Chapter 19: Penultimate

There was an explosion that rocked the clearing. Death Eaters stumbled in the aftershocks of force that rippled out from the two duelers. When Lucius regained his balance, he was as shocked as everyone else that the Dark Lord lay prone on the floor of the clearing. And some distance away lay Harry Potter.

Something had gone very wrong.

A shocked silence followed and then Bellatrix rushed to the Dark Lord, working to help him up.

Voldemort was clearly furious that he had been seen in a position of weakness and he shoved her off as soon as he was able to regain his feet. He was not dead and Potter may yet be living as well. He needed someone to check, someone dispensable.

"Lucius!"

Hearing his name Lucius rushed forward, only to be hit with a suckerpunch of pain.

"Go and tell me if Potter is yet living!"

Lucius slowly approached the boy lying in the grass. He needed Potter to be dead. He needed to enter Hogwarts. He needed to find Mircea.

As soon as he lay a hand on the boy he knew he was still living. Potter's heart was pounding almost as loudly as Lucius's own. A plan lit up his mind and he leaned forward on the pretense of checking his breathing.

"Is Mircea living? Will I find her if we enter Hogwarts?"

Ever so slightly, the boy nodded.

"Will I make it that far?" He leaned in further and heard a breathed response.

"She made us promise."

Lucius stood, trying mightily to give off confidence he did not feel.

"The boy is dead, My Lord."

His ears were roaring with blood pounding through them as he was shoved aside so that the giant could carry the boy to the gates of Hogwarts. Lucius placed himself somewhere in the middle of the group, hoping that he would be out of sight should his lie be discovered.

But this was the Dark Lord's weakness: he would never double check (for fear of being hurt on contact with the boy) and when he became confident or excited he made mistakes. He was, almost unbelievably, only a wizard, human like all others.

They stopped at the edge of the forrest, leaving behind a group of centaurs that they mocked. It didn't matter if the centaurs did not want to be involved, Voldemort would involve them regardless of what they felt. Again the Dark Lord spoke loudly into the minds of all at the Battle; Lucius struggled to not cover his ears.

And they proceeded forward. Lucius's mind was consumed only with how to make his presence known to Mircea, how to show her where he was and to unite them. They could flee maybe. Or at least fight together, as they had in the Ministry. Lucius fought off tears at the memory. That had been such a mistake and now they were paying for it.

He edged his way to the far end as the Death Eaters formed a wall across the courtyard of the school, in front of the Entrance Hall. There was one scream and then many and then a roar of noise as the opposition realized, or was led to believe, that Potter was dead. It was bizarre, knowing that the boy was not dead and waiting for the "joke" to turn on the Death Eaters. Lucius was standing on the wrong side but knew the right information: that at some point Harry Potter would rise up and renew the fight. And knowing this, everything that was happening — the yells, the tears — was a morbid farce.

There was an explosive light and then silence. And then yelling. And then silence, before more yelling. From where Lucius stood he knew with certainty that it was over. Potter was not dead and Voldemort's magic was failing. But he had to find Mircea. He scanned the crowd continuously and then… sandy curls pulled up the very same way they had been on the day they met.

Their eyes met and he felt his legs nearly give way; she was living and they were looking across an enormous divide at one another.

Mircea had nearly fallen asleep when the announcement roared into her mind. She woke screaming, everyone around her starting and moving away from her in panic. No one came to her rescue but there were several sympathetic looks.

"Come out of the castle now, kneel before me, and you shall be spared. Your parents and children, your brothers and sisters will live and be forgiven, and you will join me in the new world we shall build together."

That got her attention. The boy was dead?! She could feel all of the blood leaving her face. If they lost… she would be killed in the most horrible way possible. She was a traitor.

"So you think it's true then?"

She straightened up to find herself looking at a short, chubby red headed woman, the same one who had given her the dress she now wore.

"Do you see Potter anywhere? Or better yet, do you think the Dark Lord bluffs?"

The woman looked at her, waiting for an answer.

"He dosen't," Mircea rasped. "He believes in sheer dominance. If he cannot win, he waits. If he's making a move, he believes he has won."

"Then we will have to show him how wrong he is," the woman hissed, resting her hand on Mircea's shoulder for a moment before walking away. But Mircea was not inspired by this show of bravery.

