C. M. Black: Eyes of an Owl
Chapter XXXIII: Black blood
Cassy was alone. The white mist surrounded her thickly, whispering words formed a din in her ears, low and peculiar, the words impossible to determine any longer. The further she ran, the thinner the mist, but with only an arm's span of sight around her it offered very little comfort. Her mind was racing. She had to find Harry. Everyone else was superfluous at the moment. It sounded harsh and had anyone said it aloud to her she would have cursed them then and there, but right then it was true. They had a better chance of survival than Harry purely because they were not the targets. Whoever had the prophecy was and that person was most certainly Harry. She would help round up the rest afterwards.
A hand reached out from the mist. Cassy evaded quickly, but it reached blindly for her again and it was only then that she saw the outline of a mass of curly hair.
'Hermione,' called Cassy.
'Cassy?' asked Hermione. 'Is that you?'
'Where is she?' came another voice, more dazed and distant.
'Luna?' questioned Cassy.
'It is you!' announced Luna.
Hermione stepped forward towards what must have only been Cassy's hazy outline. She grabbed her wrist, although Cassy had her wand positioned to hex her the moment there was a suggestion she was anyone other than who she was said to be. A shadow appeared behind her, slightly smaller with long, loose hair.
'We have to hurry,' urged Luna, her tone so normal it rang oddly in Cassy's mind.
The three girls ran. No one else was visible as they did so, the crashes of shelves halted and the voices faded. There was nothing but the sound of their own footsteps. The room with the bell jar was still brightly lit, too bright, disorientating even, compared the previously dull surroundings. They turned to slam the door closed, but Luna was thrown backwards by a white light. She crashed with a noisy smack on the tiled ground.
Cassy blinked urging her eyes to adjust quicker. Her wand raised readily.
The faces of the two pursuers were masked by silver. They slowed to a walk.
'Luna, are you alright?' questioned Cassy quickly without looking behind.
'I'm fine,' said Luna breathlessly as she picked herself back up from the ground and staggered to their side. She too readied her wand. She was unsteady, though, much of her weight angled forward as she struggled to breathe with the pain.
The Death Eaters laughed lowly. Both male, short for their gender, one low voice and one some octaves higher, but just as gruff. Cassy had no recollection of such voices. They were no one she had met before and had bothered to observe any oddities of to force any memory of their likely ordinary passing. She pushed that aside.
Cassy glanced at Hermione and inclined her head to the side. The other followed the gesture and nodded a fraction.
'You are not Lords, so you must be the grunts of Voldemort's forces,' Cassy teased, her voice light and a grin pulled at her pale cheeks as though she was watching the most quaint little sight.
The laughter stopped.
'How dare you speak his name!' cried one.
'You stupid bitch,' growled the other.
Hermione inched forwards.
'Who are you then?' sneered Cassy.
'We have always served the Dark Lord,' the first one spat. 'I was just not stupid enough to –'
'Get caught?' offered Cassy cheerfully. 'You will now.'
In one fluid motion, she turned and threw a binding curse in a brilliant display of light. Hermione unleashed her own attack too as the glass of the cabinet shattered. Crashes and whirls of high screams of wood and metal splintered all across the room. The two men fumbled for their wands, but in their anger they had forgotten to prepare beyond a limp grip and before they could utter more than a spell each, the two teenagers had ripped their skin and stunned them into silence.
The room was plunged into near darkness.
Hermione breathed a shuddering breath. She said, 'Luna, can you move okay? We need to find a way out of here before more come through.'
Luna nodded shakily. The noise was sure to have attracted unwanted attention, but Cassy had not thought of another plan on the spot to buy then some time to allow Luna to recover her senses. If they had attacked, the men would have fired back and she was too unstable to protect herself. Cassy and Hermione took an arm of Luna's each and hoisted off the ground as best they could to relieve some of her strain. Hermione kicked the door shut and the room span. Immediately, she grabbed at the next door, one marked with a burnt 'X' for at least it would be familiar.
