Chapter 66:

"He hasn't gone!" Harry yelled.

Alicia's hand was gripping on her wand. All she could feel was the pain, the anguish, the grief.

The guilt.

He wouldn't have been here if not for them. They should have entered Grimmauld Place. They should have used the mirror! They shouldn't have listened to Kreacher!

Kreacher. He'd clearly lied to them. But why? What did he have to gain?

But Alicia already knew. Kreacher served the Blacks and Sirius had not been the only one.

Alicia ignored Harry's shouts of denial. She wondered if whether the pain she felt was really all hers, whether it was really this painful or if Harry's was contributing. She couldn't separate the two.

All she knew was she was being inflamed with anger.

She could blame Kreacher, but he was an elf, bound to do as he was told. Voldemort set a trap, but it had to be foolproof. Someone had to lie if Harry went looking for Sirius at Grimmauld Place. And who better than an elf, stationed in the house, and unable to disobey orders.

Alicia stared at Bellatrix.

Dumbledore had most of the remaining Death Eaters grouped in the middle of the room, seemingly immobilised by invisible ropes. Mad-Eye Moody had crawled across the room to where Tonks lay and was attempting to revive her. Behind the dais there were still flashes of light, grunts, and cries from Kingsley and Bellatrix.

Neville's voice sounded as he started talking to Harry. Alicia was watching Bellatrix. Lupin still had Harry, Dumbledore was busy with the Death Eaters, Tonks was unconscious, Mad-Eye helping her, Kingsley fighting and Sirius…

"Let's — let's find the others. Where are they all, Neville?"

Lupin turned away from the archway as he spoke. It sounded as though every word was causing him pain.

"They're all back there," said Neville. "A brain attacked Ron but I think he's all right — and Hermione's unconscious, but we could feel a pulse —"

Alicia watched as there was a bang and Kingsley yelled out in pain.

Alicia's feet moved as Bellatrix Lestrange turned tail and ran while Dumbledore whipped around. He aimed a spell at her but she deflected it. She was halfway up the steps now.

Alicia was at the base and ran up the steps, jumping to climb them faster. She heard people shouting at her and she heard Harry's name but she ignored it. Yes there was anger in her, and yes she wanted Bellatrix to pay, but it was for more than just what she did to Sirius. She'd been the one to cause all of this! If not for Kracher, who was under her orders… There was no one else but Narcissa and where was Bellatrix going to hide if not her faithful sister's manor? Kreacher had disappeared from the house of Christmas, and they'd set a trap!

Bellatrix ensured they came here, and by doing that, Sirius was…

The hem of Bellatrix's robes whipped out of sight ahead and they were back in the room where the brains were swimming…

She aimed a curse over her shoulder. The tank rose into the air and tipped. Alicia's umbrella spell kept the foul-smelling potion from touching her as she followed the Death Eater. The brains were propelled away from her with a flick of her wand and she sprinted after Bellatrix into the circular black hall as she opened another door to the lifts. Alicia was through it before she could close it and the women shot a curse at the girl who ducked. She had to duck another before she heard the clattering of the lift and Bellatrix had jumped into one ahead of her.

Alicia instantly moved hit the button as Harry ran to join her and the lift jangled and banged lower and lower; the grilles slid open and two dashed inside without a word. Harry hammered the button marked Atrium. The doors slid shut and the lift rose.

Alicia was out of the lift first and she instantly saw the women almost at the telephone lift at the other end of the hall. She must have heard their echoing feet before she threw another spell at them. Harry dodged behind the fountain and Alicia pointed her want for the spell to be diverted and hit the wrought gold gates at the other end of the Atrium so that they rang like bells. There were no more footsteps. She had stopped running.

She stared at Alicia grinned excitedly.

"Come out, come out, little Harry!" she called in her mock-baby voice, which echoed off the polished wooden floors. "Or do you want your sister to face me on her own?" Bellatrix stared at the girl who Harry glanced at, but Alicia was too focused to look back. "What did you come after me for, then? I thought you were here to avenge my dear cousin!"

