Chapter 5

Harry stared hard at the man in front of him and almost shook his head in dark amusement.  This crazy git never gives up, does he?  His opponent was looked back at him stonily with ignorant brown flashing eyes across the flat clearing deep in the forest.  The Slytherin sneer of an arrogant but stupid man was planted on his face and his brown hair was cropped short over a bulky figure.  Despite the fact that they had graduated from school for just over eight years, the house-rivalry was still evident between them.  It was difficult to assimilate with fellow classmates who had always been the enemy your whole educated life.  The fact that this was a battle for revenge made in no less tense that their situation was at that moment.  Their hands were posed and ready to take the other down with what they each hoped would be a spell strong enough to knock the other out.

Harry knew Gregory Crabbe would crack under such pressure.  He had seen the smirk on the other’s face falter as he jeered him and taunted just a while back.  The perspiration was sliding slowly down the more massive man’s cheeks, and Harry was hard-pressed not to let out a bark of dry laughter.  He is still stupid.  It’s a wonder he’s survived so long.  He narrowed is eyes abruptly as he recalled what Crabbe and Goyle had done to George Weasley on his visit to Hogwarts just a month ago.  He remembered the note with ugly unpracticed writing saying,

and the blood-curdling scream that came from the area just by the Whomping Willow.  Goyle had tried to get another of the Weasleys, but only met his battle’s end when Ron used his abilities – taught well by Hermione herself – to defeat the tub of lard.

Goyle was next… Harry knew that the man was scared out of his wits of him.  All the easier to kill you, he thought coldly in his mind, the wolf inside him clawing to be set free.  Only a moment, a small movement and he would have him on his knees begging for him to kill him.  As if on cue, Crabbe made a clumsy attempt to start his chosen spell.  Harry, being more lithe and quicker, got out the hex before the other did.

“Gravija!”  The fatter man was immediately pinned to the ground by the force that the spell placed upon him.  Harry’s striking green eyes gleamed and he ambled over casually with his arms folded over his chest, but with his wand still in his clutches.  He quickly kicked the other man’s wand away from grabbing range, then hunkered down onto his haunches and cocked his head to one side in false innocence.  “Are you feeling comfortable, Crabbe?”  He got an answering growl and he raised a slim brow, a smile slowly forming on his face.  “Now, how are we going to about this? You have something I need and I also have to give you a little gift for exchange for the one you gave me last year.”

He saw the body stiffen on the ground.  “I am a loyal follower to the Dark Lord,” Crabbe spat as feral as he could, but it was tinged with the hint of fear that he felt.

“Loyal, my ass, you brainless tub of lard.  Look, you are wasting your breath.  Tell me what he’s looking for and I’ll let you go with just a few cuts and bruises.”  He began wagging his wand at the man, sending pre-spell sparks out of it.  He saw him tremble in fear.

“I ain’t gonna tell you nothing, piece of – AAAAARGHHH!”  Harry made large, nasty boils begin to pop onto Crabbe’s skin sending slick puss and blood to flow from the wounds, cutting him off swiftly.

“I will not tell you again,” Harry replied with a quiet intensity.  “What is it that Voldemort is looking for?  This is your last chance before you feel true pain.”  He directed his wand towards the wound and opened them wider, making Crabbe shout out in agony.

Crabbe was more stubborn that Harry had anticipated and he watched as the fallen Death Eater pursed his lips until they turned white as he refused to answer.  Harry’s green eyes smoldered with growing anger.  He allowed the energy that the emotion created to channel into one magical command.  There was a smirk of satisfaction on his face when he saw deep slits run down his arm, leaving it open to the bone.  Crabbe let out an inhumane, high-pitched scream.

“Death!” the man pinned to the ground cried out.  “The Temple of Death!”

“More specific, Crabbe,” Harry hissed.  “That isn’t good enough for me.”

“Thanatos!  Immortality!  ARGH!  Find the temple – to gain immortality!”  The invisible weight that was on his body was finally lifted and he flipped over quickly and curled into a ball, his bloody arms shuddering as he stared down at them in shock.

The man with the floppy hair and jagged scar got up and smiled down slightly at the one in pain.  “Now that wasn’t so hard, now was it?  Now I bid you farewell.  I believe your fellow Death Eater friends will be finding you soon.”  Finished with the assignment he was given, he retreated backwards before finally deciding to apparate out of there, leaving Crabbe in raw humiliation, pain and fear.  The Dark Lord would be mad, he thought in panic, his stomach fluttering crazily.

