"Why the hell is he talking to him?" Gaëlle asked with a frustrated growl.
"Just trust him," Gabrielle replied quietly. "He knows what he's doing."
At least, she hoped he did.
Honestly, Harry's decision making often went somewhat above her head. In hindsight, everything would make perfect sense, but it was sometimes hard to parse in the moment. If it was her, she'd have tried to catch her uncle off by surprise and take him down in one fell swoop. Maybe that wasn't possible though. Maybe she'd have to duel her way in or cause some sort of distraction to open up an attack on Emile. Besides, she didn't even know if there was anyone else in the room with Emile; his was the only voice replying to Harry so far. What if those monstrosities were in there with them?
Surprisingly, Alain nodded along with Gabrielle. "If this is the path Harry has chosen, then it is the path we shall follow. I'd trust him with my life."
That was just the effect Harry had on people. He seemed to have the incredible ability to, in less than twenty minutes of having met someone, offer a sense of security and trustworthiness that was incredibly rare to find in anyone outside of your own family or closest friends. It was one of the things that made Gabrielle attracted to him.
"Still, it's not like Emile's going to back down, right?" Mathis asked rhetorically. "Is he stalling so that we can move up to help him?"
"He told us to follow orders," Gabrielle reminded him. "And his last order was for us to stay here. He'll let us know if that changes."
"I wish it will," Gaëlle said as she fingered her wand. "I've been itching to take Emile down ever since his attack on Place Cachée."
"So have I," Gabrielle admitted.
Alain raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm surprised that you're so eager given that he's your uncle."
"He might be my uncle by blood, but he's not a part of my family," Gabrielle retorted. "He was locked up for his crimes long before I was born; he's never been a part of my life. I only really found out about him a few years ago anyways. He means nothing to me."
"Fair enough," Mathis said. "But I'd guess that Harry will take him down before any of us get a chance to. I've seen him practising his spellwork in the Ministry, and he's damned scary. I don't know of anyone who could stand up against him."
The sound of something clattering on the floor back the way they came from had everyone's heads snapping around. In the darkness, there was nothing to be seen.
"Send out your jar of bluebell flames," Gabrielle hissed to Alain.
The man complied and sent it on ahead. The blue light illuminated the narrow corridor, going further and further down.
Then, suddenly the jar was knocked out of the air and smashed on the ground. The blue flames extinguished, returning the darkness once more.
Everyone readied themselves, spreading out as much as they could to defend their backs. Gabrielle was just about to call out to Harry when he beat her to the punch.
"Team!" Harry shouted. "Move up!"
Before anyone had a chance to reply, the harsh, feminine scream they'd been hearing erupted again, and an Ancromantula suddenly burst into view.
All of the air was knocked out of Gabrielle's chest as one of the Acromantula's long, spindly legs sent her sprawling on the floor behind her. She scampered to her feet just as Mathis screamed when the Acromantula bit into his shoulder, tearing out a hefty chunk of flesh.
"Fuck!" Gabrielle shouted the moment she was able to.
Gaëlle was already in the midst of casting a spell when the second monstrosity fell upon her. The human with the gaping skull tore at her like an Inferius would, albeit with far more tenacity and drive. Gaëlle slashed at the monster with her nails, but the creature continued to cling to her and tear at her flesh.
"Reducto!" Alain shouted.
The beast was knocked clean off of Gaëlle and sent flying down the corridor. Gaëlle struggled to her feet, wiping her messy hair from her face, and Alain was already turning his wand on the Acromantula.
The fight was brutal. It was the sort of scrap that Gabrielle had come to expect out of pure-blood witches and wizards who sought to represent their families against others in the streets of Paris, but it was far more deadly.
Within seconds, it became clear that the Acromantula was far more resistant to spells than any normal Acromantula ought to be. The beast was buffeted beneath a steady stream of spellfire from Alain, but it never wavered in its deadly goal of reaching them. It bounced between the walls and then suddenly pounced upon Mathis.
Gabrielle did what she could to aid Mathis, but the creature atop him proved to be far more dexterous than could be imagined. It seemed to move with unnatural speed as it dove and threw itself to the side to avoid any spells sent its way. Even the narrow corridor did little to prevent it from dodging.
