Author's notes:
Thank you to my husband, Charlie who has become my favorite fan…and beta. He is now so cute as he begs for new chapters. Thank you to all who read…We're coming to the good part!
Disclaimer: J.K. Owns the Universe. I just play here.
Chapter 21
Insanity
Harry watched his face as the realization hit Dumbledore like he was standing in front of an oncoming bus. The emotions flitting across his features varied from disbelief, despair, anger and finally desperate acknowledgement.
"I knew he had leanings that he wouldn't discuss with me. He knew how I felt about the attacks. He tried to talk today and convince me the ideas of Grindlewald were somehow right. I guess this was his last attempt to draw me into his regime." Dumbledore growled and almost spat his words.
Harry and Hermione both drew their wands and were checking around the small building to see if Edmund Prewitt had secreted himself behind or around them to hear what they were saying. He was nowhere to be found. Hermione angrily stomped back to the front of the cottage to meet up with Harry and Dumbledore.
"We just let him slip through our fingers!" She huffed shoving her wand back up her sleeve.
Dumbledore was staring off into the distance with an eerily calm demeanor. "He isn't gone. He wants this castle and he is probably not alone. We have to be prepared. Harry, I think you both need to inform the Headmaster and I have a few things I need to do."
Harry watched the face of the boy softly change into the countenance of a man with a mission. His heart clenched to see the joy leeched away from his friend to be replaced by an angry and resolute Wizard willing to kill his best friend. The boy could see the subtle changes that created the man from the future that Harry knew and admired. He wondered if he would have the same strength when it came to dealing with his own demons.
Hermione looked up at the Head Boy and wordlessly hugged him. With a small smile she pulled a tiny bag of lemon drops from her pocket and handed them to the boy. His face lighted up just for a second and he smile softly.
"Thank you, Hermione."
"They're lemon drops. A kind of sweet and sour Muggle candy. I know you'll like them." She smiled back, a little embarrassed by the heightened red in his cheeks.
"I'm sure I will love them." His smile was fleeting and with a sigh he turned away from the two students and started walking up the hill.
Hermione paused for a moment then grabbed Harry's hand and they rushed back to the castle to alert the faculty to the imminent danger.
Grindlewald was not only in the area, but he has access to the castle and may already be inside. The old fortress had defenses, but how would they defend against someone who had already been invited in?
By the time everything had been explained to Headmaster Nigellus, several commands had been set into motion by Dumbledore and other faculty members that had been magically alerted during their conversation. Nigellus had sarcastically remarked that this was exactly the kind of information he would have liked to have been told during their first meeting, but Harry and Hermione impatiently brushed that comment aside and set to work letting the man become more aware of the forthcoming attack. Hermione didn't remember much, but the several specifics from Hogwarts, A History she did recall might be very useful after all.
By the time the Houses had been locked down with the youngest children safely secured, the fighting had commenced. Sounds of battle magics rang through the air zinging the surroundings with the metallic taste of blasting spells. The whole castle was surrounded by black robed Wizards who were incanting spells to break down the doors to the entrance. Apparently they had become closed to Edmund Prewitt/Grindlewald just in time. If Hermione hadn't told Dumbledore earlier, the Dark Wizard could have strolled right in and taken the castle without any chance of defeat. The few minutes head start had allowed the Headmaster and others to set the wards, prepare the castle's defenses and hide the children from harm.
Dumbledore apparated into the Headmaster's office wildly disheveled and crackling with magic. Even Nigellus took a step backward when he felt the power that was emanating from the young man.
"This is not your fight, Albus." Nigellus spoke sharply as he took in the determined look in his eyes.
"Yes. It is. I knew. Well, I should have known. He changed over the last few years and started spouting that poison and I never said a word. That is exactly why this is my battle." Dumbledore spoke with a growl.
The young man looked around the office a when his eyes saw what he was looking for he accio'd the item then disappeared.
Hermione sputtered and whispered to herself, "There's no apparating in Hogwarts, really!" Apparently what goes for everyone else doesn't necessarily go for Dumbledore even at this age.
Nigellus harrumphed then turned to the two students. They kept looking out the window to catch sight of the fight. Harry was itching to get out there and help. Being the one to send the message to the headmaster rankled a bit and his eyes flitted back and forth from the Headmaster who was speaking to the window in the corner. The Headmaster paused then waved them out.
"I don't know what a couple of sixth years can do to help them but you apparently think you can. Those with Dumbledore have been trained to fight, and it seems you never have been. I don't know what they are teaching in Hogwarts in your day, but it appears the Wizardly Gentlemen's fighting skills have become sorely lacking. If a wizard cannot duel, what kind of gentleman can they be?" Nigellus was almost talking to himself as the students were poised to run out of the office.
Hermione bit her tongue and just pulled Harry out the door and down the stairs. They hurried to the side entrance as the front was being closely guarded by grim faced faculty who shooed them out of the way. The side entrance was covered by students who were allowing other students in and out to help with defensive and protective spells until they tired and traded off. Harry was nodded out and even Hermione was allowed to follow. Apparently her reputation as a witch who would stand on her own was appreciated at least in this situation. They scooted out the door to face a barrage of spells that were intended to inflict enormous pain and hurt. Harry didn't hear one spell set to kill until he heard the voice of Edmund Prewitt yelling in a duel against Dumbledore.
