Chapter Fifty Nine

Corvus ran through the corridors as they filled with blood, screams and smoke. He yelled for Thomas, not caring who heard him, dodging out the way of falling stones and stray curses, his wand clutched firmly in his hand.

"THOMAS!" he screamed, feeling the back of his throat start to complain about him yelling so much.

He rounded a corner and saw Fred and Percy Weasley violently fighting with Jugson and Nott. He pressed himself against the wall, unsure of how to help, if he even could help.

Curses flew around the narrow corridor, crashing into, or bouncing off, the already unstable looking walls.

"Glad you have you back, Perc!" Fred yelled, blocking a curse for the both of them.

"Glad to be back!" Percy smiled, "I guess I should tell the Minister I've quit huh?"

Fred grinned, "That almost sounded like a joke! Coming from you Percy, well I-"

Corvus saw his mother coming up behind the others, he could see her waving her wand towards the wall above Fred and Percy almost as though it was in slow motion.

He didn't think, he reacted.

Corvus pushed himself away from the wall, crashing into something coming from another corridor towards the fighting, not stopping to see what, or who he'd pushed into the way of the spell his mother was casting.

Corvus made contact with Fred and shoved his shoulder into the older boys stomach, sending them both crashing into the floor just in time to see, and feel, a loud explosion above their heads and the wall tumble down to where Fred had just been standing.

Corvus saw his mother look shocked for a moment before running off back down the corridor.

Jugson and Nott were both almost certainly dead, but he doubted it was their demise that would have sent his mother scampering away in such a hurry.

"You just saved my life." Fred said, catching his breath, trying not to think about how sore his stomach was.

"Fred, you would have been crushed!" Percy said, throwing his arms around his brother, smacking Corvus in the process.

"I… I saw my Mater coming." Corvus explained, catching his own breath, "She ran off."

"I heard a crash!" Harry said, running over to Fred, Percy and Corvus.

"Corvus saved my life." Fred said, rubbing the lump coming up on the back of his head, "He pushed me out the way."

Harry walked slowly over towards the pile of rubble and froze, "Oh gods. Corvus you have to get out of here!"

"What?" Corvus asked, finally getting to his feet and turning towards Harry and the collapsed wall.

His blood ran cold, he was sure he was about to pass out as darkness crept in around the sides of his vision.

"Corvus… just…" Harry wasn't sure what to say. He took Corvus's hand, holding him upright.

Jugson and Nott were dead, only Nott's feet were viable under the stone. You could see all of Jugson but the fact half his skull was now flat meant he'd stood no chance of surviving the explosion.

But what had shocked Corvus, what had made his mother run away without another glance, or taking the time to finish of the survivors.

Gemini lay on the floor, her black hair fanned out almost prettily around her face, a large gash on her forehead and her bottom half buried under the stone.

"Gem… GEMINI?" Corvus shouted, feeling his breathing speeding up to faster than he could control, "We have to dig her out."

He pulled his hand from Harry's and started to pull the rough stones off his sister, the stone cutting into his skin.

"Corvus… Corvus, it's too late." Fred said gently, pulling the boy's hands away from a particularly large stone that Corvus had no chance of moving with his hands, "She's gone."

Corvus let his hands be pulled away from the remains of the wall as Fred spoke the words he already knew to be true.

"I don't even know where she came from…" Percy said softly, she looked scarily young laying on the ground.

"I did this." Corvus said, desperately trying to hold onto some level of sanity.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"I bumped into her, she must have been coming down the hall." Corvus said pointing, "I didn't stop to look who it was, I just pushed Fred out the way, at the cost of pushing my sister in…"

Harry didn't know what to say, there was no doubt in his mind that out of the two of them, Fred deserved to live a hundred times more than Gemini did, but that wasn't the right thing to say to Corvus right now.

"You didn't mean to." Fred said firmly, "And you saved my life."

"I killed my sister." Corvus countered, pulling his knees up to his chest.

He'd not loved Gemini, not really. She was horrible to him and always had been, but she had always been in his life and was his sister, and now she was gone.

Harry's head snapped round towards noise coming round the corner, "We have to go."

Fred and Harry managed to pull Corvus to his feet, Percy shoving his wand back into his hand.

"Are you OK?" Harry asked.

Corvus shook his head, "No." he said, emotionless.

"What are you even doing here?!" Harry asked, pulling Corvus along, he didn't want to get into a fire fight while babysitting an in-shock Corvus, "You're too young to have stayed to fight or help in the hospital wing."

"I was looking for Thomas." Corvus said, even just hearing Thomas's name brought him a little closer to the real world again, "I saw him duck out of the line, I needed to make sure he was safe."

Harry shook his head, "I've not seen Thomas, and I'm sure Neville would have made sure he'd gotten out. You shouldn't of stayed!" he snapped.

"Hey." Fred said, pulling Harry to a stop for a moment, "If Corvus hadn't been here I'd be dead." the words alone choked him slightly, as pictures of George being left alone flooded through his mind and made him want to throw up.

Harry felt the impact of the words as well, "Sorry… look, are you going to be OK? We can't get you out now but we could… hide you maybe?"

Corvus shook his head, the shock was wearing off for now. He knew there was more to come, a lot more to come, but for now, he could keep going.

