The Fall of Gideon and Fabian Prewett
3:00 a.m.
The quiet little of village of Hogsmead was sleeping deceptively well in the bosom and shadow of the finest magical institution in all of Britain. It's residents after several weeks of heavy warfare finally felt as though they could sleep again peacefully through the long winter nights. Husbands and fathers no longer felt the need to stand guard in heavy bothersome cloaks and thick woolen mufflers on street corners and alleyways. Wives and mothers no longer felt the need to keep their children inside and under eagle eyes and talons 24 hours a day. In the days and weeks that had followed the days and weeks that the tiny little village had become a major battle ground between the dark and the light, it's residents had rebuilt, had warded, and had made their quiet little village the safe haven it once was, as it had been for centuries.
Still, the good villagers of Hogsmead were not completely blind or secure in their momentary reverie. Gargoyles and watchers stood on cross-streets and rooftops. Their sharp and bright magical eyes waiting for any sign of ill doings or mayhem. Always ready, always on guard waiting to send silent word to the light and raise the alarm and give the villagers time to get out of harms way.
And tonight, those very watchers and gargoyles had spotted something. Had sent their soundless call too the side of the light urging two young hero's to the sleepy little village to investigate the source of the disturbance. And this is where the story of two brothers, and their battle to the end begins…
3:15 a.m.
"Gideon! Gideon! Over here!" Fabian Prewett hissed to his brother having just watched him appear with out a sound behind a barrel in the shadow of the Hogshead. Three death eaters could barely be seen through the grime encrusted windows, huddling in a small group, speaking wordlessly near a dying fire.
Gideon Prewett moved swiftly and silently across the cobblestone road, careful to not make a sound, to where his brother lay hidden between a grocery and one of the seeder trinket shops Hogsmead had to offer. He slid up beside his brother pushing himself against the cold, unforgiving, January stone of the trinket shop. He asked his worried looking older sibling in hushed tone, "What are they doing this time?"
"I don't know," Fabian replied. "Are they ever up to any good though?"
"No, I reckon they're not."
"Where's Moody?" Fabian asked.
"By the post office. Said something about scouting out the other group with that eye of his," Gideon replied distastefully.
Fabian let a small disgusted shiver run down the length of his spine. "I don't like the looks of that eye, it gives me the creeps."
"It's not the eye that does it," Gideon replied, "It's that I know what he can do with it that scares me. What happened to a man's right privacy?"
"Magic."
"Excellent point."
"They're moving, " Fabian suddenly urged, changing his tone and demeanor to something more serious. His sharp, ice-chip blue eyes centered across the street where the Death Eaters had moved from in front of the fire.
"Damn, why can't they ever stay still long enough to figure out what they're up to?" Gideon swore.
"So you'll have a chance for exercise. You're getting a bit round, 'round the middle there little brother. You've been eating at Molly's to much," Fabian teased.
"Someone has to look after our namesakes. Little devils they are -."
"Shh!"
The Death Eaters were emerging one by one from the Hogshead Inn, slithering like dark ghouls down road toward the main street in the full regalia of in the inner circle.
Gideon and Fabian watched with bated breath as they casually strolled up the street. They turned to one another, nodded once warily and slinked along in the shadows silently behind them.
3:30 a.m.
The three Death Eaters from the Hogshead had met up with other Death Eaters in the center of town and were making their way town into the residential section of the village. The two brothers followed stealthily, watching every movement, every swish of their cloaks, ever sidelong long they took, hoping to gain some knowledge of their plan.
Without warning, another Death Eater popped into existence before the knot, raising a quick shield before they could do him harm. The group recognized their own though, and he quickly ushered them off into yet another alley, leaving our hero's a moment to breath in the darkness.
The two young men watched carefully from shadows of their own hideout, growing restless waiting for them to remerge.
"Ever notice how her cooking gets ten times better when she's with child?" Gideon asked with a knowing, mischievous smile nudging his brother in the ribs.
"Yea, why?"
"It's ten times better…"
Fabian looked at his younger sibling incredulously, his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide with shock.
"That makes, what, number 6?" he asked dubiously.
