Hey guys! Welcome back. I hope everyone had a great Mother's day weekend, and Happy belated Mother's day to all that apply :)
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-=REVISED 4/11/2023=-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
I had some time and thought I thought I'd do some simple revisions-mostly grammar stuff, but also including changing the narrative from present tense to simple past tense. Hopefully, it's a better read this way.
The Acid Ocean
…Well outside of the castle's strong defenses…
…With far more innocent and scattered lives than he could save…
…Who were paralyzed with fear at the sudden reality of facing an all but certain death under large venomous fangs…
…Of what looked to be hundreds upon hundreds of large, enchanted, cannibal spiders, clicking and screeching madly for human flesh…
…Was the immediate dilemma Harry proposed in his mind to find a way to solve without a single loss of life.
His mind snickered at the ludicrous request and only thought of the dead-ends. The castle was much too far away to outrun the eight-legged beasts, and no one had broomsticks to fly to safety—not even Harry, who had told himself to get a racing broom after the fight with Crouch Jr. Not that it would solve this catastrophe in any way, but it would help, as nearly none of the students were magically strong enough to defend themselves against the all-around tough beasts who had the highest Ministry classification of XXXXX—a designation given to wizard killers.
The chances of saving every soul from this black plague were so dire, Harry actually contemplated leaving everyone but Nicolas, Perenelle, Hermione, and Luna to fend off the large tsunami of poisonous spiders that were poised to overwhelm them all. It was a terrible option, for certain, and he would likely hate himself for a time, but it was the only sure thing he could do within the minutes they had.
"We're all going to die! We're going to die!" someone yelled, looking over at the field that was quickly being overrun by large, strong acromantulas. "Run! Go!"
In the field, midway between the forest line and the quidditch field, a blue shield-like pillar extended high in the sky—nearly as tall as the castle—and it was quickly overrun by acromantula. It didn't stop the majority of spiders sprinting toward the quidditch pitch, but many decided to probe the solid-looking shield. Like a stone in a river, the mass of acromantula swarmed around it and continued to the quidditch field.
With a magically amplified voice, Flitwick yelled, "Don't run! You'll never make it on foot! No, stop!"
"Vhat are they to do?!" Karkaroff yelled. "Vhat can we do?!"
"They must come on zhe platform!" Maxime declared loudly, her wand ready in hand. "Come to zhe platform! Behind the safety of its shield!"
"They can't all make it down the towers and onto the platform," Dumbledore stated. "We must do all we can to delay the acromantulas from overwhelming us."
"Vill the ring's shield even hold against so many?" Karkaroff desperately asked.
"Fawkes," Dumbledore called, and not a second later, his mature phoenix appeared from a flash of flame. "I need you to transport as many students to the safety of the castle as you can."
Some students hysterically tried to escape, despite Flitwick's instruction. They were just too scared to listen. Flitwick hopped off the dueling platform, landed gently at the base of the second tower, and forced all the students back up. With Professor Sprout and Nicolas assisting Flitwick with trying to keep all the children calm and in place, Harry had to worry about them only slightly less as Dumbledore commanded the students to remain at the top of the tower until his phoenix could take them to the safety of the castle.
The sage Headmaster also told them that the professors would stop the onslaught, and that they need not fear, but the way Fleur took shaky and fearful steps back, made Harry realize that this level of doom was hard to ignore, and these delicate teens weren't hard enough to stand there waiting for Fawkes to save them one student at a time.
How did Dumbledore expect to stop the poisonous, wizard-killing swarm from closing in on five separate groups of lives? Harry wondered what the old headmaster could do in such a situation against so many. Any attack or method of prevention that might be of help on a large scale would be difficult to control, if not involve casualties, and he couldn't be sure to get all of them. He'd have an easier time holding water in his hand than stopping these crying children from meeting a certain gruesome end.
Still, Fleur was by his side, and Harry was nearly as worried for her as he was for Hermione and Luna. Suddenly, what was so uncertain a moment ago became a clear plan he didn't have nearly enough time to fully implement. The spiders would be on them in mere minutes.
"Fleur!" Harry called. Despite yelling her name so near to her, she could scarcely take her eyes off the stampeding monsters. Barring time for delicacy, Harry took her hand and forced her to look at him. Her red-rimmed eyes, full of moisture, were a clear indication of where her head was at—not that he could fault her in any way for it. She might have faced a dragon in his previous timeline, but she—along with the other champions—were aware of them beforehand… and it was only one. This colony of acromantula was tantamount to facing a hundred dragons by one's self.
Harry squeezed her hand tight, to the point she winced from the pain. He'd rather have avoided causing her pain, but he needed her to be steady and focused now, because he didn't have the time to comfort her with words.
"Slow them down," he said in a calm commanding voice. "Don't hit them directly with magic—they're too strong, and there are too many for that. It'll just bounce right off. Conjure or transfigure spikes, swords, spears, anything sharp and long. Understand?" Fleur was nodding her head slowly, likely not completely grasping what he was saying. Harry squeezed a little tighter, looking directly into her dark blue pupils. "Fleur, do you understand?"
Shaking her head with more determination now, Harry turned to Nicolas, Sprout, and Flitwick who were keeping all the students in place and transfiguring long, sharp studs on the legs of the towers. Harry amplified his voice with Sonorus, as Umbridge discreetly yelled at Dumbledore, "I am a most important Ministry official and I demand you save me first!"
Harry didn't have the time to be disgusted by her, and called out, "Professor Flitwick! Nicolas! I need you to slow them down." Still holding Fleur's hand, he turned to the others near him; Krum, Cedric, Fred and George, Ron, Hardwin, Maxime, Karkaroff, and Dumbledore. "Help them stop as many as you can. Slow them down and buy me as much time as possible!"
"My seester-" the tearful Veela tried to say.
"Fleur!" Harry yelled, looking at the oncoming car-sized poisonous spiders. "Buy me as much time as you can."
Harry let her go and ignored Dumbledore and Umbridge as he dove into his mind. He mentally landed in that familiar place that he could only feel, like a world without land, where the knee-length water reflected the starry night sky, making it appear as if he was standing in the middle of the night sky. Wet to his knees, Harry was actually at its most shallow, but it was no ordinary water rippling around him. It was the augmentation Horcrux-Voldemort made in preparation for its escape—the changes he tried to use as little as possible for the very real fear of driving himself mad.
Apprehensively, Harry sensed how expansive and deep this world of potent magic was and asked himself, 'Who are you? What did you want to do? How were you going to do it?'
Walking deeper into the acidic ocean of his immense magic, Harry felt the robust energy flow through him with every step, like a potent drug, already multiplying his magical strength. 'It wasn't enough,' his mind informed him. Harry stepped further, deeper, sacrificing his sanity for more power… sacrificing himself for his friends. The cost would be high, he knew, but for what was ahead of him, he needed to drown himself in this acidic strength. The Basilisk he fought certainly took much out of him to defeat it, but this was far beyond that adversity, and he would need much more magical strength than that if he truly wanted to keep everyone from the clutches of death.