The sound of marching drew them all to the windows and they saw the Dark forces moving to the school. The half giant was with them but it was unclear why. As others raced to the doors, Mircea transfigured a candelabra into a spyglass. She rested it on the sill of a blown out window and scanned as quickly as she could. Halfway through the crowd she cursed herself for forgetting Lucius now had short hair. She was about to start over when she saw the white blonde hair she would have noticed anywhere at all in all the world. Fixing on the face she read there the most confounding expression: he knew something. Something was afoot.

Mircea decided to wait until Lucius stopped moving in the crowd. If the Dark Lord had the boy's body they would need to get out quickly. And judging from the screaming, he did. But there was still this nagging feeling that something was not right. Lucius must have seen or done something; he seemed almost impatient, like a runner waiting for a shot to dart away.

She hurried out through the blown out chunk of a wall where she would be shielded. Mircea was in no hurry at all to have the Death Eaters see her; they would certainly kill her for finding herself on the wrong side of these battle lines. She moved silently through the ranks until she could see Lucius from where she stood.

For the first time, she stopped and simply looked at him. Mircea could feel her heart swell practically to bursting with how much she cared about him. She had spent so much time running from him and from how she felt about him but now it was the only feeling she had room for. It drove out her sickening fear seeing that he stood in front of her drawing breath.

Lucius looked up and their eyes locked. Mircea's breath caught and she stared openly at him, but only for a moment as the situation around her continued to escalate. Now the kid who had taken umbrage at her using Verita Serum on the old goat guy was going to be made an example of. She felt as though she should do something, and clearly others around her felt the same way, but what could they do?

The Sorting Hat was placed on his head and several things happened at once: the hat burst into flames, Potter's body vanished completely, and someone threw a boils curse at Mircea.

She was shorter than the boy in front of her though and the curse splashed across his face as he tried to duck. He yelled in pain as huge boils began to spread across his cheek and down his neck. Mircea grabbed him under the arms as he tripped and began to fall and shouted the counter curse over the now reinitiated battle. The boils stopped their progress across his skin but a healer would need to repair them.

Mircea spun about scanning the crowd and swearing loudly as she realized she could no longer see Lucius. The boy was kneeling on the ground by her feet and she could not just leave him there. She let out a shrill of frustration and hauled the boy to his feet.

"At least walk! I cannot carry you!" she raged at him and he did better at putting one foot in front of the other.

Lucius caught sight of her helping this kid limp his way into Hogwarts. When the curse had been thrown, he had heard it fly by his ear. He had seen Dolohov with his wand aimed at Mircea and it had set off a charge in him that had been building for a long time. Chaos had broken out and Lucius had caught hold of Antonin before the other wizard realized what was happening. Lucius hit him with the Cruciatus Curse and did not stop until he felt Dolohov lose consciousness. Throwing the other Death Eater aside and shielding himself, Malfoy realized that this rashness could have cost him the chance to get away somewhere with Mircea. As his face burned in shame and frustration, he saw her helping a boy up the stairs and took off after her.

When Mircea managed to find somewhere she could reasonably leave the boy she shook him to get his attention. "You need to find a healer. Do you understand?"

"Why can't you?" the boy complained. It was a very valid question after all.

"Trust me," a third voice replied, "you don't want that."

Mircea looked up to see Lucius standing over her and she felt her heart leap into her throat. He held out his hand to her, trembling slightly as she slipped her hand into his, and helped her to her feet. Neither broke eye contact; it was the first time they had spoken since the battle had begun and while they had both hoped to see one another again, neither had expected it.

"Sheilds," he murmured to her and Mircea nodded, drawing out her wand. This was not the place for all they wished to say. They both threw up shields and ran, hand in hand, through the battle. Neither cared about fighting any longer; they simply wanted to find somewhere to be.

They came upon a largely undamaged classroom somewhere toward the upper floors of the building and locked themselves inside. Lucius gathered Mircea up in his arms and held her so tightly it hurt his wounded side.

"It's you," Mircea finally managed to breathe, trying to hide that she was on the edge of tears.

"Of course," Lucius whispered, trying and failing (and not minding that he was failing) to continue his persona of confident arrogance.

Mircea tried to twist in his arms to better see his face and he let out an involuntary cry of pain.

"You're hurt!"

"Why do you sound surprised?"

There was a silence that filled the room and then Mircea managed to ask, "Where?"

