Nothing is mine.

Harry carries out his genius plan (it goes as well as expected)

Although I Knew That We Had Lost

The Room of Requirement thrummed with anxious chatter, all the members of the DA huddled within, whispering in small groups, filling the corridor with a soft, nervous susurration like the quiet sound of water flowing through pipes.

Hermione tugged at Harry's arm. 'This plan might actually be insane, Harry,' she hissed. 'What if you're wrong?'

'I'm sure it will all work out.' He grinned. 'It usually does, even if there are a few dicey moments in there for me.'

'Ron, say something.'

Ron shrugged. 'I mean, he's not wrong, Hermione. Things do usually work out for him.'

'Because you've been lucky!'

'I think my mum might have dropped me in a cauldron of Felix Felicis when I was a baby,' Harry said. 'I'd ask her, but she's dead, so I can't.'

'Harry…' Hermione shook her head. 'What is wrong with you?!'

'Overexposure to pumpkin. It's not a food. I refuse to accept it.'

Ron sniggered.

'Oh whatever,' Hermione grumbled. 'Let's just get on with it then. But don't come crying to me if it all goes wrong.'

'If it goes wrong, we will blame Ronald for yet another shocking betrayal. Honestly, from the moment I started talking to Daphne, he's been biding his time.'

'I haven't, mate. I've been trying not to listen to the nonsense that comes out of your mouth.'

'See?' Harry clapped a hand to his heart. 'Nonsense, he calls it. Another cruel betrayal.'

Hermione rolled her eyes and dragged Ron inside. 'Just leave him, or he'll never focus enough to actually start his stupid work of genius plan off.'

'Quite right,' Harry said, turning to Marietta, who smothered a giggle into her hand. 'Are you ready?'

'Yes.' She swept her red hair back and tied it up with a firm nod. 'I go to Umbridge. I tell her some of my Ravenclaw friends who were in the DA have snuck out after curfew. She comes up here.'

'We all sneak out the back door, go around to the moving stairs and jinx them so she's trapped,' Harry finished. 'You stay behind, don't go up to the seventh floor or you'll be stuck too. When we're all out, you yell up the stairs that we're getting away and then get out of here.'

'I've got it,' Marietta promised. 'I won't let you down, Harry. I'll make it right.'

'Have fun then!' Harry gave her a cheerful wave and pulled his wand from his sleeve. 'I know I'm going to have fun.'

'Oh get in here,' Hermione grabbed his elbow and hauled him into the Room of Requirement. 'You still haven't said how you're going to jinx the stairs.'

'I'll just make it up when I get to them.'

She stared at him. 'Tell me you're just trying to wind me up.'

'Actually, this time I'm honestly not.'

A low growl escaped her. 'If this doesn't work because you can't jinx them, I will kill you with my own bare hands, Harry!'

'I thought you didn't want me to go?'

'I don't!'

'Well then…'

The door rumbled shut.

'Everyone get ready to leave,' Harry called. 'She won't be long, the moment the first spell hits the door, we need to sneak out the back entrance like we did before. You then all go back to your common rooms and I'll sort the rest.'

'No,' Daphne murmured. 'I will stay.'

'Okay—' the butterflies smothered any other response in a cloud of fluttering wings '—I guess you can.'

'I'll stay too,' Susan Bones declared. 'Just in case Umbridge tries anything.'

'Same,' Ernie Macmillan said. 'We came this far, might as well go all the rest of the way.'

A low murmur of agreement spread across the room.

'Is anyone not coming?' Harry asked.

A faint smile crooked Daphne's lips as silence fell.

'You guys are ruining my plan,' he complained. 'I was going to be all dramatic and now I'll have an audience.'

'Like that's going to stop you,' Hermione muttered.

'Ronald, defend me.'

Ron shrugged. 'I think she's right, mate.'

'You traitor. I bet you're still trying to steal my hair for Ginny's love potions too.'

