Dark AIAOY 5

Luna led the front of their procession straight back into the forest Rebecca and Hermione had just gotten out of, though the leader guiding them brought took a different path that she seemed familiar with.  "We should probably split up."  Luna said over her shoulder.  "Those who can see with those who can't."

Ron blinked and looked at Luna like he thought she was a lunatic--which he, in fact, did.  "See?  Luna, we can all see."

"See them."  Luna clarified, gesturing to the empty-appearing clearing she stopped in.

"Harry?"  Ron asked loudly, worried.

"It's alright, Ron."  Harry reached up and patted the shoulder of the thestral that came to greet him.  "They're called thestrals, they're what pull the carriages."

Hermione's jaw dropped.  "Of course!"  She looked to Ron, expecting him to follow her thoughts.  "We can't see them because we haven't seen someone die."

Ron narrowed his eyes at Hermione and glanced at Rebecca pointedly.  "Hello?  Last year?  She was pretty damn dead if you ask me."  Rebecca's head lifted at the sound of him mentioning her.  "Sorry."  He winced.  Hermione pursed her lips at Ron's issue with the explanation and found she had no further explanation.

Luna, thankfully, was more than willing to offer some.  "You have to have seen someone die up close--very close."

Ron's face took on a scared look.  "And you have?"

Cedric brought Ron's attention away from Luna.  "I can see them, so I'll take someone with me."  

"And I don't care, I can fly blind."  Ginny rose her hand to air where Cedric had his hand on a thestral and grinned as she felt the creature she couldn't feel."

"You know, we have enough for no one to have to go blind."  Cedric said, keeping his hand up to help Ginny get situated on thestral-back.

"I know."  Ginny's voice was a whisper.  "But it'll get them moving faster."  Cedric chuckled at her strategy and climbed up behind her, patting the thestral in thanks.  Ginny kept her voice as soft as before.  "Was it really that bad?  When you looked in?"

Cedric wasn't surprised that Ginny knew what could happen between he and Rebecca, he was honestly more surprised that Neville had had enough restraint to hold onto his questions for the time being.  "Ginny..."  Cedric shook his head.  "If I had felt that pain for as long as she has, not just today, but any other time...I would have died.  You can't describe those feelings."

Ginny turned her head to watch as everyone else paired up and climbed.  Harry was trying to argue to keep Rebecca at his side, but that left Hermione and Ron flying together and neither could see their rides.

"I will!"  Harry tried to argue with Hermione, keeping himself at Rebecca's side.

"Harry, go fly with Ron."  Rebecca's voice was flat.  The unicorn had taken the brunt of her pain, but the unending nature of it was grating on her patience.  Harry's protectiveness wasn't helping, either--it was too reminiscent of Fred and when she let herself think about him, she thought about how disappointed he would be in her for going off like this.  "Hermione and I will take this one, okay?"

Hermione was aided up first, Rebecca clambering up and sitting in front of her.  Within minutes, they were in the air.  After their climbing was done, the air was cold and crisp.  Hermione had kept her arms around Rebecca tightly every second since they had moved.  Putting her head onto Rebecca's shoulder so she could be heard over the wind, Hermione's worry for Rebecca were voiced.  "You can lay back a little, if you'd like.  You should rest before we get there."

Rebecca sighed, knowing Hermione was right but hating feeling like she was leaving Hermione sightless.  "Are you sure?  You already hate flying and it would be-"

"I'm sure."  Hermione interrupted quickly.  "No need to say it aloud."

Rebecca couldn't help a small smile as she let her body rest against Hermione.  She wasn't sure if rest was even a possibility with the wind whipping past them and the loud beating of the thestral's wings, but Hermione felt Rebecca's breathing steady a while later.

Hermione kept her arms around Rebecca and made sure that there was no way she could fall, finding a comfort of her own in holding her best friend close.

*******************************************

Afternoon had turned to evening and evening was fading into night when a crash of thunder went off so close to them that Rebecca woke with a startle and sat up so quickly.  Hermione clutched Rebecca tightly, more frightened by this than the thunder and lightning around them.

Rebecca relaxed slightly, the residual images of Sirius' tortured body fading from her mind as she saw how close they were to London--the lights of the city shone in the distance.  "Sorry, Hermione, sorry."

Hermione leaned to the side as far as she dared and Rebecca turned to face her so they could see each other.  "How do you feel?"  Hermione asked.

The pain had lessened another notch to an even more manageable degree.  Her rest had been plagued with horrors, but appreciated.  "Better."  Hermione gave her a face, prompting Rebecca to elaborate further.  "Honestly, I feel better than I had."

"But not better entirely?"

"No, but I never thought I would."  Rebecca leaned forward as the thestral began their descent, following Harry and Ron at the front of their party to a park near the phone booth the two Potters had used to enter the Ministry of Magic months earlier.  "I feel better enough for whatever waits for us."

Hermione slid to the ground with a wet squelch as the mud squished up around the bottom of her shoes.  Rebecca hit the ground less gracefully and was only saved from landing in the mud by Hermione's reflexes.

