The Dream Trilogy Book Three: What Dreams May Come (A Harry Potter FanFiction)

Chapter Thirty Three

   "Or what?" demanded Abbey, who had whipped out her own wand and dropped several feet to get closer to the ground.

   "Or I kill you all," replied the woman, almost comically.  Something surfaced in Ron's mind, an old wanted poster, images from the Daily Prophet.

   "You're Bellatrix Lestrange," he said numbly.  A Death Eater.  The one who tortured the Longbottoms into insanity amongst others.  One of You-Know-Who's most loyal.

   "Yes," said Bellatrix patronisingly.  "Who else could have gained control of this so-called school so easily?"  She gave a lop-sided grin that came across more like a snarl.  "I see you were quite horrid to poor old Rodriguez."

   "Why are you doing this?" Ron asked, edging his broom closer to the ground and closer to his helpless friends.  How soon before she realised they were lowly Muggles?  She'd kill them instantly.  

   "My Master needs what's behind these tricks and traps, I'm the only one he could trust to retrieve it," she told him smugly.  "And you can stop right there thank you very much, I don't think you should be any closer to the floor than that."  Ron shuddered, his mind racing.  She had the upper hand as long as her wand was on him.

   "What happens if we give you the damn key?" asked Abbey, her wand still steady, her other hand trembling from effort on the broom.  Bellatrix shrugged.

   "You can go, I have no use for you."

   "Liar." A.J.'s voice was hoarse as he spoke up.  Ron wanted to shout at him to stop, don't draw any attention to themselves.  But it was too late.  "Why should we give you the key when you're going to kill us anyway?" He stepped towards the traitorous witch, slowly, thoughtfully.  His shoulders were tensed like a cat about to pounce.  

   She blinked.  "You know you're absolutely right, I might as well just kill you now and have done with it."

   Her wand arched down to point at A.J., and a jolt of panic shot through Ron.  "No, wait!" he cried, almost losing his balance on the broom.  The key-free hand dove into his pocket and by the time Bellatrix looked up again he'd dropped four feet and had his wand pointed straight at the key.  "I'll melt it!  I will!"

   Bellatrix scowled.  "You wouldn't even know how to do that you little English Squib," she snarled.  "Only pure children have been educated, you couldn't even make a spark."

   "Oh yeah?" said Ron, a lot more confident than he felt.  "You obviously have no idea who I am."  The warmth spread through his fingers.  Bellatrix screamed, sensing the spell, and moved to blast him.  But Abigail was the quickest of them all.

   "Expelliarmus!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, blasting Bellatrix back, and sending her wand cascading right in front of where A.J. had walked to.  In a blur of movement Bellatrix scrambled frantically to her feet as A.J. scooped up her precious wand and moved quickly backwards, the wand pointed at Bellatrix even though he could do nothing with it.  At least she didn't know that.  

   Chris tore on past him and body-slammed the older witch to the ground.  With an unearthly screech Abbey flew to meet them, tossed her broom aside, then seized two great handfuls of curly black hair.  Ron sped down to the ground away from the kerfuffle and slammed the key into the door.  It fit perfectly, although the left hand wing gave a sickening crack as he wrenched the door open.  

   "GO!" he shouted at A.J. who stood unsure at the threshold.  He didn't wait to see if he did as he was told, instead he spun around and fired his own spell at the three wrestling figures in the middle of the room.  They blasted apart in a purple shower, but as if in slow motion, Ron saw what Bellatrix was clutching in her hand.  It was Abbey's wand.  

   "Confringo!" she screamed triumphantly, and Ron only just dived out the way in time as the wall behind exploded spectacularly into flames.  Luckily A.J. had already darted through to the other side.

   "MOVE IT!" he roared to Chris and Abbey as the bricks trembled and several came loose entirely, crashing to the ground.

   "Expulso," Ron cried, waving his wand wildly over his head as he, Abbey and Chris sprinted for the door.  Several more chunks of stone came tumbling down where his spell hit, causing Bellatrix to dive out of the way, shrieking.

   The wall ahead cracked impressively behind the flames, and Ron put all the power into his legs.  He groped at the door as he reached it, fumbling for the purple winged key.  His fingers hauled it out as Abbey streaked past.  He and Chris pushed through the doorframe as he pulled the wooden door behind them, the wall collapsing in fiery pieces around them.  He ducked as one final green spell shot past the rubble and flames, just inching through the door as it closed.  He heard Bellatrix's screams of fury as the door slammed shut, and he turned the key once more.  He and Abbey fired every possible locking spell they had at it for extra protection.  

   He gasped for air and tried to calm his heartbeat.  The knowledge that the other side of the entrance was in all likely hood completely blocked by boulders made Ron sigh as he rested his head on the wood.  The wall on their side of the door was wholly intact, suggesting that maybe the two rooms weren't even physically next to each other anyway.

   Ron kept his head on the door until he realised something was wrong.  Maybe it was the air around Abbey as she suddenly stiffened, or the total silence after so much noise.  But slowly, without really wanting to, Ron lifted his head up, opened his eyes, and turned around.

   Abbey had turned before him and was now completely motionless.  A.J. had leant on the right hand wall and slid down to the ground, his eyes wide, his jaw clutched like it might snap.  Their eyes were both fixed on the same point on the floor, unwavering.

   For there, unnatural and unmoving, lay the prone body of Chris; his limbs twisted, his eyes blank, and his clothes still smoking ever so slightly green from the Avada Kedavra curse that had just snatched away his life.