"A lot of them went mad."
Sirius' previous words rang louder in James' mind more than ever before as he stood in front of Alcina, unable to process just how everything had managed to go to shit so quickly when they had been winning in the first place. With Renata and Adelmo being tortured to where James could only see Alice and Frank Longbottom before him facing the same torture only a couple of years ago, he knew what the results could be if they suffered any longer. Not to mention without their wands, he and Sirius were practically useless and stood a very good chance of getting themselves killed if they made any sudden movements.
However, as he was trying to come up with a different plan, he caught sight of Renata's body stiffening to the point where she wasn't squirming around on the ground to escape the pain. Instead, her back started to arch, her hands were curling and she was no longer crying out like Adelmo was, instead, she had fallen silent.
"Stop! Stop! You're killing her!" James called out, not caring if Alcina attacked him at the moment as he washed over to help Renata. As he reached her side, it seemed Alcina didn't care to stop him, only watching as she kept her wand pointed at Sirius, so that he didn't try anything. As James reached Renata's side, she was deathly pale and from what he could gather, she wasn't breathing.
He had gathered her body in his arms only to feel the tension give out as she went completely unconscious.
"Please stop! Stop!" James yelled at Alcina. "I'll take the vow! I'll do it, just stop! Release the curse!"
With Renata in his arms, the only way James could know that the spell had been lifted was by Adelmo falling somewhat still on the floor, attempting to catch his breath. He let out several coughs and as much as Sirius wanted to rush over and aid him, he couldn't as he was stuck in place with Alcina as she seemed to immobilise to the spot. Eventually, Adelmo rolled on his side and saw Renata completely still for several seconds as James kept trying to encourage her to breathe and suddenly, her eyes began fluttering as she looked around in confusion while taking several deep breaths.
Adelmo pushed himself up, still visibly shaken by what had been unleashed on him but made his way over to check her.
"She stopped breathing," James told him, " I couldn't even get a heartbeat or anything, she just got really tense and then flopped...what happened? Is that-"
"Sounds like it was a type of seizure," Adelmo said, glaring over in the direction of his mother, " a seizure brought on by the shock of pain. Don't lift her up anymore, just keep her resting on her side. She's reaching her limits, she can't handle being placed under the curse any longer. What exactly are you looking to accomplish here, Mamma? Killing your family for the sake of perfection? It's already imperfect if you had to result to such lengths, why can't you just let us be?"
"You all do not understand, do you?" Alcina growled as her fingers squeezed around her wand. "This is why society fails, this is why there is little progress because such potential simply goes to waste for the means of "happiness." It's selfish! Before I became the headmistress, I remember working as a professor for years, spending long hours educating the next generations that were supposed to be leaders and for what? Only to have students who graduated return and what did they do with their lives? Some of my brightest students, the ones who had the power to change the world for the better, they wasted it!"
"How did they waste it?" James asked her. "Because they didn't follow the careers that you wanted for them?"
"Exactly, wasted on poor occupations, such as becoming musicians or never pursuing anything outside of their education, instead, they stay at home, have children and that's it. I was left baffled, the students who scored the highest marks, selfishly withholding their minds and not putting them to proper use, " she gave a shake of her head, " what was the point of me working at that point?"
"Mamma, you realise that not everyone can go on to be a Healer, an Auror, or whatever it is that you want them to be, " Adelmo argued with her, " there are multiple occupations that need to be filled, especially with a growing population."
"That's what those other schools produce, they can produce the lesser folk to fill in those positions, but not my students, not my children," Alcina told him, "which is why when I became Headmistress, I became selective with who would be allowed it. Families that wanted success, families that wanted to see society improve..."
Adelmo bared his teeth in frustration at his mother's words. "But you obviously knew it was wrong! You knew it was wrong because you and the other families have been trying to keep it a secret for so long!"
"It's not wrong," she said, " but I understood that people would not understand the new way of thinking-"
"It's not a new way of thinking-"
Alcina apparently had enough of him arguing with her as she turned her wand on him and within seconds, he was back under the Cruciatus Curse, leaving Sirius to try and fight the spell holding him in place. James yelled at Alcina to stop but instead, it had only lured her attention back to Renata, who was just finally sitting up on her own.
