I have had enough of surprises this year. They are awkward, nearly always unpleasant and quite probably fatal. They also comprise of about 90% being manhandled which is never very enjoyable, I mean - who actually likes having two very large stone hands fastened around their neck so hard you can barely draw breath? Or having a very bright light suddenly appear in what was once (and far more preferably in light of the present circumstances (no pun intended)) total pitch darkness? Or seeing your three favourite people in the world (discounting people you are expected to like) also held by large, enchanted statues which seem to have very alarming ideas of what statues are meant to do.
For example. Nothing would be quite nice at the present moment.
"This is all your fault." I said, between trying to breathe. "You had to go and get that sword and now we're stuck here being held captive by bloody statues that have a mind of their own and are not playing fair!"
"Oh I'm so sorry," Lily snarled back, in between trying to stop the statue snapping her arms like brittle Bowtruckle limbs. "Should I have just let that evil cow zoom off with the Sword of Godric Gryffindor and, oh wait - I didn't ask you to come did I? No, you just had to grab onto me and tag along like this is some bloody picnic!"
"Lily!"
"Don't interrupt!" She snapped and kicked out at the statue with her feet. "Like some bloody picnic and now we've lost the sword and we're stuck in some freaking room and-" Her mood obviously wasn't improved by stubbed toes.
"LILY WILL YOU BE QUIET!"
Lily fell silent at last and we all kindly looked the other way as she brushed a few tears away and sniffed.
"I'm okay." She said, after some more sniffing and we all looked back around. James was being held around the waist by the widest of the four statues but he had manage to wriggle it so that he could just brush his fingertips against Lily's.
The room we were in was unlike any I had ever seen. It was large, humongous in fact, and was lit with piercingly bright white flames in brackets along the stone walls. The floor was stone too, black and grey flagstones, rather like a chess board but with far more squares. Several were cracked and others were darker in places, covered in a suspicious looking stain.
"That is a suspicious looking stain." I said, before I could stop myself.
Sirius agreed. "Yep, that's suspicious all right. Or it could just be water droplets making the floor darker. But, by all means, go with the suspicious stain. Adds to the growing sense of doom and futility and all that."
I resolved not to speak again after that.
How long we were held there, I don't know. Long enough for my feet to go numb and my neck to ache from the crushing grip. Long enough for Lily's tears to dry up. Long enough for Sirius to wiggle a hand down the front of his trousers.
"Ew! Sirius! This is not the time." I yelled out, quite forgetting my whole, not-speaking-because-last-time-I-made-Lily-cry-and-Sirius-mad thing.
"Shut it, Arty," He laughed, and pulled out his wand.
The literal one, idiot.
"Wand." I said, like an idiot. And as though my word had triggered a secret password, the statues dropped us. I gasped in several, oxygen laden breaths and sat up slowly, head spinning again. Fortunately this time, I wasn't sick again (I don't think my friends could have taken the strain.) and managed to haul myself to my feet. Which is more difficult than it looks when you are trying simultaneously to pull your wand out and get your shoes back on to uncontrollably shaking feet (lose laces - what can I say?). Once I had accomplished this remarkable feat though, and the others were all on their feet too, we stared around and the room which had no way in and, more worryingly, no way out.
The back of my neck prickled.
I turned slowly, on my heels, and grabbed Sirius's hand for support. He squeezed my fingers back and turned too.
I almost screamed.
He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was taller than I'd originally thought, out by the lake, and fifty times more terrifying this close too. His red eyes scanned over us, lips curling in a sardonic smile.
"My Deatheaters failed then?" His said. It was a question but I didn't dare to answer it. Neither, it seemed, did Sirius. Or Lily. Or James. We were frozen to the ground.
"Yes." His voice was high as he answered his own question. High and cold, like shivers of ice down my back. "I had anticipated as much. But who do we have here?"
He walked forward, movements smooth. Sirius stepped in front of me. The movement jerked me out of my stupor and I pulled Lily and James closer towards us, forming a tighter group.
"Sirius Black." Sirius looked paler than usual, but determined and his hand never slipped from mine even for a moment, as he brandished his own wand with his other hand.
"Why, dear Bellatrix's cousin?" You-Know-Who laughed. "What a delightful surprise." He didn't sound delighted. He swept on. "And this must be the dear Potter's son. You look exactly like your father. But these two I do not know. Deprimo."
A sudden wind buffeted James and Sirius aside, so hard they fell to their knees. Lily and I instinctively moved together.
"And who are you?" He asked. And, suddenly, just like that, I was pissed.
"Artemis di Angelo!" I suddenly yelled, clenching my fist around my wand so hard my knuckled went white. "And you murdered my dad!"
You-Know-Who let a high cold laugh that didn't suit him and with a flash of his white, long-fingered, hand, my wand flew out of my hand and clattered to the floor near to where Sirius lay, still winded. And just behind him, half hidden by the statues hulking shadow, and half lit by the white dancing torches, I saw a flash of silver.
"So you are that meddling reporters child, I should have guessed, you have the same fatal curiosity. It will get you killed one day."
