Chapter Two

Terry Boot

01:03 a.m.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

The Great Hall     

 

 Mad Eye Moody levitated the body to the Hospital Wing escorted by Hagrid who was in no shape to do much more. With further encouragement by Dumbledore, Remus and McGonagall left the school to continue their search for the two missing girls.

Arthur and Molly Weasley tried their best to comfort the students while Dumbledore sat at the Gryffindor table appearing in deep thought. Ernie Macmillan had taken a position in one corner of the Great Hall with his back to the wall, whimpering to himself and rebuffed any attempt of consolation.

Harry, having witnessed someone even closer to him die, was not as affected as his friends were and was able to think somewhat clearly. "Tonks," he said to the ex-Auror, and with a nod of his head he indicated an empty portion of the Hall where they could talk in private.

He laid his hand on Hermione's shoulder as she cried into the chest of his, once again, best friend. He was going to say something reassuring, but Ron shook his head. "Go on. I'll watch her."

He nodded and followed Tonks to one side.

"How did you get the list?" he asked.

Her face betrayed no emotion. "I was following an informant of mine because I thought he was turning sides. Seems I was right. We wound up in Knockturn Alley, and I saw with whom he was meeting. It was Bellatrix Lestrange and Pettigrew."

"Wormtail?"

She nodded. "I overheard them talking about the list after the informant left."

There was something she wasn't telling. "What did they do, recite the whole list for you or something? How did you get it?"

She looked over his shoulder to see that nobody was near. "I killed Pettigrew for it, Harry. Lestrange Apparated away before I had a chance to get to her as well."

  Harry was taken by surprise at first. "Wormtail is dead?"

She wiped at her mouth, her hand dragging over her chin. "If we make it through today, I'll make sure his body's found. Sirius's name'll be cleared at least."

He nodded thoughtfully. "Any idea how they managed to kill Justin?"

Her brows furrowed. "Don't know if you caught the floorshow, Harry, but that ass Macmillan killed Justin."

Harry shook his head. "No ... he didn't."

"Taken a bit of the barmy, Harry? He pushed you into Hagrid. It was an accident, but it's his fault all the same."

Her eyes snapped up behind his shoulder and Harry swiveled around to find Dumbledore standing right there.

"You do not believe it was by happenchance either, Harry?"

"No, Sir. An entire crowd of people around, and that arrow didn't even graze someone. It was meant to happen at one o'clock and it happened." His eyes found Terry Boot. "And if we don't figure out how to stop this then in less than an hour, Terry will be next."

Dumbledore nodded. "Use the Floo in my office."

Harry blinked. "For what."

Tonks grabbed his arm. "Were leaving right now to find Bellatrix Lestrange."

He grabbed his school bag on the way out looking dismally at Hermione shivering in Ron's arms. "Take care of her, Ron."

He nodded in response.

01:13 a.m.

London

Knockturn Alley

Harry stopped briefly to pull on his winter cloak and catch his breath. The frigid chill in the air cut through his t-shirt like it wasn't even there. Tonks led the way down the quiet thin street to the storefront of Borgin & Burkes. She paused only long enough to lean back and kick in the door.

Wands drawn they moved swiftly through to the rear of the store. Tonks stopped in front of large cabinet and drew a fiery ruin across the front. Once it was complete the body of Peter Pettigrew fell out of the open doors. Harry didn't miss a beat and pulled back his own leg and slammed his foot in the side of the corpse's head.

Tonks didn't even flinch, but she did make sure he was done before she knelt by the body.

"Get it all out there, Harry?"

He felt the bile rise to the back of his throat and turned his head letting acrid spittle fly to the floor. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand he shook his head. "Not even close."

"Check the shop out. See if you can find out anything. She left through the back."

"Lumos!"

Harry's wand-tip flared to light the way through the dark. He kept his eyes to the floor in hopes of finding something that the evil bitch might have dropped in her escape, but after a few minutes turned up nothing.

"Harry."

"Did you find anything?"

She held up a scrap of paper that Harry recognized as a receipt. "I think it's from a hotel. I recognize it from coming through the entrance to the Caldron. It's right down the street. Come on."

 

They made their way through the back Tonks pulled her wand. "Locomotor Cadaver!"

"What are you doing?" asked Harry.

 "I'm leaving him in the middle of Diagon Alley. That way the shopkeepers will find him in the morning."

The glint of Wormtail's silver hand caught Harry's eye. "Hold on."

He turned around in place and looked until he found something that would do. It was in a glass case near the counter. "Reducto!" The glass shattered and blew inward. He reached in and withdrew a good size ornate axe.

"Harry?" Tonks said warily.

"Put him down."

She looked at him with questioning eyes.

"He bought that hand with my blood. I want it back."

Harry kicked his arm so that it was moved away from the body, and reared the axe back. Tonks closed her eyes; it seemed that there were some things that she just didn't want to see. With a definitive thud the deed was done and Harry picked up his bounty.

