Please forgive me, Jessica wished to Fred as she ran through the tunnels, forgive me for what I am about to do.
She knew she didn't have long, the curse she had put on Fred would be an easy fix once the others had caught up with him. She just hoped the time they had spent bickering hadn't made her too late.
She ran as fast as her shaking legs could take her, her heart unnerving beating hard in her chest as her footsteps echoed through the cold. Jessica tried telling her body that this was no time to be nervous but her body had seemed to have a mind of its own. Maybe it was a bad sign that her mind and heart weren't all on the same page. Now alone with her thoughts and nobody around her to protect Jessica had become doubtful and realistic. She was a schoolgirl about to approach one of the darkest wizards of all time and try to trick him, there were a million ways this could go wrong. He could suss her out immediately and kill her on the spot. He could torture her in front of everyone, or even worse torture Harry in front of him until she told the truth. He could take her but then lock her up in his dungeon to rot away like some criminal. She had to get it in her head that she wanted to do this, because if she couldn't convince herself there was no way in hell that Voldemort would ever believe her.
She wanted to do this. She wanted to do this.
She needed to do this.
She needed to do this for Fred. For George. For Harry, Hermione, and Ron. For Ginny. For Luna and Neville. For the Order. For Pansy and Theo and anyone else that was too scared to get out. For anyone who would potentially die in this war.
This was what this had all been leading up to.
Her grip around her wand in her right hand became tighter. Her legs steadied and stopped shaking. Her lips curled up into a confident smirk. She was ready to face him.
Light appeared at the end of the tunnel and her reflection on the tiles below began to become more clear with every step. She followed the trail of green until she saw an opening, and peered around the corner to see what was happening. Jessica was later than she wanted to be, but not too late yet. Dumbledore and Voldemort were dueling each other, with Harry crawling over by the fireplaces. Voldemort was viscous looking, even more now in the flesh. He looked sub-human, half-human, half-snake, and Jessica didn't bear to look at him for more than ten seconds at a time. She instead thought what would Tonks do, and how to create an element of surprise, perhaps a sneak attack from behind or run and slide to kick out his leg. None of them were great choices, but it didn't matter anyway. Before she could decide on what to do, Voldermort powerfully shouted and the panels of glass from all the ministry office's windows shattered into thousands and thousands of tiny pieces.
Jessica had to duck and hide behind the wall to avoid getting hurt, one of the shards of glass narrowly missing her right ear. There was an eruption, similar to an earthquake and she saw all the glass pieces float on their own and shoot in another direction. She quickly looked out to see where they had gone and saw that Voldermort was aiming them all towards Harry and Dumbledore.
"No," Jessica whispered to herself, "duck Harry, move!"
Dumbledore was raising his hand and as each shard of glass passed through him it changed into a fine dust, falling onto the floor. He had managed to block himself and protect Harry. Jessica had to admit, it was astounding seeing what an incredible sorcerer he was.
Voldemort smiled at Dumbledore, appearing happy at his ability of being a dueling partner, and then evaporated as Jessica saw in her vision. Everything was happening according to plan.
Jessica, now feeling safer with Voldemort gone, stepped out on the glass dust and walked forward towards the water fountain. She waited for a bit as Dumbledore tended to Harry, expecting Voldemort to appear once again, but he didn't. She waited a bit more, declared it safe, and regretful that she may have lost her chance, continued walking to Dumbledore and Harry in order to clarify the situation.
"So you came after all Miss Clarke," Dumbledore greeted her as she approached them cautiously.
"Could say the same thing to you," she said sarcastically, "Sirius is dead why didn't you turn up earlier - they needed you!"
"They had you."
She couldn't believe he had said that. "What? I'm seventeen what the fuck do you think I'm gonna do to stop them killing Sirius-"
Look I know this hasn't been easy for you-" Dumbledore interrupted, completely ignoring what she had said which alarmed her. How was he not even remotely shocked that Sirius had died?
"Me?" Jessica said aghast, "Did you not hear what I just said? Sirius is dead."