Mathis staggered backwards as he made to his feet. His free hand clung to the scraps of torn flesh upon her body. It wasn't enough to knock him out of the fight, but Gabrielle knew that it'd prove to be a serious detriment to whatever would happen next. Regardless of one's desire to fight, the body was what regulated such possibilities. If Mathis took another painful blow, it'd be far from likely that he'd be able to cast a single spell coherently. At the very best, his focus would be distracted, and the spell would come out wonky and incomplete.
With no other choices, Gabrielle threw herself between Mathis and the monstrosities ahead.
"Heal yourself!" Gabrielle shouted.
She didn't know if Mathis heard her or not, but she supposed that it didn't truly matter. What was important were the enemies before her and what she could do to stop them.
The Acromantula-like thing seemed keen on finishing its fight with Mathis. Its dark eyes were focused on the man, who was staggering backwards in an attempt to find some place of refuge to heal himself. Clearly, the Acromantula had no desire of allowing such a thing to happen.
Gabrielle braced herself as the beast skittered forwards. With a surprising burst of intuition, she transfigured the floor into ice. The Acromantula's legs all suddenly gave out, and its heavy body slammed down hard against the icy floor.
Without any means of controlling itself, the Acromantula spun around continuously as it skated towards Gabrielle. The screaming face did little to bring her pause as she readied herself for her next strike.
When the Acromantula was well within reach, Gabrielle unleashed the assault she'd been preparing. Another transfiguration spell altered the very shape of the icy floor itself. The edge closest to Gabrielle coalesced and shifted into a dangerous spike. The Acromantula had no hope of evading it as it went spiralling into the spike, impaling its body onto the frozen spear. It screeched and thrashed about, but the spike refused to allow the Acromantula to dislodge itself from it.
"I've got this one!" Gabrielle announced proudly as she stabbed forward with her wand.
An Explosive Hex crashed into the Acromantula's furry skin, but the unexpectedly resilient hide managed to resist the worst of it. Gabrielle tried again, but the creature seemed to shrug off the worst of the blow with little effort. Meanwhile, the Acromantula kept trying to lift itself off of the icy spike impaled in its body, but its legs kept slipping out from underneath it.
It was a frustrating endeavour, one doubly so due to the sounds of spellfire coming from Harry's direction where he was undoubtedly confronting Emile. Gabrielle wanted to be there to help him, but these creatures came first.
Alain was continuing to attack the Acromantula with a wide variety of spells, half of which Gabrielle completely failed to recognise. Whatever he attempted, regardless of the fact that the Acromantula was currently immobile, the spells refused to pierce the Acromantula's hide.
He and Gabrielle would have willingly continued their onslaught were it not for the return of the humanoid monstrosity. It took Gabrielle a moment to notice the strange creature crawling upon the ceiling, but once she did, the creature lunged towards her and her allies.
Gabrielle was there with a shield to block one of the daggers that the creature threw, but the second one slipped around her and embedded itself in Alain's thigh. He was lucky that it did, because when his leg gave out and he collapsed down onto his knees, the humanoid creature lunged right at where his head had once been. Its Acromantula legs swiped and scraped the top of Alain's head, but it wasn't enough to do any real damage.
"Focus on this one!" Gabrielle ordered them. With the Acromantula stuck, they could leave it be for now.
The four of them turned on the humanoid creature, who was already scampering to turn back around to return to the fight. Unlike the Acromantula, its skin offered no protection against the countless spells that rained down upon it. Its body was torn to shreds as piercing hexes and explosive curses battered its body, but even though it had gaping holes in it, the creature still kept coming towards them.
Gabrielle cursed under her breath and fired off a powerful cutting curse that sliced clean through all of the creature's legs on one side. Its broken body finally fell to the floor, and that was when everyone unleashed everything they had to destroy it.
In the wake of the dust left behind, the corpse of the creature was little more than a pile of rotting meat on the floor. Wiping away the sweat from her brow, Gabrielle turned back to the Acromantula. The creature was still fighting to break free, but the magical ice held.
