Sirius began to swim across the lake. Harry grabbed the fur at the nape of his neck and let himself be hauled along, although he couldn't help but glance nervously over his shoulder. They would be sitting ducks like this for Riddle's Killing Curse.
But when Riddle did aim that particular spell at them, a silver wave reared up from the lake and blocked it. Harry gasped in gratitude. Of course. His instinct that everything here was unfriendly to Riddle to was right.
"Come back!"
Harry buried his face against Sirius's fur and closed his eyes. He didn't think Riddle was talking to him, but he wasn't going to look. He was going to reach out for the strength he could still feel pouring through him, and he was going to scramble up on the island's shore when they reached it, and—
Yes, they were there. Harry climbed, with the grit of pebbles and sand beneath his hands and knees all the way, until he could stand and lean against the silver thing in the center of the island. It looked like a box made of glittering metal, with open slats and slender bones in the middle of it, protruding beyond the sides.
Harry had no idea why it looked like that, and now wasn't the time to ask. He turned his head, and saw Sirius shaking himself free of wetness before he transformed into a man. He smiled at Harry, looking more sane than he had every other time Harry had met him.
Even if his eyes were kind of reddish.
"We have to end his ability to affect your mind. Reach into the box, touch the bones, and call on the family."
Harry took a deep breath and let his hand rest on those bones, and then he shouted as loudly as he could, Help me!
He was crying out for help one more time, the baby boy.
Bella/Bellatrix smiled. She was proud to help him. He was on the verge of defeating his enemy. She knew he was. And he sort of felt like her Lord, which was unexpected, but nice. Perhaps her Lord had been reincarnated in the body of a Black.
She reached up and flicked her nails open. It was the work of a moment to slice open her throat.
"Take it," she whispered as she slumped to the floor of her cell. "Everything I have is yours."
The call tugged and pulled.
He gave his strength, but it continued tugging and pulling.
It was annoying.
Draco poured in the magic, poured in the soul, told himself that he would probably grow too weak to continue the chant in a minute but his twin needed him—
And opened his eyes to a misty world of silver and black and the image of Henry standing beside a silver box filled with bones.
Of all people, Sirius Black was the one who loomed beside him.
Draco did his best to put himself in between the kidnapper and Henry, but from the way his transparent feet skimmed over the ground, he decided he was probably only there in a wraith state. It didn't matter. He still did it, and Henry glanced towards him with his eyes going wide.
"Draco?"
"Twins can do things other people can't," Draco said. He ignored the way that Sirius was staring at him in shock, and the golden shine around his neck. Those things weren't important right now. "Take my hand."
"Can i?"
But Henry's hand felt real and strong when it came to rest within Draco's, and the silver box felt like metal when he rested his hand on it. The bones stirred and rattled, and Draco felt a swell of magic far below them. He supposed that they were feeling their ancestors, being summoned to the battle with Voldemort from the past.
When Draco glanced towards the shore of the lake, he blinked. "That bloke looks a little too young to be Voldemort," he muttered.
"I think it's his teenage form," Henry said. "Although I don't know why. He was an adult when he did—what he did to me." A swift sideways glance revealed that he didn't want to speak of it in front of Sirius.
Draco just nodded, and smiled at his brother. "Ready to destroy him once and for all?"
"You can't talk like you're the one who can do that!" Sirius cried, apparently finding his voice.
"This version of him," Henry said, ignoring Sirius, which was immensely satisfying for Draco. Henry was smiling, eyes bright in a way that Draco hadn't seen them since Father brought him back from the graveyard. "Come on."
....
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