remus lupin is finally at peace. (moonstricken) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2008-08-23 22:16:00 |
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Dorcas had been in a poor temper all day -- probably for good reason. To begin with, she had woken to one of the worst hangovers she'd ever had, which, though cured by a Hangover Potion, still lingered somewhere in her body, making her feel lethargic and grumpy. What's more, upon seeing all of the things she'd written (and drawn), she couldn't help but want to kick herself in the head. Of course, she agreed with some of the sentiments she'd expressed, but she knew that she was in trouble. If anything confirmed it, it was the presence of Remus and Marlene, who hadn't left since they arrived during the night. Dorcas, of course, didn't mind Marlene, but she and Remus were both perfectly aware of what they thought of one another, and therefore, there had been a few tense moments. She has just escaped one, in fact, with the intent of making toast, and was returning with a slice smothered in raspberry jam. Looking at Marlene and Remus, she sat down indelicately on her couch and took a bite. "I'm going to have to move again, aren't I?" she asked. While Remus had wanted to agree with a good many points Dorcas had brought up in her journal entry the night before, she had been very obviously drunk (as she had admitted in the entry itself), and he hadn't wanted to get himself involved. However, as soon as he saw Dorcas start talking about Narcissa Malfoy in public, he had to step in -- while he and Dorcas didn't get along, the last thing he wanted was to see her get killed. At least he had double checked her wards when they had arrived last night, and although Death Eaters hadn't come while they had been asleep, he could only hope that wouldn't change. As it were, Remus had spent the last thirty minutes attempting to think of some excuse to get out of the flat, even for just a few minutes. He felt awkward here, and was fairly certain Dorcas didn't want him there, either. At least he wasn't alone, and Marlene being there with him helped (although he couldn't imagine that she didn't feel awkward about the situation, either). When Dorcas came back from making toast, he attempted to focus again when she spoke up. "I don't know," he admitted, wondering if there was a safe place she could move into quickly on such short notice. They really needed to get a safehouse secured. "It probably isn't safe here anymore, so it would be for the best, I think." This wasn't exactly the answer that Dorcas wanted to hear, though it was the one that she had been expecting. She took a deep breath and told herself that it wasn't Remus's fault that she would probably have to pack up all of her things and move - again. It was her own, and she had to face the consequences. She might've done something stupid, but she wasn't Mary. She wasn't going to do it again, and she was going to fix it. Even if that meant moving. "I should probably start getting my more important things together, then," sighed Dorcas, finishing off her toast. "I'll need somewhere else to stay until we can find something more permanent..." She walked off as she said this, considering Order members who had opened up their homes. Dedalus had a large house... She threw a few pieces of clothing into a bag, along with tucking her wand into her back denims pocket. Looking around her room, she considered what there was which she absolutely couldn't live without. Her books, her records, her photographs... When hers and Marlene's flat had been attacked, she hadn't been as sentimental, but she grabbed a photo of herself and her dad and threw it in her bag, too. Looking at an empty fifth of rum, she kicked it under her bed. As she came back out into the room, she addressed Remus and Marlene matter-of-factly. "I'm ready to leave. We should probably check on the wards again, though. Bernice isn't here, but I don't want her to be a sitting duck if anyone shows up." "Is there any way to get ahold of her before we go taking off? When is she supposed to be back?" Marlene asked from her spot curled up on the couch, taking a break from reading her journal to glance around at all the things that Dorcas was going to have to leave behind. Again. At least this time she had a chance to pack properly, as opposed to the "grab the dog and go" approach they'd been forced to take the last time. Obviously they couldn't just take off forever, not leaving any sort of sign for Bernice as to why Dorcas had gone, but also knowing that it wouldn't do them much good leaving a note behind -- Pissed off Death Eaters, moving away, see ya later! -- considering there