He was as good as dead…

~~ o0o ~~

It would be difficult to keep tabs on everyone in the team, Severus thought stonily as they rode in the minibus towards Kilcormac.  With the Death Eaters following closely behind, there was no telling when they would be able to tap into one of the muggles’ minds and gain the information they withheld with them.  He could make them all sign a contract of fidelity that, with the help of magic would prevent them from giving out any vital information regarding their search.  The first two pieces were already in danger of getting stolen – however, as he had placed them in his hand baggage, he knew that there was less of a probability that it would be taken.  Ever since he had switched sides, his life had been under more scrutiny from both sides as his fidelity was quite questionable.  Because of this, his attentiveness had been sharp and – as much as he hated to admit it – he felt as if he could relate to Mad-Eye Moody with every day that passed by.

He had to admit, though, that he could at least trust Hermione Granger to a certain extent.  She was not easily coerced into doing things that were against her beliefs and there was a fierce loyalty to her that would never seem to break, despite the many times it had been shaken.  There was also the fact that she was able to protect herself – although at times he wished she couldn’t so that he would be there, acting like the knight in shining armour that the many women he’d overheard wanted.  The fact that she had wit was an even bigger plus.  He couldn’t stand to have a partner who had no idea what the difference was between ground maggot and chopped ox hair.

He let out a heavy breath as his frown grew.  This was close to being obsession already by the way that he was carrying on and on about her.  He knew that the only way to get rid of it was to confront the desire he had head on, but it was difficult as he was never the man who was straightforward about relationships.  In fact, he avoided them at all costs.  It wasn’t only the fact that he would endanger their lives, but also the fact that he didn’t know how to approach such a prospect of expressing himself to others.  It frightened him and confused him all at the same time, causing his head to swim.  So the barrier of sarcasm and indifference was kept high and thick, keeping him safe from the rest of the world.  As relieved as he was about that fact, he couldn’t help but have a yearning for what he kept from himself: the attainment of love from someone more worthy than he.  But he could do nothing about that now.  He had a mission to accomplish and he would stop at nothing from achieving that goal.

He was startled out of his bemused state by the feel of Hermione’s head upon his shoulder.  After Remus had talked to the two of them, it was evident that they would have to be together for the majority, if not, the entire trip.  Because of this, she decided to stick with him even on the ride to Kilcormac, which was at least one and a half hours ride.  He looked down at her and saw that, exhausted by the anxiety and the sudden adjustments she had to make, she had fallen asleep in her seat and unconsciously let herself lean against his form.  His eyebrows shot up in disbelief as she pushed herself further into his side and sighed in contentment once she found a comfortable spot to place her head.  He looked around to see whether anyone saw what she was doing, and much to his relief, no one had even turned as they, too, were lost to the dream world.  Glancing back down at her, he allowed himself to drink her form in, his eyes softening ever so slightly.

She hadn’t changed much since the last time he had seen her at the Hogwarts graduation eight years ago: her hair was still a mass of brown frizz that she still was not able to tame after all these years.  Perhaps she had given up on trying to flatten it out.  Her skin also lacked the tan that her comrades had – it was like porcelain, but with a human heat that told she was not merely a sculpture with carved from lifeless material.  His fingers convulsed on his lap as he clamped down the strange urge to slide his hands on her cheek and run through the unruly hair that had fallen upon her face.

He whipped his head away from her and glowered out the window.  Closing his eyes he chanted in his head, Hermione Granger is the friend of that brat, Potter, and that insipid child, Weasley, meaning you should despise her as well.  But her relations with the two boys did nothing to stomp the burgeoning desire that he had for her… nothing could.

~~ o0o ~~

“You really didn’t have to drive me there, Lex,” Chloe insisted.  “I could’ve endured an hour’s ride in the same bus as the man.”

After their little confrontation at the airport, they had smoothly gone through Immigration and headed out to rent a car.  Lex had insisted on getting a sports car while Chloe said it was more sensible to get a normal car that was good enough for driving around the country.  He had argued to her, however, that the one he wanted was just as able and it was to his taste and that since he was the one who was renting it that she had to go with his choice.  Grudgingly she agreed to his circumstances, as she had seen that the rest of the group had already taken off in a minibus.  So here she was, stuck in the sleek looking silver sports car, speeding down the road towards Kilcormac.  Along the beginning of the ride, she had started to feel bad about having Lex do all that he was doing for her… bringing her to her current position.

He gave her a wayward glance and smirked.  “It’s not like you have any other choice now, do you?  Or do you really want me to just drop you off her so that you could just hitch a ride with someone else?”

Seeing her pout caused a loud chuckle to emit from the depths of his chest, surprising him more than her.  He hadn’t been provoked to do such a thing in such a long time and that along with the overwhelming mix of strange emotions was causing him to feel quite uneasy.  He cut himself off abruptly and looked straight ahead, his fingers curled around the steering wheel in a deadly grip.  Chloe watched him for a moment, puzzled by his sudden change, but didn’t say anything about it.  People that hid themselves behind facades of coolness were bound to burst every now and then, and at this moment, it seemed like a time to just break.  Expelling a loud breath she looked ahead once again, chewing on her lip for a moment before glancing down at the radio.  She hated to be in places that were utterly silent.  She must have sent some telepathic message to Lex for he almost immediately went to turn it on.  The song that spilled from the speakers was mellow and so familiar, that she frowned in concentration.

