InsaneJournal

The truest test of the hunter is patience.

And underneath the social trappings of morality, civic responsibility and those cloying bonds of love, they were -- all of them -- one in the same.

It’s why when the alerts he had prodigiously laid down across the East London muggle neighbourhoods that housed the notorious shops of the magical world’s most infamous black market runners suddenly flared up in the form of his silvery white Morgan Patronus galloping towards him, Gideon Prewett calmly ceased his afternoon’s work in his orchards and sent his Patronus on to Dorcas, bearing coordinates and a temporal, untraceable message.

She has come.

It had been a long time since his hunting days, but the anticipation felt like an old, familiar friend singing through his veins again, colouring the world more vividly, attuning his senses more acutely to its shapes and patterns. When he Apparated to the pre-designated alley, he was immediately assaulted by a urban barrage of cement pavement and stray refuse, old vomit and urine, and the endless, endless thrum of passing vehicles.

The Aurors could claim they did what they did because they felt the heavy burden of injustice upon their shoulders more keenly than others, but the reality, Gideon knew, was this: they enjoyed it. He knew because deep down, some part of him did and always would.

Gideon’s Patronus found Dorcas shooting spells left-handed at scarecrows she’d set up for dueling practice. A familiar exhilaration flared within her as the message was delivered. The thrill of the hunt from her younger days, when there were still moments of triumph before the end of things. There was also a newer flame, one that hissed vengeance as it rose. Here was a chance to end a dark chapter once and for all.

She Apparated to the pre-designated alley. It took a moment for her senses to adjust to the sounds and smells of the city. Dorcas spotted Gideon and gave him a grim smile.

“Just like old times, isn’t it?” he said in greeting.

“Just like ‘em,” Dorcas agreed.

With a nod of mutual grimness traded in return, Gideon fell into line beside Dorcas as they moved out of the alley and onto the open street, both having spent long years of experience in learning just how to blend in with muggle crowds of all classes. As they passed by storefronts at a swift clip, catching and measuring in turn every reflection of street personage they encountered, Gideon explained in low tones, “Looks like she’s gone for Wagstaff. The building has a front and back alley entrance as well as a basement with a side exit as well. Other possible exit routes include the fire escape up onto the roofs.”

Dorcas grunted slightly in acknowledgement. That was more potential escape routes than she’d like with just the two of them, but Carrow didn’t have a wand this time--or her favourite knife--which did give them some advantage. They also would have the advantage of surprise, which was always good to have. “Thoughts on our best entrance option?”

As they rounded the corner, the shop came into view, seemingly innocuous at the other end of the road -- a garish sign advertising all its secondhand wares, from jewelry and watches to muggle electronics and thrift clothing. "We can block the side exit from the outside. We each take a remaining ground entrance once she enters the shop. Lock the doors behind us. Corner her before she has a chance to get her hands on a new wand or escape up the stairs and Apparate to our rendezvous point. Wagstaff will know better than to get involved. He'll stay out of our way and will keep his mouth shut. Quick in and out before anyone realises what's happening." In theory, it should be easy.

“Sounds like a plan,” Dorcas said. It should be simple enough, but expecting Alecto Carrow to make anything simple would be foolhardy, and Dorcas fully expected a very violent version of dragging the woman away kicking and screaming. Or at least kicking. “I’ll take the front.”

With a nod, Gideon split off and started for the side street, rounding the block of buildings to cut through a side alley filled with piles of rubbish that had yet to be picked up. He glanced up at the solid brick walls, counting doors and numbers until he came across a discreet seam of the metal rectangle door: the side door, only accessible from inside. He drew his wand and, touching the point of it to the door. With a thought towards heat and fire, the door began to glow nearly orange, the metal heating and becoming almost liquid as it melted and warped, cooling and melding to the frame. One route cut off.

