Chapter 3: Second Battle of Ypres: Counterattack
Celestia was shaken awake by the symphony of war. The rumbling tones of artillery fire, the higher cracks of rifle and machine gun fire, and, of course, the piercing screams of the dying. It was altogether not a particularly pleasant way to wake up. With the barrage currently decimating the land it was a miracle Celestia was alive. It would seem their allies had managed to regroup enough to mount a counterattack.
Groaning as she forced her stiff body to move Celestia couldn't help but let out a satisfied moan as her joints popped. Peeking her head over the trench, Celestia watched as a horde of Khaki figures were cut down by the German guns. As Celestia looked over the battlefield a thought came to her, this was a wizard's duel, but rather than spells being hurled at each other the opponents, in this case Britain and her colonies against Germany, were hurling men, the trenches acted as their shields, and the goal, as with any duel, was to break down the enemies defence and strike at their now exposed body. What was interesting about this was that Celestia was in the rather unique situation of being inside the enemy shield and thus could inflict massive damage to it, paving the way for her allies to strike at the exposed flesh of the German war machine.
Celestia regarded the trench line and considered the best way to inflict the most damage. Her blasting curses were highly effective and were a tempting solution, but she wasn't sure she could stomach them again.
Celestia flopped against the bank of the trench and looked out at the battle raging around her. There really wasn't much she could do, if she was better at transfiguration she could have transfigured some beast to lay waste to the German lines, if she was better at charms she could have created a Golem to do much the same. She was rather good at defence, or rather the Dark Arts, she was a Black after all, but even then almost every spell she could think of was for a single opponent.
Celestia ran her hand through her hair, as far as she was concerned there was only one spell she could use, it was a massive risk, it could kill her, but then again so could standing here, so could something as simple as eating, life was full of risks and if her actions reduced the length of the war by even one day it would be worth it, every day she reduced it by would lessen the risk of her dying in a hole, would reduce the amount of wizarding blood spilled in a war they didn't even know the reason for.
Pushing herself up Celestia looked down the line. It looked like the British counterattack had broken against the Kraut's defences and the Hun was preparing for its own assault. This was the last chance she had. Celestia drew herself up to her full height, a rather paltry five foot, took a deep breath and uttered a single word. A word that carried such power than even the muggles felt it. The earth trembled and wept before her spell. Celestia could only watch as cursed flames poured from her wand, devouring anything and everything in their path, the damp soil became baked almost immediately and any surviving plant life died in an instant, much like the Germans who attempted to flee this monstrous fire. Celestia knew she had to open as big a gap as she could in the line. Had to burn away the Jerrys and their defences but she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep it up.
It wasn't physical exhaustion that caused her to consider ending the spell, nor was it mental, if anything she felt stronger and healthier than ever, as if the fire had chased away the shadows of her less than stellar upbringing, as if it burned away the vestiges of the Black Madness that lurked within her, but she knew it was all a lie. A trick by the fire, see what most people didn't realise about Fiendfyre is that it was a conscious living being. It was not cursed flames conjured by a wizard but a living, sentient creature summoned from a plane of reality far detached from our own. That was the reason it was so hard to control, because you were battling against the will of a creature who wanted nothing more than to devour everything in the vain hope that it would dull the pain of being forcibly dragged from your home by some outside force. Celestia imagined that it must feel a lot like splinching. She suspected that the conjured creature was simply a section of a larger beast. Perhaps the best way to describe it would be someone remotely forcing you to Apparate but rather than dragging all of you to the destination it instead ripped your foot off and forced a portion of your consciousness inside of it.
Even now after a full minute of letting the fire rampage through the trench Celestia still felt fine, felt as though she could duel Dumbledore to a standstill, as if she could re-enchant every item in Black manor, she knew why of course, but it was still disconcerting. The thing about Feindfyre was that it did not draw upon one's magic but rather ones very soul. It ate away at the casters' very essence, it was why so many died using the spell, they simply didn't realise what it was doing to them. They would cancel the spell and go about their lives like nothing was wrong and then they would stub their toe or get a parchment cut and they would die. See as one's soul was drained it weakened its attachment to the body, and as the connection got weaker the number of injuries or illnesses that could kill you increased. It was why Celestia made sure to cancel the spell after exactly one and a half minutes any longer and she ran the risk of a pebble in her shoe killing her, well that wasn't strictly true, that kind of death only occurred after three minutes. She would recover, of course, the soul was eternal and would restore itself, but the spell would mark it, she would forever be tainted, no one knew exactly what this taint did, there was no physical manifestation and the minds of those who would use such powerful and dark magics were often fractured enough that any mental effect was hard to determine, many hypothesised that it affected was only felt after death, though there was no way to confirm that. Celestia supposed she would just have to wait and see.
