The room fell silent as Faraday finished. All eyes were now on the wand in his hand.
"So . . . you're going to bring Marietta back?" said Justin. "A dead person?"
"To be precise, I'm bringing back the memories of the dead," said Faraday nonchalantly. "At least she'll know who killed her, and she'll identify the culprit for us."
"But how will we know which wand has the core from the same animal as this one?" said Hermione skeptically. "Well, Mr. Ollivander would know, but he's been kidnapped by the Dawn Breakers for almost a year. . . ."
"We'll have to do it the way Muggles used to advance science and technology, one experiment at a time," said Faraday. "I know you are used to the ease of just doing things magically, but there are no shortcuts here."
"So you're saying we're going to take every wand and try to fight this?" asked Ron, looking back at the others in disbelief.
"Not every wand," said Neville quietly. "Only wands with unicorn tail hair for a core, like mine to be exact."
"But even then, there must be hundreds of wands like that!" exclaimed Ron.
"No, Ron. Since unicorns are not that very common creatures, one would have provided its tail hair for quite a few wands," said Hermione thoughtfully. "Besides, when unicorn tail hair was selling for ten Galleons a strand, Ollivander's wands were only seven Galleons a piece. So what does that mean? Unless Mr. Ollivander was running a loss-making business, he's probably splitted the hair into several thinner strands and put them into multiple wands, which would increase the chances of getting wands that are brothers."
"Well said, Hermione," said Faraday. "If that's true, I think if we've only tested a few dozen wands, there's a pretty good chance that there are brothers among them . . . "
"Still —" began Ron.
"Well, are there any other alternatives?" Faraday cut in, sounding slightly irritated. They all fell silent, exchanging glances. Harry, who had been an Auror long enough to have done a lot of investigations, couldn't think of any other ways, but that didn't mean he liked what Faraday was suggesting. The smoldering forms of the dead had saved his life during his confrontation with Voldemort so long ago, and he was grateful for that, but there was something creepy about the idea of using someone dead in the same way as a witness to murder. . . .
"Well, I see you have no objection to my method. We're on a deadline, so let's start with these people," said Faraday. "Now, whoever has a unicorn tail hair for a wand core, give it to me."
One by one, Ron, Malfoy, Teddy and the other qualifiers reluctantly placed their wands on the table and stepped back. Hermione used her wand to conjure a basket out of thin air, filled it with a dozen or so wands and stood up.
"To be honest, I don't think the chances of any of these being a brother to Neville's wand are good, but we'll try," said Hermione. "Now we need two people to duel, anybody want to volunteer?"
"I'll do it," Neville said, raising his hand and looking determined. "My wand was misused for murder — I want to make sure this case is solved."
"Then I'll be his opponent," said Luna in a dreamy voice. "I've always missed D.A. meetings and practices . . . "
"Well, technically this isn't much of a practice, but thanks for volunteering anyway," said Harry. "Now, let's get started. This room seems to be the largest in the manor, so if we can just clear the table, we'll have plenty of space."
Malfoy stepped forward and with a deft flick of his wand, the long table and the chairs surrounding it disappeared in an instant, leaving behind a long golden stage. It now resembled the stage Professor Lockhart had set up for the Dueling Club when Harry was a second year. As the other members surrounded the stage, Neville took his wand and stood stiffly to one side, looking a little nervous. Luna, on the other hand, was excitedly picking through the wands in the basket as if they were flowers.
"I'll take this one," Luna said, holding Teddy's wand that he had inherited from Remus Lupin. "The handle is like a flower bud. . . . It feels so soft in my hand."
"Neville — Luna — now point your wands at each other. Make sure their tips form a parallel line," Harry instructed. "And I think you should both use a Disarming Charm so that we can see the flashes clearly. And if one of you gets hit by the spell, there won't be any side effects other than your wands flying off, right?"
"Right. So when do we shoot?" said Luna excitedly, pointing her wand forward.
"I'll count to three," said Harry. "One . . . two . . . three!"
"Expelliarmus!"
"Expelliarmus!"
Flashes of red light shot out of their wands; Luna's spell grazed Neville and hit the ceiling, while Neville's managed to send his opponent's wand flying.
"So not this one . . . " Hermione said as she picked up the wand from the floor and handed it back to Teddy. "How about you try Ron's wand next, Luna?"
Neville and Luna faced each other again on the stage.
"I'm going to count again. One . . . two . . . three!"
"Expelliarmus!"
"Expelliarmus!"
