𝐮𝐧𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 | 𝐝.𝐦

𝟗𝟏

Kaimana Valencia | May 1997

Whenever Kaimana had tough days and unbearable times, she felt like Draco was always ready to catch her and kiss her distress away.

But he wasn't here to catch her.

He was at his manor, and she was stuck at Hogwarts.

Because Voldemort wouldn't come near Hogwarts to get her, Kaimana stayed there. She never stepped foot outside of the castle, which now had wards on it to protect everyone and the castle itself.

"Poison, we said from last time." Elijah's voice tore Kaimana from her thoughts. "We need to decide what poison can kill Nagini."

"But how will we... how will he get the poison anywhere near her?" Aisling asked from the desk, scratching the back of her head. She was turned to face her mates, her dark hair bunched in a messy low bun.

They were in Kaimana and Meleah's dorm. Surprise, doing some more research about how to kill Nagini. They made quite a bit of progress, and now they were deciding what poison could possibly kill the snake.

"Let's say we do use poison, right?" Elijah was clearly in his zone. "We're not going to try to drop poison into her mouth. We need to kill the snake, not scorch it. She's immortal, so I doubt a drop of poison in her system will fully kill her." He was sitting on Kaimana's bed with her.

"So what do you suggest we do, Lij?" Meleah asked, genuinely curious as she laid on her own bed, on her stomach, with Quinn. They all had research with them and textbooks on their laps.

"We need to find something to maybe attack Nagini with," Elijah went on, talking enthusiastically with his hands. "We need to find a weapon of some sort that we can use to hit the snake—a sword, perhaps. That way, we can drench the blade of the sword in poison and we can actually use it to slice Nagini. Because not only will we slice the snake, but the poison on the blade would overrun her insides and completely kill her."

"The sword of Gryffindor," Quinn suggested, brushing his silky hair back. "Isn't that a thing still? Does anyone know where it is?"

"I could ask Dumbledore," Meleah offered, and rested her chin in her palm, elbow upon the mattress of her bed. "He already knows we're all trying to figure out a way to kill Voldemort, so I could just ask him."

After that day the Death Eaters showed up, everyone had been kept on their toes. They were scared, but curious. There were murmurs and rumours flying around, but Kaimana and her mates didn't care to even hear them.

Their only focus was to find a way to kill Voldemort.

The Golden Trio stuck to their own and they were trying to figure out how to kill him too—same goal, but different approach.

"Okay, so if we get the sword of Gryffindor, we've got that settled." Elijah was the one taking charge. He was very into this sort of thing—research and getting to the bottom of something. "Now our only goal is to find out what poison would be strong enough to kill Nagini. She's a fairly large snake, if I remember the photo on the paper correctly."

"We need something strong and deadly. But are we even sure there will be something like that here at Hogwarts?" Aisling mused, and turned to her research to flip through her textbook.

"There has to be." Quinn sat up straight and placed his textbook on his lap, legs criss-crossed. "We go to a school of magic. Surely there is poison strong enough to kill a snake—poison is such a Muggle thing."

"Valid point." Aisling nodded in agreement, running her index finger along the words of her textbook as she read.

Kaimana had been quiet the whole time, except for when her input was asked for. Something had been nagging at her chest.

Something Draco had said over the burner phone a couple days ago.

He doesn't plan on going anywhere near Hogwarts.

He isn't going after you if you're at Hogwarts.

What did that mean?

Why wouldn't Voldemort come near Hogwarts? What was the deal with that?

Kaimana lowered her attention to her own textbook and flipped through the pages, not actually looking for anything. She was just thinking.

Lupin said that Voldemort would bound his life to something living and immortal to possess the immortality himself. If Voldemort was immortal, why did he not want to come to Hogwarts?

What was at Hogwarts that would keep him away?

"Guys," she said eventually, the blood feeling heavy in her veins. "We don't know for sure Voldemort's linked to Nagini."

All heads and eyes snapped to her, eyes blazed with befuddlement. "What do you mean?" Meleah asked, looking beyond bemused. "Nagini's immortal, right?" She was probably the most puzzled one.

"Yes, but... it's something Draco said to me a couple days ago," Kaimana explained tentatively, thankful the door was silenced. "He told me something over the burner phone moments before the Death Eaters came the other day."

They all looked intrigued, but even more perplexed. "What?" Elijah said indulgently. "What did he say, Kai?"

"He told me Voldemort doesn't plan on going anywhere near Hogwarts." Her brows pinched together in serious thought. "He said that if Voldemort wants me, he would have me taken to him. He would not come here."

"Why?" Aisling asked the million galleon question.

"That's what I don't understand." Kaimana rested her elbows on her thighs. She pushed up her glasses, so she could use her fingertips massaging her temple. "Why would Voldemort avoid coming near Hogwarts? What could possibly be a threat to him that's here?"

"You?" Quinn suggested, shrugging his shoulders.

"He wants to kill me." She shook her head at the suggestion. "He keeps having people come to get me, so I don't think it's me." She lowered her glasses back down to her nose.

Elijah ran a hand over his nearly shaved head and scratched the back of it exasperatedly, exhaling wearily. "Voldemort. Why does he not want to come near this castle?" he thought out loud.

"Lupin said that Voldemort would have to link his life to something living." Kaimana was just saying her thoughts out loud. "Something living. Something that wouldn't die. Nagini is a perfect option, yes. But what if that's what Voldemort wants us to think? What if he just wants us to think his life is bound to hers?"

"If we all thought it was her, it would have us all distracted on how to kill her." Elijah was following her trail of thought. "And it would keep us from actually figuring out how he's immortal—what his life is linked to."

"Something living..." Kaimana's head was beginning to hurt at how tired her brain was, but how quickly it kept working. "Something living—or something that just possesses life."

"Something that possesses life," Elijah echoed slowly. "Something that possesses life and can live forever."

Kaimana gasped, her eyes wide.

Dumbledore was wrong. They were all wrong.

Voldemort's life wasn't bound to Nagini.

It was bound to Hogwarts.