How far she had fallen, having to scrounge around the muggle vermin of London to reclaim a wand, grovelling herself to someone who was little more than the spoilt brat of those whom she loathed. But like everyone whose ear remained low to the ground, Alecto could tell which way the tide was turning and knew it was not with her former idiot comrades. No, it was with a newer, younger, snivelling generation who knew little and appreciated even less what their forebears had been trying to do -- the glorious world they had strove for and failed to realise. It was a bitter taste to have upon her tongue, but one she would bear for now if it meant she would survive, but more importantly, thrive. At least Draco Malfoy represented something worth fighting for.

And if her dirtied, abject appearance on the streets of muggle London painted her as little more than a homeless vagrant to be well avoided as she practically prowled down the pavement, then so be it. Let them look and sneer -- they would all be crushed beneath the heel of her boot in time.

Wagstaff’s pathetic excuse for a store was well within view now, the Ministry’s overreach pushing them all to desperate lengths when they had to hide among muggles. She shoved past a cheerful young couple who were exiting the shop, eyes adjusting to the haphazardly crowded aisles of sheer junk, nose breathing in the musty smell of dust and age. Pathetic indeed.

“Wagstaff!” she barked out, searching for the king of this secondhand kingdom and finding him giving her an alarmed look from behind the counter. “I need a wand.”

While Gideon slipped around the back, Dorcas watched the front. She held her breath as Alecto came into view and shoved past a couple exiting the shop. She hoped that now left the shop empty except for Carrow and Wagstaff. She didn’t really want witnesses, and she certainly didn’t want the risk of collateral damage.

Dorcas gave Carrow enough time to be well inside the shop, as well as for Gideon to make his way in the back. Then she eased into the shop herself, a silent spell locking the door behind her.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm a legitimate businessman." Alecto had to give it to Wagstaff: he had a good poker face. She'd love to shatter if had she the time. In slow, measured steps, she approached the counter, slamming her palms onto the glass display hard enough to cause him to flinch despite himself.

"You can either give me a wand today, or they'll be picking up pieces of you all over the country starting tomorrow," Alecto said. And had she not been so dead set on staring stonily into Wagstaff's eyes, she'd have missed it: the flash of ginger hair in the grimy mirror behind him.

Without warning, Alecto leaped over the counter, and Wagstaff gave a shout of alarm that was quickly stifled by her hand squeezing his trachea as she pulled him behind the counter with her. "Wands," she hissed, her dirty, scabbed fingers twitching around the column of his throat. "Or I snap your neck here and now."

Dorcas surged forward as Alecto leapt over the counter. Today was not exactly going to be Wagstaff’s best day, it seemed. “Come on, Carrow, he’s no challenge for you. Especially not when I’m offering you a chance at round two.” She kept her voice even, but there was an edge to it. She had her wand in her left hand, as her grip in her right still needed a little work before she could manage without her shoulder feeling like it was on fire with much use.

“How’s that hand of yours, hm? And do you miss the pretty little toy I took off of you when you stuck it in me?” Dorcas grinned, a toothy, dark expression, mouth slightly opened as if waiting to bite.

Dorcas bloody Meadowes suffered from the perpetual flaw of not being easy to kill. Wagstaff produced a gurgling noise when Alecto’s hand reflexively tightened around his throat in anger. With a roll of her eyes, she eased up on his trachea and gave him a shove.

Wands.

With trembling hands, Wagstaff lifted a small hidden panel in the floor at their feet, producing a polished wooden box.

“Why don’t you come find out for yourself, you ginger bitch?”

A sharp snap, and Wagstaff fell lifelessly to the floor in a low, muffled thump, eyes still open and staring sightlessly. Alecto flicked open the box, staring at the collection of smooth, innocuous wands that lay within, of vary lengths and woods.

She was hardly choosy. Her fingers circled around the closest one at hand and she rose up like a viper, wand pointed at the heavy shelf beside Dorcas and sent a blasting spell to tip it over--

--which was suddenly shrunken in size by Gideon’s intercepting spell from the back of the store.

