and fell on me. The other was bigger, that confusing combination of fat yet muscular with chin length blonde hair and a face that could only be described as stupid.

"Me?"

I glared at Kat, I knew she was trouble! I knew it right from the start! I may not have had any proof or reason to think so…but I knew it!

"You're late."

She ignored Silvestre Sabre and walked towards my bed, her green eyes sweeping over me. "Why isn't she restrained?"

"She isn't going anywhere, she's not stupid-"

"I didn't inquire after her intellect; I thought I told you to restrain her."

He sighed, "You told me to not let her out of that door, you said nothing of restraining her."

"Maybe it is your intellect I should be inquiring after. Anyway, it isn't necessary now."

He stood, "Where should I take her?"

She glanced at him, "Take her? That won't be necessary. Why are you so quiet?" She looked back at me, a quizzical gleam in her eye.

"You're not worth the energy I would expend talking to."

She laughed, "Wow, how mature we are. Four months ago you were screaming your lungs out at the fact that I was taking your Ability away."

The bed sheets lay trembling in my tightened fist as I thought of how she had incepted the Vikadel idea into everyone's mind. I focused on the cause at hand, taking a calming breath which did not help me a bit. "You're working for Voldemort?"

"And why would I answer that? Really?"

"You're dumb enough to pick the losing side; you're dumb enough to answer my questions."

"No, only Silvestre is dumb enough to answer your questions. Was babysitting duty such a bore?"

He didn't respond, just adjusting in his chair, tossing a sidelong glance at the two cronies at the door.

"Where are the other two?"

She rolled her eyes, walking to the centre of the room, her back to him, "When did you ever care for your brothers?"

"I don't, was just wondering why your fan club was so small."

"It could get even smaller if your tongue gets any looser. They're much more loyal, these new ones."

New ones? Brothers? I looked to the door, at the two men standing guard…were they Palbei…that was impossible though, Séraphin was dead and Silvestre was the last Palbei.

The chink of the steel tip of her boots clanked against the aseptic ivory tiles and I tried my hardest to use my magic, I could feel it tingling in my fingertips but the wards were solid.

"I do admit I'm kind of sad, Potter was such an incredible help, sending me that letter. If he didn't my plans might have completely failed. And now he's dead."

I glared at her, not allowing her lies to get to me. Harry wasn't dead, it wasn't possible.

"They managed to bait him then?" Silvestre looked slightly interested.

"Naturally, Malfoy isn't as big a fool as I thought he would be. He managed to at least bait a fifteen year old boy, so contingency plans were unnecessary."

Malfoy? Then she was working for Voldemort…bait…bait Harry…what the fuck was going on.

"The Thornton's are left. As well as Dumbledore."

She sighed, "I know, but I don't think he'd want to use her as bait…did you say all of her power is back?"

"I'm not sure." Silvestre appeared bored with the conversation, settling back into his royal blue armchair and staring at the wall as if the blinding white held any degree of interest.

Kat stared at me, tilting her head to the side in thought. "Which do you think the Dark Lord would enjoy more? If I broke her and brought her to him, ready to serve. Or do you think he would like to break her in himself."

Silvestre finally looked away from the wall and right at me, his face expressionless, "Probably the former."

She smiled, "I thought so too. Crucio."

The pain was amplified by the surprise and the stranger notion of betrayal from his words, every fibre of my body was licked with hot flames and I felt the soft sheet between my fists as I grabbed at it in agony, making my mind concentrate on just that and not the unbearable pain that coursed through my veins. It stopped just as abruptly as it started and I coughed, my voice hoarse and breathing heavy.

She smiled down at me, "How was that Ky? Fun?"

"Fucking hilarious." I spat at her. My back arched as I felt the spell hit me again, not as surprised as the last time, I tried to concentrate on not screaming but as my voice filled my ears I realised that I failed miserably. The fire stopped licking my skin and started resonating from my core, burning from within. It stopped again and my head lolled back, unable to support itself.

"She isn't healthy yet, if you do that too many times you might go too far and turn her into a vegetable, you want her broken, not unusable."

