Chapter 44: FiendFyre
Cressida watches stiffly near the bank until Bastian pulls the front of the small boat as close as he can to the shoreline at the entrance. She knows that she is making the right decision. It wouldn't make sense to have him with them on the island. He would be putting himself in more danger and escaping by boat would not be viable if they were being attacked by something in the water. Especially not with how slow it travels.
"You're doing the right thing." She slowly turns to James who nods affirmingly. "We needed him to get us all across and now he's as safe as he can be."
"I'd rather him be at home," she whispers. He doesn't answer. They wander up to the basin, staring in. "You don't have to do it, you know? I could. I don't mind."
Sirius and Cressida watch James brace his hands against the stone. He slowly shakes his head. "Nah, I want to do this." Sirius pats him on the back of the shoulder. James picks up the scoop-shaped shell lying on the flat of the basin. They all watch as it ripples through the potion with ease. "Keep me going."
He holds the shell up to his lips, tentatively at first, but after the first sip, he pours the entire thing into his mouth. Cressida feels the increased beating of her heart. She and Sirius stand on either side of him, both waiting for something to happen. James exhales, licking his lips.
"James?" she calls cautiously.
He nods raggedly. "I'm fine." As he drags the shell through the potion for another, Cressida and Sirius share a look behind his shoulders. He gulps the next down, barely finishing the swallow before another is pushed past his lips. His eyes screw tightly shut, his fingers of his spare hand forming a fist. But he keeps going.
She can see it getting worse and all she wants to do is smack it from his hands. James leans forward, bracing his elbows onto the basin and hisses through his teeth. "James?" she calls again.
"Keep me going," he breathes in a raw voice. The shell drops from his grip and into the basin as he rocks forward and hides his face into his arms. Cressida looks to Sirius, her lips parted, and she shakes her head. She can't do it. She couldn't be the one to make him.
"I got it," Sirius murmurs. James turns, sliding his back down along the stone and Cressida falls with him, pulling his shoulders to her chest. Sirius crouches down, holding the shell up to James' lips. "Mate, come on."
James lifts his head, his jaw quaking. But with all the strength that he has, lets the liquid pass through his lips again. A soft whimper escapes in return and Cressida lets out her own, pressing the bridge of her nose into his shoulder.
"You-you don't have to," she whispers. "I can drink the rest."
"No," he croaks, unable to form more words.
Sirius crouches back down with another and guides it into his mouth. James refuses at first, pressing his lips into a thin line. His chest moves in generous breaths, his hand finding its way to her thigh where his fingers dig firmly into the skin.
Every time that Sirius crouches back down, Cressida feels her own heart-shattering. She wipes her eyes continuously so she can see everything clearly and she never lets James leave her hold. Sirius would offer small words of encouragement, telling him that it was only a little more. He withers in pain and desperation, throwing his head back against her shoulder, choking and crying.
"I'm so sorry," she whispers into his ear, holding him still so Sirius can open his jaw. "I'm so sorry."
Then, Sirius crouches again, but the shell is less than half-full. "Last one," he tells them both. James stiffens, his body arguing with itself. He grips and pulls at the arm she has extended over his chest, and stares at the shell. As the shell presses against his lips, James rears his head, shaking it wildly.
Unable to watch him be forced, Cressida snatches it from Sirius' hand, downing it herself, and drops the shell to the ground. At first it feels like something is tickling her throat. But then the tingles start to itch and burn like vinegar and hydrogen peroxide mixing in her throat which lets out a small cry of protest. It dries her throat insanely and her guilt only triples, realising that James had been feeling that over and over again.
Her shoulders start to shake. Cressida bites the inners of her cheeks, pressing her forehead into James' shoulder to keep herself steady. She feels his body begin to calm and sink against the basin once more.
"Fuck," whispers Sirius. He tosses the shell to the side and it skids across a few stones. He wipes his nose with the back of his sleeve, giving James a solid squeeze on his shoulder before standing once more and leaning into the basin.
"I'm so sorry," Cressida repeats, still buried in his shoulder.
James' floppy hand pats at her arm then towards the side of her head. His movements are tired and sloppy but affectionate all the same. "It's going away," he croaks. "You shouldn't have done that."
She finally lifts her head as the effects of the potion begin to wear off. With a shaky laugh, she says, "I shouldn't do a lot of the things I do."
James gives her a tiredly amused expression, leaning down to place a kiss on her forehead. Sirius crouches back down, a silver chain weaved through his fingers. And hanging down below, a golden locket with an engraved 'S'. "This is what you're looking for."
She feels it. She knows it is, even if they came in here blind.
Cressida nods feverishly, taking the locket. "Yes. Let's get out of here." Sirius extends both of his hands and the three heave themselves to their feet with low grunts.
She's not sure who's foot it was.
Or how it even happened.
But a rock shifts underneath them, and a chain reaction sends a stone toppling down the shallow incline. They hear the ricochet that echoes throughout the cavern. A single breath passes her lips, her eyes just finding it in the muted light, just in time to watch it disappear into the lake with a single loud 'plonk'.
