The Lewis House 111 страница

The light burst away in all directions, twice as bright as it had been before – Harry threw his arm across his face to shield his eyes, but he couldn’t shield them long. He had to look. He had to know what was happening.

The light raced outward – shooting stars rocketed far away in every direction – Harry waited for them to drop, to cascade down in a curtain of light as they had done before, and to trap him, Adam, and all the wizards near the prison in a cursed dome.

But when the diameter of the dome was as wide as Harry could remember, the light didn’t stop at all. Harry gaped at it as it continued to widen, shooting farther and faster than it had when Malfoy had performed the spell, growing in size until the sky itself was green as far as the eye could see. Until the roof of the dome sheltered not only Azkaban and a short space around it, but what seemed to be all the water in the sea – or at least as far as it stretched to the shore. Only then, at that far distance, did the light seem to Harry to be dropping in a waterfall of light, to touch the sea and trap them all.

He wondered why he didn’t feel trapped.

He looked up into the sky for the source of the light, searching for the ring. But all he saw there was one enormous, bright-gold star, from which a million fingers of terrible green light were radiating.

Harry stared at it, his heart pounding in his chest, and then he dropped his eyes to Adam who looked... was it happy? The boy’s face shone and his eyes were alight as he turned a circle on his broom and saw what he had done.

"I knew it," Adam whispered. "I knew it was all wrong as soon as I heard it, and I knew I could do it right. I don’t know how I knew."

Ideas flickered briefly through Harry’s mind. The boy was a Slytherin. His parents had been Death Eaters. He was even related to the Malfoys. Perhaps he’d used such magic before and they just didn’t know it – perhaps he had natural tendencies that even the Weasleys would not be able to train out of him.

Or perhaps it was just that he was a talented young wizard who had wanted to use the spell for the right reasons. It had happened before. Harry glanced at the bright-gold star again and for the second time that day, he felt that Dumbledore was somehow right beside him. His heart surged with hope.

"Can I use your wand?" Adam asked suddenly. "I want to try it – on the Dementors, I mean."

Harry shook his head slowly. "No... you shouldn’t use that curse."

"But –"

"No." Harry met Adam’s eyes. "But I want you to stay with me, all right?"

Looking rather proud, Adam nodded.

"And Adam," Harry mused, looking up at the star again. "I don’t suppose you know how to... end this incantation?"

"Sure." Adam shrugged easily. "It’s just Finite Incantatem –"

"You’re... sure?"

Adam pushed back his damp fringe and frowned. "Yeah I… I am." He gave a funny laugh. "I don't know why, I just feel like I understand…" He gazed away and shook his head a bit, as if trying to clear an unwelcome thought out of it. "But I’ll need a wand to do that – I think I should end what I started. I have a feeling it’s safer that way."

Harry looked at him for a long moment. "I’ll give you my wand when it comes to that, then," he finally said. He looked down and saw that, below them, all the wizards and witches who had wanted to participate before were finally getting their chance. Mingled Killing Curses surrounded the prison in a nimbus of green light and the Dementors were coming apart again, one by one. Souls rushed upward and brushed past Harry and Adam, flying towards the bright-gold star at the apex of the dome and slipping away into space.

"HARRY! ADAM!"

Ron, Bill and Mr. Weasley were flying rapidly towards them, all looking relieved to find them both alive and well.

"We’re all right," Adam called out. "Don’t worry!"

"Don’t worry?" Mr. Weasley gasped despairingly as they all pulled up close, panting. "Don’t worry? You may be all right at the moment, Adam, but mark my words, when Molly gets a hold of you –"

Adam blanched. "But – but you don’t have to tell her anything," he offered hopefully.

"He won’t have to tell her, you daftie," Bill said, staring at Adam as though he were a creature he’d never seen. "There’s a news reporter down there. They’ve got pictures."

"Then I’m in trouble." Adam looked downcast for a moment – and then he gave them all a brilliant grin. "But I’ll be in the newspaper," he added, sitting up tall. "We should be taking care of the rest of the Dementors, I expect," he said in a cheeky tone that made Ron roll his eyes. "Come on."

But when they looked down to see what more needed to be done, it seemed that everything had already been taken care of. Harry was not surprised that a hundred powerful wizards had taken on the remaining Dementors with relative ease but it was strange to see everything looking... calm.

They all flew together towards the water, near where Sirius was sitting on his motorbike, staring at the prison with a face full of wonder.

