The Necromancer Amulet

Author's Notes: Thanks so much to my excellent beta readers Amelie and kitkatkitty7!

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Chapter Nineteen - The Attack

'... And so, they found that those who could tame beasts could also tame the flame, and hence, the grounds of the Order were filled with blood-thirsty beasts, to prevent entry of the undeserving.'

'... The human sacrifice is essential to the art of Necromancy. Since the Flame of Death demands life for sustenance, and because the Necromancer must not perish in the act, sacrificial blood must be collected prior to any magic being invoked, to function as ... [unintelligible] ... for the fire.

If the sacrificed blood is insufficient, the flame will instead feast on the Necromancer, who will then cross over to the land of the Dead. To avoid such an event, the priests wear crystals of malagnite, into which they may ... [unintelligible] ... The knowledge of the priest may then be recovered, by fusing the crystal to a ... [unintelligible] ..., in a ceremony called the "re-awakening".'

Excerpts from "Teachings of the Flame," translated into Russian by Grigoriy Khuditskii.

*

They came the third night after Dumbledore had taken ill.

"I repeat, we are under attack!" echoed professor McGonagall's magically magnified voice through the castle, and Secessa woke with a start. "All students to gather in their common rooms at once, and await further instructions. All teachers to assume their positions."

Adrenalin surging through her, she got up and peered out of the window with still misty eyes. Several dark-cloaked figures were moving swiftly across the grounds, and behind them...

Chyort! She hated Dementors; they were nasty creatures.

She dressed with a flick of her wand. Stuffing the bundle with the amulet into her robes pocket, she quickly left her quarters, wand at the ready.

The second-floor corridor was empty, and she quietly moved along it down to the end. With her back against the wall, she peered into the Staircase Hall. Finding that her path was clear, she hurried down the stairs, her heart pounding in her chest.

When she arrived at the ground-floor corridor, she heard a shout, and pressed herself against the cold stone. Farther away, by the Entrance Hall, someone crashed into a wall and fell into a heap; this was followed by more shouts.

Walking down this corridor would be suicide, she thought grimly, and very carefully retreated along the passageway until she felt the opening that indicated the top of one of the dungeon staircases. There, she slipped in, and, out of sight, she paused briefly. Should she stay here, and ambush the attackers if they came this way, or should she risk taking the dungeon corridor to the Entrance Hall?

Suddenly someone grabbed her from behind, one hand over her mouth and one arm over her chest. However, her wand was in her hand and, her heart in her throat, she pointed it backwards, ready to curse.

"Don't," someone muttered coldly, a voice that she knew.

"Severus?" she whispered. His grip loosened; instead, he grasped her arm with his left hand insistently as she turned around.

His face was set in stone, and his eyes were cold and dark as they surveyed the space behind her. "Come with me!" he said, and without waiting for her answer, he dragged her down the stairs.

"We must get to the Entrance Hall," she told him, as they hurried down the corridor. "Now that we're two, we might stand a chance!"

"You're going nowhere," he replied curtly. Stopping outside his quarters, he opened the door and pushed her inside, and then closed it quietly.

"What are you doing?"

"You will stay here. They will not look for you in my quarters."

"What are you talking about?"

"For Heaven's sakes, just do as I say," he snarled, walked up to his bedroom door, and had a look inside.

"What about Potter? He's under threat! The Headmaster told me so!"

"Don't you worry about famous Harry Potter. They're not after him, and even if they were, he has his own army up in Gryffindor tower. They have come for you!"

"What!"

"You have a brain, why not use it for once?" He gave her an angry glance as he removed his cloak. A hooded, gleaming, black cloak ...

"What are you wearing?" she exclaimed, horrified.

He stiffened. "There is no time to explain," he muttered, and then he tossed the cloak onto his bed. "I must go to the Slytherins."

Walking up to the door, he removed his teacher's robes from a peg. She kept staring at him, her mind racing. But he is no Death Eater! Or is he? Is he a spy? What is going on?

He gazed at her briefly before opening the door. "You will have to trust me. Do not leave this room, under any circumstances!"

Then he was gone, and she was left to gawk at a closed door.

