Disclaimer: You know it's not mine, only Nina.
I think this got pretty long, hope you enjoy it.
The big kitchen was empty of its usual visitors, the only sound was the clink of two glasses of fire whisky, making contact with the wooden table. The taller man seemed tired and really not ready for the conversation coming his way.
"I understand it's the best course of action but it can't go on much longer, you know how Harry is, he'll go restless, just like James would, and I wouldn't blame him." The black haired man tried keeping his voice as neutral as possible, he tried having this conversation before, though his temper and lack of patience didn't get him anywhere but farther from the results he expected.
"He can be reckless at times but he still reminds me more of Lily" Remus rubbed his face to get some feeling back to his cheeks and met his best friend's stare
"... I know what you mean Sirius, but we can't risk it at the moment. Magical Britain fickle as it is, seems to only respond to influence not reason. We can't just throw to the world that Harry Potter, the boy who lived, their saviour, wasn't in that maze, that someone else was. We already have trouble convincing people, I don't see how it would be better"
"I don't want to tell the truth to the world Remus, Merlin knows how much time would that take. But we could at least tell Harry the truth. He was trusted to lie for us to the Ministry no less and now, he's there, trapped in that house of muggle crazy, and he doesn't even know about the attacks, the only thing he could get from the Prophet is The Mass Breakout"
Remus seemed to soften when he saw the similarities in Harry's and Sirius's housing situation.
"Dumbledore can do so much as it is, he is safe for now and that's what matters. Harry won't like it but he'll understand, he trusts Dumbledore. We can't risk him by sending messages, the Ministry is just waiting for a chip at our defences to use against us... I heard they doubled Arthur's hours at his department, he's practically drowning in assignments now"
Sighing deeply Sirius Black leaned back onto his chair nursing his head with his left hand.
"So much for anonymity, son of bitch didn't even wait a whole month to start attacking muggles" he said snorting humorlessly.
The look of unease in Remus seemed to pull him up, sitting straight once more. "What is it?"
"Kingsley mentioned something in passing, I didn't give it much attention at the time. Now, I'm not so sure... He mentioned the attacks weren't claimed..."
Sirius was surprised "we already knew that"
"Which means... The Ministry is not categorizing them as Death eater crimes, but fugitive crimes. Which in turn means people are not particularly worried about you know who coming back. They're just escaped psychopaths, and these attacks on muggles don't hit close to home"
"Remus... That makes no sense everyone knows they're death eaters"
"Politics... Play with the intensity of your words and you'll get one reaction or another. It's not ideal but Dumbledore needed Harry's image more than his help" shaking his head in defeat, the taller man pulled the bottle and served himself another shot.
Sirius smirked at his friend's fifth shot
"Perks of your furry little problem?"
Tension flew out the window as both men snorted and chuckled like old times.
"Nina what's all this?" The older woman seemed surprised at her daughter's state of readiness. She was wearing her flowy comfy black traveling pants, maroon tank top and low ankle white sneakers. Her hair pulled in a tight ponytail, backpack full and ready, and she didn't seem to be able to take off her eyes from her wrist watch for more than a few moments.
"Mom I'm so sorry, Mrs. Coleman sent a message, she can't make it next week, because she'll be busy doing some work for the Ministry and she said it had to be now. It's okay right? Cause I barely just found a cheap ticket and it really is a miracle, they said the next one was next week ... Mom...?"
"Yeah, I know, I know... I thought we'd be together for a while longer that's all. Can't you just go next week, I mean if Mrs. Coleman can't drive you or... Couldn't you take a taxi or something"
"Mom taxis don't ... go where she lives and umm... She has to take me there because I'm a minor and I can't exactly do that kind of ma..."
"Okay, okay okay... Umm...it's so ...I've been working almost all month and we haven't done much"
"I know, I'm really sorry"
"It's okay... it's really fine..., you and your friends enjoy... I guess, and behave...come here"
She hugged her mother, while she whispered to her to be safe.
The plane ride this time had no delays, no incidents, there weren't even that many passengers. Boarding was swift, she barely even felt the hour and half waiting for it. She didn't have any luggage, only her back pack, the rest was in her school trunk and the thing came with a shrinking option for children. The thing was small enough to turn into a necklace and keep it hidden inside her tank top.
