At Cybele’s feet, the highlands were taking a vertiginous slide down. It was wild up there, but farther east, where the tumultuous relief smoothed into hills, she could recognize the tender green of tea bushes organized in irregular puffy rectangles.
Cybele had appeared a few feet away from hers and Caroline‘s last camp and had only popped in to retrieve the device she was now holding, as she sat before their concealed cabin. A light summer breeze was smoothing her hair back and she found some comfort in the soft touch. Any friendly human touch right now would have sent her into a flow of tears.
But as it were, in this desert, tears wouldn’t come to Cybele. She would have cried if she had lost a friend. But this… Caroline, Fred and Severus had died on the same night. They had died on a battlefield. Everyone in the Wizarding World was mourning their dead and rejoicing a victory. She didn’t know how to feel.
She was gently caressing the bulky device she had retrieved from the cabin. It was a squarish, heavy brass frame with two side handles, empty in the middle. The inner frame was heavily wired in copper.
This prototype was the first of an invention Caroline had come up with to guide them on their quest. Perhaps because she tended to lose things, Caroline liked to imagine all sorts of retrieving devices. Last year, she had even made her Carta Revelo charm into a book searching device to allow less gifted students to use the charm and do searches by keywords in books or even entire library sections. It was a good seller at the Weasley Wizarding Wheezes.
Trying not to think of Caroline or the twins, Cybele brought the frame in front of her to eye level. The frame set at the horizon’s level, she screened the hilly tea estates in the far. As it had the day before, the northern part of them appeared surrounded by a weak glow.
The glowing area must have been at least several miles long. The device wasn’t precise and they had been testing it only for a few days before the battle. Yet, if Caroline’s craft were to be trusted, and it certainly was faithfully by Cybele, an ancient magic settlement was to be found or had been existing in the mist of these hills.
She would quit this camp and explore the area outlined by the magic sensor. But not just yet. She had something she needed to do first.
Lee was keeping busy. A lot of fighters and especially DA members had stayed at Hogwarts after the battle had been won. Some older members of the Order of the Phoenix were starting to go back home but even though the war was over, it was clear to all that it would take longer before normal life took over and all danger was put at large.
Right now, there were bodies to retrieve, Muggle parents in hiding whose Secret Keeper had been a student killed on the battlefield to find, wands to identify, food and accommodations to provide for those who would be staying on to help on in the days coming, and order to put in chaos.
Lee was happy to do all this. He was soon regarded as the natural coordinator of the various chores. Most people around him were happy to get busy, for obvious reasons, and grateful to be provided with instructions from Lee. Some others, though, had preferred to isolate themselves, or to gather in small groups to mourn, talk or cry. Lee respected their quiet presence and was doing his best to attend to their needs, too.
In spite of the hard work, two persistent thoughts were nagging at Lee’s mind presently. One was Cybele. He knew she had survived the battle unscathed: he had seen her standing at a distance from the DA mourning families shortly after the battle’s end. But he hadn’t seen her since.
To his surprise, Cybele was turning out to be the type to withdraw to a silent place and stay alone. As time passed, he felt a more and more pressing urge to go and find her and get her to the happy bliss of hard work if he could. But this would involve stopping said work for a while in order to find her and talk to her, and for this reason he kept brushing aside thoughts of Cybele, only to have them replaced by thoughts of another depressing thought he was trying to avoid: he was the Secret Keeper for Caroline’s parents hiding place.
At the back of his mind, after he’d finished putting up a detailed list of the Elfish casualties for Healers, families and the Ministry, the two persistent thoughts collided. Lee suddenly marched to Ravenclaw’s tower, determined to find Cybele and have her come with him to Caroline’s family.
Cybele re-entered the cabin with the crushing thought that she would have a couple of days ahead of her with nothing to do but wait.
She felt a pang of regret, thinking of all that needed to be done back at Hogwarts. Walls she could repair in the blink of an eye, messages she could bring to and from London. This, unlike battling, had always been her kind of magic. She could provide food, the only thing wizards couldn’t in these difficult times. Well, that she could do from where she was, she realized, and she filled Hogwarts’ kitchen store room, though that wasn’t enough to make her feel any less guilty.
