Chapter 17 – Gerárd Gamagliel

Snape raised a hand into the air and grabbed the wand Harry had thrown. Before Sybil Trelawney and Peter Pettigrew could even say 'ah', he managed to yell, "Expelliarmus!"

Both Trelawney's and Wormtail's wands flew to his hand, and he gave them to Sirius instantly, without even thinking about it.

"Átonos!" Sirius shouted to Trelawney and Wormtail, who fell fainted.

"Aeros" The two of them flew away from the rats' pool and they removed the others from the pool very quickly. Snape ran to Wormtail and Trelawney and conjured such strong ropes, so angrily, that they ended up looking like a couple of mummies.

Snape and Sirius did everything without talking to each other, only doing what they had to do, without taking notice of one another.

Snape looked at the unconscious bodies of Ron and Hermione, and, touching their chests with the tip of his wand, said "Enervate!"

He heard Sirius voice saying the same thing to Sheeba, and ran to a corner in the cave where Wormtail had put the stuff he had removed from his robes. He came back quickly with a vial in which there was some red liquid that looked like blood.

He put a drop onto Hermione's lips, and she looked at him without even saying a word. The same thing happened to Ron.

He stood up to see Sirius holding Sheeba's inert body, at the edge of the chasm. He was holding her very tightly and muttered, "Don't die, Sheeba, don't leave me."

Snape bent down beside her and held her wrist, and for the first time, he stared at Sirius, who looked back at him seriously, holding back the tears. Snape felt under her skin a weak pulsation, almost imperceptible, and said, "She's alive, Black. You know what to do."

Sirius looked at him again for a moment, and then pointed the wand at his own heart and said, "Vita Primessencia."

He held back a shout of pain while he felt his heart had stopped beating for a few seconds. Some heat left his chest and reached the surface of the wand as some faint rosy light, that was pulsating in the same rhythm as a heart. Sirius equilibrated the light on the tip of his wand, and, very carefully, he deposited it onto Sheeba's lips, and put his face close to hers. His lips touched her cold ones. He could feel the warmness of the light he had removed from his own heart on them. Without hesitating for even a single moment, he blew the light into her lips.

A soft light traveled all over Sheeba's body, and she shuddered. Snape, who was holding her wrist with his fingers, felt her pulse was returning, and looked at Sirius again. He didn't say a single word, but nodded, and could not help but smile. After hesitating for a moment, Sirius smiled back. She was going to survive.

"Sirius..." Sheeba opened her eyes, "Harry...?"

"Shhh. Be quiet... you're still very weak."

"Put a drop of this liquid onto her lips," said Snape, standing up and stepping away from the couple.

"Go, Sirius... go after Harry..."

Sirius remembered a promised he had made and called, "Snape, do me a favor, please. Stay with her."

"Where are you going?"

"I'll get Harry."

**

Harry had fallen into the gap holding Voldemort, who looked at him astonished. He was seizing his wand very tightly. Harry thought he was going to kill him, but Voldemort laughed out loud and said, "playing hero again, Potter? Did you think you were going to kill me in the fall? Did you think we were going to die together?"

Harry did not say anything, his scar suddenly stopped aching. Voldemort had Disapparated in the air and he was still falling. It was much easier than he had expected. He thought they were going to fall together and die, he did not know it was possible to Disapparate without touching the ground. Actually, he had thought of this when he fell off from his broomstick; when the garment Sheeba had given him prevented him from getting injured. But now, while he fell, he appraised the possibilities.

What if the garment had lost its powers, just as the Eye of the Tiger, that Hermione was wearing?

What if it just worked for brief falls? According to Professor Binns, the Gargoyle's Gap was about a mile and a half deep... has anybody jumped in a Bungee Jump with more than a mile and a half?

What if everything was wrong and he didn't ever stop falling?

The worst thing was that the fall seemed never to stop, and the anxiety was far worse than the fall itself. He was falling into the darkness, so fast he could barely see anything at the walls...

Suddenly, out of the blue, his body was rising in the air, rocking back and forth; up, down, up, down again, and when was Harry went really dizzy, he fell gently to the ground. And began to sink.

