It took over an hour to splash their way from Kings Cross back to the Embankment. The freezing water was shin-deep and rising, the rain lashed their faces and they were forced to navigate carefully through the unseen debris lurking beneath the grey wastes stretching out from them in all directions.

Harry was deathly cold. His bones rattled with it and he could hear Hermione's teeth chattering next to him, as the chill wind blew frosty against her saturated clothes. She refused to let go of his arm, but now it was more for courage and support than any expectation that he was going to run off and try to join the fight they'd left behind.

Only Seren seemed content with life, and that at least was a bit of good news. Harry had bundled her inside his jacket to keep the rain out, hoping that his body heat was enough to keep her warm. Hermione had found a biscuit in her pocket, that she was saving for the train journey to Hogwarts, and gave it to Seren to suck on as they plodded their way through the seething waters. Seren gurgled and made noises of contentment, as she slurped away at the biscuit and looked out with keen interest at everything around them.

"At least she's easily satisfied," Hermione quirked through her nattering jaws, inclining her head to the baby. "Though I cant see how anyone could be happy in this!"

She angrily brushed more of her hair away, from where the rain had plastered it to her cheek.

"What are we going to do, Harry?"

"We have to get indoors, for her and us," Harry replied. "Even if we have to use the canoe, we need to get as dry as possible first. We'll need supplies, particularly for the baby. I didn't think to put any in."

"That's hardly your fault. None of us expected this."

Harry looked back in the direction of Kings Cross, his expression drawn and fraught. "Do you think they're alright, Hermione?"

"I'm sure they are," she nodded, squeezing Harry's arm to reassure him. "We'll probably get back to the flat and find them there waiting for us."

"I hope so. Seren will need a change and a feed soon, and I don't know how to do nappies or make up baby milk or anything. I should have listened more to Mum, or asked more questions. I'm pretty useless, aren't I?"

"No, you're not," Hermione disagreed. "And we'll work it out. We're pretty good like that when we put our heads together. But think positive ... the adults will be back before we are, and will probably have a roaring fire going, and steaming coffee ready for us, and Sirius will tell us all about using the Jelly-Legs Hex on Lord Voldemort and watching him dance the fandango!"

Harry smiled weakly and ploughed on through the grey deluge. It took a while to reach the flat and Harry clung on to the vain hope offered by Hermione's words until they were almost at the basement car park of the building. There would be a light in the window, that coffee would smell like nectar, and his father would be waving jovially from the upstairs window.

But none of those things happened.

All they found was the deepest water yet. It was so high now that the entire ground floor was submerged. Fortunately, the lower levels were mere storage units, with the Potters' flat being found on the upper floor. The front door had been smashed from its hinges and was floating around inside near the stairwell, which seemed to be completely underwater.

"There's no way we can get up there with the baby," Hermione squeaked. "Could we climb the drainpipes and get in through a window?"

Harry scoffed. "Is that a skill of yours that you've been hiding from me?"

"I'm just saying," Hermione huffed crossly.

"Even if we could get up there, those shutters are sealed by magic," Harry frowned as he assessed their chances. "They are designed to keep out magical intruders ... I just didn't think we'd be some of them.

"No, we have no choice ... I'm going to have to swim up and open the windows from the inside."

Hermione yelped again. "Oh, Harry, that's so risky."

"Can you think of a better idea?"

"But you'll be soaked."

"I'm soaked already."

"But what if the upstairs is flooded too?" Hermione fretted. "What if you get there and the water is so high you cant find air and you drown?"

"I wont," Harry said with confidence he didn't feel. "Judging by the water level out here it hasn't reached the top floor yet. But it might if I don't get a move on."

Hermione's lip quivered a moment and she moved as if to throw her arms around him. But at that moment Seren started chirupping away, as if she were having a nonsense conversation with her dæmon that nobody could see.

