A Hero In The Darkness

cew-smoke

Rating: PG13
Genres: Romance, Action & Adventure
Relationships: Harry & Hermione
Book: Harry & Hermione, Books 1 - 5
Published: 28/08/2004
Last Updated: 13/09/2004
Status: completed

In the end, it is a story of love amidst adventure and sorrow. This is the story of a couple who come from the unlikeliest of places. There story becomes intertwined with Harry and Hermione. Harry and Hermione are trying to survive their fifth year at Hogwarts. There is more than just Voldemort and the death-eaters causing trouble in the world. For those who remember their wizarding history, we have villains who have been here since the long distant past. I am trying VERY hard not to change Harry and Hermione's story, just show some deeper insight. This fan fic does its best to fit like a missing puzzle piece into the cannon literature. I put a lot into this story; I hope you enjoy it. Please let me know your thoughts.

Chapters

1. I

2. II

3. III

4. IV

5. V

6. VI

7. VII

8. VIII

9. IX

1. I

Chapter 1

There was a distinct smell of acrid smoke hovering near the entrance to Borgin and Burkes. Gevin Rookwood stood across the street, trying to ascertain its cause. Most folks merely glanced at the old store front and kept on walking. Those who were interested weren’t going to show it and those who were not, wanted everyone else to know they had noticed it. It was a dangerous mistake to give the air of obliviousness. You had better prove you knew what was going on around you, or it would be taken as a sign of weakness. Give something too much weight and you were considered a novice, ripe for the picking.

Gevin did not fit into any particular category. He wasn’t a bad seed, but being the nephew of one Augustus Rookwood placed him in a precarious world. Those who stood against the dark arts practitioners turned their noses up at him, and trusted him about as much as they trusted a Red Cap. Those who secretly aligned themselves with the Death-Eaters, and their crowd, gave him a grudging respect. Everyone else usually ignored him the best they could.

He spent a great deal of time wandering Knockturn Alley, staying at a small inn across the street from the infamous dark arts shop. His Uncle had left him a sizeable sum of galleons shortly before disappearing from his job in the ministry of magic. Gevin, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, accepted the money and did his best to lay low. Out of sight, out of mind he figured. His Uncle, usually one to attach strings to everything, did this one without even a minor request. Gevin wondered if his Uncle had a premonition about things to come. Maybe the dark mark at the Quidditch World Cup last year had something to do with it. He was just not sure.

He had feared that today would be just another boring day, but the sudden afternoon commotion across the way piqued his curiosity. He knew Mr. Borgin’s daughter was watching the store, while her father was away. Borgin was off looking to acquire more goods to pawn off on the foolish and the ignorant, no doubt. In spite of his wariness of getting involved with anything, he strode across the narrow street and briskly walked in through the greenish-purple smoke.

As he entered a large mirror stood just inside. He briefly caught a glimpse of his unkempt self. His hair was mussed and his clothes were bedraggled, but that was no act of laziness. He spent a great deal of time simply disappearing into the shiftless crowds. If he was planning to visit the Diagon side of things, he was miraculously cleaned up and dressed well, to avoid anyone noticing him there either. Today was definitely a Knockturn day.

He allowed himself to breathe in again after passing through the unknown smoke and took a good look around. The store was much the same, a little too dark and a little too disorganized; at least to the untrained eye. Gevin knew full well that the store was laid out with strict purpose. Certain items were simply not allowed to be next to others. The chance that something quite unfortunate might occur was kept to the safest minimum; though he would never let his guard down. A silver snake orb was only an aisle away from a vulture’s head idol. If the two were to ever be accidentally touched simultaneously by someone who had even a drop of muggle blood in them, they would cause a magical rift that would most likely take out a large section of the surrounding neighborhood. He knew this, because his Uncle taught him all too well.

Finally, his eyes came to rest on Elwyna Borgin. She was beautiful in her own way, but her sullen and withdrawn personality did much to hide it. Her dark black hair was long and cut in severe angles that offset her moonlight-pale skin, giving her a strangely gothic poise. Her lips, always seemingly pursed, were colored an odd shade of violet and her large eyes were dark and foreboding. Gevin liked her, in that she fit in about as well as he did. Which is to say, not at all. She was staring at a small, black chest in the middle of the floor. It still bore a label from its recent origins. Albania. It had a large warding rune on its lid and there was a continuous seep of the strange smoke emanating from it. She appeared extremely unhappy about the whole thing.

“Hi Ellie”

“What do you want,” she announced sternly, as she turned to face him. “Oh, it’s you. I didn’t realize.” She appeared briefly flustered, but almost immediately her brow became furrowed again. She turned back toward the chest.

“My father has lost his mind. Why would he send this thing here? He had better already have a customer for it, or I am going to personally hang him when he returns!”

“Always the charming one.”

“Shut up, Gevin! Or I will beat you with some old dragon sinew.”

“Ahhh, yes, is it any wonder that half of Knockturn lives in fear of you?”

Elwyna stopped for a moment and then broke out into a sudden laugh. It was a cold laugh, but it was about as normal of a reaction as you would ever get from her.

“I’ll pay you to take that thing far away from here and bury it somewhere in Queerditch Marsh.”

Gevin sighed, “Alas my fair daughter of darkness, I’m loathed to incur your father’s wrath. The man is somewhat touched in the head.”

“Of course he’s touched in the head. He runs a store for the dark arts just down the way from Gringott’s Bank! One day the ministry is going to come down here and blow this entire alley off the map. Then where will all the outcasts and misfits go?!” she snapped.

“What’s in it,” Gevin asked.

“I’m not exactly sure. I was just about to read the letter my father sent along with it.”

Elwyna quietly poured over the letter’s contents, her face becoming darker and darker as she read. Her mood was definitely going south, Gevin noted.

“Father says in his letter, that it is some sort of divining chest. Apparently you can gaze into its depths and see across vast distances. Blah, blah, blah… wait a minute. He says that if you spill some of your blood into it, you can actually cast a spell at whatever you are looking at, as if you were right there.”

“Are you kidding me Elwyna,” Gevin said with a degree of shock, “that has got to be one of the most dangerous thing I’ve ever heard of?”

“I… I agree,” she whispered, “my Father says it was buried in an old tomb that has been lost for ages. He stumbled upon it quite by accident, but mentioned that he has already received a substantial offer for it. Maybe even enough to close up shop and disappear for the rest of his life.”

“Ellie, if someone foolish, or worse, were to get their hands on this… I hate to think of what could happen.”

“What should we do,” Elwyna asked intently. “I mean if someone is willing to offer my father that much money, then I have a hard time believing they’re up to anything good. Not that I mind a bit of mayhem in the world, but this would put someone in the same league as Albus Dimwit-dore or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. That’s not a good thing, even in my twisted little book.”

Gevin thought for a moment and suddenly his face lit up.

“I have a friend of sorts,” Gevin cautiously offered. “They’re a student at Hogwart’s. I’ll ask him to wander into the library there and see what they can find out about it. Let’s just hope there’s a way to destroy this thing without getting ourselves killed.”

“Why are you helping me Gevin?” Elwyna asked with obvious mistrust in her voice.

“Because, I like you Ellie.”

“Why on earth do you call me Ellie?! No one calls me Ellie!” she retorted waspishly.

“That’s exactly why I call you that. It’s my nickname for you. It sort of gives me a piece of you that no one else can have.”

“Just exactly how is that you like me anyway?”

“Oh, in all sorts of unhealthy and unnatural ways. If I had my way, you’d belong to me.”

Elwyna looked at him intensely for a moment. She noticed that he had an odd smirk on his face. “You’re not entirely kidding are you?”

“I have no idea,” he slyly replied, “why do you ask?”

“You are quite evil when you put your mind to it, dear Gevin. I may have to… take measures to protect myself. I don’t think I trust you very much.”

“Oh, Ellie, if I was going to spirit you away and make you my personal House-Elf, don’t you think I would have done that by now?”

“I’d like to see you try, you arrogant fop!”

“Ellie,” he lashed out, “I am quite fond of you and have been for sometime. Just let it go at that.”

For a moment her features softened. She chewed on his words for a bit.

“I fully expect you to steal me away from all of this some day. If you don’t, I’ll know you are a liar. Are you a liar Gevin?”

He did not answer her. He stared at the chest for awhile and then turned and walked out of the store. As he left, her eyes followed him. She wondered what his game might be. She played the part of evil daughter well enough, but the disguise was beginning to wear around the edges. Gevin always seemed to bring out the softer side of her nature. In a way she liked it; in another it made her want to strangle him where he stood.

--- ---

Deep in thought, Gevin quickly ran across the street and ducked into his room at the inn. He picked up a piece of parchment and a quill and drew out the chest and its strange rune as best he could. He also jotted down everything he could think of about it. He needed to find out more about this thing. He began to wonder who was so interested in it. He knew little about why his Uncle disappeared, but he was starting to fear the worst.

“What if,” he spoke to himself, “…what if?”

His thoughts immediately went to Elwyna. He wished he didn’t think she was so pretty. She was a difficult distraction for him. Not to mention, he feared that if he ever gave in to that distraction it would be the best day of his life, and knowing Elwyna, possibly the last day of his life. He shut her out of his mind for the moment. He checked his calendar and sure enough, tomorrow was the day the Hogwart’s students went to Hogsmeade. He had already planned to be there for other reasons. There always seemed to be kids from the school who seemed to know what was going on in the world. He often would just blend in and listen to whatever scraps he could get.

He would need to get there and find his ‘friend’. The boy had been helpful to him in the past and hoped he would prove to be useful again. He worried if he had enough information for him to track down anything useful. Evil things have a peculiar way of protecting themselves. It can be very dangerous to try and destroy or disarm them. He thought about dropping the thing off at the ministry of magic, but feared that one of his Uncle’s cronies would get their hands on it, before it could be dealt with. He had a new fear gnawing at him now as well, what if Voldemort really was back and knew about the chest. Things would already be in motion. Time was terrifyingly short. Unfortunately, it had to wait until tomorrow.

Gevin laid himself in the small bed in the corner of the room. He sat staring at the ceiling and let his mind wander. There were old cobwebs, long since abandoned hanging from the wooden ceiling. He felt the cool evening air blowing in through the small shutter window. He pondered his strange, new life living on the fringe of everything. In some ways he liked it, but he missed his old life. It was far from perfect, but at least he wasn’t in perpetual hiding. Thanks to his Uncle, he had come under a dark cloud of suspicion. His own parents long since dead, there really was not anywhere for him to be right now. So, here was as good as any he figured. If things started to get really bad, he had planned on disappearing out of the country altogether.

He thought again about Elwyna and it started to tug at his mind a bit. He blinked his eyes hard to get her image out of his head. He couldn’t let himself become too attached. He might have to disappear completely and knew he couldn’t take her with him. She was very pretty though, he fancied running away from it all with her. That would be nice, he thought. He rolled over in exasperation with himself and tried hard to sleep, but it wasn’t working out very well. He sighed quietly and lay there until he finally closed his eyes until morning would arrive.

--- ---

Gevin never saw the dark figure steal into his room. The man crept in through the window in a most unnatural way. He surveyed the room and saw what he had expected. The boy had enough money to pay for various wards around the room. If he had apparated in they would have alerted him immediately. He chuckled softly to himself and for a brief moment considered ending everything here and now, but he kept his hand still. This worthless nephew of Augustus could become a useful pawn.

The boy was virtually unknown to the ministry. His Uncle did well by hiding the fact that he had been living with him all this time. Now, nothing more than a Knockturn riff-raff, he could come and go pretty much as he pleased. This made him an invaluable tool. A tool to be manipulated and used as the Circle saw fit. He scribbled something on a small scrap of paper and laid it on the rickety nightstand beside the bed.

“What will you do,” the ominous presence whispered. “Who will you choose to serve in the end, and will your choice even matter. I think not, too many things have already been set in motion. Remember, we are watching you… always.”

Gevin stirred in his sleep, but did not wake. His hand instinctually wrapped around his wand, hidden under his pillow, but then he slowly drifted back into slumber. The shadowy form slipped out the window where he had come in and disappeared into the night. Gevin never knew how lucky he was that his hastily written notes about the dark artifact had gone unnoticed.

--- ---

The morning had finally come and Gevin slowly felt himself waking up. He noticed he had left the window open. A stupid mistake he thought. Apparently it had not mattered. All of his wards were still in place. He pulled himself up and took in the cool air. Across the room on a small end-table were his notes. He began to stand up when he turned and looked to his left. A piece of paper caught his eye and he paused.

“I don’t remember leaving anything there,” he whispered to himself.

He reached down and picked it up. There was some writing on it…

We have always been here,
and we will always be.
We are watching you from the darkness.
You will serve us or die.
T.C.O.E.

2. II

Chapter 2

Tobias was a different sort of boy. He had a deep yearning for discovering the truth that lies behind things. He simply cannot stand not knowing how something works or why it works. He spent a great deal of his youth taking things apart that should never have been taken apart. His parents spent most of their time throwing their hands up in exasperation at their only son. He had a knack for magic in a way that neither of them did. His abilities in transfiguration were pitiable, his herbology embarrassing at best. However, in the fields of uncovering mysteries he had a unique gift. His grasp of arithmancy, divination, and the dark arts was almost scary. What made him so unique was that he could care less. The dark arts were nothing more than a means to an end. He had no desire for cruelty or power. He simply desired to break things down into their simplest form to see what was at the core of the matter. The sorting hat spent a great deal of time wondering what to do with him during his first year. In the end, it placed him in Slytherin, in hopes that he would expand on his understanding of power, to help ensure that he would never misuse his ‘gifts’. It worked quite well. He had no problem fitting in with his classmates, but he spent most of his time away from them and their petty dealings with the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors. He envied the Ravenclaws for their noble pursuit of knowledge, but if they knew where his true strengths lay, they would reject him. He was where he had to be.

He was excited to be in his third year. His mother had told him that Hogsmeade would provide a happy distraction from the school year. Then there was the possibility that ‘he’ would be there. They had an odd sort of friendship. A few years back, before he had even received an invitation to Hogwarts, Tobias had begun teaching himself spells from the books his parents kept in their personal library. One time he had attempted to apparate himself and somehow wound up directly in front of a mildly surprised Gevin Rookwood. Gevin immediately realized the situation was going to quickly go poorly for him and taking pity grabbed his wand. When the ministry officials showed up to determine the illegal apparating, Gevin explained that he had apparated using Tobias’s wand to show him how it was done. The whole thing boiled down to a stern lecture and since nothing could be proved, no one was punished. Ever since that day, Tobias had felt a sense of debt to the older boy. He also knew that Gevin was the type to exploit that relationship, but it never really bothered Tobias too much.

He had already known from reading the tea leaves in Professor Trelawney’s class that he would meet up with an old friend. He had no other friends, so he surmised what was to come. Tobias never told Trelawney what he really saw in her class. He was never one to give someone satisfaction who he felt had not earned it. Trelawney had definitely not earned it. That thought made him smile, as it often had before.

