Chapter 26, The Final Death Of Evil
"Where are we?!" Hydra found that she had to shout to Ripper and Piper to be heard above the crowd. The street on which they stood was crowded with throngs of people; Wizards and Muggles alike or so it appeared at a glance.
"Washington D.C., where all the American Muggle Politics goes on," Piper shouted back.
"We're in America?" No wonder it was suddenly mid-morning. The bright sun in Hydra's eyes served to snap her to full wakefulness, which was a good thing considering the danger they were all surely in.
"What are we supposed to do," Loughness asked. Like Hydra, he stood at the ready, wand in hand.
"Ripper supposes we should find Grindelwald to discover that," Ripper said. As he spoke, he glanced about, for once looking more uncertain. Hydra could understand why. If he was here, Grindelwald was going to be hard to spot in this crowd. "We should at least be able to spot someone doing magic then we'll be able to eventually get an idea of what's going on," Hydra said.
"And if we can't, spot someone doing magic, because the crowd is so crowded, I am going to boycott the law that says we can't use magic around Muggles when it's super crowded," Loughness said.
"I don't think the Statute Of Secrecy is just for crowds, Loughness," Hydra said. "Meaning there is no separate law for crowds. There is no law that states, especially in crowds or anything." She continued to scan even as she bantered with her twin as their odd way of coping with the stress of whatever was about to unfold. Rather than seeing magic, she spotted a Muggle car speeding forward, off to the right of them. It got her attention because it was going rather fast even for a Muggle car.
Normally the Muggle cars didn't go so fast in the midst of a milling crowd. When she turned fully to focus on it, she saw that Bella was at the wheel. Hydra and the others watched the surreal scene unfold in horrified confused fascination. Bella's face broke into a wild laugh as she began running Muggles down, swerving to insure she hit them even when they attempted to flee, scrambling futilely over one another in their haste. Was that a goblin in the car at her side? "What? The? Hell?"
"Right," Loughness agreed. "What the hell indeed. I never thought I'd see Bella touching Muggle tech. She's using it to kill Muggles, though, so I suppose it's really her."
"Muggle tech," Ripper asked.
"Muggle technology, in this case that car," Loughness clarified. When they edged closer, they at last spotted Rodolphus and Rabastan. They were talking to a tall man with short dark hair, wide shoulders and Muggle clothes. "Yo, what's happening, aside from the obvious," Loughness asked, hurrying up to Rod.
"Those scrying devices that Gellert and Blaise made and planted in various Muggle and magical government buildings finally paid off. The Aurors were alerted by the one in the Muggle White House, that's it over there, that Delphini was present with some of her following. She appears to be stirring up the Muggles for something." As he spoke, Rodolphus jerked his chin in the direction of a large white manor like building. Hydra hadn't truly registered it earlier due to focusing on all the throngs of people and attempting to find Grindelwald among them. "Wulfric went mongoose and attacked her, but she eventually shifted forms again. She is still playing a slippery game. Bella decided to provide a distraction... You know by running Delphini's followers down."
"Because no one would expect her or most of us to muck about with a Muggle car, it is a distracting distraction indeed," Hydra said and Rodolphus nodded proudly.
"Precisely!"
"These two gentleman were just explaining to me what a Muggle was when you came up," The tall man with the wide shoulders said, giving everyone a bemused glance. His blue eyes widened when they landed on the two elves who stood with Hydra and Loughness. He took a slight step back. "Demons?"
"Nah, elves," Rabastan said. "And the little dude in your car with Bella is a goblin."
The man's face registered shock. That, along with his question about the elves clarified to Hydra clearly that he was, indeed, a Muggle. A Muggle who seemed to be keeping his head for the moment, which was a good thing.
"And Rod had to knock Lyra out because she lost it when she couldn't get into the car with Bella. The goblin, Goriandor his name is I think, has some sort of shield up and no one can Apparate in."
