Let The Rain Come Down
*Disclaimer*~ This is the only disclaimer I will write for this story. I do not own, nor claim to own any and all characters and settings created by Ms. J.K. Rowling. I hereby own only my plot, and any extra characters and settings of my own creation. I also do not own any and all song lyrics mentioned in each chapter. Their ownership will be made clear with each chapter. This story is my own original work, influenced by history and my own life. I'd appreciate anyone's critiques and comment, anything you'd like to tell me, let me know. Let it also be known that, if said ownership held by J.K. Rowling concerning the characters Draco and Severus should ever be up for grabs, I have first dibs on them both (well at least Sevie). Hope you like the story, I'm trying to go back and edit each of my existing chapters before I press on, so read, enjoy, and hopefully, review! Thanks to all of my reviewrs so far, I appreciate all of your comments. Thanks also to Whitney and Jenn who have both been my inspirations for writing.
Chapter One:
"Catch me as I fall. Say you're here and it's all over now." Hermione's POV:
I'm going to tell you about a day that changed my life forever. You might know me as Hermione Granger, female friend to the famous Harry Potter, a bookworm, and, of course, a know-it-all. Yeah, well, not anymore. When our story was last left off, it was the end of my fifth year at Hogwart's School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry, Ron, and I had barely managed to escape the year alive, and so much happened that changed our lives. But now, I am in my seventh year at the newly- rebuilt Hogwarts. That's right, newly rebuilt.
Let me see if I can fill you in. That summer, over a year and a half ago, Voldemort returned to all of his old grievances: killing, destroying, torturing innocents. The wizarding world was in an uproar. Voldemort's closest supporters became his "generals" in his war against the Light side. These "generals" began kidnapping muggle-born mages, slowly but surely, tearing them away from their families, destroying their homes, and ruining their lives. Only those taken knew where they were taken, to the equivalent of a muggle work camp, and I was unfortunate to be one of those who knew the truth.
For a little while, after the end of the school year, I was able to stay hidden from the hated Death-eaters. After a few weeks of terrifying nightmares, and glancing behind my back at every little sound, my loving parents agreed to let me stay with the Weasley's for the rest of the summer. They feared for my safety, as I feared for theirs. One could never know who Voldemort would torture next. I loved my parents so much, despite the differences in our lives, and I was hesitant to say goodbye to them. I had to keep telling myself that it was for the good of us all. With small tears forming behind my otherwise emotionless eyes, I disappeared in the green cloud of smoke that had erupted as I shouted the Weasley's residence in our fireplace. Little did I know that it would be that last I saw parents for a long time.
I was well recepted by Ron's overly large family. I settled into a room that I shared with Ginny. I was able to spend my days with my friends (Harry had also escaped the Dursley's, and came to the burrow), and we would terrorize Mrs. Weasley to no end, with all of our energetic adventures. But each day, I felt more uneasy, more unsafe. When I first arrived at the burrow, I had this feeling that I was completely safe, that Voldemort couldn't get me. But as days passed, I started having nightmares, ones that would wake me up in the middle of the night in a panic. It was as if my subconscious knew something bad was going to happen. Unfortunately, I was horribly right.
One morning, I had gotten up early, before anyone else, and I wandered out into the Weasley's garden. It was a bright, clear morning, and already, it was feeling muggy out. As I wandered through the little paths, I listened to the sounds in the trees, and in the grass. Somewhere, out in the distance, I heard a rooster crow. How I loved being out there by myself, thinking in peace about whatever took my fancy. There wasn't anyone else to invade my thoughts, and I gladly took the time to think about my parents, and even what my come in the next school year. I waked on for a while, before I noticed something had changed around me. It seemed as if all of the buzzing of the summer insects, all of the small chirpings of the songbirds, even the gentle whisper of the wind, was silenced. It was so quiet, that I could literally hear the hairs on the back of my neck stand on their ends.
