A number of witches and wizards dropped to the ground. And almost immediately, both parties, the Aurors and the Death Eaters alike were pointing wands against one another.
Aurors kept coming in and in and so were the Death Eaters that Sirius couldn't keep track of how many were they. Too many to count, too many to see Callie, but he did hear James and Remus, and wait did he hear Dorcas?!
That shouldn't matter. Not yet at least. With the chaos going around, he used that as an opportunity to pick up Regulus.
"Hey."
"Yeah?"
Sirius breathed out in relief. Regulus managed to respond and get on his feet, walking with him. That meant the curse did affect him just not too much. That didn't change the fact that he wanted to fight Bellatrix so bad though. First was Callie, then his friends, and most especially his brother. He didn't care if they were cousins. He never cared about his "family" except for his brother.
"They're here."
"Callie? Is she here?" He sat Regulus behind a pillar.
"Yeah. She came with Dumbledore. But I haven't seen her since then."
Regulus opened his eyes and pushed himself up. But Sirius pulled him back.
"What are you doing?"
"Callie, I have to get to her-"
"No."
When Regulus tried to get up again, Sirius pulled him down once more.
"I have to see her," he insisted through gritted teeth. He needed to see her. That was the only way he could make sure they were both safe despite the lights and spells thrown on the battlefield, causing the house to crumble with every hit and dodge.
"You will see her. But you need to rest for now. We both know how much pain that wretched curse can give. You can't expect me to allow you on that battlefield with your legs limping."
"But Callie... wand... their wands..."
"I have it. I can give it to them."
"The locket?"
"I have it too. I would have destroyed it but that Death Eater took my fang."
Regulus shifted his weight and took the fang that he had from his back. He gave it to Sirius, panting and trying to regain everything he lost under Cruciatus Curse.
Before his brother could move, a rat came to their side and transformed back into Peter. He, too, was panting. But it was because he was running away from Bellatrix after what he did to Voldemort. And at that point, he lost his heart somewhere in the manor.
"Everyone's here!" he said, looking around and spotting Lily saving James from almost getting attacked.
"Every Aurors?" Sirius asked.
Then, a familiar laugh rang. "Barty?" Regulus guessed, looking around for any sign of his friend.
"Not just Aurors. Even his friends," Peter pertained to Regulus, "and Lily, Mary, and Marlene!"
"What?!" the brothers asked at the same time.
"Idiots," Regulus muttered under his breath. He had no time to believe that his friends really wouldn't rest if they didn't follow him in danger.
"Why are the girls here?" Sirius asked.
Peter merely shrugged. "I just saw them. But other than them, no one else's here."
Who in their right mind would come to war while they were just seventeen and sixteen years old?
"Callie allowed that?"
Again, he shrugged. "But we better give them back their wands. They're struggling with someone else's." He even saw Remus almost fail to defend himself using a wand not of his own.
Sirius pulled out the others' wand and was about to run to the battlefield. But Peter stopped him.
"I'll give them that. You should stay with your brother."
He hesitated. Peter may have helped them but he couldn't shake the doubt. Not after what he did to them. But he helped them from almost getting killed, weirdly enough by biting Voldemort's feet with his sharp rat teeth. So he thrust the wands to Peter.
He immediately turned into a rat and ran away, the wands in his mouth and tail. Thanks to his small size, not one wizard, both good and bad took attention to him. They were busy knocking away each other off their feet and dodging the debris of the falling manor.
Then he spotted Callie finishing a Death Eater with a binding spell and breaking his wand into four pieces. He immediately turned back to himself right in front of her.
"Peter!" With her voice drowning amidst the spells and chaos, he couldn't understand if she was surprised because he was handing her her wand or if she was surprised that she was about to get killed by him.
"Your wand." He forced it on her hand. "Where's James and Remus?"
With only that as what he said, she smiled, the one she always gave him. "I knew you're brave beyond anyone's knowledge. I haven't seen James since we landed but Remus's there." She pointed to her front where their friend was struggling against a Death Eater.
"Okay." Peter took a step to run to him. But Callie held his shoulder before he could take another. Peter turned around to see her smile still intact.
"Thank you."
He nodded and ran off.
But beyond his knowledge, he did more than just help them. Callie thought she failed to keep the Marauders' friendship. It crumbled when Peter betrayed them in the books. She thought it happened again to her. But no. He chose to put glue on what he ripped. And that meant her her life.
Callie dropped the smile but not the swelling of her heart. She turned her head back to the game, now feeling as if she was the master of the world with her wand in her hand.
With some of the Death Eaters knowing who she was, they immediately targeted her. And they were coming faster than she'd like. Faster and in all directions she turned to. Callie instead searched for help. But everyone was busy against their Death Eaters.
