CHAPTER 36: THE DARK MARK PART-3

Marie-Louise raised her wand again, and immediately the spinning trunks began to rotate faster and faster like spinning tops. A shrill noise soon pierced their eardrums as they gained more speed with each passing second, but it was only when the Frenchwoman spoke again that they understood they were in trouble:

"Now you'll know," she said, smiling before pointing her wand in their direction.

Immediately, the spinning trunks hurtled toward them so fast that they struggled to calculate their trajectory and impact before being able to avoid them at the last moment. Every time they thought they were getting out of it, another one headed toward them, just as fast as the previous one, almost nailing them to the ground each time. Lucius tried to eliminate some with spells, but most of the time, he owed his safety to his agility and skill. Their duel was now transformed into a kind of obstacle course where their lives could be terminated at any moment. Pirouettes and acrobatics succeeded each other for a long time. Lucius was still astonished at such agility for someone who had despised any physical activity his whole life. Soon, the last trunk was stopped by Greyback himself, who managed to halt it by grabbing it with his bare hands. The tip of the trunk was only inches away from his throat, but the werewolf managed to slow down and stop the rotation of the projectile at the cost of sacrificing the skin on his hands, now raw and bleeding.

"Impressive," Marie-Louise commented in a conversational tone. "This little exercise was enlightening, even though I see now that your endurance has been severely affected..."

And it was indeed the case. Lucius, although he couldn't see Stubbins' face, could still see that he was exhausted, his back slightly bent, while his heavy and irregular breathing indicated advanced exhaustion. He himself was not in a better condition, and the sweat trickling down his forehead threatened at any moment to slip his Death Eater mask and reveal his true identity to this devilishly powerful woman. Only Greyback seemed to be still in good shape, his posture straight, and his eyes fixed on Marie-Louise as if his little ordeal was a trifle for him.

Finally remembering that he had a wand, Fenrir shot three spells a few meters in front of Marie-Louise, blinding her in the same way she had during her previous attack. Without wasting time, he charged directly into the cloud caused by his attack, using his sense of smell to locate his opponent, whom he quickly found. Running towards her, the werewolf managed to reach her and face her before delivering a powerful punch to her face, despite his bloodied palms. But anger dominated over pain, and Greyback hoped by this gesture to channel all the murderous impulses towards Marie-Louise, whom he felt nothing but hatred and a desire for revenge for the affront he had suffered. However, everything didn't go as planned for him, and to his greatest surprise, his blow, which should have normally thrown the witch backward due to its violence, didn't even make her budge an inch. Worse, her eyes remained open even during the impact, blue eyes that, by the way, bewildered him with the absence of any emotion.

"How could she not feel anything!? She should be writhing in pain, holding her nose!" he thought as he looked at her with wide eyes.

Contrary to what he hoped for, the Frenchwoman instead began to smile mischievously before lowering her gaze to the left, quickly imitated by Fenrir. His incredulous gaze intensified even more when he discovered that Marie-Louise had strangely placed the tip of her wand against the skin of her arm, from which a small blue light was now emanating, circulating over her body in fine waves.

"Few chosen ones can manipulate their magic at the level mine is," she informed them, now pointing her wand towards the palm of her other hand inside which the bluish light was now concentrating and forming a kind of magical energy ball, "and even with perseverance, I doubt that you will ever be able to use yours as a second skin capable of withstanding most shocks. Wandless magic is a wonderful thing for initiates, but the manipulation of the magical core is an art that surpasses all your skills, I'm afraid."

While talking, the witch continued to accumulate in the palm of her hand an increasingly significant amount of magic, molding it into a brighter sphere over time. Even Greyback felt that the next attack was likely to be particularly violent. So, he tried to avoid it by taking advantage of the fact that his opponent seemed no longer to care about her protection and attempted to strike her with a new punch. Unfortunately for him, his blow arrived far too late, as even before he raised his fist towards her, Marie-Louise had closed hers around her magic sphere and immediately reopened it in his direction. All the accumulated energy inside it exploded literally like a shockwave, pushing away everything within its reach. Greyback was instantly thrown backward, propelled at great speed towards Lucius after a series of rolls on the devastated ground of the moor.

