A/N: One word: Format. Microsoft Word, the program I *normally* use to write my stories, is being obnoxious: every time I try to open it, my computer freezes, so that makes it very difficult to make any progress. The format is going to be kind of funky until I can figure out what's going on with my computer. Chances are I'll repost this chapter and any more I have to do on WordPad (bleh!), but for now... just try to settle with messed up format, k? Cheese and rice, I hope this works...
~~ Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Final Hour, Part I ~~
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was in a frenzy.
With the last shred of sanity left in him, Albus Dumbledore ordered all the students to return to their dormitories and stay there until further notice. House heads were to escort the students there, and then meet in the staff room to decide what was to be done. Remus Lupin said he would take the Gryffindors, and a teary-eyed Hagrid offered to carry the deceased Sibyll Trelawney to her chambers. Dumbledore agreed to both of their statements. Lucius Malfoy and Eko Chang asked what they should do, and Dumbledore told them to join the faculty members in the staff room.
Draco Malfoy said good-bye to his friends from Gryffindor (and Ravenclaw, in Cho's case) and then followed Severus Snape and the rest of the Slytherins to their house common room. "You will all remain here until I say otherwise," Snape told them in a soft, but firm voice when they arrived. "No one is to leave under any circumstance."
"Who did this, Professor Snape?" asked a fourth-year named Deanna Creston.
"A former student named Icarus Knight," Snape answered. "He was brilliant and very powerful, but foolishly allied himself with those heavily involved in dark magic. That is all you need to know. Excuse me."
Once Snape was gone, a pale-faced Pansy Parkinson weakly said, "So what happens now? Are they going to close the school again?"
Victoria King, a seventh-year prefect, answered Pansy's question. "It's possible," she said. "They closed it when Su Li was killed, and she was a student. Now we've got one dead teacher and another that probably won't live too much longer."
"All I can say," said Marcus Flint, "is that it's about time."
All eyes went to the captain of Slytherin's Quidditch team. "What do you mean by that?" asked a sixth-year named Matt Schuman.
"What do you mean, 'what do you mean'?" Flint asked. "If deputy Dumbledore dies, head Dumbledore is going to be so devastated over her death that he probably won't be able to function anymore. He'll step down as headmaster, and who do you think will get the job? Snape."
"Actually, the person next in line after deputy Dumbledore is Flitwick," said Victoria. "Then it's Sprout, and then Snape. The order of succession is determined by the heads of houses that have been here the longest. Flitwick's got twenty-five years on Sprout, and she's got nine on Snape."
Flint rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I don't think Flitwick would make a very good headmaster, but he's better than either Dumbledore. At this rate, maybe he and Sprout will be the next ones to die."
"I can't believe you'd say that," said Draco. "That's completely uncalled for."
Flint looked at Draco, and a cruel smile crossed his face. "It looks like Malfoy's growing soft."
Several students laughed nervously. The others remained quiet. They weren't sure who they should be more afraid of: Marcus Flint, Draco Malfoy, or Victoria King, who was beginning to look angry.
"Maybe the Sorting Hat should have put you in Gryffindor, Malfoy," Flint continued, "seeing as that's where all your friends are. I think you've forgotten what it means to be a Slytherin."
"Marcus," Victoria said warningly.
"Shut up, Victoria."
"No, you shut up, Flint!" Draco shouted. "I think you're the one that's forgotten what it means to be a Slytherin. Being a Slytherin means we have the greatest chance of becoming the most powerful and influential wizards in the world if we take the initiative and ally ourselves with those who can help us. It's not about bringing down Gryffindor."
Flint laughed. "Of course it's about bringing down Gryffindor! It always has been! Slytherin and Gryffindor hated each other. Gryffindor kicked Slytherin out so Mudbloods could go to Hogwarts. We Slytherins have been avenging him ever since."
