A.N. Liar, liar, pants on fire…
If you have read the title then you already know that once again I have made a liar out of myself (not the first time in this story). Well, I really wanted this to be the last chapter until the bloody characters just took over. Don't you just hate it when they do that?
I lost the muse for a couple of weeks (I couldn't figure out how to get rid of Malfoy) and when I found it yesterday it would not let me pare it down to one chapter.
But, to save face (LOL!) and not totally lose respect for myself I am considering this and what is to follow soon (muse permitting) as one - In the Garden of Death.
Please accept my apologies and hope I am forgiven.
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Chapter 67 - In the Garden of Death Part 1
Gratitude?! Harry had been tortured right before her very eyes! She just witnessed first hand the absoluteness of Malfoy's wickedness and she couldn't read anything more into him other than appreciation?!
Hermione seethed from within absolutely miffed at herself for continuing to think that Malfoy would eventually do the right thing! Malfoy was glaringly a malevolent manipulative prick! He knew what she had been going through and was playing her. How could she mistake him, and she obviously was mistaken, for being grateful?!
Plink! Plink! Plink!
The just emptied unbreakable phial bounced a few times on the stone floor after Malfoy let go of it. Standing about a metre away she saw him grimace, his eyes watering from the experience and he looked like he was going to keel over and die.
But Malfoy recovered and spoke, "Nasty. We have to improve palatability. Now, let's see if it works."
So much for wishful thinking.
Extending his right arm and index finger in the air, Malfoy conjured a brilliant silvery serpentine Patronus which slithered and hissed merrily around the room before it turned into mist. It was just too bad she made the potion right.
"Happy thoughts?" Waterman, who stood between them and Harry, mocked. "Turning mushy on us, O Potion Master? And you're supposed to be a Dark wizard!"
Malfoy took the challenge, his grey eyes narrowing as they fell on Harry.
"Not him!" she yelled, hard, a threat that she meant but for sure was heard hollow.
Waterman laughed at Malfoy again, "What's the matter Drakey? Worried she'd finally recognize you for the evil bastard you really are?"
"Leave him alone! I made your potion!"
Of course fate might actually think it amusing if Harry were the first person it was used on; kismet with a cruel and sick sense of humour.
"Yes, you did. But as you said, it is my potion," Malfoy retorted.
"It's done! You finished what Mia started! You've made her life and her death mean something!" her impassioned cry to make him see reason was falling on deaf ears, "You don't have to do this!"
"She's still dead."
"Nothing you do can undo that!"
"I know but I thought I would at least feel better. So, in case you were wondering, there is no such thing as redemption. There's only regret, a lifetime of penance, hell," he responded, then frostily added. "And there is no coming back from it."
He conjured a red ball of flame, palmed it and without hesitation shot it at Harry.
Protego!
Smash!
Hermione blocked Malfoy's curse the second it left his hand and sent it wayward. Waterman tittered as Malfoy flushed in embarrassment.
Stupefy!
"Now, we all know that is pointless," Malfoy said controlling his anger as her hex hit him but got absorbed.
Having real reason to, Hermione continued to curse him even though she knew Malfoy was right. He took a step closer, confiscated her still actively firing wand and gave it to Hama. He then re-casted the hex intended for Harry, channelling his rage. This time the curse found its mark, the distortion of Harry's body language and the suffering on Harry's face satisfying Waterman's appetite for cruelty. A few other Squibs were applauding the show. She had not noticed that they were there until now.
"Welcome to my hell!" Malfoy announced to his growing crowd of supporters.
The Slytherin let out a bone chilling diabolical laugh then turned towards her with a despicable haughty expression daring her to do something heroic about it. Tears streamed down her face as anger and frustration filled her. The hatred for him that had been exasperatingly absent finally broke through and it was not only hatred for what he was doing but hatred for the person he was.
"We won't need your services anymore. Take her away," he finally said to Hama, "I'll deal with her later."
"Are you sure? I can have Quincy kill her," Hama suggested as the Bruin robe clad wizard who was beside Harry approached and grabbed her right arm.
Hermione spat, "Do that you gutless wonder! Let someone else do you dirty work!"
Devoid of emotion, he replied to Hama, "No. I owe her the special treatment that she wants. I'll take care of her myself."
The underling grasped her arm even tighter, his strength overpowering her own as she was dragged against her will towards the control room entrance.
