- Chapter Eight -

Return to Nurmengard

Harry ran into Ron in the atrium, who had come down with the other Aurors to gather for Mr Weasley's briefing. It crossed his mind that his friend might also be looking for the covert Department of Mysteries burglar, but this was contradicted by the boy's unhurried prowling at the edge of the crowd, where Harry had spotted him. When he approached him, Ron was surprised to find him here, especially with the elf following him like a shadow, but Harry quickly found an excuse:

'I just came in to see Hermione about an elf thing...' he beckoned down to Bogo, who looked up at him from under the brim of his top hat grinning. 'This is Bogo. He'll be working for me.'

Ron may have detected the moderate enthusiasm in Harry's voice, because he eyed Bogo in amazement, then asked in a muffled voice:

'Why on earth do you need an elf?'

Harry had no answer, so he simply shrugged. Ron accepted this in return, and presumably attributed it to one of Hermione's SPEW actions, which resulted in her forcing an elf upon her friend.

Everyone around them was talking about the events at Durmstrang, and as Harry listened, the rumours grew more and more wild:

'They say giants did it! And werewolves... I always said we should lock those monsters up...'

He turned away from the conversation and pulled Ron away before he could say something unfriendly back.

'Merlin's almighty pants... Do you believe that?' he asked Harry in a low voice. Harry shook his head.

'I don't know what to believe.'

The whole thing was incomprehensible, especially because the ICW has been talking for weeks about restricting and registering magical beings, which has caused heated debates everywhere, and then a shocking and unexpected event happens that will certainly play into the ICW's hands.

Ron, however, had a ready opinion:

'I think it's bollocks! There's never been a case of werewolves teaming up with giants. Besides, how would a pack of werewolves destroy Durmstrang? Only wizards could do that! Even giants couldn't handle it.'

Sighing heavily, Harry leaned against the wall and put his hands in his pockets.

'Svetich predicted it...' he muttered thoughtfully.

The self-proclaimed Nurmengard assassins knew that the Fourth Tower was planning something big at one of the schools, but Harry hadn't expected it to happen so soon. They shouldn't have deferred that long...

'What did he predict?' Ron asked, but then Mr Weasley appeared on a raised platform, and all present turned to him, first hissing and shushing like a thousand snakes, then falling silent, waiting to hear what the Minister for Magic would say.

Mr Weasley spoke with a magically amplified voice:

'Ladies and gentlemen, witches and wizards... We have just been informed by the Norwegian Minister for Magic about the disaster at Durmstrang Academy.' He paused, looked around the silent crowd with a worried expression, then continued. 'At around two o'clock this morning, unknown assailants attacked the school, killing students and teachers, and Durmstrang was... obliterated.'

The crowd buzzed like an agitated beehive, and Harry could hear the startling word echoing from several mouths:

'Obliterated?!'

Mr Weasley glanced around at the horde of officials, Aurors and journalists (Harry and Ron had only now noticed Hermione somewhere in the front row) before everyone fell silent again.

'Contrary to the rumours that have been circulating, there is as yet no evidence - I stress, none - as to who perpetrated the destruction, nor whether it was humans or magical beings...'

Someone in the back snorted derisively, but Mr Weasley ignored it.

'We are currently awaiting further information from the Norwegian authorities, but in the meantime we would urge everyone not to spread rumours!' said Mr Weasley with a firmness Harry rarely heard from Mr Weasley. 'There is no indication that the incident might be repeated, or that Hogwarts is under any threat. I ask you to remain patient and calm in the coming days. The wizarding population will be kept fully informed of the developments. Thank you...'

Mr Weasley finished his speech and stepped down from the podium, but he had not even taken the first step when everyone in the atrium, like a popping champagne bottle, started talking at once, the journalists waving their pennies and shouting questions that no one was answering.

'Well, that wasn't very long...' remarked Harry, so that only Ron could hear.

'Dad was never a man of many words,' the boy shrugged. 'What do you reckon? Could Hogwarts really be in danger?'

Harry wondered for a moment how he would feel if the same thing had happened to his former school. Dead students and teachers... McGonagall, Slughorn, Hagrid... the Great Hall in flames... All he had to do was look at his friend's face and he knew that Ron was thinking the same thing he was.

'So Svetich predicted it?' Ron asked in a whisper. 'Maybe we should go and see them, shouldn't we?'

Harry was taken aback.

'What? You mean, we should agree to...' he looked around quickly to see who could hear them and suddenly noticed Bogo staring, '...what they'd proposed?'

'Don't tell me you haven't thought about it!' Ron snorted. 'True, in front of the girls it was out of the question, but maybe now, if they don't notice...'

Harry had a lot of things going on in his head at once, as if an inner will was trying to prove Ron right with as much evidence as possible. The image of finding his two friends in the amber room, just before the transforming werewolves tore the ministers apart, was still vivid in his mind... He remembered Kingsley tied to a chair, his chest smoking, his head thrown back, lifeless. But what finally made him make up his mind was the future of Albus Severus, and his own fate.

'May I have your attention, your bossyness?' the voice of Bogo suddenly sounded. 'I really don't want to hear what you are talking about, I just want to sign the contract!'

Harry looked at him, puzzled; at that moment he had no idea what the elf was talking about.

'What kind of contract?'

'What kind of, what kind of...' pouted Bogo. 'Did you think we'd just shake hands and I'd be your servant? Cut the crap! You've got papers to sign and to seal and to file, get it?'

Ron listened with open mouth to the elf's demands, then glanced uncertainly at Harry's face.

'Are you really sure about this?'

Harry took an impatient breath.

'Listen, Bogo, I have to go now. I don't have time for the paperwork, next time...'

'Rubbish!' snapped the house elf. 'Don't try to trick me, chief-chief-chosen-one!'

Harry was now beginning to lose his patience.

'I'm not tricking you! You know Hermione knows me, we live in the same house!' he pointed to the girl, who then noticed them and started waving. 'She's at the end of the room, go to her, she'll sort out the papers and I'll sign them when I've finished with my things. Is that OK?'

Bogo frowned and thought for a while, and Harry stomped impatiently, until the elf finally nodded in agreement.

