Corruption

CHAPTER SEVEN

Glass

`So, what you´re saying is, we have to go after them?´ Ron gulped, looking at Hermione.

`No. I´m saying that you are a coward if you don´t come with me, but I don´t give a damn, cos I´m going anyway!´ Hermione said hotly, slamming the book shut. `I´ve already watched - Harry leave, I´m not going to be left behind completely!´

`Calm down!´ Ron said. `I´ll come!´

`Good,´ Hermione said pleasantly. `Because no one likes a coward.´

Ron grunted, and went over to the window. He could see the robed figures moving around the grounds below, thinking about what Hermione had said. About the school representing a country. It scared him, and as he watched, he grew more and more reluctant to go.

A girl was being brought towards the bonfire in the grounds. Ron watched curiously. It seemed to be some kind of ritual. The girl wore a white silken gown, and her auburn hair lay against it like a rose in a bed of lilies. The black robed figures made a ring around the fire, and the girl stepped into the middle. Ron slid the window open slightly to listen. In the quiet night air, the sound rose like he was right beside them. It was eerie.

`In the absence of our great leader, a substitute must be appointed,´ said one of the figures.

`I take this place,´ said the girl.

`Your loyalty is in blood and fire. Are you loyal?´

`I am loyal.´

`Your blood?´

`My blood.´ She held out an arm, and a figure dug a blade into her pale skin. A stream of blood flowed out to be caught in a pottery bowl. It was placed by the fire until it was needed.

`Do you take the fire?´

`I take the fire.´

`Then go.´

She walked up to the fire, and took the bowl of blood in her hands. Black robed Ryders began to draw symbols on her face, neck, hands, arms and dress. She stood, face raised to the sky. When she was totally covered with odd symbols, drawn in her own blood, she placed the bowl down again.

`Lords of Fire, I call thee! If I be right for my task, accept me. If I do not, take me into your depths.´ She began to walk into the flames, and Ron could only watch in horror.

She stood in the centre, arms outstretched, and chanted softly. The fires flared and shrank, then flared right up to the stars. They turned pure white, and the girl began to spin. She rose up, accompanied by a chorus of voices with no bodies. She was spinning so fast now that her hair flew out in a halo around her, then she stopped. The vast chorus reached its peak, and on that shimmering note there was a bright flash, and she slumped. Flames began to eat at the hem of her gown. There was a disappointed murmur from the eager crowd below, and they began to walk away.

Then the girl´s head snapped up, and her eyes were a blazing white.

`Leave me not this way!´ she roared. All the people stopped, as though frozen. They walked stiffly back to the pillar of white flames.

`I am thy queen, and thou shalt obey mine every command!´ she rumbled. They all fell to their knees, moaning prayers of thanks. The girl drifted back down to earth, and the fire shrank back to its normal size.

`Heed me, and fall to thy knees!´ she announced, and in that moment, she looked up.

`Ginny?´ Ron squeaked.

~*~

He just stood, staring at the empty space for a long time. When Hermione came back in she ran over to him.

`Are you alright?´ she asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

`My little... Ginny...´

`What?´ Hermione frowned, sitting down and putting a bag on the floor.

`My little sister has become the Queen of evil as we know it,´ Ron told her, still gazing out of the window. He told her what he had just seen.

`Oh Ron! Are you sure it was her?´ Hermione asked, a hand over her mouth.

`I think I´d know my own little sister!´ Ron protested. He put his head in his hands and bent double in his chair until his forehead rested on his knees. He couldn´t get the picture of Ginny out of his head.

`Why?´ he burst out finally. His face was anguished, and tears stood in his eyes.

`I´m sure it´s all just...´ Hermione began, but Ron kept talking as though he hadn´t heard.

`Shouldn´t it all end when that demon´s gone?´ he groaned.

Hermione knew why it hadn´t, but she couldn´t say it, not with Ron in this state.

Lara would have to be killed, but any substitute made would have to be killed too. It was the only way to end the spell she´d woven.

`I´m going to kill Ryder,´ Ron swore.

