The Phoenix Prophecy

Chapter 17: Epilogue - Part 11

Monday — July 21^st

Ron:

I may never point at anything again. Pointing your finger at a dragon when you can’t even run is an incredibly foolhardy thing to do. If it were not for the fact that I had a wife and a child to look after, I would have crawled behind the nearest rock. I was about to tell Gretchen to take the baby and run, when she knelt down beside me and placed her free arm around my shoulder. I wrapped my left arm around her and we waited to see what was going to happen next. In reality there was little else we could do.

“Locating your whereabouts has been a most difficult task,” echoed Cetus’ voice inside my head. “It is good to find that you are all alive and in one piece. Gemini, Virgo and I feared greatly for your safety and wellbeing when Lemke informed us of the circumstances surrounding your disappearance.”

“Cetus, you could not have arrived at a more auspicious time. We are in desperate need of your assistance,” Professor Dumbledore said after he had taken a few steps in Cetus’ direction. “Harry, Hermione and Alec are missing and their lives may be in grave danger. When we learned of their peril, we were unable to go to their aid as some unknown entity prevented us from leaving the cottage you see behind me.”

“It looks as if it took a considerable amount of force to free yourselves from the confines of the cottage,” Cetus replied, looking past us to the almost completely demolished cottage that lay in shambles.

“You are quite correct in your assumption,” Professor Dumbledore replied. “Regrettably, Ron was injured during our escape. Madelyn informs me that even though his injury is serious, he should make a full recovery.”

When Professor Dumbledore mentioned my injury, my leg started to throb even harder than before. From the moment Cetus arrived, until now, I had pretty much forgotten about it.

“Where were your missing young ones last seen?” Cetus asked.

“Ron and Nicole last saw Harry and Alec just beyond the first bend in the path you are now sitting on. Hermione has not been seen since she left the cottage,” Professor Dumbledore replied.

When Cetus turned to look behind him, a small amount of pandemonium erupted as Lemke and six of his brothers suddenly appeared halfway between Cetus and Professor Dumbledore.

“Cetus, please excuse our delay. It took me several minutes to undertake the necessary preparations for returning our guests to our home,” Lemke said, and bowed deeply in Cetus’ direction.

“No excuse is necessary, Master Elf,” Cetus replied and bowed his head in Lemke’s direction.

I was about ready to scream and not just from the pain in my leg. All of this head bowing and courtly gestures were starting to get on my nerves. My friends might be dying somewhere out there. Why couldn’t they just hurry up and get on with the rescue? Still, I was very glad to see Lemke and his brothers. Memories of Lemke rescuing Harry from the forest came flooding back to me and I relaxed a little. I knew that if anyone could rescue Harry, Hermione and Alec, it was these three.

“Professor Dumbledore, just before landing, I noticed a shield of some size and considerable power has been erected about one thousand feet from where we are now standing, in the general direction you indicated your missing students were last seen. I think that would be the ideal place to commence our search.”

“I fully agree,” Professor Dumbledore replied. “It might be prudent for Walt and Lemke to accompany us on our search.”

“Yes, that is an excellent suggestion.”

‘Yes, yes. Take anybody, take everybody, but just get going,’ I thought to myself. Ever since we found ourselves confined to the cottage, I have had this feeling of dread that something terrible was happening to my friends. I would bet a week’s worth of suppers that the shield Cetus mentioned was in some way involved with the fact that Harry and Alec had not returned with Hermione.

“With your permission, my brothers will return the others to our home,” Lemke said to Cetus and waited for his approval.

“You have it. We will be joining you directly. I do not think it is going to take long to track down the missing young ones.”

“Hey, I don’t want go anywhere until I know that Harry, Hermione and Alec are safe,” I shouted more loudly than I intended.

“Ron, I know you are worried about them. We all are,” Professor Dumbledore replied kindly. “The best thing for you to do at this moment is to allow Lemke’s brothers to return you and the others to their home. There you will be safe and I will be able concentrate all of my thoughts and energies on rescuing Harry, Hermione and Alec. As much as you want to help them by being here, going back to Lemke’s home is the way that you can help them the most. Do you understand what I am telling you?”

“Yes, Professor. I understand,” I replied rather reluctantly.

“I knew you would.”

“Sirius, I know you wish to accompany us, but I would feel more at ease if you would stay and see to the other’s needs,” Professor Dumbledore said as Sirius took a step in his direction, obviously ready to protest.