It was only after the spell was cancelled that Celestia looked, truly looked at the damage she had caused. It was absolute devastation, of the soldiers nothing remained, not even bones survived the ravenous hunger of her summoned flame. Of the fortifications and weaponry little could be recognised, the sandbags had turned to rapidly cooling glass, and the guns, or rather the metal components, were little more than heaps of liquid metal. Celestia was just glad they weren't near the Artillery, all that fire and shells exploding, it would have been like she'd been catapulted straight to hell.
Celestia looked over to the other trench and saw how her allies simply looked in shock and awe at the decimation of the German lines, not one of them was moving to secure the gap in the line. A sense of despair overtook her, she didn't do all this for the muggles to just ignore the gap, she didn't permanently damage her soul just for all her efforts to go to waste, she needed to get their attention, the question was how best to do that.
She was brought from her ruminations by the sound of very loud and very angry German shouting, it would seem they had gathered their wits faster than her allies. She really didn't have the time to think how best to draw their attention and so in her desperation she raised her wand high above her head, fireworks shot from her wand. It seemed all they needed was something to bring their attention back to the battle as hundreds of khaki clad men charged towards the weakened German lines.
What followed was the true experience of Great War combat as men took to beating their enemies with anything they could get their hands on, spades became axes, rifles became spears and clubs, it was brutal, and Celestia was caught in the middle of it. She looked around at the carnage around her and was terrified, was this it? Was this how she would die?
Celestia unshrank her rifle and began to unravel her wards, her hands were shaking and she was sweating profusely but she had to do this, she had to. The wards fell and suddenly everything became more real, it was as if she'd been watching a particularly realistic play and one of the actors suddenly dragged her on stage and tried to stab her, 'course she wouldn't let that happen and fired a quick shot into the approaching German's chest.
Celestia heard a sound behind her and whirled round just in time to block the downward swing of an entrenching tool. Tilting the barrel end of the rifle down, Celestia deflected the blow and brought the stock of the gun round to smack her attacker in the side of the head. Her attacker staggered back, dazed, while Celestia ran them through with her bayonet. Turning around Celestia saw a German soldier with his rifle trained on her, she paused as she looked her death in the eye, though before he pulled the trigger, an allied soldier came up behind him and violently beat him to death with what looked to be a roughly hewn wooden club with nails stuck into it. Celestia found herself gagging at the brutal display.
She'd been on the front for little more than a week and already wanted nothing more than to go home. She'd take vicious cursing from her father over this any day. It was brutal, it was barbaric, it- it was exhilarating. That revelation shook her, shocked her to her very core. She was enjoying this. It was pure, it was primal, it was an exercise in the very base nature of humanity. She felt disgusting and yet oh so wonderful at the same time, it left her dizzy, her mind swimming but that was fine, she didn't need to think. No, she just needed to fight, to drive back the German scum, she'd chase them all back to whatever the current capital was. Honestly, the whole no fixed capital thing was stupid. She'd slaughter every last German soldi- Her train of thought was broken as a series of loud whistles pierced the din. Celestia watched with both relief and disappointment as the Germans began to retreat, she wanted to chase after them but held herself back. She flopped lifelessly against the walls of the trench, casting her eyes down its length, watched as her allies threw bodies into no-man's land, watched as nurses and wizarding medics tended the wounded, or rather tried to. Celestia pushed herself up, she needed to find the rest of her section.
Walking down the trench was horrific, men, both dead and dying lay in the mud, which despite being baked by her Fiendfyre now squelched underfoot once more, it was then she realised that they had won, the had recaptured their land, but was it really worth it, if she remembered correctly the next allied trench was three miles back, all this bloodshed and all this death for three miles. It was so ridiculous it was almost funny.
She must have walked for a good ten minutes before she saw him. Carrow was always a tall man, but here, amongst the muggles it really showed how huge he was, he must have been a good head above the majority of their comrades. At least it made him easy to spot in a crowd. Though on second thought, perhaps that wasn't a good thing.
Celestia barged her way through the mass of soldiers until she made her way to Carrow. "Private Celestia Black reporting sir!"
Carrow looked at her rather amusedly "I take it that fire was your doing?" At her nod Carrow laughed and clapped her on the back "Bloody good show Black! You really showed those Muggles what for. Cavendish is so impressed with our work we're being sent back to Paris for a little break. He wants us back at the station by 1800, I'll see you there."
Celestia wasn't quite sure how she made it back to the station, all she remembered was flopping down against the wall. Pulling her knees up to her chest and burying her head in her hands, Celestia couldn't help but laugh, she'd done it. She'd survived her first battle. What she'd become terrified her, but also gave her a sense of security. She never knew such viciousness lay within her, she thought she had escaped the Black madness, but Merlin was she glad it did, that brutality may just mean the difference between life and death for her.
Celestia wasn't sure how long she sat there, but far sooner than she would have thought the train to Paris arrived. A train that would take her away from the front and hopefully to a much needed bath.
A/N: I changed a few things round in the previous chapters to better reflect my plans for the story, it's nothing major, I just changed Celestia's equipment.