The Phoenix Prophecy

Chapter 17: Epilogue - Part 9

Monday — July 21^st

Ron:

Nicole and I ran back to the cottage just as fast as our legs would take us. I had thought that I might have to slow down a bit, so as not to leave Nicole behind. As it turned out, I had all I could do to keep up with her. Like Gretchen, Nicole could run like the wind.

“What happened?” Sirius demanded, leaping up from the table, knocking over the glass in front of him, as we burst into the cottage.

Both Nicole and I were winded from sprinting the entire way to the cottage. While we both tried to catch our breath, Walt and Professor Dumbledore quickly rose from the table and came over to where Sirius was waiting impatiently for us to answer him.

“Well?” Sirius demanded a second time. He was quite frustrated by our inability to answer him promptly.

“Wolves…we heard wolves in the forest. Apparently, Hermione has wandered off somewhere. While Harry and I were trying to find her, we heard howling coming from fairly nearby in the forest,” I finally managed to say.

“Alec said the howling was definitely made by a wolf. He was positive about it,” Nicole added. “Alec told us to come here and get help, and then he and Harry changed into animals and raced off into the forest.”

“We must be quick about it, if we are to have any chance of helping them before it is too late,” Professor Dumbledore said the instant Nicole finished speaking. I could not remember ever seeing him look this worried.

“Sirius, you come with me. Walt, you stay here with your family,” Professor Dumbledore commanded and headed straight for the door we had just passed through.

Professor Dumbledore had barely taken two steps towards the door when suddenly all of the window shutters slammed shut with such force that everyone yelped in surprise. Luckily, the fire was still burning in the fireplace or the room would have been plunged into total darkness. Katie and Alice moved to stand as close to their mother as they could get. Nicole surprised me by wrapping her arms about my waist, holding onto me for all she was worth.

“Albus, what the bloody hell is going on?” Sirius demanded.

“We’re trapped,” Walt added. “It is apparent that someone, or something, does not what us to leave this cottage.”

“Kai and Nyssa?” Madelyn asked. They were the obvious choice, no question about that. But why?

Professor Dumbledore walked over to the door without uttering a single word. Professor McGonagall quickly made her way to his side.

“Albus, this door has been transfigured into stone and fused with the stone wall of the house,” Professor McGonagall said shortly after examining the door.

“There is more than transfiguration at work here,” Professor Dumbledore replied. “I tried to disapparate from the room and was unable to do so.

I was so stunned by our sudden imprisonment that I completely forgot about Gretchen and the baby. “Where is Gretchen?” I asked, looking around the room wildly.

“She is upstairs,” Madelyn replied.

“Nicole, I need to go find Gretchen and the baby. Maybe you should go and wait by Martha’s side,” I said to her.

“I would like to go with you,” she said after she let go of me. “If that is all right with you,” she added.

“Madelyn, go with Ron and Nicole,” Professor Dumbledore ordered. I didn’t even realize that he was listening to me. “Be as quick as you can. I want all of you back in this room as soon as possible.”

I didn’t like the ominous implications of what he did not say. It was obvious that Professor Dumbledore was very worried.

Without waiting for further instructions, I raced for the stairs and bounded up them two at a time.

“Go to your right,” Madelyn called out from behind me. “Gretchen is in the last room, at the end of the hallway.”

My heart was in my throat as I made my way down the hall and entered the room. I breathed a gigantic sigh of relief when I spotted Gretchen and the baby curled up on the bed, sound asleep. I crossed the room and gently shook Gretchen by the shoulder, so as not to startle her.

“Ron, what is it?” she asked as she sat up and gathered the baby into her arms.

“I’ll explain as soon as we get downstairs,” I replied. “We have to hurry.”

“What’s wrong?” she asked, looking more than a little bewildered.

“We will explain everything as soon as we get downstairs,” Madelyn replied and hurried us out of the room.

Nicole led the way. I walked along side Gretchen, as she was a bit unsteady from just being awakened. Madelyn followed behind us, silently urging us with her hands to move quicker. By the time we reached the bottom of the stairs and entered the main room, Gretchen could be denied no longer.

