AN: Just a very short one today.
24. AVADA KEDAVRA
The Lestrange Manor was exactly as she had imagined it. It looked as though it was once an impressive building, but not one that had ever been beautiful. It was dark and imposing. There were cobwebs in every corner, and broken pictures on every wall. There was a thick layer of soot and dirt on the floor; there were few windows, so there was little light. She imagined that once the Lestranges were locked in Azkaban, the place fell into disrepair, but even if the place was clean and tidy, it would still have terrified her. It was clear to all those who entered that this was the home of a dark witch and wizard.
Hermione passed through the hallway and followed the sound of muffled voices. There was someone here at least, which was a good sign. Or so she hoped. She checked that the room was empty, before moving swiftly through to the lounge. The voices got clearer, and Hermione realised that one of the sounds was a haunting whimpering. She swallowed the lump in her throat and moved through to what seemed to be the dining room. Hermione heard her before she saw her. That obnoxious cackle flooded Hermione with fear. She turned behind her and saw four faded outlines, and assumed that Ronald was somewhere nearby. They didn't have much time. The potions would wear off in no time. She had to act quickly.
'Expelliarmus', Hermione whispered, and Bellatrix's wand shot straight out of her hand.
Hermione couldn't explain entirely why she had chosen that spell in particular, but it had worked so well for Harry in the past it seemed to leave her lips involuntarily. Bellatrix shrieked and whipped around looking for the caster.
"You", she said, bearing down on Lucius Malfoy, who was hunched on his knees in the corner of the room, magically bound by his hands. "You did this"
"Did what?" Lucius asked.
His voice was pathetic and Hermione's stomach turned.
Bellatrix reached for her wand and lifted it, pointing the tip to Malfoy's temple.
"I will not hesitate", Bellatrix said in a voice so cold the room turned to ice. "Do not try me, Lucius."
"Bella, please!" Narcissa wailed from beside her husband. "We are sisters. Do not let his war turn us against each other."
Hermione hadn't noticed Narcissa, as her eyes had been glued to Lucius.
"You dare talk to me", Bellatrix hissed. "You are no sister of mine!"
Hermione took in the scene before her. Rodolphus and Crabbe Senior paced around the room as Bellatrix took the lead. Both Goyles, father and son, sat on either side of the grand Chesterfield sofa, with their legs hitched up under them, like the gargoyles that adorned the manor's facade. Lucius, knelt before them, in front of a towering bookcase, with his white hair sticky with blood, was beside the slight and beautiful woman, with all of her sharp edges. She was curled at his side like a frightened dog. Behind her, the small and broken figure of Draco Malfoy, lay curled in the foetal position. The silver glare of Lumos came from an unknown source. It illuminated him, bathing him in a pearlescent light. His eyes were closed, but Hermione could see the rise and fall of his chest, as he cowered. His face was littered with small cuts. He'd been punished, she assumed, but for what? As Bellatrix moved towards Draco, Narcissa flung herself in front of her son, shielding him from her sister. Severus, however, was nowhere to be seen.
"Bombarda!" Hermione yelled, and the bookcase behind the Malfoys came crashing to the ground.
The effect was enough that it shocked the Death Eaters into action and the Malfoys began to scramble to their feet. Spells began to fire from behind her, some were verbal, others silent as they began their assault.
"Homenum Revelio!" screamed Rodolphus.
Hermione, Remus, Neville and Bill became immediately visible. Ron however, stayed safely disappeared beneath the cloak. The sight of each other urged them all into action. Hermione began shooting spells at Bellatrix, one after the other. She was surprised by how many of them actually worked, although some fizzled out before reaching their potential. Bellatrix only laughed.
"Nice try, little girl", she said, "but not nice enough!"
Hermione stepped over a pile of broken glass and shouted hex after jinx and dodged Bellatrix's many returning curses. Hermione threw up a shield charm between herself and Neville, who was locked in battle with Goyle Jr just in time to deflect the killing curse that whipped out of Goyle's wand.
Bill took on Crabbe Senior, springing around the room with both arrogance and grace, and it was that which always made him seem so cool. His red hair whipped as he dodged a hex from Crabbe, and then he struck him with a leglocker curse. Crabbe fell to his feet and Bill disarmed him, then bound him, and threw him into the corner of the room, in the pile of debris from the destroyed bookcase. Lupin was in one on one combat with Rodolphus Lestrange, who was, Hermione knew, a very powerful wizard. Thankfully Remus was more than a match for him. Tonks appeared in the room, brandishing her wand like a dagger, she began screaming, as she joined in the fray.
