Chapter 10 – Breakout From Malfoy Manor
Pinned down in the Malfoy Dungeon, Tonks quickly realized that they couldn't play a waiting game. It was obvious that their opponents were simply trying to keep them at bay until assistance arrived. Firing quick and recklessly, she watched as her curse slammed harmlessly against one of the doors. It did however cause the attackers to flinch and duck for safety for a moment. While they did so, she quickly followed it up with another, more precisely aimed spell, pointed at the door hinge of one of the huge metal dungeon doors. From across the hall, seeing her motives, Blaise quickly blasted the lower hinge. Without its hinges, the door quickly fell backwards, onto at least one of their attackers.
The other, caught off guard watching the door fall on his counterpart, was quickly dealt with and the raiders quickly advanced forward.
"We're going to have to fight our way out of here," Tonks spoke from the lead. "James, Zabini, take point. Patil, stay close. Alright, let's move." At her command, the small group of commandos crept out of the dungeon and deeper into Malfoy Manor.
A few minutes later, reaching the top of the stairwell that led from the dungeon, the group found themselves pinned down once again. As curses and hexes flew widely over their heads, Blaise yelled out sarcastically, "Looks like they had a few drinks!"
"Save it," Tonks yelled back. Blaise was about to yell something back but Padma grabbed the back of his head and slammed it downwards on to the step as spell whizzed just over his head.
Holding his forehead, trying to ignore the pain and disorientation, Blaise glanced at Padma. "Was that really necessary?"
As she fired a spell off, "Not really."
"We can't keep getting pinned down," Tonks snapped as she fired off multiple spells again. "Move out!" Standing up, she fired a shot at a nearby vase, causing it to shatter and sending shards flying and their enemies stopping their attack for just a moment.
Seeing their opening, the raiders were on top of them easily and dispatched them.
"Where the hell is the front door?" Tonks snarled in frustration as she fired at and hit a Death Eater rounding a corner.
"A floor up," Blaise answered. "There should be another set of stairs over there," he said while pointing down the hall, in the direction of where Tonks had just taken out the Death Eater.
"Alright, if we get split up, find any way out of here. Get to the rally point and get the bloody hell out of here," Tonks ordered before the group began moving quickly down the hall.
About half way up the stairs, the raiders slammed into another group of stumbling, drunken Death Eaters. While out numbered, they were able to push the Death Eaters back as they were practically fumbling for their wands and falling over themselves.
By the time they reached the top of the stairs, their attackers numbers grew. At the top of the stairs, the hallway went in three directions. Forward, left, and to the right. The Death Eaters were bunched up in the right hallway, leaving the best way to move, forward.
As Blaise moved forward, a spell landed at his feet. Trying to dodge it, he leapt quickly to his left. Unfortunately, as he landed on his feet, his momentum carried him towards Padma. Twisting violently, Padma avoided the initial collision but caused her legs to become tangled. As Blaise landed, his intention was to keep moving and this was what sent him straight into a stumbling Padma.
The duo collided and stumbled down the hallway to the left. If the Death Eaters hadn't been in their current state, they probably would've been killed. But luck was on their side, and eventually, as spells careened around them, they crashed through a set of unlocked doors taking them out of the hallway and into one of the rooms.
Landing face first and sliding into the room, the doors swung shut behind them. Padma found herself gasping for breath when she heard Blaise yell at her to roll away. Instinctively rolling away from him, she heard a spell land and exploded where they had just been.
"Blood traitor!" a voice said in a drunken slur.
That voice, Padma thought as she scrambled to her feet.
"Nice to see you too, Draco," Padma heard Blaise snap back.
Carefully peeking her head around an antique sitting couch, she saw Draco Malfoy standing across the room throwing a bottle of some amber liquid against the wall. Glancing back at the door, she saw Blaise standing against the wall. Both men had their wands drawn on the other.
"How dare you show your face in my home," Draco snarled as he let his eyes flicker for a moment in Padma's direction.
Starting to raise her arm, so that Draco would be faced with a true two on one, she realized that her wand was no longer in her hand. Feeling her pulse begin to race, she tried to appear calm as she quickly, trying to be discreet, began looking around, trying to find where her wand had gone.
Her eyes widened as she saw it lying in between her and Blaise. I must've lost it when I rolled out of the way.