Over there, she went on musing, were families mourning, friends… All ready to reconstruct their school, their world, to eventually go ahead with their lives. She didn’t belong there. She was dangerous. Where would the magic she had successfully put at work during the battle stop?
A few fighters had killed enemies during the battle, mainly trained Aurors, and yet very few. Most wizards were trying to tackle the enemy with non-fatal spells, though in the most extreme and dangerous moments of the battle, she had seen some kill rather than be killed.
But Cybele, she had not just killed, she had annihilated a number of Death Eaters. She realized that now, now that the urgency of the combat was past. What kind of person would do that, even if they had the means? What was she cursed with, that she risked losing her soul for betraying friends, but she would go off and murder, as if to defend them? Where did these extraordinary powers come from? Was the enchantment unearthed by Severus real?
Once again, her thoughts returned to this: she couldn’t possibly get on with her life and embrace the Wizarding World as her own if she couldn’t provide answers to these questions. And now more than ever, now that she felt like a rogue weapon.
In spite of the anguish, guilt and regrets, exhaustion took over Cybele and she fell asleep, hugging the uncomfortably sharp metallic device close to her heart.
Reza had walked for hours before he had dared Apparate closer to the spot where he had seen the figure standing.
He pulled from his sleeve the Muggle contraption he had brought and looked at the highlands again. There was nobody in sight now, but he recognized through the telescope the tree he had sketched the first time he had seen two figures appearing and disappearing, a few days ago.
He hadn’t been able to survey the area with the Muggle device often due to the hazy weather, but early this morning, he had seen a figure watching the sun rise. He couldn’t see much through the small telescope, but it had seemed like the stranger was again observing the hills, in his direction. He could see only one today, and now it seemed he was gone, too.
He risked Apparating to the highland a distance away and walked slowly to the tree. There was nothing to be seen where he had observed the figure earlier that morning.
As he reached the exact place where he saw someone standing earlier, his suspicions were confirmed: he could feel on his skin the tingle of magic. Magic had been performed here, not long ago.
Following this feeling, he turned round and was now contemplating the space just in front of the highlands’ edge. He walked around, feeling the magic. He tried several revealing spells and counter spells and eventually walked across the area. Magic was to be felt in the air, but obviously, nothing else was left. They had gone.
Lee was feeling stupid. There were Muggle-borns on the run nobody could locate, there were bodies that couldn’t be found and Hagrid had gloomily taken the path to the Forbidden Forest to interrogate the Accromantula on their deeds, against all advice. In the mist of all this, Lee felt stupid to consider alerting anyone about the disappearance of a girl he knew had not been hurt during the battle. Yet… he couldn’t comprehend where Cybele was hiding.
Confused and weak, Lee was, in spite of himself, starting to consider giving in to sleep. It was almost dawn now and he had just had the longest two days and nights of his life. As on cue, a couple of Elves were ushering all the livings down to the kitchens where Lee was pleasantly surprised to be welcomed by the comforting smell of food, as a handful of wizards and Elves were cooking and serving food to the survivors and families.
The Elf he had worked with earlier brought him food. In the post-battle confusion, nobody seemed to be able to figure out where the food had come from.
‘I isn’t knowing, Sir. The food is coming in this morning. No Elf or wizard is remembering seeing anybody bringing in the food. I and three other Elves is going to the storeroom to list what is left. We is finding it full with fresh storage, Sir.’
Good, Lee thought. The important thing was that that particular problem was solved, whoever was to be thanked for it.
‘Only there is no pumpkin juice at all,’ the Elf added as a somewhat frivolous afterthought, considering the situation.
As the Elf left him to his dinner, Lee was almost dozing off with his plate on his lap when he felt a soft bite on his ear. Archie was back from London already with instructions from the Ministry. Lee patted the bird affectionately. He had found it waiting at his parent’s place after Cybele’s infamous graduation day and had grown very fond of it in the past year. It came to his mind that he would probably be expected to hand it back to Cybele, now.
