Well, I keep forgetting about answering those questions. I'll do them right after I post this chapter, though, so that I don't forget again. They should be up-to-date within an hour of this chapter.

...Are we going to get to 1000 reviews by the end of this book? I think I'd pee myself.

To my American friends, happy Thanksgiving! To everyone, happy end of November! ...Well, actually, to everyone who uses the Gregorian calendar. Everyone unconditionally, just have happiness, k? Hopefully I can help a little with that. So here's a chapter that I'd been looking forward to writing and posting.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

THE FALL

O

"Oh, that's not good."

All eighteen other eyes fell upon Mia, who was biting her lip. That wasn't what they were hoping to hear from the person who was supposed to be guiding them back.

"What's wrong?" asked James calmly.

Mia turned back to them, looking apprehensive. "It's all dead."

"What is?"

"The slime mold," said Mia. "It died, or retracted, or something. It's not on the walls anymore. We're going to have to find our own way back."

"Can we remember which way we took?" asked James, looking around.

"Probably not," said Aidan. "We were walking through a bunch of walls. How are we going to figure out which walls we walked through?"

"Walk with our hands brushing the wall," said Gavin. "Then we'll feel when the wall isn't real."

"But how do we know that there weren't any other fake walls leading the wrong way?" said Marco.

"We don't," said Rose. "We'll just have to try to remember."

"Oh, we should have brought food with us," said Alec.

"We're not going to starve to death in here," said Gavin. "It wasn't too far a trip."

"Yeah," said Barry. "We'll find our way back eventually if we just keep walking and keep track of where we've been."

"Before we go," said Albus, "Mia, do you want to check in there again—see if there's anything important?"

"I checked all over the little room," said Mia. "It's not big. There wasn't much in there… just the desk and the parchment with the little list."

"'Barricant,' 'Vivertain,' 'Superstorm,' and 'Darkriver,'" repeated Albus, as they started walking back the way they'd come.

"Hey," said Exo. "Do you think those are spells that Litinia was talking about? The Dark spells?"

"'Barricant' sounds like 'Barricade,'" said Aidan. "Is that what the spell right there is?" He pointed at the wall with the glistening lights.

"The 'Superstorm Devoctrix' is the one Litinia said gave her so much power," said Rose. "So maybe the 'Barricant Devoctrix' is the one that makes the barriers."

"And the Darkriver Devoctrix is the theorized spell that kills Muggles," said Exo. "But why would Litinia use that?"

"Well, that was the only one of the four listed that wasn't checked off," said Mia. "'Barricant,' 'Vivertain,' and 'Superstorm' were checked off. 'Darkriver' was listed but wasn't checked off. And the other nineteen were blank."

"Maybe she was making a list of Devoctrices," said Albus, "and the ones that are checked off are the ones she's used."

"Maybe she's making a list," said James. "Of Devoctrices. And the ones she checked off… those are the ones she's used?"

Albus rolled his eyes; they still couldn't hear him talk about it, even when they were having a full-blown conversation on the topic.

"What's up with you?" asked Alec, looking over to Albus. "Usually when we're having these sorts of discussions, you're totally into it."

Albus shrugged.

"Then Litinia has used the Barricant Devoctrix and the Superstorm Devoctrix," said Marco. "So what's the Vivertain Devoctrix?"

Nobody spoke as they all considered the question.

"Horcrux," grunted Barry.

James nodded. "That's gotta be it," he said. "Is the Horcrux a different kind of spell than we know? I mean, that would only make sense."

"Maybe the other people using it didn't even know that it was a Devoctrix at the time they were using it," said Exo.

"So what's with the knife and the twenty-three Patronuses?" asked James, looking over at Albus. "Was that just a coincidence, or what?"

"Twenty-three is three plus seven plus thirteen," said Albus. "Not sure if that's important."

"Do you think the knife is a Devoctrix?" said James.

Albus took out the knife and looked at it again. "I don't know," he said honestly. "Both ways seem like too much of a coincidence…"

"This conversation has been absolutely fascinating," said Aidan, "but has anyone paid the slightest attention to where we're going?"

They all stopped walking at the same time.

"Er, no," said Mia. "I kind of forgot that we weren't just walking down a straight hallway…"

"Have we passed the right wall already?" said James, feeling the wall beside him.

"Not sure," said Rose, turning around and looking the other direction. "It's all just underground tunnels and it all looks the same."

