Chapter 27 - Helena Ravenclaw
Lizzie spotted the Gray Lady on a ledge overlooking the Black Lake and approached cautiously. The pearly white figure of the once very beautiful, very young woman, turned to meet her with a curious frown.
"I'm... Azalea," Lizzie said. The ghost turned away. "Are you the Gray Lady?" There was no answer.
"I'm wondering... rather I'm desperate for any information you might have on the diadem of Ravenclaw? I have reason to believe it's in the castle."
"Surely, the Chosen One doesn't need the diadem," she said with mild disdain.
"Who has asked you about it?" Lizzie asked.
"Countless students, of course," she said with growing reproach.
"But... there were two you actually told, weren't there?" Lizzie asked. The ghost looked affronted.
"My mother's diadem should never have been sought with those intentions," she said, bitterly.
"Your mother was Rowena?" Lizzie asked. Helena grimaced.
"Yes, my name is Helena."
"Alright, can you tell me about her?" Lizzie asked sympathetically.
"I don't regret what I did, she wanted me to marry, I didn't want to," she said cryptically.
"I understand that I never wanted to marry but it was our only intention where I'm from," Lizzie tried to empathize but Helena's eyes went black.
"He sought me as a child, waited for me to become old enough. He made my skin crawl; she promised me to him. I didn't understand how a woman so smart could be so blind," she hissed with disdain. "I ran away, but I took the diadem," she admitted. "I knew he was looking for me, so I went further away, into Albania. I didn't think he would ever find me there," she explained as her voice started to shake.
"He found me in a village, I had been hiding in the graces of a church. He tried to marry me there, he dragged me to the alter, but I fled. I ran through the forest and hid the diadem in the crevice of a tree so he wouldn't find me with it. I didn't want him to have it. I thought perhaps he wanted my hand because I would eventually inherit it..." she continued. Lizzie listened intently.
"I hid, but he found me," she said quietly. "He killed me," she whispered.
"He did more than that," Lizzie said with complete understanding.
"The others I told pretended to sympathize too," Helena said indignantly.
"They didn't have the capacity to sympathize, Helena. They have no concept of that kind of pain and violation. They're pathological," Lizzie replied.
"And you're different?" She asked.
"I've lived it. I don't want the diadem. I want to destroy it," Lizzie said.
"Because they defiled it," Helena said.
"Because they defiled you and everything that stood for. Your mother was wise enough to know better," Lizzie said. Helena considered her.
"What happened to the man?" Lizzie asked. Helena paused.
"He killed himself. Not out of guilt or shame, but to follow me wherever I went... I never escaped him," she said.
"Who was he?" Lizzie inquired.
"They call him the Bloody Barron," she said, and Lizzie inhaled deep understanding. "The diadem was returned to castle... the second boy brought it back, the one with the strange name," she said.
"Quirinus?" Lizzie asked. Helena nodded.
"I thought he was different from the first, from my house, curious that one... but the first..." she said.
"Sinister, the first was sinister. Quirrell was defiled with dark magic by Riddle. He met what remained of Riddle, or Voldemort, in Albania where he hid after his fall..."
"After you told Tom where the diadem was, he set out to search for it. He met a girl who had run away from marriage at a church where she hoped to become a nun. He buried her alive with the diadem, put a fraction of his soul into it and kept it concealed in her grave where her ghost remained trapped. When Quirrell came looking for it, he found Voldemort where you hid the diadem in that forest. He possessed his body and returned it to the school to use in the event he could not obtain the philosphers stone hidden here seven years ago..."
"I killed Quirrell, I've destroyed Riddle's other horcruxes, I've brought the girls he murdered like the Barron murdered you at least a sliver of justice, and I can destroy this one too. I can bring you some solace. Please tell me where it is," Lizzie pled. Helena's eyes were glassy even transparent. Lizzie's were desperate and swimming.
"It can be found where you need only ask for it," she said. Lizzie's eyes widened in understanding, and she had a sudden faint recollection of a tiara in the Room of Requirement where she hid the Half Blood Prince's book.
"Thank you," Lizzie whispered and bolted though the corridor to the seventh floor.
