*Long Chapter alert: 4440 words*
At the sight of my father, I had suddenly returned to the mindset of 8 year-old Ava.
I screamed for my brothers—in this case, I screamed for Theo.
"Theo!"
"Ava, what's the matter?" Sam exclaimed, still dragging my arm to move. I looked back around to find my father advancing on us, those Fountaine eyes of his filled with a flicker of rage I had only seen glimpses of when he lost his temper. And even then, he never came at me with violence before. Not like this.
This was entirely different.
"Ava," I heard my brother say by my shoulder. I slowed my jog a fraction and grabbed on to him like a life line as he searched my face. He thought I was terrified over the cross fire. He had no idea.
"It's dad!" I exclaimed pointing past my shoulder. "He's one of them, Theo! He's one of them."
My brother immediately stopped dead, and we slowed down behind him. It was our mistake as it gave the incoming death eaters a clear shot.
Just as my brother saw our father advancing, Sam warned us to duck as a red spark came right towards us. I jumped off to the left near a set of shelves just as the curse made impact behind me.
Glass and wood shattered with such a force, that the supporting beams of four differing shelves splintered, sending the supporting beams down into the middle of the hall.
I lifted my head from behind my arms and shook the glass out of my hair. I was alone.
The beam had fallen with the rest of its contents blocking what remained of the incoming death eaters and my friends. And while I heard voices of the death eaters cursing behind the wood, Theo and Sam had remained silent.
I stood up, feeling my legs shaking under me, ready to buckle. For the sake of my emotions, I hoped their silence was to avoid drawing attention to themselves and not a sign that they have been cornered into the crushing wood.
I saw my wand amongst the wreckage and grabbed it, suddenly feeling a little better. Walking in the opposite direction of the blockade, I came out into another corridor of separate shelves.
To my relief I spotted Hermione, Harry and Neville booking it down the end of the corridor. Hermione must have heard my steps as she turned around and the biggest look of relief crossed her face.
"Thank Merlin, I thought we lost the rest of you."
"We did," I rectified, running up to her. Hermione gave me a worsened look before I added, "But I think I cut off the death eaters from their path. A few shelves blew up in front of them."
"That gives us some time at least," Hermione replied with little relief. We continued on down the corridor in search of the original door we had come in from. But just as we neared the final corner, I heard the sound of running footsteps coming from where I came.
"They made it through the blockade," I muttered sharply as Hermione turned toward the sound.
"Over here," Harry instructed, pointing to a door ahead of us. We raced to it and snuck in just as the voices of unrecognizable death eaters echoed from the corridor.
"I heard footsteps, they can't be far from here."
"Quiet! They can hear us too."
I slowly closed the door, before turning around to examine the room. It was an office with neighboring desks across two separate rows. One of which held a globe that on closer examination was a liquid bubble with literal wind trapped inside it.
"Hide," Harry whispered in my direction, being the only one still standing. I looked around quickly as the incoming steps came closer. I spotted at two floor-to-ceiling bookshelves separated by the corner of the room. I jumped over one of the desks and sucked in to my smallest before shimming between the shelves, finding refuge in the small corner space.
A breath had barely escaped me when the slow creaking of a door opening broke the silence. Two figures in black followed in, wands out as they slowly maneuvered their way into the room.
Their movements were so in sync to one another, I had the oddest feeling they had done something like this before.
My heart felt like a humming bird trying to evacuate through my throat, making it hard to breath. But I didn't dare clear my throat. Nor did I let myself gasp as one of the figures appeared right in front of me.
But his back was turned.
"Check under the desks-"
Stupefy
It was Harry's voice and it caused the death eater in front of me to race forward while the other one cursed and pushed the desk back, revealing Harry.
Avada—
Before the death eater could finish the spell, Harry had lurched forward, tackling the man at the knees while Neville leapt at the death eater closer to me. Hermione, who was hiding under a desk further away, moved to follow and yet all I could do was stand stock still.
It wasn't until I saw Neville get thrown into the bookshelf next to me that I was jolted forward out of my hiding spot, wand at the ready.
The death eater retreating from Neville saw me coming and reflexively rose his wand but Hermione was faster, sending a stunning curse at his side.