Fully submerged, Harry opened his eyes to the real world, and saw everything like he'd never seen it before. Suddenly everything in the arena was more vibrant, so colorful, in fact, everything shone without blinding. Patterns of different-colored light seemed to ebb, flow, and connect to everything, as if seeing aromas wafting off of everything. Though this enhanced vision was highly impressive, it was also very informative on an intuitive level, like knowing an answer to an arithmetic problem without the proof to back it up.
Beyond the visual beauty, however, a blight of deadly wizard-killing creatures flooded the land on track to kill them all. With his magical sight, Harry somehow knew that the beasts were stronger in a horde than they were individually, like an orchestra of voices rather than a single voice, or like the time he was taught teamwork in primary school. A single pencil could break with enough force, but a stack of pencils was a much harder thing to break.
These creatures' magical aegis seemed to heighten in waves the closer they were in packs. A trivial thought in Harry's mind wondered if it was a social skill developed by their constant clicking, like the beating of a marching drum, as he focused on the immensity of his noxious magic.
Flitwick, Fleur, Maxime, Karkaroff, Krum, Cedric, George, Fred, Ron, and Hardwin tried to slow the rushing wave of stampeding acromantula with a series of tactics. Spikes of stone all over the ground, boulders falling from the sky attached to nets to tangle them in place, and the acromantula stunning spell, Arania Exumai. And they did buy Harry time, but with so many rabid creatures charging recklessly at them, it was just barely enough time.
With his magic sight, he easily recognized Flitwick was the strongest offensively, Maxime was a natural defensive juggernaut, and try as the rest of the group might, they wouldn't be able to completely stop the wave of dark energy rushing them. The sight of Dumbledore's aurora was more powerful than Harry had ever imagined, but having Fawkes transfer students three at a time took too long. They needed to go where the large acromantula couldn't get them and they all needed to go at once.
Harry extended his wand, primed his now immense strength, and mentally cast, 'Wingardium Leviosa!'
Even when nothing moved, his entire being suddenly felt as heavy as a mountain—a thing that he needed to move without the aid of his muscles. Harry concentrated his magic on clutching firm the dueling platform and the four towers of benches full of hysterical students. Their desperate screams filled his ears and Harry extended his left hand lower than his right—palm up—as if holding an invisible Quaffle in his hand. Slowly, with a jerky unsteadiness, every large beam of wood, seat, stone tile, and the eighty or so warm bodies squirming in fear required all his focus to lift.
Magically asserting dominion over the four towers and the dueling ring to rise, the towers resisted his demands, but Harry would not relent. The jerk of the platform alerted everyone to Harry's levitation charm and the slow rise of such a large object. Everyone stole amazed glances of him, but he ignored them for the absolution of feeling more magic in him than he had ever felt before-
No, not ever before.
In the previous timeline, in the deepest darkest cell in Azkaban, when he transfigured his body to magical sand of time to travel back, it felt similar to that—though that was like drowning in the deepest pressure of the ocean, while currently, he felt like he was drowning in the shallows. His every fiber felt heavy with magical energy, to the point of ripping, and though it might hurt physically, mentally he felt eternal.
Despite the group of wizards doing all they could to keep the acromantulas away, the beasts were nearly in the Quidditch field as Harry started lifting the dueling ring. Slowly, Harry raised the platform high enough to keep a single large acromantula from reaching them, but the erratic spiders were desperately climbing over themselves to get at them. Harry kept raising the platform as he tried to lift the resistant first tower faster.
Upon noticing the absurdity of what Harry was attempting to do, Flitwick destroyed the grounded legs off of the first tower and used the sharp debris of splintering wood to stab as many of the screeching eight-legged creatures as possible.
"Bringing... them... over!" Harry yelled to the professors. Flitwick destroyed the wood beams holding the second and third tower to the ground as well, as Dumbledore levitated as many students as he could to the dueling platform.
Ignoring how his body felt like it was decaying, Harry expended more magic to lift the second and third towers faster at the same time as he continued to rise the dueling ring and the first tower higher. While he was confident the first tower was out of the spiders' range, the other towers were still very much in danger.
He finally pulled up the fourth tower faster than a snail's pace when spiders grabbed hold and quickly climbed up to the terrified screaming children at the top. Ignoring frightful cries for help, Harry concentrated on lifting it, but the large spiders climbed over themselves for more and more reach that would normally be impossible for them.
The worst was the strong webbing the acromantula tried to snatch the third and second towers with. Flitwick and Maxime seemed to be the only ones capable of penetrating the spiders' natural defenses, but Fleur, Cedric, Krum, and Hardwin did well against the strong webbing they used to try and climb up to them. The spiders were relentless and resilient; however, madly focused on eating and devouring soft, young, wizard flesh. As the fourth tower continued its upward struggle to climb higher, the large hungry spiders climbed over enough of themselves and the webbing to reach the third tower.
"Kill dem!" Harry heard Krum yell.
As they continued to rise higher over the trees, the students were levitated onto the dueling square by Dumbledore, Sprout, Nicolas, and Nova, packing more and more bodies into a tight crowd on the square's center. Fawkes flamed students three at a time to the castle, clearing a bit of room, but not fast enough since the desperate crying groups of students clung to each other, forcing the process to take longer.
"First tower is clear," Sprout finally yelled at Harry.
Relief would have made Harry simply drop the heavy frame, but his lethal anger saw an opportunity. He tossed the first tower into the thicket of the poisonous hairy murderers clustering underneath the third tower, sticking to it like a web that wouldn't break, trying to reach the fear-filled children at its tip. There was a heavy thudded crash followed by a loud multitude of screeching, but the third tower still felt too heavy, so he knew he didn't get all of them.
The fourth tower had it the worst and Flitwick concentrated all his efforts on the mounting threat when Nicolas yelled at Harry, "Head for the blue pillar!"
"Why?!" Harry managed to growl, now less hampered by the loss of the first tower.
"Perenelle!" Nicolas emotionally called. "She's in the center of that horde!"
"We cannot!" Umbridge called. "Helping anyone in the middle of that is impossible! I order you to take us to safety!"
In the fourth tower, a spider managed to strike a student, lancing him in the stomach with one of its clawed legs, before trying to drag him away—a boy, Harry judged from the piercing scream. Flitwick managed to cut the appendage and banish the large spider away before it could claim the wailing life.
Seeing no other alternative, Harry yelled, "Nova!"
And in front of everyone, his midnight black phoenix flamed—just like Fawkes had been doing—to the injured child, snatched him in her claws and flamed right next to Harry. "Headmaster!" Harry called to heal the seventh year before he died, but he couldn't hear Dumbledore's response over the boy's agonizing screaming trumpeting right next to him. Nova returned to the fourth tower to help Flitwick by latching onto the large spider's bulbous backs and pulling them off the overrun fourth tower.
