Chapter 7
You still don't get it!!
"Something's not right." Harry said as breakfast was nearing an end. Aeryn had just left a few moments earlier, saying she was getting behind.
"Ron should have been the first one here," Hermione agreed, "He never misses a meal."
"I hate to admit it, but even I noticed a change in Aeryn." Harry thought for a minute, "She looks at us as if she has a secret and she knows that we know she had a secret."
Suddenly almost everyone jumped as the doors to the Great Hall slammed shut with a rather large bang. The Professors were especially startled.
Harry looked around and realized there was no escape from the room. But before anyone could do anything to escape a faint hissing noise could barley be heard over the commotion. Harry could hear it though.
"Do you hear that?" he asked Hermione.
"Hear what?"
Harry stood up on the seat he was sitting on and cast the spell to make his voice louder. "Everyone be quiet!" Many people heard him but it wasn't enough. Hermione joined him and they both yelled "Shut Up!!" as the same time.
Silence was then heard, save for the now louder hissing noise.
"It's coming from under the tables." Someone called out.
"Harry," Hermione called to him. He looked to her as saw what she was seeing. People were dropping like flies. Harry looked to where they Professors were. They were attempting to create a bubble over themselves and some students but started passing out as well.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Hermione start to go down. "Hermione!"
"So sleepy," she whispered as Harry caught her. He himself was feeling a little drowsy himself. What scared Harry the most was that he could do anything, and he didn't know it he was going to wake up.
Everyone was asleep around him and hissing had stopped. Sleep was trying to take him but as he held on to Hermione he held on to his consciousness.
The Great Hall door opened and he looked up to see a blurry person with red hair. She saw he was still awake. Next thing Harry knew he was hit with magic before falling into darkness.
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Harry's head hurt. It was pounding like crazy when he came to.
"Harry?" he heard Hermione's voice. Harry groaned as he opened his eyes.
"Ok, now that we are all awake, you mind telling me what the hell is going on?" ok Draco was there to. Harry looked at his surroundings. The three on them where in a room lined with cells.
"Why are we in cages?" Harry asked.
"No one has come yet." Hermione said, "And it's about mid afternoon."
Harry got to his feet. "Should we be worried that there are no doors to these cells?"
"Do you think, now that you are awake and all you could get us the hell out of here?" Draco said with a slight sneer.
"What's with the new attitude?" Harry asked as he tried a spell to make the bars disappear, but all he got was a nasty spark. As he tried more spells he kept getting more backlashes from his magic.
"Just stop Harry, before you get hurt." Hermione told him.
Looking around the room Harry noticed a wall had shimmered. It was showing an image of the Great Hall. It was more like a prison now. He could see some people, not clearly enough to see who they were, putting unconscious people in their cells. Not in individual cells like the three of them were but more like twenty in one cell.
"So?"
"'So' what?" Draco snapped.
"Are you going to answer my question?" Harry asked.
"Is there are reason I should be nice to my Ex's family and friends?" Draco asked in reply.
"Wait, `Ex'?" Hermione asked.
"What she didn't tell you? She broke up with me a couple weeks ago."
"No!" Hermione exclaimed, "That can't be."
"Why are you upset by it? It's not like she broke up with you."
"But you and Aeryn… I mean after all you've been through…"
"Well it's not like Aeryn is herself lately is it?" Harry said looking at wall; where there was an all too familiar person could be identified. And she was giving orders. Draco was shocked and Hermione told him of Ron's theory.
"Is that Snape?" Harry asked as couple people were dragging Professor Snape out of the Great Hall.
It was ten minutes later that Professor Snape was put into a cell in their room. One of the people helping Aeryn was Xander Romano.
"So what are you getting out of this Romano?" Draco asked. Harry saw the look on Romano's face it was fear. Romano didn't say anything as he and the other guy left.
"I don't think he's getting anything Draco," Harry said, "He's scared."
"Of what? Aeryn wouldn't kill anyone, not matter how screwed up she is?"
"It's not about Aeryn, more like WWJD." Hermione said.
"Huh?"
"What would Jade do?"
"Well we are at least ten minutes away from the Great Hall," Harry noted, "But I still can't think of a way to get out of here."
Over the next hour more people were brought into their holding room, people like Dumbledore, McGonagall and Remus. There were still asleep and their captors still silent. Snape was the first to awaken, soon followed by the others. The Professors themselves tried to escape the bars that held them, but without wands it was useless. Not even Dumbledore could do anything.
The door to the room opened again and Xander Romano came in alone.
"What the hell do you want now?" Draco blurted out.
"Look, if she knew I was here she'll have my head; I didn't want this to happen." Romano said.
"Well you sure didn't do anything to stop it." Snape said.
"There is nothing we can do, she took our wands away. She is extremely powerful." Romano explained.