"How are we supposed to kill this thing?" Mathis asked breathlessly, still clutching his torn shoulder. Blood had soaked down his arms, staining his robes.
"You have to go through the eyes," Gaëlle told him. "It's one of their few weak points, and it's the easiest way to get to its brain, unless you feel like going through its mouth."
At that moment, the Acromantula unleashed another horrible scream that sent shivers down Gabrielle's spine.
"The eyes it is then," Mathis gulped.
It took some careful positioning, but Gabrielle and Alain were able to line up perfect shots straight through the creatures eyes. The piercing hexes went straight through the creature's brain, killing it.
As soon as they were out of danger, Mathis and Gaëlle both collapsed against the walls, clutching at their wounds. Alain knelt down next to them and quickly went to work diagnosing any injuries and patching them up as best he could.
Suddenly, a massive, rumbling explosion erupted, nearly making Gabrielle fall over. It lasted for several seconds before suddenly fading.
"I need to go help Harry," Gabrielle said quickly as soon as she stabilised herself. She didn't like the idea of leaving them all behind after a fight like this, but Harry needed her help.
The others didn't seem injured by the explosion, but it was clear that they were quite shaken by it. "Go," Alain waved her off as he returned his attention back to his patients. "I've got this. Once we're all patched up, we'll come find you."
Gabrielle nodded and took off at a run, heading straight down towards her uncle's final chamber. She only hoped that she wasn't too late to help Harry.
The endless sound of spellfire filled Harry's periphery, but he wasn't going to let Emile out of his sights. Ignoring the fact that this deranged man seemed determined to resurrect Voldemort, Harry felt that he owed it to Sebastian to take his brother down.
Emile continued to grin over the pit of bubbling blood like a lunatic. It unnerved Harry to see a man in such a state. What was worse was the fact that the man was clearly coherent enough to block one of Harry's spells with an impressive amount of speed.
This wasn't bound to be an easy fight, and without any readily-available backup, Harry knew that everything rested upon his shoulders.
No matter what, he wasn't going to let Emile win. He'd taken down fiercer foes before, and many of them had managed to make a far more severe impact upon Harry and his life than Emile had. This man was nothing more than a distraction. Yes, Harry had to trust in himself to defeat Emile without issue.
Recalling his countless hours spent training against dummies, Harry unleashed a flurry of spells to put Emile on the defensive. To his surprise though, the man moved with deft speed, dodging any spell that didn't threaten to damage the pit in the centre of his chambers. How he managed to recognise each spell, Harry didn't know. Perhaps he was far more capable in the studies of Defense Against the Dark Arts than Harry expected, or he might simply have some encyclopedic knowledge of spells that allowed him to put a stop to Harry's efforts. Regardless, it was a problem, and Harry needed to find a way around it.
"You can't stop this!" Emile cackled jubilantly. "No one can! The Dark Lord will return!"
"Not if I can help it," Harry muttered under his breath.
His height advantage at the top of the staircase would be quite useful against most opponents, but Emile's tenacious defensive skills were keeping any of Harry's spells from reaching him or the pit of blood. It hurt to abandon such an advantageous position, but Harry felt like he was going to need to get in close if he was going to have a chance of stopping this.
So, acting fast to create a distraction, he silently transfigured one of Emile's wooden stools into a mangy dog that he set upon him. The dog snapped and snarled as it sprinted beneath one of the work tables and went straight for Emile's legs.
"Not so fast," Emile laughed, firing a spell off behind him without even turning around.
The acidic-green spell crashed into the dog's face, melting its flesh. The dog whimpered and whined, and Harry cancelled his transfiguration swiftly. The stool was left twisted and deformed on the ground.
"I've always wondered just how someone ever managed to defeat the Dark Lord in combat," Emile said. "Your spellwork is exceptional, but your creativity is lacking. You won't be able to stop this unless you adapt and evolve."
His tone was mocking in a way, trying to goad Harry into doing something foolish. His younger self might have done exactly that, but his years of experience stopped him from doing something so foolish.
Whenever Harry confronted a suspect, he had to put himself into their mind. He needed to see the world the way that they did and understand what it was that they hoped to achieve. Was Emile merely trying to throw Harry off of his game, or was he hoping to gain something else?