"The Aurors have gone in," he said, in a rough whisper, when they were all around him. "They’re making sure that not a single Dementor is hiding." He gave Adam a piercing look.

Adam shifted his shoulders uncomfortably.

"You’re mad," said Sirius, in the same rough voice. His eyes gleamed. "Well done."

Mr. Weasley opened his mouth as if to protest that it had actually been foolishly done, but then he sighed as if he knew that the only really meaningful lecture would be delivered by a woman wagging a ladle. He gave Adam a fond look.

They waited together for several minutes. Everyone who was still capable of flying was in the air, waiting in a hovering group just over the water, near the shore of Azkaban. Harry looked behind them and saw that the injured Aurors, the twins, and Malfoy were all still on the hospital raft with the mediwizards. So was Ginny – and though she was too far away for Harry to really see her face, he knew that she was looking at him.

"Hi, Harry."

He heard her voice, soft and low, rising suddenly in his head, and he felt a blush start up in the pit of him. He glanced nervously over at Mr. Weasley, but it didn’t seem he’d heard anything.

"No one can hear me but you."

Harry felt the blush crawl up the front of him and threaten to show itself on his face. He cleared his throat meaningfully and turned away from the raft, so no one would notice him staring.

"It’s all right. I know you can’t answer me." Her voice was lower still. "My dad told me how you caught him, when he caught Malfoy."

But he hadn’t done anything, Harry thought. It had been Mr. Weasley that had done all of it. He wanted to protest –

"And don’t bother trying to tell me you didn’t do anything," Ginny said, her voice full of laughter. "I swear I can read your mind – "

Harry felt a surge of panic and he flushed completely. No – no she couldn’t.

"No, not really, Harry."

But apparently she could. Or else she knew him very, very well.

"I love you so much," she said quietly. "You’re the best man in the whole world."

Even if he had wanted to speak, Harry knew he couldn’t have. His heart was pounding so hard that it threatened to break right through him. He looked up and focused on the bright-gold star that hovered over Azkaban, and hoped that no one could tell what he was hearing.

"Thank you for... staying in front of me," she whispered. "That’s – that’s twice I owe you my life."

Harry bowed his head – she was wrong. They were even. She’d saved him twice – she’d saved him more often than that, though perhaps she didn’t know it.

"I can’t wait..." Ginny hesitated. He heard her draw a soft breath as if she were bracing herself. "I can’t wait to be alone with you, Harry," she managed. "I really need... to be alone with you."

Harry wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to breathe again. The tone of her voice gave him the most insane ideas – the most gorgeous ideas –

"Harry, are you all right?" Mr. Weasley asked.

Harry gasped – his eyes snapped open. He hadn’t realized that they were closed. He looked over at Mr. Weasley in a panic and nodded, and Mr. Weasley looked back at him in obvious concern.

"You were falling asleep," he said worriedly. "Do you need to go and have a lie down on the raft?"

Harry couldn’t tell him that if he went and had a lie down on the raft, it was very unlikely that he would be able do any sleeping. He just shook his head.

"No, Mr. Weasley," he said much too formally, forcing his voice not to crack. "I’m fine."

Mr. Weasley gave him a funny look.

"Mr. Weasley, sir!"

Everyone looked towards the entrance of Azkaban, where the Aurors were emerging from the front doors. They mounted their brooms on the shore, lifted into the air, and flew straight towards Mr. Weasley and the rest of them. The Auror at their head gave a salute.

"Not a single Dementor remains, sir," he said.

"Every chamber has been searched?" Sirius rasped, before Mr. Weasley could answer. "Every tower, every underground cell? And the cemetery?"

"Yes, sir, Mr. Black. All searched, sir."

"Then…" Sirius drew a ragged breath and his eyes paled and brightened at once, as though a light were shining through them from behind. "It is finished." Both he and Remus looked out over the prison, and over both their faces swept a kind of peace that Harry had never seen there before.

"Finished," Remus repeated, very quietly.

"Almost," said Mr. Weasley.

Sirius's head swiveled and he stared at him. "What do you mean almost?" he demanded. "It's done, Arthur. They're gone."

"But I've got to finish this curse," said Adam, as though it were something he did every day. He looked at Mr. Weasley. "Right, Arthur?"

Mr. Weasley nodded. "It wasn't what I was thinking of… but yes. That's right."

"Then can I, er -" Adam looked expectantly at Harry and put out his hand.

