Chapter Text
Chapter 55, Blown Away!
They ended up hanging at Mag's late into the night. Glimmer cast silencing on the parlor and they practiced Dangerous Tonight. As everyone knew he would, Ballan tore it up in the best of ways. Hydra could tell he enjoyed singing it by the glitter in his eyes and flash of fangs as he sang some of his favorite lines. As he sang of being dangerous like a razorback, and opening up her heart to satisfy his greed, he met her gaze directly. She shivered in anticipation more than once as thoughts flooded her mind of how they would spend those few hours before the sun rose once they were alone. He was dangerous and she loved the thrill of feeling his hands and mouth and body on her. He was danger that happened to like her and that was somehow so cerebral yet so primitive in the best of ways. Admittedly her mind was mostly on carnal matters during the last few minutes of the hangout with the band. When she and Ballan at last took their leave, she turned to him as he closed the front door behind them. "Your place or mine," she asked. She saw him turn toward her in the darkness as crickets suddenly broke out into a loud serenade.
"Isn't it always mine," he asked, clearly confused by the question.
"Well usually, but if Greok and Leaf are awake they may want us to be social, and I had other plans,"Hydra said frankly. "I should not like to be rude to them, and no one will be awake at home. The daddies may be awake, but they will certainly be in bed by now, so won't be bothering with us." She rolled her eyes and made a face. She and Loughness were always a bit sickened by the open lust between their parents. They did not seem to understand the concept of TMI. They believed they were quite prim, so did not appreciate Hydra and Loughness complaining.
"They won't have a problem with what I am about to do to you being done under their own roof," Ballan asked incredulously.
Hydra gave a low laugh full of expectation and shook her head. "They are aware. It won't be done in front of their faces, so as long as we behave in their presence, they shan't mind." She took a step toward Ballan, reaching out to run a hand down the wiry muscle of his arm. He gave a low growl and yanked her hard against him before apparating them both to the front stairs of #12 Grimmauld Place.
Hydra was sober enough to slip into her manor and upstairs to her bed chamber quietly, and drunk enough to begin removing Ballan's clothes as soon as the bedroom door was closed. Over half an hour later, they lay together in her now thoroughly rumpled bed, breathless and more than content to be so. The rush she found in his arms was unlike anything else, and she treasured it for what it was. They lay in companionable silence, not moving for several minutes. It was Hydra who spoke first. Her mind had begun moving again. As a result, she recalled something that she'd wanted to ask Ballan about. "When Greybo mentioned being high earlier you seemed... I don't know, upset isn't the word, but what was that about?"
"Ummm," Ballan asked almost sleepily. "Oh. It's nothing really. Just another contrast between myself and normal people," he said dryly. "It is odd to me that people take drugs of any sort for fun. I took any drugs I could get my hands on, and my master had plenty. I took them when it hurt too much to move after a beating so that I could get my work done, because if I did not get my work done, he would beat me again and I would never have time to heal. It was never about taking them for pleasure, so the concept is always so foreign to me. I suppose he took them for pleasure, but he never seemed to feel any, so perhaps I forgot that that's what they are for for most people." He spoke in a slow thoughtful fashion nearly devoid of emotion as if telling her of something almost inconsequential.
"If I did feel anything close to pleasure it was more of an emotional sedation so that I could manage to be polite to that man. If I was not, I would've been hit again." He sighed. Hydra's ears were ringing softly and she felt lightheaded with shock and rage that her Ballan had suffered so for no reason. There was no reason for anyone to treat another person as Ballan had been treated unless that person was supremely evil like Voldemort or something. Even then that person should just be killed.
"Why," she asked flatly, hardly able to speak above a whisper through the constriction in her throat.
"Why what," Ballan asked, clearly confused.
"Why did you leave him alive?"
She felt him shrug beside her. "I... I suppose I did not wish to make trouble for Adler. He freed me and I did not wish for him to be blamed for anything."
"Ah," Hydra said, nodding. "I could do it, though. I don't owe anyone anything, and I can make sure no one can trace it back, because there won't be any traces left to trace!"
A long moment of silence stretched between them before Ballan gave an incredulous laugh. "You don't need to do that, Little Hydra. He means nothing. He is nothing. And hearing you talk of murder is somehow vaguely disconcerting, I must say."
"I am sorry," Hydra said. "Sorry that it is disconcerting, but it must happen nonetheless." She rose and began to dress in the darkness. Her drunk had faded. So had her rage, leaving her cold and calm. "I need you to take us there, Ballan."
