The Veil of Memories

Chapter 26

The Hand of the Other

"I - I think he might be coming around."

"James, is that shield holding up?"

"I've done the best I can. It won't hold forever though. The instability is fading."

"Look, the colors are returning, and - "

"He's definitely - look, his eyes are opening! Harry, Harry, can you - "

"Harry! Harry!"

Harry's eyes opened. A wave of pain and disorientation washed over him, but it was gone by the time he looked into the long red hair and soft brown eyes that were peering down over him.

"Ginny!" he said, a wave of relief washing over him. "Oh, gods, Ginny. I thought you were - "

Harry quickly got to his feet but immediately regretted it. He felt as though his stomach had been plunged upside down. He was standing in a valley - an enormous valley that stretched further than the seeing eye could comprehend. It was incredibly beautiful but only in a stark, lifeless way. Bleak mountains stretched high above him on either side. The ground beneath his feet was white and parched. Large, thick black clouds hung like enormous upside-down mushrooms from the sky, spitting wispy tendril-like strands that nearly touched the ground. Even as Harry looked, however, they began to fade. A brief, flitting flash of sunlight scattered along the ground and lit up a narrow swath of river that criss-crossed the valley floor. Harry took in an incredulous breath. It was only then that he realized he had stood in this valley once before.

This was the valley from the vision that Sirius had shown him all those many months ago, when he'd first re-appeared from behind the mask of Professor Janus. But how - but how did he get -

"Steady on, Harry," said a man's voice. "I know this must all seem a bit of a shock to you but you've got to avoid any quick movements. We've contained you in a shield, but it's only short term and very unstable."

Startled, Harry looked to the source of the voice. He could dimly make out a row of witches and wizards, all wearing the same fading grey cloaks, standing in front of a large stone from which a number of strange-looking wires emitted. Hanging in the air above the stone was a sort of grey cloud with lots of little lights in it. Harry struggled to think where he'd seen the cloud before and then he realized it was like a miniature version of the vortex that had connected the bubble world of St. Brutus's to Voldemort's base. He had also seen this rock and this cloud once before in Sirius's vision. On that occasion also, there had been wizards and witches standing over it, but there were much fewer now.

"Where - where is everyone?" said Harry suddenly, feeling a bit foolish after saying so. It was as though his thoughts were spilling out of the end of his mouth.

"Frightened," said the same man again. "They've run to hide in the spaces of the inside but we're still here. After all, someone has to man the controls to see if our little plan to save the world will work. Gryffindors never hide and, well, even I've managed to find a little bravery from somewhere in my soul."

Harry squinted at the figures in front of him. He sensed the man's voice was coming from among them although it seemed he was hearing it from a long way away. Harry started to walk closer but it seemed that the distance between him and the strange group standing behind the boulder remained at the same distance. The man smiled at him. Harry squinted again. There was something familiar about -

"Prof - Professor Nevins?" he said.

"Yes, Harry."

"So you - so you're all right. That's a relief! Ginny said you were - "

"I am dead, Harry, but my soul has continued to exist, thanks to you and Ginny."

As if on cue, another flash of sunlight lit up the valley. Harry looked up to see that the grey clouds were now fading into puffy white ones. The whole cathedral of the sky still seemed somehow even more vast and enormous than the sky in Harry's world. He looked back at the wizards and witches standing over the rock and found that he could see them more clearly now, but there was still a slight fuzzy blur around their faces. It contrasted strangely to the sharpness of the land around them. As Harry peered at the other wizards and witches in the group, the blur around them began to clear slightly. Harry had the sudden strange impression they were concentrating to let him see.

"Well, I would have thought I deserved a little of the credit myself," said another familiar voice.

"Sirius!"

Harry's godfather, whom he could now see was standing next to Nevins, gave him a small nod.

"I - I don't understand," said Harry.

"Do you remember what happened?" Sirius asked.

"I - I - " Harry looked down for a moment. Events and images blurred through his mind. It was like struggling to recall the details of a dream.

"I was - I was in that cavern - Voldemort's cavern - I was climbing - I - I was climbing after Ginny. Then - then Voldemort - then - I - I ran through the veil, didn't I? I was trying to save Gi - Ginny, Ginny, where are you?"

"I'm right here, Harry."

Harry looked over to the far end of the row of wizards and witches. One more seemed to have joined their side now. Harry sighed in relief.

"Don't ever do that again, please. I thought I had lost you. How did you get over there so sudden - "

Harry suddenly stopped talking. A horrible chill began in his head and traveled backward down his spine. Ginny was still dressed in the same patchwork robes she'd been wearing when she'd climbed up the structure; they contrasted vividly to the dull garments of the others standing next to her. Yet there was something else about her that wasn't quite right. Harry wasn't sure what it was for a moment until he noticed that Ginny's face was growing slightly opaque, just as if she, too, was -

"Ginny!" Harry cried out in sudden alarm. "Ginny, come over here! Don't stand next to them. They're dead. We're - "

But Ginny's face twisted and her eyes screwed up. Harry thought he could see tears start to run down her cheeks.

"I-I-I'm r-really s-sorry, Harry," she said. "I-I tr-tried to th-think of a-another way to st-stop him b-b-but my wand f-fell and I-I couldn't - "

Ginny's whole body started to blur and completely dissolve.

"Ginny!" Harry cried out again in alarm. "Ginny!"

"Ginny, concentrate!" another wizard's voice rang out. "Try to keep yourself in one piece! You've got to remain as whole as you can!"

Harry's head swung around again. It was the wizard standing over the controls who had spoken. He looked at him properly and drew in a gasp. He had seen that face before, once standing over the rock, and many more times in the mirror each morning. Only the color of the eyes was different.

"Dad?" he said, in a hoarse whisper.

The wizard looked up at him. They locked eyes for a brief moment, then the wizard nodded.

"And...."

Harry's voice trailed off as he looked at the witch standing to his right. He didn't have to be told who she was either.

"Mum?"

Lily Potter smiled on him kindly. "Oh, Harry," she said. "I knew you would stop him. I knew it would be you. We're so proud of you. We - "

Then Lily collapsed into sobs of her own.

"Mum!" said Harry. He tried to run closer but he still couldn't seem to reach her. "Mum, don't cry, I - "

"Ginny, keep yourself together!" James cried out again.

Harry turned again to look at Ginny. She was still fading and blurring, but then after a moment, she slowly began to solidify again.

"Well done," said James. "It should be easier for you than for us. You've only just arrived."

"Wait!" said Harry suddenly. "I still don't understand. Will someone please tell me - "

"We're beyond the veil, Harry," said Ginny. "Do you remember? You pulled me in here. You jumped after me and then pulled my body in with you."

