April's POV
I knew that Dumbledore would raise an army to come and fight the group once and for goof. But I didn't expected my friends to join him. I needed them to be safe. What the hell where they thinking by coming here ? Every single one of them was fighting. James, Sirius, Peter, Lily and even Remus. When I first saw him, my heart had literally stopped. Even after all these years, my love form him is still as strong as it was the last night I danced with him at the Ball. But slowly my anger is taking control again. Why are they risking their lives ? This isn't their battle. They don't belong here.
A huge explosion brings me back to reality.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I shout at Sirius as we both hide behind a giant rock. The anger in me is growing, menacing to make me lose my control as I look him dead in the eyes, waiting for his answer.
He doesn't seem to be impressed at all, but rather annoyed.
"Because, if you like it or not, there are still people here for you. I know that it's hard for you to understand but we are still a family remember?" he says, screaming over the explosions in the background.
My anger starts to fade away as I realize that they actually came for me. The shock is hitting me, making it even hard for me to breath. I look at my left to see Lily fighting next to Remus and they both turn they attention to me. I can see the determination in their eyes but also the deep bound that we created between us on what seem to be a very long time ago.
The battle is raging around us, dust and smoke in the air, burning our lungs. I turn my attention back to Sirius and a bubble of recognition is surrounding my heart. Without any further hesitation, I throw myself at him and engulf him in a hug. He seems surprised at first but he quickly recovers and hugs me back. A few seconds later, I finally let go of him and we both smile at each other.
"Now it's Showtime" Sirius says, with a devilish laugh before jumping over the rock to join the main battlefield.
I suddenly hear a scream coming from my right. A terrible sound echoing in me like a signal of indescribable distress. I try to see through the fog left by a nearby explosion. I start to cough but continue to scan my surroundings to find the origin of the screaming.
Only a few feet away, I see a little girl around 5 years old. She's screaming at the top of her lungs. Her entire body is covered in dust. Tears are running down her cheeks as she stays in the middle of the explosions. Without any other thought, I jump out of my hiding place, shielding myself with a spell. I run as fast as I can to the little girl. I pick her up with my arm around her waist, as I continue to run to a nearby fallen tree. We both duck behind it just in time to hear a huge explosion right where we us to stand a few seconds ago.
I take a few seconds to catch my breath, before turning to look at the small girl. She's standing next to me, crying. Her long blond hair are covered in mud. The tears are flowing from a beautiful green eyes, mixing with the dust on her cheeks. I can see small burns where her clothes have been torn but nothing to serious.
I kneel in front of her and put my hands on her shoulders, trying to bring her some sort of comfort. She refuses to met my eyes, even as I start to speak with her.
"Hey, it's okay, it's okay, I'm with you, you're not alone." I south her. "We need to find your parents. Can you tell me where your parents are ?"
I'm not sure if she doesn't hear me or if she's to shocked to understand what's happening. I hold her against me and run my hand against her back, while thinking about what I'm going to do now. She doesn't protest but doesn't hug me back either. She just stays in my arms, crying.
I look around to try and find some help. People are running between the lights of spells and explosions. Blood and dust are covering them as they run for dear life between the trees of the forest, not once looking back.
My friends are still fighting in the clearing. The spells are lightening the area in every kind of colors. In other circumstances, it would have seems beautiful. Sadly, this was a battle between life and death.
I let go of the girl to look her in the eyes.
"Everything's going to be fine. I'm going to bring you somewhere safe. Do you trust me ?"
She doesn't answer at first and I start to believe that I could never get a reaction out of her, when she finally looks me right in the eyes before nodding her approval.
The simple gesture makes me smile in relieve.
"Great ! The let's go !" I tell her before taking her small hand in mine.
We crawl between the trees as I bring her as far away from the battle as I can. I follow the footprints left by the civilians in hope to find a village or a place to hide the girl. She follows my every lead, holding on my hand for dear life. I sometimes come to a stop and close my eyes to scan the area. All of my senses are as sharp as knifes at the moment.
My particular state might have been the thing that saved the both of us. We almost reached the edge of this dark forest, when I suddenly hear the sound of a tiny branch breaking. I immediately come to a stop. A common human being would probably not even turn his attention towards such a small sound. The blond little girl is standing next to me. She stopped crying as we begun to escape the battle a few minutes ago. She's looking at me questioningly.
I put a finger on my lips to ask her to stay quiet. She's looking at me now with her green eyes still wet and a little red from her previous tears and nods in agreement. We are kneeling in the moody ground of the now not so thick forest. Their aren't so many trees in these area, making it easy for me to se my surroundings. It also makes us an easy target on the other hand.
The wind, blowing slowly in one direction isn't of any help to help me smell the possible intruder. I continue to try and find what could possibly give me this bad feeling, when I feel the little girls hand stiffened in mine. I bring my attention back to her. She's looking right behind me, her eyes wild opened in complet shock. I turn around to find a werewolf standing next to a huge tree, watching us with his eyes full of wild obsession of murder and blood. Slobber is running down his mouth full of sharp teeth glancing in the moonlight.
