Awakening
Chapter Fourteen: The Battle
By Stardust
A/N: There are a positively astonishing amount of Harry Potter fanfics entitled Awakening. I'm sorry for the confusion, especially since most of you are probably wondering what "awakening" has to do with anything. Well, reading the first twelve chapters I can see your point. But, last chapter a little bit, and certainly this chapter you should understand why this story is titled Awakening. Strange how I titled the story after the plot when I wasted twelve chapters writing Sirius and Angie... sigh Not that I mind writing Sirius and Angie, but it seems so pathetic to have drawn out a side plot just to get to the plot which will all be over in two chapters...mostly. OK, ok, enough of this. I could really go on all night. However, there are more urgent matters to contend with, one, I have to write a summary for the previous chapter, two, I have to write this chapter, and three, you, dear reader, I'm sure, are anxious to get all this author nonsense over with (that is if you're even reading this...which you probably aren't) and get to the story.
SUMMARY: Well, the good news is I didn't leave you at a terrible cliffhanger. Just a baby one. So, Chapter Thirteen, what do you suppose happened in chapter thirteen? Aha! That's right...Sirius isn't dead!! Of course not! If you know me at all you know I would have an awful time killing Sirius. Last chapter was an explanation chapter, really. Once Sirius arrives at the castle and everyone except Angie finds out he's OK they all gather for a meeting. Josh Thompson shows up, since Kirsten accuses him of kidnap and when he tries to hit Kirsten, Sirius stops him and informs him he is not Kirsten's father and then knocks him out. Sirius, Kirsten, Harry, Ron, and Hermione all use the spell Dumbledore put on Angie's necklace and they end up finding Arabella Figg who had been working as a double agent, for the Dark Lord and the Department of Mysteries. Sirius and Harry go back to Godric's Hollow and find the long-lost-talking- mirror-of-Salazar-Slytherin. The mirror tells them that Zirconia is their new opponent and she has been resurrected by the spell Kirsten read on December 17th. She is trying to re-acquire Kirsten's necklace which was the object of all her power. Zirconia was created by Salazar Slytherin and ultimately his destruction. In a bizarre twist it is discovered that Ginny Weasley was under the Imperius Curse and was the one who actually kidnapped Angie and brought her to Peter Pettigrew and Zirconia who were both working with Lord Voldemort. (I just realized how confusing and incredibly complicated that all is. Hopefully though, this chapter makes some of it much clearer. And if not, they will be discussing the whole situation in the next chapter.)
Next chapter will attempt to lighten up the situation and get away, a bit, from all the intense drama with a little insane humor.
So anyway, if you have any patience left, go ahead and read!
"Let me get this straight," Harry finally said after a long-winded, complicated explanation. "Peter Pettigrew, working in conjunction with the Dark Lord, put the Imperius Curse on Ginny, who in turn kidnapped the Professor and took her back to the Dark Lord's fortress?" His eyebrows were raised skeptically as his hands moved around in gestures at each person in question. "The reason for all this being," He continued, "The Dark Lord was after this age-old necklace, which was created by Salazar Slytherin and contained all the powers of the perfect robot-woman Slytherin created?" He looked around disbelievingly as the adults nodded, seemingly dazed themselves.
Harry shook his head. "And I thought I was going to have a normal year," he muttered. Ron shot his friend a sympathetic look.
"You're missing part of it!" Hermione said impatiently. "On December Seventeenth Ron and Kirsten reawakened the woman's spirit. And now this woman is working with the Dark Lord--one of the heirs of Slytherin-to get her necklace back. To her, nothing has changed. She still wants power, and that means her necklace.
"They got the wrong descendent however. It was Kirsten they needed, not Professor Star. And, of course, they used Ginny again, because she was so useful before," The sight of Ginny's pale, limp body lying on the floor of the Chamber of Secrets flashed in Harry's mind. He shuddered at the way Hermione tossed around the second year incident so carelessly.
"And, let's not forget about Arabella," Hermione continued, totally oblivious to Harry's thoughts. "No doubt she had a spell on her either from the Dark Lord or from the Ministry to keep her from divulging important secrets. We have to find a way to help her," Hermione said, casting her eyes upon the stone statue. She had particular sympathy for the woman, since Hermione had once been petrified herself.
"Never mind about that!" Sirius cut in angrily. He had had a wild past forty-eight hours and was at the end of his rope. "I've got to get Angie."
"Patience Sirius," Dumbledore reminded. "If you're going to do this, we're going to do it right. We must know what we're up against. Now, mirror," He said, politely, turning back to her. "How is it that Zirconia was contained the first time?"
"Oh dear," The mirror said hesitantly, "...this was the time when I was being moved around... I know that she got completely out of hand. Salazar could no longer control her even though he knew her weakness. Salazar was also gathering several strong enemies. His own partners started to turn against him.
"I remember one night there was a great argument. The four of them went at it and blew the top off the North Tower!
"Salazar was forced to admit his creation had turned rogue. The four of them set out to be rid of Zirconia for good. Of course, it was nearly too late at that point. Salazar was near ruin and the four were divided. Competition among all four of them caused their power to be greatly reduced. They didn't fully trust each other any more...
"When they went after her I know that they took their rings. They simply contained her, but Salazar was bitter about the whole affair. He still believed he could control her on his own. And he was upset that the other three were taking matters into their own hands.
"As a consequence they weren't able to kill her, just contain her. This was Salazar's fault. Part of the containment had to do with a complicated incantation that Salazar spoke.
"Any hope of reconciliation between the founders died when they found out Zirconia wasn't dead. After that, he knew they were coming for him. Salazar knew he couldn't beat all three of them on his own so he tried to use the Carbonated Crystal, which, as you know Headmaster, was originally created to protect Hogwarts. The power of the crystal was too strong for him though. Salazar was murdered in the fight and Rowena died the next day from wounds she suffered.
"Godric took the 'Z' from the necklace and the parchment with the incantation and stored them safely in his study. He thought surely no descendant of his would reawaken such an evil creature." Ron blushed scarlet, although Mirror wasn't trying to embarrass him.
"Godric started destroying things of Salazar's. He was careful to eliminate any documents surrounding Salazar's death. The complete details will always remain a mystery. Helga didn't think it was right, what he was doing, and the arguments continued. They all died sadly and on unfriendly terms. It was too bad that such brilliant witches and wizards should have been reduced to such petty arguments."
"Brilliant," Sirius cut in sarcastically. He really could have done without the history lesson. "The fact still remains that Angie is now being held by a traitorous rat, the Dark Lord, and some insane dead woman. Where?"
"You can't get there unless you're summoned," Draco said, startling Sirius who was not expecting an answer. "Or, you already know where it is and submit the blood of a death eater. Fortunately for you all I have the blood of my father running through my veins and I'm sure Professor Snape knows how to get to the fortress. Getting there won't be the difficulty, I hope you realize," Draco said, taking a small pocket knife out and preparing to slice his hand.
McGonagall, who had slipped out unnoticed, returned with a very pale looking Professor Snape. "Mr. Malfoy, what do you think you are doing?" Snape snapped, seeing the gleam of Draco's knife.
"They have to get to the fortress somehow," Draco said shortly.
"Absolutely not," He replied, looking around at the depressing scene. "No one is going to march up to the Dark Lord's castle and I will be damned if I'm the one to tell you how to get there."
"Listen to me," Sirius shouted, catching Snape by the collar and pushing him into the wall. "Maybe there isn't anything in this world as important to you as Angie is to me, but there but there is no way I'm going to let you stand between me and her. Tell me how to get there." Their faces were inches part, Sirius's twisted in fury, and Severus's in disgust.
"Gentlemen," Dumbledore said harshly, "This is counterproductive. Sirius, please release Professor Snape."