"Your body? What - I - "

"I-I-I'm dead, Harry," said Ginny, letting out another sob. "Voldemort killed me."

Harry looked at her for a moment. He had suspected it, of course; he had known it, but now that he heard the words from Ginny's lips, he realized he'd been holding onto the tiniest of hopes that he'd been wrong; that hope had just been crushed completely. But then another thought occurred to him.

"But I - I - I'm dead, too, aren't I? After all, I - I fell through the veil - just like - just like Sirius."

He looked across at his godfather as though pleading for support, but his eyes large with sympathy, Sirius slowly and painfully shook his head.

"You're still alive, Harry," said James, seeming unable to meet his son's eyes. "There's still instability between the two worlds. I was able to construct a shield around you like the one I prepared for Sirius before he crossed over to your side of the gateway. But it won't hold out for as long. The arc has begun to move back now and Ginny destroyed Voldemort's pentrax technology. Things are returning to their rightful place and your rightful place is with the living. You won't be able to stay here much longer."

"Then I'm taking Ginny back with me!"

"Harry, listen to me," said Lily gently. "You don't know what it's been - "

"Ginny, keep yourself together!" James cried out again.

Harry looked over to see that Ginny had begun to blur indistinctly again. A moment later, she solidified but he could see that she was struggling.

"Try to keep calm," added James more softly. "Your strong feelings are triggering your soul shift."

Ginny nodded and then looked back to Harry and met his eyes. He could see she was fighting to keep her emotions in check.

"James, why?" said Lily. "She belongs here now. It will only be harder for her if she doesn't learn to merge like the rest of us. Her soul is free from her body now. You're - "

She suddenly stopped talking. James was looking across at her with an expression of hardened determination. Harry realized that he'd seen this expression many times before in the mirror, too.

"You're - you're going to - " Lily let out a small gasp.

"I'm going to do exactly what Harry just said, or I'm going to try."

"No, James, you can't!" Lily cried out again. "Ginny died!"

"I don't care! Don't you see?" said James, a dangerous glint in his eyes. "His whole life he's just watched as everyone and everything's he's ever loved has been taken away from him. You. Me. Sirius. Can you imagine how he feels? I'm not going to let it happen again!"

"Do you think I don't know.... Do you - do you think I - " Lily started to sob again. "James, we may not like it but it doesn't change the fact! If we try to send her back, we're no better than Voldemort! We'll be destroying the balance, however well meaning - "

But James shook his head again. Harry was afraid he was going to lose his temper at his mother, but when James spoke next, his voice was much calmer.

"No, Lily," he said. "We're going to be restoring the balance. Voldemort damaged the line of stability between the two worlds. The only way we can restore is by sending something from this world permanently back into the world of the mundanes." He looked back at Harry. "If your mother or I or any of the rest of us went back, it simply wouldn't work. Anyone who's stayed here any length of time can't be separated from any of the other souls in this world. But Ginny's only just arrived."

"But it's still too dangerous!" Lily protested. "She's already started to merge! If she splinches between the dimensions, her soul will be annihilated. You'd need a navigator and we don't - "

"Haven't you noticed what she's wearing around her neck?"

All eyes now turned to Ginny. She herself slowly reached around behind her neck. Harry noticed for the first time that there was a small gold cord hanging around it. Ginny pulled at it and Harry saw that it was attached to a pendant that had been hanging underneath her robes. It looked like it was made of silver and was formed in the shape of a triangle inscribed inside a pentagon. Moreover, the outline of the pendant was sharp and clear against Ginny's otherwise opaque form.

"The pentrax frame," muttered Sirius.

"Who gave that to you, Ginny?" asked James.

"The - the - an elf, a house-elf," said Ginny, looking bewildered. "But it's just a child's - "

There were hushed murmurs among the others.

"You see," said James to Lily. "The navigators' prophecy. And they will return to fulfill it. We just have to be ready when the time comes." James looked up at his son for the first time since the conversation had begun. "I can't promise you anything, Harry," he said, "except my very best effort. I couldn't save myself for you. I couldn't save your mother. But there's a chance - just a chance - that I might be able to save Ginny."

Harry looked back at his parents. His father held an expression of determined reassurance for several moments, while his mother flashed him a warm, equally hopeful, smile. He had understood very little of what they had just said to him but one thing had been very much clear: somehow here, even in this disembodied state, the separation and longing that had been his companions ever since he was old enough to remember had been shared by them as well. He looked over at Ginny, the pendant around her neck shining like a beacon in this otherwise shadowy, dream-like world. He could see the confusion and loss on her own face. He imagined what it was like for her now, alone in this place without him. He tried to run toward them all again but still his movement didn't seem to carry him anywhere. It was as though he wasn't really there at all. And then Harry decided he had a far better idea than his father's.

"Wait - look," he said, disturbed to find his words coming out in awkward sobs. "I-I, y-you don't have to, D-Dad."

James looked up at him in surprise.

"I-I mean, I-I'm going to st-stay here. J-Just break the sh-shield. It will k-k-kill me, won't it?"

"Harry, it will be horribly painful!" cried Lily.

"Harry, no!" said Ginny.

But Harry shook his head stubbornly. "N-no," he said. "I've - I've made up my mind. I don't care. You can send something else back across. I-I don't belong back there. I belong h-here with you - w-with all of you."

There was a long moment of silence. Then the familiar gruff voice of Sirius said:

"Well, I'd have thought one of you might have had the courage to remind him," he said. "I think Harry's a little tired of others sugar-coating the truth."

"I didn't notice you stepping forward," said Nevins, slightly reproachfully.

"Remind me what?" asked Harry.

"Harry," said Sirius. "You - "

"No, Sirius," said James. "I should be the one to say it. If it weren't for that night in the Burrow, the prophecy might have belonged to someone else. Harry, you have to go back because only you can kill Voldemort."

"B - but I don't understand. You said Ginny destroyed the pentrax technology. A - and your world's coming back. The threat is over - isn't it?"

"No, Harry," said Lily, and Harry could see that his mother was trying hard to fight back tears again. "He'll only come back. He'll rebuild the technology. And if you're here with us, there won't be anyone who can stop him."

"B - but there must be some other way," Harry protested.

"There isn't another way, Harry," said Sirius, as gently as he could. "I think you know that. You don't belong here - not yet."

"Yes, I do!" said Harry forcefully. "This is my home! This is where I belong!"

"Harry, if you don't return to defeat Voldemort and he succeeds again, then this world as well as yours and everyone in it will be destroyed," said Nevins. "Do you want that?"

