Chapter Two: Family Protection
"... So you see, Professor, that's why I think it would be best for Harry to either go to Grimmauld Place, to the Burrow, or even to my house, rather than stay at his right now," Hermione finished her long explanation to Dumbledore, who had showed up on her doorstep after she had written him a brief letter.
The old wizard smiled to her gently, his blue eyes twinkling over the rims of his half moon spectacles, but he said nothing right away. Instead, he appeared to be fishing around in one of his pockets. "Ah, here we are..." he said almost sadly, and pulled out a small mirror. It looked rather old, and had a bit of dirt covering the delicate etchings that stemmed along the handle. He handed it to Hermione carefully, and she took it hesitantly, and looked into it. Her own reflection looked back at her, and she had to cover her surprise in what she saw.
She had been expecting to see the young girl that also had looked back at her, but sometime over the past year, that girl had vanished, and been replaced by a young woman. Her eyes danced with life as she looked into the mirror, but darkened at once as she looked up to the Professor again. "And how is this supposed to help?"
"That, my dear Miss Granger, is a magical mirror, and linked to its partner. The partner which, I believe, Harry is currently in possession of," he explained. He then sighed again. "Though I dare say he might have broken it by now in one of his fits of rage. I must say that I agree with you when you say that that house is not fit for him to live at."
"Then?" Hermione asked hopefully.
Dumbledore simply shook his head. "I'm sorry, Hermione, but it is the safest place for him right now. So long as he can call that place his home, and return there at least once a year, then he will be safe from Tom."
"From V- Voldemort?" Hermione asked, stumbling over the name still. It still terrified her, but she knew she had to get used to saying it. It was as Harry had always told her and Ron - fear of a name increases the fear of the object.
"Indeed, Miss. Granger," he replied with a kind smile to her. "So, as much as I might like to heed your request, I am afraid that he still has some time left this summer to spend there. A week after his birthday should be enough, and then I will personally see to getting him out of there."
Before Hermione could reply, she heard the phone ringing behind her. Without a word of warning to Dumbledore, she leapt up and grabbed for the phone. "Harry?" she asked at once.
"Yeah, it's me," came Harry's reply over the phone. "Please listen carefully, Hermione..." He sounded desperate suddenly. "I've been found. I'd write an Owl to Ron or Dumbledore or Lupin, but I don't have time. They are downstairs right now. Send help quickly!"
She started to say something back, but the line went dead before she could even acknowledge his request. She looked up to Dumbledore at once, and he read what her face was saying. "What has happened to Harry?" he demanded urgently.
"I don't know!" Hermione replied in a half sob. He had sounded so focused and determined, but she could also hear the fear in his voice. He was badly outnumbered, and somehow she knew it. "But you have to get to his place right away!"
"Rozan is no longer there?"
"You know about Rozan?" Hermione demanded in surprise. She then shook her head. "Never mind, tell me later. I'll come after you to get the answers... but make sure Harry's alright!"
Dumbledore was about to reply, but then simply nodded, and with a loud crack, he vanished from her living room. Hermione picked up the phone again right away and called Harry's number. He had given it to her again the last time they had spoken, and, although they hadn't spoken very often, she was always grateful after each call... though she was starting to get annoyed by his apologizing before hanging up each time.
"This number has been disconnected. Please hang up and try your call again."
She swore as she hung up the phone, and then picked it up again and dialed a cab. It would cost a fortune, and she knew it, but there was no other way for her to get there. She had to know that Harry was alright.
"Wotcher, Hermione!" a voice called from the entrance suddenly. Hermione hung up the phone at once and ran to the hall to find the this time blue hairs Nymphadora Tonks standing there, her wand drawn. "Ready to go?"
"Go?" Hermione asked, confused. What was Tonks doing in her house all of a sudden?
"Dumbledore sent me. Said that you'd want to see it with your own eyes," she explained. Hermione didn't think she had ever heard Tonks sound so serious before. "So I'm taking you."
"Is Harry alright?"
Tonks shook her head as she took Hermione's hand. "We don't know."
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Harry hung up the phone as quietly as he could, though it still sounded like a gunshot in his ears. Rozan was standing at the top of the stairs, looking down, growling softly. He had never seen the time wolf looking so agitated. It didn't take a genius to figure out why, either.
