My hands twitch heavily, and my palms are hot to the touch. The whole room is dead silent. It's the loudest form of silence that has ever surrounded me.
Until Cole Remington breaks that silence in half. "Get her!" He orders the other Death Eaters. At least four spells come flying at me, advancing on me from all directions in under a second. But they never touch me. Not an ounce of magic.
Instead, the second I brace for impact, my arms flying up to cover my face, a shield is produced, protecting me. And the spells all ricochet off the large shield surrounding me.
I watch in absolute shock as each of the spells rebound, was they wipe out two of the Death Eaters and horrifically one takes down Harry, knocking him unconscious. The first Death Eater falls to the ground, growing as stiff as a board. The second drops on his hands and knees. He yanks off his own mercury mask to reveal Sebastian Remington. He gasps for air as a million tiny little cuts etch themselves into his skin, tearing away at his body.
A sickening feeling fills me immediately realizing that could've been me. That curse was directed towards me. Pure dark magic.
He drops to the ground, blood spilling out from the cuts.
My jaw hangs off its hinges, and I stare at him, absolutely dumbfounded and disturbed.
Until I meet Cole's eyes. He is red with rage. My shield breaks on the spot and I stumble back, quick to grab Malfoy's wand from where I hand previously dropped it. That leaves Cole and Elena, to fight off.
But my mind is reeling, thoughts rumbling around like a stampede and I can barely think straight. Malfoy is on the ground, still recovering. My friends appear to be on their last leg, still just trying to catch their breath from the heavy dueling they have endured.
And Elena and Cole are inching forward slowly.
Ron quickly casts a stunning spell at Cole, but he blocks it, moving quickly and throwing one back at an impossible speed that causes Ron to spiral to the ground, falling unconscious. Lily apparates next to me in under a second, and the two of us face Cole and Elena.
I meet her eyes, she shoots me a devious glance, a glimmer of chaos in her deep blue eyes. I know, and she knows, there's no way we are letting the Dark Side win tonight.
And the second our gaze breaks, we fall into action.
Each spell I cast has a surprising amount of power behind it, no doubt fueled by my heightened emotions right now. Cole blocks each blow. Barely. For a short while I have the upper hand, moving harmoniously and with ease. It amazes me how natural it feels, dueling like this. Usually I struggle a few seconds in, fumbling with curses and spells, and barely managing to shield myself.
It's different now. I feel power flowing through me. It feels easy. Almost too easy.
And suddenly Lily has been struck down. It pulls me from my reign of success in an instant, as she flies back, hitting the wall hard and slumping to the floor. I snap my head back around just to block a curse from Cole right in time. I no longer have the upper hand.
Elena stares me down like I am her prey, and Cole just looks like he could rip my head off in a second. I think he might even try.
"Uh oh. She's all outnumbered," Elena pouts to Cole.
My eyes narrow and darken. I widen my stance as they inch closer. "How unfortunate," Cole smirks viciously.
I swallow hard, backing up as they only advance on me.
"Come on Ashwood, what will your first move be?" He questions, a malicious glint in his eyes.
"How about we take a timeout and discuss this later?" I mutter sheepishly.
"Your sense of humor is shameful," Cole shakes his head.
"I'd rather that, than have the personality of a rock," I say plainly, tilting my head to the side as I eye him viciously.
"And you have a rather wicked attitude," He sneers.
"Where's the house pride, Remington? I thought that's what being a Slytherin was all about," I smile sharply. "Although, it must be hard to keep that pride intact after being expelled," I smirk.
He shakes his head, "No thanks to you," he fumes, "Looks like your time is up," He snaps before throwing the first spell. I block it with ease. Until Elena throws one seconds after. I manage to block her curse just before Cole attempts to strike me again.
I last rather long considering it's two against one and all I have time to do it deflect each curse. I keep pushing back against the magic drilling hard at the shield protecting me, but it begins to waver, and I worry I can only keep it up for so long.
And then they both fire a curse at me in perfect unison. I fail to deflect it, getting thrown back to the ground and landing hard. My grip tightens on my wand, so I avoid losing it, and my left-hand breaks my fall.
I act fast, taking an open opportunity to strike Elena down. She looks at me smugly, almost proud I am on the ground. Having watched her throughout the night, I had determined her dueling skills were nowhere near as advanced as Cole's. She was better than me of course, but she wasn't as cautious, and prepared for anything like Cole was.
