Author's Note: The family clock –the one that tells where everyone is- has the name of each person's spouse too, so Lucius would be on the clock because Narcissa is.
Chapter Nine: The Attack
Andromeda had her back to the wall, and her wand was firmly in her attacker's grasp. She knew she was cornered. She knew she stood very little chance of surving. She knew her husband was already dead and that she was about to be tortured. Worst of all, she knew that the deatheater pointing the wand at her was her own sister. Her sister, like the others who had already been convicted and didn't need to hide their identity, was unmasked, as was the man beside her.
"Go ahead, Bellatrix," Rodolphus urged, "show her why choosing her side was a mistake."
"A mistake?" Andromeda repeated, her voice still strong and full of loathing for the man who had corrupted her sister. "How could choosing to fight for freedom and equality over tyranny and persecution possibly be a mistake?"
The man smirked as he replied, "It is a mistake because it's the loosing side. We shall be victorious and then there will no longer be people like you to disgrace the race of wizards." Turning to his wife, Rodolphus said, "Show her what happens to those who disgrace our kind. Show her what happens to those who stand in our way." The madness that ruled what was left of Bellatrix's mind since her stay in Azkaban gleamed in her eyes.
"How shall I show her, Rodolphus," she asked in her sing-songy voice. "There are just so many fascinating options that I can't choose."
"I think that the same punishment we gave the Longbottoms should do very nicely. Don't you, Bella?" The woman nodded, turning her gaze back to the terriied woman who was trapped against the wall. She raised her wand higher, so that it was pointed directly at Andromeda's heart.
'I will not scream. I will not scream. I will not scream,' the cornered witch mentally vowed. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, preparing for the pain that would come any second now. She held her breath for several moments and yet still the curse had not come.
"what are you waiting for," Rodolphus asked, clearly annoyed. "Just crucio the wench already and let's get a move on before her auror daughter and the girl's 'friends' get here." When the curs didn't instantly follow the man's words, Andromeda took in a deep breath and slowly opened her eyes. She was shocked to see that her sister had lowered her wand an inch or two and was still hesitating, her confidence no longer so abundant. There was even something akin to fear in the ruthless woman's eyes. "I told you to crucio her, Bellatrix," Rodolphus said angrily, "That was an order. Do it. Now." The eldest of the remaining Blacks raised her wand once more, her stance and expression exuding sadistic glee. Her eyes however, painted a completely different picture. It was quite clear to Andromeda, who could easily interpret her sister's emotions, that the woman was struggling fiercely with herself. The seconds ticked away and the deatheater's husband repeated his command, this time in a threatening voice. Bellatrix's wand hand started trembling. She tried to say the curse, but the word would not come out.
Then suddenly, all madness vanished from the woman's eyes and to the shock of everyone else, she quietly nut determinedly said, "No."
"What did you just say," Rodolphus demanded dangerously. Andromeda locked eyes with her sister and her own eyes widened further in surprise at what she saw. By now a small crowd of deatheaters had gathered to watch. They all stared in disbelief as Bellatrix lowered her wand completely to her side and turned to face her husband.
In a furious, hate-filled voice, she repeated, this time louder, "I. Said. No. I am not taking orders from you any longer." For the first time in over a decade and a half, Bellatrix Lestrange's eyes were as clear as the cloudless, blue sky above them.
Her husband's face suddenly became a mask of fury and he cried out, "I don't know how you managed to break the curse, woman, but I swear, you will pay for it, you traitorous, worthless bitch." He raised his wand and shot a spell at his wife. With almost impossible swiftness, Bellatrix, who now had her back to Andromeda, brought up her wand and cast a powerful protego, sending the curse back at her husband. Rodolphus was hit with his own spell and was sent sprawling on the gravel street. It then became crystal clear that Bellatrix was no longer on their side.
In reaction, one of the other deatheaters, noticing that Bellatrix still held two wands, her sister's and her own, shouted, "Accio wands," and aimed at the traitor. His aim was not perfect however and while it did summon Andromeda's wand, it only managed to pull Bellatrix's from her hand and send it flying through the air. Halfway towards the deatheater, the spell failed and the wand fell to the ground.