Rozan had told him earlier that eight Death Eaters were on their way to try and kill him. Harry's first instinct was to owl the Order, but Rozan's growls told him that he didn't have time. Hermione knew, and she would know what to do next.
Harry's wand was at the ready as he stepped closer to the top of the stairs. For some reason, he was glad that the Dursley's were out admiring new cars, as that meant he was home alone, and could do whatever he had to to the Death Eaters without worry.
As the first head came into view, Harry ducked back as Rozan growled louder. Keep yourself safe. I will bring him here.
Who? Harry thought as loudly as he could to try and make sure the time wolf heard his thoughts.
The Wanderer. As soon as the words crept into his mind, the time wolf faded from view in an instant. The Death Eater who had been shocked by the creature apparently came out of his stupor suddenly, as his wand was pointing at Harry.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry shouted, thrusting his wand towards his attacker before he could say anything. The Death Eater was thrown backwards by the curse, and Harry ducked back to his room and slammed the door shut. "Great wizard indeed... hiding like a coward in his room..."
"Reducio!" Harry covered his face as his door was blown apart, and he found himself face to face with three more Death Eaters. "Stupe-"
"Protego!" Harry shouted immediately, throwing up the own shield he could think of. The stunner rebounded off the shield and struck the caster, knocking him backwards. The other two also had their wands trained on him, , but before he could react, a flash of green knocked him backwards and he landed hard on the ground.
When he looked up, he saw someone standing in front of him wearing a long dark green cloak with a hood covering his head. He could see nothing going on in front of him. "Lessan Tabawere!" the man cried, and a tremendous blast of lightning shot from his form and smashed the two standing Death Eaters backwards into the wall on the other side of the corridor, where they slumped over and lay unmoving. He turned around to Harry instantly, and held a hand out to haul him back to his feet. "You alright?"
"Y... Yeah..." Harry replied. He had no idea who the man before him was, but the fact that he was almost as hidden as any Death Eater didn't do much for his nerves.
"Grab what you'll need quickly," the man suggested. "We don't have much time before the rest of them come upstairs to see what caused that lightning."
"What I need?"
"For the school year, Mister Potter, for school!" the man said impatiently. "Quickly!"
School had been the furthest thing from his mind when Rozan had warned him of the upcoming assault just moments before it had happened, and he thought it odd to have been brought up all of a sudden, but he didn't argue. He grabbed his books that he on his desk and threw them roughly into his trunk. He then threw the letters and packages on his desk in with it, and tossed all the clothes he could get his hands on, including his Hogwarts robes in as well. Once he was done, he slammed the trunk shut and ripped open the floorboards to grab his Firebolt and broom polishing kit.
"Your owl has been set free. She'll met us where we are going, if she's that well trained," the man explained quickly when he saw Harry turn to the empty cage. "We can replace the cage later." Before he could do anything else, noise behind him caused him to turn in an instant.
Harry distinctly heard the sound of metal being drawn across something suddenly, and then three definitive thuds, which implied three Death Eaters had just fallen. The man turned again quickly and grabbed one of Harry's shoulders and put a hand on the trunk.
Although he did not feel the nauseating pull in his naval this time, he knew that they were travelling magically. As the room faded around them, he saw the three Death Eaters in the hall, who were all cut in half at the waist. He then saw more come upstairs and a bright flash of green light, but then they were gone. All he knew for certain was that Rozan had underestimated numbers... or more had arrived.
He awoke some time later with a splitting headache. He felt a damp cloth against his forehead, and reached up a hand to remove it before opening his eyes.
"So, the young boy awakes at last," a soft female voice said from beside him. The voice was kind and concerned, but Harry didn't really care about that right then. All he knew was that his head hurt a lot, and for once it had nothing to do with his blasted scar.
He opened his eyes and was just about to tell the woman off when he stopped mid thought as he looked at her. She looked like a child, younger than him for certain, but she had long pointed ears and a thinner face than he had ever seen. Her soft brown eyes were not the chocolate brown that he had started to associate with Hermione's eyes, but they were fairly close. The other thing that really stood out in his mind were her clothes. She was wearing a dark green tunic and a brown skirt, both of which looked almost like they had been made from living plants. Harry could have sworn he saw leaves in her tunic.
