"It's okay, Septima!" Harry called out as he struggled with the cloak and finally pulled it off his head. "I'm still here. Just covered by the cloak."
He pushed his glasses back up on his nose. There was a hiccup, then a sputter, and then the small group of wixen erupted into a giddy laughter that echoed off the cavern walls.
"Did it work?" Harry asked as he gasped for breath. He untangled the cloak from his limbs and stood up. "The vessel is gone? The cloak still works, right?"
"Yes! The vessel is gone!"
"We thought you vanished, but it was just the cloak!"
"It seems to still work!"
Their laughter bounced around them and then faded away.
"How will we know it was returned to the right place?" Harry asked.
"When it is restored, the one who took it will start to fade," Mr. Khan said grimly as his voice was projected against the wall where McCarthy was tied. "Ah, yes. He's starting to go."
The bound man struggled against the gritty surface of the cavern and uttered a strangled moan.
"Where is he going?"
"Wait! What about justice? He needs to pay for his crimes."
"A far worse fate than a cell in Azkaban awaits him."
At this, McCarthy let out an anguished cry.
"Don't you need him to prove that it wasn't you who attacked the Center?"
"I hope my memories will be sufficient. And there's nothing I can do at this point." Mr. Khan sounded exhausted. "Can we find Aminah now?"
"We're just going to let him go?" Septima asked. "We don't even know why he wanted to hurt us."
"He wasn't trying to hurt you or even the Center. You all were just in his way. He wanted to hurt me; ruin me in every conceivable way."
"But if he just disappears, how can you prove your innocence?" Healer Jordan asserted again.
"That's right, Javad!" McCarthy's raspy gasp divagated from his corner of the cavern. "You think you've won again, but is I who has triumphed! You'll be the one rotting in an Azkaban cell. As you should be… overreaching Paki! You never knew when to stop. Never knew your place. You're everything that is wrong with this world. And I did it. I made you do the most unforgivable thing—you blinded your own daughter. I'll get your lands yet. Just you see. This isn't over. Ha! And everyone believed you did it… because you're just a filthy towel-wearing terrorist!"
"I will not give you the satisfaction of going to your eternal retribution thinking that you had the upper hand. You did not. Yes, Aminah has suffered this year because of you and no less for thinking that it was I who did it to her. But once I'm free of you, I'll be able to reverse the curse that robbed her of her sight. I did it to protect her from you!" Mr. Khan said with raw defiance.
"No! You lie! No! I had you under the Imperius Curse! It's not possible!"
"It was hard; the effort of it nearly killed me, but I was able to break through enough at times… when it mattered most… to protect my family and other innocents."
"I curse you, Javad."
"Yet, you only cursed yourself, in the end," Mr. Khan sighed. "What a waste. And for what? Petty jealousy? Greed? I still don't understand why you needed to grind me underfoot. You who had every privilege handed to you on a silver platter!"
"No! You're lying! It can't be! It's my right! My birthright! You are nothing! I'm the one who deserves… " The echo of McCarthy's tormented cry faded from the room and everyone was silent. All Harry could hear was the gentle lapping of water against the sides of the pool.
"Well, I think that will serve as testimony enough to clear you, Javad. I'll add my memories to yours and I think you'll be fine," Healer Jordan said with a weighty sigh.
"What happened to him?" Harry asked.
"He's gone." Mr. Khan said. "He will burn for eternity in Ahura Mazda's flame, but the light will not shine upon him. His soul will only know darkness and pain. He has reaped what he sowed—literally."
"There's no way he's coming back?" Septima asked.
"No, there's nothing anyone can do for him. He tampered with magic he didn't understand fully. I tried to warn him, but why would he listen to me? He couldn't see beyond my brown skin, couldn't hear the truth in my accented English; he thought his magic was stronger than the old magic that has resided in the bones of our world since it formed out of nothing eons ago." Mr. Khan's words fell heavily around them.
Harry shuddered and gathered up the cloak. He stuffed it into his pocket and grabbed his wand. He used the navigation spell to locate his broken cane and then repaired it. Flicking his wand back into the holster, he was relieved that it was working again. The siphoning energy of the null vessel was truly gone. Harry felt more like himself than he had in a long while. He shook his head. He had no idea how long they had been battling this force. He almost flicked out his wand again to check the time, but then decided not to. His stomach rumbled. He was sure they had missed a meal or two and knowing wouldn't make it any easier.