"Why are we getting special treatment of this room and not with everyone in the Great Hall?" Dumbledore asked.
"She said something about a funeral."
"Someone's dead?"
"As far as I can tell everyone is still alive," Romano explained.
"Everyone except you." A cold voice said as a flash of green struck him in the back. His eyes blank as he fell lifelessly on the floor. She could see the expression of shock on some of their faces.
"What? Did I cross the line?" she said mockingly, "Did I just commit an act to which there is no redemption?"
"You need to snap out of this Aeryn," Harry said to her, "You need to remember who you are."
She rolled her eyes, "I know exactly who I am. You still don't get it do." She moved closer to Harry's cell, "This isn't about confusion of memories and trying to tell one from the other. It's about having two consciousnesses' in one body. My body might I add." She backed up a bit to collect herself, she wasn't about to lose her temper just yet.
"Did you think that I would just sit back while she took over? I let her for a while, until I could figure out my plan."
"So now you bury Aeryn? Make her watch everything you do?" Hermione asked.
"No. I can't just bury her inside that would leave room for her to take control again. I made her weak, made her doubt herself. Toyed with her mind. And it worked, she distanced herself from everyone, well everyone except pretty boy over there had to break that off myself." she said referring to Draco. "Though she couldn't understand why she was getting the cold shoulder."
"What about when Aeryn had a solid alibi?" Draco asked.
"Astral Projection. Only this last time, it's been made permanent. Two separate bodies, two separate consciousnesses'. All without her knowledge."
"If that's true," Snape said, "then where is Miss Potter."
"So glad someone asked." She said with a laugh and left the room.
"I don't like the sound of that." Draco said.
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Aeryn found herself in a familiar place, the endless road way up in the sky.
"Oh great, I'm dead again." She shuddered at the fact that she was here and it actually felt good. The shadow had been lifted, she felt like herself again.
"Not yet young one," said a voice that belonged to the Head Elder.
"So why am I here if I'm not dead?" Aeryn asked.
"You know of what has happened." HE said.
"I feel totally helpless."
"You don't have to be."
"I'm not staying here, and I'm not going to die!" Aeryn said, "I haven't done anything to receive such punishment."
"You broke the rules, as a result you aided in releasing a tyrant into the world." HE said accusingly.
"I had no choice, time was being altered." Aeryn started to yell. "And you would have let it happen."
"It is not you place to question the actions of the Elders." The HE told her, "Everything has happened as it should have."
Aeryn just looked at the HE in shock and with tears in her eyes.
"Your final death will not be for many years to come, I have seen it."
"So what happens now?" Aeryn asked.
"The only way to help yourself and you loved ones is to let go. You are fighting so desperately to hang on to your former self, but you have to let go. We can send you back, but only if you are willing to make a sacrifice."
"What kind of sacrifice?" Aeryn asked in a whisper.
"A blind sacrifice, you will not now what it is. It is the only way."
"And I'll be able to stop Jade?" Aeryn asked.
"She was not meant to stay in your world." Was the only answer she received, "I will leave you to make your decision."
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Jade came back with Lily James and Sirius and properly secured them. She waved a hand over the center of the room and a table rose from the floor. Jade left again, and when she returned she was followed by Aeryn who Jade had levitated. When Aeryn was laid on the table, Harry observed her. Her hair was damp and it was obvious that she was sweating.
"What's wrong with her?" Draco demanded.
"I mix a fever inducer with her sleeping draughts. How much did she take last night?" Jade said her with a laugh and her eyes turned red. "What is her temperature at now?" Jade asked Lily and James.
"One hundred six." Lily replied.
"Shouldn't be too long. I'll leave her here so you can watch her die. I have business elsewhere." And she left.
"What does she mean die, how can she die?" Draco asked on the verge of panic.
"When one's internal body temperature exceeds its limit, the brain over heat and certain parts stop working." Snape explained, "And because it is a potion induced fever her body can't do anything to cool down. Breathing will be the first to go followed by the heart."
"A little more than we needed to know Severus," Dumbledore said.
"Why doesn't she just go back to her own time?" Harry asked.
"There's nothing left for her there." Hermione said, "Most of the damage there was done by Voldemort, here she has a clean slat to work with."
Harry banged against the bars of his cell, "We need to get out of here."
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They remained there for a long while, it started to get dark and people were getting hungry. Draco didn't look away from Aeryn for one second, watching her chest rise and fall, in fear that if he did she would stop breathing.
Jade didn't come back at all, nor did anyone else.
Aeryn stopped breathing at midnight, she let go. She gave in and was willing to sacrifice anything to help the one's she loved.
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A/N: Yes, I know, I killed her again. But it needed to be done.
I think there will be only two more chapters, one for the conclusion, and one for what happens in the years to come. I think I'm just bored with this story.
PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!
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