Somehow, I knew something wasn't right. It was one of those moments when you knew some sort of doom was awaiting you at any moment, any you were completely defenseless in saving yourself. I heard a slight noise behind me, and without turning around, I knew that I had been caught. I knew there was no way for me to escape. I could feel the evil emanating from him as he stood behind me, waiting for me to face him. Accepting my fate, and cursing at myself for being alone, I turned around. Standing there was an average- looking mage in dark blue robes. Well, he was average if you didn't take into account the scowl that had taken over his face. He held his wand high, aiming down at me.
"Hope you've said your goodbyes, mudblood. This is the last time you'll see this place," he hissed.
I stood there, glaring him in the face. Shock was threatening to overwhelm me. Before he could disarm me, I raised my wand and shouted. I wasn't going down without a fight.
"Stupify!!!!," I cried desperately.
It was no use. He quickly blocked my sorry excuse for a curse, and shouted something incoherent at me. I felt the full force of his curse, whatever it was, and I stumbled. I tried to raise my wand to shout another curse at him, but I found that both my arm, and my voice had been rendered useless. I felt this pain subtly creep into my body, slowly, it climbed up my legs, into my torso and chest, and then, into my head. The pain became excruciating, and I struggled to remain standing in defense. All the while, the other mage sat there, looking at me with this amused smirk on his face. I was slowly loosing control of my strength, as the pain ate away at each of my muscles. I fell to my knees, trying to scream out my suffering so that someone, anyone could hear me. But I was refused that request. I felt myself fall forwards, as the ground came closer and closer to my face. All I could think was about Harry and Ron. How would they know what happened? How were they going to react to my disappearance? In one last moment, I glanced around at the garden, willing it into my memory, and then, all was dark.
*******
When I awoke, sometime later, I immediately remembered what had happened, and sat up. Bad idea. The blood in my head came rushing, and I felt dizzy. I was in a large gray room, in a small cot, surrounded by many others. In each cot was a mage, either sleeping, or just awaking as I was. I felt no pain anywhere, which unsettled me, because I remembered the curse that was put on me. A short, balding mage, who was wearing black robes, hurried over to me from where he was attending another mage in a cot.
"Good, you're awake. Come on, now," he placed an odd looking bracelet around my wrist, before I could stop him. Then, he muttered some little spell, and I could feel it tighten its hold around my small hand. He then began to mumble incoherent words, and I felt myself being pulled out of the cot that I was in. It seemed really weird. I was a captive of some sort, yet my "captors were normal looking, and on the verge of civil. I could see that many other people, young and old were being given the same treatment. The mage in front of me seemed to be invisibly pulling me along behind him, and as I glanced ahead, I could see that we were all heading towards an open doorway, into some room that was empty of all furnishings, except for a very small mahogany desk, at which there was a young witch who was speaking to each person, one by one. I was near the middle of the line that snaked its way around the wide, colorless room, and I began to listen to those around me.
Apparently all of us "prisoners", for that was what I guessed we were now, had been silenced by some spell, and we could not speak. But we could make small sounds. As I passed each prisoner, I could see the fear on their faces, some whimpering as they slowly moved down the line. Most of the prisoners seemed to be mages, judging by their robes, while others could be either muggle or mage, as their clothes were that of the muggle world. The people were of all ages. I saw many men, whose faces still showed remnants of pride and dignity, and yet they were slowly showing signs of defeat. The women were distraught, trying not to let those around them hear their cries. The smaller children, who were my age or younger, were mostly silent, watching, waiting for something to happen. Soon, it was my turn with the witch at the desk.
"What is your name?" she asked almost inaudibly.
"H- Hermione Granger," I rasped, my voice not being used to talking.
"Age?" she again asked, almost boredly.
"Sixteen," I replied involuntarily. I realized then that the bracelet on my wrist controlled movements and my voice.
"Her ID is 292716," the witch stated, and motioned for the short mage, who had remained silent the entire time, and I through another door. In the next room was another witch, older, who was sitting in a chair with her wand up and ready. She silently motioned me forward, and without warning, she began to drag her wand across the top of my hand. Only, I realized that it couldn't be a wand, because the moment it touched my skin, I felt a hot, steaming burn on my hand. I forced my eyes to look at what she was doing. When I looked I saw that she had written my ID number on my hand. She had branded me, like some piece of cattle. My mind was reeling from the pain, and I wanted to scream out, but once again, I was denied. This was wrong, this was all wrong.
