Disclaimer: Anything that rings a bell belongs to J.K Rowling

Chapter Three

Harry's POV

26th August 2005

There were five of them. All in silver masks…death eaters?

The dance of the waves camouflaged the cacophony of their arrival, apparating with ease outside the boundary of Shell Cottage.

I glanced back at the dark house…no help was coming.

The irony of dying on top of Ky's grave was not lost on me.

"What do you want?" My voice was steady, but my heart pounded in my ears.

"The same thing you do…for the most part." The tallest man spoke, he stood in the centre. I took in their disguises, having learnt every known death eater mask for my final auror exams. None were recognizable.

Involuntarily my hand went to my scar. It hadn't pained me in years. He can't be back.

At my movement the tallest man raised his wand. This was not the first time someone wanted me dead in recent years, however, this was the first time I was so ill prepared.

His shoulders were set, and his gloved hand held the wand steady. I tried to make out his eyes, but it was too dark. His pocket watch glinted in the moonlight, and I took in his shoes. Formal. Unfamiliar.

Nothing stood out.

I could try to run, but at this distance I was an easy target.

I could try and physically fight, but five on one, with the one being wandless…

My right hand went to the inside of my left wrist.

"I've alerted the ministry; they know that Ky is here. Their on their way, you'll never break the wards in time. It's in your best interest to leave. You'll never touch her."

Hermione and Ron will make sure of it, even if I could not.

It was a hopeless lie of course, but it was my best hope. The man laughed. A deep, mocking timbre.

"You're a fool, Potter." And with that, he flicked his wand.

2 May 1998

"Stay close to me." I whispered to my mother.

I stopped mid-step, turning to Sirius, "Why isn't Ky here?"

I directed the question to him, because he had been closest to Ky.

Sirius' face was unreadable, and I waited for him to speak.

My mother stepped forward, "She is here." She said, gesturing to my heart.

I wished I could actually feel her touch.

"She cannot bid you farewell, because you've not bid her farewell."

The answer had come from my father. I looked at him, catching an expression on his face that I didn't quite understand. Afterall, I didn't really know him. I didn't have time to pick apart the statement, so I continued walking forward in the Forbidden Forest, towards Riddle.

I had mulled over that statement for years; my brain must have a specialized area for its contemplation. A centre for vision, a centre for hearing, and a centre for Ky. I watched as the death eater began his wand movements and focused on that last centre.

August 1994

I looked up to find myself plunged into a storm, a storm grey with specks of violet. It was the violet that was pulling me in, it was arranged so tiny, almost not even there, that I was looking to find each speck. My whole body was tense, and I was very aware of the warmth of another body on top of mine. But I didn't dare move. Not because this very feminine body on top of mine was heavy, quite the opposite, but I was trapped in this storm. And it was raining, a single drop running down a lightly tan cheek…I dared not move.

"Goodbye, Ky." I whispered it into the darkness, like a secret. If these were my last moments, I should make peace with all of my life, even the parts I didn't like facing.

My eyes narrowed as I watched his wand movements, my body shifting in preparation, moving as the green spell came at me, dodging to my right.

It missed me and I jumped quickly to my feet, but the wizard had already taken his aim again and I didn't catch his wand movements to estimate which way to dodge this time. I hesitated, knowing I needed to take a gamble.

Suddenly, I was knocked back down, and I became aware of the warmth of another body on top of mine. I didn't dare move. Not because this very feminine body on top of mine was heavy, quite the opposite, but I was trapped in this storm. A storm grey with specks of violet. It was the violet that pulled me in, it was arranged so tiny, almost not even there, that I was looking to find each speck.

This cannot be real.

"Expelliarmus." Her voice, there was no mistaking it, that was her voice! "Here!"

Ky, somehow already standing, had tossed a wand at me, and I caught it, jumping to my feet. I didn't have time for disbelief or incomprehension.

Spells bounced off her shield charm, and as it fell I quickly threw a stunner that caught one of the masked wizards.

A purple spell aimed at me was blocked by a yellow spell from Ky, and I had returned the favour when one of them sent a blasting curse at her.

"On your left!" She shouted and I reacted without thinking, casting the shield as a spell hurtled its way at me. I flung rapid stunners at the two death eaters that had turned their full attention on me.

Her hair whipped about her as she battled another two death eaters, and I yelped in pain as I felt a spell shoot through my arm.

Emerald met grey, and for one, loud, heartbeat, I allowed myself to take it all in. Ky Thornton doing battle on her own grave. But suddenly her storm widened and the violet specks disappeared, her pink lips parted in a gasp of surprise and I shrieked, watching the purple spell meet her with force.

"NO!" The wand I held shot straight in the air, and I swung it down with such force that I felt like I dislocated my shoulder. For a moment the sound of the waves disappeared, the night stretching in a silence so sudden it made your ears prick to attention. It ended with a crash, as I seemed to have summoned the sea itself atop the death eaters.

The force of the water rained down on us all for long seconds. I was lucky that the sea was rough tonight, and it didn't take much to work with its strength to bring the tide further in and use it to my advantage.