'All right,' he grumbled, and with that he left with a snap, not bothering to wade through the forest of feet.

Ron shook his head and looked at where Bogo just stood.

'Pal, how you always pick up the most idiotic elves...'

Harry let that one pass without a word, and together they cut through the crowd, trying to avoid the sight of Hermione waving and shouting at them as if they hadn't noticed her. Hermione's attention was soon caught by Bogo, so they reached the exit and were in the alley a minute later.

'Where did I put that business card?' Harry rummaged in his pockets, and finally fished out the small rectangular piece of parchment.

Harry grabbed Ron's shoulder and together they apparated straight into the inn. He noted to himself how much more awkwardly and unsteadily he was apparating compared to Bogo, who was just apparating from here to there with seemingly no difficulty. They arrived in a pub reminiscent of the old Leaky Cauldron, where, apart from a few customers, only the barman stood behind the bar, wiping glasses. Harry and Ron nodded in greeting, and then, accompanied by the watchful eyes of the people present, they went upstairs...

'Which doors is it?'

'Number four...there it is,' Harry paused in the middle of the narrow corridor and looked at Ron, but went ahead knocking.

Soon there was the sound of footsteps and the door opened ajar, then fully as Prosper, looking out, recognised them.

'Well, well, well! Look what the cat's dragged in! Did we get scared from the news of Durmstrang?' he sneered, which did not please neither Ron nor Harry.

Svetich got up from the chair where he had been rocking and eating sunflower seeds, and looked at them in surprise.

'Mr Potter... Mr Weasley... please come in!'

The room was spare but clean. There were two iron-framed beds on either side of the room, and the window with its beaded paint looked out over the Thames and the London Eye towering above.

'We really did come because of the news of Durmstrang,' Ron admitted as the door closed behind them and Prosper lazily leaned back against it.

For some reason, Harry did not like the wizard's always unfriendly features.

'How come of the big turnaround?' Prosper asked suspiciously.

'We've been considering it for a while,' Ron admitted with a sigh, dropping his hand.

Svetich was silent for a while, as if he didn't like Ron's answer, then cleared his throat.

'Gentlemen, could you come a little closer?'

Harry didn't understand what the wizard was getting at, but he and Ron started walking towards him... The next moment, an instinctive impulse made him turn around, but before he knew what was happening, the incantation was already bellowed from Prosper's mouth:

'Legilimens!'

Harry was hit by the spell with the force of a gale, and he felt himself falling backwards, helpless, unable to defend himself, as memories of the recent past flashed through his mind.

On the prison roof, he faces the Nameless... He rushes through dark corridors in search of his friends as desperation takes his heart over... Burning, hellish pain sears into his arm, he feels the poison seeping through his body...

He tried to resist the spell, but as always, he was unable to close his mind properly, and almost willingly, he was offering the images flashing in his mind to the Auror on a silver platter.

He relived the agony of the first transformation, then the second and the third. He was out of his body, a wandering spirit in the Dumbledore House... He came to the door of the parlour...

If he can't defend himself, even the wand could be in danger, a voice reminded him, and it finally gave him the strength to think clearly. He cannot let Prosper get the wand, he cannot lose control of it...

The spell was broken by an echoing crack, and Harry found himself lying on the floor, his blurred vision falling on the whitewashed ceiling.

'How did you do that?'

It took him a while to even grasp the question and sit up. It was then that he noticed Prosper sprawled across the room, as if he had been pushed against the wall by some invisible force. Harry looked around and saw that the other wizard was also gasping, stunned at what had happened. Ron fell also victim to a Legilimens, his friend was lying on the floor beside him, looking very angry.

'Bastard...' he growled hoarsely – he couldn't overcome the Legilimens that Svetich had thrown at him.

It seemed the Hungarian sorcerer simply stopped when he saw his partner had been knocked out.

'What the hell was that?' snarled Prosper, glaring at Harry.

'I could ask you the same question! How dare you use Legilimens on us?' roared Ron, clutching his wand, but there was nothing to fear - Prosper and Svetich had both put their weapons away, though the Italian Auror still kept his hands in his pockets.

'We had to be certain you weren't Faceless!' explained Svetich, still staring at Harry.

'You've got some kind of a mental protection in your head...' said Prosper, ignoring Ron's rage. 'I've never seen anything like it... Have you sealed a magical protection into your own brain?'

Harry didn't know what to answer, though he was beginning to guess what had happened; he had thrown the Nameless out of his mind in the same way when he had dug too deep and glimpsed the hooded Al in Harry's memories. It seemed the boy had indeed charmed him against Legilimens, to keep his secret from getting revealed...

Ron got to his feet and scowled accusingly at the two wizards.

'We came here to agree to your stupid plan and you attack us?!'

'I told you we had no other choice!' defended the always objective Svetich. 'You should appreciate that after your long-standing dislike of us, this sudden change is somewhat surprising. We had to be sure.'

Ron helped Harry up; Prosper stared at him as if unable to get over what happened. Harry wasn't about to turn his back on him again, nor Ron on their other host, so the two of them looked both ways, wands drawn.

'And are you sure now?' asked Harry.

'Yes...' replied Prosper briefly. For a long moment his gaze was fixed on the wand in Harry's hand, almost eagerly, until he spoke again. 'That wand shouldn't be with you. It'd be much better off with me...'

Harry's heart rate immediately quickened and he felt like a hunted animal, surrounded by enemies on all sides. Was Prosper now also trying to get the Wand?

'Those who thought so usually died rather quickly,' he said coolly, and to emphasise his words, he pointed the coveted wand at the Auror. With that, he managed to immediately rile him up.

'Are you threatening me, werewolf?' he snarled, and took a bold step towards Harry, but Svetich quickly intervened:

'This quarrel is going nowhere,' he cried loudly. 'Prosper, stop it! Our job is to discuss the way forward.'

Prosper retreated to the door and leaned back against it again, but his eyes were still on the phoenix wand. Harry and Ron didn't say a word, and Svetich obviously took that as a sign of peace, rather than a tense anticipation of when they would be attacked again.

