Chapter 29: First of Many
Disillusioned, the two witches and two wizards sit crouched on the outskirts of the town. They's arrived an hour before the attack. The sun sinks low now and there is an influx of muggles on the street. After discussing their plan, they settled in to wait for the targets-Hermione on the right side of the street and the other three on the left side.
Five pops pulls their focus to the area in front of them. The death eaters look over the scene, not seeing the teens laying in wait, and laugh.
Hermione takes a breath and silently counts.
One, two…
Waving her wand in a complicated pattern with whispered words, she pushes her magic to fuel the wards.
Thunk. The magic pulses through the air as the ward activate at the same time as a Death Eater hits the ground. A black arrow sticks out of the head and mask of the dead man. A trickle of blood spills over the blue and gray mask with sunken cheeks and a chunk missing from the jaw line. Travers.
"Finite Incantatem," one Death Eater yells with wand in hand. The disillusion spell falls away. A green light burst from a wand and heads towards Harry, Ron and Tracey. The three dodge it easily enough.
"Deprimo," Hermione says clearly, pointing at the one who fired the killing cure. He jumps to the side, narrowly missing the curse. The ground from where he was cracks.
"Get Potter," the Death Eater snarls. Three Death Eaters move towards the others. The one before Hermione casts an over powered cutting curse. It glances off her shield. She banishes the rubble created by her previous attack at him. The rocks vanish with a wave of his wand.
The Death Eater cock his head to the side, challenging her. Hermione's eyes narrow.
"Conjunctivitis," she says. There is a twitch in the muscle of his leg right before it hits, but then he moves out of the way, allowing a muggle behind him to end up cursed. The muggle immediately falls to his knees, screaming and clawing at his eyes. There are too many people out, though most are running panicked, they are still in the way. Hermione cancels the curse and use a swish and flick to deposit the muggle behind one of the buildings.
Meanwhile, the Death Eater fighting her is throwing curses, most relatively small. Except for the one cutting curse-where he was trying to finish the battle quick and help the others capture Harry-none of his spells had much power behind them. Apparently he doesn't have much power at his disposal.
The other three are handling their own well enough. Tracey has moved to the other side of the street and the boys spread out to give them more mobility, but none are injured or even being pushed back.
An angry black curse heads towards Hermione and she dodges out of the way. Not all spells can be stopped with a Protego and it's best not to take chance when you don't know what was cast. The area where she was now has a small black spot that is bubbling.
The Death Eater advances. He limps slightly and his breaths seem to resemble panting. He may have come to torture and kill muggles, but he does not have the skill to match wands.
"Impedimenta," Hermione says, flicking her wand lower at the last second. His hasty shield doesn't cover the changed target of his feet. He falls to the ground, growling. "Deprimo," she says softly. The pressure that bites down upon his body is silent, though the cracking of bones rings through the air. The Death Eater is still. He won't raise again.
A fire whip is connected to Tracey's wand and slashing at the Death Eater before her. His poorly aimed water spell not hitting the whip, but drenching the ground. Still he light enough on his feet to keep him out of the way most of the time.
Ron, who is still on the left side of the street, is hitting with powerful and accurate spells. The Death Eater is constantly moving, deftly avoiding the curses, though providing little defense.
The Death Eater fighting Harry seems to be more matched as far as casting goes. But Harry is in his element and fighting back hard.
The announcement of another of their fellows dying with the cracking bones echoing through the air, grabs the attention on Tracey, Ron and the Death Eater fighting Ron. Tracey looks to the sound, sighing when she sees Hermione standing. The relief is cut short, however, by Tracey screaming out.
The Death Eater battling her sent a cutting curse at her wand arm in that moment she looked away. Though half missing, it still left a long gash over her arm. Tracey's arm curls into her side automatically, trying to stem the flow of blood. Hermione dashes forward to take on her opponent, but as he raises his wand, she know she won't make it.
"No," Hermione screams, but it is overshadowed by another.
"REDUCTO," Ron bellows, wand trained on the man advancing towards Tracey. The spell hits hard, the force reverberating through the Death Eater. He falls to the ground, eyes wide and empty.
The Death Eater previously fighting the red head takes one look at his recently fallen comrade and bolts. The only other Death Eater standing follows him. Once past the wards at the edge of the street, they disapparate.
Silence settles over the young warriors for a moment, broken by the crying and still frantic screams of the muggles.
"We don't have long," Hermione murmurs. Harry nods and levitates the bodies to outside the town. Hermione jogs behind the building where she had left the injured muggle. He is curled on the ground, whimpering.
"I can't see," he repeats over and over to himself. Hermione kneels beside him and his head whips around.
"Who's there?" he calls. "I can't see," he cries when there is no answer.
