Disclaimer: Everything you recognize belongs to JKR, anything you don't is mine.

A/N: I'm still too lazy to go back to look to see who reviewed, so thanks to EVERYONE for the reviews!

Well, this wasn't as late as last time, right? It's still not as quick as I wish it would've been, but it's that time of year again and I'm soooo busy, so I'm trying to update quickly but if it's too much faster updates will suck.

Pleeease bear with me through this lag, I still love you all dearly!

Chapter 27

Shit, I thought. Motherfucker.

I knew just how much Bellatrix hated me, and with her idol not around to tell her not to, she was likely to murder me first chance she got. It's not that the thought of dying scared me – I'd practically been dead before anyways – but it was the fact that my baby would be dying the scared me.

But then my fear vanished into confusion. What was she doing here? Weren't they supposed to be laying low until they tried to take the Ministry on April first? It was only the 11th of March…

But I realized I had more important things on my mind…

Before she could try to curse me while I was unprepared, I quickly drew my wand. She shot a quick disarming charm at me, but I blocked it easily.

"Come on now, you know you can't take me, we're too even of a match for one another," I taunted her. Ugh, I thought, why do you always find the need to taunt this bitch?

"Oh, I know," Bellatrix said in a teasing voice. "But I think several of us could take you."

About seven people nearby suddenly whipped down their hoods and turned their wands to me while about seven other people Apparated into the alley simultaneously. They were all Death Eaters that I knew and recognized.

I gulped. There was no way I could take fifteen Death Eaters by myself. But anybody who happened to be nearby had either fled or had been one of the hidden Death Eaters.

"I bet you'd gladly take one of those necklaces now," Bellatrix sneered. "You look terrified."

"No, not really," I lied. "I'm just trying to pick the best spell to knock you all out."

"Come on, you can't take us all," she said.

"I bet I could," I said. No, I really don't…please don't try to fight me. But Bellatrix knew I was bluffing.

"No fiancé around to save your neck now," she said, walking slowly around me, lowering her wand. I didn't dare to lower mine, though. I didn't trust her. At all.

"I don't need Regulus to save me," I said, faking a laugh.

"You know that I know your secret, right?" she said. I almost dropped my smile for a moment – which secret? – but I realized I had to keep it up for my sake. But I knew Bellatrix saw the look in my eyes, it would be hard to miss, plus she smiled gleefully.

"Secret?" I asked, pretending to be confused. "What secret? I don't have any secrets." Bellatrix laughed coldly.

"Obviously you do," she said. "Everybody does. Besides, even if I didn't already know that you did, the look in your eyes when I said that I knew your secret gave away that you do have one…" She paused and stopped walking. "Or, perhaps, more than one…" I laughed.

"Even if I did have a secret, or secrets, I doubt you would know them," I said. "What are you doing here anyways? Aren't you supposed to be laying low?" Bellatrix snorted.

"Me? Laying low? No, only the Dark Lord is. Besides, everybody knows I'm free, it'll be no shock to anybody that I'm here anyways." I paused. "And why am I here, you ask? The Dark Lord ordered me to come and…collect someone."

"Who?" I asked, a little apprehensive. At first I thought she was talking about me, but then I realized it couldn't be true because how could they know I was there?

"It looks as if you know who," Bellatrix said.

"I really don't," I said honestly. I only had two thoughts – Ollivander or…well…me. Or maybe Florean Fortescue, the one who owned the ice cream parlor, they took him in my last life for some reason, a reason I never found out. But then again, Riddle shouldn't need Ollivander, he knows that Dumbledore has the Elder Wand, and what harm did Florean pose?

"You, obviously," she said.

So I was right, I thought. Obviously, why hadn't I realized that?

"Oh really?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows. "How did he know I was here?"

At this point, I was biding my time. I wasn't going back to Malfoy Manor until I had to, but I knew I couldn't fight off over fifteen Death Eaters on my own. I just had to wait until somebody, anybody, decided either to help or to alert the Ministry.

"The Dark Lord has his ways," she said. "He knows a lot of people, you see." She had started walking again, and I turned slightly so she would still be directly in front of me.

"Why did he send you to come get me, then?" I asked. Bellatrix sneered.

"I'm not likely to tell you that, am I?" I narrowed my eyes.

"He didn't tell you, did he?" I asked, smiling slightly, taunting her. She frowned, but didn't answer, giving me the impression that he didn't tell her.

"Are you going to come with us with no fuss, or are we going to have to force you?" she asked.

