Candles flickered uneasily in the torch sconces. A half moon hung overhead. Sparks flew in various colors all over the castle grounds. It was winter in Scotland, a deep and bone-chilling cold, but at least there was no snow.
Order of the Phoenix members, former Aurors and assorted friends to the side of Light rushed across the field, wands or guns in hand. In the plan formulated, squibs and interested Muggles had been added to the fray. "Guns is simple," Jayne had said as he was instructing them in proper positioning and handling of guns. "Point, aim, squeeze the trigger. Guns are good girls if you take care of 'em proper, and they'll take care of you proper. Don't jerk no trigger like you gotta rush them bullets out. People don't know what they're doin', they can make a bullet backfire and give themselves a nasty reminder. Safety's important. So's getting the bullet into the other guy and keepin' him from givin' you a nasty shot."
Training had been interrupted by the advanced timetable, and Jayne had sworn most colorfully in Mandarin. "So's now's the test. Don't get yourselves killed."
Now Jayne wondered if it had been enough. It's all been all left undone... We're hollow shells, no better than target practice... He didn't want to die on Earth-That-Was in a time-that-was. He didn't want to die, period.
If he could get to Serenity and get his best girls, then those Death Eaters would know what fear really was.
Teeth grit, Jayne ran across the field, pistols blazing.
"You can make me scream eternally..." River whispered, easing out of her combat boots. Her toes curled over the cold metal grating of the hallway leading to the kitchen. She could hear arguing there, things being knocked over. Kaylee would be so upset if her painted vines were blasted off. "Maybe I won't be the wanted one. Maybe I won't be the one to walk the path of tears, the pain of coming years..."
Her lips split into a rictus of a grin, and she shed her winter coat by the door leading to Kaylee's room. She could feel Simon's presence by the doorway from all his frequent visits there; he might as well just move in and get it over with. But he was trying to be proper, he was trying to do things the Core way, still. It was his way of showing her respect, of telling her that he loved her enough to make himself wait and earn the right to ask for her hand. Kaylee already owned his heart, even if she didn't know it for sure.
But the ones storming the ship would end it if they could. They thought themselves Eaters of Death, they thought themselves over and above the rules of the universe.
No one was immune. No one.
Still carrying her rictus grin, River became the ship again.
Ginny had a flair with hexes; Draco knew this from personal experiences. But being on the receiving end of hexes didn't compare with watching her in action. She was fluid and determined, with elegantly spare movements. She was also wicked fast, spinning about and shouting as the spells flew about. Draco didn't have the same dramatic flair. He had cultivated an air of boredom to his spellcasting, to make it appear as if he couldn't be bothered to hex his opponent into oblivion. It was thus rather disconcerting for the Death Eaters in the kitchen to see the two of them working in tandem, two sides to the same coin.
Draco saw movement out of the corner of his eye as the last of the second group was getting blasted out of the door. He cried out and sent a stunning spell through the other door, rushing on ahead. Don't touch Ginny, don't any of you monsters even think about touching her! his mind raged.
Five skeletal masks turned and faced him at once, ignoring the engine room. At that moment, Draco suddenly realized that getting their attention was the single most idiotic thing he's ever done in a lifetime full of stupid decisions. He was alone in the hallway, the others still in the kitchen or moving down to the cargo bay again. There was no backup, no Ginny firing off creative hexes with the passion only a Gryffindor could muster.
Oh bloody hell, I'm going to die, he thought suddenly.
And then a flash of red wool came rushing from his left, the shine of a blade in her hand.
Draco began shooting hexes and countercurses as fast as he could, dropping his cool exterior. Life or death precluded the preternatural Malfoy calm he had cultivated. His voice rose as he fought alongside River. She was fearsome, with a wickedly long knife in hand. She moved like a ballet dancer, long swirling strides and jumps that avoided nasty curses. It was almost as if she knew where they were going to be, so that made it easier to avoid them.
When Draco was caught in his wand arm by a cutting curse, he tried to switch to his left. He was desperate, knowing he could very well die right there. Fight and stand, he told himself fiercely. I will not go down like this!
Just as he fell, a swish of bats flew over his head. They surrounded the lead Death Eater, the one that was about to hit Draco with a nasty spell. They fluttered around him, screeching, clawing at the mask and hood. Tearing them to ribbons, the bats gave no mercy. Draco could see the flash of long silver-blonde hair, a signet ring on a hand about to be clawed by the bats.
Ginny dragged him from the engine room. "Draco, are you all right? I thought you were right behind me... I'm so sorry..."
Draco turned his face away from the sight of his father being surrounded by her most vicious Bat-Bogey Hex. The one she had hit him with in his fifth year hadn't been even a quarter as vicious as the one his father was going through now. He hadn't thought his father would still be a part of the Death Eaters since his imprisonment in Azkaban. But then, a few years could change anyone, and the other Death Eaters had been weak without a leader.