Lucius tugged at the buttons on his robes, curious himself as to what the damage was, when the door blew open.

They reflexively pulled one another to the floor shielding themselves under desks. Their attackers walked into the room and Mircea stifled a cry; they could clearly see the outlines of Rowle and Fenrir.

Lucius gave her a questioning look and she pointed to her forehead, where blood had dried thick in her hair and a pink scar shone.

"Fenrir," she mouthed as way of explanation.

Lucius again felt a consuming anger. There were bruises around her throat, as well as around her wrists. Only a handful of times had he seen bruising like this before and the first time the boy responsible had been expelled from Hogwarts. And he remembered all too well why he had asked Mircea to never be alone with the werewolf.

Mircea grabbed his wrist, eyes wide in alarm. The pair was prowling closer and closer but Lucius was unlikely to win against the both of them.

"Please," she barely breathed.

Lucius pulled her close to him and whispered into the shell of her ear. "If I cannot fight for you, I have nothing to fight for at all."

Their eyes met and Mircea nodded. "Shield," she mouthed, pointing at herself.

He nodded, rose in one smooth motion, and shouted, "Sectumsempra!"

A bristle of curses hit the shield Mircea maintained from below and Lucius again dropped to the ground. There was screaming such like Mircea had never heard before, animal and full of rage. Mircea watched as Fenrir, attempting to hold his severely damaged body together clawed at the shelves around him for support. A globe caught her attention and she tried to get an angle to catch it, but Rowle's spell fire kept her pinned down.

"Lucius, catch the globe!" she shouted.

But he could not hear her over Fenrir's howling and the globe fell, breaking open as if it were a soap bubble. And as soon as the contents made contact with the air, the room changed. Vines crept up to cover the room in a few blinks of an eye. The floor became soft with foliage and the air became humid. Brightly colored birds flew through the air and snakes curled around the new canopy above. It was a jungle in a classroom and Mircea could not help but marvel at it.

"It's a terraviv," she said aloud.

Terravivs were usually small and sold as presents for children, amusing ways of turning a porch into a tiny, glimmering beach or a mini mountain range. They had been created to make inhabitable climates livable but had proved to require four walls to work. Mircea had never seen one this large before.

She turned to see how Lucius was reacting but he was gone. Panic twisted her stomach as she darted a few steps in each direction, screaming for him.

"I'm here!" she finally heard.

"Where are you?!"

"I think… I'm closer to the door. But where's Rowle?"

There was a scream of a big cat hunting and then screams that were all too familiar. The silence between the couple was tangible. Terravivs did not usually hunt.

"We need to get OUT!" Mircea shrilled, trying not to panic.

"Head for the door. I'll meet you in the Great Hall. Everyone will head there so just follow them."

"I can't leave you!"

"Persephone, listen to me!"

Mircea fought back tears but listened.

"You must leave here before it gets you. I will find you. I swear."

Mircea could not manage any words but plunged through the jungle, brushing away tears. She had been reunited with Lucius again only to have some demented version of a children's toy separate them. If he died, she would be throwing herself out the first window she came to.

Lucius began plowing his way through the foliage. How had they been separated? They must have been pushed apart when the ground changed. But it sounded as though Mircea had been very far away.

The journey through the terraviv jungle seemed to take hours, as he slowly picked through the dark jungle floor. It was humid and he was sweating. Lucius pulled his Death Eater robes off and left them behind, continuing in shirt and pants alone. He needed to lose the robes anyway.

Lucius noticed light and noise ahead of him and his heart jumped. He saw the door opening, only separated by a patch of vines. Shoving them away, Lucius plunged toward the door. But something had a hold of his arm. He looked up just in time to see another vine strike out for his other arm; he was too slow in going for his wand and the vines pulled his arms taut over his head.

"NO!" he roared, trying to lash out and pull himself free in any way he could. But the vines were quick and soon had him around the ankles and then the neck.

Spots popped out in his vision and then blackness began closing in, like falling into a well and watching the sky slowly shrink away. How had he come so far to simply die a few feet short? Like everything in his life: wanting.

Something released him and he dropped, completely unable to support his own body. His ears roared as blood flooded back into them and he gasped for breath, needing it and wishing he did not as every breath was excruciating. He lay as he had fallen, slowly becoming aware that there were several people present.

Someone grabbed him and he lashed out like a cornered animal, doing his Patronus proud. This earned him a Full Body Bind.