I was then led into another room, where there were several other mages in black robes directing each prisoner into several groups. I was led to a large group of many younger people, mostly teenagers. The short, bald mage, who had been leading me around, then left me, as I stood next to about twenty other mages in two straight lines. Soon, I was led, along with the rest of my group, out of the seemingly endless building, into the sunlight, by another wizard in ragged brown robes. We were taken silently out into a large courtyard, surrounded by several large buildings. There were several small roads that led out in different directions. We were led down a well traveled road towards an avenue of some sort. On either side of the road, were long, one-story buildings, each showing signs of deterioration. We were all led past several of these buildings, until we stopped in front of the seventh one down the road, on the left.
The land around the buildings was nondescript, with nothing to look at besides land. No trees, no bushes, not even much grass. What grass there was, was trampled on, dead. Silently, we were herded into the building through a door that was falling apart. The inside wasn't much better. There were about fifteen bunks lined up in a straight line down the center of the one room. At the head of the building, where we came in there was a door to the right that seemed to open into a smaller room. At the back of the larger room, I could see another door that led to a small bathroom. There was no sink or mirror.
All of a sudden, the wizard that had led us there, spoke up. "Welcome to Carceris Crudelis. If you would all please come and sit down over here in a circle." This guy looked no older than seventeen, and yet he walked like a man of forty. We followed his directions, and realized that we were no longer being forced by the bracelet. We all sat down in a circle, looking at each other, sizing each other up.
"My name is Sean, and I am your new unit leader. Do not worry, I am one of you," said the young wizard, as held up his left hand for us to see the six- digit number blazoned on the center of his hand. We all stared in shock, and then someone, another wizard, only younger, spoke up.
"Where are we, what is this place?" he seemed to be the first to find his voice, and the rest of us soon discovered we had control over our own again. Almost immediately, the room exploded into noise as each person voiced their questions.
Sean held up his hand for silence. "Once again I say, you are in Carceris Crudelis, and it is a work camp for the muggle-born mages. Now you all know what happens to us when we are caught. You have been placed in the unit for the farm work, where you will basically perform any task given by the Master. You will learn that he is called Campbell. Here you will work until you die, or until the Light side gets their act together and rescues us. We are prisoners of war, and your only hope of survival is to work. I am in charge of making sure you are each up in the morning, and ready to go. Each morning, we eat breakfast at six am. We then work until eight pm, to have dinner at eight- thirty. We have forty- five minutes after dinner to convene in the main hall. After that we come back here, and go to sleep at ten. Do not try to escape. The bracelets on our arms are now enacted to monitor our actions, and will curse you with the Cruciatus should you try to leave the grounds. Now then, we are allowed fifteen minutes, and then lights out. I suggest you all get to know each other, and if you have any questions, my room is right by the door."
With that, he turned, and headed to his room. The rest of us began to introduce ourselves, one by one. When the circle came down to me, I told them that my name was Aguila, because there was no one that I recognized, and I would rather not give my real name to them. I figured it might be the only thing I could claim as mine, and keep to myself here. "Them" consisted of nineteen people, ranging in ages from eleven to the oldest, a witch, who was thirty- seven. There were people from all over the world here, and the only other Briton was a small eleven year old girl, who was supposed to attend Hogwarts this year. The poor girl barely knew anything about the wizarding world, and was scared out of her wits. We began to separate into smaller groups, according to our age ranges. I began speaking to two other teenagers who were from Belgium. Soon, Sean came out, and announced lights out. We made our way to empty bunks, pulling the thin sheets up around us to keep us warm. I stared at the ceiling as the lights went out. So many questions went unanswered, so many things were racing through my mind. Where was this camp located? How was I going to survive? How was I going to get out?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ A/n: I didn't feel there was much else to change, so the chapter will stay pretty much as it was. More updates soon, I promise!
