Elemental

You-Know-Who at Last

           

Sure enough, I hear a voice booming through the hall. At first, I'm not sure if I just imagined it, but then I see everyone screaming in terror.

"I know you are preparing to fight," You-Know-Who's voice booms, somehow heard over the terrified screams. "Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers at Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood.

"Give me Harry Potter, and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter, and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter, and you will be rewarded.

"You have until midnight."

I've heard of loud silence, but this is the first time I'd ever experienced it. Then a Slytherin girl shouts, "But he's there! Potter's there! Someone grab him!"

Professor McGonagall asks the Slytherin house to leave the hall with Filch—I'm glad they're gone. But I need a plan. Voldemort is keeping his plans for me secret, even from his Death Eaters.

I tune back in to what she's saying. The entire Gryffindor house—pardon the exaggeration—wants to stay and fight You-Know-Who, and that includes me, so McGonagall has to find the kids who are under age to send to safety. Somehow, I manage to sneak through. It's funny—I don't care so much about dying now that it's on my own terms.

I'm in the tower with all the fighters, trying to think of a way to stop him. Then, suddenly, everyone is rushing downstairs, and I'm swept along with them. It's complete chaos down there, I can barely hear myself think.

Suddenly, a voice calls out, "Mia! Can you hear me?"

I look around for the source and realize that it's only in my mind. Ralph! I realize. Where are you?

He's got me. I dozed off and got dragged out with the fighters, and someone swooped down and grabbed me! I'm in, I think, a passage underground. But I have a photographic memory.

I'll come get you. How do I get there? I'm worried about Ralph—he's an Element, like me. A fire Element could be useful to you-Know-Who.

You know the Whomping Willow?

Yeah.

Go there. There's a knot in the wood. Tap it with a stick. A passageway will open. Follow—AAAAHHHH!

Oh, gods, this must be really bad if Ralph can't even finish his thought.

I find the Whomping Willow, and, sure enough, a passageway opens. I follow it. There is no one in sight except for Ralph, dangling in the air as if by a string, his eyes closed. "Ralph," I whisper. "Are you all right?"

His eyes open and he falls gracefully to the ground. "Oh, I'm better than all right," he says, a borderline sadistic smile I've never seen before on his face. "It's yourself you should be worried about."

I think I know what's happening in the back of my mind but I don't want to accept it. "What—what do you mean?" I whisper, praying it's not what I think it is and hoping I can trick him into thinking I'm more afraid than I am. That never fails.

"Drop the act. You know exactly what I mean." Okay, scratch that, it fails. He sees right through me. "Don't you see? I was never on your side."

"But...but what about the Veritaserum?" I protest.

"Any Element can throw that off, I thought you'd know. Not as smart as you claim to be, yeah? I was alone, and weak...and then the Dark Lord showed me—"

"Stop!" I cry. "You could have been different."

"I'm sorry?" he asks.

"You could have been good," I say desperately. "You didn't have to do this. It's not too late. Come on, you're a really smart kid. I know you could have been different."

But it is too late. His eyes have gone cold—or perhaps they always were, and I was too blind to see. This isn't the person I thought I knew.

"Excellent job, Crabbe," says a voice that makes my blood run cold. The voice that haunts my dreams at night. The voice that killed my father.

"Bring me Bellatrix Lestrange," he says to Ralph. Then to me, "Crucio! Stupefy!"

A small blast of pain that I barely feel.

And then, blackness.

~Sasha