Chapter Forty-Two
The Prisoners of Azkaban
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A/N: Here's to Molly and Emma, who have been reading this for a long, long time, and whose Aunt Ruth likes to show us their impatient emails. You girls ROX.
An enormous debt of gratitude is owed to Firelocks, who helped with every single bit of this.
Thanks to the incomparable Moey, because… well. 87.
We bow in obeisance to the betas: Caroline, CoKerry, Firelox, Honeychurch and Moey
Oh, right - and about that whole "42 chapters and an epilogue" thing? Slight miscalculation. 43 will be the last chapter, and it will be followed by an "epilogue".
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"So there's no way of telling who drank that portion of the Polyjuice Potion?" Ron searched through a haphazard stack of papers, all of which were eyewitness accounts of the battle on the Hogwarts lawns. He scanned his wand over each one, looking for his own name.
"No way at all," Sirius replied from behind a scroll of parchment, which had just come up from the M.L.E.S. "They've done every spell they can think of to track who touched that jar last, but no trace of evidence was left."
"Course it wasn't," Ron muttered. It made him feel sick to think of Malfoy parading across the Hogwarts lawn in his body - opening the gates to the Death Eaters with his hands. "Are you the only one who saw me twice?" he demanded, exasperated. None of the other eyewitnesses had mentioned seeing his double down at the gates.
"Snape saw it," Sirius said.
"That's hardly helpful."
"Well, he very rarely was."
Ron snorted, though it had been a long time since he had really thought badly of Snape. Not for the first time, he wished that Snape were still around. It would have been helpful to have his word on this. But he wasn't around, and there was no one's word but Sirius's, and now everyone thought he was even madder than before.
"All I can do is wait for Ginny to finish easing her conscience and start telling me what she knows," Ron said, slamming shut the file he had been digging through. It wasn't worth it. He'd been through it five times and there was nothing in it that was useful.
Sirius lowered the parchment to look at Ron. "Do you really think Ginny knows something?"
"Oh, I know she does." Ron pointed his wand in irritation, bringing a file box flying from a distant corner towards his desk. It slammed to the floor, the lid came off, and several papers fluttered out. "Might as well go through all this," he said, annoyed. "I doubt it's anything much, but I've seen all the rest of it so many times I feel like it's all burnt into my eyes, to be honest."
"What's in that one?"
"The files on that jeweler, Galfrid Thinstone."
"I didn't know you'd found anything."
Ron hefted a few of them onto his desk. "Well, it wasn't easy," he said. "Thinstone disappeared with all his money about a month before Voldemort was defeated, and he left these files in his Gringotts vault."
Sirius groaned. They both knew how long it took to get anything out of someone else's vault at Gringotts. Legal orders didn't mean much to the goblins.
"Is that everything he had?" Sirius asked.
"There's practically a library of financial records, but from what I've seen so far, his receipts were unspecific. The date and the cost of each item are listed, but not what was actually purchased. And yeah, these are the only other papers." Ron peered at the label of the first file in his hands. Women's Hair Ornamentation, it read. He rolled his eyes.
"Well, is there a file on Malfoy, anyway?"
"No, he's got it organized by jewelry type." Ron flipped through the next few. They weren't alphabetized at all - Mr. Doyle in the Archives would have had a field day reorganizing them. Functional Ornamentation (Wand Cases, Watches, Locks), read one file. Rings, read another. Intrigued - he'd just purchased a ring, after all - he flipped open the file and studied the top page.
It was a beautiful drawing of an incredibly ornate, bluish-silver ring. The ring was detailed so completely that it almost looked real… it seemed to sparkle and flash. It was obviously meant for a woman, though if the drawing was to scale, then the ring itself must have been huge - it would have covered the whole bottom half of Hermione's ring finger - and there must have been thirty diamonds in it. There were a few, disjointed notes jotted beside the picture. Imbue white gold with tears of veela… Temper over purple flame… And scrawled in the bottom corner of the paper were a few numbers - at first, Ron thought they were the date. Then his jaw dropped.
"People don't really spend this much on rings," he said in outrage.
Sirius laughed. "Of course they do," he said, in a tone that suggested that he might, perhaps, have once known a few such people.
Ron couldn't imagine it. "That's just - just pretentious," he spluttered. "Well, I'm glad Hermione doesn't think -"
He heard the words before he could stop them, panicked, and clamped his mouth shut. Hermione was going to kill him. She wanted her parents to know first - so badly that she had been putting an Invisibility Charm on her engagement ring every morning, so that no one else would see it. Ron had suggested that she just take it off, but Hermione said she never would, and even though Ron thought she was insane, he was incredibly touched.
"Hermione doesn't think what?" Sirius asked keenly, hunkering over his desk and looking across the office at him. "Hmm?"
Ron looked back down at the file and didn't answer. He closed the folder, put it aside, and looked at the next one. Dangerous Objects, said the label, and Ron felt a tiny surge of hope. Surely if Malfoy had purchased something from Galfrid Thinstone, it would be sketched somewhere in here. They might be able to match things up, though what good it would do, Ron wasn't sure. He opened the file and began to flip through the pages. They were all the same - sketches with notes jotted alongside them and prices scrawled in the corners.
"Interesting reading?" Sirius asked innocently.
Ron looked up at him. "Actually, yeah," he said. "It's a file on dangerous objects - do you have Malfoy's receipts over there?"
Sirius nodded and began to dig through his own mountainous stacks of parchment, but before he found anything, green light flared up in the office fireplace. Ron glanced over and saw his father's head, floating disembodied in the flames. Perhaps it was just the firelight, but his eyes seemed unusually bright.
"Hey, Dad."
"Ron, I need you in my office." His father's voice was tense. Excited. "Your sister is here. She's just come from Culparrat."
Ron stood so quickly that he banged his leg on the desk and let out a curse. "Be right there," he said. "See you, Sirius."
"Actually… Sirius." Arthur's eyes flickered to him and he seemed to be considering. "You really shouldn't be here," he pointed out.
Sirius bowed his head slightly. "I know."
"But… since you are…"
Sirius's head came up. His eyes glinted. "Yes?" he asked hopefully
"Please come along with Ron."
Sirius jumped up with twice Ron's energy, and Arthur sighed.
"This doesn't mean you're off suspension," Arthur warned.
"No, no, I know -"
"I'm consulting you for your opinion only."
"Yes, I understand -"
"Good." Arthur nodded. "Then hurry, both of you." His head disappeared and the flames flickered out.
Ron and Sirius wasted no time in locking the office. They practically ran down the Ministry's polished corridors and Ron nearly crashed into Lawrence when they reached Arthur's door. Lawrence gave an indignant sort of squawk and leapt to the side.
"Sorry!" Ron said breathlessly, as he and Sirius ran into the office without bothering to wait for their announcement. They skidded to a halt and stood together, panting.
"We - hurried -" Ron said, looking around the room. Moody was there, and Bill, and Rose K. Brown. They all looked shocked and still.
And there, in the chair beside their father, was Ginny, looking extremely pale and confused. For some reason she was wearing sleek black gloves, and her right fist was clenched so tightly that Ron thought she must be very nervous - though about what, he couldn't imagine. She raised her head and met his eyes.
"You'll want to sit down," she said quietly. Her eyes shifted to Sirius. "You'll…" She shook her head. "You'll need to sit down."
Then it was bad news. Ron felt his heart drop like a stone into his stomach - Malfoy hadn't told her anything and she wasn't going to talk. This was going to take weeks, and she was going to force them to drag it out of her. He couldn't believe it. "Ginny," he began, feeling his irritation rise. "Just tell us if he -"
"Sit down, Ron," she repeated in the same quiet voice. "I already told everyone else the main thing, and you need to hear it."
Ron glanced at his father, who gave him a vigorous nod. He and Sirius both took chairs.
"All right," Ron said when he was comfortable. "Let's have it, then."
Ginny pressed her lips tightly together. And then she raised her clenched hand and opened it, palm up, revealing something golden. "Do you recognize this?" she asked, and placed it on their father's desk.
Ron leaned over and peered at it. "No," he began, and then an unwanted memory flashed into his brain. The gaudy shape. The curly M. "Yeah," he corrected angrily. "I recognize that piece of crap."
"So do I." Sirius reached out towards it. "That's Malfoy's ring -"
"Don't touch it." Ginny's voice was so sharp that Sirius recoiled. "Sorry," she said. "But it's cursed. That's why I've got these." She held up her gloved hands.
"Cursed!" Ron reached up and rubbed his temple. Of course it was cursed, he couldn't believe he hadn't thought about it before. He should have known from the way it had burnt into his skin - the way the wound had lasted far longer than just an ordinary cut. "It's a Dark object? No wonder it left such a mark."
"It doesn't just leave marks," Ginny said. "It…" Her eyes flitted to Sirius. "It can control things. It can control dragons and -" She licked her lips. Her eyes gleamed. "And Dementors."
Sirius started. His mouth fell open - he reached for the ring again -
"No." Ginny put her hand over it and took it back before Sirius could get to it. "You can't use it. None of us can. And that's - that's not all it can do."
"Well what else?" Sirius rasped. "Just say it."
Ginny nodded, not taking her eyes from him. "It can destroy them," she said very softly. "The Dementors."
The silence in the room was so thick that it hurt Ron's ears. He could hardly comprehend what Ginny had just said. Because she couldn't have said it - it couldn't be true. He dared a look at Sirius.
Sirius was bone white.
"It's true," Ginny whispered into the silence. "Think about it. If Voldemort was using them in his army, he'd have to be able to control them and dispose of them. It makes sense that he would entrust that sort of power to someone as horrible as Lucius Malfoy."
Out of the corner of his eye, Ron saw his father wince.
"It's all right, Dad," Ginny said softly.
Ron wasn't sure he believed what he was hearing. "It can destroy the Dementors," he repeated flatly. "That ring."
"Yes." Ginny looked straight at him. "It's so cursed I can't touch it. It's incredibly powerful. Ask Bill."
Ron met Bill's eyes and was shocked to see his eldest brother concurring with a slow nod. "It's the most power I've ever seen in such a small object," Bill said. "I can show you what I mean, if you like - Ginny, put the ring on the desk."
Ginny did, and Bill drew his wand. "Aparecium," he said clearly.
A small area around the ring began to glow - to pulsate. Ron leaned closer, and suddenly he could see that the glowing air was alive with something writhing - something sickening green and slimy black, like a tangle of snakes that had rotted in a sewer.
Ginny shuddered.
"What's causing it?" Ron demanded.
Bill shrugged. "I have no idea."
"Well can't you break it?" Ron asked. "It's a curse, isn't it?"
Bill shook his head. "Part of my job is knowing when I'm beaten," he said. "I can't break that without killing myself. Now, there are curse breakers with more experience - we might hand it over to someone else to try it."
"It doesn't matter if they could break it," Rose Brown said, "it would be useless to us without whatever magic it holds." She was hugging her clipboard and staring at the ring, obviously repulsed.
"True." Bill flicked his wand and the snaking halo of light disappeared, making the ring appear innocent once more.
"But…" Ron had to get his thoughts in order; they were so jumbled up that he could hardly find the important ones. "But wait a minute… you said that none of us can use it anyway, didn't you?" He looked at Ginny, who nodded. "Then how is it useful to us?"
"It… can only be useful to us if we let Malfoy control it," Ginny said, sitting up straight and putting out her hands when Ron opened his mouth to protest. "No, just listen to me. Listen to the whole thing."
Ron sat back, his head already pounding. He didn't like where this was headed. At all. He wasn't about to give them permission to let Malfoy out of Culparrat for field trips to Azkaban, wearing a ring that was probably capable of killing everything in sight.
"Malfoy knows how to destroy the Dementors." Ginny said again. "But he's not willing to do it unless he can go free."
Something ugly and white-hot shot straight through Ron's head and into his gut. He didn't need to hear the rest. "No," he interrupted. "No. Not a chance. He could be lying, he could be -"
"Will you listen." Ginny took a deep breath and let it out. "Let's say he's lying. Fine. Then he goes to Azkaban, he fails to destroy the Dementors, and you put him right back in Culparrat where you will be able to keep him for life, because this ring is as good as an Unforgivable Curse. But if he doesn't fail - if he's telling the truth - then all this trouble with the Dementors will be over."
"And Malfoy will be out in the world again," Ron countered angrily, "bullying people with his money and threatening all of us whenever he gets the chance - NO."
"I'm not finished!" Ginny said. "Ron, Malfoy thinks you have solid evidence on him. He thinks this is his only way out, that's the only reason he's agreed to do it. As soon as he finds out that there's any chance he might get free another way, he'll never in a million years help us - we have to do this now."
Ron felt dizzy and sick. Malfoy had impersonated him. Malfoy had complained so loudly to his father about Hermione that Hermione's parents had been tortured nearly to death. Malfoy's father had been there when Percy had been murdered - he had tried to kill Ginny - he had tried to kill their dad - and now Ginny wanted to let him go? Every nasty comment, every vile gesture that Ron had ever had from Draco Malfoy filled his head and gave him a splitting headache.
"He can't destroy them," he muttered. "He's full of crap - he never would have done all that work if he had a way out of it, he never would have been a dragon rider if he didn't have to be."
"He didn't have to be. He volunteered," said Arthur quietly. "It was his choice to take that job. And he certainly didn't take it for financial reasons."
"Well then why?" Ron demanded, meeting his dad's gaze. "Just to be a right raging bastard?"
"To make me look bad, for one thing," Arthur said mildly. "Which, I'm afraid, was very successful. I don't expect to be made Minister again, with the way the Privy Counselors' debates have gone lately. Ever since we were forced to put more guards on the shoreline, I've been seen as very wasteful. So Malfoy had at least that on his agenda - Rose, when does the Privy Council expect to reach a decision?"
Rose fidgeted. "By the end of the month," she said.
Rage rose in Ron's heart. "How can you take it so calmly, Dad?" he nearly shouted. "Do you see what I mean about him - we can't let him out! He didn't just make you look bad, he's been stealing months of Charlie's life - and Harry's half-dead every time he gets home from one of his shifts -"
Ginny flinched.
"If all this is true, then Malfoy's been using that thing on all of us -" Ron pointed at the ring " - because he could have done something useful with it months ago!"
"Well, he's willing to do it now," Ginny began.
"In exchange for his freedom? Oh, I don't think so." Ron got out of his chair. He could no longer bear to sit still - he wanted to pace. He wanted to punch. "I think we ought to force him to use it. Put him under Imperius, make him do what we need him to do and then throw him straight back in prison where he belongs." Ron saw something like horror on Bill's face, but he didn't care. He hated Malfoy, and there were reasons for his hatred. "Why should I care about treating him justly? Why, after the way he's treated everyone else in the world? Why should he be allowed to force us into a position where we have to make this choice? We're giving him all the power, and I won't do it! I won't do it!"
Ron stood, panting and furious, not sure where to look. Everyone was watching him in varying degrees of pity and shock, and he couldn't handle any of it.
"Do you even know what his dad was doing?" Ron asked jerkily, in the silence. "Putting maidenhair root into Muggle cosmetics. Hundreds of thousands of lipsticks and powders are full of it. Do you know what maidenhair root does?"
Rose Brown's eyes widened. Her mouth opened. "It… causes infertility," she said faintly.
"In Muggles. To weed down the numbers." Ron felt the familiar wrench in his stomach that always accompanied such sick ideas. "The company that does it will belong to Malfoy if we let him out. And so will a dozen others that do similar things."
Even Moody looked disgusted, though there was no surprise on his face. He cracked the weathered knuckles of one hand against the leathery palm of the other, as if preparing to hit someone hard.
"I know you all think I'm vindictive." Ron stared down at Ginny. "I know you think I'm mad -"
"No, Ron," Ginny cut in. "I don't."
Ron ignored her. "I know you're thinking, well, Malfoy's just one person, how bad can it really be if we -"
"Voldemort was just one person." Ginny's voice was nearly inaudible. "And to tell the truth, Malfoy's just as…"
They all looked at her.
"I used to think that Malfoy could never become what Tom Riddle became," Ginny said, her voice shaking. "But after today, I don't know. I just don't know. I think he's capable of real brutality. Part of me thinks it would be very wrong to let him out. Part of me thinks the idea of putting him under Imperius is a good one."
Ron was so surprised to hear her on his side that he couldn't think of a word to say.
"But I don't think I could do it," she said. "I don't want to be like Riddle, or Malfoy, or any of them. I just can't make myself want him in prison that badly. I won't give up that piece of myself, and Ron, you shouldn't either. Not for Malfoy. Not you."
Ron was struck silent.
"I hate him too," Ginny said. "If you knew half of what he said to me today…" She stopped. "But I don't want to see you sinking to his level. He doesn't deserve justice, but you deserve your self-respect, and you know you wouldn't have it anymore if you did something like that. Imagine what Dumbledore would say - imagine what Hermione would think."
Ron's heart jumped. Hermione. He'd hardly thought about her for an hour. It was the longest he'd gone without her face in his mind for years. It occurred to him with sudden force just how wrapped up he'd been in Malfoy - how many hours he'd spent on a single case when there were others waiting for him. How much of his energy had gone into retaliation when he had a life outside it - when he had someone amazing who wanted to marry him. He felt suddenly rather cold.
"I don't mean to lecture, either," Ginny said. "I'm really confused about this because - because there's still a catch."
Arthur was already looking at her. "What catch?" he asked gently.
"Malfoy says the ring is just the source of power," Ginny replied. She was paler than ever and her freckles stood out darkly against her skin. "And that he'll have to control it while we all use what it unleashes in order to destroy the Dementors. So we'd… have to use Voldemort's magic. We'd have to channel it ourselves."
"Channel it?" Bill breathed. "Is he joking?"
"No." Ginny gave a weak laugh. "I'm sure he isn't. He asked for us specifically. Us and Harry and Hermione. He… he thinks it's funny to see us forced to use Dark magic."
Moody snorted loudly. "So he's one of the truly petty bastards, is he?" he muttered. "Twisted as tree roots. Seen it before. Worst of the lot, men like that. Taking their personal problems out on the world like little children - that's where we get our Grindelwalds and Voldemorts - you mark my words. If we let him out, we'll have another Dark Lord before my life's over."
"That's conjecture," Rose said, but she sounded shaken. "The fact is that if we don't let him out, we'll be saddled with the Dementors forever. And I don't want that for this Ministry." She looked down at her clipboard. "Or for those riders," she added quietly.
"So which is it, then?" Ron asked, and suddenly he wasn't sure of the answer. "Which is worse? Malfoy or the Dementors?" He met Bill's eyes. Ginny's. His father's.
"I want to kill them."
Ron nearly came out of his skin. He whirled towards the sound of the voice - the rasping, maddened voice that he had not heard since the end of his third year. In the Shrieking Shack.