`That won´t end it,´ Hermione said quietly.

`What will?´ Ron asked, raising his tear-streaked face to her.

`You have to kill Ginny, too,´ Hermione mumbled.

`I can´t kill my own sister!´ Ron yelled, standing up.

`It´s the only way!´ Hermione shouted, standing up too. `I´m just the bloody messenger! There´s no reason to shoot me, too!´

`So, Ryder and Ginny must both die?´ he asked her slowly.

`Yes. I don´t think there´s any other way around it.´

`Where´s Malfoy? He´s evil, he´ll know.´

`He´s gone with Ryder.´

`I knew he was a traitor,´ Ron spat. `I told you!´

`He isn´t... it doesn´t matter. You wouldn´t understand.´ She shook her head and began to walk away.

`Don´t fucking stand there and tell me I don´t understand!´ Ron bellowed, eyes glinting, body rigid with tension. `You think I don´t understand? You think that I am the one who doesn´t know what the fuck is going on?´

`Yes, Ron. I do. You don´t know anything about Ryder or Malfoy. You don´t know anything about what that girl is going through, and has gone through. You don´t know what they did to her!´ Hermione said, trembling with rage. The few people in the room were all looking at them now.

`They made her into a demon. A demon who is killing innocent people! Hermione, you´ve been blinded by Malfoy, who, need I remind you, is just as evil as she is!´

`You´re wrong, Ron Weasley. Malfoy and Ryder aren´t what you think they are, and you would never understand them.´

`And you do?´ Ron asked sarcastically.

`Yes. I can understand as much as I´ve been told. But there are things that have been done to those two that none of us could ever cope with.´

`By whom?´ Ron sneered.

`Voldemort! That´s fucking whom!´ Hermione bellowed, grabbing her bag and running out.

Ron just stood there for a minute, opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water. Then he ran after her.

~*~

Lara flew far behind the two arguing boys, sifting through her regained memories. Now she had them back, she could hardly believe that she had forgotten them so easily. She looked back on the day she had been taken in. They had immediately started training for strength. They had run long courses through the woods, whipped if they fell down. They had lifted weights, and pulled carts full of rocks. They had then been taught to withstand pain. She had often wondered why others cried when they fell down, winced when they hit their toes on things. For her, it was just normal. They had been beaten, and burnt, and cut. She looked at the shiny burn marks on her inner forearms, the clean, pink skin cut through with white slashes.

After they had reached an acceptable level, the spells began. They were the most painful things in the world, but they had to stay impassive, or they would be killed. Every day, they had fitness training, pain resistance, then ten to twenty spells. They had grown strong. Too strong, some said. Many of them died, and they were left as just the very best. It had been Lara, Draco, Blaise Zabini, and two other people she hadn´t known. Voldemort had been proud of them, and he had given them many gifts and luxuries. They had lived like kings and queens. Kings and queens of the demons.

Then they had been given the final doses. That day had been horrible. It stood out in Lara´s mind, now, like a pillar of fire on a dark plain.

A Death Eater summoned them from their rooms. Lara met Draco in the dark corridor, and they hugged briefly before going on. Blaise came out of the room opposite, a look of utmost horror on her pretty face. They stood outside the door, as usual. The room always contained their worst fears. Lara felt the blood pound through her body, and one of her many cuts opened again. She looked down at it absently, and sucked it clean.

The huge, bronzed door slid open, and they filed in.

`My children,´ The Dark Lord intoned. `Today is the day when it all ends.´

Contrary to his expectations, it appeared, they didn´t look happy. A few of them exchanged glances, and Draco slipped his hand into Lara´s.

`Take your places,´ Voldemort commanded.

Lara gave Draco a tiny smile, all she could manage, and walked to the place she usually stood.

There were odd markings in the circle of bronze on the floor. She stood in the centre of a five-pointed star, and screwed her eyes shut in brief preparation. When she opened them again, all the Corrupters stood on the marks. Voldemort spread his hands wide, and tubes of glass shot up around them. All sound was immediately muffled. Lara put her feet slightly apart for balance. She rubbed her sweaty palms on the rags she wore, and clasped her hands behind her back.

