A/N: As always, thanks to Bonnie for beta reading this and making it much better than it would have been had I simply been left to my own devices. Thanks as well to all those who have reviewed, followed, and favorited this story. I'm glad that people have been enjoying it. If you have questions or concerns about what's going on, feel free to include them in a review or a PM — I'll try to answer.
Recommendation: The Sum of their Parts by holdmybeer. There are a lot of stories out there where Harry turns "dark," and most require shifting his personality a great deal. This story is much better because it gives a relatively canon-Harry a very, very good reason to become a Dark Lord: he does it for Teddy. I've recommended it before, but it's an amazing story that deserves to be read.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, JK Rowling does. I don't own Wonder Woman, DC does.
Chapter 20 - Know When to Hold'em
Late May, 1997. Little Hangleton.
Rose grunted as she dropped to one knee. It hurt, but it was a lot better than being sent sprawling like she usually was at the end of a portkey trip. She dusted off her leg and looked around, squinting against the harsh light as the early morning sun briefly came out from behind some clouds. All warmth was driven away, however, when she recognized her surroundings.
"Professor, are we...?"
"Yes, I'm afraid so," Dumbledore answered.
"Rose?" Diana asked, putting one hand on her shoulder. Rose just closed her eyes and took several deep breaths.
Diana looked questioningly at the Headmaster.
"This is the graveyard in Little Hangleton where Mrs Potter was taken at the end of the Triwizard Tournament in her fourth year," he said. Diana audibly sucked in a breath. Rose turned away from them, and it was sheer bad luck that she would up facing in the direction of a large, familiar statue of a cloaked angel with outstretched arms and holding a scythe.
"Why?" Diana demanded.
"It was the closest and easiest destination to create a portkey for," Dumbledore explained. "I apologize for any discomfort this causes, but there really was no better choice."
"You still could have warned us," Diana said angrily, though Rose was barely listening. When he had proposed this trip to pursue a lead on one of the horcruxes, she'd insisted on being allowed to help, but she'd had no idea it meant coming back here. As she tried to clear her mind and pull herself together, she became aware of a subtle noise that was starting to creep into the space around them.
"Perhaps you are right, but I—"
"Professor?" Rose interrupted. "What is that?"
"What is what?" Diana asked, stepping forward to stand beside her.
"That hissing. It sounds... it sounds almost like a snake, but it can't be, because it isn't parseltongue. It sounds like what normal people must hear from a snake, I guess."
"Indeed," Dumbledore said, pulling out his wand and stepping forward as well. He and Diana looked around, but Rose kept being drawn back to the statue, an object which had been part of far too many nightmares over the past two years. As she watched, a greenish, skeletal hand with impossibly long fingers and sharp claws reached up from behind and grasped the statue's head. She heard Diana gasp as an equally skeletal head and torso rose up next, and soon it was perched on top of the statue. Between its hunched posture and unnaturally long limbs, it seemed more ape-like than anything else.
"Is that an inferius?" Rose whispered. The creature hissed at them, opening a mouth that was much too large for a human and revealing teeth that were far too sharp and numerous for any natural animal.
"A what?" Diana asked, her two goblin-made short swords flashing into her hands. The creature turned its head to look directly at her and hissed again, this time much more menacingly.
"A magical zombie," Dumbledore answered. "I believe Professor Lupin taught Rose about them in her third year?" Rose nodded. "Unfortunately, what we have here isn't nearly so simple. This is a ghoul, an evil creature that appears when the mystical protections and blessings in a graveyard dissipate or are overcome by dark magic."
"But... but..." Rose stammered. "The Weasleys have one in their attic. It just kind of makes annoying thumping noises and moans. It's nothing like this!"
Dumbledore grimaced. "Indeed. I am aware of that creature, and I have advised them more than once to get rid of it, but I suspect that it was once one of Molly's relatives. She's in denial, refusing to see the truth of what they've allowed to live in their midst. What they have is indeed a ghoul, though one that has not fed on human flesh, nor has it been imbued with dark magic. As such, they have been able to keep it docile within their warded attic. Should it get free, however..." He trailed off and let loose a small burst of fire from his wand, forcing the ghoul to duck behind the statue.
"This creature, however, has clearly been feasting both on flesh and dark magic," Dumbledore continued. "You can tell because it's out during the day — ghouls normally shun sunlight." As he spoke, the thing once more pulled itself up atop the statue, this time screeching into the sky. "They also typically avoid contact with humans unless they are in a large pack, which makes the behavior of this one even stranger. Still, with the three of us, we should be able to dispatch it and continue on."
Before he could explain further, they heard hissing and scratching coming from all around them.
"Perhaps I spoke too soon," Dumbledore said slowly as he turned to survey their situation. "It would appear that Voldemort's necromantic ritual two years ago had a much more deleterious impact on this graveyard than I had anticipated. Ghouls are notoriously difficult to kill, especially when supported by a pack. Fire is best, though it looks as though the Sword of Gryffindor will prove more useful to us than we expected," he concluded, gesturing at the sword Rose carried as she drew it.
"You know these things best, Headmaster," Diana said. "What's your plan?"
Dumbledore raised his wand high above his head. "I'll provide us some breathing room and prevent them from rushing us en masse. You two stand back to back and watch for any that get through."
Rose and Diana did as instructed while Dumbledore began moving his wand in a circle above his head, incanting "Vortex Igneus!" Angry red flames roared from his wand tip, swirling faster and faster, creating a storm of fire all around them. The heat was enough to make Rose sweat, despite the wall of flames being nearly five meters away from her. On the other side of that wall, she could hear screams of pain and outrage.
"Impressive," Diana said, "but what now? I doubt that they will be accommodating enough to simply throw themselves into your flames, and we can't stay here forever."
