The fighting continued around me, reinforcing my beliefs that time stands still for no one...except when you’re me, and you froze time....

What?

I pushed every thought of Sirius to the back of my mind, as Dolohov started up a duel with me.

I was fighting to stun.

He was fighting to kill.

Shame I can’t die.

He threw some curse at me, knocking me onto my back. My head throbbed painfully as he smiled creepily down going for the kill, but then he wasn’t.

I sat up, nearly puking as my head throbbed again.

Dumbledore had most of the remaining Death Eaters grouped in the middle of the room, seemingly immobilized by invisible ropes. Mad-Eye Moody had crawled across the room to where Tonks lay and was attempting to revive her. Behind the dais there were still flashes of light, grunts, and cries — Kingsley had run forward to continue Sirius’s duel with Bellatrix.

Lupin appeared from nowhere at sat me beside Harry, and Neville, who’s legs had stopped dancing.

Lupin’s face was pale, and it struck me that he’d just lost his best friend. “Let’s — let’s find the others. Where are they all, Neville?”

Lupin turned away from the archway as he spoke. It sounded as though every word was causing him pain.

“Dey’re all back dere,” said Neville. “A brain addacked Ron bud I dink he’s all righd — and Herbione’s unconscious, bud we could feel a bulse —”

There was a loud bang and a yell from behind the dais. I saw Kingsley, yelling in pain, hit the ground. Bellatrix Lestrange turned tail and ran as Dumbledore whipped around. He aimed a spell at her but she deflected it. She was halfway up the steps now —

“Harry — no!” cried Lupin, but Harry had already ripped his arm from Lupin’s slackened grip.

“SHE KILLED SIRIUS!” bellowed Harry. “SHE KILLED HIM — I’LL KILL HER!”

And he was off, scrambling up the stone benches.

“Stupid, idiot, shit faced bikini fart.” I slurred, and Lupin looked at me worriedly.

I felt really flattered that he cared more about my wellbeing than the fact Harry was gonna go get himself killed.

I stood up shakily, and kissed Lupin on the cheek.

“I’m sorry about Sirius.” I told him. “Don’t follow me.”

And I apparated to wherever that prick had gone to.

“Come out, come out, little Harry!” I heard Bellatrix calling in her mock-baby voice, which echoed off the polished wooden floors.  I’m in the atrium. Harry’s somewhere here. “What did you come after me for, then? I thought you were here to avenge my dear cousin!”

“I am!” shouted Harry, and a score of ghostly Harry’s seemed to chorus I am! I am! I am! all around the room.

“Aaaaaah . . . did you love him, little baby Potter?”

Harry flung himself out from behind the fountain and bellowed “Crucio!”

Bellatrix screamed. The spell had knocked her off her feet, but she did not writhe and shriek with pain as Neville had — she was already on her feet again, breathless, no longer laughing. Harry dodged behind the golden fountain again — her counter spell hit the head of the handsome wizard, which was blown off and landed twenty feet away, gouging long scratches into the wooden floor.

“Never used an Unforgivable Curse before, have you, boy?” she yelled. She had abandoned her baby voice now. “You need to mean them, Potter! You need to really want to cause pain — to enjoy it — righteous anger won’t hurt me for long — I’ll show you how it is done, shall I? I’ll give you a lesson —”

She screamed, “Crucio!” and the centaur’s arm, holding its bow, spun off and landed with a crash on the floor a short distance from the golden wizard’s head.

“Potter, you cannot win against me!” she cried.  “I was and am the Dark Lord’s most loyal servant, I learned the Dark Arts from him, and I know spells of such power that you, pathetic little boy, can never hope to compete —”

“Stupefy!” yelled Harry. “Protego!”

“Potter, I am going to give you one chance!” shouted Bellatrix.

“Give me the prophecy — roll it out toward me now — and I may spare your life!”

