Chapter 92
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Death Eaters surrounded them but none of them were scared. There was a small unity between them all, being part of the Court did that. A dozen Death Eaters stood with their wands pointed at their chests. Ginny had to conceal her gasp of horror.
"Don't be stupid, Miss Potter," Lucius said.
Rebekah smiled softly, the glass orb in her hand as she balanced it in the middle of her palm before letting it roll around the lengths of her fingers. She gently tossed it to her other hand, repeated the movement before she got bored of watching Lucius' eyes tracking the glass ball.
"If I were stupid, I'd hand you this," Rebekah said, balancing the orb on the tip of a finger and watching all of the Death Eaters tense when she did so. "Why should I give you of all people this? It is mine… And Voldemort's I suppose."
A female gasped from within the Death Eaters' ranks. "You dare speak his name, you filthy half breed!"
"Better a half breed than inbred, bitch," Tracey muttered with a glare.
"Zabini," Bellatrix called. "What would your mother think of you doing this? Being on any side but the Dark Lord's?"
Blaise laughed, a coldness usually only shown to rude people in his mind. "What my mother thinks does not concern you, Lestrange. She couldn't give a shit about Voldemort's agenda."
She shook her head at him, a nasty sneer on her lips. "Pathetic traitor…"
"Not a traitor if I wasn't ever on your side," He shrugged.
"Potter, come on," Lucius said again, his hand out ready to catch the glass ball if it dropped from where Rebekah was twirling and swirling it around her hands. "Now give me the prophecy, or we start using wands."
"Try it, I dare you," She stated, somehow balancing the orb on the back of her hand with ease while her other hand held her wand as the Court around her had their wands raised. "Try it and I'll drop the prophecy. Your choice, Lucius."
"Just grab it, Lucius," Bellatrix snapped. "She's only a child. They're all children!"
"If I grab it, she will drop it," Lucuis muttered, his upper lip raised in a snarl as he thought. "Hand over the prophecy and no one needs to get hurt."
"Right," Ginny rolled her eyes. "She gives you it and you let us all go? Even a baby could see the lie in that."
Bellatrix had enough, stepping forward with the summoning spell on her lips but it was deflected and that made her snarl again.
"Oh, she knows how to play, little bitty baby Potter," She said, her angry eyes staring through the slits in her hood. "Very well, then…"
"I TOLD YOU, NO!" Lucius roared at the woman. "If you smash it…"
Bellatrix stepped forward, away from her fellows, and pulled off her hood. Azkaban had hollowed Bellatrix Lestrange's face, making it gaunt and skull-like, but it was alive with a feverish glow.
"You need more persuasion?" Bellatrix said, her chest rising and falling rapidly. "Very well… Take the smallest one, the ginger, and let her watch while we torture the little girl. I'll do it happily!"
Rebekah gestured vaguely, letting Blaise and Logan stand on either side of her while the rest made Ginny the centre to try and protect her from the Death Eater. She lifted up the ball teasingly, turning it a little as she looked at it.
"Attack us and you know exactly what I'd do. A little oopsie and poof, its gone," Rebekah told Bellatrix, turning her head a little. "I don't think your boss will be too pleased if you come back without it, will he? What kind of prophecy are we talking about anyway?"
The manic grin faded from Bellatrix's face "What kind of prophecy? You must be jesting, Rebekah Potter."
Rebekah hummed unhappily, feeling the breaths of the Court behind her on her neck. "I wish I was jesting. I hate asking for help. So why does Voldemort want it?"
Several of the Death Eaters let out low hisses.
"You dare speak his name?" Bellatrix whispered with a disgusted tone.
"I do dare because he dared to try and kill an infant," Rebekah shook her head.
Bellatrix shook her head this time, her voice suddenly rising. "You dare speak his name with your unworthy lips, you dare besmirch it with your HalfBlood's tongue, you dare—"
"Did he not tell you? Voldemort is a HalfBlood, just as Magical as I and just as filthy because of his Muggle father's blood."
"STUPEF —"
"NO!"
A jet of red light had shot from the end of Bellatrix Lestrange's wand, but Lucius had deflected it. His spell caused hers to hit the shelf a foot to the left of the Court and several of the glass orbs there shattered.