"Get them off of there!" Harry yelled to anyone, cognizant of his inability to make sure he kept everyone elevated from certain death below, and attacked those magically tough creatures at the same time. Maybe he should have descended deeper into devastating magic, but how much less time would his body have had under that pressure? With the release of one more tower, he might have been able to help attack, as well as keep everyone elevated from danger, but they had to work faster.
Dumbledore took the injured teen, and four students held on to him as Fawkes flamed them away, an impressive feat for the elder phoenix. Reaching twice the height of any tree around, Harry started gravitating toward the flickering blue tower shield.
Despite the cold bite of the strong gust at that height, Harry was sweating profusely as Umbridge yelled at him. "Young man, you take us back to the safety of the castle this instant! Or we will all surely die!"
"I'm not going anywhere without my wife," Nicolas yelled to Umbridge as the last student from the second tower floated into his outstretched arms.
"The second tower is clear!" Sprout called.
Harry quickly tossed the tower to the growing clicking of black beneath the fourth tower as another piercing scream drowned out all other sounds. This time, a girl's cries of agony cut painfully through the air as she was yanked away from the cowering corner of children by a large incensed acromantula. Harry dropped the platform a little as he conjured a great sword to pierce through the center of the large spider, releasing the girl's bloody arm as it screeched and jittered in pain. Nova flamed to the girl, clutched her in her strong talons before appearing beside Harry in a brilliant flash of flames.
"Get them off that fucking tower!" Harry yelled at the wizard attackers on his side.
"We're trying!" Hardwin yelled back.
"Don't try!" Harry returned. "Just do!"
Dumbledore returned with Moody, who immediately started assisting with the spiders trying to kill the students on the fourth tower as the headmaster gently took the injured girl by her waist, along with another four students, clearly pushing the limits of what Fawkes could travel with at a time.
Before he flamed away, Dumbledore warned Ares, "Think about the forty or so souls on this platform. They are our immediate concern. You must turn back."
"Your immediate concern is going to bleed out to death if you don't get her out of here!" Harry shot back, and the Headmaster soon flamed away.
"Third tower clear!" Nicolas yelled before he and Sprout worked on bringing the remaining students from the last tower.
Harry used the third tower like a bat to break the still-connected line of spiders and webbing trying to get at the students in the fourth tower. With less weight, Harry was able to help Sprout, Nicolas, and Moody to bring the remaining students from the fourth tower onto the overcrowded platform. Harry hadn't noticed two more students, a girl, and a boy were pale, still, deathly-looking, but not heavily bleeding like the others. Sprout and Maxime were looking after them, tending to poisoned students as best they could when the Headmaster returned.
"Start taking the students to the castle," Harry told his avian familiar.
Without the absolute focus needed to keep the towers in the air, Harry could walk over to the edge of the platform and stare down at what he initially thought was a black sea. Only in this case, the large sinkhole followed them, climbed over themselves, and desperately shot out webbing that couldn't reach them.
Harry looked over to the overrun blue tower of the five-point shield—a Pentagon Shield, his memory reminded him. Without the burden of holding four towers along with the dueling platform, Harry could progress the speed of levitation, and with fewer and fewer students, he could get there faster.
Umbridge was at the fringes of her patience and demanded he bring them to the safety of the castle. "I command you to turn us around this instance, and return us to the castle!" she yelled, the panic creeping into her child-like tone as they moved closer to the large black build-up of wizard-killing spiders.
"Pomona," Dumbledore called. "I will send you along with them to handle all coming students. Fawkes." Dumbledore commanded, and Sprout nodded before taking the two injured students and another two flames to the castle. Unlike Fawkes, Nova could take no more than three at a time.
Harry turned to Umbridge and told her, "I'm not leaving without Perenelle, and you'll only be wasting your breath trying to convince me otherwise."
Fuming, fists clenched, and tightening her shoulders, Umbridge whipped out her wand and pointed it at Harry.
Harry only smiled at the toad woman as Maxime and others nearby cried out, surprised by her threatening action, "Madame Undersecretary," "Dolores!" or, "Are you crazy?!"
"I'm the only thing keeping the platform from falling into a sea of hungry acromantula," Harry told her without fear. Looking at the blue of the towering Pentagon Shield flicker and wane in strength, Harry's magical sight informed him that the shield wouldn't last for much longer. He put more focus into speeding the platform faster as the phoenixes continued to do their best to transport the children to safety.
Pushing through the tight crowd, Luna beckoned Harry, "Ares? I've looked- I've looked everywhere a-and can't find Hermione."
'Hermione,' Harry thought, and couldn't prevent the platform from a quick wobble at the thought of his timeline's counterpart. He took a second to accept it rationally, and without panic, before looking over the faces of frightened children for her. When Dumbledore approached him, Nicolas conjured a handkerchief and extended it to Harry, who hadn't realized his nose was bleeding from both nostrils.
"Who else is missing?" Harry asked Luna, holding the now red-stained cloth to his nose.
"She left with Daphne," Luna quickly answered Harry, managing to keep the platform from trembling again
Dumbledore told Harry, "As your Headmaster, I insist you bring this platform and everyone on it behind the safety of the castle's defenses. This is clearly having a negative effect on your health, which jeopardizes everyone still here."
"No," Harry quickly told Dumbledore, now easily tasting the copper tang of blood in his mouth. "Not without Perenelle. Hermione isn't even here. Did you take her and Daphne to the castle?" The second he asked the question, his mind immediately thought of the Map, but to take it out here in front of everyone stilled Harry's hand. Then, the thought of not being able to find Hermione's name anywhere on the map made the platform wobble along with his trepidation again.
"…Ares," Dumbledore started, staring at the boy as if he was going to lose it when Nicolas interrupted.
"That five-point shield," Nicolas pointed to the blue shield. "I'm certain that's Perenelle doing, but the Pentagon Shield isn't something one wizard can do alone." Nicolas ran to the edge. The pillar was overrun with black, like a pile-up the size of a hill, all trying to break through the shield. The sea of large spiders filled much of the visible valley, but the heaviest buildup was clearly around the pentagon shield as spiders crawled over themselves to get at the wizards within the shield.
"We have to save her because she's not alone," Nicolas implored the group. "That shield is strong precisely because it utilizes the strength of five wands to create it, which can only mean at least four others were with her. But clearly, they can't hold it indefinitely. We absolutely must save them now!"
Harry looked deeply over to the weakening shield and the hill of spiders encasing the base of it, and not only did he sense Draco clear as day, but his magic sight showed faint wisps of colorfully patterned light—six in total. "There are seven people in the shield," Harry told the group.
"Hermione!" Luna interjected. "She followed Daphne down to spy on Tracey checking on Draco."
"Lies!" the panicked Umbridge yelled. "There's absolutely no way you can tell that from here! You're just trying to trick us."
