When Bada landed, she didn't expect the house that had called for the signal to have been turned into a battlefield. Even from the garden, she could make out the beams of light that could have been caused only by curses sent this way and that. She rushed in the house.
The first thing she saw was Anthia, hiding behind the kitchen counter, and right next to her was a woman with light pink hair and circular glasses. Anthia's gaze fell to the door at once when it opened and at the sight of Bada, her eyes widened. Bada didn't have the chance to say a word, her gaze trailing instead on the one attacking Anthia and the other woman. Her eyes widened at once.
"Hae," she spoke, at the same time as her sister noticed her as well. At once, she switched tactics, sent a curse right at Bada. But Hae had never been a skilled dueller and it was easy for Bada to deflect her curse.
"I've waited for this moment a long time, sister," Hae spoke, her voice low, hate simmering right beneath the surface. Behind Bada, her four colleagues appeared, watching her with wide eyes. Hae looked around, seemed to be calculating her position before her lips turned into a small smirk. Her gaze rested on Theodore right as Bada started to walk over, her lips parted and she spoke.
"Kill-"
Bada grabbed her arm and turned on the spot, leaving behind in the house her colleagues along with Anthia and Lauren, Theodore's wand already raised even though the compel had not been completed yet.
Bada apparated on the cliff near the beach she had been to a few days ago when she had needed to swim. Hae finally managed to break free from her when they landed and didn't waste a moment to send a curse flying right at her. Bada dodged it.
"Stop!" she called out, her expression reluctant, her arm left hanging at her side. "This is madness!"
"Madness?" Hae questioned, her eyes on fire, rage personified. She raised her wand at her. "This is revenge! That's what you get, Bada. Your actions have consequences!"
"I didn't mean to," she called out, desparate. "It was an accident! What you are doing is no accident though and the consequences to your actions will be a lot more severe."
Hae let out a loud laugh, her hold on her wand so tight her fingers had started to get pale. She slashed her wand in Bada's direction and so their fight began.
Bada had always been a better dueller than Hae. She deflected the curses Hae sent her way, though, not wishing to fight still. She fell to a defensive stance, effortlessly keeping Hae at bay. Hae, on the other hand, didn't seem to be faring as well as Bada did. Her jaw was tense, she was gritting her teeth and she was starting to sweat as every each one of her attacks, each more powerful than the other, didn't give her the desired result and despite her ferocious attacks, she seemed to be losing.
She was not meant to be a dueller, that was for sure. There was a reason Hae had ended up becoming a reporter and Bada an Auror and during this battle that reason was only becoming more apparent. From the defensive, Bada easily picked up on the offensive.
She sent curse after curse at Hae, each one stronger than the other and not before long Hae's shield was sent crumbling. With Bada's next spell her wand fell to the ground behind her. Hae stepped back from the force of the spell, her foot landed right on her wand. Bada thought she heard the exact moment the wand broke.
"No," Hae breathed out, her eyes widening in horror as she pulled her foot back to gaze at the broken parts of her wand. "No, no, no no no-"
"Give up, Hae," Bada called out, not taking a step closer, watching her from a short distance. "It's over."
"You," she snarled as she sent her a glare unlike any other.
"You forced my hand, Hae," she continued, took a step closer this time. "It's over."
"Oh no, I'm not going to the pitiful prison of this country, sister," she narrowed her eyes at her as she stood up, leaving her wand where it was, no use to her anymore. "I'm not doing anything your way."
"Return home, then," Bada tried, "I won't tell our parents if that will make you stay there."
"And be watched over as if I am mad, unable to take care of myself," she hissed, took a step closer to the edge. "Don't you dare say another word, murderer."
"At least I didn't do it on purpose," she finally shot back, "what did they do to you?"
"What had Jeonghui done to you?" Hae retorted as she took one more step back. "I thought I would feel some kind of satisfaction seeing you in front of me after all you've done. But all I feel is disgust."
Hae jumped from the cliff to the ocean below. For a moment, Bada stood there frozen in shock. It took her a while to bring herself to move forward. She glanced below at the waters but there was nothing below. Bada rushed down the cliff, to the beach. She was quick to rid herself of her clothes and jump into the water. She swam over to the place Hae had jumped to and looked around for any sign of her but there was none, save for some blood in the water close to the rocks.
She kept on searching around the area for a few hours but she saw nothing more. She returned to the shore, got dressed without thinking, barely had the mind to dry herself off first before she were to leave. She apparated in the garden of the house Hae's last attack had been planned to be. The moment she arrived, the door of the house burst open and Harry rushed outside. Before she had realized it, she was wrapped up in his arms.
"Finally," he murmured as she slowly moved her arms so she could hold him in return. His embrace tightened. From the corner of his eyes, he noticed the rest of their colleagues were watching. Theodore was the first to walk over.