Sirius's was gripping the arms of his chair so tightly that his fingers seemed to Ron to be nothing but bone. Like skeleton hands. He was pale as death and his eyes were alight with something not-quite human.
"Let me kill them, Arthur."
That voice again. Ron was seriously unnerved - he took a step away from Sirius's chair and glanced uncomfortably at Ginny. But she wasn't watching him; her eyes were on Sirius and she looked as afraid as Ron felt.
"Sirius," Arthur began, very gently.
"Let Malfoy free." Sirius was breathing quickly and color was now rising in his face. He looked feverish. "Let him use that ring - I'll channel Dark magic, I don't care, I've had worse, and I want to do it."
Moody shifted against the wall where he stood, and crossed his arms. "You're making this personal, Black," he said.
Sirius's head swung towards Moody and Ron couldn't see his face. But he knew it must have been terrifying, because even Moody looked somewhat cowed.
"Twelve years," was all Sirius managed. And then he slumped back in his chair like someone who had just been released from a trance. He put a hand to his eyes and seemed to be trying to regulate his breathing. "If they can be destroyed," he said, "then there is no question here. If those creatures can be destroyed, then we must take the opportunity. Dark Lords are human - they come and go. If Malfoy's going to stay on his father's path, we'll eventually catch up with him again. I've no doubt about that. But if we lose this chance…" He uncovered his eyes and pinned them on Arthur. "If we lose this chance, I'll lose my mind," he said simply. "That's not an exaggeration. Let Malfoy go, Arthur - this is worth it."
It was the first exception Sirius had made in all the months they'd worked together, and Ron wasn't sure how he felt. He didn't want Malfoy to get out of prison, but…
Ron grimaced. He didn't want to own it, even to himself. But Sirius had a point.
"Wait, Sirius," Rose said. Her voice was still shaking, but she looked quite determined; she gave her clipboard a brisk tap with her quill. "There are still several things to work out before we take this risk."
"For example?"
Rose hesitated, then met Sirius's stare with one of her own. Perhaps it wasn't quite as fierce, but she managed to keep it up, and Ron was impressed. "For example," she said, her tone becoming more businesslike, "why is it that only Malfoy can do this magic? Why are we so dependent on him? Do you know, Ginny?"
"I…" Ginny shrugged. "I suppose it's just because he's the one who knows the spells that can focus the curse. I mean, it's not a talent - this isn't some gift he has." She laughed, and the sound was unusually harsh. "He's just a bully with a toy."
"And no one else knows the same spells?" Rose went on. "No one else learned those curses? I find it hard to believe that Voldemort would only give that information to Lucius Malfoy."
"I don't," Moody said. "In my experience that's precisely how Voldemort operated. No two Death Eaters ever had the same information, and the higher up they were, the more isolated the information was. That way, if one of them was caught, the rest of his secrets weren't compromised. The only Dark spell they all seemed to know was the one that sent up the Dark Mark. Every one of them could do that."
"That and the Unforgivables," Ron muttered. He didn't meet Ginny's glance.
"Then can't we somehow discover the necessary words?" Rose asked. "Between curse breakers and Thinkers and spell crafters, there has to be someone that can reveal to us how this ring is used."
"It doesn't work that way," Bill sighed. "I wish it did. We could guess the incantation, of course - but how many people would it kill, if we were wrong? You saw the curse that's sitting in that ring - we have absolutely no room for error."
"We could use Veritaserum," Rose interrupted. "Get the spell out of him that way."
"We could. But words alone aren't enough to make magic," said Arthur. "We'd need him to teach it to us, and Veritaserum isn't that powerful."
"Well, damn it!" Rose said, slapping her quill against her clipboard angrily.
Everyone stared at her.
"This is ridiculous!" she said, not seeming to notice that she'd violated her usual self-restraint. "Every one of us in this room is more powerful than Draco Malfoy, there has to be a way for us to do this without him!" She looked at Arthur. "What about Harry?"
Ginny drew back in her chair. "What about Harry?"
"He's resisted magic worse than this, he might be able to -"
"NO," said Ron, Ginny, Sirius and Arthur together.
"Leave Harry out of it," Ginny continued hotly. "In this he's just a dragon rider like the rest of them. Like Mick. We won't make this his burden - forget it. He's done enough."
"Calm down, Ginny." Their father's voice was very quiet. "It's all right. That's not about to happen."
Ginny grew very pink, as if she'd just realized where she was. But she closed her mouth and nodded.
"I think it's clear," Sirius said, biting off every word, "that we need Malfoy for this. That does not mean he is the one in control." He turned and, to Ron's immense disquiet, looked right up at him. "What it means is that we will have to use him. And I am not opposed to using him." He gave a smile so feral that Ron could have sworn he saw fangs. "Are you?"
Put in that light, Ron couldn't say that he was.
"But there's more to think about," Rose cut in. "That ring didn't get cursed by itself - who made it, Ginny? Was it Lucius?"
Ginny let out a breath. "Malfoy didn't really say…" She frowned. "He asked me if… no, wait. I asked him if the power in it was the Imperius Curse, and then he said something about how the Dark Lord used magic that my kind couldn't name or understand."
Rose lifted her eyebrows. "Voldemort made it?" she said dubiously. "That doesn't make sense. There's an M etched on it."
"But if it was specifically for Malfoy," Ginny began, "then he might have -"
"Done a little engraving?" Moody snorted. "No, Rose is on to something. Voldemort didn't make that ring."
Ron shot out of his chair, excitement coursing through him. "Or else he did, and whoever engraved it was skilled with dangerous objects - like Malfoy's jeweler - his files are in our office, there are sketches -" Ron couldn't speak in rational sentences. He went to the door, drew his wand and pointed it down the corridor. "Accio Dangerous Objects File!" he shouted, so loudly that Lawrence jumped and gave him a dirty look. "Acco Rings File!" he added, for good measure.
There were a few minutes of very painful anticipation before the files came zooming down the corridor, narrowly missing people as they flew. Ron caught them in midair and hurried back into his father's office. He handed the Rings file to Sirius.
"Look for a sketch of that ring," he said, and both of them began hurriedly to flip through pages. Ron hardly noticed the sketch of the gold chain that served as a precaution against burglars, hexed to strangle whoever stole it. He flipped right past the earrings that recorded conversations, and he barely saw the twin bracelets that doubled as handcuffs.
"Got it," Sirius said, brandishing an oversized rectangle of parchment in the air. Ron pulled his chair closer, and everyone else gathered around them and stared down at it. There was a heavy pause in which they all studied the sketch and read the notes beside it. As he read, Ron felt as though his lungs were constricting.
Ginny was the first to speak. "That's… why I… can't touch it… " she managed. She was holding her stomach.
Ron felt sick. Beside the sketch of the ring's face, onto which Thinstone had drawn the painstakingly elaborate M, there was a far more extensive set of notes.
- Curse object
- Do not engrave more deeply than 1/4 cm or mortal peril
- Basilisk venom at core (note - venom unusual core, uncontainable element, likely to have bled into metal, CAUTION)
- Tempering/Cursing process unknown
- Purified in boiling Basilisk's blood
- DO NOT USE BARE HANDS
Ginny returned to her chair looking white and shaken; their father followed, sitting beside her and putting his hand on her arm.
"Venom at the core," Rose murmured. "So it's… like a wand."
"But with limited power." Bill squinted at the picture for a moment, then sighed, pulled his glasses out of his pocket and fitted them to his face. "And with other curses placed on it, apparently - probably to stop people who aren't supposed to be using it -"
"Like us," said Rose.
"From trying to do so," Bill finished. "Anyway, venom's not just an uncontainable core. It's an illegal and unstable one."
"You know…" Rose said slowly, "it's a morbid thought. But if Lucius Malfoy was wearing this ring when he died, then I suppose his son just… took it off his body."
There was a collective shudder.
"I know it's… practical not to bury valuables …" Rose trailed off.
"Malfoy should stay in prison," Ron said flatly. He felt Sirius's eyes bore into him, but he couldn't help the way he felt. It seemed clear that they were going to let Malfoy off - they were going to let him walk right out of Culparrat even though they now had real evidence on him - and Ron wasn't sure he'd ever really reconcile himself to it.
"If we're honestly considering setting Malfoy free, then it can't be absolute freedom," Rose said. She looked nauseated.
"He said it would have to be," Ginny said dully.
"No." Rose laughed. "He'll have to reconsider. He has to know that bargains work both ways. There will be a probation period, and during it I want the M.L.E.S. to monitor his property. I want wards against Dark magic placed around his manor. I want Gringotts to keep authorities apprised of every financial transaction Malfoy makes. I want those companies of his dismantled, and I want him fined. Heavily fined." She humphed. "He'll have to make up for the money we've wasted all year."
"He'll never do all that -" Ginny began.
"Oh won't he." Rose smiled. "A Slytherin maxim for you, Ginny - we know a deal when we see one. And this is more than a deal. Malfoy should never get out of prison, and if he's willing to do something to help us then he bloody well knows it. A few minor stipulations placed on his freedom won't stop him wanting it." She looked coolly satisfied. "Trust me."
For the first time in his life, Ron thought he saw the value of having a Slytherin around. "How long can we make the probation period?" he asked.
"Standard practice is a year, isn't it?" Rose answered.
"Ten years then," Ron said. "Minimum."
Everyone was quiet for a moment, and then, one by one, they nodded.
"But we still…" Ginny said after a moment. "We still have to be the ones who do it. Malfoy wants us to participate in that spell. Me and Ron and Harry and Hermione - he said several capable wizards would be needed, so I expect we're not enough. But he does want us."
Silence followed this reminder, and Ron's heart beat hard and fast. Harry would be all right, and Ginny wasn't bad in a scrimmage - but Hermione wasn't a very good flyer.
"I'll participate," said Arthur, looking around the room at all of them.
"No, Dad -" Bill started.
"If any of my children plan to be up there, then I will be there with them."
Ron felt a surge of terrible fear. His dad was a good flyer, but… he was older. And he wasn't in practice.
"I suppose Mick will volunteer," Rose said quietly. She looked unhappy about it.
"And me," said Bill. "And Charlie, I'm sure."
Moody heaved a rough sort of sigh. "Can't balance too well on a broom," he said, thumping his wooden leg on the office floor. "Don't suppose someone would strap me onto one?"
Ron snickered involuntarily and many eyes turned on him, including one that rolled in a most abnormal manner. He pressed his mouth shut and looked down at the tops of his shoes, trying to remember that the situation was very serious. But it was hard going when, in his head, he was entertaining the absurd image of his dad binding Mad-Eye Moody to a broom and sending him wobbling out over the sea.
"Well, that's several of us," Ginny said, and Ron was grateful that everyone's eyes turned on her instead. "And we're all capable. That's all Malfoy said he needed. So then… " She looked at their dad. "Is that it? Is this what we're going to do?"
Arthur considered her for a moment, his eyes very grave. And then he folded his hands on his desk and gazed at them for a long time. Finally, he opened his mouth. "Yes," he said. "I believe…" He seemed to be measuring his words very carefully. "I believe it's the best choice, not only for the Ministry and for the people we love who are being affected, but for the wizarding world. Muggles may not be able to see Dementors or suffer them as we do - and I'm glad for them. But we can." He unfolded his hands and used one to rub his temples. "And I'm worried for the people in Stornoway - I'm worried about every witch and wizard in Britain. If the Dementors' hunger continues to grow, they may yet find a way around the current system. If they do, then our whole world is at risk."
Ron remembered how Harry had looked at the beginning of last summer, when they had heard about that poor witch who had lost her soul. Her little boy had lost his mother - her husband had lost his wife. Ron put himself in the man's shoes and knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that to destroy the Dementors was the most important thing. Even if it meant giving up on something else that, to Ron, felt almost equally important.
"I admit I have reservations about offering Draco Malfoy a bargaining opportunity that we haven't offered to anyone else, but this is… a very unusual situation." Arthur looked around at each of them and his eyes were pale and tired, but resolute. "I'm afraid that it may have a detrimental impact on the rest of the trials. But I hope that it can be kept quietly among ourselves."
Ginny gave their father a funny look.
He continued. "Though I doubt it. I won't lay this burden on the shoulders of just a few people, for one thing. Other wizards and witches will have to be involved..." He absently scratched his head. "But until the necessary papers are signed, we will continue as we are. And as soon as he has made the agreement, we will… arrange ourselves as he instructs." Arthur's lips twisted in something like a smile. "I'm sure he'll enjoy that," he said very faintly.
Ginny looked pensively at the ring on the desk. "Then… who should tell Malfoy what he's going to have to agree to?" she asked.
No one answered. Ron knew that he had no desire to see Malfoy and to tell him that he, for all intents and purposes, had won what he wanted. He had found a way, as usual, to bully himself out of a situation. Ron knew he wouldn't be able to pass along the information calmly. Sirius might have been able to, but Sirius was suspended - not that that seemed to matter anymore.
"I'll tell him," Rose said suddenly. She put her clipboard on Arthur's desk and smoothed a hand over her hair. "I'll go whenever you're willing to take me," she said to Moody. "I'd like to negotiate with him while this is all fresh in my mind, and once he's agreed to a few limitations, we can draw up a contract."
Ginny smiled slightly. "You know," she said to Rose, "it's funny. He said you'd be the one who'd appreciate the bargain. He said to give you his regards, actually."
"Did he. How interesting." Rose gave a catlike smile. "What a lot of House faith he has."
"Well!" Moody clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "This should be entertaining. Come along, Privy Brown. We can wake him now, if you like - it's not as if he's got a busy schedule." He snorted and turned towards the Minister's desk. "Arthur," he said, with a respectful nod of his head, and then he thunked his way out of the office with Rose right behind him.
"You forgot this," Arthur called after her, holding up her clipboard.
Rose glanced over her shoulder and smirked. "Thanks, Arthur. But I only need that thing when I'm trying to be fair."
The door closed behind them with a snap.
"She's very young," said Arthur, his eyes on the door. "Very young. But I have faith that she will make an excellent Minister, if she chooses the right people to surround her."
No one seemed to know what to say. Ron wanted to argue - to say that she wouldn't be Minister. But he wasn't sure that he was right.
"Are you all right, Sirius?"
Sirius looked up at Arthur with haunted eyes. "I will be," he said hoarsely. "Soon."
Arthur nodded. "Ginny? Is there anything more you would like me to know about what went on at Culparrat?"
Ginny sighed a little, and shook her head. "Nothing important," she said. "Just a lot of insults."
Ron thought that he probably could have recited them.
"Bill? Where do you suggest we put this ring?"
Bill shrugged. "It seems to be harmless enough unless it's being used directly - or unless it's touching Ginny. Just keep it in a safe."
"Gringotts, then," said Arthur, sweeping the ring into his hand and pocketing it. "Let's go now." He rose, and his gaze fell on Ron.
Ron looked up. He met his father's eyes and wasn't sure what to make of the look in them.
"I know how difficult this is for you," Arthur said, searching his face. "I remember when they let Lucius Malfoy off. I'd just been promoted to my old position at the time, and I had started going on the raids, and I knew what he was, and I wanted…"
Ron waited.
"I wanted to hunt him down and finish him off." Arthur ran a hand through what was left of his hair. "I remember it like it was yesterday. The things he'd said. The things he'd done. It was beyond me, how anyone could bargain with a man like that, and in that case, I still believe that they were wrong." His eyes were fierce. Despairing. "I used to rage to your mother every night, behind closed doors so that Bill and Charlie wouldn't know how helpless I felt. I didn't want them to know that their father couldn't make things right."
Bill shifted his feet, shoved his hands in his pockets and looked down at the floor.
Ron knew why. It was strange to hear all this. He felt as if a door had been opened to him and he had unexpectedly walked into a world where his father was just a regular person. Just a man with frustrations of his own - not a father at all. And it wasn't that Ron hadn't seen those frustrations before, but it was very different to hear them said like this.
"And there you and Ginny were, just babies. Your mother always had one or both of you crawling on her whenever I ranted." Some of the old anger went out of Arthur's face as he remembered it. "I'd be saying, Molly, I hate that man. I know what you must think of me, but I honestly wish him dead. They've given him back everything and he deserves nothing."
He could have been speaking for Ron.
"And your mother would nod and tell me I wasn't horrible at all, and then she'd hold the two of you up to me one by one and say, that's enough of Lucius Malfoy for now, Arthur. Your children have missed you all day, give them a kiss."
Ron saw Ginny look down. He heard her sniffle. And suddenly, he had to look down too.
"The point I'm trying to make," Arthur said, coming around his desk and putting a hand on Ron's shoulder, "is that you have every right to be as angry and frustrated as you are. He's a sick young man who really ought to be punished - severely. But Ron, there are more important things in life to concentrate on, and he has none of them. While you have all of them. Just as I did."
Ron clenched his teeth and blinked his eyes. He couldn't look up. He would not sniffle.
His father ruffled his hair. "Have a good afternoon," he said gently. "Take some time to yourself, and say hello to Hermione for me. We haven't seen enough of her lately - we haven't even had a chance to talk to her about her parents. Your mother wants you both over for dinner to celebrate - and you, Ginny."
Keeping his eyes on his knees, Ron nodded. He felt his father's hand slip off his hair, and heard him and Bill walk to the door and pause.
"Would you come, Sirius?" Arthur asked. "I'd like to discuss a few things with you."
Out of the corner of his eye, Ron saw Sirius rise and leave the office with his father and eldest brother. He was alone in the office with Ginny, and it was safe to look up now - though when he did so, he wished he hadn't.
She was gazing at him with very wet eyes and pulling off her leather gloves with fingers that seemed to want them gone. "Sorry I fought with you," she managed, throwing the gloves onto the desk. "I don't think you're vindictive. Please don't think I meant it. I just said it because I was angry. You know that, don't you?"
Ron wanted to tell her that he didn't really think she was unprofessional either, but he wasn't sure he trusted his voice. So he stood instead and beckoned for her, and opened his arms a bit.
Ginny stood, still sniffling, and walked straight into them. She gave him a tight, wordless hug.
The sun filtered in around them through the giant Ministry windows, bathing them in shafts of light full of dust. The Dementors would vanish, but Malfoy would go free. And they would have to help him. They'd have to channel the kind of Darkness they had fought against in order that Malfoy might walk back into his old life and continue to live it in a terrible way that might one day have terrible consequences.
But Ron knew his father was right - he did have the important things. He had Hermione's incredible love - he had Harry's unfathomable friendship - he had a family who supported him in everything, and he would always have those people. Always. No matter what terrible consequences came, no matter what else was lost along the way. And if they had to fight again, then they would stand together and do it. He knew it without question; he could not imagine it any other way.
A life empty of that, Ron thought suddenly, would be the worst possible punishment.
He hugged Ginny tighter for a moment, then let her go. "Should we go and tell Hermione and Harry?" he asked.
Ginny checked her watch. "They'll be home between four and five, and it's only one. I… sort of want to visit Mum." She gave him a hopeful look. "Want to come with me?"
