A Skirt's Not So Bad [Harry Potter]

Year Six, Chapter Five

"Dragon inferi?" Ginny asked as they all sat around the small table in the larger tent. The fire crackled behind them, the summer night not nearly as warm as it had threatened to be. The unseasonable rain and cloud cover had ensured that.

"Apparently, Riddle has been raiding every compartment of the Department of Mysteries' toybox," Holly said.

"Is anyone more concerned that they had unkillable dragons and lost?" Ron asked.

"From what Tonks reported, it sounded like the Ministry got outflanked by the Werewolves and their own anti-apparition jinxes. The dragons managed to tie up Voldemort for the entire battle," Hermione said.

"We can sit and wait around for news all night. Let's actually do something," Holly said.

"Like what?" Ron asked.

"Like going over the plan. We know Voldemort wanted a seven-part soul. We know... we know he messed up and made me. We know he doesn't know that," Holly said.

"So?" Ginny asked.

"So he probably made another Horcrux after he came back. So we're dealing with six Horcruxes after all," Holly said.

"Well, we know about a couple of them. The diary's gone, the locket's walking around pretending to be the Minister for Magic, and the ring's gone. So that leaves three," Ginny said.

"Four," Holly said, softly.

"Holly..."

"I'm not saying I'm going to fall on my sword, Gin. I... it might be crazy, but I'm beginning to suspect what Dumbledore was planning as to that. Just... just trust I've got it handled, yeah?" Holly said. Ginny squeezed her hand with her own.

"I do trust you, Holly. You've just proven to be remarkably prone to self-sacrifice. Promise this plan involves you coming back?" Ginny asked.

"Promise," Holly said and kissed Ginny softly.

"Oi, I'm right here you know. At least wait 'til I'm in my tent before any hands start -" Ron began. Holly threw a pillow at him.

"Shut your trap, brother," Ginny said.

"So, discounting Holly and Riddle, what are our plans for the mystery three?" Hermione asked, diplomatically.

"Well, I did talk to Dumbledore about them. He had a few ideas - the one we thought made the most sense was artifacts of the other founders. He'd been able to verify that Voldemort crossed paths with Hufflepuff's cup before its disappearance and the untimely murder of its last known owner," Holly said.

"Makes sense. Needs to hold meaning for him, you said?" Ron asked.

"Yeah, he can't just turn any random rock into one. So the Cup for Hufflepuff. That leaves us Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, with one being made after his return," Holly said.

"But, mate, there aren't any lost artefacts of Gryffindor - you found the only lost own when you pulled the sword out of the hat, and that's not a Horcrux," Ron said.

"That one is a little tricky. Actually, all of them are a little tricky," Holly admitted.

"You and Dumbledore didn't get to finding the rest, huh?" Ginny asked.

"No, not really. I have one idea - I want someone watching Gringotts, because if Voldemort handed out any more Horcruxes to his inner circle, one of them must've been smart enough to just toss it in a bank vault... but other than that, nothing," Holly said.

"So, not to bring up a flaw in the plan after it's too late to turn back or anything, but aren't you meant to be with your relatives?" Ginny asked.

"Yes and no. Um, to save you from a mountain of arithmancy, Dumbledore was building in a lot of buffer in his calculations. So long as I go there every few weeks for a night, I should be protected," Holly said.

"Well, if it's not Gryffindor, what if it's Merlin or something? Some other famous object?" Hermione asked.

Holly let the discussion fade out as she withdrew Snape's book from her bag. The battered old potions book didn't seem to be capable of anything like the trouble it had caused, but Holly had long since learnt that books could be very dangerous indeed.

She opened it up, and a thin letter slid out. It bore a familiar wax seal and on seeing it Holly held her breath. Everyone turned to look at her and went silent. Her hands trembling, Holly opened up Dumbledore's letter.

It had been enchanted for space and far more than could've ever fit in the slim envelope fell out of it. A letter, of course, but also a battered old book, a small glass figure, an odd-looking lighter, and a small mirror. The glass figure looked to be Dumbledore himself and Holly was surprised by the skill of the likeness - and also how, despite clearly being crafted by a master glassworker, the glass itself was cloudly and low-quality.

"What is all this stuff?" Ginny asked. Ron picked up the lighter and clicked it on. Suddenly, all the lights in the tent went out. Ron yelped and clicked the lighter again, and the lights flew back out of it and began to work again.

"What did we learn, Ronald?" Hermione asked.

"Don't touch until we know what they are," he said glumly.

Holly opened the letter and began to narrate it.

"Dear Holly, I am very sorry to say that if you are reading this letter, I have died at a rather inopportune time and left with you altogether too much to do. I do hope Severus was able to convey it safely to you, and that the two of you were able to remain polite to one another. You may be wondering what the rather strange collection of items accompanying this letter have to do with the task I have left you." Holly narrated. She looked down at the items and agreed with Dumbledore - she was wondering just what use any of them could possibly be in the fight against Voldemort. The book wasn't even a spellbook - it was a collection of wizarding fairy tales Holly had vaguely heard of.

"All shall prove crucial in their own way, in their own time. Each was intended for a specific one of your number - for I have no doubt your friends are steadfastly by your side in this dark hour. The book, as perhaps might be obvious, was intended for Miss Granger. My deluminator - a most useful device - for Mr Weasley. The mirror for Miss Weasley, though if she has not joined you; you may also be able to unlock its secrets. Lastly, please do not think that this is at all ego on my part, but the glass figure is a spirit caller. I have begun to suspect you know my plan for this war, Miss Potter, but if you are unsure - merely twist the head to the left," Holly finished reading.

"Mate, you're sure he hadn't gone barmy at the end? I mean, how could any of this stuff be useful hunting Horcruxes?" Ron asked.

"I... the spirit caller makes some sense. They're used to, well, to call up a spirit for a chat. They're fiendishly hard to make, and the Chinese don't allow exports, so I've no idea where Dumbledore got it," Holly said. Spirit callers were banned objects across much of Europe and Asia, and the only wizard capable of producing them these days were certain remote communities in magical China, who the ICW left alone so long as they didn't export their necromantic creations beyond their own borders.

"But a book of fairy tales? Really?" Hermione said.

"Yeah, I don't know what that's about. I'm sure it's about something, I just don't know what yet," Holly said.

Ginny cautiously held up the mirror in front of her face and hissed. She cocked her head.

"What's it do, Ginny?" Holly asked.

"I've got no idea, but it does something," Ginny said.

"That's interesting..." Hermione said as she looked through the book.

"What?" Ron asked. He was gallantly resisting playing with the deluminator.

"This book - it's annotated. Two different hands, both unsigned," Hermione said.

"Reckon one might be Dumbledore's?" Ron asked her.