'What?' Daphne demanded.

Hermione released a long sigh and buried her face in her hands. 'Don't ask.'

'I am asking, Granger.'

A dull thud rang through the room.

'Oh, look,' Harry said, 'Umbridge is here, guess we'll just have to have that conversation another time. What an…' He found Daphne's blue eyes as sharp and cold as icicles. 'Unfortunate occurrence that we can't have it now.'

A second thud tore through the room and dust showered down from the ceiling; the small door at the back of the room sprang open.

Everyone stared at Harry.

'What?' he asked. 'Are you going or not?'

They poured out, trampling down the stairs.

Harry wandered after them, tossing his wand from one hand to the other. 'Ready?'

'Ready?' Hermione frowned. 'You haven't told us what to do! You don't even know what you're going to do!'

'But I'm ready,' he said, flashing her a grin.

'You're infuriating,' she muttered. 'Ron, over the summer, we need to get his head checked.'

'I have a big scar on my face,' Harry informed them, slipping through the huddle to the edge of the stairs. 'It might be that.'

Marietta lingered there, taking big gulps of air.

'Alright then.' Harry raised his wand, imagining all that still, silent snow — piled up for countless winters, up and up and up until it threatened to bury the mountains, the bright full face of the moon, and even the distant stars.

The staircase froze halfway between the two points.

'Perfect.' He grinned. 'When you're ready, Marietta.'

'Professor!' Marietta screamed. 'They're getting away down here!'

'You get out of here,' Harry murmured.

'I'll stay,' she replied.

'Well fine.' He laughed to himself. 'Everyone just ignore my genius plan.'

'Why do we need to call her back?' Hermione asked. 'We could just go to her office now?'

'Because it will be funny to see the look on her face?'

A thunderous expression fell over Hermione and she balled her fists. 'Harry…'

'Ronald, defend me, she's going dark again.'

Ron side-stepped behind Daphne. 'Nope. Sorry, mate. You're on your own for this.'

'Does your treachery know no bounds?'

'Potter!' A shrill scream tore through the air as Umbridge stumbled and slipped to a halt at the end of the stairs. 'What are you doing!?'

'Using the Floo from the office you illegally had made unmonitored to go exploring in the Ministry and steal a ball of glass.' Harry scratched the back of his head. 'Have fun over there, I actually don't know when the stairs will move again.'

An ugly glint shone in her brown eyes and her flabby, pale face twisted into a vicious sneer. 'You can't use it, I have the Floo powder.'

'No you don't,' Harry replied. 'What kind of idiot keeps Floo powder in their handbag? It would get everywhere.'

Umbridge coloured. 'I am not an idiot, Potter. You on the other hand…' She thrust her stubby fingers into her pink handbag and dragged out the vial of golden liquid. 'You will regret whatever this is. The Ministry will snap your wand.'

'Er…' Harry pointed at the vial. 'You know what that is, right?'

'Of course I do, idiot boy,' Umbridge snapped. 'I am a witch more than twice your age!' She gulped the whole vial down and dropped her handbag, stepping back until her heels touched the wall.

'Accio,' Hermione said, summoning the bag across the gap and spilling its contents out onto the stairs. 'I'll find it, Harry. You worry about her.'

'I'm not worried,' he replied. 'There's no way she's stupid enough to…'

Umbridge sprinted forward and leapt, lunging for the edge of the frozen staircase; she fell, scrabbling at the air with a despairing scream and plummeting down to crunch into the floor below.

A shocked silence fell over the stairs and someone somewhere at the back threw up, filling the air with an acrid reek.

'Ha iad sy'n klask rhwystro e kwybr, titfyd e rymh,' Daphne murmured.

Susan Bones's jaw dropped and Hannah Abbott choked, spluttering into the white-knuckled hand pressed over her mouth.

Harry laughed. 'Aileni yn Marvoleth,' he quipped. 'Changed into jam, which is, very ironically, extremely convenient for those terrifying cartoon vampires she was always warning us about.'