Too tired to think of a more appropriate reward, Lee let Archie share his dinner in the same plate, wondering where the rightful owner of the minute owl might be right now.
Like many of his fellows, Lee dozed off once his stomach full, to the homely and reassuring sound of gently clicking cookware.
In Hogwarts’ kitchens store room, Eslis visited the new stock again, like one would check on an old friend, smiling at the absence of all the food items that she didn’t like.
‘Cybele,’ he said out loud, sending her his thoughts.
Cybele didn’t hear the footsteps, nor did she see the shadow of Reza walking right through her cabin. When she woke up with a start, she didn’t remember hearing the loud crack responsible for her wake.
She remembered dreaming of Eslis calling her. Thoughts of this friend soothed her back to sleep.
When the sun was high, everybody stirred in the kitchens and started getting back to work, first gently forcing one another to have some food before they did.
Lee had a precise task in mind and he was looking around for help. He took George, whom he was anxious to force to work, as he found it would be easier for him to go from day to day if he was busy. George didn’t talk much, but always willingly put himself to work with an angry, desperate energy.
They headed out and Lee hesitated when he saw Malfoy sitting apart near the entrance. Malfoy had stayed on to help after the battle. Lee had seen him work hard and had decided that that was good enough. They had seen enough of war for a lifetime and neither of them was eager to start any new, petty ones.
‘We need a hand, Malfoy,’ he tried not to snap.
George grimaced but said nothing. Malfoy had stayed, he had helped. Harry had said he was all right. That was also enough for George, who couldn’t even find it in him to be curious at the reasons why Harry would ever speak up for Malfoy. Liking or hating the fellow wasn’t relevant or even remotely interesting to him right now.
Draco followed silently. They just turned out of the main door and considered the collapsed wall. Lee explained they would levitate the collapsed heavy stones one by one and pill them neatly on the yard, ready for the complex task of reconstruction that more experienced wizards would undertake when more pressing matters had been taken care of.
Nobody spoke as they started to magically lift gently the stones one by one. George and Draco didn’t need to hear that Lee had figured they might unearth some of the missing bodies there.
‘I’m worried about Cybele,’ Lee told George after a long while of silent work.
George paused and looked up.
‘I haven’t seen here since the battle’s end. But I figured she just needed to be alone; I felt the same, at first,’ he answered.
‘Yes, I didn’t worry at first, of course… Though… It has been more than two days now, George.’
George frowned but was distracted from his reflections by Malfoy mumbling something.
‘What was that?’ Lee asked.
Draco looked up at the other man and repeated out loud:
‘So she hasn’t said goodbye to anyone…’
Lee couldn’t quite place Malfoy’s voice, and truthfully didn’t care.
‘Did she tell you she was going somewhere?’ he pressed.
‘No,’ Draco paused.
The two other men were starting to look annoyed but Draco was oblivious. Only after a few long seconds, did he seem to snap out of his dreamy thoughts:
‘She didn’t say she was going anywhere… But she mentioned that she would be back,’ he trailed.
Even Lee and George could see that Malfoy wasn’t trying to get on their nerves but was simply being evasive because he was lost in thoughts. Lee doubted anyone here at Hogwarts had it left in him to try to unnerve on purpose; even an old nemesis.
‘Tell us what you know,’ George said coldly.
‘She said she would be back in five years, that’s what I know.’
Lee and George only looked at each other, lost for words. But Malfoy was still looking down their area of work.
‘Look.’
Malfoy was pointing in the mist of the collapsed stones, where they had just removed a block. A look of horror drew down them as they spotted an unnaturally coloured hand protruding from a gap.
At the end of the day, they had found two bodies. The shock had driven all talk of Malfoy’s revelation away.
Hence the third day since the battle came to an end. Lee was exhausted but the funerals were starting on the morrow and he couldn’t postpone his hardest task any longer.
Cursing Cybele, he went off alone to Caroline parents’ secret hiding.
