Harry Potter and the Secrets from the Past

Chapter 30. NIGHT OF NEW MOON

...

Loving each other just a bit

It's like blooming

It helps, you know

At not dying.

Without hiding ourselves,

Showing us out

We can elude

The solitude.

...

"Loving each other just a bit" by Lucio Battisti

That morning, Harry woke up abruptly, due to the terrible crash of thunder; he stood up and walked to the window. The storm started the previous evening but was still shaking the trees; the rain was still falling down plentifully and the dark sky was continuously lit by lightning bolts.

Even though it was the beginning of May, it looked like a really cold day, but it still had a special meaning for Harry; the following night would be a new moon and he would see Sirius Black again.

In the last two weeks, thanks to Hermione's help, Harry had managed to get ready for the ceremony by the Veil of Death.

In the meantime, Mrs. Weasley had sent an owl, informing them that Bill was now out of the hospital and was recovering at the Borrow.

It was a Thursday and it passed by as usual: two hours of Herbology, followed by two hours of Defense Against the Dark Arts, then lunch and finally two hours of History of Magic and one hour of Potions.

When the three friends headed to the Great Hall for dinner, they were exhausted but still excited for the coming events.

After dinner, Harry reached McGonagall's office to serve his detention; he sat at a desk in front of the teacher and started writing his usual lines on a piece of parchment, keeping an eye on his watch, hoping to be finished soon.

After 10 p.m. had passed, Professor McGonagall finally let him go and once out of the classroom, Harry ran as fast as possible to the common room, which was still full of students. Ron and Hermione were waiting for him, sitting in front of the fireplace.

"Is everything ready?" asked Harry, getting seated close to them.

"We've spoken to Mark an hour ago. We should meet him by the forbidden forest at eleven o'clock," replied Hermione, looking around warily.

"The invisibility cloak is ready inside your school bag!" added Ron, with a conspirator-like twinkle in his eyes.

"The pure water bowl, the flower and the candle?" asked Harry anxiously.

"Mark will take care of that. And the object owned by Sirius?"

"Ready!" said Harry, slipping his hand under the cloak, where he was hiding the two way mirror. "Now, we just have to wait."

"Are you sure it's worth it? I mean, tonight we're going to break quite a lot of school rules, and I still think we should have told Dumbledore."

"Of course it's worth it, Hermione!" replied Harry, annoyed. Then he became serious.

"Maybe it isn't a good idea to let you come with me."

Hermione felt deeply offended by those words.

"Harry Potter, do you think that I'd ever let you commit such a foolishness all alone?"

Harry smiled at her, feeling thankful.

"The same for me!" added Ron, strongly.

The three friends became silent, and spent the following hour sitting quietly by the fire.

***O***

"Ka-booooom"

Harry, Ron and Hermione were quickly crossing the castle's grounds and the crash of a thunder made them jump. In that moment, the three friends squeezed themselves even further under the invisibility cloak, with their clothes completely wet.

They reached the meeting place by the Forbidden Forest, trying to avoid Hagrid's hut. They stood there a few minutes, looking around.

"There is nobody here, and I'm soaked to the bone!" protested Ron.

Harry started to worry, fearing that his cousin had found troubles on his way.

"He's there!" Hermione had just sight Mark and the three of them ran to greet him. The wizard was coming out from the forest and was soaked from head to feet, just like them.

"It's so good to see you again!" said Harry warmly, but Mark smiled forcedly. He looked emaciated and had deep black signs under the eyes. Besides, he seemed really nervous to be there.

"Are you ready Harry? On the count of three, you should touch this portkey and we will reach our destination," Mark took out a used ashtray from his cloak.

"Hey, wait a minute! We're coming with you!" protested Hermione; the wizard looked deeply crossed and replied energetically.

"It's a bad idea. I'm sorry, but this time you'll have to stay."

"No way!" said Ron, moving in front of Mark and frowning at him.

"I'm not coming without them!" added Harry, in the end.

