Hunting For The Sun

CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT

What a Man Will Do For His Vodka and Soda

Storms of déjà vu like a blizzard of dandruff memories scraped from the scalp of a colourful past swirled around me as we clambered over the miles of rubble that made up the Wastelands. All the people I'd known on this long and lonely trail danced before my eyes as I stumbled on, framed by exhaustion like a silent movie. Draco was walking beside me; Alethea was running along the fallen concrete pillar on the horizon against a bloody sunset; Apate, Lucius, the white robed Light Order... They all crowded around me as I walked, missing all those times.

I could see the lights of EK, now no longer hidden from the sprawling city looming over it, before long. It was about four in the afternoon, and dusk was laying its blanket over the ground, a curious half-light shading our faces. It would be dark in a couple of hours, this early in the year. I saw the slanting, half-collapsed skyscraper from which I had fallen all that time ago. I shifted my shoulders uncomfortably, and could feel the scars bunching on my back. Would I always have those? Would I be left, sad, alone, powerless, no longer beautiful and strong, tracing my scars with callused fingertips and crying into a glass of whisky over what I had lost?

I shook myself, concentrating on the strain in my tired leg muscles and the thumping of my heart within my chest and the burning of my lungs as I drew in the chilled air. I scraped a hand through the strands of hair, which had plastered themselves to my forehead. I walked up a long, cracked column of concrete suspended over a pool of broken glass, my ankles trying to sprain themselves and get some rest as my feet were forced to slant around the curved surface to keep me upright. I had a dazzling shot of vertigo, shimmering with a vision of myself turning and throwing myself into a swan dive down into the glass below. Like a stuck record, it flickered back and forth between my hands hitting the glass below like a crystal fountain and Draco's arms breaking and his skin tearing like paper in the middle of the street or wherever he was. My imaginary head and neck sank under the glass as Draco's face was ripped away and his neck crumbled under the strain of the rest of my body crashing down.

I screamed, eyes wide and mouth gasping at the air. I threw my arms out to balance myself, but I was slipping. My right ankle turned and I fell backwards off the pillar. I was hurtling headfirst towards that lake of glass. Draco's face, torn to shreds, kept plastering itself against my mind like a dead body hurled onto a windscreen. I could hear shouts above my own silent screaming.

'RAE!'

'Stop!' I screamed, waving my arms in front of my face. Suddenly, I snapped to a halt about ten feet above the glass. A shimmering purple cloud surrounded me. Oh bugger. Magic. Oh well, I'd blown it now. My heart calmed enough for my sight to return and my head stop pounding with blood.

'Back up there,' I murmured, picturing the other side of the chasm filled with glass. I flipped through the air and slammed down on the ground up at the top, shaken but not at all stirred. I looked blankly at the other three.

'RAE, are you all right?' Neit screamed, throwing herself the last few steps across the pillar and putting her arms around me. 'What happened?'

'Vertigo... Draco,' I mumbled, rolling onto my knees and pushing up onto my feet. 'Got to get to him now. I blew it. Blew the cover. Magic gonna get tracked, gonna get caught. Got to get to him...'

I began scrambling across the rubble, breaking into a shaky run and dropping through a hidden entrance, sliding a short way down a metal sheet onto a lower roadway. A few EK residents were walking by, and some screamed with delight to see me again. As I ran towards the body of the city, more and more people recognised me and cheered, lining the roads to see me sprint past, crying and panting and dying of heat in my leather clothes.

'Thank the Gods!' 'She's back, we're going to live!' 'The War's won for us now, for sure...'

I stumbled through the gate, running into the square and struggling to keep standing up straight. I vaulted over the plants in the square, crashing against the doors of the roofless shopping centre and running up the elevator, past the empty throne to that horrible grey corridor and into the boardroom at the far end. The crashing and burning in my chest told me that I was going to the right place.

I burst through the doors and jumped, slamming a hand down into the middle of the wide, oval table and clearing it easily, sliding into Draco's lap on the other side. I flung my arms around his neck and kissed him desperately.

'Rae!' he exclaimed, hugging me and getting out of his chair for me to sit down. I shook my head and sat on his lap.

'Good afternoon, my dear,' my father laughed. 'Are you well?'

'Not too bad, father,' I answered breathlessly.

'Miss Kelwaedd,' Lucius said formally. He turned to Draco. 'I think she likes you. You'd do well to keep this one.'

Draco laughed, his grey eyes lighting up and making him look ten years younger. 'I had no intention of letting her go, father.'

'

Where were we?' Rhodry asked rhetorically, looking around. 'Ah yes. Well, as you can see, our little Dream Team are all here now, due to a distinct lack of gate opening in London Town. Now we have our latest additions, who were up in Nottingham, discouraging our brethren. It seems, from our reports, that they were partially successful. Half of the Hogwarts army has chosen to stay put. The other half will either be massacred or come around to it, depending on the Death Eaters' point of view on this matter. It seems likely to us that the Death Eaters will not go down without a fight, in which case, all the people we can get hold of will rise up against them and crush them like bugs, instating a leader of unanimous public decision. With the current situation in mind, we are hoping that this will be Rae.'