So when I fire a stunner at her, she hardly sees it coming. Not having enough time to block it, she attempts to dodge it, but it clips her shoulder, and she drops to the ground with a loud thud. My eyes shift back to Cole.
And then I look over to Malfoy. He appears worse than I would expect. Although I imagine being thrown hard into a wall, and being hit with the Cruciatus curse would do that to you. His head snaps up, and he shoots me a worried glance. I hold his stare for just a second, a million unreadable emotions in his eyes.
Even if he could help right now, I have his wand, and I don't even know where mine could be.
I see the streak of light plummeting towards me quickly as I jump to my feet and block the curse in an instant. My breath feels ragged and strangled as I force myself to take deep breaths, and remain calm.
I attempt to focus, remembering every single curse or spell that will help me defend myself and finish Cole off. He rapidly fires 3 curses at me, trying to knock me down. I'm not sure how, but I manage to block each one. It's like my basic instinct for survival has kicked in.
I secretly hope Malfoy's eyes are pinned to me so next time he makes a snide comment about how "my dueling skills are rubbish" I will happily remind him of this moment. "You've been practicing," Cole comments.
"Well I end up in situations like this quite often, so yeah," I murmur.
He only smirks, striking hard once more with yet another curse. I block it with ease. "This is getting boring Ashwood, you know you're allowed to try and hit me as well," He says sinisterly.
I scowl hard, throwing a stunner at his feet, followed by one directed at his chest. He blocks both. Barely. My eyes narrow as I study my opponent. Cole Remington was good at dueling, no doubt. But he refused to think outside the box. In his eyes, a duel only counted as throwing spells back and forth. Which lead to long fights, lasting till someone got tired or slipped up.
I was exhausted, and I knew I was losing energy quick. It was hard to say how long I could fight back.
Cole Remington stuck to the basics of magic. He didn't push the limits because he had already perfected what he knew.
Not me. The idea of risk taking was enthralling to me, no matter how dangerous. But like I had been told countless times, I had a special talent for attracting trouble. My expression hardens, a sly smirk creeps onto my features.
I don't even block the curse that throws me to the ground.
I suck in a sharp breath, my grip tightening around Malfoy's wand. I snap my head up as I pull myself to my knees.
"Emma! What are you doing?" Malfoy shouts. I shoot him a sharp look. I meet his stone gaze, worry written in those cloudy eyes. "Trust me," I breathe out before my head snaps back towards Cole just in time to block another spell.
I had to make him think he had the upper hand.
So when I raise my wand, and Cole is ready to block my spell, I can only imagine it leaves him shocked when not a single curse comes flying towards him. Instead, I raise my wand to the sky, and watch in awe as my spell extinguishes every single overhead light, just the way I wanted it.
A string of
Somewhere along the line of dueling, I remembered something I'm shocked I had even forgotten in the first place. Before I had left to "turn myself in" that night, Harry had given me the invisibility cloak to use.
When I wondered how in the hell I was going to carry that thing around, he managed to surprise me with an idea of his.
"Your jacket!" He has said.
"What about it?"
"The pocket, I can cast an extension charm on it. The cloak will fit, and it will still look like an empty jacket pocket," He had explained.
At first, I was skeptical, but sure enough, the charm worked perfectly, and the cloak was sitting inside my pocket.
Acting fast, I yank it out of my pocket, pulling it tight around my body just before Cole uses his wand to illuminate the surrounding area. "Where the hell did you go Ashwood?" He shouts, rage apparent in his tone.
I can't help the small smirk on my face as he whirls around himself, shining his light in every direction. "You're a coward!" He roars, "Show yourself!" He snaps as he continues to draw closer to me. I stay as still as a statue, waiting for the perfect moment.
Seconds pass, footsteps fill the darkness and the dim glow of the tip of his wand is faint. Hardly enough to cover the large area we are in. The musty, humid surroundings of the Warehouse become more present as I focus on all my senses. I eye him carefully, like a predator watching their prey.
So close. He's only a few feet away.
And at the perfect moment, when his back finally faces me. I strike.
* * * * *
a.n - SORRY THIS TOOK LONG i had the worst writers block and then a very crazy past month or so, so i apologize for the wait!!