Two figures, pearly white as ghosts, fluid as smoke, unfurled themselves from the fragments of broken glass upon the floor and each began to speak. Their voices vied with each other, so that only fragments of what they were saying could be heard over Lucius' and Bellatrix's shouts.
"DO NOT ATTACK! WE NEED THE PROPHECY!" Lucius shrieked at Bellatrix.
"She dared… She fucking dares to stand there and state lies. Filthy HalfBlood —"
He rolled his eyes."WAIT UNTIL WE'VE GOT THE PROPHECY!"
"You haven't told me what's so special about this prophecy I'm supposed to be handing over," Rebekah mused. "Only that Voldemort wants it. Zip it, LeStrange, about his name. I'm not gonna stop."
Logan was whispering behind her, creating a quick plan which she was half listening to.
"Do not play games with us, Miss Potter," Lucius sighed.
"I'm not playing games."
"Dumbledore never told you that the reason you bear that scar was hidden in the bowels of the Department of Mysteries?" Malfoy said sneeringly.
"He tells me jackshit about anything. Everything I know has come by accident or by pursuing knowledge." She snapped. "Voldemort wants me to come and get this for him. I have but he's not getting it— Logan!"
Logan Romanov suddenly charged at the Death Eaters, shifting as he did so and propelling his Moose form into them. They scattered like bowling ball pins, letting the Court run after him.
Rebekah looked back at the Death Eaters trying to rearrange themselves. "Lovely talking, but we're off!"
All seven members of their group were within metres of each other, keeping together as Blaise also shifted and lifted Luna into his bear arms and ran. Logan slowed only enough to let Ginny and Annie onto his back before sprinting down another way. Rebekah and Tracey didn't shift, not yet at least.
While the three Court members were good at Magic, the Crown members were better and faster with spells and curses. They needed to be quick as the Death Eaters began to chase after them. The two of them sent back curses as the Death Eaters gained closer to them, letting them stumble over their own feet or just tripping.
Tracey was the fastest and they needed to find a way out of this room. She shifted into her fox form, vaulting forward without a moment's pause and soon they were all following her as she twisted through the paths between shelves.
She got to the door, opening it and letting everyone in before slamming it shut with a quick, "Colloportus!" which made the door seal itself.
"Everyone good?" Rebekah quickly asked, helping Ginny and Annie get off of Logan's Moose back.
They nodded and sighed in relief as the door was still sealed shut and there wasn't a need for concern of the Death Eaters getting to them at the moment.
"Go back through where we came from?" Ginny suggested before quieting herself. "Shush, listen!"
Tracey nodded, placing a spell on the door that would amplify the sound from the other room.
Lucius Malfoy sounded angry. "Jugson, come back here, we need to organize! We'll split into pairs and search, and don't forget, be gentle with Potter until we've got the prophecy, you can kill the others if necessary — Bellatrix, Rodolphus, you take the left, Crabbe, Rabastan, go right — Jugson, Dolohov, the door straight ahead — Macnair and Avery, through here — Rookwood, over there — Travers, come with me!"
"Coming!" A too familiar voice said.
Tracey furrowed her eyebrows. "I know that voice!" She whispered, "That's Charlotte Travers! The bitch became a Death Eater. I'm not even surprised!"
Logan raised an eyebrow. "Who?"
"Travers was a couple years above, tried to hex Emperor without realising it would backfire onto her," Blaise shrugged. "Rebekah wasn't happy and retaliated."
"And her retaliation was…?" He accusingly looked at Rebekah, who was now sheepishly smiling before shrugging it off.
"Slicing a couple words into her arm before healing it," Rebekah grinned. "With Magic, of course."
Logan just looked at her and then shook his head. "I can believe it. What are we doing now? They're going to be coming in here soon."
"Let's go this way," Ginny suggested towards the exit. "Best course of action is to find the exit."
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"AWAY FROM THE EXIT!" Ginny screamed, getting everyone to run towards the entrance of the room with the Veil.
Ginny, Luna and Annie were careful to not fall down the stairs as they got to the bottom, a Death Eater at their heels but Ginny sent a nasty hex back at them. But she also tripped at the very last step, cracking her ankle and dropping to a knee with a pained grunt at the last step. Annie grabbed her arm and tried to quickly tug her along to the middle where the group was standing.