"Aye, the lad's right," Moody called, using his magical eye to see what wasn't visible to the naked eye. "There are seven; three adults, four tikes. Two of the adults seem unconscious. If we mean to avoid cleaning a bloody mess later, we ought to save 'em now before it's too late."
"There is no way you can know that!" Dolores argued to the group despite reason. "It won't take but a few minutes to take us back to the castle. Surely, they have a few minutes. You're only trying to convince us of this suicidal folly because you believe such an act of heroism will save you from losing your position as a professor, Alastor, but I tell you here and now, it will not!"
The blue protective pillar nearly faded completely. Harry turned to Dumbledore and decisively warned him, "You have until all the children are gone before I drop this platform on these fucking spiders." Harry's body was aching severely with every movement—some of his fingernails had even fallen off. As he noted his nose hadn't stopped bleeding, professor Flitwick joined him, standing by his side.
"I will join you," Flitwick said, focusing his stern gaze on the strong colony of magical predators.
"Az will I," Fleur announced just before Krum's, "I vill fight." Both champions walked over to the edge, nervous, but determined.
"I admire your spirit, your courage, all of you," Dumbledore said to the group, as Nova and Fawkes continued to flame the frightened students back to the castle. "But I cannot allow you to risk your lives when the chances of success are nearly impossible—you, in particular, Mr. Flamel. You've used far too much magic and are in great need of a healer's immediate attention."
"Those abominations are classified wizard-killers for a reason!" Umbridge added on. "This is not up for debate! None of your little spells did more than annoy them to greater frenzy, and there are hundreds of them down there! Whatever madness is possessing you all to think you would succeed in any way other than meeting your gruesome ends, you can be sure I will save you from it! With all the power vested in me by the ministry, I forbid any of you from going down there!"
"That the official position of the Ministry now, is it?" Moody asked, stepping closer to the edge. "Let our own die cause it's a bit hard to save 'em?"
"Alastor," Dumbledore began. "We save whom we can. I'm certain even you can see that, and while no doubt courageous the will to save our own is, in the end, it would ultimately be futile. We cannot reach them while the shield is up, and the moment it is down, it will be impossible to save them all while simultaneously fending off so many."
Nova took Hardwin, Ron and George, while Fawkes took Fred and another three.
"Filius," Dumbledore called sympathetically, imploring the half-goblin to, "see reason." The charms professor seemed very conflicted, but when Dumbledore affirmed, "You know I speak the truth," he took another look at the swarm clicking and screeching madly below, and dejectedly turned away from the edge, solemnly moving to Dumbledore's side.
Madame Maxime put her large hands on Fleur's shoulders, and no matter how much she resisted, the beautiful Veela was sadly forced away from Harry's side. Upon Fawke's return, the phoenix took Moody forcefully. Krum seemed very defiant to Karkaroff's orders, but with a foul grunt, he ultimately stepped away as well. With nearly everyone gone, Nicolas was the only one by Harry's side, and Harry wouldn't allow him to stay. This wasn't where Nicolas' talents lay and he would only get in the way.
"I'll get her back, Nic," Harry stated as he signaled to Nova, and against his will, Nicolas was the next to be flamed to safety. Harry turned to the tower-like shield as it dimmed and flickers before turning to the headmaster. All who remained were Dumbledore, Flitwick, Maxime, Fleur, Krum, and Karkaroff. Undeterred, Harry warned them, "You have a minute before I dropped this."
It won't take Fawkes and Nova another few jumps to get them to safety and in preparation, Harry transfigured the platform to extend long sharp spikes from the bottom. Ready to drop the heavy platform with spikes underneath it on the hill of acromantula several stories below, the moment he was the last one.
Harry returned his attention to the blue pillar-like shield just as it went out completely, scaring him so badly the elevated platform wobbled in the wake of his dreaded fear piercing through his focus. Instantly after retaining his focus, Harry concentrated an intense amount of magic on conjuring many long, sharp lances, high in the sky and shot them down on the massive colony of horse-sized, poisonous spiders—careful to avoid where he thought his friends were. Flitwick moved next to Harry to conjure his own attack when Dumbledore put his hand on both their shoulders and they all flamed away.
Landing just inside the castle's entrance and in the mayhem of injured, scared, or frantic children, Harry could see in the far-off sky the platform with a spiked bottom drop down onto the large crawling hill of blackness, causing a distant screeching sound of pain. The blue pillar of protective shield was no longer visible as it was overrun by spiders.
Whipping around to the Headmaster, Harry yelled, "What d'you think you're doing!"
"NOOOOOO!" Nicolas wailed horrifically in struck agony—just as painful as the worst cries Harry's ever heard.
"The rest of the castle is secure, Headmaster," Snape informed Dumbledore. "All students are being directed to their houses and the ministry has been alerted."
"Fetch the Durmstrang and Beauxbaton students from their lodgings through the floo-" Dumbledore started to command Snape when Nicolas rushed forward, attracting Dumbledore's worried attention.
"Ares!" Nicolas tearfully begged, pleading in expression what didn't need to be said.
"I'm on it!" the bleeding boy returned, trying to sense Draco's location to flame to. However, it was hazier from this distance.
"You cannot go out there," Dumbledore ordered, before turning to Nicolas. "I am sorry my old-"
"Nova!" Harry quickly called, deciding to just go high and land as close as possible. His flaming familiar swooped down to clutch him, but was interrupted when Dumbledore used the ancient and all-powerful elder wand to cast, "Petrificus Totalous," rendering Harry in a full body-bind. Harry fell face-first to the ground as Dumbledore then tried to incapacitate an evasive Nova. "I'm truly sorry, young man. I do commend you for your exemplary efforts. Truly admirable-"
"What are you doing!?" Nicolas yelled at his former apprentice, who would've hit Nova if she hadn't flamed to avoid it. "Stop! Stop! Stop, we have to save them!"
"I'm sorry to say, but it's impossible," Snape states, looking at the hill of hairy black legs and bulbous backs.
"There are hundreds of wizard-killing beasts between us and them," Dumbledore returns. "With no way to apparate to them, we simply cannot fend off such a large colony without sacrificing a disproportionate number of wizards for the task. I lament to say, my dear friend, that while it's possible they may still be breathing, they are nonetheless gone."
Nova dodged the headmaster's spells by millimeters when Nicolas shouted, "I'M NOT GOING TO LET HER DIE!"
The legendary alchemist whipped out his wand, and in his great grief, attempted to detain the greatest wizard currently living. Dumbledore sadly, yet easily, defended himself against his former instructor, and Nicolas could do nothing to change the elder sorcerer's position, but the time gained from the distraction was all Harry needed as Nova sped down, like an arrow, clutched at her master then flamed away.
Harry flamed high in the air, roughly near where he felt Draco's location, which was the only notion he had that told him everyone was alive. As he hoped, Nova's majestic magic canceled Dumbledore's full-body bind, and he regained full autonomy once again.
