The Only One He Ever Feared
He has now lost not only his parents, but now his godfather.
Arthur was oblivious to all the movement around him, the pointless bustling and flashes of more spells. It was all meaningless noise, it just didn't matter as he just lost the closest he had to a parent.
Dumbledore had most of the remaining Death Eaters grouped in the middle of the room, all being immobilised by what had to be invisible rope; Moody crawled across the room to where Tonks lay, attempting to revive her; behind the dais were flashes of light, grunts and cries - Kingsley ran forward to continue Sirius' duel with Bellatrix.
Lupin and Ben were taking care of Neville and helped him to where the others were, but Arthur didn't care.
There was a loud bang and yell from behind the dais.
Arthur saw Kingsley hitting the ground yelling in pain: Bellatrix then turned tail and ran as Dumbledore whipped around. He aimed a spell at her but she deflected it, now halfway up the stairs.
Arthur felt like red consumed his vision as beyond white hot rage and fury filled him, making him violently shake.
"Arthur, no!" Lupin cried as he got up and bolted.
"THAT BITCH KILLED SIRIUS!" Arthur roared. "SHE KILLED HIM - SHE DESERVES TO DIE!"
He set off, scrambling up the stone benches; people shouted behind him, but none of that mattered.
The hems of Bellatrix's robes whipped out of sight ahead and they were now back in the room with the rains.
She aimed a curse over her shoulder, making the tank rise into the air and tip.
Arthur was barely able to run out of its way and away from the tentacled brains.
He ran towards the door, leaping over Luna, who groaned on the floor, past Mike, who said "Arthur, what the -?", past Mary and David and then Chrys, who was still unconscious.
He wrenched open the door into the circular black room and saw Bellatrix disappear through a door on the other side of the room; beyond her was the corridor that led to the lifts.
He ran, but she slammed the door behind her and the walls rotated.
"WHERE'S THE EXIT?" Arthur roared, making the wall rumble to a halt and the door right behind him flew open.
He ran out into the corridor to the lifts, hearing a lift clattering ahead, making him sprint much fast up the passageway, swing around the corner and slam his fist on the button to call a second lift.
It jangled and banged lower and lower; the grilles sliding open and Arthur dashed inside, hammering the button marked Atrium. The doors then slid shut and he rose.
He forced his way out of the lift before the grilles fully opened and ran to see Bellatrix now almost reaching the telephone lift in the middle of the long hall, but she looked back as he sprinted after her and aimed another spell at him.
He dived behind the Fountain of Magical Brethren: the spell zoomed past him, hitting the wrought gold gates, making them ring like bells.
There were no more footsteps. She now stopped running. Arthur crouched behind the statues, listening.
"Come out, come out, little Arthur!" She called out in her mock baby voice that echoed off the tiles, making Arthur's rage spike even more. "What did you come after me for, then? I thought you were here to avenge my dear cousin!"
"I AM, YOU PSYCHOTIC BITCH!" Arthur roared, his voice echoing much louder.
"Aaaaah… did you love him, little baby Pendergast?"
Arthur wanted nothing more than to make Bellatrix suffer, to get a taste of her own medicine.
He flung out from behind the fountain and bellowed out "CRUCIO!"
Bellatrix now screamed as the spell knocked her off her feet. She writhed and shrieked in pure agony.
Arthur ended up enjoying it, seeing her suffer after all the damage she's done to many including himself and Neville… but then a part of his brain spoke to him: You're becoming just like her… are you really willing to sink to her level?
With a growl, he stopped torturing her and dodged behind the gold fountain as Bellatrix got back to her feet, breathless, and fired a counter spell that hit the head of the wizard, which was blown off and landed twenty feet away, gouging long scratches into the wooden floor.
"I see you let righteous anger get the better of you, Pendergast!" Bellatrix yelled, abandoning her baby voice.
Arthur edged around the fountain on the other side when she screamed "Crucio!", forcing him to duck down again as 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.
"Pendergast, you cannot win against me!" She cried.
He could hear her moving to the right to try and 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 -"
"STUPEFY!" Arthur yelled, having edged right around where the goblin stood, taking aim at her back as she peered around the fountain and ducked back in time as she reacted incredibly fast.
"Protego!"
The jet of red light of his Stunning Spell hit one of the goblin's ears, making it fly across the room.
"Pendergast, I'm going to give you one chance!" Bellatrix shouted. "Give me the prophecy - roll it towards me now - and I may spare your life!"
"Then just kill me, because I destroyed it!" Arthur roared as pain now seared across his forehead thanks to his scar now being on fire again, feeling a surge of fury that wasn't his own. "AND HE KNOWS!" He then yelled with a mad laugh. "VOLDEMORT KNOWS I'VE DESTROYED IT! HE'LL BE MAD AT YOU!"
"What?" What do you mean?" Bellatrix cried, now with fear present in her voice.
"I smashed the prophecy when the Order came!" Arthur replied. "Voldemort will be so mad at you!"
