The Last Horcrux

Backstage

Riot pulled Amanda through the white chalk paths of the Night Circus, clutching her arm, with Mark and Tori scrambling behind them. The snake pursued them, slithering after them relentlessly. The other patrons did not notice their flight. They must have been too absorbed in the pleasures of the evening, or else they thought the panicked group fleeing the green snake was part of some kind of circus act. Amanda was terrified. Her heart was pounding in her chest. Her breath came in short painful gasps. They ran past the ferris wheel and the contortionist. They ducked under the Skyrider as it swooped shrieking patrons high into the night air in graceful arcs. They ran onto the carousel and bobbed and skirted around leaping unicorns and griffins and camels while tinny music played loud in their ears. Still the snake pursued them. They jumped off the carousel, upsetting a stand of candied apples.

"This way!" Riot panted. He pulled Amanda down a narrow pathway, slipping and sliding over the apples that crunched and squished under their feet, making a slimy mess that was nearly impossible to run through.

It was a mistake. The path ended against a high metal fence. The black and white canvas of the circus tents crowded in on them on either side. They had come to a dead end. Amanda turned to see the snake almost upon them. It stopped, raised its head and hissed, opening its blue mouth wide. Amanda reached for her wand. Her mind whirled. What spell could you use to battle a snake?

Then the snake changed in a matter of seconds. Its emerald scales morphed into poison green robes. It grew taller, thicker, changing before their eyes into a woman with dark, heavily lidded eyes and a mass of black tangled hair, her wand pointing at them as they huddled against the fence.

"Stupefy!" Riot shouted. The red stunner flew from his wand and shattered on the canvas above the woman's head in a shower of sparks.

"Petrificus totalus!" the woman retaliated. It wasn't a direct hit, but the spell spread out in a shimmering bubble, surrounding all four of them, and they were instantly frozen where they stood.

She advanced on them slowly, fingering her wand. Her gaunt, hungry face was illuminated by the garish electric bulbs strung overhead. Amanda felt a start of recognition. The woman had been there that night, the night of the ceiling and the snake-faced man, seated at the long table, staring up at her and Gavin as they hung suspended from the ceiling.

"I know who you are, little Missy," the woman hissed, coming close to her, so close that Amanda could smell her foul breath. "You're a ward of Severus Snape, aren't you? Under his protection!" She laughed, a high cackling laugh, full of evil. "That treacherous, lying traitor!" She spat on the ground. "He betrayed the Dark Lord! Did you know that, little girl? Betrayed the greatest wizard of all time! Snuck around in secret for years!" She spat again. "I've seen you, going in and out of that garden of his, don't think I haven't!" She leaned over and plucked Amanda's wand out of her frozen hand. Amanda's heart was pounding in terror but she couldn't move a muscle. "What can you tell me about what goes on in Snape's house?" the woman hissed. "What does he know? What is he plotting?" She waved her wand over Amanda, releasing the binding spell. Amanda sagged to her knees and looked up into the woman's cruel, dark eyes. She could not think of anything to say. Her friends were still frozen beside her.

"Not talking are you?" said the woman. "All right then." She smiled. Her lips were very full and her teeth were rotten in her mouth. Amanda could tell that this was what she had been wanting all along. She raised her wand "Cruciatus!" she cried.

The pain was instant and horrible. Amanda rolled on the ground, clutching her belly, moaning. It went on and on. Like knives digging into her guts, like claws scraping at her skin. A grinding pain, deep in her bones, that took hold of her and would not let go. There was an electric buzz in her head, blotting out all thought.