Black Aeon

Chapter 12

To The End

The night seemed to last forever to Harry. He couldn't sleep, not knowing whether or not his sister would ever come back to him. He rolled onto his side again, and stared through the little gap in the curtains that surrounded his bed at the night sky. It was completely clear, the stars glittering brightly in the cold winter sky. He glanced at the Wizarding clock beside his bed; it had been modified to show both the time and where people he knew were. 'Ganie's arrow was pointing at 'mortal peril'. And had been there for the last few hours. It had only been five minutes since he had last looked at it. Hermione's was pointing to the girls dorms, and Ron's was pointing to the kitchen. Why was she still fighting? Why wasn't she coming back? Hopefully, she wasn't in too deeply over her head.

~

The man who she drop kicked in the head fell like a ton of bricks, his cranium collapsing as the back of his head hit the wall. Instantly another Death Eater wanna-be drew his wand on her in an attempt to kill her. "Bad plan buddy." She pulled one of her swords off her back and sliced the slim length of wood in half, sparks flying off the broken splinters. The Wizard cried out in anger, but it was abruptly cut off by the same sword slicing through his stomach. Blood sprayed out over her face, stinging everywhere it touched. She spat to rid her mouth ofthe thick red liquid that had sprayed into it. "Ew... not my favourite beverage... Hunter, duck!" Grapping the dagger from her boot, she threw it over her boyfriends head and straight in between the eyes of the Death Eater coming up behind him.

"Cheers babe! Now stop showing off with the weapons and send the spells flying!" At that, she laughed, and shouted to the Death Eaters before her.

"Bring it!" Her wand flew out of the sheath attached to her left wrist and into her palm.

~

His eyes kept shutting, and his mind drifting off to sleep. But he had to stay awake; 'Ganie might come back and need him. As he watched the clock, something strange began to happen; her arrow began to turn a dark, deep red colour, the stain flowing down the shaft to the screw in the middle. He didn't know what was going on, but that was worrying. Without his consent, his eyes began to shut again, and this time he couldn't open them. Four a.m. was drawing on.

~

If you had looked out of a window in Hogwarts that looked over the grounds, you would have seen the figure of a girl cart wheeling across the school grounds, her clothes still soaked with blood and all sticking to her skin. But the laughter was pouring from her lips, as her friends and the survivors of the battle walked back with her. She knew it wasn't appropriate for her to be singing and turning cartwheels, but she had adrenaline pumping through her veins like it was her own blood. It was dark, and she could hear people stumbling over things and cursing. But she didn't care; she was alive, her friends were alive, and she was returning.

~

There was a warm weight beside him when his brain woke up. Of course, his body remained asleep, and his eyes refused to open. Somehow, the weight beside him reminded him of himself. His magical intuition simple told him that he was beside... himself. He reached out a hand, and traced the outline of a face more familiar then his own. Smiling, and blindly drew his sister closer to him. She snuggled against him, and she smelt faintly of soap, though the lingering scent of blood and sweat was still faintly detectable. He could ignore that.

~

The Potions lesson was dragging on and on. Having teamed up with Hunter, their Restoral de sang* potion was long since finished. Also, what was the great significance of school now? She had killed people, seen companions around her die and had generally lived more in a few hours then the majority of the people in this room ever would. Hopefully, because it had been horrifying, if exhilarating.

She twisted around at her bench, and grinned at Arielle and Jacob, who were still working on their potion, with less perfect results.

"Miss Potter, please remain still in your seat. You may have finished, but others have not. If you cannot remain still I can give you a nice piece of theory work. Four feet of parchment or so. It's your choice." She glared good naturedly at her Potions professor, and he raised an eyebrow in a return amused glance. She knew how to read Severus Snape more then most people did. A little trick she had inherited off of her mother. Deciding that she didn't fancy doing a four foot long essay on the use of newts' eyes in potions -which was probably what he would give her- she settled down, leaning her arms on the desk in front of her. The feather around her neck tickled her breast bone, and the cool disk of metal sat in the hollow at the base of her throat, a soft comfort of her ancestors, whom she was slowly learning to love. Gradually, she let boredom begin to wash over her. And with boredom, came a soft sleepiness. She wouldn't fall asleep in potions... she... wouldn't... fall...