"Back off, Malcom!" a female's voice chided from out of his line of sight. "He's just freaked."

Lucius was released and slowly sat up. There were three Slytherin students standing before him, all looking a bit nervous. The two girls looked at one another and then at the boy, Malcom.

"You're Lucius Malfoy, right?" the girl who had scolded Malcom asked him.

He tried to nod and then raised a shaking hand to feel his neck. He could no longer turn his head.

"Here, Tracy's a healer. If you'll let her."

Lucius motioned his approval and the girl mended his neck, wrists, and ankles.

"Anywhere else?"

"Ribs. Not sure how bad," he rasped. Neck healed or not he was cautious to use his voice. Lucius pulled up his shirt, not caring about showing off his old battered self to a bunch of kids, and marveled for a moment at the blackness that had covered his white skin.

"Wow…" Tracy breathed. "You're lucky you didn't lose a lung."

In another few moments, after loud cursing when the bones snapped into place, Lucius looked down to see perfectly normal colored skin.

"Thank you."

They nodded and looked at him awkwardly. He still did not know the one girl's name and it seemed as though they wanted something from him.

"What's your name?" he asked the girl who wasn't Tracy.

"Astoria. Astoria Greengrass."

"Is there something I can do for you?"

Tears welled up in her eyes and she shook her head vigorously. "We went looking for you. We wanted…"

She looked pleadingly at the two with her and Malcom finished her thought. "We wanted to do something for Draco. We heard. The Death Eater told us."

Lucius simply stared. He had no idea how to begin to respond. They had saved his life on behalf of his son, to honor his son's death.

"Should we live, I will find some way to repay you for this," Lucius finally managed. "For now, I must reach the Great Hall. I must find Mircea, the Death Eater as you say."

"We just saw her before we came on you!" Tracy cried.

"Where?!"

"Follow us!"

Mireca ducked the Blasting Curse to find her wand flying out of her hand. She looked up to see a someone had disarmed her for the second time that night. Some witch in Death Eater robes had her wand now.

Mircea waited for the witch to strike. If she was lucky the Death Eater would not realize she couldn't use Mircea's wand and Mircea would have the advantage.

"PERSEPHONE!"

The hairs on her neck stood up and she left the Death Eater completely, flying after the voice.

"LUCIUS!"

"PERSEPHONE!"

"You will not turn your back on me!" the Death Eater howled after her.

Hearing the threat Mircea ducked behind a suit of armor, her back to the outer corner of the room. The witch tried to hex her but Mircea's wand refused.

Three Slytherin kids ran past the corridor and then doubled back as they recognized it. Lucius turned the corner seconds behind them, just in time to see Mircea ducking behind the armor. He fought the urge to yell out again, knowing it would only distract her and endanger her.

Throwing Mircea's wand aside the witch pulled out her own wand and pulled back her arm to fire again.

Lucius threw Severus Snape's spell for the second time that night, slashing through her arm and stopping the spell short. The Death Eater screamed and whirled on Lucius, who now became very aware of the children who had led him here.

"Run! Now!" he barked at them, but they silently refused, pulling out their wands.

"For Draco," he heard Astoria whisper. Then the three of them fired Stunning Spells at the witch.

The force of the spells combined slammed her into the corner with extreme force. The witch's body broke through one of the columns behind Mircea's head, taking stones and mortar with her.

Mircea freed herself from where she had been hiding only to hear Lucius shouting at her to run the other direction, to look out. The collapse of the corner wall was bringing several floors down as well. She looked up in time to see the floor above her collapse, rocks the size of cars raining down in a deathly slow hailstorm.

Lucius shot a shielding spell blindly into the chaos, hoping against hope that it would find her. And then she was gone. He roared wordlessly, trying to reach the collapsed corner but being actively shoved in the other direction by three pairs of young hands. Had they not been there it was likely he would have died, throwing himself headlong into the rubble and ignoring the several story collapse.

But his world was crumbling with every stone that fell.

Lucius managed to break free and hurried to the edge, dropping to hands and knees and shouting Mircea's true name over and over. Nothing moved and there was no response.

But a commotion had started behind them and he scrambled to his feet, want at the ready. Charlie Weasley burst around the corner, hands up to show he meant them no harm.

"I'm here to deliver the good news!" he exclaimed. "We've won!"