A Change of Plans

Chapter Sixteen

Patsy's world was gone. It was just her and the monster before her.

"Patricia Dore," he said inclining his head. "I've heard ever so much about you."

The courtesy of the gesture fit in with everything Patsy had ever heard, read, or felt about the man. J. K. Rowling described Madame Umbridge as poisoned honey, she thought. If Dolores is poisoned honey, old Voldie is the combination of tomato juice, mud, and arsenic: disgustingly deadly.

Voldemort stood there, no wand out, no visible threat. He did not radiate power, did not look remotely angry. But his eyes, with their scarlet shade, told of some sort of evil, some sort of horror that Patsy had not seen ever, had not expected to see ever. Instead of being scared, somehow, she was angry.

Patsy would never figure herself out; never. The time her parents had been killed she had only felt numb disbelief, but she knew that if she had been able to feel anything, fear would be among her top five. But here, when death was so near, pain was so close, all she felt was...rage. Hot, thick. She remembered learning something in science class about molten lava, magma, so thick and hot it could melt rock. Actually, it was melted rock. That was how Patsy felt: strong as stone, yet hot enough to destroy all the strength around her.

"I just bet you have," she heard Annie growl beside her. The sound of her friend brought her back to her senses, slightly. Patsy could not read Annie's tone; she could not tell what the girl was thinking. The ignorance disturbed her, that she could not connect. What would happen if they couldn't work their own witty form of magic? Would Voldemort be immune to it anyway?

"Annie-Elizabeth Howard?" The person Patsy was now privately calling Voldie-poo in her thoughts turned to Annie. "How nice of you to come as well. Of course, your mother has missed you so. Isn't that right, Eugene?"

Patsy studied the woman. Such hate Annie had harbored toward her mother! Such anger toward all the boyfriends, all the dating. Such loss, having thought her dead. Such joy, short lived but still there, having found her. But Eugene--what had she been through? How had she survived? What had really happened, that night in Annie's house?

"You bastard," said Eugene. "You damn bastard--"

"Tut tut," Voldie-poo taunted, performing a quick and easy Silencing Charm. "Mustn't be nasty to your host; it's quite impolite, you know."

"Tut this!" Annie screamed, losing her head. She raised the rifle and fired it.

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Annie was amazed by the power of the gun.

It's force nearly blew her backwards, but the bullet found its mark. Well, not quite; it did not hit any vital organs, much to Annie's dismay, but it stop the Lord of Darkness in his tracks.

"RUN!" Annie screamed, grabbing her mother's arm in one hand and Sirius's hand in the other. She raced for the door, Patsy hot on her heels.

Spells began shooting out of nowhere, causing the group to have to duck and roll and race all at the same time.

"It's the wards!" Patsy cried. "Lord Thingy's set them off!"

"Give me a wand!" yelled Sirius. Patsy grabbed Annie's from her friend's back pocket and flung it at him. He caught it--barely--and began setting up shields around himself and Annie's mother.

Annie's heart--corny as it sounded--was about to burst with happiness. Mom's alive, Mom's alive, she's alive! The chant never ceased, and it kept Annie moving with renewed energy. The fact that she had successfully shot Voldemort in the leg helped too.

As she ran, she reloaded the gun. She could hear footsteps in the hallway outside, presumably the remaining Death Eaters from the battle over the supposed affairs. Annie wondered how many had survived.

Sirius began to use his wand to seal the doors as they passed them. Patsy attempted to help, but gave up as soon as she realized that such a spell was much beyond her magical capability. Instead she focused on teaching herself Finite as she ran so as to remove the Silencing Charm that Eugene was still stuck under.

"Finite!" she cried. Nothing happened; Eugene was still silently screaming profanity. Patsy paused to dodge a ward spell; Annie fired sparks at the thin air that had sent it.

The next spell hit Eugene across the chest. The blood came, as if in slow motion. Annie found herself staring at it, and then at her mother staring at it.