But while she was speaking, I had noticed something behind her – through the window to Flourish and Blotts, the assistant had noticed Bellatrix and the Death Eaters surrounding me and was talking hurriedly to the manager and assistant manager. I knew them all personally – I knew they wouldn't just sit around while I was being attacked by Death Eaters. They were bound to do something.

"Oh, I don't plan on going with you at all," I said. Bellatrix sighed.

"Are you really going to do this to yourself?" she asked. "You're just going to embarrass yourself if you don't come without a fuss." She laughed. "Alone against fifteen others?"

"Oh, I'm not alone," I said, smiling mischievously. She barely had time to look confused when the three workers at Flourish and Blotts, as well as Madam Malkins from next door, Florean Fortescue from across the street, and a few other workers from nearby shops came bursting out of their shops, lifting their wands and screaming, "Stupefy!" simultaneously.

Only two Death Eaters fell victim – the rest managed to duck or block the spells. Bellatrix let out an angry scream and whipped out her wand, pointing it directly at me.

I managed to block her first Cruciatus curse as well as the second. I noticed that she wasn't aiming to kill me, which must've meant that she had direct orders not to.

While I was dueling her, the Death Eaters remaining took on the Diagon Alley workers. They were still outnumbered two to one, but the workers were tough and seemed to be managing to hold their own.

Meanwhile, down the alley, Fred and George were talking to a few customers and Gideon and Fabian were still at the back of the shop working on new items. It was then that Fred and George heard several people scream, "Stupefy!"

At first they thought nothing of it, but when it followed by a frustrated scream they realized something was going on. They looked at each other for a mere second before running to the door and poking their heads out to look down the Alley.

I later heard that the first thing they saw was Ollivander "kicking Barty Crouch Jr.'s arse." At first, they just thought that Crouch had randomly showed up and Ollivander was trying to take him down, but then they saw the assistant at Flourish and Blotts, a close friend of theirs, fall to a Cruciatus Curse sent by a masked Death Eater and they realized something much larger was going on.

"Gideon! Fabian!" they called frantically back to their uncles at the back of the shop. "Call the Aurors or something, then hurry out here, a bunch of Death Eaters are in the Alley!" Then they ran out to join the battle, followed by their uncles.

I would've seen them coming, but Bellatrix and I were deep in battle at that point. She still refused to try to kill me – at least with the Cruciatus Curse. At one point she threw a nearby park bench at my head, and I had to block it by exploding it to not be killed by it.

But the explosion sent pieces of the bench flying in every direction – one came within inches of my head while another, sharper one lodged itself in my left calf. I winced, pulling it out quickly, but didn't dare let my guard drop for even a second, as I noticed that one piece had hit Bellatrix in the stomach but had done very little damage besides slowing her down for a few seconds.

Bellatrix laughed, noticing the blood coming through the hole the piece of wood had created in my black tights and running down my calf. I scowled, throwing a few more curses at her before she had completely regained herself.

"So how many secrets are you keeping from the Dark Lord, then?" she asked, tossing Dark Magic curses in my direction like it was nothing.

"I don't have any secrets." I paused. "That I'm keeping from him," I added quickly. She smirked.

"So you do have secrets?" she said, blocking all the curses I sent her way, sending several at me as well. To my surprise, she started walking closer to me, sending less and less curses and instead just blocking mine. I didn't understand.

"I never said that."

"You practically just did," she contradicted. "Otherwise, you wouldn't have added that last part. Besides, I'm sure you have secrets that you keep from him. You loathe him, and you have the ability to keep secrets from him, so you do."

I decided not to challenge her. She was getting mad, and I knew better than to try to anger her even more.

One of the masked Death Eaters nearby tried to send a simple Stunning Spell at me, but missed terribly and hit another Death Eater instead. I laughed – but the Death Eater got pissed at me and shot the Cruciatus Curse at the same time as Bellatrix.

There was no way I could block both. I tried to block Bella's – I knew hers was bound to be stronger than almost anybody's – and duck the other one, but I only managed to block Bella's, and the other hit my shoulder.

I tried to maintain my balance after having been hit, but as soon as it hit me I was shoved off of my feet and onto the ground, where I felt the familiar sensation of the white-hot blades against my skin and in my insides. I tried not to scream, but a long, involuntary scream escaped my lips.

The pain only lasted for a few moments before it was gone, and I tried to scramble back onto my feet before I was cursed again, but Bellatrix yelled, "Expelliarmus!" and my wand flew into her hand.

She stood there laughing, holding two wands in her hand. I sat on the ground, a small pool of blood forming around my calf, unable to do anything. I would've tried wandless magic, but I knew that I would never be able to having just been weakened by the Cruciatus curse as well as the wound in my leg.

