------------------------------------------------------------
HARRY POTTER AND THE JADE DRAGON
------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter XXVIII
The Jade Dragon
It was created
for this hour
For this desperate night alone.
The secret hidden within it
Was by one solitary person known.
Harry
felt his feet slam into the ground, and his hand let go of the
jade cup. Ron and
Hermione were right next to him, as were Shan and Robert. Looking
up, he saw that
Jeanne and Professor Lupin were standing a short distance from
them.
Harry looked around. They were standing in a clearing. It was
night, and the dark sky was
studded with stars. The air was bitterly cold, and the landscape
looked all too familiar: bleak,
wild-looking forest surrounded them, and towering over them was
a mountain, smoke issuing
from its peak. Further away, more volcanoes could be seen, stretching
in a chain into the
distance. He was back in Kamchatka.
Jeanne looked very pale, and she and Lupin had taken their
wands out. Seeing this, the rest
of them took theirs out, as well.
Lupin came swiftly up to them, Jeanne following.
"Deorg sent those jade cups," he said quietly, his
eyes wary. "He must be around here,
somewhere. It's best if all of us go back at once, especially
you." He looked at Jeanne.
She was about to reply, but all at once a voice rent the air, shattering the stillness.
"Expelliarmus!"
Their wands all jumped into the air, curving in an arc high
in the sky, and landed at the feet of a
tall, hooded figure, which had just stepped out from behind a
tree some twenty feet away, at the
edge of the clearing. The figure pointed its wand at the jade
cups, and they also shot away from
the ground toward him, landing near the pile of wands.
Harry felt that familiar, surging force in his mind. Jeanne
cried out in fear, even as Lupin conjured
up a ball of white fire and hurled it at Deorg.
"Fight him, Jeanne," he said urgently, "As we practiced!"
He quickly turned to Robert and said, "Shield the others,
and keep your distance. Try to get near
the Portkeys if you can."
Jeanne was clutching her head, as if in pain. Deorg pointed
his wand at Lupin and muttered
something. A jet of brilliant red light shot out from the wand,
but Lupin dodged it, and threw
another ball of fire at him.
Deorg hurled a stream of red fire at Harry and the others,
who had retreated some distance away,
but Robert had erected a bright Shield around them. The fire smashed
into the Shield, and it
dissolved. Robert swiftly raised a second Shield.
"He's quite powerful," he said tensely, as another
stream of fire smashed into the Shield, which
trembled at the impact.
Jeanne was twisting around, as if in agony. Lupin was still
hurling fire at Deorg, trying to throw
him off-balance; but Deorg merely deflected it with a wave of
his wand. Jeanne suddenly took
a step forward, and stumbled. Her resistance was beginning to
crumble. She turned to look at
Lupin, an expression of terror on her face. Then, she slowly began
to transform.
"No!" said Lupin urgently. "Fight him off, Jeanne! Raise a Shield!"
Deorg laughed coldly, and began pelting both Lupin and the
group huddled under Robert's Shield
with jets of bright, red light.
Lupin quickly dodged, or hurled handfuls of flame to deflect
them; but he looked as if he was tiring
quickly.
"How's Lupin doing that?" asked Ron, glancing at the pile of wands near Deorg's feet.
"It's the volcanoes," said Harry. "They contain
some kind of magic. Lupin learned how to use it
when he was doing research here, ages ago."
"He still hasn't taken the tonic," said Hermione,
watching anxiously. "He may not be able to hold
Deorg off for long. Robert, can't you do something?"
But Robert already had his hands full trying to maintain the
Shield, which shook with the impact of
each jet of light.
"I can't do anything significant inside the Shield,"
he said. Seeing that Deorg was looking at Lupin,
he pushed his hand out of the Shield for a moment, and pointed
it at Deorg. Deorg's wand suddenly
shot out of his hand, and toward Lupin.
Deorg gave a roar of rage, and drawing on the volcanoes' power,
quickly hurled a ball of flame at
the wand, destroying it in mid-air.
Jeanne had transformed into the huge beast that Harry remembered
all too well, from three years ago.
It raised its head, and snarled viciously at Lupin.
Deorg seemed incensed. He reached out toward the pile of wands
lying nearby. Robert, seeing that
he was distracted, poked his hand out of the Shield again and
pointed at the wands. They flew into
the air, toward him. But he still had to maintain the Shield,
and the spell was not strong enough; the
wands fell to the ground before they could reach Harry and the
others.