She thought something grave would follow next, seeing no escape and being outnumbered. But nothing hit her. Except for a voice.
"So, you are the girl?"
Callie turned to her right and saw Maxence Danet-Fauvel with a smirk, pointing a wand at a Death Eater in front of him.
"Barty?" she asked in disbelief.
"Huh, you know my name."
Of course, she did. But it was not the right time to put her mind over the fan casts.
"Did Regulus tell you?" When the Death Eater attacked, he blocked it and attacked back.
"No," Callie grunted and blocked an attack.
"Behind you!"
Barty looked back and ducked, pulling Callie with him. When they both turned behind them, they saw a blonde girl finished with an incantation.
Elle Fanning. No, of course, that wasn't Elle Fanning. "Pandora."
Pandora smiled. "You know me?"
"I know all of you."
"Should we even be surprised?" Zoë Kravitz or Dorcas appeared. "I supposed I shouldn't introduce myself?"
"Yeah. Has any of you seen Regulus?" Like him, Callie was itching to see him. She had no idea what happened to him after they attacked. The last she saw him was when they entered, he was almost laying on the floor and she immediately targeted Bellatrix to keep either brother away from harm. From what she saw Voldemort was dancing cha cha.
They all said no until Hugh Laughton-Scott spoke and helped Barty with a Death Eater. "He's with his brother. They're playing push and pull with some Death Eaters using a locket."
The Locket? That means they hadn't destroyed it. But that should be fine. At least she knew both of them were safe.
"Where are they?"
"On the other side."
Callie tried to get there but black-clothed wizards wouldn't let her. One almost stabbed her if Mary ("Callie, remember she's not Sophia Briant!" she had to remind herself) didn't scoop her out of the way.
"Hey, there!"
The girls fought alongside each other. But the ways towards where Evan pointed Regulus and Sirius began to get clotted by fights and wands. She tried to get past but she would die and drown in the crowd.
"If I were you, stop looking for him for now." James popped beside her with Lily.
"Hi." Lily quickly turned around to defend the two.
"I have to get to them. The locket isn't destroyed yet. It has to be before Voldemort."
She heard Lily gasp but didn't mind that. Almost everyone that wasn't the Marauders, Regulus, and Dumbledore was always surprised hearing her call him by his name. Even the Minister who she thankfully persuaded to get the Aurors to help them.
"Up!" Marlene, Remus, and more wizards from both sides yelled.
And when they looked, the ceiling of the manor was raining down chunks that would kill them all.
James pulled the girls to cover whilst Lily cast a protection spell for the three of them.
The ceiling hit the floor like meteors and dust filled the room that coughs accompanied the raining dust. Callie was one of the victims and tried to brush the fog away with her wand, still unable to see even James and Lily who she could feel beside her.
"James? Lily?" she called in between coughs.
"Here." James coughed too on her right.
"Yeah. I'm here." Then Lily wheezed on her left.
"Don't you think you're forgetting someone?" Callie's skin turned to ice as all her hair stood. Her stomach emptied hearing the whispering voice that she never knew she'd feared with all her life.
Bellatrix Lestrange.
Callie wasn't left a second to cry for help. Bellatrix's nails dug into her nape and pulled her back leaving her only to squeal and call James for help.
James called back in the same panic. But none in the couple were able to help her. The dust hadn't cleared up. They didn't know what happened.
Callie's foot left the ground and her squeal grew louder, leading Remus to call for her too. But not too long even the Marauders and Regulus were yelling to let them go and to get off them.
"Regulus?!" Callie called, trying to not cry with the pain of the fingernails in her skin acting like literal nails hammered down on her. Not to mention not feeling anything below her shoes but the air and their continuous rising from the ground.
"Callie?!" she heard his faint reply.
Then the dust cleared up. They were on top of the manor, farther up than where the roof was supposed to be, the roof that fell and probably crushed both Aurors and Death Eaters alike.
She would admire the scenery. The sun already had taken a trip more than half of the sky. The tall mountain covered whatever was behind it. The clouds covered the sky. It didn't want the innocent angels to witness what was happening below them.
Bellatrix chuckled with her usual laugh triggering more tears as the memory of her torture came back. She feared her nails would leave another scar just like what she'd have on her forearm.
"Please, let me go," Callie cried even though she knew Bellatrix wouldn't. But at times like that, she just did what she knew she could; beg.
"You have no idea how I'd love to. But the Dark Lord wishes to have you killed himself!" Bellatrix flew the both of them outside the manor and to the ground where the Marauders were already kneeling down, attempting to get up.
Death Eaters and Aurors came out of the manor in different places and ways. Some apparated and some came out of the busted window and door. Voldemort stood in front of the door where his followers stood behind him.