"Hey, Harry! That's quite the improvement!" Septima commended. "Your cane looks like a prism."
Harry tapped it on the cavern floor and was relieved that it held together. "As long as it works! Let's go see if we can help those people who are trapped down here! Maybe Nio has been able to get my message to them."
Harry held his arm in front of his head as Godric had taught him and felt carefully for the low hanging lintel, passing through to the larger cavern where it was blessedly warmer. The others followed him as he retraced his steps to the place where he'd heard the voices.
Harry heard the sibilant voices of snakes before he could discern what they were saying.
"Oi! You weren't kidding!" Mr. Khan exclaimed as Harry knelt to greet the snakes.
"Greetings, Saoirse," Harry said to the small snake who called out to him. "Has Nio returned?"
"Not yet, Sthei," Saoirse said. "Soon."
Harry told the others.
"That's simply incredible," Mr. Khan exclaimed. "A parselmouth. What a rare gift."
"Harry, where were the voices coming from?" asked Healer Jordan.
"From behind this wall," Harry said, reaching forward and tapping it with his cane. The cane made a clear tinging sound as if weren't made of aluminum, but of crystal. The sound rang clear and true.
There was an answering tap through the wall… the-shave-and-a-haircut knock that Harry had used earlier. He tapped, "five-bobs" in response and the muffled voices shouting through the earthen wall could be heard again.
"We've got to hurry!" Harry said. "They sound weaker than the first time I heard them. They must be running out of air!"
Just then Harry heard Nio's distinctive hissing and he knelt down by the wall and called to his friend, "Little Friend, I'm here!"
"What is it?" Healer Jordan asked.
"Nio's back."
"He's carrying something in his mouth," Septima said, taking a step back.
Harry put his hand down on the dirt floor and Nio slid over his palm to curl around his wrist, then dropped the small roll of parchment into his hand. Harry ran his fingers over the roll, but couldn't distinguish any braille. He held it out in Healer Jordan's direction and she took it from him, the paper crinkling as she unrolled it.
"What does it say?" Mr. Khan asked with a tremulous voice. "Is Aminah with them?"
Healer Jordan sucked in a breath and read them the note: "Help, no air."
She pivoted, her hard heeled boots grinding out over the rock-strewn floor as she moved away from the wall. "Everyone move away from the wall. Yes, that direction. Harry, cast your shield charm around the three of you. I'm going to blast through the wall."
Harry called out in Parseltongue to the snakes, warning them to leave the area and listened for their retreat. He transferred Nio to his neck and flicked out his wand to cast the shield charm.
"Prisms?" Mr. Khan asked in awed tones.
"Perfodi petram," Healer Jordan incanted.
The ground shook as rocks tumbled to the cavern floor and dust choked the air. The noise of the stones grinding against stones continued to reverberate off the walls around them and the ceiling of the cavern high above. The high pitch of the scraping stones set Harry's teeth on edge as he held the shield charm in place against the rocks that bounced off of it.
"I think she's nearly through," Mr. Khan reported. "The people in there—they'll know to get away from the wall, right?"
Septima was coughing and Harry had pulled his T-shirt over his nose and mouth to act as a filter for the dust. Nio had slipped down into his shirt and was writhing around as he settled into a spot underneath Harry's navel.
There was a whooshing sound as air from the cavern was sucked through the hole that Healer Jordan made. She ended the digging charm and started vanishing the rubble. Harry ended his shield charm and the three of them knelt around the entrance of the tunnel calling for their friends and reaching in to help them out.
"Abu? Is that really you?" Aminah's voice carried through the tunnel, breaking with emotion.
"Habibti! Grab my hand. We can get you out of there! How many are with you?"
"Gemma and Peter. Hold on. We've got to get Peter out first. He's hurt. I'm going to send him through. My wand works again!"
Harry could hear Peter's guttural cries as he moved through the tunnel. It sounded like he was in a lot of pain.
Septima groaned as Mr. Khan and Healer Jordan helped pull Peter out into the corridor.
"What happened to Peter?"
"It looks like his arm was crushed; oh, his hand! It looks bad."
