Sorry for the long delay - almost finished now though guys...
Chapter 37: Into the Fire...
St. Mungo's was usually a calm and quiet place, with healers filling the corridors as they tended to their patients. Many times I'd sit there and talk to my mother's healer, Isabella, would tend to my awake but comatose-imitating mother. Now, however, St. Mungo's was still calm and quiet, but in a far more unsetting way - part of the walls were blown apart, smoke and fire sprouting through the floor, providing the only source of light for us in the night light now.
The desk at the front was now imbedded into a wall, blood smeared across the front of it as well as the remains of a healer's robes.
"No bodies," I heard Daniel mutter, "but all this blood..."
"Hopefully it's Blackmoore's." I muttered darkly; if he was her, if he had harmed my mother...
We finally came to a cross section. I looked through the devastated halls, trying to figure out which way to go... I couldn't tell which hallway lead to my mother. I cursed to myself, kicking a small mound of tiles out of frustration.
"Aiden?" I looked over to Rinée, who was giving me a concerned look. I chose to try to ignore it.
"We'll split up," I said finally, "Each go down a different corridor - meet back here in ten minutes."
"Split up?" Daniel asked, panic evident in his American accent. "That's not a good idea - that's what happens in horror movies-"
"Shut up Daniel." I muttered, walking down one corridor by myself, leaving the others to find their own way. I needed to find my mother...
With a flick of my wand, a dazzling white light emitted from the tip of my wand, lighting my way. I walked over the audibly noticeable crunches of tiles and suddenly stopped, hearing distant echoes of footsteps... heavy footsteps.
I spun around, pointing my wand into the darkness behind me. I looked into the doorway beside me - just emptiness... but there was something about it. My gut told me there was something familiar about this room...
It was my mum's.
I walked in and examined the beds - all of them were capsized, but no bodies were in sight. I bit my lip as I heard the footsteps again - one by one, they'd get closer. They were slow though - too slow to be a panicked... but too fast to be injured.
"James?" I asked aloud. "Rinée?" I heard a hiss from behind me and spun around, a red spark jettisoning from my wand as I fell backwards, knocking into a pile of tiles as my jinx shattered the tiles from another wall. I looked around to the sudden halt of footsteps, which suddenly began to resume, at a more deliberate and hurried pace.
I pulled myself behind a steel bedframe, knocking the mattress up against it to better hide me as I shook my wand.
"Nox." I whispered hurriedly as I stopped breathing from sheer fear; he was in the room. I let out small, shallow breaths as quietly as I could, listening intently for his footsteps...
He began to come closer towards me, I could hear his feet clipping against the shards of emerald tiles.
Suddenly, there was a stop. He seemed to have turned around and moved towards the other side of the room. I licking my lips nervously, I peered through the tears in the mattress to see a large man there, dressed from head to toe in black robes, although there was a large 'x' carved into his back. He grabbed a bedframe with one hand, then propelled it into a wall, taking a chunk of it out. My mouth dropped in awe - how could he do that? Such strength...
Suddenly he stopped delving through the wreckage of the hospital and slowly turned around to face my bedframe: his face was gaunt and pointed, his eyes a dark and shark-like ebony while his skin was alabaster white. Out of the corners of his mouth, I saw long black lines of hair... it took me a few moments to realise it wasn't hair - it was stitching. The messily-applied surgery continued across his face and arms, evident from the stitches continuing through his right sleeve, curving onto his palm.
He stood there for a moment, tall and horrific, until I heard a series of cackles, making both my eyes and his to the third man, who walked into the room with a fourth character, who made me close my eyes in exasperation.
"Zavar, I've found a gate-crasher." The man grinned. I examined him in his own wandlight - a familiar young man who was only about half the age of the demonic figure between us; He had a certain tone of silver hair, slicked back to his shoulders, his eyes glowed a sickly violet shade and his grin had a touch of instability to it. Blackmoore pulled the fourth character into the light - it was Daniel.
Zavar moved towards Daniel, who's face was frozen with fear.
"What are you doing here?" He asked him at a barely audible volume. I didn't hear Daniel respond. Zavar looked to Blackmoore, a cavalier expression on his face. "Have your fun." He muttered and Blackmoore's face sparkled like a child's on christmas as I heard Daniel whimper. Instinct commanded me as I immediately shot up from behind the bed and hurled a jinx at Blackmoore, who easily deflected it. I pointed my wand at him, ready to send another, but Zavar had noticed me, his wand pointed at me too.
