Try not to cry.
Chapter 50:
It was clear, as the three of them stepped back into the corridor upstairs, that a lot had happened during Alicia's time in the Room of Requirement. The situation within the castle had deteriorated severely: The walls and ceiling were shaking terribly; dust filled the air, and through the nearest window, there were bursts of green and red light so close to the foot of the castle that the Death Eaters must be very near to entering the place. Looking down, Grawp the giant could be seen meandering past, swinging what looked like a stone gargoyle torn from the roof and roaring his displeasure.
"Let's hope he steps on some of them!" said Ron as more screams echoed from close by.
"As long as it's not any of our lot!" said a voice: Ginny and Tonks, both with their wands drawn at the next window, which was missing several panes were also looking down at the scene. Ginny sent a well-aimed jinx into a crowd of fighters below.
"Good girl!" roared a figure running through the dust toward them. It was Aberforth again, his grey hair flying as he led a small group of students past. "They look like they might be breaching the north battlements, they've brought giants of their own!"
"Have you seen Remus?" Tonks called after him.
"He was duelling Dolohov," shouted Aberforth, "haven't seen him since!"
"Tonks," said Ginny, "Tonks, I'm sure he's okay —"
But Tonks had run off into the dust after Aberforth.
Ginny turned, helpless, to Harry, Alicia, Ron, and Hermione.
"They'll be all right," said Harry.
But Alicia didn't feel confident.
"Ginny, we'll be back in a moment, just keep out of the way, keep safe — come on!" Harry said to Alicia, Ron and Hermione, and they ran back to the stretch of wall beyond which the Room of Requirement was waiting to do the bidding of the next entrant.
I need the place where everything is hidden, Alicia begged with every stride, backwards and forwards, before the door materialised on their third run past.
The furore of the battle died the moment they crossed the threshold and closed the door behind them: All was silent. They were in a place the size of a cathedral with the appearance of a city, its towering walls built of objects hidden by thousands of long-gone students.
"And he never realised anyone could get in?" said Ron, his voice echoing in the silence.
"He thought he was the only one," said Harry. "Too bad for him I've had to hide stuff in my time…"
"He's so stupid for someone suppose to be brilliant, I mean Draco used this room with the Vanishing Cabinet and he never realised." Alicia said looking irritated and mocking at the same time.
"This way," Harry said "I think it's down here…"
They passed the stuffed troll and the Vanishing Cabinet Draco Malfoy had mended last year, looking up and down aisles of junk. Harry it seemed couldn't remember where to go.
"Accio Diadem!" cried Hermione in desperation, but nothing flew through the air toward them. It seemed that, like the vault at Gringotts, the room would not yield its hidden objects that easily.
"Let's split up," Harry told the other three. "Look for a stone bust of an old man wearing a wig and a tiara! It's standing on a cupboard and it's definitely somewhere near here…"
They sped off up adjacent aisles, their footsteps all echoing.
Alicia closed her eyes as she paused and simply listened for a minute before she began to walk. She passed all sorts of junk in the towering pikes; bottles, hats, crates, chairs, books, weapons, broomsticks, bats…
Alicia followed the nagging at her and the feeling that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up grew more and more so. She turned a corner before a voice sounded through the echoing silence.
"Hold it, Potter."
It was Malfoy's voice.
Alicia paused as she pulled her wand out and began to ease her way towards the voice.
"That's my wand you're holding, Potter," said Malfoy
"Not anymore," Harry's voice sounded. "Winners, keepers, Malfoy. Who's lent you theirs?"
"My mother," said Draco.
Harry laughed, though it held little humour.
Alicia paused as she came to the end of her line and she peered around the edge. Draco was standing there, his hair as pale blonde as ever, and before him was Crabbe and Goyle, their shoulder's pressed close together and shielding Malfoy.
"So how come you three aren't with Voldemort?" asked Harry.
