The Other Potter

CXLVII. HE'S BACK

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Mia sprinted out of the room, after her brother and found herself at the entrance of the Ministry. She glanced around and saw Bellatrix on the floor and Harry standing over her with his wand pointing at her.

"You going to kill me in front of your sister?" Bellatrix taunted as Mia walked next to her brother.

"He won't," Mia said as her eyes glowed red, "but I would." Bellatrix's smile dropped as a red energy ball appeared in her hand.

"You've got to mean it, Euphemia," a chilling voice said that haunted Mia for months. Her eyes went back to blue as she felt her heart pounding in her chest. "She killed him, she hurt your brother. She deserves it. You know the spell, Euphemia. Do it."

Mia's hands shook slightly as she felt her head spin. She shook her head.

"No," she mumbled as she shut her eyes and shook her head, "no, you're not here."

"Aren't I, Potter?" said a high, cold voice. Mia opened her eyes and felt like throwing up.

Tall, thin, and black-hooded, his terrible snakelike face white and gaunt, his scarlet, slit-pupil eyes staring . . . Lord Voldemort had appeared in the middle of the hall, his wand pointing at Mia who was frozen, quite unable to move.

"We meet again, Euphemia," Voldemort said as Mia stared at him. "The last time we met, you were in that graveyard, begging for forgiveness."

Mia said nothing as she stared at him, her body frozen as she couldn't move. Flashbacks of the graveyard came back to her, and her body was filled with the same fear she felt that night.

"But tonight, you shall be dead," Voldemort said. "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Before anyone could even react, the headless golden statue of the wizard in the fountain had sprung alive, leaping from its plinth, and landed on the floor with a crash between Mia and Voldemort. The spell merely glanced off its chest as the statue flung out its arms, protecting Harry.

"What. . . .?" said Voldemort, staring around. And then he breathed, "Dumbledore!"

Mia looked behind her, her heart pounding.

Dumbledore was standing in front of the golden gates.

Voldemort raised his wand and sent another jet of green light to Dumbledore, who turned and was gone in a whirling of his cloak; the next second he had reappeared behind Voldemort and waved his hand toward the remnants of the fountain; the other statues sprang to life too. The statue of the witch ran at Bellatrix, who screamed and sent spells streaming uselessly off its chest, before it dived at her, pinning her to the floor. Meanwhile, the goblin and the house-elf scuttled toward the fireplaces set along the wall, and the one-armed centaur galloped at Voldemort, who vanished and reappeared beside the pool. The headless statue thrust Mia and Harry backwards, away from the fight, as Dumbledore advanced on Voldemort and the golden centaur cantered around them both.

"It was foolish to come here tonight, Tom," said Dumbledore calmly. "The Aurors are on their way. . . ."

"By which time I shall be gone, and you dead!" spat Voldemort. He sends another Killing Curse at Dumbledore but misses, instead hitting the security guard's desk, which bursts into flame. Dumbledore flicked his wand. The force of the spell that emanated from it was such that Mia, though shielded by his stone guard, felt her 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. . . .

Another jet of green light flew from behind the silver shield. This time it was the one-armed centaur, galloping in front of Dumbledore, that took the blast and shattered into a hundred pieces, but before the fragments had even hit the floor, Dumbledore had drawn back his wand and waved it as though brandishing a whip. A long thin flame flew from the tip; it wrapped itself around Voldemort, shield and all. For a moment, it seemed Dumbledore had won, but then the fiery rope became a serpent, which relinquished its hold upon Voldemort once and turned, hissing furiously, to face Dumbledore.

Voldemort vanished.

The snake reared from the floor, ready to strike. There was a burst of flame in midair above Dumbledore just as Voldemort reappeared, standing on the plinth in the middle of the 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 Dumbledore from Voldemort's wand and the snake had struck. Fawkes swooped down in front of Dumbledore, opened his beak wide, and swallowed the jet of green light whole. He burst into flame and fell to the floor, small, wrinkled, and flightless. At the same moment, Dumbledore brandished his wand in one, long, fluid movement, the snake, which had been an instant from sinking its fangs into him, flew high into the air and vanished in a wisp of dark smoke; the water in the pool rose and covered Voldemort like a cocoon of molten glass. For a few seconds Voldemort was visible only as a dark, rippling, faceless figure, shimmering and indistinct upon the plinth, clearly struggling to throw off the suffocating mass. Then he was gone, and the water fell with a crash back into itspool, slopping wildly over the sides, drenching the polished floor.

"MASTER!" screamed Bellatrix.

Sure it was over, sure Voldemort had decided to flee, Mia made to run out from behind his statue guard, but Dumbledore bellowed, "Stay where you are, Mia!"

For the first time, Dumbledore sounded frightened. Mia could not see why. The hall was quite empty but for themselves, the sobbing Bellatrix still trapped under her statue, and the tiny baby Fawkes croaking feebly on the floor.

And then Mia's eyes rolled into the back of her head as a red glow appeared around her as she collapsed onto the floor. Small red sparks spat out of her hands as she screamed in pain.

She knew she was dead: it was pain beyond imagining, pain past endurance. She was gone from the hall, she was locked in the coils of a creature with red eyes, so tightly bound that Mia did not know where her body ended and the creatures began. They were fused, bound by pain, and there was no escape. And when the creature spoke, it used Mia's mouth, so that in her agony she felt her jaw move.

"Kill me now, Dumbledore. . . ."

Blinded and dying, every part of her screaming for release, Mia felt the creature use her again. . . .

"If death is nothing, Dumbledore, kill the girl. . . ."

'Let the pain stop,' thought Mia. 'Let him kill us. . . . End it, Dumbledore. . . . Death is nothing compared to this. . . . And I'll see Mum and Dad again. . . .'

As Mia's heart filled with emotion, the creature's coils loosened, and the pain was gone, Mia was lying sideways on the floor, shivering as though she lay upon the ice, not wood. And voices were echoing through the hall, more voices than there should have been:

Mia opened her eyes, lying at the heel of the headless statue that had been guarding her, but which now lay flat on its back, cracked and immobile. She blinked and raised her head an inch to find Dumbledore's crooked nose inches from his own.

"Are you all right, Mia?"

"I-I, don't know," said Mia, shaking so violently she could not hold her head up properly. "Yeah, I'm, where's Voldemort, where. . . . who are all these. . . . what's. . . "

The Atrium was full of people. The floor was reflecting emerald-green flames that had burst into life in all the fireplaces along one wall, and a stream of witches and wizards was emerging from them. As Dumbledore pulled her back to her feet, Mia saw the tiny gold statues of the house-elf and the goblin leading a stunned-looking Cornelius Fudge forward.