Chapter Fourteen
Battle
Lucius made his way quietly back through the deserted fields towards the graveyard and abandoned crypt. He did not dare risk apparating directly there, in case he should be traced. He had just been to a meeting with Voldemort, Bellatrix and Arabella, and was convinced that although back in their good books, he was not completely trusted by them. Imelda was his only advantage, and should they trace him back to where she was he would lose that advantage. Instead he'd apparated from the meeting to a village a fair few miles away, and had walked back to the old church. As he entered the graveyard, his mind was racing with thoughts from the meeting.
Voldemort was becoming impatient and wanted him to hand over Imelda. Or rather, Bellatrix had put her parts on, annoyed at having to wait for Imelda, and had convinced Voldemort that Imelda was a deadly threat to them. The Dark Lord had taken little convincing, and Lucius was sure that they would not wait for much longer. He had learned much in the few days he had spent back with the Dark Lord, and did not regret his actions for a moment. Stopping in the graveyard, he looked around himself. He was sure he'd heard a noise. Frowning, he made a decision. He strode quickly down the crumbling steps to the underground crypt, his black cloak billowing out behind him as he drew the ornate old key from his pocket. He turned it in the lock and strode into the room without hesitation or caution. He located Imelda quickly and walked right up to her. She looked surprised, then angry and scared as he grabbed her arm and half dragged her out of the room. At the door she grabbed the door frame and gripped it, trying to wrench her arm from his grip.
"Let go," he barked, but upon seeing she that she had no intention of doing so he turned and keeping hold of her with one hand, used the other to prize her fingers from the knarled door frame. He used his full weight to shove her out of the room and then drag her up the bedraggled stairs, Imelda squinting in the daylight. There had been no windows underground, and it had been a few days since she'd seen the sun.
She gave up struggling, half paralyzed with fear and exhaustion.
"Is he here?" she whispered. Lucius held her, looking around them with an odd expression. He seemed panicky himself, Imelda thought.
"No, he's not. But we are," said a woman's voice. Both Imelda and Lucius stiffened, Lucius's grip weakening slightly on Imelda's arms.
"So this is where you have been hiding her, Lucius." Bellatrix Lestrange strolled lazily out of the overgrown mass of tree and hedge, dangling her wand like it was a meaningless twig. Arabella joined her, her eyes focused on Imelda with a twisted grin.
"Tell me, were you on your way to us? To bring her to me?" Lucius said nothing, but let go of one of Imelda's arms discreetly. Bellatrix did not notice as he reached inside his robes for his wand.
"I don't think so, do you Bella?"
She cocked her head on one side and glanced at Arabella, who shook her head and giggled.
"I think," Bellatrix mused in her childlike way, "That Lucius here has a little confession to make."
Imelda gasped quietly as Lucius poked his wand into her back.
"Shys sai vyraes," he muttered under his breath, and what felt like a bolt of electric rampaged through her body. She did not understand- he'd not only discovered the incantation, but had correctly pronounced it, and had given her back the ability to do magic just as he was about to hand her over to Voldemort. Was this his idea of a joke? To get her to fight the Dark Lord for entertainment? Bellatrix and Arabella had begun to circle them menacingly. Still he held her in a hostile manner, gripping her wrist and poking his wand into her back.
"Now now Bellatrix," he growled, close to her ear, causing a shiver to run across her neck and down her spine.
"What are you implying?"
Bellatrix watched Imelda intently.
"Come on Lucius," she said, folding her arms and looking at Imelda almost hungrily.
"You have been very naughty, and you know it." Her voice made Imelda's blood boil, and suddenly she forgot her fear and exhaustion. She sounded like a little child making fun and games out of the suffering and death she caused, and Imelda knew she was next on the list. Suddenly everything in her cause returned to her mind, the torture and deaths of Frank and Alice Longbottom, old friends of hers, the attempted torture and murder of her best friend, the innocent son of Lucius Malfoy and his broken leg, his calls for his father in the sodden alley, the continuing trail of blood, destruction, death and misery being left by the woman before her in the name of her Dark Lord. Suddenly Imelda felt alive and awake and stirred once more. She fought Lucius with all her might, almost wrenching herself from his grip.
Bellatrix tutted.
"Keep your hostage under control, Malfoy," she spat. "But then, she's not really your hostage, is she?"
Imelda stopped wriggling.
Still he said nothing, only watched Arabella circle them.
"You traitor," Arabella said venomously.
"Did you really think you could fool us? Was Draco's punishment not enough? This time we will be sure to break more than his legs. He will suffer endlessly for this, Malfoy."
Lucius stiffened again.
"You will not touch him, Arabella, because you cannot get at him. He is safe; you will never reach him again."
Bellatrix sighed musically.
"Well, never mind, we'll settle for you two."