'Great,' the wizard acknowledged, and saw the time had come to get out another batch of sunflower seeds. 'Our plan is ready, we'll go over everything when you're all here, including Mr Longbottom and the others... Now we should decide when and how to get to Nurmengard.'

Harry wasn't the least bit thrilled at the thought that these two even involved Neville and his friends in the conspiracy.

Ron was the first to answer Svetich's question:

'When is not the question. Straightaway,' he said, as if it were an already decided fact. Svetich could not have been more surprised, and even Prosper raised an eyebrow.

'What do you mean? S-straightaway?' stammered the seed-eating wizard.

Ron looked at him unfriendly.

'What would you be wanting to wait for?' he asked.

'How urgent it is suddenly that you fear for your precious school!' mocked Prosper, as if to provoke another quarrel.

'Don't you fear for your own?' Harry asked in a curious tone. The Italian shrugged his shoulders carelessly.

'I didn't go to a wizarding school...'

'Well, it shows!'

'What did you say?!'

'Let's not quarrel!' said Svetich. It seemed more and more that he was tilting at windmills. 'If you want to go today, that can be arranged. In fact, it's even better than the thirteenth, because tomorrow there's a big summit in Nurmengard about the situation at Durmstrang, and there'll be thousands of people in town, so it'll be easier to mingle with them. I can inform Neville Longbottom and Mr Thomas and Mr Finnigan... Don't look at me like that, Mr. Potter, your friends insist on coming with us.'

Harry tried to calm himself with his fists clenched; he was always nervous at the thought of them, who he felt were sort of outsiders, getting themselves involved in some deadly danger instead of trying to cherish their peaceful lives. If he hadn't been running so frantically after his stolen Cloak, he wouldn't have had to languish in Nurmengard for six months.

'Have they also been legilimensed?' he hissed.

'Of course,' the wizard replied calmly. 'We cannot allow Faceless to come among us.'

Harry just snorted.

'Of course...'

Svetich cleared his throat and leaned against the windowsill with his hands folded.

'How can we get to Nurmengard? I'm looking forward to your ideas,' he said, returning the conversation to its original flow.

'There's Ginny's phoenix, Kinkaku. She's the one who got us off the island, she can get us back,' Ron suggested, but Harry was already shaking his head.

'Only she won't come without Ginny!' he said. 'She obeys her, she won't do anything she doesn't know about.'

'Wait a minute,' Svetich suddenly interjected, stepping away from the window. 'You mean Miss Weasley and Miss Granger don't know you're here?'

Neither Harry nor Ron replied, they just looked back at him until the wizard nodded slowly.

'Oh... now I understand everything.'

'Well, the phoenix is out,' Prosper muttered, urging them on. 'What else?'

The idea had been in Harry's head from the beginning, ever since he and Ron decided to go along with Svetich's rogue operation. He knew he couldn't count on the phoenix, so an old memory came to him as the only option.

'I have an idea...'


A few hours later, they were both in the dark depths of the Forbidden Forest. After the meeting, they apparated to Hogsmeade and walked up to Hagrid's hut to ask their old friend for a little help. It was dusk when they arrived at the main gate of Hogwarts, and met the gamekeeper by the pumpkin patch.

Harry noticed that the blackened ground next to Hagrid's hut was still barren, thanks to the dementor corpses buried there.

'How do you manage without your crossbow, Hagrid?' asked Ron the gamekeeper, who had brought only his pink umbrella into the woods instead of his usual self-defence weapon.

'I do miss it!' complained the half-giant. 'I was never that good with the wand, yeh know... But what can be done? We did what we had ter do and we can't complain, can we, boys? The dementors are finished.'

Except one... - thought Harry darkly. Marius Prince would spread the disease that had originated from the Viking King, and the Blight was still taking its toll.

He hadn't thought of the blue-skinned man in a long time, not since the Nameless had taken the Horcrux in Nurmengard. What could he have done with it? He couldn't have destroyed it, Harry knew that Marius would meet Al one day, so all he could think of was the Nameless blackmailing the blue-skinned man with it, perhaps to get him to do his biddings again...

In the darkness of the woods, owls and crows watched them as they made their way along the path deeper and deeper into the forest, and they must have gone several kilometres before Harry couldn't bear it any longer:

'Are you sure you know where it is, Hagrid?' he asked.

'O' course I know, what kind o' a question is that?' growled the gamekeeper. 'I told you I met it the other day by the stream. It was in pretty bad shape, to say the least...'

Harry smiled.

'We'll help with that, just find it.'

'I don' understand why on earth you need that car...' Hagrid shook his head.

Harry and Ron glanced at each other; they agreed on yet another simple fictional reason for wanting to find the flying car after all these years.

'Didn't you hear on the news?' said Ron. 'Nurmengard has authorised such enchanted objects. We can fly around with it now.'

Hagrid stifled a giggle.

'What the hell... In the end you and the Nameless are going ter be best buddies,' he joked, and Harry and Ron both groaned at the same time:

'That's horrible even for joke, Hagrid! Don't ever say that again!'

The gamekeeper just laughed and helped them over a fallen log, so big compared to them that they would have had to use magic or a rope to get over it.

'Erm... we're doing it to surprise dad...' Ron groaned as Hagrid put him down. 'We didn't give him any presents when he was appointed Minister for Magic... we just thought we'd surprise him... make it pretty, that sort of thing.'

'Yeh don' need a present for that title...' growled Hagrid ominously. 'Yer father is gambling with his life now that he took it.'

There was a lot of truth in that, but neither Harry nor Ron wanted to go into it any further. They didn't have to, because then they finally saw the flashing headlights and quickly ran to the car.

'Oh Merlin! You look awful!' cried Ron, and Harry had to agree with him.

The old, blue Ford Anglia was dented, its wheels barely visible in the mud, and vines grew into the roof, which began to flail wildly as Harry and Ron approached. The windscreen was smashed in, the right door was ripped off, and a dead spider's legs dangled from under the bonnet, as if the car had tried to swallow the animal in defence.

It gave a sad honk to Ron, who set about clearing away the vines, leaving Hagrid to drag the spider out.

'Ron...' Harry stopped him hesitantly. 'Leave it to me, okay?'