"I hope for her sake it's a girl… Five boys already," Gideon said shaking his head.
"When's she due?"
"March."
"That soon? She's not showing yet though…" Fabian questioned, thinking back to the last time he'd seen her. She'd looked the same as always. March was only three months away.
"It's a glamour. She doesn't want Arthur to know, so don't tell him. She says he's got enough to worry about at the Ministry."
"That's the pregnancy talking. What better to brighten his mood than with news of a child?"
"You know Arthur, he'll fidget incessantly until the time comes." Gideon said with a disapproving look and peering across the street for any sign of activity. "Better to leave him the dark. Besides, at this rate, if all the sudden he comes home and there's a new babe in the cradle he'll grunt, smile and then pass out and wake-up fine in a matter of hours. The man needs more sleep as it is."
"True."
"Well boys, there here to take out the Craig's, it's a warning I daresay…" a grizzly voice said in a hushed tone behind them.
Fabian, nearly jumping out of his own skin whipped around and hissed, "JESUS, Marry and Joseph, Moody! Don't do that!"
"You'd do well to be better on your guard, Prewett. What are you two hens gossiping 'bout?"
"Molly's with child…" Fabian replied, holding a hand to his chest breathing heavily.
"Another one, eh? Well, more the merrier I say…"
"The Craig's, aren't they that Muggleborn couple who opened the new divination store in Diagon Alley?" Fabian asked curiously.
"They have a daughter up at the school," Gideon replied solemnly. His face was paler than usual, and he had a certain resolve that his brother hadn't seen in long while.
"And you would know that because..."
"She's 18, Fabian."
"Did I say anything?"
"You didn't have too."
"That special, eh?" Moody asked with an unidentifiable smirk on his scarred face. "All the easier to win a fight if you have something worth fighting for," Moody approved with a brief nod of his head. "'Course these could be your future in-laws."
Gideon made an indistinct grunt, but otherwise didn't reply. Fabian looked at his little brother worriedly, but said nothing as well. Instead they continued to watch the alleyway across the street in silence waiting for the Death Eaters to make their move.
3:45 a.m.
The Death Eaters had left the alleyway and were moving swiftly, without a sound in the shadows down the lane that lead into the residential neighborhood. The three companions turned to each other, concurred with a series of sharp looks, nodded heads and hands running through thick red hair. They set-off swiftly after their prey; like spectral lions going in for the kill.
"She'll never forgive me if they die on my watch," Gideon said with a certain edge to his hushed voice as they slipped into yet another alleyway. He glanced silently around the corner and nodded once at Moody who'd take a station across the street. He turned to Fabian, his breath short and producing large amounts of steam, "Promise me this personal."
Fabian looked at his brother once and saw the seriousness in his eyes, and smiled, "'Course. Brothers once, brothers always," he said proffering his hand.
Gideon smiled briefly and pulled Fabian into a short one-armed hug. He looked around the corner and saw Moody indicating down the road. "Let's move."
4:00 a.m.
"You'd think they'd want to get this over with before sunrise," Fabian said disgustedly as the watched the Death Eaters form yet another committee to the side of the grand Craig residence. "Tell me again why we can't just take them out?"
"Law is law, boy," Moody gruffed. "Can't make a move until they do."
"Bloody law, we know what there here to do – You're an Auror for pity's sake."
"And law says I can't make a move until they do. Won't be helping our side by getting myself sacked?"
Gideon looked at him sharply, "So when do we make our move? When they've already gutted them?"
"When they enter the gates. That's trespassing and they're cloaked," Moody said as if making his final decision.
"And the Ministry?"
"I'll set off the beckon before we go in. It'll take 'em ten minutes tops. Not that I expect we'll need 'em."
"There are 3 of us and 6 of them," Fabian said uncomfortably, peaking out from behind a tree in the woods where they were hidden.
"2 on 1, those odds I like," Moody said manically.
Gideon and Fabian shared a significant look but said nothing.
4:30 a.m.
"There they go!"
"It's about damn time!"
Gideon and Fabian left the security of their secluded spot in the woods in which they'd been spying running rapidly, darting secretly between trees and foliage leaving Moody behind to set of the Ministry beckon to alert them of the trouble.