"Could we just carve out the walls?" asked Barry, rubbing the wall. "Or would that cause the tunnels to collapse?"

"I wouldn't risk it," said Aidan. "Let's split up—half of us walk backwards, half of us forwards, and whoever finds the illusion wall first calls to the others."

"No need," said Alec, who had walked farther ahead, feeling the wall. His hand was going through the wall.

"Okay," said Rose, "but is that the right way?"

"Let's find out," said Alec, sticking his head past the illusion. The rest of him walked through, and they followed him.

"Still no mold," said Mia with a frown. "Darn… I was hoping it was just that hallway."

"Did it go away because we destroyed the Horcrux?" asked Exo as James waved them in the direction they had come from, assuming this was the right set of tunnels. "If so, what else is going to happen as a result of the Horcrux being destroyed?"

"There aren't any mushrooms," said Gavin. "Unless this is the wrong path, the mushrooms that were belching spores are gone."

"But what if something appeared?" asked Exo nervously. "What if these plants disappeared but something worse appeared?"

"Why would it?" asked Albus. "Litinia would have focused all of her endeavors on defending the Horcrux. If we already destroyed it… what's the point? Hasn't she already lost? Why would she set booby traps to occur after we destroyed it?"

"Revenge?" suggested Alec.

"Why not put the effort into stopping us from destroying it in the first place?"

"I'm really surprised we didn't encounter more defenses," said James. "I mean… it's a part of her soul. It's a really precious thing to put with such poor defense."

"Not to mention a path leading right there," said Mia.

"I mean… there was the Fokii basilisk, but that wasn't even originally there," said James. "It was lucky for Dismiusa that there was something that powerful dead in the castle for the Fokii to take over."

"Maybe her real defenses didn't last seven hundred years," suggested Marco.

"What, and her body did?" said Albus. "She was here for seven hundred years."

"You said she was in pain," said James. "Right?"

"I don't know," said Albus. "I can't be sure it wasn't just a trick to make me release her. But she was down here for seven hundred years! Nothing was down here with her except her plants and her Horcrux!"

"I don't know if we have all of the information yet," said James. "I don't know how we could possibly get all of that information, either."

"Oh," said Barry, his hand falling through the wall. "I don't think it was that soon last time—was it?"

"No," said James, sighing. "I think we're headed the wrong way."

Barry stuck his head through the wall. He pulled it back quickly. "Whoa," he said. "That wasn't what I was expecting."

"What?" asked James, poking his head through next. "Whoa."

"Let me see," said Alec, walking forward; he leaned into the wall and smacked his head right on the stone. "Ow!"

"You didn't walk far enough this way, sweetie," said Mia, taking Alec's shoulders and shoving him to the side.

Alec stuck his head through the wall successfully as Albus got to the wall and took a look for himself.

"Whoa," said Alec as Albus's head emerged on the other side. "It's… solid crystal or something. Isn't this the wall we saw in the forest, right before Dismiusa?"

"Yes," said Albus, looking over at Alec's floating head, neck feeding into the wall. "This is the kind of wall I saw before when Dismiusa got loose—the one she was trapped behind."

There was a translucent wall about twenty feet behind the wall, made of crystal, giving off a slight glow. Albus stepped all the way through, and the rest of the crew followed him and Alec.

"Is this the one that you cut through with the knife in the forest?" asked James, looking towards Albus.

"Yeah," said Albus. "I—"

"AAUGH!"

Albus and James jumped and whipped their wands into position as they looked towards the source of the sound—Exo had tried to place his hand on the crystal wall, but had fallen directly through it and landed on the ground halfway through. He stood back up and jumped away from the wall.

"I… wasn't expecting to go through it," said Exo, shaking slightly.

"How exactly did you do that?" asked James, pressing a hand against the wall. It seemed to resist him, and when Albus pressed a hand against the wall as well, he found that it was solid just like any other wall.

"That doesn't make any sense," said Rose, knocking on the crystal. "Why Exo? Why not Mia?"

Mia was pushing against the wall as well, but she couldn't pass through it.

"What on Earth?" muttered Albus, shoving against the wall.

"Al, you said Dismiusa broke through the first time by tracing a path?" said James. "Can you remember the path?"

"No," said Albus.

"Why am I the only one?" asked Exo, watching Barry, Gavin, and Marco press hands against the crystal glass, shaking their heads.