"Over here!"  Harry called as loudly as he dared, surveying their surroundings carefully.  "This is it," He addressed them all.  "Once we enter the Ministry, there's not going to be another chance to-"

"Oh, shut it!"  Ginny groaned.  "We're here, we're not leaving, we've all made our choice!  Now, let's get a move on!"  

The others nodded in agreement and pushed Harry to hurry up and explain the plan he didn't have.

"We've got to make a call first."  Rebecca answered, sounding the most like herself by far as she led them across the street to the red telephone box.

"Are you serious?"  Cedric wondered.  He had never accompanied his father to work through the guest gate and had no idea where it was.

"I'm always serious."  Rebecca smiled and gestured for them to follow her in.  It was a tight fit, but they managed to squeeze in enough for the elevator to bring them down at the sensing of magical blood.

*******************************************

They were the only ones in the Ministry of Magic at the hour, and Rebecca didn't let anything distract them of slow them down--despite how much the many gold fountains wanted to be a distraction.

"The elevator!"  Harry hurried ahead to have it ready for them and ushered them in quickly.

"Harry was right earlier about one thing."  Rebecca said carefully as the elevator jerked into motion.  "We don't know what we're getting into here.  Whatever happens, no matter what, if anything happens to one of us...you have to get me to them."

"Why?  What good will that do?"  Neville asked just as carefully as she had spoken, not a shred of unkindness in his voice.  If anything, there was a little fear of the unknown.

Cedric pushed down his fear--not unused to it, he felt like he was doing this more and more lately.  "What good?"  He reached up and unbuttoned the top of his shirt.  "If you fall--if you die--it doesn't have to be the end if she's there."  Cedric pulled the shoulder of his shirt to the side and showed the marks of her hands left behind from the year before.  "That's how we know Voldemort is back, because he killed me."

Luna's wide eyes widened further, though no question came from her.

Neville's mouth hung.  "Yo-you mean she-"

"Yeah, I did."  Rebecca turned to the elevator door as it dinged their arrival.  "That's why you have to know where I am, always."

"The Department of Mysteries."  The doors slid open.

Harry grabbed Rebecca's hand and looked out into the hallway that had plagued them for so long.  "This is it."

Rebecca took the first step out and raised her wand.  "This is it."  They filed down the hall carefully, slowly.  Harry tried to move them along faster once they had mostly made their way to the door, but Rebecca pulled him back to her side.  "We do this together or not at all."

Harry grit his teeth but resigned himself to their pace.  He held his wand tighter still as they reached the door.  Harry brought his hand to the doorknob, half expecting it to be locked as it always was in their dreams.  It turned easily and swung open without a sound, revealing one of the largest rooms he had ever seen on the other side.

"Lumos!"  They illuminated the ends of their wands to brighten their immediate surroundings.

The room was filled with shelves, hundreds, maybe thousands of orbs sitting on each and every one of them in the aisle they found themselves heading down.  "Where now?"  Harry whispered, looking away from what was ahead to see her.

Rebecca's face twisted as a sharp pain shot through her scar.  A low rumbling echoed from behind them without any visible cause.  "I-"  She looked around, not sure.  A metal sign, 'row 95,' farther.  She remembered one of the snippets she had seen.  "This way."  Rebecca powered forward and led the way.

"Ninety-two, ninety-three, ninety-four..."  Rebecca whispered, counting the signs as they passed.  Her voice trailed away as she saw where the rows intersected, where Sirius had been being tortured.  "He should be here!"  She called back to the bulk of the group a few rows earlier.

Harry joined her and looked down the length of row ninety-five.  "Could it-is it possible you're wrong?"

"Hey, it's your names!"  Neville cried out as he read over the tags of the orb at his eye-level.  "Right here!"

Harry and Rebecca walked back to them, looking at each other before reading the tag for themselves.  "Potter, Harry/Rebecca"  Rebecca stared into the orbs strange grey, swirling face.  Harry reached for it, but paused at Cedric's voice.  

"I don't know."  Cedric scratched the back of his neck.  "Maybe there's a reason you haven't been shown it."

"No one ever wants to tell us anything."  Harry reasoned.  "Perhaps this is the answer; maybe this will tell us what we need to know."  Harry reached forward and picked it up.  

The air around them blew hotly as a hoarse whisper danced around them.  "The ones with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approach.  Marked as his equal, there are powers the Dark Lord has not in one.  Neither party can live while the other survives-"

"Look!"  Hermione's voice interrupted the voice.  She pointed at the masked face that appeared down a row opposite them.  Harry held the orb tightly in his hand while Rebecca pushed her way to the front and held her wand higher, illuminating the mask-wearer.

"Where's Sirius?"  Rebecca demanded.

"You should learn to tell the difference between dreams and reality."  The Death Eater whipped its wand out of the top of its cane and cast away its mask, revealing Lucius Malfoy.  "You saw only what the Dark Lord wanted you to."  Lucius' voice had been playful, almost musical, but it dropped to a more serious cadence as he passed along his command.  "Now, hand me the prophecy."

"If you try anything, I'll break it."  Harry warned.

Rebecca didn't let her eyes leave Lucius' stare.