"Try killing me now, you coward!" she screamed, but Malfoy ignored her, "Look at me!"
Malfoy paid her no attention. He got on the phone and she caught the annoyance he felt as he hung up.
"We have company!" he said to his captive audience. Even the wizard who was pulling her away stopped to listen. Hermione guessed that would be the MLE, "We're in lockdown! You all know what has to be done!"
Crack! Crack! Crack! Cra Crack!
The Squib army left and she was lifted off her feet, her body forcibly draped over her abductor's shoulders.
"Put me down!"
Her legs were kicking in the air, her arms flailing but the goon quickly clamped down on that. Hama was not enthusiastic to leave but followed them anyway. They were moving away from Malfoy and Waterman, from Harry. Wetness poured down her cheeks.
"Harry!" she tried to get his attention but when he stirred Waterman cursed him again, "Harry!"
Hermione saw Malfoy create a transparent plastic tent around Harry and hand Waterman an autopsy saw.
Malfoy gave the Squib his orders, "You might want him dead before you start. Clean up will be a bitch."
"The more he suffers the better," Waterman replied and conjured full pandemic personal protective wear.
"Suit yourself," Malfoy retorted as he prepared unbreakable phials beside the vacuum chamber, intending to fill them with freshly brewed purple potion , "Harvest everything. After Toots is done with Potter we'll do Longbottom next. Do hurry up. We don't have much time. "
Harvest?! Toots?! The sick son of a hag!
Whrrrrrrr!
The sound of the saw's whirring motor drowned her continuing protests and just as she was brought over the threshold, the teeth of the cutting tool tip in Waterman's hand edged closer and was now barely touching Harry's chest wall.
No!!!
Hermione reached for the phial containing the giant-centaur base from within her robes pocket but the crook on whose shoulders she was on saw it and wrestled it away from her! She was screaming at the top of her lungs, loud and incoherent! She wanted them to stop!
She lost her voice. The door shut, muffling the sound of saw cutting through something hard, saw through bone, Harry's bone. She could not see anything through the observation window and felt utterly helpless, agonizing over the thought of Harry agonizing. Her fault...if only she'd listened...if only she treated Malfoy for the vile person he was and always would be…
Can't breathe....
The Bruin robe clad minion set her down, blocking her view, asking her if she was okay. She strained over his right shoulder, fighting him, needing to see the cost of her stubbornness and idiocy, the price for her desperation to believe that there was no such thing as unforgivable and that every sin was redeemable.
Never forget…this is your fault...
The door opened and shut. Hama joined them. Someone had put the window blinds down while she wailed soundlessly as she lost sight of Harry…
Can't breathe....
Murderers don't deserve to anyway…
Can't breathe....
Hopelessness had set in…
Can't breathe....
It was smothering, overwhelmingly suffocating…
"Give her room!" Hama commanded, "Breathe, you fool!"
The space did not help. Tried as she did her memory on how to get air into her lungs failed her. She couldn't. That and it didn't matter…
There was more talking about her…a spell had been cast…a hazy figure approached her…nothing mattered anymore…
She crumpled to the floor nauseated by the spinning about her, knowing her body would eventually betray her and succumb to need. Someone caught her and held her, she was in someone's arms, someone was speaking, gently coaxing…
"It's okay...just breathe...I'm here…"
His voice…his embrace…
Hermione looked up and saw a pair of worried emerald green eyes upon her. It was him...
Breathe…
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Moments ago, in the bowels of the same building...
"Stupefy! " Neville hexed with anger and conviction.
A thick red ray emanated from the Professor's wand, the curse finding the face of the Squib closest him and was blown off in an instant. Mayhem ensued as everyone with a weapon fired at will. Several beams whizzed past him and Neville and the ones that found them they were able to easily deflect.
Having used up much of their magical energies and protection during practice, the Squibs were short work for Harry and Neville. Of the last three foes left standing two dropped their wands to surrender and the third relinquished his weapon after Harry convinced him, physically.
All throughout the fight Harry kept on glancing at the entrance to the sleeping quarters expecting Waterman to appear in the doorway to join the fray. It was strange and worrisome that the ruckus did not draw the Squib out. The second they secured their situation he turned to check on his Gryffindor classmate.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. But your partner..."
"Stay here and hex anything that moves!" he instructed Neville, walking away as he did, "See if you can find out where we are and try to get help!"
"Got it!" Neville replied.