"The race is over, Miss Potter," Lucius said, walking towards them as other Death Eaters were trying to surround them.
Rebekah just fiddled with the prophecy in hand, twirling and swirling it around in her grip and around her fingers as Jareth the Goblin King did in her favourite movie.
"Hand me the prophecy like a good girl," He drawled, extending his hand. "And no one has to get hurt."
"That's one way to make it sound creepy," Tracey mumbled, laughing a little with Logan at her comment.
"There are ten of us, Miss Potter, and only seven of you," He said. "And we have a lot more experience with Magic compared to you."
"Then why haven't you caught us yet?" Rebekah taunted, a primal flash of teeth for a smile on her lips. "If we're just inexperienced children, and you say you have a lot more experience than us. All bark, no bite."
"You're slippery, Potter," Bellatrix called, her wand twirling in her hand. "Just like a snake. You do so well for the Slytherin name, so sad that the Dark Lord will have to kill you."
"Slippery as a snake, sure, but I still have a lion's heart, don't I?"
"You're an evil bitch, Potter," Travers stepped forward, taking off her mask and hood.
"How's the arm?"
"Scarred thanks to you," She said, lifting her sleeve to show off the darkly scarred words on her forearm. I dare you to trifle with me again was carved into her skin with precision that it looked like a cursive font instead of just slices. "The Dark Lord was able to see through the little memory thing you did to me, restoring my memories and reversing the healing to show me how anger can be fuel."
"I'll admit I did that," Rebekah caught the glass orb when she threw it gently in the air, pointing a finger towards Travers as she turned to look at her group. "But I healed her. Lovely workmanship."
"I saw what you tried to do to a Familiar," Blaise said, addressing Travers. "Not surprised she retaliated. She loves that thing more than us."
Rebekah was going to retort but she couldn't when they all knew it was true.
"That animal was just as much a mutt as its owner," Travers spat.
"Speaking of mutts," Rebekah waved a couple fingers to the figures now behind the Death Eaters. "Padfoot, Moony, hello." She turned to look back at the Death Eaters now surrounded by members of the Order. "Did you really think we'd come alone?"
Lucius Malfoy lunged for the prophecy in her hands, coming short when he was grabbed by the scruff. He was forcefully turned around as Sirius Black grinned menacingly at him, the wand lit at Lucius' throat as the blond gulped at the dark look in the Black Wizard's eyes.
"Hello, Cub," Sirius said, his eyes softening when he looked at her as he still kept a grip on Lucius. "Great timing, am I right?"
Logan just laughed and shook his head, hooking an arm around Ginny's waist while hers went over his shoulder.
The whole group of students ducked, letting spells and curses fly around and above them. Flashes of colour kept souring and they didn't dare try and love with them being sent. Instead of standing, they tried to crawl away on their feet, making it a couple metres before a Death Eater was in front of them.
Annie was ready to hit them with a spell but the masked Death Eater was already shot down by the time she got up, revealing Moody right behind him. Moody grumbled at the stunned form, quickly getting over to the group and trying to hurry them up.
Moody helped Logan get Ginny out of there, her foot too bad to be walked on and none of them being advanced enough to heal a broken bone. They didn't want to do what Lockhart did.
Rebekah tried to get everyone to follow them, but Blaise and Tracey stayed by her side instead. Logan sent a look back but they waved him forwards, not all of them needed to be here.
She winked, quickly tossing the glass orb to Tracey before Tracey tossed it to Blaise.
The Death Eaters seem to keep a very close eye on the prophecy as the three Crowns almost played a very fragile game of catch. It helped to distract the Death Eater and allowed the Order members to quickly get many of them stunned or on the group.
With each throw, the three of them seemed to get closer to the Veil but stayed far away enough that they couldn't be shoved into it.
When Blaise tossed it back to Rebekah, he almost screamed out the words, "Watch out for—"
Rebekah yelped in pain as her hair was pulled back until she hit a Death Eater's chest. A pair of hands wrapped around her throat, pressing into her windpipe with enough force that Rebekah had to keep the hands from completely wrapping around her throat. Rebekah looked at the Death Eater, finding Travers trying to strangle her as painfully as possible while also trying to get the prophecy from her hands.
She stepped enough to get closer to the Veil while she was within Travers' grip, making sure to keep the older Witch's back to the arch.
