"So the others were right," The first Death Eater spoke up again.
"We've been spied on."
I gulped.
A trap.
That's all this was. They knew someone would follow them, they'd come prepared, they'd expected us.
"Now," the second man standing on my left spoke up. "Who are you? Who do you work for?"
"Noone," Marlene snapped. "Leave and we won't have to hurt you."
The woman laughed mockingly. "Big words, considering it's two against three. Let's do a little maths, shall we? Three is-"
"Quantity doesn't equal quality, bitch,"
Marlene said right at the same moment my non-verbal expelliarmus knocked the woman's wand out of her hands, and all hell broke loose.
The other two Death Eaters quickly fired spells at us as soon as I'd started the attack, and Marlene and I gave our best to dodge all of them.
As long as the woman didn't reach her wand, we had a good chance at beating them. I had high hopes, considering the wand was lying next to my foot, but one of the Death Eaters managed to summon it while dodging Marlene's curses.
When he passed it over to the woman, we had no chance to do anything but dodge curses and summon shield charms. There was no time for us to attack, we barely managed to keep ourselves unharmed.
In the midst of the colourful flashes, I managed to clench out, "I distract, you disapparate."
Without looking at me, since we were still standing back to back, she grabbed my left hand, signaling me that she'd heard.
I took a deep breath. I had to be quick to get a spell out between the several protegos. If I wasn't fast enough, I'd get hit.
When the force of my shield charm made the Death Eater on my right stumble, I saw my gap and quickly summoned a swarm of magical birds that began to peck at the Death Eaters' heads.
They instinctly clutched their hands over their heads or fidgeted with their arms in an attempt to get rid of the birds, but the animals kept pecking at everything they could find.
Marlene's grip on my hand tightened as she twisted on her spot to apparate us away. The last thing I saw was that the woman noticed it, ignored the birds attacking her and raised her wand again.
With a flash of red light, we disapparated.
We appeared in front of the headquarters, but as soon as my feet hit the ground, Marlene cried out and dropped down.
I caught her just before she hit the floor.
The cloak and shirt over her stomach were torn, and I could see blood pool out of a deep looking gash. My blood froze.
"Fuck," I cursed, struggling to keep her up. She was losing a lot of blood in a super short time.
With a wave of my wand, the front door opened.
"Help!" I shouted, struggling to help Marlene inside.
She was still conscious, but I was carrying all of her weight.
"Help!" I screamed again, and this time, people came out of the room down the hallway.
Gideon Prewett reached me first and quickly picked up Marlene's feet. Together, we carried her into the house, where the rest of the order members began to appear in the hallway.
When we were a few steps into the hallway, Sirius finally saw us.
He instantly paled and scurried to us.
"Marls!" His panicked and worried voice broke my heart for him.
"I'm so sorry," I panted as we were passing the door frame.
"It was a trap, we were surrounded and Marlene got hit when we wanted to disapparate!"
Someone- I think it was James- summoned a stretcher and Gideon and I laid Marlene down.
Sirius immediately clutched her hand with one hand and laid his other hand on Marlene's cheek.
"We can't apparate her to St. Mungo's like this," someone said, but I barely listened anymore.
All of the voices morphed into one loud ambient noise.
This was my fault.
Moody made his way through to Marlene and began to treat her wound as best as he could, but my eyes were glued to Sirius' pale, worried and panicked face. I couldn't see Marlene's face, but tears were glistening in the corners of Sirius' eyes.
This was all my fault.
"I- I'm so sorry," I stammered out again, but my voice was drowned out by everything that was going on.
My distraction hadn't been good enough. I hadn't told Marlene about my suspicion when I'd still had the chance.
This was all my fault.
My heart clenched. I couldn't take my eyes off Sirius.
He was almost falling apart out of worry.
And it was my fault Marlene had gotten hurt.
"It's okay, Moody is good enough with healing charms," Emmeline Vance placed a hand on my shoulder as she watched me from the side.
I kept looking straight ahead.
"Marlene will be fine in no time, stuff like this has happened before. It's not your fault."
But it was. I should've distracted the Death Eaters better.
"It's alright," Moody spoke up loudly, effectively making everyone shut up. "She's patched up."
I turned my gaze away when Sirius bent down and kissed his girlfriend.
"Now," Moodly looked at me. His gaze was so intense that I felt as if he was staring into my soul. "What happened?"
It was quiet and everyone's eyes were on me, but I forced myself to talk.
I ignored my quivering voice. "It was a trap, we've been expected. I think the Death Eaters knew for quite a while that people have been following them around... They surrounded us and wanted to know who sent us."
When Moody's eyes darkened, I hurried to add, "We didn't tell them and started the fight, but we were outnumbered. I wanted to cause a distraction to give Marlene the opportunity to disapparate us away, but it wasn't enough and Marlene got hit; I'm so sorry!"
"Breathe, Freya," Fabian Prewett spoke up in an attempt to calm me down. "It's okay. Noone blames you."
I blamed me.
And I was scared that Sirius blamed me, too.
But I just nodded.
"We should pause our spying sessions," someone suggested. "It's too dangerous, now that they expect it."
"I agree," Fabian said, and Daedalus Diggle nodded.
"We should concentrate on our other plans in the meantime."
Moody hesitated but nodded. "I'll let Dumbledore know about the change of plans. Now, Tygris, one more thing: Did they mention any names? That could help us identify some of them."
I thought about it for a second. "Well, one of them was called Flint, but I don't know if that was a first or last name."
"Hmm," Moody grumbled. "I'll see what I can do with that. This meeting is over."
Except for our Hogwarts year, Frank and Alastor Moody, everyone went away one by one. Fabian and Gideon were the last ones to say goodbye with a "get well".
"Now, McKinnon." When everyone was gone, Moody nodded his chin toward her.
"Hmm?" She replied, watching him through tired eyes.
"You'll have the rest of the week off."
She gave him a droopy thumbs up.
When Moody left the room, too, all of Marlene's friends closed up on the stretcher.
Marlene had to reassure everyone that she was fine (albeit tired) several times, before they finally allowed themselves to leave her.
I hadn't participated in the conversation, but I insisted on getting Marlene to St. Mungo's, just in case- same as Sirius. So when everyone left the house and apparated home, Sirius, Marlene and I were still there.
"We can apparate, right?" Sirius asked her quietly, softly helping his girlfriend sit up.
I supported Marlene's other side.
"I think so," Marlene nodded. "I'll be fine."
"Sure?" Sirius asked again.
"Yes," She smiled at him and quickly pecked his lips.
"You're cute when you're worried."
"I know, but that's beside the point," Sirius waved his hand dismissively. He was still rather pale, but at least he was able to crack jokes again.
I let out a relieved sigh, but the pain in my chest didn't disappear.
Why would it?
I was third wheeling on a whole new level.
"C'mon," Sirius pulled Marlene onto her feet, I was supporting her side.
"Let's get you checked up."
I was still feeling guilty for getting us into this situation, and for not distracting the Death Eaters good enough.
But what felt just as bad was that Sirius hadn't looked me in the eyes ever since I'd brought Marlene in.
I can't wait for the ending of this book aaaaaaaaeghh