would be no guarantee that Bernice would be the one to find the note. She didn't much care to stick around forever though, if not so much for the looming threat of death eater revenge. The epic amounts of awkwardness that always came with having Dorcas and Remus in the same room wasn't exactly Marlene's idea of a good time. She grabbed one of their books on wards off the floor and flipped through it again, wondering how much else they could add to the place with a muggle living there too. "I really hope those fuckers can't get through our bloody wards anymore," she mumbled under her breath, glaring a bit at the book and hoping so very much that Pepper had been right about that stupid thing the Prewett twins had made had actually been destroyed. And that they hadn't made copies. As much as Remus was ready to go as well, he agreed they couldn't just leave Dorcas' roommate behind without at least warning her -- even though he wasn't exactly sure what they could say to her, either. "If you think she'll be back soon, we can wait here for a little longer to see if she shows up. We probably shouldn't stick around here for much longer, though." There was no telling when or if Death Eaters would be sent here, but the chances were high that there would be some sort of retaliation. He hoped the rest of Dorcas' family was well hidden. "I can go check on the wards again while we wait," Remus offered, standing up to do just that. He avoided making eye contact with Dorcas as he walked past where she was sitting toward the door to make sure it was secure, stepping outside. Squinting, Dorcas rubbed her forehead. This was all too much to deal with right now. How could she explain to Marlene and Remus that she had no idea when Bernice would be back? The Godric's Hollow residence watched out for each other so closely, and... Bernice had a habit of just leaving and not saying where she was. Thankfully, tonight, Dorcas knew that her roommate had left to go to a Muggle editor's party. "She shouldn't be back too late tonight, it was a professional party she went to," she explained, watching Remus go. She really didn't want to trust Remus with her wards, but at the moment, it didn't seem like she had an option. "We can wait a bit. I'll go make more toast." She walked back into the kitchen, made herself another piece of toast with raspberry jam in all of two seconds with her wand. As she came back, she took a bite and stuck her head out of the door to watch what Remus was doing. "Maybe it's better I have to move," mused Dorcas, loudly enough so that both he and Marlene could hear. "After all, living here with a Muggle probably isn't the safest option." She looked on as Remus checked on the wards, though, not being an expert, she was hardly aware if he was helping her or bringing all her protection down. "Maybe not," Marlene agreed, pointing her wand toward the ever-growing pile of toast and floating it over to herself on the couch, pushing the book aside. She couldn't look at warding spells any more; their day had been nothing but more and more wards and it was making her head spin. "You'd think that it would almost be safer, living in muggleland, but there're so many bloody restrictions on what you can and can't do, so it kind of cancels out the whole perk of not having the entire wizarding world know where you live, you know?" Not, of course, that they didn't have their ways of finding out, unfortunately, given what had happened to Lily's family. Marlene lay back on the couch upside down, legs hanging over the top edge and her hair grazing the carpet, chewing on her toast while trying to figure out where the best place for Dorcas to move to would even be. "It's almost funny, huh. I mean, hell, how many times in the last... I don't know, four months or so have we had to move? This is so not normal." It didn't take much to make Lucius annoyed, and insulting his wife (especially with crude sexual drawings of her, good grief) was certainly up there. The minute he'd seen it, he wanted to hurt Dorcas Meadowes, and it was only with extreme self-control that he resisted writing a reply. It stayed on his mind, however, and when Antonin offered him a chance for revenge, he grasped it with both hands. Nobody insulted Narcissa Malfoy and got away with it. So in the evening, he slipped his wand into its holder and readied himself for departure. Plain black robes, his favourite for Death Eating missions, and his mask. But did he really need the mask? Meadowes no doubt believed he was in the service of the Dark Lord already, and at any rate, he didn't intend on leaving her alive. But on an impulse, he picked up the mask and took it with him. No doubt Antonin would have