Mark stared intensely at the young wizard, and realized that it'd have been useless to argue with him. He sighed deeply and then spoke.

"All right then. On the count of three, we'll touch this portkey. Ready? One, two..."

Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other nervously, and then stretched out their arms toward the ashtray.

"Three!"

As soon as their fingers touched the portkey, they felt an incredible strength pulling them by the belt. They saw a whirlwind of lights and images and after a few seconds, they found themselves in a completely different place. They staggered a bit before falling to the ground.

Harry looked around; the place was dark, lit by the weak moonlight filtering through the clouds and by a few broken lamp-posts; then he noticed that it wasn't raining, and the air was tepid.

Harry stood up and stretched out a hand to Hermione, helping her up, while Ron used a drying charm to dry his clothes and hair. When he was finished, he looked around, "What's this place?" he asked, uncertain.

"I don't know!" replied Harry, getting more and more worried.

It was a circular square, with horrible, dismantled houses all around it; the floor was made of ragged and dirty stone blocks.

"It looks like Diagon Alley, but it's gloomier," commented Hermione, squinting her eyes to read a few worn-out signs hanging from the stone walls.

Mark was silently staring at the three of them and Harry felt an awkward feeling in his heart and got closer to him.

"Where are we, Mark?" he asked, even if he had already guessed the answer; the adult wizard didn't reply and lowered his gaze.

"It's Knockturn Alley!" exclaimed Hermione, alarmed. She was perfectly right. Harry already knew that place, as he had been there before.

Harry frowned at Mark, feeling betrayed.

"I need to know why, Mark! You don't have anything to say?

"That's right! He doesn't have anything to say, silly boy! You've done a great job, Mark. Just like we had requested."

Harry knew that sharp and cold voice and looked for the source of it. In deep horror, he saw the witch he hated the most, the only one responsible for Sirius Black's death.

Bellatrix Lestrange was slowly coming out from a dark alley in front of them, armed by her wand and nothing more; her long grey hair was falling untidily over her shoulders and her eyes were lit up by a reckless twinkle.

The three friends walked backwards, then took out their wands and got ready to fight.

"Your cousin has done a really good job, Harry. He managed to let us meet another time." Bellatrix ended the sentence with an evil laugh.

Harry couldn't believe to her words; he felt his heart beating faster and the anger rising inside.

"I trusted you, Mark, but it was just a trap! Why? I need to know why!" Harry shouted, deeply frustrated; he was asking himself how could he have been so stupid and reckless, to trust someone like Mark Evans.

"Harry, I didn't want to, please believe me!" Mark tried to justify his actions, but Bellatrix cut him off.

"Poor, little Potter boy! Didn't he know what you've been in the past, Mark? Shall I tell him or you want this honour?"

"Shut up, evil witch! I was still too young when it happened, I didn't know what I was doing! Your Dark Lord made me so many promises and I surrendered my will to him."

"My Dark Lord? My dear Mark, you'll never change, you'll always remain a traitor. You betrayed your master several years ago and you've betrayed young Potter today."

Harry was petrified; while Mark and Bellatrix were talking, he was trying to find a good solution to get out of there.

"Why don't we apparate somewhere else?" whispered Hermione into his ear.

"Do I have to remind you that I'm still terrible in this subject? Do you want me to end up on the other side of the planet?" said Ron, alarmed.

"Do you prefer to fight?" replied Hermione, deeply annoyed.

Harry thought that it was neither the right place nor the right time for a quarrel; anyway, there wasn't much time left to decide. Bellatrix was already coming closer, pointing her wand at them.

"Now, let's do something interesting!" she said menacingly.

"Do you really think we're going to give up without fighting?" shouted Harry, glaring at her with hatred, while Mark watched the scene at a certain distance.

Suddenly, they heard odd noises coming from a few side alleys; it was like the sound of thousands of whips, violently being lashed on the stone ground. The noises came closer and closer, until Harry was able to see several figures moving in the dark: they were small beings, just one meter tall, slowly walking toward them, squeezing in their hands long flaming whips, burning like fire.

