The Long Road

Interlude One

Harry had just returned with his housemates from the latest round of extra class with Professor Jade. He fell into an armchair near Hermione in near exhaustion. "Another hard class, Harry?" Hermione asked him from behind her Charms notes.

"Yes. Incredibly so. It feels like my limbs are made of lead." Seamus and a few of the others agreed to this as they flopped down nearby.

"What have you all been studying this time?" Hermione asked, her interest piqued since she wasn't in the special sessions.

"More telekinesis, like the last two days. It's getting easier but it is still quite draining," Harry said and put a hand behind his head.

"We're getting quite proficient in it, Professor Jade said," Colin told her, "Harry and Neville and Seamus especially." Neville blushed and Harry and Seamus looked away from the extra attention.

"He's right, Harry, she said so, Hermione," Ron told her. "He levitated all of us while Professor Jade did anything and everything she could think of to throw off his concentration."

"Aye, he did it real well until the end," Seamus said as he rubbed his backside.

"Oh, I almost forgot, Hermione," Dean told her, "She asked me to give you this." Dean took a small sheet of parchment out of his robes and handed it to Hermione. She opened it and began reading.

"Miss Granger, I know that you have been giving your best and have been receiving mild results. I was pondering earlier and I might have found something for you. There is another path of the Force, that of healing. If you would be interested in giving this a try, come to my office tonight after dinner and I'll give you a quick description."

"So, what's it say, Hermione?" Neville asked her, just barely unable to see over her shoulder.

"Professor Jade would like to see me this evening after we eat to discuss something."

"She isn't mad, is she?" Colin asked her. Hermione shook her head no.

"No, she thinks she might have found something I'd be better at, that's all." They further discussed the day's events until dinner drew near.

Interlude Two

"I've had another premonition, Headmaster," Messina told Dumbledore as they met in the hallways after the last class of the day.

"I'm sure you did. I felt it also."

"How close to ready is the Order, Headmaster?"

"We are ready and waiting for Voldemort to show himself."

"How are the other plans?"

"I created the portkeys earlier today."

"I hope we never need them, but it would be foolish to be unprepared."

"I agree, Messina. I unfortunately agree." The two of them walked silently down the hallways, both wishing what they'd foreseen wasn't on the verge of exploding all over them.

Messina bid Dumbledore farewell and turned into the door leading to her private quarters. The coming storm lay like a fog over her mind. It was hard to see clearly into it, to glimpse a bit of the future. All that she was certain of was that whatever was going to happen was going to happen quite soon. She settled down onto a chair and tried to clear her mind. After a long struggle she was able to open herself further.

She saw Hogsmeade in her mind, or at least what was left of it anyway. There were bodies strewn like a child's toys all over the grounds. The bodies were wearing both the robes of the Death Eaters and those of her fellow staff. She couldn't see faces, thankfully, and the scene switched. She was looking down upon a small island covered in snow. Faces looked up in her direction and she again couldn't make out a face. The scene changed a final time and this time she saw London in flames. She was brought back to the present by an evil presence in her mind. A ripple in the Force, a deadly one. She heard a ear-rattling scream and then felt the person pass on. She sighed deeply.

"We must be ready. We absolutely must." There would be no more meditation for her for now. She instead turned her attentions to her students and the lesson she'd be giving Hermione later on in the evening.

Interlude Three

Death Eater Lucius Malfoy sat meditating. He'd been practicing a few of the techniques that he'd learned over the summer. An innocent Muggle lay lifeless in a corner of the room, a bit of smoke still occasionally rising from his crumpled form. 'Power,' he thought and smiled. He allowed hate to flow through him and felt completely re-energized. Scenes of death filled his mind, mostly the image of his own son dying at his hands.

For at least a year now, Draco had been edging away from his father and the Dark Lord. Lucius knew, oh he surely knew, and he barely restrained himself from killing him over the summer. Only a direct order from Voldemort himself to leave the boy alive spared him. Lucius reluctantly agreed and allowed the boy to live. Draco had not openly voiced his new opinions but it didn't matter. Lucius had spies.

Thinking back to when he and a handful of others had 'liberated' a small red pyramid from an ancient magical stronghold in Romania, Lucius allowed himself an even wider smile. It had started as a mysterious mission given to them by the Dark Lord but it had grown to so much more.