With the full velocity of gravity, Harry started to descend into a dark sea of acromantula with more rage than he had felt in a long time. Unaffected by the high probability of his death—either by magical exhaustion or wizard-eating acromantula—and absolutely fuming over what Dumbledore had done, Harry told Nova in a low and dark tone, "Go get our boy."
Nova flamed away as Harry focused the bulk of his powerful, and physically-harming magic on conjuring hundreds of sharp spears to rain down on the perilous horde below. Harry could only tell if he managed to kill a few of them by the slightly diminished sounds of fierce clicking. Harry was high enough to send two waves of conjured lances to skewer as many car-sized spiders as possible before he absolutely needed to slow his approach—not necessarily because he was too close to the ground, but because there were so many hairy acromantula, he couldn't even see the ground.
It was not possible to see grass over the dust-up, spears, and spiders so Harry slowed his momentum to land on the inclined back of a pinned-down acromantula. Though it had three lances through it, keeping it stuck in place, it was still trying to free itself and feed on Harry as he gripped the completely shoved through spear butt with his left to keep himself from falling off its round backside.
"Wizard flesh! Fresh meat!" it screeched and clicked as long saliva trails dripped down its fangs.
Not a second after landing, a spider was quickly on him, but before it could sink its large fangs into Harry, his wand was already aimed at its center of mass and he blew it up with a magically excessive Confringo. And from the eruption of the spider's bleeding body parts, blood, venom, and smoke, a larger burst of flame—like the harbinger of death—revealed a fierce, fiery phoenix clutching a much larger Basilisk in its talons. Though technically still an infant, it was at least a third larger than a month ago, and its larger glottis made Nāga's savage hissing sound closer to an ear-piercing, feral screeching—a boom-like effect, spreading throughout far and wide.
The Basilisk's war cry and musk of warning were immediate and widespread, making the infinite clicking noise change to one of panic. With his magic sight, Harry could see the pattern of ferocity in the acromantula suddenly spoil from potent magical rage to cautious timidness, and Harry had no issues commanding his murderous king of snakes.
~Nāga, kill!~
Nova dropped the murderous snake on the fearful acromantula, and it was clear the only thing they had on Harry's Basilisk was overwhelming numbers and crippling fear. Nāga listened to his master, like many times before, and to the snake's absolute pleasure, it slithered as quick as a whip, wrapping its strong body around one acromantula, squeezing it to a crunchy death, while sinking its long poisonous fangs into the brain of another before hunting for the next one.
Harry couldn't exactly explain why in the heat of the battle, but he could see Nāga knew exactly where to bite to pierce the brain of the magical beasts and kill them. They scattered from the large king of snakes but they fell over themselves, giving Nāga all the seconds necessary to kill as many as he liked.
~Nāga, kill them all!~ Harry hissed as he moved closer to where he felt Draco to be all the while avoiding the extending clawed legs and fangs.
Nova ignited her entire body before swooping down and clutching any part of the closest acromantula; a limb, the head, or the rotund back of its abdomen before setting the entire creature on fire and burning it alive. Wizard spells and charms might have been weak on these magically durable, eight-legged creatures, but clearly phoenix flame was substantially more severe, and with his heightened senses, Harry could easily smell the burning hair and boiling flesh. When Nova couldn't set them ablaze due to the sheer numbers attacking her, she resorted to swooping down for a strong rake and flaying their eyes.
Harry didn't worry too much over his pet snake and phoenix familiar as he defended himself against an onslaught of hungry spiders. Acknowledging that he was easily surrounded, outnumbered, and slower than their long and quick limbs, Harry couldn't take the chance they wouldn't strike him in a blind spot and quickly exploit the opening.
To counter this vulnerability, he conjured four extremely sharp swords, one pointing straight ahead of him, one behind him, and one on either side of him, before spinning them around himself, like a large saw. With his wand, Harry's highly potent and volatile magic, cut through any abrupt or wayward attacks with a cutting or blasting curse, while his left-hand controlled the protective, spinning swords. As the swords could get stuck in bone or break, Harry had to continuously conjure a ring of swords with his left hand to spin fast around him, cutting into anything stupid enough to get near him like a blender.
With the first spray of blood mixed venom splattering on him, he quickly felt the stinging burn on his skin. If the chemical-like burn was the only downside to this strategy, then he'd deal with it because the temporary pain was more acceptable over the alternative. Not to say another strategy wouldn't have been better. Instead of feeling this fire-like liquid on his skin, he could have transfigured as much of the ground to a swamp and trapped them all, but he couldn't be sure if it wouldn't put Perenelle and the rest in a fatal disadvantage. So far, he could still feel Draco, and that alone told him that, at the very least, the silver-blond must still be alive.
Harry couldn't see Nova or Nāga over the bodies of spiders, but even without his magical sight, he always had a good understanding of where they were. With his strange sight, he could actually feel their fury match his own, like three hearts beating as one.
It didn't take Harry long to notice his clothes weaken and diminish in thready patches. His mind quickly answered the meek curiosity. Slicing through spiders, he punctured their venom sacks, and the spraying acidic ailment was so strong, it burned the fibers of his school uniform. Spider fangs weren't able to reach him thanks to his spinning blades, but Harry didn't always stop the extending claws on their long hairy legs before he cut the appendage off. They either barely missed him and ripped clothes, or cut him faster than he was able to avoid. Despite it all, his white wand would not stop blasting or cutting a path toward Draco, and hopefully, to the rest.
When Harry stepped in thick, warm liquid, he realized the ground was muddy with blood and venom mixed dirt. Harry kept pushing through, and though further than he cared to be, he conjured more lances to rain down hard through the attacking spiders.
Along with his withering, highly overpowered body, his mind started registering the deteriorating effects of the poison, and though he tried to ignore the system-wide failure, his chest ached, his lungs felt half-drowned, and his neck felt swollen to the point he feared his windpipe might close. Harry debated stopping to rest for only a moment when he heard a girl scream not far from him.
"Nova!" Harry hoarsely called, and she flamed to him, steaming from the way her fire burned off the cursed blood she was splattered in. She grabbed hold of him and flamed above the closer sense of Draco's position. Harry dropped to earth again as he hoarsely told his familiar, "Get him!"
On his way down, Harry couldn't see anything but a large pile of black twitching legs where Draco should be. He could feel the panic creep on his exhausted mind, fearing the worst before unbridled rage dived him deeper into the pressurized depths of his immense magical energy. His body made a desperate and painful plea for salvation in the anticipation of total body organ failure should he continue his magical overuse, but the faces of Perenelle, Hermione, Daphne, and even fucking Draco pushed him much further than safety would ever allow.
Sighting a small pocket of colorful auroras under the spiders, Harry focused his dominating magic to conjure long sharp poles made out of rock to jettison out of the ground as fast and as hard as an iron ball shot out of a cannon. Painful screeching and clicking filled the air as the bamboo-like lances skewered and punctured frenzied acromantulas, raising them up off the muddy floor. Harry cut a hole through the rising arachnids and slowed his descent until he touched muddy earth.