The death eater dropped back, crashing into the liquid globe of portable wind. But instead of the globe bursting under his weight, the death eater's head slowly fell into the liquid while the rest of the body reacted according to the nature of gravity.
In the middle of the room, Harry was still wrestling with the last death eater on the floor. Hermione moved to stop it before pausing, waiting for the opportunity to stun the death eater.
But the death eater and Harry were wrestling for Harry's wand and neither were letting up.
I advanced toward the two cautiously while watching them fight. In a house of brothers, rough housing was common place. And one of the best ways to break up such an entanglement was to inflict pain bad enough to make one flinch.
With all my strength I took aim and kicked the death eater right in the lower back, bruising a kidney or two in the process.
The death eater did more than flinch. He recoiled from me and contracted back while Harry pushed himself away from the screaming death eater.
Hermione finished him off with another stunning spell, making the room go silent.
"Are you okay?" Hermione asked, turning to Harry. He was sporting a busted lip and his glasses were askew but otherwise he was fine and said as much. Neville on the other hand was just getting up from where he crashed when we had finished off the last death eater. And he was sporting more than just a busted lip.
"Erm sorry," Neville sputtered out over a mouth full of blood. His nose was without a doubt broken from the blow. The pain of it was making him choke up.
"Oh Neville..." Hermione began but I was already by his side looking for the point of the break of his nose.
"Ib's fine," he said, waving me away, but I ignored his complaints and drew my wand.
"No you're not," I retorted stubbornly snagging a book from the remaining bookshelf on the wall. I opened it and ripped a page out before turning back to Neville.
"We don't have time for this," I heard Harry say but I was finding myself low on patience at the moment. It was no doubt caused by the shock of the recent pressing events.
"Indulge me then. Neville, hold still." Harry kept his mouth shut and stalked off while I let the paper soak in the running blood.
Blood. Nothing else.
I released a sigh and tossed the paper to the ground.
"What was that about?" Hermione asked, watching from the opposite side of the room. She was eyeing the death eater's face stuck in the globe filter back and forth between a man's face and that of a baby's.
"Checking for a halo," I explained, turning back to Neville. "I can't fix the break. I haven't had the practice to want to try. But I can stop the bleeding for a time. I've done it for Theo before. And Damion."
Neville seemed past the stage of needing to give me an answer. I was already raising my wand when he nodded and subsequently winced when my wand touched the bridge of his nose.
Hermione was still looking at me questionably after I lowered my wand again. "Halo?"
"Broken noses can sometimes mask the symptoms of a skull fracture. If that were the case, spinal fluid would also be dripping from his nose which is clear and creates a halo effect around a blood stain on paper."
"Where'd you learn that from?" Neville questioned, already looking better.
"You would be amazed of the number of times Madam Pomphrey has had to check Quidditch players for skull fractures."
"Are you done?" Harry cut us off from further talk. "We need to move."
"Right," Hermione agreed, walking over to him. After we had all gathered with our wands at the ready, Harry opened the door and we spilled out into the corridor where two other death eaters were waiting, wands raised.
"Impedimenta!" They both cursed, and to my horror I felt my feet leave the ground before throwing me back with Harry, Hermione and Neville into the closest wall. The impact had me gasping for air while one of the two death eater's started to yell to the others that they had found us.
"Silencio!" Hermione cried, and the man's voice was extinguished. He continued to mouth out words but nothing followed. The other came forward toward Hermione but Harry was ready for him.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
The 2nd death eater's arms and legs snapped together like a frozen beam before he fell forward, showcasing the other death eater aiming his wand at Hermione.
He made a sudden slashing movement and a purple flame left his wand and went through Hermione's chest. She released an "oh!" before collapsing to the ground where she lay motionless.
Both boys reacted, calling out her name while I grabbed my wand and aimed for the death eater.
"Bombarda!"
The death eater went flying so far back down the corridor that we only heard him make contact with the opposing wall.
"We can't leave her," Harry reacted while Neville grabbed her wrist.
"No kidding," I replied, turning back to them. "One of us will need to carry her. The other two will play guard. We can't be far from the door, right?"
"No, we aren't," Harry agreed, standing up. "But the others-"
"Waiting around here won't do anything for them," I replied steadily.