"Take her," Harry ordered, unzipping his jacket and handing Hermione the bundle of blankets. "Go round to the front of the building. I'll swim up and get into the flat. Then we'll get you in."

"But how? We've already established that I'm no mountaineer."

Harry blinked at her a moment. "Are we a wizard and a witch or what? Only somebody told me that we were. I'm sure we can think of something."

"We can't use magic!" Hermione squealed. "We'll be violating the International Statute of Magic Secrecy, the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Sorcery, and who knows what else. And besides, I don't like controlled magic flight on broomsticks ... so don't get me started on how I feel about you floating me up through a window, if that's what you're thinking."

Harry smirked at her. "That's the plan, take it or leave it. I don't care about breaking silly laws ... I think the Ministry of Magic has bigger things on their plate just now. So, are you coming or not?"

"Not much of a choice really, do I?" Hermione huffed, then bit her lip anxiously. "Oh, alright then. But I hope you've been practising your Wingardium Leviosa, Harry!"

"Oh, every day!" Harry chuckled. "Just go to the front. Check that La Belle Sauvage II is still in one piece. I'll be as quick as I can. Look after my sister."

"Any other orders, Boss?" Hermione smirked.

"Not yet, but you can change the baby when we get upstairs. She bloody stinks!"

And with a teasing grin, Harry waded over to the flat, took a deep breath, and dived into the fetid water. Hermione watched him go a moment and then splashed her way through the rapidly moving water towards the front of the building. And what she saw there shocked her profoundly.

For the landscape of London had changed in a matter of hours. Westminster Bridge was completely underwater. Only the high poles that held the streetlights were visible now above the raging torrent that was the engorged Thames. And across the river the sight was even more shocking, for the London Eye had been toppled over by the force of the currents and now lay askew against the walls of the Sea Life Centre behind it.

"Well, at least all the animals in there wont mind this so much, eh Seren?" Hermione commented to the baby, thinking of all the marine life enjoying their escapes to freedom right now. "It's a pity, though. I was looking forward to your brother taking me there. He's such a good boy ... you have no idea how lucky you are to have him as an older brother. But you will, though."

Just then Seren popped out a giggle at something over Hermione's shoulder. Hermione turned her head to see what it was and found, to her utter astonishment, that Seren wasn't looking at something over her shoulder, but at something on it.

"Pap! I ... I think she can see you!"

The cat-dæmon blinked his eyes and looked down at the baby. "Well of course she can."

"No, no, you know what I mean," Hermione hushed impatiently. "I think she knows that you aren't a regular cat. Somehow, she can tell."

Papageno hummed a moment. "You know sometimes, when I look at her, I do feel like we have some sort of communication, like I get with other dæmons. I can talk with them but there's also a type of emotional connection there too. I get that with the baby every now and then."

"But, of course, she has a dæmon, hidden deep inside her," Hermione nodded sagely. "Maybe that part of a human is more prominent at this age, helping a baby learn and understand as they grow. I always had you, didn't I, but you were outside of me."

"And that's probably what the Magisterium wants to remove," Papageno uttered darkly. "That ability for a baby to learn and think on its own. They want to control it, so the babies grow up only thinking what the Magisterium wants it to."

"That would be awful, wouldn't it? Not being able to think for yourself," Hermione shuddered. Then she turned to Seren and cooed to her. "But we wont let that happen to you, will we? No we wont ... no we wont ..."

Seren gurgled up in a way that might have been showing thanks, or it might just have been trapped wind. Either way, Hermione was disturbed a second later as Harry called down to her.

"If you're done talking in baby language with my sister, there's a nice hot shower available up here! The water tank was still full from this morning."

"Then what are you waiting for?" Hermione grinned. "Float me up, Potter!"

"Right-o, Captain Kirk!" Harry laughed. "Ready for your maiden voyage?"

"No. But just get it over with. And try not to smash my head into the window frame, will you?"

