Rowena looked around, aware of what she was doing for the first time since falling asleep what must have been hours earlier. She stood deep in the Forbidden Forest, in a place that hadn't been touched by the fire she'd accidentally set only a week prior. The trunks were thick and gnarled, like everywhere else in the Forest, but the trees were sparse enough that she could see above their canopy to the night sky. The storm that had lasted all weekend had passed, and in its place was a clear sky with bright stars and a shining moon that lit up all that was around her - including her mother, who stood less than five feet in front of her.

"Where am I?" she repeated. "How did I get here?"

Morgana smiled. "You've done a wonderful job with your assignment, Rowena. It was wrong of me to leave the boy out. I see that now - you found the Elder Wand. You accomplished in just over a week what I spent a lifetime trying to do. A shame, though, that my lifetime was so short. It's time for you to change that, Rowie. Bring your mother back. Become Master of Death."

Rowena looked around, shivering a little in her nightgown, trying to see if she held everything, if her mother had her bring the Hallows with her in her daze, but she only had the Resurrection Stone in her hand. "Don't I need all of the Hallows in my possession to do that, though? And you've only had me bring out the one!" Rowena tried not to let the hope in her voice show through too much, adding a small hint of feigned exasperation.

Morgana's smile shifted into something sinister. "No, I didn't bring the others out. I didn't have to. I saw that scum of a new boyfriend of yours in the Common Room, and he did exactly what I expected him to." A gust of wind blew past Rowena and she held her nightgown close, turning to follow Morgana's gaze. Standing about fifteen feet from her, slightly out of the way, were Rhys's legs, one of which was coming in and out of visibility as her Cloak fluttered in the breeze that Morgana must have created.

Rowena hastened toward him, wincing some as she stepped over the uneven ground in her bare feet. "Rhys! What are you doing out here? Why did you come?"

"What choice did I have?" he asked, throwing the Cloak the rest of the way off, but keeping it in his hands. "You clunked down the stairs and didn't seem to know what you were doing. I couldn't let her take you! I didn't know what she might do to you!"

"You shouldn't have come. You should've gotten Professor Malfoy or someone, not gone after me alone."

"Quit small talking, Rowie. Take the Cloak. Find his wand. It is time, Rowie. You need to do as I say." Morgana's voice was impatient and irritated, each of her sentences staccato, as she twitched slightly in her ghostly skin.

Rowena's heart pounded inside her, beating hard and fast, making her shake as she turned to stare down her mother. She gave her a nearly imperceptible nod. With resolve, she turned slowly, trying to hide the shaking in her arm as she faced her best friend, wand out menacingly. Rowena took a few deep breaths, steadying her voice the best she could. "Rhys, you need to give me the Hallows."

"No! You are still under her control! You must be! Rowena, it's me. Think of what you're doing. I can't give them to you." Rhys, who never could stand still for very long, was pacing back and forth as he spoke, going a few steps in each direction and turning on his heel, but never taking his eyes off of Rowena. After a few paces, he stopped and faced her directly once again. The exasperation left his voice and was replaced with resolve. "You will have to take them from me if you want them."

Walking slowly, wand constantly aimed at his chest, she made her way toward him and said, "Rhys. Please. Give me the Hallows - or I will take them from you. I won't be able to do what I need to do without them."

"No." He stood his ground, ignoring their six-inch height difference and looking up at her unmoving.

"If you insist," she nearly whispered, then her voice came back in a shout as she cast her spells. "Expelliarmus. Accio Cloak." The Elder Wand and Cloak came flying toward her and she caught them easily.

"That's a girl, Rowie. Family is so much more important than your friendship with this lowlife. I'm so proud of you."

"Yes, absolutely, family first," she said absently, as if her mind was elsewhere. Tucking the Cloak and her wand in the crook of one arm, she turned sideways, facing neither Rhys nor Morgana, and tossed the Stone into the trees.

"Rowena, what are you doing?"

