Horace's party was over a week ago now, but Daphne couldn't stop replaying her interaction with Harry in her head.
It haunted her like a bad dream, and like a bad dream, she found herself kept coming back to it.
The first Quidditch match of the year was on tonight. The staff spent the day preparing for it and as such most of the castle mundane responsibilities were dumped onto the Head-Girl. Chaperoning first years, filing incident reports and overseeing all manners of things she normally never concerned herself with, by the time twilight began to set in Daphne had well and truly worked herself to the bone. Cramming herself into a crowded stadium and watching Harry for two hours was at the bottom of the long list of toxic things that she didn't want to put herself through right now.
So as the students drained out of the castle and towards the Quidditch Pitch, she took the opportunity to slip unnoticed back into the abandoned common room. Isolation, again, came as her saviour. She'd ran her social limit dry and deserved an early night. Today was one of her busiest yet, and wasn't helped by yet another sleepless night she'd had previous. She'd earned a break. She had earned the right to think about herself, nobody could take that from her.
Hugging her pillow tightly, she let out a troubled moan. Now came the tricky part. In truth, even isolation was no longer the sanctuary that it once was anymore.
Her nightmares had been getting worse.
Unspecific voices and blurry images, but always carrying an aura of dread. She never remembered them, only how they made her feel. They'd gotten worse since Horace's party and she knew why. She was a casualty in the civil war being fought between her brain and heart. It was a long list of losses, including her families respect, the little social-life that she had and now finally her own sanity was heading the same direction.
She couldn't take living this life much longer.
A white-hot, pulsating pain shot through her system. The scorching was unlike anything she'd ever experienced; it took her the better half of a full five seconds to figure out she wasn't in another nightmare, and the agony was coming from somewhere on her person.
She lashed out, but there was no one attacking her, and nothing around to help her. Just darkness on all sides, accompanied by a haunting screeching sound. Her body was convulsing, scrambling for help and only stopped when her head collided harshly into a wooden object. White dots danced in her peripheral. It was that shock to the system that made her realise the wailing sound she could hear were her own, demented cries. She focused in on the pain and tried to claw it out, but just ended up with a hand-full of bandages instead. The burning was coming from a lot deeper than just surface level.
Her wand. She needed her wand.
She flung herself back to where she thought her bed was, which was impossible to tell in the pitch black, to scramble across it. Her hand collided with the bedside table, knocking everything stationed atop of it across the room and involuntarily cracking her wrist and several knuckles with it. The pain of the impact was enough to distract her from the burning sensation on her arm, but that quickly wore off and another wash over of agony swept her system again.
Then suddenly there was a light. A beam of light, spreading out across the ceiling at an alarming rate and illuminating the room around her. Daphne realised that she was laying on her back and upside down. That, and she had company.
"UP! GET UP!"
Before she had time to acknowledge, Severus Snape was upon her. Daphne fought against him as the Professor attempted to wrestle her arm away from her. He won out and she felt his wand forced into her forearm.
The pain stopped.
A wave of relief hit her, pleasure like she had never experienced in her life, and she collapsed face-first onto her mattress.
"You've been summoned by the Death Eaters. Get dressed."
Despite it only being the two of them in her dorm, it took Daphne stupidly long to realise that he was addressing her. A weak mumble was all she could muster, and that was mostly said into her blanket
"UP! Do everything you're told, don't talk back to anybody and do not question decisions that are made. Do whatever you must to get back alive, report to me directly after all is done."
She shifted her head, only to get hit by the blinding light from the corridor behind him. She snatched a hand over her eyes, and it only just registered now how revealing her bed-clothes were. She seized the blankets from around her and pulled herself to the edge of her bed. She forced words from her throat, trying to demand an explanation, but again only gave a disorientated muttering.
"I've been... What…?"
"Greengrass, go! Everything will be explained to you there. Look after yourself."
There was a pleading in Professor Snape's tone that unnerved Daphne in a way she never thought possible. She was suddenly very much awake.
Her stomach churned and turned inside out and backwards, and then all at once, she was fine again.
She had just apparated independently for the first time. But that wasn't possible. She knew it wasn't. She was in her dormitory, nobody could apparate in or out of Hogwarts. This couldn't be a dream, could it? Her eyes leaked slowly over to her arm. No, this was no dream. The tattoo, the Death Eater's symbol of darkness, must also serve a practical use as a Portkey. It made sense that they had an ingenious way of evacuating or being summoned in emergencies. After taking a second to check her limbs were still in place, Daphne was almost impressed.
