Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [7]

⚡️ Chapter 40 ⚡️

Vega was lying face down on the ground again but she could feel that her lower body was half strewn atop Harry. The smell of the forest filled her nostrils almost instantaneously, and she could feel the cold hard ground beneath her cheek. The force of the curse had thrown the two of them back and Vega could feel the impact of it on herself.

Every inch of Vega's body ached, and the place where Killing Curse had hit her felt like the bruise of an iron-clad punch. She did not stir, but she remained exactly where she had fallen, with her left arm bent out at an awkward angle, her legs uncomfortably on Harry's legs and her mouth parted lightly.

However, Vega could also feel Harry's faint stirring underneath her, so faint it could only be felt by touch. She was glad that he was pretended to be dead, too.

For a moment, Vega wondered if they should've thought of a plan up wherever they had been just seconds ago. But it was too late for that now.

And Vega had expected to hear cheer of triumph and jubilation at her and Harry's deaths, but instead hurried footsteps, whispers, and solicitous murmurs filled the air around them. She wondered what was going on, and she wasn't sure what had happened while they were 'gone' – or had that been just a moment, the entire conversation?

"My Lord... My Lord..."

It was Bellatrix Lestrange's voice, and she spoke as if to a lover. Vega did not dare open her eyes, no matter how much her mother's voice disgusted her at this very moment, but she allowed her other senses to explore her predicament.

One thing was clear, Vega knew her wand was still stowed beneath her robes because she could feel it pressed between her chest and the ground. She could also feel the Resurrection Stone still in her pocket. And she knew Harry's Invisibility Cloak was with him... Vega felt the ring against her chest turning hot but she couldn't dwell on it very much.

"My Lord..." Bellatrix continued.

"That will do," spoke Voldemort's voice.

More footsteps. Several people were backing away from the same spot. Desperate to see what was happening and why, Vega opened her eyes by a millimetre. Voldemort seemed to be getting to his feet. Various Death Eaters were hurrying away from him, returning to the crowd lining the clearing. Bellatrix alone remained behind, kneeling beside Voldemort.

Vega closed her eyes again and considered what she had seen.

The Death Eaters have been bundled around Voldemort, who seem to have fallen to the ground. Something had happened when he had hit Vega and Harry with the Killing Curse. Had Voldemort too collapsed? It seemed like it. If there was something she was certain of – all three of them had briefly fallen unconscious and all three of them had now returned.

"My Lord," Bellatrix breathed. "Let me –"

"I do not require assistance," Voldemort said coldly, and though she could not see it, Vega pictured Bellatrix withdrawing a helpful hand. "The boy and the girl... are they dead?"

There was a complete silence in the clearing – Nobody approached Vega and Harry, but she felt their concentrated gaze; it seemed to press her harder into the ground, and she was terrified a finger or an eyelid might twitch from her or from Harry.

"You," Voldemort said, and there was a bang and a small shriek of pain. "Examine the two of them. Tell me whether they are dead,"

Vega did not know who had been sent to verify their deaths. She could only lie there, with her heart thumping traitorously, and wait to be examined, but at the same time nothing, small comfort through it was, that Voldemort was wary of approaching her and Harry, that Voldemort suspected that all had not gone to plan... it gave her a thrilling satisfaction.