Echo was suspended in a void of nothingness, a perfect, absolute black just like the space he had occupied after his death and subsequent arrival in this world. For a terrifying moment, he thought he had died again. How? Did Dumbledore somehow catch them? Did Wick crash? But instead of being violently shot out into a new existence, he was met by the Dark Beast. The Beast was immense, a towering form of shadow and hunger. It spoke to him, yet Echo heard nothing, only seeing its gargantuan mouth move, forming silent, cavernous words. The Beast came closer and closer, its presence suffocating, until it was ready to consume him whole. Just before everything vanished from sight, a single, chilling word finally broke through the silence and into his mind: Give up.
Echo was violently shaken awake.
"Wake up, you brat! Wake up!" Ragnok was yelling, his voice frantic and close.
Echo's eyes flew open, and he bolted upright, sweating buckets and breathing heavily, the phantom echo of the Beast's voice still vibrating in his skull. He held his head, trying to clear the haze, and looked around, seeing Ragnok, Pip, and Shimmer. Shimmer climbed onto his shoulders and began to gently comb his long hair with its silvery paws, while Pip held one of his arms for comfort.
"Are you alright, kid?" Ragnok asked, his expression one of deep concern.
"What happened?" Echo managed to rasp out, his throat dry.
"You held that inverted shadow magic Lumos spell, or whatever you called it, for so long that you passed out," the goblin explained. "I almost thought you died, but then you started to shake in your sleep like you were having a seizure."
"Oh," was all Echo could say, a hollow expression settling on his face. He looked around and saw Wick nearby, curled up and fast asleep.
"You have a nightmare or something?" Ragnok pressed.
Echo, with a hollow expression and tone, coming to terms with all that had happened just before his sleep, said, "Or something." He then looked around at the scenery. They were on solid ground, surrounded by rugged cliffs and the endless roar of the sea. "Where are we?"
"Somewhere far away," Pip chirped, just as Echo had promised.
Echo looked at Ragnok for a better explanation.
"We're in Ireland," the goblin said, folding his arms. "More specifically, the southeastern part of Ireland, Mizen Head. It's still under British Ministry control and territory, but it's far enough out here that they'd never think to look. For now, we're safe."
Echo didn't say it aloud, but right now, he didn't feel so safe.
Echo hugged his knees to his chest, the rough wool of his trousers scraping against his jaw. The endless roar of the Atlantic provided a soundtrack to the chaos in his mind. Skate is dead. I'm a fugitive. I'm a murderer. My life is over. Dumbledore let it all happen. The thoughts spun in a dizzying, suffocating spiral. What were they supposed to do now? Where could a dark wizard, a murderous goblin, a magical monkey, a fucking dragon, and a house elf go that a furious Ministry and an omnipresent Headmaster couldn't reach? He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to banish the Beast's single, cruel command: Give up.
His train of spiraling misery was violently cut short by a sound that didn't belong to the wind or the waves: distant, raw screams. Echo's eyes snapped open. He looked toward the bottom of the valley carved into the mountain they were resting on. Below, nestled precariously close to the sea, was a small cluster of stone cottages. A plume of black smoke was rising, and even from this distance, he could see flickering orange lights—a fire was burning in the small civilization, and the screams were intensifying. It was clearly under attack.
"What's going on down there?" Echo asked, pushing himself to his feet.
Ragnok, who had been inspecting Sirius Black's confiscated wand with professional curiosity, looked down, his brow furrowing. "It's a magical community—a small, hidden hamlet that lives off the grid. It wasn't like this a few minutes ago."
Echo didn't wait. "Pip, go down there and take a look at what's happening. Be fast, and be safe."
Pip nodded, his large green eyes wide with immediate concern. He vanished with a soft, barely perceptible crack of Elf-Apparition. The minute that followed was agonizingly slow.
When Pip reappeared, he looked shaken, his small body trembling. "Master Echo, it's… " It's terrible," he stammered, forgetting to refer to him as Mister, wringing his hands. "The hamlet is under attack by Death Eaters."
The news hit Echo like a physical blow. The hair on the back of his neck raised, and a furious, deep red instantly overwrote the weary gray-blue in his hair. He looked down at the hamlet, his gaze sharp and cold.