The three friends feared the worst. When those strange beings were finally close enough, Hermione shouted in disbelief.

"Goblins!"

"Exactly! I'm really curious to see how you'll manage to fight against them. You may shout as much as you want, my dear! I can assure you that nobody will come here to rescue you," Bellatrix ended the sentence with a disgusting laugh.

The Goblins had completely surrounded them; there were about fifty and they were staring at them with a menacing sneer on their faces; they were horribly ugly, with long pointed ears, sharp teeth, dressed in ragged clothing. In the first row, one of them was particularly ugly. A black bandage was covering his right eye and his face was crossed by deep scars.

Harry started to panic, and couldn't think clearly anymore.

"What do we do now?" Ron was terrified; he kept squeezing his wand with trembling hands. Even if Hermione was afraid too, she was doing her best for not displaying her true feelings.

Harry felt guilty for having dragged his best friends into this absurd situation. "It's all my fault and I'll have to find a way of getting out!" he thought, determined. Then he turned to the others and whispered in their ears.

"I'll take care of those in the middle. Be ready, on the count of three."

"What are you doing, Potter? Saying your last prayers?" Bellatrix was making fun of him.

"One..."

"If unluckily you'll be killed tonight, I'm sure that my Lord will reward me the same; at least, I've saved him the trouble of killing you by himself!"

"Two..."

Ron and Hermione raised their wands and pointed them towards the magical creatures.

"Three!"

At Harry's signal, the three young wizards started to cast spells in every direction.

"Stupeficium!"

"Petrificus Totalis!"

"Locomotor Mortis!"

Rays of red and blue lights darted in the air and a few Goblins fell on the ground, but most of them started to attack; with incredibly high jumps, they rushed forwards, shouting aloud to encourage all the others.

"Noooo! Help!"

Harry turned abruptly; the one with the black bandage had just twisted his fiery whip around Ron's chest, wrapping him completely.

"Ron!"

Hermione wanted to help and pointed her wand toward him.

"Flagellum Relasc.... Haaaaah!"

She didn't have time to end the spell, because another fiery whip twisted around her right arm, making her shout in intense pain.

"Hermione! Noooo!"

Harry stared at his two friends horrified. "I must do something! I must help them!" he thought, in panic. He pointed his wand to the Goblins which were holding Ron and Hermione, but in that moment, another of them gave him a sharp lash on the hand and his wand fell away, far from him. The pain he felt was unbearable; he looked at his hand and saw the clear sign of a bad burn.

Harry raised his gaze to the Goblin and this one mocked at him rudely.

"Now you'll see!" shouted Harry with anger. He then closed the eyes and gathered himself in deep concentration; he stretched out his arms and said the magical words.

"Aere Emanatum!"

A small vortex of air, as big as the palm of a hand, appeared in front of him; Harry concentrated again, to make it grow up.

"Augeo!"

The vortex of air grew higher and higher until it became a meter tall, but Harry couldn't manage to do more than this; he wasn't able to concentrate properly, since he was too worried about his friends.

But the vortex whirled around and dashed a few Goblins in the air. Unluckily, more of them were coming; now there were about a hundred crowding the square, while at a distance, Bellatrix and Mark watched the scene in silence.

Harry was already feeling exhausted by the effort and turned to his friends, panting heavily: Ron was still wrapped by the flaming whip, while Hermione was desperately fighting to free her arm from its painful grip.

"There is no time to lose! I must do it, I must do it!" Harry decided to try one more time; he concentrated again with all his strength.

"Augeo!"

In a few seconds, the vortex of air became taller than the buildings surrounding the square. The magical creatures watched the prodigy in astonishment: the vortex had already started to swallow everything which was standing along its path and one by one, the little monsters were cast far away.

The goblins who were holding Ron and Hermione were dashed away violently, making the two friends fall heavily on the stone ground. Ron's clothes were torn in several parts and his body showed the clear signs of painful burns; Hermione's right arm was completely covered in blood.