Albus suddenly had a flashback to his second year: he and Exo were standing in Oddolweld Pasture on Lottocrough Island during the Lunar Eclipse Festival. A strange energy had billowed from John Solomon's wand. Everyone around Albus had gasped and collapsed, and Albus had been thinking almost the same thing: Why am I the only one not affected? The answer back then was that he wasn't a werewolf.

The answer now was right in front of him, and it was also one of the security methods Solomon had placed upon his invitations to the festival. The invitations had stated that only werewolves could unlock the letter, but that hadn't been true…

"I bet it's because he has a Transfection," said Albus, staring at the wall.

"What?" said Exo, looking over. "You think Dismiusa made this barrier passable by anyone with a Transfection?"

"Does she even have one?" asked Rose.

"Wait," said Alec. "Like, Animagi and werewolves?"

"And Metamorphmagi and Botanimagi," said Aidan. "But… why would she do that? Does Dismiusa have a Transfection?"

"Maybe she was a Botanimagus," said Rose.

"I've only ever heard of a few Botanimagi in history," said James.

"Well, who wants to turn into a plant?" scoffed Alec.

"But if anyone were to do it, it would be a deity of the forest, wouldn't it?" continued James.

"I bet making barriers like the one around her Horcrux took a lot of strength," said Albus. "It would be a lot more difficult. So she wouldn't want to make all of her barriers like that. And really, how many people have Transfections? The numbers aren't high at all. So it's still pretty secure. And all she needed to really defend was the Horcrux."

"So what's behind here?" said James. "Exo, did you see anything?"

"I didn't really look," said Exo, "but it looked like a classroom."

"A classroom?" said Rose, perking up. "Not in the castle?"

"No, it was too dark and cold to be a classroom from the castle," said Exo. "Do you want me to look again?"

"Really quickly, to check if it's safe for Al to carve it open for us," said James.

Exo nodded and pushed his face through. He stepped through entirely, and they waited.

It was nerve-wracking enough when he didn't return immediately, but then they became increasingly aware that the hall was shaking. The tunnels were rumbling, and pebbles on the floor were bouncing.

"EXO?" yelled Albus, pressing a hand to the crystal wall. He put his eyes up against the glass, but the room and the wall were both too foggy to see anything on the other side. He fumbled around for the knife in his robe pocket, but then remembered he could summon it. "Blade!" he said, and the knife appeared in his hand. He slid it into the wall and started to cut a hole; the tremors faded away.

"We don't know what's in there," said Mia, clutching Alec's arm.

"And Exo's in there with whatever's in there!" said Albus. "I'll handle it—I'm strong enough—"

"But there's nothing on the other side of the wall!" said Barry. "I was sensing Exo there with my Supersensory Charm, and then he suddenly vanished. But nothing was ever in there with him! That means it's either booby-trapped, or filled with really nasty plants!"

"Exo didn't say he saw any plants," said James.

The cut on Albus's hand was burning again, as it had done when he'd carved a hole in the wall leading to Dismiusa's forest clearing. He ignored it and sliced open a hole large enough for everyone to crawl through, and he jumped into the strange room.

It had long tables and chairs just like a classroom in Hogwarts, but it was very dimly lit. They seemed to be alone in the room.

"There's nothing in here," said Aidan, taking in the sights. "It's all just desks and chairs. No parchment, no quills… and no plants, which is good…"

"And no Exo," said Albus, panic growing.

"It's creepily empty," said Mia. "Where could he have gone? It's no bigger than a classroom back at the castle."

Albus ran up to the teacher's desk in front. There were locked drawers all around; he inserted the knife into the locks and began turning. All of the drawers were empty, except for two. In one of them, he found a piece of parchment with several unlabeled scribbles on it, and he stowed it in his pocket. In the other, he found an empty syringe.

"What is this room?" wondered Albus aloud.

"A syringe?" asked James. "For what?"

"Extracting blood?" said Albus. "Mul blood? The Marionette's Medicine?"

"Maybe this was where Litinia was keeping the muls," said Rose. "And I don't know how they would have escaped, but if they were just sitting under Hogwarts since the thirteenth or fourteenth century, then it's a wonder they didn't get out sooner."

"Er… room is shaking again," said Mia, clutching Alec's hand.

"Maybe we're about to find where Exo went," said James. "Brace yourselves!"

