Chapter 28: Chapter 27: Crimson Nightfall
It was nearly dusk when she made it to the old castle in central Wales, a satisfied smile on her soot covered face. She smelled of death. Calmly she made her way through the mostly ruined castle to the entrance of a bunker leading to a labyrinth of tunnels spreading beneath, through the valley, and high into the mountains above.
Death eater's parted for her in a mixture of fear and silence, her antics in London well known by now as she searched for Bellatrix.
"Headmistress Vector!" A familiar voice cat-called. "You really know how to announce yo-"
"Fuck you Flint." She muttered, her wand twitching slightly as she placed the underachiever under the cruciatus. She paused for a long moment, savoring the boy's screams as they echoed off the stone walls while his peers watched on in silence, not daring to help the foolish man. She pushed all her hate and anger into the spell, her rage at her ruined life fueling Flint's pain. "I've always wanted to do that." Septima added, ending the curse and moving along.
Her anger wasn't abated and she doubted it would be any time soon; if her display in Whisper Alley didn't do it torturing a pedophile like Flint sure wouldn't. She wound deeper into the labyrinth, only pausing when she reached the war room. "Bellatrix." Septima greeted evenly as she stepped into the room. She ignored the hungry looks being shot her way by Antonin knowing he wouldn't dare touch her, not with Bellatrix around.
"What do you want?" The older woman snapped.
Bellatrix's tone did not shock her. Dolohov's face, however, caused her to pause. Antonin Dolohov wore a knowing smile as he skulked to the corner of the room, clearly eager to see what would become of her.
She pushed him from her mind and focused on the task at hand. Septima had thought of what she would say in this moment a thousand times, she had even practiced groveling in the mirror. Survive and advance. That was the name of the game. But in that moment she couldn't do it, she wouldn't beg. Septima was nothing if not a survivor. Bellatrix, she knew, would see right through her pathetic pleas- she had seen right through it. They were using each other, it was always going to be that way. Their relationship had only one real outcome. At the end of the war only one of them would be alive, they both knew it. Septima thought about it for a long moment. She could reach for her wand, but that's what Bellatrix wanted, an excuse to end her life. She wouldn't give it to her. Not today. Bellatrix Lestrange was psychotic. Harry would kill her if the Dark Lord didn't.
Her hopes and dreams had been dashed and she had nobody to blame but herself and her ego. Fleur couldn't help but play Nancy Drew and Septima couldn't help but play the spider. Septima should have known better. There was something to be said for direct confrontation. Had she remembered that she would still be Headmistress.
"How can I be of service?" She wasn't a fool. Her actions in Whisper Alley would have consequences. Still she was significantly more valuable alive.
She saw the rage turn in her former lover as Bellatrix stomped over to her, drooping slightly so she could look her in the eyes. Septima thought the woman was going to rant at her when she doubled over in pain, shallow cuts appearing all over her body, soaking her white shirt red. Bellatrix smiled as she lifted her up by the throat. "Who the fuck do you think you are, Vector?" Bellatrix spat with vitriol.
Septima tried to remain calm, to not show weakness as she felt her legs begin to kick and her head lighten while air struggled to get to her brain. She let out a gurgled cry as another papercut came close to her genitalia. Another still, close to her ulnar artery.
"The destruction you caused in Whisper Alley ruined weeks of planning!" Bellatrix hissed as she resorted to muggle violence, punching her in the ribs a half dozen times, leaving her wheezing in pain while she tried in vain to level out her breathing. Bellatrix took a breath, calming in an instant, setting her gently on the ground and ending her curse.
Septima stood up slowly, refusing to double over in pain while Bellatrix continued softly. "Where do you get away casting the mark?" The vile woman said gently, cupping her cheek. "You, an unmarked muggleborn?" She laughed cruelly, pulling her wand out of thin air and training it on her. "Crucio." The spell rolled off the psychopath's tongue as if it were the name of a lover, though perhaps not.
Septima screamed as her innards burst into flames, the blood from her cuts oozing from her wounds, bubbling like magma from a crevice.
She screamed herself hoarse as blood vessels and capillaries were stressed to their limit before bursting, leaving a spiders web of Bellatrix's displeasure across her abdomen.
Desperately she wanted not to scream, to fight the pain and best her tormentor but she wasn't that strong. In her weakness Septima wanted Bellatrix to end her. To end her suffering and provide her with a way to avoid the karma she was owed, but she didn't beg. She was strong enough for that. She wouldn't beg a woman to kill her.