Snape had already received and approved his application to go to Hogsmeade and so he was fully prepared to enjoy the trip. His father had even given him a couple galleons to spend while he was there. He had full intentions of loading up on sweets from Honeydukes. He may excel at the dark arts, but he was only thirteen after all. A little sweet-tooth never hurt anyone he surmised. Plus, the thought of topping off the day with a warm butterbeer from The Three Broomsticks, seemed to have a nice sound to it. He hurried down to where the other students were already gathering for the trip. He had a sense of excitement about it all and was excited to get going. As he came bouncing out of the Slytherin common room he nearly bumped into one of the Weasley clan. He thought it was probably Fred, but he still had a difficult time telling the twins apart. Not that he put much thought into it. It wasn’t that he disliked them for any particular reason; he just never saw them as being important to his life at school.

Before Tobias knew it, they were off to Hogsmeade. After a seeming eternity, they had finally arrived, only to be let loose on the shopkeepers who hated the crowds, but loved the profit on Hogwarts weekends. Tobias, who had of course memorized a map of the area, headed immediately towards his destination. As he started to get closer his smile got larger. He could almost taste the confectionary delights that awaited him.

Tobias suddenly felt a sense of awful dread. An unseasonable chill ran down his spine. He felt a cold touch brush against him and he immediately recoiled. He quickly turned around to see what it was, but only briefly caught a glimpse of a dark cloaked figure disappearing into the crowd. He was almost positive it was a woman, but he could not quite be sure. He wanted to run somewhere and tell someone, but he had no idea of what he would have said. He was sure his concerns would be dismissed. He considered bringing it up with Professor Snape as soon as he returned. For the moment, he did not feel in any immediate danger, so he ducked into the candy shop.

Almost as if on queue, standing inconspicuously in the corner of the store, was Gevin. Apparently, he had already guessed Tobias would come here. He seemed a bit more gaunt than he last remembered, but he was still a formidable looking wizard.

Without any thought whatsoever, Tobias walked up to him and immediately blurted out, “I think I just bumped into something rather odd a second ago.”

“Shhh. Listen Tobias. There is something serious happening and I really need your help.”

“Hmmm… how many times have we started a conversation like this?” joked Tobias.

“Too many my small friend, but this time is a bit more hairy. I need you to put your inquisitive mind to work on a project. Here take this.”

Tobias took the rolled up parchment and began to open it.

“No. Not here,” interjected Gevin. “I need you to keep this VERY low key. I need to know what exactly it is and much more importantly how to destroy the thing without taking myself along with it.”

Tobias finally noticed that Gevin looked extremely unnerved. Something very uncharacteristic for him. It started to make him nervous as well.

“What…”

“Not now, please believe me when I tell you that I have to go back underground as soon as possible. Don’t send this via owl to me. It’s far too dangerous. If you find anything, then tell the Bloody Baron. I have a mutual acquaintance that haunts the old shoemaker’s shop in Knockturn Alley. The Baron owes ol’ Gifflewad a favor and Giffle is currently in my debt. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Gevin, but pleeease tell me what is going on.”

“I will, I promise, as soon as I figure it out myself. I’m being watched and I don’t even know by whom. Hey, do you know what T-C-O-E stands for? It’s an acronym of some kind?”

“I… I’m sorry I don’t.”

“Okay. That’s alright.” Gevin looked at the trembling boy. “I’m really sorry Tobias. I don’t want you to be involved with this, but I don’t know anyone else as smart as you and I really need this.”

Tobias looked carefully at Gevin and saw that his face was serious and held no sense of guile. That made him even more concerned. Gevin was not joking around at all. This is as real and immediate as he had ever known him to be.

“I promise, I’ll do this for you,” he earnestly replied.

“Thank you. I have to go now. Keep your eyes open.”

As quick as Mrs. Norris, Gevin exited Honeydukes and shifted himself into the crowd. Tobias simply walked out of the store with the parchment tucked under his cloak. The sweets all but forgotten, he made his way back to the edge of Hogsmeade. He needed to get back to the school and quickly.

It seemed to take forever to get back, but he didn’t even take time to stop by his dormitory. He ran straight to the library, found a quiet table and laid the parchment down. He quickly unrolled it and stared at the drawings and notes Gevin had done. A small, black chest with a constant stream of off-colored smoke. A divining chest of some sort. Right up my ally, he mused.

The notes were hastily written and most of it was not helpful at all. Save for a couple of details that could not be ignored. It had a very specific warding rune on its lid. He wondered if it was to keep someone out or to keep something inside. The second was the blood ritual used to have your spell bridge from the chest to what was being divinated. Both of these things would be a unique marker for the artifact. After re-reading everything he decided he probably had enough to begin researching. He wondered if the origin of the chest was meaningful. There just was not a lot of magical goings on in Albania, that he knew of anyway. He looked across the book aisle and stared longingly at the forbidden section of the library.

“I seriously need to find a way in there someday”, he thought. “Well, here’s to hoping that what we need is in the normal selection of books.”

He slowly let the air out of his lungs trying to determine his first move.

“I think I’ll start with books on magical medieval history,” he quietly intoned. “If I can find out who the possible inventors of this thing might be, I can probably locate a more specific text on their creations. Hmmmm.”

He stood up and purposefully began wandering around. He found numerous books that might be worth looking into, but he settled on the two titles: The Dark Wizards of the Dark Ages and Great Wizard Inventors (pre-Renaissance). He hoped there might be at least some clues lurking between the dusty covers. As he headed back to his table he noticed a fifth year Gryffindor student sitting at the table. Her bushy, brown hair was a dead giveaway to who she was. She was reading a book, but not very carefully. It appeared she was trying to look at Gevin’s notes without looking like she was looking at Gevin’s notes. A little alarm went off in his head and he lengthened his stride.

“Hermione Granger I take it?”

She looked up startled at Tobias. She quickly regained her composure.

“I am, and you would be?” There was a definite note of contempt in her voice.

Not that he blamed her. There was no love lost between her and most of the students of his house.

“Tobias Beldower.”

“Wait a minute, that name rings a bell. I think I’ve graded some of your papers in Arithmancy for Professor Vector. You’re a third year, aren’t you?”

“I am.”

“You’re quite good actually, which … sort of comes … as a surprise to me. Being in the ummm” she stammered.

“House that I am in? Don’t worry, I’m not offended. I know full well the reputation of my house precedes me.”

Hermione dropped the pretense and pointedly asked Tobias, “so, what exactly is this anyway?”

He had already prepared an answer to this question before he reached the table.

“It’s a special research project I am doing for Professor Snape. He has asked me to look into this for something special he is working on. I don’t really know much more than that.”

“I see,” she replied, “well, it seems awfully interesting, and to be honest, quite dangerous.”

“I’m not really sure if it even exists anymore, but the professor seems to think it’s important.”

Hermione thought about it for a moment and said, “The rune appears to be an old warding rune. I’m fairly sure it has not been used for quite a few hundred years.”

“That was my thought as well. I’m guessing sometime during the early middle ages,” Tobias calmly responded.

“If I remember my lessons, I seem to remember an old wizard named Em… something. Emeric maybe? I think he was a big believer in warding runes. You should read up on him.”

Tobias was genuinely impressed by her quick analysis. He knew the stories all too well about the infamous Harry Potter, and his sidekicks Ron and Hermione. He figured that the rantings of one Draco Malfoy were probably not the most accurate place to get the facts. Still, he could not help but feel some resentment towards her. She was often a source of bitter strife for the Slytherins and anything that made Draco miserable, made the whole lot of them miserable.

He found himself having a bit of a hostile stare at the girl. After a moment, she looked back at him.

“I can’t say that I’m a big fan of yours either, but I would appreciate it if you didn’t stare at me like I was a venomous snake.”

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “Maybe I’ve been judging you a little rashly. Perhaps it would be appropriate to get to know you and Harry better, before I decide to hate you for the rest of my natural life. Just don’t let anyone know I said that.”

His last sentence was said with a note of joviality to it.

“So, how long have you and Harry been dating?”

“Excuse me?” she said with a bit of shock in her voice. “Harry and I are just friends. We’re very close, but believe me, you can’t believe all that nonsense that was written in the Daily Prophet last year.”

“I never read the Daily Prophet,” he politely replied. “I came to that conclusion on my own. I’ve seen how inseparable you two are and made a poor assumption. My apologies.”

“It’s alright. It was an honest mistake.”

Tobias turned right back around and dug out a few more books that might have more information on a wizard named Emeric. After searching for a bit he discovered what he was looking for and it wasn’t exactly a positive discovery. He sighed a bit louder than he had intended to.

“Did you find something?” Hermione piped up from behind her own stack of books.

“Yeah, I did. Here it is right here. Emeric the Evil. Apparently he lived up to his name. He had some very strange ideas and philosophies. He was also one of the first wizards to pioneer dark runes. They were outlawed by most civilized wizards shortly after his death, although it might have been unnecessary since his runes have yet to be able to be duplicated. Listen to this, the runes weren’t just to protect a place or thing. They were made to severely punish those who tried to get through them. They were designed to kill, permanently maim, or completely shred the mind of the potential intruder, leaving them stark raving mad. This guy was a real nutcase. Other dark wizards often sought him out simply to have him place his warding runes on their most prized possessions. It also made the protected items almost virtually impossible to dismantle or destroy, lest the rune fulfill its dark design. It would take a seriously knowledgeable wizard to undo an Emeric dark rune.”

“Fascinating,” Hermione genuinely replied. “I wonder why this chest would have the rune on it.”

“My guess is that whoever last owned the thing, wanted to make sure that no one else but them could ever use it.”

“Good point. Now, all you need to do is find out who built the chest and you’re home free. You’ve seriously narrowed down your search field too. All you have to do is study the dark wizards that were alive during the same time Emeric was and that’s the list you go on. I’d be very interested in knowing what you find out. I wonder why Snape is even interested in this.”

“I… err… didn’t ask,” he replied lamely.

“No, I suspect he wouldn’t tell you even if you had. Well, I need to try and get some sleep. Goodnight Tobias of the Slytherins.”

Tobias smiled in spite of himself. “Goodnight Hermione of Gryffindor. Oh and please remember; don’t ever mention that you know me, anywhere near the vicinity of a Slytherin. It would make the next four years of my life a never-ending misery.”

Hermione nodded in affirmation with an understanding smile. She waved at him as she walked out of the library, leaving Tobias alone with his thoughts.

“Oh Gevin my friend, what have you gotten us into,” he moaned.

--- ---

Hermione came around the corner and nearly bumped into Ron. He looked highly irritated.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Oh, Draco is lording it up with this prefect thing. I am still completely boggled how that git ever got selected.”

“I know it isn’t easy Ron, but you have got to learn to not let him get under your skin,” she answered earnestly.

“Yeah, a bit easier said than done. Well, anyway I’m beat. I haven’t done any of my studying for tomorrow, so I’m going to curl up in the common room for awhile. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Goodnight Ron.”

Hermione could still hear him muttering terrible things about Draco under his breath all the way down the hall. She stifled a small laugh and made her way through the common room up to her cozy bed.

She changed out of her robes and into some plaid pajamas. She laid down on her bed and let herself drift off to sleep. Right before she dozed off, she distinctly heard Tobias say to her.

“So, how long have you and Harry been dating?”

What a completely strange thing for him to say. She never thought of Harry that way and she knew that he did not feel that way in return. She took her pillow, placed it tightly over her face and let out a small scream. It left her with a strange giddy sensation. She forced herself to relax and after a bit was able to finally start to fall asleep. Just before passing out completely, she quietly laughed as she could almost hear herself answer Tobias’s question.

“Oh, Harry and I? We’ve been dating for awhile now. Why do you ask?”

--- ---

Elwyna was just locking the front door of the shop. She pulled out her wand and cast four different locking charms on it. Satisfied they all took; she turned around and saw a man walking up the opposite side of the alleyway. As he came closer into view, she recognized him as Gevin. She carefully looked around and then hurried across the street to meet him before he went inside the inn for the night. He looked dreadfully tired. When she got close enough she quietly spoke his name.

“Gevin?”

He turned to her and stared for a moment.

“Ellie, please tell me you’ve locked that chest up somewhere good and tight.”

“I have Gevin. I put it into my father’s safe. No one except him and me can get in there.”

“I got the information into the hands of my friend. He’ll contact me as soon as he knows something.”

She noticed that his eyes were constantly scanning the dark alley around them.

“Ellie, listen to me. Please take every precaution tonight. When you get home, cast every ward and protection spell you can think of, on every opening in or out.”

“I... I will.”

“Good. I have to be upfront with you. I think I am in a lot of trouble. Someone has been watching me and I have a bad feeling they’re a lot better wizard than I am. It might have something to do with my Uncle, but I don’t really know anything for sure. As soon as we destroy that chest, I need to get out of town. Out of England really. Maybe for good.”

Elwyna felt her chest constrict tighter than a drum. She was worried for Gevin, but she was even more frightened of him leaving. She didn’t have many friends around here. Without her father, she was vulnerable. She only felt safe, because she knew that in spite of their differences, Gevin would help her out in a jam.

“Ellie, if I do leave, that is, if I have to run. Will you go with me?” he said with deep sincerity.

“I’ll need to think about it,” she quickly replied.

He was asking her to risk being vulnerable with him. To answer that question with a yes makes her weak and he might take advantage of her weakness. If she says no, then he’s out of her life.

“Ellie?”

“Yes, I’ll go.”

“You will?”

“Yes, I don’t know why I said that a moment ago. Reflex answer I suppose. I don’t need to think about it. I’ll go with you.”

She could not stop herself from saying it. There it was laid out for both of them to see. She let her defenses drop. Now he’ll come in for the kill, she thought. He’ll ask her for money or possibly some of the dark magic from the shop. Then he’ll have what he wants and he’ll leave her. Her breathing was coming entirely too rapidly. The whole alley was swirling around her. She felt sick.

He reached both arms out to her and pulled her close. He held her for a long time. She felt a sob rise up from inside her. It came out violently and she almost fell to the ground, but he held her up. This was the first time in her life, anyone had ever held her. At least since her mother died when she was still very young. She was never more frightened and never more whole than this moment.

“Ellie,” he whispered in her ear, “thank you. I don’t think I can make it through this without you. I know we’ve only known each other for a few months, but you are all I have in this world right now and I’m scared to death to let you go.”

She had no idea of how to reply. Her whole body was in shock and all she could think of right now was how much she hated her father, and hated her mother for dying, and hated the dark arts store, and hated Knockturn Alley, and hated her life… but most important, that she did not hate him. He was the only thing in this world she did not hate. She was not sure what that meant, but knew it must be important somehow. She meant what she said. She would follow him anywhere for as long as she possibly could. She would have given him anything he wanted. All her money, all the artifacts in the store, and even all of her if he asked.

She heard a strange, calming sound in her ears. It was a heartbeat. After a moment she realized it was her own. She was surprised at first. She thought back and could never remember a time she had heard or felt her own heart beat. She knew it always had been there, but never actually recognized it until now. It was a surreal sensation and made her feel something completely strange and new, alive.

He slowly let her go. He looked at her right in the eyes.

“Meet me here tomorrow morning, before you open the store. I have some things I need to tell you, but we’ve been out in the open for too long.”

“Yes, of course. I’ll be right here just after sun up. Do you need me to do anything?”

