Snowbyrd

Final Chapter

RudolphTheRedNosedDolly

Byrd looked at the graveyard, hidden by a large, thorny bush. She bit her lip as she pulled out yet another sharp thorn. She had been waiting there for hours, watching the empty cemetery. She shivered and wished she had thought to bring her jacket to her hideout. Dusk was approaching, and Byrd watched the graveyard closely. All of her dreams had taken place at nighttime, so maybe they only came out at night? It didn't seem likely, but it was the only hope Byrd had. She really didn't have a plan, but she had been practicing her spell. It was going pretty good, as far as Byrd could tell. She had also remembered a spell Hermione had done a few times, Scourgify. It had made all of their food disappear after they were done eating. Byrd hoped that with these two spells she could free her parents.

Footsteps broke Byrd out of her reverie. She looked up, wincing as another thorn pierced her leg. The woman came into sight and sat on the gravestone Byrd had seen in her dreams. The rat man, or Peter, also appeared, leading two woman. Byrd barely suppressed a gasp when she saw one of the women was her mom. Ropes encircled their upper body, and when Peter led them to a tree, he pointed his wand at them and more of the thick black ropes snaked out and tied them to it. Then, another man and a woman came, levitating someone in front of them. When they passed her, Byrd could see it was her dad. He was limp, floating there, and a trickle of dried blood was next to his mouth. His eyes were shut. Byrd couldn't breathe as she saw him pass. Her heart missed a beat. Was he still alive?

The man lay him down on the ground and the woman produced more black ropes. The woman with black hair stepped forward and faced Byrd's mom.

"We wanted you to get a good view of this. We wouldn't want you to miss your own husband's execution, would we?"

Byrd almost gasped. She stopped herself just in time. She had to stay hidden, for now at least. Her mom glared at the woman. "You're pathetic, Bellatrix. You couldn't even capture him until you were twenty against one! And now you need to kill him while he's unconscious!" The woman, Bellatrix, slapped her. She started to bleed where Bellatrix's hand had hit her cheek. The other woman, one with long blonde hair, was about to say something but Bellatrix gagged them both.

"Silence, Lovegood! We need to get on with this!" Bellatrix then walked over to Byrd's dad. He was still unconscious. She turned his foot over with contempt.

"Hard to believe you, boy, finished off the Dark Lord. But now no more. And Ginny, you were right. It would be too easy to let him die without knowing it! Alecto, wake him."

The woman stepped forward and whispered, "Aguamenti." Water poured from her wand and onto Byrd's dad's face. Byrd made a mental note of the spell. Her dad tried to sit up, coughing and spluttering, but he was pushed back down by Bellatrix's foot. He looked up, his eyes as hard as ice.

"Decided whether to kill me yet, Bellatrix? We all know you don't have the mettle for it."

Bellatrix smiled dangerously. "Actually, yes, I have decided, Potter. You are laying on your execution site now."

Potter said nothing. Bellatrix smiled her dangerous smile again. "Well, why are we waiting around here? I think we've had enough chit chat time. Good-bye, Potter!" She raised her wand, high above her head.

"Ava-" Byrd screamed. Bellatrix paused in midmotion.

"What was that? Amycus, check it out!"

Potter smirked. "Got to send him to do it? Is Bellatrix afraid?"

Bellatrix growled but did nothing, watching Amycus closely. Byrd gulped. Amycus was coming closer. She frantically searched her brain for what to do. She pulled out her wand as Amycus lit his wand and pointed it towards the bush.

"Hey! There's some liddle girl-"

"Scourgify!" Byrd yelled. Amycus pulled back, but the spell could not miss. His face turned pink and he clawed at his eyes as bubbles came out of them.

"Aargh! I'll kill 'er! Where is she?"

The woman called Alecto sprang forward. Byrd launched herself at Alecto and they both fell down.

"Expelliarmus!"

Byrd's wand went flying out of her grasp. She gasped and snatched Alecto's and yelled, "Aguamenti!" Gallons of water poured onto Alecto's face and she closed her eyes, trying to get her wand back. Byrd wriggled out of her grasp and Alecto fell forward into the thorn bush, thrashing. But the more she tried to get free, the more tangled she got. Byrd turned around and faced Bellatrix, who was looking at her with an awestruck expression, which quickly turned into fury.

"You little brat! Avada Kedavra!" The spell barely missed Byrd as she dove behind a tombstone. She peered over the top of it and saw Bellatrix coming closer. She scampered away behind another gravestone. A jet of red light destroyed the tombstone Byrd had just been behind.

"Come out, come out!" crooned Bellatrix, destroying another headstone. Byrd scurried behind another one, leading Bellatrix farther and farther into the cemetery. Just get her away from my parents, thought Byrd. She was creeping backwards, keeping an eye on Bellatrix's rampage, when she felt something cold and unyielding behind her. She turned around and found she had run into a fence. Byrd looked around for another way out. Just then, the gravestone in front of her exploded. Bellatrix appeared right in front of her.