She fought for control of her mind, feeling it beginning to crack under the karma.
' Is this what the Longbottom's felt right before they broke?' She felt her body warm and time begin to fracture -
Then the earth shook, the pain stopped, and her mind settled.
The wind whipped through his messy black hair, a boyish grin on his depressingly severe face despite the grim circumstances. There was something about flying through the air that brought a calm about him. In a different life he could see himself ending his long days with quidditch practice and a kiss from Daphne rather than mock battles and numbing charms.
He shifted his weight. Diving in an instant he twirled at a seventy degree angle, spiraling towards the face of the snow-covered mountain before pulling up ten or so meters short of doom, sending loose snow flying in the twilight.
"Back in line, Potter." The ranking auror, one of a dozen he was in formation with chirped through the receptacle in his ear. The smile never left his face as he fell back in with the others without another word.
He shook away the incoming frown as his dragonhide covered fingers gripped his custom Nimbus. He preferred not to wear them but if his broom caught fire his normally exposed skin would remain protected under the thick double layer of dragonhide armor.
Their silhouettes made them look like geese flying in formation, in this case an inverse "V" spearheaded by their commander. Harry made up one of six riders on the left leg of the "V" flying in sequence with his guard both in front of and behind him. He caught eyes with his first guard, a woman named Meadows in her early thirties, as she looked over her shoulder back at him and smiled. Meadows could barely contain her laugh at the sight of him. Harry imagined he looked as ridiculous in his battle goggles and helmet as she did in hers.
Including their fearless leader their air unit was comprised of twelve auror's and himself acting as the cavalry, clearing the way for Tonks, Daphne, and the hundred or so auror's participating in the initial ground attack.
The full moon was rising by the time they made it over the mountains and into view of the ancient castle acting as a death eater stronghold.
"The boys did it!" Someone cried over the com in his ear, verbalizing what they were all thinking. It hadn't been a given that they would be able to bring down the protection wards in time for their arrival.
Someone else let out a gasp at what they saw.
In front of them sat a scale model of Diagon and Whisper Alley's. "Holy shit." Meadows muttered into her com.
"This changes nothing!" Their leader snapped. "Break formation!"
His leg of the "V" broke left, the other right while the commander played maestro above.
The entire valley was a maze of underground bunkers containing between seventy five and a hundred and fifty death eaters at any given time, DuPont's dossier had said.
Their job was simple; bomb the hell out of the death eater's so the troops have a clear path when they arrive to take care of any resistance. There was a simple brilliance to it, and it provided Harry with an excuse to utilize the military grade spells he had been practicing in the Forbidden Forest.
Flanked by Meadows and Stevens, Harry smiled savagely as he aimed his wand at the ground and unleashed hell. He watched intently as the metallic ball of energy burrowed itself deep into the earth before exploding outward; sending dirt, gravel, and gore ten meters into the air. "Direct hit." He heard Meadows report with glee.
Meadows and Stevens were meant to protect him and report back to the commander. Each leg had only two combatants capable of both flying and unleashing magic at that level without exhausting themselves. Even with only three others dropping artillery on the death eaters this was already the most ambitious aerial attack in modern wizarding history. He had sold Minister Bones on his ability to deliver.
"Proceed." The measured voice of their commander said, giving them the go ahead to continue their assault.
Across the valley he watched as faux Whisper and Diagon Alleys were obliterated into dust by the other leg of their team before unleashing his own fury, managing three more balls before eliciting a response from the chaotic enemy.
"Foxhole to the right!" Stevens' calls out through his com. "Protect Boy Wonder. Eliminate the threat." The commander replies monotonously, unbothered by the violence.
Wordlessly the auror fly's off, hitting the threat with a killing curse before falling under attack, lasting no more than five seconds before plummeting to his death.
"Stevens is down!" Meadows panicked voice rang through. "Stay with Boy Wonder." The commander responded blandly once more.
The night vision on his battle goggles kicks in as the sun disappears behind the mountains and he swears he sees movement at the castle off in the distance.
Zooming in Harry was proven right. At the cold castle the enemy had begun to emerge from their holes. Bellatrix Lestrange directing them as the traitor shook violently in the shadows behind her.
He smiled viciously at the sight of his former mentor - her actions had pissed off Bellatrix enough to lead to her own torture. One way or another Septima Vector would die on this battlefield.
Voldemort's top general began directing her lieutenants attention across the valley where a force of auror's were waging war with small bands of death eaters, who were popping out of holes and killing several at a time before immediately disappearing into the earth once more, throwing the ministry's forces into disarray.
