When the Light Goes Out

When the Light Goes Out Chapter 06

The two spells rebounded off each other, and Harry and Potter ducked as their own spells came hurtling towards them.

The whole crowd also ducked as the red lights shot off into the opposite distances.

'Stupefy!'

'Stupefy!'

The same thing happened.

The people gathered looked on with a mixture of fear, wonder and disbelief.

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'Ah, Minerva, Miss Granger, Mr Weasley, you are here. Professor Snape has some good news.'

Snape looked thoroughly put-out that he had anything that was classed as "good".

'I have found a small paragraph about what the book calls 'alternate universes'. There may be another way to bring Mr Potter back.'

'Another way?' Hermione exclaimed.

'That is what I just said,' Snape said impatiently. 'I found a potion, that if thrown at the exact spot of a weak point in the galaxy, grants you passage to the parallel one. Potter, being Potter, must have picked up on it.'

'Not on purpose!' Hermione cried immediately.

'Of course not,' Dumbledore said gently, with a meaningful look at Snape.

'Well, why haven't you made it then?' Ron yelled, leaping to his feet from the chintz armchair he was sitting in.

Snape's lip curled. 'I could not "just make it". It needs something from everyone who wants to make the crossover.' He trailed off.

Ron and Hermione waited eagerly, but Snape did not elaborate.

'What?' Ron said uncertainly. 'Like some hair? Or nail clippings, like in the Polyjuice--' His hand flew to his mouth as Hermione stepped on his foot. No one knew about their illegally brewed Polyjuice Potion, back in their second year.

Dumbledore, however, gave them a small smile, his eyes twinkling behind his bushy eyebrows. 'Not exactly, Mr Weasley. Something a little more crude.' He hesitated. 'Blood.'

Ron and Hermione's mouths made little 'o' shapes.

'Severus, would you please brew this potion? I will meet you in the girls' bathroom on the first floor. Only one of us need go.'

There was an instant uproar at Dumbledore's words, even from Snape and McGonagall.

'Sir! Hermione and I are his best friends! He'd want us to come!'

'Yes, and it's my fault he's there!'

'Albus, I am Harry's Head of House!'

'And I, Headmaster, I am to brew the potion! I think that I should be allowed to go, if no one else!'

Snape's words earned him glares from the others.

Dumbledore looked round at the four determined faces, and sighed, defeated. 'Well, alright. I suppose it is your blood, after all. Severus, how long does it take to make?'

'If my calculations are correct, exactly one hour.'

'Alright. We will all meet in the girls' bathroom on the first floor in exactly one hour.'

~ • ~

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Harry and Potter's movements were exactly the same.

For a moment, they just waited at opposite ends of the ring, glaring at each other.

Harry took a few deep breaths.

He would have to find a way around this.

Then he thought of the solution.

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Ron and Hermione burst through the door to the girls' bathroom on the first floor, panting slightly, even though neither of them had done anything but look at their watch for the past hour.

Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape were gathered around a slightly spitting cauldron.

Dumbledore welcomed them in, and told them to stand around the other side of the cauldron.

The potion was a light violet colour, and seemed to sparkle slightly.

'The potion is almost ready. All it needs it the final ingredient...' Snape said, giving the potion one final clockwise stir.

Ron gulped as Snape drew a small, sharp-looking dagger. He hesitated for a moment and Hermione, who had already stretched out her bare arm, whispered, 'Come on, Ron. It's for Harry.'

Ron took a deep breath and pulled back the sleeve of his right arm.

Snape moved around the circle, first cutting himself, then McGonagall, then Dumbledore, then Hermione--who looked away--and finally Ron, who grimaced.

Every time Snape added the different person's blood, the potion went a shade darker, until it was almost black, but still glittering.

'Ready?' Snape asked, and when everyone nodded, he took a small flask of the potion, and threw it at a perfectly unremarkable flagstone on the floor.

It exploded when it made contact with the sparklingly clean stone, and for a moment, nothing happened.

Ron looked around in confusion, just as the potion started to bubble.

It bubbled more and more, and started to ooze. Upwards.

The five leaned forwards, to get a better look, as the dark potion went upwards and upwards, curving into the shape of a door.

When it had finished, they found it wasn't a door, it was a portal.

'After me, I think,' Dumbledore said, and disappeared into the dark, sparkly mass.

He was followed by Snape, then by Ron, Hermione and finally, McGonagall.

Hermione's body seemed to tingle and she found herself in the same bathroom she had just left.

She could tell it was dark outside, and the room was spotless, almost--in use.

Hermione felt a massive anticlimax. 'Oh,' she said, 'we're in the same place. It didn't work.'

'I think not,' Dumbledore said quietly, facing the opposite direction. 'Turn around, Miss Granger.'

She did so, and stared at the floor.

The cauldron and ingredients were not there.

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Harry cleared his mind and looked directly into the eyes of his double.

Legilimens! he thought, desperately hoping that it would work; he wasn't very good at non-verbal spells, and besides, he didn't even know if you could do Legilimency without speaking.

Harry would have breathed a sigh of relief; the memories came in a torrent.

Many of them he recognised, but there was one different one. Just one. Standing outside the Three Broomsticks, on his own. But after this point, everything was strangely grey and fuzzy.

Harry sorted through the thoughts and feelings, until he found the thing he was looking for.

Potter was about to use the Impediment Jinx.

Harry broke free, and was about to cry, 'Stupefy!' when he saw something that he did not expect.

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The three professors and the two students raced across the grounds. Hermione thought it looked as if a bomb had hit it, and would have voiced this, except it wasn't very likely that any of the people present would know what the phrase meant.

They saw people gathered in a circle, Death Eaters kneeling, others just simply staring at something in the middle.

Hermione gasped; she had seen it first.

There were two Harry Potters.

And they were duelling.

McGonagall clapped a hand to her mouth as she saw them. 'Oh, Albus, look at his eyes!'

Dumbledore paled. Voldemort was there too, but was standing, almost patiently, on the edge of the circle.

Harry evidently had just been about to say a spell when they had arrived.

When they had distracted him.

The other Harry raised his wand and opened his mouth, looking at Harry.

'Harry look out!' Hermione cried, and the whole crowd turned to look at her.

The other Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape gaped at them, but did not move.

Harry span around, just in time to see the jinx coming towards him. 'Protego!' he yelled, and it deflected. Then, before Potter could react, he cried, 'Stupefy!'

Potter was a second too slow. It hit him square in the chest, and he fell to the floor.

And still, Voldemort did not move.

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