Fabian was the first to reach the gates of the large Victorian, shouting, "In the name of the light, stop!"
He knew of course that saying such a thing was ridiculous, and that they would do no such thing, but it was enough to keep them out of the house and the Craig's out of the line of fire.
4:31 a.m.
The Death Eaters responded accordingly, sharply turning away from the heavily warded door they were trying to magically unlock firing spells in a various colors and shades toward the man that had interrupted their plan. Fabian was lucky however. He was to far away from the porch for the spells to make contact; instead they hit the ground before him sending bits of earth and grass flying in all directions while he jumped backwards, further out of harms way.
Finally catching up to and passing his elder brother, Gideon sent barrage of stunners, jinxes and hexes through the veil of dust at the assembled horde. One of them shouted falling over the porch railing into a bare thorny rose bush beside on the other side.
4:32 a.m.
"MIRIAM, CHESTER, GET OUT!" Gideon bellowed at the house, diving behind a large stone statue in the courtyard just as a flash of green rent the air beside him. "SOUND THE ALARM!"
There was no need however. As Gideon began shouting those last few words the watcher on top to the Craig house began emitting a horrible, piercing screech that shattered windows and rattled doors, leaving none in doubt that danger was near.
Fabian dodged a series of hexes and unforgivables, sending a few of his own over his shoulder trying to get to his brother. He dove behind Gideon receiving a mouthful of dirt for his efforts. Standing, he brushed himself off and slid next to his younger sibling covering his ears.
"WHO DECIDED THOSE WERE A GOOD IDEA?" he yelled over the maelstrom of screeches that assaulted his ears,
"DUMBLEDORE, NO DOUBT. SAME WITH THE APPERITION WARDS ALL OVER HOGSMEAD," Gideon shouted back.
"HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO ANYTHING IN ALL – THIS – RACKET!"
But before Gideon could answer something dark and sinister had swept in front of the their line of sight. Circling once around the home of Marian and Chester Craig, it's great stone wings flapping effortlessly, the watcher cried once more and then flew in to the air to join the flock of it's brethren in the cold night air.
4:33 a.m.
"Merlin, will you look at that –" Fabian breathed, astonished, his eyes locked on the storm of black, circling, vulture like figures silhouetted by the waning moon. "I don't think I've ever –"
"They're going in, we have to move!" Gideon whispered harshly, peering around the side of the statute, clearly in no mood to think about rarity of the tonight's sky.
Gideon leapt out from behind the statue, making quick work of the ground between him and the house before Fabian could urge a word of caution.
"Dammit Gideon!" Fabian cursed his younger brother advancing form. Fabian said a quick, wordless prayer and set out after Gideon.
"Don't you dare!" Gideon shouted launching a stunner at the four Death Eaters who'd not yet entered the house.
The largest one turned just in time for the line of red to miss him, bellowing a deep laugh that carried on the air, "Come to save the mudbloods, have you, Prewett? Ah… and your blood traitor brother too…"
Fabian bellowed a curse that ejected from the tip of his want hitting one of the Death Eaters off to the left with a full body bind, raising him off the ground momentarily and slamming him brutally back on the ground.
Dolohov merely looked at his companion, and shook his head. "Not exactly your best, now is it? You two aren't even worth the skin you sit in, " he yelled, conjuring a large metal shield the took the brunt of Gideon's latest hex and raising his wand once more bellowed, "AVADA KEDAVRA!"
4:34 a.m.
"I don't think he's going to play nice, Gideon," Fabian quipped, after hitting the ground letting the curse fly neatly over him.
Gideon merely raised an eyebrow before he was rolling over his brother avoiding another barrage of curses sent from the tips of the Death Eaters wands. A nearby boulder provided some much needed shelter for the duo to grasp their bearings.
"Where the hell is Moody!" Fabian hissed to no one in particular as he ducked out of the way of another spell. "Or the Ministry? Or hell, where is the Order!"
"I dunno…" Gideon's voice trailed off as the faint screams of a woman could be heard over the shouted curses.