Her satisfaction was short lived, as it occurred to her exactly why she'd been brought here.
The Death Eaters summoned her? The only thing that sprung to mind this could be about was Harry, which she didn't enjoy considering how they'd respond to her recent developments. She was automatically at a disadvantage meeting on their terms, she had absolutely no time to prepare her argument or build herself up for it. That was it, wasn't it? She was in trouble with them, these were the consequences that Snape had been talking about and the bastard had still sent her here willingly. At Hogwarts she at least had temporary protection. If it hadn't been for the fact she was awake barely seconds before being sent here, she'd have fought more about coming. But then again, if the pain in her arm was what they could do to her at will… maybe it was best she if played it cooperative tonight.
That was it. Tonight she needed to be apologetic and grovelling. Just as the Professor said, she had to do and say whatever she needed to be let off the hook. There was no salvation for dead girls.
Now she had a mindset planned, she felt slightly better about the situation.
But it wasn't just that causing it though, as more and more things about her environment were suddenly beginning to jump out as familiar to her. She squinted through the darkness properly for the first time, and to her surprise, found herself back in the Greengrass Woodhouse.
Her heart leapt in her chest. Her father - if he was here, then it could provide a serious tactical advantage. Looking around it took her a few seconds to properly deduce which room she was in. She recognised it as the second drawing room, just down the hall from the first, where his office was. She dashed off in that direction, but as she pulled open the large door to the drawing room, suddenly halted in her tracks.
Three people - Death Eaters, she presumed - were already here and spaced out across the room. They glanced at her as she entered but otherwise didn't take much notice. More than that, they also didn't have their masks on, and she was able to recognise two of them as ones present during her initiation. The Death Eaters she knew, the Carrows, were beside the door she would need to go through to get to her father, so she quickly found herself abandoning that idea.
Not one to take a gift horse in vein, she straightened up her back and tried to look as natural as possible.
The room suddenly seemed very large around her as she moved inside and attempted to look busy. Nobody seemed hostile towards her right now, which she thanked her blessings for, and couldn't help the tiniest bit of hope that she was mistaken over the reason she'd been called here. There was a feeling of eerie unfamiliarity at seeing these people, capable of so much evil and death, in a room she'd spent her life growing up in. Whatever the reason they were here was, she had a sneaking idea that the others didn't know what it was either.
There was another Death Eater, a woman that she didn't know, lingering nearby. Daphne did a double-take of her. The woman, who on closer inspection didn't look too much older than her, seemed distinctly familiar, though Daphne swore they'd never met before. She was pretty, had piercing violet eyes - which she'd almost mistaken for red when she entered - and brown medium-length hair, but with a bizarre, badly bleached section on her fringe. It was such a peculiar hairstyle it was no wonder she stuck out to her, but nonetheless, Daphne also couldn't shake the feeling they had met before.
Unfortunately for her, her wandering eyes did not go unnoticed and she wasn't able to look away in time; now they stood staring at one another. Though her heart plummeted in her chest, but she didn't look away. It was all about nerves and honour with these people, she reminded herself. Yielding would make her seem weak. But the woman didn't seem interested in a staring contest and instead, just smirked.
"You're Benedict's kid, right?"
Daphne straightened up again. She was really doing this. She was having small-talk with a Death Eater. She could do this. She just needed to be the Ice Queen that she knew she could be. She cleared her throat, determined her first words as a Death Eater weren't to come out as a squeak.
"My name is Daphne Greengrass."
The woman's mouth broke into a smile, but her eyes narrowed into an intense gaze.
"I heard about you... You took over as the Witch-Prodigy after I left."
It took her a second for the words to register in her brain as a compliment, but by the time they did, the woman had already moved onto introducing herself.
"My name is Merula Snyde, you've probably heard of me. I was the greatest witch at Hogwarts in my time. Good to meet you."
She offered her hand which Daphne didn't delay in taking. Admittedly the woman's name rang absolutely no bells, but she feigned a smile regardless.
"A pleasure…"
She intended on saying more than that, but in the back of her head a voice was shouting at her these were not the people that she should be making friends with. Merula finished shaking her hand and moved off into the room, gesturing grandly around them.