Harry looked at all of them for a moment. Somehow he could see them more clearly now. Perhaps it was because they meant him to; perhaps it was because it had just become easier for him to imagine the way they looked in his eyes. And he didn't want to forget. Why should he?

"Of course I don't want that," he said, "but I - I - why does it have to be me? Why - " Harry felt his anger and frustration begin to mount. "WHO CARES ABOUT SOME DUMB PROPHECY ANYWAY? I DIDN'T ASK TO BE A HERO! I JUST WANTED WHAT EVERYONE ELSE HAS! A MOTHER! A FATHER! A GIRLFRIEND! AND NOW I HAVE TO GIVE IT ALL UP SO EVERYONE CAN BE HAPPY BUT ME! IS THAT IT?"

There was a long moment of silence. Harry watched as his mother started to cry quite openly. James put an arm around her but looked only stoically ahead at his son. Ginny looked as though she was struggling to keep her form again. Harry started to regret his outburst, but try as he might, he couldn't quite manage to take back the words. After all, he had meant them.

"I shouldn't burn out your souls trying to make the boy see reason. He's far too self-centered to take pity even on his own crying mother. But then the apple never really falls very far from the tree, does it?"

Harry recognized the voice instantly but his mind still struggled to comprehend what he was hearing. And he wasn't the only one who seemed surprised. To Harry, the voice had seemed to come out of nowhere, but the others had turned to look at a spot slightly to the left of the large rock. Harry followed their gaze to see that something was forming there. It started off as a sort of grey haze but then solidified into something mostly black. A few moments later, it was obvious that a human form was appearing: a chalk white face in tattered black robes that contrasted starkly with the faded garments worn by the others. It never fully solidified but then Harry didn't need anyone to tell him who it was.

"Well, well, well," said Snape. "So there really is a world beyond the gateway. Given Potter's intransigence, however, I doubt it will remain here much longer."

Harry watched as Sirius and James visibly tensed. His father's hand reached down to the side of his pocketless garment, as though instinctively reaching for a wand. Both of them looked daggers at the unwelcome newcomer, but it was Harry's mother who spoke.

"How dare you talk about Harry like that!" she hissed, her eyes full of sudden anger. "How dare you even speak his name from your filthy mouth!"

"I feel I should warn you, Severus," said Sirius idly. "I may have let it slip to James and Lily that you were, on occasion, not very considerate to Harry."

Snape ignored him. "Far be it for such a lowly, despised creature as myself to pour blasphemy on the great heroes of wizard-kind. After all, I must have still been working for Voldemort all along. That probably explains why he tortured and killed me."

"A pity he hadn't managed it a few years sooner," said James coldly. "I was so looking forward to having you join us."

"There's no need for worry, Potter, I won't be staying for long," replied Snape. "I don't expect you to understand but my family were tortured and killed by Ministry agents in the First War. They suspected that just because they were one of the oldest and proudest of the pure-blood families that they must have been Death Eater sympathizers. They were wrong, though their actions ended up resulting in a sort of, shall we say self-fulfilling prophecy, especially where I was concerned. I expect they're somewhere here in this place, and I'd prefer finding them to spending my time with those who would have sympathized with their persecutors, especially now that the days of this world are so numbered."

Snape took one last significant look at Harry, then the white and black mass grew more opaque, and finally faded completely from sight.

There was another long pause.

"Harry, listen to me," said James. "Lily was right. The likes of him aren't worthy to talk to you or us but - "

"I'll - I'll go," said Harry quickly, looking down. "Of course, I - of course I'll go. I mean - I didn't really mean - I always knew - I just - "

He swallowed hard. It had suddenly become very difficult for him to talk. He knew he had to defeat Voldemort; he had always known, but the idea of being separated from everyone who had ever cared for him seem to suck away at his insides like a horrible parasite. He felt a painful lump in his throat but managed to look up at the others even as tears pricked his eyes.

No one spoke at first. If anything, Harry could see his mother was crying harder now than before, tears running like trickling rain down cheeks that were trapped forever in youth. Ginny was crying, too, but Harry was pleased to see she that she didn't seem to be fading out this time. Her hands were clutched over the strange pendant she wore around her neck, as though she was determined to absorb as much of its magic as possible. Their eyes met and Harry let her feel with his heart the words which it seemed could no longer come out of his mouth.

Finally, and somewhat to Harry's surprise, it was Nevins who spoke:

"Harry," he said. "I've already told you that you are one of the bravest wizards I've ever met, but there's something else I should have told you and never did. I tried to tell Ron the moment before I died but it I didn't get the chance. Now, I can tell you myself:

"There's a reason that you are the one who has to kill Voldemort. It's not because of a prophecy. Prophecies are only good judges of character. In a way, it has to be you precisely because you don't want it. When most people kill, even when they kill something as horrible as twisted as Lord Voldemort, they kill for power; they kill for glory. In a way, they become the evil they've destroyed. But if you kill Lord Voldemort, it won't be for any of those reasons. It will be out of love: love of your family, love of your friends. That's what makes you a true hero, Harry."

"I would listen to him, Harry," said Sirius. "He's always had a way of sizing people up."

"Harry, I'm going to do my very best to get Ginny back to you," said James. "And if I don't succeed, we'll take good care of her, I promise."

"Harry, we all love you," said Lily, her tears drying. "And one day we'll all be here again together."

"Are you ready, Harry?" asked James. "I'm not sure I can keep this shield together much longer."

Harry managed a nod; that was about all he could manage.

"If you look in your pocket, Harry," said Sirius. "You'll find your wand's been repaired. I've also added, well..." He hesitated as Nevins looked over to him a little suspiciously. "...just a little something to it. Oh, and Harry, when you get to the other side, try to remember your flying lesson. I'm afraid you're going to need it."

Harry looked slightly startled at his godfather's words. He was about to ask him exactly what he meant when a grey tendril erupted from the strange ball of light exactly as it had just before he'd returned from his last strange vision of the world beyond the gateway. A sharp pain sliced to his chest and he once again experienced the unpleasant sensation that his whole body had caught on fire. The world around him began to blur. But before it had faded completely, he could have sworn he saw Ginny begin to step out from the others toward him.

"Harry Potter!" she cried out shrilly. "I told you we'd spend the rest of lives together and I meant it!"

The pain began to blot out all other sensations. Harry felt his body start to lurch forward as though propelled by a giant hand. The landscape faded completely into black. He was moving again, whether forward or backward he couldn't be sure. Suddenly, a cool fabric caressed his back almost as though he had fallen on top of it from a great height.