"Yeah, all right," Ron said. He had a sudden urge to see his mother too. "Let's surprise her." He tucked Ginny's arm into his. Together they left the Ministry of Magic and Apparated home.
~*~
Harry stood in front of his locker in the equipment tent, staring at his dragon riding gear and wondering what, if anything, would be useful to him. It was good gear. Flame-proof. It had kept him from getting torched on several occasions, and it had a heavy strength to it that had grown comfortable to him after many months of extended wear. His eyes scanned the thick, black gloves… the jacket with all its safety straps, harness loops and pocket zippers… the safety goggles that kept out heat and smoke as well as fire. He supposed he didn't need any of it today. They weren't going to be on dragons, for this; they were going to be on brooms. And Harry knew that he was most comfortable on a broom when he was in plain robes, just flying. He'd be fine without all this.
And anyway, none of it would protect him against whatever Malfoy was planning.
He slowly shut his locker, then turned, leaned against it, and fingered his wand as he looked around the room. He didn't know what to expect, and neither did anyone else. Every expression was one of muted terror, but not one person had refused to participate.
Harry still couldn't believe that Ron had explained the situation so calmly. Malfoy - free. All of them - bound to use Dark magic. The Dementors destroyed.
The last part was the only bit that Harry wasn't sure he believed. He knew a contract had been signed that guaranteed Malfoy his freedom if he followed through on his word - that much was certain. He knew also that every person in this tent - and several who weren't in it - were going to fly out over Azkaban and do the sort of magic that had only worked against them in the past, in an attempt to see the Dementors destroyed forever. Or so Malfoy had promised.
But what did Malfoy really intend to do?
A vision of all of them falling from the sky, limp and helpless, came into Harry's mind unbidden - he pushed it down as hard as he could. But it rose again, stronger and more merciless, warning him that Malfoy could not be trusted. That for all they knew, they were being lured to their collective death.
"Do we need those?" Harry asked vaguely, as Mick pulled on his own gloves.
"I do." Mick flexed both hands. "It's all about getting a nice, firm grip, Harry." He flashed Harry a weak grin that didn't last long, and then turned back to his own locker looking less than confident.
Lisa tucked her hair up into her helmet. Burke pulled on his inflammable jacket - perhaps he thought it would help. Even Charlie was pulling on gloves, although Harry supposed that Charlie, like Mick, was so used to those that he might actually fly better with them by now.
Viktor Krum shut his locker without taking any of his gear out of it except his broom. "I fly better in robes," he muttered. "I vill… be outside." Looking grim, he pushed the tent flaps open and disappeared.
"I don't see how this goes on." Hermione had taken Cho's jacket out of her locker and was trying to work out where the armholes were. "Does it buckle around the back or something?"
Cho, who apparently didn't want her gear, helped Hermione into the jacket.
Ron watched them, pale as a ghost. He met Harry's eyes, and Harry knew what he was thinking; Hermione was a terrible flyer. Neither of them wanted her up there for this.
"How about a hand for your old dad, Ginny?" said Arthur. Ginny had just come into the tent, and he was struggling with one of the jackets in much the same way as Hermione had been.
"You won't need it," Ginny said quietly. "It won't help, Dad. It's just for fire." She came and stood beside Harry. Harry felt her hand slip into his and he gripped it. He saw Arthur's eyes flicker towards them, but he couldn't let her go. He wondered if this was the last time he was going to touch her, and suddenly the whole year seemed like a colossal waste of time. They had been given just one year of peace between battles, and they hadn't used it. Just as they had finally come together, they were being ripped apart. None of them had any idea what they were going to have to do - they were going to have to trust Malfoy to show them everything.
"Ow," Ginny whispered.
Harry relaxed his grip on her fingers. But just a little.
Seconds later, Viktor came back into the tent. "Ve are all expected outside by seven o'clock," he said shortly, and disappeared again. Arthur squared his shoulders, took up his broom, and left the tent. Charlie, Cho and Mick followed him right away, and Burke and Lisa were right behind them. Hermione took a little while longer - she was still fussing with the straps and buckles on her jacket when Ron, still very pale and carrying both their brooms, guided her out.
Harry hesitated, still holding fast to Ginny's hand. Leaving the tent meant joining the fight. And though he knew that he was going to do it, he had never been so reluctant to take the risk. It was ridiculous to risk everyone and everything, all because of one person. It was like Voldemort all over again, only this was almost worse, because it felt paltry. This did not feel like a noble fight. It might have, if Harry had been able to believe that Malfoy was really going to keep his word - it would be worth a fight to be rid of the Dementors - but he had no reason to believe that it was really going to happen. If Malfoy was up to something more than he was letting on, then they were all in danger, and to die at his hands would make a mockery of all their previous efforts to survive.
"Let's go, Harry."
He looked at Ginny's face. It was as pale as Ron's, but very determined, and her eyes were bright and clear. Full of strength. Life. Harry felt something inside him snap.
"They'll be waiting for us," she said gently.
Harry knew it. But just for the moment, he didn't care. "Listen," he said urgently, turning Ginny towards him and grabbing her other hand as well. "You can't get hurt, do you understand me?"
"Then you can't either," she said swiftly, her eyes growing instantly brighter and her determination seeming to falter. "Please - you can't."
He wouldn't. He took her face between his hands and kissed her while there was still a chance. The world outside slid out of focus and she was all there was.
Was this what it had been like for his parents? How many battles had there been? How many times had they almost died before they had been killed - how often had they kissed and wondered if it was the last time? It was almost worse this way, Harry thought. He had been afraid before, but he had always been ready to die - ready to sacrifice whatever was necessary in order to make things come out right. But now he wasn't willing. Now he had Ginny Weasley in his arms - her mouth moved on his; her heart beat near his; her hands fluttered to his chest and clutched his robes, making him hot and cold all over. It was far worse to have something to come back to. It made Harry want to come back.
"No," she muttered suddenly, breaking away. "No. This isn't the last time - this isn't all we get. We're going to be all right." She looked right at him, breathing hard. "And so is everyone else. He's not taking this from any of us."
Harry wanted her to be right.
"Get your broom, Harry," she said, letting him go and grabbing her own from her old locker.
He obeyed. They walked out of the tent and into the rising morning light where at least a hundred people were walking slowly towards the empty enclosure where Mordor had used to be - where Arthur and Rose now stood with Mad-Eye Moody and Sirius, who was holding a very small pouch. The three of them seemed to be standing on an elevated platform, though Harry couldn't see it through the throng, which was made up of many people he had expected to see and a few he hadn't, most of them gripping their brooms. The twins were there with Angelina, all looking resolute. There was Penelope… Amos Diggory… Bill and Fleur… Remus, who was standing very near the platform… there was Joe Cooper, who had taken over for Malfoy… Harry even spotted Mrs. Weasley, and he was sure he'd never seen her look so ill. The rest of the crowd was made up of guards, Aurors and members of the M.L.E.S. - Seamus Finnigan stood with a crowd of his fellow Enforcers, and Lavender stood beside him, as sober-eyed as Harry had ever seen her.
Harry couldn't believe that it really took this many intelligent people to deal with Malfoy. It was ludicrous.
"Is everyone here?" asked Rose, in a nervous, amplified voice, as Harry and Ginny approached the edge of the crowd. It was a crowd composed entirely of Ministry officials and powerful witches and wizards who had made great differences in the war, and yet many pairs of eyes traveled over him with unconcealed interest. Harry found it strange that, in a group such as this, anyone could still think he was worth staring at. He and Ginny slid into place beside Ron and Hermione, and none of them spoke as they waited for information.
Rose gestured for silence from the rest of the crowd. "Thank you - all of you - for coming. My name is Rose K. Brown, I am the Secretary Privy to the Council on Magical Matters, and I know that many of you have been summoned here today, or have volunteered yourselves, without knowing exactly what you're getting into. I'm sorry we couldn't be clearer before this. Please listen closely."
Rose consulted her clipboard and took a deep breath.
"I'm sure you're all aware of the situation with the Dementors. It's a perilous situation in many ways. It's very hazardous for the dragon riders of the Permanent Azkaban Patrol, who have, up to recently, been entirely responsible for containing the Dementors in Azkaban. It's a drain on the resources of the Ministry of Magic, due to the cost of keeping this dragon camp open, paying the salaries of each member of the P.A.P., and in spending valuable time in discussion and debate over what ought to be done to remedy this. Finally, and most importantly, it's a matter of life and death to every witch and wizard in Britain - and the world. If the Dementors are not contained, if they are free to wander land and sea, then they are free to take the souls of whomever they meet. Up to this point, however, the dragon riders have been able to contain the Dementors. Since it's creation, the P.A.P. has been one-hundred-percent effectual in preventing fatal accidents.
"Recently, things have taken a sharp turn for the worse. The members of the Permanent Azkaban Patrol are no longer able to contain the Dementors alone. If you walked down the shoreline to get here, then you saw dozens of guards in place, and you probably also saw that every one of them is necessary - the Dementors can now escape in large groups and at high speeds and are extremely dangerous. You may have seen them gliding towards the shore.
"You may be asking yourselves how it's possible for the situation to have declined so quickly. At first, we didn't know ourselves. But a week ago, information became available to us that we will now share with all of you.
"On the first of April, Draco Malfoy was arrested under suspicion of war crimes and taken to Culparrat prison to await trial. At that time, he was a member of the P.A.P. and was one of its most efficient dragon riders. The loss of him as part of the flight team resulted in a dramatic shift in the behavior of the Dementors. Over a period of just a few days, the Dementors went from well contained to out-of-control. It was such a violent shift that it required the placement of dozens of guards and several Aurors, who have been working alongside the dragon riders to make sure that the maddened Dementors do not find their way to Stornoway village, or further inland, where they might do damage to innocent wizards.
"The violence of the shift led certain members of the Ministry to suspect that Mr. Malfoy might have been exercising some form of power over the Dementors, which kept them contained in one space. This would have explained why, when he left, they were no longer under good regulation and control. But there was no proof of this, as Mr. Malfoy had never mentioned to anyone that he might be doing such a thing.
"Thanks to interviews subsequently held with Mr. Malfoy, we have discovered that the following things are true: one - that he was indeed controlling not only the Dementors, but also, sometimes, the dragons. Two - that he was using Dark magic to do this."
An angry murmur went up among the throng of people around Harry - Aurors, guards and members of the M.L.E.S. looked at each other in fury and fear. They shook their heads and muttered.
"Please refrain from talking." Rose was quiet until the murmuring died down, and then she took a deep breath and continued to speak. "Three - that he had all along, in his possession, an object which has the capacity to destroy the Dementors."
There was a general outcry. Rose waved her hands to stop it.
"Please," she shouted. "We must have your attention. There is more to say. Allow me to give the floor to Sirius Black."
At the mention of Sirius, silence fell immediately. Harry looked around him and saw that nearly every face was full of apprehensive awe.
Sirius tapped his throat with his wand.
"In this pouch," he said harshly, holding it up, "is a ring. In the ring there lies a core of Basilisk's venom, and around the ring are placed curses so powerful that none who did not work for Voldemort himself can know how to operate or break them."
Many faces in the crowd went white. Harry wondered if most of them still weren't used to hearing Voldemort's name said aloud.
"The ring once belonged to Lucius Malfoy, who died last June. It now belongs to his son. It is the object capable of sending the Dementors to their deaths. It is an object so cursed that none of us here can understand fully how to operate it. Draco Malfoy, however, can."
Everyone glanced edgily at each other, as if they could guess what was coming.
"The Ministry has been forced into a very difficult situation. We have had to decide what was more important - punishing Mr. Malfoy for his war crimes, or setting him free to contribute to the destruction of the Dementors. We hope you will all agree that punishing one man is not as crucial, at this time, as guaranteeing the safety of the wizarding world from a group of creatures who have no conscience and whose only desire is to steal the souls of innocent people."
Sirius didn't speak again for a long moment. He seemed to be working to control his voice, which grew rougher with every word. He stared silently down at the pouch in his hand, with such passionate fury in his face that even Harry was slightly awestruck. If he didn't know his godfather personally, he knew he'd be just as nervous as everyone else in the crowd.
"Draco Malfoy," Sirius managed, after a long pause, "is being held nearby by several Aurors. He has not yet explained to us in any detail the way in which this ring operates. But in a moment, he will be escorted here to explain to all of you what it is that you will be expected to do. If you choose not to continue your participation at that time, you will not be punished. Your contribution is voluntary. Only Malfoy's is not. Are there any questions?"
No one seemed to want to direct a question to Sirius Black.
Finally, one witch among the Aurors raised her hand. "We'll be… using Dark magic ourselves, then?" she asked shakily.
"Yes."
The witch pressed her lips together and nodded. Beside her, a very short man in hooded robes crossed his arms defiantly.
An older wizard from the M.L.E.S. cleared his throat. "Er - Mr. Black. I can't help wondering if this whole thing might not be a trap."
Harry's heart sank. Knowing that others felt the same way he did made him sure that he was right. It had to be a trap. From the first time Malfoy had challenged him to a wizard's duel, he'd showed himself to be a lying coward. He hadn't changed.
"This may well have been intended by Mr. Malfoy as a trap," Sirius answered honestly. "We would not put it past him to lure us all out over Azkaban in order to harm you in some way. Precautions have been set in place."
Harry folded his arms and waited. He wasn't sure there were any precautions they could take that would be good enough to calm his fears.
"First, he will not have his wand. He will be handed it in order to demonstrate what will happen, and then he will be stripped of it when he is given this ring. At the end of this experiment, if it is successful, he will only be given his wand again if he returns the ring to us to be locked away. Secondly, the reason that we have invited so many Aurors and Enforcers to help us is that, if Mr. Malfoy does attempt harm on anyone, we want him arrested immediately and brought to shore. He is aware that any false step will result in his immediate and permanent return to Culparrat. We believe that his desire to evade a prison sentence will deter him from committing harms against you."
Seamus Finnigan snorted. "And if he's suicidal?" he called out. "I mean, what if he's willing to go down with us, just to see us all dead - what then?"
Sirius's eyes darkened. They seemed to sink deeper, making his pale, gaunt face look almost like a skull, just as it had the first time Harry had ever seen him. "As I said," he rasped finally. "You are all welcome to excuse yourselves from this assignment. It is entirely voluntary. No one will blame you if you are not willing to take that risk. Leave now if you wish."
The crowd was still. Harry waited to see which of them would go - he knew there had to be at least a few people who would not be willing to sacrifice themselves in such a way.
But no one moved. Harry glanced around at the crowd of determined faces and he felt a strange new sense of… belonging. Of community. They had all been through that war. They were all afraid to die. But none of them was willing to step down from the duties at hand. They weren't all Gryffindors - they hadn't all lost their parents to Voldemort - that wasn't what mattered. They were all good, strong people who saw the danger and were choosing to face it.
Harry's fear was cut in half. He was ready. He would do this more than willingly, he would stand with these people and fight. He looked at Ginny, who held his eyes for a moment, smiled faintly and nodded as if she knew what he was thinking. Which she probably did.
"If there are no further questions," said Arthur, stepping up beside Sirius, "then may we please have Mr. Malfoy escorted here."
Moody gave a curt nod, limped down from the platform and led a team of his Aurors away from the enclosure. As the crowd waited for his return, everyone began to buzz and murmur. Harry saw a sudden splash of water against his glasses. He took them off to wipe them on his robes.
"Oh, don't tell me it's going to rain…"said Hermione quietly.
But it was. Within seconds, the sky had grown dim and gray, and a light rain had begun to mist around them.
"It'll probably blow over," said Ginny, but she didn't sound convinced.
"I don't want you up there," Ron said under his breath, turning to Hermione. "When the rest of us go, you stay here."
"Absolutely not," Hermione said briskly. "Harry, do the Repelling Charm on your glasses and fix them to your face please."
Harry did as she said.
"Hermione," Ron said, his voice urgent, "I'm not trying to make you angry here, and you know I'd never say it if I didn't have to, but you're the worst flyer I know."
"Oh thanks."
"Don't get huffy, damn it." Ron took her by the elbows and turned her to him. "You never get higher off the ground than five feet, you only managed to get fifteen feet up so you could pass the class in first year, and then you never wanted to do it again. You know you can't balance. You're horrible. You're going to get hurt."
"What about the flying keys?" Hermione protested, trying to pull away. "I can fly when I have to - and I'm not letting you and Harry go up there without me, I'm not -"
"You are." Ron kept a firm hold of her. "Listen to me now. With this many people up there, Malfoy's never going to notice if you stay back, and even if he does there are ways around it - and Hermione, if anything happened to you, I don't know if I could -"
Ron didn't finish his sentence. He didn't have to. Any of them could have finished it for him.
"And if something should happen to you?" Hermione whispered. She wrenched an arm out of his grip and turned on Harry. "Or you? I'm going, you can't make me stay, I've always been there with you, always, and you know you've always needed my help, and I've never - I've never stayed back unless I was Petrified -"
"But this isn't like that," Harry said, keeping his voice low and quick. "This isn't about that. We know you'd never leave us to fight anything without you, but you can't fly. You're miserable at it. It's one of about two things in the world that you can't do, Hermione, and you know it -"
"That doesn't matter. You might need me."
"Of course it matters!" Harry exploded in a fury. "We do need you!" Several people glanced at them, and Harry lowered his voice again, but he glowered at Hermione with all the force he had. "Can't you understand that? Don't you know how much we care about you?"
Her mouth fell open. Beside her, so did Ron's.
"You're not risking yourself as stupidly as that," Harry went on, not sure what was making them both look so shocked. "It would be different if you could fly, but you can't, and what if something happens out there? We'll need someone here to help us. Someone on the ground. You have to be that person - who else can get us out of a problem, if there is one? Do you trust anyone else?"
Hermione closed her mouth again. She stared wide-eyed at him for a moment.
"That's true…" she said slowly. "You do need someone on the ground." She glanced up at Ron. "All right," she agreed. "I won't go - but only if you promise me you won't get hurt."
"I promise." Ron said, his voice full of relief.
His promise didn't stop Hermione from looking terrified; she stared up at him and smoothed the front of his robes with anxious fingers.
"It's okay," Ron said gently. "Look - the Cannons won yesterday. Am I really going to die three weeks before they play in the finals?"
Hermione made a noise that was halfway between a laugh and a cry.
Harry wished there were a good enough reason to make Ginny stay behind as well. But she could fly, and she was even less likely than Hermione to stay behind when it was a matter of his safety - he knew that. Although…
"You couldn't touch that ring, you said," Harry said suddenly, turning on Ginny. "You said it hurt you."
She nodded.
"If you couldn't even touch it, then how are you going to withstand whatever magic it does?" Harry pressed. "You can't go out there either."
Ginny gave him a narrow look and opened her mouth - but before she could answer him they all heard a cold, familiar voice drift across the crowd and towards them.