She skidded to a halt at the sight of people going in and out of the Room of Requirement. When she entered, it didn't take even a minute for Hermione to slap her before Ron had a chance to hold her back. "You left without us!" She screamed. Lizzie winced.
"I'm sorry! I wanted to slip and back out without all of us getting captured again, but things got a bit hectic..." Lizzie said in her defense.
She looked around in disbelief. McGonagall was funneling younger students out through the portrait hole to Aberforth's pub. Ron held a fuming Hermione back from unleashing her wrath on Lizzie while she spotted all of the former DA members who had since graduated. Fred scooped Lizzie into a hug and kissed her cheek. "Neville said lightning struck! We knew you were alive!" He jeered. Lee, Angelina, and George exchanged hugs with Lizzie. Bill and Fleur looked apprehensive, and Lizzie couldn't place why. Oliver, Alicia, Katie Bell, Cho Chang, Dean, Luna, Seamus, and Ginny were discussing amongst themselves when a few broke off to greet Lizzie.
Molly squeezed her so tight she felt almost maimed, and Arthur was genuinely thrilled to see her and reunite with his family.
Lizzie spotted Order of the Pheonix friendly aurors and then her heart raced with anxiety. "No, go home!" She yelled, walking aggressively toward Remus and Tonks who looked affronted by her greeting. Remus whipped his head around at his wife, "Yes, Go!" He ordered like he'd said it a thousand times already, but she shook her head defiantly and gave them both a rather scathing look.
"Dora! You're in no condition to be here!" He begged. Stubborn emitted from her pores and she looked ready to shoot fire from her eyes at the thought of leaving.
"Teddy?" Lizzie asked desperately, her eyes were huge and pleading.
"With my mum! Lizzie! This is it; I'm not leaving you both here and sitting behind to wait. I refuse to do that!" She shouted back. Lizzie's astounded attention was broken by someone pushing through the students leaving the castle. He emerged and looked around flustered when he met eyes with his father who froze in shock.
"Percy?" Fred asked, they were deadlocked in how to respond.
"I'm... I'm sorry!" He said with effort. "Christ, I'm sorry," he added, some genuine regret pouring from his heavy breath. "I was a..."
"Asshat!" Screamed Ginny, and he nodded, his eyes welled at how much his sister had grown. He looked around and swallowed hard.
"You don't have to forgive me, I'm just, I'm here, I'll lay it all down to help, I promise," he said with resolve. Molly flung herself onto him in tears and it seemed to set Tonk's resolve in stone.
"Take her home, and you both stay there!" Lizzie hissed reproachfully at Remus. He grounded her by the shoulders and shook his head.
"I'm not leaving you," he stated firmly. Lizzie's mouth twitched with apprehension. She wanted all of them to leave, she could feel him coming, there was a pain building in her head and chest, and she knew it would be a bloodbath if they were not careful.
Kingsley broke their attention. "We're securing the castle. We need people on the entrances to the grounds, we need to cut off the bridges," he said.
"I can take down the east bridge, easily," Seamus said. Lizzie smirked, knowing exactly what he meant, and he took off with Neville and some of the others.
"Teachers should conjure the protections, we need teams on every tower and ground entrance, we could use people in the air as well," Kingsley continued.
Oliver gestured to the remaining quidditch players, Alicia, Angelina, Fred, George, Katie, and Cho. Remus broke up the older students into groups for patrolling the towers and ground entrances, each with a professor, an auror, and an order member.
"What about the Slytherin students, some of them are death eaters' children?" Lizzie asked McGonagall.
"The younger ones are out already, the older ones who refused to leave have been escorted to the dungeons for their safety. I don't want people killing their own children, I don't want them getting ideas on helping Voldemort from within," she explained. Lizzie nodded in agreement at the reasoning.
Lizzie's blood started to burn, and she knew he was closing in. She turned to focus her attention elsewhere and finally noticed. "Where's Charlie?" She asked. Bill and Fluer looked at each other.
"We thought he went with you," Bill said and it went silent.
