The Love Of Another

CHAPTER FOUR

A week inched by without too much effort, no sight of Stace and Lament’s father was reported from anyone; it had seemed that he had disappeared into the night after he reawakened from his stun experience.

Color began returning to the wounded house guests. Though Lament was rarely a face to see around the Burrow, Stace kept her spirits up and smiled when ever anything happened. Soon, the Weasley family began to grow accustomed to their company. By the end of June, Stace was up and about around the house, though the peacefulness of their lifestyle was soon to be disrupted….

Lament lurked down in the living room, the same room that he and Stace had slept in the first night. He sat alongside Stace, who sketched softly on a pad of paper once more. The drawing of an angel crying into the sky began to form on the fibers of the page. Ron, who sat in silence along with them, lay on his stomach as he watched the art take place. The ticking of the clock was the only continuous sound, but a sudden break in the silence startled Ron; the chime of the clock told them it was four o’clock in the afternoon. The rest of the family was out of the house.

A knock came at the door.

Stace and Ron exchanged glances as he got to his feet, crossed to the front door, and unhitched the two locks on the door. He looked out of the small window that was placed above a chair. He saw the familiar blonde hair.

His stomach suddenly felt extremely empty as he gulped and pulled the door open. The two men wasted no breath by greeting Ron, but rudely shoved the door aside and strolled right in, just as if it were their own house.

“Where is she?!” drew Lucius, “I know they’re both here.”

“Over in the corner, father.” Draco whispered quietly behind him, peering around the towering figure of Lucius Malfoy. He pointed his pale finger in the direction of the corner he spoke of, and sure enough the two Lucius was talking about were sitting plain as day in the corner. At the sight of Lucius, Lament stood up.

Mr. Malfoy began to step forward, smirking a grin that must run in the family. Ron swiftly walked and stood alongside Lament. “You know why I am here, Aronialde. Do not question my motives, you are quite clear in them.”

“Vous ne la toucherez pas!” Lament slurred quietly in a tongue that Ron didn’t understand. Ron stood, in incomprehension of the controversy between his school enemy’s father, and his neighbor.

Stace nervously looked from Mr. Malfoy to Ron. When Ron looked at her, she gave him a gaze of plead and looked away. “Do you two know each other?” Ron asked quietly from the sidelines. Teeth clenched, Lucius turned his neck and glared at Ron.

“Though it really isn’t any concern of yours, but their parents and I are quite the chums, aren’t they Stacy?” Stace didn’t look pleased at the nickname. “Oh, didn’t they tell you?”

Stace groaned, “-it’s not what you might think!” she cried from the corner, crawling to her feet.

Draco stepped forward this time, standing before Stace. Ron saw Lament tense out of the corner of his eye, “Tell them the truth, you foolish girl. Tell him who you are, tell him what you are, and tell him who you have your alliance to.” Stace broke down sobbing, burying her face in her hands. Lucius sensed weakness between the three he had visited, and he balled up a fist and pulled it back in a swift, single motion. With the force and speed of a giant mouse trap, his fist collided with the side of Lament’s face, forcing him to stumble over and hit the wall. Mr. Malfoy snapped his fingers and Malfoy pulled out his wand, and with a swift wave, ropes came from the end and restrained both Ron, who was aiding Lament, and Lament who was bleeding profusely.

“What is there to be scared of, you stupid girl? Scared that your lover won’t accept you for who you are? Foolish, typical. Though I almost agree with you, the son of the muggle loving fool whose an avid Order member wouldn’t agree with your life style, would he? You death eater.”

The words hit Ron with the force of a double wide semi truck driving at least seventy kilometers per hour, he found his voice and looked around to Stace, “Y-you’re a death eater? B-but how?! I thought you were a muggle!” A sinister laughter escaped Lucius’s lips, and he twiddled his wand between his fingers idly.

Draco used his own wand to restrain Stace, but he could have easily done it with his own two hands; she gave no resistance to their enemies. “R-Ron… no.” she coughed out between her tears, “It’s not true!”

“LIAR!” Lucius roared, landing a swift blow across her face, his fingers leaving a painful imprint across her cheek. “You have failed to mention the countless muggles you’ve heartlessly murdered, and the fact that you aided in Dumbledore’s death, didn’t you? DIDN’T YOU?!”

“Now enlighten him who your next victim is,” Draco ordered, pulling her by her hair and reopening the almost healed wound on her cheek. “Come on, out with it!”

“Y-you.” she coughed between sobbing gasps. “You, Ron Weasley. I was supposed to kill you.”

“And what are you going to do now?”

“K-kill him…” she cried hopelessly, her face purple and streaked with tears and new blood.

“When?”

