Elysia

Chapter Sixteen ~ May's Entrance

My skin began to crawl above my flesh as pins and needles assaulted every surface of my body. Time seemed to move slower, like congealed blood dripping from the side of a girls face... Pausing I began to fear the thoughts going through my head, trembling at the darker layers of my psyche that were coming in to play.

Falling to my knees beside her I began to spew out every healing spell that could possibly come to mind. Niamh retrieved her wand and similarly began to chant, but the work was slow. Too slow, she's gone, or at least; going. Tears threatened to cascade from my eyes.

"Voldemort gave me a message for you..." the girl croaked, milky blue eyes finding mine with the calmness of one who had accepted death.

"What did he say?" I whispered, stunned by her mention of Voldemort; this attack had a purpose? 

"That if you want to know the meaning of your future... that little prophecy thing... you need to talk to your true father." she continued, blood gargling slightly in the back of her throat as she spoke.

She was beautiful, this little bag of broken bones. Her features were delicate once, that was clear, but now they were as shattered as broken china. I reached out for her hand and offered the strongest smile that I could, her eyes were so glassy I could see myself and understood the smile to be as weak as I felt. 

"My father is dead." I breathed, wishing to redeem myself as Dumbledore's daughter, not Voldemort's. Not the child of a killer, not the offspring of the man that had you killed, my dear.

"Day will changes its colour,
from bright evening to black night,
two must live without the others,
only they will survive the fight."  She recited in a fading voice, lips losing the ability to annunciate as clearly as mere minutes ago.

My face fell as I understood the message, sending my thumb to the corner of her mouth to wipe away the blood in a warm gesture. In the face of death it felt like she had known me forever and I her, we would have liked each other, I was certain.

As her slight frame began to convulse I forced myself to making soothing 'shhh' noises, calming myself more than her. This girl knew where she was going, and she wasn't afraid. Leaning closer I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing really came.

"I'm sorry that that message caused this,” I offered, rubbing her hands more aggressively in my earnest apology.

"It's alright, I suppose I owe my life to you anyway, you’re the only reason I made it through this year.” I could see her losing function, her arms no longer moved and her legs were long gone.

"Don't be silly..." I replied, desperate not to be the cause for this.

"I'll tell Dumbledore you said 'Hello'." she coughed with the last of her breath, the words connecting our eyes as she began to gasp and choke slightly.

 I resigned to stroking her arm gently, tears now falling from my face freely. Why couldn’t this have been some cruel, twisted child who was terrified and deserving of death? Realising that this was where my vision entered, I had to say the words that allowed me to realise who this girl was.

"What's her name?" I spoke allowed, tortured because this girl would think I didn't even know her name.

A solemn voice replied, "Idony Jones, Gryffindor house."

"Goodnight, Idony." I whimpered, collapsing against the wall behind me.

~

Harry came at last, at long last. His entrance into the dorm through Ariana's portrait hailed war with him. Searching the faces around me I saw that this would happen soon, sooner than I had at first believed it would.