“As you wish, Albus,” Sirius replied. I could tell that he wasn’t too thrilled about being left behind, but he quickly got over his moodiness.

Walt kissed Martha after giving Katie to Nicole. Katie didn’t protest, which rather surprised me. Walt and Professor Dumbledore walked over to where Lemke was standing. After a short conversation with Cetus that I could not hear, the four of them vanished.

Lemke’s brothers quickly moved among us, in preparation for returning us to their home. Sirius and Madelyn helped me to my feet after I insisted that I was not going to travel sitting on my butt. With Madelyn on one side of me and Gretchen on the other, we suddenly found ourselves back on the familiar plateau of Lemke’s home site. Before I could blink twice, Professor McGonagall and the others arrived and we were ushered back into the room inside the tree.

Harry:

When the second image of Gawain transfiguring into a dragon flashed through my mind, I was so relieved that Hermione and Alec had seen it too that I stopped thinking about the basilisks for a split second. Alec’s outburst instantly brought me back to the reality of our situation. The basilisks had learned from their past mistakes. This time, they were closing in on us so that no matter which way we jumped, one or both of the basilisks would in all likelihood not miss sinking their poisonous fangs into us. I was so busy concentrating on both basilisks, in anticipation of which one would strike first, that I almost failed to hear what Hermione was screaming about.

If I live to be a thousand years old, I don’t think I will fully understand what happened next. When I finally realized what Hermione was telling us to do, the image of a small dragon blossomed in my mind. For the next few seconds, everything happened in slow motion. The basilisks were moving towards us at a snail’s pace. It appeared as if it was going to take them an hour to reach us.

My attention was drawn to an image of a dragon floating in front of me. As I stared at the dragon, looking it squarely in the eyes, I began to feel a strange sensation within me. It felt as though my bones were dissolving and reforming all at the same time. Abruptly, every inch of my skin began to itch and burn. I glanced down at my hands and watched with a combination of horror and fascination as they transfigured from human to reptilian. Fingers turned to talons, and my arms changed into another set of legs, dragon legs. Suddenly, my head felt as if were about to explode. Before I could shut my eyes to lessen the pain, my nose and mouth began to grow. In the blink of an eye, my head had been transfigured into a dragon’s head. Turning my head to look at the rest of me, I was not surprised when I saw the body of a dragon.

“It happened. It actually happened,” I heard Hermione’s voice say inside of me.

“This is absolutely incredible,” Alec’s voice echoed.

I was just about to answer them when time returned to normal and both of the basilisks attacked at the same instant.

Moving with incredible speed and agility, I was able to catch each basilisk with my front legs just as they struck out at me. I felt my talons encircle the basilisk’s bodies just below their heads and grip them strongly enough to prevent any escape.

The basilisks immediately began writhing and squirming in every possible direction in an effort to free themselves from my grip. Balancing myself on my hind legs and tail, I stood up as much as I could. The basilisks were long enough that their tails were still touching the ground, but they were powerless to move. I continued to tighten my grip around their necks until the basilisks stopped trying to escape and just glared at me.

“Harry, dragons are immune to a basilisk’s death stare,” Hermione said as I realized that nothing was happening to me while I just glared back at the two basilisks I was holding in my talons.

“Yes, I just realized that.”

“What are we going to do with them?” Alec asked.

“We have to kill them,” Hermione replied before I had decided what to do.

I knew that Hermione was right. We certainly could not let them go as long as we were trapped inside the shield. “You’re right,” I replied. “It is the only way that we will be able to concentrate on how to free ourselves from the shield.”

“You realize that we are actually holding Luther and Eliza in our talons,” Alec said in the short silence that followed.

“Yes, I realize that,” I replied. “They mean to take our bodies, which is the same thing as killing us. I think that this is one of those times that you have no choice but to kill, or be killed.”

“I see no other alternative open to us,” Hermione added gravely. “The instant we let go of them, they will attack us again. Next time we might not be so lucky. We don’t possess any spell strong enough to immobilize a basilisk. Our only real choice is to kill them while we have the chance to do so.”

“I’m not sure how we are going to be able to do just that,” I said as I looked at each of the basilisks.

“Maybe we can strangle them if we squeeze their necks tight enough,” Alec suggested.

“That sounds better than biting their heads off,” I replied.

