The Hardest Curse to Break
The Hardest Curse to Break
Mad Eye Moody walked towards where Talbot and I stood over Ben's unconscious body. He leaned heavily on his walking stick and his wooden leg made a loud clunk with every step that echoed through the otherwise silent house. "Aye, looks as though we arrived late to the ball. Only just got the Patronus that you were in need of some help."
My brain malfunctioned and words failed me then. When I'd thought of reinforcements I'd pictured Penny, Andre, any of the Circle of Khanna who could have been alerted quickly, but I hadn't even considered Aurors. Moody was obviously an excellent choice but being so used to handling everything ourselves at Hogwarts, it just seemed strange to have a Ministry official there to help.
Talbot immediately reached out his hand to shake Moody's in a very unTablotish manner. "Mr. Moody, it's an honour to meet you sir. I'm Talbot Winger, not sure if you remember me but I'm enrolled in the correspondence pre course for the Auror training program." He told him with a deep look of unmasked admiration.
"Aye sonny, I remember. Your work has been very fine indeed so far. And I'll say, if this is the sort you get up to while the rest of the trainees have got their noses buried in books, you might want to consider joining early. We could use the raw talent as far as I'm concerned." At Moody's offer, Talbot blushed a dusky rose colour under his bronzed complexion and stuttered his thanks.
Tonks looked a bit put off by the whole exchange and cleared her throat loudly to get our attention. "So what do we do with him now Mad Eye? Andre's Patronus just said Ben had gotten loose but not how. I don't think it's safe to keep him here while he's Imperiused." Everyone seemed to agree on that much.
"Well I suppose I could take him back to the Ministry with me, but the problem is we haven't got any Legilimens on staff at the moment." Moody gave me a very pointed look which made me feel a twinge of regret that I'd ever revealed my ability to him. If it wasn't Ben, I'd probably have denied it or declined to be used as I could see he wanted me to be. But it was Ben. One of my best friends. I nodded. "What do you need me to do?"
Moody instructed Talbot to move Ben to a large chair in the corner of the room. Talbot obliged but struggled under Ben's dead weight. Ben had gone from being one of the smallest boys in our year to towering over most of the teachers at Hogwarts by the time we were in our final year. After Talbot had propped Ben up in the chair Moody turned his attention back to me.
"Now as Dumbledore tells it, you're a natural born Legilimens, so this shouldn't give you too much trouble. The usual way a person throws off the Imperius Curse is by sheer will power alone, I'm afraid your friend here lacks that. What you'll need to do is push through the curse from the outside to reach him, any way you can. Once you're in there you ought to be able to pull him out, so to speak."
It didn't sound easy at all. Dueling Ben and being hit with the Cruciatus Curse had sapped my energy already. Breaking into Ben's mind, through one of the most powerful curses known to Wizardkind sounded damn near impossible. But I knew I had to try. I pulled another chair up to face Ben's and sat so that our knees were touching.
"Rennervate." A red light flashed from the tip of his wand as Moody's charm hit Ben's chest. Ben was still bound by thick black ropes nearly head to toe, but his deep brown eyes snapped open as he was revived. I stared into them, hoping to see a trace of my friends personality, a familiar expression, anything. But his eyes were completely blank. He just stared right through me as if I were less than a ghost.
I tried to clear my mind of everything and gently pushed my consciousness out to Ben's mind. At first there was nothing. Then I felt that barely detectable staticky hum, the void of thoughts. I pushed deeper, extending my mind further than I was comfortable with. It felt like peeling an onion, pulling back layer after layer of basically nothing. And then, I heard it.
That same hoarse, gruff voice who had spoken the Unforgivable Curses in Ben's mind. It was distant and garbled but I could hear it. I almost pulled my mind back out of panic, but something kept me pushing closer to the source. I could hear the words now, instructions. And finally, I got a picture. Hazy as the ones I had seen in Lupin's mind, but unmistakable.
Fenrir Greyback had cornered Ben on his way out of St. Mungo's. I saw everything through Ben's memory. Ben wiping away his tears of rage over losing Chiara, his surprise at being confronted by this strange man when all he wanted was to leave. I saw his refusal to help Greyback in any way and his momentary horror when he realised he wasn't being given a choice, and then the evil smirk on Greyback's face as he made my friend his unwilling slave.