His scar now seared and burned… the pain now making his eyes stream.
"LIAR!" She shrieked, terror now intermingled with anger in her voice. "YOU'VE GOT IT, PENDERGAST, AND YOU WILL GIVE IT TO ME! Accio prophecy! ACCIO PROPHECY!"
Arthur was laughing, knowing it would incense her, the pain now building in his head so badly that he actually thought his skull would burst open.
"THERE'S NOTHING TO SUMMON! IT'S GONE!" He yelled.
"No!" She screamed. "It isn't true, you're lying! MASTER, I TRIED, I TRIED - DO NOT PUNISH ME -"
"DON'T WASTE YOUR PATHETIC BREATH!" Arthur yelled as his eyes screwed up against the pain in his scar, now more terrible than ever. "HE ISN'T ONE TO FORGIVE SO EASILY! AND HE CAN'T HEAR YOU!"
"Can't I, Pendergast?" A high cold voice said.
Arthur opened his rage-filled eyes and saw that a tall, thin and black hooded figure appeared in the middle of the hall, pointing his wand at Arthur. His terrible snake-like face, white and gaunt, his scarlet, slit pupiled eyes staring at him.
"So, you smashed my prophecy?" Voldemort asked softly, staring at Arthur with his 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 Arthur Pendergast thwart me again…."
"Master, I am sorry, I know not, I was the Animagus Black!" Bellatrix sobbed, flinging herself at Voldemort's feet as he paced slowly nearer. "Master, you should know -"
"Be quiet, Bella." Voldemort said 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 didn't pay attention.
"I have nothing more to say to you, Pendergast." He said quietly. "You have irked me too often, for too long. AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Arthur didn't even resist as his mind was blank.
But then the headless golden statue of the wizard in the fountain sprung to life, leaping from its plinth and landed with a crash on the floor between Arthur and Voldemort. The spell simply glanced off its chest as the statue flung out its arms to protect Arthur.
"What -?" Voldemort cried, staring around until he breathed "Dumbledore!"
Arthur looked behind him with his heart pounding. There was Dumbledore standing in front of the golden gates.
Voldemort raised his wand and another jet of green light streaked at Dumbledore, who merely turned and was gone in a whirling of his cloak.
Next second, he reappeared behind Voldemort and waved his wand towards the remnants of the fountain. The other statues now sprang to life.
The statue of the witch ran right at Bellatrix, who screamed and sent spells that streamed uselessly off its chest, before it dived at her, pinning her to the floor.
Meanwhile, the goblin and house elf scuttled towards the fireplaces along the hall and the one armed centaur galloped at Voldemort, who vanished and reappeared beside the pool.
The headless statue thrust Arthur backwards, 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." Dumbledore said calmly. "The Aurors are on their way -"
"By which time I shall be gone, and you will be dead!" Voldemort spat, sending another killing curse at Dumbledore, which missed, instead hitting the security guard's desk, which burst into flame.
Dumbledore flicked his own wand: the force of the spell that had emerged from it was such that Arthur, still shielded by the golden wizard, felt his hair stand up on end as it passed and 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, yet a deep, gong-like not reverberated from it - which was an oddly chilling sound.
"You do not seek to kill me, Dumbledore!" Voldemort called, 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 towards him like he didn't have anything to fear, like he was having a casual stroll. "Merely taking your life would not satisfy me, I admit -"
"There is nothing worse than death, Dumbledore!" Voldemort snarled.
"You are quite wrong." Dumbledore said, still closing in on Voldemort and speaking like he was talking over drinks. Arthur knew just how powerful Dumbledore was so he wasn't scared for him as his headless guard kept shunting backwards towards the wall. "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, the one armed centaur, galloping in front of Dumbledore, took the blast and shattered into a hundred pieces, but before they hit the floor, Dumbledore drew back his wand and waved it like he was brandishing a whip.
A long thin flame flew from the tip, wrapping around Voldemort, shield and all.
For a moment, it seemed that Dumbledore won, yet when the fiery rope became a serpent, which relinquished its hold on Voldemort and turned, it hissed furiously when facing Dumbledore.
Voldemort then vanished and the snape reared from the floor, ready to strike.
But then a burst of flame appeared in mid air above Dumbledore as Voldemort reappeared, standing on the plinth in the middle of the pool where the statues previously stood.
"Look out!" Arthur yelled.
Yet as he shouted, another jet of green light flew right at Dumbledore from Voldemort's wand and the snake 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 time, Dumbledore brandished his wand in one long fluid movement, making the snake, which had been an instant from sinking its fangs into him, fly high into the air and vanish in a wisp of dark smoke.
Then the water in the pool rose up and covered Voldemort like some cocoon of molten glass.
For a few seconds, Voldemort was only visible as a dark, rippling, faceless figure, shimmering and indistinct upon the plinth, struggling to throw off the suffocating mass.
But 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!" Bellatrix screamed pathetically.
