Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [6]

⚡️ Chapter 52 ⚡️

"Now, Draco, quickly!" said the brutal-faced man angrily.

But Malfoy's hand was shaking so badly that he could barely aim.

"I'll do it," Fenrir snarled, moving toward Dumbledore with his hands outstretched, his teeth bared.

"I said no!" shouted the brutal-faced man.

There was a flash of light and the werewolf was blasted out of the way; he hit the ramparts and staggered, looking furious. Vega's heart was hammering so hard it seemed impossible that nobody could hear her standing there, imprisoned by Dumbledore's spell – if she could only move, she could aim a curse from under the cloak, she could take by surprise –

"Draco!" screeched the woman. "Do it or stand aside so one of us –"

But at that precise moment, the door to the ramparts burst open once more and there stood Snape, his wand clutched in his hand as his black eyes swept the scene, from Dumbledore slumped against the wall, to the four Death Eaters, including the enraged werewolf, and Malfoy. Vega waited with bated breath, waiting to see what side was going to choose.

"We've got a problem, Snape," said the lumpy Amycus, whose eyes and wand were fixed alike upon Dumbledore. "The boy doesn't seem able –"

But somebody else had spoken Snape's name, quite softly, a sound that frightened Vega beyond anything else that she had experienced the entire evening that day.

"Severus...."

For the first time, Dumbledore was pleading. Snape said nothing, but walked forward and pushed Malfoy roughly out of the way. The three Death Eaters fell back without a word. Even the werewolf seemed cowed. Snape gazed for a moment at Dumbledore, and there was revulsion and hatred etched in the harsh lines of his face.

"Severus... please..."

Snape raised his wand and to Vega's great shock, she saw that it was, in fact, pointed directly at Dumbledore, and he didn't waste any time to respond –

"Avada Kedavra!"

A jet of green light shot from the end of Snape's wand and hit Dumbledore squarely in the chest. Vega's horror silenced her, her gasp never expelling out of her lips, even beyond the spell as she was forced to watch as Dumbledore was blasted into the air.

For a split second, Dumbledore seemed to hang suspended beneath the shining skull, and then he fell slowly backward, like a great rag doll, over the battlements and out of sight. Vega was stilled in her place, unable to tear her eyes away from where he had vanished, and she waited, and waited for Dumbledore to return but there was no sign of him anywhere.

"Out of here, quickly," Snape said, and he seized Malfoy by the scruff of the neck and forced him through the door ahead of the rest; Greyback and the squat brother and sister followed, the latter both panting excitedly.

As they vanished through the door, Vega realised she could move again.

What was now holding her paralysed against the wall was not magic, but horror, pain, fear and shock. Harry was still in shock when Vega threw the Invisibility Cloak off of herself as the brutal-faced Death Eater, last to leave the tower top, was disappearing through the door.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Vega shouted; her wand pointed straight at the back of his head just as Harry leapt off of the floor after the girl.

The Death Eater buckled as though hit in the back with something solid and fell to the ground, rigid as a waxwork, but he had barely hit the floor when Vega was clambering over him and running down the darkened staircase to the scene below.