Slytherin Forever! Book Two: Shadow

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Chapter Thirteen: No Matter What...

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Keep in mind what you have heard today

You might find that you're not so brave

Are you man enough, carry the load all alone

When others have your own

- My Land, Sonata Arctica.

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Durmstrang School For Magic, somewhere in Bulgaria.

"Stop joking about this, Romanov! You and I both know that Sirius is guilty, we have always believed in it from the moment we heard about his treachery. Don't come to me and say that everything I have believed in for the past twelve years was all a lie. Don't you even dare to tell me now that it was Peter and that he has kept himself alive in the body of a rat..."

"I am not joking, Shan, for such jokes can be considered cruel by the ones who they affect most. I am telling you the truth. Though I had a hard time believing it too Dumbledore's words convinced me after a while. Sirius has escaped, how I do not know, and Peter has gone back to the one he has called his master before: Lord Voldemort."

Loki looked tired and weary, Shanna realized after a moment, and the absolute lack of his fighting spirit was this time more noticeable than anything else. Yet she held on to the safe thought of Sirius being guilty, still not daring to believe what Loki had just told her, for she did not think that she would be able to bear the truth. Trembling with rage and grief she felt the tears come to her eyes, even though they were unwanted at this point, and whispered angrily:

"Get out of my sight. How dare you? How dare you?"

Her face was stark white and her eyes flashed with anger but even that could not prevent the single tear from rolling down her cheek moments later. She wiped it away, furious with herself for showing that she was weak and that her mind could be broken at any time. The Malfoys did not cry. The Malfoys could not cry. Their heart was made out of stone and solid rock.

But why then, an annoying little voice whispered in the back of her mind, why had she fallen in love with Sirius Black years ago? Why was it that she, a puritan with a future set out before her, broke the connection with her family and went to live with the man she loved? The Malfoys could not cry... but she could.

"If Dumbledore has faith in Sirius then you should have faith in your husband too," Loki continued after a moment. "I am not trying to cause you more pain by telling you this, but I thought that you should know about this before anyone else heard about it."

"And I am sure that there will be Ministry Officials knocking upon the doors of my home in the summer," Shanna sighed. "I'm not saying that I believe you or anything but I am worried about what affect this news will have on Rakkaus if this proves to be true. I cannot go through this again, Loki!"

"But this time you won't be standing alone," was the reply. "You've got Gudrun and me and we shall be there for Rakkaus. Also, Mel and Catherine will be pleased to help you to keep most of the Officials away from your son."

"I still have to deal with it, though," Shanna said with a bitter undertone present in her voice. "I remember what it was like last time..."

"So do I," Loki sighed.

"Of course, Rakkaus was only three years old at the time and never cared much for all the visitors that came to our home," Shanna said thoughtfully. "Maybe... if Gudrun could take him away for most of the summer..."

"I am afraid that it is not that simple anymore. Rakkaus has got eyes and ears and he has asked about his father before. Maybe you should just tell him everything, Shan. Maybe he is old enough to hear the truth, and with that I mean that you should tell him what I have just told you. You cannot force him to be that little boy he once was for the rest of his life. He is fifteen years old and he has a right to know everything."

"I know that I should tell him. It's just... I don't know where I am supposed to start. I don't even know what I should believe myself for this tale seems too good to be true."

"Start with telling Rakkaus how you met his father. It is a fantastic story, after all," Loki smirked, "and I think that he won't have that much trouble with believing everything else after that."

"You'll still be able to take him in afterwards, won't you?" Shanna asked, and for the first time today she looked anxious. "I know that you are going to the World Cup and all... but I cannot keep my son at home all summer!"

"It will be difficult," Loki admitted. "I have agreed to take my own blood in for the time being, seeing as my guardianship over her will be made legal soon, and I am not sure if she will get along with your son. However, it is worth to try it."

"This girl you speak of... could it be that Natalya Cruz settled down in your heart in this short period of time?" Shanna asked incredously.

"She deserves the love from a family member after all that she has gone through, has to deal with in the future and after everything that I have told her."

"Oh, I forgot! How did it go? How did Ginny deal with it? How did Natalya take it?"

"They both dealt with the things remarkably well, considering the circumstances. They have received lots of support from their Housemembers who were told everything about the destinies of the two girls the same night I called them to me. Maybe that helped them... I don't know."

"They are fighters. They will survive."

"And so they will," Loki nodded.

***

Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry, Britain.

"I thought that we were way past the prejudice stage," Verice frowned at breakfast the day before they would all go home. "I have heard at least fifteen people complain about Lupin being a werewolf for the past few days."

"I have come across twenty-two people so far," Zeynep replied.

"I cannot believe that Lupin's a werewolf!" a Ravenclaw girl squeaked as she passed the Slytherin table with her friends. "He was always so nice to us..."

"Sixteen," Verice muttered under her breath as Zeynep ticked the number twenty-three on his self-made list. "What has gotten into them?"