Harry drew his wand and handed it to Adam, who took it with great care, as if he knew that it was something very special. He gave it an experimental flick, and a shower of silver and green erupted from the tip.

"Nice!" said Adam approvingly. "Great wand."

Harry had never seen it behave in such a Slytherin manner, but he knew it made perfect sense that it had that capacity. And he agreed that it was, indeed, a great wand.

Adam raised it, and looked towards the sky. His sandy fringe fell back and he thrust his arm into the air.

"FINITE INCANTATEM!" he shouted.

His young voice rang out like a bell beneath the wide, green dome. But instead of the loud, snapping finish that Harry was expecting, there was a rush of cool wind all around them as the green dome shrank towards the golden star, which shimmered as it collected the green fingers of light back into itself, drawing them back along the sky to reveal the world in all its usual colors - the horizon became a wonderfully dull, rainy gray again, and the eerie green sea turned back to dusky blue.

Harry felt as though the curse was slipping not only out of the sky, but out of his body as well. He felt it rush away from him - and it wasn't just the curse. He felt the ache of dragon riding leave his lower back… he felt the pounding headache that hadn't really left him in months suddenly vanish into thin air… he felt his lungs lighten as though he had been breathing something thick and ugly for a long time without even realizing it. All of it was going away - abandoning all the dark corners of his body and leaving him strangely empty - but clean. Exhausted and clean. Harry felt as though a wave of the ocean had just washed straight through him - salt-cold and strong and perfect. He wanted to climb into bed and sleep for a dreamless week.

When the green light had ebbed all the way inward and nearly disappeared, there was a hissing rush of air… a long, soft noise like someone drawing in a final breath… and every last tendril of green was swallowed up by the star that had been their source.

BANG!

Everyone jumped and flinched against the blast of white-hot light. The star had exploded above them into one massive firework of white and gold. It spread across the sky even further than Adam's dome had gone, reaching out across the heavens in all directions as far as Harry could see. It gave one final, terrible flash - a sheet of lightning that lit the world for one moment, illuminating every amazed and upturned face. And then it glittered away into nothing, leaving the sky silent and thick with blue-gray clouds and muted daylight.

Harry tried to process the enormity of what had just been done, and found he could not do it. Vaguely, he wondered what time it was. He turned up his face to catch the rain and listened to the steady wash of the sea below.

Peace.

"Are you ready, Sirius?" asked Mr. Weasley softly after a moment.

"Ready?" Sirius repeated. His voice seemed distant, and Harry opened his eyes to look at his godfather, who had also thrown his head back and seemed to be concentrating on feeling the rain.

"To get rid of it."

Sirius opened his eyes. They were bewildered. He pinned them on Mr. Weasley and a crease appeared between his black eyebrows. "Get rid of…"

Mr. Weasley didn't answer. He merely swept his hand from left to right, indicating the island and the prison.

A thrill pierced Harry as he watched comprehension dawn on Sirius's face.

"Get rid… of.." Sirius's voice caught. There were signs of a terrible struggle in his eyes, and then he tried his voice again. "Rid… of Azkaban?" he managed.

A faint smile touched the corners of Mr. Weasley's mouth. He nodded.

"Of Azkaban," Sirius repeated. Then all at once, he let out a strangled cry of joy, his shoulders sagged, and he turned towards the prison with fierce satisfaction in his face. He was silent for a long time, holding his wand in his hand, his fingers trembling. He didn't seem to know where to begin, or what to say.

"I thought you'd like the honors," Mr. Weasley finally said, very gently. "It will take help, of course - but I believe the first blast should be yours."

"Help?" Sirius echoed. He gave a jerky laugh. "I sat in there for twelve years - I sat in there thinking - just thinking - " He turned on Harry and gave a short, disbelieving laugh. "About your parents, and Remus, and you - and Peter - oh, my God, my mind never stopped for one single second - I used to dream of taking my cell apart stone by stone, I used to use every scrap of my will to try to summon a wand without having one to do it with - I fantasized about destroying that place - I don't need help -"

He sounded younger and more alive than Harry had ever heard him. He gripped one handle of his shining motorbike, threw back his head and tapped his wand to his throat.

"CLEAR THE ISLAND!" Sirius shouted, and his voice echoed across the sky. "I'M GOING TO CAVE IT IN!"