Harry sprinted and aimed his wand at the wooden entrance to the room Waterman disappeared into.
Deprimo!
The door exploded into smithereens. Harry went through the jagged edged hole he just created even before the dust settled, prepared for anything. Almost anything.
"Avada Ke..."
Expelliarmus!
The two spells were conjured almost simultaneously, his inching out Andy's by a hair and causing her to lose grip of her weapon.
"What the fuck did you do that for?"
She was pissed, livid as she went over to retrieve her wand and with a quick flick of her wrist righted the state of near undress she was at. A conscious but frightened Waterman slumped to the floor sobbing like an infant. For a moment he asked himself the same question Andy just did.
"Not this way."
"Fuck off you hypocrite! So it's okay for you to pummel him to death but it's not if I do?! "
She had a good point there. It was perfectly legal in Canada for an Auror to use the killing curse. In fact, in Waterman's case, it was encouraged. But from past experience there was something cowardly about that hex that he would always disapprove of. That and they needed the asshole.
"Not yet."
"Are you mad?! He's a piece of shit!" she yelled.
"You're giving him an easy way out!"
"He took my brother and used Julius to get to me!"
"Julius is safe! Killing Waterman like this won't make him suffer half as much as he should!" Harry tried to persuade her, "And executing him cold blooded makes us no better than he is."
"Fuck! Ugh!"
Andy let out a prehistoric yawp. She turned away, upset because she knew he was right. She needed only a moment to calm herself down enough to say something coherent.
"He was Longbottom at the Ministry and Malfoy impersonated the Professor this morning."
"I know."
"And you were right. Malfoy is the Potion Master. They think Hermione is the Bruin granddaughter."
"I figured as much. How did you find out?"
"Veritaserum," she replied, motioning to the broken phial on the floor. "I know where they have Toots and Hermione and how to get there."
"But how did you ... do this?"
He couldn't describe exactly what he wanted to ask as he looked at Waterman and the state Andy left him at. They had not been able to defeat the magical version of the Squib with their wands so how Andy did so without one would be nice to know.
Andy blushed somewhat, embarrassed and evasive as Harry had never seen her before.
"I can't tell you."
"What do you mean you can't tell me?"
"Suffice it to say that he should not have messed with Veela."
"And you couldn't do this before?!"
"It's not something I can do at will...or in public," she reasoned, then added in response to the perplexed expression on Harry's face, "It exposes a lot more of me than one could ever be exposed...stop looking at me like that!"
"Sorry," he apologized as he tried to bury the details of her confession, making a mental note that while its timeliness was great he could not count on her unharnessed Veela powers. Moving on, "Well, it's a good thing you didn't kill him. We're going to need his assistance. Where's your stuff?"
If she had Veritaserum then she would have more. Andy always came prepared.
"I gave up rubbing him off. Your plan better be good," Andy tossed him the small mooseskin pouch she retrieved from her pocket.
Harry opened it, took out the Auror stealth kit and retrieved the small flask of Polyjuice. It wasn't much but they could halve it and hope the effects would last long enough for their purpose. Malfoy was also taking the potion. They already had a sample of what to expect. They needed to get as close to Malfoy and Hermione to get her out.
"They tricked us by Polyjuice, let's do the same."
They also needed another potion vessel. He dug in his pocket and retrieved the hospital prescribed numbing potion which, with the muscle strengthening brew, miraculously survived his recent adventures. He gave it to Andy.
"Drink this," he told her, "You look like you could use it."
Andy didn't argue and emptied the container into her mouth.
"Thanks," she said as she handed back the potion-less container to Harry.
He decanted half the Polyjuice into it, plucked a couple of greasy hairs from Waterman's head and added it in, then, took some of his locks and did the same to the remaining Polyjuice in the other flask.
"You want Waterman to be you."
"Right. And I'll be him. You can hide under one of those hooded Bruin robes and stay a..."
"I want to be him," Andy blurted out.
"Huh? But you're a woman."
"Since when did you become a sexist pig."
"I mean…I'm just thinking...you don't really want...and you might..."
"Grow a fucking penis? I don't care about the dick. It would be so worth it. They plan to torture you in front of Hermione. If I can't kill the motherfucker let me at least do that."
Waterman's phone was ringing. Harry summoned it. Malfoy.
They didn't have much time and it would take forever to talk Andy out of this. He gave her the Waterman Polyjuice and forced the other mixture into the Squib.
