Book 4: Astoria Greengrass and the Curse of Quennell Park
Song rec: "Bad Ritual" by Timber Timbre

Astoria sat on the floor cross-legged with her hands drooped. She should be helping the injured, or helping to bring in bodies, or doing something. But since she had sat down here, she could not move. The fallen couple's shoes were sticking up inches from her. Their hands were limp across the floor, almost touching each other's. They looked as though they were nothing more than a little under the weather.

Back when Astoria, Rhiannon, and the twins practised D.A.D.A. in the Astronomy library, it had felt like every other time Rhiannon cast a spell, she would say, "Professor Lupin taught me this," or "Professor Lupin said to do this." Astoria could almost hear her voice. "Professor Lupin said I'd pass me O.W.L.s!"

Don't come back, Rhiannon, Astoria thought.

The couple had just been married, too. Astoria had been too depressed to go to the wedding, since she didn't want to be a downer at a happy gathering, so Rhiannon had come back telling her all about it.

"Tonks can really dance!" Rhiannon had said. "Look, here's her bouquet! She gave me it, ain't it nice? I'm gonna use magic to save it."

Astoria remembered, once again, her mother's conversation with Narcissa Malfoy about how the Order was at terrible risk. Why couldn't she go back in time and make the Tonks family leave Britain? Astoria wiped her dirty sleeve on her face. Though not nearly as close with the couple as Rhiannon had been, Astoria never would have cast a Patronus Charm if it had not been for Professor Lupin. And she and Nymphadora had been sung the same lullaby as toddlers, a French one that both of their mothers had passed to them. With the death of her husband, daughter, and son-in-law, Andromeda Tonks was now alone. She likely didn't know it yet. Astoria sobbed.

"Hello."

Ginny Weasley handed Astoria a band to tie her sticky hair back. Ginny did not look surprised to see that Astoria had been fighting. Unlike so many others that night, she instantly knew what side Astoria was on. Ginny's confidence in her felt wonderful, and Astoria basked in it. She was so glad to not sit next to Tonks and Lupin alone.

"Tonks was one of my best friends, and Lupin was an awesome teacher," Ginny said. "They're heroes."

Her voice was sad, but very strong. She somehow was able to mourn them without being overcome anew. Astoria wasn't very much like Ginny.

"I'm so sorry about your brother, Ginny."

"Fred. He's my hero, too," Ginny said softly.

Astoria remembered Fred Weasley as being one of the boys who had picked on Rhiannon for showing up to the Dumbledore's Army recruitment, and as a troublemaker, and the one who nearly exploded the Great Hall with his twin brother. What a character he was… He wouldn't have wanted his family to be sad and distracted for the rest of the fight.

"I'm going out to find more injured now. Would you come with me?" Ginny asked.

Me? Astoria blurted.

"Yeah, you."

Astoria said goodbye to Tonks and Professor Lupin in her head and walked past the feet of many others she did not know. She was so tired. She didn't know how she thought she'd be able to get back out there when the hour was up. The adrenaline was gone. It was all exhaustion and discomfort.

"Do you know how much time we have left? I… lost count when we found Tonks," Ginny choked.

"Er, I lost count, too," Astoria said, then added, "Well, we'll hear when the time's up. He'll probably talk in the third person again."

"Seems about right. 'Lord Voldymort is now cheesed off,'" Ginny imitated in a high, hissy voice.

A little dark humour went a long way when everything was in pieces. The girls spent most of their time convincing the panicked injured to let them Mobilise them. Astoria had to use a few nasty first-aid tricks she had tried on herself in the funeral parlour. In the expanse of torn-up grass, Voldemort had left his injured for dead. Some of them begged to be taken into the castle with their last breaths. With the potential for it to be a trick, or for them to have Dark magic sealed away in their bodies, they were passed over by the frantic Hogwarts staff, who were tragically finding the dead bodies of underage students who had sneaked back.