"This is your place? It's fine, I guess. I was here for the Christmas-do last year... shame you couldn't make it."
"My sister was ill," Daphne said plainly, and then mumbled, "Family comes first."
She strained her brain to remember, but come to think of it, she did vaguely recall her father mentioning there was someone close to her age attending. How old was Merula? She was surprisingly young, didn't look more than thirty, which stuck out as odd, since she'd never seen any one of that niche age interested in the Death Eaters. She would have been a child when the Dark Lord originally vanished, so how had she gotten involved with things this time around?
Then, Daphne had a troubling discernment that not all people joined the cause because they were forced into it, some people joined because they believed in it.
Their brief conversation was broken when the doors to the room opened and her father suddenly came bustling in, carrying arm-fulls of scrolls and papers and being tailed by a feeble rat-like man.
"Gather in, gather in!" he commanded.
He spilled the contents of his arms out onto the coffee table, and Merula and the Carrows were quick in filling in around him. Daphne was slower, as the sight of a pair of Death Eaters settling down on the couch that Astoria slept on had all but completely churned her stomach. She perched herself on the arm of a sofa, and saw the papers were full of detailed maps.
"This is the area you'll be raiding. They have protections up so you won't be able to apparate in. We'll give you coordinates that will get you as close as you can, but it'll be mostly guest work on your part. Once you've landed you'll have to go the rest of the way on foot, Carrows are going to approach from the north, Daphne and Snyde from the south. Both groups converge in the middle. They're not prepped for a land-attack so you should be able to walk straight through the defences. But be cautious. The first spell you cast will light up the entire countryside, so only cast when it becomes a last resort. We don't know how many Aurors are positioned there, Yaxley tells us at least four. For now, we're trying to keep a low profile, so avoid deaths if you can. Hostages are acceptable, but aim for knocking out. You're after this…"
He brought another, older-looking scroll out an unravelled it, revealing a sketch of a long, red-tinted weapon.
"...The Spear of Longinus. The Ministry got wind the Dark Lord wants it and they're trying to smuggle it out of the country. This is the last place it's going to be before it drops off the map completely. As soon as one of you have it, apparate back here immediately. Any questions?"
The Carrow man - Daphne didn't know first names - scoffed loudly.
"How can we apparate if they've got defences up?"
"It's a ward enchantment. One-sided in case of emergencies," her father pointed sternly at the map. "Getting out won't be a problem, getting in will be. It also means that if you're found out, the spear will be out of there in seconds... so don't get found out."
The whole time he had been explaining, Daphne had been aggressively trying to catch his line of sight. Not only hadn't she managed it, her father hadn't looked in her direction a single time, and she knew all too well why.
"If that'll be all? Move out in sync when you're ready."
Seemingly done with the briefing, her father jolted up from his seat. The wormy man beside him flinched in surprise. As the Carrows and Merula sealed around the maps he left them, Daphne jumped from her position and snaked her way around the back of the couches.
"Daddy!" she whispered harshly.
Her father stopped in his tracks. He'd obviously been trying to get away from her quickly and failed. He turned around, an apprehensive look on his face.
"Yes… sweetheart?"
He smiled uneasily.
"I don't want to go."
She tried to keep her quiet, but the look she was receiving off the rat-looking man indicated he'd heard her. Her face was cold back at him, and eventually he shrunk feebly away from her glare. Her father looked like he desperately had something to say but was avoiding saying it.
"Stay behind Snyde," he said quietly, glancing at the others. "You'll be in and out like it's nothing."
Daphne opened her mouth to retort, but a sudden glare from her father caught the words in her mouth.
"Trust me, Daphne… You need this going for you."
Those were his last words before turning back and disappearing through the same entrance he had come, with the rat-man scuttling after him.
She didn't enjoy the implication behind his words, but understood them all the same. He was giving her to make up for things. Word about the breakup without a doubt would have reached him and The Dark Lord, and now she'd been given this task to amend for her failure. It had probably taken her father a lot of grovelling to get her this chance, so she wasn't about to start entertaining such possibilities that she was completely off the hook yet.
Daphne turned back to the Death Eaters and took a difficult breath.
There was a lingering feeling in the back of her head that this whole time had been another nightmare. It wasn't. This was real life. It was just one job, she could do that. Just get through a few defences and get out unnoticed, that wasn't too difficult, it was a stealth mission, she wouldn't have to kill or torture anybody.