"Ah, we may have to regrow his bones," Healer Jordan said. "We'll need to get him up to the clinic quickly."
"Does he know that he's safe?" Harry wondered as Peter flinched away from his touch. "Does he know we're friends?"
"I'll tell him," Healer Jordan said, her boots grinding pebbles beneath her soles as she moved around to Peter's other side. "Careful. His hurt arm."
Harry sat back on his heels, his breath trapped in his throat. He wanted to assure Peter that he was going to be okay, but he was afraid of touching him and hurting him worse. Then he had a thought.
"My tears," he gasped. "My tears… they have healing… maybe they can heal him."
"Go ahead and try it, Harry," Healer Jordan encouraged.
Harry pinched the inside of his elbow hard enough to bring tears to his eyes and caught the wetness on his fingertip. He held his hand out to Healer Jordan who guided it gently toward Peter's hand, pulling him across Peter's body, then turned his finger down until it came in contact with Peter's blood-covered skin.
Peter drew in a deep, shuddering breath and then let it out slowly with a moan.
"Did it work?"
"Brilliantly, Harry. Just brilliant," Healer Jordan assured with a tone of awe in her voice. "I don't think we'll have to use Skele-grow after all."
"What just happened?" Mr. Khan asked.
"I'll explain later," Healer Jordan said. "I'm going to levitate Peter and transfigure some rocks into blankets to make sure he doesn't go into shock. He needs to rest in the Center. Help the others out."
Harry took a moment to tell Peter that he was safe and that he would be okay. Peter replied that he was so glad to be out of the cave and signed "Thank you, thank you," repeatedly. Harry turned back to the tunnel and found Septima's back. She was hunched over and reaching through the hole in the wall.
"Who's coming through?" Harry asked as he knelt beside her.
"I think her name is Gemma," Septima said.
Then Gemma's arms were flung around Harry's neck and she was knocking him over so that they were both sprawled on the cavern floor, rolling in the dust. Harry lifted her off him, afraid that Nio was going to be crushed. He fished the little snake out from his shirt as he sat up.
"Gemma! Are you all right?" he shouted in surprise, then remembered that he needed to cast the writing spell. He transferred Nio to his neck and flicked out his wand to cast the spell. He could feel Gemma signing in the air in front of his face.
"Just a second, Gemma!" he signed and then found her hands so that he could figure out what she was saying. Her hands were clammy and her signing frantic. He asked her to slow down, but she didn't seem to register that he wasn't able to understand her.
He pulled her into a hug and traced a rhythmic circle on her back as she shuddered in his arms, wetness trickling into the crevices in his neck as Nio slid around trying to find a drier perch. He held on to her tight as her emotion threatened to open the floodgates of his own fears. Behind her, he listened as Aminah was pulled through the tunnel and embraced by her father. Even Healer Jordan seemed to be overcome with emotion.
"My habibti! I didn't think we'd get this chance. Oh, how I've missed you! You're all right? Not hurt?"
"Abu! It's really you! You're here!"
"I can lift this darkness from your eyes, once I get my wand back," Mr. Khan said. "I'm so sorry that I had to do it, but I'll be able to reverse the curse."
"What?" Aminah exclaimed. "You mean I'll be able to see again?"
"Yes, my habibti. I'm so sorry you had to suffer for so long."
"Mr. Khan, I know you want to rectify the curse as soon as possible, but it can wait until we've had a chance to make sure everyone is okay. We need to return to the Center. Aminah has lived with her blindness for nearly a year now… it'll be a shock to her system to restore her sight. Let her get used to the idea first. We've all been through an ordeal and need time to heal and process; you as well," Healer Jordan said. "The strain of resisting the Imperius curse; you need to recover before you attempt the countercurse."
Harry had been so focused on Gemma trembling in his arms and the conversation between Healer Jordan and Mr. Khan, that the noises of scuffling of many feet on the gravel-covered floor across the expanse of the cavern didn't register in his consciousness right at first, but then a shouted curse echoed against the walls. Harry pulled Gemma down to the floor as he felt something whiz by his head. She stiffened, unaware that there was a new threat and tried to crane her neck around to see what was happening.
Mr. Khan cried out and fell to the floor heavily while Aminah screamed—terror ripping the sound from her throat in an agonizing wail.