"Watch who're you're speaking to Silvestre! Are you calling me incapable of this task? Me? Do you not remember who it is you owe your life to!"

"I will never forget." There was no sincerity in his words but I'm sure if I could manage to lift my head, his face would give nothing away.

"Good. And?"

"Sorry." It was mechanical, computerised and dehumanising. Like a child forced to apologise against their will.

She sighed, lowering her body onto the bed, I felt the movement at my feet. "I might as well get comfortable, this might take a while."

She raised her wand again and I saw my moment, I flung my leg out as hard as I could, making contact with the middle of her back. I didn't think, I bounded forward, knocking us both to the floor on the other side of the bed, landing at Sabre's feet. Jets of blue and red flew above me but I didn't stop, plunging my fist into her face, getting a steady grip on the scalpel that I had nicked out of the drawer when Sabre's back was to me earlier on and slicing down in a steady movement across her neck at just the right level to cut her vocal chords. She opened her mouth but only a gurgle of blood came out, she clutched her neck and I looked up at Sabre, sitting in his armchair, amber eyes watching the scene play out at his feet clinically. Why wasn't he protecting her? Was he going to attack me?

My body flew across the room, hitting the opposing wall in a crushing bang. I guess that answered my question.

The wiry guy bent over Kat whilst the blonde had his wand pointed at me, but I knew that the spell came from the now standing man.

"Bombarda Maxima."

I flinched, expecting to go hurtling again, but the only sensation I felt was one of falling, right through the rubble of the blasted wall at my back. I coughed through the dust and felt the air sting at the cuts I must have procured in the blast. I couldn't bother about that though, I quickly stood, just in time to dodge the curse of the Blonde wizard, he was a poor caster and must have been aware of it as he pushed through the rubble and was on me in a flash, arms out, ready to physically restrain me.

I dodged but it was harder manoeuvring around the rubble and I tripped, he grabbed my hair in a fist and yanked me backwards, preventing me from hitting the floor. The pain disappeared quickly and I pivoted as he screamed, his large hand welting over with boils. It then hit me as the tingle of magic ran through my veins as aftermath of the spell…I was in another room. A room with no wards!

"What are you doing!" I caught a glimpse of Silvestre Sabre behind the large grunting man, he pushed past him to get to me, pushing my wand into my hand, his amber eyes mingled with blood from a deep gash at his forehead, "RUN!"

I stood still in shock for a moment until I heard Kat's scream, that wiry guy must have patched her up. There go all hope that she won't be able to voice commands. I dodged a large fist and Silvestre pushed the brute back, I didn't think for a moment and pelted to the door, wrenching it open at the only opportunity I might get of getting out of here alive! I ran down the hallway, not sure whether I was imagining the footsteps behind me and not wasting the time to turn around and look. I took the stairs three at a time as I heard a heart wrenching scream from above. I stopped, my hand poised on the banister.

"Fuck!"

I pounded back up the stairs and ducked the blue spell,

"Aeros sagitarrius." I held my wand steadily, and aimed, watching as the great brute of a man fell to the floor, I didn't wait to see how much damage I had caused and pelted down the corridor flinging the door open.

"DUCK!" Silvestre did so, missing the violet spell by centimetres. Kat turned to me, her green eyes glowing with hate and her neck drenched with blood, I erected a shield charm and her spell spattered off it in a rainbow of colours.

"Verdimillious!" She dodged the first shot but didn't expect me to fire a second so quickly and it hit her right in the tummy, her whole body glowed green and shook with the electric shock.

"Incarcerous"

My ropes burned to a crisp before it even reached her, I followed the spell to the caster, who turned away from the fight he was engaging in with Silvestre to protect Kat, at great disadvantage to him as Silvestre was now choking the life out of him, his long arm holding his wand steadily, his amber eyes watching the life seep away without the slightest bit of remorse.

"Confringo." The spell never hit me as I was pushed out of the way by an invisible force; Silvestre had his wand on me, the blue eyed man lying still at his feet. Kat turned to him, fury blazing in her body, shaking not just from the spell I had hit her with but out of sheer anger as she saw him save me for a second time.

