Blurred Lines Mods (blurred_mods) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2009-08-31 17:28:00 |
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THE FINAL BATTLE [01] [02] [03] [04] [05] [06] [07] [08] [09] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
The lake
There were few things that could cause Corbina to give total and complete pause to the events swirling around her on the battlefield. She refused to believe that the things the vigilantes had been yelling out across the courtyard were true. The Dark Lord couldn't be dead. Everything that they had worked for, everything that Corbina had been raised to believe her entire life would have crumbled in an instant if it was true. They would have known before if it was true. While she might have made herself believe that Rodolphus couldn't die, that her father couldn't die, they had both been human. The Dark Lord, while human, was so much more than that, so much more powerful than someone that stupid greasy halfblooded Severus Snape would be able to kill. She wasn't going to sit in triage while their Lord was slandered. Corbina had already taken one life that afternoon; she would silence them all herself if need be. They had taken enough from her; they could not have this. But that is when Corbina happened upon a hag sitting in the middle of the battlefield, contently munching on Lily Potter while carnage exploded around her. Corbina stopped running, eventually slowing to a halt, her head tilting slightly as she simply watched, not sure if she was disturbed, disgusted, or ecstatic. Her curiosity got the better of her before she could make her mind up as to which emotion she was feeling. "That one's muggleborn," Corbina pointed out to Peggy. "Does she... is there any... Better or worse than muggles?" Peggy O'Nell was rather enjoying this battle so far, a far cry from the last few she had been forced to attend. She had left those early, finding few bodies to eat and the only baby still inside a woman's stomach who was too good with her wand for the hags to be able to get at it. This time, however, she hadn't too hard of a time fighting some little girl and then found a delicious snack. At the sound of the voice, Peggy looked up. It was another girl (which normally meant one of Peggy's enemies), this one tall like a tree, but since her wand wasn't trained on Peggy, the hag figured she must be on her side. "Err," she stalled, thinking about it a moment. She knew she should say that she tasted worse, that magic was not as delicious, but there really was no difference in that sense. And this girl didn't seem too disgusted by it. "It's not the blood, dearie," she told the girl. "This one's especially delicious because she's a ginger." Gingers. Of course. Always with the gingers. Corbina supposed it made sense, all things considered, what with the needing to stay out of the sun to avoid burning and hags' tendency for raw or undercooked meat. "I see," she replied after what felt like several minutes of silence, because really, what did one say to that? Corbina avoided pointing out to Peggy that she herself was ginger, and perhaps the hag's own gingerness was what motivated the preference. That, though, could be a conversation for another day. Despite the injuries she had sustained in her fight against the werewolves, Minerva was still far more concerned with continuing to protect the castle and helping the others who had been injured. She had spent much of the time since the Death Eaters had issued their call to retreat and even after they had begun to swarm back onto the grounds running around and ushering the injured into the castle, trying her best to remain unaffected by the sights she found, to put her duty to the people who were largely still children ahead of the feelings of revulsion and horror she felt. And then she rounded the corner of the greenhouses. The sight of a hag devouring a body was bad enough, that she was apparently enjoying idle conversation with Corbina Lestrange in the middle of it added insult to injury, and then Minerva's eyes fell on the face of the girl who was being so brutally desecrated. Lily Evans. The bright young witch who had been universally adored by her professors, who had so much promise... Something snapped inside of Minerva. Fury and indignation took hold and she sent blasting curse after blasting curse at the hag with no thought beyond getting her away from Lily. Well then. That certainly wasn't a reaction that Corbina would have had. If the hag wanted to eat the ginger-haired mudblood, than by all means; Peggy was doing the world a favour. Her old Transfiguration professor seemed to think otherwise, though, blasting spells at the hag for simply trying to enjoy her lunch. It felt strange, fighting against her old professors. The Dumbledores were one thing, but Corbina's life at school was supposed to be separate from her life post-graduation. Maybe she could just... knock her out a little, and then Corbina wouldn't have to worry about it. Besides. She deserved it for only giving her an E in her class. "Stupefy!" Peggy had torn out Lily's spleen (one of her favourite delicacies, especially when it was still warm and full of