"It... it could be. It does look like his handwriting, but he must've been much younger. If one is, then I do wonder who wrote the other annotations," Hermione said.

Hermione spent several days studying the strange book of fairy tales, as Ron sat by the Wizard Wireless and the Order coins to catch any breaking news. Holly moodily studied Snape's book as she made sure to commit both his curse and its countercurse to memory. Ginny had yet to figure out the secret of the mirror, though Holly could often hear her hissing to it.

The Ministry was censoring all official reporting on the battle, but the news seemed to be slowly spreading around Wizarding Britain. The Ministry had undoubtedly inflicted disproportionate casualties on Voldemort's forces, and their new weapons - which were never named in the paper or on the wireless - had proven effective... but they had left the field, and Voldemort had landed his armada.

Holly heard from Mad-Eye that the Muggle government had been furious at the Ministry for how it had gone and that the Muggle Prime Minister had then swiftly been imperiused. She had honestly been surprised that Riddle hadn't already had that done.

"This book... Holly, did Dumbledore ever talk to you about the Deathly Hallows?" Hermione asked Holly one night over dinner.

"The what?" Holly asked.

"The Deathly Hallows... they're, well, they're supposed to be these powerful magical items that three brothers stole from Death," Hermione said.

"Death. As in... skeleton in a cloak, Death?" Holly asked. She felt cold for some reason, even though it was a fine Summer's night.

"That's not real, though. It's just a story for kids," Ron said.

"I - I know the source isn't great, but Luna once lent me a book-" Ginny began.

"Luna? Ginny, I know she's your friend but she's barmy," Ron said as he interrupted Ginny.

"I know she's - I know she's not well, okay? But it was, you know, a real book. From the Hogwarts library and everything. It said the Elder Wand was real, and it had a lot of evidence," Ginny said.

"Ginny, you can't seriously believe in Powers. That's... that's stuff people believed in back when Muggles used to hunt witches. Nobody had real wands and they thought -"

"I'm not saying that, Ron. The book - the book didn't say that it really was Death's wand or anything. But there was a really, really powerful wand that popped up way too early - before modern wands had even been invented - and kept getting passed on by murder," Ginny said.

"That's what Dumbledore seems to have thought as well," Hermione said.

"Really? This isn't some weird prank by him?" Ron asked.

"He - and whoever the other person was - seemed to be pretty convinced that they were real. All three of them," Hermione said.

"Holly Potter," someone said through Holly's mirror. She picked it up as the conversation fell silent around her.

"Sirius?" she asked, but it wasn't Sirius on the other end of the mirror. Mad-Eye was looking up at her.

"Your godfather's fine, before you start pestering me. We need your help, Potter - and the Weasley girl," Mad-Eye said.

"With what?" Holly asked though she had a few ideas - he clearly needed a parselmouth for something.

"We caught the Carrows poking around - well, we got some information out the one that survived. Voldemort's heading out of the country to meet with his backers in a few weeks. His forces are going to go on the offensive to cover for it. We've leaked the attack plans to the Ministry, but they still think Voldemort himself will be at his landing site," Mad-Eye explained.

"You want to attack the landing site?" Holly asked.

"I'm not suggesting we line up into shield-walls at a hundred paces, lass. A quick strike, with fiendfyre, to hit the boats. Without them, he can't smuggle more dark wizards in from the continent," Mad-Eye explained.

"We're in. Actually... there are a few things we could use - some books to check against something Dumbledore left us," Holly said, then she explained which volumes they'd need.

"We'll have them ready. See you in a few weeks, lass," Mad-Eye said and then the mirror call faded. The elaborately decorated mirror showed Holly her reflection - too pale and haggard for summer, a part of her idly thought.

"Holly, I can't cast fiendfyre," Ginny said.

"You should learn anyway. Just in case," Holly said. The tent was quiet then, for a moment, until the sound of a passing car echoed from the distant road.

Year Six, Chapter Six

"Fiendfyre isn't just a curse. Arithmantically, although this wasn't established until a thousand years after it was created, it's actually a form of dark conjuration. Even then, it has more in common with Alchemy than transfiguration," Holly explained as she and Ginny sat in a desolate quarry. Hermione stood off to the side, taking notes. Ron had gallantly volunteered to mind the camp.

"Really? I suppose the animals it summons are somewhat like the elementals that alchemy creates," Hermione asked.

"Yeah, but more than that - Fiendfyre is like Incendio or Aguamenti, it's true alchemical conjuration rather than what we call conjuration in transfiguration. It creates something self-sustaining and permanent, rather than temporarily transfiguring nothing into something," Holly said.

"And nobody's been able to crack the security measures Herpo the Foul included in it with more than a thousand years to try?" Ginny asked.

"If they have, they haven't told anyone or demonstrated it. The dark magic infused into the conjured creatures makes them uncontrollable by normal means, so it's not as simple as stripping out a clause of the spell. If you remove the security, you remove most of its destructive potential," Holly said.

"So, how do I cast it?" Ginny asked.

"The incantation is parseltongue, 'Burn all before me'. It's not... it's not like a normal incantation - you have to say it like you're trying to control a snake if you want it to answer to you," Holly said. She demonstrated the wand motion too, a languid circle from the high guard into a thrust.

"And I have to keep the snake I want visualised, right? Like transfiguration," Ginny asked.

"Exactly like transfiguration. Then... well, you know. You need to focus on wanting to destroy. Not destroy something specific, but just let out all your anger at everything," Holly said.

Nobody said much after that. It took Ginny several tries to get the spell to work - Riddle had yet to master it when he made the diary - but eventually, she was able to reliably conjure Fiendfyre.

Waiting several weeks for the opening to target the boats was excruciating. There were daily stories of attacks and skirmishes. Several wizarding villages had been attacked by Voldemort's army, but he had yet to make another appearance on the field. Holly's guess was that the dragon inferi had spooked him. They had taken part in battle after battle and neither the Morgen or Voldemort's lesser dark wizards had been able to do much of anything to them.

Werewolf attacks had spiked far beyond any recorded level, with the runic brands allowing the werewolves to both stay in control and stay transformed. More than a hundred muggles had been bitten and survived, with hundreds more dead. The Ministry was struggling to contain the story in the Muggle Press and despite the best efforts of the Obliviators it had begun to leak out.

On the day of the raid, Holly made sure she was ready. She had her basilisk skin coat on, which Hagrid had made for her years before, and its magically enlarged pockets were full of all sorts of useful items. Vials of instant-darkness powder, the enchanted knife Sirius had given her, and a water bottle with enough capacity to fit a swimming pool inside.

Hermione and Ginny were just wearing dark clothes, but Ron emerged from his tent with the Sword of Gryffindor belted at his waist. Holly smiled as she saw it. As much as the sword had aided her all those years ago, it seemed to favour Ron more than her. Perhaps the dark magic she'd used since had dulled its opinion of her, or perhaps it favoured the hands of a seer. Holly couldn't tell either way.

