Bouquet of Knives Book One

Chapter Eleven

Harry's POV

I walk through the forest, trying to find the witch's house. I didn't really know how long I've been out but I left during the night and it's currently daytime so I've been out here a good handful of hours. Without sleep, might I add. For all I knew, the witch could be living in a hole in the ground somewhere. I had no way of finding out where she was. I just needed to keep looking despite how tired and exhausted I was getting. I hadn't really stopped since I left. For anything, really.

I climb over a fallen log, nearly tripping and falling onto my face. I clutch onto a tree beside me, my hand slipping and becoming covered in cuts. I hiss, looking down at the abrasions on my palm. I pull out the splinters and pat around for my wand, pulling it out. I use the healing spell and my hand heals right up. I wasn't in good enough shape to keep going but I couldn't stop now. I had limited amounts of supplies and I'm going to stretch my limits so I don't use them up. I brush off my shin where it hit the log, frowning when I see the small hole in my jeans.

"Must've hit pretty hard," I mumble to myself. I look up and come face-to-face with the witch's wand, tumbling back over the log as I try to move away from it.

"Why have you followed me?!" She shouts, the tip of her wand glowing. She had a sneer on her dirty face, matted hair sticking up. She looked like a fate worse than death. "Answer me!" I remain quiet, knowing it's better to be silent. She becomes angry and I disarm her before she could use her wand, freezing her in her spot with another spell. I scurry back to my feet, taking a grounded stance and facing her. She snarled at me and leaped over the fallen log, tackling me to the ground and making me lose hold of my wand.

Get... Off of me," I say through gritted teeth as I wrestle with her. I wasn't expecting her to attack me physically. I struggle to throw her off of me, quickly rolling onto my stomach and clamber over towards my wand. Before I could reach it, the witch digs her nails into my sides and flips me over. She held up her hand and a green light sparked between her fingers. My eyes widen as I knew what spell she was going to do. I put all my effort into throwing her back, making her slam against a tree. I scramble to my feet and snatch my wand off the ground.

"Expelliarmus!" The hag yells out but I counter it with protego, earning myself protection from her disarming spell. She growls again, charging at me.

"Immobulus!" She stops in her tracks, unable to move. I try to use the spell that would put the witch to sleep but she deflects it and runs at me, tackling me back to the ground. Her hands tighten around my throat, my wand escaping my grasp again. Her long nails dug into my throat, my airways becoming restricted. I choke, grabbing her wrists and trying to pry her off. She was much stronger than I thought and I couldn't get her off of me. I blindly reach for my wand, trying to grab it as my vision was fading out into a tunnel.

I focus my energy on a spell, trying to round up my magic abilities. I struggle to move my hand, pressing it against her shoulder and whispering the spell. She's flown off of me, screaming through the air before she hits a tree. I suck in a much needed breath, my vision coming back painfully. I roll onto my hands and knees, coughing as I try to find my breath. I see my wand and snatch it, stumbling as I get up, regaining balance and aiming my wand at the witch. I felt completely weak but if I could fake it then maybe I can scare her into submission.

"How... How did you... That's not possible!" The witch screams as she charges towards me. She was quite a way's away so I use another spell to knock her back, weakly tumbling forward and catching myself on a tree. She begins to cackle, marching towards me with a wicked smile. "You're weak! You have no power left!" She cackles again.

"You're... wrong!" I struggle to shout, stumbling forward and latching onto the next tree. She rolls her eyes and flicks her wrist, sending me flying back. There was no way this woman was that powerful. She had to run out of energy somehow, right? Everyone does. Don't they?

"They couldn't even send a stronger wizard to finish me off? How insulting," she sneers and presses a foot against my throat. I manage to throw my leg over hers and take her down, rolling over so I could pin her, face down. I was incredibly weak but I put everything I had in holding her down. She growls, thrashing under me before saying a spell that ended in me flying high up into the sky, higher than the trees. I tumble back down, hitting every branch on the way down and hitting the ground with a hard thud. I was sure I had broken at least three bones.

The witch walks over to me, clicking her tongue and shaking her head. She pokes me with her foot but I'm unable to move, my body weak and in pain. She squats down, inspecting me closer. She taps at my face with a long, boney finger. I turn my face away but she roughly grabs my chin, turning me to look at her. Her mouth turns into a wicked smirk, an evilness behind her eyes.

"Imperius," she whispers. I will myself not to let her in, putting the last of my strength in resisting her. I push her out, using all of my strength to keep her at bay. She rocks back onto her heels in shock, her face full of confusion. "How... How are you able to resist me?! No!" She stands up and kicks at me, getting my ribs. I groan, rolling onto my side and coughing. "That's it, I'm killing you," she states as she grabs me by the collar and pulls me into a sitting position.

Her eyes had such a dark look in them, I wondered why she was so intended on death. She stood up and walked around until she picked up her wand. She looked slightly unsteady, as if she was finally growing weak from using magic without a wand. She leans against the tree, breathing deeply a few times. I reach out for my wand but she notices, disarming me immediately. She marches over to where I sat, staring at me with a snarl. I was really regretting not eating anything before.

"If you're going to kill me, do it," I bite. I look up at her, my own face contorted into a sneer.

"Oh, believe me," she smiles. "You're going to die but in large amounts of pain," she holds out her wand. "Any last words?"

"Unfortunately no, you plug-ugly hag," I've never thought I'd say those words but they were all I could think of in the moment. They seemed to have done the trick going by how angry she became.

"Crucio!" The woman shouts as she curls her lip, excruciating pain shooting throughout my body. I couldn't move it hurt so bad. It was like fire was slowly burning my skin, a dozen red fire ants biting the tinged flesh. My mind stopped working as all I could feel was the pain, my own screams being drowned out as my ears shut off. The woman grabs a hold of my arms, dragging me to the edge of the cliff. She lays me down beside the edge, staring in disgust at me before she shoves me over the edge of the cliff.