Turning back to Draco, Padma tried her best not to keep looking at where her wand lay, giving herself away. Fortunately, the boys seemed to be much more focused on each other.
"I've been wondering what rock you've been hiding under?" Blaise drawled with a smug grin.
Draco's grip on his wand tightened as he scowled. "At least I'm not a traitor to my own kind."
"My own kind?" Blaise mocked with a sarcastic laugh. "So much potential wasted, just so you could be your father's lap dog."
Draco gave an angry yell as he launched a stunner at Blaise. Expecting it, the spell ricochet off Blaise's shield and Padma ducked behind the couch as the spell hit the wall a few feet above her head.
"Temper, temper, Draco," Blaise continued to taunt. "But then I guess like father, like son." Quickly dodging another stunner, Blaise quickly returned a shot of his own.
Firing another shot that shattered a vase near Draco, Blaise looked quickly at Padma. As Draco tried to avoid the flying shards of the vase, Blaise snapped at her, "Get out of here. I'll deal with the ferret."
"Accio wand," she called taking advantage of the situation to recall her wand to her hand. Firing her own stunner at Draco, "Since when do I listen to you?"
Blaise opened his mouth to snap back, but couldn't as he had to focus on deflecting another of Draco's attack. "I don't have time for this," Blaise muttered. Firing multiple spells to keep Draco on the defensive, he quickly pointed his wand and cast a charm causing a rope to shoot out. The rope wrapped around Padma's chest, and as he ducked a spell aimed at his head, he cast a second spell which caused the rope to retract back into his wand. This also caused Padma to be dragged from behind the couch and towards Blaise. "For once, shut up."
When she was close enough, he cancelled both spells. Reaching out, he grabbed a fistful of Padma's battle robes. "And do what I say!"
Thanks to her being petite to begin with, Blaise used all of his upper body strength and pointing his wand behind him, opened the door and shoved her out into the hall.
Landing on her butt and rolling backwards, Padma tumbled into the opposite wall. Scrambling to her feet, "Bullocks!" Raising her wand towards the door, "Stupefy!" She swore again as the door seemed to absorb her attack. Magical sealed.
Swearing again and realizing she wasn't going to be able to get in easily, she opted for following Tonks orders. Get to the rally point and get the hell out of here. Damn fool can take care of himself.
As Padma took off for the main doors, inside the room, Draco and Blaise resumed their stand off.
As Blaise turned back to Draco, a stunner grazed his shoulder and he clenched his teeth as he felt the pain.
"I think you've been spending too much time with them Blaise," Draco taunted seeing his spell strike him. "You're losing your edge."
Blaise tried to roll his shoulder a few times, hoping to shake off the sting of pain. "You want to kill her?" he asked rhetorically. "Fine. She's a bit of a bother anyway."
"But only after you and I have a few words." Blaise glared at the blond across the room from him. "Pity, I so wanted to have a chat with your father but I guess you'll have to do." Then a feral smile crossed his face, "Though I wouldn't mind the punishment for ending the Malfoy linage by offing his only son. Fitting reattribute for what he did to my home."
"You brought this upon your self and your family, blood traitor." Draco lunged out of the way of curse and quickly returned fire.
The two quickly stopped the bantering and began dueling, taking care of whatever else was still left intact in the room. From behind the couch that Padma had been using as cover early, which was now collapsing in on itself, Blaise dared a glance to try and find Draco and had his head nearly taken off.
"Your edge is dull, Zabini," Draco taunted. "You've seem to hit everything else in the drawing room."
Drawing room? Blaise quickly filed that piece of information in the back of his head. Use location to your advantage. The Aurors cleaned it out once, but I'd bet good money that Lucius has more toys than the ones he openly displays now. A spell finishing snapping the couch into two pieces drew him from his thoughts. Blindly firing a curse, Blaise moved from his cover. As he tried to make it to an over turned table, he felt a sharp pain shoot through the lower portion of his left leg before losing his balance and crashing to a landing next to the fireplace.
Seeing stars, Blaise felt a Stinging Curse strike his chest, causing him to grunt as the air rushed out of his lungs. As his head lulled back against the stone framing of the fireplace, Blaise could hear an almost psychotic laugh. Shaking his head to clear the cobwebs, Blaise tried to stand but found himself quickly falling back down. Which seemed to only make the laughter louder.
Looking down, trying to figure out why he couldn't get up, and quickly found out the problem with his legs. Wonderful.