"Everyone ready?" Holly asked.

"As I'll ever be," Hermione said.

"Ready to finally do something," Ginny said.

"You said it, Gin. Let's get going," Ron said. Ginny took his hand and Holly Hermione's, and then they disappeared from their campsite with a faint 'pop'.

The meeting point for the raid was on the hills overlooking the muggle village. It was behind a small cluster of rocks, just inside the forest that made the village so isolated. Mad-Eye, Tonks, and Bill Weasley were already there when Holly and her friends arrived.

"Glad to see you lot are all right," Bill said quietly. Ron nodded, and Ginny hugged him.

"We're managing. Ginny got it down, so we can go with the multi-pronged option," Holly said.

"Aye, I think we will lass. Weasley will silence the alarm wards, then Tonks will guide everyone but you and me to the second position," Mad-Eye said. Holly nodded - his plan was a smart division of their forces.

The Order raiding party moved slightly out of the forest, all under the concealment of disillusionment charms. Holly, of course, had her cloak on as well. Despite the strong sea breeze, Holly's cloak barely fluttered at all.

The TV news claimed that the storm had done so much damage that the entire bay was unsafe, which was mostly true. Down below, Holly could see swarms of Morgen and all manner of dark creatures - Giants, werewolves, and more. A few of the more intact muggle buildings seemed to have been taken over by the dark wizards that'd arrived with the fleet. Their enchanted ships were still anchored in the bay.

Holly cast a wordless spell to examine the magic around her. She was capable of the more scientific techniques of curse-breakers and artihmancers, but Dumbledore had taught her how to use the existing magic of the world for this. She treasured those lessons, treasured what she had learnt there, because she had truly learnt it - not merely pulled the knowledge from the Horcrux in her head.

A soft wind, barely noticeable even without the strong sea breeze, fluttered up against the wardline. To everyone else, there was no visible change - but Holly's spell had temporarily connected her to the natural magic of the area, and so she could see the glittering domes of light and hazy patches of shadow that made up the defences around the landing site.

"Interesting technique," Bill said.

"It's served me well so far," Holly replied.

"I'd bet. Reminds me more of Goblin magic than anything I've ever seen before," Bill said. His own spells required long and complex wand movements, but he'd cast his first three spells before Holly had been able to complete her single spell. That was the advantage of wands - and they were much safer.

"I'm about to open up a hole," Bill said. Holly let her spell fade - being connected to the wards whilst someone else worked on them was a bad idea.

Bill cast several complex spells, with bizarre incantations and strange wand movements. They were so complex and had nonsense incantations because each specific combination of wards and protective charms required a specific spell to deal with, so curse-breakers often had to create them for a specific job. Bill had been working on these wards for over a week, but that was a startlingly short schedule for normal spell creation.

Holly felt the magic around them shift slightly, though she could no longer see it. Bill's spells had cut a hole into the various wards and primed the anti-apparition jinx to go down on command.

"We're all ready," Bill confirmed. He cast a brief charm to outline the small hole in the wards and then the raiding party was through.

Once she was inside the wards, Holly could feel how drastically the magic of the area had changed. It was foul, cold and reeking of death and salt. Part of that had to have come from the Ministry's extensive use of necromancy in the battle, but the Morgen had their own kind of death magic - they used corpses the way a house elf used a contract to stop themselves from being thrust back to their home.
Holly whispered to the winds once more and as she extended her senses into it she could see the magic of Mad-Eye's disillusionment charm. The other group simply held hands and walked slowly so they weren't separated.

"Got your eyes on me, Potter?" Mad-Eye asked.

"It's not so hard when you know what to look for," Holly said.

"Merlin, you even sound like him," Moody muttered.

Holly followed him down the hill, her wand in her hand. She saw multiple patrols of Morgen and dark wizards, but neither looked all that eager to be on guard duty. One group of dark wizards nearly cut off a party of Morgen and the two groups rounded on one another.

"Careful, wizard. Your lord wishes for more of our Exalted Ones to join his army," the leader of the Morgen patrol said in her strange double voice. Unlike her subordinates, who wore armour of rainbow-hued scales and carried spears made from bone with black metal blades she wore more elaborate armour with a breastplate and helm of black metal. At her side was a sword of the same metal, with an elaborate coral hilt.

"Only mudbloods go in the cauldron, sea-devil," the dark wizard spat back. Holly was surprised to hear his accent - it wasn't any kind of European, but rather American.

"For now, wizard. But who would miss you, if we cut your throats this day?"

Holly and Moody didn't stick around to see the end of the argument. They walked quietly past and into the village. The streets were strewn with wreckage and rubbish. A large central square had been turned into a ritual site for the Morgen, with a complex diagram laid out in salt over dead grass. A cauldron sat ominously in the centre, far larger than any Holly had ever seen before. The ground around it was stained with dried blood.

Neither of them said anything and so they continued on through the village. One of the two pubs had been taken over by dark wizards. Cruel laughter and muffled shouts echoed out from it. Holly didn't want to know what they were so amused by, but if the bodies of two muggles left out to rot in front of it were any indication -

Moody gripped her arm.

"We've no time for any rescue missions, lass," he whispered.

"I know, I know," she whispered back.

They soon reached the bay where the enchanted ships were moored. They looked far larger up close than they had from the hills overlooking the village, and the smell of blood and rotten fish and salt was nearly overpowering. The much smaller Morgen longships were there too, scattered in between the wizarding ships.

A flash of light across the bay caught Holly's eye, and she felt her heart almost stop for a moment. Someone was firing spells - then she saw shields rise in front of nothing, and she knew her friends had been caught.

"Burn all before me!" Holly hissed in Parseltounge as she thrust her wand into the air. She kept the image of the basilisk solidly in her mind and channelled all her anger, all her rage, into the spell. Orange fire burst from the tip of her wand and became white-hot in moments as it formed into the image of a basilisk.

"Burn the boats!" Holly hissed at them. Mad-Eye whirled around and fired off a rapid stream of silent curses into the backs of any nearby dark wizards. Holly felt the anti-apparition jinx fall, but before she could apparate out another was already up - a much smaller, less powerful one cast by one of the dark wizards her friends were fighting. They would have to defeat that specific wizard to bring it down.

"We have to get to them!" Holly shouted.

"Aye, now get moving lass!" Mad-Eye said as his cutting curse beheaded a Morgen soldier - overpowering his resistance to magic by brute force. Ginny had clearly cast her fiendfyre as well and the two massive flaming serpents were quickly smashing and setting alight the ships in the bay.