"We're gonna be rewarded," said Crabbe: His voice was surprisingly soft for such an enormous person "We 'ung back, Potter. We decided not to go. Decided to bring you to 'im."
"Good plan," said Harry in mock admiration. Alicia saw Harry moved backwards slightly. She could only just see him past the three Slytherins but she could also feel the Horcrux nearby. Harry must be near it, and he must know it too.
"So how did you get in here?" he asked, trying to distract them.
"I virtually lived in the Room of Hidden Things all last year," said Malfoy, his voice brittle. "I know how to get in."
"We was hiding in the corridor outside," grunted Goyle. "We can do Disslusion Charms now! And then," his face split into a gormless grin, "you turned up right in front of us and said you was looking for a die-dum! What's a die-dum?"
"Harry?" Ron's voice echoed suddenly from the other side of the wall and Alicia turned annoyed. "Are you talking to someone?"
With a whiplike movement, Crabbe pointed his wand at the fifty-foot mountain of old furniture, of broken trunks, of old books and robes and unidentifiable junk, and shouted, "Descendo!"
The wall began to totter, then the top third crumbled into the aisle next door where Ron stood.
"Ron!" Harry bellowed, as somewhere out of sight Hermione screamed, and Harry heard innumerable objects crashing to the floor on the other side of the destabilised wall: He pointed his wand at the rampart, cried, "Finite!" and it steadied.
Alicia turned instantly, out of her hiding place with her wand pointed, a jet of light shot from her and hit Goyle in the back. He collapsed over, stunned, as she vanished behind the wall again. Malfoy and Crabbe turned but missed her as she was already gone.
"You hiding then Alicia!" Crabbe sneered her name.
"Not like you could hit me if I wasn't." Alicia responded "Your brain doesn't work well enough for accuracy."
Crabbe must've made a move to do another spell for Malfoy's voice echoed loudly.
"No!" shouted Malfoy. "If you wreck the room you might bury this diadem thing!"
"What's that matter?" said Crabbe, tugging himself free. "It's Potter the Dark Lord wants, who cares about a die-dum?"
"Potter came in here to get it," said Malfoy with ill-disguised impatience at the slow-wittedness of his colleagues, "so that must mean —"
" 'Must mean'?" Crabbe turned on Malfoy with undisguised ferocity. "Who cares what you think? I don't take your orders no more, Draco. You an' your dad are finished."
"You might want to worry about the Diadem." Alicia said "It was hidden in this room by our precious Dark Lord. Hey Draco, remember how angry Voldemort was when we stole the cup from your aunt's Vault? And how angry he was when he learned your father threw away that diary and it got destroyed?" there was silence as she smirked. "This Diadem's just important. You know you'd be rewarded even more for getting it back to your master. More so than if you brought him Harry." Alicia chuckled "Too bad you're too stupid to know what a Diadem is."
"Harry?" shouted Ron again, from the other side of the junk wall. "What's going on?"
"Harry?" mimicked Crabbe. "What's going — no, Potter! Crucio!"
Alicia peaked out from her place to see Harry had launched for an ugly stone bust. Crabbe's curse missed Harry and hit the stone bust instead. Alicia saw the diadem upon it as it was soared upward and dropped out of sight within the gas of objects which the bust had rested.
"STOP!" Malfoy shouted at Crabbe, his voice echoing through the enormous room. "The Dark Lord wants him alive —"
"So? I'm not killing him, am I?" yelled Crabbe, throwing off Malfoy's restraining arm. "But if I can, I will, the Dark Lord wants him dead anyway, what's the diff — ?"
A jet of scarlet light shot past Harry by inches: Hermione had run around the corner behind him and sent a Stunning Spell straight at Crabbe's head. It only missed because Malfoy pulled him out of the way.
"It's that Mudblood! Avada Kedavra!"
Hermione dove aside, and Alicia was filled with anger.
"Don't you dare!" she shouted and both she and Harry shot a stunning spell at Crabbe, who lurched out of the way, knocking Malfoy's wand out of his hand; it rolled out of sight beneath a mountain of broken furniture and boxes.