Sirius wasted no time. He flung Eugene across his shoulders and continued to run.

"The shields! What happened to the shield you did Sirius!" Annie screamed, eyes wide in horror as Sirius's back was soaked with his fiancé's blood.

"It's my fault!" Patsy began sobbing. "I used Finite, I forgot about the shields, I'm so sorry--"

"Forget it!" Sirius shouted. "Run!"

They ran. Fast as they could, they raced through the string of classrooms, sealing up doors. But Sirius could only do so much; soon Annie was firing the gun, again and again, hitting her mark less often than she should've been able to, but often enough so that the Death Eaters turned cautious.

"YOU SLIMEBUCKETS!" Patsy was screaming at them, tears pouring down her cheeks. "FIRST YOU TAKE AWAY MY PARENTS, NOW ANNIE'S MOTHER TWICE--"

"DON'T YOU DARE SAY THAT!" Sirius roared. "She's not dead yet! Don't you dare!"

"You bloody moron!" Patsy continued. "This is your fault! If you had never come, none of this would've happened!"

"Forget it!" Annie screamed at the two of them, echoing Sirius's words. "Go, go go!"

"Reducto!" Patsy cried, pointing at a wall and covering her face with her arms as debris went flying. Then she jumped out the hole she had formed into the school grounds and the dark night.

Annie reached into her pocket and found that she was out of bullets. But there was something else there.

"The Portkey!" she screamed, waving the computer mouse over her head. "I've got the Portkey!"

"What Portkey?!" Patsy asked hurriedly, but she grabbed Sirius's arm and flung it toward the plastic object. Patsy touched it too, and then looked up at the Death Eaters who had made it out of the school building fast enough to find the four of them.

"YOU LOST!" she screamed at them as her tear ducts let loose. "YOU LOSE! WE'VE GOT SIRIUS, WE'VE GOT EUGENE, AND WE. ARE. TRIUMPHANT!!!!!"

And with that, Annie pressed the right mouse button, and the world swirled and turned around them until they were back in James's house, bloody and tearstained and hurting.

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The witches and wizards at St. Mungo's are very talented. They can cure many, many things, and their satisfaction rate is very high. But even they cannot bring the dead back to life.

Annie held her mother's hand. It was cold, colder than anything Annie thought that she had ever felt. Too cold. Cold like the rain that was beating against the window of the hospital room.

"Miss Howard?"

Annie did not even turn around. She knew it was some dumb healer here to tell her that her time to say goodbye was over. That it was time to go. She was not ready, and no high-and-mighty, falsely-sympathetic witch was going to tell her that she had to leave Eugene's body.

"Miss Howard?"

"Go away," Annie whispered, closing her eyes so that she would not have to look at her mother's empty, lifeless face.

"Miss Howard, I've been told to escort you out."

"I said, 'Go away'."

Annie let go of her mother's hand, opened her eyes and stared down at her own open palms. The whole room was a plain, sterile hospital white. Annie hated it. It was so peaceful, so safe. So false. There was a war going on. This room told a lie.

"But Miss Howard, your friend is here. She needs to see you."

Annie looked up. Patsy wasn't expected back for a couple of days at least, so this was surprising news. Patsy had been off, visiting her older college-aged brothers and holding her parents' funerals. Annie hadn't attended either one. She had been too busy fighting with healers, fighting with St. Mungo's, fighting to keep her mother alive.

Nothing could be done for Eugene. The spell grew. It destroyed the woman's innards. She died four days later, no matter how many antidotes were attempted, no matter how many spells tried.

"Patsy?"

"She's in the lobby, Miss Howard."

Annie stood. She knew, suddenly, why Patsy was back so soon. The trial. The Ministry of Magic must've reached a verdict earlier than expected.

"Take me to her."

She looked at her mother. The woman who had done so much for her, whom she had despised so much. I should have been more fair, she thought. I should have listened. She angrily pushed a tear from her face, and turned back to the healer.

"Right this way, Miss Howard."