"I'm all right," he said with a smile, trying to grit his teeth against the pain in his arm. "You?"
"Let's go... The fight's vicious outside. They can use our help."
Draco looked around for River, but didn't see her. His father was the only one left in the engine room, trying to ward away the nightmarish bats. There was no flash of red, only black and rivers of dull maroon on the floor. River must have moved on as well.
"Yes. Let's go." He tried to blot out the sound of his father screaming, but couldn't.
Bellatrix woke to the delicious sound of screaming. It was the sound of battle, pain and misery, the sound of hope dying a strangled death. There was a company of dead Death Eaters about her, lying in drying pools of dark red blood. Not likely to be spells, then. Even cutting curses didn't cause so much bleeding. So the Order has lowered themselves to work with Muggles. Filthy little creatures...
She could see the battle outside of the cargo bay, spells and bullets flying in all directions. A tall man with a goatee was carrying a monstrosity of a weapon in his arms, and easily felled Death Eaters unaccustomed to such physical attacks.
Bellatrix got to her feet and headed straight for him. He was tall, likely well built beneath his coat. She would rend muscle from bone, draw out the misery for killing her comrades like common filthy Muggles...
A slim girl in a red woolen dress and gooseflesh stepped in the way. "No."
Bellatrix lifted her wand hand, but found it broken into pieces. She hissed in anger, throwing it to the side. Never mind, then. She had other tools and weapons at hand. She was formidable, the Dark Lord's fiercest supporter, the one who had remained faithful throughout all of her years at Azkaban. She was his beloved, his Bella.
"There's very delicate balances," the girl said, hair floating about her in the chill cargo bay like a dark halo. "Magic and science and similarly related realms of rules all have their own discrete function. Different rules and different laws. Each reality, each realm. Every place has its own logic, its own sequence, its own set of rules. You have to know them if you want to work within them." She skipped backward on bare feet, skillfully avoiding the pools of blood without even having to look down to see them.
Bellatrix's lips curled into a snarl. The girl thought she could talk away violence? No, violence sang and moaned, screamed and cried. In comparison, Bellatrix's voice was bland. It was the kind of voice the dead of nightmares spoke in, expressionless and uncaring. "Oh, no, little girl. There are no rules I cannot break."
"You aren't dead yet," the girl said sadly. "There's still time."
"I'll kill you, little girl. Slow and steady, bloody. I'll make you feel pain. I'll make you fear me, you silly Muggle girl. You don't know the power of the Dark Lord. But you will, and I'll bathe in your blood. I'll drink in your fear. Emotions give flavor to death. Sometimes it’s strong enough I can smell it. It's a little bitter, but it’s exquisite, better than wine."
"He's mortal," the girl said, voice soft and almost sibilant. "He's only mortal."
Bellatrix rushed at her then. "You know nothing!"
"He is an awful hollow shell, darkness wrapped in human skin. He is pain and hunger, sorrow and lost devotion. He is raw need, without an object. He doesn't know what he is, he doesn't know what he needs. He wants power and purpose, and he is frightfully mortal. Otherwise there is no meaning, no sense to the dance."
Bellatrix's hands wrapped around the girl's unresisting neck. They tumbled to the floor, spinning and fetching against the wall near the ramp of the cargo bay. Footsteps were up above them, voices shouting. She didn't hear them, kept her focus on the girl with the dark eyes and dark hair and endless streams of words. She ignored the burning in her gut, the flash of pain slicing through her as they had fallen. It didn't matter. Death did, a glorious death in the name of her Dark Lord and Master, a death to elevate his name and prove the worthiness of their cause. It would prove mastery of magic over flesh and bone.
Bellatrix locked eyes with the girl. River, she thought, as her mind pushed into the girl's with Ligilmency. It was always best to understand the enemy...
For a brief flash of insight she almost recognized the edge of something just beyond her ken, a force new and terrible. She sensed it but then pushed herself past that intuition.
And then she saw them, the grinning madness, the steel and flesh and rage. They carried scythe and sickle and gun, dark knowledge, dark hunger. Entranced, Bellatrix pushed further into the sight and memory, watched everything unfold in front of her in fascination. She understood these creatures, these things that used to be men. She could feel their wants slide across her skin, through her mind. She could feel it sink into the soft places within her, the crevices she had hidden away so carefully. Need.