blood) and was been just about to bite into it, still engaged in conversation with Corbina, when McGonagall's blasting curses began to land. The first one hit her square in the left shoulder, sending her (and Lily Potter's body) tumbling flying, and somehow the corpse managed to take the brunt of the curses rather than Peggy. When she found that the curses were no longer coming a moment later, she realised that the corpse was on top of her, the woman's blood dripping onto her neck rather uncomfortably. "Bollocks," she muttered. Stains. Stains and it was sticky. Well, if anything else Lily Potter would offer Peggy a bit of protection, so instead of pushing the body off of her, she lay there, bringing her right hand up toward where the other elderly woman was standing and sent her own haggy blasting spell at her. "Kyaaa!" The sound of Corbina's voice calling out her spell was enough to pull Minerva's focus away from the hag as she stepped back and conjured a shield to block the attacks of both women. She cast another glance towards where the hag was using Lily's body as something of a human shield and her lips were pursed in a thin, grim line as she realised that protecting the corpse could not be her top priority, no matter how much she wished it was. Not when one of her former students was attacking her. "With all of your intelligence, I had hoped you might find the strength to rise above your upbringing, Miss Lestrange," she said, every word heavy with disapproval and disappointment as she transfigured the grass to vines that shot up and began to curl around Corbina's legs to pull her to the ground. It was one thing to fight against vicious werewolves who deserved every bit of pain that they earned. It was another to be duelling with a girl who she had always respected as a student. The hag, however, was in the same category as the werewolves as far as Minerva was concerned and she cast a quick accio at Lily's body before conjuring a set of spears that went flying towards the old woman. The middle of the battlefield was not exactly the time to suddenly start feeling upset with herself over being told she'd disappointed a former professor, but there was still a brief moment in which a jab of regret distracted Corbina from the event at hand. But then McGonagall insulted her upbringing, and that bit of lingering respect funneled away in a flash... although not quickly enough to help Corbina avoid the vines drawn up by McGonagall's spell. "There is nothing wrong with my upbringing," Corbina glared at the Transfiguration teacher after shooting a slicing spell at the fines to cut her legs free of the fines before they were able to coil completely around her body. "Incendio!" Peggy tried to scramble away from the spears as quickly as her hag-body would let her, though, being a hag, that was not very quick at all. She let out a scream as two of the spears pierced through her skin and into her leg and lower back. "Noooo!" she yelled, "YOU BITCH!" Not only was she in a ridiculous amount of pain but her snack was gone too and she couldn't even appreciate the Death Eater girly shooting fire at the other old woman. "Give'r back," she snarled, though her voice was rather pathetic and she began to sob, unable to even attempt to send another blast of magic at the horrible woman who had done this to her. Minerva was not an unintelligent woman, nor was she prone towards foolish and impulsive behaviour and yet there was something about the fury that she felt that led her to abandon reason, if only for a moment as she floated Lily's body to the ground behind her. Taunting one's opponent was never a good idea, and yet the words were out of her mouth before she could think to stop them. "Yes, I am certain being raised in a family that counts murder and torture among their pastimes was perfectly healthy," she snapped as she extinguished Corbina's incendio with a blast of water from her own wand and sent a wide, sweeping glisseo at the ground to once again try and knock the younger woman off her feet. And then her attention went to the hag as she replied with a blunt, "No, I most certainly will not," that was every bit the disapproving professor. A wave of earth was brought up and thrown at the hag, to pelt her with rocks and clumps of dirt and with any luck, bury her under its weight. McGonagall had no room to say a word about her family. "It never would have reached this point had your vigilantes not forced their hand," she replied, believing it to be the truth. The Dark Lord never would have wished for them to complete tasks that weren't necessary, that he didn't have his reasons for. It wasn't something that they had any reason to question. "Look at those who you favoured simply for being Gryffindors. James Potter and Sirius Black were cruel, they tortured their peers for kicks and you awarded them points," Corbina argued as the ice-covered ground caused her to slip ungracefully and painfully onto her arse. She struggled to regain her footing only for her foot to go slipping out from underneath her again, prompting a second unladylike sprawl atop the ice. Infuriated, rather than bothering to attempt to stand this time, Corbina aimed her wand at the