A squad of Morgen soldiers blocked their path around the edge of the bay. They lowered their spears and howled out a war cry. Holly had no time for them. Without a word or so much as slowing down, she flicked her wand towards them. A rain of silver arrows followed it, each arrow punching deep into the Morgen and setting them alight - then the degenerate alchemical silver finished reacting with the air, and exploded inside them.

Holly ran towards her friends over the rapidly dissolving remains of the Morgen, as fast as she could go.

Year Six, Chapter Seven

It had all gone wrong so fast that Ginny had no idea what had actually gone wrong. One second they were sneaking through the village and then spellfire rushed towards them. All the training she'd done in the DA had been worth it - Ginny had gotten her shield charm up, along with Tonks. The bone breaker curse shattered into droplets of sickly yellow light against the domes of light.

Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Tonks were in the middle of a street, near the bay. Buildings surrounded them on both sides and the sounds of boots thundering on the cobbled road were rapidly getting closer. Just beyond them was a monument of some kind, with a stone statue of a muggle soldier. The dark wizard who had spotted them had lept for cover, behind an overturned outdoor table, before he'd opened fire. His friends turned at the sound of the spell going off and Ginny knew they were in for a fight.

"Confringo!" Ron shouted as he thrust his wand around Ginny's shield. The ransacked safe the dark wizards had been making use of exploded in a burst of flame, but the answering lightning hexes and cutting curses made it clear that they were still in the fight.

Hermione felt herself freeze as the spells began to fly. She'd never - she'd never been in a fight like this. Not without the liquid luck they'd all shared when the DA had fought off the attack on Hogwarts. Didn't her friends realise that they could be killed, she screamed inside her head. She tried to put her wand up, but her hand was shaking so badly she dropped it. She crouched down to get it and found she couldn't get up.

"Oi - get on with it! I'll deal with these assholes!" Tonks shouted as she let her disillusionment spell fade so she could focus on the fight. She stepped out into the street as the dark wizards lept from the smoking ruin of the cafe. She snapped from spell to spell with a speed beyond anything the others could hope to match.

Spells flew at her but Tonks calmly swatted them aside and continued her advance. She nailed one dark wizard with a blasting hex to the head. It popped like an overripe melon and rained gore all over the street. Hermione screamed.

Ginny dashed down the street and focused. Ron was near her and ready to shield her if needed. Ginny drew on all her anger, all her rage against the world. She moved her wand in a languid circle above her head and pushed magic into it. The yew wand glowed white at the tip and she could already feel the heat.

"Burn all before me!" she hissed as she thrust her wand into the air. The basilisk roared out of it, a titanic beast of cursed fire that would obey only Ginny. She ordered it to burn the boats and then she turned back to the battle.

Ron saw a trio of dark wizards running before them and knew it was up to him to stop them. Hermione had been hit by something and was injured, he thought, and Ginny was busy doing what they'd come here to do. Tonks was still fighting the initial batch of dark wizards. He had no real chance three-on-one against adult wizards with just his wandwork. He was better than most of these guys, who had little training and meagre education, but he wasn't Holly - or even his sister.

He did have one advantage, and he really hoped it worked. He opened his inner eye and stepped forward.

"Hey, assholes - Sluguls Erecto!" he shouted and cast the first curse that came to mind. The lead dark wizard shielded and Ron grinned as he saw the cracks in the shield. The other two fired their own spells at him, but Ron could see them coming before they'd even fired. He grinned as he realised it still worked, even without the luck potion.

"Confringo! Expulso! Fulmina!" Ron shouted as he cast curses as fast as he could. He didn't have to shield himself and he was far quicker when casting, thanks to Holly's training. His blasting curses shattered the dark wizard's shield into shards of light and then his lightning curse slammed into him and threw him backwards through a shopfront window.

"Crucio!" one shouted, but Ron leant to the side and laughed.

"Expeliarmus! You'll need to do better than that!" Ron shouted. The dark wizard had left himself open with the cruciatus curse - he'd been away from a guard just long enough for Ron to slip a disarming spell through before he could shield. His wand went flying and Ron hit him with a stunner in moments.

The last dark wizard went to revive him but Ron cast hex after hex and drove him back

Ginny rushed over to Hermione, but before she could check on her friend she saw a troop of Morgen approach - led by one of their wizards. He wore robes made from shimmering scales and carried a wand of coral and black iron. His troops fanned out behind him, their spears held at the ready.

The Morgen wizard chanted something, but Ginny had no intention of letting him finish his spell.

"Incendio Flagri!" she shouted as she conjured a whip of the cursed fire Tom had taught her to wield in her first year. The Morgen wizard raised a desperate shield of water and Ginny's cursed fire was deflected. She didn't let up. Tom had taught her plenty of spells nasty enough to do damage even to a Morgen.

The Morgen troops hung back, clearly unwilling to get in between the two powerful wand-wielders. Ginny flung cursed fire, entrail-expelling curses, and whips of eye-searingly bright lightning at the Morgen wizard. He called on ice and water and flung strange spells that stunk of death and salt at her.

Inch by inch, spell by spell, Ginny pushed the Morgen wizard back. Then he conjured a spear of rotting bone and flung it at Ginny. She hissed and slashed her wand at him - and her whip of crackling black lightning slashed through the cursed spear and the Morgen wizard alike.

Ginny turned a moment too late and instead of a full shield charm, she was only able to get off a rushed hex deflection. It probably saved her life by sapping the bone-breaking curse of power and deflecting it into her leg, instead of allowing it to hit her head and liquify her skull.

Her leg bones still shattered under the curse and she screamed in pain. A spell flashed over her and the dark wizard who'd hit her was blown backwards, but the Morgen rushed towards her. She fumbled for her wand, but the pain from her shattered leg was so intense she could barely move, let alone cast a spell.

Then a huge figure rushed past her and for a moment Ginny thought she'd gone crazy. Then she turned her head to see Hermione on her feet and casting spells Ginny'd never heard of. The figure was the statue of the muggle soldier - Hermione had animated it! Its gun was no longer dull stone, but gleaming silver.

The Morgen troops charged it, but when stone and dead flesh clashed, stone won. The statue slammed aside one Morgen and skewered another on the end of its bayonet. It screamed as the silver cut into it, its dead flesh set alight and began to burn. The statue didn't slow down - it turned the gun around and used it like a club, the silver rifle smashing apart the Morgen with ease.

One of them darted past the statue and tried to reach Ginny. Hermione levelled her wand at it.

"Bombarda Maxima! Bombarda Maxima!" she shouted. The first blasting curse sent the creature flying backwards - its resistance to magic nothing in the face of simple physical force. The second shattered its dead body to bits.

More and more Morgen dashed past the statue as it was busy fighting the first troop, but then Ron was there. He wasn't wielding his wand - instead, he held the sword of Gryffindor in a two-handed grip.