*Disclaimer*~ This is the only disclaimer I will write for this story. I do not own, nor claim to own any and all characters and settings created by Ms. J.K. Rowling. I hereby own only my plot, and any extra characters and settings of my own creation. I also do not own any and all song lyrics mentioned in each chapter. Their ownership will be made clear with each chapter. This story is my own original work, influenced by history and my own life. I'd appreciate anyone's critiques and comment, anything you'd like to tell me, let me know. Let it also be known that, if said ownership held by J.K. Rowling concerning the characters Draco and Severus should ever be up for grabs, I have first dibs on them both (well at least Sevie). Hope you like the story, I'm trying to go back and edit each of my existing chapters before I press on, so read, enjoy, and hopefully, review! Thanks to all of my reviewrs so far, I appreciate all of your comments. Thanks also to Whitney and Jenn who have both been my inspirations for writing.
Chapter One:
"Catch me as I fall. Say you're here and it's all over now." Hermione's POV:
I'm going to tell you about a day that changed my life forever. You might know me as Hermione Granger, female friend to the famous Harry Potter, a bookworm, and, of course, a know-it-all. Yeah, well, not anymore. When our story was last left off, it was the end of my fifth year at Hogwart's School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry, Ron, and I had barely managed to escape the year alive, and so much happened that changed our lives. But now, I am in my seventh year at the newly- rebuilt Hogwarts. That's right, newly rebuilt.
Let me see if I can fill you in. That summer, over a year and a half ago, Voldemort returned to all of his old grievances: killing, destroying, torturing innocents. The wizarding world was in an uproar. Voldemort's closest supporters became his "generals" in his war against the Light side. These "generals" began kidnapping muggle-born mages, slowly but surely, tearing them away from their families, destroying their homes, and ruining their lives. Only those taken knew where they were taken, to the equivalent of a muggle work camp, and I was unfortunate to be one of those who knew the truth.
For a little while, after the end of the school year, I was able to stay hidden from the hated Death-eaters. After a few weeks of terrifying nightmares, and glancing behind my back at every little sound, my loving parents agreed to let me stay with the Weasley's for the rest of the summer. They feared for my safety, as I feared for theirs. One could never know who Voldemort would torture next. I loved my parents so much, despite the differences in our lives, and I was hesitant to say goodbye to them. I had to keep telling myself that it was for the good of us all. With small tears forming behind my otherwise emotionless eyes, I disappeared in the green cloud of smoke that had erupted as I shouted the Weasley's residence in our fireplace. Little did I know that it would be that last I saw parents for a long time.
I was well recepted by Ron's overly large family. I settled into a room that I shared with Ginny. I was able to spend my days with my friends (Harry had also escaped the Dursley's, and came to the burrow), and we would terrorize Mrs. Weasley to no end, with all of our energetic adventures. But each day, I felt more uneasy, more unsafe. When I first arrived at the burrow, I had this feeling that I was completely safe, that Voldemort couldn't get me. But as days passed, I started having nightmares, ones that would wake me up in the middle of the night in a panic. It was as if my subconscious knew something bad was going to happen. Unfortunately, I was horribly right.
One morning, I had gotten up early, before anyone else, and I wandered out into the Weasley's garden. It was a bright, clear morning, and already, it was feeling muggy out. As I wandered through the little paths, I listened to the sounds in the trees, and in the grass. Somewhere, out in the distance, I heard a rooster crow. How I loved being out there by myself, thinking in peace about whatever took my fancy. There wasn't anyone else to invade my thoughts, and I gladly took the time to think about my parents, and even what my come in the next school year. I waked on for a while, before I noticed something had changed around me. It seemed as if all of the buzzing of the summer insects, all of the small chirpings of the songbirds, even the gentle whisper of the wind, was silenced. It was so quiet, that I could literally hear the hairs on the back of my neck stand on their ends.