He still lay in the darkness un-moving as she circled the room, readying herself, slipping into her shoes, retrieving her wand. She did not turn on a light, instinctively knowing where everything was due to keeping a neat room with everything in its place. Knowing that the glare would bother his sensitive eyes, she allowed the darkness to serve as a blanket under which it was easier to think and plan. It was easy, because she knew what she was going to do and she knew it would work because it would be so unexpected. Even more interesting, though, she knew that she could do it, though she had no reason to be as certain as she was. She should've always known, though, and the fact that she hadn't was somehow astonishing. The wand may not even be necessary, because it usually wasn't, but she wanted all the power she could get just in case. Suddenly, she wanted to talk to Loughness, to share this with her twin, because he could probably do it too, but if she told anyone, perhaps she would mess it up somehow. She doubted Loughness would try to talk her out of it, but she wasn't about to let him try. She would tell him later. When Ballan spoke quietly into the darkness, it nearly startled her, so lost in her own thoughts was she.
"There is truly no need."
"If you do not, I shall bother you until you are ready to do anything simply to shut me up," she warned. Ballan gave a short laugh, before finally rising from bed. She patiently listened to the rustling of clothing as he dressed. She felt his hand grasping her upper arm, and with a loud crack, they were outside. They stood before a large manor, but it was not #12 Grimmauld Place.
"We are in Germany," she asked.
"Yes," he replied quietly. "What are you going to do? I don't want you to talk to him."
She nodded before giving him a gentle smile. "Alright. That is fair. I won't talk to him if you don't want me to. I love you very much, Ballan." She turned away before he could answer, staring at the manor. There was enough moonlight to make out a few open windows. Was he too drunk to close them? She didn't really care. Dropping her gaze to the earth at her feet, she drew in a deep breath, grounding herself before casting her gaze to the sky. She could feel all the tiny currents of air on her skin and she knew she could direct them. She directed them toward the house, and breathed all of her anger into her direction. As she allowed herself to replay every horrifying detail of what Ballan had suffered at the hands of that drunk monster in human skin, tears of rage fell down her face.
Water. She would need water, and it was so easy to call it down, drawing the moisture from high clouds with a simple thought. How silly to have never tried before, but she'd never had a reason, and that mattered. That was definitely something to ponder later, the requiring of a reason for magic, but right now, every thought was centered on what Ballan had gone through all alone with no one to know or care! She poured her anger into the air currents, wrapping them around the manor and spinning them faster and faster with the rain.
Ballan made a small shocked exclamation as the wind suddenly picked up from a brisk breeze to a violent tornado in a matter of seconds. The wind did not touch them as it tightened its grip on the manor of Ballan's former master. There wasn't enough rain in Hamburg Germany to wash the sins out of that house, but Hydra was going to try.
"Is anyone else in there with him," she asked suddenly. She was horrified that she had nearly forgotten to check. What if he'd gotten another elf? Or had family visiting?
"No," Ballan replied and she laughed.
"Good." The wind tightened its grip on the manor, squeezing it until parts of it broke and splintered and all the windows shattered. She heard the wind screaming, and perhaps she screamed with it. With the twister fully unleashed, in a matter of mere seconds the manor was torn to bits. No one inside could've survived. The mean old mister who had hurt her Ballan was no more. Dizzy and drained she sank to the ground. "I think you will have to get us back home," she murmured. "I needed to do that." For a moment all was still and silent. When she raised her head to look at Ballan, he was staring at the empty spot where his former home had been less than a minute ago with a look of stunned shock on his face.
"I... I don't know what to say, Little Hydra," he said quietly.
"Then don't say anything," she said. "But we need to go. There is no proof, but I don't want us to be seen here because people are going to notice that a tornado blew that place away." Nodding, he hastily scooped her into his arms and apparated them back into her bedroom. It was almost as if they'd never left.
"Thank you," he said, gently easing her to the bed.
She shrugged. "Don't thank me. It had to be done, and it's the least he deserved. I could've tortured him enough to make the Lestranges proud, but you didn't want me talking to him, so I respected that."
He made a choking sound that she decided was a laugh. After a moment, she said, "I had no idea I could work weather magic until I needed it for this. I bet all elves can do it. I can't wait to tell Loughness!"
"You are going to tell him what you did," Ballan asked.
"He's my twin. Of course I am," Hydra said. "But you know he'd never tell anyone who shouldn't know."
Ballan sighed. "It is still so strange to have people, that are now my people, who are sometimes almost as dark as I am," he said in a tone of wonder. "I don't think I am telling Greok this, though," he murmured as an afterthought. "He would not tell anyone, but it is your secret, and it is not my business to share. I think you should be careful about who you share it with as well."
She nodded, suddenly too tired to think about it now. The sun would be up in a little over an hour, and it felt like a grand time to go to sleep. She considered undressing through a jaw-cracking yawn, but never made it there before falling into a deep, exhausted sleep. When she woke, she was undressed. Ballan must have done that, then tucked her into bed. He was gone, and the room was dim but not dark, so she guessed it to be late afternoon. That probably meant that Loughness was awake which was good, because she had a lot to tell her twin!