She faced Morgana again, leaving the Stone where it landed a few feet away. "Mastering Death, mother. My way. Do you know the spell I would need to bring someone back from the dead?"

"You need a spell?"

"I was just holding the three Hallows, wasn't I, having won the Wand back from Rhys. Did you think it would just work? That the moment I was holding them you would suddenly find your heart beating again?"

"Of course not! There is only one proper way to win the Elder Wand, though, darling."

"What do you mean?"

"You have to kill him, Rowie. The wand isn't really yours until its last owner is dead."

"That's not true. I've used this wand already, and I'm brilliant at magic with it. It's loyal to me now, with Rhys standing over there breathing just fine. I won't hurt him. But if you didn't take the time to figure out how to bring someone back to life, even though you said that was what you wanted most, I think I'm going to deal with the Hallows in my own way."

"Rowena, what are you doing?! Be careful!" Several things happened at once - Rhys started running toward her; Morgana sent the earth moving beneath their feet; and Rowena slipped under the cover of her Invisibility Cloak and picked up the Stone she threw, moving steadily through the forest and away from both Rhys and Morgana. Hiding behind a tree, she realized she'd left Rhys alone and unarmed against a woman whose magic went far beyond what she should be capable of as a dead woman.

Rhys was moving her direction, but Morgana was close behind and unaffected by the gusts of wind now blowing around them. Clouds rolled in to what had been a cloudless sky, thunder and lightning striking nearby ominously. "Rhys," Rowena hissed as he drew near, "Take my wand. Fight back." She slipped her wand out of the Cloak and he jumped, but accepted the wand, taking it from her like a relay, barely even pausing to nod his thanks.

When he was a safe distance away from Rowena, he turned to Morgana and began to taunt her. "If you want me dead so much, why don't you just do it yourself? I'm right here."

"If you insist, boy," she said, moving closer to him. "It won't be much of a loss to the world with you dead, you useless pig."

That was all Rowena could stand to hear. "No! You will not insult my friend!" She had been waiting for the perfect moment, and hoped for one when Morgana wasn't paying attention, but this one would do. She tossed the Stone away from Rhys and Morgana, who were slowly circling about 50 feet to her left; the moment it hit the ground, she raised the Elder Wand. "Confrigo!" She didn't stay long enough to watch the explosion, the Stone shattering and taking bits and pieces of the already-charred forest; instead she ran, Cloak trailing out behind her as she reached Rhys's side.

But Morgana was still there, apparently unaffected by the destruction of the object Rowena supposed was tethering her to earth. Looking at her now, only a few paces away, Rowena studied her for the first time since Morgana had walked into the room after turning the Stone for the first time. When she first saw her mother, she was ghostly, unsubstantial, not making an indent when she sat down on the bed beside her. Now, she seemed almost... real. Almost human again. Even with the Stone destroyed behind them, Morgana seemed to leave footprints in the ground soft from weeks of rain. Wand out, still ready to duel, Rowena said, "You're still here. You should be gone. But you look more real than you ever have."

"You just tried to destroy your own mother, Rowie. That can't reflect well on you in the long run, child. But you silly girl, do you think I was relying solely on the hope that my teenage daughter would find a long-lost stone in order to bring me back to life? No, child, I have other plans in place, ones that I started working on while I was still alive. And, no thanks to you, one of them is still working perfectly. I did hope to get to spend time with my only daughter, to get to know you and see what you could do to bring me back. I thought we could be partners. But as you seem to no longer have an interest in having your mother around..."

She let her voice trail off just as a fissure developed between Rowena and Rhys, a deep chasm that grew with each millisecond that passed. Shit. Shit. Shit. Rowena had been trying to play down the strange forces of nature to coincidence, but now it was too much to deny: she had found some way to control nature. The ground shook and the great ancient trees of the Forbidden Forest began to collapse around them, each one turning inwards in its collapse, each one narrowly missing Rhys or Rowena as they ran back toward the grounds of Hogwarts again, the chasm between them keeping them from connecting. Rowena sneaked a glance backwards to see Morgana in the midst of it all, the ground near her steady, the earthquake radiating outward from her at its epicenter. There was a slight smile on her face, but it just made her appear colder.

