Of Blessings and Curses

Chapter 24

A heavy pause, poignant and crackling with tension, fills the air. Ears ringing and stomach churning, glances pass between Aurors and Picquery. I am unable to decipher their meaning due to the thick fog swirling in my brain. 

"Speaking of Graves, does anyone know where he is?" Picquery demands, voice calculated and commanding. No one responds. So where is Grindelwald? If he's not aboveground... 

He's underground. With Newt, Tina, and Credence.

This damn brain fog must be thicker than expected, because I throw any and all remaining logic out the window and make a break for it, half-sprinting, half-falling down the ice-slick stairs. 

"Nice, try," Someone snarls, grabbing my arm and yanking me upwards again. In unison, all of the Aurors begin to walk downstairs, followed by Picquery. 

Time slows as my instincts kick in, brain fog penetrated by my will to protect my friends. My head throbs as I imagine a large bar pushing against the onslaught of Aurors and shifting the man holding my arm away from me. As spells begin to fire, I create a temporary forcefield, sealing myself away from the danger. But with my pounding, aching head and ever-thickening brain fog, I won't be able to keep this up for long. Even in the cold, I feel sweat dripping down my temples and running down my back, dampening my sweater. Lips move and spells fizzle out like fireworks against my shield. My feet, planted firmly on the ground as if I had been standing in that exact position since the beginning of time. My hands outstretched, fingers flexed and tight, palms outwards. My feet sinking into the earth underneath me, eyes fixated in front of me, staring the crowd of humans directly into their faces, the whites of their eyes visible. So close, yet I am untouchable. 

For now. 

As the force of the spells intensify, so does my exhaustion. With every spell that slams into my forcefield, my entire body shakes and caves in on itself. With a fiery burst of yellow light, a single spell hurtles towards the invisible wall, hovers in the air for a moment, then breaks through my barrier. My knees give out just in time - the blindfolding jinx just grazed the top of my head. 

No longer concerned with me, the mass of people rush and scramble down the stairs. Feeling as though I am sinking into the ground on my hands and knees, boots and the hems of robes whizz past, a few making contact. The word moves lurches into a sickening slow motion after the rapid-fire sequence of events my brain flashes before my eyes to catch them up. 

I'm falling. 

Just as the realization strikes me, something else very real does too. The dirty ground, littered with stains and dirt as if it were the night sky.  

Tina's voice penetrates the brain fog, "Don't! You'll frighten him!" Her voice fizzles out, overpowered by Grindelwald's fierce command. 

"Wands down! Anyone harms him, they answer to me," he says viciously. As his focus returns to the black, seething mass that is Credence, I am spurred into action. If anything can motivate me to get up, it's that voice. Tiny electric shocks jitter across my skin. 

Tina attempts to calm Credence down, but he's only getting worse. He must know what is coming next. 

Suddenly from all angles, beams of pale golden light shoot towards Credence from every possible angle. For a moment, he looks like an animal covered in arrows, the final moments between life and death. 

There is nothing that I could have done, exhausted and concussed. Nothing I could have done.  Those words bounced through my head, were written down, and recited like poetry. Yet I can't seem to get myself to believe them. Because there is  something that I could have done.