Time Astral | Sirius Black

25||The Duel

Same day, midnight

She saw Voldemort's eyes widen, his hand shake the slightest bit before he'd shot another green jet of light. She easily deflected it with her own emerald blaze.

"Pity." She grinned when the lights had clashed and subsided. "I quite missed your human face, those blue eyes. Look at what Lily's done to your face, what you've done...attacking them like that."

"You are alive. Again."

She laughed, the sound raspy but amused. "You sound surprised. Again."

"Should I myself burn your corpse once I've killed you this once, Alasia? I do not believe in deaths anymore after the number of times you've tricked me."

"Believe me, Tom." Alasia tilted her head with a smirk. "If you get the chance, never let it go."

Then the lights clashed again and she had a vague recollection of Sirius and Remus joining them along with a few more Death Eaters and Aurors. The fight restarted there too, but it was Alasia and Tom who were fighting.

It was them, that the Death Eaters had paused to gape at. Them, that Harry was looking at, her...he was looking at her. She frowned, losing grip for a moment.

He sent another Killing Curse at Alasia but missed, instead hitting the security guard's desk, which burst into flame.

Alasia flicked her own wand. The force of the spell that emanated from it was such that Harry, though shielded by his stone guard, felt his hair stand on end as it passed, and this time Voldemort was forced to conjure a shining silver shield out of thin air to deflect it. The spell, whatever it was, caused no visible damage to the shield, though a deep, gonglike note reverberated from it, an oddly chilling sound. . . .

"You do not seek to kill me, Alasia?" called Voldemort, his scarlet eyes narrowed over the top of the shield. "Above such brutality, are you?"

"We both know that there are other ways of destroying a man, Tom," Alasia grinned at him, snapping the spell as she started to stride towards him.

"Do you know a cool fact, Riddle?" She asked, deflecting a blow towards her. "I'd visited Nicolas Flamel just before you'd killed James and Lily."

"Is that supposed to enlighten me?"

"Oh, wait for it." She chuckled. "He's a rather all-knowing man, isn't he? Has got these...very interesting books...he calls them Phoenix-Embossed."

Another jet of green light flew from behind the silver shield. A long thin flame flew from the tip of Alasia's black wand; it wrapped itself around Voldemort, shield and all. For a moment, it seemed she'd won, but then the fiery rope became a serpent, which relinquished its hold upon Voldemort at once and turned, hissing furiously, to face her.

Voldemort vanished. The snake reared from the floor, ready to strike —

There was a burst of flame in midair above Alasia just as Voldemort reappeared, standing on the plinth in the middle of the pool where so recently the five statues had stood.

"Look out!" Harry yelled.

But even as he shouted, one more jet of green light had flown at Alasia from Voldemort's wand and the snake had struck —

Flames encircled Alasia, red – hot and blue, like the pure heart of fire, they engulfed the green light, it vanishing inside the blaze, just as the flames disappeared, too.

"Wouldn't you hear the entire story, Tom?" She pouted, feigning hurt. "Do you know what those books do? They let you talk to people from across oceans. I had some wrecking discoveries made from that journey of mine."