Chapter 15
Voldemort bared his teeth, "Allegra, good to see you. I thought we'd lost you but I see you found your own way here. I feel I've underestimated you."
Allegra stared at the pale grey face and slit black eyes.
"I didn't much enjoy my holiday."
Voldemort hissed a laugh.
"I didn't think you would find a way out. But I'm glad you did, or I wouldn't have known about your ... gift." He looked at Harry. "Harry, where's my prophecy?"
"He smashed it, Master!" Bellatrix shouted. Voldemort furrowed - what should have been - his eyebrows.
"So you smashed my prophecy, did you Potter?" Voldemort said and Harry stared back. "Yes, I see he did, Bella, once again my Death Eaters have failed me ..."
"Master, I am sorry, I was fighting the Animagus Black at the time, I was unable to prevent it!" Bellatrix groveled.
"Be quiet, Bella, I will deal with you and the others later. Do you think I would have entered the Ministry for an unimportant reason?" Bellatrix made a number of small mumblings and stood up, watching Voldemort for his next move. "I have nothing more to say to you, Potter. Allegra, get out the way," Voldemort flicked his wand and Allegra flew backwards and onto the shiny black floor, sliding quickly into the wall between two fireplaces and hitting her head - again - against the hard surface.
"Allegra!" Harry shouted, trying to go to her but failed as Voldemort started to attack. Bellatrix slid away into a fireplace across from Allegra and disappeared in an explosion of green flames.
"AVADA K-" Voldemort stopped as someone appeared from the fireplace on Allegra's left.
Allegra felt nauseous and dizzy. She managed to pull herself into the corner and let herself rest between the two walls.
"Dumbledore?" Voldemort said and Harry turned. Dumbledore stretched out his hand and Harry slid back into the wall just as Allegra had done, only without such a thud at the end. A green shot of light from Voldemort's wand flew at Dumbledore, but he disappeared in a blur of silver robes. Next second, he had appeared behind Voldemort. Bright coloured lights bounced off the walls, sending debris to the floor. Harry kept trying to get up to help, but each time Dumbledore knocked him back down.
"It was foolish of you to come here tonight, Tom. The Aurors are on their way -"
"By which time I shall be gone, and you, shall be dead."
Voldemort sent another killing curse at Dumbledore but missed and it instead hit a fireplace which exploded with bits of brick and tile flying like shrapnel.
"You do not seek to kill me, Dumbledore? Above such a brutality, are you?"
"We both know there are other ways of destroying a man, Tom. Merely taking your life would not satisfy me, I admit -"
"There is nothing worse than death, Dumbledore!" Voldemort shouted.
"You are quite wrong," Dumbledore said wisely over the electric sounds of spells colliding. "Indeed your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been your greatest weakness -" Another shot of green light streamed from Voldemort's wand, shattering all the glass in the Atrium and it fell splintering. Dumbledore put a shield over himself and Harry, but had not noticed Allegra.
Allegra's ability kicked in just in time to put a shield up and the glass fell as sand around her.
Members of the Ministry appeared through the usable fireplaces. Voldemort took one look and vanished.
"He's back!" Fudge shouted and stared at Dumbledore who nodded slightly.
Harry choked and fell to the floor, lying and twitching, "Harry!" Allegra cried as loud as she could, and dragged her exhausted body back onto it's feet. The Ministry officials gasped as they saw her, battered and bruised. The scab on her chin had been knocked off and was now bleeding, as was the new cut down her cheek. Allegra sat down not far from Harry and Dumbledore.
"You've lost, old man ..." Harry said in a deep rasping voice. His eyes flickered from his green to black. "Kill me now Dumbledore ... No ... If death is nothing, Dumbledore, kill the boy ... No! Ahh! ..." Harry's voice flickered in.
"Fight it, Harry ... Don't let him win." Dumbledore said softly as Harry groaned.
"See now, boy? See which the greater side is? No, no ... get out ... you're weak, worthless ... you don't know the things I do ... you've never felt the things I've felt ... friends, love, trust ... and ... and, I ... I feel sorry for you." Harry gasped, tensed arching his back and fell to the floor motionless. The glass rose from the floor creating a cylinder around him and it looked as though Voldemort were looking upon Harry. Then he disappeared.
"Harry?" Allegra whispered dizzily and Dumbledore looked back at her and smiled.
