The Finding of The Founders

A big hug to Lady Di’s little sister! Thanks Jess! You’re an awesome beta!


* * * * *

Chapter One-Night Terrors

Eve ran from the Forbidden Forest as fast as she could. She heard her pulse pounding in her ears, and she knew he could, too. She ran past Hagrid's hut and saw the towers of Hogwarts peaking over the hill. She was tired and was gasping for air, but he was still right behind her. She dared look back for a second and her raven hair blew into her face. Through the strands, she saw that he wasn't there. She turned to face forward and ran right into his chest. He gathered her to him before she could fall. Eve wanted to collapse in his embrace, it was so inviting, but she knew that meant certain doom.

As she felt his cold breath on her neck, she heard a voice behind her. "Evan!" she thought. His head whipped up as the young man shouted his curse. "EXPELLIARMUS!" In a flash, Eve's attacker was five meters from where the curse landed, with his victim still in his arms. He laid her down gently, her bright blue eyes never leaving his blacked orbs. Just as her head was resting on the ground, he flew over her, making her hair blow about wildly. He stopped in front of her brother, who still had his wand trained on him. "EXPEL-" Eve's assailant waved his arms around his body, and then flung them at Evan. The boy flew through the air and landed in a mangled heap some meters away. He tried to get up, but the man was over him again. He hoisted Evan into the air and stared him in the eye.

"You will not interfere," he whispered. Evan's body went limp. "But you will watch." He dropped the boy to the ground, where he lay, unblinking, facing his sister twenty meters away.

Eve turned her head to look at her brother. Her view was blocked a moment later, however, when the man flew in front of her. He stooped, and gently gathered her into his arms. She heard only her heartbeat as the man lowered his mouth to her neck, his cold breath chilling her soul. She felt him sink his fangs into her flesh, and the blood run from her body. The sound of his gulping repulsed her, but the act was so intimate, she found herself almost wishing for it to continue.

Her eyelids grew heavy and she felt him separate his teeth from her neck. She was so very tired then, and it would be wonderful to sleep. She heard him whisper something in her ear, but he seemed so far away. Something about life and death. He turned around, holding her, and faced the boy lying n the ground. Eve didn't have to open her eyes to know that he had raised his wrist to her mouth. She smelled the blood there. She was tired then, and she wanted to sleep, but she grew so very hungry.

Evan tried to scream as she closed her mouth around the cold flesh, but no sound escaped his bleeding lips. She drank deeply then, and she felt herself die. The vampire dropped her to the ground and laughed over her. He flew, once again, to the boy. He lifted him into the air with a flick of his wrist. Evan hung there, in mid air, face to face with his sister's murderer.

"You will sleep now. You sister has served her purpose. You would do well to awaken before she does, should you wish to awaken at all."

Eve sat up in bed, screaming. She was drenched in cold sweat. She kicked and flung herself about until Evan grabbed her shoulders. He called out to her as she fought against him. "Calm down..." he said in his whisper of a voice; he shook her softly, but hard enough to bring her back to reality. "You had that nightmare again, didn't you?" She stopped thrashing and looked down at her hands. They were ghostly white and she could see the blue veins under the skin. Tears formed in her eyes as she nodded her head. She hugged her knees to her chest and sobbed quietly. Evan sat behind her and began braiding her long tresses. She rested her chin on her knees and sat silent for a while. Her brother finished braiding her hair and stood.

"I have to use the loo. Will you be alright?" Eve rolled her eyes at him.

"Yes. I can survive while you take a leak, Evan." He threw a pillow at her and left, laughing as he walked down the hall. She smiled after him and sat until she couldn't hear his footsteps. She stood quickly and went to the bureau. She tucked her bangs behind her ears and opened the top drawer. She pulled a bottle out from under her robes. It had a red coloured potion in it. She removed the top and tossed it back in one gulp. Once the bottle was replaced, she went to the mirror on the wall. She watched her skin turn to a flesh colour and her veins disappeared. She heard her pulse again, and her pupils contracted. Her eyes remained the same shade of deep purple, with a hint of red around the center. She had Evan convinced that it was just a lingering effect from the vampirism.

Eve dressed and went downstairs. She sat in the armchair and the houself brought her some coffee that she knew had a small amount of blood therein. She thanked the houself with a pat on her head. Evan had a fire going, even though it was early in June. Eve often complained of being cold. She drank her coffee and watched Evan stare into the fire. She opened her mouth to ask a question, one that she had wanted to ask for almost fourteen years now, but quickly decided against it. Evan glanced at his sister and drew his lips into a line.

