The Arcs of Destiny

Chapter IX:

The Other Side of the Wall

'Cause you're everywhere to me

And when I close my eyes it's you I see

You're everything I know that makes me believe

I'm not alone

I'm not alone.'

-Michelle Branch, Everywhere

*

It was still night where Ginny was. She had spent the last half hour looking out the small window in the tiny room at the forest down below. The moon blanketed the tips of the trees with a silverish light giving an eerie glow and creating the illusion that it was moving. Now, she was pacing the small cell talking aloud to herself.

"If only I hadn't of suggested to come back here," Ginny scolded herself. "Draco wouldn't be God knows where and I wouldn't be in this cell. I shouldn't be here! I should be back home with Draco and my brothers and my father helping them look for Percy and Mum. And Harry, too. God, why did I suggest this?"

Ginny paused and looked up at the iron bars. They led onto a hallway that had a couple of torches on the walls. She went up to the bars and looked out. The hallway was deserted yet she had the feeling that someone else was there, probably in the shadows, watching her...listening to her.

Ginny silently moved away from the bars and resumed pacing around her cell. She threw her hands up into the air and started talking again out of habit. "I can't believe I'm here. I should be with Draco. He would know what to do, I'm sure of it. Or Harry..." She stopped pacing and sighed, dropping her arms to her sides.

A voice spoke out, seeing his chance. "Maybe you should concentrate on getting out of here, instead of making yourself look like the bad guy." The voice was deep and husky and Ginny knew at once that it belonged to a man, but not to any man that she knew. His voice came from the direction of the cell on the other side of Ginny's. She turned to look at the wall doubtfully.

"Who are you?" Ginny asked the man behind the wall. "How did you get here?"

"My name is Jason," the man replied, after a silence. "I was brought here not by will. What can I say, the Master doesn't like me dropping in."

"Why?" Ginny asked.

"They really don't like me," Jason said with laughter in his voice. "I'm not much of a great guy, so they say. The fact that I know everything about them kinda scares them, so here we all are. Who are you and what's your excuse for being here?"

"I'm Ginny," she answered cautiously, trying to decide whether the guy was trustworthy or not. "My mother and brother are missing and Draco and I came here to search for them when we got separated."

"You've been here before?" Jason asked.

"We accidentally discovered this cave that led into the labyrinth," Ginny told him. "We decided to come back because we heard these two demons talk about a Ministry wife being kidnapped." There was some movement in the next cell. "How do we get out of these cells?"

"We can't," Jason answered. "These cells are magicproof. As far as I know, magic can get in, but it can't get out, and that's as much as I know about them. I've tried to teleport myself out of here but so far, it's not working. Even breaking the bars is not a good idea. We might end up with a large injury."

I've tried to teleport myself out of here... This sentence stuck out to Ginny which made her wonder, demon or wizard? "What are you? Wizard or demon?"

There was a tense silence. Then, Jason answered with another question, "Are you from the Wizarding World like I first thought?"

"Do not answer a question with another question," Ginny said, irritably. "And yes, I am from the Wizarding World. Answer my question."

Another tense silence followed before Jason took a deep breath and answered. "I'm a demon. One of the Master's best, actually. He put me in this cell because I betrayed him. The human inside of me shone through and I protected a witch against the Master's orders to kill her. Satisfied?"

"Yes," Ginny said, taking a deep breath herself. "Well, do you have any ideas as to what our grand exit will be?"

Jason laughed.

*****

Several hours and thirteen timezones later, the airplane that the Grangers were on finally landed in Toronto. Throughout the whole flight, Hermione had tried to keep her eyes open but despite her best efforts, she had fallen asleep and was now shaken awake by her mother. They left the plane along with her father and little sister and went to pick up their baggage. Then, Xander rented a car and they drove out of the still-bustling city and into the countryside. It took almost two hours to get out of the city since the main streets were narrow and clogged with cars. Alexis fell asleep and Hermione, who had gotten a good sleep on the plane, watched the cars ahead of them move slowly. It had darkened and the buildings were alight with many lights shining through the windows. Not many people were out walking tonight and the street-lights cast a sombre glow on the pavement.

