Chapter 25 Alexa's Destiny Alexa landed and fell over. She was in the strangest place. There seemed to be no walls, just white clouds and not a spec of dirt. There were only two things that Alexa could see. One was a man sitting behind a desk with a very old looking scroll. The other was solid gold gates, several meters behind the man. "Alexa Riddle, I presume?" tha man asked. "Yes. Where am I?" she said walking to stand in front of the desk. "The Gates of Heaven." "The- You mean...I'm dead?" "Come now, it isn't horrible. After all, to a well-organised mind, death is but the next great adventure. Albus Dumbledore's quote." "Yeah, but my mind isn't well organised. And I'm only 15! My-this is going to sound crazy but, my mother just killed me! I have to help my friends! They're in danger as long as that-that thing is alive!" "I see you are not yet ready. I cannot do anything about this." Alexa hit her head on the desk. "But we do have several options. You may enter Heaven or go back to earth." "I want to go back." "Right now? Very well. I believe the best option would be--" the man broke off and opened a drawer and started digging around. "Ah. Here we are." He pulled out two funny looking bihorns. The bihorns shimmered and sparkled, as almost everything in the Gates of Heaven did. "What you are to do, is crush the bihorns together, and throw the peices in the air above your head, and let them rain down upon you. But, you may only be on earth for five years." "Is that it? Only crush them together?" "Oh my goodness gracious. You must imagine the place you would be right now, if you hadn't been killed. Even I make mistakes, I'm not actually in Heaven after all." he added seeing Alexa's confused face. Alexa shook her head, as if the man was crazy, crushed the bihorns, threw them in the air and imagined that she'd most likely be with Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore and Sirius and in Dumbledore's office. The peices of the bihorn fell down on her and everything started spinning, as if she were traveling by Floo powder. Alexa closed her eyes and finally, she felt herself land. She fell forward and almost hit Harry. "A-Alexa?" Harry gasped in surprise. Alexa looked around and saw herself in the same place she'd imagined. "What happened Alexa?" Dumbledore asked. Even Dumbledore, Akexa noticed, looked amazed. So Alexa sat down in a chair and told them everything she remembered. "So you died and came back to put it bluntly." Sirius said after she'd finished. "Yes, that's basically it. But why did he have me come back as a solid form?" "The man obviously knew you had to have a human form to do what you shall do in the future." "But what am I going to do?" Alexa thought Chapter 26 Stephen Naclle All the students at Hogwarts were kind of scared of Alexa because of the story had leaked out, the way rumors do. "Well, Harry. Your were right about one thing. Me being Voldemort's daughter did blow over. But what about this, since I'm dead and here walking, and talking to you?" "I don't know. It shouldn't be that bad. You're basically a ghost in a solid body." "You sound real convincing." Alexa had been somewhat touchy about what happened three days ago. "How are we going to kill it?" Hermione asked. "If you don't mind, could you please tell us what you're talking about instead of assuming we know what you're--" "The echo." "Oh. The thing that killed me."Alexa snapped."Oh joy. We get to talk about the thing that killed me."Alexa sighed. "Sorry. I can't stand it. I mean, I'm dead." "Yeah, I'd be cranky if I were dead." "I only have five years until I have to go back to Heaven. I should enjoy my time." "But you'll come back as a ghost right?" Ron asked. "Yes, if I can." "What was Heaven like?" "I didn't see much. But there were sparkling white clouds....that sounds funny. Sparkling white clouds....Anyway, there were the Gates, and the guy at the desk with the scroll. That's all I saw. But when I go back, I'll find your parents, Harry." "Alexa, you said the echo feeds off our misery?" Hermione asked. "Yes, why?" Alexa responded, back to her usual cheerful self. "Maybe if we have no misery, only happiness, we could defeat it." "But that would be pointless because if it takes our misery, grows off that, and leaves us with happiness, it would be killed just by leaving us. Unless the misery intake is more than the happiness." Alexa said. "What? You're confusing me!" "I know.I'm confusing myself. It's going to be hard but we gotta kill the stupid thing before it kills more. And