Dorcas easily dodged the newly shrunken shelf and sent a stunner at Alecto. She expect that if Carrow now had a wand, Wagstaff was probably no longer living. Which was a pity, but his line of work had been a dangerous one. She was, however, very thankful for Gideon’s timely intervention with the shelf.

Alecto dodged the spell, moving out of the way as it struck the mirror behind her and shattered it, sending a thousand fragments of glass flying across the room.

Gideon wasted little time as he pivoted on his heel. A jet of light streamed from his wand, spreading out like a net around the exploding glass pieces and sending them hurdling back towards Alecto.

She only had time to reactively throw up a hand to cover her face and scream as she was inflicted with a swarm of cuts across her skin and clothes, a hundred biting stings. With a pained cry, Alecto blindly threw out a ball of fire at them, large and hot with her pain and anger.

Dorcas managed to shield herself against the fire. She didn’t relish the idea of being burned again, though she didn’t exactly relish the building going up in flames, either. She sent a jet of water where the fire hit, then slung a jelly legs jinx at Alecto.

The attempt to contain the fire needn’t have been made -- the overhead muggle sprinklers suddenly sprang to life, showering down upon them all equally. The jinx struck her full force and Alecto fell back behind the protective barrier of the counter, taking the opportunity to quickly countermand the spell.

Bloody muggles, Alecto though, pushing wet clumps of hair from her eyes. “Why you’ve got to bring a friend, Meadowes?” she shouted above the din. “Can’t hack it on your own?”

But in truth, she knew she was strategically cornered, and two against one -- especially these given two -- were poor odds. But never let it be said that a cornered, injured dog did not fight back hardest. The box of wands caught her eye. She helped herself to a few more, but below them still were an assortment of muggle technological objects which probably would not have been kept hidden if they hadn’t their usefulness. Well, well, well, Wagstaff, aren’t you a lil’ surprise. Her fingers closed in around a black cylinder with a depression switch.

Gideon had been far enough from the fire, but suffered beneath the soaking barrage of sprinklers all the same. It reduced visibility in the dark room, and after Carrow had gone down, he remained wary. He eyed Dorcas across the room and slowly started to close in on one end.

"The more the merrier, Carrow!" The water from the ceiling was unexpected and momentarily surprising. Muggle technology certainly had its uses, even if indoor rain did rather complicate matters.

Dorcas caught Gideon's eye and began closing in on Alecto's position. There was no telling what Wagstaff might have behind that counter, so it was wise to be wary.

The black cylindrical object rolled across the shop floor, its rattle masked beneath the fierce shower from the sprinklers. Gideon paused. His brow furrowed in brief confusion. A red light on the device blinked. Oh.

He was already moving, body starting towards Dorcas, shouting, “Get--” down!

The world exploded into a bright, all consuming flash of white light, like a strike of lightning through his senses. A wall of sheer force sent him flying back, crashing hard into a series of shelves, tipping them over and spilling their contents out like a gushing sea. For several moments, he could not hear nor see anything but an alarming ringing in his ears, until the white light faded, gradually fading into the dark muggle shop’s water-stained ceiling, an overhead spray of water falling directly onto his face.

Dorcas just had time to register the cylinder’s existence and Gideon’s command before the explosion. It threw her back, momentarily blinded and deafened, into one of the shop’s many shelves. Between the three of them, the place was going to be completely wrecked. The water from the ceiling continued raining down as Dorcas spluttered and blinked. Somehow, she’d managed to keep hold of her wand. Not that it did much good until the world refocused and the ringing died down.

So that’s what that does, Alecto thought blearily as she stumbled out from behind the counter, which had protected her from the worst of the exploding device’s effects. Still, her head pounded and her vision swam, but it appeared her little Order companions were in worse shape than she. She raised a shaky hand and aimed her wand at Dorcas, but found she had little concentration to even so much as think of a curse, nevermind channel the magic for one. Offence momentarily denied her, she opted for the next best course of option: escape. Relying more on sense of touch and inner instinct, she leapt over piles of strewn muggle rubbish and ran swiftly towards the back of the store.

