ONLY LIGHT. harry potter

╰➢ ellis antione dubois

Nicole didn't care that Voldemort was just a few meters away from her, and that her neck was starting to bruise at the amount of pressure; all she cared about that the fact that Ellis was standing right there, unharmed and undetected.

What was Ellis doing here?

His eyes met hers. For a split second, she thought that he was going to do something— maybe cast the killing curse on Voldemort or something good; praying that Ellis wasn't here to serve the dark lord.

He walked beside Peter, who's robes were shin­ing with blood now; he had wrapped the stump of his arm in them.

"My Lord..." he choked, "my Lord...you promised...you did promise..."

"Hold out your arm," said Volde­mort lazi­ly.

"Oh Mas­ter...thank you, Mas­ter..."

He ex­tend­ed the bleed­ing stump, but Voldemort laughed again.

"The oth­er arm, Worm­tail."

"Mas­ter, please...please..."

Maybe Harry must've noticed the particular boy standing beside him, as his eyes snapped over to his friend, fear and confusion clouding his irises. He tried mouthing something, but all Nicole could make out was: What's all this? Why is he here?

"Ah.... Ellis."

Nicole wished she was in some kind of dream. Maybe she was just having a nightmare. Maybe the third task hasn't even started. This was too much for her to handle; all the emotions overwhelming her at once was too much.

However, her fears were confirmed when Volde­mort bent down and pulled out Ellis' left arm; he forced the sleeve of his robes up past his el­bow, and Nicole saw some­thing up­on the skin there, some­thing like a vivid red tat­too - a skull with a snake pro­trud­ing from its mouth - the im­age that had ap­peared in the sky at the Quid­ditch World Cup: the Dark Mark.

His eyes meet Nicole's for a moment, before he bows politely, "It is an honor, my lord."

This heartbreak feels cold. It feels like concrete drying in her chest. This heartbreak was unexpected, as they always are - top of the world one minute and cut down the next. Ellis, out of all the people who could do this to her... Ellis.

Nicole knew that she wasn't exactly a relatively kind person, but with a dagger to her neck, she wouldn't have done the same thing to him, if she had the chance. Hell, she would've rather died.

Grief sat inside her like cement. She was sinking. She knew at any moment she was bound to implode, so she moved carefully. Nicole started breathing slowly, focusing her eyes on the ground instead of the boy who she'd learn to like so much over the past months.

The air was sud­den­ly full of the swish­ing of cloaks. Be­tween graves, be­hind the yew tree, in ev­ery shad­owy space, wiz­ards were Ap­pa­rat­ing. All of them were hood­ed and masked. And one by one they moved for­ward...slow­ly, cau­tious­ly, as though they could hard­ly be­lieve their eyes Volde­mort stood in si­lence, wait­ing for them.

"Wel­come, Death Eaters," said Volde­mort qui­et­ly. "Thir­teen years...thir­teen years since last we met. Yet you an­swer my call as though it were yes­ter­day, we are still unit­ed un­der the Dark Mark, then! Or are we?"

He put back his ter­ri­ble face and sniffed, his slit-​like nos­trils widen­ing.

"I smell guilt," he said. "There is a stench or guilt up­on the air."

Nicole closed her eyes, desperately wishing that she was back at the comfort of her dorms with Hermoine by her side. Please, wake up. Please, please wake up.

"I see you all, whole and healthy, with your pow­ers in­tact - such prompt ap­pear­ances! and I ask my­self...why did this band of wizards nev­er come to the aid of their mas­ter, to whom they swore eter­nal loy­al­ty?"

She couldn't bear to listen to the death eaters talking amongst themselves, blaming each other, until Voldemort's loud footsteps halted to a pause.

"I do not for­give. I do not for­get. Thir­teen long years...I want thir­teen years' re­pay­ment be­fore I for­give you. But, Dubois, here..."

She couldn't help but look up. A taller man had his shoulder around Ellis, but she couldn't figure out who it was due to his mask on.

"He has already paid some of his debt, thanks to his charming little boy."

His father. Ellis' father was a deatheater.

"It was... an honor to serve you.." Ellis' familiar voice falters for a bit, "My lord."

"May your loyalty never waver again, Ellis." said Voldemort.