“Just to be here. We need to make a plan. For some reason I feel that things are starting to unravel. Our time and resources are going to be very limited. We’ll need to make every move count.”

He pulled her head up and placed a small kiss on her forehead. Afterward, he turned and quietly entered the inn. She turned around, made sure everything was clear. Then apparated home. She remembered his instructions and followed them to the letter. Every door and window was charmed and re-charmed with everything she could think of and she ran up to her room.

She pulled out a pale brown duffle bag and started filling it with everything she would need if she had to pull out fast. She just completely opened herself up to Gevin and she was going to make absolutely sure that boy did not leave her behind. She laughed for a second, thinking he was twenty years old. Not exactly a boy, but it fit better than any other adjective she tried to put in there. Holding on to that thought made her feel calm inside for some reason. Men are evil pigs, but boys… boys still have some hope of growing up to be decent. She started to think of ways to help ensure that path was the one he was going to take. Those thoughts actually made her smile.

--- ---

Gevin went past the common room and went straight to his small room on the top floor of the inn. He entered the room, turned around and pulled out his wand. He immediately began casting the runes of alarm and protection every few feet. He felt a strange cold sensation in the back of his neck.

“LUMOS!” he cried.

The tip of his wand flared up with a bright light. He whipped around and searched every nook and corner. He saw nothing. The panic slowly began to subside and he picked up where he left off. He started over with each spell and did not stop until he had completely wizard proofed his room.

After a moment of collecting himself he sat down on the end of his bed and began to think. He worked through all the possible scenarios to make sure he was ready for whatever might come. The only thing he made sure of was that every scenario ended up with Elwyna coming with him in the end. After he was tired of thinking he crawled into bed and fell asleep shortly after.

The spells all in place quietly watched the room from every angle, to ensure that no wizard would dare come inside. The shuttered window slowly opened. A strange woman entered the room in almost complete silence. She clearly saw the runes carefully placed everywhere she looked. She quietly cackled to herself.

“Too bad I’m not a wizard, young Gevin.”

He was lying perfectly still. His steady breathing assured her he was asleep. She smiled a wicked smile showing razor sharp teeth from top to bottom. She quickly unfolded her talons from underneath her robe. She could smell his life moving through him. Tonight she would feed on human flesh. She sprang towards him with unnatural speed and began to tear him apart.

--- ---

Hagrid was calmly rocking back and forth on the new rocking chair he had recently traded for, in Diagon Alley. An old shopkeeper did not need it anymore and Hagrid no longer needed the powerful chains he used to keep Buckbeak tied up with. It was a fair trade he thought and after McGonagall had kindly transfigured it to just the right size, he wouldn’t trade it for the world.

It was a nice night to be sitting outside with Fang and enjoying a large cup of tea. He rocked back and forth while thinking of what he might like to do next year with his class. He felt he needed to find a new creature to introduce to the students. Something Harry, Ron and Hermione would not roll their eyes at so much.

Fang quickly lifted his head up and starting breathing heavily.

“What is it Fang,” he said in his clear baritone voice. “You hear something.”

Fang immediately turned around and went into Hagrid’s hut. Hagrid looked irritated, but it was nothing new. He sat there for a moment listening and heard a strange sound coming from the forest. He got up and grabbed his crossbow.

“Grawp? Is that you,” he said loudly.

There was no answer. He quickly moved into the forest to investigate. He kept pressing towards the sound he heard a few moments ago. Then suddenly he heard a low moan, followed by an unnatural gurgling sound. He pressed forward, until he came upon the source.

“What the? This ain’t right!”

At his feet was one of the centaurs. It had been attacked and killed, only a few moments before. It was not a fair fight. The centaur never had a chance. The body was ripped up so badly he could not even guess who it might have been. He was going to have to find the other centaurs and let them know. Something, very dangerous has taken up residence in the forest. The problem was he had no idea what it was. He wiped a trickle of sweat from his brow.

“I’ll be needin’ to talk to Dumbledore. This could seriously affect our ‘talks’ with the centaurs,” he announced to no one in particular.

Hagrid figured it was going to be a long night.

3. III

Chapter 3

Things seemed to change drastically almost overnight. The other houses were beginning to complain bitterly about Dumbledore being replaced by the ministry appointed Umbridge woman. Draco, Crabbe and Goyle seemed to be overjoyed. Malfoy was going out of his way to make the Gryffindor students suffer under him as a prefect. Tobias finally decided that he could not let what was going on in the rest of the school deter him from his quest for knowledge. He needed to unravel the mystery of the divining chest and soon. It was starting to eat him up that his preliminary investigation garnered very little information about the actual artifact. However, he was quite pleased with the help Hermione was able to offer on divining the source of the warding rune. After studying it carefully he determined that it was indeed one of Emeric the Evil’s death runes. So, any false move on this thing would result in instant, unavoidable death. Something Tobias was not about to let happen to Gevin.

He wondered how Gevin was doing. He hoped that he was not in as much danger as his imagination supposed through the nightmares he had all night. He immediately got up and grabbed his wand. He cast a small curse on himself, causing him to break out in a multi-colored rash. He meandered on down to the infirmary and explained to Pomfrey how he accidentally drank one of his experiments from potions class. She went in to full on caregiver mode and gave him a vile tasting medicine to clear up the rash. She informed him it would take a day or two to go away, but that he would feel better soon. After a lengthy debate on where he was to spend those two days, she grudgingly agreed to let him rest in his own bed. Students seemed to be coming down with all sorts of maladies since Umbridge took over and she was completely exasperated by the whole thing.

Tobias thanked her and brought his excuse note around to all of his teachers. Snape was most displeased, but because Tobias was usually such an excellent student he kept the glaring to a minimum. He had succeeded in buying himself the time he needed to continue his research unhindered by his classes. He would have a terrible time catching up, but it would be worth it to get his research finished.

He practically ran down to the library and began pulling books off the shelf. In the process he ran into Hermione doing much the same thing, for different reasons. She looked at him.

“Umm, Tobias, you look awful.”

“Don’t worry. I’m not contagious. It’ll pass by tomorrow.”

“Okay, well I hope you’re feeling better.”

“Thanks. By the way, if you run across any information in your studying about Emeric, let me know.”

Hermione agreed with a smile. She stopped briefly and turned back to Tobias.

“What exactly made you ask about Harry and me last night?”

“I’m a terribly curious person and I am running a series of tests to see how accurate my divination skills have become over the past couple of years.”

“Wh..what are you saying? That you asked me because you had some kind of premonition?”

“Not exactly,” he replied.

“Well, what exactly do you mean then?” she asked while biting her lip.

“I have had some divinations unfold about a number of different students here at Hogwarts and you were one of them. I am writing them down diligently to see how accurate they are.”

“How accurate have you been?” she asked.

“So far? About eighty percent.”

“Eighty?!” Hermione exclaimed. “That’s fairly amazing.”

“I guess. Mostly, it has been a curious exercise in measuring a divinator’s accuracy. I hope to come up with my own scale to measure it on an across the board scale. Perhaps someday Trelawney will be teaching about the Tobias Scale of Divine Measurement. Of which, her score will not even show up on the graph.”

Hermione let out a warm, throaty laugh.

“I like you Tobias. You’ve got a quick wit.”

“Thanks,” he responded modestly.

“So, what exactly did you see…”

“I’m sorry Hermione. I can’t tell you. Part of the test relies on those involved being tested in the blind. If they were to ‘know’ the possible outcome, it could seriously skew there perception and actions.”

“Which of course would completely ruin the findings,” she responded. “I can respect that… I guess.”

Hermione walked away with a very frustrated look on her face. Tobias felt bad, but was glad that she understood how important this test was to him. He once again turned back to searching for the elusive dark wizard who was around when Emeric the Evil was still alive. It was not going to be an easy one.

--- ---

Hagrid explained everything he saw to Dumbledore. Albus sat back in his chair and stroked his beard.

“Have you informed the other centaur’s yet?” Dumbledore queried.

“They would not let me get near them, so I carried the body close as I could and left a note of explanation on it. I’m thinkin’ they are going to need a bit o’ time to work through this one,” Hagrid said sadly.

“We’ll give them a few days to mourn and we’ll start all over again. I have a feeling we’ll be needing there help sooner than we might think.”

“Dumbledore?” Hagrid interjected. “What do ya think about what might of caused this?”

“Alas, dear Hagrid, I fear that our old enemy has enlisted the aid of the grendel hags in his cause. They could pose a serious threat to a lone wizard, and when they hunt in packs they are especially dangerous.”

“Exactly how are they different from your average hag,” Hagrid asked with sincere curiosity.

“Many of us thought they were an old Norwegian myth, but Voldemort proved it otherwise. The first troll ever written about in history was a fierce one called Grendel. Apparently, he took a few hags to be his wives. The children they bore were half-hag and half-troll. They are extremely dangerous and able to blend in to the regular population. They would move in to a town and one by one kill and eat every last one of them and then move on.”

Hagrid gave that some thought, “I’ll head down and have a talk with some of the other professors and see if we can’t find a way to ferret these hags out and deal with them properly.”

“Thank you Hagrid,” Dumbledore said, “that will help take some of the load from me, so I can concentrate on what is to come. I fear that my time here at Hogwarts is fast coming to an end. Cornelius is not listening to reason and it is just a matter of time before Umbridge gets him to agree to sweep me under the rug as you might say.”

Hagrid who was visibly upset could only reply, “I won’t let ya down. You’ve always been a true friend to me and I intend to be the same ta you.”

Dumbledore smiled warmly and said, “Thank you old friend.”

--- ---

Elwyna woke up an hour before the sun rose and she was tense with anticipation. She could barely stand to wait the short time before she would see Gevin. She hoped fiercely that he was going to keep his promise and be there when she arrived. She decided this would be the last night she would leave his side. She was not going to allow anything to come between her and starting a new life somewhere far away from here with him. She was not completely sure it would be a relationship of love between them. She really was not clear on what love was exactly. On a deeper level she thought it might be nice to learn what love is with him. Maybe he knew enough about it to teach her how it find love and what to do with it once you had it.

She had already finished packing and had everything she could foresee needing. She even brought a few special things that her father kept at the house. She was not keen on using them, but if it came down to protecting herself or Gevin she would not hesitate to use whatever dark magic she had to. There were even about fifty galleons in case she needed to bribe someone on the spot. Yes, after careful consideration, she was as ready as was possible for the unknown.

“Finally!” she muttered.

The dawn had finally come and it was time to apparate just outside the inn where Gevin was staying. She pulled out her wand and after a moment of gut wrenching, she was standing right where he had held her last night. She could hear her heart beating again when she concentrated on it and it made her feel good. Gevin was not there. Apparently she had arrived first. She looked across the way at her father’s store. Everything was intact and none of the alarms had sounded. Even if someone did break in, they could never get the safe open. Her father once confided in her that if it were not him or her trying to open it, then not even You-know-who could get it open. Her worries laid to rest, she returned to expectantly waiting for Gevin to make his appearance.

A long time had passed and witches and wizards began to fill up the street in bustling activity. Little of it honest, but bustling nevertheless. Elwyna could not believe that he would sleep in after sounding so urgent last night. Then a small worry cracked its way inside her thoughts. As each minute went by the worry grew more and more severe. What if he had already gone? What if he had left her behind?

She could not wait another minute. She stormed into the inn and asked the barkeep what room Gevin was in. He said top floor on the left. She ran up the two flights of wooden stairs and made a sharp left at the top. There was only one door on this side of the hall. The door was closed tight and there was no sign of anyone. She walked up to the door and stopped. She swallowed hard and brought her fist to the door and gently knocked.

“Gevin? Are you there?”

She knocked again.

“Gevin? Please be in there. Gevin??”

She knocked louder and longer this time.

“GEVIN!? Please open up. You’re kind of scaring me.”

She stepped back and pulled out her wand. She aimed it carefully just above the doorknob.

“ALOMOHORA!” she practically shrieked.

The door flew open and she ran in.

“GEVIN?! Where are you?!”

The first thing she saw was a body crumpled on the floor. It was covered in a dark gray cloak. There was blood everywhere. She ran over to it and lifted the cloak up. Whatever it was, it was dead. It also was not completely human. It had drastic teeth and gnarled talons instead of hands. She pushed at it with her foot and confirmed that it was not going to get back up, ever.

She turned around and the heart that had been beating so loudly in her ears, suddenly stopped. Her whole body froze in abject fear and panic. Her soul was chilled cold as ice. There lie Gevin on his bed, his body mangled and still.

“Oh Gevin,” she cried out, “Gevin? It’s me. Please wake up. Please. It’s me. It’s Elwyna. I came just like I promised.”

She forced herself to walk towards him. She reached out and touched his arm. There was so much blood. He looked so strange. He looked empty.

“I’m here Gevin. I’m here to run away with you. I… I think I love you. I’m not completely sure what that means, but I must. I must.”

Her voice was becoming hysterical with panic. She looked around desperately. There must be something. What could she do?

“Don’t worry. I’ll figure something out.”

But, there was nothing to figure out. There was nothing to be done. Her chest hurt so badly. Her throat felt like it was closing up, choking her from air. She was just standing there, but as sure as if she were in the deepest ocean, she was drowning. Her mind simply stopped. She could no longer think, nor reason. Empty.

“Don’t worry,” Elwyna said breaking the silence in the room. “I’ll be with you very soon. We’ll run away together and never look back.”

She drew out her wand and turned it on herself. There was no hesitation at all.

“AVADA KE…”

He moaned. Her wand dropped to the ground. She fell to her knees and scrambled towards him.

“GEVIN! GEVIN!! Don’t worry, don’t worry, don’t worry,” she whispered to him.

She laid her body over his and raised her wand again.

She quietly apparated them. A moment later she was lying just inside St. Mungo’s Hospital, protectively covering Gevin’s broken body.

She sprung up and ran to the desk.

“I need your help. Please, help him. He’s dying. Please… I need him.”

The woman behind the desk almost went into bureaucratic mode, but seeing the blood and the look on the young woman’s face. She said, wait just a moment. I’ll have someone apparate down to see you right away.

A wizard did come down and see her. Almost immediately they transported Gevin to the first floor. All Elwyna could do is wait. She was escorted up to the tea room on the fifth floor. She sat and drank tea, pretending that she was still sane.

She waited.

She spent a lot of time pacing back and forth and then back again. She had paced so much that her legs began to burn from the exertion.

She waited.

She stared at a clock that actually showed the time. She stared so hard that it seemed each second took hours to go by.

She waited.

She sang a song that came out of nowhere. She thought it was a song her mother sang to her when she was very small, but she was not really sure.

She waited.

She felt herself slowly dying inside. A kind old wizard had come out and said that they were not sure if they could save him.

She waited.

An entire day had passed. She stopped eating.

She waited.

She found a small broom closet and went inside and closed the door. She screamed as loud as she could. She screamed so loud that she tore a muscle in the back of her throat. She just kept on screaming.

She waited.

Another day.

Then, a young wizard knocked on the door and slowly opened it. She had screamed so long that she had no voice left. He took her by the hand and apparated her to a small, beautiful room. The curtains were white and there were small flowers set in a small vase. The window was open and there was a light breeze. Gevin was lying on a soft bed. He looked so serene.