"Thank you, Headmaster," Snape said, glowering at Sirius. "Really, Black, do you own a toothbrush?"
"How can you be arguing about this?!" Kirsten exploded. Harry jumped. She'd been so silent many had forgotten she was even there. "My mother is possibly dead and all you can say is that my father has bad breath?!" Ron took her hand and whispered something that quieted her. Her eyes, however, remained fixed on Snape in a withering glare. She apparently had inherited her father's temper.
"Miss Star is quite correct," Dumbledore said severely, dividing a stern gaze between the two men. "I understand your apprehensions, Severus, but I'm afraid the only hope for Angela is an outright offensive. I'm asking you to do this as a member of the Order. If they succeed...perhaps there will be no more need for the Order at all."
"Your confidence in them is inexplicable and unfounded," Snape replied scathingly. Harry's eyes flashed. Sirius growled, but Sierra gripped his arm firmly to prevent any further confrontations.
"Are you going to tell us how to get there or not?" Sirius asked through gritted teeth, a vein in his neck looking dangerously close to bursting.
Snape looked down his crooked nose at Sirius, looking as if he had just eaten something particularly sour. His eyes moved to the teenagers. They were all poised, the tension running through them practically visible. The rings were lying on a table next to the mirror. The stage was set, the show was about to begin.
Dumbledore's keen blue eyes were penetrating into Snape. He opened his mouth to firmly deny any responsibility in this endeavor, when his gaze shifted once again.
Draco was not looking at him. His hand was still loosely gripping the knife but his eyes were glued to Ginny Weasley's unmoving form. Snape sighed.
"First you must apparate to London. That's the easy part, naturally. Have you ever heard of a village by the name of Devil's Dune?"
Angie could feel cold stone on her cheek and a pounding headache in her head. A wave of panic suddenly washed over her, her eyes flew open and she sat up in the dismal stone cell. Her panic momentarily subsided as she realized she did not have a hangover-which was the original cause of her panic-but it resurged as the unbelievable recent events began to reform themselves in her mind.
The newspaper headline, Ginny coming to the door, her wand out...Ginny! She'd been under the Imperius Curse, there was no mistaking the deadness in her eyes. But...why?
Angie felt extremely nauseous and she had a feeling it didn't have anything to do with the fact that she was pregnant. Who knew how long she'd been here? Who knew what the rest of the world was doing...
A vision of Kirsten and all her shining qualities filled her vision. Angie found herself staring into her brown eyes...Sirius's brown eyes. A chill came over her and for a second Angie thought she was going to be sick.
She allowed a few moments to pass and then she felt her forehead and tentatively surveyed her depressing surroundings. She was wand-less, of course. "Come on, Lily," She said out loud, her eyes rolling heavenward. "How do I get out of this?" Angie didn't really know why she was speaking to Lily. She couldn't remember having done it before. But somehow, it just seemed like the right thing to do...Perhaps she was sicker than she originally thought.
She barely had time enough to think before the heavy door cracked open a bit and in scuttled a rat. Literally.
The door slammed shut behind it, and then, just like that, to her utter horror, the rat transformed. There was no mistaking the man that now stood before her, she'd known him so well...once.
She'd heard Sirius and Remus and Harry and everyone tell her the story that Peter Pettigrew was really still alive, how he cut off his finger, but she had never actually seen him. And now...it was just too much...her lungs filled with air and she screamed as loud as she could.
A quick spell closed the wound in Draco's hand. There was not so much as a scar to testify to his part in the scheme. The room suddenly seemed very empty. Shallow breathing was the only sound. Draco had never felt so useless and purposeless in his entire life.
Draco's eyes returned to Ginny. She was still deathly pale, but her breathing was regular and Madame Pomfrey (who had been allowed back in the hospital wing just long enough to examine her, before being ushered out again by a polite but firm Dumbledore) assured him that she would live. He felt silly now, remembering his panic and his assurance that she was dead.
Not only was he useless, he was brainless too. The day was a real winner for Draco Malfoy.
Ginny was unconscious and the mirror, human-like though it was, was hardly in better shape. She had requested that Dumbledore recover her in order to think properly. The world, she confided, was highly distracting. So it was just him, his comatose girlfriend, a covered mirror, and Professor McGonagall, who was sitting on the other end of the Hospital Wing, a mug of coffee she hadn't touched in one hand and the newspaper spread open on Madame Pomfrey's desk. Draco sighed. Utter pointlessness.
He had not wanted to stay behind. Potter, Weasley, Granger, and Star had, naturally, been allowed to get in on the action. Black too. It wasn't that Draco didn't want to stay behind with Ginny-he certainly had no desire for her to wake (or, a nasty voice in his head whispered, never wake) in his absence, but he felt he had as much right to battle the Dark Lord as the others. Maybe he wasn't a Founder's heir (how did GRANGER reach that status anyway? She was a bloody Mud-a bloody word Ginny didn't approve of) however, Voldemort hadn't made HIS life very easy. His parents weren't dead, but they weren't really parents either. If it wasn't for him they would never have known where to go in the first place.
It was silly to think about though. Four teenagers and an escaped convict heading off to an impenetrable fortress to bring down the most feared wizard in all of history. (Draco blinked and let that impossible thought sink in before he continued on with his train of thought.) They could have easily dispatched the entire IAA to converge onto the fortress at once. It certainly seemed more logical to him that way.
Of course, if they had really wanted an all-out offensive on Lord Voldemort the Ministry or the International Auror Association could have orchestrated such a plan of attack prior to this. Draco knew that nothing like that would ever happen.
He knew the only reason Potter, Granger, Weasley, Star, and Black were on their way to do just that was because they were incredibly foolish and seemingly fearless. Any other right-minded wizard in the world would just assume being eaten by a dragon would be less painful than dueling with the Dark Lord. (And who knew what other nightmares were waiting for them at his fortress? God, it wasn't like a bed and breakfast in the Loire valley!)
Ginny stirred slightly, and Draco's attention was refocused to her. There really was no point in wishing he could join them-Dumbledore had been very adamant about him remaining behind. (Even though he had just presented an impressive case against going to face the Dark Lord, he assumed he was pretty hard headed himself because he still couldn't get the thought out of his head. He wanted to be where the action was. He wanted to settle an old score with Voldemort as well. Oh well...) In the meantime he would just have to sit here impatiently with a very unresponsive Ginny and hope Potter was kicking the hell out of that bastard.
Sierra fought against every instinctive fiber in her being as she watched them set off at a rapid pace across the grounds. They were armed with expert advice, mysterious rings, a diamond necklace and very little else, and she was letting them go into the wicked unknown. Four teenagers and Sirius, who was practically a teenager himself! It wasn't a good feeling she had just then.
And yet, even as she wished with all her might that they didn't have to go she knew there were no other options. She knew she was surrounded by very sane, responsible adults who had all the same misgivings as her just then, but even still, letting them go to face unimaginable evils was the hardest thing she ever had to do. Her daughter, Lily and James' son, Sirius and Angie's daughter, and Ron, the kid who always made her laugh at dueling club...(Thinking of all of Ron's mishaps wasn't the most comforting thing to think of at that moment...) There they went...possibly forever.
As they disappeared she kept thinking of all those who never came back from their encounters with the Dark Lord and she thought she might lose her resolve. Even the thought that Harry had survived several encounters with the Dark Lord was no consolation especially since Harry didn't always come back with live companions.
Nobody moved--not even Dumbledore--even though the small group had long passed out of sight and into the realm of evil. The whole situation was absolutely ludicrous. Four teenagers! They were kids who hadn't even graduated, they hadn't even had the chance to begin their lives and now they may never have that chance. As Sierra's mind-set grew more and more depressing she could feel her resolve melting.