Seeing Alecto get away was not something Dorcas intended to let stand, so she launched herself after the other woman. lurching a bit as she figured out how to balance herself a bit. Her head was still feeling a bit like a scrambled egg. Instead of attempting to cast a spell, she attempted to tackle Alecto.

A sudden weight barrelled into her, and Alecto was pushed heavily to the floor, hard enough to force the breath from her lungs. With a snarl she wriggled her body around and grabbed hold of a clump of Dorcas’s wet darkened hair, yanking it sharply as she drove her palm into her face with an aim to claw her bloody eyes out.

Well, this was an unfortunately familiar situation. Dorcas hadn’t really planned on grappling with Alecto again, but here they were. Dorcas attempted to shift into a position to bite Alecto’s hand and she jabbed her wand against the woman’s knee and growled a blasting curse.

When his wits returned to him, Gideon found himself half drowned, bowed by coughing fits and struggling to shake off the haze that had settled over his mind. His entire body ached, sure to be a canvas of bruises tomorrow, and he was not so young anymore as to easily shake this one off. Even as he sought to find his grounding, the store was then bathed in red and blue lights from the muggle patrol cars outside. Someone must have heard the disturbance and called it in.

With a glance towards the struggle in the back, he pushed himself to his feet through sheer force of will and marched to the front entrance. Two patrols, four coppers. Without another thought, he removed Dorcas’s locking spell and pushed open the door. Before the muggle cops even had time to radio in for more backup, Gideon slashed his wand across the air. Obliviate.

Alecto howled and reflexively kicked out with her injured leg, the agony lending her renewed strength as she snapped her teeth and threw a fist into Dorcas’s face, ripping clothes and skin to tear herself out of Dorcas’s clutches as she stumbled forward once more. Adrenaline drove her actions, dulling the pain, sharpening her senses. She ran towards the back exit, slamming against it when she found it firmly sealed. With a frustrated pound of her first, she whirled around, wand out, an acid spewing curse falling from her lips and hurled at her opponent.

Dorcas felt a crunch as Alecto’s fist connected with her nose. Blood joined the water streaming down her face. She didn’t bother trying to do anything about the break or the blood as she got to her feet. She barely managed to dodge the acid, though, and could only hope that Gideon would manage the same. She shot a stickfast hex at Alecto, followed quickly by Expelliarmus and a knee reversal hex. She figured at least one of them might land.

The first hex was blocked, but soon Alecto found her wand flying from her hand, the force of the disarming spell fortunately propelling her out of the way of Dorcas’s trifecta. Without a moment’s hesitation, Alecto used the momentum to launch herself away from the now dead end, bolting towards the only escape route left to her: the stairs. Each step up shot a spike of pain up her leg, but she pushed herself onwards and upwards even as she pulled out another confiscated wand from her coat and threw a Crucio back down the stairwell for her pursuers.

Gideon had narrowly dodged the blazing trail of acid, throwing himself flat against the corridor wall and lighting up a network of various aches and cuts as a result. He turned in time to catch Carrow’s trailing robes disappearing up the stairs. “She’s heading towards the roofs.” And from there, she could get quite far, navigating from building to building, evening finding her way back down the ground again. “Split up?” They needed to end this.

Dorcas managed to shield against the Crucio. She spat out some blood and water that had gotten into her mouth and glanced at Gideon. “I’ll take the stairs up after her. Slip out and catch her if she hits the ground before I hit her.” She paused for just a moment. “Good luck.”

She bolted up the stairs after Alecto. At least the former Death Eater couldn’t move as fast with an injured knee. Dorcas would have preferred if if she’d managed to take the leg off entirely, but one couldn’t have quite everything one wished for.