"— and then his hand closed around the snitch," Sirius said animatedly. "It was the greatest catch I've ever seen!"
A smile graced Tonks' face, one of the first true smiles since she'd been captured. Even though Tonks had watched the World Cup with Sirius, the man had insisted on giving her a play by play of the entire match. Tonks was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to go to bed, but seeing the excitement shine in her cousins eyes, after all those years in Azkaban, made her realize that if things could get better for Sirius then they would get better for her.
"It really was amazing," Tonks said. "Krum is something special."
"He really—" Sirius was cut off by a loud explosion.
Sirius pulled his wand out, and Tonks stood frozen as he ran towards the entrance to the tent. Sirius' sharp intake of breath sounded like another explosion to Tonks. Her mind grew fuzzy as Sirius let loose a string of explicits. She placed her hands on the table in front of her to balance herself.
"Tonks, are you ok?" Tonks shook her head and looked into the eyes of a worried Sirius. She hadn't seen him walk back towards her.
"I'm fine," Tonks said faintly.
"We need to go," Sirius ordered. "Get your wand out."
Tonks fumbled around inside of her robe pockets for her wand, and ran out of the tent on shaking legs. Her stomach jumped into her throat as she stepped outside. Dozens of wizards, tightly packed, and wearing long black robes and bone white masks were walking towards them. Every few steps several wizards would walk out of the formation and bursts of bright light would shoot from their wands as they blew up everything in sight. With every Death Eater who walked off in another direction, one more would talk their place. Tonks stared in horror as screams filled the air.
"Tonks!"
Tonks looked to the right and saw Sirius dueling with one of the Death Eaters. Flashes of her time in captivity swam in the forefront of her mind, and white spots danced in her eyes. It felt as if the air was being sucked away, and her palms began to sweat.
Suddenly, a high pitched scream filled the air. Tonks realized that it was a child, and she forced her terror aside. She tightened the grip on her wand as she blinked the white spots away.
"You're an auror, dammit," Tonks muttered.
A green spell flew past Tonks' head and crashed into her tent. Green flames sprung to life and Tonks felt her auror training kick in. She swallowed, before jumping up and sending spell after spell at the approaching Death Eaters.
The darkness was broken up by flashes of light. Spells flew through the air like owls delivering the morning post. Screams of pain, so horrifying they made you want to claw your ears out echoed around the field. The scent of death hung in the air, and blood flowed like a river down a set of old rickety steps that led up to a ticket booth. And Sirius knew that his twisted cousin was loving every minute of it.
After making sure that Tonks was able to defend herself, Sirius had run off to help a group of terrified foreign teenagers. That was when he ran into Bellatrix, a cruel smile warping her beautiful face. The joy Sirius could see in her eyes made him want to transform into his animagus form and rip her face off.
Sirius could tell that she was enjoying playing with him. Every time he had an opening where he thought he could hit her, she would strike out him like a venomous snake. After nearly five minutes, Sirius could feel his power depleting. After twelve years in Azkaban, his magic wasn't as strong as it used to be, and he became tiredly easily. His moves were becoming sluggish, and he could see that Bellatrix was nowhere near tired. In fact, Bellatrix has a spring in her step that made him loathe her all the more.
Sirius barely dodged a spell, and Bellatrix laughed like she had just heard the world's funniest joke. Sirius felt a surge of fury as he saw a man wearing red auror robes fall to the ground out of the corner of his eye. He gathered his magic and slashed out his arm in a V shaped pattern, and a sickly yellow spell filled the air. Bellatrix slashed out with her wand.
"I've waited twelve long years for this!" Sirius yelled. Spell after spell flew from his wand, faster and more deadly than the ones before. Sirius wanted to end this duel, even if it meant magically exhausting himself in the process.
Bellatrix sent spells just as fast, her curly black hair flowing all around her like a halo. The dark curls stood out harshly against her bone white mask.
"No!" A blood curling scream rang out and Sirius turned his head slightly to the side.
He turned back just in time to dodge the killing curse. The spell blasted apart a tree, sending shards of wood in every direction. Sirius threw spells faster and faster, and finally he hit his mark. Bellatrix stumbled back as a jet of purple crashed into her stomach.
Sirius smiled, as Bellatrix grabbed her stomach with one hand and looked up at Sirius. He couldn't see her face behind the mask she wore, but Sirius could tell his cousin was in shock. Sirius had always been a great duelist, but Bellatrix had always been better.
Sirius' smile quickly vanished when spells came flying at him from two directions. He managed to block Bellatrix' spell, but he was thrown backwards by the blast from another.
Bellatrix walked forward, her arm still wrapped around her stomach, when a shout rang out, "Fall back!" Bellatrix raised her wand when several pops sounded, and three men in red robes surrounded Sirius. Bellatrix yelled in frustration, the sound coming out muffled behind her mask, and she apparated away.
"Are you ok?" An auror with greying hair asked Sirius.
"I'm fine," Sirius said. He winced in pain when he spoke. He touched his stomach and grimaced. A few ribs were no doubt broken.
"Get yourself to the hospital," the same auror said.
A loud voice rang out, "Morsmordre!"
A colossal skull appeared in the sky, comprised of what looked like emerald stars, with a serpent protruding from its mouth like a tongue. As they watched it rose higher and higher, blazing in a haze of greenish smoke, etched against the black sky like a new constellation. One of the aurors cursed, and the three men ran off towards the forest. Sirius wanted to yell after them not to bother, that the Death Eater would be long gone by the time they arrived, but he knew they'd go anyways.
Sirius stood up slowly, every movement hurting his chest. It was strange, less than a minute ago screams filled the air, and now it was eerily quiet, broken only by the occasional wail. He could make out fires in the distance, and smoke rising from the forest.
He began walking back towards the tent when he heard a cry of "Sirius" and hissed in pain as Tonks ran into his arms. She pulled away and looked into his face. He could see tear tracks on her cheeks, but she seemed fine.
"I'm sorry," Tonks said in a rush. "Are you ok? What happened?"
"I'll tell you about it when we get back to Grimmauld," Sirius said. "Are you ok?"
Tonks ignored his question. "Grimmauld?" Tonks asked confused. "Aren't we going to St. Mungo's? You should get checked over."
Sirius shook his head. "You know Dumbledore, he'll want to call a meeting right away. Besides, Remus is there, he can fix me up good as new." He held up a hand to stop any protesting.