As the Eagle Flies

As the Eagle Flies 6

Summary: Well, this is the chapter where it all starts...or continues, as the case may be. Odd women are visiting dreams, Quidditch begins, and we get some letters from some loving parents.

Chapter six

"Ok, so she's had her first encounter with the founders, thinks Gryffindor's a bastard, what next?"

Yet again, Hermione, Ron, Harry, Ginny and the twins were sitting in the living room, only this time it was in The Rabbit Hovel, George's home.

Katie was sitting off to the side a bit, reading a book entitled, "How to Get Famous when Really You're Just a Complete Idiot" which, as Fred pointed out, was completely pointless, because if you were a complete idiot, you wouldn't be able to follow the book. "It should be 'When you're just a partial idiot'" he said wisely.

"Shut up, Fred," was her response. She didn't really understand what was happening with the prophecy and, being a children's author, felt she couldn't contribute much to the conversation.

"Hell, you're not helping," said Harry angrily. "What are we going to do?"

Everyone looked at him.

"Why? Nothing! There's nothing for us to do! Katkin will explain it, but there's nothing we can do to help her, you know that Harry, don't pretend like you don't." Ginny was annoyed.

"Yeah, sure, whatever, I know that there's not one bloody thing I can do when my daughter's in mortal peril!"

"Bloody hell, Harry, will you stop focusing so much on Ema?" said Hermione in an imperious tone.

"WHAT? Stop focusing on my daughter?"

"Because," said Hermione, "for the millionth time, it is not her who's in mortal peril, it's Ari as I've said!"

* * *

"Bloody hell, bloody hell, bloody hell..."

"Ema, I'm working, would you please refrain from using such foul language?" asked Jamie indignantly, bending over her Transfiguration homework.

"No, thanks though," said Ema staring at the other side of the room where Joey, the captain of Ravenclaw's Quidditch team, was posting a piece of parchment.

"Ema," said Ari shaking with excitement. "Is that...do you think that's...eh?" They jumped up and smashed through the crowd of people around the parchment, knocking Marcus Flint Jr. to the floor.

"Damn, I'm not a Chaser," said Ema, looking disgruntled.

"Ari! You great prat! Bloody hell, you could have at least told me how your tryout went! Hell, you must be good! They don't usually admit first years..."

"Shut up, Potter," snapped Ari, "And look down."

Ema stared at the parchment looking almost horrified. Then her expression changed and a slow grin unfurled on her face, "I'm on the team," she whispered, then louder. "I'm on the team." Her voice rose to a shout. "I'M ON THE TEAM!" People were staring but she didn't care, she jumped up and down, ran four times around the room, dashed under chairs, dodging people.

Everyone laughed but Ema's hyper-activity had not yet run out. She ran up to Joey, opened her mouth to ask her something and then ran away again. She was singing loudly, "I WISH I WERE A CAMEL! SITTING IN A HAMMOCK!" Everyone was very taken aback. Ema started saying things so randomly that even Jamie began to think they were weird. Kenzie even tried to bring everything back down to a dull roar, but when Ema nearly trampled her she gave up.

"BLUE SKY BELOW ME, GREEN SKY ABOVE..."

Even Ari was surprised by Ema's behavior. But no one was all that surprised, except Ari, Jamie, and Ronnie, when Ema fell to the ground as though hit over the head.

"Exhausted herself most like," said one boy.

"Silly girl, she'll get out of it," said his friend.

But Ari exchanged uneasy glances with the other two girls and they went over to their friend. Ema was breathing but very shallowly. Ari leaned closer and heard her mutter, "Oh, damn, it's you again."

"This can only mean one thing," said Jamie practically. "They've taken her again and...Ari?" For Ari had suddenly clutched at her chest.

~

An icy cold sensation had started in her chest and was spreading; fear clutched at her insides, her head ached, and her friends' faces were sliding in and out of focus. There was a blinding flash of white light and she was gone.

