Author's Note: I'll be completely honest here, the only reason I did that strange chapter title formatting throughout this story is so that I could setup this chapter title right here.
That said, I would never have gotten even this far if it were not for the support of many people over on the Harry/Fleur Discord server, the link to which will be at the end along with a fanfic recommendation. Thanks to DaveAthenai, Charlennette, and x102reddragon in particular for inspiring me and encouraging me to write these stories. If you enjoy the story please leave a comment telling me what you think worked and what didn't, your feedback is crucial in helping me to improve as an author.
Opus:
Magnum
"I want to learn how to duel."
Lucius and Narcissa glanced at each other, his mother arched an eyebrow and his father nodded.
"Alright, I suppose you can handle it with a year of Hogwarts behind you."
Draco stood, leaving his half-finished breakfast for Dobby to deal with and following excitedly in his father's wake. Lucius led him into the sitting room where he cleared out a large space with a wave of his wand. Narcissa walked in just as the furniture came to rest gently back down on the floor around the edges of the room and began immediately to cast spells at the walls, floor, and ceiling.
"Now Draco, duelling is a serious matter. Practising with your peers is one thing, but when you face off against an enemy you must be prepared for the chance that things will go wrong," said Lucius, standing tall and proud above him in the middle of the room while Draco looked on eagerly, his wand clutched tightly in his hand. "To that end, the best way to win a duel is not to get into one in the first place. There are always other, more efficient methods of dealing with one's enemies than direct confrontation, but if you must fight then it is paramount you do not engage first unless you are certain you can win. Do you understand?"
"Yes, father."
"Summarise it then."
"Real duels aren't like practising defence with my friends. The best way to win is to find a way around fighting, and I should only start a duel if I know I can win."
"Good."
Lucius smiled at him, a measure of pride peeking through his customary reserve.
"When mastering the basics of duelling, the most important thing to remember is your stance. A proper stance allows you to retain balance and remain firmly rooted so that your wand does not tremble or sway with the motions of your body…"
The lesson continued for perhaps half an hour, his father demonstrating the various stances and how to move his feet so that he could move quickly without compromising the precision of his wand motions. Narcissa looked on all the while from a spot by the window, watching carefully with her own wand in hand in case he fell. It was useful practice and fun once he started to get the hang of it, and he relished the looks of pride his parents gave him each time he performed the movements correctly, but he soon began to wish for more.
"Father, when will I start learning curses?"
"I'm afraid you aren't quite ready for that," he said. "The basics of movement are just as important as any spell, a duelist with only a small repertoire at their disposal can often defeat a more knowledgeable opponent simply by manoeuvring them into a position where they cannot maintain their balance or reliably aim their wand."
"But how can I duel if I don't know any spells at all?"
"You don't know any?"
Lucius sounded surprised.
"No, all we learned last year was theory," Draco said, looking away.
"It seems Quirrell was more useless than we realised."
There was a slight tinge of heat in Lucius' voice and Draco looked up expecting to see disappointment in his father's eyes, but instead he was looking off to the side where his mother stood. Draco followed his gaze and found a similarly annoyed expression on his mother's face, but she looked back toward him and it softened.
"No matter," she said, "We can teach you the basics."
"Yes," Lucius agreed. "It will be important for you to know how to defend yourself in the year to come."
Narcissa raised an eyebrow and Draco frowned in confusion, but Lucius did not elaborate.
They spent the next hour going over the disarming charm, the flipping jinx, and the body-bind curse. By the end of it, Draco felt both excited and overwhelmed.
"I think that's enough for today," said Narcissa.
"We've only been going for an hour and a half," Lucius said irritably.
"There is only so much one can learn in a day and retain it all, and Draco's physical stamina is not yet a match for yours."
Lucius frowned, glancing down at him as he tried and failed to suppress his heavy breathing, then nodded.
"Fine, but before we stop for today there's one last thing I'd like to show you."
The way he said it caught Draco's ear and he straightened in anticipation.
"Consider it a challenge, something for you to master before going back to school," said Lucius, taking a few steps back and brandishing his wand.
"Serpensortia!" he cried, flicking his wand in a manner like casting out a rope. Draco jumped back, momentarily startled by his father's shout, and then his eyes widened in wonder as a long black serpent burst from the tip of his father's wand and fell onto the floor in front of him.
