Chapter Thirty-Three

Victories

…And so, it had come to this.

Jennifer gazed around at everyone almost wistfully, focusing in on Severus who was standing right behind her, tossing his cloak onto a fallen monolith and meeting her gaze.

"I love you," Jennifer said.

"I love you," Severus said back without any hesitation, his expression unreadable. "Try not to die, will you?"

"I'll do my best," Jennifer said with a slight smile. "Is that all the advice you have for me?"

"You're smaller than he is, so I suggest you use that to your advantage. And don't be afraid to use whatever spell is necessary to get the job done. After all, there are no evil spells…"

"Only evil wizards," Jennifer finished, nodding to Severus as she turned to face her opponent, who seemed in many ways a lot more collected and calm, as if he had done this a million times before.

But Jennifer wouldn't let that rattle her this time. As she paced up to take her bow, she let her worries about the children affected by this, both hers and Danny, drain from her head, as well the folding mirror Malfoy had stolen and helped to nearly have her killed, of the time he had completely immobilized her in Knockturn… and of sending Lorcan… one by one those bits drifted away at her command until she was free of emotion, open only to what was happening at that very instant as Dumbledore counted off the paces.

Finally they turned, but Jennifer was ready for the quick attack Malfoy had planned and started her slide to one knee before the streak of light from the Cruciatus Curse went over her head.

"Reflexus poena!" Jennifer cast, hitting him in the legs with the Reflex curse. But even though each movement he took caused him excruciating pain, Lucius didn't buckle, using it to feed his angrer as he targeted her even as she changed to a more defensive stance.

"Mortify!" he snarled, a flash hitting her dead on before she could block, causing her head to spin. But instead of seeing her failures and weaknesses as she normally did when the spell was cast, she found her head spinning instead with the other times that spell had been cast on her… when Pettigrew nearly kidnapped her, the first and second time, both times someone having to bail her out, and when Lucius himself cast it, rendering her close to unconscious, until Sirius stepped in with…

"Defiance!" Jennifer cast on herself, standing up and feeling a deep hatred and anger building towards her opponent. Think clear now, she told herself, don't forget that Defiance will make you very angry if you don't control it. But part of her still wished to make his blood boil. What was to stop her? She had the power. She was in a duel, for star's sake. Why not?

"Abrumpera!" As the break spell barreled towards her, Jennifer knew better than to block it directly, throwing up her left arm instead and wincing in pain as she felt her bone crack. It was better than her neck she winced, and definitely better than losing her wand arm had she attempted to block it.

"Aetherfax!" she cast, and the spectators decided to scramble back as a small but very real shooting star descended towards her target. Lucius quickly dove between the monoliths and it crashed into them, causing the stone on top to come tumbling down inches away from him.

"If something like that hits the gate, we're all going to be in serious trouble," Arthur pointed out to Dumbledore, who only nodded grimly in response. Jennifer was forced to step up a bit, trying to get a better view of him behind the rubble. Just then a hole opened up underneath her and she found herself desperately and painfully hanging from her hands, pushing her legs up to keep herself from falling further down and scrambling out of the hole. It was then as she lay there that she realized how much of her energy was now waning and the pain was growing, which was causing her to slow down. Lucius must have noticed as well, for he appeared behind the rubble in plain sight, Jennifer looking up just as his wand aimed at her for a second shot.

"Accentuate!" All the pain she was feeling increased tenfold as the spell sensitized her nerves. Jennifer was only barely aware of the voices around her, screaming at her to get up. How she finally managed to get to her feet even she wasn't quite sure, focusing back on her target and the cravat around his neck. Suddenly it sprang to life, taking a snake-like appearance as it tried to strangle him, his face turning an unpleasant shade of red and then blue as he was finally able to wrench it off, buying Jennifer some much needed recovery time.

Lucius was without question furious now, and there was no mistaking the signs of death in his eyes as he turned to her. She knew the complex chant before he even finished it…Acidic Eulogy… a very painful death spell that disintegrated the victim from the inside out. Had there been any doubts before that Lucius meant to kill her, it was over now, and any hope that he might have killed her cleanly was over. Just like another battle fought long ago, she was given little choice of what was to come next… or was she? In that dark moment she suddenly found inspiration for something more lasting… something more sinister than death, an answer that she had been searching for without knowing it… an end.

In the blink of an instant all of those thoughts had entered her head, and as the spell came towards her, a sudden spray of sulfuric acid came out of her wand and met the spell head-on, filling the air with a foul odor as well as neutralizing the spell as it went off. But Jennifer had not wasted a moment, using the smoke that had developed from the spell as a diversion, coming up behind him with a loud "Expelliarmus!"

He had been too surprised to block and was knocked off his feet, his wand spinning out of range. Jennifer immediately pounced and began casting a death spell of her own, poised over him with her wand arm out. He stared defiantly up at her, but his expression turned to confusion when she stopped in the exact center of the Wasting Death Curse, the spell hanging in the air as if waiting for something. There was a strange hum in the otherwise silent air.