It was the worst door. Even the endless darkness of the Astro room would have been preferable to the steep stone steps of the Atrium. Cassy pursed her lips, but when Luna coughed wetly she knew there was no time to be picky. She wrangled the door shut awkwardly with her left hand.
'Luna, let me levitate you down,' she said.
'No,' protested Luna. 'I'm fine, really.'
'Luna, really,' sighed Hermione, 'it will only take a moment. I promise it will help.'
Cassy supposed much of the blonde's determined protests were because she had never really had anyone to rely on before. Now, she was in a battle with people determined to kill them and even Hermione was offering her a hand when it was clear to both of them that Hermione and Luna would never really get along. It did not mean that either she or Hermione were about to be respectful of those protests, though. Doubt and pride were not luxuries they could afford at that moment.
'No, really,' she said.
'Luna, we don't have time for this,' snapped Hermione.
Luna was suddenly suspended in the air and was floating speedily down to the base of the atrium, spouting strangely forceful protests until Hermione set her down again. With a wave of her wand, Cassy through the sheet that had been covering the arch back over it. She hoped with it being out of sight, then the voices and the intrigue it caused would be out of mind and the pull she had felt so strongly before to climb through would lessen.
Luna was set behind the arch, just out of sight from the doorway. Hermione's hands ghosted over Luna's paling skin. Her cheeks were flushed as she took in each shuddering breath. Another wet cough seized her body.
'Luna, Luna, listen. You need to breathe as deeply as you can, okay?' mumbled Hermione.
Her own panic was obvious. A bit lip and hands that could not remain still; she was at a loss of what to do.
'I-I don't know how to check what's wrong,' she admitted meekly.
Cassy gritted her teeth. She had no experience with healing either. She said, 'We need to find Neville. He has much more knowledge on this. I can numb the pain, Luna, but I do not know how to help your breathing.'
Luna said nothing. Her eyes stared between them blankly. With the hope she had heard and she was simply saving her energy, Cassy peered around the arch and back up to the still closed door. Like a leaf on the surface of a placid pond, there were no ripples of emotion at the sight of her friends' danger. She had always known, she supposed, from the moment the spell had hit Luna's chest that something awful was sure to happen from it; she had known since Harry had announced her father's faux capture that something would more than likely go awry. Emotion had yet to burst through her chest, her mind was keeping panic at bay, a useless feeling when needing to think; panic only lead to mistakes and rushed decisions. There was a tingling in her hands and feet, a sort of intense desire to run further than she ever had before and to attack anyone who got in her way. Adrenalin coursed through her and only intensified as she stared up at the exit. They could not wait here. Luna would die.
'I will go and find Neville and the others,' she said.
'That's dangerous,' protested Hermione quickly.
'I will make a small mark on the door so I know to come back to this one,' continued Cassy calmly.
'You're not going! We'll figure this out together,' snapped Hermione.
'How, Hermione? She cannot be moved again,' said Cassy heatedly. 'The Order must know we are here. My father would know something was wrong and Mrs Longbottom would have received the message by now. All we need to do is survive for a time, but right now I am not sure she can.'
Luna turned, her eyes ablaze. Her distant stare focused quickly. 'We stay together. I'll … manage if you numb my chest. The p-pain is making it diff-ifficult to breath and without it I'll be fine. We… find the others together.'
Cassy wanted nothing more than to deny her that. However, as she numbed her friend, Luna's breathing eased substantially. The agony she must have been in had caused her to spasm and gasp before she could breathe a full breath, but without it she seemed to be managing. Still shaky and winded, she pushed herself uneasily to her feet. There was something distinctly un-Luna like in her manner as she gritted her teeth and frowned.
'You need to be – ' began Hermione fretfully.
'I am a Ravenclaw, Hermione,' said Luna sternly. 'I have mended many broken bones and bruises. I know my body well enough to know I will be fine for a while yet.'
Hermione recoiled and looked to Cassy for support, but the other remained silent. They really did need to get going and if Luna could walk then it would be even better.
'We stay together then,' agreed Cassy.
A thunderous bang echoed through the amphitheatre. The very stone beneath then seemed to shudder at the arrival. For a moment, there was nothing, no footsteps or voices. Then the worst imaginable thing happened.
