chapter twenty-seven : the only one he ever feared

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Juniper's heart stopped as she watched Sirius fall.

"Immobulus!" a voice yelled, freezing Sirius in midair.

Juniper turned around in Charlie's arms and saw that it had been Aiden who had stopped Sirius from falling. Pulling out of his arms, June scrambled to Sirius and fell down next to him.

"Sirius?"

"Is he all right?" Aiden's voice came, as he kneeled down on the opposite side.

June grabbed his wrist and checked his polse. "Yes, I can feel his heartbeat."

"Thank Merlin," Aiden sighed, leaning forward and placing a kiss on Sirius' forehead. June raised an eyebrow at this and Aiden soon noticed his action.

"I — er — we —"

"Are a couple?" June finished, smiling. "That's great!"

Aiden smiled in relief. "Merlin, I'm happy you're reacting so good about it," he said. "Sirius and I were worried about your and Harry's reaction . . ."

Juniper leaned forwards and engulfed him in a hug. "Welcome to the family."

"June!" Charlie said, kneeling down next to her and brushing a straw of black hair out of her face. "Are you all right? Oh Merlin, you're covered in blood. You're obviously not fi—"

Juniper broke him off by kissing him. "I'm fine," she assured him, smiling. "How's Harry?"

"Harry's —" Charlie began, turning around to look for him but stopping mid-sentence when he didn't saw him. "Where is he?"

Juniper looked around, too. 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 Nymphadora lay, and was attempting to revive her. This caused June's heart to skip a beat. Had Nymohadora been lying when she told her she was fine?

Suddenly, a feeling of irritation and fury came over June as she noticed how many people had been wounded. Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Luna, Mabel, Neville, Nymphadora, Moody, Sirius, . . .

And June was pissed to say the least.

Her hazel eyes darted through the room and she saw Harry disappear into the Brain Room, following Bellatrix.

Without thinking, she scrambled up, ducked to avoid Charlie's hand and sprinted after her cousin. She leapt over Luna, who was groaning on the floor, past Ginny, who said, "June — what —?", past Ron, who giggled feebly, and Hermione, who was still unconscious.

"Harry!"

"SHE KILLED SIRIUS!" Harry bellowed, diving inot the circular room. "I WILL KILL HER!"

"He isn't dead, Harry!" June yelled, but he had already slammed the door in her face. "Harry!"

Opening the door, she saw that the circular room was empty once more. Closing the door closed behind her, the walls started to rotate once more, something that did not help with Juniper's humor.

"Aaaarrgghh!" she exclaimed in frustration. "Where's the exit? Where's the way out?"

The room seemed to have been waiting for her to ask. The door right behind her flew open and the corridor towards the lifts stretched ahead of her, torch-lit and empty. She ran . . .

She could hear a lift clattering ahead; she sprinted up the passageway, swung around the corner and slammed her fist on to the button to call a second lift, hoping Harry wouldn't be stupid enough to duel Bellatrix on his own. The lift jangled and bangled lower and lower; the grills slid open and June dashed inside, now hammering the button marked Atrium. The doors slid shut and she was rising . . .

She forced her way out of the life before the grilles were fully open and looked around. Bellatrix was sneaking around, an evil grin on her lips as she was looking for Harry.

"Come out, come out, little Harry!" she called in her mock baby voice, which echoed off the polished wooden floors. "What did you come after me for, then? I thought you were here to avenge my dear cousin!"

"I am!" Harry's voice shouted, and a score of ghostly Harrys 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 where he had been hiding behind the fountain and bellowed, "Crucio!"

Juniper's eyes widened at his use of an Unforgivable Curse. Bellatrix screamed: the spell had knocked her off her feet, but she did not writhe and shriek with pain as Mabel had — she was already back on her feet, breathless, no longer laughing. Harry dodged behind the golden fountain again. Her counter-spell hit the head of the handsome wizard statue, which was blown off and landed twenty feet away, gouging long scratched 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's done, shall I? I'll give you a lesson —"

"Hey!" June said, stepping into the middle of the hall. "Why don't you keep your talks for someone who's actually interested?"