"You think you know your history, do you?" Draco asked. "Well, I think you missed the part in the first edition of Hogwarts, A History, written by Rowena Ravenclaw herself, where it said Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin were best friends. Yes, they did disagree on who should be able to attend, and Slytherin left the school out of his own free will for that personal reason, not because he hated Gryffindor."
"How did he ever get hold of a copy of a first edition of that book?" whispered Blaise Zabini to Vincent Crabbe. At present, there were only three known copies still in existence.
Crabbe shrugged. "His father probably has one. He's got a lot of rare books."
Lucius Malfoy did, in fact, own a first edition of Hogwarts, A History, but all those who knew that doubted Flint would care. "Yeah, right," Flint said, confirming the suspicions. "Ten Galleons says Gryffindor was fucking Ravenclaw and he told her to write that."
"That's enough!" Victoria yelled. "Flint, Malfoy's right and you know it. And don't ever use that kind of language, especially around the first-years. This is why you were held back, you know, because you can't control yourself."
Several students snickered. Seeing big bad Marcus Flint getting chided by a prefect was quite entertaining.
Flint turned red in the face and announced that he was going to bed. Victoria had to stop the other students from cheering once he left the room.
The last teacher to arrive in the staff room was Professor Sprout, head of Hufflepuff house. One of the first-years couldn't stop crying, and Sprout didn't want to leave until she was sure the traumatized young girl was going to be all right. Not even hugs from the handsome sixth-year prefect Cedric Diggory could get her to calm down. The girl eventually gave into exhaustion, and the ever-loyal Cedric offered to watch over her as she slept on one of the couches in the common room while Sprout met with the other teachers.
Albus Dumbledore and Filius Flitwick were sitting in a couch off to the side. Dumbledore was in the only condition anyone in his situation would be expected to be in - completely incoherent. Flitwick wasn't doing much better. Trelawney had been a Ravenclaw, and seeing his former student and now former colleague die in such a horrible way disturbed the tiny little man greatly. Lucius Malfoy and Alina Terringer each had a hand on Dumbledore. Flitwick insisted that no one touch him.
Upon seeing Sprout enter the room, Snape cleared his throat and began speaking. "You all know what has taken place, so I'm not going to waste any time by summarizing the events of this night," he began. "Sibyll's death was a terrible tragedy, and we will undoubtedly be feeling the sting of this loss for a long time, but right now, we have to focus on Minerva. It's quite possible that Knight will kill her..."
Dumbledore covered his mouth with his hand and squeezed his eyes shut. Tears began trickling down his cheeks. Flitwick began crying again as well.
"... but it's highly possible that she's not dead yet," Snape said. "Knight took her somewhere, but unless we can figure out where, I don't know what we can do for her."
"Minerva's one of the most powerful witches in the world," commented Professor Sinistra. "Shouldn't she be able to fight him?"
"Cornelius Fudge was also one of the most powerful wizards in the world," said Eko Chang. "I have no doubt that Minerva could crush him in a 'fair' fight, but Knight plays dirty. He's been trained by Voldemort himself, and he has a Nundu - a Nundu. Fudge didn't stand a chance."
"Yes, but Knight also wanted to kill Fudge," said Lucius. "I don't think he wants to kill Minerva. She's bait, like Oliver Wood and Hermione Granger were."
"But if we don't take this bait," said Snape, "he'll kill her."
Dumbledore shook his head. "No," he said softly, "he won't kill her. He'll break her. He'll use torture. He'll make it slow and painful. Minerva's strong, but not even she can withstand something like the Cruciatus Curse for long, which Knight can and will most likely use. What awaits her is a fate worse than death."
Thousands of miles away, in Knight's fortress at Ras Dashen, the dark wizard stopped inflicting the Cruciatus Curse on Minerva Dumbledore long enough for her to regain some coherent thought. The pain was excruciating, but she knew she had to fight it. If she didn't, then there was no hope at all.
As soon as her mind had the capacity to do so, she forced a thought through the pain. Ras Dashen, she thought, trying desperately to send a telepathic message to the one person who might be able to hear her. He's hiding at Ras Dashen.