And then he was falling again. Really falling this time. Flashes of light and the sounds of small explosions filled the air around him. He looked up quickly to see the gateway still hanging high above him, the veil he had just fallen through still blowing in the air that had just sucked him back into this world. It seemed that his body had now completed its fall right out through the other side as though all the time spent in between had occurred in the improbable middle of his own short flight.

But one thing had changed. Ginny was no longer with him, neither her body nor her soul. Both it seemed were beyond the gateway.

Harry wrenched his attention sharply back to the here and now. He was picking up speed very fast. The labyrinth structure that had been spun from the gateway was now completely above him and he was falling quickly into the dark, unseen depths of the cavern. If he didn't do something to stop his fall soon, his time back in this world would be very brief and very painful.

But for several panicked moments, Harry was sure that he wasn't going to make it. A wave of nausea and disorientation grew precipitously as he tumbled down deeper into the chasm. Sirius had reminded him to fly and now he knew why, but how could he possibly begin to remember how to do it? His lone flying lesson with Sirius in his Janus form back at Hogwarts seemed to have taken place many lifetimes ago.

But Harry knew that he had no other choice. He struggled to pull the cobwebs away from his mind as though he was peeling away the outer skin from a piece of fruit. He thought of all his lost loved ones waiting for him behind the gateway, how much they depended on him, how much he couldn't bear to see their smiling faces forever erased. And then finally when he could almost see them all standing before him again, Harry felt a deep tranquil feeling of love wash over him. His mind began to calm even as his body picked up ferocious speed. He began to visualize himself on a broomstick-less flight just as he had back at Hogwarts. He turned out his feet and his palms and his tumbling began to stop, but he was still hurtling toward the unseen surface of the cavern at a very high speed. He pivoted his arms and legs in place but nothing happened. Fighting to sustain his concentration, Harry tried again but still nothing worked. He continued to gather speed. It was obvious that he lacked the skills to reverse his momentum at such a pace.

Without even realizing he had done so, Harry reached into his pocket. There was his wand just as Sirius had promised.

"Lumos!" Harry cried.

His hand shook as a very bright beam of light exploded out of its end. Whatever Sirius had done to his wand, it had been more than to just repair it.

The floor of the cavern was just ten meters below him and closing fast. Eight meters. Six meters. Harry spotted a loose boulder.

"Levitatus!"

The rock shot upwards. Harry guided the side of his body toward it and squeezed his eyes shot. There was a horrible bone jarring crush to his hip. Harry was sure something had broken but the boulder had done its work. He was moving upwards again, but there would be only a split-second before he started to fall. Ignoring the blistering pain of the impact, Harry stretched out his arms and legs like a beetle. His upward rise slowed at first but then, very slowly, he began to continue to move upward, as though he was floating through water rather than air. He cautiously moved his arms and legs back and forth like Sirius had shown him and he continued to rise even further. Then suddenly he began to swoop and fall again like he had in the old Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, but he forced himself to steady and began to slowly climb again. Finally, he reached the sinewy bottom tendrils of the structure. He tested the surface tentatively with his feet and found that it still held, although brittle pieces from other parts of the structure continued to break away and fall down into the chasm like bits of a melting glacier.

As soon as Harry put pressure on his right foot, he could feel a sharp stabbing pain from where the boulder had collided into his side. Looking down he could also see blood soaking through the side of his trousers. He held out his wand again and performed a makeshift healing charm on his hipbone, then a clotting charm to close the wound. Like the light he had conjured before, the wand seemed to perform the healing charm much better than Harry ordinarily would have been able to himself. The area felt mostly numb now and Harry was sure he still didn't have full movement but it was better than any of the alternatives.

Once he had gingerly tested his foot once or twice, Harry looked up into the cavern above him. He was about fifty meters below the control area. Voldemort seemed to have succeeded in moving the mezzanine platform back into an upright position, although there were still rumbling sounds coming from the wall behind it. From where he stood, Harry could just about make out Malfoy's form still bending over the controls, but it was obvious that he hadn't noticed Harry. Well, that was soon going to change. Now that he was safely in a stationary position, Harry wouldn't need to fly to get himself up there. He pointed his wand at himself.

"Levitatus!"

Harry felt his breath sucked away as he shot up into the air like a cannon. The parts of the structure near the mezzanine had now completely collapsed and Harry sailed through clear air, steering himself up toward the controls. For a moment, he thought that his supercharged wand would cause him to overshoot the mezzanine completely, but he rose to a spot just above it, then steadied his slow fall back down onto the ledge right in front of Voldemort.

And yet still, for a moment, Voldemort did not look up from the controls. Harry held his wand out in front of him. For an instant, he had the absurd notion that after all that had happened, he could kill the Dark Lord where he stood without Voldemort paying the slightest bit of attention. But as soon as a hex had formed in his mind, the once Master of all the Death Eaters slowly lifted his head as though he had known Harry had been there all the time.

Harry drew in his breath. Deep gashes and burn marks now lined the once flawless face of Draco Malfoy. The front part of his hair seemed completely singed away and one of his eyeballs hung lifelessly down at its side. But the other stared at him with a deranged intensity.

"I will build it all back," he said. "Every last thing the blood traitor destroyed, I will build back. The arc comes and goes and it will return again. I will recruit new Death Eaters. There will be many willing to join my side when they hear of the destiny I have planned for our kind. There always were before. There's no need to worry - Harry. Our new sun will still rise one day, only this time you really won't be alive to see it. Perhaps it will be just as brilliant from the other side of the gateway. But I wouldn't know: after all, I have never died."

But Harry slowly shook his head. At one time in his life, the power of the Dark Lord had terrified him; later, he had found himself consumed with vengeance and his inability to find the magical abilities to act on it. But now the only thing that filled Harry's heart was love for those that had taken to him to this moment and place where he would finally save them once and for all.

"You're wrong, Tom," he said. "There won't be another day. I have come here to end this."

Voldemort gave Harry a smile that revealed several blackened and missing teeth.

"The old cow really was right, after all, wasn't she? I really will be the one to kill you. I should congratulate you, Harry. You'll be remembered by generations of wizard kind." The smile faded. "Remembered as the last who dared to stand in my way. From your death, the Dark Lord will rise again! Avada Kedavra!"

Voldemort's wand was out in his hand and his hex cast at a speed too fast for Harry to see, but before the curse could reach him, he had dived backwards off the mezzanine and down into the chasm below.

And then a moment later re-appeared, rising with arms stretched out in the air like a bird, and landed behind a tall stretch of structure a few dozen yards directly ahead of Voldemort's mezzanine.

"Very good, Harry. You really should have become my ally. But it's far too late for that now. Contortus!"