Soon, Xander managed to get onto the right highway and they raced along in the right lane, so not what Hermione was accustomed to. In Britain, cars drove on the left side of the road, but in America, they drove on the right. On either side of the car, buildings loomed up until they gave way to low, flat land. Trees popped up and some lights could be seen in the distance.

Turn it inside out so I can see

The part of you that's drifting over me

And when I wake you're never there

But when I sleep you're everywhere

You're everywhere

A sign popped up on the highway which read: 'Davis Drive- Newmarket: 1 KM'. Xander directed the car off the highway and onto the ramp that led to Davis Drive. He turned the radio on to KISS 92 and Michelle Branch was playing Everywhere.

Just tell me how I got this far

Just tell me why you're here and who you are

'Cause every time I look you're never there

And every time I sleep you're always there

The scenery flew by, but Hermione paid no attention to it. Her thoughts were on what Ron's house would look like. He had described it to her earlier on in the summer, but she didn't get that great of a picture. She was interested to see what it would look like up close. Would it be tall like the Burrow or would it be small? Another half hour passed and the car was guided down a long, narrow road. Other cars passed by at great speeds and Xander had to steer quite close to the side. The road suddenly changed from pavement to a dirt road and the wheels went over rocks lying forlornly on the road. Forest surrounded them on either side, and to Hermione it almost seemed like the forest was going to press in on them. She shivered and pulled her jacket close to her.

The road veered to the left and widened. The car suddenly went back onto pavement and Xander was able to go faster. A street sign loomed up ahead, and in the headlights of the car, it read: 'St. Andrew's Drive'. Elizabeth, who was anxiously looking at a road map, told Xander to turn onto this street and he did. The trees did not relent, but they seemed to be growing thinner. A house could be seen hidden behind one clump of trees and another road came up, this time leading to the left. Xander drove onto this road on Elizabeth's orders and beautiful, quiet houses stood out on either side. He looked for Hyacinth Drive and turned onto it.

"Wait!" Hermione suddenly said. Xander stepped on the brakes and the car behind them nearly rammed into them. The person of that car honked the horn furiously and Xander drove to the side where he parked. "We have to get into the Wizarding part of the town, Mellowside."

"Oh, yes, that's right," Elizabeth said up front. "Honey, drive to the park. Let's see if we can get into Mellowside."

"You probably won't be able to since there are no cars in Mellowside," Hermione told them. "You'll have to get a suite in Summerside and I'll walk to Ron's house."

Her parents nodded quietly, but reluctantly. They drove her to the park where they dropped her off with her baggage and she trudged over to the gazebo. The air was crisp and laughter from people across the park rang down to her. She sighed and got into the gazebo. Then, she walked into the railing and let the magic bring her to Mellowside.

The park in Mellowside was empty and silent. Eerie even, if Hermione wasn't a slayer. She got out of the gazebo and made her way back to Hyacinth Drive. The streets were empty except for the odd wizard that was finding his way home from the nearest pub. Dimly-lit street lights lit the cobblestone streets, illuminating any pebble that an unsuspecting person could trip over. Hermione crossed the street and onto Hyacinth Dr. This street was small with only a few houses on either side and a lot of trees. She could see a small little house up in one of the trees and found that there was a soft glow coming from it. Someone probably lived there. She walked down the sidewalk to the second house on her right and stopped at the end of the driveway to look at the house.

Well, Paradise Manor certainly was smaller than the Burrow, height-wise. There were only two floors on this one and a hill curving away from the side of the house where she could see stone steps leading down. It looked wrong, for some reason. She shrugged her shoulders and watched as a street light beside her suddenly went on. The light illuminated the house more and she saw that it was a dark blue. The garage was completely detached from the house with only a trellis that had vines with pretty blue flowers crawling up it linking it to the house. There was a balcony on the top floor and Hermione moved towards the stone stairway built into the hill by the side of the house. This stair led to a stone patio which opened from the bottom floor and reached around the house.