"She's got a pulse," Neville exclaimed, regaining our attention. He wiped back blood from his mouth before looking back to us expectantly. "I can carry her. You two are better off with defensive spells as is."
"Are you sure?" Harry began, but I was already turning away to looking around.
No shit I was better with defensive spells. I was the only one here without blood on my uniform.
After Neville had gotten Hermione up, Harry took the lead again and I took the back, watching the endless corridors of shelves. We found the door after we made turned the next corner. And subsequently found our friends a moment later, booking it for the same door while a hoard of death eaters were on their tails...
"Is that black smoke?" I questioned aloud at the sight of pipes of black fog high in the air came spiraling towards us.
"That's how they apperate!" Harry recalled, as he pushed Neville forward towards the opened door.
My brother was shoting volleys of curses up at the apperating death eaters while Sam and Ella half-dragged Ginny along as they were booking it under the cross fire. Ron was closest to the door with Luna casting a curse behind her as another group of death eaters appeared from the right corridor, led by Lucius Malfoy.
"Stop them!" He yelled to the masses. I turned around to book it toward the door, just missing a dash of red light sail pass me on my left. I looked to where it came from and saw three more death eaters coming down from the left. In the lead was my father.
My brother released an inaudible spell in the direction of our father but I looked away before it could make contact. I reached the door and raced through it and into the massive circular room of blue doors.
The others piled through before Harry slammed the door and yelled out "Colloportus!"
The door locked just in time before the sound of bodies hitting it on the other side echoed in the chamber. As the doors themselves started to move, an eruption of voices came all around us and echoed in the alcoves over our heads.
Not one of us relaxed for a moment as the doors went to a standstill. Another door immediately opened up and more death eaters flooded in.
"Immobilus!" Ginny cried, sending a blue spark in their direction. Harry opened the door closest to him, and raced in with the rest of us following behind.
"We know where they're going! Hurry!" One of them exclaimed but as the door shut behind Theo, Harry sealed the door shut.
I looked around and realized we had made it back into the room with the eerie arch way.
"They can't get in," Ella started with a heave as Ginny dropped to the ground between them. "Right?"
The sudden sound of booming echoed all around us making Neville, who was lowering Hermione to the ground to pause.
I followed the sounds and look up at the many doors situated a story up from the ground. My stomach sank as the reality hit me.
"Seal the doors!" Harry commanded and automatically we directed our wands to them.
"Colloportus!" I yelled in the direction of one door while nearby Sam followed suit. Theo was closing another door as Luna went around behind him.
But just as Ron aimed his wand up to one of the last two unmarked doors, the booming reached its peak and suddenly, the doors burst open and black fog erupted from them, engulfing the room into darkness.
It didn't matter how equipped I was with a wand. The moment I felt someone's hands grab and drag me back, all I could do was react blindly in the dark.
It was done in a second. As the fog dissipated around me, I realized that my friends had met similar ends with only Harry left unclaimed.
Around me I saw every last one of my friends held up by a death eater with a wand pointed at their necks.
I wiggled in the grip of the person holding me but stopped when I heard a familiar voice in my ear. "Don't move."
I stilled.
My father was the one restraining me.
"Let's all settle down now, shall we?" Malfoy's voice echoed as he walked forward from the circle, appearing in front of Harry who was gasping for air as he stared at all of us.
"Dad?" I whispered, unable to believe it.
"Shhh," he hushed, and I felt his grip tighten around me. "You will do as I say, Ava."
"Release my friends," Harry demanded, taking the orb out of his pocket. The sudden revelation of the orb sent a stiffening pause amongst the death eaters including my father.
"You have nothing left to barter, Potter," Lucius remarked coolly. "So let me make it easier for you. Give me the prophecy or watch your friends die."
Ella cried out and I watched as the death eater holding her pulled back on her hair, arching her head up to better aim his wand on her neck.
Sam was struggling against the death eater restraining her but was quickly stilled as he extended her arm a little too far making her spasm in pain.
I moved myself away from my father only to be braced back, this time feeling the tip of his wand embed itself in my neck.
"Ava," he warned under his breath. "I don't want to hurt you but I will if you do not listen to me."
"What?" I hissed as I heard my father struggle under my tension. "Going to kill your own daughter? What's happened to you?"