"Oh God!" She breathed, a hand going to her mouth as she started to cry. She turned and ran from the steps leaving the others feeling even more guilty then they already were.
Remus watched her go and felt her pain, frustration, agony. He turned to the others and shook his head. "Azkaban," He said solemnly, "That's where we're all headed for what we've done. Azkaban," He repeated. Then, he turned and slowly walked toward his office to worry and feel mounting guilt as the hours passed.
"Just to let you all know," Ron said, after they had left Hogwarts grounds. "Anything in my room is up for grabs, but I absolutely insist upon being buried with my HeadBoy badge."
"Oh really Ron!" Hermione practically shouted. "This is not the time for jokes."
"Nonsense," Sirius replied. "It's the perfect opportunity for jokes: Two hydrogen atoms meet, one says 'I lost an electron', the other asks 'Are you sure?' and the first replies, 'I'm positive'." Harry burst into laughter; at least he thought it was funny.
"For crying out loud, Sirius!" Hermione cried. "That was pathetic."
"Pathetic!? I thought it was rather funny myself." He retorted and Hermione rolled her eyes.
"I don't get it," Ron said, a blank look on his face.
"It's two hydrogen atoms, Ron--" Harry began to explain, but was very quickly interrupted.
"Harry! I forbid you to explain," Hermione shouted, rather hotly.
"All right, already!" Harry shouted back.
"Children!" Sirius reminded sharply as he came to an abrupt halt. "Hermione, are you ready?" She took a deep and steadying breath and then nodded.
"I can't believe we're doing this," She muttered as she prepared to make the portkey. "This is so illegal. Not to mention the fact that I've never actually done this before." Even the fact that Dumbledore had explained explicitly how to perform the spell didn't do much to relieve the considerable amount of stress she was experiencing at that particular moment. (And it would only get worse, she was soon to find.)
"No pressure," Ron said, with a grin. Hermione, clearly the most affected of the bunch, shot Ron a withering look.
"You OK?" Sirius asked his daughter, giving her a little nudge. She had been perfectly silent the entire time.
"I hope Mom is OK," She replied in a fearful whisper her eyes far away.
"Me too," Sirius replied, solemnly.
"Everyone holding on?" Hermione asked, quickly glancing around to make sure. "I hope you've all found your inner-peace because here we go!"
"Inner-peace. Nice," Sirius said, once they were all on their feet again. "We need to get far away from here as quickly as possible. Ministry officials will be swooping in from all directions in a minute...illegal portkeys set off gigantic alarm bells." As I have good cause to know... Sirius thought to himself. "Let's go," He said aloud, setting the pace and the direction.
"I feel like we should be singing 'We're off to see the wizard' or something..." Ron muttered.
"Sorry to disappoint you Ron," Harry replied. "But with the Dark Lord, there's no man behind the curtain." Though the statement was a true one, Harry was trying to keep the conversation light.
"Yeah, and I don't suppose Zirconia will melt if we throw water on her," Ron said, inexplicably disappointed.
"Hey," Sirius interrupted. "You could always try...Hermione, you still have Draco's blood?" Sirius asked, turning to her. The absurdity of the statement only occurred to Ron who quickly shook it off.
"Yes," She said, pulling out the little vial.
"It's nearly time," Sirius told her. With those depressing words the group fell silent, each dissolving into their own realm of thoughts. Kirsten found Ron's hand and gripped it like death. An understanding passed between their linked hands. No words were needed, just that simple gesture. For some reason, that obscure moment and chaste gesture imprinted itself in Ron's mind...when he first kissed Kirsten Star he had wanted to shut her up. Their first snog session was practically a joke. But when she gripped his hands, he knew that what they had was in no way a joke-it was forever. If they made it through just this day, it would be forever.
Harry's mouth set itself into a determined line and mentally he tried to brace himself for another show down with the Dark Lord. Hermione tensed all her muscles and did everything she could think of to block the image of her parents, freshly murdered, and the chilling Dark Mark.
Sirius was muttering under his breath and Hermione leaned a little closer, trying to hear him. "James, forgive me for doing this to Harry. Get us out of this..." Hermione stepped away and gripped her wand tighter. She was filled with a new determination to bring justice to an evil villain who had murdered her parents, Harry's parents, ruined Sirius's life and thousands of others.
"Everybody hold on a minute," Sirius said, stopping and turning to face the four of them. He seemed to have something to say but couldn't make the words come. "If anything happened to any of you..." He started to say uncomfortably.
"Sirius," Hermione cut in. "All of us understand what we're doing just as clearly as you do and there is no way you're going to talk us out of anything." The others nodded firmly at him. Ron gave Kirsten's hand a reassuring squeeze and fixed Sirius with an unwavering gaze.
"I know..." Sirius said, in a slightly dejected tone. "Ron, your mother is going to personally gut me and have me for dinner when she finds out about this..." Harry experienced a rather strange visual at that moment and physically shook his head to rid himself of it.
"Don't worry about her. She'll be so happy that everything worked out all right in the end she'll just cry and hug everyone," Ron replied.
"Right," Harry agreed, glad to focus on something other than Mrs. Weasley gutting Sirius. "So, all we have to do is make sure we come out of this alive and unscathed."
"Exactly," Sirius replied with a half grin.
"No pressure," Hermione said, turning a grin upon Ron.
Slowly, Sirius stepped aside and they all saw the sign they had both been looking for and dreading. It was exactly as Snape said it would be. Eerily, the sky seemed to darken overhead as five pairs of eyes focused on the creepy scorched dark mark in the rock face before them.
Sirius nodded to Hermione who shakily stepped up to it and pulled out the small vial. At this point no one was really sure what to expect. Their wands were out at the ready, they all stood close together, yet poised. Their pulses raced, their blood pressure spiked. Harry could hear his heart thundering in his ears as he watched Hermione in slow motion raise the vial and slowly tip it over.
The crimson blood fell as if in slow motion and seeped right into the stone, rather than splashing about. Instantly the Dark Mark glowed and the rock melted away and began reshaping itself into an enormous stone facade in front of them. Hermione dropped the vial in surprise and took a step back, closer to her companions.
In less than ten seconds they were standing in front of a gaping doorway, wreathed in eerie green light. Sirius knew he couldn't hesitate long or else he might never act, and either would the others. "It's now or never," Sirius breathed, closing his eyes and stepping over the threshold.
With considerable irritation, Nikki opened her left eye and glared at the open window. The window in question faced west, and judging by the angle of the sun, which was falling directly into her eyes, it was late afternoon. She had no intentions of waking that early, not after the party last night. Success is hard on the liver, as she had once confided in one of her employees.
She was about to close her eyes and return to slumber when her mind realized something was amiss. Everyone was gone.
Sitting up in sudden consternation, Nikki felt her head swim. She couldn't remember how much she had had to drink...she couldn't remember most of the night after the job had been pulled off, really. Clutching her pounding forehead she swung her feet off of the bed and stood, then swayed. It must have been a lot of alcohol...perhaps she'd gotten into one of those stupid competitions with the twins over shots of firewhiskey...
She took three staggering steps toward the kitchenette where the aspirin was before she heard voices. She supposed they were really at a conversational level, but to her poor head they might as well have been screams or dragon cries. She groaned.
She was expecting a joking remark from one of the Weasleys, or a sarcastic remark from Sirius, or an expression of disapproval from Sierra. She was greeted with none of these familiar reactions. Instead George Weasley, the only person left in her apartment, jumped up and handed her a glass of something that smelled vile. She had rarely seen his face so somber.
"Drink this," he urged, "It's a hangover cure."
"I'd prefer a sleeping potion," she informed him scathingly, but drank it anyway. It tasted almost as badly as it smelled. Her head cleared instantly and the pounding ceased. Magical stuff, she thought...literally, she added after a moment.