“He’s asleep right now, but he’s going to pull through. You can wait here if you’d like, so he will have a friendly face to wake to. I didn’t think he would survive, but somehow he did.”

After the last sentence the wizard left her alone in the room with Gevin. She was past all normal emotion. She felt that she was not the same person anymore. After this time no one ever used the name Elwyna again.

Ellie silently crossed the room to his side. She pulled up a little whicker chair next to the bed. She knelt on the chair beside him and rested her head on his chest. Then she cried and she kept crying. Tears flowed down her face. They splashed onto him and the bed. Her whole body shook. Her arms embraced him.

“Thank you for staying with me,” she wept. “I love you.”

She cried until everything that ever hurt inside of her was gone. After an eternity came and went. His eyes opened. She quickly sat up.

In a very hoarse voice she comforted him, “I’m right here Gevin. It’s me Ellie.”

He smiled at her, raised his hand and touched her shoulder. He tried to stay awake longer, but his body was still very weak. His hand slid down and he closed his eyes. She pressed her face into his chest. She could hardly keep her eyes open any longer either. She had not slept for such a long time. So, she fell asleep right where she was. The only thing she could hear was her heartbeat and it was almost deafening.

--- ---

A haggard looking man sat at a table in a dank, muggle pub. He had been waiting for quite awhile now, but the wait was over. Another man wrapped in a black cloak entered the establishment and immediately came over and sat across from the first.

“He-who-must-not-be-named must have discovered that Gevin was hiding the chest somewhere. He was attacked last night. I just got word from a young spy we have at St. Mungos that he pulled through. That grendel hag just about did him in.”

The dark figure listened carefully to the first man’s account.

“It shows that he is very strong to be able to take one on by himself and still be around to talk about it. I am still convinced that he will be of great value to us,” the cloaked man replied.

“Aye, it’s true he did indeed. The girl might cause a problem though.”

“No, she will be the catalyst that will start the chain of events. We need her alive for the time being.”

The haggard man thought for a moment, “What about the boy at Hogwarts?”

“As soon as he discovers how to break the rune, then kill him. We cannot risk him talking to Dumbledore.”

“Alright then. I’ll set things in motion. Anything else?” the first man declared.

“Yes, it is time to gather our loyal together. It has been too long since The Circle Of Emeric has convened. We must plan our next move. The Dark Lord has set his plan in motion already. He has many eyes and ears at the ministry and that leaves us at a disadvantage. Rumor has it that the Order of the Phoenix has started meeting again. We must take advantage of the confusion that will occur when those two openly clash. With Dumbledore and Harry Potter spending all of their focus and energy fighting the death-eaters, we will be able to bide our time. In the end only we will be left standing. When that time comes we will take our place as absolute rulers of the wizard and muggle world. The world has not known true, blind fear up until now. We will teach them and we will teach them well.”

The haggard man’s face lit up at these words. His reply was short and direct.

“I will summon the Circle together. The next new moon will be in four days. That night the new regime of darkness will rise.”

--- ---

Harry Potter awoke with a start. His scar was pestered by a dull throbbing. Voldemort must have been upset about something. That at least made the pain more bearable. Anytime Voldemort was not happy was a time that things were probably going their way.

He decided that he needed to talk to Ron and Hermione. It was getting harder and harder for him to control his temper. It was not that he wanted to be mad at everyone and everything. It was just the pressing weight of what was coming. He knew the Order of the Phoenix was doing everything they could, but it made him feel claustrophobic not being able to ‘do’ anything himself. The one thing he could look forward to was the D.A. meetings. Not that he felt that Dumbledore’s Army was really going to accomplish important things in the near future. It was more the fact that everyone seemed to feel more empowered. Not to mention that anything that would upset Umbridge brought a degree of satisfaction to Harry. He rubbed the back of his hand while he thought about that. When he thought about those detentions, he could almost feel the pain again.

He could not wait until he could talk to Sirius again. He was worried about him for more reason than one. It also made him feel better and gave his courage a boost whenever they could talk through things that were bothering Harry. Harry told himself that he needed to thank Hermione. She had been there a lot for him lately and he really had not shown any gratefulness to her. Most likely the opposite; he had been using her as an emotional punching bag. He cringed at some of the things he had said to her this year.

Harry had cleaned up and gotten dressed. He came down the stairs and through the portrait of the Fat Lady. There in the common room was Miss Granger herself. She was sitting quietly on one of the chairs. Her face looked so serious.

“Hi Hermione”

“Oh Hi Harry,” she said in a somewhat strained voice, that sounded a bit too eager.

“Alright, what’s wrong?”

“You mean besides You-know-who trying to kill you, Umbridge running the school like a deranged mad-woman, being behind in my studies, and worrying about the next D.A. meeting? Nothing at all. Why do you ask?”

Harry laughed. He sat down beside her and gave her his best smile to try and cheer her up.

“Harry do you know Tobias Beldower?”

“Hmmm… really doesn’t ring a bell. What house is he in?”

“Well, he’s kind of a Slytherin.”

“Where do I begin with that statement? How can you be only kind of a Slytherin, and second why on earth would I want to know ‘any’ kind of Slytherin?”

“He’s not like that though. He seems pretty nice. He’s also very smart, maybe as smart as I am.”

“Wow! That’s quite the compliment, coming from you Hermione”

“If you get a chance, I want you to sit down and talk to him. Get to know him and let me know what you think of him.”

“I,” he paused, “…of course I will. I’ll give it a try as soon as I see him.”

“Thanks, Harry! You’re the best,” she beamed at him.

With that she jumped up and left the common room. She apparently had somewhere to go, he thought. Harry sat there for a moment and then pulled himself out of the chair and headed out as well. As he was walking down the large hallway, it suddenly hit him.

“Hermione just asked me to sit down and get to know a Slytherin student better. That’s kind of an odd thing, don’t you think?” he wondered out loud. “Hey, why not? Things couldn’t get any weirder this year, even if they tried.”

4. IV

Chapter 4

Ron looked up just as he turned the corner. There was Professor Snape and Professor Sprout walking into one of the lecture halls. His curiosity got the better of him and he hurried to take a peek before the door drew itself closed. He turned his head sharply as he walked past and noticed that a few other teachers were in there as well. He blinked to make sure he was not hallucinating, but there was Hagrid standing at the front of the room.

He could hear Hagrid begin to speak, “I’m glad all of you could make it. Dumbledore has asked me to…”

That was all Ron could catch before the door shut. He kept walking, but his mind was still trying to figure how Hagrid got appointed to lecture on anything to other professors. It was time for supper, so he hurried down to the Great Hall. It would be a good time to bring this up to Harry and Hermione.

“Assuming Harry decided not to chew their heads off for not sneezing right”, he grumbled to himself.

He knew Harry was hitting his breaking point and he truly felt bad for him. There were a few times when his own temper was going to get the better of him, but Hermione would remind Ron that Harry needed them right now. Usually, that was enough to help him bite his tongue until he could cool off about it.

“Hello Ron,” intoned a preoccupied Luna Lovegood.

Ron spun around just before walking through the large set of doors that were between him and something to eat. Sure enough, there was Luna looking a bit like she was looking for something that only she could see. Ron was not sure, but he thought he heard her humming the ‘Weasley is our King’ song, but he was sure he had been mistaken.

“Uhh, I’m meeting with Harry and Hermione. I really need to talk to them. I’ll uh, talk to you later,” Ron fumbled lamely.

“Oh,” was the vaguely disappointed reply. “Ron, I’d like to have lunch with you sometime.”

“What for?” was Ron’s only response.

She sighed, “Oh, never mind.”

Luna continued on past the Great Hall. Leaving Ron to wonder exactly why that conversation had just happened. He walked through the door and he spied Harry already sitting down. He walked toward him and sat down in his usual spot next to him.

“Hey Harry.”

“Hi Ron. Listen, do you know who Tobias Beldower is? I think he, uh, might be a Slytherin.”

“He what? How would I know any of those prats? I…”

“It’s alright Ron,” Harry interrupted, “no worries, I was just asking.”

Harry gently rubbed his forehead, in hopes of kneading out the tension left from his scar hurting. He began to wonder what was bothering Voldemort so much.

“It doesn’t matter,” he thought to himself, “I’ve got too many things to concentrate on right now.”

“Harry, I just remembered. I was going to tell you about something. I just saw Hagrid and some of the professors…”

Suddenly, one of the doors to the Great Hall flew open and Hermione stormed in. Harry looked up and caught her eye. She quickly ran towards them, a copy of the Daily Prophet in her hand. She came across the table from the two boys and threw the paper down in front of them.

“What are they lying about this time,” asked Ron disgustedly.

“I don’t think they are,” Hermione said catching her breath. “Turn to page fourteen, the bottom corner. It looks like they felt the story almost didn’t warrant making it into the paper”

“So, it must be terribly important then,” Ron said with a knowing grin.

Harry picked it up and began to read the story out loud.

Borgin and Burkes was Barely Burgled

Sometime last night the store of questionable repute in Knockturn Alley was broken into. Strangely, the inside of the store was in excellent condition when authorities arrived. Mister Borgin had just arrived in town this morning to find his door blown in and ministry authorities standing outside. He was quoted as saying, “My daughter was supposed to be watching the store, but she’s apparently been missing for a couple of days now.” When asked if anything had been stolen he said only one thing, but refused to discuss what it was. The authorities are currently doing a thorough investigation.

“You would think that a missing witch and a stolen item from Borgin and Burkes would raise a bigger stink,” Ron responded when Harry finished reading it to them.

“Yeah, you’d think,” Harry said absently. “What do you think of it Hermione?”

“I’m not sure, but it can’t be good.”

Harry sat staring at her for a moment. She looked really nice today. He thought about telling her, but figured this was not the time or place for it.

“I need to get to the library; I’ll talk to you two later.”

Hermione made her way out of the hall with a brisk stride. Harry turned to Ron with a knowing look.

“If Hermione is worried about this, it might be serious,” Harry mentioned.

“What should we do?” answered Ron.

“What we always do, I guess.”

“Right,” said Ron, “so, we wait for Hermione to figure it out… and ‘then’ we do something about it.”

--- ---

“I found it. I FOUND IT!!” Tobias cried.

He looked around with an embarrassed look, but there was no one else in the library at the time. After the fortieth some odd tome he ran across what he had been looking for, sort of anyway. He still had not found any information on who had made the chest, but he did find some information on an old wizard who had lived at the same time Emeric the Evil was around. The wizard had an old barn that he was fond of and did not want any of his worthless children to get it when de died. So, he took his life savings to have Emeric cast his famous death rune on the barn door. This of course left all of his children with no barn, nor any money to inherit. Which the old wizard thought was just delightful. However, shortly before he died he realized that the place he wanted to be buried at was the ground just inside the barn. So he told his closest friend the secret to undoing the rune, just long enough to get inside and get buried.

“You have GOT to be kidding me,” he exclaimed, “that’s it? That’s all you have to do? It’s pure genius, no one would ever guess that in a million years.”

The tome did not spell out exactly how to undo it, but the clues were there; and Tobias was just the person to see the hint that was so obvious, no one would ever notice it.

He began going over it in his mind, “The rune is definitely not a warding charm. It’s really not even a rune at all. It’s a portkey of one kind or another. The rune itself would do no harm, but the moment a person tries to touch it they would get transported. I have no idea where, but I have to guess it is somewhere awful. So, the real question is did the runes ever do what they were advertised to do. Kill, maim, drive insane? Unlikely, very unlikely. However, with the person simply disappearing to wherever Emeric would have them go. Then it would do just about whatever he wanted it to do. Send them to the lair of a dragon, drop them over the deepest part of the ocean, or just about anywhere. The problem is that Emeric knew how to make the portkey permanent. A simple ‘permanent sticking charm’ would keep it attached to the chest. I have to give it to Emeric; he was one smart, evil kind of guy. The secret was to temporarily overwrite the portkey destination. It would be as simple as assigning the destination to be the chest itself. That way, when you touched it, you would simply be where you already were. It probably would not last long before reverting back, but it would give Gevin enough time.”

“It’s time to go see the Bloody Baron,” Tobias smiled triumphantly.

“Why?” said Hermione.

Tobias just about jumped out of his skin.

“I didn’t see you come in,” he said, trying to calm himself down.

“I was looking over your shoulder Tobias. I just read something in the Daily Prophet today. I’m beginning to suspect that you are somehow involved in something you really shouldn’t be. Tell me what’s going on.”

The last sentence was nothing short of an order. Tobias knew that Hermione would not let this go, so he did the only thing he could think of. He told her everything. She asked him some pointed questions, but let him explain the whole thing out. In the end she sat down next to him and started rubbing her temples.

“Tobias, this is not something you should be mixed up in. How do you even know you can trust Gevin? Maybe he is getting you to do this, so he can use the chest himself.”

“Gevin may not be the noblest of people, but he knows when something is too dangerous to be around. Believe me, he’s on the up and up with this one.”

Hermione leaned forward. Her mind obviously running through all the details, trying to see the best thing to do.

“I… I can’t get Harry involved in this Tobias. He has far too much on his plate as it is. I’m not even sure I want to know about this, but what’s done is done. Can I trust you to see this through?”

“Of course. I would never let Gevin down. He needs me. I’ll see it through no matter what.”

“Alright then,” Hermione said more assured. “You come and get me if you need any help. And please, for goodness sake keep me informed if things start to go all wrong.”

“I will, I promise,” he replied.

Hermione got up slowly and turned to leave.

“Why don’t you tell him?” asked Tobias.

“Tell who, what?” she said without turning back.

“Why don’t you tell Harry how you feel?”

“How I feel? You mean confused and frustrated and scared? Why? He doesn’t need that right now. Plus, aren’t you ruining your Tobias Scale of Divine Measurement?” Hermione snapped.

“Oh no, not at all,” he said matter-of-factly. “Believe me when I say that you have no idea of what I saw about you.”

“Please tell me,” she said finally turning around to look at him.

“I’m not exactly sure you want to know,” he said quietly. “You had better make up your mind about that boy. Time is not on either of your sides.”

Hermione’s shoulders slumped down. She turned around again and walked out of the library. Harry’s face immediately popped into her mind. She cared for him; there was no doubting that. She was not sure what she should be feeling. She felt that Tobias knew something about her and Harry and she wanted desperately to know what it was. Were they still going to be friends. Was something going to happen to her, or worse to him? Maybe they were going to be more than friends… maybe lovers. Her head started to spin and she felt strangely dizzy. She started breathing hard and tried to get her focus back. What if time really was running out?

“Oh, what am I going to do with that boy” she whispered to herself.

On the other side of the library was a lone Slytherin student. Goyle had been hiding a couple of aisles over. He had a very difficult time understanding what Tobias and Hermione had been saying, but he wrote down what he could remember, hoping it would be enough to get the galleons he had been promised. He was tired of having less money than Crabbe and Draco. It was time for him to have some gold to throw around.

The man seemed nice enough and all he had to do was spy on Tobias in the library. It was absolute torture for him as the library was his least favorite place in the world. This time he thought, it was going to be worth it. He laughed to himself as he snuck out after Hermione had left. Now, it was time to make contact with his new friend and collect what he had coming to him.

