The Lewis House 110 страница

The Dementors seemed to sense her weakness. They changed direction and aimed, in one body, for Ginny, whose eyes were closing tight. She looked like she was having a terrible nightmare - she began to shake all over - Harry knew he had to do something, but he couldn't. He had nothing left. He knew it wouldn't help, but he managed to edge in front of her, shielding her as she had shielded him. The Dementors pushed forward, reaching out their hands for him - for her. Desperate to help her, Harry tried to work up the energy for one more spell - just one more - he barely raised his wand.

"Hermione!" Ron shouted again, backing against the dome and fighting tooth and nail to drive the Dementors back down to the island. It wasn't working. "I know you can hear me - we can't hold them back - you have to help us - you have to hurry. I know you can help us - Expecto Patronum - Avada Kedavra -"

Ron was surrounded, and Harry could not get to him. The sounds of his struggle were terrible, and Harry tried to point his wand in that direction too, but he could hardly even hold onto it. He backed further up towards Ginny, groped for the end of her broom and pulled it towards him until his hand came to her knee. He pulled her behind him as far as he could. Their broomtails were colliding - he felt her forehead fall against his shoulder -

"Harry… I'm sorry…"

But there was nothing to be sorry about. He couldn't fight them either. He could only take the blow first, and he would do it - he would rather have lived, he thought almost idly, as the Dementors made a semi circle around the front of him and pressed towards him. He would rather have lived and had her with him for a long, long time. But if there was only this, then he would go first. The world was fading - growing blacker. The light was flickering in and out. Sounds were unbearably loud and then suddenly silent, as if someone had flicked a switch - and then unbearably loud again. Harry felt as though he was looking straight through the Dementors. He didn't see them at all - didn't see their hungry mouths widening as they fell on him - hardly smelled their decaying breath as they brought their open lips near his. Instead he saw Hagrid's face. Snape's leer. Cedric's body. He heard his father's desperate shouts.

"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off -"

His father had gone first, too. Harry was slumping, but he kept his hand on Ginny's knee and used the last of his strength to push her further behind his back. If he had to die, then it would be in front of her. That was what love had always meant.

Harry's eyes fell shut. He felt bony fingers clutch his face…felt his chin being tilted up… felt a cold, sucking sensation near the corner of his mouth and knew that it was over…

Light.

Harry gasped and turned his head - but not to escape the Dementor - not to save himself. It was only that the light was so bright that it was painful. It was going to blind him. It was coming right through his eyelids to scorch his eyes - it was white hot and frightening, and it was moaning - screaming in unearthly frustration…

Bony fingers slid from Harry's skin and there was a rush of incredible wind. It was coming from behind him… skimming along the sides of him…pushing past him and driving the despair away, to where it could not reach him. Harry felt his head begin to clear. The darkness was lifting… his strength was being restored… he felt the most insane urge to laugh…

"Oh, Harry…" Ginny's voice was soft and awed. "Look up…"

Harry found that it was suddenly easy to open his eyes. He blinked up, and felt wonder wash through him, so profound that he could not find his voice to speak.

The dome was silver. Harry gazed at it in wonder - was this the same magic? It couldn't be. Was it a curse? No… But what it was he could not tell. He looked to his right and relief swept him at the sight of Ron, who was still alive, barely grasping his broom, his head thrown back and his eyes shining. His chin was trembling.

"Hermione," Ron whispered. "You're a genius."

"They can't get out," Ginny said softly, separating herself from him to fly on her own again. "They're trapped where they are - and I don't think they can fly anymore either - look."

Harry glanced below them and was amazed to see that the Dementors could not get within twenty paces of the dome's edge now. They were held back by something bright and beautiful - they were unable to go near it. They could not fly up towards it either, and so they were trapped on the surface of the water, writhing in a helpless, anguished mass near the shore.

The dome of silver light gave one great, shuddering flicker. Harry jumped and glanced up. If the spell was already dying, then they had very little time.

"Sirius?" Harry managed. "Are you all right?"

"I'm here," Sirius rasped. From the sound of his voice, Harry guessed that their experiences just now had been extremely similar.

"And everyone else…"

"I see no one hurt."

"Neither do I," said Bill. "Adam, are you -"

"I'm… all right," came Adam's muted voice. He sounded as though he'd seen enough to last him a lifetime. Harry knew the feeling very well.

The dome flickered again, and Harry felt an urgent sense that they had to finish it now.