'This is awfully boring,' came a dull voice.
Hermione sucked in a sharp gasp. She turned to Cassy with wide, brown eyes and mouthed: 'Bellatrix'.
Bellatrix LeStrange had found them. Of all the Death Eaters, she was rumoured to be the worst. She was Voldemort's right hand, the most trusted of his followers. She was as close to a friend as the Dark Lord was capable of having. Sirius had told her a story over the summer of her madness as they gazed upon the family tapestry. She was obsessed with him, adored him so completely that the Dark Lord was incapable of being questioned and those who did would die at Bellatrix's hand for the audacity of it. She was mad.
'It doesn't look like anyone's here,' said a male voice.
'You sound relieved, Avery,' drawled Bellatrix. There was an echoed tap, then another. She was descending the stairs. 'Afraid of a few school children, are you? Pathetic.'
'I'm not afraid and I'm not relieved either. I am impatient. I want to get this done and complete the Dark Lord's work before anyone can interfere,' he sneered.
Tap, tap, she continued down the steps.
'And there doesn't seem to be anyone here, so we should leave,' said another man.
Cassy wished she had her pocket mirror with her so she could see what the three were doing and if there were any more of them. Beside her, Hermione's lips were drawn tightly together and her hands gripped her wand in the same unyielding grip Cassy held hers in. Luna's already shook with exertion.
'Can you both not hear it? I did the moment I stepped in here,' said Bellatrix jovially. 'That breathing.'
Cassy stiffened. Luna covered her mouth quickly.
'You learn a lot in Azkaban, kiddies! The only objects of entertainment are those locked up with you. You learn to hear the small sounds of movement, of crying and breathing beneath the screams. Someone is panting, are you injured? Are you hurt, ickle ones?' she called loudly, laughing. The tap tap of her continuing descent hit every nerve in Cassy body. The breathed in deeply and turned to Hermione, who had shifted into an open crouch ready to leap into action already.
'I will take Bellatrix if you two think you can manage the other two,' she whispered.
Hermione's head inclined just the slightest in agreement. In any other circumstances, she would have been offended that Cassy was giving her the easier task, but at that moment she was not. She was wordlessly entrusting Luna's safety to Hermione.
Cassy very much doubted they could defeat Bellatrix on their own. She knew they were both capable of extraordinary things which others were not, the Patronus Charm, for example, but she was not under the illusion she could defeat Bellatrix when Hermione and Luna were there. She could not focus on the most ruthless, deranged Death Eater and ensure the safety of her friends at the same time. Luna needed medical attention right then and there and Hermione was going to have the think of a way to find it. A plan had begun to formulate and recalculate from the moment the door had opened. She had a dozen ideas, none certain to work.
Hermione held up her left hand with three fingers up.
Cassy readied her feet.
Two.
If she had known she was going to be in a duel, she would have worn better shoes to run in.
One.
The effect was instantaneous. The moment to two dived from behind the arch, colourful spells and shouts of alarm shot through the room. Hermione managed to lock one of the men's legs together and Luna fired over her shoulder to disarm Avery. The first man was immediately back on his feet, but Cassy did not have time for that.
'Avada Kedavra!'
She sidestepped and the acid green spell connected with the cloth behind.
Bellatrix cackled loudly. Her wand twirled in her hand idly, as though there was no hint of a threat by those before her. Cassy ran up the steep seats closer closing the gap between them to a mere twenty-feet as she stood some rows above now and off to the side purposefully. It made Bellatrix halt her descent. She turned to her, still grinning. Slowly, she began to move closer. Cassy kept her eyes trained on her, but her ears focused on Hermione and Luna's duel. She moved another step up.
'I thought for a moment I had drawn the short straw, but even if I can't teach Potter a lesson in respect, I can certainly at least wipe you from the family tree,' jeered Bellatrix.
'That's funny! I was just thinking that perhaps I won't have the chance to maim Voldemort, but I can at least see you return to Azkaban,' laughed Cassy. She spoke quickly for Bellatrix's face twisted furiously immediately, but it did not deter Cassy's taunts. 'Although, it has clearly been most unkind to you or have you always looked like that? It would explain why you married LeStrange…'
Bellatrix shrieked and another Avada Kedavra blasted at her. Cassy ducked.
