A Dark Time For The Light

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All three were silent, blinking with the shock. Alice snarled, “No-one else must know of this, save your partners, Sev and Harry. Sorry Minerva, I don’t know Hortense well enough, you understand?”. Minerva could barely nod. Harry went deep into himself. Somehow he was amazed, but not altogether surprised. He knew Alice was powerful, but now he knew. They had a more than powerful weapon, and maybe the Prophecy wasn’t just for him after all. He felt his heart constrict as he watched Alice’s face tighten, but at the same felt a lightness in his chest, something loosen itself, a weight lifting slightly from his heart, this might not be just about him after all.

She turned and rummaged in the bottom drawer of her desk and withdrew four sets of ear protectors, handing one each to Harry, Minerva and Severus. “Put them on, I need to let off steam”. All obeyed without question. She went into her little corner room and pulled out a man-size target. She stood on her library ladders and reached above her head to attach the target. It was then that the others noticed the pulley and wire system over their heads. She tugged the target until it rested near to the far wall.

Going into the top drawer of the desk, she pulled out two guns wrapped in rags, chose the revolver and loaded a clip. She faced away from her targets, then in an explosive move, turned and fired the whole clip into the target, 3 bullets in the head, 3 in the heart, then the last 3 in the groin. A perfect hit in every case. She blew over the smoking barrel and laid the weapon down, then drew the target towards her. All could see the neat holes. She stripped off her ear-protectors and the others followed suit. Harry was impressed, the others awed. The stench of cordite hung on the air.

Severus aptly summed the situation up whe he said, “Dear God, You’re lethal”. Harry was chuckling again, but this time nervously, “Fuck!. Alice!. You’re bloody dangerous”. Minerva stayed silent, not trusting her vocal cords to work. And Alice knew she had the most powerful members of the Wizarding community over a barrel. Releasing the spent clip she wrapped the guns again and secreted them, then poured more tea.

She remarked flippantly, “Just as well I’m on your side then, isn’t it?”, she smirked. Severus was tempted to say that this was no laughing matter, but this largely self-trained witch before him would ignore anything he said right now. All of the three could feel the anger and power than emanated from her.

“Well now you know”, she muttered as she laid the guns away, “There’s more than one way of killing him”, then she grinned. “I’d like to teach you all some of these backup techniques if I may”. Severus swallowed hard, “Backup techniques?. Bloody hell, we won’t even need our wands”, he glanced at the perfect holes that she had drilled into the targets. Alice smiled, “It’s just backup”, and Harry giggled nervously, he knew what this term meant to Alice, and, now, why she needed the reassurance of the Mundane world. It was simply what she knew, what she had grown up with, not having had a Hogwarts education.

That night, the four held a meeting around Remus’ bed in the hospital. The first drug in his cycle totally exhausted him and he always spent the first night in treatment within it’s sterile confines. He looked up blearily as the three entered, surprised to see the boys hot on Severus’ heels, then he heard the news. Severus helped him sit upright as he scrubbed at his eyes and shook his head. “Voldemort’s daughter?”, was all he could manage. The others nodded. Harry said, “She told us of her origins. Apparently she’s one of the original Pendle witches’ descendants and she is determined to see such a sullied line die out, it’s the main reason she never had children”. Remus shook his head, “That’s bloody tragic”, he intoned.

There was a diffident knock on the door a few moments later and the subject of their conversation popped her head around the door bearing an armful of flowers. “I figured as all of your mobiles were off that this is where you would all be. D’you mind?”, she nodded at Remus. He waved her in, still a little distracted by the news. She entered and closed the door scuttling over to the bed and laying the flowers down. “Sorry to have freaked you all out like this, but I had to be sure of you all. Boys?. Guys?”, she waited for someone to speak.