"Oh, my God!" squeaked Ronnie. "Oh no, oh, Jamie, what do we do?" people were moving about in chaos; it seemed that the two unconscious girls might be trampled. Then they heard a reassuring voice.

"What on earth is going on here?" Ronnie and Jamie looked up to see Kenzie. She had gotten Ema on to the Quidditch team, she could get Ema and Ari to the hospital wing.

"They collapsed," said Ronnie tearfully, "They...see, it's like this...oh, they just did, I don't know why..." Jamie had shot her a warning look that said only too clearly: you tell them what's going on, and I will kick your arse from here to America.

Luckily, Kenzie was all business.

"Ok, Ronnie, go get Professor Flitwick and tell him what's happened -no, wait--I'll go with you--no, wait--damn it!" She held her head in her hands and took a deep breath.

"Ok...you go tell Professor Flitwick and Myka and I will get them down to the hospital wing. Myka!" A large girl with long black hair and glasses came forward to help in getting their charges to the hospital wing.

* * *

We regret to inform you that your daughter has collapsed again. Due to circumstances not to be mentioned here, we have moved her into a private unit in the hospital wing. She is as yet unresponsive to treatment but you are not obliged to come to the school, though you shall be welcomed if you choose to.

It should also be told here that Miss Potter's friend Arwen DeLingues has also been taken ill. She, however, is slightly more responsive.

Professor Frederick Flitwick,

"BLOODY HELL!" shouted Harry yet again upon reading the letter.

Ginny was slightly less concerned.

"Harry," she said sternly, "are you going to shout 'bloody hell' every time this happens? We knew this would happen and there's nothing we can do about it. Harry," she added warningly as he turned towards his broom, "we are not going to rush over there every time she's Summoned, okay? No, no, not a chance, you get back here."

Harry rounded on her.

"NO!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"YES!"

"Fine!" Harry flung himself into a chair and sulked.

* * *

"Please...please Godric, please, why should they suffer? It was I, it was I, please, have mercy..."

"Crucio!" Ari writhed and shrieked in pain on the floor, yelling horribly.

It was too much for Ema to take, too much for her to bear. "Stop it right now!" she shouted, then, as Ari's screams grew louder, tears began to run down her face and she collapsed at Gryffindor's feet, "Stop it you bastard, damn you, stop it!" then, quite suddenly, Ari stopped screaming. Yet Gryffindor had not removed his wand.

Ari winked. Then let out a piercing shriek. Ema stood, confused: What was going on? The floor fell away and she was lost in icy blackness.

* * *

"Damn it, why am I here?" were Ema's first words as she woke up to see the high ceiling of the Hospital Wing.

"Take a wild guess, Potter," said a wonderfully familiar voice from the bed next to her. She rolled over to see Ari sitting up in bed and between them Ronnie and Jamie who were both about to die of fright.

"Ema, what's going on?" asked Jamie tearfully. "You guys are...passing out all over the place."

"Not cool," Ari agreed. "Now, I assume Madam Pomfrey needs to keep us here for a few more millenniums so you two scoot off to lessons." Ronnie and Jamie knew she had a point but didn't like it so they skulked out, pouting.

"Black Adder, Black Adder, many a cunning plan...Black Adder, Black Adder, you horrid little man..."

"Ari," said Ema sternly. "What the hell are you singing?"

"Haven't you ever seen The Black Adder?" asked Ari, looking surprised. As though Ema was supposed to know and love everything that she did.

"No, I bloody well have not," snapped Ema.

Ari looked shocked.

"Next you'll be telling me you've never seen The Lord of the Rings!" she said, dumbfounded. "No, stop, I don't want to hear it. POTTER! Shut the hell up now!" she yelled before Ema had even opened her mouth.

Ema grinned.

"Nope, never seen it."

"ARG! You poor bloody deprived being! I'll have to fix that..." said Ari, looking scandalized.

"Right, now what is The Black Adder?'

"A comedy, oh, well, you wouldn't get it."

Ema shrugged, pulling her knees up to her chest, looking as though she were five-years-old. Not that she'd ever looked her age, obviously, but suddenly she looked young. Young and vulnerable.

