Disclaimer: Anything that rings a bell is JK Rowling's

Chapter 59: Princess of Delusions

Harry's POV

Silence spread through the room like an appalling rash, all eyes on Ky, but I doubt anybody saw her as much as I did.

Over these few months I had learned every wrinkle and crease of her face to mean something but right now she was going through the emotions with such speed I barely could catch up. I watched as the disbelief washed off her face as she stared into the picture, grey eyes sharp and darting this way and that ensuring he really was the guy she was talking to…there was no doubt in her eye…only wide-eyed fear…and then slowly, in a way that I believed only she could execute, in a blink all the fear was gone. When I saw the grey again, they were steely with determination.

"So…so she's been seeing a ghost?" Linus' voice was unusually uncertain.

"He wasn't a ghost." The volumes of the two voices heightened as they fused together, the two voices were different, but the tones were the same, absolute certainty.

I could understand why Ky would know that he wasn't a ghost, considering she was the one that had seen the guy, but Madame Sabre? I looked at the old lady and watched as a painful expression crossed her face and she slowly closed her eyes.

"Are you positive?" Dumbledore addressed the question to Madame Sabre, and she nodded, her eyes still closed.

"Searched for him myself. My son is not a ghost." She spoke as if she was revealing her deepest, darkest secret. What did 'searched for him myself mean'? She was an expert in divination…did she somehow know how to find out if someone had chosen to stay on as a ghost? I could tell that her admittance wasn't something to be proud of at the look on both Hermione's and McGonagall's faces…meddling with the business of the undead…sounds awfully a lot like dark magic.

"Maybe he…" Len stopped, looking nervously at the old woman, it seemed he was going to ask a very insensitive question…the question that was on my mind. Maybe her son wasn't dead, maybe he was alive…alive and after Ky for some reason. Well, there were lots of reasons actually.

"No, that's not a possibility." Dumbledore answered his grandson's incomplete question and looked at Madame Sabre, "Even if Silvestre were still alive it would not explain his appearance considering his death was almost a century ago."

The room descended into more silence, but I could hear the rattling of everybody's thoughts as they tried to make sense of this. Ky continued staring at the picture, her face blank.

He wasn't a ghost. He was dead. But she had seen him…spoken to him…met him just before she was nearly killed by a cave-in.

"Grandchildren!" Hermione shouted out. Her eureka moment was replaced by red faced embarrassment as the room's occupants turned to her. She sidled slowly to the left, obscuring her image behind my own, she picked the craziest moments to become shy.

Ky however stared at her in wide eyed wonder, "Of course. You are brilliant Mi! That explains why he looks so much like that photo. Remember Nonno's photo in my locket looks just like Linus!"

"Not possible either. My son doesn't have any children. I checked." Madame Sabre stared into Dumbledore's blue eyes as she spoke, daring him to comment on her statement. He didn't react in the way she obviously expected though, he continued to look at her…sadly. Madame Sabre's defensive stance softened, and she looked back at Ky, "Have you been taking your tonic?"

"Yes." Hermione and I answered together; nobody knew better that Ky was taking her medication than we did. Considering we took it amongst ourselves to ensure that she did so daily.

"Even if it were a descendant of his, it still does not explain how he was in Grimauld Place and Hogwarts, and nobody saw him." Len looked two seconds away from violence, ready to take his confusion out on somebody's face.

"Because Ky isn't known to have seen things that nobody else can." Linus' voice was a dark whisper that rustled through the room. It was startling how alike his and Dumbledore's thinking faces were, down to the twinkle in the eye.

"You think that I imagined the whole thing!" I jumped slightly as she screamed at her brother, my left ear getting most of the damage.

"What other explanation is there? Nobody else has seen this man-"

"I know the difference between what's real and what's imaginary! I'm not an idiot!"

"Nobody is calling you an idiot Ky-"

"Well, I see the implication! I did not imagine that whole thing!"