Around him spells lit the air as the cavalry fell into a panic and he found himself dipping and diving once more, this time for his life. Still the smile didn't leave his face as the cool winter sky rushed over his thin nose and bushy eyebrows. His smile only widening a moment later when he saw Antonin Dolohov take to the air with his own cavalry.
Harry cackles like a jackal into the evening sky as he sped off with purpose, dropping balls of energy on the battle in pursuit of Dolohov, this time changing the energy so they would explode on contact.
The results were devastating and soon two of Dolohov's little birds were on his tail as he led them on a dizzying goose chase through the air, spells whizzing and zooming past his head at a frantic pace. He was having the time of his life while time slowed down as he barrel rolled counterclockwise to avoid a killing curse directed at him from the ground, returning in kind he barely missed his target before pulling up at a sharp ninety degree angle and leveling out, Dolohov's birds still hot on his tail. He knew he shouldn't, but he couldn't resist. He was having too much fun.
Tapping his wand to his throat he amplified his voice so the birdies would hear his call through the screams of the battle and the rush of the wind. "You'll have to be better than that little birds!" He taunted as he disillusioned himself and shot upwards once more into the night before doubling back on the enemy.
In a moment he was between the two of them. "Fiendfyre." He whispered, the cursed flame devouring the birdy to his right in an instant. He repeated his actions on the birdy to his left sending two balls of death towards the valley below before disposing of his camo and cackling into the sky once more as he raced off in search of his prey.
Around him chaos reigned. They had underestimated the size of the enemy force by a wide-margin and were suffering heavy losses, having lost nearly a quarter of their army in the first few minutes of battle. Off in the distance reinforcements were already beginning to pour in; the Minister had put too many resources into this battle to lose, she was committing to victory tonight.
His eyes found Hel and for a moment he was enchanted by Bellatrix Lestrange.
Illuminated by the moonlight her hips swayed to the reaper's song, a symphony of death gliding across the battlefield taking partners.
She was hypnotizing and horrifying all at once.
He was forced to barrel roll to his right, his torso narrowly avoiding a cutter from Dolohov. Still the spell connected with his thigh, severing his femoral artery and staining his robes dark crimson. Within seconds he felt himself weakening from the loss of blood.
' What do the healing books say?'
He knew he didn't have long. A few minutes maybe, before he was dead if he didn't take action.
' What do the healing books say?'
He didn't know. He couldn't recall. Healing was more Daphne's niche. She was in the class, not him.
He found himself becoming woozy as his vision began to blur and he struggled to maintain control of his broom. 'Fuck it.' Something primal in his mind said as he bit his lip. Knowing no other way, Harry placed his wand on the bleeding wound, cooking his flesh as he cauterized his wound with a feral scream.
He grasped around airily for a moment before finding his pocket. His fingers gripping a blood replenisher, he grinned maniacally, pale as death as he removed the stopper and downed it in one. Within seconds his vision returned to him as the battle raged on beneath. The reinforcements seeming to have done their job.
While dealing with his wound Dolohov had disappeared into the mayhem, making the assumption he was dead.
Harry parried spells as he searched for Dolohov, his eyes falling momentarily on Daphne below, who was handling herself nicely against the traitor. It wouldn't be long now, death was in the air.
He accelerated to top speed as he spotted his enemy across the way and below. Parrying another group of spells he lowered his shoulder and set his broom in a free-fall, his eyes never leaving Dolohov, the serial killer who attacked Sirius in Diagon Alley.
He drove his shoulder into Dolohov's, de-brooming the older man, sending them both hurtling towards the ground with force as they landed with a sickening crunch, Harry's helmet saving his life as he buried a knee into Dolohov's chest, regaining control of the situation.
The Russian monster gave him a broken smile through his own cracked helmet before spitting blood and bits of tooth in his face in response. Dolohov's breath smelled of cabbage as the slightly bigger man then caught Harry with an elbow to the nose, breaking it with a sickening crunch.
In the confusion Dolohov laughed and collected his wand from the ground before running off into the crowd. "Chase me Potter! Chase me!" The lunatic chanted in jest. "The Dark Lord will reward me above all others!"
Ignoring his impulses Harry laid chase, shielding and returning fire as needed.
He quickly came under attack by a band of death eaters working as a trio, one shielding while the other two attacked. Harry smiled viciously as he dipped and doodled his way through their meager attempts, thanking merlin for the hours spent with Moody preparing for this moment.