This time, Luna's flash of red light grazed the side of Neville's head while Neville successfully Disarmed her.
"It's just like old times. You've really improved, haven't you, Neville?" said Luna, and Neville nodded with a smile.
"Now, here's Malfoy's wand." After Ron had picked up his own wand, Hermione held out a new one. It was the same hawthorn wand that Harry had used to defeat Voldemort after taking it from Malfoy. This time, Luna managed to send Neville's wand flying with more force, but to their disappointment, it turned out not to be its brother. They each gave Luna the remaining wands to experiment with. However, none of them had any effect except to Disarm Neville.
"I'm out of wands now," Hermione said dejectedly, showing them the empty basket. "Maybe we should try something else —"
"It's too soon to give up," said Faraday firmly. "There's no other way anyway, we should stay up all night and get new wands and continue our experiments."
"But where are we going to get more?" asked Ron helplessly.
"Surely you all have friends and relatives, we can contact them and get new wands," said Faraday. With no other choice, they decided to do as he said. While Neville and Luna stayed in the drawing room, the others collected wands with unicorn hair from family and friends, then Apparated back to the manor to offer them for the duel. Another thirty or so wands were tested, but none of them had what they were looking for.
"Maybe my wand has no brothers," Neville said gloomily, slumped on the stage during an intermission. "Maybe it got its core from a very vicious unicorn. Ollivander must've pulled just one out before the unicorn went on a rampage and ran away . . . "
"Don't be silly, Neville," said Harry. Their continued failures only made him more determined to make this plan work. "It's just that we don't have enough wands yet. I'm sure if we try a few more times, we'll succeed."
Now that they had run out of places to get more wands, Hermione had broken into Ollivander's wand shop with Ron and brought back a sack full of wands with unicorn hair. In addition, Cho Chang had brought Cedric's wand that she had gotten from Mr. and Mrs. Diggory, and Malfoy had brought down from the second floor the old wand of Quirinus Quirrell that his father had bought at Borgin and Burkes. It was getting late, and it had been a long time since they had started shooting Disarming Charms at each other, so Neville and Luna could barely keep their arms up.
"Here, a wand used by the old Death Eaters, I got it from the evidence collection," Hermione said to Luna, who no longer looked dreamy, but exhausted. "Hang in there, there's only about ten left. . . ."
When the room finally lit up with ten more flashes of red light and the basket of wands was empty again, Neville and Luna collapsed onto the stage, exhausted.
"It was a stupid idea to begin with," George muttered, rubbing his bloodshot eyes. "How the hell were we supposed to find the one with the same core in all those wands?"
"I'll admit, the results aren't as good as I'd hoped," Faraday said darkly. All his enthusiasm had vanished when the last wand they had used in the experiment failed to produce the Reverse Spell effect. "I suppose our only option now is to produce the Veritaserum after all?"
"But that will take another month!" cried Malfoy in despair. "How do we know what will happen to the Wizarding Factory by then, and what if they move the trapped children elsewhere?"
The other members of the D.A., however, seemed to have lost their former enthusiasm. They were all sprawled on the stage or against the wall, exhausted from the night's successive failures, and Harry had found a place in the corner among them.
"Are you all right, Harry?" said Ron, coming over and sitting down beside him.
"I'm fine, except I'm hoarse from counting to three," said Harry.
"Ha ha ha . . . Come to think of it, I was the first person to ever teach you about wizard's duel, wasn't I?" Ron closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and glared at Malfoy. "And it was Malfoy who first challenged you to a duel."
"Right, and then we were chased by Filch and ran into a giant three-headed dog," Harry said, lost in his own memories. "And the next year, thanks to Lockhart's Dueling Club, I actually got to duel Malfoy for real, and even then it didn't go well. . . . I got in a lot of trouble when everyone found out I was a Parselmouth."
"Yeah, Lockhart really couldn't do anything right, could he?" said Ron. Then his eyes widened, as if he had just remembered something. "Yes! Lockhart!"
"Lockhart what?" asked Harry curiously. But Ron didn't answer — he just jumped up and ran down the hall, skipping over his friends on the floor.
When he returned ten minutes later, he was holding a long object with a broken center. As Harry approached and took a closer look, he realized that it was a wand, loosely patched up with Spellotape. Harry's wand had broken before, but it must have been in good shape compared to the one in Ron's hand. Ron's first wand, taped up where it had broken when they'd crashed into the Whomping Willow in a flying Ford Anglia, looked like it would never work, its wooden surface chipped in places and unicorn hair sticking out of the tip.