Weighed down by my clothes, I struggled to my feet to find that the death eaters had disapparated. I launched myself towards the unmoving figure.

"Ky! Ky!"

I reached her, pulling her drenched body to mine.

My blood flowed like lava through me, despite the coldness that was settling in from the Celtic sea. And then, I felt it. The thing I was craving to feel ever since she appeared moments ago.

Her heart.

Thump.

-x-x-x-

"Audrey!" I shouted as I made my way through the front door of the Burrow.

There were gasps and shouts, but I rushed to the living room, where a great fire was sure to be on.

"Oh my god." Hermione's voice was a piercing shriek, "Why would you…Harry!"

I lay Ky down on the sofa, checking once again for her pulse. Just then, I realised what it must look like.

I had fled the Burrow earlier when I found out that Ky's remains were being hunted down, and I ran in with an unconscious Ky in my hands.

"Hermione, she's alive!" I shouted over my shoulder as I began a warming spell. "Get Audrey!"

The room fell into a stillness that was alien in the Burrow.

I turned, looking from gaping Hermione to ashen faced Ron, to stunned Ginny.

Finally, Percy Weasley's wife, Audrey rushed in, her dark hair elaborately curled for the occasion. She hurried over to me, thankfully never having met Ky so not in a state of shock, her nurse reflexes kicking in.

"No, a drying spell will be better." She stilled my wand movements and took over. I watched as the wet white dress Ky wore unglued from her paler than usual colouring. I finally had time to take her in. The outfit was so foreign on her. I'd never seen her wear anything quite so…un-Ky like. Where were her dark tees that never made sense to me, or her much to short shorts, or jeans that had too many holes. "She'll be okay, she's just unconscious. Did you recognise the spell she was hit with, and where?"

"Her chest. Couldn't say what it was, I think it was purple."

"Ah – could have been a Shocking Jinx." Audrey carefully moved Ky's dress off her left shoulder, exposing the discoloration just below her collar bone. I couldn't help noticing that her breasts looked different. They were fuller. I suppose that was normal with age.

Age? How was she aging? How was she alive?

"We might have to take her to Mungo's – I think she needs to be –"

"Just let me in!" There were shouts and bangs in the kitchen and I snapped my head up as Draco Malfoy came hurtling into the living room, "KY!"

I protectively stepped in front of her, and his silver eyes poked daggers at me.

"Potter – step aside! Blasted sakes, I'm her healer!" He shouted, shoving me out of the way. "Audrey, if you will."

The nurse listened without protest, and I had to remember that Draco was in fact her superior. I heard that he had qualified as a Healer earlier this year. I watched carefully as he touched her bruised skin. He took out his recitator, a small, thin object that looked like a pen but Healers used for a number of highly skilled purposes. He aimed it at the wound, and Ky's body jerked upwards.

I moved forward, but didn't stop him, having seen this treatment done before and knew neither the patient nor the healer should be disturbed. He did it twice more and with a deep breath, almost as if coming up from drowning, she was with us again.

Her eyes met mine, briefly, but it quickly went to Draco. "Godric! Scorpius! Oh my –"

"His okay, he is with my mother, are you okay? Ky."

The sentence was like a knife. One that pierced my chest so swiftly, I barely comprehended it.

I watched as she leaned forward, her small hands clutching at the lapels of his coat, distress etched on her beautiful features, "I'm so sorry! I'm so-"

"Shh, shhh, it's okay. It's okay." Draco comforted her with affectionate gestures. Familiar gestures. His hand on her arms. His lips on her hair.

The silence that coated the room did not break by my accord.

"What."

It wasn't a question. This was all so beyond question. Hermione murmured the word flatly, her body swaying slightly as if on a precipice, and I watched as Ron stepped forward, solidly behind her, but not touching her.

Ky glanced at Hermione, finally taking in the room's occupants as it thinned out. I could hear voices in the other room, and I knew Mr Weasley must have encouraged people to move there, allowing us some privacy. I noticed that Ginny was not here, and I felt guilty for the small relief I felt at that. It was the only describable feeling I could pinpoint though, as everything else just swirled inside me into some amorphous cloud that swapped between speeding up my heart, to making it skip beats altogether.

Ky untangled herself from Draco, and tried to rise to her feet, but seemed to not have the strength to. Involuntarily, I stepped forward, but Draco was closer.

"No, don't get up." He urged her back onto the sofa with an authoritative hand, and then he looked up at me, a somewhat familiar expression on his face that I couldn't quite place, "I know you have questions. Perhaps it's better we talk alone-"

"No!" Ky ground out, for the first time sounding a bit more like herself. She stood, batting away Draco's hand for assistance. This gesture was the first recognisable thing she had done.

Despite her left sleeve hanging off her shoulder, and her dark hair damp, her stance was confident and commanding. Though, I watched her throat nervously constrict then relax, and her nostrils flare defiantly. She was, as always, contradiction sewn together.

I could tell that she was avoiding my eyes, and some dormant creature at the pit of my stomach flickered to life.

"You're not in any position to make demands." My voice was steadier than I thought possible. It grew steadier still as I watched Malfoy step closer to Ky, protectively.