Her whole body in uproar, she found it hard to stand still, and the vague sounds of crashes, yells and thumps from above only added to her discomfort. Am I to stand here and do nothing? she thought exasperatedly.

Turning, she started to pace the room. Suddenly, her eyes fell upon the fireplace, and she paused. If I could just sneak up to Gryffindor Tower, and check that everything is okay? After all, there were certainly enough Death Eaters and Dementors on the grounds to both look for her and go after Potter.

One person against twenty, however, will not help much.

She continued her pacing, annoyed.

But what if I wore the amulet?

As the thought struck her, she stopped in her tracks, and hesitantly brought out the bundle from her pocket. It was cold in her hands, and she shuddered.

It is evil, true, but I won't wear it for long, and I can take it off before it has time to affect me properly. I might be able to save some lives.

The final thought decided it. With a brief flick of her wand, she cast her usual mind ward, and then calmly hung the amulet around her neck.

As soon as the amulet touched her skin, she knew her decision had been bad. Its coldness hit her with brute force, and immediately started spreading through her body, stunning her. Staggering towards one of the chairs, and gasping for air in panic, she tried to take it off with heavy arms, but it had molded itself to her skin, and she could not remove it. She swayed, and then fell down onto the floor, shaking and unable to stand up, her mind drifting as she began to lose focus.

When her entire body was cold as ice and all her senses completely dull, the amulet started vibrating, a wonderful surge of power flew though her. She stiffened with its onslaught, for a brief moment losing her sense of identity. Then she opened her eyes.

Fascinated, and a bit dizzy, she sat up, new energy filling her, and watched as a faint, greenish glow slowly covered her skin. In fact, she was so enthralled that she almost missed the probing presence inside her head - someone was trying to enter her mind!

Khuditskii's notes said nothing about this!

Terror filling her, she tore at the amulet on her chest, but a sharp jab of pain warned her of the consequences. Indecisive about what to do, she gazed at the floor for a moment. Then she made up her mind, took some floo powder from Snape's mantelpiece and stepped into the empty fireplace. Throwing the powder determinedly at her feet, she said, "Gryffindor tower," and was whisked away from Snape's chambers.

Two seconds later, she swirled into the fireplace in Gryffindor tower, and as the world stopped spinning, she surveyed the scene, bringing out her wand.

A large collection of Gryffindor students was standing along the walls of the common room, staring towards its middle, where Harry Potter stood face-to-face with a large snake that stretched half-way across the room. With his eyes set on the snake, he spat out hissing words. His wand was raised, as were the wands of the students, and the snake seemed to be hesitating. Potter is a Parselmouth, how interesting!

When she stepped out from the fireplace, about twenty wands immediately pointed in her direction. Where is Professor McGonagall? she thought worriedly, her eyes fixed on the serpent. It did not seem so subdued by Potter, actually. Someone has to be controlling it!

"She's on their side," shouted Seamus Finnigan in a particularly resonating Irish accent; he was clearly nervous.

"Don't you dare move an inch," growled Dean Thomas threateningly, and several of the students stepped forward towards her, their wands raised and their eyes full of anger.

Potter threw a brief glance at her, but did not cease speaking. The snake raised its head and hissed angrily, its big fangs gleaming, and the students flicked nervous glances in its direction.

"No, she's all right," yelled Miss Granger suddenly from where she stood rigidly beside Potter. "She's been helping Harry!"

Half of the wands moved back to point at the snake, but the rest of the youngsters seemed indecisive.

"Stupefying it won't work, eh?" Secessa asked, ignoring the wands still aimed at her.

"No," the bushy-haired girl replied nervously, briefly glancing at her, not even daring to move her head. "It's protected by some sort of ward."

"Mr Potter, you will have to let me deal with it."

The boy nodded, and slowly started moving backwards.

"I will move now," Secessa continued calmly, speaking to the other students, "and you can't curse me, so don't even try."

As she took a step forward, the snake suddenly moved its head towards her, a fourth-year shrieked, "Stupefy!" and a flash of yellow light hit her. At the impact, she staggered slightly, her mind became cloudy, and the weight of the prowling presence increased. However, the spell had no further effect on her, and several of the students gasped and backed away as she straightened slowly, frowning.