"The serpent summoning charm," he said, flicking the tip of his wand forward and sending the summoned snake slithering quickly forward to wrap itself aggressively around the leg of a chair. "Summoning spells are advanced magic, Draco, but I'm confident in your ability to master this simple one."
"In a duel, it will divide the attention of your opponent and grant you an advantage as they either ignore it and continue fighting you, allowing the serpent to strike, or focus on the serpent and give you an open shot to disarm or bind them."
Draco stared at the serpent, his eyes wide and a broad grin plastered across his face.
"The serpent will respond to your commands, but only if you assert yourself properly. This is powerful magic and it must be respected," his father warned, his serious tone breaking through Draco's excitement slightly. "If you do not, then much like the serpent you summon it will recoil back upon you and you will fall victim to your own spell. Do you understand?"
Draco nodded.
"Good."
"Of course, there is another way to end a duel," said Narcissa, and Draco looked back to see that his mother had stepped up just behind him and was smiling over his head at Lucius.
"What might that be?" asked his father.
"Quite simple," she said, glancing down at him with an amused look on her face. "Pull the rug out from under them."
They were indeed standing on a large rug, and as Narcissa spoke she flicked her wand out in a blur of movement, the patch of rug under Lucius' feet jerked towards them, and he fell onto the floor with a grunt of surprise.
Draco's heart skipped a beat as he gaped at his father who was staring up at Narcissa with a strange gleam in his eye while she smiled back down at him. Then he smiled too and chuckled, getting to his feet and fixing his appearance with a quick flick of his wand.
"Well Draco, I believe that's enough for today. Go on, we'll pick this back up again tomorrow…"
~0~
Bellerophon's face was concealed behind his mask, but his eyes went wide in shock. His hand began to move toward a pocket, presumably containing his wand. Draco didn't give him a chance.
"Ossus Fragmen, Percutio, Contusio," he hissed. The bone-breaking, piercing, and bludgeoning curses leaping from the tip of his wand, the motions of each flowing into the next, and sped across the short gap to slam into Bellerophon, striking against a rippling golden shield that appeared suddenly as the red ruby sun in his pendant glowed.
Bellerophon staggered, slamming into the doorframe but managing to keep his feet as he finally brought his wand to bear.
"Expelliarmus!" he cried, his spell flying wide as he staggered half-standing against the wall.
But the flashes of light and Bellerophon's shouted incantation had not gone unnoticed. There was a sudden silence outside the room, the barely audible background hum of distant conversation vanishing as the assembled cultists in the central chamber began to perceive that something was amiss.
He cast another spell, summoning the stones underneath Bellerophon's feet out of the floor and sending him tumbling down with a grunt of pain. Draco was on him in a flash, standing over him with his wand pointed down between his eyes as his mind jumped immediately to the one spell he knew would penetrate the cult leader's shield for certain.
"Avada…"
Something inside him rebelled.
Bellerophon's eyes went wide with terror as Draco began the incantation, but the last word stuck in his throat. It was more than the fact he had never cast this spell on another person, he realised. It was the spell itself. There was something unnatural about the magic, about the way it levied his own soul against his victim's and exacted a toll on its wielder in exchange for its terrible power. Before, when he was merely a wizard, he would not have realised the price he was paying, but now… He felt his spirit begin to crack as the magic took its due.
He hesitated.
The terror in Bellerophon's eyes transformed to wild fury, and Draco realised too late how badly he had compromised his position by stepping in for the coup de grace without following through. He tried to move, to step back and bring his wand into line with the movements of a powerful shield spell after aborting the killing curse halfway through, but Bellerophon was faster.
A powerful banishing charm slammed into him. Fueled by rage and desperation, it was powerful enough to lift him off his feet and send him flying back across the room where he tumbled, just barely scrambling to his feet as he lost momentum from the throw.
Bellerophon had not been idle while he recovered. He stood, feet firmly planted and wand held out before him like a sword, his eyes wild and filled with hate.
"Diffin—"
But before he could complete the incantation for the cutting charm he was sent flying as a hand slammed into his chest with supernatural strength and lifted him, hurling him backwards through the door.
The Rebis stood by the now open doorway, a faint shimmer of light and heat surrounding them as they looked back at Draco, their next words barely audible over the sudden cry of alarm from outside.
"We need to move!"