Harry chortled and swished and flicked his wand. Hermione rose unsteadily into the air, keeping a firm grip on Seren in her arms. Harry did his best to keep her upright, but it was a tricky thing and progress was slow. Hermione was very round-eyed the further away the ground became, the panic etched into every line of her face. After thirty fraught seconds, both Hermione and Seren were high enough for Harry to reach out and grab them.

"Take the baby first!" Hermione squeaked. "Get her inside before me."

"I'm not sure I can grab her and keep my wand on you," Harry replied. "Just hold her steady and I'll drag you in. You can use me as a crash mat."

"I'm not sure about this, Harry."

But Harry was already moving. He tugged Hermione close so that her back was facing him, but with his stronger right arm occupied with keeping her afloat he couldn't get the leverage to guide her safely through the open window. He turned his head to Marici, who he had resized so that she could dry herself easier.

"I might need your help, Chi."

The dæmon turned her great brown eyes on him. "You want me to touch her?"

Harry swallowed hard. He both did and didn't want that, the recent breach of the taboo still fresh in his mind, but his desire for Hermione not to drop back to the earth was a more powerful inducement than them both.

"Just bite her collar and drag her in," Harry advised. "Take care and it should be alright."

"I'll try."

So she did. Climbing onto her hind legs, with her paws on the windowsill, Marici leaned out and clamped her powerful jaws on the back of Hermione's coat. Harry felt a surge of that boiling energy as a few of Hermione's hairs brushed across Marici's muzzle, but the next second they tugged as one and Hermione came through the window, came through with more force than they'd intended.

She collided with Harry with a thud, knocking him backwards. His wand went one way, the levitation spell failed and Hermione fell from the sky, where she flattened Harry like a pancake.

"Hey you," she giggled madly as she turned to look at Harry, who was puffing for a good breath from his compacted lungs. "You make a very decent crash mat, after all! Maybe you've found your calling in life!"

"I'm glad you're finding this so funny," Harry groaned. "How's my sister?"

"She smells like a farmyard, but at least she's laughing," Hermione grinned. "We'd better get her changed."

With some awkward manoeuvring, Hermione got to her feet and laid the baby out on a changing mat that Lily had left in the living room from earlier.

"Right. Any idea how to start?"

"Mum always boils some water, then mixes baby powder with it when it cools," Harry recalled. "I'll do that. I'm sure I can manage that much."

"Leaving it to me to get her out of the smelly nappy and clean her up," Hermione frowned, wrinkling her nose at the prospect. "I think I'll leave my shower till after that bit!"

So they set to work. Harry set a pot to boil on the stove and located the baby milk from the cupboard, while Hermione unfastened the nappy, dry retched at the stench that filled the flat, then proceeded to clean up the soiling on the baby with one hand, while the other pinched her nostrils tight together.

"Cor, that is rancid!" Harry choked from near the stove. He had covered his nose too. "How can something so little make such a big stink!"

Seren just looked over and chattered away in indistinct noises by way of reply. It looked like she didn't know the answer either.

Very soon the water had boiled and cooled. Harry tested the temperature with his finger, as he remembered seeing his father do once, then followed the instructions on the box very carefully to make up the formula. When it looked right, he crossed back to Hermione, who had disposed of the dirty nappy and the smell with some handy air freshener she found in the bathroom.

Which just left a naked baby for them to clothe.

"Maybe I shouldn't be looking at this," Harry fretted, turning away modestly. "She is a girl, after all."

Hermione quirked a curious look up at him. "Would it make a difference if she was a boy?"

"Well, no. I don't suppose it would. Naked is naked, isn't it, whatever bits you've got on display?"

"How eloquent!" Hermione laughed. "Now, do you have any idea how to fasten a nappy?"

"Nope," Harry shook his head. "Mum and Dad are pros. They do a quick bit of origami, and next thing it's just on. You?"

"Not a clue," Hermione frowned. "But surely it can't be that hard ..."