Lupin, to prevent Deorg from Summoning the wands back, began
hurling balls of fire at him. Deorg
was now also angrily pelting all of them with balls of fire. Harry
felt the surge in his mind again, and
the beast screamed in fury. Deorg pointed a finger at Lupin, who
was still deflecting the balls of fire.
"Kill him!" he shouted.
"No," whispered Shan, watching in agony.
The beast snarled, but as it turned to look at Lupin, it seemed
to falter, and retreated a few paces.
Harry saw Lupin looking at it, unafraid. He was quietly speaking
to it.
Deorg shouted in anger, and the surging force came once more.
The beast shrieked again, and went
toward Lupin, a mad light in its eyes.
"Robert, do something!" moaned Shan, tugging at Robert's sleeve.
Deorg, however, was blasting them with fireballs again, and
it was all Robert could do, to maintain
the Shield. Lupin spoke to the beast again, and again it stopped
in its tracks.
Deorg snarled in anger, and hurled a fireball at Lupin with
terrifying fury. Lupin tried dodging it, but
not quite, and it hit him in the shoulder. He fell to the ground,
stunned.
This had an unexpected effect on the beast. It screamed in
anger, then began shrinking. It changed
shape, and Jeanne was there again. Her eyes blazing, she ran over
to Lupin, and raised a bright
Shield around the both of them. She then swiftly took the onyx
tiger out of her pocket, and raised
it high. A jet of bright, white light shot out of it, and smashed
into Deorg.
Deorg cried out in pain, and staggered backward. Raising a hand, he threw a fireball at Jeanne.
The fire hit her Shield, and she faltered for a second, trying
to maintain it. The jet of light from the
Devil's Curse dimmed. Then, as she focussed her will again, it
flared back into life, driving itself
into Deorg.
Harry and the others were watching, holding their breath. Deorg
was screaming in pain, and it
seemed at first that Jeanne was winning. But then, she began to
tire. To Harry's dismay, her Shield
began to dim, and her shoulders started to sag.
Deorg noticed it too. Even while writhing in pain, he lifted
a hand and hurled one last fireball at
Jeanne. It smashed into her Shield, dissolving it. She stumbled
back, and dropped the onyx tiger.
It fell to the ground, a foot or so in front of her.
Jeanne made a move to retrieve the tiger, but Deorg was hurling
more balls of fire at her and Lupin.
With an effort, she raised a Shield, enclosing both of them.
Deorg gave a cry of triumph. And then, he made a big mistake.
Still hurling balls of fire with one
hand, alternately at Jeanne, and then at Harry and the others,
he pointed the other at the onyx tiger,
and concentrating, focussed a beam of light on it, to destroy
it.
Shan's eyes gleamed.
"He's trying to destroy the Devil's Curse!" she whispered,
excitedly. "If he does, he'll be weakened,
and we can finish him off!"
Jeanne couldn't hold her Shield any more. It dissolved, and
a ball of fire hit her, so that she fell to the
ground, stunned. Deorg stopped pelting them with fireballs. He
pointed both hands at the onyx tiger,
and focussed all his power on it. It was glowing, brighter and
brighter. Finally, it flared brilliantly for
a few moments, then exploded in a burst of light.
Deorg stumbled sharply backward, then sank to his knees, looking
weary. Shan gave a small gasp,
then stepped out of Robert's Shield.
"We can get him, now!" she cried. Moving toward Deorg, she began to transform.
Robert dissolved his Shield, and grabbed at her robes.
"Shan, don't!" he said sharply. "Even when he's like that, you're still no match for him."
But she had already transformed. A large, green dragon had
taken her place. With an ear-splitting
scream, it rose into the air, and launched itself at Deorg.
Ron and Hermione were watching, startled. Robert drew a quick
breath, watching her, then
swiftly turned to Harry.
"Harry," he said quietly, "give me the Translator."
Harry wondered if he had heard rightly. "What?"
"The Translator," Robert repeated. "Give it to me."
Ron and Hermione were still watching the dragon, unable to believe that it was Shan.
Harry hesitated. He put his hand in his pocket; he could feel
the hard form of the Translator
there. But why did Robert want it?