Screaming as loud as she could and trying to headbutt her, Rebekah used Travers' shock to unwring her grip from her neck. Pivoting a foot back, Rebekah was able to lodge her foot onto Travers' chest and give a strong, final kick to send the older Witch into the Veil.
It took longer than usual for Charlotte Travers to fall through the veil, her body curving in a graceless arch as she tripped backwards into the raggard veil. Fear and surprise lingered on her face, faltering as she took a final tripping step back until she was completely emerged in the veil.
She did not reappear on the other end.
The shock of it went through Rebekah in stages. First was surprise and then confusion before she figured it out. There were rumours of what rooms the Department of Mysteries had, and it seemed like one of them was true.
Travers was dead because of Rebekah, and the young Witch felt no remorse for it, no guilt, no sadness to know the other Witch was gone from this world. Rebekah just turned her back to it
"-ub?" A hand forced her graze from the group and into Remus' concerned eyes. "Rebekah, Cub, are you alright?"
She shook whatever was over her off. "Yeah, why wouldn't I?"
"Travers, she's, uh, dead," He said carefully. "She's gone."
Rebekah hesitated. "I, I know… Finally got her out of the way."
Remus looked concerned but didn't say anything, only checking her neck for injury and finding none. He hugged her closer, his arms tight around her before hearing a scream of pain from behind them.
Sirius was being tortured by Bellatrix as the Witch laughed and grinned as she did it, letting him scream in pain.
Softness left Rebekah's form as she shoved Remus' arms away from her, raising her wand quickly to send a spell forward.
"Crucio! Crucio! CRUCIO!" Rebekah said, getting louder with each statement, sending as much pain and hurt and meaning into the spells as she brought pain onto Bellatrix.
The Lestrange screamed in pain, laughing every so often as pain made her hysterical. "You— AHH — truly mean — AHH — it! Did I — AHHH — hit a — AHH — nerve?"
The next scream was even stronger than the last, waves of burning agony went through her system as Rebekah didn't relent in her anger and rage.
Sirius had to get up from the floor, still groaning because he saw how Rebekah was reacting. Parts of her hair were curling upwards, her eyes turning darker and more lion like with each new repeated curse.
He had to stop her before she got in trouble.
"Cub. Cub!" Sirius linked his arms around her, pushing her face into his chest as Rebekah suddenly stopped her casting and took a gulp of air. He comforted her as she let out a couple tears, rubbing a hand down her back. "Shh, it's okay. I'm okay, Cub."
A voice called for the two adults to get her out of there. Remus and Sirius began to lead her out of there, only to find that Bellatrix was following them and sent a curse to Remus' back. The Witch ran past them, getting into the other room before they could react.
While Sirius went to look at Remus, Rebekah had already sprinted right after the Lestrange Witch. People were shouting for her to wait but she didn't care, the hem of Bellatrix's robes whipped out of sight ahead.
Rebekah shifted as she ran, easily getting into her lioness form as she sprinted after, gaining even more speed in this form. She was able to get within a couple metres of the Witch, dodging each spell sent towards her as they made their way to the nearby lifts.
There wasn't enough space for Bellatrix to try and close any of the doors as she ran, Potter was too close behind her and if she slowed, she would have the lioness' claws in her. They got to the atrium with ease, the telephone lift in sight at the other end of the hall. Bellatrix saw it, grinning fiercely as she sent another spell behind her.
A single step was her failing.
She tripped on the hem of her tattered robes, letting Potter catch up within a second. Four sharp pains appeared on her back, claws slicing into her skin as Potter got too close.
"Rebekah!" Dumbledore's familiar voice called, making the young Witch turn her head towards him. Belltrix used this as an opportunity to get away, shoving herself forward as she sprinted to hide behind a statue.
Rebekah shifted back, now human as she flicked the tiny bit of blood away from her nails. She had only meant to scare Bellatrix with a little bit of pain to enhance the chase, not actually harm her but the memory of hearing both Sirius and Remus being hurt by her spells made Rebekah angry.
"What?" Her voice was cold and empty of all human emotion besides rage as she turned her head and looked at Dumbledore as he walked towards her with Sirius and Remus behind him. "Where is she?"
"You don't have to hurt her, Rebekah," Dumbledore said calmly, coming closer.