Hermione pressed a small pink box into his hand, trembling from head to toe like a leaf in the wind.

'Why is everything she owns pink?' he asked. 'It's just ridiculous.'

'Owned,' Daphne murmured. 'She is gone. Reborn in Death.'

'As jam.' Harry chuckled. 'Okay, time for me to be off.'

'Where are we going?' she asked.

'London…' Harry felt the butterflies swarm. 'But I was going to go alone, it always ends up that way anyway, so might as well skip out the middle bit.'

'I am of more use to you than any other here,' Daphne whispered. 'Take me with you. Take us all. Let everyone hear the words of the prophecy.'

'You don't have a wand,' Harry whispered back. 'You can't do anything if something goes wrong, and something always goes wrong. I can't take you.'

Daphne's eyes froze over, all winter chill and sharp as cold steel. 'As you wish, Potter.' She twisted on her heel and stalked off through the crowd who melted away before her, slipping back to their Common Rooms.

'So…?' Ron sidled forward, looking a little green in the face and keeping his eyes fixed firmly on Harry.

'I'll see you all later,' Harry promised, tucking the box of Floo powder into his robes and setting off down the stairs. 'One of you should tell Filch he needs to find a mop by the way.'

'Harry,' Hermione hissed. 'She's dead!'

'I sure hope so,' he replied. 'If she's not, she might be one of those cartoon vampires, and, after this year's lacklustre education, none of us know how to stop such a dangerous monster.'

She pinched the bridge of her nose, her brown eyes brimming with worry. 'Let's just go.'

'Not us,' Harry said. 'Just me.'

'Mate, you know that where you go, we go,' Ron said. 'We followed you down that stupid trapdoor, into the woods with all those bloody giant spiders, down to where that basilisk is, out near the dementors; why would this be any different?'

'Don't you dare say that it's because Greengrass will be mad,' Hermione hissed. 'This is almost certainly a trap.'

'I wasn't,' Harry protested. 'It's just there's always some shenanigans that mean I end up facing Voldemort alone anyway, so why drag you guys along?' He patted his pocket. 'And I have all the Floo powder, so…'

Hermione glared at him. 'If you don't come back in one piece—'

'Madam Pomfrey will be shocked?' Harry interjected. 'Daphne will be disappointed?'

She stomped her foot with a little growl. 'You are such an idiot.'

'Well, this idiot is off, so catch you later, alligator…'

'I'm not saying that,' Hermione snapped.

'Spoilsport. See you later, Ronald, try not to commit any nefarious betrayals while I'm away.'

'I'll do my best, mate.' He glanced over the edge and turned rather green again. 'Might go have a little lie down for a bit, actually.'

Harry strolled down through the corridors, making his way past the whispering portraits and still, silent gleaming suits of armour to Umbridge's office.

With a flick of his wrist, he lit the hearth, then took a pinch of Floo powder from the box. 'If I leave this here, they'll be right behind me.' Harry chuckled under his breath. 'They're great like that. But—' something called to mind that one golden eye and all the dying light of the fading sun burning within it '—probably best I'm the only one who hears it, just in case some of those dreams aren't dreams, and everything's about to get weird.' He tossed the powder into the fire and dropped the box back into his pocket. 'Ministry of Magic.'

Harry stepped into the roaring emerald flames; they yanked him forward, throwing him stumbling out across the marble floor.

'Mr Potter…' Dawlish folded his arms, the sleeves of his long brown leather coat creasing at the elbows and catching on the small bronze sword pinned to his lapel. 'You are absolutely not meant to be here.'

'Umbridge sent me,' he said, poking his wand back up his sleeve. 'Sort of.'

'Sort of…'

Harry pulled the box out of his pocket. 'See, this is her awful pink Floo powder box.'

'While that is exactly the sort of thing Dolores Umbridge would own, it is not sufficient proof you are allowed to be here.'

