(GoF) CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: The Graveyard

With Aleks' help, it was all too simple to find their way into, and through, the maze. He had clearly been involved in its construction, though Ellie had no idea how that was possible; the openings and holes he guided her and Fred to seemed to have been made with a creature just their size in mind.

Which, of course, made all the sense in the world now that he was basically telling her that she could either follow Harry into certain peril or let him die.

She tried to focus on communicating with Fred, too, as she ran. She didn't like hearing Aleks' voice in her head; she much preferred the thought of Fred's, even if it was faraway or garbled. She had heard it that one day, hadn't she—on the boat? She had received that message from his ring, even without opening her locket.

But it seemed that whatever magic had allowed them to do so that day was long gone. Whether because of fear, panic, or something else, she didn't hear him in her head at all. If not for the sound of his dog's paws galloping behind her, she might not even know for certain that he was following her.

It was a challenging labyrinth, she could tell. The directions Aleks gave her kept her from coming in contact with the magical creatures and other obstacles in their path, but she still saw them—everything from blast-ended skrewts to sphynxes to the giant spiders that reminded her a bit too much of Aragog.

Finally, they reached Harry and Cedric. They were arguing about something—who should take the Cup and the glory, Ellie realized after a moment. Harry appeared to have injured his leg, and was trying to insist that Cedric go on without him.

She considered changing back into her human form to insert herself into the conversation, but before she had the chance, they finally came to an agreement: "Together."

So, instead, she stole one last glance at Fred's dog, swallowed, and then tore off after Harry and Cedric. She grabbed hold of the former's already wounded leg with her mouth just as he reached for the Cup, and Fred grabbed hold of hers.

And just like that, they were being taken… elsewhere.

But where?

It was some sort of… graveyard.

"Harry!" Cedric was shouting, pointing at Ellie and Fred's dog forms with an alarmed expression. "They must have chased us from the labyrinth!"

He lifted his wand toward Ellie as if preparing to attack, but Harry jumped to lower his hand, shouting quickly, "Don't! It's Ellie!"

Cedric's eyes bulged as he gazed from Ellie's dog form to the one next to it. Reluctantly, Ellie changed back into her human form. "It's true."

"But who…" His eyes trailed toward Fred, and his question died from his lips; he was able to connect the dots.

"Yeah, it's me," said Fred after changing back too. "But don't put your wand away just yet."

They all lifted their wands together, squinting into the darkness around them, as a figure emerged from the shadows, carrying what looked almost to be a baby. Harry cringed audibly, stooping to his knees in evident pain from his scar, as Ellie's hand flew to her mouth.

It was Peter Pettigrew—the man who was responsible for her father still being on the run.

If she could capture him—if she could finally find a way to subdue him and turn him in to the Ministry of Magic—she might finally be able to get Sirius' name cleared.

"Incarcerous!" she shouted, jabbing her wand at the sniveling rat of a man.

But another voice—one from somewhere else in the graveyard—shouted almost immediately, "Protego!"

And just like that, her ropes were blocked by none other than Aleksander Dolohov—the boy who had led her here.

All at once, the graveyard was alight with the castings of brightly colored spells—from their side, an assortment of stunning and disarming ones; from the opposite side, the eerily green-coloured variety that could only mean one thing.

Thankfully, Ellie's shield did the trick of keeping anyone from being killed. But she certainly felt the effects of the block.

"Tell us what you want!" Fred shouted at Aleks as he ducked beneath a jet of red light and fired his own right back.

Aleks had the same calm, amused expression that he always did, even in the midst of dueling. "Happy to, Weasley," he said as he pointed his wand confidently at Harry, disarmed him without a single word, and caught Harry's wand in his hand. "We're aiming to kill you and pretty boy Diggory, capture Ellie, and use Harry to bring the Dark Lord back. After which point, he'll probably be killed, too. Reckon that about sums it up."

Ellie's eyes trailed to the creature in Peter's arms as a lump started to form in her throat. How long would her shield last? If the creature was what—who—she feared it was, would even her shield be enough to save them?

She still had her wand, she reminded herself, pointing it at Aleks and shouting the classic Petrificus Totalus at him.

It didn't work. Aleks was a far more skilled wizard than she was a witch; she had learned that the summer she met him.

"Tried teaching you," he said to her with a wink. "You weren't interested, remember?"

"Harry!" Cedric shouted, and Ellie's focus was snapped back to attention as she saw Peter dragging a subdued Harry toward the giant cauldron, away from them. Cedric tried to stop him, but Aleks was faster; again, a jet of green light hit her shield hard, and this time, she stumbled.

"Ah, yes—the fun part now," said Aleks smugly. He took three long, sweeping strides so that he was positioned directly between Ellie, Fred, and Cedric and the cauldron Peter was dragging Harry to. "Wormtail thinks he got the fun job, but I'd much prefer torturing you lot."

The fun job? she thought as her throat began to dry. Had they chosen their missions in advance—Peter to perform whatever strange ritual he was preparing for with Harry and the cauldron, and Aleks to wear down Ellie's shield?

