A cool breeze washed over her and it suddenly felt as if only her and Prince were in the room, the screaming and shouting could no longer be heard in her mind. It lasted only seconds however and her mind went back to wizzing through the impossible situation she now found herself in.

He would not kill her, she knew that much. Neither Lys, Alex or Aiko could defeat her in a duel so those three servants were useless. Serenity was fighting back and could not be used against her. Prince would not take it in his own hands to bring her to him unless he really wanted what she could give. He knew she would not give in easily, but how easy is not-easy? She could hide it from him? No use, Lys had told him she had it. She could give it back to Serenity? No! No, she didn't... want to.

Brooke was talking to her mother and it seemed as though she had given up all will to fight and had joined with her. The last tiny bit of hope that Gem had against the Black Wands and the Danulietes was gone.

The coin was the only thing stopping Prince from killing everyone in the school. She cared... didn't she? She remembered swiftly a moment when she had not cared if the entire world was wiped out by her wand, it made her feel slightly sick. Danuliete would stop him, her father certainly wouldn't and Daiva was joining in it seemed. There was nowhere left to run but to him.

She took out the coin and held it in the palm of her left hand, her wand hand. It didn't matter, he wouldn't curse her holding it. The coin bathed her in a blue light that flickered like flames, playing on her face and in her emerald green eyes. Alone this object was, not altogether useless, but without real power certainly. Joined with the other three which Prince had they would create a weapon so powerful the Dark Lord himself would cower at the feet of those who owned it. She stopped looking at it and closed her fingers around the coin. So many choices and so little time to make the right one, it was horrible. What she needed was Katana, or her mother, either of them would know what to do.

It was all too much for her to decide, Prince was luring her to him, telling her to obey. Filling her mind with the pleasures of power and her destruction if she was to refuse. She stood still in the middle of the hall, coin in hand and waited for Lys to come to her.

~~~

Not even a stunning spell could last forever. Lys forced herself to concentrate, to move finger by finger until moving again became natural. Then she stood, slowly, and turned to face Gem. The teacher was standing, waiting. She was making things easy.

That wasn't right. Lys took out her wand. The thing shook in her hand, so was it close to Power, to its own kind. Lys wasn't stupid, she knew in a fight between the two Gem would win, but she wasn't going down easily herself.

Close now, Lys reached out with her free hand and grabbed Gem's arm, the one opposite the one that held the coin. She locked eyes with the student-turned-teacher.

"You've seen what he can do. You know what he will do. You will not die just yet. But others will suffer. Serenity will suffer. Unless you obey."

Her voice was flat, even, her eyes dark. The words may have been a threat. Or a warning. She gave Gem's arm a tug.

"Come. He waits."

~~~

Magic was useful, and powerful too, but sometimes the simplest ways were best. His wand at the ready, he stood close behind Gem, to cut off her escape if she should try to run, or to grab the coin if he saw it...

~~~

She looked back to Gem, held the older girl's gaze. Now there were two wands against Gem. Neither had her strength, but both had Prince to back them.

"No escapes. No sudden movements. No heroic efforts. Just walk. And obey. For Safety's sake." There was a layer of sarcasm at the end of that statement.

~~~

He wont kill me Lys. Do you see that man beside him with the dark hair, thats my father. Prince has plans for me and they dont include death." She turned around to Alex who was standing with his wand, she gave a pityful laugh.

"Alex, think about what you're doing there. I could take both of you on at the same time and still beat you both, you may have your element magic but I know what your next move will be."

The blank faces of cursed children stared back at her. She shook her head again.

"Put away your wands, he wants me to come of my own free will."

She shook her arm free of Lys's grasp which was an easy thing to do and walked ahead of the two servants, towards Prince. He was waiting for her, she had come. Holding the coin tightly in her hand, blue light escaping to reflect on the faces of her and Prince, she looked into his eyes and waited,

~~~

A single tear rolled down her cheek. "Please, Gem. Don't do this." She didn't beg - this wasn't the time. She just asked. But it wasn't enough.

The traitor had shown their face.