Bellatrix twirled around and her dark eyes narrowed upon seeing June.

"Stupefy!" the latter exclaimed.

"Protego!"

The jet of red light, her own Stunning Spell, bounced back at her. Juniper leaped out of the way behind a wall and scrambled back up, her wand tightly in her hand.

"Potter, I'm going to give you one chance!" Bellatrix shouted. "Give me the prophecy — roll it out towards me now — and I may spare your cousin's life!" And before June could act, Bellatrix had already grabbed her by the hair, pulled her out of her hiding place and put the tip of her wand on June's throat.

"Don't do it, Harry!" Juniper shouted. Bellatrix pulled at her hair and June let out a whimper.

"You're going to have to kill us, because it's gone!" Harry roared. "And he knows!" he added with a mad laugh to match Bellatrix's own, and June saw him clutching his forehead. "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?" Bellatrix cried, and for the first time there was fear in her voice.

"The prophecy smashed when I was trying to get Neville and Mabel up the steps! What do you think Voldemort'll say about that, then?"

"LIAR!" Bellatrix shrieked, pulling hard at June's hair, making tears form in her eyes. "YOU'VE GOT IT, POTTER, AND YOU WILL GIVE IT TO ME! Accio Prophecy! ACCIO PROPHECY!"

Harry laughed again and waved his empty hand from behind the one-eared goblin and withdrew it quickly as she sent another jet of green light flying at him.

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

"No! It isn't true, you're lying!" Bellatrix screamed and June's eyes widened when she saw Voldemort himself appearing in the middle of the hall. "MASTER, I TRIED, I TRIED — DO NOT PUNISH ME —"

"Don't waste your breath!" Harry yelled, who had yet to notice Voldemort's appearance. "He can't hear you from here!"

"Can't I, Potter?" the high, cold voice of Voldemort said.

Juniper tried to get out of Bellatrix's grip, but the Death Eater didn't budge.

"So, you smashed my prophecy?" Voldemort said softly, staring at Harry with pitiless red eyes. "No, Bella, he's 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!" Bellatrix sobbed, letting go of June and flinging herself down at Voldemort's feet as he paced slowly nearer. "Master, you should know —"

"Be quiet, Bella," Voldemort said dangerously, as June picked up her wand from her floor and dove behind the fountain next to Harry. "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 —"

But Voldemort paid no attention. His red eyes were on June now.

"Ah, yes, Juniper Black," he began, narrowing his eyes. "I remember you. The Girl Who Lived. It's a shame it will end now." He turned back to Harry. "I have nothing more to say to you, Potter," he said quietly. "You have irked me too often, for too long. AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Juniper jumped towards Harry just as the headless golden statue of the wizard in the fountain had sprung alive, leaping from its plinth to land with a crash on the floor between Harry and June, and Voldemort. The spell merely glanced off his chest as the statue flung out its arms to protect Harry and June.

"What —?" Voldemort cried, staring around. And then he breathed, "Dumbledore!"

June looked behind her, her heart pounding. Dumbledore was standing in front of the golden gates.

Voldemort raised his wand and another jet of green light streaked at Dumbledore, who turned and was gone in a whirling of his cloak. Next second, he had reappeared behind Voldemort and waved his wand towards the remnants of the fountain. The other statues sprang to life. The statue of the witch ran at Bellatrix, who screamed and sent spells streaming uselessly off its chest, before it dived at her, pinning her to the floor. Meanwhile, the goblin and the house-elf scuttled towards the fireplaces set along the wall and the one-armed centaur galloped at Voldemort, who vanished and reappeared beside her pool. The headless statue thrust Harry and June backwards, away from the fight, as Dumbledore advanced on Voldemort and the golden centaur cantered around them both.

"It was foolish to come here tonight, Tom," Dumbledore said calmly. "The Aurors are on their way —"

"By which time I shall be gone, and you will be dead!" Voldemort spat. He sent another killing curse at Dumbledore but missed, instead hitting the security guard's desk, which burst into flame.