"Yes, and it is very sad," Dumbledore dismissed calmly, "but there is little to do about it now, he is going to come back, so what are you going to do."
"Wow," Jessica whispered to herself, taking a step back from him in disbelief, "do you care about anyone, at all? A person has just died and all you are concerned about is my next move?! This is just a game to you isn't it?"
His whole thing with her was protection, protection, protection. She thought he would be just as distraught as the rest of them. He was showing no emotion at all for someone he had known for years.
Dumbledore looked somewhat offended at her question. "This is not a game Jessica."
How could he lie? It was crystal clear to her. He may have cared for Harry more than her, that was a given actually, but at the end of the day, they were both children who 'accidentally kept getting into harm' under his watch. Now Sirius had died, and it was like he had just lord a soldier in a war game.
"Yes, it is!" Jessica exclaimed, "We're all just chess pieces to you and Harry is your Queen. Sacrifice everyone else to protect him, doesn't matter who gets killed as long as he gets to say checkmate in the end! That's your plan right?"
Harry, who was still on the floor at this point hunched over in pain, appeared to become deep in thought.
"Jessica," said Dumbledore, lowering his tone as he stepped forward towards her and away from Harry, "this is a war, and Voldemort thinks you are the key to winning it. Harry is ours, you're his, you're the only one who can bring him down and stop innocent people from dying."
"So it's children fighting adults battles," Jessica scoffed at him, "you know you and muggles are alike, turns out not even magic stops grown men from making it everyone else's problem instead of their own."
"Excuse me?" Dumbledore argued, "I have been fighting this war longer than anyone in the Order do not talk of letting others fight for me."
Jessica didn't want to know what Dumbledore had to say anymore. No matter what she did in that moment she realized none of her friends would ever be safe, not with him around to lead them headfirst into war. In fact, she was the only one who wasn't in awe of him, who saw him for what he was. They needed her around, and they needed her to stay.
"You know I was going to go to Voldemort and tell him I wanted to fight with him, for you, for them," Jessica spoke slowly, "I was going to hand myself over to the freakin dark lord because you've a made me feel like that's all I was here for. A protector, I was doing it for the greater good, I was going to distract him whilst you protect them in my place!"
The glass dust below her feet started to lift and float, slowly pulling backward like the tide. Jessica was so angry she didn't think to ponder the cause. Harry, however, looked down and traced the small beads with his fingers.
"Jess-"
"No Harry I'm sorry I need to say this," she interrupted, "doesn't his reaction to Sirius's death not affect you at all?"
Harry looked sheepishly at her, then at Dumbledore, then to the floor. It clearly did.
"Now I've seen how little you care when one of them falls," Jessica continued at Dumbledore, "I'm starting to think I am the only one that cares, and that he isn't the only villain in this story."
The dust started to lift more ferociously. Dumbledore gave it a quick side-eyed look, then glared at Jessica.
"Who isn't?" Dumbled asked.
"Voldemort."
A tornado was formed out of the dust, swirling quickly around the three of them. Jessica had to close her eyes to stop it from getting into them but it became hard to breathe and move alike. They were frozen there for a few seconds. She began to hear whispers of her name, "Jessica...Jessica...you know you want to...kill him..."
She thought against it as hard as she could and tried to block out the voice by clasping her ears shut with her hands.
"Jessica..."
"Don't listen to him Jess," she heard Harry call out, "you can't let him in."
"You can hear it?" Jessica shouted.
"Constantly," Harry shouted back, "the first time I've heard him speak to someone else though. Can you get to me?"
"What?"
The dust dropped like a heavyweight, knocking Jessica and Harry to the floor whilst Dumbledore remained standing. Jessica saw Harry only a meter away and crawled over to him.
"Are you okay?" Jessica asked him.
"He's going to try to get into your head," Harry panted, "Do not let him in, think of anything, anything Jess, but do not let him in. You don't know what he's going to make you do if he does."
"Jessica Clarke," said a dark soulless voice behind her, "how long I have waited for the two of us to meet."
