A/N I don't own any rights regarding Harry Potter
The death of Nymphadora Lupin (a.k.a Tonks)
This is an edit on my old fic, this one for the I'm about to die challenge.
I was duelling, duelling for my life. I twisted and turned, dodging sparks from spells cast, a mixture of colours; red and green and blue, flying towards me from scores of Death Eater wands. Retaliating spells back to these enemies, I saw many of them fall to the ground and lie there still, no longer moving. Yes, I thought, realising that they were dead. But I didn't have the time to wait: I shot spells at other enemies who were attacking the Order of the Phoenix and remaining students, saving many citizens from death or incapacitation. I had to save them whilst I had the chance, otherwise they would have died.
I saw Horace Slughorn charge past, at the head of a group of reinforcements for the protectors – reinforcements they desperately needed; the already low numbers were decreasing and, with the recent loss of Dedaldus Diggle, things were ominous.
Suddenly, an entire group of Death Eaters pounced on me and had me duelling for my life, increasing the amount of twisting and twirling I had to do. However, in the strangest of ways, it seemed almost fun.
To the left of my biased battle (8 Death Eaters on only me – so not fair) was a deathly fight; Arthur Weasley, his glasses askew upon his face lathered in sweat, sprinting past weaving around the spells that were being cast at him, casting a fresh shield charm every few seconds, until a streak of red so strong and cast so fast passed the shield and hit Arthur in the chest that meant he was flung 10 metres back: he moved no more.
NO, I cried in my head, a gasp that nobody could hear the only evident reaction I had to this; the incessant yelling of spells, both offensive and defensive, being cast towards the opposite sides – more and more Death Eaters were falling and less of the Order of the Phoenix were now being incapacitated or dying: finally they were getting into this battle.
I wanted to run over to Arthur, to see if he was alright, but I couldn't, if I moved then, I would be leaving my poor son without his mother. I couldn't risk the chance of Teddy not having me close to him during his life. The photo in the locket nestled in the hollow of my throat reminded me of that. So Arthur remained on the floor until someone else managed to check on him, but I couldn't see the results: I had to fight.
By this time, I was getting tired now. I'd been fighting unfairly for far too long and it felt as if I couldn't carry on much longer; yet I couldn't leave. I couldn't leave the others to fight without me; I had to continue. So, I shouted "fregutio" a spell to expel Draught of Living Death from her wand, to hit two of the 8 Death Eaters. I permitted myself an evil grin as they fell backwards onto the ground, evening the numbers slightly but not by much.
Suddenly, a burst of green light came from behind me, and I, with instinctive Auror training reflexes, jumped flat on me stomach upon the ground, warm with the deflected spells absorbed into it. Jeez, that was close. If I'd have been a little slower, I could be dead. But I guess Mad Eye was right; speed is everything! A few seconds later, when I was sure the danger was over for the moment, I sprung back up, and heard a familiar cackle; Aunt Bella was here. oh whoop, it couldn't be a fight without her!
"Leave us!" Bellatrix Lestrange screeched to the Death Eaters I was fighting, "Go kill some Gryffindors!" of course, she had to target the Gryffindors; had she forgotten that I was a Hufflepuff and fighting?
I snarled in greeting to her aunt, deigning she wasn't good enough to have words, and began a fearsome duel with the woman that killed my beloved cousin Sirius; the woman who destroyed Neville Longbottom's parents; the woman who had dashed all of Harry Potter's dreams in life. She had destroyed so many lives, so much happiness; she deserved to die.
Block, attack, block, attack. This pattern continued constantly for at least 15 minutes (nothing compared to some duels I've had); with every failed attempt to kill me, her wonderful niece, her mood seemed to darken until she was sending Avada Kedavra, Avada Kedavra, Avada Kedavra, constantly, so the only thing I could do was block, block, block. Jeez, she was so selfish: I mean, she didn't even let me attempt to send back jinxes. She did it so that I couldn't fight back to try and avenge the death of my cousin, but could only hold off the inevitable, something that I knew would be coming but hated to admit.
After a while, my evil aunt decided to change her tact. Rather than constantly attacking me (which may have been fun at first, but was by that time just boring), she decided that she would slow down to try and get into my head. Whoopee for my head!