"Run!" I shout at the girl, pushing her forward with all of my strength. She starts to run to the edge of the forest without any hesitation, as fast as she can. Instead of following her, I decide to try and hold the wolf back to give the girl a chance to live.
I hold my wand tighter in my hand and prepare myself for the upcoming fight. I only have the time to open my mouth, before the werewolf starts to sprint towards me in full speed. My brain doesn't even register the action, as the creature hold up his arms ending by a paw with sharp claws and scratches my upper arm as well as a part of my abdomen.
I fall on my back by the violence of this attack sending my wand flying between the leaves on the ground. The pain I feel is indescribable and I can't hold back the scream coming out of my mouth. That's when the werewolf part of me awakes. I start to growl like a animal and I kick the beast right in the face with my uncommon strength. The creature moans as she crashes against a fallen tree.
She quickly recovers though the violence of the shock. She gets back on her lower legs and stands in front of me in her full size. I stay a few feet in front of her, looking her dead in the eyes. The human in me is starting to totally fade a way, replaced by an animal captivated by blood. But somehow, I'm still in there. I feel like a spectator desperate for control but there is nothing I can do to prevent my body from moving the way it does. I walk towards my enemy, feeling like a wolf, but my body is still human. No sharp teeth, no claws but my body is shaking of excitement in anticipation of the fight.
I couldn't win and I knew it from the beginning.
I'm about to jump on the beast, pushed by an instinct buried deep inside of me, when I suddenly see a dazzling light separating me from the werewolf. It disappears as soon as it came. I need to blink a few times to adjust my view again.
"Oh my God, April are you okay ?" I hear a female voice shouting at me.
I hear someone running towards me. I look in it's direction and that's when I distinguish Lily. She let herself fall next to me and put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. Her hairs are a total mess, her face and her torn clothes are covered in blood and dust, just like everyone in this deadly night.
The shock of the light had brought me back to my human self. Unfortunately, there is no time for a lovely reunion, or even a thanks. I refrain myself from hugging her and from telling her how bad I missed her and how happy I am to see her again. I need to stick to reality.
"Where is the girl?" I ask her, taking her arm and squeezing to urge her to speak.
She looks at me confused.
"What are you talking about? Which girl?"
"A little blond girl, about 5... or 6 ... or ...whatever ! She small with long blond hair and green eyes. Have you seen her before you came here ?" I ask her again, hoping that she recognized her.
"I'm sorry I haven't met anyone here but you and the werewolf. I was on the other side, fighting against some partisans when I heard a scream."
"You need to find her!" I tell her, getting back on my feet again.
"Wait, what ? Why me?" She asks, growing more and more confused. "Oh April you're hurt!!" she states in panic.
I frown before looking at my injuries on the upper arm and abdomen. Blood is running from the wounds, soaking my clothes. The adrenaline fades slowly away and the previous pain is coming back full force.
"Wait, let me help you" Lily offers, putting her wand against the wounds and mumbling some healing spells.
The pain disappears within a few seconds but the wounds are still there.
"I'm not a doctor but this should keep you alive for the night and prevent the blood from flowing out." she says while putting her wand in her pocket again. "Thank God you are stronger than you look like. This type of attacks would have killed you." she states, putting her hand on her beating heart to show her release that I'm still alive.
"Thank you Lily. Without your healing knowledge I would have died, so you're the hero." I tell her, seriously thankful that she came in time.
"You're always welcome" she answers with a smile. "Now what about the girl you spoke about ?" she suddenly asks, coming back to the topic.
I straighten my stance as I try to explain the situation. "I need to get back and find my mother. I trust you more then anyone. Your strong and brave. You need to find the girl. She ran towards the edge of the forest. Find her and bring her back to safety." I answer her previous question.
I can see that she's struggling between helping me and going back to the main fight.
"Please. I promised her. She's on her own somewhere and I know you can help her more than anyone. I need to find my mother. I need to try and end this." I look at her with pleading eyes as I try to convince her.
She sighs as she finally gives in.
"Fine I'm going to save the girl and you better find your mother or I'm going to kill you when I come back in the field" She tells me, a small smile on her lips.
That's when I realize how much I missed having real friends. How much I missed them all. I throw my arms around her neck and hug her tightly. She hugs me back and we both stand there for a few seconds before letting go.
"Okay, we're going to win this." I say to her, in order to bring us both some hope for the rest of the night.
"Sure we will !" she says with a wink.
I smile at her one last time before facing my new goal.
"Bring the girl back to safety!" I shout back, already running in a werewolf speed towards the battlefield.
I run as fast as I can, following the sound of explosion and screams. I hope deep in my heart that these scream somehow doesn't belong to any of my friends battling out there. I'm hoping I wan't here the familiar voice of Remus.