'How dare you! You little bitch, how dare you speak the Dark Lord's name? I'll have you for that!' she screamed.
The plan was working. Bellatrix's attention had to remain on her. Faint flashes of light illuminated the dull stone behind them as Hermione and Luna battled on.
Jumping out of the way on an incoming spell, Cassy shot one of her own. It was deflected easily, another meeting her second midway and the two crackled with a powerful flare before diminishing into nothing. Bellatrix climbed the stairs after her. Cassy kept moving; she refused to remain on the same level for more than a minute and each step was punctuated with a shield or a counter-spell. As they ascended, her choices became more varied, seemingly more erratic even, as she moved onto bolder, more dangerous spells. They were the ones she had read about; the ones she had never practised; the ones that had almost killed Shandy months prior; they were her most powerful spells and the only ones Bellatrix seemed to have issue blocking. In turn, she spat back silent spells that Cassy rapidly tried to identify – a liquidation spell to destroy organs; the Transmogrify curse to bend her body until she died of pain or impossible physical contortion; a disintegration curse to turn her to ash in an instant. It was not enough. There was so much more she did not know in Bellatrix's arsenal.
Bellatrix whistled, moving her long, dark hair from her equally dark eyes. 'What was that!'
Cassy fired another beam of orange. The stone around them blackened and portions began to glow red while tendrils of delicate smoke emerged. Bellatrix quickly threw down the arm she had shielded her face with. The hem of her dress was on fire, but she did not even seem to notice.
Wordlessly, she flicked her wand. No light or sound was emitted. It was a second later that Cassy realised she should move. However, the thought was a second too late, for the ground beneath her crumbled and the auditorium steps gave way. Pain coursed through her left wrist when it failed to grip the secure rock, slicing her palm of the jagged stone. A shield was flung around her. It softened the blow of her fall, but more than that it deflected the oncoming chunks of the stand that continued to reign down on her. Suddenly, she was sliding down the steps in a river of severed stone.
'Crucio!' snickered Bellatrix.
She felt nothing. A scream rang sharply.
'Luna!' cried Cassy.
'Expelliarmus,' called Hermione.
'Oh, Expelliamus yourself,' drawled Bellatrix.
'Exumai!' The rocks were blasted from behind her, halting her descent. She did not care where they fell as she scrambled out of the pit. Her tights were torn and her knees bloodied, but all she heard was Bellatrix's unyielding laughter.
Bellatrix turned, grinning. She was never serious in her attacks. She was toying with them.
'Duro,' said Cassy.
Bellatrix moved to the side, then again and again, rolling from the step and Cassy relentlessly sent curse after curse.
Back in the centre of the auditorium, Hermione scrambled for her wand. One hand was on Luna's prone form. The two male Death Eaters were sprawled on the ground, silent and unmoving. Cassy and Bellatrix duelled in the stands high above. Panic had coursed through her earlier when she had heard Cassy taunting the other. She may have successfully derailed Bellatrix's attention, the danger of which evident by the twitching, unconscious blonde, but Hermione hated it. The men were not as easy to knock out as she had first hoped. Her sharp eyes flicked to their hands. Quickly, although unwillingly, she left Luna and dived for the wand held in the fallen man's limp hand.
She turned, wand raised and ready to help, only to see the fleeing hem of Bellatrix's dress leave the door. There was no sign of Cassy either.
Cassy had once again climbed higher than Bellatrix and only had three options to consider with the vicious onslaught of spells. She could not stay as she was or she would surely eventually tire, so her options were to continue upwards and block herself in against the wall, dart past and lead her back down and closer to Hermione and Luna who were unarmed, or to run straight to the door and hope Bellatrix followed.
'Funny is it not that the one you revere so highly has the same blood as me,' she jeered, ensuring a wide grin lit her face. 'We are both Half-Bloods, the Dark Lord and I, both with a wizarding parent and a Muggle one. You call me filth, but in doing so you do the same to him.'