"I am!" shouted Harry, and a score of ghostly Harry's seemed to chorus I am! I am! I am! all around the room.

"You're the whole reason we're even here." Alicia hissed, she didn't need to raise her voice all that much her voice echoed regardless. "You've been ordering Kreacher around."

"Well aren't we cleaver. Didn't stop you though did it?"

"It did me. Just not him." Alicia confessed

"Aaaaaah… did you love him, little baby Potter?"

Alicia hardly even felt the hatred that rose in Harry, in response he flung himself out from behind the fountain and bellowed "Crucio!"

Bellatrix screamed. The spell had knocked her off her feet, but she did not writhe and shriek with pain as Neville had — she was already on her feet again, breathless, no longer laughing. Harry dodged behind the golden fountain again, Alicia dived out of the way as Bellatrix took her anger out towards the girl and her counterspell hit the head of the handsome wizard, which was blown off and landed twenty feet away, gouging long scratches into the wooden floor.

"Never used an Unforgivable Curse before, have you, boy?" she yelled. Alicia nodded her head as she heard Bellatrix approaching and they moved around the fountain. She had abandoned her baby voice now. "You need to mean them, Potter! You need to really want to cause pain — to enjoy it — righteous anger won't hurt me for long — I'll show you how it is done, shall I? I'll give you a lesson —"

Harry and Alicia ducked down as she screamed again "Crucio!" the centaur's arm, holding its bow, spun off and landed with a crash on the floor a short distance from the golden wizard's head.

"Potter, you cannot win against me!" she cried. He could hear her moving to the right, trying to get a clear shot of him. He backed around the statue away from her, crouching behind the centaur's legs, his head level with the house-elf's. "I was and am the Dark Lord's most loyal servant, I learned the Dark Arts from him, and I know spells of such power that you, pathetic little boy, can never hope to compete —"

"We don't need to win." Alicia responded. "You're in trouble regardless of what happens." Harry watched his sister.

"You think so do you!" Bellatrix laughed

"We're the ones with an insight into Voldemort's mind, don't you think we'd know if he was angry with you." Her footsteps stopped and Alicia grinned.

"Potter, I am going to give you one chance!" shouted Bellatrix, a little panic in her voice now. "Give me the prophecy — roll it out toward me now — and I may spare your life!"

"Well, you're going to have to kill me, because it's gone!" Harry roared — and as he shouted it, pain seared across Alicia's neck. Her scar was on fire again, and she felt a surge of fury that was quite unconnected with her own rage. "And he knows!" said Harry with a mad laugh to match Bellatrix's own. "Your dear old mate Voldemort knows it's gone! He's not going to be happy with you, is he?"

"What? What do you mean?" she cried, and for the first time there was fear in her voice.

"Voldemort can see into Harry's head Bellatrix, he knows you cannot complete your mission. You can never give him the prophecy." Alicia admitted.

"The prophecy smashed when I was trying to get Neville up the steps! What do you think Voldemort'll say about that, then?"

"Looks like you failed." Alicia smirked. "Too busy enjoying that you could cause your cousin pain for betraying your family, too busy relishing in your own happiness to help your master."

Alicia could feel the pain increasing, she didn't remember when it hurt like this, except —

Her blood ran cold and Alicia looked around the Atrium.

"LIAR!" she shrieked, but he could hear the terror behind the anger now. "YOU'VE GOT IT, POTTER, AND YOU WILL GIVE IT TO ME — Accio Prophecy! ACCIO PROPHECY!"

Harry laughed and waved his empty hand from behind the one-eared goblin and withdrew it quickly as she sent another jet of green light flying at him.

"Nothing there!" he shouted. "Nothing to summon! It smashed and nobody heard what it said, tell your boss that —"

"No!" she screamed. "It isn't true, you're lying — MASTER, I TRIED, I TRIED — DO NOT PUNISH ME —"

"Don't waste your breath!" yelled Harry, his eyes screwed up against the pain in his scar, now more terrible than ever. "He can't hear you from here!"