Somehow, I knew something wasn't right. It was one of those moments when you knew some sort of doom was awaiting you at any moment, any you were completely defenseless in saving yourself. I heard a slight noise behind me, and without turning around, I knew that I had been caught. I knew there was no way for me to escape. I could feel the evil emanating from him as he stood behind me, waiting for me to face him. Accepting my fate, and cursing at myself for being alone, I turned around. Standing there was an average- looking mage in dark blue robes. Well, he was average if you didn't take into account the scowl that had taken over his face. He held his wand high, aiming down at me.
"Hope you've said your goodbyes, mudblood. This is the last time you'll see this place," he hissed.
I stood there, glaring him in the face. Shock was threatening to overwhelm me. Before he could disarm me, I raised my wand and shouted. I wasn't going down without a fight.
"Stupify!!!!," I cried desperately.
It was no use. He quickly blocked my sorry excuse for a curse, and shouted something incoherent at me. I felt the full force of his curse, whatever it was, and I stumbled. I tried to raise my wand to shout another curse at him, but I found that both my arm, and my voice had been rendered useless. I felt this pain subtly creep into my body, slowly, it climbed up my legs, into my torso and chest, and then, into my head. The pain became excruciating, and I struggled to remain standing in defense. All the while, the other mage sat there, looking at me with this amused smirk on his face. I was slowly loosing control of my strength, as the pain ate away at each of my muscles. I fell to my knees, trying to scream out my suffering so that someone, anyone could hear me. But I was refused that request. I felt myself fall forwards, as the ground came closer and closer to my face. All I could think was about Harry and Ron. How would they know what happened? How were they going to react to my disappearance? In one last moment, I glanced around at the garden, willing it into my memory, and then, all was dark.
*******
When I awoke, sometime later, I immediately remembered what had happened, and sat up. Bad idea. The blood in my head came rushing, and I felt dizzy. I was in a large gray room, in a small cot, surrounded by many others. In each cot was a mage, either sleeping, or just awaking as I was. I felt no pain anywhere, which unsettled me, because I remembered the curse that was put on me. A short, balding mage, who was wearing black robes, hurried over to me from where he was attending another mage in a cot.
"Good, you're awake. Come on, now," he placed an odd looking bracelet around my wrist, before I could stop him. Then, he muttered some little spell, and I could feel it tighten its hold around my small hand. He then began to mumble incoherent words, and I felt myself being pulled out of the cot that I was in. It seemed really weird. I was a captive of some sort, yet my "captors were normal looking, and on the verge of civil. I could see that many other people, young and old were being given the same treatment. The mage in front of me seemed to be invisibly pulling me along behind him, and as I glanced ahead, I could see that we were all heading towards an open doorway, into some room that was empty of all furnishings, except for a very small mahogany desk, at which there was a young witch who was speaking to each person, one by one. I was near the middle of the line that snaked its way around the wide, colorless room, and I began to listen to those around me.
Apparently all of us "prisoners", for that was what I guessed we were now, had been silenced by some spell, and we could not speak. But we could make small sounds. As I passed each prisoner, I could see the fear on their faces, some whimpering as they slowly moved down the line. Most of the prisoners seemed to be mages, judging by their robes, while others could be either muggle or mage, as their clothes were that of the muggle world. The people were of all ages. I saw many men, whose faces still showed remnants of pride and dignity, and yet they were slowly showing signs of defeat. The women were distraught, trying not to let those around them hear their cries. The smaller children, who were my age or younger, were mostly silent, watching, waiting for something to happen. Soon, it was my turn with the witch at the desk.
"What is your name?" she asked almost inaudibly.
"H- Hermione Granger," I rasped, my voice not being used to talking.
"Age?" she again asked, almost boredly.
"Sixteen," I replied involuntarily. I realized then that the bracelet on my wrist controlled movements and my voice.
"Her ID is 292716," the witch stated, and motioned for the short mage, who had remained silent the entire time, and I through another door. In the next room was another witch, older, who was sitting in a chair with her wand up and ready. She silently motioned me forward, and without warning, she began to drag her wand across the top of my hand. Only, I realized that it couldn't be a wand, because the moment it touched my skin, I felt a hot, steaming burn on my hand. I forced my eyes to look at what she was doing. When I looked I saw that she had written my ID number on my hand. She had branded me, like some piece of cattle. My mind was reeling from the pain, and I wanted to scream out, but once again, I was denied. This was wrong, this was all wrong.