"Alright?" he asked after she coughed down the potion.
"I'm fine," she informed him haughtily, "What is YOUR problem? Why no jokes? Why the absolute need for my sobriety?"
"Nikki, Sirius went to Hogwarts," he said without preamble.
"WHAT?!" she demanded, stomping her foot. "That damn foolish man! What was he thinking?! He-"
"We know," he assured her, "But that's not the worst of it."
"What's the worst of it?" she demanded frantically, "Where is everybody? What happened?"
"Sit down," he said gently, leading her to the nearest chair. "You remember Angela Star?"
"I've never met her, but I've certainly heard enough about her!" Nikki replied, "I've never seen Sirius get so worked up over a woman. And didn't Remus say they were married or something equally ridiculous?"
"Yes," George replied calmly. He seemed to have developed a kind of detached calmness that Nikki found extremely disconcerting. The twins were never detached.
"George, what is going on here?" she demanded, starting to panic.
"She's been kidnapped," he explained. Nikki sucked in a sudden breath.
"What?" she whispered, "By who?"
"My sister, actually," he replied in deceptively calm tones, "Under Imperious of course. Quite a nasty business."
"Mon Dieu..." Nikki muttered, her hand on her throat. How could things have gone wrong so quickly? "So what's he going to do?"
"Done, you mean," George replied dryly. "He took Harry to Godric's Hollow."
"Godric's Hollow? What's that? He told Harry he was alive?!"
"He had to," George said, still calm, "Godric's Hollow was where Lily and James Potter were killed. He was hoping to get some clues there, something about a mirror. I don't know all the details. Bill sent me back here to make sure you didn't have a fit when you woke up alone. I've gotten about six owls since then and all my news is second hand."
"So now what?" Nikki asked, unsure of how to respond.
"I don't know," he answered. There was a moment of silence. Nikki's mind was a whirlwind of confusion, trying to sort out who knew what and why and how they would react and what the HELL was going on in Scotland anyway?
The uncomfortable silence was broken by an owl (the seventh, if George was to be believed) swooping in through the open north window. It looked exhausted and hooted indignantly as it dropped a letter on George's lap. He reached out to pet the owl, but it turned and flapped to Nikki's bed, settling down comfortably in the pillow. Nikki cringed and George sighed, opening the letter and shredding the envelope to bits in the process. As he read it Nikki watched his face grow longer.
"Qu'est-ce que c'est?" she demanded urgently, using her native tongue in her anxiety "What's going on?"
"They've gone to You-Know-Who's fortress," George replied in a strangled voice.
"WHAT?!" Nikki cried, "Who's they?"
"All of them," George replied, "Sirius, Harry, Hermione, that Kirsten girl, and...and Ron."
"What's going to happen to them?" she asked, unable to comprehend what she was hearing.
"I don't know," George said, his eyes wide with disbelief as they stared at the parchment in his hand, "I really don't know."
Sirius opened his eyes in surprise to find the others had joined him across the threshold. Everything had remained unchanged. Their wasn't a sound to be heard, or a soul in sight. That feeling was the worst. Sirius felt as if millions of eyes were upon him. The calm before the storm. He felt as if they were only seconds away from a terrible ambush.
Unfortunately, his instincts didn't fail him. The ground started to vibrate behind them. The four whipped around to see a great serpent rising out of the ground in the courtyard in front of the castle. There hadn't even been time to think.
"Get out of here Sirius!" Harry shouted.
"Are you crazy!?"
"We have the rings. Get away while you can. Find the Professor and we'll cover you," Hermione shouted to him.
"I'm not leaving you!" Sirius insisted.
"The four of us can't split up. We've got the rings. You've got the only chance of finding the Professor. Now get going!" Ron shouted, shoving Sirius deeper into the castle.
"Go...Dad," Kirsten said, softly, but meaningfully. "You know you have to."
"Kirsten..."
"What the hell are you waiting for!?" Harry screamed, shooting a vile looking jet of light at the writhing creature in front of them.
Sirius took a last look at them all, especially his daughter-no offense to Harry or anything--and then set off in the other direction at a run.
Angie lay on her cell floor looking through her veil of tears and feeling utterly hopeless. Gingerly, she felt her cheek. When Pettigrew came into her cell earlier, after she'd recovered from the initial shock, all her rage came out at once. He was the man responsible for all of her sorrows. Sirius would still be alive if it wasn't for him.
She had started yelling about Lily and James and said every nasty thing she could think of. Apparently Pettigrew wasn't too keen on the subject of Lily, or James, or Harry, or Sirius. His face had twisted in fury and he raked his nasty fingernails across her cheek. At least the bleeding had finally stopped.
He hadn't stayed for a reunion after that. He only grabbed her throat, frowned and then left her cell leaving her utterly alone. The encounter had been odd in her opinion. She couldn't really come up with a reason for it. Nor could she understand why Ginny Weasley had been involved in the affair. And, of course, there was the basic question, why had she been kidnapped in the first place.
Sirius was dead. (As distracting and horribly depressing as that thought was, it was true.) What could Peter Pettigrew possibly want with her? Her only thought was that he was trying to eliminate all of his old friends. First Lily and James, then Sirius, now her...next Remus? Still it didn't seem like an entirely believable situation. She prayed that Kirsten was still OK and that Harry and all the others were still safe.
She wondered how Kirsten was dealing with the news of Sirius' death. She doubted there had been enough time for Kirsten to really develop a love for Sirius, but she would surely have some feelings about his death. She hoped Ron would take good care of her. He was a good kid, she decided. (And why not, without much else to do, why not make her peace with her daughter's boyfriend? If it turned out she made it through all this, she could always pretend like the thought had never occurred to her.)
She wiped her eyes and examined the ring that was still on her thumb. Sirius had put it there so long ago... She began to cry again, and fell back against the wall. He was gone forever...again... Her hand came to rest on her stomach and she cried some more. He had died not knowing...
Her cell was cool and she felt a chill come over her. She could feel cool air on her cheek and it reminded her of a night not all that long ago...
The air was cold and dry, and oddly calming to her that night. The half- moon created a small amount of light which reflected off the snow and ice that covered the lake and the ground.
She could remember feeling so scared and unsure about everything. She was afraid of revisiting painful memories. She was afraid that she wasn't doing the right thing for Kirsten, moving her and all. And she was painfully unsure about her and Sirius.
And then it hit her-a snowball-square in the shoulder.
"What the hell!?" She cried, as another snowball came whizzing through the air. Sirius laughed loudly, suddenly appearing as he uncloaked himself.
"You OK?" He asked, walking toward her.
"Yes," She replied, a slight edge to her voice. At this point, she still hadn't told him about Kirsten and was at constant war with herself. Should she tell him? Should she finish what should have been done seventeen years earlier?
"A knut for your thoughts," He had said, watching her.
"Is that all their worth?" She replied, raising an eyebrow.
"I dunno, you'll have to tell me your thoughts first."
"Maybe later," She replied, her eyes dropping.
"Think fast!" Sirius exclaimed, and instinctively, Angie ducked. This caused the snowball that was coming at Angie from behind to hit Sirius square in the face. Angie doubled up with uncontrollable laughter.
"Foiled by my own snowball..." Sirius said, dramatically falling backwards into the snow bank making a soft "thump".
"It's a clear night, you can see all the stars. Do you know what that means?" Sirius asked.
"You're going to show me where you are?" Angie tried; remembering that Sirius used to waste time trying to show everyone which star was Sirius.
"Nope, couldn't tell you anyway," He said, rising to his feet and brushing off his legs. "It's a good night to dance under the stars," He said taking her hands and leading her off.
The snow was covered in a thin sheet of ice that held their weight nicely but when Sirius stepped onto a slight slope his boot slid and the two of them toppled into the snow. "I see you haven't lost your touch," Angie remarked sarcastically as she rolled onto her back.