'Isn't this the atrium?'

'It is. But it closed—' Dawlish pulled a pocket watch out of the pocket of the thick red robes beneath his jacket '—nearly two hours ago.'

'Sorry, I lost track of time?'

'I am going to escort you back to Hogwarts, Mr Potter,' Dawlish said. 'And check with Dolores Umbridge as to whether there is any truth to your statement.'

'I never lie,' Harry replied. 'Apparently it's frowned upon as an inelegant way to conceal the truth. And that's why I'm going to tell you that Professor Umbridge has suffered a very… unfortunate accident and it's going to be really hard to check anything with her other than how much you like extremely unconventional toast.'

'I beg your pardon, Mr Potter?'

'She jumped from the seventh floor staircase—' Harry mimed a swan dive with his hand '—and landed right at the very bottom about as gracefully as you'd expect from her. She's less pink, though? Kind of looked like raspberry jam, actually, the nice thick one my aunt likes to serve to the neighbours but I was never allowed to eat.'

Dawlish turned slightly green. 'I think you might need to go to St Mungo's, Mr Potter. Clearly you've witnessed something tragic and you seem… off.'

'Hermione keeps telling me that as well.' Harry considered it. 'Probably fine, though. I feel fairly good, actually.'

'Stay here,' Dawlish said. 'I will be back in a few moments after I've contacted my office to let them know they need to send someone down to cover for me while I take you to St Mungo's.' He strode off. 'And you should stop keeping your wand in your sleeve, Mr Potter.'

Harry pulled his wand back out of his sleeve. 'I guess I'll stick you somewhere else, I kind of thought keeping it up my sleeve was cool though.' He watched Dawlish vanish down the corridor. 'Well, I almost feel bad. Not quite, but still…' Harry sprinted on his tiptoes to the elevator and jabbed the button. 'Right, time to explore.'

The golden doors rumbled open with a ping.

'Excellent.' Harry leapt in and pressed all of the buttons one by one with his forefinger. 'Now to figure out where they keep all the prophecies.' He mulled that over as the doors slid shut and the lift descended with a smooth hum. 'Maybe I should have asked someone about that.'

The lift whirred down, pausing at each floor, and every time the doors rumbled open, the smooth, high female voice announced the floor, but it was only when it came to a stop at the last floor that Harry recognised the corridor leading away from him.

'Department of Mysteries,' he murmured, wandering forward over a familiar smooth cold black stone floor. 'Seems promising, but Dawlish will probably have come back and realised I've gone rogue now.'

Harry quickened his pace, jogging past the sealed doors and two open arches glimmering with magic, thudding down two old creaking steps into a room filled from floor to ceiling with great, towering shelves of dust-veiled glass orbs.

'Oh fantastic.' He skimmed the labels on the nearest shelves. 'I'm going to be down here forever.'

'How right you are.' A familiar smooth voice brimming with contempt came from behind a thin bone mask covered in glowing blue glyphs. 'The prophecy you are looking for, Potter,' Lucius Malfoy said, pointing his wand at the shelf beside him, 'is right here.'

'Thanks.' Harry wandered past and scanned the labels. 'Ah, yes. Harry Potter and the Dark Lord. Given to… who the bloody hell has that many initials?'

'Dumbledore.' A second familiar voice came from the far side of the book shelf and a second ivory skull mask etched with shining sapphire runes appeared from the gloom. 'Dumbledore is the only living person who knows the full contents of that prophecy.'

'Seriously?' Harry released a long sigh. 'All the effort to get in here and I could have just asked him?' Harry gave Bellatrix a wave. 'Hi, Bella.'

'Bella?' She stalked around the shelves. 'What makes you think that's who I am? And who are you to address one of the most feared Agwydklezes in Britain in such an informal manner?'