Four pairs of eyes regarded her solemnly. Harry was the first to speak, “There’s a Prophecy. About how either he or I will end”, and he began to intone it softly, “The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches....” and his voice trailed as she interrupted in an equally low voice, “Born to those who have thrice defied him. Born as the seventh month dies”. Harry continued, trying not to gape, “And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal....”. Alice had a slight smile playing with her lips as she said, “But he will have power the Dark Lord knows not”, and they both finished in hushed whispers, “And either must die at the hand of the other....for neither can live while the other survives”.

There was an electric silence in the room, then Alice broke the tension in the room by winking at Harry, “No-one said anything about there being two of us, so it’s pro’bly me or you, chuck”, then started laughing wiping tears from her eyes. She reached over and wiped tears from Harry’s stunned face. He composed himself enough to whisper, “You know? About the Prophecy?”.

Alice nodded, “Mum told me on her deathbed four years ago. She found out when I was little. That’s why she didn’t make a big deal when my step-father refused to let me go to Hogwarts. She didn’t know the real reason he forbade me until later. She just thought she was keeping me safe. Away from all things Magical. Magic should have been my birthright, just like it was for you four. I should have been trained, just as you four were. Apparently I was destined for either Ravenclaw or Slytherin or Gryffindor. Someone was even sent to fetch me to school. A giant hairy bloke, my memory of him is dim, but I remember his size and the matted black hair and beard, the Scottish accent”, she gazed dreamily into space then snapped back to the present.

To see Harry’s face clouding, “Hagrid”, he whispered, “Only he didn’t get the use of the motorbike ‘til later on, to collect me in the same manner. My aunt and uncle were terrified of him. It was the very first time in my life that I felt that there was someone on my side”. Tears slid slowly down his cheeks. Alice smiled waterily at him and sniffed, “Me too, only he was sent packing. He was persistent, I’ll give him that. What was his name again?, only I’d like to thank him if we ever meet”. Harry looked up wet-eyed, “Rubeus Hagrid. Once the keeper of the keys at Hogwarts and one of my very favourite people. I haven’t seen him since the Final Debacle and he’s never turned up at any of the cadres and he’s not in the cemetery at Hogwarts”. His voice dropped lower, “I don’t know if he’s alive or dead”, then dissolved into sobs. Draco gathered Harry to him and held him, rocking gently.

Alice stood, sniffling and wiping her eyes, “I’d better get back”. She leaned over and kissed Remus on the forehead, “And you, get better, I want all four of you plus Minerva to be in the final Victory. I’ve been thinking how to approach the end-game and I need you back with us, Remus”. The man grinned at her, they got on really well and he felt the flood of her affection for him wash over him. She extricated herself from his sudden embrace and stood up, “Severus, get your man better, then we all fight. I don’t want to outline the plans yet. Anyone that holds them can be ‘read’ and I’d prefer that not to happen, for obvious reasons. I’ll call a meeting as soon as we are all trained up enough. Me with Wandcraft and Spellcraft and you lot with Occlumency skills. I hope you are working hard on them. I will test you again soon, Harry and Severus. I know that Minerva is ready. All we have to do is make sure she has time to build her shields before we go in, but you guys need to train harder”. She kissed her fingertips and blew it into the room as she left.

Draco huffed an impatient breath, “What does she mean, we need to train harder? And this from a totally untrained Witch. Cheeky bugger”, with a trace of his old Malfoy arrogance, to be shot down in flames by Harry and Severus who related that afternoon’s session of mind-rifling, plus the method in which Alice let off steam, then Severus revealed his ex-colleague’s skills about which he’d previously known nothing and clarified Alice’s parting remark, “I’m glad we have her on our side”, Severus murmured. The others couldn’t help but agree. They all parted thoughtfully. The boys kissed their friends and left and Remus scooted over in bed to allow his husband to stretch out beside him. His beloved was clearly as exhausted as he was. After a few minutes, Severus could feel his eyes start to close. He rolled off the bed, undressed, and Remus held the covers open for him and he sank gratefully into bed. It was a bit of a squash but he didn’t mind, taking Remus into his arms, they slept, wound round each other.