A shrill giggle came from behind Lucius, a dark-haired, bright-eyed woman appearing.  "He knows how to play!  Itty...bitty...baby...Potter!"  The woman's eyes widened as she looked at Harry and then Rebecca.  "Oh my!  Add some tits, lengthen some hair--we'd have two darling little playthings!"

Neville's voice crossed the distance between the Death Eaters and Dumbledore's Army.  "Bellatrix Lestrange."

Bellatrix squinted her eyes at Neville, nodding as she recognised him.  "Neville Longbottom, is that you?  How's mum and dad?"

"Better now that they're going to be avenged!"  Neville's lunge forward was stopped by Cedric, the older boy jumping in front of the younger to keep the fight from starting.

"Let's everybody calm down, shall we?"  Lucius said loudly, projecting his voice over the clamour that had begun.  "All we want is that prophecy."

"Why didn't Voldemort get it for himself?"  Rebecca asked.  "Why did he need us to?"

Bellatrix raised her wand level with Rebecca.  "You dare speak his name?"  She raised her voice to a fierce bellow.  "You filthy half-blood!"

Rebecca blinked, glancing from Bellatrix to Harry.  "Is she kidding?  Doesn't she know that-"

"Silence!"  Lucius barked at Bellatrix, when he spoke to Rebecca, his voice was a patronising murmur.  "You're just a curious sprite, aren't you?  Prophecies can only be retrieved by those about whom they are made."

Hermione's hand brushed against Rebecca's back, tracing a circle.  Hermione had all the faith in the world that Rebecca would understand that she was telling her they were surrounded.

"It's lucky for you both, really."  Lucius continued to speak despite the fact that the group of students put their backs together and turned out at the Death Eaters that started to creep closer.  "Haven't you always wondered the reason for the connection between you two and the Dark Lord?  Why he was unable to kill either of you--nothing more than mere infants?  Don't you want to know the secret of your scars?"  Lucius' eyes slid over Harry's forehead before moving to Rebecca, his eyes were as bright as Bellatrix's--bright with madness.  "The answers are right in your hand.  All you have to do...is give it to me."

Bellatrix cocked her head to the side, her tongue flicking across her lips excitedly.  They were so close to fulfilling the Dark Lord's wish.

"I can show you everything."  Lucius promised.

Harry narrowed his eyes at the two adults, thinking.  "We've waited fourteen years."

"I know, I know."  Lucius tried to sound sympathetic.  "Such a shame!"

"What's a little longer?"  Harry jumped back to where Rebecca was already moving, closing the circle.  "Now!"

"Stupefy!"  They cast out.  Most of the Death Eaters were knocked back, but a few apparated away.

Rebecca took off, hoping to get back to the route they had taken to the elevator.  She glanced over her shoulder to make sure they were following her.  Harry grabbed her arm and yanked her to a stop; Lucius apparating in front of them with his hand outstretched for the orb still in Harry's hand.

Harry took over their homeward run, keeping the pace at a sprint.  At the back of the group, Luna was struck to the floor.  The Death Eater that had knocked her only managed one more step closer before she took care of him.  "Levicorpus!"  Luna sent the Death Eater off towards the ceiling, her bloodied lip smearing as she smiled.

Neville had turned back as soon as Luna had fallen, and he was the one who saw the second Death Eater over Luna's shoulder.  "Petrificus totalus!"

Luna looked over the paralysed Death Eater and put her arm through Neville's, beginning to run once more.  "Well done!"

Harry hadn't let go of Rebecca's arm yet, despite the difficulties he was having with trying to keep hold of her and the orb in one hand so his other could try to thwart the Death Eaters chasing after them.

"Stupefy!"  Rebecca shouted, getting rid of the Death Eater ahead of them.  Hermione and Ron took a different approach for the one behind them, sending shelf after shelf of prophecies flying down at him.

Though they had been split up at first, Neville and Luna appeared out of one aisle with Cedric and Ginny coming out of an adjoining one.  They were only given one breath before another Death Eater appeared.  Ginny was the first to raise her wand.  "Reducto!"  A powerful shockwave reverberated down the entirety of the aisle, though it stretched farther than they could see.  Prophecies began to fall from the highest shelves like rain.

Harry looked at Ginny for a moment before being shoved out of his awe by Rebecca pushing him roughly.  "Get back to the door!"  They were sprinting, adjacent to the path they had come in from.  The falling prophecies soon turned to falling shelves and the monument to mystery that had been the Department of Mysteries began to topple like cards.

Cedric pushed himself even faster, pumping his arms and legs until he at the front of the group and steering them all left.  He had seen a door when they had come in, and now it was their only exit.  He waved his wand so that it was open when they got there, not seeing that the room it opened to had no floor until it was too later.

Rebecca's breath caught in her throat as she launched herself out, the last of their group to leave and going to be the last to meet the floor that raced up to greet her.

Their descents were stopped inches from the ground, their arms and legs outstretched.  The force that saved them from a painful landing dropped them seconds later.  They were panting for breath and their hearts were pounding, but they were alive.  

"Department of Mysteries."  Ron snorted.  "They got that bit right, didn't they?"

