Chapter 29: Three
It is time.
Cressida and Regulus walk slowly up the hill to the Lestrange manor, their fingers already brushing over the wood of their wands. She mutters under her breath, soft wisps of light falling from the tip of her wand which she hides underneath her cloak. Regulus watches their path and their backs, another two Death Eaters ahead of them, on the front porch.
Cressida inhales sharply, sensing the cracking of the shield. "It's down," she whispers. The anti-apparation ward is down. They might not get the chance to leave or even to run so they're opening up their channels of travel.
"Greetings," Quinton grins, his arm extending into his abode in welcome. "I'm sure we'll have quite the meeting today. I hear that we have some action headed our way."
"Always thrilling," Regulus answers and Cressida simply passes him with a strained smile that drops when her back faces him. "We'll have to sit through it. I'll try and get him alone after it. But you're going to have to be prepared to run at any moment."
Cressida nods. They've gone over this so many times that it is ingrained into her mind. Sit, behave, defend when necessary. They have no intention to draw attention to themselves today. Not until the very end but it would be preferable if they could avoid it completely. They had to be invisible to survive.
Unlike the past few times, there is no small feast and mingling beforehand. The table is already being seated at. Cressida leaves Regulus' side, sitting down opposite to Goyle whilst Regulus sits closer to the head of the table near Bellatrix and Rosier. Already they know something is different about today. Action indeed…
Cressida examines their expressions. Most of them are stoic and suppressed, their backs rigid against the seat's frame and their arms rested along it. Lucious Malfoy however, is leaning to one side, his eyes pointed down at the table and the ghost of lines between his eyes. He knows. He knows that the diary is gone.
Cressida fixes her posture to ensure that she looks no different from anybody else. Blend in and she will have no reason to stand out. The next face she finds is unintentional, or really, it finds hers. Snape stares at her with an unreadable expression, but she has known him long enough that if he's not glaring at her, he has something on his mind.
He knows too.
Her posture falters, a shiver travelling down her spine but Cressida lifts her chin and turns her eyes right down to the very head of the table where soon the only remaining seat lies empty.
They all sit in silence for twenty minutes until the Dark Lord himself arrives and sits with the grace of a king. "Thank you all for coming." His voice is hoarse yet even, barely above the volume one would use speaking to someone opposite. But they all hear it. "Today it is my honour to grant Severus Snape the duty in leading an important job."
Their eyes all shift to the greasy-haired man who sits taller than any of them. "It is a great honour, My Lord." The only time he lowers his chin is to bow at his master. Then he looks to all of them. "The Dark Lord has tasked me to lead an attack on Diagon Alley. I have been given the responsibility to choosing those who will accompany me. There will no doubt be Aurors there, patrolling so I need a unit competent of killing them."
"I hope that you've included me, Severus," Rosier gleams.
Severus raises one side of his lips. "Of course. Those who I have chosen are Rosier, Bellatrix, Avery, Dolohov, and Tether."
Cressida's lips part, hearing her alias' name. Her eyes snap to Snape from the table. He's already looking at her. He knows. He knows and that's why he's doing this. Just calling her out isn't enough for him. Snape wants to thrust her into a position where she'll be forced to either fight her own or fight them and either way and he knows her too well to believe that she would ever fight her own side.
She looks at Regulus next whose eyes are dropped to the table, the muscles of his jaw flexing. He's thinking. It's fine, she tells herself. They do what they need to do today and then leave. They would out themselves before it is done to them.
"We leave immediately."
A sharp 'no' rises in her throat, but Cressida manages to choke it back. Her mind runs haywire. They couldn't do anything right here in front of them all. The plan was that Regulus would get alone with Voldemort then they would apparate away just before anything started.
"I wish you well," the Dark Lord says.
Snape bows his head once more, the legs of his chair scraping against the stone floor, followed soon by the others who had their name called. Cressida is the last, numbly standing in place. Regulus nods subtly to her. He'll do his part and she'll have to do hers until the right moment.