Professor, shooting a gouging spell and an Entrail-Expelling curse at her. As the earth rose out of the ground and began to pelt itself at Peggy, the hag wished very hard that she had left the moment this old woman had first began to blast her. It was her hunger that had urged her to stay and the false sense of security she had after her first fight with the young girly had been so easy. She was only an old woman, after all, and not cut out for this. A large rock hit her in the back, pinning her to the ground, and as more rocks and dirt landed, knocking into her arms and her legs (and the spear in her leg) and her head, things went black. Minerva's attention was towards the hag, watching for some display of wild and uncontrolled magic from the old woman as she was buried beneath the rocks and she did not turn back to Corbina in time to block her gouging hex that took out a good chunk of her thigh. She was forced into taking two quick steps, her face bearing a grimace of pain as she dodged out of the way of the entrail-expelling curse, heavily favouring her uninjured leg. A moment was taken to stop the blood that was now running down her leg, although proper healing would have to wait until later. She was shocked and appalled, both at seeing one of her former students who she remembered as a quiet, intelligent and bookish young girl using dark arts against her, but also at her words. Her defence of the horrors that had been carried out at the hands of her family members. "You..." she sputtered. "You would compare reckless schoolboy pranks to murder?" There was more, so much more that she wanted to say but she was too stunned and angry at the comparison to find the words. Instead another blast of water came from the Professor's wand, followed quickly by a freezing charm and a bit of transfiguration to turn the ice into an array of sharp pointed icicles that went flying towards Corbina. Whatever inclinations she had to simply restrain or subdue the young woman and leave her be were gone. Professor McGonagall didn't seem to agree with Corbina's observation. Then again, none of the Professors seemed to take it very well when they had their obvious houseist bias pointed out to them. She opened her mouth to reply with what she considered to be a highly witty retort on the tip of her tongue, yet all that came out was a scream that she couldn't hold back as a barrage of knife-sharp icicles came streaking at her. A sloppily tossed up shield spell absorbed most of them, but a few slipped under the radar -- one stabbed into her leg and another jabbed into her side. This wasn't going well. Her main argument for why they were awful people was gone now; Corbina wished that Lupin would have eaten Snape after Sirius's little prank back at school. She tried to come up with something more recent as she tugged the icicles free and threw up another shield spell. "They sent innocent people trying to enjoy a masquerade to Azkaban. I wasn't involved in this before then; most of those people weren't." Corbina shifted on the ice covering the ground, not sure if the fact that she couldn't stand up on it or that it was getting her clothes wet was more irritating. It was something that McGonagall should've had to deal with herself if she was going to force the same on others, she decided, and aimed her wand towards the area that the Professor was standing, attempting to sheet the ground there in ice as well. In truth, Minerva had not particularly agreed with the Order's actions at the masquerade or the rather absurd farce of a trial that had followed. She had absolutely no qualms about seeing the likes of Rodolphus Lestrange and Aeneas Nott in Azkaban, but it was not a place for girls like Evangeline Macnair. Then again, she would have likely said the same about Corbina Lestrange until she had started throwing entrail expelling curses. But then her feet were sliding out from underneath her and she was thrown onto her tail bone as the ground beneath her turned too slick to stand upon and there was no more time to consider the ethics of sending presumably innocent people to Azkaban. Beyond the fact that it still did not equate to what the Death Eaters did. What this girl's own family had done. "Your own brother murdered an entire family and who knows how many others," she replied incredulously as she tried to think of something to cast that might stop this insanity and finally with a glance towards the lake, she settled upon attempting to transfigure the girl's hands into fins. "He only did that because it was necessary," Corbina retorted, standing her ground (sitting her ice?). "There were never orders to just blindly kill. There were always reasons for it." Of course, that didn't take into account mugglehunting, or the werewolves, or those times when people were killed outside of the Dark Lord's orders, but Corbina wasn't thinking about that at the moment. She was rather distracted by the fact that her left hand was suddenly fin-like. Really? Fins? Corbina raised an eyebrow at the Transfiguration professor as she shook out her newly webbed fingers, trying to figure out how in the world to reverse that. First, though, she would need a distraction. Pointing her