Of course, I'd heard tell of the notion, but hearing it presented along the lines of a business proposal in my father's oh-so-undeniable voice to all these important military types brought it home like nothing else could.

'I'm eighteen!' I protested, my voice hoarse. 'And once this prophecy expends itself, I'll no longer have any superhuman leadership powers. I'll be a normal human being.'

'You were born for this, Meg,' my father said solemnly. 'The prophecy will do what it feels is necessary. If you look to be the thing that will keep the world in peace until the day you die, then the powers won't leave you. You've done the best job out of all the other recorded cases already, and you're the youngest by more than five years. The last time it was successful - nearly four hundred years ago - the young man who was chosen reigned over the country for the rest of his life, then his son inherited the powers and stayed in charge. The magic forces that we employ want to save themselves. We are their only channels to release, and if we all kill each other off then they'll be stuck. More than two thirds of all the wizard population need to survive for them to be happy. If the Hogwarts army and the EK army survive, then that's about three quarters including the citizens. If that many people live, you win. You get to stay head of the roost and rule over the country in complete and perfect regard.

'I think you can do this, Meg. I really trust you.'

It started to make a bit of sense that it never had before. I looked up.

'I'll do it,' I vowed, my voice harsher than it usually was. 'I'll make them listen, and if they don't listen, I'll kill the bastards.'

'That's my girl,' Lucius, Rhodry and Draco said in unison.

~~

I didn't sleep that night, but I hadn't expected to. The City of Miracles was dark and chilled from cloudless warmth during the day. Our room was much better than the old one: a luxury suite in the safer part of a half-collapsed hotel. Draco had stayed out late talking to his father in one of the bars that had been established since I last left. He had entered the room, pulled his shirt off, kissed me enthusiastically and fallen asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

So I sat alone by the open French windows that led out onto the balcony, a cool breeze rippling the long muslin curtains and playing with my hair. I had known the moment I had come into the room that I wouldn't sleep for a good while, despite the heavy, aching weariness in my limbs and the pounding headache over my right eyebrow. I sipped my glass of water, lifting my legs up and crossing my ankles on the coffee table in front of me. The moon was shrugging off a veil of indigo gauze and shivering up onto the horizon, looking as though it were resting its chin on the skyline.

Above me, the stars were like white confetti scattered throughout the heavens. My mind slipped into a habitual frame and I told myself that I was facing south. Why couldn't I go further south? I had spent all my time in the coldest parts of this country and even rocketed off to Russia. What fun. The stars were thick, like a crocheted blanket held up to the sun. They looked like little windows onto something better.

I lifted the telephone and ordered myself a vodka and soda from room service. I glanced over at Draco. He was sprawled across the bed, almost on his side. He faced the right wall of the room, and his right arm was thrown behind him. His left arm curled up by his face and his legs looked as though he was in mid-stride. The moonlight crossed the horizon and shot into the room with a gust of wind. My hair floated up, as did the curtains. Draco was further into the room, so all that stirred were the few strands of hair hanging over his face. His alabaster skin, tanned faintly to the colour of weak tea, was drained of colour by the moonlight, turning it silver and more unearthly than ever. His black eyelashes lay on his cheekbones like brushstrokes of ink, the moulding of muscles on his lean, bare chest thrown into relief by the light.

There was a knock on the door, and his right hand clenched tightly in the sheets at the small of his back. I got up and walked silently across the room, turning the key and opening the door carefully, taking my drink and locking it again, going to sit down.

'Draco,' I breathed, reaching out to touch his face. My trembling fingers brushed the silken strands of white-blond hair from his face, grazing his cheekbone and his eyelashes.

'Rae,' he murmured.

'Yeah?' Oops. I woke him up.

'You've got a vodka and soda, right?' His eyes were still closed, but he was smiling slightly.

'Yes, I ordered one,' I said warily. It was never above him to 'borrow' my drinks.

'It's my favourite drink.' He was positively grinning now, his white teeth glowing in the moonlight.

'I'm sure,' I said coldly. 'I suppose you want it now?'

'I wouldn't say no.' He was sniggering quietly.

'I would,' I smirked, sitting down by the window again.

He propped himself up on his elbows, looking at me like a puppy that wants its dinner.

'What do I get out of it?' I half-relented.

'I'll kiss you,' he bargained.

'I can get that any time,' I said loftily. Adam flashed into my head, but looking at Draco it seemed stupid to compare them. Draco had made me what I was.

'I'll shag you,' he offered.

'Bored of that,' I shrugged, but my pulse was quickening.

He swung his long legs over the side of the bed and stood up, his hair falling back around his face. He walked over to me and took my hand, pulling me to my feet gently. He dropped down onto one knee in front of me and reached into the pocket of his black jeans.

'I'll marry you,' he said quietly, holding out a blue velvet box and flipping it open. Resting inside was a white-gold ring, set with three sapphires so dark that they looked black.