“Well, you’re going to have to kill me, because it’s gone!” Harry. “And he knows!” said Harry with a mad laugh to match Bellatrix’s own. “Your dear old mate Voldemort knows it’s gone! He’s not going to be happy with you, is he?”

“What? What do you mean?” she cried, and for the first time there was fear in her voice.

“The prophecy smashed when I was trying to get Neville up the steps! What do you think Voldemort’ll say about that, then?”

“LIAR!” she shrieked, but he could hear the terror behind the anger now. “YOU’VE GOT IT, POTTER, AND YOU WILL GIVE IT TO ME — Accio Prophecy! ACCIO PROPHECY !”

Harry laughed again.

“Nothing there!” he shouted. “Nothing to summon! It smashed and nobody heard what it said, tell your boss that —”

“No!” she screamed. “It isn’t true, you’re lying — MASTER, I TRIED, I TRIED — DO NOT PUNISH ME —”

“Don’t waste your breath!” yelled Harry. “He can’t hear you from here!”

“Can’t I, Potter?” said a high, cold voice.

Tall, thin, and black-hooded, his terrible snakelike face white and gaunt, his scarlet, slit-pupiled eyes staring . . . Lord Voldemort had appeared in the middle of the hall, his wand pointing at Harry who stood frozen, quite unable to move.

Okay, I just realised, I’m hanging off the ceiling, which is why I can see everything. Must have slipped my notice before

“So you smashed my prophecy?” said Voldemort softly, staring at Harry with those pitiless red eyes. “No, Bella, he is not lying. . . . I see the truth looking at me from within his worthless mind. . . . Months of preparation, months of effort . . . and my Death Eaters have let Harry Potter thwart me again. . . .”

“Master, I am sorry, I knew not, I was fighting the Animagus Black!” sobbed Bellatrix, flinging herself down at Voldemort’s feet as he paced slowly nearer. “Master, you should know —”

“Be quiet, Bella,” said Voldemort dangerously. “I shall deal with you in a moment. Do you think I have entered the Ministry of Magic to hear your sniveling apologies?”

“But Master — he is here — he is below —”

Voldemort paid no attention.

“I have nothing more to say to you, Potter,” he said quietly. “You have irked me too often, for too long. AVADA KEDAVRA!”

I let myself drop, and landed lightly and gracefully in between the two.

The spell seemed to dissolve in front of me, and I shook my head at Voldemort.

“Stop. Trying. To. Kill. My. Brother.” I said to him icily, my voice echoing across the chamber.

“How se-“

“If you say sentimental, I’ll hit you.” I snarled, before turning my head and adding to Harry. “Harry, could you kindly go back and help the others? I can deal with this on my own thanks.”

Voldemort sent another curse at me, but I waved my hand and it dissolved again.

“That was the only good thing about your parents, they stayed dead.” Voldemort snarled, and Harry yelled at him. I took my shoe off and threw it at Harry.

“I thought I told you to go back!” I sighed. “Well, Mouldy Shorts, let me let you in on a little secret. Harry will always win. Always. You’ll lose, and we will kill you. There’s only six of your little trinkets left now the diary’s gone.”

Fear flashed through Voldemort’s eyes, and I wondered what I was talking about. The words just came so naturally.  “So, Mr. Voldy. I know your secret. And you know you can’t kill me. I can also freeze time. So I suggest, little Voldy, that you run as fast as you can. Maybe if you lie low forever, I’ll never have to destroy you.”

He looked at me lost for words, screamed and sent another stream of killing curses at me.

One of which I didn’t deflect.

I lay motionless on the ground.

...

I then woke up, and it seemed an amount of time had passed. I didn’t know how long, but not Harry and I sat together, he was hugging me and crying, and Dumbledore was fighting Voldemort.

“popcornularous.” I whispered, and a thing of popcorn appeared. “hey Harry, shove, I’m trying to watch too you know.”

He looked at me and sobbed into my shoulder as I watched.

