"What's going on?" Alexandra whispered.
"Tonight will be the night," Wretermoust said softly. "That all of mum's hard work will finally pay off."
Alexandra felt a chill run down her spine. "I'm leaving."
"I won't stop you," he said as Alexandra started for the door. "But going back to your friends may not be the smartest move on your behalf."
Alexandra paused. "What do you mean?"
"Mum's going to be very busy tonight," Wretermoust told her. "But she will certainly make time to stop by here, and when she does, she'll want to see both of us. Now, I've already informed her of where I'll be located, but if she has to go all the way up to the Gryffindor common room to see you…well, let's just say that your friends might be a bit worse off."
Alexandra saw Fred and Alanna's faces; scared and panicked. "I'll stay," she conceded.
"I thought you would," Wretermoust said. "Besides, if you were to be up to your common room when mum came, it would reveal to everyone that she's related to you, and I know how terrible that would be for you."
….
"Teddy," Ginny said as the green-haired boy apperated into her living room. "What are you doing here?"
"Where's Lily?" Teddy asked her at once.
"Upstairs playing with Hugo," Ginny replied. "Teddy, what's wrong? You look worried."
"Claridina's striking tonight," Teddy said.
Ginny's face grew pale. "Are you-"
"Harry's positive," Teddy nodded. "I'm going to fetch my grandmum. Harry said to call the rest of your family and have them come here. Tell the adults what's going on so they'll all be prepared. When I come back, we'll put protective charms around the house."
"Okay," Ginny nodded weakly.
"It's-It's going to be okay," Teddy said, trying to sound more confident then he felt. "Claridina's lost the element of surprise she had been banking on. Aurors from all around Europe are preparing to fight now."
Ginny tried to muster a small smile onto her face. "I know."
"I'll be back in a minute," Teddy told her. And with a loud pop, he disapperated.
Ginny felt her knees buckle but she managed to rush over to the fireplace and grab the pot of Floo powder. Just as she was about to contact the Burrow, she heard the sound of feet padding down the stairs.
"Mum," Lily said, climbing down the steps with Hugo at her heels. "Would it be alright if Hugo and I went outside to play in the pond? It's finally nice out, and-"
"No," Ginny said quickly.
Lily frowned. "Why?"
"Because," Ginny said, trying to keep her voice calm. "We've decided to have a…dinner party. With the whole family. I was just about to call everyone now."
"Will daddy come home from work?" Lily asked excitedly.
"And my mum and dad?" Hugo asked.
"Yes," Ginny nodded. "They-They may be a little late, but they'll be here. They'll be home soon."
….
"Stun the goblins if they try to stop us from getting into the bank," Harry said as him, Ron and a large group of about twenty Aurors ran towards Gringotts. "Don't worry about how they'll react to that right now. With an luck, we can corner Claridina in the bank and get the fighting out of the way there."
"We're aiming to kill Claridina," Ron added. "Not stun. Kill. As for her followers-"
Suddenly, there was a loud explosion, and before any of the Aurors could even react, the entire area was surrounded in fire.
"Keep heading towards the bank!" Harry yelled, coughing as the smoke began to fill his lungs. "There's another group of Aurors that are going to help the shoppers!"
The Aurors quickened their pace, trying to block out the screams that echoed all around them. Finally, the large, white building came into view. Harry clutched his wand tightly, preparing himself for the worst. But then, with no warning, Gringotts exploded with a deafening boom. Harry and the others were thrown off their feet and thousands of lifeless goblin bodies began to scatter the ground.
"Wands at the ready!" Harry yelled, bringing himself to his feet. "This is it!"
At his word, several streams of green light came shooting from the ruins of the building, and faces of Claridina's followers appeared. The Aurors began firing their curses, but Harry tried to spot Claridina.
Claridina's followers were good duelers; Harry could see that, but his Aurors were better. Within ten minutes, all fifteen of Claridina's followers were dead, with only two minor injuries to the Aurors.
"Can you two keep fighting?" Harry asked breathlessly to the two injured Aurors. One of them had a broken nose that was now being badly mended by Ron, and the other had a long gash on the side of his face. They both nodded.
"Here are their wands," another Auror said to Harry.
"She wasn't here," Ron said to Harry as Harry began handing out the extra wands to be used as backup.
"Where do you think she could be?" Harry asked. "There's groups of Aurors at every other location; they would've contacted us with those coins if they had found her…unless…"
Ron nodded gravely. "I've got a strong feeling about Hogwarts…"
"So do I," Harry sighed. He turned to the others. "We're going to apperate to Hogsmeade and go to Hogwarts from there. The others will handle the damage here. We need to-"
"Ron! Harry!"
The two turned to see Hermione rushing over.
"What are you doing here?" Ron frowned, running over to meet his wife. "I thought you were staying at the Ministry to-"
"The Ministry collapsed," Hermione said tearfully. The entire building…gone. It was awful. Right after you all left there was a loud explosion and the whole place was on fire. And then the Thestrals must've come; I couldn't see them, and they began attacking everyone that tried to get out…we-we lost a lot of people. I told everyone who made it out to split up in groups and go to the locations you told us all about."
"Was Kingsley able to get out?" Harry asked.
"Yes," Hermione nodded. "He's here. He's helping try to save the shoppers; we've all got to get out of here; the fire's spreading quickly this way!"
"We're going to Hogwarts," Ron told her. "We'll apperate outside of Hogsmeade and go up from-"
"We can apperate right into the school," Hermione said. "McGonagall sent me a Patronus right before they attacked the Ministry; all of the school's protection is down. The professors are trying, but noting is holding up."
"Come on, then," Harry said. "That's not a good sign."
….
Dudley pulled into his driveway and turned off his car. It had been a long, exhausting day and he was looking forward to collapsing into his warm bed the second he got into the house. He stepped out his car and took a step towards the house when he felt a hard shove from behind. He tumbled to the ground, hitting his head hard on the concrete. He sat up and looked around for whatever it was that just pushed him but he saw nothing. Slowly bringing himself to his feet, Dudley wondered if he might've just tripped when he felt what must've been some sort of hooves on his chest and was pinned to the ground. Dudley tried to get up again, but there was too much weight being pressed onto his chest.
Dudley was scared now. What was going on? Who was doing this, and why could he see him or her?
Suddenly, Dudley felt a pain in his shoulder, as if something with very sharp teeth had just bitten into him, and was horrified to see blood gushing out of the spot where he had felt the pain. Dudley let out a yell. "What's going on? Who's there?"
There was no answer. But then, Dudley felt something on his face; it felt like something breathing very heavily on him. And then he cringed as his nostrils filled with the scent of rotting flesh.
….
AN- Thanks so much for all of the support everyone's been giving this story; I really appreciate it. One of my readers, Hailstorm234, has actually created a series of oneshots called Claridina's Revenge, and it is based off of this story that focuses on Claridina's past; it's looking really good, and if you've enjoyed this series, I encourage you to check it out. Here's the link: w w w . f a n f i c t i o n .net/s/8088236/1/Claridinas_Revenge and also his other fic focusing on Claridina: http:/w w w . f a n f I c t i o /s/8086348/1/Claridinas_Wrath