"Got you now, little girl. Avada Kedavra!" Byrd screamed again and dove out of the way. The fence behind her melted. Terrified, Byrd ran as fast as she could, not looked where she was going. Spells whizzed past her. Suddenly, she fell. She looked at what had tripped her. It was her dad. He was trying to say something. She ripped off the gag.

"Untie me! Relashio!"

With shaking hands, Byrd pointed the wand at his bonds.

"Relashio!"

Just then, Byrd felt herself flying backwards. She hit a tree and fell down. She realized she didn't have her wand anymore. Everything ached. She looked up to see Bellatrix standing over her, smiling that dangerous smile. "Well well well, what do we have here? A little trapped bird! Do you know what we do with little trapped birds, Alecto?"

Alecto came stumbling over, pulling out thorns. "Aargh, kill 'er! Lookit what she did to Amycus!"

"No! Let me see the girl!" A very different voice filled the graveyard. It made the hair on the back of Byrd's neck stand up. A pearly white figure floated towards them. It was of a man. But this man had a serpentine face with two slits for nostrils. His eyes were searching Byrd's face intently.

"Wh-what do you mean, my Lord?" asked Bellatrix.

"Look at her. And then at the Weasley girl. Do you not see any resemblance?"

Bellatrix peered into Byrd's face, then at Ginny's. She gasped. "Do you really think-"

"Yes, I do. We have Potter's child!" interrupted the ghost.

"What are you going to do know, Potter?" She faced him, smirking. The smirk died away when she realized he was pointing his wand directly at her heart.

"Crucio!" Before Bellatrix could raise her own wand, she was borne into the air, writhing. She fell, slamming against a tombstone, and was still. The other man and woman turned around, but Potter sent them flying, too. Finally he faced the ghost. It spoke.

"Surprised to see me, Potter? Thought I was dead for good, didn't you. But here I am, and there's nothing that you can do to me!"

Potter glared at the ghost. "And there's nothing you can do to me, either. So we're square. And there's every person in the village coming right now."

"What do you mean? Everyone is asleep! I and my Death Eaters will have disappeared long before the idiots of this village wake up!"

By way of answer, Potter simply pointed at the sky. Only then did Byrd notice the pink tint on the horizon. As they watched, it grew. The ghost screamed. "Potter, I will be back for you! You cannot hide from me now!"

Potter laughed. "When you controlled Britain you still couldn't find me! But I won't have to worry about you. These three are all that is left of your following! And notice that every one of them is unconscious in the middle of a village full of skilled wizards. You are alone, Voldemort!" Voldemort raised his arm as if to send a spell at him, but lowered it. His face was livid, but he turned around and flew away as fast as he could. Finally Potter turned towards Byrd. He looked disbelieving.

"We left you with the muggles! We thought we'd never see you again! How'd you know?" Byrd felt nervous looking into the face of her father, the father she hadn't known she had until a couple weeks ago.

But before she could answer, a rock hit Potter's head. He turned around, brandishing his wand, and found himself facing the two woman tied to the tree. "Oh yeah!" said Potter, and he released them, a bit sheepishly.

"Finally!" panted Byrd's mom. "Those ropes hurt!"

"How 'bout you, Luna? You okay?" The woman with the blonde hair nodded.

"The worshinkles protected us, I think." she said. Potter nodded. Her mom came over and hugged Byrd.

"Harry, I came to her a couple months ago. I know it was risky, but if they had put the plan into action, those all would have been lost! That's how they captured me. At least she got to the Burrow okay. But how she found out about the graveyard, and us being here..."

All three of them looked at Byrd. She explained. "I had these weird dreams of you here. They were so real, it was like-"

"Like you were really there." finished Potter.

"How did you know?" Byrd was confused.

"I had those dreams, too. They were from Voldemort's mind. He learned to shut me out, but you might have inherited it...If he didn't know about you, then he wouldn't have been able to shut you out, would've he?"

"But Voldemort's a ghost!" protested Luna.

"Yeah, but do we really know that they would stop working when he died? His ghost is his soul, after all. And the soul was what connected us."

Byrd's brain began to ache. "Weird. But now we're free! But how's everybody at home? Is the Order still going? I haven't seen them in so long!"

Byrd piped up. "You mean the Order of the Phoenix?"

"Yes."

"They're waiting for you. They thought you were dead, until I told them about seeing you."

Potter smiled longingly. "It's been a long time since I've seen Ron and Hermione."

Ginny smiled and retrieved two wands from Bellatrix's still form. She tied the three Death Eaters up with one wand and tossed the other the Luna. "Then I think it's time to go home!"