Nicole took a few breaths again, trying to hold herself together. She hoped maybe if she shut her eyes hard enough, she'd wake up to Hermoine telling her this was all just a terrible nightmare.

But Hermoine wasn't here, and this whole thing was real.

Nicole's heart was broken. Shattered. A part of her soul was killed right before her, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

Her eyes shut open as Worm­tail's sob­bing stopped abrupt­ly. His breath­ing harsh and ragged, he raised his head and stared in dis­be­lief at the sil­ver hand, now at­tached seam­less­ly to his arm, as though he were wear­ing a daz­zling glove. He flexed the shin­ing fin­gers, then, trem­bling, picked up a small twig on the ground and crushed it in­to pow­der.

"My Lord," he whis­pered. "Mas­ter...it is beau­ti­ful...thank you...thank you...."

Voldemort ignored him, walking around in circles. "And here we have six miss­ing Death Eaters...three dead in my ser­vice. One, too cow­ard­ly to re­turn...he will pay. One, who I be­lieve has left me for­ev­er...he will be killed, of course...and one, who re­mains my most faith­ful ser­vant, and who has al­ready reen­tered my ser­vice."

The Death Eaters stirred, and Har­ry saw their eyes dart side­ways at one an­oth­er through their masks.

"He is at Hog­warts, that faith­ful ser­vant, and it was through his ef­forts that our young friends have ar­rived here tonight...."

Nicole couldn't think of who it was. Was it Snape?

"Yes," said Volde­mort, a grin curl­ing his li­pless mouth as the eyes of the cir­cle flashed in Har­ry's di­rec­tion. "Har­ry Pot­ter has kind­ly joined us for my re­birthing par­ty. One might go so far as to call him my guest of hon­or."

"But of course, we have another special guest..." for the first time, Voldemort sees her presence, "Nicole Hwang."

An evil smirk makes it's way onto his face, and she could feel her blood drain out of her face. "We'll start with her. Ellis, untie the girl."

"Don't touch her!"

"Harry," Nicole could hear Voldemort's taunting voice all while the boy took a few steady steps towards her. Voldemort was saying something— but those words didn't matter when she felt her heart, once again, be shattered into a million pieces when Ellis pulled out his wand, and with one swipe, cut through the bonds ty­ing Nicole to the grave­stone.

There was a split sec­ond, per­haps, when Nicole might have con­sid­ered run­ning for it, but her in­jured leg shook un­der her as she stood on the over­grown grave, as the Death Eaters closed ranks, form­ing a tighter cir­cle around her and Volde­mort, so that the gaps where the miss­ing Death Eaters should have stood were filled.

In the split second before Ellis let her go, he looked at her with the utmost guilt in his eyes. Nicole didn't care that just by this, attempting to talk to her, he was risking his life infront of Voldemort; the only thing she felt in her chest was anger towards the boy. Towards herself. How could she be so stupid?

"Nic..." he mumbles, "I.."

Out of pure anger, Nicole spit on him harshly, not letting him finish his sentence. The deatheaters were laughing, mocking, taunting her... but all she wanted to do was rip his head off.

"Let the girl go, Ellis!" Voldemort bellowed, much more louder this time. "I shall defeat her, and we shall see if she's stronger than her father. Lord Voldemort... or the indestructible child."

"My apologies, my lord." Although reluctantly, Ellis bowed and stepped back, raising his head low.

"But first..." Voldemort mused, slowly taking a few steps towards Nicole. She felt like a farm animal being watched. "Let's make sure that the right child was chosen."

Right child was chosen?

Before she could say anything, he pointed his wand at her, "Avada Kedavra!"

"NO!" she could hear the faintest voice of Harry yell out, but all Nicole could think of was what her father told her. Was she really given this "gift"? Or was it some sort of weird prank?

The moment the killing curse hit her, Nicole had her eyes shut. She thought she was done for. Dead, rather... but she couldn't feel anything.

Slowly blinking her eyes open, she sees the same sight that was bound to haunt her for ages. A bunch of deatheaters, standing side by side as they looked at her with... wonder? Envy?

"So it is true..." A ghost of a smile appears on Voldemort's face, and Nicole could only think of what was going on in his sick head. He was excited to kill her. He was excited to get the gift given to her.

He was excited to see her dead.

