The Last Horcrux

The Wedding

The night before the Easter Holidays, Amanda and Riot sat in the Ravenclaw common room. The fire felt good on this chilly spring evening, with grey clouds low and heavy in the sky. Amanda was trying to study, and Riot was trying to distract her. He was, Amanda had learned, the kind of boy who could leave everything to the last minute and still pass his exams with high marks.

"Stop it," Amanda said.

"Stop what?"

"You're....Not concentrating."

"Don't you ever just want... something to happen?"

"We just survived a huge Death Eater attack," Amanda retorted. "Now, I just want to pass my exams."

Riot snorted.

"Besides you're coming home with me tomorrow. We're going to go to Harry and Ginny's wedding."

"I still can't believe I get to go to Harry Potter's wedding!" said Riot, his eyes lighting up. "Do really think Viktor Krum vill be there?"

Amanda shrugged. "He's invited," she said. "Now can we please get some work done?"

But then, an owl was at the window. Amanda went and took the slip of parchment from its beak. It was from Mark.

"Thunderstorm coming," it read. "Meet in the astronomy tower in half an hour."

She handed the note to Riot. "Looks like you get your wish."

********

Amanda and Riot made their way through the darkened corridors to the astronomy tower. Mark and Tori were waiting for them. In the distance, thunder rumbled. A spring storm was heading their way.

Mark was pale and excited, a thin sheen of sweat on his forehead. "Ready?" he asked them. Amanda took his cold hand and squeezed it. Riot nodded.

"You don't have to do this for me," Tori protested. But she didn't really sound convincing.

"It's decided," replied Amanda. "It was decided a long time ago."

They had done their homework. They had kept those stupid mandrake leaves in their mouths for a solid month, from full moon to full moon. They had each placed their leaf in a crystal phial, filled with pure moonlight, and added one of their own hairs. They had added a silver spoonful of dew, collected by Mark. Tori had obtained the chrysalis of a death's head Hawk Moth - she would not reveal how. They had dutifully pointed their wand tips to their hearts, every morning and every night and repeated the incantation: "Amato, Animo, Animato, Animagus"

They had dreamed of dogs and deer, hawks and bears. Now with trembling fingers, they retrieved their crystal phials from where they had hidden them behind a loose stone. Lightning flashed all around them. Thunder rumbled. The wind whipped rain into their faces.

Mark stood up in the wind and the storm. He looked wild and fierce and brave. He pointed his wand to his chest and said the incantation aloud, one last time. Amanda and Riot did the same. Tori watched her friends with shining eyes.

Mark held up his crystal phial. It contained a mouthful of blood red potion. He looked at the others, grinned a crooked grin and swallowed. Amanda looked at Riot. He nodded. Together they said the incantation and drank their potion. It tasted metallic and slightly sweet, like blood, with a whiff of animal musk. Amanda felt it hit her stomach and waited, breathless.

At first, nothing happened, and she worried that they had failed. And then she felt it. An odd tickle in the back of her head, a tingle along her spine, a stretching sensation of her skin. It wasn't unpleasant. It was......interesting. She felt oddly detached. She smelled the night - the ozone in the air, the water hitting the cold earth far below them, the smell of green things, wanting to grow, reaching toward the rain, taking it in.