Then, her mind clearing, she raised her wand, and pointing at the now purposefully advancing snake, she yelled, "Adligo!" A silver-green light shot out from her wand and hit the serpent. For a few seconds, it struggled, and gritting her teeth, she realised that someone had placed an unusually complex protection spell on it. Without hesitation, she yelled, "Invadio!" and her consciousness extended from her body to abruptly enter the snake's mind.

Snakes were not complex animals, but this was certainly an exception; the large serpent was intelligent, and ill-natured. As she started tweaking from the inside at the spells cast on it, she curled her lip in disgust at the sickening evil that enveloped her. However, she managed to retain her calm, and with a brief focus of the great mass of power rustling through her veins, she expurged the magic protecting it, cast another taming spell, and withdrew her influence.

Looking petrified, the students watched her as she lowered her wand. The serpent, however, was wearing a docile expression, and emitted a soft hiss. Briefly, she touched its mind, the contact making her shudder. Go down to the Main Gate, she ordered.

The snake slithered away calmly towards the portrait hole.

"What did you tell it?" Potter inquired quietly.

"To wait downstairs," she said, her head heavy. "It will obey me, for now."

The students that were still pointing their wands at her now lowered them.

"Where are the other teachers?" she asked in the silence that followed.

"They went outside," Miss Granger replied. "We heard some sounds of fighting ... but -"

"- then the snake came," Secessa finished for her. "Very well, I'll have a look outside. I want all of you to wait here."

Her head was getting increasingly sluggish, now, and the prowling presence was skimming the surface of her mind. She didn't have much time.

Resolutely, she walked up to the portrait-hole and asked it to open, clutching her wand very tightly in her right hand.

A ghastly scene met her eyes as she stepped outside, and she reflexively put her hand to her mouth as she inhaled sharply. On the floor, just by the portrait, lay the twisted and motionless bodies of Professors Futharkh and McGonagall, and, further away, lay two Death Eaters, also perfectly still, blood-spatter on the floor around them and on their cloaks. As she looked closer, she saw that McGonagall was breathing very faintly. The rest showed no signs of life. Secessa bent down to examine McGonagall's injuries, and found nasty red-black scorch-marks on her chest. It was impossible to tell for how long the elderly lady would live. And I don't know a single healing spell! she thought desperately.

Suddenly, she heard footsteps, and, swirling around she saw another pair of Death Eaters coming up the staircase, raising their wands at the sight of her.

"Stupefy! Stupefy!" she yelled reflexively, aiming her wand at first one, then the other, and they reacted so fast that she barely had time to defend herself. The first one ducked and answered with a curse of the fouler kind that involved an intricate twirl of his wand; the second reflected her spell with a Shield Charm. One red and one silver blast of light flew straight her. She jumped aside to avoid the rebounding spell and returned the first Death Eater's curse with relish. He was hit, flew backwards into a wall with a thud, and slid down onto the floor, his head bent in an unnatural angle.

Secessa aimed her wand at the Death Eater in front of her, who seemed to hesitate. One down, one to go.

"Well, well, what have we here." The Death Eater's voice was shrill, and a pair of eyes glinted evilly through the slit in the hood. Secessa moved a few paces backwards, all her senses on high alert. A woman, and slightly mad, too, she thought, her insides clenching. Bellatrix? Her head was throbbing.

"If it isn't the Durmstrang Dark Arts teacher," the woman continued sleekly, advancing forwards. "So, you've crept out of your hidey-hole at last."

"You will not gain entry to this tower," Secessa said, as forcefully as she could. "If you attack me, or I will annihilate you." She suppressed a brief shudder at her own words; was she becoming a mass murderess, now? Did I ever have any choice in the matter, after picking up the amulet? I wanted to do the right thing! Where did it all go wrong?

The woman emitted a raucous laugh that echoed in the dark corridor.

"You think I'm afraid of you?" she cried mirthfully. " I could kill you right now, if I wanted, just like I killed your dark-haired little friend. No, I'm afraid the Dark Lord has other plans for you."

Anger surged through Secessa as she looked at the hooded shape with hatred. "Bellatrix," she whispered, at the same time as her head grew even heavier, and her eyesight faded temporarily. Keep calm, she told herself. Anger seems to feed it. With an enormous effort she forced her feelings back and focused her eyes on her opponent.