He twirled counterclockwise to avoid emasculation before lowering his shoulder into a roll under a hoard of projectiles. As he came out of his roll he disemboweled the woman to his left, enraging the man to her right as he abandoned shielding to throw killing curses his way.
Harry smiled through the smoke, his body throbbing from the crucible he was undertaking as his tornado of butterflies intercepts four killing curses. Without wasting more energy than necessary Harry eliminated the crazed death eater and his friend before continuing his search for Dolohov.
He passed an auror with blood dripping from his mouth, leg hanging by a strand limping around the blood-soaked meadow, as he loudly yelled if anyone had seen his wand.
Beyond that a group of death eaters were about to ambush a squad of auror reinforcements, causing Harry to temporarily abandon his chase long enough to fire off a half-dozen killing curses.
His hesitation forced him to dive to the ground as a boomerang of blue flew over his head. "You're making it easy on me, Potter!" Dolohov said from off to his right, his ugly face illuminated by the flames of the valley.
His wand in motion, Harry created inferi from the death eaters he had just disposed of, directing them at Dolohov. While the man was defending, Harry fired off a trio of killing curses at varying heights forcing the death eater to take a break from burning the horde of inferi in order to hastily conjure a series of steel shields.
"Very good Potter!" His opponent gushed, sending a triage of curses back his way.
His eyes never left his opponent as he quickly closed the gap between himself and Dolohov, dodging his curses and returning fire as he did so.
Dolohov's style was different than his own, relying on physical shields and a series of gruesome curses and transfigurations to maim and capture his opponents. The man was a champion of sadism known to conduct physical and psychological experiments on his captives.
' Terry.' Dolohov was responsible for that massacre. Harry owed Edmund a head.
The Russian slaughtered his pack of wolves and smacked his blood-boiler out of the night sky before rifling dozens of round, metal projectiles his way.
Harry couldn't avoid them all as a half dozen tore through his left shoulder leaving his entire arm to hang loosely, useless at his side.
He felt embarrassment as his enemy drew blood once more. How was he supposed to kill Voldemort if he couldn't handle a creature like Dolohov?
He switched to a less nuanced approach, putting more of a focus on savagery than optics, he sent a spell meant to butcher cattle several times in rapid succession at Dolohov.
The man shielded both but was forced to take several steps back to avoid the third, leaving him backed into a corner of fire. Harry smiled devilishly, the flames reflecting off his armor and illuminating his face, he unleashed a long, thin band of pale blue at the man.
The spell wrapped itself around Antonin Dolohov before severing his legs from his body at the knees. He let out a pained growl as he levelled his wand at Harry. The tough son of a bitch refusing to back down on the verge of certain death while Harry knocked his spells aside with ease.
"I've been looking forward to this for a long time, Sergei. " He spat, punching the man in the face. Dolohov roared in laughter as blood dripped from his mouth.
"You may kill me Potter! But I will always live within him!"
Reaching into the sheath in his robes he removed the mythril scythe Orion gave to his oldest son on his eleventh birthday and grabbed the man by his hair, the battle around him pausing for just a moment. "This is for Terry, you son of a bitch." He spat before slitting the man's throat, leaving Dolohov nearly decapitated on the field.
A slow, sarcastic applause cut through the silence. "Bravo, Lord Black. " The chilling voice of Bellatrix Lestrange said with a predatory grin. "Let's see how you do with a challenge."
Bellatrix had made a mistake. She thought to herself as the ground shook, her tormentor storming out of the bunker to check on the commotion up top. And now Septima hoped to capitalize on it.
Still shaking, she picked herself off the ground, her momentum taking her to the desk across the room that contained her wand. It warmed to her touch as she rummaged around the room further for a pain potion. Finding that and a few more she downed several and felt her mind come into focus and the pain numb. The bunker shook the floor once more, this time caving in a portion of the ceiling, covering the ground with stone and soil. She had to leave before the rest of the tunnel system caved in.
Nobody questioned her as she made her way from the bunker towards the castle up top. Whether it was the chaos or her reputation that kept them from intruding she did not know and she did not care. She needed to take advantage of the window being provided to her.
The stairs crumbled beneath her, causing her to misstep before finding her footing and ascending to the surface as the ministry bombarded the underground fortress. There was chaos raining from the sky as the ongoing aerial attack paved the way for the battalion of auror's slowly making their way across the valley towards the castle. ' Idiots.' She thought as Bellatrix's troops popped out of the ground to execute several auror's at a time before disappearing once more, sending the ministry's forces into pandemonium as they turned to fire spells at one another, not realizing the death eaters had already disappeared.