Voldemort began to chant something, and the designs on the floor began to glow. Lara was used to it by then, but it still filled her with dread. Shimmering symbols began to trace themselves around the tubes of glass they stood in. Lara closed her eyes as the brightness increased. Soon it shone through her eyelids, and there was no escape.

Then a cold pressing began, and fire prickled its way along her skin. It felt like she was being scratched all over with a thousand claws and beaten with rocks. He vision began to shake, and blood clouded her eyes, closed as they were. She heard screams, but stayed silent.

The pain mounted until it was almost shredding her apart, and she knew she was going to faint and not wake up. Then it stopped. She took a last breath before water began to fill the tube. She floated up, and the burning cooled. Then the water drained out slowly, and she settled back to her feet again. The glass slid back into the floor. Lara stood there, wet and bloody, gasping for breath, but still alive, she had made it. One of the two boys she had never known collapsed when the glass slipped away, and Voldemort sneered coldly at him.

`Dispose of him, he is of no use to us,´ he told one of the Death Eaters.

Lara fought to control her breathing, and eventually did. Voldemort turned to the other boy. He had his eyes screwed shut, and was gasping.

`Kill him,´ Voldemort said.

The boy cried out once as he died, and Voldemort muttered something about him being too weak anyway. He congratulated Blaise on her firm, unmoved expression, and passed her by. He patted Draco on the back, and came to Lara.

`My special little one,´ he smiled. `It took me an awfully long time to get you.´

Lara nodded, not sure what to say.

`You´re the best of the lot of them,´ Voldemort said, not troubling to keep his voice down. `And your time will come.´

Lara shook her head to clear it of the vision, then had a strange thought.

`Draco?´ she called.

`Yeah?´ he answered, hanging back to talk to her.

`Wasn´t Voldemort nearly dead when we were seven?´

`I was thinking about that, too. I think he might have taken us out of time to train us.´

`What?´

`Well, I thought he might have come and fetched us from the future while he was still strong, and trained us then. That way, no one would recognise us.´

Lara nodded, marvelling again at Draco´s thought patterns.

`Now, if you´ll excuse me, I need to go and prove Potter wrong again.´

She nodded vaguely, and he went away again. Then there was the day they had been chased away. These eleven year-olds were Corrupting the entire fortress, and Voldemort had to do something. He had believed at first that she wasn´t involved. She had been his little favourite, after all.

`I don´t understand!´ he boomed, slamming his fist onto the table. `There were NO faults in the design!´

Lara nodded, smiling. What she wore now was a far cry from the rags of a mere month ago. She wore robes of dark red velvet, embroidered with gold. Voldemort had insisted that, as his `daughter´, she deserved a lot better than the plain black robes the others wore.

`I can´t explain what could have happened, Father,´ she told him, shaking her head.

But it wasn´t true. She knew that they were all out of control. She was no different. It was only that he trusted her, and would never believe she would do such a thing. But she couldn´t help herself. None of them could, it was just automatic. Voldemort refused to believe that he might have been a little arrogant in supposing that they would obey him by nature.

`I made a grave error, didn´t I?´ he said, looking up from his plans.

`Yes, Father.´

`They will have to be killed,´ he said, pushing his chair back from the carved desk and going to the window.

Lara felt the bottom of her heart drop out.

`No Father! Please don´t kill them!´ she cried, dropping to her knees and clinging to the hem of his robes.

`You... care for them?´ he frowned, turning to her and pulling her to her feet.

`No! But we... they have served you faithfully, and it was through no error of their own that they failed!´

He considered it, his cold, haughty face lit by the pale winter sunlight.

`No, you´re right. I will not kill them. I will alter their memories, and send them back to their own times.´

She had never understood that, until now.

`Thank you, Father. I cannot tell you how much that means to me,´ she smiled, brushing her knees off and returning to her chair.

Then Draco and Blaise had been modified and returned to the normal world, only mildly Corruptive. The spells had been unable to remove the work entirely, but it had been good enough.