"Yeah... I guess so..." he managed after a moment when he realized he was probably staring at her.
"Kailyn's going to be sooo upset," the girl said with a giggle. "She wanted to be the one who was watching over you when you woke up."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked irritably, his headache getting the better of him.
"She means, dear Mister Potter, that we have had a watch over you for the passed two days as we waited for you to awaken," a new voice said from the doorway. Harry looked up and saw a woman with long golden hair and green eyes with red flakes in them. She, too, had long pointed ears and a thin face, but she was wearing a living green dress instead of the tunic and skirt combination. "I'm sure my husband meant you no harm, but it appears that humans are not used to travelling such distances through space."
"Your husband?" Harry asked, thoroughly confused. "Look, what's going on? Where am I?"
The woman smiled tolerantly at him, as though she had expected a much larger outburst. "I can understand your concern, but you are perfectly safe here. In fact, you are one of the first human to grace this village in almost a hundred years." At Harry's confused expression, she grinned more broadly. "But, of course, that doesn't mean much to you, does it? You are in the village of Vlaine, in the forest of Noyadin. The forest of the elves."
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"Blimey, they sure did a number of this place, didn't they?" a tall wizard that Hermione didn't recognize asked as he stepped over the rubble that remained of Number Four Privet Drive. "There's almost nothing left. They even left their own inside when they destroyed it. It all happened so fast, there was nothing any of us could do... I just wish I knew how they arrived, when not even we could apparate directly here."
Dumbledore's hand on her shoulder was all that was keeping Hermione from screaming at the sight before her. There were still small flames licking at what little remained of the wood in the house, but otherwise, everything was in ruins. Her best friend's house was destroyed... utterly and completely destroyed.
With Tonks on her other side, she could feel the pain that the young Auror was facing looking at the mess. Tonks was trying to keep Hermione's spirits up, but with failing spirits of her own, she wasn't doing much good. "Wotcher, Gilive!" she called to the wizard who had stepped out of the rubble. "Please give us good news..." she added, looking at the other Auror carefully, trying to read him.
Gilive looked back to the house and shook his head. "Well, we found at least five bodies of Death Eaters in there, so we know that Harry did a number on them, at least. It looks like he stunned them, but the others just left them to die anyway. We're still sorting through the rest."
"Please, Gilive," Hermione said, breaking free of the grasps of her professor and the Auror. "Please... what about Harry? Is he alright?"
The man shook his head as he looked back to the ruined house. "We don't know, lass."
Hermione could feel that she was on the verge of tears, but clenching her jaw, she nodding and started to walk forward to help search. If Harry was still alive in that mess, then she wasn't about to let him suffer. She would find him, and they would save him. She shook off the hand that tried to stop her, and as she started moving bricks and burnt wood, she saw that both Dumbledore and Tonks were helping.
She was vaguely aware of others appearing as well, and by the time Mrs. Weasley took her gently aware from the rubble to rest, she could barely keep her eyes open, she was so tired. There had been no sign yet. As she sank into one of the chairs that had been set up in the no-muggle zone around the house, she knew that the tears she had fought back had finally started to leak out of her eyes, and she closed them tightly, trying to will the pain away. So... this is how Harry felt at the end of last year... she thought, hiccuping and folding her head into her hands.
"Hey," a voice said from beside her. She looked up slowly and found herself looking to a freckled faced, red haired boy about her age. "I just got here, but I thought you could use more help then them right now."
"Ron..." she whispered, and then broke down completely, her body wracked with terrible sobs. "Ron... Harry's... Harry's de-"
"No," Ron said fiercely before she could finish the thought. "No! Harry is alive and fine and probably hiding somewhere afraid that he's going to get punished for underaged magic again." He voice was strained, but he wasn't showing any fear in his face. "I mean, come on, this is Harry we're talking about here, remember?"
"I... I know..." she managed. Ginny appeared next to her as though out of nowhere with a blanket, which she draped over Hermione's shoulders, and then wrapped the girl in a hug. "Thanks Ginny..."
"He'll be fine," the red haired girl whispered to her. "It's like Ron said. He ran off before after casting magic, remember?"
The memory of Harry telling the story of how he blew up his aunt brought a brief smile to her face before it faded again. "He... he called to warn me he was terrified!" she managed. "He said that they had found him."