It was the air though that held her attention. The battle raged on as the ministry forces, led by Harry Potter, a Zeus among Graces, devastated Dolohov's ragtag group of assholes. Despite the situation Septima found herself longing for one last look at the man in action. Still trembling, she snuck up dangerously close to Bellatrix to get a better look, downing a potion she felt her tremors, remnants of the cruciatus curse, subside slightly.
She watched in awe as Harry was backed into a corner, only to kill several death eaters in quick succession with barely a wave of his wand.
The ground shook once more, reminding her of the dire situation she currently found herself in. She had to escape if she was to survive.
Septima glanced around a final time. Bellatrix was howling in delight as the aerial unit's commander plummeted headless towards the earth. It was now or never.
She headed in the opposite direction of Bellatrix, towards the mock-up of Whisper and Diagon Alley's and into the heap of the battle.
The moon illuminated the battlefield as heaps of auror's intermingled with death eaters, donned in black and in bone white masks they looked like death incarnate.
"VECTOR!" A familiar voice cut across the night sky.
Septima batted away an array of stunning curses sent her way by Daphne Greengrass, temporarily confused as to why the young sociopath wasn't resorting to something more lethal.
' She wants me alive.' A cold chill passed through her as the implication settled in, pumping adrenaline through her veins. She couldn't allow that to happen.
"Avada Kedavra!" She yelled desperately a dozen times as the girl closed the gap between the two.
She had lost. Septima realized desperately as the first bonebreaker connected with her collarbone. A second bonebreaker connected with her ribcage a moment later puncturing a lung, leaving her wheezing for air a second time as a pair of devilish green eyes approached her.
The sun hung low in the late February sky. "What the hell is taking so long?" Tonks mumbled to her softly.
Silently Daphne wondered the same thing. Time was running out, she could almost make out Harry's unit over the mountains across the valley. "Harry would have had this done by now." She responded to the dueling champion who nodded her head in agreement, much to the chagrin of the ward master working the wards directly in front of her.
Daphne tapped her dragon hide boot impatiently as they waited. Each second wasted was a second longer Bellatrix Lestrange and Septima Vector lived.
Off in the distance she could see the setting sun reflect off the polished handles of the incoming brooms. If she could see them, then the enemy could see them. Daphne really didn't know what the holdup was, she had looked at the wards with Harry and recognized nearly half of them. Harry had estimated it would take no longer than 3 minutes.
It had taken Carmodogan nearly five. 'Maybe he's hourly?' Daphne thought with disdain. What low standards the ministry must have to not just allow this fool to become a ward master, but to allow him to serve on such a sensitive mission.
"We're a go!" The ward master shouted over the com in her ear.
"Finally you dumb prick!" Another auror shouted as the rest laughed.
" The boys did it!" She heard one of the aerial team members exclaim over the com, eliciting whoops of joy from the other members of the cavalry.
They separated into three large groups as Harry painted the sky with color. Her group would handle the left flank, taking the mock-up of Diagon Alley. Tonks group would charge straight ahead while an intimidating auror named Shacklebolt led the right flank.
"Zeta we're a go." The commander rang in over her ear com.
They charged forward in groups of three; one auror in charge of shielding while the other two peppered the area with offensive might.
Daphne grunted as a spell slipped through the auror's shields and sliced her non-wand arm. Silently healing it she growled in frustration. The constrictive style was counterintuitive and the opposite of how she had trained with Tonks and Harry. Their styles were fluid and beautiful. Agility was their shields, communication their back up. The inability of the auror's was harming her mission.
A half dozen death eaters appeared out of the night, killing the auror in charge of shielding in an instant before training their attention on her and the other auror.
Daphne didn't hesitate. Silently unleashing a barrage of bludgeoners and acid hexes at her enemies with measured abandon, a pair of those bludgeoners left two holes in death eater chests evening the odds slightly, leaving four enemies for her and her now injured partner.
' He's not going to make it like this.' She realized in annoyance. He'd be less of a hindrance if he were dead.
"Avada Kedavra!" She roared. Catching the auror and the now dead death eater off guard.
She couldn't decide if she had found her mark or not and realized it didn't matter. Either way a problem was solved.
Ignoring her weakened partner she turned on the three remaining death eaters as they began their counter attack.