Lara returned to Voldemort´s study a few days after they had been sent away.

`It´s as though they are dead,´ Voldemort smiled proudly. `They haven´t been born yet, and all their followers have dissipated.´

Lara smiled her agreement, and sat down. Voldemort nodded to the Death Eater by the door.

`Fetch Ryans for me,´ he said. The man nodded and scuttled away.

`You can go and play now,´ he told Lara, and she gladly left him.

The fortress seemed empty without Blaise and Draco, much as she had hated them both. They had been allies, but never friends. She wandered the corridors, peering into cold rooms where Death Eaters ate and slept. Then she felt the telltale burning against her chest. She slipped her hand down the neck of her robes, and pulled out the silver dragon amulet.

She did the same now. It was still there, after all this time. It was a dragon, coiled around a hollow glass ball, filled with her blood and some of Voldemort´s. She polished its nose fondly with her thumb.

The blood was glowing and swirling. She slipped it back to its place inside her robes, and ran back the long way to Voldemort´s study.

`Father?´ she said, coming in and sitting down.

`Stand up,´ he commanded angrily.

Taken aback, she stood up and backed against the stone wall.

`I trusted you,´ he spat.

`What have I done?´ she asked, genuinely curious.

`I summoned Ryans, and he refused to come. Apparently, he answers only to you, now. What am I to make of that?´

Lara felt her inner self fall to her knees and cry, but she stayed firm. `I did only what I was made to do. You made me what I am, and I answer only to you, so how am I to have stolen your follower, when I follow you?´

Voldemort´s rage seemed to ebb slightly, and she breathed an inner sigh of relief.

`Thus, I shall not kill you. But be warned,´ he hissed. He pointed his wand at her, and muttered a charm. She felt the spell hit her, and tensed herself against the pain that came a second later. `In fifteen minutes, you will lose your memories,´ he told her. `Now I shall give you the spell to take your powers. Stand still and take it like you were trained to.´

But she didn´t. As he released the spell, she ran. She leapt out of the door, lifting her robes and sprinting for all she was worth.

`Capture her,´ Voldemort bellowed, pointing at her.

Lara recognised most of those in the corridor to be faithful to her, and she called to them `Stop them! Help me get away!´

They immediately formed a wall across the corridor, and a ring around her. She ran for her life, as fast as she could. Owing to the training, it was far faster than any of them could go. She shot through the fortress, barely knowing where she was headed, and broke out onto a tower. One of Voldemort´s Death Eaters had somehow got through, and stood, grinning maniacally as she backed against the low wall. She glanced back over her shoulder at the grey, featureless plain below. This was the lowest tower, and it wouldn´t hurt too much to fall, if she did it right.

`You can´t escape Voldemort!´ he told her.

`Watch me!´ she yelled, vaulting off the side of the tower. She held her skirts out, desperately hoping they would slow her fall. The shimmering barrier far out on the plain was the time warp

she now knew, and if she could get there before the hour was up, she would keep her memories, her soul. She crashed to the ground, and got up to run again, ignoring the pain in her legs. She could hear spells hitting the rocks behind her, scorching the earth. She scrabbled frantically with the clasp of her heavy cloak, and it fell to the stony ground at her back.

She picked up her skirts again and sprinted. Her small legs carried her quickly over the plain, and soon she was out of range from the spells. But then they were chasing after her. She could hear them running, but they were old, and would tire easily. She wondered if Draco and Blaise had gone through this. She was breathing heavily now, and she had gone nearly a mile. There was only a little way to go.

Then she forgot why she was running. All she knew was that she had to run. She dived through the barrier, and tumbled through blackness for a long way, before hitting the ground outside a school.

`Home?´ she frowned. She picked up her skirts again, and walked towards it, curious and cold.

Lara looked down at her hands. There was that mark where she had tripped up the steps, and got a stone embedded in her palm.

It was all real, and she was back. Voldemort had failed, but now she was going back to him. Why? She didn´t know, but she hoped she was going to kill him.