"He'll be fine," Ron said fiercely, looking back to the ruins of the house that he had seen twice when rescuing Harry from it in previous summers. "But I might just kill him myself when he comes strolling back!" If there had been any objective observers present, then it would have been obvious that he was trying to convince himself at the same time.
"And to think that three days ago, I was worried about my OWL results more than anything else..." Hermione whispered. Her comment actually brought a grin to both of the Weasley's faces.
"That's our Hermione," Ron said with a smile. "Now, I'll leave you here with Ginny, and bring you something to drink, and then I'm going to start helping... if Mum'll let me, that is," he added darkly, looking over the scene again.
Once Ron was out of earshot, Ginny leaned a little closer to Hermione. "You seem really shaken up by this whole thing," she whispered. "Is there something going on that I should know about?"
Hermione looked sharply to Ginny, but the tears on her face only made that look pathetic. "He asked for help from me, and I couldn't give it to him..."
"But how did he `call' you anyway? And why would he call you, and not, say, Dumbledore, or Lupin?" Ginny pressed.
"He used a telephone, Ginny," Hermione explained, desperately trying to get the other girl to absolve her of the guilt that she felt. She had failed her best friend, even after he had come to her rescue so many times in the past. `Ron's your best friend too...' a small voice said in the back of her mind. `But Harry's different,' another voice pointed out, which only made her start to cry all over again.
"Professor?" Ron called from near the table that had been set up to hand out food. He was holding something up, but neither Ginny nor Hermione could see what it was from where they were. "What is this?" he asked.
Dumbledore came over to him almost at once, and visibly seemed to relax. "That, Mister Weasley, is very good news indeed."
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"Granddad told me all sorts of things about school, Harry," a girl who looked to be about eleven said to him from the seat next to his bed. Although he had woken up some time ago, apparently the healer thought it wisest for him to stay in bed for a while before moving right away. "Is it true that they have a hat that'll divide us up into houses?"
Harry smiled and nodded. "Yup," he explained to the blonde haired child. Her ears weren't nearly as pointed as the other elves that he had seen, and when he had asked her about it, she had said that she was only about a quarter elf anyway. "There's Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Gryffindor. Each house prizes different qualities above others."
"He said that you are in Gryffindor, and well suited there. But he wouldn't tell me why," she said, almost pouting to him. "Could you tell me?"
Briefly, for the first time since Rozan had given him help with what he called mind magics, an image of Sirius falling through the Veil of Death at the Department of Mysteries flashed through his mind. "Not really, Kailyn," he said sadly. "They don't have a house for fools."
"He told me that you tried to stop something terrible from happening," Kailyn said softly, obviously sensing his distress. "You tried to take on Voldemort."
Harry looked to the child in surprise. He only knew of a couple of people who could say the dark wizard's name without fear, and he hadn't expected a child to be one of them. "Why do you say his name, and not You-Know-Who, or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?"
"Why?" Kailyn asked, confused. "He never told me much about him. He just said that he was a danger, and that I would have to be careful while at the school, just in case."
Harry smiled sadly. He had been in the same boat she was in when he had started at Hogwarts. At least she didn't have some blasted prophecy hanging over her head involving murder.
"He also said, unless I'm mistaken, that you were not to bother Harry about his time at school," the elfwoman from before explained. Harry had learned from Kailyn that her name was Fey. "So off you go, child, before he finds out." Once Kailyn finally agreed to leave, she looked back to Harry and sighed. "I think I spoil her too much, but she shouldn't have bothered you with things like that."
Harry shook his head. "No, it's alright. I was just the same as her when I started," he explained. "But with some help of a few friends..." he suddenly trailed off as he realized something terrible. No one knew where he was, and he had left Hermione with a serious warning. "I... I have to let them know I'm alright!" he said quickly, trying to get out of bed again. Fey did not stop him until he was at the door.
"We dispatched a waywatcher as soon as Talisien arrived with you to let them know what happened. He will be even faster than your snowy owl Hedwig."
"How did you know her name?" Harry asked, confused.
"Well, we are creatures of the forest, as you are a creature of the open plains," Fey explained kindly. "But we all share this world, as Dumbledore pointed out to my husband, and now that I have managed to figure out how to run this place with him busy, he will be free to teach for the year."