Daphne crouched to the ground before wordlessly unleashing a dark gray cloud. Silently she worked herself into position before charging forward out of the smoke, catching the first death eater by surprise with a cutting curse to the throat, she pirouetted on the second death eater, impaling him with a conjured metal spike.
When she turned around the final death eater had disappeared into the night, leaving her alone and breathing heavily, her eyes searching for her prey.
Around her the smoke hid the full moon and stars from view, the howls of the grievously wounded haunting the night sky.
Large embankments of earth had sprung up during the barrage, leaving her prey with plenty of places to take cover, should she-so choose.
A plethora of light illuminated her surroundings from one of the explosions, causing her eyes to go wide as the ambush was exposed.
"Avada Kedavra!" She yelled, not bothering to watch the first death eater die as she danced around a killing curse.
The commotion drew the attention of several other death eaters and soon Daphne found herself under attack by nearly a dozen enemies.
Desperation filling her for the first time as she pointed her wand at a clump of earth, blood, and bone, transforming the mess into a hideous golem. Using one of Harry's animation tricks, essentially combining an animation charm with a variation of the imperious curse, she left the golem to its own devices, drawing the attention of Daphne's attackers away from her.
As they handled the golem Daphne squared her shoulders and let out a loud laugh, pointing her black wand at the night sky.
" Super mortuo!" She yelled several times in quick succession.
Dozens of flaming rocks rained down from the heavens, decimating her opponents; Daphne's adrenaline making up for her creeping exhaustion.
She turned her attention back to hunting her prey, finding her fifty meters west attempting to flee the carnage into the night.
"VECTOR!" She yelled half mad into the void, unleashing a barrage of stunners at the traitor, hoping to connect.
The spy batted them away with ease, before returning fire, forcing Daphne to summon the spy's now-dead comrades into the path of the incoming killing curses.
Septima didn't let up with her killing curses even as Daphne closed the gap between the two without firing a single spell. 'Not yet. Not yet. Not yet.' She reminded herself over and over again. The woman's death now wouldn't be enough.
"You can't flee from death, murderer!" She yelled unleashing a barrage of bone breakers as she closed the gap between the two. One of her spells found its mark causing the woman to drop to a knee as her collarbone shattered.
Five meters away Daphne sent one more bone breaker at Septima's rib cage, taking pleasure in her desperate wheezes and labored breaths the blonde girl grabbed her former headmistress by her pretty brown hair and disappeared.
She was thankful the ground shook when it did, she had lost control of the situation and would have tortured the bitch into insanity if it hadn't.
Bellatrix dashed from the room, leaving the broken woman on the floor she touched the tip of her wand to her dark mark three times in quick succession, alerting her Lord that the ministries attack had begun.
First the situation with Vector now the ministry attacking her on her ground. This was shaping up to be the best day of her life. She could barely contain her excitement as she rounded the corner and ran up the stairs. "Antonin!" She shouted into her com. "Potter is destroying the western bank. Get up there and take care of him."
"Yes ma'am." The sadist said simply. Obeying without further word.
She took a moment to savor that brief moment. Ophelia used to compare breaking a man like Dolohov to breaking a wild hippogriff. The highest compliment one could pay to lesser creatures. Ophelia had taught her that as well.
Bellatrix watched as Dolohov and his pawns took to the air as Septima Vector trembled just out of her line of vision. If the younger woman was smart she would attempt to run. Better to take her chances with Potter and Daphne than her.
She turned her attention back to the battle at hand, whispering several more commands into her com. They had prepared for this moment, the Bletchley boy playing his part perfectly. For all her potential, Daphne was still just a silly child playing at war.
There was a labyrinth of tunnels extending from the edge of the valley and up into the mountains of foxholes, traps, and bunkers making up her gauntlet of death and Bellatrix was desperate to begin. She needed this release. She had played nice for so long and this was her reward.
The ground shook once more as Potter continued to decimate a large portion of her forces while small bands of death eaters carried out a coordinated series of lightning attacks against the auror's. There was to be no gory attempts by the pawns tonight, just bursts of green.
She threw her head back in mad laughter as the head of the auror commander fell through the sky, splattering like a melon on the hard earth below. She had waited for this moment for months. Tonight she would crush the ministry.
The smell of ash and sulfur filled the air as her eyes scanned the battlefield. In the first several minutes alone the enemy had taken heavy losses, clearly underestimating the size of her Lord's forces. It wouldn't be long before the auror's would call in reinforcements. She was looking for an opening, a way to assert herself on the battlefield. There were precious few that could match her in individual combat and she yearned for a challenge.