“Now will you tell me what is going…” she stopped without completing her question and gasped when she noticed that the room was completely dark, with the exception of the light from the fire.

“Harry and Alec are trying to find Hermione. We heard wolves howling in the nearby forest. After Nicole and I came back to the cottage for help, the window shutters and doors sealed themselves before we could go to their aid,” I said quietly, so I would not disturb the professors who seemed to be deep in discussion. “In short, we are trapped in here, while Harry, Hermione and Alec may be in terrible trouble outside.”

“Who sealed us in?” Gretchen asked, clutching the baby even tighter to her chest.

“We don’t know. My best guess would be Kai and Nyssa, but we don’t have anyway of knowing for sure.”

“Ron, this is just awful. We have to find a way out of here.”

“Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall were working on that when I went to fetch you and the baby,” I replied. “Maybe they have come up with something.”

“All of the less aggressive spells we have tried have been ineffectual in breaking through the stone wall,” Professor Dumbledore said after Gretchen and I walked over to where everyone else was standing. “It appears that we are going to have to apply a considerable amount of force in order to break through the wall. This will undoubtedly do great damage to the structural integrity of the house. Sirius, I want you and Walt to cast spells that will keep the second floor from crashing down on our heads.”

“Certainly,” Sirius and Walt both replied.

“Now everyone listen very carefully,” Professor Dumbledore began. “Minerva and I are going to melt a hole through the wall. The intense heat will cause the stones to shatter, exploding outward. As soon as I say so, I want everyone to run outside as quickly as you can. Madelyn, you go first, followed by the youngsters. Sirius, you and Walt will necessarily be the last to leave. Once I am outside, I will try to keep the cottage from collapsing on top of your heads while you make your escape.”

“Thanks, Albus. We appreciate that,” Walt replied, a lopsided grin on his face.

“Does anyone have any questions they wish to ask?” Professor Dumbledore asked.

“All right then, everyone stand back,” Professor Dumbledore said after no one had any questions.

Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall stood about ten feet from the wall, pointed their wands at what was once a door and said something that I could not make out. Abruptly, from each of their wands, a brilliant, pencil thin, beam of light struck the wall at exactly the same point. Within seconds, the wall began to hiss and crackle. After ten seconds, the wall started to glow a dull red. The glow grew steadily brighter as the wall started to crumble.

When the wall started to spit out pieces of stone, Katie bolted away from her mother and ran to dad’s side, throwing her arms around his leg. Walt tried to convince her to go back to her mother, but she just clung to his leg and started to cry.

Suddenly, without warning, the wall exploded outward leaving a hole large enough to pass through without difficulty. As Professor Dumbledore shouted for everyone to leave, the timbers holding upper floor started to groan loudly.

“Ron, come and get Katie!” Walt shouted, as I was about to follow Gretchen out through the hole in the wall.

I hesitated only long enough to make sure Gretchen and the baby were safely through the hole, then I ran to where Walt was standing and pried Katie’s arms from around her father’s leg. She fought me until I picked her up in my arms, after which she threw her arms around my neck and held on as if her life depended on it.

All of the dust in the air made it difficult to see clearly, and to breathe. With Katie holding on to me so tightly, breathing was damned near impossible. When I stumbled over a piece of the ceiling that had broken free, Katie screamed in my ear, nearly breaking my eardrum.

Three steps from the hole, a beam in the ceiling snapped. It sounded as though someone had just cracked a whip right behind my head, and I winced from a sharp pain in my left leg, just above the knee. I stumbled and fell to my hands and right knee. Katie was sitting on the floor underneath me, her arms still locked around my neck. The air was so thick with dust that I could barely see my hands.

When I tried to stand up, my left leg screamed in pain. When I heard another beam snap just above our heads I forced myself to stand, placing all of my weight on my right leg. I tried to put some weight on my left leg, but a nearly fell over from the excruciating waves of pain that shot up my leg and back.

“Katie, My leg is hurt bad, I can’t carry you,” I said urgently, trying to keep the rising panic I was feeling out of my voice. “You need to let go so that I can put you down, then with your help, we can both get out of here.”