In her glance back at her mother, Rowena lost her concentration on the shaking ground around her and fell, a tree seeming to move precisely into her way. She stumbled, but was up again soon, Rhys calling out across from her. "Are you okay?"

She saw him standing at the edge of the chasm, completely stopped, and a surge of annoyance ran through her. "Watch out for yourself, Rhys! Pay attention!" She scrambled to her feet and kept running, her white nightgown clinging to her front and trailing out behind her as she sped along barefoot. "We're nearly out of the forest! We can make it!"

They moved towards one another, finding a place where the fissure between them was jumpable. "Rowena, what are you doing? Let me come to you!" Rhys said and Rowena prepared to jump it.

"No! You're closer to the school; you're on the right side of it. It has to be me." She tried to sound far more confident than she was. Though the crack in the earth was only about two or three feet here, it seemed to go on and on below the surface, and Rowena knew she could easily fall inside. She tried not to look down. A running start was difficult as the ground shook beneath her, so she bent her knees and jumped, looking straight into Rhys's eyes rather than down at what she was jumping over. She was in the air, then in a moment one foot was on the ground; the second followed, just on the edge of the chasm, but Rhys was ready and his arms held her close.

"You're safe."

"No," she said, looking down at him. "We're together, but we're not safe. She's coming."

"What are you talking-" he followed her gaze. "Oh damn it. Dumbledore. Damn it all on Dumbledore's beard. What now?"

Rowena had no idea what next. It seemed obvious they couldn't fight her; their magic did little to harm her, but her own magic was very, very real. Rowena looked past Rhys, and in the distance she spotted a moving figure. It was still very dark, but there was something familiar about the shape. She took Rhys's hand. "Come on, this way. Run for it!"

"What are we going towards?" He asked, huffing from the effort it took to sprint and speak.

"Just trust me!" Having made the mistake once, Rowena didn't dare look back again. But she was beginning to hear Morgana's shouts, and the noise propelled her onward. As they got closer to the figure she'd seen, Rowena felt some of the tension leave her body. It was exactly what she expected to find. "We're almost there!"

"To where? I just see more forest; we're not even going toward the grounds!"

"I know. You're just going to have to trust me," she said as she slowed them to a walk and approached the animal. Cautiously, still not thrilled to be around a creature with the potential to bite her, she stood in front of it, face to face, and placed her hand over its skeletal muzzle. "Okay, Rhys, come here," she said, moving to its side. "Now reach out your hand."

He obliged, and startled when he felt the soft leathery texture in front of him. As his hand touched the animal's hide, understanding dawned in his eyes. "But how did you see it? How did you know it was here?"

"I have no idea, Rhys. Sorry."

"Seeing Thestrals is a new power of yours?"

"Something like that. I don't get it. But I think he'll let us ride him. Come on then, get on."

"You first, if you can see what you're doing." Rowena nodded and climbed on, then reached out a hand to help Rhys up. As the taller of the two, she sat in the back and wrapped her arms around him. But before the Thestral could open his wingspan, there was a jolt in the ground beneath them, and Rowena turned to where they had just been. Morgana was mere feet away, smiling sinisterly.

"Have a new affinity to Thestrals do you, Rowie? Can't stand a Kneazle, but get on with these beasts? You always were a strange child."

"Why are you trying to hurt us? Can't you just go on your way and deal with whatever it is that's making you alive?"

"You tried to do away with me, Rowena. I am merely returning the favor," she said. The ground shook violently, but Morgana stood against it without issue. The Thestral reared up in fright, dropping its riders in the process, and both Rowena and Rhys hit the ground, a tangle of bodies and limbs. Rowena had landed against a broad flat rock, head first, and blood slowly pooled beside her. Rhys landed on top of her, his head against hers, and neither of them, though breathing, woke up.