"Come now, don't get all trepidatious on me," Emile grinned. "Don't you want to stop this ritual?"
Something was wrong, Harry was sure of it. How was it that he managed to find Emile the way that he had, just standing out in the open?
Harry opened up his mind and body to the magic of the world around him. It was a skill that everyone possessed. Places like Hogwarts gave all of its guests a physical sensation of magic due to the high concentration of magic within. It was the same thing as the tingle on your skin when you passed through wards. However, only the most powerful witches and wizards were able to hone in on individual, small-scale sources of magic like Harry could. It was akin to the spells that Alain had used to guide them through the catacombs, only far less precise and giving less clear information.
Like a waving crashing over rocks, Harry was assaulted by hundreds of little feelings of magic all at once. The pit in the centre of the room had the biggest concentration of magic by far, and several of the smaller objects on Emile's desks were quite powerful as well. That gave Harry an idea, but he needed to save that for later. Right now, his mind was drawn to the magic in the area around the staircase.
There! He spotted something on several of the steps leading down. He could sense the pulsing runes that laid underneath the stonework. Without using spells, he could only guess as to what the runes did, but it didn't take a genius to suspect that they were a part of a trap.
So, Emile wanted to goad Harry into coming down the steps. Well, Harry was about to grant the man that wish.
"Your plans end here, Emile!" Harry announced bravely as he started forward down the staircase. There was only the slightest twitch in Emile's eyes that gave away the excitement within him as Harry neared the trapped steps.
At the very last moment, Harry suddenly leapt over them, diving towards the floor. Emile's reflexes were quick, and he tried to strike Harry with a Blasting Curse, but Harry dodged into a roll and jabbed his wand forward at just the right time to return with a Blasting Curse of his own. Only, the target wasn't Emile.
Emile barely even reacted as the spell went wide of him. He just continued to send spell after spell at Harry, who flipped over one of the tables and took cover behind it a moment before chaos erupted.
Harry's Blasting Curse flew towards the back of the room and collided with one of the silvery objects that contained a lot of magical energy within it. The object shattered into thousands of pieces and unleashed a wave of magical energy that cracked the shells of several other objects around it.
Thus ensued a magical cascading effect that felt like being at the centre of a massive storm. Waves upon waves of magical energy smashed through everything in its path. The table that Harry had ducked for cover behind slammed into his body and sent both of them skidding towards the nearest wall. Then, when his back slammed against the wall, the table in front of him cracked and split in half. Sharp bits of wood dug into his flesh, leaving behind dozens of small cuts, but it was better than dealing with the magical onslaught without any protection at all.
A moment later, the waves of magic faded as the last magical object shattered into oblivion. When Harry stood up, he found the chamber in a state of supreme destruction. All of Emile's lab equipment was either destroyed or in a near-unusable state. However, Emile himself was still standing.
"How…?" Harry murmured to himself as he stepped free from the carnage that'd pinned him against the wall.
Emile was breathing heavily, his wand still outstretched with a magical shield to protect him and the pit of blood. All of the skin around his wand hand had been flayed back from the initial explosion, but he otherwise appeared unharmed.
Not willing to take any chances, Harry fired off a Stunning Spell as quickly as he could, but Emile reacted with that same incredible speed as before. He blocked the spell with his shield and glared at Harry with hatred in his eyes.
"You nearly ruined everything!" He screamed.
"Weren't you the one goading me into stopping it?" Harry retorted as he slowly shifted his footing to prepare for his next attack.
Emile growled and spat blood out of his mouth onto the floor. "Don't get smart with me! The Dark Lord will punish you for your insolence!"
"No he won't!" Gabrielle shouted as she appeared at the top of the stairs.
Emile's eyes left Harry just long enough for Harry to take the opportunity presented to him. He tried another Blasting Curse, but Emile blocked it with ease.
"Niece," he acknowledged Gabrielle with a sickly-sweet smile. "My poor bastardised niece."
Gabrielle snorted loudly. "You're going to have to work on your insults; I've heard plenty of better ones about my Veela heritage over the years."
"We have to destroy the pit of blood!" Harry shouted to Gabrielle. "And watch out for the stairs; he's trapped some of them."