"Indeed," Dumbledore said, his face set in stony determination. "I will hold this for a few moments longer to encourage their frustration at losing what I am sure they expected to be an easy meal," he said. "Then I'll lift the edge of the curtain, so to speak — enough for them to see once more what has slipped their grasp."
"Do that a few times and they'll become desperate enough to try to come through the gaps you create," Diana concluded, nodding in approval. "Rose and I should be able to handle them in ones and twos."
"Why don't we have Diana fly us out of here?" Rose asked. "You said that Voldemort's defenses will prevent her from seeing the Gaunt shack from above, but she could still take us away from these things."
"They have our scent now," Diana answered. "If they're at all like hungry wolves or hyenas, they'll give chase and track us down, sooner or later. Do you really want them at our backs while we're tackling the protections on the shack?"
"Normally ghouls don't leave the graveyards in which they live," Dumbledore said tightly. "However, given how oddly these are behaving, I don't think it would be wise to rely on that assumption. What's more, there is a muggle village near here, and if we depart without doing anything, I fear that they will soon pose a significant threat to the unwary residents."
Rose raised her sword to a ready position. After a moment, Dumbledore flicked his wand upward as he whipped it around, causing a small section of the vortex to also rise up. It briefly revealed several singed and blackened ghouls, all hunched on the ground, snarling and snapping at each other. They paused to look up as the gap opened, then howled in frustration as it immediately closed again.
"I don't think it will take too much to encourage an attack," Diana noted as she bent her legs in preparation.
"Agreed," Dumbledore responded, his voice beginning to show the strain he was under. He flicked his wand again to open a gap in front of Rose. The ghouls didn't hesitate this time, and four launched themselves into the circle before the gap closed. Only three made it through. The screams of pain from the fourth were joined by those who tried and failed to get even that far.
Rose focused entirely on the enemies in front of her. "Depulso!" she incanted, firing off a banishing charm with her left hand at the ghoul which was trying to circle around towards Dumbledore. The creature stumbled back into the vortex and was quickly turned to ash.
The other two leapt towards her and Diana. Long, powerful limbs carried them across the distance almost faster than Rose could follow. Rather than cast a shield, she slashed her sword above her just before rolling forward under the attack. The ghoul landed behind her with a thud, writhing in pain as the basilisk venom did its work. Just beyond, Diana was finishing off her own attacker with a blow to the head.
"Again," Diana called as Rose got back into position. Another flick of Dumbledore's wand lured in four more ghouls. All were fast enough this time to make it through. "Incendio!" Rose incanted at the two closest to her, sending out a burst of fire which forced them to stop and pull back. Before the flames had cleared, she deftly nicked them both with the deadly blade. Behind her, Diana just as quickly eliminated the other two. The Amazon's strength and skill were more than a match for the bestial ghouls, and it was only her need to protect the preoccupied Headmaster that hampered her.
"Can you continue?" Diana asked. Dumbledore merely nodded as he wiped his brow. Rose and Diana were feeling the heat as well, but they both knew that the old wizard was sweating for more reasons than that. This was not a fight they could allow to drag on.
"Again," Diana called out, and a new gap was opened in the vortex wall, allowing more ghouls to charge in. They repeated the process five more times, each wave attacking with more ferocity and desperation than the previous. By the end both Diana and Rose were breathing hard and bleeding from cuts where long claws had reached through their defenses. Finally a point came when Dumbledore flicked his wand and no attack followed. He waited a few seconds before flicking his wand once more, and still there was no attack.
"Either they're all dead, the survivors have fled, or they've finally gotten smart enough to wait us out," Diana concluded. She looked at Dumbledore, noting how pale his skin was. "Regardless, we can't continue. Headmaster, you need to drop this spell before you collapse. Rose, be ready for anything."
The swirling flames disappeared a moment later, and Dumbledore sank to his knees in relief. Rose's eyes darted all around, looking for any sort of threat, but no attack materialized. "So, dead or fled?"
"I'll check," Diana answered. "Help the Headmaster while I scout around." Diana then rose up into the air and began her reconnaissance. Rose offered Dumbledore a hand to rise and escorted him to a nearby stone bench in front of a ruined chapel.
"That was quite a bit more taxing... than I expected to have to deal with... at this early stage," Dumbledore said, still panting slightly. He looked up at the sky for a moment before adding, "And we've lost more time than I'd like, too."
"Will you be alright?" Rose asked.
"Yes, eventually. I'm simply fatigued. The Fire Storm is a demanding spell, and it's not meant for such extended use."
"Is there anything I can do?"
"I'm tempted to call Fawkes and ask him to fetch a Pepperup potion from Madam Pomfrey, but I shouldn't depend on him for trivial things, especially when he's coming close to a burning day," Dumbledore said, leaning back against the stone wall. "Alas, I shall have to allow my strength to return naturally."
"Maybe I have an alternative," Rose said. She took a deep breath and called, "Dobby!"
The house elf arrived with a pop. He carried what appeared to be a club of some sort and immediately began scanning the vicinity as if searching for threats.
"Dobby, what's wrong?"
"What danger is Missy Rosie being in this time?" he asked suspiciously, continuing to look around while holding the club high above his head.
"Why do you assume I'm in trouble?"
Dobby stopped then and looked Rose up and down, eyeing the various cuts and scrapes she'd received during the fight.
"Fine," she huffed. "There was a bit of an altercation, but I'm fine now."
"And Missy Rosie is sure there's no danger?"
"Diana is searching for stragglers," Rose said, pointing to her wife in the sky.
Dobby nodded, finally relaxing. "What can Dobby be doing?"
"Professor Dumbledore found the fight rather taxing — he's old, you know. Can you fetch a Pepperup potion from Madam Pomfrey?"