Fabian turned to see his brother listening hard and paling even more before his eyes. "Gideon… What?"
"They're not out," he said dumbly. "Good Merlin, they're not out!"
Gideon in one swift movement rolled deftly on to his stomach, peeking out from the side of the large stone.
4:35 a.m.
"Do you hear that Prewett?" Dolohov bellowed from the porch as the spells ceased and the winter night was only pierced by the sounds of the watchers high above. "Do you hear the screams of the Mudblood women dying? Is she worth it? Is that filthy, disgusting, abomination worth your own hide?"
Silence was the only reply coming from behind the large boulder in the garden. Seconds ticked by and neither a sound, nor a movement could be detected from where Gideon and Fabian Prewett were hidden.
Dolohov stood stock still, moving nothing but his eyes, waiting for the Prewett's next move.
The screaming ceased suddenly, and shortly there after the man who'd made it into the house appeared swiftly by his side.
"She's gone,…" he said cautiously. "Dolohov… She's just gone…"
Dolohov turned slowly to his side, regarding the shorter man from beneath his mask with utter distain.
"Our Lord will not be pleased…"
4:36 a.m.
"Miriam! Miriam! Oh dear Merlin!" Gideon cried holding the still, but breathing body of Miriam Craig in his arms behind her home. He smoothed away the salt and pepper strands of her disheveled hair away from her face and franticly looked up at Moody asking, "What happened?"
"Cruciatus … Trying to get information out of the poor woman about Seers in London," Moody grunted. "Can't see why though…"
"You'll defiantly have to show us that disillusionment charm sometime Moody," Fabian said, impressed. "That was brill…"
"I think we have more important things to worry about at the moment. Fabian!" Gideon scolded harshly, cutting off his brothers praises for their escape. "Moody, Ministry teach you to Portkey the sick?"
Moody nodded his head once and began rummaging around in his pockets of his heavy woolen cloak. Moments flew by as the older gentleman looked for something suitable to carry Mrs. Craig off to the relative safety of St.Mungo's.
Finally, he fished a set of brass skeleton keys out of his side pocket and unlock something on the inside of his cloak. He pulled out what appeared to be an old, broken candlestick, and pointing his wand at it whispered, "Portus Infurmus."
4:37 a.m.
"Down!" Fabian yelled suddenly as a jet of emerald green dashed over his head, and burning a hole in the side of a nearby tree.
The bush that the quartet was behind offered little protection for the onslaught of curses the Death Eaters were firing off. Gideon had little time to lay Miriam off to the side before he was back to back with his brother returning fire.
The plethora of spells fired off what like a massive fireworks display lighting up the night sky and underbellies of the watchers above. Fabian took down one of the two Death Eater he was dueling with, with a well-placed stunner, while the Death Eater Gideon dueled with managed to mar the side of his face with a cutting hex.
No one spoke; no one said a word other than to utter the spells on their lips that would take down their foe.
4:38 a.m.
Gideon Prewett was just in time to dodge the purple beam of light that sprung out of Dolohov's wand and the stunning spell he'd cast made contact with the unnamed death eater who'd cut him. One more dark wizard down, one more for the Dementors.
Gideon fell to the ground and to his right just in time to see Moody call out the killing curse and the Death Eater before him fall. "Don't know when to give up, do ya?" Moody yelled, and for one brief moment that meant everything Gideon stay still with shock before the wind was knock out of him by the Death Eater who'd fallen on top of him, effectively trapping his escape.
4:39 a.m.
"GIDEON!" Fabian cried in anguish as he saw Dolohov take aim and end his brothers life with a whispered word and a triumphant smile. The watchers above reflected the despair of Fabian Prewett in their voices as the screeched in warning could be heard above the din bellow.
Fabian Prewett felt a single tear trail down his face as he charged the two remaining death eaters swearing revenge
4:40 a.m.
Fabian fired spell after spell in the stand off, not knowing or caring what flew from his lips. Stunners and Jelly legs and even tickling charm or two were cast at Voldemort's henchmen but were deflected.
Moody had joined the fray from behind, effectively turning Dolohov attentions away from the mad Prewett brother, and battling fiercely.