A flash of green light flew out of the end of Voldemort's wand and seemed to curl like a rope through the air. With horror, Harry realized Voldemort had used the same curse before on Dumbledore in the original room. He leapt like a monkey to different parts of the structure, trying to duck the curse but it followed him like a bolt of guided lightning, every now and then searing through the structure like an enormous saw. Moving more from instinct than design, Harry leapt back around in a circle leading his fire back in the direction of the mezzanine. Finally, he leapt clear across the edge and flew erratically through the air straight toward the control area himself. Voldemort looked across at him in alarm but he continued to keep his hold on his wand. Harry cannoned straight toward the control area as if he meant to slam his head straight into its side, but at the very last second, he let himself fall.

"NO!!" screamed Voldemort.

From somewhere above him, Harry could hear a loud explosion. He forced himself to steady his fall before it picked up too much momentum and then guided himself back away to rest on another part of the platform again. When he looked up he could see that the angle of Voldemort's hex had carried it straight into the control panel, warping it completely in two. The panel and an enormous metal chunk of the mezzanine area fell clear away from the wall and straight down into the chasm below. For a heart-stopping moment, Harry wondered if Voldemort might have fallen down with it, but a moment later, he could see that the deformed body of Draco Malfoy still stood precariously on a tiny piece of the mezzanine that remained.

Harry tensed his hand on his wand but waited. An instant later, an enormous explosion bellowed up from the bowels of the chasm as the mezzanine and controls crashed to the ground. A knot of sizzling blue light exploded upward from the surface. Harry watched as Voldemort looked down toward it in apparent alarm and then raised his wand to strike.

"Dissectum!" he cried.

Voldemort ducked as an enormous hole exploded in the rock just underneath his feet. Harry started to watch him fall but then the sizzling blue energy accelerated up to where he was standing.

"Protego!"

An orange light enveloped Harry just as the blue energy hurtled upwards, slicing through the structure above him as it did so. An avalanche of its brittle branches cascaded down around Harry. They bounced off his disarming charm but a large chunk hit the narrow stretch of structure on which he was standing and it gave way below his feet. Harry was forced to let go of the blocking charm but managed to halt his fall and glide to a branch of the structure that remained intact.

As soon as he had done so, Harry looked back across to the wall where Voldemort had been standing. The mezzanine and most of the rock behind it had been obliterated completely and the Dark Lord was nowhere to be seen. Was that it? Had he fallen? Harry could see that Voldemort had not yet regained the impressive power to fly that he shown in his battle with Dumbledore in the original room the year before. Yet could it really have been that easy? Was he really -

"Avada Kedavra!"

Harry leapt off the branch just as a flash of green light skimmed a half an inch away from his left shoulder. He glided to one of the largest chunks of structure still remaining, deeper away from the walls and into the maze, and flattened himself behind it.

There was no other sound. But Voldemort had been somewhere very nearby. If he could just take a quick peek around -

"Avada Kedavra!"

Harry ducked behind the structure again as the curse whizzed past the spot where his head had just been but, in that instant, he had managed to spot Voldemort standing on a stable swath of structure about a dozen feet above him. He paused and held onto his wand, his heart racing fast.

"Very good, Harry," came Malfoy's voice. "Your magical abilities have progressed far beyond what I had envisioned. Dumbledore taught you well. Or perhaps it was your godfather, Merlin rest his soul. But for your enviable power of flight you seem to be missing the simpler skill of short-distance Apparition. A pity they didn't spend more time teaching it to you."

Harry's heart sank. So that's how Voldemort had escaped his fall. Wasn't there an anti-Disapparation hex though? Something Dumbledore had used on Voldemort in the original room the year before. Harry struggled to recall it but his mind clouded over in confusion once again. Still, it didn't matter, he decided. There was still one way he could stop Voldemort and now was his best chance.

Harry clutched onto his wand tightly and leapt out away from his hiding place. He heard Voldemort's curse but he knew he was moving too fast to be an effective target. The flash of green had barely surged past him when Harry swung around toward Voldemort, still gliding quickly through the air as he did so. A branch of structure moved rapidly between them but then the path was clear. Voldemort raised his wand again but this time Harry was quicker. Fighting to keep his balance in the air, Harry pointed his wand at the Dark Lord.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" he shrieked.

Harry lost his balance completely and cannoned down painfully into another branch of the structure, but the instant before he did, he saw his curse connect into Voldemort's shoulder. Ignoring a fresh surge of pain in his back and his side as he hit and then slid down the slippery branch, Harry wrapped his arms and legs around the structure and held on tightly until he stopped falling. Only then did he look up, praying that he'd finally dealt the Dark Lord a mortal blow.

But there he was still standing on the same branch, not even so much as losing his balance.

Harry felt himself start to fall again but then used his feet to push away from the branch and glide ahead to another. This one was much thinner though and Harry stood uncomfortably exposed as Voldemort looked down at him and laughed.

"Did you really think you had the magic to kill me, Harry? You know, when we started this fight, I really thought you might have. You've always been so fast to anger, Harry, but so slow to hate. You didn't hate when your parents died, not even when your godfather was killed. And you don't even hate me now, not even after I got rid of your horrid little brat of a girlfriend, not the kind of hate you really need to kill. I can read your mind like a book, Harry; you never learned to block me. If all you can feel is love then you'll never defeat me. Love cannot kill; love cannot even hurt. Love is weak, Harry. Love will never stop me; I will only stop - "

There was a sharp popping sound. Harry whirled his head around, alarmed.

" - it."

Voldemort Apparated ten feet in front of Harry. He raised his wand. Harry ducked instinctively to avoid the Killing Curse he was sure would follow but Voldemort aimed his wand a large knot of structure right above them.

"Dissectum!"

There was another popping noise as Voldemort Disapparated again. Two enormous log-like pieces of the structure broke off and fell down toward Harry who remained standing on the branch. He got to his feet and raised his wand to throw up another blocking charm but his back and hip resisted the sudden movement. Harry lost his balance on the slippery surface and fell back onto the branch. His wand fell out of his hand and tumbled down into the chasm below. Harry could do nothing but watch as the two logs cannoned into his legs and pinned him onto the branch.

A loud involuntary shriek exploded from Harry's throat. Pain like he had never known ran up and down his legs. He knew at once that both of them were broken. He tried to move his feet but couldn't. The branch beneath him began to crack and give; the two pieces of structure fell off and tumbled down into the chasm; all Harry could do was hang on tightly to the branch with his arms as his legs dangled uselessly below him.

There was another popping sound. Voldemort Apparated right in front of Harry but toward the thicker part of the branch. His added weight sent another ominous splintering noise down its length.