"I'll be OK." Corvus said, pulling away from Harry slightly, "I still want to keep my eyes open for Thomas, just in case."

Harry nodded, knowing it would help Corvus to have something to focus on. There was a loud crash, followed by a round of screaming not far from them.

"Come on then." Percy said grimly, as the four of them rush towards the fighting again.

Apolline Delacour was no stranger to fighting. She'd been in the Angel's Calling since she was sixteen and had only missed four days of practice since then, two when Fleur was born and two when Gabrielle was born.

However she was struggling right now. There had been three against her, one of which she'd taken out quickly, the other two, brothers from the look of their shaggy hair, were taking more to put down.

She threw curse after curse at them, blocking the spells returning towards her. Apolline summoned every ounce of her Veela strength that she could and sent a powerful fire ball streaming into the stone above the brothers, showering them in burning hot fragments of stone. She used the distraction to put a little distance between her and the men.

They screeched and swore as they brushed the shards from them, taking off after her.

Apolline took them by surprise, sending the younger of the two Lestrange brothers flying backwards, dead before he hit the ground.

Rodolphus didn't react to his brother's death though, instead aiming a disarming spell at the witch before him which hit.

Apolline felt her wand leave her hand, her back pressed against a wall as her chest heaved heavily, trying to get enough oxygen to her lungs.

"You killed my brother." Rodolphus hissed, walking slowly towards her, his wand pointed at her heart.

"Yes." Apolline said softly, forcing her breathing to slow.

"I'm going to make you pay for that." Rodolphus said dangerously, "I'll make this last."

Apolline smiled, looking up at the man through her eyelashes. She reached up slowly, making sure he could see her hands were empty in a surrender and pulled the clip from her hair, letting her silvery blonde locks fall over her shoulders.

Rodolphus's eyes flicked over the hair for a second. Apolline saw it, and her smile widened. She took two small steps towards him, so his wand was pressing into the hollow between her breasts, letting out a little moan.

"You would not really kill me, would you?" she purred, running her hands through her hair at her scalp, pulling blonde strands over her shoulders and over his wand.

Rodolphus looked, feeling his mind melt and his heartbeat quicken at the sight of her running her tongue over her perfect, full, red lips.

He lowered his wand without thinking and shook his head. Apolline mimicked him, shaking her own head.

"Non…" She smiled.

Two small steps closer and Apolline was pressed up against Rodolphus's chest, as he gazed into her eyes.

She ran a finger over his rough, chapped lips. There was none of the kindness of her husband's gentle good looks in this man's eyes. If he took better care of himself she had no doubt many would think he would be the better catch, but she could see deeper than his outer looks.

This man was hollow where her husband was full, harsh and cruel where her husband was soft and kind. For this it didn't matter though, very few men could resist her when she tried as hard as she was now, her mother's genes had seen to that.

"You do not want to 'urt me, do you?" Apolline purred into his ear, her breath leaving a shivery path across his skin.

"No… no…" Rodolphus said, almost mindlessly, pulling her closer.

Every thought he now had focused on her silver eyes, her silky blonde hair that he was running his fingers through, the touch of her body pressed against his, the feel of her sweet breath on his skin.

Apolline pulled her head away, making sure the rest of her body was firmly in contact with the man before her. She looked into his eyes, chewing seductively on her bottom lip for a moment before moving forward and crushing her lips against his.

He tasted like mud and rust. If she'd been kissing him for pleasure she would have pulled away immediately and gone to brush her teeth, but she wasn't kissing him to be happy, she was saving her life and it was worth the momentary unpleasantness.

She'd promised Gabrielle she would be returning home and she had no intentions of breaking that promise.

Rodolphus had never kissed a woman as beautiful as the one now in his arms, all thoughts of her killing his brother and trying to kill him less than a minute ago were now forgotten as his arousal grew painfully in his chest.

Apolline pulled her lips from Rodolphus's, causing him to give out a whimper of disappointment. She didn't return her lips to his though, instead letting them track a course of kisses and nibbles across his jaw line and down his neck.

Rodolphus relaxed again at the intoxicating contact of her lips on his skin, twisting his fingers in her hair with one hand, brushing over her back with the other.

Apolline's lips found his neck, feeling the blood pumping through the artery that sat there, just below the skin.

She felt her teeth grow into razor sharp fangs and her lips harden slightly.

Rodolphus didn't have time to let out a sound before she dug her teeth into his skin, feeling them easily cut through his flesh and find that life giving artery, tearing it from his neck in a shower of blood.

Rodolphus's mouth opened and closed a few times before he dropped lifelessly from Apolline's arms, the last of his blood pumping into a puddle on the floor.

Apolline looked down at him with disgust, ripping away a chunk of his robes with her now claw like nails and dabbing the blood from her mouth.

"Dégoûtant" she said, dropping the bloody cloth and picking up her wand from where it had fallen.

She shook her head and turned into her fully human self again, wiping the edges of her mouth with her fingertips, she could still taste him. He was lying on his wand, his face white and emotionless in death.

She kicked him over and picked up his wand, snapping it so it would be of no use to anyone before putting her hair back up and hurrying off to the next fight.