Wizards and witches flew out and away from the prison, clearing the perimeter. Sirius waited until they were safe, and then he laughed - a young, clear, ringing sound - and revved his engine to advance on Azkaban. He rushed forward toward the island with his wand out before him, and flashed a brilliant smile over his shoulder all of them as he went. And then, without waiting for another second, Sirius turned and aimed.

"ERADICUS!" he cried.

The word rang in the air, amplified and passionate, and Harry felt a chill. The Annihilation Curse was one step down from an Unforgivable. It was the curse the Death Eaters had used at Gringotts - the curse that had been heard by the people of Mont. St. Mireille before their school had come tumbling down. But here… for this purpose… it was the right curse. And with Sirius's will behind it, Harry felt sure it would destroy Azkaban entirely.

There was a sudden, low rumbling, like the start of a massive earthquake. Harry watched Azkaban, transfixed, as enormous slabs of prison rock began to give way at the tops of the walls. The entire structure was crumbling inward from the edges. And just outside it, on a giant, flying motorbike, Sirius Black was laughing.

"Ron - Harry - oh -"

Harry's eyebrows shot up. It was Hermione's voice, it was frightened, and it wasn't in his head - both he and Ron whirled around and gasped.

Hermione had somehow managed to fly all the way out to the prison. She was wobbling back and forth, clutching her broom like a very little girl, and her face was very white.

"I - " she managed shakily. "I heard your dad say it was going to get destroyed and I - I had to see."

Her hair was very, very wet. So were her clothes.

"Did you…" Ron stared at her. "Did you… fall in?"

Hermione didn't answer, but it was clear from her appearance that she had. She was shivering. Harry waited for Ron to say something clever that would make him want to snort.

But to his surprise, Ron sped to Hermione's side without cracking a single joke. He grabbed her around the waist and she clung to his shoulders.

"Just throw your leg over this one as well - that's it. All right, now let yours go - no, no, just grab onto me - good, now I've got it…" Ron helped Hermione to climb on in front of him, and then he bound their brooms together as Bill had done with his and Adam's before. Hermione let out a long breath of relief and relaxed against Ron's chest. He wrapped a protective arm around her. "There," he said. "Now you can watch all you like."

But Hermione's eyes were already on the prison, and her face had gone from pale to glowing. "Ohh…" she breathed. "That's amazing."

Harry glanced back over his shoulder. Azkaban's spiraling black turrets were crumbling one by one as though made of nothing but dust, crashing down against the prison and knocking away great walls of it, making it crumble, section by section, down to the jagged, wet rocks that protruded from the sea. In a moment, the prison and all the horrors it had held would be a thing of the past. It would be over, like the war was over, and Hermione was right. It was amazing.

But it wasn't complete.

Harry turned away from the prison and flew towards the hospital raft.

"Where are you going?" Ron and Hermione called after him together.

"Be right back," Harry said, without slowing down. He could already see Ginny watching him from the edge of the raft, and as he drew closer he saw that she was hugging herself and watching, not Azkaban, but him.

"I can't go," she said. "I want to stay here in case I'm needed -"

"You can go, Miss Weasley," said one of the mediwizards. "Mr. Malfoy is going to be just fine. We'll take him to St. Mungo's from here - there's nothing unusual or incurable about his condition."

"But you can't leave me," Fred shouted, from the other end of the raft. "I want attention, hurry!"

Angelina slapped his stomach.

"Come on," Harry said, and dropped lower so that Ginny could share his broom, if she wanted.

She hesitated and glanced around her at the invalids in the beds.

"Come on," Harry pressed quietly. "You have to see it, Ginny. Right up close." He offered her his hand.

Ginny took it. She had settled herself in front of him before he knew what had happened, and she leaned back against him and braced her hands on his thighs. Harry felt himself growing hot - he slipped an arm around her waist - Ginny gave a lovely little sigh -

A flashbulb popped. Harry's heart gave a terrible thud - he looked up and realized, for the first time, that Eloise and Colin were on this raft too.

"Sorry, Harry," said Colin, grinning, waving his camera. "But you know how it is."

"Molest my only sister in public why don't you," Fred cried, covering his eyes with his arm. "Look away, George, look away…"

Harry flew away from the raft at top speed, amazed to feel Ginny's stomach pulsing beneath his forearm and hand. She was giggling. She was imperturbable. She was… here. With him. He pulled up to hover between Sirius and Ron - they were all together.

And Azkaban was falling.

