46 Waking up

School started up again, but both Cross and Luna were missing. A few people were worried while the rest were just curious or didn't notice.

Dumbledore stood at a podium in the great hall as he addressed the school "I would like to make an announcement." the students quieted down and once he had all their attention, his eyes flashed and he continued "Recent events in the school have prompted Hogwarts to take necessary precautions. A student was severely injured under the effects of a Crutiatus Curse! I would like you all to keep an eye out for any suspicious characters around the school."

Umbridge spoke up "Professor, could you be taking about the lies from a particular boy, perhaps?" Dumbledore glanced at her and continued "Perhaps, professor. Though I fear this was the work of Death Eaters." he turned back to the students and added "Hogwarts is in a dangerous time, unfortunately, Ms. Lovegood was a victim of the attacks and is currently being taken care of, by our medical wizards."

He paused for a moment, letting his announcement sink in before continuing "As such, those of you who are injured will have to wait a little longer for the necessary treatment. The safety of the students is our number 1 priority. Ah yes, if you happen to see such a Death Eater, notify your house head immediately. That is all." before sitting back down, starting the feast as all the students whispered fearfully amongst each other.

By the time the school day was over, Hermione went to the Room of Requirement by herself and found the mess inside.

Hermione was shocked beyond words, the crystal with runes she couldn't understand, the beasts, and Cross' covered in blood on the floor. Despite what her brain told her to do, she didn't go get a teacher, instead she kneeled next to Cross and felt his pulse.

She let out a breath of relief, feeling a pulse. She sat back down and washed all the blood off Cross, leaving only a hard black shell wrapped tightly around his body. She didn't know what this was, he touched it and it started to crack where she came into contact.

The cracks started to spread all around Cross' body and the black shell exploded off his body revealing him underneath. The black shell turned to dust and drifted away, leaving Cross' near perfect body completely naked.

Hermione blushed deeply and covered him up with her robe as she sat him up on the wall, wondering what to do. Thinking of nothing, she sat next to him and waited.

A while later

Cross felt like he was floating in a black void with no light whatsoever. All he could see was black, he floated and felt around him, feeling nothing but the void. No life, no death, but endless nothingness.

He felt calm and serene, like everything that happened before was just a dream. The current situation proved that this wasn't the case.

It did leave him with a lot of time to think however.

Cross thought about the situation at the school, looking back now. He wasn't as angry as before, if anger could solve the problem then there would be not fights at all. Yes, he thought of what happened and the series of events that led up to this point.

Cross was focused on Umbridge at the time, hearing that she was giving 1 on 1 interrogations he ignored it. This was his first mistake, he shouldn't have ignored it because the entire interrogation event in itself was easily manipulated.

Here's what Cross thought happened, from what he gathered. Cho led Luna to Umbridge's office, whether she was under the Imperious Curse or not remains up in the air, Luna naturally didn't think that Cho was leading her into a trap because Cho simply wasn't capable of such a thing.

This was another main problem, the tricky this with future prediction is that it can change constantly. If you aren't looking at it 24/7, it could be completely different than when you saw it before. Plus, Luna was vert smart. If she saw Cho going anywhere other than Umbridge's office, she would have left.

So, Luna followed Cho to Umbridge's office, thinking it was just Umbridge doing her thing. When she walked into the room it was too late. Cho was obliviated to believe that a Death Eater cast an Imperious Curse on her before being sent away with extreme guilt.

Then he could only assume that Dumbledore took the opportunity to clear out the Ministry by claiming the subsequent attack was from Voldemort and showing 'proof'. Not only this, had his Obliviation on Luna worked, Cross would be led straight to Umbridge instead of him.

This was taking care of two birds with one stone. Technically, finding out that Cross was a true Elf was only a happy little extra tidbit, completely lucky.

Doing this, Dumbledore get's Cross off him for at least a while, the Ministry to second guess their prior statement of the Dark Lord not being back, while also hopefully pulling out of Hogwarts to settle their own affairs.

Without the Ministry interfering in the school, the was no chance for Dumbledore's plans to be seen through and he could continue on, sailing smoothly.

A very clever scheme from the old man, even Cross had to applaud him. Although he was the man Cross hated most, there was no denying his intelligence. The only error he made was not making sure that Luna was truly obliviated, but Cross could use this to his advantage.

The old man truly poked a hornet's nest.

Was Cross goin to leave the school? What a stupid question. Of course not, even if this didn't happen, why would he leave? For more magic? The other schools were the same if not slightly worse than Hogwarts. They were useless. He was already familiar with Hogwarts, minus the schemes it was a nice place.

Was he going to start over in a new unfamiliar place? Why would he do that, only idiots would leave a place they feel comfortable at.

Was he going to attack Dumbledore right away in a massive wizarding battle? Of course not. That was even more idiotic than leaving the school. If he immediately antagonized Dumbledore, he would be painted as an evil Dark Wizard and taken to Azkaban for trying to kill a 'good' man.

