Chapter 102: The Fallen Knights
Disclaimer:Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.I own only the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 102: The Fallen Knights
"No," Bellatrix whispered. "No, no, no, no, no... this can't be happening."
She ran toward the crater, her boots slipping on the loose stone, her hands reaching out as if she could somehow undo the damage.
Harry followed after her, his heart pounding in his chest, his mind refusing to accept what his eyes were seeing.
"How can this be? I thought this place was impossible to find."
The wards had been breached. The defenses had been shattered. The house-elves, the loyal house-elves who had served the Lestrange family for generations, were likely gone.
He reached the edge of the crater and looked down.
The entrance to the underground facility was covered in debris. The staircase was buried. The tunnel had collapsed. There was no way in.
No way to reach the survivors...if there were any survivors.
And then Harry saw the bodies.
Three house-elves lay at the edge of the crater, their small bodies broken and still. Harry recognized one of them, a young elf named Mippy who had always brought him tea in the mornings. She had been kind. She had been loyal.
And now she was dead.
Bellatrix fell to her knees, her eyes searching the rubble desperately. "They knew everything... this-."
Suddenly, they heard a noise.
Both Harry and Bellatrix immediately changed their demeanor, pulling their wands and pointing them in the direction of the sound.
They saw some of the rubble move, and for a moment they braced themselves to face an enemy. But then they noticed who it was.
Bellatrix gasped. "Rodolphus!"
Harry recognized the giant of a man, Rodolphus Lestrange, Bellatrix's kind husband, who had stayed behind at the base.
He was crawling out from beneath a pile of debris, his body broken, his face covered in blood. His one remaining eye, the other lost during the Azkaban rescue years ago, found them, and a weak smile crossed his features.
"Bella," he rasped. "You're alive. Thank Merlin for that..."
Bellatrix was at his side in an instant, her hands moving over him, searching for wounds, trying to stem the bleeding. "Don't move. Don't you dare move. I'll get you to a healer. I'll-"
"Stop." Rodolphus caught her hand with surprising strength. "It's too late for me. You know it is. Even magic cannot save me."
"No." Bellatrix's voice cracked. "No, I won't accept that. I won'-"
"Listen to me." Rodolphus's voice was firm despite the pain. "There's no time. You need to know what happened."
Harry knelt beside them, his heart heavy. He could see the extent of Rodolphus's injuries...the deep gashes, the burns, the unnatural angle of his legs. Bellatrix was a skilled healer, but even she couldn't fix this.
No one could.
"Lucius," Rodolphus said, and the name hit Harry like a physical blow. "It was Lucius. I saw him with my own eyes."
"Lucius?" Bellatrix's face contorted with fury and disbelief.
"I saw him open the Floo network." Rodolphus's voice was weakening, each word costing him visible effort. "He let them in. Dozens of aurors. Hit wizards. They appeared in the main hall before anyone could react."
Harry's blood ran cold. The Floo network, the one connection they had to the outside world, the one weakness in their defenses. Only a handful of people had access to it. Only the most trusted members of the order.
As the third in command, Lucius Malfoy had been one of them.
"We trusted him," Rodolphus continued, his breath coming in ragged gasps. "We let him into our home. And he... he destroyed everything."
Bellatrix was shaking, tears streaming down her face. "How many? How many did we lose?"
"Everyone who stayed behind." Rodolphus closed his eye. "Jasper. Wilkes. The young ones. They never had a chance."
Harry thought of the members who had remained at the headquarters...the ones too young, too old, too injured to fight. They had been the lucky ones, they had thought. They had been safe.
They had been wrong.
"I fought," Rodolphus said. "I fought as hard as I could. But there were too many. So I... I collapsed the tunnels. Brought the whole ceiling down on top of them."
"You buried them," Harry said, understanding dawning. "You buried them in the rubble."
"And our secrets with them." Rodolphus coughed, blood flecking his lips. "The vaults. The records. Everything we knew about Dumbledore. It's all gone now. Buried beneath a million tons of rock."
"And Lucius?" Bellatrix asked, her voice hard. "What happened to him?"
"He escaped." Rodolphus's face twisted with bitterness. "He called his house-elf. Apparated away before I could reach him. Their elves could always come and go as they pleased. We never thought it would be used against us..."
He trailed off, his breath rattling in his chest.
"We never thought one of us would betray us," Harry finished quietly.
"No." Rodolphus opened his eye, looking at Harry. "We didn't. And now... now it's too late."
Harry's mind was racing, piecing together the implications. The ambush at the cabin. The attack on the headquarters. Dumbledore had known everything...every detail of their plans, every safe house, every member. He had been playing them from the beginning.
The Ministry raid. The one they had thought was such a success. Dumbledore had allowed it to happen. He had sacrificed his own followers, his own agents, just to lull the Knights into a false sense of security.
And it had worked.
They had grown confident. They had believed they were winning. They had planned the raid on Hogwarts, believing they had the advantage of surprise.
But Dumbledore had known. He had known all along.
He had waited until they were all in one place...all their most important members, all their leadership, and then he had struck. One attack was all he needed.
It was brilliant. It was ruthless. It was exactly the kind of thing Dumbledore would do.
"We were fools," Harry said. "We thought we were hunting him, but he was hunting us."