'I have no idea what that means.' He eyed the full swell of her chest beneath the near skin-tight, overlapping layers of dark fabric. 'But… I can think of at least two strong hints that severely narrow down the list of suspects from the nearly entirely male list of Death Eaters. Also, you're wearing the same mask I saw you carrying around on Ynys y Cedairn.'

Bellatrix plucked her mask from her face with a cackle of laughter. 'The guesswork I believe. I am the only Death Eater with decent tits. Alecto is flat as a board and you probably haven't heard of her anyway, because she's useless. The rest…'

'Enough,' Lucius Malfoy snapped. 'Take the prophecy off the shelf and give it to us, Potter.'

'Er… no?' Harry folded his arms. 'I don't want to.'

'If you don't, we'll kill you,' Lucius Malfoy said.

'Why can't you just get it yourself?'

'There is a powerful enchantment on the shelves,' Bellatrix replied. 'Only those named on the label can retrieve the prophecy; they are the ones the Unspeakables consider to be sufficiently involved as to have the right to know it.'

'That's just stupid. What if they put it on a really high shelf? How is anyone going to get it?'

'With a ladder…' Bellatrix said. 'But back to the point at hand. Take it or we'll kill you.'

'But then you can't get it off,' Harry retorted, wiggling two fingers up his sleeve. 'So no. Also, I really should have listened to Dawlish, not about the going to St Mungo's thing, but keeping my wand up my sleeve was a terrible idea.'

'Very well,' Lucius Malfoy said. 'Get it down, or we'll hurt you.'

'Not very sporting,' Harry accused. 'There's two of you and only one of me.'

Lucius Malfoy sneered. 'I don't care—'

'Fair enough,' Bellatrix said, reaching behind her to pull her curved wand from her back. 'Lucius, stay here and see if there's any way to get the prophecy off without Potter. I will face Potter one on one, and when I have beaten him, he will take the prophecy off the shelf for us.'

'No, I won't,' Harry said. 'Dumbledore knows it, so I can just ask him. I don't even need to get it off. Tell the Dark Lord to come and get it himself; he's not doing anything useful, just cutting off peoples' faces and filling giant bowls with blood.'

Bellatrix blinked, a curious gleam in her grey eyes. 'You did see Ynys y Cedairn,' she murmured. 'How strange… Did Dumbledore show you some memories? Pendragon's Graal-Kynak are away settling an ICW dispute in South America, perhaps he was asked to resolve matters in their stead.'

'Dumbledore's actually been avoiding me all year,' Harry confessed, raising his wand. 'Do we still bow?'

'Yes.' Bellatrix dipped her head. 'A duel is not some scramble of spells on the street; it ends as honour demands, with death.'

'Okay,' he replied, bowing back. 'So…?'

'May the best Agwydkleze witch win,' Bellatrix replied. 'That's me, by the way.'

'That's… not a very nice thing to say,' Harry retorted. 'I would make a great whatever that is witch, you don't know that I wouldn't be better at it than you.'

She threw her head back and laughed.

'Expelliarmus,' Harry whispered, jabbing his wand at her.

Bellatrix swatted the flash of red light away with a flick of her wrist and it sailed up into the ceiling to burst in a shower of crimson sparks.

'Expelliarmus,' he said.

She batted it back at him, sending it hissing over his head.

'Expelliarmus.'

Bellatrix let the spell streak through her dark curls and off into the gloom. 'Is that the only spell you know?'

'I'm open to suggestions,' Harry replied.

'I know one that braids your intestines together,' she said. 'It's very effective.'

'Yeah… I'm going to pass. Why do you even know that?'

'Azkaban was really boring,' Bellatrix admitted. 'I was in there for fifteen years, too. And the food…'

'I guess the dementors weren't great in the kitchen.' Harry laughed to himself. 'Was there at least no pumpkin?'

'Will you just beat him so we can get this prophecy and leave?' Lucius Malfoy glanced away from the shelf. 'This shelf has more wards on it than half the things in my basement and I only know what half of them do.'