Rebecca pushed her glasses up her nose, wanting to laugh with him but distracted by the stone arch in the center of the room.  "Can you hear what they're saying?"

Hermione and Harry looked at each other, both shaking their head to the other at the nonverbal question of whether or not they had seen Rebecca hit her head.  "Hear what what's saying?"  Hermione asked gently.

Rebecca looked over her shoulder with a sharp look, raising her hand to gesture to the arch she had her ear towards.  "The voices!"

"There aren't any voices."  Harry said matter-of-factly.

"No, I hear them too."  Cedric stepped beside Rebecca.  "I can't understand them, but I hear them."

"It's just an empty archway!"  Harry's voice was layered with finality.  He was not going to hear another word on the subject, not when they were still being chased.  A whooshing sound filled the air.  "Get behind me!"  He shouted, grabbing Ginny and Neville who were closest to him and keeping his body in front of them.  

Death Eaters spiraled above, their smoky, ink-black apparation forms diving at them.

Rebecca tried to raise her wand to fight them off, but she and Cedric were enveloped in the darkness before she had the chance.  The bodies of those the Death Eaters took were pushed around and then to the ground violently.

When the shadows receded, Harry was alone in the center of the room with the prophecy.  The perimeter of the room was spotted with Death Eaters, his friends all held at wand-point.  Rebecca's face was plain as a mask as the Death Eater holding her pulled her head back and smelled her neck deeply.

Lucius walked up to Harry, chuckling and distracting Harry from his rage.  "Did you actually believe, were you truly naive enough, to think that children stood a chance against us?"

"Considering we were babies the last time..."  Harry's voice echoed in the room and Rebecca flashed with pride.  

Lucius shot him a look before turning to face Harry more directly, dropping all pretenses of a conversation.  "I'll make this simple for you, boy: give me the prophecy now or watch your friends die."

Harry looked around the room slowly.

"Don't give it to him, Harry!"  Neville shouted, bringing about a sharp hit from Bellatrix.  

Harry's eyes landed on Rebecca last, knowing that would be the hardest and that it was her face that would solidify his decision.  Harry's eyes set in resignation and he raised his hands slowly, the prophecy in his grasp.  He set it in Lucius' outstretched hand, defeated.

Pops and flashes of light filled the room.  Rebecca's eyes widened at the sight--Remus and Sirius appearing in the middle of the room.  Remus had his wand at the Death Eater holding Rebecca instantly while Sirius walked to Lucius.  "Get away from our godchildren."  Sirius growled.  He cranked his arm back and hit Lucius in the jaw hard enough to send the man sprawling.

"Stupefy!"  Remus cast.  Rebecca ducked the best she could and the Death Eater caught the spell in the chest, flying backwards and hitting the stone wall with a wet crunch that left all who had heard it slightly nauseated.

Another golden streak flitted around the room, pausing at each of the children still held captive until they stood on their own and the Death Eaters were on the floor in various levels of debilitating pain.  Tonks finally paused next to Remus, her cheeks red with exertion but a grin present all the same.

Moody and Kingsley arrived seconds later, taking positions near Sirius and Harry. 

Lucius let out a strangled moan at the sight of the shattered remnants of the prophecy he had been in charge of getting.  It had struck the floor when he had fallen and broken into irreparable pieces--pieces Lucius knew he would pay for with pain and blood.

"I hear congratulations are in order!"  Tonks called to Rebecca who was being checked over thoroughly by Remus.  "94 Diagon Alley?"

"I'm okay, professor."  Rebecca leaned to see around him and looked at Tonks.  "93!"  More Death Eaters arrived and there was no time for any conversation, hexes needing to be blocked and returned.

Sirius pulled Harry behind a large rock, ducking and shielding him.  He had to speak, but he had to speak quickly in the few moments of shelter he had managed.  "Listen closely, I want you to get the others and get to safety."

"What?  No, we're staying with you."  Harry shook his head.  "I'm staying with you."

"You've done beautifully."  Sirius brought his hand to Harry's cheek.  "Now, let me take it from here."

"Black!"  Lucius shouted as he made it to his feet.  Sirius and Harry, despite Sirius' wishes, were drawn into a duel with another Death Eater that answered Lucius call for backup.  "You'll pay for this!"

Tonks brought Rebecca down to where the others had been put--a divot in the rock surrounding the arch that was lower than the rest and mostly shielded--and passed along the orders to stay put.  "I'm sorry, orders are orders."

Rebecca shook her head and sent a jinx at the Death Eater behind Ginny who was being brought to them by Kingsley.  "Meant to be broken."

Tonks gave her a wink before hurrying away, leaving a trail of fallen Death Eaters in her wake.  

"Rebecca!"  Hermione had been the most afraid when Rebecca had slipped out of her sight, fearing the worst.  "Are you-"

"There's no time!"  Rebecca looked over them all, glad they were all safe and appreciating that they were all in fighting shape.  "We have to help the best we can!"  They did as they were told, technically staying where they had been put, but from their vantage point they sent hexes and raised shields over the fighting members of the Order as needed.