He was already running, sprinting for the door just as the Rebis slipped out ahead of him. His hands slammed into the stone railing as he looked down into the central chamber where Bellerophon was surrounded by a huddle of cultists, some kneeling by his side, some looking around in panic, some staring up at the balcony in disbelief, their wands drawn.
They were staring at the Rebis, he realised, and the Rebis was staring back at them. These were the men and women that had pledged their lives to following their will, that had lifted up and worshipped them as the perfect ideal, and they were the flawed creation that had fooled them.
"THE REBIS HAS BEEN CURSED, ENSNARED BY THE SERVANT OF THE DECEIVER!"
More than a dozen faces flashed instantly from shock and awe to rage as Bellerophon's words sunk in, their combined gaze darting to look at Draco standing by the Rebis' side, and he ducked just in time to dodge a mass of hexes and jinxes which had been sent his way.
The spellfire intensified as those who had not already drawn their wands did so, shredding banners and hangings indiscriminately as it blasted support beams with sparks and gouged holes in stone walls and ceilings. The sound of thundering fate came from nearby, and Draco poked his head up over the balcony to see more cultists pouring in from the rooms surrounding the lower level and thundering up the stairs.
"Come on," he said, grabbing the Rebis' unnaturally hot wrist and pulling them further along the balcony, away from the incoming surge of cultists toward the final door he had seen at the very end of the balcony.
"The laboratories," the Rebis cried, seeing where Draco was leading them and darting ahead to open the door amidst the continued hail of spellfire.
"DO NOT LET THEM GET AWAY!"
Draco sprinted through the open door just as the first of the spells fired from across the balcony reached them, a blasting hex which struck the wall where his head had been a moment earlier.
The sound of their pursuers became an indistinguishable mass of shouting as Draco and the Rebis ran through the first of the laboratories proper, the door behind them slamming shut with a flick of Draco's wand.
Of all the repurposed areas in the ancient underground structure, this it seemed had seen the most renovation and expansion by the cult. The room they had entered was arranged almost like a private study, well furnished with signs of habitation by only very few people, but as soon as they passed through the door on the other side the old stone blocks and warm atmosphere gave way to magically smooth walls, floors and ceilings, an entire added wing of laboratories and workrooms filled with all manner of experiments.
The sound of their pursuit came from multiple directions now, and as the Rebis led him around a corner and down a short flight of stairs he realised that there was more than one entrance to this part of the cult's facilities.
They passed through a room filled with distillers, extractors, and refiners filled with all manner of metals, salts, and fluids bubbling away.
There was a room dedicated to the classical elements, experiments and practice exercises in elemental expression and unification dotting worktables.
They passed by a small chamber out of which a golden glow came, and Draco caught a glimpse of all manner of golden objects being tested and experimented on, galleons and ingots and suspended powders.
There was an apothecary, a potions lab, and even a hospital, though the heavy restraints on the beds made him doubt it was a place of healing.
Their pursuers caught up to them in a large chamber with multiple entrances, one long wall covered in vast glass tanks reinforced with brass and filled with all manner of clear, white, and yellow fluids in which were suspended forms of vaguely animal shape on which his eyes dared not linger for long.
Spellfire slammed into the walls and floors all around them as the Rebis led him through the laboratory. Once or twice a spell would strike the supernatural being and they would cry in pain as the effect took hold, but Draco soon learned why the cultists were so reckless in their attack despite the Rebis' presence as the wounded and damaged flesh began immediately to repair itself, a more refined version of the resilience imitated by the haemonculi.
He retaliated with spells of his own hurled over his shoulder and shields snapped into place as they passed, hindering their pursuers just long enough for them to make it to the next room.
There were more strange vats in the next room, and more in the one after that, and as they passed by them Draco realised they were becoming more and more humanoid. Finally, they came upon a massive, reinforced door leading into a dark room which the Rebis flung open with ease. Draco followed them, but he stopped short as he realised what this room contained.
The walls were lined with frosted chambers in which slept at least a dozen fully formed haemonculi.
The sound of pursuit was coming up behind them quickly, the short lead he had bought them rapidly slipping away, and Draco quickly closed and locked the massive door, charming it to deter pursuit and hoping the Rebis knew what they were doing.
He didn't have to wait for long.
Muffled shouts and spellfire came from the other side of the door, and his eyes widened in shock and no small amount of fear as the cultists bypassed the door entirely and began blasting away at the stone wall and door frame.