As they watched, the entrance caved in. Rock crumpled to earth, sending up a massive cloud of dust - it hit them in a hot, forceful wind, sending their brooms astray and making them all cough. The collapsed dust of Azkaban had a stench like none Harry had ever encountered. It was death, fear and madness, all in one.

More rock collapsed; they were rocked by another revolting blast, and Hermione made a terrified noise. She clung to the broom.

"It's all right," Ron reassured her, prising her fingers off the handle. She gripped his hand instead, with what looked like painful force, and this time, when Ron caught Harry's eye, there was laughter in his face. But Ron obviously hadn't been anticipating the sight of Ginny - his eyes traveled very briefly over her, and then he glanced at Harry, questioning.

Harry knew he was red all over, but he didn't let go of Ginny. Instead he held Ron's gaze and tried to communicate, without the painful blundering of words, that this was the way things were going to be from now on.

Ron looked a little surprised. But then he smiled and looked away, and Harry knew that something important had been sorted out between them.

"Ooooh," Hermione said suddenly. "Look at the ground… it's opening up…"

The island seemed to be moaning as the last of the structure collapsed onto it, and the rocks that had supported Azkaban began split open. The sea flooded mercilessly into the cracks, filling them with mud and wet gravel. Gurgling sounds and hissings rose into the air - it sounded to Harry as though the very earth was drowning. The tide around the island pounded in towards the prison, crashing against the remaining stones and sucking them into the water.

A huge section of the shore suddenly opened like a pit - like a Dementor made of sand. Harry half expected to see souls fly out of it. But it was only a whirlpool of water and mud, with rocks sliding down into its depths - and then the water eclipsed the sand entirely and that bit of the shore was gone. A wave crashed over the place where it had been, silver with froth and foam.

"Hermione," Harry asked suddenly, "why did the dome turn silver? What happened?"

"Oh!" Hermione sounded very pleased. "Did it turn all silver? How interesting - I didn't know it would be so visual, but then I suppose the Patronus is a very visual spell -"

"Then it was a Patronus?" Harry asked.

"It was nearly a hundred of them," Hermione said proudly. "Well, more like seventy - but still. I could hear Ron shouting for me to help you, and I knew that the Dementors were advancing on you - I knew they were flying -"

"You could hear me?" Ron demanded, and Hermione nodded. "I knew it!" he said. "All right - go ahea -"

"Well, I knew the only way you'd be able to go back to destroying them was if you had some sort of permanent Patronus around you," Hermione cut back in breathlessly. "But I couldn't think of a way to do that. But then Penny mentioned that early on in the process of creating the Imprisonment Enchantment, she and Percy had been working with a version of Redimio - you know, the Insulation Charm? And the whole point of that particular spell is to bind together a safety ward and surround a specific area with it - Insulation Charms are used all around Hogwarts, for example, and -"

"And the point?" Ron prodded.

Hermione sighed. "Well, the point is that Fleur was out there, trapped outside the dome, and so we told her to try having everyone do a Patronus and then seeing if she could bind them together - Patronum Redimio. I hoped it would create a sort of energy field outside the dome that was strong enough to push the Dementors towards the center - I wanted you to have a few feet of space that they couldn't get into, so that you could keep working -"

"That's exactly what happened," Ginny interrupted. "It was amazing - I wish you could have seen it, Hermione, it was beautiful."

"I was really surprised it went so well," Hermione said modestly. "I've never had an idea that quickly before. Of course it wasn't really me - it was Penny."

Ron nuzzled the side of her neck, apparently without regard for who was watching. "It was both of you," he mumbled.

Hermione went very pink and ducked her head.

"Harry." Sirius's hoarse, desperate voice silenced them all. "Watch."

They turned - they gasped - Harry tightened his arm around Ginny and she gripped his knees.

The sea was swallowing Azkaban.

There was a sucking sound like a vacuum, and the remainder of the island was devoured by a dark, whirling pit of water. When the last of the rock had been subsumed, the ocean shut on top of it. The sea gave a heave in the tide, sending waves toward the mainland - and then settled again, quite at peace. As if nothing had ever been there to begin with - no island, no prison, no torture. Nothing at all.

It was so quiet, here, and so wonderfully cool. Wind sifted through Harry's hair. When he was able to tear his eyes from the placid, oddly empty water, he cast a glance toward Sirius.

Sirius's expression was past Harry's comprehension. He could only look at it and hope that he would never, never understand it.

"The rain's stopping," Hermione whispered.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-04