There is a moment of nothing. A moment of complete silence.
James' fingers brush against her sleeve and if they had another moment, they would have encircled her forearm and slid down to her hand.
A thin gangly hand snaps out from the black water, latching onto one of the crystal stones. It is followed by a thin, disfigured body. Sirius is the first to pull his wand, a silent stunning spell hitting the create. It flips back into the water with an animalistic squeal. Then two more take its place.
No. No.
This couldn't be happening. They'd been so careful.
Cressida yanks her wand from her pocket, the same spell expelling from her wand tip against the new Inferi that clamber from the water. All three of them stun the Inferi as they appear, but with each one they hit, more and more replace them.
Their backs press against each other, encircled as they crawl and climb their way onto the crystal island. "What do we do?" James cries, followed by another set of stuns. She doesn't know. All she can keep doing is what she is, but the longer it goes on, the more ineffective it becomes.
Her mind races, trying to recall anything that she had learnt about Inferi. Anything.
Nothing.
Sirius slips – or rather, is pulled. He slams into the ground with a mighty yelp. Cressida forgets the creatures in front of her, spinning and tossing her arm out to stun the Inferi at his legs. James covers their backs, twisting left and right. Sirius stuns the last one, kicking its unconscious body back into the water.
"Stupefy!"
"Impedimenta!"
"Sectumsempra!"
A whirl of spells lights the island in different colours, each spell reflecting off the crystals in a mirage of a rainbow. She hears Bastian calling to them in the distance, but the words are lost to her ears, stunning an Inferi that reaches to grab James' foot as he is occupied with another.
In the flurry of movements, Cressida's ankle twists on the smooth crystal stone surface. It flares in pain, her knee jutting out to the side to compensate. "Argh!" She twists at the pressure and imbalance, her body slamming into the ground. Sharps edges and jagged points puncture her skin. In the pain and contorted position, she barely gathers herself in time to shove away an Inferi that comes at her face and stunning it. The locket drops from her hand.
A hand grasps just below her shoulder and lifts her, but it brings another cry of pain as the tug on her leg sends another burst of agony into her foot which refuses to move. Cressida looks up first to James, then down to her leg. Her foot is lodged between two stones. "Fuck!"
"Sirius!" James howls, barely defending off against five or six that crawl at him. Cressida curses from the ground as much as she can, twisting every way that her body will let her.
Sirius crouches at her leg, elbowing away a creature as he inspects her foot. He tugs on it, testing to see if it would dislodge but at her raw grunt, he gives up in favour of defending.
Cressida yanks and pulls, but the bone of her ankle and the angle she can pull at just won't let her budge away.
Another howl of pain echoes, but this time a masculine one. Sirius drops his wand as three Inferi yank at his legs. He grasps at one of the stones, holding himself. His pants soak in the lake's water and she watches his knuckles turn white and red. Cressida twists her arm around, stunning only one when another cry bellows out.
On her other side, James falls onto his back, and at least four Inferi crawl onto his body. He swats at them, rolling onto his stomach but they keep piling onto him. Cressida lifts her wand, stunning two off but another cry from Sirius brings her attention back to him. The water rises to the backs of his thighs and another two Inferni join at the efforts.
She twists back and forth, stunning wherever she can.
And Cressida knows that it is her that has been given the choice.
James
Or Sirius.
James or Sirius.
She could reach Sirius. She could hold onto him and use her strength to keep them from pulling him into the water, but she wouldn't be able to use her wand to protect James.
Or she could protect James, but she wouldn't have the strength in only one arm to hold Sirius as he slides further into the water with every second of her indecision.
James or Sirius
James or Sirius
James or Sirius
James or Sirius.
.
.
.
Cressida's arm and wand extend high into the air. An enormous roar of fire erupts towards the top of the cavern, its heat warming the most inner parts of her flesh. It is larger and more ferocious than anything she's ever seen. Fiendfyre.
Gigantic wings of flames burst out from the ball, and then the head of a bird. No, a dragon. It soars through the cavern, a trail of fire. in its path The flames continue pouring from her wand and she controls the tail of the dragon's fury. She unleashes it first on the Inferi that creep from the lake to help its kin. Their cries drown out the sound of their skin sizzling, the rest that escape retreating back down into the depths of the lake.
At her command, the flames stop pouring from her wand tip, but the dragon continues to fly around in full fury. Its wings clip over the air above Sirius and the Inferi squeal and squawk, flying back into the water with the others.
James frees himself as the number on him dwindle at the fear of the heat, leaving her boys free and protected in the engulfment of her fire. Cressida pants, leaning back against the stone, and her fingers brush over the cold metal of the necklace that she had dropped.
It buzzes.
Cressida's fingers curl around the locket, pulling it up to her face. It doesn't move to her eyes, but she can feel it vibrating on her skin. Her vision blurs the metal and her hand, focusing on the flames dancing over the water.
She tosses it in and the fire explodes around it, billowing up towards the cavern's roof.