During the later years of her apprenticeship to Grindelwald's finest, Ophelia had prepared her for open battle. Bellatrix had always found beauty in the chaos. Simpletons were most efficient in tight knit groups with either two aggressors with a shield or three men back to back. Those who weren't trained in battle techniques resorted to crude disillusionment charms that disappeared when you made to attack. That was their cowardly mistake. Warriors needed to be seen.
She wore no mask as she walked her way left, through the screams and terror towards Kingsley Shacklebolt's troops. The man directed one third of the battle from a solitary station in the center of his men. Eliminating him would sow chaos.
The moon illuminated her graceful movements as her ash wand cut through the air in a series of well-practiced twirls and jabs designed to efficiently, and painfully kill her enemies.
The first three spells, simply fourth-year blasting curses, struck true. Exploding three heads in quick succession. But her wand didn't stop. A nano-second later several light pink spells found their mark but seemingly had no effect. Bellatrix paid them no worries, finishing the last of Ophelia's chain, two more spells disassembled two auror's in plum robes. Three explosions from behind her as she moved along let Bellatrix know her organ exploding curses had eliminated those remaining threats.
Whether a conscious effort or not, the battlefield opened up to her as she got within range of Shacklebolt barking orders.
"Kingsley dear!" She yelled when she was certain the black man could hear her. "Let's see if you took my last lesson to heart!"
She unleashed a torrent of fire at the tree of a man but it was immediately met with a shield of water, leaving the area hot with steam. Bellatrix grinned wildly as she launched an unseen dagger at the man before he had an opportunity to cast a counter.
Quick wand-work saved the senior auror's life as he transfigured the knife into a falcon and directed it her way before launching a series of bone-breakers and cutters.
Bellatrix laughed as she danced her way out of harm, advancing as she returned fire.
Kingsley was a simple beast of below average intelligence and above average power. He wasn't going to overwhelm her with creativity or try and move his lumbering body. The man's strength lay in his agility as a spell-caster, his limited ability to manipulate spells, and his counter.
Bellatrix was forced to dispatch of a pair of black bears giving Shacklebolt a moment to begin his own spell chain.
Several bone-breakers, some wide as a tree and straight, others narrow as a pin and twirling made for unpredictable dodging so she slowed her forward progress to bat away the spells of the enemy.
"Very good Kingsley!" She cooed. "You're much more creative when it's only your life on the line." She wished she could recall the name of his wife but it escaped her. "What was her name again?" Bellatrix did hope Kingsley would tell her before doing something rash.
Her hopes were dashed a second later as an enraged Kingsley screamed in anger, leaving his comfort zone by charging her head on.
"Stupid auror. Do tell…" it was on the tip of her tongue. "Maude! Tell Maude I said hello." A white beam of light in the shape of a scythe swept at Shacklebolt's feet, cutting them off at the ankle as the man fell directly on his new stumps in astonishment.
Calmly Bellatrix lowered her wand and glanced about the battlefield. Far off to the left Daphne was taking care of Vector while Potter was decimating her pawns in pursuit of Antonin. The man didn't have much time left, she imagined.
Kingsley landed hard on his new stubs, wobbling around momentarily before falling face first into the cold hard ground. "Silly auror." She cooed as she picked up her dagger and opened the vein on his throat.
She separated from Daphne and rejoined her group quietly as they made their way into the heart of the battle.
Embedded deep within the center of their cluster sat her team of ten. They had the honor of destroying the belly of the beast.
Tonks switched her com to her teams dedicated channel. "Ahead twenty meters!" She barked. She was greeted by silence as they made their way through the heart of the battle and to the chosen foxhole.
She took a deep breath. She didn't know what to expect. For muggles fighting in Asia similar tunnels had meant near certain death, but she had never infiltrated a tunnel before. Pushing aside her fear, Tonks jumped in through the hole with her wand held at the ready, landing in the mud with a soft thud.
Dimly lit torches illuminated the narrow tunnel as her team stood one wide and back to back. They would not be ambushed.
The tunnel was eerily quiet, the only noise being the rumble of the battle above. In front of her she saw only her breath and dirt. 'Has the enemy blown their load?'
They stopped as they reached an impasse before quietly separating into two groups of three and her group of four.
Her group pressed on silently and she could tell the inaction was beginning to take its toll on the team. They had expected resistance but had found silence. They were trained to deal with the uncertainty of battle. How to adapt when a situation breaks down. How to handle being a prisoner of war, but not this. Above them chaos claimed hundreds of lives but down here she could hear crumbling dirt hit the floor.