All in all, everything was quiet and orderly, while her mind was a raging inferno of doubts and fears. She fucking hated it.
At least her mother didn't freak out at her going before the established time. She only had to drop the M word and the woman closed off in fear. She should feel like hot garbage, for manipulating her mother like that, but the reason for it steeled her every time.
Getting off the airplane, she put on her black denim Jacket when she was hit by London's weather. Her fanny pack hidden under the denim, she was specially aware of how much money she was carrying this time around. Her mother didn't seem to want to let her go to someone's house without buying a gift for their trouble first, magical or not.
Sometimes, the woman's priorities really did baffle her to no end. She shook her head and really appreciated her generosity with a hot meal.
The money she had was to be spent in transportation, food and emergencies. She worked hard these past years to get the amount needed, of course her plan differed greatly from her original one, but what can you do, life does that.
Between babysitting, french tutoring classes for classmates obsessed with such a romantic language, english classes for kids in her neighborhood, she made enough to make her dream trip possible. But then, taking a backpack and traveling through Europe when she single handedly fucked a whole nation over, wasn't something she could sleep peacefully with.
She learned pretty soon in life, to be grateful for the small things. So she was pretty damn glad she'd had the money to move around England and do what she needed.
Paying for her meal she located a public bathroom at a nearby park, cleaned up and went on the hunt for a place to rest til morning.
The streets were perfect for what she intended to do. At 23.30 there weren't many people moving out and about, no one would question what she was doing. She arrived in the part of town she was looking for and went about sneaking in and out of them until she found the one. It didn't take much time, the fourth building had easy access to the roof, waving her hand at the lock on the door it opened with a loud click. She went to a corner, got her magically heated sleeping pack out and got in.
Soon enough she was fast asleep and cocooned in warmth.
The young brunette woke up to the cold breeze of London's mornings. She found it particularly strange how soundly she slept outside on a random rooftop in a sleeping bag, instead of her bed at home, she supposed it was the feeling of finally doing something to fix things.
She got her things back in order and took the elevator down. It was early enough to find the streets empty and early businesses about to open. She waited for a few minutes for the little corner grocery store and then went in for something to eat.
Locating the place wasn't as easy as she thought it would be. By the time she found it, it was already mid-day. There were several Riddles on the phone book, and none of them was registered as a Manor. In the end, she had to pretend to be a student on an assignment and went to the local library, though even knowing what she was looking for, it took her hours.
After half an hour bus trip and 20 min walk she saw the rusty gates.
Her heart went up a notch. She didn't want to come here at night, there were enough bad vibes coming from this place to walk around in the dark.
she left the Manor behind and followed the trail up the hill until she could see the little rundown shack. It was dark, there was no sign of life. She his her backpack in some nearby bushed, tightened her denim jacket around her and opened the wooden door.
Putting her hand in a slightly open fist, she concentrated for a few seconds and watched as the tiny golden waves of magic came up her arms and formed a small ball of light at the center of her palm. She went inside and used the golf sized ball as a big lumos.
The place smelled of rotten wood, and something dead, probably a rat. She wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea of going through the place in search of anything. But then there was no other way, she couldn't just accio the damn thing.
She moved and pushed things around, she snooped and gagged and thrashed rotten destroyed things, until the place was as messy as it could ever be.
Just when she started to lose confidence, and doubts began to show their ugly heads, a chill ran through her spine and goosebumps appeared all over her skin.
A gasp escaped her mouth and she recoiled at the feeling. She moved closer to the spot slowly on all fours, letting the ball of light float on top of her head. Her hand touched a raised panel of wood.
She removed it and lo and behold, a tiny black box stared back at her.
She coated her hand with her magic to inspect the thing and finding nothing she waved her hand to open the box without skin contact.
The cold feeling that washed over her wasn't something she expected. She couldn't place it, it was familiar in all the wrong ways. It wasn't painful but it felt like her body recognized the feeling and wasn't particularly happy about experiencing whatever it was one more time.