"Well, well."
Malfoy. Ron's face hardened. Hermione's was a mask. Ginny thrust out her chin. All four of them turned to face the platform where Draco Malfoy stood in the misty rain, surrounded by a half-circle of Aurors, all of whom had their wands at the ready.
"What a pleasant little gathering," Malfoy sneered. His face was white with anger, but for someone who had been Stunned for weeks, he looked remarkably healthy. "Let me make myself perfectly clear. I've been dragged here this morning against my will in order to demonstrate the abilities of one of my private possessions. I was never under any obligation to disclose these abilities to anyone, no matter what so-called good it might have done. You all harbor other delusions, I'm sure."
Malfoy threw back his head and pointed to a blonde girl Harry couldn't quite see, who stood near Remus in the front of the crowd.
"Midgen," Malfoy spat. "I'm sure you'd like to call yourself an unbiased reporter. Well, write this down - no proof of any other crimes has been offered against me in court. I have been convicted of nothing. I am being used as a pawn and I will see to it that each of you who has supported these proceedings is rightly punished in the future." His hands were clenched. "Rightly," he repeated. "In the future. When there is once more a Ministry uncorrupted by nepotism and prejudice."
Ron gave a loud, contemptuous snort. "When it's corrupted by money and Dark magic again, you mean?" he shouted across the crowd.
The entire crowd turned. Many of them looked approvingly at Ron.
Malfoy's eyes traveled the back of the crowd and alit on the four of them.
"Perhaps," he hissed, "some of you are unaware of who is in command this morning." His narrow eyes flicked from Ron to Harry. "You will all do exactly as I say until the duty I have been forced into fulfilling has been entirely accomplished."
"Yeah, I'll do exactly as you say," Ron muttered, "the day you say I should throw you in a cage with a Chimaera."
Several people around them snickered. Harry knew that Malfoy couldn't hear what Ron had said, but his eyes narrowed further all the same.
"Oh, you don't have to obey me, of course." Malfoy smiled icily. "It's no tragedy to me if you die. And let me state up front that if any of you die by accident, due to some mistake of your own, I will not be held responsible. That much respect for the law is, apparently, still left in this pretended Ministry. It is not in my contract to see that you all survive our day together. As long as I inflict no deliberate harm - which is apparently of enormous concern - what happens to you is your own business."
"God, he's such a bastard," Ginny muttered under her breath. "He's actually enjoying this."
And he was. Malfoy pushed a hand through his hair and surveyed the lot of them with contempt and condescension written all over his face. "And so this is what I have been provided with…" he said softly. "And what a rag-tag group it is. Why, half of you are still in training. Perhaps we should review a few fundamentals." He held out his hand and snapped as if for a servant. "My wand," he demanded.
Harry was repulsed when it was Mr. Weasley who came forward. But he seemed quite unruffled about having been snapped for; he held out Malfoy's wand with perfect dignity.
"There you are," Mr. Weasley said calmly.
Malfoy looked from his wand to Mr. Weasley's face. He let out a long, slow breath. And then he very gingerly plucked his wand from Mr. Weasley's fingers and wiped it on his robes before holding it out.
Ginny made a soft, strangled noise, and Harry wished he were close enough to knock Malfoy to the ground.
"I am sure," Malfoy said softly, his eyes flitting to the back of the crowd again, "that there are those among you who are unwilling to use the kind of power I will now show you." He snorted softly and turned his head to look again at Mr. Weasley, who had returned to the side of the platform and was watching quietly. "I am sure, for example, that most of you here would prefer to use methods of murder other than the Killing Curse."
Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw Ron stiffen. Saw Hermione put her hand on his shoulder.
"But you will learn to speak the Killing Curse today, with real intent. Or you will not get what you want."
Harry's stomach churned. The Killing Curse - Avada Kedavra. He knew that Ron had said it once, but he wasn't sure that he could force his own mouth to shape the words that had taken his mum and dad. Cedric. Hagrid.
"That doesn't make sense," Hermione whispered. "I thought it didn't -"
"If you have something to share with the rest of us, Miss Granger," said Draco loudly, sounding uncannily like Snape, "please do speak up."
Hermione narrowed her eyes. She tapped her throat. "Sonorus. It doesn't make sense," she said, just as loudly, as the crowd turned to face them. "The Killing Curse has no effect on the Dementors," Hermione went on. "It's already been tested on them - if it were that simple, this would have ended months ago."
"Perhaps if you'd stay quiet long enough to hear anything all the way through, you wouldn't always have so many inane questions," Malfoy sneered, and the crowd glanced edgily at Hermione and then at Ron, who was bright red. Hermione, however, only shrugged and tapped her throat again.
"Quietus," she said, and quickly took Ron's hand to hold him back.
Malfoy smirked and looked away from her. Harry thought it should have been impossible for someone to remain so childish.
"The Killing Curse alone is not enough," Malfoy went on. "There is a ring - which I believe you were shown. It contains a level of magic that I alone among you can control. I will unleash that magic around all of you - you will see it in the air, it is visible. Within the bounds of that magic, the Dementors will be rendered vulnerable to deadly magic. So long as you and they are within the boundaries I create, the Killing Curse will be enough to destroy them."
It was so simple. Harry felt a surge of anger - so simple. All Malfoy had to do was perform a bit of magic around a particular area, and the Dementors would be practically mortal - this could have been done months ago. Years ago.
"There are, of course, complications." Malfoy said with satisfaction. "First, after the curse falls around all of you, you will not be able to pass through it until I end the incantation."
"He's trapping us," Ron muttered. "Wonderful."
"Second," Malfoy continued, "the Dementors won't be able to escape either - they are incapable of passing through this magic. So the Patronus Charm will not be able to drive them far. You will have to kill them in order to stop them coming near you."
Harry's heart went cold. He hadn't imagined that he wouldn't be able to drive the Dementors off with his Patronus, in case of an emergency. He supposed it wouldn't matter too much - after all, they'd all be on brooms, and they would have the advantage of height over the Dementors, who would be restricted to gliding across the water.
"Third." A vicious smile lit Malfoy's face. "The magic that I am about to use does not only make the Dementors vulnerable to death. It also feeds them. Expect to see them developing… interesting powers, as time wears on."
"What kind of powers, Malfoy?" shouted Ron, again not bothering to charm his voice. He didn't have to; it rang out across the crowd so loudly that the people near them covered their ears.
Malfoy laughed. "Why, I don't know. As I said, it would take time - and I've never witnessed any truly incompetent wizards at work with this magic. But I'm certain we'll find out today."
Near the front of the stage, Harry heard Fred - or perhaps it was George - call Malfoy something would have made Mrs. Weasley shriek in protest under any other circumstances. But when Harry found her in the crowd, she looked as though she quite agreed.
"My last word of warning," said Malfoy, who now looked very relaxed, "is that the Killing Curse does not discriminate. Do be careful who you're aiming at." He smiled as though he didn't care at all. "Now." He flicked his wand and, in the air before him there appeared an intricate, three-dimensional map of Azkaban. "I'll be here," Draco said, pointing to a high place in the air just above the center of the prison. "The rest of you will spread out here." He drew a circle around the perimeter of the island. "And when the curse falls around you, it will look like this…"
Out of thin air, red light shot up from the point just above the prison, then arced out in all directions. It cascaded downward in a massive dome of light that surrounded all of Azkaban and a huge stretch of the sea, going so far as to touch the shoreline at the dragon camp. It was enormous. There must have been twenty square miles of sea within it. Harry tried to imagine them all inside it, using the Killing Curse against the Dementors. He tried to imagine a hundred of them, trying not to hit each other - tried to imagine all that green light.
He swallowed the desire to throw up.
The map vanished. Malfoy surveyed them all again. "Are there any questions?" he asked lazily. "Do you all understand?"
A hundred cold, silent glares met his question, but Malfoy seemed unperturbed. He held out his wand towards Mr. Weasley.
"I'll take my ring."
But it was Sirius who approached him, and Malfoy obviously hadn't been expecting it; he jerked his hand back and seemed to shrink when Sirius reached for his wand. For the first time since his appearance, Malfoy looked like what Harry knew he was. Spineless. Somewhere near the platform, a flashbulb popped.
Sirius disarmed Malfoy and carelessly threw his wand to the nearest Auror while Malfoy looked on, clearly furious. Standing several feet from Malfoy, Sirius held up the pouch that contained the ring in his left hand, and drew his wand with his right.
"Let me remind you," Sirius said, in the rasping voice Harry had first heard from him, "that if you misuse this opportunity, it will be your last."
Malfoy tossed his head in an attempt at arrogance. Instead he looked like he was having a seizure; his hair fell into his eyes and he had to push it back. Hermione gave a low, satisfied laugh.
Sirius suddenly flicked his wand - Malfoy flinched - a gleaming Firebolt 5 appeared between them, hovering in midair. Malfoy's eyes widened and he gripped the broom, pulling it to his side.
"Where did you get this?" he demanded angrily. "You have surveillance privileges on my property, not free reign to enter my home and take whatever you -"
"Your mother turned it over to us," Sirius interrupted severely. "She is also here."
Malfoy's eyes were not the only ones to scan the crowd. "Where?" he barked. "And is she -"
"Free, yes. Her trial was held this week, as per your agreement with Privy Brown."
"And so she was proved innocent." Malfoy gave his pale head another toss, and this time the arrogance was real. He pointed to Eloise Midgen again. "Put that in there," he commanded. He dared a step closer to Sirius, reached out and snatched the pouch, and fished out his ring. He tossed the pouch aside.
Malfoy slid the ring onto his finger and flexed his hand. At once he looked tall and confident again.
"I have no further instructions to give any of you," Malfoy said flatly. "I want this over with. Those who are coming, follow me."
He mounted his broom and shot into the air. Behind him, the semicircle of Aurors followed suit and surrounded him - they flew in a tight unit towards the shore.
The crowd around Harry began to take flight - the Auror who had spoken to Sirius, the M.L.E.S. wizard who had thought it might be a trap, the short man in hooded robes whose broom looked no better than the ones the Weasleys had ridden in school. Harry noticed Mrs. Weasley hurry over to where Mr. Weasley was mounting his own broom, while Moody looked on. He saw Mick O'Malley grab Rose off the platform and nearly suffocate her with a hug before flying off with Charlie and Cho. He saw Remus, looking grave, step up onto the platform to confer quietly with Sirius. He saw the twins and Angelina soar off after the Aurors, looking fit to kill. He saw Bill helping Fleur tie her hair back, and registered some surprise that she was getting on a broom as well. He saw Lavender kiss Seamus. Heard Hermione say something frantic to Ron. Felt Ginny's hand push through his hair.
"Come on," she said quietly, and mounted her broom.
Harry and Ron both did the same. They both gave Hermione a long look - she reached out a hand to each of them and they squeezed hers hard. And then they were gone with the rest, up in the air and following Malfoy to Azkaban.
The misty rain had turned to a light drizzle; Harry was glad that Hermione had instructed him to charm his glasses. It was much easier to navigate when he wasn't blind. When he had flown between the rocks that marked the exit of the dragon camp, Harry could see the expansive shoreline, stretching forever in both directions, while the dark gray sea stretched out ahead, choppy and cold, even in June. Over it hovered Malfoy, who had stopped and seemed to be waiting for something.
"There they are," Malfoy called, when Harry, Ron and Ginny joined the rest.
Below them, at the edge of the shoreline, guards were driving back Dementors in groups that seemed almost too large to handle. Aurors flew close to the creatures and began to drive them out towards the island, while Harry, Ron and Ginny flew closer to Malfoy. They hovered there, facing him and all his Auror guards, splitting their attention between him and the sight of hundreds of Dementors being driven out to sea.
"Where's Granger?" Malfoy demanded, glaring at Ron. "I specified that she was to be involved."
"She's involved," Ron said curtly. "You didn't specify that she had to be in the air. She's working on the ground."
"Working on what?" Malfoy snarled.
"Ron? Harry?"
Harry jumped. Hermione's voice, clear as a bell, was ringing in his head.
"I'm with Penny and Moody and Rose and Diggory and -"
"Everyone who's not up here," Harry finished, tapping his wand to his ear. "We've got it. Go on."
"Tell us immediately if there are any emergencies, and we'll do whatever we can. We've split up the participants between us so that we won't have a hundred people shouting at us all at once. Moody's going to be in contact with all the Aurors, Diggory's got the M.L.E.S., Rose is on call for Mr. Weasley and the P.A.P. - except for you - and Penny's communicating with the mediwizards - they're not going to be flying, though. They'll be on a raft down below you, with Eloise and Colin. They're going to stay a bit further back. "
Harry didn't blame them. "Who are you communicating with, then? Just us?"
"Everyone who's not specifically employed in any given group. Ron and Ginny - the twins can hear me, and Angelina - Bill and Fleur - Remus and Sirius…" Hermione paused. "Hello, Malfoy."
Malfoy's mouth was tight and the corners turned down. He looked positively disgusted.
"Can everyone in your group use the Communications Charm?" Hermione asked. "If not, you need to teach it to them, Harry - speak up if you don't need help."
"I've got it," said Remus, in Harry's head, and he appeared at their sides a moment later to demonstrate the charm to those who didn't know it.
Sirius, on the other hand, didn't answer. But there was a loud, rumbling noise in Harry's head a moment later - like an engine. And it wasn't just in his head - it was also behind him in the sky. Harry turned, saw what it was, and gaped in astonishment.
Sirius was on the motorbike, grinning at them all, his hair damp and stringy around his face.
"I fly best this way," came Sirius's voice in Harry's head. "Always did. I'm looking forward to doing a bit of damage with her."
"That," Malfoy said in what was obviously total irritation, "is blatant misuse of a Muggle artifact if I've ever seen -"
But Sirius revved the engine so loudly that the rest of Malfoy's commentary was drowned out.
Harry smirked and pushed back his own damp hair.
"God," Malfoy muttered, and pivoted sharply in the air. "The sooner this is over, the better."
Harry actually agreed with him. He followed Malfoy and the Aurors away from the edge of the shore with Ron on his right and Ginny on his left, knowing that Remus and Sirius were right behind him. He glanced down at the shore and saw a tall, beautiful blonde woman who was standing as still as a statue, her eyes on the sky. For a split second he thought it must be Eloise, but the features were too sharp. The expression too haughty.
"Who would ever marry into that family? " Harry muttered, tearing his eyes away from Narcissa Malfoy as they continued to fly.
"Considering the filth I imagine you'll marry into, Potter," came Malfoy's furious voice in his head, "I hardly imagine you can appreciate my mother's choice."
Harry had forgotten that their Communications Charms were on. He burned in embarrassed anger for a moment, until one of the twins told Malfoy to do something that made for such a funny visual that all any of them could do was snigger, no matter the dire circumstances.
"That's right," Malfoy breathed a moment later. "Enjoy your last few moments of immaturity. It remains to be seen if any of you can withstand what you are about to be shown."
They all fell silent. Harry flew forward with the wind in his hair, and tried to pretend it was Quidditch - that they weren't flying out to Azkaban to be subjected to curses. That it wasn't all going to be controlled by Malfoy.
"Can the illustrious, pure Potter survive the channeling of such Dark magic?" Malfoy's leering voice was audible to all of them. Harry felt Ron's worried glance
"Perhaps not, Weasley - " Malfoy paused. "And I'm talking to the Healer," he added. "Perhaps…" He lowered his voice to a very soft whisper. "Perhaps you'll have to watch him die after all…"
Harry's stomach turned, but to his surprise, Ginny's mouth lifted in what was almost a smile. She adjusted her grip on her broom and squinted against the rain. Little tendrils of her hair were coming out of her ponytail and curling against her neck and temples in the wet weather.
"You obviously don't know what happened to the last person who told me I'd have to watch Harry die," she said, looking very relaxed. She glanced sideways at Harry. "Got any giant fangs handy, Harry?" she asked.
It took Harry a moment to understand what she meant. When he did, he felt a lurch in his stomach - had Riddle told her she would have to watch him die?
"What are you talking about?" Malfoy hissed.
"Oh, never mind," she said cheerfully. "I suppose you had to be there." She snorted. "Come to think of it, you probably would have liked it there."
Harry flew closer to Ginny's side as they continued towards Azkaban. For several minutes there was silence, except for the whipping of the wind past his ears, and the rushing of the rain where it met the surface of the sea.
When they came in sight of the prison, Harry heard several low gasps in his ears - he looked at who was near him in the sky and saw Ron, Ginny and the twins all looking aghast at Azkaban, where it rose out of the sea like a vast, rotting tomb. They had never seen it - not even Ginny had seen it this close, for all the time she'd spent at the dragon camp.
"What is it?" came Hermione's anxious voice.
"Azkaban," Ron answered faintly.
Harry looked over his shoulder at Sirius, who was gripping the handlebars of his motorbike so tightly that his hands were as white as his face. Beside him, Remus was gazing down at the prison, his usually mild eyes full of horror.
"Where…" Remus's voice was nearly inaudible.
Sirius didn't answer, but he pointed to one end of the prison with his wand, and flicked. A single, dark turret of the prison gave off a faint, shimmering blue light, which died away almost at once.
So that was where Sirius had been kept. Harry had never asked. But he stared at the spot now, and his skin crawled.
"My God, look at all of you. You look like someone died," Malfoy drawled. He had wheeled around to face them. "It's just a building - only murderers and thieves know it as anything else."
Anger, hot and uncontrollable, shot through Harry. He put a hand to his wand.
"And unless you want to spend the better part of your youth in prison, Potter, I suggest you keep your temper." Malfoy smirked at him. "Granger, I do hope you're listening. You'd better get the rest of your communications team in order. Everyone must stay back, and it's no fault of mine if they don't. I'm going up to start this."
Malfoy pivoted away again and soared up over Azkaban, high into the air above the very center of the prison. The Aurors followed him.
"I said to stay back," Malfoy snapped at them, and though he had traveled far out of earshot, his voice was still perfectly audible in all their heads.
The Aurors did not budge.
"Very well," Malfoy muttered. "But it won't be my fault when you catch the full blast. I hope everyone is ready."
"Wait a minute, Malfoy," Hermione's voice interrupted. "Let everyone get into place."
Harry scanned the sky. The perimeter of Azkaban was entirely flanked by a hundred wizards and witches. He saw Charlie, Cho and Mick soaring across to the west of the island. Mr. Weasley, Bill and Fleur were off to the south. The twins and Angelina flew north, and Harry remained in the west between Ginny and Ron, with Sirius and Remus at his back. Harry had naturally fallen into his usual navigational pattern, about a quarter of a mile from the Azkaban shoreline, which put him and his friends far closer to the prison than most of the other wizards. He looked around behind them and saw that the next ring of defense started at least another hundred feet back. He recognized a few of the people from the crowd - there was Seamus Finnigan, and there was the witch who had spoken to Sirius, along with the man in a hood who seemed to be her companion. The witch looked terribly nervous, but she kept her eyes on Malfoy and seemed to be steeling herself for whatever was coming.