“Katie, do your understand?” I asked when she didn’t loosen her grip. “You have to let go and help me out of here. I think my leg is broken.”

I knew that Katie was frightened to death and that she was never going to let go of me willingly. She was shaking so hard that I thought she might be having convulsions. I wrapped my arms around her as tightly as I dared and tried to figure out what to do next.

Harry:

For an instant, I thought that Voldemort was standing behind us because the voice was familiar to me. As I stood up, ready to turn around, I suddenly knew whom I would be facing.

“We meet once again, how nice,” Luther spat out contemptuously, his voice barely more than a growl in his throat. Eliza was standing by his side, a smug grin on her face.

When Luther spoke to me, I was momentarily distracted by a shimmering light behind him. Without turning my head, I noticed that the shimmering light extended to both my left and right sides. It was obviously some kind of barrier, or shield, to keep us from escaping, or to keep anyone from helping us.

“Yes, we meet again. What is it that you want?” I demanded roughly.

I was in no mood to take anything from anybody. The rage that I had felt as a stag had not yet worn off. I could feel it pulsating through my veins. My wand was in my hand and I was ready to cast every spell I could think of on the next creature, human or otherwise, that so much as looked at us crosswise. I locked eyes with Luther and attempted to bore a hole right through the infuriating, smug look on his face.

I sensed that Hermione was trying to get to her feet. Without breaking eye contact with Luther, I held out my left hand to Hermione and pulled her to her feet.

“Why, I want to thank you for setting us free,” Luther replied with a grand sweep of his arm indicating the world around us, while trying to look and sound appreciative. He didn’t even come close. The smile on his face was anything but appreciative. More that anything else, I wanted to wipe the smug look off this bloody bastard’s face. He had that much coming and a whole lot more.

“We did not set you free, and you bloody well know it!” Hermione snapped back as Alec got to his feet and stood a few feet off to my right. “I’ll repeat Harry’s question. What do you want?” I could tell from the tone of her voice that she was really ticked off.

“What we want is really quite simple,” Luther replied after several seconds had passed during which he just glared at us with unbridled hatred. “We want your bodies, just as we always have done.”

“You are never going to get your filthy hands on our bodies,” Hermione shouted. I could imagine what her face looked like, but I didn’t dare take my eyes off Luther for even a second.

“And just who do you think is going to prevent us from doing what we please,” Eliza snapped back. “No one, not even your pathetic old wizard, can get through the shield that now surrounds us. You should have stayed home with your mommy. Now you will never see her again.”

From Hermione’s lack of an immediate comeback, I knew she was boiling with rage. If Eliza and Luther weren’t so powerful, I would have enjoyed listening to Hermione peel Eliza like an onion.

“What about you, Potter? Wish you had stayed at home with your mummy and daddy too?” Luther added when Hermione didn’t respond to Eliza’s taunt.

I was expecting Luther to say something about my parents after what Eliza had just said. Even though I knew it was coming, it still made my blood boil even more than it already was.

“Looks as if you were right, Eliza. They are so scared that they can’t even talk,” Luther gloated after I didn’t respond to his goading.

“What about you, little boy,” Luther said, looking at Alec. “Wish your mummy was here right now?”

Alec didn’t utter a word in response. I could tell from the look on Luther’s face that he was sure that dealing with us was going to be child’s play.

If I had not been concentrating on Luther’s eyes, I would have missed his intention to attack us a split second before he and Eliza raised their wands. Fortunately, that split second was just enough time for me to raise my wand in defense. Hermione and Alec were just as fast in raising their wands. Five bolts of energy collided mid way between us, creating a blinding flash of light and a deafening roar that threatened to break our eardrums.

My wand was drawing more energy out of me than I thought possible. I had never felt this much power in all the years since I started doing magic. I could feel my hair standing on end as I poured every ounce of energy that I had into my spell.

I was amazed when our spells began to overpower theirs and the collision point started to advance on them. The look of utter astonishment on their faces was worth every bit of the pain I was feeling as my hand began to throb from clutching my wand so tightly.