"Funny, how you're so arrogant to think we won't be able to overpower you, but it was all too easy," she said, still laughing and walking closer to me until she was standing directly over me. I sighed, annoyed, trying to think of any quick way out of this, before she grabbed my wrist. She turned, seconds from Apparating away –

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a badly aimed Expelliarmus Charm hit her right in the chest, knocking both wands she was holding out of her hand, leaving them to roll across the ground. Bellatrix dropped my arm, lunging after them, when I sprung up after her, pulling her roughly to the ground next to me.

Pissed, she swung her fists at my face, but I ducked it easily, quickly grabbing her wrist as it flew by and gripping it tightly so she couldn't move toward the wands – mine had landed against a wall nearby and hers in the middle of Alley several feet away.

The only problem was – I had never been trained in physical combat. However Bellatrix, it seemed, had.

The only damage I managed to do was punch her nose as hard as possible. Blood poured out and I heard a snap.

Bellatrix didn't even go for the wands after that. Infuriated, she swung her free hand, which collided with my right temple. I felt something wet drip down my face – blood – and the punch was enough for me to loosen my grip on her other hand enough for her to get free.

I was annoyed. I couldn't take her in a fist fight like this. But I had to try – I had to keep her away from those wands. I threw a punch at her face, but she ducked it. So I shoved her shoulders – not too hard, but hard enough for her to go falling backwards, pulling me with her. Somehow, we ended up rolling down a small hill until we stopped at the bottom.

Bellatrix was on top of me. She used her entire bodyweight to hold me down, pinning my arms down by my side and under her legs. I tried to push her off, but she was larger and stronger than me, not to mention I had no use of my hands or arms, and held me down easily.

I wasn't too worried – how much damage could she do with just her hands?

That was, until she pulled out a dagger.

I gulped.

She merely dragged the tip of the dagger very lightly against the skin on my neck – hard enough for me to feel it, lightly enough to draw no blood. She smiled teasingly.

"Where should I start?" she asked quietly. "Perhaps your pretty little face?" She moved the tip of the dagger up my neck to my face. With a flick of her hand, she had dug the dagger into my right cheek, drawing blood that poured down the side of my face.

I flinched but said nothing, not daring to give into her obvious little game of trying to make me beg her to stop, even though I wanted to so bad.

"You honestly thought you could take me?" she asked, laughing coldly while the battle around us raged on, nobody noticing us having gone down. "Well, you were sadly mistaken."

"I doubt it," I said, still struggling to get out from under her. "I'm never mistaken."

Bellatrix rolled her eyes, and I felt blood from my temple and cheek running into my hair.

"So, you little bitch," she snarled. "Are you going to tell me your secret, or am I going to have to force it out of you?" I shook my head.

"I thought you said you already knew?" I said lightly. Annoyed, Bellatrix grabbed a chunk of my hair and slammed my head against the ground. It didn't draw blood, but it did hurt like hell.

"Don't mock me," she snapped, pushing the knife into the crook my neck enough to draw just a dribble of blood and causing me to whimper slightly. Hearing it, Bellatrix smiled, reveling in my pain and terror. "You're lucky I was told not to kill you or I'd be hurt," she snarled. "Or you'd have this dagger in your heart right now."

"I'm not afraid of you," I muttered quietly. I wasn't normally afraid of her, but now that we were fighting without wands…I was, quite honestly, terrified.

"Yes you are," she whispered. "Or you wouldn't be whimpering like you just were." She pushed the dagger in a little farther. "However…I was never told not to hurt you. I can rough you up a little, if I'd like, as long as I don't kill you…"

I was tired of sitting here with Bellatrix on top of me, having no way to get out. When we had rolled down the hill, we had rolled far enough away from the battle for nobody – neither Death Eater nor Order member – could see me seconds from being murdered.

I had never been able to perform wandless magic when injured before, but if I couldn't this time the effects could be detrimental…

I used all of my strength left to use magic to throw Bellatrix off of me and several feet across the Alley. The dagger flew out of her hand and landed on the low roof of a nearby building.

I jumped to my feet, panting, and ran up the hill to get my wand before she could retrieve the dagger. I ducked curses that were flung my way, limping forward and scooping my wand up quickly.

I turned to find her in the middle of the Alley, having just picked up her own wand and pointing it at me.

I hesitated – I didn't understand how the hell she had gotten up so fast – but not for long, because she shot several curses at me that I had to block and duck so I wasn't hit.

It was then, of course, that several more Aurors decided to arrive – when I least needed them. As soon as they noticed them, the Death Eaters stopped their attack and, as one, Apparted away. Bellatrix remained for a second to snarl at me,

"This isn't over. I'll get you next time, bitch," before she too Apparated away.