Across from me I spotted my brother struggling against a death eater of his own watch. His eyes were on me, barely masking a violent rage of his own.
A cool chuckle resonated from my father, making me still.
"What's happened to my children is what I do wonder—look at your brother. Like a savage animal. And for what?" I flinched but that seemed to make my father more pleased.
"You won't understand what one must do for our family name," my father remarked quietly. "A name you and your brother are damaging just for being here."
"Don't give it to him, Harry!" Neville cried out, breaking me from my father's words. He was quickly quieted by Bellatrix holding him back with a mere tap of her wand.
Malfoy clicked his tongue unhappily before looking back to Harry with a raised brow.
"Very well then, shall I count? Kill a spare few at my cue in 3—2—"
I braced under my father's hold before Harry reacted in favor of the ploy.
"Alright! I'll give it to you."
There was a moment of silence before Lucius moved, extending his hand out to Harry and beckoning him forward.
Fresh tears spilled down my checks and I stiffened down a sob as the reality hit me. If Harry was giving up the orb then we were done for. No leverage kept us at the death eaters mercy. And even if my father saved me and my brother, the rest can't be claimed for.
"There now," my father said quietly. "All of this will be forgotten with time. I still have hope for you yet. As for your brother..."
A ray of white light cascaded down the side of the room. It was so bizarre that at first I didn't recognize what it meant against my father's words.
But then a figure appeared from the white light followed by another, and another.
Until suddenly the room was alit with figures cascaded by white fog. One of such figures appeared right behind Malfoy with the likeliness of a face I've seen in posters.
"Get away from my godson."
A flash of blinding light erupted from one of the doorways sending the room into a frenzy.
Lucius lunged at Harry and the orb only to be sucker punched in the face by Sirius Black.
Amongst our lineup, figures in white apparated around us and shot stunning spells at the death eaters holding us captive. While the likes of Bellatrix Lestrange laughed aloud before releasing Neville on her own, my father was not so easily swayed. He yanked me back with one arm dragging me toward a divot in the room, blocking most of the cross fire.
All around us, white fog dueled with the death eaters. Red curses collided with silver while some of my friends who had made it out of the clutches of death eaters went running for shelter.
I twisted in my father's grasp, sending my nails back toward his face but I heard him mutter, "oh no you don't" before grabbing my arm back and twisting it unnaturally until a faint "pop!" came from my elbow. Radiating pain erupted from that joint and I cried out.
A ray of white fog raced toward me, answering me call and sending my father clear across the room with such a force that I was left gapping.
I raced away from the combat and toward the others who were being ushered by a person in white to hide for cover. My brother reached for my arm when I came near but I dodged his arm entirely.
"Don't" I said, not meeting his eye as I steadied myself next to the others.
Everyone from our group were hiding under an up-ended rock from a poorly aimed bombarda spell.
"He didn't-" my brother started but Sam, heard his tone and grabbed his arm.
"She's safe now, Theo. Don't be rash—"
Where did he go?" Theo demanded, in my direciton. Sam dropped her hold on him, rolling her eyes.
"You're not going anywhere, Theo," Sam snapped, turning back to him with a tense jaw. "He's obvious gone mad. Don't give him a reason to hurt you."
"I'd like to see him try," my brother shot back, giving Sam a heated look. She faltered under his stare and I noted him pause in her direction.
"You would do the same for your sisters."
Sam didn't know what to say, nor could I as my brother looked back to me expectantly.
"Which way?"
"Oh Theodard! Don't be a coward, I know you've been waiting for this..."
The tone was no doubt our fathers. And it terrified me. But to Theo, it was destiny. He looked eagerly above the rock where we were sheltered and grabbed his wand.
"Don't be an idiot out there," Sam called to him as he jumped up over the rock. It happened so fast I couldn't be sure, but I swear I saw a flash of a grin sharpen on my brother's face before he jumped off on the other side.
"He's going to get himself killed," Sam whispered menacingly in my direction.
Before I could respond I spotted black fog converging towards us at a fast speed.
"Run!" I screamed, bracing back but before any of us could really move, a force of blue slammed through the death eater's fog form, sending him falling out of the sky and out of my sight. I stood up, revealing MadEye Moody leaning on his walking stick in front of me and the rock that we had been hiding under.