"Avada Kedavra!" Stubbins shouted without waiting to see if Greyback was okay.

The Killing Curse sped toward Marie-Louise at full speed, but she blocked it by sending a piece of wood flying in its path, causing it to explode on contact.

"Fissura abyssus!" she exclaimed, slashing the air with her wand as if with a sword.

Immediately, the ground cracked from her feet towards her adversaries, the fissures increasing in number and thickness as they progressed. Soon, the entire surrounding earth began to move, shake, and tremble as it lifted in some places or sank in others just as the main crack, now large enough to sink her hand into, diverged to form a particularly deep crevasse that threatened to engulf them if any of them had the misfortune to fall in. Stubbins was, in fact, the main victim of the spell, and it took Lucius's intervention to prevent him from losing his balance and falling in. By a miracle, Lord Malfoy levitated him at the last moment, just as Marie-Louise abruptly closed the crevasse with another flick of her wand.

"Your luck seems to be running out," remarked Lucius as he broke the levitation spell, leaving Stubbins to crash pitifully to the ground, headfirst.

"Failure does not determine the outcome of a war," she replied lightly, apparently unaffected by his failed attempt. "It is only by winning decisive battles that one can lead an armed conflict to a favorable resolution..."

Surprised by these words, Lucius was even more taken aback when Marie-Louise simply planted her wand in the ground, her eyes fixed on them as her mouth began to move, muttering new spells to herself. The three Death Eaters remained on their guard, anxious about the new curse this woman might unleash upon them. Had she not almost swallowed them in a crevice moments earlier? Their opponent was remarkably powerful, and the desire to flee was slowly creeping into them.

"So soon tired, dear friend?" Lucius taunted, still looking around for a clue about her next attack.

"Not at all, but I would advise you to be careful with your words towards me. This overly familiar way of addressing me is becoming unbearable," she replied, smiling with an air that did not bode well for them.

As if in response to her warning, the Death Eater then saw with horror the forest behind her move, and hundreds of birds flew away from the trees they had made their home. A few seconds later, he finally understood the reason for this sudden exodus when about ten trees lunged toward them, their roots serving as legs and moving in the same way as a spider's legs as they entered the magical dome when Marie-Louise temporarily canceled it. This nightmarish vision did not make him lose his composure, however, and by casting Incendio spells, he tried to cut short their advance. Some trees did catch fire, but far from stopping, they only increased their speed to approach them. Soon, the first trees reached them, and it was against their roots that the Death Eaters had to fight, avoiding being impaled by them.

"We won't hold on for long!" exclaimed Stubbins, narrowly avoiding a root directly threatening his face. "Diffindo!"

"Wimp..." spat Greyback, destroying with his bare hands the roots that came a bit too close to him. "I'll break these trees first, then I'll break that bitch limb by limb..."

Lucius, now silent, also fought for his life against an oak tree that, due to the spell setting it on fire, had turned into a veritable giant torch threatening to burn him at the slightest misstep. For the moment, he managed to resist its attacks, but he could already see behind him other trees approaching dangerously close to their position and so quickly that they shed some of their leaves along the way. He also noted with astonishment that their opponent had disappeared from her position, and from what little he had seen the few times he could turn his head away from the oak, Marie-Louise was nowhere to be seen.

"Argh!" suddenly screamed Stubbins next to him.

Lucius didn't even need to turn his head to understand that his comrade had just fallen victim to the incessant attacks of the trees, now struggling to counter their assaults. However, he was surprised to see that Stubbins, pierced through and through the body, had not been hit by the roots but by the branches, many of which were slicing through the air as if ready to continue their macabre work. The Death Eater, now agonizing and losing a copious amount of blood in the process, was slowly lifted by the branches that had impaled him before being violently thrown back by them with such force that his body was literally propelled dozens of meters before crashing into the trunk of a tree, the spine broken upon impact.

Lucius didn't even have time to think about regretting the death of this man, if indeed it saddened him, because now the tree he faced seemed to want to imitate its counterpart by also using its branches to overcome him. The cutting spells he sent its way were working for the moment, but he currently had only one opponent to face: if his comrades joined in with their roots, he wasn't sure how long he could hold out. Next to him, Fenrir didn't seem to be in a better position, although his superhuman strength allowed him to destroy with bare hands any projectiles approaching his face.