"Crucio."
She lost control of the thought as her body felt like it was being torn apart from the inside out.
"MINERVA!" Dumbledore suddenly shouted, leaping to his feet. All those present in the staff room gave the headmaster a surprised look. Dumbledore was looking only at Snape. "I heard her voice inside my head, Severus. They're somewhere called Ras Dashen."
"Ras Dashen?" Alina repeated. "That's a mountain in Ethiopia."
"Ethiopia... of course!" said Snape. "The Nundu! East Africa! That makes perfect sense."
"That does," said Lucius, "but how they got there doesn't."
"He probably Apparated into the Great Hall," Chang said, "but I don't know how he could have gotten there all the way from Ethiopia, much less taken Minerva back with him. It's possible to Apparate with another person if you're powerful enough, but you can't go very far."
"You're the world's foremost expert in Apparation, Minister Chang," said Snape. "How far could you have taken another person?"
Chang shook his head. "A kilometer, tops."
"So how did he get from here to Ethiopia with Minerva as his hostage?" asked Lupin.
"Floo powder?" Sprout halfheartedly suggested.
"Floo powder!" Snape shouted. He pointed his finger at Lupin. "Remus, go to the Gryffindor common room and check for traces of Floo powder in the fireplace."
Lupin nodded and headed for the exit. "On my way."
In a closet behind Snape, hidden underneath an invisibility cloak, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger all looked at each other with confused expressions on their faces. "Why the Gryffindor common room?" asked Ron.
"Shh," Hermione whispered. "Maybe we'll find out."
Lupin returned a few minutes later. "There's Floo powder there, all right," he said. "Knight must have traveled there by Floo powder, Apparated to the Great Hall, snatched Minerva, Apparated back to the Gryffindor common room, and used Floo powder again to get back to Ras Dashen."
"That's good enough for me," said Snape. "Dumbledore, Malfoy, Chang, you coming?"
Dumbledore, Chang, and Lucius all looked at each other. Chang spoke for all three of them. "Of course we are."
"I'm coming, too," Alina insisted. "You'll need my power."
Snape said it was too dangerous, but then Lucius pointed out that she was probably right, so the Potions Master reluctantly agreed. He then began to give the other teachers instructions. "The rest of you have to watch over the school and make sure no one enters or leaves," he said. "Give us an hour. If we aren't back by then..."
He paused, and looked at Lucius, Alina, Dumbledore, Chang, and then back at Lucius again. All of them had identical expressions on their faces: a mixture of hope and anxiety.
Snape gave his robes a shake and began walking toward the exit. "If we aren't back in an hour, wait longer."
"Are you two thinking what I'm thinking?" Harry asked.
Hermione nodded. "Probably. Are we going to follow them?"
"Definitely," was Harry's reply, "but we'll have to get Draco."
"Then what," said Ron, "are we waiting for?"
Hermione nodded toward the teachers that still occupied the staff room. "For them to leave, so we can slip out unnoticed."
Ron blinked. "Oh."
Knight lowered his wand and chuckled as he watched Minerva endure the after-effects of the curse. He loved seeing people suffer, and even more so when the person was someone he had hated for a long time, as he had with her. He hated her from the moment she placed the Sorting Hat on his head when he came to Hogwarts in 1971. He hated the way she would take fifty points away from his house and then give him detention when she caught him sneaking out to train secretly under Voldemort in the forest. He hated the zeal and conviction with which she supported Dumbledore, who had probably once been great, but was now nothing more than an old fool. He hated the way she said his name when she took roll and the way she would look at him when he was in her class, like she knew there was something false about him. He could only imagine what she was thinking when he vanished in 1976. She was probably glad he was gone, but not as glad as he was to be rid of her. That had only been temporary, though - soon, he would truly be rid of her.
