When two worlds collide.

Burn.

Blaise and Goyle, and Pansy and Elizabeth.

A ball of scarlet light bursts from Hermiones wand, briefly illuminating her face, and strikes Pany's hand. As her wand flies free, Goyle steps into the breach and fires back at Hermione

"Avada Kedavra!" The spell caroms off the stone bust instead, sending the diadem spinning into the air. Ron fires a flurry of spells at Goyle, but he manages to elude them all by crashing through the wall of junk. As it teeters, Ron pelts through the hole made by Goyle and gives chase.

Alex looks up, sees the diadem bounce off the top of a birdcage, skitter along the top of the highest shelf and bounce...out of sight. Gone.

Turning back, she finds Elizabeth taking aim at her.

"Expelliarmus!" Elizabeth's wand flies free and she scarpers. An instant later, Fred joins Alex. A massive groan echoes and the walls of towering junk shudder. Alex looks up. Fred looks up. Then at each other. The sky is falling. One after another, the towering walls spill like dominos. Alex and Feed run side by side as the world comes crashing down.

"Did you see where it went? The diadem! It's gone!" He gasps.

"We'll never-" Alex groans but then the diadem drops from the sky and hops, skips and jumps down the aisle in front of them. Alex and Fred exchange a glance and pelt after it. Alex nearly has it in grasp when a small avalanche of moody booms bars her path.

Fred leaps over the books, reaches out and grabs it. Alex comes panting up.

"Well done. Let's find the others and get out of here." Alex wheels and sees the others running towards them chased by a river of scarlet flames.

"RUN!" Harry gasps.

"Goyle's set the bloody place on fire!" Ron exclaims.

As one, the bunch dashes through the remaining aisles as the towers of junk turn to ash all around them. The flames draw closer, mutating into a pack of fiery beasts: serpents, chimeras, Dragons, all nipping at their heels. No matter which way they turn, the flames follow them.

"Split up!" Alex yells.

Each goes a separate way, but it's no use. The fire simply divides. Alex glances up, sees Pansy and Elizabeth scaling a mountain of burning junk, doomed. She takes one turn after another until she comes to a clearing and nearly runs into the bunch as they arrive from separate paths. They glance around frantically. No free path exists. The flames roar, racing towards them.

"Do we climb!" Hermione whimpers.

"No, it'll just follow us!" Theo pants.

Alex glances around once more and sees them: a dozen ancient broomsticks.

"Take one!" She tosses them broomsticks and then takes one for herself.

As Alex slips the diadem on her head, the flames explode into the clearing, engulfing them as they...soar free, just barely eluding the snap of the dragon's fiery jaws. As they race away, a horrible screams pierces the clamor and they all look below, see the flames devour Elizabeth.

"Serves her right. C'mon!" Alex scoffs.

"This way!" George leads the way.

As they draw close the light burns so bright all goes white and they burst through the wall, tumbling into the corridor.

Alex snatches the diadem, spinning on the floor quickly, as if it might run away and Hermione tosses her the basilisk fang. She stares down at the smoking diadem and briefly pauses, reading the words etched there: With Beyond Measure Is Man's Greatest Treasure. Then, without hesitation, she drives the fang into the blackened crown.

Alex grimaces and roars with pain, the veins at her temple throbbing, her knuckles burning white as she grips the basilisk fang. The fang crumbles in Alex's fist and Alex, staring toward the ceiling, gasps desperately, purging herself of the pain.

She looks down, regarding the diadem with a kind of mournful horror, then Fred kicks it back into the Room of Requirement, where it explodes in a vortex of flames and the Room re-seals itself.

. . .

Voldemort's eyes glitter with madness, his gaze lost, adrift in the dark constellations above. When he speaks, finally, his voice is hoarse, oddly tender.

"Nagini. Come." Voldemort begins to slip away, blasting anyone who stands in his way. Pius Thicknesse comes into view. His eyes widen. Voldemort raises his wand and, with callous disregard, executes him as well. As those ahead part for him and Nagini.

. . .

Alex who stares into the distance, her face still bearing traces of the agony she's just endured.

"Ron, you once asked me if I thought he felt it, Voldemort, when we destroy a Horcrux, when we destroy a piece of his soul.."

They wait for an answer.

"He does."

Alex looks up then, meets their eyes.

"It's the snake now.."

"Where will he take her?" Fred crouches down.

"Someplace safe."

"No..He'll keep her close.."

"Alex.." Fred crouches in front of her. "Theo.."

Alex looks around. "Where is he? Where's Theo?"

"The fire caught him.." He whispers.

They all watch as Alex's face drops. Her eyebrows knit together as she tries to force her tears in. "No.." She whispers, her voice breaking.

Fred hugs her in attempt to sooth her. Tears roll down Alex's face as she hugs Fred back.

"Look inside him, Alex.. Find out where he is. If we find him, we find the snake. Then we're one step closer to ending this." Ron sighs.

Everyone studies Alex and Ron as they stare silently at one another. Finally, Alex closes her eyes.

For a moment: nothing. Then: her eyelids dance with movement, her scar spasms. She winces. She finds herself  soaring over dark fields, past unspeakable devastation. The Quidditch Pitch, ablaze.

A cloaked figure sweeps eerily forward, Nagini slithering at his feet. Lucius Malfoy looks up.

The walls shimmer oddly, reflecting the water's surface. Here, the assault on Hogwarts is muted, distant. A haggard Lucius nervously eyes Nagini while Voldemort paces with a strange energy, glancing at the wand in his fingers, the Elder Wand, then to the lake itself, where a reflected Hogwarts burns in a beautiful blur. Suddenly, his eyes shift to Lucius.

"Stop looking at her. She smells your fear. It agitates her. Be grateful she's just eaten." Voldemort snaps.

Lucius glances nervously to the weathered floor, to the blood smeared there. He closes his eyes to blot out the image when an explosion detonates in the distance. He jumps.

"Forgive me, my Lord, but wouldn't it be more prudent to call off this battle and seek the boy yourself?" Lucius clears his throat.

"I do not need to seek the boy! Before the night is out, he will come to me! Do you understand!" Voldemort growls.

"Of c-course, my Lord." Lucius trembles, staring into Voldemort's scarlet eyes. Voldemort steps forward, voice more measured.

"How do you live with yourself, Lucius?" Voldemort's eyes him with disgust "Go. Find Severus. Tell him I need to see him immediately."

Lucius rises quickly and exits. Voldemort fixes his eyes on the wand once again. The snake hisses.

. . .