"I'm not saying you imagined it; I'm saying he was one of your visions."

"I know the difference between a vision and what's real! That wasn't a vision! I'm not some psychotic psychic person that has lost control of-"

"Ky, calm down." I pushed her back into the bed, her anger pulling her higher and higher until sitting up just won't do and she needed to be on her feet. She swatted my hands away but didn't get off the bed. Linus stepped forward, his face a conundrum of feelings.

"I am not saying that, Ky. Would you please just listen? Please. A man, who nobody but you has seen…led you…entranced you…to a place so dangerous if Silvain wasn't there you could possibly have died. Are you a hundred percent sure that it was not a vision."

"Yes! I am. And he didn't lead me to the mountains, he wanted me to go to Hogwarts for help-"

"For Len. Who was neither hurt nor there in those mountains. He lied to you. He meant for you to get hurt."

"Well, we shouldn't be wasting our time debating about this nonsense, we should be out there looking for him then!" She looked at Dumbledore, "Nonno, I know what I saw, and it was not a vision. He was real!"

"I don't deny that Kyrianna." The red was slowly fading from her face, the fury in her eyes melting, "I don't deny that you think he is real. But from the facts we have gathered it is impossible. If Grimauld Place was infiltrated, both Sirius and I would have known and no person that crosses these walls am I unaware of. This is all aside from the fact that the man you speak of is long since dead and…considering your gift."

"It wasn't a vision! There was no dizziness, no headaches, no bleeding! Founders! You people should know this well enough considering you harp on about it all the time!"

"Visions don't always come with side effects. In the beginning your brain takes quite a toll trying to adapt but as time goes on the side effects do ware of. In my prime I could have a vision of such clarity that I could tell you the time of day by the amount of light in the room…so clear I sometimes thought that it was real." The old lady spoke from the back row of Ky's visitors.

"I'm not you!" Linus looked down at Ky at the rude remark, but her eyes were only for the lady at the back row, "I know the difference between real and fake and he was real! And if any one of you decide to use your grey matter you might wonder, how did I have a vision of a stranger! Someone I have never seen before, who right now apparently doesn't exist!"

I didn't understand why she was being so defensive and looked at her in shock. I understood why she would be frustrated when people didn't believe her, but Ky wasn't unreasonable. Facts were being presented to her that she just refused to see.

"If we had to sit here and try to decipher how your mind…how your visions work, we will be here all day." Kat's voice rang with boredom that didn't reach her sharp green eyes, "I'm sure you know that Dumbledore. What we should be discussing is how to ensure this doesn't happen again, so she won't jeopardise any of my future missions."

"Or endanger her life." Len scowled at Kat, and she smirked.

"That too. It's obvious these visions do not bode well yet you lot have done nothing to stop it."

"I have given her-"

"A numbing tonic. Yes, I know Madame Sabre but it obviously doesn't work!" Kat rolled her eyes at the old lady, "If anything is clear is, it is that this child has an ability far greater than we imagined. And you know who likes abilities like that now don't you?"

"Don't speak of me as if-"

"Shut it! You have caused enough trouble for one day and I cannot stand another moment of this drivel!"

Kat moved her head lazily to the left as Ky threw the pair of surgical scissors on her bedside at her face.

"KY!" My voice was drowned out by many voices screaming the same thing, but Kat just laughed, turning to Dumbledore.

"You know these visions need to stop. You also know I have a way of making that happen."

Dumbledore remained silent, the very fact that he didn't respond meant that he was considering whatever option he and Kat had previously discussed.

"Don't listen to her Albus, we don't know enough about-"

"Oh Madame Sabre, stop pretending that you give a shit about the girl. All you care about is that she's some kind of wunderkind and you're afraid that my solution might be a permanent one."

"I am not afraid that it might be a permanent one, I know it will be. That amount of Vikadel could destroy her chances of ever seeing again! That is not your choice, nor mines, to make."