--- ---

“My father will probably start looking for me soon,” Ellie said cautiously.

“You’re probably right,” Gevin qualmed. “I need to get to the old cobbler and check in with Gifflewad before we try to get our hands on that chest. We’ll need to wait until your father is away from the shop. Are you sure he’s back yet?”

“He said he would be back last night, and in all my life he has never been late. Not even once.”

“Okay then. Let’s get out of here.”

“Are you sure you’re feeling up to it?”

“I’m as ready as I’m going to get. By the way, did they fix up your throat?”

“Yeah,” she said rubbing it gently. “It feels good as new.”

“How exactly did you tear a muscle in the back of your throat anyway?”

“Urm, I’m not exactly sure,” she said unable to look at him as she did. “That doesn’t matter right now anyway. Let’s get going.”

He looked at her closely. She was being evasive, but he knew better than to press it.

“I dreamt about you.”

“You did what?” she said surprised.

“I dreamt about you when I was asleep. Pretty much the whole time I think.”

“What did you dream about me?” her voice wavering a bit.

“Oh, you know. Just things.”

Gevin was not about to tell her some of the dreams. They were not the kinds of dreams you generally share with other people. He felt a slight burn in his cheeks.

“Oh,” she replied disappointedly.

“In one of my dreams, we got married.”

“We did?!” she exclaimed. “I mean, we did? How interesting.”

“Yeah, it was nice,” Gevin said truthfully.

Ellie had a hard time keeping her heart from bursting. She simply helped him up and the two of them walked out together. He reached down and grabbed her hand. The two of them left St. Mungos, side by side.

After stepping out into the street, Ellie turned questioningly to Gevin.

Gevin looked down at her and said, “First the shoemaker and then we hide out until night. Then we’ll break into the ol’ dark arts shop.”

Ellie nodded her head. She desperately hoped she would not run into her father.

--- ---

Borgin had just finished tidying up the damage done to his front door. He went into the back and examined the safe. It had somehow been torn apart. The only thing missing was the divining chest. He sat there dejectedly for a moment, not sure what could be done. He needed to speak to his daughter and find out what had happened. He was not pleased; he was not pleased at all.

The front door opened and an older man stepped into the store. Borgin came out front to see what the customer wanted.

“Hello Borgin.”

It was as he feared. Augustus Rookwood was here and he was simply not ready for him yet.

“Hello Augustus.”

“I trust you are well,” Augustus said ominously.

“Sure, sure.”

“My… employer has sent me here to finalize our deal.”

“I don’t have it Augustus. The chest has been stolen.”

“What,” he replied dangerously. “You had better have it.”

Rookwood dropped all pretenses and drew himself up to full height.

“My Lord has made a deal with you. I need that chest and I need it now. It is a part of his plan and he will be severely displeased. Do you really want me to return to him, and let him know that you have not kept your end of the bargain?”

“Don’t threaten me Augustus. I am well aware of the predicament I am in.”

“Who do you think stole the chest?” the death eater asked.

“I’m not sure right now. I need to find my daughter. I am sure she will have some idea.”

“Where is she now?”

“I have no idea, to be honest,” Borgin stated.

“You can stop worrying about it. I will consider this my problem. We will find your daughter and get the information we need ourselves. By the way, our deal is off Borgin. Filthy mugblood.”

With that, Augustus stepped out of Borgin and Burkes. Borgin sat down on his old stool with his shoulders hunched. He had long tried to keep it a secret that his grandmother was a muggle. Apparently, his secret was known by the last person on earth he would ever want to have know it. It put him in a very bad situation. A peddler of the dark arts was now fervently hoping that He-who-must-not-be-named was going to lose the coming war. A bad situation indeed. On top of everything, he was fairly sure that even if his daughter was alive somewhere, she would not be much longer.

--- ---

“Gifflewad, where are you?”

Jacob Gilpin was frustrated and tired. Business had not been good the past week. He needed to get caught up on his shoe repairs, in hopes that those would bring enough money to keep his shop open another week or two. Right now he was desperately trying to find his leather shears. It was tough making a living when you’re a squib, especially on this side of town, but he had little choices. Shoe making was the only skill he really possessed.

“Gifflewad, have you seen my shears? I really need them. Where is that blasted ghost?”

He puttered around his workshop still looking for them. He lifted up a heavy piece of leather.

“Never mind, I found them. They were here all the time.”

There was a sound of breaking glass that came from the front of the store.

“Gifflewad? What on earth are you up to?”

A ghost like figure drifted down from the second floor.

“Jacob listen to me. There are some dangerous looking wizards breaking into the store. The protective charms you paid to have protect the store aren’t going to hold much longer. You need to get out of here.”

“What are you talking about; everyone knows I have nothing worth stealing.”

“Please, Jacob, you need to leave right now. I have been given some very dangerous information. I was told to pass it on to Gevin Rookwood when I see him. I think these men are trying to stop that from happening.”

“Gevin? He’s a nice boy. Why would anyone want to hurt him?”

“Jacob Gilpin, get up and run for your life. Use the back door. These men are going to kill you and most likely set a trap for the boy. Now go!”

“And leave my shop? C’mon Giffle, you know darn well that it’s all I got in this filthy world and I am not about to leave it for any thieves. Now you get yourself out of here. If you need to get a message to Gevin then you do just that. Go hide somewhere or whatever it is you do, when you don’t want me to find ya.”

Gifflewad looked sad.

“Goodbye my friend. You’ve been the best person I’ve ever haunted.”

“Aaah, get on out of here you crazy ol’ ghost.”

With that Gifflewad disappeared into the floorboards.

Jacob heard the front door break off its hinges. He just sat there and waited. There were footsteps coming toward the entrance of his little workshop. He turned himself around and faced all of the shoes he had on the back wall.

“You’re my life’s work. And now, I guess its time to hang up my own shoes. I didn’t plan to retire just yet, but what’s a man to do.”

He closed his eyes. The door burst open.

“Kill him, now! The boy will be coming soon.”

Those were the last words Jacob Gilpin would ever hear.

--- ---

Harry found himself lying awake in bed as he so often had. Dumbledore’s Army was going to meet again tomorrow night. Hermione had assured him she would make sure that everyone knew. She was really good at making things happen whenever she got her mind wrapped around something. He really liked that about her. He also noticed other things about her too. He really liked that about her as well. He grinned broadly in spite of himself. He felt almost a little embarrassed for noticing her as anything besides one of his two best friends. He just could not seem to help himself right now.

“No worries,” he mentioned to no one at all. “Tomorrow I’ll have it all bottled back up and no one will ever notice. I mean, that’s what I want right. No one to notice.”

He started to think about that last statement and started to doubt himself.

“Cho who?” he quietly laughed. He thought kissing her was kind of amazing at first, but the more he thought about it, the less it meant to him. Already, all the feelings he had for her were falling away. When she embarrassed him at Hogsmeade on their date, he felt hurt, but now he felt nothing about it at all. She seemed nice and very pretty from a distance, but when he got close to her and talked to her, she was really just another girl; and a bit of a silly one at that.

“How strange,” he whispered.

He always thought it was nice that Hermione was a lot of things, but not one of those things could be described as silly. Then a sudden image of kissing her popped into his head. He violently rolled over and pushed it out of his mind.

“I can’t… I can’t think that way about her. Pull yourself together Harry.”

The words sounded empty even to him. He lay there for a moment longer. Then a blinding pain shot through his head. His scar was burning and it was no minor thing. He could feel the heat coming off his forehead. It caused him to curl up into a ball, covering his whole face with his hands. After a moment, he could clearly sense that Voldemort was angry. Something had just gone very, very wrong.

5. V

Chapter 5

“Why are we doing this?!” demanded one of the elders. “Dumbledore is no longer our friend. He has betrayed our oldest ways. Centaurs do not share their knowledge of the heavens with outsiders. I say we let them fight their own battles. This Voldemort is one of their kind, so it is their problem.”

“What about the sanctity of our forest my bretheren? Are we to let this beast, this grendel hag to come in and kill whomever she wants? One of our own has already been killed by her. We were so blind that Hagrid could not even deliver the body to us properly. For we have driven our old friend away.”

A third centaur declared, “It is true that Hagrid has always respected our ways. What if this hag were to endanger his life? I would not feel honorable if something were to happen to him that we could have prevented. He is half magical beast. He shares a heritage with us.”

Another spoke angrily, “Yes, but he is also half-human. They cannot be trusted. How long have we suffered under the oppression of human kind. How many have our people have been slaughtered by their ignorant centaur hunts.”

“Those were a long time ago.” declared another. “They do not do that anymore. Is it not appropriate for us to hold hostage the present generation for the sins of their forbearers.”

A very old centaur stepped into the middle of the bickering elders. He raised his hand for silence. The other centaurs backed up a step, to show their respect.

“It is true that Dumbledore has broken a sacred agreement with us. However, I do not know what his reasonings maybe. That will need to be dealt with in time. Nevertheless, that is not what is at stake right now. This Dark Lord, this human, has sent a soulless creature into our midst, into our home. This vile thing has killed one of our hunters in a way that was without honor. I will not stand for her to be in my forest one day longer. Nor, shall I allow this wicked human Voldemort, to use our forest as a launching ground for assassination against the human children.”

“I will go great one. I shall bring back her head to you,” cried a bold centaur.

“As shall I,” cried one of the younger hunters.

“And me as well,” yet another.

Five centaurs, in all, stepped forward to accept the old one’s call for battle. Five centaurs would begin their hunt by the cold moonlight. Five centaurs would restore honor to their clan. For this night, the hag would die.

Fate had dealt these warrior-hunters one fatal flaw. The hag had already been given her orders. The boy was to die. She was on a hunt this night as well. She salivated at the thought of a tender youth to feast upon. She ran through the darkness towards the unsuspecting school. A small brass charm was clutched in her hand. She had been given a dark tool that would allow her to bypass the spells of protection around Hogwarts. It was given to her by one of the servants of He-who-must-not-be-named.

“I am coming little one,” she cackled into the night.

--- ---

“Err Hi, I’m Harry, Harry Potter.”

“Yes, I know,” Tobias said with a grin.

“Right then. So, Hermione asked me to ahh meet you.”

“I see,” he replied. “What did you want to see me about?”

“Err, Hermione never actually got that far.”

“Well, is there anything you’d like to know about me?”

“Well, I’d like to start by saying you are the first and only Slytherin who has not immediately begun taunting me, laughed at me or one thing or another. That really gives you quite a bit higher marks with me than some of the rest.”

“Well,” he smiled in response, “I believe less in, say ‘house spirit’, than I do the pursuit of learning. I happen to have a bit of a knack at dark arts and so the sorting hat felt it appropriate to place me under Snape’s guidance.”

“Dark arts you say? Isn’t that a bit illegal at Hogwarts?”

“Indeed my lightening scarred friend. I don’t actually practice the dark arts, well almost never anyway, but I am gifted in understanding it.”

“Really? Maybe I do have a question or two for you then,” Harry said cautiously.

“Tell me then, what do you know about?”

“You see there’s this curse I’ve been wondering about, I was hoping to understand the counter-curse a bit better…”

Harry and Tobias talked quite a bit that evening. Before Harry knew it, an hour had passed. He apologized to Tobias that he had somewhere to be. The fellow D.A. students would be waiting for him. He shook hands with the strange, but interesting third-year and told him that he would like to talk again sometime. Tobias agreed and said the strangest thing when they parted.

“You know she feels the same way,” Tobias said as he stepped through the painting into the Slytherin common room.

Harry tried to ask what he meant, but it was too late. He certainly did not know the password through ‘that’ painting. So he turned and began to make his way to the secret meeting room.

--- ---

“It’s no use arguing with me Ellie. I want you to wait out here. I’ll need someone to start hollering if anyone shows up. Please don’t start again. I need you to be here for me. I won’t be long, I promise.”

Seeing that Gevin’s mind was not going to be changed, she stubbornly agreed. She quickly cast the Chameleonus spell upon herself and immediately disappeared into the surrounding shadows.

“Don’t be long,” Ellie said with a forced smile that no one could see.

With that, Gevin faced the cobbler’s shop. After a few fertive glances around the alley, he walked up to the front door. It was dark inside, but he thought he could make out an outline of the door in the back of the store. There was a dim light coming from behind it.

“Jacob, must be working late tonight,” he thought.

He reached out and turned the knob on the door. It was unlocked. Gifflewad must have told Jacob he was coming and the shoemaker had left the door open. He walked in and began to make his way to the back. He did not notice the broken glass just to his right. He was concentrating too hard on not tripping over anything in front of him.

He finally got to the back door and swung it open. He blinked his eyes to adjust to the light.

“Gevin!” smiled Jacob. “How good to see you. Come in, come in.”

“Hi Jacob. Listen you really shouldn’t leave your front door unsecured like that. You know it’s not safe.”

“Of course, of course. You’re right, my boy. I wasn’t thinking. Can I get you a mug of hot tea?”

“No thank you. I don’t mean to be rude, but have you seen Gifflewad? I really need to talk to him.”

“Oh, yes, yes he told me all about it.”

“He did?” Gevin questioned.

“Yes. I think it is very brave what you’re doing. Gifflewad couldn’t be here, he is out celebrating his ‘death day’ with a host of his friends. Don’t worry though, old Jacob Gilpin got the scoop.”

“That’s great Jacob. Wish him a happy death day for me. I didn’t even realize when it was. Anyway, it’s really important for me to get that message.”

Jacob leaned in close to Gevin.

“This is what Giffle told told me to tell you…”

He listened to everything very carefully, and told the cobbler, “I understand. I tell you, that Tobias really came through for me. Thanks for the information Jacob. Tell Giffle I stopped by and tell him hello for me.”

“Of course, I’ll do just that. Now you go hurry along and take care of whatever it is you need to take care of. I’ve got a lot of shoes to get working on. Good night.”

“Good night. See you later.”

Gevin quietly closed the front door of the store behind him and walked out into the waiting night. He concentrated on the alleyway for a long time. Then after being sure of exactly where he wanted to end up, apparated.

Ellie sat as still as she possibly could, trying not to breath. She was determined to scare Gevin really good. She decided it would make her feel better for making her wait outside. She always liked Jacob Gilpin and would have enjoyed catching up with him. Suddenly, Gevin vanished. She stood up and looked around wildly. She felt warm arms wrap around her from behind. She let out that kind of nervous giggle you do when someone has just snuck up on you, when you knew it was coming.

She let all the stiffness out of her body and just sank into his arms. He gently lifted her and turned her around to face him. She looked longingly into his face. And began to scream. It was not him, but he already had his hand over her mouth. Her scream was muffled quite effectively. The black cloaked figure raised his wand and the two of them disappeared from view.

Gevin finally made his way back out of the store and began to look around for Ellie.

“Ellie, where are you?” he whispered loudly. “Ellie?”

He walked over to where he thought she had been waiting.

“Ellie?” he said a bit louder, “Listen, I know you’re mad at me for making you wait outside. C’mon now, we need to get going… Ellie?”

Gevin felt a twisting, sick panic well up in him.

“ELLIE!!”