Well, she wouldn't have it. She lifted her wand, pointing it at Aleks and praying one of the other two would have the good sense to use theirs to help Harry.

"Expelliarmus," Aleks said with a bit of a yawn.

Ellie clutched her wand tighter, thinking for a moment that he'd cast it on her. He hadn't, though—he'd cast it on Cedric, whose wand, just as Harry's had moments before, went flying directly into Aleks' outstretched hand.

"Get out of my way," Cedric growled at Aleks, seeming all the more furious that he'd been disarmed. He tried to make a break past Aleks and over to Harry, and for a moment, Ellie thought she might let him. But then she saw another jet of green light coming out of Aleks' wand, and it was all she could do to dive at his ankles, close her eyes, and cast her shield around him for all she was worth.

It worked. But it was starting to really hurt.

"That's right," cooed Aleks to Cedric as Ellie yanked him back toward their huddle. "Crawl on back to your great protector. The more of you there are to cling to her, the less time it'll take to wear that shield down."

Ellie wasn't sure which scared her more—the fact that Aleks seemed to have her shield completely figured out or the fact that, a few yards behind him, Peter was taking a knife to Harry's arm.

"Two of us still have wands," Fred growled at Aleks, putting a protective arm in front of Ellie and taking a step forward. "You haven't won yet."

"True," said Aleks cheerfully. "And I could disarm you. It's such a boring spell, though, don't you think? I much prefer… Crucio!"

It wasn't Fred who curled up in pain when Aleks cast the spell at him; it was Ellie.

She heard Fred shouting things—trying to cast spells at Aleks to stop him—but she wasn't able to register anything beyond that. She knew that, thanks to her shield, she wasn't getting a true blast of the Cruciatus Curse—knew that the pain spreading inside her like fire was simply a result of her shield working harder than it was used to—but it hit so hard and deep, she heard herself cry out in pain, all the same.

"Ellie!" Fred shouted, and she was vaguely aware of him shoving his wand into Cedric's hand and kneeling down to console her, but even the feeling of his arms around her wasn't quite enough to keep her from feeling the pain of her shield so hard at work.

The next few minutes were a blur. She knew things were going from bad to worse—she could just make out Peter dropping the bundle into the cauldron, could faintly tell that a creature was emerging, tall and snakelike—but she had no true concept of anything except the pain. It wasn't just Crucio now; Aleks was hitting them with new spells—even more gruesome ones—the ones he had tried to teach her that last summer. Cedric had dropped Fred's wand, which left both of the boys entirely dependent on Ellie and her shield for safety.

"This is insane," she heard Cedric say when Aleks hit her with a particularly hard curse that she felt vaguely certain would have slit her throat then and there if not for her shield. "That's the Dark Mark—he's calling to the Death Eaters. We have to get out of here!"

The Dark Mark? As in the very mark that Ellie had seen in the sky at the Quidditch World Cup?

She summoned the strength to look up through heavy lids at the sky and learned with a sinking feeling that Cedric was, in fact, quite correct.

"You're not going anywhere," Aleks told Cedric gleefully. "You're going to stay and watch the show while I keep draining the object of both of your affections dry, and once she's finally had enough that she can't protect you anymore, I'll kill you. At which point, the Dark Lord will have killed Harry, too."

At that moment, the tall, dark, snakelike man near Harry glanced back at Aleks and gave him a thin, haunting smile. "Good work, Dolohov. Keep it up. She comes with us tonight."

Fred let out a cry of rage at that, and before she could stop him, he was launching himself up as if intending to barrel straight over Aleks and onto Voldemort himself.

But it only took seeing Aleks lift his wand in Fred's direction for Ellie to lift her own. She had no idea what spell might grab hold of him and pull him back to her, but she was certain that, if she wanted it bad enough—

It worked. Her magic yanked him back into the protection of her shield a mere instant before the green sparks from Aleks' wand hit him.

"Go on, Aleks," said a voice from the circle of people who were starting to appear around Voldemort and Harry. "Get rid of him. The Weasleys are an embarrassment to us all."

It was Lucius, Ellie realized after a second of staring. Lucius Malfoy. His white-blond hair was impossible to miss, even tucked beneath his hood.

Several of the hooded figures chuckled as Ellie and Fred glowered at him. Ellie felt her fists clench—though it might have been as much from the pain she was feeling as from the hatred that burned in her at hearing the family that was as good as her own insulted by the patriarch of one of her least favourite families.

Voldemort began speaking at that—telling all of them the story of how he had come to awaken that night. Ellie struggled to listen—to cling to anything, really, because she was sure if she didn't, she'd be a goner—but it wasn't easy. He had been planning this for months? He'd had inside help at the school—from more than just Aleks?

"As for the girl," he said then, gesturing behind him to Aleks' torture corner, "many of you might recognize her from the papers as the daughter of the famed Sirius Black. While I am not remotely interested in Black, I am quite interested in the power he bestowed upon her. And whether I need to kill her or manipulate her to understand—"

"Enough!" shouted Harry from his makeshift tombstone prison.

Voldemort stilled, looking rather surprised by Harry's outburst. "Excuse me?"