Harry turned back to do the same thing. He squinted out over Azkaban, where Malfoy was nearly eclipsed by the silvery-black robes of the Aurors. All Harry could see was a distant thumbnail of white-blond hair, and then the rain began to fall harder, making it difficult to see anything at all. It soaked Harry's hair and began to soak through his robes as well, making him cold and uncomfortable. He wiped his forehead of irritating, trickling drips, and gripped his broom.
"What's going on?" Hermione demanded.
Before anyone could answer her there was the sound of an amplified throat being cleared and then Malfoy's voice rang out – over the sea and in Harry's head – loud and terrible. Harry clapped his hands over his ears, but it didn't help; the voice was coming from inside, too. Ron made a noise of pain.
"PREPARE YOURSELVES," Malfoy shouted, though there was no need. It made the noise worse. "WHEN YOU HAVE DESTROYED THE LAST DEMENTOR, GIVE ME NOTICE. IF THEY DESTROY YOU FIRST, REMEMBER WHO IS TO BLAME. I WANTED NO PART OF THIS."
Harry barely saw Malfoy thrust his fist into the air.
"GET BACK!" he shouted to the Aurors around him, but they would not go. "YOU FOOLS –" But Malfoy was laughing. "AS YOU WISH." He drew an audible breath and took an awful pause. Harry's blood ran cold and he pulled his wand – so did everyone around him. It was coming.
"MORSMORDRE IMPERIO MORTIS!"
There was a deafening CRACK! as though the sky had snapped in half – everyone jumped and tightened their grips in fear. And then, from the center of the sky above Azkaban, a thick jet of bright green light shot up and out from Malfoy's fist and blossomed across the sky like a giant firework made of emerald stars, surrounding them.
A hundred terrified screams filled the air – Harry realized that he had shouted too – Malfoy was going to kill them. He had shown them no demonstration of green light – this was some advanced version of the Killing Curse, this was going to slay them all at once. He heard Hermione shouting in his head, asking to be told what was happening, but he could not answer her. He could only watch as the jet of green light caught all the Aurors near Malfoy by surprise. With the force of a thousand fists, the light knocked the Aurors hundreds of feet straight out into the sky, where they dropped from their brooms and fell like stones into the sea. Whether they were unconscious or dead, Harry didn't know. He only knew that he was going to be sick.
And then another scream – this one even more urgent – began to rise from the crowd around the prison. Harry looked down, expecting to see a rush of Dementors, but they were nowhere to be seen. So he looked up.
"Oh – " Harry swore fiercely, and shot forward. "COME ON!" he yelled to Ron and Ginny, and whoever else who could hear him. "HURRY!" The dome of green light was falling all around them – but it was too close, too small. It wouldn't contain everyone – more than half the crowd was still outside it and there was no time for them to move forward; the dome was dropping like a weighted curtain, fast and violent, slicing its way down the sky towards the sea. His friends had managed to duck inside it without being hit, but Harry saw it drop down to collide with the witch and the hooded man who had been beside them – the hooded man shrieked and bolted forward on his rickety broom, just making it into the dome. The witch, however, was not as quick. The curtain of green light sliced straight into her and continued on its way towards the water. She moaned – her face went disturbingly blank – she lost her grip –
She plummeted.
"NO!" The cry was communal and several people, including Harry, dove down along the side of the dome in an effort to save the witch from her fall. But she was outside the dome of light and they could not reach her. She splashed into the water and the rain began to wash her away – through the curtain of light, they could see the mediwizarding raft coming towards her, but Harry knew they were too late. His heart thumped horribly in his chest. He hadn't seen anyone die in nearly a year, and he had hoped never to see anyone die again. But there it was. That girl's life had been taken, and they had let Malfoy do it.
"Hermione," Ginny said, her voice shaking, "they'll need another mediwizarding raft, there were several Aurors hurt – they might be dead, but if they're unconscious, they'll drown – just one raft will never get to all of them."
"Some of the other riders are picking them up until another raft can get there," Hermione replied, her voice shaking just as hard, and growing fainter with every word until Harry could barely hear her. "The ones who are – outside the dome. Where… where are all of you?"
"Inside it," Ron said quietly. His face was gray. "We're all inside it, Hermione."
Hermione whimpered.
"We need a head count," Sirius barked. "Quickly. Who's in here with us?"
"I am," said Bill at once. "It's Bill." He sounded truly shaken. "It came down right between us – Fleur's outside – I can't hear her."
"This is Angelina." She sounded even worse. "George is in here with me, but Fred – I don't know if he – it looked like the light hit him and he fell..." She drew a ragged breath.
Harry forced himself to look at Ron, and then at Ginny. They were ashen. He could not even imagine George.
"Who else, Hermione?" Sirius demanded, though his voice was very dry. "Check the rest of the lists."
There was a short pause, and in it the only sound was of the rain drumming above them. Harry realized dimly that the rain was hitting the dome like a ceiling, and sliding off. It couldn't get in. At least they would not have that to contend with.
"Hermione?" Sirius repeated. "Can you hear me?"
For a moment, Harry thought he could hear Hermione trying to speak to them - and then he couldn't hear her at all. His stomach bottomed out.
"All right," Sirius said grimly. "We're isolated. They might be able to hear us, but we can't hear them. Someone will have to fly the perimeter of the island to find out who else is with us -" He stopped short and pointed to the short man in the hood, who still hovered very near them. "You. Are you a guard?"
The man hunkered further into his hood and nodded. But his robes were neither the dark blue of the Department of Magical Law, nor the silvery-black of the Aurors.
Sirius had clearly noted this; he narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Well, get your hood off," he commanded. "Let's see you."
But the man backed away on his broom, clutching his hood closer.
Sirius raised his wand. "We have no time for games," he spat, and flicked his wand. The man's hood flew back.
Harry's jaw dropped.
"A – Adam!" Ron spluttered. "How the hell did you..."
Adam's face was a mixture of terror and intense satisfaction. He gripped the old Cleansweep he was riding and gave his head a very Malfoy sort of toss. He opened his mouth to say something, but the sound was lost in the pounding of the rain, and Harry realized that Adam didn't know how to use the Communications Charm. Remus flew to his side at once and helped him.
"Adam?" Bill's voice was disbelieving. "What are you on about, Ron?"
"I'm – he's – here," Ron answered, still gaping. He pointed to Adam. "How the hell?" he repeated.
"Knew where to go, didn't I?" Adam was audible now, and he jerked his head towards Ginny. "I went to that pub where she was kissing Malfoy in the magazine. I flew from there."
"Adam?!" Bill sounded furious. Seconds later, he appeared, rocketing around the side of the island, his ponytail whipping against his neck. He zoomed up beside Adam and, before anyone even had a chance to speak, binding cords shot out of the end of his wand, bringing Adam's broom and his irrevocably together at the tails and nearly crushing Adam's leg.
"OW!" Adam shouted.
Bill didn't seem too compassionate. "Get on," he ordered. "Now."
"I'm not getting on a broom with you -"
"Oh. Yes. You. Are."
Adam didn't have a choice. Looking very angry, he slung his leg over Bill's broom and climbed on behind him. The two brooms came together with a snap! and Bill bound their noses together as well.
"I'm a good flyer," Adam muttered hotly.
"You're an idiot!" Bill fumed. "You don't even know the Patronus!"
"They said we wouldn't need it –" Adam protested. "I know the Killing Curse – and you said I needed to choose who to fight for!"
"Be quiet!" Bill twisted around to fix furious eyes on him and Adam quailed. "You know this wasn't what I meant, and if you don't then you're not as smart as I thought. You don't even have a wand, do you?"
Adam defiantly pulled one from he pocket of his robes. "Found it in a drawer," he shot. But the moment he swished and flicked, the wand changed shape in his hand. Suddenly he was holding a trout, which wriggled from his grip and twitched back and forth as it fell helplessly to the sea.
"Weasley's Wizard Wheezes," Ginny whispered. She looked ill.
Adam swore.
"Yes, that'll help," Bill snapped. "Look, just stay back behind me until this is over. You don't have a choice."
Looking sheepish now, and duly scared without any wand, Adam pressed his mouth shut.
"Harry," Ginny said suddenly, as Bill sped back to the other side of the island with Adam at his back. "Look at Malfoy."
Malfoy. For a minute, Harry had forgotten him. Everyone turned and squinted up into the source of the green light, and Harry realized in some horror that Malfoy was... inside it. It had surrounded him completely, and he looked as though he'd been petrified in a massive cylinder of green glass that hung suspended above the prison. His fist was still in the air and his head had fallen back. His mouth was open and his eyes were shut.
"Malfoy, can you hear us?" Harry shouted.
Malfoy did not answer or move.
"How are we going to get out of here?" Ron roared. "He didn't know how to use that bloody ring – look at what happened, the curse isn't nearly as big as he said it would be. He's probably never even done this before, he was just bluffing, and now people are hurt and we're trapped –"
Sirius revved the engine of the motorbike and cut Ron off. "Dementors," he said hoarsely. "Below."
Harry looked down and immediately began to sweat. He tightened his grip on his wand. While they had been organizing themselves, the Dementors had begun to glide out of Azkaban. They were still pouring out, all several hundred of them, covering the circular surface of the sea within the dome and turning up their mass of hooded faces to the sky. Their rattling breathing mingled together and filled the air, whispering horribly in Harry's ears and making his head spin. He had never seen so many of them at once. They were so densely packed together that he couldn't even see the surface of the water.
"They're... starving," Ginny managed. She looked sicker still. "I can... feel it."
"Spread out," Sirius ordered. "Make an even ring around the prison. We'll each have to be responsible for several dozen of them – we'll take sections and shoot down at them from above."
Shoot down at them. Shoot the Killing Curse. As his friends flew away from him and spread themselves out in a ring, Harry licked his lips and swallowed hard. He would say it. He had to say it.
"Arthur's at the back of the island," Sirius said, after a moment. "With Viktor - and Mick - I'll stay on this side with Remus - who's around the other side?"
"Charlie," came Bill's voice. "And Cho. And a couple of wizards from the Department of Magical Law -"
"Two other Aurors here, as well," said Remus. "That's everyone. The rest are outside."
Harry hardly had time to think about their odds - perhaps a dozen people against several hundred Dementors - before he heard the first curse resound in the bright green sky.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Sirius had begun. Harry saw a flash of dim, green light flicker from beyond a far wall of Azkaban. He heard a strange, moaning noise, and then a sound like a hundred ghosts whispering together.
"Oh, God..." Sirius's voice was a rasp. "Look at that – look at it – "
Harry couldn't see it.
"Avada Kedavra!" shouted Sirius again. And then Harry heard Remus's voice. Bill's. He could not hear Charlie, Mr. Weasley, or the rest of them, but several flashes of green light from the far side of the prison made him sure that they were working.
It was time. Harry looked over at Ron, who was now at least twenty feet away. But Ron wasn't looking at him. He held his wand, and seemed to be trying to work his mouth.
"Avada..." But Ron's will wasn't behind it. His voice trailed off, he lowered his wand and he stared, expressionless, down at the Dementors.
As if to help him, Ginny's voice rang out in Harry's head. It might have been the worst thing he had ever heard.
"Avada Kedavra!" she shouted, with absolute authority.
Her voice. That curse. Harry didn't think he could stand it. But his eyes flicked to his left so that he could see what she was doing - so that he could watch whatever happened.
Ugly, green light rocketed out of Ginny's wand, blowing her back several feet towards the edge of the dome. She gave a harsh, involuntary cry and obviously had to work to hold onto her wand and broom. Harry's eyes followed the jet of light down to the Dementor it aimed for - he watched the flood of green connect mercilessly with the hooded face, and he expected to see the Dementor go rigid, to see its hood fall back and see its face go blank. To see it fall, spread-eagled, into the sea. That was the way the Killing Curse worked. It was instantaneous. It stole everything.
Perhaps it was because the Dementors had never been human to begin with; Harry didn't know. But when the light connected with the sightless face the Dementor gave a vicious roar - it flung out its long arms - its slimy, bony hands protruded from its sleeves. Its hood fell back as Harry had expected, but its face…
Harry felt a thrill of horror as the Dementor's mouth began to gape, dark and dry, the lipless mouth stretching in all directions, wide and black like the mouth of a vacuum in space. And while its mouth stretched, the Dementor's chest swelled - its robes became wide and full like a well-built human's and its hands clenched in something like pain. For a second, Harry thought that the Dementor must be breathing in - that it must be sucking up the air around it, and that Malfoy had been wrong - they weren't going to be able to kill them. They were only making them stronger, making them more capable of sucking souls than they had ever been. The Dementor's mouth was opening wider - wider - the lips splitting at the blackened corners and pulling back over the face, rending more withered skin as they went, exposing rotting teeth and peeling away still further - exposing the bone of the nose - the chin - the cheeks… The Dementor's mouth stretched so wide that its jaw cracked open and its teeth came apart, opening over the socket of its neck, tearing its head in two and leaving nothing but a wide, dark hole into the cavity of its body.
"Oh - sick -" Ron made a noise as though he were holding back vomit.
Ginny had both hands pressed over her mouth - she was gagging too, but Harry could hardly look at her. He couldn't tear his eyes from the thing that was happening below them. The Dementor was turning inside out from its mouth downward, and from the blackened pit of it, something white-gold was rising. A slip of something glimmering. Blinding. It seemed to be fighting against the grip of the Dementor's open throat, but as soon as more of the dead flesh peeled down and away, the white-gold thing shimmied out in a long, blinding tendril and burst into the sky towards them. Harry drew back, unsure of what it was and whether it would hurt him. But it only shot past him and up towards the green cylinder of light where Malfoy hung, still frozen. The white-gold thing fluttered into the cylinder of light, whispered past Malfoy and escaped the dome.
Harry stared after it, uncomprehending. And then he realized that there were dozens of slips of light, all rushing towards Malfoy, all coming from different sides of the island. But very few were white-gold like that one had been - some were dull, strange green, some blood red, some were even twisted and seemed to be growing fungus. But they had one thing in common; they all seemed desperate to escape. They clawed towards the exit like angry birds who had been caged too long.
"A soul," Ginny managed, staring towards the center of the dome in a rapture. "An innocent soul, I felt it go past - oh look at it, look at it -"
But it had already slipped away. And the souls that were pouring forth from the disintegrating Dementor now were neither lovely nor pure. Harry backed away from the rush of them and watched them fight each other, long, ugly muscles of changing light, battering their way towards where Malfoy held the ring.
And when they had all fought their way out of the Dementor's shrinking form - when there was nothing left to sustain the body that had been their prison - the Dementor swallowed the rest of itself with a sickening moan and dissipated into smoke.
One down.
Harry squared his shoulders and swallowed hard. If Ginny could do it, then he could too. He dug into the darkest corner of himself and called up his will to do injury. To murder. If he didn't really want it, then the spell wouldn't work - he knew that. But no matter how deep Harry went, he couldn't find a death wish. Where had Ginny got her violence so quickly? What had she been thinking of?
"Avada Kedavra!" George's voice, harsh and unhumorous, echoed in the chambers of Harry's head.
Perhaps she had been thinking of Fred. Of taking her revenge on Malfoy for hurting another one of her brothers. Harry felt a surge of hatred. If another Weasley had been hurt - if another one of his friends had been taken away -
He raised his wand and aimed. The rest of them would not be hurt. No matter what it meant he had to sacrifice.
"Avada Kedavra!" he shouted.
Harry felt the words tear out of his mouth. Felt the blast travel from his lungs to his heart to the muscles of his shoulder, felt it race down his arm and through his fingers. Death. Murder. It exploded out of his wand in a terrible surge of green light, and shot straight down at the Dementor he had chosen to kill. Because he had chosen to kill it. To take its life, to control it that completely. That was all murder was. Absolute control. A total claiming. Enormous and unthinkable.
And driven by something so petty. So unbelievably small. Driven by vengeance. By pride. Harry didn't want to feel it in himself again, but he had to reach down for it - there were hundreds left to kill. Hundreds. He thought back and chose, at random, a memory that made him want to retaliate. The sight of Dumbledore, his last smile on his face, his eyes alight even as he faced his death.
"Avada Kedavra!" Harry shouted hoarsely, and pointed again, while the hatred was still hot. "Avada Kedavra!"
It was the antithesis of everything he had ever believed in. It was the other side of his Patronus - and he was disturbed to note that, when he wanted it to be, it was just as strong. Was this how they had done it, in the war? Was this how the Death Eaters had fueled themselves? With anger, with personal loss, with a desire to bring about justice as they perceived it? But who was wise enough to judge that kind of justice? Whose right was it to even the score that way?
"Avada Kedavra!"
Was it different if the creatures weren't really human to begin with?
"Avada Kedavra!"
Harry was panting. He heard the others who were communicating with him; their curses rang in his head, dizzying him. He heard Ginny shouting herself hoarse on his left. She seemed tireless, and though Harry hated to hear her forced to use such magic, he was glad she was beside him. It bolstered him to know that she was there. He gave her a fleeting look and flinched - the light all around her was green and glowing, making her seem underwater. Making her seem encased in death as she continued to dole it out.
Ron had still said nothing.
Below them, Dementors were splitting open, turning inside out, swallowing themselves and releasing their hosts of imprisoned souls. There were still hundreds of them, but several dozen were now dead. It was underway. The dome seemed to pulse, bright green and tight around them, and Harry wondered what those who were still outside were seeing. Were they still outside? Were they watching - could they hear this? Or was it opaque - a bright green igloo - and was everyone confused and frightened as to what was happening within? Harry turned and tried to squint through the emerald wall of the dome, but he was temporarily blinded by the twisted souls that flew in hordes from the pits of the Dementors. They rushed past his body and his face, blocking his sight, tunneling upward to make their escapes.
When his view was clearer, Harry flew closer to the edge of the dome. It was dark green, but translucent. And through it, though the shapes were distorted and strange, he could make out people - dozens of people - all pressing close and shouting. He could see something else, too - something that wasn't human at all. It was all different shapes - different wisps flying towards the shell of the dome and bursting fruitlessly against its side. Harry couldn't make out what sort of spell they were shooting out there, but whatever it was, it wasn't working. It couldn't get through.
His heart gave a sudden, cold lurch and he gripped his broom. His head hurt. Harry shook his head from side to side and tried to clear his brain of the sudden dizziness that had seized it, but he couldn't shake it - it was sinking deeper every second. And not just in his mind, but in his heart… his skin… he felt clammy and frozen and he was sinking deeper… deeper into the strange, greenish-black darkness…
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Ron's voice shattered the haze in Harry's head and he realized he had been about to fall from his broom. He gripped the Firebolt and wheeled around - and shouted so loudly that it hurt his throat.
