Disclaimer : All Harry Potter characters are the property of JKR. But all original characters (Wenny, Carl, Dray, Emma, Shane, Russo, etc.) are the property of FaithInSnape & her friend. lol
Written by: 'WennyG' (AKA 'FaithInSnape') & 'Carl'
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Dueling Daddies
Before the door had completely opened, Wenny ran for it, pulling Carl along with her, and knocking down whoever had opened the door. She was too frightened to even look back to see who it had been, for fear that it might not have been her father. And before they could get to the first turn, she saw a jet of red light come rushing past her on the left and her fear was confirmed. It hadn't been her father who opened the door.
Carl ran with Wenny, also not looking at who it had been. He cursed when he saw the spell shoot past Wenny, and started to run a little faster, his heart beating faster along with him. He thought he could hear whoever had opened the door running after them as they made the next turn.
"This is not good!," she said, more to herself than to Carl. Whenever she apparated, it always took her a few seconds to concentrate on her destination. Unfortunately, with Death Eaters running after them, she probably wouldn't have a few seconds. So, as they ran through the corridors, Wenny tried concentrating on Diagon Alley. She hoped it would help her be able to apparate faster once they were finally outside. If they made it.
Carl was looking behind him as he continued to run when he felt himself run into a solid object and then he turned to see what it was...or rather who. Then he froze when he saw who it was. "Run Wenny," he said quietly before he was able to react with anything else.
Rabastan grabbed Carl's arms and shook him. "Where do you think you're going?" he said through clenched teeth, although smirking as he then put one hand on Carl's throat and then forced him up against the wall.
Wenny heard Carl and looked over and cursed under her breath when she saw Rabastan. She wasn't sure what she could do about the situation, given that she was wandless, but she knew she couldn't possibly leave Carl there. She knew she had to do something. Especially after what she had just promised Carl.
"Let go of him!," she shouted. She wasn't sure what she thought it would accomplish, besides possibly making Rabastan come after her instead, but it was all she could think of in that split second.
Carl struggled for a moment up against the wall, his face turning slightly red from being choked, and then stopped when he saw Rabastan bring out his wand. Then he kicked him, making him loosen his grip on his throat. He kneed him in the gut and then took Wenny's hand again and started running.
Rabastan cursed and then aimed his wand at the two of them as they started running away. "Stupefy!" he yelled. He didn't want them to be completely spoiled before the meeting, he thought.
Wenny watched Carl fight his way away from Rabastan and then felt him take her hand. She glanced at him as she started running as fast as possible with him along the corridor, not looking back.
She heard Rabastan's curse a mere second before everything went black.
Carl cursed as he avoided the spell but then saw it hit Wenny. He caught her before she could hit the ground. He looked back and saw Rabastan. He had to try to get them out of there at least. He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder and started running down the stairs, avoiding Rabastan's curses every now and then. He couldn't run nearly as fast with Wenny over his shoulder, and he could hear Rabastan coming closer.
Rabastan smirked as he saw his curse hit Wenny and then started running after Carl. "You can't get out of here now, boy!" he yelled as he continued shooting spells at him, coming closer as he chased him down the stairs.
Dray Gytha happened to be on the lower floor and saw Carl as he exited the stairwell with Wenny on his shoulder. For a moment, he wasn't sure how to react, since there were other Death Eaters around him. But this was his daughter and her friend and he couldn't let them be killed right infront of him. So if saving them meant blowing his cover, then oh well.
"Keep running!," he shouted to Carl as he pulled out his wand. As soon as he saw Rabastan run down the stairs, Dray disarmed him. "Leave my daughter alone, Rabastan."
He stopped after he ran past Dray and then turned around, looking between him and Rabastan nervously. He knew he had to get Wenny to safety, but he didn't want anything to happen to Dray either. He knew that if something did, Wenny would be devastated. He nodded to Dray and kept running.
Rabastan narrowed his eyes at Dray after being disarmed. "I always knew there was something up with you, Gytha," he said with a smirk forming on his face. "I should have done away with you long ago," he said before running for his wand.
Dray kept his own wand pointed at Rabastan, "Oh really? Do tell what gave me away?" He had been tempted to accio Rabastan's wand, but he knew that wouldn't do any good, as Rabastan would simply call for the two guys nearby. At the moment, however, the guys appeared to be preoccupied. And without knowing the full situation, they wouldn't think anything of him and Rabastan having an altercation. It had happened before.