"Just checking to see if you were awake," He replied with a laugh.
"Yes, well, I assure you I am fully awake now, thank you," She said, standing up and starting to brush herself off. Her eyes fell upon the silvery invisibility cloak and then to Hagrid's hut. The windows were dark...but even still.
"Sirius, you ought not be out here like this. Someone could easily see you."
"I suppose that's true," He said starting to stand up but slipping and falling ungracefully back into the snow. Angie was laughing at him. "Yes, I'm sure this is terribly funny to you but I wouldn't mind a little help here...if it's not too much trouble," He carried on as he tried several times to get up, but each time slipped and fell.
"Do stop being an idiot and get up," Angie said, reaching for his hand and pulling him to his feet. He stood next to her, about a head taller than she was because he was standing on the snow the drift.
She reached up to wipe some snow off him and their eyes locked. His warm breath washed over her face. They were getting closer...closer...
Then, quite suddenly, they lay in a heap on the snow...
Angie sighed...that was the story of their relationship. They were always on the brink, and she couldn't understand why.
Somewhere through all the pain and confusion her mind developed a clarity and a determination. Aside from her cheek, she was unharmed and healthy enough. She stopped crying and realized that she had to fight. She had to stay alive to have Sirius' baby.
She needed to concentrate. She had already made a thorough examination of the cell and there was no way of breaking out of it without her wand. In other words, there was really nothing she could do as far as escaping. She needed to stop crying and get a grip! She needed to keep her wits about her and her mind alert so she would be ready to break free when (and if, a nasty voice in her mind added) the opportunity presented itself.
Despite all her efforts to keep the memories at bay, in the loneliness of the cell Sirius' face would not leave her in peace. Finally she stopped fighting and let her mind slip back into the memories. The experience was bittersweet. She recalled all their adventures as teenagers, before Kirsten or Josh or Voldemort. Somehow, that was less painful. Eventually, however, the last six months started playing through her mind. She never knew one could laugh and sob at the same time.
Somehow the night he had made her sing worked it's way into her memory. She remembered the feeling she had when she sang that night. She had felt young again, and somehow stronger. That's what she needed-the foolhardy, not entirely intelligent bravery of youth. That's what she needed to escape with her baby.
She allowed the memory to fill her thoughts. It made the cell less cold. She could almost feel Sirius sitting beside her. With effort she swallowed her tears and forced herself to remember how happy she was in that moment. Without thinking about it very much, she found herself singing once again. The words came easy to her now, and though her throat was dry she began to sing as beautifully as she had ever done.
"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound..."
"Stop!" Harry instructed. It was quite obvious that their curses and hexes were doing no good. The great serpent continued to come out of the ground and the air was getting heavy with dust.
As they were tensely waiting for the dust to clear Kirsten pulled out her necklace and fiddled with it. It always calmed her down and made her feel better. She knew she needed to be mentally alert for whatever was about to come next. The others had a tight grip on their wands and dug their heels in for the battle to come.
"So we meet again, do we?" A snake-like voice came from the thinning dust. In the next second a man, not a giant serpent was revealed to them. And even though Harry was the only one to ever see Voldemort before the others had absolutely no trouble in identifying He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," Ron whispered under his breath and Harry could feel his spirits lift ever so slightly. Ron apparently had an unshakable sense of humor in the face of great evil and swiftly coming death. It was kind of nice to know.
"The rings," Hermione whispered to the others. At least she was still paying attention to the threat at hand. Biting his lip, Harry took his out and wondered just how he was supposed to put it on as he had previously experienced difficulty in this particular endeavor.
Kirsten stood rather transfixed as she studied Lord Voldemort. He didn't hardly look human and she was having a tough time deciding whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. He was saying something about four against one, like a typical villain. And, of course, he appeared nonchalant as hell.
This particular point about villains really ticked her off. One would suppose they would have learned to be all business and less chit-chat. How many books and stories and all sorts of mass media had shown Good triumphing because of a stupid villain who wasted time being relaxed and talking? These thoughts, however, did very little to assure her about their fate. After all, evil was evil and it had taken a lot of lives.
Just because Voldemort appeared a little stereotypical to her at the current time meant nothing about his real power. She had grown up in America, far away from the hype of You-Know-Who, but her parents lived it and talk of it made her hair stand on end. And now, here she was, about to face the most feared villain in all of Europe for the past twenty-five or so years. It wasn't your typical everyday scenario and Kirsten marveled that she hadn't yet passed out. She never really fancied herself as brave- she enjoyed playing the damsel in distress far too much.
Harry, Hermione, and Ron were shocked and surprised when Kirsten suddenly flicked her wand and set a nasty jet of light directly at Voldemort-who was slightly surprised himself.
And the battle had begun.
Whatever talk there had been was replaced by full fight. Ron, in the heat of battle, recalled his fantastic failures and antics during Dueling Club meetings and wished he had paid a bit more attention. His spells, he knew, were doing very little as he was simply saying the first thing that came to mind.
He chanced a glance down at his ring and wondered if there was some incantation they were all supposed to say to turn them on...or something. He glanced over at the others and realized that Harry was dangerously preoccupied with putting his ring on...for some reason he didn't seem to be able to accomplish the task.
"Put it on, Harry!" Hermione shouted in frustration, not taking her eyes off of the task at hand.
"I don't think he can!" Ron shouted, answering for Harry. And then, with a widening of the eyes just before the flash of light hit, he realized that he was still in the midst of a battle.
"RON!!" Kirsten shouted, flinging herself down beside his rigid form. The terrible sight of his body falling had immediately ripped her from battle. All other thoughts flew from her head as she feared the worst.
Voldemort had stopped his offensive and was casually dodging Hermione's attempts to distract him. She stopped in surprise when she realized he was talking to Harry in Parseltongue-and Harry was talking back.
Watching and hearing the scene was unreal. The sound was like nothing else naturally heard and knowing that the most evil man in all of Europe and Harry Potter-- the Boy Who Lived, the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain, her very close friend-were conversing in a language that only the two of them knew caused chills to travel up and down Hermione's spine. Who knew what evil words they were speaking...
In awe she watched as the ring of Salazar Slytherin floated out of Harry's hand and into the space between him and Salazar's other heir. And suddenly, time restarted and reality came crashing down upon her. All of a sudden, she could hear Kirsten screaming and Harry shouting, causing an enormous light to erupt from his wand.
Voldemort had to do some fancy wand work to avoid that one and the ring fell exactly halfway in between the two of them. Harry started to dash forward but had to leap back out of the way as light from Voldemort's wand threatened his safety. The Dark Lord wore a twisted expression that clearly represented the ugliness inside of him.
Reluctantly, Hermione tore herself away from that scene and focused her attention on Ron. Kirsten was no help, as was to be expected in a situation such as that one. She was extremely hysterical. Her heart pounding in her chest, Hermione began rapidly muttering counter-curses and throwing glances over her shoulder at the main event.
It was all she could do to keep from staring in awe at the scene. Both Harry and the Dark Lord were enraptured by the ring floating between them. Their eyes had deadened to show only one emotion...desire. The two had completely forgotten about the other one, each focused on the little piece of power between them. The fact that the two wore equal expressions was more than a little unnerving but something Hermione couldn't be bothered with at that particular moment.
Hermione nervously turned back to Ron. Her mind was racing and her eyes danced rapidly back and forth. She seemed to have used up all her ideas but Kirsten suddenly snapped into action, pulling out her wand and snapping out an incantation.
"That's the counter-curse to the full body-bind," Hermione started to say, intending to inform her that Lord Voldemort would not use such a mild spell when Ron suddenly looked normal again and sat up.
