Unofficial Portkey Archive

The rumbling sound was indeed getting closer. Angelia closed her eyes and reached out into the darkness. She opened her eyes, surprised to discover they were not coming for her. They were coming for Harry. She tasted bitter disappointment as she realized that he was going to be taken away. She quickly made her way back to the garden. She could feel him waiting there.

As she entered one of the archways into the sanctuary she made her way to the center. There, as she knew, was Harry sitting down holding his precious wand tightly. His face was staring down at the ground. He was not running to hide. He must not know what was coming for him.

Her voice sounded tentative, even to her, "Harry?"

He looked up at her. There was no trace of fear to be seen.

"Harry, I need to tell you something."

"What, that they're coming for me?"

She was doubly surprised to realize that he knew about them. He knew and he simply sat there, waiting.

"Ahhh," she said with a knowing look, "you are punishing yourself again. You are sitting here waiting for the inevitable. How brave of you, I guess."

Harry's voice sounded cold and distant, "What does it matter to you? I figured this would please you; to know that I will suffer more."

"Listen Harry, there is not much time. They will be here soon. I know you will not believe me, but that is not important now. I want you to do something for me."

"Why would I possibly want to do anything for you?" he responded.

"I can give you no reason. Time is too short for me to really explain anything to you. Would you let me take over you for a moment? I… I would like to feel like what it is to be you. It will be brief. I will not stay there. I would not want to face what is to come for you."

Harry stared at her from the bench. His face softened as he looked deeply into hers.

"Alright," he finally announced.

She was in shock for a brief second. He was willingly giving her this gift. She wasted no time. She reached out, but this time not with her mind. Her whole being shifted from inside her and waited just outside Harry's body. She would not be able to enter in this way without his permission. She mentally brushed her mind against his, and feeling no resistance she slid inside of him. When she was nestled deep inside his soul, she let herself go and melded with him.

The emotions came without mercy. All of the things Harry had ever felt or seen or experienced in anyway came flooding into her. All of his memories washed over her own memories. It was deeply exhilarating. She craved to know and understand more and more. Each image that appeared she quickly waved aside to see another. Within moments she had enveloped him all the way to his earliest memory. A woman crying and holding Harry in her arms. She could feel the woman's deep caring and commitment and it breathed a strange new life into her. Unconditional love.

Angelia was not prepared for these things. She had no understanding or experience to be able to mentally or emotionally deal with what was happening to her. She fought to pull herself out of Harry, but it was difficult. So quickly she had become deeply intertwined with him. It took a great deal of concentration to finally release herself from him. Finally, she was separated. Her essence came rushing back into her and it made her tremble.

"What have I done?" she whispered in fear. "I should never have done this. I feel so strange. I have to leave you. I cannot face these things. Prepare yourself Harry Potter. My dark masters are coming for you. Listen to me. You must fight them. You are different from all the others, but they will not care. Fight them Harry. Fight them with everything you have. I'm so sorry. I have to go. I'm not brave like you are."

With that she fully opened her wings and beat them repeatedly as she was lifted into the air and sped away as quickly as she could. She hated to admit it, but she was terrified of the Dark Ones. They were too powerful to fight for any demon. She could not let them know that she was different inside now. That would bring swift and terrible retribution. So, into the darkness she flew.

--- ---

"I can't let him go like this," Hermione cried. "I can't let him disappear forever. I haven't even had a chance to say goodbye. I'm going after him."

Ron looked at Luna and Hermione and then spoke. His voice was never more sure and never more intense than it was right now.

"I'm with you. Let's go. We need to get to the ministry of magic right now. I'm going through the veil. I will not let Harry face this alone. If I have to follow him all the way into hell itself, then I'm ready."

Ron turned to Hermione, "Teach me how to apparate. I know you know how. Hurry, time is running out."

Luna's face got wide. She then turned to Hermione and spoke, "I'm not going to get left behind. All three of us will go. There's a chance Ron can't come back. I'll be hanged if I fell in love with him just to lose him. Harry needs us."

Hermione thought about arguing, but there was no time.

"Okay listen, this is what you have to do. Don't mess this up. We don't have time for the ministry folks to come and sort you out if half of you winds up inside some mountain somewhere. This is how you do it," she began.

--- ---

"Fight?" Harry asked Angelia as she was speeding away. "How am I supposed to fight them if even you can't?"

She was already gone. Harry slowly stood up. Why should he fight them? He deserved what was going to happen here. He was not afraid of it. He almost welcomed it. The vision of Hermione came so strongly to him. He could see her so clearly. This time though he held the image firmly in his mind, so it could not be replaced by another. He remembered her face smiling at him. The exact memory escaped him right now, but he could clearly see her bright face. It gave him his first warm feeling, in a very, very long time.

He held his wand out and shouted, "Lumos!"

The light was so bright that it filled the whole garden. The shadows were banished away here. He looked around and the garden looked strangely beautiful now. This was where he would accept his fate. Let these Dark Ones come. He would not fight them. He would stand here and let them tear him apart.