Now underneath the blood-raining canopy of impaled spiders, he covered his eyes from the toxic rain of their blood-mixed venom with his chemically burned left arm. Since very little light could breach the shroud of elevated clicking spiders, it was much darker as he rushed through the bamboo-like forest of lances.
Just ahead, a large acromantula that hadn't been lanced was digging into the dirt with a frenzy. Walking toward the spider, Harry wondered why it was choosing to dig in the ground rather than come after him. Wand up, Harry walked up beside the large wizard killer, yet a safe enough distance to defend himself, and it still refused to attack him in favor of the prey out of reach in a dugout, yet shielded hole.
"Gives, gives, gives," it screeched.
Where the five-point shield should have been, there was a freshly dug-out hole, big enough to walk upright in and not see over the edge. Looking down the hole wasn't any different from looking down into a trench in a battlefield, and he identified Draco, Tracey, Daphne, Hermione, and Perenelle, all on their backs, shoulder-to-shoulder in a tight line laying over two unconscious Aurors, Tonks and Dawlish. Try as they might, Harry could easily see Draco and Perenelle were the only two capable of damaging the one magically resistant spider that didn't get lanced and was trying desperately to fit in the hole to eat them.
Daphne and Hermione were the first to spot Harry standing beside the large frenzied and famished predator, and it wasn't hard to understand why curious expressions easily replaced their fearful ones. It must have looked odd to see the fierce acromantula ignore edible prey standing next to it for the few protected behind a shielded trench.
Harry conjured a sword and banished it straight into the large predator's brain. When its legs fell limp, Harry magically lifted and discarded the carcass as more spiders barreled through the bloody bamboo-like spears protruding from the ground. Harry hopped into the trench and erected a strong shield overhead as the clicking of gigantic spiders reached them and smashed into the impervious strength of his shield.
They slammed themselves madly against the barrier as the spiders chanted in scratchy voices, not unlike the sound of stone grinding against stone. "Girl," "Boy," "Gave," "Us," "Girl," "Boy," over and over. Their words led Harry to wonder more about their erratic behavior from the normally passive colony. "Gives us the girl! Gives us the boy! Gives them to us!" The dozens of wild creatures near them kept repeating their demands as they continued to try and break through. Before Harry could ponder on it more, Nova flamed above them all with a bloody Nāga in her talons, putting the fear of death into all the near acromantula.
"Fucking hell, not another bloody Basilisk," a dirty and bloody Draco bemoaned, clearly recalling the last Basilisk he came upon.
The spiders backed away a safe distance when Harry commanded his snake in parseltongue, ~Nāga... kill all spiders!~
With his lungs filling with fluid, Harry could hardly breathe, and so ignored the shock and surprise from the three fourth-year witches who didn't know he could speak the language of the snakes.
~For Masssster!~ Nāga hissed, powerful enough to reverberate a murderous screech throughout the immediate swarm as it slithered into the dark, clicking, multi-legged darkness, and attacked with reckless abandon.
With Nāga and Nova doing their best, there were fewer spiders trampling on his shield, not that it would have mattered since it was unlikely to break. Harry swiveled about to the group and the immediate way they all narrowed in on his eyes, he quickly understood their green glow was a byproduct of his magical sight.
"Eyes... His-his eyes are glowing," Tracey gasped.
"Fuck me, you're the Green Reaper." Daphne quickly reasoned.
Perenelle was more worried than the others as she looked over his many wounds. Feeling slightly self-conscious, he quickly realized his tie was long gone, his shirt was in stringy ruins, showing most of his chest and abdomen, and his slacks had patches of ripped-off spots. It was almost as if the sight of his body made him realize that even though he felt strong, his body was in much more agony than he remembered.
"I can take some of the venom from your skin," Perenelle stated, stepping closer and using her wand over his many wounds. She quickly examined him, learning most of his wounds were deep tissue acidic burns and claw cuts—not the worst he had been through—but the magical exhaustion was critical, and the venom was as dark as it was strong. Harry, and now Perenelle, knew he wouldn't last long.
"For the venom already in your system, you'll need a serum-" Perenelle noticed his shrunken trunk around his neck and ordered him to take it off. It was a strain to move his arms to take off the thin silver chain around his neck, but it was decidedly easy to enlarge his trunk and unlock the compartment for storing healing draughts and potions.
Still, the danger wasn't over, and Harry opted to lead with the bad news first as Perenelle looked through the vials. "If I flame now... I won't be able to... flame right back," Harry said to Perenelle, who would be the only one to expect Harry to flame multiple times in order to save them all since she knew Nova's limits. "I can't make out... a definitive location... with the piles of spiders... covering everything... there is to see."
"And you can't flame us all at the same time?" Draco asked as Perenelle handed him a vial to drink.
"Nāga... included?" Harry asked skeptically, before quickly downing the entire contents of the vial. Though he wasn't sure what he drank, he trusted her, and instantly his lungs didn't feel like they were drowning anymore. "...I've, I've never tried with this many, two of whom are unconscious, and a huge basilisk. Also, I'm not keen on putting Nova through that."
"You got a better plan?" Draco asked as Perenelle handed him another vial.
"No," Harry answered, taking it, and though his chest stopped aching, his intestines still felt like they were on fire. "Not better, but I'm certain it'll work. Nova?" His steaming and sizzling, black, gore-covered phoenix flamed into the shielded trench.
"She can always sense you," Perenelle reasoned, now starting to remove all the venom and blood off his exposed upper body. "Which means you'll have to stay behind," she gravely stated.
"I want you to take them to the infirmary, girl," Harry said to Nova. Turning to Perenelle, "She can't take more than three so it'll be a few trips."
"Tonks, Davis, Draco first," Perenelle asserted, still attending to her heir. "Draco, tell Pomfrey I couldn't wake her with Rennervate, which means a dark spell or drought of some kind. I'll be right behind with this wanker. Inform the authorities if they're not already there, and I'll take..." Perenelle trailed off, wondering who of the girls to take with her.
Daphne and Hermione looked at each other, clearly understanding that whoever stayed and went meant more than just urgent safety. Terrifying as it was to stay, it could mean more to witness what it was to stay behind with Ares—a risk for knowledge they were both willing to take.
"Take Daphne," Harry quickly made the decision for them, ignorant of the surprise of the arctic-blue eyed blonde to focus on Perenelle's animosity toward Dawlish. "I'm sure her sister's worried," he easily reasoned. "Hermione and I will be last," he said, taking the Maurader's Map from his slack's pocket. "Draco? Keep an eye out," he ordered as he extended the map to the silver-blond.
Draco took it as Perenelle told Harry, "You can shrink your trunk. The rest I'll take care of later."
