Hi you guys, I just really wanted to apologize for the late update of chapter 29.
much love.
Everyone got off their thestral. Ron, Hermione and Ginny still looked pretty shocked as they just flew to London on an invisible creature.
'You guys okay?' Paige asked, getting off of her own therstral. Looking at the white faces of her friends.
'Never again!' Ron said 'Never ever again!' Ron looked a little green.
'Where do we go from here?' Luna asked, sounding like it was some sort of day trip.
'This way!' Harry said, leading them to a phone booth.
'We all need to fit in there?' Neville said, raising an eyebrow. Harry nodded and they all pushed themselves into the phone booth.
'This is comfortable.' Ginny mumbled being pressed against the glass.
'I don't mind.' Paige said as she was pressed against Harry. He blushed, smiling to the ground. Paige smiled too but stopped when she saw Ginny's face.
'Whoever is nearest to the receiver dial 62442.' Harry said, still smiling.
Ron did it. A cool female voice sounded. 'Please state your name and your business.'
'Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Paige Prince, Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom and Ginny Weasley.' Harry said in a hurry. 'We are here to save someone, unless you can do it!'
'Thank you.' The cool voice said and badges fell out of where the coins should have been. Everyone was given one.
Paige took hers, it said; Paige Prince rescue mission. 'Lovely.' she muttered and pinned it on her clothes.
Suddenly the telephone booth went down. It took a while until finally it stopped and the door opened.
Neville and Ginny almost fell out. The rest moved out slowly.
'The ministry wishes you a good evening.' The cool woman's voice said.
'Alright Harry, what now?' Paige asked, starting to feel the adrenaline rushing through her body. Harry looked determined as he started to run.
They started running too, following Harry. It looked like he knew precisely where to go.
They went through multiple doors. Sometimes they had to go back because they had chosen the wrong one.
Then Harry opened a door and there were crystal balls everywhere, thousands, maybe millions all laid out on high shelves.
'Get your wand out, we're here.' Harry mumbled, grabbing his own wand. The rest followed his move. Harry began to walk hastily down the alleys. He counted the rows.
'24, 25… 30.' Harry whispered to himself. After a while he finally said. '64.' and stopped running.
Paige looked around the corner but didn't see Sirius or anyone for that matter.
'He is probably at the end.' Harry said with a bit of panic in his voice. He looked but nobody was there. He started to run to look at the other pathways. There was no-one.
'I don't understand, he was here!' Harry said, now in complete panic.
'Harry,' Paige said. 'Maybe they took him somewhere else.' She was trying to calm him down but it didn't seem to work.
'Harry?' Ron suddenly said. Everyone turned around. Ron was looking at one of the crystal balls. 'This one has your name on it, mate.'
Harry walked to Ron looking at the crystal ball. It did have his name on it. He reached for it and grabbed it. While looking at it, he seemed to get in a trance, which he finally got pulled out of, 'cause of a cold voice.
'Well, well.' Paige froze completely, she knew that voice, she had heard it many times before. 'I guess it worked.'
Everyone turned around. They were surrounded by death-eaters. Paige recognised a few, Bellatrix, Lucius and… her mother.
'Daughter, I expected so much better of you.' She said calmly. 'But I will give you yet another chance.' She said while stretching her arm out, opening her arms to her child.
Paige looked at her, thoughts were flying through her mind like spells. It was quiet for a long while. Nobody said anything.
'Ashley, she will not-' Lucius said, but fell silent.
Paige's mother held her hand up, 'Paige, honey.' She tried.
Paige smiled, almost laughing. 'Never.' She said, smirking. Harry felt relieved, still holding on to the crystal ball.
Her mother brought her arms back in. 'Have it your way.' She said, sounding extremely dangerous.
'Enough time wasted!' Bellatrix said loudly. 'We didn't come here to talk to Paige.' She turned to Harry. 'We came for that!' She pointed with a dirty finger at the object in Harry's hand.
'A crystal ball?' Ron couldn't help but ask.
Bellatrix looked murderously at Ron and took a step towards them. Lucius stopped her.
'It's not just a crystal ball,' He said kindly, 'it's a prophecy about you... Harry. So just give it to us and we won't harm you or your friends.'
Bellatrix laughed. Lucius glanced at her, she stopped.
'Why did Voldemort need me to get this?' Harry asked.