"Don't kill him! DON'T KILL HIM!" Malfoy yelled at Crabbe who was aiming at Harry.
Malfoy jumped out of range of Hermione's second Stunning Spell, and Ron, appearing suddenly at the end of the aisle beside Alicia, shot a full Body-Bind Curse at Crabbe, which narrowly missed.
Crabbe wheeled around and screamed, "Avada Kedavra!" again. Ron and Alicia both leapt out of sight to avoid the jet of green light. The wandless Malfoy cowered behind a three-legged wardrobe as Hermione charged toward them.
"It's somewhere here!" Harry yelled and Alicia looked up. "Look for it while I go and help R —"
"HARRY!" she screamed.
Alicia looked shocked and she grabbed Ron up from the floor before they two turned and ran down the isle and towards Harry and Hermione.
"Like it hot, scum?" roared Crabbe as he ran.
But he seemed to have no control over what he had done. Flames of abnormal size were pursuing them, licking up the sides of the junk bulwarks, which were crumbling to soot at their touch.
"Aguamenti!" Harry bawled, but the jet of water that soared from the tip of his wand evaporated in the air.
"Fiendfyre!" Alicia shouted "Cursed fire! It can't be doused!" she shouted at her brother.
"RUN!"
Malfoy grabbed the Stunned Goyle and dragged him along; Crabbe outstripped all of them, now looking terrified; Harry, Alicia, Ron, and Hermione pelted along in his wake, and the fire pursued them.
"What is it?" Harry demanded of Alicia.
"It's cursed fire. It burns and eats away at everything it can! It's nearly impossible to control!" she shouted back "It's spirits of fire! It has a mind of it's own!"
As they turned a corner the flames chased them as though they were alive, sentient, intent upon killing them. Now the fire was mutating, forming a gigantic pack of fiery beasts: Flaming serpents, chimaeras, and dragons rose and fell and rose again, and the detritus of centuries on which they were feeding was thrown up in the air into their fanged mouths, tossed high on clawed feet, before being consumed by the inferno.
Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had vanished from view: Harry, Alicia, Ron, and Hermione stopped dead; the fiery monsters were circling them, drawing closer and closer, claws and horns and tails lashed, and the heat was solid as a wall around them.
"What can we do?" Hermione screamed over the deafening roars of the fire. "What can we do?"
"Wait!" Alicia said and she grabbed her bag and reached into it. The three watched as she pulled out Ron's Cleansweeper, and Harry and her Firebolts.
"Where did you got those?!" Ron demanded as he took his broom in surprise.
"I packed them before we ever left the Burrow, before the Wedding. I've had Harry's since we left Privet Drive, before we even turned seventeen." she grinned, even laughing slightly, as she perched on her broom, throwing her leg over it.
Ron pulled Hermione onto his broom behind him, Harry swung his leg over his and, with hard kicks to the ground, they soared up into the air, missing by feet the horned beak of a flaming raptor that snapped its jaws at them.
The smoke and heat were becoming overwhelming: Below them the cursed fire was consuming the contraband of generations of hunted students, the guilty outcomes of a thousand banned experiments, the secrets of the countless souls who had sought refuge in the room. There seemed no trace of Malfoy, Crabbe, or Goyle anywhere: Harry seemed to be searching for them as he swooped as low as he dared over the marauding monsters of flame to try to find them, but there was nothing but fire.
"Harry, let's get out, let's get out!" bellowed Ron, though it was impossible to see where the door was through the black smoke.
Alicia heard it as Harry did, a thin, piteous human scream from amidst the terrible commotion, the thunder of devouring flame.
"It's — too — dangerous —!" Ron yelled, but both twins had wheeled in the air.