Harry was looking behind her face half in fear, half with vengeance.
Voldemort had returned.
It was her time now or never.
"Me?" Jessica asked as she gathered the courage to stand up on her weakened knees, "or my necklace?"
She slowly turned around to stand face-to-face with the man who had ultimately caused this entire story to unfold. The man who sent the kill order for Bethan, the man who had caused her to enter this wizarding world, and the man who threatened the entire existence of the world she had come to love.
Voldemort stood there in simple black long robes, his posture perfect and his head held high. His wand was at his side as if he was not even thinking to use it.
Despite his monstrous appearance, which she had to admit frightened her a bit at first glance, that's all Jessica saw him as...a man. A power-hungry, never satisfied man. She had known many others like it back in the muggle world. He wasn't special.
"It hurts that you would say that," he said, performing an emotion she knew he wasn't capable of feeling.
Jessica hid her wand slightly behind her back, not wanting to give him the idea that she was about to attack. She knew she was no match magically for him, so she had to stall until Dumbledore could do something or the order found them. It wasn't smart to duel right away.
"You can't blame me for being suspicious," she replied in a tone that in any other context may have been deemed flirtatious, "you hunted my aunt for it."
Voldemort smiled coldly. He too wanted to keep up impressions.
"Only because she wasn't up for using it to its potential," he explained, gliding his wand upwards toward her direction, "and I'm disappointed to hear that you seem to be under the same naivety."
"I just want to end this," she retaliated.
Voldemort liked this. "So we both agree."
"Apparently," said Jessica as she glanced over at Dumbledore who was assessing the situation, "I agree with neither of you. I want to do it without killing innocent children."
Voldemort began moving towards her and Jessica's legs fell to jelly. In theory, this would've been easy, but in practice maybe she was stupid in thinking she could take him on.
"Casualties are a consequence of war," Voldemort explained, "until those who are too blind to see the power we hold as a race, war is a necessity to make them see sense."
She could feel Dumbledore get closer behind her. She didn't know if this was to defend or push but either way, it gave her more confidence.
"You ever tried I don't know...talking to people?" she said sarcastically.
Harry, who Voldemort had shown no signs of caring about right now, crawled behind Jess also.
Her talk-back had caused his polite mask to slip away. "Talk is for the weak..." he said, "action gets you power. I am giving you one chance. Join me, and I will not harm the boy."
Jessica felt the gaze of both Dumbledore and Harry on her after he said this. The only sense of hesitation she felt was from Dumbledore, after her harsh words earlier. She felt trust from Harry, which made her happy.
Her mind had been changed now though. There was no way she was joining him, not even to pretend.
"Not harm him yet you mean," Jessica snarled as he wrapped her arm back around Harry pulling him behind her defense, "hardly an incentive."
Out of the corner of her eye, she could almost see Dumbledore smile.
Vodermort on the other hand was far from impressed that she had not been eager to take up his offer. "You're spirited," he spoke with disdain, "just like your father. Okay, if you won't harm them to protect just Harry, then maybe I will have to give you as you say, more incentive!"
Harry whispered in her ear and asked how he knew her muggle father, but Jessica had no time to explain it to him. Draco appeared through the same tunnel that she had come out of minutes ago. Unfortunately, he was not alone. Pansy was being dragged forward with his right hand, and Theo was being pushed on the shoulder by his left. They both were bloodied up badly. Jessica stayed strong enough to not run over there and press her wand against his smug face, but that didn't stop her from wanting to. How the hell was he able to find them?
"Jessica," said Dumbledore softly in her ear, "let me do this, you shouldn't have to."
"What's that Albus?" Voldemort asked having somehow overheard. Jessica did not break eye contact with Theo's good eye.
"They're my students," Dumbledore replied as he stepped in front of Jess and Harry, "let me take whatever punishment you wish to do to them. Let's settle this shall we."
It would've been easy to see this as a grown-up and applaudable gesture, but Jessica saw it as both her and Harry being protected once again.