Her breath was coming out of her lungs with difficulty, could this be some kind of second effect of having her blood used in Voldemort's ritual. She didn't feel any different, the number of visions she had until now wasn't excessive or out of the norm, her flashbacks were the same and the Voldemort nightmares weren't something new. She had those before as well.
She was freaked out and it was normal. She just needed to pull her shit together.
Her thoughts ran a mile a minute and she didn't notice her hand move and grip the ring from it's dark red stone.
The little ball of light powered by the girl trembled and died, there was a muted thud and silence. No one would be able to say the girl was inside or convulsing, heart rate going faster than healthy, lungs barely able to draw air with the tension in her muscles.
If her heart gave out or her lungs did, no one would ever know. She would have failed her task, failed to fix the mess she made. Her mother would believe she had simply given up their strained relationship and cut her loose, abandoning her like her husband did, like her parents before him did. The strongest, most genius wizard would die. The bravest slytherin ever to grace the earth would die. The man who had suffered punishment for a crime he did not commit would die. Harry Potter would die.
The scream that came out of her upon awakening was akin to a baby's screech drawing breath for the first time.
She choked on her sobs and cried helplessly for a good five minutes, until she realized the solid surface beneath her was the floor, wherever she was, smelled abandoned and rotten and the darkness surrounding her would go away if she could make light.
Still breathing heavily, the young girl's arms started to tingle as the symbols in her arms lit up with a muted golden color, her mind seemed to know what she needed without directions. Small tendrils of golden energy came out of her hands, from her middle fingers forming the ball of light in front of her.
It lit up the room and with it, the cold darkness pulling at her heart ebbed away. She finally recognized where she was and remembered what she was doing, looking around her she saw the thing that would have probably killed her and crawled away from it quickly.
The red stone was separated from the ring. And she knew with certainty she couldn't have done it. The thing was made by Goblins and that kind of magic was old and strong like a thousand year old tree would be.
She didn't know how to proceed anymore, she was here for one thing and one thing alone.
Breathing deeply she made up her mind, whatever was supposed to happen would happen.
"Screw it"
Her hand pulled the white sharp fang from the pocket of the black hoodie beneath her denim jacket, and whispered to it "open"
The thing exploded in screams and whispers and promises dark and ugly and tempting. And with every word hissed her little ball of light shone brighter until she could finally see the metallic ring.
Her arm came down the sharp tip of the fang directly above the small object, with all the strength she could muster. The screech of pain and helplessness that came after the pointy end touched the small cursed thing, clued her in on whether it had actually worked or not. It sounded like something dying, and that's all she needed.
The black smoke was pulled in abruptly, the painful screech came to a halt, silence reigned for a second, the girl on the floor waited with baited breath for another possible reaction and just when she moved closer, thinking it was over. A wave of released power exploded out of the ring, sending her back with inhuman force. The girl was pushed back like a rag doll hitting her head with the corner of the old dusty and dirty wooden table in front of the rundown smelly sofa.
She groaned in pain, but moved as fast as her body would allow, pulling her wand out and ready to take down whatever came out of the thing. Magical Teen Trace be damned.
She went closer to it expecting some form of attack, and jumped to high heaven when a rat dashed from the kitchen to one of the rooms. Laughing nervously, and swearing at the rat, she came closer to the ring.
Her light came closer at a wave of her hand, it illuminated the patch of wooden floor around the ring. It was burned black in a perfect circle, the metal twisted slightly where the basilisk fang had touched it, it's silver shine gone.
She breathed out in relief, and inspected her forehead where she had hit her head. There was a small cut on her forehead reaching her hairline, and it seemed like it didn't want to stop bleeding.
She cleaned up the side of her face as much as she could with the sleeve of her hoodie, and went to deal with the bigger headache. The dark red stone was still on the floor looking non threatening, it really made her skin crawl. She didn't know what it was for, or whether Voldemort had put it on the ring, what she knew was that it had nothing to do with the horrocrux.
That thing was powerful. Only the way nature could be. Ruthless, random and unforgiving. It felt like what she would expect death to feel like.
She didn't know what to do with it, but she definitely wouldn't leave it for anyone to find.