"Enough about Ellie," Harry growled. "Forget her. She and the others have nothing to do with you and me. Let them go, and you can do whatever you want to me."

Voldemort laughed at that—which, of course, invited all of his followers to do the same. "Much as I would appreciate your permission to do such things, I must say that I do not require it. In fact, you'll come to find soon enough, Harry Potter, that I do not require permission to do anything."

"Then fight me," growled Harry. "Give me my wind back, and let us duel."

Ellie stiffened at that, glancing wearily up at Fred, who looked every bit as concerned as her. Harry was volunteering to duel against the greatest dark wizard who had ever lived? Was he just trying to get them some sort of… out?

She wouldn't leave without him. And judging from Fred and Cedric's expressions, they wouldn't, either.

She had to get to him.

One step at a time, she told herself, forcing back the pain and attempting to focus on walking. Surely Fred and Cedric could follow, right? She could protect them while still—

"Nice try," said Aleks with a smirk. With a simple wave of his wand, the ground beneath Ellie's feet seemed to move beneath her, and she was returned to where she had just stepped from.

"We need a plan," hissed Cedric. "Any ideas?"

"I think Harry's got one," said Fred through gritted teeth as they watched Peter release Harry from his makeshift prison and hand him his wand.

"Where's the Portkey?" Ellie whispered to them. She was sure Aleks could hear them, but she didn't care. They were running out of time.

"It's over there," whispered Fred, glancing toward a spot that wasn't particularly close to Harry or them. "But how could we—"

But before he could finish his sentence, the entire graveyard seemed to be filled with a bright, eerie glow as a dome of light appeared around the circle of people watching the duel. Red light had met green between their wands, and the beam held steady, each side refusing to let go—Harry and Voldemort, for all intents and purposes, at a standstill.

"Impossible," growled Aleks, who, for the first time all night, actually looked flummoxed. "Surely not—"

But that one moment of distraction seemed to be all Cedric had been waiting for. Without warning, he tackled Aleks like a bat out hell, causing all of their wands to go flying, and pinned him to the ground.

"Go!" Cedric shouted at them as Aleks struggled beneath Cedric's ironclad grip. "Get to Harry and the Portkey!"

Ellie glanced at Harry, heart pounding. By some strange miracle, it actually appeared that his jet of red light was overpowering Voldemort's—it was remotely possible that if they could get to him and the Portkey, they could actually escape. But what about Cedric?

"We're not leaving you," she told him, shaking her head. "That's not happening."

"I'll stay," said Fred, stooping beside Cedric to help restrain Aleks. "You two go."

That, of course, was definitely not happening. Even the mere thought of leaving Fred here—of losing him…

It was far too much bear.

"Behind us!" one of the Death Eaters shouted. "They've overpowered Aleks!"

"Attack her!" shouted another. "Weaken her shield!"

And just like that, their group was hit with a rainstorm of new spells—all of which Ellie's shield had to absorb.

"She can't go on like this," Cedric said to Fred, seeming to have given up on convincing Ellie. "You have to get her out of here!"

"She won't leave you!" Fred shouted back. "Surely—"

But Ellie's gasp of pain interrupted him as three particularly gruesome spells hit her at the exact same time and she crumpled to the ground, having been rendered virtually paralyzed.

"Guys!" Harry shouted from his spot inside the dome. "Get to the Cup! I'll meet you there!"

"El." It was a softer voice now—a gentler one—one she heard as often in her dreams as in her reality. Was she dreaming now? "We have to go."

She felt his arms around her—felt his warm, sweet breath in her ear—heard him whispering words of encouragement—but none of it helped.

This couldn't be their solution. There had to be another way.

"No," she moaned, shaking her head. She planted her feet into the ground, refusing to allow Fred to scoop her up.

"Ellie." It was Cedric's voice in her ear now. It made her heart ache. "Ellie, listen to me."

She forced herself to look up at him—into those blue-grey eyes that she had looked into hundreds of times before. They seemed somehow… older now. Wiser.

"This is what I want," he whispered. "I want you to go."

"You want to die?" she demanded. She was sobbing, she realized then—quite nearly blinded by the sea of tears swimming in her own eyes. When had that happened?

"You're going to change the world, Ellie. You, Harry…" He glanced at Fred with something almost resembling a grin and said, "Him, too, I reckon—by association if nothing else."

"You are, too!" she insisted. "You're a Triwizard champion. You're an all-star student. You're—"

"I think this is how I change the world," he interrupted her. "What I was meant to do. And I'm okay with that."

Harry had broken free by then. There was chaos all around them—screaming Death Eaters; Voldemort crying out with rage; Harry sprinting toward the Cup. They were almost out of time.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to Cedric, reaching out to touch a hand to his cheek. "For everything."

His blue-grey eyes softened, and he touched his own free hand to hers—the one that wasn't being used to pin Aleks to the ground.

"Don't be sorry," he said. "Just be happy, Ellie."

And with that, they ran.


Well, it's even more heroic than the way Cedric went down in JKR's version - but will he go down, or will something else follow? Only time will tell - time, and your support by reviewing and following!