"Pardon me for sharing your small little space, Harry," Voldemort cooed, a horrible gleam in his one good eye. "I had to get as close as I could, you know: you've developed quite a knack for ducking out of my way. But don't worry; should the branch break off altogether, I can simply Disapparate somewhere else. A bit beyond your own abilities but you can always fly. Oh, my apologies, again. Without the use of your legs to steady you, that might prove impossible. And, oh, yes, you seem to have lost your wand."

The smile disappeared.

"You're such a useless, pathetic creature. I still marvel at the length of your borrowed time in this world and the amount of trouble you have managed to cause me. I don't really expect you to beg for your life, Harry. Your father and mother didn't. But at least they feared me. All you can do is think of your pathetic little family standing before you smiling their condolences."

Voldemort stepped even closer to Harry, as though doing so would take him even further into his thoughts.

"And now what do I see?" he went on mockingly. "Dumbledore cursing me in the original room. No, you're not like him, are you? And now - oh, even better. The sorry little school I put you in. Kicking around a ball in some stupid Muggle game with the mudbloods. So be it then." Voldemort smiled maliciously. "It was a beautiful prison, wasn't it?"

Voldemort took out his wand and stabbed it into Harry's forehead, right onto his scar. His eye lit up with a feverish glee.

"Farewell, Harry P - "

Harry let out an enormous gurgling cry, then pushed hard onto the branch with his hands. He cartwheeled his broken legs back behind him through the air and planted a scissor kick straight into Voldemort's chest. The face of Draco Malfoy twisted for a moment in shock then Voldemort fell backwards hard onto the branch. He lost his grip on his wand and it began to fall down into the chasm but before it could do so, Harry reached out dangerously with his left hand and grabbed hold of it. Voldemort shook off his shock and lunged for it but his quick forward motion left him dangerously off-balance. Harry placed his right hand onto Voldemort's chest and then shoved out and away toward the thin part of the branch. He then quickly used both of his hands to move himself further back to the thicker part where Voldemort had stood a moment before. Before the Dark Lord had time to react again, Harry pointed the wand at him and cried out:

"Disapparatus Impedimenta!"

He didn't know if Dumbledore's curse would work for him; he wasn't even sure he'd remembered it correctly. Then the horrified expression on Voldemort's face made it absolutely clear that he had.

There was another snapping sound. The branch began to give way under Voldemort's arms.

"P - P - Potter," he spluttered, his face masked in fear. "H - Harry, Harry, listen to me. I wanted - I - I wanted to bring them all back. I wanted to bring them all back! Your parents, Harry! I can - I can bring them to life again. Ginny! I can bring back Ginny to you, Harry. I can make them all come back; just don't let me die!"

The branch snapped again.

"H - Harry, please!"

Voldemort reached out a hand toward him.

"H - H - Harry! Don't let me die! I - I can't die! I am Lord Voldemort. I cannot die. I cannot - P - P - Potter."

"Oh, I shouldn't worry," said Harry quietly. "It might be quick; it might even be painless. I wouldn't know; I have never died."

The end of the branch snapped completely away. One last terrible scream flew out of the mouth of the Dark Wizard before he fell quickly down into the chasm below. Harry's eyes stung from the horrible pain in his legs but he managed to watch the final flight of Lord Voldemort, all the magic he once could have used to stop himself now finally beyond his grasp. He had almost cleared the structure completely but at the last moment, he was unable to break his fall and his neck collided with a large jagged piece. It sliced clear away from its body and then both parts of the last of Lord Voldemort's many mortal forms continued to fall down into the darkness.

There was another lurch. The part of the branch on which Harry was sitting had started to give way. He began to fall but at the last moment, he managed to grab onto the remaining piece further up that continued to hang away from the larger trunk.

And there he dangled with only his arms to support him - just as he would remember so vividly all those many years later.

The structure dug its way painfully into his fingers. In his mind's eye, Harry wondered how much longer he should wait. He needed to be sure that Dumbledore's curse of the year before had worked and that Voldemort's soul would not rush out from Malfoy's body and return to terrorize them once again. Once Harry was sure that the soul of the Dark Lord was gone forever, he would know that his work was done. He could finally be free of the prophecy's burden.

And then he would let go. There was nothing and no one to stop him or blame him this time. He would fall. It would all be over very quickly. And then he would no longer be alone. There would be no need for his father to try and return Ginny to him. He would live together with her and all of those he loved beyond the gateway forever.

Harry was not sure how much time had passed. His arms began to tire and his legs remained in incredible pain. At first he did not trust his sense of time. He knew it had been several minutes before Voldemort's soul had erupted from his body in the original room the previous year. But when finally Harry became certain that more time than that had passed he began to believe that this time, it was really over.

And he could fall.

But just as Harry began to release his grip, there was a rumbling sound and a doorway crumbled out just above him. He watched frantically as two very familiar shapes rushed onto the branch just in front of them. He couldn't do this while they were still here. Why did they have to come in to interfere? Why couldn't they just stay away? If only they wouldn't look down to see -

"Harry!" cried Ron frantically, tiptoeing dangerously across the structure like he was balancing on the branches of a high tree.

"No, Ron, go away! It's too dangerous."

"Don't talk rubbish! We're going to get you out of here!"

Harry groaned as he saw that Hermione had followed Ron. She managed to steer herself to his other side and both of them held out their hands.

"You won't be able to keep your balance after you pull me up!" Harry said. "Just let me go! Rescue yourselves!"

"No, Harry!" said Hermione frantically. "We're going to get you out of here! It's over, isn't it? Voldemort - "

"Yes, I killed him. Isn't that what you all wanted? NOW LET ME GO!"

"Harry, what the devil's wrong with you?" said Ron. "GET HOLD OF MY HAND!"

"You don't understand!" Harry shouted back. "I've seen them. I've seen all of them. I just want to be with them. I did what everyone wanted now let me go!"

"Harry, you know we won't do that!"

Hermione reached dangerously over to take hold of Harry's shoulder and tried to pull him up by force but Harry yanked it back.

"You don't know what's happened! If you did, you'd know why I have to let go! Before Voldemort - before he died, he killed Ginny!"

Harry watched as all the color fled from Ron's cheeks. Yet without hesitation, he reached out his hand and pulled Harry's right shoulder toward him, reaching precariously out over the branch as he did so.

"LET ME GO!" shouted Harry.

"Not a chance!" replied Hermione firmly, reaching over and taking hold of his other shoulder. "Come on; we're leaving."

There was another loud crack. The part of the branch on which Hermione and Ron were standing began to fracture.

"If you don't go now, we're all going to fall!" Harry insisted.

"Then we'll die together with you!" Ron retorted, "but we're not leaving you here."