an opinion. Apparating to the Dolohov residence, he knocked on the door, already planning what spells he would use to make Meadowes scream. Antonin had finished work with the same cheer and decorum as he'd begun it, and got through dinner with Anzhelina without so much as a frown; a man in his position, after all, was required to be able to act, and he hadn't stayed one of the most trusted healers, even by Muggleborns, for nothing. Answering the door, already clad in dark robes with his mask in one hand, he gave Lucius a calm smile and said, "shall we be going? We have a great deal of work to do tonight, and I would rather not disturb my daughter by lingering here too long." "We shall indeed," replied Lucius, nodding to the older man. "I appreciate you asking me to come along, my wife's honour is something I take very seriously." Noticing that Antonin was holding his mask, Lucius decided to take his own along after all. While being recognised was not so much of an issue, it would provide minor protection against spells -- no doubt their quarry would not die without a fight, and Lucius had no doubt that blood would be spilled tonight. Beyond the wards, Lucius nodded once more to Antonin. "I shall see you there." He put his mask on, ensuring that his face was completely covered and his vision was not obscured, before disapparating with a pop. Casting around him with a wand as soon as he arrived (it may be a Muggle area, but he was letting no-one stand in his way), and finding the coast clear it was not long before he made it to the flat in question. Lucius gripped his wand tighter as he approached the door, a smile creeping over his face as he noticed it was already open. After ensuring that the wards around the manor were up -- he took no shortcuts when it came to Anzhelina's safety, after all -- Antonin disapparated, joining Lucius at Meadowes's flat. The werewolf was standing in the doorway. Antonin shook his head, gliding a little closer to get better aim, and then attacked. He'd realised long ago that someone of his size, with the specific weaknesses that came with his hypermobility, was at a distinct disadvantage when it came to close combat. And so he'd devised a spell to make up for his lack of stopping power, physically. Bright purple flames burst into being at the werewolf's back as Antonin cast his best offencive spell -- besides the Unforgivables, of course -- at him. Remus had his wand out already, but unfortunately for him, he had been preoccupied using magic to reinforce the wards to make sure they were working properly. Apparently, they were not -- or perhaps being caught in the middle of reinforcing them made them momentarily weaker. Either way, he wasn't sure, and he wouldn't have time to think on it, for one minute he was listening in silence to Dorcas and Marlene talk, and the next he saw a bright purple light reflecting off the door frame, followed by a sudden sharp pain in his side (he could almost swear he heard something crack, but he wasn't quite sure). The force of the spell knocked him off his feet and through the doorway of the flat, right into Dorcas, sending them both to the floor. Remus quickly attempted to push himself back up to his feet, but with the pain in his side, he just ended up rolling off to the left and clutching his left side. He forced himself to sit up, pointing his wand at the doorway and casting a blasting hex blindly, which ended up just hitting the door frame. The fall to the floor winded Dorcas, and it took her a valuable moment's time to catch her breath and crawl away from Remus. As quickly as she could, she grabbed her wand from the floor - it had been knocked from her jeans pocket. She may not have trusted him, but she didn't outright hate Remus, so her first reaction was concern over whether or not he was alright. Her second was "what the fuck was that?" But she'd seen enough of Death Eaters to repress these urges and throw out a spell. While the bread and butter of Antonin's combat might have been purple bulldozers and the Unforgivables, Dorcas's was much similar. In one quick motion, she jumped to her feet and yelled, "STUPEFY!" A shot of red light burst from her wand, but unfortunately, the jump had made her aim bad and the spell went ricocheting off of the ceiling. As per typical Marlene reaction, the sight of Remus flying through the doorway and crashing into Dorcas as they both crashed to the floor resulted in a shriek of shock and fear, and some extraordinarily ungraceful rolling off of the couch from the entirely inconvenient and awkward way she'd been laying on it. Her first reaction was to run over to the two, not sure what the fuck had just happened (had that been the