Disclaimer: Anything that rings a bell is J.K Rowling's.

Chapter 80: The Gemini Queen

I snapped around, the gasp I emitted lost in the click of apparition from the new arrival, the singular sound that even managed to drown out Nessie's screams in my mind.

I took a step back, taking in the long dark waves and perfectly pressed school uniform, the bright yellow tie and the electric blue eyes which were so familiar, yet strange, at the same time.

Her alabaster skin played background to her large red Cheshire cat smile.

"Alya?"

I immediately took her eyes in, expecting to find the same unfocused signs that Nessie had, a sure sign of the Imperius Curse, finding nothing but the unfamiliar cold calculating gleam.

"It was you!" She was the one that imperiused Nessie! At the beginning of term…and now.

She rolled her eyes, "That's a very vague accusation.Ava-"

I ducked, throwing myself to the floor, but that was unnecessary as she never completed the spell.

I turned, looking up to find her wand frozen in the air, her eyes burning with fire as she glared at the hand that wrapped around her wand hand, stopping her from continuing the incantation. I followed it up and my stomach twisted as I took in the black hair which was considerably longer than the last time I had seen him, falling in long strands in front of his black eyes. His pink lips were held in a salacious smile that made my skin crawl.

"Now I see why you snuck off on your own. I thought we had this discussion, no killing Thornton."

He flicked his wrists and ropes twisted its way around me, binding my movements and silencing my sounds.

Nessie's screams disappeared from the kitchen - he must have done the same to her.

Alya wrenched her wand hand out of his grip and glared at him, "We had no such 'discussion' Bastian! You just assume every syllable that crosses your lips must be adhered to like an unbending command. You seem to forget who the mistress of the Imperius Curse is between us two."

"It's not incredibly hard to forget, considering you can't even control a muggle. Now will you stick with the plan and wait here while I do what needs to be done."

Her nose flared and she glared at Blishwick, not taking kindly to the insult. "You! Stop talking down to me! You guard your precious Thornton whilst I sort out what needs to be done!"

"ALYA!" She flinched at the commanding voice, and he took a deep calming breath, "This house is rightfully mine…it is mine to claim-"

"YOURS! Black blood runs through my veins Bastian! Only Black blood! This house is more mine than yours, or Draco's!"

"You'd like it to be our cousin's, wouldn't you!" He took a threatening step forward, but she stood her ground, "Is this why you're defying me? Under his instruction? Think you'll eventually get it when you sneak your way into the poor sods bed! Oh wait…that already happened."

"Draco doesn't even know about the plans! I never told him; you told me not to. Now-"

"We do not have time to waste! Just wait here!"

"Why won't you let me kill her!" She whined, tossing a venomous glare at me, hatred I could not possibly understand directed my way.

What the fuck! I was actually nice to this conniving bitch, why in the world would she even want me dead!

Blishwick sighed exasperated, "Alya stop with the incessant whining, it is unattractive! Now just stay here and guard them. If you want to kill someone so badly, kill the muggle bitch, but then again I doubt it's possible considering you can't even hold an Imperius charm on a mere muggle…yet you want to take the Black name."

He pivoted not even waiting for a response, heading for the door. He tilted his head lazily to left with his back still turned as Alya's purple spell whizzed past him and blasted a hole through the door he was just about to open. He turned back to her with a sigh, "Crucio".

The red light hit her right in the chest, and she fell to her knees, screaming in agony. He shook his head down at her in disappointment and walked through the door just as the ropes fell away from me - I knew it was handy to carry that scalpel with me.

I ran to Nessie. She was unconscious, but she had a pulse. I undid her ropes just in case it was making it uncomfortable to breathe. I didn't look at Alya, not used to the fact that she was evil in my head yet to not feel a slight pain as she thrashed around on the floor, writhing in agony. I wrenched the door open,

"Bombarda maxima."

There was a thundering noise as the stairs from the first floor fell away, rolling off and falling into the foyer, blocking out even Madam Blacks screams. I hoped that this commotion would attract Sirius - who surely was somewhere in the house, as well as deter Blishwick from wherever he was headed.

