✔️ 𝐔𝐍𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐃 → 𝑐.𝑤𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑙𝑒𝑦

05 | M O N S T R O U S

   "OUT!"

   Her words cut the silence like a sword, and Charlie blinked, releasing the breath that had been stuck in his lungs without him noticing.

   "Out, I said!", she repeated, as he didn't move. "And don't dare to ever come back, Charles. Don't dare to challenge my mercy."

   It wasn't like she had to tell him twice. To be honest, Charlie had never seen any chance to persuade her from the moment he started his journey.

   "You -"

   "Yeah, I let you go", she hissed, rolling red glowing eyes. "You'll go back to Dumbledore's followers, you will tell them, that Anastasia Voinescu is none of your options! You will tell them that you'll lose this war, and that you all get what you deserve for following a man as Albus Dumbledore and his false morality of a greater good!"

   "Miss Voi- Ana", Charlie said, his voice low, as he got up. "People are dying, they are getting slaughtered, and if there's anything Dumbledore wanted, it's to stop this gruesome war! How can this be wrong?"

   "What if I tell you there is no good and evil, my naive little ginger?", she purred, looking up at him with darkened eyes, a gaze the devil himself would fear. "Indeed there's nothing but evil, Charles. Even your great Albus Dumbledore is nothing but a manipulative old twat, only after his own selfish thoughts of a better world. The Ministry is corrupted. Even more dangerous than You-Know-Who himself, because - let's face it - at least the Dark Lord's playing with an open hand." She chuckled quietly, running her slim fingers through his already ruffled hair. "I rather don't choose sides, Charlie Weasley. I've given these powers for a reason. And I'd rather die than to obey anyone but myself."

   Danger was a friend of Charlie, but he  knew when a battle was lost. Not wanting to further dare his own fortune by having another pointless attempt to persuade the woman in front of him to come with him.

   "You'll leave now", Ana said, her face plain, not even the devilish grin left, as her eyes went dark. "You'll go now, Charlie Weasley, and you'll never return. You'll warn your little friends to not ever set a toe in this forest ever again. You will tell them that I'll kill anyone who's even only considering trying to steal my precious time."

   Charlie nodded; the gesture of a defeated man. Straightening his muscular shoulders, he headed for the exit, not daring to throw a last glance back at Anastasia Voinescu's gracious, frightening beauty. His hand already on the door knob, he froze by the sound of her melodic voice.

   "You're lucky Ezra likes you", she said, and he felt the Kneazle striding around his ankles. "I think you're what people call a good person. Your intentions are all the best. But you are fighting a battle you can't win. I would appreciate to hear that in the end you didn't die as someone's marionette. I'd appreciate to hear that you didn't die at all."

   "If this war is lost, I am a dead man", he replied, still not looking back at her. He took a deep breath. "I'm dying as a free man. I am no one's marionette. But I won't hide and watch this world burn. There are things worth dying for, Miss Voinescu."

   "It's Ana", she again told him.

   "I rather stay on formal terms", he quietly spoke, opening the door, and sunlight flooded the room. "Farewell, Miss Voinescu."

   Behind his back, the door fell shut, and he breathed out the air in his lungs that still withheld her scent of wildflowers and woodlands, before he turned in a quick move and vanished into thin air.

 •✧• 

   "Hopes were never high at all", Charlie's father told his second eldest son, and despite his reassuring words, there clearly was disappointment swinging in his words. "It was a try. I am sure Dumbledore also was aware that chances were rather low."

   Charlie sunk back into his chair, after informing the Order of the Phoenix about his failed mission.

   "What did he expect that evil creature to do?", Mundungus Fletcher spoke up, bloody, watering eyes rolled. "She's a murderer. Shameless, disgusting monster. Just another proof that Dumbledore tends to put his faith into all the wrong people."

   Charlie shook his head. "She's not a creature", he calmly replied. "She's a human being that had experienced all the wrong things from the day of her birth on. She -"

   "... murdered her own parents", Mundungus cut him off. "She's an evil little brat, and I wouldn't have wondered if she'd sent your remainings back to Molly in a paper bag."

   "I have to admit - and it hurts me to do so - that I have to agree with Dung", Moody growled. "She's not your friendly neighborhood witch, and you shouldn't get blinded by her pretty face, boy."

   "It's not her face, it's ..." Charlie hesitated, looking from one face to another. "I don't know what it is, but there's - She's not a monster."

   "She's a mad woman, what definitely comes close to a monster - ouch! What was that for?" Mundungus rubbed the back of his head, where Tonks had just hit him with her flat hind, still raised up behind the small man's back.

   "It doesn't matter what she is", Remus sighed. "Dumbledore had set high hopes in her. We need a plan B."

   "We need a wonder!", Mundungus called out, slamming his fist onto the table plate.

   "Let's focus on that later", Moody growled. "For now it's important to get Potter. So ..."

   Charlie drifted off. She's not a monster. But how could he think so? How could he be sure? Proofs for her to be what they told about here were given. More than enough of them. She hadn't even fought it when he had confronted her with the murders she attempted.

   But there was something ... something that didn't fit in that picture of a murderous monster. Something didn't fit those horrific stories about an evil witch in the depths of the forest. Not only the wildflowers and the Kneazle, not her petite features. Something. Something ...

•✧•