"I knew you were strong," he smiled at her, and then down at Harry. Allegra sat down next to Dumbledore and took Harry's hand, giving it a squeeze. Harry started to stir.
"Are you alright, Harry?" Dumbledore asked with concern in his voice.
"Yes," Harry replied weakly, attempting to sit up but not letting go of Allegra's hand. "Yeah ... I'm, - where's Voldemort, where - who are all those - what?"
Allegra looked behind her and saw that the Atrium was filling with people. A few she recognised, but most she didn't. They were all whispering to each other and looking from Allegra to Dumbledore to Harry.
"He - he was there!" said one man pointing to the edge of where Harry lay.
"I know, Williamson, I know, I saw him too," said Fudge in a low, scared voice, who was wearing his pajamas under a navy and light blue dressing gown. "Merlin's beard - here - in the Ministry of Magic! - great heavens above - how is this possible - dear god - how?"
"If you proceed downstairs to the Department of Mysteries, Cornelius," Dumbledore began in an overly more consistent and together voice, walking towards the Minister, "you will find several escaped Death Eaters contained in the Death Chamber, bound by an Anti-Disapparation Jinx and awaiting your decision as what to do with them."
Fudge gasped, "Dumbledore! You - here - I - gosh," he took a deep breath and then looked at Allegra and pondered a moment before gasping again, "Miss Boone! So you were with Dumbledore!"
"Do I look like I was with Dumbledore?" Allegra said, her voice rasping and she looked at Dumbledore's manicured beard and clean robes and then at herself, covered in dirt, blood and dust. "I was captured by Voldemort."
Fudge stood mouth agape, "err ... Dawlish! Williamson! Go down to the Department of Mysteries and see ... Dumbledore, you will have to tell me exactly what happened - my Atrium ... what, what happened? Harry?" He suddenly gasped again, and Allegra rolled her eyes. "He - what, uh, why is, here?"
"Cornelius, I will explain everything after I have sorted the children out and got them back to school." Dumbledore walked away and picked up a large slab of tile and muttered "portus."
"Now see here, Dumbledore!" Fudge exclaimed but Dumbledore ignored him and took the tile to Harry and Allegra. "You haven't got authorisation for that Portkey! You can't do things like that right in front of the Minister of Magic, you - you -"
Dumbledore turned and looked at Fudge over the top of his glasses.
"You will give the order to remove Dolores Umbridge from Hogwarts; you will tell your Aurors to stop searching for my Care of Magical Creatures teacher so that he can return to work. I will give you ..." he pulled out a small pocket watch and looked at it, "half an hour of my time tonight, in which I think we shall be more than able to cover the important points of what happened tonight, after that I shall need to return to my school. If you need more help from me you are, of course, more than welcome to contact me at Hogwarts. Letters addressed to the Headmaster will find me." Fudge looked like he had just been hit in the face with a spade.
"I - you -"
Dumbledore turned his back on him and faced Allegra and Harry once more. Allegra was grinning. He winked at her.
"Take this," he handed you and Harry the Portkey, "I will see you two in half an hour." He said quietly, "One ... Two ... Three ..."
The sensation of a hook being jerked behind her belly button pulled Allegra away, and Allegra slammed her eyes shut. Both Harry and Allegra's knees buckled as their feet hit the ground. Allegra looked around and saw that they had arrived in Dumbledore's office, out of the window there was a small line of light on the horizon and Allegra guessed it was about five-a-m.
Harry sat up and looked at her; smiling slightly. They were happy to be together again but they were going to be together for a while ... Sirius wasn't.
They shuffled towards each other and leaned into each other for comfort. A painting on the wall beside them gave a particularly loud grunting snore, and a cool voice said, "ah ... Harry Potter ... Allegra Boone, good to see you back ..." Phineas Nigellus yawned and stretched his arms as he surveyed Allegra and Harry out of sleepy eyes. "And what brings you here in the early hours of the morning?" he said. "This office is supposed to be barred to all but the rightful Headmaster. Or has Dumbledore sent you here? Oh, don't tell me ..." he yawned again, "another message for my worthless great great-grandson?" Neither of them spoke. Allegra didn't want to say anything in case she phrased it wrong. Phineas did not know that Sirius was dead, but she doubted Harry wanted to tell him, either.
More portraits were beginning to stir and wake up, rubbing their eyes and noticing the two embracing figures in the room.