“Harry! Don’t even suggest such a horrid thing,” Hermione wailed.

“Just kidding,” I replied. Aside from the repugnance of putting the basilisk’s head in my mouth, I was worried that the dragon might not be immune to their poison.

“Okay, let’s get on with it before they do something and escape,” Alec said almost at once.

I felt my talons tighten around the basilisk’s necks. I applied as much pressure as I could force from my front legs, but it was not enough. After several seconds, I was forced to ease off on the pressure.

“Well, that isn’t going to work,” Hermione said. “What now?”

“What would happen if we shove their heads into the shield?” Alec asked.

“Good question. Let’s find out,” I replied.

Moving slowly, I turned to my left and advanced on the shield with the basilisks held out in front of me as much as possible. The closer we came to the shield the more frantically the basilisks fought to free themselves. I hesitated for just a second before forcing the basilisk’s heads into the shield, as I was unsure of what would happen to us when their heads finally came in contact with the shield.

“Ready?” I called out.

‘Ready,’ both Hermione and Alec replied.

Holding my breath, if that was possible, I took the final step and rammed both of the basilisk’s heads against the shield at the same instant.

The effect was immediate and devastating. I don’t think I had ever felt that much pain in my entire life, and hopefully never will again. The energy that poured into my body literally ripped it apart. I was flat on my back, in my normal human body, trying to catch my breath. There was nothing about me that didn’t hurt, especially my head.

I heard someone begin to moan beside me. Turning my head as slowly as possible, I saw that Hermione was flat on her back as well. At first glance, she seemed to be all in one piece. Alec began to stir on my other side.

“That sure was a great idea we had,” he said after he managed to sit up.

“As I recall, it was your idea,” Hermione replied.

“What happened to the basilisks?” I demanded, suddenly remembering why were lying on the ground. I tried to leap to my feet and regretted it instantly. The pain inside my head forced me to a sitting position and I looked around slowly. There was no sign of the basilisks or Luther and Eliza.

“I have no idea,” Hermione replied after I gave her a helping hand so that she could sit up.

“I don’t see any sign of them. Maybe they were destroyed,” Alec added hopefully.

“That would be too much to ask for,” I said as I got to my knees and then slowly to my feet.

“The only thing we know for sure is that they are not inside the shield,” Hermione added through clenched teeth as she slowly got to her feet.

“Assuming they were not destroyed, then we had better figure out a way to get out of here before they come back,” Alec said once he was back on his feet again.

“I think we can assume that touching the shield will be just as painful to us in our human form as it was as in dragon form,” Hermione added and started looking around the area enclosed by the shield.

“I suppose the only way out of here is to dig our way out.” Alec said, with a shrug of his shoulders.

I was just about to reply that digging our way out might take a month when the ground started to shake. The tremors were strong enough to knock us all off our feet. As I fell to the ground, a movement outside the shield caught my attention. At first I thought it might be Professor Dumbledore, come to rescue us. When I realized that, I was looking at the gloating faces of Luther and Eliza, my hopes for a quick rescue vanished as quickly as they had come.

“Nice try, but you are no match for the power that we possess,” Luther said as I just stared at them, unable to believe my eyes. Were we ever going to be rid of those two?

Suddenly, before I could even think up some insult to throw back at him, a hole in the ground opened, a torrent of water shot into the air, and turned to steam when it came in contact with the top of the shield.

The noise of the gushing water turning to steam as it collided with the shield made it impossible to hear what Luther and Eliza were saying. One look at their faces told me that they were going to enjoy watching us boil to death. It would only be the matter of a few seconds before enough steam was created to fill the entire area contained with the shield. Being scalded to death by super hot steam was not going to be a pleasant way to die. Thankfully, it would be relatively quick.

I was just about to reach for Hermione so that we could spend our last few seconds in each other’s arms when I realized that Alec would die all alone. Hermione must have realized the same thing as she flung herself at both of us. Wrapping our arms about each other, we sat in the mud and waited for the end. The steam was only a few feet above our heads and steadily moving closer.

“I’m scared,” Hermione said, her voice shaking noticeably.

“So am I,” I replied.

“Me too,” Alec added. “I never thought I would die like this.”

“Neither did I,” Hermione replied. She surprised me when she kissed Alec just before she kissed me for what would be the last time.

“I love you,” I whispered in her ear when she buried her face in my shoulder.