The dragon had reached Deorg. With a loud roar, it lifted its
head and let forth a torrent
of flame from its jaws.
Harry looked at Robert. "What do you want it for?"
"There's no time to explain!" said Robert. He then
did something rather strange; taking
his glasses off, he threw them onto the ground, so that they shattered.
He looked at Harry,
a desperate expression on his face. "Just give it to me!"
Deorg had raised a partial Shield, enough to deflect the flames.
He conjured a ball of white
fire, and hurled it at the dragon. The dragon dodged, but the
fireball hit one of its wings, and
it screamed in pain.
Harry hesitated again. He felt slightly unnerved - he had never
seen Robert, usually so calm,
look like this before. Something told him that if he gave Robert
the Translator, he was going
to regret it for the rest of his life.
"Tell me what you want it for, first," he said.
Robert looked at him for a moment. Harry didn't see him move,
but the next thing he knew,
he felt something smash into his head, like a ton of bricks, and
he was blinded by pain. He
fell to the ground, holding his head in his hands. As if from
very far away, he thought he
could hear Ron and Hermione's voices, shouting, and the sounds
of their fists knocking
at something hard.
"Robert! What are you doing?"
"Robert, let us in!"
Harry heard the dragon scream in pain again. He could feel
someone next to him, feeling
inside his pockets.
"I'm sorry, Harry," he heard Robert's voice saying, "but there's no other choice."
The dragon screamed again. All at once, he sensed that Robert
was gone. Instead, Ron
and Hermione were now next to him.
"Are you all right, Harry?" Hermione sounded anxious.
Harry slowly opened his eyes. He was lying on his back. Ron
and Hermione were
worriedly bending over him.
Harry looked up at them, feeling dazed. "What happened?"
"Crazy fellow went starkers!" said Ron, helping him
to sit up. "We saw you suddenly
sprawling on the floor, and then he raised some kind of invisible
barrier around the two
of you, we couldn't get in!"
Hermione had turned to look at Deorg. She pulled at Ron's sleeve.
"Look," she whispered, her face pale.
Harry quickly turned to look. Shan had transformed back. She
was lying on the ground,
a few feet from Deorg, her glasses lying some distance from her,
broken. Deorg was
standing with hand raised, ready to finish her off with one last,
fatal blow.
But Robert was already there. He raised a bright, glowing Shield
around himself, and
lifted the Translator in his hand. A beam of intense, bright green
light swept out of it, and
smashed into Deorg.
Deorg screamed. Robert shouted something at Shan, who somehow
managed to get on
her knees, and crawled away on all fours, her robes torn and muddied.
Deorg was still screaming. He managed to throw a ball of fire
at Robert, but it bounced
off the Shield.
The others were watching, speechless.
"Howhow is he doing that?" said Ron, looking startled.
Harry was staring in disbelief, as the truth finally sank in.
"It's the Translator," he said numbly. "I had
it with me all the time, and I didn't know. The
jade dragon - it's a Devil's Curse!"
Robert was still concentrating the beam of green light onto
Deorg. Harry, glancing to his left,
saw that Jeanne and Lupin had recovered; Lupin was helping Jeanne
to her feet.
Deorg was still screaming and writhing. Unable to hurt Robert,
he managed to fling a ball of
fire at Shan instead, who was lying nearby. His aim was a bit
off, and the fire was not very
strong, but it hit her leg, and she screamed in pain.
Robert faltered, and turned to look at Shan. He lowered the
jade dragon for a moment, then
suddenly raised it in his hand again. A brilliant beam of green
light shot out, and smashed
irresistibly into Deorg. Deorg's robes ignited, and he was enveloped
in green flame. He lay
there, screaming and writhing in agony.
"He's taking a long time to go," muttered Ron, watching.
"Remember how the Bronzeback
died right away, during the tournament?"
Robert wasn't bothering about his Shield any more. He dissolved
it, and then put everything
he had into the jade dragon. It flared brilliantly in his hand,
too bright to look at, and green
light poured out of it, enveloping Deorg. The green flames on
his clothing suddenly leapt up,
crackling with a vicious intensity. Deorg gave one last wailing
cry, and then fell down and lay
still, in a smouldering heap of green flame.
Robert's hand, still raised, seemed to be smoking slightly.
He lowered it, and stood looking
at what was left of Deorg, for a moment. Then, he slowly sank
to his knees, and fell to the
ground.
