Alexandra Dursley {Golden Trio}

Chapter 106 - The Opal Necklace

Thanks for reading! I'm heading with my family to the beach today :)

 The wind beat her face, her boots skidded on the mud and her bag jumped around, but still Al poised her wand. Katie still jerked about, bound to the stretcher by the ropes, and this only offered Al some small comfort. When she was still, it would be too late.

 Finally, after what seemed like too long, she reached the castle entrance. Filch shuffled forward, ready to inspect her, but she shot past him. Her heart pounded in her chest as she sprinted to the Hospital Wing, bellowing to anyone that would hear. "Help! Help! Somebody get a professor! Move - get out the way!"

 "Dursley!" McGonagall said, her stern face appearing from her office doorway. "What is the meaning of this?"

 "Bell's been cursed!" she shouted over her shoulder as she continued to sprint. Her hat fell off her head, but still she ran. She could buy more hats. She rushed into the hospital wing as Madame Pomfrey scurried out of her office, took one look at Bell, and began performing a series of counter curses, hardly drawing breath. Bell stopped shaking. "Go and fetch Professor Snape," Pomfrey said urgently, and Al hurriedly obliged, not bothering to question why.

 She ran through the corridors, ignoring a seventh-year prefect that told her to walk, and found herself in the dungeons five minutes later. "Professor," Al said breathlessly, barging in and ignoring Snape's protests as he looked up from marking, "A student's been hurt. Dark magic. Madame Pomfrey sent for you."

 Snape got up without saying a word and followed her back to the hospital wing, somehow keeping up with a fast walk even though she herself was flat-out sprinting and ran every morning. They arrived in the hospital wing and he immediately overtook her, hurrying to Bell's side and drawing his wand.

 Al realised that her heart was pounding faster than it ever had, and she was breathing so heavily she thought she might pass out. She removed her cloak, gloves and scarf, as she was overheating, when a slight movement in the corner caught her eye. In her haste to make sure Bell was alright, the package that she'd touched had fallen to the floor by her bedside.

 "Don't touch that!" Al shouted, raising her wand at the offender, who flew back with a silent impedimenta. McGonagall looked outraged as she got to her feet.

 "Detention, Dursley!" she said, furious that she'd been attacked. "Every night. For a month. With me."

 "I'm sorry, Professor," Al said, not at all fazed that she was being punished, and more concerned by the morality of her actions, "It's just, that's what cursed her - that package. I don't think you should touch it."

 Slightly flustered, McGonagall raised an eyebrow, before flicking her own wand. The package flew into the air as gracefully as Bell had, unwrapping as it did so to reveal a necklace, laden with opals. "Severus," McGonagall called, and Snape swept over, looking curiously at the necklace. "What do you think?"

 "I think Miss Bell is lucky to be alive," Snape said, his brow furrowed.

 "Here's your hat back, Dursley," McGonagall said as they left the hospital wing, "You can have twenty points for Slytherin for quick thinking - detentions still withstanding. Did anybody else witness this?"

 "She was with her friend," Al said, "And I was with Harry, Ron and Hermione - uh, Harry Potter." Al didn't know how many other Harrys there were, but it was probably worth being specific.

 "I'd guessed that," McGonagall said as they neared the Entrance hall. The other seventh-year was walking in with Hermione, Harry and Ron at that very moment. "You can go, Dursley. I'll find you if I need to know anything else. Your first detention will be tomorrow night. Six o'clock, my office."

 "Detention?" Harry asked as they got closer, "Professor, Al was helping Katie, not-"

 "I know that, Potter, and she has been rewarded such," McGonagall said, "If you four will follow me." And with that, they were off, leaving Al to wonder what the hell had just happened.

 Harry threw her a puzzled look. "I'll explain later," she said, before heading off to clean up and send off Remus's package.

*****

 "I heard you've had quite the eventful weekend?" Dumbledore asked as Al arrived for her soul power training session with him.

 "Yes, Sir," Al said gravely, "Will Katie Bell be OK?"

 "She has already been transported to St Mungo's," was all Dumbledore said. "You have detentions with Professor McGonagall, I believe? Starting tonight?"

 "Yes, Sir," Al said, "Although I do deserve it."

 "She told me you performed quite an impressive knockback jinx? And silently?" Dumbledore said, looking amused.

 "Professor McGonagall said it was impressive?"

 Dumbledore chuckled, "You constantly surprise me, Al. Anything that could make Professor McGonagall so much as stumble would be impressive." Al made to get her wand out, but Dumbledore stopped her. "You won't be needing that today."

 "No, Sir?" Al asked, confused.

 "No," he said, "You have very much mastered your ability with a wand. Now I would like you to try without."

 "Wandless magic?" Al said, "I didn't even think that was possible!" Dumbledore held up his hand and a book soared across the room to him. Al's mouth dropped open as she remembered a similar event from her third year.

 "You have pushed beyond the limits of what one might describe as possible, Al," Dumbledore said with a smile, beginning a pace. "No one would imagine someone could lead such a rich and normal life for so long without their soul. No one would imagine that two people could share such a bond that you and Harry do. No one would imagine that you could perform the incredible magic that you have shown me in this very room. And yet here we stand."

 Al nodded. "So what do I do?"

 "I would like you to aim at the wall," Dumbledore said, and Al turned with a questioning look. "The only wandless magic I have heard of you doing has been explosive and uncontrolled. I would not like to be on the receiving end of it." Al smiled and raised the palms of her hands to face the wall. "I would like you to close your eyes and think of someone that you love. You need to let the feeling pull at you, let it fill you up. Drink it in to every matter of your being. And then channel it down your hands."

 Al obliged and thought of George and Harry and Remus. She felt a tingling sensation in her wrists and heard Dumbledore say, "Well done! Keep going!" Al opened her eyes and saw the pale white glow emitting from her hands. She was never going to see Sirius again. These words brought tears to her eyes and the glow grew ever stronger. She gritted her teeth and forced more power down through her arms.

 When Al thought she might explode there was a sudden flash, the sound of a deadly crack where the wall split, and a bang as the desks all jumped away. "Excellent, Al!" Dumbledore said, conjuring a handkerchief with which to wipe her eyes. He went over and inspected the black scorch marks that rippled out in three layers from where she'd hit the wall.

 "It will come easier with practice," Dumbledore concluded, turning to her, "Well done today, Al - that was fantastic work. Now go and clean up before your detention. And my office next week." Al nodded and thanked him. She hoped McGonagall wasn't too harsh on her today - she was exhausted.