Part IV: Revolution
Chapter XXI: In Which Corinna is the Worst
"What the fuck happened in there?"
Corinna blinked her eyes open, ignoring the stinging so she could focus on Ron and Hermione hovering over her and Harry. It was Ron who had spoken, his voice joining the ringing that was not easing up. She looked around at Draco on his hands and knees, coughing and retching. Harry sat up on his bum, looking dazed and breathing heavily. Goyle and another broom laid discarded just a few feet from them, but he was knocked out, most likely by Ron and Hermione.
"C-Crabbe!" Malfoy tried to shout, but his voice only came out in a wet gasp. "C-Crabbe!"
"H-he didn't come out," said Hermione in a small voice. They looked over at where the door to the Room of Requirement should be, but it was gone. It would only disappear once everyone was out…
Silence seemed to choke them as the only sounds were coughing and sputtering from Harry, Corinna, and Draco. Ron seemed to be bursting to ask more questions, but he at least waited until they could talk properly.
Harry and Corinna took turns explaining what had happened, picking up for the other when they started coughing and sputtering. Malfoy laid despondent, slumped against the stone wall. Without a wand, he wouldn't get very far anyway.
"But what about Ginny?" asked Ron, looking panicked. "Shouldn't she be here? She needs to go back into the Room of Requirement."
"If it is still even there," said Corinna, wondering just how powerful the fiendfyre would be on something as enchanting as that Room. "She's probably off fighting. Like anyone would be able to stop her for long."
"We should split up and—"
"No, we need to stick together," said Hermione. "I'm sure she's okay."
"But what about you lot?" asked Harry, although he looked as guilty as Corinna felt about what happened with Ginny. "Where the hell were you?"
"Chamber of Secrets," said Ron.
"Chamber—what?" said Harry, his eyes flicking between Ron and Hermione.
"It was Ron, all Ron's idea!" said Hermione, oddly breathless. "Wasn't it absolutely brilliant? There we were, after you left, and I said to Ron, even if we find the other one, how are we going to get rid of it? We still hadn't got rid of the cup! And then he thought of it! The basilisk!" Hermione pointed to the pile of yellowed fangs that they discarded by the wall to help the others.
"What the—"
"Something to get rid of the Horcruxes!"
"But how did you get in there?" asked Harry, looking absolutely bewildered. "You need to speak Parseltongue!"
"He did! Show him, Ron."
Ron cleared his throat and then made an awful hissing noise, making Corinna's ears twinge.
"It's what you did to open the locket. I had to have a few goes to get it right, but we got there in the end."
"He was amazing," Hermione gushed. She threw her arms around Ron's shoulders and smashed her mouth against his, and all Corinna could feel was relief that it finally happened.
Harry gave a very Umbridge-like cough to draw Ron and Hermione's attention back. "Now that we got that out of the way, what does this mean?"
"So we're another Horcrux down," said Ron, trying to catch his breath. He used the hand that wasn't around Hermione's shoulders to pull the remains of Hufflepuff's cup from his jacket. The china had shattered, leaving it blackened and oozing an odd black substance in the process. "Hermione stabbed it. Thought she should. She hasn't had the pleasure yet."
"Genius!"
"It was nothing," said Ron, but his grin made him seem rather pleased with himself. "So, let's take care of that diadem. It's Corinna's turn, anyway."
But as Harry picked up the diadem that was discarded next to the broomstick, it was already oozing that odd black substance. It looked like blood, but chunky and tar-like.
"It must have been the fiendfyre," Hermione whispered. "It's one of the substances that destroy Horcruxes, but I would never, ever have dared use it, it's so dangerous—how did Crabbe know how to—"
"We learned about it in Dark Arts," said Corinna, her lip curling at the diadem. "We learned about the theory just before Christmas, so they probably covered how to produce it after." She grimaced. "I'm guessing that the male Carrow might have glossed over how to stop it."
"If he hadn't tried to kill you two," muttered Ron, "I'd be quite sorry he was dead." He glanced back over at Corinna. "Sorry you didn't get to stab it, though. It's oddly satisfying."