There was an inhuman grunt behind him.
He turned around and froze, a moment of blind panic rooting him to the spot as he saw at least half of the dozen Haemonculi stirring in their chambers, the glass shattered and warm air leaking in to rouse them from their slumber. The sound of breaking glass caught his ear and he stared in shock and horror as the Rebis smashed its supernaturally strong fist through the reinforced glass of another haemonculi's chamber, moving rapidly on to the next.
"What are you doing!?"
"There's a small door in the corner, just past the last sleeping vessel, get it open."
He looked past the last haemonculi to the corner and, sure enough, there was a narrow doorway there with all the same reinforcing as the one they entered through. The sound of cracking stone came from behind him and he glanced back to see the wall almost ready to give way, several chunks falling and letting light and noise peek in.
He moved.
Ignoring the waking monstrosities, he darted to the sealed side door and began casting a series of unlocking charms when it did not immediately open. The sound of a heavy, tree-trunk-like foot thudding onto stone rang out behind him as the Rebis appeared by his side and began pulling on the door which sprang open as he completed his fourth and most complex unlocking charm.
The main entrance collapsed entirely behind them, and Draco heard at least half a dozen roars and cries of pain as the massed spellfire began pouring in and slamming into the exposed and barely conscious haemonculi. Surprise and alarm began to join the cultists' shouts as he was shoved through the side door, and he could just hear several inhuman bellows of fury as the Rebis slammed it shut behind them.
"Come, that will not distract them for long."
He followed, winding through a narrow tunnel dotted here and there with similar reinforced doors which he presumed were emergency exits from the labs, and soon enough they came to the end of the corridor which opened up into a hallway they had passed by some minutes ago.
Sounds of violence and screams of fear emanated from the direction of the haemonculi lab, and they both stopped for a moment to stare down the hall in that direction before a great roar shook them from their stupor.
"Come on, we can get the stone while they're distracted."
"Agreed."
They moved, Draco following the Rebis as they led him into a broader corridor which suddenly switched from the smooth transfigured walls to hand-cut stones as they re-entered the main chambers of the underground hideaway.
There were three cultists waiting for them in the central chamber.
Draco recognised them as the trio he had seen Bellerophon speaking with earlier. Behind them, he saw Bellerophon standing over the pedestal in the chamber behind the gate, the massive haemonculi standing beside him.
"Step aside."
The Rebis' command slammed into Draco like a physical force, and the trio shuddered, two of them glancing at each other uncertainly, but the third stepped forward, a silver pendant bearing the alchemical sign of mercury gleaming on her chest.
"You will see his lies for what they are in time, Enlightened One, but I cannot allow you to pass until then. The Speaker's will remains clear."
The other two cultists, whose pendants bore the signs of salt and sulphur, glanced at each other once more and stepped forward as well.
"I am not the one being lied to."
Their faces hardened.
"We know the truth already, we will not be deterred."
They attacked.
Mercury struck first, a jet of acid spraying from the tip of her wand as Draco and the Rebis darted to either side where Salt and Sulphur stood waiting. Draco darted to the right and was immediately forced to throw up a shield as a blast of fire roared at him from the end of Sulphur's wand, while the Rebis dodged and weaved through a hail of stone spikes which Salt had called up out of the earth and banished toward them in quick succession.
Mercury's attention was on Draco first, and he was forced to abandon the cover of his shield as a bolt of corrosive magic shot toward him from her wand, conjuring a gust of wind to hold back Sulphur's flames as he ran.
"Pikrós Anemos," he spat, jabbing his wand in Sulphur's direction and watching in grim satisfaction as the blast of bitter, icy wind pierced through the rush of flames and scoured his face with cold and flecks of ice.
The jet of flame faltered and died as he stumbled back, clutching at his eyes with his free hand, but before he could take advantage of the opening he was forced back by a spray of steaming black fluid which flew at him from the tip of Mercury's wand. It began immediately to bubble and boil anywhere it touched, and the one drop which flew past his hasty shield and struck his arm ignited his flesh with immense pain as it ate through several layers of skin.
He cried out in pain and his shield faltered, but before Mercury could capitalise on his momentary weakness she was called back by a shout from across the room.
"Help!"