"No more feelings," he said resolutely. "No more. No more emotions. No more memories. I'm ready. Come take me."

--- ---

Hermione looked at them both. It was a minor miracle that they had both apparated here without getting themselves hurt. There they stood at the front of the veil. Hermione did not need it. She could already feel a way to reach Harry, but if Ron and Luna were to come they would need to pass through. If they failed, at least they would all be together.

Ron looked at Luna. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her with all he could muster. He took her hand firmly in his and turned toward the veil.

"Ready my love?"

"Ready," Luna said without hesitation.

They both walked through at the same time, both concentrating very hard on Harry. Hermione came right behind them.

--- ---

Angelia stopped in mid-flight. Her only link to understanding was below her. Once he was gone then she would be lost here. Filled with a new desire to learn and to feel, but forced into eternal hiding. To have to live amongst her kind, but never show what was truly inside her. She shuddered at the thought of losing the only thing she had ever truly wanted. She sighed, what did she expect? She was a demon and this was the reality of her existence.

Unconditional love.

"It means nothing to me. I have no use for love in any form. There is no place for it in the darkness."

Unconditional love.

She shook her head hard and cringed inside of herself. She had felt it, just for the briefest moment, but she wanted it so badly it tore her apart.

Unconditional love.

"I want it… please, I need this. What do I do?" she whimpered. She looked down again and something snapped inside of her.

"What the hell?! I've got nothing better to do right now then be locked into eternal damnation. Might as well go out in my way, rather than fade into the forever grey of this place."

She laughed out loud almost maniacally.

--- ---

The rumbling was beginning to shake the ground quite noticeably. Harry looked up and was able to make them out. The Dark Ones were not a small group of demon masters. It was a horde. There were dozens or maybe even hundreds of them. They looked like huge, obsidian gargoyles. There red eyes pierced the darkness. He began to feel a real fear in his gut. The Dark Ones were relentless in their approach towards Harry. They stopped for nothing and kept their crimson gaze directly on him.

"This is not going to go well for me," he croaked.

The one closest to him pointed right at him. The others increased their speed. Their arms were huge and their hands were razored claws. They had no mouths, but Harry could not see how that particularly mattered right now. Harry figured that he had only a few precious minutes left before they arrived at the garden entrance. These things were immense. He estimated that they were quite a few feet taller than Grawp was. Harry wished he was still deep in the tunnels, so he did not have to see them coming. Here out in the open all he could do was wait. He briefly thought about dashing into the dark, twisting hallways, but realized that again there really was nowhere to hide.

The attack came long before they were upon him. Harry could hear there thoughts in his head. They spoke as one, but he could sense that many, many voices were in his mind.

"We have come for you. Our eternal prison calls out to you and we shall bring you there."

They sent wave after wave of fear and guilt into Harry's heart. He began to feel a coldness deep inside of his soul. The sheer weight of it all forced him to his knees. There was no way to fight these things. There was no way to defend his mind from their assault. The guilt of a thousand lifetimes bathed his soul in warped self hatred. His mind simply shut down. His still heart felt like lead in his chest. For a moment, he wanted to fight back, but there was no way. He had no weapon or knowledge to defeat this terrible smothering shadow. He lay on the ground trembling, curled into a tight ball.

A shout broke into the darkness, "THERE HE IS!"

Harry found no strength to lift his head to look around.

Harry smelled something sweet. He twisted his head upwards. There standing above him was Hermione. He began to laugh, but a cough wracked his body.

"You're not real," he groaned. "Go away Angelia. Leave me alone."

Hermione dropped to the ground and shook Harry.

She yelled in his ear, "Harry Potter get up now! There are VERY large demons coming this way. We have to go. We have to get out of here."

Harry began to laugh weakly again.

"Here at my last moment, I am still being tortured with memories of my Hermione. Go away demon. I will not believe in you ever again."

Harry closed his eyes and simply stopped talking.

Hermione tried to lift Harry, but he seemed to weigh more than a house. It was like his own dark state of mind had become an impossible weight.

"I can't move him. He's trapped here. He won't believe that we've come for him."

Ron looked around and realized that time had indeed run out.

"Give me that sword Hermione."

She untied the sword of Gryffindor and handed it to Ron. He had the sword in one hand and the blood knife in the other.

"I may not be all that great at magic, but I'm feeling a bit crazy invincible right now. These ought to do," Ron grinned.

Luna lifted her wand up and faced the oncoming demons at Ron's side. Hermione jumped up and stood next to them.

"Well, at least we'll go down fighting for Harry," Hermione mused.

The fight was upon them. Luna quickly turned towards Ron and cast a spell of some sort on him. It was one that Hermione did not even recognize.

"Now go Ron," Luna cried to him.

Ron's body crouched like a lion. He jumped forward and each move he made, each swing of the sword and knife was like an extension of his own body. Hermione yelled out in glee in spite of herself.