Dobby nodded once and popped away.
"Old?" Dumbledore asked, one eyebrow raised.
Rose gave him a guilty smile. "Sorry, I don't want him to worry — otherwise he may forget his promise and shadow us the entire time."
Dumbledore sighed but didn't say anything else. When Dobby returned with the potion, he gratefully accepted it and drank it down.
The excuse about the Headmaster being old seemed to work, because the elf didn't argue too much when Rose told him he could leave. It was nearly ten minutes later that Diana returned.
"I was unable to find any evidence of them beyond the boundaries of the fight," she announced.
"It's unlikely that you would, if they truly fled," Dumbledore responded. "Their warrens are carefully concealed and difficult to find, even for experts."
"So you think they scarpered?" Rose asked. "Will they continue to be a danger to the people nearby?"
"I'm afraid so," Dumbledore admitted. "Under normal circumstances, I might report the infestation to the Ministry when we return. Then again, maybe not — I wouldn't want to risk alerting Tom to our activities." He shook his head sadly. "Regardless, that isn't an option now."
"Do they have final casualty figures?" Diana asked, her expression turning grave at the reminder of the state of the Ministry. "I think the latest numbers for London were around five thousand dead and many, many more injured. I don't even want to think about the property damage."
Dumbledore sighed deeply. "While the loss of life in the Ministry is quite a bit less, the devastation is all the greater due to our relatively smaller numbers. Only a bit over two hundred witches and wizards died, and seventeen are still being treated for injuries, but that represents nearly half of the Ministry. Even worse, most of the strongest, most capable people were in the upper floors attempting to reinforce the roof against the attack, so when the ceilings collapsed, they were the first to succumb. The DMLE and Department of Mysteries suffered the greatest losses. And that's of course not counting the damage to our infrastructure — it will be late summer before the floo network is fully restored, if then."
"And how's Minister Scrimgeour?" Rose asked.
At that his expression lightened a bit and he looked at her approvingly. "He's alive because of you, Mrs. Potter. The curses were bad enough that he'll be on potions and restricted duty for several months, but he will live."
Dumbledore spent a few more minutes resting while Rose and Diana tended their wounds. Finally, the old wizard heaved himself to his feet.
"Are you sure you don't want to take a bit more time?" Rose asked, reaching out to lightly touch his elbow.
He gave her a wan smile. "It's tempting, but we still have a long walk ahead of us," he said before moving off at a surprisingly brisk pace towards a distant road, the others following. Once they reached it, he crossed to the far side where there was a tall hedge and turned right. He moved more slowly now, stopping every so often to poke at the hedge with his wand or simply look around. "So much has changed over the past fifty years..." he muttered after spending several minutes working at one especially unremarkable spot.
"Are you alright?" Rose asked when she noticed how often Diana kept shifting her armor. "Are you injured?"
"No, no, nothing like that. It just takes time to break in new armor, and I'm not yet entirely comfortable in this set."
"At least you had a replacement at hand — there wasn't time to ask your mother for more."
"Indeed," Diana said with a grimace. "That would have led to too many awkward questions."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I haven't explained to her every detail about what's happening here, especially when it comes to the injuries Mala and I have received."
"Why not?"
"While injuries are to be expected for a warrior, I'm not sure that my mother would be entirely accepting of that excuse, considering how many attacks both Mala and I have endured. She might be inclined to see them as attacks on Amazons generally."
"And that would be bad, I take it?"
Diana nodded and was about to respond when they heard Dumbledore's voice. "Aha!"
"What is it?" Rose called.
"I've found it," he announced with a glance back at them. He jabbed his wand into the hedge and the branches pulled back, creaking and groaning. The new hole in the hedge revealed a second road, barely recognizable under decades of unchecked growth. "Come, quickly!"
Rose and Diana dashed through the opening, half bent over, and were immediately followed by the Headmaster. As soon as they were on the other side of the hedge, the opening snapped closed. Rose took a step back closer, but she saw nothing that would indicate the existence of any sort of passage back out to the main road.
"How did you find it?" she asked, impressed.
"A basic detection charm," Dumbledore answered. "The overall spellwork on the hedge is formidable, but the concealment spells have decayed over the years." He raised his wand and gave it a half-turn, then a jab forward. "The incantation is magia revelio. You try it." Rose had to repeat the wand movements a few times before she got them right, but when she did she looked over at her professor in surprise.
Dumbledore smiled at her reaction. "Exactly. When the spell is performed correctly, your wand will vibrate when pointed at any object imbued with spells, charms, or wards. The stronger the vibration, the stronger and closer the magic. This is only a basic detection spell, though. You need to use more specialized spells in order to determine what sort of magic is present, whether it's harmful or not, and so forth."
As the three proceeded down the overgrown lane, Dumbledore continued to instruct Rose on various detection charms. Every so often he'd stop and cast one or two of the spells on a rock or stump, then he'd have Rose do the same while explaining what she should be looking for. As Dumbledore had feared, Voldemort had left a number of traps along the way, all of which he disarmed with Rose's help.
Even Diana got caught up in his lessons — so much so, in fact, that it was several minutes before any of them realized that it was getting dark. Too dark, given how it was only approaching midday. "Headmaster?" Diana said as she looked around in concern.
"Yes, I see it too," he responded levelly. "Look at the trees." He gestured towards one in particular, tall and twisted. All around in a large area the earth was buckled and misshapen from the tree's roots, and high above its branches bent and turned, blocking the sky despite the lack of healthy foliage. "There are more like it farther down this lane," he said before carefully picking his way across the increasingly uneven ground. The three travellers fell silent as they proceeded, each unwilling to give voice to the fears that were causing the backs of their necks to prickle.
"What was that?" Rose asked as she stopped and peered into the darkness on their right.
