Clandestine Whispers

PART FIVE: BESIDE A ROSE OF FLAME

>>>>>17 The end of angelhood

"Stop wailing, you idiot! Do you want to die?"

"No, no no no, I don't! But I don't think you'll find a Hlikorpin bird in the Malfoy zoo."

"But maybe I will, Wormtail, maybe I will. Oh, what's wrong now? Move!"

But Wormtail remained frozen, staring, eyes wide, at the large, tall, thin bird that stood in the cage before him. Its beak short and hooked downwards, its eyes a piercing violet, it stared back at him placidly. Going to stand beside Wormtail, Draco, too, looked at the creature. Its wings were extremely long, each wing twice the length of three of his arms. But the feathers were extremely minute in size, about the same length and width as baby's fingernail. It made no noise, but continued to stare at them with its beady little eyes.

"This is the Hlikorpin?"

"Yes."

"Bloody hell, but its feathers are small. How do I get one from it?"

~~*~~

Ron and Hermione had just listened to Harry's suspicions about thier guide, "Cornelius Fudge." But it was too late to do anything, because he was already gone.

"Well," said Ron, "at least he led us to the gates. Let's go in now and find Wormtail, and then figure out what new sinister plan he's involved in." The redheaded boy stepped forward, reaching out to touch the evil-aurad black iron gates. He yelled in pain and jumped back a moment after, however. Hermione and Harry saw that Ron's hand that had touched the gate was now trembling under its own accord, and was changing from deathly white to neon green to violent lavender colors.

He groaned in pain, and then said, "Urg. This is too much. I won't be of any use to you anymore. Just... leave me here and go on. I have my wand. I'll be safe."

Hermione didn't believe this. "Are you one hundred percent sure you want to stay behind?"

Ron thought about it for a while, and then nodded. "Yeah, it's what's best. Go on," he smiled weakly, "have all the fun without me."

Hermione shook her head, saying, "I guarantee this will not be fun. But if you insist on staying... we'll let you."

Harry nodded, and clasped Ron's hand. In it he left a box of wizard cards and assorted candies. "If you get bored or hungry, the candy will help. And if you need some bravery, those wizards are good representatives."

Ron smiled, saying, "and if I get reeaally desperate, I'll throw some booger and vomit flavored Every Flavor Beans at any bad guys." Harry and Hermione laughed, and then walked away to try and find another way onto the Malfoy property.

~~*~~

"Bloody fucking bird! Damn you!"

Draco hissed in pain, wiping the blood from his jaw only to further smear it onto his already crimson painted hand. He stood there glaring viciously at the animal, arms crossed over his chest, biting his lip in frustration. "Damnit, damnit, damnit. Wormtail! You recognized the spell, so tell me how to do it! Not that I don't already know, but I need to review it..." he mumbled, refusing that a Malfoy could ever forget such a dark spell.

"Y-young Malfoy, no one has ever completed the spell without dying; the Hlikorpin is always either never found, or kills the person. Besides, that potion is still in your blood."

"Will the spell counteract it?"

"No. It will use the potion to make your power drive more towards the insane uncontrollable power rather than the dominant calm power."

Draco ran his hands through his silky, silver hair, muttering a string of curses under his breath. Suddenly, a voice cut in his train of thought.

"Unfortunately, cursing everything and everyone in the world as the cause of your misery other than your obvious stupidity will not help you, boy. If you wait for Potter and his friends to get here and listen to me than you may have a chance of living and having a respected role on the Dark Side."

Draco turned to see none other than the utterly unwelcome face of his father. Standing up quickly, he marched up to Lucius, jaw set in resolution. "Cut the crap, father, and get on with it. And let me remind you that it has nothing to do with you and the rest of Voldemort's bloody cronies. I'm doing it for my own fucking benefit."

~~*~~

Harry and Hermione were just on the point of jumping of the cliff of insanity when Hermione spotted a sudden blazing of red in the near distance. Pointing it to Harry, she said, "Something is definitely up. It's either a powerful spell of someone's aura. Another one of Voldemort's plans is in the process. What do we do, Harry?"

Turning his emerald gaze to glance reassuringly at Hermione, Harry furtively searched for a possible way to reach the darkening crimson light that was ever slowly increasing. "I think that maybe we should--" but Hermione never got to find out what he suddenly thought they should do, as suddenly, she stepped forward, and the ground began to sink beneath her. Harry barely managed to clasp her hand as she began to fall, and next they knew, both were falling steadily downwards.

They landed in total darkness. But the dank smell and the lukewarm liquid stench swimming around their ankles told them they were in a tunnel. Possibly even a sewer. Inching forward and repressing the urge to puke, the felt along the slimy granite walls until they came to an opening. Tightly holding each other's hands, they walked further into the blackness up a flight of winding, slippery stairs.

They emerged in a gigantic chamber, full of hissing and barking vicious creatures, more than half of which even Hermione couldn't identify. The entire chamber was made of a partly translucent, hazy green colored glass, and standing at the center of it, surrounded by trees and shrubs of an inside garden, was Draco Malfoy.

He someone did not look out of place surrounded by plants. But this was only because, being part of Malfoy Manor, the creatures, chamber, and even the plants surrounding him were twisted. The sand that formed a large circle on the ground at his feet, and the odd symbols carved in that patch of sand, made Harry uneasy. They seemed to radiate a dark power.

Draco seemed to be drinking in this power.

Almost worse than seeing Voldemort reborn again was seeing Draco Malfoy in obvious ultimate power, and the alteration showed even physically. Harry shuddered to think of how it would show magically. Also, Draco was definitely whispering, although barely audible, a dark spell or curse of some kind. And he spoke it in Parseltongue. Although Harry stared at Draco Malfoy with first shock, uneasiness, and finally plain suspicious scrutiny, Hermione gaped for altogether different reasons than Harry.

One, he looked totally and utterly in his element, surrounded as he was by animate and inanimate evil objects. Two, the way his pitch black cloak swirled around his shoulders by an as-of-yet non-feelable or hearable wind, the way his dark lashes lay calmly against his cheeks, hands raised in the air, stance firm, and silver hair fluttering wispily like tinsel, clashing yet blending brutally with the darkness around him, all of this produced an altogether awing, frightening and truly surreal effect. And three... he was once again wearing his fingerless dragonhide elbow-length gloves and leather costume; finally she could see all of him wearing the 100% drool-inflicting tight clothes. He looked dead sexy. Better than dead sexy; he was utterly gorgeous!

Finally, Draco stopped his incessant mutterings of the spell, and slowly lowered his arms. The crimson aura around him suddenly turned black. Then, with a quick snap of wrist, his wand was held, arm outstretched, pointing directly at Harry. Not very surprisingly, his wand was now colored black. Then, he took a step forward.

His eyes snapped open, glowing in all their dark glory, radiating with pure malice. As Harry and Hermione were involuntarily drawn to stare back at his gaze, they stayed rooted to the ground; his eyes, once human, were now pupiless, and colored a sharp, startling grey-silver, flecked with black.

Draco Malfoy had finally risen, emblazoned by flames, upon the cowering, oblivious earth. His feathers shed, he was a dark angel no longer. His sadistic smirk directed at his foes standing before him was one of a Hell spawn demon.