She was looking at a wall. On that wall, was a family tree, all carefully carved into the stone. Beside a single name in each generation, was a tiny engraving of a flame. It was intricate, and beautiful.

"Lovely, isn't it?" She sharply spun around, and saw Morgan standing beside her, smiling gently. "You've had your hair cut."

"Smart aren't you? And yea, it is. You obviously stole the idea of it from Anne Rice though." The ancient witch laughed delightedly.

"I was wondering if you would notice that or not! I must admit, that was where I got the notion from. I wanted a family tree of my own, starting with myself and Salazar. See, those who are of the Le Fey power has a flame?"

"Why only one?" the woman shrugged.

"I do not know. For some reason, the power only in imbued in the youngest girl. Always the youngest female. Or if there is only one girl, the female. There has never been a boy with the Le Fey power. Other then your brother, though that was not born in him, it was placed there." Wylow nodded, deciding that she understood.

"So... why have you brought me here this time?" Morgan said nothing for a moment, reaching out and stroking the blonde spikes in her hair.

"I see that my love has been to visit you. It is strange that he should do so; he has never visited his other descendants by choice before. Mind you, last time I met him in physical form, he tried to kill me again. I'm not sure if that was because of the body he was in, and that body's' mind taking over, or is he was just temporarily insane. But use your new gifts well."

"I don't even know what they are." The red heads eyes widened.

"You haven't tested them out?"

"Haven't had the chance. Can you tell me?"

"Well, Parseltongue for one thing. Several of his own spells in there, in your memories now. Teleportation-"

"Isn't that the same as Apparation?"

"No. Teleportation is where you pull your physical presence into the astral realm, and then move it to where ever you wish to be and pull it back in to the physical. Much less messy and uncomfortable, though slightly more easy to end up Teleporting into the middle of a wall. Not nice, believe me."

"But can't anyone do that if they set their minds to it?"

"Your twin, I believe." Something was poking her in the side. She looked around, and saw nothing. Morgan smiled at her.

"I believe that would be your lover calling you back. We will speak again soon."

"Very probably yes."

"Wyl'?" She blinked, and saw Hunter leaning over her, an amused look on his face. "Come on sleepy, class is over." She stood, yawning and stretching.

"How long have I been asleep for?"

"About half an hour. You needed it though; you never sleep enough for the amount of accidents you have."

"Yes sir." She grinned up at him, absent mindedly rubbing the serpents' tongue that ran over her middle finger. He swung her bag over his shoulder, along with his own, (you strong man you... mental note; jump on Hunter later... she thought wickedly) and, putting his arm around her waist, lead her out of the dungeons.

*

Must to her annoyance, her private sitting room was not empty when she and Hunter walked into it. In fact, her favourite squashy arm chair was occupied by her least favourite man. With a scowl that was equal to any her mother could have given, she unwound her arms from around Hunters neck.

"What do you want? ... Sir." She could feel Hunters disapproval of her tone coming at her in waves, and for a moment she longed for her old connection to Jay's mind so that she could have a quiet bitch with him. The Professor seemed oblivious, or maybe he just chose to seem as such. He wasn't smiling, and there was no annoying twinkle coming from behind his glasses.

"You are needed."

At those words, the feather around her neck stirred, seeming to spin against her skin. This was serious.

She straightened up, and nodded.

"Yes Sir. What is required?" It had only been a matter of days since their last raid, but if there was another one needed, she would do it willingly. Already, her hands were itching to be clenched around her swords. The Professor could obviously tell this, for he shook his head sadly.

"There is another raid plan being put into motion. We wouldn't send you in, but this time it appears Voldemort himself will be there, and you, Mr. Carlisle and your two esteemed friends are the best we have aside from Mr. Potter."

"When do we need to be ready?" Hunters' voice was calm and cool, as thought he wasn't feeling anything. He and Wylow obviously shared some traits in that way; they had a very distinct battle mode.