"What are you two doing?" Phineas asked, now wide awake.
"I hope this means that Dumbledore will soon be back among us?" One portrait asked, Harry pulled away a little and nodded. "Oh good, it has been very dull without him, very dull indeed." He settled back down in his portrait contently and surveyed the two teenagers in front of him. "Dumbledore thinks very highly of you, Harry, very highly, and thinks that you are destined for greatness at whatever you set your mind to Allegra, although I am sure both of you knew this already ..." He faded off and stared out the window. "Oh yes, holds you in great esteem."
Harry shifted slightly and Allegra pulled out of his grip to sit and look out of the window. Suddenly the empty fireplace burst in a roar of emerald green flames. As Dumbledore's tall form unfolded itself from the fire the wizards and witches on the surrounding walls gave joyous cries of welcome.
"Thank you," Dumbledore said. He did not look at Harry or Allegra at first, but instead walked over to the naked perch and withdrew from his pocket a small, featherless Fawkes, whom he placed gently on the tray of soft ashes beneath the golden post where Fawkes usually sat when fully grown. "Well, Harry," Dumbledore said finally, turning away from the baby bird and looking towards the teenagers, "Allegra, you will be glad to hear that none of your fellow students are going to suffer sustainable damage from tonight's events."
"Good," Allegra breathed and Harry opened his mouth slightly but made no noise.
"Madame Pomfrey is patching everyone up as we speak - I will send both of you along soon - Nymphadora Tonks may need to spend a little time in St. Mungo's, but she is one of their regulars and will make a full recovery." Harry nodded at the carpet. Dumbledore sighed and the room fell silent. "I know how you're feeling," Dumbledore said quietly.
"No you don't," Harry said.
"You see, Dumbledore?" Phineas Nigellus said slyly, "never try to understand the students. They hate it. They would much rather be tragically misunderstood, wallow in self-pity, stew in their own -"
"That's enough, thank you Phineas." Harry looked out of the window and Allegra leant her tired body back against a glass cabinet. "There's no shame in what you're feeling, Harry. On the contrary ... the fact that you can feel pain like this is your greatest strength."
"My greatest strength, is it?" Harry said through gritted teeth, his voice shaking. "You haven't got a clue ... you don't know ..."
"What don't I know?" Dumbledore asked calmly.
"I - I don't want to talk about how I feel, alright?!"
"Harry, suffering like this proves you are still a man! This pain is part of being human -"
"THEN I DON'T WANT TO BE HUMAN!" Harry shouted, and Allegra felt her eyes well up. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH, I'VE SEEN ENOUGH, I WANT OUT, I WANT IT TO END, I DON'T CARE ANYMORE -" Harry turned and kicked over one of the tables, sending silver instruments clattering to the floor.
"You do care," Dumbledore said, who had not flinched or changed is facial expression. "You care or you wouldn't react like this, you care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it."
"I - I DON'T!" Harry roared, and Allegra could feel the rage radiating off of him.
"Oh yes you do. You have lost your mother, your father, you thought you may have lost Allegra, and the closest thing to a parent you have ever known, of course you care."
"YOU DON'T KNOW HOW I FEEL! YOU - STANDING THERE - YOU - YOU -" Harry seemed to run out of steam and turned, running to the office door but it would not budge. Allegra remained looking forwards, watching Fawkes as he watched Harry. "Let me out."
"No." Dumbledore said simply. For a few seconds they were quiet.
"If you don't - if you keep me in here - if you don't let me -"
"By all means, continue destroying my possessions, I can repair them." Dumbledore stepped back and sunk into his chair, watching Harry.
"Let me out." Harry repeated, his voice calm and cold.
"Not until I have had my say."
"Do you - do you think I want to - do you think I give a - I DON'T GIVE A FUCK WHAT YOU'VE GOT TO SAY!" Harry cried. "I don't want to hear anything you've got to say."
"You will, because you are not nearly as angry with me as you ought to be. If you are to attack me, as I know you are close to doing, I would like to have thoroughly earned it."
"What are you talking -?"