"Dumbledore's Army!" he shouted as charged the Morgen. His fighting style looked bizarre - Ron was effortlessly dodging the spears thrust his way, but the sword seemed to have to drag him all over the place to attack; as if it was doing the swordfighting and Ron was just along for the ride.

The goblin-forged silver sword cut through the Morgen with ease - and with both Ron and Hermione's animated statue to contend with the morgen were forced back.

Ginny looked up as she heard something very loud approaching them. She still couldn't stand, because her left leg was more like minced meat held in place by skin than a functioning leg, but she pushed herself up with an arm. A part of her wished she hadn't.

A horde of dark wizards, Morgen, rune-branded werewolves and more were bearing down on them. At the head of them was a giant. This one wore huge sheets of steel armour and carried a metal club, long since stained with dried blood. She roared out a battle cry in the giant tongue and it was so loud that Ginny tried to cover her ears.

The giant broke out into a run. Ginny tried to stand, but it was useless. She felt tears gather in her eyes. She hoped Holly would be able to get away. She fumbled for her wand and held it in one shaking hand, despite the pain in her leg.

Ginny levelled her wand at the onrushing reinforcements and tried to be brave.

There was a tremendous crack of thunder and a flash of dark-light as a whip of crackling black lightning slashed up from the ground. It neatly decapitated the giant, the dark curse cutting through steel as easily as flesh. The giant started to crumble into ash as the spell ate away at its corpse, slowly for a moment and then with incredible speed.

Wind howled across the bay and blew the ash towards it. Nobody on either side could see who had cast the spell, but Ginny didn't need to see it to know who it was. The onrushing horde slowed and then stopped altogether.

A beam of searing, brilliant silver light burst from the cloud of ash and sent it flying away, such was the power of the spell. Holly Potter stood there, her basilisk-skin coat flapping in the wind as she slashed her wand across the onrushing attackers. Some shielded themselves, but most of the dark wizards had neither the skill nor the power to withstand such magic.

The burning light reduced the wizards whose shields failed to shadows of ash on whatever they'd been standing in front of. The Morgen were entirely annihilated, their strange armour and weapons vanishing with them - leaving only the strangely untouched bodies of the dead that had been used to summon them. The werewolves alone survived the curse. They charged forward, but the most of eagre of them fell into a crumpled heap as a bolt of green light struck it in the chest.

"Avada Kedvra!" Mad-Eye Moody snarled as she stood next to Holly, his killing curse striking down the werewolf. The rest paused. The surviving dark wizards rushed to cover, but Holly stepped forward. She levelled her wand at them and hissed - and, now that it was done reducing the fleet to so much ash, her fiendfyre answered. The titanic serpent of cursed fire towered over the battlefield. It seemed even larger than the real one in the chamber, its fangs as tall as Ginny.

There was a faint pop as one of the dark wizards disapparated - and took his anti-apparition jinx with him. Then the rest of the survivors followed suit, and the werewolves raced away from the fiendfyre.

Holly rushed towards Ginny, but Ginny waved her off.

"I'm - I'm fine. I can still... I can still apperate!" Ginny shouted, then she turned to her own fiendfyre and ordered it to extinguish itself.

"Like hell you can Ginny," Holl said. She dismissed her fiendfyre and crouched down next to Ginny.

"I love you, you know that?" Ginny said. She was still crying, she realised.

"Me too, Ginny," Holly said as she gently took her hand in her own. Tonks put an arm around Hermione, and Moody put his hand on Ron's shoulder. With a crack of displaced air, the raiding party disappeared.

Year Six, Chapter Eight

The Order raiding party reappeared in front of a small cottage by the sea. It was a lonely building, standing alone on magnificent cliffs with no other sign of human life visible for miles. The walls were embedded with shells and whitewashed, and as the high summer sun shone up above, they glittered with reflected sunlight.

Ginny screamed in pain as soon as she hit the ground, and blood began to soak through the ruins of her jeans. A shard of white bone poked up through the mess of blood-soaked denim. People rushed out of the cottage at the sound of the raiding party apparating in - Molly Weasley and an old man - Eliphias Dodge, one of the Order's few true healers.

"Ginny!" screamed Molly as she rushed to her daughter's side. She drew her wand with incredible speed as she moved.

"Mum..." Ginny said weakly. Holly was still holding her hand.

"For Merlin's sake, Molly, you're no healer - out of the way! And you too Potter! Someone with brains help me lift her!" Dodge said. Molly turned around, and for a moment, Holly thought she was going to curse him, but then she seemed to deflate. Tonks muttered a quick spell that gently lifted Ginny into the air.

"Come on Mum, let him work. Ginny'll be fine, yeah?" Bill said as he put an arm around his mother.

Holly wanted to follow Ginny into the cottage, but she knew she'd be of no more help there than Molly Weasley. The only thing like truly specialised healing Holly knew was the wound relocating curse, which would be worse than useless with a wound that large.

Instead, she simply sat on the pale green grass and numbly stared out to sea. She still had her wand in her hand. It was too warm to really comfortably hold - she had pushed it far beyond what it'd been intended to handle with the Unbinding Curse she'd used to destroy the Morgen and their dark wizard allies.

There was a gentle breeze that felt so good that Holly couldn't help but feel guilty. It blew her sweat-soaked hair across her face as she shrugged off her coat. She'd need to clean the blood off of it, she idly noted.

"You... you alright, mate?" Ron asked her. He'd put the Sword of Gryffindor back into its scabbard, thankfully.

"Yeah. I - I'll be fine. Promise," Holly said. Everyone else eventually walked into the cottage, but Holly couldn't follow them. If she got up, she'd rush to Ginny's side - despite how unhelpful that would be. She knew Dodge would've had to stun Ginny to work on her leg, anyway, so Holly couldn't even offer her moral support.

Holly reached into the enchanted pocket of her coat and withdrew a small silver flask. She felt her hands shake as she tried to open the lid. The flask fell out of her hands and onto the grass. Holly cursed and picked it up in one shaking hand as she vanished the spilt firewhiskey with her wand.

She drank what remained in the flask eagerly, the burn in her throat a welcome sort of pain. She couldn't drink enough to stop her hand shaking, not now, but it punched through the numbness that was starting to creep through her.

Slowly, carefully, Holly put the lid back on and got up. The sea was magnificent, and the sky was entirely devoid of clouds - a brilliant blue expanse that stretched out to the horizon.

The inside of the cottage was much larger than its exterior, though it was only simply furnished with second-hand furniture. There seemed to be none of the detritus of living that built up in any home over the years. Everyone was sitting in the spacious living room, clutching mugs of tea. Molly Weasley was looking much calmer.

"Holly, dear. Tea?" she asked. Holly nodded. She didn't really trust herself to speak. Elphias Dodge was sitting in a chair, his tea untouched.

