The Art of An Ending

Chapter Thirty-One: The Final Battle

Erica flicked her wand, and a quiet, "Expelliarmus," had both Harry and Dumbledore's wands flying into the air. She snatched them both and handed them to Draco. After a moment Draco gave Harry his wand back, who was still glaring at them, and then he rose his wand and cast a silent Body-Bind Curse before covering him with his Invisibility Cloak.

Standing against the ramparts, very white in the face, Dumbledore still showed no sign of panic or distress. He merely looked across at them and said, "Good evening, Erica, Draco, Pansy."

Erica stepped forwards slightly, glancing around to check that there would be no others coming. She tilted her head slightly. "I really didn't think you'd come straight here with all of the fighting in the grounds and castle. I suppose that really is just pure luck on my part-" she tilted her head towards Draco and Pansy, "-or their's anyway."

"I see you're not acting alone," Dumbledore said quietly. "You have flooded my school with Death Eaters when you knew I would be away, and thus unable to stop you."

"It was relatively easy, all things considered," she lifted one shoulder in a little half-shrug, as relaxed as Dumbledore was appearing to be. "I had almost hoped it might have been harder, to present more of a challenge."

"Well, well," Dumbledore said, as though Erica was showing him an ambitious homework project. "Very good, indeed. You are much like your father in that way, I fear. It is my belief that he is also here tonight?"

"He demanded Harry be sent out- a minor detail I forgot to tell him that he wasn't in the castle at the time- in the promise for the safe take-over of the castle, but that's not what I am here for now," she sighed. "I have a task to do."

"Well, then, you must get on and do it, my dear girl," said Dumbledore softly, and there was a knowing look in his eyes.

There as silence. Erica raised her arm and pointed her wand at Dumbledore who, incredibly, smiled. She paused, knowing what she must do and yet fighting herself over it.

"Erica, Erica, you are not a killer."

"I killed Igor Karkaroff," she admitted. "I can kill you."

"I see," Dumbledore said, and there was mild surprise in his eyes at that, a titbit of information he had not expected. "Yes, you almost killed Katie Bell and Ronald Weasley as well, in your attempts to get to me. I am well aware that Mr Malfoy has been trying, with increasing desperation, to kill me all year. Forgive me, but they have been rather feeble attempts... so feeble, to be honest, that I wonder whether your heart has really been in it..."

"Oh, trust me, my heart was in it," Draco snorted slightly, hiding a half-panicked smile with his hand as his own fear threatened to send him into hysterics.

Another bang shook the castle, and there was a muffled yell from somewhere nearby, Pansy stiffening slightly by Erica's side.

"Somebody is putting up a good fight," said Dumbledore conversationally. "But carrying on... yes, you have managed to introduce Death Eaters into my school which, I admit, I thought impossible... how did you do it?"

Erica said nothing, and neither did Draco or Pansy. They were all listening to whatever was happening below, straining to hear if anyone was coming, and whether they might be friend or foe.

"Perhaps you ought to get on with the job alone," suggested Dumbledore. "As you may have realised, there are members of the Order of the Phoenix here tonight, too. And after all, you don't really need help... I have no wand at the moment... I cannot defend myself."

Erica merely stared blankly at him.

"I see," said Dumbledore kindly, when Erica neither move nor spoke. "You are afraid to act until someone more joined you."