Corruption

CHAPTER SIX

Blood

`You can´t fly, can you?´ Draco asked critically, after about an hour.

`Not exactly,´ Lara shrugged sheepishly, examining her still bleeding knuckles.

`What did you do?´ Draco frowned, taking her small, blood-soaked hands in his.

`Punched the window out,´ she said, shrugging again.

Draco said nothing. He was torn between wanting to gape at her high pain threshold, and wanting to gape at the power of the Call, and wanting to wrap her up in his arms and kiss it better. He settled for gaping and kissing her hands.

`I appreciate that, but it hurt quite a lot,´ she winced. Draco smiled.

`Are you sure you´re going to be okay?´ he checked, putting a hand to her cheek.

`I will if you don´t make me forget how to sit up with all your damned honourable dashing-ness,´ she pouted.

He grinned softly, and turned back to the direction they were flying in. `When do you think we´ll get there?´

`I don´t know. I thought you had that Granger Mudblood with you. What happened to her?´

`She can´t fly,´ Draco grinned. `Look, Lara, I know how to break this, my house is...´ he paused, looking around them, `that way.´ He pointed to their right.

`It would kill me to go that far off course,´ she said, for the first time looking small and scared. `Listen, about that being enemies thing--?´

`All dropped,´ Draco assured her. `About that trying to kill you thing--?

`No fear. I´m sure I´ve tried to kill you at some stage too.´

`Friends?´

`More?´

They laughed, and Lara pulled her broom over closer to him.

Draco felt odd thrills of hate and love running through him, crashing and contradicting in his blood, making it boil and surge in his ears. His heart sped up in indignation, and he bit his tongue, tasting copper.

Lara watched his face crease slightly with a frown, and smiled. His pale grey eyes were totally transparent and barely visible in the moonlight. She fingered the trademark dragon dagger in her belt, and considered it. She hated him, certainly, but something went against that. Now she knew why, or remembered why. She hated him, but the person whose memories she had been given loved him. Since she had looked at him with this new perspective, she had started to like him, but that wasn´t her. Lara Ryder hated him. Lara Ryder, the outcast Corrupter, loved him with all her heart. With an inadvertent jerk of her hand, the blade bit into her finger, and she took in a sharp breath. She put her finger in her mouth. The taste nauseated her, and she spat over the side of her broom ferociously.

Draco didn´t notice. He seemed to be caught up in something. Lara shrugged inwardly, and went back to her own dilemma, not knowing it was the same as his.

~*~

Hermione watched the two of them fly away before running back to the Tower as fast as she could. It wouldn´t do to be caught out here alone. She pulled the portrait open silently, covering a creak with her hand and scrambled through. She knew she had to tell Harry and Ron.

`Fred?´

The redhead looked up from a book of curses he was studying. `Yes?´ he asked her, in an out of character, melancholy voice.

`Do you know where Ron and Harry are?´

`Harry left about an hour ago,´ Fred told her, moving over in his chair so that she could sit down too. `He went to try to find You-Know-Who. He thinks He has something to do with it.´

And he´s right, Hermione thought, but kept it to herself. `What about Ron?´

`I think he´s still here. He´s gone to try and get into the library for more books.´

`That´s well guarded,´ Hermione frowned.

`He can handle it, he´s sixteen now.´

`I´ll go and find him. Thanks.´ She got up to leave.

`No problem,´ Fred said quietly, picking up a sword and beginning to sharpen it with a small stone.

~*~

Ron prowled the shelves, making his feet as quiet as possible. The lantern in his hand cast a dim glow over the dusty tomes.

`Corruption--The Story of The Lost Ones,´ he read in a whisper. `Sounds like a story book.´ But he took it out all the same. He had about five books now, and it wouldn´t be long before that guard came back. He had rode out the last inspection on top of a shelf. Thankfully the shelves were much too high to see over.

He tucked the books away in a bag, and began to creep to the door. Then he heard a noise, and dove behind the nearest shelf, pressing himself flat against the back. He watched a girl in black go past, then spun and climbed to the top of the shelf behind him. He sneaked along, jumping the small gaps in sneakered feet. Eventually he caught up with her, and saw her looking between the shelves.

`Ron?´ she called out softly.

He sat back and lay down with a jolt of fear. How did they know he was there?

`Ron? It´s Hermione.´ He recognised the voice, but it could just be a trick. Who knew what these people could do? `Ron,´ she said, exasperated now. `There are spiders in this place.´ He shrank slightly. `Look, Ron. Fred told me you´re in here. Harry´s gone after Voldemort. Do you want me to prove it´s me? Fine, I know who you fancy, it´s...´

`Hermione?´

`Ron! Thank God you´re here!´

`I wasn´t sure it was you,´ he grinned sheepishly, climbing down.

`No, I was...´

`Ssh!´ Ron hissed, pushing her back against the bookshelf. They could hear breathing.

Ron spun, and began to climb the bookshelf like it was a ladder. Hermione followed. They lay flat along the wide top of the shelf. Ron could see Hermione´s eyes glazed in fear. She was breathing very quietly, but it looked like she was terrified. Ron could feel her heartbeat through the shelf against his back.