“There is nothing worse than death, Dumbledore!” snarled Voldemort.

“You are quite wrong,” said Dumbledore, still closing in upon Voldemort and speaking as lightly as though they were discussing the matter over drinks.

We also had a golden man stopping us from leaving our area. Whatevs.

“Indeed, your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been your greatest weakness —”

Another jet of green light tried to hit Dumbledore, but it was taken a golden centaur, that took the blast and shattered into a hundred pieces, but before the fragments had even hit the floor, Dumbledore had drawn back his wand and waved it as though brandishing a whip. A long thin flame flew from the tip; it wrapped itself around Voldemort, shield and all. For a moment, it seemed Dumbledore had won, but then the fiery rope became a serpent, which relinquished its hold upon Voldemort at once and turned, hissing furiously, to face Dumbledore.

Voldemort vanished. The snake reared from the floor, ready to strike —

There was a burst of flame in midair above Dumbledore just as Voldemort reappeared, standing on the plinth in the middle of the pool where so recently the five statues had stood.

“Look out !” Harry yelled.

But even as he shouted, one more jet of green light had flown at Dumbledore from Voldemort’s wand and the snake had struck —

Fawkes swooped down in front of Dumbledore, opened his beak wide, and swallowed the jet of green light whole. He burst into flame and fell to the floor, small, wrinkled, and flightless.

“Accio Fawkes!” I yelled, and the bird came toward me.

At the same moment, Dumbledore brandished his wand in one, long, fluid movement — the snake, which had been an instant from sinking its fangs into him, flew high into the air and vanished in a wisp of dark smoke; the water in the pool rose up and covered Voldemort like a cocoon of molten glass —

For a few seconds Voldemort was visible only as a dark, rippling, faceless figure, shimmering and indistinct upon the plinth, clearly struggling to throw off the suffocating mass — Then he was gone, and the water fell with a crash back into its pool, slopping wildly over the sides, drenching the polished floor.

“MASTER!” screamed Bellatrix.

Sure it was over, sure Voldemort had decided to flee, Harry made to run out from behind his statue guard, but Dumbledore bellowed, “Stay where you are, Harry!”

For the first time, Dumbledore sounded frightened. The hall was quite empty but for themselves, the sobbing Bellatrix still trapped under her statue, and the tiny baby Fawkes croaking feebly in my palm as I ate popcorn —

Harry yelled and I egg rolled away.

“Kill me now, Dumbledore. . . .” Harry said in Voldemort’s voice. “If death is nothing, Dumbledore, kill the boy. . . .”

And then it was gone.

Harry was lying facedown on the floor, his glasses gone, shivering as though he lay upon ice, not wood. . . . And there were voices echoing through the hall, more voices than there should have been:

“Are you all right, Harry?”

“Yes,” said Harry, shaking so violently he could not hold his head up properly. “Yeah, I’m — where’s Voldemort, where — who are all these — what’s —”

The Atrium was full of people. The floor was reflecting emerald green flames that had burst into life in all the fireplaces along one wall, and a stream of witches and wizards was emerging from them. As Dumbledore pulled him back to his feet, Harry saw the tiny gold statues of the house-elf and the goblin leading a stunned-looking Cornelius Fudge forward.

“He was there!” shouted a scarlet-robed man with a ponytail, who was pointing at a pile of golden rubble on the other side of the hall, where Bellatrix had lain trapped moments before. “I saw him, Mr. Fudge, I swear, it was You-Know-Who, he grabbed a woman and Disapparated!”

“I know, Williamson, I know, I saw him too!” gibbered Fudge, who was wearing pajamas under his pinstriped cloak and was gasping as though he had just run miles. “Merlin’s beard — here — here! — in the Ministry of Magic! — great heavens above — it doesn’t seem possible — my word — how can this be?”

“Well, if you hadn’t ignored us for a year, it wouldn’t seem so impossible.” I said icily. And fudge looked at me like I was crazy. “Well, it’s true!” the whole atrium stared at me. “screw this, Albus, your turn.” And I sat next to Harry.

