Chapter 9
The dust had all settled. The battle was finally over. The room stood silent. No too far away there stood a strange veil. On the other side, distant voices. Here the unimaginable happened. Neville looked around with a sense of awe. It was terrible and at the same time almost amazing. Here he had stood his ground. For the first time he found a way to channel the rage within. He wished his parents could have seen him. They would have been so proud. The Order of the Phoenix had come and they had turned the tide of the impossible fight. He was going to live to see another day, just as he knew he would when he looked up at Harry. He was so glad that Hermione had somehow survived. She was a good friend. So, was Ginny Weasley. It made him feel good to stand up for her back in Umbridge's office. He just could not let her be dragged off without someone to look after her. He blushed a little when he thought about her quick smile of gratitude.
It was time now to pick up all the pieces and regroup. He hoped that Dumbledore would understand that they had no choice. Harry decided to save Sirius and they were not about to let him face the darkness alone. Not this time. This time Harry would have all of them by his side; and he had exactly that. They stood against the evil and lived. He doubted anyone would ever hear of this day though. He fancied that the paper might call him The-boy-who-lived. That thought made him do something he had not done in a long while. He smiled as wide as a person could smile. He would not be afraid anymore.
In the distance, he began to hear strange sounds. It sounded like angry voices, like there was a battle. It could not be, he thought, the battle was over. They had won and now it was time to go home.
--- ---
He had done it. He had reached into the past and found him. For better or for worse he had apparated him to here and now. Had he done the right thing? He was not sure, but he had no alternative. There was no one else. He hoped he had kept his enemy in the dark for long enough. Gevin turned and looked over at Ellie. She was beautiful. Her hair was in disarray, her shirt was a bit tattered and her eyes looked tired.
She sat there in silence. Not really looking at him, or anything at all for that matter. He was not completely sure before, but now he was. Ellie was a great deal many things. However, one thing she was not, was a lustful creature of coercion. As much as he craved the feelings she had brought out in him. He knew the truth. He knew she was under their control. He could not let her know he knew. The enemy had to have been close and he had been right. They had been in the same room watching his every move. He had to cast the spell through the chest. Her life depended on it, and so did his.
There in front of him were the ignorant and the faithful bowing and scraping to the powerful wizard. Vilavarg stood back with a look of terrible triumph on his twisted face. Gevin felt completely aware of everything. He was confident he missed nothing. It had to work, because if it did not, then he would lose Ellie and that would leave him with nothing in this dreary world. If she did not survive this night, then he would not survive it either. If she were to die, he would throw himself upon his enemy and hope to take out as many of them as he could before he was taken down. He decided that the man in the black cloak would be his target. He was the one that he hated the most.
Gevin looked at the apparated wizard and said in a clear voice, "You told me that you were my friend. I need you right now. Will you help me? There was no one else, you understand. No on else at all."
The wizard turned to him with a thoughtful look upon his wizened face. "To be honest, I was quite in the middle of something. However, I can see that this was perhaps more important dear boy."
There was a confident twinkle in his eyes that gave Gevin some hope. The wizards were still bowing; they did not realize who lay before them. Gevin's fervent hope that they would be too eager to look too closely, appeared to have worked perfectly. Gevin turned to Vilavarg and realized that time had become abruptly short.
Vilavarg's smile faded. He stared incredulously at the wizard in the center of the room.
"You!" he cried, "It can't be…"
Gevin stood up and aimed his wand straight at Vilavarg and cried out, "Expelliarmus!"
Gevin stopped breathing and held fast to what little hope there was. The spell struck out and hit Vilavarg with dead accuracy. His wand was thrown from his hand. Vilavarg looked down and realized what had happened.
"What?!" he screamed in disbelief.
Gevin cried out again, "Accio!"
Vilavarg's wand flew across the room and landed in his hand. He had done it! If nothing else he had rendered Vilavarg helpless. He whipped around and realized that the battle was not nearly won. He looked up at the old wizard with helplessness.
"Please," Gevin cried, "please help us!"
The crowd around the wizard stood up with wands in hand. All of them pointed straight at Gevin.
"Kill him!" cried Vilavarg. However, the members of The Circle of Emeric did not realize what their leader was ordering them to do. They all made the same dangerous assumption. That Gevin was the enemy in their midst. They all screamed dark curses at him and they unleashed in a torrent upon him.
"No you fools!" Vilavarg declared, "Behind you!"
As Gevin tripped to the ground and felt darkness swell around him, he was oblivious to the events that followed.
"You know," said the forgotten wizard, "that fellow was quite right. You should not have turned your back on me."
He raised his wand and with one fluid motion set a chain of spells in motion. If anyone had been looking they would have declared it the single most brilliantly executed suite of charms, curses and transfigurations that anyone had ever seen. However, the dozen wizards who were attacked from behind never saw it coming. In a matter of moments the battle was already over. The lone wizard had won without even having to raise a single shield spell in his own defense.
Vilavarg fell to his knees in anguish. His mouth gaped open at the great Circle laying in various states of unconsciousness and entrapments. He looked up accusingly at the wizard.