Minerva's mind was burning with pain so intense that it was almost impossible for her to find her conscious self again. Fight it, she told herself as thoughts slowly began to take shape through the agony. Wand... pocket...
"Just give in, Minerva," Knight taunted. "You know you can't take much more of this."
Never. In the blink of an eye, her wand was out and pointed at Knight. "Expelliarmus!"
A blast of light hit her enemy, and he stumbled backwards. In the cage nearby, the Nundu let out a roar. Knight rose to his feet and said, "So, you want to play that way? I can do that, too."
He pointed his wand at her and prepared to cast a charm that would stun her, but before he could, she shouted, "Conjunctivitis!" Then she dropped to the floor again as pain overtook her.
Knight let out a cry of anger and frustration as his vision became blurred and distorted. He couldn't see where she was, and was therefore unable to take aim. "Relashio!" he said, aiming his wand where he thought she was.
It turned out that he was actually pointing the wand at Artawny, and when the jet of firey sparks hit the Nundu, it roared in anger and thundered, "Fool! Hit her!"
"I'm trying!" Knight said. The room slowly began to come into focus again.
"Accio!"
Knight's wand flew out of his hand and into hers. "No!" he yelled, and rushed at Minerva, who was still struggling to sit upright again.
"Impedimenta!" she said.
He came to a halt, unable to move forward anymore.
Minerva now had his wand as well as her own. She slowly stood up, a very difficult task because every time she moved, pain would shoot through her body, an effect of the Cruciatus Curse that hadn't worn off yet. "I told you you wouldn't win," she said, pointing both wands at him. "My colleagues will locate me, and when they do, you will be taken to Azkaban and your Nundu destroyed."
Knight laughed. "My Nundu?" he said. "No, Minerva, you have it wrong. Artawny is not my pet, he is my partner. We're in this together, and it'll take more than a few charms for you to stop him."
Minerva looked at Artawny. The Nundu's skin began to quiver, and suddenly, it completely vanished in a puff of smoke. The smoke trailed out through the bars of the cage and into the open room, where it condensed back into its original form. It opened its mouth as if to roar, but instead, a noxious green gas escaped from its throat.
"Guess what, Minerva?" Knight said. "You have an hour to live."
~~ Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Final Hour, Part I ~~
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was in a frenzy.
With the last shred of sanity left in him, Albus Dumbledore ordered all the students to return to their dormitories and stay there until further notice. House heads were to escort the students there, and then meet in the staff room to decide what was to be done. Remus Lupin said he would take the Gryffindors, and a teary-eyed Hagrid offered to carry the deceased Sibyll Trelawney to her chambers. Dumbledore agreed to both of their statements. Lucius Malfoy and Eko Chang asked what they should do, and Dumbledore told them to join the faculty members in the staff room.
Draco Malfoy said good-bye to his friends from Gryffindor (and Ravenclaw, in Cho's case) and then followed Severus Snape and the rest of the Slytherins to their house common room. "You will all remain here until I say otherwise," Snape told them in a soft, but firm voice when they arrived. "No one is to leave under any circumstance."
"Who did this, Professor Snape?" asked a fourth-year named Deanna Creston.
"A former student named Icarus Knight," Snape answered. "He was brilliant and very powerful, but foolishly allied himself with those heavily involved in dark magic. That is all you need to know. Excuse me."
Once Snape was gone, a pale-faced Pansy Parkinson weakly said, "So what happens now? Are they going to close the school again?"
Victoria King, a seventh-year prefect, answered Pansy's question. "It's possible," she said. "They closed it when Su Li was killed, and she was a student. Now we've got one dead teacher and another that probably won't live too much longer."
"All I can say," said Marcus Flint, "is that it's about time."
All eyes went to the captain of Slytherin's Quidditch team. "What do you mean by that?" asked a sixth-year named Matt Schuman.
"What do you mean, 'what do you mean'?" Flint asked. "If deputy Dumbledore dies, head Dumbledore is going to be so devastated over her death that he probably won't be able to function anymore. He'll step down as headmaster, and who do you think will get the job? Snape."