"By tonight. You have a few hours. You are excused from the remainder of your lessons, as are Miss Morlock and Mr Marlowe. Miss Le Fey- Potter; you may remove your brother from classes at some point if that is what you wish. I will meet you later with the rest of the brave souls who will go with you." With that, he nodded, and left. Wylow sighed, and leaned back against her boyfriend, who wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin atop her head, the spikes having been abandoned and it just lying messily about her head. All the passion she had felt for Hunter a moment before had vanished, and she simply wanted to curl up with him in front of the fire in her room and possibly sleep. She also wanted to see her brother though, and not have a fast goodbye like her last one to him.

"You alright love?" His voice was quiet, the timbre rumbling in his chest. She sighed, and nodded, feeling more then a little put out.

"Yea, I think so." After a pause, she had to voice what she was thinking out loud. "Is this what our life is going to be like? A mess of battles, and raids, and our existence and education and work arranged around it?"

"I don't know."

~

As calmly as he could, Harry sipped his butter beer, trying to ignore his shaking hands. His sister appeared to be perfectly calm, though for once she wasn't drinking alcohol; rather, she was delicately sipping at a strange herbal tea (something like ginseng, raspberry, mint and St Johns Wort. He shuddered at the mere thought. Still, it smelt nice.) She looked, for want of a better word, exhausted. Her skin was practically white, and even the freckles that dusted across her nose were now a very light brown. There were large bruise like smudges under her eyes that were quite worrying. Her hair was almost identical to his in length and style (very scruffy), except hers had the streak of white and dark auburn shot through it on either side.

"... 'Ganie, do you have to go?" His twin looked up, and their eyes met. For that moment, that single instant, her eyes were identical to his. They weren't fierce, or wolf like; they were simply pure green pools of innocence, strength, and fear. So much fear. Harry was looking right into the depths of her soul, and he knew that her worst fear at that moment was that she would be killed and leave him alone in the wide, vicious, cold hearted world. Slytherins' could feel, and 'Ganie was proving it beyond doubt.

A single, shimmering tear welled up in her eye, and trailed silently down her angular cheekbone to her jaw, then down her neck and vanished into the collar of her shirt.

"Yes. You know I have to Jay.... I don't have a choice really."
"Yes you do!" Bewilderment flooded his head as he stared at his sister as she raked a hand through her hair, causing it to stand up on end and make her look very young and lost.

"No, I don't. I told you Jay; I'm an expendable! You are the one who's needed, who's special. I can die, and it won't matter because I don't have a prophecy circling around my head like an over zealous budgie!" A tiny smile threatened to creep over his face at his sisters amusing comparison, but he quickly smothered it. Now was no time for smiles and giggles.

"'Ganie... You might die... and then I would too." She looked at him miserably. Quietly, he held out his right hand; his wand hand. Carved into the palm, was a scar shaped like an 'M'. "Remember when we did these? We were thirteen and had just found each other. You had just come to live at the Dursleys. You felt lost, and alone without Remus. I promised you I wouldn't leave you, but you didn't believe me, so we made a blood pact." Tears were now pouring down her face. 'Ganie never cried. "I made a cut like an 'M', and you made one like-"

"-An 'H'. M for Morgan and H for Harry. 'Bound together, blood and bone'."

"'Our destiny engraved in stone.'"

"'Forever one forever tied.'"

"'Until death do us part.'"

"'Until the turn of the tide." They intoned the last line of their old vow together, and clasped wand hands, his right; hers left, and squeezed tightly. He smiled gently at her, and, pulling her arm, drew her around the table and into a tight embrace. She would come back to him, he knew it; his baby sister was a fighter and always would be.

~

Night time fell over Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and with it fell a feeling of deep apprehension.

The Golden Trio watched in silence as Wylow, Hunter, Arielle and Jacob, all dressed in the protective spelled leather that was their uniform (originally designed to be worn by Dragon Handlers, it fitted like a second skin and reflected almost every spell known to Wizarding kind), donned the vast, complex amount of weaponry that they were taking with them. Jacob ran through a check list in a flat monotone, his face revealing nothing of his emotions.

