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Everyone was changed. Everyone was ready. Now all that needed doing was to tell Al and Harry exactly what was going on. "Right," Moody growled, "Miss Granger, you're with Kingsley on thestrals-" one of the Harry's moved to next to Kingsley. "Ron you're with Tonks on brooms, Fred you're with your Father on brooms, George with Remus on brooms, Bill and Fleur on thestrals, Potter with Hagrid on the bike, which leaves you, Dursley, with me and Dung on broomsticks." Al swallowed slightly, not particularly liking the broom bit or the Mundungus bit. It had been four years since she'd last ridden a broom so was bound to be rusty. And that was before she'd got her soul back - what if she was sacred of heights now?
Al followed Moody (dragging Mundungus by his arm) outside with her trunk and Dill's cage and strapped both of them to a broomstick that was lying on the floor beside two others. She mounted it, her wand gripped in her hand, ready to kick off and ever so slightly nervous. Very nervous.
"Good luck everyone," Moody called across the back yard. Al took a deep breath, uncertain whether she was ready. "See you at the Burrow. Three, two, one!" Nine broomsticks, two thestrals, and a motorbike shot into the air, and Al soared upwards alongside Mundungus and slightly behind Moody.
They rose higher and higher into the sky, Al's cloak rippling around her, so high she could no longer tell which street Privet Drive was. And then there were hooded figures everywhere - at least thirty forming a vast circle. Death Eaters. An ambush.
Shots of green light flew everywhere, and Al raised her wand, stunning the one right in front of Moody, and watching as he plummeted to his death. "This way!" Moody called over his shoulder, and she and Mundungus followed him through the gap Al had made.
He was trying to kill me, Al reminded herself, It's okay that he's dead. It was me or him. But the sight of the robes billowing around the Death Eater as he fell so helplessly made Al feel like she might be sick. What if he'd been under the Imperious Curse? She'd just taken an innocent life.
Shots of green light flew all around the trio, who were flying so tightly together Al felt like they might crash. She shot more stunning spells over her shoulder, pleading with herself not to think of what the consequences might be. Had she hit someone else? Was someone else dead by her wand? Focus, Al thought, Look after yourself and then take care of the people trying to kill you. She took a deep breath, gripped her handle tightly, and sped on into the darkness.
Somewhere to Al's right two Death Eaters were tailing one of the thestral groups, and she had to swerve to avoid their occasional misfire, but otherwise just dodging the spells fired her way by the six Death Eaters tailing them. She couldn't kill another person. She didn't want to.
And then, something colder than the air around her filled her up, and she knew there was someone else there. A figure, darker than the night sky around them, was flying through the air from behind them. Red eyes glinted at her, a sick smile taunting her, and the slitted nostrils widened with breathless excitement. Voldemort.
Mundungus began to panic as Moody fired curses at Voldemort. She heard him growl, "Don't you dare you cowardly bastard!"
A green light shot from Voldemort's wand at Mundungus, who disapparated before it could hit him. It hit the back of Moody's head instead. Mundungus's broom fell. Moody slipped sideways off his and followed it, his blue eye fixed on Al, his black eye lifeless. Moody's broom followed him down. "No!" Al cried, tears pouring down her face as her stomach lurched and her hand's shook as they gripped her broom.
And then Voldemort was gone, and Al was left with the six Death Eaters following her. Get a grip. She took a deep breath and fired a stunning spell over her shoulder. She then turned back to her broom, steadied herself while she dodged, and repeated. Fire. Steady. Fire. Steady.
The tears had stopped, but now there were more of them. One at each of her compass points, three in a triangle below. One above her. The eight around her kept firing stunners, and it was all Al could do but dodge them. She realised their plan. Knock her out, catch her, capture her.
Shaking with the tremendous effort it took to keep going, Al continued to fire and dodge. It was a miracle she was still alive. A miracle she was still here. But stunners weren't doing the trick. "CONFRINGO!" she screamed, pointing her wand below her. All three Death Eaters took the force of the blast, and she saw their flaming robes envelope them as they fell to the ground, heard their screams of pain and terror and wished she'd stunned them, wished she'd knocked them out so they didn't have to suffer. Moody's death had been quick. For that she was grateful.
The Death Eaters to her left and right dropped down to below her and all continued to fire. "Stupefy!" The Death Eater above her fell and she swerved to the side, watching as he took out one below her. "Stupefy!" The one behind her was gone. "Stupefy!" So was the one in front.
The last remaining Death Eater pulled up beside her and reached out to grab her arm. She held her palm out, and in a burst of white light she was splattered in blood, a scream echoing in her ears as her final pursuer fell with his companions.
Al was alone in the freezing black skies of England, for now. In the distance ahead of her she could see a group of black huddled together, coming towards her. She dived down into Merlin knew where, hoping and praying that they wouldn't be able to follow her, that they couldn't see her in such thick, blackened night. There were no flashes of spells to light her way, and Al almost hit the clump of trees that she didn't know she was heading for.
She had a rushed landing, rolling along the floor and bashing her head on a rock, scraping her knee. Dill hooted at her rough handling and Al headed over to the source of the noise, not daring to light her wand for fear of attracting attention.
There were shouts from up above. The Death Eaters had followed her down. She only had a few minutes before they found her in the middle of the shelter of trees. With hands that shook so unreliably, it took longer than it should to undo Dill's cage and her shrunken trunk, but she managed it, more voices coming closer and closer. Al thought about the Burrow, turned on the spot, and hoped her apparation lessons had paid off.