"What's the meaning of this!" Healer Jordan demanded, her voice carrying across the space. Near where Mr. Khan had fallen there was a struggle and both Aminah and Septima were shouting, but Harry couldn't figure out what was going on.
The footsteps of many people thundered through the cavern and it sounded as if they were coming from all directions.
"Is it an army?" Harry asked. "Why are they attacking us?"
Gemma jumped up and ran over to where he could hear Aminah sobbing.
"I can't believe this! It's the Aurors," Healer Jordan said. "They have tied up Javad… Mr. Khan."
She pivoted away from Harry and shouted, "You've got the wrong man! He's innocent!"
Their feet crunched the gravel as they neared and Harry realized that what sounded like an army at first was only a handful of people.
"Javad Khan, we apprehend you and take you into the custody of the Ministry of Magic on suspicion of grievous assault of a child and the endangerment of many citizens of a wizarding establishment. You do not have to speak as anything you do say may be given in evidence, but not speaking in your own defense could also harm you. We caution you to think before you speak," a man with an officious sounding voice stated. Harry was pretty sure it was not Auror Robards who they had met earlier, but someone who sounded eerily like him.
"Please listen! I am Healer Jordan of the Perenelle Flamel Adaptation Center. This man, Javad Khan is innocent. He was under the control, through the use of the Imperius Curse, of Bill McCarthy. I have evidence to present. Please do not harm him." Healer Jordan spoke in calm tones laced with steel. The air was charged and the elation that they had just been feeling when their friends had been freed from the cave had shattered around them. Harry felt as if the earth were tilting and he was in danger of falling off.
"We have our orders. This wizard is a wanted fugitive. You can present your evidence at his hearing!"
"No, you can't!" Aminah cried. "He's my father! Please make them stop! You can't do this!"
There was more scuffling and grunts as people struggled. Nio shifted and squeezed Harry's neck as he watched the chaos unfold. Harry swept his hands over the floor trying to locate his cane that he'd laid down when he was helping Gemma through the tunnel. He found it and stood up, tentatively moving it in a small arc in front of him, trying to find out who was near him.
Mr. Khan must have been hit with a silencing charm because he hadn't made a noise since the spells that imprisoned him had trussed him up.
"This is ridiculous! We need your help. Several of our residents were injured in the attack on the Center and we need to make sure they are safe. This is not the wix responsible for the assault. Mr. Khan helped us remove the vessel that created the null zone. That's why you were able to enter the Center! Without his help, we would have been…" Healer Jordan was cut off midsentence by another Auror who was barking orders, seemingly oblivious to the case that Healer Jordan was making or to Aminah's pleas. Septima joined in the protests and all the shouting and grappling made Harry take steps back as he tried to avoid getting hit by flailing arms, but he was whacked anyway and stumbled against the wall. His cane clattered to the ground.
"These leg-walkers are mad!" Nio hissed. "Who let them down here?"
"Silence all of you!" A female Auror roared. "We'll take you into custody as well if you continue to interfere with this arrest!"
"We assure you that we trying to cooperate," Healer Jordan stated with more calm than Harry thought was possible. "And you're arresting the wrong… "
One of the Auror's uttered another spell as Healer Jordan was speaking and her words were eclipsed. Septima screamed in outrage and she, too, was silenced.
Gemma had pulled Aminah over to where Harry was standing, scooped up his cane and pressed it against his hand. Harry heard another Auror start to encant a spell and he cast his shield charm around their huddled group. Something bounced off the surface of it.
"Not the children, you fool. Can't you see they are all… er… residents. Here, let's get this lot to the Ministry and we can sort it out there."
Aminah was hiccuping and sniffling. Harry used his free hand to sign into Gemma's hands, "Peter? Okay?"
"Yes," she replied, her closed fist making a nodding motion under his hand. "Let's go."
"We can't let them take my dad to the Ministry! What if I never see him again?" Aminah moaned.
Gemma put her arms around Aminah to guide her along the path through the cavern, following the group of Aurors who were apparently levitating Healer Jordan, Mr. Khan, Septima, and Peter. Harry kept the shield in place as he walked behind them, using his cane to stay close. All the while he rolled scenarios through his mind, trying to think of ways that they could convince the Aurors to let Aminah's dad go.