‘…  I tried to downplay it with a bet about us

You said that you'd take it

As long as I could I could not erase it

And I'm so sad like a good book

I can't put this day back

A sorta fairytale with you…’

“Tori Amos… that’s a pretty old artist… I think this is some classics station,” Lex commented off-handedly, staring out into the open road with a concerted expression upon his face.

“There ought to be more of these kinds of stations,” she said, a smile curling her lips.

Sighing, she leaned her head back on the seat behind her and sighed.  Nothing ever outdid the mesmerizing beat of old original music.  R&B had become a boring repetitive genre that it was a relief to find solitude in the melodies such as the one playing on the radio then.  But even as the serenity slipped in, so did the tense reminder of the past overwhelm her.  She began floating into a time when problems were a common issue she had to face: losing a mother, struggling with a father as her only family, chasing an unattainable dream… she shifted uncomfortably in her seat at the unwelcome intrusion of the past.  Yet it was there, flashing before her as she listened to the hypnotic music.  I can’t put this day back…  Clark leaving her at the Spring Dance to look for Lana in the storm… And I’m so sad… drowning in a sea of miserable regret…

“Chloe?”  The voice that suddenly jolted her out of her troubling thoughts nearly got her to cry out in joy.  “Are you alright?”

Her eyes snapped open and immediately shot Lex a sheepish glance.  He looked mildly concerned with a delicate frown on his face but eyes as blank as slate.  “Sorry, I got kind of carried away… lost myself in old memories.”

“I would have thought reminiscing was a relaxing thing for you,” he replied, a partially puzzled look on his face.

She gave him a lopsided bemused smile.  “You’re one to talk, Luthor.”

“Are you always so light-hearted?” he shot back wryly.  Despite the obvious sarcasm, Chloe laughed, making Lex eye her in a curious manner in a sideway glance.  “How come you rarely laugh?”

There was a certain innocence to the question that made Chloe abruptly freeze, her cheer fading from her body slowly.  Chewing upon her lip, she looked out the car window, silent for a moment.  “I never really had anything to laugh about,” she finally answered in a hesitant voice.  She didn’t know whether to truly trust him, but there was something urging her inside to tell him – reveal a bit of herself.  Perhaps it was because no one really asked her about what she felt – Clark certainly never did.  Pete had tried, but was a miserable failure at helping her out of her stupor.  Lana… well, she was an absolute flop as she didn’t know how to handle such situations.

Lex seemed to understand and almost immediately, he took hold of her hand that lay on her lap and gave a squeeze.  Eyes wide in surprise, Chloe looked down at their linked hands.  For as long as she knew Lex, he was never very physical with anyone… not even with Helene… when they were engaged, that was.  And this happened to be the second time that he had made such a gesture.  Not realizing it, she had stiffened all over and twitched under his grasp like a deer in headlights.  At that reaction, just as quickly as he took hold of her, he let go and placed his hand back upon the gearshift.

He couldn’t understand what it was that provoked him to do such… such uncharacteristic things from him, but he ended up doing it anyway.  Perhaps it was out of sympathy.  He knew what she was going through – the low points of one’s life where everything that was surrounding them was utterly depressing.  There was nothing to really feel joyful about.  Perhaps it was that… or perhaps it was the same feeling that had caused him to impulsively taunt her with sensual words on the airplane.  He repositioned himself in his seat as imperceptibly as possible.  A surge of a strange emotion stirred within him and he tried hard to clamp it down and forget about it.  He was technically her boss and he never got together with his employees – not exactly a moral thing to do.

He began tapping his fingers on the steering wheel and stared ahead with a remote gaze.  Chloe resigned herself to propping her elbow on the hand rest on the door and allowed her head to be supported on it as she watched the scenery zoom by.  As awkward as it felt in the car, the music did its best to smooth out the knots in her stomach.  By then, the song had ended and the RJ was introducing the next song.  “Coming up next on the ‘Mellow Golds’ Radio Station is ‘Angel’ by Sarah MacLachlan.  This song was requested by Katie to Rex.”  The song started as a whisper under the man’s voice, but soon came louder as he wrapped up his little spiel.  What spilled forth was mellow piano-voice music.  ‘You spend all your time waiting for that second chance, for a break that would make it okay…’

Chloe nearly groaned at the beginning.  It wasn’t that she didn’t like the song.  She really did, actually.  It was the fact that the lyrics would make her feel like she was being transported back into moments in her high school life that she wished she didn’t have relive again.  Lex seemed to be on the same page as him for when the first strands of the song came out of the speakers of the car his hand immediately went to the buttons to switch the station.  When a more contemporary, fast-beat song came spilling out, he put his hand back on the gearshift, temporarily satisfied with the choice of music.