There was no sight of Professor Sinistra's wide-brimmed hat bobbing above the crowd anywhere. It weighed on Astoria more each moment. She had last seen her running towards a hundred dementors. But that doe had been protecting her, and Professor Grubbly-Plank had sent round a tiger Patronus, too. During the ceasefire, the dementors hovered above the trees of the Forbidden Forest, likely waiting for Harry Potter to turn himself in. Astoria could only imagine what Ginny was going through behind her façade.

Ginny located Ernie Macmillan, and they created a chain to get the bodies up to the castle. Astoria trotted along the edge of the Hogsmeade path, Mobilising injured people up to Ginny, who Mobilised them to Ernie, who sent them into the castle. It worked well until Astoria became distracted. She saw something stir by a lantern still flickering near Professor Sinistra's house. She assumed the worst at first, but then realised it was Professor Sinistra herself, walking up the path. And then, without casting anything, Professor Sinistra opened the door. That did not sit right. Professor Sinistra had enchantments galore over her house so that a certain somebody would not be able to get in. Why was the house left unprotected, and why was the door already unlocked? Astoria signalled to Ginny and came up with a failproof lie.

"I found Professor Sinistra! I'm going to go help her out in Hogsmeade!" Astoria said.

"Keep safe!" Ginny waved and went back with her family.

Astoria gulped down some conjured water and quickly ran to Hogsmeade. She reached Professor Sinistra's turreted, oddly-shaped house and bounded through the purple front door. Astoria got a huge whiff of dust, old newspaper ink, and bundimun when she entered the house. Indeed, it was entirely unprotected. If she could get in, anyone could. Astoria secured the door behind her. It was totally dark inside, which was even less promising, as it meant that Professor Sinistra had been ambling without being able to see. Professor Sinistra's house had always given Astoria the creeps regardless of the current threats. The passage of time was a weather that could not enter the walls of the house, and the only hint that it was 1998 on the inside was the topmost layer of newspapers. Astoria had to risk giving her location away by lighting her wand low, as she absolutely could not see. By this point of the entrance hall, she should have tripped on Crouch's shoes. They had been moved.

The fact that Astoria had not been greeted at the door by a worried Professor Sinistra heightened the tension she already had. Only one thing made sense. Rabastan Lestrange was here, in the house. He had walked Astoria's memories of its halls in search of the bed he had never slept in, and he was bound to be there now. The house had been both a miraculous shelter and an unspeakable hell to Astoria, and presently, it was as dark as Rabastan's mind. She tinted her wand light to a dull red and ascended the staircase. The twigwork banisters cast handwritten shadows as she ascended with Silenced footsteps and bated breath. The rushing tides of fighters and the sounds of crackling curses had been etched into Astoria's skull, and she knew it would be many years before her mind would cease to spontaneously produce the sound. But oh, what she would have done for sounds of Voldemort's war to trick upon her ears rather than the chinking of Rabastan's metal tools.

Astoria passed the third level, notable as the last such level with a clean view down to the kitchen by way of transparent flooring. In the dark house, though, the sights weren't there. Professor Sinistra's bedroom was on the sixth floor. Astoria's body was battle-worn, but still she rose, because time could not be squandered. It was yet another time when she had to feel the ice of a Disillusionment Charm lick down her spine, so that Rabastan might not be able to aim at her. It had done little in the horrific fight with Alecto, who had Revealed her quickly, but if Astoria could increase any chance of success she had against Rabastan, she would.

From the main landing of the sixth floor, Astoria extinguished her light. Rabastan had lit sconces on the walls, the ones leading from the stair to the bedroom. Astoria was repulsed to know that he was parallel to a place she herself, at times, slept. She could hear him making noise. She held her wand ahead of her. Her footsteps were already Silenced, but she did one better and Silenced the whole wood floor before stepping into the hall. The floorboards would not so much as creak from weight. There was only one thing in her mind: to rid the world of Rabastan Lestrange. She approached the bedroom.