Arthur didn't even know if it was over, but Arthur felt like he had to stay close to Dumbledore, in case something happened.
When he ran out from behind his statue guard, Dumbledore bellowed "Stay where you are, Arthur!"
For the first time ever, Dumbledore sounded frightened.
Arthur knew that if he was frightened, then it isn't over, despite a sobbing Bellatrix being still trapped under the witch statue and the baby Fawkes croaking feebly on the floor, indicating that it was over.
Just then, Arthur's scar burst open and he felt like he was dying: it was pain beyond all imaging, past endurance and sanity.
He was gone from the hall, now locked in the coils of a creature with red eyes, so tightly bound that Arthur didn't know where his body ended and the creature's began: they were fused together, bound by pain with no escape.
Then the creature spoke, using Arthur's mouth so that in his agony, he felt his jaw move.
"Kill me now, Dumbledore…."
Blinded and dying, every part of him screamed for release, Arthur then felt this creature use him again.
"If death is nothing, Dumbledore, kill the boy…."
Arthur just wanted the pain to stop, he felt nothing but a desire to die, to end it all as death was nothing compared to this.
He'd see his parents and Sirius….
But then he'd leave behind everyone he loved and cared for: Lupin, Hagrid, the Dentleys, McGonagall, Chrys, the Merlons… and Mike… the idea of no longer spending time with the person he loved pained him so much.
His heart was filled with grief and love, which actually caused the creature's coils to loosen, relieving Arthur of all the pain he felt; Arthur now found himself lying face down on the floor, shivering as though he lay upon ice and not wood.
There were voices echoing through the hall, more voices than there should be.
Arthur opened his eyes, seeing the headless statue now lying flat on its back, cracked and immobile. He then raised his head to find Dumbledore's crooked nose inches from his own.
"Are you alright, Arthur?"
"Yes." He said, shaking so violently that he couldn't keep his head up properly. "Where's Voldemort… what's -"
The Atrium was now full of people; the floor reflected the emerald green flames that burst to life in the fireplaces in the chimneys down the hall. Streams of witches and wizards emerged from them.
As Dumbledore pulled Arthur to his feet, Arthur saw the tiny gold statue of the house elf and the goblin, leading a stunned Cornelius Fudge forward.
"He was there!" A scarlet robed man with a ponytail shouted, who pointed at a pile of golden rubble on the other side of the hall, where Bellatrix lay trapped only 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!" Fudge gibbered, who wore pyjamas under his pinstriped cloak and gasped as though he had just run for 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…" Dumbledore said - apparently satisfied that Arthur was alright, walking forwards so that the newcomers realised he was there for the first time (a few raised their wands, others 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-Disapparition Jinx and awaiting your decision as to what to do with them."
"Dumbledore!" Fudge gasped, beside himself with amazement. "You - here - I - I -"
He looked wildly around at the Aurors he brought with him and he cried "Seize him!"
"Cornelius, I am ready to fight your men and win again!" Dumbledore said with a thunderous voice. "But a few minutes ago, you saw proof, with your own eyes, that I have been telling the truth for a year. Lord Voldemort has returned, you have been chasing the wrong man for twelve months, and it is time you listened to sense!"
"I - don't - well -" Fudge blustered, looking around as though he hoped someone would tell him what to do. But when no one did, he just 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 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 Arthur back to Hogwarts?" Dumbledore told him.
"Arthur - Arthur Pendergast?"
Fudge spun round and stared at Arthur, who stood against the wall beside the fallen statue that guarded him during the duel between Dumbledore and Voldemort.
"He - here?" Fudge said. "Why - what's all this about?"
"I shall explain everything when Arthur is back at school." Dumbledore repeated.
He walked away from the pool to where the golden wizard's head lay on the floor. He pointed his wand at it and muttered "Portus", making the head glow blue and tremble noisily against the wooden floor for a few seconds before becoming still once more.
"Now see here, Dumbledore!" Fudge said as Dumbledore picked the head up and walked back to Arthur, carrying it. "You haven't got authorization for that Portkey! You can't do things like that right in front of the Minister for Magic, you - you -"
His voice faltered when Dumbledore surveyed him magisterially over his half moon spectacles.
"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…" Dumbledore pulled out 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 open and his round face grew pinker under his rumpled grey hair.
"I - you -"
Dumbledore turned his back to him.
"Take this Portkey, Arthur."
He held out the golden head and Arthur placed his hand on it, not even giving a damn about where he went or what he did next.
"I shall see you in half an hour." Dumbledore said quietly. "One… two… three…."
Arthur felt the familiar sensation of a hook jerking behind his navel. The polished wooden floor vanished beneath his feet; the Atrium, Fudge and Dumbledore also vanished as he was sent flying forwards in a whirlwind of colour and sound….
Arthur was so full of rage that he actually did tap into that darkness in him, but his conscious snapped him out of it. And the next chapter will be THE game changer for the rest of the series.