The dark cell was quiet, except for the harsh shivering of the twenty nine year old man held inside. He was muttering to himself at the moment, clueless perhaps that he hadn't spoken for weeks. His voice was harsh against the silence and his words barely making any sense.
The loud clank of metal doors must have grated his senses because he flinched harshly and curled on himself.
"Up, up, up, little Crouchy" the creepy girly giggle made the man flinch even more. It only made the woman come closer into his personal space. Whispering with a manic grin.
"My Lord wants to see you and you won't disappoint this time, will you.. mmm?"
Barty Crouch Jr. went back to his special safe place where no questions needed to be answered, even though he flinched at her movements.
She pulled him forcefully by the fabric of his shirt, through the stairs, up to the first floor and into the large room.
The place was dark and elegant, embroidered in slytherin colors just enough to give a hint at their affiliation. Shades of grey and black dominated the place.
There was a magnificent looking black chair, and it didn't need a genius to guess who would sit there.
The woman pushed him to his knees with her foot like he was nothing but trash and laughed. No one could tell they were friends or colleagues once. Whatever kinship they felt in following their beloved Dark Lord, wasn't enough to be called loyalty and it showed.
The rest of death eaters watched as Bellatrix Lestrange fidgeted and rubbed her hands in anticipation, she looked like a drug addict in need of a fix. And everyone knew, her fix was torture.
Silence and tense stillness took over the room when the black cloaked figure came in.
There was no hurry in his step, no rush. He was utterly calm and collected, the man postrated on his knees whimpered and muttered away in fear.
He wasn't completely gone after all.
Voldemort stood near his chair looking at the one he had trusted to do the greatest task. The one that failed him so completely.
None of his followers knew the true motivation of their Lord, the only one who truly understood what the whimpering man's punishment was about, wasn't really the dark Lord's follower. They had assumed he was at fault for not capturing the Potter boy when he slipped away from them. How far from the truth they were.
"Leave the room" his deep voice stunned a few of them. Most moved without further indication, the crazy one whined quietly like an injured puppy. It seems she wanted in on the fun.
"You will be taken away as food for Nagini if I have to repeat myself"
She clamped her mouth shut and left the room.
"You will answer your Lord's questions"
"Yes, my Lord". He bowed and whispered
"Who discovered you the night of my return".
The man fidgeted in confusion but answered anyway.
"Potter, my Lord". He dared look at his Lord's face, expecting his truthful answer to have been enough to save him from further pain. How wrong he was.
"Crucio"
Barty crouch convulsed and gasped, his face contorted in pain. The spell stopped after a few seconds, it felt like hours to him. He cried in silence, exhausted and grateful for the reprieve.
"Who discovered you the night of my return, Barty"
"My... My Lord,... The boy... he ... he told Dumbledore, and they came for me" He whispered in fear, thinking with all his might for something, anything.
"The boy was in the maze" he whispered with deadly eyes trained on him. The man's lip trembled like a child's would before crying.
He knew this, of course he knew, and he realized what had happened the second he saw Dumbledore storm inside, Snape in tow, the boy behind them protected by their tall frames.
He was tricked, and in turn his Lord was tricked. He would die at the hands of his Lord because someone had done this to him.
He realized his saving grace was in these walls just ready to be given to his master.
"My Lo..Lord he was there, he was there my Lord, Snape was there, with Dumbledore he knows, he knows. Please my Lord, I didn't know it would happen. I didn't know... I didn't know.
"Crucio"
Barty Crouch didn't have time to inhale enough air into his lungs to be able to gasp, whimper or cry out. His pain this time lasted longer. Perhaps his master respected loyalty more than he loved blind obedience.
"Severus has already shared this with me. Do you perhaps wish to end your torment by putting the blame on my trusted servant?"
"No master... Please master... I send the boy I ... I pushed him into the maze... I prepared him... I did everything my master asked... Mercy... Master ... I .."
The look of disgust he sent him made the whimpering star anew and the tears and snot drop free.
"Who went into the maze Barty?" He whispered quietly.
The man recognized his master's calmness, as another opportunity to do better answering his questions.