ward reacting badly when Remus tested it?), when two death eaters made their way into the flat, wands out. Crouching behind the couch as best she could instead, Marlene tried, at first, to fire off a patronus, knowing they needed to alert the rest of the order as soon as possible. ...Unfortunately, Marlene had yet to come anywhere close to producing a full patronus even without the pressure of people attempting to kill her loved ones, and after two failed attempts resulting in pathetic little poofs of shapeless whiteness, Marlene instead aimed her wand at the shorter of the two (fuck, was that Reggie???), shooting off a silent blasting curse. Dorcas ducked as the blasting curse came from behind her and watched it sail into a Jackson Pollock print that Bernice had hanging on the wall. Shards of glass from the frame flew through the air and Dorcas quickly put up a silent Shield Charm to protect herself as they fell to the ground with tiny pings. She had almost forgotten how bad aim could be in battles - and how easy it was to destroy a flat in only a few moments. How would she explain this to Bernice? It didn't matter. Dorcas hadn't been angry over nothing, and she'd been waiting to kick some Death Eaters' arse since Benjy died. After the trap had failed, her desire to make them all scream and kill them had only increased. And as terrifying as Death Eaters standing in her living room was, it was an opportunity. Without even giving it a second though, she stood her ground and threw out her wand. "CRUCIO!" she screamed, aiming for the smaller Death Eater. As the cruciatus curse hit, Antonin screamed, reflexively tightening his fingers around his wand. The curse tended to tighten muscles, not loosen them, but he didn't want to run the risk of losing his wand, not when it could be used to track him. The moment he could focus enough to cast the purple curse again he did, aiming for the Meadowes girl. Obviously Death Eaters had more experience with Unforgivables than Dorcas did. She hadn't expected Antonin to recover so quickly from the Cruciatus Curse, and therefore, she didn't expect the purple curse to come sailing at her. She didn't have time to think, let alone to duck, and it hit her squarely in the chest. Dorcas fell into her own coffee table with a scream, knocking it over and sending plates, coffee mugs, and books sailing. Her chest felt as though it was collapsing, she could barely move, but somehow, she managed to pull the overturned coffee table in front of her, hoping it would make a suitable shield, at least until she regained her composure. Lucius wasn't expecting there to be more than one person in the room, but his reflexes kicked in as he stepped through the doorway behind Antonin, sidling along the wall to give himself a good tactical position. Aiming a silent blasting curse at the ceiling and hoping that the resulting explosion would confuse their opponents, he followed it up with some quick gouging curses, aimed at whatever body parts his eyes fell upon. While the Death Eaters concentrated on the girls, Remus quickly took that time to struggle to his feet -- he did not pause to catch his breath, much as he would've liked to, and instead tried to assess the situation to see where he could be of most use. He felt a chill run down his spine at the sound of someone casting the crutiatus curse -- and even worse that it had come from Dorcas, not one of the Death Eaters attacking him. When he had heard Agnes had cast the spell on a werewolf, Remus had attempted to assure her that she did the right thing, she needed to protect herself and hell, the werewolf deserved it for what she had done to Marlene and all the crimes she had surely committed in the past. It was quite different to actually be there, though, witnessing someone who you knew and were allies with casting an Unforgivable curse. But he couldn't let it get to him, not right now; there would be time to bring it up later when their lives were not in danger (if they survived the attack). With both Marlene and Dorcas attacking the shorter of the two Death Eaters, he faced the taller one, bringing an arm up over his head to protect himself from any falling debris from the blasting curse sent to the ceiling. With his wand arm he cast a protection spell, deflecting some of the curses but not quite all, cutting gashes into his arms and legs. He followed the protection spell with another blasting curse aimed at Lucius. Marlene wasn't sure if it was more jarring that it had been Dorcas who'd yelled out the Cruciatus curse, or that the death eater she'd hit it at had been able to throw it off as quickly as he had. Ducking back behind the sofa, moving nearer towards the others