~~~

Gem Taurus was the traitor.

The hour will come wrapped in fire,
To discover the deepest and darkest desires.
From forth the fatal loins a traitor will come,
From treachery and betrayal it will be done.

The phophecy was seconds away from being fulfilled by the rightful one. Prince did not have to take the final object, the Ravenclaw coin, from her. She had brought it to him. Silently, he waited.

~~~

Druscilla Danuliete spoke. For the first time since their entrance into the Great Hall. For the first time since the massacres had begun she was taking an active part and interest in the events that were unfolding before her. She had stood, her facial expression impossible to read, behind the Black Wands and surveyed the runination of fifty odd years of her life.

She looked at Gemini Taurus with icy eyes.

"Now," she commanded.

~~~

"No" She said quietly. The Headmistress made a sound that could have been surprise but it encouraged Gem none the less. "No!" She said louder. "No, No, NO, NO, NO, NO!" The nos got louder until she was screaming them so everyone could hear. She backed away from Danuliete, her cold eyes boring into her flame filled ones.

"I wont give it to him. You can't make me and I wont. You'll have to kill me before I do"

It was a brave statement to make in front of four wizards and witches perfectly able to do that on the spot. She wasn't scared of dying, she wouldn't let them kill anyone else, no, she would keep the coin.

~~~

"Do not be a fool, Gemini Taurus," she said, a snake's hiss in her tone. "It is your destiny girl. You cannot escape it. From the moment of your birth we have awaited this day. You are the traitor. You will give him the coin. It is your heritage and you know it. The wand which I gave you is my own. And you have used it. There is no way back, don't you see, for a girl who has performed the unforgiveable curses. And enjoyed them."

Druscilla was sure of herself yet she held the most compelling argument back. It was her own secret, her own shame and she would only reveal it if all else failed.

~~~

"I am not a fool. It is not my destiny, I wont accept that. My father may be a murderer, but my mother was not. I have her blood too, she was a good woman. I wont follow you while I have her, I wont!"

Gem was breathing heavily, in and out, aware of a thousand eyes watching her from all directions of the room. She had never talked about her mother before so freely, but she had not choice now. Her mother was the only thing stopping her from joining them. She would not be a traitor.

~~~

And she laughed. Well it was an attempt at laughter, but Druscilla was sorely out of practice. It was a strange high pitched rusty sound which crackled and broke.

The as suddenly as it had started it stopped.

"Then welcome on board, Gemini," she said narrowing her eyes to survey the girl. She stared at her for a long, slow moment and then nodded her head.

Then Druscilla took a deep breath.

"I am your mother," she said.

~~~

"Liar!" She shouted "No, you're lying. Thats not true. How dare you say that!"

She was screaming and shouted, she wanted to lunge at the woman to strangle her. That was not the truth, it was a lie! She felt tears in the corners of her eyes, but Gem Taurus didn't cry, she never cried. "Daddy, tell her it isn't true. Tell me she's lying. She is lying isn't she Daddy?"

Her revert to the word 'Daddy' was showing her breakdown with extra-cracks. She had only called Derek 'Daddy' when was three or four when he had first left her.

~~~

"It is the truth, Gemini. Sophia was never your mother. The prophecy is talking of you, you are the traitor."

He took her shoulder and turned her to face Prince and gesturing to her pocket.

"Now you know the truth, your destiny and your heritage. We should finish what was started. Give John Paul the coin."

~~~

She opened her eyes again and there was still people looking at her and Brooke was still screaming in a corner. She was facing Prince. The coin was in her hand.

I am not who I thought I was. Both my parents are murderers

This thought was a lot to take in at once so she tried to stop thinking, but it didn't work.

Then it is my destiny. That evil witch was right.

It was yet another horrifying thougt.

But I dont have to follow it, I can escape. I've been doing that so far. I could go somewhere and forget I have a family at all. My friends are still here, aren't they

She looked around. Brooke was in a corner screaming. Her mother looking at her a little bewildered by her behaviour. Serenity was at the edge of the Hall, trying to conquer Prince's grasp on her.