"I didn't hear anything," Diana said, though she stopped and looked as well.
"Nor did I," Dumbledore said. He eyed the other two carefully. "Do you remember your promise to me before we left, Mrs. Potter?"
"To leave you if you tell us to run?" she replied, and Dumbledore nodded. "Of course I remember it, but we didn't run when we were faced with the ghouls..."
"There are much worse things in the world than a pack of ghouls," Dumbledore said.
"Even so, are we supposed to simply leave you behind? You're too important!"
"You are much more important than I in this war," Dumbledore corrected her. "But even if you weren't, it wouldn't matter. I am your professor and your headmaster. This means that your safety is much more important to me than my own. It's my duty to protect you, one I accept gladly. Do you understand?"
Rose looked at him for several long moments before she swallowed hard and nodded.
"Good. We must press on."
Reluctantly, the other two followed, but they spent a lot of time looking from side to side, searching for any evidence that they were being watched.
"This place reminds me of a fairy tale," Rose commented after a few minutes. "One of the darker ones."
"Indeed," Dumbledore said before coming to a halt. "Mrs. Potter, do you remember how to detect dark magic?"
Rose nodded and incanted, "Magia Perversa Revelio!" Her wand vibrated strongly every direction she turned, though it was a bit weaker when she faced back the way they'd come.
"And illusion magic?"
Rose cancelled her spell, then cast, "Magia Illusia Revelio!" Once again, her wand vibrated. "So, is this an illusion?"
"Only in part," Dumbledore answered. "But I'm concerned about what effect it will have on us as we venture deeper." He fixed the other two with an appraising look. "You can feel it, can't you? Growing apprehension? Dread at nothing in particular, but you feel like you're ready to jump out of your own skins?"
"I thought it was just me," Diana admitted. "I've never felt this way before."
Dumbledore nodded. "It's rather clever spellwork. Even if someone managed to get past all the concealments, they'd be driven off by their own imaginations working overtime, and they'd probably never realize that they were influenced by outside forces."
"Is there a way to counter it?"
"We need a way to suppress our fears. A cheering charm might help, but I'm not sure it would last long..." He paused at Rose's gasp of surprise. "You've thought of something, Mrs. Potter?"
Instead of answering his question directly, she raised her wand and incanted, "Expecto Patronum!"
A silvery-white stag burst forth, pushing back the suffocating gloom and filling the three travellers with renewed hope.
"Ah, yes, of course!" Dumbledore exclaimed, and a moment later Rose's stag was joined by a silvery-white phoenix that circled above their heads. "The magic here isn't quite like that of dementors, but it is close enough for this to work."
"Amazing!" Diana whispered.
"Indeed it is," Dumbledore agreed. "Few adult witches and wizards can cast this spell at even the most minimal level, but your wife learned how to do it when she was merely thirteen — and she was able to use it against a horde of the foulest creatures that exist. You'll notice that her stag looks more solid and detailed than my phoenix."
"I didn't realize..." Rose started to say, but then trailed off, unsure of how to express her feelings.
"You're stronger and more skilled than you give yourself credit for," Dumbledore said. "It's something we should probably discuss, but this isn't the time or place. We do need to get moving."
Feeling refreshed in the presence of two patronuses, they were able to make good time again, even as the murk and gloom thickened around them the deeper they pushed into the forest. By the time they reached their destination, however, Rose was feeling the stress of having to hold the patronus spell for so long, and she barely restrained herself from rushing forward into the bright clearing when the trees thinned enough for her to see it.
"Hold," Dumbledore commanded as Rose let the stag disappear. She was about to drop to the ground when she felt her wife's strong arms wrap around her, supporting her and encouraging her to lean back into them.
"Will you be alright?" Diana asked as they watched Dumbledore cast a series of spells in the air in front of them, some of which Rose now recognized and some she didn't.
"I think so. The patronus charm requires a happy memory to cast, and I have to concentrate on that memory in order to keep the spell going. So it's more mentally and emotionally taxing than most spells."
"Oh? And what memory did you use?" Diana inquired archly.
Rose tilted her head to grin up at her wife. "Well, I started with the first time I found myself surrounded by your arms, and proceeded from there."
Diana's response was interrupted by Dumbledore clearing his throat. "Ladies?" he said. "We may have a slight problem."
"Headmaster?"
He hefted a rock and looked intently at the two of them. "I cannot say for certain what will happen, but if I tell you to, I want the two of you to turn and run."
Rose scowled at him.
"Don't completely discount my ability to defend myself — I am not without some experience, as you well know." His lips quirked in a slight smile before he turned serious again and met Diana's eyes. "You must protect her, Mrs. Black, even at my expense. I must have your word." Diana nodded once, causing Rose to spin in her arms and glare at her.
"He's right," Diana said, heading off Rose's complaint. "If I have to pick which one of you to save, I'm choosing you."
"Very good," Dumbledore replied, turning back to the clearing and tossing the rock in. It landed with a thud about halfway between the treeline and a decrepit shack, and barely a second passed before sparks of electricity crackled across the bare ground. Something dark and red erupted from beneath the stone, spraying dirt everywhere, and then the clearing was silent again.
"What was that?" Rose and Diana asked with one voice.
"Mongolian death worm, if I'm not mistaken," Dumbledore replied calmly as he waved his wand in the air again. "Vicious, mindless predators."
"Excuse me?" Diana exclaimed in disbelief. "That sounds like something from a really bad horror movie."
"I don't know about that, but it truly is a horror," Dumbledore said. "They stun their prey with electrical shocks, then liquify the flesh with caustic venom as they consume the body over the course of several days." He finished his spells and turned to face his two horrified companions. "They are obviously not native to this land, but I assume Voldemort came across them in his travels after graduating from Hogwarts. Right now, I suspect that several are living underground around the Gaunt shack."