The room started shaking more and more furiously. They started spinning, and there was a rumble that grew to a roar, and then suddenly they were belched onto the floor of a more luminous room.

"Hey!"

Albus leapt up at Exo's voice. Exo was on the other side of the room, feeling the wall. He ran over to the others, who were picking themselves off of the floor.

"Where are we?" asked Marco.

"Check the map to make sure," said James, looking to Barry, "but I think we're back in the castle. This is a classroom on the first floor."

"I didn't look out the door yet," said Exo. "I was kind of afraid to open it. I wasn't sure what was out there."

"Well, it would only make sense," said James. "Maybe Litinia built in a shortcut out of her chambers, just in case someone tried to trap her there…"

"Wait," said Aidan, picking up the same confusion that Albus was getting. "Then why didn't she escape this way when she was trapped down there for seven hundred years? If that really was a barrier passable only by people with Transfections, then we've already established that she could pass it!"

"People with Transfections," said Rose. "Is Dismiusa even a person anymore?"

"No!" exclaimed Albus. "When I was talking to Professor Ramanu, she said that whatever was under the castle had ceased to be human seven hundred years ago! Maybe… maybe she unintentionally sealed herself in!"

"Her husband killed her," noted Exo.

"And she came back because she had a Horcrux," said Albus. "Maybe she accidentally sealed herself inside her chambers when she did that—and she's been marinating in her own hate for that long, thinking somebody else sealed her away! But she didn't realize that by losing her humanity, she lost her ability to pass through her own barriers!"

"Too many maybes," said Aidan. "How about we focus on the real things we know for sure—like the fact that Dismiusa can be killed now?"

"We are indeed in the castle," said Barry, pointing to the Marauder's Map. "Should we tell the teachers that Dismiusa is mortal again?"

"I hope she's mortal now," said James. "Hopefully she didn't have more than one Horcrux."

"I don't think anyone until Voldemort attempted more than one Horcrux," said Albus. "And Litinia's was a full seven hundred years ago."

"So, Albus," said James. "I saw you put something in your pocket right before we teleported out of the room—before you found the syringe. What was that?"

Albus took out the bit of parchment. He smoothed it out on his leg, and then held it out; it was a continuous, unmarked line, overlapping itself in places, looping around like slanted, curving handwriting.

"I feel like I've seen this before," said Albus quietly.

"How did we get back, anyway?" asked Gavin. "Does anyone know? Exo, what happened before you got sent back here?"

"Out loud, I said, 'This looks like a Hogwarts classroom,'" said Exo. "Just talking to myself. And then I got sent back."

"I think Rose said the word 'Hogwarts' right before we get sent back here, too," said Aidan. "That must be the trigger word."

"We should really go let people know that we're not dead," said Mia, jabbing a thumb at the door.

"Right," said James. "But they're going to want to know things… and they'll be asking us more questions. Everybody, it would be no use pretending we weren't up to anything… so just tell them the truth, all right?"

"The whole truth?" said Albus.

"I doubt we'd get in trouble for doing ninety percent of the work to kill this bitch Dismiusa," said James. "Probably special awards for services to the school, actually."

"I'd like to see my name up on one of those trophies I'm always cleaning," said Barry, nodding.

"We'll just tell them everything," said James. "Then we wait and see what the teachers are going to do. I doubt we could take on Dismiusa without them, but according to the prophecy… Al and I are supposed to finish the job."

"I doubt they'd let us help or get in on the action at all," said Albus.

"I doubt they can stop us, with you able to summon that knife," said James. "They should know that by now. There's nowhere they can contain us."

"They could knock you unconscious," observed Alec.

"Let's not give them any ideas," said James.

The siege alarm suddenly blared through the castle; Barry flipped to the front of the Marauder's Map to view the main entrance of the castle.

"Do you think she knows we got her Horcrux?" asked Exo.

"GUYS—WE HAVE A SITUATION," shouted Barry.

"What?" said James, leaping over to Barry and the Marauder's Map; Barry pointed at the page.

Albus ran over to look, and gasped when he saw the name to which Barry was pointing: Litinia Darstary.

"Holy—she's in the castle," whispered James. "That's exactly where we want her. We couldn't get to her if she was in the forest, but she's come here!"

"This still isn't going to be easy!" said Aidan as they ran for the door.

"No, but we never expected it to be," said James, throwing open the door; he ran outside and was promptly bowled over by Wilcox.