The six of them bid their farewells to the rest of the meeting and stride towards the front of the mansion with the belief that the apparation wards are still intact. Cressida knows Snape has chosen some of the most powerful and violent to accompany them. It is no secret that Bellatrix has a nature of chaos.
She cackles, almost skipping down the steps. "Did you hear what I did to the Longbottom's?" she asks Rosier, her lips drawn in a wicked smirk. "They were gargling like babies when I left them. Couldn't even form words."
Cressida feels blood pool in her mouth from how hard she bites her tongue. Alice and Frank were beautiful people and to think something has happened to them is gut-wrenching.
She could apparate right out of here, but where would she go? She could go to the house and wait for Regulus but all the Death Eaters around her are aware of where she lives. She couldn't count on Regulus to get there before they did. She could go straight to James or Sirius, but that would still be leaving Regulus behind, and he wouldn't go without her either.
Just as they pass the border, Cressida reaches out, gripping on Dolohov's arm as they disapparate. Instead of being pulled through a tunnel with stretched light, the Death Eaters travel in darkness that she did not. Their own version of apparating.
They land in Diagon Alley, black smoke billowing around them. Dolohov shakes her off with a growl, but Cressida hardly pays her any mind. The people around them scream, many dropping their belongings and running away, others apparating on the spot that they stand. Bellatrix cackles at the chaos already beginning before they have even done anything. She flicks her wand and a tall building with large glass windows on the second story bursts, showering the entire street in shards.
She doesn't know what to do. Though Cressida has her wand in her hand, she can't bring herself to join in on the strike of terror that the other five begin. There is nothing but senselessness to their actions. Just pure and utter terror. Snape probably doesn't even have any other objective other than to prove who she is.
The screams of the people continue to deafen as shops catch fire and people flee, trampling each other over.
"Why don't you join in!?" Snape calls to her. His back is to the street ahead, eyes boring into hers. Cressida stares right back at him, spells filling her mind that she just has to raise her wand to cast.
Then five tunnels of bright light whip through the air. Snape snaps around, stumbling back into the protection of the others.
Gideon and Fabian stand with each other, their bright red hair matching the flames burning near them. Their wands are already pulled, red sparks shooting from the tips. The next is Elias and just like the twins, he's ready to fight. Kingsley is the fourth Order member and the fifth is that man she never learnt the name of.
Bellatrix pauses her reign of destruction to focus on the Order of the Phoenix. "Come to play?"
"We've come to fight," Kingsley corrects. His bright purple robes swish around as he engages in a duel with Bellatrix. They parry back and forth, spells being flung off to the side, bouncing off shields.
Cressida stands near the side of the street, her head figuring out what to do. A red spark comes out of nowhere and her shield only just manages to stop it from colliding with her face. Gideon glares at her, his spells continuously aimed at her.
"Gideon!" she cries. "Stop!" He doesn't. Cressida doesn't fight back, only dodging and guarding herself. Every moment he's fighting her, he's not fighting the true enemy. But every time she is given the space to attack and doesn't, his eyes grow more and more conflicted.
In one of those small spaces, Cressida raises her wand. "Impedimenta!" The bright red stunning spell shoots out and Gideon raises his shield, but the spell was not aimed at him. A shout of pain sounds from behind him. Gideon spins around, watching Snape fly five feet back through the air then tumble along the ground. Cressida breathes heavily, her heart pounding painfully as Gideon looks back to her. He doesn't understand, but he also doesn't attack her.
"Fabian!"
Elias' cry punches her gut.
"Fabian!"
Gideon's nearly makes her vomit. Cressida desperately searches for what has brought their pain, but she almost wishes she hadn't. Lain on the ground, unmoving and pale is Fabian. His eyes are open, staring at the smoky sky. Dead. Gideon runs to his brother's body. Elias, Kingsley and the other man attack once more, protecting themselves and the mourning twin.
