Blackened Days -4-
If you dont like the idea of death and destruction, i suggest you skim through the second half of this completely. But i wrote it well, its a credit to my writing under pressure.
*********
Edea was walking along the head table giving out orders to the groups. "Okay, we go in this order. We know for a fact from our spies that they're arriving by sea, so they have to get up those cliffs... Those cliffs are very VERY tall. Okay. We are going to infiltrate from the inside. We can push them back. Hopefully they wont start a landing if we do this."
"How?" Snape said silkily from the crowd
"We have a portkey system that Mr. Moody has kindly set up for us. We go in this order, the front line will be a mixture of Aurors, diversionary people and Unforgivables."
"Those who are flyers will be at the back with the infirmary people, you'll be keeping look out for the death eaters, and will be reporting back to Dumbledore who i have assigned to leading this front. he will be in a certain locating in the cente of the island. Where it is possible to see everything. The hexers, hand to hand and those flyers out of use will be in the second and third lines. The Charmers will be weaving between the rows, producing defence charms, shields and the such like. You have free range."
The crowd were nodding, some were clapping. "We have two hours before we start the portkey system in action, i want you to regroup in the groups that you are already in, in exactly one hour and a half's time. That is all."
She jumped down, and headed out of the building. Remus, seeing Sirius was busy talking to Harry in hushed tones, followed Edea out of the great hall, he found her sitting on the steps.
"Eds?" He asked siting down next to her.
"This is not a good idea." Edea shook her head, "Which dumbass put me in charge?"
"It was a general vote, all the aurors and ministry officials voted." Remus smiled weakly. "You're going to do this."
"No, you see, thats where i suddenly get stuck. I'm not..."
"You're not what?"
"The war-type." Edea hugged her knees. "I dont do these things."
Remus put an arm round her shoulder. "Edea, you're going to do this fine. You always come out on top."
"I still don't feel right, something's GOING to go wrong." Edea frowned.
"Go see Sirius, talk to him about it. He'll think of something." Remus followed her line of sight off into Hogsmeade. "There wasnt anything you could have done."
"You know who did this, don't you.... Peter." Edea snarled. "He'll be there, licking Voldemort's boots on the front line, you believe me."
Remus sighed, getting up and heading back into the castle, locating Sirius staring out of a window. "Padfoot?" he asked warily
"He wanted to go see the Gryffindor common rooms again, Harry.. that is." Sirius mumbled. "Oh, Moony, i don't want to go back there, i can't face it. Azkaban. I had twelve years there. Its awful, i can still remember it like it was yesterday. I used to sit there, i used to... to think that the day would neve come that i'd be free. and now we're going back again."
Remus almost laughed, "Well, we are all in positive frames of minds today."
"What?" Sirius looked at his friend. "Moony?"
"Our wondrous leader isn't in the most assertive, optimisic attitude either."
"Edea?" Sirius peered out of the window again, "Oh yes, i saw you talking."
"Well?"
"Now's not a good time." Sirius shook his head.
"You may never get another chance. You've waited for over a decade you idiot." Remus rolled his eyes. "You'll never get the timing perfect now, but its the best you can do."
"You think?" Sirius raised an eyebrow. "I'm blaming you if i get killed before we even get to the portkey."
Sirius slid down the banister of the large staircase, earning a few odd looks from people, he headed out to where he'd seen Edea through the window.
"Eddie?"
"yeah?" Edea turned around.
"No backlash?" Sirius rose an inquisitive eyebrow.
"cant be bothered." Edea shrugged. "Havent really got the time."
"Time?" Sirius slumped down on the stair, "You have the rest of your LIFE for time."
"Yeah, is that what you really think?" Edea glared at him, "How many of us do you HONESTLY think will get through this?"
Sirius looked down at his boots, "I'd love to say all of us, but its not possible." He paused, "Wow, you really know how to depress people don't you... i'd forgotten."
"Mr. Compliments, as ever." Edea shot him a look.
"I have a plan." Sirius said. "its a good plan, you're guaranteed to like it."
"Enlighten me." Edea looked at her black nail varnish, which was getting badly chipped, she pointed her wand at her nails and the black colour recoated its chipped bits.
"Well..." Sirius waited till he had her attention. "I was kinda thinking... AND DONT HIT ME... Marry me ..."
Edea raised an eyebrow, then laughed, "You..." She laughed at him. "Have you got a knack for awkward timing?"
"I've had lots of practise." Sirius admitted, "we could like.. do a malfoy... big cathedral style..."
"Uhm. No. No Malfoy stylings, he'd probably sue us for breach of copyright or something."
"So?"