Dumbledore gave me a weird half-look.

“If you proceed downstairs into the Department of Mysteries, Cornelius,” said Dumbledore, just letting me do whatever, and walking forward so that the newcomers realized he was there for the first time (a few of them raised their wands, others simply looked amazed; the statues of the elf and goblin applauded and Fudge jumped so much that his slipper-clad feet left the floor), “you will find several escaped Death Eaters contained in the Death Chamber, bound by an Anti-Disapparation Jinx and awaiting your decision as to what to do with them.”

“Dumbledore!” gasped Fudge, apparently beside himself with amazement. “You — here — I — I —”

He looked wildly around at the Aurors he had brought with him, and it could not have been clearer that he was in half a mind to cry, “Seize him!”

“Cornelius, I am ready to fight your men — and win again!” said Dumbledore in a thunderous voice. “But a few minutes ago you saw proof, with your own eyes, that I have been telling you the truth for a year. Lord Voldemort has returned, you have been chasing the wrong men for twelve months, and it is time you listened to sense!”

“I — don’t — well —” blustered Fudge, looking around as though hoping somebody was going to tell him what to do. When nobody did, he said, “Very well — Dawlish! Williamson! Go down to the Department of Mysteries and see . . . Dumbledore, you — you will need to tell me exactly — the Fountain of Magical Brethren — what happened?” he added in a kind of whimper, staring around at the floor, where the remains of the statues of the witch, wizard, and centaur now lay scattered.

“We can discuss that after I have sent Harry and Willow back to Hogwarts,” said Dumbledore.

“Harry — Harry Potter?”

Fudge spun around and stared at Harry, who was still standing against the wall beside the fallen statue that had been guarding him during Dumbledore and Voldemort’s duel.

“He-here?” said Fudge. “Why — what’s all this about?”

“Oh, thanks for worrying about me Fudge Crumpets.” I said, realising the pain in my head.

“I shall explain everything,” repeated Dumbledore, “when Harry is back at school.”

He walked away from the pool to the place where the golden wizard’s head lay on the floor. He pointed his wand at it and muttered, “Portus.” The head glowed blue and trembled noisily against the wooden floor for a few seconds, then became still once more.

“Now see here, Dumbledore!” said Fudge, as Dumbledore picked up the head and walked back to Harry carrying it. “You haven’t got authorization for that Portkey! You can’t do things like that right in front of the Minister of Magic, you — you —”

His voice faltered as Dumbledore surveyed him magisterially over his half-moon spectacles.

“You will give the order to remove Dolores Umbridge from Hogwarts,” said Dumbledore. “You will tell your Aurors to stop searching for my Care of Magical Creatures teacher so that he can return to work. I will give you . . .” Dumbledore pulled a watch with twelve hands from his pocket and glanced at it, “half an hour of my time tonight, in which I think we shall be more than able to cover the important points of what has happened here. After that, I shall need to return to my school. If you need more help from me you are, of course, more than welcome to contact me at Hogwarts. Letters addressed to the headmaster will find me.”

Fudge goggled worse than ever. His mouth was open and his round face grew pinker under his rumpled gray hair.

“I — you —”

Dumbledore turned his back on him.

“Take this Portkey,” he told us, but I was staring somewhere over his shoulder.

That wasn’t what I thought it was...was it?

He wouldn’t have...

Couldn’t...

“DUCK!” I bellowed, as I saw Voldemort across the room shooting a spell before disaparating.

I dived in front of Harry and Dumbledore, just in time to stop the spell from hitting them.

It hit me squarely in the chest.  Dumbledore caught me before I hit the ground.

“Willow?” he said sounding petrified.

I tried to say something but I couldn’t.

I felt myself fall into blackness.

 _______________

Just saying, I nearly posted this in book 4. That would have been awkward.