"WHAT IN THE—"

"Oh—hello, Professor, glad I ran into you!"

"JAMES? WHERE THE LIVING HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?"

"Short version, long version?"

"Short version, obviously—the essentials?"

"We've been down under the castle, getting rid of Litinia's Horcrux for you."

"WHAT?!"

Albus and company went outside to join James; James showed Wilcox the shattered fossil rock, as well as the Sword of Gryffindor.

"WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GET THAT?"

"Sorting Hat," said James. "But that's part of the long version."

"Horcruxes," said Wilcox, his eye twitching, "have nasty defenses, or it defeats the purpose of having a safe container. How did you—what, ten of you?—get past the defenses that quickly? Without a single injury?!"

"Well, Albus cut his hand and forehead up pretty badly, but that's also part of the long version," said James. "Dismiusa's defenses were set up by an incredibly powerful category of spell called the Devoctrices: only Dismiusa could—"

"The what?"

"The Devoctrices," said James, raising his eyebrow as Wilcox paled. "Why, does that sound familiar?"

"Short version, please!" said Wilcox.

"Only Dismiusa's blood could pass through the barrier," said James. "Fortunately, Litinia Darstary is Dismiusa, and Mia is Litinia's descendent—"

"WHAT—"

"So Mia could pass through the barrier, and she brought back the Horcrux and I destroyed it, and then we found a secret chamber that teleported us back here," said James. "So that was the super defense, but she didn't foresee that her descendant would return to help destroy her. Otherwise the defenses were impenetrable, so she shouldn't have needed anything else. As it is, we've destroyed the Horcrux. And then we happened to discover that Dismiusa is actually in the castle right now, so we should probably focus on that at this point in time."

"How the bloody hell do you know that Dismiusa is—"

"Long version! Professor, she can be killed now. We have to take her down before she kills everyone of age in the castle like she's sworn to do!"

"Then I'll hear the full version some other time," said Wilcox. "Do you know where she is?"

"She's just come in the front entrance, sir," said Barry. "I think she has some sort of mental connection to the Fokii, so the basilisk Fokii we killed in the catacombs probably alerted her that we were after her Horcrux."

"You killed the basilisk?!" blurted Wilcox. "…Again?!"

"Let's head to the main entrance!"

"No, not you!" said Wilcox. "You get back to the other Gryffindors. I will alert the other teachers. Stay out of this, for your own good!"

"With all due respect, Professor, if I were focused only on my own good, I would of course return to the hospital wing and stay put," said James. "But for everyone else's good, I think I'll stay out here, and I think you know why."

Wilcox shook his head, turned the direction he had been running, and restarted his charge towards the main entrance.

"Right behind you, sir," said James, following Wilcox.

Albus ran after James, and the other eight followed the brothers. Albus drew his wands, and James drew his wand and the Sword of Gryffindor.

"Bet Gryffindor never thought his sword was going to go into combat against a Puff!" said James, brandishing the sword and grinning.

"So are Claws what you call Ravenclaws?" asked Albus. "And Dors are Gryffindors?"

"Gryffs are Gryffindors, but yes to the Claws," said James.

"And what are Slytherins, then?"

"Dicks."

Albus snorted.

James grinned and picked up the pace; they were almost to the main entrance of the castle.

Without warning, and though Albus wasn't thinking about anything except reaching Dismiusa and taking her down, tears began streaming down his eyes. He wiped them off on the sleeve of his robe before James could see.

"Dismiusa isn't here!" yelled Professor Longbottom as they approached; he was having a frantic conversation with Wilcox as they were fighting off tendrils of plants. "This is Vinesce! It's a plant found all over the world; if there's enough rain and sunshine and soil nutrition for an extended period of time, it can grow enough to cover a small island in days. If we don't stop it now, it'll fill the entire school!"

"This is Dismiusa!" hissed Barry to James. "The vines are labeled as Litinia! The map doesn't know how to deal with it; there's scattered letters of her name all over the place down here, but it's definitely the letters of her name."

"Professors, the vines are Dismiusa!" bellowed James. "She's a Botanimagus!"

"Merlin's trousers, a Botanimagus?" yelped Professor Longbottom. "Well, that would explain its sentience! Usually it isn't this aggressive. It just expands into whatever is around."

A vine whipped its way at James, apparently recognizing him; he swung the sword and sliced the end right off of the vine; it flew into the wall and there was a high-pitched noise like a banshee scream.

