Corruption

CHAPTER ELEVEN
Spells

Harry fell onto damp earth, and his nostrils were instantaneously overflowing with the musty, damp smell of fungus.

`Bloody death-traps,´ he sniffed, sitting back on his heels and holding his dropped glasses up to see.

He appeared to be in some kind of pit. The earthy walls with flints poking through told him so, at least. As far as he could see, there was no way out, either. Harry got up and walked around his small prison, rubbing his bottom where he had landed.

`Stuff like this isn´t meant to happen to me,´ he objected. `I´m meant to be the one who leaves my friends in this situation.´

He squinted up into the darkness. It was a long way. He must have fallen onto something soft. Harry spotted a pile of rags. Maybe they broke his fall. He got closer to them, and jumped back, realising there was a skeleton in there.

`Not looking too good now, is it Harry?´ he said to himself. He even found himself wanting Malfoy there, at least Malfoy would deserve to be in this place. Baddies were the ones who ended up in pits, not Harry Potters. He strolled to the side of the pit, and leaned against the wall, yawning, when suddenly the floor fell through.

He fell into a pool of cold water. It was quite deep, and he sank a long way before hitting the bottom with his thrashing feet.

`Why does everything have to be so hard?´ he spat, shaking water out of his ears.

When he saw the carved columns, it struck him that this wasn´t a pool, it was a flooded room. He took a deep breath, and struggled to remember his swimming expedition the year before. He pulled down into the room below, and squinted around for a door. There was one at the top of a little staircase, and he pushed through it as fast as he could. The water wasn´t as high in this room, and he rose up hastily for air. There seemed to be a long chain of rooms, getting steadily higher. He decided it was all he could do to follow them.

`This was not in the job description,´ he grumbled, diving down to go through the next door.

~*~

Hermione looked around her all the time. She held out her wand, frightened. Malfoy and Ryder seemed to know where they were going, but then they would, wouldn´t they? Hermione spotted a movement in the edge of her vision, and jumped. Lara snapped around angrily.

`Bats,´ she said. `They won´t hurt you. They don´t like dirty blood.´

Hermione stepped back, kicked, but fixed her gaze nervously on the back of Lara´s head. Her hair was straggled and dripping. It stuck to the back of the cloak she wore, which couldn´t have been her own. It trailed on the floor for about a foot.

Draco turned slightly at Lara´s remark, and Hermione saw an edge of a smile on his porcelain face.

`Where are we going?´ Hermione whispered, afraid of what Lara might say.

`We´re trying all the places he´s likely to be,´ Draco told her. `He left this way, so we´ll go along here first.´

Hermione chose not to say anything, as Lara was holding herself very stiffly, like a cobra preparing to strike. It didn´t seem prudent to provoke her by having the nerve to speak when she was so inferior. Hermione smarted at Lara´s comment, and she made faces at the back of the girl´s head to keep her anger at bay. Right now, Lara was pretty useful, and to be sure, Voldemort would kill her before long.

Lara prodded Draco in the back, and indicated a passage.

`The library?´ Draco checked.

Lara nodded. He shrugged, drawing his dagger and shifting it to a comfortable position in his hand. He beckoned to the girls, and marched down the tiny hall. Hermione shrank against one wall, looking up with wide, dilated eyes at stone gargoyles, hung with bats.

Lara spun around, and Hermione ducked, seeing the dagger in her hand glint in a sudden flash of light from a door Draco was trying to open. But Lara wasn´t trying to kill Hermione this time. She gave a slight breath that sounded very forced. The bats all dropped off the stone moulding and flew in huge cloud over Hermione´s head and out of the passage.

`I get that you don´t like them. I´m not too fond of them either,´ Lara said, and she seemed almost friendly.

Draco was peering through the keyhole of the door. He nodded and beckoned them, not taking his eye away.

`It´s locked,´ he told them. `I tried a spell on it, but I think it´s sealed magically.´

Lara felt her damp hair briefly, then turned on Hermione. Her laser-blue eyes scanned Hermione´s bushy mop, and she reached out like a monkey, snatching one of Hermione´s hairpins.

`I hope you don´t mind,´ she simpered. Hermione shook her head, but she doubted it would make a difference anyway.