He didn't want to stall any longer, it took them long enough to find the car. He raised his wand as a signal, knowing that it would fix the magical vehicle in a moment.

Ron made an astonished face.

'One person can't fix it,' he shook his head, but Harry shrugged.

'Can I try anyway?'

As Hagrid was thrown backwards the next moment when the dead spider's carcass split in two with a disgusting pop, curling the bonnet, Ron shrugged.

'Alright, let's see what you can do!'

Harry pointed his wand at the wrecked car.

'Reparo!'

In the blink of an eye, the spell had a wonderful effect on the car: the dents were smoothed out with a bounce, the broken axles melted together, the windscreen and windows were flawless again, the wheels inflated with a hiss like four snakes, and the headlights were back to shining properly.

Hagrid's jaw dropped.

'I didn't say a word, mate...'

Harry was not yet happy with the result, however, as the car was still terribly dirty.

'Tergeo!'he said the next incantation, and now the Ford Anglia virtually shone before them, spotlessly clear, gleaming, free from vines and spidery residue. Ron rubbed his eyes to make sure he was seeing properly.

'How did you do that?' he gaped in astonishment, and looked around the car, which was flashing its headlights non-stop.

Harry sighed heavily and shook his head.

'It would be a long story to explain...'

He was about to, seeing Ron and Hagrid's questioning look, somehow clue them in on how the phoenix wand had inherited the Deathly Hallows' immense magical power, when he noticed the wand move in his hand, as if sensing his thoughts. Then the wand turned, moved by an invisible force, and Harry instinctively turned after it, completely forgetting what he had just been about to say to his two friends...

'What the...?!'

The next moment the most incredible thing happened, which caught him completely unprepared: with an unexpected jerk, the wand flew from his fingers before he could do anything about it, and glided straight through the air between the trees.

'What's this?' said Ron, who, along with Hagrid, had also clearly seen what had happened, but by the time he said the question, they all knew the answer...

'Who is this man?' Hagrid squinted into the darkness.

When Harry saw it too, he felt as if he had been struck in the stomach with a stone, and a sudden, shocking fear fell upon him; the phoenix wand, following a gleaming thread of magic, landed in the outstretched hand of a figure standing no fifty yards away, but the light from Ron's wand made it easy to recognise the grinning Prosper and his many shining accessories.

'You?!' roared Ron, apparently not yet realising the catastrophic significance of what had happened.

Harry, however, from the fear and paralysis spreading through his body, was unable to move, let alone shout at Prosper or try to stop him, as Ron had done with a body freezing spell... There was only one thought in his mind: he had been disarmed, he had lost the wand, the Wand of Destiny! Prosper had done what the Nameless had always wanted, what he most desired, but he, Harry, was always on his guard and resisted him. How could this have happened? For he knew the future, he knew who the wand would go to, the terrible fate he was heading for. Would events have changed that much?

Ron's spell was too late, Prosper leapt aside from the beam of light and rushed away from them into the bush. He ran through the woods at a speed that was hard to follow even by the eye - like a cheetah, manoeuvring perfectly through the tumbling trunks and prickly bushes, leaping over some of them like a kangaroo; Harry had never seen such a spell before.

'Who the hell was that?' Hagrid shouted, still not understanding the whole interlude, but Ron didn't even try to explain, too busy shouting assorted swear words.

Prosper's slipping figure finally brought Harry out of his stupor, and in a flash the icy fear was replaced by hellish anger - like someone pouring glowing lava into a barrel of freezing water.

'We have to catch up!' he told his friend, and immediately he was at the car, ripping open the door and throwing himself into the passenger seat.

Ron followed a second later, he started the engine, then stepped wildly on the throttle, leaving Hagrid in the lurch, who was shouting after them, but who would never have fit in the car. The Ford Anglia roared as it accelarated, everything working exactly as it should, the Wand of Destiny had done its bit. Harry felt he must not lose sight of the wizard speeding ahead for a moment. Prosper didn't look back, he just ran and ran, straight out of the woods towards Hogwarts, and they could barely keep up with him. Could the wand be helping him already?

It can still be undone, it's not too late to get it back! - Harry told himself determinedly, as the anger washed over him in newer and newer waves.

Ron sped down the forest path at full throttle, but the bumpy road thrashed the car as if Harry and his friend were riding a wild mule.

'Watch out, tree!' Harry jerked the wheel to the side to avoid a fatal collision at the last second.

The path was now impassable for a car, the headlights showed another great tree trunk ahead, and Prosper was almost lost in the darkness. Before they came upon the massive trunk of a huge pine tree, Ron put the gear into elevation and the car, engine roaring, headed for the open sky...

'When he reaches the gate, he'll disapparate and then that's it!' Ron said as they burst out of the foliage, no sign of the pursuer.

'He's not going to the gate,' hissed Harry, who knew exactly what Prosper was planning. 'He's going to Dumbledore's grave to get the wand!'

Fortunately Prosper doesn't know that's no longer necessary – he added in his thoughts, gripping the twitching dashboard so hard his fingers tore into it.

'That bastard!' Ron fumed, his head red as if it wanted to explode. 'I knew they were both filthy spies, we should never have get into business with them! They might as well be Faceless! Or even the Nameless himself!'

'If he were a Faceless, he wouldn't have dared to take the wand, and the Nameless wouldn't be running away from us... Turn left!' Harry led the way, every nerve in his body tensing as he searched the dark night for the spot where Dumbledore's grave lay on the lake shore, with the original Elder Wand inside.

Ron was accelerating the flying car to top speed, the treetops were swaying in the wind as the vehicle roared wildly overhead, the sound of the engine making its passengers barely hear a word they said...

Harry saw Prosper dash out of the woods and past Hagrid's hut, cross the valley with an impossibly long leap, and sprint across the courtyard of Hogwarts, past the eastern wall of the castle that towered before them. No one had noticed the intruder, the school lanterns were no longer lit, everyone had gone to bed, and the old stern guards no longer patrolled the Hogwarts estate as they had in Voldemort's time. They could expect no other help...

'That son of a bitch... He really is going for Dumbledore's grave!' Ron growled, almost tearing the gearbox as he put the Ford into neutral, which now began to plunge like a rocket after the thieving Auror.