But Alicia knew otherwise and her hand gripped to slightly on her wand as the voice reached her ears.

"Can't I, Potter?" said a high, cold voice.

Tall, thin, and black-hooded, his terrible snakelike face white and gaunt, his scarlet, slit-pupiled eyes staring… Lord Voldemort had appeared in the middle of the hall, his wand pointing at Harry who stood frozen, quite unable to move.

"So you smashed my prophecy?" said Voldemort softly, staring at Harry with those pitiless red eyes. "No, Bella, he is not lying… I see the truth looking at me from within his worthless mind… Months of preparation, months of effort… and my Death Eaters have let Harry Potter thwart me again…"

"Master, I am sorry, I knew not, I was fighting the Animagus Black!" sobbed Bellatrix, flinging herself down at Voldemort's feet as he paced slowly nearer. "Master, you should know —"

"Be quiet, Bella," said Voldemort dangerously. "I shall deal with you in a moment. Do you think I have entered the Ministry of Magic to hear your snivelling apologies?"

"But Master — he is here — he is below —"

Voldemort paid no attention.

"I have nothing more to say to you, Potter," he said quietly. "You have irked me too often, for too long. AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Harry didn't even move, or open his mouth, but Alicia grabbed him to pull him out of the way.

It seemed though she didn't need to. The headless golden statue of the wizard in the fountain had sprung alive, leaping from its plinth, and landed on the floor with a crash between Harry and Alicia, and Voldemort. The spell merely glanced off its chest as the statue flung out its arms, protecting Harry.

"What — ?" said Voldemort, staring around. And then he breathed, "Dumbledore!"

Alicia and Harry looked behind them, Dumbledore was standing in front of the golden gates.

Voldemort raised his wand and sent another jet of green light at Dumbledore, who turned and was gone in a whirling of his cloak; next second he had reappeared behind Voldemort and waved his wand toward the remnants of the fountain; the other statues sprang to life too. The statue of the witch ran at Bellatrix, who screamed and sent spells streaming uselessly off its chest, before it dived at her, pinning her to the floor. Meanwhile, the goblin and the house-elf scuttled toward the fireplaces set along the wall, and the one-armed centaur galloped at Voldemort, who vanished and reappeared beside the pool. The headless statue thrust Alicia and Harry backward, away from the fight, as Dumbledore advanced on Voldemort and the golden centaur cantered around them both.

"It was foolish to come here tonight, Tom," said Dumbledore calmly. "The Aurors are on their way —"

"By which time I shall be gone, and you dead!" spat Voldemort. He sent another Killing Curse at Dumbledore but missed, instead hitting the security guards desk, which burst into flame.

Dumbledore flicked his own wand. The force of the spell that emanated from it was such that this time Voldemort was forced to conjure a shining silver shield out of thin air to deflect it. The spell, whatever it was, caused no visible damage to the shield, though a deep, gonglike note reverberated from it, an oddly chilling sound…

"You do not seek to kill me, Dumbledore?" called Voldemort, his scarlet eyes narrowed over the top of the shield. "Above such brutality, are you?"

"We both know that there are other ways of destroying a man, Tom," Dumbledore said calmly, continuing to walk toward Voldemort as though he had not a fear in the world, as though nothing had happened to interrupt his stroll up the hall. "Merely taking your life would not satisfy me, I admit —"

"There is nothing worse than death, Dumbledore!" snarled Voldemort.

"You are quite wrong," said Dumbledore, still closing in upon Voldemort and speaking as lightly as though they were discussing the matter over drinks.

"Death is but another adventure, what's more frightful is those you leave behind to mourn you." Alicia snapped and Harry, who continued to be shunted backwards as he tried to move from behind the statue, looked at her shocked as she stayed behind the golden statue but watched the two wizards. "Loneliness is a much worse a punishment!"

