When two worlds collide.

The Plan.

Nagini hisses, as if attuned to Voldemort's emotions, and runs toward Alex. As she strikes, Alex sidesteps her, by inches, then stumbles back and counters.

"CONFRIGO!" Alex exclaims as flames run the length of Nagini with no effect,then climb the back of a nearby Death Eater and consume him.

Enraged that Alex has attacked Nagini, Voldemort fires a volley of curses. Alex and Draco parries the first, then falls back into a cloister. The stonework explodes all around them, creating three ragged holes as they pelts away.

"I really thought you died!" Draco pants as they run.

"You can't get rid of me that easily babe." Alex laughs. "Thanks for the wand!"

"Of course!" Draco smiles as they intertwine fingers.

Alex arrives at the doors to the Great Hall, she finds Harry, Ron, Hermione and all the other Avengers there.

"You idiot!" Hermione growls, slapping me.

"OW!" Alex whines.

"We thought you actually died!" Bucky snaps giving her a quick hug.

"I did die- look, I'll explain everything later but the snake! The snake! We've got to kill the snake!"

Neville, only a few yards off, sword in hand, overhears. As his eyes shift to Voldemort and Nagini.

"ALEX! LOOK OUT!" Neville yells.

Alex wheels and sees Voldemort drawing a bead on her. As Alex begins to raise her wand, Neville steps between, brandishing the sword...just as Voldemort's wand blazes and Neville's world explodes. Taking the full brunt of it all, Neville grimaces, watching as Voldemort's spell, like a current of electricity, races up the sword's blade to the hilt...and pitches off his feet and fifty feet back into the Great Hall. Alex exchanges a glance with everyone. Their faces say it all: no one could have survived that.

The Entrance Hall explodes with counter-fire as members of the Order, students and staff return fire. Voldemort flicks his wand, air prickling with disturbance as he summons a shield of air, insulating himself from attack. As he sweeps forward, he responds with a devastating hurdle of spells. Before it could hit anyone, Alex turns around, back facing Voldemort as she throws her arms out. She creates a shield around everyone in front of her and it reflects the spells back at Voldemort.

"Listen up!" Alex groans as the energy slowly drains from her. "You're all doing amazing so far, just...the same advice as always.." She pants before crying out in pain and dropping on one knee.

"Drop the bloody shield, Alex!" Draco growls.

"I have...a plan...but Neville you need to give me the sword.." Alex looks up, ignoring Dracos pleads. Neville who nods and drops the sword in front of her. "Take my wand from my pocket, use that. I won't need it."

Neville nods and takes the wand from her little side pocket, he also pulls out the snitch.

Alex quickly stands up and turns around, punching the ground. It starts a strong blast which sends all the death eaters, and Voldemort, flying back. Alex grabs the snitch from Neville's hand and shoves it back in her pocket. She picks the sword up from the floor and puts it in the loop of her belt.

"If you get hurt...walk it off...if you get killed?" Alex hesitates for a minute. "Walk it off." She states. "Keep everyone occupied."

Alex turns and dashes up the stairs, picking her way through the rubble and limp bodies strewn upon the steps, attempting to draw Voldemort and Nagini away from the others...and it works.

"Nagini with me!" Voldemort growls, his cloak swirling like water, the great snake at his heel, strides toward the stairs and fires.

Alex flinches as shards of marble rain down upon her. Wheeling, she fires back. Voldemort parries Alex's spells with frightening ease, mounting the steps and firing again and again. Eyes darting frantically, Alex blocks the spells with a mixture of skill, instinct and pure luck. She stumbles back, firing widely. One of her spells skitters down the steps and strikes Nagini. The snake hisses, unharmed but angry.

"Leave her!" Voldemort's eyes glitter with rage, as if he himself had been struck by the spell.

Alex herself again, purposely aiming for the snake this time. Voldemort counters with palpable fury, spells caroming madly up and down the staircase. Alex shields her eyes briefly, then looks down and sees a cloud of smoke, hanging over the stairs from Voldemort's spells, but Voldemort himself is gone.

Alex glances about frantically, then suddenly, the hairs on the back of Alex's neck rise. She turns and Voldemort materializes at the top of the stairs, firing a ribbon of fire at her. Alex counters it, but it is so powerful she can't deflect it. She stands, connected to Voldemort by the rippling ribbon of fire. She stumbles back, the muscles in her forearm twitching in pain. She hears a heavy rolling sound, like meat slapping a marble table and looks over her shoulder, downwards. Nagini is undulating upward, over the steps, toward Alex. As the snake hisses an oddly similar song escapes Voldemort's lips as he pushes his advantage. The ribboning flames grow more intense, begin to lick the flesh of Alex's hand.

Alex glances once more at Nagini who draws closer, then back at Voldemort, who stares fiercely at Alex, willing the flames down the ribbon of light toward Alex. Alex winces as the flames singe her knuckles. Then, summoning every bit of strength she's got, Alex...breaks the spell, staggering away, as the ribbon of light shoots upward and the ceiling above gives way, raining debris onto Nagini.

"I said LEAVE HER!" Voldemort yells.

Alex peers down at the wreckage below, then watches Nagini slither free, her thick braids oozing with lacerations, but otherwise unharmed.

Alex turns and Voldemort vanishes again, only to...reappear seconds later on Alex's blind side. Alex wheels and, in a sweeping motion, sends a cluster of debris hurling at Voldemort.

Instantly, Voldemort reaches out his hand and the debris grows smaller as it flies toward him until, as it reaches his hand, it appears to vanish altogether. Then he turns his palm upward, sand runs between his fingers to the floor.

Alex stands watching, stunned. Her eyes meet Voldemort's. Voldemort's eyes narrow eerily in a most unhuman way and he hisses.

Alex stumbles back, freaked out, when Voldemort speaks in parseltongue. "Now, my sweet. Now.."

Alex turns, sees Nagini, only yards away, rising to strike. She pulls the sword out and swings it at Nagini, slitting her throat slightly as blood splatters all over her face.

"NO!" Voldemort screams, his voice booming through the sky which makes the whole world around them go quiet.

Alex , then dashes for the balustrade and leaps...into the air...falling...and falling..until she lands, on the stone floor below, awkwardly, painfully. She glances up, sees Voldemort's face. Instantly, Voldemort flicks his wand and the stone floor around Alex explodes, the surface dancing like water. She turns, glances around desperately, then spies...a door. Without thinking, she pelts towards it and through, into a corridor teeming with smoke.

In the distance, a patch of light drifts oddly in the swirling mist, glowing weakly, then is swallowed by the smoke. Far off screams, the cries of battle, hang in the air, hollow and distant. Alex moves through the mist, feeling her way. The walls shimmer like skin on her periphery, barely discernible, melting, lost in shadow.

A low beating rises in Alex's ears, rapid at first then growing slower and slower as it increases in volume and all ambient sound drifts away, revealing the low beating to be thumping of her own heart.

. . .