Rebecca caught sight of Harry and Sirius through the whispering archway, both fighting hard.  She moved with thought, without even a second for thought, hoisting herself back onto the main rock and running towards them.

Ron tried to stop her and when that didn't work, moved to go after her, but Hermione grabbed him and kept him back.  "We need you here!"  She explained, trying to raise her voice over the sound of the fighting.

Cedric used Ron's shoulder as leverage and threw himself up after Rebecca.  "And what?  We don't need him?"  Ron shouted back before raising his wand and stopping a curse that had been aimed at the back of Hermione's head.

"Evidently not."  Hermione retorted, returning her attention to the fight.

Harry waved his wand quickly in the moment his opponent had hesitated.  "Expelliarmus!"  The Death Eater at Lucius side went flying in one direction, his wand in the other.

Sirius grinned down at Harry proudly.  "Nice one, James!"  Both continued to send spell after spell ahead.

Rebecca ducked as a spell narrowly went over her head just before she would have been to Sirius and Harry's side of the rock.  Cedric raised his wand in a flash, "Protego!"  Rebecca looked over her shoulder to see who had saved her and nodded her head in thanks. 

Sirius waved his wand one last time, ending Lucius' fight for the time being.  

Bellatrix solidified from her apparation form across from Sirius and time seemed to slow down.  Bellatrix's arm lowered slowly, her eyes wide with lunacy as she sent a final curse at Sirius.  "Avada kedavra!"

Harry froze as the curse hit Sirius' chest.  Harry saw the life seep out of Sirius' eyes as he fell backwards through the stone arch.  His body hit the ground with a dull, resounding thud.  Sirius was dead.

A horrible scream escaped Harry and he moved to follow Sirius, stopped only by Remus who wrapped his arms around the boy to keep him from going after the arch too.

Rebecca dropped to her knees at Sirius' feet, looking through the arch and along its stones carefully.  Cedric crouched beside her, watching as her eyes were calculating and assuming risks.  She held her hand out for him to take, needing him to see what she was thinking.

"How can you know that will work?"  Cedric asked, amazed at what she had thought.

"How can I not try?"  Rebecca pulled her trouser of one leg up to her knee, putting her ankle in Cedric's hands.  "Don't let go, no matter what.  Do not let go of me."

Cedric tightened his hold on her so much it had to be hurting her, but he was afraid of loosening his hold even in the slightest.  "Never."

Bellatrix backed up, watching what was happening curiously.  Something told her that this would be important, that answers were about to be made clear.

Rebecca took a slow breath and grit her teeth, trying her best to put Harry's screams for her to stop out of her head.  She lunged forward and passed through the icy wisps of the archway's throughway.  Immediately, her body feel to the floo limp though her spirit stood up, outside of her body.

Sirius was holding onto his dead body's hand, trying to get his ring off.  His new ring.  He and Remus had finally partnered themselves together as they always should have been and now he couldn't bring a single piece of his Moon with him.

"Rebecca!"  Sirius shouted, his heart shattering.  "Not you!  Not you too!"

Rebecca shook her head.  "No, and not you either.  It's time to come back, Sirius."

Sirius reached for his body.  "I've tried.  I can't--my body, it won't have me."

Rebecca rattled off her instructions quickly, terrified by the ice that was filling her chest with every passing second.  "Lay down in your body.  I need you to think and to think hard, harder than you ever have for a patronus."  Sirius did as he was told, the grey, transparent figure his spirit was shining through his mortal body.  "Sirius, I need you to think about everything you have to go back to."

Sirius closed his eyes, filling his mind with Harry and Rebecca and Remus.  The Weasleys, Tonks, Moody, the Order.  The goodness of the world he was fighting for, the children of his best friends that still needed someone to care for them.  

Rebecca begged whatever had given her this ability to be with her and laid her hands on Sirius.  There was no heat like with Cedric or the unicorn.  "C'mon!"  She shouted, confused.

"Rebecca...you need to-"

"No!  It will work!"  Rebecca took her hands off where she had them and placed them on the skin of his chest through his unbuttoned shirt.  Whether it was her determination that funneled power from somewhere deep inside of her or her need, the inferno swallowed her whole as every time before.  The ice she had felt creeping inside of her was gone instantly, her body filled with fire.

Sirius closed his eyes, the pull of the real world stitching his soul back into his body.

Vaguely, Rebecca knew that Cedric had to have been watching what was happening through her.  But Rebecca's couldn't spare a thought for this as the heat in her body seemed to grow even hotter.  It hurt, the feeling of her hands on Sirius, but to let go meant that he would be gone forever and that wasn't an option.

Sirius' chest rose and fell with a shuddering breath, and then another.  Harry and Remus' sobs grew, not seeing.  Rebecca going through the archway, her body lying as limp as Sirius', had sent them both into a frenzy.  It had taken Remus all the strength he had to restrain Harry from joining Rebecca, he didn't know what strength kept him from joining Sirius.

As Sirius was finished, Rebecca felt the exhaustion begin to layer.  The exertions of earlier with the pseudo-premonition only made it harder for her to keep her wits about her.