"What? No." I said, suddenly confused. "My dad was a diver, worked for the ministry, my Mum, she always said-"
"Oh, he did for a while. But it was a story that brought him to Albania. A favour for a friend. A story only he, with his diving knowledge, could get. A story about where I was hiding. Anyone can use gillyweed. You're father was special, rather like you."
"Oh." I said, reeling inwardly at this hitherto unknown fact.
He glanced over at the sudden movement of James, staggering to his feet.
"Stupefy." James flew backwards and crumpled into a heap. Lily broke away from me to run to him but I caught her arm: "Lily, no DON'T!"
"Lily..." You-Know-Who smiled without mirth, "Not Lily Evans? The mudblood head girl?"
"Don't call her that." Sirius gasped, heaving himself to his feet, "Stupefy."
His hex was battered aside without so much as a blink of those red slitted eyes.
"STOP!" I bellowed as loudly as I could. My voice echoed around the room so that it sounded like a thousand Arty's yelled 'STOP!'. Amazingly, it worked and no-one moved.
"Look, " I said, now as calmly as I could. "We didn't mean to come here, we'll just go now and leave you here - we won't say anything, I swear..."
I knew that I didn't have a hope in hell of getting out of here really. The only reason we weren't already dead was that he was playing with us; a sick, masochistic cat playing with a poor, lame mouse. But the one thing I did know, from all my drawing and painting and fairytale reading, is that villains like to talk and if I could keep him talking then maybe reinforcements might show up. Maybe Dumbledore had found out where Bellatrix had sent the portkey. Maybe whoever owned this place would come and find us and call the Ministry Aurors. Or better yet - the Order of the Phoenix. But then again...Maybe Dumbledore had gone on holiday for a bit. Or maybe the person upstairs was too busy listening to the quidditch on the radio to hear us being murdered in his freaky basement. Or maybe...Stop it Idiot! I was panicking enough without adding 'what ifs.'
"You could try," He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named said as though the idea amused him greatly. "But Durmstrang is a very difficult school to get into. You couldn't apparate you know. Or rather," He corrected himself with a twisted smile. "I could. But you couldn't. You see, Durmstrang is almost as well protected as Hogwarts. Difficult to enter, harder to get out of. Alive at any rate. But I know someone who had managed to get in. Gellert Grindewald managed. He had used the twin lakes. I stole his knowledge of the curses he had used and wiped his memory clean afterwards. He is still in his prison, dying. Fool." He spoke the last word with such contempt I flinched.
"But why did you want the sword?" Lily whispered. "How could it help you?"
"I have a love of noble objects. I like to collect them." He laughed again and I felt goose bumps rise on my arms. "Still, even I couldn't enter Hogwarts with that fool Dumbledore there. I sent my Deatheaters instead and they failed. And then you came. Delivered the one thing I wanted more than any other. Just like your filthy blood traitor father you have helped me. He was a coward, rather died than join me. I enjoyed killing him. His death made me stronger."
My father had rather died than join him. Rather face torture and the pain of never knowing his unborn child than join Lord-Lord-Lord Vol- oh get a grip Arty, Voldemort.
*Shudder, gag, ugh.*
My mother always said I was my father's daughter. Not just in looks, as I'd always assumed. Not even now I knew that my ability had come from his family. Now, I knew she had meant that I, like him, would rather die than join Voldemort and his followers. Rather die than do the evil I knew Voldemort was accountable for. Rather die, like my brave, brave father, than sell out my friends to save my own skin.
I may not be the world's best witch. I may not be the cleverest, or the prettiest, or the most skilful. But I knew the difference between right and wrong, and in the end that is what really matters.
Lord Voldemort has done a lot of things in his lifetime. And will probably go on to do a lot of things, evil things, repulsive things. And I'm sure a lot of people will fight him...And I guess one day, someone will win.
But I'm still pretty sure that I am the only someone in history to punch Lord Voldemort in the face.
"LILY! GET THE SWORD!" I screamed as I staggered away, clutching my split knuckles and diving for my wand. I had realised what that silver was now; a flash of ruby stones, the gleam of a hilt.
"STUPEFY!" Sirius's spell missed Voldemort by centimetres and smashed into the statue behind him. It shattered and began to fall, showering rocks onto the slippery floor.
"PROTEGO!" James was back up on his feet, his shield charm was so strong is sent Voldemort tumbling backwards as it expanded, protecting Lily from the falling debris.
"YOU DARE DEFY ME?" Voldemort screamed. "AVARDA KED-"
"RUN!" I screamed and snatched at Sirius's hand, half dragging him towards Lily. She was by the sword now, sending jinxes every which way but now the statues were moving, shaking the walls and sending shockwaves through the floor.
"WHERE'S JAMES?" But he was lost in the confusion or rock and spells and screaming. Lily was almost sobbing.
"CONFRINGO!" I heard the spell then a desperate cry of: "ACCIO JAMES!" from Sirius. And suddenly James was there clutching the back of Sirius's Shirt and Lily's hand and Lily had grabbed the sword and we were rising up onto the air, jerked by an invisible wire.
The scream of outrage was still echoing around as we began to vanish, I didn't hear the words of Voldemort's last curse as it hit us. All I can remember is falling...falling...falling...
And Sirius's fingers being wrenched from my own.