But as it turned out, what the adults made look so easy was actually far more complex than it seemed. The first nappy they tried to put on backwards, the second one Harry somehow stuck the adhesive tape together so firmly that it was unusable, and the third Seren managed to kick a hole in as she squirmed and wriggled her stubby legs in perpetual motion, roaring with laughter the whole time. Evidently, she thought this was the funniest game ever invented.

Harry, however, was thoroughly fed up with playing. "She never seems to stay still does she? Silly baby. How the hell are we supposed to get this thing on her if she wont stop moving?"

"Right, here's what we'll do," Hermione announced briskly. "You hold her ankles together and pull her up a little bit, like a chicken, then I'll slide the new nappy under her bum. Then you lower her slowly, I'll pull up the front bit and once she's stuffed in we'll do the fasteners. Got it?"

"Let's give it a go," Harry nodded.

So they did. There was much kicking and wriggling, much shifting and tugging of baby and nappy alike, but eventually they had two very clear leg holes, with a leg in each one, and a waistband ready to secure. Then they fiddled with the adhesive straps, pressed the sticky bit to the nappy and sat back to admire their work.

It was wonky, it was probably far too loose, but it was on and it would do.

"There!" Hermione sang proudly. "That wasn't so hard, was it?"

"Speak for yourself! That was a flipping nightmare!"

"And we'll have to do it all again in a few hours or less," Hermione reminded him bracingly. "Right, I need to shower and you need to feed your sister."

And with that she hopped up and headed for the bathroom. Harry lifted Seren carefully into his lap and pushed the teat of the bottle into her mouth.

"See? This bit is easy," Harry told the baby as she suckled noisily on the bottle. "You're going to be a right pain in the bum, you know that?"

And then, without really knowing why he did it, Harry bent low and placed a little kiss to Seren's forehead. She blinked but didn't move, other than to grab tight onto Harry's finger, where his hand was holding the bottle steady for her.

"I think that's one girl at least who will always love you," Marici purred, resting her head on Harry's knee but carefully avoiding touching Seren.

Harry looked down fondly at his sister, then his expression hardened. He placed her carefully into the crook between the settee cushion and the armrest then turned to his dæmon. "What are we going to do, Chi?"

"You don't think we should stay here?"

"No, not really. Do you?"

"No. Lestrange and Pettigrew know we might be here and can get around the defences. It isn't safe without Mum and Dad."

"And if ... if anything happens to them ... I think the security spells vanish," Harry mumbled. But he didn't want to think about that, so he pushed the thought away. "We still should try and go somewhere. Hogwarts, maybe."

"That's much too far away," Marici pointed out. "We'd never make it."

"Well, where then?"

"The Magical World must be our best bet," Marici considered. "If we could get to Diagon Alley -"

"No Tube, and the Leaky Cauldron is likely to be under water by now," Harry argued. "I don't know any other way to get there."

"What about Will? If we could find him and his Subtle Knife he might be able to cut us a window there, or to anywhere. Somewhere dry, in any case."

"I have no idea where he might live," Harry huffed. "London's just too massive to try and guess. He might even have drowned in all this water for all we know. I bet loads of people have."

"Not Will, he's too smart for that. He'll have been prepared."

Just then, Hermione emerged from the bathroom. She was dressed in clean, warm clothes and she'd pulled all her hair over one shoulder like it was some exotic new fashion, and was now proceeding to dry it with her wand. Harry just blinked at her, at the subtle shimmer to her slick locks, and the gentle sheen of moisture still clinging to the exposed flesh on the right hand side of her neck.

The sight made Harry's insides do flips.

"What?" Hermione asked, glaring at him.

"Oh ... nothing."

"What are you looking at?"

"Nothing, nothing," Harry stumbled.

"No, you're definitely looking at something," Hermione insisted, narrowing her eyes. "So what is it?"