"You don't know where he is?" Lizzie asked, looking around, nobody had an answer and her heart raced. As the teams discussed some strategy, there was a loud crack and resounding echo.
His voice sounded like it was breathing on her eardrum. "I would like to leave Hogwarts untouched," Voldemort said. "Magical blood need not be spilt."
"Azalea Potter is no prophet or savior. She is destined to fail; I can promise you that..." his voice was acid. "Bring her to me and you will remain untouched and rewarded."
Lizzie looked around nervously at the fear on everyone's faces. She clenched her jaw and tried to relax her nerves. He was here. She was almost out of time.
Someone snapped their fingers near her face to get her attention. It was Hermione, saucer eyed but eager. "Where's the cup?" She asked.
"I destroyed it," Lizzie whispered and handed her a few of the fangs to keep. Hermione looked impressed and relieved.
"Lizzie, did you find what you were looking for?" McGonagall asked urgently. Lizzie shook her head.
"I know where it is though," she said, catching eyes with Ron and Hermione. "It's here where all things are hidden... professor, I need the room emptied," Lizzie said, centering herself around the mission while the others filed out quickly in groups to secure the castle.
When the room and hall were cleared, Lizzie pushed Ron and Hermione out of the room. "We were right about Quirrell. Helena Ravenclaw, the ghost of Ravenclaw Tower was Rowena's daughter. She stole and hid her mother's diadem in Albania and the whereabouts were coerced out of her while Riddle was here, then again when Quirrell was here. But Quirrell brought it back to the castle. They hid it in the room of requirement. I'm sure Voldemort thought he had some special power to access it that nobody else did. I'm also fairly positive I saw it when I hid Snape's book. We've got to find it quickly. We have means to destroy it immediately. Then it's just the snake..." she explained.
"Alright. Should we split up?" Ron asked when Lizzie opened the room to the floor to ceiling treasure trove of hidden things she'd been in the year prior.
"No... don't. I went to the Chamber with Ginny, and we ambushed by the horcrux. If it picks up on our intentions to destroy it, it will get hostile. Be alert..." she said. They nodded and Lizzie led the way from memory, past the cabinet that funneled the death eaters in from Borgin and Berkes, and through piles of furniture and books.
There was a rustling noise through the jagged aisles she decided not to follow. If it was Nora's horcrux it would lead them away and astray. Lizzie stopped at a strong feeling of foreboding and examined the table and shelves nearest her for signs of the old tiara she had a very faint recollection of. She moved aside an old-fashioned lord's headpiece and wig and saw the crown atop the bust of a broken statue. Ron and Hermione were distracted by a noise around the bend and pulled wands to examine the surroundings. Lizzie stared transfixed at it feeling the intense despair of the circumstances that surrounded its journey to Albania and its defilement.
She started to pull a tooth from her inside jacket pocket when a hand came down on her shoulder and startled her. The hand became a firm grip on her neck, and she looked up at Draco.
"What are you doing?" Lizzie whispered. He frowned at her. "Did you follow us here?"
"Turn yourself in. He will slaughter everybody," Draco said. He had a firm grip on her upper arm. Lizzie glared at him.
"You don't have it in you to turn me in?... you didn't before," Lizzie said.
"You have my wand," he growled.
"Yeah, it works great for me, thank you," Lizzie retorted. His grip tightened with reproach. "Turning me in will get you your wand back, but it won't get you or your family back in his good graces, will it?"
He glared but blocked her from reading him. He was intense with consideration.
"You don't know what he wants to do to you. Come with me, I can... we can go into hiding, I can't do this anymore, I don't want to do this anymore," he said quietly with desperation quaking the edges of his voice. Lizzie looked at him incredulously and laughed under her breath before trembling with anger.
"You think I'd come with you?" She hissed. He looked unsurprised but affronted by the disdain in her tone.
"Maybe it's the only way you have out of here... alive," he hissed back, and it sounded like a threat.
"I'm not scared of you," she said. "You want me to come with you, so you can escape this trap you signed yourself up for?" She asked incredulously.
"You think I had a choice? I never had a choice!" He growled.