Lara bent the pin out straight, and knelt by the door. She stuck the thin wire into it, and turned around to lean her ear against the wood. She rattled the pin around inside a few times, then shoved it hard. The lock clicked open, and she pocketed the bent wire.

`After you,´ she offered to Draco.

He gave her a look of death, in return to which she smiled sweetly. He opened the door and marched in. Lara ushered Hermione through, then followed.

Draco stood in a huge cream and brown marble-floored room. The walls were covered with books, but a huge window along the left wall made the room light. A gallery ran around the edge on the otherwise open upper floor. Voldemort stood, leaning on the rail, smiling pleasantly.

Hermione had never seen him properly before, and now she understood. She had never imagined anyone could be so foul, but she could tell that this `man´ certainly could.

Lara stepped up behind her, and stopped. `I think we found him,´ she said.

`No shit, Sherlock!´ Draco exclaimed sarcastically.

`Welcome,´ Voldemort announced. `I was thinking you´d be a little longer than that.´ He examined them all closely. `My, my. Now you have a Mudblood with you as well. The little goody-gang is growing rapidly.´

`Don´t be so fucking patronising, you bitch,´ Lara said coldly, sneering at him with all her might. Had Hermione not been so frightened, she would have imagined any flies on the walls withering and dying.

`Yes, that´s a good idea, Lara. Provoke him! Provoke the big nasty, murdering, Evil Overlord Extraordinaire! That´ll make him leave us in peace,´ Draco clapped enthusiastically.

`She fails to provoke me,´ Voldemort answered, smiling lazily.

`Shut up old man. I wasn´t talking to you,´ Draco snapped. Hermione watched Voldemort closely, and while he had not so much as blinked through anything Lara had said, he flinched visibly, and his face reddened.

`Have you any comments to add, Mudblood?´ Voldemort recovered, turning on Hermione.

`Only that `Mudblood´ should be beneath you. You´re supposed to be the most evil, foul creature on earth, and that´s the best you can do?´ she scoffed. `Pathetic, that´s what you are.´

Voldemort smiled icily. `We´ll see how loudmouthed you are when we cut your tongue out,´ he threatened.

`You don´t scare us,´ Lara snapped. Hermione couldn´t be sure if she was lying. Neither Lara nor Draco looked all that scared. It was a lie on Hermione´s part, though. `You´re for tales to keep children out of the woods. You´re not material for the new Millennium. Baddies are actually scary now, and most of them are pretty damn fine looking. I´d get a face-lift before you try that whole `I´m evil, raaarrr!´ thing.´

Hermione couldn´t tell if she was just stalling for time, telling the truth, or trying to put him off. Any way, it seemed to be doing something.

`I am THE evil overlord!´ Voldemort boomed, spreading his arms, and shooting fire into the air.

`Touchy!´ Lara said, putting a hand over her mouth.

`STOP!´ Voldemort roared. `You have outstayed your welcome!´ He lowered his hand and pointed it at Lara. She backed away nervously. Draco moved slightly. Hermione couldn´t guess what he was going to do.

`Avada Kedavra!´ Voldemort bellowed. The jet of green light flew at Lara, but she held something out in front of her, and the light was sucked into it. Voldemort shrieked in agony. `That was VERY stupid!´ he warned her. He raised his hand again, and Hermione and Draco were hurled across the room. Hermione was flung to land in a heap on the gallery to the right, Draco to the left. Hermione was winded and she could feel that one of her bones wasn´t right. She cradled her arm, and struggled to her feet, sucking breath with great difficulty. Draco groaned, and slumped forwards. He rose to stand slowly, clutching his shoulder.

Voldemort waved an arm and the sky outside darkened. The lack of light in the room was made up by a greenish glow from the walls. He snapped his fingers and landed in front of Lara.

`I don´t like green,´ she said, unperturbed. She clapped her hands, and the light turned blue. `Much better,´ she approved.

`This is amateurish,´ Voldemort scorned. `I want to kill you, not see how you look in blue.´

`You started it,´ Lara snapped.

`Duel me?´ Voldemort offered.

`You owe me as much,´ Lara remarked.

`I do, you were a good daughter,´ Voldemort conceded.