"Will... will she be okay?" Holly asked him.

"Ginevra will be fine. She'll need to be kept sedated for a few hours to let the skelegrow do its work, and I've had to use up more of my supplies than I'd like to control the bleeding, but she'll be fine," Dodge said, as though he was getting tired of repeating himself.

"That's good," Holly said and winced at how she sounded. She sat down in a free chair and tried not to acknowledge how everyone else was looking at her.

"Madomisle Potter... how did you go from the girl I faced in the tournament to being able to do what Bill described to me?" Fleur asked her. Hermione and Ron looked at Holly, and their ashen expression were enough to set the whole room on edge once more.

"When - when Voldemort failed to kill me the first time, he left behind some of his power and all of his knowledge. It's not always there, but I just have to... to ask for it, and it'll answer," She said. She couldn't look at Bill and Fleur, who she was sure would know what she was talking about.

"Merlin... I had no idea that something like that was even possible..." Dodge said.

"Don - don't sell yourself short, mate. Dumbledore taught you plenty of stuff too," Ron said. It sounded as though he'd had to fight to get the words out. She smiled at him softly.

"You and Dumbledore discussed -" Bill began, and Holly nodded. That was a conversation, she knew, they didn't need to have in front of Mrs Weasley.

"Trust me, and if not, trust him."

"What on earth was that about, Bill?" Mrs Weasley asked.

"Nothing, Mum. Just cursebreaker stuff."

In the few hours it took for Ginny's leg to heal, most of the other members of the raiding party departed. Just before Ginny was ready to go, Mad-Eye returned, holding a small stack of books. Holly met him outside of the seaside cottage on the cliffs overlooking the sea. A sheer face of white rock to one side and a picture-perfect expanse of summer grass and trees to the other.

"I've got what you asked for, lass, though I'm not sure what you want with a bunch of conspiracy nonsense and fairy stories," Moody said.

"Dumbledore's instructions. Have you got a watch on Gringotts?" Holly asked.

"Aye, we've got an undercover cell posted in the alley with a good view of the entrance at all times. Now would be a good time for you to tell me what Dumbledore's plan for dealing with him for good is," Moody said. Holly attuned her senses to the sea breeze, to the magic of the yellowing grass and the white cliff and the endless blue sky. The only magic on Moody was his eye, his wand holster, and some storage charms on his coat.

"Voldemort has Horcruxes," Holly said flatly. Moody didn't seem surprised.

"Well, I always assumed he did after he came back. Didn't seem the sort for any of the other ways to cheat death - hang on, Horcuxes. In the plural?"

"Yes. The first was the diary at Hogwarts, which opened the chamber of secrets. The second was the locket that's taken over the Ministry. The third was a ring hidden in the old Gaunt home. That's where Dumbledore lost his hand. Then there's three more," Holly said. She knew she had to be cautious here because there was a chance that Moody would just try to kill her if he knew the whole truth.

"Fucking six? Six? The bastard has a seven-part soul?"

"Not any more. But yes, he did."

"You or Dumbledore uncover any leads as to the remaining three?" Moody asked.

"Dumbledore linked Riddle to the disappearance of Helga Hufflepuff's cup and thought he might have stolen something when he came to apply for the defence professorship. The last one will have been made after his return," Holly said. She wasn't looking at Mad-Eye. She gazed out onto the ocean, into the endless blue sky.

As final sights went, it wouldn't have been a bad one, she thought.

"And you think he's storing one in a bank vault?" Moody said.

"I think if he gave one to Malfoy, he probably gave one to another Death Eater. I'm hoping that one was sane enough to lock it in the deepest Gringott's vault they could afford," Holly replied.

"I'll let you know if anything turns up," Moody said as he turned and walked back over the ward line. He disappeared with only the barest hiss of moving air, and then Holly was alone by the cliffs once more.

Ginny was still fairly out of it when Ron carried her out of the cottage, but her leg was fully healed. People had already begun to leave, once more splitting up into small cells. Holly placed one hand gently on Ron's shoulder, then she apperated both him and Ginny side-along with her back to their hideout.

The sound of a car passing, muffled though it was by the treeline, was a sharp contrast to the squawks of seabirds and the gentle crashing of waves against the cliffs that had been the dominant sounds of the cottage. They were once more at their small campsite just off a muggle road, two battered old tents their home for the duration of the war.

"Good thing my dad bought those for that trip to Egypt, huh?" Ron said. His humorous tone wasn't entirely believable, but Holly didn't care to know if it wasn't. She appreciated the joke enough either way.

"Just... just lucky he didn't insist on muggle tents too," Ginny said as she blearly opened her eyes. Ron gently set her down on her feet, and Holly helped her stand up.

Hermione appeared with a pop of displaced air and smiled as she saw Ginny standing.

"Good of you to join us," Holly said to Ginny.

"Can't let a little thing like nearly having my leg blown off keep me down for too long," Ginny said, then she kissed Holly. Ron made exaggerated gagging motions.

"Once you two have stopped snogging for a minute, is anyone else hungry?" Ron asked. Holly tried not to laugh whilst kissing her girlfriend and wasn't very successful, so the two of them broke apart in a fit of giggles.

"I'll go into town. Ron, can you monitor the wireless for a bit?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, I'll be in my tent. Just don't forget me when you get back with the food!" Ron said.

Hermione cast a number of rapid, silent glamour charms to disguise her appearance and then began to walk towards the small town nearby. Ron headed into what had been the girl's tent at the Quidditch World Cup, but was now his.

Ginny sat down gingerly on one of the battered old couches inside the larger tent. Her jeans were horribly mismatched now and crusted with dried blood.

"Are you alright, Ginny? Really?" Holly asked, though she knew it was a dumb question.

"Of course I'm not, I - I came this close to having pumpkin juice for a skull! But I knew - I knew what I was signing up for when I said I'd come," she replied.

"I just - I can't lose you, Ginny. Sometimes it feels like you're the only reason I can even try and bear everything people expect of me." Holly said, her voice wild and desperate.

"I know. But I can't just sit back and watch. You know that," Ginny said.

"I know. It's one of the reasons I love you," Holly said, and the two of them said very little for a long while afterwards.

It was only when they heard the crunch of Hermione's returning footsteps through the forest that they rose and exited the tent. Ron was already outside, and then Hermione rounded the last patch of thick trees. She was carrying, rather disconcertingly, both a bag full of delicious smelling takeaway and a pair of books - one that looked like a dry history textbook, and the other was the book of wizarding fairy tales Dumbledore had left her.

"Hermione, you can eat while we have dinner, you know?" Holly asked.

"Oh - oh, I'm sorry, there was a bit of a wait for the food, and so I tried to get some reading in, only..." Hermione said. She paused for a moment, as if she wasn't quite sure how to say something.