Nova latched onto Draco, who held Tonk's wrist, while Tracey latched onto him. In a burst of light that quickly dissipated, they disappeared. Harry turned towards the spiders and, without seeing Nāga, he could tell where his general location was. Harry pointed his wand in the opposite direction to be absolutely certain he didn't hit his large slithering companion and transfigured more long lances to shoot out of the ground, killing two and injuring three as they struggled to be free.
"Gives her to US!" they screeched desperately and repeatedly.
Harry ignored it for the sudden way his knees gave out. Extending his hand to clasp at the dirt wall, Harry held himself upright when Perenelle and Daphne were right on him to help. Harry wasn't sure if it was the venom finally seizing more of his body's motor skills or the overuse of magic shutting his body down to save itself from oblivion. It was likely both, but regardless, Perenelle took one arm, Daphne took the other as she asked, "Can't we all flame now? He can't stay here any longer."
"More than anything, I wished they could," Perenelle started to say. "But flaming is more concentration on both Ares and Nova's part than it is magic, like trying to make your index fingers touch perfectly with your eyes closed. If they're off by a little, it's tantamount to splinching but worse."
They held onto him even as his legs were slightly more stable, when Hermione approached him, not looking afraid of the situation but concerned for him, exactly like in his timeline when he first believed Sirius betrayed his parents and she slipped his invisibility cloak off.
He couldn't help the smallest of smiles at the nostalgia behind such a familiar face as she moved some of his long, matted black hair away from the front of his face. He thought about how comforting and invigorating her hand was when he recalled what he still had yet to do to ensure all of them survived this nightmare. Nova returned soon after and he realized then she was having a harder time flaming.
"You bring him straight to me," Perenelle ordered Hermione, who nodded before Perenelle and Daphne grabbed Dawlish. Nova immediately took the three, leaving Hermione and Harry in the trench.
"Nāga's… not going to fit in here," Harry weakly said.
"Nāga…" Hermione hesitantly repeated, needing to take a deep breath to accept the large basilisk had a name. "Nāga… is her name."
"His, actually," Harry said. "Don't worry... he won't hurt you... and when we get up there... I won't let any of them get you."
"I believe you," Hermione sternly replied. "I won't let them get you either."
Harry took a moment to appreciate the tenacity in her brown eyes before he nodded. "We'll keep ourselves back-to-back. They have a natural defense against charms and spells, so conjure as many needles as you can to attack their eyes."
~Nāga!~ Harry hissed, as Nova flamed to his shoulder, slouching nearly to the point he thought she might fall off. Harry wondered if it was poison or exhaustion ailing his phoenix, but he had no definitive answer. Instead, he softly said to his familiar, "Don't worry girl. Just a little bit longer."
Harry transfigured stairs out of dirt to exit the trench, conjured sharp swords and spears to shoot and lodge themselves into any acromantula coming at them as they stepped back on normal ground. Harry tried not to explode any spiders for fear their venom would spray Hermione.
Back-to-back, with Harry's left hand reaching around himself to her waist, keeping Hermione securely pressed to his back in the same way her left arm was reaching behind her, gripping Harry's slacks to keep him close. She did as Harry suggested to great effect, conjuring needles and shooting them with the same focus she placed in her school work. It didn't bring down the large creatures, but it stopped them long enough for Harry to finish them off with sword or spear strikes through the brain.
Harry noticed that the beasts preferred to attack Hermione rather than him, even though it made more sense to bring down the biggest threat before attacking her, but something about Hermione was driving them crazy.
It wasn't long before Nāga showed up, and the frenzied Acromantula backed away. The wizard-killers didn't go far, however. They seemed determined to rush them if not for their greatest fear slithering around their prey, as if eager to attack them but still heavily frightened of the king of snakes. Nāga slithered protectively around Harry and Hermione, and Harry noticed many deep cuts in his thick hide, with a few cuts actually bleeding and a fang sticking out of one part of Nāga's body.
"Gives us the girl! Gives us the girl! Gives her to us!" The wild creatures kept repeating.
"Nova," Harry called, taking hold of Nāga and Hermione, and with a brilliant flash, they flamed to the Chamber of Secrets, all of them landing hard on the ground. The room lit itself with firelight from the torches and the group lay still, taking a moment to contemplate what was so narrowly avoided. Like any worried legendary pet, Nāga licked Harry's sweaty, bloody, and dirty cheek.
Hermione looked around the large chamber in wonderment before asking "Where are we?"
~Okay, okay… Nāga. You were… amazing. I'm so… proud of you.~ Harry hissed to his basilisk, before answering Hermione, "Chamber… of Secrets." Hermione let out an airy gasp, surprised more by the ability of still being surprised by Ares than actually being in the Chamber of Secrets. "It's like you're from another world," she couldn't help but say.
Harry sluggishly tried to make it to his feet, and Hermione quickly helped him up. Holding him tightly to her, he said, "Hermione," then paused, feeling a sudden pang of pain as his body began to decline rapidly. "I don't… have time."
"Of course!" Hermione quickly sorted herself, looking straight in his eyes. "What can I do? Anything at all, just tell me."
"First… take that fang… out of Nāga's hide."
"R-Really?" Hermione asked for clarity with a mild hint of fear. "The basilisk's hide?"
"Don't worry… he won't… bite you," he weakly said, and her need to help him easily gave her the courage. As Harry removed the thin unbreakable chain holding his trunk from around his neck, he said to Nāga in Parseltongue ~Nāga, my friend… is going to help you. Do Not Bite Her.~
~Fr- fri-end... fffriennnd~ Nāga hissed, testing the new word out like an unknown flavor. Nāga moves closer to Hermione, sticking its tongue out to correlate the word with the person. Slightly worried, yet still trusting Ares, she cautiously moved toward the wound with the fang sticking out of it.
~¿What iss fri-end, Master Ares?~
~It means… … s-she's important… to me.~ he answered, wobbling on his feet.
~Important to Masssster... She is Master's mate!~ Nāga hissed confidently. ~Nāga protect all of Master's mates.~
"…Whatever," Harry resigned from correcting the young king of serpents as he looked Nova over. His familiar seemed less injured upon examination than he imagined, but with their connection, he can tell the beautiful phoenix nearly at her limit.
With trembling uncertainty, Hermione responded, "…Uh, what do you mean by, whatever?"
"…Sorry," Harry said, shaking his head. "Go… ahead."
Nāga barely felt Hermione carefully take the fang out of his wounded hide, then Harry weakly asked Nova, "Ready… for one last jump… girl?"
Nova trilled feebly but bravely. She took her place on Harry's naked left shoulder as Hermione took his arm and wrapped it around her neck while wrapping her own arm around his waist to better support him.
—
In the hectic and packed infirmary, Nicolas, Flitwick, and Sprout assisted by settling the frazzled children, while Lily assisted Pomfrey and Perenelle in treating the students worse off; those mauled or poisoned. Grouped together outside the infirmary, halfway down the hall were Dumbledore and Umbridge as they listened to Hagrid explain what he knew.
