Remembering Harry's vision, Ron turned around to make sure they were alone.
He saw the hand reach out and snatch off the invisibility cloak. The face hid in the shadow of the hood. All three children turned in shock. Hermione gasped.
McGonagall reached up and pulled her hood back, then motioned for quiet. Relieved, the three kids turned to watch the action. Below them, Drusilla was screeching incoherently at the two Death Eaters. One of them reached into his robes and came out with a stake; Drusilla attacked him, fists flying. McGonagall gestured for Hermione to open the cuffs.
"Alohamora," she whispered. The spell shot from her wand and Spike fell to the floor with a thud.
The Death Eater with the stake took a particularly fearsome blow to the head. The hood fell back, revealing Giles' face. The other Death Eater, favoring one leg heavily, had his wand out and roared a spell to immobilize Drusilla. The four Gryffindors on the balcony came rushing down to the floor.
Drusilla paused mid-bite. The pause held, and Giles quickly crawled away from her suspended form. Spike lay groaning on the floor as he bled.
"Err… thank you, Severus," Giles forced out, his face pale with fright. Snape nodded.
"Where did you guys get those robes?" Ron asked.
"They had several minions and Death Eaters standing guard," Giles said. He made no mention of the fate of the vampires.
"We told you three not to leave your rooms," McGonagall said. "What on Earth were you thinking?"
"Can we discuss it later? We need to find Harry, Ginny, and Draco," Hermione said.
"Where did they go?"
"To hunt down the rest of the vampires roaming the halls."
"What?!?" All three teachers cried out in unison.
The small group of aurors made their way across Cansbury quickly. The animals ran amok, but they encountered no Death Eaters on their way to Dumbledore.
"We're 'ere to 'elp," one of the men told Dumbledore. "Grey sent us."
"Good, glad to have you," Albus said, relieved that not all of the aurors had died. "Please do keep these people and creatures away from us."
"No prollem, Professor."
"Thank you, Donnie."
The aurors went to work, setting up in a triangle formation around the three spell casters and creating a web of defensive spells. Inside the triangle, Tara began to chant. Willow took her hand and felt their power join. After several gestures with his wand, Dumbledore grabbed the free hand of each girl, and the thrum of power in their ears increased noticeably.
As he had asked Willow to do with the candle, Dumbledore pictured the town of Cansbury. Then he pictured the dome he wished to seal it in. His power could generate a dome less than a fourth the size of the one he desired. He began to pull on Tara's power, drawing it from her and into himself. He could feel the three of them lift off the ground.
Tara's power allowed him to double the size of the bubble. To double it again, he would have to draw from Willow. Mentally cringing as he grabbed her power, he began to siphon it directly into the spell.
Willow's eyes went black beneath her closed eyelids. She felt him pulling the power out, blowing past the blocks placed by her subconscious. To speed the process, she began pulling as well, drawing deeper and deeper on her reserve.
After an eternity, Dumbledore had what he needed. With the borrowed power, he enlarged a small dome into one two miles in diameter. He could feel it take root, then anchor itself to the Earth. The problem had been contained, for the moment.
Next to him, Willow could feel the power vibrating. Why had he stopped? She had so much more to give. To prove it, she pulled out more and more, loving the feel of it coursing through her.
Dumbledore and Tara drifted to the ground, but Willow remained. The three aurors and two professors stared at her in frightened fascination. Black energy clouds once again glowed around her fists, bucking and writhing in time with her heartbeat. Miniature lightning jumped from one to the other.
"Willow?" Tara's voice was tentative, even without the stutter. Black eyes opened and turned on her.
"What?" The tone was pure venom.
"Y-your hands…"
Willow looked down and laughed. It wasn't her laugh, though. The sound coming from her throat, a jarring, sharp-edged bark, cut their ears like a knife.
"Don't even think about it," she said as Jaret raised his wand.
"Miss Rosenberg?" She looked down at Dumbledore. "I do believe Mr. Grey requires our assistance. He will be most upset if he sees you in the same frame of mind as Miss O'Brien. I daresay it might end your association instantly, and you resemble her quite a bit at this moment."
Tara had never heard a more harsh sentence in her life.
Willow descended to the ground. She thought of what Grey would say if he saw this. The black clouds dissipated, and she allowed a tear to leak from her eyes. Scrunching her nose and closing them, she willed herself to calm down.
"Thank you, Professor," she said once she regained control, glad he had prevented a catastrophe.
"You're very welcome, my dear. Sometimes the right word at the right moment can be very useful. Now, let's clean up this mess, shall we?"