"We always have choices. I never said it was easy, but you knew it wasn't right. You pretended it was because it was easy, I don't have sympathy for that...At some point he promised you me? He won't ever make good on that; you've failed him too many times. So now you want to take what he believes to be his and you think we can just hide?" Lizzie laughed at how absurd it was sounding. "He'd find you. He'd kill you. He'd still do whatever he was planning to me. There would never be a happily ever after, Draco. If all you want me for is to coerce affection from, if you're just going take advantage of me...again... I'll call him myself and happily watch you die regardless of his intentions for me. I won't live like that, that's everything I escaped..." she continued, her furious eyes fixed on his glossing over with disappointment and trepidation.
"I've killed nearly everyone who has hurt me the way you did, except you and except him. But I have every intention to kill him or die trying. If you want out, then run, but they'll find you. So, I suggest you either take some strong poison and put yourself out of misery, or get out of my way," she warned.
There was a scream from around the bend and Lizzie froze. "Call off your blood hounds," she said. Goyle had Hermione by the hair when he came around a pile of stacked furniture.
Wand shots were fired nearby, and Ron's voice bounced off the towers of items. "Hermione?" He asked anxiously. There was an explosion of items and a yell of pain. Ron came hurdling through a narrow pathway and stopped at the sight of Hermione and Goyle and Draco with his hand still locked tight on Lizzie's arm. Ron pulled a golfing club from a stack and pointed it at Goyle.
"Let go of Granger," Draco ordered and Goyle tossed her in Ron's direction. Ron pulled her in protectively.
"I'll take Potter, Weasley, get the mudblood out of here, her kind are kill on sight, and blood traitors aren't shown much more consideration," Draco hissed.
Lizzie jabbed Draco's wand into his ribs in warning, hoping he'd remember the large gashes she once left in his body. He gripped it tight and ripped it from her hand, pulling her wrist into an unnaturally painful position in the process. He pocketed his wand and yanked her arm hard. Ron pointed his and Hermione blocked a curse shot by Crabbe who had terrible aim.
"Ron, get out of here," Lizzie said, biting the insides of her mouth in consideration of what to do. Ron shot a curse at Goyle who returned it with a jet of green light Ron dodged with Hermione under his arm by mere inches. Lizzie struggled in Draco's grip while Ron charged and Crabbe and Goyle took off deliberately demolishing stacks of furniture.
"Let go!" Lizzie roared at him. Hermione was looking around the corner for signs of Ron when the room ignited in an orange glow. Lizzie kneed Draco hard in groin and beat her way out of his grip in a panicked frenzy. She grabbed the diadem from the table and Hermione's hand before bolting toward the door. "Ron!" Lizzie shouted. He almost collided with them on a broom, threw one to Lizzie, and hoisted Hermione onto his.
"Crabbe set the whole place on fire!" He yelled. Lizzie looked back at the roaring flames changing from dragons to serpents and rampaging much like an obscurial set ablaze through the mountains of discarded items. Lizzie mounted the broom and let Ron and Hermione get ahead. They dodged and detoured from the door when flames intersected with the pathway. Lizzie caught sight through the smoke of Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle climbing a large pile away from the flames and felt a lethal mixture of reproach and pity. She swung her broom around and watched Crabbe fall into incineration just before Draco's hand slipped over a dangling Goyle who was far too heavy to hoist. Lizzie swooped low and reached for his but missed on the first and second attempt.
The diadem was cutting into her hand trying to hold onto the handle of the broom. "God damn it, Draco!" She yelled and he managed to pull himself onto the broom. Lizzie made it through the door with a fraction of a moment to spare and they tumbled hard into the corridor. He backed away from her in shock and disbelief. She reached forward to see if he was injured but he seemed to wash over in pure panic and bolted with his wand in hand.
"Fuck!" Lizzie yelled. Ron was helping Hermione onto her feet when the diadem in Lizzie's hand sliced it clean open and it sped on its own accord across the hall.
Lizzie reached for a basilisk fang with her good hand, careful of the venom entering her blood stream, and walked toward where it sat on the stone floor at the end of a cooridor when a decayed hand snatched it and a figure ran down the steps away from her.