"Do you… think we can still kill them?" Harry managed, looking down again at the Dementors, where they twisted and screamed and tried to fight their way towards human life. Perhaps whatever Hermione had done had knocked away the power of Malfoy's ring. He looked up at Malfoy to see what was happening at the source of the dome's terrible power.

To his surprise, Malfoy looked exactly the same, and so did the light around him. It was still green, and it still arced out away from him. The curse was still in place.

Harry drew his wand and pointed efficiently. If they were going to finish it, then they had to do it with no further threats, which meant that they had to do it fast, before the Dementors developed yet more unheard of powers. And they had to do it before the silvery spell lost its influence.

Harry thought briefly of his mum and dad. He allowed his mind to travel, in hate, over the memories he had of Peter Pettigrew in the Shrieking Shack.

"Avada Kedavra," he shouted harshly, and watched as the green light hit the first Dementor it came to. He was relieved to see the creature begin to turn itself inside out. It was still working - they could still do this.

The dome flickered violently, and Harry heard several anxious gasps within his head.

"Hurry," he said, pointing his wand again. "We have no time to lose. Everyone hurry and finish it. Right now."

He didn't know how long they worked. Probably several minutes, though it felt like several hours. His voice grew hoarse repeating the same deadly words, and his mouth was dry and strangely metallic. His tongue felt thick and unwieldy - he needed water. He knew there had been a good reason for those dragon riding jackets; there had always been a flask of water and a snack or two tucked away in the pockets. But he continued to shout the curse, though his arm throbbed and ached and his fingers were sore from channeling the darkness.

Before he knew what had happened, he looked down to shoot the curse and saw that there was nothing left to kill. The last of the Dementors on their side had been destroyed.

It was an idea so massive that Harry didn't know what to think. Above them, the dome shimmered suddenly and seemed to shift - it looked for a moment like it might disappear completely, and Harry held his breath - but then it settled into place again.

"We should see if they need help round the other side," said Ginny quickly, and she flew off ahead of him towards the side where Bill had been fighting alongside Charlie and Cho. Ron followed her. Harry, though he wanted very much to follow them both, knew it was a brighter idea to divide their help. And so he flew towards Sirius, rounding the jagged side of the prison and coming into view of his godfather.

"Harry!"

Sirius looked mad and haggard; his eyes were glinting like a maniac's and he was still half-slumped over the handlebars of his bike. But his smile took up his whole face.

"Look at that -" he shouted in a strangled voice, gesturing towards the sea like a king to his assembly. "Gone."

"On this side," said Remus, who looked like he'd just come through a week of full moons. He pivoted in the air. "We should check on Arthur."

The three of them, along with two Aurors Harry didn't know, flew around to the back of the prison, where Mr. Weasley had been working with Mick and Viktor. Angelina and George were already there, both looking shocked and wan. At the sight of their faces, Harry's heart plummeted. Fred had to be all right. He had to.

Ron, Ginny and the rest of them joined the group a moment later, and everyone looked down at the sea together, bathed in a glow of silver light tinged with sickly green, listening to the pounding of the rain outside and the hum of Sirius's motorbike.

Harry realized that he was shaking and he wasn't sure why. He knew that he was tired. Other than that, he could hardly process what had just happened. None of it could have been real.

"There's not one left," said Sirius, his voice sheer with passion. "They're dead, Arthur."

Mr. Weasley seemed unaffected by the news. He gazed down at the water and the look on his face nearly matched the one on George's. "Yes," he said quietly. "It would appear so."

"We'll need to check inside, Dad," Charlie said. He looked exhausted, but he pushed down the nose of his broom and dove. "I'll be right back," he shouted over his shoulder.

Cho opened her mouth - Harry thought for a moment that she was choking - her eyes were wide as they followed Charlie, and she seemed to be incapable of speech.

"Don't go in there!" she finally burst. But Charlie was already too far away to hear her - he disappeared into the graveyard behind the prison before Cho could stop him. She dove after him and hovered over the blackened trees, looking absolutely terrifed. "Charlie?" they all heard her call. "Charlie, which way did you go?" She flew to the other end of the graveyard, still shouting. "I'm serious, I don't want you in there, there could be a lot of them still hiding - please answer me - I don't see you."

The tension in her voice made Harry very nervous, and it must have had the same effect on the rest of them; they all dropped lower in the sky in order to make sure that they could hear it when Charlie replied.

"I'm right here!" Charlie's voice was very faint. "Calm down - come in here if you want, I could use the help, it's a big place and we've got to search it completely."

"Get out of there," Cho answered. "I'll do the bloody Peeping Charm and we'll check the place from out here, I don't have to be on shore to do it - come out right now!"