Prosper finally reached the lakeside, Dumbledore's marble tomb shone like a white blur in the distance marking the target, but he slowed down the last few yards and stopped, suddenly frozen, as if petrified. Through the windscreen, the passengers of the approaching car could see the huge black shadow that loomed ominously from behind the dead headmaster's grave, towering over the terrified Prosper...

Harry was wrong - they had help, just not the kind he expected.

'Haha! You didn't think of that, did you?' Ron laughed maniacally, watching the scene with an obsessive look as the Italian wizard backed away from the beast guarding the tomb.

They were only a hundred yards away when the car hit the ground with a small jerk and they sped on across the flat grass. By this time, in the moonlight, the form of the tamed nundu was perfectly visible; the beast, resembling a gigantic lion, was slowly advancing, one paw after another, towards the man who disturbed the peace of the grave, growling and snarling, from its mouth full of sword-like teeth dripping saliva onto the ground.

'It will kill him...' Harry realised the danger, knowing full well what this monster was capable of - it was no coincidence that Hagrid had chosen it to guard the tomb.

'Yes, it will!' Ron agreed, but he didn't seem too worried about it.

'If it kills Prosper, there goes the wand!'

They were only metres away and the car still hadn't slowed down, but Prosper was steadily backing away from the approaching beast.

Ron didn't look like he understood Harry's words.

'What?'

'If this creature kills him, no one will have the wand, its power will be lost!' he tried to make him understand, but he also remembered that that was exactly what Albus Severus wanted - to destroy the wand's power, for it would destroy everything it had created. At that moment, surprisingly, they were closer than ever to destroying the Nameless, but Harry would have been unable to turn that thought into action.

Meanwhile, the Italian sorcerer chose the worst possible defence: he fired a curse at the beast, which went into a terrible rage, and the huge body underwent a frightening transformation... The golden-brown fur turned black, revealing strange patterns reminiscent of a leopard, the eyes turned dark purple and almost sparkled, the body grew until it was the size of a full-grown elephant, and it breathed poisonous vapour from its snarling mouth towards its prey. Harry knew that Prosper was facing death itself, paying the price for his own selfish stupidity...

Ron needed no more arguments: he took a deep breath, fixed his eyes on the beast, and almost jumped on the throttle. Harry got squeezed into the seat, and the sudden acceleration didn't even give him the presence of mind to ask his friend what he was doing...

Then he understood when the Ford Anglia hit the nundu at full speed. With a terrifying crack, they smashed against the animal's ribs and the momentum threw it straight into the Black Lake; the nundu sank into the water with a huge splash, the wave lapping the shore, soaking the grave and splashing on the car's broken windscreen. Harry lurched forward, and the jerk of the seatbelt threw him back into the seat, but with such force that he thought his body was about to split in two. The Ford, however, had indeed been ripped apart - the front end was completely crumpled up, the bonnet had come off and was lying somewhere behind them in the park, the front wheels had been virtually destroyed along with the axle and engine, and now flames were roaring inside, threatening to explode the car.

'Are you OK?' Harry asked Ron; the boy's head was bleeding from the impact, but he nodded dazedly.

'We need to get out...' he muttered, and with that he turned out of the seat through the missing door onto the lawn.

Harry winced too, and for the first time his legs buckled under him, landing on all fours, his fingers digging into the cool, wet grass that felt so soothing after the crash...

There was an ominous rumble.

Harry looked to the side, and saw the lake rippling violently where the nundu had dived into it. He remembered what he had read about this monster in his care of magical creatures class, and he was sure of one thing: he would not have incurred its wrath for any money in the world.

But Prosper obviously didn't have the brains for it, Harry snarled, anger building in his veins again, as he looked up to see the wizard lying not far away. They were staring at each other now, the Auror with a nervous unease, and Harry with that mad desire to fight that was heating every cell in his body at this moment, and he was not about to resist it.

'Harry!' he heard Ron's voice from behind him, but he didn't care; he jumped up and ran towards the wizard.

Prosper came to his senses, and waved the wand – his wand – but from exhaustion or fear he missed, and the red beam of light whizzed past Harry's ear, who did not notice it, but sprang at the wizard with his bare hands, with the same momentum as the Ford had just crashed into the nundu, with the same cold, mechanical determination.

'Ahhh!' the man shouted as he fell backwards with Harry's full weight on top him, and they rolled down the gentle coastal slope together until the slushy water stopped them.

They had barely stopped rolling before the wizard was about to attack, but Harry beat him to it; he struck the man on the ear with his fist, who fell to the side, and Harry did not hesitate a moment. He seized Prosper's wand-holding hand under his wrist, and holding the arm away from him all the time, Harry turned his whole body upon Prosper to pin him to the ground, and, unable to move, struck the Italian Auror with his right hand. Prosper tried to defend himself with his free hand, trying to dig his original wand out of his pocket, but Harry saw the move and with a broad sweep of his arm punched Prosper's hand away just as he was about to pull out his wand. The wand spun and flew away, falling into the water.

Harry could not think, some instinctive impulse was at work in him, filling him with a power that Prosper had no chance against. In vain did he kick him off, Harry was on him before he could breathe; in vain did he strike back, Harry felt no pain, for stronger than any pain was his determination, which could have been that of a strange person...

He pushed the man's head into the water and, resisting the struggling limbs and every attempt of Prosper to free himself, held him down. The wizard was drowning, thrashing, the water bubbling around his head, but Harry knew he would give up sooner or later, because his life was more important than the wand...

When Harry felt the hand gripping the wand weaken, he immediately let go and ripped the Deathly Hallow from the man's fingers. The drowning Prosper followed, but the momentary lack of oxygen confused him, and he didn't notice that Harry was already two steps behind him, pointing the weapon at him.

'Did you have fun?' Harry asked the Auror. He was panting, exhausted, and his legs were shaking with pain, but he felt a triumph he hadn't felt in a long time. And at the same time he did not notice that, despite the waning moon of a day, he did not feel the numbing drowsy weakness that had always made him feel so clumsy and helpless in recent months. It was as if the wolf hiding inside him was not weakening him, but on the contrary, giving him strength and endurance...