Cybele had seen her wand buried with Fred early that morning and she was now standing under the burning sun in a Muggle cemetery in London, invisible to all, as she had been in the morning.
She stood opposite of where Lee, Neville, George and Caroline’s Hufflepuff friends and professors were standing, as well as most members of the DA, for many reasons. She didn’t think she would be able to resist revealing herself and seeking their comfort if she was closer. She didn’t want to risk and eavesdrop. But what she did want was to get a good look at them and fill herself with guilt.
She knew she should be there among them; just as she should have been helping at Hogwarts these past days. But if she had, they would never have let her go again. And she needed to be gone, probably for a long time. It was out of question to risk being mollified into staying back by her friends or to be convinced to let them accompany her on her dangerous mission.
There was something else, too. If what Severus had discovered was the truth; then how could she ever come back and face her friends again anyway?
As everyone was leaving, she gave a last, longing look at her friends and, summoning the thoughts of all those she had killed during battle to harden her against staying behind, disappeared back to the camp.
George, Neville and Lee followed a group of Hufflepuffs to a nearby Muggle café where they remembered Caroline together around sweet Muggle refreshments. The three men stayed behind later.
Neville gently patted Lee’s back.
‘We have said goodbye to all of our friends, now.’
As the leader of the DA, and like many of its members, Neville had attended every DA member’s funeral as well as those of a few people from his House, only the closest, as there were remembrance ceremonies to be held soon at Hogwarts for all others who had been lost.
Funerals had all taken place in the last couple of days, making it a morbid morning to evening run for many survivors.
The two purebloods had been to Muggle churches and temples. Some Muggle parents were clueless, some angry, some wanted to hear stories of their child’s last heroic year at Hogwarts.
Cybele had been on their minds, too, and now she was about to be discussed.
‘I can’t believe we let Cybele slip by the tips of our wands!’ Lee started.
‘How were we supposed to see that coming? When she appeared with Caroline at the shop on the battle day, I thought it meant she was back for good, or at least would talk to us before setting off again if she had to! I can’t believe she did that to us!’
Lee understood George’s anger, but he felt guiltier than angry, overall.
‘We didn’t even have time to …’ he said quietly after a while.
‘Yes,’ George reflected. ‘She was right about Snape all along. And she was telling the truth about Malfoy, too, apparently.’ He hated the bitterness he was hearing in his voice.
‘Don’t be too harsh with yourself: you had every right to doubt her opinion one year ago,’ Neville tempered.
‘Her opinion, certainly, but not her loyalty.’
‘It was a confused time and she turned her back to the Wizarding World the moment it needed her most. I didn’t run after her either…’ Neville insisted.
‘It was a confused time for her and we turned our back to her when she needed us most. We didn’t show loyalty,’ George reversed.
‘Caroline did,’ Lee reminded them sadly.
‘Cybele should have stayed,’ Neville insisted. ‘But it’s not for lack of loyalty that she didn’t, I have a sense that she felt she wouldn’t be so helpful.’
‘That’s what she kept saying,’ remembered George, shaking his head slowly in disagreement even now.
‘What shall we do now?’
Lee had asked and both he and George were automatically looking up at Neville for leadership, as wartime habits die hard.
‘Maybe we should give her time,’ he suggested.
‘One of us should be following her,’ George contradicted.
‘Maybe,’ Neville said prudently. ‘I don’t know. I wonder; she went away for a year with Caroline and from what I learned in our short conversation before the battle, they hadn’t made any progress.’
Lee and George were looking at their friend expectantly, not aware this conversation had taken place.
‘I wonder if maybe,’ he went on, ‘Cybele, deep down, really wanted to find out anything with Caroline around. Maybe Cybele needs to do it alone.’
‘Let’s give her time, then,’ Lee agreed. ‘But certainly not the five years she threatened Malfoy with…’
Cybele appeared a few steps away from her cabin and was washing tears from her face when she noticed movement somewhere in front of her. She quickly dried her eyes and saw a man coming from behind the nearest tree. He was holding a wand, pointing it in her direction.