Lizzie charged after it in full force. She caught sight of it disappearing around the corners and stairwells as she decented into the main courtyard. There was a loud crash from protections that been erected around the castle as thousands of spells hit it in unison.
"Lizzie!" Ron yelled, trying to catch up to her, but she bolted down the wooden bridge Seamus and Neville were setting up bombs to bring down. Lizzie blew past them without stopping, and came to a halt at the barrier of protection. She took a breath of resolve and passed through in a straight line toward the forest.
She could feel the presence of dementors, the rustling of groups of snatchers lining the trees, and she felt foolish without a wand for protection even though the fang was gripped tight in her hand. There was a line of blood from the other from the torched Room of Requirement to the forbidden forest. The movement she was listening for was specific. She ran in a similar path toward where she'd found Barty Crouch's body years prior and the curled up snake she now knew was a horcrux.
At the base of that same tree there was an alcove she circled suspiciously before getting on her knees and digging furiously. As she dug, she felt the movement of a human hand, and like in Petunia's garden, the girl she was chasing surfaced and snatched at her greedily until she plunged the fang into the dirt. She struck it repeatedly, blood pooling under the dirt and soiling the knees of her jeans. Lizzie didn't know what she was seeing. She heard snakes and an all-encompassing hiss that rang through her ears. She felt like she was sinking into the dirt and the air constricted in her lungs as though she was ponce again suffocating in Nadine's grave in Little Winging. She continued to plunge the fang into the exposed face of the girl in the dirt until she succumbed to a level of deranged which nearly split her from her own body. Perhaps it was the blood loss from the severed artery that had made her disoriented, or perhaps it was the horcrux reaping it's only attempt at preserving itself. Lizzie staggered back to collect her breath and her mind when she saw the diadem in shambles where she had seen and mutilated the body.
Lizzie put the bloody fang in the pouch and tried to stand. She was breathing heavily and stumbling on her feet as her hand bled profusely. Somebody came up behind her and steadied her footing before grabbing her hand and quickly sealing the wound. Lizzie staggered around, disoriented, unsure if she were going to fall unconscious or vomit. Her head felt split in half. Voldemort was angry and knew she'd destroyed another. In her condition it was nearly impossible to keep him out her head, but she focused on that only, repeating Snape's lectures in occlumacy lessons while the man himself had her by the shoulders and slapped her hard to get her attention.
Lizzie focused on him and realized where she was. She tried to pry herself away but he held her firm and stared intently.
"Azalea," Snape said harshly. "Azalea!" Lizzie shook her head in wide motions and tried to think about what next.
"Are you done?" He asked. Lizzie frowned, confused. "The horcruxes, are you done?" He asked. Lizzie wasn't sure how to answer but nodded absently. Her mouth wasn't making words, her face pale, flushed, and astonishingly numb.
"Listen to me," he pled. Lizzie stared but it all felt like a haze. He looked around and pulled arms around her almost protectively gauging their surroundings. "You can't survive this, do you know that?" He asked. She didn't say anything. "Azalea!" He yelled. "Do you know that?" He growled with urgency. Lizzie backed away and felt suddenly enclosed by snatchers in the nearby trees. They were closing in and she was unarmed except the fang. Snape held up a hand for them to stop when Lizzie finally noticed the wound on hers was sealed.
There was a loud thud and growl that made the men jump. Trees came down nearby and the head of a large dragon peered through a very small clearing at the gathering. Lizzie's eyes widened into saucer plates, but she stood fixed in place. She could hear running from the trees in their direction as the men surrounding her ran the other.
The dragon approached slowly as Ron, Hermione, Seamus, and Neville came to halt behind her at the sight of it. Ron grabbed her arm.
"Did you destroy the horcrux?" He whispered, eyes fixed fearfully on the dragon. Lizzie nodded. There was a loud explosion behind them and they turned to see, through the trees, the wooden bridge come down and screams of dozens of men cascade with it.
The dragon bucked its head and roared into the air, casting the tops of several trees of fire with a fiery breath. They heard a swoop of a second dragon overhead and another land with a thud in a clearing on the other side of the forest.
