A/N: And this is part 2. Chapter 38 is part 1.
Happy reading!
Henny, that lucky Penny!
As Bombs Blow Us Away
Then I flinched when I heard the first crack in the shield. It sounded like glass. I glanced to the sky and my heart began hammering. I could see the streaks of broken magic. I hissed in a breath of air and looked at Neville again. He seemed to be trying to understand what he was watching. I turned to the werewolves and I saw them crouching. They reminded me of runners in a sprint race, waiting for the gun to fire.
"Neville!" I exclaimed breathlessly. His eyes snapped to mine, "We need to-"
But my voice was drowned out by a sharp crack. I glanced to the sky again and saw the barrier begin to fall apart. No time for words. I shoved Neville's frozen frame back towards Seamus. I could vaguely hear him screaming at us. My blood was thundering in my ears.
"RUN NEVILLE!" I shouted in his face. My hurried tone woke him up and he turned on his heel and left me in the dust.
I did not give the vile man without any table manners a second look before I was pounding my feet on the wooden floor. I shoved my wand into my bun and sprinted even faster. I cannot out run werewolves. Or explosives. So, I needed to get my legs to go faster. And then I almost faltered at a thought.
"DENALI!" I screamed through my panting, "DENALI! FLY!" I continued my hurried pace without looking back. He would hear me. He always heard me.
I felt the bridge begin to shake. Since I wanted to concentrate on running, I took the facial cue from Seamus that the werewolves had begun to their own run across the bridge. Fueled by genuine fear, I pumped my arms even faster. The shaking began to become stronger. If I was not concentrating my air supply on running, I would have whimpered in fright. It was not so scary when I thought they were just crazy people, but knowing they were brainwashed werewolves scared the shit out of me. They are known to tear people into pieces. At least, the bad ones.
I had a good twenty feet left of bridge when I heard the yell to jump. Without thinking, I lifted off of one foot and felt my body float through the air. A sudden rush of heated pressure behind me propelled me even faster through the nothingness. I felt it press against my back. Seamus had detonated the explosive while I was still on the fucking bridge! The nerve!
I rotated my shoulders and hips so I could land on my back. Pain jolted through me body as I landed heavily and all the oxygen whooshed from my lungs. I rolled several times purely from force. I could not distinguish words, but I heard voices. The bomb must have caused temporary hearing loss. I felt hands on my shoulders. Oh! My freaking eyes were closed. No wonder they were touching me. I kept them closed so I could focus on taking in lungful's of oxygen. I needed my lungs to fill back up so I could communicate that I was just a little banged up, but otherwise all right.
I was finally able to cough air out and I groaned in pain. My back felt sore and my body was covered in sweat. There was a slight pounding in my head, but I had protected most of my innards from damage. I was pretty proud of myself.
"I'm fine." I croaked out a moment later, "Really. Just got winded and the only thing that hurts is my back." I opened my eyes. Two soot covered faces were hovering over me. I mustered a shaky grin, "Hey, did either of you see what color my knickers are?"
"No?" Seamus answered with a questioning look. It sounded like a whisper, but at least my hearing was returning.
"Good. When you see Molly Weasley, you tell her that you couldn't see my knickers." I waved them away so I could sit up, "She will be immensely interested to know." I pushed up my torso with my hands and took stock in my appearance. I looked a little worse for wear. I had a run in my stockings and I was covered in dirt and soot. But no open wounds that were visible to my eyes.
"You are so weird." Neville murmured. I just smirked at him. But Seamus started chuckling.
In fact, Neville joined him after a moment. And then I was giggling with them. And before we knew it, we were guffawing like crazy people. We just survived an explosion and a werewolf attack! We are fucking awesome!
We sobered up and the two young men offered their hands for me to take. I gladly took them and they hauled me up gently. I looked around and did not see what I was looking for.
"Denali?" I said loudly. My lungs were still adjusting to being full again, so I could not shout, "Baby, come to mommy!"
Since my hearing was still off, I did not hear his wings. I felt a weight on my shoulder and I reached up to stroke ebony feathers and my body began to forget the hurt. I had my owl with me. I had my familiar with me.
"Let's go." Neville stated as he pulled his wand from his pocket. I nodded my head in agreement and I snatched my wand from my hair.
We jogged up to the castle and started making our way to the sounds of fighting. We heard several shouts and stopped in the middle of a hallway. I looked at them.
"You two take the shouting down that way and I will take the screams this way." I saw Neville hesitate, "Don't worry about me. I just got blown up and I am still standing. Just help whoever it is down that way. If I require assistance, Denali is more than capable of clawing out someone's eyes for me." I grinned up at my bird and he ruffled his feathers proudly.
"See you at the end, Sownbinder." Seamus said before he kissed my cheek lightly. I winked at him and bowed in an exaggerated gesture to Neville which made him smile.
Mother of Morgana, I hope I see them at the end.
We split off to our designated areas. I held my wand out with my arm slightly bent at the elbow as I quickly advanced towards where I heard the shouting. I felt my muscles go tense again. But I had expected this. I needed this. So many months of waiting for this particular moment had worn away at my sanity. I really did think I had gone over the cliff at one point. But this is my creative outlet.
I rounded a corner and saw two dark robed figures pinning three students in a corner. I looked to Denali and he pushed off my shoulder to fly up to another perch. I felt my blood begin to boil because the children were only sixth years and these adults had the audacity to attack them! School children!
"Hey! Knock that shit off!" I shouted. The figures whirled around in unison and I caught sight of a familiar face. Antonin Dolohov.
Oh shit, I think I am screwed.