`Check behind that shelf,´ said a boy´s voice. `I was sure I heard someone in here.´

Slow, light footsteps came around the shelf. Ron caught a glimpse of green silk.

`Nothing.´

`Ginny?´ Ron breathed. Hermione didn´t even hit him, she just looked at him, her eyes unbelievably wide.

`Who´s there?´ Ginny snapped.

Ron screwed his eyes shut and silently kicked himself.

`Is there someone?´ the boy asked.

`No,´ Ginny said finally. `No. No one´s here.´

The great doors of the library clicked shut, and Ron let out a huge gasp.

`Ron!´ Hermione croaked, clutching her throat.

`I´m sorry! This is my evil little sister we´re talking about here! I love her, no matter what she is.´

`Oh, Ron,´ Hermione said sadly. `It shouldn´t be this way.´

She let out a choked sob, and he wrapped his arms around her. She cried into his shoulder. `Come on, we need to get out of here.´

`We need to get out of the school,´ she added absently, climbing down the shelf.

`Why not?´ Ron asked, stopping. `We could take brooms and get out. There´s no point in staying here.´

`We can´t just leave all these people here!´ Hermione protested.

`I don´t know why they haven´t gone already,´ he said.

`They can´t.´

`Why not?´

She explained what Lara Ryder really was. Ron sat there with his mouth wide open.

`And this is meant to be the country, or the world, not one school. People aren´t meant to be able to leave. One or two can, but not all the ones against her. They just can´t do it. It´s powerful magic. They have to beat her, or go over to her side, before they can do what they want again.´

`Oh God,´ Ron coughed. `That´s a bit of a revelation. How did you find that out?´

Hermione knew better than to tell him it was Draco. Ron, although all the others were fine about it, had steadfastly refused to accept him. Even Harry was putting up with Malfoy, in view of the situation. Except that Malfoy had left now. He was going with Lara, to make sure that she would be all right, and not go over.

`I read it.´

Ron gave a small laugh. `A Corrupter? I think I got a book on them.´ He took the Corruption book out of his bag.

`Do you mind if I take that?´ Hermione asked, reaching for it.

`Hermione, it´s a book. I´m practically allergic to them!´

~*~

Harry forced his Firebolt to fly as fast as it would go, following the feelings in his scar. He streaked along the skyline, too fast to be seen clearly. Before long he tired, and slowed down, rising up above the clouds.

He saw two specks on the horizon, maybe owls, it was very early morning. But he started catching up with them, and soon it became clear that they were people. Harry hung back, not sure if they were friendly or not. One looked quite small, and the other about Harry´s size. The smaller one seemed to be havin trouble. Slipping his wand into his hand, Harry called out warily.

`Hello?´

The figures stopped.

`Who are you?´ Harry called.

`Who are you first?´ one of them asked. Harry could swear he recognised that voice.

`I asked you.´

`We didn´t answer.´

`I noticed,´ Harry said coldly. He put on a burst of speed to catch up. `Malfoy? Ryder?´ he gasped, pointing his wand at them.

`Potter,´ Ryder snarled. Harry noticed that she was cupping her fists in her hands, to hide them.

`What are you doing here?´ Harry asked Draco. `I thought you were on our side.´

`I am.´

`So why are you out here with the enemy?´

`I´m not making excuses for a half arsed pillock like you,´ Draco spat, looking down his slightly aquiline nose at Harry.

`You´d better, or I´ll make you literally half arsed,´ Harry growled, still pointing his wand between Draco´s eyes.

`A three year old could come up with better,´ Draco scorned.

`I don´t care,´ Harry snapped. `Explain.´

`No,´ Draco pouted, sticking his tongue out.

`Stop playing with the big kids if you don´t understand their games,´ Ryder hissed.

`You shut up!´ Harry yelled, turning his wand on her, but still facing Malfoy.

There was a horrible crushing in his side, and he was flung off the side of his broom. He caught on by his fingertips, but his wand tumbled away. Ryder muttered something, and his wand flew up into her hand.

`Don´t tell me to shut up,´ she said pleasantly. He scrambled back onto his broom, and watched her bend his wand suggestively. `Now, are you going to turn around and go home, little boy?´

`You´re a heck of a lot smaller than me,´ he muttered. Her face didn´t cloud, she just held out his wand and dropped it over to the side. It fell down, spinning, out of sight. He tried to follow, but found himself paralysed.

`Yes, but I´m truly bad-assed, and you can´t compete with me.´

`I have a bit of a reputation for playing with the big kids,´ Harry cautioned.

`Like you said, I´m not very big. I don´t play games, I just win them.´

`Can we quit with all these metaphors already?´ Draco snapped irritably.

`I´m going after Voldemort,´ Harry told them. Neither of them flinched, and he felt an odd disappointment. That thing he could do was no loner effective. He added it to his mental list, annoyed.

`Welcome to the club,´ Lara groaned.

`You too?´

`Yes. We´re going to kill the sod.´

`Oh.´