"That sword's infused with basilisk venom!" said Professor Longbottom. "That's going to poison her, isn't it?"

"Not if she's a goddamn plant!" roared Wilcox, sending a blast of Frostflame into a patch of vines closer to the door.

"Right," said Professor Longbottom, sending a wave of energy that shredded the vines in front of him into confetti.

All of the teachers and many of the seventh and sixth year students were around this patch of vines, sending out every effort they had, yet the vines were growing faster than they were being destroyed. James joined in with the spellwork, and had to stow the sword because he didn't want to get up close enough to use it.

The vines lashed back all of a sudden, and wrapped around a single point. The hundreds of yards of vines melded down into a single human form. As everyone stopped and stared, Dismiusa appeared in front of them with a burst of green light, snarling with yellow teeth.

Without waiting a second, Wilcox began throwing spell after spell at Dismiusa. She ducked and dodged most of them, and absorbed some of them into her palm. She leaped backwards and aimed her hand at the top of the doorway, and a blast of green energy shattered the stone there; the pieces spread all over the floor, some of them striking students and faculty so hard that wands were dropped.

Now that the doorway was larger, bigger creatures could fit through; three Warkabulls burst in, roaring. They stampeded towards the castle defenders.

"JUMP!" roared Professor Desulgon.

Dozens of voices cast Salimotor and they all leapt onto the second floor; Albus did the same, but mistakenly bounded all the way over the open stairwell area to the seventh floor. He aimed his spellwork down from above, but had to run back down the stairs when he realized it was too difficult to aim.

The Warkabulls were running rampant; the stone walls on their heads were almost all Albus could see as they bashed their way into walls and chased the people who hadn't been in prime position to use Salimotor. Meanwhile, Dismiusa was throwing wandless magic at everyone she could see, and it was incredibly powerful; students and faculty alike were getting thrown hundreds of feet backwards into walls.

"Time to use it!" yelled Professor Longbottom, and Wilcox nodded. "PIERTOTUM LOCOMOTOR!"

All around them, the statues on the sides of Hogwarts leapt outof their stations. As Albus ran down the stairs, the statues suddenly joined him, cascading like a stone waterfall to the first and second floors.

"HOGWARTS IS THREATENED!" Professor Longbottom was shouting to the statues. "MAN THE BOUNDARIES! PROTECT US! DO YOUR DUTY TO OUR SCHOOL!"

Albus hit the second floor with most of the fighters. He started firing spells next to Louis, who tousled his hair and grinned.

"Where've you been?" said Louis. "You aren't one to miss the action!"

"I was smack in the middle of the action," replied Albus.

The statues began swarming the Warkabulls below them; Professor Longbottom was laughing exuberantly. "I've always wanted to use that spell!" he exclaimed.

Suddenly, five yelling statues bounded over their heads, onto the back of the nearest Warkabull. They sank their axes into its back, and their swords into its neck; the Warkabull threw them off and turned around in a rage, stomping down onto the statues with powerful legs, shattering them on impact. It threw its head down in a headbutt, smashing the stone wall on its head directly into the ground, and two more statues were crushed.

While the Warkabull had flipped the stone wall onto the ground, a slightly pinker part of its neck was exposed. Sensing weakness, Albus and several others fired Stunners, Full Body-Binds, and several hard-hitting curses into its fleshy spot. Quite unexpectedly, the Warkabull exploded violently; and pieces of gray elephant meat went flying into their ranks.

"Albus!" shouted James, running over. "Albus—I have an idea—this is a nonverbal spell, the one I used on you back in the hospital wing when we had that argument: Levicorpus! Use it on a Warkabull!"

"Levi—"

"Nonverbal! And flick the wand upwards!"

Levicorpus! thought Albus, following his brother's instruction.

The spell hit the Warkabull high in the hind leg; it lifted slightly off of the ground, but the magic-resistant hide took out the brunt of the spell, and it fell back down with a crash.

"Again, Albus, and focus all of your energy into it!" said James. "You were getting it."

Albus fired another spell, but the Warkabull turned itself around, and the stone wall on its head took the spell, which completely resisted the effects.

"I'll run to the other side and distract it, and try to get it to turn around," said James, heading along the railing to the other side of the stairwells.