"Actually, the person next in line after deputy Dumbledore is Flitwick," said Victoria. "Then it's Sprout, and then Snape. The order of succession is determined by the heads of houses that have been here the longest. Flitwick's got twenty-five years on Sprout, and she's got nine on Snape."
Flint rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I don't think Flitwick would make a very good headmaster, but he's better than either Dumbledore. At this rate, maybe he and Sprout will be the next ones to die."
"I can't believe you'd say that," said Draco. "That's completely uncalled for."
Flint looked at Draco, and a cruel smile crossed his face. "It looks like Malfoy's growing soft."
Several students laughed nervously. The others remained quiet. They weren't sure who they should be more afraid of: Marcus Flint, Draco Malfoy, or Victoria King, who was beginning to look angry.
"Maybe the Sorting Hat should have put you in Gryffindor, Malfoy," Flint continued, "seeing as that's where all your friends are. I think you've forgotten what it means to be a Slytherin."
"Marcus," Victoria said warningly.
"Shut up, Victoria."
"No, you shut up, Flint!" Draco shouted. "I think you're the one that's forgotten what it means to be a Slytherin. Being a Slytherin means we have the greatest chance of becoming the most powerful and influential wizards in the world if we take the initiative and ally ourselves with those who can help us. It's not about bringing down Gryffindor."
Flint laughed. "Of course it's about bringing down Gryffindor! It always has been! Slytherin and Gryffindor hated each other. Gryffindor kicked Slytherin out so Mudbloods could go to Hogwarts. We Slytherins have been avenging him ever since."
"You think you know your history, do you?" Draco asked. "Well, I think you missed the part in the first edition of Hogwarts, A History, written by Rowena Ravenclaw herself, where it said Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin were best friends. Yes, they did disagree on who should be able to attend, and Slytherin left the school out of his own free will for that personal reason, not because he hated Gryffindor."
"How did he ever get hold of a copy of a first edition of that book?" whispered Blaise Zabini to Vincent Crabbe. At present, there were only three known copies still in existence.
Crabbe shrugged. "His father probably has one. He's got a lot of rare books."
Lucius Malfoy did, in fact, own a first edition of Hogwarts, A History, but all those who knew that doubted Flint would care. "Yeah, right," Flint said, confirming the suspicions. "Ten Galleons says Gryffindor was fucking Ravenclaw and he told her to write that."
"That's enough!" Victoria yelled. "Flint, Malfoy's right and you know it. And don't ever use that kind of language, especially around the first-years. This is why you were held back, you know, because you can't control yourself."
Several students snickered. Seeing big bad Marcus Flint getting chided by a prefect was quite entertaining.
Flint turned red in the face and announced that he was going to bed. Victoria had to stop the other students from cheering once he left the room.
The last teacher to arrive in the staff room was Professor Sprout, head of Hufflepuff house. One of the first-years couldn't stop crying, and Sprout didn't want to leave until she was sure the traumatized young girl was going to be all right. Not even hugs from the handsome sixth-year prefect Cedric Diggory could get her to calm down. The girl eventually gave into exhaustion, and the ever-loyal Cedric offered to watch over her as she slept on one of the couches in the common room while Sprout met with the other teachers.
Albus Dumbledore and Filius Flitwick were sitting in a couch off to the side. Dumbledore was in the only condition anyone in his situation would be expected to be in - completely incoherent. Flitwick wasn't doing much better. Trelawney had been a Ravenclaw, and seeing his former student and now former colleague die in such a horrible way disturbed the tiny little man greatly. Lucius Malfoy and Alina Terringer each had a hand on Dumbledore. Flitwick insisted that no one touch him.