"HOW DARE YOU! Don't move!" She turned her back to me completely and raised her hand to the statue that was Silvestre; I didn't wait for her to even speak out the spell, knowing the wand movements for the most unforgivable of curses. I moved my wand down screaming out the incantation and watched as the flesh cut across her back in a perfect line.

She staggered forward and I flung the rope at her, binding around her from nose to ankle. I breathed heavily; wandering if that was enough to hold her, my heart pumping loudly in my veins.

"Dodge right!" I did so without a second thought and gasped, backing away from the door as the three men that blasted through surveyed the situation quickly, looking at Kat bound on the floor to me and then Silvestre, I heard the pounding of so many feet on the stairs outside I didn't know how many more were on the way.

"We need to run." I gasped at him.

"We need to do nothing." For the second time today I felt the air whistle through my hair as I flew across the room, expecting to hit the wall just like the last time Silvestre had performed the spell, but this time there was no crash and the whistling at my ears got louder as my hair whipped around me and the pain from my wounds seared as the force of the rushing wind attacked it as I fell through the sky, the open window that was my exit receding as my distance increased…gold eyes flashing for a moment in its frame, until all I saw was honey hair atop wide proud shoulders.

"Aeresto momentum." The fall was considerably cushioned but nothing like what Kinky had done, my head banged against the ground unsympathetically and my body made resounding impact but there were no broken bones. I closed my eyes, willing myself to stand after the events of the past hour.

I just touched on the bottom steps and took them two at a time, praying that she wouldn't take the next step. I watched in horror as her left foot left the top step, and I flung myself forward.

I collided with her soft body and held her tightly around her waist…but knowing that I was too late, as I felt the air rush through my body and my feet leave the ground, our heads a raging mixture of yellow and black as the staircases rushed past us in a blur of brown.

I stood up from the fall, Nessie had disappeared and we were not in Hogwarts!

"I DON'T KNOW!"

I turned around to the voice, it was Nessie's and I realised I was in the foyer of Grimmauld Place. I bounded towards the voice, pushing open the kitchen door to be confronted by a terrible sight, Nessie…lying on the floor at the feet of two masked death eaters covered in blood. I screamed launching myself at the nearest one…

"NOOOOOO!" I shot up, the soft grass clamped in my fist and I was on my feet in an instant hoping beyond hope that this was a vision of a future…and not the past.

"KINKY!"

With a click the little house elf arrived, I didn't let her get a word out as I grabbed her hand, "Grimmauld Place." And as if she was a floo, without a word of question, with a click we were gone.

I ran through the door, the passage fading within seconds and I ignored the sound of Madam Black as she howled obscenities, woken by the banging door. I pushed through the kitchen, stopping only halfway in.

"Ky?"

Nessie stopped her pacing, a look of complete terror on her face. I surveyed the room, as if the death eaters were hiding in the pantry or behind the stove. I crossed the room, my eyes still darting across the room.

"We have to get out of here. I think headquarters is compromised."

There was no response from her and I tore my eyes away from the pantry door and looked at her, she seemed to be frozen with shock, her eyes unfocused, gripped with fear.

I gritted my teeth, trying to not get annoyed, understanding that everyone dealt with shock differently.

"It's OK Ness, we just have to get out of here." I grabbed her hand, worried to find it trembling. Her whole body was trembling, I quickly tossed my arms around her waist, knowing the sooner I get her calm, the sooner I get us out of here.

"Ky…r…r…r…un…" Moisture hit my ears at the proximity of the whisper and I took a step back in surprise, suddenly I felt a cold tip at my back and a small, sharp pain just as I looked at Nessie's eyes again…unfocused…vacant. There was a clatter of metal hitting stone and she fell backwards, screaming in pain, the knife falling from her hands causing no more than a scrape at my back.

"Nessie-"

"GO! RUN!" She crawled away from me frozen with terror, eyes fading from dread to vacancy, her shrill scream getting louder and more desperate.

"This is what you get for sending a bitch to do a witch's job."

I didn't have to turn to see the face of the new arrival to know who it was, yet the realisation brought me no form of relief as her familiar voice rang foreign in Black Manor.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed the update

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Kalina