Dumbledore flicked his own wand: the Force of the spell that emanated from it was such that June, though shielded by their golden guard, felt her hair stand on end as it passed and this time, Voldemort was forced to conjure a shining silver shield out of thin air to deflect it. The spell, whatever it was, caused no visible damage to the shield, though a deep, gong-like note reverberated from it — an oddly chilling sound.

"You do not seek to kill me, Dumbledore?" Voldemort called, his scarlet eyes narrowed over the top of the shield. "Above such brutality, are you?"

"We both know that there are other ways of destroying a man, Tom," Dumbledore said calmly, continuing to walk towards Voldemort as though he had not a fear in the world, as though nothing had happened to interrupt his stroll up the hall. "Merely taking your life would not satisfy me, I admit —"

"There is nothing worse than Death Dumbledore!" Voldemort snarled.

"You are quite wrong," Dumbledore said, still closing in upon Voldemort and speaking as lightly as though they were discussing the matters over drinks. "Indeed, your failure to understand that there are things much more worse than death has always been your greatest weakness —"

Another jet of green light flew from behind the silver shield. This time it was the one-armed centaur, galloping in front of Dumbledore, 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 on 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, another jet of green light flew at Dumbledore from Voldemort's wand and the snake 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. 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; and the water in the pool rose up and covered Voldemort like a cocoon of molten glass.

For a few Voldemort was visible only as a dark, rippling faceless figure, shimmering and indistinct upon the plinth, clearly struggling to throw off the suffocating mass —

The he was gone and the water fell with a crash back into its pool, slopping wildly over the sides, drenching the polished floor.

"MASTER!" Bellatrix screamed.

Juniper didn't move. She just stayed put on the floor, leaning against the fountain. She was so tired.

Harry, however, made to run from behind their statue guard, but Dumbledore bellowed, "Stay where you are Harry!"

For the first time, Dumbledore sounded frightened, something that made June sit up straighter and tighten her grip around her wand, though she could not see why: the hall was quite empty but for themselves, the sobbing Bellatrix still trapped under the witch statue, and the baby phoenix Fawkes croaking feebly on the floor —

"Kill me now, Dumbledore . . ." Voldemort's voice came, but to June's absolute horror, it came from Harry's mouth. Her cousin had fallen to the ground and was now twitching and clutching his scar.

"Harry!" June exclaimed, scrambling towards him.

"If death is nothing, Dumbledore, kill the boy . . ."

"No!" June yelled, pushing herself up and standing in front of Harry protectively, ready to defend him at any cost.

"I'm not going to kill him, Juniper," Dumbledore said quietly.

June lowered her wand and finally, the exhaustion took over. She fell down next to Harry, too tired to be able to care any longer. Dumbledore was here now. Let him fix it.

And after that I'll have to have a word with him, she thought.

"June!" Harry exclaimed, bowing over her.

"I'm fine, Harry," she assured her cousin. "I'm just exhausted."

The Atrium filled with people; the floor was reflecting the emeral green flames that had burst into life in all the fireplaces along one wall; and the streams of witches and Wizards were emerging from them.

Juniped turned her head back to Harry, who had taken her hand. "Harry, Sirius is still alive," she told him, knowing he was still under the impression his godfather had died.

Harry's emerald green eyes shimmered in relief and he pulled June closer, hugging her. "And how are you?"

"Ready to take a nap at any time," June told him, as she patted him on the back, too exhausted to hug him back. Then, she closed her eyes, letting sleep overwhelm her.

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Published 20.07.2021

I hope you enjoyed it & tell me what you think of it!

AAAAHHHH yes I let Sirius live (YOU'RE WELCOME) and I've added another relationship into the story! Welcome Saiden or Aidius (whatever sounds best) :)

Plus can we pls talk about Mabel's and Neville's sibling goals?? I'll be excited to write her story!! :)

Anyway, this chapter is way shorter than the last one and I think there will be another two chapters before this act ends!! :)

Stay safe and healthy everyone! I hope I made your day xx
Laura