Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 76: There Is Nothing Left
"Bloody hell, what is that?!" Sirius shouted.
"What do you mean? I can't see anything," Remus responded.
"Guys! Don't look at the light!" Peter shouted.
Bella should have been in an even worse situation since she was closer to the fire, but she had closed her eyes like James had told her, and then waited.
She felt calm, despite the situation. Something deep inside her was telling her that there was nothing to fear.
James took control of the white alchemy flame he had conjured and used it to counteract the one created when those boys tried to destroy his laboratory.
There was no chance of saving anything in there, so James didn't even try. His only concern was that no one else got hurt by this.
He gave his flame the shape he desired and poured a large amount of his remaining magic into it.
The flame responded by turning into a beam of light and fire that shot out with tremendous force.
The students around the hall couldn't see anything due to the intensity of the light emanating from the clash between the two alchemy flames, but they could hear the sound the walls were making as they were being destroyed.
It was a deafening sound that scared them to their core. It was almost like the entire castle was about to collapse onto their heads.
Then…all of a sudden, the light vanished, and there was silence.
"Are you hurt?"
Bella heard James's voice and opened her eyes. She looked around, trying to make sense of what had happened. "I'm fine… I…" She gasped when she saw what was left of the laboratory.
She wasn't sure if this was caused by the green flames or whatever James had done afterward, but regardless… everything was now gone.
A black, charred mark now covered the previously pristine marble tiles. The furniture, glass containers, and other materials had vanished, not even a trace of them remained.
And on the outer wall of the room was a giant hole that seemed to have been burned out, melting the castle's walls. The edges of the hole still had something that looked like molten lava on them.
"Oh no!" Bella left James behind and ran inside the room, looking everywhere.
James saw her desperation and finally understood why she had been trying to enter the laboratory earlier. "Primum is fine."
This grabbed her attention immediately. "How can that be? Where is he?"
James lifted his left hand. A white ring was on one of his fingers. "As I've told you many times before, it's not alive. I can turn it into this ring and take it with me when I'm not in the lab." There was no way he could leave that creature in here unattended...had he done that, this would have happened much earlier.
Bella's expression completely changed, and he could see the relief washing away her previous despair. "He's fine, then?..."
"Of course…" James glanced around the place. "Can't say the same about my equipment and materials…"
Bella's mood worsened quickly. "This is my fault, isn't it? They must have seen me leaving."
"Maybe they saw me, who knows? It doesn't matter right now. I have bigger issues." Like what he was going to tell the Headmaster and the other professors, who were surely rushing to the scene and would be here at any moment.
Bella furrowed her eyebrows. She could not be satisfied with that. "Of course it matters! I shou—"
"Ahh! Let me go!"
"Stop!"
Another commotion could be heard coming from outside the former laboratory.
"Your friends?" Bella asked.
"For sure." James walked out and saw that Sirius and Remus had restrained the three vandals who had just destroyed his workplace. Peter was also there.
He glanced at the two Slytherin seniors. Their faces were somewhat familiar, and it was possible that these were some of the perpetrators who had ambushed him while he was walking out of the library with Alice and Lily a short time ago.
The third one, he certainly recognized.
"Sirius, you bastard! Release me this instant! You're all in so much trouble!" Snape fought against the ropes binding his body as hard as he could.
"I say we toss him out the window," Sirius suggested. "No one will miss him."
"Sirius! You can't do that," Peter exclaimed.
"He's just joking, Peter. Not that this is the time for that," Remus said.
"I was only half joking." Sirius glanced back at James as he came out. "Is there anything left?"
"Not really," James responded.
"Ha! You deserve that, Pott— cough cough!" Snape began to cough violently.
"And you deserve that… and more," Sirius huffed.
"He doesn't look too good," Peter pointed out.
"Bella!"
While they were distracted with Snape, Bella's older sister came running and grabbed her.
"Are you okay? Did you get hurt? What were you thinking?!"
"I'm fine! Let me go, Andy!" Bella pushed her sister away.
"What were you trying to accomplish by running into that mess?" Andromeda Black took a good look at the remaining people in the hall.
All the other students had run away the moment smoke started coming out, leaving only the Marauders, Bella, and the three Slytherins.
"Are those the ones who tried to burn down the castle?" Andromeda glanced at Snape and the other two. She was very familiar with those seniors. "Oh… those are Malfoy's boys."
"Yeah…" Of course, Bella knew about this too. Both Malfoy and Rodolphus had many students following their orders. These three were just a few of them.
"James, what happened here? Did Snape really cause all of this?" Remus asked.
"Yeah! What was that explosion? I thought we were going to die. And… did you guys see the giant hole in the outer wall? I can see the sky from here," Peter pointed at it.
"The genius over there," James glanced at Snape, "used fire in an active laboratory and ended up causing a violent reaction." It was a bit more complicated than that, but there was no need to get into details now. That would probably come later.
"A laboratory you say?"
They heard several sets of footsteps right around the corner, followed by the last voice they wanted to hear.
They saw Albus Dumbledore, along with two more professors, walking at a brisk pace toward them.
The old Headmaster's sharp eyes scanned over the scene and the students before landing back on James Potter.
"I would very much like to hear the details of what has transpired here."
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