Albus cast his gaze below once more. With a snarl, Dismiusa had twisted and morphed back into her Vinesce vines Botanimagus form. Like a frog's tongue, a cluster of vines lashed out from the center, and smashed into the railing of the second floor, dragging someone back down—

Dismiusa had noticed James.

Albus gasped as he recognized his brother amidst the tangle of tendrils. James was struggling, trying to swing the Sword of Gryffindor at the vines, but one vine swiped it right out of his hand and redirected it, plunging it towards James—

The first thing Albus thought when pointing his wand at James was, Levicorpus!

James flew up into the air, torn free of all of the vines holding him, and he dangled just above the seventh floor.

"How do I undo that?" yelled Albus up six floors.

"The counter-jinx is Liberacorpus, but I don't fancy the fall!"

Suddenly, there was a vacuum like the force of a hurricane. Whirlworts had entered, and were sucking everybody down. James was slowly descending from above.

"Whirlworts!" shouted Uncle Charlie. "Throw something unpleasant in its mouth! Like, fire or something!"

But Albus had only just aimed his wand at the Whirlwort when a crystal cylinder appeared out of nowhere, wrapping around the entire stairwell, closing them off from helping the people who had been sucked in.

"No!" yelled someone from the other side. "How do we get through?!"

Albus reached into his pocket for the knife, but accidentally grabbed the parchment he'd found in Dismiusa's shortcut back to the castle. With a jolt, he remembered what the markings meant.

He took out the parchment and pressed the tip of his wand to the crystal wall. He looked at the markings on the parchment, and traced the strange markings, like curved handwriting. He remembered when the Fokii took his wand and forced him to carve the same path in the wall in front of Dismiusa—and then he finished the pattern and the crystal cylinder shattered.

"How in the—never mind!" shouted Louis, who had been watching Albus. "Where's James?!"

The Whirlworts were still inhaling strongly, and James had been sucked almost all the way to the ground. A vine whipped out and wrapped itself around James's neck, not dragging him, but choking the life out of him. Another cluster of vines was pummeling Wilcox underneath a shield the Headmaster had put up; the two remaining Warkabulls were also stomping the shield with brutal force.

"Diffindo!"

Tabby Floren was hacking at the vines around James, trying to free her boyfriend. Albus joined in, and one swift Severing Charm cut all of the vines under James. Dismiusa, clearly agitated by this, morphed back into her humanoid form, and a blast of energy knocked Albus over backwards. Professor Longbottom and Professor Desulgon managed to injure the Whirlworts enough for them to leave, but then, through the open door, a dozen small, furry creatures rushed in—muls. Albus watched in horror as one of them leapt into the air and just missed his brother's hair, and then one of the Warkabulls left Wilcox's shield and ran in that direction. It charged towards James and swung its head hard; James was hit full-force by the swinging stone wall and careened into the larger stone wall of Hogwarts, sliding unconscious to the ground.

Clayton Slater darted past Albus in a blur, and propelled himself to the ground. He grabbed James, and placed James on a broken piece of a Hogwarts wall; he propelled the piece of wall into the air, landing the rock and its passenger safe on the second floor.

Clay had diverted his attention from his surroundings for too long; two muls jumped towards him, and their jaws opened wide to sink into his arm and leg. Clay toppled down onto the floor, face-down. The muls detached themselves and left him lying there.

The two mulunctapoli which had absorbed Clay's magic then began using it; Albus had forgotten they were capable of this. With just their stares, they lifted James's body back off of the first floor, and James was magically thrown right back at Dismiusa. She caught James, still unconscious, by the neck.

"NO!" screamed Albus, propelling himself over the railing and aiming both of his wands. "Frisorba Vitigida!"

The Frostflame flashed through the air like a lightning bolt. Dismiusa looked over and held out her hand to absorb the energy, but she failed in totality. The spell fueled by the power of Swait's Bloodblade, which was already an abnormally powerful spell, swept over her body and James's, and encased them both in ice before Albus even landed on the floor below. James and Dismiusa were sealed together, floating above the ground as the war continued to rage below.

No, thought Albus. No. This can't be happening. To destroy her—do I have to—what will happen to James?

Albus tried to remember the prophecy. How could they break it? It had to be possible—just because someone said it didn't mean it had to come true, did it?

The ice was starting to shake and crack. He had to make the decision now. Only he and James could destroy Dismiusa—or was that true?