"Mam-ma," she called out in a shaky voice above her brother's yelling, " you have to stop this, please-"
There wasn't any sort of mercy being displayed as Renata was placed under the curse again, leaving James to panic even more as Adelmo had announced that Renata had reached her limits before with the curse. He had no choice but to push himself up from Renata to face Alcina, even if he was wandless. However, he only found Alcina's hand extended out to him, meaning that she was waiting for him to take her up on the offer of the Unbreakable Vow.
Looking back at Renata, she was hardly giving a reaction to the curse anymore as her body had been exhausted enough, while Adelmo was on the verge of hurting himself trying to escape the pain. He was struggling with the idea of making such a vow with Alcina because he knew Renata would more than likely take death over being stuck in a brainwashing cult.
But if he took the vow, if he broke his part to expose Alcina and the others, it would result in his death. However, as he thought it over, he knew that Harry would be looked after, not only by Renata once she was freed, but by Sirius, Adelmo, the Weasleys, the Longbottoms, and Remus. He knew his son would be safe and taken care of, however, just the idea of being away from Harry permanently, James was at a loss.
If he took the vow and didn't interfere, Renata would live the rest of her life as a puppet to her mother and the others. She would never be truly happy, it would only be a false sense of the feeling and every time she broke out of it, he knew what was going to fall upon her.
Suddenly, Alcina let out a laugh that chilled James to the bone as he faced the woman once more, only to see her shaking her head at him.
"Pathetic!" she spat in his direction. "That's what you are, completely pathetic. I was right when I said you were a bad influence on Renata. I can see it just by having you stand in front of me. You're as weak as they are, all you're focused on is what is going to make everyone "happy."
"Why is that such a crime!?" he hissed back at her. "Why is is such a bad thing?"
"Happiness leads to poor decision-making," Alcina said, " look at Renata. She has a brilliant mind, a gift of empathy that could bring enemies to their knees, and what did she want to do with her life? She came to me as a little girl and claimed she wanted to be a chef, open a small restaurant. I couldn't believe it and then, this one..."
She pointed in the direction of Adelmo, who was practically sweating a puddle and pushing himself across the floor to get away, only to be kicked back by one of the other men that were simply standing there, waiting on Alcina's orders.
"He wanted to be a musician," she laughed, " do you see how capable he is as a Healer and he was going to waste that to become a man standing on a street corner, begging for money while playing his music. Not to mention, attracted to men, meaning he would never pass along his genetics....my children don't think properly for themselves and then they have people like you, who interfere and tell them that they should do what makes them happy-"
"As opposed to going mad?!" James countered. "Yes, I would much rather a person be happy then go mental!"
Renata's fingertips had gone numb however long ago and she was beginning to get the same sensation in her feet as her body exhaustedly took to just lay there while her skin felt like it was on fire. She couldn't fight the pain off, no matter what she tried to focus her mind on, even when it came to just focus on memories with Harry. She was sure that was the only thing that was allowing her to remain conscious for as long but Renata didn't think she had much longer before her mind decided to shut everything down. What would happen after that, she didn't know, nor did she really want to know.
What sounded so distant in her mind, she could hear James and her mother arguing back and forth and as much as she wanted to call out and tell James not to bother, she couldn't even bring herself to move her lips. All she could feel was a slipping sensation as if her mind and body were being carried away somewhere but she remained in place. She had heard her mother tell James to take the vow with her, and she prayed that James wouldn't go through such a thing.
It was one thing for her to sacrifice herself to the cause, it was her mother after all, but James, it was almost like Renata could hear the thoughts running through his mind and she knew he would be too conflicted with the Unbreakable Vow to stick to the terms of the agreement. Which meant that would result in his death and she couldn't have him even contemplate such a thing. Harry had already lost one parent that had sacrificed everything for his safety, the thought of him losing two, Renata wouldn't allow it.
Harry needed James and James needed Harry, they would be able to go on with their lives without her. Harry was young and eventually, he would forget all about Renata when she wasn't a constant presence in his life and as for James, he would be able to move forward with his life. He was in the process of getting help, she knew he could do it. So if she was the reason for conflict, she was going to have to take care of it.
Focusing on her hands, she attempted to regain the feeling in her hands in order to push herself up through the pain. It seemed to take forever, but she was able to get her fingers to twitch before she went to roll over, but she stopped herself when she found a hand extended to her to help her up. Confused as the chaos was still taking place around, Renata looked up, only to see a familiar face of a red-haired woman with the same eyes as Harry. She didn't say anything as she only smiled at Renata and continued to offer her hand.
