Davina | hp. ✓

45 | The Battle Begins

DAVINA MALFOY WAS many things. She was a woman with many names, and yet no names at all. She was a powerful witch from a very young age. She was defiant in the face of anything and anyone that told her she could not doing something. She was a ruthless deatheater who had made many difficult decisions and done terrible things in her tenure. She was a daughter, a sister, a godmother, a friend, a hero and a villain, an advocate. 

That night, she quite possibly could have been Death itself. 

Her veins ran cold with ice water, her heart was frozen in the heat of the moment, her mind was numb to all but one thing: an end to the pain and suffering and misery. Everything that she had become, everything she had done, led up to this battle. She sure as hell was going to win it. 

Hogsmeade Village was thrown into chaos as sirens blared, signaling the sighting of Harry Potter. Deatheaters and townspeople were running amuck, but Davina and her group strode through with a purpose. When they reached the town circle, she stopped in her tracks and turned to them. 

"This is where we go our separate ways."

"What?! No!"

"I have plans in place, things that I need to do. So do the rest of you. Make yourselves seen by the Dark Lord, fight by his side, but do everything you can to see to it that we take the harder hits. We have one shot at this. Don't be seen."

"And what about you?" Draco questioned.

"I've been planning this night for two years. I know what I have to do." She looked between all of them. "It's been a privilege getting to spend the past few years with you all. You all are the family I chose, and I'm glad I did. Now, you all better make it out of this in one piece or I'll kill you myself."

"What she said." Draco nodded. "This is not fucking goodbye." 

"Let's look on the bright side." Blaize chuckled humorously, though he was clearly tense with nerves. "At least now we have to excuse to blow some shit up."

Theo couldn't fight the urge to grin. "I like the way you think."

Davina smiled at all of them, admiring the way in which her friends could still throw out jokes and sarcasm in the middle of such peril. She drew up the hood of her cloak. "I'll see you idiots on the other side."

They dispersed. Theo took her wrists and stared at her, his expression contorted with fear. "You know if I had it my way, you'd be on a tropical island or even fucking America, away from all of this shit."

She smirked. "You should know by now that I always get my way."

He chuckled, "Yes, well, that I know. Don't you think if I could shove you in a box and ship you off somewhere safe till this was all over, I would?"

"This won't be over if I don't do my part."

"It's a big part." He murmured, nodding.

She offered him a reassuring smile. "And it's almost done. Have some faith."

"I always have faith in you." He replied earnestly, bringing her lips up to meet his. He kissed her passionately, desperately, as if it was the last time. When he pulled away, he fixed the hood of her cloak. "Be careful out there. And kick some ass."

"I plan on it." She smirked. 

She turned and receded into the shadows. He stood there for a moment longer, half-hoping that she would turn back and tell him that she had changed her mind and decided she would flee. But he knew better. Davina Malfoy never back down from a fight, even if the odds weren't in her favor, because she knew she would always won. He was counting on it.

He cast a disillusionment charm over himself and took of towards the castle where its inhabitants were preparing for the battle of their lives. 

Davina Malfoy became best friends with the darkness that night. She weaved in and out of it like an art, and it shielded her the entire way without failure. She strode through the streets of the village, rounding corners and cutting through alleyways until she reached a pub she had seen in her vision. The old, wooden sign hanging above the door read HOG'S HEAD INN, and she strode through the front door as if she had been there a million times before -- though she very well knew she could get her head blown right off.