"Shanks!" Daniel gasped as Blackmoore tightened his grip around his throat.
"Let him go!" I demanded.
"You want to play? You want to play?" Blackmoore asked at an excited pace, ending with a cackle of glee. "Brilliant!"
"Shanks, don't worry about me! Get out of he-"
"Let him go now!" I demanded once more.
"Calm down Blackmoore!" Zavar barked at his associate, who immediately stayed quiet, looking at me with a morbid intent. Zavar smiled at me, and changed his tone to an exceedingly polite and sophisticated one. "You must excuse my friend... it's been a while since he's had a... playmate we'll say." I kept my distance steady from the approaching man, eyes fixated on his unstitched mouth.
"Let him go." I said once more, wand still pointed at the terrifying creature in front of me, who finally stopped. His jet-black eyes narrowed.
"You look remarkably familiar..." He muttered aloud. "I've seen those eyes before." He looked back to Blackmoore and his captive. "Shanks..." He muttered, looking at Daniel.
"Marie Shanks..." Blackmoore gave me a psychotic beam before cackling again. "This-is-perfect!" He yelled aloud, throwing Daniel onto the floor. "This is fantastic-"
"Please, calm yourself Blackmoore..." Zevar spoke quietly, eyes nailed to mine. "Of course, you must... Aiden isn't it?" My wand lowered towards the ground as he spoke my name. How did he know me? And what's more, how did he know my mother? Is she why he attacked the hospital?
I tried to focus and brought my wand back up to point at his advancing face.
"Let him go." I ordered again. I was met by a series of 'tuts' by Zavar.
"Oh, that's not polite..." He said with his black slits cutting into my very soul. "Here I am trying to engage you in conversation. You should at least indulge me first." I gritted my jaw as I looked to Blackmoore, who's wand was gripped tightly, an expression on his face that told me he was about to use it...
I jerked my wand over to Blackmoore.
"Expelliarmu-"
"Crucio!" He shrieked, and I collapsed to the floor; every part of my body was in sheering pain, it felt as if I was being ripped apart, with every cell in my body sparking alight. I couldn't think, I couldn't stop it, all I could do was writhe in pain on the floor, as I heard Blackmoore's joyful squawks and Daniel's shouts for me to be released from the unbearable pain.
"Blackmoore..." Zavar said once, but the pain intensified, and I could only yell out in pain. I tried to grit my teeth and stop as I attempted to keep eye contact with Blackmoore - I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. However, with a flick of his wrist, I yelled out again, the pain making me feel like my spine was being pulled through my body. "Blackmoore!" Zavar turned around to Blackmoore, who finally let up on the curse, allowing me to breathe heavily and close my eyes on the floor, with blood dripping from my palms from where my nails had tore into my clenched fists. I grabbed my wand and shot back up, only to be thrown against the wall by Blackmoore's wand again, with large and thick ropes winding around me and binding me to the wall, My wand on the floor inches below my feet.
"That's better." He smoothed his hair back. "Now, I presume you have come to save your lovely mother?" Blackmoore sniggered to himself. "Well, that's a touching sentiment - really, I mean it." He said with a genuine face. "Weak, but still... touching." He wondered aloud.
"Let me go and I'll show you how touching it is-" I began to spit the threat at him.
"And I also presume this," he looked towards Daniel, "belongs to you?" I kept quiet. "Well, he must be, otherwise you would not try to protect him so... so boldly." He pondered.
"The aurors will be here soon!" Daniel shouted.
"I'm sure they will be," Zavar turned around to Daniel with an annoyed face, "until then, kindly keep quiet." He waved his wand and Daniel could no longer speak. "Now, back to the matter at hand..." he turned to face me. "It's been a long time since I last saw you. Back then, you were only a little boy."
"I've never met you before in my life." I said quickly, trying to twist out of the ropes I was now clad in.
"Now, now, are you sure?" He asked carefully.
"I think I'd remember." I said, words dripped in hate. He simply chuckled.
"Ah yes... my self-surgery." He gestured to his mouth. "I never have been too neat..." He said lowly, more to himself than to me. "It's a shame really."
"Not really - I doubt you were that good-looking to start with." I said quickly. I was met only by another polite smile from Zavar and a psychopathic cackle from Blackmoore.
"He's got spirit he has!" He said in between cackles. "Oh, he's going to be fun..."
"Blackmoore!" Zavar yelled angrily at him. "Calm yourself!" He almost bawled. "After all..." He began to spoke smoothly again. "I know we have royalty in the room." He smiled at me.