"Indeed, your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been your greatest weakness —"

Another jet of green light flew from behind the silver shield. This time it was the one-armed centaur, galloping in front of Dumbledore, that took the blast and shattered into a hundred pieces, but before the fragments had even hit the floor, Dumbledore had drawn back his wand and waved it as though brandishing a whip. A long thin flame flew from the tip; it wrapped itself around Voldemort, shield and all. For a moment, it seemed Dumbledore had won, but then the fiery rope became a serpent, which relinquished its hold upon Voldemort at once and turned, hissing furiously, to face Dumbledore.

Voldemort vanished. The snake reared from the floor, ready to strike —

There was a burst of flame in midair above Dumbledore just as Voldemort reappeared, standing on the plinth in the middle of the pool where so recently the five statues had stood.

"Look out!" Harry yelled.

But even as he shouted, one more jet of green light had flown at Dumbledore from Voldemort's wand and the snake had struck —

Fawkes swooped down in front of Dumbledore, opened his beak wide, and swallowed the jet of green light whole. He burst into flame and fell to the floor, small, wrinkled, and flightless. At the same moment, Dumbledore brandished his wand in one, long, fluid movement — the snake, which had been an instant from sinking its fangs into him, flew high into the air and vanished in a wisp of dark smoke; the water in the pool rose up and covered Voldemort like a cocoon of molten glass —

For a few seconds Voldemort was visible only as a dark, rippling, faceless figure, shimmering and indistinct upon the plinth, clearly struggling to throw off the suffocating mass —

Then he was gone, and the water fell with a crash back into its pool, slopping wildly over the sides, drenching the polished floor.

"MASTER!" screamed Bellatrix.

Harry made to run out from behind the statue guard but Alicia grabbed him as she looked around the atrium.

"Stay where you are, Harry!" Dumbledore bellowed.

For the first time, Dumbledore sounded frightened.

Harry looked all around but Alicia felt something was wrong. And just because they could not see him, did not mean Voldemort was gone. Bellatrix was still trapped under her statue, sobbing, and the tiny baby Fawkes croaking feebly on the floor —

Alicia had to stop herself from screaming as pain burst from her scar. But this she knew was not her pain, it was Harry's. It was pain beyond imagining, pain past endurance —

But she heard Harry speak.

"Kill me now, Dumbledore…"

Alicia could feel like she was tied up and lost within herself, she was crying out for help, she needed release. But she could separate her and Harry, and she wasn't the one tied up.

"If death is nothing, Dumbledore, kill the boy…"

Alicia closed her eyes and before she knew it she saw Harry, not physically for she was in his mind. He was locked in the coils of a creature with red eyes, so tightly bound that where Harry's body ended and the creature's began was impossible to determine. They were fused together, bound by pain, and there was no escape —

Let the pain stop, thought Harry. Let him kill us… End it, Dumbledore… Death is nothing compared to this…

Harry… he looked up and saw her as she reached for him and took his hand. She could see the pain in his face.

This isn't your pain. Don't let it cloud you. Harry, remove him. Don't let his pain control you. I need you… I can't loose you too… You can't give up! Sirius wouldn't have wanted you to give up. Harry looked at her as she tried to ignore his pain to help him, and she felt as he was filled with emotion. She could feel the tenderness, the happiness, the love that came from thinking of her trying to help him, of Sirius always wanting what was best for him.

And the creature's coils loosened, the pain was gone. Alicia gasped as she opened her eyes and found herself lying on the floor. She looked around the atrium and suddenly found it filled with people. She noticed the Ministry officials instantly and more were appearing through the green busts of fire from the fireplaces along the wall.

Alicia ignored them and turned straight for Harry beside her, he was lying facedown on the floor, his glasses gone, shivering as though he lay upon ice, not wood… Alicia grabbed his glasses from the heel of the headless statue that had been guarding them, but which now lay flat on its back, cracked and immobile. Dumbledore was beside them and leaning over Harry, so that when he turned over, his nose was so close to the boys.

"Are you all right, Harry?" he asked as Alicia handed her brother his glasses.

"Yes," said Harry, shaking so violently he could not hold his head up properly. Alicia moved around to help him as Dumbledore raised his head slightly.

"Alicia?" she nodded mutely.