"Yes, well then, you must be Vilavarg I assume. If I had known you were going to cause such a bother I would have had the Order tracking you as well. A mistake I am glad to have rectified. Oh, yes of course, where are my manners?"
He held his hand out to Vilavarg who simply returned the gesture with venom in his eyes.
"I'm Albus Dumbledore. Glad to finally meet you face to face. I hope you aren't too disappointed in our young Gevin. A brilliant bit of quick thinking on his part; wouldn't you say?"
--- ---
Ellie was blinking her eyes and shaking her head. She still felt quite dizzy, but was relieved to feel that the inside of her head was empty of everything but herself. When Gevin had yanked the wand from Vilavarg's hand and the other wizards had lost interest in her, the Imperius Curse seemed to have been loosened over her. It was enough for her to recognize that things had gone terribly wrong. Her Gevin was facing down a mountain of curses that no way he could have survived. It was all she could think of and for the moment it had saved their lives.
Just before the spells landed on Gevin she grabbed his leg and then touched the rune on the chest. As had been supposed, an overwrite of the port destination was only temporary. It had worn off and now they had been transported to wherever the original destination had been. Wherever it was, it was very dark.
She reached around for Gevin and he was lying beside her.
"Gevin?"
"I'm here Ellie, hang on. Lumos!"
His wand lit up in response and allowed them to see where they were. It was a large cavern. It was a bit cold and it was very wet. There was a dark tunnel leading off into the distance, but that appeared to be the only entrance or exit. There were bones strewn out upon the ground haphazardly. The mustiness smelled strange and old. There was a layer of dust and debris lying on everything.
"Where are we?" Ellie asked.
"I'm not sure, but I don't think anything has been here in a long, long time," Gevin replied earnestly.
Gevin stood up and held his wand out to get a better look. His heart froze for just a moment. What first appeared as a dragon in the tunnel ahead was nothing more than bones now. The beast had been dead, most likely for centuries.
"So, that was how he did it?" Ellie exclaimed, "Emeric had them ported somewhere insanely dangerous, so no one would ever hear from them again."
"Lucky for us, this danger lost its fatal design long ago," he mused.
"Well, now what?"
Gevin stood thinking for a moment.
"Well," he said, "first this."
He stepped toward her and pulled Ellie into his arms. Without hesitation he pressed his lips against hers and kissed her and stayed there for quite some time. It was sweet and overwhelming.
"I love you," Gevin said after pulling back for a moment.
"I love you, too," Ellie said with a silly smile on her face.
"Do you… do you still want me?" Gevin said with hope is his eyes.
"What are you talking about?" Ellie returned.
"Oh…um… nothing, never mind," he said with an embarrassed response, "I… it was… well back when you were under… it doesn't matter."
Ellie looked at him and then let a wicked grin creep across her lips.
"Yes, Gevin. I still want you," she replied breathlessly.
They held each other, there in that strange cave.
--- ---
"So, that's why you suddenly remembered something that never happened," Tonks announced with some enthusiasm.
"Yes, indeed, a very strange turn of events, but it all worked out in the end," Dumbledore smiled, "I only wished I could have reached out to the young man sooner. Perhaps if I could have brought him here to Hogwarts, I could have… helped him."
The door to the small office opened and the imposing form of Hagrid stood in the doorway.
"I found 'em. They were in that cave, jus' like you said."
"I hope you found them quite safe?" Dumbledore said.
"Aye, they were just fine. They were… ah… well… snogging a bit when I found 'em. I brought them here. He said he wanted to see the Hogwart's cemetery. So, I took him there. I told him that no one had been buried there in over two centuries. He was adamant about going, so I left the two of them by the graves."
"Of course," Albus spoke softly, "they were there visiting young Tobias I would presume. Gevin must have a powerful charm on him to be able to overcome the forgetting curse of the grendel hags."
"Hmmm, well I did notice he had a strange cube he was wearing around his neck. He kept holding it all the time. Seemed to bring him some comfort it did," Hagrid told them.
"Hmmm, a cube you say, yes… that might do it indeed," Dumbledore pondered, "I did not even know that was still around. It was an old charm that I thought had been lost. Well, then it would appear that dear Tobias will be remembered by those who knew him best. I must pay a visit to his parents very soon and help them remember. I regret that I must now inform another set of parents of the untimely death of their child. The cost of this war seems to grow with great callousness."
Tonks looked in deep thought. "How, exactly did Gevin Rookwood pull you out of the past? From what you said there has to be a bloodline to cast a spell into the past with that chest."
"Indeed you are right," Dumbledore said with a smile, "Gevin's mother has an interesting ancestry. Her great, great Grandmother had a very peculiar last name."
"It wouldn't by chance be Dumbledore now would it?" Tonks exclaimed in an almost sing-song voice.
Albus Dumbledore chuckled.
--- ---
Hermione was exhausted, but grateful. She was fingering the parchment from Tobias as she was walking through the school grounds. She had remembered reading in one of the old tomes in the library that there was a small and very rarely used cemetery kept up by the school. She had completely forgotten about it, until a couple days ago. Since then she had made many trips there to see where Tobias had been laid to rest. It was painful to go there, but she had made a promise to not forget and she was not about to break it.