My friends are lost. My parents are evil. I have no escape

She looked into Prince's eyes, tears welling up in her. She took the coin from her pocket, the blue flame-like light dancing on both their faces. She took one last look at it and placed it in Prince's outstretched hand.

~~~

The Final object, the one that had been the most difficult to gain. The other three lay in his magically protected pocket, and he removed them now, holding all up. Each pulsed dimly in the dying light, the colour of the house they belonged to radiating from them. Green mixed with scarlet, scalet with blue, and blue with yellow until the effect wasn't a seperate colour but an opalesce sheen. Raising his old wand, Prince snapped it in half.

Long ago Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, and Salizar Slytherin had realized the emense power of the Black Wand. Fearing how it could be turned against them, they picked apart the spells that created it, seperating them into four pieces. The pieces had been hidden, one in each house. Only a member of the respective house could remove an object from there. Therefore, for the sake of safty, the most powerful tool the wizarding world had ever known was hidden away, and forgotten.

Forgotten until a group of Dark wizards, called the Black Wands, remembered it. The sole goal of this group turned to finding the Wand, in order to gain the colossal power it had. Ancient magic would have to be envoked in order to resurrect the wand and return it to its former glory, yet teh spoils of such an enterprise were heard of only in stories. Prince, drunk on the idea of such power, had spent his entire life becoming versed in the secrets of the Wand magic, the spells that created it, and the spells that would bring it back.

Almost unaudibly, Prince began to chant. At first the words made no sense, however as his voice grew louder, those educated in Latin realized what he was saying. It was a long, graphic spell telling of the deeds and conquests of the Black Wand in its free days, so many centuries ago. Prince continued to chant, his voice growing till he was screaming himself hoarse, and everything in the Great Hall went dead silent. Sweat beaded on his brow, and the glowing of the objects sputtered out like candles estinguishing.

Suddenly he stopped.

Yet the sound continued on. The thrum of voices echoed through the Hall, rattling off the stone walls. A false wind, created by excess magic, began to blow, ruffling the curtains and the hair of those still standing. Eventually those voices too died out, and it was completely and utterly silent. Even Brooke's whimpering could no longer be heard. The silence hung, heavy and oppressive, daring anyone to breath.

The objects floated unaided in the air now, having risen higher as the voices rose. Suspended they twirled, absorbing the light shafts that dared to blaze their way. No more friendly glow was left, there was nothing. All four of the objects were black.

And then they exploded.

Crackling waves of energy swept over the Hall, blinding light filled the air, and amidst it all stood Prince cackling like a manic. Those able to concentrate understood fully the purpose of the intricate ceremony he had just completed, for he held it in his hand.

The Black Wand was Prince John Paul's at last.

John Paul had the Black Wand. The most powerful magical instrument in existence.

His old wand lay in pieces at his feet while he revelled in the newfound heights of his power. There was no stopping him now. Even if Danuliete had suddenly decided to defect against him she would be no match for him. None of them were.

And so the question hung in the air around them: what happened next?

~~~

Light flashed before her closed eyelids and the Master's laughter filled her mind. She opened her eyes. The Black Wand was reformed. Lys tigtened her grip on her wand.

It will betray us more and more someone had told her, what felt like centuries ago, in her first year. The evil in it will flow into you, the more you use it.

There had been something else too, something she couldn't quite remember, something about opposites. But it didn't matter now did it? She almost cried, but crying, sadness were foreign now, meaningless words.

As the Prince gloated, she looked over to Alex, trying to gauge her fellow servant's reaction.

~~~

As the wand landed in Prince's hand, his thoughts vanished. There would be no overthrowing him. He would remain the most powerful Dark Wizard for a very long time. It had happened... it had be formed... Alex had done his part, and for the first time, it dawned on him... what would happen to him. Prince was a Dark Wizard. And as he had just proven with his own wand, when he no longer needed something, he disposed of it.