"Quid pro quo, asshole."
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Ginny was pacing inside a Mom and Pop Diner, every now and again, looking through the large window at the building across the street which housed Professor Tan's private lab. Muller and a few other Canadian Ministry officials were in there. The Diner was the temporary MLE headquarters.
At a corner booth, Luna was keeping Andy's family entertained, including their Aunt who was buried underneath a stack of empty lemon meringue pie plates. Hopefully the Unspeakable's stories were harmless and not entirely true ones.
The deployment into the enemy lair started a couple of minutes ago. Small red maple leaf flags were continuing to appear within the enlarged building floor plans displayed behind the counter, each flag representing an Auror or Hit Wizard. Andy's brother, Julius, had been in the edifice a couple of times and had assisted with some of the details.
Dean was among the first who went in and was the lone British flag blinking on display. Unbeknownst to the Canadian officials, Luna found a way to live feed the information the MLE had to Pia Russet. She and her Bruin cousins had a ten minute head start and were attempting to control and possible avert universal social catastrophe.
Pop! Pop! Po po pop!
A commotion broke out within the Apparition area. The sound of angry accusatory and hostile Canadians speaking with stiff British accents broke the tension filled atmosphere. Muller had agreed to have his men ingest Luna's essence of McGonagall. It was odd hearing them sound like the Hogwarts Headmistress and Ginny would have found it more amusing had the situation been less dire.
"We have the bastard!"
"Watch him!"
"Auror killer!"
"Don't hex me! It wasn't me!"
Neville?
Po po po pop! Pop! Pop!
"Sorry excuse for a wizard!"
"It's a trick!"
"Hurt the git!"
"Just wait!" Ginny recognized Dean's voice and his towering figure shielding Neville's, "Hear him out!"
"It wasn't me!" Neville vehemently asserted as the angry mob around him grew by the second. "They used Polyjuice to frame me!"
"Who used Polyjuice?!" Muller took over.
"Waterman and Malfoy!"
"Malfoy?!"
"Yes, Malfoy! Malfoy is the Potion Master!"
Ginny felt a bit better. There was normalcy. Things were beginning to finally make sense.
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Harry hugged Hermione as tight as she clung onto him. She was sobbing into his chest and trying to apologize for trusting Malfoy, at least that was how it sounded.
A short while ago, Harry watched Malfoy take Hermione's magic enabling potion but was unable to do much else. The ferret had kept Hermione close to him. A couple of openings came but went away as quickly as they presented themselves and Harry waved Andy off from taking the potion when it was offered to her. They had no idea if Hermione did indeed spike the potion with an extraneous poisonous ingredient.
Harry was sorry too for having her go through what she just did but they had to find out what they were up against and had to make sure they could do this. Tipping her off would have put them all in more danger.
When she finally pulled away, he cupped her face with both hands, hating that he had to interrupt. Andy was still with Malfoy, Waterman and one other bad guy they had not counted on being there. He wasn't sure how much longer before Andy's cover was blown. He had to go.
"Listen…"
"I'm so sorry…"
"It's okay…"
"No, it's not…that could have been you…"
"But it wasn't…"
"This is all my fault…"
There was really no time for talking.
"Listen…Hermione…listen!" he said more emphatically, finally settling Hermione down, putting her wand in her hand as he explained, "Out those set of doors is a long hallway that leads to what appears like a dead end. There's a life size portrait of Sophie Bruin on the wall. She will ask for what's most important. 'Family loyalty above all else'. Go though the portrait hole and you will find yourself in an anteroom that is right next to reception. From there you can Disapparate to the Ministry. Do you understand?"
Harry had to ask as Hermione still appeared to be in a daze. That immediately was replaced by one of protest.
"I'm not leaving. I'm going back in there with you."
He told Andy they had to hold off attacking until they got her out of harm's way. And she wanted back in there? No, she definitely did not understand.
"You can't."
"Malfoy has to be stopped."
"Leave that to us."
"I have to destroy the potion. I have to get rid of Helga Braun's notes. And those plants, they can't continue to exist. They need to be put to rest."
"That can be done after."
If there was going to be an after...
"The sooner it's done the less people will know and the less people who know of it the better."
While she was right Harry couldn't believe they were arguing about this right at that moment. Actually, now that he thought about it, he should have expected no less. It was foolish to even ask her much less expect her to agree.