They searched the the firestorm below, seeking a sign of life, a limb or a face that was not yet charred like wood…
And there they were. Malfoy with his arms around the unconscious Goyle, the pair of them perched on a fragile tower of charred desks, and Harry dived. Malfoy saw him coming and raised one arm, but even as Harry grasped it he knew at once that it was no good: Goyle was too heavy and Malfoy's hand, covered in sweat, slid instantly out of Harry's —
"You get one I'll get the other!" Alicia shouted to Harry.
And she dove down as well.
"IF WE DIE FOR THEM, I'LL KILL YOU, HARRY!" roared Ron's voice, and, as a great flaming chimaera bore down upon them. Ron moved beside Alicia and Hermione held the girl heave Goyle onto Alicia's broom. She grabbed the handle in one hand and Goyle's waistband in the other as Malfoy clambered up behind Harry.
"The door, get to the door, the door!" screamed Malfoy. Alicia pelted after Ron and Hermione with Harry behind her.
"What are you doing, what are you doing, the door's that way!" screamed Malfoy. Alicia glanced back to see Harry make a hairpin swerve and dived.
"Harry!" she shouted stopping. She coughed as she drew in too much smoke. But even through the smoke she saw what Harry was after, around them the last few objects unburned by the devouring flames were flung into the air, as the creatures of the cursed fire cast them high in celebration: cups and shields, a sparkling necklace, and an old, discoloured tiara —
The Diadem fell, turning and glittering as it dropped toward the maw of a yawning serpent, and then he had it, caught it around his wrist —
Alicia turned and shot off as Harry swerved again and shot of after her.
The door stood open, through the smoke as a rectangular patch. Ron and Hermione had already vanished through it and Malfoy was holding Harry in fright being Alicia as she shot her way out of it. Clean air filled her lungs and she pulled the broom to a sharp turn and a halt before dropping to the floor with Goyle, who was still unconscious. She coughed a few times, glad to have the clean air in her lungs as Harry and Malfoy shot over her head. Unlike her they smashed into the corridor wall and both fell to the floor below.
Malfoy was face down, gasping and coughing, retching. Harry rolled over and sat up just as the door to the Room of Requirement vanished. Ron and Hermione sat panting on the floor.
"C-Crabbe," choked Malfoy as soon as he could speak. "C-Crabbe…"
"He's dead," said Ron harshly.
"Stupid idiot, trying such a deadly spell!" Alicia hissed angrily. Still, it was a terrible way to go.
There was silence, apart from panting and coughing. Then a number of huge bangs shook the castle, and a great cavalcade of transparent figures galloped past on horses, their heads screaming with bloodlust under their arms. Harry staggered to his feet when the Headless Hunt had passed. The battle was still going on around them and there were more screams than those of the retreating ghosts.
"Where's Ginny?" Harry said sharply. "She was here. She was supposed to be going back into the Room of Requirement."
"I told you that wouldn't happen." Alicia said taking a breath before standing up too. She moved and collected the three brooms, shoving them back into her bag.
"Blimey, d'you reckon it'll still work after that fire?" asked Ron, but he too got to his feet, rubbing
his chest and looking left and right. "Shall we split up and look — ?"
"No," said Hermione, getting to her feet too. Malfoy and Goyle remained slumped hopelessly on the corridor floor; neither of them had wands. "Let's stick together. I say we go — Harry, what's that on your arm?"
"What? Oh yeah —"
He pulled the diadem from his wrist and held it up. It was still blackened with soot. A bloodlike substance, dark and tarry, seemed to be leaking from the diadem. Suddenly the thing broke apart in Harry's hands, and as it did so, there seemed the faintest, most distant scream of pain, echoing not from the grounds or the castle, but from the thing that had just fragmented in his fingers.
"Fiendfyre." Alicia said nodding and Hermione agreed, whimpering as she looked at the broken pieces.
"Sorry?"
"Fiendfyre — cursed fire — it's one of the substances that destroy Horcruxes, but I would never, ever have dared use it, it's so dangerous — how did Crabbe know how to — ?"
"Must've learned from the Carrows," said Harry grimly.