Prosper roared in despair, like a tortured beast.

'NO! No! No! Why...?! Why did you do it, you stupid werewolf?' he sputtered, dripping wet, coughing and bleeding.

Harry thought he was hearing wrong. Did he really have the nerve to ask him that? Why would he take his wand back from a thief? Prosper's nerves seemed to have given out too, for he began to shout inarticulately, perhaps to vent his anger and frustration. Harry laughed wickedly at the wizard, but then the laughter died quickly when he saw the monster emerging from the lake...

The nundu's mottled black fur was dripping with water, his purple eyes were shining with terrible anger. His head poked out just behind Prosper, who also noticed the impending mortal danger, for he stopped shouting and looked back over his shoulder, trembling.

'Harry! Here I am! Hold on!' shouted the approaching Ron, who had been trying to extinguish the fire of the car, but Harry wasn't sure that even the three of them stood a chance against the monster.

The nundu then howled, the whole courtyard shook with the sound, and Harry, Prosper and Ron wailed with their hands over their ears. The windows of the castle, all of them, shattered with a tremendous clang, and Harry saw that the lights were already on, everyone was awakened by the repeated banging and shouting, and the animal's roar had lured the teachers out of the castle - the door to the entrance hall had been thrown open, and figures were rushing out of it.

'Get out of there!' Ron tried to warn Harry when the beast finally stopped screaming.

Harry's ears were ringing, and he could only hear Ron's words as a muffled noise. Before the nundu could attack, he quickly pulled Prosper out of the shallows and, trusting his wand's magic to once again serve him with complete dedication, conjured a shield between them and the beast. The nundu leaped at the invisible wall, and stamped his column-like feet into the water, but it was unmoved, and only attacked again to break through the defences. Harry and Prosper were by this time scrambling up the slope they had rolled down, and halfway up they met Ron.

The nundu was already coming after them, with huge strides, mouth wide open, breathing poisonous fumes, but Harry was on his guard:

'Vinculo!'

The orb that appeared from the spell enveloped the deadly cloud and floated up into the sky, but the nundu was not deterred for a moment; it leapt away, and the metre long legs landed between Harry, Ron and Prosper, who were terrified as they darted away from the creature's grasp. Seeing the approach of the snow-white fangs, Harry was sure it was over, death was here...

Suddenly hundreds of curses began to rain down on the nundu. Harry and Ron, fighting for their lives, couldn't see where Prosper had gone, but they could see the faculty, along with the upper year students, under the direction of Professor McGonagall, putting a stop to the beast's rampage. Thick silver chains erupted from the ground, looped around the nundu's legs, torso and neck, on all sides, until the hulking creature looked like a fly tangled in a spider's web. Its ear-splitting roar blew the first chains to pieces and swept Harry and Ron away like a gale, but McGonagall conjured more strong chains across the animal's snout. It continued to struggle persistently against the shackles, but the wizards were too many to fight.

Hagrid arrived, too, coming out of the forest on foot, galloping like a horse, and immediately saw through the situation. Quickly, he stood in front of the chained beast and grabbed one of the broken chains.

'Whoa! Whoa! Calm down! Take it easy, buddy!'

'Hold it tight, Hagrid!' cried Professor McGonagall, who, with Horace Slughorn, the short Professor Flitwick and the not much taller John Eakle, was still conjuring up new chains from the ground.

'I'm not letting it go now!'

'And you get out of there, you're hearing me?' McGonagall now called to Harry and Ron, but when they turned and the headmistress saw who the intruders were, her jaw dropped. The sixth and seventh year students, prefects and head boys and girls lined up behind her, all huddled together, talking, all pointing at Harry and Ron, some waving.

'Potter? Weasley? You?!' Professor Flitwick sniffed in a thin, high-pitched voice, and as the nundu yelled up one last time, and the stumped teacher jumped back in fright.

Harry and Ron were only a few steps away from the now harmless beast, which no longer posed a threat, and they were looking for Prosper. They found him on the other side of the nundu, unconscious, but alive. Harry bent down to check his condition.

'Professor, we can explain everything...' Ron muttered with a guilty look on his face after watching the destruction the car and the beast had wrought in Hogwarts' courtyard.

'You better have a very good explanation, or else you are in big trouble!' said McGonagall sternly, and Harry and Ron looked ashamed like children caught in a prank, even though the professor had long since ceased to be their teacher and they had long since ceased to be Hogwarts students.

More people poured out of the castle, the hoarse shouting Filch and the worried-looking Professor Sprout could not hold back the sea of curious students, and soon half the school was standing in the courtyard.

As soon as Hagrid took control of the beast, McGonagall was able to exhale and with that momentum, she rushed at Ron and Harry:

'Now what have you done again this time?!' she snapped at them, her eyes flashing with anger. 'The park is in ruins, the tomb desecrated, the guardian beast gone wild... Hasn't this school suffered enough?'

'But dear Minerva, I don't think it's the boys' fault...' Professor Slughorn shook his head with a jovial smile, winking at Harry, who waved at him with no great enthusiasm.

'I don't care who's responsible,' sighed the headmistress, 'I want answers! And I want them now.'

Harry and Ron stared at each other, and finally Ron began to speak:

'The fact is, Professor, they tried to steal the wand,' he said, and with that first sentence he succeeded in taking Professor McGonagall aback.

'Weasley...' she stepped closer to him, having digested what she had heard. Her face was very serious. 'Tell me everything...'

McGonagall led Ron away from the crowd and they began a hushed conversation. Hagrid was helped by the other teachers, who collectively stunned the nundu, and Madam Pomfrey rushed to Harry's side to help the unconscious wizard.

There was a jostling in the solid wall of students, and soon five people emerged from the crowd, who immediately stopped when they saw the chained creature and Harry crouched at his feet with the unconscious Prosper. Harry looked up to see Michael Svetich with Rolf Scamander and Neville, Seamus and Dean. For a moment his gaze caught Dean, who, despite his injury, was now looking at him with perfectly intact, wondering cocoa-brown eyes, but Harry did not now feel the impulse to question him about this mystery.

'Oh dear Merlin!' moaned Neville, shocked, and Seamus and Dean gaped like stranded fish.