Shan, seeing this, gave a cry of anguish, and limped over to
him. Harry and the others were
also hurrying forward, together with Lupin and Jeanne.
Shan had turned Robert over, so that he was lying on his back,
and was bending over him.
Lupin knelt down and felt Robert's pulse, then looked at Shan,
and then at Jeanne.
Shan's face was white, and she was trembling slightly.
"What is it?" she said, looking at Lupin, "Is he all right?"
Lupin looked at her, and opened his mouth to say something,
but no words came out. Jeanne
was sitting as if she had turned to stone.
Shan gave them one wild look, then bent over Robert and started shaking him.
"Wake up, Robert," she whispered. "Wake up. It's all over."
Jeanne looked at her, and then put a hand on Shan's shoulder.
"Shan, don't," she said, "Stop it."
Shan didn't seem to notice her. She kept shaking Robert.
"Robert, wake up!" she said urgently. "Wake up! Wake up, Robert!"
Lupin leaned forward, and gently pried Shan's hands away from Robert's shoulders.
"Shan," he said quietly, "he's gone. You can't bring him back. He's gone, Shan."
Shan stared at him for several seconds; Harry could hardly
bear seeing the stricken look in her
eyes. She turned back to look at Robert. Taking his hands into
hers, she held them up to her
face, and gave out a cry of indescribable pain and loss.
Jeanne stepped over Robert's body and put her arms around Shan,
and held the sobbing girl
close to her. Shan was crying almost hysterically.
Lupin sat where he was, watching, his face sober. Harry, Ron
and Hermione looked at each
other, feeling at a loss. They sat down next to Lupin, averting
their eyes from Jeanne and Shan,
and looked out at the bleak landscape.
Shan was weeping uncontrollably. Jeanne was holding her, her
eyes closed, tears trickling
down her face. After a while, Shan calmed down. She drew herself
away from Jeanne,
and sat there, looking miserably at Robert.
Jeanne wiped the tears away from her own face, and looked worriedly
at Shan, who was
still holding Robert's hands. The jade dragon was gone, having
exploded into vapour, unable
to withstand all the power that had been poured into it. Robert's
right hand was still smoking
slightly, and there was a blackened scar on it, where the dragon
had burned into it. Shan
stroked it gently, and then slowly lowered it. There was a bitter
expression on her face.
She suddenly made a gesture at the pile of wands, lying some distance
away, and her wand
came flying through the air toward her. She caught it deftly,
and looked at it for several
seconds. Then, she slowly turned it around, and pointed it at
her own chest.
Harry felt his heart stop. He heard Hermione give a small whimper
of terror behind him.
Jeanne and Lupin sat where they were, rather tense, watching Shan;
but they remained
silent, and made no move to stop her, as Harry thought they might.
Shan's eyes were lowered, and she was sitting like a statue,
pointing the wand at her chest.
After a while Jeanne said softly, "Now I understand. You
can't do it now, Shan. Put the
wand down."
Shan was looking at Robert again, and the hand that was holding
the wand was shaking
slightly. Then she slowly raised her eyes, and looked at Jeanne
and Lupin. She gave a small,
shuddering sigh, and then lowered the wand.
"I thought, for once, I was stronger than him," she
said quietly, looking at Robert. "I thought I
could make him do what I wanted. I thought it would make him stay.
But in the end, he was
cleverer than me, after all. He knew, didn't he, that I would
kill myself. Why should I live?
There's no one left any more Father, Mother, and now Robert
- they've all left me.
There's nobody left, any more."
Harry didn't understand. Ron, too, was looking blank. Hermione,
however, was looking at
Shan with a hint of wonder in her eyes.
Shan was still looking at Robert. Jeanne was silent for a moment,
then drew a quick breath,
and said in a low voice, "Yes, there is."
Shan slowly turned to look at her. Jeanne was gazing at her
with a rather odd expression on
her face.
"There is someone left, Shan," she said. "You still have someone; you have a sister."
Shan didn't seem to register what she was saying. She was still
holding Robert's hand in hers,
and she just sat there, looking at Jeanne.
Jeanne flicked a glance at Lupin. Lupin nodded quietly at her,
and she turned to look at Shan
again.
"You have a sister, Shan," she repeated, a strange
light in her face. "You're not alone; you have
a sister. You have me. I am your sister."
-