"I didn't realise you were a Quidditch fan." I said sarcasticallly.
"Ah..." Zavar's smile became wider, forcing several of the stitching to come undone. "You don't know." Confusion flooded into my mind.
"Know what?" Zavar simply gave another dry chuckle.
"Well, who you are my dear, dear boy."
"Now, dear Aiden, didn't you ever wonder why your mother was taken when you were a child? Why 'Professor' Potter, Head Auror, chose to work at Hogwarts so suddenly? Why Almsdeeds didn't expel you after your... well, rather embarrassing display of Dark Magic?" It all made sense now - something was happening that involved me... it seemed obvious now. As I began thinking about what he meant, I saw a figure move behind Blackmoore, illuminated by the moonlight that shined through the hole in the wall that Zavar caused earlier... I tried not to smile as I saw Rinée's face. "Very impressive that, by the way." Zavar complimented me.
"What are you talking about?" I asked Zavar quickly, trying to maintain his attention.
"You're a very talented wizard Aiden - I'm sure you know that already. But, did you know about your ancestors?"
"My ancestors?" I asked, confused. "What do you-"
"Enough talking!" Blackmoore burst out angrily. "Let's just kill the boy now!"
"If I am to kill once again, I would like the boy to know why. If you wish to kill, wait until the aurors arrive."
My eyes flickered over to Rinée, who's face was now struck by panic. However, my eyes focused on Rinée for a moment too long, as Zavar turned around to face her.
"You." He said slowly, examining her face. "You're worried for them aren't you?" She gulped, raising her wand. "Now why would you be worried for them?" His wand drifted through the air, and he smiled to himself. "Ah... your father... and... mother?" He looked over to Blackmoore. "Blackmoore, do you remember Karen Watson?" Blackmoore's face grinned as he looked to Rinée.
"Karen? Karen Watson's baby girl?" He grinned to himself. "What an amazing start to the night!" He began to walk towards her. "You've got her mouth... was always such a pretty mouth."
"Stay away from her!" I tried to shout as the ropes began to constrict around my throat.
"Why?" I gulped, realizing that I had given it away. Blackmoore laughed hysterically. "Baby Shanks and Watson!" He laughed. "Oh, this is convenient!"
"Blackmoore, calm yourself..." Zavar tried to calm his colleague.
"It was back when I ran with Death Eaters," Blackmoore began to tell us, "Watson was so confident the aurors would get there in time." He began to keel over in laughter. Rinée raised her wand at him in anger. "Oh, she knows how to play! Karen wasn't the playing type - all work. Dull girl." He laughed, casually dismissing the fact that Rinée was pointing her wand at his face. "Of course, it was the same for mummy Shanks." I looked down at my wand, flexing an open hand at it. "Oh, she holds the record - never said a word. Quite impressive... although now all she does is lie in a bed-"
"Stupefy!" Rinée yelled at Blackmoore, who blocked the spell, beginning to advance on her.
"Accio!" I shouted, stretching my hand out at my wand. Nothing happened. I looked at the sparring pair, with Daniel now retrieving his own wand and shooting non-verbal spells at Zavar. "Accio!" I tried shouting again, looking at the wand. Nothing happened. I looked over to see Daniel be disarmed by Zavar. I closed my eyes, focusing on the wand - I needed it. I clenched my fist and opened it, the word 'Accio' burnt into my mind.
My wand shot up to my hand, and after thinking 'Releshio', I dropped onto the ground, throwing a hex towards Blackmoore, then another at Zavar. I darted out of the way of an emerald jet and hid behind the bedframe. I peered around the bedframe to see Zavar sniffing the air.
"Another one of your friends is here..." He said lowly, holding out a palm. With a smash, the wall across the room from me was blown apart, revealing James, who was now ducking into cover.
"James!" I shouted over to him. "James, go! Get out of here! Get help!"
"How noble of you!" I heard Zavar try to taunt me. I jumped up from cover and shot a hex at him, which he deflected, shooting another spell at me, which surged towards me before I could even conjure a shield charm. I knocked into the wall behind me and landed on all fours. I stood up, throwing hex at Zavar as he tried to shoot another curse at James. Zavar simply blocked my hex. "A Gryffindor through and through!" He smiled at me. "How fitting!"
I ducked back into cover.
"If you're trying to taunt me, it's not working!" I shouted sarcastically.
