Clueless ━━ Fred Weasley

xv. Cruel Nineteenth

       Her brows furrow. She does find it odd, though, that this whole countdown has led up to Sirius and Briar are in danger. It's important, sure, but it doesn't feel that... world-ending, or at least not compared to some of her other visions. So she finds it odd.

       And then she hears the cellar door open.

       Well, shit, Briar thinks, as she hear footsteps, getting louder and louder. She hears the cellar door close, too, and the footsteps are joined by another set. Briar holds back her tears. The suspense is killing her. She doesn't know what to do. She can't hide, she can't fight back, she's all out of options...

       What if she dies?

       "Miss Briar Crouch..." Bellatrix's voice echoes through the cellar. She begins to laugh. "Or is it Lupin, now?" She opens the cell door. Briar steps backwards. "There's a lot of people upstairs that are very interested to see a part-Seer, part-beast—"

       That does it.

       "Oh, piss off," says Briar, fear turning into anger.

       Bellatrix tries to grab Briar, but Briar resists — or at least she tries to, struggling so much that Bellatrix can only keep one of Briar's hands behind her back. Bellatrix attempts to reach for her wand, but Briar hits her free hand against Bellatrix's, sending the wand flying across the floor.

       She doesn't know how, but Briar's shoved back to the floor. Bellatrix takes a dagger out from her dress, and Briar thinks, you're not going to die today, you're getting out of here.

       "This is what happens when brats like you get in my way," says Bellatrix, and she points the dagger at Briar's collarbone. She feels the dagger pierce her skin, ever so slightly. Enough to scare her. Enough for Bellatrix to cackle at Briar's widened eyes. Enough for Bellatrix to hold onto Briar's head with her hand, her sharp nails digging into her skin, as Bellatrix runs the blade across Briar's cheek. Again it only just pierces the surface, but it's close to her eye, Briar can't help but panic...

       And then Bellatrix draws back, casting her gaze to the abandoned wand. A never-ending trunk of torture and suffering comes from that wand, and Briar thinks, I can't let her get hold of it... If she gets it, I'll be done for.

       She needs to get the wand before Bellatrix does. Once she's got it, she's got the upper hand... Briar tries her hardest to wriggle away from Bellatrix, but Bellatrix grabs Briar by the face again, laughing, "Don't even think about it." Her hand covers Briar's mouth in an attempt to stop her moving... But Briar has a thought. There's one thing that I can do, that'll freak her out, enough to let me get the wand.

       She looks up at Bellatrix with narrowed eyes.

       And, without another thought, Briar bites down on Bellatrix's palm, hard.

       Bellatrix immediately screams and scrambles backwards. She's been bitten by a werewolf, hasn't she, she's too stupid to know that it means fuck-all right now? Might just make her like raw meat, but that's that. But it's done the job — Bellatrix screams out, "SOMEONE GET HER!" but by the time the cellar door swings open, Briar's got Bellatrix's wand, and she's out of the cell, able to Apparate the second she's past the iron bars.

       But she still can't Apparate. She'll need to get upstairs, or out of the house. Shit, she thinks. If she goes upstairs—

       "Briar, Briar, Briar," says Greyback.

       Don't freeze now, she thinks.

       She thinks back to her defence lessons as school, and quickly shouts out, "Stupefy!" Her panic at the sight of him must've given the spell some power, because he flies across the room, landing next to the stairs. But Briar can't worry about how close he is to them, as she runs up the stairs, pushing the cellar door open.