A few hours later. After Dumbledore had brought Lucas back from practically being a yes-man and explained what he had agreed to, which brought him to his current situation.
The firelight of the castle flickered across the stone walls as Lucas marched through the halls.
The Gryffindor boy floated behind him like a limp puppet, wand discarded somewhere back near the moving staircases, his mouth slightly open from trying to scream through the silencing charm. Lucas didn't care. He only needed him for one thing.
The portraits recoiled as he passed. Suits of armor vibrated in their hinges.
The Fat Lady's eyes widened when she saw who approached. The floating student gave the password in a strangled gasp as the magic had recoiled just long enough to speak.
"Pinecone wreath," he croaked.
The door swung open.
Lucas stepped through.
The Gryffindor common room fell silent.
It had been like always filled with warmth, chatter and laughter.
Then him.
The floating boy hit the ground with a thud.
Students stared. Some stood up. Others instinctively reached for wands.
To no ones' surprise the Griffindor students weren't the cowardly kind, so it didn't take long for the first demands to fly Lucas' way.
He ignored them, searching the room for Harry.
That didn't sit right with the others. The feared next dark Lord and the one who hurt one of their own was standing in front of them. They couldn't do nothing in that situation.
A few couragous seventh year stepped forward, wands ready.
"Wah..." one opened his mouth, but before his first word got out he was ragdolled into the wall like a comically large hammer had hit him.
Instinct seemed to take over at this point and two more Griffindors moved.
Spells flashed. "Expelliarmus", "Stupefy".
The moment the spells entered the space around Lucas, they vanished. Too weak to matter.
*Crash* *Crash*
Two more bodies slammed into the wall.
"..."
Someone whispered, "What the fuck?"
A few more students flowed into the room, drawn by the commotion. And a few more crashes by over eager students followed until finally the boy who lived stepped in followed by his usual gang.
The last of the struggling Gryffindors crumpled against the wall, limbs twitching in unconscious spasms. Lucas had to give it to them, they weren't ones to shy away even if the situation was hopeless.
"Harry." Lucas said with malice. The first time the four of them had heard that tone used by him. "Come here!"
Harry blinked. "What?"
Holly grabbed Harry's arm, for she saw it. "Don't..."
But it didn't matter, Harry was ripped out of her hold and flew towards Lucas, who caught him by the neck. "It's my fault. I see that now."
Harry grasping for air, clawed at his hands.
Lucas continued his almost monologue. His words more for himself than anyone else. He certainly didn't give Harry the courtesy of air. "If I wasn't so scared, if I hadn't known so much. If only I hadn't tried so hard."
Holly held mostly Ron back, as she anxiously watched from the sidelines. Hermione was too indecisive to act against Lucas, but Ron wanted nothing more than to storm in there and confront Lucas, even though he knew what would happen.
"You'll die like this," Lucas muttered, voice almost tender. "Just like they did."
He released Harry.
The boy collapsed onto his knees, gasping.
Lucas turned to the other three.
That's when Holly made the mistake of loosening her grip around Ron. With her ability she could see the turmoil in Lucas and the way his magic dominated the room.
Ron moved without thinking. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"
He shoved forward, fists clenched, wand forgotten.
Lucas didn't move. Didn't blink. The moment Ron entered his reach, the domain bloomed. Like a beautiful orange flower of doom.
No chant. No gesture. No incantation.
Ron charged anyway.
He never reached him.
With a gentle swing of Lucas' hands Ron was gone.
Only his shadow on the floor remained, imprinted for eternity.
Silence reigned.
What had happened was too much for most to comprehend. That level of magical power was so far out of their reach that they simply didn't know what had happened.
Others like Harry didn't believe it.
Only Holly comprehended everything from start to finish through her purple eyes. And she was furious.
Like during her rare moments in the summer the world around her felt tangible. Guided by her emotions instead of her will she was pointing her finger at Lucas, before she let go.
Lucas felt it. His own magic beraying him. It slipped his grasp and went against him instead of protecting him against the lightning Holly was shooting at him.
Then a world of pain came as the current travelled thorugh his body. He collapsed to the ground, his muscles convulsing involuntarily, however, Holly didn't stop at that.
She was too overwhelmed by her emotions, of her childhood friend's live being snuffed out right in front of her. With a scream the lightning grew in power.
Only after Hermione grabbed her shoulder and brought her out of her state did she stop and finally see what she had done.