Also, he would be roped into the same group as that Muggle hating moron, Voldemort. That was probably even worse than going to Azkaban!

No, he would destroy the old schemer's plans from the inside out. Make him truly fall into despair before revealing his true face to the world, then he would torture him and kill him. But he needed time, which could be bought by 'going after' Umbridge. Making the old schemer think that his plans were succeeding, only to turn around and bite him when his guard is down.

As for the Forbidden Elf Transmutation Ritual, seeing as how he wasn't dead, obviously something more what happening behind the scenes. If he was being honest, he had no intentions of betraying the Divine Tree, it was like his parents.

The reason why the Ritual was Forbidden, and deemed as 'betraying; the Divine Tree was because the Sap form the Divine Tree was only meant for Elf use. The Ritual was primarily used to convert other creatures into Elves, since Cross didn't have permission from the Tree and effectively 'stole' the Sap for his own use, he 'betrayed' the Tree.

Really, the so-called 'betrayal' was punished by the Tree or an elf of higher ranking. Seeing as how there wasn't any other Elves at all, Cross took the punishment from the Tree spirit. Obviously he wasn't dead and he felt like the Tree spirit seemed to have shown him mercy and not truly marked him as a sinner.

Now all he needed to do was wake up.

Cross heard a voice speak to him, but it wasn't the beautiful voice of before, it was a calm and soft voice "Young Elf... You must wake up." Cross said "Who are you?" The voice replied "The castle. There's no time to explain, you must wake up now. The Tree has forgiven you, but she is in grave danger."

Cross was silent, seems like he was correct in his thoughts. He trying to wake up but he didn't know what to do. He was just floating there, drifting into the void aimlessly. He calmed down and felt around him, closing his eyes.

He felt the darkness around him but couldn't reach it, he felt like he was so close but so far away. He realized he was missing something, but he didn't know when he could reach it. He let go of the opportunity as it was impossible for him to suddenly comprehend what it was he was missing.

Cross sat in the void and closed his eyes, his mind turning rapidly, trying to get out and wake up.

Suddenly a green droplet of crystal-like liquid appeared and sank into his chest.

Cross started glowing green and his body turned transparent, all the black goo fell out, turning into grey to light grey, until it was clear before stopping. Cross' body went back to normal and he shook, disappearing from the void completely.

Cross's body blew out all the black-grey-light grey-clear goo through his mouth and his eyes fluttered open. He looked around and saw the Room of Requirement, but also Hermione, who was sleeping next to him.

He looked at her robe, that was covering him up and dirty.

He sighed to himself and got up, holding the robe in his hands as he said "Scourgify. Blessed protection." the Robe flashed green and gold. Cross confirmed he could still use Elf magic, hence he wasn't the traitor he was accused of being. Good.

Cross wrapped Hermione in her robe and placed his hand on her head as he cleansed her entire body and reinforced her mental barrier. He stuck out his tongue and a sliver of green crystalline liquid appeared.

Cross moved it to Hermione's mouth and dropped it inside. That was really the only way he had, other than kissing her, which he wasn't going to do. No matter what happened.

He picked her up and flashed to his room, put on some clothes before teleporting to Gryffindor common room and teleporting directly into the female bathroom. He took off Hermione's clothes and placed her in a bathtub, turned on the water and dropped a sliver of his blood inside.

The water turned green and bursting with vitality as Hermione's body started to secret black goo. Cross snapped his fingers, locking the door, before teleporting back to the Room of Requirement.

He stood in front of Luna's crystal and rested his hand on it slightly with a longing look. He wanted nothing more than to see her again, but he knew that this process took time. It was a strange ritual, although it was mainly used to turn others into Elves, the creator had made if for his wife, who wasn't an Elf but someone of another race.

He wanted her to become a child of the Tree just as he was, so he made the ritual for her. Pouring all the love he had into it, as did she. Thus the ritual only worked if the two parties were in true mutual love, the only problem was that the Elven man didn't know that using the Sap for the ritual was an act of betrayal against the Tree of Life and subsequently the entire Elven race.

The man used up all his energy making the Ritual succeed, but when the punishment came he barely had any strength left. By the time the woman came out, he was on his last breath. He saw her and was relieved and happy before he passed away. The woman was devastated at the death of her lover, she never married again, this woman was the First Elven Queen.

Cross sighed and looked at his beasts, which were somehow connected to Luna's Ritual, which meant he was on his own now. This was fine, he didn't need others for what he was going to do. Cross looked up and said "Can you hide this room from others?" the room shifted back as a new room replaced the old one.

Cross nodded and said "Thank you." he teleported away, he needed to start preparing. He was going fishing, all he needed now was a pole, he smirked 'Hopefully I catch the big fish'