"Lily?"
Lily nodded her head before Renata reached her hand out and was helped to her feet as she was pulled up. The pain had yet to disappear but she was standing and found herself able to move as she stood in the presence of Lily. She didn't know what to say to the image of the woman that had appeared, she didn't know why Lily had come to her either. That was until Lily pulled her into a hug, Renata could feel the woman's arms wrap around her before Lily whispered in her ear.
"Thank you."
Renata was just about to tell her that she didn't need to thank her for anything, but before she could do any of that, Lily was gone, leaving Renata on her own two feet. She looked around to see that James had been knocked to the ground and while Sirius had broken free from the spell, both of them had been stopped from fighting Alcina, due to Davide and his brother. Alcina had her back facing Renata, unaware that her daughter was up again.
Each step towards her mother, it felt like she was stepping on swords but Renata pushed through the pain as she approached Alcina, who had her wand pointed at James. She was no longer in a negotiating mood it seemed as she had Davide hold up James' head by the hair. His glasses were shattered, his face bleeding with tiny shards of glass littering his skin. But as his head was forced up, James caught sight of Renata on her feet approaching Alcina.
Wandless and not really a plan in mind, Renata didn't have much choice but to launch herself onto her mother's back to bring the woman down. Alcina screeched as the two of them hit the floor and Renata let out a painful yelp as she landed on her back, which hurt a hundred times worse under the effects of the curse. However, through the pain, Renata kept her arms wrapped as tight as possible around Alcina's neck to hold on.
Davide lifted his wand to attack Renata, however, he should have kept his focus on James, as he had been holding onto the man's hair, only to find himself holding an antler. Suddenly, he was face to face with a very angry and aggressive stag, while Gian was having his arm being torn open by the jaws of the black dog that was done with the entire situation.
"Renata, get off of me right now!" Alcina demanded but Renata refused as she wrapped her legs around her mother's waist. "Get off of me!"
She turned her wand to point at Renata, however, Renata reached one hand out and grabbed Alcina's wrist to try to turn the wand back on her. Unfortunately, Alcina was proving to be a lot stronger than her in her weakened state and on top of that, the pain in her body was making it difficult for her to concentrate on anything. It felt like her hands had been set on fire and every time Alcina attempted to push her off, it was the equivalent to a strong punch against Renata's body.
"Get off of me! Get off!" Alcina continued to struggle, still trying to aim her wand as she could feel Renata's grip weakening. "Renata, you stop this right now-"
"No, Mamma," Renata growled in her ear, " haven't you heard? You have to be punished for your sins."
The struggle came to a stop for a few seconds as Alcina felt the own sensation of the chilling words that her daughter had growled in her ear, however, with every passing second, she could feel Renata getting weaker as the pain was overwhelming her. However, Renata had proved herself to be incredibly strong as she was withstanding the pain of the curse to bring herself to stand and attack.
"Do you see how strong you are, Renata?" Alcina called to her. "Do you see what you're doing now? Look at you, you're unstoppable, and you were going to waste that, to do what? Cook? Become a housewife? Don't you see? I pushed, I made you better, I have unlocked this potential that you wouldn't even know you had."
"You didn't unlock shit, Mamma," Renata said through gritted teeth, " none of this is for you or because of you. This is for Harry, James, Adelmo, Sirius...all the people that you have tampered with...and more importantly, this is for Lily."
"Who is Lily?"
"A woman who accomplished more as a mother in just a year's time, than you did in two decades."
Everything became still and quiet between the two before Alcina's upper lip curled upward and she slammed her head back, payback for what Renata had done earlier as the back of her head rammed Renata in the face. It wasn't enough to cause any nose-bleeding, but with the pain escalating beyond what Renata could handle at that very moment, it freed up her hand to aim her wand again.
"You are so ungrateful for everything I've done for you! You would have been amazing, but it's too late for you! Your mind has been corrupted, beyond repair!"
At the sound of Alcina yelling at Renata, James looked over from where he had beaten Davide into a bloody pulp, only to see Alcina have her wand aimed at Renata, who was struggling against her mother's strength. Immediately, he fell out of his form to search for a wand to take Alcina out once and for all. He spotted one as he dashed across the floor to retrieve it but before he could turn, he heard Alcina yell out.
"Avada Kedavra!"
His head whipped around so fast, only to see Renata fall back to the ground in a slump, completely still.