Draco glanced over at Salt and the Rebis and he saw that, in the absence of support from Mercury, Salt had been pressured by the Rebis and was now backed up against a wall, desperately trying to overwhelm them with a continuous stream of conjured, summoned, and transfigured debris which the Rebis either dodged or, in the case of the smaller projectiles, allowed to hit and ignored while maintaining their advance.
The Rebis had almost reached striking distance with Salt when they were suddenly pushed back by a billowing cloud of corrosive fog from the end of Mercury's wand.
The flow of the battle switched, Salt and Mercury pressing back against the supernatural strength, speed, and resilience of the Rebis while Draco pressed forward through Sulphur's defences.
Draco dodged a trio of firebolts shot from the end of Sulphur's wand and unleashed a powerful blast of sunlight from the tip of his own. Focusing it all onto Sulphur's face, Draco momentarily blinded him and ducked slightly as his opponent's explosive hex went wide. He cut the sunlight short and cast a second spell, this one enforcing a haze of unnatural darkness around his opponent to reinforce the impediment to his vision as Draco readied his next attack.
He stepped forward, a flame whip flickering to life from the tip of his wand, but before he could bring it lashing down on his opponent's wand arm he was forced back by a surge of bubbling pitch which cascaded across the floor between them.
He dodged backwards, narrowly avoiding Mercury's flesh-rotting curse as she refocused her attention on him once again.
A flick of his flame whip snatched a lob of acid out of the air, burning it to vapour mid-flight, but he was forced to abandon the deadly whip in favour of a gleaming shield as a gout of flame flew toward him from the now recovered Sulphur's wand.
The fight dragged on like that, Mercury switching back and forth between the separate duels of Draco and the Rebis to turn the tide at the last moment, and Draco felt the weight of every precious second wasted.
Their distraction with the haemonculi wouldn't last forever. More importantly, the few times he had been able to spare a glance toward their real objective beyond the large gate he saw that a bright red glow had begun encompassing Bellerophon who stood on the near side of the pedestal, blocking the stone from view.
"Rebis!" he shouted through gritted teeth, snarling in frustration as Mercury switched fights once again to push him back with a hail of spikes made from frozen acid.
The Rebis had realised their predicament as well, and they suddenly abandoned all attempts at defence as they charged away from Salt, giving their opponent free rein to attack as they closed in to grapple with Mercury, standing in the centre of the battleground. A trio of vicious stalactites thudded into their back and they let out an oddly musical cry of pain even as their arms closed around the shocked Mercury's torso, caught off-guard halfway through a turn as she looked back to see what the Rebis was doing.
"Scindo Vellere!" cried Draco, orienting the mass summoning on Sulphur and turning to face the partially pinned Mercury as the powerful charm called all manner of debris and acidic sludge to fly toward his opponent, distracting him for the brief moment he needed as he levelled his wand on Mercury and took aim.
"Tafod Haearn," he hissed, watching Mercury's eyes widen with grim satisfaction as the fae cutter flew at her, the silvery gleaming arc of caustic liquid iron sizzling as it bit into her neck and severed her head from her body.
Salt cried out in shock and horror as Mercury fell and Draco quickly sidestepped a massive spike of stone sent hurtling toward him, summoning the Rebis as he did so and sheltering them both behind a gleaming shield. Sulphur soon joined Salt's onslaught, and Draco was forced into pure defence for a few moments, shielding and deflecting and parrying all manner of attacks from the remaining cultists while the Rebis wrenched the earthen spikes from their back with grunts of pain, the wounds left behind closing in mere moments.
The Rebis darted out from behind the cover of Draco's shield as soon as they had recovered enough to run and rushed at Sulphur.
Sulphur, caught off guard by the Rebis' sudden charge and switch of opponents, panicked and sprayed a simple gout of ordinary flame into their path. They barely slowed, the fire only just potent enough to sear through the outer layer of their skin before the wounds closed themselves as they launched toward the fumbling cultist.
Following the Rebis' lead, Draco switched targets too.
He deflected the quartet of stone blocks Salt sent his way and cast a summoning charm on the unfortunate cultist's boots, pulling the legs out from under her and slamming her back into the stone.
"Fissil," he said, the tip of his wand tracing a tight loop pointed upward.
She heard the crack of stone and looked up in panic, fumbling for her wand and screaming as three massive chunks of stone fell from the chamber ceiling directly above her, the sound of her cry cut short as they slammed with a wet crunch into her.