Hermione had just enough time to think that the fact that Lord Voldemort used the full Body-Bind was bordering on hilarity before Ron let out a ripe swear word and a bright light flashed around them. Turning around Hermione felt her insides freeze and she nearly fell over. Even Harry and Voldemort had halted their insane craze to turn and look at the new apparition.
Hermione didn't really understand what had caused her moment of panic. The newcomer wasn't particularly frightening. She was very spectral and not unlike most of the ghosts that haunted Hogwarts. This ghost had slightly less shape than others she'd seen before but nevertheless she didn't look frightening or dangerous rather like an innocent young girl...who is slightly see-through and floating about.
"What are you doing here now?" Voldemort demanded in an irritated growl, the muscles in his face strained as he turned to the dimly glowing creature.
"Informing you you're worthless. A simple task of finding a girl becomes momentous for you. You're completely useless, just like your predecessor," The ghost replied coolly, in a voice that chilled the blood. Hermione's previous thoughts of innocent girls disapparated, as quickly as water evaporates in the desert, when she heard that voice and saw the contortions in her angelic, pale face.
"It is by my charity that you are in your current state," Voldemort reminded her dryly. "I am currently acquiring another long-lost trinket of your previous master. One in which you might take an interest."
With those words Harry felt a horrible wrenching inside of him and he lunged forward for the ring. Voldemort let out a strangled cry and did the same and Zirconia placed an annoyed hand on her hip. After all, she was a woman after diamonds, not worthless pieces of metal.
"I'm not interested in your stupid ring," She reminded him. "Salazar obsessed over the worthless piece of junk too." She added, rolling her eyes- -not unlike a teenager might have done.
Ignoring her, Voldemort shot a spell at the ring and Harry sprang back and went rolling awkwardly across the ground. Voldemort rushed forward and grasped the ring letting out an evil, insane, laugh.
Harry felt his body go rigid as the chills from that laugh reverberated throughout his body. That laugh was the very same laugh he had heard the night his parents were killed. It was the laugh he'd never be able to forget.
All eyes focused on the Dark Lord as he held the ring up in front of him; his eyes focused on the object of his desire. Dramatically, as these things usually go, the sky darkened overhead.
"That would be our cue to leave, I think..." Ron whispered, tugging on Kirsten and Hermione as he slowly backed away.
"We can't leave Harry," Hermione hissed. Ron felt a surge of hot anger. As if he was really going to leave Harry.
"Harry," Hermione called to him, more in desperation than anything. She had completely lost control of the situation.
Harry was, of course, completely wrapped up in the scene before him and didn't hear her at all. Voldemort was holding the ring before him and very slowly preparing to slide it onto his finger.
The strange thing was, he seemed to have stopped. The ring was just sitting on top of his finger, no part of his finger had gone through the band. Ha! Harry thought with feeling as he scrambled to his feet. He can't put it on either.
Zirconia, who misses very little, had heard Hermione, and when Harry rose to his feet she assumed it was to flee. "You bloody fool, you'll let them get away!" She screamed, finally managing to shake Voldemort out of his intense concentration.
"Potter!" Voldemort screeched, turning his white face to Harry. "What did you do to this ring!? What did you do to it?" He demanded, now advancing on a slowly retreating, yet transfixed, Harry Potter.
Ron had been successfully pulling Hermione and Kirsten away from the scene as quickly as possible up until that point. But then Hermione managed to break away and shout.
"HARRY!"
Zirconia's eyes flashed as she took in the situation. "Give me that, you idiot, you're letting them get away!" She shouted at Voldemort, and lunged forward to take hold of the ring. He let out a strangled shout and lashed out at her.
When he touched her she let out a blood-curdling scream. In one blinding flash of light it was all over. Zirconia was still standing and radiating anger, Harry was still standing, but everyone else, including Voldemort had fallen to the ground.
Hermione had immediately recovered and leapt to her feet to see what had happened. She watched in absolute horror as Voldemort hit the ground-the ring rolling across the ground stopping directly at Harry's feet. And then, Hermione had the most uncanny feeling that she was Dorothy watching the Wicked Witch melt before her.
Voldemort's body underwent a series of very fast contortions, each time his face changing and becoming more human and more aged. Each time he seemed to get older and smaller until, quite suddenly, his wand and a few scraps of fabric were all that remained of the legendary Lord Voldemort.
Harry, very slowly, bent over and picked up the ring.
"That's it?" Kirsten's small voice asked skeptically.
"That was anti-climatic," Ron agreed.
"Help them, James, help them," Sirius kept repeating with each footfall. The four kids' brave shouts kept ringing in his ears as he turned corner after corner, expecting to meet any number of unpleasant things with each turn.
There were no doors and there was seemingly no end to the madness. With each footstep the sinking feeling inside of him grew worse and worse. If the doors were hidden he didn't stand a chance of finding her.
The silence around him roared now. Gone were the faraway shouts of battle. His footsteps thundered, his heart pounded, his breathing was heavy, but there were no other sounds. Just row after row of unflickering firelight.
He stopped suddenly and looked in all four directions. The hopelessness of the situation set in and a wave of guilt flooded his body.
He'd left them there to fight God knows what. He'd brought them into this... Suddenly his vision darkened and a rush of cold air seized his body. He blinked furiously but he couldn't get the sight of his lonely Azkaban cell out of his line of vision.
He could feel himself shaking and screaming filled his ears. He knew he must be going crazy but he couldn't stop it. He kept shaking his head, trying to shake the sight right out of his mind, but it wasn't working and the screaming intensified.
And then, quite suddenly the screaming stopped. He blinked and he was back in that corridor again.
At that moment, he swore he had stepped into a dream. He could hear, clearly as anything, the beautiful sound of Angie's voice. He blinked again, turned around and stood face to face with a door. His pulse shot up.
It wasn't a dream. That was Angie!
He grabbed the key in the door and turned it and wrenched it open. His heart felt near the bursting point as his eyes came to rest on her pathetic form, slouched against the wall; her eyes closed, but her lips moving.
"T'was Grace that's brought me safe thus far--"
"And Grace will lead me home," Sirius finished, throwing himself down beside her.
Angie blinked and then frowned slightly. "You're flat on that last 'g'," She informed him in a normal sounding voice.
"Damn..." He replied off-handedly. "Jesus, what happened to your cheek?"
"What-oh that. It was P..." She stopped suddenly and sat up. "Am I dead?" She cried, genuinely concerned about her state of being.
"Not unless I'm dead," Sirius told her with a grin, not realizing that she thought he was dead.
"But...oh! Didn't you know? You are dead!" Angie cried, covering her mouth with her hand.
"No I'm not!" Sirius insisted, realization suddenly dawning on him. Bill's entire plan had all gone down last night. Somehow it seemed like ages ago. "Ang, that was a set-up; a ruse. It was something Bill Weasley and I cooked up. Angie! I'm not dead...and neither are you!"
"But..." Sirius was laughing and shaking his head. He was so unbelievably relieved to find her relatively unhurt.
"Are you OK? Who did this to you?" He asked, concerned about her cheek again.
"Oh Sirius!" She cried, her hand flying to his arm. Things got slightly confused in her head and she began speaking rather hurriedly. "It was Peter Pettigrew! You told me he was alive and I saw him! He was here and-"
"Pettigrew did this to you!?" Sirius growled, outraged. She nodded helplessly as he got to his feet.
"How did you ever find me?" Angie pressed, as he hauled her to her feet. "Oh..." She said softly, as Sirius felt the ring around her thumb. They both glanced down, her hand in his, and then their eyes met, and the hands dropped quickly. It was rather a silly thing to do, but it was involuntary.
"It's a long story..." Sirius replied, softly.