Carl continued to run. He turned a corner and saw a couple of Death Eaters facing the opposite way. He cursed silently and turned quickly around and starting running the other way again, looking for an alternate escape route.
"Call it instinct," Rabastan sneered as he picked up his wand and pointed it at Dray. "Crucio!" he yelled.
Dray fell to the ground as the pain overtook his body. He had been crucio'ed many times before, but the pain always felt just as intense each time. He could barely think straight, but he knew he had to do something. He couldn't just let Rabastan kill him, because he'd for sure go after Wenny and Carl afterwards. With all the strength he could gather, he raised his wand and thought 'expelliarmus.'
Carl didn't stop running, no matter how out of breath he felt. After awhile, he made it outside and looked at the dark sky, breathing in the fresh air. He sat Wenny down on the ground and looked around anxiously, wishing he had his wand so he could wake her up. He shook her shoulder a little, "Wenny, please wake up."
Rabastan smirked as he watched Dray fall to the ground. Then his wand flew out of his hand and he narrowed his eyes down at Dray before running to pick it up again. He was determined to say the least.
This time, Dray wasn't going to chance being crucio'ed again or worse. He looked past Rabastan and thought 'Accio Rabastan's wand,' causing Rabastan's wand to fly into his own hand. "That was so kind of you, Rabastan. I haven't been crucio'ed in quite a while."
Wenny could barely hear her name being said, but she was still deep enough into the unconscious state that she couldn't do anything about it.
Carl shook her a little harder. "Wenny, please wake up," he said desperately. He looked around, wondering if he should run them a little ways from here.
Rabastan turned and glared at Dray. "You know what I think we'll do? We'll torture and kill your daughter right infront of you," he said with a smirk on his face as he continued to glare at Dray.
Wenny stirred a little and tried to open her eyes, "Carl?" She finally was able to open her eyes a little and then opened them wide when she noticed they were outside. "We're outside?"
"I'd like to see you try," Dray said through clenched teeth. He was tempted to crucio the guy, but didn't want to bring any more attention to the situation than necessary, so instead...'Stupefy!'
Carl let out a sigh of relief as he saw Wenny open her eyes. He nodded. "We made it outside, Wenny," he said, a little happily. But he wasn't sure that Wenny would be able to apparate in her condition. Then he heard someone, or more than one person, at the door.
Rabastan glared at the man before hearing him say the spell. Then he fell to the ground as he blacked out.
Wenny slowly sat up and looked at Carl, panicked, "I'm supposed to apparate us now?" She had been worried about apparating them before, but now...she was barely conscious! How was she supposed to do this!? She took his hand and closed her eyes, trying to concentrate on Diagon Alley.
Dray saw the curse hit Rabastan and he turned to run towards the exit. The other Death Eaters hadn't been made aware that he was a spy yet, so he wasn't worried about anyone else stopping him. He wanted to make sure Wenny and Carl had made it outside and were gone.
Carl looked at her and smiled as he held her hand tightly. "You can do it, Wenny," he said quietly. Then he watched her and stayed quiet so she could concentrate. The door opened and about three Death Eaters came out. Carl closed his eyes.
When Dray reached the exit, he saw Carl and Wenny on the ground and three guys headed towards them. Since their backs were to him, he was easily able to stupefy the men. He ran over to Wenny and Carl. Without saying a word, he grabbed their hands and apparated all three of them to outside of the Gytha residence.
"Enidwen, I want you to quickly get anything you don't want to lose and put it in a trunk. Shrink it and then you apparate yourselves to Diagon," he told her quickly.
"Why?," she asked, watching him curiously.
"Just do it. I'll explain later," he answered.
Carl looked between Dray and Wenny, confused. He stopped himself from asking what was going on, because he knew Dray would just tell him the same thing he had told Wenny. "How can I help, Mr. Gytha?" he asked, wanting to be able to do something.
"Go with her, and make sure she doesn't take too long," Dray replied, ushering them into the house, "then meet me in Diagon as soon as possible. At the joke shop." Once inside, he turned and headed down one of the hallways, leaving them alone.
Wenny wasn't sure what to make of the situation, but she was extremely relieved to be in her own house again. She took Carl's hand and started walking up the stairs towards her bedroom. "I wonder what he's not telling us?," she asked, thinking outloud.