"Your body!"  Cedric called in her mind.  "You have to return to your body!"

Rebecca's spirit agreed.  "Yes, that sounds like a good idea."

Cedric groaned internally, fighting to project his voice even farther through Rebecca's mind.  "YOUR BODY!"

It was all the reminder Rebecca needed.  Shocked out of the depths of her weakness, Rebecca managed to line herself up with her body.  There was a sharp tingling of her body waking up as Cedric dragged her back out of the arch.  It was easier to get her out than it had been Sirius, since he was able to use both hands and she was considerably less to drag.  

Tonks face remained as blank as it had been at the beginning of the scene.  It was impossible, neither Sirius nor Rebecca could actually die--they were two of the most unstoppable forces Tonks had ever known.

Bellatrix's eyes narrowed, noting how Sirius' body began to stir and how Rebecca was awakening.  "The Dark Lord's going to like this...especially after he thought he failed to kill the boy..."  Her eyes settled on Cedric.

Rebecca eyes shot open as soon as she was entirely from the gate of the arch, a gasp filling her lungs with air for the first time in minutes.  Cedric helped her sit up and then released her, selfishly enjoying having his mind to himself again.

Harry held Rebecca's head against his chest, his sobs continuing if not strengthening.  

Remus dropped to his knees between Sirius and Rebecca, grabbing them both and trying to think.  "What were you thinking? How-what were you THINKING?"

Rebecca shook her head, glimpsing Bellatrix dance out through a door on the side of the room.  "Not-no time."  She muttered, using Remus' outstretched hand and Harry to get herself to her feet.  Rebecca tried to walk forward, managing a few steps that lost their wobbling as she continued.  

Harry stood up and followed her, not sure where she was going but knowing that she wouldn't be leaving his sight again.

Rebecca didn't know where the spring of energy that filled her came from, but she knew that it was all that was pushing her on.  It was a warm energy, something old and not herself, but there was no time to examine it further.  There was a primal rage urging her after Bellatrix.  Rebecca was going to get her, and then Rebecca was going to make her pay.

"I killed Sirius Black!"  Bellatrix sang.  It may have ended up not true, but at the same time, Bellatrix hoped it would make the two children think their secret was still safe.  "Are you coming to get me?"  Bellatrix asked over her shoulder as she skipped along.  The winding, twisting path the door she had taken spat the three of them out in the main atrium of the Ministry.  "Maybe next time I'll get-"

Rebecca raised her wand, unable to even imagine this woman having access to someone else she loved.  There was anger and hate inside of Rebecca so potent it made its way out of her in the form of a red bolt leaving her wand.  "Crucio!"

Harry hadn't left Rebecca's side, but he only raised his wand.  He had yet to join the spell, though he wanted to.

Rebecca's spell was cut off and her eyes rolled back as Voldemort filled her and Harry's heads.  "You've got to mean it.  She deserves it."  Harry fought against what kept him frozen, trying to look at Rebecca.  Voldemort kept their bodies rooted in place firmly.  "You know the spell, Rebecca."

Voldemort apparated behind them, his voice reaching their ears as he left their minds.  "Do it."

Harry turned and waved his wand at Voldemort, but Voldemort had him disarmed instantly.  Sneering down at him, Voldemort scolded him.  "So weak, Harry.  You disappoint me."  Rebecca hadn't tried to fight against his hold yet, her wand still focused on Bellatrix.  "Perhaps one of you will prove less of a failure."

Dumbledore appeared in the fireplace to the left of Rebecca, stepping out of the green flames.  "It was foolish to come here tonight, Tom.  The aurors are on their way."

"By which time I shall be gone and you shall be dead!"  Voldemort stepped back and gestured to what he had accomplished proudly.  "Look!  Your prized pupil, one half of your wonder twins, tempted by me.  Ready to fall to me, to bow to me."

"Bow?"  Rebecca turned slowly, cutting through Voldemort's grasp on her.  "I don't bow."  As Harry had chance the year before, Rebecca raised her wand and prepared to face Voldemort.  "EXPELLIARMUS!"  The stream of red that left her wand met Voldemort's green.  

Dumbledore moved forward and shoved Harry to the side while Bellatrix scurried into a fireplace and flooed away.

Rebecca's face was set in determination, drawing from every reserve she had as she pushed the focus of her spell closer and closer to him.  

Voldemort tilted his head slightly, impressed by the power she displayed.  "You will prove an asset to me, when the time comes that you join me."

The room was filled with a wind, a strong, powerful wind as Rebecca shook her head.  "I will never!"  She took a step towards him and forced Voldemort back a step.

Voldemort's face turned downward, and he sighed.  "We'll have to see."  He sent sharp burst of energy through their battle, sending Rebecca up into the air.  Dumbledore took over the fight before she had even hit the ground, well into the duel when her sliding stopped at the corner of the statue she smashed into.

Harry crawled towards her, paling at the blood that coursed out of the split down the side of her face.  The corner of the pillar was stained where she had made contact with it.  Harry brought his shirt to her, and put pressure on it, horrified that his hand covered the length of the wound--from her eyebrow to middle of her cheek, hooked around her eye socket, her flesh had been opened and from it poured more blood than Harry had thought even possible.