I dodged the rubble, looking for the black head that I spotted on the first floor a few moments ago. The rubble displaced and Blishwick stood, dusting bits of stone and specks of dust nonchalantly off his shoulder, smiling at me, a few scrapes shining in his pale face but practically unharmed.

"It seems Lambie wants to play."

I tossed a curse at him again, but he ducked it lazily, tossing the same red light that he used not moments ago on Alya.

I missed it by a hair's breadth as I dodged, grateful that even in my weakened state I never lost control of my reflexes. His smile got wider, bright white teeth glinting at me, "Congratulations. You're the first person to ever dodge my trademark spell."

"The cruciatus curse can hardly be regarded as your trademark Blishwick, all you death eater scum wield that scarlet sheen of weakness like you know how to do nothing else."

He laughed, a velvet sound, "Oh I wholeheartedly agree with you, but you must admit, other death eaters very rarely exhibit the spell at such potency, unless you don't realise that Alya is still screaming in agony even after I stopped directing my wand at her."

I took in his words, the wielder usually has to direct their power at the victim for the duration of the cruciatus curse, yet he was right, she was still screaming and he long since left the room.

"I hope you realise how fond I must be of you, considering I always lessened the potency when I cast it on you."

I glared at him, "Should I consider myself lucky that you tormented me less than you torment your….?"

"My sister, for all intents and purposes. And you should consider yourself highly grateful to have an artist exhibit his work on you." He smiled wider, "You were such a beautiful canvas, radiant even whilst writhing in agony…transcendent-"

"Globus ventus!"

The ball of wind left my wand and vibrated across the foyer, cutting his speech short, sending planks of wood flying as the razor-sharp edge of the ball made contact with the surfaces of the foyer. I looked up at the loud crazy laughter in the direction of the staircase.

"Salazar's snake! If I stuck around, I might have lost an arm! Someone has not been playing around this year, bravo." He clapped, walking backwards up the staircase in ridicule. "I will be more than happy to play some more when I get back down, if you would wait but a few moments."

He flicked his middle and index finger at me, and I ducked, expecting a shot of red light but swore in pain as a plank of wood hit me hard in the midriff while my back hit the wall at the same time. It bent, pinning me around the waist as another four planks moulded around my wrist and ankles.

Fuck!

"What a pretty sight. I will hasten back, my lamb." He licked his lips and turned around, marching up the stairs to Godric knows where as I pushed at the planks of wood, trying to wrench my wrist from their wooden prisons.

"SIRIUS" I shouted, he must be here!

I looked up at the stairs, Blishwick was nowhere in sight. How did he and Alya even get in here? What did they say whilst they were arguing? Whatever they needed to do here seemed time sensitive; so all I need to do is hold him off.

"DAMN!" I screamed, twisting my ankles and wrists, "DAMN!"

I snapped my eyes shut, taking deep breaths, frustration won't help right now. I breathed, lowering my boiling point, focusing that heat, that anger, towards my right wrist.

"AHHHHHH!" I screamed as I felt fire at my right wrist, my wandless spell finally working, and suddenly it fell forward, the stinging burning sensation gone as the wood prison burned to a crisp and fell to the ground.

I summoned my wand that had fallen to the floor with my free hand and slashed through the remaining wood with ease, wrenching up the stairs.

"He's gone into the library." I nodded my head at the portrait of the little girl playing on her broom on the second floor that I had befriended over Christmas, and ran down the corridor, hurtling through the library doors.

The room murmured with excitement as the surrounding portraits whispered with words indefinable. I saw the shock of black hair at the right corner of the room, behind the door, his back turned but his voice was distinguishable over the murmuring of the portraits, the distinctive Latin words heard as he muttered them with his head down. I watched as scarlet drops leaked down his left hand, pooling on the floor…he was performing a blood ritual…

"Avarte Ascendare!"

His body was hurtled up towards the high ceiling; I raced forward looking down at what he was muttering at, not even bothered to see where he would land.