"Ellis, I'm giving you the honor to push her through her limits," said Volde­mort's soft, cold voice, draw­ing near­er, as the Death Eaters laughed. "Then give the girl to me... and I will finish her off."

Push her through her limits... Nicole blinked slowly, trying to recall what her father had told her. Torture her to insanity... make her lose her own sense of reality.

She didn't even have the strength to fight him off anymore. Maybe if she blacked out or something, she would wake up in her bed... all safe and sound. This wouldn't have happened.

Her eyes could make out the words Ellis was mouthing out to her before he raised his wand: I'm sorry, Nic.

She wanted to laugh— if he was really sorry, maybe he wouldn't torture her like Voldemort had instructed.

But before she could think about it, she had been hit by the Cruciatus Curse. The pain was so in­tense, so all-​con­sum­ing, that she no longer knew where she was....White-​hot knives were pierc­ing ev­ery inch of her skin, her head was sure­ly go­ing to burst with pain, she was scream­ing more loud­ly than she'd ev­er screamed in her life—

And then it stopped. Nicole rolled over and scram­bled to her feet; she was shak­ing uncon­trol­lably, staggering side­ways in­to the wall of watch­ing Death Eaters, and they pushed her away, back to­ward Ellis.

Then, she heard something way worse. As if all the pain had suddenly left her body, she looked at the source; Harry, withering in pain as a sadistic smile grew on Voldemort's thin lips.

"Go on, boy!"

There it was again. Nicole grips her body tightly, squeezing her eyes shut as she laid down slightly, her face hitting the grass as a few tears slip from her eyes. It felt like her skin was being ripped apart shed by shed, and she could only groan and curse as the excruciating pain shot throughout her.

It hurts... it hurts... it hurts...

"IT HURTS!" Nicole manages to scream through tears and groans, "ELLIS, STOP! IT HURTS!"

It left.

The moment it did, ­Nicole was ready; with the re­flex­es born of her Quid­ditch train­ing, she flung him­self side­ways on­to the ground; she rolled be­hind the mar­ble head­stone of Volde­mort's fa­ther. The same time she did, Harry stumbled in as well, sweat tricking off his face.

Although she couldn't help but remember that they were still hunting her, she couldn't help but be a bit relieved at the fact that her best friend was still alive.

"Nic, grab the cup. Leave." he says in a hurried voice, Voldemort's taunting words echoing around them. "Leave. Please."

Although the urge was really big, she wouldn't. She couldn't just leave him here.

"I won't." Before he could say anything, she shook her head rapidly, a few tears spilling from her eyes. This was the first time she cried infront of a friend. "Don't think about it for one second. I'm staying here. I'm fighting with you."

Her eyes fell over towards the wand a few meters away from them. Her wand.

Be­fore Volde­mort could stick his snake­like face around the head­stone. Har­ry and Nicole stood up...he gripped his wand tight­ly in his hand, thrust it out in front of him, and threw him­self around the head­stone, fac­ing Volde­mort.

"Now... who must I kill first?" his eyes dart between the two, and over to Harry, as if making his decision.

Volde­mort was ready. As Har­ry shout­ed, "Ex­pel­liar­mus!" Volde­mort cried, "Ava­da Ke­davra!"

A jet of green light is­sued from Volde­mort's wand just as a jet of red light blast­ed from Har­ry's - they met in midair - and sud­den­ly Har­ry's wand was vi­brat­ing as though an elec­tric charge were surg­ing through it; his hand seized up around it; he couldn't have re­leased it if he'd want­ed to - and a nar­row beam of light con­nect­ed the two wands, nei­ther red nor green, but bright, deep gold. Har­ry, fol­low­ing the beam with his as­ton­ished gaze, saw that Volde­mort's long white fin­gers too were grip­ping a wand that was shak­ing and vi­brat­ing.

Nicole, who was watching the whole thing with wide eyes and unsureness of what to do, found herself screaming in pain once again as a person cast Incendio on her. The spell hit her hair, and her hands immediately started patting it away to avoid it from burning her scalp, but something came again, loud and clear, in an Irish accent..

"SECTUMSEMPRA!"

Blood spurted from Nicole's face and chest as though she had been slashed with an invisible sword. It hurt; so much... too much.