Something wasn't right.
"Boss there's nothing in bunker one." Jeffries rang over their private line. "Ditto with bunker three boss." A second voice chimed in.
A chill ran down her spine. DuPont's information pegged Denbigh as Voldemort's base of operations. Three large bunkers beneath the valley with the bulk of the enemy's intelligence. Had DuPont double crossed them? Was this a trap?
Tonks' mind raced as she toggled through com channels, her eyes widening. Amelia had called in reinforcements. 'Where would she pull them from?' They were already spread thin as it was with the traitor's hissy fit to clean up.
Her group of three other auror's all stared at her as they approached the second bunker. Tonks cast several diagnostic charms. If the room was protected, it wasn't by magic.
Stepping into the ugly underground bunker Tonks let out a frustrated sigh. "Bunker two is empty." She reported.
' What the hell is going on?'
She watched as the life drained from the big man's eyes before turning her attention elsewhere, confident she had disposed of Shacklebolt with enough time left for some fun.
Around her the battle gave the appearance of being in full swing but she knew better. It was just the chosen left now, the rest were with her Lord. She would be as well, soon as her Lord needed her.
Bellatrix frowned. Her niece had disappeared. She had been hoping to kill that branch of the family tree for good. Daphne and Vector had also disappeared. The latter caused her to smile. Daphne hadn't left a body, Vector wouldn't be let off lightly after all.
Her eyes found Potter and she was off in a flash, arriving just in time to see Dolohov flop lifelessly to the ground. "Bravo Lord Black. " She said in what passed as amusement. "Let's see how you do with a challenge!"
She was on him in a heartbeat sending dozens of steel balls towards the boy with glee. Each barring was moving at a high enough velocity to tear through that fancy armor of his and he knew it. Far-from panicking, Potter transfigured several orbs into a flock of sparrows while avoiding the rest of her spell altogether. Bellatrix offered Harry Potter a genuine smile. He came as-advertised.
As she avoided the sparrows and extended several tendrils of haggard lightning towards her opponent she never stopped moving. Movement meant life. Movement meant victory. Movement divided the enemies focus.
Everything the tendrils touch charred earth as Potter ducked, weaved, and returned fire; his wand never taking a break. He too was a student of Ophelia.
She abruptly ended the lightning, sending 'Thor's Hammer' towards Potter as a small change of pace.
He batted it aside, responding in kind but following it up with a killing curse as she squealed in delight, summoning a corpse to take the punishment.
The corpse exploded in a gory display, the half-cooked meat covering the once lush valley. "How's your conditioning, my liege?" She asked, smacking away his latest attempt and erupting with her full arsenal.
Emasculation, disembowelment, certain death, the bubonic plague - Potter danced through it all and some, returning fire with a host of bonebreakers and a mixture of nasty of his own. The boy was great, prodigious even. He should be dead but the young Lord cast as though he had just arrived. The longer her barrage continued the faster Potter moved returning punishment in kind, a psychotic laughter of his own echoing across the mostly empty field; Ignem Aestifer, bolts of lightning, flaming arrows, she even batted aside the jelly legs jinx as neither gave an inch. Harry Potter was a challenge and Bellatrix found herself oddly jealous of Daphne Greengrass. She knew what it was like to tie your hopes and dreams to a god. Taking your power was an intoxication she hadn't felt in years. 'Should I be successful tonight, however…'
Changing the paradigm Bellatrix followed a thunderclap up with a cloud of thick black smoke, eliminating two of the boy's senses in as many seconds. Used to the disorientation of battle Bellatrix closed the gap between herself and Potter hoping to catch him off guard.
From her left three large spears of ice emerged from the darkness, the last catching her in the shoulder, impaling her non-wand arm.
Through the thick smoke she saw his cold green eyes and smiled. Having pinned his location Bellatrix sent four bonebreakers his way, connecting with both of his legs.
Bellatrix Lestrange smiled warmly as she stood over him, hatred in his eyes she stomped on his wand wrist, taking satisfaction in the sickening crunch and crouching down to meet his eyes, she leaned in close. Cupping his cheek lovingly she kissed him deeply, shoving her tongue down his throat roughly for several seconds as he fought to break free.
Pulling away and with her lips still brushing his Bellatrix looked Harry in his beautiful green eyes and smiled. "Heal yourself up love, we'll finish this in Hogsmeade."
Having had her fun, Bellatrix left the boy-who-lived broken in Denbigh.