'Shut up,' growled Bellatrix.
Cassy allowed herself to be pushed back by the incoming spells. They were fiercer than before, battering the shield mercilessly.
'In the end, it is I who is more worthy of the Dark Lord's grace. We are, after all, more equal than you,' she announced smugly.
Bellatrix roared and the shield broke. Cassy fled. She hurtled from the room with Bellatrix at her heels. Her mind thanked Merlin again and again that it had worked. She waved the door shut silently and the room span. She skidded, flung open the door in front without stopping and shielded her face as it was blasted to bits inches from her. Bellatrix was still screaming and Cassy had no chance to evade her now that the door had been destroyed. She ran into the darkness, recognising the distant lights and large, revolving orbs as the space room they had opened before.
The only genuine light seemed to emanate from the hazy Sun in the centre. She ran from it seeking only the darkest corner to find her advantage.
'You insolent wretch, get back here,' screeched Bellatrix. 'I'll kill you.'
'Your persuasion skills are lacking, dear cousin,' called Cassy breathlessly. She was unsure of what made her so intent to taunt the other now, but if she was going to die at her hand, which she accepted was a good possibility, she was going to make sure she was remembered.
There is no time for such thoughts, scolded Cassy mentally. She needed to formulate a plan. The darkness was all around them. The further from the Sun there were the better chance she would have of surprising Bellatrix. The only issue was getting enough distance to ensure she did not enter the shadows with her. Faint shapes were visible at the very edges of the room. Towering bookcases and narrow desks lined the walls.
A quick Bombarda set a bookcase tumbling down behind her, showering books down on their heads. Bellatrix grunted and Cassy continued to run straight for the corner. More bookcases were set there, arranged like rows of a library rather than pressed against the wall. The little cluster of scripts and notes hid her from sight, parted only slightly as she tried hurriedly to locate the Death Eater once more.
Nothing. She scooted along before she crashed to the ground. Grunting, she quickly pushed herself up again, but it was not Bellatrix who had caused the fall. Her hands ran over something slick on the ground, congealed and thick like half-dried paint. They were held to her eye level. Red; they were thickly coated in blood. Someone had been here before her. The shire amount of blood that marred the glittering floor and further sullied her skirt and tights was only more visible as strips of orange pierced through the gaps of the nestled paper stacks. Like solid beams of colour, the light uncovered her hiding place.
The Sun flickered and brightened. The ground beneath it shone, illuminating the well-hidden tile joints and drowned the little stars from sight entirely. Cassy frowned. It was like watching a magnified solar flare as the surface bubbled and spat. The distant pop of the explosions was nothing compared to the deafening rush of air. The reason, Cassy comprehended in utter horror, for the strange display was right before her. From around the other side of the Sun, Bellatrix had summoned Fiendfyre. The intense heat pulled from the surface of the faux Sun and straight into the body of the writhing serpent that burst forth.
Bellatrix cackled as everything caught alight.
With the soles of her shoes slick with blood, Cassy fled her hideaway. The serpent descended erratically across every item in the room. The parchment around her was ablaze when she tore through them and out between the lower shelves.
Bellatrix span on the spot.
'If you had not been so rude, I might have let you live,' she said joyfully.
It was a lie and they both knew it.
As she ran, Cassy shot a sharp, yellow spell. Chains sprouted from the ground at Bellatrix's feet. Tiny, circular, eyeless heads sprouted from thinner chains. Their long white teeth were soon buried into the flesh of her legs and stomach. She shrieked in pain and the serpent wavered. She dropped to the floor and the Fiendfyre wobbled it crashed into Pluto, destroying it without a trace as it combusted easily. The rings of Saturn caught ablaze, forming a hoop of fire high in the sky.
Bellatrix refused to release the spell. She called its name once again, demanding the serpent to empower itself once more. The flames of it grew brighter, brighter than any light Cassy had ever seen before.