The screams coming out of her lips were torturous— even though he was feeling so much pain right now, Harry could feel how much it must've hurt because of the screams coming from her. They were loud, painful, laced with excruciating pain— nothing like he's ever heard before.

And then an un­earth­ly and beau­ti­ful sound filled the air....It was com­ing from ev­ery thread of the light-​spun web vi­brat­ing around her. If it wasn't something Nicole would've recognized, she would've thought she was dying.. but she had heard it on­ly once be­fore in her life: phoenix song.

Blood dripping out of her face, Nicole watched as something blos­somed from Volde­mort's wand tip, a great, gray­ish some­thing, that looked as though it were made of the solidest, dens­est smoke....It was a head...now a chest and arms...the tor­so of Cedric Dig­gory.

"Hold on. Har­ry," it said. Its voice was dis­tant and echo­ing.

It felt like a million little pieces were pricking her skin, and her red robes made it seem like she wasn't bleeding as much as she was, but she could still see the smoky shadow of a tall man with un­tidy hair fell to the ground as Cedric had done, straight­ened up, and looked at him...and Nicole, her whole body shaking from pain, looked at the ghost of Harry's father.

"Your moth­er's com­ing..." he said qui­et­ly, eyes flickering over towards Nicole as a sympathetic expression made it's way onto his face. "Nic, oh no.... grab onto Harry... it will be all right...hold on...."

Hands shaking, she grabbed onto Harry, only touching him softly for him to not break his connection with Voldemort.

In a moment, a young wom­an with long hair, the smoky, shad­owy form of Lily Pot­ter blossomed from the end of Volde­mort's wand, fell to the ground, and straight­ened like her hus­band.

She walked close to Har­ry, look­ing down at him, and she spoke in the same dis­tant, echo­ing voice as the oth­ers, but qui­et­ly, so that Volde­mort, his face now livid with fear as his vic­tims prowled around him, could not hear....

"When the con­nec­tion is bro­ken, we will linger for on­ly mo­ments...but we will give you time...you must get to the Portkey, it will re­turn you to Hog­warts...do you un­der­stand, Har­ry?"

"Yes," Har­ry gasped, fight­ing now to keep a hold on his wand, which was slip­ping and slid­ing be­neath his fin­gers.

"Har­ry..." whis­pered the fig­ure of Cedric, "take my body back, will you? Take my body back to my par­ents,..."

"I will," said Har­ry, his face screwed up with the ef­fort of hold­ing the wand.

Cedric turned his glance to Nicole.

"Tell her I'm really sorry, Nic..." he told her as Nicole watched him, eyes dripping with tears mixed with the blood coming out of her face. "I really... I really... loved her, you know. I'm sorry."

"Do it now," whis­pered his fa­ther's voice, "You two... be ready to run...do it now...."

"NOW!" Har­ry yelled, and Nicole grasped him slightly as the gold­en thread broke; the cage of light van­ished, the phoenix song died - but the shad­owy fig­ures of Voldemort's vic­tims did not dis­ap­pear - they were clos­ing in up­on Volde­mort, shield­ing Nicole from her gaze -

Letting go of her friend, Nicole ran as she had nev­er run in her life. Harry knucked two stunned Death Eaters aside as he passed; the two of them zigzagging be­hind headstones, feel­ing their curs­es fol­low­ing them, hear­ing them hit the head­stones - they were dodg­ing curs­es and graves, pelting to­ward Cedric's body. Nicole no longer cared about the pain in her leg, or the blood dripping out of her body, or her burned arm, her whole be­ing con­cen­trat­ed on what she had to do—

"Stun them!" he heard Volde­mort scream. "Get the girl!"

They ran as fast as they could, zigzagging frantically, Nicole jumped over the cup and dived as she heard more wand blasts be­hind her; more jets of light flew over her head as she fell behind Harry, who was stretch­ing out his hand to grab Cedric's arm...

Nicole grabbed onto his arm tightly, as he yelled, "Ac­cio!", point­ing his wand at the Tri­wiz­ard Cup. It flew in­to the air and soared to­ward him. Har­ry caught it by the han­dle —

She heard Volde­mort's scream of fury at the same mo­ment that she felt the jerk be­hind her navel that meant the Portkey had worked - it was speed­ing them away in a whirl of wind and col­or, and Cedric along with them....They were go­ing back.