She sighed and went up the stone pathway to the front door of the house. There were no lights on inside the house, but it was pretty cool and Hermione wanted to get inside quickly. She went up the steps and knocked on the door that was painted a Christmas-y red and waited patiently. No answer. She knocked again, but still there was no answer.

She dropped her suitcase on the front step dejectedly and sat on her school trunk which she had placed on top of it. She wondered if she should try to find a way inside, but thought that she shouldn't intrude so she dug out a sweater and put it on underneath her jacket. After awhile, she pulled out the book 100 Ways to Cure Madison's Cold and began to read.

A movement suddenly caught her eye and she glanced up to see a man coming out from the trees where the little house up in a tree was. He was fairly tall with long, black robes and a hood to cover his face. His gait was quick and sprightly, so Hermione suspected that he was a young guy. She suddenly realized that he looked like a Death Eater and that he was coming towards her so she jumped up quickly, knocking her book to the ground.

"What business do you have with the Wealseys?" the man asked. He pulled down his hood to reveal his face and she saw that he had jet black hair and grey eyes which were pretty suspicious at the moment.

"I'm a friend from the school that Ron Weasley goes to," Hermione replied slowly. "I just came from a vacation and I thought that I should stay here over night, but it seems that they're either not home or they're sleeping."

"They're not home," the man told her simply, waiting for her to leave.

Hermione tilted her head to the side and studied him, feeling that something was very out of sorts here. The last time Ginny spoke to her, well she wasn't really speaking at all, she had said that their voices had been taken. And now this guy was speaking!

"Wait a minute!" she practically shouted, startling the guy. "You're speaking! When did you get your voice back?"

The surprise died down in his eyes and he was only too happy to answer, "This evening actually."

"Really?" Hermione asked, surprised herself. "I would've thought it would take longer to get your voice back. Do you know how it came back?"

The man shrugged his shoulders. "Nope," he answered. He paused and then held out his hand. "My name is David Evison. I'm a seventh-year at Congalus here in Mellowside. I can tell by your accent that you're from Britain. Hogwarts?"

Hermione nodded and said, "Good guess! My friends are here on vacation and I just came here from Australia. I'm Hermione Granger, by the way." She took his hand and shook it. She gestured to her school trunk where they sat down. "So, you're going to Congalus, are you? I hear that the professors there are really strict."

"Then, you heard right," David told her. "Last year, I never had a good night's sleep until the holidays came. What about you? How are your teachers?"

Hermione chuckled and they continued talking until David checked his watch.

"Oh, I've gotta go," David said, getting up from the trunk. Hermione stood up too. "I've got watching duties this year."

"Oh? What are those?" Hermione asked.

"Well, every street has a watcher that keeps track of the comings and goings of those that live on their street and visitors," David answered. "It's a hard job."

Hermione grinned and said, "Well, have fun on your hard job. It was nice meeting you, David."

David grinned too. "Yeah. You too."

Hermione stuck her hands in her jacket pockets as she watched him go down the driveway and across the street back into the trees where his little watcher's post stood. He seemed a nice enough guy and reminded her so much of Harry. Speaking of Harry...

****

Harry and Ron were following Arthur Weasley all over the Ministry building. Harry had just had three cups of coffee to keep himself awake and was still feeling a little drowsy, but he didn't dare bring it up as Arthur looked very grave already. He was busily finishing a fourth that the wizards in the office they were in had just given him when a stout little wizard ran into the office, completely out of breath.

Arthur had led the two boys into the Department for Missing Wizards and Magical Mischief and the Department for Magical Muggles where two middle-aged wizards sat behind two separate desks. Both wizards had brown hair, blue eyes, and completely resembled each other in other areas from head to toe. Now, these twins stood up in one movement, as if they were joined together somehow.