A Dementor. Not two feet from him. But it was not alive; Ron had killed it, and it was already unpeeling itself, its mouth gaping and widening, its body splitting and uncurling to release the souls it had been harboring for innumerable years. Harry stared at it in horror - how had it got so close? How was it…
He looked down to be sure that he was as high up off the water as he thought. When he saw that he was, Harry's heart began to knock against his ribs. Could the Dementors… fly? Was that what Malfoy had been trying to warn them about?
"HARRY!" Ron shouted, zooming around the Dementor towards him, looking white and frightened. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah," Harry managed, shaking. "Yeah, I'm - but - how did -"
"They're flying," Ron burst out in terror, confirming Harry's worst fear. "This is really bad - if we don't have the advantage of height then we've got nothing - if they decide to come up at us in groups, then what the hell are we going to -"
Harry didn't have a second to answer him. As if the Dementors had heard Ron, a small group of them was rising from the water towards Ginny's back. She didn't see them; her back was turned as she shot another curse down at the water.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!" Ron and Harry shouted at once.
It was terrifying. The threads of green light shot, not downward and away from all possible human contact, but straight towards Ginny. Both jets of green collided with Dementors, but Harry couldn't breathe. He'd just shot that curse towards Ginny. Towards Ginny.
"GINNY!" Ron yelled hoarsely. "Turn around, hurry!"
Ginny turned. Her eyes widened in fear - she faced the last Dementor in the group and raised her wand. "Avada Kedavra!" she cried, and the Dementor began to disintegrate. "What's going on?" she shouted frantically. "What's it doing up here?"
"They can fly," Harry shouted back. "Can't you hear us in your head?"
"Not really," Ginny managed, her face ghostly pale. "There's too much other noise - the rain and the souls and the - Harry, if they can fly…"
There wasn't a moment to consider it. All around them, the Dementors were rising. Slowly at first, in small, controllable groups, and then more quickly. And there were more of them. They lifted off the water's surface like long, breaths of terrible smoke, and drifted upwards in hungry hordes towards those who were trapped with them. It didn't seem that they could control their flight, or even that they had chosen to fly. It was more like their hunger had become so overwhelming, and the magic around them had fed them such power, that they were capable of doing anything in order to feed.
Harry dodged a group of them and flew towards Ginny. "We can't possibly kill them fast enough!" he shouted, shooting another curse at a group that threatened to attack the two of them. It caught one of the Dementors, but the rest continued to rise, their maws gaping, their stench unbearable. Mildew and grave-rotted death. Their breathing rattled as they came nearer, and Harry and Ginny backed up against the outside of the dome.
"Bill, are they flying over there?" Ginny
called out. "George?"
Bill was suddenly panting in their heads. "They're - out of - control -" he managed, and then - "No time - Avada Kedavra - Avada Kedavra!"
George made no answer except a continuous, unrelenting string of curses.
"Hermione!"
Harry heard Ron's shout.
"Hermione, if you can hear us, you have to do something now! A spell - anything - something to keep the Dementors back!"
"Avada Kedavra!" Harry cried, as the Dementors drew nearer. He heard Ginny shouting it beside him. "Avada Kedavra…" The curse was weakening. It hit a Dementor but didn't seem to hurt it too much. "Avada…" But Harry's mind was reeling. It hurt to concentrate. They were coming closer and opening their mouths for him, and everything seemed to throb - the air - the cacophony of terrified voices in his head - the memories that were beginning to flood him with all their power to unnerve him completely - yes, there was his mother's voice… It would have been so lovely to stop fighting…
"Harry, NO!" Ginny shouted beside him. He felt her draw closer, felt energy surge into him on that side. He kept his eyes open, just barely, and pointed his wand again. "Avada…"
He heard Ron repeatedly shouting the curse. He heard Bill and George and Angelina. Heard Remus… did not hear Sirius. Perhaps Sirius could no longer fight. Harry felt a stab of protective fear, but was too weak to act on it. The Dementors were so near… filling the space around him, sucking away every joy in his mind and leaving him with nothing but anguish…
"NO!" Ginny bolted in front of him on her broom and shielded him from another cluster of gray-robed creatures that had risen to sate their hunger. Harry dimly saw her thrust out her wand as she cried out what should have been a curse.
"Expecto Patronum! Expecto PATRONUM!"
She was using her Patronus. Still fighting to keep his balance, Harry narrowed his eyes and tried to shake off the fog in his brain. He wanted to see what her Patronus was. He couldn't remember if he had ever…
From the end of Ginny's wand blossomed something bright-silver with wide, wonderful wings that seemed to be on fire with silver flame. It soared forward and gave a long, perfect trill.
"A phoenix," Harry whispered, and something deep within him stirred. Was Dumbledore with them, even here?
"Get up, Harry," Ginny shouted. "Snap out of it, you have to help me, I can't do this on my own - Expecto Patronum!"
Harry was suddenly awake. It was as if a space had been cleared around them both - he looked quickly to the right and saw that Ron was trying the same technique. So were the rest of them; all over the dome, within the thick, green light, a host of Patronuses galloped and soared - driving the Dementors back towards the prison.
"It's the only way," Ginny shouted. "We can't kill them fast enough in groups like that - we can only drive them back -"
"But they have to die," Ron shouted back. "We have to finish this, or what's the point?"
Harry wasn't sure what the point was anyway, if they were never going to get out of this cursed circle. He looked up at Malfoy, who was still a statue in a flood of light, and he wondered how on earth all this would end. "Expecto Patronum!" he shouted, pointing his wand at a throng of Dementors who were rising even faster than before. Prongs galloped forth and knocked them back towards the shore - but not very far this time. Harry tried again.
"Expecto Patronum!"
He was amazed that he could swing from the Killing Curse to the Patronus Charm without blinking an eye. He almost didn't want to see Prongs ride in this place - it was horrible to see the beautiful, silver stag canter uselessly to shore to break against the rocks - horrible to watch as the lingering wisps of silver smoke were swallowed at once by a haze of putrid green.
It was worse to see the Dementors rise up again in greater, faster numbers, and advance again into the sky, pushing their hoods back. Opening their mouths.
"Expecto Patronum!" Harry shouted again, but the spell had even less of an effect this time. The Dementors only barely retreated, and then continued on their way with increased determination. "Expecto Patronum!"
Perhaps it would have worked if there had been anywhere for Prongs to drive them. But the Dementors only paused this time, under the pressure of the stag, before continuing into the air again even faster - sickeningly faster -
Harry found himself backing against the dome once more. There was nothing to be done. He felt the familiar dizziness cascading over him as dozens of them filled the air around him. He tried to fight. Tried to wrench his eyes open and look at Ginny - she would give him strength. She'd find a way through to him. He looked at her and his heart nearly stopped.
Ginny's face was slick with perspiration. Her expression had gone slack - her hands were nearly limp on her broom - she looked as though her last efforts had spent her entirely. She was staring forward at the Dementors without even raising her wand. "I can't," she murmured, and Harry heard the words fall like bombs in his head. "You were right, Harry it's… it's this magic. I shouldn't be near it like this… I can feel… Riddle…"
The Dementors seemed to sense her weakness. They changed direction and aimed, in one body, for Ginny, whose eyes were closing tight. She looked like she was having a terrible nightmare - she began to shake all over - Harry knew he had to do something, but he couldn't. He had nothing left. He knew it wouldn't help, but he managed to edge in front of her, shielding her as she had shielded him. The Dementors pushed forward, reaching out their hands for him - for her. Desperate to help her, Harry tried to work up the energy for one more spell - just one more - he barely raised his wand.
"Hermione!" Ron shouted again, backing against the dome and fighting tooth and nail to drive the Dementors back down to the island. It wasn't working. "I know you can hear me - we can't hold them back - you have to help us - you have to hurry. I know you can help us - Expecto Patronum - Avada Kedavra -"
Ron was surrounded, and Harry could not get to him. The sounds of his struggle were terrible, and Harry tried to point his wand in that direction too, but he could hardly even hold onto it. He backed further up towards Ginny, groped for the end of her broom and pulled it towards him until his hand came to her knee. He pulled her behind him as far as he could. Their broomtails were colliding - he felt her forehead fall against his shoulder -
"Harry… I'm sorry…"
But there was nothing to be sorry about. He couldn't fight them either. He could only take the blow first, and he would do it - he would rather have lived, he thought almost idly, as the Dementors made a semi circle around the front of him and pressed towards him. He would rather have lived and had her with him for a long, long time. But if there was only this, then he would go first. The world was fading - growing blacker. The light was flickering in and out. Sounds were unbearably loud and then suddenly silent, as if someone had flicked a switch - and then unbearably loud again. Harry felt as though he was looking straight through the Dementors. He didn't see them at all - didn't see their hungry mouths widening as they fell on him - hardly smelled their decaying breath as they brought their open lips near his. Instead he saw Hagrid's face. Snape's leer. Cedric's body. He heard his father's desperate shouts.
"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off -"
His father had gone first, too. Harry was slumping, but he kept his hand on Ginny's knee and used the last of his strength to push her further behind his back. If he had to die, then it would be in front of her. That was what love had always meant.
Harry's eyes fell shut. He felt bony fingers clutch his face…felt his chin being tilted up… felt a cold, sucking sensation near the corner of his mouth and knew that it was over…
Light.
Harry gasped and turned his head - but not to escape the Dementor - not to save himself. It was only that the light was so bright that it was painful. It was going to blind him. It was coming right through his eyelids to scorch his eyes - it was white hot and frightening, and it was moaning - screaming in unearthly frustration…
Bony fingers slid from Harry's skin and there was a rush of incredible wind. It was coming from behind him… skimming along the sides of him…pushing past him and driving the despair away, to where it could not reach him. Harry felt his head begin to clear. The darkness was lifting… his strength was being restored… he felt the most insane urge to laugh…
"Oh, Harry…" Ginny's voice was soft and awed. "Look up…"
Harry found that it was suddenly easy to open his eyes. He blinked up, and felt wonder wash through him, so profound that he could not find his voice to speak.
The dome was silver. Harry gazed at it in wonder - was this the same magic? It couldn't be. Was it a curse? No… But what it was he could not tell. He looked to his right and relief swept him at the sight of Ron, who was still alive, barely grasping his broom, his head thrown back and his eyes shining. His chin was trembling.
"Hermione," Ron whispered. "You're a genius."
"They can't get out," Ginny said softly, separating herself from him to fly on her own again. "They're trapped where they are - and I don't think they can fly anymore either - look."
Harry glanced below them and was amazed to see that the Dementors could not get within twenty paces of the dome's edge now. They were held back by something bright and beautiful - they were unable to go near it. They could not fly up towards it either, and so they were trapped on the surface of the water, writhing in a helpless, anguished mass near the shore.
The dome of silver light gave one great, shuddering flicker. Harry jumped and glanced up. If the spell was already dying, then they had very little time.
"Sirius?" Harry managed. "Are you all right?"
"I'm here," Sirius rasped. From the sound of his voice, Harry guessed that their experiences just now had been extremely similar.
"And everyone else…"
"I see no one hurt."
"Neither do I," said Bill. "Adam, are you -"
"I'm… all right," came Adam's muted voice. He sounded as though he'd seen enough to last him a lifetime. Harry knew the feeling very well.
The dome flickered again, and Harry felt an urgent sense that they had to finish it now.
"Do you… think we can still kill them?" Harry managed, looking down again at the Dementors, where they twisted and screamed and tried to fight their way towards human life. Perhaps whatever Hermione had done had knocked away the power of Malfoy's ring. He looked up at Malfoy to see what was happening at the source of the dome's terrible power.
To his surprise, Malfoy looked exactly the same, and so did the light around him. It was still green, and it still arced out away from him. The curse was still in place.
Harry drew his wand and pointed efficiently. If they were going to finish it, then they had to do it with no further threats, which meant that they had to do it fast, before the Dementors developed yet more unheard of powers. And they had to do it before the silvery spell lost its influence.
Harry thought briefly of his mum and dad. He allowed his mind to travel, in hate, over the memories he had of Peter Pettigrew in the Shrieking Shack.
"Avada Kedavra," he shouted harshly, and watched as the green light hit the first Dementor it came to. He was relieved to see the creature begin to turn itself inside out. It was still working - they could still do this.
The dome flickered violently, and Harry heard several anxious gasps within his head.
"Hurry," he said, pointing his wand again. "We have no time to lose. Everyone hurry and finish it. Right now."
He didn't know how long they worked. Probably several minutes, though it felt like several hours. His voice grew hoarse repeating the same deadly words, and his mouth was dry and strangely metallic. His tongue felt thick and unwieldy - he needed water. He knew there had been a good reason for those dragon riding jackets; there had always been a flask of water and a snack or two tucked away in the pockets. But he continued to shout the curse, though his arm throbbed and ached and his fingers were sore from channeling the darkness.
Before he knew what had happened, he looked down to shoot the curse and saw that there was nothing left to kill. The last of the Dementors on their side had been destroyed.
It was an idea so massive that Harry didn't know what to think. Above them, the dome shimmered suddenly and seemed to shift - it looked for a moment like it might disappear completely, and Harry held his breath - but then it settled into place again.
"We should see if they need help round the other side," said Ginny quickly, and she flew off ahead of him towards the side where Bill had been fighting alongside Charlie and Cho. Ron followed her. Harry, though he wanted very much to follow them both, knew it was a brighter idea to divide their help. And so he flew towards Sirius, rounding the jagged side of the prison and coming into view of his godfather.
"Harry!"
Sirius looked mad and haggard; his eyes were glinting like a maniac's and he was still half-slumped over the handlebars of his bike. But his smile took up his whole face.
"Look at that -" he shouted in a strangled voice, gesturing towards the sea like a king to his assembly. "Gone."
"On this side," said Remus, who looked like he'd just come through a week of full moons. He pivoted in the air. "We should check on Arthur."
The three of them, along with two Aurors Harry didn't know, flew around to the back of the prison, where Mr. Weasley had been working with Mick and Viktor. Angelina and George were already there, both looking shocked and wan. At the sight of their faces, Harry's heart plummeted. Fred had to be all right. He had to.
Ron, Ginny and the rest of them joined the group a moment later, and everyone looked down at the sea together, bathed in a glow of silver light tinged with sickly green, listening to the pounding of the rain outside and the hum of Sirius's motorbike.
Harry realized that he was shaking and he wasn't sure why. He knew that he was tired. Other than that, he could hardly process what had just happened. None of it could have been real.
"There's not one left," said Sirius, his voice sheer with passion. "They're dead, Arthur."
Mr. Weasley seemed unaffected by the news. He gazed down at the water and the look on his face nearly matched the one on George's. "Yes," he said quietly. "It would appear so."
"We'll need to check inside, Dad," Charlie said. He looked exhausted, but he pushed down the nose of his broom and dove. "I'll be right back," he shouted over his shoulder.
Cho opened her mouth - Harry thought for a moment that she was choking - her eyes were wide as they followed Charlie, and she seemed to be incapable of speech.
"Don't go in there!" she finally burst. But Charlie was already too far away to hear her - he disappeared into the graveyard behind the prison before Cho could stop him. She dove after him and hovered over the blackened trees, looking absolutely terrifed. "Charlie?" they all heard her call. "Charlie, which way did you go?" She flew to the other end of the graveyard, still shouting. "I'm serious, I don't want you in there, there could be a lot of them still hiding - please answer me - I don't see you."
The tension in her voice made Harry very nervous, and it must have had the same effect on the rest of them; they all dropped lower in the sky in order to make sure that they could hear it when Charlie replied.
"I'm right here!" Charlie's voice was very faint. "Calm down - come in here if you want, I could use the help, it's a big place and we've got to search it completely."
"Get out of there," Cho answered. "I'll do the bloody Peeping Charm and we'll check the place from out here, I don't have to be on shore to do it - come out right now!"
Harry blinked. She was awfully upset.
Charlie emerged from the prison looking bemusedly at Cho. He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. "Well, don't get your knickers in a twist," he muttered, blushing a bit. "Here I am - do the charm, then."
Harry wasn't sure he'd ever seen Charlie look so awkward.
Cho positioned herself to face a large, bare wall of the prison. She raised her wand and opened her mouth.
Before she could speak, the dome above them gave a final, mighty flicker, and all the light went out. There was another tremendous CRACK! of thunderous magic - the few people near Harry shouted so loudly that it sounded like a hundred voices together…
But it was a hundred voices, Harry realized in astonishment. The dome of light was lifting - lifting up from where it met the sea - cascading in reverse, and letting in the sounds from outside. The sound of the rain slapping the water, the sound of a hundred shouting voices calling all their names, the sound of one spell being incanted again and again, though Harry was sure he had never heard it said quite like that before.
"PATRONUM REDIMIO!"
Harry didn't know what it meant. But the curtain of light was rising, the silver halo that had joined it was disappearing, and the green curse was retracting towards its source. Real daylight was washing into the cursed ring where they had all been trapped. Real air, with no death in it. Harry drew a perfect breath and briefly closed his eyes. They'd done it. It was finished. And they'd made it out alive.
"Fred -" George was the first one to duck beneath the rising curtain of stars and shoot out of the dome. "Where's the hospital raft?" he shouted, and disappeared around the other side of the prison before anyone could stop him - not that they would have tried. Angelina was hard on his heels and Charlie was quick to follow. Bill unbound Adam from his broom and shot after his brothers. Ron and Ginny, after giving Harry a fleeting look, took off in the same direction.
Only Mr. Weasley hadn't moved. He watched his children go, and then his eyes flickered up to where the green light was quickly receding, pouring back into the place it had come from. That ring.
Malfoy.
He was still suspended in the shaft of deathly green, and Harry realized for the first time that if he still hadn't moved, and yet the spell had gone dead, then that meant that Malfoy…
Another CRACK! sounded overhead. Several people screamed. In one final, abrupt rush, the remainder of the green light funneled into Malfoy's periphery - the green cylinder shivered and pulsed - Malfoy's ring glinted - and then the light rushed back into it with a soft, snaking sound, and all of it was gone. Malfoy was left uncovered in the rain, hovering unsupported on his broom.
His head, which had been thrown back, fell limply to one side. The fist that had been thrust into the air fell slackly down and his arm hung beside his body. For a moment it seemed that he must be awake, though his eyes were closed, because he still had a grip on his broom. But then his whole body wheeled to the side, and Malfoy dropped without warning towards the spiking turrets of the prison.
Harry watched, horrified, for one split second. He could not believe what he was seeing. As soon as he realized that it was real, he sprang into action - he bent double over his broom and urged it forward - perhaps he hated Malfoy, but he didn't want to watch him die. Not like this. Harry put on a burst of speed and willed himself forward, ignoring the rain as it began to soak him again - he would get to Malfoy before Malfoy reached the spiraling, black towers - he would not fail -
But the hands that kept Malfoy from death were not his. Harry didn't even break Malfoy's fall with his broom. Mr. Weasley had got there full seconds before he had - it was Mr. Weasley who maneuvered himself under Malfoy's plunging body and absorbed the shock of it with his arms and broom. But he couldn't absorb it entirely, and the impact threatened to send Mr. Weasley tumbling towards the prison along with Malfoy, whom it seemed he had no intention of letting go, even in defense of his own safety.