Even if Harry already had a sharp pain in the chest and was feeling dizzy, he did his best to resist until he got rid of the last Goblin; then his strength left him abruptly and as soon as the vortex disappeared, he fell on the ground, exhausted.

Hermione stood by the whole scene, terrified; she gathered all her courage, stood up and ran toward Harry. His face was extremely pale and twisted in a grimace of pain, his forehead sweaty and he was gripping his hand to his chest.

"Harry! How are you feeling? Please, talk to me!" Hermione shook him by the shoulders energetically, but it looked like the boy wasn't able to respond. He was still keeping his eyes tightly shut.

"Harry, listen to me! You should try to breath, please make an effort!"

Those powers had sucked away from him even the slightest bit of vitality; Harry wasn't able to use his will power anymore and remained flat on the ground.

"Please, don't give up, Harry!" Hermione shouted desperately, still shaking him frantically.

"I see that our young wizard has been a victim of his own powers. This will make my task much easier!" Bellatrix was slowly coming closer, foretasting the praise she was going to get from the Dark Lord.

Unexpectedly, Mark came forwards and placed himself between Harry and the evil witch, extending his arms in protection.

"If you want to kill Harry, then you'll have to kill me first! I've made too many mistakes in my life, I won't make this one!"

"What are you talking about? Do you want to be a hero now? Let me refresh your memory, then! Do you remember when you came to the Dark Lord for the first time? You wanted to become a very powerful wizard and he received you among his most faithful servants. Even when you left, fifteen years ago, all of us knew that one day you'd have come back. You can't erase the past, Mark. You are and always will be a Death Eater!"

"No, you can't understand! I was just a spoiled boy at that time! I wanted to change the world, but now it's different! I haven't got anything to lose now, and I'd prefer to give my own life to save Harry's, instead of following Lord Voldemort again!"

Ending the sentence, Mark turned to Harry and stared at the boy with wet eyes.

"Please forgive me, if you can. Bringing you here has been my last mistake, but I'm going to fix it."

Harry opened his eyes with great difficulty and looked at Mark for a short instant, still feeling too weak and vulnerable to react.

"Stop it now! Let me finish my job!" shouted Bellatrix, starting to lose her temper.

Mark took his wand out and came closer to her with slow steps; without taking his gaze away from the witch he spoke again, addressing himself to Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"Go away from here! I'll take care of her!"

Hermione tried to regain control over herself and looked around.

"Accio Wand!" When she saw Harry's wand on the ground, she called it to her and hid it in her pocket. Then she put Harry's arm around her neck and helped him standing up. At a short distance, Ron had heavily managed to stand up and was already limping toward the other two.

Harry was still feeling extremely weak, but made an effort; as soon as he was up, he put the other arm around Ron's neck and with them moved a few steps toward a side alley.

In the mean time, Mark and Bellatrix were confronting one another.

"A traitor like you deserves just to die in the most painful way! Sagittas Iactus!"

At Bellatrix's order, a burst of arrows darted out from her wand toward Mark, who was ready to reject the attack.

"Impedimenta!" A ray of blue light sprang out from his wand toward the arrows, which stopped in mid-air and fell on the ground, harmless. Then Mark passed to the counterattack.

"Locomotor Mortis!" A ray of violet light sprang toward Bellatrix.

"Protego!" she shouted, rejecting the attack.

"We have just been playing! Now I'm going to be serious! Avada Kedavra!"

With a cat-like jump, Mark flattened himself on the ground and the unforgivable spell hit the wall behind him, shattering it in pieces. Mark stood up immediately and went on fighting.

"Stupef...."

"Expellliarmus!"

Mark didn't have the time to end the spell, when Bellatrix managed to disarm him. He saw his wand flying away, at several meters of distance.

"You don't look too smart now, without your wand! Are you starting to fear me?" sneered the witch, satisfied, while Mark was seriously starting to worry for his life.

"Harry, we must go now!" The young boy was still looking at the magical fight, but Hermione's call brought him to reality. They had to leave the place immediately, if they wanted to remain alive.

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