"Of course he did," Gabrielle rolled her eyes at her uncle.
"It's too late to warn her," Emile snapped as he jabbed his wand towards Gabrielle.
Her Auror robes were suddenly yanked sharply towards Emile, and Gabrielle went falling forward with them. As she started to tumble down towards the staircase, Harry quickly fired off the Slowing Charm. Almost all of Gabrielle's momentum ceased as she landed on the safe top steps. Harry cancelled his charm just in time to allow Gabrielle to block Emile's follow-up blow.
"I have no choice then," Emile said sadly, his emotional state shifting too rapidly for Harry to keep track of. "I'd hoped to leave you both to witness the Dark Lord's resurrection, but I can't risk your interference any further. Avada Kedavra!"
The all-too-familiar Killing Curse crackled through the air as it soared towards Gabrielle. She managed to roll out of the way, and this time Harry used his own Summoning Charm to pull her off of the trapped stairs and straight into his waiting arms. He caught her and set her down on her feet just as she managed to summon the shattered remains of one of Emile's tables, using it to block the next Killing Curse sent their way.
"Split up," Harry ordered her. "We need to hit him from opposite sides. If you get a chance to destroy the blood pit, take it."
"Got it," Gabrielle nodded swiftly.
The two of them moved in perfect sync as they leapt in opposite directions, dodging the next few Killing Curses with ease. Emile had a look of terrible fury on his face as he fired each one off, barely seeming to tire from how much he was using the deadly spell. Even the most seasoned Death Eater couldn't keep this pace up for more than half a minute at most, but Emile seemed keen to break that record.
Against almost anyone else, Harry knew that Emile would have killed his opponents by now, but he and Gabrielle were better. They had a rapport in combat that helped them to know how the other was going to act.
Gabrielle had toned down her most aggressive tendencies but still remained far more active in the fight than Harry. She snapped off curse after curse while moving with an impeccable grace. Emile kept being forced to shield himself and the pit of blood from her strikes rather than remaining on the offencive.
With an ally to help him in battle, Harry took his time to get just the right moment to fire off a spell with all of the power he could muster. His attacks buffeted Emile's shields, making the man stagger backwards whenever he had to hastily switch between blocking Gabrielle and Harry's spells.
It quickly became clear that Emile was going to slip up. A Cutting Curse managed to slip around his shield and catch him in the thigh. Then, Gabrielle managed to set his robes on fire, costing him precious seconds in the duel as he put the flames out. Through it all, Emile hadn't managed to land a single blow on either of them.
At least, he hadn't until he decided to take one of Gabrielle's curses head on.
Emile boldly dropped his shield as Gabrielle's Bludgeoning Hex neared him. She was already in the middle of casting her next spell when Emile cast the Killing Curse straight at Gabrielle's chest. The Bludgeoning Hex hit him, sending him spinning away from Harry's attack that would've struck his back.
There was no time for Harry to stop what was about to happen. He was too far away from Gabrielle for any of his spells to reach her or be cast quickly enough to conjure something to block Emile's curse.
Like he stepped back into a Pensieve, his mind replayed the memory of his duel against Bellatrix and her Death Eaters with Susan at his side. They'd been outnumbered, and Susan had gotten injured in the fight, but she insisted on staying in the fight. It wasn't a minute later that Bellatrix had used the Killing Curse to end Susan's life.
Gabrielle's eyes widened as the green light neared her face. She almost seemed stunned from her uncle's unexpected trick, unable to move or react. Harry screamed her name. Gabrielle leapt.
The Killing Curse missed her by an inch. It flew between her torso and her left arm in a gap barely wider than the jet of light itself. It was either incredibly dumb luck or the reflexes of an outstanding Auror.
A deep sense of relief filled Harry, but there was still a job at hand.
"Defodio!" Harry shouted as he jabbed his wand towards the ground around the pit of blood.
The Gouging Spell sounded like it ripped the earth apart as it pierced through the floor. Hefty chunks of dirt and stone flew upwards, and then there was an eruption of magical energy as it smashed into the pit of blood itself. A gong-like ring erupted, and the boiling blood shot straight up into the air.