"Who goes there?" the one on the left said.

"Speak your piece!" the one on the right said.

The stout wizard took a deep breath and said in one breath, "There's a riot breaking out downstairs. They want to speak to the Minister, but they're not wizards." He paused, gasping for air, then continued. "They've threatened violence if they don't see the Minister soon."

The two look-a-like wizards ran out of the office together with their wands in hand. The little wizard followed, somewhat reluctantly though. Harry looked at the nameplates on each of the wizards desks. Howard Stein and Mickey White. How is that possible?, he thought. His attention was shifted to Arthur, however, who had turned to the two boys, worried.

"If I get you out of this building in some way other than using the front door, do you promise me to go right home?" Arthur asked. Harry looked at him doubtfully, but Arthur saw it and shook his head. "It is my job to protect you, but I can't exactly do that with one of my sons and my wife missing and a riot downstairs in the lobby." He smiled tiredly and continued. "I'm sorry, but that's the way it's got to be. Now, I don't want either of you around here, got it?"

Harry and Ron nodded absently and followed Arthur out of the office. They quickly found a staircase at the back of the building and Arthur chaperoned them to the outside of the building where he left them quite a distance away and headed back to the town hall. Harry looked at Ron who shrugged and they walked back to Paradise Manor, neither of them speaking. When they had gotten to the foot of the driveway, Ron suddenly froze in step and had his eyes fixed on a huddled figure at the front door.

Pulling out their wands, Harry followed Ron to the corner of the house where the figure couldn't see them. Ron crept out from their hiding place, his wand held high, when Harry realized that the magical motion detectors would sense them and turn on the lights that were hidden in the garden by the pathway. He was about to point this out when the garden was flooded with light, illuminating everything and everyone except him, but he stepped out of the shadows and into the light.

The figure on the doorstep had jumped up and was holding her own wand ready. She had long, curly brown hair and brown eyes. She wore designer Muggle clothes and was about an inch taller than he had last seen her and was also more buff than he had last seen her. His eyebrows jumped at the appearance of the girl in front of him and for a moment he was speechless. Ron, who was beside him, was also pretty speechless since his mouth had dropped open and he hadn't bothered to close it yet.

"Hermione?" Harry asked, uncertainly.

Hermione smiled, relieved, and said, "Surprise!"

****

Aerials, in the sky,

When you lose small mind,

You free your life.

Aerials, so up high,

When you free your eyes,

Eternal prize.

He could feel another presence in the room without opening his eyes. When he did open his eyes, it was with an effort. He felt like large amount of lead had been deposited into his veins making his movements slow and clumsy. Before the room he was in had even came into focus, he tried to sit up. He managed to get on his elbows, however, before the other presence in the room stirred and hurried over to him to push him back down.

"Stay down," the person said. The voice seemed feminine. "The transformation is not yet complete."

"Transformation to what?" Draco asked, his voice sounding distant to his own ears. The world had not yet swam back into focus but he could make out a blurry form in front of his eyes.

The form shifted and began to move. Draco suspected whoever she was had gotten up, though the bed hadn't moved.

"That I cannot tell you," the woman said. "Not until the transformation is complete."

"Where am I, then?" Draco asked.

"Your new home," the woman said. Footsteps rang against the hard floor and the woman's presence moved across the room to the door. "Take some rest."

A door closed with a soft click. Draco closed his eyes, relaxing his body. He did not remember what had happened to him after he had yelled to Ginny to run. He didn't even know where Ginny was. He hoped that she had gotten home safely, but in the back of his mind, he knew she hadn't. She was still somewhere in the large labyrinth either waiting for him or already captured.

Suddenly, a searing hot pain shot through his body and he twitched violently. The pain was so fierce that it almost blinded him. He could hear himself call out into the silence of the room as the pain wracked his entire body. Then, it began to ebb away, scraping away the heaviness in his skin with it. His vision cleared and he sat upright, looking about the room he was in.