"It's my first wand! We haven't tried it yet!" Ron exclaimed.
"I wonder if we could cast a spell with it?" said Hermione, approaching when she realized what was going on.
"Well, at least the last spell Lockhart cast with it worked perfectly," Ron shrugged. "It just went the other way, that's all."
"Why didn't you just throw this thing away in the first place?" said Harry, carefully picking up the wand and examining it.
"Don't you remember, this is the wand that saved us both!" said Ron. "That's why I left it at home, like a talisman."
"Let me fix it," said Hermione. Harry peeled the Spellotape off the damaged wand, which was held precariously together by a strand of unicorn tail hair. Hermione hissed "Reparo!" at the wand, and the two pieces that had rattled apart came back together.
"Lumos!" Ron shouted as he picked his old wand up, and a faint light glowed at its top. The light was weak and flickering, but fortunately it didn't go out.
"Good, it works," Harry said, looking at the wand up close. "The Elder Wand would have fixed this perfectly, but this is the best we could do for now. . . . Neville, Luna! Would you mind coming over here?" Neville, who had been cowering in a corner, and Luna, who was having a heated discussion with her husband Rolf about something, got up and came over to them. "This is Ron's old wand, the one Charlie gave him. Its core is unicorn hair, so it might work."
"If it doesn't explode when I use it, you mean?" Luna narrowed her eyes and accepted the wand, which was chipped in several places. "I like it, though. My mother liked to experiment, too, and she was willing to take risks for the betterment of magic, even if it meant risking her life. . . ."
"Oh, I see," Ron said with a frown. "Still, if the wand gets hot or rattles, I'd highly recommend letting go of it. . . . It's brought down a cave before."
Neville and Luna stepped back onto the golden stage, and the other members of the D.A. stood around, looking at them in turn, nervously, half expectant, half worried.
"Ready?" said Harry. "One . . . two . . . three!"
"Expelliarmus!"
"Expelliarmus!"
They shouted, and another flash of red light shot out of their wands. But this time, instead of hitting Neville or Luna, the two jets of light met in mid-air.
"It worked! It's the brother wand!" Harry shouted, pumping his fist, and everyone erupted in cheers.
"Harry, is it always like this?" said Luna. Neville's wand in his hand was shaking, but it was nothing compared to the way Ron's old wand in Luna's hand was rocking violently up and down, and the incontinence in its broken part was slowly reopening, threatening to fall off at any moment.
"Reparo!" Hermione cried, and the ash body of the wand that was about to come apart snapped back together. At the same time, the intense stream of red light connecting them gradually turned into a slender beam of gold.
"Hold on a little bit longer, Luna!" shouted Harry.
"Okay," Luna said dreamily, clutching the trembling wand with both hands.
With the golden beam still glowing dimly, Neville and Luna's feet lifted off the ground and they floated through the air. As they glided through the air, George, Angelina, and Lee Jordan, who were in their way, quickly moved out of the way. As Neville and Luna landed on the floor next to the stage, some distance away, the golden beam of light connecting them exploded, splitting into thousands of strands of light that rose above their heads, circling each other like tiny auroras, trapping Luna and Neville in a dome-shaped web of pure golden light.
"Reparo!" Hermione called out, casting another spell on Luna's wand as it tried to separate again.
"That's it Luna, just hold on!" shouted Harry.
Luna grimaced and gripped her wand tighter with both hands, and at that moment the most beautiful sound filled the room as the strands of light vibrated like the strings of a harp. The sound was ethereal, graceful and noble, strongly reminiscent of the song of a phoenix. The bright, soft golden light that filled the room and the beautiful chant made it easy to forget the cold truth that one of the members had betrayed them and that they were in the middle of solving a murder case. . . . Soon the wands they held began to shake more violently, and large beads of light appeared from the slender golden beam that connected Neville and Luna, moving back and forth along the thread between them.
"Now, Luna, you need to concentrate more," Harry said. "Send the closest bead to Neville, and Neville, you need to relax a little more."
The two nodded in the golden web. The heat from the beads warmed the room and Luna's face began to sweat. Every few seconds Hermione had to cast a Mending Charm on the wand in Luna's hand, but thankfully it held up. Luna slowly stretched her arm forward, and with it, a ball of light began to glide slowly toward Neville. Eventually, the golden bead touched the tip of Neville's wand. . . . The wand let out a painful scream, and a large shape began to rise from its tip. . . . It looked like thick smoke, but it was a much harder, denser, grayer form. . . . Soon a human head, two arms, and a torso came into view, revealing Marietta's face.