Voldemort laughed, a deep howling laugh, once of jest and mockery. "Do you think I would let you come in between us again Albus?" he joked, "you've already taken her from me twice and locked her up at that school of yours."
"I thought I'd give her a fighting chance against you," said Dumbledore, "I don't believe in fighting duels without a fair fight, I know you revel in them, Tom."
Jessica looked up at Dumbledore. Their differences aside, he had given her the gift of wizarding training, whether his reasons behind it were pure or not. He could have just left her there for Voldemort to find her.
"Fairness," Voldemort scoffed, "you all waste your time with fairness. I've had enough, Bellatrix, now."
Bellatrix Lestrange and three other Death Eaters Jessica vaguely recognized from the Ball at Malfoy Manor apparated behind them, quickly casting spells of thick rope that latched onto Dumbledore and Harry, tieing their hands behind their backs and forcing them to their knees. Dumbledore grunted in pain as he tried to break himself free, but Bellaxtrix came along and kicked his wand out of his hand. He was helpless. Voldemort had been able to disarm the most powerful living wizard and the boy who lived...and now all that remained was Jessica.
She didn't like her chances.
"Now where were we?..." Voldemort asked Jessica. Draco had made his way to them by now, still holding Theo and Pansy in his grasp. Having had enough with Harry and Dumbledore for now, Voldemort turned his attention to them, "...friends of yours I assume?"
"They were bringing me to you," Jessica said firmly, "they've been trying to do it all year. They're loyal to you."
Pansy gave her a woeful glance.
"Oh, you do really expect me to believe that," Voldemort hissed as he strode towards Jessica, getting so close that she could feel his cold breath on her nose, "oh you silly little girl, how naive you are. They were here for you but not on my orders. No one in my ranks goes anywhere without my say-so."
So lying or trying to convince wasn't going to work with him. He even saw through half-truths. He was too smart for her to do anything, and Jessica was quickly running out of tricks to play.
"What are you going to do to them?" she asked worriedly, sneaking a peak at Theo. She had never seen him look so defeated.
"Me?" Voldemort asked her, he dramatically strode backward, placing himself between her and them, "Oh I'm not going to do anything, you're going to hurt them."
"Hurt them?"Jessica repeated, her voice cracking due to the shock, "Why?"
"I want you to feel the full use of your power," he replied, "once you feel that, then you'll be dying to join me."
"I would never use my power for that."
"Oh but you will," he hissed, "because it's them...or the others."
Footsteps by the dozen were heard all around the lobby of the ministry. Pansy and Theo hung their heads to the floor as Jessica's heart sank. Members of the Order, each with a Death Eater holding them ransom, were being led one by one through all entrances towards the center of the room. All bloody. All bruised. Jessica searched around the room counting a register, keeping track of who they had caught. It was all of them. She wanted not to look after she saw Moody being dragged without his cane, but once she locked eyes with Fred who had appeared to be bleeding from his eyelid, she had to stay with him. Harry struggled to get free once he saw Ron and Hermione be dragged out together, but he was thrown to the ground by the Death Eater holding his rope.
"I'm going to be gracious," Voldemort announced when the Death Eaters had lined the Order up in a semi-circle, "Jessica Clarke has been trained by Dumbledore to protect The Order correct?"
No one answered him, though some of the Death Eaters jeered.
"So Jessica," he continued, "I will allow you to fulfill your duties. Harm either young Pansy or Theo and if you do, I will let everyone go."
Jessica gave a quick look at Fred to ask for his help. She was afraid the way she left him would cause him to be upset, but instead, he just appeared to be happy to see her one more time. He shook his head.
"And if I refuse?" Jessica asked Voldermort.
Voldemort sneered and turned to look out to the semi-circle, Jessica gulped as he walked amongst them, staring each down. He lifted his wand when he got to Hermione. "Is this the muggle-born?" he asked.
"Yes," Lucius answered, who was holding her tightly "this is Granger."
Voldemort took pleasure in this answer, and without a second thought he drew out his wand towards her and whispered, "Crucio."