It was a large stone tablet inlaid in the wall. It stood as tall as I was, inscribed with runes all around. I looked at the spot of fresh blood towards the middle.

"Scourgify."

It didn't work.

Shit, how far did he go with the ritual?

I looked at the writing surrounding the blood. There was Sirius' name in Elder Furtakh, and below it was the spattering of blood. I squinted trying to see what was written through the scarlet drops, the underlying words hard to decipher as Blishwick was halfway done with writing his own name in blood over the words. I could make out an H, and an R, or was it a P?

"Volantis stiria!"

I fell forward as I felt the icicle pierce my shoulder; I looked down seeing the pointy crystalline scarlet stained tip jutting out my front, just above my left breast…that was extremely close. I felt his hands tangle in my hair as he threw me to the left of him. I hit the nearest bookshelf and was further assaulted by the rain of books that toppled onto my head.

I gritted my teeth and placed the warming spell on my chest, letting the ice melt, leaving a small clean hole in its wake. I grumbled to my feet, ignoring the pain,

"Confringo!"

He swore as the table nearest him blew up, bits of shrapnel piercing his body. I didn't wait a moment, taking aim again, "Aero sagitarius."

He dodged the arrow of air easily, tossing a red spell at me which I dodged too. I looked into his angry black orbs and raised my wand just as he did,

"Expulso"

My black spell hit his violet one and they bounced off each other, his taking off half of the bookshelf on my right and mine taking off the open door to his right.

"Furatus aerus!"

He raised a shield charm just as quickly as I got my spell out and I already had the second spell on my lips when I was thrown into the bookshelf by an attack by a newcomer.

I looked up, scrambling to my feet but not quickly enough as I was tossed up into the air again, this time hurtling quickly to the floor as gravity pulled me down with a deafening thud. I looked up, dazed at the blue eyes glaring down at me, Bastian's back to me again as he concentrated on the stone tablet as Alya aimed to strike again.

"Ava-"

"ALYA"

"AHHHHH!" Alya screamed falling to the floor on all fours as her cursed was stopped more effectively than a mere chastisement from her brother by a figure that crashed into her.

Blood spurted out of Alya's mouth as she leaned on the floor for support.

I heard a second scream, but it wasn't from Alya this time, but a war cry from Nessie as she tried to plunge the knife into the raven-haired devil once again.

Alya turned, her wand flashing out and Nessie flew across the room, banging into the set of bookshelves on the other side of the room.

"Fulgurationem."

Nessie's body was tossed in the air, highlighted in blazing white by the lightening spell, her hair standing out in a static golden crown, so similar to Minnie… and just like Minnie she hit the ground…unmoving.

"AHHHH!" I launched myself at Alya, knocking her to the ground and plunging my fist into her open wound just above her stomach, that Nessie managed to inflict, twisting my hand as she screamed below me, an animalistic need to torture her just as she had done to Nessie…Nessie…I didn't think of the still body and twisted my hand deeper, as if trying to reach Alya's very soul, ignoring the sickening squelch of the disgusting act I was partaking in.

Suddenly her screaming stopped, and she started gagging, choking as if a noose was around her neck. Was I doing that spell again? Like yesterday? No…I wasn't…I turned, looking at Bastian as he did the same, grasping at the wall for support as he edged out of the library. My distraction allowed Alya to push me aside as she shot up and launched herself at the door.

I quickly scrambled to Nessie, pushing my bloodied hands at her chest, administering CPR, knowing the spell that Alya hit her with most likely would shock her heart and cursing myself for not learning more healing spells. I felt around for a pulse, there was nothing. Shit! I pushed at her chest again when I heard my name being shouted by a familiar voice!

"KY!"

"IN here!" Linus ran in; he was as frozen at the sight of Nessie motionless on the floor. I took off once I saw him, leaving her in his hands as I ran after the raven-haired assailants.

A/N: Very action packed, and perhaps a tad confusing but hopefully it will make a lot more sense in the next chapter.

Kalina