Muggles used to burn witches and wizards. Pure-blood wizarding families were a disappearing breed and magic itself was dying out because of it. Mudbloods were bastardising their already-dying culture. These weren't opinions, they were fact. She believed in the cause, that did not make her a bad person. Death Eaters were a means to an end, correcting a course that should have never been altered in the first place. She would do her part for the greater good. After she'd done it, she'd be back in her father's good books and have completed her purpose as a Death Eater. Then she could move on and leave the nasty business behind her, satisfied that she'd done her part.
Daphne was confident in her abilities, but her attempts to psych herself up were unsuccessful.
The Death Eaters moved to their positions and she hurried not to get left behind. The Carrows moved back to the corner of the room, bickering between themselves before holding hands and disappearing instantly in a quick snap. She knew how apparition worked in theory, just had yet to actually apply her knowledge to practice, and their lessons weren't scheduled to have them actually disapperating until after Christmas break.
Her eyes floated to Merula. She didn't know the woman, but already knew she'd rather be going with her than the Carrows. If her father, of all people, could vouch for her, then she would be sticking close by her side. She was far from a friend, but tonight she'd be a lifeline.
It took her a moment to realise Merula was staring questionably back at her. Daphne kept her face still.
"I've only just began my Apparition lessons... Could I join you?"
Merula snorted. It wasn't a joyous laugh and a sinking feeling struck Daphne in the gut.
"Yikes kid, they really snatched you up young didn't they?" she laughed at her. "What year are you even in?"
The corners of Daphne's mouth turned down.
"Fifth."
Merula laughed obnoxiously again, "You're what, sixteen? Seventeen?"
"Sixteen," Daphne clarified.
Even though the woman was laughing at her, Daphne knew it wasn't her age that she found funny.
"You can come with me. But, you owe me."
Wherever they landed mustn't have been too far off the Hogwarts grounds, though there wasn't a hint of snow around them, the wind was equally as harsh and cold as it were in that region. She responded to the apparition better than she had last year, and was actually able to keep on her feet as they landed. The grass reached her knees and from what she could tell through the dark, they'd landed in a hilly field somewhere. There wasn't a single light on the horizon and the sky above them was clouded over, she felt disoriented as she struggled to differentiate what darkness was what.
"Put your mask on, idiot!" Merula's voice came out muffled.
Daphne lifted the silver-ornament in her hands. Her father had left his own out for her, she didn't know why she didn't get her own, but definitely wasn't about to start complaining about it. As she secured it over her face she found the visibility much better than expected, in fact, the inside of the mask was completely-see through. If it wasn't for the fact she could feel it on her face, she wouldn't have even guessed she was wearing anything.
"Half a mile, that direction."
Merula began moving in front of her, Daphne pushed through the weeds to keep up with her.
Now they were moving into the wind, the cold was getting at her more. They had no shelter and with winter on the horizon, the baggy cloaks only did so much to shield her from the elements. It had either rained or snowed here recently, she hadn't noticed it before, but now she could tell how wet the grass was they were wading through. She thanked the old-god that she had the sense to wear leggings under her robes, but despite this, within minutes she was shivering - and apparently wasn't the only one.
"Can't believe they're making us walk this far. Who the hell do they take us for?" Merula grumbled.
Daphne didn't know if the question was rhetorical, but kept silent. As they ventured into the field, her eyes began processing more of the dark around them. They had landed on one of several hills that seemed to curve together around a valley. Daphne didn't know specifically what they were looking for, but doubted the Aurors would be defending the item they were after out in the open. It was probably being held at some kind of safe house inside the valley, which was why they were heading deeper in.
Daphne shivered bitterly and pulled her robes closer around her. She had been hoping as they descended into the valley and onto lower ground that the wind would die a little, but if anything, the hills must have created a wind tunnel, because it now felt stronger than before. Her fingers had gone numb around her wand; if they were attacked right now she'd probably be powerless to defend herself. The only thing breaking up the time was the occasional muddy-sinkhole that she'd almost lose a boot in, or an unexpected rock that she'd knock against. She didn't know how long they'd been walking for, but Greengrass Woodhouse suddenly felt hours ago.
"Your father says you're a good duellist, that will be handy. We'll look out for each other, alright? I've got your back."