"What's up?" Ari asked.

"Ari, what happened in there? How...? Why...? You stopped screaming."

"You know, I was going to ask you a similar question. Was that supposed to hurt? I guessed it was because why else would they be doing it, but all I felt was a slight tickle. Hardly anything."

Ema knew she was serious because she hadn't used the word 'bloody' during those whole three sentences. "But you were screaming at first," she said. Then she realized something. "It bloody well was supposed to hurt! That's like the ultimate torture!"

"Wow," said Ari. "I screamed because I'm smart, Ema, and I thought that if they were trying to torchure me I'd bloody well pretend it hurt or they'd kill me."

"Hell, Ari, how come I can feel it?"

"I don't know," said Ari, thinking hard. "I don't know."

* * *

Ari was walking through a field. The sky was a silvery gray and mist rose around her. The grass beneath her bare feet was slightly wet.

She looked up. A woman with long silver hair and deep blue eyes stood before her. The woman spoke.

"Arwen, you must not give up your destiny,"

"I wasn't planning to," said Ari, feeling perplexed.

"Arwen, it is not an easy road, and it never will be. Help your friend Ema, help her for she does not possess your gift."

"What gift? I don't understand." But the woman had disappeared and all Ari could hear was a song from somewhere far off.

And she remembered no more.

* * *

Ema, too, dreamed that night. She was walking under a moonlit sky, following a silvery owl. A pair of eyes watched her out of the darkness.

"What are you?" she asked. "Why are you here?"

The eyes blinked, and Ema fancied she saw them flash green for a moment.

"I come to deliver a warning," said a voice. "I bring a message."

"Alright," said Ema, not really knowing what to say.

"You have lived a sheltered life," said the voice quickly. "You do not know about your past. You know very little about your father's past. You must be careful for Margothten is a mortal enemy. He will seek to hurt you and he will return."

"Why will he seek to hurt me?" asked Ema. The eyes blinked again and this time she thought they flashed red.

"I can tell you no more."

And Ema was left alone in the dark, listening to a far off song.

* * *

Neither Ari nor Ema cared to discuss their dreams. A pity, for if they had thought to, they would have realized that half of the same song came to each of them.

Neither could explain why, but the song stayed with them. Both noticed but neither said that both were humming it at odd moments. Ari, for one thought constantly about what gift she might possess while Ema was baffled at the Dark Lord's apparent strife against her. But, as Christmas drew nearer and they weren't Summoned again, the girls began to change back to their normal selves.

Almost.

* * *

I'm sorry to bother you but I had an odd dream the night Ema and I came back from being Summoned. A lady with silver hair told me to protect Em because I have some gift or something.

Mrs. Potter, I think it has something to do with the fact that the 'Crucio' curse that Slytherin or Gryffindor (can't remember which of them) used on me didn't work. I mean, I didn't feel anything painful.

Anyway, then the woman vanished and I heard this song (I don't know why I remember it perfectly):

Green hills, blue skies in a world that once was,
Sweet dreams, lullabies; a place that didn't rust
One thing after more,
Knocking on my open door
Leaving me not knowing what to do
Puzzling my mind,
Leaving me to grind on old gray stone
Once in a world full of love and glee,
Now in a world full of lust and sorrow
Leaving me to die drowning in despair
And leaving me to go to the land of Nowhere
In a world I once knew,
In a world that I know
Neither is too good,
Neither is too slow
Left me in the land that I do not know
Either here or there, no grass all snow...

I put the '...' because I'm sure it continues. I don't know where or how or why I heard it or what it means to me, but please, if you know, could you tell me?

-Ari

Ema, too, had plans in mind.