Corinna just shrugged. "There's still the snake," she said softly. "That's the last—"
Her statement was cut off by yells and shrieks echoing up the corridor. Flashes of color danced across the stone walls as the unmistakable sounds of dueling finally reached their location.
Death Eaters had invaded Hogwarts castle. They broke through the forces on the grounds and up in the Towers and now the protection of the walls was penetrated—the illusion of safety shattered.
Just ahead were Fred and Percy, backing into view as they dueled masked and hooded men.
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Corinna ran forward to help, their wands trained out. Corinna's still felt cold in her hands, but she was able to put up a shield charm when a stray stunner came their way. The man that Percy was dueling was backing off fast, and his mask slid down around his neck. Corinna froze in fear as she sat the familiar man with a high forehead and grey-streaked hair.
Sudden, she was no longer at Hogwarts castle. She was not in the corridor outside the Room of Requirement. She was not jumping into the heat of battle. She was on the kitchen floor in the Burrow, curled up and whimpering on the floor as unimaginable pain shot through her.
"Hello, Minister!" Corinna blinked and she was back, but now everything stood out far too much. The flashing lights seemed to blind her, but the walls and ceiling stood out in the darkness. Percy shot a jinx straight at Thicknesse. He dropped his wand and fell to his knees. "Did I mention I'm resigning?"
"You're joking, Perce!" shouted Fred. The Death Eater he was dueling collapsed from three separate Stunners and Corinna remembered they were in the middle of a battle. It helped as she watched Thicknesse transfigure into something awful: he was covered in spikes and spines, and he was convulsing on the ground, clutching at his chest. "You actually are joking, Perce. I don't think I've heard you joke since you were—"
The air exploded. Their momentary moment of peace was instantly shattered. Corinna felt her feet leave the ground as she flew through the air. Her breath completely left her chest, leaving her in a vacuum where she was only aware of a sharp ring echoing in her eardrums and the splinters of wood from the cabinet seem to push further into her skin.
She landed with a sickening thud. The distant sounds of battle were gone as she blinked. Her face, already covered in soot, was now coated in an additional layer of dust as the corridor was blown apart. Cool air swept through her hair as it had finally fallen out of the band keeping it in place. She slowly sat up as the rubble around her shifted.
Sounds eluded her, but she could almost feel the despair that everyone was feeling. She saw Harry stand up, his cheek bleeding profusely as he shifted some wall off Hermione. Corinna reached up to her ear and saw that it was bleeding again, the red liquid mixing with the dust in the air and on her skin to create an odd sludge. Before she realized he was there, Harry was helping her up.
She swayed dangerously, her mind either unable or unwilling to make sense of her short but sudden change in elevation. It was then that she became aware that she must have ruptured her eardrum—again. The pressure building up in her head was becoming too much. It felt like someone put her head in a vice and was pulling with all their might.
As she looked around, clinging to Harry so she wouldn't fall over, she spotted the three red-headed men. She had to blink to get her eyes to fully focused, but she saw Percy hovering while Ron was kneeling beside him. Percy's mouth was moving, but Corinna could not hear what he was shouting. Ron stared, his freckles almost looking black against his sickeningly white skin.
Between them was Fred. His eyes were staring without seeing. The ghost of his last laugh still on his lips.
Nothing seemed real. The wind, the ringing, the pain. It was all there, but it also wasn't. The only thing that Corinna was fully aware of was that the world was no longer a happy place to take someone like Fred Weasley away from them.
She did not know how long they stood there. It could have been seconds or minutes or hours. The next thing she knew was a flash of a spell and Harry pulling her back down to the ground. She blinked, dazed again as she tried to take stock of what was going on. Harry and Ron were yelling at Percy, who had thrown himself over his younger brother to protect him from further harm.
It suddenly made her very angry that the war didn't stop so that Ron and Percy could mourn their brother; that Harry, Hermione, and Corinna could mourn their friend.