Merula's proclamation broke the silence and had come seemingly from nowhere, but Daphne wasn't going to question it.
"Thank you."
Daphne gave her answer sincerely, but doubted it actually came across that way.
They finally reached the bottom of the incline and took to moving through the valley. The grass was higher here and there were more puddles, Daphne deduced in the summertime the valley was likely a swamp-front, but was now a frozen wasteland instead. It would sincerely help her to know if they were in a magical area of the country or not, come to think of it, should she be expecting an Imp or a Welsh Green Dragon to come barrelling at them through the darkness?
She briefly thought about asking Merula, but immediately abandoned that idea. Daphne wasn't scared of her but was very cautious about staying on her goodside.
There was still nothing on the horizon, which was beginning to trouble her. Even in this dark they should be able to make out some kind of outline of a building. Which could only mean either they were still a long way off or the spear had better protection than they thought. Neither possibility thrilled her in this cold.
The longer they were walking towards nothing the more she found herself doubting her words of encouragement earlier. She was way in over her head, but she had to follow it through. It didn't matter if she was here with good intentions, unlike the rest of them, she was still committing a crime with known-Death Eaters. It was Azkaban, plain and simple, even her father couldn't protect her from that.
She was a Death Eater. Daphne Greengrass was a Death Eater… somehow, the reality of that was only striking her now. Her trudging forward got slower, keeping close to Merula, but now maintaining a sensible distance between them
"So, you're shagging Harry Potter, right?"
Daphne's mouth fell limply open.
How did she even respond to that? Technically, yes, but actually no? Was she asking if they were together, or if they had… if they'd actually...
"Disgusting what they have us doing," Merula answered for her. "Wouldn't be that way if I were in charge... I'd treat us Death Eaters with the respect we actually deserve."
She stomped a foot in frustration, which just splashed mud back up her leg. She either didn't notice, or pretended not to, and carried on sloughing through the wetland. Daphne stifled a nod.
That was the first she'd heard of anyone on the Death Eater's side talk bad of the Dark Lord.
"Don't talk much, do you?"
For once, Daphne finally had a good answer for her.
"I talk too much."
Merula let out an obnoxious cackle. It was almost reminiscent of the cheeky laughs Tracey would have at her expense.
"Smart kid."
Then suddenly - as soon as second she'd finished her sentence, the pair of them were struck by a blinding light meters ahead of them. A heavenly firework, brighter than the sun itself, ascended into the heavens. It lit up the entire environment around them like it were mid-day, and completely clouded Daphne's vision..
"Down! Down!"
Merula - she presumed - snatched her by the sleeve. She hit the ground head-first, the sludge squelching beneath her Daphne and was now extremely thankful she'd been warned to put on the mask. She tore her head up from the mud and cursed.
About twenty-meters ahead there was an old worn-down shack, now lit up like Christmas Day and a horrific alarm blaring from it.
"Carrows sprung the trap, those dirty-!"
A red jolt - impossibly fast - shot from the house and collided with Merula, launching her from her crouch and sending her flailing backwards through the air. She didn't even hit the ground before a dozen more spells came hurtling in their direction, and Daphne saw multiple Aurors descending on them out of the shack.
She forced herself into the mud. An explosion went off nearby, somewhere behind the shack, and she saw a flinging of bodies through the air. Her eyes were still adjusting to the fireworks, black spots and moving figures danced in and out of her vision. There was a battle going on close-by, probably between the Carrows and the Aurors, but she could only discern such from the sound of castings and impacts.
She should have fought harder about coming here, she should have put up any real kind of resistance - done anything she could have to not come.
She had absolutely no intention of getting into a duel with any Ministry Aurors tonight. The Spear of Longinus meant nothing to her, and if the mission was already botched and then it wasn't her fault. She'd sooner turn up empty handed than end up beaten and broken in Azkaban. Her only escape was lying about five meters behind her, and god knows if she was in any state to apparate them out.
Daphne threw herself backwards and began scrabbling back the way she came through the mud. She wasn't as subtle as she'd hoped; a second jolt of the bright-red lightning shot over her shoulder. She cursed again under her breath. The light in the sky let her just about make out the fallen form of Merula. As she closed in on her, the Death Eater began to stir.
"Those… sons of... " she mumbled groggily.
"Get us out! Right now!"
Merula pulled herself onto her stomach and then tried struggling to her knees.