Tonks repeated the incantation to pull along Pettigrew's body along. They left him in front of Gringotts before they started out at a dash to the Leaky Caldron.

"What do you think we'll find?" asked Harry.

"Don't have a clue. Pettigrew wasn't dead before Lestrange left. She might be there waiting for him, or maybe we'll find something that will lead us a step further. I just don't know."

 

01:25 a.m.

London

The Silver Stag Hotel

"I'm sorry, we're not allowed to release that sort information, ma'am."

Tonks leaned onto the counter while Harry kept a look out around the seedy lobby. They were completely alone. Harry performed a Locking Charm on the front doors and closed on the counter to provide a little more intimidation.

"People's lives are on the line you wanker." She reached out and grabbed his shirt pulling him forward. "I'm gonna have ta hurt you if you don't tell me."

The guy looked like he didn't care so Harry did the only thing he could think of and pulled the axe out from under his cloak, swinging it in a high arc and let it fall as close as he dared to the man's head. The blood, still wet on the sharpened edge, seemed to catch the clerk's attention.

"Is that ..."

Harry adjusted his glasses. "Mister, I just cut off a man's hand about three minutes ago. Him I hated ... you I don't even know. What makes you think I would care?"

He looked at Harry's eyes and found them dead green then back to Tonks where she was just smiling.

"Room number?"

"Nine."

"Obliviate!"

The night clerk's eyes glazed over and Harry pulled the axe free slipped it back under the cloak looking around once more. A few moments later they were upstairs and they were in front of number nine.

"Ready, Harry?"

Six months ago Bellatrix Lestrange said that righteous anger wasn't enough to fuel the power of the Cruciatus Curse. Harry had just spent the better part of his life taking abuse in one form or another from his estranged relatives, from a sadistic potions professor, from insane Death Eaters, and a from one of the most powerful Wizards of all time. His parents had been killed in an attempt to protect him. His godfather gave up his life trying to protect him. He just spent the last six months shutting himself off from every kind thought and every person that thought anything good about him to protect them. Was he ready?

He gripped his wand in one hand and the ornate axe in the other. "Hell yes."

"Alohomora!" Tonks yelled as she kicked at the door.

The door slammed open Harry was about to step forward, but was pulled back at the last second, narrowly escaping a bright green flash of light.

A voice yelled from inside the room. The door was already destroyed.

"Where is she?" said Harry

"Come out, come out, wee baby Potter. Are you angry enough yet?"

He recognized the voice grating on his nerves, taunting him with the impotence of his actions last June in the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic.

"Why don't you come out here and we'll see if you can take me, Lestrange. Voldemort tried last June, and he still wasn't strong enough."

Tonks eyes widened. "Harry, would you please not bait the psychotic freakazoid with the wand and the pension for Unforgivable Curses," she whispered.

"That will be the last time you take my lord's name in vain. You're going to die screaming today, baby Potter."

"Can you see her?"

Tonks risked taking a quick look and another green jet of light took off half the doorjamb.

"Middle of the room. The Fuckwit is just standing there. She's mental."

"Little Potty sitting in the grass, sticking a lolly up his ..."

Harry whipped the axe around the doorway and followed right behind. Lestrange had to duck out of the way to avoid being shaved far too close. She shrieked and he let loose with his own curse. "Tremulare!"

Her wand was the first thing to go flying as she began to violently shake, dropping to the floor, unable to stop the convulsions. The two of them dashed into the room, and he retrieved the axe while Tonks snapped her wand in several pieces.

  The look on Lestrange's face was grim and determined as she flopped around on the floor and Harry looked down upon her. "I can kill you fast or slow, your choice."

She grinned, but that went away with a spasm that snapped her jaw shut.

"Slow it is, then," he said, pocketing his wand and taking a better grip on the axe. "The hands first, I think. Tonks?"

The ex-Auror looked at him like she was trying to tell if he was serious.

"Don't have the ... nerve," Lestrange spat in between convulsions.

Harry reached into his cloak and withdrew Pettigrew's silver hand, showing it to her. "I'm collecting them tonight. Been thinking about setting them on my windowsill at home."

For the first time since he had first met Bellatrix Lestrange he saw fear in her eyes.

"Please ..." she couldn't get anymore out before strong spasms wracked her body.

"Please cut off your hands? Okay."

Tonks held her own out. "Harry, no. You can't."

He looked at his watch. "Tonks, in twenty-seven minutes Terry Boot is going to die unless we get an answer out of this. Any suggestions?"

She looked torn.

"Dammit, Tonks, she killed Sirius! I thought that was the whole reason you left the Ministry."

 She winced. "It was. But this, Harry?"

His anger was at its peak. "Either this or the Cruciatus, your choice."

Her eyes widened. "I can't."

Grunt after grunt came from below. "Fine. I guess we're in agreement, then."

Harry took advantage of Lestrange's arm flopping around and stepped on it, swinging the Axe in a wide arc."

"NOOOOoo!"

The axe thudded into the wood of the floor an inch from severing her arm at the wrist. It had cut deep, but not through the bone, and Lestrange screamed.  