"Any ideas on how to deal with these things!?" Lucius shouted at him as he began to retreat from the intensity of the attacks.

"Get to the heart of the matter!" Greyback replied before throwing himself at the bark of his tree and breaking it with a punch, the plant falling immediately to the ground with a deafening crash.

A spell exploded suddenly next to him, causing a thick cloud of dust mixed with shards of earth to rise. Alert, Fenrir looked around for his opponent, trying to find her hiding spot by sensing the scent she emitted. While his nose was effective even with the dust swirling around him, his vision was considerably impaired, and he screamed in pain as he felt something pierce his left thigh like a lance. Panting, he managed to extract it by breaking it with a hand gesture before stepping back a few paces, a piece of root now embedded in his flesh.

"Damn it!" he spat out, assessing the damage. "If I catch that bitch, she'll pay for it a hundredfold!"

"Well, those are some ugly words!" he heard through the surrounding cloud.

A gust of wind still swept away all the dust particles around him, but barely had he restored a clear view of the terrain in front of him when another spell directly targeted his face, and he instinctively dodged it by throwing himself to the side. However, nothing else cornered him afterward, and Greyback even had time to get up leisurely to face his opponent again and the bunch of trees that seemed to stand guard around her like bodyguards.

"That cunning witch...," he grumbled as he saw Lucius approaching him from the corner of his eye.

"I hadn't even noticed her," Lord Malfoy scoffed, breathing heavily. "Having superhuman strength due to your monster condition, however, has made you particularly slow to react, Greyback."

"When I'm done with her, I'll personally deal with your case," he threatened, showing his teeth as he clenched his fists.

Marie-Louise listened to their verbal sparring with only half an ear, her right hand absentmindedly caressing the branch of a tree in the same way she would pet a pet. The scene was, in any case, astonishing enough to make the two men cease their dispute.

"You've been wonderful," she said gently to her accomplices, looking briefly at all of them. "But it's time for you to return to your own now..."

The trees seemed to accept the command hidden in her statement because, just like before, they all moved toward the forest, creating a commotion as their roots scraped the ground and the foliage of their branches clashed with each step. Soon, only three of the combatants from the beginning remained, and Malefoy and Greyback could no longer rely on Stubbins for support.

"Let's continue, gentlemen, if you please," Marie-Louise invited, assuming a fencer's stance once again.

"I was just about to suggest that," Lucius replied before resuming hostilities with a new Cruciatus curse.

The spell was deftly deflected by an obstacle that the Frenchwoman levitated toward her. She also avoided the three simultaneous spells that the werewolf and the English lord sent her way with skillful acrobatics. Then, she raised her wand to her mouth and murmured a magical incantation. For a fraction of a second, a tiny flame appeared at the tip before she began to blow on it. Fire gushed out of her wand, heading for Greyback and Lucius. However, its power seemed to intensify as it approached them.

"Protego!" they both exclaimed, pointing their wands at her.

Their shields immediately protected them, but the intensity and heat of the blaze were such that they could still feel the temperature rising sharply around them, causing large beads of sweat to form on their foreheads. The flames seemed to slide over their shields without ever passing through, escaping on all sides and surrounding them like a fiery aura.

"We won't last long at this rate," thought Lucius, searching for a way to escape the inferno. "Maybe we should wait for her to exhaust herself... This spell could cost her all her energy."

However, Marie-Louise wasn't done with them. While continuing to cast her spell in their direction, she used her other hand to find her second wand, cleverly concealed in the seam of one of her boots. Once in hand, she also pointed it at Lucius and Greyback. After closing her eyes for a moment, as if gathering courage, she fixed her targets sternly, her gaze cold and filled with anger before launching her ultimate attack:

"Ventus Violentus!"