I gazed at him, my heart thundering away in my ears. I felt my eyes fill up and tears boil over, spilling down my cheeks like unblocked rivers. The top of Draco's head came up to my chin even when he was kneeling. He looked at me sincerely, the pulse flickering in his neck. I could see panic in his silver-grey eyes. I couldn't understand how he could doubt me; I just couldn't speak, is all. My heart was trying to explode.

'Oh God,' I choked. 'Of course I will. You didn't have to ask, you know I can't live without you!'

I dropped down and flung my arms around his neck, burying my face in his shoulder. He laughed delightedly, taking my shoulders in his hands and pushing me back to kiss me fiercely. I was still crying; I could feel the tears pouring down my cheeks. All things flashed through my head, but I couldn't hold on to them long enough to consider anything. I was getting married!

Draco took my hand from his shoulder and lifted my ring finger, sliding the beautiful ring onto it. It fit me perfectly. I gazed at the stones as they caught the light.

'How did you get such a good fit?' I asked hoarsely, holding him tight again. He was shaking hard.

'The s-s-signet ring y-you took off - off m-my finger; you wear it on y-y-your ring finger on the o-other hand. My father h-h-has an ident-t-tical one, so he l-l-lent it to me to get a ring m-made.' He could hardly get the words out for stammering and shaking.

I kissed him again, happiness boiling inside me.

'I'd pick you u-up and th-throw you on the b-b-b-bed, but I th-think I'm sh-sh-shaking t-too hard,' Draco laughed, hugging me so tightly that it felt like he'd never let go.

'C-can I have that d-d-drink now?' he stammered, laughing.

'What's yours is mine,' I croaked, taking the glass and handing it to him. He downed it quickly, slamming the glass on the table.

'It's only h-half eleven,' he said, almost totally regaining his composure. 'When I left the bar, everyone was still there. We c-could go back and t-tell them.'

'I thought you said...'

'Only father knows.' Draco made a sheepish face. 'In fact, he was the one who told me to get my act together. I was too scared to ask you in case something awful happened, like you said no or something... but when he saw you today he t-told me that you'd grown up so much and that you were so b-beautiful and I had to snap you up before someone else did. He told me that you were s-strong but you'd need me by the end of all this.'

'I've got to go and thank him,' I said, coughing and standing up. I took Draco's hand and lifted him up too.

'Ring,' I murmured, drawing a circle in the air with my finger. A plain silver band formed of sparkles of moonlight. I snatched it out of the air and slipped it onto Draco's ring finger.

'Now you're mine too,' I smiled, standing on my tiptoes to kiss his lips gently.

'C'mon,' he smiled, putting an arm around my shoulders. 'Let's go down to the bar.'

I locked the door of our room behind me and dropped the key into my pocket as Draco, who had pulled on a black shirt without bothering to do it up or put any shoes on his bare feet, struggled with the lift. I walked over to him and pressed the down button. The gold doors slid open immediately and he laughed.

The weightless sensation, added to the shivering joy within me, made me feel a bit sick. I was happy to stumble out of the elevator on the ground floor and be supported by Draco into the bar outside the hotel.

Five tables were pushed together out on the patio area in front of the street. Everyone was there; Lucius, Rhodry, Apate, Rhea, Cloud, Raven, Skye, Neit, Adura, Adam, Perse, my mother's image standing beside my father, and a few people to whose faces I couldn't put names. Ori was conspicuous by his absence. They all cheered as we walked across the paving and sat down in the vacated spaces at the head of the long row of tables.

Lucius stood up and walked over to me.

'So, you're going to be part of the family now, Rae,' he said, kissing the back of my hand. 'You're a bloody good girl and Draco had damn well better look after you. I need you to look after him too, though,' he smiled. He sat down as Rhodry stood up.

'Meg, I've talked to Draco, and I've decided that I'll put aside his and his father's pasts and agree to this union. We'll wait until all this business had blown over to arrange your wedding.'

I started crying again. Everyone stood up and was hugging everyone else. They all held me tightly and squealed their congratulations and shook Draco's hand or kissed his cheek. Suddenly, everyone fell silent. I turned. Ori stood about ten feet behind me.

'Congratulations,' he said quietly. 'I know you'll be happy together.'

I ran over and threw my arms around him. 'Damn it Ori! I need you to be there.'

Draco was standing behind me.

'Ori, you're the best mate I've got any more. Will you be my best man?' he asked him.

Ori looked bowled over.

'Of course I will. I'd be honoured,' he stammered. 'I owe it to both of you.'

'And I want all you girls to be my bridesmaids!' I cried, hugging them all.

'Bags I design the dresses!' Raven squealed. 'Oh oh oh I want to do the ceremony, can I please?'

'You'd better get married in white!' Skye yelped. 'You're both first-marriage and I'm a sucker for tradition!' She fluffed her white hair.

'Can I be your page boy?' Cloud laughed, his arm around Rhea.

'Yes! Yes! Anything, as long as you're all there with me!' I called, wiping my tears away with the back of my hand. 'Oh God I'm so happy!'