I was then led into another room, where there were several other mages in black robes directing each prisoner into several groups. I was led to a large group of many younger people, mostly teenagers. The short, bald mage, who had been leading me around, then left me, as I stood next to about twenty other mages in two straight lines. Soon, I was led, along with the rest of my group, out of the seemingly endless building, into the sunlight, by another wizard in ragged brown robes. We were taken silently out into a large courtyard, surrounded by several large buildings. There were several small roads that led out in different directions. We were led down a well traveled road towards an avenue of some sort. On either side of the road, were long, one-story buildings, each showing signs of deterioration. We were all led past several of these buildings, until we stopped in front of the seventh one down the road, on the left.
The land around the buildings was nondescript, with nothing to look at besides land. No trees, no bushes, not even much grass. What grass there was, was trampled on, dead. Silently, we were herded into the building through a door that was falling apart. The inside wasn't much better. There were about fifteen bunks lined up in a straight line down the center of the one room. At the head of the building, where we came in there was a door to the right that seemed to open into a smaller room. At the back of the larger room, I could see another door that led to a small bathroom. There was no sink or mirror.
All of a sudden, the wizard that had led us there, spoke up. "Welcome to Carceris Crudelis. If you would all please come and sit down over here in a circle." This guy looked no older than seventeen, and yet he walked like a man of forty. We followed his directions, and realized that we were no longer being forced by the bracelet. We all sat down in a circle, looking at each other, sizing each other up.
"My name is Sean, and I am your new unit leader. Do not worry, I am one of you," said the young wizard, as held up his left hand for us to see the six- digit number blazoned on the center of his hand. We all stared in shock, and then someone, another wizard, only younger, spoke up.
"Where are we, what is this place?" he seemed to be the first to find his voice, and the rest of us soon discovered we had control over our own again. Almost immediately, the room exploded into noise as each person voiced their questions.
Sean held up his hand for silence. "Once again I say, you are in Carceris Crudelis, and it is a work camp for the muggle-born mages. Now you all know what happens to us when we are caught. You have been placed in the unit for the farm work, where you will basically perform any task given by the Master. You will learn that he is called Campbell. Here you will work until you die, or until the Light side gets their act together and rescues us. We are prisoners of war, and your only hope of survival is to work. I am in charge of making sure you are each up in the morning, and ready to go. Each morning, we eat breakfast at six am. We then work until eight pm, to have dinner at eight- thirty. We have forty- five minutes after dinner to convene in the main hall. After that we come back here, and go to sleep at ten. Do not try to escape. The bracelets on our arms are now enacted to monitor our actions, and will curse you with the Cruciatus should you try to leave the grounds. Now then, we are allowed fifteen minutes, and then lights out. I suggest you all get to know each other, and if you have any questions, my room is right by the door."
With that, he turned, and headed to his room. The rest of us began to introduce ourselves, one by one. When the circle came down to me, I told them that my name was Aguila, because there was no one that I recognized, and I would rather not give my real name to them. I figured it might be the only thing I could claim as mine, and keep to myself here. "Them" consisted of nineteen people, ranging in ages from eleven to the oldest, a witch, who was thirty- seven. There were people from all over the world here, and the only other Briton was a small eleven year old girl, who was supposed to attend Hogwarts this year. The poor girl barely knew anything about the wizarding world, and was scared out of her wits. We began to separate into smaller groups, according to our age ranges. I began speaking to two other teenagers who were from Belgium. Soon, Sean came out, and announced lights out. We made our way to empty bunks, pulling the thin sheets up around us to keep us warm. I stared at the ceiling as the lights went out. So many questions went unanswered, so many things were racing through my mind. Where was this camp located? How was I going to survive? How was I going to get out?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ A/n: I didn't feel there was much else to change, so the chapter will stay pretty much as it was. More updates soon, I promise!