"Yes." Rodolphus's voice was barely a whisper now. "But you're still alive. You and Bella. That means... that means there's still hope."
"Hope?" Bellatrix's voice was bitter. "What hope? The order is destroyed. Tom is dead. We have nothing left."
"You have him." Rodolphus looked at Harry, and there was something in his eye...something fierce, something desperate. "The Chosen One. The one the prophecy spoke of. As long as he lives... there's still a chance."
Harry felt the weight of those words settle on his shoulders. He had promised Tom that he would lead the Knights if something happened. He had promised to finish the mission.
But how? How was he supposed to defeat Dumbledore when everything was lost?
"Bella." Rodolphus's hand found his wife's, his grip weakening. "Promise me... promise me you'll live. Promise me you won't let this destroy you."
"I can't-" Bellatrix's voice broke. "I can't lose you. Not you. Not after everything-"
"You won't lose me." Rodolphus smiled, and for a moment, he looked almost peaceful. "I'll be waiting for you. On the other side. But not yet. Not for a long time. You have to fight, Bella. You have to win."
"I don't want to win. I want you."
"I know." Rodolphus's eye fluttered closed. "I know. But this isn't about what we want. It's about what's right. And you... you have to do what's right."
His hand went limp in hers.
Bellatrix stared at him, her face frozen, her eyes wide. For a long moment, she didn't move or speak.
Then, slowly, she leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her husband's forehead.
"Goodbye," she whispered. "My love."
Harry stood in silence, watching as Bellatrix cradled her husband's body. The grief was a living thing, pressing down on him, threatening to crush him. But there was no time for grief. There was no time for anything.
They had to leave.
"Bellatrix." Harry's voice was gentle but firm. "We need to go. There could still be Dumbledore's people nearby."
Bellatrix didn't respond. She just held Rodolphus tighter, her tears falling onto his still face.
"Bellatrix." Harry knelt beside her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. But we can't stay here. It's not safe."
"Safe," Bellatrix whispered. "Nowhere is safe. Not anymore."
Harry squeezed her shoulder. "But we can't let their sacrifices be meaningless. Rodolphus died to protect you. To protect me. If we stay here and get caught, what was it all for?"
Bellatrix was silent for a long moment. "You're right," she said. "We need to go."
She stood, her body trembling, but her voice steady. "We need to take him with us. I won't leave him here. Not in this place."
Harry nodded. He understood. He wouldn't leave a loved one behind either.
He raised his hand and called out: "Dibble!"
The house-elf appeared with a soft pop, his large eyes widening as he took in the destruction around them.
"Master Harry!" Dibble's voice was high with panic. "What happened? What-"
"Dibble, there's no time to explain." Harry's voice was firm. "I need you to take us to the Potter Castle. All of us."
Dibble's eyes went to the body of Rodolphus, then to the bodies of the other house-elves...his kin, his friends. His face crumpled with grief.
"They're gone," he whispered. "They're all gone."
"I know." Harry's voice softened. "I'm sorry, Dibble. I'm so sorry. But we need to go. Please."
Dibble nodded, tears streaming down his face. He raised his hand, and a moment later, Harry felt the familiar pull of house-elf apparition.
The world twisted, and they were gone.
<><>
Harry leaned against the wooden railing, his eyes searching into the distance. "Still nothing?"
Three days passed.
He spent most of his time in the owlery, waiting. Waiting for Vesper to return. Waiting for news. Waiting for something that would give him hope.
He had sent letters to every potential survivor.
Walden Macnair. Lord Nott. Augustus Rookwood. Jugson. Peter Pettigrew. Avery.
The ones he hadn't personally seen die. The ones who might have escaped.
But no one had responded so far.
Bellatrix had emerged from her room only once, to place a preservation charm on Rodolphus's body. She wanted to bury him in the Lestrange cemetery, she said, but it was too dangerous to go there now. So he would remain here, in the castle, until the war was over.
Then she had retreated to her room, and Harry hadn't seen her since.
'Seven members,' Harry thought. 'Out of dozens. Seven potential survivors.' That was all that was left.
He thought about Tom Riddle, who had believed in him. He thought about Rabastan Lestrange, who had baked him cookies. He thought about the Carrow twins, who had taught him runes.
They were all gone.
The Knights of Walpurgis were finished.
And Harry was alone.
He sat in the owlery, staring at the grey sky, and thought about the future. What was he supposed to do now? How was he supposed to fight Dumbledore without an army? How was he supposed to win without allies?
The Ministry was under Dumbledore's control. The Knights were destroyed. The only people who might have helped him were dead or in hiding.
'Maybe I should just give up,' he thought.' Maybe I should find a way to disappear. Find a quiet corner of the world and live out my days in peace.'
But even as he thought it, he knew he couldn't. He couldn't abandon the fight. He couldn't let Dumbledore win. He couldn't let the deaths of his friends be meaningless.
He had to find a way.
And then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something flying toward him.
His heart leapt. He ran to the window, his eyes fixed on the small shape in the distance.
It was Vesper. His owl. He was returning.
Harry's hands trembled as he waited for him to land. He swooped through the window and landed on his outstretched arm, hooting softly. In his beak, there was a letter.
Perhaps it was not all lost.
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