wand at the pile of rocks that Peggy was buried under, Corbina slashed at the air, sending the hag up off the ground and shooting straight towards Minerva. Dear Godric, she really had bought into all of it. The rationalisations, the claims that murder was in any way justified. There was a moment in which Minerva simply stared at Corbina in wide eyed horror at just how twisted her mind had become. "The McKinnons did nothing to deserve..." she replied angrily but her words were cut off abruptly by the weight of the hag's body crashing into her, pinning her to the ice. Minerva tried to push the woman's unconscious weight off of her but she could not find the leverage she needed against the slick ground and in a moment of desperation, the only thing she could think to do was transfiguration. The weight of the hag was quickly gone from her chest and replaced by a small, decorative porcelain music box that she carefully set aside before blindly sending a stunning spell in Corbina's general direction. Corbina had spent seven years at school with the members of that family. She was quite sure that there was every reason in the world to wipe them out, or else it wouldn't have happened. The rights or wrongs of deaths that had occurred over the year, though, weren't as important to Corbina as un-transfiguring her hand from the ridiculous fin that had been left in its wake was. Her hand was finally beginning to look hand-like again, though, when Corbina watched with amazement and terror as Professor McGonagall turned the hag into a music box. Suddenly having webbed fingers didn't seem quite so bad. (It wasn't as though that wasn't a semi-common occurrence amongst the purists anyway...) That was enough. Someone else could fight the professor. Corbina didn't want to spend the rest of her life as a kitschy household decoration. Still unable to climb to her feet on top of the ice, Corbina shot off a blasting spell in Minerva's direction, the pressure from which sent her sliding backwards over the ice and out of the way of the Stupefy. As long as she could get off of the frozen era sheeting the ground, Corbina would be able to leave this fight behind her for someone else to pick up on. Minerva was, for the moment, more concerned with getting back to her feet than firing spells at Corbina and was busy melting the ground around her when the blasting spell hit and sent her sliding back across what remained of the ice and crashing into Lily's desecrated body. It was a reminder of just what she was fighting for. It was also enough that she was free from the ice and able to climb back to her feet, ready to end this. She was done debating the so-called ethics of the Death Eaters. She was done attempting to reason with the young woman who was clearly too far gone down the path of evil to be reasoned with. Instead her mouth was set in a grim, determined line as she transfigured the grass behind Corbina into sharp metal blades and sent two blasting curses back at her to try and throw her onto her trap. While being able to slide away from attacks had been nice when it worked in Corbina's advantage, it sucked when she wasn't able to force any friction to stop herself from sliding into danger's path. She cast a cushioning spell at the metal blades as she blasted straight into the sharp shards, which softened the blow slightly, but still scraped and cut at her arms on impact. If anything good had come of this, it was that Corbina had finally reached the end of the ice sheet, and was able to scramble up to her feet (although she nearly tumbled unceremoniously onto her back again when the heel of her shoe scraped over the edge of the ice). Once standing again, she flicked the metal trap up into the air and sent it flying back toward Minerva much as she had the hag before she hobbled back toward Death Eater triage, just as the Inner Circle began calling their fellow followers back. Minerva easily vanished the trap that was of her own making and lifted her wand to attack again but then the Death Eaters were signalling another retreat and Corbina was fleeing and as angry as she was, she still could not bring herself to attack the young woman from behind. Perhaps it was foolish to let her escape, but with the Dark Lord dead and with the losses they were obviously suffering here, she believed this had to be the Death Eater's last stand. Instead she picked up the music box and was about to tuck it into her robes before she decided to open it. The first horribly cacophonous chord that came from the little box was enough that she quickly snapped it shut and resumed her earlier plan of tucking it away. Perhaps Xenophilius would appreciate it. The next task, however, was far more painful and it tore at her heart as she cast a lightening charm on what remained of Lily Potter's mangled body and then lifted her to her chest, carrying her back to the castle. Andromeda & Narcissa interlude Not that she had seen him at all, Narcissa thought crossly, more than a little bit terrified. But there was nothing other to do than carefully move back towards Lucinda and the other ladies and hope this ended soon. She readjusted the bag and continued slowly walking down what seemed to be a