"can i ask you to ask me after this is over?" Edea frowned, "it'd be nicer."
"Sure, you can count on it." Sirius grinned.
***
The portkey landings had gone well, the flyers had located the death eater army and had promptly started their attack. The flying scouts, namely anybody who was good at Quidditch had been flying round the island, until Edea changed her attack, they were losing too many on the ground. All flying squads were called in to help with the Charmers and Hexers...
Sirius looked left, where Harry should have been standing, he had gone. Spells were shooting in all directions, and the Aurors were at the front of the normal wizards hurling an array of hexes and unforgivables at the death eaters and Lord Voldemort himself. The trees were ablaze in fire and there were many dark marks in the air. New ones were being shot up into the sky at every possible moment.
He could vaguely make out the figure of Edea at the front, shouting orders out to her section of wizards, whilst aiming avada kedavras at death eaters. From Sirius's point, it already looked like a lost cause. Then, he saw a flash of black hair. He saw Harry running, towards what, Sirius could not see, but he was running all the same. Before Sirius could shout out, Remus was down. Hit straight on. Sirius paled, trying to counter the choking curse that had hit his friend.
Dumbledore looked with tired eyes upon the scene, they'd lost some of the best wizards that had ever graced the earth already in the past few minutes. Momentarily, he let his gaze wander, he recognised many of the Death Eaters, and in the crowd of Dark Supporters were many Slytherins still attending Hogwarts. He had never seen them look so terrified before. One figure in particular attracted his attention. A shock of blonde hair was aiming his quivering wand hand at the opposing side. Draco Malfoy. It may have been a trick of the light, but Dumbledore could have sworn the Malfoy child had looked up at him and mouthed the word "sorry" before walking out into the line of fire. He got hit almost instantly by a stray Avada Kadavra.
Edea had pulled back into the last few ranks, and was busy asking people who was fit and who was down, how many they'd lost. Then she noticed Sirius looking round wildly.
"Sirius?" She ran over to him,
"H.. Harry.." He panted. "He's dis..appeared."
Then a sudden shout alerted his attention, the shout had come from Moody, Harry was running, it was a miracle he hadn't been hit yet, and was running straight at Lord Voldemort.
Sirius turned to Edea, they stared at each other for what seemed like a lifetime. Then suddenly, Edea turned and ran towards the front line.
Sirius looked over to the front, and could have screamed out in terror. Voldemort had Harry. The deathly grin on the Dark Lord's face said everything, then there was a slight murmur in the ranks, a black stream of colour was flying out through the no-mans land heading straight towards Voldemort.
"Edea." Sirius mumbled. "Don't do the heroics... please..." He watched in horror, frozen to the spot as Edea hurtled towards the enemy, jumping over, and ducking curses aimed at her, she pushed Lucius Malfoy aside and stretched out. She tackled Voldemort, who had to let go of Harry to keep his balance. The fighting had ceased between the sides, the Death Eaters parted as Edea kept running, dragging Voldemort with her... she kept running and running until she jumped...
The silence was broken by two voices, Harry and Sirius together were screaming, and from Sirius' viewpoint, it took such a long time for Edea and Voldemort to tumble of the edge. It was like some evil twist of fate had decided to play this in slow motion, just to spite him.
Lucius Malfoy and Harry were really the only ones who saw what happened after that, Harry ran towards the edge of the cliff, and stared downwards he could see them falling towards the sharp rocks and the sea. He saw Edea hit the cliff-face, her body still falling. He saw Voldemort try to grab at someting, anything that would stop the fast approaching rocks from claiming him.
Edea hit the rocks first. A loud thud seemed to echo through Harry's head, Voldemort hit second, the waves lapping at his pale form.
By this time both Sirius and Remus had reached the cliff-face, most of the death eaters had disapparated the moment Voldemort had fallen, the others had given themselves up.
Sirius, looked down, the blood from his forehead mixing with the tears that were streaming down his face. His face crumpled as he fell to his knees on the cliff-top.
***
The remaining members of the Order of the Phoenix had gone down to the bay as soon as the tide had gone out. Dumbledore had gone down first, telling the others that Voldemort was indeed dead. His mangled body had not this time, disappeared, but lay on the rocks as a reminder of what evil could do if let loose.
Remus and Sirius supported each other as Dumbledore picked his way across the rocks to the lifeless form of Edea DuCruet. Harry stood between a sniffing Hermione and a battered Ron.
He'd never seen anybody die in such way, and all he could see in his mind was her face as she hurtled towards Voldemort. Such anger he'd never seen before, it was a pure hatred, and it had been the end of her.
TBC- see its not finished yet. aha! you lose!
