Chapter Twenty-two
"Dad?" Ava cried out.
"Oh dad!" Ava cried again as she took off across the small, dim attic. Her father, Henry, was a dark haired loving man in his early forties. He taught Ava many things, one of those being how to stand tall and be proud of yourself, flaws included. He was strong, kind and a gentle man. But the man that stood hunched in the corner of this dank attic had no resemblance of that man. His face showed no signs of love. It was hard, cold and angry, his eyes burned with pure hate. He stood with his back to the corner wall and looked to be ready to throw a punch or two. The wild look in his usually soft brown eyes stopped Ava abruptly.
"Come on you bastards, take me again. Not her, she's just a child." He spat at her with such venom that he was almost unrecognisable.
"Dad, it's me. Ava." Ava said quietly trying to coax out the soft side of him that she knew and wasn't afraid of.
"No, I'm not falling for this again. It was funny the first time now it's just painful. Stop with your stupid magic tricks." he clamoured.
"What have they done to you?"
"Not they, you! Now cut the crap and lets get on with it."
"Dad stop being stupid it's actually me. I came to get you, with my friends. Sirius, you remember me telling you about him? And James and Lily. They're both downstairs. Come on, we don't have anytime." She urged.
From behind her father came peeping a small, scared figure cradling her right arm to her chest. Her wide eyes stared in disbelief at her big sister. There was something else on her face too, it wasn't terror or pain or the look of complete hopelessness either. It was pride.
"I knew it! I knew you'd come get us! They told me I was stupid for thinking so but you did, you're here!" She said with delight as she bounced on her toes. Her father held her back from running at her. "Can't you tell dad, it's really her this time. Come on, we have to go" She pulled her eyebrows together so tightly that they almost touched.
"You're sure about this Cassy?" The two girls father asked the twelve year old.
"Yes, I told you it wasn't her the last time, but now it is. I know my big sister and that's her. Now come on. I want to go home."
Hearing this Ava opened her arms and Cassidy ran and jumped onto her. Ava held her tightly against herself and buried her head in her sisters hair to hide her tears. Their father pulled them to him and hugged them both. Sirius begrudgingly broke up their reunion to remind Ava that they were expected to be outside the cottage in twenty minutes.
"Let me just get your mother. I'll have to carry her. She's, sick." He said without meeting Ava's eyes. Ava's father ignored Sirius' protests that he should carry her as he was healthier but stopped is pestering when Henry reminded him that he was the only other person with the power to fight off their captors if needs be. With Martha safely in his arms and Sirius scouting ahead they began descending the stairs. The hallway was clear and Ava sent across Sirius first, followed by her parents and then herself, holding tightly onto her sisters hand and her wand, silently they crossed the long quiet hallway.
The narrow Kitchen was darker now and colder too. Sirius guided them all across to the barred gate that led down to the cellar. With his back to the rest of the room he began to unlock the door. It had locked again."Okay so in the cellar there's another way out of here. Through another couple doors, from there in fifteen minutes we're meeting James and Lily and then
we're leaving. Sirius come on, hurry up. We have to go." Ava pressed on.
"Have to go? You only just arrived and you haven't even said hello to your hosts." Announced a voice from the shadowed corner of the kitchen.
Silence. Silenced followed suit, no one seemed to breath, the metal gate no longer rattled and the leaky tap stopped dripping. The whole room seemed to freeze in that one moment. A woman, only a few years older than Sirius and Ava stepped out of the shadows. Her dark red was pulled tightly in a bun at the back of her head, her wide face was pulled into a disgusted sneer. She stood tall in her black robes.
"Are you two trying to steal from me?" The woman broke the silence. The voice was familiar to Ava, it was the female voice she overheard earlier on that afternoon. That seemed almost like a different lifetime now not just a few hours ago.
"Stealing from you?" Ava shrieked.
"Yes you're trying to take my muggles. It wasn't easy for me to get a hold of them, you know." The woman; Alecto, Ava remembered, seemed perplexed at the five of them. As she was talking Ava carefully shuffled her sister behind her back, out of any danger.
"Your muggles? They are people. They're my family, I'm not stealing them I'm saving them. You freakin kidnapped them! What's the matter with you?! You're talking about them as if they're some kind of animal." There was no hiding Ava's disgust.
"Shut up you stupid child, they're worth a lot less then some animals. Now you and your buddy are going to march them back up to their attic before I call my brother and we kill you all." Alecto threatened with her short black wand aimed at them all. Ava stepped forward and pulled her own wand out.
"Sirius if you can't open that door is suggest you blow the bloody thing off." Ava directed at the eldest Black and diverted her full attention to the Death Eater in front of her. "Now I'm not going to do that. I'm going to give you once chance to let us walk away from here altogether." She warned.
Alecto just laughed at her and threw the first cruse, Ava deflected it. The curse ricochet off the pile of dirty dishes back to Alecto. She side stepped it with a vicious growl. Their duel began properly. Ava fought defensively, she couldn't allow one single curse to slip past her, when she could she threw out a perfectly aimed curse at the Death Eater. Ava was good, her defence was impeccable and this only angered Alecto. Her curses became stronger and wilder. She whipped her wand faster, and flicked it around like a baton twirler. Ava stood her ground as Alecto danced and moved around looking for a weak spot in her defence, although there was none. With an animal like grunt Alecto shot out a burst of flames from her wand tip and a flick of Ava's wrist she transformed it to a flock of birds. Ava laughed at her.
"Take your time Sirius, I haven't had this much fun in ages." She mocked. She wasn't lying either, it was fun. She could feel the lead stones of guilt and fear that had weighed her down over the past week float off her. The anger she felt towards her families captives was being dealt with in ways that wouldn't harm her loved ones. She was making this son of a bitch pay. Pay for all the pain she had inflicted. God did that feel good.
No. Ava thought, She mustn't enjoy this, that would make her they same as them. No, she can't let that happen. This needs to stop.
She flicked her wand arm up over her head and stunned Alecto out cold, the Death Eater fell down onto the kitchen floor with a soft thud. Ava spun on her heel and blasted the metal door right off its hinges. "You were wasting too much time." She lied at the faces of surprise that stared at her and bolted down the stairs. At the bottom she looked over her shoulder and saw that none of them had moved. "Come on, she has a brother somewhere, get a move on." She barked and quickly and carefully they all climbed down the staircase into the cellar.
Sirius lifted his wand and sent a ball of pale blue light up in the air to illuminate the small, damp room. With the room now lit up the could all see the stairs that were just a few paces ahead of them. Ava ran up them, kicked the open and started to push her sister, mother and father out when she heard James and Lily call out to them as the came running down the stairs of the kitchen.
"Ava, Sirius! They know we're here. Get out! Get out now!" James shouted.
"Yeah we know" Sirius laughed at them from the top of the stairs that led out of the cellar. "Now come on!" He shouted back.
They ran across the cellar, James pushing Lily through the door first, when Alecto and her brother descended the stairs opposite them.
"God damn it, will you two just stop already!" Sirius exasperated. He pulled Ava out of the door and blasted away both sets of stairs, leaving them both trapped in the cellar. He grabbed her hand and followed the rest of them as they ran across the fields of grass the hill, leaving a cloud of dust and rubble behind them.