"Only what?" Ginny asked bluntly.

"Only - only I've found something!" Hermione said loudly. She rather roughly shoved the food into Ron's waiting arms, then flipped open the book of fairy tales. It looked like any other page, only Hermione had bookmarked it with the ratty old bookmark Dumbledore had included with it.

"Hermione, I have no idea what could be important at all about that page," Holly said.

"Oh, the page doesn't matter. Well, the annotation does. But look at the bookmark!" she shouted excitedly.

"It's a sketch of Dumbledore's wand by the other annotator. Kind of a weird bookmark, but -" Ron began, but Hermione interrupted him.

"But it's not Dumbledore's wand! At least it wasn't when they were writing the annotations," Hermione said.

"It wasn't?" Holly asked.

In response, Hermione flipped open the history book and showed them a black and white photograph of Dumbledore as a new professor at Hogwarts. His wand was clearly visible and very clearly not the wand Holly had seen him use at all times, the one in the bookmark.

"Maybe Olivander told him to come back for it twenty years. I've heard of him doing stuff like that," Ginny said.

"It's not an Olivander wand, the finish is far too unrefined. In fact, now that I've got this sketch and taken a good look at it, it's not in any modern wandmaking style. Even in the best photographs of - well, even in the best photographs of the wand, I can't see any runes either. I'm not an expert at wandlore, but it seems more like an early Roman wand than anything else," Hermione said.

"So Dumbledore used an old wand. What's the issue? People are always talking about ancient magic and stuff," Ron asked.

"It doesn't work like that, Ron. Magic using ley-lines and natural magic can be powerful, but it takes time—minutes at best. Roman wands didn't, they aren't like something you'd get at Olivander's. There's no way Dumbledore could use a wand that old. He was a great wizard, but even he wasn't that good," Holly said.

"Exactly. Which makes where he got it even weirder," Hermione said.

"You know where he got it?" Holly asked.

"Well, I can make a pretty good guess. It was the most famous duel of the 20th Century," Hermione said as she flipped the history book to a new page, which showed a propaganda poster of Grindelwald - Dumbledore's wand very clearly visible in his hand.

Something began to come together in Holly's mind, and she wasn't sure she liked where it was leading her.

"A wand that seems to predate modern wandlore but is extremely powerful..." Hermione began.

"Won in combat by the greatest sorceres of the age," Holly finished for her.

"Exactly. I think it's been under our noses the whole time."

"Sorry, for the stupid people in the back - what's been under our noses the whole time?" Ron asked.

"The Elder Wand," Holly answered. Ron and Ginny went quiet.

"You... you think it really does exist? That Dumbledore won Death's own wand from Grindlewald in Berlin?" Ginny asked after a moment.

"Powers and Death and all that is just mythology. No more real than Zeus or Thor. But this wand is very real, and as alien beings from another dimension are currently invading Britain, I'm not prepared to discount the idea that maybe something other than an ordinary wizard made this wand," Hermione said.

"Then we need to go," Holly said. She summoned her basilisk-skin coat from her tent with a wave of her hand.

"It's lasted this long undetected mate, I reckon we can at least eat and wait for it to get dark before we go breaking into Dumbledore's tomb," Ron said. Holly flushed a little and shrugged off her coat.

"Okay. But we're going in tonight - and only I'll cross the wardline, under the cloak. Riddle has to have forces at Hogwarts waiting for an Order member to appear there," Holly said.

They all piled into the larger tent to eat, get ready, and wait out the setting sun. Holly tried not to think about the flash of black fur and yellow eyes flitting from tree to tree in the corner of her vision.

Some part of her was not so convinced as Hermione that the Elder Wand was so far removed from mythology. The idea sat uneasily in her mind as she ate quietly, but the Grim made no further appearances as she waited outside the tent in a cheap camp chair for the sun to dip below the horizon.

Year Six, Chapter Nine

The cave was lit only by the faint green light of a recently cast killing curse. There was no sound save Voldemort's own faint breathing. The Morgen behind him needed no air in the rotten lungs of their hosts, and the Hitwizards who had been stationed here had all fallen still and dead.

It was underneath a hill, just to the side of a muggle road that cut through the countryside like a smear of excrement across a painting. No animals dared approach the hill, and even the bright green grass that covered the surrounding hills was sickened and yellow above them. A single yew tree grew atop the hill, lonely and old. Local legend claimed that it had been used to hang a witch and that her spirit haunted the hillside.

The cave itself was remarkable - full of quartz and bisected by an underground river. If they could've beared the darkness that permeated it, it would've been swarming with muggle tourists.

As it was, only a squad of Ministry Hitwizards had been in the cave - guarding the one thing of value in it. A massive archway, carved from the quartz so that the water ran through it. Iron bars covered it, wrapped around it like bandages.

"It will not yield to magic, my lord," one of the Morgen said. He was one of their wizards, dressed in robes of shimmering scales and carrying a coral wand fitted with a hilt of black iron.

Voldemort strode forward and swung his wand like a sword. Slashes of black energy and bright green fire cut at the iron bars, but they would soon restore themselves wherever they were cut. Voldemort drew on more power, on darker and darker arts, but eventually, he lowered his wand.

He could not destroy all of the iron bars without destroying the archway itself. He snarled in anger, for he recognised exactly the hand that had created the defences on the archway.

"This is the work of that old fool Dumbledore. It should have faded with his death," Voldemort said.

One of the Morgen's lesser warriors was ordered forward by their wizard. He touched the iron bars and burst into fire. He screamed only briefly, his host corpse going up like it had been doused in petrol.

The Morgen wizard sniffed the air, his dead eyes lingering on the corpse of the warrior.

"This is no mere wizard-work. These gates have been sealed by Deathly power, my lord."
"Impossible. Dumbledore did not bargain with Powers. It was one of the few things I respected about him. His strength was always his own."

"Bargain? No, you are right, my lord. The Alchemist was not a servant of any Power. But a bargain is not the only way the support of a Power might be won. Perhaps he did not bargain but instead seized it," the Morgen wizard said.

"Seized power? From Death? How would one accomplish such a thing? Especially without the use of the Dark Arts?" Voldemort asked. He sounded almost curious then, all trace of anger gone from his voice.

"The strength has already been stolen, many ages ago, my lord. It was used against us by Merlin's pet king when he banished us from these shores long ago. Even then, it had already been long since stolen."

"Then we must act quickly. Gather Dupont's forces - it is time for them to earn their gold," Voldemort said.

"At once, my lord," the Morgen wizard said before he stepped into the river and vanished beneath the dark, rushing waters.

---

"And what is it that demands I come all the way down here to even hear of it, Unspeakable?" Riddle asked. He stood in the Department of Mysteries, leaning on Scrimgeour's ivory cane. How he hated having to inhabit the body of a crippled old man.