"She stunned me!" Cressida's attention is torn away from the brothers and back to Snape. "She's a traitor! A Spy!" Her wand raises, face setting into focus. They enter a duel of surprisingly equal match. Many spells of Dark nature fall from her lips for the first time. It's all going downhill so fast. Regulus and Cressida were bargaining on having control but now that it is long gone, they are bargaining on their ability to survive.
In her risked glances towards the others, she notes Dolohov closing in on Gideon who fights over his brother's body.
"Stupefy duo!"
Snape stumbles at the powerful stunning spell, crashing into stone rubble from a fallen balcony. Cressida turns to Dolohov, her wand striking upwards but Rosier leaps in from the side, knocking her spell away. "You're the traitor," he snarls.
"Fuck yeah I am."
Cressida launches forward again, throwing spell after spell. She watches Dolohov closely still as he aims in on the brother as though intent to take out the set. Bellatrix fights on two fronts with both Elias and Kingsley taking her on. The other Order member distracts Snape who quickly woke from his unconsciousness. It is a clash of lights, green and red.
There is a flash of green in her peripheral. It collides.
Cressida forgets the fight in front of her, watching Gideon falls lifelessly to the ground on top of his brother. "No." Rosier waves his wand again, but before the spell flies, another strikes his side, flinging him off to the side. Cressida moves her eyes away from the brothers momentarily, a shudder of relief escaping her as Regulus sprints onto the scene.
"Why am I not surprised?" Snape growls. Whatever comradery the two men had is long gone on Regulus' betrayal. They engage in a dual of non-verbal spells. Cressida runs towards the brothers, dodging the spell that is thrown her way. It could be by either side.
"Crucio."
Cressida falls to her knees then to her side. Her muscles lock in place, every single cramping from top to bottom and an invisible flame is held to them. A scream tears through her throat but the burning of against her throat is nothing to the fiery hell engulfing the rest of her body.
"I remember that scream, Hawthorne."
"Cressida!"
Her eyes peel open, reality befalling her once more now that she can see but it does nothing to lessen the thousand hot iron brands against her skin, nor the molten metal pumped in place of her blood. Regulus fights his way into the middle, his wand raising to Rosier who eyes him carefully.
"Sectumpsempra."
Just as his wand raises in the air, his lips beginning to form a sentence, a white light flashes around his body.
Regulus falls forward, his head bouncing off the stone. Through her screams she manages to form his name. He lies on his stomach, shoulders moving in hard pants. Cressida makes her mind forget the pain, to pretend that it is phantom. It hardly works, but it is enough to let her muscles move. "R-Reg. REG!"
Even through his black uniform, she can see the pools of blood forming, dripping onto the ground. Slashes through the material as though he has been mauled by a werewolf. Cressida claws her way to him. She grasps at his sleeve and yanks him onto his back.
Regulus stares at the sky, his black eyes moving in tiny spasms. His lips are sealed closed, holding back whimpers and chokes that form in his throat. His front is covered in the same lashes.
Cressida bangs her fist against the ground, willing her own torture to end so she could think of the spell to help him. "Argh!" And then it does. Her shoulder drop, landing on his side and her cheek covers in a sticky substance. Her fingers flex around, trembling, in search of her wand. It's not in her hand. "No, wh-where?"
Regulus groans, clenching his eyes shut, his fist furling around his shirt. Cressida looks back over her shoulder. The small carving off wood lies where she first dropped. Her teeth clench, elbows grounding into the stone path as she turns herself around. Every ounce of her strength goes into crawling towards it, knees and elbows grovelling into the stone.
Her arm swings out, planting down on her wand. And just in front of her, the two brothers still lie. Forcing herself back to her feet, Cressida turns back to Regulus. She doesn't want to see what she does. His body no longer trembles, the hand over his shirt now overturned and still. His eyes stare at one point in the sky and the blood only trickles down.
Her sight blurs over.
A stunning spell barely misses her. It came from the unnamed Order member. She can't stay here. Cressida looks down at Regulus once more. "I'm so sorry." Then she disappears with a short 'pop'.