"Nothing, it's just your hair ... I've never really noticed how much of it you had, till you bunched it all together like that. It's loads, isn't it?"

"Oh, yes, I suppose it is," Hermione sighed, fingering her wavy strands sadly. "I sometimes think of getting it cut ... go in for one of those pixie-looks that are all the rage or something -"

"No! Don't do that!" Harry blurted out far more eagerly than he'd meant. He blushed furiously as Hermione looked over at him. She stopped her drying and just stood there a moment. Harry couldn't read her expression at all. "I mean ... I just mean ... I like it like that, all long and stuff. It suits you. I mean it's you, isn't it? It might not be the same if you got it cut ... but you can if you want, of course ... nothing to do with me at all, really, but ... yeah."

Harry ran out of words and fell silent. Hermione crossed the room slowly, with small, nervous steps. She stopped barely a foot from Harry and waited patiently until he looked up at her. Her eyeballs seemed to be trembling for some reason.

"If you like my hair long, I'll keep it this way," she whispered breathlessly. She took half a step closer ... then she pushed a trembling finger through the curls behind his ear. "I like your hair, too. So will you keep it the same for me?"

Harry blinked hard and licked the inside of his mouth, as it was suddenly arid without explanation. He cleared his throat gruffly.

"Yeah. I'll keep it this way if - if that's what you want."

"Thank you, Harry."

Another half step.

Harry wanted to step back, but his feet had forgotten how to work. His brain could only focus on how close Hermione was getting and why her eyes were alight with fire. He noticed they were very brown this close up. But if her eyes were this close, then her nose would be, too. And below her nose was ...

A mouth that couldn't scream anything like as shrilly as a hungry baby could.

"Sorry, Seren, I'm coming," Harry called in a high voice much unlike his own. Ducking around Hermione he scooped up the baby and the bottle, from where it had slipped from her tiny hands. Hermione huffed, made a sort of clucking sound and headed towards the kitchen, but not before flicking a look at Seren and muttering something under her breath that Harry swore sounded like "little flirt."

Harry resumed his feeding of his sister as Hermione began pulling tins and packets of food from the cupboards, which she then put into a little bag she found under the counter.

"Ooh, I've heard about these!" she exclaimed excitedly. "They are Bottomless Bags. Expansion and Weightless Charms are spelled into the very fabric. They hold almost anything. Lyra and I saw one on Diagon Alley, but they are a vanity buy and quite expensive."

"Take it, it's yours," Harry told her as she curled her eyes down bashfully. "It'll be dead useful where we're going."

Hermione looked up at him. "Then you agree ... we have to go and find The Source?"

Harry started a moment. That wasn't what he'd meant at all. But, now that Hermione had suggested it ...

"Do you really think we can?"

"You found High Brasil, and that was supposed to be impossible," said Hermione loftily. "And now you've got me ... so let's see the Universe stop us!"

Harry felt a warmth surge all through his chest at the look Hermione was giving him. It made his head spin a bit so he focused on feeding his sister instead.

"Okay, we'll do that. But how do we find it?"

"We'll go where the currents take us," Hermione replied. "This amount of water is unnatural ... it must be flowing in from another world. We have to trust that Dust will guide us to where we need to go."

"And what will we do when we're there?" Harry asked.

"I don't know, I haven't got that far yet," Hermione frowned. "But we'll think of something when we find it. Our instincts are good are nearly always right, aren't they? We have to have faith in that."

"And my sister?"

"She'll be coming with me."

A new voice had sounded in the flat. It made Harry jump, and when he landed he noticed that the front door had opened without him seeing. He looked down to see the enormous, wolf-shaped form of Bellatrix Lestrange stalking towards him.

"There's no way out, baby Harry," the wolf said in a jarring, babyish voice. "I have friends all around the building. You aren't going anywhere. So just give me the baby like a good little boy."

Harry clung on tight. "She's not going anywhere with you! I'll kill you if you come any closer!"

