the girl with all of the choices

o n e h u n d r e d n i n e t e e n

7669 words

may second- avada kedavra

~ Addison ~

There were about 30 seconds after the group of Death Eaters broke through the barrier past the bridge where nothing happened. We were all still. Watching. Spells were flying as they charged the bridge. I could just barely pick Neville out of the crowd, through the openings in the posts that held the roof up. And then, a spark flew down to the base of the infrastructure, and a series of ricocheting spells began to implode the bridge, sending masked and cloaked murders flying through the air, down into the ravine below. For second number twenty-eight, I thought Neville had fallen with them. But during second number twenty-nine, he clambered back up onto the remaining portion of the bridge.

Second number thirty was when it all went to hell. 

I hadn't seen Death Eaters in person like that since Bill and Fleur's wedding when they bombarded the Burrow. Their plumes of black smoke were just as terrifying as they had been then, penetrating the crawl space where we were stationed without a moment's notice. 

They were masked when they landed on the catwalks and Remus and I turned to face them, him looking in one direction and me looking in the other, our backs to each other. 

Spells rang off of our tongues sans hesitation, disarming spells and stunning incantations, but the pair of Death Eaters fired back, dark curses and hexes ablaze. I had never heard half of their incantations before, not even in reading the old books that Andromeda had taken from her parents' house before leaving. 

They didn't relent. It must have been more than a few minutes that we had been sending spells at each other. One hex almost nicked my ear, but I ducked just in time to grab one of the throwing knives from my boot, reinforcing my shield charm as I threw it at the cloaked figure fighting me.

It just barely grazed his shoulder, lodging itself in the wall at the end of the catwalk, but that was what I wanted. He was rigid in the two seconds after the blade passed him, so on the third, I took my opening.

"Stupefy!"

He crumpled to the ground before the fourth second could begin.

Remus and I made quick work of the other one, our two wands against his one making it extremely easy for him to become disoriented and fall to the ground with my second round of Stupefy.

And there they were. Two unconscious Death Eaters. Both stunned by my wand. 

I turned to Remus cautiously, enhancing our Protego in case more decided to ambush us. "What do we do with them now?"

He looked as uncertain as I was. "We will use the Confundus Charm on them and take their wands so they can't fight against us. It also might be smart to use Incarcerous to bind their hands so that they can't fight anyone that way."

So it was decided. Remus crossed to his Death Eater as I crossed to mine, never lowering my wand in case You-Know-Who had decided during his preparation for the night to concoct a potion ingested before the battle that countered the effects of Stunning Spells. 

No, Addie. Voldemort. He's taken enough from you. He's going to try to kill you. If you're going to die, you're going to go down on your terms.

His wand flew to my hand without fail, an incantation to complete the act not even necessary. What was it that Remus had said that day? Magic doesn't always need a wand, it just needs a reason? Maybe my fear was reason enough.