A glance showed him that the Rebis had successfully dispatched their own opponent, and then another back the way they had come told him they were running out of time as the voices of the cultists began to get louder once again.
Draco turned back to look at the gate through the haze of smoke their battle and the smouldering hangings had produced and his eyes went wide. The red light from earlier was far stronger now, pulsing light a beating heart around Bellerophon's silhouette, and he could feel the power radiating off of him in waves even at this distance.
He felt a sharp stab of fear and looked over at the Rebis, but the only thing on their face was a fierce determination.
"Hurry, we don't have much time."
The gate was shut but not locked and they sprinted through to the round chamber on the other side. It was perhaps half the size of the central space, though with a much lower ceiling. The Rebis stopped, taking a moment to shut and lock the gate from the inside as a crowd of battered and bloody cultists along with several haemonculi spilt into the central chamber from the laboratory corridor, no longer at each other's throats. The gate shut with an unnaturally loud thud and a thin line of golden light crawled over its every inch like cinders burning through paper, reinforcing it and sealing them in.
"You are too late."
Bellerophon turned to face them, his eyes gleaming with madness and glowing with an inner red light, his voice echoing with power.
"The stone is mine."
Before either of them could react he whirled on the massive haemonculi standing beside him, slamming the stone clenched in his right hand into the middle of the monster's chest and sending it to its knees with a howl of pain.
Draco and the Rebis froze in shock as they watched glowing veins of blood-red light spread out from the glowing stone along the exposed flesh of Bellerophon's arm before spreading out along the haemonculi's chest as well. Glowing red energy cascaded across the alchemical abomination and it roared, its eyes burning with an unholy red light as it somehow grew even larger and its flesh began to bulge and writhe, sparks of crimson power arcing across its form as it slowly stood.
"I will not be denied," Bellerophon hissed, his unnaturally enhanced voice ringing off the inside of his angelic gold mask to echo strangely through the confined space.
There was a brief moment of calm, tension building in the air as the four combatants stared each other down, the sounds of the massed cult attempting with little success to break down the gate oddly muffled in the background.
Then they charged.
The haemonculi was the first to move, the nearly ten-foot-tall behemoth sprinting forward with unnatural speed as it roared, red energy crackling off of it in waves as it brought its herculean fists crashing down where Draco and the Rebis had been standing a fraction of a second before.
Like with the trio of defenders previously the two split up, Draco darting right and the Rebis left. Taking advantage of their own supernatural abilities, the Rebis attempted to dash forward to take out Bellerophon and end the fight early, but the Haemonculi reacted with equal speed and lashed out a hand, the arm it was attached to somehow stretching out to just barely reach the Rebis leg which it grabbed onto and pulled, flinging them in the opposite direction to slam into the wall where they fell and then immediately sprang up once again.
An overwhelming sense of urgency overcame him and Draco leapt backward, away from the surge of power he felt racing toward him just as a bolt of red lightning slammed into the floor where he had stood.
"Die now, puppet!"
Draco dodged once more, his eyes going wide as he saw another bolt leap from the stone clenched in Bellerophon's hand, and his mouth fell open in shock as he realised that Bellerophon wasn't holding his wand.
He brought his own to bear, conjuring the strongest shield he knew as Bellerophon thrust the stone forward and called a solid wall of roiling flame into being. It surged toward him, slamming into his shield with a deep boom and spilling over and past it to ignite the hangings on the wall behind him.
He dispelled his shield just in time to see Bellerophon carve his fist through the air in a vicious slice, and he lunged forward just in time to evade a near-solid blade of wind as it tore through the space behind him.
"Tafod Haearn, Plecto, Percutio!" he spat, the fae cutter, whiplash, and piercing curses leaping from the tip of his wand to rocket toward Bellerophon who laughed, red energy crackling from the stone in his hand into the pendant around his neck which pulsed with golden light and shattered the spells just before they reached him.
"Hah, you think you can harm me? I am a god!"
Bellerophon snarled the last four words, lifting the hand holding the stone high into the air and clutching it tight, an aura of red energy rapidly building around it.
Draco brought his wand up again, levelling it on the middle of Bellerophon's chest and beginning the incantation for the killing curse, struggling to overcome the way his soul screamed in protest within him.