"Hang on -" In a panic, Harry lurched forward, reached out with both hands, seized Mr. Weasley by the shoulders of his robes, and yanked him up.
Mr. Weasley huffed with exertion. With Harry's help, he stayed aloft. And all the while, Malfoy lay, sprawled and unconscious, his pale head half-cradled in one of Mr. Weasley's hands as the rain slicked his hair to his forehead and his hand dangled loosely away, the golden ring still shining on his finger.
Harry pulled back, panting, and stared at the bizarre picture they made. He wasn't completely sure that Malfoy wouldn't have preferred to die.
Though perhaps he was already dead.
Barely balancing, Mr. Weasley managed to turn his broom and keep Malfoy's body propped across it.
"Come on, now, young man," Mr. Weasley said quietly, squinting through the rain. He shifted Malfoy's head towards his arm and cradled him even closer, in order to get a hold of his broom. "Let's get you to someone who can help you."
Harry was struck. A year and a half ago, when Percy had lain dead on the ground of some Death Eater camp, Lucius Malfoy had probably stepped over his body without ceremony or compassion. And here was Arthur Weasley holding Draco like a son.
Harry's heart hurt.
He followed Mr. Weasley away from Azkaban and towards the massive hospital raft, where a crowd had gathered, their brooms hovering low, their feet skimming the water. Only Ginny and George had landed on the raft itself and thrown their brooms aside; George knelt on one side of Fred with his brother's hand in both of his, and Angelina knelt on the other - Ginny was beside her with her hands out and her eyes shut, concentrating harder than Harry had ever seen her do. She seemed completely unaware of either the rain that was sliding down her nose or the crowd that was watching her every move.
Mr. Weasley cut through the crowd and two mediwizards rushed to relieve him of his burden. They laid Draco's body on a makeshift bed as Mr. Weasley landed on the raft. He stood behind Ginny.
"Stand back a bit, Dad," she murmured. "And don't worry like that, he's got a heartbeat and he's breathing."
Harry sighed out, relieved
Ginny laid her hand on Fred's forehead and let out a breath of her own. "It wasn't the Killing Curse - it didn't even kill the Aurors it hit at the beginning - except the one it passed through. The one we watched fall."
Harry wished he could forget the image that flashed back into his brain. Even one life was too much. His eyes flicked to Malfoy's prone body, lying cold and untended in the rain, and he tried to feel the same kind of forgiveness that Mr. Weasley had shown.
He didn't feel it at all.
"But it did - it did pass through him," Angelina whispered, wiping her eyes. "I saw it. Not straight through him, but -"
"Just here." George touched the side of Fred's head with a shaking finger and drew an invisible line from his ear to his shoulder. "It got his head a bit, and went down through his arm. Is - is his head all right, Ginny?" George sounded very young, and completely shaken. Harry was sure he'd never seen him look so frightened.
"My head's a sight prettier to look at than yours," Fred croaked.
It was a moment before everyone realized what they had just heard, and then an explosion of noise went up from the hospital raft, and Ginny bowed her head and put a hand over her eyes, laughing and crying at once.
George alone still looked serious. His eyes were suspiciously red, and he didn't take his hand off Fred's shoulder, even when Angelina bent over Fred to kiss him square on the mouth.
"I should get injured more often," Fred mumbled.
"Is Fred all right?" came Hermione's voice in his head. It was so unexpected that Harry nearly fell off his broom. He had forgotten that he could communicate with her out here.
"Yeah - Hermione, he's fine -" Harry pushed back his wet hair impatiently. "Almost everyone's fine - was that your spell that - "
"Where's Ron?" she demanded, cutting him off.
"Right here, Hermione," Ron answered in a voice that wasn't meant for anyone but her. Harry knew it. Ron caught Harry's eyes fleetingly from where he hovered at the other end of the raft, and they both turned very red and looked away from each other. "Er - we'll fly back in just a minute, all right?" Ron managed in a very different soft of voice, which cracked a bit. "See you in just a minute."
"All right," she said, a bit breathlessly. It sounded to Harry like she might have been crying. "Just a minute then. Oh - I'm so happy you're all safe - " There was a little sob followed by a soft click in Harry's ear, and he knew that Hermione had ended the charm.
Ginny pushed herself to her feet and searched the crowd around her. She found Harry almost instantly and came towards him where he hovered on his Firebolt at the edge of the raft. She worked her way between the beds of two of the Aurors who had been knocked out of the sky, and she had almost taken Harry's hand when her eyes fell on the bed to her left.
"What…" Her hand faltered and she stared down at Malfoy, who wasn't breathing, as far as Harry could tell. His stomach wasn't moving at all. "Did any of the mediwizards…"
Harry shook his head. No one had been to this end of the raft since they had put Malfoy down. Everyone's attention had been focused on Fred.
"Someone should have told me," Ginny said anxiously, dropping down beside Malfoy and putting her hands out at once. She hissed and snatched her hands away. "What happened?"
Harry told her about Malfoy's plummet and her father's save. "No one wanted to interrupt you from Fred," he finished quietly. "I wasn't going to stop you helping your brother, even if -"
"No, I know…" Ginny's face was shadowed and rings had begun to appear beneath her eyes. She put her hands out again and winced, but kept them there. "He was in that light for so long," she muttered. "I have no idea what it was. It might take a while to wake him."
"Then he's… not dead?" Harry managed. He wasn't sure why he was so relieved.
"No, he's not dead," Ginny said grimly. "But he might wish he were when he wakes up." Her hands scanned his head and then his chest, and then she swept them down the length of him while Harry looked on in part-fascination, part-disgust. To see her working on Malfoy in any way that required her hands was more than he could balance in his head. He knew better than to think anything of it, but that didn't make it pleasant to watch.
"His ring's gone," Ginny murmured. "Did it fall off at the end? Did the magic destroy it or something?"
Harry frowned. He remembered, very clearly, having seen that ring on Malfoy's finger when Mr. Weasley had held him. "No," he said slowly. "It… are you sure it's not on him?"
Ginny nodded.
"Harry!"
Harry's head snapped up – Ron's shout had sounded like an alert. "What is it?" he began, but he didn't need to ask. His eyes focused past the crowd around the raft and towards Azkaban, and his heart sank.
Gliding towards them across the water, moving at top speed, there were several dozen Dementors.
It wasn't over. Despair crashed through Harry, and he felt hollow.
"They must have been inside the prison," Ginny said, sounding nearly as weary as he felt. "At least… at least there aren't too many of them left."
But after what they had all gone through all year, Harry thought it was ridiculous that even one was still alive, let alone dozens. Did this mean that the P.A.P. wouldn't be disbanded? Would he have to work for them forever? The idea exhausted him completely, and he hung his head, listening as several wizards began to drive the Dementors back again. He couldn't bring himself to help them. It wasn't fair.
"It's all right," Ginny said quietly.
But it wasn't. Harry heard the roar of Sirius's motorbike growing distant – he must have been helping to drive them all back again. Harry didn't want to follow. He didn't want to see his godfather. He didn't think he could bear to witness that level of disappointment. He glanced down at Malfoy's bare hands and wished that the ring were still there. If it had been, he would have taken it up over Azkaban and finished off the Dementors himself.
"Come on."
Harry looked dully over at Adam, who was staring, determined, into the sky.
"Come with me," Adam said urgently, and gripped his broom with one hand. The other he had shoved in his pocket. His eyes glinted. "You're good at stuff like this."
"Stuff like what?" Harry asked, confused.
But instead of answering, Adam flew off towards Azkaban, where several wizards were now working to contain the Demtentors in a small space.
Harry exchanged a wary look with Ginny, then hurriedly flew after Adam. "Don't go any closer," he shouted. "Remember, you don't have a wand."
"I don't need one," Adam shouted back, throwing a confident look over his shoulder. "Hurry up – we have to finish it. Just because he couldn't do it doesn't mean it can't be done."
Harry didn't know what Adam was on about, but he had a bad feeling that it wasn't very wise. He knew that he was right a moment later, when Adam put both hands on his broom in order to pull up higher, and something on his finger flashed.
"ADAM!" Harry roared, realizing with a shock of fear where the ring had gone. "DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!"
But Adam raced ahead much more quickly than he should have been able to on a Cleansweep, and Harry was hard pressed to catch up to him.
"Don't worry about it, Harry!" Charlie shouted distantly, from below. "Burke and Lisa went to shore to get a couple of dragons –"
But Harry wasn't trying to patrol the prison. He was trying to stop a boy who was apparently as much of an idiot as he himself had once been. He gained on Adam's broomtail and reached out to grab it, but Adam managed another burst of speed, and the broomtail slipped out of Harry's grasp.
"YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW THE SPELL!" Harry yelled furiously. "YOU'RE GOING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED – NOT TO MENTION THE REST OF US – "
"I HEARD WHAT HE SAID," Adam shouted back, not slowing down in the least. "I KNOW THIS IS RIGHT – STAY BACK – "
Harry couldn't possibly stay back. Nor could he stop Adam. Frantically, he tapped his wand to his throat. "SONOROUS! EVERYONE – GET BACK NOW! GET BACK – ADAM'S GOT THE RING –"
Harry was too far up now to see the reactions of those below, but he imagined that they were all as terrified as he was. In a last effort to control the boy, Harry pointed his wand at Adam's fingers and tried to bring the ring to him. "ACCIO!" he shouted, but at the same moment, Adam thrust his fist into the air and threw back his head.
"MORSMORDRE – IMPERIO – MORTIS!"
Adam's hand flew open – the ring shot off his finger and tumbled upwards through the air – it spiraled and flashed and then, as though an invisible hand had grabbed it, it froze in midair and exploded in a shattering of bright green light.
The light burst away in all directions, twice as bright as it had been before – Harry threw his arm across his face to shield his eyes, but he couldn't shield them long. He had to look. He had to know what was happening.
The light raced outward – shooting stars rocketed far away in every direction – Harry waited for them to drop, to cascade down in a curtain of light as they had done before, and to trap him, Adam, and all the wizards near the prison in a cursed dome.
But when the diameter of the dome was as wide as Harry could remember, the light didn't stop at all. Harry gaped at it as it continued to widen, shooting farther and faster than it had when Malfoy had performed the spell, growing in size until the sky itself was green as far as the eye could see. Until the roof of the dome sheltered not only Azkaban and a short space around it, but what seemed to be all the water in the sea – or at least as far as it stretched to the shore. Only then, at that far distance, did the light seem to Harry to be dropping in a waterfall of light, to touch the sea and trap them all.
He wondered why he didn't feel trapped.
He looked up into the sky for the source of the light, searching for the ring. But all he saw there was one enormous, bright-gold star, from which a million fingers of terrible green light were radiating.
Harry stared at it, his heart pounding in his chest, and then he dropped his eyes to Adam who looked... was it happy? The boy's face shone and his eyes were alight as he turned a circle on his broom and saw what he had done.
"I knew it," Adam whispered. "I knew it was all wrong as soon as I heard it, and I knew I could do it right. I don't know how I knew."
Ideas flickered briefly through Harry's mind. The boy was a Slytherin. His parents had been Death Eaters. He was even related to the Malfoys. Perhaps he'd used such magic before and they just didn't know it – perhaps he had natural tendencies that even the Weasleys would not be able to train out of him.
Or perhaps it was just that he was a talented young wizard who had wanted to use the spell for the right reasons. It had happened before. Harry glanced at the bright-gold star again and for the second time that day, he felt that Dumbledore was somehow right beside him. His heart surged with hope.
"Can I use your wand?" Adam asked suddenly. "I want to try it – on the Dementors, I mean."
Harry shook his head slowly. "No... you shouldn't use that curse."
"But –"
"No." Harry met Adam's eyes. "But I want you to stay with me, all right?"
Looking rather proud, Adam nodded.
"And Adam," Harry mused, looking up at the star again. "I don't suppose you know how to... end this incantation?"
"Sure." Adam shrugged easily. "It's just Finite Incantatem –"
"You're... sure?"
Adam pushed back his damp fringe and frowned. "Yeah I… I am." He gave a funny laugh. "I don't know why, I just feel like I understand…" He gazed away and shook his head a bit, as if trying to clear an unwelcome thought out of it. "But I'll need a wand to do that – I think I should end what I started. I have a feeling it's safer that way."
Harry looked at him for a long moment. "I'll give you my wand when it comes to that, then," he finally said. He looked down and saw that, below them, all the wizards and witches who had wanted to participate before were finally getting their chance. Mingled Killing Curses surrounded the prison in a nimbus of green light and the Dementors were coming apart again, one by one. Souls rushed upward and brushed past Harry and Adam, flying towards the bright-gold star at the apex of the dome and slipping away into space.
"HARRY! ADAM!"
Ron, Bill and Mr. Weasley were flying rapidly towards them, all looking relieved to find them both alive and well.
"We're all right," Adam called out. "Don't worry!"
"Don't worry?" Mr. Weasley gasped despairingly as they all pulled up close, panting. "Don't worry? You may be all right at the moment, Adam, but mark my words, when Molly gets a hold of you –"
Adam blanched. "But – but you don't have to tell her anything," he offered hopefully.
"He won't have to tell her, you daftie," Bill said, staring at Adam as though he were a creature he'd never seen. "There's a news reporter down there. They've got pictures."
"Then I'm in trouble." Adam looked downcast for a moment – and then he gave them all a brilliant grin. "But I'll be in the newspaper," he added, sitting up tall. "We should be taking care of the rest of the Dementors, I expect," he said in a cheeky tone that made Ron roll his eyes. "Come on."
But when they looked down to see what more needed to be done, it seemed that everything had already been taken care of. Harry was not surprised that a hundred powerful wizards had taken on the remaining Dementors with relative ease but it was strange to see everything looking... calm.
They all flew together towards the water, near where Sirius was sitting on his motorbike, staring at the prison with a face full of wonder.
"The Aurors have gone in," he said, in a rough whisper, when they were all around him. "They're making sure that not a single Dementor is hiding." He gave Adam a piercing look.
Adam shifted his shoulders uncomfortably.
"You're mad," said Sirius, in the same rough voice. His eyes gleamed. "Well done."
Mr. Weasley opened his mouth as if to protest that it had actually been foolishly done, but then he sighed as if he knew that the only really meaningful lecture would be delivered by a woman wagging a ladle. He gave Adam a fond look.
They waited together for several minutes. Everyone who was still capable of flying was in the air, waiting in a hovering group just over the water, near the shore of Azkaban. Harry looked behind them and saw that the injured Aurors, the twins, and Malfoy were all still on the hospital raft with the mediwizards. So was Ginny – and though she was too far away for Harry to really see her face, he knew that she was looking at him.
"Hi, Harry."
He heard her voice, soft and low, rising suddenly in his head, and he felt a blush start up in the pit of him. He glanced nervously over at Mr. Weasley, but it didn't seem he'd heard anything.
"No one can hear me but you."
Harry felt the blush crawl up the front of him and threaten to show itself on his face. He cleared his throat meaningfully and turned away from the raft, so no one would notice him staring.
"It's all right. I know you can't answer me." Her voice was lower still. "My dad told me how you caught him, when he caught Malfoy."
But he hadn't done anything, Harry thought. It had been Mr. Weasley that had done all of it. He wanted to protest –
"And don't bother trying to tell me you didn't do anything," Ginny said, her voice full of laughter. "I swear I can read your mind – "
Harry felt a surge of panic and he flushed completely. No – no she couldn't.
"No, not really, Harry."
But apparently she could. Or else she knew him very, very well.
"I love you so much," she said quietly. "You're the best man in the whole world."
Even if he had wanted to speak, Harry knew he couldn't have. His heart was pounding so hard that it threatened to break right through him. He looked up and focused on the bright-gold star that hovered over Azkaban, and hoped that no one could tell what he was hearing.
"Thank you for... staying in front of me," she whispered. "That's – that's twice I owe you my life."
Harry bowed his head – she was wrong. They were even. She'd saved him twice – she'd saved him more often than that, though perhaps she didn't know it.
"I can't wait..." Ginny hesitated. He heard her draw a soft breath as if she were bracing herself. "I can't wait to be alone with you, Harry," she managed. "I really need... to be alone with you."
Harry wasn't sure he'd ever be able to breathe again. The tone of her voice gave him the most insane ideas – the most gorgeous ideas –
"Harry, are you all right?" Mr. Weasley asked.
Harry gasped – his eyes snapped open. He hadn't realized that they were closed. He looked over at Mr. Weasley in a panic and nodded, and Mr. Weasley looked back at him in obvious concern.
"You were falling asleep," he said worriedly. "Do you need to go and have a lie down on the raft?"
Harry couldn't tell him that if he went and had a lie down on the raft, it was very unlikely that he would be able do any sleeping. He just shook his head.
"No, Mr. Weasley," he said much too formally, forcing his voice not to crack. "I'm fine."
Mr. Weasley gave him a funny look.
"Mr. Weasley, sir!"
Everyone looked towards the entrance of Azkaban, where the Aurors were emerging from the front doors. They mounted their brooms on the shore, lifted into the air, and flew straight towards Mr. Weasley and the rest of them. The Auror at their head gave a salute.
"Not a single Dementor remains, sir," he said.
"Every chamber has been searched?" Sirius rasped, before Mr. Weasley could answer. "Every tower, every underground cell? And the cemetery?"
"Yes, sir, Mr. Black. All searched, sir."
"Then…" Sirius drew a ragged breath and his eyes paled and brightened at once, as though a light were shining through them from behind. "It is finished." Both he and Remus looked out over the prison, and over both their faces swept a kind of peace that Harry had never seen there before.
"Finished," Remus repeated, very quietly.
"Almost," said Mr. Weasley.
Sirius's head swiveled and he stared at him. "What do you mean almost?" he demanded. "It's done, Arthur. They're gone."
"But I've got to finish this curse," said Adam, as though it were something he did every day. He looked at Mr. Weasley. "Right, Arthur?"
Mr. Weasley nodded. "It wasn't what I was thinking of… but yes. That's right."
"Then can I, er -" Adam looked expectantly at Harry and put out his hand.
Harry drew his wand and handed it to Adam, who took it with great care, as if he knew that it was something very special. He gave it an experimental flick, and a shower of silver and green erupted from the tip.
"Nice!" said Adam approvingly. "Great wand."
Harry had never seen it behave in such a Slytherin manner, but he knew it made perfect sense that it had that capacity. And he agreed that it was, indeed, a great wand.
Adam raised it, and looked towards
the sky. His sandy fringe fell back and he thrust his arm into the air.
"FINITE INCANTATEM!" he shouted.