"Stupefy! Expelliarmus! Petrificus Totalus!... Get the fuck off my husband, you death eating piece of shit... Immobulus!"
Hermione locked eyes with Neville for just a moment, but it was long enough that Bellatrix was able to screech "DEPULSO" sending Hermione ricocheting back into the dining table. The small of her back hit the table's edge and Hermione let out a devastating cry of agony.
"Fuck you!" Hermione screamed "... Incendio!"
Fire whipped around Bellatrix and Hermione focused every ounce of her energy on moving the flame so that it surrounded Bellatrix. It was much harder than it needed to be, but still, she managed. Neville staggered backwards, on the back end of some jinx or other. Hermione opened her mouth to help him but he got there first yelling "FLIPPENDO", which knocked Goyle Jr unsteady, long enough for him to yell again.
"Flippendo! Expelliarmus!" and Goyle's wand ripped through the air.
Neville caught it tight in his hands. Bill came up behind him and magically bound Goyle, leaving him in the pile with Crabbe.
Ron blasted curses and jinxes at Goyle Senior, who looked around stupidly trying to find the power's source. Ron roared "SECTUMSEMPRA" and it echoed around the room. Deep cuts appeared on Goyle's face, and tore through his clothes to his body beneath. He fell to the ground and Ron went to rip his cloak off.
"No!" Hermione yelled, "I've got this! Take down Lestrange!"
"Which one?!"
Hermione began the counter curse, to heal Goyle's wounds. She turned to face the maniacal woman. Bellatrix ripped through the fire, her cloak aflame and moved towards them like a stalking panther.
"That one!" Hermione yelled and Ron shot up a shield just in time.
"Confringo!" Ron shouted as he hurtled towards Bellatrix.
She deflected it with ease and cast her own curse. Ron whipped his wand forward but not quite in time. Bellatrix's face filled with a devilish grin as she prepared to kill.
"Avada Kedav-"
"No!" Bill screamed and he threw himself in front of the curse.
Hermione ran up the stairs of the Lestrange Manor.
Bill is dead, she told herself. Bill is dead. Another Weasley ripped from the world. Fleur's husband, the father of her unborn child... gone.
She needed to find Severus; he had to be here. Whether or not she would find him alive, she did not know but she would find him. She left the others fighting off the remaining Death Eaters. Hermione felt a tug at her arm and she whipped around, pointing her wand in the face of Narcissa Malfoy.
"You're looking for Severus", she said, and she locked her eyes with Hermione in the defiant way that said, 'you could kill me, but I know something you want to know'.
"Where is he?" Hermione snapped.
"Follow me", Narcissa said, hitching her dress up to her knees so that she could run. "He's in their chambers. I won't lie he's probably not in a very..."
Narcissa trailed off and stared at the floor. Hermione's eyes followed at saw the sight that had rocked her. Slick blood on the floor pooled and then stretched behind a closed door. Someone has been dragged, Hermione, thought. And she prayed to the Gods that he was dragged kicking and screaming and not... The thought was too difficult to complete.
"Severus?!" Hermione shrieked as she kicked down the door. "Are you in here?"
Her voice was frantic.
"HERE!" Narcissa said sharply, and pulled the blood-soaked sheet from atop the beaten, broken body of Severus Snape.
"No!" Hermione screamed, and her body seemed to lift off the ground and tore her from the earth. Her tether was broken. The world faded to black.
Hermione blinked as she adjusted to the harsh light in front of her eyes. She felt her body tremble, then rock back and forth as though it meant to cast her soul out from the inside. She heard a buzz of voices, and with a moment of panic, she realised she was alive. She remembered. She wasn't trembling she was being shaken. Ron's voice came in a whimper.
"Hermione? Please, wake up."
She blinked again, only this time she really opened her eyes and she sought the sound.
"Oh thank the Gods!"
The room erupted into sound behind her.
"STAY BACK, BELLA, IF YOU TOUCH HIM, I'LL KILL YOU!"
Hermione craned her head from her position. She was lying down, it seemed. Ron must have still been covered by the invisibility cloak because he was nowhere to be seen but Bellatrix stood, black as night, imposing and terrible above her. She had her wand pressed to Draco's head and her arm wrapped around his neck.