The intensity of the bombardment of hexes and curses were overwhelming. Dumbledore was almost bent over with the force of the onslaught. His protection spell was holding but he wasn't able to fight back. Grindlewald's eyes were aflame in the power and exultation of the release of so much magic. His arms were raised above his head and he wasn't using his wand any longer. The spells rolled off him like oily flames that attacked his former friend.
"You should join me, Albus. There is no one that can rival our power. We could become Gods before the pathetic muggle masses. Why should we waste our time hiding ourselves and scraping about in small villages away from their stupid eyes? They see only what they want to see. I could make them see us, Albus. They could see us as their masters and serve us as they were truly meant to do. It is the true way things should be. Join me now, or we are finished. There will be no mercy for those who oppose me. It would be a terrible price to pay, my friend, but for truth, I will pay any price." Grindlewald's face lit up with the frenzy of absolute religious fervor. He was smiling beatifically all the while shooting death and pain hexes at his friend.
Harry could see the anger and despair flood Dumbledore's face as he took in the speech of his friend. The man had become lost in his own insanity and sadly his fanatical leanings had drawn like-minded people to him.
Harry whispered a protection spell as Hermione did the same. A new barrier came to life in front of Dumbledore allowing him a moment to regain himself and stand again. Harry and Hermione's wands shook from the torrent of power that was thrown against their protection spell, but it held. Dumbledore saw Harry and Hermione and he nodded slightly to acknowledge their help. He had pulled out the small round object that he had taken from the headmaster's office and was about to throw it when a `reductor' curse caught him from behind knocking the object from his hands.
Harry raced up beside him and helped him back up. Hermione grabbed the orb as she shot blasts back at the followers of Grindlewald who had crept up behind them. Dumbledore was panting hard and his face was covered in sweat. He seized the sphere thankfully from Hermione's hands and pushed it into Harry's holding the top of the ball as well.
"The words are unimportant. But you must think about the castle. How much it needs to protect the grounds against all attackers. This is very important, Harry. Help me. I haven't much left. Know this will work. Put all of yourself into it. Believe that they cannot win, and imagine the whole of Hogwarts pushing them away." Dumbledore stared into Harry's eyes until he could see understanding and agreement. They stood together silently for a moment allowing Hermione to protect them and then together they could feel the power within them build up then at the last possible moment they aimed and threw the orb at Edmund Prewitt.
Tears were softly falling down Dumbledore's face as he looked once again into his best friend's face. He closed his eyes for a moment so he wouldn't see the insanity that had taken over his once best friend.
Time seemed to slow and a ripple seemed to flow out from Edmund Prewitt and over his followers causing them all to freeze into place. Silence fell as they stood rigidly as all magics stopped for a second. Then suddenly the air was shattered by a shrieking noise as every attacker screamed and their bodies were blasted with force strong enough to shake the ground knocking Harry, Hermione and Dumbledore to the dirt. The sound of Pheonix song shrieked around their heads whipping their hair and lashing their robes tight against their bodies.
Within just a few seconds every black robed invader was stunned onto the ground. The dirt beneath them became muddy and swollen and horrifically the bodies started to sink; being swallowed up like they had staggered into quicksand. The squelching noise of people screaming as they were being buried alive made Hermione gasp and turn her face away. Harry looked on with a face white as a sheet, his eyes wide and horror-stricken. Dumbledore merely watched in silence as the grounds slowly returned to its former grassy self with the only thing showing the presence of the attackers being their wands scattered across the field. Without a word, Dumbledore walked to the place where his friend had been and picked up the wand that was still there and snapped it in half.
Harry watched as every wand of the dark wizard's followers across the field responded by snapping in half as well. Harry reached over and pulled Hermione close as she softly cried into his shoulder. His cheeks were wet as well, but he continued to watch Dumbledore as the Headmaster went out to meet him and other students followed in his wake.
Dumbledore paused the approach of the Headmaster with a raised hand and he reached down and grasped the round ball that had been thrown by himself and Harry. Picking it up, Dumbledore walked slowly back to Harry with a questioning look on his face. He stopped then put the orb into Harry's hand. It had been magically changed. Instead of the orb it had been, in Harry's hand now sat a large knobbly egg that started to shiver. In seconds the shell shattered and in Harry's palm sat a phoenix, hot to the touch. Harry's mouth dropped open and Dumbledore stood fascinated, and then took the small bird into his own hands.
Harry could feel the power and heat emanating from the small creature and he couldn't resist smiling.
"It's Fawkes!" Harry pulled Hermione to see the bird.
Dumbledore looked stunned and astounded, and then he smiled softly. "Yes. Fawkes. It seems perfect."
The bird chirruped and bumped his beak against Harry's hand that was hovering over his head and he fluttered his wings awkwardly in Dumbledore's palm.
"Well." Nigellus spoke as he walked purposely over to the students surrounding the newly hatched bird.
"It seems you were meant to be here after all, Mr. Potter. But I think this was a bit more than you were expecting." Nigellus frowned when the bird snapped at his hand and seemed to chitter laughingly.
"I will be so glad when you graduate Mr. Dumbledore. It seems like normalcy is too much to ask for with you around." The headmaster spun around and started striding back to the castle as if nothing more than a small disruption had taken place.
Dumbledore grinned wanly and handed the bird back to Harry then turned and followed the old Wizard back up the hill.
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