pathway of sorts, looking for any injured Death Eaters and silently promising to never do this again, really. Her wand out and at the ready, Andie moved forward carefully around a tree and spotted a blonde witch ahead of her. She searched her mind to think of what Death Eater they knew of was blonde and female and she couldn't think of a one - this couldn't actually be one of them then, it had to have been... "Don't move!" she called out, stepping out from the tree and holding her wand straight out at the young woman in front of her. There'd be no reason to hurt her if- then the blonde looked up and Andie's stern face melted into an expression of shock and then concern. "Cissy!" she gasped, voice and wand lowering. "What are you doing here?!" she demanded now as she rushed forward to make sure her baby sister wasn't injured. What was her socialite sister doing on a battlefield?! Narcissa's jaw dropped, and the wand she had pulled out lowered a fracture of an inch as she realised who the other woman was. "Andromeda," she stated flatly, closing her mouth tightly and not moving at all. This was far too ludicrous to be true; Druella Black would have a heart attack if she knew that the daughters she had attempted to sculpt into refined ladies were all in the middle of a battle. And not just Bellatrix this time, either. (Though, for that matter, who had any idea where Bella was now?) "The nanny is with Draco until I return home," Narcissa replied crossly. She still disliked leaving her precious baby alone with the nanny, but there had really been no alternative, as leaving him with Druella or Lucius' mother would have entailed explaining reasons. Though she didn't suppose Andromeda had ever had the benefit of that option, having all but thrown her substantial dowry to the wind. "And don't you dare say anything about my leaving him because Merlin knows that his safety is the most important thing in the world to me." A nanny, of course. Andromeda would have loved to have that convenience these days, but instead Dora had been lift in Professor Sprout's care with the other few children. Narcissa's words made Andie frown, as they were thoughts she had been berating herself with the entire time she'd been on the field. Dora had already lost a father, who was she to go off and risk her losing a mother as well? But in the end, her conclusion had been the same - if they did not win this here and now, Bella would come for her eventually. She wouldn't be able to hide any longer, and that was not a fate Andromeda would allow. "Dora is safe and I'll be dead anyway if-" she paused then, when Narcissa continued with her question. Andromeda's face softened and she glanced around again. "I haven't..." she replied sympathetically. If she had, would he have tried to kill her? Perhaps. Would she have tried to do the same? She would like to think she wouldn't, that she knew Narcissa loved him dearly and Andromeda had seen the feeling was mutual - as much as she may have disliked the man personally, she could never truly hate someone who cared for her sister that much. But in self-defence... that was here nor there. "At least, I don't believe so. Many of them are wearing those dreadful masks..." At this point, Andromeda realised that it probably wasn't in their best interest to stand around in the middle of the path when there was fighting going on all around them. She reached for Narcissa's arm and firmly but not harshly gave it a light tug. "We shouldn't be standing out in the open, Cissy," she said, wanting to at least head over to the cover of some of the hills and trees scattered about the grounds. Of course Andromeda wouldn't have seen Lucius, Narcissa silently berated herself, biting her lip and trying not to look too worried. "All right," she reluctantly said as her sister mentioned getting out of the open, turning and moving towards a cluster of trees. "Are you limping?" She hadn't accepted any aid from Andromeda and most likely Andie was going to be the same way, but she had assumed that her sister would try to keep out of the fighting. But then, she hadn't wanted to trip over that stupid hag either. Things just happened to them. Narcissa flinched as Andromeda spoke - it didn't make sense for her sister to have killed someone, and why was she saying anything? Bellatrix never said anything, Regulus never said anything, Lucius never had - in fact, none of her childhood friends ever spoke to the ladies about their work for the Cause. "There's always a tur-" she began, stopping abruptly. It was not going to work. They had tried to bring her home once; but it was essentially The Sirius Situation at this point. "I know, but we also take turns looking for the wounded," Narcissa said, observing her hands with great interest. "I was hoping to..." She sighed. "Be careful, alright?" Then Andromeda forced herself to step back from their cover in the trees to move forward once more. She had more of her fallen allies to find and bring back to the castle, so she left Narcissa to tend to herself, thinking that on the battlefield was a horrible place to finally admit her sister could in fact, take care of herself.
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