Lightning began to strike around them from the battle between Voldemort and Dumbledore and Harry lowered his body over hers to shield her.  He kept the bottom of his shirt against her face firmly, though it had long been soaked through.  The wet, sticky heat had seeped through his fingers with the smell of copper filling his nose.

Voldemort withdrew his spell from where it was tied with Dumbledore's and summoned a fireball that he breathed life into.  It rose to the ceiling where it took on the face of a snake.  Dumbledore collected the fire into a single ball before dispersing of it without injury.  The headmaster raised his wand and collected the water from the fountains around them.  Dumbledore collected it into a ball that swirled and scooped Voldemort into the middle.

Rebecca opened her eyes, confused why her vision was blurry and why he was covering half of her face with his shirt.  "Harry?"

"Hey, it's alright."  Harry spoke softly and quickly, trying to keep her as calm as he could in his own panicked state.  "Don't talk, okay?"

Rebecca tried to sit up, needing to know what was going on.  Harry put his hand behind her back and looked at the scene behind them for the first time since he had made it to her side.  Voldemort was sending a stream of pure black at Dumbledore, the same darkness that trailed after the Death Eaters when they apparated.

Seeing that none of his efforts affected Dumbledore, Voldemort threw his arms out and screamed.  A shockwave made its way out of his body, shattering every window and pane of glass in the atrium.  Massive shards rained down and struck the floor only to splinter into smaller, equally sharp pieces.

Voldemort looked at Harry and Rebecca, smiling a horrible smile.  He connected his hands above his head and the glass levitated off the ground behind him.  Dumbledore waved his wand behind him, dragging Harry and Rebecca behind as the first bits of glass began to fly.  Dumbledore conjured a shield in front of the three of them; every bit of glass that hit it turned into nothing more than particles.

Harry turned his back to Dumbledore and held Rebecca's face to his chest, afraid of anything worsening what was already the worst injury he may have ever seen.

When Voldemort stopped, Harry put Rebecca's arm around his neck and pulled her to her feet so she stood next to him.  Without his shirt to catch it, blood began to drip down her cheek and then down the front of her.  

Voldemort glared at the three of them and disappeared into a spinning ball of glass.

Rebecca's hand shot to her throat as she couldn't breathe, a choking sound escaping her.  Harry reached up and tried to force her face towards him, but she was filled with a strength that wasn't hers.  Harry felt the tickling of a presence at the edge of his mind, but Rebecca grappled Voldemort further into her and kept him from linking with Harry.

"Yo-you've lost, old man."  A throaty voice left Rebecca's mouth, the corners of her lips that only ever raised with mischief turned in a sinister sneer.

Unbeknownst to Harry and Dumbledore, Voldemort was pulling memories from her mind and replaying them.  The murder of James and Lily, the car accident with Jane, the years after with William--the descent into abuse her childhood had gone, how she had been abandoned.  There were smaller flashes between the biggest events, she and Harry's ostracisation when he had been in the Triwizard Tournament, how she had hit Lavender, the detentions with Umbridge.

"So weak."  Voldemort hissed.  "There's nothing in you that isn't mine."

Rebecca jerked and fell out of Harry's grip where she writhed as she tried to find something inside of her that was only her so she had a foothold.  A broken, "No!"  ripped out of her.  Rebecca held Fred in her mind, going over every detail of his face, the freckle on his ear, the crooked smile when he was being especially cheeky--she used these facts to begin to force Voldemort out.

"You think that will stop me?"  Voldemort asked, wiping away Fred to look at herself in a mirror--Her face didn't stare back at her, Voldemort's did.  "Look at me, look at us.  We are the same."

"Do something!"  Harry shouted, pleaded at Dumbledore.  He had Rebecca's head between his hands and was trying to keep her still.

"Rebecca," Dumbledore began, kneeling beside her.  He held his hand to the back of Harry's increasing the pressure on the side of her face.  "It isn't how you are alike, it's how you aren't."

Rebecca jerked again, pained grunts leaving her.  It was hard, so hard, to get him out.  And she was tired.

Their friends entered the entrance to the Ministry, the members of the Order right behind them.  Though they had heard word that Voldemort himself had appeared, the children would not be kept and finally made their break when there was a lapse in supervision.  

Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Cedric, Neville, Luna, Remus, Sirius, Tonks...Rebecca's eyes saw them and memories of time spent with them flew past her mind.  She lowered her head and closed her eyes, holding onto the feelings inside of her.  She never saw the last four arrivals: Molly and Arthur trailing behind Fred and George.  "You're the weak one."  She managed, still uprooting Voldemort wherever he had laid claim inside her.  "You'll never know love or friendship...and I feel sorry for you."

The images Voldemort had unearthed, the worst of the worst moments in her life thus far, receded back to the dark corners they resided in and Rebecca felt her body become her own once more.  Harry was sent flying away from her as the glass in the air created a perfect circle above her.  

Voldemort stood above, leaning over her.  "You're a fool, Rebecca Potter."  Voldemort bent lower.  "And you will lose...everything."