Rose gulped audibly. "I don't suppose we can apparate to the porch?"
Dumbledore shook his head. "There is an anti-apparition ward around the clearing — not one that would block apparition, but rather one that would flay us alive when we arrived at our destination. And no, I can't take it down. It's tied to a second ward which keeps the worms contained here. Were I to dispel the ward, then at best the worms would immediately attack us, attracted to the vibration our movements make on the ground. At worst, they would spread and become a plague in this region of Britain."
"That thing was massive — at least five feet long," Diana protested. "How can even one of them survive in such a small area?"
"They are native to the Gobi desert and can get by on minimal food," Dumbledore assured her. "They also sustain themselves with ambient magic, of which there is quite a bit around here. However, we can reasonably assume that they are hungry, which will make our job harder."
Diana nodded grimly. "So what are their weaknesses?"
"Not many, I'm afraid. They have no natural predators, at least not since the Crumple-horned Snorkacks were all hunted to extinction for their horns."
"Why their horns?"
"Powdered snorkack horn is the key ingredient in the sand used in time turners." Dumbledore shook his head. "Sadly, even they are almost all gone now, too. Such a tragic waste."
Rose winced and made a mental note to apologize to Luna at the first available opportunity.
"One bit of good news is that they do not hunt in packs," Dumbledore continued. "On the contrary, they are rather territorial and tend to avoid other worms, which is what makes the presence of several in such a small area so unusual. There are probably spells here designed to make them less aggressive towards each other."
"Can we counter that?" Rose asked. "Maybe use the Imperius curse on them to get them to attack each other?"
Dumbledore frowned at his student. "While not illegal to use on an animal, the Imperius is still a dark curse and not one I would use lightly."
"This situation hardly qualifies as light," Diana pointed out.
"True," he conceded, "but there are alternatives. A Confundus Charm might be strong enough to overcome whatever spells Voldemort used here, especially if coupled with serious wounds — the combination of blood and hunger might cause them to focus on each other."
"So, just cast a strong Confundus Charm?" Rose asked.
"Alas, matters are not so simple," Dumbledore said as he sat on a fallen tree. "First, the charm must be cast on a specific target, not simply on an area. So we must attract at least one to the surface."
"That doesn't sound too hard..."
"Second, the wards around this clearing inhibit the casting of spells. Anything I attempted would be greatly weakened at the very least. Objects may pass unhindered, but to cast magic we must first physically cross the ward line. That's why I can't tell exactly how many of these creatures we are facing."
"...and there's the other shoe dropping." Rose let out a huff as she sat down next to him.
"Objects?" Diana asked as she stepped up and gazed out over the clearing. "Even objects imbued with magic?" She held out a hand and one of her goblin-made short swords appeared.
"I suspect so," Dumbledore said, leaning forward and eyeing her sword carefully. "If I understand the ward correctly, it's only directed spells which are affected. Ambient magic can pass back and forth with ease, as should even heavily enchanted items like your sword. What is it that you have in mind?"
Diana's plan wasn't complicated, but it wasn't risk-free, either, and had to be executed with careful timing. The three spread themselves out along the treeline, each about ten meters from the other. Rose was in the middle with two rocks the size of softballs. She had cast hopping hexes on them — a pranking spell created by the Weasley twins — to make them even more enticing. Once the three were ready, Rose threw each stone several meters into the clearing and about halfway between her and each of the others.
Almost as soon as they landed, electricity arced across the ground around both of them; but before they could be consumed they hopped up into the air and fell a short distance away. The ugly, blood-red worms which burst up out of the earth stopped short in surprise, too accustomed to their stunned prey simply waiting patiently to be captured.
That was when Diana and Dumbledore acted. Diana threw her sword at the worm closest to her, skewering its side in an explosion of blood. At the same time, Dumbledore stepped across the ward line and incanted, "Confundo!" He held the spell for two or three long seconds before jumping back into the trees. The electrical discharge which surged across the ground where he'd been standing told them that he'd cut it far too close.
The worm which Diana had attacked was now turned and facing her. Its mouth opened, revealing a ring of razor-sharp teeth as it hissed impotently at her from the other side of the containment ward. Thus distracted, it was unprepared to either dodge or defend itself when the second worm suddenly slammed into its side, sinking all of its own teeth through the hard, leathery skin and injecting its sibling with caustic acid. The hissing turned to shrieking as the first worm began dissolving from the inside out.
"Once more," Dumbledore said, and Rose grimaced as she spelled two more rocks. She'd had no idea that worms of any sort could make noises like that, and she was sure that they would soon haunt some of her more unpleasant nightmares.
They all moved a little ways around the edge of the clearing and repeated the process, Diana using her remaining sword on a second worm while Dumbledore risked himself to bespell another to attack the new victim. In the end, though, they needn't have bothered: the death throes of the first worm were clearly far more enticing, and Dumbledore simply stepped in again to cast more Confundus Charms on the creatures to encourage their hostility towards one another.
Soon they were all attacking each other in a feeding frenzy that reminded Rose strongly of sharks. It took almost half an hour for silence to fall across the clearing, and they threw several more hopping rocks before they felt safe enough to venture out themselves. Even so, Dumbledore had to put more than one of the worms out of its misery, and the effort to retrieve Diana's swords proved to be exceptionally messy.
Once the worst of the blood and gore had been swept away by several strong cleaning charms, the weary trio stepped up onto the small, broken-down porch and faced the rickety door. A snake, little more than a skeleton now, hung there and started twisting as soon as they were in front of it.
"Password!"
"Uh, it wants a password," Rose said as the hissing increased in volume. "And it doesn't sound happy."