Harry blinked. She was awfully upset.

Charlie emerged from the prison looking bemusedly at Cho. He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. "Well, don't get your knickers in a twist," he muttered, blushing a bit. "Here I am - do the charm, then."

Harry wasn't sure he'd ever seen Charlie look so awkward.

Cho positioned herself to face a large, bare wall of the prison. She raised her wand and opened her mouth.

Before she could speak, the dome above them gave a final, mighty flicker, and all the light went out. There was another tremendous CRACK! of thunderous magic - the few people near Harry shouted so loudly that it sounded like a hundred voices together…

But it was a hundred voices, Harry realized in astonishment. The dome of light was lifting - lifting up from where it met the sea - cascading in reverse, and letting in the sounds from outside. The sound of the rain slapping the water, the sound of a hundred shouting voices calling all their names, the sound of one spell being incanted again and again, though Harry was sure he had never heard it said quite like that before.

"PATRONUM REDIMIO!"

Harry didn't know what it meant. But the curtain of light was rising, the silver halo that had joined it was disappearing, and the green curse was retracting towards its source. Real daylight was washing into the cursed ring where they had all been trapped. Real air, with no death in it. Harry drew a perfect breath and briefly closed his eyes. They'd done it. It was finished. And they'd made it out alive.

"Fred -" George was the first one to duck beneath the rising curtain of stars and shoot out of the dome. "Where's the hospital raft?" he shouted, and disappeared around the other side of the prison before anyone could stop him - not that they would have tried. Angelina was hard on his heels and Charlie was quick to follow. Bill unbound Adam from his broom and shot after his brothers. Ron and Ginny, after giving Harry a fleeting look, took off in the same direction.

Only Mr. Weasley hadn't moved. He watched his children go, and then his eyes flickered up to where the green light was quickly receding, pouring back into the place it had come from. That ring.

Malfoy.

He was still suspended in the shaft of deathly green, and Harry realized for the first time that if he still hadn't moved, and yet the spell had gone dead, then that meant that Malfoy…

Another CRACK! sounded overhead. Several people screamed. In one final, abrupt rush, the remainder of the green light funneled into Malfoy's periphery - the green cylinder shivered and pulsed - Malfoy's ring glinted - and then the light rushed back into it with a soft, snaking sound, and all of it was gone. Malfoy was left uncovered in the rain, hovering unsupported on his broom.

His head, which had been thrown back, fell limply to one side. The fist that had been thrust into the air fell slackly down and his arm hung beside his body. For a moment it seemed that he must be awake, though his eyes were closed, because he still had a grip on his broom. But then his whole body wheeled to the side, and Malfoy dropped without warning towards the spiking turrets of the prison.

Harry watched, horrified, for one split second. He could not believe what he was seeing. As soon as he realized that it was real, he sprang into action - he bent double over his broom and urged it forward - perhaps he hated Malfoy, but he didn't want to watch him die. Not like this. Harry put on a burst of speed and willed himself forward, ignoring the rain as it began to soak him again - he would get to Malfoy before Malfoy reached the spiraling, black towers - he would not fail -

But the hands that kept Malfoy from death were not his. Harry didn't even break Malfoy's fall with his broom. Mr. Weasley had got there full seconds before he had - it was Mr. Weasley who maneuvered himself under Malfoy's plunging body and absorbed the shock of it with his arms and broom. But he couldn't absorb it entirely, and the impact threatened to send Mr. Weasley tumbling towards the prison along with Malfoy, whom it seemed he had no intention of letting go, even in defense of his own safety.

"Hang on -" In a panic, Harry lurched forward, reached out with both hands, seized Mr. Weasley by the shoulders of his robes, and yanked him up.

Mr. Weasley huffed with exertion. With Harry's help, he stayed aloft. And all the while, Malfoy lay, sprawled and unconscious, his pale head half-cradled in one of Mr. Weasley's hands as the rain slicked his hair to his forehead and his hand dangled loosely away, the golden ring still shining on his finger.

Harry pulled back, panting, and stared at the bizarre picture they made. He wasn't completely sure that Malfoy wouldn't have preferred to die.

Though perhaps he was already dead.

Barely balancing, Mr. Weasley managed to turn his broom and keep Malfoy's body propped across it.

"Come on, now, young man," Mr. Weasley said quietly, squinting through the rain. He shifted Malfoy's head towards his arm and cradled him even closer, in order to get a hold of his broom. "Let's get you to someone who can help you."