Spots invaded her vision. White, black, and red, she blinked rapidly to be rid of them, but they persisted stubbornly. Blindly, she reached behind her for the wall. If she headed to her right she would find the doorway out again, she instructed herself. The only comfort was that if she could not see, it was very unlikely that Bellatrix could either. Her left hand now holding her wand whilst shielding her eyes whilst her right hand dragged across the wall. Her bruised knees collided with several desks along the way, but she continued undeterred until her hand landed on a singular, circular object protruding from the smooth surface. Patting around it, she was certain the burning metal she held was a doorknob.
A thought suddenly occurred to her; Bellatrix was not screaming.
Riskily, Cassy uncovered her eyes and turned to the sound. Still stung by the light and unfathomable heat, her eyes were barely able to take in the sight; it was no longer a mere fire. Everything around them was alight. The bookshelves all down the left-hand side and the back wall were disintegrating. Embers rained down from Saturn and the air had become so hot at thick that each breath burnt her throat.
Bellatrix was no longer beside the Sun. Her hazy figure was barely visible as it fled back to the door. She had completely bypassed Cassy. Frowning further, Cassy turned back to the centre.
The Sun the serpent coiled around was so dim in comparison, though that too had faded. The Sun was dulled to a pink, the centre blue as the light faded from it. Then, the light increased. The Sun began to glow again, livelier than ever and it looked as though it had begun to shrink in on itself.
Finally, panic surged.
Cassy pulled at the handle and ignored the flare of pain in her hand. She did not know where it might lead, yet anywhere was better than there. She wrenched it open and slammed it shut. Disappointment and anxiety gripped her stomach for a moment. An iron spiral staircase stood in front of her. The walls were lined with dim gas lamps.
She had made it to the first twist of the stairs when a piercing shriek of screaming gases filled her ears. The Sun model had given way to the extreme heat of the Fiendfyre. Bellatrix had conjured an ingenious plan in the midst of her plight. She would retreat to safety and there would be little Cassy could do to withstand an explosion so large. She had been blinded, unable to finish her off when she should have with chains to hold her down. Now there was no chance of that.
There was nothing left to do but to throw up the most powerful shield she had. Her arms rose to cover her head in futility as the door exploded off its hinges and shattered into a million pieces. Thunderous roars of the explosion were muffled by the charm, but it failed to keep the stairs from shuddering violently; it failed to stay standing from the shire force of the explosion and after a moment shattered too. Her feet left the ground for an instant, a heavy weight beat down on her chest, but then she had been on the corner of the stairs, only able to hurtle a few feet before she crashed against the wall. She slumped onto the iron steps, her head connected with a sickening crack as her body twisted downwards. Blood flicked up the stone walls and across the stairs and through the intricate cut-out on each step.
Rubble blocked the entrance to the room. The door had partially collapsed in on itself. It spilt into the stairwell, never quite reaching where Cassy's feet now lay. One arm was twisted beneath her, the other outstretched with her wand still between her limp, bloodied fingers where even in such an event she had refused to let go. Her clothes were ripped by the shrapnel and blood trickled from her hairline, melding the now loose black strands to her pallid skin. The explosion continued to echo up and down the staircases for a time, but Cassy did not stir. She lay unmoving, uncomprehending on the stairwell, free to let the blood slide down to the next step undisturbed.
What do you think?
Action scenes are hard to write. I think I might have made Bellatrix a little overpowered, but then she is supposed to be the best Death Eater… Cassy held her own though! She, Hermione, and Luna were put in a tough situation in this chapter. In the book, they all get taken out rapidly, so I was trying to make this match in that regard to some extent. I took a lot of liberties with the space room because they don't seem to really go in to detail about it. But yes, Bellatrix blew up the Sun model on purpose. I don't imagine it would be much like a real tiny Sun exploding or everyone would be dead, but if anything exploded it would bloody hurt.
I think Cassy did pretty well, but even the most powerful and intelligent people can't avoid some surprises. Hermione's going to be furious when she next sees Cassy. Hermione doesn't stand for that nonsense. It's a shame the book never really displays Luna's fighting capabilities, because she must be serious some of the time.
What do you think? I hadn't realised it had been over a week since I last updated until I got a review this evening and it reminded me I had a story to update, haha.
Thanks!