Ron and Hermione pulled Harry to his feet. He tested one foot gingerly on the branch and then yelped in pain.

"You might at least know that Voldemort broke both my legs."

"Come on," said Hermione, more to Ron than to Harry. "We'll have to carry him out."

Harry groaned but did not resist. It was obvious to him that they weren't going to leave without him; the only way he was going to make sure they were safe was by letting them take him out together with them.

Hermione and Ron awkwardly held onto Harry's shoulders and dangled his feet over the branches as they walked. Hoisting him up over the first branch proved the hardest part. After they had made it to the branch where Ron and Hermione had entered, it was only a level walk out to the passageway.

But even this was much harder than it looked. The surface was extremely slippery. Explosions continued to erupt around them and bits of roof and structure rained down on them as they walked. Once Hermione almost completely lost her balance, but after pirouetting in the air for a heart-stopping moment, she managed to regain her footing. Their combined weight sent ominous cracking noises down the length of the narrow branch as they walked on. They were barely meters from the end when a very large cracking noise resounded behind them. Harry turned back in horror to discover that the structure had split right down the center of its main artery. The two remaining parts were peeling away from each other like the skin of a banana. The section on which Hermione, Harry, and Ron stood curved violently to their left. The brittle end smashed up against an uneven stretch of rock on one of the jagged holes in the cavern wall. The section of the branch that began just inches away from Ron's foot broke off completely at the end. They continued to swing around until finally several of the thicker branches of the structure collided against one another and wedged in the branch on which they were standing. The movement finally stopped.

"Merlin's breath!" cried Ron. "What are we going to do - aah!"

The branch pitched suddenly. Hermione and Ron lost their grip on Harry and all three slid away from its slippery surface. Each managed to wrap their elbows around the side of the branch as it tilted, however, just as Harry had held onto the ridge when Ginny's soul had first started to collapse the structure. They paused for a breathless moment, wondering if anything else was going to move, then Harry glanced cautiously over to find that a twenty-meter gap now separated them from the alcove above that led out into the passageway.

"Any ideas?" said Hermione, panting.

"Bloody hell," said Ron. "If you don't know a spell that can get us out of this, then we're really done for!"

But Harry had taken out his wand and pointed it at Ron.

"Just try to roll and break your fall."

"What?"

"I'm going to levitate you into the alcove."

"Hang on a minute! Are you sure that thing still works?"

"Of course," said Harry, smiling wryly. "It belonged to Voldemort. Levitatus!"

Ron's eyes widened as the charm caught him just above his stomach. He hurtled upward through the air and then disappeared from sight into the alcove opening.

"You next, Hermione."

Hermione looked back at him, alarmed.

"It's just like netball, you know."

"Are you sure you're not going to catch the rim, though?"

"Certain."

"If you're thinking of letting yourself fall after I'm gone, Harry, I'm going to jump in after you; that's a bloody promise."

"Yeah," said Harry, a little ruefully. "I thought you'd say something like that. Levitatus!"

Hermione screamed as she shot through the air after Ron and fell straight through into the alcove after him. Frightened he would change his mind if he stopped to think, Harry pointed the wand at himself and delivered the same command. He felt himself fly high through the air, ducking a bit to the right as large bits of stone from the roof glanced past him. He shot through the opening of the alcove where Hermione and Ron were dusting themselves off and getting slowly to their feet and narrowly missed them to land hard on the stone floor, letting out a scream of agony.

"Harry, are you all right?" cried Hermione.

A much louder explosion resounded in the cavern. Most of the remaining structure collapsed and fell away. Cracks began to appear in the ceiling above them and bits of dust and rock fell down around their heads.

"Just get - get us out of here!" winced Harry.

"Come on, we'll float him along!" said Hermione. "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Hermione and Ron guided Harry along ahead of them with their wands as fast as they dared and trotted quickly up through the passageways back underneath the lake. The ground shook beneath their feet as though the memory of Lord Voldemort was determined not to let them leave. Hermione and Ron lost their balance two or three times but on each occasion, they managed to get themselves back up and continue to propel Harry toward the opening. They all coughed as the corridors began to fill quickly with dust and smoke from the falling debris. They finally reached the upwards winding staircase just as a pile of rock cascaded down into the corridor behind them, sealing away completely the passageways to the cavern. Lifting Harry up the steps was no easy task, but slowly they made their way until finally they could see light, and a familiar pair of eyes looking down at them.

"There they are!" cried Lavender.

"Bloody hell, it's Harry!" cried Dean.

"He's broken his legs!" Hermione shot up. "Get away from the opening! We've got to get him out!"

Dean and Lavender did as they were told. All five Gryffindors emerged onto the meadow. The others were nowhere to be seen.

"Where is everyone?" asked Ron.

"Dennis, Colin, and Justin have only just led them around the lake," Dean explained. "As soon as the ground started to rumble, we figured we'd better get moving."

"Then why didn't you go with them?" Hermione demanded.

"Well, I thought that would have been obvious," Lavender replied with a bossy tone. "We were waiting for you!"

"That was a bit stupid of you," retorted Hermione, but she failed to stop a smile from breaking out on her face.

"Snape?" Dean asked.

Hermione looked down to the ground, bit her lip, and shook her head.

"Ginny?"

Dean looked at Ron, and his old roommate met his gaze, but he didn't respond. Hermione walked straight up toward Dean, took hold of his shoulders, and with a pleading look in her eyes, pointed him in the direction of the south side of the lake.

"Come on," she said. "We've got to get out of here."

The ground started to shake beneath their feet. Hermione, Ron, Dean, and Lavender struggled to keep their balance as all four kept their wands trained on Harry, floating him along ahead of them. Hermione wasn't even sure he was still conscious. She took a quick look to the lake on her left at roughly the spot where she and Ron had emerged from the water mere hours before. Ominous ripples were bubbling on its surface as though something was preparing to break up through the surface.

They continued to trudge around the perimeter of the lake every now and then tripping over roots from trees that had grown partly into the water. Despite having to levitate Harry out ahead of them, they soon caught up to the others whose progress seemed to be slowed as the nuns tiptoed slowly forward to avoid getting too wet.

"Bloody hell," said Ron, turning around to see that the ripples of water emanating from the center of the lake had started to turn into waves. "Can't they go any faster?"

Hermione motioned to Ron, Dean, and Lavender to take care of Harry and ran quickly on ahead, deliberately splashing water on the nuns as she did so.

"Do you mind, Miss Granger?" said Sister Lewis, turning around. "This is a very expensive - "

"Sister Lewis," said Hermione. She put her arm around the nun's shoulder and pointed out toward the center of the lake. "One of Satan's very good friends is coming out to visit us. If you'd rather not meet him, I suggest you move on a little bit faster!"

