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"Foolish woman!" Tom ground out. "I told you to stay at the Manor!"

"And I told you I wanted to come."

He glared at me, red eyes blazing. "I will deal with you later."

There was a loud shriek and just like that, his anger at me seemed to fade.

"Bellatrix," he breathed and we both started in the direction the scream had come from.

With a horrible shatter, the head of the grand wizard's statue landed on the ground.

"Never used an Unforgivable Curse before, have you, boy?" Bellatrix screeched.

She was standing with her wand drawn, panting as her eyes darted around the atrium, looking for the boy.

"You need to mean them, Potter," she continued. "You need to really want to cause pain – to enjoy it – righteous anger won't hurt me for long - I'll show you how it is done, shall I? I'll give you a lesson-"

Turning to the edge of the fountain, she cried, "Crucio!"

But there was no scream of pain in return; all that happened was that the centaur's arm and bow fell off and crashed to the floor.

"Potter, you cannot win against me. I was and am the Dark Lord's most loyal servant. I learned the Dark Arts from him, I know spells of such power that you, pathetic little boy, can never hope to compete-"

"Stupefy!"

"Protego!"

The red light of the stunning spell bounced back towards the fountain and one of the goblin's ears fell off.

With a quick nod to Tom, I moved towards Bellatrix, who had again raised her wand. "Stop it now."

"You," she sneered.

"Me," I said before calling out. "Potter, I'm going to give you one chance. Give me the prophecy and I will spare your life."

"Well," the boy's voice called. "You're going to have to kill me, because it's gone."

"What?" I called incredulously.

"And he knows!" the boy yelled with a mad laugh. "Your dear old mate Voldemort knows it's gone! He's not going to be happy with you, is he?"

Bellatrix' eyes widened in fear.

"Elaborate, boy!" I demanded.

"The prophecy smashed when I was trying to get Neville up the steps! What do you think Voldemort'll say about that, then?"

I rounded on Bellatrix. "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything! The boy-"

"You were supposed to get it from him!" I snapped at her.

Bellatrix whirled around towards the fountain again. "LIAR!" she called out to the boy. "You've got it, Potter and you will give it to me! Accio prophecy! ACCIO PROPHECY!"

Again, the boy laughed and his empty hand appeared for a quick second behind the one-eared goblin. Furiously, Bellatrix sent a jet of green light flying at him.

"Nothing there!" he called. "Nothing to summon! It smashed and nobody heard what it said, tell your boss that."

"No!" Bellatrix suddenly screamed, eyes now turned away from the fountain. Tom had stepped from his hiding place, eyes blazing even more furiously than before.

"It isn't true," Bellatrix continued hopefully, "you're lying! MASTER, I TRIED, I TRIED – DO NOT PUNISH ME-"

"Don't waste your breath!" yelled Potter. "He can't hear you from here!"

"Can't I, Potter?"

"So," Tom said, slowly walking towards the boy. "You smashed my prophecy? No, Bella, he is not lying... I see the truth looking at me from within his worthless mind... months of preparation, months of effort... and my Death Eaters have let Harry Potter thwart me again..."

Bellatrix was outright sobbing. "Master, I am sorry, I knew not, I was fighting the Animagus Black! Master, you should know-"

"Quiet Bella," Tom ordered and she obeyed at once. "I shall deal with you in a moment. Do you think I have entered the Ministry of Magic to hear your snivelling apologies?"

"But Master, he is here – he is below-"

She caught my attention with that, but Tom paid her no mind.

"I have nothing more to say to you, Potter," he said quietly. "You have irked me too often, for too long. Avada Kedavra!"

My breath caught as the green light sirred forward – but it never reached its goal. The headless wizard's statue had sprung to live effectively pushing in between the boy and the deadly spell.

"What?" Tom screeched, staring around.

In front of the golden gates stood an old man, his wand raised and his blue eyes sparkling even in the dim light of the atrium.

"Dumbledore," I breathed.

Tom sent another jet of green light at the old man, who vanished and turned up again behind us. I whirled around only to find that the other statues were coming to live. The statue of the witch ran at Bellatrix, who screeched and tried to block it with a set of furious spells. They didn't affect the statue at all, though, and it dived and pinned Bellatrix to the ground.

"Get out!" Tom yelled at me before vanishing to avoid the centaur's statue that came running at him.