Bellatrix had not been the only female deatheater in the inner circle for no reason. She was quite a powerful witch and she could do a fair amount of wandless magic. That ability is what caused the deatheater's summoning spell to falter and what allowed her to call her own wand back into her hand. She ducked a stunner from another deatheater and cast one of her own, rendering him unconscious. And the same time, she wandlessly and wordlessly summoned her sister's wand. Unfortunately, that meant she had to switch her wand to her right hand since she could only do wandless magic with her left. She caught the wand and in one motion, tossed it to her sister and shot a redactor curse into the middle of the small group of just under a dozen deatheaters. Because she had cast it with her right hand, it was not strong enough to kill anyone, but the blast did knock two of them unconscious and cause the rest to scatter in an attempt to get out of the way.
Andromeda, who was no longer cowering against the wall in fear, quickly snapped into auror mode and started firing jinxes, hexes, curses, and stunners at the group surrounding her sister and herself. Most of the spells missed, but one deatheater was stunned and two more had been petrified. Bellatrix, who knew the identity,, and thus the weaknesses of all of their enemies, aimed her want at a particular deatheater and whispered, "Argentum ardeo."(1) Wormtail fell to the ground, writhing in pain as his silver arm began to burn with great intensity. 'Well,' she thought, quickly counting the fallen deatheaters, 'that's seven down and six to go.' Within minutes, Wormtail had passed out from the pain.
Taking aim at another deatheater, she cried out in pain and surprise as a cutting curse she had failed to notice hit her in the stomach. The spell seemed to have only grazed her and so the wound was not deep, but it still bled profusely. Trusting her sister would cover her, she turned, wand raised to face the person who had hit her. Apparently, Rodolphus had managed to return to his feet and was now glaring death at her. He raised his wand again and growled, "Securi ferio."(2)
Her eyes widened in fear and she cried, "Saepta adamas!"(3) A wall of diamond materialized in front of her. The yellow light of the decapitating curse hit the barrier but was unable to break it and was instead absorbed. From behind her unbreakable shield, Bellatrix summoned Rodolphus' wand and knocked him to the ground, unconscious with another reductor curse. Turning back to face the rest of her attackers, she saw that while her sister had indeed been covering for her, she had been doing so by taking many of the hits meant for Bellatrix.
Andromeda was covered in cuts and other bleeding wounds. From the looks of things, she had been hit by at least one reductor curse and been thrown against the stone siding of the house because there was a wound at her temple and another covered by her hair. In the past five minutes, she had stunned two more deatheaters. There were only four of them left now: Rastaban Lestrange, Lucius Malfoy, antonin Dolhov, and Rodophus, who was thankfully unconscious. Quickly, Andromeda dodged a reductor from Dolhov, threw up a protego to block Rastaban's cutting curse, and shot a reductor of her own back at Dolhov. Her aim was true and the man was thrown across the yard o the side walk.
Concentrating on Malfoy, Bellatrix whispered, "Accio Lucius' wand," and the man was de-armed in seconds. Using both wands, hoping that the curse would be powerful enough, -she had used up a great deal of her magical reserve by tapping into her wandless ability so much- she shouted, "Avada Kedavra!" She had angled both wands perfectly. The two beams of green light merged just before hitting Lucius directly in the heart. "That man was too dangerous to let live," she said in response to Andromeda's unasked question.
It was only Rastaban left now, or so both women thought until Andromeda fell to the ground after having been hit by yet another blasting curse. Rodolphus apparently did not have the tendency to remain unconscious for long. Unable to get up quickly enough, the prone witch was hit by a cruciatus from Rastaban. She wasn't prepared for the pain and so she couldn't keep herself from screaming in agony.
Bellatrix could do nothing to protect her sister. She had to use both wands to conjure a shield powerful enough to block the burning curse Rodolphus had just thrown at her. Ducking another one of her husband's curses, she pointed her own wand at Rastaban and said, "Sagittae flagrentes."(4) A series of flaming arrows rained down upon him and he was forced to ignore Andromeda in favor of protecting himself. Seeing their one opportunity for escape, Bellatrix rushed to her sister and pulled her to her feet. Then with a feather-light charm, she essentially carried the nearly unconscious woman around the corner of the house and towards the back door. Unfortunately, this required that she turn her back to Rodolphus, leaving bother her sister and herself open to attack. They had reached the doorway, Andromeda actually inside and her sister on the porch. She heard her husband shout out the decapitating curse again and she just barely managed to turn around quickly enough to throw up the diamond shield. Blindly, she shot a stupefy in what she hoped was the direction of her pursuer before throwing herself through the doorway, slamming it shut, and transfiguring it into iron.