She pushed Sister Lewis in the back. The nun tutted her disapproval but on looking properly at the gathering tempest in the lake, she began to run forward as fast as she could. To Hermione's relief, her pace was soon matched by the others.

The strange army of nuns, guards, Muggle children, and Muggle-born Hogwarts students wound their way quickly around the side of the lake and up toward the south side as Snape had instructed. They had almost reached it when they became aware that they weren't alone. Two enormous beings Hermione had mistaken for tall tree stumps were standing at the edge of the water. Next to them were three very familiar wizards. One of the giants was pushing his foot out in front of them as though struggling to break through an invisible barrier. Hermione had no sooner registered this when a horrible high-pitched noise resounded out from the center of the lake. A sharp fork of orange lightning moved improbably upwards from the surface of the water and spread out into the sky in all directions. The instant it had passed over their heads the giant seemed to find itself pushing on air, lost its balance, and tumbled straight into the water. An enormous splash erupted from the spot and showered the oncoming group.

Sister Lewis moaned.

"The barrier's down!" cried Ron.

"Oi!" a familiar voice cried out. "Ron! Hermione!"

"Hagrid!" Hermione cried. She ran ahead, bounded over a low-lying branch, and found her way into the bone-crushing arms of the half-giant.

"Blimey," he said as he let her go, tears running down his enormous cheeks. "I never thought I'd see yeh alive again! An' Ron! An' Harry! Blimey, what's happened? Who are all these people?"

"Hagrid, I think the explanations can wait until later," said Dumbledore, looking very worried. "We'd better get everyone out of here. I have some very nasty suspicions about what might happen next. Can we use Grawp and Fump to clear the way?"

"Right. Grawp!" Hagrid called out toward the giant in the water. "What are yeh playin' at? Get yehself out o' there and clear a path feh these people!"

Grawp drew himself up to full height. Sister Lewis took a rosary out of her pocket and began muttering prayers to herself. Grawp and Fump moved out in front of them and began to knock a wider path of trees to one side as though they were only tall blades of grass. The others quickly climbed up to follow them but the path was still treacherous. The older Muggle-born students let the younger children pass first and then brought up the rear. Ron, Hermione, Dean, and Lavender were last and levitated Harry out in front of them. They had almost reached the crest of the hill when Hermione heard an enormous explosion behind her. She looked backward to find a wall of water more than fifteen meters high and the width of the lake wide moving quickly toward them.

"Merlin!" she exclaimed. "Keep moving!"

The party quickened their footsteps. The guards ran ahead, half-climbing on top of the children as they struggled to save their own skins. The nuns began to cry out. One or two of them fell but they managed to pick themselves back up again. There was another enormous crash as the wave pounded into the bottom of the hill, then rose up to meet them like a malevolent spirit. They were high enough up to escape most of its force but the crest of the wave still showered their ankles with water, then rolled back down into the lake taking several fallen trees with it. Hermione slipped and fell hard as a log rolled into her ankles. She looked back to see that the others were falling, too. With sudden horror, she realized they had lost their grip on Harry and that he was falling painfully and helplessly back down the hill, propelled by a mini-landslide of falling rocks. He seemed to have regained consciousness and he was using his hands to try and support himself again but he couldn't find a grip. He began to pick up speed. Hermione felt certain he would fall all the way back down the hill to the surface of the lake but then one of the logs wedged itself into a clutter of debris and Harry fell painfully up against it.

"I'm going down to get him!"

"Ron, be careful! Ron, look out!"

But Ron had already started to clamber awkwardly down the side of the hill. He could hear Hermione screaming behind him and looked up to see a fresh wave racing toward them but he kept moving until he had reached Harry's prone form.

"Come on, mate," he said. "Hold onto my shoulders."

"Ron, no!" cried Harry, wincing in pain. "Get yourself out of here! You'll be crushed!"

"No chance, mate. Now come - "

"Don't you understand?" Harry cried, a pitiful look in his eyes. "I killed her, Ron. And now I just want to be with her. I don't want to be alone. I can't - "

"No, Harry, I don't understand. Now come on!"

Ron heaved Harry to his feet and pulled his arm over his shoulder. He could hear the water rushing up behind them. He looked back up the hill to see that Hermione, Lavender, and Dean - and even that horrible cow of a nun - were beckoning him on. Harry seemed to be trying to help him, but he couldn't put any force at all onto his legs. Ron hoisted both of their weights over the slippery fallen logs. He could hear the water rushing up behind him like the sound of ten trains racing up a track. He hoisted Harry over another log, then moved his leg forward. The sound continued to grow. Ron didn't want to look back. Hermione kept screaming and then -

Ron felt as though a dozen bluggers had struck him square in the back. The force of the water threw him to his knees and he felt his whole body go completely underwater. He reached out blindly and managed to find Harry's arm. Then the water began to rush back. Ron lowered his head as he felt pieces of wood and earth roll down the hill and into his body but still he kept his grip on Harry. He was heartened to find that his best friend in the world was holding on just as tightly. Then Ron felt his feet starting to slip out from underneath him. He tried to gain a grip but the force of the water pushing them back toward the lake was far too strong. An enormous log was rolling down with the water fast toward them; it was inches away from Ron's head; he closed his eyes.

And then found himself flying up out of the water and high into the sky. He looked back to see he was still holding onto to Harry's arm but that Harry wasn't pulling him down anymore. He looked down to see water and logs crashing quickly back down the hill below him, then ahead to find Dumbledore pointing his wand toward them and Hermione jumping up and down next to him screaming instructions. Dumbledore guided them up and over the watery devastation and onto the safe, dry land on the now deforested peak of the hill.

As soon as they had landed, Hermione helped Ron take hold of Harry's other shoulder.

"Are you all right?" she said.

"Yeah - yeah, I'll, er, well, you know - "

"Honestly, Ron, you look as though someone tried to transfigure you into a tree and very nearly succeeded!"

"Harry, are you - " Ron began.

"I'll live," croaked Harry, coughing. "For better or worse."

"What happened to - "

Ron turned around. What had once been the population of St. Brutus's School for Criminally Incurable Girls and Boys were slowly making their way to the peak. Waves of water continued to smash into the bottom of the hill, but that was now much further below them. As Ron watched, the waves grew gradually smaller. The ground was no longer rumbling, either, but not all remained the same. Looking out to the middle of the lake, Ron could see that directly over the area where Voldemort's underground base had once stood, there was now a small island. And on top of that island, though distant and faint, Ron could just about make out a small stone archway below which hung a tattered veil.