As the collision point advanced on them, they were forced to take a step backward. I immediately stepped forward in an attempt to force their backs against the shield they had encircled us with. I hoped that if we could pin them against the shield, they would give up and we would be able to force them to give us our freedom.

My hopes were short lived, as Luther and Eliza suddenly grew noticeably larger and more brilliant. The collision point stopped advancing on them and reversed direction. It was obvious that Luther and Eliza now had significantly more power than the three of us. The collision point of our spells was moving steadily closer to us with each passing second.

“Harry, this isn’t working!” Alec shouted over the ear-splitting roar that was filling the smoke filled air.

I could just barely make out the look of triumph on Luther and Eliza’s faces through the turbulence caused by the collision of our spells. I squeezed my wand as tight as I could and willed every last ounce of energy that I possessed into casting my spell.

“Harry!” Hermione cried out just as the front edge of Luther and Eliza’s spells reached us and we were forced into an ever-decreasing circle until finally our shoulders came in contact with each other.

The instant our shoulders touched, I felt an incredible rush of energy surge up through my feet and out my wand. The size and intensity of the stream of energy flowing from my wand increased ten times in the blink of an eye. The same thing must have happened to Hermione and Alec as the intensity of their spells increased just as mine had done.

The force of our combined spells blasted Luther and Eliza right off their feet and hurled them against the shield directly behind them. The look of shock and disbelief on their faces was something I will never forget, even if I live to be a thousand years old.

After we stopped casting our spells, we kept our wands pointed directly at them. I was just about to demand that they remove the surrounding shield when both Luther and Eliza’s bodies began to fade in and out of focus.

“Harry, wait!” Alec yelped and placed his arm in front of my chest just as I started to take a step in their direction.

In the instant that I looked at Alec to ask why he had stopped me from moving closer, I heard Hermione gasp. I turned back just in time to see two, ten-foot long basilisks, raise their heads to look at us.

Ron:

I could just barely make out the hole in the wall from the sunlight trying to penetrate the darkness. I glanced to the right and the left, but could not see any sign of Walt, Sirius or Professor Dumbledore. The groaning sounds coming from the ceiling were steadily growing louder by the second. I knew that the whole house was going to come down on our heads in the next few seconds. I braced myself for the pain that I knew was coming, and quickly took two small steps forward. Through some miracle, I managed to remain on my feet. The pain had been so intense that I almost passed out. Abruptly, I realized that something was running down my chin and neck. Licking my lips, I tasted the distinctive saltiness of my own blood. I must have bitten through my lip and not even felt it.

Four more steps and we would be at the hole in the wall. I knew that if I made it that far I would be able to use the wall for support and hop through the opening. A loud snapping noise forced me to take another pair of steps. As soon as I put weight on my left leg, it buckled out from under me and I felt myself falling head long towards the floor.

Before I had a chance to let go of Katie so that I could use my hands to break our fall, a pair of arms wrapped themselves around me from behind and lifted me, along with Katie, completely off the ground. In a whoosh, I was propelled through the hole and out into the dusty sunlight.

“Madelyn, I need your assistance, at once!” I heard Professor Dumbledore shout from just behind my ear.

Madelyn was at our side before I had a chance to say ‘thanks.’ The moment Madelyn was standing in front of me, Professor Dumbledore thrust me into her arms and I felt him move away. After that, everything got a little crazy. I don’t exactly remember what happened.

I do vaguely remember glancing back over my shoulder just in time to see a huge billow of dust gush out of the cottage, with Sirius and Walt dashing out through the hole, a foot or two in front of the dust cloud.

“That was too close for comfort,” Walt said as he and Sirius quickly caught up with us.

“You can say that again,” Sirius added, brushing the dust and soot from his clothes.

“Ron, what happened to you?” Walt demanded when he suddenly noticed that Madelyn was holding me.

“Sirius, grab Ron. Walt, you take Katie,” Madelyn barked loudly. I do wish she hadn’t yelled so loudly. Me ears had been assaulted enough for one afternoon.

A pair of strong arms grabbed me from behind and I felt Katie’s arms being pried loose from around my neck. I was just about to tell Madelyn that I thought my leg might be broken, when I heard Gretchen scream my name and then the lights went out.