“Now…” she cried, and the ropes disappeared. Lucius thrusted his very own wand into her hands and forcefully pushed her forward, in front of Ron. “I’m sorry, Ron. Your family is dead too; they killed them.” she kneeled in front of him and gave Ron a tight hug. She placed a kiss on his slightly dry lips, his eyes pleading with her just as her eyes had down before. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

“Enough of this!” Draco moaned, pulling her to her feet once more. “Get on with it, we’ve got stuff to do today, too!” Sighing, she straightened her back up, the tears still flowing freely from her eyes, and she raised the foreign wand, and muttered the most unforgivable of the forbidden Unforgivable Curses.

“Avada Kadava.”

Ron sat up, his heart racing, which it had been doing that a lot lately. It was dark, but he didn’t understand it. Ron felt around and moved a few papers off of a nearby table, and saw that he was sitting in his bed, under the blankets. It was exactly three in the morning, and once his eyes had adjusted to the darkness, the dark figures of his two room mates came into view. Lament and Stace slept, curled up under blankets in their temporary beds.

His throat was dry, and he was cold despite the mountain of blankets he had on him. “It felt so real… but could it have actually been a dream?” He asked himself, but without waiting for himself to come up with an answer, he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and tip toed over to the bed in the corner of the room that was even more so cramped than usual. He looked down at the slumbering person, and gently tapped her.

“Huhwadjawant?” she whispered quietly, still half asleep. Ron sighed and gently shook her, “I’m awake, I promise. Just resting my eyes.” She groaned in her sleep and turned over, away from Ron.

“Wake up, we need to talk.” He demanded gently, pulling the blankets off of her. Stace scratched her forehead and opened her eyes for once. She curiously blinked, but didn’t understand why she was being awoken at such an early hour in the morning.

Gently pulling her elbows underneath her, supporting her light stature, Stace looked at Ron once more. “Alright, give me a second and I’ll get my shoes on.”

Stace navigated through the darkness seemingly well, pulling on a pair of shoes that were resting at the end of the bed, on the floor. Stace watched as Ron grabbed a coat from the floor and she followed suit by grabbing hers, which was hung on the bed post. Ron motioned for her to follow him, and he lead her out of the room, down the stairs, through the kitchen, and into the back yard.

“What’s wrong, Ron? It’s so early and something seems to be wrong…” Stace questioned quietly, surveying Ron closely through the dim light that was casted off from the moon. Motioning for her to take a seat on the back porch step, he sat down and she placed herself alongside him. “What’s up, don’t leave me in the dark on what ever as happened…” she whimpered softly.

Trying to find the way to collect all the seemingly wrong words, and twist them around to actually make them right was harder that Ron had thought it would be, but after a serious self debate he spouted off, “I had a dream.”

“About?” Stace questioned, changing her position so she was sort of facing him, “What happened in your dream?”

“At least, I think it was a dream… but it seemed so real. It was insane, I mean. You were there, so was Lament and I. We were sitting in the living room, and someone from my school came to the door with his father, and he tied Lament and I up, then he proceeded to force you into telling me what you were, and that you killed a bunch of people, and my family was killed and I was next.” Ron said in a single breath, taking a long gasp. “Then you killed me with the Avada- er, I mean… never mind.”

She sat in a shocked stupor, but was brought down to earth when he started talking again, after his long drawn out breath, “Avada? Avada what? Kadava? That’s an unforgivable- er, I’m sorry! I’m just rambling.”

This time, Ron was the one that sat in a shock, “Wait, you know of Unforgivable Curses?” His stomach twisted, maybe what he saw wasn’t a dream. She looked across the garden, and then brought her eyes to the sky. Gently, she nodded.

“I won’t lie, nor hide it. I do, and I have to tell you something, something that I’ve kind of failed to mention in the one or two weeks we’ve known each other, but I’m a witch. Lament’s a wizard.” She whispered quietly, “I’m sorry, this must be extremely confusing for a muggle to hear.”

“Wait, back up. Rewind! You’re a witch?” She answered with a nod. “That’s absolutely awesome!” Ron shouted, jumping to his feet. She sat in confusion as Ron pulled a yes motion with his arms, and he let out a howl.

Stace stood up, exasperation covering every free inch on her face, “What are you doing?!” she whispered quietly, taking a step down from the porch so she was standing in front of Ron. “Can you please clue me in as to what you’re so excited about?” Her confused face slipped away, and she giggled softly as Ron panted to a stop.

“It’s not confusing at all, because I’m a wizard, too! My entire family is of magic blood.”

Ron and Stace stood in front of each other, both equally shocked, and both easily lost in the amazement of the secret they had revealed to each other on the back step of the porch.

AUTHOR'S CORNER
I'm sorry, it's a short chapter but I wanted it to have an interesting effect, the shortness of the chapter and the plot twist in the begining, it just has an interesting feel, maybe it's just me. Oh, and I'm aware that, by the books that Lucius isn't around anymore, but I'm not going by the books. I'll follow a few things, but not a lot. Chapter Five is going to be interesting, I assure you. If people would actually be so kind as to review, I'd be more motivated to post things.

REVIEW AND I'LL LOVE YOU. :]