The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix Part Three

Ovington Square

She heard a scrape of wood in the ceiling and grinned, racing up into the attic.

"I'll find you," she called out in a childish way, like a kid making up a voice for a ghost story, and she cackled in amusement as she shot a spell at a trunk which blasted it apart and old clothes and photographs fell to the floor. She stepped on them carelessly as she walked past in the dark. The attic was lit only by one small round window at the far end, the rafters exposed under foot so that one had to carefully step on the beams and not between them.

Alice was crouched behind a pile of boxes close to the far wall, her eyes on the round window, deciding if she could fit through it or not. It was a very small window, but she was also a very small girl, and she bit her lip, knowing if Bellatrix got much closer she wouldn't be able to do it. Every second she hesitated was a second closer the crazy witch got and Alice trembled with fear for a just a moment longer before she shoved the feeling out of herself and leaped to her feet, running for the window.

Bellatrix had been looking the other direction and the initial sound of Alice getting up was covered by the still sounding caterwauling charm and she didn't turn 'round 'til Alice was already at the window.

"Bombarda!" Alice cried, light bursting from her wand and exploding the window. She threw herself through a rain of glass as it blew, pushing herself into the window frame. Blood drew across her palms as she gripped the frame. Her torso was out in the night air, palms against the outside of the house and she was nearly through --

"Carpe retractum!" Bellatrix's wand burst with bright white-hot light - a rope like band of magic flying through the air and grabbing hold of Alice's ankle, yanking her back, tearing her shirt, smearing the blood from her palms on the house. She slid back across the rafters, bumpy, but before she reached Bellatrix, she turned and fired a stinging hex, which made Bellatrix shriek and faltered. The spell released and Alice lunged again for the window. 

She slipped out and fell onto the slightly slanted bit of roof just below the window, rolling downward right to the edge. She kicked and caught a drain pipe, slowing her enough that she was able to shoot a spell - she copied Bellatrix's and the light from Alice's wand shot through and caught onto a chimney so that when her legs flew over the edge of the roof, she was hanging on just by the magic from her wand. She screamed, four floors up off the ground, legs flailing, fingers clutching her wand already white from clinging so tightly.

Below, chaos was underway, flashes and shouted curses, hexes, and charms echoed in the square and she could see the Death Eaters and the members of the Order as she swung, suspended by the rope of magic, her grip struggling.

There was a crack and a flash of shadow overhead and she saw Bellatrix Lestrange looming, looking down at her from the roof, silver-grey eyes flashing, hair grotesquely voluminous and wildly whipping in the wind that blew over the rooftops, her bright-red painted mouth standing out dark against her pale skin that seemed even more pale in the moon's light. She cackled and shot the same stinging spell at Alice as she'd done to Bellatrix in the attic and Alice swung herself to avoid the jet of light. This was good fun, so Bellatrix shot several more at her. Alice managed to avoid most of them, but finally one caught her and, like Bellatrix had done, she faltered, and the carpe retractum broke, the rope holding her up disappeared with a crackle and she lost the grip of her wand and she fell, the wand falling along side her but not in her grasp. Bellatrix's laugh echoed loudly, shrieking and horribly high pitched as she watched Alice fall toward the paved patio square below.

Bellatrix disapparated from the roof and as she spun head over heels, Alice saw her reappear below, grinning up, watching as Alice fell through the air. Alice screamed - the ground rushing up at her. She closed her eyes, unable to watch the earth flying up as she flew down. Would she die? Or would it just shatter her and leave her alive to feel the aftermath? Bellatrix would kill her, but Voldemort had warned her that his Death Eaters were cruel - would Bellatrix torture her further if she lived through the fall?