"I think you'd better try something quickly," Dumbledore whispered. "I don't believe there will be time for me to take down the defenses here."
"Um, how about, uh... Open? No? Uh, Open for me, Slytherin, Greatest of the Hogwarts Four?"
"Imposter!"
"I don't think that was—"
The world exploded around them, and soon they all found themselves lying on their backs in the clearing, surrounded by bits and pieces of the porch. Towering above them, rising at least ten meters into the sky, was a massive, blood-red death worm. Its gaping maw was filled with teeth at least as long as Rose's forearm, and judging by the sounds it was making, it was absolutely furious.
"Bloody hell," Rose exclaimed as she rolled to the side, barely avoiding being crushed when the death worm's mouth slammed into the ground where she'd landed. "Maybe I should have stayed in Hogwarts with Hermione and Mala."
Meanwhile, back in the castle...
"...and once the Lip Locker Hex took effect, Ron and Lavender couldn't separate themselves. They couldn't even cast a finishing charm to cancel the hex because they couldn't talk! And of course no one else was willing to do it — they were too annoyed at the couple's over-the-top snogging every night in the common room!"
Mala had to stop to catch her breath, she was laughing so hard at Hermione's story.
"Ron didn't talk to his brothers for almost a week, though I don't think they minded much," Hermione continued, wiping away a tear from her own laughter before her mood turned more somber. "I think that was about the time I realized that Ron Weasley wasn't the person I wanted to be dating after all."
Mala's merriment was cut short. "I guess it wasn't easy, admitting that to yourself?"
Hermione shook her head. "No. I'd started convincing myself back in fourth year that he fancied me, and over time assumed that he was the only one who ever would."
"A person should never simply settle when it comes to affairs of the heart," Mala said, putting one hand on Hermione's shoulder, but the younger girl just shrugged.
"I've never been popular, and I'll never be as pretty as witches like Lavender. So I was only being practical. But over the past couple of months I've decided that there are worse things than being an old maid and that I shouldn't worry so much about being alone."
Mala shook her head and was about to respond when they came to the stairs leading down from the seventh floor.
"Well, we've walked the entire castle," Hermione said a bit too brightly. "Lunch, then?"
The Amazon looked troubled but didn't object to her friend's diversion. "Should we check the map first?"
"Good idea," Hermione said as she pulled out a piece of old parchment. "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good," she recited as she tapped the parchment with her wand.
With Mala leaning over her shoulder, Hermione scanned the map for anything unusual. "Looks like most everyone is in the Great Hall, eating," she noted.
"What's that?" Mala asked, pointing to a corridor on the third floor.
Hermione frowned. The footprints suggested a person, but there was no name. Or rather, there was no clear name; instead, there was a jumble of letters that kept rearranging themselves.
"That's right outside Myrtle's bathroom. Whatever it is, it can't be good," Hermione muttered. "Mischief managed!"
The two fairly flew down the stairs and through the corridors, stopping in front of a girls' bathroom where they found a hunched, disheveled wizard who had something sparkling peeking out from under his long, dirty hair.
"Wormtail!" Hermione hissed as she whipped out her wand and cast, "Incarcerous!"
His own wand came out just as quickly, and he batted away her spell like an insect. "Ah, the mudblood. Leave it to you to stick your dirty nose where it doesn't belong."
"It's you who doesn't belong, Pettigrew! You betrayed everything Hogwarts stands for!"
"Why, there's no place where I'm more at home than here," he replied. "Especially with that old muggle-lover gone." His wand had barely moved when a pale blue streak shot out towards them. Before Hermione could cast a shield, Mala's sword flashed and intercepted the spell.
"Stand down!" called the Amazon, her deep voice resonant with authority. "You do not belong in these halls, and you will be taken into custody!"
"Another muggle?" he asked with a sneer. "Or is this the same one that was in the news? I can't tell — muggles all look the same, after all." With that, he began to fight in earnest, firing off spells so fast that Hermione barely had time to defend herself. Mala didn't have her shield, and in the close quarters of the corridor she was unable to dodge a banishing charm that sent her crashing into a wall.
This allowed him to turn his full attention on the young witch. The level of skill he displayed was well beyond what Hermione had heard Peter Pettigrew was capable of, and she couldn't help but wonder what sort of training he'd gone through to improve so much.
Bone Shattering. Organ Liquefying. Brain Boiling.
A part of Hermione's mind was appalled that she recognized what some of his curses were.
Blood Desiccating. Eye Gouging. Magic Burning.
Another part of her mind was screaming that she needed to come up with some sort of counter, because her current strategy of dodging and shielding wouldn't be enough. Sooner or later she'd be a step too slow, and one of these curses would hit.
"Crucio!"
Her internal debates came to a sudden, crashing halt when the torture curse caused every single nerve in her body to start firing in uncontrollable torment. She writhed and screamed on the floor as her entire existence shattered into nothing but agony piled upon more agony.
In his arrogance and desire to inflict pain, however, Pettigrew neglected to keep his eye on the allegedly worthless muggle — a woman who'd become very protective of Hermione over the past months.
"That's where you belong, mudblood, crawling on the ground," the rat-man taunted her. "Now it's time for you to join your filthy muggle parents. Avada—"
"No!"
There was a flash of metal and Mala's sword cut through the space where Pettigrew's head was less than a second before. She missed his neck, but she managed to remove more than a few hairs, and something sparkling was sent spinning away before it hit the wall with a crack.
"Meddlesome muggle!" he screamed before casting an explosive blasting hex at the ground between him and them, sending a cloud of debris and sharp stone flying at them. When the dust cleared, he was gone and they were lying side-by-side on the floor, bleeding from small cuts everywhere.