"We need… to get… the spear..."
Daphne snatched Merula by the shoulder and dragged her back into the safety of the grass.
"We need out! Apparate us!" she snapped.
A new noise entered the scene, standing apart from the explosions and shouting. Daphne looked up to see white-plumps of smoke streaking across the sky. She recognised them as the same, if not similar, to the ones from the Battle of the Department of Mysterious.
The grass gave them shelter from the Aurors on the ground, but here they were in plain sight. Daphne tried to pull Merula into a lower position, but too late, the plums of smoke were already soaring towards her. Daphne struck her wand into the air.
"BOMBARDA!"
That was her usual go-to spell. It was destructive and disorientating, usually providing a good distraction for a get-away. But the Aurors simply dove around the spell and it exploded-mid air, doing nothing but spacing them out a bit more.
One of the flying Aurors, Daphne couldn't tell which one, cast in their direction, and it was only her movement-memory that allowed her to summon a shield charm in time. This kicked off a barrage of spells from different directions, she was quickly out-numbered a dozen to one and her shield fell. A Flipendo took her in the chest. Her neck snapped forward and her body smashed into Merula. Daphne landed miserably in the mud, wheezing miserably.
Merula jabbed her wand into the sky beside her.
"CRUCIO!"
Whether she had very good aim, or just dumb luck, her spell collided with the Auror and the plume of the smoke covering them vanished, leaving behind a suffering man on a broom, who smashed into the ground a few meter's away from them.
Daphne gritted her teeth against a sudden tightness in her chest. She tried to follow suit and flailed her wand in the air, shouting a spell, but it just disappearing into the cloudy sky. Another spell, again she hadn't seen where it'd come from, almost collided with her shoulder, but now she was able to catch a good sight of the Aurors above her. There were four of them, each covered in a white plume of smoke, circling her and Merula.
Merula seemed to have somewhat recovered from her stunning and struggled to her feet. Daphne tried to snatch her back down, but dove in the way of a spell instead.
"Protego!"
The shield charm covered her and Merula and deflecting the on-coming curse. Merula snapped her wand around and shouted another unforgivable at the Auror, which again, collided on target. The Auror's light vanished and they fell from their broom. Daphne taking a split-second to watch the body fall was enough for another spell to come hurtling in their direction.
"Protego!"
This time it was Merula who cast the protection around them, and she knew what that meant. She aimed her wand at a spiralling plume of smoke but then paused. She was unable to bring herself to cast a truly harmful incantation. She yelled, a tickling-charm hit its target and sent an Auror falling from their broom, laughing the whole way to the floor.
Merula sent a glare her way, but she met her with a harsher one.
"APPARATE US!"
"We can take them!"
Merula swung her wand around and cast a series of charms that Daphne didn't recognition which then shot out like electricity from her wand and jumped between the two sky-born Aurors, sizzling them, quite literally, like lightning. They stumbled through the air briefly, before joining their brothers crashing into the mud.
Her single spell had taken both of them down. Outside from the distant rumblings of battle and the ball light hanging obviously above them, the sky was now still and free of Aurors.
Daphne had never seen that spell before, Merula was, without a doubt, truly as powerful of a witch as she had claimed to be.
"Stupefy!"
A curse came over her shoulder and hit Merula square in the chest. It must have been from one of the Aurors on they had grounded or one from the house had found them, but either way, Daphne didn't wait to find out. She spun on her heels and cast a protective charm, the same second another spell came colliding into it. The shield was barely cast in time and the resulting impact blew back on her.
The air was forced from her lungs and suddenly there was double of everything. She stumbled drunkenly backwards before tripping over Merula's unconscious figure. Her knees gave way and she landed on her back with a splash.
"Incarcerous!"
Daphne didn't stop moving when she fell, and rolled to the side, just in time to have the curse splatter into the mud next to her.
"Depluso!"
She succeeded in hitting the Auror in the leg, but she had been aiming for their chest. Nonetheless it did its job, and with a stomach-churning crack, the Aurors leg shattered beneath him and he fell to the ground, writhing in pain.
Daphne didn't wait. She grasped the grass around her and launched herself into a run.
She didn't know where she was going. She had no destination. Just that she needed to get away. She had spells coming over her shoulder, but there were less shouts than before. She took that as the Carrows had been taken down as well. Which meant she was the last one standing. She didn't plan on stopping to make sure.