He focused on the year he had and all his experiences. Thought of everything he had witnessed, everything he had done. Under his master's deadly eyes and deadlier wand, he thought the way he hadn't for weeks. His expression must have changed because Voldemort came closer and made a gesture for him to speak.
"There was som..someone... a witch master, her magic...it was different, strange, Moody's eye caught it. She was quiet."
"A witch, a staff member ?"
He didn't read the incredulity in his tone, he was just happy his master didn't curse him again.
"No master, a girl... From Potter's class... a Hufflepuff, Master... I saw her magic, I saw it master ... And she ..she's..."
He didn't see the anger in his master's eyes, the pure rage that took him over. The word was whispered with utter hate, and Barty Crouch Jr never saw it coming.
"Avada kedavra"
His hopeful mutterings died in his mouth, words left unspoken. Eyes empty of everything. He would never tell his master, how Moody's eye caught the small golden runes at the nape of her neck, when she fought against his intrusive impirius. He would never speak of the countless times Moody's eye caught her fixed stare on his polyjuice flask, nor how unnerving he found her calmness at his bouts of unexpected shouts.
Voldemort sent a last look of disgust and called for Pettigrew to clean up.
The warm water heated up her bones nicely, she would absolutely never regret sneaking into a gym from it's fancy restaurant's back door. She really loved her freakiness sometimes. Just thinking about not being able to use magic at all, made her shudder.
She would've had to go on without a shower for another two days. No, that wouldn't do.
There were only another two women showering on their respective stalls, so she had time to go to the locker room to change, and unshrink her trunk to place her backpack's content inside, fold her backpack and seal everything back up.
By the time the two women came out she was dressed, her make-up was done, her hair was done, the only thing left was her heels. She tried as much as possible to do so without turning around, and giving them a full shot at seeing what her face looked like.
She went out using the back door again, and really smiled for the first time since she had put a foot back in England.
Tonight was for celebrating.
Now that didn't mean, she had any clue at what the hell was the red stone, or what to do to find the other horrocruxes, or how to found out what they are, or how to force a vision on the matter, or if Voldemort felt her kill a part of him and changed his course of action, or if this meant she had saved anybody from the list of people he would eventually kill, directly or indirectly.
At this point she really didn't know shit.
But still. Two down, Five to go.
She had succeeded at something at least. Now it was time for a bit of fun, so she could bear the onslaught of non fun coming later on.
Getting on the bus, she thanked God it was a Friday night and everyone was planning to go somewhere. It gave her all the more people to choose from.
She stood near the exit doors and looked around her discreetly at all the young women. It wasn't overly complicated to find someone that looked like her, she had a very normal face, her hair was brown like her eyes, so no surprise there.
At the fifth stop she spotted one. Not exactly a doppelganger, the young woman would never pass as her, face to face. But the girl had glasses and looked similar enough.
She moved near her slowly so as to not fall on her ass with her high heeled boots while the bus was moving and stood exactly behind her. She kept her eyes vigilant for any sneakily observant people and so very slowly concentrated on the girl's student card on her back pants pocket. She moved her fingers so very slightly, her card slipped off of her jeans pocket slowly floating up and with a swift turn of her fingers, the card came towards her other hands where it went straight inside her sleeve.
She got out at the next stop, and took another bus to the area she intended to visit. The ID was perfect. The young woman was nineteen years old, and she was named Maria apparently. Their slightly olive skin tone was similar, brown eyes very much the same, and her hair was styled straight in a high bun.
She had recognized the thing in her hand, with one look. It was a college student's ID which they usually used to pay for public transport. Easy and cheap.
She stepped out of the bus at her destination, and walked calmly to the place. It wasn't the first time she sneaked in a nightclub, she did it since she could pass as an adult, and since last year it only needed some serious makeup work, heels and the secret ingredient, confidence.
She was an expert at faking it. Merlin knew she was a bloody mess most of the time.
The line was long but it seemed the place lacked female clientele because
They were handing out little bracelets to the ladies to use as a discount on their drinks, and letting them in, with a passing glance at their ID. It really didn't seem like they cared much about not serving minors.
She gave him a smile as she took the bracelet and showed him her ID. Most people didn't recognize others when they took off their glasses. So it was perfect that Maria in her ID had straight hair in a bun and glasses, while she wore her wavy hair in a tight ponytail without glasses.