His young voice rang out like a bell beneath the wide, green dome. But instead of the loud, snapping finish that Harry was expecting, there was a rush of cool wind all around them as the green dome shrank towards the golden star, which shimmered as it collected the green fingers of light back into itself, drawing them back along the sky to reveal the world in all its usual colors - the horizon became a wonderfully dull, rainy gray again, and the eerie green sea turned back to dusky blue.
Harry felt as though the curse was slipping not only out of the sky, but out of his body as well. He felt it rush away from him - and it wasn't just the curse. He felt the ache of dragon riding leave his lower back… he felt the pounding headache that hadn't really left him in months suddenly vanish into thin air… he felt his lungs lighten as though he had been breathing something thick and ugly for a long time without even realizing it. All of it was going away - abandoning all the dark corners of his body and leaving him strangely empty - but clean. Exhausted and clean. Harry felt as though a wave of the ocean had just washed straight through him - salt-cold and strong and perfect. He wanted to climb into bed and sleep for a dreamless week.
When the green light had ebbed all the way inward and nearly disappeared, there was a hissing rush of air… a long, soft noise like someone drawing in a final breath… and every last tendril of green was swallowed up by the star that had been their source.
BANG!
Everyone jumped and flinched against the blast of white-hot light. The star had exploded above them into one massive firework of white and gold. It spread across the sky even further than Adam's dome had gone, reaching out across the heavens in all directions as far as Harry could see. It gave one final, terrible flash - a sheet of lightning that lit the world for one moment, illuminating every amazed and upturned face. And then it glittered away into nothing, leaving the sky silent and thick with blue-gray clouds and muted daylight.
Harry tried to process the enormity of what had just been done, and found he could not do it. Vaguely, he wondered what time it was. He turned up his face to catch the rain and listened to the steady wash of the sea below.
Peace.
"Are you ready, Sirius?" asked Mr. Weasley softly after a moment.
"Ready?" Sirius repeated. His voice seemed distant, and Harry opened his eyes to look at his godfather, who had also thrown his head back and seemed to be concentrating on feeling the rain.
"To get rid of it."
Sirius opened his eyes. They were bewildered. He pinned them on Mr. Weasley and a crease appeared between his black eyebrows. "Get rid of…"
Mr. Weasley didn't answer. He merely swept his hand from left to right, indicating the island and the prison.
A thrill pierced Harry as he watched comprehension dawn on Sirius's face.
"Get rid… of.." Sirius's voice caught. There were signs of a terrible struggle in his eyes, and then he tried his voice again. "Rid… of Azkaban?" he managed.
A faint smile touched the corners of Mr. Weasley's mouth. He nodded.
"Of Azkaban," Sirius repeated. Then all at once, he let out a strangled cry of joy, his shoulders sagged, and he turned towards the prison with fierce satisfaction in his face. He was silent for a long time, holding his wand in his hand, his fingers trembling. He didn't seem to know where to begin, or what to say.
"I thought you'd like the honors," Mr. Weasley finally said, very gently. "It will take help, of course - but I believe the first blast should be yours."
"Help?" Sirius echoed. He gave a jerky laugh. "I sat in there for twelve years - I sat in there thinking - just thinking - " He turned on Harry and gave a short, disbelieving laugh. "About your parents, and Remus, and you - and Peter - oh, my God, my mind never stopped for one single second - I used to dream of taking my cell apart stone by stone, I used to use every scrap of my will to try to summon a wand without having one to do it with - I fantasized about destroying that place - I don't need help -"
He sounded younger and more alive than Harry had ever heard him. He gripped one handle of his shining motorbike, threw back his head and tapped his wand to his throat.
"CLEAR THE ISLAND!" Sirius shouted, and his voice echoed across the sky. "I'M GOING TO CAVE IT IN!"
Wizards and witches flew out and away from the prison, clearing the perimeter. Sirius waited until they were safe, and then he laughed - a young, clear, ringing sound - and revved his engine to advance on Azkaban. He rushed forward toward the island with his wand out before him, and flashed a brilliant smile over his shoulder all of them as he went. And then, without waiting for another second, Sirius turned and aimed.
"ERADICUS!" he cried.
The word rang in the air, amplified and passionate, and Harry felt a chill. The Annihilation Curse was one step down from an Unforgivable. It was the curse the Death Eaters had used at Gringotts - the curse that had been heard by the people of Mont. St. Mireille before their school had come tumbling down. But here… for this purpose… it was the right curse. And with Sirius's will behind it, Harry felt sure it would destroy Azkaban entirely.
There was a sudden, low rumbling, like the start of a massive earthquake. Harry watched Azkaban, transfixed, as enormous slabs of prison rock began to give way at the tops of the walls. The entire structure was crumbling inward from the edges. And just outside it, on a giant, flying motorbike, Sirius Black was laughing.
"Ron - Harry - oh -"
Harry's eyebrows shot up. It was Hermione's voice, it was frightened, and it wasn't in his head - both he and Ron whirled around and gasped.
Hermione had somehow managed to fly all the way out to the prison. She was wobbling back and forth, clutching her broom like a very little girl, and her face was very white.
"I - " she managed shakily. "I heard your dad say it was going to get destroyed and I - I had to see."
Her hair was very, very wet. So were her clothes.
"Did you…" Ron stared at her. "Did you… fall in?"
Hermione didn't answer, but it was clear from her appearance that she had. She was shivering. Harry waited for Ron to say something clever that would make him want to snort.
But to his surprise, Ron sped to Hermione's side without cracking a single joke. He grabbed her around the waist and she clung to his shoulders.
"Just throw your leg over this one as well - that's it. All right, now let yours go - no, no, just grab onto me - good, now I've got it…" Ron helped Hermione to climb on in front of him, and then he bound their brooms together as Bill had done with his and Adam's before. Hermione let out a long breath of relief and relaxed against Ron's chest. He wrapped a protective arm around her. "There," he said. "Now you can watch all you like."
But Hermione's eyes were already on the prison, and her face had gone from pale to glowing. "Ohh…" she breathed. "That's amazing."
Harry glanced back over his shoulder. Azkaban's spiraling black turrets were crumbling one by one as though made of nothing but dust, crashing down against the prison and knocking away great walls of it, making it crumble, section by section, down to the jagged, wet rocks that protruded from the sea. In a moment, the prison and all the horrors it had held would be a thing of the past. It would be over, like the war was over, and Hermione was right. It was amazing.
But it wasn't complete.
Harry turned away from the prison and flew towards the hospital raft.
"Where are you going?" Ron and Hermione called after him together.
"Be right back," Harry said, without slowing down. He could already see Ginny watching him from the edge of the raft, and as he drew closer he saw that she was hugging herself and watching, not Azkaban, but him.
"I can't go," she said. "I want to stay here in case I'm needed -"
"You can go, Miss Weasley," said one of the mediwizards. "Mr. Malfoy is going to be just fine. We'll take him to St. Mungo's from here - there's nothing unusual or incurable about his condition."
"But you can't leave me," Fred shouted, from the other end of the raft. "I want attention, hurry!"
Angelina slapped his stomach.
"Come on," Harry said, and dropped lower so that Ginny could share his broom, if she wanted.
She hesitated and glanced around her at the invalids in the beds.
"Come on," Harry pressed quietly. "You have to see it, Ginny. Right up close." He offered her his hand.
Ginny took it. She had settled herself in front of him before he knew what had happened, and she leaned back against him and braced her hands on his thighs. Harry felt himself growing hot - he slipped an arm around her waist - Ginny gave a lovely little sigh -
A flashbulb popped. Harry's heart gave a terrible thud - he looked up and realized, for the first time, that Eloise and Colin were on this raft too.
"Sorry, Harry," said Colin, grinning, waving his camera. "But you know how it is."
"Molest my only sister in public why don't you," Fred cried, covering his eyes with his arm. "Look away, George, look away…"
Harry flew away from the raft at top speed, amazed to feel Ginny's stomach pulsing beneath his forearm and hand. She was giggling. She was imperturbable. She was… here. With him. He pulled up to hover between Sirius and Ron - they were all together.
And Azkaban was falling.
As they watched, the entrance caved in. Rock crumpled to earth, sending up a massive cloud of dust - it hit them in a hot, forceful wind, sending their brooms astray and making them all cough. The collapsed dust of Azkaban had a stench like none Harry had ever encountered. It was death, fear and madness, all in one.
More rock collapsed; they were rocked by another revolting blast, and Hermione made a terrified noise. She clung to the broom.
"It's all right," Ron reassured her, prising her fingers off the handle. She gripped his hand instead, with what looked like painful force, and this time, when Ron caught Harry's eye, there was laughter in his face. But Ron obviously hadn't been anticipating the sight of Ginny - his eyes traveled very briefly over her, and then he glanced at Harry, questioning.
Harry knew he was red all over, but he didn't let go of Ginny. Instead he held Ron's gaze and tried to communicate, without the painful blundering of words, that this was the way things were going to be from now on.
Ron looked a little surprised. But then he smiled and looked away, and Harry knew that something important had been sorted out between them.
"Ooooh," Hermione said suddenly. "Look at the ground… it's opening up…"
The island seemed to be moaning as the last of the structure collapsed onto it, and the rocks that had supported Azkaban began split open. The sea flooded mercilessly into the cracks, filling them with mud and wet gravel. Gurgling sounds and hissings rose into the air - it sounded to Harry as though the very earth was drowning. The tide around the island pounded in towards the prison, crashing against the remaining stones and sucking them into the water.
A huge section of the shore suddenly opened like a pit - like a Dementor made of sand. Harry half expected to see souls fly out of it. But it was only a whirlpool of water and mud, with rocks sliding down into its depths - and then the water eclipsed the sand entirely and that bit of the shore was gone. A wave crashed over the place where it had been, silver with froth and foam.
"Hermione," Harry asked suddenly, "why did the dome turn silver? What happened?"
"Oh!" Hermione sounded very pleased. "Did it turn all silver? How interesting - I didn't know it would be so visual, but then I suppose the Patronus is a very visual spell -"
"Then it was a Patronus?" Harry asked.
"It was nearly a hundred of them," Hermione said proudly. "Well, more like seventy - but still. I could hear Ron shouting for me to help you, and I knew that the Dementors were advancing on you - I knew they were flying -"
"You could hear me?" Ron demanded, and Hermione nodded. "I knew it!" he said. "All right - go ahea -"
"Well, I knew the only way you'd be able to go back to destroying them was if you had some sort of permanent Patronus around you," Hermione cut back in breathlessly. "But I couldn't think of a way to do that. But then Penny mentioned that early on in the process of creating the Imprisonment Enchantment, she and Percy had been working with a version of Redimio - you know, the Insulation Charm? And the whole point of that particular spell is to bind together a safety ward and surround a specific area with it - Insulation Charms are used all around Hogwarts, for example, and -"
"And the point?" Ron prodded.
Hermione sighed. "Well, the point is that Fleur was out there, trapped outside the dome, and so we told her to try having everyone do a Patronus and then seeing if she could bind them together - Patronum Redimio. I hoped it would create a sort of energy field outside the dome that was strong enough to push the Dementors towards the center - I wanted you to have a few feet of space that they couldn't get into, so that you could keep working -"
"That's exactly what happened," Ginny interrupted. "It was amazing - I wish you could have seen it, Hermione, it was beautiful."
"I was really surprised it went so well," Hermione said modestly. "I've never had an idea that quickly before. Of course it wasn't really me - it was Penny."
Ron nuzzled the side of her neck, apparently without regard for who was watching. "It was both of you," he mumbled.
Hermione went very pink and ducked her head.
"Harry." Sirius's hoarse, desperate voice silenced them all. "Watch."
They turned - they gasped - Harry tightened his arm around Ginny and she gripped his knees.
The sea was swallowing Azkaban.
There was a sucking sound like a vacuum, and the remainder of the island was devoured by a dark, whirling pit of water. When the last of the rock had been subsumed, the ocean shut on top of it. The sea gave a heave in the tide, sending waves toward the mainland - and then settled again, quite at peace. As if nothing had ever been there to begin with - no island, no prison, no torture. Nothing at all.
It was so quiet, here, and so wonderfully cool. Wind sifted through Harry's hair. When he was able to tear his eyes from the placid, oddly empty water, he cast a glance toward Sirius.
Sirius's expression was past Harry's comprehension. He could only look at it and hope that he would never, never understand it.
"The rain's stopping," Hermione whispered.
She was right. Harry looked up and watched as the dense clouds parted - barely - and allowed sunlight to penetrate the gloom. Huge, white-gold shafts of it fell through the gray sky and touched the sea like windows. Like gentle fingers, brushing the spot where Azkaban had been only moments ago. Harry imagined that the shafts were the same white-gold as the innocent soul he had watched escape. He imagined it was the same as the star that Adam had made - the star that had pulsed and breathed and made him think of Dumbledore.
The sunlight touched all of them where they hovered over the moving water, lighting the hollows of their tired faces and making them all seem to shine. Harry looked again at Sirius, whose eyes were fixed on the light. So were Remus's - and his expression was nearly an echo of Sirius's own, as if the destruction of Azkaban meant almost as much to him.
The fingers of light suddenly retracted. The clouds fused together and boiled for another storm; the sea rolled darkly, and the wind was picking up now, blowing cold on all of them. Sirius's eyes were still fixed on the absence of Azkaban, and though Harry could tell that no one else wanted to disturb him, it was time to go in.
"Sirius," he said gently, bringing his godfather's attention away from the empty sea. Sirius turned to look at him, nodded, then cast his eyes up into the darkening sky. He gave a long, contented sigh before bringing his chin down again.
"It's time, Padfoot," Remus said quietly. "Are you ready?"
Sirius laughed softly and threw his hair out of his face. "Yes, Moony. I am." He pulled back on the handles of his bike and turned it to shore, leaning well back in his seat so that the wind hit him fully in the face. Harry saw his black hair fly back as Remus looked on, smiling. And then, without further ado, Sirius led them all toward the shore with Remus by his side.
Everyone followed. The Aurors flew past, and then the Enforcers - Seamus Finnigan looked haggard but he managed a wave and a grin.
"Time to hit the pub!" he shouted.
"See you there!" Ron shouted back.
"Oh no you won't," Hermione said quietly, patting his leg. "We all need sleep."
Sleep. Harry watched the rest of the wizards and witches pass them. He watched as the prison raft sped inland over the water. And he realized just how much he wanted his bed. A bath, and his bed. He was cold and wet and… wanting something.
As if she knew it, Ginny rubbed his knees and leaned back against him. "Come on, Harry," she murmured. "Let's go home."
Home. He wasn't sure where that was, exactly, but he followed her urging and aimed for the shore. Beside Ron and Hermione they flew back to the dragon camp, and Harry felt almost as though he were playing Quidditch. He was in the sky - which was his favorite place to be. He was with his friends - who were the best people in the world to be around. And his work here was finished. He never had to come back here - never had to put on dragon riding gear again - never had to come near a Dementor, because there weren't any Dementors. None. Never again would they come close to him and thrust him into his terrible past. Never again would he hear his father. His mother.
Never.
Something hot and uncomfortable welled up, deep in his chest. Harry didn't know if he was relieved… or if he had been deprived of his only real - albeit terrible - connection to two people he loved, whom he had never known.
"Harry?" Ginny asked softly, turning so that no one else could hear her. "Are you all right?"
He couldn't answer. He wasn't all right. And the thing he was wanting wasn't anything that she could give him - he didn't know why. Lately Ginny had been the answer to everything - and if she wasn't, then Ron and Hermione were. But that wasn't the case either, and Harry wasn't sure what to make of the clenching sensation in his throat.
As they closed in on the shoreline, Harry saw the hospital raft being pulled up onto the sand. He watched as Narcissa Malfoy, her face a brittle mask, pushed mediwizards aside, stumbled onto the raft, and fell to her knees beside her son. Harry watched as George and Angelina walked off the raft with Fred between them. He saw Mrs. Weasley hand Leo to Penny and race down the shore towards them - saw her envelop Fred in her arms and rock him from side to side for a long time. Harry couldn't hear what she was saying, but he knew what she meant.
Mrs. Weasley moved onto George next, and then to Angelina. Bill landed immediately afterward with Fleur right beside him, and Mrs. Weasley launched herself at each of them in turn, managing to smooth Bill's ponytail and tug it over his shoulder as he pulled away. Harry was almost certain that she was telling him to cut it.
Charlie was the next one to touch down. His mother wrapped him in a massive hug, and then grabbed Cho into her arms and hugged her too, though Cho looked a bit embarrassed and unsure about where to put her hands.
Mr. Weasley landed, with Adam alongside him. Mrs. Weasley put her hands on her hips and opened her mouth so wide that, although Harry couldn't hear her, he knew that Adam most certainly could. And then Adam was drawn into a hug so fierce that Harry was sure that he couldn't breathe. And that he didn't mind.
When Mrs. Weasley let him go, she reached for her husband and he clasped her to his heart.
Harry couldn't tear his eyes away. It was a reunion - and they had only been apart for a few hours. But the relief and love on Mrs. Weasley's face spoke of terrible anxiety and awful pain - even if it had been imagined pain. She buried her face in the front of his robes and clutched him tight around his back, and Harry felt a funny surge of déjà vu. He could have sworn he'd seen people hold each other just like that before… but he couldn't remember whom. Or where.
Mrs. Weasley only let go of her husband when the rest of them landed on the rocks. She looked up with dim, tearful eyes as Ron and Hermione untangled themselves from their double broom. She collected Hermione into her arms first, gave her a swift kiss on the cheek, and then held her arms out to Ron, who walked into them and held her for a long time.
While Ron hugged his mother, Harry landed on the sand. His feet and Ginny's hit the ground at the same time and there was a soft bump between their bodies - Ginny steadied herself, bracing her hands on the broom handle. She swung her leg over the broom and stood beside Harry as he dismounted.
Thunder cracked. Harry glanced up at the sky, which had gone completely dark again. He gazed back out over the sea where there was… nothing left.
"Oh - Ginny -"
Harry turned back to the shore. Mrs. Weasley had opened her arms to Ginny, and Ginny all but fell into them. Harry watched as Mrs. Weasley smoothed Ginny's hair again and again. She kissed her daughter's temple and the crown of her head - she rubbed her back and then wrapped her arms around her and squeezed her close.
Harry wondered how Ginny felt. Really felt. Having that.
"Harry, dear - oh -"
Before he could think further, Mrs. Weasley had let go of Ginny and surrounded him with her arms. Harry felt her kiss his cheek. Heard her declare, in a weepy voice, that he was a wonderful, wonderful boy and that she loved him.
Loved him.
Harry reached out his arms and held onto the welcoming, all-encompassing warmth of Mrs. Weasley. He didn't mind that the sky had cracked open and that the rain was soaking him. He didn't mind that everyone he cared about was watching him.
Harry closed his eyes and clung.
~*~