I cannot believe I've survived the fall just to die stuck down in some quicksand... maybe in ten thousand years, they will find my fossil? He thought, trying to remain sane while he felt his whole body being sucked by the quicksand.

Suddenly, there was light, and a sturdy and rocky hand pulled him by his robes. Harry could see a huge gargoyle's ugly grinning face.

The gargoyle placed him on the stone he was and asked, "is thou able to walk?"

"Yeah. I'm okay, I mean, all covered by mud, besides that I'm okay."

"Many are those who fell and ended up at here, but thou is the very first one to survive..."

"And what a fall."

"Is thou a wizard?"

Harry hesitated for a moment. The last thing he had heard about gargoyles/wizards relationship was not really stimulating, and, considering the gargoyle's size, if it thought they were enemies, Harry would have, doubtlessly, an disadvantage.

"Actually, I'm still a student, at Hogwarts."

"Hogwarts! So is Godric Gryffindor acquainted to thee?"

"No, that's impossible. He's been dead for over a thousand years...."

"Gerárd always forgets you wizards live less than we do... I have not introduced myself yet, pardon," the gargoyle stood up the most it could, for he had been on his knees until then. "My name is Gerárd Gamagliel, the gargoyle of the seventh Gamagliel house, from the Galdino clan, Gampstone, Grunjer and Grunhenwald," he said and bowed. "Could you introduce yourself to me?" He looked up with his little rocky eyes to Harry.

"Harry Potter," said Harry, offering his hand. "Nice to meet you."

The gargoyle shook his hand and asked, "does thou want to disengage thee from the product of the earth over thou?"

"What? Oh, the mud! Yeah, it would be nice to get myself rid of it..."

"So follow the one who speaks to thee."

They went on walking across the ravine the gap had developed into. It was really dark down there, but Gerárd had a torch of Sacred Fire on his hand, and according to what he told Harry, that fire was really ancient and would never burn out, and that was a really good thing, for there was not any other source of light there. It seemed to be at the bottom of a chasm under a starless night.

They got to a water well where Harry got himself washed. The water was really warm, and Harry remembered it could only be this way, for they were really deep under the Earth's surface. After he was completely clean, he asked Gérard, "how can I get out of here?"

"Leave?"

"Yeah, leave."

"Do thou possess a pair of wings?"

"No."

"A broomstick?"

"Not here."

"Is thou oriental and own a magic carpet?"

"Not either."

"Then you cannot leave. Gérard is really sorry, but then thou will have to be imprisoned here as Gérard."

Just then, Harry remembered gargoyles could fly. "Can't you fly?" He asked.

"Not actually," replied Gérard grimly. "Not on these wings," and he showed Harry a pair of wings, one of which was broken right on its middle.

Harry felt terribly sorry for Gérard, who did not seem even to have an idea of how much time he had spent inside that gap.

"Is Gérard allowed to ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"The war. We have lost it, haven't we?"

"Yeah. And what a defeat."

"Gérard thought so," said the gargoyle. "Gérard fell here at the time of the war... then spent over two hundred years calling for someone... and when Gérard saw nobody replied, thought the war had been lost. Did we lose many of our kind?"

"It's not personal, is it?"

"No, thou has Gérard's word."

"Everyone died. You're the last one of your kind."

Gérard sighed. "Gérard knew it would be that way. Gérard just wanted to confirm," he began to talk his grief off, speaking ill of his gargoyle relatives who were killed a thousand years before, telling the most boring stories about family bickerings between the Greenshills, Grunds, Gladstones,... Harry listened to everything, thinking how sad it should be to stay a thousand years away from the world, without anybody to talk with.

Harry thought he had seen something like a shooting star up there, but then wiped the thoughts away and thought it had just been his imagination. After some time, he saw the light again, and thought it was lowering to the bottom of the gap.

He paid more attention and then realized what the light really was and his heart started beating what seemed to be twice its usual speed. Harry was hearing an unmistakable sound along with the approximation of the light.

Gérard also noticed it and stood quiet, listening, and then, said, "Gérard thinks someone is coming to rescue Harry Potter."

In a matter of minutes, the huge silhouette bulked gradually and then Harry saw it, the giant, noisy and incredibly friendly Dogtorcycle.