The voice that spoke had a heavy Australian accent. It was one that Hydra did not know. She turned to see a well built young man of average height with short soft looking brown curls and a nearly babyish rounded face. He was holding a young woman in his arms. She was clearly unconscious. Upon studying her for a moment, Hydra noticed that she looked a lot like Bella and a lot like Rod.
"Who," Loughness asked. He was staring at the girl with a startled look on his face that made Hydra quite certain that her face wore the same expression.
"Oh did Wulfric not tell you about your cousin Lyra," Rod asked. Hydra and Loughness shook their heads nearly in unison. "Turns out we had her and forgot her to keep her safe from the Dark Lord. We tucked her away with family in Australia," Rod said calmly. Did nothing ever rattle the man, Hydra wondered.
"You... Had a baby and forgot?"
Rod shrugged. "Sometimes that shit has to happen."
Loughness blinked. "Yeah... but no. Not with most people, I don't think it does."
Rod chuckled. Quickly enough, though, his amusement faded, leaving his expression grave and focused as his eyes tracked Bella's progress. She continued to rampage through the crowd running Muggles and magicals alike down in the car. "We were already becoming aware during those final few years that The Dark Lord was... not quite himself and as such that we could not quite depend on him to think in our own best interests. Even before we remembered what he'd done to us, we were beginning to become more frightened than devoted when it came to him. We hated it, but there it was. We told him we could get him more followers in Australia and we did, but we hid Bella's pregnancy while we were at it. Considering how he treated Draco, we knew he could and would hold any child of ours against us."
Hydra was struggling to process the fact that they had a cousin around their own age who wasn't Malfoy. "But you never told us," she accused.
"We just found out recently plus things have been hectic what with all this Delphini shit," Rodolphus growled. "What do you want from us? Besides, Lyra has been busy helping at the Ministry anyway. She had no time to meet her cousins while they were at school. Today you shall meet."
"The Ministry," Loughness asked. "What, is she some Auror?" Hydra understood the skepticism in his tone. One of the Blacks or Lestranges being an Auror was just a blasted weird concept.
That said, she was nearly relieved when Rodolphus shook his head. "No. Nothing like that. She was using what she learned in her Australian magic school to help them with defenses against Delphini though. Something odd about Auras."
"Aurors," Hydra asked and Rod chuckled, shaking his head.
"See? Told you it was weird. Auras. It's something weird about the energy field around all of us. Part of our soul or life force, supposedly."
"Yeah and she cleanses them and looks at them to know what a person is like," Rabastan said. "She tried to get us into it, but we just can't."
"We can't," Rodolphus agreed dully, his expression long-suffering. "It is too weird."
"Sounds it," Loughness said. "How long has this been going on? Why didn't the Daddies or Kereston tell us?"
"Only a week or so," Rod said. "I doubt they've had time."
Hydra nodded. "That is true. We haven't heard from anyone at home in at least a week and a half. That is until today." She nodded at the two elves, who stood quietly by, staring at the Muggle as he stared at them. Both parties seemed equally fascinated by the other's existence.
"So how did you find her if you forgot?" Loughness asked.
"Lyra found us," Rod said. "When we saw her face to face, the spell of forgetting was undone just as we set it to be when we cast it just before leaving her with Distant Lestrange cousins in Australia. She saw the article Bella posted about how we tried to kill The Dark L... Voldemort first."
Hydra did recall something about Bella posting that in the Daily Prophet so people wouldn't lose their minds entirely when the Lestranges walked about as free citizens once again. Kereston needed them running Azkaban and with Delphini striking at every large establishment, they often came to help the Aurors out as well. "Wow," she said, gazing at her unconscious cousin Lyra. Wow was about all one could say at such a time, after all. "When is she waking up," she wondered.