"I know you want to ask me something," he said in his low voice. He continued to stare into the fire as he spoke. "You do this almost every morning Eve. Just ask." She stopped in mid-sip and stared at him from behind her mug. She finished her coffee and set the cup on the table.

"What," she began. She struggled for the words. "What happened the night you were initiated?"
Evan stood up and walked over to the fireplace. Still staring into the fire, he placed his right hand on the mantle and leaned his head on his hand. "I wondered how long it would take for you to ask me that question." He gave her a sideways glance, then looked back into the fire and began speaking again. "It was roughly-what?-ten years after leaving Hogwarts. Ten years after you were bitten..."

* * * * *

I was pacing down the dark alley, next to a pub where you were...feeding. My heart was pounding in my throat. No matter how many times you fed I was always nervous. As I was pacing I glanced up into the closest window on the top floor of the pub, where I saw you with him in your embrace. I quickly looked away, into the night stars; I couldn't stand seeing you this way, like...an animal. As I looked into the stars I pleaded to wake up, that this was just a dream. While looking into the sky and pleading with all my being, I heard someone apparate nearby. I quickly drew my wand. "Lumos!" I whispered softly, and light burst from the tip of my wand. I walked forward, my heart pounding even harder then before. That is where I first saw Him.

"It must be hard," the Dark Lord said from the shadows, "to go through this every time your sister gets hungry." I raised my wand and pointed it at his face. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. I could help you."

"How could you help me?" I said, not lowering my wand.

"Many-a-wizards have died threatening me, do you want to join them, or do you want to help your sister? I can cure her," said the Dark Lord, a small smile forming on his lips.

"Really? And what do you get out of this? I've heard of you, and I'm sure you won't do this out of the kindness of your heart," I spat at him.

He spoke softly, menacingly to me. "I am the heir of Salazar Slytherin and I know you are an heir of a founder as well. I would like you to join me." He stepped forward, out of the shadows into the light of my wand. "You and your sister are lucky I am being so generous. I mean, it must be hard living with the memory that you couldn't save your sister from this... curse that his been laid on her."

Anger and sorrow were pulsing through my body, but the sorrow easily out weighed the anger. I looked over my left shoulder into the window where you were almost finished feeding. I sighed heavily; he knew he had won. "What do I have to do?" I asked him.

"You must prove yourself." The words came forth like a sweet venom through his smirk. "I will come to you again in two weeks. That is how long it will take to make the cure." I nodded to him, showing I understood and with that he dissapparated.

I walked back to where I was originally standing next to the pub, leaned my back against the cold, smooth wall and slumped down onto the damp ground. That's where you found me, moments later, with my head in my hands.

"What's wrong?" you asked me, bending down and putting your hands on my shoulders.

I looked up at you, into your eyes, amazed out how human you always looked after you fed. "I found a cure for you," I said, for the first time refusing to tell you the whole story. Your face lit up with joy, real joy, for the first time in a long time. You opened your mouth to say something, but I cut you off. "It will be ready in two weeks from today. A friend is making it for me," I said in a hurry.

You continued to look me in the eyes and I knew you knew I wasn't telling you the truth. But, you just smiled and helped me stand up.

Those two weeks came and went much too fast for my liking. And as the Dark Lord promised, so he came. I will forever remember that day.

He came during the day, while you were sleeping. I was in the living room meditating when I heard the soft 'pop' of someone apparrating behind me. I slowly got up and began to withdraw my wand from my belt when He said, "No need for that," in his usual icy manner. "We are going somewhere. And please, be quiet. We wouldn't' want to wake your sister." He promptly turned and I followed him outside, where we walked until we reached the Old Forest. As we arrived He turned abruptly and asked, "You can Apparate, yes?"

I nodded in affirmation.

He smiled poisonously and asked, "Do you remember the alley where we first met?" I nodded. "Good," he continued, "we are going there first." And as the last word came out of his mouth he Disapparated with that 'pop' again. And so I followed only seconds later.

As I arrived I noticed a Muggle woman with brown hair, extremely skinny and a bird-like face, tied up by, what appeared to be vines. A look of terror was in her pale, green eyes. I opened my mouth to speak, but was cut off by the Dark Lord. "I can't have you do anything here, so." He picked up a rusted can as he spoke and set it on the ground in-between all three of us. "We will use a Portkey to get to a more suitable location." He pointed his wand at the can and said, "Portus." Then, the Dark Lord pointed his want at the muggle and muttered, "Mobilicorpus." The woman immediately began floating several inches off the ground and moved with arm distance of the can. With another flick of His wand one of her arms came lose and placed itself on the can. Then both He and I placed both of our hands on the Port-key.