'You're so curious. The prophecy can only be taken by the one who it's about.' Lucius said, walking towards them. 'Don't you want to know why everything has happened to you, all the answers are there. All you have to do is give it to me.' The death-eaters got closer to them. Everyone had their wands up.
'I waited 14 years.' Harry mumbled.
'I know.' Lucius said seemingly sorry for the boy.
'I guess I can wait a little longer now!' Harry yelled the last part.
Everyone screamed spells to the death-eaters. A few disapparated making a way free for them to run.
They ran as fast as they could but they knew the death-eaters were close. Harry held Paige's hand, he felt guilty. This was all his fault, she was in grave danger because of him! He looked at her. She was focused on firing spells behind them. Harry looked away from Paige when a flash of red light passed him. Almost hitting him in the face.
Ginny suddenly stopped running and fired one hell of a spell, throwing all the death-eaters behind. The only backfire was that it also hit the glass balls that now started to fall down like dominos.
Paige was pulled into running again by Harry. She felt so out of breath but if she would stop running she would be dead for sure. Paige felt her heart skip a beat. She just realized how much trouble she really was in. Holding in tears she just looked at Harry while running. She was doing this for him.. getting herself in all this mess, doing this for Harry.
They ran towards a door. With quite some speed they flew through the door, unfortunately it was placed really high in the next room. Everyone screamed as they fell down. Closing their eyes, waiting for the painful hit against the floor, but it never came. Paige opened her eyes, seeing the floor just centimeters from her.
Hermione flicked her wand and they hit the ground. They got up slowly.
Paige felt a stinging pain at her leg. She looked seeing blood running to her feet. 'Damn.' She mumbled looking at her open wound at her calve.
She looked around; almost everyone was bruised and hurt. Split lips, head wounds, nose bleeds. Neville let out a loud painful moan while standing up. Ginny helped him. Luna's lip was so badly torn that half of her chin was covered in blood.
Ron helped Hermione up, who looked extremely pale.
Now she looked around the room, seeing a big veil standing in the middle of the room. She could hear a woman's voice, 'I will never leave you.' It said. Paige felt the urge to walk towards the veil but got stopped by Harry.
He looked at Paige in worry, wiping some blood off her lip. 'You okay?' He asked breathlessly.
Paige nodded trying to get her breathing under control. A loud bang emerged from the door. Harry grabbed his wand and pointed at the door.
'Get behind me.' He commanded. They did what he said. All pointing their wands at the high door. 'Be ready.' Harry was still holding the prophecy.
All the sudden the death-eaters apparated into the room firing spells. It was hopeless, the death-eaters were too strong. Paige fired as fast as she could. Then she felt a strong force pushing her. She fell head first on the ground. 'Paige!' Harry yelled. He wanted to go to her but his way got blocked by Lucius. He looked around, seeing that everyone was being held by a death eater. Paige was lying motionless on the ground, her mother was standing near her.
'Give me the prophecy now!' Lucius said, holding up his hand. 'Or watch your friends die.'
Harry didn't have a choice. He slowly handed him the prophecy. Then his heart felt light as he saw someone appear behind him. It was Sirius.
'Get away from my god son.' He said, followed by giving Lucius a punch in the face.
More people started to appear. Lupin, Tonks, Mad Eye Moody, and people he didn't know, who joined them in the fight.
'Sirius!' Harry said, smiling widely. Sirius gave him a quick wink, but Bellatrix attacked them before they could even talk.
Paige opened her eyes, she felt so dizzy. The room was spinning and she felt a bit nauseous. When the spinning finally stopped she tried to slowly get up. While sitting on her knees, she noticed what was going on. She saw people from the Order fighting with the Death Eaters. Lupin was fighting her mom.
Paige saw Sirius with Harry both fighting Bellatrix. She saw Lucius holding broken pieces of a glass ball. The prophecy was in pieces.
A hard laughter emerged from Bellatrix. She pointed her wand directly at Sirius. Paige knew what would come next. The killing curse.
Everything felt like it was in slow-motion. Paige saw Bellatrix mouth the first word. Paige grabbed her wand from the floor, aimed it at Bellatrix and yelled. 'INCINDIO!'
Bellatrix's clothes caught on fire. She let go of her wand, not being able to finish her spell.
Her mother quickly cast a spell to remove the flames and started attacking Sirius and Harry. Bellatrix grabbed her wand from the floor and walked towards Paige. 'Crucio.' She yelled, while aiming her wand directly at Paige.
