The Greywitch Trials | Harry Potter AU

Escape

How did she plead? 

Her crime was being born. Like Dennis, she didn't even respond to the judge. She just watched him, hoping her eyes would haunt his nightmares until the day he croaked. 

His tongue darted out to wet his lips, and he averted his eyes for a moment. 

Eloise felt a small kernel of triumph. 

It exploded when she saw the Executioner step closer, waiting for the judge to carry out the sentence. He was close enough that she could hear the spine-tingling scraping noise the plant made as it squirmed, waiting for a host to feast upon.

"The accused is found guilty by the court and sentenced to execution by Crown of Thorns, carried out on the Twenty-fifth of December at ... twelve oh-three - "

The judge didn't finish speaking, distracted by the thunderous bang that sounded from the back of the courtroom. Splinters of black-painted oak rained around them like a plague of Egypt. 

Rookwood went to point his wand at the intruders, but he was blown back against the dais with enough force that his body made a crunching sound on impact, and he fell to the floor in a heap, unmoving. The Executioner and the Crown in his hands went up in flames as a giant badger made up entirely of flame snapped him up in his powerful jaws, disappearing and leaving nothing left but a burning corpse. 

Eloise watched what was happening through a glazed mind, seeing the men who'd stripped her of her power fall like dominos, but she didn't have the strength to turn. Instead, she found herself sinking to the floor, pressing her head between her knees and clapping her hands over her ears. 

She was in hell. There was no other explanation; she'd died and gone to hell. That was why all she could smell was fresh blood and burning flesh. She'd thought that because she was a witch, she'd just fall into the endless embrace of the void, but maybe she had too much muggle in her for a peaceful afterlife. 

A weight slammed into her and she curled further into herself as clawing hands pulled at her limbs like some eldritch beast. Her chest was heaving up and down painfully, but she couldn't stop. 

"Eloise. Eloise. Eloise!"

The voice finally broke through the haze, and Eloise's eyes blinked open to stare at her bare feet, nearly black from the grim of the cell. They stood out plainly against the polished floor. Blood from either Dennis or Justin had seeped between her toes. 

All at once, sounds ricocheted through her skull, and her head was jerked up. Clear blue eyes and light red hair eclipsed her sightline. She blinked. Hard. 

"Hell," Eloise murmured in a pathetically small voice, "I'm in hell."

Because Susan Bones had been left for dead. 

"No, you need to get the hell up," Susan hissed, tugging at her arm, "we have to leave before reinforcements show up."

Eloise still felt as if she was in some horrific nightmare that she was waiting to wake from, but she allowed Susan to haul her up and drag her towards the door that had been blown away. Another familiar face stood there, brows pinched and wand in hand. Ginny Weasley looked as if she'd aged ten years since the last time Eloise had seen her. Her hair had been cropped close to her skull, and she had a brutal look in her once-warm brown eyes. 

Ginny ushered them through the door, but Eloise turned on the spot to take in the scene in the courtroom one last time, trying to make sense of the confusion. Judge Nefrus was standing in place, his hands held high as he trembled before a sizeable dark man and a slimmer red-haired one. A woman with long black hair stood beside Rookwood's crumpled body, her wand raised in case there was enough of him left to be revived.