It was a large room with oak paneling and oak bookshelves lining the walls, their shelves brimming with books. There was a fireplace on one wall and a large window seat that had crimson cushions in the opposite wall. Draco was lying on a large, four-poster bed that also had crimson cushions, the colour of blood. A small table stood in the middle of the room with dark-coloured armchairs surrounding it.

"Well," Draco muttered, observing the crimson patterns on his quilt, "someone obviously has a blood fetish."

He rolled off the bed and went to the window where he kneeled on the seat and looked out. It was quite dark outside and the moon illuminated the rows of trees below marching into the distance. He seemed to be quite a few stories up. This startled him. He had expected to still be below ground in the labyrinth but it was no longer so. There was nothing familiar to him and it aggravated him. He jumped off the window seat, picked up the nearest fragile object, and threw it across the room at the fireplace. It shattered into a million pieces with a loud crash.

He heard a whistling sound behind him and turned to see a beautiful young woman appear out of thin air. She had long blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She looked quite young to him and wore a rather fitting black dress with a plunging v-neck that came down to expose her belly button. A thin, gold chain held the two sides of her dress together so that nothing could be seen...much and he saw that there was a long slit in the side of her dress. Now, she looked worried, reproachful even.

"What is wrong?" she asked in a thick accent that Draco couldn't guess the origins of. "I sensed your anger and was worried." When he didn't say anything, she continued. "Why are you out of bed? You should still be resting."

"I'm fine," Draco said icily, turning away. She placed her hands on her hips and pointed to the bed.

"Get in bed," she told him. "NOW!"

"Not before you tell me who you are," Draco said. She grabbed his wrist in an effort to pull him onto the bed but he yanked his arm away from her. She folded her arms across her chest and began tapping her left foot. The noise began to drive Draco up the wall so much that he snarled, "Honestly, blond does not look good on you. Maybe you should try something different, something that doesn't make you look so dumb."

The girl shook her head at this and snapped her fingers. The blonde strands of her hair began to recede into short, dark brown, curly strands that actually did do her justice. She quietly walked over to one of the bookshelves and opened it like a door. She looked at her image on the mirror on the back of the bookcase and then closed it.

"Get back into bed!" she said firmly.

"Fine, slut," Draco said, moving towards the bed. His brain suddenly cleared as if a great fog was lifted and he realized what he had just said. He only said those kind of things to people he knew but didn't like and he just met this woman. Panic started to set in as he sat down on the bed and turned to see the girl looking at him, annoyance and amusement in her eyes.

"You will see some transitional periods where the human in you panics," she said, pacing to and fro in the middle of the room, "but not to worry. Your human self will be slowed from showing itself often and we will see your arrogant self, which I assume is only going to get worse--even if that is the worst you can say at the moment. Soon, all memories of your friends and family and everything tying you to your mortal nature will be stripped away."

"Who are you?" Draco repeated. Again she ignored the question.

"You will not be allowed to get out of this building until the Master says you are ready," she continued. "You cannot magically or otherwise get out, so there is really no use in trying. However, you can get out of this room, but really there's no point in that. Everything you need is right here in this room behind each bookcase, but if you feel the need for something else, call me using that annoying little bell on your bedside table."

She stopped pacing and watched in annoyance as Draco leaned over in his bed and pushed the ringer down on the bell. It pinged once and Draco grinned mischieviously at her expression. Then, becoming serious, he asked again, "Who are you?"

She resumed pacing and ignored him for a third time. "I expect you to read all of the books in this room to fill up your time and train you. Breakfast is at six in the morning, lunch at 12:30, and dinner at 8 pm. But if you're not a day person, then breakfast is during dinner, lunch at 12:30 pm, and dinner during breakfast. Before each meal, you will find a tray of food set on your table which you cannot eat until the correct time, therefore, each morning you must be up in time for breakfast. We are very meticulous about these things. I think that is all to be covered. Any questions?"

"Well, actually, there is this just one question," Draco said in a childish voice. "Who are you?"