A powerful wind then emerged from her wand, heading towards the two Death Eaters as well. However, the moment it made contact with the intense blaze that was already causing Lucius and Greyback so much trouble, its power doubled in strength, transforming into a veritable firestorm that destroyed everything in its path. The Fiendfyre itself couldn't have matched the power of what Lucius and Greyback were now facing. The werewolf, who had resisted the French princess's attacks well until now, released his attention for a tiny second under the strain of exhaustion and the pain in his leg. But that second proved to be too much for him. His magical shield weakened during this brief lapse, but it was enough for the conflagration to break through his protection and engulf Lucius's acolyte. In an instant, the werewolf was consumed by the destructive flames licking his skin, but his cries of pain were drowned out by the noise of the consuming attack.

Marie-Louise felt the significant drop in Greyback's magical aura as she began to reduce the power of her last attack. However, Lucius obstinately resisted her assaults, his magical aura only slightly diminishing due to fatigue and the magical energy he used to maintain his shield. Raising her wand again, she directed it toward the sky, and the blaze immediately followed suit, rising towards the starry vault of the Earth in a column of fire visible for kilometers, its brilliance so blinding that one could easily believe it was daylight. The terrain gradually freed itself from the consuming blaze as everywhere, all that remained were charred wood, burned grass, and rocks covered in soot as black as coal. A forest fire wouldn't have had a better result than this. Soon, the column of fire lost intensity as the blaze dispersed into the air, but the meeting of the hot and cold air created large threatening clouds that were already rumbling before the last embers were extinguished. The battle seemed finally over, and Marie-Louise, confident of its outcome, took a moment to catch her breath, hands on her knees as she exhaled heavily.

"It's no longer my age," she murmured between breaths. "I shouldn't have displayed my power so much; it might cause me some trouble with the authorities of this country."

Still alert, the princess finally raised her head toward where her two adversaries had been, her hand still holding her wand as a precaution. She noticed that the magical aura of the last man had also disappeared, perhaps finally succumbing to her attack even as she tried to divert it from its initial target. She slowly advanced toward their position, taking measured steps as she occasionally scanned the surroundings for any clue that might betray anyone daring to attack her from behind. However, nothing aroused the slightest concern or suspicion in her, as the place was now as calm as if nothing had happened.

Her path stopped after a few long seconds a few meters from where the werewolf and the Death Eater had been. However, Marie-Louise discovered that while Fenrir's body, literally charred by the attack to the point where only a mass of burned and blackened flesh clung to a pitiful skeleton, was indeed there, the other was missing. Where his remains should be, the ground was only partially burned, as if this man had managed to resist long enough to escape a death that should have been certain.

"Given the state of the grass here, he must have still been here shortly before the fire was fully controlled," she observed, turning her head from side to side, alert for any sound that might betray the presence of the Death Eater.

The storm above her became even more threatening, and the first raindrops were already falling on her hair, getting lost in the multitude of auburn strands. As she raised her eyes to the sky, the reason for this sudden disappearance came to her mind immediately, as if the answer to the silent question she was asking floated in the air to taunt her.

"The column... Its power was such that it managed to destroy my protective barrier," she analyzed, checking this with a wave of her wand. "What a fool; he probably thought the same and took advantage of it to Apparate or disappear in an entirely different way."

"Hey! You there!" someone yelled at a certain distance, approaching rapidly.

The person was not alone, as a veritable detachment of English Aurors was heading towards her, each holding their wands and pointing them in her direction. Marie-Louise let them approach without reacting, preferring to play the card of docility and compromise over resistance, which would prove futile and could pose the risk of being considered a potential threat— if it wasn't already judging by the glances these men were giving her.

"Drop your wand on the ground and slowly raise your hands in the air," the same man ordered her sharply as he advanced slowly toward her.

"And what if I refuse?" she couldn't help but ask, in the most pleasant tone possible. "This wand has been in my family for generations, and we never part with it."

"Don't make a scene," another replied in a more threatening tone. "Do as I say, or you'll have to answer for insubordination in front of the Ministry agents."

"Madame de Lamballe?" intervened a new man, appearing in the light of the other agents' wands. Marie-Louise immediately identified him as the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, having met him earlier in the evening in the ministerial box at the Quidditch stadium. "Lower your wands! I said lower your wands!" he ordered all the Aurors present around him.