Upon seeing Sprout enter the room, Snape cleared his throat and began speaking. "You all know what has taken place, so I'm not going to waste any time by summarizing the events of this night," he began. "Sibyll's death was a terrible tragedy, and we will undoubtedly be feeling the sting of this loss for a long time, but right now, we have to focus on Minerva. It's quite possible that Knight will kill her..."
Dumbledore covered his mouth with his hand and squeezed his eyes shut. Tears began trickling down his cheeks. Flitwick began crying again as well.
"... but it's highly possible that she's not dead yet," Snape said. "Knight took her somewhere, but unless we can figure out where, I don't know what we can do for her."
"Minerva's one of the most powerful witches in the world," commented Professor Sinistra. "Shouldn't she be able to fight him?"
"Cornelius Fudge was also one of the most powerful wizards in the world," said Eko Chang. "I have no doubt that Minerva could crush him in a 'fair' fight, but Knight plays dirty. He's been trained by Voldemort himself, and he has a Nundu - a Nundu. Fudge didn't stand a chance."
"Yes, but Knight also wanted to kill Fudge," said Lucius. "I don't think he wants to kill Minerva. She's bait, like Oliver Wood and Hermione Granger were."
"But if we don't take this bait," said Snape, "he'll kill her."
Dumbledore shook his head. "No," he said softly, "he won't kill her. He'll break her. He'll use torture. He'll make it slow and painful. Minerva's strong, but not even she can withstand something like the Cruciatus Curse for long, which Knight can and will most likely use. What awaits her is a fate worse than death."
Thousands of miles away, in Knight's fortress at Ras Dashen, the dark wizard stopped inflicting the Cruciatus Curse on Minerva Dumbledore long enough for her to regain some coherent thought. The pain was excruciating, but she knew she had to fight it. If she didn't, then there was no hope at all.
As soon as her mind had the capacity to do so, she forced a thought through the pain. Ras Dashen, she thought, trying desperately to send a telepathic message to the one person who might be able to hear her. He's hiding at Ras Dashen.
"Crucio."
She lost control of the thought as her body felt like it was being torn apart from the inside out.
"MINERVA!" Dumbledore suddenly shouted, leaping to his feet. All those present in the staff room gave the headmaster a surprised look. Dumbledore was looking only at Snape. "I heard her voice inside my head, Severus. They're somewhere called Ras Dashen."
"Ras Dashen?" Alina repeated. "That's a mountain in Ethiopia."
"Ethiopia... of course!" said Snape. "The Nundu! East Africa! That makes perfect sense."
"That does," said Lucius, "but how they got there doesn't."
"He probably Apparated into the Great Hall," Chang said, "but I don't know how he could have gotten there all the way from Ethiopia, much less taken Minerva back with him. It's possible to Apparate with another person if you're powerful enough, but you can't go very far."
"You're the world's foremost expert in Apparation, Minister Chang," said Snape. "How far could you have taken another person?"
Chang shook his head. "A kilometer, tops."
"So how did he get from here to Ethiopia with Minerva as his hostage?" asked Lupin.
"Floo powder?" Sprout halfheartedly suggested.
"Floo powder!" Snape shouted. He pointed his finger at Lupin. "Remus, go to the Gryffindor common room and check for traces of Floo powder in the fireplace."
Lupin nodded and headed for the exit. "On my way."
In a closet behind Snape, hidden underneath an invisibility cloak, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger all looked at each other with confused expressions on their faces. "Why the Gryffindor common room?" asked Ron.
"Shh," Hermione whispered. "Maybe we'll find out."
Lupin returned a few minutes later. "There's Floo powder there, all right," he said. "Knight must have traveled there by Floo powder, Apparated to the Great Hall, snatched Minerva, Apparated back to the Gryffindor common room, and used Floo powder again to get back to Ras Dashen."
"That's good enough for me," said Snape. "Dumbledore, Malfoy, Chang, you coming?"
Dumbledore, Chang, and Lucius all looked at each other. Chang spoke for all three of them. "Of course we are."
"I'm coming, too," Alina insisted. "You'll need my power."