Sorry to bother you and all that, but I had a weird dream the other day. This pair of black eyes that kept flashing green and red told me that Margothten's out to get me or something. Then it all went black and I heard this song:

Things that come quickly,
A healthy pig that's sickly,
Living in a world where everything is wrong
Nothing left to do,
Nothing left I knew,
But I'm left in a world that I do not know
Get me to my land,
Where we walked hand in hand,
The last thing that I thought
Was that I would be banned
In a world I once knew,
No worlds that I know
Neither is a good thing
Never heard the bells ring,
Left me in a strange place, a place I do not know
Neither here nor their, missing even crows
In a world I once knew,
Everyone I know
I want to have a good life,
Free of bloody knife,
Leaving for a horrid place, a place that I'll regret
I'm left and getting caught in fates horrid net.

Don't ask me how I remember it so well. Anyway, it sounded like a continuation of another song. I was just wondering what it meant.

-Ema

* * *

Ginny read both letters slowly. Then she sighed. She could not tell Harry about it this time. This was her area of expertise. She dipped her quill into her ink and began to write:

I gather you haven't told each other about your dreams. This was immensely silly of you. If you'd thought to do that, a whole lot more would make sense. I cannot answer all your questions here; if this owl were intercepted all would be ruined. I can tell you that you each heard half of the same song.

The song was written by Rowena Ravenclaw's youngest daughter Nienne, who was a squib but possessed magical powers. I can't explain this in writing, I'll have to tell you in person. Anyway, being a squib (that's a Muggle born to a wizard, Ari) she was shunted from a life of magic into a life of none. That's why she wrote the song: In a World I Once Knew. Little did she know...anyway, I'm going to speak to Professor Katkin about talking to you through the fire, but I'd have to ensure that no one would be in there, in your common room, I mean. I'll write back to tell you the plan later.

Look after yourselves. Ema, you're going to have to stay over at Christmas, Ari, your mum told me to tell you that you might want to because she's visiting your...Aunt Krissy? Can't remember. See you later.

-Mum/Ginny

PS. Ari, call me Ginny, not Mrs. Potter, it makes me sound so old. You can reserve the 'Mrs.' for my mum.

* * *

"You wrote to my mum?" Ema looked annoyed.

"Who else was I going write to?" whined Ari. "I didn't know you'd also had a dream. Ema! No fair, you can't get angry at me for asking for help!"

"I know," sulked Ema. "I just don't like it when Mum tells people all my personal stuff."

"Well, it explains a bit," said Ari, glad that Ema wasn't going to shun her for life. "Like the song."

Ema hummed a bit of it. "What I don't get," she said. "Is how Nienne could be a squib with magical powers. It doesn't make sense. Oh, I hope we get to talk to her soon. I want to know what's going on."

"What is going on?" asked Jamie, coming up to them.

"Nothing," they said together. Jamie sulked.

"Fine, be that way," she scoffed and walked away.

Ari sighed. "Jamie, JAMIE! Bloody hell, Lastroni! Get over here and get that little Malfoy twit!"

Jamie, looking happier, grabbed Ronnie and they sat down looking like three-year-olds getting ready for a story about pink bunnies.

"Look, we'll tell you, but what we tell you here stays here and you'll never repeat it to anyone," Ari snapped. They were in their dormitory. Ari was sitting on Ema's bed and she motioned for Ronnie and Jamie to join them. Then she drew the blue hangings around them just in case anyone was listening.

"Okay, you guys know about the Twilight Prophecy, and you know that it's us..." Ari proceded to tell the story as fully as possible.

* * *

"Wow," said Jamie, half an hour later, looking speechless. "To think that all this could happen to you."

"I know," said Ronnie. "Don't you ever feel, like, overwhelmed?"

"Yes," said Ari. "Of course. But the important thing is that we don't know what's going on. Apparently Margothten's after Ema, and I possess some gift but we don't know what that means. And that means we've got to be careful."

* * *

"Where are you?" Ari was back in the field. She did not see the woman, but she knew that she was near, Ari was sure of that.

"Here," said a voice. "I am trapped and I cannot show myself."

"Please," said Ari. She knew it was a dream, but she wanted to get as much out of the dream as possible. "Please, tell me, what is going on? Who are you?"

No answer came. Only a song. But in that song, Ari fancied she heard the answer to her question:

Nienne

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