"Charlie," Lizzie said so only Ron would hear. When she said it, a figure slid off the top of the beast and ran toward her.
"Christ," Charlie said, looking at her in disbelief.
"How?" She asked.
"I went to the straight and took a boat off shore to apparate to Romania after you left. I brought Sam and Travis and three dragons. We can wipe out their fleet," he said. Lizzie was speechless.
"They're already infiltrating the castle," Seamus said.
"We won't hit the castle, only the grounds. Then we'll guard the perimeter," Charlie clarified.
"Are you alright?" He asked, noticing how pale and disoriented she was.
"The snake," she said absently, turning to Ron.
"Get her up somewhere safe in the castle," Charlie told Ron and pushed them in the direction. Charlie kissed her on the mouth and retreated back to the dragon while Ron grabbed her arm and ran toward where the bridge would have been. Hermione spotted the bright white eyes of two thestrals in the moonlight and lured them over to mount and cross the lake back toward the castle. They hit the stone floors of the courtyard and dismounted, quickly passing through a slew of duels that were erupting around them and into the protective barrier that had been erected on the Great Hall.
Ron and Hermione sat Lizzie down and Poppy rushed over. "Lizzie? Honey?" She asked. Lizzie still felt disoriented and absent from herself. She was trying to keep out Voldemort and decending into nothingness in the process. If it were possible to physically feel the brain shrink, this was it. Poppy opened a vial and made her drink a potion while she checked her for other injuries. Lizzie felt like her cut hand was rotting in the way Dumbledore's had, but it was either her imagination or the magic that had protected that horcrux running through her bloodstream.
Lizzie faded into a subconscious where she stood in front of a familiar glass zoo exhibit. On the other side of the glass was Nagini and Lizzie spoke to her in parseltounge. Instead of her uncle approaching her from behind in the partial reflection of the glass, she saw Voldemort and turned to see the confines of the shrieking shack, not the reptile house at the London zoo. He lunged for her throat like a snake ready to attack, and Lizzie woke with a sudden startle. Blood was rushing back to her face.
"How long was I-?" She asked urgently.
"Not even five minutes, are you alright?" Poppy asked fearfully. Lizzie nodded, her vision wasn't blurred, her head didn't feel like it was wading water out to sea, and she had a good idea where the snake was.
"We need to go, I know where they are," she said to Hermione. Hermione clenched her jaw and nodded. They left with protest from Poppy and McGonagall, and the chaos had escalated quickly. Patronuses danced around the edges of the castle to ward off dementors. Death eaters were engaged in duels with several order members and DA students. The quidditch team was flying low to jinx them from above and Lizzie saw Alicia fall from her broom with a loud crack on the stone from a curse.
Oliver landed to hoist her up in a fireman's carry and run her into the Great Hall. Lizzie could see still bodies on the ground and looked out on the grounds to see a great deal of terrain lit ablaze as the dragons circled overhead.
Percy and Fred were dueling Wizard Order officers and the Minister of Magic, Pius Thickness near the outdoor corridor. Remus and Tonks were dueling Bellatrix and a death eater Lizzie didn't recognize. There was another loud crack and an explosion that sent everyone in the vicinity flat to the floor.
Lizzie could see Remus struggle through being partially buried in rubble. Percy screamed at the top of his lungs and Lizzie turned her reeling head, crawled over to see him digging, and watched him clutch at Fred's body who had been buried by the rubble. Ron hurried to help free Fred as well, but his body was limp with a gash to the side of his temple there was surviving.
Lizzie gasped for a breath of air and couldn't swallow back a raw sob. Hermione pulled her and Ron away as Bellatrix and Rockwood climbed the rubble to off the survivors. Percy shot a curse at Rockwood that brought him down as Bellatrix directed one at a feebly crawling Tonks that left her still.
Lizzie heaved panicked breaths, but Hermione pulled her onto weak legs through the corridor and they bolted toward the Whomping Willow, drums of grief and panic furiously beating in their ears as they dipped down the hidden tunnel. Lizzie's intense shock nearly convinced her that no matter what they accomplished down there or over the course of the evening would ever be worth the loss.