"Oh no, I know that look," Ragnok sighed, immediately recognizing the shift in the boy's posture. He tossed the stolen wand in the air and caught it. "You want to help them, don't you?"
"Of course, I do," Echo said, his voice low and dangerous. "They're Death Eaters, and they're taking advantage of those people. We may still be on Ministry turf, but as you said, we're far enough away that the Ministry won't care about a handful of poor hamleteers. Those Aurors are worried about us, not them."
"And we should be more worried about ourselves!" Ragnok countered, though his tone already lacked conviction. He knew the argument was futile.
"You can stay here and wait for me to get back when I'm done," Echo offered, already checking the grip on his newly mended wand.
Ragnok snorted, offended. "I ain't doing that. I'll help them. But don't expect the people of this hamlet to love you for it suddenly."
"I know that," Echo said, turning to look at his friend. "But we already are the bad guys now, in the eyes of the world. We may as well do one good thing before we disappear."
Ragnok could see it in Echo's eyes: the kid thought he was a villain, even if only half-true, and he needed this act of intervention more for the meaning—a final protest against the darkness he'd been forced into—than for the act itself. Ragnok sighed, the sound resigned, and cracked his thick neck.
"Let's do this, then," the goblin muttered, pulling his new wand into a more comfortable grip.
At the bottom of the valley, in the center of the small, burning hamlet. Over a dozen Death Eaters, clad in their black robes and silver masks, had collected the petrified inhabitants in the town square. The people, mostly elderly witches and wizards who wanted to live a quiet life, and young couples with a few children looking for a cheaper place to live, stood huddled together, tears streaming down their faces.
The leader of the group, a hulking figure whose mask was slightly more ornate than the rest, was boasting to his comrades, his voice echoing over the square. "The Dark Lord grows stronger every hour! Soon, no one will be safe from his wrath! He needs blood, and you filthy blood traitors will provide it!" He raised his wand, pointing it directly at the nearest elderly woman.
All the screaming and crying stopped instantly. A brilliant, sickly green jet of light snapped out from the shadowy entrance of the valley, hitting the leader squarely in the back. The Death Eater convulsed once, his wand hand dropping slack, and he fell dead to the ground with a soft thud. All eyes—from the terrified people to the masked Death Eaters—whipped toward the sight. Standing several yards back, just where the mountain met the valley floor, were five figures: Echo, his wand still glowing with a dying emerald light; Ragnok, axe held ready; Shimmer, perched defensively on Echo's shoulder; Pip, clutching a corner of Ragnok's suit; and Wick, the massive black dragon, whose head towered over the group, her baleful yellow eyes reflecting the orange glow of the nearby flames.
Echo smiled at the Death Eaters—a cold, dead look that held no light, no malice, only pure, empty resolve. The maroon in his hair was now a hard, unyielding black. He spoke, his voice carrying clearly across the shocked silence, purring coldly: "Hello, Death Eaters. Still hungry for some death?"
Ragnok looked up at Echo, a dry smirk touching his goblin features. "Really? 'Hungry for some death'?"
Echo shot back with an exasperated tone, his shoulders sagging slightly. "Well, excuse me! I'm not exactly in the best state of mind for a witty one-liner." He let out a long, weary sigh and adjusted his grip on his wand. "You know what? Let's just kill these assholes and be done with it."
"You? Kill us?" one of the Death Eaters sneered. The masked group erupted into mocking laughter, the sound harsh against the crackle of the burning cottages.
Echo tilted his head, his eyes cold. "You really don't know me, do you?"
The Death Eaters paused, their laughter faltering into confused silence. Ragnok chuckled darkly, stepping forward. "They must be new, kid."
Echo shrugged. "Pity. Guess they're gonna learn the hard way." He gestured vaguely behind him. "Also, do you idiots not see the fuck-mothering dragon right behind me?"
One of the Death Eaters took a trembling step back, his wand wavering. "That... that's not an illusion?"
"No," Echo said in a tone of absolute ice.
Wick explained. The Hebridean Black surged forward with terrifying speed, her massive jaws snapping shut over the questioning Death Eater. With one brutal gulp, she ate him whole. The remaining masked figures gasped in collective horror.
"Who's next?" Echo asked.