Mala coughed as she looked around. At the far end of the corridor, she could see several students peering nervously around the corner. "Are all your patrols this exciting?" she asked. When she got no answer, she turned towards Hermione and realized that the young witch wasn't stirring at all. Staggering to her feet, she slung her friend over her shoulder and then, almost as an afterthought, grabbed the shiny object — which she now recognized as a broken tiara — before rushing to the hospital wing.
Meanwhile, back at the shack...
"Lacero!"
Dumbledore's laceration curse sliced into the side of the death worm. Its hide was thick and strong, a necessity for fast travel through sand and earth, but the spell penetrated deeply enough to send a splash of thick, purple blood across the ground. The creature shrieked in pain and turned to face her attacker, giving Rose an opening.
"Defodio!"
The gouging curse didn't cut nearly as deeply as Dumbledore's spell, but it was enough to elicit another shriek. The worm turned once more, and Rose had to run around to the far side of the shack. Whatever magic Voldemort had used on the creature, it included a strong inhibition against doing anything that would damage the main structure of the building, so Rose, Dumbledore, and Diana could use it as a shield.
When the fight started, Diana had tried to take to the air, but she hadn't gotten very high before she realized that she'd quickly lose sight of the shack and therefore the battle — clearly aerial tactics were out. She hastily rejoined the others on the ground, whereupon she discovered that the hide of the monster was nearly as thick as her sword was long, limiting her effectiveness in this fight. And because of the biology of the worm, physical strikes with her hands and fists proved no more useful than blasting and bludgeoning hexes.
"Lacero!"
Fire spells were out, too — heat only invigorated the beast.
"We can't keep this up," Diana shouted at Rose.
"The Sword of Gryffindor might do it, but I can't get close enough to use it!"
Diana considered that as she narrowly avoided a loop of the worm's body which slammed down in front of her. "Do you trust me?"
Rose actually spared a moment to stare at her wife in incredulity before she was forced to duck some flying porch debris which the thrashing worm had rendered airborne. "You're asking me this now? Of course I trust you!"
"Then give me the sword, and wait a bit longer after you cast your next spell. Let its head get as close as possible to the ground before you dodge."
Rose hesitated only a fraction of a second before lobbing the sword's hilt towards Diana, then she pointed her wand at the worm and shouted, "Defodio!" This time she nicked the edge of the worm's mouth, slicing into the tender insides. Already hurting and enraged, the creature turned on Rose with renewed speed and fury, launching itself at her faster than anyone could have predicted. She held her ground, though, waiting until the last instant before casting another gouging hex into the onrushing chasm and diving out of the way.
When she came up again, Diana was on top of the worm, the Sword of Gryffindor buried deep in its head. She was barely holding on as it whipped back and forth high in the air, shrieking as it tried to get rid of the source of its torment. At one point Diana got jerked off her feet, the sword's crossguard catching her hard on the side of her neck. Still she pushed and twisted, using her supernatural strength to force the longer, poisoned weapon deeper into the flesh where the brain was located. Finally the beast let out a long, pitiful cry as it shuddered, then crashed lifelessly to the ground.
Diana herself had to let go and jump away before the body could roll over and crush her. Rose charged across and caught her wife as she sank to her knees, exhausted. Already a painful-looking bruise was forming alongside her throat, though Rose suspected that anyone else would have had their neck snapped by such a blow.
"Quite remarkable," Dumbledore murmured when he joined them. "Quite remarkable indeed. I don't think there's ever been a specimen this large before."
"I think it was the mother," Diana said softly. "I could sense rudimentary feelings from it, and I think it was enraged over the deaths of the others." She sighed as she shook her head. "It wasn't a monster, it was just protecting its nest. What's monstrous is what Voldemort did to these poor animals, bending them to his will."
Dumbledore nodded. "And that is probably among the least of his many crimes."
Diana took her time standing up, then walked over to retrieve Rose's sword. "I'm sorry," she whispered as she laid a hand on the side of the dead worm. After a moment, she turned back to the others. "Let's get this over with. The sooner we put an end to that man, the better off the world will be."
The snake skeleton on the door was silent when they approached this time, and Dumbledore carefully dispelled the remaining protections before vanishing the door entirely. He then cast several complex detection charms at the front room, his frown deepening with every spell he cast.
"Is there a problem?" Rose asked tiredly. "Or perhaps I should ask, what's the problem this time?"
"Traps, of course," Dumbledore answered, sounding resigned. "The individual floorboards are spelled in a seemingly random pattern. Some are charmed with ostensibly minor threats, like tripping jinxes and dancing hexes. They ensure that you can't avoid the other, cursed floorboards."
"How bad is it?" Diana asked.
"So far, I've found boards with Flesh Melting Curses, Brain Boiling Curses, a couple of Self-Mutilation Curses, and... oh, my. As a young man, Tom was apparently as creative as he was fiendish."
"What do you mean?"
"I've found what appears to be a Carnivorous Kidney Curse. If I understand this correctly, it will give one of your kidneys teeth and compel it to start eating you from the inside out."
Diana winced at the image. "Can't you just get rid of them all, like you did with the door?"
"I was only able to do that once I'd countered the spells on it," Dumbledore explained, slowly shaking his head. "If I were to just vanish the floor without taking precautions first, I fear that the result would be... explosive."
"Could I fly across?"
"There's a ward below the level of the ceiling similar to the anti-apparition ward protecting the porch — it wouldn't give you much room to maneuver. Apart from that, you'd undoubtedly need one or possibly both of us to deal with whatever magic is protecting the item itself. No, I'm afraid we're going to have to do it the hard way." He turned to face Rose. "The curses seem to get worse towards the center of the room, which is presumably our goal. We will have to dispel the curses and charms on each board as we go along. Come, Mrs. Potter — it looks like it's time to put your new lessons in spell detection and curse breaking to good use."