"We are grateful for your support, Minister. Especially recently. We have a long-term project in the History department that has just recently been confirmed by field researchers that may be of great importance," the unspeakable said. He wore purple robes and was not particularly notable - middle-aged, with a hint of a belly and a receding hairline.

"I doubt History of Magic can be all that urgent. It has by definition already happened," Riddle replied.

"Yes, minister. We do have reason to believe that other parties may be interested in this area of research, however."

The Unspeakable led Riddle deeper into the Departmant, through innumerable stone chambers until they emerged into a room filled with clocks of all kinds, each tuned to a different time and softly clicking in a bizarre, discordant symphony. One wall held a large, glass-fronted case filled with time-turners, the Ministry's heavily controlled time travel devices. Riddle had once been interested in time travel, only he had worked out on his own the proof of Time's immutability during his sixth year at Hogwarts. After that, he had very little interest in the subject.

"I assume you have just completed a trip back in time to confirm some suspicion?" Riddle asked.
"Exactly, Minister. Now, let me bring the photographs up..." the Unspeakable said as he tapped his wand agains the side of an intricate projector. Light blossomed to life within it, and Tom Riddle realised he had dismissed the Unspeakable's project far too easily.

---

Holly held her cloak tightly as she left her friends behind at the ward line. They would wait for her within the Forbidden Forest, but they were all too tall (even her and Ginny) to share the cloak now. Even in the height of summer, the forest was still bitterly cold at night. Perhaps, she thought, she had gotten used to the pleasantly cool summer nights at their campsite.

It was very strange to be sneaking into Hogwarts and even stranger to be doing so in the summer, she thought. The castle itself was dark, with only a few faint lights visible through the windows.

She could see more lights on the grounds than in the castle's windows as patrols of hitwizards and magical patrolwizards kept up a constant guard on the castle. Holly wasn't particularly worried about bypassing them - her cloak and her animagus form would keep her well hidden.

Holly transformed into her raven form as soon as she got to open ground. She flew low, barely a few feet above the ground, and her dark feathers let her blend seamlessly into the dark of the grounds. It was a cloudy night, too, which made sneaking around much easier.

Of course, if the new Headmaster of the school had raised the full siege wards, Holly would've had far more trouble getting onto the school grounds. The standard wards were configured to let people who weren't an active danger in, because Hogwarts was a school that saw a good number of visitors throughout the year. However, once fully raised, the wards would prevent anyone from crossing the ward line with increasingly dangerous countermeasures.

Only the school's Headmaster could raise the wards to their full strength unless the outer detection wards were tripped by a creature of sufficient danger. If Slytherin's basilisk had tried to slither over the ward line, it would've run headfirst into the full might of the castle's staggeringly complex wards.

Holly flew over the still, dark waters of the lake. The island that had been raised from its depths for Dumbledore's funeral was still there, his body still entombed in crystal. She transformed back into her own form and landed gently on the island. A faint sliver of moonlight illuminated the crystal tomb for just a moment, and then the moon was fully covered by the clouds once more.

Dumbledore looked like he was only sleeping. The preservation spells placed on his body, combined with various specialised glamour charms for the dead, had hidden every sign of his death save the lack of any breathing. He held his wand in the traditional wizardly funeral pose, his arms meeting on his chest like a medieval king holding his sword.

It was a beautiful piece of magic, and Holly had no desire to destroy it. So, instead, she called upon everything Dumbledore had taught her and began to sing. Her voice was soft, barely above a whisper, but the magic of the lake, of the innumerable ley liens that met at Hogwarts, heard her.

She could not work with simple incantations and wand movements nor with the cold precision of runic arrays and arthimantic calculations. She worked magic in the way it was first done. She sang to the crystal tomb, and it slowly began to ripple. She withdrew a stick that had been transfigured to look like Dumbledore's wand from her coat and then swapped his actual wand for the fake.

Dumbledore's wand felt cold, like a shard of ice in Holly's hand. She found the sensation so disturbing that she nearly dropped the wand and quickly shoved it into one of the many magically expanded pockets of her coat. Wands were warm in the hand, without exception. Even beyond that strange lack of heat, there was something about holding the wand that unnerved Holly.

She had no time to ponder the sensation, however, as light flashed across the lake. Holly dove for cover behind the crystal tomb, but the streaks of green light passed well to either side of her. She heard the whistling sound of killing curses as they flew by her, and for a moment, Dumbledore's wand felt warm in her coat pocket.

Holly crouched there for a moment, then glanced over the lid of the crystal tomb. With her eyes transformed into those of her animagus form, she was able to pick out the dozen or so figures advancing on brooms across the lake. Most she didn't recognise, but one she did. Madam Dupont, the French mercenary who had killed Cedric, was leading the attackers.

Dumbledore's wand seemed to call for her, and as though she was in a trance, Holly withdrew it. She stood, still hidden by her cloak. She gathered her hatred and -

Holly yanked her arm down and dropped the wand as though its unnatural cold had burnt her. She stared at it as it rolled down the smooth rock of the island and only just managed to grab it before it fell into the water.

More spells crossed over the lake, and now larger shapes began to spill from the earth. More of the Ministry's new magical creature inferi, though Holly was thankful none of them were dragons.

The brooms shifted to reveal the figure concealed within them. Voldemort was there, flying without aid, and at the revelation of his presence the hitwizards broke and ran. The inferi still charged forward, manticores and giant spiders and all sorts of dark creatures, but Holly knew they would barely slow Voldemort and his mercenaries down.

She transformed back into her raven form and flew over the lake, but not towards the forest just yet. She headed towards the castle, even if she did have to do some rather fancy flying to weave her way through the spells flying back and forth.

As Holly landed near the castle and transformed back, she saw numerous flying shapes on the horizon - including what looked like the Minister's carriage. Dozens of hitwizards on brooms were escorting it, along with one larger flying shape. Riddle had arrived, and he'd brought one of his dragon inferi with him.

The few surviving hitwizards on the shore were soon forgotten as Voldemort and Dupont's band of mercenaries turned their focus to the new Ministry arrivals. Voldemort conjured a shield of black smoke that absorbed the rain of spellfire the Ministry reinforcements were firing down and reflected them as wispy gouts of cursed fire whilst the marcnries fired killing curses and war-hexes to smash through the phalanxes of shield charms raised by the hitwizards.

With a roar, the undead dragon dived towards the shield of black smoke, and its own cursed fire blasted it into nothingness. Voldemort called on the waters of the Black Lake to rise up and restrain the dragon, hundreds of tendrils rising from its surface to grapple the dragon.

Holly turned away and entered the castle. She had one more task to complete before she could meet back up with her friends in the Forbidden Forrest.