22nd February 1973

Minerva slunk down darkened alleyways in her feline form, her eyes fixed on the moving figure she had been following for almost 10 minutes. A gnawing sense that something terrible was going to happen made her debate, not for the first time in the past few days, whether or not she should have agreed to Moody's plan. However as she darted across obscure corners and hid behind dustbins and craters, she pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind and concentrated rather on not letting Antonin Dolohov out of her sight. Prowling down a wynd Minerva continued to follow after him, her heart rate increasing with every step. As she crept around in the maze of London streets, she felt oddly like a detective out of one of her father's favourite mystery books.

Together they rounded a corner, however, this time the Death Eater did not continue to walk. Minerva paused as her eyes searched the darkness to get her bearings. She could faintly hear the dripping of water from a nearby drainpipe and the rustling of some newspapers scrunched up beside some overflowing bins. She could also vaguely distinguish the outline of a small house at the end of the lane, bright yellow lights flickering from behind grimy and dirt-stained glass. Indistinct shadows could be seen dancing behind the windows, however, the lack of noise that escaped the building made Minerva wonder if some charm hadn't been placed on the door. Somehow she was sure that this was the meetup place Moody had told her about.

A shuffling in front of her brought her back to her senses and Minerva peered at the man standing somewhat indecisively between her hiding place and the house at the end of that lane. Suddenly the Death Eater whirled around to face Minerva whose blood ran cold in her veins. She knew that the narrowing eyes of Antonin Dolohov could not see her as she was hiding in the doorway of an abandoned building. However, his yellow eyes that seemed to lighten up in the darkness seemed suspicious, a look that Minerva at that moment, did not find at all comforting.

Her unease increased when a bright blue light erupted from the darkness. Blinking rapidly Minerva made out Dolohov's outline, his wand alight and securely gripped in his left hand. His eyes searched the alleyway and Minerva had a faint feeling that even though he might not know where she was he knew she was there. Now fully alert her eyes flicked back to the shadows in the house, which to her horror, were no longer moving. Instead, the people inside seemed to have assembled by the door, the lights now much dimmer than they had been previously. Looking back at Dolohov she felt her hairs bristle as she watched him start to move closer and closer to where she was sitting. As he approached his lips twisted into a half grin half snarl and he made a clicking noise with his tongue, the tip of his wand glowing brighter and brighter.

She knew what was going to happen a split second before it actually did. Dolohov's wand, still pointing in her direction, glowed a fiery red. In one quick movement she morphed into her human self and whipped out her wand ready to block, however, in the last moment, the Death Eater's wand changed direction and aimed at the other end of the seemingly empty lane.

The spell shot out of his wand with such force that Minerva nearly tumbled backwards into a pile of wooden boxes. Instead, she kept her feet firmly on the ground and shot a shield charm in front of the other four Order members who had just revealed themselves. The impact of the purple spell and her protective charm sent orange sparks flying in every direction. Dolohov's curse rebounded and hit a gargoyle on the roof of a building that exploded. Dodging the falling pieces of stone Minerva ran to the entrance of the alleyway to meet the rest of the Order and tried to hit Dolohov with a well-aimed jinx. She was stopped however by a slicing charm aimed at her wand hand. Twisting around she saw the owners of the shadows spill out of the building, each and everyone with a wand in their hand.

Minerva reached the group of four and almost at once found herself duelling a Death Eater (the last one out of the building), his face vaguely familiar. She noticed that she was standing next to Elphinstone, he too in the middle of a duel with a masked woman.

"Are you all right?" Elphinstone shot a powerful spell from his wand and the woman skidded backwards. Briefly, he glanced in Minerva's direction.

Minerva quickly caught his eye and shouted over the noise, "Yes, all dandy over here!"

Her moment's distraction caused for the Death Eater's spell to catch the skin on her cheek. Turning back to the man in front of her, Minerva fired a spell that caught her opponent off balance. Chains swiftly blasted out from the tip of her wand and they wrapped around the arms of her dueller. Pulling her wand hard, the man fell crashing to the ground, the chains immobilising him on the hard cobblestone floor.

"Clearly," yelled back Elphinstone, already fighting a new opponent. "Nicely done by the way," he added, motioning at Minerva defeated adversary. "You see this is why we need you back at the Ministry as an Auror!"

Minerva ducked as Dolohov wildly shot another one of his purple hexes. "Thank you but no thank you," she answered Elphinstone after a while, "I've had enough sleep deprivation to last me a lifetime."

He gave a bark like laugh but before he had the chance to answer, a blast of fire sent by another masked person split them apart. Minerva took the small moment of not fighting anybody to take in the scene around her. She noticed the Prewett twins fighting a young woman who cackled as she deflected another of their spells. Beside them, Alastor Moody had unmasked his opponent whom Minerva recognised to be Igor Karkaroff. Directly diagonally to her, Elphinstone was shielding himself from shards of glass being sent to his left whilst fire was being blasted at him from his right. Before Minerva had the time to tackle one of his opponents, another purple curse flew straight in front of her nose. Dolohov was standing in the middle of all the fighting, blasting curses this way and that, to no one in particular. Deciding to put an end to Dolohov's endless stream of curses, Minerva morphed into her cat form and darted between the feet of various witches and wizards. With all the commotion up above, it was unlikely that anyone would spot her on the ground. Finally reaching Dolohov, she transformed for the fifth time that evening and shot a simple stunning spell which hit him squarely in the chest. His body glowed an unsettling red before collapsing unceremoniously onto the floor.

"McGonagall!"

Minerva spun round to face Moody, his hair mangled with blood and sweat. He raised his eyebrows and jerked his head to the entrance of the alleyway. The rest of the Order had brought their opponents to that end of the alley, the irregularity of their spells an indicator to how tired they were. Clearly, it was time to leave.

Moody gripped his wand tightly in his hand, deflected one last curse and then disappeared. Minerva noticed Fabian Prewett limping towards his brother, the two of them disapparating together moments later. With one glance in Elphinstone's direction, she nodded and together they left the alley 3 Death Eaters unconscious and unmasked two hurt but unmasked and 3 still masked.

Minerva clamped her mouth shut as she flew through the night's sky, the air whistling in her ears. She could not remember ever having fought with such ferocity and aggressiveness before. It repulsed her a little.


Hello, me again! Sorry for the huge delay life just got in the way. Anyway, apologies for the lateness of this chapter. I hope you enjoyed reading it, I found it very difficult to write. Have a great day and leave a review if you have time :)