Snape said it was too dangerous, but then Lucius pointed out that she was probably right, so the Potions Master reluctantly agreed. He then began to give the other teachers instructions. "The rest of you have to watch over the school and make sure no one enters or leaves," he said. "Give us an hour. If we aren't back by then..."
He paused, and looked at Lucius, Alina, Dumbledore, Chang, and then back at Lucius again. All of them had identical expressions on their faces: a mixture of hope and anxiety.
Snape gave his robes a shake and began walking toward the exit. "If we aren't back in an hour, wait longer."
"Are you two thinking what I'm thinking?" Harry asked.
Hermione nodded. "Probably. Are we going to follow them?"
"Definitely," was Harry's reply, "but we'll have to get Draco."
"Then what," said Ron, "are we waiting for?"
Hermione nodded toward the teachers that still occupied the staff room. "For them to leave, so we can slip out unnoticed."
Ron blinked. "Oh."
Knight lowered his wand and chuckled as he watched Minerva endure the after-effects of the curse. He loved seeing people suffer, and even more so when the person was someone he had hated for a long time, as he had with her. He hated her from the moment she placed the Sorting Hat on his head when he came to Hogwarts in 1971. He hated the way she would take fifty points away from his house and then give him detention when she caught him sneaking out to train secretly under Voldemort in the forest. He hated the zeal and conviction with which she supported Dumbledore, who had probably once been great, but was now nothing more than an old fool. He hated the way she said his name when she took roll and the way she would look at him when he was in her class, like she knew there was something false about him. He could only imagine what she was thinking when he vanished in 1976. She was probably glad he was gone, but not as glad as he was to be rid of her. That had only been temporary, though - soon, he would truly be rid of her.
Minerva's mind was burning with pain so intense that it was almost impossible for her to find her conscious self again. Fight it, she told herself as thoughts slowly began to take shape through the agony. Wand... pocket...
"Just give in, Minerva," Knight taunted. "You know you can't take much more of this."
Never. In the blink of an eye, her wand was out and pointed at Knight. "Expelliarmus!"
A blast of light hit her enemy, and he stumbled backwards. In the cage nearby, the Nundu let out a roar. Knight rose to his feet and said, "So, you want to play that way? I can do that, too."
He pointed his wand at her and prepared to cast a charm that would stun her, but before he could, she shouted, "Conjunctivitis!" Then she dropped to the floor again as pain overtook her.
Knight let out a cry of anger and frustration as his vision became blurred and distorted. He couldn't see where she was, and was therefore unable to take aim. "Relashio!" he said, aiming his wand where he thought she was.
It turned out that he was actually pointing the wand at Artawny, and when the jet of firey sparks hit the Nundu, it roared in anger and thundered, "Fool! Hit her!"
"I'm trying!" Knight said. The room slowly began to come into focus again.
"Accio!"
Knight's wand flew out of his hand and into hers. "No!" he yelled, and rushed at Minerva, who was still struggling to sit upright again.
"Impedimenta!" she said.
He came to a halt, unable to move forward anymore.
Minerva now had his wand as well as her own. She slowly stood up, a very difficult task because every time she moved, pain would shoot through her body, an effect of the Cruciatus Curse that hadn't worn off yet. "I told you you wouldn't win," she said, pointing both wands at him. "My colleagues will locate me, and when they do, you will be taken to Azkaban and your Nundu destroyed."
Knight laughed. "My Nundu?" he said. "No, Minerva, you have it wrong. Artawny is not my pet, he is my partner. We're in this together, and it'll take more than a few charms for you to stop him."
Minerva looked at Artawny. The Nundu's skin began to quiver, and suddenly, it completely vanished in a puff of smoke. The smoke trailed out through the bars of the cage and into the open room, where it condensed back into its original form. It opened its mouth as if to roar, but instead, a noxious green gas escaped from its throat.
"Guess what, Minerva?" Knight said. "You have an hour to live."