When they were near the ground, Beatrix threw Callie down and at the same time, hit her cousins with her spell. The Aurors behind them threw back defensive and offensive spells. And another round of the war began.
Callie rolled over to the ground and Regulus attempted to run to her. But Bellatrix, who survived the Aurors' attack, threw him away and any other ones who tried to stand between her and Callie.
"She's mine!" Bellatrix would have the pleasure to bring her to the Dark Lord.
And Regulus or any of them wasn't able to do anything with what seemed like a never-ending flock of Death Eaters attacking them.
"D@mn it! The locket!" Sirius yelled to his brother who found his way on his own feet.
"Here!" Regulus handed it to his brother before casting a spell. They kept giving the locket back and forth to each other when a Death Eater haunted them for it.
"Distract them! I need to destroy it!"
Regulus nodded. "Callie! Pandora! Evan! Barty! Dorcas! Remus! James! Peter!" Never had Regulus yelled out loud. And that loudness was enough to gather the attention of all the names he called. Everyone even Callie.
"Coming!" Barty yelled back at the noise of the crowd.
And in no less than a minute, he was beside Regulus along with Dorcas. James came with Lily, Marlene, and Mary. Remus and Pandora were helping a limping Evan, and Peter turned to his human form after being a rat. But Callie never turned out.
"Where's Callie?" Regulus asked. Everyone else answered him with a shake of their heads. He sighed in frustration and tried to look for her. But there wasn't any time for that.
"What service can we offer?" asked Marlene.
"Sirius needs an undisturbed minute." He looked back and everyone followed.
Sirius was kneeling down and gripping a locket in one hand and a fang in the other.
No more words were needed, they surrounded him in a circle.
Not even a second passed and a Death Eater immediately came and attacked but not one of her spells got through Sirius thanks to their defence that he thought was incredible. But never mind that.
He raised the fang with both his hand. He thrust the fang down and it hit the locket. But instead of Voldemort's soul in it dying, the locket opened.
Eyes.
Sirius fell to his back seeing a pair of eyes in the locket.
Then, a thick black shadow burst out. Not just Sirius but everyone else too stepped back and looked at the gigantic shadow with wide mortified eyes.
A high-pitched ringing pierced through every ear besides Voldemort and Sirius. Everyone, even Death Eaters, pressed their fingers into their ears to stop the mind-splitting noise.
"I have seen your dreams, Sirius Black," a voice of Voldemort said as the real one walked towards them. A glint in his eyes would tell anyone who saw it he had Sirius dancing in his hand. "And I've seen your fear."
A figure of Walburga smiled above him. It wasn't sweet like how a mother's smile should be. It was taunting. Walburga wasn't his fear. It was becoming her was his fear. The temper she shared with him, he despised it. Even her looks that he could see himself in. Sirius hated it.
"No matter what you do, her blood still runs in your veins, doesn't it? And as the years pass, even though you escaped that house, she still haunts you, doesn't she? Not physically no. But she is in you.
"And your brother, your dear brother. You would do absolutely anything to protect him. But you're too late."
Walburga's figure changed into Regulus. He gasped for air, reaching for his older brother as if he was drowning. He fell to his knees begging Sirius. "Sirius," Regulus in the shadows cried and choked in the water.
"All because you left him."
Regulus wasn't able to help his brother. The noise was still splitting his brain but he could see the earthquake in his brother's eyes.
But Peter saw something else, something behind Sirius. The sword of Gryffindor.
Peter didn't hesitate. Peter didn't think twice.
Peter jumped off the ground. Peter ran towards Sirius. Peter picked up the sword.
Peter yelled, "Sirius!"
Sirius snapped his head to him.
They didn't speak a word. They didn't have to. Sirius saw the sword in his hands and his mind erased the image of the dying Regulus.
Sirius raised the fang again at the same time as Peter did with the sword.
"The last time I've seen these before, I promised never to see that. And you know what? I never will."
Sirius and Peter yelled as they swung their hands down. Both the fang and the sword hit the locket.
With a clang and a crack, the shadow disappeared.
Voldemort's smile dropped.
The locket was destroyed.
That meant Voldemort was mortal once more.
And Callie never felt relief like that in her life. But it wasn't the end. And she knew that as clear as glass.
She stood with her wobbling knees and watched Voldemort walk toward them. His eyes split and darken, slithering like a snake.
Peter helped Sirius up.
The rest of the surviving Death Eaters were bundled behind Voldemort. The Aurors did too and ushered the kids to go behind them for all of them were at the centre where the parties were parted.
But the Marauders and Regulus did not step back. Instead, they pinned their feet on the ground and stood brave.
"I have no idea why you're still free after everything you've done and everything you'll do," said Sirius. "But that ends here, Voldemort."
"You're now mortal," Remus added. "You have nothing to choose from but to surrender."