but still somewhat shielded by the furniture, Marlene poked around the side and pointed her wand towards the pots and pans that had been laying in the plastic drying board next to the kitchen sink, and -- casting Oppugno -- sent the contents zooming towards the taller death eater's head, metalware and dishes and plastic spoons and all. Knowing that his attack would not go without a return attack of some sort, Lucius summoned the coffee table that Dorcas was using at a shield, levitating it in front of himself to intercept both the blasting curse and the miscellaneous kitchen items. As Remus's spell hit it, the table shattered, and while his levitation spell held and parts of the table remained floating in front of him, it didn't stop a mixing bowl from striking the side of his head. Momentarily dizzy, Lucius ducked, cursing to himself. Summoning his wits together as much as possible, Lucius aimed his wand at Remus. Levicorpus. Lifting his wand upwards then flicking it to the side, he sent the younger man soaring sideways into the wall, smirking at the resulting crash. Pulling himself to his feet again, Lucius stepped sideways, back towards Antonin, looking for the best moment in which to use the killing curse. With the werewolf out of the way for the moment, Antonin turned his attention on McKinnon. The killing blow on Meadowes was Lucius's right -- after all, it was his wife who had been insulted -- but McKinnon had been a loud, irritating thorn in their side for some time now, and taking her out of the game (what are you, girl? what do you mean?) -- taking her out of the game couldn't fail to be anything but an advantage, for the sakes of their ears if nothing else. Lifting his wand, remaining silent -- his accent would give him away in a second if he spoke, after all -- he cast the crushing curse at her, bright purple flames heralding its inception. He had attempted to dodge the spell, but Remus hadn't been fast enough, levitating off the ground and being thrown at the wall before he could stop it. He was slammed hard against it, yet another blow against his already broken ribs, gasping from the pain when he hit the ground. Every move he made was painful as he pushed himself back up from the ground, ducking behind a wall into the kitchen to avoid getting hit by another spell. Breathing hard, he peered out just in time to see the fiery purple spell hurtling towards Marlene. It was one thing to attack him, but it was entirely another to attack his girlfriend, and Remus grit his teeth and aimed his wand at a particularly heavy looking lamp. Locomotor lamp. He directed the lamp upwards with his wand, only to send it flying toward the shorter Death Eater's head. ...all right, so the werewolf wasn't taken care of. The lamp hit Antonin's shoulder, and the dull, sickening crack was enough to tell him that it had managed to dislocate again. He was used to that pain, although that didn't stop him from letting out a pained cry, and he certainly wasn't going to let some mongrel get the better of him. Whipping around, he cast incendio, aiming for the beast's shirt. If Marlene had ever wondered what getting run over by a train would feel like (she hadn't), she would've imagined that it hurt a hell of a lot less than whatever that purple fire spell had been. After a few moments of trying to remember how her lungs worked, Marlene looked up just in time to see the shorter death eater (she was positive now that there was no way this one could be Regulus) set Remus's shirt on fire. "Aguamenti!" Marlene cried out, trying to aim around the death eater to help him. Whether her spellwork was shaky from the curse or if Remus was just too far away Marlene was't sure, but her attempts at putting out the fire were not going so well. In that case, she'd just have to fight fire with fire, wouldn't she? No one bloody hexed her boyfriend and got away with it. Repositioning her wand to aim it towards where the death eater's arse would be under his robes, Marlene screamed out "INCENDIO" with as much force as she could muster. Protective little bitch, wasn't she? Well, if she wanted the dog back, Antonin would give her her wish. Casting a quick Aguamenti to extinguish the flames, thankful for the thickness of the fabric his concealing robes were made of, Antonin used levicorpus to hoist Lupin off the floor and jerked his hand sharply, sending the werewolf slamming into McKinnon. The chaos going on around Dorcas was nothing compared to the pain coursing through her chest. She was aware of the smell of smoke, objects exploding -- she used her arms to shield her head because somehow, she'd lost her coffee table and diving behind the couch didn't seem like an