The Crazed Aunt Strikes Back
by Matthew W. Quinn and Kyli Ann Rasco
May 2nd, 1998 AD
7:45 PM
Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, and Andromeda Black Tonks had just sat down for a late family dinner when the door exploded inward. All three of them leaped to their feet, wands in their hands and expecting the worst.
The worst arrived. Bellatrix Lestrange walked in, an evil grin on her face.
"Why if it isn't beauty and the beast," she sneered, focusing all her attention on Lupin and Tonks.
A jet of green light flashed from her wand, hurtling straight at Tonks. The young Auror spilled out of her chair a second before the Killing Curse struck, blowing it to splinters. Andromeda moved to defend her daughter, but a gesture from her evil sister slammed her into the floor.
Lupin wasted no time with half-measures. He hurled a Killing Curse of his own. Bellatrix dodged and the curse shattered a photo of Ted, Andromeda, and their young daughter at a beach sometime in the early 1980s.
Tonks hurled a Killing Curse, but Bellatrix dodged that. Her reply hurtled straight at Tonks' torso. Tonks twisted sideways, the jet of green light splitting the fabric of her shirt beneath her breasts as it passed.
Tonks' movement took her into the path of another curse from Bellatrix. The Blasting Curse struck Tonks in the chest and smashed her through the table. Bellatrix leaped forward, wand making the movements for another Killing Curse.
Green light flashed. Lupin's heart leaped into his throat.
A dinner plate leaped into the path of the curse and exploded, showering the kitchen with porcelain shards. Andromeda rose up from the ground, her dark eyes alight with anger. The fragments ceased flying and whirled around her like thousands of planets around a terrible sun. Other plates rose from the shattered table and leaped from cabinets.
Then they all leaped forward like a blue-and-white wave. Bellatrix smashed the oncoming plates and Shielded herself against the smaller fragments. A few got through here and there, slashing Bellatrix's cheek and torso in places, but by and large, the evil witch weathered the storm. Several larger chunks flew in Lupin's direction, forcing him back before he could attack Bellatrix from a different angle.
Then Andromeda cast a Killing Curse into the tail-end of the kitchenware swarm. Bellatrix leaped out from behind her Shield, catching the last of the flying dinnerware in the side. The impact slammed her into the wall, cracking it.
Bellatrix rolled as she hit the floor, dodging another Killing Curse. She laughed.
"You're good," she said.
"Top Slytherin duelist in my year," Andromeda rasped.
Bellatrix laughed again.
"But I was always better."
She lashed out with her wand and Andromeda fell screaming to her knees.
That got Tonks' attention. She erupted from the broken table, hurling a Killing Curse at Bellatrix. The evil witch leaped aside and moved to hurl a Killing Curse of her own.
Avada Kedavra!
The power flowed down Lupin's arm once more and a jet of green light leaped for Bellatrix. The evil witch blocked the curse with a levitating chair, sending splinters flying. One of them slashed Lupin across the face, drawing blood.
Sectumsempra!
The spell did not require as much effort as the Killing Curse to cast and Lupin guessed Bellatrix would think he was casting the Unforgivable and try to dodge rather than block. The trick had worked last time.
Bellatrix moved. The curse meant to disembowel her instead cut a line down Bellatrix's torso from her armpit to her hip, spattering the nearby wall with blood. She hissed in pain.
"You'll pay for that, animal," she growled.
She raised her free hand to her mouth and blew. A jet of flame emerged, taking the form of an enormous wolf as it lunged at Lupin. Tonks and Andromeda moved to intervene, but Bellatrix drove them back with a fiery blast from her wand.
Lupin raised his free hand and the Fiendfyre froze in midair. Both of them strained at each other, trying to force the mass of cursed fire at one another. The temperature of the kitchen skyrocketed and the wallpaper began to smolder.
"Irony does not become you, Auntie," Lupin gasped, hoping to enrage the evil witch and provoke her to stupidity.
With a shriek, Bellatrix hurled the Killing Curse. Lupin threw himself out of the way, losing control of the Fiendfyre in the process. The fiery beast lunged through where Lupin had been, setting much of the wall on fire.
"Remus, put it out!" Tonks shouted. "I'll handle the bitch!"
Lupin reached out with his mind and seized the Fiendfyre.
Your task is through. Begone!
Slowly, the fiery animal began to shrink. Then Tonks screamed and Lupin whirled, losing control of it once again. It bounded towards Andromeda, leaving molten footprints in the floor.
Bellatrix had seized Tonks with her mind and slammed her into the wall. She then lifted her up in the air, laughing all the while.
"Time to die, you half-breed trollop," Bellatrix hissed.
Confringo multis!
A wave of silver arrows erupted from his wand. Bellatrix whirled, dropping Tonks, and deflected all of them. They hurtled throughout the kitchen, shattering the back door and the windows overlooking the backyard. One even destroyed Tonks' childhood swingset.
Lupin felt he was sufficiently recovered for another Killing Curse.
"Dora, the Fiendfyre!" he shouted, mindful of the fiery beast that was only barely being kept at bay by Andromeda, who probably had not been formally trained in dealing with the Dark Magic.