The shock broke, and the Death Eaters erupted into action, unleashing a barrage of curses and dark magic. Echo and Ragnok dove into the fray. Echo didn't care about hiding the dark arts anymore; he openly used his dark affinity in full view of the villagers. Ragnok fought at full power, his stolen wand spitting violet Goblin-magic that tore through shields.
Shimmer remained invisible, a phantom terror on the battlefield. The Demiguise pulled Death Eaters off balance, yanked their hoods over their faces, tripped them as they tried to aim, and pulled at their hair painfully. Pip helped wherever he could, snapping his fingers to erect flickering shields for Echo, making the muddy terrain unstable and slippery as the Death Eaters tried to retreat.
Meanwhile, Wick was a whirlwind of carnage. She stomped through the square, grabbing Death Eaters and ragdolling them in her teeth, crushing them instantly. She sent others flying with her horns or set them on fire. She chased a group of three into a stone house, cornering them before breathing a concentrated torrent of fire through the doorway, burning them alive inside.
Echo moved through the chaos, hitting the remaining Death Eaters with weak, rapid-fire stunning spells. "He throws spells like a first-year!" one of them mocked, not realizing each hit left a pulsing dark mark.
Echo said nothing but leveled his wand and roared, "CRUCIO!" The dark affinity Brand caused the torture curse to resonate through every marked target simultaneously. As they collapsed in agony, Ragnok and Wick moved in to finish them off.
One Death Eater managed to break away, scrambling onto a broom and kicking off into the early morning sky. Ragnok watched him go, narrowing his eyes. Echo walked up beside him. "Are you seriously going to let him get away?"
"I'm just waiting for him to get high enough that the fall is fatal," Ragnok replied. He looked at Echo. "Did you nab his wand?"
Shimmer materialized on Echo's shoulder, holding a fistful of snatched wands. Echo nodded. "Shimmer took care of it."
Ragnok smiled. "Good monkey." He lined up the shot, channeled Pip's lingering psychic boost, and fired a Blasting Curse. The spell hit the broom dead-center, snapping the wood. The Death Eater fell, screaming, past the cliff edge and into the rough Atlantic waters below, vanishing instantly.
With the last Death Eater dead and Wick beginning to feast on the remains, Echo looked at the huddle of villagers. Their faces were a mask of fear, shock, and amazement. Echo saw only the fear. He sighed, looking at the bloody ground, and turned toward Wick. "I'm sorry for destroying one of your houses," he said quietly. "We'll be going now."
Before they could mount the dragon, the hamlet's elder walked forward. "Wait! Please, don't go."
Echo paused, looking back. "Why would you want me to stay?" he asked, his voice hollow. "You saw me. You know I use the Unforgivable Curses. You know I'm a dark wizard. Doesn't that scare you?"
The leader shook his head. "You used dark magic to save us. A real dark wizard would've worked with them or taken over their takeover. Unless that was your plan?"
"Not at all," Echo said. "I just wanted to do one last good thing since I've already done so many bad ones."
"As far as I'm concerned, you've done a very good deed today, no matter the means," the leader insisted.
Echo turned fully to him. "You're not going to report this to the Ministry?"
The leader gave a bitter laugh. "Why would we? They never listen anyway. We may be under Ministry law, but the bigwigs don't care we exist. They wouldn't spare a second glance for us. If you need a place to hide... this is the best place."
Echo blinked, the exhaustion momentarily giving way to a flicker of genuine surprise. "You'd really do that?" he asked, his voice low. "After everything you just saw?"
The elder stepped forward, his weathered face set in a mask of grim conviction. "I am Seamus," he introduced himself, gesturing to the huddle of survivors. "And we have no care for a government that ignores our existence until they want our tax dollars, yet stays silent when monsters come knocking at our doors. We have no love for wizards who only see us as something to take advantage of." He looked at the children clinging to their parents' robes. "You saved them. What comes from the tip of a person's wand doesn't matter much in our eyes compared to what they do with it. What you did today is more than anyone has done for this hamlet in a generation. It is the least we can do to thank you. We will give you what we have to offer."
Echo looked at the smoldering ruins, hesitating. Ragnok nudged his leg with the butt of Sirius's wand. "Take the offer, kid," the goblin muttered. "We aren't getting a better one anywhere else. Besides, we need a place to lay our heads until we can collect our bearings and figure out what to do next."