"Blades?"

"Check."

"Wands?"

"Check."

"Silent explosives?"

"Check."

"Wand Silencers?"

"Check."

"Wand sh-"

"Jac', I mean this in the nicest possible way; shut up." Wylow hadn't meant to sound so snappish, but she didn't want to have to go through the things she had had to hide about her person. However, her friend understood and shut up with a quick nod. Finally, Granger obviously found it too much to bear. "I don't see why they are going and not us!" Weasley and Jay winced, and her Head counterpart rested his arm on the irate girls arm.

"Hermione, we've been through this."

"It's always been us! We got the Philosophers Stone, not them! We solved the Chamber of Secrets mystery, not them! We saved Sirius, we went to the Department of Mysteries; not them! So why are they going off on a top secret mission while we're left behind? What have they ever done?!" That was it. That was bloody well it.

In one fluid movement, Wylow had stalked across the room, grabbed the front of Grangers robes and hauled her out of her seat and into the air. The bushy haired Gryffindor looked terrified.

"Listen here you whining little wretch of a Lion! Just because you think you are so great doesn't mean that every one else does!" Grangers' face was beginning to be tinged with pink and her collar cut off her air supply. Weasley coughed slightly.

"Uh, Wylow..."

"No Weasley, she needs to hear this! Some one ought to have told her a long time ago!" She shook the girl hard, and then lowered her to the ground, still keeping a firm grip of the front of her robes. "The reason that we are going rather than you is because we don't get all guilty about squashing a fly. I'm an expendable, Hunter's an expendable, Ari's an expendable and so's Jac'. Expendables that happen to be trained to kill people. Dunno what the Hell you and Weasley are, but you're not invited along! Get it into your skull you fucking know-it-all; you're not the best at everything! DO YOU BLOODY WELL UNDERSTAND?!" She shook the girl in her grip to punctuate her words. Quietly, Granger nodded, and it was then that Wylow noticed the tears pouring down her cheeks. Maybe she had gone too far. But who cared? The Smart Arse of Gryffindor had finally understood.

Ignoring the self disgust she felt, she let the girl go and strapped a dagger to her thigh, securing the fastening. Stretching and rolling her neck, she nodded to the others. Giving Jay a final hug (it is NOT the last I'll ever give him, she thought forcibly) and shaking Weasley's hand, nodding to his gruff "Good luck", she and her friends left the room and made their way to the Entrance Hall where the Order were waiting for them.

~

Harry couldn't sleep. Ron couldn't sleep. Hell, even Hermione couldn't sleep, despite the yelling match that had gone on three hours before. Was it really three hours? The clock said so. Did all fights take this long? How on Earth was he supposed to know his sister was ok?

Of course, she WAS ok, part of his said speedily. But the seed of doubt was already settling in. What if she wasn't? What if she was really badly injured? Or worse?

Without realizing it, Harry James Potter began to sob quietly, his shoulders shaking, as he unwillingly contemplated life without his twin. His best friend. His other half.

~

"Hey, Slime breath! Over hear!" Her voice echoed clearly in the room. Stupidly, Voldemort had taken up residence in his rebuilt fortress. The 'man' himself turned and looked at her.

"My Lady Le Fey.... My my, you are like your mother, aren't you?" Behind him, Hunter was beginning to sneak up, a twelve inch dagger in his hand as he moved silently towards the Dark Lord. He stopped at a barely noticeable signal from Wylow, at a safe distance from any spell that she cast.

"Yeah, I hear that all the time. I even have her scar." She touched the raised skin over her eye lightly. "Given by the same person."

"Ah yes, I remember. And as with her, it is with you; it merely makes you interesting rather then ugly." She took a step forward, her wand in her hand.

"I didn't come here to chat."

"Yes, I see that." He made a sweeping gesture to the room, which lay in chaos. As he did so, Wylow snapped up her wand hand, and yelled.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

As the green light shot towards Voldemort, he reached out, and grabbed the one person near to him, drawing him in front of him as a human shield.

Hunter.