"Avada—"
But that was as far as he got once again as Bellerophon brought his fist crashing down and a hazy shock of pure force burst out from him, lifting Draco, the Rebis, and even the enormous haemonculi briefly into the air and slamming them against the walls.
The Rebis recovered first, darting over to Draco as he lay groaning on the floor, lifting his head and feeling the back of his neck for breaks as Bellerophon sneered.
"You are nothing, a relic, a failure."
Draco's eyes fluttered open.
The room was burning, the fire Bellerophon had thrown at him had spread to most of the hangings along the wall and ceiling. The haemonculi was beginning to stand, the power of the Philosopher's Stone too much for it to handle as its alchemically crafted body began to distort and warp, now only vaguely humanoid.
Outside the gates, a trio of lesser haemonculi pummelled the golden aura which protected it, the spell slowly fracturing, dozens of wounded, furious cultists standing ready to pour in behind them. In the centre of the room, Bellerophon stood, his arms held out wide and his eyes now glowing as brightly as the stone in his hand, his form under his robes beginning to slowly shift and distort oddly as it too succumbed to the overwhelming power of the stone. And the Rebis…
The Rebis knelt beside him, his head in their lap, looking down. Half of Rada's face smiled sadly down at him from the left under golden locks, and one of Rada's eyes looked tearfully into his from the right under red.
"I'm sorry," they whispered.
"Saying your goodbyes?"
"I wasn't strong enough, then or now, and it's you who pay the price," they continued, ignoring Bellerophon's jeering.
Draco stared up at the Rebis' face, seeing the regret of a parent laid bare as they reached down to lay a kiss on his forehead and began to whisper, his eyes going wide in shock as he listened.
"How touching," Bellerophon said, his mocking gaze fixed on the Rebis as spoke too low for him to hear, ignoring Draco completely as they slowly stood, "But the time has come for you to die."
"I am a failure—"
"Hah, at least you have the presence of mind to admit it."
The Rebis eyes narrowed, and they hardened to steel.
"I am a failure," they continued, "But that does not mean I have failed today."
Bellerophon scowled, but he made no move to attack. His wild eyes narrowed and he seemed cautious, wary of any trick the Rebis might still have in store.
"You have lost everything," he hissed.
"I have," the Rebis answered defiantly, boldly meeting Bellerophon's gaze, praying he could keep him from looking elsewhere. "But with loss has come perspective."
"You cannot possibly think you can walk away from this alive."
They smiled, grim irony twisting to satisfaction upon their perfect features.
"What makes you think I intend to?"
Bellerophon's eyes widened and darted back down to Draco just as he calmed his mind enough to project his soul out into the Rebis standing over, accessing the vast ocean of power locked away within them.
"If a thing is made then it can be unmade."
Bellerophon tried to lunge for them, stumbling over the hem of his black robe as one of his legs was suddenly a different length than the other, his body twisting and rippling with more energy than it could contain, the crackling bolt of energy he shot from the stone which was now permanently fused to his hand flying high and wide as he fell.
"There is power in me, Draco."
He screamed, his shout of denial barely registering in Draco's hearing as a white flash erupted from the point where his wand touched the Rebis ankle and his mind fell into the heartbeat between eternities. There was indeed power here, more power than he had ever known. The fire of a hundred suns perfectly imprisoned and contained, trapped and fused, anchored to the single soul which bound together the two halves of this imperfectly perfect being.
"You need only set it free."
In the hands of an alchemist, there is no act more simple or fundamental than that of separation. And with a soul so eager Draco found the process easier than it had ever been.
He severed the bond.
The world burned.
~0~
The earth was trembling.
Draco's eyes snapped open, and immediately he recoiled from the fire burning less than a metre away from his face. There was fire all around him, he realised. A great conflagration covered every inch of the walls, floor, and ceiling. He looked through the haze of smoke and heat toward the gate through to the greater chamber, and he saw that the fire persisted there as well.
Everything burned. Banners, support beams, even bodies.
Charred husks littered the ground, the still burning corpses of haemonculi lying motionless mere feet past the gate where they had fallen moments after breaking through. The greater haemonculi was dead too, its body a veritable pyre in its own right, and as Draco's gaze swept around the room his eyes went wide as he realised the extent of what he had unleashed.
Everything burned.
