Chapter 16
Surviving a Killing Curse
Harry
The girls were up to something, he didn't know for certain just what yet, but he had some suspicions, and if his suspicions were correct, it only made him more nervous.
It seemed all of a sudden the girls were sharing their dates, with Hermione sharing her date with Padma and Susan sharing her date with Daphne.
You could argue that they were just simply using a strategy, sharing dates with each other, meant more dates with him assuming that both Padma and and Daphne reciprocated by sharing their dates with him later on.
Yet the way they were suddenly studying him, it was like this was some grand experiment and he was the main focus of it and the thought had struck him what they were really up to.
They were trying to decide if they wanted and were willing to share him or not...and that fact made him both excited but also nervous if he managed to mess it up.
Quite honestly getting 4 of the best looking girls ever in his opinion to be his girlfriends all at the same time would be a dream come true for him, honestly it would be for any guy...but he felt the need to go through superhuman efforts in order to achieve it.
So when it came to his date with Susan and Daphne, he pulled out all the stops: reservations at the fanciest restaurant in Hogsmeade, getting brand new fancy dress robes, buying flowers and chocolates and stuffed animals for both of them, it was like Valentine's day supercharged.
Both girls smiled when he picked them up for their date and as he gave them all their presents but Susan said, "you really don't need to go to so much trouble on our account Harry."
"No, but I want to, you're both such special girls," Harry argued.
"Yes, but this is way too much," Susan insisted.
"Oh, don't turn down presents," Daphne scolded her, "Harry if you want to spoil me go right ahead."
"No, we shouldn't leave Harry feeling obligated like he needs to go all out like this all the time," Susan pointed out, "I really do appreciate it Harry but don't feel like you need to."
"You're right of course Susan," Daphne answered grudgingly, "though if you want to spoil me every once in awhile that would certainly be nice and appreciated...and I'm sure I could find a way to make it worth it to you."
She gave him a wink at that.
Harry sighed and said, "I don't know I just...felt like I should...and I don't expect anything in return."
Both girls studied him for a long moment before Susan then suggested, "come on let's go put all this stuff away and then go have some fun."
"Sounds good to me," Harry answered, feeling a bit relieved.
…..
Once they had and actually set out on their date, he tried to relax and just enjoy himself even though he still felt like he was being watched.
That being said, in Hogsmeade that feeling only intensified, he'd felt like that every time he came in here, but despite his paranoia nothing had ever happened and he tried to just pass it off as merely his celebrity status as the boy-who-lived getting him plenty of attention from the local villagers, which was certainly the case. They had gotten more used to seeing him after each of them stopping at least once to thank him or get his autograph or something over this year, but still he felt a certain degree of unease.
As they sat sitting down eating lunch in the fancy restaurant he had made reservations for, Harry realized with a start that they were in fact the only students in the restaurant.
Not surprising though he rationalized, it was a fancy restaurant and most students couldn't afford a place like this.
In fact there were only a couple other tables in the restaurant, again not surprising as it was lunchtime and a rather exclusive restaurant.
Yet soon both of those left as well, having finished their meal and paid, leaving the 3 of them alone.
"I guess we have the place to ourselves now," Daphne said sounding satisfied as she pushed her chair back and spread out her legs.
"My Aunt asked us to stay where there are lots of people though," Susan said with a frown.
He supposed she really did have a point, although he didn't want to just immediately leave just because of that. He had made reservations-
It suddenly occurred to him that that meant that at least the restaurant had known he was coming in advance which meant-
A cold feeling washed over him, a feeling he would recognize anywhere.
A dementor.
Make that dementors, he realized with a sickening feeling as he saw no less than a dozen dementors glide into the empty restaurant, coming straight at them.
He, Susan, and Daphne all immediately had their wands out, they had practiced the Patronus Charm this year with Professor Lupin so they felt confident they could handle this.
"Expecto Patronum!" All 3 of them said aloud as their patroni burst out of their wands.
Their Patroni matched their animagi forms, with Susan's being an owl, Daphne's a snake, and his a Pegasus and they rushed the dementors, which fled in panic.
Yet just as they were busy taking care of the dementors, all of a sudden their wands were suddenly and magically stripped from them.
Harry whirled around to see several restaurant staff standing there with glazed over expressions.
Imperioused Harry realized.
Yet each of the various witches and wizards that were there just looked at them with listless eyes, poised to attack but chose not to for some reason.
Yet then a woman from anyone's nightmares calmly entered the restaurant her black cloak billowing behind her, her curly black hair a mess and her red eyes giving her a crazed and evil look as she looked at each of them with satisfaction.
"Keep your wands trained on them but don't attack until I give the signal, I want to talk to them first," She told her small army of mental slaves.
"Bellatrix," Susan exclaimed, trying her best to look brave and determined against her.
This was the woman who had killed some of her family members as well as killed and tortured countless others. Susan had every right to fear and hate her.
"Well I finally got you," Bellatrix declared with a triumphant look on her face, "the famous boy-who-lived and his girlfriends...my my you certainly have been busy not wasting what life you very luckily got from my master Potter. Fame apparently does get you everything. Too bad your time has run out, but don't worry I'll take good care of your little girlfriends for you. These will all make excellent sex slaves and child bearers for the Death Eaters."