"Look, another ickle one to play with, Flint." the same gravelly voice from Lucius' memory grated on my ears. I scowled.
"You attacked my mother." I stated calmly. Dolohov narrowed his eyes at me.
Then I saw the recognition float into them.
"Yes. In the fight I killed the Prewett twins. I remember her." his lips curled in anger, "Somehow, the little chit got the better of me. But it was rewarding knowing that I eliminated a couple of blood traitors." I growled. It was hard to watch the ginger twins fall. They were powerful wizards from what Aberforth had told me.
"Dolohov, let's get down to it. There are other little one's we can play with." the other one, Flint, suggested. His yellowed crooked teeth made my stomach turn. I clenched my own teeth. I could feel my hands shaking with rage. You just cannot go about hexing children. It is wrong.
"Let's just see if you can get past me first, huh?" I taunted in a low tone, "Stupefy!" I aimed at Flint.
His wand work needed a bit of brushing up because he tried to shield too slow. His body fell backwards limply. I turned to Dolohov in time to see a flash of green shoot from his wand. I dropped down to one knee and shouted, "Everte Statum!"
His surprise registered on his face as his body flew back. I shot forward like my skirt was on fire. I had covered the length of the corridor before he landed on his side.
"Stupefy!" I hit him square in the chest and he was knocked out, "Incarcerous!" I hissed and he was bound with magical ropes. I turned to the still form of Flint and repeated my actions, "If you are going to be useless, get the hell out of here. Do you know where they took the other students?" at the nod of one of the children I pointed down the corridor as a silent command to leave.
The kids did not need to be told twice. They ran past me because their lives depended on it. And they knew it. I was left with the two scumbags at my disposal.
My conscience told me to leave them there and go find others I could help, but my vengeful side was roaring at me to smash their faces under my shoe. I took the happy medium and just kicked their temples once. So that way, if they ever woke up, they would be subjected to a blinding headache. I do not pull punches or kicks.
I clicked my tongue as I started back towards most of the noise and Denali perched himself on my shoulder. Our system works for us. He keeps me company as I am moving and when I need to fight, he flies off to be my eyes. He will alert me when someone is trying to sneak up behind me. He even does it when we are on the move. He will give me a soft hoot to tell me that someone is behind me.
And because he is just as stubborn as I am, it took us years to get this right.
As I entered further into the castle, the sounds of fighting began to settle. I quickened my pace in fear. Did we just fucking lose? Did we really just give up and put our wands down?
My worries were forgotten as I entered the Great Hall. The House tables had been set up for patients. But there were no Death Eaters. I was slightly confused, but pretty grateful. People were rushing to and fro. I could see Madame Pomfry working quickly and silently. I surveyed the room. There were a lot of people with cuts and bruises. There was even more people lying prone. I could see unshed tears in eyes as everyone worried about their loved ones and friends. I saw some people openly weeping for those were fallen. I quickly diverted my gaze. I could not think about that. It hurt too much.
"Hey look, the promiscuous lady survived!" a cocky voice said to my left. I snapped my gaze over to see a Weasley twin smirking while his brother was copying him.
"We tried to call you-"
"But we couldn't find you-"
"You missed the Death Eaters, y'know-"
"And they didn't even get to see your goodies." they finished together. I almost got whiplash from their twin game. The next time they do that, I will just stare at one of them.
"Pity. They missed what would have been quite the show. But I didn't miss all the Death Eaters." I leant my body against the door jam, "Caught two of them harassing some sixth years and decided to intervene. They are knocked out cold in the fourth floor corridor." I felt Denali fly off my shoulder, "And no, I didn't get to show off my goodies." I caught one of them trying to open their mouth to speak.
"Damn, brother o' mine." HA! I can tell them apart now. One is missing an ear. And it was not the one who just spoke either. So I will call them Twin Holey and Twin Wholly until I find out their names.
Three points to Henny!
"You took on two Death Eaters?" Twin Holey sounded impressed.
"And survived?" Twin Wholly looked surprised.
I just shrugged my shoulders.
"It's not so hard if you know what you are-Gah!" my face exploded with pain.
"You stupid bitch! You selfish, stupid, ugly bitch!" I stumbled forward. My cheek was on fire and now my knees hurt from falling down. But that voice sounded familiar.
"Seriously, Rosie? You can't just about punching people in the face!" another familiar voice said incredulously. I snapped my head up and my vision blurred.
"I will do what the fuck I want when my stupid best friend is nowhere to be found when I arrive at the place she is staying! You hear that, you selfish whore?" I felt someone pick me up.
"Well, brother o'mine, looks like we are not needed here." Twin Wholly stated.
"Not if someone is going to be hitting people in the face." Twin Holey responded before I heard them walk away.
"Rosie? Kram?" I whispered. I felt a wetness run down my cheeks. My own tears were falling.
"Who else?" Mark murmured into my hair. He was hugging me tightly.
"You have some explaining to do, bitch." I heard Kadie say in a cool voice. I pulled from Mark as tears continued to fall from my eyes. My family is here!
"I don't even care that you have done nothing but call me horrible names! I am just happy you are here!" and then my good feelings flipped into bad ones, "Wait! You can't be here! There is a war going on! You need to leave. Go to daddy and stay as far away from here!" I furiously wiped away the offending saltiness. I must be getting tired.
"Like hell I am." Kadie crossed her arms defiantly, "Plus, we can't. Daddy is here not at home. So there!" she stuck her tongue out at me. I sputtered at the action.
Wait! What?
"Dad is here?" I started looking around, "Where?"
"Right here." a deep baritone voice answered my question. I twirled around and saw my father.