Voldemort brought his smile back. "I have my army. I have my wand. It's you who need to surrender. Come forward. And don't die."
"We don't have to come forward to not die," said James, raising his wand towards Voldemort to show his choice.
"We can and we will fight!" Peter yelled, raising his wand too.
"You think you'll win against me?" He laughed as though the idea was some sort of a joke.
"We don't think so," answered Regulus. "Because we will."
"As you wish, my children."
The rest raised their wands towards the opposite group.
"Avada Kedavra!"
"Expeliarmus!"
Green and red lights met. It was one against five. The flare of both lights was like Aurora dancing with each other. Both were fighting for the spotlight. But the scarlet light grew bigger thanks to the five people behind it.
And Voldemort knew that his green light was being eaten slowly and slowly. Even his Death Eaters knew hence why none of them attempted to step front and help their master. Some began fleeing. But the Aurors didn't let that happen, they followed.
The light danced to him nearer and nearer. Dangerously nearer. Every second, his green light turned scarlet and it lit brighter and brighter. Like a crimson hand reaching for him, wanting to take him and his life.
Until the red hand ate the thin green light of his wand. The wand flew from his grasp, leaving his fingertips.
And slowly, without leaving any words, not even a noise, Voldemort began crumbling down.
Wands of the rest of the Death Eaters clang to the floor as they watched the Dark Lord disappear with the air.
It was the end.
It was truly the end.
And finally, they all got to breathe freely as they should. As Callie knew they should.
"James!" Lily ran out of the Aurors' defence. And James ran to her too with open arms. They embraced each other so tight as though they were in a binding spell.
And Regulus seeing that, immediately looked for Callie.
And there she was, standing metres away from him. Her mouth opened in a smile. Her eyes told him disbelief and relief that they did it. They finally did it. Voldemort's gone and they were and would be safe.
They wanted nothing more but each other's embrace. Each other's skin against them. To feel each other's breath and smell their hair. Nothing else. Just them.
The tears fell from her eyes. Regulus ran to her and Callie stepped too. But she stopped. Her smile fell.
Regulus stopped too seeing her reaction.
Callie's right waist ached. And no, it wasn't her previous injury on her stomach. She raised her hand to it but her fingertips were numbing. Still, she didn't fail to feel a sticky fluid right where it ached, and a cold metal.
Her eyes fell to her hand. A dagger was impaled on her.
Callie looked back at Regulus. The colour drained from both their faces as blood dripped out of Callie. Regulus' eyes widened and for a moment his legs decided to be paralyzed.
She fell to her knees then to the ground and behind her Bellatrix smiled at him widely with stars glistening in her eyes. Satisfaction wasn't enough to describe how she felt. That was more than a simple satisfaction.
Then came her laugh. Her laugh rang around the place, taking everyone's eyes to her and Callie starting not to feel her arms and legs. And Regulus swore nothing but her death. And it was evident in his eyes.
He pointed his wand at Bellatrix. His hand shook in pure rage and his eyes welled up in tears. They fell to his dirt-filled cheeks. He would kill her.
"Go on," she dared in a sing-song. "Do it! Show everyone who you really are, Regulus Black."
He couldn't do it. He wanted to but he couldn't. He wanted to utter the words, the curse she used on them. The curse they very well knew. He wanted her to suffer. He wanted to hurt her so that even breathing would send her crying. He didn't want her to die yet. He wanted her to savour every bit of torture that wouldn't be par with the pain of seeing Callie.
But Callie was dying in front of him. He knew she wouldn't want him to do that. Despite everything that Bellatrix had done to her, Callie wouldn't want him to kill anyone.
"I am Regulus Black. Incarcerous!"
A rope bound Bellatrix. Yet she did nothing but laugh even though she fell already.
Regulus finally gained his legs back. He ran towards them and took her wand. He broke it into more than pieces he could count. He threw every piece away as an Auror took his cousin away.
He took Callie and hugged her, tears filling his view but he wiped away the tears. He wanted to see her.
"Hey, hey, hey, look at me." His tears fell to her cheek. And yet she was still smiling. It was faint just as how opened her eyes were looking directly at his. "You're all right. You're fine. Stay with me. Just look in my eyes and don't close yours."
At that point, Callie couldn't feel anything else, not even her cheeks, not even her chest. But she knew she was struggling to breathe.
"Heart of the lion, Prince, Regulus," she said in a whisper it almost couldn't be heard. But she kept on going. "Keep shining like the star that you are. Under the thousands stars and the crescent moon, I love you."
Callie closed her eyes.
°°°
A/N: Wow... The next chapter would be the last...
...
Yeah... I'm speechless... It hasn't sunk in yet. TTFW is about to end.
Have a good day or night, everyone!