Harry was struck. A year and a half ago, when Percy had lain dead on the ground of some Death Eater camp, Lucius Malfoy had probably stepped over his body without ceremony or compassion. And here was Arthur Weasley holding Draco like a son.

Harry's heart hurt.

He followed Mr. Weasley away from Azkaban and towards the massive hospital raft, where a crowd had gathered, their brooms hovering low, their feet skimming the water. Only Ginny and George had landed on the raft itself and thrown their brooms aside; George knelt on one side of Fred with his brother's hand in both of his, and Angelina knelt on the other - Ginny was beside her with her hands out and her eyes shut, concentrating harder than Harry had ever seen her do. She seemed completely unaware of either the rain that was sliding down her nose or the crowd that was watching her every move.

Mr. Weasley cut through the crowd and two mediwizards rushed to relieve him of his burden. They laid Draco's body on a makeshift bed as Mr. Weasley landed on the raft. He stood behind Ginny.

"Stand back a bit, Dad," she murmured. "And don't worry like that, he's got a heartbeat and he's breathing."

Harry sighed out, relieved

Ginny laid her hand on Fred's forehead and let out a breath of her own. "It wasn't the Killing Curse - it didn't even kill the Aurors it hit at the beginning - except the one it passed through. The one we watched fall."

Harry wished he could forget the image that flashed back into his brain. Even one life was too much. His eyes flicked to Malfoy's prone body, lying cold and untended in the rain, and he tried to feel the same kind of forgiveness that Mr. Weasley had shown.

He didn't feel it at all.

"But it did - it did pass through him," Angelina whispered, wiping her eyes. "I saw it. Not straight through him, but -"

"Just here." George touched the side of Fred's head with a shaking finger and drew an invisible line from his ear to his shoulder. "It got his head a bit, and went down through his arm. Is - is his head all right, Ginny?" George sounded very young, and completely shaken. Harry was sure he'd never seen him look so frightened.

"My head's a sight prettier to look at than yours," Fred croaked.

It was a moment before everyone realized what they had just heard, and then an explosion of noise went up from the hospital raft, and Ginny bowed her head and put a hand over her eyes, laughing and crying at once.

George alone still looked serious. His eyes were suspiciously red, and he didn't take his hand off Fred's shoulder, even when Angelina bent over Fred to kiss him square on the mouth.

"I should get injured more often," Fred mumbled.

"Is Fred all right?" came Hermione's voice in his head. It was so unexpected that Harry nearly fell off his broom. He had forgotten that he could communicate with her out here.

"Yeah - Hermione, he's fine -" Harry pushed back his wet hair impatiently. "Almost everyone's fine - was that your spell that - "

"Where's Ron?" she demanded, cutting him off.

"Right here, Hermione," Ron answered in a voice that wasn't meant for anyone but her. Harry knew it. Ron caught Harry's eyes fleetingly from where he hovered at the other end of the raft, and they both turned very red and looked away from each other. "Er - we'll fly back in just a minute, all right?" Ron managed in a very different soft of voice, which cracked a bit. "See you in just a minute."

"All right," she said, a bit breathlessly. It sounded to Harry like she might have been crying. "Just a minute then. Oh - I'm so happy you're all safe - " There was a little sob followed by a soft click in Harry's ear, and he knew that Hermione had ended the charm.

Ginny pushed herself to her feet and searched the crowd around her. She found Harry almost instantly and came towards him where he hovered on his Firebolt at the edge of the raft. She worked her way between the beds of two of the Aurors who had been knocked out of the sky, and she had almost taken Harry's hand when her eyes fell on the bed to her left.

"What…" Her hand faltered and she stared down at Malfoy, who wasn't breathing, as far as Harry could tell. His stomach wasn't moving at all. "Did any of the mediwizards…"

Harry shook his head. No one had been to this end of the raft since they had put Malfoy down. Everyone's attention had been focused on Fred.

"Someone should have told me," Ginny said anxiously, dropping down beside Malfoy and putting her hands out at once. She hissed and snatched her hands away. "What happened?"

Harry told her about Malfoy's plummet and her father's save. "No one wanted to interrupt you from Fred," he finished quietly. "I wasn't going to stop you helping your brother, even if -"

"No, I know…" Ginny's face was shadowed and rings had begun to appear beneath her eyes. She put her hands out again and winced, but kept them there. "He was in that light for so long," she muttered. "I have no idea what it was. It might take a while to wake him."

"Then he's… not dead?" Harry managed. He wasn't sure why he was so relieved.