"When I feel like her waking up," Rodolphus said darkly. "Right now, I don't think she can behave." He glanced back toward the street, and Hydra felt herself doing the same. Only perhaps two minutes had passed, and Bella was still running down Muggles in the Muggle's car. By this time, Delphini's wizards were hurling spells at the moving vehicle, and Delphini's Muggles were shooting at it with their guns. The spells as well as the bullets were bouncing off so the goblin riding with Bella was doing his job.
A scream of fury caused Hydra's gaze to jerk to the left where a girl with oddly colored blueish blonde hair was standing. She wore a long form fitting green dress and a black cloak with the hood thrown back. Her hair streamed in the wind as her youthful face contorted in fury at having her spells blocked by the goblin riding with Bella. It was Delphini, but she looked different now. Not quite as human, and it wasn't just the oddly colored hair. It was something that Hydra couldn't quite put her finger on. Extending her hands toward the Muggle car as it continued to swerve from left to right, running her people down, Delphini cast a huge ball of fire. This the goblin apparently could not deflect, because it struck the car. The fireball seemed to be combined with wind because it swept the car off the ground upon impact. It was then that Hydra saw Wulfric slip up behind Delphini with the sword Graven had made for him at Gellert's behest held firmly in his right hand. Taking advantage of the distraction Bella provided, Wulfric drove the sword home hard, directly into Delphini's back. The girl fell forward as the sword began to literally smoke. Though she appeared to be dead, her fire was not. It engulfed the car.
Bella and the goblin wouldn't survive that. Alarm suddenly shot through Hydra. She opened her mouth to shout a spell of deflect out of reflex, but the words never left her lips. They were unnecessary. Before she could speak, Loughness Apparated from where he stood at Hydra's side. In an instant he was beside the car that held Bella and the goblin. Bella and the goblin were standing directly in front of Loughness with dazed expressions on their faces. The car made a whooshing sound as the fire completely devoured it. Loughness had gotten them out just in time. When Hydra glanced back, Bella was crying and embracing Loughness, who stoically hugged her back. Clearly Bella was feeling her own mortality at that moment, but just as clearly, Loughness hadn't been concerned, quite confident in his ability to rescue her and her goblin friend at the last minute.
"Um what just happened?" The question came from the Muggle whose car Delphini had just quite effectively helped Bella to finish ruining.
As everyone else was occupied with the aftermath of Delphini just getting killed Hydra turned to him with the best smile she could manage considering the current chaotic situation. "A very evil thing just got stabbed in the back with a magic sword." Her lips twitched at the shocked expression on his face. She had pretty much bet on her choice of wording causing that particular expression, after all. Still it was true and succinct.
She came to stand beside the Muggle, watching as Wulfric knelt in front of the now smoking corpse of Delphini. She saw him reach for Delphini's wrist, surely checking for her pulse. Graven stood protectively over him just in case Delphini somehow decided not to be dead. Wulfric grinned and straightened, waving the sword in the air. It's blade was charred and blackened in several places. "It's done! Loughness, come burn her like we planned!"
Rodolphus, Rabastan, and an Auror with short spiky blond hair had come to surround Bella and the goblin, so Loughness was able to break away to go attend to Delphini's body. During their defense training, Gellert decided that Wulfric would kill Delphini and then Loughness would burn the body. Gellert felt that Loughness's half and half magic would make the disposal of her remains even stronger and more final. Hydra watched, an oddly dazed yet triumphant feeling in her chest, as her brother strode over and casually burned Delphini's remains to ash with a glance. The body was no more in a matter of about three seconds.
With a gesture, Loughness created a breeze that carried the ash away as if Delphini had never been there. "It seems so easy, but it was so hard to corner her," she murmured, half to the Muggle and half to herself. "She really had everyone chasing their tails for at least a year, and she was dangerous in the worst of ways. The sort of way that gets a hold of one's mind. She was even controlling the Muggles."
"Not me," the man said. He didn't look overly impressed, and Hydra's lips twitched.
"No. Not you," she agreed.