"If I were to say something apologetic about that, it would reflect my feelings," River murmured as Bellatrix's hands loosened from her neck. She pushed the woman off of her, against the frame of the gangplank's opening. Pirates, bloody pirates, we're all bloody pirates, she thought, catching a fragment of Bellatrix's thoughts. She ignored the spreading stain over both their dresses, and pulled her knife out of Bellatrix's stomach. She ignored the cold seeping through her dress as she knelt down on the metal grated floor. She could feel Draco and Ginny fetch up behind her, stunned. She could feel the battle outside rise to fever pitch. Order and Death Eaters were locked in their struggles, the bullets flying making the odds more even. Harry and the Dark Lord were close by, fighting over the supposed weapon that was Serenity. They dodged each other easily; Harry was a much more skilled fighter than when they had first faced off in the graveyard at the end of his fourth year.
"Call it," River whispered against Bellatrix's ear. "You can do it. Call your Master's wand to you, hold it against your heart in longing."
Grinning madly, Bellatrix reached out with her right hand even as her left began digging into her lower lip. "Accio," she said around a mouthful of fingers. She began to giggle, a high crazed sound like glass breaking.
River caught the wand in midflight and broke it over her knee.
As Bellatrix cradled the broken pieces to her bloody chest, River watched dispassionately as a faint green mist hovered in front of her. "Ginny," River whispered.
Ginny blasted the mist with her wand, using an intense fire spell. She turned to the battle, and saw Harry coming closer to Voldemort, wand outstretched. Voldemort was watching them, his mouth falling over in shock. Ginny dropped her wand to her side and smiled at Voldemort sweetly. "Hello, Tom. I remember you. Do you remember me?" Voldemort didn't say anything to the girl smiling at him. He didn't remember. "Don't worry. I'm not afraid of you anymore, Tom. You're nothing now."
And then Harry did the Unforgivable.
"Avada Kedavra!"
As Voldemort fell to the ground, it was almost as if the world came to a crashing halt.
For Ginny, it restarted the moment Bellatrix took the broken ends of Voldemort's wand and drove them into her eyes, screaming in agony. "Master! Master, don't leave me!"
The cleanup was easy after that.
Mal stared at his shiny and clean ship. He had to say, cleaning spells sure did make everything easy. He'd miss it back in his own time. Soap and sponges took much longer than a simple Scourgify did, and he often missed spots. Zoe was in the cockpit, telling Wash about the battle, whatever she had seen. Jayne was up in the kitchen, cleaning up every last piece of Vera with his best polish. She was his very best gun, and she had saved a lot of lives in the battle. Mal had almost laughed at the reverence Jayne polished the pieces, but decided that everyone needed a comforting ritual of sorts.
"Well, Albatross, it worked out all right. The Doc and Kaylee didn't even need to patch up too much out there."
River nodded. "They will need to lock up the survivors in small cells," she murmured. "I told Minerva as such. Especially Bellatrix."
"Huh?"
"She tried looking into my mind and saw Miranda's aftereffects."
Mal thought of the way the crazy woman had giggled, whispering "Ree-vurrr..." with her fingers in her mouth. He had assumed it to be River's name at the time.
"We will be able to return now. We have done what we need to do."
"Didn't you change everything?"
River's smile was sad. "Not a thing. Everything ended the way it was supposed to."
Mal watched her go, confused.
She wrapped the long cloak around herself. After the battle, Draco had given her his robe so she wouldn't be too chilled. He had cast warming spells over her as well, which had only just begun to recede. He and Ginny were no doubt combing the walls of Hogwarts for the last time, glad to be alive when so many others were dead.
"Miss Tam," Minerva McGonagall said with some surprise, seeing the barefooted girl approach her on the battlefield. "Everything is well?"
"Things will be progressing," she replied with a smile.
"There aren't many Death Eaters left, but they'll be kept under close watch at Azkaban. Once we finish here, we'll be able to send all you back to your own time."
"It has been a most educational time, Miss McGonagall," River replied. She looked around, and caught a flash of fiery red hair next to pale blonde. "I shall miss all of you."
McGonagall caught River's hand in hers, and the girl looked up at her, startled. "You are an amazing young lady," she said warmly, smiling at her. "I would have been proud to have you as a student. You have marvelous gifts and a generous heart. Guard them well."
Touched, River hugged the older woman. She squeezed, breathing in the scent of crisp linen, dirt and fragile hope. It was the scent of a woman who would have been a tolerant mother, watching as her children grew into the adults they were destined to be. "Thank you," River whispered, tears pricking the backs of her eyelids. She felt McGonagall's arms wrap around her, providing further warmth in the coming chill.
After the spell sent them all back to their own time, River remembered chocolate brown eyes and silver eyes watching her. Their owners' hands were linked, and no one commented on the apparent strangeness of it. That was right. They had earned themselves a measure of peace and love, and she wished them well.
