metanoia

Chapter Seventy-nine

"Why are we in the middle of nowhere?"

Alex and Kingsley stared at Sirius, baffled by his question. Alex sighed, wondering why Sirius Apparated with them if he hadn't had a clue why or where he was going, "Were you not paying attention in the meeting  earlier? Dumbledore got word from your cousin that Death Eaters have been pillaging the village close to her home. According to her they've killed two families and someone who tried to save them."

"And he wants us to do what exactly?" asked Sirius, following her through the forest towards the village that sat at the edge of the trees. "It's not like we can go down there and have a conversation with them and ask them nicely to not kill anymore people."

Kingsley let out a loud, low laugh, "Yeah. Excuse me, Mr. Death Eater, I would really appreciate it if you stopped being a blood supremacist and not killed these innocent people. Oh you won't anymore? Great thanks."

"You're right, it won't be that easy."

Alex turned in time with her companions, seeing Lucius Malfoy, Patrick Parkinson and Barty Crouch Jr., "Oh, great, it's Luci. Everyone's favorite Death Eater."

Despite the fact they are no longer at school where teachers and rules can protect them from their enemies and getting seriously hurt, Sirius did not lose his sense of taunting and teasing those that stood against him. They may now be fully immersed in the War and vulnerable to the repercussions of such, but Sirius wasn't going to lose who he was. He sneered at the platinum blonde who his Aunt and Uncle decided Narcissa would marry one day, "How's Cissa doing? Oh yeah, that's right, she dumped your ass. I guess I'll give her your best next time I see her."

"If there'll be a next time," Barty barked, licking his lips over as he looked up at Lucius as though to get approval for his quip. 

"Oh, look, it's little Barty Jr. Aren't you out past curfew?" Kingsley taunted in the childish same voice he used when playing with the Weasley's children during the Meeting, pointing out the fact that he was only sixteen years old.

"Aren't you far away from where you came from, Negro."

Kingsley looked at the son of the Ministry's Head of Magical Law Enforcement Department and was annoyed, unaffected by his offensive slang, "I'm from Brussels, you idiot."

Apparently calling him an idiot was the last straw from the youngest Death Eater, he drew his wand and cast the Cruciatus Curse and tried to land it on Kingsley. However, Kingsley casted a Shielding Charm to protect himself as his companions turned their wands to the other two Death Eaters and began a scrimmage between the six of them. Alex was dueling Parkinson, sending spell after spell at the former Slytherin and occasionally landing one. 

"What was that jinx? From sixth year? Do you remember it?"

"Oh, yeah," The blonde smirked, knowing what Sirius was asking her to do. With one flourish of her wand, she sent Parkinson flying backward and made him crash into a thick oak tree. She took a moment, taking her attention off her opponent and silently jinxed Lucius and Barty's wands with the Duck Jinx. 

"Avada Kedavra!"

Instead of a stream of red coming from the end of his wand, Lucius sent a baby duck flying out of the tip of his wand and to Sirius. Kingsley couldn't help but laugh at the sight and when his opponent's wand did the same thing, he laughed harder, "Quack, quack motherfucker."

Realizing his wand was useless, Lucius launched himself at Sirius, trying to wrestle his wand from him to get the upper hand. Barty followed in suit, throwing himself at Kingsley to try and get his wand. Kingsley stunned the Sixth year, silencing him and magically tied him and Patrick Parkinson to the tree that knocked him out. While doing this, he quickly pocketed all three of the fallen wands so that if the jinx wore off they couldn't use it against them. Alex tried to help Sirius, pull them apart and restrain Lucius the same way Kingsley had restrained the other two Death Eaters. 

However, Lucius turned his attention to her, forgetting about grappling with Sirius. He put her in a chokehold, making her companions stop charging him, "Fix my wand, Black, or so help me God I will murder her with my own hands."

"Don't do it, Siri-" Her protests were cut off by Lucius' tightening hands around her throat, making her feel lightheaded as the air was being cut off by his hands. 

"Shut it, Mudblood. This is a message from the Dark Lord. Yield now, seek his forgiveness and you will be spared. Continue to stand against him and you and your loved ones will die for your sins."

Kingsley held his hands up in surrender, seeing that Alex was slowly raising her wand at Malfoy but he was too focused on the two men to worry about her because he believed that he had the upper hand, "Did he make you memorize that speech?"

A green blast flew from Alex's wand, causing the Death Eater to drop his hands from her throat. The curse she cast on him was one she'd read about in one of the books at the Order Headquarters, it made one's entrails to be expelled from their body. It is curable if he gets to a Healer who knows the correct counter curse. Lucius was furious, he took advantage of the fact that she fell to the ground gasping for air and he forcefully drove his foot down into her leg until he heard a loud crack. Then he ran, clutching his entrails, to the tree where his companions were bound and Apparated them away.

Sirius and Kingsley crowded the blonde, who hadn't made a sound with the exception of the occasional gasp for air in her bruised trachea, trying to assess her injuries. Sirius dropped to his knees, "Alex, are you okay?"

The blonde nodded, gritting her teeth as she wiped her forehead off with her right forearm. The tattoo on her forearm caught her attention and she knew Sirius saw what it was. She pointed at her tattoo of the moon that changes with the phases on her forearm, reminding Sirius of what day it was, "Sirius."

"I know," he told her, lifting his long sleeve shirt enough to show her that he had the same one on his abdomen. He looked up at the sky, nodding as he repeated himself.

Alex no longer cared about the fact that her leg was broken or that she was struggling to speak because she almost was choked to death, but the fact that it was a full moon and they needed to get back to Remus and Lisette, "Sirius, we need to get back, I'm not letting him do this alone anymore."

"I know."

She tried to stand up, but she couldn't manage to, "Just fix my leg and Apparate us back."

"I KNOW!" the panicking Black bellowed, his hands shaking and covered in her blood.

Alex shifted, tearing her jeans more to see where her femur had stuck out of the side of her thigh, "Then why aren't you bloody doing it?!"

"Because I can't do it!" he yelled back at her, dropping his wand on the ground beside her as he began to wipe the blood off his hands and onto the grass. "I'm having a bloody panic attack. It's our first mission and I've already gotten you hurt."

Frustrated that Sirius lost his head and couldn't pull himself together long enough to fix her injury, Alex lightly backhanded him, "Pull yourself together, Sirius. You know the spell. None of this is your fault. Now, either fix me right now or Apparate us back so Madam Pomfrey can heal me."

Kingsley pushed Sirius away from their injured friend, "Move, I've got her. Espisky."

Alex felt her femur magically reconnect, her leg no longer broken, and screamed out from the pain. She pounded her fist on the ground, coughing before she thanked him for healing her injury, "Oh, goddammit, Shacklebolt. That hurt like a bitch!"

"You're welcome," he laughed, offering her his hand to help her off the forest floor.