option at this point. Her wand was lying only a few feet from her, somehow she managed to grab it - whether she moved or it flew to her, she wasn't sure. Having recovered her wand, she cast a silent Pain Killing Charm on her abdomen -- it wasn't much, but it helped. Somewhat recovered, she propped herself up on her left arm and held her wand steady with her right. The small Death Eater was trouble. He was going to kill Remus and Marlene and he was a Death Eater and he... She had never been good at casting silent spells. "AVADA KEDAVRA!" she shouted, aiming her wand at the tall Death Eater. A green flash of light burst from her wand and the force of it was so strong it sent her reeling. It was good for Lucius that Dorcas was not good with non-verbal spells, as he was able to throw himself to the floor the moment the first syllable of the curse left her lips. The jet of green light smashed into the wall mere inches from him, and he rolled over and leapt to his feet immediately, wand at the ready. "Playing with Unforgiveables, little girl?" he mocked, taking a couple of steps towards Dorcas. She was the one he wanted. He wanted to hear her screams ring out. He waved his wand. Sectumsempra, followed quickly by Crucio. He thought of Narcissa as he cast it, and the distress that Meadowes had caused her. All of his rage went directly into that jet of red light. She tried to duck, but whatever the purple fire had done to her made her reflexes slow and her movement laboured. The Sectumsempra glided off of her right shoulder, warm blood oozed as only a moment later, the full force of the Cruciatus Curse hit her. It was worse than she imagined, as though someone had set a fire to her from the insides, flaying every nerve in her body. Tears rolled down her cheeks, she screamed, and then fell to the floor, limp. Remus had reacted immediately as soon as he felt the hot flames catch on his shirt, attempting to pull it away off his body. He could feel it burning his skin, but he hadn't had time to remove the shirt before he was -- once again -- caught up by a levitation spell and thrown through the air. Instead of a wall, he landed against Marlene instead, sending them both crashing to the floor. He couldn't worry if she had been injured or not right then, rolling off of her and finally getting his shirt off, throwing it to the ground and casting Aguamenti on it so it wouldn't catch the flat on fire. He focused on Marlene after that, making sure she hadn't caught on fire by proxy. He heard the scream of the killing curse, and before he realised who had even cast it, he turned back around immediately to face the Death Eaters, moving so that he was blocking Marlene from their view should either of them had been attempting to aim the spell at her. It hadn't been a man's voice, though -- it had been a girl's, Dorcas' voice to cast that spell and once again Remus was shocked that she would even stoop to such a level. He wanted revenge just as much as anyone did, and while he had sometimes thought about casting an Unforgivable against them, he was certain he could never bring himself to do it. There had to be a line -- needed there to be something that made them different from the Death Eaters. Remus aimed his wand at Lucius, ignoring the shorter Death Eater for a moment, wanting to help Dorcas, and he cast a silent Levicorpus at him in revenge for getting hit with the same spell twice so far. He lifted Lucius into the air and sent him crashing into the nearest wall, with as much force as he could put in behind the spell. With Dorcas at his mercy, Lucius was just raising his wand again, about to cast the killing curse, when he felt his ankle jerk from beneath him and the whole world turned upside down. Flailing in mid-air, he attempted to cast a cushioning spell as the wall came rushing toward him, but it only partially worked and a jolt of pain went through his body as he met the wall with a resounding crash. Summoning up energy from somewhere, he cast a shield charm in case of any follow up spells, before catching his breath and once again climbing to his feet. Well, he'd just have to try again. Nothing was getting in between him and his kill. Lucius sent off a series of blasting curses, this time aimed at the floor. Let's see how well they would fight with gaping holes appearing at their feet. This was just getting aggravating. Snarling, Antonin faced down the werewolf, aiming his wand and growling, "crucio." Marlene had finally pulled herself to her feet when she heard the incantation for the cruciatus curse hissed out from beneath the death eater's mask, and her stomach dropped when she realised that the spell had hit Remus. Oh no. We do not do things