"PROFESSOR WILCOX!" screamed Albus, running over to the Warkabulls, which were both attacking him again. "PROFESSOR—"

"Little busy!" barked Wilcox.

"Oh, get out of here!" Albus shouted at the Warkabulls, waving his hand.

Something in his hand snapped, like a popping joint. Both of the Warkabulls suddenly stopped their assault. They slammed back onto the ground, and looked at Albus. And then they turned and walked out of the castle.

"Albus," said Wilcox, "is this part of the long version too?!"

"No," responded Albus. "I have no idea—but Professor, you have to deal the last blow! You've got to—the prophecy says James or I has to defeat Dismiusa, and that one of us would die doing it—but I haven't defeated her yet—she's about to break free—"

He pointed back at the ice, which was fracturing all over; it would shatter any moment.

"But if it's you who defeats her, then the prophecy doesn't come true!" continued Albus. "Neither James nor I defeats her, and so neither James nor I would have to die—please, Professor, you've got to—"

"Avada Kedavra!"

So close to the wind of death, Albus's senses heightened, as they had the first time he'd seen the spell in action. He turned around to watch. Like a gunshot, the cold green jet of the Killing Curse pierced the ice in a single hole and emerged only in a single hole; a second later, the ice exploded. James's limp body dropped to the floor, but Professor Westerling cast a rapid Cushioning Charm. Where Dismiusa had been encased in the ice, an explosion of flower petals littered the room. They fluttered to the ground gently as the muls tucked their tails between their legs and fled out the still open door. The plants inside the castle all withered and expired before their eyes, turning brown in an instant, and there were groans and slams from all around as trees toppled over in the forest around them.

"She's gone," said Barry, appearing suddenly by Albus's side with the Marauder's Map opened; he tucked it away before any of the teachers looked.

"Homenum Revelio," said Professor Desulgon.

A small red-orange halo appeared over James's head; it was tiny, but it was staying steady in the air. Professor Longbottom scooped James up and carried him in the direction of the hospital wing.

Albus stared at his headmaster, waiting for the reaction. The battle had been won—Dismiusa had been obliterated—but he had cast the most evil of Dark curses to end it. It wasn't clear what else he could have done, but it couldn't have been easy on him. He took a deep breath as Wilcox stood up tall to speak.

"Close the door," said Wilcox simply, rotating around and beginning to clear the debris.

Albus looked around at the decaying petals scattered all over the floor, and then back to Wilcox.

"Professor…"

"I'm sorry you had to see me do that," said Wilcox, his shoulders sagging; now it was beginning to come out. "I'm sorry I had to do it at all."

"It was the only way to truly end it," said Albus. "There was no way to contain her."

Wilcox nodded. "I know."

"Thank you."

Wilcox nodded again. "Albus, when you've seen enough death… you realize it's everywhere. Omnipresent in life. And sometimes it just has to happen, and there's no way around that. When you realize this fact… you embrace the power of knowing that death is sometimes for the greatest good. Death in and of itself is not evil."

"I know," said Albus, smiling. "I was raised by the Master of Death, of course."

"Right," said Wilcox. "Still, I feel as though I must… explain something."

"I understand," said Albus.

"I… would never advocate the use of the Killing Curse on anyone except for the most extreme of circumstances," said Wilcox. "But, of course…"

"This was the most extreme of circumstances," finished Albus.

"Yes," said Wilcox. "I would have been a murderer if she had broken free and strangled your brother… but that time, I would have been responsible for the death of an innocent."

"I'm going to go visit my brother," said Albus. "But Professor… remember… she wasn't human anymore. We have proof of that fact—Professor Ramanu proved that she wasn't human. With Arithmancy. You're not a murderer."

Wilcox smiled weakly. "Well… thank you, Albus," he said softly. "That… that does clear my conscience…"

"You're welcome, sir," said Albus. "Thank you… Thank you again."

"You're welcome, too, Albus. Go relax. It's over."

Albus grinned and raced off down the hall to the hospital wing. He burst through the door and quickly espied Lily and Professor Longbottom at James's bedside. Lily's eyes were glistening, but she was smiling widely.

James looked over at Albus and smiled as well. "Hey, little brother," he said. "So… it's over, is it?"

"It's over," said Albus.

"And… I'm not dead?"

"Doesn't look like it from where I'm standing," said Albus.

James sniggered. "Suck it, Fate," he said softly, throwing two middle fingers at the ceiling. "Suck. It."