Harry thought back to the massive lightning spell that the elf she was referring to had used, and he nodded. "I expect we'll learn a lot from him," he said. "Hopefully something that will help."
"Hmm," she said with a sad nod. "That terrible prophecy. Kailyn doesn't know about it, by the way," she added after a moment. "But my husband will do all he can to help you."
"Couldn't..." Harry trailed off, not meeting her eye.
"Couldn't he just kill Voldemort?" Fey asked him, placing a hand on his shoulder knowingly. She had an amazing mother's sense about her, as though she had been caring for people for ages. "No. He is as bound by that prophecy as you are. In a fight, he could be lost, and Vlaine would suffer horribly."
"I guess he's pretty important, isn't he?"
"They don't call him the Ranger of All the Land for nothing, you know?" she said with a chuckle. "Though... to be fair, I guess I called him that first so many years ago now." She saw almost at once that she hadn't answered his question, and one thing that Harry had found himself enjoying in the foreign environment was how none of the elves seemed to hide anything from him. "He is the lord of these lands. King of Noyadin."
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Hermione woke with a start, and immediately cursed herself for falling asleep. Although most of the Aurors who had come to look for Harry were now gone, there were still a couple hanging about, as though waiting for his return. Dumbledore had said that he was in good hands, though even he had to admit that he didn't know where he was. She had insisted on staying with the Aurors, just so she could see for herself when he arrived.
Bloody hell... can't stay awake for more than a couple of hours at a time right now... she thought to herself. If things were different, she might have found it amusing that she was swearing to herself, but with no word about Harry still, it wasn't working out. Her parents were on their way home now, and would be by to pick her up the next day.
Ron had also stayed, insisting that he believed in his best friend, and that he was going to be the first to give him a black eye for making them worry so much about him. However, Hermione had seen him frantically searching through the rubble anyway when he had thought she was sleeping.
Luna had showed up with Ginny at one point, but after an offhanded comment about symbols, she left again, apparently back to Grimmauld place. Now, she could see Ron sorting through rock and wood again, as though trying to find some evidence, something of Harry's that could say one way or the other.
"Excuse me, miss," a soft voice said from beside her suddenly. Whoever had come up beside her had been moving so quietly she hadn't heard them approach, and to say she had been startled wasn't nearly strong enough, but she thanked her lucky stars that she didn't scream. "Are you a friend of Mister Potter's?"
"Harry?" she asked at once, turning to the one who was speaking to her. She could only stare at the face that was there, though. The man had long pointed ears and a thin face, and looked about as stacked as Ron, who was still tall and lanky, but with almost no muscle to speak of. To say he didn't look strong was wrong, though... he looked wiry but seemed to have a lot of strength anyway. "What do you know about him?"
"I was asked to tell his closest friends something important. Are you one of them?"
"Of course I am!" Hermione said desperately in a louder voice than she had intended. "He means so much to me," she said quickly. "Where is he? Is he alright? Do you know what happened here?"
"Hermione," Ron's voice said from beside her. "Let him speak. Harry means a lot to all of us," he added when she looked behind her and found him standing there with Ginny, Luna, and Tonks, who was one of the Aurors who had volunteered to stay behind. "And if you keep asking him questions, then we'll never hear any answers."
Hermione flushed at his accusation, but stayed silent. "You are his friends, then?" the man asked.
"Yes," Hermione snapped angrily, her sleep deprivation showing its ugly head.
The man nodded politely to her anyway, and smiled. "Harry is in good hands. Some of the best hands in our village, I believe. As soon as he is able to travel again, I suspect your Dumbledore will have us bring him to the secret place," he explained, unable to say the address of the house itself.
"He's... he's with the elves?" Hermione asked with a small gasp.
The man smiled to her. "You must be Miss Granger... I was told you were as sharp as a blade, but I guess now I've seen it firsthand. Yes, he is with the elves, in Vlaine. Like I said, in good hands. No dark wizard has ever set foot within the village. They have come to battlefields nearby, but never have they breached the boundaries."
"So..." Ginny said. "He's safe there, I take it?"
"Not for very long, I'm afraid," the elf replied gently.
"But... you just said that..." Ron spluttered.