"No one gets to hurt my family and get away with it," She paced, trying to see where Bellatrix got to. "Not her, not you, not even Merlin himself."
"Not even I?" Voldemort's cold voice said, echoing in the hall as he watched Rebekah suddenly twist to face him, unmistakable and almost uncontrollable rage, malice, and a dark hunger for revenge on her face.
She turned her gaze to him, reminding him of the spell that tried to kill her and instead incapitated him for years after.
"No, not even you, Tommy, not even you." Rebekah laughed coldly, not a tone of human kindness or mercy in the sound. A swirl of a hex was sent to her, the spell coming lightning face at her chest but she shielded herself with a swift of her wand. The spell hit the shield and disappeared.
"Good catch there, Rebekah dear," He grinned, pale lips curling up as he just stared. "Where is the prophecy?"
This made her grin uncontrollably, the type of smile a fox would have or when a child was caught with their hand in the cookie jaw. It was self satisfied and unbelievably smug as Rebekah rocked on her heels as she shrugged.
"Right here," Rebekah twirled it in a hand. "I probably should have dropped it earlier but I didn't. It's not like you want it, do you? If you want it so badly, you should have gotten it yourself. Though the little facade of a dream you showed me was quite realistic, it wasn't enough to fool me. Helped me decide what I was going to do though."
He hummed unhappily, containing anger like he was putting a lid on a box as he took steps towards her. "Months of preparations, months of effort and my Death Eaters have let you thwart me yet again. Well done, I do admit. Why do you not just hand me it and I will let you go on your merry way back to Hogwarts?"
"Hmm, no." She knew Sirius and Remus were quick to stand behind her as Voldemort came closer and closer to them.
"Pity," He muttered to himself, only loud enough for the three in front of him to hear. A couple metres between them. "You would have made such a good ally, Rebekah Potter. It is truly a pity you put yourself against me."
"I'm only against you because you put yourself against me," She said slowly. "You're trying to oppress other people for their use of Magic, telling some they don't have the right to it. I want to see what this prophecy is about, and so do you. If I drop it now, we'd both get to see it and then we can be on our merry ways away from each other."
The glass orb slipped off of the tips of her fingers, smashing into thousands of broken pieces as the mist and a figure appeared. A figure rose out of the mist, draped in shawls with her eyes magnified to enormous size behind her glasses. Sybill Trelawney spoke, sounding out in harsh, hoarse tones her next words:
"The one with the power to vanquish the Lord approaches… Born to those who have thrice defied the Lord, born as the seventh month dies… And the Lord will mark the Monarch as equals, but the Monarch will have power the Lord knows not… And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… The one with the power to vanquish the Lord approaches… Born to those who have thrice defied the Lord, born as the seventh month dies…"
"Very informative," Rebekah rolled her eyes.
Voldemort stood there, unmoving as the mist disappeared as he took in the firmoartion. He twisted on his heels and began to walk away without a word.
Remus placed his hands on Rebekah's shoulders, encouraging her to leave the room now instead. Rebekeh knew this would be one of very few chances she could ever speak to Voldemort and not get instantly attacked or harmed.
"The scars you gave me last summer," Rebekah quickly called to Voldemort's retreating back. "Why can't I heal them?"
He paused. "The spell was used on some Azkaban prisoners when the prison was first created, to mark criminals permanently. It brands permanently."
Rebekah nodded to herself, letting Remus guide her away. A brand couldn't be removed but it could be covered, but how?
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"Very anticlimactic, wasn't it?" Sirius said as he led Remus and Rebekah out of the Ministry. Dumbledore had hung back to deal with stuff with the Ministry as the Aurors came. They had gotten statements from everyone.
Remus chuckled. "Only you'd say that about what just happened."
Sirius only grinned and shrugged, his shirt moving down a little to reveal a bit of his chest and the tattoos all around it. "Let's get her and the rest back before someone tries to attack someone again."
Rebekah didn't make an expression but she was happy that she was able to figure out how she would cover the brand scars.
Tattoos, Magical tattoos to be specific.
She had found this small subject actually interesting because a Magical Tattoo could be extremely useful, an example would be the ritual cuffs around her and the Crown's wrists.
Rebekah would have to see what could cover all three scars on her thigh and have a use that would be invaluable to her.
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