Paige fell down on the floor again. A feeling of thousand swords penetrating every inch of her body. There was nothing she could do to stop it, the only thing she was capable of doing was letting out a loud horrible scream.
Harry saw what happened and went to fight Bellatrix, he yelled a spell but Bellatrix wouldn't be fooled again and blocked it.
'What, Potter!' She said, sounding mad. 'Am I hurting your little girlfriend?' She pointed her wand again at Paige. 'Crucio.' She mumbled. Paige started screaming again.
'Stop!' Harry screamed while running towards Bellatrix. She smiled and started to run away. Harry followed her in blind anger.
Sirius was still fighting Ashley when suddenly she disapparated. He looked around and saw Paige laying on the ground.
Sirius ran to her. 'Are you okay, Paige?' He asked, helping her get up. Her head was bleeding severely but she nodded anyway.
'You gonna take her in, Sirius?' It was Ashley, she looked amused, yet ready to kill.
'If I have to, yes!' He said fiercely. Staying close to Paige.
'But there is one problem.' Ashley spoke softly, getting closer every second. 'She is mine.' She was ready to fire a spell at Sirius but she stopped looking up. 'He is here.' She muttered and disapparated again.
'Harry.' Paige muttered standing up.
'Paige stay down.' Sirius said but got distracted by Lucius who started fighting again. Paige made her way out of the room to follow Harry. When she arrived she saw utter chaos. Harry was hiding behind a broken statue, rumble and debris everywhere. Dumbledore was fighting… Voldemort. Paige stared at the man whose face looked like it was half snake. Red eyes, his skin so pale. Paige couldn't look away.
She finally did so because she heard her name. It was Harry, calling for her. Paige wanted to go to him but stopped when Harry's eyes suddenly changed. They became red. It seemed as if Harry wasn't Harry anymore. When he spoke a second voice went over his. Much darker, much colder.
'Kill me, stop this. Kill me.' He said looking in agony. Paige felt tears falling over her cheeks, the pain she felt inside, the pain that Harry was feeling.
'Paige, talk to him!' Dumbledore yelled. Paige looked into Harry's eyes.
'Harry..' She said hoarsely, walking towards him. She was focusing on their connection. Kneeling before him. Eyes looked.. 'No, don't listen to him… He has no idea how loved you are.. You don't want to die… I know it's hard.. but you got your friends, you got me! Don't give in!' His red eyes softened a bit, 'I… I love you, Harry.. So much.' Paige added, tears running silently over her face. She kept looking in his eyes, which slowly turned into his own, green colour again.
He collapsed to the floor. Paige watched in agony, she couldn't believe her eyes. Black dust arised from Harry's skin, and changed into a figure, next to Harry. The figure got clearer, and clearer, taking the form of Voldemort, who quickly turned to Paige. With a quick swipe of his wand, he created a black barrier, which isolated her and Voldemort from Harry. With fear, Paige realized she was now alone with him.
Everything was quiet. She could softly hear Harry calling out to her, while spells were fired at the barrier but it didn't budge. Every sound of the fight was dimmed, making her even more isolated.
'Do you know the reason your mother cursed you last summer, child.' He asked coldly, moving closer towards her.
She took a few steps back. 'Because she was mad at me…' Said Paige, not able to look away from his red eyes.
'Yes, but there was another reason. She was fixing Bellatrix's mistake.'
Paige raised her eyebrows, not sure what he ment.
'Bellatrix teached you how to control the imperious curse… And now.. Now you can't anymore.' He lowered the barrier so everyone could see them. Everyone was there, Hermione, Ron, Lupin, Tonks… They were all watching. Paige caught Harry's eye, feeling the tears welling up in her eyes again. Voldemort pointed his wand and said. 'Imperious.' Paige's eyes went blank. She wanted to fight but couldn't, it held her back. She could see what was happening but couldn't do anything about it. The control over her body was completely gone. Her face was emotionless. Her mother had appeared, she was walking towards Paige.
Paige felt her legs moving towards her mother, she tried to resist the spell like she always could but it was too strong. She knew it was over, there was nothing she could do.
'Paige! No!' Harry yelled trying to reach her. Her mother had reached her and they disapparated. Then the Minister and other people from the ministry suddenly arrived. Just seeing Voldemort disapparated as well.
Harry stood there looking at the spot Paige just was. She was gone, her mother had her; Voldemort had her. He didn't know if he would ever see her again.