I don't want all five of my years here spent trying to kill the stupid thing." "We better enjoy your time. Five years isn't that long when you think about it." "Can we please stop talking about death? I want to enjoy my--" "All right. It really isn't-" "Are you trying to annoy me because it's working very well." "We have to enjoy your time-" "Are you ingoring me?" "Let's stop arguing and enjoy Alexa's time here" Hermione said, grinning. Alexa stopped walking and glared at them. Harry, Ron and Hermione burst out laughing. "This isn't something to laugh about!"Alexa said loudly, now grinning. Slowly they stopped laughing. "You're right." "Hey did you see this?" said Seamus, running up to them. He had a Daily Prophet paper in his hand. Innocent Convicted Guilty Near five weeks ago, a deadly battle took place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with the Death Eaters. All fifth year students and above were in the battle, as were the teachers. But the most surprising part was where Sirius Black, the convicted murderor of twelve people, fought alongside Harry Potter. The Death Eaters were only after Alexa Riddle, a close friend of Harry Potter. One Death Eater captured Miss Riddle and threatened to kill her but Miss Riddle's friend's saved her and battled with the Death Eaters. Black stepped in to apparently help Mr. Potter, Miss Riddle and their firends. Is Black innocent? He would have had the chance to kill Mr. Potter but instead, helped them. And why wasn't the headmaster, Professor Dumbledore involved in this battle? This article was researched and wittnessed by your reporter; Don Leskan. "What is with this guy? Didn't he write that article about me....killing my parents? And he wittnessed the incident? I didn't even see him!" Alexa said. "Yes he did." Harry said slowly, studying Alexa's face. It was hard for her to talk about her parents' deaths...which she wasn't really responsible for. 'That proves she isn't evil.' Harry thought. "And why didn't Dumbledore get involved in the battle?" Alexa continued. "Maybe he knew what the outcome would be."Hermione suggested. She handed the paper to Seamus and he headed toward Gryffindor Tower. "And why would it take five weeks to write that if he wittnessed it?" Alexa said, apparently not paying attention to them. Alexa froze and lookde like she'd seen the evil echo. "Uh....Alexa? Alexa!" Ron said tapping her shoulder. Hermione suddenly looked wildly around. "Ow!" Ron yelled. "What?" asked Harry who had been watching Hermione. "She slapped me!" he said, nodding toward Alexa. "I don't think she did it on purpose though" he added. "Do you think she saw the echo?" Hermione asked, finished looking around. "I don't know. Could-" "Stephan Naclle." Alexa said suddenly. "What?" Ron, Hermione and Harry said together. "Stephan Naclle." she repeated. "He wasn't there! At the battle!" "How could you tell? They were wearing masks." "Because other than Snape, Karkaroff, Bagman and the Death Eaters in Azkaban and the deceased Death Eaters, he was the only one who wasn't there." "Hold up. Bagman? Ludo Bagman? The Wimbourne Wasps old Beater?" Ron said in amazement. Alexa looked at him "Yes. Bagman was a Death Eater. He still is as far as I know-" "That's a lot. You're giving Hermione a hard time keeping her reputation." Ron mumbled. Alexa ignored him. "It's in my journal." "But Bagman? The guy who looks so happy all the time?" Ron said. "Are you having two different conversations or just putting in comments about different things and different times? But yes, Bagman's a Death Eater." "He's really not to bright is he?" said Ron. "Yes Ron. Bagman is a happy, dumb guy who is a Death Eater. Got it?" Alexa said, slightly irritated, but grinning. "Now can we get back to Naclle?" "All right. So how could you tell he wasn't there when they all had masks on?" Harry said. "I used an Identifying Charm." "An Identifying Charm? That's supposed to be highly advanced magic." Hermione said. "I know and it is. But Hermione think about it. I'm the daughter of the most powerful Dark Wizards ever. Top of their class, advanced in magic, so it makes sense. And it makes sense that Harry could do the Patronus too." "How did you know about my Patronus? And how could I be powerful?" "Sirius and your parents were very powerful. I'm sorry, I don't know very much. Dumbledore knows. We'll have to ask him." "Wait. The prophecy-" "Oh no." Alexa groaned quietly. "It said you would lose a key to Harry's past. It's Dumbledore. Dumbledore is the key!" Hermione said.