As soon as my hand touched the can, my stomach felt like it was left behind in the alley as I was taken to the location, which the Dark Lord had chosen. The next thing I knew I was standing in what appeared to be a dungeon. There were no doors and the silvery, gray stones, which covered the entirety of the room and gave off an eerie luminance like that of the moon. "Now, I would like you to prove your loyalty to me. Prove that you will do anything I ask." He flicked his wand quickly, yet elegantly at the girl and the vines faded out of existence. She sat and gaped at both of us. "Let's start out with the Cruciatus Curse, to begin with, shall we?" he said with a slight curve on his lips; the tone he spoke in indicated that it was not a question, but a demand.

I stared at him blankly for what seemed like hours, but were more like seconds. I knew he was going to ask me to do this, but the thought of doing it still shocked me.

"Well?" the Dark Lord said. And, as he said that my wand, as if guided by another hand, rose up. "Crucio!" I heard myself yell. I watched as the girl's body flew a couple of meters from where she was originally lying and seemed to want to collapse in on itself. She screamed soundlessly, but it only lasted seconds. The Dark Lord's voice started off as a whisper and slowly increased in loudness until he was practically screaming the last words in ecstasy. "You must want to cause the pain, or else the curse won't work. Enjoy the feeling of giving another such unbearable pain. EMBRACE THE PAIN!" I tore down the moral barriers in my mind and brought about hidden emotion I never thought existed. I looked at the Muggle, but she was no longer herself in my mind, she was the vampire which turned you nine years ago. I wanted to hurt him; he was the root of my problems. I wouldn't have been in the situation I was in if it wasn't for him.

"Crucio!" I screamed in the midst of all my rage. And I saw his body wanting to fall in on itself. Slowly the curse lifted, and I did it again and again and again. Finally I looked at him and as I looked into his eyes I saw that his mind was no longer really there. "Good," I heard the Dark Lord say. "I haven't seen that much rage directed at one person in a long time. But, sadly she is no longer going to feel the pain, so you might as well kill her." As I heard the word "her" escape His mouth, the image of the vampire disappeared and in it's place sat the girl, just gazing at the ceiling, looking at something that wasn't really there.

I raised my wand. I thought to myself, "I must release her from this prison." I raised my wand and pointed it at her once again, for the final time. "AVADA KEDAVRA!" I screamed in desperation to relieve her pain, and a green jet of light swallowed her up. Once the light was gone, she lay there, glazed eyes staring at the wall.

"Now," I heard the Dark Lord say, "for the matter of hesitating before doing what I asked." I hadn't seen that he had drawn his wand until I turned to look at him. "Crucio!" he shouted. Excruciating pain enveloped my body as the last syllable came out of his mouth. My body felt like it was trying to fold in on itself, in directions it was not meant to naturally bend. It felt like years passed before the pain went away.

I lay panting, drenched in sweat on the cold floor when I felt him kneel down beside me, his cold hands clasping my right arm. I couldn't hear what he said next; my heart was pounding so loudly in my ears. Then, out of nowhere there was this cold, searing pain on my right arm.

I woke up to you shaking me on the couch. I looked at you in the eyes. "W-where am I?" I said groggily, still in pain. Then, before you spoke I noticed your skin looked the way it had before you had been turned. I hugged you and felt your heart beat against my chest. The rest you already know...

As Evan finished his story Eve looked at him. His cheeks were glistening from the few tears that had fallen from his eyes as he recalled his painful past. The fire had burned out and was now just a heap of smoldering ashes. Eve spoke first, "Let me see it again."

He didn't have to ask what, he knew what she was talking about. He walked over slowly and sat next to her. He rolled the right sleeve on his robe back and there was his Dark Mark, bestowed upon him by the greatest evil ever to live; his master.

Eve reached down to touch it when it began to smoke faintly. She gasped, as his hand moved to his arm. She saw it all in slow motion, her mind moving faster than her brother's reaction.

Evan threw his head back, screaming. He fell onto the floor, writhing in agony. He clutched his right arm in his left hand desperately, and Eve smelled the smoke from the mark. She knelt beside him, trying to quell his tremors of pain. Then, almost as suddenly as the pain had started, the screaming ended. Evan slowly stood, looking down at Eve, who was still kneeling on the floor. With a quick wave of his wand and a 'pop' in the air, he Apparated away, leaving Eve to sit alone.