"Ahhh is ickle wickle Nymphie getting upset? Getting tired? You know you can't beat me, you know you will die… just like your mudblood of a father…" she insulted my father. She actually insulted my dead father and his blood heritage.
"Don't you dare…" I snarled, unable to help myself, "don't you dare insult my family or our blood status; my father is more of a man than your crush Voldemort. And DON'T CALL ME NYMPHIE!"
"You dare speak his name? You dare insult the Dark Lord?" Bellatrix screamed. "Well dear Teddy is definitely without a mummy now, isn't he?"
I cannot lie; this is the moment when I began to worry. I always knew that there was a large probability that I would die, but if someone as powerful as this Death Eater was confirming it, it would probably happen.
Yet it also made me stronger. For, you see, I knew that I must keep on fighting. It wasn't just for me, but for my husband and my little baby boy. I had to keep going so, with this fresh bout of determination, I began to move with the utmost speed and agility. For the first time in the entire duel with Aunt Bellatrix, she had problems keeping up.
At one moment, a slip up by Bellatrix made me have the upper hand, but only for a moment, Bellatrix regained control then performed a sneaky piece of magic, known only to Voldemort's inner circle, that resulted in the same effects as "Expelliarmus" and "Impedimenta" in one shot. Of course, she couldn't win by actually deserving to win; no, she had to cheat.
I yelled out in pain and fear, as well as defeat, as my wand was span away from me into her hand and she forced me to my knees with her wand. She had won… I knew in that moment that I was going to die… not only that; she was going to kill me herself.
Holding my wand in her hand, Bellatrix grasped a large proportion of my hair in her hand. I shrieked in agony before using my powers over my appearance to change my hair so that it wouldn't hurt as much… it didn't work though. Yet I amused her, apparently, since she laughed at this movement by myself before settling back on the issue at hand.
"Yes, yes, deary," Bellatrix said to me, her voice filled with malice. "Do you want a long time of constant pain on my behalf or, if you just beg, I can make it quick; if you grovel great, I may just spare your life."
"NEVER!" I yelled, defiant that I would never bow down to her, "never will I grovel to someone like you, even for my son. Would he rather I betrayed everything I believed in for him, or die for a just cause, with Remus to look after him? No, he wouldn't. So kill me; but mark my words, you WILL get what's coming for you."
And with that, I turned and spat in Bellatrix's face.
Bellatrix shrieked with rage, she looked like a deformed goblin when she shrieked, and then she pressed her wand into the crease of my neck. I knew at this moment that I was going to die right then…
I began to sob uncontrollably, not for my death but for the fact that my son would never know me. He would never know his mother… I could only hope that Remus would be a good parent to him to make up for my absence. I grieved for the loss of the chance to know my son, the chance to be part of his life, yet I had to do this. if I didn't die, then someone else would, painfully… and I had no chance of escaping.
She dug my wand in harder, causing blood to begin to congeal around the point. But my focus was upon my aunt and her opening mouth, her distorted and disgusting teeth on show as she screamed the words which would cause my death. I shut my eyes at this point, squeezing the tears from them. I didn't want to die crying…
"Avada Kedavra!" she cried and, with a flash of green light so bright it almost caused my eyelids to burst. But then, with a simplicity which seemed almost too simple, I could feel myself lifting from the corpse already falling to the ground. I opened my eyes and looked down to see me slumping onto the hard ground forevermore whilst the spirit form of myself began to ascend towards heaven.
I shut my ears to the cackles of glee from the Death Eaters and the dismayed calls of misery from the Order of the Phoenix. I concentrated only on my son and the fact that I was leaving him motherless, something I swore I would never do. I could only hope that Remus would look after him well, that my mother would help as much as possible and that Harry would be a good Godfather.
I could only hope.
For, you see, I had died; I was floating towards wherever it was that I would do next. After an immeasurable time, I floated back down to the ground level but in a different location. I was now standing over my son, the poor angel currently with the turquoise blue hair he favoured, his guardian angel forever.
A noise beside me startled me and I looked up to realise that Remus was here with me, the same translucent edge to him indicating he was dead also, but not a ghost… neither of us were.
His hand slipped into mine and I realised that we were together as we ought to be, together in death, together in watching over our son.
Whatcha think?
Vicky xx