"I have to do this, Harry. I promise I won't get in your way."
"That's not the point. I don't think I can fight and protect you at the same time."
"Then just fight!"
Did he really have to point out that that was easier said than done? Having known her for quite some time he knew he would not win this argument and she interpreted his delay as a sign of giving in.
"That potion that you took from me, I don't know if it works but it's the giant-centaur potion base that theoretically should give you as much strength and ability to withstand spells as Malfoy. Whatever you do, do not take the final potion. It has Winky's elfin component that Malfoy has found a way to harness so he can control the potion taker. I'm almost sure the essence of Neville Malfoy has been taking will counteract Winky's that is contained in the potion. That's not Neville in there with Andy, is it?"
"We sent Neville out to get …"
"Neville should be able to control Waterman and his Squib army but that would put Neville at risk…"
Hermione was on a roll and there was only one way he could think of to get her out.
"We're not going to bring Neville back. Look, I can't force you to go," he admitted. "And I'm really tempted to hex you right now."
He was still considering it.
"I'm staying," she had decided.
As much as he had a feeling he was going to regret it, Harry had to let her. The potion. If she thought it was safe enough for him to take then it would be. He gave her back the phial containing the giant-centaur base.
"No arguments. Drink it."
She begrudgingly took a sip, her face crumpling from bad taste as she did, and gave three-quarters of the potion back, "You and Andy will need it. Once I get in there I'll see about bottling a couple of more."
"Give us a few minutes with them before going in. Stay away from Malfoy," Harry warned her.
As she was about to reassure him, the escape exit he just pointed at suddenly swung open, blown off but the explosion must have been muffled by a silencing charm. Wands were already drawn and were pointed at each other.
"Wait. Don't shoot," a woman commanded urgently but softly, her hushed voice familiar.
The Bruin they met in the alley a few days back came to the forefront flanked by three other Bruin robed figures. He saw that they had Toots with them.
"We're taking Mr. Toots out. Who wants to come?" she asked him.
Harry pointed at the magically bound Bruin traitor he had hexed earlier.
"Hama is with them."
"She'll get the justice she deserves," the Bruin woman assured him and he knew not to ask what that meant.
As a couple of them left with the two Harry said to the Bruin woman, "You might want to change into something else. There are a few Bruin traitors here. I don't want to accidentally curse you."
The woman nodded and transformed her robes and the ones on the two who remained with her into Gryffindor red, leaving their Bruin coat of arms as is. He nodded.
"The MLE are coming in," Bruin woman said to them, "I'm sorry but we cannot help you fight until we do what we need to do. We have little time to destroy what needs to be destroyed, including the potion you just made."
"How did you know?" Harry was puzzled how they found out so quickly.
"Not important. We have to retrieve the Braun documents from Malfoy and we can't allow the MLE to find any trace of the plants ever existing."
"You can't kill the plants," Hermione interrupted, "The plants have to go back to Britain. The beings trapped within them will never rest in peace if we leave them here."
"Even if there was time..." the Bruin woman began to disagree.
"We have to make time! It's the least we can do!"
Harry suggested, "You can help Hermione start moving the plants while Andy and I work on Malfoy."
He waited for a response to the compromise. Every precious second they wasted was putting Andy's life on the balance.
"It's the right thing to do!" Hermione pleaded.
The Bruin finally nodded and hurriedly left with the others for the plant lab. Harry and Hermione turned and faced each other at the same time.
"Don't do anything crazy," he said to her and kissed her more hurriedly than he would have wanted.
"Be careful," came her worried reply.
Boom!
Crash!!!
All that disturbance was coming from within the Potions Lab.
Andy.
"Dinner tonight. I'll pick you up at seven," he said with confidence, intending to keep his word.
She smiled weakly and answered, "Don't be late."
Harry Disapparated and reappeared beside an Andy-looking Andy, who immediately pulled him behind a large marble statue he recognized to be the narcissistic Professor Tan.
"What the fuck took you so long?" Andy greeted him.
There was a break in the fighting as Malfoy had moved Waterman to take cover and Andy nursed wounds of her own. They both checked out the scout mirror Andy had deployed, watching Malfoy fix the injured Waterman up.
"It took some time convincing her to leave," he answered her.
"She's staying, isn't she," Andy replied knowingly.
"Don't tell me you said so."
"I won't. Where is she?"