She stood back up. She might not be able to hear much of anything, but her mind had never been clearer. It was as if her boiling blood had removed the fog that obscured the processes of her brain. But she had to blink a few times to make sure that the giant spiders crawling through the hole in the side of the castle weren't just odd black spots dancing in her vision.
Corinna and Hermione were busy shooting Stunning Spells at the spiders, throwing them off the side of the building, but they also had to duck to avoid the spells that were being shot at them from the grounds. Behind them, Harry was helping Ron and Percy hide Fred's body, laying him in a recess in the wall that once housed an ancient suit of armor. Once it was well hidden, the five of them headed down the corridor.
Corinna struggled to keep up with the others, constantly losing her footing on debris and on the edge of her own robes. They re-entered the same corridor of the Room or Requirement and Malfoy and Goyle were gone. Percy broke off from the others, his wand trained out as he bellowed out something. She could feel the reverb, but she could not begin to figure out what was said. All she could make sense was that he was chasing after a Death Eater that was in pursuit of a couple of students.
Hermione had shoved Ron into a small alcove behind a tapestry. There was a lot of movement, and when Harry and Corinna ducked in with them, she saw that Hermione was trying to keep Ron from running off. Tears stained his cheeks, but he had a look of determination as he struggled against Hermione's hold.
There were sharp exchanges between the two of them, and Corinna could only assume that Hermione was trying to talk Ron down as she could not hear anything external. She could understand where Ron was coming from. She wanted to directly fight the Death Eaters. She wanted to avenge Fred, not nearly as much as Ron himself, but she did not like just standing there, especially since she could not be a part of the conversation.
Hermione was now talking to Harry directly, and she could hear her bossy tone even when she couldn't hear her words. Harry had automatically reached out to grab Corinna's hand and she gave it a squeeze as he seemed to leave himself. Out of the context clues, she figured Harry was trying to slip voluntarily into Voldemort's mind to find out where he was because wherever Voldemort was, his snake would be with him.
It was only a minute or so before Harry seemed to be shoved back into his own mind, his mouth wide as he gasped for air. Harry's mouth moved as he told Ron and Hermione where Voldemort was. There were a few more exchanges where Corinna's head was whipping back and forth to see who was talking.
The stairs they were standing on suddenly turned into a slide. Harry had grabbed Corinna's hand to drag her away from two Death Eaters that appeared out of nowhere. Without any way to control their momentum, the four of them crashed into the opposite wall. Whether it was the sudden change in altitude or the force of them hitting the wall, but there was a nauseating pop in her right ear. The sounds of battle was all around them, but she sharply heard Hermione shout "Duro!" as the cloth tapestry they had stumbled out of turned to stone and the two Death Eaters that were in pursuit of them hit it with a sickening thud.
Before Corinna could celebrate the fact that she could finally hear again, she was pressed against the wall by Ron as a herd of desks came clanking down the hallway, following by McGonagall with her wand out, telling them to charge. The fact that she could not hear them until they were right there meant that her hearing was not one hundred percent yet, as her left ear still seemed to be completely clogged.
"Harry, you get the Cloak on," said Hermione. "Never mind us—"
Harry ignored Hermione as he forced the four of them together and threw the cloak over them. Their feet and most of their shins were still exposed, but there was a chance that no one would notice with the dust in the air and the spells flying around.
They took to the staircase at a run and was greeted with a corridor full of duels. She spotted Dean, who had procured himself a wand, dueling Dolohov, Parvati with Travers, and Mrs. Weasley taking on a masked Death Eater. Corinna could feel Ron tense at seeing his mother in the heat of battle, and movement near Hermione reassured Corinna that she was doing her best to hold him back and keep him under the Cloak. The four of them wanted to help, but everyone was so close together they were almost afraid to hit one of their own.
A great whoop of a cry came from above them and Corinna looked up to see Peeves zooming around in the air, dropping Snargaluff pods onto the Death Eaters. They cried out as their heads were engulfed in green tubers that wiggled about, trying to enter whatever orifice they could.