"I see I'll need some leverage..." I heard clamping and yelling, then silence. No more spells fired, and I heard deep sniffs of the air. Was Rinée dead? Was Daniel? What about James? "You can come out; I won't hurt you and neither will Blackmoore."
"Yeah, try to understand if I don't believe you!" I shouted, trying to think of a plan - was there anything I could do?
"You have my word. After all, I don't need to hurt you." I glanced around the bedframe to see Daniel, James and Rinée all in chains, joint up to Blackmoore's wand. I cursed under my breath. "Come out, or I will have to come to you-" Zavar called to me, and I shot out from behind cover, wand pointed at Zavar. "There we go, that's better..." He paused for a moment, "well, apart from the wand."
"Let them go." Zavar narrowed his eyes.
"You've been asking for that a lot lately... but if that's your wish, I will if you give me what I want."
"What do you want?" I asked, glancing my eyes to my friends, all of whom were bleeding slightly, Daniel from the neck, Rinée from the mouth and James from the nose.
"You have something of mine." Zavar said finally.
"What?" I asked, completely taken aback. "What is it?"
"I had hoped you would've brought my little girl along..." Zavar said aloud, "alas. I would've enjoyed hearing you call her out for me."
"You could've called her out yourself - you seem to enjoy hearing yourself speak." I quipped.
"Oh, I doubt she'd respond to my name. Sadly, she too does not fully accept who she is." He sighed. "She, however, chooses not to."
"So what, you want your daughter? Muggles on TV to sort this stuff out, they don't blow up hospitals full of innocent people!" I shouted.
"I don't want my daughter." He said as if the idea was preposterous. "She holds something of great value to me. A necklace." I narrowed my eyes - he couldn't mean the necklace that I found... "And you hold this necklace." He smiled and chuckled loudly. "This is... so very convenient." He stretched out a hand. "Give me the necklace."
"Let my friends go first." I said, trying to think about whether I could bluff that I had the necklace on me.
"You are not in the position to barter." Zavar said lowly.
"Neither are you - let them go or I'll destroy it." Zavar laughed with Blackmoore.
"If you truly think you can, go ahead." A tense moment passed as he called my bluff. "Come now, you don't...legitimately believe... that you can match us? My associate Blackmoore already caught two of your 'friends'. Although if they were really your friends, you would've handed over the necklace without a second thought-"
"Don't try to manipulate me." I cut him off. His lips pulled up into a smirk, loosening from the threads once again.
"Oh, I do like it when they know they're being coerced. Don't you Blackmoore?"
"Nothing like it." He smirked.
"Give. Me. The necklace."
I hesitated, realizing the only choice I had was to give him the necklace, although I didn't even carry that. I sighed, coming to terms that I only had one choice - I had to fight. I couldn't run away or leave my friends - I'd have to free them first. If I could just disarm Blackmoore first, they'd have a chance. I'd have to cope with whatever Zavar will do to me. Three wizards have a better chance than just one.
I walked forwards, hand in pocket as if I was reaching for the necklace. This was it - I looked at Rinée and James - this could be the last thing that I ever see, and I'd want it to be my friends. I closed my eyes and thought about cursing Blackmoore - I gripped my wand, ready to do so.
I opened my mouth, but then stopped. A white light glowed behind Zavar, and out of the darkness into the moonlight, none other than a certain man stood, his hair as black and as messy as mine, with almond-shaped emerald eyes. He gave a fatal look through his gold-rimmed spectacles towards the demon in front of me and spoke, words soaked in venomous rage.
"Get away from my student." He growled, as Professor Potter launched his left fist into Zavar's face. Before Blackmoore could even react, Potter had sent a spark of white towards him, smacking into his chest and knocking him onto the floor, the chains from Blackmoore's wand dissipating entirely, causing my friends to all run into cover with me as we watched Potter unleash an arsenal of spells upon the duo. We ran to the doorway, hiding behind the wall as the building began to shudder. A moment later, Potter was behind the doorway with us, throwing hexes through the doorway as he spoke to me.
"Aiden, I want you to get the others out of here!"
"What?" I asked, feeling slightly betrayed.
"Shanks, let's go!" Rinée shouted at me.
"No, I want to stay- I want to stay and help y-" I tried to insist in panic, but Potter put one hand on my shoulder.
"Listen to Rinée Aiden. You've done marvelously." He smiled, a surge of pride swelled inside me chest. "But let the aurors handle it now." He said before darting back into the room, ducking under a curse. I opened my mouth and made to enter the room, but Rinée pulled me back, an arrow of red streaking past my nose.