In the faint light beneath the starry ceiling, Rabastan stood alone and nude, dowsing himself with conjured water in one hand and itching all over with his other. With the water, the scent of Amortentia poured heavily from his skin, which was blotchy and bright red even in the room's violet hue. His cloak, trousers, and torture devices were on the floor in a heap, and he had evidently stripped to nothing in haste. A drawer was open, and Professor Sinistra's delicates were strewn everywhere. Rabastan cracked his whip at another drawer in the dresser and said, "Accio trousers." Professor Sinistra had, of course, saved every article of Crouch's old wardrobe, and it was no surprise that the malnourished Rabastan was able to fit into the clothing of a nineteen-year-old.

On Rabastan's face, no Dark wound had healed. He still had the same bruise above his left eye, cut above his right, and missing left ear. His master had also given him a new wound. Glowing magical sutures held tight to a fresh, rough puncture in his stomach. His dark brown hair dripped across his face, which Astoria aimed at.

"Avada Kedavra!"

The spell broke into dust so suddenly Astoria had not realised it failed until she saw Rabastan crack his whip all over the place. Her rage ignited. She knew her intent of the spell had been true and could not imagine what had gone wrong. He, too, tried a Killing Curse, which was not aimed correctly anyway, and it puffed and fizzled out. There was no way either of them would have hesitated to kill the other. That meant that the countless apotropaic charms in the house had really exerted power over Dark magic. Yet there was something still more powerful than Dark spells, and that was a creature born of the dark. As Astoria retreated, she saw the outline of a tall, hooded figure illuminate next to Rabastan as he shot out spells. He had brought a dementor with him, likely having promised it a Kiss during the ceasefire.

"Hominem Revelio!" Rabastan cast, but Astoria retreated down the hall and missed the hit. She had to find the professor. She was relieved to know that Sinistra was nowhere near Rabastan, but with both him and a dementor in the house, she was not safe. At least with the way Rabastan called out for the professor, it meant she was not Imperiused. If Professor Sinistra had, by some minute chance, been successfully Imperiused, she would have come to him by now. Maybe Astoria had misinterpreted what she had seen from the Hogwarts grounds.

"VEEERRRY nice, Aurora! Itching powder in your lingerie! You know what I don't like about that? HOW IT FEELS IN THE HOLE IN MY STOMACH! Incendio! There, now the bed you shared with precious Barty is on fire! You'll have to come out from hiding if you want to put it out! The whole house will burn, Aurora! And speaking of which, it will take your little apprentice with it, if I don't have her Kissed first! Let's make sure we all stay together inside now, right? Praesaepio spatium!"

Based on the lack of response, Rabastan was effectively talking to himself. But he did clarify the threats for Astoria; she was now trapped in a house with a dementor, a fire, and worst of all, him. Astoria escaped down the main stair, and it was from the banister that Rabastan sent Killing Curses as the air began to take on a hint of smoke. Astoria dodged his spells even though they each failed, but Rabastan was quickly becoming smart to the fact that the house forbade Dark acts, and sent down natural, but no less lethal, spells that he had twisted for his own use.

"Aw, come back! Come back! I've missed you so much, Astoria!"

Astoria had to Bombard the side of the banister open and conjure a huge, thick pillow that was anything but invisible. She jumped from the second floor to the ground floor. Not two seconds after her knees made impact with the pillow was it sliced open by Rabastan.

"Folk magic, Aurora, really‽" Rabastan yelled as he, too, jumped from the stairs onto Astoria's pillow. "You think folk magic is going to stop me‽ Is that what all this junk is‽ Accio all nazars!"

The hanging nazars shook with the incredible force of Rabastan's spell, but they had evidently all been set with Anti-Summoning spells, and regardless, Rabastan did not know the terminology for any other talismans Professor Sinistra had throughout the house. He was thwarted, but then again, so was Astoria and the Dark magic she had spent all year learning.

"You know, Aurora, I'm all for a game of hide-and-seek, but this isn't going to work between us if you're a pile of ash when I find you! We can do without the house, of course, since you won't know any difference once you're Kissed! I could never live in this disaster, especially knowing that your hatstand husband ran his hands all over this place!"