'We are too late...' Svetich breathed with an exhausted gasp, and now he didn't look at all like he had things under control. Perhaps he never had.

Harry got up, and, leaving Prosper already awake under Madam Pomfrey's care, went over to them. Svetich did not wait for his question:

'I swear I didn't know what he was planning! Believe me, Mr Potter, I had no idea...'

'Enough of the lies,' Harry cut him off and walked past him. The tide of students parted before him like a churning sea, giving way to him.

Svetich followed, and persistently continued.

'I'm not lying, Mr Potter, we didn't plan anything! Everything is as I said... I'm very sorry about the car,' he added, as Harry stopped in front of the broken Ford Anglia.

It was a pitiful sight, looking even worse than it had after the attack of the Whomping Willow or the spider adventure, and Harry suspected that the car had already regretted a thousand times that it had not deserted its careless and negligent owners in the first place.

'I'll pay for the damage Prosper has done,' the Hungarian wizard continued to whisper, not noticing that Harry was not listening to a word he said, just waved his wand.

'Reparo...'

The next moment, the car drew in its scattered and exploded parts from the castle park like a magnet, and in a few brief seconds it had rebuilt itself until it was standing there in a perfect, undamaged condition. It was not flashing its lights happily now, perhaps fearing that it would soon end up a wreck again.

'Oh...' groaned Svetich in shock, while in the background some students were amazed and congratulated the well-executed spell.

McGonagall, meanwhile, had finished with Ron, and ended the staring with a very upset face.

'Everyone back to the castle! Enough of this circus, it's past curfew! Prefects, return the students to their dormitories...'

'But headmistress!' said a third-year girl. 'All the windows are broken, the rooms are full of broken glass.'

McGonagall looked down at the startled girl like an eagle, even putting her hands on her hips.

'Are you suggesting, Miss Cooper, that a simple reparo spell is causing problems for my students? Remind me at the next lesson!'

The students needed no more; as they came, they dutifully streamed back to the castle, led by Professor Sprout and Slughorn, but they still got a good look at Harry and Ron standing by the car. McGonagall then had a word with Neville, and Michael Svetich talked to her about something, but Harry paid no attention. When the wizard had finished with McGonagall, Harry saw that he wanted to speak to him again, for he started towards him with a firm step. Harry caught a glimpse of McGonagall over the wizard's shoulder - the headmistress was staring at him with a worried look, as if she knew what they were up to.

It can't be that Svetich told her, Harry thought.

'Mr Potter, once again, I'm very sorry for what...' he began as he reached him, but Harry didn't let him finish the sentence.

'Enough with the apologies. Can we leave?' he asked coldly, startling Svetich. Ron gave him a look of doubt about the planned action, but said nothing.

'So-so you are still willing to...?' the wizard stammered.

'Yes, I'm willing,' Harry said in a firm voice.

After what happened, he felt a determination and certainty that he hadn't felt for a very long time. It was as if the wolf, awakened for a moment by the stolen wand, had brought back something of his long-lost self, something of what Nurmengard had sapped of him.

Svetich heaved a sigh of relief - he must have thought he would have to spend a long time convincing them not to back out of the operation.

'But Prosper is staying here,' Harry added, immediately discouraging the wizard. 'I've no desire to breathe the same air as that fellow.'

'Mr Potter...'

'Stop 'Mr Potter-ing'!' interjected Ron, who had been watching them with his hands in his pockets. 'Your mate took Harry's wand, we were lucky to get it back! It could have ruined the whole plan!'

Svetich shook his head nervously.

'Believe me, I understand your doubts, but we need Prosper Cipollo,' the wizard insisted. 'He is a highly skilled Auror who knows the organization of the ICW well and has pledged to kill the nameless sorcerer himself if it comes to that. Would you do that?'

Harry withstood Svetich's scrutinizing glance, but Ron only cursed softly under his breath. Neither of them answered the question, though Harry knew perfectly well the answer for himself: he had learned his lesson in Nurmengard that he would never, under any circumstances, take a person's life in cold blood.

'I take personal responsibility for him,' the Hungarian wizard continued. 'You need not concern yourselves with Prosper. When we get there, we'll split into teams of two anyway, as planned. I will keep an eye on our friend...' He glanced back over his shoulder at the Italian, who was then being lifted up by Rolf and Seamus, who were holding him under his arm, and Neville ran forward to open the car door.

Neither of them paid any attention to the shouting Madam Pomfrey, who wanted to take the half-conscious Auror to the infirmary.

All the students had disappeared from the courtyard, only the shadows of two figures were still moving in the moonlight around the hut; from the castle there was a rattle of glass signalling the repairing of the broken windows, and from the lake Hagrid and John Eakle were carrying the chained beast away, somewhere into the woods. Professor Eakle gave Harry and Ron a searching look as they passed them with the floating, stunned beast.

Harry chewed over what he had heard and finally nodded in agreement.

'All right, he can come with us,' he said, 'but don't expect any support from me if your friend goes rogue again. It will be your problem, Svetich.'

The wizard smiled in satisfaction and held out his hand.

'Please call me Michael.'

Harry took it, but Ron just grunted unfriendly and didn't shake his hand, instead greeting his former classmates who got into the car in turn, ready to go. McGonagall watched them from a few yards away, but said nothing.

'Harry, shall we go?' Dean called out from the car.

'How impatient of you!' Harry forced a grin on his face, because Seamus, Dean and Neville all looked excited about the task ahead of them. Harry wondered whether Svetich had explained everything properly...

'It's not every day that Dumbledore's Army gets back together!' Seamus answered for his friend, and reached out of the window to shake Harry's hand, which he hadn't done before. 'Well done with the nundu. We could see trouble a mile off, and we ran as fast as we could, only...'

'It's all right,' Harry smiled and leaned lazily against the car.

He was waiting for Svetich and Rolf to load the trunk, as was Ron. When he glanced at his best friend, he noticed that he was looking wide-eyed and slightly frightened at something behind him. Before he knew it, however, a familiar voice spoke to him:

'Harry?'