As I'm almost hall of the way down, I suddenly enter a small area crossed by a river. What I see paralyzes me instantly and I come to an abrupt stop, barely falling down on the muddy ground.
The entire place seams almost magic, with the reflection of the moon in the blue water. The branches of a large tree slowly balancing to the wind and caressing the water. All of these is so peaceful and I feel dragged to this place. I don't even notice that the sound of the battlefield magically faded. I'm like in a complete bubble where the time has come to a stop.
That's when I see a small figure sitting at the edge of the water, under the branches of the tree. She is dressed in black mantel, with a large black hood covering her face. I carefully begin to walk towards this person, narrowing my eyes to try and recognize the still sitting figure.
As I come closer, she lifts her head to look at me. I take a look at the bright eyes glowing in the forest and the long braid falling form the hood on the right shoulder.
« Mother? » I ask, surprised to see her sitting here.
« Surprised to see me? » she asks, almost mocking me. I still can't see her entire face under the hood, making it hard for me to determinate her intention.
I decide to stay careful and come to a stop a few feet away from her. She turns her attention back to the water flowing right next to her.
I close my eyes to prevent my voice from trembling.
« Mother I need to speak with you. I need to ask you for help. With the potion you discovered, you could change the future of so many innocent. So many people are being disrespected, treated as beast. They are going threw this agony due to the transformation every full moon. And you can save them. You can change your mind and bring them the peaceful life they deserve. You can finally throw your hatred and resentment away to reach for another goal. You have magnificent abilities, mother ! You need to let the word discover those.» I finish in a calm tone, like a pure statement.
My hands are sweaty and my mouth dry as I wait for her answer. She hasn't move from her spot, still looking deep in the blue water as if she's reading her answer in it.
Her smooth and calm voice finally breaks the heavy silence. Her neutral tone and the lake of emotion in her voice is almost scaring me.
« All the people I trusted, the people I cared about, the one I loved had turn their back on me. Leaving me alone in my own pain. I couldn't let them get away with this. I needed them to suffer as much as me. I need the revenge. It the only thing that keeps me alive. »
« I know mother. But they are all dead by now. All the people you describe are gone. That's why there is no place for any hatred anymore. You can come with me and we can build a new future for the werewolves. We can bring this potion to Dumbledore. We are losing some precious time!» I urge her, in order to get some reaction out of her.
After a few moment of silence, she turns her attention towards me again. I still can't see he face in the dark night, only her eyes glowing magically.
She stands up and walks toward me. It suddenly feels like the small bubble of lost time we were trapped in faded with her gesture. I look at her, my heart full of hope and relief. Maybe this is all going to end. Maybe I can finally accomplish what I was looking for as I started this mission. Maybe I can save all of this children and families. There won't be any other human, treated as a monster, as a beast. And maybe I could see Remus again. There is still a chance he would forgive me for what I did once I will get all of these secrets out of my heart. I will tell him how much he means to me, even now.
My mind rises with hope and joy, to finally see the end of all these lies and pain and my mother is going to be the key to that knew word.
But the only thing I'm not prepare to is for here to resist. Which explains why I don't see the little knife she's pulling out of her robe from behind. In the forest I hear the voice of my friends as the battle continue. The little bubble has totally faded away and reality kicks in.
As she come to a stop in front of me, I'm so deeply lost in her eyes, desperate to make her change her mind in order to save her, that I first don't understand where the pain in my belly is coming from. I look down only to see her retreat the knife she just stabbed me with and the blood that is starting to drop from the wound. I let out a horrified scream, echoing in the forest. I stare up at her in shock and I see all the hate in her eyes as she says: "I may have been fooled by you right now, but at the end, you are going to take your hopes with you, in hell."
I open my mouth to try and say something but nothing comes out. I start to cough and I see the blood flowing out and covering the leaves. I start to grow weak despite my will power to stand up and fight. I put my hand on the wound, as I collapse to the ground. I stick my nails into the ground to somehow stop the pain now radiating from my belly. I close my eyes and can't hold back a small scream resembling to a mumble as I bite my lower lip.
I look up one last time to see my mother looking at me with disgust and arrogance. She turns the knife into her hand to get a better hold on it. I prepare myself for the last stroke when a green light suddenly surrounds my mother as I hear someone screaming in the darkness of the woods « Avada kedavra ! ».
I see my mother's body collapse next to me, her eyes now totally numb as life just left her body. As I watch her laying on the ground lightened by the moonlight, so close to me and yet so far, the only thing coming to my mind is the fact that I failed. I just couldn't safe her. And with her died the hope to find the cure.
My head feels heavy. I try to stay in the sitting position I'm currently in but my last ressources are leaving me. I hear someone running towards me. I hear the branches and leaves cracking under them feet. But I can't give a care anymore as I fall onto the ground next to my mother's dead body.