"Shanks, we need to get out of here." I was pulled along by my shoulder as I looked after the doorway, hearing grunts and incantations yelled through the shatter of tiles and quakes of the building. We arrived at the cross section, where I came to a halt... Potter couldn't handle them both - I just knew it in my gut.
"Shanks? What is it?" James asked, carrying a limping Daniel around his shoulder.
"Where are the other aurors?" I asked, realizing there was no one else here.
"What?"
"He said other aurors-"
"They've got to be on their way - let's-" Rinée began to shout over the shaking of the hospital.
"He could be dead by then!" I shouted, then turned around ran back down the corridors despite Rinée's shouts of my name.
I flung myself through the doorway, a streak of blue cascading into the wall beside me. I saw Blackmoore raise his wand at a dueling Potter, and leapt beside him, conjuring a shield charm. As Blackmoore's red spikes plunged against the shield, I tumbled back a step. I scrambled to stand up and began to shoot hexes as Blackmoore.
"Yes!" He screamed in a malicious beam. "It's playtime!"
Blackmoore's dueling was erratic, with wild swipes of curses that swung around my body, sparking into the tiles behind me and erupting over my head. He screamed a familiar spell at me.
"Sectumsempra!" I brought up my wand instinctively thinking 'Protego Maxima', and a moment later, Blackmoore was on the floor, grabbing his eye.
"Nice one Shanks!" Potter shouted over to me, advancing on Zavar.
Blackmoore growled and pounced at me, wild jets of green and purple glancing across my shoulders. I staggered back, trying to keep my shield up as he obliterated it with curses. Finally, I was knocked onto my back, gasping from the exhaustion. Blackmoore cackled once more and screamed loudly.
"Cruci-"
"Everte Statum!" Blackmoore was thrown backwards and tumbled into the wall behind him, looking up with me to see the fifth combatant.
"James?" I asked, completely confused.
"Expelliarmus!" Blackmoore repelled James' spell back at him, but James continued to run towards him, even without a wand in his hand and tackled him, throwing his fists into Blackmoore's bloodied face. After a few hits, he was kicked off and Blackmoore got to his feet, wand in hand. I lunged forwards, blocking Blackmoore's curse and attacking him with a stunning spell, which he dodged.
We began to duel him to the back of the room, where the wall was still intact. I waved my wand and summoned the tiles up into the air, then sent them hurling towards him, cutting his face. James summoned a white wisp of a whip, which he used to bring Blackmoore to his knees. I then pointed my wand at his face.
"Reducto!" I shouted, the spell glancing his face and shattering what remained of the wall beside him; tiles clipped into his cheeks and ears, further drenching him in blood.
"Not bad Shanks!"
A jet of gold struck me in the chest, knocking me back across room and leaving me on the floor unable to move as James dueled Blackmoore on the edge of the room, ducking under the hexes which echoed off into the night. Finally, James' wand flew up into the air.
James' laugh had left his face as the wand twirled through the air. Blackmoore's face pulled up into a wide, toothy smile. James glanced towards me in panic, knowing what was about to happen. The final words took ages to be spoken.
"Avada Kadavra!"
A lightning storm of green flared from Blackmoore's wand, and crackled towards James, where they engulfed his body. I looked into his eyes, no longer light or azure, but rather empty and hollow. His hand stretched out towards me as he fell backwards, off of the building.
I got to my feet, but not quick enough.
I ran to the edge, but not quick enough.
I tried to save him, but I wasn't quick enough.
There were blurs after that, bangs and smokes as the two figures disappeared. I felt arms wrap around my chest as I came to the edge of the hospital, trying desperately to break free of Potter's grip. I could still save him - there had to be a way to do so!
I felt tears stream down my face as I saw James' body fall down into the darkness of London below us. I yelled and shouted: no words in particular, I just needed to get to James. If I could reach his body, it'd all be fine! He couldn't die - he was my oldest friend, the one I had pictured being at my wedding, at the birth of my first kid, the one that I'd tell stories with when we're old men.
I shouted his name again, pain cracking my chest in two, trying to break Potter's grip on me. I had to find him - I had to get to James.
Floods of bodies came through the room as the aurors searched for Blackmoore and Zavar. I couldn't hear anything - not my own shouts, my sobs, the questions of the auror's, only Potter's last few words.
"He's gone."
Review please - 8 pages long.
R.I.P.
James Gerard Monastery
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Never a Truer Friend