It was a surreal feeling; being surrounded by so many flames yet being immune to their burn. Without the fear that the flames would hurt her, Alexandra had to admire them a bit, with their beauty and their quick movements.
Still, Alexandra could not look past the fact that Hogwarts was burning to the ground this very second. She wondered whether all of the students had gotten out okay, or if they were still trapped in their common rooms. She tried to push the images of Fred and Alanna fighting to stay away from the flames out of her mind.
Suddenly, the door to the room of requirements swung open and in walked a figure covered by smoke. As the figure stepped further into the room, Alexandra was able to recognize it as Claridina.
Instantly, her son moved towards her.
"Is Potter dead?" he asked. "Is the plan done?"
"The plan has not worked to my expectations, but it has worked. Potter escaped."
As she said this, though, she was not looking at her son, but instead at Alexandra, who was standing in the corner of the room.
"My darling daughter," Claridina said in her sickly smooth voice. "So glad you agreed to join us here."
"I didn't agree," Alexandra said shakily. "He made me."
"Now Rolwat," Claridina said, turning her attention to her son. "You mustn't be rude to your sister."
"She wouldn't have come any other way," he muttered.
"Why of course she would've," Claridina said, stepping towards Alexandra. "She wouldn't want to miss a chance to see her mother's work in action."
Alexandra felt her stomach churn.
"Besides," Claridina continued. "She will be spending much more time with us soon."
"What do you mean?" Alexandra couldn't help but ask.
Claridina grinned. "Who else would you expect the muggle courts to leave you with?"
"What are you talking about?" Alexandra frowned. "I live with my father. That's how it's going to stay."
"Your father's dead."
Alexandra blinked. "Wh-What?"
"It seems he might've had a bit of a run in with a creature that didn't particularly like him," Claridina said.
"You-you killed him?" Alexandra whispered.
"I didn't," Claridina said. "The other side did."
"The other side?"
"Potter and his Aurors aren't as perfect as everyone believes," Claridina said softly. "Potter and the ministry set a group of Thestrals loose to try and stop me and my followers. They failed to train the Thestrals properly, though, and one attacked your father. He couldn't even fight back."
Alexandra felt her insides grow cold and her knees began to shake. "No…no, it can't be."
"But it is," Claridina said. "Don't you see know how destructive the self proclaimed 'good side' can be. They don't care about those that get in the way of their personal agendas, so long as they get the fame and glory of catching the bad guy."
Alexandra couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her father was dead? All because Harry and the Aurors hadn't cared about hurting innocent bystanders to get to Claridina? Dudley was Harry's cousin, and he didn't even care that he would get killed?
"Looks like Potter isn't the person you thought he was," Claridina said gently.
Alexandra felt tears welling up in her eyes. "How-how could he?"
"My sweet daughter, this isn't the first time Potter has done something like this. I can't tell you how many Aurors he's lead to their deaths just in an attempt to get on the front page of the Prophet."
Alexandra held the armchair for support. "I-I thought he cared. I thought he was-was-"
"Clearly you don't know Potter at all," Claridina said. "Let me ask you something, when Potter got here, what do you think his main priority was? Saving the hundreds of young children that were trapped in the burning castle, or taking me down?"
"I-I don't-"
"He didn't even bat an eye for the students," Claridina told her. "He ordered all of his Aurors to surround the castle and track me down. Only a handful of students managed to get out. The rest burned to their deaths."
Alexandra tried to process this. Maybe Claridina had a point…She knew Harry loved being an Auror; was it really all for fame purposes, though?
"And do you think he'll bat an eye over your father's death?" Claridina asked softly.
Alexandra blinked.
"He'll consider it collateral damage," Claridina said firmly. "He won't lose any sleep over his death or worry about the poor little girl he's left fatherless."
Alexandra felt so confused. She wanted her father, she wanted the flames to go away, she wanted to get out of the castle…but she also wanted something else.
"You want revenge," Claridina said, as if she had read Alexandra's mind. "I can feel it."
Alexandra said nothing.
"I can help you get it," Claridina said. "I can help you make sure that no one else dies in Potter's self-absorbed battles. I can help you, daughter."
Alexandra thought of her father, dead. She was never going to see him again. She took a deep breath. "How?"
"Vow to assist me take down Potter and all he stands for," Claridina said, grabbing one of Alexandra's hands. "Potter needs to die; there's no other way around it. More lives will be lost if he doesn't. You'll have access to him. You know his children, you know his life, you have his blood. You can give me information that I can only dream of getting. Vow to help me, at all costs, to destroy Potter. You help me, I help you. We both want the same thing."
Tears for her father now flowing freely down her cheeks, Alexandra slowly nodded.
Claridina's face broke into a huge grin. "Excellent," she hissed. She grasped harder on Alexandra's hand. "Rolwat! Over here! You will be our Bonder."
Rolwat drew his wand. He turned to Alexandra. "Do you, Alexandra May Dursley, agree to assist our mother in every way to destroy Harry Potter? To feed her information secretly? To do whatever you have to do to help end him?"