like that. Marlene pointed her wand at the death eater's knees, silently casting a Knee-Reversal Hex at him, and without waiting (or caring) to see if it had worked, dove at the bastard's legs, wanting to take the fucker down. Whether it happened or not, Marlene didn't care at this point (although if it did, that would be preferable!), but prayed that the collision would at least distract him from casting that at Remus. Some combination of the hex and the fact that a fully-grown woman had just slammed into his legs sent Antonin off-balance, and there was another sickening crack as his left knee dislocated, sending him crashing to the floor with McKinnon across his legs. Fighting back the urge to swear -- that would certainly give him away, as he rarely swore in anything but Russian -- he cast depulso to get her off him, following it quickly with another round of the blasting curse, trying to buy himself time to -- somehow -- get to his feet. With bleary eyes, Dorcas watched Marlene going sailing through the air at the short Death Eater, but her attention was the tall one. She had heard him mocking her and was sure that it was Lucius Malfoy -- who else would it be? And obviously, he was aiming to kill. Well, unlike Remus, Dorcas didn't have any reservations about what kind of spells she used -- at least not in a situation like this. As far as she was concerned, the difference between them and Death Eaters was what they would do when they won, and that was all that mattered. She opened her mouth to say a curse and no words came out -- she coughed violently and spat blood onto her rug. Shit. She was in sorry shape. And despite her weakness at silent spells, she tried to cast a silent Killing Curse at the tall Death Eater. Again green light burst from her wand, but it weakly skidded across the floor, blasting another hole. Frustrated, she screamed, "Avada Kedavra!" They might have been Unforgivables, but god damn it, Dorcas was not going to let them kill her. Nothing happened. She tasted more blood in her mouth, but ignored it, crawling up on her knees. "AVADA KEDAVRA! AVADA KEDAVRA!" The spell at hit Remus head on, sending him to the floor again, crying out as the pain from the curse seared through his body. It nearly made him feel ill, and he grasped blindly around the floor for his wand, because he had to stop it, had to do something, anything to get away... and then he felt he could breathe again. Remus used the support of the wall behind him to push himself back up to his feet yet again, grabbing his wand off the floor as he did so and attempting desperately to ignore his injuries and the lingering pain from the cruciatus curse. Looking between Marlene taking down the smaller Death Eater and Dorcas struggling to kill the taller one, he immediately went to her aid, avoiding the holes in the floor. Remus sent up a shield spell in front of Dorcas to protect her, seeing the shape she was already in. "Stop, stop," he said, trying to grab her wrist to get her to stop casting the Killing Curse. They couldn't keep fighting like this, they had to get out of there before any of them died. Remus tried to help her back up to her feet, hoping his shield spell would last long enough for that and wondering if any of them were able to concentrate at that moment to apparate without splinching themselves right there. As much as Lucius wanted to finish the job then and there, he could see his colleague needed attention. Shooting a couple of stunning spells as he made his over to the other side of the room, being careful to avoid the holes he had blown in the floor. "I'm getting home safe," he muttered to Antonin, casting a shield charm over the two of them. Now, how best to do this? He couldn't afford to spend too much time dawdling in the doorway, and on an impulse he cast Levicorpus on the other Death Eater, levitating him out of the doorway as gently as he could. Once outside of the wards, he grasped Antonin's arm and disapparated them both home. He planned on returning to finish the job, of course. Lucius really hoped those kids stayed put. As soon as they were there, they were gone. A chorus of fucks was going through Dorcas's head. Fuck -- they got away. Fuck -- my flat is completely destroyed. Fuck -- I'm beat up. With a violent heave, she coughed. She'd had bad coughs before, but it literally felt as though she was coughing up a lung. "Let's get out of here," she gasped. "Anywhere else..." Looking around, she saw the holes in her floor with glazed-over eyes. "Floor's gonna cave in..." She clasped her wand, but even thinking of Apparating seemed impossible. Exhausted and overcome by pain, she laid her head down on the floor, trying not to