He spun around, and to his dismay, found himself face to face with Ginny and Hermione. The two girls had stopped a good ten yards away from them, next to McGonagall, who was saying something to them, but Harry couldn't hear. Neither of them seemed very cheerful.

Ron gulped as he slowly rounded the car to go to his girlfriend, but Harry's legs froze - he wanted to avoid a fight.

'Oh dear, this is going to be trouble...' Seamus muttered from the car, leaning over the half-conscious Prosper, and Neville slid into the front seat as if he had something to fear from Hermione and Ginny's ominous glances.

'What does this supposed to mean, guys?' Hermione whispered, but her eyes were fixed only on Ron, who was smiling uncertainly.

The boy cleared his throat.

'Well, what can I say, Hermione...?' he began, but he couldn't continue.

'Well, force your stupid brain!' she snapped. 'You could say you went to a party, for example. Or that you hate me so much that you're leaving me...' Hermione's voice trailed off, but she pulled herself together, her eyes flashing with anger again. Harry noticed how much she looked like a furious nundu...

Ron took a step towards her.

'I would never leave you.'

'Why not? I'm just a cranky drama queen anyway, right?' Hermione snapped back, angrily wiping a telltale tear from her cheek. 'You've had enough of my insufferable nature, which is why you won't discuss anything with me and you get into such... such stupid things.'

Ron sighed heavily, but Harry didn't dare say a word, just looked at Ginny and tried to tell her not to worry, he knew what he was doing.

Ron tried to give Hermione a hug, but she stepped away from him in rejection.

'I'll never get enough of you,' he said, 'even if you are really insufferable sometimes. I'd be the biggest self-hating idiot if I left you...'

Hermione was not reassured, she could no longer hide her tears.

'Why? It's better than going on some idiotic suicide mission without saying a word! Where you could die or go to jail again or... or who knows what kind of trouble you could get into...'

Ginny hadn't said a word so far, just looked at her brother with a stiff face, and then at Harry, who finally plucked up the courage to go to her.

Svetich and Rolf leaned on the trunk and watched the scene.

'There's nothing I can do to stop you, is there?' Ginny asked before Harry could say a word.

Harry shook his head.

'We have to try, Ginny,' he said quietly, 'you can see it's getting worse. The Nameless won't stop until he gets what he wants. Sooner or later, we'll have to fight him, because if we don't, we'll have defeated Voldemort for nothing...'

There was a bang to which they both looked. Hermione had slapped Ron across the face and was now hugging him, sobbing on his shoulder. Ron stroked her back reassuringly.

Ginny let out a shaky sigh.

'I'd like to slap you myself. But what would it achieve?' she rolled her eyes. Harry tried a smile. He couldn't.

'If it makes you feel any better, I promise we won't do anything stupid. Ron and I will be under the invisibility cloak the whole time. We just get Svetich and the others in and wait for them to finish...'

'Until they finish?' Ginny repeated. 'You mean, finish to capture the Nameless?'

Harry realised how unlikely and absurd this undertaking sounded.

'Why do you want to go so badly? Why don't you just give them the cloak or something...', Ginny complained, but as if she had already resigned herself to his decision.

For a moment Harry thought about telling the truth, but at the last moment he restrained himself.

'There is someone... I have to do this for,' he said evasively, and Al's freckled, ever-happy face flashed before his eyes, as he had come to know his unborn son. Before he learned of the truth...

Ginny saw he was serious, her brown eyes, which now seemed somehow as big as Luna's, fixed on Harry's face.

'And this someone is so important that you would risk your life for them?' she asked quietly.

'I'd risk everything for this someone,' Harry answered immediately, and his voice sounded so firm that even he was surprised.

Behind him, the others were eager to get going; Seamus seemed increasingly impatient:

'Come on, Harry!'

'One minute!' he shouted back over his shoulder, then turned back to Ginny and after a moment's hesitation hugged her as tightly as he could.

'Ginny, listen to me!' he whispered in her ear. 'If we do this now, we'll never have to worry about the future again. We can live in peace forever, you and me and...'

She didn't say a word, just listened attentively, and she hugged him back.

'I want to be with you forever,' Harry continued, the words coming out of his throat almost of their own accord. 'I love you, Ginny... I could only surive Nurmengard because of our memories - the memories we shared. But I don't want that we only have a past... I want, more than anything, to have a future with you... to have a family... But that's why I have to do this!' He added louder and now pulled away from her, both hands resting on her shoulders.

As Ginny looked at him, she knew - just as she had long ago, after Dumbledore's funeral, when he had made that agonizingly difficult decision - that she understood and accepted that she would not cry and beg him to stay because of the danger of what he was about to do.

Harry kissed her, then slowly let go and walked towards the car. Ron also let go of Hermione, and was about to kiss her goodbye when she slapped him again - and then she kissed him.

When they were both in the car and Svetich and Rolf were settled in, the Ford Anglia took off with Ron at the steering wheel. The two girls were still standing in the same spot, just watching them as they drove away. Hermione was sniffling in upset, but Ginny was staring straight into Harry's eyes even through the rolled up window, and he knew she was wishing him luck without words. McGonagall watched them from slightly behind, her cloak pulled tight around her to ward her from the chill, and curious student eyes followed the Ford's path through the repaired windows of Hogwarts.

'Finally!' sighed Seamus, who looked impatient, as if they were not heading to one of the most dangerous places in the world.

Harry and Ron looked back at the girls one last time, Ron tried to smile encouragingly at Hermione, but he couldn't quite manage it.

'It's better that they stay, guys,' Seamus continued to mutter under his breath. 'This is not meant for women anyways. They should stay home and cook while the men fight.'

Ron snorted after turning the steering wheel to turn the car in a north-easterly direction.

'No offence, mate, but I'd feel much safer with Hermione around than I would with you...'

'Hmpf...' Seamus stuck up his nose and didn't say another word to Ron the whole way.

Before the engine revved and the acceleration pushed them into their seats, Harry leaned over Michael Svetich and tapped his friend on the shoulder.

'Ron, listen... Let's not land on top of a tree, shall we?' he asked, and Dean laughed in the back beside the unconscious Prosper.

Ron replied with perfect composure as he stepped on the throttle:

'That's not going to happen. There are no trees in Nurmengard...