The six of them flew low above the hills near the ancient castle of Onderan, deep in the wilderness of southern Europe. Apparating was ruled out as the whole area was said to be warded against it. The Death Eaters landed a quarter mile outside of the castle grounds and took stock of the area. There was hardly a light to be seen, not even in the sky. This mission had been planned to occur during the new moon as to give an added edge. They all knew that stealth was hardly a concern with the multitudes of magical charms that were sure to surround the castle, but a few extra seconds undetected by a simple peasant could mean the difference between success and failure.

The group advanced quickly to the gates of the castles, a bit surprised at their luck. The front gate was blown to pieces by an incredibly destructive and specially learned spell and they rushed inside. "Caution," Lucius said as they advanced down the hallway. Still they had met no one. Lucius was torn between believing this would be incredibly easy or that they were walking into a trap.

Down flight after flight of steps they went, following their instructions to the letter. The Dark Lord had seen this, this artifact, and its precise location in a dream, or so he told them. They'd just descended the last of the steps and entered a long underground hallway when Lucius heard a slight 'clink' behind him. The sounds of stone moving ever so slightly. He instinctively dropped to the ground and saved his own life. He happened to catch sight of a green blast of light that was racing through the spot that he had until very recently occupied.

Lucius heard the short sound of a death cry and then a dull thud as one of his companions fell to the floor lifeless. A second thump quickly followed as more green bolts raced through the air above him. 'This isn't working,' he told himself. "Destructus!!" he yelled and a grapefruit sized ball of yellow energy raced toward the wall that seemed to be launching death at him. The wall erupted in an enormous explosion and the green rays ceased.

Lucius slowly rose to his feet and looked back. Morton and Crimrow. He'd lost two of his men but he could have cared less. The job was more important than their lives. Whatever this little object they were was must be important to be guarded by lethal spells like that. The remaining Death Eaters cautiously went down the hallway ready for anything now.

As they passed beyond the former wall and into a second shorter corridor he started to feel a dark malevolence in the air. It seemed to be beckoning them onward. They reached a door at the end of the hall and opened it from a distance. Nothing happened so they walked inside, wary as possible. There, sitting on a pedestal in the middle of the room was a small red pyramid. "This is too easy," Lucius said quietly as they approached.

As if on cue, panels in the ceiling opened and dropped horrible creatures in their midst. Before one of the Death Eaters could more than aim his wand he was ripped in two by a claw the size of a grown man's arm. Lucius and the others spun out of reach and began launching killing spells at the creatures. The spells seemed to have little affect but to make the creatures madder and more vicious. After ten minutes of combat the creatures were finally defeated. Two other Death Eaters had died, but the prize was at hand.

Lucius strode forward, anxious to grab this thing before anything else could fall upon them. As he picked it up, he felt extreme power course through him. He admired the small object and was completely surprised when a red form slowly formed in front of him.

"A long time to wait," the form said to him.

"Who...who are you?" Lucius asked, the other Death Eaters too stunned to make a coherent sound.

"I am Lord Bykov, a Master of the Dark Side. You hold in your hands the key to a vast power that you can barely comprehend."

"Hold your tongue, wizard, I'm one of the strongest dark wizards you'll ever meet," Lucius said more than a bit taken aback.

"Anger. That is good." The form was silent for a moment. "Your magic is but a faint whiff of bread in the wind compared to what I can teach you. I know the true power of the Dark Side."

"The Dark Side? What is this 'Dark Side'?"

"The roots of all your petty magic. Far stronger than anything you could possibly know at this moment." Lucius stood looking at Bykov without knowing what to say. "You certainly aren't smart enough to be the one I sensed before."

"No, apparently not," Lucius snapped angrily and stuffed the pyramid in his robes and watched as the form dissipated. "Come on, we've got what we came for." The surviving Death Eaters made their way back out to their brooms and returned to their own Dark Lord.

"Oh, how wrong I was," Lucius said as he rose from his feet. "This power is much stronger than any of the Unforgivable Curses. A sick grin crossed his face. "Oh, Draco. Soon you will learn what it means to be powerful." He pulled his wand out of his robes and watched as a dark green beam appeared at its end. "Soon."