He'd assume she was wearing contact lenses and move on. Her clothes and make up did most of the convincing work. She was wearing a short jumper, her trusty fanny pack was hidden by the black leather jacket, only the strap could be seen on her middle and it looked like a belt.
She went in and the beat enveloped her like a hug. She felt the drums in her throat, danced to the bar and picked a non alcoholic drink.
She didn't feel the time go away, she was having fun. Meeting Lourdes and her friends made it all the better. They were all from Huelva graduating in two weeks, each one of them with plans for college and the future, and here they were for a last hurrah together. In a foreign country, where most of them didn't understand more than a few words, laughing their asses off because everything sounded so weird to their ears.
They laughed, and made silly jokes, and made up english words to sing along, and danced flamenco to rap songs
It made her celebratory night all the more special.
The black cloaked man dropped the book he was reading. And abruptly took hold of the arm rests.
His mind was taken away, not forcefully, but it was intrusive enough to feel uneasy. It had been slow, like a soft song lulling him to sleep. The intrusive nature of it was hardly noticeable, it was ease after all.
He felt his limbs relax, his mind slow down and tune away from the book he was reading.
He was an expert legilimens though. It lasted no more than ten seconds and he was back in control.
He was eager to force this connection open, he expected it even. Pushing slightly as to not cause any disturbances, he felt the ease mix with thrill. And he felt his body swaying to a specific rhythm.
He felt the music more than heard it. Visibility was almost null, he could make out bodies shaking in front of him, all following the same beat. He felt elated, his body moving without specific directions, he felt like letting it do what it wished to do. It felt freeing, a sentiment he had experienced before, but not in such a physical way.
He was collected. In control, always.
This was new. And he realized the glee taking over his senses was shared with this stranger.
Focusing a bit more in his surroundings he made out a name engraved in one of the upper corners of the stone decorations in the ceiling.
The Hunter 's den.
He summoned his followers and gave his orders. Three minutes later, several lines of black smoke were seen crossing the sky headed towards London.
The explosion took the left wall down as well as the people near it. Some unfortunate souls were left agonizing for long minutes due to their injuries. The lucky ones didn't feel anything.
Those left unharmed scrambled in fear and confusion, going to the doors in blind hurry. Some of them went down, were injured or killed beneath other people's feet. Some reached the doors and got out.
Nina was none of those.
The explosion had caught her and her new friends, far from the destroyed wall and further away from the doors.
Whether that was a curse or a blessing in disguise was left to be seen. At the moment, the panic was far too great to think logically.
The young witch's ears were rendered useless, she could hardly stay still without feeling her world go to the right or the left, she really couldn't tell.
The smoke was heavy, but she would've recognized the strikes of colors shining through it anywhere. Those were spells.
And only Death eaters would dare attack a muggle place.
She saw one of the guys of Lourdes's group fall after a green jet of light hit him in the shoulder.
She crawled in a blind hurry, slipped several times, and thankfully got to the other side of the bar where she could hide. The girls noticed what she was doing and did the same, she could barely see straight due to vertigo, but she knew not everyone from Lourdes's group got to the other side of the bar.
She felt a hand touch hers and flinched. It was Paula's, her face white as a sheet, tears running down her face, her hand trembling. She squeezed it and tried to nod without throwing up.
There were still screams and jets of colorful spells flying around. Some of them reached their intended targets, the others hit the bottles behind the bar, spraying liquid and glass on them. The girls kept their mouths muffled.
Her limbs were shaking, she felt no tears, just cold sweat and her lungs fighting to get as much air in her as possible. The only thought running through her.
She needed to move, she needed to fucking move, she needed to do something, because there was too much dead already and they wouldn't stop until there was no one left.
Her mind was foggy, barely working. She must have hit her head when she fell. She came near the edge of the bar, and activated her runes, they were thankfully hidden under her leather jacket.
She saw one of them coming near the side of the bar, wand trained on the bodies littering the ground.