"I don't know," Carl said quietly. Then after a moment of walking, he stopped and turned to Wenny. "We're out of that place, Wenny," he said, smiling. He didn't care that Dray seemed like they were still in danger. The fact was that they were out of that place, for now at least. He put one arm around her waist and the other on her cheek. He wanted to kiss her, but wasn't sure she was ready with everything that had happened earlier that day.
Wenny smiled a little, "we are." Though, she didn't remember them actually escaping, though. Well, she did remember Rabastan having Carl against the wall. "I told you I couldn't leave you behind," she said with a slight grin. She may have been unconscious at the time it happened, but she knew there was only way she could've woken up outside with Carl. He hadn't left her behind.
Carl smiled and nodded. "No, you didn't," he said quietly. "Thank you," he said as he took her hand and started walking again. At least they had kept their promise to each other. Well, sort of. He had let her get stupefied, which he wasn't feeling too good about at the moment, but he knew it could have been a whole lot worse. Although, he didn't want to even think of just how much worse it could've been.
"No, thank you," she said, stopping to look at him again. She wanted to kiss him, but she was still a bit unsure about that. But this was Carl, the amazing guy who had saved her life in so many ways. Not wanting to give herself time to talk herself out of it, she quickly leaned over and gave him one small kiss. She looked at him for a moment afterwards, and then walked over and opened the door to her room. "Well, um, this is my room," she said, as they walked in.
Carl smiled as she kissed him and then returned the kiss after walking into her room. He then looked around and smiled before looking back at her. "It's nice," he said with a grin before looking around the room once more. "Well, I think your father said to hurry," he said quietly, hoping they weren't in too much danger. But then it hit him and he suddenly remembered and figured out why they were in that danger. Dray had given himself away. Now he knew that the Death Eaters would be here shortly, but he didn't want to worry Wenny. "So, I think we better listen to him," he said with a small smile.
Wenny nodded, "yeah, ok." She began gathering some of her things such as clothes, drawings, pictures, and a few other things that she didn't want to leave behind. Though, she wasn't entirely sure how "behind" she would be leaving the rest. They were going to be coming back here eventually, weren't they?
Once the trunk was full, she did a quick shrinking charm on it and put it in her pocket. "Ok, well...I guess that's it. He said for us to apparate to Diagon, so I guess we should go ahead," she said, still not completely understanding the situation. She took Carl's hand again and closed her eyes, concentrating on Diagon Alley.
Carl nodded and held onto Wenny's hand. After a moment, he closed his eyes and felt the whirling sensation. He opened his eyes again and saw that they were in Diagon Alley. It was dark, so there weren't many people bustling around on the streets like usual. He looked around for a moment before leading them to the joke shop to meet Wenny's father as they had been told to.
As they walked to the joke shop, Wenny glanced around nervously. She couldn't help but be a bit paranoid because of what they had been through and were still going through. Especially since her father had acted so strange once they had arrived at their home. She remembered the last time they were in Diagon and looked over at Carl, "I wonder if he's taking us back to Grimmauld Place?"
He shrugged. "I don't know," he said quietly. He wished he did though. He knew that Dray needed to get somewhere safe now that the Death Eaters knew about him and Wenny. They reached the joke shop and Carl began to look around for any sign of Dray. He was beginning to get anxious, wondering what Dray was planning.
Dray had been waiting for them to arrive, watching for them from one of the front windows. He had already talked to some of the Order members about what happened, as they would all need protection now. As soon as he saw them walk in, he walked over to them, "follow me." He started walking to the back of the shop.
Wenny noticed how worried her father looked, and glanced over to Carl as they followed Dray to the back of the store.
Carl looked at Wenny a little nervously. He began wondering if where they were going and how long they were going to be staying there. He couldn't help but think it. He looked back at Dray and watched him for awhile, realizing how anxious he looked. But he knew why and couldn't exactly blame him.
Dray walked to the back of the shop and then turned to Wenny and Carl and saw how nervous they seemed, though he didn't blame them, he was nervous himself. "I'm sure you guys know what the Order is, as I was told that you've been to the headquarters before. That's where we're going for a while," he answered quickly, not wanting to spend any more time in the shop as necessary.
"You're going to be staying there with us?," Wenny asked, watching him closely.
"Yes, but I'll explain once we're there," he said, grabbing their hands and quickly apparating them to Grimmauld Place. Within seconds, Number 12 Grimmauld Place appeared before them and Dray quickly opened the door, motioning for them to enter.