Ron cried out when some of the tubers landed on the Cloak, right above his head. He tried to shake them off quickly and without moving out from the cloak.
"Someone's invisible there!"
Dean took advantage of the momentary distraction and shot a Stunner at the Death Eater who had shouted. Dolohov attempted to retaliate, but he was hit with two spells: a body-bind from Parvati and a nonverbal one from Mrs. Weasley. Dolohov was a stiff as a board as his skin shriveled up.
"That is for my brothers, you murdering bastard!"
"LET'S GO!" Harry yelled. The clung to the Cloak as they continued down the corridor, slipping on the tuber puss as they went. They managed to get to the top of the marble staircase that lead into the entrance hall without completely falling.
Corinna spotted Draco just a few feet from them, begging with another Death Eater to let him through, but she could only pick up bits and pieces of what was being said. The Death Eater, though masked, was extremely stiff and raised his wand at Draco, who was now pleading that he couldn't defend himself.
Harry slipped a hand from beneath the cloak to stun the Death Eater. As they rushed past, Ron stopped momentarily to punch Draco in the jaw. He was sent sprawling back onto the Death Eater. Blood poured from his mouth and he looked dazed.
"And that's the second time we've saved your life tonight, you two-faced bastard!"
"I would have gone lower," Corinna muttered, wincing at how demonic she sounded in her still-plugged ear.
There were many more duels going on in the entrance hall than in the corridor above. It seemed to be utter chaos as Corinna looked madly around to make sense of it all. There was Flitwick going toe-to-toe with Yaxley, his stature not hindering him in the slightest as he was a dueling champion before he became the Charms professor. Right next to them was Kingsley as he volleyed spells at a masked Death Eater who was having a hard time blocking them.
Among the seasoned professionals were students, and Corinna's heart sank as she watched them. Some were fighting, but others were dragging or carrying their injured friends—and Corinna refused to think of them as anything else. They seemed to be scrambling towards the Great Hall, which is where she assumed was now their base of operations.
Harry pulled his hand out of the Cloak again to shoot another Stunner. This one went wide and nearly hit Neville, who appeared out of nowhere brandishing Venomous Tentacula. The vines wrapped themselves around the nearest Death Eater and dragged him into its depths.
The four of them sped down the marble staircase, careful with their steps so they did not trip over each other. Glass shattered and emeralds from the Slytherin hourglass scattered across the floor. Many of the nearby duelists were losing their footing, slipping and staggering as they ran.
Two bodies fell from the balcony looming above them and landed with heavy thuds onto the emerald-dotted stone floor. Corinna's stomach churned uneasily as she heard a growl come from the other side. A grey blur bound over to one of the bodies and sank its teeth into the fleshy part of their stomach.
Hermione screamed as a blast came from her wand, causing Corinna to lose her hearing momentarily. Fenrir Greyback was thrown back from the body. He was slowly coming back up, but he was knocked in the head by a glass orb being lobbed from the balcony. Trelawney shrieked in triumph and daring. With an easy underhand serve, she threw up the orb and pointed her wand at it, forcing it to gain momentum and smash through the window.
The wooden doors to the outside were burst open and large spiders were pouring into this part of the castle. There were shrieks as now more of the duelists were focusing their efforts on the spiders than on the Death Eaters. But Corinna paid them no mind. She was still focused on Lavender Brown, Greyback's victim. She was now very pale and very still.
"Give me your bag, Hermione!" Corinna shouted as she took the beaded bag from Hermione's shoulder. Instead of digging through the bag, Corinna pointed her wand inside. "Accio potions." The small bag that Corinna kept the numerous vials in shot up and she deftly caught it.
"What are you doing?" asked Harry at the same time Ron demanded how they were going to get out of there.
"I'm no use to you," said Corinna as she handed Hermione the bag back as that held the basilisk fangs they needed to kill Nagini. "My hearing keeps cutting in and out, so I'm going to help the injured."
"Cor—" Harry looked like he was about to beg, but she merely pulled herself from the Cloak and ran over to Lavender, digging through the bag as she went.