close her eyes. She wasn't sure they would open again if she did. Marlene hadn't moved from the spot she'd been throw to on the floor, staring wide-eyed at the death eaters as they left with her hand still wrapped around her wand, keeping it aimed at them as they moved out the door. And then they were gone, and Marlene remembered how to breathe. They needed to get out of there now, the taller one still looked like he had some fight left in him, and the fucking floor was about to fall in on itself. She'd missed falling through one of the holes by inches, half her left leg hanging over the side. Thank fucking Merlin that the people downstairs didn't seem to be home. (Hopefully they weren't planning on coming home tonight, either). "Dorcas. Grab your shit," Marlene called out from where she was laying on the floor, trying to will herself to not burst into tears where she was laying. "Can you guys apparate?" Where the fuck were they going to go? There was no way they could all make it back to Godric's Hollow, not in this shape, not with those wards. Thank Merlin they left -- now they had to get out of here just in case they decided to come back with even more Death Eaters. On top of that, Dorcas needed to be seen by a healer as soon as possible (not to mention his and Marlene's injuries). He released Dorcas' wrist, and only then noticed that his hands were trembling slightly, the burn marks on his arms and torso and, if the pain on his back said anything, burn marks there as well. "I don't think I can side-along apparate her out of here," Remus admitted, knowing that Dorcas certainly couldn't apparate herself right now. "Can you do it, Marlene?" he asked, already looking around for the bag that Dorcas had packed earlier, wondering if it had been lost or even destroyed. Remus left Dorcas to rest on the floor while they prepared to leave, not wanting her to put anymore strain on herself than she had to, and he carefully stepped over the holes in the floor to help Marlene to her feet. He felt like he was going to collapse any moment, but with adrenaline still going, he wasn't quite finished yet. He nearly asked her if she was alright, but the answer to that was obvious enough by the look on her face; there was no time to be comforting or supportive and so he only spared a moment to touch her shoulder, gently, a small gesture in an attempt to say they were going to be alright. They hadn't died, and they would get home, all three of them. He started to move back to Dorcas to help her up so she and Marlene could side-along apparate out of there, but as he stepped over one of the larger holes in the floor he noticed Dorcas' bag in the flat down below, covered in dust from the collapsed ceiling. He pointed his wand at the bag and summoned it up through the hole until he could grab it, swinging the strap over his bare shoulder. Sliding herself as close to the wall as she could before attempting to pull herself to her feet, Marlene stood up shakily, really not appreciating the lurching sound that the floor was making as they tried to navigate around the holes. "Oh, lovely, you found the bag!" Marlene laughed a bit under her breath to stifle what otherwise would've been the beginning of much sobbing. "Okay. I think- Ted and Andie's. It's where we went last time..." she trailed off, stepping gingerly over to Dorcas's side and placing a hand on her friend's arm before looking up at Remus. "You know how to get there? Shit, of course you know how to get there," she answered her own question, shaking her head. How many times had Remus picked Marlene up for rounds there when she and Dorcas and Agnes had been staying with the Tonks's place? They'd had Order meetings there. Glancing up at the doorway one final time -- if they did come back with more death eating manpower, hopefully the floor would wait to collapse until then -- Marlene concentrated on apparating them both off to Ted and Andie's property, Remus disappearing with a pop right after them. Getting Antonin home caused no real problems, and Lucius made sure that he had the other man's permission to leave him alone and return to the flat. Once he was sure that Antonin was going to be ok (his housekeeper seemed competent) he wasted no time in disapparating, arriving back at Dorcas's flat, wand in hand. But it was too late. He had been as quick as he could, but the flat was empty. He cursed out loud -- he had failed again, Dorcas Meadowes still lived. In frustration, he aimed another blasting curse at the floor, and jumped back in alarm as the floor finally gave way, half of it collapsing into the flat below and leaving a large hole. Well, there was nothing more he could do here. He disapparated. |