'What a shame,' Harry mused, backing toward the stairs one small step at a time. 'Anyway, about the pumpkin question?'

'No. There was no pumpkin on the menu.' Bellatrix prowled forward after him, a little grin on her lips. 'Are you going somewhere, Potter?'

'I was starting to think about it,' he admitted, 'but the way you said that makes me think I might have been wasting my time so…' Harry darted for the exit and dived out, rolling back to his feet.

A lasso of purple flame snapped over his head.

'It's a duel to the death, Potter,' Bellatrix called. 'There is no running away.'

'It's not to the death,' he yelled. 'You need me alive to take the prophecy off the shelf!'

'Good point!' She strode up the steps as he raised his wand. 'If it's going to be another Disarming Charm, you might as well just give up and save us the time.'

'Well now I feel like I need to try something different.' Harry raised his wand. 'Reducto?'

A flash of crimson tore from his wand, lancing past Bellatrix and into the room of prophecies with a great crash. Lucius Malfoy yelled something, but was drowned beneath a rising cacophony of shattering glass.

Bellatrix stared at him.

Harry offered her a grin. 'Oops?'

She looked back over her shoulder and cackled. 'You dropped an entire bookshelf on him. I am never going to let him hear the end of this.'

Harry ducked through the nearest open door and stumbled down a steep step, staggering down a few more toward the tall, dark archway he had seen through Nagini's eyes and its veil of shimmering silk.

'The doorway.' Bellatrix stood in the entrance at the top of the steps. 'The only remaining one. All others have been destroyed by the ICW, but they built the Department of the Unspeakables and later the Ministry over this one so they could study it. They call it the Veil, because they cannot see anything beyond it, but it's a doorway.'

'A doorway to the Veiled World? How do you know, if nobody can see beyond it?'

'Once, those who dwell beyond the Veil would cross to our world through such doorways, and before that, our worlds were one...' She smiled, an almost soft expression flitting across her lips. 'The Dark Lord, he will lead us all to a world reborn, one full of the regained splendour of true magic and wonder.' Bellatrix raised her curved wand. 'I think it's time for this duel to end now.'

Harry raised his. 'Where's another inexplicably two-way portkey when you need one? I wasn't planning on dying today, Hermione implicitly threatened me with violence if I didn't come back in one piece.' He reached back until his fingers brushed the ice-cold silk.

A whisper echoed from the far side of the Veil, soft as the slow settling of snow, quiet as dark waters welling up through that thin crack in the ice, all but silent, like the dark beyond stars, and sharp, sharp as the glint of moonlight on ice, sharp as the smile that stretched too far across her face.

'Well, that's incredibly concerning.' Harry laughed to himself as he pulled his fingers away. 'Are the dreams actually real? Are they not? Some of them definitely are because they turn out to be true. I kind of hope some of them aren't, though, and that I just imagined them, because they don't bode well at all. I could have imagined them, right? Dumbledore said being sensitive to magic can cause weird dreams once, I think.'

'It can cause strange dreams at your age, yes.' Bellatrix laughed. 'But maybe if you're so worried about dreams you shouldn't be up past your bedtime. Did you even ask mummy and daddy if you could stay up this late?'

'No.' He offered her a broad grin. 'Want to stick your head through this doorway and ask them for me?'

Bellatrix threw her head back and cackled. 'I like you, little Potter, you're brave.' She swept her wand up over her heart. 'Given you've destroyed the prophecy by dropping that shelf on Lucius, there's no need to keep you alive anymore; I will kill you with the honour your bravery deserves.'

'You don't know for sure I broke it.'

She grinned and closed her eyes. 'I also don't care; I already know that Dwyr Sy'n Tystio has come. The proof is clear to see.'

Wisps of violet light rose from Bellatrix's shoulders, rising like swirls of steam, growing thicker and brighter with each passing moment until a blazing aura of purple magic shimmered about her tight, dark robes like a second skin. It shrouded her like fire, like she was the flame herself and her magic was the bright edge of its flickering tongues.