His men immediately obeyed, although some did so with openly displayed reluctance. However, Cornelius had already turned his back on them to walk towards Marie-Louise, moving in a hurried pace. Far from the composed and confident demeanor the minister should display on such occasions, the Princess of Lamballe judged him more panicked and overwhelmed by events. The hurried way he seized her hand to kiss it confirmed her impression, especially when the poor man forgot to remove his tricorn hat, which fell off on its own in his haste to greet her. The two had already seen each other in the ministerial box at the Quidditch stadium a few hours earlier, and Cornelius had seemed perfectly in control, affable, and gallant, even a bit mocking when he tried to amuse Rosie and Astoria with antics far from his official duties. But now... this sudden activity of the Death Eaters seemed to have left him stunned and powerless.

"A thousand apologies, my dear madam," he stammered, kissing her hand again. "My men got a little carried away when they saw this curious barrier preventing them from accessing this place, and since you're the only person present, they... well, you understand... hasty conclusions and all that..."

"I wasn't alone, my dear minister, as you can see for yourself..." she contradicted him, stepping back slightly to let him admire Greyback's charred body.

"By Merlin!" Cornelius exclaimed, shuddering at the sight. "But who is this?!"

"A certain werewolf by the name of 'Greyback,' if I'm not mistaken," informed Marie-Louise, noting the change in the minister's attitude. "One of his associates is further in that direction," she added, gesturing with her hand towards where Stubbins had been.

"Greyback, you say!?" he repeated in a voice so high-pitched with surprise that it could have elicited laughter from the audience in an entirely different context, while two Aurors headed towards the indicated location. "By Merlin, what an evening! If... if what you're telling me is true, then you've just rid us of the worst scum in this country! Well, if you've really rid us of him... Isn't that right?"

"I can give you all the memories you find useful from this battle if you wish and answer any questions your men deem necessary to ask me. But for now, I would like to discuss with my loved ones as quickly as possible, if you permit me," she said, suppressing the urge to express aloud the fatigue that was starting to overwhelm her. "Anyway, I don't think the circumstances call for us to discuss this duel amiably; other Death Eaters are still destroying what remains of this camp..."

Like a slap bringing them all back to reality, the Aurors turned towards the sounds of explosions and the cries they could still hear. In the distance, spells could still be seen flying into the air, some even bearing a horribly familiar color resembling the Killing Curse, and plumes of black smoke rising towards the sky as the rain began to fall heavily over the now-desolate area.

"You're right," stammered Cornelius, nervously playing with his tricorn hat. "We should meet at the Ministry of Magic once all this is settled; duty calls for now..."

Breaking the relative tranquility of the nearby forest, a spell more intense than the others rose above the treetops and widened. A greenish skull soon appeared in the dark sky, a serpent-shaped tongue extending from its mouth as if mocking the crowd gathered on the heath. Marie-Louise didn't understand the purpose of this spell, but judging by the hundreds of screams she heard all around and the minister's pale face, it didn't bode well.

"By Merlin, the Dark Mark!" Cornelius exclaimed in a frightened tone. "And Bartemius isn't here... What are you waiting for? Go there!" he added to the Aurors, who didn't wait for further instructions to Apparate, quickly joined by the minister himself.

Marie-Louise remained stunned by the recent events. She had thought of spending a quiet evening with her loved ones, except for Gabriel, who was detained in France. Now, in a single evening, she had faced the sudden attack of Death Eaters in their camp, the disappearance of her daughter, and a duel against three of these thugs before being accused for a few minutes of being one herself. She almost felt like screaming out her frustration. Couldn't she have at least one normal day in her life in this country? It seemed as if a curse struck her every time she set foot here, at least when she got too close to the magical community of the United Kingdom. Gabriel had been an excellent surprise for her, but still! Having to confront other wizards again was not what she considered a good thing for someone like her who aspired mainly to peace and tranquility. Nevertheless, she was satisfied with having incapacitated two of these ruffians, and if the third had managed to escape, he would now think twice before facing her again!

Her gaze turned again to the Dark Mark, a mark of which she had only heard echoes but which terrorized British wizards merely by its sight. The Death Eaters she had faced previously and this sudden appearance could only mean one thing in her eyes: dark times were ahead.

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