He turned and ran back toward the store.

“Lumos!” he incanted.

His wand lit up as he threw open the door. He noticed the broken glass. He looked toward the workshop door. It was dark now. He stumbled forward and grabbed the handle and swung the door open, practically off of its hinges. There was Jacob lying on the ground in a pool of blood.

“Jacob! My friend! Jacob!”

Gevin knelt beside him and turned him over. There was no doubting that Jacob Gilpin had been murdered. He was too late. The only thought in his mind was to run to Borgin and Burkes. Maybe Mr. Borgin would know something, anything. He had no one else to ask. So, he ran.

If Gevin had been in his right mind, he might have looked closer at poor Jacob. He would have been able to tell that he had already been dead for hours. If he had searched out back of the store he would have seen a floating wisp. Nothing more than a trace of what was left behind of Gifflewad. The wizards of the Circle were very powerful. They knew just the spell… to kill a ghost.

--- ---

“How could I have missed it,” Hermione muttered to herself. “I gave Tobias completely false information. How on earth did I not see this one?”

She was angry at herself. She slammed the book closed and stood straight up. She needed to find Tobias and tell him. The maker of the chest was indeed alive when Emeric the Evil was, but no one would be able to prove that. No one really knew how old he was when he died. Tobias would have been looking in the wrong place altogether.

The problem, she realized, was that he would most likely be in bed, or at least in his common room by now. After quickly thinking it over, it came to her. She would send a quick note to him by owl. She practically charged down the hallway and made her way to the owlery.

Hedwig saw Hermione walk in with a piece of paper in her hand. Without another thought the owl flew down to her arm.

“Listen, I need you to get this note to Tobias Beldower, right away Hed. It’s so very important. He’ll want to know about this.”

Hedwig thought it extremely odd to fly to somewhere you already were, but decided it wasn’t worth nipping her about it. So, with a flap of the wings, the night awaited.

“Boy, is Tobias going to be in for a bit of a shock,” Hermione said, quite pleased with herself.

--- ---

Tobias was just about to lie down, when he saw a large, white flutter in the window. He looked out and realized it was an owl. He reached across and opened the window. The snow white owl hopped over to him and dropped a piece of paper into his hand and immediately turned back around and took off.

With a mild curiosity he unfolded it and began to read.

Hi Tobias,

Guess what I found? Sorry for sending you on a wild goose chase.

The chest did get a protective rune from Emeric the Evil, but you’ll

never guess who originally constructed the thing…

He looked up with a strange look of triumph on his face. He did not even need to finish reading the note to know what it said. It was so painfully ironic, he was not sure if he should laugh or be supremely concerned.

“Salazar Slytherin you old dog you. How did Emeric trick you out of that old chest of yours? I bet he stole it and placed his rune on there to protect it from you. You probably killed old Emeric for doing it too. Or, maybe Emeric killed you… I do believe I have a thesis paper to start writing.”

Tobias was pleased as punch and immediately took out his trusty quill, a bottle of ink and a roll of parchment and began to write as fast as his little hand could write. Out of nowhere, he felt an icy chill on the back of his neck. He looked around and saw nothing, so he continued writing.

--- ---

Hermione entered the Gryffindor common room and saw Harry lying sideways on one of the chairs. He had been so tired, that he fell asleep the moment his end had hit the cushion. She cocked her head to the side a bit and just looked at him. His hair was a mess and his glasses all askew. She felt warm inside. She stepped closer to Harry.

Her hand gently brushed a bit of the hair from his eyes and she set his glasses straight. He was so exhausted that he did not even stir. It made her feel safe to see him sleeping like that. She always felt safe around Harry. Somehow, when he was around, everything always seemed to turn out right in the end.

“Harry,” she whispered, “Tobias tells me that our time is short. I’d really like to talk to you about some things that I’ve been thinking about. Though, I’m not sure you’d want to hear them. Even if you did, I’m scared to make your life any more complicated. There’s so much on your shoulders as it is. I don’t want to wait, but I know that I need to.”

She smiled at him and just before heading up to bed herself said, “Sleep well Harry. Try not to have any nightmares tonight.”

Harry groggily woke up and realized that he had fallen asleep waiting for Hermione to come through. He must have missed her, so he got up and walked up the stairs to find his bed. Umbridge was sure to make his life even more miserable tomorrow, so he thought he had better get some rest now, while he could. As he stood up, he thought for sure that he could smell the scent of Hermione lingering near him. She always did smell kind of nice.

6. VI

Chapter 6

“Borgin!,” Gevin banged heavily on the door. “Borgin! Open this door or I will come through it!”

He heard the click of a lock being opened, then the sound of a sliding bolt and finally an incantation to undo the spells of protection. It opened and the miserable face of Mr. Borgin of the infamous Borgin and Burkes appeared.

“What do you want? Haven’t you caused enough trouble already?”

“They’ve taken her, Mr Borgin. Please I need to know where they have her.”

“I knew they would eventually, it was just a matter of time,” Borgin replied with a dark glare.

“What are you talking about? Who took her? Was it the damnable T.C.O.E.? Who are they and what do they want?” Gevin cried in exasperation.

“Who, the who? What are you babbling about?”

“The T.C.O.E. the ones who are after the chest.”

“You have lost it, haven’t you? The death-eaters took my daughter. The ‘death-eaters’ boy!”

“The death-eaters? Why would they… I’m confused. Please tell me what you know.”

Borgin stood in the doorway for quite some time. His face looked wearier than normal and the worry lines in his face had grown deeper.

“Come in. I will… talk with you for awhile, but then I want you to leave. Do you understand?”

“Believe me, I will be happy to honor that offer,” was Gevin’s hostile reply.

Gevin walked in and noticed that the store looked in a state of disarray. More than usual anyway.

“Your Uncle came to see me today,” Borgin said with anger.

“My Uncle? He’s alive? That means…”

“Yes! We both know full well what that means. Listen carefully and I will tell you what I know.

Borgin told Gevin the story of how he found the chest in Bulgaria and within a day a letter had come with a sizeable offer for it. Shortly thereafter another letter came, from the Dark Lord himself, offering a king’s ransom for it. He quickly agreed to the deal, as he knew it would be death to refuse.

“Who was the first offer from?”

“I don’t know. It was signed Vilavarg followed by the letters T.C.O.E. I find it interesting that you believe they are somehow involved.”

Gevin sighed as he began the story from the beginning. He left out anything about the personal feelings that arose between Ellie and himself, but filled in all the pertinent information. In turn, Borgin told him about everything he had seen and heard. The two talked earnestly for half the night.

“You’re part muggle? I had no idea. Not that it matters to me, but I am a bit surprised.”

“Aye, now you know why my life is now in a bit of a spot. So, we can agree that it is most likely this other group took the chest, but that leaves the question of who has my daughter. I want you to find her Gevin. My life is merely a shadow, but she is the one spark that is in it. I would not be happy about her death.”

“I am going to get her, if she is still alive. That I promise, however I should warn you that when all is said and done, I am taking her away from all this.”

“I can live with that,” the man said with cold earnest. “Here take this, it might help you.”

Borgin walked back behind the counter and brought out a small metal box. He lifted the lid and pulled out what was hidden within. It was a strange cube that gave off the tiniest white glow. He placed it in a black velvet pouch attached to a silver chain.

“Wear this around your neck. It might come in handy.”

“What is it?” Gevin questioned.

“It is the only piece of light magic that I own. It belonged to my wife. Being who I am and what I do, I have no use for it. Perhaps it will bring you luck. I’m… I’m not exactly sure what it does, but my wife always insisted that it was a powerful charm.”

Gevin quickly placed it around his neck and stood up.

“I have to go Mr. Borgin. We will likely not meet again. I hope all goes well for you.”

“Save the false goodwill for someone else. I have no need of it here.”

With that Gevin turned around and left Knockturn Alley and never returned.

--- ---

She awoke. The room was pitch black. She slowly sat up. She was lying on the floor. She thought it odd that the floor was carpeted. She did not expect this of a dungeon. Which is where she surely must have been. Her heart gripped with fear, when she suddenly realized that she had no idea of who had her. Was it the death-eaters, or was it the mysterious ones that Gevin believed to be the true evil in the world?

“Is anyone there?” she asked timidly. “Hello?”

A commanding voice spoke, “You are alive now, because we wish it to be so. However, we of the Circle have no qualms about removing your life if it comes to that. I assure you it will be most unpleasant if you force our hand.”

“Please tell me, where am I?”

“You are in a secret chamber in the ministry of magic. It is here we will wait for our moment of triumph. Voldemort and Dumbledore will soon face each other, and we will be here to destroy whomever survives.”

“I don’t understand. Why am I here?”

“You will bring him to us.”

“Who? Gevin? Why do you want him?”

“He is the direct descendant of our master. We will need his blood.”

“His blood, but what for? Who is he the descendant of?”

“You mean you don’t know? Foolish girl, the Rookwood family is very, very old; far older than Malfoy, or Black, or any of these so called pure-bloods. Their family can be traced all the way back to Emeric Rookwood, or as you may know him Emeric the Evil.”

“Emeric the Evil? What does he have to do with any of this?”

“We of The Circle Of Emeric have been waiting for over a thousand years to return our master to his former glory. We have been waiting for the Chest of Slytherin to come to light once more. Thanks to your father we now have it within our possession. And of course, Gevin shall come for you. When he does we will force him to act, to preserve your meager life. He will undo the rune of our master, and spill his blood into it to perform the ritual.”

“The ritual?” Ellie did not like the sound of that.

“The chest has a unique power, it can divine not just anywhere… but any’time’. Gevin will look into the past and see his ancient ancestor and will perform the simplest of spells. He will apparate Master Emeric, to here… to now.”

“Why don’t you do it, why do you need Gevin?”

“Sadly, Gevin is the only one who knows how to remove the rune. We could not get the information we needed from the shoemaker’s ghost, and our spy at Hogwarts wasn’t intelligent enough to understand what he overheard. The one who first learned the secret was not to be killed until we learned what we needed to know, but Voldemort discovered the boy and sent his minion to kill him. So, that leaves only Gevin. Once the rune is removed, the spell across time will need to be cast. To cast a spell in the present can be done by anyone, but to cast a spell in the past requires a special connection. A connection of blood descendancy.”

“Why are you telling me all this?” Ellie asked, realizing that this was probably not a good sign.

“Because girl, you are going to be the one to convince him to do it.”

The reality of the situation sank into Ellie like a stone. Gevin would come for her. She would be under the control of the Circle. He would believe her and do exactly what she asked. Any ounce of hope left her like wilting flowers under the icy winds of winter.

If Voldemort won the coming battle then Emeric would kill him, if Dumbledore won then he would be the one to die. There was no possible outcome she could think of that would save the world from their coming fate. She quietly sobbed into her hands, sitting in the darkness.

--- ---

Hermione shot up from her sleep. Wide awake she sat staring into the quiet dormitory. Everyone was asleep and the early hours of morning were still. She had an uncontrollable shiver running down her spine. She quickly got out of bed and threw on a robe. She grabbed her wand and made her way down to the common room. Not knowing where exactly she was going, or why, she stepped through the painting of the fat lady and onto the stairs beyond it.

Luna Lovegood was sitting on the steps just below her. She quietly walked down and sat beside her.

“Luna, are you okay?”

“But it’s not really me that matters, now is it?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t follow you,” Hermione replied perplexed.

“The Slytherin boy, the nice one. I like him, he’s different. Doesn’t quite fit in.”

“Tobias? What about him?”

“My father wrote a story about the wild grendel hag that lives in the forest…”

“Luna, there’s no wild hag in the forest. Hagrid would know about it if there was one and he would have warned us.”

“My father is never wrong. Just because you or Hagrid haven’t seen one, doesn’t mean it isn’t out there.”

“Okay… I guess, but what does that have to do with Tobias?”

Luna sighed, “Because. People like Tobias and… me, we’re the kinds of people that a hag would want to eat. They always eat the misfits. Always.”

For some reason, Luna did not seem so crazy right now. Hermione was not sure why, but she suddenly became deathly afraid. What if something was going to happen to Tobias? What if it was too late?

“Luna, are you absolutely sure about this?” Hermione asked in all seriousness.

Luna turned and looked directly into Hermione’s eyes.

“I am sure Hermione Granger.”

Hermione stood up.

“My father tells me that when grendel hags eat adults its one thing, but when they eat children that is very different. Everyone forgets that the child was ever there. It’s some kind of strange magic they have.”

Hermione was already bounding down the stairs. She had to tell someone, anyone to check on Tobias and make sure he was okay. She was sure he was, but there was a nagging feeling that she could not shake.

“Of course,” Hermione groaned.

“What are you doing out of bed?!” bellowed Filch.

“Mr. Filch, I need to see Professor McGonagall right away. No take me to Snape. Take me to Professor Snape right away. I need to speak to him. It is a matter of life and death.”

Filch thought of about five or six nasty replies, but one thing stopped him. No student, in their right mind, would demand to see Snape in the middle of the night. He thought it would be great fun to see what fate awaited the snotty Miss Granger. So, he took her down to Snape’s chamber and stood out of the way.

“Feel free to knock. I’d rather you be the one,” he said with a smirk.

Hermione walked straight up and began to pound on the door.

“Professor Snape? Professor Snape? Please, I need to speak to you!”

After a moment the door flew open and a very unhappy Snape appeared. He looked first at Filch and then down at Hermione.

“Granger, first off, fifty points from Gryffindor for waking me up in the middle of the night. If there is not someone currently dying, then I will take off another hundred!”

“Professor Snape, please, there is a student in grave trouble. One of your students in Slytherin. I need you to check on him. Please”

She said it with such desperation in her voice that it gave Snape pause.

“Who is it Granger? Who is in trouble?”

“Tobias. Tobias Beldower,” she replied breathlessly.

Snape looked down at Hermione for a long time.

“Another hundred points for lying and I will see you in detention tomorrow Miss Granger.”

“Lying?! Lying about what?”

“There are no students at this school by that name. Filch! Make sure she goes right back to her common room. I advise you to immediately go back to bed, tomorrow is going to be a long day for you.”

With that, Snape slammed the door closed. Filch began to laugh a wicked little laugh.

“Well, well… that was definitely worth it,” he decided.

Hermione stood there, mouth wide open. Filch grabbed her by the shoulder and forcibly walked her back to the stairs.

“You march straight up, and don’t you dare try any funny business. I’m watching you.”

Hermione began to walk up the stairs numbly. There was Luna, right where Hermione had left her.

“Luna, you were right. I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you.”

“About what?” she said kind of dreamily.

“About Tobias. Snape didn’t even remember his name. One of his star students. There’s no other explanation.”

“Who’s Tobias?” she responded.

--- ---

Harry’s dreams were deeply troubling that night. He had planned on trying to communicate with Sirius Black tomorrow and he was beginning to really worry. He dreamt about Ron telling him that he had been replaced by Ginny on the Quidditch team permanently. He dreamt that Voldemort was attacking him. He dreamt about Hermione, in his dream he could actually smell her hair and it smelled just like summer. He dreamt about a strange chest that began to suck the whole world into it.

