Chapter 7: Battle
Celeste had only been in Dumbledore's office a few times. She saw something new each time. Today she was admiring the intricate design on Fawkes' perch "Have you two contacted their families yet?" Dumbledore asked them as they sipped tea.
"No not yet," Celeste answered. "We wanted to make them stew about it for a few days. Really make them think about what they've done."
He gave her a long searching look and shook his head ruefully. "Hogwart's is certainly a much more interesting place with you here, Celeste Stargazer."
"Happy to be of service, Professor."
Her mirth was shattered by a deep chill that sent her to her knees.
"Celeste!" Remus and Dumbledore were instantly at her side. "What is it?" her husband asked worriedly.
"Dementors!"
"Here?" Dumbledore demanded.
"Just outside the grounds." She looked up into Dumbledore's eyes. "Voldemort is here."
Dumbledore sent out the call and roused the staff and sixth and seventh year students. Messages were sent to the Ministry and their allies in the Order. As one, everyone assembled across the field of battle with Dumbledore, Harry and Celeste taking the lead. A few of the students stood with Voldemort. Only Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy were stopped in the middle, subject to Voldemort's summons, but fighting it.
Weaving the magic, Celeste pulled them toward her. "Can you free me?" Snape asked desperately.
"Yes." she answered solemnly. "What about you, Malfoy? What do you want?"
"Well, well, well. The prodigal child returns," came her father's silken voice from across the field. "Come join me."
"What will it be, Malfoy?" she asked, ignoring the Dark Lord.
The pain in his eyes tore at her heart. "Please help me!"
She addressed Voldemort. "No, father. I will not. And neither will these two. She tore away Snape's and Malfoy's sleeves. "Harry," she said as she passed Malfoy off to him. Their free hands lit up in a golden light. Voldemort's expression was puzzled as they placed their hands over the now exposed Dark Marks. "Brace yourselves, gentlemen. This is really going to hurt." She and Harry grasped Snape's and Malfoy's arms as hard as they could. Both men managed to keep from crying out, but only just.
The release of magical energy reverberated back to Voldemort and sent him sprawling. The assembled Death Eaters began to fidget nervously.
Snape and Malfoy recovered quickly from their ordeal. Dumbledore ordered them to the back of the lines, but they refused to leave.
"So, my dear," Voldemort said, rising from the ground. "You have become powerful in my absence. I'm impressed."
"What? That parlor trick? I can do much more than that."
"We shall see." He gestured and the dementors advanced.
The night air became alive with shouts of "Expecto patronum!", but with Voldemort goading the dementors, the Patroni were ineffective. The Dark Lord's sinister laughter cut through the field, leaving Celeste feeling even more chilled.
Only Celeste and Harry had not acted against the dementors. Nodding to each other, they planted their feet, closed their eyes and spread their arms wide. "Patronus! I summon thee," they said in unison. The area around them brightened as a Patronus in the form of a giant phoenix arose from the ground at Celeste's feet while Harry's stag solidified in front of him. Celeste ignored the gasps on both sides and looked up into the great bird's eyes. "Vanquish them," she told it calmly, as Harry did the same with his stag.
The stag charged. The phoenix took off in a single wing beat. Together the two Patroni swept through the advancing dementors. The foul wretches screamed horribly, like something out of a thousand nightmares before they died. As the last of them exploded into dust, the phoenix let out a cry of triumph and returned to the earth from whence she came, followed closely by the stag.
Voldemort was the first to recover from the shock. Celeste stood defiantly as he raised his wand. He shouted an incantation, aimed directly at his daughter.
"Nooooo!" she heard Mina scream as the little house-elf leapt in front of her and took the brunt of the curse. Forgetting her father and the battle, Celeste went to her side.
"Mina?" she sobbed as her small friend lay still, gasping for her last few breaths.
"Is OK, mistress. It's my job to protect you."
Tears pouring down her cheeks, Celeste shifted her focus to see into the curse. It was already fading with Mina's life force, but, underneath, was an older, much more sinister curse. Through it, Celeste saw at last the real reason why Mina had been so utterly devoted to her. The shock of it threw her out of her trance.
Her grief intensified, Celeste spoke in a low voice. "Why didn't you tell me?" She buried her head in the creature's shoulder. "Mother!"
"It was…better…this way," Mina choked out weakly.
"I offered you freedom. Why didn't you take it?"
"The curse. It would have…killed me."
Celeste hugged her tightly.
"Mistress," Celeste winced in anguish to hear her mother address her so. "Do something for me."
Celeste gently laid her back on the ground. "Anything in my power."
"Let me…die free."
Unable to speak, Celeste removed her cloak and placed it carefully around the house-elf's shoulders. Mina smiled as she began to glow faintly, her body elongating, her features melting until she was the house-elf Mina no longer, but Wilhelmina Stargazer, her mother.
Wilhelmina placed a weak hand on Celeste's cheek. "My beautiful…little girl." Her breath had become louder and more labored. "I'm proud of you." Wilhelmina's hand fell away as she took her last breath. Celeste wept freely.
She looked up at a horrible, awful sound. Voldemort was laughing. Grief was replaced by rage as she recalled the day her father told her that he had murdered her mother. She remembered the gleam in his eye when he saw how it had hurt her.
Her rage swelled until the scene before her turned red. This loathsome, evil man who had hurt her over and over again was laughing at the death of her mother. His own wife! A cold wind, spurred by her rage engulfed the battlefield. For the first time in many years, she felt the urge to kill. Her mother's death demanded vengeance.
"Celeste?" She looked up to see Remus standing in front of her, his concern for her plainly visible.
"Mother?" Hermione took her place next to Remus, tears glistening on her cheeks.
Her husband and her daughter were standing before her, trying to show her the love they felt for her. The red haze began to fade from her vision. Love. She began to remember what that was. Love was why she had betrayed her father. Love was why she had hidden Hermione away in safety. Love was why she wore the gold ring on the third finger of her left hand, which was now hot against her cold flesh.
Slowly, she regained control over herself. The rage faded, and the love in her heart grew until she thought that her body could no longer hold it. At last, she was able to smile at her family and embrace them both. The wind died in the same moment that Celeste Stargazer finally threw off the last of the darkness imposed upon her by her father.
The maniacal laughter stopped. There was stunned silence on both sides. No one could believe what they were seeing. Celeste had begun to glow with a faint, but steadily growing white light. Voldemort was the first to be blinded by it. When she looked at him, she saw him begin to tremble.
For the first time, Voldemort's enemies saw him afraid. He knew that he could not hope to defeat a true Master, for that was precisely what his daughter had just become. He tried to Disapparate.
"It won't work, father. You wanted one last battle with Harry Potter. Now you have it." Harry stepped forward, wand at the ready.
"What about you?" he asked with only a slight tremor in his voice.
She sneered, echoing the expression he had so often given her as a child. "I will have the satisfaction of seeing my student fulfill his destiny using the lessons which I have taught him."
Celeste noticed some of his followers running away when he wasn't looking. "No" His fear now made plain, and his servants deserted en masse until only a few loyal followers remained. Defeat was inevitable.
"No!" he shouted. "No one can defeat Lord Voldemort!"
Celeste stepped back as Harry advanced on him.
Voldemort took a step back. Harry had begun to glow faintly himself, though not as strongly as Celeste. "Now we finish this," he said calmly to the Dark Lord.
Voldemort raised his wand, his hand shaking slightly…"Avada kedavra!"…and turned it on himself. A flash of green and Voldemort, the most evil wizard in a century was gone.