Flits and swooshes filled the entrance hall as the first Ministry workers arrived for the day.  Cornelius Fudge froze in his steps, Percy at his side.  Both mens eyes widened at the sight of the very dark wizard they had spent months denying the return of.

Voldemort disappeared, leaving Rebecca to try and get up before laying her head back.

Dumbledore put Rebecca's head on his knee, holding the sleeve of his robes against the still-bleeding wound.  The group of Order members and Army members pushed through the crowd that had formed around the three fighters, Rebecca fighting to maintain consciousness.

In the image that would grace the cover of the next morning's Prophet cover, Dumbledore removed his sleeve from her cut and helped her sit, Harry at her side endlessly.

Fudge quickly mounted an operation to get them all to St Mungo's for emergency care, one of the first instances of beneficial leadership in his Minister-hood.  

In the hospital, Harry was forced into his own bed.  The nurses and mediwizards here were far less understanding than Madam Pomfrey would have been, he told himself, but he wasn't sure if even Madam Pomfrey would have let him lie with her with her state.

An entire room had been allocated to those who had received injuries in one form or another during the fighting.  Remus refused aid for his minor abrasions and burns and had yet to leave Sirius' bedside.

Rebecca had been given a draught of rest and then taken into another room for further care.  Fred had almost been forced to take one as well, if he didn't stand down and let them take her out of his sight.  Fred sat in the chair next to her bed stoically, hardly breathing.

Tonks stood up from her bed, tossing the ice pack she had been given for a bruised cheek behind her.  George was checking on Ginny, Molly on Ron, and Arthur on Harry, so Cedric swung his legs off his bed despite the protests of his parents and followed Tonks to Fred.

"Fred?"  Tonks asked, her tone as serious as it had ever been to him before.  "Come here."  Fred shook his head, knowing that comfort would be what broke him.  "Funny, I wasn't asking."

Tonks pulled him to his feet and wrapped her arms around his middle, while Cedric hugged him higher.  Fred, fully embraced, crumbled.  "Hours!  We were gone hours!  How am I supposed to do two years apart from here when she does things like this?"

Cedric lifted his head off Fred's shoulder and shook it.  "You weren't there, mate."  Cedric continued at Fred's confusion.  "Fred, she doesn't need anyone.  You should have seen it--I wish you could have."

Sirius raised his voice slightly, only a bed away and the room as private as it would ever be.  "Rebecca entered the Beyond, Fred.  She walked in and out of death."

Cedric scoffed, still in disbelief and he had seen the whole thing through her mind.  "She put her leg in my hand, said 'don't let go,' and dove in after Sirius."

Fred laughed once through his continuous tears.  "That's RJ."

Tonks patted his shoulder and sat movement of nurses and their subject of conversation outside the door, just down the hall.  "You'll be fine, I promise."  Tonks lowered her voice.  "Though, the way your mother's been looking at you...I'm afraid my promise is empty."

Rebecca was led by a softly-talking nurse.  Never, ever had this nurse seen a person take so much draught of rest and still insist on walking themselves back to their bed.  Rebecca couldn't even hold her eyes open entirely, but her feet plodded on.  "We're almost to your bed, are you tired?"

"No, not yet."  Rebecca's head bobbed forward.  "Not tired, few more minutes."

The nurse smiled and folded back the blanket, looking at the teary faces around Rebecca's bed.  "Let's lie down and then we can have a few minutes, okay?"

Rebecca couldn't hold her eyes open anymore as soon as her head hit the pillow, and her face still hurt and she was so sore.  "Fred?  Fred, I-"

"Yes, love?"  Fred asked, taking her hand in both of his and kneeling by her side.  "I'm right here, what do you need?"

Rebecca didn't say anything, holding onto his hand.  Her mind was filled with words--most that didn't string together with any meaning--but there were a few that stuck out and repeated themselves endlessly.  "My Fred..."

Fred bowed his head and his shoulders shook gently.  "Of course."

Rebecca drifted into a dreamless sleep with her hand in his, and that would be how she woke up as well.  When Fred's tears dried, his eyes found their way to her face and didn't leave until he was certain he had memorised every facet of her.  The nurses had healed the cut the best they could, but they hadn't been there when it had first happened.  A scar had been left behind, though fainter than it would have been had it healed naturally.  

Fred didn't think she would be bothered by something so trivial, but he would make sure she wasn't; she was as beautiful with it as she was without.

Harry looked up at Arthur, tears beading in the corners of his eyes.  "She kept him from me, Voldemort.  She pulled him in farther so there wasn't any left to find me."

"Oh, son."  Arthur had already moved Ron's bed closer to Harry's so he could have an arm for both of them, but at the admission he hugged them both tightly to him.

Remus looked away from Sirius, the first time since Sirius' eyes had opened again.  Molly fluttered from bed to bed, comforting every child (and adult, in Sirius and his case) as she went.

"If I, maybe I could have-"

"No, no."  Molly interrupted, cupping Harry's face gently, motherly.  "Sweets, not right now.  You need rest."

The room was filled with recuperation and, slowly but eventually, sleep.

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