Chapter Twenty-One

Ancient Magic

Jennifer had glanced in her mirror; it had meant to be a quick peek to look at her thoughts. But the face she saw when looking into it was not her own, and before she had time to cry out, a force dragged her into the image until she stood in front of the one who's face she had seen, Voldemort. She dropped the mirror, looking around, trying not to panic. They were standing in what she thought might be the center of the Dark Forest, surrounded by a ring of Death Eaters. Quickly she attempted to figure what to do. Perhaps she could get out of this yet, she thought, playing the servant. Did she really want to? She knew she was here to die. There could be little pretense. Would Severus get hurt from her strength? Not, she pondered… not if…

"So, this is the girl, the pure of spirit but not of blood, servant of a servant, who dared to betray us. Do not stand there as if you were in front of an equal. Bow to me." Jennifer met the request with a defiant smile. His face turned quickly to anger. "Do as I say! Bow. Imperio!"

The spell hit her with a force she'd never felt before. But she knew deep down, that she would never ever do this thing. To behave in such a way would be a lie, a lie that she would notice instantly in someone else. She really didn't feel like lying at the moment.

"You first," she said calmly. Behind her, she noticed that a couple of the Death Eaters glanced at one another.

"Crucio!"

Pain racked through her body, hitting every nerve with burning, screaming pain stronger than any of the other times put together. But she did not scream. He was determined to break her, and the pain continued for a time she couldn't measure. Abruptly it stopped.

"What took you so long?" she heard Voldemort snap.

"I was held up at the school. I beg your forgiveness, master," said a voice. She knew at once it was Severus.

"As you can see, I was able to get your wayward servant without your help. I am fortunate that Lucius is a bit more cunning than you are, and more selective about who he trusts."

Jennifer took a deep breath and stood back up, brushing the leaves off almost casually, refusing to look over in the direction of the voice.

"I did not say that you could get up," Voldemort hissed, and cast the Cruciatus curse again. Down she went, but again she refused to cry out, gritting her teeth to the point that even they began to hurt. Suddenly everything went black and the pain stopped. No eye contact, she thought, not a bad thing. She felt something crawling over her and heard noises from around her, immediately recognizing the spell. Then she felt a hand in hers, asking her to come on. Fear struck her and she quickly got up, trying to get Harry out of there.

"Lumos!"

"Stupefy!"

The light spell breached the darkness, ending the spell, and Jennifer felt herself thrown away from Harry Potter, who himself had been knocked back. Voldemort began to laugh loudly as he realized what had happened. Jennifer winced, quickly trying to figure out what to do next.

"How deliciously perfect! My young enemy has decided to come rescue his beloved teacher. What a fitting ending! Now I can be rid of both of you once and for all. But first, it is time that Jennifer finds out what we're doing here. I wouldn't want to kill her without her seeing what her defiance has caused."

Jennifer found that she could stand and did, glancing at Harry's still form, trying to remain calm. She still had her wand, she thought. She was going to have to try something. Voldemort made a simple gesture, and the Death Eaters turned, except for the one that stood in the ring (Severus, she thought). They gestured at the trees, calling out in one voice, "Inferno!" and the woods began to burn, dancing around in a ring heading outwards.

"This had been my home once, did Harry not tell you?" Voldemort smiled thinly. "Many Unicorns died to keep me alive. Now they will die for trying to defeat me! Die, just as you will, my dear, a long and painful death."

"No! Don't harm her!" Harry had come to and was trying to stand up.

"Hmm, or should I kill you first? Decisions, decisions. But then, perhaps Harry should see my true power before he dies, hm? Crucio!"

Jennifer fell, groaning softly, hearing Harry's voice shouting from where he knelt beside her. "Snape, please help us! You can't do this! You can't let Craw die!"

Voldemort laughed at him, breaking the connection.

"Appealing to Severus? Why, because he's been helping Dumbledore? He's been doing that on my command, of course. Severus, what do you say? Your master wants to kill your servant."

"Then you must kill her, Master," he said evenly.

"NO!" Harry got up angrily, managing to break free and charging for Voldemort. Just then, Jennifer whipped out her own wand. Perhaps if she could disable the wand somehow, it would give Harry a chance…

"Aureus Digitalis!" she intoned, pointing at his wand.

Voldemort turned to face her, watching his wand as it turned to solid gold. He laughed.

"I don't know what you had in mind, Craw, but a wand retains the same magical property of its internal component regardless of what material someone tries to transmute the wood into. Shall I demonstrate? Crucio!"

Jennifer doubled over in pain, rolling on her back, barely holding onto her wand as she attempted to cast another spell. His face grew fierce at her defiant attempt at casting again.

"Enough. Your insolence has finally worn thin. Avada Kedavra!"