A shivering blade of fierce violet sprang up about the black wand in her fist, curved like a sickle, just as it was, and thin as Aunt Petunia's wooden spatula — though Harry felt he would much prefer being hit with the spatula again, since Aunt Petunia's spatula didn't look like it would cut through him as if he were butter.

Bellatrix's eyes snapped open. 'Yr gwyan, y Goanv.' She slashed the blade through the air. 'To the weak, Winter.'

'That doesn't look very fair,' Harry said. 'Expelliarmus?'

The flash of red dissipated against the veil of purple magic shrouding Bellatrix like a drop of water splashing against a brick wall.

'I really am starting to wish that I knew some more spells.' He pointed his wand at her. 'Reducto.'

Crimson light burst against her chest

'Ow,' she rubbed her breast with the smooth forehead of her blue-runed skull mask. 'Right on the nipple, Potter. That tingles.'

'Sorry, I wasn't aiming there deliberately. And, you know, you are trying to kill me.'

'You just couldn't take your eyes off them.' She grinned at him. 'And I'm not trying to kill you, not yet.'

Harry laughed. 'It's your own fault for wearing the skin-tight black clothes and the even more skin-tight magic, it makes it hard not to notice.' He grinned to himself. 'I feel like this is another big setback for Project Little Sister, but I can't quite put my finger on why.'

'My tits are one of my best features, but you're not putting a finger on either of them,' Bellatrix said. 'Now.' She raised the blade of magic shimmering about her wand. 'Are you going to try any more spells?'

'Yes.' Harry raised his wand with a sigh. 'This is getting a bit embarrassing, actually, but Expelliarmus.'

Bellatrix cackled and cut the spell away with a swing of her arm.

Harry banished all the benches at her with a flick of his wrist, but she cut through those too, slicing them apart into glowing, steaming pieces and stepping over them, a huge grin on her lips and her grey eyes bright with laughter. He swept them up, transfiguring them into dozens of long stone swords.

Bellatrix stood there as they stabbed at her, but the moment the tips of the blades touched that shivering aura of purple light, they crumbled to dust.

'Okay, how are you doing that? And would you maybe stop? It's very unfair.'

'I'm an Agwydkleze, little Potter.' Bellatrix extended her arm, levelling the blade of violet magic at his heart. 'And this is how we fight. No need for spells, or all the many complex branches of magic, just a simple, elegant struggle between two worthy foes.'

'Can I be less worthy?'

'No, it's too late,' she decided. 'Now, come here so I can chop you into pieces as well.'

Harry glanced at the piles of stone dust. 'I'm not listening to a bench murderer,' he accused. 'And I'm not coming over there, either, by the way, so you might as well come and get me.'

'Sure,' Bellatrix replied, sweeping down the steps in a blur of violet light and trapping him between the two pillars of the veil. 'Now… Do I push you through there? Or just slice you up?'

'Slices, please,' Harry said. 'I can deal with the idea of being sliced. If I go through there, I feel like things are going to get confusing and dream-like, and I might not like what I find.'

'You'll be dead.'

'Aileni yn marvoleth,' Harry muttered.

Bellatrix laughed. 'Just so, little Potter, just so.' The tip of the shimmering purple blade grazed his throat, but it wasn't hot, just somehow sharp enough to slice a stinging little cut across his Adam's apple. 'We will meet again, come Spring. You will not be lost.'

'Nothing is lost.' Harry sighed and poked the tip of his wand at the aura of her magic; it stuck as fast in it as if he'd tried to push it into a stone wall. 'I know, I know; it's just waiting for Spring.'

Bellatrix's grey eyes gleamed with curiosity. 'Someone has been teaching you the true way of things. It cannot be Dumbledore, it would not be my Blood-Traitor cousin Sirius or any of the Blood-Traitor Weasley's brood, so I wonder who…?'