Now that Corinna was closer, she could see that Lavender was having difficulty drawing in even the shallowest of breaths. Greyback took a large chunk out of her side, ripping the sensitive flesh with his teeth. "Stay with me," she shouted at Lavender as she finally found the silver-laced essence of dittany. "I still need to thank you for the tampon thing."
She dumped the contents into her mouth and used the same technique she had seen to force it down her throat. Corinna then grabbed a clean cloth and soaked some of the wound-cleaning potion into it and started dabbing the ripped flesh.
"The wound should have stopped bleeding by now," she said softly and went to check Lavender's breathing. Her chest barely rose and fell, but now blood was steadily pouring out of her mouth. Greyback must have nicked an organ. Cursing loudly, she saw a flash of light run past her. She turned sharply to see Grace dueling with a masked Death Eater, who was going for Corinna with her back to the fray.
"Get her out of here!" Grace shouted as she sent the Death Eater spiraling into a nearby column. "You're both sitting ducks."
"If I move her before I stabilize her, I could make things worse!"
Corinna turned back to Lavender, but her chest wasn't moving. "No, no, no, stay with me!" she shouted as she dropped the rag and vials. She started doing chest compressions, soaking her hands in Lavender's blood. "Stay with me! Fucking stay with me, Lavender!"
"What can I do to help?" asked Grace, which seemed to help Corinna from outright panicking as she was forced to think of something else.
"Just watch my back," she shouted. The chest compressions did not seem to be doing anything, and the only thing that mouth-to-mouth did was make Corinna taste coppery blood. "Damn it, damn it, no, Lavender…"
Corinna placed two fingers against Lavender's neck, looking for the pulse point. She found it, but nothing moved beneath her fingers.
"I'm so sorry," said Grace as she placed a hand on Corinna's shoulder. A large spider came at them and Grace shot a well-aimed Stunner at it. "Sorry, Hagrid, but I will kill these bloody creatures!"
Corinna focused on gathering up the potion vials that had spilt out of the bag, trying not to think about how she had completely failed Lavender.
"I'll take her into the Great Hall," said a male voice behind her. She glanced over and saw it was a student who was either fifteen or sixteen years old, given his poor attempts at growing facial hair. He had attempted to bleach his hair the Muggle way, which left his mop of hair brassy. Whether or not he should be here, she didn't know. Nor did she care. "My friend has a broken leg. Do you think you can help him?"
"Yeah," said Corinna as she gave one last look at Lavender. She reached out and closed her eyes. Corinna screwed her eyes shut as she stood up and forced herself away from her classmate. She blinked and swiped the tears away with her sleeve, knowing that the living needed her. She told herself that there would be time for the dead, as long as she wasn't among them.
As impossible as it seemed, Corinna ran over to where the brassy-haired boy pointed. She found an even younger boy, his skin almost as black as the robes he wore. He was clutching his left leg and rocked back and forth, his eyes screwed shut from the pain.
"I'm going to help you," Corinna said in a gentle voice as she knelt down. She did not hear his groaning until she was sitting right next to him. "My name is Corinna, what's yours?"
"K-Keran."
"Okay, Keran," she said and placed a hand on his arm. "I'm going to need you to lie still and let go of your leg. It's going to hurt for just a couple more moments, but then I promise it will be better."
It took some coaxing, but he eventually pressed his back against the wall and released his leg. He cried out in pain as Corinna grabbed just above the knee. His foot was twisted at an odd angle, turned much further than the ankle should allow. "Keran, I'm going to have to set the ankle first before I can perform the spell. It's going to hurt a lot, but I want you to keep talking to distract yourself. What house are you in?"
Corinna slowly moved the foot back into place, and Keran cried out much louder this time, but he did manage to tell her that he was in Slytherin. When pressed about staying back despite how the rest of his house feels, he explained that his father was an outspoken supporter of Albus Dumbledore and never believed in blood purity.