Echo nodded slowly, turning back to Seamus. "We accept. What we need most right now is a place to rest." He paused, his gaze sweeping over the half-destroyed houses, the ones still actively burning or reduced to smoldering husks. "But it looks like you all need a bit more help first." He looked down at Ragnok. "Give me a hand?"
The goblin nodded, a sharp, professional glint in his eyes. Together, they moved through the square. Echo led the way, his wand tracing fluid arcs as he cast Aguamenti, extinguishing the stubborn fires and cooling the glowing embers. Ragnok followed close behind, his borrowed wand barking sharp, rhythmic Reparo charms. Under their combined efforts, the shattered stone reassembled, the charred timbers smoothed over, and the sagging roofs snapped back into alignment. In minutes, the hamlet looked better than it had in years, much to the shock and delight of the people.
An old woman hobbled forward, seizing Echo's hands in hers. Tears tracked through the soot on her face as she thanked him. "A disaster like this... it would have taken us months to fix," she sobbed. "And we only had a few months before winter. Bless you, child."
Echo looked at her, his brow furrowing in confusion. "You're welcome, but... don't you folks know how to use magic?"
A heavy, awkward silence fell over the villagers. They exchanged shamed glances until a younger man spoke up. "It's not that we don't know how, lad. It's just that we can't."
"We have very little, including money," another added quietly. "And wands are hard to come by out here. We used to have a wandmaker in the valley, but she died two decades ago. Most of ours have snapped or lost their spark."
Echo looked at Shimmer. The Demiguise was still clutching the bundle of wands he'd snatched from the fallen Death Eaters. "Well," Echo said, reaching for the bundle. "It's not much, but those Death Eaters aren't going to be using these from now on. If I ever come upon more that their owners won't be using... I'll pass them by to all of you."
As the people erupted into fresh cries of gratitude, Echo signaled Shimmer to distribute the wands, starting with the children, so they could finally begin to learn. The kids immediately began waving the wood around, sparks of uncontrolled magic fizzing and popping. "Careful now!" Echo warned, a faint, tired smile touching his lips. "Don't go blasting one another for fun." He rubbed the back of his neck, sighing. "I kind of wish I hadn't used up all my stockpiled wands earlier tonight."
Ragnok shook his head. "We had to use them to escape, kid. Don't start second-guessing now." The goblin turned to Seamus. "Now, about that place for us to stay?"
Seamus nodded and led them toward a small hill overlooking the churning sea. At the crest sat a small, rundown tool shed shivering next to a young, lonely oak tree. "It's our old tool shed," Seamus explained. "We used to keep the shepherding tools there, but we have no sheep anymore."
Wick, hearing the word 'sheep,' licked her massive obsidian lips. Ragnok barked a laugh. "You just ate a Thestral and a bunch of dark wizards, you pig with wings!" Wick let out a huff of hot, sulfurous air at the goblin, but settled down.
Seamus looked apologetic. "It's not much; it's all we have. All the other homes are at full capacity right now."
Echo surveyed the small structure. "We can make it work. Ready, Ragnok?" They both raised their wands and hit the shed with a synchronized Reparo. The wood straightened, and the holes in the roof sealed, but when Echo peered inside, the interior was still a disgusting mess of old cobwebs and dirt. The spell had only fixed the structural integrity, not the grime.
Pip stepped forward, his ears perking up. "Pip can clean it up in a jiffy!" The house-elf scurried inside and slammed the door. A series of bizarre, cartoony thumps, whistles, and scrubbing sounds erupted from within. Sudsy soap bubbles filled the tiny window for a few seconds before being sucked away. Echo, Ragnok, and Shimmer exchanged a look of bewildered amusement.
After a minute, the door creaked open, and Pip beamed at them. "It is all clean, Mister Echo!" They stepped inside to find the shed was indeed spotless, though it was still unmistakably a shed. Echo gave a small, weary sigh. "We can make this work for now. Maybe make it better in the future." He turned to Seamus and offered a final nod. "Thank you for your kindness."
The elder left them to rest. Echo, Ragnok, Pip, and Shimmer filed into the cramped space. Wick, far too large to ever fit, simply circled the shed once before collapsing onto the grass outside, curling her massive tail around the building and immediately slipping into a deep, snoring nap.