'Step away from my godson, Bellatrix, you mad bitch.' Sirius stood in the door, his wand outstretched. 'Or I'm going to set aside honour and roast you alive in Fiendfyre.'

'Can you wait until I'm a little further away from her first?' Harry asked.

'Sirius!' Bellatrix released Harry and spun on her heel, clapping her ivory mask back onto her face. Shadow fell over her dark curls, hanging there like a veil of silk. 'Today is as good a day to rid the family of its shame as any other.'

Harry weighed up the idea of cursing her in the back, but abandoned it as almost certainly futile.

Sirius raised his wand. 'Harry, get out of here.'

'Sounds like a great idea, really,' Harry said. 'For both of us.'

'The rest of the Order will be here in a few moments,' Sirius said. 'I can handle her until then.'

Bellatrix laughed. 'No you can't, Blood-traitor.' She glanced back over her shoulder at Harry. 'Go, little Potter. I will find you again soon and we will finish our duel then.'

'Take your time,' Harry said, edging around her and ducking past Sirius's extended wand arm. 'There's no rush. I can wait.'

'I'm an impatient witch,' she replied. 'So be ready.'

Sirius stepped back into the corridor, unleashing a barrage of spells; streaks of yellow, orange and red lanced down into the room with the Veil.

Bellatrix's cackling echoed up into the passage and the spells flashed back, tearing great smoking gouges through the smooth dark wall as Sirius ducked left. She swept up the steps into the corridor and Sirius scrambled into a swift retreat, swearing under his breath as she sliced through the curses he sent at her with her blade of fierce violet magic. The ones she missed burst against her aura in showers of sparks that danced across the floor about her boots and faded out.

'You always were a disappointment, cousin,' she said. 'You and Regulus. But at least Regulus didn't betray his ancestors like you did.'

Harry pressed the lift button. 'Come on. Come on.' He listened to the faint whir above his head. 'Before she slices both of us up.'

Sirius growled and a faint shimmer of red magic settled about his shoulders; it jutted from his wand in a short, straight blade with a rough, jagged edge.

Bellatrix tutted. 'Pitiful.' The shimmering violet magic faded away and her wand whipped up.

A flash of red pierced the aura of Sirius's magic and smashed him back into the wall. He slid down and crumpled to the ground with a low thud, his grey eyes blank and wide.

Harry stared down at him. 'He's dead.'

'One less blood-traitor,' Bellatrix declared, plucking her mask from her face. 'To try and challenge me with such a meagre Agwyd—' her upper lip curled and she shook her head '—he always had more pride than sense.'

'He was the only family I had left.' A hot flash of anger seized Harry. 'And he really wasn't all that good at it, but he was still there.' He jammed his wand back up his sleeve. 'And now he's not—' The words stuck on his tongue, lost somewhere amongst a dream of breathtaking green. 'Nothing is lost,' Harry whispered, a small smile spreading across his face. 'He's just waiting for Spring, right? A part of everything around us, like my parents. And he's probably happier out there, part of all that, than cooped up inside on the run.'

Bellatrix stepped over Sirius's body. 'When Spring comes, even he will be part of it, pitiful traitor to the truth that he was.'

The lift door rumbled open behind him.

'Auntie!' A cheerful voice called down the corridor. 'Bones sent me down here to hunt for a rogue child and instead I find you! Mum said I was free to cut as many pieces off you as I wanted, and if I got enough good bits, she'd buy me a new broom for my birthday.'

'Little Nymphadora…' Bellatrix's grey eyes softened. 'Not today. But say hi to Andi from me. Tell her I love her.' She turned on her heel and strode back into the Room of Prophecies.

'Come with me, Harry.' Dumbledore's cool hand took a gentle hold on his arm and drew him back into the lift past a young, dark-haired witch. 'Let's get you back safely to Hogwarts.'

AN: Follow the linktree for more (lots and lots more)!

linktr . ee / mjbradley