"NO!" Harry charged at him, trying to move Voldemort's arm to keep the spell from hitting her. But it was too late, for Jennifer stopped moving.

"You fools, don't just stand there! Get him off of me so I can kill him proper!" Voldemort demanded just as Harry grabbed hold of the top of the wand with both hands. They struggled for a moment, and Harry started to feel the soft metal begin to bend.

"STUPEFY!" several voices rang out.

There was a blinding flash that hit the center of the ring, moving outward like a giant wave of lightning. It threw everyone to the ground, and it disturbed the protected ring that kept the fire out, causing some of the brush nearby to ignite. Voldemort had been flung straight back from the force of the blast, his hand curled and bleeding from the blast as he got up with rage. Only half of his wand was left in his hand, so Voldemort turned back around to try and get a wand from the nearest Death Eater.

But after he turned, he took a step back instead, for what was coming through the flames was terrifying indeed. Unicorns thundered into the ring of fire, the flames licking their hoofs. Strangely, the flames seemed to smolder at their passing, causing the air to fill with smoke. The largest Unicorn mare wasn't interested in fighting the flames. Instead, she thundered straight for Voldemort with her horn aimed at his heart.

Just as the Unicorn charged, Voldemort and his Death Eaters Disapparated with a loud *pop*, forcing the Unicorn to jump over the fallen form of Jennifer before pulling up short. Warily, she eyed the only Death Eater who had stayed behind, slowly backing away from him. She faded into the smoking forest, the other Unicorns following her out of view.

Harry felt a hand on his arm and found himself surrounded by professors, as well as Ron and Hermione, whose faces were blackened by the smoke. The students looked over in confusion at the lone Death Eater, who had thrown off his mask and unhooded himself, touching Jennifer's neck as if feeling for a pulse.

"Snape! Then he is a Death Eater!" Hermione said in shock.

"Craw! She isn't… is she…"

Harry's face fell, tears in his eyes. He was suddenly aware of Dumbledore walking past them, going over and kneeling by Craw's side and speaking quietly to Snape. Professor Snape took out a small phial and drank it, nodding to Dumbledore.

Minerva glanced at the three students as she hurried by, shaking her head at them in disapproval before running to Dumbledore and Severus, crestfallen.

"Oh, not Jennifer, not Jennifer!" Minerva exclaimed in dismay, but Dumbledore put his hand up as the staff gathered around. Severus continued to look at Dumbledore with the solemnest of faces.

"No, Minerva, not Jennifer. Not today," he smiled, brushing the hair out of the very pallid face of Jennifer Craw. "She's not dead. Just very deeply asleep."

"But that's impossible!" Rolanda said, picking up the girl's wrist. "No pulse. Oh wait… no, I probably imagined that."

"You did not imagine it. She is quite assuredly asleep. We need to get her back to the school as quickly as possible. Meet us back there as soon as you can, Severus." Without speaking a word, Severus nodded once more and Apparated.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron cried softly as Harry filled them in on what had happened. They watched as the teachers mulled about her, some of them kneeling to touch her. Dumbledore then stood, watching as they put her on a stretcher. He leaned over and said something to McGonagall, then walked towards the students. But then he did something they really weren't expecting for him to do at that moment. He smiled at them.

"It's all right. Everything's quite all right now," he said, leaning down to look them over. "Come, we need to be getting back to the school. The forest needs time to recover without our eyes upon it."

"How can you say everything's all right?" Harry demanded. "When Professor Craw…"

"Is asleep, Harry. She is just asleep," Dumbledore smiled. "A very deep, powerful sleep, but asleep nonetheless."

"But I saw him! I saw him cast the Killing Curse on her!" Harry said with amazement.

"OH!" Hermione said as she stood up. "OH! It's that sleep! Harry, don't you remember our Defense class? Cosmic Sleep is strong enough to counter a death spell!"

"But how? Who cast it? And don't you remember, Hermione, Professor Craw also said an instantaneous death spell hadn't ever been countered, except for what happened to Harry, I mean." Ron said.

"Well, I'm sure she'll be glad to hear how much her students pay attention to her class," Dumbledore said as he gently pushed them ahead of him.

"If she ever wakes up, you mean," Hermione pointed out. "You know what those odds are like. She may be like this for the rest of her life."

"No, I think Hogwarts needs her too much to leave her like that for too long. Don't worry, Hermione. I'll make certain that she wakes up, one way or the other," Dumbledore reassured them.

"I still want to know more about how it happened. Who could have cast that spell and how were they able to cast it at the right time?" Harry asked.

"For once, Harry, I can't tell you all the details in this," Dumbledore replied. "I'm afraid you'll just have to be satisfied with the remarkable thing you just did by breaking the wand whose power matched your own."