Lucas whole left side was charred black. Crack-like marks slithered into his healthy flesh. Not even his face was left unscathed with lighning marks covering his cheek, shy of reaching his eye.
Now she also smelled the burnt flesh, a pungent aroma assaulting her nostrils. The sickly sweet scent of burnt flesh mingled with the metallic tang of blood, creating a nauseating cocktail that threatened to overwhelm her senses. She gagged, covering her mouth and nose with her sleeve, but the odor permeated the fabric, seeping into her pores like a toxic perfume.
The silence held for one stretched, unbearable second. Then two.
Crackling heat still danced across Holly's trembling fingertip, yet it didn't hurt her. It was comfortable in fact. Her magic flickering in uncontrolled excitement inside of her like the nerves in Lucas's twitching body.
He twitched again.
And then.
A sound of a footstep. Calm and unhurried.
Dumbledore stepped into the doorway and scanned the room. This wasn't what he had envisioned, not at all.
His gaze lingered on the shadow burned into the floor. 'That must have been Ron'
That much was according to the 'agreement'.
Then to Holly's outstretched hand. That not.
Then, finally, to Lucas. That definitely not.
The boy still smoked at the edges.
"Miss Potter," he said, his voice like cold cloth laid over a fever. "That will be enough."
The headmaster regretted not peaking at what had happened here. He had been sure that there would be no surprises. After all he still had that mirror, he had the means, but the unbreakable vow had given him a false sense of security.
Holly turned to him, stunned, her lips moving in a stammer of rage and guilt and confusion.
"I... He killed Ron. He murdered him, I..."
"I believe you Holly," Dumbledore said with his usual warmth, already back in his role.
His eyes went to Lucas again, who was trying to push himself off the floor. It wasn't working. His charred arm gave out beneath him. Blood spattered from his lips onto the stone.
Lucas coughed again, more blood blooming across the stone beneath him. His good hand curled against the floor. His Domain back under his control.
He was on the brink of collapsing. Could barely breathe.
His eyes flicked to the unconscious Gryffindors slumped against the far wall.
They twitched.
One hand jerked. Then a leg. As one student began to rise like a marionette pulled by invisible threads.
Then another rose. A girl, eyes still closed, but her wand raised in her limp hand.
A third joined them. Then a fourth.
A soft chorus of joints popping and dragging limbs echoed across the common room.
Lucas didn't lift his head, too occupied with fighting against the claws of unconsciousness. The agreement he had made under the unbreakable vow also didn't matter now. At leats to him.
His magic pressed again, inside the minds of the unconscious, shaping their broken wills into weapons.
The first puppet aimed its wand at her.
Dumbledore's hand lifted. "Stop, Lucas."
He didn't.
The puppets surged forward.
And the Elder Wand sang.
A golden shield erupted in front of Holly, deflecting the volley of magic as it shot from their wands.
Dumbledore's wand moved quickly. He incapacitated the first two puppets with silent spells, disarming and dropping them with fine precision. But the others kept coming. Controlled by a mind that refused to yield.
Lucas's burnt fingers twitched against the floor. Not giving up his assault against impossible odds.
And Dumbledore, playing his part, sighed. "Lucas, don't hate me for this."
Fast as lightning a sleeping charm hit the half dead boy.
Yet to the horror of the headmaster not even that stopped Lucas. Although, it was exponentially harder to cling to consciousness with only one mind.
Dumbledore's jaw clenched as his free hand dipped into his robes. From the folds, he pulled out a small glass vial with tiny, yet numerous runes inscribed in it. It was the thing he had prepared with Lucas' blood ages ago.
Now he was glad that he had the foresight to do it, because he couldn't let Lucas kill himself by murdering someone other than Ron. And he also didn't want Holly to repeat whatever she had done to bring Lucas into that condition.
He crushed the vial in his hands and Lucas instantly froze.
"Let them go."
The griffindor students fell down, free from his Legilimency.
"Go to sleep."
Lucas slumped down, drifting off into dreamland.
Silence again.
Only now, there was no awe.
Just fear.
Holly stared. Her hands still trembled, though the last remaining warmth had gone.
Dumbledore looked to her, then to Harry, who was still on his knees, shaking.
He spoke to everyone in the room.
"Return to your dormitories. This is no longer your concern."
The students affected by Lucas' magic would be brought to the hospital wing shortly and Lucas' value would need to be reconsidered.