"You will pay for what you did," she muttered through clenched teeth, aiming her wand at Bellatrix' head. But she didn't dare cast any spells; she realised she might lose control entirely if she did.

"A heroine, to the bitter end," Bellatrix said sweetly. "How sad, that no one is here to see it." She flicked her wand, almost casually.

The jet hit Secessa before she had time to react, and she staggered with the impact. For a brief second, her vision was lost again, and then, the world floated back into focus.

"I'm impermeable to your spells, Bellatrix," she said, in the most threatening voice she could muster, praying hard that the woman would not call her bluff, "and my power, right now, is way beyond your comprehension. You'd better turn back; I'm wearing the amulet and you cannot win!"

To her horror, Bellatrix Lestrange laughed shrilly behind her mask. There was a mad, victorious gleam in her eyes, and she lowered her wand.

"We never realised you were this thick-headed! Did you actually believe those journals you read? The Dark Lord will be pleased; you're making it all too easy for us!"

"What do you mean?" A terrible chill crept up Secessa's spine as she watched the frighteningly insane woman take another step forward.

"What did you think is inside that amulet? Knowledge and power? How sweet! Did you never ask yourself why such a formidable man as the High Priest of the Necromancers would choose to instil knowledge into an amulet when he had the opportunity to instead prolong his life?"

Secessa stepped away from Bellatrix, cold dread seeping through her veins. How could she have been so stupid? It all made sense, now: the fumbling inside her mind, and the alien feeling in her body. She clawed at her chest with her left hand, trying to remove the amulet, but as she did, intense pain seared through her, and she almost fainted, her vision faltering a third time.

"You will be a nice tool for us," Bellatrix said triumphantly, leisurely taking another step forward. "I'm sure your body's new master won't mind some help in taking up his Muggle sacrifices again, in exchange for loyalty to our cause. In fact, I think he'd be delighted to."

The alien source in Secessa's head confirmed Bellatrix's statement with victorious excitement. Trembling, she tried to stay calm. Fear will feed him, and make the invasion easier, she thought. Oh Merlin, what did I get myself into? Her wards were being tweaked at now, as if strange fingers were trying to find a way in.

"You will not get me without a fight, Bellatrix," she replied huskily, aiming her wand between the Death Eater's eyes.

"Ooh, the little girl wants to play at last," her adversary retorted sweetly, raising her wand again. "Let's see, then."

But neither of them had any time to start cursing, as a small voice shouted, "Stupefy!" and Bellatrix was hit from behind by a blast of red light. She froze, and collapsed forwards onto the floor. Secessa was surprised to see the bewildered shape of Neville Longbottom standing on top of the staircase a few steps behind where Bellatrix had just stood herself.

"I was ... downstairs ..." he said, his voice trailing off as he stared at the body in front of him.

She stared at her unlikely saviour for a few seconds, extremely thankful that someone (probably the shy Hufflepuff girl he clumsily flirted with during classes) had kept him up late. Then her attention was abruptly brought to the gravity of their situation by the sounds of crashes and shouts from below. "EXPECTO PATRONUM," someone bellowed, from what seemed to be the third or second floor. Dementors!

"Quickly," she told him, clearing her head with all the remaining force of her strained mind, "we have to get the Professors into the common room!"

He nodded, but did not move, his eyes still flickering nervously towards the unconscious Death Eater on the floor. She flicked her wand, and black ropes appeared around Bellatrix' hands and feet, tying her up.

"You will have to use the Mobilicorpus spell to move them," she clarified. "I'll guard the staircase. Hurry!"

The boy snapped to attention, and told the password to the portrait, which swung open. Then he obeyed her command nervously while she stood by the staircase, wand at the ready, trying not to sway as she fought the pressure on her wards.

"Go inside the common room," she told him when he was finished, "and tell everyone to stand back." He nodded, and disappeared through the hole.

Time was running short, now; she could hear footsteps racing up the stairs, and small, black spots were beginning to impair her eyesight. With one sharp movement, she withdrew the sharp knife she always kept in her robes pocket and cut her index finger, smearing the blood on her hands. The amulet now a part of her, she had no need of her wand, and after three words from her, the blood turned into balls of cold flame.