Looking around the unfamiliar room, Bellatrix, who sat on the floor next to Andromeda with her back to the wall, searched for the fireplace. "Thank Merlin," she whispered breathlessly when she saw that there was a fireplace in the room, as well as floo powder. Her feeling of relief was short-lived because the door had been transfigured to wood once again. Frantically, she stood and struggled with the limp form of her barely conscious sister. Realizing that she had dropped the feather-light charm, she recast it and headed with all the speed she could muster toward the fireplace. Just as she reached it, the door was shattered by a blasting curse and Rodolphus, looking like the Devil himself, stalked into the room.
Immediately, he shot a cruciatus at Bellatrix, who fell to the floor, just inside the fireplace. After a few moments he sent a very powerful cutting curse toward the two women, which hit Bellatrix in the shoulder and a reductor curse that blasted away part of the mantle. Rodolphus's wife could do nothing to defend herself because she was using her left arm to hold up her sister and she had been forced to put away her wand to hold the floo powder, which was their only chance of escape, or of survival. She was hit by another cruciatus curse and two more sectumsempras (one to her right arm and the other to her face) before she managed to maneuver herself so that her left hand was free, even though she was holding up Andromeda. Her husband luckily seemed to want her to die a gory death because he stopped using Crucio and hadn't attempted to use the killing curse. Instead, he threw a particularly nasty dark curse t her, one which caused internal bleeding and hemorrhaging of the main arteries. She used the last of her energy to conjure up a wandless shielding charm. Simultaneously, she threw down the floo powder, rasping out the words, "Twelve Grimwald Place."
Seconds later, Bellatrix, who was bleeding profusely, and Andromeda who had been knocked unconscious by a piece of debris from the mantle, both fell out of the fireplace and landed on the foyer floor. Seeing through rapidly dimming vision that she was safe and at home, Bellatrix finally fainted from blood loss and over exertion.
Meanwhile, the Quartet and Regulus were in the parlor. Hermione was franticly firecalling various offices at the ministry in an attempt to find Tonk's whereabouts. None of her co-workers knew where she had gone after leaving work. Ron, after much guesswork as to where they all might be, had finally contacted the Order and they were on their way to the Tonks' Residence posthaste. When Ron returned from the kitchen to the parlor to tell everyone, the news suddenly became a moot point because Andromeda's hand had moved from 'mortal peril' to 'home', though it still glowed with the motal peril alert charm. Over the past forty-five minutes, many of the hands on the clock had moved several times each. Lucius Malfoy's hand had gone from 'Unknown' to 'Relative's House' to 'In Danger' and to 'Mortal Peril' before returning to its original position. Rodolphus Lestrange's hand had also moved from 'Unknown' to 'Relative's House' to 'In Trouble' to 'In Danger' to 'Relative's House' again and then back to 'In Danger'. Ted Tonks' hand had gone, in a matter of seconds from 'Other Residence' to 'Mortal Peril' to finally rest on 'Unknown'. Tonks' hand had moved from 'Work' to 'At a Friend's House' and was currently pointing to 'Traveling'. Hopefully that meant she had gotten the message. Andromeda's hand had gone from 'At a Friend's House' to 'Other Residence' to 'In Danger', where it had remained for half an hour before moving to 'Mortal Peril', where it remained for fifteen minutes before moving to 'Home'. They all would have rushed into the foyer had it not been for the location of Bellatrix Lestrange's hand. Her hand, like Lucius' and Rodolphus' had moved from 'Unknown' to 'Relative's House', but then had abruptly shifted to 'Mortal Peril', where it had remained for the past forty minutes. The thing that prevented anyone from entering the foyer though was the fact that, with the mortal peril alert still glowing, her hand had also moved to 'HOME'.
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Spell Translations: (1) argentum ardeo "I burn the silver", (2) secure ferio decapitate, (3) saepta adamas diamond shield, lit. "shield diamond', (4) sagittae flagrentes flaming arrows.