31 | G O N E

  "SIRIUS!"

   His voice was piercing into Ember's ears, burning her alive.

   Harry had reached the floor, his breath coming in searing gasps. Sirius must be just behind the curtain,  Harry, would pull him back out.But as he reached the ground and sprinted towards the dais, Remus grabbed Harry around the chest, holding him back. 

    "There's nothing you can do, Harry —"

   "Get him, save him, he's only just gone through!"

   "— it's too late, Harry."

   "We can still reach him —" Harry struggled hard and viciously, but Lupin would not let go.

   "There's nothing you can do, Harry ... nothing ... he's gone."

   Gone ...

   Something inside Ember seemed to explode. She felt it as an icy wave tossing through her vains, spreading through her body, reaching the tiniest fibres of her limbs. Harry's screams wandered in the background, a whirring sound filled her ears, like the buzz of a million angry bees. All of a sudden, Ember came to the realisation that she was no longer made of substance; but something more like a shadow ...

   Nobody took note of her; Dumbledore had most of the remaining Death Eaters grouped in the middle of the room, seemingly immobilised 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. 

   There was a loud bang and a yell from behind the dais. Vision rimmed black, Ember saw Kingsley hit the ground yelling in pain. 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 Remus, but Harry had already ripped his arm from the slackened grip. 

   "SHE KILLED SIRIUS!", bellowed Harry. "SHE KILLED HIM — I'LL KILL HER!"

   And he was off, scrambling up the stone benches; people were shouting behind him but he did not seem to care. 

   Move, a voice in her head was screaming at her. Follow him! Save him!

   "Ember, wait!" Remus voice barely reached her, she was already at the door and ran down all the rooms and corridors they came from, just like exactly knowing where she had to go.

   Slithering, she came to a halt in the atrium, the sight given to her had her startled for a second; Harry, ducked against the fountain, and Bellatrix, with her wand raised, the grin of a maniac plastered on her face.

   "Potter, you cannot win against me!", she cried. She was moving to the right, trying to get a clear shot of him. Harry backed around the statue away from her, crouching behind the centaur's legs, his head level with the house-elf's. "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!" Ember had taken the opportunity of her distraction to attack the Death Eater, but with a flick of her wand she shielded herself, and Ember's spell was bouncing back at herself, knocking her off her feet.

   "Ember, Ember, you naughty little girl", Bellatrix shouted. Her eyes seized the girl, and a satisfied grin appeared on her pale face. "Bowed to your fate, I see? Black's a colour that suits you well."

   "Crucio!"

   Harry's blood froze, his heart skipped a beat; unlike his own attempt to use an unforgivable curse, Ember did not fail. Bellatrix' screams were echoing through the atrium, as she got an impression of her own favourite curse. Harry raised to his feet, eyes fixating Ember, and a shiver was running down his spine. Searching for Ember's eyes, what he found weren't warm orbs of hazel colour, but an empty blackness filling even the last bit of white there once existed.

   "Ember ..." Cautious, he stepped closer to her, Bellatrix' screams still echoing from the walls. "Emmie, stop!" With a firm voice, he grabbed her wrist, her head jerked around, darkness of once warm eyes met his, her face wearing all the pain, all the hate he, Harry, did feel the very same way, but had been replaced completly by his deepest worries for Ember.

   She blinked, and the darkness was gone, red rimmed hazel eyes blinking away tears, and her hand lowered in a quick motion, leaving Bellatrix panting on the floor —

   Harry's scar was set on fire, Ember was torn out of his grip. Blinded, he saw her flying three feet through the air and hitting the ground, arching in pain.

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

   "So, you smashed my prophecy?", said Voldemort softly, staring at Harry with those pitiless red eyes. "I see the truth looking at me from within your 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 snivelling apologies?"    "But Master — he is here — he is below —"

   Voldemort paid no attention. Instead he turned his snake-like face towards Ember. "Get the girl, Bella. Ember Potter will have to experience herself what it means to disobey the Dark Lord."

   Ropes were flying out of Bellatrix' wand, wrapping themselves around Ember's ankles and wrists. Summoning her wand, Bellatrix then whipped her wand once more, and Ember, struggling against the ropes, was dangling midair, slowly floating towards the Death Eater, until she could burry her long, slender fingers into the skin of the young girls arm.

   "I have nothing more to say to you, Potter", he said quietly, red eyes back burning into Harry's green ones. "You have irked me too often, for too long. AVADA KEDAVRA!"

   Harry had not even opened his mouth to resist; his mind was blank, his wand pointing uselessly at the floor. 

   But 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 Voldemort. The spell merely glanced off its chest as the statue flung out its arms to protect Harry. 

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

   Harry was about to look behind him, but what was happening behind the statue's back, gruesome caught his attention; he could see Ember struggle once more against Bellatrix Lestrange's mercyless hold, a cry bursted from her lips, silenced by a loud crack — and both of them were gone.

—