Rabastan continued to address the missing professor even with no response. Using the dementor's salivation as a cue that he was moving in the right direction, Rabastan chased the invisible Astoria through the kitchen and still room. She took a turn into the plant-filled sunroom that he did not take. She could see him and the monster through a diamond-shaped window in the wall. He had stopped to scratch his stomach but started twitching uncontrollably. It must have been residual magic from the blood curse Astoria had used on him. Unfortunately, he was able to get the judders back under control. Astoria could only imagine the extent of damage to the upper levels from the fire and wondered how long it would take to smother her down here.

Where are you, Professor?

As Rabastan skulked about, he passed the corridor between them. Astoria aimed and fired.

"Diffindo!"

Rabastan let out a laugh in response to the cut on his neck and instantly healed it up. There was a reason Voldemort had placed him in such a high position.

Rabastan followed the sound of Astoria's voice, and she ran deeper into the house, into places she'd been forbidden to go. She understood that Professor Sinistra had crafted her house this way to fuddle Rabastan's far-reaching Legilimency from the outside, but it was leading to plenty of confusion on the inside. Astoria zipped down a narrow hallway that had two adjoining sets of mismatched stairs at the end. Being so uneven, they were horrible to try to descend in the dark, and the only light sources were Rabastan's intermittent, glowing spells. At the bottom of the abstract steps, Astoria found only one door and was forced to go through it. She slammed the door and enchanted it shut, but she saw a white glow through the cracks, and the dementor's mist started to come through the bottom. She felt like she was in a courtyard, but that didn't make sense. Rabastan had already cast a spell to prevent escaping to the outside. She stood on a wooden deck with a lattice overhang, and long ferns in clay pots hung from it, swinging to and fro from the force of spells being shot at the door behind. The deck looked not to the outside, but above an extra living room, adorned with red patterned rugs and backless seats surrounded by canopies. There was a tightly wound, spiral staircase to the place below, which Astoria took, but the constant twisting made her move slower, and she heard Rabastan break down the door above. The room's huge, semicircle fireplace opened into a cave.

Astoria ran across the living area and, choosing against the intimidating cave, she clambered up the staircase off the next corridor, but to her horror in the darkness, she found that it did not lead anywhere. Astoria held her breath, hunched beneath the high wedge between the steps and the ceiling. Rabastan came into view, his wand light exposing his half-naked state. His teeth clattered as he twitched again with the magic from Astoria's blood. His Dark Mark throbbed and twisted on his arm as his master summoned him angrily. Rabastan endured the pain of the Mark rather than heed its message.

Take him back, Astoria begged. Take him back, make him leave.

"You must be here somewhere, Green-bean. Hominem Revelio."

The charm hit Astoria like a shower that was too hot. She came into view and had no place to go. Rabastan beamed when he saw her.

"Oh, I wish I had a picture of that look of fear on your face, Astoria. Seeing as my witch put these knick-knacks everywhere, I can't use Dark magic. I'm left with the option to cut you up the slow way," Rabastan said, slicking back his wet hair. "Would you rather be Kissed? I'm really trying to save this one's appetite for Aurora, though, so I guess cutting you up it is. Do you want me to make it an interesting pattern?"

"Expelliarmus!" Astoria responded, but as Rabastan's whip flung above his head, he merely snagged its long tail back into his fist. Astoria cast a Shield Charm and held it tightly.

"Hm," Rabastan said in boredom. "I know. I'll use you to find her. That bitch is in here somewhere. Glisseo."

With unreal speed, the staircase on which Astoria stood turned into a slide, and Rabastan was able to aim beneath her scattered Shield Charm.

"Diffindo!"

Astoria was cut across the chest and could hardly let go of the wound to try to dress it. The cut had been more akin to a small Cruciatus Curse than a regular spell, as though Rabastan was pushing the boundaries of natural magic even with the protections in place. Rabastan relished in her show of pain, but then his attention diverted.