"Stupify," she whispers, the red light hitting him. A couple healing spells later, she leaves the man's side.
Ron clings to Tracey, whose arm is bleeding less. She whispers words to him.
"Come on," Hermione says softly as she walk past them with her head down. Tracey pulls Ron along. As they pass the wards, Hermione adds another level that will hopefully keep the people safe if others should come.
The three meet Harry a bit out of town. The three Death Eaters are buried with small grave markers. A small reminder that even though they came to ambush them and with the intent to kill, they are different-better-than the monsters they slay. Without a word, the four of them turn and disapparate.
Draco opens the door with his wand trained on them.
"Granger, you're named after?" he asks.
"Grandma Jean," she says and he motions for her to move past.
"Tracey, you're favorite professor?" he continues.
"Flitwick." She enters as well and Hermione helps her towards the kitchen.
"Potter, your cousin's name?" Draco ask.
"Dudley." Harry enters.
"Weasley, who's older: Fred or George?"
"No one really knows," Ron replies tiredly, then enters past the blonde. Draco nods and follows him to the kitchen.
"Where's the dittany?" Hermione asks Draco the second he steps into the kitchen. She's searching through cupboards with Tracey sitting in a chair that she'd pulled into the center of the room.
"What happened?" Draco asks, opening a pantry door and pulling out a bottle with clear liquid. Hermione snatchs the bottle from his hands.
"Cutting curse," she says, uncorking the bottle. Hermione takes Tracey's right arm carefully with her left hand and extend it away from her body. She turn the arm until the gash is visible. "This might sting," she whispers, then pours the thick, clear liquid along the cut. Tracey hisses, but Hermione holds her arm still. Tracey still looks pale.
"She'll need blood replenishing potion," Draco says, returning to the pantry.
"I...I slowed the bleeding, but...it…" Ron stutters, eyes locked on the fresh skin over the cut.
"You did good, Ron," Hermione says, making sure the skin has knitted together before releasing the arm. Ron's eyes don't move away from Tracey as he starts to shake. When Draco appears with the needed potion, Hermione let him take over her care and goes to her friend. Ushering Ron into a seat, she takes a good look at him.
He's pale and he looks even whiter against the mop of red hair plastered to his forehead and cheeks by sweat. His blue eyes are wide, but don't seem to take into what's around him. His whole body shakes and the breaths leaving his lips are fast and shallow.
"Ron," she says softly, turning his chin to look at her.
"I...I killed him," he whisper back. She smile sadly.
"I know."
"He was going to kill Tracey," he continues as if he didn't hear her.
"I know."
"But I...I...what have I done?" Hermione summons a calming draught from the cupboard. Pressing the vial to his lips, she commands,
"Drink." He allows the liquid to be poured down his throat.
"Hermione?" he asks softly as the forced calm starts to take effect. She nods to him, the same sad smile on her lips. Kreature appears with a hot bowls of soup and fresh bread. Hermione makes sure Ron and Tracey both take servings.
"Kreature, please make sure Harry has some too," she says and the elf nods, disappearing with another bowl to where Harry had gone upstair.
"Eat," Draco says, pushing Hermione towards a seat. She slips into a chair at the table and swallows down the soup she can't taste. No one speaks.
When Tracey stands, pulling Ron with her, Hermione hands her a vial.
"Dreamless sleep," she explains. "Three drops each. You both are going to need it tonight."
"Thanks," Tracey nods and ducks out of the kitchen. Draco takes his witch's hand.
"That bad?" he asks. She shrugs with one shoulder. "Hermione?" He pulls her chin up to look at him.
"It wasn't the worse we've seen," she answers cautiously. "But it's the worse of what they remember. It's new and hard all over again."
"Travers?"
"Dead. Harry made sure before they even knew we were there."
"The rest?"
"Two more dead. The other two retreated," she answers automatically, without any emotion. She feels cold inside, a necessary feeling. 'Necessary killing,' she remind herself.
"You had to," Draco says.
"I know. But it's still hard." She looks through the empty doorway. "Especially for those who haven't before."
"It's supposed to be hard," he replies.
"I know," she says softly. "It doesn't get easier and it shouldn't, but with so much ahead of us…" Draco pulls her into his arms.
"We'll get through it," he promises. "All of us."
"Did you see Ron?" she asks. He nods. "Merlin, help us," she whispers and stands.
Draco summons another vial.
"You should take some too," he says, handing her the dreamless sleep draught. Seeing her look, he adds, "Don't fight me on this Granger. Not tonight." She nods acceptance.
Hand in hand, Draco and Hermione make it up the stairs and into his room. She takes three drops of the potion before handing it to him to put away. Wrapped up in his arms, the world falls away.