He must be looking for survivors to off. Whispered her mind. She focused on the heavy piece of decoration on the floor, and curled her runed middle fingers to take control of the object. The object floated up quietly behind him, and when it was close enough, she directed her hands with a swift turn. The object connected with the back of the man's head as if someone was holding it. He dropped on top of the other bodies, back of the head clearly bleeding.
She couldn't feel remorse even if she tried.
A half baked plan started forming in her mind as her eyes fell on the wand, loose in the unconscious death eater's hand.
She pulled it towards her and caught it with her left hand.
The wand felt vile and disgusting. she understood they were sentient in nature, even if they were tools. But she never ignored that tools, sentient or not , were shaped by their users. This one in particular felt vile and disgusting.
She needed to move fast, while the others were still occupied.
The other four people hidden with her seemed to notice her move away from them, and looked in horror at what she intended to do. She shushed them and stood on her feet, staying crouched all the time.
She didn't know how she didn't realize it sooner. It was a fucking night club, of course there was a back door for employees and produce.
The door was padded, it looked like a flat couch on a wall, of course no one could tell. She opened it slightly with a gentle wave and sneaked in, careful of any other bad surprises.
She realized the place was empty and the back door was ajar. She stepped at the door hiding her body with the doorframe and sneaked a look at the street.
One of them was outside, looking nervous and too energetic. She swiftly went out, aimed, stunned him twice and sent an incarcerous to incapacitate him.
She didn't lose much time. Pointing at the night sky she uttered the vile spell fusing as much of her magic in the disgusting wand as possible. It had felt too stubborn when she stunned the man. She wouldn't leave this to chance.
"MORSMORDRE"
The dark mark appeared in the sky glowing, it's green smoke much more vibrant.
She gasped, when the wand started to feel too heated for comfort. The thing was catching on fire. She cursed, took the stunned death eater's wand and ran quickly inside, praying they were still hidden and safe.
It hadn't taken her more than a few seconds to go back. She opened the door as little as possible and ushered them out. Some of them doubted the plan, they were quietly pulled by the less shocked ones.
Closing the door again she ushered them out.
"Go, go, go... Go to the left"
"Nina, you can't stay here"
"Go back home, Lourdes" She didn't look at her again. She wouldn't think about it now. Not now.
She got out from the back door once more, and turned right instead. She really didn't know what the fuck she was doing, she had worked so hard to be an unknown, because that was the only protection she could afford. She had no real friends to trust, no family to rely on.
But she couldn't take the screams. She just couldn't.
The smoke had dispersed slightly, but there was still something burning inside. She went inside, silently following the shapes she could make, trying really hard not to step on anyone.
She sent them five tables to freak them out and hexed two of them. Hiding behind a large pillar she waited for a few seconds to locate the rest. It was just a matter of time before they got mouthy.
She heard a thud at her nine and turned towards it, wand ready. A muscled arm curled around her waist and lifted her up, hand muffling her mouth and pushing her head to a chest, the wand in her hand whisked away at the same time. Her arm came up hand runes glowing menacingly, she was ready to break whoever's neck if it meant being free from death eaters.
Before she could do anything, she was turned on the wall, trapped by whoever caught her, the rapid movement dizzied her more than she cared to admit.
Being physically trapped freaked her out more than anything, so she sent her elbow back with everything she had until she heard a satisfying crack.
The groan came with more force to the limbs trapping her, and she felt her heart try to escape from her mouth. She heard a slightly familiar voice, and focused.
"Hey ...Nina ..Nina you're safe, it's Professor Lupin, look around, it's okay... It's me, do you remember me?"
The girl turned, blood in her forehead, brown eyes wide, mouth getting as much air as possible. She nodded her head still looking shaken "Nina, what was your boggart?"
At the lack of response, he moved her head gently, inspecting her ears, there was a thin trail of blood.
"Nina... can you hear me?"
"Yes"
"I need you to tell me what your boggart was. Do you understand?"
"Me... it ...it was me" she whispered.
"Mine was the moon, correct?" He asked gently
"Yes, ...what ... What are you doing here?"
It felt like her concussed brain, just realised she was surrounded by Order members, instead of Aurors sent by the Ministry, as she intended. The arms holding her belonged to Remus Lupin, and she had just broken the man's nose.