Foot by painstaking foot, they made their way deeper into the room. While Diana stood guard, watching for possible threats, over the following two hours Rose received an accelerated course in basic and intermediate curse breaking. Voldemort may have been brilliant, but most of the protections in the shack had been placed when he was still young. There were a few hair-raising moments along the way, but between Dumbledore's extensive knowledge and Rose's ability to pick up practical magic quickly, it was simply a matter of time.
Upon reaching the center of the room, Dumbledore advised Rose to proceed much more carefully. His caution was well placed, for under a dizziness hex which she'd immediately found was a second, hidden trap that would release pressurized acid as soon as the board was lifted. Dispelling them simultaneously would have required extensive effort for a single person, but together they were able to make short work of it, thus allowing them to safely reveal a small stone box hidden under the floor.
"Impressions?" Dumbledore asked.
"Still too easy," Rose answered, casting several detection charms. "I haven't seen this curse before. It's... not physical? I think?"
Dumbledore cast the charms himself and nodded. "Indeed. It looks like a Nightmare Curse, which would cause a person to become lost in their own worst fears. If you look more deeply, however, you'll find that it's tied to a Notification Ward."
"So while you're lying here, gibbering and crying, Voldemort learns about the intrusion and comes after you personally."
"Exactly. I'm sure that he would be most eager to interrogate anyone clever or powerful enough to get this far."
"I vote that we don't give him that opportunity," Diana remarked from the doorway where she was keeping an eye out for any further threats that might come from the woods.
"I quite agree," Dumbledore said as he began to counter the spells. "Fortunately, these are among the oldest and simplest protections we've seen so far. Perhaps he returned several times to add protections as he learned more? I think... yes, that's it. The box is now safe to remove."
Rose cast a levitation charm on the prize and took it out into the clearing, where the shadows had grown long and deep. Once she set it down, Dumbledore cast his own spell to open the lid, then froze in shock for a moment before dropping to his knees in front of it.
"Professor?" Rose asked with a frown, looking back and forth between him and the ring in the box. It was a large ring with a curious black stone set on it.
"It can't be," he whispered.
"It can't be what?"
"All my life, I've sought it out, and now here it is." He appeared to be completely oblivious to her presence. "Even when I saw the memories, I didn't dare imagine..."
"Diana, there's something wrong," Rose called, and Diana jogged over from the treeline.
"Ariana?" he whispered.
"Headmaster Dumbledore?" she said in growing alarm. "Headmaster, don't touch that ring. You know what it is!"
Rather than heed her warning, the old wizard's shaking hand shot out towards the box, grasping the ring and pulling it back to his chest. "No!" he cried as he rose unsteadily to his feet. "It's mine! You won't take this chance from me!" Rose didn't even see him pull his wand, she just saw the spell lancing out towards her before she rolled to the side.
"Expelliarmus!"
Her own disarming charm sent his wand flying, but her response proved to be unnecessary because he was already on his knees, his face contorted in pain. As she watched, blackness spread out from the ring on his finger, consuming his hand and sending grey tendrils rapidly up his wrist. Rose was too shocked to move, but Diana didn't hesitate. She leapt forward and her sword flashed as she brought it down, severing his arm at the elbow.
"Diana!"
"We have no choice," she said tersely as she ripped off his sleeve. "Good — the curse didn't make it all the way up his arm." She then pulled out her golden lasso and began tying it around the stump as the old wizard collapsed on his back. "Whatever that was, it would have worked its way through the rest of his body. Maybe this will save him."
Rose nodded dumbly. "Right, OK. I'll... I'll get the ring." She turned to where the severed arm had fallen. It lay there, blackened and shriveled on the ground. Rose thought it barely looked like an arm at all, but the ring was recognizable.
And for a moment, it seemed to call to her. She only remembered her mother's voice because of what the dementors did to her, but she could swear that she heard it now, calling her name.
"Rose! Destroy it!"
Rose shook her head to chase away the ghostly voices. "Right," she said, seizing the Sword of Gryffindor and bringing it down squarely across the ring, splitting the stone from the gold band. Inky smoke rose up from the band, and a hollow screaming echoed around the clearing before the smoke dissipated completely.
The gold band was a complete loss, crumbling to dust right in front of her, but the stone somehow survived. She cast several detection spells on it before deciding that it was safe. There was a lot of magic on it, but nothing that registered as dark or dangerous.
"Can you do something for his pain?" Diana asked from behind her. "I've stopped the bleeding, but he's still in agony, and we have to get him back to the castle."
Rose grabbed the stone and Dumbledore's wand, tucking them into her robes before joining Diana.
"Please..." Dumbledore's voice came out in a rasping whisper. Rose couldn't tell if he was talking to her or someone she couldn't see.
"I don't know many healing spells — certainly nothing strong enough for his injuries," Rose said with a grimace, knowing there was only one thing she could do for him. Resolutely she pulled out her wand. "Stupefy!"
"I guess that will have to... what are you doing?" Diana demanded when Rose took out the stone again, turning it over in her hand as she examined it.
"The curse is gone," Rose said. "I think the horcrux was limited to the ring, not the stone."
"Are you certain? There's still something... wrong about it."
"I know. Dumbledore mentioned his sister, Ariana. And I feel like I can hear my mum and dad calling to me while I'm holding it." She prodded it with a finger, flipping it back over.
"That was the horcrux trying to tempt you, like the other one did in his office," Diana insisted.
"Then why weren't you tempted?" Rose asked. "And why do I still feel like they're calling to me, even after I destroyed the horcrux part?" This time the touch was almost a caress as she rolled the stone gently over in her hand, and a voice answered from behind her.
"Because we have been calling out to you, sweetie."