"How do we stop it!" yelled Harry.

"You cannot stop it, Potter." A familiar high and cold voice echoed throughout the room.

Tonks turned to the doorway. "Bloody Hell!" She stumbled backward and fell to the floor scrambling away as quick as she could.

"Master!" screamed Lestrange.

"This is the last time you fail me, Bella," Voldemort hissed.

Harry jerked the axe up with his left hand and withdrew his wand with the right."

"Accio Axe!" said Voldemort, almost board.

The axe flew out of Harry's hand, but that was exactly what he was hoping. "Avada Kedavra!"

A jet of green light shot forth from Harry's wand, but missed Voldemort's head by a scant inch, singeing his snake-like skin as it passed. A high yell pierced the air and the black-cloaked figure dodged to the side out into the hall.

"Damn!" cursed Harry. His eyes didn't leave the doorway. "Don't let her escape, Tonks!"

He edged along the wall, not wanting to make a target of himself and noticed out of the corner of his eye the couch flipping over and out of sight. Tonks was preparing a makeshift barrier to fight behind if needed. That suited him fine.

"Afraid to come out and fight like a snake, Voldemort?"

"Your taunts are useless against me, Potter; tonight you die, I know it and you know it. Soon I will rule."

Harry's nose flared at a sudden intake of heated breath. "I've beaten you again and again, Tommy-boy. What makes you think this time will be any different?"

A high cackling laughter echoed in the hallway. "Let us say that I have taken out an insurance policy on today's events and I am sure you are keeping it in trust for me."

He took a split second to glance at his watch. Harry knew he needed more to go on.

"Getting bored here, Tom. Why don't you come out from the hall and we'll duel. You'll finally get to see if your Killing Curse is better than mine."

"You've come a long way, Potter," Voldemort hissed. "Using Unforgivables now? Tut tut. What would Dumbledore say?" He paused. "No matter, but if you don't mind I'd rather not have another encounter with that wand core of yours while your dead friend in there stabs me in the back. So I think I'll go now."

A loud crack filled the air, as Harry immediately knew Voldemort had Disapparated away.

"Damn!"

He checked the hall to make sure the coast was clear and retrieved the axe.

"That was him!" cried Tonks.

With grim determination he returned to the convulsing and bleeding body of Bellatrix Lestrange. She was trying her best to clamp down on the grievous wound Harry had inflicted on her wrist, but with each spasm she whimpered more and more.

"Nineteen minutes and counting. Up to losing that hand yet?"

"That was Voldemort ..." gasped Tonks as she still stared at the empty doorway.

"You get used to it after the fourth or fifth time you see him. He's gone, relax."

He turned his attention back to Lestrange. "How do we stop it?" he demanded.

Through tears of pain she smiled. "Die Baby Potty. You're ... all going to die"

Harry screwed up his face and screamed senselessly at nothing rearing back with the axe and planting it deep into her chest with one strong swing.

 He was still screaming when he fell to his knees beside the body and pulled his left hand back to slam it into her face. And again. And again.

"Harry, stop!" yelled Tonks and she tried to pull him away.

He pushed back and swiveled in place. "Can't you see! IT'S ALL MY FAULT! THEY'RE ALL GOING TO DIE BECAUSE OF ME!

 

Tonks ignored him and stood, pulling him to his feet. "We have to get back to Hogwarts and tell Dumbledore about Voldemort. Maybe he's already figured out a way to stop it."

 

01:57 a.m.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry-Scotland

The Great Hall

Harry was feeling the night wear on him as they slowed the last few feet in front of the Great Hall. His left hand was throbbing and even with in the cold air between the Silver Stag and the Leaky Caldron, sweat was coursing down his face.

Mad Eye Moody was still guarding the door and let them in as they approached. They were greeted with grim stares as they entered the Hall. Hermione and Ron were the closest to the doors and approached, looking wearily at the blood stained axe Harry was holding, and the condition he was in.

"Harry, are you okay?" asked a very worried and red-eyed Hermione.

He nodded and watched as Tonks went over to fill Dumbledore in. "It's Voldemort."

Ron winced and then nodded. "We figured. What happened?"

"Wormtail is dead. Lestrange is dead."

Both his friend's eyes moved to the axe.

"I only killed Lestrange."

"Protego!" someone yelled.

"Terry, no!" Dumbledore roared.

Shrieks rang out in the Hall, but Harry couldn't see what was happening with everyone in the way.

"Quick, everyone! Attack him with harmless spells," Dumbledore said. "We have to break down his shield."

Harry pushed his way through to see and help if he could. Terry Boot was standing there incased in his protective shield grasping at his neck, his face turning red. He pulled his wand and used every non-threatening jinx he could think of along with all the others, but he could see it was useless and watched as the minutes passed and Terry Boot suffocated by his own shield charm.

 His axe dropped to the floor along with Boot's body and the final failing of the charm. Raising his arm to see his watch he closed his eyes.

2:01 a.m.