If you dont like the idea of death and destruction, i suggest you skim through the second half of this completely. But i wrote it well, its a credit to my writing under pressure.
*********
Edea was walking along the head table giving out orders to the groups. "Okay, we go in this order. We know for a fact from our spies that they're arriving by sea, so they have to get up those cliffs... Those cliffs are very VERY tall. Okay. We are going to infiltrate from the inside. We can push them back. Hopefully they wont start a landing if we do this."
"How?" Snape said silkily from the crowd
"We have a portkey system that Mr. Moody has kindly set up for us. We go in this order, the front line will be a mixture of Aurors, diversionary people and Unforgivables."
"Those who are flyers will be at the back with the infirmary people, you'll be keeping look out for the death eaters, and will be reporting back to Dumbledore who i have assigned to leading this front. he will be in a certain locating in the cente of the island. Where it is possible to see everything. The hexers, hand to hand and those flyers out of use will be in the second and third lines. The Charmers will be weaving between the rows, producing defence charms, shields and the such like. You have free range."
The crowd were nodding, some were clapping. "We have two hours before we start the portkey system in action, i want you to regroup in the groups that you are already in, in exactly one hour and a half's time. That is all."
She jumped down, and headed out of the building. Remus, seeing Sirius was busy talking to Harry in hushed tones, followed Edea out of the great hall, he found her sitting on the steps.
"Eds?" He asked siting down next to her.
"This is not a good idea." Edea shook her head, "Which dumbass put me in charge?"
"It was a general vote, all the aurors and ministry officials voted." Remus smiled weakly. "You're going to do this."
"No, you see, thats where i suddenly get stuck. I'm not..."
"You're not what?"
"The war-type." Edea hugged her knees. "I dont do these things."
Remus put an arm round her shoulder. "Edea, you're going to do this fine. You always come out on top."
"I still don't feel right, something's GOING to go wrong." Edea frowned.
"Go see Sirius, talk to him about it. He'll think of something." Remus followed her line of sight off into Hogsmeade. "There wasnt anything you could have done."
"You know who did this, don't you.... Peter." Edea snarled. "He'll be there, licking Voldemort's boots on the front line, you believe me."
Remus sighed, getting up and heading back into the castle, locating Sirius staring out of a window. "Padfoot?" he asked warily
"He wanted to go see the Gryffindor common rooms again, Harry.. that is." Sirius mumbled. "Oh, Moony, i don't want to go back there, i can't face it. Azkaban. I had twelve years there. Its awful, i can still remember it like it was yesterday. I used to sit there, i used to... to think that the day would neve come that i'd be free. and now we're going back again."
Remus almost laughed, "Well, we are all in positive frames of minds today."
"What?" Sirius looked at his friend. "Moony?"
"Our wondrous leader isn't in the most assertive, optimisic attitude either."
"Edea?" Sirius peered out of the window again, "Oh yes, i saw you talking."
"Well?"
"Now's not a good time." Sirius shook his head.
"You may never get another chance. You've waited for over a decade you idiot." Remus rolled his eyes. "You'll never get the timing perfect now, but its the best you can do."
"You think?" Sirius raised an eyebrow. "I'm blaming you if i get killed before we even get to the portkey."
Sirius slid down the banister of the large staircase, earning a few odd looks from people, he headed out to where he'd seen Edea through the window.
"Eddie?"
"yeah?" Edea turned around.
"No backlash?" Sirius rose an inquisitive eyebrow.
"cant be bothered." Edea shrugged. "Havent really got the time."
"Time?" Sirius slumped down on the stair, "You have the rest of your LIFE for time."
"Yeah, is that what you really think?" Edea glared at him, "How many of us do you HONESTLY think will get through this?"
Sirius looked down at his boots, "I'd love to say all of us, but its not possible." He paused, "Wow, you really know how to depress people don't you... i'd forgotten."
"Mr. Compliments, as ever." Edea shot him a look.
"I have a plan." Sirius said. "its a good plan, you're guaranteed to like it."
"Enlighten me." Edea looked at her black nail varnish, which was getting badly chipped, she pointed her wand at her nails and the black colour recoated its chipped bits.
"Well..." Sirius waited till he had her attention. "I was kinda thinking... AND DONT HIT ME... Marry me ..."
Edea raised an eyebrow, then laughed, "You..." She laughed at him. "Have you got a knack for awkward timing?"
"I've had lots of practise." Sirius admitted, "we could like.. do a malfoy... big cathedral style..."
"Uhm. No. No Malfoy stylings, he'd probably sue us for breach of copyright or something."
"So?"