`You must promise me to kill me outright. I don´t want to die with the indignity of Avada Kedavra,´ Lara established.

`Fair enough,´ Voldemort shrugged.

He stood straight, and so did Lara. Hermione realised she had been holding her breath all the time, and was seeing spots in front of her eyes. She took another breath through her fingers. They were pressed against her mouth so tightly that she could feel her lips tingling.

Lara swallowed against the blood pounding through every part of her body. She didn´t hold enough tricks to block him every time. This was what she had been born to do, to kill. She would do it, and she would do it better than anyone else would in the world. They bowed, and stood ready. Without wands they didn´t need to hold their hands in the formal duelling positions. It was a matter of choice, and, being a Corrupter, style was important. Corruption was where her powers came from. All the people worshipping her back at Hogwarts were pouring their own energy into her. She drew on some of it now, and held her hands out in front of her. They were swarming with blue sparks, ready for her first spell.

Voldemort nodded, and shot a bolt of green at her. She snapped it out of the air with her blue light. So far so good.

`Incendio,´ she muttered, then released it slowly. Voldemort was looking at her, perhaps choosing her weaknesses for his next spell, when his robe caught fire. As he turned to deal with it, Lara shot him in the back with a powerful `Reducto´ charm. He fell down, but shot a spell at her legs. She jumped it, but it clipped her bare knee. Blood began to flow, and with it, her stolen energy. She could see the sparks pouring out with the dark red liquid. She needed to cast quickly.

`Asclepio,´ she said, pressing a hand to her knee. It healed over in a second. She pointed her hand at Voldemort, and bellowed something. He was thrown backwards, rolling over and over. But he stayed, hanging in the air. He began to cast simple curses at her, laughing as she ran about, dodging madly.

`That´s it,´ she muttered. `Engorgio!´ she cast on herself.

She began to grow, slowly at first, but faster and faster, until her head brushed the ceiling. She reached out to snatch her tormentor from the air, but he drifted out of her reach. He flickered and vanished. She looked for him, but in this huge form, it was hard to move. Then she found herself shrinking again. Voldemort was laughing behind her. She dived forwards, rolling to her feet facing him. He began to advance on her, and she could see a shimmering magical barrier forming around him. She found suddenly that her feet wouldn´t move from the floor. He still had to cross most of the room, so she had quite a while. He was moving very slowly.

`I must admit I underestimated you,´ he admitted. `I thought you´d be easy to kill, so I was lenient. Now you shall learn what Lord Voldemort can truly do.´

`Help!´ she pleaded to Hermione and Draco.

Draco watched her try to wrench her feet off the floor, but she couldn´t. Her pitiful cries scraped at his soul, and he knew he had to do something. He shifted, but his feet were stuck, too. He swore poisonously, but it didn´t do anything. He jerked around as fast as he could, and grabbed a strip of wooden bordering from the wall. It came away with a crunch, tearing his fingers to pieces. It was about the width and length of a sword.

`Lara!´ he yelled. `Catch!´

He cast it like a spear towards her. She snatched it out of the air eagerly, then her face fell.

`Malfoy! What is this? It´s a stick! How am I meant to kill him with this?´

`I don´t know! Transfigure it?´ he suggested.

`I can´t!´ she cried.

`Why not? That´s really basic stuff!´ Draco frowned.

`He´s getting quite close now!´ she reminded him.

`It won´t change from my spell while I´m this far away. I can´t move either, you know.´

`Shit!´ she snapped. `Fieri Ferrous!´ she said, pointing at the wood. It shimmered slightly but nothing happened.

`It´s Fieri Gladius!´ Hermione told her desperately.

`I told you I couldn´t do this!´ Lara shrieked. `Fieri Gladius! Fieri Gladius! Fieri Gladius! Fieri Gladius!´ she repeated.

The stick refused to change, and Voldemort was ten yards away. He was laughing. This was jut entertainment to him. Lara began to cry blind tears of frustration. The barrier would stop any spells she tried to cast, and this flimsy stick was her last hope.

`Please change!´ she begged it. `I need you to change. I´m gonna die if you don´t change! Just do it!´ she sobbed wretchedly. `Help me...´

Voldemort was nearly hysterical; he was laughing evilly, and clapping her.

