Singed and exhausted, Stella and Rasmi landed with Omer's body on the edge of the cliff where Nina and Alex were waiting for them.
"Oh, thank God!" Called Nina, running towards them and wrapping her arms around Rasmi's neck.
Stella got off the broom quickly, intending to untie Omer and wake him –
"Don't! Not yet!" Called Rasmi, quickly letting go of Nina. "We don't know if Herpo's left his body yet," he explained.
Stella stepped back as Rasmi reversed her Stunning Spell. Almost immediately Herpo emerged again, foaming, spitting, and speaking in tongues.
"Oh, shut it you git," said Rasmi before slapping him across the face.
"Is – is there anything you can do?" Asked Stella timidly.
"Well," sighed Rasmi. "It's extreme, but it might work."
"What is it?"
"The Killing Curse."
"The Killing Curse?!"
"It'll potentially only harm Herpo's soul inside Omer and leave his own untouched."
Stella paused to consider for a moment. "Is there no other way?"
"Nothing that would work fast enough for us to save him…" Replied Rasmi.
Stella looked at the face of them man she loved. He looked at her with a vile smile on his lips, the one she so despised. Herpo seemed to find the situation amusing altogether.
"Do it then."
Rasmi nodded and raised his wand in the air. Just as he did, Omer's face contorted in a strange fashion. A fraction of a second later, a ghost-like vapor emerged out of his body with an almighty roar. Rasmi, smiling mischievously again, turned his wand at lightning speed as the broken soul of Herpo the Foul tried to make its escape. With one flick of a wand, Herpo was sealed in a transparent magical bubble.
"Gotcha!" Called Rasmi triumphantly.
Stunned, Stella looked at Rasmi who returned her glance with a laughing smile. "I was never going to use the Killing Curse on him, just trick him out of Omer's body."
Relieved, Stella began to laugh. Suddenly, they were all laughing. Laughing in relief. Laughing over the howls and screams of the trapped sorcerer in the bubble.
"I need some space now, if you don't mind," said Rasmi as the laughter died down. He was now shoving the bubble that contained Herpo into a small backpack (no doubt magically expanded) which was handed to him by Nina. "I'm gonna try and stabilize Omer before we move him out of here."
"Come," said Nina, leading Stella away as Rasmi dropped to his knees beside the unconscious Omer.
"He'll be okay right?" Asked Stella turning back to Rasmi.
"With a lot of work and a bit of luck… he'll live," replied Rasmi with a serious look at Omer.
Stella sat beside Nina and Alex, quietly watching Rasmi whispering a variety of spells and enchantments at Omer. Puffs of smoke and steamy air emanated from Rasmi's wand, flowing all around Omer and pouring into and out of his body.
"You know," said Nina in an attempt to break the nervous silence, "I vas so vorried that the brooms I sent your vay vouldn't find you in there. Evidently one did, thank Nerida."
"You were amazing," replied Stella, thankful for the distraction. "You save us both. Thank you."
"And thank you!" Said Alex from Nina's other side. "Without you I'd be toast."
Stella smiled at him warmly.
"So," said Nina, breaking the silence again, "how did you manage to defeat the Basilisks and get him out like that?"
Stella then relayed everything that had happened after Nina and Alex left them in the cave. How she remembered that one of the Basilisks' only weakness was the call of a rooster, how she managed to trick Rasmi and turn him into one, how they killed Herpo's snakes and trapped him, and finally, how they escaped the horrible fire that Rasmi had summoned to destroy Herpo's Horcrux.
Alex and Nina looked at her with stunned expressions on their faces when she was done.
"I… I mean… wow…" Was all Nina could say. "I can't believe it… You're amazing."
"I can't believe you turned Ras into a rooster!" Spurted Alex before bursting into laughter. "I mean I always told him he was a cock, but that's too much!"
They all giggled.
"He's really not so bad, you know?" Nina told Stella gently, as they stared at Rasmi and Omer's figures in the distance. "He is overconfident. And he has some funny ideas about the vorld and the future. But his heart is in the right place."
"I know…" Muttered Stella.
Alex exhaled with a half-amused half-frustrated smile.
"Can you finally tell me what brought you here then?" Demanded Stella after another short pause.
The other two smiled at her.
"We were tracking the path of a famous British dark wizard that visited these parts back in the forties," explained Alex. "You probably heard of him; Voldemort…"
"Y – yeah I learned about him in Magical History class," replied Stella.
"Well, it was Rasmi's idea to follow his path and see if we could find anything interesting."
Stella let out an unapproving sigh.
"We actually found that famous forest in Albania that Ravenclaw's Diadem was hidden in! We ran into some vampires that – after trying to eat us – told us they ran into him around there."
"I managed to talk us out of that one," explained Nina with a cheeky smile.
"Then," carried on Alex, "we heard about that freak earthquake that happened here and how the sanctuary was having trouble with sick hippocampi – side note, I'm fairly certain that Herpo bewitched them to stay here and serve as 'food' for his snakes. Anyhow, we decided to go investigate. Ras and I always theorized that Voldemort might have gotten his idea for a cursed-cave-by-the-sea-Horcrux-lair idea from somewhere. Well, now that we got Herpo trapped, we can question him and see if it was true."
"Is that what you're going to er… do… with him now?" Asked Stella.
"Only until he inevitably dies in that bubble," muttered Alex casually. "He won't survive long without a body to possess," he explained.
"Good," said Stella bitterly. "After what he put Omer through. After what he did to all of us…"
"He'll never hurt you or anybody else ever again," said Nina, wrapping her arm around Stella's shoulder.
It was comforting, to be held like that. Watching the slowly rising sun over the sea in the distance, Stella reflected how – even after everything that had happened here – this place was truly beautiful. Even more so now after the evils which lurked beneath the ground had been vanquished.
The following days would be spent nursing Omer back to health in their home by the Aegean Sea. Day after day Omer seemed to get better, all thanks to the various potions concocted by Nina, which had been fed to him almost every hour. Once he finally gained consciousness, Omer would not stop apologizing and repenting to Stella, who in turn would sob and hug him for hours on end.
The odd trio, who had been staying at their home as guests, became fast friends with Stella and Omer. Humbled by his… poultry… experience, even Rasmi seemed more tolerable now. He proved to be a gracious guest and an engaging conversation partner for chats about magical creatures and the history of the region. Stella, in spite of herself, even grew a small, limited, fondness for the arrogant teen.
As the events of these days drew further and further, their guests would leave for their next great adventure. Stella and the weak but healthy Omer would never forget the events of these four horrid days in the winter of 2013. They would never forget Stella's brave triumph in the face of mortal danger. The story would soon spread, and, to this day, the people of the region would tell the tale of the brave woman and the band of heroes which had faced evil in its purest form and won. They would tell the tale of Stella Berman and The Aegean Cliff.
And that's it for Stella's story :)
It's been so much fun writing this one.
Though I didn't intend on it taking that long to write, it was nevertheless a great experience.
In this story we gained a little bit of a peek into the wizarding world beyond Britain and I cannot express how inspired I am by the endless imaginative possibilities of more foreign wizarding communities - I would very much love to write some more stories set in other places.
Now, the time has come to be fully committed to writing my next full-sized book!
Just like the last one I intend on having a few chapters ready before it gets released into the wild (so it might take a little while before I post it).
But rest assured 'Molly Weasley and the Septwizard Series will come and soon!
That's it for now,
Hope you all enjoyed this one!
Paul
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