Fabian felt a rush of needles hit his ear at the Cruciatus curse flew by his ear. He dodged behind the bush where Miriam lay while the masked man was caught off guard by the Moody's sudden cry of pain.
Fabian ceased his opportunity and with a cry of his own stunned the distracted Death Eaters with a very well placed stunner.
The man had been a tad to close to Dolohov and knocked him forward slightly breaking the connection between Dolohov's wand and Moody.
4:41 a.m.
Arthur Weasley was having a rough night. Not only had he been woken in the middle of the night by shouts from the floo down stairs, but he'd almost broken his neck on some juvenile contraption lying on the stairway causing him to fall down the last few flights and waking the young ones up in the process much to his currently volatile wife's dismay.
Not only that, but the urgent shouts from Barty Crouch in his kitchen did not bear good news. The alarm had been raised in Hogsmead, but there was no one to spare as Voldemort's circle was raiding a Shop in Diagon Alley and all of the on-duty Aurors had been sent to thwart their efforts.
Crouch told him he was calling anyone and everyone with enough skill to check out the situation in Hogsmead and report to him immediately.
So, with out much choice Arthur dressed and armed himself quickly, flooing into the Three Broomsticks where a very nervous Madame Rosemerta directed him to where the varied members of the team Crouch had thrown together waited for him.
They left almost immediately and made quick time to the Craig house where the source of the disturbance was.
Arthur soon felt the night he felt was bad before had turned for the exceedingly worse. He hadn't expected to his the anguished cry of his Brother in law half way up the lane to the Craig's. He hadn't expected to see Gideon lying as if dead on the ground 20 yard up. He hadn't expected to see that ground littered with the stunned and dead bodies of six death eaters, and he hadn't expected to watch in utter amazement as Fabian Prewett battled to the last with the unmasked Antonin Dolohov.
"You murdering bastard! Fabian yelled as he nursed his wand arm having been hit by one of Dolohov bone breaking hexes, crouching low behind yet more shrubbery. He saw the Ministry workers edging around the side of the house from his position, and signaled to them where Dolohov and Moody lay.
"You of all people should know what filth the mudbloods are, Prewett! You are a disgrace to the name of Wizard! You and your mudblood loving brother!" Dolohov shouted, behind his own shield of bushes.
Fabian conjured and makeshift splint wrapped his wand arm tightly and edged his way across the ground toward the sound of Dolohov's voice. His blood was pumping and his vision was red.
Dolohov however had the same idea, and within seconds Miriam Craig was screaming in agony.
4:42 a.m.
"Look at her Prewett! Look at how weak and pathetic she is!"
Fabian Prewett had had enough. He ran from Dolohov's previous position and with fury and anguish etched into every line in his face he threw the Death Eater to the ground with an abrupt and powerful punch to his face knocking him sideways. "ACCIO PORTKEY!" he cried and pointed his wand toward the still form of Miriam Craig and activated the portkey sending her safely to St. Mungo's and out of harms way. He spun around just in time to the see a thin beam of green light and screech from above before his world went black.
9:49 a.m.
"It won't take long… but Molly Weasley, she's a wreck, Alastor. I've never seen someone so upset," Kingsley Shacklebolt said leading Moody slowly through the Ministry of Magic after his trip to St. Mungo's. The family had been called in for the debriefing, and standard condolences from the Ministry.
"You'll see more of it before this is over, mark my words Kingsley. You're new… you don't know."
Kingsley glanced at the aging Auror but said nothing, continuing down the hall to a little room where Arthur and Molly Weasley waited for them.
Kingsley opened the door and the oppressive feel of loss weighed down on them like a heavy cloak. What could be seen of Molly's face behind her hands was reddened and raw with tears, her bulging stomach giggling up and down with the heaves of her chest. Arthur stood behind her, rubbing her back with his left hand trembling.
He looked up sadly when the entered, watching Alastor as he took a seat across for Molly and places a marred hand upon her shoulder in condolence.
"I saw Alastor, I told her," Arthur choked out.
Moody looked in to his worried eyes and shifted to Molly's.
"Molly, they died as hero's…"