Hey, guys! I hope everyone had an excellent Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's Day, President's Day, etc. But over my holidays I spent a lot of time thinking about what was going to happen with this fic. Well, what was born was a sequel- "Phoenix." Now, before you get all excited, I'm still thinking about it. I'm not totally sure if I want to do it or not. But as for now, let's get back to "Sphinx," chapter twenty four. Enjoy!
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"His eyes, they closed, and his last breath spoke. He had seen all to be seen. A life, once full, now an empty vase to lay the blossoms on his early grave. Walk away, me boy. Walk away, me boy. And by morning we'll be free. Wipe that golden tear from your mother dear, and raise what's left of the flag for me."- "What's Left of the Flag," Flogging Molly
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Hermione sighed and slumped against the wall of the tent. They had been taken captive. As a result, Voldemort and his armies had found it best to imprison the students and teachers into separate tents. By some odd stroke of luck, or perhaps pure madness, Draco, Hermione, Harry, and Isadora had been placed in the medical tent. And these walls became the only thing they saw. A strand of rope had been tied around their left ankles, as some sort of bracelet. The magic in them allowed them to move about the tent, but it kept them bound inside.
Draco grunted from across the tent. Hermione looked over and saw him toss a small knife he had found away.
"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to play with knives, throw sharp objects?" said Isadora.
"That's not funny," he growled.
"Why not try and be humorous?" said Isadora. "After all, we're in an incredibly sour turn of events. For all we know there could be an apocalypse tomorrow. Then what happens? Might as well crack a joke. I'd rather die with a smile on my face than with a tear in my eye."
Harry looked over. "Can't you do wandless magic?" he asked.
Isadora nodded quickly.
"Why don't you take the ropes off of us then?" he said. "Then maybe we can try and stop something like that from happening."
Isadora sighed. "Gryffindors," she said, "always so rash. Potter, do you know what you are talking about? You are saying that I get you out of the bindings to try and fight off at least one hundred Death Eaters and Voldemort with nothing more than a jackknife and Skelgrow!" She closed her eyes and sighed again. "I'm sorry for yelling. But storming the grounds with so few assets... it just isn't plausible."
An idea then struck Hermione. "What about that potion, Draco?"
He looked up. "Which one?"
"The Sphinx," she answered.
"The Aztec Sphinx?" said Isadora, her eyebrows raised in question.
Hermione nodded.
"What are you guys talking about?" said Harry with a look of confusion spread over his face.
Ignoring Harry, Isadora said, "That potion is very dangerous. Are you sure you want to risk that. Also, how did you get a hold of such a thing?"
Hermione explained the book's origins while Draco took it out of his necklace and un-shrunk it.
Isadora looked at the potion when the book was offered to her. Harry looked over her shoulder in question. It read:
The Aztec Sphinx
Ingredients:
1. One veela hair
2. Three centimeter long and three centimeter wide piece of snakeskin
3. One gram of silver
4. One half gram of gold
5. Three milliliters of fresh Veela blood
6. Four milliliters of fresh lioness blood
7. Two milliliters of fresh snake blood
8. Material: three syringes
Slice the Veela hair strand into pieces three centimeters long. Rip the snakeskin into various pieces, of no specific size. No heat should be used in this potion. Combine together the Veela, snake, and lion's blood. Slowly add the Veela hair and snakeskin pieces, constantly stirring. The potion should be emitting a small black vapor. Let the potion sit for thirty seconds, after which the black vapor should cease. Add the gold and silver at the same time. Do not stir. The metals will melt as soon as they enter the potion. Allow to cool for thirty seconds. The potion should be used no more than an hour after brewed.
Use: inject an equal amount into three syringes. Inject directly into a vein. The transformation should take place within thirty minutes.
"Well," said Harry. "I guess we can officially rule this one out."
"Why?" said Isadora.
"Where are we going to get lion's blood, or even snake's blood? Granted, we could get really lucky and have a snake somehow get into the tent, or Isadora could transfigure something, but still. It's impossible."
"Actually," said Draco. "It is possible."
"How?" said Hermione.
"Symbolism," he answered.
Hermione raised an eyebrow.
"Why do you think this potion is Dark Magic? If these were the real ingredients, it would probably be in a Light Magic text. The gold, silver, and Veela things are the same, but everything else is a symbol for something."
"What are they symbols of?" asked Harry.
"Well, what I think is that the lion's blood is supposed to be the blood of someone courageous. Snake skin and blood is the skin and blood of someone clever and cunning. We could go so far as to say, the lion's blood is of a Gryffindor and the snake is of a Slytherin."
Isadora gasped, "The prophesy!"
"What prophesy?" said Draco.
"Sybil made a prediction about the Aztec Sphinx; that it would be the final weapon of our time. I think this could be it." Then her face fell. "But the prophesy said one of the two purebloods of the three who do it will die. It is supposed to be two purebloods and a Halfblood."
"Well, then that's easy," said Harry. "It has to be Isadora, Draco, and me."
Isadora shook her head.
"Why? What needs to be different?"
She inhaled deeply. "You."
"What?"
"The potion states the blood of a lioness. That means it needs to be Hermione."
"No!" he said. "It can't be her."
"Why not?" asked Draco. "It's not like she's going to die."
Harry stared back at Draco. "What?" said Draco. "It's true. Either Isadora or I will die, not Hermione."
Draco shrugged. Hermione looked madly between the two boys. "No," she said. "Draco, you can't die. We'll find a different thing to do. Maybe Professor McGonagall is already working on something."
"Hermione," Draco said, wheeling on the girl. "Don't you understand we don't have a choice? At first this seemed like a wild idea for us to defeat him. Now we know that there has been a prophesy made specifically about this. We still don't know if it will work, but like hell I'm going to sit back and do nothing because I'm afraid of death. Either Isadora or I will have to die because of this. I know Isadora is willing to give up her life for this cause, and so am I. I don't want people to have to be afraid anymore."
Hermione, small tears budding in her eyes, threw her arms around Draco's neck.
"You know," he said. "To die would be an awfully big adventure."
Hermione sniffed against his chest. "Hey," Harry interrupted. "I hate to break up the love fest, but we still have a couple of problems. How are we going to do this?"
"That part is easy," said Isadora. "As long as we have the ingredients all ready, it should take less than a half an hour to complete. If Voldemort hasn't been checking on us now, I don't think he will be a day or two later."
"What about the syringes?"
"When you were all asleep I scanned the tent we are in to see if I could find anything of use. Syringes are here. As long as we clean them out, we can use them for drawing blood and for injection of the potion."
"Okay, one last thing," said Harry with a grin. "When do we start?"
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With a small scream, the aging Professor McGonagall fell against the ground.
"Where is the Order, Minerva," said an angered Voldemort.
"I've told you once and again, the Order doesn't exist. It hasn't since your last reign of terror. And even if it did, I wouldn't tell you where they are."
"Crucio!"
McGonagall fell over, her body twitching in spasms from the pain.
"Leave her alone!" shouted Ron from another space. "If you keep doing that you'll kill her."
Voldemort looked over at the red haired boy. "Do you think that the life of a near senile Transfiguration professor concerns me? Would you rather it is you instead?"
With those words, his wand raised in the air.
"Leave them," said Snape from the corner.
Voldemort gave a smirk, "Severus, my slippery little traitor, why save the life of this useless boy? His life is as worthless as yours."
His wand raised, "Avada Kedavra!"
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Read? Review! I hope you liked it, even though it was short.
Dragonfires