She arrived thinking this would be the last time she could visit until after the summer break. She wanted to ask Harry to come with her, but she decided that this would be her secret place. She could come here to think and no one would bother her. It was a refuge from all the craziness in her world.
She had run through the things that Tobias had told her. She was very glad that this particular vision had fallen under the twenty percent margin. She did not regret her decision to go and die for Harry, but she was also quite glad that she could be around to still be near her dearest friend. She laughed harshly at herself.
Friend? Is that all it is? Is that what drives her to defend him with every breath she has? Is that what drives her to comfort his every fear and sorrow? Is it what secretly makes her want to pull him close and run her fingers through his hair every time he feels lonely?
"Harry Potter. You have made my life quite a bit more complicated than I ever thought possible," she said out loud. "I'll let you go back to the Dursleys this summer none the wiser, but very, very soon… I do believe I'll sit you down, tell you just how much you've screwed my life up, and you had better…"
Her voice caught in her throat, "…you had better feel the same way about me, or I'll… Oh, who am I kidding, I'll still follow you around like a puppy dog. What else can I do? You mean everything to me."
She had finally made it to the edge of the cemetery and she saw a slightly older couple walking out the opposite end. They looked to be just a couple years out of school. He seemed very tired. The young woman had her arm wrapped around him and her head was leaning on his shoulder.
"Is that Gevin?" Hermione whispered to herself.
She almost called out to him.
"It is."
Hermione was startled. The familiar voice had come from behind her. She turned to face Dumbledore.
"That was Gevin and Ellie. Two very special people. Very, very special," Dumbledore said in a subdued voice. "Two battles were fought that night in the ministry of magic. You fought in one and they fought in the other. Both battles will change the course of history, I believe. We'll just have to wait and see how right I am about that."
"So, everything Tobias told me, really was happening?" Hermione asked gently.
"Did you ever doubt?"
"No. No, I guess I never did. What will happen to them?"
"I have asked them to come and stay here at Hogwarts. I believe that it is quite time this old school offered some new classes. I have asked Gevin to teach History of the Dark Arts and I've asked Ellie to teach Magical Properties of Enchanted Artifacts. They are going away for awhile, but promised to give me an answer as soon as they can."
"Where are they going?" Hermione prodded.
"Far away I suppose. I believe they are to be married and want to spend some time together away from everything. Gevin has a great deal of healing to do."
"Really? What over?"
"It is hard for him to come and work here for us?"
"What do you mean for 'us'?" Hermione said a bit sharper then she meant to.
"Gevin's life has been very hard Hermione; do not be quick to judge his mistrust of us."
"Yes, I guess being the nephew of Augustus Rookwood would be a bit of a weight," she said darkly.
"Miss Granger, look at me."
Hermione felt awful for speaking poorly about Gevin. She looked up into Dumbledore's face.
"I tell you this, only because you were involved, but you are not to tell this to anyone else. I will be very disappointed in you if you do otherwise. Gevin has every reason to hate us. I have no doubt I would hate us, if I were him. There was a time during the first battle against Voldemort where not all of the wizards on our side were as… shall we say burdened by morals as the Order is. There is a room in the ministry of magic where terrible torturing was done in the name of goodness. There was a young man and woman, who happened to be innocent, wrongly convicted of working for Voldemort. They were both tortured and killed by the Unspeakables in that chamber. You see, Gevin is much like our young Harry. Their parents were both killed by their enemy. He has a bit of a rough road ahead deciding where his allegiances lie. Although, I can say with almost certainty that they will return here someday, donning the robes of Hogwart's Professors."
Hermione said nothing. There was nothing more to say.
--- ---
The drive back was long and numbing. Harry sat back in his seat and said nothing to the Dursleys; not that they would have wanted him to say anything. He thought back on the school year. He felt a sense of regret for all the anger that he vented on Ron and Hermione. He made a promise to himself that he would set things right as soon as he could see them again.
He thought hard on Hermione's promise that they would come for him soon. He believed her, and he would count the days until she came… until 'they' came…
Why, when he thought of being rescued, did he only think of Hermione coming to get him at first? Like she would fly down on a broom and throw his window open with her wand and whisk him away from all the terrible things in his life. He began to smile at the thought of that. He thought of riding on a broom with her leaning against him and he imagined his arms around her. Feeling safe. Feeling whole. Smelling her hair and feeling her hand reaching back to brush his face. Then her turning around to face him kissing him as they flew into the wide-open sky.
Harry shot straight up. He pressed his hand to his forehead. Not because of a pain from his scar, but from a bit of sweat on his brow. He began to blush at his own thoughts.
"What are you grinning for?" Mr. Dursley said suspiciously. He had seen Harry in the rear view mirror.
"Oh, nothing. Just thinking about school," Harry muttered.
Vernon snorted, but said nothing in return.
Harry looked out the window and a smile crept across his face. He could almost see Hermione flying on a broom right beside the car. He wished she really were there. Then he thought about kissing her again and he began to grin some more. That thought made the trip to Pivet Drive almost bearable. He just couldn't seem to wipe the smile from his face.