Alexandra Dursley {Golden Trio}

Chapter 86 - Duelling to Kill

Guys...I came so close to just rewriting the whole story this morning I'm not even joking...I do not like this at all...

 Bellatrix opened fire, darting forwards and backwards, while Al blocked, dodged and returned the curses. They jumped around the dias as battle raged around them, and Al saw Neville and Harry trying to clamber up the steps. Bellatrix seemed to be openly enjoying the challenge Al presented her with, and Al had to admit, it was very cathartic. She had missed her duelling club.

 Tonks ran to her side, "I can take it from here!" she shouted at Al, who ignored her. She was having way too much fun.

 But then Avery ran next to Bellatrix and fired upon them both and soon their four way battle split into two, and Al was duelling Avery instead. She specifically despised Avery, for all the pain that he'd put her through last summer.

 Before she knew it, the white flames had sprung from her wand once more, and she directed them as a giant whip, slicing open Avery's skin where it hit. He cried out in pain and Al flicked her wand and it wound around his neck. She jolted her wand back and it tightened, and she watched as he slowly turned purple. Al hated this man, and hated him with every fibre of her being.

 Remus darted past her, duelling Mulciber. "We do not duel to kill, Al!" he reminded her, and Al sighed. She supposed he was right - they'd be more use arrested. She swished her wand through the air and flung him against the stone steps where he remained motionless.

 "Happy?" Al asked, as she turned to face Mulciber alongside Lupin. She did not have time to conjure the white flames again, instead turning him to stone. A stinging hex hit her in the shoulder before she could even catch her breath.

 Al whipped around and saw Lucius Malfoy, wand raised, daring her to fight. So she did. She fired cutting charms at his legs, stinging hexes at his arms, and stunners everywhere else. They jumped up onto the steps, dodging, diving and ducking, but Al was in her element. This, above all else, was what she was best at. Age and experience gave Malfoy an edge, but anger and determination matched Al's ability to his own.

 Al leaped over Tonks's body, hoping she was okay, and saw to her delight that Dumbledore had arrived. Only two pairs duelled now - Sirius and Bellatrix and Malfoy and Al. She couldn't decide who of the four was having the most fun. She hit his shoulder with a stinging hex and he yelped back in surprise, tripping on the steps.

 Al stepped over to him, raising her wand, ready to finish it, but he caught her unawares and disarmed her. She leaped to the side, scrambling to find her wand, when a cord found her ankle and she yelled in surprise as he dragged her backwards up the steps, her chin hitting each one painfully and splitting open.

 Al was pulled to her feet by her hair and Malfoy wound his arm around her neck, pressing lightly against her windpipe. He pinned her right arm to her side, his wand pressed into her abdomen. Al looked down the steps and saw Kingsley, Remus and Dumbledore, each with their wands raised in her direction. "Let her go, Malfoy!" Remus yelled from down below.

 Malfoy's laughter rang in her ear, and to her horror, he began stepping backwards up the steps. He was getting away and taking her with him. She couldn't go back...not there. She would never ever go back. She struggled against him, but he pulled her in tighter, the silver buttons of his robes digging into her back. "You will not kill her, Dumbledore!" Malfoy shouted down the steps, almost gleefully and Al knew why. If Malfoy was the one that returned Voldemort's most wanted weapon, he'd be rewarded above all else.

 They were almost at the top now, and Al was getting desperate. She couldn't go back. "Do it!" she screamed down the steps, still struggling but to no avail. She looked directly at Remus, straight into his eyes, "DO IT! NOW!" But none of them fired. "You cowards! Do it!"

 "He'll kill you, Al!" Remus called up warningly. "Don't worry, we'll find you." And the three men lowered their wands.

 "No!" Al screamed, tears now pouring down her face, and mixing with the blood on her chin and neck. "Please, no! I don't care! DO IT!" But then, Al's attention was diverted. Out the corner of her eye, she saw Sirius get hit by a jet of red light, and fall into the archway. Everyone froze. The world stopped spinning. Somehow...somehow she knew he would not come back.

 Al did not understand it, but this pain was what gave her the strength to tear away from Malfoy, tripping as she did and half falling, half running down the steps, her eyes streaming. She saw Harry do the same, but when she was only halfway, a cutting charm from Malfoy tore straight through her and hit the steps on the other side. Al cried out and tumbled the rest of the way down to be caught at the bottom by a strong pair of hands.

 They pulled her out the way, and she cried out again, her head pounding, and every bone bruised. Blood gushed from her wound relentlessly and she watched as Dumbledore threw Malfoy forward with a spell she did not know and he landed on the dias, hair flying everywhere.

 Sirius had not yet come out the other side of the veil, and Al pushed Kingsley, who had caught her and was now trying to heal her, away from her, pushing herself to her feet and staggering up the dias to the archway. Kingsley jumped forward and continued the duel with Bellatrix.

 Sirius had to still be there. He had to come come out. The world became silent, as she neared the archway, whispers that she hadn't heard before over the noise calling out to her. She wanted more than anything to step through that archway.

  Her left hand reached out in front, her right hand clutching at her wound, and she'd almost touched he veil, still sobbing hysterically, when she heard Remus's voice. "Harry - no!" Al turned and saw Harry sprinting up the steps after Bellatrix, who had won her duel with Kingsley.

 "SHE KILLED SIRIUS!" Harry bellowed, before he disappeared out the room. Dumbledore continued securing the other Death Eaters, before turning and rushing after Harry. The only conscious people left in the room were Neville, who was sat on the steps, Moody who was tending to Tonks, and Remus, who was heading her way.

  Al tripped forward, the tears now falling silently, and Remus caught her and steadied her around the shoulders. "Sit," said softly to her, and Al obliged, sitting at the edge of the dias.

 "I'm-I'm sorry, Remus," she sobbed as he conjured a bandage to wrap around her torso.

 "What for?" he asked quietly, not meeting her eyes.

 "Sirius is gone," she breathed. He paused and looked up at her, and she saw that his eyes too were filled with tears. Remus didn't say anything, he just continued to bandage her before standing up and tending to Kingsley.

 Al stood and headed over to Neville, who supported her around the shoulders and they slowly made their way up the steps, back to where Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Luna where. "Did you see where Draco went?" Al asked shakily, the tears having stopped.

 "I think he might be in here," Neville said softly. Sure enough, Draco was sat in the brain room which was now destroyed, looking pale and terrified. He did not look up when they walked in and Al did not go to comfort him, and tell him that it was alright. Because it wasn't alright. Sirius was dead.

 Instead, Al sat with Neville and Ginny, leaning against the wall where Luna, Hermione and now Ron, lay. They sat in silence and waited. Waited to be taken back to Hogwarts.