Holding out her arms, she yelled 'arise' in the language of the dead. The flames turned into green wisps of smoke, which slithered across the floor like snakes, entering the bodies of the three dead Death Eaters. There was a short pause, and then the bodies twitched and started moving, getting up from the floor with jerky movements. Their eyes were empty and shone with a cold, green light as they moved to stand before her, bound to her will by the power of the amulet. For now, at least, she thought with trepidation. But what else can I do?

"You will guard this door," she told them in their own, coarse tongue that now flowed from her mouth with terrible accuracy. At her words, they immediately withdrew their wands, and walked in rickety movements towards the portrait hole. Not long, know!

Was that my thoughts, or his? Shivering slightly, she walked past the Inferi, avoiding their empty gazes.

When she entered the common room again, she was reeling slightly, her left hand clutching the amulet through her blouse. Black spots danced before her eyes and she met the students' pale faces with a hard gaze, trying not to look at the teachers' bodies that were lying on the floor. A couple of the seventh-years were tending to Professor McGonagall.

"I want you all to listen to me very carefully," she said darkly, forcing out the words. "I have sealed the door against intruders, and it should hold until the Aurors come. You will be fine." She paused briefly, her head feeling like lead. "And what I am about to do now concerns none of you. Please tell the others that I had no choice."

Her mind forcing her now sluggish body to respond, she limped up to one of the large windows and opened it.

"Eh...Professor Laburova," said Miss Granger carefully in a frightened voice, "what are you doing?"

Secessa lacked the energy to respond. She could hear shouts, and spells crashing into walls from outside the common room, but she didn't care about them; the creatures guarding the door were strong enough.

Having managed to open the window, she leaned against the windowsill for a few seconds, her sight blackening temporarily again. Then she climbed up slowly, and had a look down at the grounds; she could barely make them out far down in the darkness. My mind is my own, and he will not succeed in taking it from me!

"Ehm...Professor Laburova," said a young man's voice, but she had forgotten to whom it belonged, "perhaps you should step down."

Staring down into the darkness, she didn't acknowledge him. The intensity of the fight outside had increased; she could feel her Inferi straining with the onslaught. Perhaps the Aurors had arrived? Or was this the end? It didn't matter; she had to jump now, or it would all be over anyway. Putting her hand on her chest again, reminding herself why she was doing this, she started counting down. Three ... two ...

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" an angry voice suddenly shouted, and she turned around, her vision blurry. A thin, black shape was standing a few paces away from her. There was something familiar about it; something that pulled her attention like a magnet.

"Professor Laburova," it said sharply, "step down immediately!"

She tried to focus her eyes, but her mind was too heavy. "Do ... I ... know ... you ...?"

The shape moved closer. "Secessa," it muttered, and her vision cleared a bit, "step - down!"

Some strength returned to her limbs, as she recognised him. Moving away slightly from the open window, she gazed at him sadly. "Nothing ... you can do ... Severus," she whispered. "I ... put it on."

His face whitening, he took a step backwards, muttering, "Stand back," to someone. Oh, yes, the Gryffindors, she thought, realising where she was. Her mind was rapidly going heavy again, however.

"It ... is ... taking ... over," she gasped, while moving closer to the window again. "Will ... have ... to ..."

But she never had time to finish her sentence. Snape lifted his wand, and yelled, "Findito!"

The scarlet jet of light that erupted from his wand struck the amulet she wore with brute force. She screamed, "NO!" as a surge went through her blood. A blinding green light was thrown out from the amulet, abolishing the scarlet jet and hitting Snape straight in the chest. He staggered, his hand over his heart, and suddenly, Secessa could feel her legs gave way, and she fell down onto the common room floor.

He is wearing the circlet; it absorbed the blast, she thought, relieved, as her head swirled and the room grew fainter.

After all, it didn't matter which way she died.

"Findito," someone said hoarsely; she felt a sharp pain in her chest, and then the world went black.

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Author notes: Chyort! = Russian for Damn!/Hell!

Thank you for reading my fic! I do enjoy my reviews, so any comment you might have is very welcome.