"I will not spare you," Jennifer said, her voice sounding odd even to her own ears, "But when the rest of this spell will truly fall is up to you and you alone. From now until your dying day you will live with the Curse of your borrowed time with me. If you, through any action, direct or indirect, or through any inaction, direct or indirect, cause or allow any harm to come to any member of my family… me, my husband, or any of my children, this blow will finish, your empire will crumble under the weight of your own malice, and you will be nothing in history but a blotted memory. Is that clear?" she said, staring at his defiant gaze. He was weighing his options, well aware of the others that had gathered around them. "If it isn't, I'll just kill you now," Jennifer warned, and no one could mistake her complete willingness to carry out that threat.

"Quite clear," Lucius said with unmasked hatred.

Jennifer nodded then, finishing the recitation of the spell, and a dark, black, oozing cloud seeped out of the wand, hitting Lucius in the cheek and going on to cover his entire form. She stepped back then, feeling very numb for what she had just done, when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning, Jennifer fell into Severus' arms, dropping her wand and bursting into tears of relief mixed with grief, the rest of them gathering around her and no one really seeing exactly when it was that Lucius left. Her mother had been avenged, and in a way she would have approved of; for Jennifer knew it had always been her family that she wanted protected the most. Now that it was, Jennifer couldn't help but feel a great weight lifted off her heart; it was the first time in eight years that Jennifer felt she could finally begin to move on.

"I've never seen anybody winning a Wizard's Duel cry before," Erik said with a smile at Dumbledore, who was gently dobbing his own eyes.

"It's the sulfur," Dumbledore explained. "Ask anyone," he added, for there were hardly any dry eyes among them.


Ghostly drinks and a quickly painted buffet table motif was brought into the Trophy Room, and hugs both ghostly and wizardly were passed around as Icarus and Essie gathered with their friends in a small but enthusiastic welcome home party.

Janus and Rachel were both there, and of course Caprica and Bedivere. Angela, Doug, Danny, Taylor, Essie, and Corey pulled up a table and brought up a parcel of treats for themselves. Even Francis Pyther accepted Icarus' invitation to come, and had set about making a memoir of the friends gathered there that night.

"I would like to make a toast to my heroine, Essie, for without her, I would not be hovering here tonight," Icarus said, giving her a very low bow. "I am forever in your debt." The rest of them clapped and toasted while Essie blushed pink, smiling at them.

"How exactly did you get out of that cellar you found Icarus in, anyhow?" Doug wanted to know.

"Magic," Essie said simply, taking a drink.

"Are you a Focus Caster too, then?" Taylor asked. Essie shook her head, becoming interested in a treacle tart. "Then how did you get out?"

"Magic," Essie said again, taking a bite.

"Now, now, every woman must have her secrets," Caprica chided them. "Founders know I had quite a few in my day."

"Ah yes, that is very true," Pyther agreed. "Although I have painted men from time to time that had a secret or two as well."

"Oh, and I'm really sorry to hear lost Whiskers again," Angela told Doug, earning a dirty look from Essie.

"He comes and goes a lot. I'm sure he'll turn up before we have to leave for the summer. I hope. I'd hate to think of leaving him here until next year," Doug said. Essie and Angela looked at each other thoughtfully.

"So, this is where you've gone to?" They all looked up to see McGonagall standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips. "Do you know the hour? And may I remind you that you have finals coming up next week?"

"Oh, it's my fault, Minerva. I have been gone for so long, and I wanted to see all of my friends…" Icarus protested.

"And Essie hasn't slept in twenty-four hours."

"I'll be all right, Professor McGonagall," Essie assured her. "At least can't we stay until Mister Pyther has finished his painting?"

"I can't paint at any other time of the day, after all," Pyther pointed out.

"Oh, very well! As long as you see the students to their rooms afterwards to make sure they actually get to them for a change," McGonagall said, frowning at them sternly as if wondering if they were truly capable of getting to their rooms. She went back to her rounds.

It wasn't very long after they had started eating again that Corey looked around with a peculiar look on his face.

"Do you ever get the odd feeling that you're missing something profound somewhere else?" Corey asked. Pyther looked up from his painting with unmistakable interest.

"Profound? In what way?" Pyther wanted to know.

"Well, I got this odd sense of déjà vu just now," Corey replied.

"This isn't the first time we've come up here for an impromptu party, Corey," Danny pointed out with a chuckle.

"This is the first time I've gotten to go, and if this is how upper classmen normally live, I think I can get used to it," Angela said, earning a chuckle from the others.

"Ah yes, curious isn't it, how the young only dream of growing older, and yet the old always seem to dream about when they were younger," said a voice that, at first, Corey thought was Dumbledore's. But when he looked up he saw right a way it wasn't Dumbledore at all. The Wizard had a long beard like his that was silvery white, but his eyes were an icier blue and there was a curious timelessness in his gaze, and he wore no glasses. He seemed darker than Dumbledore too, but Corey wasn't quite sure how... and yet... not necessarily in a bad way. It was as if the dark feeling was caused by terrible burdens and experiences that surrounded him; a haunted shadow that balanced out his glowing, mischievous smile.