"People are still afraid of werewolves, even if they are as nice as Lupin was," Alisha remarked. "It will probably stay that way for the rest of our miserable lives."

"Look on the bright side: we might get another interesting teacher next year!" Marita squealed. "Do you think that Loki is going to stay and teach us?"

"He said that he wouldn't," Natalya said softly. "He has other things to do besides teaching 'a bunch of giggly teenagers who don't know when they have to shut up' - and those were his exact words, too. I expect that he'll be busy with lots of things next year."

"You mean with the Rising," Ginny nodded in understanding as she dropped her voice. "You'll be able to keep us updated about this though, seeing as you will be staying at his place over the summer."

"What?"

Several people turned their heads towards the group at the end of the Slytherin Table, alarmed by Marita's shriek. Natalya looked around, turned back towards them, bend down ever so slightly over the table and whispered urgently:

"Will you keep it down, girl? I am going to stay at Loki's home over the summer but there is no need to make such a drama out of it. He is, after all, related to me in case you had forgotten that little fact for the moment."

"I had not forgotten that," Marita muttered. "It is hard to forget it seeing as you look extremely alike. I wonder why nobody has noticed that before..."

"Maybe they have," Zeynep shrugged. Then, as an afterthought, he added: "What's this, by the way?"

Ginny looked down at Zeynep's plate, on which he was poking around with his knife at the moment, apparently unwilling to touch the weird thing inside of one of the sausages, and threw him a look filled with contempt.

"It's just a little piece of stone," she said and picked the thing up.

"It should not be in food," Zeynep pouted. "Those House Elves are not really doing their job properly, are they?"

"Hey, look!" Alisha whispered in awe. "There is something written on it!"

They all bend forward to look at the weird stone in Ginny's hand. It was just an ordinary stone at first sight, complete with a dull grey color, but when they looked at it more closely they saw that the rune Ehwaz was scratched into it with a sharp knife.

"Weird," Natalya said after a minute. "Ehwaz gives people the gift of loyalty and trust. Why would anyone go through so much trouble to give us this?"

"Maybe because somebody wishes to protect us," Ginny whispered. She had not been looking at the stone but at the staff table. "I think that Zeynep should keep it, seeing as it was in his food."

She gave the stone back to her friend, who pocketed it after he had looked at it again, and could have sworn that a hint of a smile had appeared on Loki's face. Marita looked around for a moment before she whispered:

"How do you know what this rune stands for, Natalya? It could be a sign of bad luck or an amulet designed to give us trouble."

"I read books," Natalya deadpanned. "You should try to do that sometime, too, it's great!"

"Can you read the runes on Loki's face?" Alisha asked hesitantly. "And if so, what do they say?"

"Fehu, Uruz, Thurisaz, Ansuz, Isa, Eihwaz, Algiz, Sowilo, Ehwaz, Mannaz. I cannot tell you what they stand for because it takes too long to interpret them."

"Fehu strengthens the psychic powers," Ginny said thoughtfully. "And Algiz is used to communicate with non-human beings. The others must mean something like that as well." Seeing the confused looks almost everyone threw her she added: "I read Natalya's book."

"Whatever," Zeynep said and shrugged. "I'll keep it and if it proves to be a bad influence I shall get rid of it. Okay?"

"You cannot get rid of it if it is enchanted by a Dark Wizard," Marita said breathlessly. "You will be forced to keep the thing and its bad fortune with you forever..."

"I think it comes from Loki," Ginny murmured. "He looks guilty."

Zeynep and Natalya whirled around in response to her words, looking at Loki over at the staff table with a hint of annoyance visible in their faces. Loki formed the rune with his hands as they continued to look at him and they smiled in reply. They turned back to the others (Natalya had a triumphant grin on her face as she looked at Marita) and sighed with relief.

"Why did he choose to give it to you in such a way?" Verice asked and looked at Zeynep. "He could have just given it to you seeing as he is pretty close to us already."

"It would have drawn people's attention," Ginny muttered. "The last thing I want right now is Snape noticing that we treat Loki with so much respect. They hate each other's guts, remember?"

"Hatred because of a woman," Draco sighed, "is never a good thing for it lasts a lifetime."

Ginny felt somebody's eyes on her for a moment; and what startled her most was that she knew that it was not Loki or Snape. So she craned her head to look at the other tables and was surprised to see Ron stare back at her calmly. Something in his face twitched for a moment - Ginny was able to see it even from this distance - and it looked as if his face was contorted with hatred for a while. Hatred, Ginny supposed, because she felt at home in Slytherin. Even after this long period of time Ron still distrusted her and begged her to stay away from Draco who, in his opinion, was not worth anything. She turned her attention back to her friends. If Ron knew about the things Loki had told her he would break all forms of contact with her.

"Guys, listen," she whispered urgently. "From now on we just talk to each other about the Rising and my role in it. Don't even mention Natalya's name when you speak of Loki or Voldemort. Don't give anyone reason to believe that I could be associated with Salazar Slytherin."