"Aaargh!" screamed Katie, backing away, and she was joined by several other voices, all expressing fear or shock. Finally, Marietta's entire body, reminiscent of a ghost but much harder and darker gray than that, slipped out of the wand and she stood up, facing the gawking onlookers with a sad face.
"Harry, it's going to break!" cried Hermione; she had been constantly casting Mending Charm on Ron's old wand, but it had reached its limit and the wooden body was peeling away, gradually revealing the unicorn hair hidden inside.
"Hang in there!" Harry told her, then looked back at Marietta's smoldering form. "Marietta, we summoned you to find your killer. You saw who did it, didn't you?" Marietta nodded slowly. As Ron's broken old wand lost its power, her initially clear image began to blur and shake like the screen of a broken television. "Can you tell me who it is?"
To Harry's utter disbelief, Marietta shook her head firmly. Next to his wife, Ron was now magicking to repair his old wand in Luna's hands, but Marietta's image became even blurrier. There was little time left. . . .
"Please tell me, Marietta. You tried to tell me something when you were alive, what was it?" said Harry desperately, but she hesitated and shook her head again. "I heard from Cho the other day that you've been sorry for betraying us for a long time, and if there's ever a chance to make it right, it's now. Who's the traitor? Who killed you?"
A small flame began to jump from the wand in Luna's hand, and with it Marietta's body gradually lost its color and became transparent.
"Tell me, Marietta — I won't let your death be in vain!" cried Harry, moving closer to her disappearing form. Marietta's presence now seemed as tenuous as a candle about to be snuffed out by the wind. As Harry stood there, almost giving up, watching her fade away, Marietta, just before she became completely transparent, raised a finger and pointed at someone behind him.
With that, Ron's old wand snapped in half again, the golden, dome-shaped web and the song of the phoenix faded completely, and a heavy silence fell over the room. Harry slowly turned in the direction Marietta had just pointed. There stood Cho Chang alone, to the stunned stares of everyone. Harry was too shocked to do anything but stand there, unable to move. Then, without warning, Cho strode up to the stage and snatched Ron's old wand from Luna's hand, ripping it out and breaking it completely in two.
"This broken thing —" Cho threw one of the pieces onto the stage, "how can you even believe it?" she breathed harshly as she threw the other piece to the floor. "This must be a mistake. . . . No, it's a trap! The real culprit is doing this to trick you!"
"Calm your nerves for a moment, Cho," said Harry softly. "If there's been a misunderstanding, I promise I'll set it right. But first I think you'd better give your wand to Hermione at your side."
"Oh, so that's how you do things?" Cho's face flushed red. "Your precious Hermione can be trusted, I suppose? Ron Weasley, did you know that there's always been a strange vibe between the two of them? Even when Harry was dating me!"
"Cho Chang, cut the crap and hand over your wand!" Ginny snapped, pulling out her own wand and pointing it at her. Cho glared at her for a moment, then very slowly pulled her wand out of her waistband and handed it to Hermione. Her beautiful face contorted in anger and her large eyes filled with tears.
"This can't be. . . . Marietta was my best friend! Tell me, Anthony — Michael! You know how close we were!" wailed Cho. "H-how can you even suspect that I killed Marietta? It's impossible. . . It doesn't even make sense. . . "
"No, Cho Chang," said Faraday calmly, taking a step forward. "The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Come to think of it, your memory was the only one that wasn't tampered with. . . ."
"Then search my entire memory!" exclaimed Cho. "I'll be happy to show you."
"That's not all," Neville said heavily as he walked across the stage. "Of all the people passed out in the kitchen, only you had time to steal my wand. . . . The rest of the victims were in the basement cooking the whole time."
"Oh, now you accuse me too, Neville?" said Cho in disbelief. "I thought you were all my friends. . . . Is this how the mighty Dumbledore's Army is supposed to work? We fought for each other's lives!" she said incredulously, making eye contact with Harry, Ron, Neville and the other D.A. members one by one, who just stared at her in confusion. "I fought with you that day. . . Don't you remember, I went back to school to fight! I had graduated, but I came back to help you!"
It was then that happened: Slowly backing away, Cho swooped down like a lightning bolt and grabbed Hermione. She had been an excellent Seeker at Hogwarts, after all. . . . Her arms were so fast that none of them could even draw their wands, except for Ginny, who already had her wand in her hand.