He clutched at his chest but found to his surprise that the flames did not so much as touch him. His mind was moving slow, too slow, and he coughed. His head swam, and he realised that he was suffocating. There was movement in the centre of the room. He looked up, squinting through the heat to where a pile of ash lay with a twisted, slightly curved lump of gold atop it.
For the briefest instant, he thought he saw something hanging in the air above Bellerophon's remains, a shape. It was two halves of a person, then two people, then a single person, then two halves once again. On the left, wreathed in golden flame, with a whole head but only one arm and leg, was the silhouette of a woman in white, the gold of the fire flowing out from her head like hair. And on the right hovered a figure of red, again a head, half a torso, and a single arm and leg, but the opposite from the woman's, and the orange glow of the fire's heat emanated from his skull like a crown. The fire swirled about them, a vast hurricane of power which burned away all impurity, and for the briefest moment he imagined that he saw them smile, then he blinked.
They were gone.
In the distance, there was a crashing sound of collapsing stone, and a searing gust of wind exhaled from the mouth of the central chamber buffeting him and tearing at his skin. He coughed, his head swimming as he stumbled almost drunkenly to his feet. His pulse thundered in his ears and his lips cracked as his throat cried out for water. He swallowed, his mouth catching on his tongue, and coughed again.
He couldn't think.
Suddenly, a red gleam caught his eye from the middle of the chamber.
Something was sitting in the pile of ashes under the scrap of molten gold, something bright red and glowing. Draco frowned, staring at it almost hypnotised. He didn't even notice the burning wooden beam crashing to the floor less than a foot away.
The earth trembled.
He began to move, walking forward heedless of the flame and debris, his eyes and murky thoughts transfixed on the gleaming red gem. The earth shook again as he neared, the sound of stones falling nearby barely registering as he knelt, wand in hand, before the stone.
His eyes began to dim, but even blind he could still see the stone before him. It was more than mere sight, he realised. It was everything. He looked upon the world with the eyes of the spirit and he recognised what he saw.
'Rada.'
Tears began to flow as he bowed his head, his forehead coming to rest against the now smooth, almost egg-like stone which lay before him, planted in the ashes.
He remembered her.
He remembered her smile, her joy, her determination and her freedom.
He watered the stone with his tears.
He remembered her ambition, her pride, her denial and her single-minded obsession.
He forgave her.
The stone began to grow hot against his skin but he did not pull away.
He remembered her face, her touch, the way she took her tea.
He remembered her.
He remembered Rada, not an event in which she existed or an abstract idea of what she represented, he remembered her. He remembered her life, her death, the feel of her heart and the wonder of her mind. He remembered her spirit, and in the limitless space of his mind, he began to imagine a form which felt fitting to match the joy and wonder of life that had been in her even if it had been weighed down by other things.
He began to imagine.
In his mind's eye he saw it, that most perfect form the likes of which could never have come naturally into the world. For in the world, there is truly no perfect thing. There is no circle which can match the circle found within the mind, no sphere which could ever attain the completeness and wholeness of the true ideal, no life which is ever in goodness wholly lived, no kindness, no empathy, no generosity which can ever hope to match that which the mind conceives.
Yet it is real.
In his mind, he saw the circle, perfect in its simplicity. He saw the sphere, and the life, and the virtues. He saw life and he saw death, and he saw them as one and the same. Even as his spirit wept upon the stone for the love of life that had been lost, he saw it as it could yet still be.
There is nothing perfect native to this world, but that does not mean there can be no perfection in it.
The stone began to glow, brighter and brighter until it pierced the veil of darkness over his sight and blinded him with its bright purity. The stone began to crack and shake, and he felt light and hope leak out through those cracks and illuminate the dark spirit of the world, and as the ceiling collapsed around him at last and he felt his life near its end he gave of himself one final effort, for the sake of the dream, gifting the ideal so that the stone may lift it up from the shadows of the mind and make it manifest into the world.
The fires burned, and the world quaked, and the earth fell, but even as the last and final chamber collapsed around him Draco smiled, for he had been uplifted.
Uplifted by a single, perfect note of song.
AN: Thank you for reading. If you liked the story then please leave a comment telling me what you think worked and what didn't, your feedback is crucial to helping me improve as an author and is always appreciated.
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Fanfic Recommendation: Harry Potter and the Pink Haired Auror by Slytherin7Piece, a classic post-GoF canon divergence with a different pairing than I usually recommend. Also, it's complete. Also, it's 246k words long.