"I don't understand," Imelda whispered.
"Oh Mel, you dense little thing," Arabella laughed. "He's played us. He's on your side after all. He and Severus Snape have planned this whole thing. Swapping you for information about Voldemort's new games, sneaking around to find out what he could. Only he never intended to hand you over."
"What?" Imelda tried to turn and face him but he wouldn't let her, and held her in front of him instead.
"Is it true?" she whispered.
"Yes," he said in her ear, causing her to shiver again.
Very aware of the fact that both Arabella and Bellatrix were pointing wands at them, the two remained still next to an elaborate grave.
"Well played, Lucius," Bellatrix smiled sinisterly. "But you've lost. Now step aside. The Dark Lord can deal with you- I want her." She looked at Imelda.
"No."
There was a stunned pause.
"Excuse me?" Arabella said in surprise.
"I said no. You expect us to lie down and die?" Lucius sneered.
"Your son would have," Bellatrix said, placing her hands on her hips. "Brave little soldier lasted about five minutes."
Lucius gritted his teeth and let go of Imelda.
"Well I am not my son." He raised his wand, and Imelda stepped aside from him slightly. She glanced at Arabella. She was an Eastern witch, and would know how to fight one- but there were two facing two, it wasn't impossible that they could live.
"You'll never win," Lucius said with a smirk. "His promises are empty, his lies will be the end of you. But then, the end of you would benefit us all."
Furious, Bellatrix raised her wand. Arabella tugged at Bellatrix's robes like a child.
"WHAT?" The older witch snapped.
"Can I kill him?" Bella asked gleefully.
"He's yours, Bella. I want her." Bellatrix raised her wand and pointed it at Imelda.
Imelda glanced at Lucius, and he at her. The same will to survive existed in both of them, and they had not made it this far in the war, risked this much, to die now. Bellatrix narrowed her eyes and pointed her wand.
"You'll be begging me to stop, Malfoy, and your girlfriend here will die very slowly in front of you whilst you wish again and again that you hadn't betrayed us."
Lucius raised his wand and looked at her gravely. Imelda's fingers twitched with energy, and she stood beside him.
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Imelda gasped as she hit the ground, her side colliding with a gravestone that lay buried in the undergrowth. Lucius landed on top of her, then rolled to the side and shot up to his feet again. Bellatrix cackled in the background, delighted with her work. Lucius had thrown Imelda to the ground and then had joined her there himself, saving them both from a thin green spindle of evil that had come from Bellatrix's wand. Imelda gripped the gravestone, conscious of the fact that Lucius was now fighting Arabella and did not know much about Eastern magic. But then again, he'd disarmed and re-armed her, so he knew more than he revealed. He was an accomplished wizard, and a dangerous one at that, and Arabella never had been any good with any kind of magic. Her childish cravings for power and attention would, as Imelda had long ago predicted, be the end of her- and quite possible at the hands of Lucius Malfoy. Right now, Imelda had far more pressing worried in the form of the demented Bellatrix Lestrange towering over her.
"You pathetic little waste of space," the crazy woman cackled, her manic eyes full of glee. "He won't always be around to save you." She raised her wand once more, and brought it down with a resounding crack. But Imelda had clambered to her feet, narrowly avoiding the dangerous explosion emitted from Bellatrix's wand.
"What, no magic from the Eastern witch? Did silly Lucius forget to rearm you?" she raised her wand again relentlessly.
Imelda's move Bellatrix did not anticipate. She pulled her arm back and then punched the woman square in the face, knocking her off her feet.
"Magic is not always necessary you crazed old hag," she said, her voice laden with the intense anger and emotion that the woman before her evoked.
Lucius looked up from the other side of the graves just in time to see Imelda raise a hand. Her eyes blazed a thousand colors at once, as did the thin, colorful wisps coming from the ends of her fingers. Bellatrix lay on the ground, her wand a few meters away from her. She looked, for the first time in a long time, frightened.
"This is for my friends," Imelda said, her voice sounding stronger and louder than Lucius had ever heard it. "And for all the innocent people that have died at your hands." She waved an arm and one of the gravestones came loose from the ground. It hovered, then rose in the air. Bellatrix followed it with her eyes, mesmerized.
Imelda closed her eyes, faces flashing through her mind. Frank, Alice, Reuben in her bloodied state, James and Lilly Potter, Draco Malfoy, her friends in the East, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, the seven that were still missing. Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes.
"Like he said," she waved her head in Lucius's direction. "The end of you will benefit us all."
Bellatrix screeched and scrambled to her feet, lunging towards Imelda with her teeth bared.
Flicking a single finger, she closed her eyes again as the levitating stone lump fell with terrific speed, landing with a resounding thump directly on target.
There was silence in the graveyard.
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