"You got it," Alisha murmured.

"Consider it done," Verice responded with a grin. "I'll keep my mouth shut."

Silence fell after those words, a silence only broken by a sudden rush of students towards the different common rooms. Ginny and her friends strolled back to the common room quietly and slowly, enjoying the walk in the darker parts of the castle for a time, but the warning Loki had given them echoed in everybody's minds.

Do not speak of this to anyone but your own Housemembers. You are in great peril. The Rising has started. Do not forget this.

When they returned in the common room they found that their exam results were waiting for them on the tables. They had all passed ("Naturally," Draco drawled) but some members of their House were not so happy with the marks they had received. Ginny was only mildly surprised when she found that she had passed Transfiguration and Charms after all; but nothing compared to the reaction Natalya had when she saw what she had scored in Charms.

"I passed!" the dark-haired Slytherin squealed and started to dance around the room. "I thought that I was marked down as a 'no pass' for sure!"

And to everybody's surprise, but to great hilarity of the other Slytherins, Zeynep swept the slender girl up in his arms and gave her a kiss on her lips. Natalya grinned in response and put her arms around the older boy amidst a great round of applause from everybody else. Ginny smiled and winked at Zeynep. She, of course, had known about this all along and was pleased to see that Zeynep had finally made his mind up.

"A good end of a hard year," Draco whispered in Ginny's ear.

"Let us say that it is a good beginning for all other things to come," Ginny whispered back. "It is not the end, you know."

"Let us be heroes, just for one day," Draco grinned. "These are the people we need if we want to survive. These are the people you need."

"Not just them," Ginny responded. "I need you right here as well."

Draco looked at Ginny in surprise, but when he saw that she really meant it he smiled and pulled her into a hug.

"No matter what the future may bring," he whispered, "we shall survive as long as we stay together."

"No matter where our road takes us," Zeynep replied, for he had heard it, "we shall stay true to each other and tell each other about every cross we carry with us on the way."

"No matter what happens, no matter where we will go from here," Natalya finished, "we shall belong at Hogwarts for our love carries us beyond the darkest clouds."

"I love you guys," Verice sighed and looked around the room. "I love every single one of you just the way you are. Old members, the younger years... it does not matter. You are all the same to me: true Slytherins who put a heart in their work."

The journey home the next day was the most difficult journey Ginny ever made. She boarded the train with her friends and said goodbye to most of them on the platform after which she entered the Muggle world with Draco, Zeynep and Natalya in tow.

"I'll see you around," Draco grinned and gave Ginny a brief hug. "I'll be staying at the Wiltshire mansion for the summer, you can write to me if you have got any problems, and I trust that you will stay alive long enough to start your third year."

"Don't worry, she will," a soft voice interrupted smoothly. "Are you ready to go, Natalya?"

"Shouldn't we wait for Loki?" Natalya asked Gudrun, for it was she who had spoken. "He was on the train as well..."

"We probably should," Gudrun sighed. "I don't know what is taking him so long and... LOKI ROMANOV!"

Gudrun's last words were screamed, making Muggles nearby whirl around and point in their direction. Coming towards the group of Slytherins was Loki, looking happier than ever, covered with something that looked remarkably like shampoo bubbles.

"We'll be off," Zeynep and Draco said hurriedly and waved as they walked away. "See you next year!"

"We should probably go too, Ginny dearest," Molly Weasley said nervously as she looked at both Gudrun and Loki wearily. "Come on!"

But Ginny stayed where she was until Loki had reached them and smirked as she caught his eye. Gudrun, meanwhile, was positively enraged.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to provoke him? How many times have I told you this already? And what have you done now?"

"I have given Snape's hair a good wash," Loki replied with the tone a small child would have when caught with its hand in the cookie jar. "I thought that he needed it for it looked really greasy."

Ginny giggled as a mental image started to form itself in her mind and sighed as her mother tugged at her arm again. Gudrun's lips twitched as she looked at Loki, still covered with bubbles, and finally burst out laughing.

"If only I had been there to see his face!" she gasped, clutching her sides. "And you... Covered with bubbles..."

She dissolved into giggles, unable to say anything else, and Loki looked at her with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. Natalya eyed the people she would be staying with for the summer with an amused grin on her face.

"You know," Loki said after a moment, "I think that your hair needs to be taken care of as well."

Gudrun's laughter stopped abruptly and Ginny grinned as she realized what this meant. She allowed herself to be led away by her mother, not wishing to be present there, but the shrieks of laughter from Gudrun, Loki, and later on also Natalya echoed in her ears.

Could she really do this? Could she lead those people, those happy and trusting people, into war and a world of uncertainty? Could she guide them through bad times?

She sighed and felt older than ever as she looked at her family.

So unaware of what lied before them.

So innocent.

Just like she had been... a long time ago...

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