He spotted my friends curled in amongst each other and waved them up
"The midst of a battle is no place to hide. Arm yourselves and move!"
I grabbed my wand and Sam did the same with her good arm while Ella turned to Ginny who remained mute.
"What's wrong with her?" I asked, turning to Sam.
"She screwed both ankles. I don't know if they're sprained or broken."
"I can barely walk," Ginny replied before being helped up by Ella.
"Then we'll help you," Sam replied, tucking her one good arm under Ginny's left arm. Ella held her right side and then glanced at me expectantly.
"You're protecting us, Ava."
"Right," I replied turning to where MadEye came from. He was already off dueling two different death eaters and was doing a rather spectacular job of it.
On the other side of the arch I caught sight of both Sirius Black and Harry dueling against Lucius Malfoy. Unlike Moody, Lucius seemed to be having a hard time against the two. And not a moment after I caught sight of their duel, I watched Sirius hit Lucius with a spell, making half the man's body go flaccid.
"Ava, let's go!" Sam's voice interrupted me, making me turn back on course. The girls and I ducked as a loose spell hit bed rock near us while another spray of black fog erupted above us but thankfully did not land.
Along the back end of the room sparks of flying spells lit the room as my brother and my father dueled in conjuncture with another death eater and a thin, tall man in white fog.
We were nearing the middle of the room, now no longer safe guarded by disrupted earth, when someone shouted loudly—"NO!"
I turned just in time to watch as the orb Harry carried, slipped from his grasp as he fell backward from the force of a spell. The orb spun up in the air before shattering nearly an inch from Lucius Malfoy's outstretched hand.
"NO!" He howled as the prophecy dispersed into cloudy vapors around his empty hand.
Bellatrix Lestrange appeared in a daze of black fog not too far from where the girls and I were running, making me halt.
"Down!" I commanded at the sight of the witch, and my friends and I quickly dropped to the ground as Lestrange released "Avada Kedavra!"
I wasn't looking when Sirius Black got hit. In fact, based on how the events had been going, I had suspected that killing curse was aimed at Harry.
But as my friends looked up amongst the ongoing chaos, the truth appeared in the form of Black falling into the archway and then into nothingness.
That was the turning point in the fight.
The moment Sirius Black disappeared behind that vail of mist, everyone in the chamber, seemed to have switched to high gear. The death eaters were now made aware of the fact that the orb they had come for was destroyed. There was nothing else keeping them here.
And the people in white light were doing everything they could to stun and hold down the fort. It didn't take a genius to know why.
More people were on their way here to help. We just had to make it a little while longer.
"Ava!" Sam yelled in warning but her cry was too late. One wizard in white fell past my path, notably frozen. I turned in the direction the man had come from in time to see my father appear amongst the black fog and reach for me.
At the same moment Harry Potter screamed out in pain at losing his godfather, two things happened:
Darious reached out in his half-apparated form to grab me.
And I was hit with a stunning spell, flooring me to the ground.
The stunning spell came from Theo, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere opposite Sam and the girls. He hurtled toward our father as if to punch him out of his apperating state.
But just as Theo's fist flew in front of our father's face in a true miss, Darious Fountaine grabbed hold of his son with both arms and disapparated from sight.
It didn't take long after that for the ministry to arrive. But by that point, both my father and my brother were gone.
-
Hello there,
I was racing the clock last night trying to finish this chapter, but the more I wrote the more I realized this chapter was going to end up being literal shit if I didn't wait to reread it and add and clean up parts of it. So that's why it's late.
But I am glad to have finished this chapter because I was both excited to reach this point in the story and also dread it. Writing action scenes with so many moving points is one hell of a headache in the making.
Anyway, I will post again on Tuesday. I have finals coming up at the end of this week but thankfully have already written a large portion of the chapter from an earlier writing session.
Tip for any writers amongst my readers: If there is a part of a story or book that you are coming up with that you really want to write out already or you can visually see in your head but it happens later in your story-- write it.
Just go ahead and do it because usually that's when your best writing comes out and you can just store that completed chapter away for when you need it.
Aka me with this next chapter :)
See you soon.
-WG-