If Icarus could have gotten any paler being a ghost, he would have as the Master of Enchantments stepped in the room. The ghost bowed so low that his nose might have touched the floor had he been standing on it. Janus and Rachel quickly followed suit with bows and curtseys of their own, and Caprica pushed her way into Bedivere's picture so she could see their guest better.

"Excuse me, sir, but are you allowed to be here?" Pyther asked nervously. "It's rather late for the school to be having guests, you understand."

"Yes, I understand, Francis, but I have very little time before I must head back to Tir Na Nog," he said, causing Pyther's jaw to drop.

"Tir Na Nog?" Corey repeated with surprise. "You live there?"

"For now, Corey," Merlin smiled at him. "But not forever, I think. So, Icarus, you were the other born with my curse of time."

"Yes, sir. I have often wondered how you've been able to manage it for so long," Icarus said humbly. "As I'm sure you noticed, I rather failed to live with it."

"I believe the key for me has always been not to take myself too seriously," Merlin said. "And you, my friend, have long taken everything much too seriously. But you and your friends here were able to get the Sentinels and the Seal back on firm ground, and for that I thank you. Now if you can only keep them safe until the next time I come around."

"That depends on if anyone else goes messing around and splitting up his remains," Janus grunted.

"Oh, don't worry, Janus, I've taken care of that personally," Francis reassured him. "Your vaults have all been specially warded and the room sealed so that only I or the Headmaster can open it. And I personally have no intention of going anywhere."

Merlin turned to look at the painter with an amused look on his face.

"Your half life has been kind to you, Francis… too kind for your own good. You were quite young when it happened, and perhaps that's part of the reason that you somehow managed to salvage your soul instead of turning into a corrupt creature like most of your kind," Merlin said.

"I believe it has been the love for my work, sir, that has kept me sane, and the need to explore new avenues of my talent," Francis said.

"Yes, Francis, but I'm not sure that will be enough forever," Merlin said. "One day, not so many years from now when the seedlings just planted become young, beautiful trees in their own right, you are going to learn that there are more rewarding types of love out there to be given and received. Mark my words, you'll be bitten by the love bug when you least expect it, and when that time comes, you are going to learn that it is a much more powerful bite than the one that bought you the six hundred years it gave you for the chance to meet her."

"Gosh, I hope I don't have to wait six hundred years," Corey said, wondering if he should rethink his strategy for waiting for his Cosmic match.

"Probably not, but I'm sure it'll seem like it," Merlin winked at him, and then turned to Rachel. "They will miss you, when you go."

"I am not going anywhere until I'm sure Icarus has finally found some peace," Rachel said stubbornly, Icarus taking her arm.

"There is no reason to be stubborn on my account," Icarus said.

"Yes, he can be stubborn enough for all of us," Caprica teased.

"As for you four, well done, I dare say you deserve a bit of a break after all of your hard work," he smiled up at the paintings, Icarus, and Janus.

"You sound as if you're saying goodbye, but we don't even know who you are yet," Essie said with exasperation. "And yet you seem to know all of us."

"You don't know me, Essie?" Merlin asked with amusement. "Oh, you know me better than you think you do. I have little doubt that a little of me still exists here. Not that it's really important, you know," he added thoughtfully. "You should learn about the past so you can learn from the past. You can look to the future to choose which paths you want to take. But the present… that's where all the real action is," Merlin winked. "And that is all the advice I have for any of you, except… well, Essie, tell that boy the truth before the summer starts. You can't keep him hanging by a string forever," Merlin said, walking back over to the door as Essie blushed again. As he was about to leave, he happened to chance a look at the painting, growing quite thoughtful.

"Goodness, Francis, you really have become a master of your art, haven't you?" he said with surprise. "Of course, you realize that painting is going to give you nothing but trouble now that you went and decided to put me in it."

"Well, yes sir, but I was thinking perhaps it might shake things up a bit and keep everyone on their toes," Francis said grinned mischievously. Merlin seemed amused by that, looking at the painting and back at Francis.

"I don't suppose you'd be interested in walking be back to the gate?" Merlin asked.

"Well, if you can wait until I have walked the students back to their rooms, I'd be honored," Pyther smiled, standing up. As they left, only the two ghosts and Bedivere noticed a soft snoring coming from above the door. Caprica had fallen fast asleep.

One by one or two by two, Merlin and Pyther walked them to their dorms, Corey and Doug the last two to climb in their beds. Corey stared sleeplessly up at the ceiling the moment he got settled.

"Doug, you don't think that old wizard could have been, well, Merlin or something? He did talk about a Tir Na Nog and a gate."

"Corey, go to sleep," Doug said. But Corey could hardly argue his point, because Doug began to snore moments later.