She was going quick as her legs would carry her, which was difficult in this bog, but her years of recreational runs were finally paying off. Her lungs begged against her, and that tightness in her chest was now the foremost thing in her mind. She moved deeper into the grass and away from the shine of the alarm. The extra cover would give her a better chance at escaping, or at least finding somewhere to hide until this was all over. If there was any shelter nearby, anything that she could use to disguise herse-
An impact hit her and Daphne's vision went black.
The world was very still to her. The only sound discernible to her now was her own wheezing breaths. The entire world around her had fallen silent, as though she was the only living being in it. The spell hit her in just the right place, her legs had kept going and her spine bent backwards, she landed in a roly-poly position and there was now an overpowering taste of pennies in her mouth.
Her entire body was numb, but pulsating pain echoed around her system.
The first thing that came back to her was the cold. She licked her lips and swallowed, getting another hit of dirty pennies and winced. She let out a violent cough, blood spluttered from her mouth and onto the inside of the mask she'd forgotten she was wearing. The second thing that came back was a thumping beating in her head. First it started off in the distance, then gradually it got closer. It was the rhythmic thumping of her own heartbeat. Each thump flared the whiteness in her vision and put her head closer to the point she was sure it was going to burst.
She could see the sky above her now. No stars, just clouds. She decided to dare a glance back in the direction she came. Though upside-down, she could tell the small shack was now a burning fire, and there was a cavalry of white plumes landing around it. At least six Aurors were wading through the grass in her direction.
"STAND! LOWER YOUR WAND AND PUT YOUR HANDS UP!"
She tried slowly to pull herself up.
All around her, pain flared. Her chest contracted, tightening around her lungs to where she couldn't breathe. She stabled her hand against a sunken rock. Wand hand raised, she dragged herself weakly to her feet.
There was no escape. She had to fight for every breath. Her heartbeat was pounding in her head. Running wasn't an option anymore, and trying to on this terrain was useless, every step her boots sank more into the mud. Under her breath she tried to summon a broom to her, one of the Aurors, but nothing came of it. The pain had caught her up and now her adrenaline had ran out, it was over.
Everything must have happened from arrival to the attack within the space of an hour, but it felt like seconds ago she was still at home.
She longed for her dormitory.
For the common room.
For Tracey. And for Harry.
An important-looking Auror, a Ministry-member, approached her. Daphne's eyes gazed over the horizon and could distantly make out the figure of Merula being seen to other Aurors. The Carrows were nowhere to be seen.
"Remove your mask and hand over your wand."
One last-ditch attempt at freedom danced in her mind. It was a long shot. It was practically impossible and extremely dangerous. But, then again, thinking of the consequences she'd receive from this night… life wouldn't be worth living if she stayed here.
Her hands dropped from the air and with her hand pointed at Merula.
"CARPE RETRACTUM!"
A sticky orange-yellow substance erupted from her wand and latched onto Merula's fallen form. Daphne closed her eyes and concentrated.
Where was she right now? She was in a field, somewhere in the UK. That much she knew, but not much else. Where did she need to be? That was unimportant, so long as it was safe. Where did she know that was safe? She knew lots of places, but needed just one.
Somewhere safe, anywhere safe...
She opened her eyes, and the last thing she saw as the world drained away from her was the Ministry man diving towards her.
The world melted away and she doubled the grip on her wand. The next thing she knew she was falling in all directions. A feeling shot through her that was so bad, for a second it didn't even register as pain. It registered as something, a feeling, not a tingle, more like a blank space, and when that feeling died down into actual pain, only then did she gasp. Her body was screaming at her, but Daphne was forced her mind set straight.
Somewhere safe. Somewhere safe.
Her lungs were being crushed and the air was snatch viciously from her lungs. Up was down and left to right was inside and outside, the whole while she kept calm, despite her struggles, and regulated her breathing.
Then she hit the concrete.
The murk cleared and the air was still. The smell of grass had vanished. There was a blinding sterile light above her. The field had gone, they were now in some kind of underground station. Her eyes stung.
A blood-curdling scream brought her to her senses.
"YOU SPLINCHED ME!"
Daphne turned around and the room span. She steadied herself against the cold tile-wall. Merula was with her, but on the ground in the fetal position, screaming curses at her. She was cradling a bloody hole in her leg, which was bleeding out onto the concrete.