"On me life, Headmaster," Hagrid solemnly expressed. "Arogog, he 'ad no control over his colony. He barely resisted what darkness controls 'em now, and he's the strongest of 'em all."
"You have yet to properly explain your reason for meeting those foul creatures in the first place, professor!" Dolores stated, insisting he explain. "How do we know you didn't cause this somehow."
"They are not foul creatures. Gentle and loyal beasts they are-" Hagrid started to argue when Dumbledore interrupted.
"What reason did you have to meet Arogog, Rubeus?"
"Well, Headmaster, he'd been helpin' me figure who or what's been hurtin' the unicorns—there've been two so far. The last was the night before Halloween. There be a foul creature in the forest alright, but it's not Arogog or his colony. They've been nothing but docile this entire time, they have."
"Well, it seems quite obvious to me it was them killing unicorns all along," Umbridge stated, poking the tall half-giant in his fur coat covered belly. "And you're, frankly disturbing, love of dangerous, wizard-killing creatures is a clear impediment to your judgment."
"If it 'ad been any acromantula, they'd 'ave left not but bone," Hagrid educated her. "That's o'course if they ate it there and not dragged it to dere webs like they normally do. No, the unicorn's deaths were caused by draining of their blood, and that's no easy thing to do, what wit 'em being the fastest creatures on land and all."
"I'm inclined to agree with Professor Hagrid's assessment on this," Dumbledore told Umbridge. "When I speak with Auror Dawlish-"
"I'm certain you meant to say, when we speak with the Auror, Headmaster," Umbridge corrected. "I will not allow a Ministry employee—as he undoubtedly is—to be questioned by anyone other than the appropriate authority. He is subject strictly to Ministry oversight… very much like Hogwarts, Headmaster."
"Only under extenuating upheaval, Undersecretary Umbridge." Dumbledore reminded her. "And I'm fairly certain this is not such a circumstance."
"We shall see won't we," Umbridge finished with a smug smirk.
"Thank you, Rubeus," the headmaster said. "Please assist with the castle's defenses, and prepare yourself should you need to accompany the Ministry outside when they've arrived to assist."
"Right away, Headmaster," Hagrid said before exiting, accidentally bumping into Moody as the ex-Auror entered the hall and rushed to Umbridge and Dumbledore.
"Snape and McGonagall finished bringin' over every Beauxbaton and Durmstrang student from their lodgings outside through the floo," Moody reported. "They're escorting them and the headmasters to the empty Ravenclaw and Slytherin dorms, respectively."
"Any word from the Ministry?" Dumbledore asked.
"Not in the three minutes since Amelia sent you her last patronus message," Moody replied defensively, still chafing over being removed from battle by force. "I reckon it won't be longer till they're fully mobilized."
"I should hope not," Dumbledore said, not at all bothered by Moody's annoyance.
"How are the little ones?" Moody asked.
"Through a combined effort, Severus, Nicolas, Perenelle, Lily, and Poppy have managed to counteract the dark poison beset upon two of our students," Dumbledore answered. "Thankfully, the other injured students do not appear to be in further danger."
"And the Flamels?" Moody asked. "They still holding out hope for their boy?"
"They are keeping their minds occupied at the moment, attending to the students," Dumbledore replied. "Until this crisis is over, that may be for the best."
"Unbelievable how he managed to snatch six souls from the jaws of death like that," Moody remarked with a huff. "And a Slytherin ta' boot. Wonders never cease."
"At the cost of his own life," Umbridge sadly added. "His sacrifice must be so awful for the Ancient and Noble House, but I'm certain they'll feel gratified when our esteemed Minister arrives to offer them his support. Such an honor."
Harry and Hermione flamed into the hall, landing right outside the infirmary double doors. At the sound of Harry's bones snapping and breaking under his dead-like weight when he hit the floor, a dirty and haggard Hermione quickly pushed through the doors, screaming at the top of her lungs for help.
Nicolas dashed to the entrance, his eyes solely on Harry's body on the stone floor, bleeding from his ears, nose, mouth, and the few poisoned cuts on his arms and chest. Wand out, Nicolas quickly levitated and moved Harry to the nearest bed where Perenelle rushed to. Hermione was cradling Nova in her arms when Dumbledore, Moody, and Umbridge rushed into the room.
"Tell Poppy and Lily to join me when they can," Perenelle ordered Sprout without looking at her. Perenelle's wand was out, already magically examining Harry's ghostly pale, sweaty, and bloody body over.
"How is he?" Dumbledore asked.
"Let me work," Perenelle asserted with the clinical detachment of a professional as she completely shut the curtain around the bed.
"Wonders never cease, indeed," Moody voiced more to himself in complete shock of the boy's grit.
"Nicolas, my dear friend," Dumbledore started, attempting a smile of support, but his eyes under his half-moon spectacles were regretful. "Words cannot convey how deeply relieved I am that young Ares is returned-"
"Relieved?" Nicolas questioned, low and thick with condensation, before impassioned fury ignited him and guided his vitriol. "We've known each other for some time, Albus, but now I know the measure of who you truly are." Nicolas was glaring at Dumbledore, approaching the old man in repressed rage.
"You are no good," he continued. "You're just a big shadow, large in sight, but thin of substance. YOU'RE A LIE!" He yelled, shaking with anger and gathering the attention of everyone able to witness it. "Albus Dumbledore, the great and powerful! Defender of justice! Vanquisher of evil! How many titles to your great name, and you were bested by a fourteen-year-old!"
Nicolas only paused for a moment to calm down, as he was shaking with rage. "I would've given up my life to bring them back, and there was a time when your train of thought wasn't so different. Now you've lived in the center of adoration so long—in a light of your own making—you actually believe in this superior destiny of yours more than the endangered lives in front of you!Look me in the eye and tell me you couldn't have done more, Albus! TELL ME! Such a great sorcerer, and you'd let those you're supposed to protect die because you know the truth—your large capacity for humility has been replaced by your detestable pride. How can you be the greatest wizard alive when you lack the virtues and principles of what it means to be a great man? You sicken me today, Albus. Sicken me."
If Dumbledore had any reply in his defense, Nicolas didn't give him the chance to state it. The ancient alchemist turned on his heels and guided Hermione—still holding an unconscious Nova—to the empty bed next to Harry's, leaving the great Headmaster in the pique of wounding silence.
I'm almost glad for the extra time Mother's gave me because this chapter took some time to plan and structure. Several ideas for the battle kept getting scrapped for what I felt was a better portrayal of how it might go until I ended up with this.
My logic was that if it takes a team of trained wizards to handle a single dragon, than this large acromantula attack would be VERY difficult for young and or untrained wizards to handle, and I tried to stick to that.
If I did well, or not, please let me know, and why because I'm definitely going to have more battles/fights in the future and I want to make sure they're the best I can make them.
Thanks again for reading and all the support and suggestions. I appreciate it,
-Grae