The pain he had felt in his leg had been a curse slicing through it. He now looked down and found himself missing part of his leg, from about mid-shin down. The heat of the powerful curse had cauterized the stump and he began wondering why he was numb until he was struck with another Stinging Curse to his chest. This time, he yelled in pain as the cruse cut through his robes drawing blood.
"Having trouble getting up?" Draco asked with a laugh as he waved his wand lazily about in the air. "You are pathetic," he said before sending another curse at Blaise.
"I do suppose, even among the animals, the alpha does have to remind those below him of their place. Too bad it will cost you your life. And for what? Potter? Master could've repaid you with riches, women, anything for your services. While not as skilled as I, you're not entirely useless. Yet you sided with him. Potter is nothing but a delusional freak who can't even get himself anything."
Blaise smirked back at him, and while his speech was labored, asked Draco, "Then how has he bested you so many times?"
Draco's anger took hold of him and he recklessly fired a hex. With his anger blinding him, Draco's aim was off. As Blaise instinctively fell to the side to try and avoid the spell, the spell missed its intended mark. Instead, it exploded in the fireplace, sparking it to life.
"You insignificant little maggot," he snarled as he leveled his wand at Blaise once more.
With Draco nearly on top of him, Blaise stared down tip of the wand. You got anymore tricks up your sleeve? he remembered Tonks asking him earlier and he couldn't help but let his smirk widen.
"You know, Draco," Blaise said with a grunt of pain as he reached inside his cloak while trying to sit back up. "You talk too much."
Draco watched Blaise's hand tip back towards the fire in the fireplace and glimpsed a small sphere fall from his hand and into the fire. Draco didn't even realize the explosion that occurred seconds later.
Outside, Padma had been halfway down the pathway away from the Manor and to the rally point when the force of the explosion knocked her off her feet. Padma quickly recovered to her feet and spun around to face the manor. As a few smaller explosions occurred, causing her to flinch at the loud sounds, she watched as part of the Manor's upper levels began to collapse in on itself. What the devil?
"Blaise?" Padma wondered to herself. Even though she wasn't sure what had caused the explosion, something in the back of her head told her that Blaise was somehow involved.
Just as Padma took a step back towards the Manor, a firm hand gripped her arm. The hand spun her around, and Padma was face to face with Tonks. "Where's Zabini?"
"We got separated," she told her as another smaller explosion could be heard. "Fool shoved me into the hallway and then sealed himself inside with Draco."
"Brilliant," Tonks muttered as she watched the fire intensifying. "Alright, we're leaving, now!"
Padma took one last look back at the Manor before reaching the rally point just beyond the newly erected anti-Apparition field and Apparated away.
By the time the raiders had returned to the caves, the second half of the Order's battle plan was being put into motion. In the infirmary, Padma sat on the edge of a cot and absentmindedly rubbed a bruised knee.
Without saying a word, Tonks sat down next to her and held out a flask. Padma looked at it and then at her warily, but when Tonks insisted, she took the flask.
"You did good today." As Padma brought it to her lips for a drink, Tonks asked, "How are you?" When Padma responded with coughing fit, she couldn't help but laugh. "Brandy," she explained with a wry grin.
"Smooth," Padma forced out in a hoarse voice.
Taking the flask back, Tonks regarded the younger woman. "So, how was your first taste?"
"Not like I expected. Everything happened so fast. There were a couple of times, I didn't think…," Padma paused as she watched Tonks nod in agreement with her. "Any word?"
"No. It looks like he didn't make it, though there's no real way to prove it." Tonks glanced at her, "Its not easy losing someone on a mission, especially when you're in command."
This time, Padma nodded in agreement. "I don't know. It just feels weird, almost numb. I don't know if I'm glad he's gone or a little confused that he's probably dead."
"I know there's no love lost, but you two did spend an ungodly amount of time together. As much as I hate, we're use to having that bugger around, especially you." Tonks began to notice the tired expression on Padma's face. "You're exhausted," she said, placing a hand on her shoulder and shaking her a little. "Get some rest."
As Tonks stood up and left, Padma tried her best to get comfortable on the stiff cot. Even though physically exhausted, her mind was still grinding and it prevented her from falling asleep. As she stared up at the ceiling, she tried to digest everything that had happened. As she replayed the night, one thought kept coming back more than the rest. What's next?