"Wait…you mean there is a way to stop these visions. You knew about this?" Linus glared at Dumbledore.

"Miss Karetnikov had come to me with an answer but Gabrielle disagreed-"

"Because she wants Ky to be some psychic powerhouse! Because she doesn't want her to lose her ability! Well screw that! Whatever needs to be done to keep her safe must be done, even if she can never have these damned visions again. They've brought her nothing but pain and this time she nearly died." Len screamed at nobody in particular.

"I'm so happy that everyone knows what I WANT! Yet nobody is shutting up for a moment to realise we are fighting over nothing as I DID NOT have a vision!"

"Stop arguing the fact and just accept it. Everybody else has." Kat snapped at her, but Ky didn't even flinch.

Ky then did something she hadn't done for moments. She turned to me, her grey eyes seeping into my own, she wanted me to say that I agree with her. That I didn't think it was a vision. I ducked my head down, it was too painful to look into her persuasive storm for too long, a moment more and I might just lie and take her side. "See. Everyone." Kat's snide voice made me feel like I drove the dagger in Ky's back deeper.

"Ky, Principessa, nobody thinks any less of you. Nobody thinks you're crazy or insane or whatever else you're calling it. We just want you to stay safe and the only way to do so seems to be if these visions stop. You don't need to be able to tell the future to be a great witch. Look at the Old Man, he can barely tell the time, yet he's considered to be one of the best wizards ever." Len looked at her, face shining with sincerity.

"I won't allow myself to wake up one day only to receive a letter saying you jumped off the highest tower in this castle because snow leopards led you there and some man told you to jump. There is nothing more important to us than your safety. I will do anything to ensure that. Even receive your hatred. " Linus turned from his sister to Kat, "Do you have this Vikadel?"

"I can have the potion made in an hour."

"That's unnecessary. No brew goes past her lips if I'm not the hand at the cauldron." Snape made his way out of the wing, "It shouldn't be that much different from the one I brewed for Madame Sabre. Leave the ingredients on my table."

Kat rolled her eyes and followed Snape.

"Nonno." I turned to Ky, her nostrils were flared, and she gripped the bedsheet in her hand tightly, nothing pained me more than the tears that were pooled in her eyes, "Please, don't let Linus do this."

Dumbledore placed his hand on her head, "I cannot. Even if he were not your chief guardian, I wouldn't stop him Kyrianna because I believe the decision he has made is the right one. One day you will see that this is all done for your own good."

"You have no right to take this power away from me!"

She didn't look at Linus, her eyes already out the window when Dumbledore denied her request. The tears streamed down her face and my heart sobbed for her.

"My duty is to keep you safe."

"Safe, but not happy?"

"That ability has brought you not a drop of happiness. You were perfectly fine before it came along, and you will be just as great after."

"I don't think there's ever been a before. And if you take this away, I don't think there will be an after. " Her voice was soft, and I closed my eyes, I couldn't stand another moment of her tears. I heard footsteps as everyone walked out, and when I opened my eyes again, it was just me and Hermione at her side.

Ky was still staring out the window. Hermione walked towards the chair at her bedside, and I followed to the other,

"Leave."

My heart stopped at the venom in her voice and Hermione stared wide eyed, "Ky. I understand that you are upset but you don't need this ability. You're amazing and you don't need to be able to- "

"What I don't need are people who don't have my back. What I don't need are people who stand there silently and watch on when I need them…" She took a deep breath, the tears falling down faster, and she wiped at them roughly with her hands.

"Ky- "

"GET OUT!" She pulled her hands away from her eyes and I stepped back at the sight. She was red faced from the tears but that didn't scare me.

It was her eyes.

Those beautiful grey eyes…which always shone up at me with this light of pride, of mischief…lay dull with a disappointment so potent that I could do nothing but turn away from it and heed her words…

A/N: I hope you enjoyed that! Ky really feels like an army of one now! Let me know what you think in the reviews.

Kalina