"Yeah, I'm — where's Voldemort, where — who are all these — what's —"

Dumbledore helped the two of them to their feet and Alicia looked around to see the tiny gold statues of the house-elf and the goblin leading a stunned-looking Cornelius Fudge forward.

"He was there!" shouted a scarlet-robed man with a ponytail, who was pointing at a pile of golden rubble on the other side of the hall, where Bellatrix had lain trapped moments before. "I saw him, Mr. Fudge, I swear, it was You-Know-Who, he grabbed a woman and Disapparated!"

"I know, Williamson, I know, I saw him too!" gibbered Fudge, who was wearing pyjamas under his pinstriped cloak and was gasping as though he had just run miles. "Merlin's beard — here — here! — in the Ministry of Magic! — great heavens above — it doesn't seem possible — my word — how can this be?"

"If you proceed downstairs into the Department of Mysteries, Cornelius," said Dumbledore, apparently satisfied that Harry was all right, as Alicia clung to him, wrapping her head around everything, and walking forward so that the newcomers realised he was there for the first time (a few of them raised their wands, others simply looked amazed; the statues of the elf and goblin applauded and Fudge jumped so much that his slipper-clad feet left the floor), "you will find several escaped Death Eaters contained in the Death Chamber, bound by an Anti-Disapparation Jinx and awaiting your decision as to what to do with them."

"Dumbledore!" gasped Fudge, apparently beside himself with amazement. "You — here — I — I —"

He looked wildly around at the Aurors he had brought with him, and it could not have been clearer that he was in half a mind to cry, "Seize him!"

Alicia looked at him angrily. He'd just seen Voldemort and still he was willing to arrest Dumbledore! He's just seen proof the man was innocent!

"Cornelius, I am ready to fight your men — and win again!" said Dumbledore in a thunderous voice. "But a few minutes ago you saw proof, with your own eyes, that I have been telling you the truth for a year. Lord Voldemort has returned, you have been chasing the wrong men for twelve months, and it is time you listened to sense!"

"I — don't — well —" blustered Fudge, looking around as though hoping somebody was going to tell him what to do. When nobody did, he said, "Very well — Dawlish! Williamson! Go down to the Department of Mysteries and see… Dumbledore, you — you will need to tell me exactly — the Fountain of Magical Brethren — what happened?" he added in a kind of whimper, staring around at the floor, where the remains of the statues of the witch, wizard, and centaur now lay scattered.

"We can discuss that after I have sent Harry and Alicia back to Hogwarts," said Dumbledore.

"Harry — Harry… Alicia Potter?"

Alicia looked at him as Fudge spun around and stared at the two of them, who was still standing against the wall beside the fallen statue that had been guarding them during Dumbledore and Voldemort's duel.

"He-here?" said Fudge. "Why — what's all this about?"

"I shall explain everything," repeated Dumbledore, "when Harry and Alicia are back at school."

He walked away from the pool to the place where the golden wizard's head lay on the floor. He pointed his wand at it and muttered, "Portus." The head glowed blue and trembled noisily against the wooden floor for a few seconds, then became still once more.

"Now see here, Dumbledore!" said Fudge, as Dumbledore picked up the head and walked back to Harry carrying it. "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 —"

His voice faltered as Dumbledore surveyed him magisterially over his half-moon spectacles.

"You will give the order to remove Dolores Umbridge from Hogwarts," said Dumbledore. "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…" Dumbledore pulled a watch with twelve hands from his pocket and glanced 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 has happened here. 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 goggled worse than ever. His mouth was open and his round face grew pinker under his rumpled grey hair.

"I — you —"

Dumbledore turned his back on him.

"Take this Portkey, Alicia, Harry."

Alicia touched the head Dumbledore held out and Harry placed his hand upon it.

"I shall see you in half an hour," said Dumbledore quietly. "One… two… three…"

There was the familiar sensation of a hook being jerked behind their navels. The polished wooden floor was gone from beneath their feet; the Atrium, Fudge, and Dumbledore had all disappeared, and they were flying forward in a whirlwind of colour and sound…