"Oh will you now, blood traitor!?" Bella said, in a voice so menacing that Hermione felt her stomach churn. "Crucio!"
Draco dropped the floor beside Hermione and began to writhe. He did not scream but the saliva curdled in his throat. She looked at the bed where she knew Severus lay and gazed at his hand that poked out from the sheet. She stared at it, begging it to move; just the twitch of a finger, something, anything, so she would know that not all was lost. It remained motionless and Hermione let out a gentle, all-consuming moan of sheer misery.
Hermione felt, rather than saw, Ron stand tall. She heard his voice come, shaking and unsure. She felt his legs log behind her, and plant firmly as he stood his ground.
"Avada Kedavra", he whispered.
She saw only a fizzle of green light from the darkness. Bellatrix struck Narcissa with Sectumsempra and then spun on her heel. Ron pulled off the invisibility cloak and dropped it onto Hermione. Bellatrix cackled with absolute sickening, delight.
"You have to mean it" she said, with a smile that did not suit her face. "You cannot just say the words. You have to look me in the eyes and mean it. You have to imagine my death- you have to crave it above all else. Didn't your little friend Potter teach you that?"
Ron stepped backwards, holding his wand aloft, pointing it at Bellatrix. His face was a cold white as she moved towards him. Hermione carefully shifted herself out of Bellatrix's path under the cover of the cloak. Bellatrix was so focused on Ron that she seemed to forget Hermione was there.
"I'll show you how it's done, if you'd like", Bellatrix said. "I'll give you one last lesson before you die."
Bellatrix raised her wand and Ron shielded his face with one hand.
"Levicorpus!" Ron yelled, but Bellatrix deflected easily with a swish of her wand.
"I don't think so, you little shit!" she spat.
"Relashio!" he said, and his voice fractured.
He's panicking, Hermione thought. She searched the floor for her wand, patting wildly all around her. Where were the others? Were they still in battle with Rodolphus? Surely they should have taken him down by now. Hermione felt her fingertips brush something smooth and solid. A pulse of magic energy shot through her hand. It was a wand- hopefully hers. She curled her shaking fingers around it and held it in front of her as Bellatrix moved down on Ron.
"Expelliarmus", Ron muttered. "Expelliarmus! Expelliarmus!"
Bellatrix deflected each one. She crammed towards him and her black figure crowded Hermione's view.
All she could see was Bellatrix. The woman who had tried to destroy Severus; the woman who had tried to steal from him something that was not hers to take. The woman who assaulted him, tortured him, sent him back to her every night bloody and bereft. This woman who had tortured Neville's parents to insanity, leaving a little boy without a mother or father. This woman who had killed Sirius- the closest thing Harry had to a father.
This woman who had found her at the last battle, curled up, cowering, covered in her own blood. This woman who had crucioed her, toying with her before she killed her. This woman who had burnt the word 'Mudblood' into the inside of her mouth to remind her that her screams of anguish meant nothing. She was less than shit on her boot. It was her secret shame, carved into the inside of her cheek.
"Do you taste that?" Bellatrix asked with a sneer. "I can smell it. That's your filthy, dirty blood."
"Come now, Bella, let us not play with the children. Kill her and move on."
"Oh. Let me have my fun, Lucius."
It was Bellatrix having her fun that had kept Hermione alive, as Minerva McGonagall approached in the nick of time.
Hermione snapped back to the present as Bellatrix moved towards Ron. He searched for her, but under the cloak she was hidden. She stood up and moved until she was right where she needed to be. Right behind Bellatrix. She lifted her wand, stuck it right by Bellatrix's throat. Bellatrix moved closer still to Ron and Hermione followed- never breaking her gaze. Bellatrix made herself wide and proud. She deflected Ron's spells until he'd all but given up. Hermione considered her options, as she always did in times of trouble. She came up short.
She heard the rush of footsteps on the stairs. Thank God. But they didn't come quick enough. Hermione noted the crushing feeling in her chest, like a boa constrictor wrapped around her heart at the sound of Bellatrix's laughter. She thinks she has defeated us, she thought.
Has she?
Bellatrix opened her mouth and Hermione felt a surge of panic in her chest as Bellatrix began to curse.
"AV-"
"Avada Kedavra!" Hermione spat, and Bellatrix dropped to the floor.