Luna turned towards the demons and began unleashing blasting curses as fast as was humanly possible. She yelled out each time and Hermione could sense that those curses were packing quite a wallop.

Hermione then turned and imagined herself as a splendid griffon. Her body quickly shimmered into her new form. The power she had before was still with her; and she had every intention of using it here and now. She flew up into the fray and began to claw and beak at anything that stood in her path.

The Dark Ones seemed unsure for a moment as they faced these things that would not cower before them. Then the battle was on.

The three of them coordinated their attacks and it was causing confusion in the ranks of their enemy. Soon, however, the demons began there attack. There huge claws lashed out and began to tear into these newfound nuisances.

No one in particular heard it, but hidden fingers snapped in the shadows. A slathering demon-beast came crashing into the garden and charged the demon masters. It threw itself into the battle with wild carelessness.

--- ---

A woman silently walked into the garden. She sat down next to Harry's immovable form. She reached her hand down and brushed the hair from his eyes. Her voice was like a silver bell.

"Harry. Please listen. The Dark Ones cannot be defeated by physical means. They are far too strong for that. They have come for you and so you must drive them back into their dark domain. The power is inside of you, but you have to overcome all of this burden you have placed on yourself. Your friends are here fighting to save you. They would not be here if they had not forgiven you. Do not let their bravery be in vain."

Harry opened his eyes. He looked at the woman and he began to shake violently.

"You're here? I've waited for so long. You finally came. You finally came."

Harry began to weep.

"It's okay my beautiful boy. I'm here now," her soft voice consoled him.

She reached down and lifted Harry into her arms. She held him tenderly, stroking his head and squeezing him close.

"I'm so proud of you. I always have been," the woman said earnestly.

"Mom, I love you so much."

"I love you too Harry."

"Listen to me son. We have very little time; I need you to find the courage within to stand up to all of these monsters. You have the key to saving you and your friends."

Lily Potter kept her eyes closed while talking to Harry. She could not let him know. If he saw, if he knew then he would be lost again.

"Please, my baby boy, please get up. Please… for me."

Harry whispered, "Okay. For you mom. For you…"

Harry fought with all of his strength to get up. The weight of darkness was so heavy. He could barely see anything. He heard a terrible battle around him, but could not figure out what exactly was happening.

Lily backed away and slipped back into hiding. When she was sure Harry was not looking, her figure shimmered and in its place Angelia returned to her natural form. She stood in the darkness and waited. She was nursing a new feeling now. The feeling was hope.

--- ---

Harry lifted his wand over his head and tried to speak, but no words would come. He shook his head and tried to concentrate. He let his mind wander over the past few years of his life. He brought forward every single happy moment he could thing of. He basked in the memories of the love he had for Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, the Weasley family and all the rest. The warmth of their love for him began to fill him up. The darkness was slowly slipping away. Harry mustered all the strength he had inside of himself and found his voice.

"Expecto Patronum!"

A silver light so bright erupted into the darkness that every single being stopped. All eyes had turned towards Harry. Then something that had never happened before in the history of all wizarding. A 'real' patronus burst forth into their midst. Harry could actually see a living breathing silver stag in front of him. It was quite large, its shoulders stood higher than a centaur. It was so beautiful. Its silver fur reflected every ounce of light in the area and intensified it into a blinding brilliance. Its silver antlers looked particularly shiny and deadly for that matter.

The patronus stag jumped into the battle. Each step it took, light shimmered from its hooves. It leapt and charged the Dark Ones. Ron, Luna and Hermione stood back and watched with eyes wide open. There was no resistance from the demons. They had no power to fight this silvery being. It rammed their obsidian bodies time and time again. Their large bodies began to crack and wear with each charge. Like an unstoppable tidal wave they were forced backwards from where they had come. In a matter of mere moments the impossible had been done. The demon masters where fleeing into their shadowy realm. Their horrible voices silenced. Young Harry Potter stood alone in the center of hell's garden with a smile of triumph that could melt the deepest snows of winter. His body now exhausted beyond all reason he crumpled to the ground and fell into a dreamless unconsciousness.

Angelia ran out of the shadows and headed straight to the patronus stag that had returned and awaited Harry's command. She threw her arms around it and did something no demon had ever done before. She cried tears.

"It's so beautiful. I've never seen anything like it before. I had no idea something like this even existed."

She buried her face in its fur. Luna had lowered her wand. Hermione quickly returned to her normal self. The spell on Ron faded and he was back to being regular old Ron again. The three of them all looked at one another. Shock and surprise was the only thing found there.

A strange little voice yelled out, "What went wrong?! How did this horrible thing happen?! What have you done?!"

Necris was hovering just above the ground nearby.

"You'll all pay for this do you hear me?! DO YOU?!"

Right behind Necris was a large beast like demon, slobbering blood from its mouth.

Angelia stood up and brushed the wetness from her cheeks.

"Eat that little worm," she snapped angrily.

"What?" the little boy demon said with surprise.

Immediately after, the Lost One had been swallowed whole, by Harry's old demon. The silence was kind of nice.