"Plant lab with red robed Bruins. Try not to hex them. They're with us. Waterman's still alive?"
"The idiot kept on healing I couldn't finish him off. Malfoy left for a couple of minutes and came back to fill phials when he finally clued in. Then the Polyjuice started waning."
The sight of Andy favoring her arm made him remember Hermione's potion. He gave it to her.
"Giant-centaur base. That should heal it and protect you from the curses," he explained.
"What about you?" Andy inquired.
"I already took some," he lied knowing she would need it more.
As Andy shuddered after downing the remaining potion, Harry noticed the wide eyed and very dead henchman on the floor beside them and asked, "Did you do that?"
"Malfoy. He thought that was you."
Andy tested her shoulder through its full range of motion.
"Are you good?" he asked, antsy for action.
"Well, we could wait a few more minutes so Waterman can be a hundred percent, you know, just to be fair."
She was being sarcastic. They looked at the scouts again. Waterman was up and he had come back out with Malfoy.
"Looks like you got your wish," he said under his breath but Andy heard him.
"Hey, if it were up to me he'd be dead already," she countered, pulling her back-up wand from her bag of goodies.
"But then you would have missed making him suffer," he reminded her.
"True."
Needing the extra firepower himself, Harry summoned the idle wand beside the dead Squib. Sparks of the positive kind came off its tip. Good enough.
"Come to Papa, my little Veela woman!" Waterman taunted.
Harry and Andy stepped out into the open with just a few feet of air between them and their foes, clear about who was to fight whom.
Andy mocked, "Little Veela woman?! I guess you'd find that reassuring considering how 'little' of a man you are down there."
Angered, Waterman fired the first shot, a Stunner that hit Andy right on the chest. She staggered back but remained on her feet and she had on her a most satisfied smile as she saw the concern on Waterman's.
"I just love a fair and square fight, don't you Tommy Boy?"
Bang!
Crash!
Their attention was briefly diverted by the breakage of the observation window and fighting inside the control room, several Squibs and Bruin traitors retreated into the Potion Lab as MLE robed figures filtered in from the main hallway and was forcing them back.
Alarms went off, urgent red revolving lights pulsated through the lab and an announcement came on.
Inner lab breach. Inner lab breach. Self destruct sequence activated. You have five minutes to evacuate. This is not a drill.
Five minutes. The urgency was not reflected in the announcer's voice at all.
"Keep them busy," Malfoy said to his Waterman as he picked up a rucksack that was on the floor beside him.
The git was leaving!
Harry was determined not to let Malfoy escape. He skillfully dodged and deflected the beams of curses that were meant for him.
Crack! Pop! Crraaacckkk!
Quickly, he Disapparated and Apparated next to Malfoy! With all the strength that he had, Harry aimed for his heart and swung hard, stabbing the ferret in the chest with the spare wand he had sharpened on his way to the git! The piece of wood sunk a couple of inches in, blood oozed and soaked his hand but he could tell he missed his target!
The asshole Dissapparated at the same time, taking Harry along for the ride! They spun together, Harry hexing him intra-Apparition with both wands in the hope that the curses would eat away at the potency of the potion Malfoy had on board! Malfoy seemed concentrated on holding on to the package he had with him and was trying to pull out the securely buried stake.
"Oompf!"
Brick wall. Still intra-apparition, Harry literally slammed into one sending a shock of pain into his entire body. This must be the Wards Andy was speaking of when she tried to Disapparate with Toots. Malfoy was just about to go through.
Gripping the piece of wood tightly as if he was hanging on for dear life, he aimed his own wand at the rucksack in Malfoy's hand.
Diffindo!
"No!"
Papers, phials, plants spilled out from the ragged tear Harry had created, the distant sound of paper rustling, pots crashing and unbreakable phials hitting the ground was drowned by Malfoy's frustrated yelp.
Malfoy's entirety had disappeared into the wall, his momentum taking him across. The only thing left holding Malfoy back was the wand in his chest that Harry was pulling back with all his might.
"Come back and fight, you bastard!" he screamed out after the ferret.
His hand pressed against the solid wall of the Wards, bleeding from the contact, but his resolve was unwavering. He would not let go even with the warning pains of imminent Splinching. His thinking was if he sensed this, Malfoy would too and it was a game of chicken. A pale hand reached back, its long fingers jabbed at his ribs.
Snnnaappp!
"Avada Kedavra!"
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