"People forget that Slytherin also believed in fraternity," he managed to choke out as he broke out into heavy beads of sweat. "That's what my da says is the most important trait of the House."
Corinna slowly nodded as she made sure that his ankle was in place.
"It's why me and my mate stayed back," he continued, and Corinna assumed he was talking about brassy-hair. "We care about Hogwarts and everyone in it. Who cares if we're not seventeen yet? What's a few months?"
Corinna muttered the charm under her breath and Keran gave out one last cry before sighing in relief. "Here," she said, digging out a pain potion to give to him. "You did great, Keran, and you are an amazing person for staying back to help."
Keran greedily gulped the potion, his features relaxing even more. "I'm just doing what anyone else would do," he said passionately. "Thank you…you said it was Corinna?"
"Yes," she said hesitantly.
"I didn't know I was sitting with royalty. You helped my friend get out of here. Alec Quinn."
It took a moment for Corinna to put a face to the name. "His mum was the Prophet journalist who was attempting to spread the truth, right?" At Keran's nod, she continued. "Hear from him?"
"No," said Keran as Corinna helped him to his feet. He towered over her—which, admittedly, didn't mean much—but she would not be surprised if he was a good foot and a half taller than her. "But I'm sure him and his mum got out of the country. They have family in Austria, see."
"I'm sure," said Corinna as renewed shouts brought them back to reality. "Keep fighting and good luck, Keran!"
"You too," he said as he pulled out his wand and jumped back into the fray as if his ankle wasn't broken a few minutes ago.
"No one in our House likes him."
Corinna frowned as she rounded the corner and saw Draco hiding behind a column, trying to stay out of sight. He might not have a wand, but there were plenty lying around from the injured and dead. There was dried blood on the corner of his mouth, and he was still extremely shaken and pale.
"You could learn a thing or two from him," said Corinna coolly. "He's twice the wizard you'll ever be, and he's not even seventeen yet."
"Just because I don't want to die—"
"You should have thought of that before following in Daddy's footsteps." It would have been so easy to hex him into oblivion. She was very much tempted to, but she kept her wand at her side. "What are you going to do? Stand here all night?"
"If that's what it takes," he said through gritted teeth. "That Death Eater thought I betrayed the cause, all because I hung back."
"Well, didn't you?"
"What did you just say to me?"
Corinna stepped forward and he immediately took a step back. "You had so many opportunities that you did not act upon. First with killing Dumbledore and then back at the Manor when you didn't admit Harry's identity. Whose side are you even on?"
"The side that gets me out of this alive!"
"Well, guess what, death isn't discriminating right now," Corinna nearly shouted. Or she did shout. She could not tell the volume of her voice any longer other than it was painful to hear it in her head. "I've seen both Death Eaters and Order get killed tonight. You're fucked either way, so you might as well grow up and start figuring out what kind of wizard you want to be!"
Draco looked dumbstruck. He probably would have an easier time understanding what was going on if Corinna had Confunded him. "I haven't got a wand, so it doesn't really matter."
Corinna rolled her eyes and just walked a few paces to where she found a discarded wand. She shoved it in his hands. "Well?"
Draco stared down at the wand. It was a very short wand, made of vine and an unknown core. He glanced back up at Corinna and trained the wand at her. "Stupefy!"
The red light shot over her shoulder and she turned around to witness a masked Death Eater fly back and hit the banister. He flipped over the side and out of sight.
"Don't make me regret this!" he seethed. He said something else, but Corinna did not catch it as he stalked past her and helped one of their classmates who was struggling against a Death Eater. Satisfied, as shoved the bag of potions into her pocket and ran down the marble staircase to help.
She was surrounded by indistinct shouting and blinding spells flying every which way. Some were still fighting off the spiders, but there weren't nearly as many as there once were. Others were holding their own against the Death Eaters. It took a moment to register that Dora was nearby fighting Nott as she was back to her natural brown hair instead of her signature pink. All she could hope that it was from the stress of battle and not from the agony of losing someone close to her.