"It's my fault Sirius died." Dumbledore said clearly. "Or should I say, almost entirely my fault, I will not be so arrogant as to claim responsibility for the whole. Sirius was a brave, clever and energetic man, and such men are not usually content to sit at home in hiding while they believe others to be in danger. Nevertheless, you should never have believed for an instant that there was any necessity for you to go to the Department of Mysteries tonight. If I had been open with you, Harry, as I should have been, you would have known a long time ago that Voldemort might try and lure you there, and you would never have been tricked into going their tonight. And Sirius would not have had to come after you. That blame lies with me, and me alone." Harry still had his hand on the doorknob. "Please sit down," Dumbledore asked, "both of you." Allegra tried to get up but fell back down and looked at Dumbledore dreamily.
"Goodness, Allegra, it seems I have failed you, too." Dumbledore got up and went to one of the portraits, "please find Minerva for me." He looked down at Allegra sympathetically, "I will take care of you as soon as I can, how do you feel?"
"Fine as long as I don't move." Dumbledore smiled at her.
"Am I to understand," Phineas Nigellus said slowly, "that my great-great-grandson, the last of the Blacks, is dead?"
"Yes, Phineas." Dumbledore said quietly.
"I don't believe it." He said quickly, and marched off out of his frame to his other at Grimmald Place.
There was a knock at the door. "Come in," Dumbledore said, and the door opened so easily that Allegra could barely believe it had ever been locked.
"Is everything alright, Albus?" Professor McGonagall closed the door behind her.
"I'm afraid not," he said and motioned at Allegra, "I am worried about Allegra, here, would you be so kind as to take her to St. Mungo's and get them to look her over?"
"Of course, of course," McGonagall looked at Allegra with worried eyes. She put her hand under Allegra's elbow and helped her off the floor. She was unsteady on her feet and so McGonagall put an arm around her and walked her into the fireplace.
"I will be along shortly," Dumbledore said, before McGonagall threw down the powder and took Allegra to St. Mungo's.
"How is she?" Allegra heard the familiar tones of Dumbledore's voice and she began to stir from where she had been drifting to sleep in her bed.
"She'll be fine," Minerva said, her tone not entirely convincing of what she said, "she's malnourished and dehydrated, some soft tissue injuries and the odd cut but nothing to worry about. She's just exhausted, poor child. Whatever did they do to her, Albus?" Minerva didn't get an answer because Allegra sat up and blinked at them. "Here," Minerva passed her a glass of water and Allegra took it thankfully, gulping it down.
"Urgh!" Allegra's face scrunched in disgust, "this tastes like metal."
"It's the nutrients," Minerva said softly.
"And they couldn't have made it taste like orange?" Dumbledore smiled and put a comforting hand on Minerva's shoulder.
"Do you mind if I speak with you a moment?" Dumbledore asked Allegra politely. Allegra shook her head and sipped more of the metallic water. Minerva smiled at the two of them and left the room without being asked. "When you were at the Ministry today, Allegra, did you go into the hall of Prophecies?" Allegra shook her head. "I see." He paused for a long moment and looked down at her bed. "I remember the day your mother was killed; she had sent me an owl midday saying that she had been into the Hall of Prophecies and seen something that unnerved her. She wanted to meet at the Ministry to discuss it, only we didn't get that far ... For years I have believed that there was a prophecy containing something about you, which became more and more likely as you have developed this skill." Allegra frowned at him. "After I spoke with Cornelius Fudge I went to the Hall of Prophecies, but it was much in ruin."
"So we won't know if I have one?"
Dumbledore shrugged slightly, "I might be able to." He looked at the door and listened to someone ranting as they walked past, when he looked back at her he had an intense look in his eye. "When you are back at school and well rested, I would like you to ask Harry to tell you what I have told him tonight. I feel it may be important."
"Why don't you tell me?"
"Because I would like to leave Harry to make that decision." Allegra nodded. "I have made a great many mistakes with Harry, I do not intend to make those with you. Tonight you showed your powers to a number of people, including Voldemort. You have become very powerful very quickly, and Voldemort has noticed. I fear this may put you in between Harry and Voldemort."
"In between?"
"Voldemort wants to destroy Harry. He will want to recruit you. He will want to get to you and use you just as I told you about that first day we spoke in my office."
Allegra looked down, ashamed that she had not been able to hide her abilities from the one person that Dumbledore had warned her to keep them from.
"I am incredibly proud and impressed, Allegra, do not let this take away from what you have achieved without my help."
"Thank you," she flushed.
"We will discuss this further when you are back to health. For now, relax and get some sleep. I will make sure you receive some get-well sweets."