Bellatrix cackled out a girlish laugh. "Oh, such bravery! You'll turn girls' hearts when you're a bit older. You're turning my stomach now ... or maybe it's just rumbling because I'm so hungry!"

Bellatrix-the-wolf snapped her jaws tauntingly. Harry took a step back and his eyes flicked to Hermione. She was moving quietly around the kitchen worktop and she'd picked up a stool. A few more seconds and she'd be right behind the wolf.

Harry needed to keep her babbling just a little bit longer.

"What do you want with my sister, anyway? She's not done anything to you!"

"Oh, baby Potter, it isn't what she's done ... it's what she's going to do," Bellatrix crooned in that sickly sweet tone. It was so odd to see it coming from the mouth of a wolf.

"Going to do?" Harry quirked.

"Oh yes, she has been selected for a high honour you see. You might even call her the Chosen One."

"Chosen for what?"

"Why, she's been chosen as the first death to herald the return of my Lord ... Lord Voldemort. He has a certain affinity with your family ... and by that I mean he wishes to exterminate the whole stinking lot of you. Right now, he's polishing off your mother and father and that vexing cousin of mine. He's handed me the privilege of dealing with you, and when you've snuffed it I'm going to deliver him that baby to use as his sacrifice ... and the ultimate display of his power."

"You will do no such thing!" Harry snarled, clutching Seren tight to him. "You'll have to kill me to get to her!"

"Didn't I just say that was the plan?" Bellatrix quirked lightly. "Perhaps I should just show you -"

Then the wolf rose onto its hind legs and made to pounce. But at the same time Hermione raced forwards like a shrieking banshee and clobbered the wolf over the head with as much force as she could put behind the stool. The shock and surprise caused Bellatrix to transform back into a witch. Hermione raised the stool and brought it down onto her head again.

"I think you got her!" Harry cried, as Hermione made to attack her again. "Come on, we have to run for it."

"Is she dead?"

Harry knelt down and pressed his finger to Bellatrix's neck. "No, just knocked out."

"Then we should kill her!" Hermione yelled.

"No ... I'm not having you become a murderer, not for this filthy piece of sewage!" Harry called up passionately. "Come on, we have to get out of here."

"Harry, let me -"

"- no! I wont! I need you and your soul in one piece. I heard it sort of splits if you murder someone. I don't want that for you, and neither should you."

Hermione screeched in her frustration and slammed the stool down, which wobbled and fell and cracked into Bellatrix's head with a sickening thud anyway.

"Well, she isn't waking up for a while," Marici observed, sniffing at Bellatrix. "I could have taken her, you know."

"I know," Harry grinned. "But I didn't want you biting her. She probably tastes like rotting meat, and I don't want that flavour in my gob, thanks. Yuck!"

"What now, Harry?" Hermione demanded.

"Grab as much stuff for the baby as you can," Harry instructed. "Baby food, milk formula, as many nappies as you can find. Oh, and the saucepan. We might need to boil water with it. I'm going to grab some blankets and stuff for us. It'll be cold out on the river tonight."

Within ten minutes they were packed and ready. Hermione gave Bella a good kick just for the sake of it and followed Harry to the window. Outside, the water was as high and fast-flowing as ever.

"Where are all Bella's friends then?" Hermione demanded.

"She's a dirty liar," Harry spat. "She probably hasn't got any. But then I suppose wolves often run alone, don't they? Right, Hermione, I'm going to float you down, then you'll have to float me down, too. Once I get to the ground we run to the canoe and push off downstream, alright?"

"Got it."

Harry was much quicker this time. Hermione splashed down to the flood, which was nearly up to her waist now. She squeaked as she hit the floor.

"Are you okay?" Harry called down.

"Yes, but this water is freezing! So much for my dry clothes, too!"

"We can dry off in the canoe. Get me down from here."

"Oh, right."