"can i ask you to ask me after this is over?" Edea frowned, "it'd be nicer."
"Sure, you can count on it." Sirius grinned.
***
The portkey landings had gone well, the flyers had located the death eater army and had promptly started their attack. The flying scouts, namely anybody who was good at Quidditch had been flying round the island, until Edea changed her attack, they were losing too many on the ground. All flying squads were called in to help with the Charmers and Hexers...
Sirius looked left, where Harry should have been standing, he had gone. Spells were shooting in all directions, and the Aurors were at the front of the normal wizards hurling an array of hexes and unforgivables at the death eaters and Lord Voldemort himself. The trees were ablaze in fire and there were many dark marks in the air. New ones were being shot up into the sky at every possible moment.
He could vaguely make out the figure of Edea at the front, shouting orders out to her section of wizards, whilst aiming avada kedavras at death eaters. From Sirius's point, it already looked like a lost cause. Then, he saw a flash of black hair. He saw Harry running, towards what, Sirius could not see, but he was running all the same. Before Sirius could shout out, Remus was down. Hit straight on. Sirius paled, trying to counter the choking curse that had hit his friend.
Dumbledore looked with tired eyes upon the scene, they'd lost some of the best wizards that had ever graced the earth already in the past few minutes. Momentarily, he let his gaze wander, he recognised many of the Death Eaters, and in the crowd of Dark Supporters were many Slytherins still attending Hogwarts. He had never seen them look so terrified before. One figure in particular attracted his attention. A shock of blonde hair was aiming his quivering wand hand at the opposing side. Draco Malfoy. It may have been a trick of the light, but Dumbledore could have sworn the Malfoy child had looked up at him and mouthed the word "sorry" before walking out into the line of fire. He got hit almost instantly by a stray Avada Kadavra.
Edea had pulled back into the last few ranks, and was busy asking people who was fit and who was down, how many they'd lost. Then she noticed Sirius looking round wildly.
"Sirius?" She ran over to him,
"H.. Harry.." He panted. "He's dis..appeared."
Then a sudden shout alerted his attention, the shout had come from Moody, Harry was running, it was a miracle he hadn't been hit yet, and was running straight at Lord Voldemort.
Sirius turned to Edea, they stared at each other for what seemed like a lifetime. Then suddenly, Edea turned and ran towards the front line.
Sirius looked over to the front, and could have screamed out in terror. Voldemort had Harry. The deathly grin on the Dark Lord's face said everything, then there was a slight murmur in the ranks, a black stream of colour was flying out through the no-mans land heading straight towards Voldemort.
"Edea." Sirius mumbled. "Don't do the heroics... please..." He watched in horror, frozen to the spot as Edea hurtled towards the enemy, jumping over, and ducking curses aimed at her, she pushed Lucius Malfoy aside and stretched out. She tackled Voldemort, who had to let go of Harry to keep his balance. The fighting had ceased between the sides, the Death Eaters parted as Edea kept running, dragging Voldemort with her... she kept running and running until she jumped...
The silence was broken by two voices, Harry and Sirius together were screaming, and from Sirius' viewpoint, it took such a long time for Edea and Voldemort to tumble of the edge. It was like some evil twist of fate had decided to play this in slow motion, just to spite him.
Lucius Malfoy and Harry were really the only ones who saw what happened after that, Harry ran towards the edge of the cliff, and stared downwards he could see them falling towards the sharp rocks and the sea. He saw Edea hit the cliff-face, her body still falling. He saw Voldemort try to grab at someting, anything that would stop the fast approaching rocks from claiming him.
Edea hit the rocks first. A loud thud seemed to echo through Harry's head, Voldemort hit second, the waves lapping at his pale form.
By this time both Sirius and Remus had reached the cliff-face, most of the death eaters had disapparated the moment Voldemort had fallen, the others had given themselves up.
Sirius, looked down, the blood from his forehead mixing with the tears that were streaming down his face. His face crumpled as he fell to his knees on the cliff-top.
***
The remaining members of the Order of the Phoenix had gone down to the bay as soon as the tide had gone out. Dumbledore had gone down first, telling the others that Voldemort was indeed dead. His mangled body had not this time, disappeared, but lay on the rocks as a reminder of what evil could do if let loose.
Remus and Sirius supported each other as Dumbledore picked his way across the rocks to the lifeless form of Edea DuCruet. Harry stood between a sniffing Hermione and a battered Ron.
He'd never seen anybody die in such way, and all he could see in his mind was her face as she hurtled towards Voldemort. Such anger he'd never seen before, it was a pure hatred, and it had been the end of her.
TBC- see its not finished yet. aha! you lose!