She collapsed to her side, mostly intentionally, and started at the woman's leg.
"Let me see! Let me see it!"
"GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!"
Daphne clawed Merula's hand away from the wound and shakily, raised her wand above it. She was a Medical Curse-Breaker in training, she knew just what she needed to do.
"Episkey!"
Her spell was cast, and although it worked and a certain amount of the blood returned inside the wound, it didn't have quite the effect she was hoping for. She cast it again, and again it left a small improvement, but not enough to heal the leg. Merula's shouting finally faded out, which she took as a good sign. That was, until she caught the woman's face.
"They're… with us…"
Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she passed out on the floor. Daphne didn't make any moves to help her, her mind was suddenly distracted.
The Auror, the official-looking Ministry man, had grabbed onto her. That was why she'd botched the spell and splinched Merula. But that meant...
A sharp noise whizzed by her head and Daphne dove quickly to the side. A curse collided into the tile-wall and exploded, showering debris over them.
At the end of the tunnel a red-faced Auror had appeared, and the red wasn't frustration, it was blood. Another Auror fell into the scene behind him, looking equally as wound-up but in much better shape. She had transported all four of them when she'd disapperated, no wonder it had ended with splicing.
There was little left in her that could fight. She stabbed her wand into the air and screamed gutterally.
"BOMBARADA!"
Meters from her, the underground tunnel was shattered in all directions. The acoustics turned what would have been a small crash into a thunderous bang, like a strike of lighting. The sound waves hit her system like a physical blow and she tumbled to the wall. There were yells and screams around her from the Aurors, but she didn't stop to help.
With strength coming from the-old-Cthulu-knows-where, she hurled Merula's arm over her shoulder and took off in the opposite direction. The Death-Eater was a dead-weight on her arm, totally knocked out and her feet dragging limply behind them. Daphne couldn't even be said to be running; she used her hands, feet and everything in her power to move them as quickly as she could. There was an open entrance at the other end of the tunnel.
That meant escape or shelter and she wasn't arsed which one.
Her feet were screaming in agony and there was blood in her mouth, but she was so close. Even with Merula slowing her down, in no-time Daphne reached the entrance and stumbled out onto a thin road.
"Flipendo!"
Another impact in her back sent her careening forwards. She felt every crunch in her back as she was sent mid-air across the road, Merula still attached, and colliding chest-first into a wooden fence. A noise escaped her that Daphne would never have guessed could have come from her lips, much less a human being. Clenching her teeth, she couldn't stop now. There were footsteps gaining on her. Every inch of her body nagged in protest, and now there was a definite delay in her actions as she tried to move.
Gasping quick breaths, she regained her surroundings as best she could. Her nostrils were suddenly filled with the scent of wet earth and she could hear running water. There was a river nearby, on the other side of the fence, in fact. She could see it distantly, or could see lights reflected in its surface.
She used the sleeve of her robes to wipe her mouth. To her disgust, a trail of her own blood stained spit came away with it. She tightened her grip on the fence, and was able to lift herself a few inches off the ground. Her arms, her legs, hell, her entire body screamed in against it. Her stomach twisted and contorted, rebelling as though it was about to liquefy. Using her body this way caused the thumping in her head to return louder than ever. She scrunched up her face and swore loudly.
Mild panic swept her system as the fence began to tremble under her weight. But she succeeded in lifting herself off the ground and was then able to drag a knee up over the fence. The pain in her head felt like she was being struck with a hammer. She was swung the rest her weight over the top and lowered her feet onto the ground. She gasped her next breath, ignoring the burning sensation coming from her throat. Once she was securely over the fence, she took to grabbing the unconscious Merula by the shoulders and trying to drag her over.
Just as she did, the messed-up Auror and his partner found their way clear of the tunnel and didn't waste time in spotting them. Gritting her teeth, and with an animalistic noise, Daphne pulled on Merula with all the strength she could manage.
There was a harsh snapping sound, Merula was suddenly free and they were both falling through darkness.
A/N Yes, I know Apparition only works if you know exactly where you are going, I'm going somewhere with this, I promise. Would definitely appreciate some thoughts on this chapter, worked really hard and I'm fairly certain it's the longest chapter in the series.
And yes, this is where the story will begin to take bigger departures from canon. Ten points for anyone who tells me where Merula is from.