"What is...? Oh about finding me... Sirius, Ginny Weasley was under the Imperius Curse, I know she was-"
"Calm down; I know," He assured her and then shook his head. "Look at you," He said. "And you're still concerned about everyone else." Somehow he couldn't seem to fully grasp that statement and he continued to stare at Angie.
Then, Angie had a sharp intake of breath and Sirius turned around slowly, pulling her behind him.
"Sirius, my old friend," Peter Pettigrew said, his white teeth gleaming in the half-light.
"Peter, my dirty traitor," Sirius replied in Peter's same tone, without missing a beat.
"Ah, now, I think we're a little past name-calling."
"But not past murder, lies, treachery...? I could go on..."
"Not really," Peter replied nonchalantly. The tone made Angie's skin crawl and it put Sirius on edge too. "Out of the way, Black. This will just take a minute, unless you'd rather do this the hard way...?" Peter said, twirling a wand suggestively.
"What are you going to do?" Sirius demanded, his arms out, as if this would somehow provide Angie with more protection.
"Just ask a few questions," Peter replied, pointing Angie's wand-she noticed-threateningly at him.
"Just move Sirius," Angie urged. And Sirius, of course, shook his head. Not after he had found her safe. He was not going to hand her over now. Not now. Peter decided to change his strategy.
"Angie," Peter said in an all too familiar tone, leaning against the wall. "I heard you married Thompson over in the States." Angie cringed with guilt when she felt Sirius' muscles tighten. "I expected Sirius to be ancient history." Both deemed it advisable to not respond to such antagonism. "I am impressed though, Sirius. I never really thought you'd risk so much for some girl.
"Don't push it, Black," Pettigrew warned as Sirius had started to inch forward.
"So, what's your daughter like, Ang? Is she pretty?"
"Leave Kirsten out of this," Sirius warned in a growling tone. Angie had inched forward to stand beside Sirius now. She didn't appreciate being sheltered, even if the gesture showed concern for her well-being.
"So where is it, Angie? Does she have it?" Angie, having no clue what Pettigrew was talking about, chanced a glance at Sirius, who was frowning, just as she was.
"Didn't anybody teach you proper English?" Sirius demanded. "Identify your pronouns, Pettigrew."
"OK fine," Peter said, in a rather whiny tone. "I warned you, there was an easy way, and a hard way for all of this. Answer my question," He growled, no longer leaning on the wall. Sirius tried to shield Angie again, but she refused to be swept behind him. "No? All right then, let's play a little game, shall we?"
"You always lost at games," Sirius said, rudely, and Peter's countenance soured. Angie could have kicked him. Pissing off the guy with the wand didn't seem like the best option to Angie.
"Rules: the first person to move will become better acquainted with the Cruciatus Curse. Now, you two will stand there," Peter instructed, pointing with the wand. "And I'll stand here, pointing the wand, like this. And when somebody moves..." Angie suddenly felt her spine prickle. This didn't sound like a game Pettigrew could lose. "You'd better get all your wiggling out because we're about to start."
Sirius suddenly put his arm around her shoulder and she frowned, wondering what in the hell he was thinking. The weight of his arm on her shoulders was not exactly the most comfortable position as she was just about to inform him, when Pettigrew suddenly interrupted. "Ready? Three...two...o-"
Several things happened at once: Sirius forced Angie's head down with his hand and he lunged forward, going low. Angie screamed as she tumbled to the floor and Peter shouted some sort of curse that barely flew over the top of the two leaving an awful scorch mark on the wall behind.
By the time Angie looked up Sirius and Peter were struggling over the wand. Jets of light were streaking dangerously about. Without even thinking she jumped to her feet and kicked, landing Peter squarely where he needed it and Sirius promptly knocked him out with one hell of a well placed punch.
Before Peter had completely crumpled to the ground Sirius had turned, grabbed Angie-his wife-- by the shoulders, and kissed her FIERCELY. Then, he stopped, just as abruptly as he had started, leaving her completely winded.
"God damn!" Sirius swore, shaking his hand in pain. "That is the SECOND time today I've had to punch somebody like that. Let's get out of here, eh?" He said, turning to her. She was still in shock and just nodded stupidly.
He bent over, picked up her wand with his good hand, and coaxed Peter's body to what would have been a standing position. His body started to float out and Sirius put his arm around Angie and pulled her along, still silent and awestruck.
Before Hermione could respond to the death of the most evil wizard in history, a great rumbling shook the ground, and she thought she might lose her balance. In the next moment her eyes widened as she realized a large stone had just fallen off the side of the castle and scores more were following.
While they were all dumb-struck by Voldemort's passing and an imploding castle, Zirconia could care less. Her own agenda included acquiring her life-force, her necklace; and she was heading determinedly for Kirsten.
As Sirius and Angie....and of course, Peter...neared the exit leading out unto the courtyard, Sirius grew increasingly nervous. What would he find? Would the kids still be there? Would they be alive? Swallowing hard and gripping his wand he pressed on at a more urgent pace.
They could see the light from the outside now, the end was in sight...whatever the end may be...
Suddenly a great thunderous roar literally shook the foundation and he and Angie pitched sideways into the wall. "Are you hurt?" Sirius asked concernedly of Angie, as they regained their footing.
She shook her head vigorously. "Let's get out of here," Sirius said, just about to pull her along at a very brisk pace when the castle shook again and this time it didn't stop.
Noise boomed all around them, deafening them, as it quickly became clear that the castle was falling down around them.
"Run!" Sirius shouted, emphasizing his shout with a sharp shove. They weren't very far from the outdoors...they just might make it.
"Harry! The ring!" Kirsten shouted, the only one who was now on top of things.
Harry nodded and slid the ring onto his finger. Immediately, the four felt a change, a very powerful change. Zirconia must have felt it too, because she stopped short and froze.
Harry started to walk toward them, his right foot landing in the middle of the remains of the Dark Lord's cloak. It was a powerful moment, at least to Ron and Hermione, who had witnessed so much of the Dark Lord's evil. To think that it was all over now--to think that Harry had just taken a final footfall sealing the Dark Lord's demise-was completely unimaginable, unfathomable.
Harry had an aura of power. His steady, even, strides through the falling rocks quickly brought him to his three friends.
Zirconia had been steadily growing clearer up until this point. Her outlines were becoming more defined. She was becoming less translucent. But suddenly, eyes now widened to a crazed look and she became more transparent than ever.
And then, abruptly, she turned and seemed to be in retreat. They had just barely begun to feel a surge of triumph when she whipped around, let out a scream, and hurled herself forward.
Slightly tattered, but still very much alive and uninjured, Sirius and Angie--followed by a very injured Peter Pettigrew--arrived on the scene. They had arrived just in time to see Zirconia turn.
Harry, Hermione, and Ron instinctively scattered as Zirconia came shooting toward them. But not Kirsten; she stood transfixed, and unmoving as Zirconia flew--right through her. Kirsten's body reacted, as if she had been hit very forcefully in her stomach and she let out a painful, strangled, cry that seemed to come from some place other than Kirsten. And then, Zirconia completely disappeared in a flash of light and Kirsten fell hard, right to the ground and moved no more.
"KIRSTEN!" Angie screamed, her face white, her voice cracking. She had taken off running with Sirius right behind her.
Ron was simply staring at Kirsten in shock and disbelief. A few seconds later when Sirius and Angie followed by a lazily floating Peter Pettigrew reached Kirsten's body. For a moment Hermione was afraid Angie had gone crazy because she was mumbling very rapidly in a different language as she checked for vitals.
"She's breathing," Angie announced in English. "She's alive at least..." She added weakly, turning to Sirius who held a blank stare. His face had absolutely no color and his eyes were suddenly peculiarly hollow. "Sirius...?"
