Harry and the rest of Dumbledore’s Army had no idea what was happening outside, and it was driving Harry to distraction. “Remus, please – you must let us help them.” He begged the beast, whom still held his straight tall stature on his hind back legs, blocking the exit.


“Harry, maybe this is for the best – at least with us all still together, we are safe.” said Ron, putting his hand on his friend’s shoulder.

“It’s not right Ron, it’s not fair – it’s me he wants, not them.” He replied, trying desperately hard to keep his voice from breaking.

“It’s not entirely about you, Harry.” said Hermione. “He wants to rule, to reign the wizarding world, mould it into his perfect muggle-free abomination. It’s always been about being the best, being a ruler!”

“He’s an evil Snake!” spat Ginny, who had not whimpered in a short while, and seemed to have finally got her act together.

“What did you say, Ginny?” asked Hermione, her eyes alight with the glittering illuminations of vast spell work that was still lighting up the inky backdrop of the night sky.

“He’s an evil Snake!” she retorted again, the taunt making her feel better all at once.

“What are you thinking, Hermione?” asked Luna, approaching her friend slowly.

“I’m not sure if this will work, but I swear I recall something in potions about brewing a vanquishing potion for dangerous beasts, and I was just wondering if it would work on Voldemort, after all, he isn’t exactly human anymore, is he!”

Luna’s face expressed severe concentration. “I’ve been doing a lot of extra homework for Professor Snape, and you have reminded me Hermione – There is a vanquishing potion that can kill beasts that raise a threat to a witch or wizard if the victim is unarmed. It killed a werewolf once, I read up on it in the restricted section.

Remus let out a small whimper by the door. Luna chuckled. “Sorry Remus, we promise not to use it on you.”

“I’m not going head to head with Voldemort unarmed! Are you crazy?!” interrupted Harry in disbelief.

“It may be the only way, Harry.” replied Luna, regrettably.

Harry started shuffling his feet, and Luna knew he was worried, maybe even scared, that was until he started to pace. “Our wands share the same feather, the priori incantatem will kick in if we dual, I can’t use the avada curse because I don’t have the power.” said Harry, more to himself yet his words came out clear as crystal for the whole group to hear.

“A potion, it’s the only way Harry.” piped up Ron, “Think about it, Voldemort would have been so busy in arranging supporters for his war, to even think about you. The prophecy, he still has no idea of it’s full entirety, but I bet you he thinks it’s based on a spell, wand magic is his specialty, and yet when you defeated him at a year old, you never had a wand, Harry!”

“But that’s because of the ancient magic, the self sacrifice protection that my Mother put on me.”

“Yes, and he didn’t see it, did he Harry!” intervened Luna. “Ron is right – No wands, no priori incantatem to get in the way this time – We need to find a potion that will kill him, and we need to do it fast!”

“I’ve got it!” said Hermione, jumping on tip-toes, “I’ve remembered, and you should have too Harry. You mocked Snape about it in class”, she said, her eyes alight but not now with the glimmer of spell work that continued to shift directions and light up the school grounds, but with a glimmer of hope.

Harry, Ron and Hermione all looked to face each other in the dreary corridor, each making out their outlined silhouettes, and repeated simultaneously “PAGE FOUR HUNDRED AND TWENTY THREE.”

-

As the cold chill hit Karis in the face, she bit her lip and gently raised her hood up over her head, as the wind whistled past her with ferocious speed, she felt it was almost like a warning; challenging her to stay back, to run away and hide until this blows over. But as much as the cold bite may have had a good point, she knew too that she could no longer run away and hide.

Glaring at her from behind a large tree was something so formidable that at first Karis had to do a double take. As she did, the sight of the being became apparent, and all at once it shot out from behind the large oak and headed for her with alarming speed and a deadly passion.

“Vampires” she muttered with inexplicable hate, at the black caped figure, his ice cold and grey bony hands outstretched, preparing to throttle her, and devour her with hunger.

Karis grasped hold of her wand, and remained calm as she felt his cold dead corpse grab her fervently. She looked up to view her attacker, she wanted to see his face, look into his green and yellow eyes before she felt the satisfaction of killing him.

“Going somewhere?” drawled the fiend, as his grip tightened on her arm.

“Well, no not really. I just wanted to look you in the eye before I killed you.” she shot back, her voice cold with malice which was not quite the reaction he was expecting.

He bared his pointed teeth at her, as his now cat like green eyes grew wider in surprise. All at once he let out a deep roar of laughter, throwing his head back, staring up at the half moon that lit up the current predicament they were both facing. Karis rolled her eyes. She never did have much time for vampires; she found them all to be rather shallow in their attitude and quite annoying.

Without further thought, she quickly raised her wand, which automatically raised the monster within the beast, and he threw himself on top of her, pinning her down while giving her the look of triumph. “I’m going to enjoy this. He snarled “I’m going to enjoy feeling you gasp your last breath, fight me woman, beg, it will make you taste better.” He leaned towards her neck, as she struggled to push him off. She forgot how strong they were, and immediately realised what a stupid thing it was to do, taunting him like that. She could feel his cold presence linger forward towards her jugular. “Accio Wand” she whispered, and as her favourite companion levitated with ease, directly into her hand, the Vampire stopped to see that he was now the hunted, and as she yelled “Amber Solemn” he knew immediately that the game was over.

Firstly, he felt the offshoot of the bright beam penetrate his torso as he was thrown back onto his knees, the element of shock that immediately clouded his expression, was now overtaken with one of pain, as he screamed violently. He brought his hands up level to his face, he watched them form a crust, and then slowly, watched them crumble to dust before his very eyes. He looked directly at Karis and as a tear protruded down his face, amazingly, she noticed warmth there and she stood, motionless, unaware that before a Vampire was to deteriorate completely, an element of freedom was profound. But before she could relate to the issue any longer, he was gone, nothing more than a small mound of grey dust, that shone fleetingly, in the moonlight.

She let out a large breath as if to rid the occurrence from her mind. She looked at her wand, and whispered a sincere thank you to it. “Me and you holly, me and you.” she said with a smile, feeling more foolish than ever but somewhat relieved too, that within the school grounds she was powerful again. All she needed to do was find her Grandfather so he could exonerate the cloak that surrounded the school foundations, so Harry and the D.A. also stood a good solid chance of survival.