"We're glad you're ok," he spoke, placed a hand on her head and patted it softly, saying nothing about how her appearance was nothing but put together right now, her bun having gotten slightly loose, hair rather frizzy.
"I had to take her away from the house," she breathed as she turned her head and opened her eyes so she could lean against Harry's shoulder and also watch Theodore. "If she compelled one of you I knew the battle was over."
"She almost compelled me," Theodore admitted, his lips trembled, "you were just in time."
Her gaze softened as Harry finally let go of her and she had the chance to look around. Draco and Ron walked closer after a beat of hesitation, both of them watching over her for any sort of injury.
"We've ensured the people around don't know what happened and I headed back to the office to transfigure the papers back into shells," Draco informed her softly.
"What happened?" Ron asked, his concern clear on his expression.
"I apparated at a hill close to the beach I had gone to the last time I needed to swim. We dueled," she explained, "she stepped on her wand and broke it. I told her it was over. She didn't want to get in Azkaban. She jumped off of the edge and into the sea. I looked around for hours but I found no trace of her other than the blood close to the rocks where she fell. I don't know if she's dead or not. I found no body."
The four men exchanged a look before Theodore spoke. "So she might still continue this?"
"No," she shook her head, "I don't think she will." She seemed to think for a moment. In the end, she let out a sigh. "I need to tell my parents. I will ask them to come here. They need to know. My grandparents too."
"What are you going to tell them?"
"Everything," she replied as she faced Harry who had asked her the question. "And I will tell them Hae is dead. The chances of anyone surviving such a fall is pretty low."
They didn't say a word and Bada let out a sigh, turned her attention on the house. From the inside, through the open windows, she could make out Anthia's form, the woman with the pink hair she had earlier seen by her side. Without saying a word, she walked over, got in the house. The two of them were talking in hushed tones but Anthia saw her. At once, their conversation was put to an end.
"I'm glad to see you are ok," she mumbled, noticing the apprehension in both of their faces as they looked at her.
"Who was that?" Anthia asked at once.
"My twin sister," she replied honestly with a purse of her lips. "I'm sorry. Anthia, you reacted well. If you hadn't tried to fight her that way-"
"Yeah, I know, we'd be dead, probably," she frowned, "I wasn't supposed to be here, you know. This is Laury's house, I just came by."
"Then Laury was incredibly lucky to have you by her side," Bada acknowledged sadly. "I apologize."
"What happened to your sister?" Laury asked, still slightly frightened at the sight of a woman so similar to one that had attacked her standing in front of her.
"She's dead," Bada told her, a grimace on her lips as she noticed the expressions of horror on Anthia's and Laury's faces. "Not by my hand."
That seemed to put them at ease for a moment. They exchanged a look before they nodded and reassured, Bada took a step back.
"It's late. I should go."
They didn't say another word as she left and so she returned to her colleagues. "We need to head back to the office, don't we?"
"Tomorrow morning," Harry told her softly, "you look dead on your feet."
"And you need a bath," Theodore thankfully supplied, "you smell like the sea."
"Some could argue that's nice," she retorted with a brief smile at him. She took her wand out. "I'll see you tomorrow, then."
They hardly had the chance to say a word to her before she turned on the spot, appeared in an alley close to home. She rushed to her building, keeping her head low, knowing she didn't look her best at the moment. She didn't waste a moment to head to her apartment when she unlocked the front door, despite her exhaustion feeling the need to head inside as quickly as possible. She was thankful Sahira didn't come out to see her at such a state.
When she closed the door behind her it felt as if all the weight of the world was lifted from her shoulders. She collapsed against the door, her head held in her hands as she breathed in and out deeply and closed her eyes. She didn't know for how long she stayed like that but it must have been a while because in the end, Jakda and Geomeun ventured out of her room where they always were when she was in her work and headed her way, rubbing their faces against her legs and waist, anywhere they could reach.
Gradually, Bada snapped out of it. She finally took off her shoes, picked herself up and headed to the shower. And after that was done and she had cleared her head, she looked through her bedside drawers for the phone her mother had gifted her on her eighteenth birthday so they could communicate if she was away and she wrote a short, simple message.
Come here. The moment you can.
And with her parents notified, she reached for her wand, called for her Patronus and notified her grandparents that it was over, even though she knew Draco had probably already told them all he knew. It felt as if a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders with the end of this case, even though a weight had been added in her heart. There was nothing she could do, though.
Bada did the first thing that got to mind; she started cooking. And when hours later, she knocked on Sahira's door, asking her to eat with her because she had cooked too much once more, Sahira pretended not to notice how worn she looked and gladly accepted her invitation.