Angie let out a strangled cry as his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell onto her. They collapsed onto the ground and then she screamed. Hermione blanched and nearly fell over when Angie held up her hand covered in blood. "Sirius!" Angie shouted again, blood leaking onto her robes.
I'm going to die, Hermione thought, Kirsten is dead, Sirius is dead, and now I'll be dead too. All things considered, she was really quite calm about it. She was thinking in complete sentences, and although she had forgotten to breathe her mind was functioning quite normally. Perhaps she should have written a will, or at least a letter to Sierra...
"HERMIONE!" Harry's cry jolted her out of her thoughts, which she suddenly realized were bordering on hysteria. She looked up, her eyes meeting Harry's desperately. "We have to get out of here! The castle is falling!"
The sky is falling, the sky is falling, we must go tell the king! Hermione thought blankly. Why, oh why, at this crucial moment, was Hermione remembering a Muggle story from her childhood?
"Hermione!" Harry cried again, running toward her. He took her shoulders and shook her entire frame vigorously. She blinked, trying to clear her mind.
"Harry?" she said meekly.
"Hermione, listen to me," Harry said, his voice low and controlled with the effort of not screaming. "The castle is falling, we have to get out of here. Ron and Angie are hysterical, I NEED you to stay with me. I need your help getting them out of here, now."
"Right," she replied, forcing herself to focus on the matter at hand. As her eyes traveled to Angie, who was kneeling over Kirsten with Sirius's dead weight lying next to her, and to Ron, who was holding Kirsten's hand and screaming at her to wake up, Hermione realized why delirium was so preferable to reality. However, she nodded at Harry and ran to the tableau.
"Ron! Professor!" she cried, "We have to get out of here!"
"I'M NOT LEAVING THEM!" Angie screamed at the top of her lungs. Hermione felt her heart contract.
"We're not going to leave them," she explained quickly, "We have to get them out of danger. The castle is crumbling."
"I'll stay and die with them!" Angie cried fiercely, refusing to be moved.
"No you won't," Harry replied firmly. He took out his wand and whispered a spell. A blue light covered first Sirius, then Kirsten. Hermione recognized it immediately as a Weight Lessening Charm. Grace under fire, she reminded herself.
"Ron," Harry said, in the same quiet voice. Ron looked up, wrenching his eyes from Kirsten's prostrate form. "Ron, I need you to carry Sirius, alright? Hermione, you carry Kirsten. Professor Star will follow you."
"What about you?" Hermione asked.
"Pettigrew," Harry replied coldly, pointing at yet another prostrate form across the courtyard. The man was starting to regain consciousness. Hermione felt her blood run cold.
"But Harry-" she was interrupted by a rock about half the size of a hippogriff falling three feet to her left. She let out a strangled scream.
"There's no time to argue!" he yelled, "Get them and get out of here!"
"Let's go," Hermione said grimly to Ron as Harry sprinted away, dodging the stones now falling freely all around them. Hermione bent down and lifted Kirsten. She weighed no more than a doll, which actually made it rather awkward to carry her fully grown form. She looked at Ron, and for a moment she feared he wouldn't be able to snap out of it. However, after a moment, he took Sirius and lifted him over his shoulder. Angie looked at them as if they had gone completely mad.
"Where are you taking them?" she whispered.
"Out," Hermione replied, "We have to go now, Professor Star."
"Yes," she replied distantly. "Go...quite, let's go then." If those words weren't incentive enough, a boulder (it was too large to be called anything less) that landed where Sirius had been lying moments ago got them moving at a rapid pace.
By some miracle, all five escaped through the gate with only scrapes and what would become a brilliant bruise on Ron's left shoulder. Once they were out of the way of the flying stones Ron dropped Sirius as gently as he could (which wasn't very gently at all) and rushed to Kirsten, now lying with her black hair pillowing her head from the stony ground.
"Don't die," Ron was whispering, stroking her cheek, "Kirsten, please. I love you. I love you. Please don't die."
The sight was so pathetic, so heartbreaking, that Hermione had to turn away. She didn't dare look down at Sirius and Angie. The professor's muffled sobs and the memory of Sirius's bloody, empty face was bad enough. Instead, she turned her anxious eyes to the castle and felt her heart stop.
It looked even worse from the outside. The top of the castle was gone, and the rest was quickly falling apart. It looked as if it were being slowly imploded, or maybe just ripped apart in large chunks. Her eyes were glued to the gate. There was no sign of Harry or Pettigrew.
For Hermione, that moment was the worst of the entire ordeal. Father and daughter were lying on the ground, comatose (she could not even think the word "dead"), Ron and Professor Star were hysterical and of no help whatsoever. But for that one moment Ron, Kirsten, Angie and Sirius could have all died and she wouldn't have noticed. Her only thought was of Harry, struggling with Pettigrew; Harry, dying slowly and painfully, screaming in pain under a boulder, his pleas for help buried under the crumbling stone walls; Harry, buried alive, dying not of blood loss but of hunger; Harry...
"HARRY!" she cried in joy she couldn't have imagined possible as she saw him half running, half limping toward them, ducking under a spray of rocks. She ran to him, and as she approached, she saw he had a rat clutched in his fist. Honestly, she didn't care if he had Pettigrew or not, so long as he was alive. "Harry!" she cried again, throwing her arms around him. He hugged her fiercely.
"We're not done yet," he reminded her, just as she was about to burst into tears of relief. "Hermione, we have to get Pettigrew into custody first."
"I know," she replied, trying to regain self control, "Give me the damn rat, Harry, you're going to kill him if you keep hold of him like that." She took Pettigrew, glad to see he was unconscious again, first transforming him into his human form and then casting the Weight Lessening charm. "So," she continued, forcing her voice to be steady, "Do you have a plan?" She desperately hoped he did because her mind was under strain enough without having to actually use more brain cells in a complicate thought process.
"We can split into two..." his voice died away as his eyes darted past Hermione's face and landed on the scene behind her. The color drained from his face as he realized that Sirius and Kirsten both might be...Ron and Angie weren't going anywhere, he realized.
At this point Hermione was ready to give in to hysterics but Harry's mind kept moving. The scene was depressing and traumatizing, no doubt, but he wasn't finished yet, not by a long shot.
"Look," he said suddenly, interrupting himself, "It's just you and me now. I'll take Pettigrew to the castle and get Dumbledore. You-"
"I'm not letting you go alone," Hermione interrupted fiercely. He was the only sane thing in the midst of the madness at the moment.
"Hermione," he said urgently, placing his hands on her shoulders and looking straight into her eyes. "I understand that, but you have to. Ron and Angie are not going to move, and we can't leave them alone. They'll do something drastic...I need you, Hermione. You're the only person in the world I could trust with this. I need you to stay here and protect them.
"Not only that, but, that castle crumbling probably won't go unnoticed for long, and..." His voice faltered.
"Alright," she gulped, forcing back her arguments and tears. She knew he was right. "Yes, Harry. I'll do it. Go,"
"Thanks Hermione. I'll be back with help as soon as I can. If I'm not back in twenty minutes, you'll have to leave them and Apparate as close to Hogwarts as you can and get Dumbledore."
"Yes Harry," she replied meekly. For a moment they just stared at each other, the castle crumbling behind Harry, wails of despair from behind Hermione, and Peter Pettigrew lying unconscious at their feet.
Then Harry kissed her.
With intensity.
It wasn't anything like she expected. One moment they were standing there and the next his lips were pressed against hers fiercely. She realized his arms were around hers, as strong as steel, and her eyes were wide open. Without thinking, she closed them and kissed him back. She never imagined she could be feeling so many things at once without thinking at all.
Then, just as suddenly as it began, it ended. He wrenched away, and without the support of his arms she stumbled a bit. She opened her mouth to say something-ANYTHING-but by the time she recovered from the stumble he and Pettigrew were gone.