"Stupefy!"
Ginny fired a flash of red light, but the spell only grazed Cho's head, causing her long hair to whip around. Hermione was one of the best witches Harry knew, but she hadn't been very good at physical combat since she was a teenager. . . . By the time almost everyone had drawn their wands and pointed them at her, Cho had reappeared, holding a sharp knife to Hermione's throat as she was held in her tight arms. Harry drew his own wand, the plastic one he'd gotten from Faraday. His former self would have neutralized Cho with speed and precision even in a situation like this, but with the fake wand he was holding now, it was too reckless an attempt. . . .
"Cho, put the knife down!" shouted Harry. "Don't do this. . . Why the hell are you doing this to us?"
"Stay where you are, George!" shouted Cho at George, who had made a move to attack from the side. "From now on, if anyone dares to budge without my permission, I'll slit her pretty little throat!"
"Please don't do this, Cho . . . you're not like that!" said Harry.
"Ha! Did you ever really care what kind of person I am, Harry?" said Cho fiercely. "You told me before not to start crying again . . . at me who had the last Cedric — at me who had lost my lover forever!"
"I apologize for what I said back then, Cho. But that was a long time ago — you didn't betray us all because of it, did you?"
With those words, Cho's grip on Hermione tightened, and a drop of blood trickled down her neck as the knife dug into her flesh. Hermione's face contorted in pain and she squeezed her eyes shut. Harry was furious at his helplessness, unable to save his best friend, unable to do anything but watch. If only he were still a wizard. . .
"Please stop!" Ron cried desperately, looking back at his friends. "Don't do anything stupid or you'll hurt Hermione!"
"Hurt her? I hope that's the end of it . . . " said Cho coldly. "I just killed my best friend! I could take her life without blinking an eye!"
"Okay, Cho. I won't do anything," said Harry reassuringly. "But we can't stay like this forever, can we? At least tell me why you're doing this."
"That's not possible, Harry. Why don't you try reading a girl's mind while you're at it?" Cho snapped, and with her free hand she pulled something out of her pocket and threw it to the floor. It was a small piece of rolled up scroll. "Here, Ron Weasley, unfold it and read to everyone what's on it. It contains the terms on which I will release Hermione Granger."
"Don't, Ron!" cried Hermione, and Cho's grip on the knife tightened, sending a thicker trickle of blood down her neck than before.
"Okay, okay, I'll read it!" Ron quickly picked up the scroll, unfolded it, and read the contents aloud. "The headquarters of Dumbledore's army is at Malfoy Manor, in the Wiltshire region of England . . . " Ron looked up from the scroll, a confused expression on his face. "These are the terms? Surely you didn't give me the wrong note?"
At that moment, Harry noticed Cho's grip on the knife loosen slightly, and without hesitation, he pressed the button on his wand. A small object shot out of the end and hit Cho in the face.
"Aaaargh!" she screamed, stumbling backwards, her arms flailing as she was struck by a powerful electric current, and Hermione was able to push her arms out of the way.
"Petrificus Totalus!" cried Hermione, drawing her own wand, and the fallen Cho remained frozen to the ground, paralyzed.
"Why on earth did she make you say that?" asked Hermione, wiping the blood from her neck and snatching the scroll from Ron's hand. "If she was trying to break the Fidelius Charm by making you read this paper. . . . But we were the only ones listening!"
Hearing that, something clicked in Harry's head and he hurried over to where Cho Chang had fallen.
"What is that?" said Angelina, who had come over with Harry, pointing her wand at Cho's face.
Harry knelt down beside the fallen Cho to examine her face more closely. Purple blisters quickly sprouted across her nose and cheeks, forming the word "SNEAK." Harry quickly lowered his gaze, noticing the bulge in Cho's pocket, and pulled out what was inside. It was a smartphone, and on the black screen was the name of the caller, Jimmy Roberts, along with an indication that he was on a call. . . .
"The Fidelius Charm's broken — she's called them!" shouted Harry urgently. "We've got to get out of here! They're coming!"
"I can't Disapparate, Harry!" cried Justin in horror. He twirled in the air once more, but like the others, he was blocked by an invisible wall.
Then, with a deafening propeller noise, a blinding white light burst through the black curtains covering the window. Harry rushed to the window, pulled back the curtains and looked out into the garden. A huge black helicopter was hovering just outside the manor, looking right at him. Harry had just opened his mouth to warn his friends when an intense burst of flame erupted against the black velvet night sky and the helicopter fired a missile.