I clung to that last image of Ben, the one where he understood what was about to happen to him. I let my mind touch every part of that memory and slowly tried to pull it out of the buried depts. I'd never attempted anything as difficult with my Legilimency before. Pulling Ben's last memory out took every bit of my strength. But as I focused I found that it was coming, floating almost, up to the forefront. I was able to spare a bit of energy on some encouraging words to Ben. Not sure if he could hear me or not, I persisted.
Come on Ben, wake up. Fight it Ben, I've got you. Listen to my voice. Come with me.
I felt no indication that Ben had heard or felt me, but I'd succeeded in bringing that one memory front and center. And it wasn't taking nearly as much effort as I'd thought to keep it there. I tried something different, instead of pulling Ben, I pushed my own memory into his mind. A sweet memory of the two of us meeting in our first year at school. Eleven year old Ben, short, skinny, nervous and with big clumsy feet. Myself of the same age, my original chestnut brown hair tied in two long pigtails hanging down the front of my robes under my signature black hooded cloak, my eyes sparkling with humour as I helped Ben overcome some of his sillier fears.
I pushed more thoughts through after that one. My own face, the two of us eating lunch together in the Great Hall at Hogwarts, us dancing awkwardly at the Celestial Ball. Rowan's face, Rowan's death. The Circle of Khanna. Every face of our friends. I kept pushing, feeding Ben a steady stream of my own memories that he'd been a part of.
I pushed harder and faster until I saw Ben's pupils dilate and his eyes widened ever so slightly. In the same second I saw the faces of a friendly looking couple who both bore a remarkable resemblance to Ben, his parents most likely. Ben was coming back, that thought was his own.
I held onto our connection and continued to speak to him inside his mind. Slowly, another image was surfacing. It was Rowan. Rowan standing up for Ben when Merula had tripped him. More memories followed, picking up speed. Rowan laughing, the three of us drinking butter beers together at the Three Broomsticks, Rowan flinging herself in front of the Killing Curse.
Ben inhaled deeply and closed his eyes as two fat tears rolled down his cheeks. In his mind, Ben was hugging me, bent down and sobbing his heart out against my shoulder in a moment no one but us had ever witnessed. Ben was back. I pulled my mind away from his gently and put my hands on either side of his face.
"Ben? Ben I'm here. It's Samhain." I whispered to him in a hoarse voice, only then realising that I was crying too. "Samhain." He said my name. Only one word but it was Ben's voice, he was no longer Greyback's puppet. I leaned forward and hugged him as hard as I could through the ropes that still bound him.
I heard a sniff from somewhere to my left and looked over through blurry eyes to see Tulip and Tonks both on the verge of tears as well. "Oh stop it you two, help me untie Ben please. And where's Moody gone, and Talbot?" I asked them. "Mad Eye left, he took Talbot in to get his paperwork started, said you'd be able to break Ben's curse no problem, and you did." Tonks replied hesitantly, in an awed voice.
"We got him to clear us off for the day and stayed to back you up if things didn't work, but crikey Samhain, we didn't know you were so powerful. How in the world did you manage to break through an Unforgivable Curse?" Tulip chimed in.
I didn't know how to answer that, she'd voiced what I'd been wondering about for weeks. Was I more powerful? As we released Ben's bindings and let him take care of his most immediate needs I turned it over in my mind.
Breaking an Unforgivable Curse was simply unheard of, and there were other things too. The Inferus, I shuddered as I remembered how easily I'd been able to create the thing. Tiring in the moment, but I'd still manage to cast five wandless spells simultaneously to find our wands only moments after. I even thought of the staircase I'd conjured, and how excessively grand it had been without even trying. I wondered if Barnaby's ring on the chain around my neck had indeed been amplifying my magic, and the Lee family diamond on my ring finger. I hadn't had either of them on very long, but I knew now I'd be extremely reluctant to remove either of them.
If brains could ache from overexertion, mine would have been crying in pain. I had too much to think about just then, too many worries still plaguing me. We would need to deal with the Greyback situation sooner rather than later. I was still very concerned about Alexi's condition and anxious to check on him at St Mungo's, and also nervous of how Ben would act around Alexi and Chiara now. Not last in importance to me, but in the grander scheme of things, was my upcoming wedding to Barnaby as well. A wedding we were now free to plan and I was excited to get started, as soon as I had a free moment. And I knew I'd be expected back at work in WCU soon too. I sighed.
There was a lot, but I allowed myself a little time to rejoice with my friends that Ben was himself again. There were many hugs, some more tears and a beautiful few minutes where we all just relaxed like we had just finished our exams.