He was protecting her from me?

"No…no…no…" Hermione finally found her voice again, and shook her head furiously, her hair coming undone from the hidden contraptions that held it just so. Her eyes and nose were a scarlet that almost matched her necklace, she had spent the day in and out of tears. "This isn't possible. You're…you're dead. Unless…Oh my…did they get to her? Have they done this ? Is she an Inferius?"

"Well, that's offensive." Ky's quip was quick, almost reflexive, like dodging a curse. The creature inside me purred, and I snapped.

"Forgive us for hoping that you're an animated corpse, rather than the alternative."

She persisted in avoiding eye contact, and sighed, her stormy greys flickering around the room. She looked agitated, but I didn't really care.

That centre in my brain that specialized in all things Ky was working on overdrive. Yes, I had buried her lifeless body with my own hands. But my gut told me this was without a doubt, Ky – not a frozen at seventeen animated to life Ky, but a woman in her mid-twenties. Her hair, while still dark and long, was shorter than the last time I saw her alive, and before it was drenched with sea water it had been much straighter – purposely straighter – fashionably so.

She had inquired after Scorpius Malfoy, Draco's newborn. I remembered his name because Ron had made what Hermione had labelled a tasteless joke about it. This Ky knew Draco's child. Based on their behaviour, they were evidently familiar with each other.

The creature growled.

"Th…Nott threw a dagger at you. In Malfoy Manor. The night you came to rescue us. He threw a dagger at you and it went through your heart. I was the one that pulled it out. I felt for your pulse. I –" Hermione backed up, into Ron, suddenly reliving our worst moments from the War.

31st March 1998

I had just managed to wrestle the three wands out of Malfoy's grip and pointed all of them at Greyback, "Stupefy!" I didn't bother watching where the werewolf landed, desperately turning back to Ky's fight with Alya Bellamy.

Ky had somehow answered my desperate plea into the broken shard of Sirius' mirror. She disapparated right into the cellar of Malfoy Manor and my blood ran cold. The last thing I wanted was for her to be here. I had purposely not contacted her, despite having the means to do so.

She had apparated away Luna, Dean, and Ollivander, and had come back for us.

I tossed a wand to Ron, who didn't need telling twice, and he apparated a barely conscious Hermione out of there.

I watched as Bellatrix Lestrange moved forward and Alya Bellamy screeched, "NO! She's MINE."

"Ky! Let's go!" I wouldn't leave here without her! My voice summoned Bellatrix's attention and without thinking I sent a shot at the chandelier above her and it came crashing down, on Lestrange and the Malfoys.

Just then, the door flung open and Theodore Nott barged in. I hadn't seen him in a while. I knew he had saved Hermione last summer when Death Eaters attacked Hogwarts, but that felt an age ago now. Hermione had not been in contact with him, which I know came at great sacrifice to her. We had been after the horcruxes and couldn't risk communicating with someone surrounded by death eaters…or potentially a death eater? Did we even know whose side he was on these days?

Nott's eyes flickered about, quickly assessing the situation, finally falling on me. I hesitated, for just a second, "Expelliarmus!"

His wand flew out of his grasp and he cocked a brow at me, but just at that moment Alya cackled, "Morgana, you're boring! At least the mudblood made for good entertainment."

Nott and I watched as Alya's yellow spell caught Ky in the left thigh. I ignored Nott, and began sprinting at Ky, dragging Griphook with me.

I'll get her out of here by force if I had to.

I threw up a shield charm, which repelled Alya's second spell that would have hit Ky square in the chest. Ky's stormy grey eyes caught mine, glittering with irritation – she was actually annoyed at me for intervening in her duel! She staggered; half out of injury and half out of exhaustion.

I grabbed her arm, just as I heard Alya shriek, "NO!"

I began to turn, thinking of Shell Cottage, and caught a glimpse of Nott. He had a dagger in his hand, and with a flick, it pierced through the air as if it was an arrow.

In a whirl of colour, we disapparated, the last image I saw was Nott's stoic face.

My feet clapped to the ground, and I let go of the goblin, my now free hand able to grab the falling figure at my side.

"Ky!" I was on my knees; her body had gone completely limp and heavy. "Ky!" I shook her and then I saw it.

The dagger in her chest, "HERMIONE!"

My vision blurred as the memory tweaked at my lacrimal ducts, and I sniffed, quickly rubbing the moisture away.

"I'm sure Ky has an explanation for this." Ron rubbed his fiancés back soothingly, looking at Ky with steady blue eyes, "Why don't you sit down? I'll get us tea."

My mouth hung open at that – what on earth was he thinking ?

Ky had risen from the dead, not arrived unannounced on a Sunday afternoon.

"I should go." Her voice was stubborn, and she made for the exit.

"You're not going anywhere!" I snapped, annoyance furthering my frustration. "You're under arrest!"

A/N: You didn't really think I resurrected this fanfic just to kill off my girl, now did ya ? What do you think of Harry's perspective – does it make sense to you ? Does he feel a bit more adult?

Kalina