He finally was awakened by sunlight streaming into the room. He remembered that he was going to talk to Sirius tonight and the thought motivated him. He quickly got dressed and ran downstairs. There was Hermione. It looked like she had not even slept.

“Morning Hermione.”

“Hi Harry,” she said in an almost dead voice.

“You alright?”

“No, not really. By the way, I snuck into your room last night and stole your invisibility cloak. I’m really sorry, but I had no choice. Here you go.”

She held it out for Harry. He took it without saying anything. She was not looking well at all.

“Hermione?”

“Go put your cloak away Harry. We’ll talk later. I promise.”

“Okay,” Harry said as he tried to smile at her.

She did not seem to notice. He turned and went back upstairs to stash the cloak away. When he left the room Hermione stared up after him. Her eyes filled with tears. She had been holding a piece of parchment in her hand. It was from Tobias. It started out as an essay on how Salazar Slytherin died, but towards the end it changed. It was a letter to her.

Dear Hermione,

You have been my only friend and for that I thank you. As I was sitting here, I got a premonition of my own death. So, I thought I had better write down a few things before my time is up. You have nothing to fear from the chest. Gevin will destroy it. So, place that burden out of your mind. However, I wanted to write to you about the vision I had about you. I am convinced that tomorrow tonight is the night it will happen. Your time is up and you have very little more to waste. You will die. Harry will ask you to go somewhere with him. You will try and talk him out of it, but will not succeed. You will go, because you care so much for him. If you go you will most likely save Harry’s life, but you will be killed shortly after. So, knowing that you probably haven’t told Harry how you really feel about him, maybe because you don’t even know it yet, your time has run out. I certainly can’t tell you what you should do. Perhaps just by going, with the knowledge you now have, you will be speaking volumes to him about the depth of commitment to him. Of course, if you do go, you must NOT tell him what is going to happen to you. If you do that, he will not be able to succeed and will die also. Be brave my wonderful friend. Either stay and live to fight another day, or go and die for the one you love. Whatever your choice, I will always think very highly of you. Oh, and don’t forget, I’m only eighty percent accurate, so who really knows anything for sure. I wanted to make sure that I shared this with you before it was too late. There’s some other things I need to tell you as well. First, there is the matter of… Hermione, there’s something in my room…

It ended there. Reading the last line had made her blood turn cold. She held it close to her. If she read it everyday, she might be able to remember him. She had to try. If she did not, then no one else would and his life would then become meaningless.

--- ---

Four centaurs returned. The boldest stepped forward and threw the hag’s head down before the elders. The other three carried their fallen brother.

“I have failed. One of our brothers died during the battle, I was the head of the hunting party and therefore I am too blame.”

“No,” cried many of the centaurs around them. They knew of his bravery and not one would let him carry the blame for this death.

“There is more,” he continued. ”The hag killed one of the Hogwarts children. She had already eaten him when we caught up to her. There was nothing that could be done. Our delay in hunting this creature has cost us greatly.”

No one spoke. The wisest and oldest elder who aroused the hunt in the first place broke the silence.

“We must contact Hagrid very soon. We will tell him what has occurred and ask him to seek forgiveness from Dumbledore for our arrogance. Though I am still angry at his taking in one our kind to teach his students; I still feel that we must at least keep the channels of dialogue open, at least for now. I have nothing further to say about this, at this time.”

The elder stepped away and turned into the forest. The bitter taste of death filled his mouth.

“All is not well, Dumbledore my old friend,” he thought aloud. “What are we to do? I fear this war will come to our forest whether we choose to see it or not. We must find a way to mend our differences and soon. I fear Voldemort is almost upon us.

7. VII

Chapter 7

“You want to what?” the man in the black cloak asked incredulously.

“I want to make her dance Vilavarg. Let me play with her for just a little while.”

Vilavarg realized that there were times it was best to let the servants play. If they were not rewarded from time to time they would often begin to think for themselves. That can often cause problems with underlings who are inanely stupid.

“You may play with her, but you are not to damage her in anyway. I don’t want the boy to become suspicious when he sees her. Is that clear?”

“Yes Master.”

“You insolent fool! I am not the Master, only Emeric is our master. We serve him and only him. You would do well to remember that.”

“Of course. Forgive me,” he said rather pathetically.

Vilavarg gathered up the hem of his cloak and turned dramatically around and left the small, scabby man to his own devices. The wretch turned towards Ellie and raised his wand. She sat as a rag doll would, strewn across the floor with her back leaning crookedly against the wall. Her eyes were glazed over. The Imperius Curse had already been cast on her three times. Her mind was trapped within itself as she answered the whims of the Circle.

“Get up girl. Get up and… and dance for poor Heavley. Dance!”

Heavley had little understanding of the intricacies of dance, and his command was quite vague. Still, Ellie found her body standing up and her hands held forward in a semi-circle. Her fingertips were outstretched, but not quite touching. Suddenly she heard music in her head and her body began to move.

“Yeesss, yesss, dance!” he cried again.

She lifted the backs of her feet up into an arch and she took a graceful step forward. Her arms lifted above her head and she began to twirl. Her feet became fluid and infinitely graceful. The music was so beautiful that she could not help but embrace it. Her body flowed forward and back in tender rhythm. She found herself gently swaying around the room as if she were an autumn leaf captured by the October winds.

Heavley had no idea of how perfect her form was, or how hauntingly beautiful her whole being danced to some unheard orchestra. Ellie suddenly felt a piece of herself hidden deep inside. She saw what was happening, though she had no control over it. Her most beautiful moment and it was not in front of her beloved. She began to weep as she leapt into the air. Her tears ran down her cheeks as she began to spin like a ballerina doll inside of a music box.

“Gevin,” her mouth formed. “Please find me. Please take me away.”

The words tasted like bile. She knew if he were to find her that she would be the one who would lead them all to ruin. She would be responsible for his death.

“Nooooo,” she screamed. “Nooooo,” and fell to the ground in hysterics.

Vilavarg stormed in with two others and they lifted their wands in unison. She looked up for the briefest moment, and realized what was coming. A flash and the connection to herself was lost.

“Sit down.”

She did.

--- ---

“You’re going aren’t you?” Luna asked.

“I have to. He needs me, I... I can’t let him face this alone. Sirius needs Harry and… and…”

“And you need Harry,” Luna said in a quiet voice.

After hearing that it was like a door buried inside her mind swung open.

“Yes. I do need Harry. He is my best friend. Without Harry, I’m still the eleven year old girl crying in the bathroom. Without Harry, I’m still lying motionless from the stare of a basilisk. Without Harry, I am full of books, but empty of kindness and friendship. Without Harry, I am trapped in a library, rather than cheering for quidditch. Without Harry, I’m filled with anger and loneliness, but no place to heal those wounds. Without Harry… I’m not me.”

“So, you’ll die then?”

“How did you know about that?”

“I’m not really sure. I feel like someone told me that once. I can’t seem to remember who or why.”

Hermione reached into her pocket and held Tobias’s parchment in her hand. I still remember you. I have not forgotten. She looked at Luna and realized she had stalled for too long.

“Goodbye Luna.”

“Goodbye Hermione. Don’t forget to come back.”

Hermione grinned, “I won’t.”

She could not wait another minute it was time to go. She tried to get Harry to make sure that Sirius was really missing, but he was firm that if they waited it would be too late. So, with all the loyalty in the world, she told Harry she would go. It was time and nothing could stop the chain of events to come. She thought she would be more afraid to die, but knowing that she would save Harry some how, she felt a sense of calm. Like nothing she had ever felt before.

--- ---

“Now who on earth is that?” Dumbledore said perplexed.

He tried very hard to remember, but no memory of him came whatsoever. He stared hard into his pensieve and saw a smallish youngster, who appeared to be a second or third year student. He was standing next to Snape, while he himself was there. Snape was confiding to him that the boy had a great mind and wanted him to be accelerated through some of the easier classes. He had no reason not to trust Snape’s judgment, so he agreed. How is that he could not remember him?

“Ahhh,” he thought to himself. “I believe Hagrid and I recently discussed a most unusual enemy in our midst. Dear boy, forgive me.”

Dumbledore raised his wand and cast an extremely powerful memory charm. Albus was one of the few wizards who could cast the spell with enough force to overcome the effects of the grendel hag.

“Yes, Tobias. I remember you. Never fear, you will not be forgotten. Now, I must find out why this terrible tragedy happened.”

He stood up and walked over to Fawkes and began to gently stroke the soft, bright feathers. Then something quite unusual happened. Even the headmasters of old looking down from their portraits gasped in surprise.

“Why I’ve never seen… nor thought I would ever see the day. My, my, my,” said one of the portraits.

Dumbledore pushed his glasses closer to his eyes and blinked a few times to make sure he was not mistaken. A figure had just come through the floor and settled in front of Dumbledore. It was one of the school ghosts, but not just any ghost mind you.

“Well, well, well Baron, I am pleased to see you. What was it you wanted to talk to me about?”

--- ---

Gevin sat on the sidewalk in front of the Leaky Cauldron. It was getting late and most of the customers had already made, or stumbled, their way home. He had no idea of where to even begin to look for Ellie. Each minute that went by, he convinced himself more and more that he would not find her.

Then something happened for the very first time in Gevin’s life. An owl flew directly up to him, dropped a letter into his hand and spread its wings and took off again. He looked down at the letter in shock. He turned it to the front and saw that it was indeed addressed to him and it had come from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He immediately thought of Tobias and began to tear open the letter.

Dearest Gevin,

I have terrible news and then I’m afraid I have some worse news. I have recently discussed, with a mutual acquaintance, a bit about your situation. You can consider me a friend. I have just learned the whereabouts of young Ms. Borgin. She was taken by a group that I thought we had dealt with a long, long time ago. Perhaps our war with You-know-who has blinded me to other dangers that linger in the world. I strongly believe that she is being kept prisoner in one of the hidden chambers inside the ministry of magic. You must hurry there; she will very likely need your help. I myself just discovered that I must also go there, but for different reasons. A young wizard that I care greatly about and a number of his fellow students have gone there as well, to aid a dear friend. You must listen carefully. No matter what else happens, you must destroy the divining chest. So, much is riding on you seeing this through. Let no one deter you. Now, for the worse news. I regret to tell you that Tobias was killed last night. The Baron believes it was because he provided help to you. So, when you are fulfilling your grave mission, remember what he sacrificed to help you. When all of this is done, please come and visit the school. I would very much like to speak with you.

Sincerely,

A.D.

Gevin had no time to grieve. His heart was torn raw from the loss of his friend, but he had to hurry. Ellie needs him and he must get there as fast as he possibly can. When he has saved her and destroyed the artifact, then he would give himself the time he would need to mourn for Tobias. He lifted his wand and with a swish and a flick he vanished.

--- ---

Harry was half crazed with worry and grief. They were searching desperately through the ministry building. He was sure if he saw the room in person, he would remember it from his dream.

Hermione kept staring at him and tried to stay very close to him. She wanted to tell him something, something very important, but how could she? This was not the time to discuss her need to be around him, almost all of the time. Nor the time to tell him that she was so grateful to him for seeing past her flaws and becoming her friend. Nor was this the time to tell him that she was afraid, because she was starting to feel things for him that made her feel complete inside. She also knew that the time might never come. If this was her last night, then she would never get the chance again.

“I won’t,” she whispered as she ran to keep up. “I won’t, because it would distract him. If she was going to die, then something terrible was about to happen. She could not let anything get in his way. She also had to keep her eyes open for the moment he would need her. She would carry all of these thoughts with her to whatever came after this life. It would have to do for now, that she was completely aware of herself and her feelings. Something strangely new for one Miss Hermione Granger.

Harry could barely keep his anger inside. If it was not for the fact that Sirius needed him, he would give in to it and probably just randomly blow things up with a wave of his wand. The thought of bringing the whole ministry down to ash and rubble was severely tempting. He turned around for a brief moment and saw Hermione looking at him as she did her best to keep up.

He felt like they were getting closer. He had to get to Sirius before he was hurt or worse. Many of his friends were at his side. That brought a measure of hope to him. At first he did not want them there, but now he was glad for the extra bodies, and wands for that matter.

Hermione never looked as good as she did when she was forsaking everything to help him. No matter how insane it was. So, essentially, she was looking really good pretty much all of the time nowadays. The thought made him laugh, but also made him feel like he could take on the world. Which, conveniently, was part of the plan at this moment.

--- ---

Gevin had apparated just outside of the ministry. He remembered what he had learned from an old witch in Knockturn. There was a secret entrance, to those who knew where it was and had the password. After sharing an unseemly amount of galleons, he was one of those people who knew. On the eastern side of the building there was a small window set on the ground level. It was quite small and had a number of weeds growing over it. Making it almost invisible, if you did not know what you were looking for. He cast a transfiguration spell and turned himself into an old alley cat. Fitting he thought. He then mewed out the words, ‘The Great Filbin Sent Me’. The window swung open and he jumped inside. He then quickly undid the transfiguration and was back to his normal self. The small window then shut itself.

“Lumos!”

He was in a small storage room. He made his way to the door and stepped out into a dimly lit hallway. Now, to find his Ellie lost somewhere in this bureaucratic nightmare.

--- ---

Vilavarg stood silent.

“Gevin Rookwood is here, I can feel him,” he announced.

Another figure turned and said, “Voldemort is here as well. Dumbledore will surely be here soon. All is going just as we had hoped.”

“Indeed,” Vilavarg replied.

--- ---

Just behind his Lord, stood Augustus Rookwood. He had assured Voldemort that The Circle Of Emeric would bring the divining chest here. He also informed him that once Harry Potter and the prophecy were dealt with, they could turn their attention to getting the chest and killing those who stood in the way.

“I know you are here, my young nephew,” Augustus smiled. “To save the precious Borgin girl I have no doubt. Let me assure you though, that you will fail in this miserably. The chest and the prophecy will be in my Lord’s hand before the night is through.”

8. VIII

Chapter 8

The moment had come, just as Tobias had predicted. Hermione had her chance to save Harry and did so with great valor. Now, surrounded by the enemy her time to leave this world stared straight into her face. She had no time to react, but her mind was racing with thoughts. She had many questions, like how was Harry going to survive this terrible ordeal. Questions like, how will she ever get to know how Harry really feels deep inside. Questions like, what kinds of things would she have gotten to accomplish in her life. Questions like, does it hurt when you die?

A strange green brilliance lit up everything around her. Then she was falling to the floor and everything quickly faded to black. Just before all things fell into the vacuum of death, she caught Harry’s eyes. His face was more deeply troubled than she had ever seen before. All the color had left his skin and he was standing there like a pale ghost in the darkness. She could see what she had always wanted to see for herself staring back at her. Eyes that cared so deeply for her, that friendship was merely a spring rain falling into the deepest ocean. If it was not love in his eyes, then it was nothing short of absolute devotion. It was enough, and then her life fluttered and without warning gave out.