As soon as she was gone, I found myself stumbling backward, trying to keep balance on my bed leg. I was loosing blood in several different places, and my head was pounding.

But when I saw the destruction the battle had caused, I completely forgot my pains.

Glass from shattered windows and bodies littered the ground. Blood stained the ground, walls, and bodies. I saw both pairs of twins a couple feet away talking to a few other workers and an Auror, whom I recognized instantly – James.

But I was scanning the crowd for somebody else – Regulus.

And I found him, down the Alley quite a ways. He was carrying a young girl in his arms. From such a distance, she appeared to be about six years old, and was clinging onto him, crying. I assumed he was helping her to find her parents.

While I was watching him, I felt something touch my shoulder and jumped, turning around quickly to find Sirius behind me.

"Sirius," I sighed. "You scared me."

"Are you okay?" he asked, bending down to look at the deep scratch in my calf.

"Yeah," I replied, flinching slightly when he touched it.

"We have Healers coming soon, I'll be sure to send one over to you when they get here, alright?" he said. I nodded – there was no use in refusing, as it really did hurt. "Here – sit down. I need to talk to you." He led me over to a nearby park bench and pushed me onto it lightly, sitting beside me.

"What's up?" I asked, confused. What could he possibly want to talk to me about at the scene of the battle?

"What was Bellatrix here for?" he asked. I shrugged.

"I don't –"

"Don't say you don't know," he interrupted. "I was told that you were talking to her before the battle started, and I'm pretty sure you know."

"All I know was that she was here to find me," I replied quietly. Sirius sighed.

"Nick, things are getting out of hand…with the Death Eaters and all…" I nodded – I knew that. There had been five attacks in the last week – six now, I suppose. Sirius sighed again. "We need your help to get rid of Voldemort as soon as possible –"

"You mean you want me to use my spot as spy to try and kill him before he gets too powerful?" Sirius nodded slowly.

I wasn't surprised. If anything, I was shocked that he had waited so long before asking this. But I…I knew I couldn't do it. I wouldn't only give myself away, but I would give Draco and probably Harry away as well. And I couldn't do that to them.

"Look, Sirius, I can try," I said. "But I can't make any promises. If I step one toe out of line, they will know that I'm a spy, which will give Draco and Harry away as well. And if they know they're spies…they're probably going to kill them…"

"I know," he said, nodding again. "But you have to realize what we're dealing with." He took on a slightly bitter tone, which shocked me. "At least ten people have been killed here alone. If you don't try to help us as much as possible, we could all end up dead, and it could be all because of you."

Those words stung, and he knew it. That's why he said it, though – he wanted to do, to say, anything that would get me to agree to help them. I sighed.

"Alright, I'll try to help. But," I added quickly. "I'm not going back to that Manor until I have to. Which means until he tells me to go back. I want to spend as long away from it as I can, at least for now." Sirius didn't seem too happy with my answer.

"Fine," he said, standing up quickly. "But I'll have you know, if we all end up killed, it'll be all on your shoulders."

I rolled my eyes and sighed as he walked away. In a way, I thought he was right, though deep down I think I knew it wouldn't all be my fault.

I stood up slowly, grinding my teeth when I put pressure on my injured leg.

"Nick! Nicole!"

I turned around quickly to find Regulus hurrying toward me. At first, he looked relieved to see me, until he noticed just how much I was bleeding. As soon as he reached me, he threw his arms around my waist, while mine went up around his neck, holding him close. He lifted me up slightly, so my feet were just inches off of the floor.

"You had me so worried," he said softly in my ear.

"What else is new?" I asked jokingly. I leaned back, setting my forehead against his. He kept me lifted up slightly. Though he still looked concerned, I saw a smile playing on his lips.

"Fred and George said that you were in their shop, and Ollivander said he saw you dueling Bellatrix, so when I couldn't find you I started to get worried." He paused, the smile dropping off of his face as he set me back on my feet gently. "What did she want?"

I paused, using the back of my hand to wipe blood away from my mouth.

"I'm not sure," I answered. Regulus rose his eyebrows. "I mean, she said something about wanting me, but I…I don't know why." He sighed slightly, kissing me briefly before leaning back and saying,

"Let's get you fixed up, alright?" I nodded, allowing him to pull me over to a nearby Healer. She was helping the assistant from Flourish and Blotts, who seemed to have broken his ankle, and Regulus and I sat on the curb, leaning against a nearby shop, waiting for her to finish.

I was exhausted. Using the wandless magic while already injured had almost knocked me out. I rested my head on Regulus' shoulder, and feel asleep within seconds.