Tonks dragged herself forward and gestured with her wand. The evil fire tore itself away from Andromeda and lunged for Bellatrix, igniting the table and melting the linoleum beneath its charge.
Bellatrix waved her wand and the Fiendfyre vanished.
"You'll need to do better than that," she laughed.
You talk too much. Avada Kedavra!
Lupin hurled a Killing Curse straight at the evil woman. She neatly stepped aside and the curse slammed into the pantry door, shattering it and some bagged flour behind it. A cloud of white erupted from the devastated doorway, adding to the lunacy of the scene.
Tonks, her mother, and Lupin were all on their feet now.
"All together!" Tonks shouted.
The three fired Killing Curses at different angles. Bellatrix improbably managed to weave between them and hurled a series of curses at Tonks. The resulting explosion threw her onto her back on the floor.
Lupin lunged unthinkingly and Bellatrix blasted him aside. The blow was weaker than he expected, indicating that the evil woman was perhaps tiring out, but it was enough to knock him onto his side on the ground.
"You are a disgrace to the House of Black," she snarled at Tonks, who struggled to her feet. "Killing you will be an honor, a long-delayed cleansing…"
"You're a fine one to lecture about family values, you monster," Andromeda growled. "Trying to murder your niece, Cruciating your own sister…"
The evil woman laughed, turning away from her quarry for a moment.
"My sister," Bellatrix declared, "would have never married a Mudblood."
She laughed.
"I'll be sure to tell dear peasant Teddy how the three of you died when we find him and kill him."
Andromeda's wand hand trembled at the casual slurs her sister used against her husband. Bellatrix just laughed.
"Did I make ickle Andy mad?" Bellatrix said.
Andromeda's wand snapped up. A jet of green light flashed. Bellatrix's eyes widened for a moment just before the Killing Curse struck her in the face, the force of its impact snapping her neck. Bellatrix's corpse crashed to the ground.
Holy Merlin, Lupin thought. She just killed her own sister!
Andromeda just stood there for a long moment, looking down her wand at Bellatrix's corpse. Then her hand began shaking once again. The trembling grew more intense and her breathing harder. She finally broke and rushed over to her sister's corpse, burying her face in Bellatrix's chest.
"Bella," she wailed, tears streaming down her face. "Bella!"
Tonks knelt by her mother and took her in her arms. Soon she was crying too.
Lupin soon found himself blinking back tears. This was not something he had expected. Bellatrix had the blood of his and Tonks' son on her hands, much more of it than the prejudiced Healers he'd cut down. Bellatrix had taken the lead in destroying the Longbottoms' minds, she'd killed Padfoot, she'd tortured Hermione, and Merlin knew what other horrors she'd committed in service of the Dark Lord. He should hate her and rejoice in her demise.
But Andromeda had lost her big sister that day. Though it was hard for Lupin to grasp, perhaps the woman he'd always known as a fanatical, vicious Death Eater was something else, once. After all, she had devoted herself to killing Tonks, but never went out of her way to attack Andromeda.
He shook his head.
When Voldemort finds out Bellatrix is dead, he'll be after all of us. Working together, we beat Bellatrix, but we wouldn't be able to face him or the regiment of Death Eaters he'll no doubt send after us.
He grit his teeth. It was, in his opinion, too early to unleash the coup, but the longer he waited, the more likely Voldemort would find out about what happened to his favored lieutenant. Then there would be hell to pay, not only for himself, Tonks, and Andromeda, but possibly for the werewolves as well.
He sighed.
"Dora," he began. "Dora, it's time. Stay here with your mother. I'll send you a Patronus when it's done."
Tonks looked up at him, dark eyes wide.
"Remus," she said. "Remus, let me come with you. I can help you…"
Lupin shook his head.
"You're hurt, worse than I am. And if you're there, they'll think this is the Order's doing and tear both of us apart."
Tonks altered her features to resemble Lupin's own.
"They won't think I'm with you," she said. "I can disguise myself as some random Muggle…"
"No," Lupin interrupted. "Many of them know about your talent. If there's any stranger in the colony, they'll think it's you and then we're back to where we started."
Tonks rose to her feet, her hair turning red.
"I'm not going to let you do this alone," she said.
"Stay here with your mother!" Lupin half-shouted, gesturing towards Andromeda, who still wept over her sister's body. "If you don't hear from me within three hours, both of you go to ground. Leave the country. Hide."
Tonks stepped back, shocked at her husband's outburst. This cut to Lupin's heart—it might take that to get her attention, but she was rather sensitive and it hurt her. Impulsively, he stepped forward and pulled her into his arms.
"Don't worry," he whispered. "This will work and then your talents will be needed more than ever."
He felt Tonks nod, felt what must've been tears on his shoulder.
"Al…all right," she said, stepping back.
Then her expression hardened.
"You'd better come back," she said. "You understand?"
Lupin nodded. Then he turned and walked out of the Tonks' ruined house.
He had an important appointment at the werewolf colony.