Hermione drew her wand and flicked it at Harry. He marvelled a moment at how her wand form was far more elegant that his own and resolved to practice more, as he scooped up Marici and turned onto his back to bear her weight. They were almost out of the window when something sharp cut into his ankle.

"Ouch!" Harry yelped as tears stung his eyes. That really hurt ... but what was it? He looked back at the window to see that dire wolf again ... her long claws had pierced Harry's flesh and were cutting deeper as Hermione unwittingly tried to float him away. He cried out as his flesh was torn, but Hermione couldn't have heard him against the loud rushing of the water.

Then there was an angry growl as Marici sprang up and turned to face the wolf. She winded Harry as her full weight landed on his chest, but then one of her massive paws swung back and smashed right into the side of Bellatrix's wolf head. The impact was so fierce it drove the wolf into the window frame with knock-out force. She let go of Harry's leg and Hermione floated him to the ground.

"What happened? I saw Chi jump up and ... are you crying? ... and you're bleeding!" Hermione asked in a hurried but gentle tone.

"It's nothing," Harry grimaced. But it clearly wasn't nothing as he found he could barely put any weight on his injured ankle.

"Bellatrix dug her claws into Harry's leg," Marici growled. "He's cut up pretty badly. We have to get him out of this dirty water, it's likely full of germs and that's an open wound he has."

"Here, lean on me," Hermione called, holding Seren in one arm and wading to Harry, before throwing her arm around his waist as his snaked around her shoulders.

"Thanks. We have to go. Bellatrix could get up at any minute!"

They moved slowly and awkwardly, Harry on one leg, Hermione with more cargo than she could carry. And still that infernal water rushed all around them. The canoe was still ahead of them, somehow still tied to the high mast of the mooring jetty. By the time they reached it they were practically paddling, as only their toe-tips could reach the boards of the little pier below the water.

After what seemed like an age, they finally reached La Belle Sauvage II and Hermione insisted Harry scramble on first to get out of the water. Then she handed him the baby and her bag, before finally hauling herself up.

And in good time too ... for no sooner had Hermione toppled into the little boat than they heard a sound from the drier land up near the house.

"Haa! Ha! Haaa! Haaa!"

"It's Bellatrix!" Hermione squeaked in terror. "Harry ... undo the rope! Quick!"

"She sounds a lot like a hyena, doesn't she?" Harry snarled as he fiddled with the rope. "Damn this thing! It's too tight!"

"Hurry, Harry! She's coming!"

"I'm doing my best!"

"Oh, Harry! She could Apparate here at any second! She's going to get us!"

"Damn this rope! I can't undo it!" Harry cried. "Chi, help!"

"The knife, Harry! The knife!"

"Oh yeah!"

Harry reached into the bow. He found the box and hurried back to the rope ... the tape holding it closed was fiddly, he couldn't find the end ... his fingers were shivering too much, he couldn't get it undone ... Ha! Haaa! Haaa!"

"Oh, out of the way!" Hermione yelled. She had suddenly lost her patience. She drew her wand and pointed it at the box. "Alohomora!"

The box flicked open to reveal the sharp knife Harry had stored there on Christmas Eve. He raised it quickly ... then Hermione called out again.

"Bella's gone! She's Disapparated! Where is she?"

Harry fixed his eyes on the house and, for a moment, he thought he saw of sort of shimmer on the saturated air. It was fast, like a barely visible cloud hurtling on a gale ... and it was getting closer. Harry brought the knife down as hard as he could ... the rope was split by the impact ... and La Belle Sauvage shot off like a dart along the surging river.

Then there was a loud cry of frustration from a very angry and wet woman ...

... for Bellatrix Lestrange had re-materialised in the freezing water where the canoe had just been, and she was a matter of seconds too late to catch it.

Harry watched her curse and splash in her fury and knew one thing for absolute certain ... this witch wouldn't give up that easily.