"It has not happened yet, but as the Wanderer has told me, Voldemort is not your everyday ordinary dark wizard."
"There are everyday ordinary dark wizards?" Ron asked, perplexed, and looked to Luna, who seemed to have been the only one who heard his question.
"I haven't heard of them, Ronald, but then again, I haven't heard of many things in this great wonderful world. My father is always telling me to keep an open mind, though," she explained in her almost otherworldly voice. Ron looked into her grey eyes for a moment before shaking his head with wonder and looking back to the elf, who seemed to be looking at Hermione again.
"Yes, he is the same," the elf explained.
"The same what?" Ron asked.
"Honestly Ron!" Ginny exclaimed. "Weren't you paying attention? Too busy getting lost in your girlfriend's eyes?"
"Hey, I told you-"
"He said that the Wanderer he just spoke of is the same one that's going to be teaching us Defense Against the Dark Arts this year," Hermione explained.
"Hang on," Ginny interrupted. "How did you know about him before?"
"Harry told me," she said quickly before looking to the elf again. "He is alright for now, though, right?"
The elf nodded. "He will be coming to Diagon Alley on the 5th of August to pick up his supplies with the Wanderer, and then will be moving straight to that place until the school year starts. But it could be earlier than that. Stick with your current plans of when you are going, and we will do what we can from our end." The elf then stood up again. "I must be returning. They are probably wondering why I have been gone for so long as it is," he explained. With a simple nod and a loud crack later, he had apparated away.
Hermione sighed in relief as the tension that had been building in her ever since Harry's last phone call washed out of her. She froze again when she found the eyes of Tonks, Ginny, and Ron all on her, while Luna was looking straight up into the sky as though looking for something.
"And just when did Harry tell you anything, Hermione?" Ron prodded her. "Because he hasn't sent us even one ruddy line of parchment all summer!"
"Yeah, Hermione," Tonks said with a wink to her. As she winked, her hair turned the vibrant pink that everyone was used to seeing Tonks with, and then she went on. "Something going on between the two of you that we should know about?"
"He hasn't sent me any owls either!" Hermione objected at once. "We spoke on the phone a couple of times, and that was it! We're friends, isn't that normal?" So maybe it was more than just a couple of times, but it wasn't more than five... and he hadn't called at all for two days before the attack, just a couple of times each day beforehand.
"But why would he speak to you and not to any of us?" Ginny demanded. She seemed angry, and inwardly Hermione groaned. Maybe the youngest Weasley hadn't given up her crush on Harry entirely, and she didn't really feel like fighting with her about a simple misunderstanding.
"Maybe because I have a telephone, and none of you do?"
"We have a telephone," Luna said dreamily. "Father had one put in because some of our writers use so many muggle inventions..."
"Does Harry have your number?" Hermione pointed out.
"I don't think so..."
"There you go then," Hermione said at once as she yawned widely. "I must say, I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep, now that we know Harry's safe."
"An elven teacher should be able to tell me about the Snorkaks," Luna said after a moment of silence. "It should be a good year, I think..."
Hermione kept herself from snorting. "He didn't assign a textbook, you know," she couldn't help but point out. "Even though we have NEWTs next year and all..."
"Yeah," Ron agreed, which caught her offguard. What he said next, though, confirmed that it was still Ron, and not someone pretending to be him. "Means we'll have less studying in that class, and more time for Quidditch."
"You will tell us all about the two phone calls you've gotten, right?" Ginny prompted her. "Because anyone with half a brain cell in their heads still knows that his notes to Lupin are bullocks."
Hermione sighed. "He apologized to me a few times, and asked me about my OWL results, which I still haven't gotten," she explained. She didn't want to mention the time wolf to them, nor how sweet he had sounded to her when he had asked her how she was doing in the second to last call. "And the last call was him in trouble, talking about how `they' had found him."
"He still blames himself for his godfather's death, doesn't he?" Luna asked. "I thought I had helped him last year... he seemed to be better after I spoke to him, anyway... Death, marvelous death, does not exist to the naked eye..." She sang the last part as she turned away from them and wandered back to the rubble.
"I still think she's a bit Loony," Ron muttered under his breath.
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Until the sun sets upon a broken world, I will be watching from within…
The Shadows
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