Corinna had to dodge out of the way to help someone who was hit with the Severing charm in the chest, dabbing the wound with dittany and forced a blood-replenishing potion down their throat. She was about to finish off healing the wound when, with a flash of blue light, she was knocked back onto her back. The world spun around her as she sat up and was immediately face-to-face with her own wand.
"Hello, my darling daughter," Bellatrix said in an impossibly low voice as ice replaced the blood in her veins. Corinna knew it was a very real possibility that she was going to have to face Bellatrix again. It was too much to hope that someone before this would have been able to kill her. Then again, it was impossible to kill a cockroach. "So happy to see you again." Her tone and body language screamed the exact opposite as she stood stiff and her thin lips curled into a sneer.
Corinna leveled her wand at Bellatrix just as someone behind her shouted, "Stupefy!"
Bellatrix deftly and nonverbally blocked the red spell, sending it up into the ceiling. Corinna rolled out of the way as large chunks fell on top of them, dust flittering down to join the general haze of battle.
"And my niece!" Bellatrix squealed with delight. "It will make it so much easier to kill you both!"
"Corinna, get out of here!" Dora shouted as she blocked a purple spell from Bellatrix. "I can't lose you, too!"
Corinna clambered to her feet and trained a wand out at Bellatrix. She shot her own Stunner at Bellatrix, but it was thrown over to the balcony where it hit a running student.
Dora took advantage of the momentary distraction to shoot off Incarcerous, but Bellatrix was able to dive out of the way of the thick ropes and then shot another blinding spell at them, which Corinna blocked.
A skilled Auror and an alright duelist were barely able to hold their own against Bellatrix. Even if one blocked a spell and the other shot one off, Bellatrix was too quick and was easily able to sidestep or send up her own blocking spell. The thing that angered her the most, surprisingly, about this whole thing was that Bellatrix was using Corinna's own wand against her.
Dora blocked another spell and just as Corinna was about to retaliate, Bellatrix was quicker and sent a solid wall of air their way. They were knocked back into the nearby wall. Corinna's back and head scraped against the rough stone as she crumbled to the ground. Sparkles flashed in her eyes and the loud ringing overcame any other sounds going on around her. Next to her, Dora was slowly twitching to stand back up.
A blinding green light flittered through Corinna's wand and Dora collapse to the ground, her eyes staring at Corinna.
A soundless scream tore itself from Corinna's throat, all the air leaving her lungs. She did not even realize it wasn't just her body involuntarily reacting when she tried to draw air in and physically couldn't. It felt like someone was squeezing their hands against Corinna's throat, but as she clawed at her neck, there was nothing there.
"You don't deserve such a quick and painless death," Bellatrix hissed, and Corinna found it extremely cruel that her hearing came back right then. "The betrayal of my own flesh and blood. It's a sickness even I couldn't cure you of."
Darkness was slowly encroaching on her vision as Corinna stared up at Bellatrix. Her body convulsed in desperate need of oxygen that was so close and yet an impossible distance away. One hand clung to her throat, desperate for the invisible hold to release, as the other reached up to grab her wand, but it seemed to hover just beyond her fingertips.
Bellatrix let out a loud, chilling laugh that echoed around as if they were in a cave. "All you had to do was listen to me! Listen to me and you would be able to live!"
All thoughts left her as the darkness was now engulfing her mind, leaving nothing more than the image of Bellatrix to be the last thing she ever saw. She wasn't aware of the burning of her lungs that were keening for oxygen. Her hand fell and she didn't even have the strength to reach up to her throat in a feeble attempt to relieve the pressure building up inside her.
Just as it seemed like the darkness was closing in on her, the impossible seemed to happen. Relief shuttered through her as she drew in the sweetest taste air. She coughed and sputtered as her lungs did not seem to understand what to do with the oxygen that they were finally gifted. Her throat burned anew, and she was vaguely aware of more blood trickling from her left ear.
Her head fell to the side as the lifeless eyes of Dora Tonks bore into her. It was the last thing she saw before the blissful nothingness overcame her.