Five vampires had Harry and Ginny surrounded. They growled hungrily, some with drool dripping from their fangs. The two Gryffindors stood back to back, just as in Harry's vision.
Unlike the vision, though, Harry and Ginny reacted first.
"INCENDO!" They shouted. Fireballs shot in opposite directions, killing three vampires in explosions of fire and smoke. The other two vamps, amazed at the sight and more than a little frightened, turned to run.
Draco stood at the top of the steps, his face drawn into a deadly smirk. The vampires heard his rasping breaths, but the wand held their focus.
"Going somewhere?" The vampires hesitated, caught between three drawn wands. Rather than race up the stairs, they doubled back and lunged for Harry. Two fireballs found their mark, striking the rear vampire in the chest and legs. The other one, unscathed from the attack, tackled Harry to the floor. Ginny leaped at it, afraid to burn Harry with the spell, but the vampire swatted her away with a clenched fist. It pinned Harry to the floor, fangs bared and ready to feast.
Draco ran down the stairs, and without conscious thought jammed his wand into the creature's heart from behind. He watched happily as it dissolved in a cloud of dust.
"Draco…" Harry gritted his teeth, forcing himself to do it.
"Yes, Potter?" Malfoy grinned in triumph.
He squeezed the words out, "Thanks." Malfoy nodded, enjoying Potter's difficulty.
"What's left on the map?" The blonde Slytherin asked. Ginny, stunned but unhurt from the blow, pulled it from the pocket of her robe and looked it over.
"Looks like the Professors are in the halls again. They've got Spike, Ron and the others with them. That Drusilla person is still in Snape's office. None of the other dots seem to be moving."
"Hey, look there!" Harry, leaning over Ginny's shoulder, pointed to a dot near the dining hall. "Pansy Parkinson. She must still be alive; Giles said it normally takes time for a vampire to rise, so she wouldn't be on here if they had turned her. We should go and bring her to Madam Pomfrey."
The other two nodded, and they set off to collect the injured girl.
The buzzing blade hung inches from her face.
Try as he might, Grey couldn't do it. He thumbed the switch, cutting the power to the blade.
"Lost your nerve, lover?" Without leaving the ground, Jess slowly backed out of range. "Have to say, I'm surprised. You were always good with the follow-through."
The night grew pregnant with the pause.
"Kill me." His voice was a whisper.
"What?" Her voice was a scream.
"You heard me. Do it."
"Why?"
"What do you care? You're evil, right? Looking to up the body count, though it doesn't have too much higher to go tonight."
His voice, sad and disgusted and tired, sparked a war in her head. Part of her badly wanted to reach out and comfort him. How could that be? That part of her had departed, locked away by magic for all eternity. She could feel the power screaming to burn him as she had those meddlesome aurors. Doing so would be so easy. She pictured all the ways she could kill him. Freezing his blood. Tearing his head off. Stabbing him with his own lightsaber.
Confused, she did nothing.
"Go ahead," he said. "I know you've got plenty of other people to kill. I don't want to hold up your schedule."
"Why do you want me to?" Was she really going to converse with him? She should be gutting him.
He stared at her, silent and motionless. Around them the sounds of her fun reverberated in night.
"Why won't you?"
"I still love you, Grey. I want you to be with me, not to die. Why won't you?"
"Because I don't want anything to do with you. Except to get rid of you and bring her back." Her head shook in astonishment.
"You still think you can save me, don't you?"
"Of course I can. And I will."
She nearly told him that she loved him for that. He read the conflict on her face. That part of her lost the battle, though, and she slowly got to her feet instead.
"I don't need saving, hon. Sorry."
"You aren't her. You're a thing of dark magic that hijacked her soul."
"But you can't kill me?"
"It's still her soul. I'd rather die than do that."
"You love me that much?"
"I loved her that much."
"Past tense?"
He nodded.
"So you, what, love that redheaded bitch now?"
"Her name is Willow." He said it with such force that she inadvertently retreated a step.
"Willow, then." Why was she retreating?
"No. I like her. Someday I might love her."
As he spoke the words, he saw her cheeks flush. He could almost feel the anger overtake her. One thing about her, he remembered. You could always count on her temper.
"You bastard!" As the words came, a wave of pure energy released from her, scorching the grass in a hundred-yard circle all around them.
Grey stood untouched.
"You can't do it either, can you?" Her dark side had less control than it appeared.
She stared at him, not believing that he still lived.
"Don't count on it next time," she said, hiding her turmoil in the threat. She snapped her fingers and disapparated.
Alone in the dragon pen, Grey sighed. She was in there somewhere, fighting back. He just had to get her a little help.