"No!" Emile screamed at the top of his lungs. "No! No! No! No!"
Harry turned to block a spell Emile sent his way, and then the blood came falling down all around them.
"You'll pay for this, Potter!" Emile screamed. "I'll burn away all of your happiness until you're left with nothing but ashes!"
Harry didn't bother to deign the man with a reply; his focus was on taking him down.
Gabrielle rejoined the fray, firing curses at Emile from the opposite side of the room as Harry. Emile was forced to constantly maintain a Shield Charm as he was bombarded and slowly backed against a wall.
They had him, finally. Emile's head was on a swivel, searching for a way out, but there was none. No one was coming to help him. He was finished.
And yet, Harry didn't see resignation in the man's eyes. In fact, he saw a twinkle, a hint of one last trick up his sleeves.
Harry feared that there was a trap he missed or perhaps some type of contingency upon his death or arrest, but it was neither of those things.
The wards that Emile had erected throughout the catacombs suddenly turned off. The waves of magic that washed over them surprised Harry and Gabrielle, but Emile had been waiting for it.
"Be seeing you," Emile sneered as he activated the portkey he'd hidden on his person.
Harry felt like a failure when Gabrielle returned several minutes later with Alain, Gaëlle, and Mathis in tow. The three of them didn't seem particularly disheartened about the end result, but they hadn't been there. They hadn't seen how close they'd been to finally putting an end to Emile.
Gabrielle must have warned them about his foul mood because none of them said much as they entered into the room. Instead, they went through the rote practice of scouring Emile's lab for any clues or hints as to where he might have gone or what other plans he had in store.
Harry joined them in the search. There was little left to find after the destruction that'd torn through the lab when Harry set off the cascade of magic, but it needed to be done regardless.
"Harry?" Gabrielle called out to him. "I think I found something."
He trudged over and accepted the binder Gabrielle placed in his hands. He opened it and found a massive collection of notes on various magical and alchemical experiments. The pages went on and on about magical theory that went far above his head, but Emile had done him the courtesy of titling each of his experiments.
It was until near the end of the binder that Harry found something of interest.
Blood Malediction Cure, the top of the page read.
A detailed ritual followed, including the steps needed to perform it.
"He had the cure all this time," Harry muttered to himself. "He lied to Cyrus."
"Maybe he was stringing him along to ensure his cooperation?" Gabrielle suggested tentatively.
Harry nodded. That sounded like something a man like Emile would do. He cruelly kept the cure that he knew Cyrus was so desperate for hidden away.
"Take it," Gabrielle whispered so that the others didn't overhear. "I won't say a word."
Tampering with evidence was heavily penalised in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, but this was too important to lose.
"I'll make a copy and return the original," Harry promised her.
He stashed the parchment in his robes and then closed up the binder.
Harry and Gabrielle rejoined the search throughout the room, but they didn't find much else of value. There was another binder of notes and some alchemical experiments that survived the explosion which were collected.
There was no need to trek back through the catacombs now that the wards were down. Harry wondered about the other Auror teams who'd been sent down here to attack Emile's base, but his team was tired and needed to report back to the French Ministry that Emile was on the loose again.
So, he gave the order to apparate back to the Ministry.
A contingent of senior ministry officials were waiting for them in the atrium, alongside the French Minister for Magic, Liliane Roche. She looked exhausted but resolute as she approached Harry and the others. He opened his mouth to speak, but Liliane beat him to the punch.
"Emile Delacour has been spotted in London," she told Harry seriously. "Minister Shacklebolt is calling for you to return immediately to deal with this threat. We have a portkey waiting for you."
"I'm coming with you," Gabrielle insisted quickly. Liliane frowned at her but didn't say that she couldn't do so.
Part of Harry wanted to push Gabrielle away after seeing her come so close to death, but the reality was that she hadn't died. She'd reacted in time and proved that she could take care of herself against an incredibly dangerous opponent. He couldn't coddle her or treat her like she was going to be just another Susan situation.
Harry nodded. "Let's go then."
A/N: Hey, thanks for reading! If you are interested in reading more or supporting me, check out at p atreon .com(slash) ashox