Neville looked down at Hermione and then up at Harry. He reached down and grabbed her wrist. In spite of everything, he stayed there holding it ever so carefully. Then after eternity had come and went, he felt it. The tiniest pulse, the faintest heart beat. She was alive, he quickly explained to Harry that she was still with them. Then, for the first time, Neville saw something in Harry’s gaze. It was not relief that a friend had barely survived death. No, it was a dizzying and endless gratitude to discover that an extension of his own being was still there and if all was right in the world, that he would be reunited with what mattered most to him. Neville knew that look. It was the same look he knew he had in his own eyes when he would visit his parents. That ferocity that only comes with the fiery hope that if goodness were somehow to prevail, then those we need and love the most would be by our side again. At that moment he knew two things beyond a shadow of any doubt. One, they were going to survive this nightmare and two, that one day his parents would look at him and see their son and know him. He would have wept, if only the enemy was not upon them.

--- ---

Augustus, with his wand held out, was on the hunt. He was locked in a pathetic battle against mere children, but his mind was latched on to a different thought. He was also desperately trying to find the whereabouts of the fools of Emeric and the chest that his Lord had ‘suggested’ he find. Therein lay a suggestion as forceful as the most basic laws of physics. It was not to be questioned, merely accepted as lawful fact.

He ran through hallways and somehow would always wind up running into one or more of the children, or his fellow death-eaters. He was beginning to panic and he tried to keep his focus sharp. The chest was here, it was merely a matter of finding it before the Circle was able to get their claws on his nephew, and get him to do whatever it is they thought he could do for them.

He felt a sensation that he knew all too well. The presence of He-who-must-not-be-named was very close. His Lord had finally entered the fray. The thought of what dire punishment was going to be doled out to the little weasel Potter, made him crack an evil grin. Then he began to think of what punishment would be weighed on him if he were to fail. Voldemort wanted the chest, perhaps even more than he wanted the prophecy. To fail him would be a final act indeed.

--- ---

Gevin was running blindly. Something was going on here and it was much greater than a Knockturn alley rogue looking for his dark haired love. He had expected only to find the Circle, in spite of the warning from Hogwarts. He tried his best to remain hidden from the death-eaters. It was highly likely that his Uncle was amongst them and to run into him could spell disaster. He was unprepared to face him.

Then, pressed into ducking through a small hallway, he came out into a strange round room. There were only two things in the room and they were both what he had come here for. Lying on the ground with her hands gently crossed across her stomach was Ellie. A mere footstep away was the black chest and its fuming chimney of smoke. He stopped, well aware that this was nothing short of a trap. What he did not know was what would set it off, or what its purpose might be.

He looked around and after feeling relatively sure the room was empty aside from what was in front of him, he stepped in. Nothing happened, whatever the trap was it had yet to surface. He dashed forward and fell to his knees beside the still figure of his Ellie. He quickly glanced at the chest and noting the protective rune was still in place, he looked back at her.

He gently pressed his fingers onto her throat and immediately felt a steady pulse. A wave of relief swept over his entire being. She was still alive; he had not arrived too late. He brushed the hair from her face and gently touched her forehead with his palm. He gently slid his hand down to her cheek and whispered to her that he had come for her.

After a moment her eyelashes fluttered. Then her large eyes opened and looked up at him. She smiled weakly and lifted her hand to his chest and rested it there.

“I knew you would come. Thank you my love.”

His chest felt tight and his eyes began to mist over.

“I’m so sorry this happened to you Ellie. Don’t worry, all of this will be over soon.”

She took her other arm and wrapped it around the back of Gevin’s neck. She then pulled herself up to him and placed her lips onto his. She gently rocked herself against him and pressed her lips with a fierceness. Gevin felt his whole person just meld into hers. He gave in to what he had wanted to do for so long and began to embrace her. She felt so warm and full of life. A long dormant need for affection arose in him. Their kiss had become intense and passionate. She pressed herself tightly against his chest and he felt how soft she was and how overwhelming the sensation of her breasts pressed into him felt.

He pulled away from her and there in her eyes was an almost inhuman desire. He felt like if he let her she would swallow him and keep him inside of her forever. For a brief moment he wanted that more than anything. Then cold reality set in. They were still in the ministry building, the chest was still whole, and two dark armies were so close that surely there was no way out but death.

“I have to destroy the chest, Ellie. We have so little time.”

Her face looked troubled.

“But Gevin? You can’t destroy the chest, not until you use it to fix the damage that has been done. If you don’t do that first then all is lost.”

“What are you talking about?” Gevin asked with surprise in his voice.

“The Circle of Emeric cast a spell that has already been set in motion. The spell was cast long ago, but lacked one thing. They now have that item in their possession and have already finished the ritual. They found a spell that will enable them to all become Animagus. And not just any kind, but each one of them will be able to transform into an adult dragon. We must find the wizard who started the spell long ago and apparate him here, so you can destroy him. Then we can destroy the chest and everything will be right again. Please Gevin, we have to hurry.”

Gevin looked at Ellie and then at the chest. Animagus dragons he thought. The Circle would become a thousand times more dangerous then they already were. Not even if all the wizards in the ministry stood together, would they be able to fend off a horde of spell-casting dragons. That spelled apocalyptic disaster for every last wizard and muggle. He had to stop them, and it had to happen here and now.

“Thank goodness you’re here Ellie. If I hadn’t known then I can’t even imagine what might happen. Who is the wizard we need to kill?”

“We have to bring Emeric himself here; he’s the one ultimately behind it all.”

“How are we going to bring him here?”

“You can do it Gevin. I heard them saying that the chest can look back in time. You will need to drain some of your blood into it and then you will be able to save us all.”

Gevin looked at Ellie and she was looking at him. Her whole body seemed to shiver with desire. Her chest was heaving and her eyes practically screamed for him to take her right then and there. He shook his head, he had to stay focused. He had to undo the spell that Emeric had cast in the far past. Ellie’s hand slid down onto Gevin’s leg.

“I want you,” she said with a false innocence.

“I want you too,” his voice replied thickly.

He turned to the chest and suddenly realized the awful truth.

“Ellie. I was never able to find out how to open the chest. Tobias is dead and so he can’t tell me. I have no idea whatsoever, of how to open the thing.”

Ellie coyly smiled and replied, “It’s okay Gevin. I’ve heard everything those evil wizards have been saying. I know exactly what to do. I’ll tell you and all you have to do is follow along.”

“Okay,” he replied pulling out his wand. “I’m ready. What’s the first step?”

--- ---

Vilavarg stood deathly still. The room was part of an elaborate illusion. It appeared small to Gevin, but the back wall was not truly there. Two dozen wizards watched with darkened gazes. Each with their wand held at the ready. If anything were to go wrong, curses would rush forth unhindered into Gevin’s body.

His black cloak was wrapped tightly against him. Many things had happened since he first slipped into Gevin’s shabby room at the Knockturn Inn. So far, everything had gone exactly as he had anticipated. It was as if the strings of fate were tuned to perfection in his favor. His Master would be quite pleased indeed. Once brought into this time, he would once again resume his reign of evil. He would no longer be a footnote in the history books, but a living breathing ruler that would have the people of this world redefining the term tyrant. As the one who restored him, Vilavarg would be made Emeric’s general. His darkest desire to crush the wills of a world that he feels forsook him, would soon become a painful reality. He smiled in spite of himself.

The only wizard who could possibly pose a threat was going to be entangled with that upstart so called ‘Lord’ Voldemort. Once Emeric was with his followers, he would crush Voldemort and his pathetic death-eaters. One thing the girl got right, was that indeed Emeric had the knowledge of bending the animagus transformation to the will of the wizard. All that was needed was the right artifact to channel the change into a specific form. Inside of his cloak he had the obsidian dragon eye that he spent his entire life searching for. There would be no stopping the Circle. Their power would be endless.

He watched as Gevin tried to fight off the advances of the girl to concentrate on what he thought needed to be done. She needed little nudging to bring out the drive in her. She already had strong feelings for the boy. She practically jumped at the opportunity to serve the Imperius Curse when it came to affection for Gevin. Which only further proved to Vilavarg what love truly was; just another weapon to be used in the search for dominance and power. Here it served his need all too well.

--- ---

The Order of the Phoenix had arrived. Dumbledore led them through the corridors of the Ministry of Magic. He knew exactly where the prophecy was and had no doubts what he would find when he arrived there. His only worry was poor Gevin and the young daughter of Borgin. They were in dire need as well, but he simply could not be in two places at once. He had no choice but to protect Harry from the enemy that had taken so much from the wizards of this age. In the end, depending on how the followers of Emeric fared, it might be one war ended only to start a new and far more dangerous one.

So little was known about Emeric, as his life began before even wizards kept accurate historical records. If only he could figure what this evil Circle brought to the table, he could be better prepared for that fight, but he had no idea of what kind of power Emeric had at his command. He held fast to the hope that Gevin would prevail. The boy had an excellent head on his shoulders. He deeply regretted that he was not able to convince him to attend Hogwarts. He had no doubt that he would have become an astute student and an asset to the school. However, that chance was lost long ago. He regretted few things as much as he regretted that terrible moment.

He stared ahead and tried to put those thoughts away for now. He could sense that Voldemort was already here and if he did not act quickly, young Harry Potter would be in grave danger. Dumbledore knew the prophecy, and knew what it meant. If Harry were to die, then the war was already over and the Order of the Phoenix would be made instantly powerless. The Dark Lord would become nearly immortal and verifiably invincible. That could not be allowed, he thought grimly.

As he turned the corner he remembered the old round room. No one went there anymore, but it was often used by the Aurors when they performed some of their darkest work. There were things the ministry had done in the past that Albus was far from proud of and he desperately wished he could have changed. The room was just ahead, so he thought it might be prudent to look inside and see if anything was happening there.

He stopped in his tracks and saw what he feared he might. There was Gevin kneeling beside the chest and at his side was the young woman. She had survived, and for that Dumbledore was very grateful. He saw beyond the false wall and looked across at the crazed wizards lying in wait. The moment was at hand. He had to choose between Harry and Gevin. His allegiance to Harry was in no way questioned, but he also knew the terrible debt that was owed to Gevin. He had hopes that at the end of it all, if the side of good were to be victorious, that he would sit with him and explain everything. Gevin had a right to know what had happened that night. If only he could have been there a moment sooner he could have averted that awful tragedy.

“They are so much alike,” he muttered to himself. “They have the same past and many of the same qualities. Perhaps if Harry had not come to Hogwarts and had not been taken under his wing, he would have become the young man before him that stood in the most dangerous position that he could ever have imagined.”

“Dumbledore,” Tonks cried. “We have no time to lose. Harry is standing before You-know-who right now. He needs you!”

Albus closed his eyes and then after the briefest moment, smiled strangely.

“Dearest Tonks, I just remembered something that has never even happened. Don’t you find that quite odd?”

There was almost a joyful sound in his tone.

“I beg your pardon?”

“It would take too long to explain. Suffice it to say that our worries lie with Harry right now. Quickly, we must fly.”

“That’s what I just said,” Tonks replied with exasperation.

They ran up aways and turned to the opposite end of the long hall. A door stood between him and Harry. With a wave of his wand they burst through that door. Time was short, but he knew that Harry could still be saved. His face grew angry and he took a step forward towards his enemy.

--- ---

“Do you love me?”

“Yes, of course I do,” he said off-handedly as he examined the death rune more closely.

“Gevin?” she said with deep earnest. “Do you love me?”

Gevin turned to Ellie and saw the longing in her face.

“Yes Ellie, I do love you. I’ll always love you.”

“Then trust me. I would not ask you to do this if I thought you were going to get hurt in anyway.”

Gevin stared into her eyes and saw nothing but sweet adoration. He had craved that look all of his life. He wanted above all other things, to be needed; wanted; loved. He turned back to the chest and, with the knowledge his Uncle taught him, cast the spell to create a portkey and placed it directly over the rune. The portkey was to send the one who touched it directly to the chest. So, in essence, they would not go anywhere.

He fearfully touched the rune and to his immense relief the spell had worked. Ellie had overheard the wizards correctly. He was not turned into a small puddle of goo and that thought brought him an immediate sense of relief. He quickly smiled at Ellie and then reached out his hand and slowly lifted the lid of the chest.

Inside was a silvery vortex. It spun almost maddeningly around in a whirl of dark energy. He thought for a moment of Tobias and where he might be right now. An image of a small, but quiet graveyard on the very edge of the grounds of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He had no idea there was even a cemetery there, but he guessed it was for those rare times when a person died at the school and had no where else to be laid to rest. He promised himself he would visit there as soon as he could.

This time he thought of his Uncle. An image of a dark room came to rest in the vortex. There was a cacophony of wizards throwing desperate spells at one another. Some kind of battle was occurring, but he could not make out what was exactly happening. His mind began to wander even more and a myriad of visions danced from one place or thing to another. It was difficult to look at and it made his eyes feel strained.

A warm hand touched the back of his neck and delicate fingers ran through his hair.

“Concentrate on Emeric my love. You must undo his madness.”

“You’re right, of course,” he replied.

He turned to Ellie and a million different feelings swept through him. He was not sure whether to laugh or to cry or to scream or all of them at once. All these emotions were overwhelming. He could barely keep his wits about him. Then the gravity of what was happening pulled him back down to earth.

Memories of his mother and father, lost to him so long ago. Memories of his Uncle raising him in a cold and emotionless home filled with subtle bitterness. Memories of the open hatred of the world of Diagon Alley, and memories of open hostility in the world of Knockturn Alley. Memories of Jacob Gilpin’s death. Memories of fending off the grendel hag. Memories of the years of friendship with Tobias now lost to him. Memories of all these things surrounded him and left him deeply weary.

“Where can I find the strength?” he pleaded. “How can I keep going on like this? I don’t want to run anymore. I don’t want to hide anymore. I want to walk out into the world, like I belong in it.”

Ellie looked at him and said nothing. She was given no instructions on how to handle an outburst like that. So, she simply sat still.

Gevin placed his face close to the whirlwind inside the dark box. He concentrated with all of his might. His left hand reached up and grasped the small cube on his neck, which Borgin had given him. He hoped that it really would bring him so luck in this forsaken room. His right hand was firmly grasping his wand. The smoke began to billow out in all sorts of strange colors. The past and the present were melting into each other inside the chest. Gevin felt a strange pull from the vortex and could sense that the dark magic was now operating on an entirely new level.

There within the past was what Gevin sought. The wizard was there as Ellie had told him. So much was riding on getting this right. It looked as if the wizard were casting some strange spell before him. He thought this must be what started this whole chain of events. He would not allow the followers of a madman succeed. He would bring the wizard to the present and before anything could be done about it, he would take control of the moment and end this insanity. He let go of the cube and reached into his pocket. He used his wand to transfigure some lent that he had found there. Suddenly a small knife was in his hand. He took it and placed it over his wrist. He held his arm out over the chest and with one quick move, sliced into his arm. He winced from the pain, but kept his whole body rigid. Then drops of his blood began to pour into the silvery darkness. A sound of metal grating against stone could be heard throughout the room. The past and the present were no longer fighting and suddenly the storm inside the chest abruptly halted. The image became as lucid as the reflection in a still pond. Only tiny ripples were cascading through the wisps inside. Gevin stood up and with a perfect motion he apparated the wizard into the room.

The illusionary wall behind the room fell away and the followers of Emeric ran forward to fall to their knees.

“I AM VICTORIUS!” cried Vilavarg.

9. IX

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.