"No, he's not dead," Ginny said grimly. "But he might wish he were when he wakes up." Her hands scanned his head and then his chest, and then she swept them down the length of him while Harry looked on in part-fascination, part-disgust. To see her working on Malfoy in any way that required her hands was more than he could balance in his head. He knew better than to think anything of it, but that didn't make it pleasant to watch.

"His ring's gone," Ginny murmured. "Did it fall off at the end? Did the magic destroy it or something?"

Harry frowned. He remembered, very clearly, having seen that ring on Malfoy's finger when Mr. Weasley had held him. "No," he said slowly. "It… are you sure it's not on him?"

Ginny nodded.

"Harry!"

Harry’s head snapped up – Ron’s shout had sounded like an alert. "What is it?" he began, but he didn’t need to ask. His eyes focused past the crowd around the raft and towards Azkaban, and his heart sank.

Gliding towards them across the water, moving at top speed, there were several dozen Dementors.

It wasn’t over. Despair crashed through Harry, and he felt hollow.

"They must have been inside the prison," Ginny said, sounding nearly as weary as he felt. "At least… at least there aren’t too many of them left."

But after what they had all gone through all year, Harry thought it was ridiculous that even one was still alive, let alone dozens. Did this mean that the P.A.P. wouldn’t be disbanded? Would he have to work for them forever? The idea exhausted him completely, and he hung his head, listening as several wizards began to drive the Dementors back again. He couldn’t bring himself to help them. It wasn’t fair.

"It’s all right," Ginny said quietly.

But it wasn’t. Harry heard the roar of Sirius’s motorbike growing distant – he must have been helping to drive them all back again. Harry didn’t want to follow. He didn’t want to see his godfather. He didn’t think he could bear to witness that level of disappointment. He glanced down at Malfoy’s bare hands and wished that the ring were still there. If it had been, he would have taken it up over Azkaban and finished off the Dementors himself.

"Come on."

Harry looked dully over at Adam, who was staring, determined, into the sky.

"Come with me," Adam said urgently, and gripped his broom with one hand. The other he had shoved in his pocket. His eyes glinted. "You’re good at stuff like this."

"Stuff like what?" Harry asked, confused.

But instead of answering, Adam flew off towards Azkaban, where several wizards were now working to contain the Demtentors in a small space.

Harry exchanged a wary look with Ginny, then hurriedly flew after Adam. "Don’t go any closer," he shouted. "Remember, you don’t have a wand."

"I don’t need one," Adam shouted back, throwing a confident look over his shoulder. "Hurry up – we have to finish it. Just because he couldn’t do it doesn’t mean it can’t be done."

Harry didn’t know what Adam was on about, but he had a bad feeling that it wasn’t very wise. He knew that he was right a moment later, when Adam put both hands on his broom in order to pull up higher, and something on his finger flashed.

"ADAM!" Harry roared, realizing with a shock of fear where the ring had gone. "DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!"

But Adam raced ahead much more quickly than he should have been able to on a Cleansweep, and Harry was hard pressed to catch up to him.

"Don’t worry about it, Harry!" Charlie shouted distantly, from below. "Burke and Lisa went to shore to get a couple of dragons –"

But Harry wasn’t trying to patrol the prison. He was trying to stop a boy who was apparently as much of an idiot as he himself had once been. He gained on Adam’s broomtail and reached out to grab it, but Adam managed another burst of speed, and the broomtail slipped out of Harry’s grasp.

"YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW THE SPELL!" Harry yelled furiously. "YOU’RE GOING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED – NOT TO MENTION THE REST OF US – "

"I HEARD WHAT HE SAID," Adam shouted back, not slowing down in the least. "I KNOW THIS IS RIGHT – STAY BACK – "

Harry couldn’t possibly stay back. Nor could he stop Adam. Frantically, he tapped his wand to his throat. "SONOROUS! EVERYONE – GET BACK NOW! GET BACK – ADAM’S GOT THE RING –"

Harry was too far up now to see the reactions of those below, but he imagined that they were all as terrified as he was. In a last effort to control the boy, Harry pointed his wand at Adam’s fingers and tried to bring the ring to him. "ACCIO!" he shouted, but at the same moment, Adam thrust his fist into the air and threw back his head.

"MORSMORDRE – IMPERIO – MORTIS!"

Adam’s hand flew open – the ring shot off his finger and tumbled upwards through the air – it spiraled and flashed and then, as though an invisible hand had grabbed it, it froze in midair and exploded in a shattering of bright green light.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-04