The woman sighed and stopped pacing. "I am Galan, your care-keeper and teacher until you are ready to go out into the world. Is that answer good enough for you? Yes? No?" Draco nodded. "Good." She went out the door like before. Draco smiled, sank back into his bed, and promptly fell asleep.

****

Swimming through the void

We hear the word,

We lost ourselves,

But we find it all?

Ginny was sitting down on the floor of her cell quietly listening to Jason speak on the other side of the wall. He was telling her everything about the Master, as the demon was commonly called, and the operations the Master ran, which included half of the government of the Underground. The Master had poilitical ties in every country which made it easier for him to move around. Well, almost every country.

"He's not like Lexus," Jason was saying. Lexus was the other demon who owned the other half of the Underground. "He enjoys being above ground to gather information about areas of interest for demons. It's not entirely without reason too. For months he was working on a project that involved using humans. I haven't heard anything about the project since... like, two months ago. He was working on it and then he just stopped, without warning."

"Without warning?" Ginny asked, trying to stifle a yawn. She had to admit, this was pretty boring. If only Hermione were here.

"Yep, just like that," Jason said, snapping his fingers. He sighed and there was a slight pause before he continued. "Wherever he comes into a certain area, he gets his Seer to send visions or dreams foretelling future events to all those capable of getting these visions and who live in the area. He's quite twisted when you think about it, actually."

But Ginny had stopped listening to Jason from that point on. He gets his Seer to send visions or dreams foretelling future events to all those capable of getting them. Her mind whirled as she recalled her dream that she had the morning after her almost-death. The dream had felt so real she was almost certain that it was a vision. Would this mean that she could receive visions?

Closing her eyes and tuning Jason out, Ginny focused her mind on receiving another vision. She concentrated until her brain began to hurt, screwing up her concentration. She leaned back against the wall and decided to listen to her breathing to see if it would help her get a vision faster. All of the muscles in her body began to slowly relax...and then...

Ginny inhaled deeply, a little too quickly for her liking, as a vision jumped up in front of her eyes. Her head began to pound as she saw pictures moving in front of her, slowly coming closer to her and then swalloing her up wholly as she found herself inside of them.

\"By the way, Mrs. Weasley," Ron said, giving her a smile as she turned to look at him, "sorry about this."

Molly felt a bump on her head and pain sear to the spot where she had been hit. She felt herself fall, face down, onto the ground where the world blackened.//

\A pentagram was drawn on the floor in blood and a blonde-haired boy lay in the middle of it. Five Dark priests stood outside the pentagram, each stationed at a point in the star. They were all chanting in Latin, dressed in red robes, and palms raised up to the sky. A sudden bolt of lightning flew down into the middle of the pentagram, striking the boy, and as it retreated, his body jumped a foot off the ground. He still did not wake up.//

\The Arcs of the Unknown lay on a table, unopened. The cover suddenly blew open and the pages began to flip by themselves before stopping on a page near the end of the book.//

\A huge chunk of concrete was falling out of the sky. As it landed, it exploded. Huge puffs of red flame stretched into the sky and almost formed a mushroom cloud.//

"GINNY?!" Jason yelled. The last vision had left Ginny's ear drums ringing and at first, she didn't hear Jason calling her. The vision faded away from her eyes, but she remembered every single image.

"We have to get out of here," she said in a shaky voice. "NOW!"

"Then, I'm afraid I can't help you," said a foreign, female voice. Ginny jumped up and ran to the bars and looked out. A figure emerged from the shadows. The woman was robed in deep red and had a hood on, hiding her face. Slender hands reached up and pulled the hood down, revealing a young woman with short, brown curls that bounced around her fair face. As Ginny looked at her, the woman smiled at her in a non-kindly manner. Pure malice danced in the woman's eyes as she looked Ginny over, who was wearing a pair of faded jeans and gold t-shirt with her black robes on top.

"Not you," Jason groaned from the other side of the wall.