She knelt by the wishing well on Mr. Universe's moon. Zoe was still on the bridge, searching for Wash's ghost. Mal, Kaylee and Simon were going through the ship to be sure that nothing was damaged by the spell. Jayne, uncertainly, stood between River and Serenity. "What'cha doin'?" he asked, uneasy. "There ain't no weird magic things left, is there?"
River found the capstone, and her lips stretched into a smile. "No. They left me a message."
Carved glyphs spelled out Ginny's name. River traced the carvings, and felt the presence imbued into them. Ginny had been married and pregnant, and had wanted to share the good news with her friend across time. She had remembered the stone, remembered that River had always been able to know things, even if it wasn't magic.
She looked up at Jayne, a gentle smile on her face. "All is well. Ginny... she married. She's happy with the life she had."
"So's everything's okay, then," Jayne said, coming closer. He squatted down and looked at the carvings beneath River's fingertips. "Huh. Looks like the stuff from those books you took. Hey, why did you want those things anyway? The ones you had me take?"
River dug about in the coat she had worn as the transfer spell had been conducted. She pulled out the crystal orb, which now carried a milky cast to it. "It absorbs magic," she said softly. She held it out to Jayne, a beatific smile on her face. "It's a gift for Zoe."
Jayne looked at it doubtfully, and helped River to her feet after she pocketed it again. His mouth ran dry as the coat fell open, and he looked up at her earnest face. She's too young, he thought, forcing his mind from the realization that River wasn't a little girl anymore. She was too young to know what that smile could do to a man like him.
She blinked, her hand still caught in his. "You could be my unintended choice to live my life extended," she murmured shyly.
Jayne blinked in response. "Huh?" He shook his head. "You know, you really gotta stop talking like that. Nobody'll understand what you say."
Ginny understood, River thought almost mournfully.
"Hey, now, no crying. It's just simple truth. Most don't know what those words mean."
River locked eyes with Jayne and bit her lip. "My thoughts are clearer now. But sometimes they run from me. There are scary things in here with me."
He nearly smiled at her. "See now? That came out okay." He squeezed her hand gently. "It gets easier, you know. The killin' and such, I mean."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. You did good back then. And if you're not our pilot, you'd make a damn good merc."
River blinked. "So I've a place in the 'verse."
"Yeah. I'd let you watch my back anytime." He squirmed when he realized what he had said. "I, uh, I didn't mean..."
River traced his lips with her fingers, a soft smile on her face. Jayne's heart raced at the sight of it, and he didn't realize he still had River's other hand caught in his.
"Um... Your brother's gonna kill me," Jayne murmured under her fingertips. "And he won't fix me if I get shot."
"I can handle him," River murmured, tracing his lips in fascination. "You... You will be a challenge. You are a puzzle to work through. You're not simple, not easy. You're more difficult to understand than you let on."
"I told ya, I only let people think I'm stupid." He suddenly wanted to impress her, to not be seen as a simple mercenary that was all muscle and no brain.
"No, not stupid," River said softly, fascinated. "Not intelligent in the same book sense, certainly, but not stupid. Never stupid. You're underestimated." She touched his chest after freeing her other hand from his. He gasped at the contact, and her fingertips fell into his mouth. She could feel his tongue on the pad of her forefinger, and she shivered. "Oh."
"You... That's not fair," Jayne said, pulling her hands away from him. "You do things to a body, it's not right."
"Maybe... you can return them?" River whispered, uncertain of his response. "Perhaps you are the clarity I need."
"I dunno," he said, uncertain. He threw a wary glance at the ship behind them, though no one was watching them. "Look, I ain't gonna get in trouble..."
She bit her lip, almost downcast. "Oh."
"...and a fancy Core girl needs courtin', don't she?"
River looked up, startled, as Jayne finished. "I... I never got courted."
Gettin' her brain cut up instead, Jayne thought, suddenly ashamed. "Yeah. But... you know... So they don't think something bad's goin' on..."
She smiled at him, her angel's smile. "I would like to be courted. I would like to feel special. I would like to know what being normal is."
"Girl, you ain't never gonna be normal," Jayne said with a shake of his head. "But that's okay. I don't think normal's too much fun, anyway."
He escorted her back to Serenity, almost like a gentleman.
River's heart sang. It felt like the beginning of things.
Nearly five hundred years in the past, Ginny let Draco help her down from the ladder she had used to reach the stone River had pointed out. "You think she'll know?" he asked her, voice full of concern. He was gentle with her, almost reverent.
Ginny grinned at him, her hands resting on her belly. "She knows. She'll see it and she'll know. She'll be okay, I know it."
Together, they walked out of the castle.
The End.
Eustacia Vye is the author of 37 other stories.
This story is a favorite of 12 members. Members who liked Relativity also liked 646 other stories.
This story is a favorite of 12 members. Members who liked Relativity also liked 646 other stories.
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