"Don't you dare touch them," Harry warned bravely at her even though he didn't have a wand to use against her.
Bellatrix however did not seem at all concerned as her eyes settled on Susan, still looking at her defiantly, "ah you must be Susan then, yes...I knew a lot of your family, killed many of them myself, the Bones family really was such a delight to torture and kill, so brave and yet so foolish as they all died."
"You'll pay for their deaths," Susan insisted bravely, not having a wand either but managing to somehow conjure a spell from her hand and use it against Bellatrix.
Wandless magic was incredibly difficult and unpredictable, usually only conjured in times of great emotional distress as Susan no doubt was.
Bellatrix however effortlessly waved her wand and dissipated the spell.
"Now, now that is no way to behave in a restaurant, you might get kicked out," Bellatrix said, laughing a little at her own joke, "you'll get a chance to bravely fight until the end where I torture you and either force you to obey my will or kill you but I said I wanted to talk to you first and even give you a chance to save yourselves if you help me."
"We'll never help you," Harry insisted.
Bellatrix's eyes widened as she said coldly, "what gives you the right to even talk to me you filthy boy? I'll particularly enjoy torturing you...to pay you back for everything you did to my master!"
"What do you want?" Daphne decided to ask.
Bellatrix grinned and said, "at least someone here can be a bit reasonable, now we get to the matter at hand. I want to know where my master is...and I know that you've got a clue as to his whereabouts."
"What clue? We haven't found any clue," Susan told her, "you're absolutely mad."
Bellatrix laughed, a malicious, evil sounding laugh as she said, "mad yes, I suppose I am but I'm also not stupid, I learned from Lucius Malfoy while I was in prison that he so foolishly gave my master's diary to one of you and I want it back."
Harry realized with a start that the diary she was referring to was the one Padma had gotten. His mouth dropped open as he made the connection. That was Voldemort's diary?
Yet he wasn't about to admit to her the fact that Dumbledore had apparently destroyed it.
However just as he thought this, his mind was suddenly hit by a mental barrage. He hadn't received any training in the mental arts or Occlumency so unfortunately he was rather poorly able to defend himself.
Bellatrix let out a howl of rage as she yelled, "you destroyed it! My master's diary is gone!"
Daphne couldn't help but smile as she said, "that's right, it's gone, you'll never get your master back now."
Harry was sure that probably wasn't the case unfortunately, but Daphne couldn't resist rubbing it in Bellatrix's face.
Bellatrix however let out another laugh as she said, "you really think that was the only way to find and bring my master back? It certainly would have helped but I'll find another way it will just take longer. At least I'll have the consolation prize of being able to tell my master when I find him that I personally killed the one responsible for his downfall."
Bellatrix raised her wand and pointed it straight at him.
Still sitting there at the booth of the restaurant, he knew there simply wasn't time to try and dodge her spell and even if he could, he'd only be then attacked by all of Bellatrix mind slaves and Bellatrix spell would also only then hit one of the girls sitting next to him.
She however at the last moment decided against it and said, "no, I think I'll save you for last, better for you to have to suffer in seeing the deaths of your girlfriends first. So which should it be...the Bones girl or...yes I thought so..you're a Greengrass, which makes you a blood traitor, mmm, this certainly is a tough choice."
Finally Bellatrix pointed her wand at Susan, choosing her to be the first to go.
"Avada Kedavra," Bellatrix yelled as a green light erupted from her wand.
Without even thinking, he pushed Susan away, causing the spell to instead hit him.
As the green light enveloped him however an odd calm hit him. He would at least get to be with his parents.
Yet still there was so much that he would miss out on in life: getting married, having a family, and he thought in his last moments of the women in his life that he loved: Susan, Daphne, Hermione, Padma, and even Amelia and Karen as his adopted mothers.
Just as he thought of how much he loved them however in his seeming final moment however… a strength welled up inside him.
He could still feel that presence of death trying to kill him, trying to rip his soul from his body, but he also felt several other presences: one seemed to be truly evil and dark, seeming to be struggling to try and survive his impending death...and the other two?
"Hold on Harry we aren't losing you!" He heard Susan say, "I love you too much for that!"
He could practically feel her anguish and fear for him, but also her determination to save him and how much she loved him.
"It isn't going to end like this!" He heard Daphne say as he also felt her presence inside him, trying to fight off the darkness. He could feel her love for him just as strongly as Susan's.
They might have had enough in them to repel it with their combined might, they might have...but then Bellatrix cast another Killing Curse at him…
It was too strong he thought, this would kill all 3 of them, the only way the two girls would survive is if he took the full blast and just succumbed to death.
"No Harry!" Susan insisted, "we'll save you!"
Yet it was the only way, he couldn't bear it if they died for him even though they seemed entirely willing to. He started to give in…
"Don't give up Harry!" He heard Hermione say.
Hermione wasn't even here and yet somehow she had known he was in trouble and was somehow working to save him.
"We've got this Harry," He felt Padma say.
With the combined might of him and all 4 girls, they managed to finally repel the darkness and something dark and evil that had been lurking deep inside him was destroyed in the process.
There was an explosion...and he remembered no more.