`SHUT UP!´ she shrieked. `SHUT UP!´

`Is it too hard for you?´ he teased. `The first thing you ever learnt in transfiguration, and you can´t do it!´

`Leave me alone!´ she wailed. `Fieri Gladius! Fieri Gladius!´

Voldemort was a yard away. He stepped one pace closer, and pointed his finger between her eyes.

Lara stared down through tear-blurred eyes at the would-be sword.

`Avada -` Voldemort began.

It was odd. Through her panic-stricken and tear-filled eyes, it seemed that the wood had gone silvery, and sharp. She clenched her hand around it, and felt a metal handle, there was no doubt about it...

`Kedav...´ Voldemort continued. Lara snapped her head up, and brought the sword up in her two hands. She listened to him saying the `v´ of the spell as her blade swung, then he was cut off abruptly as her sword whipped across his throat.

He collapsed to the ground, his head coming down separately. Blood spurted across the floor, but Hermione was focusing on Lara and Draco. The two of them were arched back, hands half-clenched like claws. Beams of white light were breaking out through their skin, and Lara was screaming. The light was going through them all over, and soon it was painful to look at. Her feet released, Hermione fell to her knees, covering her eyes. Then there was a rushing sensation, and Hermione peeked out. Draco knelt on the gallery opposite, looking at his hands as though in wonder. Lara was lying on her face on the floor. Hermione recovered feeling in her legs and ran around the gallery to the stairs. She sprinted across the floor, and dropped to her knees beside Lara. She turned the girl over by her shoulders, and looked at her bloody face.

Draco was stumbling down, still clinging to his shoulder. Hermione remembered her arm all of a sudden, and pain rushed into it. Draco, breathing heavily, put an ear to Lara´s mouth, then to her chest.

`Still here,´ he said hoarsely. He peeled an eyelid back, and a glazed brown eye stared back.

Brown?

`Welcome back, Lara,´ he smiled. Regardless of her unconsciousness, he pulled her into a rough hug.

`Let´s wake her up,´ Hermione said. `Enervate,´ she whispered. Lara blinked her restored eyes, and tried to sit up, but Draco pushed her back.

`Are you okay?´ he asked her solicitously.

`Never better,´ she croaked. `Never better.´ She smiled weakly, and sat up, pushing his arm away.

`Thanks, Hermione, wasn´t it?´ she smiled. `And you, Draco. I´d be dead many times over without you.´

Draco didn´t seem to be able to help himself. He grabbed Hermione and Lara into a bear hug. Hermione felt oddly connected to them then.

`What do we do now?´ Hermione asked.

Lara looked over to Voldemort´s body. `Well, I don´t know about you, but I´m gonna get me some loot. And a trophy,´ she added. `You don´t kill big Baddies and not bring a trophy.´

She walked over to the prone body, and began to pick it over. Neither Hermione nor Draco stopped her.

`What does it feel like?´ Hermione asked Draco.

`I feel... whole, but somehow empty,´ he said, squinting at Lara.

`I understand,´ Hermione said. `You lost something that was a big part of you, but you didn´t want it anyway.´

Draco just nodded. Then he turned back to her. He took her hand in his. `I don´t know how to thank you,´ he said.

`That´s okay,´ Hermione shook her head.

`I´m... I´m sorry for how I´ve been,´ he squirmed. `Let´s not mention this apology back at school, though?´ he said.

`Not a word,´ Hermione smiled.

Lara came back to them then, pocketing various items of jewellery and Voldemort´s wand. In her hand she held Voldemort´s bloodstained fist.

`That´s disgusting!´ Hermione gasped.

`I don´t care,´ Lara grinned. `I beat Voldemort once and for all, and I don´t care.´

Hermione started to object, but Draco, standing behind Lara, shook his head almost imperceptibly. Hermione sighed. `Doesn´t matter. You earned it.´

Lara nodded. `I know!´

They all linked arms, Hermione putting herself on the other side of Draco to avoid the gross relic. Lara was disgustingly cheerful, and was cracking a highly inappropriate joke as they opened the door on the right hand side of the library.

`Did I miss something?´ a very wet Harry asked, puzzled.

`Oh, nothing,´ Hermione smiled. `Just Voldemort´s true downfall. Nothing very important.´