"No!" I called out as he appeared again, close to the pool. The wizard's statue had thrust the Potter boy far back from the fight about to occur.

"It was foolish to come here tonight, Tom," Dumbledore taunted. "The Aurors are on their way-"

"By which time I shall be gone and you will be dead!" Tom spat, sending another deathly spell at Dumbledore.

The old man flicked his wand; the force of the spell made me shiver as it passed me and Tom was forced to conjure a shield to deflect it.

"You do not seek to kill me, Dumbledore?" he called. "Above such brutality, are you?"

"We both know that there are other ways of destroying a man, Tom. Merely taking your life would not satisfy me, I admit – why don't you join us, Lorraine?"

I stepped forward and into the circle the centaur created by cantering around them. "Good evening."

"Oh, yes, it's a nice night, isn't it?"

"Depends on how you look at it."

"Stay away from him," Tom ordered swiftly.

"But you would grant me my chance, wouldn't you?" I asked lightly, twirling my wand. "See," I said, turning to Dumbledore. "The two of us have quite an issue.

I wonder how it is that you grant Severus Snape your help, even though he is provably a Death Eater, and you won't help me."

"You have to understand," he said calmly. "That my power is limited-"

"I don't care for excuses," I snapped. "You left me to rot in there for fifteen years."

"I know," he said slowly. "And you have to understand-"

"I don't," I interrupted him. "I don't understand, I never will. You have no idea what it's like, not knowing a single moment of happiness for so long that you forget all about who you are-"

"You may not understand me, but I understand you," Dumbledore said calmly. "And I tell you, I did save you – Barty Crouch was more than ready to let you suffer the Dementor's Kiss."

I opened my mouth and closed it again without uttering a single sound.

"I guess we can both agree that this would be a fate worse than death, which was arguably the worst thing that could happen to you in Azkaban-"

"There is nothing worse than death," Tom snarled furiously.

"You are quite wrong," Dumbledore said, still wondrously calm. "Indeed, your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been your greatest weakness-"

Another jet of green light flew towards Dumbledore. The centaur's statue flung itself in front of the old wizard; the spell hit it squarely in the chest and it shattered into a hundred pieces.

Dumbledore whipped his wand, creating a long, thin strip of fire that wound itself around Tom.

"Tom!" I cried, but without any visible effort, he turned the rope into a snake that let go of him immediately. Hissing, it turned towards Dumbledore.

Tom's hand closed around my upper arm and he disapparated, making us appear again out of the fire line.

"Go. Grab Bella and go!" Tom ordered.

"But-" I started.

"Now," he hissed before vanishing again. He appeared again on plinth that had been home to the statues before.

I ran as fast as my legs carried me. Bellatrix was still struggling against the statue holding her down. I whipped my wand, but the statue would not budge; I whirled around to see Dumbledore vanishing the attacking snake with ease.

"TOM!" I yelled. "HELP!"

He turned slightly towards me before suddenly the water rose, covering him like in a cocoon.

"Tom!" I yelled again.

Then he was gone and the water fell with the loudest splash, overflowing onto the floor.

"Master!" Bellatrix called out, the fright so very obvious in her voice.

The boy struggled to run past the statue guarding him, but Dumbledore ordered him to stay back. I looked around frantically – surely, he would not have left? He would not have fled and left me to the mercy of our enemies-?

Just then, the boy started screaming as though he was slaughtered right on the spot; Dumbledore gave a soft cry of despair and hurried towards him. With that, the statue flopped to the side, finally freeing Bellatrix who jolted upwards at once.

"Master?" she called again, but to no use. He was nowhere in sight, there was just the screaming boy and his headmaster-

"We got to go," I said sharply, tugging on her arm.

"No, I'm not leaving the Dark Lord, he-"

"He ordered us to go, Bella," I growled. "He will be fine-"

"Who are you?" she asked, looking at me almost disgustedly. "I thought you loved him."

I opened my mouth to retort, but I never got to do it. Across the hall, the boy started talking; but he did not sound like himself. It was surreal to hear that cold, high voice sounding from the boy's lips.

"Kill me now, Dumbledore. If death means nothing, then kill the boy..."

"Tom," I whispered, starting towards the pair.

I got to about the middle of the atrium before, my arms were suddenly seized.

"I told you to leave." He reached for Bella, grabbing her arm as well and with a final turn, he took us away.

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