Professor Sinistra had come rushing into the room, casting myriads of spells at him. In the dark, though, the spells gave off a highly visible glow, and he was able to intercept them. Astoria lay on the steps bleeding and watching them duel helplessly. The dementor moved toward Professor Sinistra, but at least as long as it was not Kissing her, Sinistra was quite used to the feeling of being near one. However, she had no protection except to run away from it to the other side, and it pursued her quickly. Astoria tried to cast her Patronus, but her pain prevented her. Rabastan followed the dementor closely behind, and taunted his object of obsession, his excitement causing his whole body to twist and shake again.

"Aha! How did you like the present I got you back in March, Aurora? You never sent me a thank-you note! I know you like toffee fudge, but I could only find plain! Ha ha! By the way, how do you like my cologne? I bet I smell familiar to you."

Professor Sinistra did not humour Rabastan in the slightest. The only words coming out of her mouth were incantations. She shot a heavy healing spell at Astoria and followed it up with a quick Shield from her wand, all whilst catching Rabastan's magic with her right hand and flinging it into the walls. Astoria's heartbeat reminded her how glad she was that the power of Aurora Sinistra was not on the side of Death Eaters.

"You'd destroy the home you made with darling Barty?" Rabastan mocked, his neck cracking with blood magic as he struggled to stay still. "It's already on fire."

"The fire is out, and his name was Jonah," Professor Sinistra said calmly.

"Jonah, yeah, and how did your pet Jonah kiss you before he was Kissed? He was always — mleh — mleh — sticking his tongue out. Did he lick you like a dog?"

Rabastan laughed derisively, but his histrionic display threw him off guard. Professor Sinistra carved a massive threshold across his body, as if to send the pieces of him to two different dimensions. Rabastan figured this out all too quickly and manipulated her spell off of him. However, he couldn't get rid of it entirely, and a portal similar to the one Snape had made in Hogwarts opened in the spot where he had flung the magic. Astoria took this as a cue and raised her wand.

"BOMBARDA!"

Rabastan was hit, and he fell through the screen into a great beyond — space between space. But he had not taken the dementor with him, and he was definitely not dead. Professor Sinistra Mobilised Astoria across the corridor all whilst being chased by the dementor, and threw her into the darkness of the cavernous fireplace. Astoria again tried to cast a Patronus, but there was too much on her mind.

Within the cave was another threshold, already created.

"Professor?"

"Go!"

Astoria prepared for the sense of losing gravity as they passed the glowing threshold and continued onwards into the deep. They both lit their wands. Professor Sinistra followed her. It was getting cold.

"Can the dementor come…?" worried Astoria.

"It's here; keep running! I'm going to move more rooms!"

Rabastan's voice met them, too, and it was equally chilling as the dementor's presence closing in from depths unknown.

"What's wrong? Don't you want to Kiss? Let's not forget I can move rooms, too, Aurora!"

As if a dreary day had broken with Rabastan's spell, the twisting darkness dissolved, and they entered a lit maze with mildew-ridden white bricks. The dementor pursuing them was thankfully visible in this new environment, but Professor Sinistra growled.

"Mutata room!" she cast, but nothing happened; they were still running through the maze. After several turns through the narrow halls, Astoria felt she must speak up.

"Professor, he's trying to corner us in this maze with the dementor!"

"Well, I can't change the room since it must not be enclosed on all sides, but I can do this," Professor Sinistra said.

She traced her right hand along the brick wall as they ran, and then, at some apparently good spot, cast an enormous curse to blast the walls open. Without waiting for Astoria to react, she Mobilised her through, and then jumped over the rubble herself. She walled it up quickly, out of the reach of the dementor. Astoria watched her exhale in relief, but not all of their problems were gone.

"You used Dark magic to break the walls. I thought it couldn't be used in the house," Astoria whispered anxiously.

"We are not in the house," Professor Sinistra said hoarsely. "This is all freshly created space, inaccessible without dimensional magic."