"I-I do," she whispered.
A thin tongue of flame issued from the wand and wound itself around their hands. Alexandra felt it bind tightly.
"Perfect," Claridina said, releasing Alexandra's hand.
"What did you do?" Alexandra asked.
"Your brother just performed a simple Unbreakable Vow," Claridina said.
"Wh-what?"
"Just a little…insurance, to make sure everything goes smoothly."
"What happens if you break an Unbreakable Vow?" she asked shakily.
"You die," Rolwat told her, his eyes glistening.
Alexandra felt her heart skip a beat.
Claridina drew out a wand from inside her robes. She gave it a flick, and within a moment, all the flames were gone.
"Come now," Claridina said to Alexandra. "Come with me."
….
"It stopped," Harry said softly, looking at the school. "The fire…"
"What happened?" Hermione asked Kingsley. "Did someone manage to put it out?"
Kingsley shook his head. "I ordered everyone to stop trying once everyone made it out. We needed more men to fight her followers."
"She must've apperated away then," Ron said.
"What in the good lord's name just happened?" Slughorn asked, jogging over to the party. "The flames…where did they go?"
"Claridina must've put it out before she left," Hermione replied.
"Unless she's still in there," Harry said suddenly. "Quick. We need to-"
"One of your Aurors just used a fancy sort of charm to check for human presence," Slughorn said. "Nobody's in there."
Harry frowned.
"The castle just might be able to be salvaged then," Kingsley said softly.
"A bit of a silver lining then, I suppose," Ron muttered.
"Hermione, get your arm cleaned up," Kingsley said, straightening his robes. "Ron, Harry, you get yourselves cleaned up too, and then report back to me. Right now I'm-I'm going to have to gather our dead."
Harry felt his blood run cold. "How-how many were-"
"Far less than Claridina's side," Kingsley replied.
"How many?"
Kingsley sighed. "Sixty-two."
Harry turned away.
"Take an hour to gather yourselves," Kingsley said softly to Ron. And with that, he slowly walked away.
"Harry," Hermione said, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"I led them all into it," Harry said.
"You did what anybody would've done," Ron told him.
"They had families," Harry muttered. "And lives."
"They all knew what they were getting into," Hermione said. "None of them died in vain; they all died fighting to ensure that Claridina didn't win."
"Yeah? But she did win," Harry said loudly. "She's gotten everything but Hogwarts! The ministries, Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade…they're all hers now."
"But that doesn't mean anything, Harry," Hermione said.
"She's right," Ron nodded. "Voldemort controlled everything. Even Hogwarts, and you still beat him."
"I don't think this time I'll be so lucky," Harry mumbled. He started towards the Whomping Willow.
"Where are you going?" Hermione asked.
"I-I just really need to see James and Albus right now."
"We'll come too," Ron said. "Rose…she's probably scared to death."
Without a word, Harry Ron and Hermione made their way through the secret passage underneath the Willow. As they approached the Shrieking Shack, they began to hear voices.
"I think they're upstairs," Ron said as they climbed up into the shack. Harry nodded and followed Ron upstairs.
It was quite a sight, seeing about four hundred students crammed into one room, along with Neville and several Aurors.
"Dad!"
Before Harry could spot either of his sons, he was nearly tackled as they ran to him.
"You both okay?" Harry asked kneeling down.
"What happened?" James asked at once. "We've been asking Neville for the past ten minutes, but he hasn't told us anything!"
"Mum, what's wrong with your arm?" Rose asked, making her way through the sea of students to her parents.
"Don't worry about me, sweetheart," Hermione said as her and Ron hugged their daughter tightly.
"Dad, is Hogwarts still on fire?" Albus asked.
"No," Harry said. "The fire's out."
"Was it Claridina that started it?" James asked.
Harry was spared from answering his son as Neville approached him. "Harry? I need to speak with you."
"Stay with Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione," Harry told his sons.
"We've just finished taking roll of all the students," Neville said once him and Harry had separated themselves from the students.
"Everyone's here?"
"Claridina's son's missing."
"That's no surprise," Harry said. "She probably took him along with her."
"That's not all," Neville said gravely. "Alexandra…she's not here either."
Harry's eyes widened. "She's-she didn't get left in the school, did she?"
"I don't know. Fred and Alanna told me that she never reached the Gryffindor common room, but I assumed that another teacher just put her in the nearest common room and- Where are you going?"
"Back into the school," Harry said, rushing out of the room. "I need to find her."
…
Dudley fired the gun.
At once, the pressure disappeared from his chest.
Hardly daring to breathe, Dudley got to his feet.
He did it. He shot the creature in the eye.
He could see a pool of blood beginning to form on the floor, and slowly a horse-like figure with scaly skin and wings began to materialize.
"What the bloody hell is that?" Dudley frowned.
Millions of questions stirring in his head, Dudley sank down onto his bed.