"Shame he wasn't concentrating when they mentioned how to stop it, really," said Ron, whose hair, like Hermione's, was singed, and whose face was blackened. "If he hadn't tried to kill us all, I'd be quite sorry he was dead."
"But don't you realise?" whispered Hermione. "This means, if we can just get the snake —"
But she broke off as yells and shouts and the unmistakable noises of duelling filled the corridor.
Alicia turned and her heart fell instantly. Worry filled ever piece of her. Death Eaters had penetrated Hogwarts. Fred and Percy had just backed into view, both of them duelling masked and hooded men.
Alicia was first to move to help the two Weasleys and she blocked a spell aimed at Fred.
"Hello my Dear." he grinned at her as Harry, Ron, and Hermione ran forward to help. She rolled her eyes before she shot a spell and one of the Death Eaters was blasted backwards. Jets of light flew in every direction and the man duelling Percy backed off, fast: Then his hood slipped and they saw a high forehead and streaked hair —
"Hello, Minister!" bellowed Percy, sending a neat jinx straight at Thicknesse, who dropped his wand and clawed at the front of his robes, apparently in awful discomfort. "Did I mention I'm resigning?"
"You're joking, Perce!" shouted Fred as the Death Eater he was battling collapsed under the weight of three separate Stunning Spells. Thicknesse had fallen to the ground with tiny spikes erupting all over him; he seemed to be turning into some form of sea urchin. Fred looked at Percy with glee.
"You actually are joking, Perce… I don't think I've heard you joke since you were —"
"Look out!" Alicia shrieked at the top of her voice, it breaking in her fear.
The air exploded. They had been grouped together, Harry, Alicia, Ron, Hermione, Fred, and Percy, the two Death Eaters at their feet, one Stunned, the other Transfigured; and in that fragment of a moment, when danger seemed temporarily at bay, the world was rent apart.
Alicia's wand hand acted on instinct as she reached for where Fred had been. She was blasted off her feet and collided with the softness of his body. She gripped her wand in front of her desperately, her other arm out to protect her face. There were screams around her from the others as they too were thrown away, none knowing what had happened to them.
And then there was stillness. Alicia felt a terrible pain in her arm and her abdomen. She felt, who she figured, was Fred beside her as she was covered in rocks and dust, buried slightly. The Corridor had been subjected to a terrible attack. Cold air explained that the side of the castle had been blown away. Alicia felt hot stickiness on her body and clothes as her right arm ached from her shoulder to her elbow.
She coughed and tried to move, she managed to push a rather large rock off of her but she contracted as she went to sit up. Something was wrong with her chest. She wouldn't have been surprised if she'd broken a few ribs or something. She managed to look down at her arm and saw it was bleeding, a gash just below her shoulder.
She whimpered at the aches, stings, burns and pains through her body but ignored them, she turned beside her, to the body that had held her as they were blown off their feet. She had to know, had to check, had to see, to be sure…
The red hair was beside her, and Fred's face stuck out of the dust and rubble. And dread filled her, every part of her went numb, but still she could feel as if her entire existent was breaking, ripping, the ground beneath her seemed to vanish and everything was gone, everything had broken, there seemed nothing left as she stared at him.
Fred then shook his head and coughed.
Alicia stared at him for a moment, as if she had imagined it but Fred looked around as if in a disarray for a moment and then looked down at her. He held her gaze, as if making sure she was there as well before he moved an arm and placed it on her cheek, just to be sure she was really real. It was as if he had feared for her as she had for him, and she knew he had.
When he seemed to have decided he wasn't dreaming and he wasn't imagining, he grinned.
"What would I do without you?"
Alicia took a breath and let her head fall back down as relief washed over her. He had been so still for that fraction of a second, seemed not right, that in that instant, in the calamity they were in, she had feared the worst.
"Never do that to me again." she managed to whisper.
I never said whether you'd cry in happiness and sadness.
I will not apologise.