"Well, with as long as we've been running, we must be under the castle by now," Astoria estimated.

"I just said we're in magically created space. There is no location," Professor Sinistra corrected her.

Astoria studied her dark brown eyes, hoping to catch something of a plan behind them. But the professor's Occlumency was as stony as the white walls still surrounding them. They moved forward cautiously. There were now many barred rooms off of the halls, copied en masse, all with mint green drywall and peeling paint. Each of the rooms had a folding bed.

"Your use of Extension Charms is all kinds of illegal, Aurora!" Rabastan yelled from not far off. "How do you like the place I made, hm? Seem familiar? It's where you spoon-fed your brain-dead Barty!"

Indeed, this was a hastily-made replica of Azkaban's unhospitable hospice, the place where the Kissed were sent. Rabastan had only been there once, during his breakout to attack Professor Sinistra. This represented what he knew of the place. He wanted psychological warfare. Astoria felt the press of Rabastan's Legilimency increase, for Rabastan's was a mind that could be felt much distance away. He was always pushing. Astoria's Occlumency was not as good as the Professor's, but for once, that might not have been such a bad thing… She knew he was close because she could feel him, and she checked Hestia's Foe-Shard. His face was disturbingly clear — he was in the very next corridor over! Astoria pointed her wand at the metal bars on the fake prison cells.

"Syssorevounlitho!"

Professor Sinistra startled, but Astoria knew what she was doing and that she had to do it now. The metal bars ripped right out of the concrete and clanged together, creating a smaller-than-usual Boulder Curse, but a perfectly good bludgeon. She sent it down the hallway, where it collided with, broke, and collected bricks into its body. And then she sicced it on Rabastan. Astoria knew the spell would not distract him for long, but if it would occupy him for only a second, Astoria would take it. She had been able to Reduct Parkinson's Imperiused rendition of the spell, and Rabastan would surely have no trouble in turning Astoria's boulder to dust. So she ran as fast as she could to find him, ignoring Professor Sinistra's screams.

There was Rabastan, closer than the professor had thought, sweating over bright red scratch marks on his skin as he tried to Reduct the boulder. Astoria risked unfettering the boulder from her wand to aim at his chest. She would have to get him before the boulder would come back to her.

"Avada Kedavra!"

"Stupefy — argh!"

Rabastan had once again evaded death but not injury. Smart, quick, and skilled enough to intercept the Killing Curse with his own Stunning Spell, Rabastan had made the split-second decision to get hit with the remnants of the Cursed Boulder for the sake of his life. He doubled over, and Astoria kept casting, even as the boulder went wild in the hall.

"Avada Kedavra! Avada Kedavra!"

Rabastan still managed to intercept her curses whilst dodging the rolling metal object. Professor Sinistra rounded the corner and added to the erupting duel:-

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Professor Sinistra's Killing Curse exploded against his desperate Stunning Spell. It was fortunate that Professor Sinistra had claimed the Killing Curse first — two Killing Curses would not cancel one another out, even if they crossed. Rabastan continued with powerful Stunners, indeed looking for his chance to send something darker Astoria's way. She meanwhile had to Reduct the Cursed Boulder herself, as it had come rolling towards Professor Sinistra. Once she beat the thing to dust, she cast the very same on Rabastan. He took a dive, cursed open the bars of one of the cells, and rolled in as a Killing Curse narrowly missed his head. Astoria and Professor Sinistra instantly Blasted the entire room, sending explosive debris onto their already tattered clothing.

"He got away!" Astoria screamed.

"How do you know?" Professor Sinistra cried.

"I've got no Occlumency! I feel him right below us!" Astoria said. "He's not using Occlumency either!"

As a fellow Legilimens, Rabastan could feel Astoria's mind, too, and hastened upon the opportunity. Astoria saw him cutting the floor beneath her feet with the glowing blue of dimensional magic. She lunged, but there was no time for either her or the professor to react. The cavity had already opened below, and as Astoria fell down, a Sleeping Spell raced up behind her back, hitting Professor Sinistra.